a
talk sponsored by CAIR
Imam Hamza Yusuf, sometime khatib
at the Muslim Community Association of Santa Clara, California, spoke on Sufism
in Islam, directly following a lecture by Dr. Anne-Marie Schimmel, former
Harvard professor of Oriental Studies. Imam Hamza
began by noting that the architecture of Stanford is modeled
after traditional Andalusian, Moroccan and North
African universities. He said that Islamic architecture and civilization was
once great as was its scholarship, but unfortunately the Muslim ummah has fallen behind in these spheres.
Imam Hamza
continued:
"The fundamental and
underlying message in the tradition of Islam I think personally is that it does
not and refuses to create this dialectic in which a person's inward and their
outward become split. [In non-Islamic systems] people are
either forced to become esoterists or they are
forced to become exoterists.
"In
fact what Islam is trying to do and what most of the other spiritual religions
and in fact from the Muslim perspective all of them have failed to do is to
join these two elements in a harmonious and balanced way and this is why in the
tradition of Islam Sufism has always been part of the traditional Islamic
curriculum in every single Muslim university. I know of no period in the Islamic
tradition in which Sufism was not taught in the universities
and not seen as an important and fundamental aspect of the tradition of Islam.
"Sidi
Ahmad Zarruq wrote a great book called the principles
of Sufism in which he clarified traditional and orthodox Sufism says in his
principle number 208, 'there are five reasons for repudiating the Sufis the
first of these is with reference to the perfection of their path. For if the
Sufis latch on to a special dispensation or if they misbehave or are negligent
in a matter or if a fault manifests itself in them, people hasten to repudiate
them.' Because they are people who have traditionally been the most strongest
and fierce adherents to the sacred teaching of Islam and they have been the
ones also that have never inclined toward easy ways out on terms of the shariah or the sacred law.
"They have been the
strictest adherents to the sacred law, but they have a wonderful principle:
that is be hard on yourself and be gentle with other
people. Unfortunately, the disease of this age amongst many Muslims is be easy
on yourself and be hard on everybody else. So I think this is where the real
crises of rejecting Sufism as one third of Islam has had really
devastating results in much of the modern Islamic phenomenon. {Shaykh Ahmad Zarruq] said 'this
is because no servant is free of fault unless he is granted infallibility or
protection by God.'
"The second reason
[for people to repudiate Sufis] is the sensitivity of the observer. [The
observer's] criticism of the Sufis and their knowledge and states occurs as
much as the ego, nafs, hastens to deny
knowledge it does not posses. Imam Sayyidina Ali was known for saying, 'Whoever is ignorant of a thing is its
natural enemy.'
"The third reason [to
reject the Sufis] is the existence of many who fall short of their claims and
those who seek [worldly] gain through the guise of religiosity. This has been
an affliction within the Muslim ummah. It is well
known of the people claiming to be Sufis, putting on the garments of Sufis, and
tricking simple followers and worshippers; getting them to give them their
money, to slavishly serve them, and these type of
things. This has happened historically in the Muslim world. The [pious] imams
have always been the strictest at trying to prevent this deception, because
there is nothing worse than deceiving somebody in religion. Give me a mafia
gangster any day over a fraudulent religious observer--really! This is the
reason for denying any claim that they might make even though there is proof of
it. Because it is found doubtful.
"The fourth reason is
fear for the generality that they might be lead astray by following esoteric
doctrines without upholding the letter of the law as happens to many ignorant
people. So ignorant people might hear some statement which is
said by a Sufi and they completely misunderstand it. And
Abu Yazid al-Bistami put in
Imam Dhahabi's tabaqat
is considered a faqih (jurisprudent). Imam Dhahabi is considered a student of
Ibn Taymiyya and he
considers Abu Yazid al-Bistami
a reasonable and sound source of hadith. Yet Abu Yazid al-Bistami is the one who
is noted for saying 'Subhanee'
which means 'Glory to Me!' This is known in the
technical vocabulary of the Sufis as a shatha,
an ecstatic utterance. If a person says it in a state in
which their self is absent they are not taken to account for it We have proof
of it in Sahih Bukhari
about a slave in the middle of a desert in which the Prophet (s) says that
because he finds his lost beast he shouts out in joy 'Allah you are my slave and
I am Your lord!' The Prophet explained that that slave made a mistake in
his ecstatic state after finding his animal. This is someone who finds their
animal, so how much greater for someone who has found his Lord?! What about his state of ecstasy?
"The fifth reason [to
reject Sufism] is the covetousness some people have for the ranks of Sufism. In
traditional Muslim society the Sufis were held up as
literally the highest people in the society; they were the shaykhs.
Imam Nawawi was a great Sufi, [Qadi]
Iyad was a great Sufi, Ibn Hajar Asqalani was a great Sufi, Imam Ibn Jawzi
was a great Sufi. All of these great imams were known
to be Sufis of great stature. Abu Hamid al Ghazzali who is given the title Hujjat al-Islam is probably the greatest example. People
wanted to be like them, and the Arabs are notorious in their understanding if
you are not like noble people pretend to be like them
because even that is a type of nobility.
