Yasir Qadhi – Regarding Sufism – Ask Shaykh YQ #141

			Our next question is from sister or brother said jurak. I don't know if it's a sister, brother, I
apologize. So Jarrett from Kashmir.
		

			And the question is about Sufism. And the question is that some people accept it and follow it,
whereas others criticize it. And so I am asked by this sister this brother, can I shed some light on
this issue?
		

			107 mean poverty in region? No, he lay him first. No recovery in
		

			June.
		

			So just like our previous question, this is a theological one. And again, the as I said, Today, I'm
going to be doing theological questions. And so when being asked about Sufism, and again, so much
can be said, and time is limited. The term souf, the term Sufi ism, or Sufi, most likely it comes
from the term wool souf in Arabic truth. And that's because the earliest practitioners of the soul
wolf would dress in wool, because it was the cheapest and the core system material. And that
automatically gives you an understanding of who the the early material with our Sophie's work, there
were people who wanted to live, simplistic, ascetic lives, not involved in the luxuries of this
		

			world. Now, there's a lot to be said about Sufism. But one could say that the main thrust of Sufism
is that they view the world in a very different manner. They view that the existence of Allah
subhana wa tada is the only real existence and that the human soul is somehow linked with maybe even
connected to an emanation of the essence of a lot of how know what the ILO and that the goal is to
have that human souls somehow reunited either in the proximity or maybe even you know, with Allah
subhanho wa Taala. The goal is then for the human soul, to then, you know, go back to its origin
because the origin is Allah subhanho wa Taala, and to be reunited with a lot. And that goal is being
		

			hampered by this world around us by the body that we are in by the lusts and the pleasures of this
world. And therefore, what needs to be done, which is what the soul wolf does, is that we need to
break all of our connections with our bodily desires, our tie, look with other than Allah subhanho
wa Taala with extrinsic objects, and we need to allow our spirit to pass through this world with as
little attachments as possible so that when death happens, so that the soul will then with ease move
on to its divine destiny, its origin, and that is the oneness with Allah subhanho wa Taala. That's a
very simplistic way of looking at the Sabbath and early Sophie's. They were generally speaking
		

			people who renounced this world, people like Ibrahim, even Adam, or RBI that we that they live very
simplistic and ascetic lives, there's even a contempt for the world, you just don't want to do
anything with it. There's a
		

			sense of antagonism towards the richness of this world towards good food and good ones. You don't
want any of that you don't want to corrupt the body because the notion there's a tension between the
body and the soul, and if you obey the body, you're going to corrupt the soul. So this notion of
tension between the body and the soul is a very Sufi concept. And this notion of not adhering to or
not allowing bodily desires to be given any type of weight or priority, the less priority given it
is the better for mankind. And it is possible to divide Sufism, again, very simplistically, I'm
being very simplistic here. One can divide Sufism into two primary strands again, you can divide it
		

			into many but for our purposes, we'll say two primary stance strands and this goes back to very
early the solo if you have a strand that I will call philosophical, Sufism, the more technical term
is mon ism. Some have called it Well, there's many terms to be called, but let's just call it
philosophical Sufism. And by this, I mean a strand of Sufism, that understands that claims that
there is no existence other than a lot of Hana hautala that we don't actually exist. It's not a
denial of the pleasures of man. It's a denial of the reality of men. It is the claim that in reality
our bodies are not really there. And that there is nothing in existence other than Allah subhana wa
		

			tada and the technical term for this is mon ism. Later on it is called latitude. Whoo.
		

			That there's one existence. And people like in early Islam by Aziz Boise that Swami, and others,
like her Lodge and others, like have been out or be they followed this strand and there's a very
heavy emphasis on the negation of the illusion of any existence other than Allah subhana wa sallam,
there's some really interesting or bizarre phrases like an Khaled would say, I am. And I am Eliza
gel. And he would say that there's nothing in my job other than he other than Allah. So these
phrases were interpreted as basically blasphemy to everybody else, because they are not on the same
wavelength. And frankly, that wavelength is not coming from the Quran and Sunnah. But anyway, they
		

			interpreted these phrases to be completely, you know, blasphemy, and some of these like a large,
were even executed for what they considered to be blasphemy.
		

