About the four Imams of Sunni Muslims: they are
beginning and ending at the same place. The Imams begin
at the Prophet, and end at Paradise. They are four
ways to go on, suitable for different people. Four lanes
are better than one for trucks and cars. It depends on
how fast you want to run. It is comfort for everyone.
Mankind is not created all the same as out of a factory.
Tariqat orders one to take the strongest way from
every Madhhab to make oneself strong. Don’t listen to
devils who are denying madhhabs in Islam.

- Shaykh Maulana Nazim [Mercy Oceans Book II]

People are ambitious in life, they seek to be the biggest and best at whatever it is they do. The goal of most peoples lives boils down to making the most money, earning the most fame, or otherwise being the best at whatever it is they do. Seems somewhat reasonable to live life in this manner, doesn’t it? It certainly provides for a comfortable lifestyle, if successful.

This type of lifestyle is in contrast to those who are perfectly happy in positions that provide for their basic necessities. These are the ones who deliberately don’t want to be exceptional at what they do, because they feel it introduces them to greater problems of politics and insecurity.

So there they are: the ambitious and the unambitious.

Of course there are consequences to both approaches, the people ambitious for the world are often deeply unhappy, finding little satisfaction in anything they do. Any level they achieve is a step down in some aspect of their personal life. Often the unambitious are content and live very fulfilling lives, however they may worry occasionally about their basic needs.

There is also a flip-side, an ‘alternative universe’, of ambition.

In this parallel understanding there is different target and goal for the ambitious, and another way to be unconcerned for the unambitious. When examining the results of pursuing and running away from this form of ambition, we find that it has almost opposite consequences to what we might normally think. The more ambitious ones are the ones finding peace, the less ambitious ones are the ones finding concerns. This is the realm of spirituality.

For modern day people of faith, this may be a perplexing idea. Ambition? Spirituality?

Ambition inherently involves ranks and gain. And modern day spirituality has been the great ‘equalizer’, everyone has become the same. For Muslim literalists, this is even more true. They refuse to accept spiritual training in a manner which inherently depends on recognizing the spiritual superiority of ones teacher. For them, the questions become asinine repetitions of “How do you know that teacher is not going to hell fire? No one knows!”

Didn’t Allah order us to be with the Saliheen? Is that not in itself a recognition of levels better than us? If our hearts are closed enough not to recognize the Saliheen when we sit with them, or constantly question whether they are going to hellfire or not, then certainly progress is impossible. We haven’t even applied for the school, so how do we plan to attend the class, much less get an A?

Being spiritually ambitious is about getting that A (or an A+, if we can manage)!

At the same time, in an interesting twist, the goal for getting that high grade of character involves humbling oneself to the point of servitude. The highest title the spiritual aspirant hopes to achieve is, in fact, “Servant of Allah”. Abdullah. The highest rank for the spiritually ambitious is to lose oneself in servanthood.

And ranks and levels have been a part of creation forever , whether it be ranking of angels or mankind. There are so many practical examples of the levels of spirituality. For example, when presented with the opportunity to give wealth for the sake of their Lord, it was Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (R) who gave all of his wealth away, this story is recounted by Umar (R):

From Abu Daud: Umar ibn Al-Khattab said: The Prophet (sas) ordered us to give sadaqa. It happened to coincide with some wealth I had just acquired and I said to myself: If I will ever surpass Abu Bakr, this is the day I will surpass him. And so I came to the Prophet (sas) with half of my wealth and he (sas) said to me: “What have you left for your family?” I said: The same amount. Then Abu Bakr came with all of his wealth. The Prophet (sas) said to him: “What have you left for your family?” He said: I have left them Allah and His Messenger.” I said: I will never surpass you in anything.”

So, indeed, the Sahabi were knowing the rank of each other in spiritual endeavors.

Yet, this should not be mistaken for a competition for a crude worldly recognition. In fact, in this flip-side world of the ambition of the spiritually elite, the goal is less recognition! The less you want to be known, the more Allah may cause you to be known. The less highly you think of yourself, the higher Allah makes you.

