Tasawwuf Shuyukh
[25] Tasawwuf: Ibn `Ata Allah I
[26] Tasawwuf: Ibn `Ata Allah II
[27]
Tasawwuf: al-Subki
[28] Tasawwuf: al-Shatibi
[25] ON TASAWWUF
The Debate Between
Ibn `Ata' Allah al-Iskandari and Ibn Taymiyya (1/2)
One of the great sufi imams who was also
known as a muhaddith, preacher,
and
Maliki jurist, Abu al-Fadl Ibn `Ata Allah al-Iskandari (d. 709) is
the author of al-Hikam (Aphorisms), Miftah
al-falah (The key to
success), al-Qasd al-mujarrad fi ma`rifat
al-ism al-mufrad (The pure
goal concerning knowledge of the Unique
Name), Taj al-`arus al-hawi li
tadhhib al-nufus (The bride's crown
containing the discipline of souls),
`Unwan al-tawfiq fi adab al-tariq (The sign
of success concerning the
discipline of the path), the biographical
al-Lata'if fi manaqib Abi al-
`Abbas al-Mursi wa shaykhihi Abi al-Hasan
(The subtle blessings in the
saintly lives of Abu al-`Abbas al-Mursi and
his master Abu al-Hasan al-
Shadhili), and others. He was Abu al-`Abbas
al-Mursi's (d. 686) student
and the second successor of the Sufi
founder, Imam Abu al-Hasan al-
Shadhili.
Ibn `Ata' Allah was one of those who confronted Ibn Taymiyya for
his excesses in attacking those of the
Sufis with whom he disagreed. He
never refers to Ibn Taymiyya by name in his
works, but it is clearly of
him that he speaks when he says, in his
Lata'if, that Allah has put the
Sufis to the test through what he terms
"the scholars of external
learning."(1) In the pages below are
the first English translation of a
historical account which took place between
the two.
Text of the Debate
From
Usul al-Wusul
by Muhammad Zaki Ibrahim
Ibn Kathir, Ibn al-Athir, and other authors
of biographical dictionaries
and biographies have transmitted to us this
authentic historical
debate.(2) It gives an idea of the ethics
of debate among the people of
learning. It documents the controversy
between a pivotal personality in
tasawwuf, Shaykh Ahmad Ibn Ata' Allah al-Iskandari, and an
equally
important person of the so-called
"Salafi" movement, Shaykh Ahmad Ibn
`Abd al-Halim Ibn Taymiyya during the
Mamluke era in Egypt under the
reign of the Sultan Muhammad Ibn Qalawun
(al-Malik al-Nasir).
The Testimony of Ibn Taymiyya to Ibn `Ata'
Allah:
Shaykh Ibn Taymiyya had been imprisoned in
Alexandria. When the Sultan
pardoned him, he came back to Cairo. At the
time of the evening prayer
he went to al-Azhar mosque where salat
al-maghrib was being led by
Shaykh
Ahmad Ibn `Ata Allah al-Iskandari. Following
the prayer, Ibn
`Ata' Allah was surprised to discover that
Ibn Taymiyya had been praying
behind him. Greeting him with a smile, the
Sufi shaykh cordially
welcomed Ibn Taymiyya's arrival to Cairo,
saying: "as-Salamu alaykum".
Then Ibn `Ata' Allah started to talk with
the learned visitor.
Ibn `Ata' Allah: "Ordinarily, I pray
the evening prayer in the Mosque of
Imam Husayn and the night prayer here. But
look how the Divine plan
works itself out! Allah has ordained that I should be the first
one to
greet you (after your return to Cairo).
Tell me, O faqih, do you blame
me for what happened?
Ibn Taymiyya: "I know you intended me
no harm, but our differences of
opinion still stand. In any case, whoever
has harmed me in any way, from
this day on I hereby exonerate and free him
from any blame in the
matter."
Ibn `Ata' Allah: "What is it you know
about me, Shaykh Ibn Taymiyya?"
Ibn Taymiyya: "I know you to be a man
of scrupulous piety, abundant
learning, integrity and truthfulness in
speech. I bear witness that I
have seen no one like you either in Egypt
or Syria who loves Allah more
nor who is more self-effacing in Him nor
who is more obedient in
carrying out what He has commanded and in
refraining from what He has
forbidden. Nevertheless, we have our
differences. What do you know about
me?
