01/03/2020
Ibn Taymiyya (661 - 728 AH) on Sufism:
Nowadays, many ignorant people emphasize that ibn Taymiyyah was against Sufism as whole owning to his criticism of some type of Sufis. This is far from the truth as he has a full section on Sufism in his famous collection of Fatawa and that he himself was not only a Sufi follower, but was adorned with the cloak (khirqa) of shaikhhood of the Qadiri Order.
He writes in his famous Majmua Fatawa :
"Tasawwuf has realities and states of experience which they talk about in their science. Some of it is that the Sufi is that one who purifies himself from anything which distracts him from the remembrance of Allah and who will be so filled up with knowledge of the heart and knowledge of the mind to the point that the value of gold and stones will be the same to him. And Tasawwuf is safeguarding the precious meanings and leaving behind the call to fame and vanity in order to reach the state of Truthfulness, because the best of humans after the prophets are the Siddiqeen, as Allah mentioned them in the verse: "(And all who obey Allah and the Apostle) are in the company of those on whom is the grace of Allah: of the prophets, the sincere lovers of truth, the martyrs and the righteous; Ah! what a beautiful fellowship." (an-Nisa', 69,70)
“Some people criticized the Sufis and said that they were innovators and out of the Sunna... but the truth is that they are exercising ijtihad in view of obeying Allah just as others who are obedient to Allah have also done. So from them you will find the Foremost in Nearness (al-sabiq al-muqarrab) by virtue of his striving, while some of them are from the People of the Right Hand”
[Majmu'a Fatawa Ibn Taymiyya al- Kubra, Vol. 11, Book of Tasawwuf, 16-20]
About fana' -- a term used by Sufis literally signifying extinction or self-extinction -- and the shatahat or sweeping statements of Sufis, Ibn Taymiyya says:
This state of love is characterize many of the People of Love of Allah and the People of Seeking (Ahl al irada). A person vanishes to himself in the object of his love -- Allah through the intensity of his love. He will recall Allah, not recalling himself, remember Allah and forget himself, take Allah to witness and not take himself to witness, exist in Allah, not to himself. When he reaches that stage, he no longer feels his own existence. That is why he may say in this state: ana al haqq (I am the Truth), or subhani (Glory to Me!), and ma fi al-jubba illa Allah (There is nothing in this cloak except Allah), because he is drunk in the love of Allah and this is a pleasure and happiness that he cannot control.
[Op. cit. 2:396 397]
Regarding Miracles of Sufis, ibn Tyamiyyah writes :
"The miracles of saints are absolutely true and correct, by the acceptance of all Muslim scholars. And the Qur'an has pointed to it in different places, and the Hadith of the Prophet (s) has mentioned it, and whoever denies the miraculous power of saints are only people who are innovators and their followers." [al-Mukhtasar al-Fatawa, page 603].
Ibn Taymiyya says, "what is considered as a miracle for a saint is that sometimes the saint might hear something that others do not hear and they might see something that others do not see, while not in a sleeping state, but in a wakened state of vision. And he can know something that others cannot know, through revelation or inspiration." [Majmu'a Fatawa Ibn Taymiyya, Vol. 11]