Again, the case of Abu Bakr (R) and how he was given the authority as the Khaliph of Islam, yet witness the humility of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (R):

“I have been given the authority over you, and I am not the best of you. If I do well, help me; and if I do wrong, set me right. Sincere regard for truth is loyalty and disregard for truth is treachery. The weak amongst you shall be strong with me until I have secured his rights, if God will; and the strong amongst you shall be weak with me until I have wrested from him the rights of others, if God will. Obey me so long as I obey God and His Messenger (Muhammad, pbuh). But if I disobey God and His Messenger, ye owe me no obedience. Arise for your prayer, God have mercy upon you.”

These are not mere words to be read and passed by, they are witness to the spiritual struggle that Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (R) underwent. From the very first line Abu Bakr (R) is acknowledging the authority has been given to him. This is specifically contrary to how modern day people like to believe, we like to think we ‘earn’ things.

If we look further, we find the next gem: “I am not the best of you”.

This is not the pretentious and pretending humility that fills our world today, rather this is the reflection of the true belief that he was indeed lower than others. With that acknowledgment, we see that Allah opened the door for complete authority of all Muslims to him. But not only did Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (R) not desire this position and not seek it, he also didn’t even desire the salary from it, and continued for some time his clothing trade while ruling the Muslim empire until he was forced to stop by the people.

How can we achieve levels such as this? Achieving clarity of purpose and a state of mind which produced such character is purely an imaginary fantasy for us when being raised in a society filled with such deviancy. Can we hope to do so in the same exact manner as the Sahabi? I am quite certain there are acts, positions and parts of the human body, violences that they have never imagined much less witnessed, that you have both imagined and witnessed. Is that not a scar on your soul? Do you feel it?

In a world where even writing this article seems doomed to spiritual failure, not only due to the faults of the author, but due to the spiritual bankruptcy of the very language we communicate with, how are we hoping to make it ‘on our own’?

Without being spiritually ambitious how can we hope to escape from this? Certainly realizing our weakness is one of the first steps. Then comes understanding that in these days we must follow a path which has been adapted to take us from this disastrous situation to one of progress.

It is the spiritually ambitious who make the struggle against the ego, the greater struggle, one of the highest priority in their lives in order to progress. Removing that drive for worldly gains and turning it into one of spiritual gains is a reality which leads them to the path of spiritual training, now called ’sufism’. In this way, certainly, we might be expected to be doing real things which others would deem ‘extreme’ for Allah’s sake (just as Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (R) did with his wealth, just as Ibrahim (AS) did with his son), since without struggle and sacrifice, progress is an illusion.

But arbitrary self sacrifice (as perceived by us) is no guarantee to progress. Rather this first involves enrolling in a ’school’ which seeks to train you in this specific regard. Let it be known that not all of these schools are equal either, there are kindergarten levels, high schools, and colleges. The Naksibendi order of Sufism traces its lineage back to Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (R), and in this same manner the Tarikat aims to bring its initiates to the highest levels of spirituality and character following Abu Bakr as-Siddiq’s (R) example.

Yes, at a fundamental level all of this involves following the Sunnah of the Prophet (S) which any person believes they can read up on and understand. But there is something more to Abu Bakr’s (R) approach, something which all of the other Sahabi recognized. This somewhat amorphous quality of spiritual insight is what the spiritually ambitious are after.

Of course, there are also those who are content to ‘pass’, to do the basics and move on when it comes to spirituality. Alhamdulillah, the Prophet (S) met many who questioned him to know exactly that. What is the bare minimum in order to pass this examination of life? He delivered the instructions that we all know. However, we know our states and how much we waver. When we are at the pass fail mark its much easier to fall into the negative.

So, just like there were those who are content to simply pass, there are those of us who seek a bit more, and the benefits of living a lifestyle such as that bring a serenity and peace and success in both lives.

So, in our own weak way, we are trying to be a little spiritually ambitious. Of course, we hope to do so without building even an ounce of pride, for that in itself would be contrary to our ambition!

From sohbet of Shaykh Maulana:

“Look, a king may have thousands of subjects in his employ. Each of the king’s servants has a distinct rank and a distinct duty to perform. The King will be pleased with the servant who performs the duty that has been assigned him well, as pleased with the common infantryman as with a Field Marshall. That Field Marshall has an awesome responsibility towards his king, and he will have attained that rank, presumably, because he is qualified for it, and will be expected to live up to his immense responsibilities. But the foot soldier is not expected to perform the duties of a Field Marshall; his duties are simpler, but they are also important, and doing them will earn the good pleasure of the king.

