[Nermeen]

Themes of 'The Erotic' in Sufi Mysticism
by Jonah Winters

Rabi'a seems to have loved a God who was an other, a being who created her and yet was distinct from her. Al-Hallaj, though, often has been interpreted as loving a God who was identical with himself. Inspired by Quran's verses such as "He who hath given thee the Quran for a law will surely bring thee back home again," (28:85), Al-Hallaj wrote: "I have become the One I love, and the One I love has become me! We are two spirits infused in a (single) body."]

This sense of tawhid, of a complete unification of the lover and the beloved, led Al-Hallaj to speak of God in very amorous terms. Al-Hallaj's biographer Louis Massignon, in describing his ideas of mystical ontology, wrote that, for Al-Hallaj, divine union is consummated in "the amorous nuptial in which the Creator ultimately rejoins his creature ...and in which the latter opens his heart to his Beloved in intimate, familiar" discourse.]

Al-Hallaj and Hulool:

A Sufi leader by the name Abu Mansoor al-Hallaj went so far in disbelief as to claim he was god himself. He was crucified for his blasphemous claim, and for his defiance of Shari’a, or Islamic jurisprudence, in Baghdad, Iraq, in 309 A. H. (922 A.D.) He said,

"I am He Whom I love; He Whom I love is I; we are two souls co-inhabiting one body. If you see me you see Him and if you see Him you see me.")

Abdul-Karim el-Jili, Ibn Arabi's closest disciple, went a step ahead of his master, claiming that he was commanded by Allah to bring to the people his own book, The Perfect Man, the theme of which is pantheism. He claimed that the perfect man could represent all the attributes of God, even though Allah the Exalted is far above the qualities of men.

El-Jili went on to purport to prove that nothing in essence exists in the universe other than Allah, and that all other things, human, animal and non-living are only manifestations of God Almighty Allah. He further asserted in his book that the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) is the perfect man and the perfect god. From these blasphemous theories, el-Jili went on to declare himself to be a god also, and exclaimed, "To me belongs sovereignty in both worlds

This assertion is blatant enough to condemn anyone who utters it of clear kufr, or disbelief. Whenever such zindiqs, or heretics are mentioned, Sufis live up to their beliefs by invoking Allah's mercy on them, unaware of the fact that tolerance of kufr is itself an act of kufr, and that whoever invokes Allah's mercy on an unbeliever commits a grave sin.

Idol Worship! (Ibn Arabi)

Allah responded by drowning Noah's people in the flood in this world, and condemning them to Hell-Fire in the next, a punishment fitting their crime. But Ibn al-Arabi interprets the relevant verses of surat Noah in the most outrageous fashion, since he suggests meanings diametrically opposed to those accepted by all Muslim scholars. He interprets the "wrongdoers," "infidels," and "sinners" in surat Noah as 'saints and Gnostics' drowning and burning not in the torment of Hell, but rather in the flames and water of knowledge of God. Ibn Arabi regarded the idols worshipped by Noah's people as divine deities. Allah condemned their deed saying: which means,

"And they (Noah's people) said, 'Do not abandon your gods, neither Wad, Suwa', Yaghooth, Ya'ooq nor Nasr.'"(71.23)

On which Ibn Arabi commented:

"If they (Noah's people) had abandoned them, they would have become ignorant of the Reality to the extent that they them, for in every object of worship there is a reflection of Reality, whether it be recognized or not.")

The "Reality" to which Ibn Arabi refers is nothing but the divinity of his pantheistic beliefs. Yet his disciples, the Sufis, still argue that their doctrines are ****d on the teachings of Islam. However, the fact remains that their cardinal doctrines are not far from the Christian doctrine of incarnation, promoted by Mansoor el-Hallaj, one of the infamous Sufi leaders, who was crucified for claiming identity with God.

"I am He Whom I love," he exclaimed, "He Whom I love is I; we are two souls co-inhabiting one body. If you see me you see Him and if you see Him you see me." )

• Intercession in This Life

How the Naqshabandis cleaned up their web site after they were quoted.

• Power of Other than Allah to Bring Harm or Benefit

• Taking from non-Muslim Sources

Like many other Sufi doctrines, pantheism is adopted from man-made religions and philosophies, as confirmed by S. R. Sharda in his book, Sufi Thought

"Sufi literature of the post-Timur period shows a significant change in thought content. It is pantheistic. After the fall of Muslim orthodoxy from power at the center of India for about a century, due to the invasion of Timur, the Sufi became free from the control of the Muslim orthodoxy and consorted with Hindu saints, who influenced them to an amazing extent. The Sufi adopted Monism and wifely devotion from the Vaishnava Vedantic school( and Bhakti and Yogic practices( from the Vaishnava Vedantic school. By that time, the popularity of the Vedantic pantheism among the Sufis had reached its zenith.")

