What is Tasawwuf or Sufism?

Abdul Hakim Murad

'Outward conformity to the rules of religion is simple enough; but it is only the first step.' 

As we noted earlier, our din is not, ultimately, a manual of rules which, when meticulously followed, becomes a passport to paradise. 

Instead, it is a package of social, intellectual and spiritual technology whose purpose is to cleanse the human heart. 

In the Qur'an, the Lord says that on the Day of Judgement, nothing will be of any use to us, except a sound heart (qalbun salim). And in a famous hadith, the Prophet, upon whom be blessings and peace, says that:

  

"Verily in the body there is a piece of flesh. If it is sound, the body is all sound. If it is corrupt, the body is all corrupt. Verily, it is the heart." 

Mindful of this commandment, under which all the other commandments of Islam are subsumed, and which alone gives them meaning, the Islamic scholars have worked out a science, an ilm (science), of analysing the 'states' of the heart, and the methods of bringing it into this condition of soundness. In the fullness of time, this science acquired the name tasawwuf, in English 'Sufism' - a traditional label for what we might nowadays more intelligibly call 'Islamic psychology.'  

At this point, many hackles are raised and well-rehearsed objections voiced. 

It is vital to understand that mainstream Sufism is not, and never has been, a doctrinal system, or a school of thought - a madhhab. It is, instead, a set of insights and practices which operate within the various Islamic madhhabs; in other words, it is not a madhhab, it is an ilm. And like most of the other Islamic ulum, it was not known by name, or in its later developed form, in the age of the Prophet (upon him be blessings and peace) or his Companions. This does not make it less legitimate. There are many Islamic sciences which only took shape many years after the Prophetic age: usul al-fiqh, for instance, or the innumerable technical disciplines of hadith.  

Islam, as the religion designed for the end of time, has in fact proved itself eminently adaptable to the rapidly changing conditions which characterise this final and most 'entropic' stage of history.  

What is a bid'a, according to the classical definitions of Islamic law? We all know the famous hadith:  

Beware of matters newly begun, for every matter newly begun is innovation, every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in Hell. 

Does this mean that everything introduced into Islam that was not known to the first generation of Muslims is to be rejected? The classical ulema do not accept such a literalistic interpretation. Basic distinction between acceptable and unacceptable forms of bid'a is recognised by the overwhelming majority of classical ulema. 

Among some, innovations fall under the five axiological headings of the Shari'a: the obligatory (wajib), the recommended (mandub), the permissible (mubah), the offensive (makruh), and the forbidden (haram). The above classification of bid'a types is normal in classical Shari'a literature, being accepted by the four schools of orthodox fiqh. There have been only two significant exceptions to this understanding in the history of Islamic thought: the Zahiri school as articulated by Ibn Hazm, and one wing of the Hanbali madhhab, represented by Ibn Taymiya, who goes against the classical ijma' on this issue, and claims that all forms of innovation, good or bad, are un-Islamic.  

Given the importance that the Quran attaches to obtaining a 'sound heart', we are not surprised to find that the influence of Islamic psychology has been massive and all-pervasive. 

In the formative first four centuries of Islam, the time when the great works of tafsir, hadith, grammar, and so forth were laid down, the ulema also applied their minds to this problem of al-qalb al-salim. This was first visible when, following the example of the Tabi'in, many of the early ascetics, such as Sufyan ibn Uyayna, Sufyan al-Thawri, and Abdallah ibn al-Mubarak, had focussed their concerns explicitly on the art of purifying the heart. The methods they recommended were frequent fasting and night prayer, periodic retreats, and a preoccupation with murabata: service as volunteer fighters in the border castles of Asia Minor.  

The spirit is the ruh, that underlying essence of the human individual which survives death. It is hard to comprehend rationally, being in part of Divine inspiration, as the Quran says:  

"And they ask you about the spirit; say, the spirit is of the command of my Lord. And you have been given of knowledge only a little." 

According to the early Islamic psychologists, the ruh is a non-material reality which pervades the entire human body, but is centred on the heart, the qalb. It represents that part of man which is not of this world, and which connects him with his Creator, and which, if he is fortunate, enables him to see God in the next world. When we are born, this ruh is intact and pure. As we are initiated into the distractions of the world, however, it is covered over with the 'rust' (ran) of which the Quran speaks. 

This rust is made up of two things: sin and distraction. When, through the process of self-discipline, these are banished, so that the worshipper is preserved from sin and is focussing entirely on the immediate presence and reality of God, the rust is dissolved, and the ruh once again is free. The heart is sound; and salvation, and closeness to God, are achieved.  