			So that is one strand of Sufism. And, frankly, I'm not a big fan of that strand. And I do believe
that that strand has exceeded
		

			the spectrum of tolerance, let me put it that way. They have gone beyond what we can theologically
tolerate. And that we should say that that interpretation of life and of existence really does not
stem from the Quran and Sunnah. And understandably, when people go around claiming that, you know,
there's nothing in my film other than a law or this and that then, understandably, the average
Muslim community is very perturbed and finds this problematic and, and that should not be done. So
I'm not, you know, too sympathetic to that strand. The other strand of Islam of sorry of Sufism,
let's call it experiential. Sufism. The emphasis on this strand was to train the soul, it wasn't to
		

			deny the existence of other than a law. Sorry, yeah, that's correct. Because the first strand denies
that anything is exists other than a law so that Allah hi Lola, for the first strand becomes law
with Judah or llamo, Judah Illallah. That's how they interpret the kalama that there is no existence
other than the existence of a law. So we don't really exist or nothing really, that this is all an
illusion, what we see around us you cannot, but it's an illusion. It's not really there. That's the
first round. And, frankly, that to be technical that goes back to something called Gnosticism. But
that's beyond the scope of our q&a here. But so, the second strand, which is something we can
		

			actually deal with a little bit more, let's call it experiential. Sufism. The emphasis here is not
on the philosophy of Mormonism. It is on the training of the soul, and it is on their version of
maintaining a purity in this world until the time of death. And we have a lot of early CEU fees that
were on this path people like Junaid, people like Elmo huseby these are people that clearly their
understanding of the soul is very different than that of haylage. And we have to be careful that
sometimes the critics of the soul Wolf, they mix and match between all of these strands one of the
biggest problems is Sufism is not one interpretation. Sufism is like a huge spectrum, and you cannot
		

			criticize one aspect of the spectrum spectrum. And then say all of Sufism does this this is frankly
a slander against the entire notion of Sufism. If you take one strand or one extremist person, and
then say all Sophie's that's just wrong and it's an Islamic and it's unethical, and it's unacademic,
we don't do this, unfortunately, all too often, one finds some of the critics of the soul of do
this, they find a video clip of somebody you know, so that strand, for example, is also very
mystical in terms of its outward you know, so going round and round let's say right, the Whirling
Dervishes and again, that's a oneness they're going round and onto they lose themselves the the
		

			purpose of By the way, the Whirling Dervishes it's actually an actual sector of the Sufi user, but
it for the Sufi is the goal is to lose yourself. Literally the goal is to just you keep on twirling
for so many hours, you're not, you know, obviously your mind ceases to function. Normally you think
you're in a state of ecstasy, that's what they're trying to achieve here. Right? Or you might find
other manifestations of, you know, extreme movements that we call dancing, but they would not call
dancing extreme movements, where the notion is they've lost rationality, because they've achieved
that union they're looking for with the lesser bandwidth data, somebody sends you a WhatsApp clip or
		

			it's on YouTube as they Oh look, that's what Sufism is. No, please brothers and sisters stop doing
this stop extrapolating from one video clip about the entire movement would you like it if the far
right takes one clip from some extremist Muslim and then says all Muslims do this we don't like it.
Then why then do you do it when you criticize another sector on other interpretation? You can say
this group of Sufism that's what they do. You're very accurate. Maybe one group does it okay. You
can say this particular buddy. Of course, this particular person encourages this action Okay, that's
fair. But to then extrapolate all of the soul of this is just a slander will lie. It is a slander
		

			the majority
		

			80 of the people of the soul have do not move in radical matters, they do not go whirling round
around, they do not, you know, they don't do these types of things that are unfortunate some Muslims
make fun of this is a small, small group. And we say that's not, you know, mainstream to solve, nor
is it mainstream Islam. So the point being that the second strand of Sufism, which is what I call
experiential, Sufism, what they want to do is they want to train the soul on the journey to Allah,
they say that there's a path or a buddy to Allah subhana wa Tada. And they want to encourage people
to understand that there's a path, you have to know there's the path, and you have to want to join
		