"Finally [Sidi Ahmad Zarruq] said, 'Thus
people are inclined to become inflamed with the Sufis, more so than with any
other group.' People in official positions exert pressure on them more than anybody else. This was a traditional
area in which the government would try to influence the Sufis because they knew
that they had such a vast amount of power over the common people The Sufis were
traditionally the most distant and furthest people from the governors or the
government unless they were righteous rulers like Nizam
al Mulk who Imam Ghazali
actually helped to build the Nizamiyya system of
teaching. And anyway [Sidi
Ahmad Zarruq] says, 'Anyone who falls in any of these
categories except for the last is either rewarded or excused and Allah knows
best.'
"I was asked to make a
du`a
and I would like to make the du`a of the people of North Africa which I heard
many, many times in North Africa and was always very impressed by it; it is
called Salat Tunjiyya--the
prayer that saves people:
"Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin salatan tunjina biha min jami al ahwali wal afat
wa taqdi lana biha jami`a
al hajjat
wa tutahiruna biha min jami`a as-sayyiat
wa tarfauna biha `indaka ala darajat
wa tubalighuna biha aqsa al ghayat
min jami`a al khayrat fil hayati wa
bad al mamat
wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa
sallim tasliman kathira"
O Allah
pray on our Master Muhammad a prayer by means of which we will be saved from
every awe-inspiring harmful thing,
and that will take care of all of our needs,
and purify us by means of it from all of our ugly qualities and characteristics
and raise us and purify us by means of it from all of our ugly qualities and
characteristics
and raise us up by means of it in Your Presence to the highest of degrees,
and cause us to reach by means of it the extremes of all goodness in our life
and after our death
and this prayer be upon his family and his companions
and may he be given safety and much salaam.
"I would like to thank
on behalf of CAIR and the
Muslims in this area everybody for attending this lecture. Thank you very
much."
The following are some notes from the famous Sufism
Internet Debate of 1993, which refer to the discussion of the concept of fana' which was mentioned by Shaykh Hamza above as the state
in which some Sufi masters issued utterances (shatha)
of outwardly anti-Islamic import.
In Book, Volume 2, pages 396-397 of Majmu'a Fatawa,
Shaikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya speaks about fana
also known in Sufism as annihilation.
He said:
"This state of love is
the state of many people that are from the people of Love to Allah `azza wa jall,
they are the people of the love of Allah and the People of the Will (al-irada) of Allah, it is typical of many of the people
that love God and seek Him. Because that person has vanished in his lover, in
Allah `azza wa
jall Դhrough the intensity of the love, because
he vanished in Allah's love, not his own ego's love. And he will recall Allah,
not recalling himself, remember Allah , not remembering himself, visualizing
Allah [yastashhid], not visualizing himself,
existing in Allah, not in the existence of himself. When he reaches that state
'Ana al-Haqq' (I am the Truth) or 'Subhanee' (Glory to Me!) and he will say 'maa fil jubba ill-Allah' (there is nothing in this cloak except
Allah), because he is drunk in the love of God and this is a pleasure and
happiness that he cannot control."
Further on Shaikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya says:
"This [matter] has in
it Haqq
and there is in it Batil.
But when someone will enter a state with his fervor intense love (`ishq) to Allah, he will enter a state of
absentmindedness, and when he enters a state of absentmindedness, he will find
himself as if he is accepting the [concept] of ittihad
[union]. I do not consider this a sin. Because that person is excused and no
one may punish him as he is not aware of what he is
doing. Because the pen does not condemn the crazy
except when he is restored to sanity. And when that
person is in that state and he was wrong in what he did, he will be under
Allah's address:
"Rabbana laa tu`akhidhna
in-naseena aw akhta`na"
"Our Lord, do not take us to task if we forget or make mistakes." (Baqara 2:286)
"And Allah says in
other verse, "wa laa
junaaha `alaykum fimaa akhtaatum bihi" - "there is no blame on you if you
unintentionally do a mistake."
On page 339, in Volume 10, Ibn Taymiyya says:
"there
is a story of two men who were so respectful and loved each other very much.
One of them fell in the water [of the sea] and immediately the other threw
himself behind him. Then the first one, who was sinking asked, "what made you throw yourself here?" He said, I vanished
in you, and when I vanished in you I thought you were me and I was you."
And further on Ibn Taymiyya
continues:
"As long as he is not
through something that is prohibited, it is accepted, but if it were prohibited
(the intention was bad then he is not excused."
And Shaikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya continues (Volume 2,
page 397):
"And because of that
[situation]many of the saints like `Abdul Qadir Jilani, have an excuse
because they are in a state of love `ishq)."
That subject is also
mentioned in a whole chapter on detail from page 337-343, entitled: "al-Fana' alladhee yujad fi kalam
as-sufiyya yuffassar bi-thalathat umur" (The
Word Annihilation found in Sufism explained in