Part 1: Trying Times for Sunni Muslims and Sufis.

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, MOST BENEFICIENT, MOST MERCIFUL.

From the Layman’s Desk-15:

PART 1: TRYING TIMES FOR SUNNI MUSLIMS AND SUFIS.

Sunni Muslims majority and the Sufis are facing trying times not from any external danger but from the Wahhabiyya which,  being  a  new and breakaway sect in Islam,   has been designed to destroy Islam from within, while other enemies destroy it from without.  After the destruction of the Ottomon Empire and the abolition of the Caliphate in 1924, the British imperialists helped to carve out what is known today as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.   The Wahhabi ideology which is slushed with the billions of petro-dollars is causing turmoil and “Fitnah” in the Muslim world at large, aided and abetted by the Western powers who are ogling at the oil wealth in the region for long and are only too happy to uproot the Muslim world covertly or overtly.  Also, with the socialization of the foreign workers returning home from Saudi Arabia, the Wahhabi distortion of Islam has spread widely in the last 40 years.   According to Muqtedar Khan in his report “Wahhabism Goes Global”:  “Wahhabism has become an ugly and ruthless caricature of the faith which — according to its foundational text (the Holy Quran) — was sent as mercy to humanity.”  

To add to the woe, it has become a common practice to attribute terrorism and senseless killing of humanity to the Sunnis since the perpetrators of those crimes claim themselves to be sunnis though in reality they don’t belong to the Ahle Sunnah wal Jama’ah but belong to the Wahhabiyya and its fringe groups and supporters such as the pseudo-Salafis, Deobandis, Mawdudiyyun, Ikhwan al-Muslimin, Albaniyyun,  Qaradawiyyun  who, in the words of Abdul Hadi Palazzi “ are nothing but a contemporary consequence of the Fitnah which was caused by the diffusion of the heresies of Ibn Taymiyyah and of his student Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, the same heresies that - during the twelfth century of hijrah - were resurrected and aggravated by Muhammad Ibn `Abdi 'l-Wahhab an-Najdi.”  The novelty of the ruse of the Wahhabis is that they do not present themselves as a sect of Islam, but merely as a group within the majority known as the Sunnis who are  committed to orthodoxy.  As pointed out by Stephen Schwartz, in The Two Faces of Islam, in Western countries the Muslim communities there are newly created, and do not have long-standing traditions of classical Islam. It is possible, therefore, for Saudi Arabia to move in and dominate the burgeoning communities. Through their immense oil wealth, they have financed the construction of mosques, printed the majority, if not all, of the Muslim literature in English, and have financially backed all the so-called “moderate” organizations which purportedly represent the interests of the Muslims. Therefore, as Shaykh Siraj Hendricks states:  “It is not Wahhabism that sustains the present Saudi state. It's a strong economy fuelled by oil and massive foreign interests that maintains its integrity.”

Yuzuf Hamza states:  “Unfortunately, the West does not know what every Muslim scholar knows; that the worst enemies of Islam are from within. The worst of these are the Khawaarij who delude others by the deeply dyed religious exterior that they project. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said about them, ‘When you see them pray you will consider your own prayers insignificant. They recite the Quran but it does not exceed the limits of their throat.’  In other words, they don’t understand the true meanings. The outward religious appearance and character of the khawaarij deluded thousands in the past, and continues to delude people today. The Muslims should be aware that despite the khawaarij adherence to certain aspects of Islam, they are extremists of the worst type.” 

Therefore, for a novitiate and the western journalists, it is important to distinguish as to who the perpetrators of Terrorism are!  Sunnis or Wahhabis?  If he knows the difference he will say: “The Wahhabis who follow the role model of the Kharijites or Khwaarij of the past!” So let’s now proceed to know the difference between the largest Muslim Ummah called the Ahle Sunnah wal Jama’ah and the breakaway sect of the Wahhabiyya who claim they are Sunnis but in fact are not so.

