Tasawwuf Shuyukh
[17] Tasawwuf: al-Gilani
[18] Tasawwuf: Ibn al-Jawzi
[19] Tasawwuf: al-Shadhili
[20] Tasawwuf: Ibn `Abd al-Salam
Bismillah al-Rahman al-Raheem
was-salaat was-salaam `alaa Rasul-illah wa
'alaa alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam
[17] ON TASAWWUF
Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani (d. 561)
The eminent one among the great saints,
nicknamed al-Ghawth al-a`zam or the Arch-
helper, he is also an eminent jurist of the
Hanbali school. His ties to the Shafi`i
school and to Imam Abu Hanifa have been
mentioned. He was the disciple of eminent
saints, such as Abu al-Khayr Hammad ibn
Muslim al-Dabbas (d. 525) and Khwaja Abu
Yusuf al-Hamadani (d. 535), second in line
after Abu al-Hasan al-Kharqani (al-Harawi
al-
Ansari's shaykh) in the early Naqshbandi
chain of authority.
The most famous of Shaykh `Abd al-
Qadir's works are:
*
al-Ghunya li talibi tariq al-haqq
(Sufficient provision for seekers of the
path of truth); it is one of the most
concise presentations of the madhhab of
Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal ever written,
including the sound teaching of Ahl al-
Sunna on `aqida and tasawwuf;
*
al-Fath al-rabbani (The Lord's opening), a
collection of sermons for the student and
the teacher in the Sufi path and all those
attracted to perfection; true to its
title, this book brings its reader immense
profit and spiritual increase;
*
Futuh al-ghayb (Openings to the unseen),
another collection of sermons more
advanced than the previous one, and just
as priceless. Both have been translated
into English;
Due to his standing in the Hanbali
school, `Abd al-Qadir was held in great
respect by Ibn Taymiyya, who gives him
alone
the title "my Shaykh" (shaykhuna)
in his
entire Fatawa, while he reserves the title
"my Imam" (imamuna) to Ahmad ibn
Hanbal. He
frequently cites Gilani and his shaykh al-
Dabbas as among the best examples of
latter-
time Sufis.
Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir's karamat or
miracles are too many to number. One of
them
consisted in the gift of guidance which was
manifest in his speech and through which
untold thousands entered Islam or repented.
Al-Shattanawfi in Bahjat
al-asrar mentions
many of his miracles, each time giving a
chain of transmission. Ibn Taymiyya took
these reports to satisfy the criteria of
authenticity, but his student al-Dhahabi,
while claiming general belief in `Abd al-
Qadir's miracles, nevertheless affirms
disbelief in many of them. We have already
seen this trait of al-Dhahabi in his doubting
of the sound report of Imam Ahmad's
admiration of al-Muhasibi. These are his
words about Gilani in Siyar a`lam
al-nubala':
[#893] al-Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir (Al-
Jilani): The shaykh, the imam, the
scholar, the zahid, the knower, the
exemplar, Shaykh Al-Islam, the
distinguished one among the Awliya...
the Hanbali, the Shaykh of Baghdad... I
say: There is no one among the great
shaykhs who has more spiritual states
and miracles (karamat) than Shaykh `Abd
al-Qadir, but a lot of it is untrue and
some of those things are impossible.
The following account of Gilani's first
encounter with al-Hamadani is related by
Haytami in his Fatawa hadithiyya:
Abu Sa`id `Abd Allah ibn Abi `Asrun
(d.
585), the Imam of the School of Shafi`i,
said: "When I began a search for
religious knowledge I kept company with
my friend, Ibn al-Saqa, who was a
student in the Nizamiyya School, and it
was our custom to visit the pious. We
heard that there was in Baghdad a man
named Yusuf al-Hamadani who was known as
al-Ghawth, and that he was able to
appear whenever he liked and was able to
disappear whenever he liked. So I
decided to visit him along with Ibn al-
Saqa and Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani,
who was a young man at that time. Ibn
al-Saqa said, "When we visit Shaikh
Yusuf al-Hamadani I am going to ask him
a question the answer to which he will
not know." I said: "I am also
going to
ask him a question and I want to see
what he is going to say." Shaikh `Abd
al-Qadir al-Gilani said: "O Allah,
protect me from asking a saint like
Yusuf Hamadani a question, but I will go
into his presence asking for his baraka
-- blessing -- and divine knowledge."