It is quite obvious that the Sufis did not develop their thoughts independently. Christianity and the worldly religions had their impact on Sufi doctrines.

"At the beginning of the ninth century," N. fatemi elaborates, "the Sufis developed an ecumenical doctrine ****d on the idea of Zoroastrianism,(Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Neo-Platonism and Islam."

(From the Naqshabandi site)

Ibn Taymiyyah said:

"I only ask that Sufis follow the path of the Sunnah of these great and pious ancestors of our faith (Salaf): the ascetics (zuhhad) among the Companions, the generation which succeeded 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 (Hulool) 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 Sheikh summons people: this is clearly godlessness and unbelief."

• Oath

The Tijaniyyeh Order makes every candidate for initiation pledge not to visit the grave of pious personality or visit any living scholar. This is one of the major factors in widening the rift between one order and another, causing an order to enter into conflict against his others in an attempt to convert, conquer or annihilate them.

The practice of taking 'ahd to a shaikh, and the ceremony surrounding it, were unknown at the time of the Prophet (s.a.w.) and also during the time of the best three generations of the Prophet's companions and their followers. The Sufi order system and the rituals associated with it are no more than bid'ah (innovation) originated by subsequent generations.



'Ahd or Bai'ah in Light of Quran and Sunnah

In order to make Muslims aware of the seriousness of the Sufi bai'ah, it must be defined linguistically and judicially. Linguistically it signifies bartering or exchanging commodities. It also signifies making a covenant, a compact, an agreement or the like, as though each of the two parties sold what he had to the other, and gave his own special property and his obedience, and that pertains to the case. And judicially it signifies making pledge to the Khalifah, or the Muslim ruler to promise or swear allegiance to him, making a covenant to him to submit to him the judgment of his own case and the cases of Muslims in general, not to dispute with him, but to obey him in whatever command he might impose upon him, pleasing or displeasing. In doing so, it was usual for the person making this covenant to place his hand in the hand of the Khalifah, or the ruler of the Muslims, in confirmation of the covenant, as is done by the seller and the buyer; hence the act is termed bai'ah (or bargain). )

The Prophet (s.a.w.) said,

"If two caliphs were given the covenant of allegiance, then kill the second of them.")

The great Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal was asked about the above hadith. He said:

"Do you know who is the Imam? It is the one upon whom all the Muslims agree; of whom every one of the Muslims says, 'This is the Imam.'")

Imam al-Qurtubi said,

"As for appointing two imams or three at one time, in one country, it is a practice which is unanimously held as impermissible." )

****d on the above, every bai'ah which is made to other than the Khalifahhudood of the Muslims or the Muslim ruler who is invested with authority to declare wars or ratify peace treaties and execute religious castigations, or is null and void.

In his book Al-Bai'ah, Ali Hassan Abdul-Hameed refutes the proofs presented by Sufis and certain Islamic parties who hold bai'ah as a central religious rite. They claim, "There is no text which prohibits the rite of bai'ah." The author refutes this saying:

• "All of the statements of the preceding scholars pertaining to bai'ah refer to the bai'ah as an exclusive right which belonged to the Khalifah or the ruler of the Muslims. No one of them made reference to an exceptional bai'ah.
• If we approve, for the sake of discussion, of the innovated type of bai'ah (Sufi or otherwise) then we pose to them the questions, Is it (the bai'ah) restricted to one particular group of people, or are all the Muslims entitled to it?
• If their answer to the first question is 'yes' then by approving such bai'ah, they initiated an act of worship which is sanctioned by neither the Book nor the Sunnah, because Allah never distinguished one particular group of Muslims from the other with any act of worship. And if their answer to the second question is positive too, they accordingly approve the disunity of the ummah, and deem lawful dividing it into orders, sects and parties, and give the excuse to every group to follow its desires and devise its own bai'ah.
• And if they claim that this exceptional type of bai'ah is legal, then is it possible that the pious predecessors whom Allah praised in His Book were unaware of such an act of worship?"

