Why genuine Tasawwuf is prone to misrepresentation

 Maulana ‘Abd al-Bāri Nadwi, a spiritual successor (khalifa) of Hakeemul Ummah Ashraf Ali Thānawi RA, points out that tasawwuf has been perceived in two ways throughout Islamic history. 

First, there is the tasawwuf of the Qur’ān and hadīth, which was practiced by the pious predecessors of Islam and their true followers. Then, there is the pseudo-tasawwuf, an imprudent syncretism of Islam and other religious and spiritual systems of the world. 

‘Abd al-Bāri Nadwi explains that the reason why genuine tasawwuf is prone to misrepresentation is because the “degree of misguidance and mistakes caused by a subject are proportionate to the degree of depth, subtlety, and intricacy found in that subject. Tasawwuf is the most subtle and intricate, and in many ways enigmatic, of the Islamic sciences, because it not only reforms the exoteric self, but it lays greater stress on purifying the esoteric self, which encompasses spiritual dimensions unseen by the physical eye. .” 

[Mawlana ‘Abd al-Bāri Nadwi, Tajdid-e suluk-o tasawwuf (Lucknow: Bari Publications, 1993), 4.]

SHARI'AH AND TARIQAH (Tasawwuf)- Khurram Murad

SHARI'AH AND TARIQAH (Tasawwuf)-Khurram Murad RA
(Taken from his book 'SHARI'AH - THE WAY TO GOD' published by The Islamic Foundation, Leicester)

Some in Islam, naturally enough, have concentrated more on developing ways and means of purifying the inner self and of strengthening the relationship between man and God. Leading exponents of this approach-known as Tariqah-have been the Sufis. Much has been said about the conflict between the Shari'ah and the Tariqah. But what we have said above gives the lie to the often propagated idea of any inherent or continuing dichotomy and tension between the two terms-both of which interestingly enough, are of latter-day origin. (Early Islam used only Islam or Din which encompassed every aspect of man's self.) Special circumstances may have led this or that person to lay more emphasis on a certain aspect: a few may have even been sufficiently misled to try to generate tension and conflict between the two or extol one at the expense of the other. But there were never two different paths or two different expressions of man's relationship to God. Interestingly, both Shari'ah and Tariqah have exactly the same meaning-the way. According to Ibn Tamiya, a person observing only the law, without its inner truth, cannot be called truly a believer; and, similarly, a person claiming to possess 'truth' which is at odds with the Shari'ah cannot even be a Muslim.

Even, historically speaking, in early Islam, the two streams, of Sufis and the jurists (Fuqaha) never flowed separately. Hasan Basri, the doyen of Sufis, is a major pillar of fiqh and tafsir (jurisprudence and exegesis); whereas Ja'fer Sadiq, Abu Hanifa, Malik, Shafi'i and Ahmad - the founders of the main schools of Muslim jurisprudence - find pride of place in Fariduddin 'Attar's classical Tadhkira-al-Awliya (The Book of Saints).

In the Qur'an and the ahadith both inward and outward are inseparably intertwined. For example, when the Qur'an says, 'who in their prayers are humble' (al-Muminun 23: 1), then prayer is what one is likely to categorise as the Shari'ah, humility as the Tariqah. Or, when it says, 'those who believe, love God most' (al-Baqarah 2: 165), love is likely to be taken to belong to Tariqah; but, at the same time, the Qur'an emphasises: 'Say: If you love God, follow me'. Thus prayer and humility, love and obedience are inseparable, two sides of the same coin.