Re: Is Sufi Islam a compromise with Indian Culture?
Peace ajazali
Of course … I would not have left what I was doing if I felt it was reprehensible and alien to Islam.
Now to suggest that I should provide an authentic reference that “Islam is incomplete without tasswwaf” indicates to me that you have still misunderstood tasswwuf … Because to ask that is the same as asking me for proof that Islam is incomplete without aqeedah or incomplete without fiqh … Neither of these aqeedah, fiqh nor tasswwuf were practiced as “disciplines” by RasoolAllah (SAW) or by the Sahabah (RA) … these are innovations and schools have been established upon them … and no one doubts the importance of having an aqeedah taught in a single text these days due to our separation in time and inability to access the Salaf directly our forefathers saw the need to encode the BELIEF SYSTEM in to a text … in the same way no one doubts the importance fiqh that it encodes the RITUALS and LIMITS and PENAL SYSTEM of Allah (SWT) … so that we know WHAT they are … but neither of these schools tell us HOW to tread the path of Islam … they may mention and indicate certain practices in hadith … but such things cannot be encoded in text … they have to be passed down person to person … this is why sitting with scholars and their students is necessary … we learn not only from their study material but from their BEHAVIOUR as well … and this is what tassuwwuf is all about …
It is the school of adab/suluk/ihsan/tazkiya - Sidi Ahmad Zarruq Al-Barnusi Al-Shadhili (RA) has given its definition -
He said Tassuwwuf is nothing other than “sincerity in being directed to Allah (SWT)” and truly if you look at Imam An-Nawawis 40 hadith collection in the beginning is hadith Jibreel (AS) … which mentions the three domains Iman, Islam and Ihsan … and the explanation of Ihsan is to “Be in a state as though we see Allah (SWT) in prayer although we see Him not, and if we cannot do that then we have to know that He sees us” … This is precisely that … prayer is the epitome of being directed to Allah (SWT) and the epitome of sincerity is to believe you are present before Him … as though we see Him and the resolution of not being able to “see” Him is to bring His seeing us into our remembrance (dizkir) … RasoolAllah (SAW) is given the title of having tremendous character in the noble Qur’an … and in hadith it is stated that he said, “I have not been sent except to perfect Noble Character” … Nobility in character is sincerity in good conduct with ourselves, with each other and with our Lord …
Tasswwuf is the set of methodologies designed to enhance our sincerity and love and give us “experience” - the “seeing” of Allah (SWT) (Khushu) … The reason why it is so delectable and the fruits of this practice are so sweet is because we get to “experience” Islam - not just keep it at arms length as a topic of study or something that we use as a stick to beat people with … In fact we become less concerned with those things and realise that our own hearts are too soiled that we can even spend a moment thinking about the hearts of others … It teaches us to bring our states to a balance, learn and discern very scientifically how our thoughts are to be given regard … are they from Satan or from hawa or from Allah or from angels … learn self-control and discipline and many other things that are associated with “noble character” - we cannot learn many of these things from books alone … and this is why if you use empirical evidence to test what I am saying then you too will see the fruits of this …
Every act has two aspects:
The inward and the outward … the intent and the motion of the act …
Firing an arrow is easy but to get it on target takes practice … that is what tassuwwaf can be viewed as … it is a training ground for making our Islam right … and to continue it to maintain it and regularly calibrate it … Jihad with the nufs is from tasswwuf … and hear this … this will blow your mind …
It is regularly established among Sufis (orthodox) that there are people who find the term “tassuwwuf” problematic and disassociate from it and yet when it comes to their sincerity they are better than many who actually claim to be Sufis … so there can be better Sufis than the Sufis and at the same time they may deny Sufism (mostly out of lack of knowledge) … That should give you some surety that there is no takfir or elitism in Sufism … Rather learning how to be most humble and least arrogant is done right here in the schools of the Sufis … they won’t tell you this because it will ruin their attempts to purify their intents … but I feel it is necessary to share this information as encouragement and giving others reassurance.
Trust me I asked all the questions … and when I stepped closer I realised how to marvel at the miracle of my own life and the miracles that happen around me … and all Muslims can share those experiences (all people can share in fact) and realise they are in themselves a microcosm - a universe in themselves and the discipline can give you the keys of accessing that inner universe … and realise the miracle known as “insan” …