Sufi Scholasticism
SUFI SCHOLASTICISM?
Both the recent 'Ridha' and the 'Rabia' articles contributed by Br Adiani, certainly taken from very reputable classical Sufi sources, still reflect, in my humble opinion, the effects of what we may call the effect of Hellenism on Islam as from third generation onwards. The Hellenistic effect worked on both formalistic presentation as well as the spiritualistic. As such it was a genuine but still mixed blessing. Here we discuss the less good effects of it on Islamic culture. Let me explain:
The human mind has, roughly speaking, two departments each of which works in its own ways but still is connected to and unconsciously cooperate with each other. This said, it is also known that it is possible to cultivate one of these at the expense of the other in which case glorious-looking but in fact regrettable results are attained. All the greater Greek philosophers went for the intellect and not so much for the ‘heart’, the rich mine of our greatest and noblest values.
Modern education is entirely 'rational' which means the formalistic logic in the rational and extroverted department of the brain is made to work at full capacity while the subconscious or unconscious department is not only neglected but also disparaged and its use discouraged; they call it 'irrational, emotional etc.'. There is no greater crime in academic environments than being irrational and emotional. They accuse any indulgers of being silly, talking mumbo-jumbo, rubbish and gibberish. Of course they are not always wrong but nor those of us who criticise too rational thinking are always wrong. Experience is that too much rational, too little intuitive thinkers produce great-looking theories and ideologies which go bankrupt after a few exposures to reality. Marxism was one such ideology as was Fascism. They dared to challenge the unchallengeable reality Allah imposed and after much mischief and harm they had to go bankrupt and collapse. In the formative centuries of Islamic scholarship the rational methods of Greek thought came handy to analyse, classify and evaluate the givens of the Qur'an and Hadith and derive laws and dogmas in great detail. Although overall it was a magnificent edifice, the formal presentation of Islam so worked out left a lot to be desired. It is because it was too rational, too scientific and hardly spiritual.
To balance this influence Sufis came up with the complementary correction based on the equal employment of the second department of the mind which works by intuition as well as the emotional wealth available to more sensitive, caring souls.
But Sufis also split into two: Some went entirely for the intuitive at the gross expense of the rational which should have a place for balance's sake. These came to be known as majzubs, those looking like mad with their 'absorption in Allah' or with the pretence of it. They often abandoned the external obligations of Islam and even pronounced blasphemies to be excused as the irresponsible words of the drunken. Against this we have the too rational Sufis who analyse their Sufi experiences as they would analyse chemicals in a laboratory. They supposedly depict the human soul in minute detail like describing a machine or the solar system and narrate their astronaut-like space travels in them, often thinking that this duplicates the Prophet’s sws Mi’raj. . Others act as psychoanalysts and issue cock-sure diagnostic reports which must be infallible.
I humbly regard the sayings attributed (repeat, attributed) to Fudhail or Muhasibi as the examples of the works of this school. Surprisingly (if we can believe it), Rabia also looks too dangerously rational and psychoanalytical; her accusing her visitor in the story our brother Adiani narrates is a good example. She immediately goes for the eye like a hawk and basically accuses her visitor of too much love for this world. She psychoanalyses him and passes a firm judgment. This single-tract, aggressive and exclusive habit of judging specific people is not only a bit rude (and against Allah’s prerogatives and His Prophet’s adabs) but always risks being very wrong as well. Did you know that for a while there was a Sufi school in earlier times which, like Christian monastics, looked down on marriage as inferior to celibacy and its members remained proudly celibate?
No doubt this went against the Prophet's sws teachings and example as badly as it could. Another monastic light-weight 'wisdom' was the blanket denunciation of this world. In fact declaring the world totally evil is not fair or entirely harmonious with Allah's and His Prophet's sws teachings when taken in their entirety. Many took this wrong turn. The reason was that like all rationalists and analyticals they took every word to mean only one thing and one thing alone; that is because in philosophy the strict and singular definition of words is the indispensable starting point for all arguments. The reality is totally different; almost all important words are ambiguous and that is very well as ambiguities introduce richness and subtlety into statements. The Qur’an often uses words ambiguously and creates wonderful effects and implies dizzying subtleties. Rationalistic Sufis could not handle such possibilities and like Socrates travelled single-tract in their thinking and preaching. For example it is none other than the Lord of Rabia and of all existence Who teaches us to pray "Our Lord, give us good in this world and good in the Hereafter..." (S. al Baqara, 201- note the .... space; here, I put it there deliberately, and see what comes next). The same Rabia and many other rationalists also say things like "O Lord, I love you so much that I will not mind whether you burn me in Hell, I shall still be happy with you". That must be a total misunderstanding of spiritual matters taught by Allah in His Qur'an; Look what the prayer verse just quoted ends with “And spare us from the Torment of the Fire”! What Sufi Socrateses don’t know is that ‘Hell’ does not mean fire like the fire of this world. IT IS A METAPHOR FOR ALLAH'S DISPLEASURE with a servant.
It is all that is due to an insolent, daring opponent of Allah and oppressor of His servants. Its fire is more made of regret, shame and ugliest and darkest despair- who can say "I don't mind being caught by Allah for my crimes and put to shame as no other shame can be and be doomed to eternal regret as no other regret can be"? When one understands the word Fire as just material fire with no spiritual connotations then he or she may become too brave in braving its flames. After all there are people who commit suicide by burning themselves alive. Instead, Islam is about earning Allah's Pleasure with Allah's Help and NOT teaching back to Allah superior spirituality where even Allah's Displeasure, unknowingly, is invited heroically. If one forfeits Allah's Pleasure what is he or she left with but regret, shame and torment? These are what HELL means!
