Let’s start with “dance”… We call it hadra…it involves, whirling, swaying, hopping etc. Not many people are familiar with the term…whirling dervish of Rumi is an example of type of hadra. It’s not a fardh…not even a Sunnah. Just a way of expressing ones love for Allah and the prophet(PBUH).
I’m going to post Dr. Tahir ul Qadri’s video on this topic..although I don’t agree with political stance. But there’s no denying he knows his religious stuff.
please refer to this article for the origins of hadra.
About music…here’s the fatwa from Al-Azhar institute.
**Listening to music, attending musical gatherings, and studying music of all genres and instruments is allowed as long as it is not accompanied with immoral and sinful acts, or used as a pretext to incite people towards haram (prohibited) behaviour, and it does not preoccupy a person away from observing the obligatory acts of worship (al-wajibat).
So what is sufism?
Online definition: “Sufism, mystical Islamic belief and practice in which Muslims seek to find the truth of divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God.”
Now about free-mixing of the two genders…well, I’ve been to Northern Cyprus and I’ve prayed in their mosque as well the dergah( it’s like a community centre). They have separate prayer areas for men and women…even the dhikr gatherings are held separately. The video you posted is an annual gathering of Folk music open to Muslims as well as non-Muslims…and sometimes non-Muslims or new Muslims women who aren’t fully aware of Islamic guidelines would participate in hadra but we don’t stop them…we tolerate them.
To answer why need it today, we should go to history and see what were the times and prevalent conditions, when Sufism flourished. It flourished during the times, when society faced disintegration due to different sects and every sect considering themselves righteous. Sufisim is required for celebrating diversity and accommodating difference points of view.
it is a step ahead to sharia. For a sufi sharia is a way, not the destiny
No. But rigidity surrounded sharia have no meaning among sufis and therefore the concept that sufis are not followers of sharia.
They do practice what common muslims practice, but they are of the view that these are not enough.
As Shah Latif said:
Namaaz aen roza pinn chango kam
uho bhiyo ko faham jihn sa pasje pireen khe
**Prayers and fasting are also good deeds
But it is something else that lead you the beloved (Allah)
**
May be yes. I’m not in position to comment on it, but apparently sufis don’t bother about compartmentalisation.
Yes. Jihad for not expansion and worldly affairs , but for rights of suppressed one. Example: Sufi Shah Inayat of Jhok Sharif who fought for farmers right during Mughal era.
Sufism is a name given to a large demographic … Although grouped together many affiliates of “Sufism” are in fact very different from one another.
Generally there are two things that can be said about Sufism … And they are Esoteric and Islam … Do we need Sufism? … is hence a misnomer … We don’t need the parts of it we don’t need and we do need the parts of it we do need.
Basically we must believe in Ihsan as being part of the Deen … Just as Iman and Islam are part of the Deen. In this respect we need “Sufism” because it can mean Ihsan, but it does not always mean that in common language. It is hence better to use the term tassuwwuf … Or the science of Sufism and this is the collective term for all activities that enhance Ihsan. For the rest of the questions I’ll add more later insha’Allah.
There is no such single thing as “sufism” . It covers many different ways in which people try to follow Islam. Some forms of sufism (principally practiced in the sub-continent) would appear to be grossly at odds with the commonly accepted Islamic norm whereas other forms are indistinguishable.
I mean self hating, pakistan knocking, looking down upon desis - these are all norms, perhaps acceptable norms that we can not quantify
However here, what you have stated, the inference is religious, so we can evaluate it with a little bit of pooled knowledge In Sha Allah
Please clarify what you are talking about. You have questioned sufism of sub continent, and achieved propaganda against us, without really offering any substance. I mean its not even clear if you agree with what you have stated yourself
My own view is that the sub continent offers a brilliant section of the Ummah
There are many things in Shari’ah that merely stated for us do certain things … but there is very little in the way of how to reach certain levels.
Iman is the domain of definition … Definitions are meanings of words and concepts … They help us correctly allocate the right position of ‘a thing’ … In relation to ourselves and to each other. Iman is about recognition and about understanding … When we say the kalimah … We need to understand and accept it to have ‘Iman’ … Conceptual requirements.
Islam is the domain of the ‘acts’ and “physical effects” of belief … It is the social interaction of believers and that is covered by shari’ah and fiqh … They tell us what we must “do” … Physical requirements.
Now Ihsan certainly does linguistically mean excellence, benevolence, perfect, etc … As it stems from hasan, which means ‘good’, Ihsan being the superlative But the meaning of Ihsan should be taken from the Hadith I quoted … And that states “one should see Allah although He is Unseen” (paraphrased) “or at least feel the Presence of Allah (SWT)” … This is an example of haal, “state” or spiritual condition. It is about the “adab” respect we emanate in a mode of “being” … It is linked to character and it is rooted in the spiritual domain and resides at the level of the soul. Tassuwwuf is hence the science of reaching such perfection that we can start to feel and become more and more conscious of Allah (SWT) and build a greater and greater semblance with prophetic character.
If you see Shari’ah will be unable to achieve that … Shari’ah is all about do’s and don’ts … It will tell us to be patient … But not how to be patient … For fiqh - only rulings are extracted from the Sunnah, I.e. This allowed and that is not … However for tassuwwuf “methods” are extracted from the Sunnah on how to achieve patience … Same goes with anger … There is no Shar’iah ruling for a Muslim who gets angry … He is not called a sinner until he DOES something … But anger is a state of being … And dealing with that is learnt from tassuwwuf … Pride or arrogance … Again we are told not to do it, but how can we rid ourselves of it effectively? We need tassuwwuf … Much of the fear of death and love df dunya is a result of lack of tassuwwuf … People do not realise how to attain those levels of being … They think praying regularly is enough … As can be seen by the many scandals we can see prayer is not enough … The Khawarij suffer from poor state and poor character as with many groups … Because they don’t know how to deal with their “demons” … Tassuwwuf teaches us that … The proper attitude of the daiee (inviter) is learnt from tassuwwuf, the servitude to RasoolAllah (SAW) and ultimately to Allah (SWT) can only be learnt by tassuwwuf … People may not even call it tassuwwuf … But that is what it is … When they do tazkiya, when they look for zikr or awrad or du’a and things like this … They are engaging in a type of tassuwwuf … I hope that helps.
for the link of that hadith. I was confused at that time when I asked about ‘Ihsan’ as i was trying to figure out if it is in arabic, english or urdu.