[ddwayspd]

contd..

“ The actions from which proximity to God ensues are either obligatory or voluntary , but the voluntary observances never make the grade of obligatory ones. Fulfillment of an obligatory observance at its due time and in all sincerity is preferable to performance of Voluntary ones for a thousand years”. (Maktubat, vol.I, No.29 to Shaikh Nizam of Thanesar).

That cleansing of the self and healing of the souls can eaisily brought about through complaince with the commandments of shariah than by means of penance and purgation is forcefully advocated by the Mujaddid in one of his letters in which he writes:

“ Discharging a commandment of the shariah is more efficacious for cleaning the self of its baser instincts than the strivings and exertions of a thousand years undertaken on ones own initiative. These troubles and pains not undertaken to meet the requirement of the shariah can rather whet the appetite of the self and increase its indulgence. The brahmins and Yogis hove not left a stone unturned in taxing their energies in travails but these have not proved of any benefit to them except in making them even more self-indulgent and immoderate”.In one of his letters the Mujaddid explains the significance of the shariah’s accomplishments in these words:

“ A majority of people live in fools paradise , well contended with the illusory almonds and walnuts. What do they know of the perfection of shariah and the reality of tariqah and haqiqah ?. They consider the shariah as the shell and the haqiqah as the kernel, but they are not aware of the inner realities. They have been duped by the superficial talk of the mystics and bewitched by the stages and stations of the spiritual journey”. ( Maktubat, Vol.I, No.40 to Shaikh Muhammed Chitri).

The merits of living up to the percepts and practices of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) have been thus delineated by the Mujaddid in another letter.

“ Excellence lies in conforming to the sunnah of the Prophet(PBUH) and the honour in abiding by the dictates of the shariah as, for example , taking a nap during daytime with the intention of living up to the Prophet’s (PBUH) sunnah is better than keeping vigils during inumerable nights. Similarly , giving away a farthing in satisfaction of Zakaat is more meritorious than expending a hillock of gold of ones own accord”. ( Maktubat,Vol.I, No. 114 to Sufi Qurban).

In yet another letter he writes:
“ Immature mystics trifle with the obligatory and commendatory devotions and give greater attention to the fikr (contemplation) and dhikr ( remembrance). In a like manner they take to ascetic exercises but neglect the congregational and Friday prayers. They do not know the performance of even one prayer with the congregation is more rewarding than a thousand rounds of sacraments. The fikr and dhikr with due deference to shariah are undoubtedly essential and meritoious. There are also misguided scholars who are hard at work in popularising the voluntary observances even at the cost of neglecting those that are obligatory”. ( Maktubat, Vol.I, No.260 to Shaikh Muhammed Sadiq )

In one of his letters addressed to Mir Muhammed No’man, Shaikh Ahmed criticises the misguided mystics in these words:
“ There is a group among them which has not cared to aquiant itself with the reality of prayers and their characteristic excellences. They want to remedy their ills through alternative recipies which, in their opinion , can fulfill their heart’s desire . there are some among them who even assume that the prayer, founded on the relationship between the divine and the devotee , is of little use to them. They consider fasting as more propitious than the prayer since the former is held by them as expressive of the divine attributes of eternity. And , then, there is a multitude who seeks to assuage its troubled soul through melody and tune and considers whirling and dancing as consummation of spiritual experience. Have these people not heared that God has not endowed the things impermissible with the properties necessary to work a cure. Had they known even a bit of the accomplishments of prayers , they would not have gone after musical recitations or ecstatic sessions”. ( Maktubat, Vol.I.No.261 to Mir Muhammed No’man).

Shaikh Ahmed discusses, in one of his letters , the purification of inner self sought by the non-Muslim ecstatics who devolope certain occult powers despite their indulgence in wickedness and immorailty, he writes :

“ Real purification depends on adherence to righteosness as approved by God, and this rests upon the teachings of the prophets as already explained by me. Thus purification of self and heart cannot really be attained without the help of Prophethood. The purification attained by the infidels and the wrong doing people is the expurgartion of self and not of heart. The cleansing of self alone , however , does not increase anything but waywardness. The mysterious and magical powers sometimes devoloped by the infidels and wrong doing people through expurgation of self are surely Istidraj ( illusory magical power) which leads them by degrees to hell and destruction”. ( Maktubat, Vol.I, No. 266 to khwaja Abdullah and Ubaidullah ).

The mujaddid held that the antinomian tendency of brushing aside the authority of established religious institutions and observances was extremely dangerous . dismissing these thoughts as misguided and unsound he writes in a letter addressed to Mian Shaikh Badi’uddin.

“ Immature mystics and inconsistent disbelievers desiring to get rid of the shariah’s obligations maintain that its observance is meant for the commonality. They hold the veiw that the elite is required to attain gnosis just as the kings and rulers are duty-bound to administer justice to others. Their argument is that since the end of shariah is attainment of gnosis , when one attains the knowledge of reality the obligations of shariah automatically wither away. They bring this verse of the Qur’an in their support: And serve thy Lord until there cometh unto thee the certainty” (Q.XV: 99 ; Maktubat, Vol.I, No. 276 to Mian Shaikh Badi’uddin )
The actions of the mystics can never be taken as standard, according to Shaikh Ahmed , for deciding the things made permissible or prohibited by the shariah . he makes out this point in another letter in which he says:

