There is no doubt that that we, the world-wide community of Shaykh Abdalqadir al-Sufi, have been travelling through turbulent waters since his death, waters which were already unsettled as a result of the illness that took hold of him toward the end of his life, may Allah have mercy on him.
I do not wish in this short piece to make proclamations about the titles and positions afforded the great men and women of our path, rather I wanted to advise myself and all who read this to turn to the Wise Qur’an to help us through this difficult time. There are a number of passages that would offer profound advice, but I would particularly like to take a look at Surat al-Hujarat, in which Allah lays out some of the guidelines needed for a Muslim community to function in a healthy and balanced manner. It is enough to simply read the excellent translation of our dear teachers, Shaykh Abdalhaqq and Hajja Aisha Bewley, but I will offer some reflections on it to plunder some of its jewels.
Allah says:
In the name of Allah, All-Merciful, Most Merciful
1 You who believe! do not put yourselves forward in front of Allah and of His Messenger; and have taqwa of Allah. Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.
Do not put forward your opinion, or assert the correctness or incorrectness of a thing, before first consulting the guidance found in the book of Allah and the Sunna of His Messenger ﷺ. Rather, we are warned that we must have taqwa of the One who hears our conversations, both those we have in our own minds and those we have with others.
2 You who believe! do not raise your voices above the voice of the Prophet and do not be as loud when speaking to him as you are when speaking to one another, lest your actions should come to nothing without your realising it.
3 Those who lower their voices when they are with the Messenger of Allah are people whose hearts Allah has tested for taqwa. They will have forgiveness and an immense reward.
4 As for those who call out to you from outside your private quarters, most of them do not use their intellect.
5 If they had only been patient until you came out to them, it would have been better for them. But Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
Thus, when speaking to anyone who in one aspect or another is an inheritor of the Prophet ﷺ, such as our Amirs, Ulema, Shaykhs and awliya, it is imperative to do so in a way which is courteous. Moreover, Allah’s sunna is that the majority of the awliya are hidden, and are only known to Him. Thus, we must be careful of our behaviour because we may be dealing with someone that seems to be of no importance, but who is loved by Allah. We have in the famous Hadith Qudsi, that Allah says:
Whosoever shows enmity to a wali (friend) of Mine,
then I have declared war against him
It is clear from this that we must be very careful. It can be said that good adab is a reason for spiritual growth and increase, as made clear in the Diwan in the Qasida ‘The Buraq of the Tariq’:
Make adab your companion as you follow the Shari‘a,
and as you recognise the Haqiqa.
The mithal of adab in these matters
is like mixing iron with elixir.
Do you not see how it turns the iron
in an instant to new gold?
In the same way adab acts on the heart and
carries it to the Presence of the Unseen.
How many a man of earnest right actions He has left to himself,
and how many men of adab He has brought near.
The adab of looking at created beings
is that you see the Creator – no second!
Thus you discern the Creator in the created
and the Provider in the provision.
Indeed, it is incumbent on us to have good adab in every situation in which we find ourselves, as Allah is present at every moment, and it is He who is the Actor that is manifesting in everything. Thus, bad adab is a means for diminishing the value of our actions and cutting ourselves off from Allah’s mercy. The People of the path are known for their adab, and it is this that our shuyukh have always been calling us to: “Tasawwuf is all adab”.
6 You who believe! if a deviator brings you a report, scrutinize it carefully in case you attack people in ignorance and so come to greatly regret what you have done.
In an age of social media, smartphones and the technological ingress into every aspect of our lives, we are constantly being bombarded by information. Yet, it is difficult to ascertain who the information is coming from; we may know the website or even the name on the profile, but we cannot always be sure of the source. News corporations, political PR machines, and websites run using artificial intelligence to manipulate who we vote for are clear examples of “deviators”, but sometimes even our own thoughts are in fact Shaytan’s insinuations and the impulses of the nafs (self) and hawa (desire). Indeed, the deviator within is the one most likely to be a cause of our regret. Whatever the source, we must be extremely careful about what we listen to and what we pass on. Anyone who has been active in the political sphere of our tariqa can tell you that many of the problems faced by our community were enflamed by gossip and talebearing.
