PART III: Pilgrimage in the Sufi Religion

 

PART III: Pilgrimage in the Sufi Religion: (twelve chapters). CHAPTER I: Discrepancies and Contradictions within the Earthly Man-Made Religions: Firstly: deepened disputes and contradictions within man-made, fabricated religions, Secondly: the beginnings: (A) deification of prophets and messengers is root of discrepancies and disputes, Thirdly: the beginnings: (B) human beings were one community, but they are now the nation of Christ, nation of Muhammad, nation of so-and-so, etc., Fourthly: the beginnings: (C) the unjust devilish tawatur or revelation that ascribes falsehoods to the divine revelation, Fifthly: God warns all Quran-believing people against disputes and divisions, the trap in which People of the Book have fallen, Lastly. CHAPTER II:  The Sufi Religion: A Historical Overview: Definitions of Sufism, Divisions of Sufis, Sources of Sufism, Between Islam and Sufism, Beginning of Sufism, Spread of Sufism, Sufism Controlled the Mameluke Era in Egypt, Lastly. CHAPTER III: The Sufi Religion: Overview of Sufi Tenets: Introduction, Firstly: Al-Ghazaly (450:505 A.H.) and his Sufi creed in his book (degrees of Tawheed), Secondly: our comments regarding Al-Ghazaly, Thirdly: pantheism in the many-volume book "Ehiaa Olom Eddine" authored by Al-Ghazaly, Fourthly: our comments on Al-Ghazaly and unity of existence, Lastly. CHAPTER IV: Sufism and Ignoring Islamic Acts of Worship: Firstly: religious duties and acts of worship between Islam and Sufism, Secondly: Al-Ghazaly and his attempt to reconcile Islam and Sufism regarding ignoring acts of worship, Thirdly: Al-Shaarany and the attempt to justify ignoring acts of worship during the Mameluke and Ottoman eras, Lastly: a brief reminder. CHAPTER V: Sufis Call for Despising the Kaaba: Firstly: Sufis haughtily refuse to orient themselves to the direction of the Kaaba during prayers, Secondly: Sufis hate the Kaaba and circumambulation during Hajj, Thirdly: preferring Sufis saints to the Kaaba, Fourthly: Sufis claim that the Kaaba itself circumambulates Sufis saints! CHAPTER VI: The Sufi Call for Rejecting Islamic Pilgrimage. CHAPTER VII: Legislation of Sufi Pilgrimage to Saints and Mausoleums: Firstly: pilgrimage during the pre-Islamic era to mausoleums and 'sanctified kaabas', Secondly: Sufi pilgrimage, Thirdly: the call for Sufi pilgrimage before the Mameluke Era, Fourthly: the call for Sufi pilgrimage during the Mameluke Era. CHAPTER VIII: Rituals of Sufi Pilgrimage: Introduction, Firstly: rituals within a Sufi's heart, Thirdly: performed rituals and their types, Fourthly: financial rituals. CHAPTER IX: Purposes of Sufi Pilgrimage: Introduction, Pilgrimage to Mausoleums Seeking Remedy, Pilgrimage to Mausoleums Seeking Payment of Debts, Pilgrimage to Mausoleums Seeking to Implore God to Enable People to Visit Mecca. CHAPTER X: Famous Sufi Pilgrimage ''Kaabas'' in Egypt during the Mameluke Era: Firstly: pilgrimage to 'holy' sanctified buildings and living saints, Secondly: preferring mausoleum of Al-Badawi to Mecca and Yathreb, Thirdly: the universality of 'holy' sanctified buildings, kaabas, and tombs in Egypt, Fifthly: special 'holy' mausoleums for women, Sixthly: mausoleum of Al-Hussein (biggest devilish, Satanist location in Egypt), Seventhly: fake mausoleums ascribed to famous saints, Eighth: travellers and pilgrimage to Sufi mausoleums in Cairo, Lastly. CHAPTER XI: Sufis Turn the Kaaba as a Location for their Assumed Deities: Firstly: Sufi deities at the Kaaba, Secondly: the assumed Sufi deities gather at the Kaaba, Thirdly: Khedr, the Kaaba, and pilgrims, Fourthly: the Kaaba and Qutbs, Lastly: pilgrimage of Sufis is not to the Kaaba alone, but to Sufi deities. CHAPTER XII: Corrupting Islamic Pilgrimage to Mecca by Performing Sunnite Pilgrimage to the Yathreb Mausoleum: Firstly: corrupting Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca by performing Sunnite pilgrimage to mausoleum ascribed to Muhammad in Yathreb, Secondly: the role of the Sunnite religion in developing such falsehood, Thirdly: faith tenets which are the bases of Sufi sanctification of the mausoleum ascribed to Muhammad, Fourthly: two contradictory personalities of Muhammad, CONCLUSION of the Book: in a nutshell. 

 

 PART III: Pilgrimage in the Sufi Religion

 

 

CHAPTER I: Discrepancies and Contradictions within the Earthly Man-Made Religions

 

 

Firstly: deepened disputes and contradictions within man-made, fabricated religions:

1- In the previous part of this book, PART II, we have tackled the true tawatur of the religion of Abraham as far as pilgrimage is concerned inside the Quran and how Qorayish once re-established the false, devilish tawatur to serve economic, financial purposes once Muhammad died. We have also tackled how the Sunnite religion scholars had fabricated un-Islamic pilgrimage rituals and interfered and distorted original rituals as per their whims and consolidated their personal views by fabricating and authoring contradictory hadiths and narratives falsely ascribed to Muhammad. Thus, the man-made Sunnite religion imams and authors used to disagree on many issues about many topics, and pilgrimage was no exception to this rule. Each issue or topic was heavily tackled by their contradictory fabricated hadiths as the pioneer narrators of the Sunnite creed debated and quarreled with one another.  

2- With countless differences among imams and scholars at the time, the Sunnite religion was divided into many sub-creeds and doctrines, and schools of thought thrived and increased, though only four Sunnite doctrines survive now. Of course, such divisions were caused by so many contradictions, debates, and quarrelling among Sunnite imams, as their man-made fabricated narratives in their writings reflect human visions that are bound to be filled with falsehoods, illogicalities, fallacies, whims, etc. and each of them gathered followers around him and they vied in fabricating hadiths to refute and oppose one another in debates and in writings books and letters.      

3- Of course, such doctrines have nothing to do at all with the Quran (real Islam), and even the Quranic text does not mention the word ''doctrine'' itself. The crimes of the founders of such doctrines are 1) to add to religion things never mention by God, and 2) to ascribe forcibly their opinions and views to Muhammad in the form of a hadiths that he never uttered. Hence, such four doctrines (ascribed to Abou Hanifa, Malik, Al-Shafei, and Ibn Hanbal) were treated in later eras as divine sharia laws that add to or interpret the text of the Quran! Hence, in later eras the falsehoods filling these doctrines metamorphosed into fossilized contradictory 'truths' and its authors into deities!

4- Contradictions and discrepancies within the Sunnite religion are deepened within the level of fabricated hadiths; the very first book of hadiths was (Al-Mowata') by Malik, and in fact, he never wrote it; rather, he dictated it to his disciples. This is why more than one edition of it exist until now, and such editions of course contradict one another. Moreover, many contradictory hadiths that refute one another are found in the same edition. This same phenomenon of contradictory hadiths in one authored book is repeated in ''Al-Um'' by Al-Shafei. As for Abou Hanifa, he never authored any book; he was killed in prison by the Abbasid caliph Abou Jaffer Al-Mansour in 150 A.H., before the beginning of the era of writing down oral narratives and hadiths. Yet, his two favorite disciples, namely Al-Shaybany and Abou Youssef, wrote what they claim to be partially views of Abou Hanifa their master and what are theirs. Yet, they opposed him in almost all of his views and edicts. Ibn Hanbal was not a religious scholar of jurisprudence; rather, he was a fabricator of hadiths, and his book of hadiths titled "Mosnad Ahmed Ibn Hanbal" is not arranged as per topics of fiqh as is the case with Al-Bokhary and Moslem. This means he did not found any doctrine in his name. Yet, his fame grew because the Abbasids persecuted him, and his followers of extremists were the ones to create a doctrine carrying his name and formed a movement of fanatics that theorized and committed acts of violence later on.              

5- This intertwining and overlapping between hadiths and fiqh widened the gap/abyss of differences between scholars of fiqh and authors/fabricators of hadiths. Each scholar and narrator forged hadiths to refute or support almost anything, resulting in the fabrication of a myriad of contradictory hadiths. In later eras, scholars who studied and classified hadiths attempted to find a solution by verifying the veracity of each man/woman from the series of narrators of each of the hadiths to make sure if Muhammad uttered such and such thing or not. Indeed, this failed attempt led to more and more discrepancies and differences and no issue was ever resolved upon as far as hadiths and their authenticity are concerned.     

6- All the above is concerning the formation and development of the Sunnite religion, and it has other branches like the one about Sunnite tenets about epithets of God, fate, etc. within a branch that came to be known as Kalam (literally, science of discourse) that began by the Mu'tazala who were greatly influences by Greek philosophies and tried to make them compatible with the Quran, but the conservative Sunnites vehemently opposed to any innovative ideas coming from Europe. The famous founder of a less-spread doctrine, Abou Al-Hassan Al-Ashaary, rejected his Mu'tazala group, joined the Sunnite conservative scholars, and authored his writings to refute the philosophies. The ideas of the followers of the Sunnite Al-Ashaary doctrine were soon enough refuted by the Sunnite Maturidi doctrine followers. It is funny that the followers of the Sunnite Ibn Hanbal doctrine hate the followers of the Al-Ashaary doctrine, despite the fact that Al-Ashaary deserted his Mu'tazala group to join scholars of hadiths and fiqh.  

7- Within the 4^th and 5^th centuries A.H., hundreds of religious doctrines and denominations have been formed within the societies of the Muhammadans, and many books were authored to refute or support certain schools of thought by Al-Malti, Al-Ashaary (died in 330 A.H.), Ibn Hazm (died in 456 A.H.) who lived in Andalusia, and Al-Shahristany (died in 548 A.H.). Of course, as expected, these hundreds of religious doctrines and denominations differed in almost every topic or issue in faith tenets, hadiths, fiqh, legislations, etc. Discrepancies and differences increased beyond measure; matters exacerbated by the emergence and flourish of Sufism and Sufi orders with their own sub-creeds and doctrines.  

8- With such unsettled huge amounts of differences in all aspects of the Sunnite religion, it is laughter-inducing in our modern age to see Sunnites believe in mythical concepts and hoaxes such as ''unanimous agreement of scholars/the Umma (nation)'', as though all caliphs and scholars and ordinary people in all eras gathered together in a council an agreed upon one subject at all! This is unthinkable, but the herd of today's Sunnites stick to this notion blindly as if irrefutable!

9- After the above overview about the earthly, man-made, fabricated Sunnite religion, we move now to the earthly, man-made, fabricated Sufi religion. Sufi orders increased exponentially and some of them died out and some branched and flourished. Followers increased and vied for room within these orders as they admired certain Sufi sheikhs/heads, who in their turn competed to gather as many followers as possible. Of course, dead sheikhs became 'canonized' as saints  once they died and buried and their tombs turned into shrines and mausoleums to be worshipped reverently. Inheritors of those so-called holy men or 'saints' vied for increasing their followers because this meant more money hoarded and oblations consumed by them! Sufi orders differed with one another greatly; each of them was and is a full-fledged separate religion in itself. Likewise, the earthly, man-made, fabricated Shiite religion contains as a basic tenet the idea of saints and worshipping at shrines/mausoleums. Shiites suffered also countless discrepancies and differences in fiqh and hadiths that led to the emergence of sub-creeds, branches, and doctrines that all raise the Shiite banner, from the days of the first founder of Shiite religion in Arabia, Abdullah Ibn Saba, until our modern age, passing by the Twelver doctrine (centered now in modern Iran), Houthis and Zaidiyya in Yemen, Alawites in Syria, and other Ismaili Shiite doctrines in other locations. Likewise, Christians had and have many denominations, orders, and sub-creeds like Coptic Orthodox, Jacobites, Catholics, Monophysists, Jesuits, Franciscans, Mormon, Jehovah's witnesses, etc. and this branching and forming of sects seem to be endless. Likewise, Jews were and are Sadducees, Pharisees, Hasidic ones, Karaite ones, Rabbinic ones, Ultra-Orthodox ones, etc. As a Quranist, we believe that all these are and were earthly, man-made, fabricated religions that have unjustly supplanted God's only celestial religion of (There is no God but Allah). This has been devilish attempts to submerge and replace God's true religion conveyed by His prophets. We can assert the same about Asian and African creeds and religions; they surely supplant other celestial messages that we do not know about.       

10- Hence, as per the above points, we face now a terrifying fact: despite huge discrepancies and vast unsettled differences among all these earthly, man-made, fabricated religions, they agree on supplanting the divine, celestial religion of (There is no God but Allah) by sanctifying mortals and things. They agree on creating creeds based on devilish or Satanist tawatur ascribed unjustly and falsely to God. They agree on being founded on whims and caprices. On the other hand, the divine, celestial religion of (There is no God but Allah) is based on the human reasoning mind and NOT on clergymen of any type. These earthly, man-made, fabricated religions are based on clergymen that support tyranny, corruption, and injustice. They agree on deceiving the masses with the opium of their corrupt creed notions to stifle their hopes in justice, freedom, and human dignity. They agree on the fact that they oppose the true religion of God: Islam (literally, total submission to God alone) which  is revealed by God and conveyed by His prophets in many tongues with one clear message of (There is no God but Allah) and its call for justice, charity, peace, religious freedom, and to wait till Judgment Day when God will settle all disputes and settlements among people in religion. 

 

Secondly: the beginnings: (A) deification of prophets and messengers is root of discrepancies and disputes:

1- No disbeliever, however deep-rooted in disbelief, would dare to claim that he/she is the creator of the universe. God/Allah asserts that there is no other Creator but Him: "O people! Remember God's blessings upon you. Is there a Creator other than God who provides for you from the heaven and the earth? There is no God but He. So how are you misled?" (35:3); "Is He who creates like him who does not create? Will you not take a lesson?" (16:17); "Or were they created out of nothing? Or are they the creators? Or did they create the heavens and the earth? In fact, they are not certain." (53:35-36); "Say, "Who is the Lord of the heavens and the earth?" Say, "God." Say, "Have you taken besides Him protectors, who have no power to profit or harm even themselves?" Say, "Are the blind and the seeing equal? Or are darkness and light equal? Or have they assigned to God associates, who created the likes of His creation, so that the creations seemed to them alike? Say, "God is the Creator of all things, and He is The One, the Irresistible."" (13:16). Hence, if we really believe that God alone is the Omnipotent Creator and that human beings are creatures made by Him, we must believe as well that no names of any human beings should be put beside the Name of God; the testimony of (There is no God but Allah) makes all human beings (prophets and non-prophets) equal of their being servants to the Lord. This type of equality makes no room at all for differences in religion. Devilish, Satanist tawatur does and did just the exact opposite; by sanctifying certain people as deities/saints, differences and distortions have ample room ever since in all earthly, fabricated, man-made religions past and present.  

2- Hence, differences in religion always begin by positioning human creatures beside God as His equals by deifying and sanctifying these mortals. This sin begins by differentiating between prophets and messengers of God and making any them distinctive or above the rest, thus deifying those prophets (e.g., Muhammad, Moses, and Jesus). Thus, by putting the name of a prophet beside God as His partner and associate, an earthly religion is created to supplant the celestial message. This is why when Jesus was deified after his death, followers of this deity called their fabricated religion Christianity to ascribe themselves to him as a god; they have become the nation of a deified 'Christ' (an imaginary person that has nothing to do with historical Jesus in the Quran) and not of God. Jesus in the Quran preached Islam; i.e., the message of (There is no God but Allah). When Muhammad was deified after the Arab conquests, and the nation of the deity 'Muhammad' (an imaginary person that has nothing to do with historical Muhammad in the Quran) and not of God. The same divine epithets have been ascribed to both Muhammad and Christ; Christians vs. the Muhammadans. Both parties deified prophets in a similar manner; Christ is told to be redeemer of humanity, and Muhammad is told to be the intercessor of humanity on the Day of Resurrection. The Muhammadans never dared to literally say that Muhammad is a son of God as Christians do about Jesus, but they asserted this meaning indirectly through notions foreign to the Quran such as 'the Muhammadans Truth': i.e.,  the 'light' of Muhammad as an immortal person created from the Light of God before the universe, angels, earth, Adam, etc. are created, as per Sufi and Sunnite hadiths concocted to assert such nonsense.       

3- After this beginning by deifying Muhammad decades after his death, the second step is as follows: other creatures apart from him are made 'holy' and sanctified as saints, such as Muhammad's family members, progeny, in-laws, contemporaries (i.e., the so-called companions). Likewise, Christians sanctify and canonize disciples of Christ. The third step is as follows: to deify and sanctify clergymen, monks, rabbis, scholars, imams, sheikhs, etc. as saints as well or demi-gods. God wars against such sin in the Quran: "They have taken their rabbis and their priests as lords instead of God, as well as the Messiah son of Mary. Although they were commanded to worship none but The One God. There is no god except He. Glory be to Him; High above what they associate with Him." (9:31). Yet, the Muhammadans have imitated Jews and Christians by deifying and sanctifying imams and theologians who authored the earthly, man-made, fabricated religions. The third, last step is that Muhammadans (esp. Sufis), Christians, and Jews have deified themselves by ascribing themselves to God as closer to Him, by claiming they are His sons and His beloved, chosen ones: "The Jews and the Christians say, "We are the children of God, and His beloved." Say, "Why then does He punish you for your sins?" In fact, you are humans from among those He created. He forgives whom He wills, and He punishes whom He wills. To God belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and what lies between them, and to Him is the return." (5:18). Ancient Sufis claimed that they are themselves part of the Divine Light of God that passed through Muhammad to them and to the saints!       

4- Thus, the celestial divine religion is supplanted this way by many earthly religions fabricated by men; each creed or religion is full-fledged and complete with its pantheon, tenets, theories, followers, etc. and each sect would claim that Paradise is exclusively made for them! This false claim has been assumed by all sects and doctrines of Sufis, Sunnites, and Shiites, and by People of the Book before them: "And they say, "None will enter Heaven unless he is a Jew or a Christian." These are their wishes. Say, "Produce your proof, if you are truthful." In fact, whoever submits himself to God, and is a doer of good, will have his reward with his Lord-they have nothing to fear, nor shall they grieve." (2:111-112). Hence, each sect or denomination would claim to have the absolute truth and others are in the wrong, a bad habit of all earthly religions. Sunnites declare Shiites as infidels and vice-versa, and mutual hatred goes on. Wahabi Sunnites declare Sufis as infidels and vice versa, and mutual enmity goes on. God will decide about those in the right path and settle all disputes in the Hereafter: "The Jews say, "The Christians are not based on anything;" and the Christians say, "The Jews are not based on anything." Yet they both read the Scripture. Similarly, the ignorant said the same thing. God will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection regarding their differences." (2:113). No followers of earthly creeds would be satisfied unless other people, especially those who worship only God alone, adhere to their earthly creeds and follow them. This was the stance of the People of the Book in Arabia regarding Muhammad and early believers: "The Jews and the Christians will not approve of you, unless you follow their creed. Say, "God's guidance is the guidance." Should you follow their desires, after the knowledge that has come to you, you will have in God neither guardian nor helper." (2:120). Likewise, the Muhammadans never like to discuss or debate any issue with Quranists, as the latter believe in the Quran alone as the only discourse in Islam. The Muhammadans, with their grudges and envy, wish that Quranists might one day believe in hadiths narratives and in saints and refuse to acknowledge the Quranic guidance based on the only true testimony of Islam (There is no God but Allah).   

5- Hence, we conclude that the basis of all earthly religions of the Muhammadans is deification of Muhammad as immortal deity beside God; they claim that he was, or is, the best of God's prophets and messengers and the best, perfect human being ever. They claim he will be a redeemer an intercessor in the Hereafter and the owner and controller of the Day of Judgment, and not God! This opposes the Quranic verse 1:4. Their mythology include the heretic notion that God will obey Muhammad's orders on the Day of Judgment! This is utter blasphemy! Such nonsensical notions were repeated by some of the People of the Book, and God warns true believers against such deification of prophets by making some or one of them above the rest, as this causes schism: "Say, "We believe in God; and in what was revealed to us; and in what was revealed to Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the Israelite tribes; and in what was given to Moses and Jesus; and in what was given to the prophets-from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and to Him we surrender." If they believe in the same as you have believed in, then they have been guided. But if they turn away, then they are in schism. God will protect you against them; for He is the Hearer, the Knower." (2:136-137). The same Quranic commands and meanings are addressed to Muhammad and to Quran-believing people in all eras: "Say, "We believe in God, and in what was revealed to us; and in what was revealed to Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the Israelite tribes; and in what was given to Moses, and Jesus, and the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and to Him we submit." Whoever seeks other than Islam (i.e., submission to God) as a religion, it will not be accepted from him, and in the Hereafter he will be among the losers." (3:84-85); "The Messenger has believed in what was revealed to him from his Lord, as did the believers. They all have believed in God, and His angels, and His scriptures, and His messengers: "We make no distinction between any of His messengers." And they say, "We hear and we obey. Your forgiveness, our Lord. To you is the destiny."" (2:285). Consequently, those who make distinction between messengers of God (e.g., by elevating Jesus or Muhammad above the rest as deities) are disbelievers in terms of faith; this grave sin is committed by the Muhammadans who insist on adding the words (Muhammad is the Prophet of God) forcibly beside the only true and complete testimony of monotheism found and repeated in the Quranic text: (There is no God but Allah); thus making it a dual testimony of two deities. This is utter, pure polytheism. Shiites add their deity named Ali beside the names of God and Muhammad, thus making it a tripartite testimony of three deities. This is utter, pure polytheism. Likewise, names of Ali and Muhammad are added in prayers, call to prayers, pilgrimage, etc. If the Muhammadans of all sorts would not repent from such grave sins, these verses will apply to them: "Those who disbelieve in God and His messengers, and want to separate between God and His messengers, and say, "We believe in some, and reject some," and wish to take a path in between. These are the unbelievers, truly. We have prepared for the unbelievers a shameful punishment." (4:150-151). In contrast, God says the following about real believers: "As for those who believe in God and His messengers, and make no distinction between any of them-He will give them their rewards. God is Forgiver and Merciful." (4:152). Certainly, it is strange that while God has given us a clear book (i.e., the Quran) via Muhammad to reveal true religion of God and while Muhammad as a mortal prophet strove with it and suffered persecution in order to preach it and convey the eternal message of (There is no God but Allah), the Muhammadans would dare to deify Muhammad after his death as a god or a demi-god beside Allah!    

 

Thirdly: the beginnings: (B) human beings were one community, but they are now the nation of Christ, nation of Muhammad, nation of so-and-so, etc.:

1- All human beings at first were one nation under the motto or the eternal message of (There is no God but Allah), submissive only to God and to no human beings at all, adhering to the divine message/book conveyed by messengers and prophets, using the Book as the criterion to judge and settle any differences in religion. The beginning of injustice against God's religion was to ascribe falsehoods and lies to His religion. God says the following about all people: "Humanity used to be one community; then God sent the prophets, bringing good news and giving warnings. And He sent down with them the Scripture, with the truth, to judge between people regarding their differences. But none differed over it except those who were given it-after the proofs had come to them-out of mutual envy between them. Then God guided those who believed to the truth they had disputed, in accordance with His will. God guides whom He wills to a straight path." (2:213).   

2- Divine revelations conveyed to all prophets and messengers assert the fact that people are one community despite differences in eras, locations, and circumstances, but schism and disputes begin afterwards and divined people into parties and sects, with each of them having 'holy' books or writings that contradict the divine tawatur which has been discarded and abandoned as a result. This has occurred in the history of the Israelites, the Christians, and the Muhammadans: "We gave Abraham his integrity formerly, and We knew him well. When he said to his father and his people, "What are these statues to which you are devoted?"" (21:51-52); "But they tore themselves into sects with books; each party happy with what they have." (23:53); "This community of yours is one community, and I am your Lord, so worship Me. But they splintered themselves into factions. They will all return to Us." (21:92-93).   

