PRISTINE SUFISM: SUFISM AND SALAFISM: A COMPARATIVE DISCOURSE BY USTADH SHITTU OLANIPEKUN

SUFISM AND SALAFISM:

A COMPARATIVE DISCOURSE

(Origins, Teachings, Scholars of Sufism and Salafism and their point of Convergence and Divergence)

{Being a transcript of presentation to a WhatsApp Tijaniyyah group (DATFATON)}

By: Ustadh Shittu Olanipekun

I seek refuge in the name of Allah from Shaytan the accursed, I begin in the name of Allah, the most Compassionate, the most Merciful.

All praise be to Allah, the First, the Last, the Manifest, the Hidden. I praise His Holy name, I adore Him, I exalt His Mightiness and confirm His Oneness. He is Peace, peace emanates from Him, He loves Peace and enjoins His creatures to live in peace and not in pieces.

May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon the Radiant Light, the Lightning Flash, the Fountainhead of Divine Effulgence, our Master Muhammad, the Opener of what was closed, the Seal of what has passed, the Helper of the Truth by the Truth, the Guide to Your straight path, and on his family, may this prayer be equal to his worth, and greatness of his extent in space and time. Verily, our Prophet taught us to go for peace when confronted by the ignorant people in tandem with the words of Allah in Q25:63;

وإذا خاطبهم الجاهلون قالوا سلاما

May the mercy of Allah never elude the souls of the Awliya'llah, Mawlana Shaykh Ahmad Tijani, Mawlana Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse, Mawlana Shaykh Jami'u Bulala among others, these noble saints deserves accolades and prayers from us. May Allah sanctify their secrets.

Brothers and Sisters in Islam, Muridun and Muridaat, Muqaddamun, Muqadimaat, Shuyukh and Shuyukhaat..... I greet you all with the greetings of Islam...

As Salam alaykum Wa Rahmatullah..

Honourable members of this great platform, it is a naysay to debunk the fact that we Muslims are not living in harmony due to our various Religious indoctrinations. This is consequent upon the useless syndrome of "holier than thou". Nay, the Qur'an forbid us from this nefarious belief where Allah said in Q53:32

فلا تزكوا أنفسكم هو أعلم بمن آتقى

Albeit the admonition of Allah as gleaned from the above Qur'anic verse, we are in a society where a Muslim will brand his fellow Muslim, Kafir, all in the name of not succumbing to one another's indoctrination. The situation is further aggravated when it lead to rancor like oral attacks, physical attacks or worst still spiritual attacks.

Arising from these, one may soliloquize and mesmerize on the reason for all these ab initio.

Suffice it to say that Islam is not a religion that is limited to the canonical acts of worship alone. It is a complete way of life. No stone is left unturned in our Noble Book as could be gleaned from the Q6:38;

مافرطنا في الكتاب من شيء

Among what Islam enjoins is spiritualism. A doctrine of Islam which focuses on Spiritualism is Sufism.

Sufism the anglicized word for Islamic mysticism is a very controversial doctrine in Islam. Early Scholars of it were persecuted severally (e.g Mansur Al-Hallaj), Modern scholars of it were more often than none condemned vehemently, while its adherents are worse perceived than a Kafir. Among the scholars who condemn the Sufi doctrine is the Salafiyyah(Salafism).

Thus, this discussion is an attempt to elucidate the reason for the brouhaha between the two groups. This is in tandem with the topic given me i.e *Sufism and Salafism: A Comparative Discourse*

In ensuring this, attempt will be made to examine the overview of both the sects, i.e Sufism and Salafism, then we shall discuss on the point of their convergence and divergence before we conclude with our recommendation which among others we shall clamour for peaceful coexistence among one another since Islam unifies us all irrespective of our differences.

AN OVERVIEW OF SUFISM

Tasawwuf(Arabic word of Sufism) has generated a lot of controversies due to the fact that there is no single place in either the Noble Qur'an or the Prophetic Tradition(Sunnah) where Tasawwuf is specifically mentioned. However, there are some inferences in both the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet on the teachings and practices of the Sufis.

Among the causes of controversies is the etymology of the word Sufi. This has been traced to its different root words, among which are suf(woollen dress), saf(purity), suffah(bench i.e people of the bench). The reason for all these derivatives claim bearing to the characteristics of its people. Looking critically at them, the early Sufis were regarded as people who wear woollen dress when fabrics and brocades were the order of the day, the Prophet is their perfect example. More so, the Sufis are renowned as people of purity. They deal with the purification of hearts. While the Ashabus Suffah were the people of the bench who relocated permanently to the Prophet's mosque with the sole aim of learning more about the religion of Islam. Prominent among them are Abu Hurayrah, Bilal, Salman Farisi, etc

However, of all these proposition about the etymology, the word that adequately fits is **Suf** (wool). That's why the Sufis are referred to as the people of the wool.

