At the time of materialism that makes the inner feelings inactive…
At the time of psychological dispersal that is the result of the loss of rights…
At the time when the concept of passion is about to change its meaning into instinct…Spiritualities have become mere words in the mouths, ceremonies in the clothes, and expressions to be exported…
As an Islamic Ummah in whose roots there is still remnant of life, and in whose branches there are traces of activity, it is incumbent upon us to seek, under our barren earthly crust, remains of our fountains and deep springs, as they are the hope of the remains of our humanity, and the firebrand of our hidden gloominess…
But when man is the enemy of what he is ignorant of, he might be driven by his own ignorance to lose what is beneficial to him, and forfeit what might reform him…
Nothing was lost out of ignorance as Sufism…
Some assume the profession of being expert in dealing with Sufism whereas they have no connection with it, whatsoever…
Judging Sufism is misused for judging the pretenders of Sufism…
The radiant truth of Sufism is about to be concealed from the eyes in spite of its great illumination…The disciples of truth undergo a state that is close to bewilderment and loss…
Two extreme opposite sides appear in society, neither of which represents the aspect of truth…
One rigid side issue unjust judgments to the degree that they classify Sufism as cognitive perversity, and one form of atheism, heresy, aberration, or heterodoxy.

The opposite side sanctify Sufism but are ignorant of its connotations. They imitate some of its outside margins, but are ignorant of its reality and meaning. Between over extravagance and over strictness, the brilliant truth shines.
In his Introduction, Ibn Khaldun said:
"The source of Sufism is the method of the great predecessors of this Ummah, namely, the Companions and their Successors…. [It is] the way of truth and guidance. Originally, it was devotion to worshiping Allah and turning away from the embellishment and ornaments of this life, and renouncing the worldly pleasures, such as all means of luxury of wealth and high position and the like that common people seek, in addition to isolation from the people and living in seclusion to be devoted to worship. This was a common practice among the Companions and their Predecessors. In the second century and thereafter, when seeking worldly pleasure spread among people, and people tended to prefer this life to the Second, the seekers of the Hereafter specialized in the name of 'Sufists'."
Explaining the meaning of Sufism, the writer of Kashf Az Zunun, quoted from Al Qunawi bin Sadr Addin, he said: "It is a science by which the method of promotion of the people of perfection up the steps of their happiness among mankind becomes known". He mentioned an expressive poem saying:
The science of Sufism cannot be realized,
But by the sagacious who is known to be true.
The one who does not witness it cannot realize it.
How can a blind see the sunlight?
In his book, Al Mawaqef Fit Tasawwuf, the holy fighter, Imam Abdul Qader Al Jaza'iri (MBUH) said:
"Our method of monotheism is not that of the loudmouthed. It is rather the method of uniting the Revealed Heavenly Books and the Sunnah of the sent Messengers. It is the method of the Rashidun (rightly-guided) caliphs, the Companions and their Successors, and the great Gnostics. If the common people do not believe in that, then before Allah [in the Hereafter] the disputants will be gathered."
In his explanation of the helping spiritual guide, the religious scholar, Ibnul Haj, commented on Sufism saying in some poetic lines:
The fountain of the Sufist is pure of the defects of love,
Its path is void of any self-interest.
He is faithful to the love covenant, for he has,
No other interest or tendency but to the One he loves.
The sign of the sun of his day removed darkness,
He can neither gesture nor utter.
I have chosen two subjects about which the rejecters disputed a lot:
1-Does Sufism make perception of reality inactive and lead to a state of lethargy and sluggishness, reliance on the others without effort or work and seclusion from society?
2-Does Sufism constitute cognitive and behavioral perversity as a result of heresy and delusion?
The answer is:
Sufism is the third religious pillar that cannot be realized but by two other pillars, that are:
-A practical juristic Islamic pillar;
-A fiducial doctrinal pillar.


Abul Hasa Al Shahdili (MBUH) defined Sufism saying:
"It is training the self to servitude [to Allah] and returning it to the rules of Divinity".As neither of the three pillars disables the others because of the different situations of each, Sufism will not disable man's understanding and his external activities, nor will it change the truths of his doctrine. On the contrary, it will promote him to the purity of the soul and raise him above the filth of the material.
Practically speaking, the scientific and practical influence of Al Hasan Al Basri, Abi Sulaiman Ad Darani, and Al Juneid Al Baghdadi cannot be denied. Al Juneid (MBUH) used to give a legal opinion to people depending on the creed of Abi Thor, the comrade of Ash Shafi'i (MBUTH).
Abul Hasan ash Shahdili used to read to his companions the book on interpretation, AlMuharrer Al Wajiz, by Ibn 'Atiyyah.