Are you claiming that I am misguided when I deny the validity of
calling on anyone save Allah for aid
(istighatha)?"
Ibn `Ata' Allah: "Surely, my dear
colleague, you know that istighatha or
calling for help is the same as tawassul or
seeking a means and asking
for intercession (shafa`a); and that the
Messenger, on him be peace, is
the one whose help is sought since he is
our means and he the one whose
intercession we seek."
Ibn Taymiyya: "In this matter, I
follow what the Prophet's Sunna has
laid down in the Shari`a. For it has been
transmitted in a sound hadith:
"I have been granted the power of
intercession."(3) I have also
collected the sayings on the Qur'anic
verse: "It may be that thy Lord
will raise thee (O Prophet) to a praised
estate" (17:79) to the effect
that the "praised estate" is
intercession. Moreover, when the mother of
the Commander of the Faithful `Ali died,
the Prophet prayed to Allah at
her grave and said:
O Allah who lives and never dies, who
quickens and puts to death,
forgive the sins of my mother Fatima bint
Asad, make wide the
place wherein she enters through the
intercession of me, Thy
Prophet, and the Prophets who came before
me. For Thou art the
most merciful of those capable of having
mercy.(4)
This is the intercession that belongs to the Prophet, on him be
peace. As for seeking the help of someone
other than Allah, it smacks of
idolatry; for the Prophet commanded his
cousin `Abd Allah ibn `Abbas not
to ask of anyone to help him other than
Allah."(5)
Ibn `Ata' Allah: May Allah cause you to
prosper, O faqih! As for the
advice which the Prophet -- on him be peace
-- gave to his cousin Ibn
Abbas, he wanted him to draw near to Allah
not through his familial
relationship to the Prophet but through his
knowledge.
With regard to your understanding of istighatha as being seeking
the aid of someone other than Allah which
is idolatry, I ask you: Is
there any Muslim possessed of real faith
and believing in Allah and His
Prophet who thinks there is someone other
than Allah who has autonomous
power over events and who is able to carry
out what He has willed with
regard to them? Is there any true believer
who believes that there is
someone who can reward him for his good
deeds and punish him for his bad
ones other than Allah?
Besides this, we must consider that there are expressions which
should not be taken just in their literal
sense. This is not because of
fear of associating a partner with Allah
and in order to block the means
to idolatry. For whoever seeks help from
the Prophet only seeks his
power of intercession with Allah as when
you yourself say: "This food
satisfies my appetite." Does the food
itself satisfy your appetite? Or
is it the case that it is Allah who
satisfies your appetite through the
food?
As for your statement that Allah has forbidden Muslims to call
upon anyone other than Himself in seeking
help, have you actually seen
any Muslim calling on someone other than Allah?
The verse you cite from
the Qur'an was revealed concerning the
idolaters and those who used to
call on their false gods and ignore Allah.
Whereas, the only way Muslims
seek the help of the Prophet is in the
sense of tawassul or seeking a
means, by virtue of the privilege he has
received from Allah (bi haqqihi
`inda Allah), and tashaffu` or seeking
intercession, by virtue of the
power of intercession which Allah has
bestowed on him.
As for your pronouncement that istighatha or seeking help is
forbidden in the Shari`a because it can
lead to idolatry, if this is the
case, then we ought also to prohibit grapes
because they are means to
making wine, and to castrate unmarried men
because not to do so leaves
in the world a means to commit fornication
and adultery."
At the latter comment both the shaykhs laughed. Ibn `Ata Allah
continued:
"I am acquainted with the all-inclusiveness and foresight of
the legal school founded by your Shaykh,
Imam Ahmad, and know the
comprehensiveness of your own legal theory
and about its principle of
blocking the means to evil (sadd
al-dhara'i`) as well as the sense of
moral obligation a man of your proficiency
in Islamic jurisprudence and
integrity must feel. But I realize also
that your knowledge of language
demands that you search out the hidden
meanings of words which are often
shrouded behind their obvious senses.
As for the Sufis, meaning for them is like a spirit, and the words
themselves are like its body. You must penetrate deeply into what is
behind the verbal body in order to seize
the deeper reality of the
word's spirit.
