www.livingislam.org

 

Tasawwuf Shuyukh

 

[1] Tasawwuf: Hasan al-Basri

[2] Tasawwuf: Abu Hanifa

[3] Tasawwuf: Sufyan al-Thawri

[4] Tasawwuf: Imam Malik

 

 

Bismillah al-Rahman al-Raheem

was-salaat was-salaam `alaa Rasul-illah wa 'alaa alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam

 

[1] ON TASAWWUF

 

al-Hasan al-Basri (d. 110)

--------------------------

 

One of the early formal Sufis in both the general and the literal

sense, as he wore all his life a cloak of wool (suf). The son of a

freedwoman of Umm Salama's (the Prophet's wife) and a freedman of

Zayd ibn Thabit's (the Prophet's stepson), this great Imam of

Basra, the leader of saints and scholars in his day, was known for

his strict and encompassing embodiment of the Sunna of the

Prophet. He was also famous for his immense knowledge, his

austerity and asceticism, his fearless remonstrances of the

authorities, and his power of attraction both in discourse and

appearance.

 

Ibn al-Jawzi wrote a 100-page book on his life and manners

entitled Adab al-Shaykh al-Hasan ibn Abi al-Hasan al-Basri. In his

chapter on al-Hasan in Sifat al-safwa, he mentions a report that

al-Hasan left behind a white cloak (jubba) made of wool which he

had worn exclusively of any other for the past twenty years,

winter and summer, and that when he died it was in a state of

immaculate beauty, cleanness, and quality.(1)

 

In the book he devoted to the sayings and the deeds of Sufis,

Rawdat al-muhibbin wa nuzhat al-mushtaqin (The garden of the

lovers and the excursion of the longing ones), Ibn Qayyim relates:

 

A group of women went out on the day of `Eid and went about

looking at people. They were asked: "Who is the most handsome

person you have seen today?" They replied: "It is a shaykh wearing

a black turban." They meant Hasan al-Basri.(2)

 

The hadith master Abu Nu`aym al-Isfanahi (d. 430) mentions in

his biographies of Sufis entitled Hilyat al-awliya' (The adornment

of the saints) that it is al-Hasan's student `Abd al-Wahid ibn

Zayd (d. 177) who was the first person to build a Sufi khaniqa or

guest-house and school at Abadan on the present-day border of Iran

with Iraq.(3)

 

It was on the basis of Hasan al-Basri and his students' fame

as Sufis that Ibn Taymiyya stated: "Tasawwuf's place of origin is

Basra" in his essay al-Sufiyya wa al-fuqara.(4) This is a

misleading assertion tantamount to accusing al-Hasan of having

invented tasawwuf. Rather, Basra is chief among the places of

renown for the formal development of the schools of purification

which became known as tasawwuf, but whose principles are none

other than the Qur'an and the Sunna as we have already

demonstrated at length.

 

Ghazali relates al-Hasan's words on Jihad al-nafs in the

section of his Ihya' entitled Kitab riyadat al-nafs wa tahdhib al-

akhlaq wa mu`alajat amrad al-qalb (Book of the training of the ego

and the disciplining of manners and the healing of the heart's

diseases) that Hasan al-Basri said:

 

Two thoughts roam over the soul, one from Allah, one from the

enemy. Allah shows mercy on a servant who settles at the

thought that comes from Him. He embraces the thought that

comes from Allah, while he fights against the one from his

enemy. To illustrate the heart's mutual attraction betwen

these two powers the Prophet said: "The heart of a believer

lies between two fingers of the Merciful"(5)... The fingers

stand for upheaval and hesitation in the heart... If man

follows the dictates of anger and appetite, the dominion of

shaytan appears in him through idle passions [hawa] and his

heart becomes the nesting-place and container of shaytan, who

feeds on hawa. If he does battle with his passions and does

not let them dominate his nafs, imitating in this the

character of the angels, at that time his heart becomes the

resting-place of angels and they alight upon it.

