TASAWWUF
Translated Speech of
His Eminence Ameer Muhammad Akram Awan
Shaikh Silsilah Naqshbandiah Owaisiah
The Message of Incessant Endeavour in
Practical Life
Langar Makhdoom
14 October 1987
We belong to a Sufi Order; therefore, most of our
speeches and writings deal with the subject of Allah's Zikr. It is but
natural that a person likes to converse about his most favourite pursuit. It
should not be misconceived that we elude the challenges of practical life or
persuade others to do so. On the other hand, by Allah's Grace, this
exalted Order has presented pure Tasawwuf during the present time. The masses
had already confused the meanings of Tasawwuf and it was believed that Sufis are those miserable failures in the
world, who escape reality and pass their time as recluses in dark corners of
oratories or mosques and that, they are incapable of self-sustenance and cannot
courageously face the rigors of practical life. But this concept is not
correct. The real Tasawwuf was taught by the Holy Prophet-saw
himself to his students, the Companions.
According to the Quran, Companions were the exemplary
Muslims. Their faith is quoted as the standard: And if they believe in the
like of that which you believe, then are they rightly guided. But if they turn
away, then are they in schism. (2: 137). It implies that everyone else is
in the wrong and ill fated. It is of course, difficult to assess the level of
one's honesty, because the inner feelings of a person are not necessarily
displayed on his countenance. But Allah bears witness to the piety and
honesty of the Companions: Those are they whose hearts Allah has
proven unto righteousness, (49: 3) and: Those are they who are in truth
believers. (8: 4). Taking them as the standard of virtue and the criteria
of right and wrong, the Gracious Lord has divided the Ummah in three groups.
The first two are the Emigrants and the Helpers amongst the Companions, and
third is the group of those who follow them in earnest: Allah
is well pleased with them and they are well pleased with Him. (9: 100).
There is no concept of Islam outside these three groups.
As stated earlier, Companions
are the exemplary Muslims with Allah and the Holy Prophet-saw,
they are the foundation of religion as a whole. If you study their lives, the
common factor (that is strikingly manifest in all of them) is their super human
capacity to work. In today's nuclear age, it is possible for a single person to
destroy millions by just pushing a button, yet during their time, in hand to
hand fighting; the major battle-winning factor was numerical superiority. It is
indeed incredible that the nomads of the Arabian Desert acquired the strength,
ability, capacity, courage, discipline and everything else to subdue mighty
empires of the world in a quarter century, as well as, exalt the Name of Allah
and replace a system of tyranny and oppression with a system ensuring peace,
justice and equality for all.
On the other hand, we live in a
Muslim country; people living around us are Muslims since generations. Our
claim is same as that of the Companions; we also claim a relationship with the
Holy Prophet-saw. We are proud of our knowledge, wisdom,
eloquence and literature. But what is our achievement? We are so weak that we
cannot reform even those who have already taken Shahadah. But if we look at the
illustrious lives of the Companions, we see that, without any material
resources, they challenged and defeated the Roman and the Persian empires. The
latter was the first to be set up after Prophet Noah's-as
Flood. From its inception to the time of Companions, its rule changed hands
within the same dynasty either by vertical or by horizontal inheritance, yet
they were fire worshippers. Allah be Glorified! If fire is kept burning
continuously for one thousand years, day and night, an insect known as 'Samandar'
is born in that fire. Nowhere else, except in the Persian fire oratory, was
that insect ever found. Not even a volcano has ever remained continuously
active for that long a period.
It is indeed very difficult to
conquer countries. Those who are associated with this profession know what it
really means to annex an inch of enemy territory or to capture an enemy post. A
more arduous task is to convince people to abandon their customs and traditions
which, coming through the centuries, acquire the status of inviolable religious
rituals; this is the most difficult proposition. History bears witness that
people preferred to be put to sword but did not renounce their religion. The
Hindus and Sikhs lived here along with us before partition. They had to part
with their wealth and property and even abandon their motherland. They endured
all this but did not renounce their religion, though their mythology is
obviously baseless.