This sounds simple enough. However, the early Muslims taught that such precious things come only at an appropriate price. Cleaning up the Augean stables of the heart is a most excruciating challenge. Outward conformity to the rules of religion is simple enough; but it is only the first step. Much more demanding is the policy known as mujahada: the daily combat against the lower self, the nafs. As the Quran says:  

'As for him that fears the standing before his Lord, and forbids his nafs its desires, for him, Heaven shall be his place of resort.'

Hence the Sufi commandment:  

'Slaughter your ego with the knives of mujahada.' 

Once the nafs is controlled, then the heart is clear, and the virtues proceed from it easily and naturally.  

Read more: http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/ahm/fgtnrevo.htm

Read more about Abdul Hakim Murad: 

http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/ahm/default.htm

What is the context of Muslim Extremism?

Abdul Hakim Murad

The extreme has broadened, and the middle ground, giving way, is everywhere dislocated and confused. 

And this enfeeblement of the middle ground is in turn accelerated by the opprobrium which the extremists bring not simply upon themselves, but upon committed Muslims everywhere. For here, as elsewhere, the preferences of the media work firmly against us. ..when a fringe Islamic group bombs Swedish tourists in Cairo, the muck is instantly spread over 'militant Muslims' everywhere.  

If it is ever to prosper, the 'Islamic revival' must be made to see that it is in crisis, and that its mental resources are proving insufficient to meet contemporary needs. The response to this must be grounded in an act of collective muhasaba, of self-examination, in terms that transcend the ideologised neo-Islam of the revivalists, and return to a more classical and indigenously Muslim dialectic.  

It is true that we frequently hear the Quranic verse which states that "God does not change the condition of a people until they change the condition of their own selves." But never, it seems, is this principle intelligently grasped. Nothing could be more hazardous, however, than to measure such moral reform against the yardstick of the fiqh without giving concern to whether the virtues gained have been acquired through conformity (a relatively simple task), or proceed spontaneously from a genuine realignment of the soul.

And as the Blessed Prophet never tired of reminding us, there is little value in outward conformity to the rules unless this conformity is mirrored and engendered by an authentically righteous disposition of the heart. 'No-one shall enter the Garden by his works,' as he expressed it.

Meanwhile, the profoundly judgemental and works - oriented tenor of modern revivalist Islam (we must shun the problematic buzz-word 'fundamentalism'), fixated on visible manifestations of morality, has failed to address the underlying question of what revelation is for. For it is theological nonsense to suggest that God's final concern is with our ability to conform to a complex set of rules. His concern is rather that we should be restored, through our labours and His grace, to that state of purity and equilibrium with which we were born. 

To make this point, the Holy Quran deploys a striking metaphor. In Sura Ibrahim, verses 24 to 26, we read:  

Have you not seen how God coineth a likeness: a goodly word like a goodly tree, the root whereof is set firm, its branch in the heaven? It bringeth forth its fruit at every time, by the leave of its Lord. Thus doth God coin likenesses for men, that perhaps they may reflect. And the likeness of an evil word is that of an evil tree that hath been torn up by the root from upon the earth, possessed of no stability. 

According to the scholars of tafsir (exegesis), the reference here is to the 'words' (kalima) of faith and unfaith. The former is illustrated as a natural growth, whose florescence of moral and intellectual achievement is nourished by firm roots, which in turn denote the basis of faith: the quality of the proofs one has received, and the certainty and sound awareness of God which alone signify that one is firmly grounded in the reality of existence. The fruits thus yielded - the palpable benefits of the religious life - are permanent ('at every time'), and are not man's own accomplishment, for they only come 'by the leave of its Lord'. Thus is the sound life of faith. The contrast is then drawn with the only alternative: kufr, which is not grounded in reality but in illusion, and is hence 'possessed of no stability'.

It is against this criterion that we must judge the quality of contemporary 'activist' styles of faith. Is the young 'ultra', with his intense rage which can sometimes render him liable to nervous disorders, and his fixation on a relatively narrow range of issues and concerns, really firmly rooted, and fruitful, in the sense described by this Quranic image?  This ephemerality of extremist activism should be as suspicious as its content. Authentic Muslim faith is simply not supposed to be this fragile; as the Qur'an says, its root is meant to be 'set firm'.

The Islamic world is passing through a most devastating period of transition. A history of economic and scientific change is being squeezed into a couple of generations. For instance, only thirty-five years ago the capital of Saudi Arabia was a cluster of mud huts, as it had been for thousands of years. Today's Riyadh is a hi-tech megacity of glass towers, Coke machines, and gliding Cadillacs. This is an extreme case, but to some extent the dislocations of modernity are common to every Muslim society, excepting, perhaps, a handful of the most remote tribal peoples.  

