Adab as a tool of dawa

Speech given at the Tariqa Tijaniyyah mawlid (Gamou), Copenhagen, Sept. 1. 2011

Dhul-Qada 4. 1432

After praising Allah and sending benedictions and prayers on the Prophet I continued:

A common notion is that Islam was spread by the sword. That's wrong. What is true, is that the Muslim army occupied large amounts of land. Where they would build garrison cities, so the Muslims did not mix very much with the local population, for there are no cohersion in reglion as, Allah told us in His Book. But the locals saw the behavior of the early Muslims, both their religious practice and in their laws of warfare. The Geneva Convention is close to nothing, if you study the laws of war laid down by our Beloved (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) and Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (radAllahu ta'ala anhu).

The next exposure of Islam to the non-muslims was traders and travelers. Again – their adab opened the Religion of Islam for the locals. And this really worked, by the grace of Allah! It worked so well, that “’urf al-balad” - traditions of the country - became an integrated principle in the Sacred Law. One example: It is generally makruh to grow trees in masajid, but in al-Andalus, the southern Spain, there was a tradition of growing trees inside houses, so because of the principle of 'urf, the scholars did not criticize it.

The same concept will still work today! What concept? Showing people adab the of Islam! That will have a strong impact on individuals. Where do we find the adab of Islam? In the Book of Allah and the sunnah of our Prophet Muhammad (alaihi salam) and it is easy: Be upright Muslims!

Follow the most simple Sunnan of the Messenger:

Greet people with a smile.

Be helpful

Share your food and drink – Example: share your food with the one next to you on the train. Maybe you come to talk about Islam and at some time, the stranger becomes your brother in Islam.

What is NOT benefitting Islam is all theese people in sunna attire screaming angry in street demonstrations. Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad once told us that wudu is a good tool to resist anger, and in context of the angry people demonstrating he said: “…but I did not see a single person doing wudu”.

So be Muslims in the society and circumstances Allah Mosth High Has placed us. There are a hikma in that. Maybe difficult to see, but there is a hikma and a benefit for the believer and Islam. Be a part of the society, engage in the good and do your best to guide people away from munkar. Do this with adab and respect. When talking to people, always assume they are better than you. Always. You do not know his/her rank with Allah tabaraka wa ta’ala.

The question of adab is extra important for us tariqa people. Our way is the Book and the Sunnah. We strive to become muhanmadan in nature and character and we strive our best to abide Allahs commandments and avoid what He has prohibited. That's a part of tarbiyya. Just look at one of the basic rules of our tariqa: Show respect to your parents and the people you are living with. If you do that, the rest will follow, in sha Allah, and you will increase in respect for others.

Our shuyukh of the Tariqa Tijaniyyah are our physicians, who prescribe the medicin, depending on our state – the awrad and the teachings. This is often strong medicine, prescribed individually, limited in time and number.

But in addition, there are over the counter drugs that all of us can use, without an prescription. They are very useful, but remember, there is an ocean of difference between us who have a shaykh al-tarbiyyah and people who stick to “selfhelp” books. And having a shaykh to explain the “selfhelp” books will increase you in knowledge and action. Action: It is very important to practice your knowledge, if not “you are a donky carrying books”.

So, due to my bad adab in prepairing this speech, rather than going through a number of quranic ayat and hadith from the Holy Prophet, which was my plan, I'll challenge myself, first and foremost, and you to do two things:

1. Read through the Quran – or an explanation of the Book in a language you understand, while writing down ayat that relate to your personal adab. Go over the list and look at your own life. I personally know I'll find a lot to work on in my own life.
2. Go slowly through the great works Riyad al-Saliheen (I strongly discurrage reading the edition by Darussalam, because the wahhabi pen has "corrected" it and the comments are by Mr. al-Albani, which is one of the greatest heretics in our time) by Imam al-Nawawi and al-Shama'il Muhammadiyyah by Imam al-Thirmidhi. Reflect on the ahadith and and your own life. Write down the important things you observe within yourself and things you want to work on with respect to adab and good works.

If you repeat this procedure once or twice, you will learn a lot about yourself and what state you are in, in sha Allah.

So insha Allah – perfect your adab and character and people will respect you. They will ask where you got this character from, and you end up talking about Islam and the person may become Muslim, just like the one you shared a piece of bread and a bottle of water with in the train.

