Sufism in the light of QURAN
All praise and thanks are for Allah, we praise and thank Him, we seek His aid, and we seek His forgiveness. We seek Allah’s refuge from the evils of ourselves and from our evil actions. Whomever Allah guides then none can misguide him, and whomever Allah misguides then none can guide him. I testify that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah, alone, having no partner, and I testify that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger. To proceed: Allah, the Blessed and Most High, created us and placed us in this life for a very great and wise purpose, which He loves and is pleased with, and it is the worship of Him, alone, with no partner for Him. Allah, the Most High, says:
“I have not created the jinn and the men except that they should worship Me.”
[adh-Dhaariyaat 51:56]
Then Allah distinguished mankind from the rest of creation in that He Advertisement blessed them with intellect by which they are able to know their Lord, and they are able to distinguish between that which will benefit them and that which will harm them. Furthermore, from His Mercy upon His servants, He, the One free and far removed from all imperfections, did not leave them in a state of having to rely upon the intellect alone in order to distinguish good from evil. Rather He sent the Messengers, and sent down the Revealed Books to them containing whatever Allah ordered, prohibited or prescribed, therein lying the success and well-being of mankind in this world and the Hereafter. So after the sending of the Messengers there remained no plea or excuse for one upon misguidance, or for one deviating from the way of Allah. Rather such a one is deserving of punishment. Allah, the Most High, says:
Messengers as bearers of good news as well as of warning in order that mankind should have no plea against Allah after the Messengers.
[an-Nisaa’ 4:165].
Allah ended and completed the succession of Messengers with our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, so he is the final and best of the Messengers, and He sent down the best of the Revealed Books to him. Therefore his Sharee’ah is the most complete and comprehensive revealed way. Then he ﷺ did not pass on to join the highest company of Angels until Allah had completed the religion and perfected His favour, as Allah, the Most High, says in the Aayah which was sent down shortly before his ﷺ death, and that was on the Day of ‘Arafah whilst he was in the place of standing during the Farewell Pilgrimage:
“This day, I have perfected for you your Religion, and completed My Favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islaam as your Religion.”
[al-Maa’idah 5:3].
So there remained no scope for anyone, no matter who he is, to introduce anything new into the religion, nor to remove anything from it. Furthermore the first thing which Allah’s Messenger ﷺ called to was Tawheed (worshipping Allah in His Oneness) which is expressed by the testification that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. He spent thirteen years in Makkah calling to this statement and not calling to anything besides it, likewise all the previous Messengers called to this statement and there was not a single one of them except that he began calling his people by saying:
“Worship Allah! You have no other deity worthy of worship but Him.” [al-A’raaf 7:59].
So Tawheed is the essence of all that the Messengers came with, the goal of all of them, and the central principle of all that they called to, that upon which they were based and for which they were sent. The proof for this can be seen in many Aayaat, amongst them, the Saying of Allah, the Most High:
“And verily, We have sent among every nation a Messenger (proclaiming): ‘Worship Allah (alone) and avoid the false deities.’ Then of them were some whom Allah guided and of them were some upon whom the straying was justified. So travel through the land and see what was the end of those who denied (the truth). “[an-Nahl 16:36]
The Saying of Allah, the Most High: “Indeed, We sent Noah to his people and he said: `0 my people! Worship Allah! You have no other deity worthy of worship but Him. Certainly, I fear for you the torment of a Great Day.” [al-A’raaf 7:59].
The Saying of Allah, the Most High: “And to (the people of) ‘Aad (We sent) their brother Hood, he said: ‘O my people! Worship Allah! You have no other deity worthy of worship but Him. Will you not fear (Allah).’” [al-A’raaf 7:65].
The Saying of Allah, the Most High: “And to (the people of) Thamood (We sent) their brother Saalih. He said: ‘O my people! Worship Allah! You have no other deity worthy of worship but Him. He brought you forth from the earth…” [Hood 11:61].
The Saying of Allah, the Most High: “And to (the people of) Madyan (We sent) their brother Shu’ayb. He said: ‘O my people! Worship Allah! You have no other deity worthy of worship but Him.’” [Hood 11:84].
There are many other Aayaat which state that the call to Tawheed was the first thing which the Messengers called their people to, since Tawheed is the foundation of Islaam which is the religion of all the Messengers and Prophets. Then when the foundation is established the rest of the acts of worship and rulings are built upon it.
This does not mean that the caller should treat the other branches of Islaam lightly, but there is agreement that no action will be correct, nor will it be accepted if the ‘Aqeedah (creed and belief) of the person doing it is not right and correct. Just as it is not correct for us to build a house until we have made its foundations sound: if this is not done then it will quickly collapse and fall. This reality is emphasized by the fact that shirk (directing any part or form of worship, or anything that is Allah’s right to other than Allah) which is the opposite of Tawheed is a greater sin and crime than any other sin. Therefore Allah, the Most High, informs that He will not forgive anyone who dies upon shirk. Allah, the Most High, says:
“Verily! Allah forgives not (the sin of) setting up partners in worship with Him (shirk), but He forgives whom He pleases other than that.” [an-Nisaa 4:116]
So every sin which a person may commit which is less than associating others in worship with Allah (shirk) and unbelief (kufr), then there is hope that Allah will forgive the person that sin and will enter him into Paradise as long as he is free from the stain of shirk. However one who dies upon shirk, even if he claims to be upon Islaam, then his destiny is certainly the Hell-Fire, may Allah save us from it. Therefore, it is essential that we are aware of this tremendously important matter, so that we call the people to Tawheed and warn them against associating others in worship along with Allah, and that we place that at the head of the list of what we call to. Then when Allah’s Messenger ﷺ sent Mu’aadh to Yemen to call the people to Allah he taught him how to begin his call. He taught him to begin with that which was most important and to follow it with that which comes next in importance.
