Using other religions

Question:

Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim

Salam Aleykoum ya Sayidi Shaykh Hisham Qutb al Mutassarif Lion of Sultan-al-Awliya May Allah Bless you and Grant you a Long Life and to your Family Amin

Is it normal for a representative of Mawlana to practice Hinduism, Buddhism and Injils mixed with Sufism ?

Thank you for your reply ya Sayidi.

Wa Salam

Answer:

wa `alaykum salam,

`Alaykum as-Salam,

There are three possible meanings to the question: one, a didactic meaning used by the Awliya in their sayings and poetry to describe high stations; two, a didactic meaning of shirk al-khafi (hidden polytheism) for self-blame and self-correction – both of these meanings being figurative; and thirdly, a literal meaning intended (and I ask your forgiveness and Allah’s forgiveness if I am wrong) as criticism of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim and/or his representative(s) (may Allah bless them and preserve them). We might describe those three meanings as respectively filled with light, filled with benefit, and filled with misguidance. Although only the first two meanings are of interest to us, nevertheless, I will address all three meanings respectively and I ask for the help of our Masters in saying what is right. Allahumma! al-khayru kulluhu minka wa-ilayk.

You are right that Mawlana Shaykh Hisham is Qutb al-Mutassarif and the Lion of Sultan-al-Awliya Mawlana Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani and Sultan al-Awliya Mawlana Shaykh Abd Allah Fa’iz al-Daghistani. May Allah Most High bless them and benefit us with their lights here and hereafter. He is the one representative of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim that we know a little – although we know there are others, but we do not know them as we know him – and, to speak the language of gratitude in obedience to the verses {And as for the immense favor of your Lord do speak} (93:11), {And when your Lord proclaimed: If you give thanks, I will give you more; but if you are thankless, behold! My punishment is dire} (14:7), we say and bear witness that Shaykh Hisham is truly the Mirror of Sultan al-Awliya, his Door, his Interpreter, and his Son and Inheritor in our time.

We also say al-Hamdu lillah and it is a blessed day in our lives when Allah Most High grants us a meeting with a representative who embodies the station described by Shaykh Muhyi al-Din Ibn `Arabi in Tarjuman al-Ashwaq:

My heart has become capable of every form; it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks, And a temple for idols and the pilgrim’s Ka`bah and the tables of the Torah and the Book of the Qur’an. I follow the religion of Love: whatever way Love’s camels take, that is my religion and my faith.

This is the station for which Rabi`a al-`Adawiyya and al-Hallaj were called bad names by their contemporaries while others in their time and through the centuries considered them foremost Awliya, including Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (Allah sanctify their souls).

Sayyiduna Bishr al-Hafi was one of the great “King-size Awliya” as Mawlana says, and lived as a celibate with his three sisters in the time of Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal, Allah be well-pleased with all of them and benefit us with their lights. Ibn al-Jawzi in his book Sifat al-Safwa relates from Zubda, one of Bishr’s sisters:

One time Bishr entered my house late at night. He placed one of his feet inside the house and the other outside, and remained thus in reflection until dawn. Afterwards I said to him: ‘What were you thinking about all night?’ He said: ‘I was thinking of Bishr-the-Christian, and Bishr-the-Jew, and Bishr-the-Zoroastrian, and about my soul, and about my name of ‘Bishr’ (Good News), and I said to myself: ‘What have you done to merit that He single you out [with Friendship]?’ And I kept thinking of His immense favor towards me, and thanking Him that He has made me one of His special servants and clothed me with the vestment of His beloved ones.’

Also among Bishr’s words famously related from him: “O `ulama, you will be the first to be cast into the Fire of Jahannam.” This is for the `ulama of his time, the third Hijri century!

Sayyiduna Abu Yazid al-Bistami was another such great Wali. Imam al-Nawawi relates about him in his book on tasawwuf entitled Bustan al-`Arifin:

Abu Yazid [al-Bistami] – Allah be well pleased with him! – said: “I was for twelve years the blacksmith of my ego (haddadu nafsi), then for five years I became the mirror of my heart (mir’atu qalbi), then for a year I looked at what lay between the two of them and saw around me a visible belt [the vestimentary sign of a non-Muslim subject of the Islamic state]. I strove to cut it for twelve years then looked again and saw around me a hidden belt. I strove to cut it for five years, leaving no stone unturned. Then I reached a state of spiritual unveiling (kushifa li) and I looked at creation and saw that they were all dead. So I recited the funeral prayer over them.”

