Adil Najam
On this auspicious day, we at ATP pray for peace and goodwill to all.
A couple of days ago we had done a post related to Christmas by celebrating the architectural heritage of Churches in Pakistan. Of course, one needs to go beyond structures and to the core of relations between Christian and non-Christian Pakistanis. It is in the content of that relationship that the essence of true Pakistaniat lies.
This picture, from Islamabad (published in Dawn 24 December, 2006) reminds me of the famous 1947 speech by Jinnah (whose birthday we are also celebrating today), where he says:
Of course, the Santa Clause in the picture is a plastic doll. We still have a way to go towards making the relationship between Pakistanis of various religions – and even of various sects within the same religion – what Jinnah had hope it to be. That is the goal we must keep striving for.
I must confess, my spirit is uplifted today by reading this wonderful op-ed by Karen Armstrong in The Guardian (23 December, 2006), which she starts thus:
In 632, after five years of fearful warfare, the city of Mecca in the Arabian Hijaz voluntarily opened its gates to the Muslim army. No blood was shed and nobody was forced to convert to Islam, but the Prophet Muhammad ordered the destruction of all idols and icons of the Divine. There were a number of frescoes painted on the inner walls of the Kabah, the ancient granite shrine in the centre of Mecca, and one of them, it is said, depicted Mary and the infant Jesus. Immediately Muhammad covered it reverently with his cloak, ordering all the other pictures to be destroyed except that one.
As someone who named one of his sons Eesa (Jesus in Arabic), I can relate also to how she ends her essay:
The Muslim devotion to Jesus shows that this was not always the case. In the past, before the political dislocations of modernity, Muslims were always able to engage in fruitful and stringent self-criticism. This year, on the birthday of the Prophet Jesus, they might ask themselves how they can revive their long tradition of pluralism and appreciation of other religions. For their part, meditating on the affinity that Muslims once felt for their faith, Christians might look into their own past and consider what they might have done to forfeit this respect.
All I can say to this is, Amen and Aameen!
Salamalikum,
Sufism as it is known today and has been known for the last 800-900 or even more years is not what Hasan al-Basri did. The reason I brought up al-Basri is that Sufis call him the first sufi but I don’t consider him sufi at all. I’m from Ahl-e-Hadeeth maslak in Pakistan, which is wrongly and derisorily known as wahabi or wahabism, and it is not a new phenomenon. My grand-parents (who migrated from India) where “wahabi” as well. Ahl-e-Hadeeth in Hind can be found as far back as mid 1800’s in the province of Bihar and lower UP, even before the setup of Darul Uloom Deoband from which Deobandi maslak comes. Ever heard of Sideeq Hassan Khan? Syed Nazeer Husain? And in fact, we consider Shah Waliullah to be an ahl-e-hadeeth but that is religious discussion.
Akif Nizam is completely off (as usual) while discussing such matters but I agree a little with PatExpat and Shams Tabraiz, and to a large degree with Adnan. I don’t want to turn this post into a discussion of whether Sufism has a place in Islam or not. But, I’ll say this much: if you look at what “Sufis” have been doing in Pakistan/India for almost forever and elsewhere, you’ll see that it’s steeped in bidaat and kharafaat. Like Adnan mentioned, celebrating milad, doing group dhikr like “Allah Hu”, visiting graves excessively and doing all kinds of things, making shrines, putting a kutba on a grave, chadar on graves, lighting graves with candles, flowers on graves, putting agar batti, pir/mureed/murshid thing, dancing, chanting, etc.–all these are bidaat and not only bidaat but bidaat that lead to shirk!! Does this sound like Islam? Did Rasoolullah (saw) do all this or ask people to do? Did any sahaba do that? One can’t bring even one sahih/hasan hadith that say you do this or a sahaba did that or even someone from ta’been or ta’ba ta’been did this. We shouldn’t take these things so lightly. Rasoolullah (saw) said: “Every newly-invented thing is a bidat (innovation), every bidat is going astray, and every going astray will be in the Naar (Fire).” (Narrated by an-Nisaai in his sunan with a sahih sanad, also a similar narration by Imam Ahmed in his musnad, Ibn Majah in his sunan also narrated it.)
Akif said: [quote post=”490″]I think the people of Pakistan identify a lot more with the Sufism of dance, music, drugs and masti[/quote]
Does this sound like Islam to you, Akif? In fact, only poor people who can’t read or have much understanding do these things. I don’t know any learned people who do this. They might believe in it but they don’t do it because it’s against human nature and is not a natural thing.
Akif also said: [quote post=”490″]Syed Qutb, Abdul Wahab and Maulana Maudoodi[/quote]
This completely shows that your source of information is Internet and western media because the western media cannot comprehend the differences between Syed Qutb/Moulana Moudoodi and ahl-e-hadeeth (wahabi). If you want, Akif, I can provide you with many references where ahl-e-hadeeth people don’t actually in principle agree with Syed Qutb and Moulana Maudoodi.
Adnan, I’ve to disagree on one point with you. You said:[quote post=”490″]Read Rumi [/quote]
Brother Adnan, if you read Rumi, so much of his poetry reeks of shirk and as many “sufis” have done, he also negates Shariat by saying drinking sharab is ok, etc. Now, don’t get me wrong. People commonly consider Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani as “sufi” as well and have related to him things and “karamaat” that he must have never done. So, don’t think I’m painting all who are today known as sufi with the same brush. To make it clear, I’m not saying that Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani also ok’ed drinking or went against shariat.