Ibn ‘Abbaas radiyAllahu ‘anhumaa, reports: “When Allah’s Messenger ﷺ sent Mu’aadh to Yemen he said to him: You are going to a people from the people of the Book so let the first thing that you call them to be the testification that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah – and in a narration: that they should single Allah out (Tawheed) – so if they obey you in that then inform them that Allah has obligated upon them five Prayers in every day and night. So if they obey you in that then inform them that Allah has obligated upon them a charity, which is to be taken from their rich and given to their poor. So if they obey you in that, then beware of taking the best parts of their wealth, and beware of the supplication of the oppressed since there is no screen between it and Allah.” [Al-Bukhaaree and Muslim].
So the evidence for this in the Hadeeth is that he ﷺ taught him how to give the da’wah (invitation to Islaam), and that he should begin by calling to Tawheed before everything else. Then when they enter into Tawheed he was to call them to the other prescribed actions, beginning with the Prayer, which is the chief of all actions of worship. So every caller to Allah must take Allah’s Messenger ﷺ as his guiding example.
At the same time you must be aware that there are a number of destructive calls to da’wah which have been established amongst the ranks of the Muslims and have shaken and damaged the beliefs held in the hearts of Muslim. They have polluted the pure Islamic ‘Aqeedah’ and have grown by stages to reach such a dangerous level that they have led to the splitting of the Muslims into sects and parties, about which the Prophet ﷺ said: “Indeed those who were before you, from the People of the Book, split into seventy-two sects, and this religion will split into seventy-three. Seventy-two in the Fire and one in Paradise, and it is the, Jamaa’ah (Reported by Ahmad and Aboo Daawood and declared hasan by al-Haafidh [Ibn Hajr]).
Then there is no doubt that each one of these sects claims for itself that it is the saved sect, and that it is correct, and that it alone follows the Messenger ﷺ. But the way of truth is a single way and it is the one which leads to salvation, and any other way is one of the ways of misguidance which leads to destruction as occurs in the Hadeeth of Ibn Mas’ood radiyAllahu ‘anhu, who said: Allah’s Messenger drew a line with his hand and said: “This is the Straight Path of Allah.” Then he drew lines to its right and to its left, then he said: “These are the (other) paths, there is not a single path from them except that there is a devil upon it calling to it. “ Then he recited: “And verily, this is my Straight Path, so follow it, and follow not (other) paths, for they will separate you away from His Path.” [al-An’aam 6:153 – Saheeh : Reported by Ahmad an an-Nasaa’ee].
So the way of truth is to cling to the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of Allah’s Messenger ﷺ as occurs in the Hadeeth: “I have left amongst you two things with which you will not go astray: The Book of Allah and my Sunnah, and they will not be separated till they come to me at the Pond. [Saheeh- reported by al-Haakim].
Allah’s Messenger ﷺ also gave us the good news that a group from his Ummah would remain upon the truth till the Day of Resurrection. Jaabir ibn ‘Abdullaah reports that I heard Allah’s Messenger ﷺ say: “A group of my Ummah will not cease to fight victoriously upon the truth until the Day of Resurrection” (Reported by Muslim).
And Allah, the most high, described these people in Holy Quran that He start loving those who cling to the tawheed and Sunnah strictly. Allah, the most high, has emphasized on the word Imaan three times. And then Allah says when someone attains perfection at three level of Imaan then Allah starts loving them.
لَیسَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ جُنَاحٌ فِيمَا طَعِمُوا إِذَا مَا اتَّقَوا وَّآمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ ثُمَّ اتَّقَوا وَّآمَنُوا ثُمَّ اتَّقَوا وَّأَحْسَنُوا ۗ وَاللَّهُ يُحِبُّ الْمُحْسِنِينَ ﴿٩٣﴾
And then Allah places such person at the level of ehsaan (utmost kindness) then Allah loves these people. The thing to which Quran call mohsin, in the language of scholars it is called Tasawwuf. And when someone attains perfection in ehsaan (utmost kindness) then in the language of Quran and Hadees he is called Wali-e-Kamil.
Allah Sub’hanhu Ta’ala has described many levels of Imaan in this ayat, when some one attains three levels of Imaan then after that fourth level of Imaan comes, at that point Allah says ‘I start loving them’. This quality of Imaan is found in Auliya Allah. Sufis have attained such level of Imaan by abandoning all the worldly pleasure and they become very close to Allah.