The Companions had a strange
influence; even after fourteen centuries, Islam has not been expelled from the
land to which they introduced it. Practically, that country may have been
divided into many smaller states, it may have witnessed numerous revolutions,
it may have been even ruled by the infidels -but the voice of Islam could never
be subdued in it. In today's world, the all-out effort by the Russians to
eliminate the religion in general and Islam in particular is unprecedented in
history. One cannot imagine the atrocities committed by this red devil against
humanity and particularly the Muslims. When Russia annexed Samarqand and Bukhara, the educated families were
separated. The young daughters of the religious scholars were driven to the
labour camps. The scholars were forced to dig trenches, seated therein and then
shot in their body joints. Un-slaked lime was sprinkled over their wounds to
decompose their flesh and they were left to die in those ditches, a slow and
torturous death. Their young daughters were put to hard labour during the day
including the construction of roads and were raped by the red soldiers in their
camps at nights. Those people who await a red revolution should better learn a
lesson from the history of Samarqand and Bukhara. Due to flagrant oppression and
persecution, the mosques were vacated and converted into clubs. Despite all
this, Russia has not been able to efface
the footprints of the Companions and even today the people pray, prostrate and
recite the Quran in that land.
History is a witness that
without any material resources, when the horse was the fastest means of travel,
the Arabs carried the revolutionary Islamic message from one corner of the
globe to the other. What was the force behind them? Were there any new dwellers
of the Arabian
Desert? No, they
had lived there for centuries. That land had previously seen many powerful and
courageous Arabs; the earth ultimately swallowed them along with their
achievements, nobody remembers them today. But the Companions derived their
strength from the message brought by Muhammad-saws
the
Messenger of Allah. He infused such courage, power, spirit and blessings
in them that they changed the course of history. The call of Azan resounding in
a vast portion of the world is an echo of their sincere efforts, while the
Muslims of today are incapable of even retaining this heritage. The Companions
were the first Sufis; their faith,
conduct, sincerity and sacrifices are exemplary. The ever-living examples of
perfect Tasawwuf are they who received the beneficence directly from the Holy
Prophet-saw.
So, what should be the effect
or result of our Zikr congregations, spiritual attention (Tawajjuh) and
beneficence? It should accord extra zeal and increased work capacity; it must
correct the priorities and direction of one's life. Tasawwuf never means that
one should escape the challenges of practical life and retreat to seclusion,
not at all - this concept is alien to Islam!! This had been the practice of old
Indian tribes, especially those inhabiting Himalayan valleys and the Eastern
countries. Some of their men went into seclusion, achieved paranormal strength
through occult practices and thus acquired a holy status. Islam outrightly
rejects this way of life. The exemplary person in the Muslim Ummah was Abu Bakr
Siddiq-rau, a man of unparalleled excellence. The evidence of his
superiority is contained in the Quran
and the Hadith; the Holy
Prophet-saw said that the sun has never seen a man of his calibre after
the Prophets. He was the first politician to administer the Islamic state after
the Prophet-saw, the first general who courageously
braved all forces of falsity, the first compiler of the Islamic constitution,
the first ruler who dared to face the mighty empires of Rome and Persia and the
first Sufi whose heart was so warm
that all human hearts put together cannot equal it; it is recorded that his
breath smelt of roasted flesh. Every moment of his life reflected Allah's
Zikr, but in his practical life he was incredibly strong. The passing away of
the holy Prophet-saw was an enormous tragedy that
rocked even a person with ‘nerves of steel’ like ‘Umar Faruq-rau.
Yet this was the singular courage of Abu Bakr-rau, in that he was able to pull
together and console the entire Ummah at that heartbreaking moment. The nascent
Muslim state was faced with multifarious problems. Some tribes had refused to
pay Zakat, some impostors claimed Prophethood, all the while, the army of
Caesar was knocking at the doors. Considering the gravity of the situation,
many renowned Companions recommended to him to attend to these problems one by
one. His historic reply was: "By Allah who controls Abu Bakr's
life, I shall recover even that rope from the deniers of Zakat which they used
to give with the animals during the Prophet's time. If someone refuses, I will
fight him. I will also fight against the false claimants of Prophethood and
shall simultaneously dispatch forces to fight Caesar's army". While I
live, no one dare add or subtract an iota from what the Holy Prophet-saw
left with us." - h e was a person who had tasted real love. His beloved
was also the beloved of Allah and his love was exemplary. He laid his
beloved to eternal rest in the grave and still retained enough self-control to
be able to manage the turbulent affairs of the whole state - this is Tasawwuf! Tasawwuf
is that energy which infuses new life in the ailing souls. It activates the
inactive and bestows positive capacity to the incapable; it quickens the dead
hearts and illuminates them. Tasawwuf never advocates any escape from the practical
life, it neither preaches seclusion nor reclusion. On the contrary, it is a
complete negation of such attitudes. If you study the life of any renowned Sufi or Wali, you would find that they
spent every moment of their lives purposefully for the reformation of mankind.