"We entered his association. He
kept himself veiled from us and we did
not see him until after some time. He
looked at Ibn al-Saqa angrily and said,
without having been informed of his
name: "O Ibn al-Saqa, how dare you ask
me a question when your intention is to
confound me? Your question is this and
your answer is this!" Then he said:
"I
am seeing the fire of disbelief burning
in your heart." He looked at me and
said, "O `Abd Allah, are you asking me
a
question and awaiting my answer? Your
question is this and your answer is
this. Let the people be sad for you
because they are losing as a result of
your disrespect for me." Then he
looked
at Shaikh `Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani, made
him sit next to him, and showed him
honor. He said: "O `Abd al-Qadir, you
have satisfied Allah and His Prophet
with your proper respect for me. I see
you in the future sitting on the highest
place in Baghdad and speaking and
guiding people and saying to them that
your feet are on the neck of every wali!
And I almost see before me every wali of
your time giving you precedence because
of your great station and honor."
Ibn Abi `Asrun continues, "`Abd
al-Qadir's fame became widespread and
all that Shaykh al-Hamadani said about
him came to pass. There came a time when
he did say, "My feet are on the necks
of
all the awliya," and he was a
reference
and a beacon guiding all people in his
time to their destinations.
The fate of Ibn al-Saqa was
something else. He was brilliant in his
knowledge of the divine Law. He preceded
all the scholars in his time. He used to
debate with the scholars of his time and
overcome them, until the caliph called
him to his association. One day the
calif sent him as a messenger to the
King of Byzantium, who in his turn
called all his priests and the scholars
of the Christian religion to debate with
him. Ibn al-Saqa was able to defeat all
of them in debate. They were helpless to
give answers in his presence. He was
giving answers to them that made them
look like children and mere students in
his presence.
His brilliance made the King of
Byzantium so fascinated with him that he
invited him to his private family
meeting. There he saw the daughter of
the King. He immediately fell in love
with her, and he asked her father, the
King, for her hand in marriage. She
refused except on condition that he
accept her religion. He did, leaving
Islam and accepting the Christian
religion of the princess. After his
marriage he became seriously ill. They
threw him out of the palace. He became a
town beggar, asking everyone for food,
yet no one would provide for him.
Darkness had come over his face.
One day he saw someone that had
known him before. That person relates:
"I asked him, What happened to
you?" He
replied: "There was a temptation and I
fell into it." The man asked him:
"Do
you remember anything from the Holy
Qur'an?" He replied: "I only
remember
rubbama yawaddu al-ladhina kafaru law
kanu muslimin -- "Again and again will
those who disbelieve wish that they were
Muslims" (15:2)."
He was trembling as if he was
giving up his last breath. I turned him
towards the Ka`ba, but he kept turning
towards the East. Then I turned him back
towards the Ka'aba, but he turned
himself to the East. I turned him a
third time, but he turned himself to the
East. Then as his soul was passing from
him, he said, "O Allah, that is the
result of my disrespect to Your saint,
Yusuf al-Hamadani."
Ibn Abi `Asrun continues: "I went
to Damascus and the king there, Nur al-
Din al-Shahid, put me in control of the
religious department, and I accepted. As
a result, dunya entered from every side:
provision, sustenance, fame, money,
position for the rest of my life. That
is what the ghawth Yusuf al-Hamadani had
predicted for me."(1)
(1) al-Haytami, Fatawa hadithiyya 315-316.
[18] ON TASAWWUF
Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597)
This hadith master and historian of the
Hanbali school was a
fierce enemy of innovators in his time. We
have quoted extensively
from his writings against anthropomorphists
in the the first half
of this book. His Talbis Iblis (Satan's
delusion) is often quoted
by "Salafis" against tasawwuf,
but he only wrote it against
certain excesses which he saw in all groups
of the Community, such
as among scholars of all kinds and
including Sufis.