7 Know that the Messenger of Allah is among you. If he were to obey you in many things, you would suffer for it. However, Allah has given you love of faith and made it pleasing to your hearts, and has made unbelief, deviance and disobedience hateful to you. People such as these are rightly guided.
8 It is a great favour from Allah and a blessing. Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise.
We could never adequately thank Allah for His generosity to us. The gift of Islam is the greatest gift we have, and the fact someone loves Allah’s Deen and wishes to avoid that which He dislikes is a sign that Allah loves that person. This is guidance.
9 If two parties of the believers fight, make peace between them. But if one of them attacks the other unjustly, fight the attackers until they revert to Allah’s command. If they revert, make peace between them with justice, and be even-handed. Allah loves those who are even-handed.
Alhamdulillah, we are not generally given to physical acts of violence against each other. However, this advice can be applied to any disputes that may arise among us. We should be even-handed while defending the one who has been dealt with unfairly, had accusations thrown at him or her, or been subjected to insulting and discourteous treatment. Above all, the energy we should bring to such disputes is one that could lead to reconciliation, which implies patience, forgiveness and forbearance.
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Courtesy of Khalil Mitchell
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10 The believers are brothers, so make peace between your brothers and have taqwa of Allah so that hopefully you will gain mercy.
This is what distinguishes the Muslims from other groups. We are bonded by an asabiya that is rooted in love of Allah and His Messenger ﷺ and it is vital to maintain this bond of brotherhood. The du’a of Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib and all our shuyukh is: “O Allah, make us those who love each other in Allah” and it is through sharing our lives, working together to implement Allah’s Deen, and gathering to recite the Qur’an and do dhikr of Allah that this bond is strengthened.
When a group of the fuqara from Britain had travelled to the Moussem in Cape Town one year, we were invited by Shaykh Abdalqadir to his house in the week following the nights of dhikr as was his custom. The shaykh wanted to address us and we gathered on a rug in his garden after the meal. Shaykh Abdalqadir was sitting at the end and we were gathered around him. He told us to huddle closer together and said, “it is like the prayer; if there are gaps, the shaytan will get between you.” It was understood from this that he was indicating something about us. He was teaching us at that we must be more united and that the way to do this was to come together. Distance leads to resentment. From this, quarterly national gatherings of dhikr were established, and I remember it as being a time of growth.
11 You who believe! people should not ridicule others who may be better than themselves; nor should any women ridicule other women who may be better than themselves. And do not find fault with one another or insult each other with derogatory nicknames. How evil it is to have a name for evil conduct after coming to faith! Those people who do not turn from it are wrongdoers.
Therefore, we must be respectful on one another and speak well of one another. This is adab. We do not want to be wrongdoers, and we do not want to hurt others, especially those with whom we are bonded. In Imam al-Nawawi’s Forty Hadith, we have:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Do not envy one another, and do not inflate prices for one another, and do not hate one another, and do not turn away from one another, and do not undercut one another in trade. Be slaves of Allah and brothers.
A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim: he does not oppress him, nor does he fail him, nor does he lie to him, nor does he hold him in contempt. Taqwa is here [and he pointed to his chest three times]. It is bad enough for a man to hold his brother Muslim in contempt.
The whole of a Muslim is inviolable for another Muslim: his blood, his property, and his honour.”
Shaykh Abdalqadir once said in a night of dhikr, “You must think well of Allah and think well of each other; you must speak well of Allah and speak well of each other.” This mirrors the lines from the Buraq of the Tariq:
The highest and most praiseworthy qualities are contained in these two good practices:
Think the best of Allah and then think the best of His slaves. Hold to these two things and avoid being wilful.
This is, in fact, a reference to a hadith that says:
Two qualities above which there is nothing higher and more noble are a good opinion of Allah and a good opinion of the slaves of Allah and the two most harmful qualities are a bad opinion of Allah and a bad opinion of the slaves of Allah.