			the people on the path. So you become the seeker or the salic, you want to be joined the movement,
you want to get onto board, so that you know, there's the movement and then the seeker or the salic
is then talked about various stations of the path, these are called macom, or my nozzle. So, these
are stations that you have to go to this station, then this station, these are not actual paths,
this is the state of the mind here. And then you have when you reach certain stations, you will
experience certain spiritual ecstasy is called a while and at every stage, and at every point, you
then go to a different level, and eventually, if you follow the path properly, so then you will
		

			achieve you know, the highest level and your soul will basically have achieved that sense of union
the sense of union now, whether you actually achieve union or not depends on which strand of the
soul You are following. But the claim is that when you achieve that actual you know, sense of union,
then the the illusion of this world has been lifted from you, and that's called cache, the cache is
the lifting of the veil. And you have achieved oneness with a law which is find out which is find
out so your soul has now been reunited with its origin with its maker. And this is called the
concept of the find out now, and again, how its interpreted varies from strand to strand. So the
		

			point being, as I said, that you have from the very beginning two strands of Sufism, we are more
interested in the experiential one, because that's something we can actually relate to. and
experiential to so both they view themselves as being the manifestation of the third category of the
idea of God, Islam, Mr. ersan, that group says, We are the gifts and status, that's what his son is.
And their critics would argue, well, that's your interpretation of your sign, and we have our
interpretation of your son. So they say that his son is what deals with the heart, and eemaan. And
Islam deals with the body and the tongue, this the outer rituals, and ehsaan is the science of the
		

			world, and Islam and in any man is the science of the brain and of the body. So they have this
understanding there as well. And now the question arises, how does one walk on this path? How does
one achieve that success to get to the end of the path, so generally speaking, mainstream too. So
wolf says you cannot walk alone, you need a guide, the path is too complicated. And it's not, it's
just very difficult, you don't wander into a forest all on your own, you take a guide. And so they
say, you have to find the kingdom of God or a buzzer or a peer who has already done all of this for
you. And you then, you know, in most strands of the soul if you make an alliance or a treaty, or a
		

			beta, or a covenant, or an oath, with this buzzer or the spear, and the point is that the goal is
that this person is going to take you along the path and help you to go from station to station to
station until finally, you know, if you do your job properly, you know, you don't need him anymore.
And you're now achieved at that at that station. And there's also this notion that there is an inner
knowledge, a little melatonin, or animal botany that is not found in the books, but it is found in
the experiences of your teachers in the mystical understandings of the Olia of a lot subhanho wa
Taala. And so the need of a share for the buzzard is that you cannot learn what the buzzer will
		

			teach you except in the company except from heart to heart and not from a book the knowledge of the
soul Wolf, according to them is not found in a book you cannot study it you cannot have a PhD in the
soul of from their perspective. You need to experience that the soul Wolf with the share with the
with the peer who has already arrived over there. And that's a version of what is called the 30th
pacifism, as well as the soul is known for
		

			various rituals that we are even non Sufi is practice but then they take it to their own
understanding Most importantly, how they do Vicar and the repetition of their liquor and the
repetition of the names of Allah subhanho wa Taala these are well known practices of various Sufi
groups. So maybe to repeat a certain Vicar 99 times or you know, repeat a surah you know, 11 times
or
		

			To have a weird what is called the wazifa. While leafa wazifa, you know you have a wazifa that you
go, every time I treasure, you do this at malherbe, you do that and you have a different wild leaf
or wazifa. And then when you do this for a few months, your boozer or your teacher will then say
you've passed stage one now move on to stage two, and you're given another than stage three, you're
given another and it goes on and on and on. So, all of these are associated with various Sufi
understandings as well some manifestations or strands of Sufism. Some not all are also interested or
take to devotional poetry and poetry that is accompanied by musical instruments as well. And most
		

			famously, in Indian Pakistan is you have of course, the Qawwali movements with the Kabaddi
manifestations of various
		

