Sufism and the Imams of the Salafi Movement:

Sufism and the Imams of the Salafi Movement:
By Shaykh 'Abd al-Hafiz al-Makki
Translated by Ismaeel Nakhuda

The following are the links to ongoing translation of Shaykh ‘Abd al-Hafiz’s “Mawqif A’immat al-Harakat al-Salafiyyah min al-Tasawwuf wa al-Sufiyyah”. 

In this book, the author, produces a large number of positive and favorable quotes on tasawwuf from the writings of seven leading personalities who are viewed as Imams by those who claim to adhere to the fiqh and ‘aqidah of the Salaf.

Introduction:
http://www.deoband.org/2010/11/tasawwuf/sufism-and-the-imams-of-the-salafi-movement-introduction/
Chapter 1: Shaykh Muhammad bin ‘Abd al-Wahhab and Sufism
Chapter 2: Hafiz Ibn al-Qayyim and Sufism – Part One, Part Two
Chapter 3: Imam al-Dhahabi and Sufism
Chapter 4: Hafiz Ibn Kathir and Sufism
Chapter 5: Hafiz Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali and Sufism – Part One, Part Two
(more to come)

The Sufi Bay’ah: A Prophetic Sunna

The Sufi Bay’ah: A Prophetic Sunna

One of the main principles of Sufism is for the murid to give a pledge to his shaykh that he will be an obedient slave of Allah Most High, that he will avoid sins, and that he will adhere to the Tariqa and its wird until his death.

And in that they are keeping alive the Sunna of the Prophet, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam, and his Companions. And if people today have mostly left this sunna or are ignorant of it, that does not take away from its legality.

The Meaning of the Bay’ah

And the bay’a or ‘ahd (pledge, vow) in the arabic language means: to adhere to something, in order to make it happen. One says: The tribe of Banu fulan have made a ‘ahd (pact) that this-and-that.

And in the Shari’a it means: to adhere to a religious act, such as the Ansar’s adherence, may Allah be pleased with them, to the defense of the Prophet, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam, from the same things that they would defend their women and children from.

And its origin is His saying, Most High: “Those who pledge loyalty to you are actually pledging loyalty to Allah- Allah’s hand is above theirs- and anyone who breaks his pledge does so to his own detriment. Allah will have a great reward to the one who fulfills his pledge to Him.” (48:10)

As well as His saying: “O Prophet, when believing women come and pledge to you that they wil not ascribe any partner to Allah, nor steal, nor commit adultery, nor kill their children, nor lie about who has fathered their children, nor disobey you in any righteous thing, then you should accept their pledge of allegiance and pray to Allah to forgive them: Allah is most forgiving and merciful.” (60:12)

The Hakim of the Ummah, al-Imam al-Tahanawi al-Hindi said in his footnote to his translation of the noble aya above: “This ayah shows clearly what the bay’a is like, and it shows that any bay’a given ceremoniously without the intention of working upon it and being loyal to it is void.”

The Bay’a is for All Types of Muslims

And the Prophet, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam, would take the bay’a of his Companions, individually or in groups, males or females, old or young.

Among what has been narrated about the group bay’a is what was told to us by sayyidna ‘Awf bin Maalik, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: We were with the Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam, nine, eight, or seven of us.  He said: “Shall you not give bay’a to the Messenger of Allah?” We had just given a bay’a recently, so we said: “We have already given you bay’a, oh Messenger of Allah!” He said: “Will you not give bay’a to the Messenger of Allah?” So we stretched out our arms and said: “We will give you bay’a, oh Messenger of Allah.

What then shall we give bay’a to?”  He said: “To worship Allah, associating no parter to Him, and to pray the five Salaat prayers, and to hear and to obey” and then he added in a low voice: “And not to ask anything from other people.” And I have seem some of these people, if their whip falls to the floor, they would not ask anyone to hand it to them.
(Narrated by Muslim, Abu Dawud and an-Nasa’i).

And in Sahih al-Bukhari in “Kitab al-Iman”:
‘Ubada ibn as-Samit, may Allah be pleased with him, who was at the Battle of Badr and was one of the leaders on the Night of ‘Aqaba, said that the Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam, had a group of his Companions around him and said,
“Give bay’a to me based on not associating anything with Allah, not stealing, not committing adultery, not killing your children, not making a false accusation of adultery which you forge yourselves and not being disobedient regarding anything good.
Any among you who fulfill this will be rewarded by Allah. Any who fall short regarding any of these things and are punished in this world, that will be an expiation for them. Whoever falls short regarding any of these things and Allah conceals it, then it will be up to Allah. If He wishes, He will pardon him, and if He wishes, He will punish him.”
‘Ubada said, “We gave him our allegiance on those conditions.”

This bay’a then, is not the bay’a of Islam, nor the bay’a of jihad, because those who gave it were already Muslim. It is but the bay’a of (Tawba taken by) the Sufis, which was to stress and emphasize the matters of Islam.

As the first hadith demonstrated, it made the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, adhere carefully to their pact, so that they wouldn’t even ask someone to hand them their whip, despite how insignificant that is.

And the imam, shaykh Ahmad bin Abd ar-Rahim, known as Wali Allah ad-Dihlawi, explained the reality of the bay’a in his work Al-Qawl al-Jameel, commenting on aya 48:10: “And there are a great many reports about the Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam- that the people would give him bay’a, sometimes for the hijra, sometimes for the jihad, sometimes to perform the pillars of Islam, sometimes to hold firm in battle, and sometimes to hold firmly to the sunna, avoid the bid’a, and to always make sure to do the acts of obedience. And it has also been authentically narrated that he, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam, took bay’a from the women of the Ansar not to cry out loud over the dead.”

And Ibn Majah narrated that he, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam, took bay’a from some of the poor Muhajireen, not to ask anything of the people.

As for the individual bay’a, its narrations are too many to count.

Many of the Companions who lived far away from al-Madina al-Munawwara used to come to him, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam and spend days with him, learning whatever they could from the matters of their religion, then give bay’a and go back to their homes.

And here are the proofs:
Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Al-Hakim, al-Bayhaqi, Abu Nu’aym, Ibn Asakir, at-Tabarani, and al-Hasan bin Sufyan all narrated from Basheer bin al-Khasasiyyah, may Allah be pleased with him, that he said: I came to the Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam, to give bay’a to him. I said to him: “Upon what will you take bay’a from me, oh Messenger of Allah?” So the Messenger of Allah stretched out his arm and said: “That you bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone without partner, and that Muhammad is His slave and messenger, and to pray the five Salaat prayers in their time, and to give the obligatory Zakaat, and to fast in Ramadan, and to perform Hajj, and to do jihad in the cause of Allah.”
I said: “All of them I am capable of except two: the Zakaat, for by Allah the only thing I possess is 10 camels, and they are the carriers of my family, and the jihad, for I am a cowardly man, and they claim that he who runs away in war shall incur the anger of Allah, and I fear that if the fighting takes place, that I would be scared, escape, and thus incur the anger of Allah upon me.”
So the Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam, pulled back his arm and moved it and said, “Oh Basheer, no sadaqa and no jihad! By what way, then, shall you enter Paradise?” So I said: “stretch out your arm that I shall give you bay’a,” and I gave him bay’a for all of them. (Narrated thus in Kanz al-Ummal and all the men in its chain are trustworthy, as stated by al-Haythami).
And imam Ahmad also narrated from Jarir, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: “I gave bay’a to the Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam, to establish the prayers, and give the Zakaat, and to give naseeha (good council) to every Muslim.” (Narrated as well by at-Tabari).

And imam Ahmad, an-Nasa’i, at-Tabarani and others narrated from Abi Umama and Thawban, that they both gave bay’a to the Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam, not to ask anything of others.

Likewise did sayyidna Abu Dharr, may Allah be pleased with him, as narrated by imam Ahmad.

And al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated from Abdullah ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with them both, that he said: “Whenever we used to give bay’a to the Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam, to hear and obey, the Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam, would say to us: ‘according to your ability.’ ”

The Bay’a of Women

As for the bay’a of women, at-Tabarani narrated from ‘Azza bint Khaayel, may Allah be pleased with her, that “she came to the Prophet, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam, and he took bay’a from her that: ‘you do not commit adultery, you do not steal, and you do not kill your children, the apparent or the hidden.’  She said: “As for the apparent killing of children, I knew what that was, but as for the hidden killing, I did not ask the Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam, nor did he tell me. But it has come to my heart that it means: the corruption of the child, and so by Allah I will never let any of my children become corrupted!”