Moreover, you can find encyclopedias on many types of sciences by An Nuwawi, Al Iz bin Abdul Salam, Al Jalal As Suyuti, Al Bijuri (Sheik Al Azhar), and Abdul Halim Mahmud (Imam Al Azhar).
In his book, Wulat Misr (Rulers of Egypt), Al Kindi, Abu Omar Muhammad Bin Yusuf, one of the historians of the fourth century, H., related the incidents of the year 200. He said that a group of people called Sufists, appeared in Alexandria, pretended to enjoin good, and opposed the Sultan's rule.
In Muruj Ahd Hdahab, Al Mas'udi said: "When once, Al Ma'mun was sitting in his court, Ali bin As Saleh, the chamberlain, entered and said: "Oh, Prince of Believers, a man, with rough, white, turned up clothes is at the door waiting for your permission to see you". Yahya Bin Aktham said that he knew that the visitor was one of the Sufists. He wanted to recommend not to admit him, but the man entered and talked to the Prince, then the latter let him go. The prince ordered Ali Bin As Saleh to send somebody to follow the man to see where he would go. After the chamberlain carried out the order, he returned and said: "Oh Prince of Believers, I sent somebody to follow him and see where he would go. The man went to a mosque and met fifteen men who were like him in appearance. They asked him: "Did you meet the man?"
He said: "Yes."
They asked: "What did he say to you?"
He said: " Everything good. He says that he disciplines the affairs of the Muslims so that they live safely, manages the pilgrimage, fights in the cause of Allah, takes the right of the oppressed from the oppressor, does not disable the rules. If all the Muslims accept a man unanimously, I trust the affairs to him and become one of his subjects".
They said: "There is no wrong in what you have said".
Then they separated.
The role of As Sanusi, in the recent past, in opposing the foreign occupier cannot be forgotten, nor can the role of Sheikh Omar Al Mukhtar that is not far away from us.
The role of Al Sheikh Al Jaza'iri, Abdul Qader, who is an example in fighting the occupier and driving the foreigner out of the country, cannot be forgotten too. All the above mentioned are practical Sufist examples influenced by reality and influence it. But those who portray Sufism as cognitive or behavioral perversity are far away from the connotation and concept of Sufusm.


The behavioral causes that precede the tasted cognition are all derived from the Heavenly Inspiration, not from the bodies of Yoga (equivocation that some are misled by). The rules of fasting, night optional prayer, seclusion and silence are all derived from Heavenly Inspiration. Similarity in some aspects of these activities does not change the reality of the originality of Sufism, and the wrong notion, some have, that the creed of Sufism is one aspect of pantheism, fusion, or the Buddhist Nirvana is rejected by the leaders of Sufism themselves.
Indicating his belief in the Exalted Allah in the introduction of his book Al Futuhat Al Makkiyya, Mihyiddin Bin Arabi said: "He [Allah] has no plausible equal, nor can minds indicate Him. He is not limited by time or place. He was when there was no place, and He is as He was. He created the inhabitant of the place and the place. He established time, and said: 'I am the One, the Alive'. He does not get tired of preserving the creatures. No quality formed by the manufactured could be attributed to Him that is not His. Exalted He is from being fused in the temporal or their being fused in Him."In Bab Al Asrar (the Door of Secrets), Mihyiddin Bin Arabi said: "Whoever believes in fusion, he is diseased, for believing in fusion is incurable sickness; and whoever believes in pantheism, he is an atheist. In his book, Al Qasd Al Haq, he said: "It is said that the world is brought out of the Truth, Exalted He is, only figuratively, not really, because the Islamic Law does not refer to this statement, and the Exalted Allah is above being the source of objects because there is no proportion between the possible and the Compulsory, between the one who has beginning and the One Who has not, between the one who is needy and the One who is not. It should be rather said that the Exalted Allah brought the objects into being in agreement with His prior knowledge of them after they had not existed in themselves, then they became connected with the Maker as the relationship between a possible poor with the Compulsory rich".
In Chapter 92 of his book Al Futuhat, he said: "The truth that I say is that all the universe is temporal, even if ancient knowledge is connected with it". The idiom "Unity of Existence" according to Sufism means that the Exalted Allah has absolute existence and that everything else is nonexistent.
The Gnostic, An Nabulsi (MBUH) said: According to us, 'Unity of existence' means the Oneness of the Truth, so do understand what we have said. Do not believe that the Existence we have mentioned refers to the created that is corporeal".
In his interpretation of the Exalted Allah's words: 'Everything [that exists] will perish except His own Face', Mihyiddin Bin Arabi (MBUH) said: "Everything will perish because the Manifestations of His Face belong to Him, and the One that causes perishing to the other objects, cannot perish".