Such a transition period, with its centrifugal forces which allow nothing to remain constant, makes human beings very insecure. They look around for something to hold onto, that will give them an identity. In our case, that something is usually Islam. And because they are being propelled into it by this psychic sense of insecurity, rather than by the more normal processes of conversion and faith, they lack some of the natural religious virtues, which are acquired by contact with a continuous tradition, and can never be learnt from a book.  

One easily visualises how this works. A young Arab, part of an oversized family, competing for scarce jobs, unable to marry because he is poor, perhaps a migrant to a rapidly expanding city, feels like a man lost in a desert without signposts. One morning he picks up a copy of Sayyid Qutb from a newsstand, and is 'born-again' on the spot. This is what he needed: instant certainty, a framework in which to interpret the landscape before him, to resolve the problems and tensions of his life, and, even more deliciously, a way of feeling superior and in control. He joins a group, and, anxious to retain his newfound certainty, accepts the usual proposition that all the other groups are mistaken.  

This, of course, is not how Muslim religious conversion is supposed to work. It is meant to be a process of intellectual maturation, triggered by the presence of a very holy person or place. Tawba, in its traditional form, yields an outlook of joy, contentment, and a deep affection for others. The modern type of tawba, however, born of insecurity, often makes Muslims narrow, intolerant, and exclusivist. Even more noticeably, it produces people whose faith is, despite its apparent intensity, liable to vanish as suddenly as it came. Deprived of real nourishment, the activist's soul can only grow hungry and emaciated, until at last it dies.  

Read more:  http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/ahm/fgtnrevo.htm

Read more by Abdul Hakim Murad: 

On The Essence of Islam's Theology of Gender

http://baytunur.blogspot.com/2010/02/essence-of-islams-theology-of-gender.html

ABDUL HAKIM MURAD

Born Timothy J. Winter in 1960, Abdal Hakim studied at the prestigious Westminster School inLondon, UK and later at the University of Cambridge, where he graduated with first class honours in Arabic in 1983. He then lived in Cairo for three years, studying Islam under traditional teachers at Al-Azhar, one of the oldest universities in the world. He went on to reside for three years in Jeddah, where he administered a commercial translation office and maintained close contact with Habib Ahmad Mashhur al-Haddad and other ulama from Hadramaut, Yemen.

In 1989, Sheikh Abdal Hakim returned to England and spent two years at the University of Londonlearning Turkish and Farsi. Since 1992 he has been a doctoral student at Oxford University, specializing in the religious life of the early Ottoman Empire. In 1996, he was appointed University Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge.

Sheikh Abdal Hakim is the translator of a number of works, including two volumes from Imam al-Ghazali Ihya Ulum al-Din. He gives durus and halaqas from time to time and taught the works of Imam al-Ghazali at the Winter 1995 Deen Intensive Program in New Haven, CT. He appears frequently on BBC Radio and writes occasionally for a number of publications including The Independent and Q-News International, Britain's premier Muslim Magazine.

He lives with his wife and children in Cambridge, UK.

Source:

http://www.themodernreligion.com/profile/sh-abdul-Hakim.html

Illuminated Manuscripts

Walters Art Museum

An elegantly illuminated and illustrated copy of the Khamsah (quintet) of Niẓāmī Ganjavī (d.605 AH / 1209 CE) executed by Yār Muḥammad al-Haravī in 922 AH / 1516 CE. Written in four columns in black nastalīq script, this manuscripts opens with a double-page decorative composition signed by Abd al-Wahhāb ibn Abd al-Fattāḥ ibn Alī, of which this is one side. It contains 35 miniatures. The folio represents Bahrām Gūr in the green pavilion. 

Walters Art Museum Illuminated Manuscripts http://www.flickr.com/photos/medmss/

                   http://www.flickr.com/photos/medmss/4267325200/sizes/l/http://www.flickr.com/photos/medmss/4267325200/sizes/l/

'Aqli' & 'Naqli' Sources of Knowledge in Islamic Theology

Dr. William Chittick


William Chittick: "The Recovery of Human Nature" from Metanexus Institute on Vimeo.

William Chittick: "The Recovery of Human Nature"
The mythic message of the Koran, when viewed through the lens of the political ideologies and instrumental rationalities that are the backbone of modern education, can easily be interpreted as a systematic program for reforming the human race—and this is the way it is presented by contemporary Islamist movements. If we look back, however, at the Islamic intellectual tradition as represented by the great Muslim philosophers and sages of the near and distant past, we discover a radically different notion of the meaning of the human situation. This intellectual tradition is Islamic, because it is rooted in the basic message of the Koran, as encapsulated in the double testimony of faith, “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is God’s prophet.” It is also universal, however, because it focuses on a spiritual anthropology that transcends religious boundaries and employs the language of philosophy and metaphysics.

