10-03-2004, 07:26 AM
My research on sufism or mystisism is not too extensive, but enough
to make me understand what it's about. My personal views are as
follows.
I think sufisim is totally against the basic idealogy of Islam.
Instead, it's much in line with the concept of monasticism in
Christianity, and also somewhat similar to the mystic values of non-
Divine religions like buddhism and hinduism. Broadly speaking,
sufism depicts the concept of retiring from the worldly life into a
reclusive existence. Islam, on the contrary, says that
religion/spiritualism and worldy responsibilities go hand in hand.
Of course, Islam commands a strict control on ones morals and ethics
while indulging in worldly affairs. According to Islam, to prove
one's worth and quality, it's incumbent upon every human being to
maintain a balance between their responsibilities toward Allah and
their duties towards family, friends, colleagues etc. After all,
it's the challenges of this earthly life that carve our personality
and determine the quality of our hearts & minds, which is eventually
for Allah SWT to judge. Obviously a person who lives the life of a
hermit in the wilderness with the minimal of contact with the outside
world hasn't given himself / herself enough opportunity to grow
morally or intellectually as much as those who have been brave enough
to face the challenges of this world and yet held on to their duties
toward Allah.
There are certain Muslim societies where the concept of sufiism has
deviated from a complete hermit like existence to something thats
more balanced between seclusion and participation in worldly life.
But it all depends upon their interpretation of merging both sides of
life to make it acceptable in a broader sense to the Muslim community
as a whole. However, I wouldn't like to use the term 'Islamic
Mysticism' because I don't think it's appropriate. Clearly the
Qur'aan and Sunnah conveys no such ideas. Allah Alim, Allah knows
best.
Keeping this in mind, the accusations by several scholars about
sufiism trying to distract Muslims from the Qur'aan and Sunnah, and
move them "towards the sevitude" of the "sheiks" could very well be
true .. and personally I think, this should be a good enough reason
to discard Sufism. Already enough lies have been manufactured by some of the so-called scholars, alims and imams over the past centuries uptil
today which have mercilessly hidden the truth and beauty of Islam.
While discussing Sufism, the concept of Bid'ah (or innovation) often
surfaces as well. I would personally say that Bid'ah is unacceptable
in Islam, in that, those rules and commands that have explicitly been
laid in the Qur'aan are not subject to 'renaissance.' However,
periodically, with the passage of time and the complexities of the
modern world, we may need to frame additional laws concerning
society, government, economy, etc. keeping in mind the various
ethical values and principles as defined in the Qur'aan and Sunnah.
In my opinion, such a step is perfectly acceptable in Islam and
should not be confused with Bid'ah. But it is very important that
such laws that have been developed and implemented by people in later
times should NOT be 'labelled' as Qur'aanic or Sunnah laws.
Islam in its originality is beautiful, simple, comprehensive and
practical. As stated by Br.Yusuf Hijazi, the best way to avoid any
deviation "is to grasp tightly onto what was left to us by our
beloved Prophet (s.a.w.), the Qur'aan and Sunnah, as understood and
believed and acted upon by the best of people to have lived: the
Companions and those who followed their footsteps."
