what do you think?

[ajr]

Among us we have those that erect some form of structure above the graves, the Christians and Jews do it then we have Sufi, Brelwees etc

“And the masjids are for Allah (Alone); so invoke not anyone along with Allah.”
(Ayah No. 18, Surah Al-Jinn, Chapter No. 72, Holy Qur’an).

Jundab said: Five days before he died, I heard the Prophet (PBUH) say, “I declare before Allah that I do not have a Khalil (a close friend) among you, for Allah has taken me as a close friend. If I were to take a close friend from among you, I would have taken Abu Bakr (RA) as a close friend. Those who came before you used to take the graves of their Prophets & righteous men as Masjids (places of worship & prayer); do not take graves as Masjids, I forbid you to do that.”
(Hadith No. 1188 (532), Book of Masjid & Places of Prayer, Sahih Muslim, Vol. 2).

It was narrated from Aishah (RA) that Umm Habibah (RA) and Umm Salamah (RA) mentioned a church that they had seen in Ethiopia in which there were images. Allah’s Messenger (PBUH) said, “Those people, if there was a righteous man among them, when he died they built a place of worship over his grave and made those images. They will be the most evil of creation before Allah on the Day of Resurrection.”
(Hadith No. 705, Book of Masjids, Sunan An-Nasa’i, Vol. 1; Hadith No. 1181 (528), Book of Masajid & Places of Prayer, Sahih Muslim, Vol. 2).

Allah’s Messenger (PBUH) compares such people to Jews and Christians who used to take graves of their righteous men as places of worship and considers them as the worst people on the earth. And Aishah (RA) said that were it not for that, his grave would have been in an open place, but he feared that it would be taken as a place of worship (reported by Bukhari & Muslim; Hadith No. 1184 (529), Book of Masajid & Places of Prayer, Sahih Muslim, Vol. 2).

Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Azeez ibn Baaz (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:

If I come to a village where the imam is a sufi who does not hold one hand over the other when praying, and he does not go down on his knees before his hands when prostrating, is it permissible to pray with him?

He replied:

If he is known to believe in Tawheed and not shirk, and he is only a little ignorant or follows a few ideas of Sufism (tasawwuf), but he is a believer in Tawheed and a Muslim who worships Allaah alone and does not worship Shaykhs or any other created being, such as Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qaadir etc, and the only problem is that he does not hold one hand over the other when praying, then there is no reason not to pray behind him, because this is something that is Sunnah, not obligatory. Holding one hand over the other means placing the right hand over the left hand, wrist and forearm over the chest when standing in prayer. The one who lets his arms hang by his sides is not doing anything wrong and his prayer is valid. …

Fataawa al-Shaykh Ibn Baaz (12/120, 121).

Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Azeez ibn Baaz (may Allaah have mercy on him) was also asked:

What is the ruling on praying behind someone who goes to the graves of righteous people to seek blessing from them and to recite Qur'aan on the Mawlids and other occasions in return for payment?

He replied:

This is subject to further discussion. If he merely celebrates the Mawlid without any shirk involved, then he is an innovator and he should not be an imam, because it is proven in the saheeh hadeeth that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Beware of newly-invented matters because every newly invented matter is an innovation (bid’ah) and every innovation is a going astray.” Narrated by Abu Dawood (3991). And celebrating the Mawlid (Prophet’s birthday) is an innovation. But if he prays to the dead and seeks help from them or from the jinn or other created beings, and he says “O Messenger of Allaah help me or heal my sick loved one” or he says “Ya Sayyidi al-Husayn” or “Ya Sayyidi al-Badawi” or calls upon any other dead person, or prays to inanimate things such as idols, saying “al-madad al-madad (help, help)”, then he is a mushrik who is guilty of major shirk, and you should not pray behind him and his leading the prayers is not valid. We ask Allaah to keep us safe and sound.

But if he commits bid’ah such as attending the Mawlid but he does not do any act of shirk, or he reads Qur’aan beside graves, or he prays at the graves, but he does not do any act of shirk, then he has introduced innovation into the religion, so he should be taught and directed towards what is good, but his prayer is valid if he does not pray by the graves. As for his prayers in the graveyard, they are not valid, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “May Allaah curse the Jews and the Christians, for they have taken the graves of their Prophets as places of worship.” Agreed upon.

Fataawa al-Shaykh Ibn Baaz (9/373, 374 and 12/108, 109).

[syed_z]

Good Question...

The Sufis are mentioned in the following Verse of the Quran...

Surah A Kahf 18th Chapter Verse 28

And keep thy soul in the company (of the saints) those who are always in the remembrance of Allah
Morning and evening, seeking His Face; and let not thine eyes overlook them, desiring the pomp of the life of the world; and obey not him whose heart We have made heedless of Our remembrance, who followeth his own lust and whose case hath been abandoned.

The Sufis are those who have shown the Ummah of Muhammad (sallAllahu Alayhi Wassallam) on how to Worship Allah (swt) as He (swt) should be worshipped and how to obey Allah (swt) as He ought to be obeyed.

The great Sufi Imams like Shaikh Abdul Qadir Gilani and Imam Ghazzali and Sahal Tustari, and many other great ones, may Allah (swt) have Mercy on them practiced and taught in the most impressive way on how to worship Allah (swt), obey Him and how to struggle against our own evil self (evil commanding self i.e. The Nafs). They left great examples for other Muslims who learned from their teachings and also became great Saints. Unfortunately it is their followers or gatherers at their shrines who due to lack of knowledge of Islam have started invoking them in their prayers while actually they never made a claim that they were anything more than mere servants of Al Mighty Allah (swt).

