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The Science of Tasawwuf in the Islamic Tradition

Question from a Murid: At the time of Rasulullah (asws), and sahaba, and tabi'in, their level was so intense and high that this type of methodology was not required. Like for example, if somebody comes to you and you are training, you may have a certain way to train, but those people, within seconds when they went to Rasulullah (asws), they were trained by the very fact that that is entirely a different level. So, when people say, was this kind of Sufism there, they are not recognizing that this methodology was not needed at that time. Just the presence of Rasulullah (asws) and the fact that the person who came has accepted him as his master, this was enough for them to go through instantaneous training, whereas in today's age and time, they Sheykh may have to device a method, he has to customize the training for his murid....

Lokman Hoja: I will add to that that not all the sahabis and the tabi'in they are of the same rank. Hz Abu, Hz Ali, instantaneous. Then there are others, I don't like to divide the sahabis, but they come in different categories also. Hz Abu Sufyan is different, he didn't accept Islam until the conquest of Mecca. So his status cannot be the same as Hz Ali. But he will also receive spiritual training. Then, there are those that accepted and later they also deny it, like Ibn Salama. He also deny it. And the same thing with the Tabi'in also. Some of them, it is very direct and it's easy, but some of them, it takes years, and some of them it takes generations for it to kick in.

So, if you tell me precisely about the kind of methodology customize and each of them, I would better answer this, but I do know from what knowledge that I've learn from my Sheykh is that the methodology does not especially, let me speak from just my own experience, I'm not going to interpret from others experience; Our own gatherings, and that is modeled after the Prophet. And it is small, it is family oriented, and it is based on discipline. And it is not for everyone. Because not everyone will get, and such a discipline is important. But the idea is to make everyone to rise up to the level of Hz Abu Bakr. It's impossible, but the Awliya Allah and the Prophet is not to make us to stay stuck or to go down lower, but it's always to lift us up as high as they can.

So, their methodologies may be slightly different and it has to be, but the purpose is the same; it is to make the person to become Insan-e-kamil. The Perfect man. It's impossible, but according to the intention now.

So, certain things, if you have the foundation, then from that foundation, you have the pillars that are there, then when it is anchored according to the permission that is given to you, you can go, even in the opposite direction, because the whole idea now is anchored, you need to go to the opposite direction now to draw this person out to become Insan e-Kamil. So that time, permission, it is given.

Because, the mindset, the physiology, the emotions and the intelligence of Seventh Century Arabia, is completely different from Seventeenth Century Arabia. Let alone Seventeenth Century India, or China, or the Balkans.

Now 21st century, it is completely different now. Islam is a living religion. It is not a dead religion.

It is a living religion. And it is the only religion that continues to live and to strives, precisely because we have this protectors of the religion, the Hafizis, the protector of the religion, that understand the nature of man, and the nature of the ego, and how to draw the spirit out from that ego. And that ego may differ at any moment, at any time, and at any place. So it has to be.

The Problem with Salafism and Wahhabism is just like the communist; they want to just start all over again, wipe everything out, start from year zero, like in Saigon, just finish everything. No civilization. Start all over anew. They want to recreate Seventh century Arabia. Muslims should all be Arab speakers, wear white thaub be fundamentalist in that way, in their own mind, I'm not talking evolution, but there is no adaptation, there is no life, there is no branching out, development of Islam. In their mind, it is that because this is what they learn in the books; we live in the desert, they do this...., and it didn't even work for them.

Look now, hardly a hundred years have passed, they are not exactly living in tents, living completely sunnat lifestyle of the sahabis. They have not only the highest level of technology, they have so much gold that their toilet seats are made of gold. So even in their own ideology, they have betrayed themselves. Because it's untenable, it's unworkable. You can't do that because it's against the sunnat. It's not how it is.

I remember talking to Abouzar Ali, he's Egygption coming from Georgian background, his forefathers came from Georgia, he said, the Wahhabi especially they hate the people from the Hijaz at that time. Now they came from Najd, but the people who lives in the major cities in Hijaz Mecca for instance, at that time, the people in Mecca and Medina, they were the most sophisticated Muslims living in the world. They have the most manners, they have wealth but more than that they have knowledge....they are very sophisticated. They are not what we think today's Arab are in the Hijaz, they are very straight, No. and they hated that kind of culture and they came and they destroyed all of that.

So it's very different. The mindsets are very different. That's as much as I know.

Hoja Lokman Efendi Hz, Khalifah of Shaykh Abdulkerim el Kibrisi (qs) 

OSMANLI DERGAHI- New York