3- Hence, schisms usually occur after the era of a messenger or a prophet ended, and divine books are discarded and divisions occur into sects with each authoring their own books, and each named after a mortal defied person or founder of a doctrine. Such devilish tawatur is fabricated by Satan/Iblis. This sad truth occurred in all eras before and after the advent of Islam by the revelation of the Quran. God warns beforehand the real Quran-believing people (Quranists or People of the Quran) against the sin of differences leading to schisms committed by people in ancient eras and commands them to adhere only to the Quran without dividing themselves: "And hold fast to the rope of God, altogether, and do not become divided. And remember God's blessings upon you; how you were enemies, and He reconciled your hearts, and by His grace you became brethren. And you were on the brink of a pit of fire, and He saved you from it. God thus clarifies His revelations for you, so that you may be guided … And do not be like those who separated and disputed after the clear proofs came to them; for them is a great punishment." (3:103-105).  

4-  Yet, the Quran has been discarded by the Muhammadans who claim to be the nation of Muhammad and divided themselves into many sects, doctrines, and denominations. Each Muhammadan sect has subdivided into other sub-creeds and sub-doctrines, until we have in modern times the monster called the Muhammadan Sunnite Ibn Hanbal doctrine Ibn Taymiyya Wahabi nation that wreaks havoc and cause terrorism worldwide.

 

Fourthly: the beginnings: (C) the unjust devilish tawatur or revelation that ascribes falsehoods to the divine revelation:

1- As per this Quranic verse: "Humanity used to be one community; then God sent the prophets, bringing good news and giving warnings. And He sent down with them the Scripture, with the truth, to judge between people regarding their differences. But none differed over it except those who were given it-after the proofs had come to them-out of mutual envy between them. Then God guided those who believed to the truth they had disputed, in accordance with His will. God guides whom He wills to a straight path." (2:213), we conclude that the differences in matters of religion begin with unjustly ascribing falsehoods and lies to God's religion or divine tawatur/scriptures.   

2- The divine sharia is essentially one and the same within all messages conveyed by all prophets, especially regarding not to be divided: "He prescribed for you the same religion He enjoined upon Noah, and what We inspired to you, and what We enjoined upon Abraham, and Moses, and Jesus: "You shall uphold the religion, and be not divided therein."…" (42:13). Division occur by ascribing fabrications added to divine religion and divine scripture: "They became divided only after knowledge came to them, out of resentment among themselves. Were it not for a predetermined decision from your Lord, judgment would have been pronounced between them. Indeed, those who were made to inherit the Book after them are in grave doubt about it." (42:14). This is why God tells us, and has told Muhammad, not to follow whims and inclinations of others, as they are based on devilish tawatur that carries injustice and schisms, and God will judge and settle such differences on the Day of Resurrection: "To this go on inviting, and be upright as you were commanded, and do not follow their inclinations, and say, "I believe in whatever Book God has sent down, and I was commanded to judge between you equitably. God is our Lord and your Lord. We have our deeds, and you have your deeds. Let there be no quarrel between us and you. God will bring us together, and to Him is the ultimate return."" (42:15).

3- Likewise, People of the Book were divided after receiving the divine scriptures as they resorted to injustices and falsehoods and followed their whims and inclinations instead of the divine guidance and revelations: "Those who were given the Book did not splinter, except after the Clear Evidence came to them. They were commanded only to worship God, devoting their faith to Him alone, and to practice regular prayer, and to give alms. That is the upright religion." (98:4-5). God has ordered Muhammad not to follow their footsteps: "And We gave them precise rulings. They fell into dispute only after knowledge came to them, out of mutual rivalry. Your Lord will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection regarding the things they differed about. Then We set you upon a pathway of faith, so follow it, and do not follow the inclinations of those who do not know."(45:17-18).

4- In the same vein, the testimony uttered during prayers is the verse 3:18, as asserted by the very next verse 3:19, within the context of describing the People of the Book whose schisms occurred as they ascribed falsehoods forcibly to God's religion and true scriptures: "God bears witness that there is no god but He, as do the angels, and those endowed with knowledge-upholding justice. There is no god but He, the Mighty, the Wise. Religion with God is Islam. Those to whom the Scripture was given differed only after knowledge came to them, out of envy among themselves. Whoever rejects the signs of God-God is quick to take account." (3:18-19). The Muhammadans refuse to utter 3:18 in the testimony during prayers; they have invented with the passage of time other phrases uttered during prayers instead, mentioning their saints. Hence, they follow the footsteps of the People of the Book and divided into sects with 'holy' books that contradict the divine revelation: "…And do not be like the polytheists; those who divided their religion, and became sects; each faction pleased with what they have." (30:31-32). 

5- Satan/Iblis is the major agent here; divine tawatur or revelation is opposed by devilish tawatur to misguide people and create disputes, schisms, enmities, and conflicts: "Likewise, We have assigned for every prophet an enemy-human and jinn devils-inspiring one another with fancy words in order to deceive. But had your Lord willed, they would not have done it. So leave them to their fabrications. So that the hearts of those who do not believe in the Hereafter may incline to it, and be content with it, and that they may perpetrate whatever they perpetrate. "Shall I seek a judge other than God, when He is the One who revealed to you the Book, explained in detail?" Those to whom We gave the Book know that it is the truth revealed from your Lord. So do not be of those who doubt." (6:112-114). The Quran repeatedly tells us that the most unjust people are those who deny God's verses and ascribe lies and falsehoods to God; we believe that among such people are 'holy' imams revered and sanctified by the Muhammadans. Some readers shudder with rage or fear! when we in our Quranist writings criticize and undermine ideas and persons of 'holy' mortals like Al-Bokhary, Al-Shafei, Malik, Ibn Hanbal, etc. This rage and/or fear indicates deification of mortals, the gravest sin of polytheism that goes on for centuries until now!

 

Fifthly: God warns all Quran-believing people against disputes and divisions, the trap in which People of the Book have fallen:

1- We have mentioned before in this book the Quranic verses warning Muhammad, and of course all believers, against following whims and inclinations of the People of the Book so as to avoid polytheism of creating sects, and we repeat one example here: "…And do not be like the polytheists; those who divided their religion, and became sects; each faction pleased with what they have." (30:31-32). Muhammad has been commanded in the Quran to disown such creators of schisms and God will judge them and judge their disputes: "As for those who divided their religion and became sects-you have nothing to do with them. Their case rests with God; then He will inform them of what they used to do." (6:159). The last one among the Quranic Ten Commandments entails us to adhere only to the Quran alone, and not to other books, to avoid schism: "This is My path, straight, so follow it. And do not follow the other paths, lest they divert you from His path. All this He has enjoined upon you, that you may refrain from wrongdoing." (6:153) 

2- Schisms are solved by using the Quran as a criterion in all eras and locations, as the Quran is the final message of God and the remaining messenger after the death of the mortal messenger/prophet Muhammad, as we discern from the following verse: "O you who believe! Obey God and obey the messenger…if you dispute over anything, refer it to God and the messenger, if you believe in God and the Last Day. That is best, and a most excellent determination." (4:59). God tells us how to avoid such schism and injustice: "Whatever matter you differ about, its judgment rests with God. "Such is God, my Lord, in Whom I trust, and unto Him I repent."" (42:10); ""Shall I seek a judge other than God, when He is the One who revealed to you the Book, explained in detail?" Those to whom We gave the Book know that it is the truth revealed from your Lord. So do not be of those who doubt." (6:114).

3- This lifetime on earth is a test for each of us; every person is free to believe or disbelieve, to obey or disobey, and this freedom of choice will be judged by God in the Hereafter. God never sent down angels to force humans to believe in Him; rather, He made us free to choose our stance and revealed a Book to guide people. Schisms of the Muhammadans would not have taken place if they would have used the Quran as a yard-stick or criterion to measure and settle everything if they really believe in the Last Day: "…And if you dispute over anything, refer it to God and the Messenger, if you believe in God and the Last Day. That is best, and a most excellent determination." (4:59). If they do not believe in the Last Day, they manipulate the Quranic verses and distort their meanings to their loss, whereas real believers increase their mercy and guidance using the Quran: "We send down in the Quran healing and mercy for the believers, but it increases the wrongdoers only in loss." (17:82). Those who manipulate the Quranic verses and distort their meanings to seek wealth, authority, and power are reflecting their hearts that are filled with deviation: "It is He who revealed to you the Book. Some of its verses are definitive; they are the foundation of the Book, and others are unspecific. As for those in whose hearts is deviation, they follow the unspecific part, seeking dissent, and seeking to derive an interpretation. But none knows its interpretation except God and those firmly rooted in knowledge say, "We believe in it; all is from our Lord." But none recollects except those with understanding." (3:7). We see now clearly why the Muhammadans are increasing their loss, conflicts, disputes, and schisms.

4- Using the Quran as a criterion, real believers thus seek the Quranic Truth regarding any topic of research, by researching through the Quranic verses without prior opinion or prejudice to seek guidance. Once they know God's stance, they stick to this Truth and declare and proclaim it without fearing blame from others, while waiting for the Eternal Judge to judge all humanity on the Last Day.

 

Lastly:

1- We have tackled earlier discrepancies, contradictions, and differences within the Sunnite pilgrimage; the Sufi and Shiite sharia laws concerning pilgrimage make us move to another new field of research, as both the Sufi and Shiite religions emphasize the worship and deification of things and dead persons while performing pilgrimage to mausoleums to worship at them, while disregarding and ignoring God, His Word, and His Sacred House.  

2- We tackle in the very next CHAPTER  pilgrimage within the Sufi religion.

 

 

CHAPTER II:  The Sufi Religion: A Historical Overview

 

 

Definitions of Sufism:

    Imams, or rather deities, of Sufism did not define Sufism in any way. We quote here from the book titled ''Al-Risala Al-Qosheiriyya'', which is akin to a sort of Sufi constitution or primer for beginners, authored by Al-Qosheiry: (… Many people have talked about Sufism an its meaning, and what is a Sufi, as each Sufi constitutes a separate unique state, and one cannot deduce a brief definition of Sufism as a result …) (Al-Risala Al-Qosheiriyya: 217). Hence, we conclude that each Sufi claimed to have had a unique experience, which offer myriads of definitions without on unifying link among them, because each Sufi would reflect his state differently using different diction, as whims and individual inclinations reign supreme in Sufi books. The so-called Sufi spiritual or mystical experiences were sometimes called ''trances'', ''exposure'', ''State of Being'' or ''meditation'' and so on and so forth. The Quran states clearly that whims and inclinations are opposite to the reasoning mind and invokes people repeatedly to use the reasoning mind to understand the Quran and reach pure faith dedicated entirely to God alone: "Have you seen him who chose his desire as his god? Would you be an agent for him? Or do you assume that most of them hear or understand? They are just like cattle, but even more errant in their way." (25:43-44). Hence, as Sufis follow their desires and whims, they seldom have minds to appreciate and discern Quranic verses an teachings; this is why they have been divided into so many orders and sects in their turn. Hence, each Sufi order or school has its own terminology, rites, formalities, dress code, practices, books, etc. that differ from one era to another (Al-Risala Al-Qosheiriyya: 218).       

 

Divisions of Sufis:

  Differences and divisions in Sufism began in determining the origin of the term itself: is it from the Arabic words souf (i.e., wool) or safaa (i.e., purity) or the Greek term for wisdom (Sophia) (Al-Risala Al-Qosheiriyya: 217). Al-Qosheiry, after showing different possible sources of etymology, he decides that none of them are completely true to denote the true meaning of Sufism, as the Sufi trends appeared in the 3^rd century A.H. as per whims and different views of those sheikhs who founded fabricated this new earthly religion while being influenced by many trends at the time.  

 

Sources of Sufism:

  Differences in views about the origins and sources of Sufism abound as per each location of mystical literature: Indian Sufism, Greek Sufism, Persian Sufism, etc. Hence, it is wrong to attribute Sufism to one origin per se, as each Sufi in different eras has various backgrounds, environment, life experiences, education, culture, previous religious affiliations dominant in the region, etc. even when two or more Sufis were at the same city and era. Hence, we can assert here that the Pharaonic religion greatly influences Egyptian Sufis past and present. For instance, Zu Al-Noon Al-Masry, who was a famous Egyptian ascetic Sufi, used to roam within the wilderness and to stay long times alone in Pharaonic Temples (see: Khetat Al-Makrizi: 1/63, 386, and 387, printed edition of 1324 A.H., and Moroj Al-Dhahab: 2/401).     

 

Between Islam and Sufism:

1- People for centuries assumed that Sufism is a branch of Islam or a 'spiritual' approach to it. nothing could be further from the truth. This Quranic verse shows that no one is to add anything to God's religion after perfection of it by revealing the last Quranic verse: "Today I have perfected your religion for you, and have completed My favor upon you, and have approved Islam as a religion for you" (5:3). Therefore, Sufism has nothing to 'add' to Islam/the Quran; and any Sufi or non-Sufi addition is never acceptable and should never be deemed as part of Islam. If on rare occasions, Sufism and Islam share anything in common, we do not need Sufism as well because we have the Quran itself and it is enough for true believers. God will judge us based on His revelation: "This is My path, straight, so follow it. And do not follow the other paths, lest they divert you from His path. All this He has enjoined upon you, that you may refrain from wrongdoing." (6:153). Likewise, as for the countless Sufi things and items that differ from the Quran, we do not need them either, because the Quran is enough and is the sole criterion and guide for real believers in God. Hence, Quranism is enough as real and only Islam, and we do not need Sufi, Shiite,  or Sunnite religions and their sub-creeds and sects; one must choose either the Quran alone or the sources of misguidance, and one cannot combine both simultaneously. "Such is God, your Lord-the True. What is there, beyond the truth, except falsehood? How are you turned away?" (10:32); "Follow what is revealed to you from your Lord, and do not follow other allies beside Him. Little you remember." (7:3).    

2- Huge differences between Islam (the Quran) and Sufism is mainly focused on legislations. Within the Quran, God is the only Legislator for Muhammad and real believers, whereas in Sufism, Sufi imams are legislators for their followers or disciples as per whims and trances. The crime of such Sufi sheikhs or imams is that they lend legitimacy for their human man-made laws by claiming that they are inspired by God! It is a Quranic fact that no divine revelation will ever come since the completion of the Quranic revelation. Hence, to believe that a Sufi saint or imam would receive 'divine' knowledge means to sanctify him and his views, and deifying him after his death to worship his tomb/grave. This is a common point in all Sufi orders. Islam oppose such myths; God in the Quran is the Only One Who is the Creator, Owner of the Judgment Day, the Ally, the Saintly, the Redeemer, the Omniscient, and the Omnipotent, and yet, Sufi imams would usually claim their control of the universe and the Last Day. as redeemers and intercessor, and their receiving divine revelations as partners with God! Real believers implore only God for aid, not Sufi saints who claimed for themselves many divine abilities and epithets as deities or demi-gods. Another huge abyss of differences between Islam (the Quran) and Sufism is  concerning faith tenets. The basic tenet of Islam is (There is no God but Allah), as per this verse: "Know that there is no God but Allah, and ask forgiveness for your sin, and for the believing men and believing women. God knows your movements, and your resting-place." (47:19). No creature resembles God in His epithets and abilities: "…There is nothing like Him. He is the Hearing, the Seeing." (42:11); "Say, "He is God, the One. God the Absolute. He begets not, nor was he Begotten. And there is nothing comparable to Him." (112:1-4). As for the countless Sufi tenets and creeds, the main one of them is the pantheistic notion of 'unity of existence' (i.e., here is nothing exists except for God). this means that nature, the universe, and humans are part of God or are constituting God Himself! This is utter blasphemy; this means that there are no boundaries and barriers between God and His creatures who are manifestations of Him! hence, a Sufi saint, sheikh, or imam might incarnate God or divine will! They might receive divine revelation that must be incorporated to religion! Such nonsensical notions that flagrantly contradict the Quran led to the worship of mausoleums of the so-called saints!           

3- Sufism, asceticism, and mysticism are terms never mentioned in the Quran; however, monasticism is mentioned negatively in the Quran (and this does not serve Sufism and/or asceticism at all): "…But as for the monasticism which they invented-We did not ordain it for them…" (57:27). Notably, Sufis of all eras tried in vain to link Sufism to monasticism and asceticism. Fabricators of hadiths never mentioned the term ''Sufism'' because it was never known in Arabia during 7^th century A.D. when the Quran was revealed; yet, they authored hadiths about the poor and ascetics. They implied by such notions the ''Sufis'' of course (although being poor always meant the dire need for money to get basics of life); so as to refer to them indirectly and they did not dare to claim they existed during Muhammad's lifetime. The very first time in which the word ''Sufism'' is mentioned in traditional books is in a book by Al-Jahiz titled "Al-Bayan wa Al-Tabyeen" (see part 1/ p. 233). Ibn Khaldoun is right when he writes that Sufism is an invention added to Islam and never an essential or original part of it (see ''Introduction of Ibn Khaldoun'': 467). But Ibn Khaldoun is wrong when he writes that Sufism is a branch of knowledge; Sufism has no methodology and has no room at all for the reasoning mind. Sufism is a religions of whims and desires that emerged two centuries after Islam (the Quran).      

4- Sufism is generally of two major types: religious Sufism and philosophical Sufism. The former type contradicts Quranic faith tenets and sharia as we have explained above, and Quranists reject it. The latter type is rejected by Quranists as well; philosophizing about religious matters is very wrong as it leads to debating over religious Sufism that expands and branches in new terminology and theories which are in their turn used to produce erroneous interpretations of the Quran. each Sufi sect or order has its own set of terms with various levels meanings; for instance: Dhikr (i.e., remembrance and group recitals), whirling dervishes, visitation, conditions, state, illumination, annihilation, fakir, awareness, perfection, incarnation, reincarnation, ardent love, psyche, soul, stages, steps, miracles, wonders, disciple, master, unity, union, drunkenness, manifestation, the Way, tasting, Light, Tawheed (oneness), Qutb (literally 'a pole' or 'a magnet', i.e., spiritual infallible leader), unveiling, veiling, permanency, substitutes, etc. In many cases, some terms are borrowed from the Quranic text but given by Sufis some new meaning(s) unrelated to the Quranic usage at all; e.g., ''ally'' in the Quran is used in Sufi orders to mean a ''saint''.          

 

Between Sufism and asceticism:

  Many people saw that asceticism is a transitional, preliminary stage that preceded emergence of Sufism in the 3^rd century; among those people is Ibn Al-Jawzy in his book where he differentiates between asceticism and Sufism by asserting that the former is a preliminary stage before the latter, as degrees of asceticism of Sufis differ a lot from that of monks and monastics (see ''Talbis Iblis'' by Ibn Al-Jawzy: 155). We personally think that asceticism was developed away from the path of Sufism, as asceticism remained independent of and different from Sufism in later centuries. Al-Ghazaly in his book has rebuked some ascetic ones for their overemphasis on acts of prayers, while attacking some Sufis who stopped performing any acts of worship as they claimed to be united or communion with God as part of Him! (See: Ehiaa Olom Eddine "Revival of Religious Sciences" by Al-Ghazaly 3/199, 341-343, and 344-347). Yet, the era of Al-Ghazaly witnessed the formal acknowledgement of Sufism as if part of Islam, and some ascetic people converted to Sufism in parts of Persia and the Arab world. Yet non-Sufi ascetic ones went on to exist even during the Ottoman Era when Sufism was the dominant earthly religion; for instance, Al-Jabarty the historian in his book mentions an ascetic man in the 12^th century A.H. named Mustapha Al-Azzizi who died in 1154 A.H. and describes his biography; see ''Ajaeib Al-Athar'' by Al-Jabarty: 2/36, 1959 edition. As for the Mameluke Era, most ascetic ones in it were scholars and theologians who share none of the features of Sufis at the time. By the way, asceticism was not criticized in the same manner and degree as was the case with Sufism; this proves that the former was never a preliminary stage that led to the latter, as they differ in nature and practices. Sufism began by declaring the notions of disbelief in the Quran, and this led to the fact that some Sufi pioneers were persecuted and killed in the Middle Ages. In contrast, ascetic ones were admired by the masses because they desire nothing from the worldly possessions, glory, power, and authority; things that were being fought over by most people at the time. Indeed, historical accounts show that the pioneers of Sufism were the cause behind this overlapping between asceticism and Sufism in the 3^rd century A.H.; because in their attempts to defend their Sufi religion and offer a sort of written apologetic literature for that purpose of defense, they linked earlier ascetics to Sufism as if they were precursors to Sufi orders. This lie has spread despite the fact that most of ascetic people in the 1^st and 2^nd centuries A.H. (e.g., Hassan Al-Basry and Sufyan Al-Thawry, as per written about them) never talked about Sufi notions at all of any type. Yet, Sufis had fabricated narratives to make such dead ascetic ones appear as if they were pioneers of Sufism. Sufis of course made use of experiences of ascetics at first and both the Sufi and the ascetic trends never collided, quarreled, or overlapped. The real conflict and strife occurred between Sufis and Sunnites in the Middle Ages.               

 

Beginning of Sufism:

