13. PHILOSOPHY AND MONASTICISM ARE FROM THE MAIN INNOVATIONS THAT APPEARED IN ISLAM
I pondered over the corruption that entered our religion from both, the angle of knowledge (ilm) and action (‘amat). I saw both the ways entering the religion and people becoming familiar with them:
The main corruptive element in knowledge and creed (,i’tiqad) came from philosophy (falsafa).
The reason was because a good number of scholars in our religion did not satisfy themselves with what the Messenger of Allah was already content with by resorting to the Book and Sunnah. They studied philosophical schools (madhhab ablu’l-falsafa) of thought in great depth. They entered into theological debates using philosophical rhetoric which led them to lowly schools of thought that corrupted the creed (‘aqa’id).
As for the main corrupting element in the context of action, it came from monasticism (rabbaniyya)
A good number of ascetics (mutazahidin) learned from the monks (rahabati) the way to abstinence (tariq al-taqqashaf, simultaneously failing to look at the life accounts of our Prophet and his Companions (radiy Allahu ‘anhum). They heard the criticism about the worldly life (dhamm al-dunya) and failed to understand the objective of it. They combined disinclination (i’rad) from the knowledge of our Shari’ah with misunderstanding the objectives, thus did evil innovations (bida’ qabiha) materialise.
The first who instigated this was Iblis by commanding them to turn away from the Sacred Knowledge. They buried their books and washed them away. He ordered them to take up places of worship as per his intention. He revealed to them amusing stories making the masses incline to them. He thus made their whim and desires their god. Had they realised that from the time they had buried the books and departed from the Sacred Knowledge, the light of knowledge had extinguished, they would not have done that; Satan however is a skilled deceiver the day he ordered them to bury their knowledge under the earth.
In fact, it is through Sacred Knowledge the corruption (fisad) of both ways is exposed, and one is guided to the correct path.
We ask Allah that He does not prevent us from being near Him, as He is the light in darkness, He is the companion in loneliness and the helper during trials.
(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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