In the name of Allah, Ar-Rahman-ir-Raheem.
Blessings and peace be upon our Master, Imam and Prophet, his Companions, Noble Family and all his followers.
May Allah, the Most Wise give us all the desire for Him and none and nothing other than Him. Ameen.
I invite the reader first of all to open up any English dictionary, and look up the word ‘Sufi’. What you will most likely find is ‘a Muslim mystic’ A Sufi is one who is versed in the inner sciences and dimensions of Islam, the sciences of the heart (tasawwuf). The Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) said, “The heart of a believer is the house of Allah.” (Ghazzali, Suhrawardi).
As Islam is the religion of moderation and balance, then just as we know we have to employ experts in the outer sciences of jurisprudence then, as a human is made up of body and soul, it holds that we must also employ experts of the inner sciences (“scholars (ulama) of the heart”). If this balance is uprooted, like today in this materialistic society that places too much emphasis on the material, tangible Human and neglects its innate spiritual nature, then this is a recipe for disaster. Similarly, if one becomes too obsessed with the outward rules and regulations of Islam, this too will spell doom for the Muslim.
Imam Malik (may Allah perfume his resting place), who was one of the Four Great Imams of Sunni Orthodoxy once said: “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.” Another of the Four Great Imams, Imam Shafi’i (may Allah fill his grave with light and blessing) also once said: “Be both a Faqih and a Sufi: do not be only one of them! Verily, by Allah’s truth, I am advising you sincerely.” (For sources, see “Sufism in Islam” link at end of page) (N.B. As is seen here the terms Sufism and tasawwuf are interchangeable.)
Not all Sufis are members of a particular order for there can be Saints (Awliya Allah) who have not taken initiation into any Sufi order; similarly there may be those who have taken initiation into more than one order. Also, the distinction between Sufis in the linguistic arabic sense of the word and Sufis as are talked about in the English Language needs to be highlighted. The word 'Sufi' in arabic refers to a 'Wali-Allah' i.e. one who has practiced tasawwuf to the fullest extent (a Saint) and has attained total acquaintance with the Divine, as has been referred to by Imam al-Shafi'i and the rest of this article will be dealing with this type of Sufi for the most part. When we talk about Sufis in the English language, we generally refer to 2 categories of people:
The emphasis, however, is striking a balance between the outward and inward aspects of Islam and if you have that balance then you are a Sufi (in a sense) without having to officially become a member of a Sufi order. The reason for membership, or the taking of bai'yah with a Shaykh is to be guided to the real purpose of Islam: finding out who Allah actually is and knowing Him. Nevertheless, as I have said before there have been Saints who have not taken association into any Sufi order and have been directly called by Allah.
For the origins of organised brotherhoods within the Ummah, see http://www.schoolofsufiteaching.com/qal/sufism/orders.html
And
http://www.nuradeen.com/Reflections/ElementsOfSufism3.htm
As people moved further away from the time of the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alaihi wasallam), there was a desire amongst devout Muslims to strictly adhere to, maintain and preserve the spiritual perfection, sincerity and devotion of the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam), and the formation of organised Sufi orders (“spiritual health clubs”) was nothing other than this. The true Sufis are none other than the people of the Sunnah, in every sense of the expression and an authenticated order is a gateway to the Messenger and onto the Divine. Go to this link to read the praises that have been sung of the Sufis by some of the greatest scholars of Islam that have ever lived:
http://www.crescentlife.com/spirituality/early_scholars_on_sufism.htm I am sure you will recognise some of the blessed and illustrious names there!
One of the essences of Sufism could be summed up in an answer given by the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) to Hadhrat Jibreel (alaihi salaam) when he was asked what is ihsan (excellence). He replied: “It is to worship Allah as if you see him, and if you see Him not, know He nevertheless sees you.” (Sahih Muslim) The hadith from which this is taken has been referred to as the Mother of all Traditions, since it is a summation of the religion of Islam, and I advise the reader to look up this important tradition, since I just want to focus on this statement of the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) which sums up the path of Sufism. The path of Sufism is nothing other than to travel to Allah (subhanu wa ta’ala) in this world before one dies and to arrive at the station that our Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) has described above.
Suffice it to say, Sufism is the most misunderstood science of Islam, and I advance the following brief discussion of a number of sayings as reasons to why it has been misunderstood and even maliciously attacked and opposed.
