Al-hamdu li’llâh (Infinite thanks be to Allâhu
ta’âlâ)! If any person thanks anybody in any manner for anything at any place
at any time, this thanking will have been done for Allâhu ta’âlâ, for always He
is the One who creates, trains and grows everything, who has every favour done
and who sends every goodness. He alone is the possessor of strength and power.
Unless He reminds, nobody wills or desires to do goodness or evil. After man’s
willing (proposing), unless He wills (disposes) and gives strength and
opportunity, nobody can do a bit of favour or evil to anybody. Everything which
man wants happens when He also wills, decrees it. Only what He decrees happens.
He reminds us of doing good or evil through various means. He neither wills nor
creates evil when His human servants, whom He pities, wish to do it. He wills
and creates when they wish goodness. Always goodness arises from such people.
Also, He wills to create the evil wishes of His enemies with whom He is angry.
Since these evil people do not wish to do goodness, only evil arise from them.
This means to say that all men are tools, means. They are like the pen in a
writer’s hand. Only, with their irâdat juz’iyya (partial free will) that has
been endowed on them, those who want goodness to be created will receive thawâb
(reward). The ones who want evil to be created will gain sins. Therefore, we
should always want Him to create goodness. We should learn what is beneficial.
We have to know what is good and what is evil by reading the books by the
scholars of Ahl as-Sunna (rahimahum-Allâhu ta’âlâ), who are the sources of
goodness. The scholars of Ahl as-Sunna prove, with documents, that Wahhâbism is
an erroneous path. We will explain thirty-five of these documents in the first
part of our book.
“Abd al-Wahhâb ash-Sha’rânî’s books and ’Abd al-’Azîz
Dabbâgh’s book Ibrîz and Ahmad at-Tijânî’s books are full of
shirk [polytheism] that Abu Jahl and the like could
not have conceived.”
Ahmat at-Tijânî (rahmat-Allâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih, may
Allâhu ta’âlâ bless him), who was born in Algeria in
The Wahhâbî, too, writes that the superior ones among
men, that is, the prophets (salawât-Allâhi ta’âlâ wa taslîmâtuhu ’Alaihim
ajma’în) are higher than the superior angels and believes in angels’ power and
effect, but does not believe that Allâhu ta’âlâ has given the power of
disposition and effectiveness to His awliyâ’ (rahimahum-Allâhu ta’âlâ) as a
karâma, and calls the people who believe so “mushriks” (polytheists). The
scholars of Ahl as-Sunna (rahimahum-Allâhu ta’âlâ), as a karâma, realizing even
then, refuted them years beforehand. Muhyiddîn ibn al-’Arabî, Sadr ad-dîn
al-Qonawî, Jalâl ad-dîn Rûmî and Sayyid Ahmad al-Badawî and the aforementioned
awliyâ (rahimahum-Allâhu ta’âlâ) were the leading ones who, as a karâma,
foretold these things. This is the reason why the Wahhâbîs do not like these
awliyâ’.
Hadrat al-Imâm ar-Rabbânî Ahmad al-Fârûqî as-Sirhindî
(quddisa sirruh) wrote in the fiftieth letter of the second volume of his Maktûbât:
“Islam has a surface and a real, inner essence. The
surface of Islam is firstly to believe and then to obey the orders and
prohibitions of Allâhu ta’âlâ. The nafs al-ammâra (the headstrong, unregenerate
self) of a person who has attained the surface of Islam is in denial and
disobedience. The belief (îmân) of this person is on the surface of belief. The
salât he performs is the appearance of salât. His fast and other kinds of
worship (’ibâda) are also of that grade. The reason is that the basis of the
existence of man is the nafs al-ammâra. When he says ‘I,’ he refers to his
nafs. So his nafs has not attained îmân, has not believed. Could the belief and
worship of such people be real and right? Since Allâhu ta’âlâ is very merciful,
He accepts the attainment of the façade. He announces the good news that He
will put into Paradise those with whom He is pleased. It is a great benevolence
of His that He accepts the belief of the heart and does not lay down a
condition that the nafs also should believe. However, there are the surface and
also the real essence of the blessings of
Paradise. Those who attain the surface of Islam will
get a share from what is the façade of Paradise, and those who attain the
reality of Islam in this world will get the reality of Paradise. Both the one
who attains the façade and the one who attains the reality of Islam will eat
the same fruit of Paradise, but each will get a different taste. Rasûlulâh’s
(sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam) blessed wives (radî-Allâhu ta’âlâ
’anhunna) will be with him in Paradise and eat the same fruit, but the taste
they will get will be different. If it would not be different, then these
blessed wives should have necessarily been higher than all human beings, and,
since a wife will be with her husband in Paradise, the wife of every superior
person should have been superior like him.
“The one who attains the surface of Islam, if he obeys
it, will be saved in the next world. In other words, he has attained the status
of common wilâya, that is, the pleasure and love of Allâhu ta’âlâ. The one who
has been honored with this status is the one who can join the way of tasawwuf
and reach the special wilâya called “Wilâyat khâssa.” He can
make his nafs ammâra develop into an-nafs al-mutma’inna (the tranquil self). It
should be known for certain that, in order to make progress in this wilâya, or
in the reality of Islam, the surface of Islam should not be abandoned.
