1– Sadâqat (trueness): It is to love one’s friends, to desire their
happiness and comfort, to try to protect them from danger, and to try to make
them happy.
2– Amity (ulfat): It is the harmony and solidarity among the members of a group
with respect to their belief and worldly affairs and thoughts.
3– Faithfulness (wafâ): Getting along with others and helping each other. Another
meaning of “wafâ” is keeping one’s promise and respecting others’ rights.
4– Compassion (shafqat): Concern and worrying for others’ problems. Working and
struggling in order to save them from their problems.
5– Care of kin (sila ar-rahm): It is to watch over one’s relatives and close friends and to
visit them and assist them. It is stated in a hadîth-i-sherîf: “I was sent to extirpate idolatry and to help my relatives.”
6– Requital (mukâfât): It is to return goodness with goodness.
7– Good-fellowship (husn al-shirkat): Obedience to social rules and fair and dispassionate conduct.
8– Fair judgement (husn al-qazâ):
It is to act justly in all affairs and in social transactions; not to rub in
the favours you
have
done to others, and to avoid regrettable behaviour.
9– Tawaddud: It means love and affection. It is to love one’s friends and to
behave so as to gain their affection.
10– Complete obedience (taslîm): To accept and obey Islam’s commandments, to avoid committing
prohibited actions, and to adapt oneself to ethics of Islam even if it may not
feel delightful to do so.
11– Reliance (tawakkul): Not worrying for the calamities which are above the human strength
by believing that they were decreed by Allâhu ta’âlâ at pre-eternity and therefore accepting them with a good
disposition.
12– Devotion (’ibâdat): To perform the commandments of Allâhu
ta’âlâ, Who created all beings from nothing, Who constantly
protects all living beings from all sorts of accidents and disasters, and Who
grows them by continuously giving them various blessings and benefits, and to
abstain from His prohibitions; to endeavour to serve Him as best you can, and
to try to emulate people who have attained love of Allâhu ta’âlâ, such as Rasûls (prophets with a new dispensation, which
abrogated the religious systems previous to itself), Nabîs (prophets who were sent to humanity for
the purpose of restoring the religious system(s) previous to them) ‘alaihim-us-salawât-u-wa-t-taslîmât’,
Islamic scholars, and Awliyâ ‘rahimahumullâhu ta’âlâ’.
[Muslims are of two types:
scholars or elites (hawâs) and populous or common people (’awâm). The book Durr-i-yaktâ, in
Turkish, provides the following information: Common people are those who do not
possess knowledge regarding methodology and rules of Arabic grammar and
literature like “Sarf” and “Nahw”. These people cannot understand books of
“fatwâ” (religious legal decisions).
It is obligatory (fard)
for these people to learn by asking about the knowledge of belief and worships (’ibâdât).
It is also obligatory (fard) for scholars to teach through lectures,
conversations (sohbats), and writings; firstly knowledge pertaining
to faith and secondly knowledge pertaining to five obligatory worships which
are the foundation of the religion of Islam. It is written in the books Zahîra
and Tâtârhâniyya
that it is most urgent for every Muslim to learn first about the knowledge of “Ahl as-Sunnat”,
i.e., the faith and tenets of
belief.
For this reason, the great scholar Sayyid Abdulhakîm al-Arwâsî ‘rahmatullâhi
’aleyh’ said, sometime close to his demise: “I have preached for thirty years
exclusively the teachings of Ahl as-Sunnat belief
and the knowledge of beautiful ethics of Islam in all the mosques of Istanbul.
Ahl as-Sunnat scholars acquired these teachings from the Sahâba, who in turn
had learned from our blessed Prophet
‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sal-lam’.”
The teachings of belief are called “’aqâid” or “i’tiqâd.”