I pray Allah to forgive my errors and shortcommings.

Seek His forgiveness for indeed He al-Ghafur al-Rahim.

Mini course in fiqh according to the school of Imam Malik - Part 3

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم الحمد لله رب العلمين

وصلى الله على سيدنا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه وسلم

In this part we will divide the actions of wudu - الوضوء - into it's obligatory, sunnah and fadila parts, and how to deal with them. The durus are given fridays, and I'll update this blog entry weekly (Saturdays, in sha Allah), according to the progression of our exploration of the amazing world of fiqh – islamic jurisprudence. There may occur revisions and additions, i.e. addition of arabic terms.

Obligatory elements in wudu

The obligatory acts of wudu are 7:

1. Intention – نية. The best way to formulate intension is to intend to remove the state of ritual impurity or make ibadat valid, but it does necessarily mean you has to articulate it. The fact that you raise from your resting place, and start to do the process of wudu – you have the niyyah. There are disagreement on this among the scholars, but this is what my teachers explained to me.
   
   
2. Flowing water and rubbing – دلك
   
   
3. Continuity – الفور
   
   
4. Wash the face from ear to ear and the normal hear line to the end og the chin. If beard is thin, you should rub so the water reaches the skin. If thick, you just run your wet hands over it.
   
   
5. Wash the arms, from fingertips to and including the elbow. Remember also between the fingers.
   
   
6. Wipe the head – the water should reach the whole hair surface. Women with long hair should collect the hair in a tail and just wipe along the tail.
   
   
7. Wash the feet from toes to heel, including the ankle . Be especially aware of the heels, because the skin here is thick and often has cracks that the water has to reach. It also come in the hadith; "Beware of the heels of Hell".

A missing wajib i wudu will invalidate the following salah. Go back, start with the missing limb and perform wudu to the end.

If you remember it in the middle of the prayer: Leave the prayerline (in the section of al-Salah, we will talk about leaving the prayer), make wudu and return to the prayer. Catch op what you lost of the prayer behind the imam.

Sunnan al-wudu

There are 8 sunnan (sing: sunnah) in wudu.

1. Wash the hands before you put then them i the wudu vessel (if you are using a vessel). Each hand is washed separately. Check the nails for potential barriers. ×3

2. Rinse the mouth with; 3 criterions: Take water with the hand. Rinse. Spitt the water out. ×3

3. Rise the nose with water: Inhaler and exhale. When exhaling, support the nose bone. ×3
4. Returne mash over the hair. Long hair – shift the tail to the oposit side.

5. Mash over the ears.

6. Take new water for mash over the ears.
7. Wajib elements should be performed on order.

To wash between the toes is mustahab, according to Ibn Abi Zayd in his Matn al-Risalah that it is recomended to do it, because there may be dirt and even impurities between the toes, especially in plasces where people usually walk around bare footed.

Discontinuity in wudu; Forgetfullnes; just comtiune where you left of. If your break are intention. i.e. the wudu pot empty and you have to fetch more water: Start over.

Mustahabaat (pl. mustahab) – also called fadila (pl. fadail)

1. Saying Bismillah at the beginning of your wudu.
   

2. Making wudu in a clean place.
3. Using a small amonut of water
4. Placing the water vessel (if you use one) on the right side or a pitcher on the left side.
5. Repeating washing once or twice – to a maxiumum og three times.
6. Brushing teeth or use miswak.
7. Wash the limbs on the right part first.
8. Arranging the sunnah acts with the fard acts in proper order.
9. Arranging the sunnah acts in its proper order (if you left sunnan during wudu, because you were in a hurry – we'll talk about at this).
10. Begin wiping the head from the hear line.
11. Wash between the toes.

Makruhaat (sing: makruh) al-wudu

To wash more than the wajib and sunnah elements of wudu.

Use too much water. This is an issue of conservation. With a little bit of training, half a liter of water is plenty for a perfect wudu.

This ends the section of wudu. In anything is unclear, ASK!

