Introduction to Sufism:
Bismillah Hir Rahmaan ir Raheem
I begin with the name of Allah SWT Most merciful and most compassionate. All Praise is to Allah SWT. He has given us through our master Hazrat Muhammad SAW, the messenger of Allah SWT, signs of His Wisdom. Our Prophet Muhammad SAW is bestowed with His knowledge of divine secrets. Our Prophet Muhammad SAW has been honoured with the highest station given to anything that is created and is the master of this life and the hereafter.
The Prophet SAW of Allah SWT is mentioned the most, His remembrance is rejoiced the most. Nothing contains the wisdom of our Prophet SAW. There is none like Our Prophet SAW. Praise be to Allah SWT again, who has inspired His and our beloved Prophet SAW to bestow from the Oceans of knowledge to those devoted and sincere seekers in every age, the ones chosen by Allah, to be of Allah, by Allah, with Allah and for Allah and who sought nothing but Allah and for whom Allah is sufficient for recompense. Their days were spent in Allah’s work and nights in crying before His Divine Court. They were interested in seeking Allah SWT to shower mankind with His overflowing Mercy.
Saints of the Chisti, Qadiri, Soharwardi and Naqshbandi orders whose descent is so well documented from the Prophet SAW cannot be overlooked. The bearers of this difficult burden are the height of piety to this day. They uphold passionately the Way of The Prophet SAW. These spiritual masters hold the key to unlocking the soul to the extent that it can Witness the Divine. More, they can assist protecting from evil in all walks of life. These saints are experts and hold valuable hidden and external knowledge. They can see with the Eye of the Heart and can be resolute in keeping evil away.
The internal vision of these saints has allowed them to create and establish devotional methods. These methods enable devout seekers an awakening of belief in the unseen world around us. Through resolute practice they are then enlightened and empowered to attain supreme heights of proximity to the Divine Presence. This fulfils the true reason for the existence of the heart, for it to explore its full potential.
Tasawwuf
It is clear in the Hadith narrated by Sayyidina Umar RA about Jibril’s AS meeting with the Prophet Muhammad SAW belonging to Ahl-e Sunnah wal-jamaat (the People of the Tradition and the Majority, also known as the ‘The Saved Group’[1]), cannot stop at the rules of faith. It involves the adoption of principles that lead to ihsan or the perfection of belief and practice. Hence the saved group follows one of the many schools of personal discipline in ethics and conduct in accordance with the guidelines of the shariah and its strict application. These practices are known as the science of tasawwuf or ‘purification of the self.’
A factor that has accounted for the misunderstanding of Tasawwuf is due to its appropriation of terms taught by non-Muslims. Many teach Tasawwuf but claim it is not affiliated with Sharia and make up its own rules. The difference between a sufi and the person trying to purify himself alone is that the sufi carries out the Work of Allah SWT, purification as a self-measure has no Divine Blessing.
The purpose of tasawwuf is first to purify the heart of bad desires and if the dirt that amasses due to sin and wrong doing. The second integral part of tasawwuf is to remove these bad attributes and adorn and decorate the heart with good manners that are demanded by the Holy Quran and Holy Sunna of the Prophet Muhammad SAW. Its final stage is to perfect the character which was the state of the Holy Prophet SAW. A state that the Campanions strove to achieve.
The state of perfection, austerity, great fear of Allah SWT and godwariness were naturally practiced by the Companions, because they were in direct company of The Holy Prophet SAW. Those states were a direct result of their companionship or association with the Holy Prophet SAW. Just as the entrance of converts from other regions into the fold of Islam necessitated the development of the science of the Arabic language development of the science of self-purification was necessitated by the passing of The Holy Prophet SAW and his Companions. Here arose the requirement of schools that allowed the development of spiritual discipline to perfect belief and practice. Far from an innovation, as some of its detractors contend, the science of tasawwuf encapsulates the logical and necessary evolution of teachings and practices that strike the heart of the religion of Islam.
The term tasawwuf, refers to cleansing of the heart, the same as that denoted in the Quran as tazkiyat al-nafs. The subject matter being ‘doing-without’, perfection of character and purification of soul – all terms that were used during the time of the Prophet SAW. These terms were later defined extensively as per the guidelines of The Holy Quran and the Holy Sunna.
The Heart
The heart is the seat of sincerity, without the correct integrity a persons activity is not accepted. The Prophet SAW said, as Bukhari narrated, ‘Surely there is in the body a small piece of flesh; if it is good the whole body is good and if it is corrupted the whole body is corrupted and that is the heart.’ He said in two other ahadith narrated by Muslim, ‘Surely God does not look at your bodies nor at your faces but He looks at your hearts’ and ‘No one will enter Paradise who has even an atom of pride in his heart.’
The reason for the above mention of the primacy of the heart and its place is central to spiritual bliss that earns a well-pleasing response from the Divine. The spiritual orders of our affiliation focus on cultivation of the heart to the extent that Love for the kaamil murshid is borne which translates to Love for our Prophet SAW and ultimately Love for Allah SWT.
The sufi orders listed herein are the ways of the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad SAW and those who follow them. The Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad SAW is exemplified through continuous intrinsic and extrinsic worship. The methods of remembrance of the divine of these orders have one basic core. The Chisti method for revering Allah SWT can include ‘qawaali’ – traditional south Asian music while the Qadiri method may use voice alone. The aspiration in all remains unified in that it invokes the Divine.
The ‘tarika’ – path of an aspirant includes awareness of the continuous presence of Allah SWT, Almighty and Exalted. This allows one to enter self-annihilation and inevitably a complete experience of the Divine Presence. This ‘tarika’ that the self embarks upon is known as the most difficult struggle as it is a battle against the self, or the Ego. annihilation of the ego, when complete fruits into the attraction if Divine Love. This is something that was a common when Islam started, it was granted to the Caliphs of our Beloved Prophet Muhammad SAW and since has been passed down to lovers through initiation and effort of the followers of this ‘tarika’.