Sayidinna Abu Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him) once said, “I have retained from the Prophet two vessels of knowledge. I have disseminated one vessel of knowledge among people. But if I were to give the other vessel of knowledge, they would cut my throat.” (Bukhari)
Allah, the Almighty says in a Hadith Qudsi, on the authority of Sayidinna Abu Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him) and related by al-Bukhari: “When I love him (a servant of Allah) I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes and his foot with which he walks.”
Now if you take this Hadith Qudsi statement above literally then this could be argued quite rightly as polytheism. Since Allah, subhanu wa ta’ala, is unlike any creation then it holds that this statement must be taken metaphorically, in a sort of mystical sense. We are talking here about the Union with Allah, or fan’aa (extinction). When the self becomes so close to Allah, that everything but Allah remains (he loses himself in Allah), and in this state the only reality is The Reality (Al-Haqq, a name of Allah) i.e. Allah, which leads a slave to say “I am the Truth” or “Glory be to Me” or “Nothing is inside this cloak other than Allah” because in truth the servant is speaking while immersed in the Divine. We well know of the story related by Ibn Taymiyya in his Majmu'a Fataawa, in his discussion of the Sufi concept of fan'aa, of the two friends who loved and respected each other so much, when one of them fell into the water the other one immediately threw himself in as well. When asked what was the reason of his unnecessary action he replied: " I vanished in you, and when I vanished in you I thought you were me and I was you."
Externally seeming an act of polytheism, it is in fact a direct result of utter union with Allah, subhanu wa ta’ala; a type of insanity for which one is not held accountable for. (The hadith is well known of when a man when he finds his camel again in a desert and out of sheer ecstasy exclaims, “O Lord You are my Slave and I am Your Lord”. This was done out of immense joy as the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) elaborated, “He commits this mistake out of extreme delight.” (Sahih Muslim, hadith no.4932) What greater joy is there than becoming saturated by the love and the utmost closeness with Allah, the Lord and King of Creation, the Most Loving (Al-Wadood).
So ecstatic utterances that are polytheistic in appearance are not uncommon and are not wrong as we can see. The statement “I am the Truth” was uttered by the Great Saint Mansur al-Hallaj (may Allah be pleased with him) and as a result he was executed. The third statement above (about the cloak) was said by Bayazid al-Bistami (may Allah have mercy on him). In fact one could argue, that their only mistake was not withholding this “vessel of knowledge” otherwise, al-Hallaj for one would not have had his “throat cut”; this result being what Sayidinna Abu Hurayra had feared above had he himself allowed the common people to share in his second vessel of knowledge. Unfortunately, some really Great Saints of the past have been misunderstood in this way; Shaykh al-Akbar, Muhyi al-Din Ibn ‘Arabi being a prime example with today simple-minded Muslims declaring disbelief upon him with no restraint and with a lack of the (level of) understanding required to appreciate the depth of what these Saints have experienced and what they were talking about which was nothing other than the Divine Reality itself. We must show restraint at all times but especially in regards to our perceptions of devout Scholars and Sufis of whom Allah, the Almighty has said in the same Hadith Qudsi above: “Whosoever shows enmity to someone devoted to Me, I shall be at war with him.”
To say that the Naqshbandi, Chishti, Mawlawi, Qadri and other authentic Sufi orders are exclusive health clubs is an understatement. I am not insinuating that only privileged Muslims can be initiated into them, yet I am saying that only privileged Muslims can join these “spiritual health clubs”. The criteria for being privileged in the sense that I am talking about here is to sincerely want to obey Allah and His Messenger, to sincerely want to purify yourself and to sincerely be willing to take guidance from a deputy of Allah (among many other criteria, but these generally encompass all of those). What greater privilege is there than to have been given that desire by Allah, the Almighty to start moving towards Him. Consider the following three ahadith.
The Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) on different occasions has said:
“I am the city of knowledge and Ali is its gate.” (al-Tirmidhi)
“Whatever Allah has poured into my heart, I poured into the heart of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq.” (Maybudi, Razi, Suyuti)
"Abu Bakr does not precede you in anything in the way of prayers or fasting but in a secret rooted deep in his heart." (Manaqib as-Sahaba of Imam Ahmad)
It is for this reason that most if not all Sufi Orders trace their spiritual lineage back to the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) through these two companions. It is said that knowledge of the heart came from these two (radi Allahu anhum) while knowledge of Justice and Laws came from Umar (radi Allahu anhu).
