the tasawwuf of ghazali is dying

abu Hasan

abu Hasan

Administrator
new-year days, birthdays and anniversaries...milestones on a path that leads to a deep and rotting pit or a beautiful garden.

-----------------

i can see the joy
and hastening fervent
of those, who go
home triumphant

a warrior, valiant -
returning from the front
a diligent student,
with accomplishment,

and a lover ardent
for a welcome fragrant
a thriving merchant
with his fortune present

but does it warrant
to rejoice frequent,
for those errant -
whose failure patent?

a student, truant,
and a fleeing tyrant
insolvent vagrant
or a lover peccant?

-----
yet, we celebrate our birthdays and have parties on new year's day. for what? for wasting another year? with the knowledge that we inch towards our graves which shall be a garden of comfort for those who strive, and a pit of darkness for those who spend their lives in heedlessness, ghaflah. truly, we have built skyscrapers for our dunya and not even a tattered thatch for our akhirah.

may Allah ta'ala help us amend our state.

----
when this milestone of a new year came around, i thought of starting afresh and to pick up the shambles that we call life. and where best to start other than imam ghazali? so i started reading it'Haf as-sadah al-muttaqin, an exegesis of the book iHya ulum ad-din.

the preface by the exegete imam murtaDa az-zabidi is a concise and beautiful biography of imam al-ghazali. in the 9th section, he copies a letter by imam ghazali to one of his contemporaries wherein he says:
"verily, i advise him to spend his efforts upon [gaining] the hereafter; that he account for his own self, before it is called into account. that he examine his character, his inward and outward behavior, his aims, his striving, his deeds, his speech and all his actions and intentions - whether he wishes to attain the nearness [qurb] of Allah ta'ala by them, and thus attain endless bliss [sa'adah al-abad]

or whether he spends them collecting and establishing for mundane goals [dunya]; whether he is busy building for and caring for, tending for and worrying for success in this world? is he drowning in the swamp of worldly entanglements? does he live for this dunya and Allah forbid, and then die away in wretchedness and misery [shaqawah]?

if it is the latter, then let his sight be awakened and eyes be opened; and let him check what he has prepared for tomorrow. let him understand that there is no one who loves him more than himself, and no one who knows him better than himself. let him ponder, reflect upon his ways - if he is busy constructing that which shall fall into ruin, then does he not know how many cities were destroyed by Allah, since their inhabitants were oppressing ones - and they fell into utter ruin after being prosperous, flourishing and opulent."
​
it is not just moving, it is shattering. we make a song and dance about tasawwuf, but the real tasawwuf as elucidated by imam ghazali seems to be so far, as if it is a fairy tale...

----
imam sha`arani [perhaps from shaykh ibn `arabi] said: the likes of ghazali have made these wonderful embroidered garments; where are those who want to wear it?

----
what prompted this rant were videos i saw on a 'nasheed' site meemmusic.com. it is nothing less than a concert; you can also hear the screaming of girls.

all of this is an excuse; hiding behind the ruling that sama'a is permissible. nobody bothers to inquire or heed which kind of sama'a is permissible and for whom.

ask yourself, did you feel spiritually closer towards the sunnah after all the swaying and crooning, mindful of death and afterlife? did the awareness about your sins and indulgence in this dunya stab or prick you? did you feel like crying on the futility of worldly pursuits and the hollowness of all the glitter and shine?

if it did not, then i am afraid this sama'a is another indulgence of this dunya - another kind of entertainment. another distraction.

Allah ta'ala knows best.
 
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Imam Ghazali truly was peerless. May Allah bless him and forgive us for his sake.

"The greatest theologian in Islamic history". He was a Perfect Man. [al-insan al kamil].

I find it difficult to read him sometimes because his words are too powerful, it is like performing open heart surgery on the nafs!

Whither are his like today?
 
some of the learned say that if all the islamic books were destroyed [obviously not the Qur'an] then the ihya' is enough to guide us all.
 
naqshbandijamaati said:
"The greatest theologian in Islamic history"
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No doubt


He was a Perfect Man. [al-insan al kamil].
Click to expand...
Plenty doubt!

This title befits the Prophet(Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) best.
 
This title befits the Prophet(Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) best.
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i suppose nj must know this too, since he has his latest signature adds this line. but yet, he wrote this...
 
yes but i'm sure nj did not suggest exclusivity in this regard.

ahle sunnah, you agreed to nj calling him the greatest theologian in islamic history which is obviously sayyidina rasulAllah sallAllahu 'alaihi wasallam so in the same way, ghazali is insan al-kamil.

unless the title is reserved for the prophets 'alaihimussalam?
 
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:s1:

I said,
He was a Perfect Man
Click to expand...

I didn't say he was THE Perfect Man!

But:

The problem with literalism is sadly seeping into our people too! Of course the most perfect of all Perfect Men is our Master Sayyidina Rasul Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم but this doesn't mean that others cannot also be referred to as 'perfect men'. In fact the term al-insan al-kamil is a sufi term used to describe someone who has reached the highest spiritual stations of fana fillah and baqa billah. Shaykh Abd al Karim al-Jili (who was the great grandson I believe of Huzoor Ghawth al Azam--both of them Perfect Men) has written a whole book on this topic entitled al-Insan al-Kamil (The Perfect Man).

Therefore, we can say that any wali of Allah is an insan-al-kamil. Obviously Huzoor Paak صلى الله عليه وسلم is the Most Perfect of the Perfect.
 
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Therefore I repeat my contention that al-Ghazzali was a Perfect Man. (Perfect in this sense doesn't mean ma'soom which IS reserved only for Prophets and angels amongst creation.)