THE SUNNIS BELIEF IN NUTSHELL: 

Regarding Tawhid,  all sunni's are familiar with their pure aqeeda that every single entity in the universe functions by Allah's ability. Nothing has ability on their own. Thereby the sunni's are the top most ranks in their Tawhid over this issue and in no way can be accused of considering someone or something that is incapable, of being capable. There is absolutely no capability besides that of Allah (SWT), nor anything whatsoever happening without permission of Allah (SWT) as per sunni belief. 

Again, the scholars of the Ahl as-Sunnah took the nass (Qur'an and Sunnah) with their outward meanings. That is, they gave the ayats and Hadiths their outward meanings, and did not explain away (ta'wil) the nass or change these meanings unless there was a darura (necessity) to do so. And they never made any changes with their personal knowledge or opinions. Sunni Islam  or Ahl al-Sunna wa'l-Jama'ah, understands the Islamic religion as it has been passed down in an unbroken chain of transmission from teacher to student from the time of the Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wasallam) until today. The way of Sunni Islam is to take the branch of Islam from living jurists who follow one of the four Sunni schools of fiqh: the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali schools; the branch of Iman from living scholars belonging to one of the two Sunni schools of 'aqida: the Ash'ari and Maturidi schools; and the branch of Ihsan from living masters of one of the many Sufi orders that have emerged over the centuries, such as the Qadiri, Naqshbandi, Shadhili, Chishti, and Rifa'i tariqas.    There are many ahadith that show that Ahle Sunna wal Jama’ah is “Firqat an-Najiyya” i.e. the Saved Sect out of  the 73 sects and that the other sects will be consigned to Hell-Fire.  There are also ahadith warning us that we should stick to the largest group since Allah's mercy, blessings and protection are with the largest group of Muslims, and he who deviates from this largest group of Muslims will be thrown into Hell.  As the Beloved Prophet (Salla Allahu ta'ala alayhi wa Sallam) has stated, 'follow the Sawad-e-A'zam', and when the four Madhabs are within the Sawad-e-A'zam, then following of any one of them is following the Sawad-e-A'zam. Therefore, refuting any one of them is refuting Sawad-e-A'zam. 

It is the belief of the Ahle Sunna wal Jama’ah (i.e. the Sunnis) that after all the Prophets (a.s.), it is Hazrat Abu Bakr ® who occupies the most excellent position, then Umar ®, then Uthman ® and then Ali ®.  There are quite a few verses in the Holy Qur’an regarding Hazrat Abu Bakr ® and one such verse is from Sura Al-Bara’at in which there is a reference to Hazrat Abu Bakr ®:   "He being the second of the two, When they were in the cave and when Muhammad said to his companion 'Grieve not, surely God is with us,' then God came to their help, and protected them with an army which they saw not". {9:40}.  There is, therefore,  no question at all of denying his Companionship with the Holy Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wasallam).  Dr. Tahir ul-Qadri has stated in no uncertain terms that denying the “Sahabeeyat” of Hazrat Abu Bakr ® tantamounts to denying those verses of the Holy Qur’an - and this is Kufr (Infidelity)!  At the same time don’t fall into the trap when someone seeing your love for  Hazrat Ali ®, Bibi Fatimah ®, Imam Hasan and Imam Hussein and the Ahlul Bayt (May Allah be pleased with them all) tells you that you are not a Sunni but a Shia.  This is an old ploy to take you away from loving the progeny of the Messenger of Allah (sal Allahu alayhi wasallam), and even giant Sunni scholars such as Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Maalik, Imam Shafii, Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal and many other Sunni scholars such Imam Fakhruddin ar-Razi,  have not been spared from being blamed in this regard.   Love for the family of the beloved Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wasallam) is not “Rafd”.  Only  hypocrites don’t love Hazrat Ali ® and the Ahlul Bayt.  Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas said that when the ayat of mutual cursing ("And whosoever disputes with you concerning him after the knowledge that has come to you, say, 'Come, let us call our sons and your sons, our wives and your wives, our selves and your selves, then let us humbly pray and so lay the curse of Allah upon the ones who lie.'"(3:61) was revealed, the Prophet called 'Ali, Hasan, Husayn and Fatima, and said, "O Allah! These are my family."(Muslim.)  The Prophet said about 'Ali, "Whoever has me for a master, 'Ali is his master. O Allah, befriend the one who befriends him and oppose the one who opposes him! (Ibn Hanbal.) He also said to him, "Only a believer will love you and only a hypocrite will hate you."(Muslim.) The Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wasallam) said: "I am leaving among you the two weighty matters: Allah's Book and the People of my House." [Narrated by Muslim, Tirmidhi, and Ahmad through many chains]. Some of these narrations state: "I am leaving among you the two weighty matters: Allah's Book and (the People of) my mantle: these two shall never part ways until they come to me at the Pond. Therefore attend to how you act with them after me."  The Islamic literature on this subject is vast and this has been mentioned by me just in passing.   So don’t be a victim to those who try to sow dissension in your minds in order to trap you and lure you to their fringe groups.  As stated by Dr. Tahir ul-Qadri in one of his Urdu speeches:  “Jis maslak se behtar kaheen Tauheed na mile; jis se behtar  ishq-o-adab risaalat kaheen naa mile; jis se behtar hubb-e-ahle bayt naa mile; jis se behtar takreem-o-taazeem-e-Sahaaba kaheen na mile; jis se behtar nisbat-e-Awliya Saaliheen kaheen na mile;  Jahaan yeh paa.ncho.n chashmen mil jaayen, us jagaah ka naam ahle sunnat wal jamaat hai.” 