Abu Na'eem al Asbahani reported in his book Hilyatul Awliyaa that Mutarrif al-Shikh-khir said,

"Once I visited Zaid b. Soohan while he was with a group of people circulating a sheet of paper on which were written statements such as, 'Allah is our Lord, Muhammad is our Prophet, al-Quran is our imam. He who is with us we are with him, and he who is against us we are against him etc.' The paper was shown to every man present, every one of whom was then asked, 'Do you acknowledge this covenant? When the paper reached me, I was asked, 'Do you acknowledge it, young man?' 'No!' I said. Thereupon, the head of the group interjected saying to his men, 'Do not take a hasty action against the youth. Then he turned to me and enquired, 'What do you say, young man?' I said, 'Allah has already taken a covenant from me in His Book, after which I shall never give a covenant to anyone.' Thereupon, every single man relinquished his previous acknowledgment of the covenant. I asked Mutarrif, 'How many of you were there?' He said, 'We were about 30 men.'"

Now compare those truthful and sincere predecessors, who rejected any act of worship, regardless how good it sounded, once they realized it was not practiced by the Prophet (s.a.w.) or his companions, may Allah be pleased with them all, with the Sufi sheikhs and party leaders of today, who not only make imperative that their followers give bai'ah to them, but also consider bai'ah as an indispensable religious rite.

The Big Issue: WilayaWilaya is measured by the degree of compliance with the Shari'a. (From Al-Furqan)Allah has explained in His Book, and in the Sunnah of His Prophet that He has Awliyaa'among the people and that shaitaan also has his Awliyaa', and He has differentiated between these two types of Awliyaa'. Allah said:[Indeed, there is no fear upon the Awliyaa' of Allah, nor shall they grieve, those who believe and are ever pious in their actions. To them are glad tidings in this life and in the hereafter. There is no changing the words of Allah. That, then, is the great success.] Quran 10/62-64The allies of the devil have also been mentioned in the Quran :[And so, when you read the Quran, seek refuge in Allah from the accursed shaitaan. He has no power over those who believe and depend on their Lord. His power is only over those who give their allegiance to him and who (succumb to his urgings and) associate (partners) with Allah.] Quran 16/98-100[Those who believe fight in the path of Allah, and those who disbelieve fight in the path of taaghoot, so fight the allies of shaitaan, verily, the plot of Shaitaan is weak (when confronted with true faith).]
Quran 4/7

Haram Issues Invite the Jinn

Ibn Taymiyyah said:The karamaat of the allies of Allah must have as their cause or reason faith and pious practice. Thus, whatever is brought about by kufr, corrupt conduct, or disobedience is a "miraculous" feat of an enemy of Allah, and not of the karamaat of His allies. Whoever has such astounding feats, but they do not come about through prayer, recitation of the Quran, remembrance of Allah, praying in the night, and making du'a or supplication, rather they come about through shirk (associating partners with Allah) such as supplication of a dead person, or someone who is not present, or they come about with corrupt conduct and disobedience and the consumption of forbidden things such as snakes, hornets, beetles, blood and other unclean things or through singing and dancing and especially with the participation of women and young boys. The intensity of such feats decreases in the presence of the recitation of the Quran, and increases in the presence of the horns of Satan (music). Thus, he can dance through the night, but when prayer time comes, he prays sitting down, or prays quickly like the bobbing of a rooster's head. He detests hearing the Quran, and flees from it. It is difficult for him, he has no love in it nor does he experience any sweetness from it, but he loves listening to "clapping and whistling", and from it he experiences powerful feelings and inspirations. These are satanic states, and he is one of those intended by Allah's statement:[Whoever turns away from the reminder of the Merciful, we will assign a devil to him who will be a partner to him.]
Quran 43/36The Quran is the "reminder of the Merciful" (Dhikr-ur-Rahman) mentioned in this verse. Allah said in another verse:[As for the one who turns away from My reminder (dhikriy), for him is an oppressive life, and We will bring him back on the day of Qiyama blind. He will say: My Lord, why have you brought me back blind, though I used to see? Allah says: In this way my verses came to you and you forgot them, and in the same way today, you are forgotten.] Quran 20/124-126The meaning of forgetting the verses of Allah here is to neglect their application. Ibn Abbas said: "Allah has undertaken, with respect to those who read His book and practice what is therein, that they would not become lost in this life, and would not suffer hardship in the next left..." then he recited the above verse. (Ibn Abbas)

[From the Naqshabandi Sufi site)]