In the view of the Islamic intellectual tradition, any solution to the crises of our times can only be found in the recovery of our true human nature. This nature, however, cannot be grasped with the tools at the disposal of the modern sciences and academic disciplines, but rather by way of a process self-discovery within the context of an overarching anthropocosmic vision. Perhaps a review of the specifically Islamic reading of the significance of human embodiment can throw some light on our contemporary predicament.

2008 July 16 Chittick

BIOGRAPHY:

Dr.William Chittick is a Professor of Comparative Studies at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. A greatly respected scholar, he spent over twelve years in Iran before the revolution studying Sufism in theory and practice, and he has written widely on Shiism.

Dr. Chittick specializes in Islamic intellectual history, especially the philosophical and mystical theology of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as reflected in Arabic and Persian texts. He has also investigated the manner in which texts have been put into practice in the Sufi orders, which have dominated much of popular Islam down to the present. He has published numerous books, among them are:

- Imaginal Worlds: Ibn al-'Arabi and the Problem of Religious Diversity; Faith and Practice of Islam.

Read more: www.suficircle.com/event-chittick.html

Modernism & Postmodernism: Higher Levels of Reality Became Eliminated

Omar KN

Because of the process of isolation of reason and rationality from their transcendant and immutable principles, a tendency which became ever more dominant since the French revolution of 1789 in Western, European thought and imagination, it happened that the higher levels of reality were eliminated from intellectual research and attention.

From now on man himself became the centrepoint of being and there was nothing higher than human reason and no object of science more dignified to receive scientific attention than what was possible to perceive empirically through the human senses.

It meant that from now on man was "not able to go further than outward appearances".  Seeing that every science centered around man, however, made his research and therefore his civilization restricted to only one level of being, the materialistic viewpoint.

In postmodernism human rationality and what was left of human intelligence became relativized, relying on the sub-human and the irrational. In this restricted scientific field sense-experience has become the only source of knowledge. But man thinks according to what he is; or as Aristotle knew for sure, 'knowledge depends upon the mode of the knower.'" 

A study of the modern concept of man as being 'free' of Heaven, complete master of his own destiny, earth-bound but also master of the earth, oblivious to all eschatological realities which he has replaced with some future state of perfection in profane historical time [utopia], indifferent if not totally opposed to the world of the Spirit and its demands, and lacking the sense of the sacred, will reveal how futile have been and are the efforts" ... 

... of wishing to modernise an integrated tradition such as Islam, or even 'harmonizing' Islam and modernism.

In the traditional sciences however, where everything is related to and dependent on the higher levels of reality, there is in consequence always a vast field of scientific investigation above those practical applications which are the result of what modern man usually depicts as science. 

 This was shown for example by Imam Al-Ghazali, who in his Ihya 900 years ago, described the "only intellectually rigorous escape from the trap of postmodernity." 

He and his his school taught that "no universal statements about the world or the human condition can be reached by purely ratiocinative or inductive methods, because these cannot transcend the material context of the world in which they are framed." 

Read More: http://www.livingislam.org/mmt_e.html#rhn

Contemporary Philosophies: Modernism, Postmodernism, Reductionism, Objectivism, Deconstructionism

Modernism & Postmodernism

Omar KN

In modernism it was believed that materiality or phenomena was everything there is and that it is superiour to anything else. This philosophy of science is called positivism - it is a rejection of metaphysics, as it holds that the goal of knowledge is simply to describe the phenomena that we experience, which we can observe and measure and nothing beyond that. 

In some quarters there was still an underlying, dormant longing for the construction or discovery of the Grand Design, meaning a new unity of being, of what Reality really is, but a unity which had to do without religion and metaphysics. Probing the "Grand Design, in posing the greatest questions: How vast is the Universe, the entirety of existence? Was there a beginning? Will there be an end? What is the origin and fate of the Universe?" 

However, as Charles Upton has shown in postmodernism it is always held (as a conviction or belief ?!) that:

(1) there is no Grand Design,
(2) truth is plural and ultimately subjective,
(3) reality is only as it is configured,
(4) there is nothing out there but chaotic potential.

Furthermore, with today's "celebration of diversity", normal logical thinking seems to have evaporated from many a contemporary mind, as modernism and postmodernism even can work together, or so it seems, in the mind of a single individual, confounding it and neutralizing any attempt toward a traditional or metaphysical view of reality!  So much so that by now "modernism has become nothing more than a sub-set, one more disrelated item in the postmodern spectrum of "diversity" ." 