Or look at the definitions of 'Zuhd' and 'Ridhwan'. Who needs to define them to start with? Why this Hellenic, Socratic hair-splitting scholasticism? Why this scholasticism in the very heart of Sufism which should be all about silent saving realities in one's non-verbalising heart which translates into piety of action pure and simple. I have seen old murids who apparently knew and talked nothing about spiritual terminology, semantics or philosophy, yawned when such matters were aired but came alive and sobbed everytime Allah was mentioned; they displayed incredible charity despite their poor means whenever any one in need came to them. They radiated real sanctity and were as humble as broken slaves and listened to learned people with innocent admiration not knowing that they were far superior to them the word-salad servers.
This unnecessary Hellenisation of Sufism is totally absent in our Naqshibandi way; our masters NEVER PHILOSOPHISE or utter daring and dazzling glorious ignorances let alone blasphemies passing as profundity. Instead they look, talk and act like ordinary ulema but distinguish themselves from ordinary ulema by their sparkling, in fact dazzling gracious character traits and very comforting and endearing behaviour patterns. Even the giant scholar our master Imam Rabbani RA (17th C. India) shied away with embarrassment from treating Sufism analytically or endorsing acts and words which upset ordinary Muslims. He did not like any Sufis to imply or project a 'holier than thou' or 'savvier than thou' image and accordingly found fault with both Hallaj and ibn Arabi, among others. We Naqshibandis remain so to this day and as a result are indistinguihable from ordinary Muslims except when it comes to real piety and humanity as far as our masters and better brothers and sisters are concerned. Incidentally we must admit that most of us (including me) are humble good for nothings. But at least we do not add insult to injury by philosophising and pontificating too much a la Grec. Ours is silent spirituality. Ours is the Naqshibandi Way based on the Sunna pure and simple with no frills or Hellenistic 'improvements'. We merrily marry, heartily eat and drink any halal, dress well and sleep as much as we need etc.
We also have good news: The depths available to unpretentious, main-stream going Sufis are not the same as those available (if at all) to self-distinguishing and self-eulogising types. To this effect said our grandmaster Sheikh Abdullah Daghestani QS in Turkish “Saadati Naqshibandinin yuzdugu denizler Bishri Hafilerin, Muhiddini Arabilerin yuzecekleri denizler degildir”, i.e., “The seas the Naqshibandi masters (Saadat an Naqhibandiyya) swim are not seas in which Bishr al Hafis or Muhyiddin ibn Arabis can ever swim".
Deeps are SILENT, as well as invisible and the residents of the deeps have nothing much to say about Divine Realms or spiritual stations and states but they express themselves gracefully and unpretentiously and unintentionally with pious action and gracious sociability- JUST LIKE THE MESSENGER OF ALLAH! One look at our maulana Sheikh Nazim is enought. Amen.
BLUNT AND PLAIN WORD ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING
As I follow the worldwide debate on and read the learned commentaries about our age’s hot issue the Global Warming I am sorry to say that I feel as much disappointment as satisfaction. Beginning with the second, satisfaction because such a vital issue is now being taken seriously all over the globe; disappointment because most who put forward their learned views explore more the alternative and supposedly ‘greener’ energy generation methods than tackling the only root cause of the problem. I believe that it is not so much about how we generate energy but how much! Let us take petroleum burning against wind power for example. The first industry to benefit will be electricity generation. We will replace our oil (or coal) driven power plants with wind-farms. But will not the power so generated still be used to warm our homes, drive our cars and trains and therefore end up as heat and therefore warming in the atmosphere? Yes, there will be no carbon dioxide to worry about but the size of the global electricity production industry being what it is the winds we have and need for the regulation of our atmospheric phenomena like rain, open air ventilation, the pollination of plants and the currents overhauling the seas to the benefit of all living things in there and outside will be negatively affected. Let us see how important it is for us to have the air currents called winds: you are in your home on a warm day, you open your windows to have your home naturally ventilated so that you can feel cooler.
But the lady of the home hangs her washings inside the window sills so that they benefit from the winds and dry. Suddenly you have a home inside which you can only suffocate. Which shows that we cannot steal anything from nature without losing something to it. Tidal energy? Tides are there for a good reason: they regulate marine life among other many benefits. Geothermal energy? As you steal heat from the deep layers of the earth and thereby cool them down the tensions caused by the volume changes (shrinking) of the underground rocks may trigger in the longer run earthquakes which could not happen otherwise. Nuclear energy?
Nuclear fuels are even more limited than fossil fuels and their by-products are no less dangerous. In short, nature cannot be cheated for long; eventually it will recoil and hit you with a punch which may be the last punch you need to be put out.
The real solution of any problem of this nature is the break-up of the vicious cycle feeding it. The vicious circle in this case is powered by over-consumption to which the reaction is over-production. Since all production needs energy the moment demand for products go down so does production and therefore the need for energy. So why should we run after newer and supposedly greener energy sources while we will not need so much energy to begin with if we reduce our consumption? Let us begin with our cars. Since legal speed limits make fast driving an offence why not limit both the speed abilities and sizes of cars to such levels that they consume a fraction of fuel of what they are presently consuming. What is it that a 1 litre, 700 kg car will not do within legal limits that a 4lt, 2000 kg car will do? Are cars reasonable necessities or toys or means for showing-off the owners’ prosperity or madness? A thousand more items can be identified which need not be as wasteful as they now are.
