12. DEVIATION OF ASCETICS
The ascetics (zuhhad) incorporated into religion what made people turn off to the extent (they deem their own deeds to be inferior), believing the actions of the ascetics are impossible to adapt and thus impossible for them to tread on the right path.
Most of the evidences used by this group are taken from storytellers (qussas); when a layperson who does not even know how to perform ablution (wudu) joins their assembly, they shower him with the gems of Al-Junayd and the signs of Al-Shibli, causing this layperson to believe that the path to gaining the pleasure (rida) of Allah is to devote himself in being with this group.
This involves invoking Allah in isolation (‘uzla) and abandoning work that earns some provision to support his family, while he neither knows the pillars of prayer (salah), nor is disciplined by knowledge (‘ilm), nor has learned manners through sitting with the people of knowledge!
All this makes his isolation useless and benefit gained from it only what a donkey would benefit from a barn. Furthermore, spending long periods of time living under such life conditions; taking the minimum of everything, he may start to hallucinate and imagine seeing Angels so he starts to keep his head low and puts his hand forward for them to kiss them.
Plentiful are the examples of those who experience such delusions and many are those who left their farms to sit in a gathering far from people, doing no work at all and relaxing from the hard work he used to do. If someone advises him to visit a sick person, he would refuse arguing that it is not part of his schedule or habits. Indeed, a habit that stands against the guideline and directions of religion is cursed. All this leaves laypeople with the impression and belief that religion advocates these methods and way of life, not the way of life and methods advocated by jurists (fuqaha) and exegetes (tafsir), thus they become misguided.
Worse still, some of those ascetics do not care whether they act according to the rules of religion or not. The ignorance (Jahl) of this group varies; some deem everything is lawful and permissible. They argue that they are in a higher status thus no one should ever object to what they do, so they indulge in sins, while others are concerned with their public image, issue religious verdicts in spite of their ignorance just to save face and so people do not say, ‘the Sheikh does not know the answer!’
Shaikh Abu Hakim, may Allah bestow His Mercy upon him, informed me that one day Al-Sharif Al-Dahalti, one of those ascetics that people go in hope of receiving a blessing visited him. A person asked him a question, ‘Would a woman whose husband divorced her thrice be lawful for him if she delivered a boy?’ Abu Hakim answered: ‘No, she does not become lawful for her husband in this case.’ Al-Sharif interjected, ‘Be quite! By Allah I have been telling people all the way from the city of Basrah to here that she becomes lawful for her husband!’
And, Shaikh Abu Hakim once narrated to me that the grandfather of Adhad Al-Haddad, who was looked up to by some laypeople as a person of knowledge, endorsed the marriage of a woman without asking her about the period of waiting (iddah). The judge nullified the marriage and admonished the one who endorsed such marriage. The woman then returned frustrated to him to blame him and said, ‘How could you endorse such a marriage when that is the case? I have no knowledge of this matter!’ Adhad replied arrogantly, ‘Pay no attention to what they say for you are a pure and purified woman!’
Some jurists also told me that there was a worshipper who used to practice the prostration of forgetfulness in the prayer for years. When he was asked about it, he said: ‘By Allah, I never forgot anything in the salah but I do it out of cautiousness (wara) The jurists told him: ‘The salah you prayed all these years are invalid because you intentionally added a prostration that is not prescribed in such a case.’
Amongst those who introduced deviated ways into the religion are some of the Sufis who embarked on ways, most of which contravene religion. The religious ones amongst them continue reducing the amounts of their food and wear harsh clothes, all the while doing things not part of Islam.
Another story is the story of a man named Kathir who once entered the Masjid of Al-Mansur and said, ‘I made a vow to Allah to do something but I did not keep my promise. For this reason, I forced myself not to eat for forty days.’ I was told by those who saw him that he almost died in the last ten days to the point when they made him drink some water, they could hear a sound similar to the sound of boiling water, and it was not long until he passed away because of that. So, observe the case of this pathetic ignorant man whose ignorance caused his death.
There are some of them who embarked on new deviated ways where they indulged in worldly passions (shahwa) and pleasures (hawa). Accepting to eat and drink from unlawful sources, consume alcohol, wear silk and accompany those whose purpose in life is acquiring worldly pleasures; they considered Sufism was about just wearing a garment and a nice turban. All this was done just so they could protect their wealth and social status. Some of them prescribed actions for others to adopt based on spurious texts.
Another group of them indulged in singing, dancing and idle playing. Some among this group claimed they reached the level of passionate love (‘ishq) with Allah, and some claimed hulul [i.e. Allah dwells within them]. Others became involved in all that just to have fun times. Whichever group they belong to, this deviation totally corrupts the laypeople.
To explain this section in detail will be too lengthy but you can refer to some of the books I have authored in which I have addressed this topic in detail such as the book Talbis Iblis.
The point I make is that people should know that religion is complete, thus a reasonable man is the one who follows the way of Allah’s Messenger and his Companions disregarding the ways of others and not blindly submitting [in matters of principle creedal tenets of Islam], If people comply with this advice, they will surely be in no need to receive any other advice.
You should also beware of the rigidity of communicators, the sophism of philosophers, crowds of ascetics, the greed of people of desires, the group of scholars who do not act upon the knowledge they acquired, and the worship of the worshippers they endorsed without knowledge.
When Allah supports a person with His Kindness, He engulfs him with a sound understanding to detach himself from the shell of blind following [in respect to the principle creedal tenets of Islam], and make him equivalent to an entire nation, he therefore cares not to follow any of the deviations of man or the blame people throw at him because he leads a life driven by clear evidence.
I ask Allah to safeguard us from aping the principle creedal tenets of Islam of people who are held in high-esteem or looked up to, and I ask Him to guide us to follow the way of Allah’s Messenger because without a doubt he is the diamond of the universe.
I ask Allah to bestow His peace and blessings upon him and his Companions, and I ask Allah to let us be among those who follow him.
(Source: al-Hafiz Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-jawzl [d. 597AH] “CAPTURED THOUGHTS being” a translation of his masterpiece ‘Sayd al-K hatir)
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