   In order for us to find the right perspective, let us begin with the faith tenets and notions; Islam is a faith with its tenets and notions and so is Sufism. Of course, for Quranists, religions on earth are two types. The first type is God's celestial religion, Islam (submission to God), ordained to people and conveyed through God's prophets in all languages; it means total submission to divine commands of God and no other commands of any one and it means peacefulness with all peaceful people. "Religion with God is Islam. Those to whom the Scripture was given differed only after knowledge came to them, out of envy among themselves. Whoever rejects the signs of God-God is quick to take account." (3:19); "Whoever seeks other than Islam as a religion, it will not be accepted from him, and in the Hereafter he will be among the losers." (3:85). The second type is any earthly, man-made religion where personal desires and whims control and dominate. Such fabricated religions are based on distorting God's true religion by ascribing to it falsehoods and lies and by sanctifying and deifying mortals (prophets, imams, saints, etc.) along with God. this is polytheism and disbelief overlapping and mixed together with no difference at all between them. Of course, God's religion pre-exists in human history any other earthly religion: "So devote yourself to the religion of monotheism-the natural instinct God has instilled in humankind. There is no altering God's creation. This is the true religion, but most people do not know." (30:30); "And when Your Lord summoned the descendants of Adam, and made them testify about themselves. "Am I not your Lord?" They said, "Yes, we testify." Thus you cannot say on the Day of Resurrection, "We were unaware of this."" (7:172). Adam, father of humanity, was a prophet and messenger for his progeny: "God chose Adam, and Noah, and the family of Abraham, and the family of Imran, over all humankind." (3:33). After him, all prophets preached the same religion and faith of (There is no God but Allah) in their own tongues of course: "We never sent a messenger before you without inspiring him that: "There is no God but I, so worship Me."" (21:25). Hence, later on, the last message was conveyed by the last messenger of God and in Arabic. Surely, there is an ongoing conflict between the faith of Islam and the faith of polytheism, and this conflict is repeated in Quranic stories of prophets. For instance, Noah bore patiently all types of harm until he emerged victorious at the end with few ones who believed with him as God saved them from the deluge/flood. With the passage of time, polytheism re-entered hearts of the their grandchildren (people of Aad), God sent them another messenger, Hud, who in his turn bore patiently all types of harm while reminding his people of what happened to their ancestors, y saying to them: ""Are you surprised that a reminder has come to you from your Lord, through a man from among you, to warn you? Remember how He made you successors after the people of Noah, and increased you greatly in stature. And remember God's blessings, so that you may prosper."" (7:69). Peoples who rejected God's message conveyed by messengers were smitten by the Lord in many generations, until a messenger, Saleh, tells his people of Thamood: ""And remember how He made you successors after Aad, and settled you in the land. You make for yourselves mansions on its plains, and carve out dwellings in the mountains. So remember God's benefits, and do not roam the earth making corruption."" (7:74). Hence, the conflict and struggle between true faith and the false one would end in the victory of the messenger, and after he died, polytheism would emerge again disguised in many forms and calls; for instance, a messenger (e.g., Jesus) and his followers would be loved so much to the extent of being deified, sanctified, and worshipped until another one would be sent (e.g., Muhammad) and again he was deified, sanctified, and worshipped along with his companions. The Quran tells us all details about polytheism and its features and refutes them so that we avoid them. God preserves the Quran till the end of days to serve as warning for all people, especially those who repeated the above story of polytheism and deification of mortals, despite their having the Quran at their homes, abandoned and discarded. In fact, the Muhammadans have distorted meanings of Quranic verses and invented discourses and narratives to supplant God's religion. Hence, this shows that the struggle and conflict between Truth (Islam) and polytheism did NOT end by a final victory of Muhammad shortly before he died; ancient polytheistic tenets re-emerged under the motto of 'Islam' and dominated the cultural and religious scenes and persecuted the minority of real Quran-believing people in Mecca. The earliest signs of polytheism emerged once Muhammad died as renegades' movements among those who claimed to be 'prophets' who received divine revelations and predictions, and such movements were directly linked to tribalism, despise, and distain as non-Meccan Arabs resented the fact that Qorayish controlled the Kaaba, as some rebels and renegades refused to pay zakat that the first caliph, named Abou Bakr, collected in Yathreb. When Abou Bakr managed with his troops to quell and crush renegades and rebels, he was influenced by the Umayyads (especially Mu'aweiya Ibn Abou Sufyan who was to become later on the first Umayyad caliph) to unify the belligerent, bellicose Arabs into one aim to get them busy and channel their exerted military efforts elsewhere: Arab conquests. Of course, as we have mentioned before in our writings, this crime of Arab conquests has been a flagrant violation and infringement of Quranic teachings. Among the first nations conquered by Arabs were the Levant, Iraq, Iran (Persia at the time), and Egypt; all of them are civilizations with huge legacy and heritage of pagan philosophy, heathen creeds, and nationalism. Soon enough. The Persians mostly hated Arabs, Arab culture, Arab language, and the religion that came from Arabia. At the same time, Arabs justified their Arab conquests and civil wars by employing earthly religious legislations, narratives, and hadiths that came later on to be known as the Sunnite religion. Sunnite hadiths spread as oral traditions at first during the Umayyad caliphate and they were written down along with the so-called fiqh and man-made sharia legislations within the Abbasid caliphate. The Persians were persecuted during the Umayyad caliphate, but when they helped the Abbasids establish their dynasty, they became so close to the throne of caliphs; many of the Persians longed to reject what they thought to be 'Islam', and many atheists and apostates took pride in showing off their lack of faith or their re-adopting old Persian creeds during the First Abbasid Era. Some over-ambitious Persians tried to gain political independence and rebelled after gathering military troops and reviled in public what they thought to be 'Islam', but strong Abbasid caliphs quelled and crushed all revolts. After their military defeat, the Persians shifted their resistance methods during the Second Abbasid Era by adopting intellectual opposition to undermine and cast doubts upon the Quran/Islam by supporting the Sunnite religion as a first step. This is the reason why pioneers of fabrication of Sunnite hadiths at the time were Persians, such as: Al-Bokhary, Moslem, Al-Nisaa'i, Al-Termidhey, Ibn Maja, etc. Simultaneously as a second step, Persians manipulated the Shiite religion by making it gradually overlapping with their ancient creeds as they were interpolated in the Shiite notions, while mixing them with certain nationalistic, political notions. Of course, the Sunnite Abbasids repressed and oppressed Shiites for a long time. The third and last step adopted and applied by Persians was to invent the Sufi religion to undermine the Quran/Islam. Sufi religion did not start from scratch; rather, it has been partially and offshoot of the Shiite religion that formed the very foundations of Sufism, minus political agenda. Thus, Sufism began as a faith, with a certain set of beliefs and rituals, by non-Arab pioneers who were disciples of major Shiite sheikhs and imams. For instance, the Sufi pioneer Maaruf Al-Karkhy was a former Christian who converted to the Shiite religion, and he was a Sufi master who taught many disciples like Al-Sirry who in his turn taught as a master Al-Jeineid, the one who came to be known later as the Master of the Sufi Order. Maaruf once said to his disciple, Al-Sirry, that if he needed to implore God for anything, he must invoke Maaruf (after his death) to intercede on his behalf to God! (Al-Risala Al-Qosheiriyya: 15, 16, and 32). Hence, Maaruf initiated the idea of invoking Sufi saints as intercessors on people's behalf before God, a notion inherent in Sufi creed tenets and faith but foreign to Islam and against the Quran.  When Abbasid caliphs became weaker as Turkish military leaders controlled the caliphate, Sufis seized the chance to form their network of sheikhs/imams and disciples that contacted one another in Egypt, Iraq, the Levant, and Hejaz by what came to be known later on as Sufi tourism. They raised the banner and motto of (the love of God) to hide their theories of becoming one with God (thus saints were deified) and unity of existence. Despite weakness of Sunnite Abbasid caliphs, they tried, imprisoned, persecuted, exiled, executed, and murdered many Sufi pioneers at first. Many of the Sufi pioneers, like Al-Jeineid, had to claim that their order was circled around the Quran and Sunna. (Al-Risala Al-Qosheiriyya: 15, 16, and 32). Al-Jeineid, of course, was lying to avoid being persecuted or declared as an apostate, as he taught Sufism to his disciples privately at home after closing all doors and putting the keys under his thigh. Many people cast doubts on him nevertheless because of his words, and he had to cover his speeches and lessons with words borrowed from Sunnite fiqh to keep on his activities inside his home. Many Sufi sheikhs were tried by caliphs, such as the Egyptian Sufi Zu Al-Nun Al-Masry, but the zenith of persecution was in 301 A.H. when the famous Sufi sheikh-cum-poet Al-Halaj was tried (for years) and finally executed after being accused of apostasy, by the Abbasid caliph, mainly for political reasons. (Al-Tabakat by Al-Shaarany: 10, 13, and 14). Until this day, Al-Jeineid remains as the imam of 'moderate' Sufis because he feigned to believe in the Quran and in the so-called Sunna, and those who used to deny Sufism and describe it as un-Islamic would be convinced by the exact opposite, as they were deceived by claims of Al-Jeineid; even Ibn Al-Jawzy quotes Al-Jeineid in his book to prove Sufism as compatible with Sunna (Talbis Iblis: 158 and 162). However, few words written and ascribed to Al-Jeineid by others, as he wrote no books at all, prove him that he was never a Sunnite but only a Sufi, as he saw that a Sufi must be secretive about divine revelations granted to him by God! Al-Jeineid even claimed that he learned many secrets from God for 30 years as he slept daily under a staircase in his house! (Al-Risala Al-Qosheiriyya: 31 and 32). Hence, Al-Jeineid introduced the notion of ('divine' knowledge) assumed to be granted to Sufi saints. Thus, Sufis were such inveterate liars indeed! Therefore, there is no such a thing as 'moderate' Sufis who tried to reconcile Sufism and the Sunnite religion. With the passage of time, conditions and circumstances changed for the favor of Sufis and people no longer rejected them as apostates who forsook the Sunnite religion, and Sufism spread the more among youths. In their turn, Sufi sheikhs avenged themselves from their adversaries and foes among the Sunnite scholars and theologians by urging caliphs to persecute them, especially Ibn Hanbal and his Sunnite followers. Such religious conflicts went on for centuries.                                              

 

Spread of Sufism:

  Ibn A-Jawzy mentions in this book that Sufis began to open their doors to the masses to coax them to join their Sufi orders by making parties in streets with chanting verses, dancing, and singing in, and the masses who sought 'heaven' felt relieved by ascetic Sufis, while the masses who sought merrymaking were very pleased at such parties of group dancing and singing (Talbis Iblis: 155-156 and 161-162). Sufis did not entail any prior Sufi/Sunnite/Shiite knowledge or study of theology from any novices; indeed, they opposed fiqh and rejected it as useless, misleading tool by claiming that only Sufis owned 'divine' knowledge granted to them freely and directly (without mediators) by God! Sufis gained more ground as many youths and masses of both genders joined them as they preferred Sufism to hard studies of fiqh, and hence, Sufi orders gained more power and money to the extent that in many eras, they dominated over certain societies. The vast majority of people or the masses in all eras are described in the Quran as not using their reasoning minds to understand and that they do not believe in God except through being polytheists. major Sufi sheikhs were flexible enough to channel any public angry anti-Sufi trends, aroused by Sufi blasphemous claims, into public ire against certain ex-Sufis who deserted their orders, while never allowing anyone to attack Sufism itself. For instance, Al-Qosheiry attacks certain Sufis in his book and leveled many accusations at them, but he essentially defends Sufism in many other respects. He attacks the fact that many Sufis gave up acts of worship, dedicated their time for carnal lusts and appetites, violated many prohibitions of Islam, disrespected sharia laws, and deified themselves as per Sufi concepts of communion and unity with God. He accuses some Sufis of rejecting 'true' principles of Sufism; yet, his quoted words from 'moderate' Sufis prove they contradicted the Quran and even the Sunnite religion. It was a habit to follow accusations leveled at some Sufis by defending ancient Sufis of previous eras, in order to protect and defend Sufism itself against extremist Sunnite theologians and scholars who hated Sufis and Sufism as their traditional foes and adversaries. (Al-Risala Al-Qosheiriyya: 4 and 5). This method is adopted by Al-Ghazaly, who died in 505 A.H., as he leveled the same accusations at some of his Sufi contemporaries in his seminal book titled ''Ehiaa Olom Eddine'' (i.e., Revival of Religious Sciences: 3/199 and 3/343). Al-Ghazaly became an important author for Sufis as he attacks in his book all ascetics, Sunnite extremist scholars and imams, collectors of hadiths, and other grammarians and philosophers to defend Sufism (Ehiaa: 3/257-258, 301-303, and 333-341). Indeed, he sides with concepts of unity and divine love etc., fabricated many hadiths, and distorted interpretations of many Quranic verses (Ehiaa: 3/23-25 and 242-246, 4/14, 17, 18, 22-28, 68, 74-77, 83-85, 94, 100, 102, 104, 211-228, 254-269, 271- 288, and 291-299).  Ehiaa Olom Eddine has become a bible for all Sufis to impose their creeds on the Islamic world and thought, especially as Al-Ghazaly reconciled Sunnite and Sufi religions in a manner that silenced Sunnite scholars at the time, as he focused on the spiritual aspect lacking in Sunnite fiqh and required by Sufis. Even some Sunnite scholars had to acquiesce and attacked only some blasphemous statements expressed by certain Sufis and they no longer attacked Sufism per se. Thus, the masses were attracted more to Sufism endorsed by Sunnite scholars, and Sufi orders expanded and spread throughout the 3^rd and 4^th centuries A.H., but the golden age of Sufism was the 6^th century as it became the official and formal religion of caliphate, long after the death of Al-Ghazaly. The major Sufi orders were as follows. Al-Rifaaiyya order was established by Ahmed Al-Rifaai (died in 570 A.H.). Al-Jilaniyya order was established by Abdul-Kader Al-Jilani (died in 651 A.H.). Al-Shaziliyya order was established by Abou Al-Hassan Al-Shazli (died in 656 A.H.). of course Sufi order played a major role in spreading Sufism among all social strata; extremist Sufis managed to create propaganda to their orders, especially by ascribing some orders to the names of famous Sufi 'saints': Al-Akbariyya Sufi order was named after Ibn Araby, whose title was Al-Sheikh Al-Akbar, while Al-Sab'eeniyya Sufi order was named after Ibn Sab'een Al-Morsi. During the Mameluke Era, Sufism turned into mere rote learning and memorization of tenets of the ancient Sufis, adding many interpretations of them in many books, and applying their teachings, and yet, new Sufi orders emerged; the Mameluke Era Sufis were busy spreading branches of already established Sufi orders everywhere, as per the fame of the sheikh/saint and the number of followers, but many followers left their already established orders (e.g., Al-Ahmadiyya, Al-Shaziliyya, Al-Sotohiyya, etc.) to form new orders of their own. Of course, there was slight differences between the old orders and the new ones: dress codes, color of banners, manners and texts of Dhikr, and names of saints/sheikhs. Yet, essentially, all Sufi orders were similar. With the passage of time, Sufi orders spread the more and their saints became more holy to most people, whereas the religious culture and knowledge of Sufi sheikhs lessened a great deal but their dominance over and defeat of their intellectual foes among Sunnite fiqh scholars increased more than ever. While Al-Jeineid had to hide his Sufi beliefs within Sunnite fiqh terminology in the 3^rd century A.H. for fear of persecution while claiming to his close disciples to receive divine revelation of his own, Ibrahim Al-Disouky, a Sufi sheikh during the Mameluke Era and founder of Al-Disoukiyya Sufi order, used to assert and declare in public that he controls fates of Hell and Paradise and that whoever visited him, he would be admitted to Paradise! He used to assert to his close disciples that if they were true to his covenant with him, he would grant them sharp senses and intellect after his death and canonization! (See Al-Shaarany: 1/153-157). His disciples used to write his words while taking pride in him, whereas Al-Halaj was put to death for uttering blasphemous words in public (this was the overt reason; he was executed for political reasons) and other Sufi sheikhs were exiled, harmed, punished, and persecuted. In contrast, the Mameluke sultans made such blasphemies (i.e., insults to God) as part and parcel of the features of a real Sufi saint that people must venerate and worship! Even Al-Shaarany in his book praises a contemporary late Sufi saint as per his 'great' blasphemies uttered in public! (See Al-Shaarany: 2/118).                       

 

Sufism Controlled the Mameluke Era in Egypt:

  A quick reading or skimming within some pages of historical accounts and periodicals of the Mameluke Era will show how Sufism dominated over the masses at the time in Egypt. The practiced Sufism tenets asserted that the dead Sufi sheikh/saint will continue to grant benediction and blessings, and many well-known saints with lots of followers and worshippers are mentioned in books described as ''good one in faith'' or ''faithful real believers''. Despite the fact that Mameluke sultans were despots and absolute rulers, they usually submit to the Sufi sheikhs and sought to get their benediction and blessings all the time, as those sultans made Sufism as the official religion of the State and made use of it to control and divert the masses. For instance, the famous tyrannical Mameluke sultan Al-Dhahir Beibars, who was a fierce military leader and a shrewd political figure even before his ascendancy to the throne in Egypt, allowed a measure of authority to a Sufi sheikh named Khedr and ignored his debauchery and promiscuity, and the reason was that Beibars believed in his sainthood and miracles as a Qutb who can predict the future! (see "Nihayat Al-Arab" by Al-Nuweiry, a manuscript: 28/41, 119, and 120 and History of Ibn Katheer: 13/178 and 265). Likewise, Barqoq the Mameluke sultan with acumen and shrewdness used to submit to Sufi sheikhs who feigned to be 'mad' from receiving too much 'divine' knowledge; one of them was called Al-Zohory, who used to spit on the floor at court before giving pieces of advice to Barqoq. (See Enbaa Al-Ghamar: 2/57 and Al-Nojom Al-Zahera: 13/10). When Barqoq was erecting his madrassa to make clergymen teach people religious studies, a Sufi saint gave him a brick and ordered the sultan that this brick must be included into the building, and the gullible Barqoq assumed this brick to be a holy relic and put the brick within a lamp hung from the ceiling of a niche! This occurred in the 10^th century A.H. (See History of Ibn Eyas, 1/373). It was typical that a Sufi sheikh would totally control and dominate over his disciples even if some of them were princes and sultans. Even Al-Shaarany claims in his book that a Mameluke prince used to blindly obey him in all his biddings and used to consider disobeying Al-Shaarany as a grave sin that entailed expiation (with money) and to respect Al-Shaarany in his absence even more than while he was present. A Sufi sheikh would readily cuss and shout at a prince among his disciples for any reason! In return for such submission of the humiliated princes, Sufi sheikhs offered them nothing but empty words! Princes would send large sums of money and sumptuous meals to their Sufi sheikhs, asking them to admit them into Paradise in the Hereafter! It was customary for princes not to ask their patron Sufi sheikhs too much especially to lend them victory over foes. Even some people who needed any service from a prince would readily offer large rewards for his patron Sufi sheikh to exert his influence over the prince to help them. Princes obeyed blindly because they assumed that disobedience or enmity against sheikhs meant to invoke the wrath of God! they assumed that all their gravest sins would be pardoned by God if they obey Sufi sheikhs! If princes would ask their sheikhs for anything like benediction, advice, or prediction, they must ask them in a most humble manner as they could. A prince would never reproach his sheikh for anything said or done, even if the sheikh looked lustfully at the prince's wives and daughters! (Al-Shaarany ''Irshad Al-Mughafaleen'', a manuscript in Cairo Library (Dar Al-Kotob), no. 921, pages 138-139, 233-237, and 247-272). Thus, Sufi sheikhs made themselves gods or demi-gods dominating over their disciples and Mameluke princes and sultans, while gaining lots of money, food, and clothes etc. while giving void words to the masses, without bearing any responsibility for the gullible princes. Of course, if it had not been for dominance of Sufism as the dominant religion for all people at the time, those cunning Sufi sheikhs would never have dared to exert such influence to control princes to live luxuriously at their expense, in a weird sort of relation that did not match tyrannical nature of such princes and sultans. The ancient mosques and monuments in Cairo, Egypt, that date back to the Mameluke Era bear witness as a proof that Sufism and Sufi sheikhs/saints reached the pinnacle of fame and stature at the time and exerted great influence on even the cruelest of sultans. Most of the Mameluke monuments were erected to serve religious, social, and intellectual  activities of Sufism, as there were madrassas to prepare scribes to summarize, explain, and later on teach Sufi ancient books without inventing anything new, and Sufi curricula were prepared to be taught to all people and they influences even Sunnite scholars who no longer had any authority at the time and their intellectual level dwindled; even extremist Sunnite scholars like Ibn Taymiyya and his disciples within his school of thought were expelled from Egypt when they dared to undermine and criticize Sufism. At the same time, the masses revered, honored, and worshiped illiterate Sufi saints/sheikhs, and this is a sign that the Mameluke Era despised science and reasoning minds. The masses as well as upper classes (judges, scholars, rich men of trade or land, princes, etc.) at the time invoked, supplicated, and implored living and dead Sufi saints as a social norm and a religious habit or rite, regardless of character, age, and looks of the assumed living saint: a negro slave, a female child, a drunkard old man, etc. (See Ibn Eyas: 2/277 and 4/165). For instance, Abou Al-Mahasin the historian writes about a sheikh called Yahiya Al-Sanafeery, who was a drunkard who hardly remained sober, and yet, when people assumed him to be a living saint, in spite of himself for no reason, many judges, scholars, rich men of trade or land, princes, etc. chased him for benediction but he ignored them, and when they annoyed him as they gathered in multitudes, he would throw pebbles at them, but this made them more infatuated for him as a 'true saint'! eventually, he fled to live among mountainous areas. (See ''Al-Manhal Al-Safy'', a manuscript: 5/481 and Al-Nojom Al-Zahera: 11/118-119). Another living saint was a Sufi sheikh called Shams Eddine Al-Hanafy, who allowed the masses to keep as relics his falling hair in every time he shaved at the barber's and people fought to get a tress of his hair as a source of benediction treasured at their homes! (See ''Al-Tabakat'' by Al-Shaarany: 2/183). Likewise, the masses fought their way to touch the garment worn by a Sufi sheikh named Al-Dashtouty to get his blessings. (See ''Shazarat Al-Dhahab'' by Ibn Emad Al-Hanbali: 8/130 edition of 1351 A.H.). the same applied to Al-Dayrouty. (See ''Al-Kawakib Al-Sayyara '' 1/84-85, editions of 1945, Beirut). Even Al-Shaarany commented on such habit by saying that the same used to occur as pilgrims would vie to touch the Kiswah of the Kaaba. (See "Tanbeeh Al-Mughtareen" by Al-Shaarany: 93-94, edition of 1278 A.H.). Even Al-Shaarany mentions about himself that when he once attended a funeral, people disregarded the funerary procession to bury the dead person and gathered in great multitudes to kiss his hands and touch his clothes. (See "Lataeif Al-Minan" by Al-Shaarany: 263, edition of 1988 A.D.). When a Sufi saint/sheikh died, people vied for getting the water used for washing his corpse before burial and the garments he wore when dying as a source of benediction and blessing, and when Al-Shennawi, a Sufi sheikh-saint, died, people were mad with great and shock and fought fiercely to touch his coffin, and people had to bury him later on without telling anyone about the timing to avoid their impeding the funerary procession once again. (See ''Tuhfat Al-Ahbab'' by Al-Sakhawy: 370 edition of 1302 A.H., ''Zibdat Al-Fikra'' by Al-Dawdar, a manuscript in Library of Cairo University no. 24028: 9/475, ''Tabakat Al-Shafeiyya'' by Al-Sobky: 6/127, ''Al-Tabakat'' by Al-Shaarany: 2/117).                        

 

Lastly:

 The Ibn Hanbal doctrine scholars used to persecute Sufis in the 3^rd century A.H., but when Sufis dominated the Mameluke Era in the 8^th and 9^th centuries A.H., Sufis urged sultans to persecute Sunnite scholars, such as Ibn Taymiyya and his followers. Sufis dominated all the political, cultural, social, religious, civilizational, and moralistic aspects of the Mameluke Era, and this has been the topic of our Ph.D. thesis at Al-Azhar University. Domination and prevalence of Sufism went on throughout the Ottoman Era, and Azharite Sunnite Sufis at Al-Azhar in the 18^th and 19^th  centuries used to vehemently oppose the Sunnite Wahabism that emerged first in the Najd region in Arabia. Sufism dominated Al-Azhar and Egyptian life very much in the first half of the 20^th century to the extent that preachers of Wahabism in Egypt had to discard the appellation of ''Wahabism'' and to re-christen it as Sunnite Salafism so that the Egyptian society would accept their presence and preaching gradually. In the second half of the 20^th century and now in the early decades of the 21^st century, scholars and sheikhs of the Sunnite Ibn Hanbal doctrine Wahabism dominate in Egypt and persecute Sufis and restricts Sufism. What would happen next by Wahabis in Egypt?         

 

 

CHAPTER III: The Sufi Religion: Overview of Sufi Tenets

 

Introduction:

  The main tenets of Sufism shared by all Sufi orders (and deemed as blasphemous by Quranists) are as follows: 1) unity of existence (i.e., pantheism; nature and creatures are part of God), 2) incarnation and reincarnation (i.e., God is incarnated inside the bodies of Sufi saints), and 3) union or communion with God (i.e., the will of Sufi saints is the will of God as they receive His divine revelations). Of course, there is only hazy barriers between these three tenets, as they mean virtually the same; the mortal Sufi saint is assumed to be united with God and the spirit of God would enter him so that he commands people and do acts supposedly ordained by God, and this entailed the notion that all creatures and nature, and the whole universe, are part of God. Thus, for Sufis, God is One with many manifestations in His creatures, and pure Sufi saints can reach such Nirvana-like status to ascend to heavens and contact God and then return to people to tell them about 'divine' revelations they received! Thus, the divine will is never set apart from the human will and the will of each creature! It is more or less the same to assume that God 'descends' to 'engulf' a Sufi saint or 'enters' his body or to claim that saints fly into the heavens to contact God! Such a Sufi notion of union or communion with God has been taken from pagan creeds as well as Christian Sufism and other ancient traditions as well. We will briefly mention below the Sufi tenets as explained by Al-Ghazaly and then comment upon them.  

