Jamaa`atu-l-Fitrah Tasawwuf: Understanding the Meaning of the Name

By Abu Jamaal and Mayyah Deen

The Jamaa'atu-l-Fitrah is the "Community of the Fitrah or Natural Inclination."

Literally, "Jamaa'atul-l-Fitrah Tasawwuf, as the name is often rendered, means,
"The Community of the Fitrah is Tasawwuf." It might also be understood as "the
'Fitrah is Tasawwuf' Community." That is, the Community which recognizes that
"Tasawwuf" is the process of following the Natural Inclination; seeing the Fitrah
and Tasawwuf as inseparable.

How one is to conceptualize this phrase might be as such: "The Community of the
Innate Nature is Tasawwuf." That is to say, when we speak of "Tasawwuf," (‫ّف‬
‫ )تصو‬we
mean a process of following the Innate Nature. To follow this innate nature,
"Community" is central, as community is itself part of this innate nature.
Isolation is an extreme form of sectarianism, so much so that it is division down
to the lowest common denominator.

Jam'aa (‫ )جع‬means the sum or unit, the collection of distinction (‫)جاعة‬, a group
of people organized or gathered under a name, purpose. To that end, the purpose
for which we unite is purely to follow our innate nature, the fitrah. We unite
because it is our nature to unite, as it is our nature to purify and evolve, the
meaning of "Tasawwuf." Tasawwuf is perhaps more ambiguous to translate (or even
define in one word), than is "Fitrah;" from the root "created" (‫)فطر‬, implying a
naturalistic, effortless, and intrinsic connection with "the Way" of the Natural
Order of "Creation" (that which emerges through the Evolutionary-Creative Act of
the Divine Process).

To this end, it is important to note that the phrasing is not intended as a

parallel to such popular phrases such as "Ahlu-s-Sunnah wa-l-Jamaa'ah" (‫أهل السنة‬

‫)والماعة‬. In this phrase, the "People of the Sunnah and of the Community" is
differentiating between the Sunnah and the Community, even if unintentionally, and
implicitly. It is saying the people of one thing and another thing. It may not be
that the two things contradict one another. For example, we could say "The
Community of the Fitrah and Nature" but this would implicitly state a
differentiation, though similarity between the Fitrah and Nature; rather than
synonymity. Thus, for our purposes, it would be counter productive to say "the
Community of the Fitrah and Nature" just as it would be to say "The Community of
the Fitrah and Tasawwuf." The Jamaa'atu-l-Fitrah is not the Jamaa'atu-l-Fitrah wa-
t-Tasawwuf. There is no difference between Al-Fitrah and At-Tasawwuf. This is an
important subtlety of this phrasing.

A famous hadeeth from the Prophet Muhammad says: "Every new-born child is born in
a state of fitrah. Then his parents make him a Jew, a Christian or a Magian, just
as an animal is born intact. Do you observe any among them that are maimed (at
birth)?"

The term "fitrah" literally means, creation; the causing a thing to exist for the
first time; and the natural constitution with which a child is created in their
mother's womb. It is the purest of pure states, uncorrupted by anything. Muhammad
called his path of "Islaam" the "deenu-l-Fitrah." This is the "Way of the Natural
Inclination." The Fitrah is the Way, and the Way is the Fitrah. "Fitrah" is a
state which could be conceptualized by a phrase more popularly known in the West
as "Buddha Nature."
When we speak of Tasawwuf, we mean the word in its etymological sense, the sense
of purification towards of the mutasawwuf towards the state of Soofiyyah, the
purified state of pure Imaan. Indeed, "purity" or "safaa" (‫ )صفا‬is the

etymological root of "Soofi" (ّ ‫)ص‬. Any understanding or conceptualization of

‫ُوف‬
ِ
"Islaam" as something contrary to this is contrary to the understanding of
"Islaam" that the prophet Muhammad had. This is why we use this term, to highlight
that our understanding of Islaam is not a corrupt form, but a "pure" a "Soofi"
understanding of "Islaam" as the "Way" or "Deen" of the "Fitrah."