One will then ask, *Who is a Sufi*? Several definitions abound on this, however, Trimigham's definition caught my attention. He defined a Sufi as a person who believes that it is possible to have direct experience of God and is prepared to go out of his way in putting himself in a state whereby he may be able to achieve this.

Trimigham was an Orientalist who worked assiduously on the Sufi doctrine. His Magnum opus on Sufism is Sufi Orders in Islam. Referencing him in this context may not be out of place, since a owner of something may not appreciate what he has unlike another person!

Still speaking on the controversy of Sufism. Among the causes of it is the origin of the doctrine itself. This can viewed from two binoculars. Some claimed that Sufism is of Unlslamic origin, while others were of the view that it is of Islamic origin.

On Unlslamic origin: The view of modern Western scholars like Kremer, Nicholson is that Sufism is borrowed from Religions like Neoplatonism and Christianity.

More so, majority of Salafi scholars are of the view that Tasawwuf is UnIslamic since it wasn't practised during the period of the Salafus Salihin.

On Islamic origin, the view point of Western scholars like Martin Ling comes to place as he depicted that Sufism entirely originated in Islam.

In the same vein, the Sufi scholars have worked assiduously in refuting that their doctrine has no bearing in Islam. They regarded the view of Orthodox Islamic scholars as not only biased but speculative. These are well demonstrated in their various literary defensive works. Works like Jawahirul Ma'ani of Shaykh Tijani and Kashfuli al-bas of Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse are apposite in this regards.

The Sufi scholars made reference to various verses of the Qur'an to be inferences to their practices. It will be apt to mention verses like Q2:115, Q57:3, Q24: 36-37, Q5:54, Q8: 17, Q24:35, among others. Each of these verses alluded to the features of Sufism.

In the same vein, they supported the Qur'an with the Hadith of the Prophet, prominent among which is the Hadith 2 of An-Nawawi collection whereby the hierarchy of spirituality is displayed i.e. Islam, Iman and Ihsan. They were of the position that the Sufis occupied the highest, i.e

أن تعبد الله كأنك تراه فإنك إن لاتراه فإنه يراك

That is why the Sufis are referred to as Ahlul Ihsan(People of righteousness).

Sufism has continued to evolve through the years to the formation of the orders in the modern days, that's why we have Qadiriyyah(after Shaykh AbdulQadir Jailani), Rifa'iyyah(after Shaykh Ahmad Rifa'i), Shadhiliyyah( after Shaykh Abu Hassan Ali Ash-Shadhili) and our own Tijaniyyah(after Shaykh Ahmad Tijani).

AN OVERVIEW OF SALAFISM (SALAFIYYAH AT A GLANCE)

Salafism, the anglicized version for the Arabic word Salafiyyah is derived from the word Salaf which is often translated as precursor, forebearer, predecessor among others. I will align with the Lisanul Arab definition which refers a Salaf as person who came before or who had gone ahead of one in an endeavor.

Ibn Rajab technically described the group as the first generations of Muslims starting from the Prophet, the sahabah (companions) and the tabi'un(successors). The people of this period are called As-Salafus Salihin(The pious predecessors). The period is described by the Prophet as the best of all generations. This can be gleaned from his statement

خير القرون قرني ثم الذين يلونهم ثم الذين يلونهم

"The best of generations is my generation, then those who come after them, then those who come after them"

Regardless of the delimitation of the definition of the word قرن in the above Hadith by scholars,most of them aligned to the above interpretation as encompassing the period of the Prophet, sahabahs and the tabi'un

The period is regarded as the formative and golden period of Islam from where subsequent generations can borrow a cue.

In the Qur'an, the word Salaf appears in 6 different places. Verses like Q2:275, Q4:22 among others are references in this regard. Interestingly, it is apt to note that each of the usage has the same connotation i.e they connote previous deeds or bygone.

Historically, the group do not have a clear cut historical record of emergence, though some Western scholars attributed its formation to Ibn Abdul Wahhab, the progenitor of Wahabiyyah doctrine in Saudi. These Western scholars were of the view that Salafiyyah and Wahabiyyah are synonyms.

Conventionally, the Salafis are considered as Ahlus-Sunnah wal-jama'ah group.

Thus, more often, the doctrine is traced to Ibn Taymiyyah because the Wahabiyyah depends mostly on the teachings of Ibn Taymiyyah.

Thus, I will refer to a Salafi as a person who believes that the religion MUST be practised in line with the Prophet, the companions and the successors, any practice that doesn't conform with these generations of people is by the way.