 

Firstly: Al-Ghazaly (450:505 A.H.) and his Sufi creed in his book (degrees of Tawheed):

  In his book titled ''Revival of Religious Sciences'' (Ehiaa Olom Eddine), Al-Ghazaly asserts that Tawheed means complete union between God and saints so that their senses are at one with God and this would grant saints 'divine' knowledge that could never be acquired by any Sunnite scholars! Al-Ghazaly writes a lot about the ascending degrees of the so-called Tawheed, between superficial and overt degrees till the pulp or core ones, as the fourth degree would enable a Sufi saint to watch God and talk to Him and God would talk to him while the Sufi would be unaware of his body, or his physical being, and remain unconscious of people and creatures around him on earth! The first degree is when a man would utter the testimony of Islam (There is no God but Allah), while his heart is absent from the Light of Truth, like the masses and hypocrites among 'Muslims'. The second degree is when the heart wholly accepts and senses the meaning of the testimony that overwhelms existence and physical being of a man. The third degree is when the Sufi would watch visions and myriads of items and the Divine Light emanating from one source (i.e., God) as he draws nearer to Creator. The fourth and last degree is when the Sufi is at one with God and united with Him wholly to the extent that he is no longer aware of his body and things and creatures around him in a stance of frenzy or a trance, when he sees only God engulfing him and all earthly existence. [1]    

 

Secondly: our comments regarding Al-Ghazaly:

   It is illogical in the writing of Al-Ghazaly to make hypocrisy as part of degrees of those who claim to be in the first degree of sainthood; this notion is never mentioned by disciples of the school of thought by the first Sufi saint and master Al-Jeineid. Besides, Al-Ghazaly makes the true Islamic testimony of monotheism mentioned in the Quran as part of the belief of the masses; this is utterly wrong, as most masses are polytheists who deify relics, tombs, items, and mortals, whereas the true testimony is absolutely right as per the Quran, when linked with belief and good deeds without worshipping anything or anyone else. Al-Ghazaly dares to declare that only the masses fear death or getting killed, whereas real Sufi sheikhs and saints never fear death or getting killed as they do not care for Hell of Paradise in the Hereafter; they only care for union and visions received as a result from this assumed union [2]. Hence, Sufis committed the sin of self-deification as deities alongside with God and claimed they were more important to Him than all prophets! The book of Al-Ghazaly is filled with countless sentences in which he ridicules the Quranic notions or perceptions of Hell and Paradise! [3] Al-Ghazaly was impertinent enough to claim that good 'Muslims' among the masses can never reach the highest degree of his supposed Tawheed, even if those masses include erudite scholars and philosophers who top the class of masses as per Sufi hierarchy! Al-Ghazaly claims in his book that only those who see the Light can be elevated to the third and fourth degrees, without specifying how Sufis can prove it! how come a Sufi would claim he would receive divine revelation?! This entails a new religion emerging after Islam and contradicting the Quran! This is why Sufis rejected and disregarded the Quranic text altogether, as it contains no Sufi tenets at all! To claim that doers of all good and bad actions are actually executing deeds of God is utter blasphemy that contradicts the following Quranic verse: "Whatever good happens to you is from God, and whatever bad happens to you is from your own self. We sent you to humanity as a messenger, and God is Witness enough." (4:79). Hence, this Sufi notion of fatalism is one of the basic Sufi tenets that makes God residing in nature and creatures and controlling them, thus there would be no meaning for judgment in the afterlife followed by Hell or Paradise! This is why Sufis never write about the Hereafter except with distain and ridicule! They care only about self-deification, to the extent that Al-Ghazaly claims that the state of 'annihilation' is when a Sufi would lose feeling or become no longer being conscious of the physical world and his own body in order to be one with God and see God in all things! This is of course utter blasphemy. Despite the fact that many scholars have written books and letters to refute, undermine, mock, and deny the views of Al-Ghazaly, he never discarded his views and faith tenets, and he insisted in his book titled "Problematic Points in Ehiaa" that his views are basic Sufi tenets and stages for all Sufis to follow, and among those points, he re-explains the meaning of visions witnessing the Light of God and how the state of Tawheed (oneness with God) is attained to the extent of seeing God in all creatures and things on earth [4].           

 

Thirdly: pantheism in the many-volume book "Ehiaa Olom Eddine" authored by Al-Ghazaly:

1- Al-Ghazaly in his writings uses all his intellectual faculties, tools, and abilities as well as his deep knowledge of philosophy and logic branches in order to prove and explain the concept of unity of existence, though he exaggerates and writes fallacies and illogicalities more often than not; he insists that all creatures and their actions are commanded by God and part of His divine epithets in order to prove that all existent things in the universe are part of God, as if God cannot exist apart from the creatures! Al-Ghazaly insults God further by asserting that God is the All-Seeing Eye of all creatures! He claims that this all Sufis saints feel this while in the state of annihilation of the self to dissolve within God as part of Him in a communion never imagined by the masses! [5]. Hence, Al-Ghazaly  claims that all creatures and actions on earth (and in the whole universe) are mere manifestations of God's deeds and will, thus ignoring on purpose the Quranic Chapter 112 that refutes all falsehoods and lies he propagates in his book titled ''Ehiaa''; indeed, there are many Quranic verses that prove that Epithets and Omnipotence of God has nothing to do with human abilities, deeds, and powers.

2- Al-Ghazaly within many lines in his book mixes between creatures as created by the power of the Lord and God's Omnipotence and Being, by claiming that all created things and souls are mere manifestations of the Light of God[6].

3- Al-Ghazaly mixes all the time between descriptions, epithets, deeds, and actions of human beings and those of God as if they were one in nature by virtue of being created by God [7], and this nonsensical notion of unity of existence is behind such claims; he assumes that God is like any worker, carpenters, smiths, etc. that create things, because he created such people who did those things! Thus, 'divine beauty' is the Sufi notion that shows divine manifestations on all beings and existent things on earth [8]. Al-Ghazaly  mocks and ridicules the masses whose ignorance and shut-off minds prevents them from experiencing what he describes in his book [9]. Al-Ghazaly  claims that only Sufi saints who are elevated enough in God's presence can feel what he says and can see God residing in all natural items on earth; this concept is extensively drawn upon by Sufi poets in their long and short poems [10]. The tenet of unity of existence has made Sufis not to differentiate between God and His creatures because physical items on earth and within the universe are for them deemed as manifestations of the Creator. Thus, Al-Ghazaly says that a human being is part of God when at communion and the state of unconsciousness of annihilation that only few people (i.e., Sufi saints) could reach [11]. Al-Ghazaly compares human beings to God when he asserts that God is One and countless are His creatures, and likewise, the human being has countless cells in the physical body to receive and sense all states and visions and revelations from God by myriads of ways! Thus, Al-Ghazaly would prove the notion of unity of existence while ignoring the Quranic fact that God does not resemble anything in the universe and the whole existence: "…There is nothing like Him. He is the Hearing, the Seeing." (42:11).

4- After insulting God by comparing Him to a human being, Al-Ghazaly goes on with his insults by comparing the Lord with other natural items like the moon, the sea, the river, and the sun [12].

5- Al-Ghazaly evades quoting the Quranic verses, while he tries to prove his views, by claiming that Sufi secrets are not to be written in books as this is forbidden by God! Al-Ghazaly claimed that divulging Sufi secrets revealed to saints/sheikhs is blasphemy against God, while asserting that those secrets have nothing to do with fiqh and hadiths [13].

6- Al-Ghazaly makes the concept of unity of existence as the foundation of union between Sufi saints and God by means of incarnation or being united with Him as one whole being, by asserting that within the state of annihilation, Sufi saints never perceive the worlds and realms and not even themselves; they perceive only God Himself! [14]. Al-Ghazaly dares to name such ecstatic trance or frenzy as 'divine love' and hence, people may offer thanks and praises to Sufi saints (lovers of and beloved by God!) as though they offered them to God exactly! This is similar to Al-Ghazaly earlier notion of creatures and humans as part of God [15]. This means also that Al-Ghazaly  thinks that even disbelievers are made so by God's preordained fate and hence deserve to be loved by God as they are part of Him as well! [16]. To make humans incarnate God, Al-Ghazaly disregards on purpose the following Quranic verse: "Those who disbelieved will be addressed, "The loathing of God is greater than your loathing of yourselves-for you were invited to the faith, but you refused."" (40:10).

7-  Hence, the three Sufi tenets of 1) unity of existence, 2) incarnation and reincarnation, and 3) union or communion are in fact identical; the second one is the opposite of the third: instead of ascending to heavens to hear God, God (in their Sufi faulty views) would descend to manifest Himself inside bodies of Sufi saint, while both tenet are linked with the first one [17]. Al-Ghazaly uses the method of narrating stories to prove his points; he once has written that a Sufi saint swooned and no one could wake him up for a whole night, and then he woke up after losing his consciousness for night as his souls ascended to the seventh heaven to be united with God to receive divine revelations [18].

8- Al-Ghazaly  assumes that Sufi saints feel the presence of God inside their cells of the body and in their hearts by various degrees as per their own levels within the heavens and within nearness to God as far as they could physically bear it. In such cases, Al-Ghazaly assumes that the Sufi sheikhs would fly into heave and leave their disciples and novices, who might die if they try to catch up with their sheikhs because they are weak and unready! [19]. Al-Ghazaly  assumes here that the degrees of oneness and being united with God in a communion differ from one sheikh to another and from all disciples from their Sufi sheikhs, as per physical abilities of their bodies lest they should die, and Al-Ghazaly supports his views by fabricating many stories and anecdotes [20]. By such falsehoods ascribed to God by Al-Ghazaly, he tries to prove incarnation of God inside Sufi saints by any means and the description in the following verse fits him perfectly: "Who does greater wrong than someone who invents falsehood against God, or says, "It was revealed to me," when nothing was revealed to him, or says, "I will reveal the like of what God revealed"? If only you could see the wrongdoers in the floods of death, as the angels with arms outstretched: "Give up your souls. Today you are being repaid with the torment of shame for having said about God other than the truth, and for being too proud to accept His revelations."" (6:93).

 

Fourthly: our comments on Al-Ghazaly and unity of existence:

1- From the above points, we discern how on the one hand, certain heathen philosophies go as far as the extreme of denying God's existence, whereas other philosophies on the other hand go as far as the other extreme: claiming that God resides in all nature and creatures as He is the Creator and Source of all things that are deemed as manifestations of His presence. Of course, pagan authors centered in in Egypt, Persia, Iraq, and the Levant learned oriental philosophies and the Greek ones, with their polytheistic notions and some other concepts pertaining to atheism and negations of metaphysical realms. Before the advent of Islam, such philosophies influenced Christian thinkers, scribes, theologians, and clergymen for centuries and led to many conflicts and disputes over the nature of Christ. This made such ancient, pagan philosophies be incorporated into Christian theology in Europe and the Middle East. Upon the Arab conquests of many regions that formed an Arab empire, such philosophies were hushed down for decades, and they returned with a vengeance in the form of incessant debates between Christians and the Muhammadans in the Abbasid Era, especially during the reign of the caliph Al-Maamoun, son of Harun Al-Rasheed. This drove Sunnite scholars to learn ancient philosophies to refute and debate those Christian authors who were trained very well in using sophistry and casuistry. The Muhammadans should have resorted only to the Quran and its arguments addressed to the People of the Book; instead, they admired pagan philosophies immensely and revived ancient doctrines, concepts, and theories to incorporate them into Muslim thought, especially the concept of unity of existence.                 

2- Al-Ghazaly learned the arts of debating, casuistry, sophistry, discussions, dialectics, philosophies, branches of logic, etc. and excelled in all these fields. As a passionate lover of philosophy, he loved Sufism and its philosophical stance which is similar to Platonic theory of forms (i.e., things as images reflecting higher, metaphysical reality) that Al-Ghazaly admired and made it above the source of Islam (the Quran) as he tried to reconcile the Sufi myths forcibly with Islam, using countless philosophical ideas to prove his views which are un-Islamic as they contradict the Quran. The dominant intellectual trends at the time favored and welcomed his wrong ideas, despite some Sunnite scholars' refutations of "Ehiaa". Some of the ideas of Al-Ghazaly insulting to Islam include the claim that certain polytheistic notions are inferred from the Quran itself! He claims that Islam is in medial position between polytheism and monotheism! He claims as well that all believers in God will eventually be the same before the eyes of the Lord! These notions oppose the Quran; Al-Ghazaly supports some views of Kalam philosophers despite his vehement and virulent attacks on most of their views in other volumes of ''Ehiaa'' [21], we attribute this to his being greatly and deeply influenced by pagan ancient philosophies.

3- We refute below ideas of Al-Ghazaly, especially the unity of existence, by asserting the Quranic facts and tenets. 

3/1: The Islamic faith cannot possibly lie within a medial position between any two items or notions; the Quranic testimony of faith (There is no God but Allah) means that deification of anything and anyone is refuted and negated first before testifying deification of our Creator, Allah, after denying the existence of any other deities or demi-gods worshipped beside Him: "Such is God, your Lord-the True. What is there, beyond the Truth, except falsehood? How are you turned away?" (10:32). Therefore, the basic tenet of (There is no God but Allah) entails no medial or in-between position; it requires complete belief in God the Omnipotent and Controller of everything without partners and associates (i.e., mortals like prophets and saints, or any non-human beings). By the way, any 'little' amount of polytheism by sanctifying persons or things/items/relics annuls all the rest of the amount of belief in God; faith and belief in God must be 100%.  Again, there is no way that one can combine Quran-based monotheism with polytheism. Let us remember that polytheists among people of Muhammad's time believed in God, but they associated with Him other pagan gods, idols, saints, mortals, intercessors, mediators, etc. and this deification of things/items and mortals made them polytheists and disbelievers, and hence, we find this Quranic rebuke for such people and their likes: "That is because when God alone was called upon, you disbelieved; but when others were associated with Him, you believed…" (40:12).   

3/2: Polytheism as a Quranic terms does not differ from the term disbelief, as we discern from this verse: "It is not for the polytheists to attend God's places of worship while professing their disbelief…" (9:17). Hence, the two terms are associated within many verses with worshipping of idols, deities, mortals, etc. alongside with God. let us remember that disbelief (Kufr, in Arabic) is phonetically and semantically similar to the word ''cover'' in English and in Arabic, implying the intentional act of hiding, shrouding, or covering one's innate monotheism and inherent belief in One God by polytheism.

3/3: In fact, within the innermost innate nature of human beings, they cannot deny the existence of the Creator and His deification as God of everything. This applies to polytheists as well; and if they think deeply enough, they will discover the absurdity of worshipping anything and anyone beside God, and atheists who think deeply enough about the universe will discover the absurdity and the meaninglessness of a Godless existence they imagine. As for polytheists, they do not deny God; they insist on forgetting the covenant with Him by worshipping items and mortals as mediators and intercessors. This covenant is mentioned in the following verse: "And when Your Lord summoned the descendants of Adam, and made them testify about themselves. "Am I not your Lord?" They said, "Yes, we testify." Thus you cannot say on the Day of Resurrection, "We were unaware of this."" (7:172). Hence, it is inherent in our human nature, and possibly the DNA, that God the Creator exists: "So devote yourself to the religion of monotheism-the natural instinct God has instilled in humankind…" (30:30), while polytheistic notions are acquired from one's environment.   

3/4: Hence, there is no room for the notion of denying God's existence that began within the debates and arguments of Greek philosophy. Hence, the Quran does not argue for proving God's existence, but for being the One God (monotheism) and for avoiding polytheism as an absurd unbelievable notion.

3/5: The Sufi faith tenet of unity of existence is very blasphemous and insulting to God as we have explained above about Al-Ghazaly; he tried to ascribe divine epithets to creatures and humans and human negative epithets and description to God. Al-Ghazaly thought that God resides in nature or that the universe/realm is part of Him, thus ascribing all actions of people to God! On the other hand, other tenets on earth at the time have insisted that God is transcendental and that the divine real differs from the realm of mortals as  a dichotomy even in most creeds that deified mediators and intercessors (angels and mortals). In contrast to such creeds, Sufis have decided that there is no two realms, but one realm of existence as per their tenet, and this tenet has driven them to deny God as if He does not exist except as manifested in creatures, nature, and the universe! This is utter disbelief and blasphemy! This has entailed them to assume countless gods/deities as per the number of beings on earth and in the universe! This makes Sufis worse than the Qorayish polytheists who thought that angels are daughters of God and that God is united with these 'female' angels, a tenet refuted in the Quran: "Yet they turn one of His servants into a part of Him. Man is clearly ungrateful and disbelieving. Or has He chosen for Himself daughters from what He creates, and favored you with sons?" (43:15-16). Sufis have made themselves as part of God Who dwells inside them! They dare also to claim that the universe is deified as part of God! It is disgraceful that Al-Ghazaly would write his many-volume book "Ehiaa" to convince readers to believe such balderdash! Al-Ghazaly claims within many paragraphs that Islam is merely a low step-one in the Sufi religion and fit only for the ignorant masses! We assert here that the ideas of Al-Ghazaly spread and dominated after his death not because of him or his book; rather, because in the incessant conflict between Islam and polytheism throughout human history, polytheism and disbelief dominate most minds of humanity and won most rounds in most human eras. Thus, Islam and Muhammad won  and defeated polytheism in a round that ended with his natural death, and soon enough, shortly after he died, the inevitable conflict went on. The final decisive victory between the Truth and falsehoods will be on the Last Day. This is why Sufism has emerged as the worst type of polytheism in terms of faith and belief, while raising the banner of Islam nominally, but Sufis have rejected the Islamic tenet of (There is no God but Allah) as a 'lowered' step for the masses and they propagated their nonsensical notions and tenets instead. The Sufism reigned supreme and victorious for centuries, while Al-Ghazaly and his book became leaders with certain titles, honorifics, and epithets, as if ''Ehiaa'' became the bible of Sufis and as if Islam/the Quran was 'lacking' until Al-Ghazaly was born and emerged in the 5^th century A.H. to complete it! Sufis claim that Al-Ghazaly was the best sheikh of Islam who defended it; we beg to differ, as he in fact opposed the Quran on purpose and defended Sufism. Al-Ghazaly was a veritable sworn enemy of Islam.                    

 

Lastly:

  After we have tackled in this CHAPTER how Al-Ghazaly deified Sufi saints/sheikhs and claimed they ascend to heavens to attend meetings and gatherings with the presence of God, let us tackle what Al-Ghazaly writes about Islamic acts of worship and how Sufis ignored, ignored, dropped, and canceled them, especially pilgrimage, in the next CHAPTER.

 

References:

 [1] Ehiaa: part 1/211-212.

[2] Ehiaa: part 4/22.

[3] Ehiaa: part 4/ 227-228, 254, 266, 299, 305, 308, 309, and 326 to name but few examples.

[4] Problematic Points in Ehiaa: 64.

[5] Ehiaa: part 2/247-248.

[6] Ehiaa: part 4/370.

[7] Ehiaa: part 4/104.

[8] Ehiaa: part 4/276.

[9] Ehiaa: part 4/277.

[10] Ehiaa: part 2/236.

[11] Ehiaa: part 2/212-213.

[12] Ehiaa: part 4/370.

[13] Ehiaa: part 4/212-213.

[14] Ehiaa: part 2/236.

[15] Ehiaa: part 4/74.

[16] Ehiaa: part 4/74.

[17] Ehiaa: part 4/213.

[18] Ehiaa: part 4/74.

[19] Ehiaa: part 4/305.

[20] Ehiaa: part 4/288

[21] Problematic Points in Ehiaa: 77.

 

 

 

CHAPTER IV: Sufism and Ignoring Islamic Acts of Worship

 

 

Firstly: religious duties and acts of worship between Islam and Sufism:

1- God has imposed on believers religious duties and acts of worship such as prayers, fasting, zakat, pilgrimage, etc. to attain piety and realize tenets and translate belief of their hearts by performing acts of worship and good deeds, thus obeying Gods' commands and heed His prohibitions by avoiding them. Of course, these acts of worship are for all believers in all eras including prophets and messengers of God, as the most righteous and pious of people are the real believers, including prophets and messengers, who will be rewarded by God in the Hereafter after the Day of Judgment. This is a basic tenet in Islam/Quranism.   

2- As for the Sufi religion, self-deified Sufi sheikhs who adhered to heretic notions explained in the previous CHAPTER have made their second step; they dropped and ignored all Islamic duties and acts of worship. Because they have assumed themselves to be part of God or the manifestations of God on earth, they would not pray, fast, etc. like the rest of mortals! Of course, their call to ignore and drop acts of worship was made indirectly and in a vague style in their writings so as not to shock the conservative societies of the Middle Ages. For instance, in the Sufi book titled "Al-Lamaa", the author Al-Toussy writes that the Sufi saint named Al-Shibly rebukes one of his disciples for uttering the verse 1:5, telling him that it is illogical that one united with God to pray to himself, as no acts of worship is necessary for Sufis as no deities pray to one other! [1].

 

Secondly: Al-Ghazaly and his attempt to reconcile Islam and Sufism regarding ignoring acts of worship:

1- We have mentioned that Al-Ghazaly aimed in ''Ehiaa'' to reconcile Islam and Sufism, and this drove him to misinterpret on purpose many Quranic verses and he fabricated countless hadiths as well ascribing them to Muhammad. Al-Ghazaly wanted to convince his readers that the Quran does not deny Sufism and that Sufism is elevated above everything else and every other tenets. Indeed, Al-Ghazaly made use of Sufi terminology, used by Sufis to deify themselves, in most of the paragraphs of his many-volume book. Hence, the Sufi writer Al-Ghazaly was faced with the problem that he needed justification of Sufis dropping and ignoring. The methodology of Al-Ghazaly in his book, ''Ehiaa'', was that he denounced the notion of dropping and ignoring acts of worship in some paragraphs, and to endorse this very notion in other paragraphs using Sufi terminology and lame excuses and pretests on the one hand, and using deliberate misinterpretations of Quranic verses as well as hadiths fabricated by him (without series of supposed narrators and without mentioning sources or books from which the supposed hadiths and narratives are quoted) to serve his purpose on the other hand. Al-Iraqi, a Sunnite jurist or scholar of fiqh, asserts in his writings that when he verified hadiths by many authors, he discovered that those fabricated by Al-Ghazaly are never mentioned elsewhere, and Al-Iraqi cast doubts on them. This has indicated clearly that Al-Ghazaly himself has authored such countless hadiths mentioned in ''Ehiaa''. 

2- At first, Al-Ghazaly denounces in his book the Sufi fakirs of his age who stopped performing acts of worship and urged others to imitate them if they want to reach higher degrees in the Sufi hierarchy and be elevated to be nearer to God and 'divine' knowledge [2]. Al-Ghazaly decried at first the fact that some Sufis felt that acts of worship impedes them or leading them to nowhere as far as reaching higher degrees in the Sufi hierarchy is concerned, and they rejected sharia and its duties and became disbelievers [3]. This means that the self-deified Sufis despised acts of worship and looked at them with distain as a matter confined to the masses and ordinary people and those need sharia laws, and some denied sharia laws as they hindered them in their Sufi order! This shows that Al-Ghazaly was aware that many people resented and denounced such a notion adopted by Sufis to drop and ignore acts of worship altogether, and he had to write that those faction of Sufi were disbelievers so as to protect Sufism from criticism by its enemies: the Ibn Hanbal doctrine followers and scholars.

3- Al-Ghazaly in his book ''Ehiaa'' justifies dropping and ignoring Islamic acts of worship as a basic Sufi tenet in an indirect, sly, and cunning manner typical of him throughout the volumes of his book. For instance, he writes that acts of worship aim at reaching insights and divine knowledge of the Truth and Light of God [4]. Such a claim might appeal to ordinary Sunnite scholars, but the real audience/readers of the book, i.e., Sufis, discern easily that the author is supporting wholeheartedly the notion of dropping and ignoring Islamic acts of worship, as every Sufi at the time knew that the assumed divine knowledge comes into the hearts and minds of Sufis from God directly without means or mediators: this is part of the notion of union with God; hence, those who reached this assumed level of reeving divine revelation did not need to perform any Islamic acts of worship if they are originally the means to attain such 'divine' knowledge. Al-Ghazaly justifies dropping and ignoring Islamic acts of worship as a basic Sufi tenet by providing proofs through story-telling to exemplify the tenet without having to repeat mentioning it over and over; he authors many stories about famous dead Sufi saints of his time who urged their worshippers that those who reached higher mystical degrees cannot go on performing acts of worship performed by the masses and ordinary people [5]. Within a fictional story, Al-Ghazaly makes a Sufi saint/sheikh named Abdul-Wahid Ibn Zeid assert to his disciples that a man who performed acts of worship for 50 years of his life had done nothing at all as all of them were annulled because he never reached degrees of mystical Sufism and he was never united with good by Sufi practices among Sufi worshippers. Hence, this story implies that Sufis can drop and ignore acts of worship because they claim to ascend to the heavens to enjoy talking to God and being talked to by Him as this is 'divine' love for them! It is noteworthy that Al-Ghazaly here contradicts his earlier view in ''Ehiaa'' when he denounces dropping and ignoring acts of worship. This contradiction shows him never ceasing in his unsuccessful attempt to reconcile forcibly Islam and Sufism who never share any single point or any tenet at all.  

4- Within other paragraphs, Al-Ghazaly tackles Sufi saints/sheikhs and Sufism and its assumed notions of inwardly or interior realm of knowledge received within the inner recesses of minds and hearts of Sufis, and he mentions Islamic acts of worship en passant when he mentions that the two Sufi saints Al-Halaj and Al-Khawwas got to talk and the former rebuked the latter for spending years in performing acts of worship that impeded his working on Sufi practices to reach elevated levels to be united with God, and how it is futile to go on like this to imitate the masses who worship and obey Quranic commands out of fear and seeking rewards while forgetting to contact God personally and be contacted by Him like Sufi saints; Al-Halaj told him that acts of worship hinder all Sufi practices and put veils on hearts of true Sufis  [6]. Here, Al-Ghazaly shows his true colors as a true, hard-core Sufi; he disdains and despises Islamic acts of worship and Quranic commands of God, claiming that Sufis are united with God and achieved oneness with Him, and therefore they do not need to perform or obey, while using Sufi terms (nearness, divine love, audience with God, to veil/unveil, transcending realms, etc.) to justify this weird stance. Al-Ghazaly presents here the Sufi notion of the futility of performing Islamic acts of worship as they are a waste of time for Sufis who are to get busy enjoying their divinity and self-deification! Al-Ghazaly no longer quotes the Quran in such paragraphs; rather, he quotes Al-Halaj and Al-Khawwas, while invoking the 'physical' love of God between and the saints by making Him and the Sufis like brides getting ready for the nuptials! This metaphor of oneness with God is very insulting to the Lord!   