 

A measure of the extent of Hasan al-Basri's extreme

godwariness and scrupulosity (wara`) is given by his following

statement, also quoted by Ghazali:

 

Forgetfulness and hope are two mighty blessings upon the

progeny of Adam; but for them the Muslims would not walk in

the streets.(6)

 

Notes:

(1) Ibn al-Jawzi, Sifat al-safwa 2(4):10 (#570).

(2) Ibn al-Qayyim, Rawdat al-muhibbin p. 225.

(3) Abu Nu`aym, Hilyat al-awliya' 6:155.

(4) Ibn Taymiyya, al-Tasawwuf in Majmu`a al-fatawa al-kubra 11:16.

(5) Narrated by Muslim, Ahmad, Tirmidhi, and Ibn Majah.

(6) In Ghazali, trans. T.J. Winter, The remembrance of death p. 18.

 

 

Bismillah al-Rahman al-Raheem

was-salaat was-salaam `alaa Rasul-illah wa 'alaa alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam

 

[2] ON TASAWWUF

 

Imam Abu Hanifa (d. 150)

 

Ibn `Abidin relates in his al Durr al mukhtar that Imam Abu

Hanifa said: "If it were not for two years, I would have

perished." Ibn `Abidin comments:

 

For two years he accompanied Sayyidina Ja`far al-Sadiq

and he acquired the spiritual knowledge that made him a

gnostic in the Way... Abu `Ali Daqqaq (Imam Qushayri's

shaykh) received the path from Abu al-Qasim al-

Nasirabadi, who received it from al Shibli, who

received it from Sari al-Saqati who received it from

al Ma`ruf al Karkhi, who received it from Dawud

at Ta'i, who received the knowledge, both the external

and the internal, from the Imam Abi Hanifa.(1)

 

(1) Ibn `Abidin, Hashiyat radd al-muhtar `ala al-durr al-mukhtar 1:43.

 

 

Bismillah al-Rahman al-Raheem

was-salaat was-salaam `alaa Rasul-illah wa 'alaa alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam

 

[3] ON TASAWWUF

 

Sufyan al-Thawri (d. 161)

 

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya relates in Madarij al-salikin, and

Ibn al-Jawzi in the chapter entitled "Abu Hashim al-Zahid"

in his Sifat al-safwa after the early hadith master Abu

Nu`aym in his Hilyat al-awliya', that Sufyan al-Thawri said:

 

If it were not for Abu Hashim al-Sufi (d. 115) I would

have never perceived the presence of the subtlest forms

of hypocrisy in the self... Among the best of people is

the Sufi learned in jurisprudence.(1)

 

Ibn al-Jawzi also narrates the following:

 

Abu Hashim al-Zahid said: "Allah has stamped alienation

upon the world in order that the friendly company of

the muridin (seekers) consist solely in being with Him

and not with the world, and in order that those who

obey Him come to Him by means of avoiding the world.

The People of Knowledge of Allah (ahl al-ma`rifa

billah) are strangers in the world and long for the

hereafter."(2)

 

 

(1) Ibn Qayyim, Madarij al-salikin; Ibn al-Jawzi, Sifat al-

safwa (Beirut: dar al-kutub al-`ilmiyya, 1403/1989) 1

(2):203 (#254); Abu Nu`aym, Hilyat al-awliya, s.v. "Abu

Hashim al-Sufi."

(2) Ibn al-Jawzi, op. cit.

