finally

I finally got my Eid present. Nope, not the husband’s fault. I ordered Treatise For The Seekers Of Guidance a few days before Eid and promptly forgot about it. A week ago, I remembered and was like, where the heck is that book? Before I had a chance to email and ask, I received an email that it was shipped. It arrived yesterday. Obscenely long processing time aside, I’m uber excited about this book!

When I read, I tend to skim. This works fine if you’re reading a hundred pages a day for a college course, or Harry Potter, but it doesn’t work when you’re studying sacred knowledge. One needs to read deliberately, reflecting on each word. Alhamdulilah, the set up of this book is quite conducive to this. Imam al Muhasibi’s text is in bold, and Imam Zaid’s commentary follows in a normal font. Imam Zaid’s commentary serves as a jumping off point for reflection on the words of the original author.

From page one, this book has tremendous benefit. In fact, these first few sections are right in line with what I’m studying in my Sunnipath course on the Creed of Imam Tahawi. Alhamdulilah.

An excerpt from page one:

All praise is fittingly rendered unto God, the First, the Preexisting, the One, and the Majestic.

Something can be first and also have a beginning. Adam was the first man, but he had a beginning. God is unique that He is the first with no beginning. His existence necessarily precedes all other existence, and all else in existence owes its existence to Him, the Creator. Hence, He alone is preexisting. One holding this unique distinction is deserving of all praise for all else owes its existence to Him. This is the foundation of the most credible arguments for the existence of God. Acknowledging God as preexisting and eternal allows us to avoid the logical problems arising from infinite regress, when trying to account for the origin of creation, and the appearance of an obvious effect, in this case, the creation, without the existence of a causal agent, the creator.

*_*

 This book is awesome.  Seriously, seriously awesome.  It’s not something you can sit down and read in large chunks.  I’m going to read a paragraph each night and then just reflect as I fall asleep inshaAllah.  Awesomeness to the nth degree, mashaAllah.

How often do we just sit and think about Allah (swt)?  How much of our day is devoted solely to Allah (swt)?   How much of our day is taken up by the mundanities of the dunya?   Get up, get dressed, go to work, go to the gym, come home, eat dinner, veg in front of the TV or computer.  Make all your salat on time if you’re lucky.  Time for dhikr or reading Qur’an?  Phffft!  Go to bed, get up and start it all over again.

an excerpt with some questions for reflection in purple: 

God alone, and none other, is the true Deity, the Necessary Existent, who is Creator, Producer, Fashioner, Provider, Giver of life and death, and Wise Disposer (Think about each of these names.  What do they mean in relation to you, to the world, to creation, to life itself?); who has perfected everything He has created, and excelled in everything which He has made; who directs all things with ultimate precision, and has determined everything He has decreed (Think about your life.  Every action you’ve taken.  Everything, good and bad, that has happened to you.  How is each thing the best possibility for you?). He alone is the true God, Pre-existent and Eternal, worthy of inward and external worship (What are inward and external worship?  Which of these do you do each day?  What more could you do?), exalted above all blemish, who possesses the most exalted attributes and the most beautiful names. His are might and majesty; none shares in His essence, attributes or actions.  There is no other God than He.

Anyone else have any other questions to spark reflection on this passage?

2 sunday events

And they’re not at the same time, so you can go to both :D

On the authority of Abdullah bin Abbas, who said : One day I was behind the prophet and he said to me:

“Young man, I shall teach you some words [of advice]: Be mindful of Allah, and Allah will protect you. Be mindful of Allah, and you will find Him in front of you. If you ask, ask of Allah; if you seek help, seek help of Allah. Know that if the Nation were to gather together to benefit you with anything, it would benefit you only with something that Allah had already prescribed for you, and that if they gather together to harm you with anything, they would harm you only with something Allah had already prescribed for you. The pens have been lifted and the pages have dried.”
SunniPath is excited to announce a free live event on the 5th October, 2pm GMT with Ustadha Zaynab Ansari.
The event will be an explanation of this hadith focusing on the Prophet’s (Allah bless him and give him peace):
Great concern for young people
His ability to offer encouragement for proper action
How to be successful as a Muslim
The importance of total reliance on Allah Ta’ala and
How the hadith is a balm for hearts in troubled times
Seats are limited.
Register Now

marifah inshaAllah

So it is perpetually beholding the divine, with a heart that is out of it’s mind with Love for Allah (swt).

SP fall semester

Alhamdulilah, I signed up for Introduction to Islamic Belief for the fall semester at Sunnipath.  It’s a birthday present from the husband :D  He’s so sweet.  He said sign up for anything you want, but not a sufi class.  Ah honey, I need to take those sufi classes to earn the degree inshaAllah.  Oh well, you’ll have to pay for those on your own.  Thus continues the joys of living in a zahari/shafi’i sufi marriage.

However, I must give him credit where credit is due.  Even though he is not a fan of tasawwuf (ok, that’s an understatement), he hasn’t stopped me from exploring that path.  Alhamdulilah.

If anyone is taking this course, let me know.  We could be study buddies.

satisfaction

There is almost nothing quite as satisfying as a great find at a used book store.  Ok, perhaps that betrays what a boring and uneventful life I lead, but if that’s how it is, so be it.

Usually the Islam section at used bookstores are skewed heavily towards the “omg islam is evil11!!1!” genre and books that are written about Islam from an outsiders perspective.  Qur’ans are usually NJ Dawood, with the occasional AJ Arberry thrown in.