Additional resourses

See this video with Shaykh Khatry making wudu: 

http://vimeo.com/16985097

The section of Purification and Prayer from al-Murshid al-mu'in commented and explained by Shaykh AbdAlla bin Hamin Ali is very good and you should download it and study it. 

http://www.lamppostproductions.com/files/articles/Ibn_Ashir_P&P.pdf

Mini course in fiqh according to the school of Imam Malik - Part 2

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم الحمد لله رب العلمين

وصلى الله على سيدنا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه وسلم

This and the following parts of the series are the notes from durus given to our group of tijani sufis in Copenhagen on ritual purification and prayer. The purpose of these lessons is not to teach people how to do ablution and how to pray. In the durus I will, in sha Allah, break down the basic elements our daily rituals into what is obligatory, what is sunnah and what is fadail.

The intention behind this series of talks is to facilitate and make things easier for practicing Muslims. If you ask me why? I say: What do you do if you wake up 5 minutes before sunrise? You answer that. If you can't answer, you should really read the simple teachings that follows this introduction.

I pray Allah subhanau wa ta'ala to forgive me mistakes in this effort. I ask Him to grant us beneficial knowledge and the ability to act according to our knowledge. Amin.

After this small introduction, we turn our attention to the issues for today: Categories of Shariah rulings and Types of water.

Types of rulings in the Shari'ah

All human actions and all objects in the world fit into one of the five rulings of Sacred Law:

Fard/wajib – فرض/ واجب

Necessary/Obligatory

You are rewarded for doing it and punished for neglecting it.

Example: The 5 canonical prayers, paying zakah etc.

Mustahab – مستحب

Recommended.

You are rewarded for doing it, but its nonperformance is not punished,

Example: Making dhikr or recite Quran during wudu – obviously not done in the bathroom. Men covering their head during prayer, wearing a robe covering the behind (mustahab for men and wajib for women).

Mubah – مباح

Neural.

An action for which neither reward nor punishment is perscribed. Most things are neutral – it is just allowed – except otherwise is specified.

Example: Eating and drinking – except the prohibited. However, if you eat and drink with the intention of strengthening yourself to worship it becomes Mustahab. Taking a shower. Go for a walk in the park.

Makruh – مكرو

Detested.

It's performance are not punished, but you are rewarded for avoiding it intentionally.

Example: For men it is makruh to pray without a head covering (kufi, turban etc). Using dispensable paper cups (this is because of the waste and wasting can lead to arrogance).

Haram – حرام

Prohibited.

You my be punished for doing it, or rewarded if you avoid with intention (niyyah)

Example: Drinking wine, fornication, unjustly killing, smoking, etc.

Note;

Learn these categories of rulings well. Their importance become clear and important when we go into the practical matter, such as purification an prayer.

Types of water

We can divide water into 3 categories;

1. Pure and purifying – طهور (tahoor)
   Water of this type is characterized by no change in taste, smell or colour. If any if these properties has changed by a clean substance, the water are still pure and can be used for drinking, cooking, regular washing, and other “very day use ('adat)”, but CANNOT be used for tahara (religious purification), i.e. wudu or ghusl.
   
   
   One exemption is substances that are characterized as a part of water. Redish colour from rust is inseparable for the water, i.e. the rusty iron originating from the ground is or a brownish colour of river water is considered a part of water. The same ruling pertains to clorinated water; first, the clorine is inseparable from tap water, second it's added for health purposes.
   
   
2. Water which is changed by a clean substance, by a classified as طهير (tahir) but not طهور (tahoor). In other words, it is pure but not purifying and can only be used 'adat.
   
   
3. Water that is mixed with an impurity (a dead animal, blood, urine, faeces, just to mention a few examples) cannot be used for any human purposes and has to be discarded.

Mini course in fiqh according to the school of Imam Malik - Part 1

In Islam we have four rightly guided schools of Sacred Law (arabic: madhhab, pl. madhahib). I follow the maliki school in my personal life, and the Tariqa Tijaniyyah, to which I belong are built up around the fiqh of Imam Malik.

Why four different schools of Sacred Law? I'll give you a short, short answer and a literature list. We have al-Quran and the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (may Allah bless him, keep him). This can be seen as the text of the law. A regular, unlearned person cannot and must not take these books and extract rulings from them, because that is a complicated process. Therefore, we have the four Imams; Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Malik, Imam al-Shafi'i og Imam Ahmed. These brilliant minds developed consistent systems and principles for textual analysis, which resulted in different conclusions on different issues. These differences is only due to method and you cannot say "he is right and he is wrong". Their conclusions are reached using their principles and the arabic language to interprent quranic texts or hadith. As common Muslims, we choose a school and stick to it. There are room for taking opinions from other schools, but that has rules coupled to it and you should consult a well educated teacher before doing it.

