(Paper for the First International Scientific Conference on The Centrality of the Holy Qur’ān in Imam Abdessalam Yassine’s Theory of the Prophetic Method [al-Minhāj an-Nabawi], Istanbul, Muharram 17 - 18, 1434 (AH) / December 1 - 2, 2012)

Prof. Dr. MOHD. SANAULLAH AL-NADAWI

Department of Arabic

Aligarh Muslim University

Aligarh-202002 U.P. INDIA

Email: sanaullahnadawi@gmail.com

The Quranic Spirituality versus Hybrid theosophy

The Quranic Spiritualistic directives lead to a divine intuitive pedagogy weaved thoroughly within the canonical fabrics of Shari’ah. The ill-conceived duality of Shari’ah and Tariqh paved way for emergence of syncretism or hybridism with some Sufi Seers in Muslim history (manifest in the backdrop of cross-cultural encounters of Muslims with India, Greek, Alexandrian and Persian Gnostic mendicants), yielding some concepts and practices hardly reconcilable with the Quranic paradigm of spirituality. The ready examples are: reverse prayer (الصلاة المعكوسة), cabbalistic practices, Sanskrit hymns and invocations, Yogic exercises (Hath Yoga, Layayoga) of breath-control, sense-control, arousal of Kundalini, etc, besides antinomian and bizarre practices such as snake-eating, permissibility of narcotics, etc.

Imam Abdessalam Yassine’s critique of Hybrid Sufism

The Spiritualist paradigm in Imam Abdessalam Yassine’s schema is represented in his famous book Al-Iḥsān (1998), besides other books like Muqaddimāt fi al-Minhāj (1989), Miḥnat al-‘Aql al-Muslim (1994), etc. A thorough study of the book helps us penetrate the core of Quranic spirituality, after disowning the syncretistic or hybrid Sufism. Imam Yassine epitomizes reconstruction of Sufism on a comprehensive Quranic scheme of spirit. He begins his discourse on Spirituality amid his questioning of the variance in Sufi terminologies and their proximity to the Quranic terms such as إحسان، تزكية، أولياء، تقرب إلى الله، سابقون، مقربون، محِبون، محبوبون etc, in the preface of his book Al-Iḥsān with a scathing condemnation of the hybridism in Spirituality, represented by snake eaters, dancers, atheists, madmen, drunkards and beggars.[1] This sets the very basic paradigm of what is sālih (good) and distinct from tālih (bad). For Imam Yassine, the Spiritualists are the men (Rījāl) who come first chapter in his book Al-Iḥsān, while deliberating upon the percepts of and prejudices against Al-Iḥsān. It defines the actual relationship of man with God, his other fellow beings and things. His relation with God is transformed into Iḥsān, provided it is bonded by remembrance of God and His fear. To judge how beneficial he is to society, we have to take into account the actual desired performance of the job in society, besides good intentions, beatitude of righteous will and indulgence. For Imam Yassine, the Spiritualists are jurists of training and physicists of hearts. (فقهاء التربية أطباء القلوب). Spirituality is a serious business to engineer an archeology of deliberation and discourse in a serious subject: the subject of way to God Almighty, amidst a plethora of raging controversies, widening intrigues and conflicting opinions.[2]

What deprived Islam of its majesty and what keeps it going in face of the turbulent times? For Imam Yassine, the first bond to break in the majesty of Islam was the political power, followed by successive falls resulting into disruption of the Muslim society, the Islamic mind, the Islamic unity, and the Islamic paradigms of Shura and Justice. Now if something is intact in the very fabric of Islam, it is because of the presence of the Holy Book of God, the Sunnah of His Messenger and the men who torch bearers of the Right and pavilions of public guidance amid chaotic impurities in a decadent world.

According to Imam Yassine, the greatest malady of our time is the absence of God-fearing ness and phantomlike emergence of hypocrisy. Imam Yassine disassociates himself from people (Western orientalists and their disciples in the Orient) who are given to academic polemical debates on the origin and development of spirituality and mysticism. For him, mysticism is jurisprudence and diligence. He condemns people….who strive hard to prove that mysticism is an intruder science on the assumption that the Sufis are disciples of Brahmins and the Gnostics…[3]

The theoretical pedagogy put forth by Imam Yassine in defence of true spirituality against the onslaught of hybrid mysticism reinforces its epistemology from the Holy Quran, the Hadith, and the foremost ideologues of Muslim faith against torrential currents of atheism and heretic movements. Imam Yassine takes heavily on all hues and colors of deviations and distortions that crept into ranks of Islamic Spiritualistic schools. One has to keep strict guard while denouncing some elements or approving the other. For Imam Yassine, litany and its assemblies would turn meaningless and hostile to the very basic Muslim ideology and social justice if posited wrongly in pedagogy or practice.

The Sufi initiation imbibes ten qualities in the persona of adherents. Deliberating on the theme, Imam Yassine enumerates them with ample details in an utmost lucid style. It is: Ten sounds on the road, ten footsteps, ten sets of people. The steps are: 1) enrolment as a trainee with a true spiritual master; 2) concentrate on remembrance of God, accompanied by regular prayers; 3) honesty, ratifying God and the unseen, and to demonstrate readiness for jihad; 4) charity and alms-giving: it removes psychological misery and helps heals the miseries of underprivileged people; 5) Science; 6) Work; 7) Right way; 8) Unhurriedness; 9) Perfect balance; 10) Jihad, the fruit of engaged training, organization and active work on the lines of faith.[4]

Epilogue

The epistemological dimensions of Yassine’s discourse, imbibed with clarity of vision, method, analysis and inference, make it the most original and authentic contribution in the contemporary world. Imam Yassine through his powerful and lucid writings reconstructed the very idea and ideals of spirituality in modern times, doing away with the heretical hybridism and eclecticism from Yogic, Neo-platonic, Cabbalistic and Theosophist spiritualistic quarters. According to the Yassine methodology of discourse on Sufism, Spirituality enjoys greater validity and significance in today’s world.

The methodological and epistemological merits of the revivalist-reconstructive Sufi legacy of Imam Yassine call for greater amounts of research and deliberation on World forums, with focus on initiatives to formulate a full spiritualistic philosophy of the Imam in all domains of psycho-philosophical and socio-ethical sciences: ontology, epistemology, ethics, sociology and public administration, etc.