 

 

 

Bismillah al-Rahman al-Raheem

was-salaat was-salaam `alaa Rasul-illah wa 'alaa alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam

 

[4] ON TASAWWUF

 

Imam Malik (d. 179)

 

The scholar of Madina, he was known for his intense piety

and love of the Prophet, whom he held in such awe and

respect that he would not mount his horse within the

confines of Madina out of reverence for the ground that

enclosed the Prophet's body, nor would he relate a hadith

without first performing ablution. Ibn al-Jawzi relates in

the chapter entitled "Layer 6 of the People of Madina" of

his book Sifat al-safwa:

 

Abu Mus`ab said: I went in to see Malik ibn Anas. He

said to me: Look under my place of prayer or prayer-mat

and see what is there. I looked and I found a certain

writing. He said: Read it. (I saw that) it contained

(the account of) a dream which one of his brothers had

seen and which concerned him. He said (reciting what

was written): "I saw the Prophet in my sleep. He was in

his mosque and the people were gathered around him, and

he said: I have hidden for you under my pulpit (minbar)

something good -- or: knowledge -- and I have ordered

Malik to distribute it to the people." Then Malik wept,

so I got up and left him.(1)

 

Just as Abu Hanifa and Sufyan al-Thawri implicitly

asserted the necessity to follow the Sufi path for

acquiring perfection, Imam Malik explicitly enjoined

tasawwuf as a duty of scholars in his statement:

 

"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."

 

It is related by the muhaddith Ahmad Zarruq (d. 899), the

hafiz `Ali al-Qari al-Harawi (d. 1014), the muhaddiths `Ali

ibn Ahmad al `Adawi (d. 1190) and Ibn `Ajiba (d. 1224), and

others.(2)

 

Ibn `Ajiba explains:

 

Shaykh Ahmad Zarruq said: "Tasawwuf has over two

thousand definitions, all of which go back to the

sincerity of one's self-application to Allah... Each

one's definition corresponds to his state and the

extent of his experience, knowledge, and taste, upon

which he will ground his saying: "Tasawwuf is such-and-

such."

 

It follows that every one of the saints quoted (in

Abu Nu`aym's Hilyat al-awliya') who has a part of

sincere self-application (sidq tawajjuh) has a part in

tasawwuf, and each one's tasawwuf consists in his

sincere self-application. As a rule, sincere self-

application is a requirement of religion since it forms

both the manner and the content of the acts which Allah

accepts. Manner and content are not sound unless

sincerity of self-application is sound. "He approves

not unthankfulness in His servants, but if you are

thankful, he will approve it in you" (39:7).

 

Therefore Islam necessitates deeds, and there is

no self-purification (tasawwuf) without knowledge of

the Law (fiqh), as Allah's external rulings are not

known except by knowledge of the Law; and there is no

knowledge of the Law without self-purification, as

there is no deed without sincerity in self-application,

and there is neither without belief. Hence the Law

requires all of them by definition, just as the body

and the soul necessitate each other, as one cannot

exist or be complete in the world except in conjunction

with the other. That is the meaning of Imam Malik's

saying: "He who practices Tasawwuf without learning

Sacred Law..."(3)

 

(1)Ibn al-Jawzi, Sifat al-safwa 1(2):120.

(2)`Ali al-Qari, Sharh `ayn al-`ilm wa-zayn al-hilm

(Cairo: Maktabat al-Thaqafa al-Diniyya, 1989) 1:33; Ahmad

Zarruq, Qawa`id al-tasawwuf (Cairo, 1310); `Ali al `Adawi,

Hashiyat al `Adawi `ala sharh Abi al Hasan li risalat Ibn

Abi Zayd al musammat kifayat al talib al rabbani li risalat

Ibn Abi Zayd al Qayrawani fi madhhab Maalik (Beirut?: Dar

Ihya' al Kutub al `Arabiyah, ) 2:195; Ibn `Ajiba, Iqaz

al himam fi sharh al hikam (Cairo: Halabi, 1392/1972) p.

5 6.

(3)Ibn `Ajiba, Iqaz al-himam 5-6.

 

 

 

Blessings and Peace on the Prophet, his Family, and his Companions

 

GFH Abu Hammad

[1996-11-16]

 

For continuation of text, press here:

Tasawwuf shuyukh_2.htm