And again I have to stress the fact that I'm not a shaykh. I'm just a student of the Sacred Sciences. That means I'm parrot - what I say and write is taken directly from my teachers and texts that has been explained to me.

If you want to look in to the differences of the Imams in more detail I recommend reading the book The Differences of the Imams by Shaykh al-hadith Muhammad Zakariyya Kandhlawi, published by White Thread Press, 2004.

Tariqa Tijaniyyah - Part Three - Shaykh Ahmad Tijani and the Islamic Sacred Law (Shari’a)

[Excerpts from Zachary Wright, On the Path of the Prophet: Shaykh Ahmad Tijani and the Tariqa Muhammadiyya (Atlanta, 2005), p. 81-85. Posted with permission of publisher.]


“Know that Sufism is compliance with Allah’s command and avoidance of His prohibitions, externally and internally, with regard to what pleases Him, not what pleases you.”[1]


It is clear from the primary sources containing Shaykh Ahmad Tijani’s ideas and behavior that he possessed a profound respect for the legal value of the Qur’an and Sunna of the Prophet and his companions, as well as (though to a lesser extent) for the inherited tradition of scholarly interpretation of these sources. As was shown earlier, he was trained in the sciences of the Qur’an and Hadith and prior to his becoming a shaykh al-tarbiya (of spiritual instruction), he spent most of his time during his travels teaching Qur’anic tafsir (interpretation) and Hadith. The Jawahir al-Ma’ani itself provides evidence of this emphasis, with frequent reference to Qur’an and Hadith throughout the work. Of the 246 pages in the Jawahir’s 2001 Cairo edition, fifty-four are concerned specifically with explanation of certain verses of the Qur’an, twenty comment only on Hadith, while another ten are concerned with specific questions of fiqh. It seems many of Shaykh Tijani’s students were attracted to him for his knowledge of the traditional Islamic sciences, even if they did not always stay long enough to receive initiation into his path. The celebrated Tariqa Muhammadiyya shaykh Muhammad al-Sanusi (1787-1859) testified.


I learned from him [Tijani], and I took the Qur’an from him, and he told me that he had taken it from the Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace), asleep and awake. And he excelled in following his, may God bless him and grant him peace, example in all actions, and he honored me by letting me take the Qur’an from him, by this noble sanad, after he had taken it from him [the Prophet].[2]


In a work translated as, “Lumières sur la Tijaniyya et les Tijan,” the Senegalese Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse (d. 1975) quotes the statements of several notable scholars from Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt more or less contemporary to Shaykh Ahmad Tijani (but who were not known to have formerly entered the order) attesting to the level of his erudition.[3] As we have seen, his early circle of followers contained many distinguished faqihs, such as Ibrahim Riyahi (later to become Tunisia’s head Mufti and rector of Zaytuna), Muhammad al-Hafiz of Mauritania and Ibn Mishry of Algeria. Later Tijanis have been no less energetic in the field of Islamic law, as evidenced by the activities of such men as the Moroccan jurist and traditionalist Muhammad al-‘Arabi al-Sa’ih (d. 1892), the Mauritanian scholar Ahmad al-Shinqiti (d. 1913), the Marakeshi Qadi Ahmad Sukayrij (d. 1949), Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse (who in 1961 received, for his Islamic scholarship and efforts to spread Islam, the title “Shaykh al-Islam” from the Azhar), the Egyptian scholar Muhammad al-Hafiz (d. 1978) and the former Mufti of Albania, Hafiz Sabri Cocki. With the spread of the Tijaniyya in places like West Africa, the order has sometimes become more famous for its Islamic scholarship than anything else.[4]


Shaykh Ahmad Tijani himself provides the model for the respect for the Shari’a many of his later followers would come to represent. When asked if false statements would be attributed to him after his death, he replied in the affirmative and urged his followers to use the criterion of the Shari’a to determine the truth: “If you hear anything attributed to me, weigh it on the scale of the Shari’a. If it conforms, accept it, otherwise reject it.”[5] Ali Harazem al-Barada writes about his Shaykh, “We find him stern (shadid) concerning the religious obligations … and he often says, ‘The best of remembrances (adhkar) is the [servant's] remembrance of Allah at the command of his Lord and His prohibition.’”[6] He demanded of his disciples that saintly miracles be kept hidden and elaborated that “An act of righteousness is better than a thousand miraculous feats.”[7] He was reportedly particular about the performance of the canonical prayer, emphasizing that it should be made in congregation and at its proper time, saying, “No work is better than prayer (salat) in its proper time.”[8]


