Why our Sufi books translated by Oriantalists

A person was once arguing with another regarding Qawwali. He was an ignoramus but he was quoting Kashful Mahjub to try and justify Qawwali. The books of the Sufis are full of statements which can easily confuse and misguide people without a strong grasp of Fiqh.

It's not their statement but our understanding is wrong.
That's why we are discussing if a little bit known person like us can't understand their statement how can a Orientalist can translate it rightly. Who checked How much error he has done in translating it. That's why we are discussing here that it should translated by people freon Sahihul Aqeedah that's Sunnis.
There are many sunni who want study tassawuf books we can't stop them. Instead of stoping them we can provide them with rightly translated books which explains both Aqeedah and tassawuf.

 

Assalamu alaikum
Brother I don't understand why some are against Tassawuf and some are in favor of it. It's important branch of knowledge which teaches us to how attain nearness to Allah. If some scholars misinterpreted like Keller...etc we should show them that what is the real tassawuf which is Followed by our pious predessors. There are many screintific book written by our scholars which had been traslated to foreign language by other and they had changed the authors name also. Result today we don't know even the name of those scholars bro, instead of arguing which is better to translate. We need both, tassawuf is not out of islam, we should concentrate on that which mostly misinterpretated by so called Ahlu Sunna scholars, it is inside threat for us, we can't tell the followers of tassawuf that ur wrong because ur against shariah ( actually they are wrong) because some people misinterpreted the tariqath is against shariah. How can one build a building when it's foundation is not strong. Aqidah is foundation. We need both.

 

keller, hanson, jifry et al might not possess rolls royce's but they sure do aspire to something similar to what is described above - with their $100 swarovski laden masbaha's, "retreats" "suhbas" "rihla's" and "deen intensives" at 4 and 5 star resorts and luxury b&b's etc., their tasawwuf is more of a hobby meant for the 20-35 age bracket upper middle class western Muslim. their holy mother teresa would have shared a meal with more poor people than them.

 

“The explanation of Shaykh Sari's Dua is that he who studies Hadith and seeks knowledge before stepping foot into the field of Tasawwuf is triumphant but whosoever aspires to become a Sufi before seeking the compulsory knowledge, has put himself into great danger and we seek the refuge of The Almighty (from such).”

Imam Ghazaliy May Allah be well pleased with him

 

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

(1) "what is the essence of learning knowledge?" i mean, "what is the main purpose of knowing knowledge about aqeedah & fiqh?" [maqsood asali)

(2) "what is the purpose of ilme tazkirahul Nafs (tassawuf - sufism)?"

 

I agree with this.

So there is a pathway after all.

 

Exactly, if their Murids knew Fiqh and Aqida well then they wouldn't have fell in their trap. Not in a million years.

 

we seek refuge from the tasawwuf preached by these people.

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if eidgah pir is the same guy who arrived in rolls royce to a welcome of crackers that looks like a hindu ceremony, what tasawwuf do they know?

ali jifri and yaqubi sahib do not have the courage to preach the deen of their forefathers; nor the courage of their great-grandfather sayyiduna imam husayn to stand up and resist evil. hamza is a perennialist. zaid shakir is such a jahil, that he said in one video that we are all children of God...

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they emphasise on fiqh and aqidah because of tasawwuf. the first step for a sufi is to have correct aqidah; the second step is to correct his actions that are obligatory.

without aqidah and fiqh - esoteric words are hollow.

 

I mean books which concentrate exclusively on Tasawwuf like Kahsful Mahjub, books of Shaykh e Akbar, al Insan al Kamil etc.

I am on the same wavelength of Imam Sari (RadiyAllahuAnhu) who made Dua for Imam Junaid (RadiyAllahuAnhu) saying:

May Allah make you a MuHaddith then a Sufi, not a Sufi then a MuHaddith.

No one is against Tasawwuf, I'm just talking priorities.

A person was once arguing with another regarding Qawwali. He was an ignoramus but he was quoting Kashful Mahjub to try and justify Qawwali. The books of the Sufis are full of statements which can easily confuse and misguide people without a strong grasp of Fiqh.

