Tasawwuf Shuyukh
[29] Tasawwuf: Ibn Khaldun
[30] Tasawwuf: al-Sakhawi
[31] Tasawwuf: al-Suyuti
[32] Tasawwuf: al-Ansari
[29] ON TASAWWUF
Ibn Khaldun (d. 808)
Ibn Khaldun said in his famous Muqaddima:
Tasawwuf is one of the latter-day sciences
of the Law in the
Islamic Community. The foundation of
tasawwuf, however, is
(more ancient, as seen in the fact) that
these folk and their
way have always been present among the
Salaf and among the
most senior of the Companions and the
Successors, and their
way is the way of truth and guidance.
The foundation of the way of the Sufis is self-
restraint in the world and utter dependence
on Allah;
shunning of the adornment and beauty of the
world; self-
deprivation of pleasure, money, and title
in the manner
agreed upon by the vast majority of the
scholars; and
isolation from creatures in seclusion and
devotion to
worship.
All these aspects were widespread among the Companions
and the Salaf, but with the pervasiveness
of worldliness in
the second century and the next, and the
general inclination
of the people towards the world, those who
remained attached
to worship became know under the name of
Sufis.(1)
(1) Muqaddimat ibn Khaldun, p. 328.
Reproduced with permission from Shaykh M.
Hisham Kabbani's
_The Repudiation of "Salafi"
Innovations_ (Kazi, 1996) p. 382.
[30] ON TASAWWUF
Imam al-Sakhawi (d. 902)
The foremost student of Ibn Hajar
al-`Asqalani and a great jurist,
historian, and hadith master, Shams al-Din
Muhammad ibn `Abd al-
Rahman al-Sakhawi, like Taqi al-Din
al-Subki and al-Suyuti,
belonged to the Shadhili order founded by
Abu al-Hasan al-
Shadhili, as represented by the great
Maliki Master Ibn `Ata'
Allah, five of whose works al-Sakhawi
transmitted to posterity,
including the Hikam, from the Shadhili
commentator Ahmad Zarruq
(d. 899).
In his biography of the famous men of his time entitled al-
Daw' al-lami` al-Sakhawi reveals that his
father Zayn al-Din `Abd
al-Rahman
ibn Muhammad (d. 874) was a Cairo-born Sufi of great
piety, and a member of the Baybarsiyya Sufi
community where Ibn
Hajar, Sakhawi's teacher, taught for forty
years.(1)
In the section of his al-Jawahir al-mukallala fi al-akhbar
al-musalsala devoted to the transmission of
hadith through chains
formed exclusively of Sufi narrators,
Sakhawi states that he
himself had received the Sufi path from
Zayn al-Din Ridwan al-
Muqri' in Cairo.(2) In the same work
Sakhawi also mentions several
of his teachers and students of hadith who
were Sufis. Here are
the names of some of them, together with
the words used by him to
describe them in his biographical work
al-Daw' al-lami`:
* Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad al-Hishi al-Halabi al-Shafi`i (b. 848)
the head of the Bistamiyya Sufis in Aleppo,
the mother trunk of
the Naqshbandi Sufi order affiliated with
Abu Yazid al-Bistami.
He spent two years in Mecca with Sakhawi,
who wrote him an
ijaza or permission to teach. In this ijaza
Sakhawi calls him:
"Our master, the masterful Imam of
merits and guidance, the
Educator of Murids (students in the Sufi
path), the Mainstay of
Wayfarers in the Sufi path, the Noble Abu
Bakr al-Hishi al-
Halabi, may Allah preserve him and have
mercy on his gracious
predecessors (i.e. the chain of his shaykhs
in the Sufi path),
and may Allah grant us and all Muslims
their benefits."(3)
* Badr al-Din Hussayn ibn Siddiq al-Yamani
al-Ahdal (d. 903): al-
Sakhawi gave him a comprehensive ijaza
granting him permission
to teach all of his books.(4)
*
Abu al-Fath Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Madani al-Maraghi (d.