Talbis Iblis is perhaps the most important single factor in
keeping alive the notion of Ibn al-Jawzi's
hostility towards
tasawwuf. In reality, this work was not
written against tasawwuf
or Sufis as such at all. It an indictment
of all unorthodox
doctrines and practices, regardless of
their sources, and opposed
any which he considered unwarranted
innovations in the rule of
Shari`a, wherever found in the Islamic
community, especially in
his time. It was written against specific
innovated practices of
many groups, including the philosophers
(al-mutafalsifa), the
theologians (al-mutakallimun), hadith
scholars (`ulama' al-
hadith), jurists (al-fuqaha'), preachers
(al-wu``az), philologists
(al-nahawiyyun), poets (al-shu`ara'), and
certain Sufis. It is in
no way an indictment of the subjects they
studied and taught, but
was an indictment of specific introductions
of innovation into
their respective disciplines and fields.
Ibn al-Jawzi actually wrote many books of manaqib or "merits"
about the early Sufis, such as Manaqib
Rabi`a al-`Adawiyya,
Manaqib Ma`ruf al-Karkhi, Manaqib Ibrahim
ibn Adham, Manaqib Bishr
al-Hafi, and others. His Sifat al-safwa
(The manners of the elite)
an abridgment of Abu Nu`aym's Hilyat
al-awliya' (The adornment of
the saints), and his Minhaj al qasidin wa
mufid al-sadiqin (The
road of the travellers to Allah and the
instructor of the
truthful) are considered pillars in the
field of tasawwuf. He was
prompted to write the latter by the success
of Ghazali's Ihya'
`ulum al-din, and indeed the Minhaj adopts
much of the methodology
and language of the Ihya' in addition to
treating the same
subject-matter, self-purification and
personal ethics.
The Minhaj was epitomized in one volume by Najm al-Din Abu
al-`Abbas Ahmad ibn
Qudama (d. 742). Here are some of its chapter
titles and excerpts most illustrative of
Imam Ghazali's influence
on Ibn al-Jawzi and of the latter's
adoption of Sufi terminology:
*
Fasl `ilm ahwal al-qalb (Section on the science of the states
of the heart)
*
Fasl fi daqa'iq al-adab al-batina fi al-zakat (Section on the
ethics of the hidden minutiae of zakat)
* Fasl fi al-adab al-batina wa al-ishara ila
adab al-hajj
(Section on the ethics of the secrets of the Pilgrimage)
*
Kitab riyadat al-nafs wa tahdhib al-khuluq wa mu`alajat amrad
al-qalb (Book of the training of the ego, the upbringing of the
character, and the treating of the diseases of the heart)
*
Fasl fi fa'idat shahawat al-nafs (Section on the benefit of the
appetites of the ego)
*
Bayan al-riya' al-khafi al-ladhi huwa akhfa min dabib al-naml
(Exposition of the hidden self-display which is more concealed
than the treading of the ant)
* Fasl fi bayan ma
yuhbitu al-`amal min al-riya' wa ma
la yuhbit
(Section exposing the self-display which nullifies
one's deeds
and the self-display which doesn't)
*
Fasl fi dawa' al-riya' wa tariqatu mu`alajat al-qalbi fih
(Section on the remedy of self-display and the way to treat the
heart from its ill)
*
Kitab al-mahabba wa al-shawqi wa al-unsi wa al-rida (Book of
love, passionate longing, familiarity, and good pleasure)
* Fasl fi bayan mi`na
al-shawq ila allahi ta`ala (Section
exposing the meaning of passionate longing for Allah)
*
Bab fi al-muhasaba wa al-muraqaba (Chapter on taking account of
oneself and vigilance)
al-maqam al-awwal:
al-musharata
(The first station: commitment)
al-maqam al-thani: al-muraqaba
(The second station: vigilance)
al-maqam al-thalith:
al-muhasaba ba`da al-`amal
(The third station:
self-accounting after a deed)
al-maqam al-rabi`: mu`aqabat
al-nafs `ala taqsiriha
(The fourth station: berating the
ego for its shortcomings)
al-maqam al-khamis: al-mujahada
(The fifth station: struggling)
al-maqam al-sadis: fi
mu`atabat al-nafs wa tawbikhiha
(The sixth station: castigating
and chiding the ego)
Abu Bakr al-Siddiq said: "Whoever
hates his ego for
Allah's sake, Allah will protect Him
against what He
hates."