And so, Allah Almighty has called all mankind to His service, everyone according to his rank. According to her circumstance that elderly woman was given a light load, and if she carried it well, she will be rewarded. If you are carrying more than that you must persevere in carrying your appointed burden and not throw it off halfway towards your goal — then you may attain your Lord’s pleasure.

And you should know also that a Field Marshall should not be proud because of his position, glorying in the edge that he has over those who have been assigned lower ranks. He must be thankful to his king who has honored him with such responsibilities, and must strive to fulfill that trust. It is not seemly for him to boast and gloat, saying ‘I am a Field Marshall.’”

Whoever acts without thinking never reaches this
real life. Everyone must try to reach real life in this life.
It is an important responsibility. We promised to our
Lord on the day of spirits that we would try. This is
our aim in all actions and all worshippings. Allah is not
needing worship. He ordered it to help us. Who reaches
this real life has completed his responsibility. We must
think for every action, it is a way to reach real life.

What is the highest teaching of the Naqshbandi Tariqat?
It is to teach everyone how he can carry disliked
things, how to face difficulties. We cannot face them
without thinking; thinking that it is the will of our
Lord. We are weak and cannot endure difficulties by
our own power, but that thinking and surrendering allows
His will to carry us. With His Will, we are powerful
to face all difficulties. This point is reached only by
thinking about everything.

The plane of thinking is as wide as you can imagine.
Thinking is the key to reality. Everything we have now,
is the fruit of thinking. Of all religions, the one giving the
most value to thinking is Islam. This is by the hadith:
«One hour of thinking is worth 70 years of worship.»
The perfection of man is hidden in his words. This hadith
is enough for thinking people to know that the one
who said it is perfect, of high personality. Our Prophet’s
words are worth writing in gold letters everywhere.

Our Grandsheikh is asking: who can understand?
Everyone? In an assembly of 1000 people, how many
are understanding the speaker? Who is listening is understanding.
You may say: «Oh we are listening». Man
has two kinds of ears, on the head and on the heart. One
only listening with his head, is not listening, Understanding
is in the heart. If your heart is in action, you
can listen.

-Mercy Oceans

In some ways it is recommended to control anger for a period of time, allowing for some instances of anger during this period of testing. In the Naksibendi way, this is different.

After telling us certain means to control anger, Shaykh Maulana tells us in Sohbet:

“A certain amount of anger is part and parcel of every personality. Without some of that fire in our constitution we would die; therefore, it is possible for us to digest a certain amount of anger without suffering adverse side-effects. Of course, if we were to remain unchanged over a long period of time and swallow the same amount of anger, we would overdose; but that is not the case, for in time our intake of anger decreases as we learn, and are granted the ability not to react angrily to provocation in the first place. So, just as a baby initially drinks great quantities of milk, then graduates to solid food, decreasing its milk consumption drastically, we can swallow and digest anger, in the full knowledge that other forms of nourishment are soon forthcoming.”

“If you can manage to refrain from showing anger for forty days, you will have passed a great milestone. When it assails you, you must evade it, and when it is going to issue from you, you must swallow it. If you can successfully avoid it for forty days, anger will begin to assault you less frequently: once every forty days. If you can manage to keep yourself in this manner the initial forty days, and thereafter, in the face of forty more assaults (forty periods of forty days, a little more than four years), Satan will announce to his helpers: “Don’t bother attacking that person; you are just wasting your time and energy. His defenses are impenetrable: one thousand attacks are just as futile as one. Leave him alone, he has escaped from our hands”. Satan’s helpers are the selfish ego, vain desires and worldliness: these are our four great enemies, and whoso learns to control his anger will be victorious against these base influences.”