"In the beginning of my travel on the Way, I used to wander at night from one place to another in the suburbs of Bukhara. By myself in the darkness of the night, especially in the wintertime, I visited the cemeteries to take a lesson from the dead. One night I was led to visit the grave of Sheikh Ahmad al-Ajgharawa and to read al-Fatiha for him. When I arrived, I found two men, whom I had never met before, waiting for me with a horse. They put me on the horse and they tied two swords on my belt. They directed the horse to the grave of Sheikh Mazdakhin. When we arrived, we all dismounted and entered the tomb and mosque of the shaikh. I sat facing the Qiblah, meditating and connecting my heart to the heart of that shaikh. During this meditation a vision was opened to me and I saw the wall facing Qiblah come tumbling down. A huge throne appeared. A gigantic man, whom no words can describe, was sitting on that throne. I felt that I knew him. Wherever I turned my face in this universe I saw that man. Around him was a large crowd in which were my sheikhs, Sheikh Muhammad Baba as-Samasi and Sayyid Amir Kulal. Then I felt afraid of the gigantic man while at the same time I felt love for him. I had fear of his exalted presence and love for his beauty and attraction. I said to myself, 'Who is that great man?' I heard a voice among the people in the crowd saying, 'This great man who nurtured you on your spiritual path is your shaikh. He was looking at your soul when it was still an atom in the Divine Presence. You have been under his training. He is Sheikh Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani (q) and the crowd you are seeing are the khalifs who carry his great secret, the secret of the Golden Chain.' Then the shaikh began to point to each shaikh and say, 'This is Sheikh Ahmad; this is Kabir al-Awliyaa; this is 'Arif Riwakri; this is shaikh Ali Ramitani; this is your shaikh, Muhammad Baba as-Samasi, who in his life gave you his cloak. Do you know him?' I said, 'Yes.'

The Myth of Ahlus-Suffa

Some of these people even say that the people of the Suffa (a place in the Prophet's masjid reserved for the Muslims who migrated to Madina, and had no house or other place to stay) were not in need of the Prophet, and he was not sent to them. Some of them say that Allah gave revelation to the people of the Suffa, showing them secretly that which was revealed to the Prophet on the night of the ascension, so they are equal to the Prophet in status. In their excessive ignorance, they did not even know that the ascension occurred when the Prophet was still in Makka, as Allah said:[Glory to the one who took His slave on a journey by night from the sacred Masjid (which is in Makka!) to the farthest Masjid whose precincts we have blessed.]
Quran 17/1The people of the Suffa did not exist until after the migration of the Prophet (sas) to Madinah. The Suffa was an area in the northern parts of the Prophet's Masjid in which stayed the newcomers who had neither family nor close friends in Madinah with which they could stay. The believers used to migrate to the Prophet in Madinah; if they had some place in which to stay, they went to it, and if this was not easy for them, they stayed in the masjid until it was made easy for them to find another place to stay.The "people of the Suffa" were not a particular group of people who never left the Suffa.These people used to decrease in number sometimes, and increase other times. A man may stay there for some time, and then out to another ******** in Madinah. Those who stayed in the Suffa represented all sectors of the people, they had no particular characteristics of knowledge or religiosity. In fact among the people of the Suffa was one who turned back from Islam, and was killed by the Prophet. In Sahih Bukhari, there is a story of a group of Arabs who came to Madinah during the time of the Prophet. They found difficulty with the climate of Madinah, and their health degenerated. They asked the Prophet to supply them with milk. He ordered them to go to where his camels were being tended. They went there and drank of the milk and the urine of the camels. When they regained their health, they killed the one tending the camels, stole the camels, and ran off into the desert. The Prophet (sas) sent out a party in pursuit, and when they were captured, he ordered that their eyes by cauterized by heated nails, their hands and feet were cut off without sealing the wounds, and they were left in a rocky area of Madinah, asking for water but finding no one to give them.In this hadith, as it is found in Sahih Bukhari, it is mentioned that they had been staying in the Suffa. So, it was inhabited by people like this, and it was also inhabited by some of the best of the Muslims such as Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqqaas. He was the best of those who stayed in the Suffa, then he d elsewhere. Abu Huraira and others also stayed in the Suffa. The scholar Abdul Rahman As-Salmi has lected a history of those who spent time in the Suffa.

As for the Ansaar, none of them were of the people of the Suffa. Likewise, the greatest of the migrators like Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, Talha, Az-Zubair, Abdul Rahman ibn 'Auf, Abi 'Ubaidah ibn Al-Jarraah, and others, none of them were ever of the people of the Suffa.




from

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