Member Since: 10/19/2006
Band Members: EveryoneThe Sufi regimen under which individuals undertook the path to God, was a finely-honed itinerary which charted the course of inward and outward progress in religious faith and practice (din). Following the tradition of the Companions of the Prophet (s) who used to frequent his company, Ahl as-Suffa [the People of the Bench], the practitioners of this regimen lived a communal life in the mosque-schools (zawaayah), border outposts (ribat) and guest-houses (khaniqah) where they gathered together on specific occasions dedicated to the traditional festivals of the religious calendar ('Eids and Mawlid) as well as on a regular basis in associations for the convey knowledge (suhba), assemblies to invoke the names of God and devotional remembrance (adhkaar) from the Prophetic Tradition, study Spiritual Sourcebooks, and to hear inspired preaching and moral exhortation (wa'iz). The shaykhs exhorted their students to actively respond to God and His Messengers, (may they all be Blessed), to cleanse their hearts and purify their souls from the lower desires prompted by the ego and to reform erroneous beliefs. All this was accomplished by cleaving to the outward Forms of practice and the inward manifestations of Perfected Character (Sunnah). The methods of remembering God which they instilled in their students were and still are today, the very same methods passed down through direct spiritual lineages, from the Prophet and his Disciples. In this way, they propagated upright behavior both through word and deed; while they encouraged the aspirant to devote themselves to God Almighty with their whole hearts. The aim of their endeavor then was nothing less than obtaining God's satisfaction and inspiring love for His Prophets, may God Bless them all. In short, what they aimed for was a state where God would be pleased with them even as they they were pleased with God. As a result of such teaching and training we find that many students of Sufi shaykhs, graduated from their course of studies empowered to carry other people's burdens, even as they strove to illumine the way of Truth. Furthermore, through their training and self-discipline they had developed the manifest and decisive will to do so. For genuine scholars and teachers of tariqats leave no stone unturned in conducting their spiritual warfare. And I mean here both the physical warfare and the spiritual jihad against the unseen allurements that entrap the soul. It is in following the famous Tradition of the Messenger Muhammad, peace and blessings of God be on him, "We have returned from the Lesser form of Warfare, on the battlefield, to the Greater form of Warfare, the Warfare against Earthly Attachment and the Gravity of the Ego." History books are filled with the names of Sufi spiritual warriors and martyrs that have devoted their lives to confronting the enemies of spirituality and holiness; who, for His sake, called mankind to the Ways of God, as well as calling back those who had deviated from the path of love of God and the Way of Unity as exemplified in the blessed personages of the Prophets and the Exalted Spiritual Masters. They accomplished this with wisdom and they were effective. Their names and stories are too numerous to list in the interval of time at our disposal. Besides to do so would take us away from the specific aspects of Sufism I would like to talk about today. It suffices to say that the lives of these Sufi Shaykhs are insurmountable evidence that Sufism, far from encouraging escapism and quietism of the soul that causes social progress to founder, upheld the highest values of social consciousness as well as religious inquiry and science. In fact, they provide adequate testimony to an unremitting warfare and struggle against social injustice and social inaction that took place in Islam over the centuries.
Sounds Like: We are as the flute,
and the music in us is from Thee;
we are as the mountain
and the echo in us is from Thee.
We all are lions,
but Lions on a Banner-
Rumi (Qouted from The Masnavi)
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