Imagine my suprise then, when I found the following books during my weekend book browse.  It was all I could do to stop myself from doing a happy dance and making sajda shukr right there in the store.  Book reviews will be forthcoming, after I finish reading inshaAllah.

situations change

From Sufism and Good Character, page 9:

In short, Sufism gives life to both the outward and inward.  As for the outward, it does so through good deeds.  As for the inward, it does so through the remembrance of Allah, leaving reliance on other than Him, adorning oneself with praiseworthy traits [akhlaq] and purifying oneself of the taint of base traits.  This was possible for the early Muslims [salaf] merely through keeping good company, just as knowledge of the Book of Allah and the Prophetic Sunna was gained in this way without the need for books and the sciences recorded in them.  Then, when the situation changed, it became necessary to record the sciences, to compile and transmit them, and to build centers of learning to teach these recorded sciences.  Likewise, when the Sufis saw the change in people’s condition, they introduced spiritual exercises and retreats to dvelop the outward and inward, and they built Sufi hostels [zawiyas] and centers.  It is clear that these are all mere means, as [the recording and systemization of] the Islamic sciences, and the goals [of Sufism] are firmly established by the texts of the Book of Allah, the Sunna, and the sayings of the Companions and the Followers [tabi’in].

Excellent book, a must read.

pet peeve: sufi sect

[rant] 

I’ll say it one time, slowly

sufis

are

not

a

third

sect.

It’s not sunni, shia, sufi.  It’s sunnis who practice the science of tasawwuf, shias who practice the science of tasawwuf.  Are there groups of sufis who seperate themselves from Islam?  Sure.  But then they’re not a third group of muslims because they’re not muslim at all.

[/rant]

random sufi blogginess

Sometimes I happen upon a blog where I get the urge just to sit and read through the entire thing.  I stumbled upon one such blog today - Fatima Hye.  I haven’t found blogs belonging to too many of Sh. Nuh’s students, so it’s a rare treat when I find one.  This sister in particular writes quite a few good entries on sufism, the tariq and the teacher.  I tried to leave a comment, but it didn’t go through.  inshaAllah she’ll find me through the link back, and maybe even contact me :)  Taking the tariq is still my intention eventually, inshaAllah, and I feel corresponding with people in the tariq would help me to grasp “it” more fully. 

Slight detour

 I’m fairly certain that traveling the path of tasawwuf with a sheikh is something I need to do  (I’m never 100% certain about anything.  Ask the husband - I drive him crazy with “I’m pretty sure…” “I think…”  “maybe…”).  The husband, on the other hand, is totally not convinced.  Despite the fact that I’ve prayed istikhara about this and feel that this is what Allah (swt) wants me to do, he isn’t buying it.

We sat down to have a talk on Wednesday, this time about the possibility of me going to a dhikr session.  He wanted to know what kind of dhikr would be said, and upon learning that it was not something directly said by the Prophet (saws), he got worked up.  Now, the husband is really serious about his deen.  That’s one of the things I love about him, and one of the reasons I married him.  The thing is though, he’s serious about Islam in a quasi salafi/ibn Hazm loving/no qiyas/no bidah hasana kinda way, where as I’ve developed my practice of Islam in a more traditional/madhab oriented manner. 

Imam Shafi’i wrote that:

New matters are of two kinds: something begun that contravenes the Qur’an, sunna, the position of early Muslims, or consensus of scholars (ijma‘): this innovation is misguidance. And something begun of the good in which there is no contravention of any of these, and is therefore something new (muhdatha) but not blameworthy. For when ‘Umar (Allah be well pleased with him) saw the [tarawih] prayer being performed [in a group by Muslims in the mosque] in Ramadan, he said, “What a good innovation (bid‘a) this is,” meaning something newly begun that not had been done before. And even though it had, this does not negate the foregoing (al-Dhahabi, Siyar a‘lam al-nubala’. 23 vols. Beirut: Mu’assassa al-Risala, 1401/1981, 10.70).

While many of the practices of the Shadhili Tariq are directly from the sunnah of the Prophet (saws) - emphasis on fard and sunnah prayers, reading a porition of the quran every day, making all the sunnah dhikr, as well as a strong strong strong emphasis on following the sharia and getting rid of all the haram in your life - others, such as the wirds, the gatherings of the tariq and the hizbs, fall into the bidah hasana category.

And, it’s that stuff in the later category that drives the husband up the wall.   He’s not been brainwashed or brow beaten into his beliefs.  He’s come to his position after quite a bit of study with a knowledgable teacher, and he’s not easy to convince that he’s wrong.  Despite presenting him with well written and well reasoned articles about the permissibility of bidah hasana and religious practices that are bidah hasana, he’s just not seeing it.

Thus, we come to the slight detour in the road.  During our conversation, I explained how I felt something was lacking in how Islam had been presented to me - haram haram haram haram, do this, don’t do that.  The “spiritual” aspect was completely absent.  I had gone looking for this on my own, and found some things that helped me draw closer to God (like some of my favorite books of all time, Purification of the Heart and Sufism and Good Character), but that I really felt drawn to taking a tariq and traveling down the path with the guidance of a sheikh to help me to know Allah (swt).

Alhamdulilah, the husband is totally sympathetic with this.  So now he’s on a mission - a mission to prove to me that “ahl al sunnah wa jamaa” has everything I’m looking for and that I don’t need sufism to help me.  He’s writing up some articles and we’ll look for some books to buy that we’ll study together during this next month.  If, at the end of the month, I still feel that sufism is what I need, the husband will grudingly support me in my taking the tariq.  He won’t be happy about it, but he’s not forbidding it either.

Alhamdulilah.  I *heart* my husband.