5- This insulting metaphor in ''Ehiaa'' about unity of God with human beings reflects the view of Sufis about themselves as deities who are 'physically' united with God and equal to Him! it is strange that Al-Ghazaly would deem acts of worship, ordained by God in the Quran, as a veil barring Sufis from being near God; as they claim that they ascend to heavens and have audience with Him! Al-Ghazaly insults real worshippers (and messengers and prophets) as bad servants of the Lord, because they worship God out of fear and seeking reward of Paradise! How could he dare to insult those who obeyed Quranic teachings?! God repeatedly commands us to fear Him in piety and perform our duties ordained by Him, and He tells us about Paradise and Hell in the Quranic text, but Al-Ghazaly seems in his book not to have been a believer in the Quran in the first place. Hence, Al-Ghazaly despises servants of the Dominant Lord as they obeyed His commands, while Sufis are praised by him for seeking to be gods and deities! How did he dare to declare Islamic acts of worship as veils on hearts and minds?!   

 

Thirdly: Al-Shaarany and the attempt to justify ignoring acts of worship during the Mameluke and Ottoman eras:

  Within the Mameluke Era, Sufism became the formal, official religion of the caliphate, and thus Sufis enjoyed the freedom of self-expression in public and talked outspokenly about their tenets that include dropping and ignoring Islamic acts of worship. People at the time blindly believed in miracles and supernatural powers of Sufi saints/sheikhs (both living and dead ones!), which include that a Sufi saint can exist in many locations (or cities!) simultaneously, that he metamorphose into other shapes or creatures and regain human form again at will, and that he can move from one city/region to another in seconds! The masses among Sufis believed that Sufi sheikhs/saints never tell lies! A Sufi sheikh may claim he had been to the so-called imaginary place called Mount Qaf, or Mount Muqattam in Cairo, or cities like Mecca, Jerusalem, Yathreb, etc. to pray and got back to his city of residence in seconds! With such gullible generations of people, the way was paved to Al-Shaarany, one of the grand imams or masters of Sufism in the 10^th century A.H., to assert in his writings that were widespread within the Mameluke Era that those Sufis united with God should never perform any acts of worship to avoid tedium and imitating the masses! [7]. Of course, Sufis who were hypocritical would evade performing the five daily prayers by claiming they have prayed in such remote cities to where they can fly in lightning speed while breaking barriers of time and place at will! How absurd and ridiculous that most of the Egyptian people of the Middle Ages used to believe such nonsense!   

 

Lastly: a brief reminder:

1- Within this PART III, we tackle religious rituals within the Sufi religion especially concerning pilgrimage. We remind readers here that pilgrimage, just like prayers and other Islamic religious duties and acts of worship, are NOT new items introduced by the Quran; rather, they have been ordained in the religion of Abraham and all God's messages of Islam (i.e., submission to Him alone) conveyed by all prophets and messengers of God, because of the basic fact that the divine tawatur/revelation/legislation/sharia is essentially the same: "He prescribed for you the same religion He enjoined upon Noah, and what We inspired to you, and what We enjoined upon Abraham, and Moses, and Jesus: "You shall uphold the religion, and be not divided therein." As for the idolaters, what you call them to is outrageous to them. God chooses to Himself whom He wills, and He guides to Himself whoever repents." (42:13); "We have inspired you, as We had inspired Noah and the prophets after him. And We inspired Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the Israelite tribes, and Jesus, and Job, and Jonah, and Aaron, and Solomon. And We gave David the book of Al-Zabur." (4:163); "Nothing is said to you but was said to the Messengers before you: your Lord is Possessor of Forgiveness, and Possessor of Painful Repayment." (41:43); "It was revealed to you, and to those before you, that if you idolize, your works will be in vain, and you will be of the losers." (39:65). Of course, the divine books and messages of the ancient eras are lost, and the ancient people are gone or smitten by God's wrath. Abraham represents a distinguished phase in the history of prophets, as his progeny included the Arab Ishmaelites (who received one prophet after Ishmael; namely, Muhammad) as well as the Israelites who received many prophets. Within God's last message, the Quran, we find God urging all people to adhere to the religion of Abraham: which meant real and total submission of oneself, one's soul, one's acts of worship, and one's belief willingly, devotedly, and wholeheartedly to God/Allah. This is asserted in the Quran many times, as the Quran is the last divine message of God; it is God's Word preserved until Doomsday and addressed to all humanity (including Arabs, the goyim/nations/gentiles, and the People of the Book) to follow the religion of Abraham. "That was a community that has passed; for them is what they have earned, and for you is what you have earned; and you will not be questioned about what they used to do." (2:134); "Say, "God has spoken the truth, so follow the religion of Abraham the monotheist; he was not a polytheist."" (3:95); "And who is better in religion than he who submits himself wholly to God, and is a doer of good, and follows the faith of Abraham the monotheist? …" (4:125); "Say, "My Lord has guided me to a straight path, an upright religion, the religion of Abraham the monotheist, who was not a polytheist."" (6:161). Of course, the main feature of the religion of Abraham has been performing pilgrimage to the Kaaba in Mecca, as God has commanded Abraham to purify God's House and to erect its walls, urging all people to journey and visit it and worship there as a religious duty with certain rituals in this safe haven; see 22:25-26, 2:125, and 3:96-97.    

2- Of course, the dwellers of Arabia before the advent of the Quran were regarded as among the nations/goyim/gentiles or non-Israelites in general because they have not yet received any prophets or messengers or scriptures from God since the death of Abraham and Ishmael, unlike the case with the Israelites who received many prophets and messengers for centuries. Yet, dwellers of Arabia before Islam used to perform pilgrimage to the Kaaba along with People of the Book who resided in Arabia at the time, as both parties followed the religion of Abraham concerning pilgrimage, however distorted the rituals were in certain eras. As for Arabs before the advent of the Quran, they deified and sanctified saints (i.e., allies in the Quranic tongue) and built monuments and mausoleums dedicated for such saints and carved gods/idols of stone and wood and other material. These pagan idols were also put around the Kaaba, as each tribe would have an idol representing its deity/god there. Hence, the pilgrimage rituals were distorted as people visited and worshipped these idols/statues. Other locations in Arabia outside Mecca sometimes had their own kaabas plus other religious festivities and feasts celebrated at these places via certain rituals. Such corrupt ostentatious religious acts mixed religiosity and vestiges of faith with financial, social, and political interests and the pagan creeds served trade and provided the ideal atmosphere for sexual immorality as well (prostitution, etc.). Things and relations were complicated within a tight network that linked trade with corrupt beliefs. The Quran was revealed in order to correct and rectify distorted faith tenets and warped notions of belief, calling people to follow the monotheistic religion of Abraham, especially regarding dedicating acts of worship wholeheartedly only to God, without sanctifying and deifying mortals and items/things. Muhammad managed shortly before his death to convince Arabs in Arabia to return to the original religion o Abraham, especially regarding pilgrimage. Yet, once Muhammad died, the pagan, polytheistic devilish Qorayish tawatur returned gradually at first and then rapidly with a vengeance, codified later within Sunnite sharia laws as we have explained in earlier chapters of this book.             

3- When the Sufi religion emerged, with its rituals based on and derived from its tenets (e.g., oneness with God, unity of existence, the Muhammadan Truth, breaking barriers of time and place, etc.). this has influenced the Sufi duty of pilgrimage that has nothing to do with Quranic teachings and legislations about pilgrimage to Mecca. Hence, Sufis distorted the concept of pilgrimage in many ways; the Sufi stance vis-à-vis pilgrimage duty in Islam is divided into three directions that overlap and complete one another as follows. 

A) Sufis have called for disregarding and ignoring the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca and belittled and detracted the Kaaba.

B) Sufis have issued legislations of performing pilgrimage to living saints and dead ones at their mausoleums/graves, while adopting and adapting almost all rituals of Hajj to suit Sufi tenets and notions. 

C) Sufis have distorted Islamic rituals of pilgrimage to make them compatible with Sufism.

   It is noteworthy here that the stance of Sufis against Islamic pilgrimage matches and is very similar to their stance against prayers; Sufis distorted prayers by making them into supplication and imploring of saints, while making pilgrimage into merely visiting living saints/sheikhs and visiting their tombs/mausoleums to worship at them. Hence, with the spread of so many dead and living saints everywhere, people who followed Sufism and Sufi orders combined prayers, supplications, and pilgrimage together when visiting mausoleums and holding festivities and feasts to celebrate saints annually. Hence, the terms "to visit, to pay a visit" in Sufi terminology means to perform pilgrimage to mausoleums or to living saints/sheikhs at their homes, while the Arabic/Quranic term ''Hajj'' means literally ''to aim purposefully or journey intentionally to reach a place, but later on, the term was confined to journey toward and visit God's House in Mecca'' [8], and it means to flock or to come in groups for a certain purpose as well, especially to travel to Mecca in groups to seek performance of religious rituals at certain times [9]. Hence, pilgrimage literally means to seek to reach a certain place at a certain time to perform certain activities. This meaning in Arabic allowed Sufis to assume and propagate the notion that their mausoleums and monuments can be visited at certain times and occasions to be touched and be worshipped to seek benediction and blessings by performing certain Sufi rituals derived from and imitating rituals of Hajj in Mecca. Of course, this allowed pre-Islamic era traditions (i.e., paying visits/pilgrimage to pagan idols and 'holy' tombs, houses, and kaabas at certain seasons) to return in other forms that imitated Qorayish bad ways and habits; even financial interests of Sufis were similar to those of Qorayish that drove it to distort the pilgrimage true divine tawatur of the religion of Abraham and to make the performance of prayers and pilgrimage to mausoleums the main center of religious and economic life of a given society. More details on that topic are found in the following chapters in this book.

 

References:

[1] Al-Lamaa 53.

[2] Ehiaa 3/199.

[3] Ehiaa 3/199.

[4] Ehiaa 3/73.

[5] Ehiaa 4/299.

[6] Ehiaa 4/367-368.

[7] Al-Yawakeet wa Al-Jawaher 153.

[8]  Abou Bakr Al-Sajistany, entry: Quran p.73.

[9] Al-Razi, ''Mukhtar Al-Sihah'' lexicon of Arabic: entry: Hajj.

 

 

 

CHAPTER V: Sufis Call for Despising the Kaaba

 

 

Firstly: Sufis haughtily refuse to orient themselves to the direction of the Kaaba during prayers:

1- The famous Sufi writer/sheikh Ibn Araby writes that Muslims agreed upon orienting themselves to the Kaaba as a Qibla (i.e., the direction that should be faced or to which one should orient oneself while performing prayers) as part of conditions stipulated to make prayers acceptable to God, and if it had not been for this unanimous agreement, Ibn Araby would have excluded that stipulation! [1]. We sense in the words written by Ibn Araby that he casts doubts upon the Kaaba as a Qibla; this is indicated by the fact that he refers to the so-called 'unanimity' of Muslim nation or Umma, as if this assumed unanimity is the source of legislation and not the Quran. In fact, God commands in the Quran us to orient ourselves to the Kaaba: "We have seen your face turned towards the heaven. So We will turn you towards a direction that will satisfy you. So turn your face towards the Sacred Mosque. And wherever you may be, turn your faces towards it…" (2:144); "And wherever you come from, turn your face towards the Sacred Mosque. This is the truth from your Lord, and God is not heedless of what you do. And wherever you come from, turn your face towards the Sacred Mosque. And wherever you may be, turn your faces towards it…" (2:149-150). Prophet Muhammad and all Quran-believing people obeyed the Quranic command; we may wonder why Ibn Araby in the 7^th century A.H. would ignore the above Quranic verses by writing that deciding the Qibla for prayers has been done by unanimous decision-taking by mortals.       

2- During the Mameluke Era, the Sufi author Al-Shaarany followed the footsteps of his master/saint Ibn Araby in attempting to cast doubts on the Kaaba as a Qibla, by attributing this view to his master/saint named Al-Khawwas, who was illiterate, as he writes that Al-Khawwas repeatedly said to his disciples that Sufi saints who reached higher degrees can prayer toward wherever directions, as the spot of the Kaaba is not distinguished at all for him and Sufis in general, while disciples can still orient themselves to the Qibla during prayers, so as not to cause havoc in the minds of the masses who never follow their reasoning mind [2].  

3- It is funny that Al-Shaarany mentions the 'reasoning mind' as a pretext to refuse to acknowledge the spot of the Kaaba as a distinguished sanctuary; Sufis inn general reject reasoning minds as they impede, in their own views, 'divine' revelations and audience with God. Of course, the Sufis hate reasoning minds if they ponder on the Quranic verses; the Muslim real-believers' minds should obey Quranic commands of God without arguing or questioning like Sufis did, and therefore, the Quran-believing persons must accept the Kaaba as God's House made for pilgrims as a distinguished, chosen spot, while never committing the sacrilege of repelling others from this Ancient House during prayers and pilgrimage so as to avoid being punished by God: "God has appointed the Kaaba, the Sacred House, a sanctuary for the people, and the Sacred Month, and the offerings, and the garlanded…" (5:97); ""I was commanded to worship the Lord of this town, who has sanctified it, and to Whom everything belongs; and I was commanded to be of those who submit." (27:91); "As for those who disbelieve and repel from God's path and from the Sacred Mosque-which We have designated for all mankind equally, whether residing therein or passing through-and seek to commit sacrilege therein-We will make him taste of a painful punishment." (22:25). 

4- In fact, we tend to believe this Sufi attitude of casting doubts on the Kaaba and undermining it as a Qibla is derived from the deep-seated grudge and animosity toward it; the Sufis wanted to be the center of attention and direction for people to orient themselves and turn their faces to Sufi saints during prayers and pilgrimage instead of the Kaaba. The reason: Sufi sheikhs wanted to be worshipped by their disciples and others as saints during their lifetime, and orienting themselves to the Kaaba hinders this objective for Sufis sheikhs, as Abou Abbas Al-Morsi writes that he would rather have his disciples turn their faces toward himself as the Qutb Al-Ghawth (i.e., literally in Arabic, the pole of salvation, one of the degrees and titles within Sufi hierarchy of saints who were great Sufi masters) in prayers instead of the Kaaba [3]. Hence, Al-Morsi  writes that the Kaaba as a Qibla is for Sunnites to obey their Sunna and true Sufis must turn their faces toward Qutb Al-Ghawth instead if they want to be elevated in degrees of the Sufi hierarchy. Hence, Al-Morsi followed the footsteps of Ibn Araby in casting doubts on the Kaaba as a Qibla by undermining Quranic notion about the Kaaba. Al-Morsi was so proud as to claim himself as Qutb Al-Ghawth; he ardently desired that people would turn their faces to him in prayers to worship him, if it had not been for Sunna! Again, Al-Morsi claims falsely that Sunna is the cause of making the Kaaba as Qibla and not the Quran, in his views. The disciple of Al-Morsi, named Ibn Ataa, subscribed to the view of his master as he writes the biography of Al-Morsi in his book Lataeif Al-Minan, a book that Ibn Ataa dedicated to the Manaqib (i.e., praises, merits, good qualities, and miracles of saints) of his favorite two Sufi saints: Al-Morsi and Al-Shazily. Ibn Ataa mentions that a disciple rebuked him when he was about to perform the afternoon prayers while facing the Qibla, as he should direct himself instead toward Al-Morsi who was present with them, but Al-Morsi graciously demurred and told Ibn Ataa not to violate the Sunna, thus Al-Morsi had ceded his 'right' to be treated as Qibla to his disciples! [4].

 

Secondly: Sufis hate the Kaaba and circumambulation during Hajj:

1- Thus, Sufis urged people to sanctify and deify the living sheikhs and dead saints in mausoleums while they hated and despised the Kaaba by deeming it as a pagan idol or heathen cube of stone that hinders their project of attaining dominance, prominence, and self-deification! Al-Morsi, the Sufi saint or demi-god, urges people to remember God while performing pilgrimage and not to think of the Kaaba so as to avoid pagan forms of worship [5], despite his calling himself earlier Qutb Al-Ghawth to whom prayers and pilgrimage should be oriented. Of course, such a notion is basic in Sufi tenets, and even Al-Jeineid (who was - and still is - being considered as a 'moderate' Sufi who did not reject the Sunnite religion altogether and reconciled it with Sufism) mentions this notion within his didactic stories he authored to inculcate Sufi notions to readers. In one story, an anonymous woman mocked Al-Jeineid when he told her that he circumambulated the Kaaba, while she asserted that one is to circumambulate the Owner of the House (i.e., God), and she chanted lines of poetry indicating that silly, stupid men of hearts of stone worship a stone cube, because they lack deep faith making them nearer to God. upon hearing her, Al-Jeineid swooned and when he was awakened by others, the woman was gone [6]. Of course, this imagery story is authored by Al-Jeineid to legislate to his Sufi order named after him (Al-Jeineidiyya order) the notion that pilgrimage to the Kaaba is paganism and futile worship of stones; it is better for Sufi disciples to work on their inner self by imbuing Sufism to get rid of mortal bodies by being united wholly with God and the Truth, thus becoming deities as per the notion of the unity of existence, thus rendering pilgrimage to Mecca useless and needless!    

2- As a reminder, we assert the following points.

2/1: God is the Only Legislator in His religion; real believers must obey God's commands promptly even if they do not understand the intended purpose of the command. Thus, when angels were ordered prostrate before Adam, all of them did so except Satan/Iblis the rebel an disobedient one who is cursed. Despite the fact that God entails humans not to prostrate before anyone or anything else, we must believe what the Quran tells us about angels ordered to prostrate before Adam when he was created, without asking why this command was issued by God. another examples of the type of obedience God desires from real believers is when Abraham obeyed the indirect divine command in his dream and was about to slay Ishmael, and when his son was saved and Abraham was given a sacrificial animal instead, both Ishmael and Abraham succeeded in the test of obeying God without posing questions. Likewise, God is testing all real believers by duties, commands, prohibitions, and acts of worship required from them. Real believers obey without questioning and for the sake of the love of God. Among the Quranic commands of the Lord is NEVER to sanctify, glorify, or deify anything or anyone alongside with Him; yet, God commands us to circumambulate the Kaaba which is located at a certain location on earth, and we are to obey without asking about the reason behind this. Iblis/Satan argued and questioned the wisdom behind the divine command of prostrating before Adam, and he is cursed for it: "When We said to the angels, "Bow down before Adam," they bowed down, except for Iblis (i.e., Satan). He said, "Shall I bow down before someone You created from mud?"" (17:61). Those who follow the footsteps of Satan cast doubts on divine commands and pose questions aiming to disobey the commands, and then, they invent sharia laws and legislations of their own fashioning. Sufis of the Middle Ages followed the footsteps of Satan when their negative stance regarding the Kaaba drove them to deem it as a pagan idol, whereas their mausoleums and saints must be worshipped and sanctified and circumambulated in their religion fashioned, fabricated, and tailored to cater for their tastes and to serve their interests.         

2/2: The Muhammadan Sufis were (and still are) the people who mostly in their religious life worship mortals and tangible items; yet, they dared in the Middle Ages to deem the Kaaba as a pagan idol and to consider circumambulation as a pagan act of worship, despite the fact that they circumambulate their mausoleums and never deem this action as polytheistic at all! Sufis took advantage of the fact that the Kaaba is built using stone, that does not differ from any stone material used to sculpt idols, to cast doubts on the Kaaba and to deem it as a pagan symbol worshipped by pilgrims. Sufis forgot that the purpose of Hajj is NEVER to worship, sanctify, honor, or revere the Kaaba or its walls or stone; rather, pilgrims are to glorify, sanctify, and worship God who commands pilgrimage in that location, even if people do not understand the reason or the wisdom behind that command.    

2/3: The wisdom behind God's commands and prohibitions is above the human perception and understanding. Yet, in other eras, like our modern era, wisdom of some commands is shown to the world. For example, when God prohibits eating meat of dead animals, polytheists in the 7^th century Arabia argued against this, and the Quran has prohibited arguing with polytheistic disbelievers: "And do not eat from that over which the Name of God was not pronounced, for it is abomination. The devils inspire their followers to argue with you; but if you obey them, you would be polytheists." (6:121). This means we are not to argue with them so as not to resemble Satan the disobedient who argued with the Lord. In the  modern era now, science has proved that eating dead meat is very harmful for human beings and that slaughtering animals for food by making all its blood get out of these animals is a better way to prevent its being polluted and decomposed. Likewise, the wisdom behind God's choice of Mecca to be the location of His House for pilgrimage is discovered in our modern era through electronic scientific tools; the location is exactly in the center of Planet Earth. Hence, the Kaaba and its stone walls are NOT worshipped as hallowed items or relics; the Kaaba was built and rebuilt several times throughout history. The Kaaba is merely a building to locate the center of Planet Earth. God has shown to Abraham and Ishmael the location and they built the walls " We showed Abraham the location of the House: "Do not associate anything with Me; and purify My House for those who circle around, and those who stand to pray, and those who kneel and prostrate."" (22:26). "As Abraham raises the foundations of the House, together with Ishmael, "Our Lord, accept it from us, You are the Hearer, the Knower. " (2:127). This means that the foundations were there already in that spot and both father and son built the walls. This means that circumambulation is NOT meant for the Kaaba as a building, rather, it is around the place/spot where the center of the Planet Earth is located. We have mentioned earlier that during circumambulation, it is absolutely forbidden to touch the Kaaba so as not sanctify it or its Kiswah or bricks/stones. We conclude then that this spot as the center of Planet Earth has been chosen by God as a locational sanctuary for Him as His House and has commanded believers to perform pilgrimage there. God has chosen this location for His last message, the Quran, as it is a universal message to all people until the end of days; it should begin in this center of the Planet Earth. This is how we understand now why the Kaaba is the Qibla  for the five daily prayers and why people come in groups to perform pilgrimage there; see 22:27-29 and 3:96-97. We personally tend to believe that the Quran indicates the fact that Mecca is the center of Planet Earth, and this is the reason why the Seal of Prophet has been chosen by God in this city to convey the last message, in this verse: "Thus We inspired you with an Arabic Quran, that you may warn Um Al-Qura and whoever is around it …" (42:7). The Quranic term Um Al-Qura indicates Mecca as a Central City, for it means literally in Arabic ''the mother of all villages''. This Quranic term, in our opinion, shows that Mecca is located in the center of the Planet Earth, and the human communities at large, and that Muhammad conveyed the Quranic message that God intends for all humanity (i.e., this is the meaning of the phrase ''…whoever is around it…'' in 42:7). After the death of Muhammad, Quran-believing people should go on peacefully proselytizing and preaching the Quran to people in all locations and eras, reinforced by miraculous features of the Quranic text: "This too is a Book that We revealed, blessed, verifying what preceded it, that you may warn Um Al-Qura and all around it…" (6:92).              

2/4: Discovering in the 20^th century that Mecca is located in the center of Planet Earth makes us understand in new light the pilgrimage Quranic legislations, especially regarding the intersecting  locational, temporal, and pious-hearts sanctuaries; see 9:1-5, 9:27, 2:197, and 22:25. The hearts and minds of pilgrims should never think of evil, mischief, or disobedience during pilgrimage and avoid all types of deification and sanctification of things and mortals in order to perform pilgrimage in the best state of piety and purity during Ihram. In contrast, Sufi sheikhs/saints with their claimed and assumed 'divine' knowledge were the ignoramuses who never try to understand the Quran (real and only source of Islam), and they tried hard and did their best to make people belittle and detract the Kaaba as a location for pilgrimage and as a Qibla.     

 

Thirdly: preferring Sufis saints to the Kaaba:  

1- We have mentioned that Sufis have cast doubts on the Kaaba as the Qibla and the location of circumambulation because they harbored an ardent desire to make people circumambulate Sufi living saints and dead ones in mausoleums instead, and they wished that people pray in their direction as deities. In a coming CHAPTER, we tackle the features of Sufi pilgrimage rituals performed at living saints/Sufi sheikhs and mausoleums. We tackle here the attempts of Sufis to make people prefer the Sufi saint, dead or alive, to the Kaaba itself and why the Sufis had harbored such animosity toward the Kaaba.