Al-Nawawi commented:

The fact that hypocrisy should be as elusive as this to the peerless Master in this path [i.e. tasawwuf] is enough to show how greatly hidden it lies. His phrase: ‘I saw them dead’ is the apex of worth and beauty, and seldom do other than the words of the Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) gather up such a wealth of meanings.

We also say that, other than three main representatives – Shaykh Hisham, Shaykh Adnan, and Shaykh Mehmet – Mawlana Shaykh Nazim has countless minor wakils and deputies here and there who all without exception suffer from various shortcomings because they are still beginners including the speaker, and such can be characterized as hidden polytheism (shirk khafi), i.e. associating one’s will with the Divine Will as in “Hinduism, Buddhism and Injils mixed with sufism” to cite the terms of the question. Did not the Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) say that he feared hidden shirk the most for his Ummah? Yes he did, and he said he fears it for us “worse than the Masih al-Dajjal!” (Sunan Ibn Majah and Musnad Ahmad).

As Mawlana Shaykh Hisham said more than once, on the whole in this Tariqah we are still at the station of thumma amanu thumma kafaru, i.e. one step forward, two steps back – as the tests of 2010 have shown, from Cyprus to Beirut to North America to Southeast Asia; and all the main characters involved in these tests without exception would be honored if they could just hold the shoes of Shaykh Hisham for him but instead they came against him (and thus against Mawlana Shaykh Nazim), because their nafs vanquished them.

يَا نَفْسِ لا تَقْنَطِي مِنْ زَلَّةٍ عَظُمَتْ إِنَّ الْكَبَائِرَ فِي الْغُفْرَانِ كَاللَّمَمِ

O soul, do not despair because of a huge mistake.
Truly, enormities in the balance of forgiveness are like minor slips!

I hope that all of the above adequately answers the question. If, however, the question was asked (and I ask your forgiveness and Allah’s forgiveness if I am wrong) as a veiled attack or criticism of Mawlana and/or his representative(s), then we reply that such a question presupposes that Mawlana appoints representatives who practice other than Islam and is unworthy of an answer. It is reminiscent of those who accuse the Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) of keeping evil Companions or being ignorant of what they do or will do; because in their hearts they want to attack him himself (upon him blessings and peace) – Hasha wa kalla, and {their words will be recorded and they will be asked} (al-Zukhruf 43:19).

Similarly in this Tariqah every act and every question is taken into account and will count for or against you on the Day of resurrection. Questions in Religion are worship because they are keys of guidance to Allah and His Prophet as indicated in the Qur’an and the Sunnah; they are not a light matter! So if we must ask questions we should ask sincere questions that are keys to guidance, not disingenuous or venomous questions that are keys to foolishness and dissension as they might lead to a bad end. This is what Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani warned of to one of the ill-intentioned students who had come to visit him and this story is well-known. Closer to our time the late Habib Ahmad Mashhur b. Taha al-Haddad also warned about a very famous, big Syrian-Jordanian `alim in our time who used to insult and disparage the Awliya: “That man will die on other than Islam.”

I remind you also of the story of Shaykh Abu `Abd Allah al-Andalusi (see Post: Hadith: Allah’s Preventing Self-Aggrandizing Worship), a story that teaches true gratitude for Allah’s gift of guidance and fear of Allah until the last breath because He does not owe us a good ending but it is a gift from Him!

May Allah Most High cause us to die on Islam and Iman, may He break us free from visible and invisible misguidance, may He guide you and us to what He loves and accepts and cleanse us from kufr and nifaq outwardly and inwardly.

Blessings and peace on the Prophet, his Family, his Companions, and his Inheritors. Salam `alaykum ya Mawlana Sultan al-Awliya, Salam `alaykum ya Sayyidi! What shukr we owe you… Tawba, Astaghfirullah!

Hajj Gibril Haddad

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