things that confuse me about tassawuf

[fnaeem]

:salam:

First of all I am not hating on tasawwuf. Sometimes question do pop up though ?

For example

http://muslim-canada.org/sufi/ganjeshakar.html

this is the story of Baba Farid Ganj Shakar. A recognized sufi shaikh of indo-pak subcontinent. If you read the story above you will will that he was ordered by his shaikh Khawaja Bakhtiar Kaki ( another recognized sufi shaikh of indo-pak) to do "chilla" by hanging upside down in a well.

Now Again I am not saying doing the chilla is wrong, what I am asking is how does one pray his regular salat when doing something like this. My understanding is that there is no ihsan without islam.

salat facing makkah is part of Islam, a chilla would be part of treading the path of ihsan. How do we reconcile this.

As an aside, maybe someone more knowledgeable can tell me. If you see someone ( I am referring to the site above) talk/write about their shaikh and you get the impression that the shaikh didnt any traditional schools that teach you islamic sciences, should that be an element of alert ?

Lastly, Is Jamia Osmania in India considered a religious institution or is it a modern educational establishment teaching islamic sciences as part of the curriculum.

:jazak:

[godilali]

I also get confused sometimes, when hearing/ reading stories about sufis. I am not against tasawwuf itself, but sometimes, people say things like Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani turned a mans daughters into sons, or brought down the sun, etc. etc.

So my question is, are these merely folk tales that laymen have attributed to these men, or do they have any authentic sources?

[Mossy]

It varies depending on the story - in all cases however, it would be not him doing it, but Allah (swt) granting it as a miracle.

I would personally say to ignore such things unless a member of the relevant order is present to clarify as sometimes such tales tend toward the esoteric and require a completely different viewpoint to normal to understand.

[Alhumdulillah]

Assalamoalaykum.

The Mashaikh of Tasawwuf are between two groups:

One group who adores them beyond the limit and eulogises them to the extent of exaggerating their status and over-praising their qualities.

The other group hates them and emphasises their faults and tries to find defects in them, and their hatred and disrespect goes beyond the limits.

That is why you have to be very careful when reading the stories of the Mashaikh. If you see something which is apparantly against the Shariah, then you should understand that either you have misinterpreted it or the report itself is defective.

We should have a good opinion of the Ulema and Mashaikh of Tasawwuf, and we should position ourselves between the two groups described above — in the middle, neither exaggerating to one side nor the other.

Wasalaam.

[Omer123]

Sheikh Nuh says that tasawwuf is not about walking on water or pulling gold out of thin air. Rather tasawwuf is when somebody steals the gold out of your pocket, your heart does not change.

[MurtazaHaroon]

tasawwuf is used so that

shariat=tabiyat
sunnat=aadat

Their is a big difference in following a sunnah and following in love with it.

[Gajji]

Sheikh Nuh says that tasawwuf is not about walking on water or pulling gold out of thin air. Rather tasawwuf is when somebody steals the gold out of your pocket, your heart does not change.

That is brilliant! :thumbsup:

[Muawiyah]

Jamia Usmania is a university

[mujahideenryder]

thats just wrong

all the blood flow will run to the head.

[bihari]

Just ignore them-ignore these stories...no one in the here after will ask you about the stories...ALLAH can do any thing- yet as we are not sure that these thing actualy happened or not - so just keep a silence and follow what ulema says