Can someone please explain what this religon or ideolgy is in brief paragraph?
Re: What is "Sufism"
Sufism means Islamic Spirituality termed as "IHsan" in Arabic which means Spiritual Excellence as stated in the Hadith of Jibrail 'alayhissalam.
Sufism is also known as Tasawwuf. Sufis are people of the cloak (the Suf, a cloth of wool I think)
It is learning Islam, raising your Iman and practising it (this practising is known as Sufism)
It is an integral part of Islam, and all the Sunni 'ulama of the 4 schools have been Sufis.
Like every science of Islam, that had some curroptions due to corrupt people (for example the JaHmis in the science of Tawhid), sufism was also attacked by imposters, people who claimed to be sufis but were actually just philosophers or panthiests. They have nothing to do with sufism.
Sufis brought Islam to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh. Almost all converts became Muslims on their hands, directly or indirectly.
Famous sufis of the Indo-Pakistan-Bangladesh Area
Data Ganj Bakhsh raziAllahu 'anhu
Khawaja Mu'inuddin Chishti raziAllahu 'anhu
Syedina Nizamuddin raziAllahu 'anhu
Syedina 'Ali al Hamadani raziAllahu 'anhu (who brought Islam to Kashmir)
Syedina Sultan Bahu raziAllahu 'anhu
Syedina Baba Farid Shakkar Ganj raziAllahu 'anhu
Seydina Shah Jalal of Sylhet raziAllahu 'anhu
Syedina Ashraf Jahangir Semnani raziAllahu 'anhu in Uttar Pradesh
Syedina Nagauri raziAllahu anhu
Syedina Pir Mehr 'Ali Shah Golravi raziAllahu anhu
Syedina Jamat Ali Shah Sialkoti raziAllahu anhu
Syedina Bulley Shah raziAllahu anhu
Syedina Bahauddin Zakariyyah raziAllahu anhu
Syedina Shah 'Abdul Latif Bhitai raziAllau anhu
Syedina Shah 'Alam raziAllahu anhu
Syedina Bari Imam raziAllahu anhu
Syedina Mian Mir raziAllahu anhu
Syedina Mujaddid Alf Thani raziAllahu anhu
Syedina Shah Wali Allah raziAllahu anhu
Syedina Imam Ahmad Raza Khan raziAllahu anhu
Syedina Shah Abdul Haq Dahalwi raziAllahu anhu
and tens of thousands of others...
your bro
Thaqib
Re: What is "Sufism"
just follow Quran and Sunnah.....dont confuse urself in any other thing...thts all..
i want to clarify tht i m not criticizing sufis in any way wht so eva..beac i respect them alot
Re: What is “Sufism”
Re: What is "Sufism"
[QUOTE]
just follow Quran and Sunnah.....dont confuse urself in any other thing...thts all..
i want to clarify tht i m not criticizing sufis in any way wht so eva..beac i respect them alot
[/QUOTE]
assalamu 'alaikum Guy,
Ophcourse you are not criticizing them, but your first line makes no sense, honestly.
Tell me bro, how would a common Muslim just follow Qur'an and Sunnah? Is he a scholar of any slightest calibre to even take a correct ruling out of the Qur'an regarding some mas'ala or the Hadith al-shareef? Ophcourse not. So how then will he follow the Qur'an and Sunnah? Well he will go to books written by scholars and take their help in rulings to follow in his daily life eg if there was an issue that while he was praying namaz (not nImaz) or Salah, his nose started to bleed. What would he do in that case? Well he could go to the Qur'an and Sunnah. But can he find the answer to this issue by himself? It would be immpossible for him. So he would then go to a scholar (a knower of Qur'an and Sunnah) to find the answer. But, he just can't go to any scholar, there are a lot of claimers out there.
In short, If you are a Sunni Muslim from Pakistan, India (except Kerala and some Hyderabadis) and Bangladesh, you are then following the Hanafi madhab. The Hanafi Madhab has all the Sunnah Shareef recorded in it, an effort of 1200+ years. This is how one will follow the Qur'an and Sunnah if one is a Sunni Muslim in the Sub Continent.
your bro
Thaqib
Re: What is “Sufism”
do you mean Imam Shafi, Maliki, Hambli and Abu Hanifa were “Sufi”???
Re: What is "Sufism"
assalamu 'alaikum Captain,
Imam al-Azam Abu Hanifa Nu'man bin Thabit raziAllahu 'anhu and Imam Malik raziAllahu 'anhu and Imam al-Shafi'i raziAllahu anhu and Imam AHmad ibn Hanbal al-Baghdadi raziAllahu 'anhu are MUJTAHID MUTLAQ Imams of Sunni Islam.
(Their Madahib which record the correct Sunnah Shareef of our Habeeb salalaho 'alaihi wa aalihi wa salam are the ones which we follow today)
What this means is that, they had mastered every science of Islam, including IHsan (Tasawwuf).
I am sorry, but I think it is best to cut and paste an article, that will clarify to you what Sufism (Tasawwuf) means.
It is astonishing to see Pakistanis ignorant of Tasawwuf. Pakistan is a land of Sufis, Awliya Allah. They brought Islam to this land after MuHammad bin Qasim. All of Pakistani cities are filled with sufis, and there are still people who do not understand what Sufism means. I would say, the media has done a great job in portraying a negative image of one of the Basic sciences of Islam, one third of Islam, which is what Tasawwuf is.
Every science of Islam was infested by corruption. The science of TawHid was infested by the JaHmis and the Mu'attilah. The science of Hadith was infested with fabrications and so on. Similarly, philosophers and pantheists infested Tasawwuf, but that does not mean Tasawwuf is alien to Islam, that would just be mind boggling.