2- Al-Ghazaly in his book ''Ehiaa'' authors a hadith without mentioning its source and even series of narrators, as fabricators typically would do, asserting that Muhammad was heard saying that he would better see the Kaaba burned and demolished by a slave than to see a saint being mocked and ridiculed [7]. Al-Nuweiry, the famous Sufi sheikh from Alexandria, Egypt, mentions in his book, titled ''Al-Ilmam'', the same hadith authored by Al-Ghazaly, and he himself authors in the same book yet another hadith that asserts that Muhammad purportedly said that harming a saint is a sin worse than demolishing the Kaaba 70 consecutive times [8]. Of course, both Al-Ghazaly and Al-Nuweiry were influenced by the style of a hadith authored by Al-Bokhary asserting that God will avenge a harmed saint from those who harmed the saint by declaring war on them. Thus, Sufis think that anyone ridiculing their saints would have committed a sin graver than demolishing and burning down the Kaaba. This implies their deep-seated hatred of the Kaaba that hinders people from worshipping Sufi saints! A real believer would not imagine uttering such words about the Ancient House, while Sufis utter such falsehoods and ascribing them to Muhammad to vent their ire and envy and also to urge others indirectly to worship and deify Sufi saints.   

 

Fourthly: Sufis claim that the Kaaba itself circumambulates Sufis saints!

1- Hating the Kaaba because people circumambulate it, Sufis invented their claimed and assumed miracles and wondrous acts to attract people to follow them, especially about the strange notion that the Kaaba itself circumambulate the Sufi saints as asserted by Al-Yafei in his stories authored to assert such a notion [9], and this is repeated by the author of the book titled Manaqib Al-Minoufi [10]. Al-Shaarany claims in his writings that the Kaaba circumambulate Ibn Araby [11], while another Sufi writer asserted the same about the Kaaba circumambulating Abou Abbas Al-Morsi [12].     

2- Thus, if the Sufis assume that the Kaaba itself circumambulate around their Sufi saints, it is no use for Sufi disciples to go to Mecca to perform pilgrimage, as the Kaaba is in service of their saints! Hence, disciples circled around their sheikhs! It is mentioned within the Manaqib of Abdul-Raheem Al-Qinawi that he claimed to his disciples that the Kaaba circumambulate around him and that they are to do the same [13].  Within another book, we read about a disciple who performed complete ablution to enter into a state of Ihram before circling daily for a week around the tent of his Sufi sheikh Al-Shazily, and when people denounced what he did, the disciple told them that he saw the Kaaba circling around Al-Shazily [14]. The same is repeated in another book about Manaqib Al-Hanafy, where we read about a disciple who asked permission from his Sufi sheikh, Al-Hanafy, and when this disciple fell asleep, he claimed he saw in a dread that the Kaaba circle around Al-Hanafy, and he realized that instead of traveling, he may be permitted to circumambulate around the house of his Sufi sheikh, who allowed him to do so [15]. This Sufi belittling and despising of the Kaaba drove many people among the masses to reject pilgrimage to Mecca, and they phrased a proverb that a Sufi saint/sheikh is like the Kaaba, to be visited as he does not visit anyone [16].

 

 

[7] Ehiaa 4/130.

[8] Al-Ilmam, a manuscript by Al-Nuweiry 1/3.

[9] Rawd Al-Rayaheen 16.

[10] Manaqib Al-Minoufi 425.

[11] Lataeif Al-Minan 425.

[12] Al-Tabakat Al-Kobra by Al-Manawi, a manuscript 260.

[13] Manaqib Abdul-Raheem, a manuscript 12.

[14] Manaqib Al-Wafaaeiyya, a manuscript 39.

[15] Manaqib Al-Hanafy, a manuscript 369-370.

[16] Al-Mustazraf 1/29-30.

 

 

 

CHAPTER VI: The Sufi Call for Rejecting Islamic Pilgrimage

 

 

1- We have written earlier the mythical story invented by Al-Jeineid about people with hearts of stone worshipping the stone cube of the Kaaba [1]. Al-Jeineid was a master Sufi sheikh and he has authored prolific writings about stories and dreams to inculcate Sufi teachings, sharia laws, and tenets in an indirect manner to readers. Al-Jeineid asserted the futility and absurdity of performing pilgrimage to the Kaaba in Mecca, as people instead should 'reform' their inner soul by Sufi teachings and practices to be united as one with God, and once reaching this status, it is needless to take the journey to Mecca after all! Of course, when Al-Halaj expressed similar views, he was executed for blasphemy (actually, there was a political reason to put him to death). But Al-Halaj never wrote books; all we know about him were originally oral traditions written down later on by others. Within the inquisition-like interrogation, Al-Halaj used to deny that he said such and such, and if people wrote anything from his utterings, this would have been symbolic words and metaphors that can be interpreted in many different words, and he denied to have violated the Sunnite sharia. The interrogators could not prove him a blaspheming infidel until he found lines written from his oral preaching that he expressed the futility of taking the journey to Mecca to perform pilgrimage and urged others to drop this act of worship. Thus, the vizier at the time took this as a line of evidence proving the apostasy of Al-Halaj and put him to death by crucifixion, as mentioned by Ibn Al-Atheer [2]. Of course, Al-Jeineid expressed his views indirectly to avoid a similar persecution as he was known to adopt often the practice of Taqiyya (i.e., precautionary hiding or denial of one's religious beliefs in face of possible persecution). Hence, within this early age of Sufism when it took form and shape, Sufi sheikhs and authors discarded pilgrimage to Mecca and began to interpret its rituals in a Sufi way of symbolism and signs to distort them, as done by Zu Al-Nun Al-Masry [3]. Thus, pioneers of Sufism fund in pilgrimage a large domain/field for their passion for adding symbolic interpretations and meanings, as did Al-Halaj, and many Sufis stressed the Sufi teachings and practices to purify souls and elevate people as preferred to all acts of worship including pilgrimage [4]. When Sufism flourished in later decades, especially during the Mameluke Era, people believed in the assumed miracles or supernatural acts of Sufi sheikhs/saints and their deeds, words, views, etc. as they were deified by the masses, and Taqiyya was no longer adopted and Sufi sheikhs wrote and expressed their views openly as Sufism became the formal, official religion of the population.            

2- As Sufism flourished during the Mameluke Era, famous Sufis just declared that they had already performed pilgrimage by breaking the time and place barriers by assuming that their souls 'flew' to Mecca and back while their bodies were still in their hometowns, and gullible people believed them as Sufism became the dominant culture at the time; even Abou Al-Abbas Al-Morsi claimed that he never misses the annual standing by Arafat mount so as to become a good Muslim [5]. Al-Morsi thus assumed to his disciples that his soul flew annually there and return back to his body! Another author writes that the Sufi sheikh named Al-Minoufi was seen standing at Arafat mount while he remained in Cairo at the same time [6]. Hence, this alludes to the other myth apart from breaking barriers of time and place: namely, the myth of incarnation and reincarnation, when Sufi saints claim to have many identical bodies that they control fully to roam the earth and to exist in many cities simultaneously, and that was the reason they were seen in many cities at the same time. Al-Siyouti mentions in a book he authored that there are proofs to prove this myth. Indeed, such myth had spread to justify the reason behind the fact that Sufi sheikhs never perform prayers (and any other act of worship) and never take the journey to Mecca to perform pilgrimage during the Mameluke Era. Even Al-Shazily, within a mythical story authored by others, urged another older Sufi sheikh to make his soul and that of others fly to Mecca and Arafat mount, as the military troops of the Moghuls prevented the journey to Mecca within the usual routes, and hence, Al-Shazily was lucky enough to have his soul made to fly to perform pilgrimage, as per his claims! [7]. A similar myth about the Sufi saint Abou Al-Hassan Al-Farran (a title that literally means: the bread-maker or the baker) tells about his flying to Mecca and to other cities to roam the earth in few seconds, and how he took two hot loaves of bread with him to be delivered to a son of a woman who was in Hejaz performing pilgrimage and the woman urged Abou Al-Hassan Al-Farran to deliver the loves to her son there! [8]. It seems to us that Abou Al-Hassan Al-Farran was merely a baker who used to make bread and when he left his earlier job to enter into Sufism, he became a sheikh and found disciples to believe in him and in his assumed miracles he worked related to his old profession. By the way, many Sufi sheikhs took up titles that refer to their earlier jobs before becoming Sufis; e.g.: Al-Halaj literally means the weaver and Al-Khawwas literally means the basket weaver. Of course, during the Mameluke Era, Sufi sheikhs or living saints enjoyed sloth and never had to work as so many people paid them visits/pilgrimage to offer them food and money as offerings or oblation to get blessed, as they deemed those Sufis too busy to work as they spent their time flying to Mecca, Jerusalem, Yathreb, etc. and Mount Qaf on a daily basis! 

3- At the same time, Sufis never ceased to urge and call people as well as disciples to perform pilgrimage to them instead of the Kaaba by assuming that the Kaaba itself circle around those saints/sheikhs, and therefore those saints/sheikhs would be deified, revered, worshipped, and honored, and many of the so-called living saints like Abdul-Raheem Al-Qinawi and Shams Eddine Al-Hanafy called their disciples to circumambulate around them or their houses instead of taking the journey to Mecca [9].

4- Al-Shaarany moved in his writings from the stage of mythical didactic stories of miracles to the stage of direct directives to his disciples and readers when he tells yet another story within the biography of Ali Wafa Al-Shazily, a Sufi saint of the 10^th century A.H. When Al-Shazily was asked about a disciple who witnessed and declared the perfection of his Sufi master (i.e., his master had become a deity united with God wholly!), and he wanted to take permission from his master to take the journey to Mecca to perform pilgrimage, but he was prevented by his master/sheikh. Al-Shazily said that declaring and witnessing perfection of a sheikh must be followed by the belief that this saint embodies all souls of good imams and prophets, and therefore pilgrimage to the living saint would be preferred to that performed to Mecca and the Kaaba! [10] Thus, Al-Shaarany in that story asserts the Sufi myth of performing pilgrimage to the saints as better than performing it to the Kaaba itself! This is of course utter blasphemy and deification of mortals! This is a sin and an insult against God, the Owner of the Ancient House in Mecca.   

5- Thus, Sufis have cast doubts on the Kaaba in Mecca as a Qibla and as a location for pilgrimage because they desired ardently to convince people to pray toward the direction of the Sufi Qutb Al-Ghawth and to urge them to perform pilgrimage to the living and dead saints, by claiming that it is the Kaaba that circumambulate the Sufi saints and not the other way round, as they declared this frankly and vociferously, demanding that people should circle around the living and dead saints instead of the Kaaba!  

6- Simultaneously, the Sufis at the time have considered the Kaaba in Mecca as a pagan idol while never hesitating to urge people to perform pilgrimage to their living saints and dead ones in mausoleums! 

 

 

 

References:

 [1] Rawd Al-Rayaheen 40.

[2] History of Ibn Al-Atheer 8/47, Azharite edition 1301 A.H.

[3] Islamic Encyclopedia 9/426 + Hilyat Al-Awliyaa 9/170.

[4] An article titled ''Pros and Cons of Sufism'' by Ahmed Mahmoud Subhy, Alam Al-Fikr Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 2, p.347-348.

[5] Taateer Al-Anfas, a manuscript 224 + Lataeif Al-Minan by Ibn Ataa 98.

[6] Manaqib Al-Minoufi, a manuscript 41.

[7] Al-Ilmam, a manuscript by Al-Nuweiry 2/78.

[8] Al-Kawakib Al-Sayyara 149.

[9] Manaqib Al-Wafaaeiyya, a manuscript 39 + Manaqib Al-Hanafy, a manuscript 369-370 + Manaqib Abdul-Raheem, a manuscript 12.

[10] Al-Tabakat Al-Kobra by Al-Shaarany 2/25.

 

 

CHAPTER VII: Legislation of Sufi Pilgrimage to Saints and Mausoleums

 

 

Firstly: pilgrimage during the pre-Islamic era to mausoleums and 'sanctified kaabas':

1- As per polytheistic tenets in the pre-Islamic era in Arabia, people used to worship God and dead saints in their mausoleums and statures/idols as deities beside God, claiming that these saints and deities drew them nearer to God! at the same era, people in Arabia performed pilgrimage to the Kaaba in Mecca, which was filled with their pagan idols (at least 136 ones around the Kaaba; one for each tribe) as well with their sanctuaries areas of their own (with no one daring to desecrate them or commit sacrilege near them), to the extent that if an animal would enter such sanctuaries no one would get it back as it will be sacrificed for the idol/deity. These polytheistic temples were sometimes called kaabas, because they took cubical forms/shapes and polytheists would circulate around them as holy grounds and offer sacrificial animals and money and votive items there. Among those famous pagan kaabas at the time was the one dedicated to the idol named Zu Al-Sharra, where its stature stood on a pedestal covered with pure gold and icons over a high huge rock; even some polytheists invoked this god as the owner of the Ancient House! Among those famous pagan kaabas at the time was the one dedicated to the idol named Sandan, placed on a cubical pedestal,, where Arabs circumambulate its statue reverently. Another pagan temple was called Zat Al-Kaabat (i.e., literally, the place with many kaabas or cubes) dedicated to gods of tribes of Bakr Ibn Wael. In the region of Najran, there was a large cubically erect building named ''the Kaaba of Najran'' that took the shape and dimensions of the Kaaba in Mecca, with myths invented about ''the Kaaba of Najran'' to compete with Mecca, such as the claim that those who seek a safe haven there in this sanctuary would attain it at once. Of course, the idols of the two goddesses Al-Lat and Al-Uzza (i.e. Isis of the Egyptians) were worshiped and circled around by Arabs in a certain valley, where sacrificial animals were slaughtered in their honor. Of course, we name here but a few; there were so many idols, gods, mausoleums, deities, rocks, saints, stones, kaabas, temples, etc. that Arabs worshipped and circumambulate around before the advent of the Quran.    

2- Islamic Hajj is performed during specific times known as the four sacred months; likewise, Arabs before the advent of Islam used to specify certain seasons and days to perform pilgrimage rituals (circumambulation, sacrificial animal offerings, etc.) to the idols and the other kaabas as a temporal and locational sanctuary, where religiosity mixed with financial interests as far as trade is concerned.

3- After the advent of Islam by the revelation of the Quran, people  rejected and discarded pagan idols that became no longer sanctified, and pilgrimage was confined to the Kaaba while Arabs adhered to peace during the four sacred months of pilgrimage. Soon enough, the Arabs forgot all about the four sacred months of pilgrimage and fought one another in them. In later decades, the Sufis propagated the notion of performing pilgrimage to 'holy' Sufi mausoleums of dead sheikhs/saints as well as to the living sheikhs/saints at their locations, in certain times annually, and to present offerings to them, under the pretext of supplication and imploring for benediction and blessings. This was the same pretext of the ignoramuses who did the same polytheistic acts under the motto: "…We only worship them that they may bring us nearer to God…" (39:3).

 

Secondly: Sufi pilgrimage:

1- Sufis re-introduced the worship and deification of saints virtually in the same manner and practices like Qorayish (described above) before the advent of the Quran; thus, the Sufis deserve the Quranic descriptions of polytheists who worshipped mortals, as pagan and polytheistic acts of worship returned with a vengeance within the societies of the Muhammadans from the Second Abbasid Era until now.

2- Yet, we assert here that Sufis were more disbelieving in comparison to Arabs before the revelation of the Quran; because Arabs at the tie when they worshipped deities and saints had no Quran, whereas Sufis had it, claimed they believed in it, but discarded it on purpose! This means that Sufis rejected on purpose the intellectual jihad of Prophet Muhammad, using the Quran, against worshipping things, items, and mortals. Another reason why Sufis are worse that pre-Islamic era polytheistic Arabs is that the latters never insulted God or uttered blasphemies against Him like the formers. The last reason is that polytheistic Arabs respected the Kaaba in Mecca and performed pilgrimage there despite their polytheistic practices at other temples, whereas Sufi sheikhs hated, mocked, and despised the Kaaba and declared this stance outspokenly in public, as they believed they deserve to be visited in a form of pilgrimage instead of God's House!        

3- Apart from Sufis describing their sheikhs/saints and their mausoleums by features and epithets known about the Kaaba (and even a Sufi saint named Al-Disouky used to call himself ''the Kaaba of the Truth'') [1], some Sufi mausoleums were built in cubical shapes similar to the Kaaba in Mecca, and one of such cubical buildings was described by a Sufi author, named Al-Sakhawy, as a  holy 'Kaaba' where prayers of people are answered [2] this Kaaba was named Al-Jawsaq and built by a rich family of trade named the Mardaniyeen. Al-Sakhawy authored a book titled Tuhfat Al-Ahbab, dedicated to describe to Sufi pilgrims locations and features of all mausoleums and holt tombs in Cairo, Egypt. This Sufi author is not to be confused with the historian and hadith-collector Al-Sakhawy who received fame as an author and historian because of his book titled ''Al-Daw Al-Lamaa''; it is noteworthy that Al-Sakhawy the historian mentions Al-Jawsaq in his book, and talked about it as an ornate monument built by the family of Mardaniyeen in the 3^rd century A.H. for aesthetic reasons to immortalize their family-name and not for any religious purposes at all, but Sufi culture turned the monument into a temple as it resembled the cube of the Kaaba!          

4- The original Kaaba in Mecca later on had a black stone to mark the place of beginning circumambulation to make pilgrims easily count their seven rounds, but polytheistic tenets resurfaced and drove them to sanctify this black stone in later decades by fabricating hadiths about revering and honoring such a relic to be touched and kissed for blessings and benediction! This myth goes on until now within the Muhammadans. Typically, Sufis of later eras felt envious and hated this black stone; they ornamented their mausoleums with black stones to compete with the one at Mecca. For instance, there was a huge black stone at the mausoleum of the Sufis Shiite saint Al-Sayed Al-Badawi in the city of Tanta, Egypt, with millions of Egyptians worshipping at such a place annually until now, while kissing and touching the huge black stone there at the dome there of the mausoleum, as their ancestors did before them [3]. It is funny that Sufis until now in Egypt think that footprints of Muhammad are engraved in that 'holy' black stone under the dome in Tanta, and they touch it to get benediction and to get blessed! A similar myth is about the fingerprints of balms of Muhammad in a stone within the walls of a large mosque in Damascus, called ''the mosque of the balm'', and Ibn Taymiyya ridiculed this hoax in his writings [4].

5- These myths indicate that there were those Sufis who deceive gullible people by carving footprints and fingerprints in stones to be worshipped at mausoleums decorated by such 'holy' relics and thus bring more money to Sufis! This worship of stones and carvings past and present has been mocked and ridiculed by Abraham, as we read in the Quran: "He said, "Do you worship what you carve?" (37:95). During the Mameluke Era, some Sufis specialized in carving stones and selling them to gullible people as 'holy' relics, as mentioned by Al-Sakhawy the Sufi in the late 9^th century A.H. [5].

6- The mausoleum of Al-Sayed Al-Badawi attracts annually thousands of Sufi pilgrims who worship and sanctify the black stone located under the dome beside the tomb of this Sufi saint, and Sufis of the Middle Ages spread the myth that visiting this mausoleum id more rewarding sevenfold in comparison to pilgrimage to the Kaaba. As thousands of gullible masses believed them in many eras, the wishes of Sufis to despise the Kaaba and repel others from it has been achieved, as this mausoleum is still being visited annually in Tanta, Egypt,  until now in a form of pilgrimage within a certain season dedicated to it. Notably, when a tomb of a female saint called Fatima of the Mosul began to be revered within the Mameluke Era, the Sufi author Al-Sakhawy insisted that circling around her tomb seven times would be as rewarding as pilgrimage to Mecca, whereas Al-Sakhawy the historian refutes such a claim in his writings.      

7- If Al-Sakhawy the historian refutes in his book what is believed by the masses at the time, we read in contrast the famous Sufi poet Al-Buseiry makes praising and glorifying a saint called Al-Shazily as rewarding as Hajj and Umrah! [6]. No doubt that with such notions spread at the time, people preferred to perform pilgrimage to dead or living saints as this would have been easier and less expensive than the painstaking journey to Mecca to reach the Kaaba! Hence, this Sufi pilgrimage had to have its own sharia legislations and rituals.

 

Thirdly: the call for Sufi pilgrimage before the Mameluke Era:

1- The urging of others and the call for Sufi pilgrimage began long before the Mameluke Era; Sufis claimed that their imaginary character named Owayis Al-Qorany (used in didactic stories to spread and inculcate Sufi legislations and tenets) had said to his disciples that those visiting him, and his tomb later on, for the love of God, will be rewarded by God by entering Paradise!

2- Al-Ghazaly mentions in his book legislations of Sufi pilgrimage to saints and mausoleums, and he asserts that visiting mausoleums of prophets, the so-called companions, scholars, and saints are as rewarding in terms of blessings and benediction as jihad and pilgrimage to the Kaaba in Mecca, and he asserts that the same goes to visiting living saints as well [7].

3- Al-Ghazaly allows room for Sufi pilgrimage to saints and holy tombs/mausoleums by inventing and fabricating hadiths about the rewards of taking long journeys to reach them to seek blessings and benediction, and he asserts that looking at faces of living saints and good scholars as an act of worship!

4- Al-Ghazaly here is in harmony with his Sufi faith tenets that he embraces and propagates in his seminal book ''Ehiaa'', especially regarding sanctification and deification of living Sufi saints/sheikhs by performing pilgrimage to them and claiming that seeing their faces is an act of worship, a new legislation invented by Al-Ghazaly and imitated in later eras.

5- Al-Ghazaly was smart and sly enough to urge his readers to prefer visiting living saints to dead ones in mausoleums; this will enable the Sufi sheikh to enjoy oblations and offerings and money granted to him in reverence by his worshippers and disciples, instead of spending their money on tombs of the dead, as in that case, a dead saint gets to enjoy nothing after his death. This is why Al-Ghazaly  restricts disciples from travelling unless in cases of seeking to learn more 'knowledge'; of course, this refers to Sufi knowledge from another sheikh or living saint! [8].

 

Fourthly: the call for Sufi pilgrimage during the Mameluke Era:

1- When Sufism flourished during the Mameluke Era and became the formal, official religion, Sufi legislators of Sufi pilgrimage became so many to the extent that some scholars of fiqh specializing in Sufism criticized and attacked in their books Sufi extremists. For instance, the scholar Ibn Al-Haj Al-Abdary writes virulent criticisms in his book titled ''Al-Madkhal'' leveled against the Sufis of his age; yet, he writes a lot about calling and urging readers to perform pilgrimage to Sufi living and dead saints, using the fiqh-writing styles in legislating such rituals to make readers feel obliged to obey him, but he avoids the term (pilgrimage) and sue instead the term (visit) as if he would fool readers (because pilgrimage is essentially a religious visit and journey), while urging travellers to stop by each mausoleum and living saint in any city/village they pass by during their journeys to benefit from the benediction and draw near them humbly in reverence, as required, in his claims, by all religious erudite scholars [9].       

2- Extremist Sufis were more frank and outspoken than Al-Ghazaly and Ibn Al-Haj Al-Abdary; for example, the Sufi saint/sheikh told his disciples plainly in a line of poetry that they were required to perform pilgrimage to his soul/body as he deemed himself a Kaaba brimming with divine secrets just like the Kaaba in Mecca [10].

3- Another Sufi tradition of urging others to perform Sufi pilgrimage during the Mameluke Era was to write a lot and in an exaggerate manner about benedictions, benefits, and blessings that a Sufi pilgrim will gain by visiting a mausoleum, while using elusive words and play on words in the style of writing; even Al-Sakhawy the Sufi author urges in his writing that people should bury their dead near mausoleums to make the dead person get benedictions and to make people visit the deceased along with the saint entombed beside the grave of the deceased so frequently! [11].

4- Mythical didactic Sufi stories have played a major role, as we have written before, to call people to perform Sufi pilgrimage. For instance, Ibn Al-Zayyat tells a story about a saint who appeared in a vision/dream to tell people that he lives in Paradise for eternity and that people who invoke him, along with God, at his mausoleum in their supplication will urge God Himself to answer their prayers! [12]. This story implies that the body of the saint is deemed never decomposed and that the spot of his mausoleum is a garden in Paradise! Ibn Al-Zayyat was one of the sheikhs of Sufi visits whose job was to guide Sufi pilgrims to locations to mausoleums in Cairo, telling the required practices and rituals, as per what he writes in his book titled "Al-Kawakib Al-Sayyara". 