And the evidences on this are many, and he who wants to see more should consult Ibn Kathir’s tafseer on aya 60:12, where he mentioned many of the bay’as of women. But it should be known that the Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam, took bay’a from them verbally without his hands ever touching the hands of other women. His bay’a was to say to them: “I have taken bay’a from you upon such and such,” as narrated by al-Bukhari from sayyida Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her.

The Bay’a of Children

And it is also sunna for children to give bay’a. For it is narrated that Ibn al-Zubayr and Abdallah ibn Ja’far, may Allah be pleased with them, came to give bay’a to the Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam, when they were seven years old. So when he saw them, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam, he smiled and stretched out his hand to them, and they gave bay’a to him. (Narrated by Ibn Hajar al-Haythami in Majma’ al-Zawa’id).

Conclusion

The evidences on this topic are many, and it suffices us to say that the bay’a or ‘ahd is one of the sunnas of Islam that were acted upon by the righteous salaf, and the Sufis still practice it to this day.

 

And there is no doubt that if it is established that the Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam, practiced it as a form of worship, and the encouragement of worship, then it is a sunna of the religion.

And the bay’a that is practiced by the Sufis is a pledge to adhere to the rulings of Islam and to pay attention to the external acts as well as the inward acts of the heart. And according to their custom it is called “the bay’a of the tariqa.”

Bay'a is not Biddah!

And there are those who claim that it is an innovation, and that it has not been established as a practice of the Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam, and that he only took the bay’a of Islam from those who had been non-believers, and took the bay’a of jihad from the believers.

But their claim is rejected by all the authentic hadiths quoted above, where those giving bay’a were Companions, and it is therefore not the bay’a of accepting Islam. And the wording of the hadiths clearly shows as well that they were not bay’a of jihad, but to adhere to the commands of the Shari’a  and to pay careful attention to the works of Islam.

And this shows that the rejection of the bay’a is based on ignorance of the Sunna, and amounts to a rejection of it. It is a rejection of the acts of the Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam, and his noble Companions. He said Most High:

“And let those who go against (the Prophet’s) orders beware lest a trial afflict them or they receive a painful punishment.” (24:63)

And we ask Allah Most High to guide us to the straight path and to keep us firm upon it.

The qualities required in a Shaykh of Tasawwuf

To diagnose and treat the diseases of the heart normally requires the help of an expert teacher or Shaykh.

Here are the qualities of a proper Shaykh:
1. He possesses necessary religious knowledge.
2. His beliefs, habits, and practices are in accordance with the Shariah.
3. He does not harbor greed for the worldly wealth.
4. He has himself spent time learning from a proper Shaykh.
5. The scholars and good mashaikh of his time hold good opinion about him.
6. His admirers are mostly from among the people who have good understanding of religion.
7. Most of his followers follow the Shariah and are not the seekers after this world.
8. He sincerely tries to educate and morally train his followers. If he sees anything wrong in them, he corrects it.
9. In his company one can feel a decrease in the love of this world and an increase in the love for Allah (subhanahu wa ta ala).
10. He himself regularly performs dhikr and spiritual exercises.

Shaykh and Miracles!

In searching for a Shaykh, do not look for his ability to perform karamat (miracles) or to foretell the future. A very good Shaykh may not be able to perform any karamat. On the other hand, a person showing karamat does not have to be a pious person --- or even a Muslim. Prominent Sufi Bayazid Bistami says: "Do not be deceived if you see a performer of supernatural feats flying in the air. Measure him on the standard of the Shariah."

-Condensed from the writings of Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanwi R.A., adapted from Tasawwuf.org

Tasawwuf Q&A:

What Is Tasawwuf?

 

Tasawwuf is a branch of Islamic knowledge which focuses on the spiritual development of the Muslim.
Allah sent His final messenger, Prophet Muhammad , as a source of knowledge for the entire ummah. He was the fountain of Quran, Hadith, tafsir, rhetoric, fiqh, and so on. After the Prophet, the scholars of this ummah carried and propagated each of these branches of knowledge. Because no one person can attain the perfection of the Prophet , who single handedly assumed all of these roles, various branches of the Islamic sciences developed. For example, Imam Abu Hanifah preserved the science of fiqh and after him thousands of scholars continued in his footsteps. Hence these scholars preserved the fiqh of the Prophet . Similarly Imam Bukhari and the other famous scholars of Hadith, preserved the words of the Prophet. The scholars of tajweed preserved the recitation of the Prophet . And, the scholars of Arabic grammar preserved the language of the Prophet .
Along these lines, the Prophet was the model of spirituality for the world. His God-consciousness, deep spirituality, acts of worship, and love for Allah were preserved and propagated by an Islamic science called Tasawwuf. The aim of the scholars of this science is purification of the heart, and development of consciousness of Allah through submission to the shariah and sunnah.

How is Tasawwuf Related to Sufism?

Studying the life of the Prophet , the scholars who propagated the science of tasawwuf understood that a requisite for approaching Allah was abandonment of the common pursuits of the world. They often wore wool because of its simplicity and low cost. In Arabic the word for wool is suf and thus, those who wore it became known as the Sufis. Another possible derivation of the word comes from the root word safa, which means "to clean." Because the scholars of tasawwuf focused on cleansing the heart, they later became known as the Sufis.

What Do Our Scholars Say About Tasawwuf?

Traditional Islamic scholars have accepted Tasawwuf as an important branch of Islamic learning, so long as it remains within the guidelines of the Shariah and emphasizes following the Sunnah of the Prophet .

I Have Heard That Sufis Teach Praying At Graves, Dancing, Music, And Other Innovations?

It is true that there have been, and currently are, people who have deviated from the teachings of tasawwuf, thus misrepresenting this science. This is not unique to tasawwuf. Our history is full of examples of people who called themselves scholars of tafsir, or hadith while misrepresenting the essence of these sciences. Each of the Islamic sciences is interlinked and bounded by its sister sciences. For example, a scholar of tafsir cannot interpret the Quran by contradicting the hadith. Similarly a true shaykh of tasawwuf (sufism) never breaks even the smallest tenets of the shariah or the sunnah. Rather, he sees them as the means of his progress towards his Lord. In fact, he prefers death over falling into even a minute sin.

 

If Not All Sufis Are Authentic How Can I Judge Which To Learn From?

Many of our scholars have addressed this question by listing the "signs" of a true shaykh. Needless to say the common principle has always been submission to the shariah, by following the teachings of one of the four schools of fiqh, and a complete submission to the inner and the outer of the sunnah. This is based on the idea that the Prophet is the nearest and most God conscious of Allah's creation. His daily acts are an exemplification of how the most God-conscious of all of creation lived his life. For example, the Prophet's treating others with kindness, soft speech, humility, preference for white clothing, growing of a lengthy beard, use of the tooth stick, etc are all intentional acts of service to Allah . If someone lacks these sunnan, while claiming they can help bring you closer to Allah, know that they will eventually lead you to a dead end.

What Is The Goal Of The Student Of Tasawwuf?

The goal is complete submission to the shariah and sunnah in order to attain purification of the heart and soul and to develop a true, deep, and lasting connection with Allah .

How Can A Shaykh Assist In These Goals?

A shaykh of tasawwuf spends years in training in order to develop his character, mannerisms, daily schedule, outer being, acts of worship, and knowledge under the guidance of a spiritual master. They learn the essence of worship and practical implications of abandonment of the mundane life of this world from those who are models of god-consciousness. Further, they often spend years mastering the Islamic sciences of Hadith, Quran, tafsir, fiqh, etc. Each aspect of their training further connects them through chains of scholars to the Prophet who, of course, was sent to connect creation to their Lord.
When you enter the company of such a shaykh, their knowledge and extensive experience allows them to assess your spiritual state and hence, advise you on the best "medicine" to cure the diseases of your heart. Just as a doctor is trained to cure physical ailments, so the scholars of tasawwuf treat the maladies of the diseased heart.

I Thought That All One Needs Is The Quran And The Sunnah?

It is true that the Quran and the Sunnah are sufficient. However, at the same time it is also true that a teacher is required to master any subject. If the Quran was sufficient, then Allah could have easily sent the book without a messenger. However, he sent the Prophet as a model of the Quran so that people could directly learn from his example. This then became the method of learning for each of the Islamic sciences. For example, each hadith that Imam Bukhari compiled in his collection of hadith is directly linked to the Prophet through a continuous chain of narrators. Thus, each person in the chain must have learned from someone and must be able to state who that person was. Similar requirements are present in other branches of Islamic science as well. The science of tasawwuf is no exception.

