Re: Is Sufism A Deviation and Parallel Religion?
Dear Psyah;
It was an intentional typo.
You can simply call me Abdullah, for your convenience.
I appreciate your kind response and interest in my thread. I would try my best to answer any of your questions according to the guidance and knowledge of Divine Book.
Please note i do not excel on Quran yet, as it is virtually impossible. However, i am still an active student of Quran.
"The question that stands out beyond the others is the idea that the presence of a Divine Book is a standard by which we should not follow shuyukh. This baffles me as the Qur'an was taught to us by Muhammad (SAW) through an unbroken chain of teachers to our present day scholars........"
Dear fellow, in my question i actually meant that what is the requirement of a "peer" to understand holy book. TO further clarify, int his thread all i am asking and discussing is about present day sufism. According to my experience, which is limited till Pakistan, a typical peer is a person who mostly does not possess any good knowledge of Divine Book. More surprisingly, many of these peers have not read Quran in their own language and thus all what they do is only an Arabic recitation, without understanding. This is a very unsuitable way to truly understand Quran. So how can such a person who himself does not know anything abt Quran will be able to teach others abt it?
I am specifically talking abt Quran, not the common moral and religious teachings which almost everyone already knows. Like offering prayers, giving charity, be good and resist evil. These all are common teachings which all of us know already, but i am talking about those subjects regarding which a special guidance is required.
Quran claims to be a detailed book, which in fact it is. The requirement of Quran is to seek "further knowledge" from the experts of knowledge. This command of Quran requires us that we can not do self study for everything, rather after having a basic knowledge we should seek scholars and experts of knowledge with whom we can discuss our questions and misconceptions. However, speaking generally, a peer does not qualify the criteria to be considered as an expert of Quranic knowledge, unless he really understands the Quran and have a firm command over its important subject (i know, a complete command is impossible).
"what may surprise you is that the Qur'an supports the essential basis for tassuwwuf which is dzikr. "
Well, this and other similar verses are pretty much researched by me. Especially there is a verse that heavens and earth are busy in praising and remembering God (Ziker). So, before i proceed to let you know abt my understanding of such verses, i would like to know that what is Ziker according to Quran?
Just so you know, i do not say that Islam is in void from spirituality, but what i assert is that the spirituality and mysticism which is associated with Islam "now-a-dayz" is not at all what Quran advocates.
"what say is your conclusion of the 'aqeedah and the fiqh. What does the Qur'an say about these?"
Well, as for Belief / faith its very clear, my belief is as it is as described in the last verses of Chapter Al-Baqrah. As for Fiqh, no i do not accept any particular fiqh/imam at all.
Best Wishes