Read more: http://www.livingislam.org/mmt_e.html#rhn

Reductionism

[From English reduce: to resolve or analyze something into its constituent elements.]

1.      (metaphysics) A philosophical approach that attempts to reduce any complex phenomenon into its constituent elements or into a simpler or more fundamental phenomenon. Both physicalism andbehaviorism are examples of reductionism, and reductionism is often closely allied with materialism and determinism. (Sometimes also called reductivism.)

Deconstructionism

[A term coined by the French critic Jacques Derrida.]

1.      (aesthetics) A late twentieth-century theory of literature that concentrates on finding "ruptures" or inconsistencies which enable the critic to break down or "deconstruct" the text. Such deconstruction consists of asserting a personally or communally relative interpretation (usually focused on power relations or class conflict in society) without claiming that any text or interpretation has objective truth or meaning. Deconstructionism is a specific kind of postmodernism, and leans heavily toward subjectivism or evennihilism.

Objectivism

[From Latin objectum: that which is presented to consciousness.]

1.      (metaphysics) The doctrine that reality exists outside of the mind and that entities retain their identity no matter what human beings think or feel about them (colloquially captured in the phrase 'wishing doesn't make it so'). Historically, a less common word for realism, in opposition to subjectivism.

2.      (ethics) The view that there are naturalistic or non-subjective standards of value and conduct.

3.      (philosophy) The self-described name for Ayn Rand's philosophy; see Randianism.

 Read more: www.ismbook.com 

Ibn al-Arabi & The Universal Soul or The Reality of the Perfect Man

Ayesha L. Saeed

The articulated words of God result in the creation of all that is, including the Supreme Barzakh/ Universal Nature. 

Ibn al-‘Arabi discusses Universal Nature as a reality that is primarily receptive. He places Nature in a polarity with the Spirit, which is primarily active and masculine in essence.  He makes it clear that this active dimension of the Spirit is inseparable from the receptive dimension of Nature. Just as the relationship between the Creator and creation is reciprocal for without creation there would be no Creator, similarly Nature has an effect on the Spirit. The realm of the Spirit is also known as the world of Command (‘alam al-amr).

Ibn al-‘Arabi says: A woman in relation to a man is like Nature in relation to the Divine Command, since the woman is the locus for the existence of the children, just as Nature in relation to the Divine Command (al-amr al-ilahi), is the locus of manifestation for the entities of the corporeal bodies. 

Ibn al-‘Arabi employs the terms wife and husband to explain the underlying relationship between Nature and the World of the Command.

When a natural form that has the receptivity to be governed becomes manifest and when a particular soul becomes manifest governing it, the form is like the female, while the governing spirit is like the male.  Hence the form is the wife while the spirit is the husband.

Human beings are permeated by the qualities of both the masculine principle i.e., the world of the command or spirit and the feminine principle i.e., the world of the soul or Nature.  Ibn al-‘Arabi explains how these two principles interact in the context of the male principle being represented by the father and the female principle being represented by the mother. “The spirits are all fathers, while Nature is the Mother, since it is the locus of transmutations” Ibn al-‘Arabi believes that Nature is the “highest and greatest mother, (al-umm al-‘aliyat al-kubra)”[8] through whom the birth of everything in the cosmos takes place, whereas she herself remains unseen.

The Supreme Barzakh is also called by various other significant names or synonyms, such as the Reality of the Perfect Man and Muhammadan Reality. The Reality of the Perfect Man and the Muhammadan Reality are realities that are completely submissive (muslim) to the Will and Command of Allah. But within the attributes of Universal Nature/ the Universal Soul/ the Reality of the Perfect man and Muhammadan Reality is also the attribute of being active and therefore masculine with respect to everything else in creation because everything else in creation is submissive towards it.

Read full paper: http://www.allamaiqbal.com/publications/journals/review/apr07/5.htm

Ibn al-Arabi [1165-1240]: 

Muhammad Muhyi al-Din al-Andalusi al-Dimashqi Ibn 'Arabi: A scholar of Arabic letters at first, then tafsir and tasawwuf, nicknamed al-Qushayri and Sultan al-'Arifin in his time for his pre-eminence in tasawwuf, known in his lifetime for his devoutness to worship, asceticism, and generosity, Ibn 'Arabi was praised by al-Munawi as "a righteous friend of Allah and a faithful scholar of knowledge" (waliyyun salihun wa 'alimun nasih), by Ibn 'Imad al-Hanbali as "the absolute mujtahid without doubt," and by al-Fayruzabadi as "the Imam of the People of Shari'a both in knowledge and in legacy, the educator of the People of the Way in practice and in knowledge, and the shaykh of the shaykhs of the People of Truth through spiritual experience (dhawq) and understanding."