			Sufi karate, by the way, its origin is actually Sufi devotional poetry. So it's a very Sufi
manifestation. And of course, this is known to all Indian Pakistanis Bengalis, they understand they
know what is oily it is a part of Indian culture very short. And but but what I'm trying to say it's
not a cultural thing, as much as it is a religious It is actually a manifestation of a type of of
what is called Samadhi or a ritual ceremony, which is meant to be rewarded by a law and it is meant
to help guide you in your path and your journey to Allah subhana wa tada and of course, even that is
subject because other speakers will disagree and says should there should not be done so, anyway,
		

			there's a lot to be said trying to summarize so much into a one you know, brief q&a, do realize by
the way that
		

			giving by to a chef and following what is called buddy a call is not necessary to be a Sufi because
one can also categorize Sufism into two buddies versus non buddy, buddy aka Sufi ism, it has a
specific hierarchy and you give back to a particular shift. So you have the sohara word the you have
the Chishti you have the DD, right, you have the T Johnny, you have the car, the rhetorical these
are career consumerism, these are well known hierarchy and you will then find the chef and you will
give back to the chef, the shareholder and assess you, you will follow the chair He will guide you
along maybe even you will not undertake any life decision without asking the chef. So there is a
		

			very, very trusting position that you have. Unfortunately, we also know of times that has been
abused when you ever you trust a person if the person turns out to be a crook, then, you know,
that's the reality as well. But anyway, we should not throw out. I mean, from their perspective,
they will say this happens with any organization just because some bad apples exist doesn't mean the
entire, you know, barrel is bad, but that is 30 of consumerism. There's also non budhia consumerism
which is becoming very popular in our times I would say that, historically, it wasn't as popular
200 300 500 years ago, but nonparty consumerism is basically let me just read the books of the
		

			people of the soul of liking mama Rosati in his famous a halo Medina, which is a very mainstream
Sufi text. It's not radical Sufi. It's like a very mainstream Sufi text, um, which goes over many of
the primary issues of the soul. So they might read this and then bring it in their daily lives. Now,
again, much can be said.
		

			And by the way, there have also been attempts, especially in the last 200 years to reform or to
revive or to reject Sufism, the most famous rejection of Sufism was by the movement of Ibn Abdul
Wahab in Arabia, the nudge, the liberal movement, they rejected Sufism, the most harsh rejection in
the last, you know, millennia, to be honest, and no group has been more antifa. So often, this
movement, and they even consider some of the practices of the soul to be, well, most of the
practices of those have they considered beta, some of them they even consider shidduch, such as, you
know, veneration of the saints to an extreme level. So this is like the attempt to reject Sufism,
		

			you've had attempts to revive Sufism, and the most famous is the Bolivian movement of Indian
Pakistan to revive that they want to now go back and basically bring back the, the the revival of
the soul. And then they have also made attempts to reform from within, right, so you have the
rejection, the revival than the Reformation from within, for example, shot, what do you do levy is
perhaps the most famous to try to reform to sanitize to cut off some of the excesses. And perhaps
one can say, I'm being a little bit simplistic here. But I think it is fair to say that the obon the
movement is basically following the spirit of shall will you learn this regard, where they want to
		

			produce a somber an orthodox version of the soul from their perspective. And again, all of this is
relative to which paradigm you are sympathetic to now.
		

			The sister their brother asked about what is you know, what is to be done or what is the correct or
what not? And the responses I mean, depends on who you ask, obviously, you want my advice. You're
asking me, you emailed me. And by the way, somehow I'm very touched that I get so many emails from
Kashmir and my hearts in my heart and my daughters go to the people of Kashmir for all of their
struggles, and I have to say that I am very pleasantly surprised by them.
		