According to the Jawahir, the Shaykh did not neglect the external sciences and his knowledge in this area included the theology of God’s oneness (tawhid), Qur’anic interpretation (tafsir), Prophetic traditions (Hadith) and biography (sira), and other traditional sciences such as grammar and poetry; in fact sharing with the ‘ulama “the entirety of their knowledge.”[9] But, as is illustrated from al-Sanusi’s statement about Shaykh Tijani’s knowledge of the Qur’an, it seems that he did not make a great distinction between esoteric and external knowledge, holding that the “external sciences return in their entirety” to the reality of the esoteric sciences.[10] Specifically, the study of the Qur’an and Hadith, which helps to instill the fear of Allah, serve to separate the aspirant from the frivolity of the material world (dunya), thereby allowing him to behave “as if he is seeing the afterlife between his hands.”[11] The inner state of the worshipper before his Lord should be one of utmost sincerity and purity “in order to accomplish an act of pure adoration and satisfaction of Divine laws.”[12] The contemporary Senegalese Tijani Shaykh Hassan Cisse explains in this regard the place of the Shari’a within the real knowledge of God (ma’rifa): "The importance of this knowledge [Shari'a] is that it is used to service and maintain the ma’rifa (reality, beauty and magnificence) of Allah already acquired. It is a means of revisiting Allah through primary worship like prayer, fasting, alms giving and pilgrimage, and secondary worship like marriage/divorce, commerce/economics, etc.[13]


It is clear that Shaykh Tijani held the classic Sufi opinion of the essential link between the Shari’a and the esoteric reality (Haqiqa). “It is incumbent on the truthful person,” he said, “to immerse himself in the esoteric reality (Haqiqa) while working with the external Shari’a, keeping to the regulations, and that is the straight path in following the Messenger.”[14]

---

[1] Shaykh Ahmad Tijani, cited in Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse, Kashf al-Ilbas; in Pearls from the Divine Flood: Selected Discourses of Shaykh al-Islam Ibrahim Niasse (Atlanta, 2006), p. 48.
[2] Ahmad al-Sharif (grandson of al-Sanusi), Al-Anwar al-qudsiya fi muqaddimat al-tariqa al-Sanusiya, quoted in Knut S. Vikor, Sufi and Scholar on the Desert Edge, Muhammad b. Ali al-Sanusi and his Brotherhood (London: C. Hurst & Co., 1995), pp. 59-60.
[3] Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse, “Lumieres sur la Tijaniyya et les Tijan,” chapter entitled, “Elonges des Savants a l’endroit de Ahmad al-Tijani.”
[4] Barbara Callaway and Lucy Creevey, The Heritage of Islam, Women, Religion and Politics in West Africa (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 1994), p. 46.
[5] Ifadat al-Ahmadiyya, p. 12. See also Shaykh Hassan Cisse, Translation and Commentary of the Spirit of Good Morals by Shaykh of Islam Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse (Michigan: A.A.I.I., 1998), pp. 12-13.
[6] Jawahir, p. 35.
[7] Benabdellah, La Tijania, p. 75.
[8] Jawahir, pp. 59, 36.
[9] Jawahir, p. 40.
[10] Jawahir, p. 40.
[11] Jawahir, p. 40.
[12] Jawahir, quoted in Amadou Makhtar Samb, Introduction a la Tariqah Tidjaniyya ou Voie Spirituelle de Cheikh Ahmad Tidjani (Dakar: Imprimerie Saint-Paul, 1994), p. 89.
[13] Shaykh Hassan Cisse, Spirit of Good Morals of Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse, p. 17.
[14] Jawahir, p. 51. This statement is reminiscent of Imam Malik’s famous diction, related by Shaykh Hassan Cisse, “He who practices Sufism (tassawuf) without understanding and observing the Fiqh (law) corrupts his faith, while he who understands and observes Fiqh without practicing Sufism corrupts himself. But he who combines the two has indeed proven to be true.” See Shaykh Hassan Cisse, Spirit of Good Morals by Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse, p. 23.