. J "" (cont.)

The purpose or goal, 1 163 Commentary on the Forty Hadith of al-Nawawi again, is to recognize Allah as the Lord and to worship Him alone. The goal is not to try to become Allah or try to become united with Allah. The Path and Goal of Purification of the Sufis vis-a-vis the Way of the Sunnah Before beginning this discourse an important point needs to be made. Like all heretical groups, not all Sufis are the same. 1 Indeed, not everyone who has a leaning toward Sufism is the same. Some are much more steeped in heretical beliefs and practices than others. The important point, though, is that once a person starts following a heresy or innovation, it becomes easier for him to start following a greater and worse heresy. This is a very dangerous path that can lead one to pure kufr and falling out of the fold of lslam.2 The only real way to save oneself from such a danger is to avoid all heresies and innovations, no matter how "small" they seem to be. Historically and contemporarily speaking, it bas been the Sufis who claim to follow the path of purification.3 Non-Sufis may have studied law, hadith and so forth, but they, they claim, have concentrated on purifying the hearts and bringing people closer to Allah. This claim of theirs, though, needs to be studied. This hadith, in particular, is one of the main sources by which their claim may be evaluated in that this hadith is showing the path that one must follow in order to become beloved to Allah. The next obvious question then is: What is the path of purification that is prescribed by the Sufis and how does that differ, if at all, from the way taught by the Quran and the sunnah?4 1 Mahmood Al-Qaasim has convincingly argued that all Sufi groups have, in essence, the same beliefs and the same goals. [See Mahmood al-Qaasim, Al-Kash/ an Haqeeqah al-Soofiyah li­ Awal Marrahfi al-Tareekh (Amman, Jordan: al-Maktabah al-Islaamiyah, 1413 A.H.), pp. 9-308.] However, even if that is the case, it does not mean that everyone who is influenced by Sufism is knowledgeable of the actual teachings and goal of the Sufi group that he is in contact with. 2 One of the ways of Satan is to lead people into greater and greater sins. What starts out as something small is made bigger and bigger over time. For more on this point and its relation to innovations, see Saeed al-Ghaamdi, Haqeeqat al-Bidah wa Ahkaamuhu (Riyadh: Maktabah al­ Rushd, 1992), vol. 1 , pp. 79-86. 3 Al-Ghazzaali once wrote, "I learnt with certainty that it is above all the mystics [Sufis] who walk on the road of God; their life is the best life, their method the soundest method, their character the purest character; indeed, were the intellect of the intellectuals and the learning of the learned and the scholarship of the scholars, who are versed in the profundities of revealed truth, brought together in the attempt to improve the life and character of the mystics, they would find no way of doing so; for to the mystics all movement and all rest, whether external or internal, brings illumination from the light of the lamp of prophetic revelation." [Taken from the translation of al-Ghazaali's al-Munqadh min al-Dhilaal in W. Montgomery Watt, The Faith of Practice of al-Ghazali (Chicago: Kazi Publications, 1982), p. 60.] Al-Ghazzaali 's claim that their path is "from the light of the lamp of prophetic revelation" is, at the least, to be questioned, if not denied outright, as shall be demonstrated in the text. 4 Due to space limitations, this topic cannot be dealt with in great detail. However, the interested reader may consult the different sources that are quoted throughout this section. 1 164 Hadith #38: "Whoever Shows Enmity to . . . " The path to become a wali of Allah is a lengthy and arduous journey for the Sufis. A person must pass from state to state. He must exert himself and go through specific spiritual exercises and routines before he can get to the exalted state of being a Sufi wali. That path starts with fulfilling obligatory deeds. However, in the second level, when the "student" moves on, al-Ghazzaali recommends that he only perform the obligatory deeds and not perform the voluntary deeds as there are more important matters to tend to. 1 Their path also entails many aspects that are not to be found in the Quran and sunnah. These include a type of zuhd (renunciation of the world) that is not found in the Quran or sunnah. 2 One is also expected to practice a kind of monasticism where one retires from the relations of this world, even if one has a wife and children.3 Then they also have their own special forms of dhikr4 and rhythmic chanting5, listening to songs and music as well as 1 Abu Haamid Muhammad al-Ghazzaali, lhyaa Uloom al-Deen (Beirut: Daar al-Marifah, n.d.), vol. 2, pp. 1 9-20.