 

I think we are not on the same wavelength re this. When referring to tasawwuf what exactly are you referring to? I'm trying to understand your understanding of what tasawwuf is.

 

Dear brother, no one is saying don't study books of Tasawwuf or act upon it. The brother was saying there's a dire need for Sunnis to translate books of Sufism but there is a bigger need to translate books of Fiqh and Aqida. It is not like we have an abundance of Fiqh books translated or topics which will help laymen or university children protect their Iman.

I have also heard a clip of Shaykh Akhtar Rida advising someone who asked regarding Tasawwuf or a similar subject that Pray your Salah, do your Farayid and Wajibaat.

A large majority of the laymen don't know their Aqida (why we believe such with proofs), their Fard e Ayn. They pray Salah in an incorrect manner and say extremely ignorant statements (which border on Kufr).

I don't think Tasawwuf can benefit such people rather I think it can be detrimental to them.

May Allah raise us all with the Scholars and the Sufis.

 

Hazrat Shaykh Akhtar Raza often advises that the internal should manifest itself externally. All types of works are needed. In fact if you read through Fawa'id al-fu'ad, Siraj al-'Awarif and Imam Ahmad Raza's al-Malfuz you will find a wide range of topics discussed by those great Awliya of Allah Ta'ala.

 

Shuyukh who emphasise Tasawwuf more than fiqh:
Habib Ali Jifri
Hamza Yusuf
Muhammad Yaqoubi
Zaid Shakir
Sultan Bahu Pir
Eidgah Pir
Etc

Shuyukh who emphasise Fiqh and Aqida more than Tasawwuf
Shaykh Akhtar Rida Khan
Shaykh Diya al Mustafa
Sayyid Shaykh Turab al Haq
Shaykh Ilyas Qadri
Etc

There are more names but the only ones I can think of at the top of my head. Compare the Murideens of the two groups. Tasawwuf is a dire need of our time but knowing Aqida and Fiqh well is the need of our time.

Don't misunderstand me, tasawwuf is needed and a must. We should translate books on tasawwuf too but just merely saying that we should try to concentrate on topics like Aqida and Fiqh more.

 

Definitely I agree ..

Also in regards to the brother who raised the point about translation of Sufi texts between lower down in terms of priority because many people do not know their faraid of ghusl etc .. While this is true, I think the nature of Islamic knowledge is that it all complements each other, for example, if someone reads a Sufi text with good niyyat and doesn't know his dururiyat then he will probably realise and revise that, if some dives in to spirituality as a 'shot in the dark' approach, then it won't complement his entire existence, he will just become more excessive and indulgent,

Should we start with the books that are in a common language, e.g. Urdu? I think people know Urdu better than Arabic and maybe Arabic is known better than Farsi these days but I'm not too sure?

 

That's great Idea brother Insha Allah, there are many Knowledgeble brother are their who intend translate but they want one platform and guidance,suggestions.

I think in this forum there are many Knowldgeble person are there who can Insha Allah make this happen.

Everyone must try contribute to ditribute the knowledge of Ahlus Sunna. We can't blame only on scholars.

 

Many brothers here on sunniport are knowledgeable to be able to translate into English. Maybe some brothers can work together on one of the books.

 

But we have to think why it's not given preference by us, negligence about translating it, on other hand Orientalist found necessity to translate it.

 

Yes bro that's right.

 

We need all types of books from how to cleanse the heart to how to cleanse the body.

 

It is said in Fawaidul Fawad ( By Nizamul Auliya ): " One who has No murshid will get him as blessings of study of this book
(Kahsful Mahjub )"

As for ur comment many Sufi won't know a faraid e gusl,
In fist chapter of kashful mahjub about knowledge data sahab explained beutifully Need of Knowledge and action, and many with related Aqidah,fikh(how important in our life) if we people like me had knowledge of these things about islam,tassawuf. No one can change our aqeedah nor salafi or Qadiyani. At some point we are failed to provide true essence of spiritualism.

If anyone becomes wali first of all Allah grants him the Knowledge. Until unless if he didnt become perfect in shariah how can he become a Sufi.