Now you have found a basis in your ruling against Ibn `Arabi in
the Fusus al-hikam, the text of which has
been tampered with by his
opponents not only with things he did not
say, but with statements he
could not even have intended saying (given
the character of his Islam).
When Shaykh al-Islam al-`Izz ibn `Abd
al-Salam understood what Shaykh
Ibn `Arabi had actually said and analyzed,
grasped and comprehended the
real meaning of his symbolic utterances, he
asked Allah's pardon for his
former opinion about the Shaykh and
acknowledged that Muhyiddin ibn
`Arabi was an Imam of Islam.(6)
As for the statement of al-Shadhili against Ibn Arabi, you should
know that Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili is not
the person who said it but one
of the students of the Shadhiliyya.
Furthermore, in making this
statement that student was talking about
some of the followers of
Shadhili. Thus, his words were taken in a
fashion he himself never
intended.
"What do you think about the Commander of the Faithful, Sayyidina
`Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased
with him?"
Ibn Taymiyya: In the hadith the Prophet, on
him be peace, said: "I am
the city of knowledge and `Ali is its door."(7) Sayyidina `Ali is the
one mujahid who never went out to battle
except to return victoriously.
What scholar or jurist who came after him
struggled for the sake of
Allah using tongue, pen and sword at the
same time? He was a most
accomplished Companion of the Prophet --
may Allah honor his
countenance. His words are a radiant lamp
which have illumined me during
the entire course of my life after the
Qur'an and Sunna. Ah! one who is
ever short of provision and long in his
journeying.
Ibn `Ata' Allah: Now, did Imam `Ali ask
anyone to take his side in a
faction? For this faction has claimed that
the Angel Gabriel made a
mistake and
delivered the revelation to Muhammad -- on him be peace
instead of `Ali! Or did he ask them to
claim that Allah had become
incarnate in his body and the Imam had
become divine? Or did he not
fight and slay them and give a fatwa (legal
opinion) that they should be
killed wherever they were found?
Ibn Taymiyya: "On the basis of this
very fatwa, I went out to fight them
in the mountains of Syria for more than ten
years.
Ibn `Ata' Allah: And Imam Ahmad -- may
Allah be pleased with him --
questioned the actions of some of his
followers who were in the habit of
going on patrols, breaking open casks of
wine (in the shops of their
Christian vendors or wherever they find
them), spilling their contents
on the floor, beating up singing girls, and
confronting people in the
street. All of this they did in the name of
enjoining good and
prohibiting what is forbidden. However, the
Imam had not given any fatwa
that they should censure or rebuke all
those people. Consequently, these
followers of his were flogged, thrown into
jail, and paraded mounted on
assback facing the tail.
Now, is Imam Ahmad himself responsible for the bad behavior which
the worst and most vicious Hanbalis
continue to perpetrate right down to
our own day, in the name of enjoining good
and prohibiting what is
forbidden?
All this is to say that Shaykh Muhyiddin Ibn `Arabi is innocent
with respect to what those of his followers
do who absolve people of
legal and moral obligations set down by the
religion and from committing
deeds that are prohibited. Do you not see
this?"
Reproduced with permission from Shaykh M.
Hisham Kabbani's
_The Repudiation of "Salafi"
Innovations_ (Kazi, 1996) p. 367-374.
[26] ON TASAWWUF
The Debate Between
Ibn `Ata' Allah al-Iskandari and Ibn Taymiyya (2/2)
Ibn `Ata' Allah: All this is to say that
Shaykh Muhyiddin Ibn `Arabi is
innocent with respect to what those of his
followers do who absolve people
of legal and moral obligations set down by
the religion and from committing
deeds that are prohibited. Do you not see
this?"
Ibn Taymiyya: "But where do they stand
with respect to Allah? Among you
Sufis are those who assert that when the
Prophet -- on him be peace --
gave glad tidings to the poor and said that
they would enter paradise
before the rich, the poor fell into ecstasy
and began to tear their
garments into pieces; that at that moment
the Angel Gabriel descended
from heaven and said to the Prophet that
Allah had sought his rightful
portion from among these torn garments; and
that the Angel Jibril
carried one of them and hung it on Allah's
throne. For this reason, they
claim, Sufis wear patchworked garments and
call themselves fuqara' or
the "poor"!