Is It Mandatory That I Learn And Develop My Spirituality Under A Shaykh?

The juristic scholars of the ummah have ruled that taking a spiritual guide is a sunnah. That is, it is not mandatory, however, it is the way of the Prophet . However, according to the scholars of this ummah achieving the aims of tasawwuf are mandatory. For example, purifying the heart from pride, rectifying one's character, etc are essential to ones religion. Thus, if one can achieve these goals on their own (which is very rare), they may. However, if one tries and continually fails, it is highly recommended that he seek the assistance of a spiritual doctor.

What Are The Responsibilities Of The Murid (Student) Of The Shaykh?

The murid takes an allegiance with his shaykh seeking Allah's forgiveness for past sins, shortcomings, and mistakes, and pledging to establish the shariah and sunnah in his life. The shaykh then assigns certain daily exercises of dhikr (remembrance of Allah) to the student in order that they attract the blessings of Allah . Each student has a set daily regimen of Quranic recitation and dhikr, which, if done diligently leads to rapid progress.

-Adapted from: tasawwuf.org

Sufi Mujahideen

Sufi Mujahideen
By Khuram Zaman
More often than not, the term "Sufi" invokes images of twirling Dervishes lost in ecstasy, strange people who engage in exotic practices that seem antithetical to Islamic legal traditions, or apolitical mystics fixated in meditation.
One of the greatest misconceptions that people, including non-Muslims, have of Sufism is that it is flaccid in participating in issues pertaining to social justice and engaging in Jihad. History is a testament that not only is Sufism not opposed to Jihad, but rather, Sufis have been amongst the foremost leaders of Jihad. Even the early Sufis were known for their fervent desire for engaging Jihad and seeking martyrdom. For example,

 

Hazrat Ibrahim ibn Adham (RA) (d. 778), was an early Sufi ascetic who was born into a life luxury which he abandoned in order to study the Sacred Sciences and later fought in jihad against the Byzantines.19 In fact, the very roots of the Sufi zawiya, a type of lodge, has its roots in the ribat. The ribat is a type of fortress that was often built along the ever expanding Islamic frontier. At these fortresses, Sufi shuyookh adapted their teachings of outward jihad in order to teach their disciples the science of inner jihad.20

During the Crusades, Sufis also participated in popular resistance against the Franks. The Battle of Mansura in Egypt included participants of the likes of Sheikh Abu Hassan ash-Shadhili, Sheikh Ibrahim Dessouki, and Sheikh al-Qannawwi.

When Sultan Al Kamel of Egypt began negotiating with the Franks during the Fourth Crusade, the great Sufi master Mohiyuddin Ibn Arabi scolded him by saying "You have no pride and Islam will not recognize the likes of you. Stand up and fight or we shall fight you as we fight them."
Even Imam Ghazzali castigated the Mameluke Sultans for failing to carry on the fight by giving them a similarly pernicious warning: "Either take up your sword for the sake of Allah and the rescue of your brothers in Islam, or step down from the leadership of Muslims so their rights can be championed by other than you."21
Egyptian resistance during the Seventh Crusade was lead by Sheikh Ahmad al-Badawi of the Rifa’i tariqa.22 Shaykh Najm al-Din Kubra, the founder of the Kubrawiya tariqa, died in the defense of Khwarazm from the Mongol hordes.

Even from within the Ottoman Empire, Sufis mobilized the masses in jihad, often lead rebellions against the rulers, assisted in the accession of the Sultan, and some even served as chaplains to the warrior class known as the Janissaries.23
During the era of colonialism, Sufis lead resistance movements across the Ummah against imperialism and its purveyors.

 

In the Caucasus, the Russians faced stiff resistance coming primarily from the Naqshbandi and Qadiri tariqas. Mulla Muhammad al-Ghazi al-Kamrawi fought against the Russians when Russia declared itself the protector for the Christians in Khurjistan and annexed portions of Safavid Persia in 1800.
Mulla Muhammad was the Sheikh of the Naqshbandi tariqa and hundreds of thousands of his murids fought against the Russians until he died. Leadership was then transferred to Al-Amir Hamza al-Khanzaji but within a year, he was martyred as well.
The famous Imam Shamil al-Dagestani Naqshbandi then became the Amir of the jihad and fought the Russians for twenty-seven consecutive years.24 Interestingly enough, Imam Shamil met Sheikh Abd al- Qadir al-Jaza’iri, another Sufi who was fighting over 3,000 miles away, in 1828 while on Hajj where they exchanged information about guerilla warfare.25 After his surrender, rebellions were carried on by the murids of the Qadiri order. In 1864, the Russians killed over 4,000 Qadiri murids alone along with many other innocent civilians.
The Naqshbandis and Qadiris joined forces and rebelled in 1865, 1877, 1878 and all throughout the 1890s. During the Soviet Revolution, the Muslims were lead by Shaykh Uzun Haji. Stalin ultimately dealt with the "Chechen problem" by forcibly relocating the entire population into concentration camps.26
In the Indian subcontinent, Sufis and Sufi orders played a considerable role in active military and intellectual resistance against the British. The Sufis participated in resistance prior to the famous Mutiny of 1857 when the followers of Shah Waliullah, under the leadership of his son Shah ‘Abd al’Aziz (1746-1824) began initiating Jihad. In a fatwa Shah ‘Abd al’Aziz proclaimed India to be Dar al-Harb. He declared jihad, stating
"Our country has been enslaved. To struggle for independence and put an end to the slavery is our duty." 27 He was succeeded in his struggles by Sayyid Ahmad Barelwi (1786-1831) who founded the Tariqa-i Muhammadi and was eventually defeated by the Sikhs of Punjab.28 Both Sufi and non-Sufi scholars alike participated actively in the Mutiny of 1857. When the rebellion was finally extinguished, over 50,000 Ulema were dead.29 After the failure of the Mutiny of 1857, resistance to colonialism by the Ulema re-invented itself in the form of the Deoband movement which established a plethora of 3 maddrassehs all across India that taught the sacred sciences derived from the Qur’an, hadith, law, along with logic, kalam, science, and Sufism of the Chisti order.30
TheTableegi Jamaat grew out of the Deobandi movement through Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Khandelwi who was also a member of the Chisti order through the Sabiri branch. The focus of this movement was a return to the correct understanding of Islam based on the Quran and hadith, adhering to the injunctions of the Shariah, with an astute focus on worship.31
Even in Indonesia, the Qadiri order provided leadership in the already widespread resistance to Dutch imperialism in the 1840s and 1850s. 32

By far, one of the most active areas of Sufi resistance occurred in Africa. Resistance by Sufis against imperialism began almost as soon as Europeans endeavored at colonizing the Muslim lands. In Morocco, the Shadhili tariqa was the forefront opponent of the Portuguese in the 15th century, the most notable of the Sufis being Imam al-Jazuli.33
Shaykh ‘Uthman Dan Fodio (1754 – 1817) of Sokoto caliphate (Northern Nigeria) was a Maliki scholar of the Qadiri order who vigorously spoke out against the innovations that had become dominant in his time, particularly the mixing of Islamic and pagan beliefs. He eventually performed hegira, established an Islamic state, and engaged in jihad to unite the region under the Shariah.34
Al-Hajj ‘Umar Tal was a Tijani sheikh from northern Senegal who fought jihad against both the French and pagans of Guinea, Senegal, and Mali. After performing his second pilgrimage, he traveled across various cities in Africa starting in Cairo and eventually coming to Sokoto, Nigeria, where he studied with Muhammad Bello, the son of Shaykh ‘Uthman Dan Fodio, in the field of military sciences and administration.
Upon his return to his homeland, he fought mainly against the pagans of Karta and Segu. ‘Umar was a staunch advocate of the Shariah and after one victory against the polytheists, he destroyed the idols of the pagans with his own hands using an iron mace.35
Al-Hajj Muhammad al-Ahrash from Morocco, a Darqawi Sufi, organized a group comprised of Tunisians and Moroccans in 1799 to fight against the French during their invasion of Egypt. 36

 

Sayyid Muhammad ‘Abdullah al-Somali (1864-1920) was a Shafi’i scholar and member of the Salihiyya tariqa, which he utilized effectively as a military force for over twenty years against the British and Italians in Somalia. He once said in a speech "Unbelieving men of religion have assaulted our country from their remote homelands. They wish to corrupt our religion, to force us to accept Christianity, supported by the armed force of their governments, their weapons, their numbers. You have you’re your faith in God, your arms and your determination. Do not be frightened by their soldiers or armies: God is mightier than they . . ." 37
Perhaps one of the most famous Sufi mujahideen was ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza’iri (1807-1883), was elected an Amir at the age of twenty-five and personally lead the mujahideen against the French invasion of Algeria in 1830. He was part of the Qadiri order and authored "al-Mawaqif" [Standpoints], which is a three volume Sufi manual.38