859): Sakhawi took hadith from him. He was
head of two Sufi
khaniqas in Cairo, the Zamamiyya and the
Jamaliyya. He led a
life of seclusion for the most part, and
wrote a commentary on
Nawawi's manual of Law Minhaj al-talibin,
and an epitome of Ibn
Hajar's Fath al-bari because of his defense
of Ibn `Arabi, he
was murdered in front of the Ka`ba by a
fanatic.(5)
*
Taqi al-Din Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad al-Qalqashandi (d. 867), also
called `Abd Allah. He received the Sufi
khirqa or cloak of
authority in Cairo. He is said to have read
the whole of Sahih
al-Bukhari in three days while in Mecca. He
lived in al-Quds,
where al-Sakhawi met him and took hadith
from him.(6)
* Thiqat al-Din Abu al-`Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-`Uqbi (d.
861). He taught hadith and tajwid in Mecca,
where Sakhawi
studied under him.(7)
* Kamal al-Din
Muhammad ibn `Abd al-Wahid al-Sikandari al-Siwasi
(d. 861). He was a master of all sciences
and taught at the
Madrasa al-Ashrafiyya in Cairo, after which
he headed the
Shaykhuni Sufi khaniqa. He authored many
books.(8)
*
Abu `Abd Allah Muhammad ibn `Ali al-Husayni al-Qahiri al-
Shafi`i al-Sufi (d. 876). Munawi's deputy
judge in Cairo, a
student of `Izz al-Din ibn Jama`a, Jalal
al-Din al-Bulqini and
many others, and a student and friend of
Sakhawi's teacher Ibn
Hajar whose work Fath al-bari he copied
twice. A teacher of
fiqh and hadith, he wrote an epitome of Ibn
al-Athir's Kitab
al-ansab. He was an old acquaintance of
Sakhawi's father, and
consequently treated Sakhawi himself
"with indescribable
respect." He was one of the ten
students to whom Ibn Hajar gave
his authority in teaching hadith after
him.(9)
*
Abu Khalid Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Jibrini (d. 860). He was a
writer, archer, horseman, and Sufi shaykh
at the zawiya
(alcove-mosque) of Jibrin, where al-Sakhawi
met him and took
hadith from him. Sakhawi says of him:
"He was handsome, modest,
generous, courageous, and endowed with
spiritual strength and
virility after the shaykhs of true
majesty."(10)
* Zaki al-Din Abu al-`Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Ansari al-
Khazraji al-Sa`di al-Muqri' al-Sufi (d. 875). An associate of
Ibn Hajar and a prolific writer, he wrote
an autobiography in
more than fifty volumes, although Sakhawi
said he was
unaffected, congenial, readily given to
tears, and quick of
repartee.(11)
*
Thiqat al-Din Abu `Ali Mahmud ibn `Ali al-Sufi al-Khaniki (d.
865). Born and raised in Cairo's Khaniqa al-Siryaqusiyya
where
he taught late in life. He died while at
Mecca for the
pilgrimage.(12)
*
Abu al-Faraj `Abd al-Rahman ibn Khalil al-Dimashqi al-Sufi
(d. 869). He was a muhaddith. Al-Sakhawi
studied under him in
Cairo and at the Umayyad Mosque in
Damascus.(13)
(1) al-Sakhawi, al-Daw'
al-lami` (Beirut: dar maktabat
al-
hayat, 1966) 4:124-125.
(2) A.J. Arberry, Sakhawiana: A Study Based on the Chester
Beatty Ms. Arab. 773 (London: Emery Walker
Ltd., 1951) p. 35.
(3) al-Sakhawi, al-Daw' al-lami` 11:96-97, 74-75.
(4) Ibid. 3:144-145.
(5) Ibid. 7:162-165.
(6) Ibid. 11:69-71.
(7) Ibid. 2:212-213.
(8) Ibid. 8:127-132.
(9) Ibid. 8:176-178.
(10) Ibid. 7:197.
(11) Ibid. 2:146-149.
(12) Ibid. 10:140-141.
(13) Ibid. 4:76.
Reproduced with permission from Shaykh M.
Hisham Kabbani's
_The Repudiation of "Salafi"
Innovations_ (Kazi, 1996) p. 382-385.