5- Some myths do not take the form of story in a book authored by Sufi writers; rather, they are written in a direct, assertive, informative style  of writing used for scientific facts! For instance, Al-Shaarany dared to write about God creating an angel from the power of the dead saint to guard the saint's tomb/mausoleum and help worshippers who invoke this saint and worship at his tomb [13]. Of course, such a myth would urge the Middle Ages people in Egypt to take long journeys in order to perform pilgrimage to Sufi saints' mausoleums everywhere. Al-Shaarany was evil and daring to write such a blasphemous falsehood without ascribing it to anyone else as was typical in earlier ages; this indicates that Sufism dominated his age and gullible people used to believe him as if he were receiving 'divine' revelation or knowledge directly from God! 

6- As Sufism was dominant at the time, this atmosphere made Sufi authors and sheikhs feel free to be outspoken and vociferous in calling people to perform pilgrimage to their mausoleums after they are dead, like the dying Sufi saint Al-Hanafy who urged his weeping disciples, while he lied in bed and dying, to do so if they needed him in anything to have their wishes granted and prayers answered, as he would be away from them by the measure of an arm's length! This implies that they thought his corpse would never be decomposed and that he would be immortal! [14]. Until now, the 'holy' mausoleum of Al-Hanafy attracts thousands of worshippers in Cairo! As for the saint named Al-Farghal, he was originally an ignorant, illiterate villager from Upper Egypt who never knew anything about the Quran; he used to urge people to visit his tomb after his death to answer their prayers! [15]. Until now, the names Farghal and Farghali are used in upper Egypt as male first names, and the mausoleum of Al-Farghal is still being worshipped in upper Egypt by the fools!

 

 

References:

 [1] Hassan Shamma 4.

[2] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 290-291.

[3] Al-Jawaher 77.

[4] Takseer Al-Ahjar 141-145.

[5] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 263.

[6] Al-Buseiry poems collection 85.

[7] Ehiaa 3/194.

[8] Ehiaa 2/219, 221.

[9] Al-Madkhal 3/26, 1/124-125, and 2/10-11.

[10] Al-Jawhara 100.

[11] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 27.

[12] Al-Kawakib Al-Sayyara 226.

[13] Durar Al-Ghawwas 92.

[14] Al-Tabakat Al-Kobra by Al-Shaarany 2/86.

[15] Al-Tabakat Al-Kobra by Al-Shaarany 2/93.

 

 

CHAPTER VIII: Rituals of Sufi Pilgrimage

 

Introduction:

  Sufi pilgrimage consists of the journey to reach the mausoleum of the saint and then the performance of rituals imposed by Sufism. Those rituals are numerous and of various types as per the many Sufi orders and mausoleums spread in a country. The main features of the Sufi pilgrimage rituals are tackled below.

 

Firstly: rituals within a Sufi's heart:

1- Sufi authors in their books stipulate that Sufi pilgrims must be pious, devout, righteous believers who believe in the saint whose mausoleum they are visiting, while taking for a fact that the saint is immortal in Barsakh and have god-like control over people and life on earth; this way, the Sufi pilgrims will attain the benediction and blessings they deserve.

2- Al-Shazily asserts the above by writing that the etiquette of Sufi visits to mausoleums include the steadfast belief in the hearts of pilgrims that the saint is alive and immortal who hears them from the tomb, so that benediction is thus gained! [1]. Al-Shaarany repeats the same notion and ascribes them to Al-Shazily as well, as politeness required with living saints does not change in the case of the dead entombed saint, as if he were alive!

3- Just as God is Immortal, Sufi authors believed that godhead of Sufi saints go on making them immortalized after their death; even Al-Shazily mentions that Sufi saints never die at all, while prophets and other human beings die as mortals! Such falsehood is used to propagate, encourage, and spread the practice of Sufi visits to mausoleums, as Al-Shazily writes that entombed saints are more beneficial to people (especially faithful disciples) than living saints [2].

4- As God asserts in the Quran the dedication of acts of worship only and wholly to Him, Sufis took great care to make sure disciples are very faithful and reverent in their deification of saints, when those disciples visit the mausoleums; for instance, Al-Sakhawy the Sufi author writes about the importance of faithful, good intention of Sufi pilgrims whose hearts must be filled with piety and the belief in the dead saint before visiting their mausoleums to have their wishes come true and their prayers answered, especially in cases of visiting the holy tomb more often or for a specific number of times, seeking the aid of the saint to solve the pilgrims' problems or to settle their  debts, and they must feel the state of Ihram as if they were in Mecca during the pilgrimage season! [3]. Even Ibn Al-Zayyat stresses in his book the importance of reverence inside hearts and minds of Sufi pilgrims during visiting mausoleums, because any doubting would spoil the blessings and benediction desired to be gained from the visit [4]. Ibn Al-Zayyat means that people are not to make such visits as a try or to test the powers of the dead saint; rather, good intentions, deep faith, and staunch belief in the dead saint are required as a must when visiting 'holy' grounds and mausoleums [5].

 

Secondly: Sufi verbal rituals:

1- Ibn Al-Haj Al-Abdary, in his book titled ''Al-Madkhal'', writes about Sufi verbal rituals; i.e., phrased required to be uttered  by Sufi pilgrims during their visits. He stresses that people who visit mausoleums of saints must invoke the dead saint's name while supplicating to God to gain more benediction and make their prayers be answered. This contradicts the earlier claim by the same author regarding his asserting the Sufi tenet that the dead saints are immortalized inside tombs, as asserted by Al-Shaarany and Al-Shazily as well; how come the dead saint would be their mediators to God and grant blessings?! Ibn Al-Haj Al-Abdary mentions that verbal utterings during visits include the invocation of Prophet Muhammad first before any saints, and this is followed by the invocation of the entombed saint and imploring and praying for the sake of oneself, one's relatives, parents, and all good believers at large etc. and then one would ask for whatever need on seeks by visiting any mausoleum [6]. This verbal utterances deifies the mortals by making them small eternal deities invoking God on Sufi pilgrims' behalf! Yet, they insult God by saying He will obey the saints/intercessors! Such contradiction is typical of an authors who tries to reconcile the two divergent religions that contradict each other: Sufism and Islam.   

2- Of course, different utterances and phrases are used in verbal rituals as per whims and desires of sheikhs/legislators of the Sufi religion, as Ibn Al-Zayyat specifies certain phrases uttered eleven times at the mosque of Al-Rifaai to have one's prayers answered [7], whereas his disciple, Al-Sakhawy the Sufi author not the historian, asserts certain special phrases uttered at the female-saint Nafisa mausoleum inside Al-Sayeda Nafisa mosque in Cairo to invoke her and her family members to come to the aid of pilgrims [8].

 

Thirdly: performed rituals and their types:

1-  Sufis imitate rituals and stages of pilgrimage in Mecca in their Sufi pilgrimage rituals to the tombs (with standing in piety, circling, offerings, etc.) but with slight variations and surely a huge difference in faith/belief between Islamic Hajj and Sufi pilgrimage; in Mecca, real Islamic pilgrimage has but one sanctuary: God's Ancient House where people circle the Kaaba without touching it. as for Sufi pilgrimage that resembles that of Qorayish before the revelation of the Quran, holy sites, grounds, monuments, and tombs spread everywhere and their sanctuaries are deemed greater that the Kaaba in Mecca.  While some pilgrims in Mecca commit mistakes and disobey sometimes and violate prohibitions because of lack of piety, reverence and piety increase very much within Sufi pilgrims who touch mausoleums' windows, doors, cloth, and relics (even the when the materials are made in China or elsewhere!) and circle around them to gain the assumed benediction and blessings. Besides, each mausoleum has its days or season during which it can be visited, in order to imitate pilgrimage season in Mecca and its temporal sanctuary. For the purpose of brevity as this topic of Sufi pilgrimage ritual is very complicated, we will focus in this book only on Sufi pilgrimage rituals in Egypt during the Mameluke Era.   

2- At first, Egyptian Sufis specified certain dates, seasons, and months to perform major pilgrimage (Hajj) to certain mausoleums, while allowing visitors to come all year long as if this were like (Umrah). For instance, within the festivals celebrating the birth of the Tanta saint Al-Sayed Al-Badawi, Egyptian Sufis perform rituals similar to those in Mecca: circumambulations, greetings upon first arrival, slaughtering sacrificial animals as offerings, and touching the black stone of the shrine under the dome as they do with the black stone located at on corner to the Kaaba now. Even there are lines of poetry ascribed to Al-Sayed Al-Badawi to summarize such rituals and get nearer to God by worshipping Al-Sayed Al-Badawi tomb! [9]. In fact, essentially, such practices and rituals are being done at almost every mausoleum in Egypt now, but during the Mameluke Era, many books tell us that there were slight variations as such rituals were mentioned sporadically in books of that era when tackling mausoleums and their saints and different utterings and phrasings to glorify and worship them.     

3- As the Sunnite Ihram requires a certain dress code for male pilgrims, the same dress code was required within the festival celebrating the birth of the saint Abdul-Raheem Al-Qinawi at his mausoleum in Upper Egypt. In Manaqib Abdul-Raheem, a manuscript which is unpublished, we read that a pilgrim to his tomb must walk to it bareheaded and barefooted at noon, only on Wednesdays, then pray and recite some Quranic verses, and eventually, invoke Prophet Muhammad, then Adam and Eve, followed by prophets and then at last the saint Abdul-Raheem Al-Qinawi, before asking God to answer the prayers and fulfill the needed request [10]. These rituals are asserted by Al-Edfowi, historian of Upper Egypt, in his book titled ''Al-Talei Al-Saeed'' [11]. Notably, these rituals are still being practiced until now, and even Sufi extremist introduced the habit of being barefooted when visiting all mausoleums in general. This extremism has nothing to do with Quranic sharia of facilitating and easiness in rituals and duties, especially prayers. Even Al-Shaarany writes that he heard his Sufi master Al-Khawwas urging people to do as he did by removing shoes before entering the mausoleum of the female-saint Zeinab inside Al-Sayeda Zeinab mosque in Cairo [12]. 

4- Circling around mausoleums is a famous Sufi ritual; Ibn Diqmaq writes about circumambulation around the mosque of Amr in Fustat region in Cairo seven times beginning with certain area decorated to mark the beginning of rounds and how to praise and glorify and invoke while doing this etc. [13]. The Egyptians at the time called this mosque the Ancient Mosque, to imitate the Quranic appellation of the Kaaba as the Ancient House (see 22:29), because they wanted to sanctify this first mosque in Egypt for Egyptians built soon after the Arab conquest directly by Amr Ibn Al-'As (as if to compete with first House ordained by God and made for humanity; see 3:96), and decors were installed to imitate Zamzam well, Safa, Marwa, and Arafat mounts, etc. while claiming that the water of this well would cure any ailments if drunk or bathed with [14]. This means that Egyptian Sufis made this mosque a sort of Egyptian Kaaba to compete with God's House in Mecca!

5-  Ibn Diqmaq writes a lot about rituals, minarets, and decors made in this mosque of Amr in Fustat region in Cairo to imitate rituals and locations in Mecca, and how to invoke saints and circle around this mosque while uttering certain phrases, while Al-Sakhawy asserts all such practices in his book and calls those who bequeathed such traditions to visitors/pilgrims as 'reverent scholar' [15]. The Sufis  even specified certain locations outside the mosque of Amr where prayers must be addressed to make them quickly answered [16] and narrate stories of those whose prayers were answered instantly because their faith was so deep and this led people to try visiting and performing rituals to see for themselves how their prayers would be answered swiftly [17]. Of course, this contradicts earlier warning against not to invoke dead saints on 'holy' grounds unless one is 100% sure that they are immortal and sanctified in one's heart without hesitation or lack of belief in Sufism!

6- Sufi rituals at mausoleums include performing prayers and reciting certain Quranic verses, as mentioned by Al-Sakhawy and Ibn Al-Zayyat in detail while ascribing such rituals to Muhammad who mentions them in a vision/dream to saints! [18]. Such legislations ascribe falsehoods to Muhammad (and assuming his being immortal!) to lend credibility to Sufi lies fabricated by these authors about urging people to perform pilgrimage at Sufi mausoleums.

7- Sufis introduced and invented a new ritual that consists of leaning one's back so that it would touch the wall of a mausoleum directly and totally, and to supplicate the entombed saint while taking this position. Strangely, this laughter-inducing ritual is still practiced in Egypt until now; some Azharite professors, clergymen, and scholars do it. we remember that when we were a postgraduate studies student in the 1970s, the head of Al-Azhar University bragged before us, and before the other students in class, that he frequently take this weird position and implore Al-Hussein, the saint whose severed head was purportedly buried at Al-Hussein mausoleum in Cairo! Ibn Al-Zayyat mentions the same ritual about a mausoleum in Al-Rahma mosque which is located near a cemetery in Cairo, and how such ritual at saint's tombs brought cure to the ill ones [18]. 

 

Fourthly: financial rituals:

1- We mean by them offerings and oblations (money, sacrificial animals, food items, votive candles etc.) pledged to be presented by Sufi pilgrims to guardians and clergymen of saints' mausoleums in honor of saints who answer prayers and fulfill wishes (as per Sufi polytheistic tenets contradicting the Quran). Sufis took great interest in incorporating such rituals for the financial benefits drawn from them to earn their living while enjoying exerting such influence and control of people by virtue of the sanctified entombed deities. In real Islam, the Quran, pledges are made only to God, and not to any other deities: "Whatever charity you give, or a pledge you fulfill, God knows it. The wrongdoers have no helpers." (2:270); God warns against telling lies and falsehoods and urges avoidance of pagan abominations: "Then let them perform their acts of cleansing, and fulfill their vows, and circulate around the Ancient House … So stay away from the abomination of idols and stay away from uttering falsehoods."" (22:29-30). God tells us in the Quran that polytheists before Islam offered oblations to saints and gods/deities as their mediators to Allah who intercede on their behalf before Him: "And they set aside for God a share of the crops and the livestock He created, and they say, "This is for God," according to their claim, "and this is for our idols." But the share of their idols does not reach God, yet the share of God reaches their idols. Evil is their judgment." (6:136). God prohibits eating meat of slaughtered animals sacrificed before spots or buildings made 'holy' to honor false deities (and this include of course eating Sufi oblations offered to mausoleums): "Prohibited for you … and animals sacrificed on altars…" (5:3). These Sufi ignoramuses are still performing pilgrimage to their entombed gods/saints in eagerness or promptness that is used as a metaphor in the Quran about the Day of Resurrection: "The Day when they will emerge from the tombs in a rush, as though they were hurrying towards a monument" (70:43). The term ''monument'' here refers to any erect buildings assumed to be 'holy' by polytheists.     

2- It is strange that during the Mameluke Era, offerings by slaughtering sacrificial animals in honor of entombed saints were called pledges, whereas sacrificing animals for God's sake was called oblation [20].

3- Typically, when a saint dies, a mausoleum would be built over his/her tomb and disciples spread the news about miraculous influence of the 'holy' spot, and Sufi pilgrims would flock in groups to present offerings. Notably, the three annual days of celebrating the Tanta saint, Al-Sayed Al-Badawi, never coincide with the dates of his birth and death mentioned in historical accounts; rather, they are days of harvest, irrigation, etc. as per agricultural seasons in Egypt, so that people would have animals, food, and money to offer to the mausoleum [21].

4- In the book authored by Abdul-Samad Al-Ahmady about Al-Badawi and his followers, we read about great amounts of offerings and sacrificial animals in great feasts and festivals celebrating the saints and held on their honor in many villages and cities all over Egypt, as people thought they will get blessed by the entombed saints if they hold greater festivals to revere them [22].

5- Within books of history and Sufism, too many oblations and offerings meant that Sufi pilgrimage took place at certain tombs of saints, As Al-Manawi tells us about Al-Badawi mausoleum [23] Al- Disouky mausoleum [24], other mausoleums in Egypt [25], and even the tomb of the grandfather of Al-Shazily [26].

6- When people ignore certain mausoleums, they no longer perform pilgrimage to them and therefore no oblations/offerings, votive candles, burning incense, etc. would reach them, and eventually the Sufi clergymen and guardians of them desert the location, as Ibn Al-Zayyat writes about a mausoleum in Al-Rahma mosque which is located near a cemetery in Cairo [27].

7- Hence, Sufi clergymen and guardians of mausoleums were keen on spreading news every now and then about miraculous deeds caused by entombed saints to ensure their being fed, clothed, and provided for by offerings of Sufi devout pilgrims! Until now, villagers in Egypt fear very much not to fulfill pledges made for a saint, so as not to get punished by Fate; this is the influence of Mameluke stories and myths. For instance, Abdul-Samad Al-Ahmady and Al-Shaarany repeat the didactic story about a man who pledged to offer his horse to be sacrificed in honor of a certain entombed saint if his prayers were answered. They were, but he refrained to fulfill the pledge, and when he tried to sell his horse in the market later on, the horse ran to flee, and stopped at the saint's mausoleum; the man realized he must fulfill the pledge after such warning [28]. Similar myths are repeated in all Sufi books and references [29].  

8- Pledges made to present offerings to saints in case one's wish comes true became a social habit going on even without Sufi propaganda during the Mameluke Era; in 781 A.H., people performed pilgrimage to a 'holy' wall and offered pledges and offerings to it; they thought it was a holy relic or shrine because someone talked through it and people thought that the wall is talking to them! They shouted: (May God save us! A wall is talking to us!), and the phrase became aphoristic and a proverb later on, as we read in the book of Ibn Eyas [30].

9- People who believed at the time in Sufism did not present offerings and oblation to mausoleums without expecting a reward; i.e., to drive away harm and evil and to expect good things to come and to occur. Hence, Sufi pilgrimage had religious aims of gaining benediction and blessings, achieving desires, answering prayers and supplications, etc. 

 

 

References:

 [1] Qawaaid Al-Sufiyya 1/161.

[2] Al-Tabakat Al-Kobra by Al-Shaarany 2/65.

[3] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 487.

[4] Al-Kawakib Al-Sayyara 85 and 288.

[5] Al-Kawakib Al-Sayyara 85 and 288.

[6] Al-Madkhal 1/124.

[7] Al-Kawakib Al-Sayyara 128.

[8] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 117.

[9] Al-Jawaher 122.

[10] Manaqib Abdul-Raheem, a manuscript 20.

[11] Al-Talei Al-Saeed 157.

[12] Lataeif Al-Minan 337.

[13] Al-Intisar 75.

[14] Al-Intisar 75.

[15] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 261, 262, 284, 364, and 365.

[16] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 261, 262, 284, 364, and 365.

[17] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 261, 262, 284, 364, and 365.

[18] Al-Kawakib Al-Sayyara 109 + Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 4.

[19] Al-Kawakib Al-Sayyara 179 and 241.

[20] Al-Nojom Al-Zahera 14/79 + History of Ibn Eyas 2/46.

[21] Ashoor Al-Badawi 275.

[22] Al-Jawaher 27 and 216.

[23] Al-Tabakat Al-Kobra 274.

[24] Al-Solok 1/3/739.

[25] Manaqib Al-Wafaaeiyya, a manuscript 16.

[26] Manaqib Al-Wafaaeiyya, a manuscript 39.

[27] Al-Kawakib Al-Sayyara 179.

[28] Al-Tabakat Al-Kobra 2/95 + Al-Jawaher 27.

[29] Manaqib Al-Farghal 14 and 15 + Al-Kawakib Al-Sayyara 217 and 218.

[30] History of Ibn Eyas 1/2/246.

 

 

 

CHAPTER IX: Purposes of Sufi Pilgrimage

   

Introduction:

1- To urge people to perform pilgrimage to holy Sufi spots, Sufis spread didactic stories about pilgrims who visited shrines and mausoleums coming from faraway places, and when they slept near the mausoleum, the saint would appear in their dreams to solve their problems; waking up, they find their problem had been solved. This is the bare skeleton of the many different stories of urging people to invoke saints and mausoleums [1].

2- When Sufism dominated the Mameluke Era, shrines, mausoleums, and saints increased exponentially around cemeteries and myths spread about assumed miraculous deeds caused by them, and this led thousands of people (inside and outside Cairo) to perform pilgrimage to them, and even travellers came to Egypt for that purpose. Ibn Battuta the traveller describes in his book all features of such mausoleums and pilgrimage rituals to them; so do Al-Olwi, the Moroccan traveler Ibn Dhahira, and other authors/writers. This was religious tourism, to use a modern term, par excellence; even families would spend their nights at cemeteries and mausoleums, allowing sexually immoral behavior to be committed in such occasions within such crowded areas during nights spent there and during Sufi pilgrimage rituals.      

3- Such popularity of pilgrimage rituals led to the emergence of a class of Sufi sheikhs whose job was to act as tourist guide to pilgrims coming from afar, and they received fees for their services within this lucrative business as tour guides and as spiritual guides who tell people which rituals to perform and how to perform them. Many of those guides had invented more rituals and notions, and this class was called (visit sheikhs). Some of them authored books about such visits and rituals related to them, such as Ibn Zayyat in his book titled ''Al-Kawakib Al-Sayyara'' and his disciple Al-Sakhawy in his book titled "Tuhfat Al-Ahbab". Such books are filled with stories of pilgrims adventures and miraculous deeds of entombed saints to reinforce the belief in saints and the rewards and benefits drawn from performing pilgrimage to their shrines. In the following paragraphs, we will confine ourselves to what is written by Ibn Al-Zayyat and Al-Sakhawy in order to know the aims of Sufi pilgrimage during the Mameluke Era that reflect the mentality of the era influenced by an earthly religion which is wicked and filled with blasphemous lies and falsehoods.     

 

Pilgrimage to Mausoleums Seeking Remedy:

1- Within propagation of Sufi myths by guardians and clergymen of mausoleums, the notion of using the dust of the grounds of certain mausoleums as a cure to many illnesses spread like a certain one inside a mosque near a water well, as people would drink its 'holy' water after a spoon of dust to get cured, or to perform complete ablution (i.e., taking a bath) using this water mixed with the 'holy' dust [2]. It is silly and primitive to believe such nonsense of course!

2- The worst of all was to use 'holy' dust, after reading Quranic verses on the dust, as kohl for treatment of eyes! This was a sort of Sufi conspiracy to blind Egyptians by making them lose their sight after making them lose their religious insight by forsaking the Quran [3].

3- Al-Sakhawy tells the readers the same about dust from the tomb of the saint Zu Al-Nun Al-Masry, asserting that people actually got cured this way [4], as typical of Sufis to fabricate stories about people trying the Sufi practices to experience miraculous results.   

4- Another funny way of cure involved Sufis urging Egyptian to humiliate themselves by wallowing in the dusty grounds of mausoleums like animals to seek benediction and remedy for all ailments, especially by putting dust on the body areas/parts that needed to be healed, and on the face to honor the dead saint, as mentioned by Al-Sakhawy [5] and the Mameluke historian Abou Al-Mahasin Ibn Tughry in his book titled ''Al-Manhal Al-Safy'' about the dust of a tomb of a Mameluke prince who died in 764 A.H. [6]. 

Pilgrimage to Mausoleums Seeking Payment of Debts:

  The mausoleum of a saint called Al-Dirini, head sheikh of the Rifaaiyya Sufi order, was visited to seek his aid in settlement of debts during the Mameluke Era as per Al-Sakhawy and Ibn Al-Zayyat [7] about Al-Dirini being invoked (as he was deemed close to God!) to help those in debts to find money to settle their debts, and many other writers tell mythical stories of the same meaning about how saints helped people who ran debts [8]. 

Pilgrimage to Mausoleums Seeking to Implore God to Enable People to Visit Mecca:

1- Sufis liked very much to meddle in pilgrimage to Mecca; during the Mameluke Era, most Egyptian people believed the myth that Sufi saints were their mediators and intercessors before the Lord. Hence, they implored and invoked Sufi entombed saints to grant them money and effort to take the journey to Mecca and return in safety, as we read what is written by Ibn Al-Zayyat about a Sufi sheikh who urged people wishing to perform pilgrimage to perform complete ablution on a Wednesday after performing dawn prayers and then wear a perfume and Ihram-clothes and pray and recite the Quran at a certain shrine of a saint, alone, and then implore and invoke the saint, using certain phrases and utterances, to get help to enable the person to go to Mecca one day, and then wallow naked (after removing Ihram-clothes) in the dust of the shrine several times [9].    