 

Ma’ al-‘Aynayn al-Qalqami (1831-1910) of Mauritania was also a Qadiri Sufi who made a personal alliance with the Sharifian dynasty of Morocco to engage in jihad against the French which resulted in the death of several of his sons.39
In Libya, members of the Sanusi tariqa lead a coalition against the French and Italians.40

 

In the Middle East, with the Ottoman Empire in disarray, several prominent Sufi scholars carried the banner of Jihad against European occupation.
‘Ali al-Daqar (1877 – 1943) was a Shafi’i scholar and sheikh of the Tijani Tariqa who founded al-Jami’iyya al- Ghurra’, an academy of more than eleven separate schools of the sacred sciences. Along with Badr al-Din al-Hasani, he traveled the Syrian countryside during the French occupation and instructed the people of the villages of the obligatory nature of jihad against the imperialists.41
Hashim al-Khatib (1890 – 1958) was a Shafi’i scholar of the Qadiri tariqa also urged the Muslims to wage jihad against the French.42

 

Muhammad Sa’id Burhani was a Hanafi scholar and Sufi of the Naqshbandi order who fought against the French during their occupation of Syria that began in 1920.43 

 

Sufi resistance has not withered away and is still active in many parts of the Ummah.
For example, during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Sufi tariqas played a pivotal role in evicting the Communists. Many prominent leaders of the resistance were Sufis such as Sayyid Ahmad Gailani, the head of the Qadiri order. He once held the position of Chief of Justice amongst the mujahideen. Two previous presidents of Afghanistan, Sebghatullah Mojaddedi and Burhanuddin Rabbani, are of the Naqshbandi order.44
The founder and the leader of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Omar, is allegedly a Naqshbandi as well. Even today, in Iraq a resistance group was recently formed in April 2005 known as the "Jihad Sufi Squadrons of Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani" in order to fight against the American occupation.45

Many Sufi resistance groups are active in the current Syrian resistance against the regime.

It should be self evident by now that Sufis are not passive, apolitical mystics but have often formed the core intellectual and military elite in propagating Islamic revivals all across the Ummah. The article should not be misconstrued as being a comprehensive study of the role that Sufis have played in daw’ah, the revival of the sacred sciences, and jihad, but rather, it is intended to be merely a brief introduction to a voluminous study.
May Allah (swt) raise up a leader from amongst us who will fight the fitnah of our day and unite our Ummah. Ameen.


References:1 Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri (Translated by Shaykh Nuh Ha Meem Keller) "Reliance of the Traveller"
Amana Publications. Beltsville 1991 p 1038-1039
2 Ibid 1020
3 Ibid 1053 (Although Taj al-Din Subki concluded that Ibn ‘Ata’Illah was more Shafi’i)
4 Ibid 1052
5 Ibid 1021
6 Ibid 1020-1021
7 Abdal-Hakim Murad "Islamic Spirituality: The Forgotten Revolution"
http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/ahm/fgtnrevo.htm
8 Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri (Translated by Shaykh Nuh Ha Meem Keller) "Reliance of the Traveller"
Amana Publications. Beltsville 1991 p 1031
9 Ibid 1048
10 Ibid 1026
11 Ibid 1025
12 Ibid 1047-1048
13 Ibid 1023
14 Ibid 1031
15 Ibid Reliance 1064
16 Ibid 1086
17 Ibid 1100
18 John Voll "Muhammad Hayya al-Sindi and Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab: An Analysis of an Intellectual Group in Eighteenth-Century Madina" Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 38, No. 1 (1975) p 32-33
19 Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri (Translated by Shaykh Nuh Ha Meem Keller) "Reliance of the Traveller" Amana Publications. Beltsville 1991 p 1061
20 Abdullah Schleifer "Jihad and Traditional Islamic Consciousness" The Islamic Quarterly, London Fourth
Quarter 1983 http://www.salaam.co.uk/knowledge/schleifer_4.php
21 Sheikh Muhammad Said Al-Shinnawy "Sufism: A Call and an Education"
http://www.islamonline.net/MercyForWorlds/English/Papers/03.shtml
22 Abdullah Schleifer "Jihad and Traditional Islamic Consciousness" The Islamic Quarterly, London Fourth Quarter 1983 http://www.salaam.co.uk/knowledge/schleifer_4.php
23 Ira Lapidus "A History of Islamic Societies" Cambridge University Press. New York 2002. p 266-267
24 Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri (Translated by Shaykh Nuh Ha Meem Keller) "Reliance of the Traveller"
Amana Publications. Beltsville 1991 p 1096-1097
25 Kerim Fenari "The Jihad of Imam Shamyl" http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/misc/shamyl.htm
26 David Damrel "The Religious Roots of Conflict: Russia and Chechnya; Religious Studies News,September 1995, Vol. 10, No. 3, p 10 http://www.iol.ie/~afifi/Articles/chechnya.htm
27 M. Burhanuddin Qasmi "Darul Uloom Deoband"
http://www.markazulmaarif.org/darululoomdeoband.htm
28 Ira Lapidus "A History of Islamic Societies" Cambridge University Press. New York 2002. p 622-623
29 David Emmanuel Singh "The Independent Madrasas of India: Dar al-‘Ulum, Deoband and Nadvat al-‘Ulama, Lucknow http://www.ocms.ac.uk/docs/madrasas_deoband.pdf
30 Ira Lapidus "A History of Islamic Societies" Cambridge University Press. New York 2002. p 626
31 Ibid 635 (See also Barbara Medcalf " ‘ Traditionalist’ Islamic Activism: Deoband, Tablighis, and Talibs" 2002 p 10)
32 Ira Lapidus "A History of Islamic Societies" Cambridge University Press. New York 2002. p 659-660
33 Abdullah Schleifer "Jihad and Traditional Islamic Consciousness" The Islamic Quarterly, London Fourth Quarter 1983 http://www.salaam.co.uk/knowledge/schleifer_4.php (See also Ira Lapidus "A History of Islamic Societies" Cambridge University Press. New York 2002. p 238)
34 Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri (Translated by Shaykh Nuh Ha Meem Keller) "Reliance of the Traveller" Amana Publications. Beltsville 1991 p Reliance 1108
35 Ibid 1106
36 Ibid 1074
37 Ibid 1094
38 Ibid 1021 (See also Itzchak Weismann "God and the Perfect Man in the Experience of 'Abd al-Qâdir al-Jaza'iri" http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/weismann.html)
39 Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri (Translated by Shaykh Nuh Ha Meem Keller) "Reliance of the Traveller" Amana Publications. Beltsville 1991 p 1068
40 Ira Lapidus "A History of Islamic Societies" Cambridge University Press. New York 2002. p 614
41 Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri (Translated by Shaykh Nuh Ha Meem Keller) "Reliance of the Traveller" Amana Publications. Beltsville 1991 p 1038
42 Ibid 1050
43 Ibid Reliance 1078-1079
44 Dan Alexe "Sufi Brotherhoods Reemerge after the Fall of the Taliban" February 1st 2002 on Radio Free Europe)

Dhikr-e Qalbi (silent Dhikr) in Quran and Hadith

Dhikr-e Qalbi (silent Dhikr) in Quran & Hadith:

 

Below are given Quran and Hadith texts that form a basis for the 'silent dhikr' or 'dhikr-e-Qalbi' or 'Muraqabah' of the Tazkiya  methods of Sufis.

 

Quran:

 

"And do bring your Lord to remembrance in your very soul, with humility and in reverence, without loudness in words, in the mornings and evening, and be not of those who are unheedful."  (Quran-7:205)

Urdu

اور اپنے پروردگار کو دل ہی دل میں عاجزی اور خوف سے اور پست آواز سے صبح وشام یاد کرتے رہو اور (دیکھنا) غافل نہ ہونا

 

This verse indicates that doing dhikr in silence and without raising one's voice is better and according to many classical commentators, it so indicates to the permissibility of  silent dhikr. (see Tafsir Mazhari, Tafsir Ma'ariful Quran, etc)

 

"And remember the name of your Lord and devote yourself to Him with [complete] devotion." (73:8)

Urdu:

 تو اپنے پروردگار کے نام کا ذکر کرو اور ہر طرف سے بےتعلق ہو کر اسی کی طرف متوجہ ہوجاؤ

 

"And remember the name of your Lord morning and evening."  (76:25)

:Urdu

اور صبح وشام اپنے پروردگار کا نام لیتے رہو

 

 Hadith:

 

It is related from Sa`d RA that the Prophet SAWS said: "The best dhikr is the hidden dhikr, and the best money is what suffices." Ahmad narrates it in his Musnad, Ibn Hibban in his Sahih, and Bayhaqi in Shu`ab al-iman.
 