However, here is the cut and paste, I hope the moderators allow me.
Re: What is “Sufism”
Sufism in Islam
1. Briefly put, “sufi” is a second-century name applied to a type of Muslim earlier known as “zahid.” The lexical root of sufi is variously traced to:
suf = wool
safa’ = purity
and while the former is more likely, the latter is given preference. The two were nicely combined by Abu `Ali al-Rudhabari (d. 322) who said:
al-sufi man labisa al-sufa `ala al-safa
The Sufi is the one who wears wool on top of purity.
Imam al-Suyuti cited it in his book on tasawwuf entitled Ta’yid al-Haqiqa al-`Aliyya wa-Tashyid al-Tariqa al-Shadhiliyya. At any rate these are the likelier etymologies mentioned by al-Qushayri, al-Huwjiri, Ibn Taymiyya, al-Shatibi, and many others. Not that etymological purity mattered at all to the Sufis. They couldn’t care less.
In his major work entitled al-Itisam on the definition of *bida* (innovation), al-Shatibi (d. 790) rejected the categorization of sufis and tasawwuf as an innovation in Islam according to his criteria.
Sources:
- Suyuti, Ta’yid al-Haqiqat al-
Aliyya (Cairo: al-matbaa al-islamiyya, 1352/1934) p. 15. - Qushayri, al-Risala, introduction and chapter on tasawwuf and their commentary by Shaykh al-Islam Zakariyya al-Ansari, also al-Qushayri’s short treatise, Tartib al-Suluk fi Tariq Allah.
- Huwjiri, Kashf al-Mahjub, Introduction.
- Ibn Taymiyya, see reference below.
- Al-Shatibi, al-I
tisam (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, 1415/1995) p. 150-159.
**2.**As for the term “zahid” Imam Ahmad (d. 241) established that it applies first and foremost to the Prophet and his eminent Companions, http://mac.abc.se/home/onesr/f/_elmts/durood.gif upon him blessings and peace and may Allah be well-pleased with them, and it applies as well to all the Prophets of Allah, peace upon them.
Abd al-Qadir al-Baghdadi (d. 429) mentioned the two terms *zahid* and *sufi* interchangeably in his classifications of the groups that belong to Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jamaa in his al-Farq bayn al-Firaq:
Know that Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama`a are divided in eight groups of people… the sixth group being the Sufi Ascetics (al-zuhhad al-sufiyya), who have seen things for what they are and therefore have abstained, who have known by experience and therefore have taken heed truly, who have accepted Allah’s allotment and contented themselves with what is within reach.
Sources:
- Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Zuhd, 2nd. ed. (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-`Ilmiyya, 1414/1994).
Abd al-Qahir al-Baghdadi, al-Farq Bayn al-Firaq (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, n.d.) 242-243.
3. The term “sufi” has been used in contrast with “faqih” (jurist) by the great Imams of Fiqh and Usul. It is enough that Imam al-Shafi`i [1]said:
faqihan wa sufiyyan fa kun laysa wahidan
fa inni wa haqqillahi iyyaka ansahu
Be both a faqih and a sufi: do not be only one of them!
Verily, by Allah’s truth, I am advising you sincerely.
while Imam Malik [2]said:man tasawwafa wa lam yatafaqqa fa qad tazandaqa
wa man tafaqqaha wa lam yatasawwaf fa qad tafassaqa
wa man jama`a bayn al-ithnayn fa qad tahaqqaqa
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.
See also Sufyan al-Thawri’s saying on the best of people being the Sufi who is versed in fiqh, cited below. (http://www.qss.org); but see instead “From the Fatawa of Shaykh al-Azhar `Abd al-Halim Mahmud,” (the chief religious authority in Egypt) : On Sufism at: www.uga.edu/islam; OKN]
A parting note. Ibn Abd al-Hadi narrates in bad' al-Ilqa bi-Labs al-Khirqa that Ibn Taymiyya boasted of having received the Qadiri Sufi Tariqa from Ibn Qudama. For his part al-Dhahabi in his Siyar twice states he received the Suhrawardi Tariqa from his beloved Egyptian Sufi teacher Ahmad al-Abarquhi. Siyar (Fikr ed. 17:118-119 #6084, 16:302 #5655). He boasts the same in his Mu`jam al-Shuyukh.
And the Hafiz who surpassed both of them, Ibn Hajar al- `Asqalani, was a Shadhili Sufi - as were his students al-Sakhawi and al-Suyuti.
In Sunni Islam it is unthinkable that a learned person not be a Sufi.
Salam.
Hajj Gibril
GF Haddad
Re: What is "Sufism"
I'm sorry but I don't really go thru cut/paste articles, can you "summarize" the definition of "Sufism" and how it applies to the 4 Imams?
Re: What is "Sufism"
Sufi is what sufi does.
Re: What is "Sufism"
Captain, I appreciate your decision to not to read cut/past articles. But trust me on this, as a Sunni Muslim brother to another brother. The above article has the rulings of the 4 Imams on Sufism in detail. It is a short but detailed summary by Shaykh GF Haddad a Sunni Shafi'i scholar in Syria nowadays. This would be better than to read my words, as I am not a scholar.
In Islamic threads, it is an obligation to quote scholars and not your own figurative interpretations. The cut and paste here is not the same as in other categories on gupshup. If you still feel otherwise, then I am sorry
your bro
Thaqib
Re: What is "Sufism"
On the other hand this is too much information.
Re: What is "Sufism"
JazakAllah brother Thaqib for such a good explanation on this topic.