Ibn `Ata' Allah: "Not all Sufis wear
patchworked vests and clothing.
Here I am before you: what do you
disapprove of in my appearance?"
Ibn Taymiyya: "You are from the men of
Shari`a and teach in al-Azhar."
Ibn `Ata' Allah: "al-Ghazali was
equally an Imam both in Shari`a and
tasawwuf. He treated legal rulings, the
Sunna, and the Shari'a with the
spirit of the Sufi. And by applying this
method he was able to revive
the religious sciences. We know that
tasawwuf recognizes that what is
sullied has no part in religion and that
cleanliness has the character
of faith. The true and sincere sufi must
cultivate in his heart the
faith recognized by the Ahl al-Sunna.
Two centuries ago the very phenomena of pseudo-Sufis appeared
which you yourself criticize and reject.
There were persons who sought
to diminish the performance of worship and
religious obligations,
lighten fasting and belittle the five daily
prayers. They ran wild into
the vast arenas of sloth and heedlessness,
claiming that they had been
liberated from the shackles of the slavery
of divine worship. Not
satisfied with their own vile deeds until
they have claimed intimations
of the most extravagent realities and
mystical states just as Imam al-
Qushayri himself described in his
well-known Risala, which he directed
against them. He also set down in detail
what constituted the true path
to Allah, which consists in taking a firm
hold upon the Qur'an and the
Sunna.
The Imams of tasawwuf desire to arrive at the true reality not
only by means of rational evidences thought
up by the human mind which
are capable of being false as well as true,
but by means of purifying
the heart and purging the ego through a
course of spiritual exercises.
They cast aside concerns for the life of
this world inasmuch as the true
servant of Allah does not busy himself with
anything else except love of
Allah and His Prophet. This is a high order
of business and one which
makes a servant pious and healthy and
prosperous. It is an occupation
that reforms those things that corrupt the
human creature, such as love
of money and ambition for personal standing
in society. However, it is
an order of business which is constituted
by nothing less than spiritual
warfare for the sake of Allah.
My learned friend, interpreting texts according to their literal
meanings can sometimes land a person in
error. Literalism is what has
caused your judgments about Ibn `Arabi who
is one of the Imams of our
faith known for his scrupulous piety. You
have understood what he wrote
in a superficial fashion; whereas sufis are
masters of literary figures
which intimate much deeper meanings,
hyperbolic language that indicates
heightened spiritual awareness and words
which convey secrets concerning
the realm of the unseen."
Ibn Taymiyya: "This argument is
against you, not in your favor. For when
Imam al-Qushayri saw his followers
deviating from the path to Allah he
took steps to improve them. What do the
sufi shaykhs in our day do? I
only ask that Sufis follow the path of the
Sunna of these great and
pious ancestors of our faith (Salaf): the
ascetics (zuhhad) among the
Companions, the generation which suceeded
them, and the generation that
followed in their footsteps to their best!
Whoever acts in this way I esteem him highly and consider him to
be an Imam of the religion. As for
unwarranted innovation and the
insertion of the ideas of idolaters such as
the Greek philosophers and
the Indian Buddhists, or like the idea that
man can incarnate Allah
(hulul) or attain unity with Him (ittihad),
or the theory that all
existence is one in being (wahdat al-wujud)
and other such things to
which your Shaykh summons people: this is
clearly godlessness and
unbelief."
Ibn `Ata' Allah: "Ibn `Arabi was one
of the greatest of the jurists who
followed the school of Dawud al-Zahiri
after Ibn Hazm al-Andalusi, who
is close to your methodology in Islamic
law, O Hanbalis! But although
Ibn `Arabi was a Zahiri (i.e. a literalist
in matters of Islamic law),
the method he applied to understand
ultimate reality (al-haqiqa) was to
search out the hidden, spiritual meaning
(tariq al-batin), that is, to
purify the inward self (tathir
al-batin).(8) However, not all followers
of the hidden are alike.
In order that you not err or
forget, repeat your reading of Ibn
`Arabi with fresh understanding of his
symbols and inspirations. You
will find him to be very much like
al-Qushayri. He has taken his path in
tasawwuf under the umbrella of the Qur'an
and Sunna just like the Proof
of Islam, Shaykh al-Ghazali, who carried on
debates about doctrinal
differences in matters of creed and issues
of worship but considered
them occupations lacking in real value and
benefit. He invited people to
see that the love of Allah is the way of a
proper servant of Allah with
respect to faith.