Continuing the theme of the adab, Allah says:
12 You who believe! avoid most suspicion. Indeed some suspicion is a crime. And do not spy and do not backbite one another. Would any of you like to eat his brother’s dead flesh? No, you would hate it. And have taqwa of Allah. Allah is Ever-Returning, Most Merciful.
We must have clean hearts. We cannot allow our hearts to be poisoned by bad opinion which leads to suspicion and bad behaviour towards others. Backbiting (ghiba) is to reveal the faults of others. If someone spreads false information about another Muslim, it is considered to be slander. While the latter is more serious, the first is no light matter and it is likened to eating the flesh of a dead brother in the ayat.
13 Mankind! We created you from a male and female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you might come to know each other. The noblest among you in Allah’s sight is the one with the most taqwa. Allah is All- Knowing, All-Aware.
This is Allah’s criterion. The best of us is not the one with the nicest car, the biggest and most powerful family, or the most knowledge. It is the one who has the most taqwa. The lowest level of taqwa is to obey Allah in all the commands and prohibitions. The highest is to be aware of Allah at every moment. Whatever situation we are confronted with, Allah is the Actor. He is never absent, not even for the blink of an eye. Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib says in the Qasida “Annihilation in Allah”:
With us, ‘other’ is impossible,
for true existence belongs to Allah.
Constantly cut through your illusion
with a Tawhid that is purely for Allah.
Again, the link between adab, which earlier was seen to be based on our awareness of tawhid, and spiritual growth is apparent.
14 The desert Arabs say, ‘We believe.’ Say: ‘You do not believe. Say rather, “We have become Muslim,” for faith has not yet entered into your hearts. If you obey Allah and His Messenger, He will not undervalue your actions in any way. Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful.’
The truth is that we are on a journey and there are degrees; Islam, Iman and Ihsan; or you could say, Sharia, Tariqa and Haqiqa; outward practice, inward journeying, direct perception of Reality. In taking this journey on Allah will not undervalue your actions in any way.
15 The believers are only those who have believed in Allah and His Messenger and then have had no doubt and have done jihad with their wealth and themselves in the Way of Allah. They are the ones who are true to their word.
Becoming Muslim is only the beginning. It is both a great honour to be a follower of the Best of Creation ﷺ and a great responsibility. Shaykh Abdalqadir often used to say that we must take it on, that the responsibility is ours and that the fuqara are the princes of spiritual knowledge. He has left us with a blueprint which is set out in The Time of the Bedouin, The Interim is Mine, The Engines of the Broken World and The Entire City and we must do what we can to acquire the knowledge that will lead to right action (which implies recognising the time in which we live), sound domestic and social interactions and spiritual fulfilment.
16 Say: ‘Do you presume to teach Allah your deen when Allah knows everything in the heavens and everything in the earth? Allah has knowledge of all things.’
After all, it is called Islam – Submission. We take the knowledge we have been given and act by it. Shaykh Abdalqadir left us a great legacy and renewed many aspects of the Deen of Allah that had been cast aside, and we – all of us – are his inheritors, on the condition that we take it on.
17 They think they have done you a favour by becoming Muslims! Say: ‘Do not consider your Islam a favour to me. No indeed! It is Allah who has favoured you by guiding you to faith if you are telling the truth.’
18 Allah knows the unseen things of the heavens and the earth. Allah sees what you do.
Allah knows everything, and He is with us at every moment. He is closer to us than our jugular vein. Shaykh Abdalqadir, may Allah have mercy on him, often used to quote the wird of Sahl al-Tustari:
Allah is with me;
Allah is looking at me;
Allah is the witness of my acts.
This brings to mind the very definition of Ihsan, the science for which is tasawwuf:
Ihsan is to worship Allah as though you see Him.
If you are not seeing Him,
He sees you.
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| Courtesy of Khalil Mitchell |
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| Courtesy of Khalil Mitchell |
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| Courtesy of Khalil Mitchell |
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| Courtesy of Khalil Mitchell |
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