His greatest and best-known is his last work, al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya ("The Meccan Conquests") which begins with a statement of doctrine - translated in forthcoming posts - about which al-Safadi said: "I saw that from beginning to end it consists in the doctrine of Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari without any difference whatsoever.

The name of Ibn 'Arabi remains associated with controversy because of those who criticized him severely for the work attributed to him under the title Fusus al-Hikam ("The Precious Stones of the Wisdoms"). 

Al-Suyuti's attitude and what he reports from al-Munawi is echoed by Imam al-Safadi who said of Ibn 'Arabi: "He was a very great man, and whatever can be understood from his words is excellent and upright; as for what we find difficult, we leave its matter to Allah, for we were not tasked with following him nor with doing all that he said.

Read more: http://www.livingislam.org/n/iarabi_e.html

http://www.ibnalarabi.com/ibnalarabie/default.asp

Biography Dr. Ayesha L. Saeed:

Dr. Ayesha L. Saeed has a PhD in Philosophy of Education from the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Melbourne University, Australia. She is a member of the Academic Advisory Committee, at Virsa College of Arts, Islamabad and of the Council of Social Sciences, Pakistan. 

The Basic Distinction Between Fiqh & Shariah: A Science & A Divine Path

 Dr. Tahira Basharat

Fiqh and Sharia'h originate from Quran and Sunna. Both terms are often used  interchangeably but there is a distinction between the two.

The…meaning of Sharia'h…is, in explanatory sense, the path to be followed. In technical sense, it is the totality of God's commands, or as Muhammad Khan defines it, "Shariat means matters which would not have been known but for the communications made to us by the Lawgiver."

On the other hand Fiqh refers to human reasoning, knowledge and understanding. According to Hashim Kamali "Fiqh is a rational endeavor and largely a product of speculative reasoning, which does not command the same authority as Shari'ah."

Thus, the path of Sharia'h has been laid down by God and His prophet whereas Fiqh is the result of human endeavor. Fiqh signifies science of law and Shariat is the divinely ordained path of rectitude.

In practice both terms are used synonymously as the criterion of all human actions, whether in the Sharia'h or Fiqh; seeking the approval of God by conforming to an ideally perfect code.

But in other questions like criminal law, with the exception of some prescribed punishments, Sharia'h remains flexible and provides only general guidelines. Fiqh, on the other hand, is knowledge of practical rules as derived from Quran and the Sunnah.. "The practicalities of conduct are evaluated on a scale of five values; obligatory, recommended, permissible, reprehensible and forbidden." A very important idea to understand is that although most of the Islamic law and jurisdiction is based upon human reasoning, none of it goes against the basic sources of Law; the Quran and the Sunnah.

Read full paper: http://www.pu.edu.pk/szic/journal/currentissue_pdf/E-3%20Islamic%20Legal%20Traditio1[1].docdup.pdf

http://www.pu.edu.pk/departments/default.asp?deptid=64

Read more on Shariah:

Al-Ghazali & The Basic Purpose of Legislation in Islam: Protect the Interest of People Against Harm http://baytunur.blogspot.com/2010/03/al-ghazali-basic-purpose-of-legislation.html

Hashim Kamali: Protection of Freedom of Religion in Islam http://baytunur.blogspot.com/2010/03/hashim-kamali-protection-of-freedom-of.html

 Dr. Tahira Basharat is an Associate Professor, Faculty of Islamic Studies University of the Punjab Lahore. 

The Inner World (Alam-e-Batin) in Islam: Revelation (Wahy, Ilham), Miracles (Karamaat) & Layers of Meaning

Hazrat Shaykh Wahid Bakhsh Rabbani r.a.

It must be remembered that in the Quran and Hadith we are told that there are two kinds of world, Alam-i-Zahir and Alam-i-Batin, the outer world and the inner-world. God, angels, paradise, hell and souls belong to the inner world (Alam-i-Batin); and this physical universe belongs to outer world (Alam-i-Zahir). It is also mentioned frequently in the Quran and Hadith that things of Alam-i-Batin are often revealed to the prophets and saints. The Quran has also been revealed to the Noble Prophet through Jibril by Batini means. All the Hadith-al-Qudsi are also the result of Batini talk or communication between Allah Almighty and the Noble Prophet.

The Quran and Hadith are also full of the accounts of miracles performed by the Prophet and karamaat performed by the Auliya Allah. It is a part of faith in Islam to believe in miracles and Karamaat. Then there is another kind of revelation called Ilham or Ilqa by which Allah s.w.t. reveals certain things to His chosen people personally through Batini (inner) relationship. The Prophet has said in a Hadith that:

“The Quran has an external (Zahiri) and internal meaning. That internal meaning has another internal meaning till seven internal meanings.”