Sheikh Abu Yazid Al Bustami said: "When I looked at the creatures, I saw them dead, so I said upon them 'Allah is the Greatest' four times".
In Bustan Al 'Arifin, page 66, Iman An Nuwawi said: "His saying 'I saw them dead', is an excellent statement. You rarely find such a statement in other than the words of the Prophet (PBUH). I shall refer to its interpretation briefly: When he looked at all creatures, he found them dead. They could neither benefit nor harm; they could neither prevent nor give; they could neither give life, nor take life; they could neither connect nor cut; and all these are the qualities of the dead. The conclusion is that they are like nonexistence in all that is mentioned above.
In this explanation, Iman An Nuwawi refers to the Prophetic Hadith: "If the Exalted Allah uncovered his face, everything He looked at would be burned by the Manifestations of His Face".Then Iman An Nuwawi said: "The universe is non-existing and perishing by itself in comparison with the Divine Essence". He also said: "Describing the possible as existing is said only figuratively, not factually, because reality refuses to be existing, and the non-existence of the possible is intrinsic, i.e., it is considered by itself as nothing, for it depends on the Exalted Allah for its existence". Then he said: "The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, 'The most true line of poetry said by the Arabs was what Labib said: "Nothing but Allah is falsehood", i.e., it has no fixed reality by itself. It exists only by other than itself.
In Al Maten, known as 'Aqidat Al Ghaib, the Gnostic, Taqiyyiddin Abu Sha'r said: " 'There is no deity but Allah' is the invisible existence, and we are the invisible nonexistence. The Sultan of the Divine Manifestation appeared from the invisible existence upon the invisible nonexistence with no denial or negation, a manifestation of indication and definition, not fusion or adaptation. This great scene cannot be comprehended but by the sound heart of the believer, a comprehension of faith and belief, not fusion or identification, for such a heart is the place of secrets and the spring of lights, (for your Lord creates whatever He wishes and chooses)".
In Muhadarat Al Abrar, Ibn Arabi quoted from Abi Madyan (MBUTH) saying: "Monotheism is the Truth, the enlightening of the heart, the motivating of the aspects, and the All-Knowing of the invisible. When the Gnostics look at Him, they get lost, for nothing builds up their heart but He. They are infatuated with Him. Their hearts wander for His satisfaction in the High Divine Presence, and their secrets are void of anything but He. When their secrets soar up in the Angelic World, they notice His Greatness, and He manifests Himself to their hearts so they utter His Wisdom. To the Gnostic, He is a light and brightness. He distracts him from Paradise and its Palaces by making him obsessed with Him. He soothes him by Himself, so that he becomes His companion, and He makes him pass away so that his density vanishes. Images and knowledge are removed and nothing remains but the Alive, the Sustainer.
In Midraj As Salikin, Ibn Al Qayyem (MBUH) said: "They do not intend only the extinction of everything but Allah, they also intend the extinction of their own witnessing and feeling. The reality of the absence of one of them is his absence from everything other than the Witnessed, because, in the presence of his Lord, he becomes obsessed with the worshipped from his worship, with the Mentioned from mentioning, with His Existence from his existence, with his Beloved from his love. This state is called drunkenness, and idiomatically speaking, it is called effacement and gathering".
Not to mention that some Sufists uttered, sometimes, ecstatic and mistaken statements, but none of them reached the level of the perfect Sufists. In his Rules (Rule No. 35), the Gnostic, Ahmad Zarruq said: "The extremists of Sufism are like the people of whims of the Essentialists. They are like disputable people of pretenders of knowledge whose deeds should be avoided, but the true fixed creed they are ascribed to and they appear in, should not be abandoned.
Ibn Al Qayyem said: "Sufists are of three types: The Sufists of sustenance; the Sufists of images; and the Sufists of truths.
Imam Abu Salman Ad Darani said: "A trivial object might occur to my mind for forty days, but I do not admit it into my heart unless it is verified by two just witnesses from the Book and from As Suunah.
Imam Al Juneid (MBUH) said: "All ways are closed before people, except to those who follow the traces of the Messenger of Allah (PBUH), his Sunnah, and adhere to his method, because the ways of goodness are all open for them and for their followers and successors"..
He also said: "The one who does not memorize the Holy Qur'an, and does not write the Hadith, should not be followed because our knowledge is restricted to the Book and Sunnah".
Finally, on the occasion of the eighth centenary birthday of Ibn Arabi, the deceased Dr. Othman Yahya said: "If monotheism is a theologian and moral problem to the Isolationists, and it is a religious and social problem to the traditionalists, to the Sufists, it is a spiritual principle that is related, first of all, to the freedom of human entity and to man's liberation from the blemishes of restrictions".


Mahmud Abul-Huda Al Husaini