Another Hadith narrated on the authority of `A'isha RA : "Allah favors dhikr above dhikr seventyfold (meaning, silent dhikr over loud dhikr). On the Day of Resurrection, Allah will bring back human beings to His account, and the Recording Angels will bring what they have recorded and written, and Allah Almighty will say: See if something that belongs to my servant was left out? The angels will say: We left nothing out concerning what we have learnt and recorded, except that we have assessed it and written it. Allah will say: O my servant, I have something good of yours for which I alone will reward you, it is your hidden remembrance of Me." -Bayhaqi narrated it.
 

Also on the authority of `A'isha: "The dhikr not heard by the Recording Angels equals seventy times the one they hear." -Bayhaqi narrated it.

Understanding True Tasawwuf

Assalamalaikum,

Dear readers, the below article by Shaikh Nuh Keller explains the true Tasawwuf and it's importance in Islamic sciences and also clarifies many misconceptions regarding it. Please read it fully and carefully.

----------------------------------------------------

The Place of Tasawwuf in Traditional Islam     

Perhaps the biggest challenge in learning Islam correctly today is the scarcity of traditional ‘ulama. In this meaning, Bukhari relates the sahih, rigorously authenticated hadith that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said,  "Truly, Allah does not remove Sacred Knowedge by taking it out of servants, but rather by taking back the souls of Islamic scholars [in death], until, when He has not left a single scholar, the people take the ignorant as leaders, who are asked for and who give Islamic legal opinion without knowledge, misguided and misguiding" (Fath al-Bari, 1.194, hadith 100). The process described by the hadith is not yet completed, but has certainly begun, and in our times, the lack of traditional scholars—whether in Islamic law, in hadith, in tafsir ‘Qur'anic exegesis’—has given rise to an understanding of the religion that is far from scholarly, and sometimes far from the truth. For example, in the course of my own studies in Islamic law, my first impression from orientalist and Muslim-reformer literature, was that the Imams of the madhhabs or ‘schools of jurisprudence’ had brought a set of rules from completely outside the Islamic tradition and somehow imposed them upon the Muslims. But when I sat with traditional scholars in the Middle East and asked them about the details, I came away with a different point of view, having learned the bases for deriving the law from the Qur'an and sunna.  And similarly with Tasawwuf—which is the word I will use tonight for the English Sufism, since our context is traditional Islam—quite a different picture emerged from talking with scholars of Tasawwuf than what I had been exposed to in the West. My talk tonight, In Sha’ Allah, will present knowledge taken from the Qur'an and sahih hadith, and from actual teachers of Tasawwuf in Syria and Jordan, in view of the need for all of us to get beyond clichés, the need for factual information from Islamic sources, the need to answer such questions as: Where did Tasawwuf come from? What role does it play in the din or religion of Islam? and most importantly, What is the command of Allah about it?  Origin of the word "Tasawwuf": As for the origin of the term Tasawwuf, like many other Islamic discliplines, its name was not known to the first generation of Muslims. The historian Ibn Khaldun notes in his Muqaddima:  This knowledge is a branch of the sciences of Sacred Law that originated within the Umma. From the first, the way of such people had also been considered the path of truth and guidance by the early Muslim community and its notables, of the Companions of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), those who were taught by them, and those who came after them.  It basically consists of dedication to worship, total dedication to Allah Most High, disregard for the finery and ornament of the world, abstinence from the pleasure, wealth, and prestige sought by most men, and retiring from others to worship alone. This was the general rule among the Companions of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and the early Muslims, but when involvement in this-worldly things became widespread from the second Islamic century onwards and people became absorbed in worldliness, those devoted to worship came to be called Sufiyya or People of Tasawwuf (Ibn Khaldun, al-Muqaddima [N.d. Reprint. Mecca: Dar al-Baz, 1397/1978], 467). In Ibn Khaldun’s words, the content of Tasawwuf, "total dedication to Allah Most High," was, "the general rule among the Companions of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and the early Muslims." So if the word did not exist in earliest times, we should not forget that this is also the case with many other Islamic disciplines, such as tafsir, ‘Qur'anic exegesis,’ or ‘ilm al-jarh wa ta‘dil, ‘the science of the positive and negative factors that affect hadith narrators acceptability,’ or ‘ilm al-tawhid, the science of belief in Islamic tenets of faith,’ all of which proved to be of the utmost importance to the correct preservation and transmission of the religion.  The word "Sufi":  As for the origin of the word Tasawwuf, it may well be from Sufi, the person who does Tasawwuf, which seems to be etymologically prior to it, for the earliest mention of either term was by Hasan al-Basri who died 110 years after the Hijra, and is reported to have said, "I saw a Sufi circumambulating the Kaaba, and offered him a dirham, but he would not accept it." It therefore seems better to understand Tasawwuf by first asking what a Sufi is; and perhaps the best definition of both the Sufi and his way, certainly one of the most frequently quoted by masters of the discipline, is from the sunna of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) who said: Allah Most High says: "He who is hostile to a friend of Mine I declare war against. My slave approaches Me with nothing more beloved to Me than what I have made obligatory upon him, and My slave keeps drawing nearer to Me with voluntary works until I love him. And when I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, his sight with which he sees, his hand with which he seizes, and his foot with which he walks. If he asks me, I will surely give to him, and if he seeks refuge in Me, I will surely protect him" (Fath al-Bari, 11.340–41, hadith 6502); This hadith was related by Imam Bukhari, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Bayhaqi, and others with multiple contiguous chains of transmission, and is sahih. It discloses the central reality of Tasawwuf, which is precisely change, while describing the path to this change, in conformity with a traditional definition used by masters in the Middle East, who define a Sufi as Faqihun ‘amila bi ‘ilmihi fa awrathahu Llahu ‘ilma ma lam ya‘lam,‘A man of religious learning who applied what he knew, so Allah bequeathed him knowledge of what he did not know.’ To clarify, a Sufi is a man of religious learning, because the hadith says, "My slave approaches Me with nothing more beloved to Me than what I have made obligatory upon him," and only through learning can the Sufi know the command of Allah, or what has been made obligatory for him. He has applied what he knew, because the hadith says he not only approaches Allah with the obligatory, but "keeps drawing nearer to Me with voluntary works until I love him." And in turn, Allah bequeathed him knowledge of what he did not know, because the hadith says, "And when I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, his sight with which he sees, his hand with which he seizes, and his foot with which he walks," which is a metaphor for the consummate awareness of tawhid, or the ‘unity of Allah,’ which in the context of human actions such as hearing, sight, seizing, and walking, consists of realizing the words of the Qur'an about Allah that,  "It is He who created you and what you do" (Qur'an 37:96). The origin of the way of the Sufi thus lies in the prophetic sunna. The sincerity to Allah that it entails was the rule among the earliest Muslims, to whom this was simply a state of being without a name, while it only became a distinct discipline when the majority of the Community had drifted away and changed from this state. Muslims of subsequent generations required systematic effort to attain it, and it was because of the change in the Islamic environment after the earliest generations, that a discipline by the name of Tasawwuf came to exist.   The place of Tasawwuf in Islam:  But if this is true of origins, the more significant question is: How central is Tasawwuf to the religion, and: Where does it fit into Islam as a whole? Perhaps the best answer is the hadith of Muslim, that ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab said:  As we sat one day with the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace), a man in pure white clothing and jet black hair came to us, without a trace of travelling upon him, though none of us knew him. He sat down before the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) bracing his knees against his, resting his hands on his legs, and said: "Muhammad, tell me about Islam." The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said: "Islam is to testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and to perform the prayer, give zakat, fast in Ramadan, and perform the pilgrimage to the House if you can find a way." He said: "You have spoken the truth," and we were surprised that he should ask and then confirm the answer. Then he said: "Tell me about true faith (iman)," and the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) answered: "It is to believe in Allah, His angels, His inspired Books, His messengers, the Last Day, and in destiny, its good and evil." "You have spoken the truth," he said, "Now tell me about the perfection of faith (ihsan)," and the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) answered: "It is to worship Allah as if you see Him, and if you see Him not, He nevertheless sees you." The hadith continues to where ‘Umar said: Then the visitor left. I waited a long while, and the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said to me, "Do you know, ‘Umar, who was the questioner?" and I replied, "Allah and His messenger know best." He said,  "It was Gabriel, who came to you to teach you your religion" (Sahih Muslim, 1.37: hadith 8).  