A second area of making economies is the food industry which includes farming. Let us expose and enumerate a few obscenities committed by our so-called advanced societies: About half of all food is lost to waste one way or another. We need not to eat summer fruits and vegetables all year round, whether thanks to local production or imports. While greenhouses used to grow summer fruits in the winter are great suckers of energy, the hormones used to make the products grow faster and bigger poison us with slow poisoning as well as degrading our soils and waters where other species live and are harmed as a result. What is the point in eating water-melons in the cold days of the winter when one actually needs warm and more nutritious food items if not habituated spoiltness and cool snobbery?You know what more dangers we are facing? All nations are trying to join the bandwagon of rich nations so that they also can consume obscenely large amounts of products and contribute to the degeneration of the environment more. For example China has become an Industrial Revolution-revisited scene with thousands of newer and bigger factories racing against time to choke up the environment and poison its own citizens of the poorer class. At the other end of the world and prosperity USA has no intention of cutting down its own production or lose its dominance of the world economy- even Africans would like to become like their big white brothers in the West and produce and consume as badly greatly. This won’t do.
But people seem determined not to let go their wasteful, evermore production and consumption-driven lifestyles. To cheat the nature they have new ideas, ideas like green and renewable energy sources. It is argued that if we replace energy from fossil fuels and utilise the solar, the wind, the tide and geothermal energy, because they do not send up carbon dioxide which traps heat in the lower atmosphere we can continue our carnival of over-producing over-consuming economies. This is not so and we can prove that this is not so by remembering the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This law of nature says that the initial and final two states of a system are separated by the same amount of energy whatever route is taken in transiting from one state to the other. For example to raise the temperature of a litre of water from 10 degrees Celsius to 20 represents an increase in the energy content of the water equal to 10,000 calories. It does not matter whether you heated the water on a gas fire or in an electric kettle or simply by leaving it in a sunny spot. The same for our environment: it will not matter whether you burned fossil fuels or used nuclear fuels or wind-power to raise our eco-system from one overall energy level to another- whatever energy you generate and use, so long the amount (calories or joules) are the same you will arrive at the same global warming level. We simply have to cut down on energy production and to be able to do I we must cut down on our consumption of products and services which is provoking the excessive production of the same which in turn is provoking the consumption of the energies latent in nature be they fossil fuels or sunrays or winds or tides.
The cut-down on consumption and down the line on production as well will surely shrink the economy and therefore paid employment. But the cult of an ever- growing economy and employment being our fundamental superstition at whose altar we sacrificed all the best which made us human, things like family life, spiritual values and good neighbourliness and ended up as compulsive hedonists and estranged, selfish individualists… this cult has to be abandoned and economies of at least rich countries must shrink and shrink until environmental deterioration is checked and then hopefully reversed- before it is too late. Paid employment will surely shrink in tandem but employment as such will even grow. That is because mothers will once more be caring mothers who will turn out caring, psychologically healthy and socially responsible children; with better child care plagues like drug abuse, street-wise juvenile crime, venereal epidemics and premature and irresponsible pregnancies and overall those novel diseases, syndromes and accidents as well as crime peculiar to a hedonistic consumption-driven society will fizzle out like the air from a burst balloon. Once more the police, the health services, the schools… will be able to cope, as will our ecological environment. Let us slow down and reform ourselves from top to bottom or it will be too late for everything within decades.
Lastly, why are we so mad about wasteful consumption of so many things? It is not because we do not know what better things to do with our time and with ourselves? A culture of materialistic and hedonistic values is being pumped into us by those with bigger egos among us be they industrialists, media, politicians or investors. Man has long forgotten the pleasures and satisfactions that can be delivered by mind and heart and is made to believe and expect that the only real way to happiness is possession and consumption of things which provide material, tangible rewards like more food, more sex and more travel, for example. The fact is that this is not so; a trained mind’s enjoyment of its own inner travels and products, things like philosophy, poetry, religion or love of nature and of fellow men and especially altruistic social activities are more effective in delivering happy moods and a sustainable contentment with life on top effecting a plummeting of crime levels across the society. Materialists and atheists are answerable a lot for the sorry condition of mankind which is giving all the signs of a doomsday result based on the relentless and perhaps also increasingly irreversible destruction of our ecosystem. By stripping man of his natural and basically innocent spiritual instincts and inclinations which gave him his very much needed peace of mind and consolation as well as strength, stability and nobility of character in life and also dignity at death philosophers of a Godless, soulless modernism bear a great and unenviable responsibility for the decline of our humanity and the advent of a very real and justified fear of a technological-based doomsday but a doomsday all the same.
THE SATAN AS PRIMAEVAL EVIL
The New York and Washington atrocities are neither the first nor the last examples of the unspeakable evil which inhabits man’s deepest recesses of spirit. Man’s is an inner universe of potentials of most sublime good and most beastly evils. From Stone Age orgies of massacre and cannibalism to the Holocaust and the Stalinist terror to this last atrocity the primaeval evil streak in man has been boiling over into the open. This evil is neither blind nor brainless. It is both dazzlingly visionary and brilliantly studious. It imagines, studies, plans and executes, all coolly and ruthlessly. It is very proud, very self-important. In fact it feels like god! Yet it is a false god. Because it deceives, hurts and destroys both its servants and its victims. Developed religions call this primaeval evil lurking in the pit bottoms of man’s soul the Satan which means the adversary (of the God which is the infinitely noble and constructive potential in man- so far as psychology is concerned; otherwise God is more than that, infinitely more) and Islam calls it also ‘Iblis’ which means a desperado, an outlaw and outcast who is so desperate for ejecting its venom of evil that it will stop at nothing in the way of deceit, treason and savagery to see happiness in any form to be destroyed.