Anas said: I heard `Umar say as he was
alone behind a
wall: "Bakh, bakh! Bravo, well done, O
my ego! By
Allah, you had better fear Allah, O little
son of
Khattab, or he will punish you!"
Al-Bakhtari ibn Haritha said: "I saw
one of the devoted
worshippers sitting in front of a fire
which he had
kindled as he was castigating his ego, and
he did not
stop castigating his ego until he died."
One of them said: "When the saints are
mentioned, I say
to myself: Fie on you and fie on you
again."
Know that your worst enemy is the ego that
lies between
your two flanks. It has been created a
tyrant
commanding to evil, always pushing you
towards it, and
you have been ordered to straighten it,
cleanse it
(tazkiyat), wean it from what it feeds on,
and drag it
in chains, subdued, to the worship of its
Lord.(1)
(1) Ibn Qudama, Mukhtasar minhaj al-qasidin
li Ibn al-Jawzi, ed.
M. Ahmad Hamdan and `Abd al-Qadir Arna'ut,
2nd. ed. (Damascus:
maktab al-shabab al-muslim wa al-maktab
al-islami, 1380/1961) p. 426.
Reproduced with permission from Shaykh M.
Hisham Kabbani's
_The Repudiation of "Salafi" Innovations_ (Kazi, 1996) p.
340-344.
[19] ON TASAWWUF
Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili (d. 656)
One of the great saints of the Community,
he
said about tasawwuf:
He who dies without having entered into
this knowledge of ours dies insisting
upon his grave sins (kaba'ir) without
realizing it.(1)
(1) In Ibn `Ajiba, Iqaz al-himam p. 8.
Reproduced with permission from Shaykh M.
Hisham Kabbani's
_The Repudiation of "Salafi" Innovations_ (Kazi, 1996) p. 345.
Bismillah al-Rahman al-Raheem
was-salaat was-salaam `alaa Rasul-illah wa
'alaa alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam
[20] ON TASAWWUF
Sultan al-`ulama' al-`Izz ibn `Abd al-Salam
al-Sulami (d. 660)
His nickname is "Sultan of the
Scholars." The
Shaykh al-Islam of his time, he took hadith
from
the hafiz al-Qasim ibn `Ali ibn `Asakir al-
Dimashqi, and tasawwuf from the Shafi`i
Shaykh
al-Islam Shihab al-Din al-Suhrawardi
(539-632),
whom al-Dhahabi calls: "The shaykh,
the imam, the
scholar, the zahid, the knower, the
Muhaddith,
Shaykh al-Islam, the Peerless One of the
Sufis..."(1) He also studied under Abu
al-Hasan
al-Shadhili (d. 656) and his disciple
al-Mursi.
