Reproduced below is a transcripted quote from Shaykh Hamza Yusuf’s durus on the Tasfiyat al Qulub of Ibn Juzayy al-Kalbi, the great Andalucian scholar. It articulates well the concerns about “organised sufism” that have been expressed on this blog preeviously.
Question: How necessarily important is it to commit to one shaykh to develop your spirituality?
Answer:
You’ll get different opinions depending on who you ask. There’s a nice translation of Ibn Abbad’s letter on whether its obligatory to take a shaykh. There’s a saying, “Whoever doesn’t have a shaykh, Shaytan is his shaykh.” Generally, first and foremost it means you have to have a teacher for the Shariah. You have to have someone who teaches you the religion. When we visited Sh. Mimmar (spelling?) the other day, what did he keep saying? “Get teachers even if you have to pay them. Have teachers. You need teachers to guide you. You need to have sources of knowledge.” In terms of spiritual advancement, if people are having spiritual experiences its good to have people who know what they are doing. Suhba (companionship) is also good. Many of the shuyukh of this period, like Shaykh Ahmad Mashur al-Haddad, who I studied with, Dr. Umar studied with, Sidi Abdul Hakim Winters studied with- he was of the opinion that the idea of taslim was over, the surrendering yourselves to a shaykh completely was over, this wasn’t its time. And there are a lot of dysfunctional aspect in a lot of relationships that happen, so there are problems in all these systems. And surrendering your sovereignty, you have to be very careful with that, who you surrender your sovereignty to, some people demand a lot. There’s a poem by Robert Frost, “They say the truth will make you free, my truth will make you slave to me.” So you just have to be careful, there’s a lot of manipulation out there. People from Pakistan know very well about the peer sahibs, and what happens there. I’m not making this up, am I? A lot of these people are flat-out charlatons, there’s charlatans all over West Africa, you know ‘Sufi shaykh, come and be a murid.’ The danger of Sufism that bothers me, is there are a lot of principles in Tasawwuf that are very easily manipulated into certain cultic control mechanisms and they become very dangerous. I think for those of us in the West, we come from a tradition of individual sovereignty and independence of self. And I personally believe those are very high Islamic characteristics and qualities. I think a lot of the problems in the East is all this slavishness, and devotion and obsequiousness to the grand Master Pu-Ba whoever. I mean, if you want my personal opinion, I do believe that. That does not mean I don’t show the utmost respect to my teachers. Sh. Abdullah bin Bayyah is my teacher and what I love about him is he’s somebody who respects my opinion, listens to my opinion, he’s never been despotic in any way. Habib Ahmad Mashur al-Haddad was not despotic at all, he didn’t get angry at people, he didn’t abuse people. Sifadur Harawi was like that. You just have to look to people and observe them. You just have to be careful. And then there are some people who are just deluded or they are trying to keep something alive and they have their limitations. Sidi Ahmad Zarruq said that there weren’t any complete teachers by his time, the 9th century, the completed masters were gone and to just find people that could do the best that they could do and recognize their shortcomings and don’t have greater expectations that they can do that. Wallahu Ta’ala Alaam. Allah knows best.
–Taken from Shaykh Hamza Yusuf’s CD set on Tasfiyah al-Qublub, (Refinement of the Heart) by Imam Ibn Juzayy al-Kalbi, CD 12, Track 3 and 4 (copyright)
VERY important, of course… and also the post of Oct 13. Yes, we DO know what happens in Pakistan with the Peeran hazraat.
However bhai I’d like to suggest 2 important provisos tell me what you think
1. There is something more than Suhba and principles, i.e. the x factor spiritual baraka/grace, whatever one wishes to call it. Some form of rabita meditation or shrine visits are I think vital if one cannot find a master. Faiz is a fact.
2. The weaknesses of the Piri-Muridi system or the vaccum of the genuine masters has been filled by self-styled Sufis who are really Sufistic philosophers. To use anab whitehouse’s category these are often ‘genuine fakes’ i.e. people who are not charlatans but rather they believe themselves to be at a maqaam they are not. However even basic matters of Islamic belief and practice elude them and they are characterized by a contempt for Ulema. Allah knows I’m not orthodox I’m a musician for heaven’s sake but at least the Sufi master or even teacher has to follow the sha’air e Islam. Beardless lecturers who sport red shirts and talk for hours are not Sufi masters, and it is extremely odd to somehow coyly suggest that clean shaven-ness and long trousers is some kind of robe of Malamat, yet also proof of their superiority as Sufi teachers to the above-ankle-pants & bearded lot.
So anyway I’m happy that you dropped those 2 gents from your bloglists, am also purging my posts of a few fakes I temporarily- thank God!- became enamored with.
May God give us the light of discernment. Ya Hadi Ya Rasheed.
On the whole I agree with both of your points. The X factor is Divine grace which attaches itself to true wilaya and makes suhba and practice based upon principles effective. Visiting the salihin has always been listed amongst the things the bring the heart to life and Shaykh Ahmad Zarruq mentions that this includes visiting their mizarat too. However I feel uncomfortable with the cult of mizarat and excessive attention to them. Rather one should be directed wholly towards Allah (swt) and leave it to Him to provide “faiz” from wherever He chooses.
As for modern sufis, this aspect of Deen like the others is also beset by people who are essentially good communicators. I do not and never have seen them as “sufi masters” in the classical sense but they are involved in rehab and outreach work which is badly needed and as such they are useful. The forms that this takes is dictated by the conditions of the society and people that they work with. These things are usually relative.
Sufism is itself a “form” and we need to move beyond forms. It seems to me that we (collectively speaking) have yet to fathom the penetrating depth of Iqbal’s words:” tamaddun, tasawwuf, shariat, kalam; butan e ajam ke pujari tamam!”