This is a sahih hadith, described by Imam Nawawi as one of the hadiths upon which the Islamic religion turns. The use of din in the last words of it, Atakum yu‘allimukum dinakum, "came to you to teach you your religion" entails that the religion of Islam is composed of the three fundamentals mentioned in the hadith: Islam, or external compliance with what Allah asks of us; Iman, or the belief in the unseen that the prophets have informed us of; and Ihsan, or to worship Allah as though one sees Him. The Qur'an says, in Surat Maryam,  "Surely We have revealed the Remembrance, and surely We shall preserve it" (Qur'an 15:9),  and if we reflect how Allah, in His wisdom, has accomplished this, we see that it is by human beings, the traditional scholars He has sent at each level of the religion. The level of Islam has been preserved and conveyed to us by the Imams of Shari‘a or ‘Sacred Law’ and its ancillary disciplines; the level of Iman, by the Imams of ‘Aqida or ‘tenets of faith’; and the level of Ihsan, "to worship Allah as though you see Him," by the Imams of Tasawwuf.  The hadith’s very words "to worship Allah" show us the interrelation of these three fundamentals, for the how of "worship" is only known through the external prescriptions of Islam, while the validity of this worship in turn presupposes Iman or faith in Allah and the Islamic revelation, without which worship would be but empty motions; while the words, "as if you see Him," show that Ihsan implies a human change, for it entails the experience of what, for most of us, is not experienced. So to understand Tasawwuf, we must look at the nature of this change in relation to both Islam and Iman, and this is the main focus of my talk tonight.  At the level of Islam, we said that Tasawwuf requires Islam, through ‘submission to the rules of Sacred Law.’ But Islam, for its part, equally requires Tasawwuf. Why? For the very good reason that the sunna which Muslims have been commanded to follow is not just the words and actions of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), but also his states, states of the heart such as taqwa ‘godfearingness,’ ikhlas ‘sincerity,’ tawakkul ‘reliance on Allah,’ rahma ‘mercy,’ tawadu‘ ‘humility,’ and so on.  Now, it is characteristic of the Islamic ethic that human actions are not simply divided into two shades of morality, right or wrong; but rather five, arranged in order of their consequences in the next world. The obligatory (wajib) is that whose performance is rewarded by Allah in the next life and whose nonperformance is punished. The recommended (mandub) is that whose performance is rewarded, but whose nonperformance is not punished. The permissible (mubah) is indifferent, unconnected with either reward or punishment. The offensive (makruh) is that whose nonperformance is rewarded but whose performance is not punished. The unlawful (haram) is that whose nonperformance is rewarded and whose performance is punished, if one dies unrepentant.  Human states of the heart, the Qur'an and sunna make plain to us, come under each of these headings. Yet they are not dealt with in books of fiqh or ‘Islamic jurisprudence,’ because unlike the prayer, zakat, or fasting, they are not quantifiable in terms of the specific amount of them that must be done. But though they are not countable, they are of the utmost importance to every Muslim. Let’s look at a few examples. (1) Love of Allah. In Surat al-Baqara of the Qur'an, Allah blames those who ascribe associates to Allah whom they love as much as they love Allah. Then He says,  "And those who believe are greater in love for Allah" (Qur'an 2:165), making being a believer conditional upon having greater love for Allah than any other. (2) Mercy. Bukhari and Muslim relate that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "Whomever is not merciful to people, Allah will show no mercy" (Sahih Muslim, 4.1809: hadith 2319), and Tirmidhi relates the well authenticated (hasan) hadith "Mercy is not taken out of anyone except the damned" (al-Jami‘ al-sahih, 4.323: hadith 1923). (3) Love of each other. Muslim relates in his Sahih that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "By Him in whose hand is my soul, none of you shall enter paradise until you believe, and none of you shall believe until you love one another . . . ." (Sahih Muslim, 1.74: hadith 54). (4) Presence of mind in the prayer (salat). Abu Dawud relates in his Sunan that ‘Ammar ibn Yasir heard the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) say, "Truly, a man leaves, and none of his prayer has been recorded for him except a tenth of it, a ninth of it, eighth of it, seventh of it, sixth of it, fifth of it, fourth of it, third of it, a half of it" (Sunan Abi Dawud, 1.211: hadith 796)—meaning that none of a person’s prayer counts for him except that in which he is present in his heart with Allah. (5) Love of the Prophet. Bukhari relates in his Sahih that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "None of you believes until I am more beloved to him than his father, his son, and all people" (Fath al-Bari, 1.58, hadith 15). It is plain from these texts that none of the states mentioned—whether mercy, love, or presence of heart—are quantifiable, for the Shari‘a cannot specify that one must "do two units of mercy" or "have three units of presence of mind" in the way that the number of rak‘as of prayer can be specified, yet each of them is personally obligatory for the Muslim. Let us complete the picture by looking at a few examples of states that are haram or ‘strictly unlawful’:  (1) Fear of anyone besides Allah. Allah Most High says in Surat al-Baqara of the Qur'an,  "And fulfill My covenant: I will fulfill your covenant—And fear Me alone" (Qur'an 2:40), the last phrase of which, according to Imam Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, "establishes that a human being is obliged to fear no one besides Allah Most High" (Tafsir al-Fakhr al-Razi, 3.42). (2) Despair. Allah Most High says,  "None despairs of Allah’s mercy except the people who disbelieve" (Qur'an 12:87), indicating the unlawfulness of this inward state by coupling it with the worst human condition possible, that of unbelief. (3) Arrogance. Muslim relates in his Sahih that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "No one shall enter paradise who has a particle of arrogance in his heart" (Sahih Muslim, 1.93: hadith 91). (4) Envy,meaning to wish for another to lose the blessings he enjoys. Abu Dawud relates that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "Beware of envy, for envy consumes good works as flames consume firewood" (Sunan Abi Dawud, 4.276: hadith 4903). (5) Showing off in acts of worship. Al-Hakim relates with a sahih chain of transmission that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "The slightest bit of showing off in good works is as if worshipping others with Allah . . . ." (al-Mustadrak ‘ala al-Sahihayn, 1.4).  These and similar haram inward states are not found in books of fiqh or ‘jurisprudence,’ because fiqh can only deal with quantifiable descriptions of rulings. Rather, they are examined in their causes and remedies by the scholars of the ‘inner fiqh’ of Tasawwuf, men such as Imam al-Ghazali in his Ihya’ ‘ulum al-din [The reviving of the religious sciences], Imam al-Rabbani in his Maktubat [Letters], al-Suhrawardi in his ‘Awarif al-Ma‘arif [The knowledges of the illuminates], Abu Talib al-Makki in Qut al-qulub [The sustenance of hearts], and similar classic works, which discuss and solve hundreds of ethical questions about the inner life. These are books of Shari‘a and their questions are questions of Sacred Law, of how it is lawful or unlawful for a Muslim to be; and they preserve the part of the prophetic sunna dealing with states. Who needs Tasawwuf? Who needs such information? All Muslims, for the Qur'anic verses and authenticated hadiths all point to the fact that a Muslim must not only do certain things and say certain things, but also must be something, must attain certain states of the heart and eliminate others. Do we ever fear someone besides Allah? Do we have a particle of arrogance in our hearts? Is our love for the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) greater than our love for any other human being? Is there the slightest bit of showing off in our good works? Half a minute’s reflection will show the Muslim where he stands on these aspects of his din, and why in classical times, helping Muslims to attain these states was not left to amateurs, but rather delegated to ‘ulama of the heart, the scholars of Islamic Tasawwuf. For most people, these are not easy transformations to make, because of the force of habit, because of the subtlety with which we can deceive ourselves, but most of all because each of us has an ego, the self, the Me, which is called in Arabic al-nafs, about which Allah testifies in Surat Yusuf: "Verily the self ever commands to do evil" (Qur'an 12:53).  