			Many, many emails I get from the province of Kashmir they watch on YouTube and some of them say that
we have internet problems, but we try to whenever there's internet, you know, we try to watch your
videos and then, you know, we don't have not able to watch because the government pulls it away from
us and ally just is just to know that there is so much struggle and pain and the occupation and the
clamp down in the the pellet bullets that have blinded hundreds or 10s of 1000s. And the riots I
mean, well, you're in our drives or people of Kashmir and it really touches me that so many emails
come from that province. And you know, this one as well. very eager to learn the religion of Islam,
		

			summarizing what he or she has written. So, you wanting my advice about this issue, and I will say
that, firstly, as a lay Muslim, stick with your enema, and don't get involved in the business of
refutations and debates. You can disagree with other groups without being disagreeable. What I mean
by this, you can disagree and still smile and shake their hands and be fellow Muslims, right? You
don't have to agree on everything. You follow what you think is the best you follow your group you
follow your chef that you really feel is the most pure and the most knowledgeable and the closest
silicone on asuna and leave the rest if you're a lay Muslim. Also be very careful. And never ever
		

			follow those groups of Roma or people that are promoting hatred of other people who bow their head
to Allah subhanho wa Taala. There are a llama and preachers in every sect whose primary focus is the
other sect. Their primary antagonism is towards others who say the Kadima face the Qibla memorize
the Koran lower their head to Allah, but they disagree about a certain issue. My advice to you avoid
hate preachers avoid preachers who are preaching sectarianism, who has every second third statement
is a refutation of that group in that group and that group in that group, so panela, you will not
build your Eman by destroying the amount of others in your eyes. That's not how you build your Eman
		

			do not follow preachers whose emphasis by their preaching is the negation of other understandings of
Islam. Yes, sometimes certain understandings need to be refuted. But that should not be the
priority. The priority is you build your own ego on the priorities you worship, allow yourself you
have your own silo, your own Zipcar, your own rituals, your own Koran, any chef that emphasizes
this, and once in a while, correct others that's a good sign. That's a good sign. But any chef whose
main preaching and teaching is to cause you to hate other Muslims and other people and whatnot.
That's not the religion of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Now also I want to say that you
		

			know, you are writing to me from the province of Kashmir, surely dear brother or dear sister, you
understand the importance of unity, you understand that? It makes no sense for the Muslim community
that is already under siege, literally unreceived for the last 70 years, and under army siege and
military siege for the last 20 or 30 years. It makes no sense for the center fee and the Deobandi in
the Burrell V in the earlier had these and the Giamatti other than to fighting each other. You
clearly have an outside enemy, literally, you see them social panela do not preach hatred amongst
yourselves, and learn to agree to disagree. I'm not saying all of these differences are trivial. I
		

			never said this. I'm not saying we should ignore. I'm saying we have to learn to agree to disagree.
So you know what, I have my way of doing Islam. You know, I know you're sincere. You have your way
Allah will judge us and I mean, you know, and if you want to have a pleasant conversation, if you
have knowledge, and you know the evidences and you want to have a pleasant conversation, no hatred,
no animosity, but explain you know, this is what I believe this why I believe it the Quran says this
asuna says that what is your evidence if you're able to have a pleasant conversation without hating
somebody else, then go for it if you have the knowledge, and you have the other bendy taqwa to do
		

			so, otherwise dear brother or dear sister, for really just it's not worth our time to make this such
a big issue. The so wolf is a very broad term and with this, I conclude the soul wolf is a very
broad term. It is impossible to praise or to criticize all of the soul, Wolf, listen to this
carefully. Anybody who generically praises all of the soul work or criticizes all of the soul, Wolf,
frankly, I'm trying to be nice here. They don't know what they're talking about. You cannot the soul
wolf is too broad. And you have to get down to the specifics and nitty gritty. There are aspects of
the soul off that are pure 100% upon the sooner the scar after fetcher, who says you should not do
		

			that. Go and find out what the prophets have said and sit there after phidget 200 long 200 days
		