Now, contrary to the evil opinions of some, insulting and hurting others on the basis of differences of belief is not an exclusively muslim disease which anyhow affects only a tiny minority of muslims. Northern Ireland is just a stone throw away where mass bombings have a long pedigree and one party calls the Roman pope ‘the Antichrist’. It is a universal illness affecting the votaries of not only religious but also secular belief systems. Nobody can say that the notorious Nazi holocaust or the equally notorious Stalinist terror were religious frenzies. In fact no religious atrocity in history ever equalled these two secular feats of evil. What about the ‘killing fields’ in Cambodia which is even more recent, when and where millions were killed on the altar of ‘revolution’ and skulls were heaped up all over the land, from horizon to horizon? All these happened in the twentieth century which had its the topping cream in the form of the Balkan atrocities right in the middle of Europe. So we must see the recent brutalisation of America in this wide context of an universal evil streak and not go overboard in avenging it and punishing the supposed perpetrators. We must remember and admit that all of us without exception if at different ratios carry the same evil Devil as well as the same good God in ourselves and which way the balance will go and when the evil we ourselves may blurt out without warning only God knows.
Only recently a proper policeman massacred his whole family in a sudden explosion of the Devil in him. But the fact remains that those responsible for this n-billionth example of terrible indiscriminate violence must be identified and punished. They may be muslims or non-muslims. That remains to be seen. We shouldn’t be too sure. Whoever they may be, however, the fact remains that some muslim countries have a very bad press which is sometimes deservedly bad to varying extents. But there are also other very bad countries which don’t get the bad press they deserve because they are too powerful to be crossed. The fact is that there is something fundamentally wrong and wanting in all human societies and the blame for that must go to the primaeval evil remaining alive and kicking in our souls- all of us. Local produce Oklahoma bombing wasn’t less evil although its magnitude couldn’t match this last one- and that only for funding reasons perhaps.
It is important to notice that the common thread running through all these religious and secular ideological mass evils is a rabid intolerance of others with different beliefs or forms. The Prophet of Islam himself was challenged a few times by some flat and bad muslims in his time and not long after his demise both his sons-in-law were assassinated at the hands of such self-congratulating religious correctness fanatics who, quoting chapter and verse and hadith in senses only obvious to themselves condemn and will hurt all muslims who disagree even when the muslim is an Ali, that greatest savant and saint of Islam! In the secular camp, both the Nazis and the Communists had only murderous views of those outside their fold. Nor democracy is a guarantee against political and diplomatic mischief. In the modern case of what some Western societies inflicted on jews were mainly compensated by helping the jews extact the compensatory payment from Palestinian arabs which were total innocent outsiders to the plight of the jews in Europe. In the twentieth century the civilized Europeans exported their overall liability for the jews to the Middle East in two instalments: one after the First and the other after the Second World War, almost in the spirit of, please forgive the term, ‘let dog eat dog’.
In this sense jews are as victimized as their Abrahamic (Ishmaelite) arab cousins thanks to the cynicalness of the ‘civilized world’. I have every sympathy for the jews for all their sufferings in the hands of so many host countries where they took up residence as diaspora but they themselves admit that of all hosts muslim nations have been by far their best hosts. So it is a bitter irony that what was the culpability of Europe was so skilfully excised out and transplanted on to the muslim world. The deepest and most festering wound has of course been Palestine. Neither thr jews’ mass migration to Palestine not their conduct once there have been wise acts. Despite their apparent ‘victories’ they are living in a kind of hell. What a pity for all concerned. They unfortunately displayed the same fallibility as their supposed Western sponsors who had not yet washed their hands off arrogant colonialism. Punishing the innocent is inexcusable as a matter of definition.
We in the West must understand that before terror can be adequately dealt with all glaring injustices must be got out of the way. True, injustice does not justify indiscriminate terror- but it at least provides a breeding ground for ambitious and murderous exploiters or deranged vehement souls to plant themselves in and flourish. Yes, muslims have their fundamentalists and terrorists but it must be seen that these phenomena are enormously provoked by the injustice caused by the unwise policies adopted by the Western world as well as by the insatiable conquering and grabbing instincts of too nationalistic jews as distinct from the more reasonable. Yes, jews need and are entitled to a homeland as every other nation but this should not be at the expense of nations who owe nothing to them and especially who in the past ages have proven to be their best hosts in their humble way. It is we in the West who have to foot the bill for the compensation of the jewry and we also stand to foot the bill for the injustice done to Palestinians. Unfortunately it is not easy to devise a formula which will do all the needed justice to all parties involved but this should be the almighty West’s problem and responsibility. In fact our responsibility does not stop even at Palestinian and jewish grievances in our hands- the last being our putting them at each other’s throats. Our responsibility also extends to the whole Third World which we once colonized and brutalized under the pretext and delusion of ‘civilizing’ them.