They travelled far and wide under trying circumstances to convey the Divine
Message to mankind. This was no seclusion but an active and positive effort for
human reformation and eternal salvation. It was always the Sufis who directly or indirectly
influenced the course of Islamic history. That, which was beyond the swords of
the emperors was accomplished by the blessings of speech and company of the Aulia.
This is concordant to the
concept of life expressed by the Quran:
By the declining day, Lo! Man is in state of loss. (103:1-2). Allah
does not need to swear by anything to establish His credibility. It is a
principle that when you swear by something, you are making it a witness to the
truth of your statement. That is why it is not permitted to swear by anything
other than Allah, because He is the Witness over everything. When
the Gracious Lord uses such expression and swears by something, He makes
it a witness to corroborate a fact for the understanding of even a common man.
Here, the vicissitude of time has been made a witness to the fact that all of
mankind is in a sheer loss. People accumulated wealth, ruled countries, built
castles but ultimately left everything for their descendants, who enjoyed their
wealth and property but instantly forgot them. In our society, the celebration
of birthdays is a common feature. Some diehards have gone even farther; they
cut birthday cakes on tombs and chant ‘Happy Birthday to you’ - to the dead.
But everyone forgets that every living person, whom they are congratulating on
his birthday, has actually reduced his life by yet another year and has drawn
closer to his grave. Now, where is everybody going? Nobody has the slightest
idea, nor is anyone concerned about it anymore. In this verse, Allah asserts
that all human beings, save a few, are ultimately the losers. Who are these
lucky ones? Allah identifies them: Those who believed, did good
works, exhorted one another to truth and exhorted one another to endurance
(103: 3). The Quran emphasises the
performance of good works immediately after belief. Actually, good works are
the manifestation and confirmation of one's faith. Now, what is the criterion
of a ‘good work’? Anything done by the Holy Prophet-saw
or proved through his conduct is a ‘good work’. Any action, not in accordance
with the way of the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him), cannot be called a good
deed, howsoever noble it may seem. At best, it may be called a custom but not a
good deed. Although that is not the end, yet we fail to reach even this far.
First of all, our belief leaves much to be desired; although we are Muslims,
yet we are ignorant of the basic requirements of the faith. Everybody feels
free to possess his individual and personal belief, yet - there is no imitation
in beliefs. Each one of us is individually responsible to know the basic
religious beliefs about the Supreme Being, His Attributes, Prophethood,
Angels, Hereafter and the Reward and Retribution. Such knowledge is mandatory
for all and sundry. If someone fails to acquire this knowledge, his faith is
imperfect.
Acquisition of this knowledge is
compulsory, according to the degree of its importance. It is an individual and
personal responsibility of every Muslim, male or female to possess the
knowledge of day-to-day affairs, including the knowledge of the permitted and
the prohibited - no one is absolved of this responsibility. Advanced religious
knowledge is not obligatory, a few scholars in a town would suffice. But a
majority of the Muslims today cannot even recite the Kalimah correctly, do not
understand the meanings of this basic proclamation of the Faith and are totally
unaware of the fundamental beliefs. Still they remain satisfied that they are
Muslims - such Islam is not acceptable.