[31] ON TASAWWUF
Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 911)
Shaykh al-Islam al-Suyuti, the Renewer of
the Eighth Islamic
century and Mujtahid Imam said in his book
on tasawwuf entitled
Ta'yid al-haqiqa al-`aliyya wa-tashyid
al-tariqa al-shadhiliyya
(The upholding of the lofty truth and the
buttressing of the
Shadhili path):
Tasawwuf in itself is a most honorable
knowledge. It explains
how to follow the Sunna of the Prophet and
to leave
innovation, how to purify the ego... and
submit to Allah
truly...
I have looked at the matters which the Imams of Shari`a
have criticized in Sufis, and I did not see
a single true
Sufi holding such positions. Rather, they
are held by the
people of innovation and the extremists who
have claimed for
themselves the title of Sufi while in
reality they are not...
Pursuit of the science of the
hearts, knowledge of its
diseases such as jealousy, arrogance and
pride, and leaving
them are an obligation on every Muslim.(1)
(1) al-Suyuti, Ta'yid al-haqiqa al-`aliyya wa-tashyid al-
tariqa al-shadhiliyya, ed. `Abd Allah ibn
Muhammad ibn al-Siddiq
al-Ghumari al-Hasani (Cairo: al-matba`a
al-islamiyya, 1934), p.
56-57.
Reproduced with permission from Shaykh M.
Hisham Kabbani's
_The Repudiation of "Salafi"
Innovations_ (Kazi, 1996) p. 386.
[32]
ON TASAWWUF
Zakariyya ibn
Muhammad Ansari (d. 926)
Shaykh al-Islam Zakariyya Ansari was known
as the Shaykh of
Shaykhs. He was a hadith master, judge, and
exegete of Qur'an. He
was Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Hajar al-Haytami's
teacher and authored
many books on tasawwuf, including a
commentary on Qushayri's
Risala which received several editions.
In his commentary on Qusayri Ansari gives the following
definitions for tasawwuf:
Tasawwuf is the abandonment of
deliberation. It is also said:
It is the guarding of your senses and the
mindfulness of your
every breath; also: it is complete
earnestness in the
progression towards the King of all kings;
also: it is the
devotion to works of good and the avoidance
of defects; and
other explanations... The sufiyya or Sufis
are called thus
because the Truth -- Allah -- has made them
pure (safahum)
and has favored them unreservedly (akhlasa
lahum al-ni`am)
through what He has allowed them to look
upon.(1)
(1) Zakariyya al-Ansari, Sharh al-risala al-qushayriyya
(Cairo: dar al-kutub al-`arabiyya al-kubra, 1330/1912)
p. 126.
Reproduced with permission from Shaykh M.
Hisham Kabbani's
_The Repudiation of "Salafi"
Innovations_ (Kazi, 1996) p. 386-387.
Bismillah al-Rahman al-Raheem
was-salaat was-salaam `alaa Rasul-illah wa
'alaa alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam
[32]
ON TASAWWUF
Zakariyya ibn
Muhammad Ansari (d. 926)
Shaykh al-Islam Zakariyya Ansari was known
as the Shaykh of
Shaykhs. He was a hadith master, judge, and
exegete of Qur'an. He
was Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Hajar al-Haytami's
teacher and authored
many books on tasawwuf, including a
commentary on Qushayri's
Risala which received several editions.
In his commentary on Qusayri Ansari gives the following
definitions for tasawwuf:
Tasawwuf is the abandonment of deliberation.
It is also said:
It is the guarding of your senses and the
mindfulness of your
every breath; also: it is complete
earnestness in the
progression towards the King of all kings;
also: it is the
devotion to works of good and the avoidance
of defects; and
other explanations... The sufiyya or Sufis
are called thus
because the Truth -- Allah -- has made them
pure (safahum)
and has favored them unreservedly (akhlasa
lahum al-ni`am)
through what He has allowed them to look
upon.(1)
(1) Zakariyya al-Ansari, Sharh al-risala al-qushayriyya
(Cairo: dar al-kutub al-`arabiyya al-kubra, 1330/1912)
p. 126.
Reproduced with permission from Shaykh M.
Hisham Kabbani's
_The Repudiation of "Salafi"
Innovations_ (Kazi, 1996) p. 386-387.
GFH Abu Hammad
[1996-11-16]
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