My Path is the Path of Itidaal

[True Life]

First of all, I want to tell you that I believe in the path of Itidaal lies success. You have pseudo-Salafis (who try to understand the guidance of Qur'an & Sunnah without paying any attention to Rijalullah!) and you have pseudo-Sufis (who understand the Rijalullah as everything without paying any attention to Qur'an & Sunnah!). And I believe the combination of both or in other words the middle path between these two extremes is the straight path leading to ever-lasting success. Whereas the content of the brackets are just examples. Another description of both parties could be as follows as well:

pseudo-Salafis = taking things out of Deen which actually have their basis in the divine sources of Islam = Mulhideen

AND

pseudo-Sufis = bringing things into Deen which have no basis in the divine sources of Islam at all = Biddatis

Note: It's not intended to bash either of both sides in this thread. It's rather a reflection I was left with, when leaving the Masjid today, and I'm trying to give this reflection a sensable structure. Unfortunately, often we lean to look for the good & similarities and to get close to a certain group and at the same time lean to look for the bad & differences and to get far from the other group. Which in reality is caused by bughz towards the latter and is not a sign of Itidaal, which may bring your being on the straight path in serious danger.

And according to my experience (your experience may differ) in general the first group is the one of pseudo-Salafis. We usually make statements like:

- "They're as well Tauheedis (or Tauheed-parast)."
- "Salafis have (almost) the same Aqidah as us."
- "Qur'an and Sunnah! That's it, we have the same minhaj."
- "Among them are very knowledgable brothers."

And about the second group of extremism we often talk in disguise and utter sentences like the following:

- "Be careful! These Sufis are clearly deviant."
- "They are most of the time engaged in Shirk and Biddahs."
- "They have left the guidance of Qur'an and Sunnah."
- "Most of them are ignorant about the basics of Deen."

I don't mean to refute these statements. But are we not losing the balance and could this in-direct bughz towards Tasawwuf not deprive us from it's blessings? Even Darul Uloom graduates (especially in the West) pay very little attention to the path of Islah and often have a natural alien feeling towards anything connected with Sufism. Would a balanced view not look like the following:

Imamah
pseudo-Salafis pay too little attention to it
pseudo-Sufis pay too much attention to it

Zikr
pseudo-Salafis pay too little attention to it
pseudo-Sufis pay too much attention to it

'Awliya
pseudo-Salafis pay too little attention to them
pseudo-Sufis pay too much attention to them

and so on and on...

I'm not even for searching for faults in both extremisms, it's just to explain the thoughts that crossed my mind today a few times. Maybe you can drop your 2 cents as well.