Dr Roza said:
nurelhuda- I believe tasauf has been part and parcel of Rasulullah's s.a.w. teachings. The problem arises when people starts to separate it , tearing it away , putting it in a 'speical' position (almost like making it secular), giving it a certain nomenclature and finally practicing it as separate entity. Those are the deviant ones.Sufism, as long as it conforms to the teachings of Rasulullah like all other 'wadah' (like tariqat for instance) is insyallah allowed. After all, it's a tool to get closer to Allah swt.
This is what I have to say as a reply:
When one says it is a tool, then that tool is something that needs to be taught. If a religous teacher teaches you to pray and to read the Quran but he only passed on to you the words without the spirit behind the words, you will not get the spirit and that spirit is sufism.
Rasul SAW was a Mercy to all of Humanity ( Rahmatan Lil Alamin) not a mercy to Muslims only which means that the spirit of Islam pervades all that is good in Humanity.When I say the spirit of Islam, I do not mean the cultural Islam , what I mean is the Universal meaning of Islam which means Surrendering to God's will. What does surrendering mean? To understand the meaning of surrender one would have to live a life of doing God's will every instant of time in one's life..It is to this goal that the Believer journeys.It is for this reason we ask for guidance in our prayers 17 times a day" Eh dinasiaratal mustaqim" and it is for this reason we are constantly saying Astaghfirllah...bowing humbly to God for not succeeding fully....
God in His Mercy made humans able to seek and find Haq which is truth and truth is Universal in Nature , not relegated or belonging to any race or any religion for that matter.
Those who have an awakened spirit, an awakened heart will recognise the Haq as if it is their own child . It would resonate in their very beings and make them tremble and vibrate and bring tears to their eyes.
There are even times when those we call deviant have more recognition of the Haq than those we think are in the right for in the end it is not our judgement that matters but that of God's.
It is my conviction that no human has the right to think of another as a deviant or wrong in what they believe. Our duty is to remind our friends our colleagues and our brethren to do good and doing good means helping humankind, helping justice, helping the environment .
As the surah Al Asr says:
Surely mankind is at a loss
Except those who have faith ( Faith in God and faith in the hereafter)
And do good deeds
And remind each other to Truths
And remind each other to Patience.
Finally, I would like to add, many speak of that they know nothing of and it is like trying to imagine what a durian looks feels and tastes like without having even seen one...only hearing about it from others who have a mixed reaction ..some say it is heavenly, some say it is obnoxious ......and someone decides to pick one opinion via heresay and speak on it as if they' ve seen it or tasted it....
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6 comments:
I am sorry for having written something that I have no true knowledge about. Sometimes through our nafsu, we tend to blurt things out carelessly. Thank you for pointing it out. I guess I still have a long, long way to go :)
Nothing to be sorry about. I was wondering how you would feel about what I said. I try my best to be impersonal but that is hard to do when I have to point out something so I use these lovely Durian analogies..there is more to this fruit than we will ever know..One of my favourite occupations is to ponder , Lord why did you make the Durian ..hmm think I will write on that next..
Alhamdulillah the best people are those who know they do not know..of course those who know may be better but there is always something even those who know do not know. Yes I know I sound like the Chesire cat from Alice in Wonderland, can t help it though since Alice in Wonderland is a rather favourite book of mine.
Alice In Wonderland was my first storybook given for my 6th birthday I think. Very intriguing book indeed. Still can't comprehend many parts of the story till now....:))
Worth a new readomg. a lot of life's mysteries are unravelled in this book..for example: Chesire cat to Alice when she asked where does this road go,"Where are you going?" Alice replies I don t know..then Chesire cat replies, If you don t know where you are going it does not matter where this road goes...
I was only aware of this Sufi/Salafi thing when I emailed a group of friends inviting them to go to the Uniting for the Prophet conference way back. I got replies from people saying 'don't you know a lot of those speakers are Sufis?' Huh? I just replied that if we don't go listen to them we don't know what they say, right? WAllahi there was nothing that they said or did that was against the Qur'an or Sunnah, even the music was restricted to daff. And the love and reverence they had for Rasulullah SAW was so evident that the very air was tingling with it. And the people who spoke also had a very strong grounding in Fiqh as well, eg Sh Nuh Keller who translated the Shafi' Fiqh Manual Reliance of the Traveller, which I find very useful, and agrees with what I have learnt at school. :) So I guess my stand is that I see a lot of good in Sufis. And so far I have not seen any bad, although people never hesitate to remind me that they can be. But at the same time, although I strongly disagree with the Salafi minhaj, I see that a lot of them are sincere in their pursuit of religion. So I guess yeah I agree with you nurelhuda, at the end of the day, who are we to judge? We can just pray that we wil all enter Jannah through the Mercy of Allah, and that we are greeted by Rasul SAW at his cistern on the Day of Judgement.
BTW today there is a Sh Hamza Yusuf talk at Euston!!! :)
You are right about the Salafi, there are very many who are very sincere and truly believe what they are doing is the best .I for one try to see good in everybody , but alas my level of tolerence falls short for those who condemn fellow Muslims
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