We disturbed and disrupted their tribal and autocratic systems and traditions but were unable to put in their place anything consistent and workable. What could only come with evolution we tried to impose in contemptuous hurry. They ended up as chimeras born of an unfavourable cross-breeding between Western and non-Western cultures, ever condemned to bad government and grinding poverty. They also should be compensated and taken out of the mud they are stuck in if we really are to hope for a better world. What better soil to breed irresponsible corrupt dictators who get and stick to power like superglue than by the popular haranguing of the former colonial masters the West? So long as these inequalities, hurts and grievances, resentments and injustices, abject privations and deprivations remain the primaeval evil waiting for opportunities to come out of people and nations will keep reasserting itself and no amount of bombing and strangulating of diffuse and unsure targets heavily populated by innocents will cut much ice- as they didn’t in the past.
So let us tune in and listen to God in us and realizing that we may well bring prosperity and justice to depraved countries with less cost than what needlessly goes to rubbish in Western countries and what goes to the building Armageddon arsenals. We must avoid knee-jerk reactions and trigger-happy sprees of violence and work more patiently and holistically than until today. Let’s do some good and bring some justice to our own colonial victims before we declare them beyond the pale. Let all nations begin to try doing good to each other for once instead of constantly cocking up. Let some elements in the West stop their gleeful Islam-bashing. Let some elements among all groups stop America-bashing. All of us are equally fallible human beings. None of us chose where we were born or in what culture we were raised. Let’s turn deaf to the Satan. Let’s listen to Allah for once. Allah says in His Qur’an: “Return evil with good. Then you will see that the one between whom and you there is hostility shall become like a warm friend. None can attain this
Godly spirit) except the patient, none can attain such but the one with a great share (of spiritual blessing)” (41:35).
SUFI, WAHHABI etc.
Allah says "Had thy Lord willed He could create all mankind as a single nation/umma. But they (people) do not/will never cease to differ (in disputes) except whom thy Lord showed grace to; In fact for that Thy Lord has created them" (Surat Hud 118- 119)
Forget about other nations, even the Muslim Umma began to be divided on many fronts soon after the Prophet's sws departure. While a lot of differences were well-meaning and useful in finding more truths others took disastrous turns and kept affecting us to this day. We still have many un-Islamic groups and movements among us some of which even deny the necessity to pray and fast. Please remember all those false prophets and false mystical movements who still lead secretive lives under almost deified hereditary leaders. We have them in Pakistan, in India and elsewhere, don't we?
The earliest perverted group was certainly the membership of the Khariji movement. In their misguided zeal they could stoop to killing even our master Ali RA, can you imagine? This movement is still with us in many evolved forms the major one being Wahhabism. Mind you, Wahhabism is Kharijite in spirit but Hanbalite sunni in theology and law. So, Wahhabis, exactly like Kharijis, did persecute their fellow Muslims for not good enough reasons and even savagely brutalised them, yet unlike the classical Kharijites they do not hate Uthman or Ali radiyallahu anhuma but like we sunnis honour them. In fact theirs is not so much about creed and practice but POLITICS. All insightful souls know that religion is the most exploitable of issues and a political movement masquerading as a religious reformation drive has the highest chance of success in competent hands.
The central characteristic of all Khariji movements is accusing other Muslims of bid'ah and kufr and regarding their slaughter legitimate. The fact is that whoever says LA ILAHA ILLALLAH MUHAMMADUN RASULULLAH is a Muslim and his blood and property is haram to other Muslims. Whether he is sincere or not is not our business to investigate but rests with Allah. That is what Kharijis did not understand, did not want to understand. They were so blind to realities that they could accuse our master Ali RA of kufr and oppression (zulm) and regard his blood halal which they shed! Incidentally, the hostility of the Wahhabis to showing reverence to graves and visting them for pious reasons is flatly discredited when we consider that it was the sahaba radiyallahu anhum who took the grave of the Prophet sws inside his Masjid (mosque) and since than all believers are visiting the Prophet's tomb within his Masjid and both saluting him and asking for his intercession.
Wahhabis themselves are overseeing these practices for more than about a century now at great financial profit to themselves; we can therefore question their sincerity. That it is fully legitimate to build masjid tombs (turbas) for prophets and saints is decreed by Allah in His Book. In Surat al Kahf we find the 'Ashab al Kahf' buried on the site of their seclusion and a masjid built on them on the advice of 'those who were the master of their affairs' which should mean spiritually competent people. Please note that 'being the master of one's affair' is applied to ALLAH when He Almighty says "Wallahu ghalibun ala amrihi wa lakinna akthara-n-nasi la ya'lamun", i.e., "Allah is the Master of his Affair (of being God and running the universe) but most of the mankind do not know" (S. Yusuf, 21).
Despite being in such ignorance the Wahhabis regarded many great ulema, and mashayikh (sheikhs)- all of whom approved turbas/mosque graves- in their Arabia as mushriks (polytheists) and guilty of unforgivable bid'ah. For them anything to be legitimate should be existent and approved by the Prophet sws in his time. Apparently the very ashab's approval of taking the tomb of the Messenger of Allah sws inside his Masjid was shirk and bid'ah in the eyes of the poor Wahhabis! They also never know that some innovations are legitimate and even beneficial provided they do not clash with our Shariah. In fact what is bid'ah? It means religious innovation. For example, Christians’ regarding Jesus God is a theological bid'ah and pure kufr (blasphemy). The Catholic Mass is a bid'ah copied from paganism. As for Islam our ulema are almost unanimous that two kinds of bid'ah are possible- bid'at al hasanah (good, beneficial innovation) and bid'at al sayyiah (bad and harmful innovation). The hadith that 'all bid'ah are in Hell' is one of the qualified statements all people make all the time. Its real implication is innovations which offend Allah's Book and Rasul's (and sahabat al kiram's) Sunna. That some innovations may be acceptable to Allah is proven by the verse: "As for monasticism (rahbaniyyata) they (Christians) innovated it, We had not imposed it on them but they did it seeking Allah's Pleasure. But they could not live up to it. We still gave to the (true) believers among them their reward" (Surat al Hadid, 27).