The first question asked after
interment is, “Who is your Creator?” This inquiry relates to the Essence of the
Supreme Being and His Attributes. How can anyone reply to this question
unless he has learnt and believed during his worldly existence? People do not
know the fundamental beliefs, yet it is tragic that instead of teaching them,
the religious scholars brand them as non-believers, whereas they deserve to be
properly and completely educated about Islam. Good deeds follow sound beliefs,
no deed is counted as good unless the belief is correct. According to a Hadith, every non-believer receives
the full reward of his apparently good works during his worldly life. He has no
share in the Hereafter because he does not believe in it. Now, there is no
visible identification mark of a non-believer; anyone who does not believe in
the Supreme Being, His Attributes, His Messengers, the Revealed
Books and their fundamental teachings becomes a non-believer. The question of
the deeds being good or bad comes later. If the belief is not sound, no deed is
good, and the only criterion of good deeds is the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet-saws.
The Quran, however, does not demand only sound belief and good
personal conduct, but also expects a degree of firmness and strength of Faith
and character where one starts influencing others. This would only be possible
if one's own heart is brim with truth. The next requirement of the Quran is that one should not only possess
endurance himself but should be able to teach it to others. To hold fast to
truth and endure adversity patiently is a commendable attribute but the Quran does not consider such a person as
an ideal Muslim. Once a saint asked someone, "How do you pass your
time?" He replied, “If we get something we give thanks, else we endure
patiently.” “That's the conduct of our street dogs”, remarked the saint. There
is nothing special about this type of behaviour. This is the nature of all
creatures. The greatness of a Muslim is that during adversity and trial he
should alleviate the misery of others and they should derive strength from him
- that was the attribute of the Companions. Wherever they went, they imbued
faith to the disbelievers, changed vice into virtue, propagated the truth and
taught endurance to everyone. Khamsa was a famous poetess of Arabia. She was specially gifted in
the use of marvellous phrases and is still considered an authority in Arabic
literature. Her brother Sakhar died young, she was herself young at that
time and was tremendously grief-stricken. To lament his death, she composed an
ode, which is a masterpiece of Arabian poetry. One of the verses was:
The rising sun reminds me of
Sakhar,
And it sets down weary with
his memory.
Then Allah blessed her
with Faith. When the battle of Qadsiah took place, she was old. She
participated in it along with her four young sons. She was sitting in a tent
when the news of martyrdom of all the four was conveyed to her. She came out,
her face beaming with delight and exclaimed, “My utmost gratitude to Allah,
Who has blessed me to join the ranks of the mothers of the martyrs on the Day
of Judgement!” Where did that old lady, whom the natural death of her brother
had given prolonged lamenting, derive that strength and courage to willingly
offer her four sons in the battle and joyfully celebrate their death? This is Tasawwuf!
This is the result of Allah's Zikr and the blessings of the Holy Prophet-saws.
This is His beneficence that completely transforms hearts. The faith gets so
deeply entrenched in the hearts that it becomes impossible to accept anything
wrong. It produces an urge for good deeds and one's thirst for virtue is never
satiated. One looks for the opportunity to worship Allah. Sleep does not
preclude from prayers; because a laudable attribute of His slaves
mentioned in the Quran is that,
their beds remain vacant in small hours of night, while engaged in Zikr. It
paves the way for practising the truth and preaching patience, not with words
but with conduct. Only such a person would be called a Sufi by us, irrespective of the fact whether we ourselves
qualify for that title or not. It is easier to have our names deleted from the
list of Sufis than to defame Tasawwuf,
it is better to be called delinquent than to libel the virtuous.
Our Tasawwuf is not
traditional. The person who is unable to sustain even himself cannot claim to
be a Sufi; Allah's Zikr would
never suit a person who eludes the challenges of practical life. Nobody should
think that Allah's Zikr would herald worldly comfort, peace and progress
for him - this would never happen, time would not change for him. A Sufi is the one who braves through the
problems of practical life. - Allah does not support cowards. It does
not befit Him to run back with those who flee from the rigors of life. He
stands with those who stand fast in His cause,; He forbids
calling those (, slain in His way), as dead,; they have, in fact,
defeated death and attained to eternal life.
I have taken so much of your
time because the other day I received a letter that read, “You preach Allah's
Zikr with so much force and persuasion that after a while people are probably
going to leave all other worship and start performing Allah's Zikr
only.” What a naive conclusion! Remember that, without Allah's thought
sustained only through His Zikr, one neither cares about himself nor for
others. There is no clearly defined purpose of life in front of him, except the
mundane pursuits like the animals. And the total effort of an animal, bird or
insect revolves around the satisfaction of its carnal desires. The human being
of today, by and large, follows the same course. But, to fall to the level of
an animal cannot be the cherished aim of human life.