If you do not believe it, consider the hadith related by Muslim in his Sahih, that: The first person judged on Resurrection Day will be a man martyred in battle. He will be brought forth, Allah will reacquaint him with His blessings upon him and the man will acknowledge them, whereupon Allah will say, "What have you done with them?" to which the man will respond, "I fought to the death for You." Allah will reply, "You lie. You fought in order to be called a hero, and it has already been said." Then he will be sentenced and dragged away on his face and flung into the fire. Then a man will be brought forward who learned Sacred Knowledge, taught it to others, and who recited the Qur'an. Allah will remind him of His gifts to him and the man will acknowledge them, and then Allah will say, "What have you done with them?" The man will answer, "I acquired Sacred Knowledge, taught it, and recited the Qur'an, for Your sake." Allah will say, "You lie. You learned so as to be called a scholar, and read the Qur'an so as to be called a reciter, and it has already been said." Then the man will be sentenced and dragged away on his face to be flung into the fire. Then a man will be brought forward whom Allah generously provided for, giving him various kinds of wealth, and Allah will recall to him the benefits given, and the man will acknowledge them, to which Allah will say, "And what have you done with them?" The man will answer, "I have not left a single kind of expenditure You love to see made, except that I have spent on it for Your sake." Allah will say, "You lie. You did it so as to be called generous, and it has already been said." Then he will be sentenced and dragged away on his face to be flung into the fire (Sahih Muslim, 3.1514: hadith 1905). We should not fool ourselves about this, because our fate depends on it: in our childhood, our parents taught us how to behave through praise or blame, and for most of us, this permeated and colored our whole motivation for doing things. But when childhood ends, and we come of age in Islam, the religion makes it clear to us, both by the above hadith and by the words of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) "The slightest bit of showing off in good works is as if worshipping others with Allah" that being motivated by what others think is no longer good enough, and that we must change our motives entirely, and henceforth be motivated by nothing but desire for Allah Himself. The Islamic revelation thus tells the Muslim that it is obligatory to break his habits of thinking and motivation, but it does not tell him how. For that, he must go to the scholars of these states, in accordance with the Qur'anic imperative, "Ask those who know if you know not" (Qur'an 16:43), There is no doubt that bringing about this change, purifying the Muslims by bringing them to spiritual sincerity, was one of the central duties of the Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace), for Allah says in the Surat Al ‘Imran of the Qur'an, "Allah has truly blessed the believers, for He has sent them a messenger of themselves, who recites His signs to them and purifies them, and teaches them the Book and the Wisdom" (Qur'an 3:164), which explicitly lists four tasks of the prophetic mission, the second of which, yuzakkihim means precisely to ‘purify them’ and has no other lexical sense. Now, it is plain that this teaching function cannot, as part of an eternal revelation, have ended with the passing of the first generation, a fact that Allah explictly confirms in His injunction in Surat Luqman, "And follow the path of him who turns unto Me" (Qur'an 31:15). These verses indicate the teaching and transformative role of those who convey the Islamic revelation to Muslims, and the choice of the word ittiba‘ in the second verse, which is more general, implies both keeping the company of and following the example of a teacher. This is why in the history of Tasawwuf, we find that though there were many methods and schools of thought, these two things never changed: keeping the company of a teacher, and following his example—in exactly the same way that the Sahaba were uplifted and purified by keeping the company of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and following his example.   Why need of a Shaikh and 'Tariqas'?:  And this is why the discipline of Tasawwuf has been preserved and transmitted by Tariqas or groups of students under a particular master. First, because this was the sunna of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) in his purifying function described by the Qur'an. Secondly, Islamic knowledge has never been transmitted by writings alone, but rather from ‘ulama to students. Thirdly, the nature of the knowledge in question is of hal or ‘state of being,’ not just knowing, and hence requires it be taken from a succession of living masters back to the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), for the sheer range and number of the states of heart required by the revelation effectively make imitation of the personal example of a teacher the only effective means of transmission.  So far we have spoken about Tasawwuf in respect to Islam, as a Shari‘a science necessary to fully realize the Sacred Law in one’s life, to attain the states of the heart demanded by the Qur'an and hadith. This close connection between Shari‘a and Tasawwuf is expressed by the statement of Imam Malik, founder of the Maliki school, that "he who practices Tasawwuf without learning Sacred Law corrupts his faith, while he who learns Sacred Law without practicing Tasawwuf corrupts himself. Only he who combines the two proves true." This is why Tasawwuf was taught as part of the traditional curriculum in madrasas across the Muslim world from Malaysia to Morocco, why many of the greatest Shari‘a scholars of this Umma have been Sufis, and why until the end of the Islamic caliphate at the beginning of this century and the subsequent Western control and cultural dominance of Muslim lands, there were teachers of Tasawwuf in Islamic institutions of higher learning from Lucknow to Istanbul to Cairo.   Relationship between Tasawwuf and Iman:  But there is a second aspect of Tasawwuf that we have not yet talked about; namely, its relation to Iman or ‘True Faith,’ the second pillar of the Islamic religion, which in the context of the Islamic sciences consists of ‘Aqida or ‘orthodox belief.’ All Muslims believe in Allah, and that He is transcendently beyond anything conceivable to the minds of men, for the human intellect is imprisoned within its own sense impressions and the categories of thought derived from them, such as number, directionality, spatial extention, place, time, and so forth. Allah is beyond all of that; in His own words,  "There is nothing whatesover like unto Him" (Qur'an 42:11) If we reflect for a moment on this verse, in the light of the hadith of Muslim about Ihsan that "it is to worship Allah as though you see Him," we realize that the means of seeing here is not the eye, which can only behold physical things like itself; nor yet the mind, which cannot transcend its own impressions to reach the Divine, but rather certitude, the light of Iman, whose locus is not the eye or the brain, but rather the ruh, a subtle faculty Allah has created within each of us called the soul, whose knowledge is unobstructed by the bounds of the created universe. Allah Most High says, by way of exalting the nature of this faculty by leaving it a mystery, "Say: ‘The soul is of the affair of my Lord’" (Qur'an 17:85). Role of Dhikr in Islamic Spirituality: The food of this ruh is dhikr or the ‘remembrance of Allah.’ Why? Because acts of obedience increase the light of certainty and Iman in the soul, and dhikr is among the greatest of them, as is attested to by the sahih hadith related by al-Hakim that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "Shall I not tell you of the best of your works, the purest of them in the eyes of your Master, the highest in raising your rank, better than giving gold and silver, and better for you than to meet your enemy and smite their necks, and they smite yours?" They said, "This—what is it, O Messenger of Allah?" and he said: Dhikru Llahi ‘azza wa jall, "The remembrance of Allah Mighty and Majestic." (al-Mustadrak ‘ala al-Sahihayn, 1.496). Increasing the strength of Iman through good actions, and particularly through the medium of dhikr has tremendous implications for the Islamic religion and traditional spirituality. A non-Muslim once asked me, "If God exists, then why all this beating around the bush? Why doesn’t He just come out and say so?"  The answer is that taklif or ‘moral responsibility’ in this life is not only concerned with outward actions, but with what we believe, our ‘Aqida—and the strength with which we believe it. If belief in God and other eternal truths were effortless in this world, there would be no point in Allah making us responsible for it, it would be automatic, involuntary, like our belief, say, that London is in England. There would no point in making someone responsible for something impossible not to believe.  But the responsibility Allah has place upon us is belief in the Unseen, as a test for us in this world to choose between kufr and Iman, to distinguish believer from unbeliever, and some believers above others. This why strengthening Iman through dhikr is of such methodological importance for Tasawwuf: we have not only been commanded as Muslims to believe in certain things, but have been commanded to have absolute certainty in them. The world we see around us is composed of veils of light and darkness: events come that knock the Iman out of some of us, and Allah tests each of us as to the degree of certainty with which we believe the eternal truths of the religion. It was in this sense that ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab said, "If the Iman of Abu Bakr were weighed against the Iman of the entire Umma, it would outweigh it." Now, in traditional ‘Aqida one of the most important tenets is the wahdaniyya or ‘oneness and uniqueness’ of Allah Most High. This means He is without any sharik or associate in His being, in His attributes, or in His acts. But the ability to hold this insight in mind in the rough and tumble of daily life is a function of the strength of certainty (yaqin) in one’s heart. Allah tells the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) in Surat al-A‘raf of the Qur'an,  "Say: ‘I do not possess benefit for myself or harm, except as Allah wills’" (Qur'an 7:188), yet we tend to rely on ourselves and our plans, in obliviousness to the facts of ‘Aqida that ourselves and our plans have no effect, that Allah alone brings about effects. If you want to test yourself on this, the next time you contact someone with good connections whose help is critical to you, take a look at your heart at the moment you ask him to put in a good word for you with someone, and see whom you are relying upon. If you are like most of us, Allah is not at the forefront of your thoughts, despite the fact that He alone is controlling the outcome. Isn’t this a lapse in your ‘Aqida, or, at the very least, in your certainty?  