The author of Miftah al-sa`ada and al-Subki
in
his Tabaqat relate that al-`Izz would say,
upon
hearing al-Shadhili and al-Mursi speaking:
"This
is a kind of speech that is fresh from
Allah."(2)
In his two-volume Qawa`id al-ahkam fi
masalih al-anam on usul al-fiqh he mentions
that
the Sufis are those meant by Allah's
saying:
"Allah's party" (5:56, 58:22),
and he defines
tasawwuf as "the betterment of hearts,
through
whose health bodies are healthy, and through
whose disease bodies are diseased." He
considers
the knowledge of external legal rulings a
knowledge of the Law in its generalities,
while
the knowledge of internal matters is a
knowledge
of the Law in its subtle details.(3)
Among his books on tasawwuf are:
*
Shajarat al-ma`arif wa al-ahwal wa salih al-
aqwal wa al-a`mal (The tree of the gnostic
sciences and states and pious sayings and
deeds) in twenty chapters, the last seven
of
which are devoted to the various branches
of
ihsan in one's religion;
*
Mukhtasar ri`ayat al-Muhasibi, an abridgment
of al-Muhasibi's book on the Observance of
the
rights of Allah;
*
Masa'il al-tariqa fi `ilm al-haqiqa (Questions
of the Sufi path concerning the knowledge
of
Reality) in which al-`Izz answers sixty
questions regarding tasawwuf;
*
Risala fi al-qutb wa al-abdal al-arba`in
(Treatise on the Pole of saints and the
forty
substitute-saints);
*
Fawa'id al-balwa wa al-mihan (The benefits of
trials and afflictions);
*
Nihayat al-rughba fi adab al-suhba (The
obtainment of wishes in the etiquette of
companionship).
In view of his strictness in every matter,
he is famous for his fatwa allowing sama`
or
poetry recitals, and the swaying of the
body and
dancing associated with trances and other
states
of ecstasy during dhikr. Imam Ahmad related
in
his Musnad:
`Ali said: I visited the Prophet with
Ja`far (ibn Abi
Talib and Zayd (ibn
Haritha). The Prophet said to Zayd:
"You
are my freedman" (anta mawlay),
whereupon
Zayd began to hop on one leg around the
prophet (hajala). The Prophet then said to
Ja`far: "You resemble me in my
creation and
my manners" (anta ashbahta khalqi wa
khuluqi), whereupon Ja`far began to hop
behind Zayd. The Prophet then said to me:
"You pertain to me and I pertain to
you"
(anta
minni wa ana minka) whereupon I began
to hop behind Ja`far.(4)
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Hajar al-Haytami
mentions that some scholars have seen in
this
evidence for the permissibility of dancing
(al-
raqs) upon hearing a recital (sama`) that
lifts
the spirit.(5) al-Yafi`i concurs with him
in
Mir'at al-jinan.(6) Both of them mention
al-`Izz
ibn `Abd al-Salam as the chief example of
such
scholars, since it is authentically
reported that
he himself "attended the sama` and danced
in
states of ecstasy" (kana yahduru
al-sama` wa
yarqusu wa yatawajadu), as stated by Ibn
al-`Imad
on the authority of al-Dhahabi, Ibn Shakir
al-
Kutabi, al-Yafi`i, al-Nabahani, and Abu al-
Sa`adat.(7)
This permissibility of a type of dancing on
the part of the Imams and hadith masters
precludes the prohibition of sama` on a
general
basis, and that of the dancing that
accompanies
sama` as well, regardless of the
reservations of
Ibn Taymiyya concerning it which, in the
mouths
of today's "Salafis," do become
cut-and-dry
prohibitions.
As for particular cases where the dancing
may be prohibited, it regards the worldly
kind of
effeminate dancing which has nothing to do
with
the ecstasy of of sama` and dhikr. al-`Izz
ibn
`Abd al-Salam differentiated the two in his
Fatwas:
Dancing is a bid`a or innovation which is
not countenanced except by one deficient in
his mind. It is unfitting for other than
women. As for the audition of poetry
(sama`) which stirs one towards states of
purity (ahwal saniyya) which remind one of
the hereafter: there is nothing wrong with
it, nay, it is recommended (bal yundabu
ilayh) for lukewarm and dry hearts.