One of the masters of the Naksibendi Path, Shaykh Abdulhalik Gucdevani (ks) was learning the commentary of the Holy Quran from his hoja Shaykh Sadreddin and they came to this Ayat:

BismillahirRahmanirRahim
(O mankind) Call upon the Lord humbly and in secret. Lo! He loveth not aggressors (Surah Araf 7/55)

After Shaykh Sadrreddin finished the commentary on this ayat Abdulhalik Gucdevani asked him:

“Sir, how are the hidden prayers and dhikr performed that are described in this ayat? If the person performs and recites the prayer and dhikr openly, people can hear and see it. This situation has the danger of showing off. If he performs it from his inside then the devil notices because in the hadith-e-sherif it is said, “The devil circulates inside the human, like the blood circulates in the veins” (Bukhari). How is it possible to perform the dhikr of Exalted Allah without people and the devil taking notice?”

His teacher is filled with admiration for the question he asked.

“Oh my son! This is Ladune, a divine ilm (knowledge). If Allah wills, he will join you to one of the friends of thou and teach you the hidden dhikr. ”

Abdulhalik Gujdevani (ks) started to wait for this friend, in the end, Allahu Tala joined him firstly with Hz Khidr (as) and later with the great Arif Yusuf Hemadani (ks) who trained him spiritually in the end and graduated him, with permission for Irshad (guiding).

The famous Hoja Ahmed Yesevi (ks) is also calph of Yusuf Hemadani (ks) and also friend of Abdulhalik Gucdevani (ks) on this path. The training of these two great saints both originated from Yusuf Hemadani (ks). In history and until the present day most of the Turkish people join the spiritual training and fayd which comes from these two branches

– Edited and excerpted from Manners of Sufi Way

“This honorable man is a wali, one of the awliya…”

Yavuz Selim Turbesi Groundskeeper speaks about the Sultan from Yursil on Vimeo.

After reading through a number of works discussing South Asian Islamic history, and also many of the references, I have thought a lot more deeply about the traditions of South Asian culture than my last series of posts on this subject. Every time I read the numerous moving stories, I marveled at how totally lost Muslim South Asians, especially ex-patriots and their children, have become from their traditional past. While the first Masjid in India was built in Kodungallur by Malik Bin Deenar(R), a Sahabi (during the Prophet’s (S) lifetime), it certainly seems that most of what occurred after that point has been forgotten by South Asian Muslims living abroad.

The Islam that I experienced in American South Asian dominated mosques and organizations was so utterly disconnected from the traditional understanding of Islam of India, that without being mentally prepared, I would certainly have considered what I was reading as pure fiction. The attraction of Muslim South Asians in America to various agenda-driven forms of Islam (and their lack of awareness as to their shifted reality by these agendas) has been complete and total. This has made the alien into the norm and the norm into the alien.

The sheer volume of information on the subject of the spirituality, plurality, tolerance and strength of South Asian Muslims, combined with the natural understanding as to how South Asian society flourished with Muslim and Hindu interaction for over the 1400 years, makes it clear that the fiction was that which I was sold most of my youth.

In fact, it was the desire and clearly defined curriculum of organizations such as ICNA and early administrations of the various masjids that I attended (dominated by South Asians at nearly all levels of organization) that Muslim youth study the life and works of Seyyid Qutb, Maududi, and Bilal Phillips.

This created an entire generation (including most of my friends) that had never heard the name of Khwaja Moiuddin Chishti (R) much less the name of a single one of the countless saints buried in South Asia. The importance of knowing those names (and therefore, understanding and respecting their teachings) is vitally important for immigrant South Asian Muslims in the West for a proper return to the spiritually moving faith connected to the Prophet (S), as practiced by these holy people who carried Islam to us.

The difference between what has become ‘modern Islam’ and the traditional Islam of South Asia and other traditional Muslim communities is striking.

One is focused on a singular attempt at ‘authenticity’ and ‘purification’ of Islam using new understandings of Hadith and discussing their authenticity, the other is focused on the application of the immediate tradition for the purpose of bettering the soul.

One is focused on the political, absorbing worldly power and doing so with various levels of crassness, looking for religious and legal legitimacy the entire time, while the other has always been about building bridges between hearts with subtlety and care.

The Islam of South Asians in the West has mirrored that of converts. Many converts were in love of the faith of Islam primarily due to its claim of textual authenticity of the Quran (and hence the faith), which was unchanged for centuries. This was in stark comparison to the faiths of the West which suffered from deep questions of relevancy and authenticity, faiths which they had left for just those reasons. There is no doubt that the weight of the extreme desire for textual authenticity led to the ‘off’ switch of South Asian immigrants in examining the Islamic faith as understood by their families for generations.