For example, Naqshbandi (Abu Bakr), Chishti (Ali), Qadiri (Ali), Alawi (Ali). The emergence of spiritual schools or paths is not at all dissimilar to the emergence of judicial schools of law. The highest importance is placed in Sufi orders on the lineage itself, as this provides a path and literally a doorway through one’s Shaykh and Pir-o-Murshid to his Shaikh and guide, and on and on up to (for Naqshbandis) Abu Bakr as-Siddiq arriving at his guide who was the Holy Prophet. In traditional fiqh learning, the ‘alim (scholar) has a similar lineage going back to the Four Great Imams who themselves had direct links to the students of the Companions and onto the Companions, who themselves were taught Sacred Law, in person, by the Holy Noble Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam). But due to the transcendent, oft-misunderstood and sensitive nature of this hidden knowledge of the heart, a certain secure and safe mechanism was required and this is what the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) did.
He (sallallahu alaihi wa aalihi wa sallam) did not openly give out advice on how to obtain ma’rifa or fan’aa or muraqabah like he openly gave out commandments on how to fast, pray and do Hajj, but he left it to his specifically chosen Companions (radi Allahu anhum ajamain) to distribute this knowledge through personal training and direct guidance. And so if we want this knowledge, we then have to go through the only way that the Messenger (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) has left us i.e. through the door of Ali or the heart of Abu Bakr. See http://www.naqshbandi.org/frmchain.htm for an example of a Naqshbandi lineage. Each master in the chain personally taught the next one on, pouring the hidden knowledge directly into the heart of his student and so on.
This is Sufism, and this is the way to Allah, subhanu wa ta’ala. The true Sufi order is an authenticated spiritual chain of authority back to the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) and from him to Allah, King and Only Lord of Creation.
I wish to add at this point that I have not done and am not doing justice to articulating the world of Sufism. Just like the world of fiqh can only be explained in words, the world of tasawwuf can only be explained through experience. Those of you who have undertaken Umrah or Hajj, if you can think back to the very first time you saw the Holy Ka’ba with your own eyes, you know what I am talking about. If you have not been yet, and insha Allah you will, then think about these words I have written here after that first witnessing of the House of Allah (refer to my “Account of an Umrah” article for advice on how to approach the Ka’ba and the most beneficial way of approaching and positioning yourself to see it for the first time.) If you want to taste this world of experience and want to wholeheartedly embark on a path to Allah, the Most Wise, the Most Loving, the Almighty I would suggest that next time there is a cloudless night, to just gaze up at the sky, the stars, the moon and to reflect, contemplate, ponder and think about the amazing beauty you are beholding with your very eyes and then to leave that beauty and to travel to its Originator. I would also like you to dwell on something an enlightened brother once told me: “Brother, if you’re not enjoying your prayers then you’re not doing them right.” Godspeed.
I leave you now with a du’aa and a few sayings. The Great 8 th century Woman Saint of Basra, Rabia al-Adawiya (d. 801 C.E.) once said:
“O my Allah! If I worship Thee on account of the fear of Hell, burn me in Hell, and if I worship Thee with the hope of Paradise, exclude me from it, but if I worship Thee for Thine own sake, then withhold not from me Thine Eternal Beauty.”
She was asked once regarding her desire for Paradise and she replied: “Is it not enough for me that I am given leave to worship Him? He is worthy of worship without motive.”
A man asked Bayazid, "Show me a deed by which I will approach my Lord." He said, "Love the friends of Allah in order that they will love you. Love his saints until they love you. Because Allah looks at the hearts of His saints and He will see your name engraved in the heart of His saints and He will forgive you."
“O ye who Believe! Obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those vested with authority among you.” (Qur’an 4:59)
“O ye who Believe! Obey and fear Allah and be with those who are true (in word and deed).” (Qur’an 9:119)
Links:
The Heart of the Believer is the House of God:
http://www.naqshbandi.org/suhba/shmk/houseofg.htm
Sufism in Islam (detailed yet concise and short historical analysis):
http://mac.abc.se/home/onesr/f/Sufism%20in%20Islam.htm
Basics of Sufism:
http://www.schoolofsufiteaching.com/qal/sufism/
Great Sufis and Sufi Orders
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~godlas/Sufism.html
Tasawwuf/Sufism by Imam Hamza Yusuf Hanson
http://www.sunnah.org/events/hamza/hamza.htm