I don’t have any concrete references right now with me. But take a look at these poetry of Rumi posted by a guy online who is open and unbiased (meaning he is not writing it just for the sake of his maslak). After reading his poetry, inshaAllah, you’ll see why Rumi was branded as heretic by the people at his time.
In Divan-i Shams, Rumi says:
What is to be done, O Muslims? For I do not recognize myself.
I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Gabr, NOR MUSLIM…
I am not of the empyrean, NOR OF THE DUST, nor of existence, nor of entity….
I am not of India, nor of China, nor of Bulgaria, nor of Saqsin…
I am not of the this world, nor of the next, nor of Paradise, nor of Hell….
In Mathnavi, Rumi says:
Love’s nationality is separate from all other religions,
The lover’s religion and nationality is the Beloved (God).
The lover’s cause is separate from all other causes
Love is the astrolabe of God’s mysteries.
In Divan-i Shams, Rumi says:
If I spend an instant without you,
That instant makes my whole life seem worthless.
If I can win one moment with you,
I WILL CRUSH BOTH WORLDS UNDER MY FEET
As I dance in joy forever.
My Beloved Shams-i-Tabriz, I am living permanently intoxicated:
I have no more stories to tell except ones about DRUNKS AND PARTIES.
{Note: I capitalized some things for emphasis}
Could this be poetry of a Muslim? No way; By Allah, NEVER. Some supporters of Rumi may say he’s just making an analogy when he said “nor a Muslim”. But, he used to pass himself as a scholar and you’re not to even joke about not being Muslim and this guy makes all kinds of senseless analogies like “nor of dust”, “crush both worlds under my feet”, etc. Some might say, look what a good thing he’s saying in “The lover’s religion and nationality is the Beloved (God).” But, this is vague and if one truly loves Allah, he/she follows shariat and doesn’t say things like what Rumi have said. I’m not a scholar so I won’t say that “here you go, he is heretic” but people can read his poetry and in his time Rumi was branded as heretic. And Allah knows best. Does one think Rumi could talk on fiqh, usul al-fiqh, hadeeth, usul al-hadeeth, tafseer, shariat, etc.? Haven’t people realize why he is so popular among non-Muslims? Because, his writings are just in the air, very vague and nothing to do with Islam so everyone find them to be “interesting”. May Allah guide us all and have mercy on us all.
First of all sufism is NOT a culture neither it was promoted as a culture by any Sufi in past.
There is also misconception that Sufism means taking Sanyas from the world,resides in JUngles and keeps doing “Allah-Ho”, neither there was something like that they preached not to implement God’s rules in a govt’s business.
Several sufis went against the kings of that time like Hajjaj,Mansoor etc. Sufis also took part in Jihad against oponents, Hazrat Fariduddin Attar[RA] who wrote famous “Tazkaratul Awliya” fought against their oponents in battle field and died and got martydom. The crux of Sufi teaching was ‘Submitting to Allah’ and that’s what they did in their lives. Read Rumi or Junjaid Baghdadi or Imam hanifa or Imam Malik etc, Everyone did same.
Comparing Sufism with Wahibism is very crazy thing. I see people condemn Wahabism just because it was originated in Saudia where sharia in any form is available. Wahabism basically rejects the glamourized version of Islam which have culture influence in different regions for Instance celebrating B’day of The Prophet[SAW] in pathetic manner,visiting shrines,graveyards etc and I don’t consider it bad since nothing such thing was practised in the life of Prophet[saw] and then His companions etc. Since it rejects the glamour in the name of Islam that’s why it irks everyone who finds excuses to practise cultural things in the name of Islam. Read about their Belief , whatever is mentioned here is actually basics of Islam and there are several hadiths and quranic verses which orders not to practise such things within the religion.
Shams Tabraiz, IMO Sufiism is not something very light, the book Kushful Mahjoob contains several things which I couldn’t get at first place, terms like “Faqar”,”Arfiat”,”Moarifat”,”Kharqah” etc are not so easy to understand
PatExpat: you are right in that I don’t know much about Sufism. What I do know is that until recently, there were more devotees of Baba Bhulay Shah and Shah Latif in Pakistan than there were of Syed Qutb, Abdul Wahab and Maulana Maudoodi. The puritanical form of radical islam that’s spreading like wild fire in Pakistan is as much an imported commodity as the Western liberalism that you so detest.
Akif,
If you remove the allusion of Sufism in your argument, your argument makes more sense [quote post=”490″]people of Pakistan identify more with dance, music etc.[/quote] because thats what I see when I tune in to Pakistani channels.
Truly you have no idea what Sufism is about?
Daktar,
Its not only Karen Armstrong, we all would find Gods in all religions. Isn’t that where any religion would start – God(s)?
Regarding your opinion on other matters, everyone is entitled to his opinion. I remember once reading an article by Amnah Haq I think where she asked that why can’t Eid be about flowers instead of Sacrifice.
Just a question: what would you define as rituals: praying 5 times a day, fasting, zakat, hajj, sadqa or how about thanksgiving, christmas, diwali, holi, etc?
Adnan, I think the people of Pakistan identify a lot more with the Sufism of dance, music, drugs and masti than the Saudi version of Wahabism that’s been thrust upon us for the last three decades. The former has been part of the culture of this area for centuries and is not the brain-child of the present government.