Tasawwuf corrects such shortcomings by step-by-step increasing the Muslim’s certainty in Allah. The two central means of Tasawwuf in attaining the conviction demanded by ‘Aqida are mudhakara, or learning the traditional tenets of Islamic faith, and dhikr, deepening one’s certainty in them by remembrance of Allah. It is part of our faith that, in the words of the Qur'an in Surat al-Saffat,  "Allah has created you and what you do" (Qur'an 37:96);  yet for how many of us is this day to day experience? Because Tasawwuf remedies this and other shortcomings of Iman, by increasing the Muslim’s certainty through a systematic way of teaching and dhikr, it has traditionally been regarded as personally obligatory to this pillar of the religion also, and from the earliest centuries of Islam, has proved its worth.  What about the bad "Sufis"? The last question we will deal with tonight is: What about the bad Sufis we read about, who contravene the teachings of Islam?  The answer is that there are two meanings of Sufi: the first is "Anyone who considers himself a Sufi," which is the rule of thumb of orientalist historians of Sufism and popular writers, who would oppose the "Sufis" to the "Ulama." I think the Qur'anic verses and hadiths we have mentioned tonight about the scope and method of true Tasawwuf show why we must insist on the primacy of the definition of a Sufi as "a man of religious learning who applied what he knew, so Allah bequeathed him knowledge of what he did not know."  The very first thing a Sufi, as a man of religious learning knows is that the Shari‘a and ‘Aqida of Islam are above every human being. Whoever does not know this will never be a Sufi, except in the orientalist sense of the word—like someone standing in front of the stock exchange in an expensive suit with a briefcase to convince people he is a stockbroker. A real stockbroker is something else.  Why some scholars have criticized Sufis?  Because this distinction is ignored today by otherwise well-meaning Muslims, it is often forgotten that the ‘ulama who have criticized Sufis, such as Ibn al-Jawzi in his Talbis Iblis [The Devil’s deception], or Ibn Taymiya in places in his Fatawa, or Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, were not criticizing Tasawwuf as an ancillary discipline to the Shari‘a. The proof of this is Ibn al-Jawzi’s five-volume Sifat al-safwa, which contains the biographies of the very same Sufis mentioned in al-Qushayri’s famous Tasawwuf manual al-Risala al-Qushayriyya. Ibn Taymiya considered himself a Sufi of the Qadiri order, and volumes ten and eleven of his thirty-seven-volume Majmu‘ al-fatawa are devoted to Tasawwuf. And Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya wrote his three-volume Madarij al-salikin, a detailed commentary on ‘Abdullah al-Ansari al-Harawi’s tract on the spiritual stations of the Sufi path, Manazil al-sa’irin. These works show that their authors’ criticisms were not directed at Tasawwuf as such, but rather at specific groups of their times, and they should be understood for what they are.  As in other Islamic sciences, mistakes historically did occur in Tasawwuf, most of them stemming from not recognizing the primacy of Shari‘a and ‘Aqida above all else. But these mistakes were not different in principle from, for example, the Isra’iliyyat (baseless tales of Bani Isra’il) that crept into tafsir literature, or the mawdu‘at (hadith forgeries) that crept into the hadith. These were not taken as proof that tafsir was bad, or hadith was deviance, but rather, in each discipline, the errors were identified and warned against by Imams of the field, because the Umma needed the rest. And such corrections are precisely what we find in books like Qushayri’s Risala,Ghazali’s Ihya’ and other works of Sufism. The famous Scholars who were Sufis: For all of the reasons we have mentioned, Tasawwuf was accepted as an essential part of the Islamic religion by the ‘ulama of this Umma. The proof of this is all the famous scholars of Shari‘a sciences who had the higher education of Tasawwuf, among them Ibn ‘Abidin, al-Razi, Ahmad Sirhindi, Zakariyya al-Ansari, al-‘Izz ibn ‘Abd al-Salam, Ibn Daqiq al-‘Eid, Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, Shah Wali Allah, Ahmad Dardir, Ibrahim al-Bajuri, ‘Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi, Imam al-Nawawi, Taqi al-Din al-Subki, and al-Suyuti.  Sufi Mujahideen: Among the Sufis who aided Islam with the sword as well as the pen, to quote Reliance of the Traveller, were: such men as the Naqshbandi sheikh Shamil al-Daghestani, who fought a prolonged war against the Russians in the Caucasus in the nineteenth century; Sayyid Muhammad ‘Abdullah al-Somali, a sheikh of the Salihiyya order who led Muslims against the British and Italians in Somalia from 1899 to 1920; the Qadiri sheikh ‘Uthman ibn Fodi, who led jihad in Northern Nigeria from 1804 to 1808 to establish Islamic rule; the Qadiri sheikh ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza’iri, who led the Algerians against the French from 1832 to 1847; the Darqawi faqir al-Hajj Muhammad al-Ahrash, who fought the French in Egypt in 1799; the Tijani sheikh al-Hajj ‘Umar Tal, who led Islamic Jihad in Guinea, Senegal, and Mali from 1852 to 1864; and the Qadiri sheikh Ma’ al-‘Aynayn al-Qalqami, who helped marshal Muslim resistance to the French in northern Mauritania and southern Morocco from 1905 to 1909.  Sufi Daiees (propagators) of Islam:   Among the Sufis whose missionary work Islamized entire regions are such men as the founder of the Sanusiyya order, Muhammad ‘Ali Sanusi, whose efforts and jihad from 1807 to 1859 consolidated Islam as the religion of peoples from the Libyan Desert to sub-Saharan Africa; [and] the Shadhili sheikh Muhammad Ma‘ruf and Qadiri sheikh Uways al-Barawi, whose efforts spread Islam westward and inland from the East African Coast . . . . (Reliance of the Traveller,863). It is plain from the examples of such men what kind of Muslims have been Sufis; namely, all kinds, right across the board—and that Tasawwuf did not prevent them from serving Islam in any way they could.  Summary:  To summarize everything I have said tonight: In looking first at Tasawwuf and Shari‘a, we found that many Qur'anic verses and sahih hadiths oblige the Muslim to eliminate haram inner states as arrogance, envy, and fear of anyone besides Allah; and on the other hand, to acquire such obligatory inner states as mercy, love of one’s fellow Muslims, presence of mind in prayer, and love of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace). We found that these inward states could not be dealt with in books of fiqh, whose purpose is to specify the outward, quantifiable aspects of the Shari‘a. The knowledge of these states is nevertheless of the utmost importance to every Muslim, and this is why it was studied under the ‘ulama of Ihsan, the teachers of Tasawwuf, in all periods of Islamic history until the beginning of the present century. We then turned to the level of Iman, and found that though the ‘Aqida of Muslims is that Allah alone has any effect in this world, keeping this in mind in everhday life is not a given of human consciousness, but rather a function of a Muslim’s yaqin, his certainty. And we found that Tasawwuf, as an ancillary discipline to ‘Aqida, emphasizes the systematic increase of this certainty through both mudhakara, ‘teaching tenets of faith’ and dhikr, ‘the remembrance of Allah,’ in accordance with the words of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) about Ihsan that "it is worship Allah as though you see Him." Lastly, we found that accusations against Tasawwuf made by scholars such as Ibn al-Jawzi, and Ibn Taymiya were not directed against Tasawwuf in principle, but to specific groups and individuals in the times of these authors, the proof for which is the other books by the same authors that showed their understanding of Tasawwuf as a Shari‘a science.  To return to the starting point of my talk this evening, with the disappearance of traditional Islamic scholars from the Umma, two very different pictures of Tasawwuf emerge today. If we read books written after the dismantling of the traditional fabric of Islam by colonial powers in the last century, we find the big hoax: Islam without spirituality and Shari‘a without Tasawwuf. But if we read the classical works of Islamic scholarship, we learn that Tasawwuf has been a Shari‘a science like tafsir, hadith, or any other, throughout the history of Islam. The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "Truly, Allah does not look at your outward forms and wealth, but rather at your hearts and your works" (Sahih Muslim, 4.1389: hadith 2564). And this is the brightest hope that Islam can offer a modern world darkened by materialism and nihilism: Islam as it truly is; the hope of eternal salvation through a religion of brotherhood and social and economic justice outwardly, and the direct experience of divine love and illumination inwardly.  -Taken with thanks from Masud Ahmed khan's website. (Sub-headings were added to it)