Do you have anything to object to in this, O faqih? Or do you love
the disputations of Islamic jurists? Imam
Malik, may Allah be pleased
with him, exercised extreme caution about
such wrangling in matters of
creed and used to say: "Whenever a man
enters into arguing about issues
of creed it diminishes his faith."
Similarly al-Ghazali said:
The quickest means of drawing near to Allah
is through the heart,
not the body. I do not mean by heart this
fleshy thing palpable to
seeing, hearing, sight and touch. Rather, I
have in mind the inner
most secret of Allah himself the Exalted
and Great which is
imperceptible to sight or touch.
Indeed, the Ahl al-Sunna are the very ones who named the Sufi
shaykh al-Ghazali: "the Proof of
Islam,"(9) and there is no-one to
gainsay his opinions even if one of the
scholars has been excessive in
praising his book when he said: "The
Ihya' `ulum al-din was almost a
Qur'an."(10)
The carrying out of religious obligation (taklif) in the view of
Ibn `Arabi and Ibn al-Farid is a worship
whose mihrab, or prayer-niche
indicating the orientation of prayer, is
its inward aspect, not merely
its external ritual. For what is the good
of you standing and sitting in
prayer if your heart is preoccupied with
something other than Allah.
Allah praises people when He says in the
Qur'an: "Those who are humble
in their prayer" (23:2) and He blames
peoples when He says: "Those who
are heedless in their prayer" (107:5).
This is what Ibn `Arabi means
when he says: "Worship is the mihrab
of the heart, that is, the inward
aspect of prayer not the outward."
The Muslim is unable to arrive at the knowledge of certitude (`ilm
al-yaqin) nor at certitude itself (`ayn
al-yaqin) of which the Qur'an
speaks unless he evacuates his heart from
whatever distracts it in the
way of wordly cravings and center himself
on inward contemplation. Then
the outpourings of Divine reality will fill
his heart, and from there
will spring his sustenance.
The real sufi is not the one who derives his sustenace from asking
and begging people for alms. The only one
who is sincere is he who
rouses his heart and spirit to
self-obliteration in Allah by obedience
to Allah. Perhaps Ibn `Arabi caused the
jurists to rise up against him
because of his contempt of their
preoccupation with arguing and
wrangling about credal matters, actual
legal cases, and hypothetical
legal situations, since he saw how much it
distracted them from
purifying the heart. He named them
"the jurists of women's menses." May
Allah grant you refuge from being among
them! Have you read Ibn `Arabi's
statement that: "Whoever builds his
faith exclusively on demonstrative
proofs and deductive arguments, builds a
faith on which it is impossible
to rely. For he is affected by the
negativities of constant objections.
Certainty (al-yaqin) does not derive from
the evidences of the mind but
pours out from the depths of the
heart." Have you ever read talk as pure
and sweet as this?"
Ibn Taymiyya: "You have spoken well if
only your master were as you say,
for he would then be as far as possible
from unbelief. But what he has
said cannot sustain the meanings that you
have given in my view."(11)
(1) Ibn `Ata Allah, Lata'if al-minan fi manaqib Abi al-`Abbas...
on the margins of Sha`rani's Lata'if
al-minan wa al-akhlaq (Cairo, 1357)
2:17-18.
(2) See Ibn al-`Imad, Shadharat al-dhahab (1350/1931) 6:20f.; al-
Zirikly,
al-A`lam (1405/1984) 1:221; Ibn Hajar, al-Durar al-kamina
(1348/1929) 1:148-273; Al-Maqrizi, Kitab
al-suluk (1934-1958) 2:40-94;
Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa al-nihaya
(1351/1932) 14:45; Subki, Tabaqat al-
shafi`iyya
(1324/1906) 5:177f. and 9:23f.; Suyuti, Husn al-muhadara fi
akhbar
misr wa al-qahira (1299/) 1:301; al-Dawadari, al-Durr al-fakhir
fi
sirat al-malik al-Nasir (1960) p. 200f.; al-Yafi`i, Mir'at al-janan
(1337/1918)
4:246; Sha`rani, al-Tabaqat al-kubra (1355/1936) 2:19f.; al-
Nabahani,
Jami` karamat al-awliya' (1381/1962) 2:25f.
