Question:
Salamalaykum waRahmutullah waBarakatahu
A book on sufism said of our tariqa members: “All are strict Muslims in a way that would satisfy the most rigerous dictates”.
MSN -Allah give him good mureeds -said “drunk ones” ask to follow him in tariqa but not sharia.
Is their answer “Yes, ok” and if so why?
This is bad, but Im surrounded by them and Im associating them more and more with MNS and the tariqa, esp as they grow in number, making it harder for me to try and ‘connect’.
They’re not changing fast (20 yrs in tariqa for example and still uncomfortable around Muslims like me). MSN told me to start other group. But new mureeds showing any sign of antiIslamicness I cant tolerate even. Please could you give me some advice?
Answer:
wa `alaykum salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakutuh,
You are right, many murids, take Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani’s license to new Muslims and apply it to themselves as Muslims raised in the faith. This is a mistake for which they will suffer, because they don’t listen to Mawlana Shaykh’s suhbats and they don’t study his teachings. They are content with rumors and stories and do not seek the path of self-purification.
As for converts, we do not interfere with them, as Mawlana Shaykh knows of the subtle quality of their faith and his teachings are tailored to keep them within Islam’s folds as gently as an infant in its mother’s arms. We Muslims are the ones to blame if they leave, because of the very bad example we have shown of Islam.
Now this doesn’t mean we have any right to judge them. Judgment is for Allah Alone. As Mawlana Shaykh said, “look first under your own turban” before looking at others. There is a proverb, “Why do you criticize the mote in your brother’s eye and ignore the block of wood on your own shoulder?”
So if you want to lead a group, you must be lenient and soft-hearted on people. That does not mean accept criticism of Islam however, for Islam as Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani has said over and over, is our base and one cannot even enter tariqah without first observing Shari`ah.
That said, as Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani has explained, in the past baya` meant first and foremost accepting the Quran and Sunnah and the way of our pious predecessors as the basis of one’s life. Then, and only after implementing this Shari`ah basis, for many years, and only after supervision of a Sufi master and his taribiyyah, training and discipline, could one expect to take baya`.
Mawlana Shaykh in this time has opened the doors of tariqah to all and sundry with the intention of repelling the vast overwhelming tide of evil that now engulfs this earth. But the meaning of baya` today is not what it was in the past. Baya` today means connection to a master who will seek forgiveness for his student with no expectation of anything from the side of the student. Rather the Shaykh is taking on all the burdens of the murid, here and hereafter.
Allah knows best,
Taher Siddiqui