The lack of textual information about Islam in South Asia certainly did not help. Modern South Asians were brought up appreciating the written word much more than that spoken word, a side effect of making education the largest priority in their lives (a means to escape poverty of the homeland). The idea of following a way of life which couldn’t be immediately checked, verified, and looked up for confirmation led most to the path of various forms of Wahabism.

Of course, most of groups eschewed the name ‘Wahabi’ itself, preferring to claim the title ‘Muslim’ for themselves. Interestingly enough their use of ‘Muslim’ was to the exclusion of their ‘grave worshipping’ ancestors or family members, which they considered to be misguided and confused. Most likely, however, the situation was actually tragically reversed, with modernized South Asians being extremely confused about their faith and the ‘ignorant’ visitors of graves seeing with a spiritual clarity.

Many South Asian parents had not bought into their own intellectual superiority, and hence many had not adopted the Wahabi ideal in order to critique the problems ‘back home’. These parents were quiet on the subjects of question (saints, graves, intercession, etc), and very few had the ability to respond back to the arguments presented by Wahabi philosophies from their children. Growing up their entire lives in that society, it was difficult for parents to forsake that which they had learned was de-facto Islam, an Islam which had run their lives and so many loved-ones lives could not easily be discarded… Saints, Milad, Naats, Qawaali, and all. Largely, they kept their distance from argument and supported the now adjusting faith of their children.

Interestingly enough, this comfortable nature of the different Islam between father and son, mother and daughter, in matters of practice of faith was a direct consequence of the open nature of the parents Islamic faith. It is this same South Asian pluralism which had created large periods of relative peace between Hindus and Muslims over a span of centuries, which now allowed children to look, dress, and act radically different from their parents, with hardly more than a word spoken.

This is not to say that parents did not fear the children would become ‘Christian’ in the West, indeed such fears existed and were a large part of growing up South Asian in the West. However, I would argue the fear towards Christianization was much more focused on the change in culture, and what that would mean for marriage, dress and social standings than what it meant to their soul. The pluralistic values of South Asia centered around a common culture, where often the weddings of the Muslim were not so dissimilar from that of the Hindu, in terms of dress and celebration. Exiting this culture was much more profound an issue than disagreements over details of faith.

After coming to terms with the reality of the rigid nature of a singular interpretation of Islam, the American convert experience, a struggle and challenge in its own right, seemed to need an understanding of how Islam survived with pluralistic flexibility in order to continue and progress in their faith. The first struggle for those espousing a return to the traditional understanding of Islam was to establish authenticity. This was done by focusing on the Madhabs, the schools of Islamic Law. Within these Madhabs lived the intellectual contribution of all Muslim legal scholars for centuries.

However, the reality was that the average South Asian Muslim had never heard of Madhabs in any Islamic sense. Since the overwhelming majority of their society was Hanafi, there was no need to even learn the names of other approaches in matter of form or externals. So, in fact, in American Masjids, it was those espousing “Madhabs” who ended up looking as if they were speaking of something new.

As a completely wayward path, the Wahabi agenda of puritanical groups looking to take over Islam in the West was rebuffed with this larger understanding of Islamic Law. The only escape for American converts from this type of Islam, was a broader understanding of the faith with multiple legal opinions. This has become to be known as “traditionalism”, espoused by famous converts and speakers such as Sh Hamza Yusuf, Imam Zaid Shakir, and Sh Nuh Keller.

However, this following of converts, with their own issues of reconciliation of culture cannot be followed by South Asians descendants who plan on keeping their own culture alive. It seems the South Asian child’s only two choices today are assimilation into three categories: the secular West, the Western Islamic discourse dominated by anti-traditionalists, or the Islamic discourse of Arabized traditionalists. As noted in my previous articles, it is clear that a traditional South Asian Islam has been ignored by the West. Revivalists of traditional sciences in the West have ignored the South Asian contribution for too long.

A focus on historical personalities and works of South Asian descent is a personal priority of mine. It is time the Milad, Ghazal, Naat, and Qawaali was understood and loved again, not simply analyzed through the lens of a protracted argument about good and bad “innovations”.

“That is so 90’s.” It’s time to move on.