It is also to be noted that although Ibn Taymiyya was accused of holding certain corrupt points in his aqid'ah, which led so many scholars to denounce him for his heresy, he nevertheless hit the right point when he described those who are the real Sunni's in his Aqeedat-il-Wasitiyyah (pg. 154):  " Their creed is the religion of Islam which was sent to the world by Allah through the Prophet (Peace be upon him). But the Prophet (Peace be upon him) said, 'My Ummah will get divided into 73 sects and each one will go to Hell save one and that one is the Jama'at.' Also in one Hadith he said, 'They are those people who will follow this path which I and my Sahaba follow today.' Therefore they have caught hold of Islam unalloyed from every adulteration and these are the people of Ahl as-Sunnah Wa'l Jama'ah. This group includes the truthful, the martyrs and the virtuous; it includes the minarets of guidance, lamps in the darkness and owners of such superiorities and virtues who have been already mentioned. It includes the saints and also those Imams on whose guidance Muslims are unanimous. It is this successful group about which the Prophet (Peace be upon him) has said: 'One group from my Ummah will always remain dominant with truth; the opponents will never be able to harm its members or afflict them up to the Doomsday.'" 

Undoubtedly, the one group which consists of the largest Muslim majority is the Ahl as-Sunnah wal Jama’ah minus the minority claimant sects such as the Wahhabiyya and its fringe groups!  According to a scholar: “For centuries Muslims lived under unified rule, led by successive empires, primarily the Abbassids and eventually the Ottoman Turks. Also, centuries of pious effort  were exerted to codify the message of Islam into a legal system apt at governing the affairs of large civilizations. This system is known as Shariah and in Sunni Islam is divided into four mutually compatible schools, called Mathhabs. This Islamic legal system was the result of great vigilance with regards to the creeping influence of corruptive ideas, which would sometimes splinter into various movements and sects. However, as long as there was a political power in place, these splinter groups could be kept in check, and the sanctity of orthodox Islam proclaimed as the dominant one.  This all ended in 1924, with the final collapse of the Ottoman Empire. From that time forward, there was no vanguard for the orthodoxy of Islam, and many of these splinter groups then began to flourish. Most prominent among them are the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia. This sect was created by the British in the seventeenth century, in accordance with their strategy of "Divide and Conquer", to disunite and weaken the Ottoman Empire.”  The plan was to divide the Muslim world in order to weaken it from the inside.  A very shrewd plan was this!  Apart from inculcating terrorism, the purpose of Salafism/Wahhabism is to provide a new Madhab of Salafism in order to wean away the innocent Muslims from  the Traditional Islam and thus lead them wherever their western masters’ interest deem fit.  And we know from the many ahadith, this can only lead to the Blazing Hell  Fire.