So, Allah tolerated their innovation on condition that they live up to it and rewarded those who could. Muslims beginning with the sahaba themselves innovated good innovations. Hatib b. Baltea RA, one of the Badr lions, caught in a misguided attempt to inform Quraish about the Prophet's secret preparations for capturing Mecca (out of his concern for his family in Mecca) innovated a new way of repentance: He chained himself to a pillar in the Mosque and refused to eat and drink for days and the Prophet sws approved this totally monastic-looking austerity (because the Prophet sws did not teach such a form of repentance; it was invented by Hatib RA) by his silence (Sunnat al Taqririya). In the end Gabriel AS came with the news of Allah's pardon for Hatib RA. Our master Umar RA saw some sahaba praying in small separate groups behind separate imams during Ramadan nights (a salat we know as tarawih) and put them together behind a single imam to pray 20 rik'ahs and seeing how lovely the scene looked he commented "If this is a bid'ah what a beautiful bid'ah it is!". Which means, during the Prophet's sws time praying twenty rik'ahs of tarawih had not yet been fully established. Had it been so the sahaba would not act so piecemeally and dividedly about it.
You see, Umar was not sure about the bid'ah status of tarawih the way he ordered it, for the Prophet sws had not established such a sunna in such wholesale and rigid formality. A first adhan to outside public on fridays in addition to the adhan before the Khutba was another innovation invented by our master Uthman RA. The addition of minarets to mosques as well as their later decorations and furnishings were other innovations during later generations. The change of the political regime from elective khilafa to hereditary kingdom as from Muawiya RA was another INNOVATION which the Wahhabis are themselves upholding in favour of the Saudi family. Why are they not going back to elective khilafa, can we ask? All such so-called bid'ahs were met by the approval of the Umma. As for the spiritual innovations they came under the title of Tasawwuf. That in spirit Tasawwuf began with the Prophet sws himself is certain.
A lot of sahaba also were very spiritual-minded and among them Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, Abu Zarr, Selman, Abu Ubaida etc. stand out. Despite the riches surrounding them these sahaba lived lives of monks except for being married. They made do with humblest dress and dwellings and most frugal food and almost total lack of comforts- despite so much wealth flowing in from the conquests. They were not living like today's Wahhabi leaders drenched in obscene luxury and wearing almost no beards except a small chestnut under their chins. They DELIBERATELY CHOSE A LIFE OF BOTH PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HUMILITY giving worshipping Allah and conducting themselves most gracefully and charitably their top priority. This is the very crux and soul of Tasawwuf! What the later generations did was vocalising the Tasawwuf inherent in Islam itself which until then was only implicit and unpronounced.
But were some unjustified innovations made by some imperfect Sufis or crooks or madmen posing or passing as Sufis? Yes! All great Sufis complained of such shortcomings among them and of the harm done by misguided posers. It is a social law that whenever and wherever a profitable or attention-getting thing appears among people more persons attempt the same 'trick' (as they see it) and swell the ranks of the new 'glamorous' class with inferior quality or entirely fake imitations. This did happen to Tasawwuf as well and is still happening. The thing is simply too impressive and attention- (and often also material benefits-) getting. What talented crook can resist such a temptation for easy and fabulous fame and profit?
So, we are all fallible beings and that is as it should be since our shortcomings contrast with Allah's Perfection and make us aware of Allah's Incomparable Perfection ("Lam yakun lahu kufuwwan ahad", "None could ever be comparable to Him", Surat al Ihlas, 4). That He has no partner or equal necessarily makes us happy imperfects at the delicious end of receiving His gifts, favours and compliments. Alhamdulillah for being total weaklings under Allah's Care!
LASTLY: There are two paths of self-guidance under Allah: The way of deep, discriminating study, observation of and thought about oneself is one and the correct option. In this way (which is what Sufism squarely is) you discover your many faults and learn how weak you and therefore all men are and become ashamed to criticise anybody too much; in fact you prefer caution and kind understanding unless great evil is involved. The other is hasty memorising of simplistic slogans and sticking hasty labels to others we don't agree with, which is the the wrong option. Man is a very complex being, so much so that both Allah and His Messenger sws as well as all pious sages warned us against judging people from a few external and superficial characteristics and behaviours. I have personally been to Saudi Arabia a few times, found all youths there reared in Wahhabi culture, yet when I spoke to some of them about Tasawwuf many wept and approved what I was teaching them. You see, no amount of malicious and misguided indoctrination can kill what Allah put in His servants' hearts from the Day of Promises (alastu birabbikum) but as soon as a window of opportunity opens souls recognise the Truth and are drawn to it inexorably. I have no doubt that in good hands not all but many Wahhabis could be made to see the mistake of their ways and see the light. It is therefore more constructive not to label, accuse and abuse anybody but patiently and respectfully try to show them what is better. In fact we should hold the same attitude towards all religious groups like Christians, Jews and Hindus. Kindness, politeness and charity may achieve what guns and bombs cannot. Therefore I humbly find it distasteful and counter-productive to make haste with labels and curses and anathemas and excommunications. No servant of Allah can be written off, the Satan cannot win and we should see to it that he does not!
