Tasawwuf { Sufism }

Discussion in 'Tasawwuf / Adab / Akhlaq' started by celt islam, Jul 12, 2007.

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  1. celt islam

    celt islam Guest

    Tasawwuf { Sufism }

    Tasawwuf or Sufism is not esoteric Islam. Tasawwuf is the science of the path to Allah. Tasawwuf is the science of conforming the path of Islam through the direct experience of the Real instead of through the tongue or learning from books. This implies the abandonment of any theology. Tawhid is not theo-logical. In this sense Tasawwuf is the protector of Tawhid: La ilaha illallah. [ there is no god , only ALLAH . ]

    The Muslim affirms: La halwa wa la quwwata illa billah.[ There is no power and no strenth except ALLAH ] It implies that there are not two forces in the universe. There is only Allah. It is typical of the esoteric theology to say that the world is divided into two forces fighting each other; the good verses the evil or the darkness versus the light or the truth versus the false. "Haqq [Truth ] is fighting Batil [ false ]" - this is a typical dualist statement. But it is impossible. Batil, "falsity", cannot stand against Haqq, because there are no two powers except in the imagination of the mushrikun[ idol worshpers ]. And yet how many modernist books come with this deviating cosmology proper to the mushrikun.

    La halwa wa la quwwata illa billah also means that there is one source of power. Allah lends us His power and veils it from us with our limitations. Therefore we are the source of our own tribulations. We are only obstacle to the establishment of Islam. All the means are available to us. From this comes tawakkul: hasbunullahu wa niamal wakil, "Allah is enough for us and He is the best Guardian". Tawakkul is trust in Allah. It is the food of the faqir. It strengthens the faqir like the zuhud weakens the "I", and it is one of the praiseworthy qualities which everybody must acquire. Allah says, "Whoever relies on Allah, He is enough for him." Its reality is confidence and calmness in the heart and the realization that the sustenance of your physical body is by Allah alone. It is not by anyone other than Allah, and it is not by any of the debris of this world nor by any other cause.

    What will help us towards this is to remember Allah that Allah guarantees us provision, and His knowledge and power are perfect, and that He is detached from creation and far remove from forgetfulness and from incapacity.

    Shaykh Ibn Ataillah wrote in his book The Abandonment of the Management of Affairs: "Entrusting our affairs to Allah is also a very important quality to acquire. In Quran, Allah relates that the believer among Pharaoh's people said: "I have entrusted my affair to Allah." Its reality is our desire for Allah to preserve us from all that has danger in it and against which we have no security. What helps us in that is to remember our own incapacity, on the basis of which we abandon our selves to Allah."

    Without this understanding people end up paralysed. But with it the Muslims is free to be a slave, that is, to obey in a way without barriers. The problem of trying to obey without understanding is that you can only do what you can. You can only move at the speed of your own misfortune and limitations. But to obey Allah while trusting Him is to abandon all sense of practical limitations, and to embark on the achievement of what Allah has ordered us to do. We obey Him not according to our deeds, but we obey Him according to what He has commanded us. We abandon the idea of being practical and we enter into the swift way of being slave. Obedience only takes place with understanding.

    Tasawwuf is the light and the heart of the Deen, and without it our understanding of the Shariah is superficial. Tasawwuf enhances our possibilities because it gives wisdom and light to every situation in life: it enlightens us in difficulty and guides us in ease. Tasawwuf is not being a passive, docile consumer in this society with enlightened evenings and weekends. Tasawwuf is the transformation of your heart so that you realize that you are in charge of Dunya, and dunya is not in charge of you. It allows us to understand that what Allah has ordered is possible, and it shows us the path to achieve our highest goals fisabilillah.

    Tasawwuf allows us to understand that the deeds of the heart are more powerful than the deed of the limbs. Tasawwuf renders all other knowledges subject to the highest knowledge which is La ilaha illallah. With Tasawwuf we realize that knowledge of Allah is above every other knowledge. Tasawwuf allows us to taste La halwa wa la quwwata illa billah. Those who are touched by this knowledge becomes different people and to them there are no barriers and no fears other than Allah.
     

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