Allah says in the Qur'an, Surah al-Fatir 35 Verse 6:  "Indeed, Satan is an enemy to you; so take him as an enemy. He only invites his party to be among the companions of the Blazing Hellfire."  In his book "Hashiat al-Allamah as-Sawi" which is a super commentary in 5 volumes on "Tafsir of the two Jalalayn", Imam Ahmad bin Muhammad as-Sawi al-Malki (d.1241/1825) says in his Tafsir (exegesis) to this ayah:  It is said this verse was revealed about the Kharijites (foretelling their appearance), who altered the interpretation of the Qur’an and Sunna, on the strength of which they declared it lawful to kill and take the property of Mulims – as may now be seen in their modern counterparts, namely, a sect in the Hijaz called Wahhabis, who think they are on to something, truly they are the liars.  Satan has gained masterty over them and made them forget Allah’s remembrance.  Those are Satan’s party, truly Satan’s party, they are the losers.” [Qur’an 58:18-19] We ask Allah Most Generous to extirpate them completely. (Of course, as in other books, changes have been made here too and the words, “namely, a sect in the Hijaz called Wahhabis,”  have  been deleted by the Wahhabis –“ venally bowdlerizing the whole point of what the author is trying to say about the modern counterparts of the Kharijites in order to sell it to them”.)

In passing, it may be stated that no doubt the term al-Wahhab is one of the names of Allah.  However, using the term “Wahhabi” or “Wahhabiyya” is permissible in Shari’ah of the Ahle Sunnah wal Jama’ah to refer to the followers of  Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab in the same manner as the term “Karaamiyyah” was used by Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal and others to refer to the followers of the innovator Muhammad Bin Karaam.  The late Mufti of Saudi Arabia, ibn Baz, too used the term by saying “Aqeedat al-Wahhabbiya” (The Creed of Wahhabiyya).  [Source the very site of binbaz in Saudi Arabia: http://www.binbaz.org.sa/mat/8159].  Otherwise too, how can one identify this sect that falsely cling to the Sunnis?  Similarly, the word “Salafi” and “Salafism” has nothing to do with the noble Salaf as-Saaliheen, i.e. the first three generations and the best generations of Islam.   

It is common to use the words Wahhabism and Salafism inter-changeably. Actually, Salafism is a movement that began in Egypt and was imported into Saudi Society during the reign of King Faisal.  It was through the influence of the Freemason Mohammed Rashid Rida that Salafi movement became entrenched in Saudi Arabia.  The official ‘Wahhabi’ religion has essentially merged with certain segments of Salafism, attacking groups such as al-Qaeda as Qutbists who follow Sayyid Qutb or Takfiris (excommunicators).  Both Wahhabism and Salafism oppose Traditional Islam and believe in fundamentalist interpretation.  There is whole lot of freemason activities behind the architects of Salafism but this is not our discussion here.  Just mention it, however, in 1899, Lord Cromer, made Muhammad Abduh the Grand Mufti of Egypt who now became the chief legal authority in Islam, as well as the Masonic Grand Master of the United Lodge of Egypt.  Abduh then offered a contrived interpretation of the Qur’an in order to create the requisite loophole, giving British banks free reign in Egypt. Of Abduh, Lord Cromer related, “I suspect my friend Abduh was in reality an agnostic,” and he said of Abduh’s Salafi reform movement that, “They are the natural allies of the European reformer.”^[29] Suffice it to say, Hanna Abi Rashid, chief of the masonic lodge in Beirut, wrote: "Jamal ad-din al-Afghani was the chief of the masonic lodge in Egypt, which had about three hundred members, most of whom were scholars and state officials. After him, the leading master Muhammad 'Abduh became the chief. 'Abduh was a leading freemason. No one can deny that he has spread the masonic spirit in Arab countries." [Da'irat al-maarif al-masoniyya, p. 197, Beirut, 1381/1961.]   As far as freemasonry is concerned,  the well known rabbi, Isaac Wise, states: “Freemasonry is a Jewish establishment, whose: history; grades; official appointments; passwords; and explanations, are Jewish from beginning to end.” (Andrew Carrington Hitchcock in The Synagogue of Satan 1920-1935).