“It is the very frequent dhikr of Allâhu ta’âlâ’s Name
that makes one progress on the way of tasawwuf. The dhikr, too, is an ’ibâda
ordered in the religion of Islam. It is commended and ordered in âyats and
hadîths. It is essential to avoid the prohibitions of Islam to make progress on
the way of tasawwuf. Performing the fard (those kinds of worship ordered in the
Qur’ân al-karîm) enables one to make progress on this way. It is an
order of Islam, too, that one should look for a rehber who knows tasawwuf and
who is able to guide the sâlik (wayfarer). It is declared in the thirty-eighth
âyat of Sûrat al-Mâ’ida, ‘Look
for a wasîla to approach Him.’[1] Both
the surface and the real essence of Islam are necessary for winning the
approval of Allâhu ta’âlâ, because all the excellences of wilâya can be
attained by obeying the surface of Islam. And the excellences of prophethood
(nubuwwa) are the fruits of the reality of Islam.
“The way leading to wilâya is tasawwuf. It is
necessary to extract from the heart the love for everything except Allâhu ta’âlâ
to make progress on the way of tasawwuf. If the heart
[1] In the 18th article on page 82, it is clearly explained that a perfect guide is a wasîla.
becomes oblivious of everything by the benevolence of
Allâhu ta’âlâ, fanâ’ results, and the sair-i ila’llâh is
completed. Then the journey called ‘sair-i fi ’illâh’
begins, at the end of which occurs the desired status of baqâ’. Thus the
reality of Islam is attained. The noble person who attains this status is
called ‘walî,’ which means the person whom Allahu ta’âlâ is pleased
with and loves. An-nafs
al-ammâra becomes mutma’inna
(tranquil, subdued) at this stage. The nafs gives up kufr and resigns itself to
the qadâ’ and qadar of Allâhu ta’âlâ and pleases Him. It begins to comprehend
itself. It gets redeemed from the illness of haughtiness and arrogance. Most of
the superiors of tasawwuf said that the nafs could not become free of
disobedience to Allâhu ta’âlâ even after attaining tranquillity. Rasûlullâh (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam) said on his return from a
ghazâ, ‘We return from the
small jihâd. We begin the great jihâd.’ The ‘great jihâd’ has been interpreted as jihâd
against an-nafs al-ammâra. This faqîr, myself [al-Imâm ar-Rabbânî], does not
take it in that sense. I say no disobedience or evil is left when the nafs
attains tranquillity. The nafs, too, like the heart, forgets everything, sees
nothing but Allâhu ta’âlâ. It becomes indifferent to position, rank, property
and even to their sweet and sour tastes. It has been crushed and has become
sort of nonexistent. It has sacrificed itself for Allâhu ta’âlâ. The ‘great jihâd’ mentioned in the hadîth sharîf is probably the
jihâd against the physical, chemical and biologoical desires of the substances
constituting the body. Both shahwa, that is, lust or violent desire, and
ghadab, that is, fright or scrupple, are material passions. Animals do not have
nafs, but these malignant inclinations exist in animals, too. It is due to the
properties of substances in the body that animals have lust, anger and
inordinate inclinations [all called natural inclinations or instincts]. Human
beings should perform jihâd against these inclinations. The tranquillity of the
nafs does not rescue man from these evils. Jihâd against them is very
beneficial. It helps the purification of the body.
“Al-Islâm al-haqîqî (the Real Islam) falls to one’s lot when one’s nafs
gets subdued. Then real îmân is attained. Any kind of worship performed is
real: salât, fast and hajj are all in their real value.
“As it is seen, tasawwuf (or ‘way’) or haqîqa
(reality) is the passage between the surface and the inner part of Islam. The
one who has not attained Wilâyat khâssa cannot get redeemed from being a
metaphoric Muslim, cannot attain the Real Islam.
“The one who has attained the reality of Islam and has
been honored with the Real Islam begins to take shares from the excellences of prophethood.
He becomes an object of the good news declared in the hadîth, ‘The Ulamâ’ are the Prophets’ heirs.’ The
excellences of prophethood are the fruits of the reality of Islam as the
excellences of wilâya are the fruits of the surface of Islam. The excellences
of wilâya are the appearances of the excellences of prophethood.
“The difference between the surface and the reality of
Islam, consequently, arises from the nafs. And the difference between the
excellences of wilâya and those of prophethood comes from the
substances in the body. In the excellences of wilâya, substances obey what
their physical, chemical and biological properties dictate; extra energy causes
excessiveness, and substances long for food. For obtaining these needs, insolent
absurdities are committed. In the excellences of prophethood, such
absurdities come to an end. In the hadîth ash-sharîf, ‘My devil became Muslim,’ probably this state of consciousness is expressed,
for there is a devil in man as there is one outside of him. Excess energy leads
man astray and makes him arrogant, and this is the worst of the bad habits. By
getting rid of these evils, nafs becomes Muslim. In the excellences of prophethood,
there is belief both by heart and by nafs, and also regularity and equilibrium
of the substances present in the body. It is after the establishment of the
equilibrium of matter and energy in the body that nafs gets subdued completely.
After tranquillity, it cannot return to malignity. All these superior qualities
are based on Islam. A tree cannot be without roots no matter how much it
branches out or how fruitful it is. Obedience to Allâhu ta’âlâ’s orders and
prohibitions is essential in every excellence.”
It is seen that the author of the book, because he knows nothing of tasawwuf, maligns the awliyâ’ (qaddas-Allâhu ta’âlâ asrârahum al-’azîz) and thinks that they are outside of Islam.