To maintain the tradition, we have devoted all our books to a comprehensive
explanation of the belief of Ahl as-Sunnat, flavouring our explanations with
Islam’s beautiful teachings on ethics and, for the same matter, emphasizing the
astute merit of being in good terms with others and following a utilitarian
line of action in matters involving the government. Also as a means to this
ultimate end, we have kept expressing our disapproval of religiously ignorant,
eclectic and disruptive people like Sayyid Qutb and Mawdûdî, who do not belong
to any of the only true four Madhhabs and whose writings provoke against
established governments and stir up enmity among brothers. Our Prophet Muhammad ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sal-lam’
said, “Religion
is under the shadow of the swords”, which means that
Muslims will live comfortably under the protection of the laws and rules
provided by the government. When the government is strong and powerful, peace
and prosperity flourish. Muslims, who live in non-Islamic countries of Europe
and America, should not disobey the laws of those countries. For, in those
countries, the government provides freedom of religion through laws. Therefore,
every Muslim can practice their religion freely. Thus, Muslims who have a
comfortable lifestyle and freedom of religion should not incite trouble against
the governments that provide them these opportunities, and they should be on
the alert lest they get embroiled in an activity of sedition or anarchy. This
strategy is what the scholars of Ahl as-Sunnat ‘rahimahumullâhu ta’âlâ’ counsel
for us to pursue. The most dignified act of worship is to learn the tenets of Ahl as-Sunnat Belief
and adapt one’s credal behaviour to these tenets, rather than frolicking with
ordeals of instigation and sedition or serving the purposes of anarchists and
separatists. After thereby correcting one’s faith and immunizing oneself
against the seventy-two pernicious and heretical systems of belief, which
are
called ahl-i-bid’at,
the next stage to be entered upon is to avoid committing bid’ats in the acts of
worship, which means doing things in the name of worship although they
are not Islam’s commandments. Allâhu ta’âlâ’s
commandments and prohibitions as an ensemble are called the Sharî’at.
To worship means to obey the Sharî’at. The Four Madhhabs
are the true sources providing clear instructions on how to perform acts of
worship. All four of them are right and true. They are, namely, Hanafî,
Shâfi’î, Mâlikî, and Hanbalî. Every Muslim has to read a book teaching one of these
four Madhhabs (and called a book of ’ilm-i-hâl) and perform
their acts of worship in accordance with that book. Thus he will have entered
that Madhhab. A person who has not entered any one of the four Madhhabs is
called a la-madhhabî (or a non-madhhabite). A
lâ-madhhabî is not in the (true group of Muslims called) Ahl as-Sunnat. And a
person who is not in the Ahl as-Sunnat group is either a holder of bid’at (i.e.
a heretic), or a disbeliever.
Hadrat Alî ‘karram-Allâhu wajhah’ says that
if you see a person who does not believe in rising after death, tell him: “I
believe in rising after death. If what you say comes true, I will not be losing
anything but since what I say will come true you will be burning in Hell fire
eternally!” Most of the scientists, government officials, university professors
and military commanders living in Europe and America believe in the Hereafter
and rising after death and go to churches for worship. Jews, Brahmins,
Buddhists, fire worshippers, idol-worshippers, civilized people and uncivilized
people are all believers (in life after death). The few unbelievers are the
mendacious, cruel and unruly dictators presiding over the surviving communistic
regimes and the mercenaries around them or abroad. Could we ever hazard that a
couple of ignorant idiots who barter illiberal enmity against religions for an
easy livelihood or a few evanescent moments of pleasure might have been
following a more logical line of conduct than the remaining ninety percent of
the world’s population? After death an atheist will be annihilated according to
his own view and eternally punished in Hell according to the believer. As for
the believer; he also will be annihilated in the atheist’s view, whereas he
himself believes that he will lead an eternal life of pleasure and enjoyment.
Which one of these two opposites would a wise and learned person choose? The
second one, definitely, would he not? The
tremendous order in this worldly life and in the material world announces the existence of Allâhu ta’âlâ to owners of wisdom. And Allâhu ta’âlâ announces the existence of the world to come. Then, a person with common sense and knowledge must believe in the existence and unity of Allâhu ta’âlâ. It would be idiocy and ignorance to deny. To believe in Allâhu ta’âlâ is to believe in His Attributes of Ulûhiyyat (Deity), i.e. His Attributes termed Sifât-i-dâtiyya and Sifât-i-thubûtiyya, to believe the facts He has announced, and to adapt oneself to His Sharî’at. A person who adapts himself to the Sharî’at will lead a peaceful and happy life in this world as well. He will be kind to everybody.]