			Israel. So we're reading Quran in the middle of the night. That is the essence of the soul of
Morocco. Always looking at your heart that is the soul of Vicar your tongue should always be doing
because that is the soul of right in other Toba, who Sure, tawakkol. All of this is the soul of this
is the reality of the soul. So if that is the soul, Wolf, then we should all be upon the people of
the soul. And then there are other things that definitely raise your eyebrows, to have a specific
wazifa. You know, we're getting into a gray area, and I can understand some people think is
permissible. Some people think it's not, you know, to recite a certain class 11 times at 9am, for
		

			example, I mean, you know, I see why they're doing it. And I personally don't want to do that I'm
not going to make a big deal about this. And I respectfully disagree, respectfully disagree, but
that's what they do. And that's their version of the ticket. And I think that you know, that I don't
personally
		

			find that what I want to do myself, I want to follow what the prophet system did as much as
possible. That's my personal way of doing things from their perspective. They're saying, What's
wrong with reciting certain classes, there been times it worked for my share? It should work for me
and I see their perspective, I respectfully disagree. And then there's a red line. And that red line
is to believe that Allah is within us or to stop Trump following the shittier. There is no tail. So
wolf without the Shetty or any group that tells you you don't have to follow the shadia forget the
soul of they're not Muslims. I'm just being blunt here. Any group that says you don't have to follow
		

			the Sharia, you have now reached the state and there are very small fringe movements like this. And,
and then again, I mean, I have to draw the line somewhere. I personally really do not find it
comfortable when you go to the point of venerating another being to the point of asking that being
for your needs, to the point of calling out to that being for what you want. Really, I have to draw
the line there. And I say that that is not something that should be done. It is dangerous. You're
opening up the door that is very, very dangerous when you're going to call the Olia for your daily
needs for forgiveness, I would have been not with the will and this is not I mean, I can understand
		

			the argument that it is shipped and I can understand the argument that it is wrong and steppingstone
to should both of these arguments have validity to them. But definitely they are not sooner. And
definitely This is wrong. So if you have groups that are telling you to make do out or call out to
the Olia for your needs, if you have groups that tell you to bow down and do such the to a grave, we
have to draw the line say no, no, no, no, this is not any type of the soul that we can tolerate.
There is the soul of that I can tolerate there is the soul of that we can agree to disagree. And you
have your way and I have my way, generally speaking mainstream kausalya into Sophie, Rita Hello
		

			muddy and you fall what is in there, or even mainstream buddy, but also if you follow the mainstream
of the shoddy or the caudry 30 or whatnot, and they're telling you to do at God and quote and
whatnot, I understand and a shallow there's piety, there's a man, I personally don't, you know,
that's not the way I have been trained and taught in my experiences. And I have never felt the need
to go down that route. But I can see, other people have had different experiences and I don't view
them as being able to be evil people if they choose that path, but we have to have lines and
inshallah I hope we can all agree that of the lines that we should not do is to invoke other than
		

			Allah subhanho wa Taala or to prostrate to any type of object that is, you know, other than Allah
azza wa jal, you know, or to, you know, to do these types of movements that demean the dignity of
our faith, you know, which some of the movements do the twirling and the motions of jumping up and
down becoming ecstatic and or these are things that I find very problematic, and I do not, I just
can't be quiet and they need to be said that, you know, this is not what the prophet system did, or
the Sahaba did, and we should keep our religion dignified. Nonetheless, when all is said and done,
there are elements of the soul wolf that are very good and pure, such as Vicar and morale club and
		

			all of these things. And so if a person takes these concepts and reads about them in the Quran and
in the Sunnah, and by the way, one of the best books is the other side of hate in my opinion the
other side of him go read this book by mama no way it's in every single language of the Muslim world
and read the chapters about the Coleman this and let's read all of these chapters, and then follow
that and if you ask me, that is real too. So often that is the reality of your son. And if you do
this, then you have maintained safety and purity and you have followed the so wolf of the desk yet
or on the following of the Koran, and the sooner and with this inshallah die we come to the
		

			conclusion of today's q&a Until next week, Chuck maloca Santa Monica rahmatullah wa barakato.