In fact only Allah can fundamentally diagnose and condemn people; as for us He always advises caution, benefit of the doubt and application of charitable incentives instead of insults and summary executions (Which Wahhabis are famous for). He the Most Gracious and Wise says:
"If a polytheist asks for asylum from thee declare to him the asylum until he listens to the Word of Allah, then (whether he embraces Islam or not) see him safely reach his safe destination. That (their polytheism) is because they do not know (the truth)” (9: 6).
You see, our way is peaceful and charitable tabligh (stating the Truth of Islam) which includes hospitality and even escorting the fellow to his safe destination- all charity, all courtesy, all goodwill. If we feel, believe and behave as badly as Kharijis, Wahhabis and other so-called fundamentalists of all religions how can we claim to be Sufis? Sufis are all about deep and sincere loving mercy and unstinting charity. We should not support our Sufism like the foul-mouthed and hot-tempered thugs support their favourite football team. For the umpteenth time I must repeat Allah's priceless advice:
"Good and evil are not equal. Respond to (evil) with good and then you will see that the one between you and him is animosity becomes like a warm friend. None can attain this (maturity) but those who keep good patience, none can attain this but the one with a great share (of spiritual light) (S. Fussilat, 35). What do we want, to be TRUE SUFIS or not, Sufis who, as Allah describes them, keep good patience against all offences directed to them and also render niceness and charity towards their adversary until they hopefully win him to Allah away from the Satan. We do not want to be spiritual-pretending thugs who hit back as badly and destroy the chances of their adversaries salvation as they destroyed theirs already, do we?
I would humbly advise that hate messages whatever the reason and context are avoided and at most firm correct advice is given to the adversary, the advice being wrapped in both tact and politeness. May Allah give us our maturity and enter us among his most beloved servants. Amen.
TIMELESS INCOME 2 - LIGHT UPON LIGHT
"Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The likeness of His Light is a niche in which is a candle. The candle is in a glass. The glass is like a pearly star and is lit from an Olive Tree neither of the East nor of the West, its oil issuing light almost even before fire touches it: Light upon Light!
Allah guides to His Light whom He will. Thus does He strike metaphors for mankind in order that they contemplate; Allah knows of everything.
(This Light) is found in houses in which Allah permitted His glorification and the celebration of His Name morning and evening
They are such men whom neither business nor play can stop performing the salat or paying the zakat. They dread the Day when the hearts and the eyes go into a spin. For that Allah will reward them in terms of the very best they had been doing and add more from His Bounty. Allah provides with blessings without limit and account whom He will" (Surat al Nur: 35- 37)
Together with the Ayat al Kursi (S. Baqara: 255) the above verses from the Book of Allah rank, without doubt, above all religious scriptural statements coming from all ages and places of the world. These verses from the Surat al Nur describe the true and fully committed Muslim believers in Allah whom Allah also calls His awliya (loving and caring friends), siddiqun (truthful and sincere), salihun (good), muttaqin (pious), muhsinun (one-sidely charitable) , muhtadin (the guided), rashidun (the matured in guidance) mujahidun (the pious hard worker, fighter) and lastly and most comprehensively 'mu'minun' (the true and full and reliable and faithful believers). THEY ARE THE HOUSES IN WHICH ALLAH PERMITTED HIS GLORIFICATION TO BE HYMNED AND FOR HIS NAME TO BE CELEBRATED NON-STOP FOR A WHOLE LIFE-TIME.
They are so fully committed to Allah that on their list of life goals nothing, repeat, nothinng can whatsoever and under no circumstances take precedence over worshipping Allah and sacrificing their assets in His Way. This all-out, all-giving sacrifice program is supported and nurtured by a round the clock, seven days a week glorifying celebration of Allah pumped out into their minds and bodies at each stroke of their hearts- until they breath their last, dying more happily than living when they say their last
"Ash-hadu an la ilaha illallah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan abduhu wa rasuluh", i.e.,
"I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is the servant and messenger of Allah" (sallalahu alaihi wa sallam).
And Who is Allah Whom they love and fear so much that they are unable to forget Him even when in deep sleep and can never glorify and thank Him enough and also so much fear His dipleasure?
He is that unfathomable Inner Presence and Outer Suggestion Who fills their hearts to the brim and from infinitely deep down with a conviction of equally incomparably great happy promises and paralysing fears, an Ultimate and Infallible Being both Gracefully and Grimly Majestic beyond all estimation and imagination. He calls that Being Allah and his heart cannot decide whether to stop from palpitations of love or from palpitations of terror. Yet he cannot do without either. But increasingly love prevails, thankfully so.
And why the hearts and eyes will go into a spin that Day? Because those who dismissed Allah and served their vanity instead, will wake up to the shocking and devastating reality that they have failed to notice the greatest asset in the universe for them to possess and having missed the only opportunity for being blessed by it: It is that, the love of Allah which is always mutual, IS the greatest asset to have and forfeiture of the only chance for having it is the greatest failure which no amount of remorse can compensate and no amount of punishment can punish enough. It is a missed chance for being fully human and filling the earth with love and charity on whatever scale possible which objectives consume the noblest souls worthy of the name 'Hu-man'. It is the very inner core of Light of man and as such has no substitute whatsoever! Light upon Light 'surround' this Core in a reverse order of more depth, at the infinite Centre of which Allah sits in all His Glory and Majesty and Charity!