(If we have to define every single term everytime we use it we'd never get anywhere! Have some common sense please brothers and sisters!)
 
you might find this of interest:

4. The 'perfect man' and the Muhammadan reality

The first chapter of the Fusus al-hikam (The Bezels of Wisdom) is entitled 'The Wisdom of Divinity in the Word of Adam'. It begins with the assertion that the Real created the cosmos as an all-inclusive object in which he could contemplate the entities of his names, but that until he created Adam and breathed his spirit into him, the cosmos remained like an unpolished mirror. Here Ibn al-'Arabi's idea seems to be that the cosmos as a whole - the totality of existent entities - manifests all the divine names but does so in a diffuse way, whereas man, as a microcosm endowed with consciousness, brings them into sharp focus as a unity. Potentially every man is a microcosm, but in practice men differ in their polishing of the cosmic mirror, with only a select few realizing their primordial nature. These are the prophets and saints, all of whom belong to the category of 'the perfect man' (al-insan al-kamil). They alone assume the character traits of God, which are latent in all human beings, and manifest them in perfect equilibrium.

Muhammad is the 'perfect man' par excellence. Basing his argument on the hadith (sayings of the Prophet), 'I was a prophet when Adam was between water and clay', Ibn al-'Arabi propounds the view that as 'the Muhammadan reality' (al-haqiqa al-Muhammadiyya), Muhammad is identical with 'the first intellect' (al-'aql al-awwal), the eternal principle unifying the immutable entities. All the other prophets, beginning with Adam, only became prophets during their historical mission; each was the bearer of a fragment of this Muhammadan reality in a particular place and time, a bezel in which a jewel of the divine wisdom was displayed. None the less, after their mission the prophets continued to exert an influence through the saints who were their spiritual heirs.
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-taken from muslimphilosophy.com on the section about Shaykh al-Akbar Ibn Arabi :ra:.
 
haven't you heard about the ad: flatter than the flattest flat?

there was a controversy about what can be flatter than the flattest flat? anyway, just because we all love playing with words. all terms are equal, just some terms are more equal than others.
 
no, i haven't actually. and my posts were made with the best of intentions and without any attempt to play with words; i wanted to clarify my position.
 
abu Hasan said:
new-year days, birthdays and anniversaries...milestones on a path that leads to a deep and rotting pit or a beautiful garden.

-----------------

i can see the joy
and hastening fervent
of those, who go
home triumphant

a warrior, valiant -
returning from the front
a diligent student,
with accomplishment,

and a lover ardent
for a welcome fragrant
a thriving merchant
with his fortune present

but does it warrant
to rejoice frequent,
for those errant -
whose failure patent?

a student, truant,
and a fleeing tyrant
insolvent vagrant
or a lover peccant?

-----
yet, we celebrate our birthdays and have parties on new year's day. for what? for wasting another year? with the knowledge that we inch towards our graves which shall be a garden of comfort for those who strive, and a pit of darkness for those who spend their lives in heedlessness, ghaflah. truly, we have built skyscrapers for our dunya and not even a tattered thatch for our akhirah.

may Allah ta'ala help us amend our state.

----
when this milestone of a new year came around, i thought of starting afresh and to pick up the shambles that we call life. and where best to start other than imam ghazali? so i started reading it'Haf as-sadah al-muttaqin, an exegesis of the book iHya ulum ad-din.

the preface by the exegete imam murtaDa az-zabidi is a concise and beautiful biography of imam al-ghazali. in the 9th section, he copies a letter by imam ghazali to one of his contemporaries wherein he says:
"verily, i advise him to spend his efforts upon [gaining] the hereafter; that he account for his own self, before it is called into account. that he examine his character, his inward and outward behavior, his aims, his striving, his deeds, his speech and all his actions and intentions - whether he wishes to attain the nearness [qurb] of Allah ta'ala by them, and thus attain endless bliss [sa'adah al-abad]

or whether he spends them collecting and establishing for mundane goals [dunya]; whether he is busy building for and caring for, tending for and worrying for success in this world? is he drowning in the swamp of worldly entanglements? does he live for this dunya and Allah forbid, and then die away in wretchedness and misery [shaqawah]?

if it is the latter, then let his sight be awakened and eyes be opened; and let him check what he has prepared for tomorrow. let him understand that there is no one who loves him more than himself, and no one who knows him better than himself. let him ponder, reflect upon his ways - if he is busy constructing that which shall fall into ruin, then does he not know how many cities were destroyed by Allah, since their inhabitants were oppressing ones - and they fell into utter ruin after being prosperous, flourishing and opulent."
​
it is not just moving, it is shattering. we make a song and dance about tasawwuf, but the real tasawwuf as elucidated by imam ghazali seems to be so far, as if it is a fairy tale...

----
imam sha`arani [perhaps from shaykh ibn `arabi] said: the likes of ghazali have made these wonderful embroidered garments; where are those who want to wear it?

----
what prompted this rant were videos i saw on a 'nasheed' site meemmusic.com. it is nothing less than a concert; you can also hear the screaming of girls.

all of this is an excuse; hiding behind the ruling that sama'a is permissible. nobody bothers to inquire or heed which kind of sama'a is permissible and for whom.

ask yourself, did you feel spiritually closer towards the sunnah after all the swaying and crooning, mindful of death and afterlife? did the awareness about your sins and indulgence in this dunya stab or prick you? did you feel like crying on the futility of worldly pursuits and the hollowness of all the glitter and shine?

if it did not, then i am afraid this sama'a is another indulgence of this dunya - another kind of entertainment. another distraction.

Allah ta'ala knows best.
Click to expand...

SubhanAllah
 
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