The Book & The Sunnah: The Way of The Early Sufis of The Salaf

Ustadh Abdus Shakur Brooks

Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami (412 A.H;Nisabur) reported in his Tabaqat al-Suffiyah that The Sufi imam Abu al-Qasim al-Nasrabadhi (367 A.H; Makkah), who he said was of exalted status in learning, said:

The basis of Sufism is: sticking to the Book and the Sunnah, and giving upheresy and bid’ah, and (giving up) esteeming the sacredness of the shaikhs, and (giving up) exposing people’s faults ,and (keeping) good companionship with one’s companions, and serving them, and keeping good character, and keeping up the aurad [such as, a daily portion of prayers, or recitation of the Qur'an or dhikrs and duas or any combination of these], and refraining from following the relaxations [in the rules of the shari'ah], and refraining from interpretations [that is, interpreting the texts of the shari'ah in other than their obvious senses thereby making it easier on oneself or to support one's preconceived ideas]. Nobody went astray in this way except because of a wrong beginning. For a wrong beginning manifests itself in the end.



Al-Dhahabi in his Siyar A’lam al-Nubala (Beirut: Al-Resalah Publishers, 11th ed., 1419/1998), reported from Abu Nu?aim who said that Ali ibn Harun and somebody else reported to him that they heard al-Junaid say:

“Our knowledge is regulated by the Book and the Sunnah, so whoever does not memorize the Qur’an and write down hadith and does not learn fiqh, is not to be followed.”

Similarly the friend of al-Junaid, the Sufi imam Abu al-Hasain al-Nuri said:

“Whoever you see that claims that he has attained a state with Allah so that he is not bound by the shariah, don’t go near him.”

Thus, those practices that do not have any sound bases according to The Book and Sunnah , is not the way of the earlier Sufi’s of the Salaf. The earlier Sufi Imams, the likes of those mentioned here, where not those who took liberty to innovate in the area of worship but instead followed strictly the way of the rightly guided generations, The Salaf, both inwardly and outwardly (striving to become people who live for Allah only), contrary to much of what has been incorporated into later Sufism ,until this very day

Furthermore, notice how these great scholars warned us about those who go contrary to the shari’ah or claim that they are not bound by it for some spiritual state they have reached, may Allah protect us from that. The way of the true Awliya is through the purified shari’ah. Al-Shatibi reminds us in his al-Muwafaqat: “Every legally responsible soul (al-Mukallaf) is subordinated to the rules of the shari’ah”. May Allah guide our hearts to following the shari’ah and leaving what is contrary to it like these great predecessors did .

Source : al-faqih.com