Sufi teachers

[muslimah 4 life]

Just wondering if it would be alright to send my child to evening claases run by sufi teachers. I want her to learn with proper tajweed and Inshallah do Hifz.
I didn't know it was run by sufis until I put the name into the internet. The place is called zawiya and its in Birmingham.

[Al-Hanbali]

Wa 'alaykum salaam wa rahmatullaah,

What are these classes on ? Just Tajweed or other Islamic Sciences ?

[muslimah 4 life]

When I made the inquiries they said they would teach tajweed and duas from the Quran. When I went onto the website it was about other gatherings too. I want her to only learn Quran and Sunnah.

[Al-Hanbali]

^ in that case I would say that you try and find a different institute for her to learn the Qur'aan and Sunnah inshaAllaah. The scholars have said that it is permissible to learn from a mubtadi', as long as a number of conditions are met. However, since little kids are very impressionable, and if you know that the institute has 'incorrect' beliefs, then I think it would be safer if she went somewhere where you are confident she will recieve authentic knowledge.

Allaau a'lam!

[muslimah 4 life]

Jizakhallah khair

[Al-Hanbali]

You might want to check out this Masjid ----> Green Lane Masjid (Birmingham). Maybe they might have some sort of class available.

[muslimah 4 life]

That seems more like it!

[Sahabiyaat]

oooo the zawiya!

i live near there, and some of my relatives who decided to turn sufi, go there for dhikr.

[Yanal]

MashAllah hafiz! Are there free online courses around this topic?

[Al-Hanbali]

so....are you saying sufism is wrong, or unauthentic?

Nope, I'm not saying that at all. Tasawwuf is a part of Islaam, however, some have resorted to methods outside of what Allah (swt) has legislated in the Qur'aan, and from the Sunnah, in order to achieve tazkiyaah an-nafs. We don't need to invent our own acts of worship in order to achieve purification of the soul, spirituality and closeness to Allaah (swt); what then would the purpose of the acts of worship Allaah (subhaanahu wa ta'alaa) Himself has legislated.

I advised the sister, that if it is known that the institue has 'incorrect' teachings/beleifs, its better avoided inshaAllaah.

Wallaahu A'lam!

[Ibn Abi Ahmed]

We need to realize that there are two brands of Sufism. There is a sufism that many of our early scholars followed, such as Shaykh al-Islam Abu Ismail al-Harawi. He in fact wrote a manual on Tasawwuf called Manazil al-Sa’irin which Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah later explained in his own Madarij as-Salikeen. Ibn Rajab said about him: ‘The Jurist, faqih, the Exegete, mufassir, the Hadith Master, hafidh, the Sufi and exhorter, Shaykh al-Islam Abu Isma`il…’, Ibn Hajr referred to him with the title of Shaykh al-Islam and Ibn Abi Ya`la said about him, ‘He was the Imam of Ahlu’l-Sunnah in Herat.’ al-Dhahabi said, ‘Shaykh al-Islam was a pure and committed Athari who would rebuke the Mutakallimin,’ and, ‘He was a drawn sword against the Mutakallimin.’ al-Harawi used to say:
I am Hanbali so long as I live, and when I die
My legacy to the people is to become Hanbalis

So what we understand from this is that there were amongst our scholars many who were 'sufis' but they weren't upon any innovation or heretical beliefs. Rather, for them 'Tasawwuf' was what it was to be originally, i.e. a way to Tazkiyyah and suluk. Ibn Taymiyyah etc weren't against this brand of Tasawwuf, rather what they were against was the newly invented philosophical Tasawwuf with it's pure heretical concepts such as Wahdatal Wujud (pantheism), ittihad, etc which incorporated into it the beliefs of the sects that had adopted Kalaam etc. It is this brand of Tasawwuf that our scholars were against.

Personally, I'd avoid using the word 'Tasawwuf' simply because it's such a vague term, it means different things to different people. So I think, and Allaah knows best, when we talk about 'Tasawwuf' we need to be just and realize what exactly it is we're against - i.e. the innovations, the heresies and corrupted beliefs. And we also need to realize that just because some people call themselves 'sufis', especially those amongst the lay people, they are not innovators, they may truly believe what they're doing is correct and not know any better. Some people just happen to use the term to indicate that they are trying to attain tazkiyyah etc. We need to be just and not see these things in black and white, there are shades of gray.