“ No practice of any mystic is authoritative enough to decide which is lawful or unlawful. Will it not be sufficient that instead of reproaching them we pass over their actions and leave them to the judgement of God ?. This is a matter in which the opinion of Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Abu Yousuf or imam Muhammed should be considered authoritative rather than the practice of Abubakr Shibli or Abul Hasan Nuri. The half-baked mystics of our day have taken to dancing and whirling as an accepted religious rite and raised it to the level of divine service. These are persons who have taken their religion for sport and pastime “ . ( Q.VII : 51. ; Maktubat, Vol.I, No. 266 to Khwaja Abdullah and Khwaja Ubaidullah)

Such is the Mujaddis’s approach to whole hearted affirmation of every commandment of shariah that whenever he is told about any practice or doctrine of the mystics which is incomptible with the proper Islamic beliefs or which seeks to prove any unsound dogma on the authority of any seer or saint rather than placing reliance on upon the book of God or example of the Prophet (PBUH), it becomes difficult for him to hold his pen from denouncing and assailing the non-conformist veiw. Once , when an unsound utterance of a mystic Shaikh ( Abdul Karim Yamani ) was related to him by one of his disciples, Shaikh Ahmed could not tolerate the erroneous remark and expressed his disapproval to it in a very forceful and poignant style.

“ My Lord ! this meek-spirited is not accustomed to endure such observations which stir his Farooqi blood and do not allow him to think out any explanation by streching their sense . such things might have been acceptable to Shaikh Kabir Yamani or Shaikh Akbar Shami, but what we require is the testimony of Muhammad (PBUH) and not those of Muhiyuddin Ibn Arabi, Sadr-ud-din Qunawi or Shaikh Abdur Razzaq Kashi. We require nass , and not fus. The conquest of Medina has made us independent of the conquest of Mecca “. (Maktubat, Vol.II, No.100 to Mullah Hasan of Kashmir).

(Fus- i.e Fusus Al Hikam by Muhiyuddin Ibn Arabi.; Nas – nusoos ; conquest of mecca- the allusion is to Futuhat-i- Makkiyah by Muhiyuddin Ibn Arabi.)

Vigorous defence of the sacred law of islam leads Shaikh Ahmed to hold that every action in compliance with the shariah can be classified as dhikr or remembrance of God. He writes to explain his veiwpoint in one of his letters to Khwaja Muhammed Sharaf-ud-din Hussain:

“ One should continually engage oneself in the remembrance of God. Every action in accordance with the shariah comprises dhikr, even though it be of the nature of sale and purchase. In every action and behaviour the dictates of Shariah should be kept in veiw so that each one of these actions qualifies to be reckoned as dhikr. The dhikr is basically meant for putting away mental inadvertance and thus when one is heedful of legal doctorines of the lawful and unlawful in every act, one automatically becomes absorbed in God’s remeberance who is ultimate lawgiver. This would by itself save one from remisses and bestow the wealth of perpetual engrossment in God “. ( Maktubat, Vol.II, No.25 to Khwaja Muhammed Sharaf-ud-din Husain)

It was on the basis of absolute superiority of shariah , as preached by the Mujaddid, that he severely criticised Sijdah-i-Ta’zimi (prostration of Honour) which had come into vogue in the circle of certain mystics. On being informed that some of his disciples were not cautious enough in this regard , the Mujaddid warned them against that practice.(Maktubat, Vol.II, No.92 to Mir Muhammed No’man and Vol.I, No.29 to Shaikh Nizamuddin of Thanesar)

Similarly, he refuted and condemned such polytheistic customs and usages , taken lightly in those days , as rendering honour to paganistic rites , seeking help of beings other than God, participatin in festivals and customs of the infidels , vows and obligations in the names of saints and keeping of fasts to propitiate the blessed saints or daughter of the Prophet (PBUH). In a letter ( Maktubat, Vol.III, No.41 to Saliha) to a female disciple , the Mujaddid has mentioned a number of such unsound practices which had come into vogue among the muslim masses in those days.

The restoration of sound and authoritative Islamic beliefs and practices and refutations of all innovations containing antinomian and polytheistic elements constituted a distinguishing feature of the great movement of revivalism and reform initiated by Shaikh Ahmad after a long time in India. These unislamic practices stimulated by contact with non-Muslim majority in the country and gaining strength with the passage of time were then threatening to misdirect the religious life of the Indian Muslims by corrupting the whole level of Islamic religious thought and action in the country. The reformatory endeavor of the Mujaddid was brought to consummation by the later mystics of the Mujaddidi –Naqshbandi school like Shah Waliullah (1114-1176/ 1702-1762)and his sons

( Among whom the efforts of Shah Muhammed Ismail Shahid (d.1246/1831),the grandson of Shah Waliullah, deserves to be mentioned . see Saiyid Ahmad Shahid brought out by the academy , for the heroic struggle launched for the revival of faith in the nineteenth century.)

And finally by Saiyid Ahmad Shahid and his disciples who built up one of the strongest movements in history for the propagation of Islamic teachings through popularising the translations of Qur’an and hadith in local languages as well as exemplified Islamic behaviour through their personal conduct.
... concluded from Saviours of islamic Spirit.

Ultimately , this torch of Islam was handed down to Hazrat Haji Imdadullah Muhajir makki (rah) and his worthy disciples Hazrat Maulana Rasheed Ahmed Gangohi (rah), Hazrat Maulana Qasim Nanotawi (rah), Hazrat Maulana Yaqub Nanotawi (rah) to climax into being founding stones of one of the strongest fortress of Islam – The Darul uloom Of Deoband. Which produced not just individuals but singular institutuions of Islamic learning ranging from Tafseeer, Hadith, Fiqh,Tableegh, Jihad and Tasawwuf.

u may find this thread useful too http://www.sunniforum.com/forum/show...-changed/page2

May Allah guide us all ..

duas..

Wa Assalam .