The Prophets and Auliya Allah know these inner meanings of the Quran. Hazrat Ali has said:

“If I wrote the Batini (inner) meanings of Surah Fatiha (half a page) it would be the load of seventy camels.”

Once Abdullah bin Abbas went to Hazrat Ali and asked him to explain the inner meanings of Surah Fatiha. He went on explaining the whole night and when the Azan of the next morning prayer was recited, he was still explaining the meanings of the first letter “B” of Bismillah. This shows that the mysteries of creation (Haqqaiq and Maarif) are revealed by Allah s.w.t. to the prophets and saints (Auliya) and nobody can deny it. Revelation (Kashf) is of many degrees. Revelations to the prophets are known as Wahy, to the saints (Auliya) as Karamaat, and ordinary pious persons as Ilham and Ilqa. There are several examples of these revelations in the Quran and Hadith."

Read more: http://cyclewalabanda.blogspot.com/2007/07/quranic-origin-of-sufism-pt-ii.html


Biography: Hazrat Wahid Bakhsh Sial Rabbani (R.A.)

He was initiated into the Chishtiyya Spiritual Order in 1940. He retired from military service in 1946 and joined the Civil Secretariat of the Bahawalpur Government and retired in 1968.

He wrote several important books in Urdu and English, such as ''Islamic Sufism, Mushahida-e-Haq, Maqam-e-Ganjshakar, Reactivsation of Islam, Hajj-e-Zauqi, Ruhaniyat-e-Islam,'' etc. He also translated significant Sufi books from Persian to Urdu, including ''Mirat-ul-Asrar, Iqtabas-ul-Anwar, Maktoobat-i-Quddusiya, Maqabis-ul-Majalis, Talqeen-e-Ladunni,'' etc.

His translations with commentary of ''Lawaih-e-Jami, Jawami-ul-Kalim, and Kashful Mahjub'' have also been published. He was buried in his hometown of Allahabad, in district Rahim Yar Khan (Pakistan).

http://www.informationdelight.info/encyclopedia/entry/captain_wahid_baksh_sial_rabbani

The Esoteric and Exoteric Schools of Thought in Islam at the time of the Prophet: In Spirit, Not Form

Hazrat Shaykh Wahid Bakhsh Rabbani r.a.

There has been a long drawn-out controversy between the esoteric (Sufi) and exoteric (Zahirites) schools of thought in Islam. Both of the schools blame each other for having deviated from the right path.

While the externalists are trying to determine the period when Sufism entered into Islam, the Sufis are at pains to find out when exotericism found its way into Islam. The Sufis maintain that Sufism is real Islam and that exotericism is of later growth. They regard it as the result of carelessness and ease loving tendencies of the later generations who were contented with the bearest minimum of Islamic worship and failed to maintain the full standard of Islamic worship as urged in the Quran and practised by the Prophet(s) and his companions. Therefore they failed to reach the stages of Divine nearness, presence, union and communion with God, reached by the Prophet(s), his companions and companions of the companions, while the Sufis who maintained that standard of Islamic worship, did and still do reach these stages of Divine nearness.
 

Let us now see in the light of the Quran and Sunnah (practice) of the Noble Prophet, which school of thought is right and which is wrong.

It is true that the word Tasawwuf (Sufism) was not in vogue in the Prophet’s time, similarly all the Islamic sciences like Tafsir, Hadith, and Fiqh etc., were also not known by these names during the Noble Prophet’s time. Are then these sciences (Ulum) also alien to Islam?

The reality is that Tasawwuf and all these Islamic sciences were very much present during the Prophet’s time but they were there in spirit, not form. They were formulated into regular sciences later on, when the companions of the Prophet(s) were free from Jihad (sacred warfare).

Those who pondered upon and provided the meanings of Quran were known as Mufassireen and the branch of their knowledge was called Tafsir. Those who formulated the science of Hadith were known as Muhaddithin and their science was called Ilmul Hadith. Those who worked on the formulation of Muslim Law were known as Fuqaha and the branch of their knowledge was called Fiqh (jurisprudence). Those who specialized in the science of spirituality were called Sufis and their science was called Tasawwuf (Sufism). This did not mean that those who worked on one science were ignorant about others. The fact of the matter is that the companions of the Prophet(s) were proficient in all these sciences.

By virtue of his company and teachings they were well versed in the meanings of the Quran, Hadith, Islamic Law, as well as spiritual science without being known by the names of Mufassireen, Mohaddithin, Fuqaha and Sufis.