(3) Bukhari and Muslim, hadith of Jabir: "I have
been given five
things which no prophet was given before
me..."
(4) al-Tabarani relates it in al-Kabir. Ibn Hibban and al-Hakim
declare it sound. Ibn Abi Shayba on the
authority of Jabir relates a
similar narrative. Similar also is what Ibn
`Abd Al-Barr on the
authority of Ibn `Abbas and Abu Nu`aym in
his Hilya on the authority of
Anas Ibn Malik relate, as al-Hafiz
al-Suyuti mentioned in the Jami` al-
Kabir. Haythami says in Majma` al-zawa'id:
"Tabarani's chain contains
Rawh ibn Salah who has some weakness but
Ibn Hibban and al-Hakim
declared him trustworthy. The rest of its
sub-narrators are the men of
sound hadith." This Fatima is `Ali's
mother, who raised the Prophet.
(5) Hadith: "O young man... if you have need to ask, ask of Allah.
If you must seek help, seek help from
Allah..." (ya ghulam ala
u`allimuka...):
Tirmidhi (#2516 hasan sahih); Bayhaqi in Asma' wa al-
sifat p. 75-76 and Shu`ab al-iman 2:27-28
(#1074-1075) and 7:203
(#10000); Ahmad 1:307; Tabarani; Ibn
Hibban; Abu Dawud; al-Hakim; Nawawi
included it in his 40 Hadiths (#19) but Ibn
al-Jawzi placed it among the
forgeries.
(6) See al-`Izz ibn `Abd al-Salam al-Maqdisi's Zabad khulasat al-
tasawwuf (The quintessence of
self-purification) (Tanta: al-matba`a al-
yusufiyya). Published under the title Hall
al-rumuz wa-mafatih al-kunuz
(The explanation of symbols and the keys to
treasures) (Cairo: al-maktab
al-fanni
li al-nashr, 1961). Note
that this is a different author than
Shaykh al-Islam al-`Izz ibn `Abd al-Salam
al-Sulami.
(7) From the Reliance of the Traveller p. 954-957: "(`Ali Qari:)
The Hadith "I am the city of knowledge
and `Ali is its gate" was
mentioned by Tirmidhi... [who] said it was
unacknowledgeable. Bukhari
also said this, and said that it was
without legitimate claim to
authenticity. Ibn Ma`in said that it was a
baseless lie, as did Abu
Hatim and Yahya ibn Sa`id. Ibn Jawzi
recorded it in his book of Hadith
forgeries, and was confirmed by Dhahabi,
and others in this. Ibn Daqiq
al-`Eid said, "This Hadith is not
confirmed by scholars, and is held by
some to be spurious." Daraqutni stated
that it was uncorroborated. Ibn
Hajar `Asqalani was asked about it and
answered that it was well
authenticated (hasan), not rigorously
authenticated (sahih), as Hakim
had said, but not a forgery (mawdu`), as
Ibn Jawzi had said. This was
mentioned by Suyuti. The Hadith master
(hafiz) Abu Sa`id `Ala'i said,
"The truth is that the Hadith is well
authenticated (hasan), in view of
its multiple means of transmission, being
neither rigorously
authenticated (sahih) nor weak (da`if),
much less a forgery" (Risala al-
mawdu`at, 26)."
(8) This is a key equivalence in Ibn `Ata Allah's Hikam, for
example #205: "Sometimes lights come
upon you and find the heart stuffed
with forms of created things, so they go
back from whence they
descended." Ibn `Ata' Allah, Sufi
Aphorisms (Kitab al-hikam), trans.
Victor Danner (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1984) p.
53.
(9) As illustrated by Salah al-Din al-Safadi for Ghazali's entry
in his biographical dictionary:
"Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn
Ahmad, the Proof of Islam, the Ornament of
the Faith, Abu Hamid al-
Tusi..." al-Safadi, al-Wafi bi
al-wafayat 1:274.