Surah Al Anaam/Chapter 6 Verses (116-117)

Now if you pay heed unto the majority of those (who live) on earth, they will but lead you astray from the path of God: they follow but (other people's) conjectures, and they themselves do nothing but guess.

The above includes the general lot of people anywhere on earth, in a nation or the general visitors at the shrines of these great Sufi Saints.

So to turning away from their precious knowledge which they left for us so we can make use of that science to come closer to Allah (swt) just because their ignorant followers are doing something is sheer ignorance.

87th Sura, al-A’la [The Most High], Verse 14,15

They will prosper who purify themselves and glorify the name of their Guardian Lord, and (lift their hearts) in Prayer

To find faults in others and overlooking our own faults have caused us to stray from the path of Haqq (Truth). The Sufis focus was always their own faults and not others, and this is what we're seeing in the Fatwas of literalists ulemas. They tend to focus on faults of others, which causes them to forget remembrance of Allah (swt) and forget that the purpose of their existence was to cleanse their own self.

Now imagine what about those who are followers of such literalists? and what about those followers increasing and spreading such misguidance in the Ummah?

What do you think? :(

[M.I.A.]

as i laymen i can only guess.. lol..

i know a few people who are sufi's and they are ok.

they themselves say that there practices need to be properly taught in order to stop misguidance.

same as any other i suppose.


learn what you can from everybody i suppose.

although by our own nature we are drawn to differing paths. those that feel most comfortable for us.

and thats ok.


i know non sufi mosques that also teach purification of heart in different ways.



and i would guess that as long as you dont find something of division in it or use it as such, then there is benefit.



there is the mentioning of 70 odd sects by the time judgement day comes around... i dont know the exact number?

but they say only one will be the correct way.


....from what i have seen, everybody has the path until they leave it.

[ajr]

Surah Kahf
It explains the time the people of the Cave spent in the cave, from the time He caused them to sleep, until the time He resurrected them.
That ayah, namely, Surah 18 verse 28…is in reference to ‘Reciting the Quran and to patiently keep company with the believers’. (No reference to Sufi)

And keep yourself patiently with those who call on their Lord morning and afternoon, seeking His Face meaning, sit with those who remember Allah, who say "La Ilaha Illallah'', who praise Him, glorify Him, declare His greatness and call on Him, morning and evening, all the servants of Allah, whether rich or poor, strong or weak. It was said that this was revealed about the nobles of Quraysh when they asked the Prophet to sit with them on his own, and not to bring his weak Companions with him, such as Bilal, `Ammar, Suhayb, Khabbab and Ibn Mas`ud. They wanted him to sit with them on his own, but Allah forbade him from doing that, and said,

And turn not away those who invoke their Lord, morning and afternoon. Allah commanded him to patiently content himself with sitting with those people (the weak companions), and said:

And keep yourself patiently with those who call on their Lord morning and afternoon... Imam Muslim recorded in his Sahih that Sa`d bin Abi Waqqas who said: "There was a group of six of us with the Prophet. The idolaters said, `Tell these people to leave so they will not offend us.' There was myself, Ibn Mas`ud, a man from Hudayl, Bilal and two other men whose names I have forgotten. Allah's Messenger thought to himself about whatever Allah willed he should think about, then Allah revealed:

and let not your eyes overlook them, desiring the pomp and glitter of the life of the world; Ibn `Abbas said, `(this means) do not favor others over them, meaning do not seek the people of nobility and wealth instead of them.'

and obey not him whose heart We have made heedless of Our remembrance means, those who are distracted by this world from being committed to the religion and from worshipping their Lord.

and whose affair (deeds) has been lost means, his actions and deeds are a foolish waste of time. Do not obey him or admire his way or envy what he has.

But I can understand why some would say the above ayah is in reference to them, Islamic mysticism is called ‘tasawwuf’ which literally means to ‘dress in wool’. The sufi is also referred to as fuqara, which means ‘the poor’

The Sufi way of life is called a tariqah or path, they begin with repentance and submission to a sheikh. If it is accepted by the sheikh, he becomes a ‘murid’ and then they are given instructions.
They have rituals: prayer, music, whirling, poetry recitals etc
Then there are also these factors
1. The belief of Wahdat al-Wajood, which implies that the Creator (Allah) and the creation are one, and the creation is just the manifestation of the Creator

2. The belief that the Prophets and the Sufi saints are alive in their graves, just as they were alive in this world. They are fully aware of the outside world; they can communicate with the living and help those who call upon them.


‘This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as your religion’ #Quran 5:3

The above ayah tells us that Islam was perfected and that this indeed is the biggest favor from Allah to this Ummah. This ayah was revealed on the day of Arafah and when Umar (r.a) heard it he cried. The Prophet said, `What makes you cry' He said, `What made me cry is that our religion is being perfected for us. Now it is perfect, nothing is perfect, but it is bound to deteriorate.' The Prophet said, ‘You have said the truth’’. What supports the meaning of this Hadith is the authentic Hadith ‘’Islam was strange in its beginning and will return strange once more. Therefore, Tuba for the strangers’’

Anyway back to the sufi’s, the mystics and all other bidah that follows is an ill and we should protect ourselves against it, worship is for Allah alone, going to shrines and asking sheiks, awliya etc for assistance is walking a fine line, “Beware of newly-invented matters because every newly invented matter is an innovation (bid’ah) and every innovation is a going astray.” Narrated by Abu Dawood (3991)

Allah knows best