Keeping
a lengthy topic brief and to the point, personally I view Sufisim as
against the idealogy of the Glorious Quran. It's a lot more in line
with the concept of monasticism in Christianity, and also somewhat
similar to the mystic values of non-Divine religions like Buddhism and
Hinduism.
On monasticism Allah, The Almighty, mentions concerning the People of the Book
"But monasticism they invented - We ordained it not for them - only seeking Allah's pleasure, and they observed it not with right observance." 57:27 Al-Hadid.
Broadly speaking, Sufiism depicts the concept of retiring from worldly life into a reclusive existence. Islam, on the contrary, upholds that religion/spiritualism and worldly responsibilities go hand in hand. Definitely, Islam commands a strict control on ones morals and ethics while indulging in worldly affairs. To prove one's worth and quality, it's incumbent upon every human being to maintain a balance between their responsibilities toward Allah Almighty and their duties towards family & community. After all, it's the challenges of this earthly life that carve our personality, determine our character and the level of our perseverance, which is eventually for Allah to judge. Obviously a person who is a recluse with the minimal of contact with the outside world has not given themselves as much opportunity to face the trials and tribulations of life as those who have been exposed to the harshness of the world and yet have held on to their duties toward Allah.
There are certain Muslim societies where the concept of Sufiism has deviated from a complete hermit like existence to something between seclusion and participation in worldly life. But it all depends upon their interpretation of merging both sides of life to make it compatible in a broader sense with Quranic precepts.
Personally, I'm completely against the expression 'Islamic mysticism.' It's illogical and therefore contradictory from the view point highlighted above. The Glorious Quran underscores no such ideas. Keeping this in mind, the accusation against Sufiism trying to distract Muslims from the Quran and move them towards the servitude of other human beings could have a big element of truth and be a good reason to discard Sufiism altogether. Already enough tales and distortions have been manufactured over the past centuries until the present through innovations by the followers of sectarianism and our self-appointed leaders that have unashamedly concealed or squinched the truth and beauty of the Noble Quran. The last thing we need is another annexation.
On monasticism Allah, The Almighty, mentions concerning the People of the Book
"But monasticism they invented - We ordained it not for them - only seeking Allah's pleasure, and they observed it not with right observance." 57:27 Al-Hadid.
Broadly speaking, Sufiism depicts the concept of retiring from worldly life into a reclusive existence. Islam, on the contrary, upholds that religion/spiritualism and worldly responsibilities go hand in hand. Definitely, Islam commands a strict control on ones morals and ethics while indulging in worldly affairs. To prove one's worth and quality, it's incumbent upon every human being to maintain a balance between their responsibilities toward Allah Almighty and their duties towards family & community. After all, it's the challenges of this earthly life that carve our personality, determine our character and the level of our perseverance, which is eventually for Allah to judge. Obviously a person who is a recluse with the minimal of contact with the outside world has not given themselves as much opportunity to face the trials and tribulations of life as those who have been exposed to the harshness of the world and yet have held on to their duties toward Allah.
There are certain Muslim societies where the concept of Sufiism has deviated from a complete hermit like existence to something between seclusion and participation in worldly life. But it all depends upon their interpretation of merging both sides of life to make it compatible in a broader sense with Quranic precepts.
Personally, I'm completely against the expression 'Islamic mysticism.' It's illogical and therefore contradictory from the view point highlighted above. The Glorious Quran underscores no such ideas. Keeping this in mind, the accusation against Sufiism trying to distract Muslims from the Quran and move them towards the servitude of other human beings could have a big element of truth and be a good reason to discard Sufiism altogether. Already enough tales and distortions have been manufactured over the past centuries until the present through innovations by the followers of sectarianism and our self-appointed leaders that have unashamedly concealed or squinched the truth and beauty of the Noble Quran. The last thing we need is another annexation.
ALLAH has created us with two inherent things: 1) Soul or heart and 2) Brain, these two things determine the path of our life. Soul is with us from ALLAH to protect us and resides below the neck.
ReplyDeleteBrain is developed with passage of time and tells us how to live in this world. Brain needs constant input to nourish itself. What sufis do is that they isolate themselves, due to isolation the development of brain not only stops, but it starts diminishing with passage of time.
The only thing they remember is Objective for which they isolated. It results in similar condition as when a person gets drunk, he only remember the last thing he was doing.
Sufism is a very close phenomena to this one.
I have kept this comment extremely small, just to explain why sufis end up in wrong notion.