(10) Ironically, a similar kind of praise on Ibn `Ata' Allah's own
book al-Hikam is related on the authority
of the great shaykh Mawlay al-
`Arabi al-Darqawi by Ibn `Ajiba in Iqaz
al-himam (p. 3-4): "I heard the
jurist al-Bannani say: "The Hikam of
Ibn `Ata' is almost a revelation
(wahy). Were it permitted to recite the
daily prayer without the Qur'an,
the words of the Hikam would be
allowed." He meant by this that there is
nothing in the Hikam except what proceeds
from the Qur'an and points
back to it again, and Allah knows best.
(11) In Muhammad Zaki Ibrahim,
Usul al-wusul (Cairo: 1404/ 1984)
299-310.
Reproduced with permission from Shaykh M.
Hisham Kabbani's
_The Repudiation of "Salafi"
Innovations_ (Kazi, 1996) p. 374-379.
[27] ON TASAWWUF
Taj al-Din al-Subki (d. 771)
Shaykh al-Islam Taj al-Din al-Subki, the
son of
Shaykh al-Islam al-hafiz Taqi al-Din
al-Subki (d.
756) who was a student of Ibn `Ata Allah,
mentioned in his book Mu`id al-ni`am under
the
chapter entitled Sufism:
May Allah give them life and greet them
(Sufis), and may He place us with them in
Paradise. Too many things have been said
about them and too many ignorant people
have said things which are not related to
them... The truth is that those people left
the world and were busy with worship.
Shaykh Abu Muhammad al-Juwayni (Imam
al-Haramayn's father) said: They are among
Allah's people and His elite. His mercy is
sought through their remembrance of Allah,
and rain descends with their invocation.
May Allah be pleased with them and may
Allah be pleased with us for their sake.(1)
(1) al-Subki, Mu`id al-ni`am wa mubid
al-niqam p. 190.
Reproduced with permission from Shaykh M.
Hisham Kabbani's
_The Repudiation of "Salafi"
Innovations_ (Kazi, 1996) p. 380.
[28] ON TASAWWUF
Imam Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi al-Maliki (d.
790)
One of the foundational scholars of Usul
al-fiqh or methodology of law
whose books, like al-Ghazali's, are
required reading in that field, he
laid great emphasis on the requirement of
complete knowledge and
erudition in the Arabic language, not
merely correct understanding, for
those who practice ijtihad. In his book
al-Muwafaqat fi usul al-shari`a
(The congruences of the sources of the
Divine Law) he held that the
language of the Qur'an and the Sunna is the
key to the comprehension of
such scholars, and that the ijtihad of
anyone deficient in this respect
was unacceptable. Since the opinion of the
mujtahid is a hujja or proof
for the common person, this degree of
authority necessitates direct
access to the sources and full competence
in Arabic.(1)
He writes in his book al-I`tisam:
Many of the ignorant think that the Sufis
are lax in conforming to
Shari`a. Far be it from them to be
attributed such a belief! The
very first foundation of their path is the
Sunna and the avoidance
of what contravenes it!
Their chief spokesman and the master of their ways and
pillar of their group, Abu al-Qasim
al-Qushayri, declared that
they acquired the name of tasawwuf in order
to dissociate
themselves from the People of Innovation. He
mentioned that the
most honorable of Muslims after the Prophet
did not give
themselves, in their time, any other title
than Companions, as
there is no merit above that of being a
Companion -- then those
who followed them were called the
Successors. After that the
people differed and the disparity of level
among them became more
apparent. The elite among whom prudence in
belief was seen to be
intense were then called zuhhad and `ubbad.
Subsequently all kinds
of innovations made their appearance, and
the elite of Ahl al-
Sunna who observed their obligations with
Allah, and preserved
their hearts from heedlessness became
unique in their kind under
the name of tasawwuf. Consider this, you
will gain thereby. And
Allah knows best.(2)
(1) al-Shatibi, al-Muwafaqa fi usul
al-shari`a (Cairo:al-maktaba
al-tijariyya
al-kubra, 1975) 4:60
(2)
al-Shatibi, al-I`tisam min al-kutub, quoted in al-Muslim:
majallat
al-`ashira al-muhammadiyya (Dhu al-qi`da 1373).
Reproduced with permission from Shaykh M.
Hisham Kabbani's
_The Repudiation of "Salafi"
Innovations_ (Kazi, 1996) p. 380-381.
Blessings and Peace on the Prophet, his
Family, and his Companions
GFH Abu Hammad
[1996-11-16]
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