The real purpose of life is to
acquire Divine Lights and redirect the human thought process in a manner so as
to change the course of events and convey the revolutionary Message of Allah
to everyone on the globe; one should thus imprint an enduring effect on human
history. This sublime purpose of life was granted to humanity by the Holy
Prophet Muhammad-saws. The minimum responsibility
of a Sufi is that, if he cannot
influence an entire world, he should at least realign the direction of his kith
and kin to achieve this goal. He should make an earnest effort to rescue
himself and his near ones from the Hell Fire - that is a real cause to live. If
you think that the purpose of Zikr is the acquisition of spiritual observation
or the manifestation of paranormal phenomenon - you are totally mistaken. On
the contrary, Allah’s Zikr should prepare you for practical life, endow
confidence in you to face life and grant you the strength to make your way
through it. You should become an ideal worker of your field; your
honesty, ability, courage and capacity to work should be exemplary. People
should be amazed at your work potential, a common man should not be able to
emulate you in any way. When that happens, you have become a Sufi. But if your output is less than even
a normal man, you are not a Sufi in
any sense of the word. This is the lesson that we get from the lives of the
Companions, their achievements are incredible and amazing.
If you study the renowned Sufis of the Indo-Pak subcontinent, you
would discover that they came to this land traversing great distances. But what
did they do? They enlightened the estranged hearts with Allah's Lights
and made people live active and practical lives dominated by Allah’s
thought. The effects of the revolution brought by them lasted for centuries,
they died but haven’t perished. The world has forgotten mighty emperors and
rulers but it still cherishes the memories of these people. It is so, because
they infused new life in them for the sake of Allah. While others are
governed by the tide of time, they rode its crest and remained unaffected by
it. Tasawwuf means sound beliefs, good deeds and the ability to communicate a
positive attitude of life to others. Our entire effort is oriented towards this
goal. To the critic I would advise you him not to form a hasty opinion. In
fact, I would invite him to come over and stay with me for sometime, witness my
practical life and then make his observation public, because it is not fair to
pass judgements in absentia - this is an open invitation to all. By Allah's
Grace, my life is not two sided, it is like an open book; I am not a recluse
but spend my life with people. I say so because the impostors have really
marked this field with ignominy. They are unaware of the reality, they cannot
meet the requirements of practical life and they cannot even earn their own
bread and butter - still they claim to be Sufis.
By Allah's Grace, in my
practical life, I can compete with the young people of today. If someone does
not believe, he can try his luck in any field of his choice. By His
Grace I can ride a bicycle and fly an aircraft with equal ease. I have shot
birds with a revolver and can still do it. Sophisticated weapons are like toys
in my hands. I seek my sustenance from Allah and earn it with my own
hands. I till and feed thousands. By Allah's Grace, I am not dependent
upon anybody either for subsistence or for any other aspect of practical life.
I have driven extensively throughout the country right up to Khunjrab. People
drive from Skardu to Gilgit in six and a half hours but I drove in four and a
half. Where others must slow down, I pass in speed. It is so because of my deep
devotions to my Shaikh, with
whom I had the honour to be for a while.
May Allah grant us the
understanding of His chosen religion and the capacity to practise it! Amin!
کوئی تبصرے نہیں:
ایک تبصرہ شائع کریں
علمی وفکری اختلاف آپ کا حق ہے۔ بلاگ پر تمام خدمات بلا اجرت فی سبیل اللہ ہیں بس آپ سے اتنی گزارش ہے کہ بلاگ کو زیادہ سے زیادہ شئیر ،کمنٹس اور لائیک کریں ۔آپ اپنی پسندیدہ کتاب کی فرمائش کر سکتے ہیں۔اگر کسی کتاب کو ڈون لوڈ کرنے میں پریشانی ہو تو آپ کمنٹس میں لکھ دیجئے ان شاء اللہ اسکا لنک درست کر دیا جائے گا۔