However, the one who harbors wrong desires
in his heart is not allowed to attend the
sama`, for the sama` stirs up whatever
desire is already in the heart, both the
detestable and the desirable.(8)
He also said in his Qawa`id al-ahkam:
Dancing and clapping are a bad display
resembling the display of women, which no
one indulges except frivolous men or
affected liars... whoever apprehends the
greatness of Allah, it cannot be imagined
that he will start dancing and clapping as
these are not performed except by the
crassly ignorant, not those who have merit
and intelligence, and the proof of their
ignorance is that the Shari`a has not cited
any evidence for their action in the Qur'an
and the Sunna, and none of the Prophets or
their notable followers ever did it.(9)
al-`Izz on the Superiority of the Rank of
the
Awliya' Over That of the `Ulama'
Al-`Izz ibn `Abd al-Salam was asked in his
Fatawa
about the correctness of Qushayri's and
Ghazali's
saying that the highest level among Allah's
servants after Messengers and Prophets was
that
of saints (awliya'), then that of the
scholars
(`ulama'). He replied:
Concerning the priority of the knowers of
Allah over the knowers of Allah's rulings,
the saying of the teacher Abu Hamid (al-
Ghazali) is agreed upon. No reasonable
person doubts that the knowers of Allah...
are not only better than the knowers of
Allah's rulings, but also better than those
of the branches and the roots of the
Religion, because the rank of a science is
according to its immediate object... Most
of the time scholars are veiled from their
knowledge of Allah and His attributes,
otherwise they would be among the gnostics
whose knowledge is continuous, as befits
the demand of true virtue. And how could
the gnostics and the jurists be the same,
when Allah says: "The noblest among
you in
Allah's sight are the most godwary"
(49:13)?... and by the "erudite"
(`ulama)
in His saying "The erudite among His
bondsmen fear Allah alone" (35:28), He
means those who know Him, His attributes,
and His actions, not those who know His
rulings... A sign of the superiority of the
gnostics over the jurists is that Allah
effects miracles at the hands of the
former, but never at the hands of the
latter, except when they enter the path of
the gnostics and acquire their
characteristics.(10)
It is noteworthy that al-`Izz did not need
to include the scholars of hadith, since
they are
considered below the rank of the scholars
of fiqh
and are therefore included with them below
the
saints. Ibn Abi Zayd al-Maliki reports
Sufyan ibn
`Uyayna as saying: "Hadith leads to
misguidance
except the fuqaha'," and Malik's
companion Ibn
Wahb said: "Any master of hadith who
has no Imam
in fiqh is misguided (dall). If Allah had
not
saved us with Malik and al-Layth, we would
have
been misguided."(11) We have already
mentioned
Malik's warning that religion does not
consist in
the narration of many hadiths but in a
light that
settles in the breast.
(1) al-Dhahabi, Siyar a`lam al-nubala'
[#969].
(2) Miftah al-sa`ada 2:353; al-Subki, Tabaqat al-shafi`iyya 8:214.
(3) al-`Izz ibn `Abd
al-Salam, Qawa`id al-ahkam (Dar al-sharq
li al-tiba`a, 1388/1968)
1:29, 2:212.
(4)
Ahmad, Musnad 1:108 (#860).
(5) al-Haytami, Fatawa hadithiyya p. 212.
(6) al-Yafi`i, Mir'at al-jinan 4:154.
(7) Ibn al-`Imad, Shadharat al-dhahab
5:302; Ibn Shakir
al-Kutabi, Fawat
al-wafayat 1:595; al-Yafi`i,
Mir'at al-jinan
4:154;
al-Nabahani, Jami` karamat al-awliya 2:71; Abu al-Sa`adat,
Taj al-ma`arif p. 250.
(8) al-`Izz ibn `Abd
al-Salam, Fatawa misriyya p. 158.
(9) al-`Izz ibn `Abd
al-Salam, Qawa`id al-ahkam 2:220-221.
(10) al-`Izz ibn `Abd al-Salam, Fatawa, ed.
`Abd al-Rahman
ibn `Abd al-Fattah
(Beirut: dar al-ma`rifa, 1406/1986) p. 138-142.
(11) Ibn Abi Zayd, al-Jami` fi al-sunan p.
118-119.
Reproduced with permission from Shaykh M.
Hisham Kabbani's
_The Repudiation of "Salafi" Innovations_ (Kazi, 1996) p.
345-349.
Blessings and Peace on the Prophet, his
Family, and his Companions
GFH Abu Hammad
[1996-11-16]
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