 

The Salafist school of thought is relatively new; it came from the origins of the more mainstream Muslim Brotherhood, which began in Egypt in the 1920s. Sayyid Qutb, a member of the brotherhood and an Islamic theorist in his own right, provided the intellectual basis for what would become Salafism.   After studying in the United States, he returned to Cairo and began preaching a more radical interpretation of Islam that evolved into Salafism.   The Independent's John Gray argues in an article entitled "How Marx turned Muslim" that Qutbism is not rooted in the Islamic tradition, but rather, is very much a Western based ideology.  The Muslim Brotherhood is a sect based in the writings of Islamic Philosophy, and Western Philosophy and not a fundamentalist view of the Koran. To reiterate,  they are not rooted in fundamental Islam itself.  Shaykh Rabee' ibn Hadi al-Madkhali, the renowned Salafi scholar who has written at least four books refuting the mistakes of Sayyid Qutb and accusing him of Kufr at least on ten counts, concludes the following about Qutbism: "The Qutbists are the followers of Sayyid Qutb… everything you see of the tribulations, the shedding of blood and the problems in the Islamic world today arise from the methodology (of this man)."  According to him, the  “Ikhwan al-Muslimin and the Qutbis and those who orbit in their circles have invaded (i.e., perhaps he means infiltrated) [those] Salafi jama'aat which have destroyed the world ... The Ikhwan al-Muslimin don the garments of the truth but they are the furthest of people from it. They are the furthest away from the truth and Islam."  When asked if the Ikhwan and Jamaat at-Tabligh are among the 72 sects destined for Hell, he replies "Yes." (stated during the Spring Camp in Kuwait during Shawwal of 1416 AH).

Be that as it may, Salafism has been splitting and splitting, and this is not our subject to go into the details of all those groups.  But as an Islamic scholar informs us:  “The final split within Salafism occurred with the introduction of American troops into Saudi Arabia, and specifically the lands of the Haramayn. The current split between the Madakhila and Sahwis occurred after Salman Al-Awdah and Safar Al-Hawali - both of whom have currently expressed modernist opinions - attacked this decision of the Saudi regime and were imprisoned. To counter this clerical opposition, the regime brought out of relative obscurity figures like Rabee Al-Madkhali, who would come to have a vocal following among many youth in the West but little influence within Saudi Arabia. This group would further split between Madkhali and Abul-Hasan Al-Ma'aribi in Yemen, with the self-proclaimed students of Al-Albani in Jordan siding with the latter.  Meanwhile, as the regime began more and more aligned with American government interests and expressed its willingness to "normalize" its relations with the zionist state, the Salafi Jihadi movement arose and declared that the regime had abandoned its Islamic legitimacy and thus was an "apostate regime". Leaders of this group included Nasir Al-Fahd, Isa Al-Awshin, and Yusuf Al-Uyayri. It also had a large following among some leading Palestinian figures, such as Abu Qatada and Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi – the last-named wrote a scathing book in 1989 named Al-Kawashif al-Jaliyya fi Kufr al-Dawla al-Sa’udiyya [The Obvious Proofs of the infidel nature of the Saudi State] calling for the violent overthrow of the al-Saud. With increasing splits within Salafism, bitter disagreements over its current direction, squabbling sects and disorganized communities, the Saudi regime has began to abandon its promotion of Salafism and has now been experimenting with modernism.” 

As for the Ahle Sunnah wal Jama’ah which comprises of the largest number of Sunni Muslims, the mercy, blessings and protection of Allah indeed has been with them,  bound as they are with following the Taqleed of one of the Four Schools of Thought for centuries till the present even after the gate to Ijtihad has been closed.  

Wahhabism and its  avatar Salafism are a dubious and virulent form of Islam that is creating havoc in the world by dividing the Muslim Ummah on trivial details.  Astounding is the role that Saudi Arabia has played, and continues to play,  with regards to supporting and advancing Western power in the Middle East and elsewhere in allowing the War on Islam to continue unabated. 

 

TO CONTINUE…INSHALLAH.

NASIR

We send countless benedictions upon the Beloved Prophet
sal Allahu alayhi wasallam upon his Family & Companions
Peace and blessings upon all his true followers.