That is why they were adequately cautious on the issue of bid'iah(innovation), thus, it forms their core doctrine.

The likes of Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Qayyum, Ibn Abdul Wahhab, Nasrud-din Al-Bani, Ibn Baz are perfect examples of Salafi scholars. In our contemporary society, we make reference to Shaykh Abubakr Gumi, Ali Jabata, Alaro among others.

POINT OF CONVERGENCE AND DIVERGENCE

Irrespective of their differences, one thing is clear that both Sufis and Salafis are Muslims. As earlier established that the period of Salafus Salihin houses the golden period of Islam. It is a period of Revelation of the Qur'an.

Among the noticeable groups in this period is the Ashabus Suffah(people of the bench). As-Suffah is a courtyard or a shade at the mosque of the Prophet in Madinah. These companions the Prophet attended to for distinctive spiritual exercise and other purposes. It is a naysay to debunk that these people lived an ascetic lifestyle which is in conformity with the Sufis. Hence both Salafis and Sufis believed in the existence of this group in the early days of Islam.

Asceticism(Zuhd) is another feature of the Sufis which was performed by the Salafus Salihin. The leader of all ascetic is the Prophet. He enjoined his disciples to lived the same life. History is replete on the ascetic life of some Salafus Salihin which is worthy of emulation.

Various verses of the Qur'an lend credence in support to the activities of these people. Among these is Q6:52 where Allah says;

ولاتطرد الذين يدعون ربهم بالغدواة والعشى يريدون وجهه ما عليك من حسابهم من شيء وما من حسابك عليهم من شيء فتطردهم فتكون من الظالمين.

In this verse, Allah enjoins us on the ascetic life of some sahabahs of the Prophet.

More so, Q18:28 also lend credence;

واصبر نفسك مع الذين يدعون ربهم بالغدواة والعشى يريدون وجهه ولا تعد عيناك عنهم تريد زينة الخيواة الدنيا ولاتطع من أغفلنا قلبه عن ذكرنا....

This is where Allah enjoined the Prophet not to disperse the ascetics from mosque.

However, several practices of the Sufis did not go down well with the Salafis. Among this are the Ziyarah al-qubur(visitation of the graves), fana'(annihilation), shatahat(theophanic locutions), tawassul(intercession) veneration of saints, celebration of Mawlid Nawbiy, etc.

Notable Sufi personalities in the Salafi period are Uwaiys Al-Qarni(a mystical figure whose advent was foretold by the Prophet), Hasan al-Basri, Shufyan at-Thawri. All these people were acknowledged by the Prophet himself, some of whom he didn't met.

However, it is heart-rending reminiscing the sore relationship between the two groups. The relationship can be described as cat-and-rat-like one. Objectively, the Sufis are the ones being attacked by the Salafis. Historically, the brouhaha had started around the late 70's consequent upon the emergence of the Jama'ah Yan Izalah. This group claimed affinity to the Wahabiyyah. It was on record that several Tijaniyyah members were hurt or killed during these attacks. Places of worship were often destroyed. Our Students' Association is not left out by advocates of this doctrine.

This is against the spirit of Islam. Islam enjoins us to live in peace not in pieces. But in a situation where an innocent Sufi is attacked because of his practice of his religious rites, then certain issues calls for attention. May Allah protect His religion and His adherents.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. As Muslims, the Qur'an must unite us all. The Qur'an enjoins us to live in peace and not in pieces.

2. As Muridun/Muridat/Muqaddams... we must strive for the acquisition of knowledge especially the Arabic one. Its acquisition must be sine qua non for every Sufi. It is nauseating to know that some Muqaddamun can not translate Salatul fatih.....what an irony!

3. We must have the forgiving spirit. Reports abound recently about the physical attacks meted on TIMSAN members by the MSSN people in some institutions. We must emulate our Shayukh in this regard. The last paragraph of the khutbah of our daily wazifah stipulates thus:

اللهم اغفر لحينا..... وطاءينا وعاصينا..

O Allah forgive our living, ........those who obey us and those who antagonise us..

**May the love of the Prophet and the Awliya'llah be our cherished beacon.

CONCLUSION

So far, we have examined both groups from two different binoculars. We traced their origins, teachings, scholars, as well as their point of convergence and divergence. It may not be out of place to submit that the Pristine Sufis are the real Salafus Salihin

***PS*

I would like to thank the organizers of this program for the opportunity given me in sharing my inept knowledge. Accept any error as an imperfect act not of my incorrigibility.

Thanks for having me.

Wa Salam alaikum Wa Rahmatullah....

(Delivered by *OLANIPEKUN Shittu Tunde*, +2348167979848, shittuolanipekun@gmail.com, http://www.shittola.blogspot.com)

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