Read more: http://cyclewalabanda.blogspot.com/2007/07/quranic-origin-of-sufism-pt-i.html

Biography: Hazrat Wahid Bakhsh Sial Rabbani (R.A.)

He was initiated into the Chishtiyya Spiritual Order in 1940. He retired from military service in 1946 and joined the Civil Secretariat of the Bahawalpur Government and retired in 1968.

He wrote several important books in Urdu and English, such as ''Islamic Sufism, Mushahida-e-Haq, Maqam-e-Ganjshakar, Reactivsation of Islam, Hajj-e-Zauqi, Ruhaniyat-e-Islam,'' etc. He also translated significant Sufi books from Persian to Urdu, including ''Mirat-ul-Asrar, Iqtabas-ul-Anwar, Maktoobat-i-Quddusiya, Maqabis-ul-Majalis, Talqeen-e-Ladunni,'' etc.

His translations with commentary of ''Lawaih-e-Jami, Jawami-ul-Kalim, and Kashful Mahjub'' have also been published. He was buried in his hometown of Allahabad, in district Rahim Yar Khan (Pakistan).

http://www.informationdelight.info/encyclopedia/entry/captain_wahid_baksh_sial_rabbani

Imam Ja'fer as-Sadiq: Master in Exegesis, Jurisprudence, and a Mujtahid

Naqshbandi

The son of Imam Muhammad al-Baqir, son of al-Imam Zain al-'Abidin, son of al-Husayn, son of Ali bin Abi Talib (r), Ja'far was born on the eighth of Ramadan in the year 83 H. His mother was the daughter of al-Qassim (r), whose great grandfather was Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (r).

Ja'far narrated from his father, Muhammad al-Baqir, that a man came to his grandfather, Zain al-'Abidin, and said, "Tell me about Abu Bakr!" He said, "You mean as-Siddiq?" The man said, "How do you call him as-Siddiq when he is against you, the Family of the Prophet (s)?" He replied, "Woe to you. The Prophet (s) called him as-Siddiq, and Allah accepted his title of as-Siddiq. If you want to come to me, keep the love of Abu Bakr and 'Umar in your heart."

He took the knowledge of hadith from two sources: from his father through 'Ali (r) and from his maternal grandfather al-Qassim. The two Sufyans, Sufyan ath-Thawri and Sufyan bin Ayinah, Imam Malik, Imam Abu Hanifa, and al-Qattan all narrated hadith through him, as did many others from later hadith scholars. He was a mufassir al-Qur'an or master in exegesis, a scholar of jurisprudence, and one of the greatest mujtahids (qualified to give legal decisions) in Madinah. Ja'far (r) acquired both the external religious knowledge as well as the internal confirmation of its reality in the heart. The latter was reflected in his many visions and miraculous powers, too numerous to tell.

From his knowledge he used to say to Sufyan ath-Thawri, "If Allah bestows on you a favor, and you wish to keep that favor, then you must praise and thank Him excessively, because He said, "If you are thankful Allah will increase for you" [14:7]. He also said, "If the door of provision is closed for you, then make a great deal of istighfaar (begging forgiveness), because Allah said, "Seek forgiveness of your Lord, certainly Your Lord is oft-Forgiving" [11:52]. And he said to Sufyan, "If you are upset by the tyranny of a Sultan or other oppression that you witness, say "There is no change and no power except with Allah," because it is the key to Relief and one of the Treasures of Paradise."

He received from the Prophet (s) two lines of inheritance: the secret of the Prophet (s) through 'Ali (r) and the secret of the Prophet (s) through Abu Bakr (r). In him the two lineages met and for that reason he was called "The Inheritor of the Prophetic Station (Maqam an-Nubuwwa) and the Inheritor of the Truthful Station (Maqam as-siddiqiyya)." In him was reflected the light of the knowledge of Truth and Reality. That light shone forth and that knowledge was spread widely through him during his lifetime.

He spent his life in worship and acts of piety for the sake of Allah. He rejected all positions of fame in favor of ^cuzla or isolation from the lower world. One of his contemporaries, ^cUmar ibn Abi-l- Muqdam, said, "When I look at Ja'far bin Muhammad I see the lineage and the secret of the Prophet Muhammad (s) united in him."

Imam Ja'far (RAA) passed away in 148 H. and was buried in Jannat al-Baqi in the same grave as that of his father, Muhammad al-Baqir, his grandfather, Zain al-'Abidin, and the uncle of his grandfather, al-Hasan ibn 'Ali (r).

Read more: http://naqshbandi.org/chain/5.htm

Courtesy:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mhrabbani/1149621984/in/set-72157601500708922/