Why Allah is the Light of the Heavens and the earth? It is because the entire universe with all its contents find their ways by His constant, untiring Guidance atom by atom, mind by mind, string by string at all places and times. Not a speck escapes His Knowledge or Compassion or Support. Nothning can move or change without His Will or Power.
This Most Comprehensive and Merciful Guidance is not confined to any direction, east or west, locality or time but runs accross the whole spectrum of existence. It can be likened to a Cosmic Olive Tree whose root is in Divinity Itself and the branches spread out and reach every bit of the created reality. Its oil is so ever-ready to ignite and radiate light that Allah's servants must only stir a bit to cause an explosion of most saving and blessing light to engulf them and propel them towards more and more and more brilliant lights- Light upon Light- which sequence of them eventually gather and shine forth in the Most Radiant Face of Allah the Supreme Graceful and Merciful Reality both within and beyond all reality!
Once the Face appears all yearnings and sufferings come to an abrupt end and all worthy desires are finally satisfied, all puzzles solved and all puzzlement and perplexity dissolved in honey-sweet answers and all blessings of Divine Hospitality unleashed to overwhelm yet finally stabilize the until then eternally starved and tearful servant: Establish and stabilize in him or her Divine Favor and Divine Company. Read if you wish:
"Indeed the God-conscious are in Gardens and Rivers, seated on Seats of Truth in the Company of an Able King" (Surat al Qamar, 54: 54)
Subhanallahu uluwwan kabeera wa bukratan wa aseela walhamdu lillahi rabbil alameen.
Thankfully inspired to that most humble and grateful
poor man
THE HEART OF THE BELIEVER
Allah said "That Day neither wealth nor sons shall do one any good- but all good shall go to the one who arrived with a purified heart" (26: 88-89)
Do you know what a purified heart is? It is a heart where only Allah's pleasure calls all the tunes. It is like a concert hall where only one and one musician blesses the audience with his genius and his art and all raptly listen to his tunes beatifically beating their eardrums and reverberating from all the architectural master features of the high and vast building. The listeners frequently and at the most opportune times break into a hailstorm of an applaud which though cannot drown that inexorable flow of most Heavenly Music! As Allah's Pleasure is recognised the believer's heart break into deafening zikr though only the angels hear it.
How to attain such a heart in which only Allah performs and the servants just listen and applaud? Both very simple and very difficult.
Very simple: The principle is this: We must learn about all that Allah wants us to do and to be like. And we have a Source: It is the Qur'an which is the most comprehensive, complete and masterful spiritual composition ever. Compared to it all the compilations of spiritual workers, call them krsishnas, buddhas, yogis, gurus, shamans, rabbis, bishops, saints or shaikhs..., are simply totally outclassed and bankrupt. And the Qur'an has another merit none other has: It is the lithmus or acid test of spiritual aptitude and potential. Let me explain: If a seeker/believer, despite reading the Qur'an personally, finds it less palatable and inspiring than another book whatever the book's merits and the glory of it's author then that seeker/believer has no great spiritual aptitude or potential. He or she is like a child who cannot resist simplest confectionery like sugar drops and prefers them to whole and natural foods like best milk or meat or fruit which nurture and develop the body and the mind with perfect balance and to highest maturity. The poor child must eat more and more of the awful confectionery and be more and more stunted, hyperactive and bad-tempered and develop all sorts of developmental ilnesses.
The correct and only hopeful course is taking the foods God designed and created for us and in the all-important spiritual field the top is none other than the Qur'an. And the above verse is only one of the six thousand odd incomparable verses in it. As the Book of Allah is read through with incredulous wonderment and ever-increasing admiration and faith, its truths and beatifying emotions embed and weave themselves into the reader's body and heart and animate him or her with a new and superior Spirit he or she did not know existed. This is the Holy Spirit which comes to and animates and guides Allah's prophets and in fact the very Spirit which carried the Qur'an from Allah's Hand to the Prophet's heart! (salllalahu alaihi wa sellem). Yes, yes, that Spirit is also for the sincere seekers of and believers in the Lord of the Heavens and the Earth. Read if you wish:
"They (the sincere servants) are those in whose hearts Allah realized and established the faith and whom He supports and maintains with a Spirit from Himself" (58: 22).
This means no less than the fact that sincere believers most sincerely working to discover where the Pleasure of Allah lies by studying the Divine Epistle from Him which the Qur'an is are taught the ways of Allah's Pleasure. They can then begin to empty their hearts of all the junk and rubbish which they were taking for jewelry and were fighting over with others. Going back to the musical metaphor, the Qur'an-educated graduate of spirituality will identify and throw away all the pipes, lutes, tambourines etc which the many devils in him cacaphonically play to many cross-purposes and create bewildering noise. Thus making thier hearts totally vacant they allow the Holy Spirit of God fill it and settle and exclusively play the Divine Music. It is such music as to drive the listener not only to most grateful and enraptured tears. It also motivates him or her, under the dictates of a Single Master, to the greatest and most graciuos acts of love, justice and charity, heroism and balance... all of which grow in his heart like a rain forest benefiting from the warm and wet climate created by the continuous generosity of the heaven. He and she will become a walking, talking and walking Qur'an in flesh and soul, a Heart worthy and capable of Allah's Company here and now and there and thereafter. Amen.