2- In the above, we have discerned how Sufis took great care to entrap those wishing to take the journey to Mecca into the snare of polytheistic acts before performing pilgrimage to the Kaaba in Mecca, while committing the abomination of deeming animal-like wallowing into the dust as 'holy' rituals performed with utmost reverence and piety! 

3- Of course, such 'invaluable' rituals described above found adherents who applied them during the Mameluke era. Even Ibn Al-Zayyat mentions another female-saint mausoleum which were circled seven times by those seeking to perform pilgrimage to Mecca, while invoking the female saint reverently and in piety and faith to grant them aid and money to be able to go to the Kaaba one day before they die [10], and Al-Sakhawy mentions the same thing about other mausoleums [11]. Of course, this was a devilish conspiracy to make potential pilgrims to Mecca remain polytheists before and after pilgrimage at the Kaaba, as if Sufis who earned their living from gullible masses fear that the Kaaba might 'steal' the Sufi people from them (by making them thinking of rejecting Sufi mausoleums) if they ever go to Mecca one day!

 

Finally:

   In the meanwhile when the earthly, man-made, fabricated religion of Sufism dominated Egyptians and drove them to wallow in dust of mausoleums to seek remedy and healing, the Europeans got rid of the control and dominance of their earthly religions and adopted science and empiricism to make advances and discoveries that have changed the whole world, as if they had heeded God's Word in these verses: "" (29:20); "" (22:46); "" (67:15). At the same time, the Muhammadans until now fight one another incessantly for the sake of three devilish earthly religions (the Sunnite, Shiite, and Sufi ones), and others accuse Islam of being the main factor of the backwardness of Arabs! When we as a Quranist clear Islam's name by exposing falsehoods of the three devilish earthly religions posing as if they were 'Islam', the Muhammadans readily accuse us of showing contempt toward religions. Indeed, we despise and look down contemptibly at their three devilish earthly religions, seeking to gratify God by exposing and criticizing them  and by showing true Islam: Quranism. On the Last Day, God will judge all human beings and settle our disputes and differences in religion.      

 

References:

 [1] Al-Kawakib Al-Sayyara 43, 132, 133, and 180, to name but a few examples.

[2] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 318.

[3] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 360

[4] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 359 and 360.

[5] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 332.

[6] Al-Manhal Al-Safy 2/478.

[7] Al-Kawakib Al-Sayyara 302 + Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 440 and 441.

[8] Al-Kawakib Al-Sayyara 148 and 180 + Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 356.

[9] Al-Kawakib Al-Sayyara 287 and 288.

[10] Al-Kawakib Al-Sayyara 122.

[11] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 487.

 

 

CHAPTER X: Famous Sufi Pilgrimage ''Kaabas'' in Egypt during the Mameluke Era

 

 

Firstly: pilgrimage to 'holy' sanctified buildings and living saints:

1- Just as Arabs before the advent of Islam (by the revelation of the Quran) had their many kaabas in Arabia to visit apart from the Kaaba, God's House in Mecca, the Mameluke Egypt had so many sanctified Sufi mausoleums like those false Arabian kaabas. So many people performed pilgrimage to such Sufi mausoleums, but what was a new addition by Sufis who exceeded the falsehoods of Arabs before Islam was that Sufis introduced the habit of visiting and paying homage (as a form of Sufi pilgrimage) to living Sufi sheikhs/saints, not just dead saints of Sufism! Hence, living Sufi saints/sheikhs attracted so many people to them, who kissed their hands and touched their garments as they did with the Kiswah of the Kaaba before it got out of Cairo to Mecca, as we read in the writings of Al-Shaarany about a Sufi sheikh named Shams Eddine Al-Doumyaty [1]. Some living Sufi saint/sheikhs envied entombed saints that attracted more people and visitors in comparison to living ones; even Al-Morsi begrudged the fact that dead entombed saints attract more followers than the number of followers they attracted when they were alive and headed their Sufi orders [2]. Of course, this phenomenon was not caused by the so-called saints; rather, because of the guardians of the shrines/mausoleums who invented and propagated stories of miracles and cured people etc. that witnessed the power of the shrine, thus ensuring that they would earn more money and eat all offerings the gullible present to the so-called entombed saints!     

2- Of course, celebrating shrines and mausoleums and performing pilgrims to them was the prominent phenomenon within likes of historical chronicles of the Mameluke Era apart from the books of Sufi authors, as stories abound regarding visiting 'holy' shrines and tombs, miracles, conflicts between Sufi orders and leaders, Sunnite scholars (like Al-Biqaai) declaring Sufis as infidels and apostates (especially Ibn Al-Farid and Ibn Araby) and other Sufi foes and adversaries of his. Al-Biqaai in his history written by him in a detailed manuscript tells us about such conflicts and how he used to mock Sufis' stupidity about thinking a dead person could be invoked to come to their aid [3]. Sultans of the Mameluke Era favored Sufi sheikhs/leaders and were inclined or leaning toward them in their conflict and struggle against Al-Biqaai who fell into disfavor, despite the fact that criticisms written by the latter are very true for reasoning minds. This means that Mameluke sultans were convinced (either by bribes or by personal conviction and  beliefs) that Sufi entombed saints can control lives of people! 

 

Secondly: preferring mausoleum of Al-Badawi to Mecca and Yathreb:

   As Sufi pilgrimage rituals became almost identical to the Qorayish ones before the advent of the Quran, we discern within lines of Sufi books that Sufis urged people to believe that performing pilgrimage to Al-Sayed Al-Badawi shrine/mausoleum was better than pilgrimage to Mecca and Yathreb. People were inclined to believe them because traveling to Mecca was costly and dangerous as caravans of pilgrims were attacked and raided; pilgrims rarely returned to their homelands; they were either killed in a caravan raid or taken ill and died. In contrast, the journey was easy and pleasant, on boats in the River Nile, toward Tanta to visit Al-Sayed Al-Badawi mausoleum. Al-Sakhawy the historian resents this fact as he says in his book of history ''Al-Tibr Al-Masbook'' that the number of pilgrims ( or Sufi mob and masses as he calls them mockingly) in the city of Tanta (coming from the Levant and Arabia and other regions) exceeded the number of pilgrims in Mecca and Yathreb [4].

Thirdly: the universality of 'holy' sanctified buildings, kaabas, and tombs in Egypt:

1- Indeed, performing pilgrimage to Egyptian shrines and mausoleums was universal among most Muhammadans as per political, social, and economical circumstances. Sufi sheikhs grow richer than ever with such religious tourism, leading envious poor ones to create and spread more shrines/mausoleums all over Egyptian soil to attract and appeal to tourists/travellers/customers of every region outside Egypt to come to Egypt for the sake of such 'holy' tombs. Hence, so many shrines/mausoleums were built and dedicated to names of prophets, the so-called companions of Muhammad, Muhammad's supposed progeny and great-grandchildren from his eldest daughter Fatima, the ascetic men who lived as recluses, female saints with wondrous life stories and miracles, religious scholar, imams, monks, etc. (from all nationalities, age-groups, ethnicities, and of both genders) who had never been to Egypt at all. Many of them are imaginary characters who never existed, but stories and myths about them made them very real to Sufi pilgrims! More fake shrines/mausoleums were erected to be dedicated to the progeny of Muhammad's great-grandchildren from his eldest daughter Fatima and her husband, Ali, the Shiite supreme deity. Though the visit sheikhs knew about fake shrines/mausoleums, they kept the secret so as not to spoil the 'fun and benefit' of worshippers and, of course, to earn more money as fees from those pilgrims!

2- Within the book titled "Zibdat Al-Mamalik", which is on geography of the Mameluke Era Egypt, we find that the author mentions certain Sufi pilgrimage spots and locations, including mausoleums and shrines dedicated to brothers of Joseph, some prophets mentioned in the Quran, progeny of Ali and Fatima, Sunnite and Shiite imams, scholars, and leaders, so-called companions of Muhammad, historical figures like Aristotle, Pharaonic historical figures, many Coptic saints and monks, ascetic men who lived in caves, and even some animals like the cow of Moses [5]. Hence, holy sites pertaining to the Pharaonic, Shiite, and Coptic religions all over Egypt were restored during the Mameluke Era to be rebuilt as Sufi shrines. Sufis who knew about fake shrines and mausoleums tolerated their existence (in contrast to Sunnite bigotry and fanaticism), and such tolerance stemmed from the economic benefits and profits; Sufis' supreme deities were food offerings and money of course!   

 

Fourthly: differences in specifying which kaabas are more holy inside Egypt:  

1- The author of Zibdat Al-Mamalik did not care to mention the most prominent shrines and mausoleums that attracted the largest number of people who assumed that invocation, prayers, and supplications at them were (supposedly) answered by God. In contrast, Sufi books of visits and pilgrimages to shrines and mausoleums mention much details, of course, about all holy sites and spots to attract more customers in the future.

2- Both Ibn Al-Zayyat [6] and his disciple Al-Sakhawy [7] disagree in their writings about a certain order or arranged sequence of the most prominent seven Sufi shrines and mausoleums to be visited in Egypt. But the Moroccan traveler Ibn Dhahira asserts a different sequence of seven most importance mausoleums in his Book titled "Al-Mahasin Al-Bahira fi Fadaeil Misr wa Al-Qahira", especially about mausoleums where prayers would be answered by God swiftly [8]. Of course, we never read about how such authors discovered a yard-stick or a tool to measure spots where prayers were answered swiftly nor the criteria to arrange those seven shrines! Of course, the Sufi earthly, fabricated religion was owned by its authors who decided all rituals, legislations, tenets, etc., whereas the visit sheikhs were the legislators who would decide the holiest spots and shrines!   

3- Because Sufism is a man-made, fabricated, and earthly religion, it is based on discrepancies, conflicts, differences, and whims, and this is why Sufi sheikhs differed in deciding the holiest spots and shrines as per whatever arrangement and to deliver their views about rituals and timing of visits, etc.

4- Even Sufi authors might contradict themselves in the same book they have written; for example, Al-Sakhawy, who mentions certain seven shrines in a certain arrangement as the holiest spots where prayers were answered swiftly, writes in the same book he authored the names of other mausoleums that assumedly had the same quality or feature, such as (the mosque of feet) [9], which was named as such because its mausoleum housed the feet and legs of some Sufi saints/deities, as such bones were regarded as holy relics! This reminds us of the five or more sanctified mausoleums that each claim to house the skull of Al-Hussein, son of Ali and Fatima and grandson of Muhammad,  one of the supreme deities in both the Sufi and Shiite religions. We are sure Al-Hussein had but one head or skull, but Sufis and Shiites had a different opinions!

5-  Al-Sakhawy contradicts his earlier views about holiest seven mausoleums in the same book he authored as he mentions that he favors another mosque/shrine called (mosque of all-saints) [10]. We never read the reason for his not mentioning this mosque among the holiest arranged seven shrines! Another contradiction is that Al-Sakhawy and his master Ibn Al-Zayyat agree on the holies spot/shrine of them all, and it is not one of the seven mentioned earlier in their respective books! [11]. To top it all, Al-Sakhawy in yet another contradiction insists that only four spots in Egypt were prayers are answered by God swiftly: Joseph's prison, mosque of Moses, Nafisa mausoleum and mosque, and Al-Mo'ayyid mosque [12]. It is funny that Al-Sakhawy here quotes another anonymous Sufi persons/legislators by saying phrases like: ''… It is said that… ''; ''…Most Sufis assert that…" when talking about deciding which kaabas/shrines in Egypt were holiest spots. Al-Sakhawy refers in another paragraph in his book to the fact that differences and disputes occurred in deciding holiest spots for all Sufis, and that on rare occasions, all Sufis agree on one item to be the holiest of them all [13].

 

Fifthly: special 'holy' mausoleums for women:

1- Of course, there were some female saints enshrined in mausoleums of their own and many women would flock to perform pilgrimage there assuming that prayers were answered swiftly by God within such 'holy' spots; yet, no shrine of female saints appear on lists of the prominent seven sites/spots mentioned by male authors of Sufi books. Only Al-Sakhawy mentions the Al-Sayeda Nafisa mausoleum/mosque as a spot of swift answer for prayers, but outside the seven ones he mentions earlier [14].  

2- Al-Sakhawy mentions later on in his book another Sufi-Shiite mausoleum said to house Zeinab, one of the female progeny of Ali and Fatima, and he quotes some miraculous stories about this site holy to many Egyptians during the Mameluke Era in the 9^th century A.H. [15]. By the way, this mausoleum is not to be confused with the one standing now in our present time in Cairo, Egypt, which was built in the 10^th century A.H. in 955 A.H. after half a century after the death of Al-Sakhawy. The one mentioned by Al-Sakhawy was discarded later on and was ruined and demolished. The one standing now was built based on a vision/dream of a man who claimed that the apparition of Zeinab appeared to him in that spot, and the Ottoman governor built the mosque dedicated to her on the very spot, and it still stands now in a square in the Cairene district Al-Sayeda Zeinab, becoming (past and present) one of the most visited and prominent Egyptian kaabas. This is utterly absurd and ludicrous as we see!

3- Ibn Al-Zayyat mentions many female-saints mausoleums with the quality of swift answering to prayers of female and male pilgrims who visited them, including many women from the Hashemites, some other Arab women, princesses like Qatr Al-Nada the Tulunid princess who died in the prime of her youth, and some local Egyptian women who were regarded as female saints after their death for one reason or the other [16].

4- It seems that certain criteria existed to decide upon the mythical stories used to propagate the female saints mausoleums; of course,  entombed Hashemite women need no propaganda as they were Arabian women from the same Meccan/Qorayish family of Muhammad, whereas female saints of Arabian origin but of other tribes, their story must be supported by Sufi storytellers who add miracles and evidence of sanctity and swift answering of prayers of pilgrims etc., as Al-Sakhawy does regarding lesser known female saints of Arab origins in his book [17][18]. As for Egyptian female saints, Al-Sakhawy would increase miraculous stories about them to propagate their mausoleum and recommend it for (esp. female) pilgrims; for example, the Egyptian female saint mausoleum of Aroos Al-Sahara (literally, Bride of the Desert) has a strange story: she was a nameless lady who died a virgin in her bridal bed, because she felt so terrified of losing her chastity by her husband and extremely shy of being naked with him in bed, to the extent that she was so sweaty, and before her husband entered her room, she invoked the Lord to spare her such an experience; the Lord granted her this wish, as her husband found her lying dead on bed, soaked with sweat, before he could have his way with her. People turned her tomb as a shrine for her chastity and for her invocation of God that was answered on the spot. Her miracle was that even in winter, her tomb would be dewy with sweat, and the dust in her tomb was used as remedy to cure ill women and swift answering of one's prayers at her shrine was guaranteed! [19]. It is funny that this anonymous (and fictional) bride would be sanctified because she shied from legal sex in the bridal bed, and her shrine would be near to the shrines of female saints who never shied away in their bridal beds!

 

Sixthly: mausoleum of Al-Hussein (biggest devilish, Satanist location in Egypt):

1- To fake fictional stories about saints and mausoleums was not uncommon, and so was ascribing persons/saints to certain tombs. Indeed, most of shrines and mausoleums were empty in the first place; this applies to the mausoleum of Al-Hussein built by the Fatimids within the last years of their caliphate, as Fatimid caliphs grew weaker and needed the support of Egyptians who no longer favored their rule at the time (550 A.H.) when the mausoleum of Al-Hussein was erected. Ibn Taymiyya insists in his book that the head/skull of Al-Hussein was carried by his sister to Yathreb where she buried it, and this view is supported by Al-Bokhary, and when there was centuries between the era when Al-Hussein was killed and the era of the Fatimids who built this fake mausoleum just 14 years before their dynasty collapsed [20]. We may be permitted to pose a question here: If a dead skull of Al-Hussein was so powerful in controlling the universe, why did it allow the Umayyad sword to sever it from its body?! Besides, God has said to Muhammad, the grandfather of Al-Hussein, the following words: "It is no concern of yours…" (3:128).

2- 25 years after the mausoleum of Al-Hussein was built, the traveler Ibn Jubayr visited Egypt during the reign of Saladin, and he writes about spiritual feelings he felt upon entering this Al-Hussein shrine and he describes its magnificence in detail [21] especially how a black stone was added to the site of the shrine to complete the picture, and how countless pilgrims go there in reverence. This shows that Ibn Jubayr was among the disbelieving polytheistic Muhammadans who worshipped Al-Hussein. Worshipping the shrine of the assumed skull of this Shiite-Sufi deity increased during the Mameluke Era of course, as Ibn Taymiyya who mocks the shrine writes frankly that most Egyptians worshipped there and began to swear oaths using the name of Al-Hussein! [22].

 

Seventhly: fake mausoleums ascribed to famous saints:  

1- Ibn Jubayr the traveller voices some doubts, in his book, about ascribing shrines and mausoleums to famous revered figures who were elevated to sainthood after their death, for lack of evidence and clear signs to prove such claims [23].

2- Fake mausoleums increased exponentially during the Mameluke Era, as many shrines were ascribed to the so-called companions of Muhammad and to prophets, to the extent that visit sheikhs wrote about such phenomenon of fake shrines, and yet, they urged pilgrims to visit them because being rewarded with benediction and blessings was based by good intentions and devotion level of the pilgrims even if the mausoleum was fake, as Al-Sakhawy writes [24]. Al-Sakhawy writes the same idea after exposing a fake mausoleum ascribed to one of the brothers of Joseph [25]. The same notion is asserted by Ibn Al-Zayyat [26]. In the early decades of the Ottoman Era in Egypt in the 10^th century A.H., exactly in 955 A.H./1173 A.D.,  Al-Sayeda Zeinab shrine and mosque was built by the Ottoman governor of Egypt based on a vision/dream that apparition of Zeinab appeared in a certain location that became a district and a square standing until now in Cairo. The Egyptians accepted the shrine of this (grand dame) because they had centuries-old traditions of worshipping central female figures or goddesses like Isis, Hathor, Nut, Maat, and the Virgin Mary as well as female Christian saints. This shrine of the female saint is still the most visited Sufi temple/mosque/shrine along with Al-Hussein temple/mosque/shrine by both Sunnite and Shiite Egyptians as well, not just Sufis. Of course, such falsehoods are based on lies; historically, Zeinab never visited Egypt during her lifetime at all. In any case, both shrines and all shrines and mausoleums in Cairo or in the whole of Egypt as well as in the Arab and non-Arab cities are abominations to be avoided as per the Quran: "… So stay away from the abomination of idols and stay away from uttering falsehoods." (22:30). God says nothing but the Truth.

 

Eighth: travellers and pilgrimage to Sufi mausoleums in Cairo:

  Shrines and mausoleums attracted countless Egyptians and countless non-Egyptian travelers from East and West countries of the Muhammadans who visited Egypt during the Fatimid Era, Ayyubid Era, the Mameluke Era, and the Ottoman Era. Visiting such mausoleums was on top of the list for any traveler, such as Ibn Jubayr, Ibn Dhahira, Ibn Battuta, and Al-Olwi, and the latter visited and admired shrines and mausoleums of Alexandria, the second largest Egyptian city located at the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, which had mausoleums ascribed to some prophets and Shiite deities (progeny of Ali) and holy relics of prophets as well, within ornate, well-decorated, and aesthetically built mausoleums [27].

Lastly:

 In every era, Iblis/Satan is present to deceive every generation by making people worship mausoleums and 'holy' tombs; Satan is the real fashioner of such polytheistic falsehood, as God tells us in the Quran to warn us against such abomination:" O you who believe! wine, gambling, and pagan buildings are abominations of Satan's doing. Avoid them, so that you may prosper. Satan wants to provoke strife and hatred among you through wine and gambling, and to prevent you from the remembrance of God, and from prayer. Will you not desist?" (5:90-91). As always, God says nothing but the Truth.

 

 

References:

 [1] Tanbeeh Al-Mughtareen 93 and 94.

[2] Lataeif Al-Minan by Ibn Ataa 55.

[3] History of Al-Biqaaei, a manuscript 59.

[4] Al-Tibr Al-Masbook by Al-Sakhawy 178.

[5] Zibdat Al-Mamalik.

[6] Al-Kawakib Al-Sayyara 321.

[7] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 485.

[8] Al-Mahasin Al-Bahera 193 and 194.

[9] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 167.

[10] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 309.

[11] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 364 + Al-Kawakib Al-Sayyara 240.

[12] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 79.

[13] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 366.

[14] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 107.

[15] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 4/225-226.

[16] Al-Kawakib Al-Sayyara 43, 96, 143, 155, and 156.

[17] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 4/200.

[18] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 4/236.

[19] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 279 and 280.

[20] Takseer Al-Ahjar 146.

[21] Rihlat Ibn Jubayr 48.

[22] Takseer Al-Ahjar 146.

[23] Rihlat Ibn Jubayr 49 and 50.

[24] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 139.

[25] Tuhfat Al-Ahbab 415.

[26] Al-Kawakib Al-Sayyara 283.

[27] Rihlat Al-Olwi, a manuscript 42a, 59, and 60.

 

 

 

CHAPTER XI: Sufis Turn the Kaaba as a Location for their Assumed Deities

 

Firstly: Sufi deities at the Kaaba:

1- Sufism and Sufis caused the return of the Qorayish false tawatur dated back to decades before the Quran, when Qorayish filled the space around the Kaaba with pagan idols, but in the case of Sufism, the Sufis have made the Kaaba a center for their deities/Qutbs/saints to meet and gather in order to get their share of sanctification and worship by pilgrims.   

2- As early Muhammadans (esp. Sunnites) thought that statues and sculpture as well as ran paintings and pictures were reminiscent of idol-worship and 'holy' icons and relics, they invented legislations to prohibit making statues even if they were not worshipped; yet, simultaneously, worship an sanctification of 'holy' tombs have returned with a vengeance, more especially within the Shiite and Sufi religions, and the deification of living sheikhs/saints and dead ones in mausoleums ascribed to those Shiite and Sufi dead saints. In many cases, the mausoleum contained no corpse or body parts underneath; it would be built in the memory of a male/female saint as a temple dedicated to worship him/her.       

3- Because it was impossible to build a mausoleum inside the Sacred Kaaba Mosque or even near it, the Sufis have invented, among their polytheistic tenets, the notion of turning the walls and bricks of the Kaaba itself into 'holy' stones akin to a mausoleum, by making the Kaaba a center point where Sufi saints fly, gather, and meet on its ceiling and around it. another Sufi feature in their tenets is to claim that those saints worked miracles there near the Kaaba. Hence, stone and wooden idols installed by Qorayish in the past were removed from around the Kaaba to be replaced decades later by imaginary unseen flying Sufi deities/saints!   

 

Secondly: the assumed Sufi deities gather at the Kaaba:

1- Within the imaginary Sufi hierarchy and metaphysical realm or cosmology, there are myriads of lesser and greater deities/saints that control everything in the universe and whose power is supposed to be originating from God, and among the greater deities were the Qutb Al-Ghawth (i.e., literally in Arabic, the pole of salvation), the Qutb of Qutbs, the Khedr, the four main Qutbs/magnets within the four compass cardinal points or directions, temporal Qutbs, cosmic Qutbs, guardian/patron Qutbs, etc. Within Sufi tenets, Sufis made the Kaaba in Mecca as the central point of meetings and gatherings of those deities and Qutbs as well as the grand Sufi saints.     

2- Let us quote the following passage from the book titled ''Al-Tabakat Al-Kobra'' by Al-Sharnouby, and its author is greatly influenced by the book titled ''Al-Jawhara'' by Ibrahim Al-Disouky, a Sufi sheikh during the Mameluke Era and founder of Al-Disoukiyya Sufi order. We quote this passage that shows how a so-called Sufi saint assumes an elevated, divine stature enabling him to control the heavens and the earth, this world and the next, this life and the Afterlife, as one of the four main Qutbs/magnets within the four compass cardinal points or directions within the Sufi realm or cosmology as per the so-called the Muhammadan Truth, a Sufi/Shiite  term indicating Muhammad as a supreme deity controlling all saints, Qutbs, magnets, etc. in that cosmology. We quote the following passage from the introduction of the book titled ''Al-Tabakat Al-Kobra'' by Al-Sharnouby:

  (… This is Al-Tabakat Al-Kobra by the erudite scholar the sheikh Ahmed Al-Sharnouby; May God make us benefit from the benediction of this great Sufi sheikh  … Al-Sharnouby mentions in this tome the Manaqib (i.e., praises, merits, good qualities, and miracles of saints) of the Four Magnets, May the Lord be pleased with them, Amen … In the Name of God, praised be the Lord for placing His Saints in the elevated stature they deserve and clothed them in the cloaks of dignity, to be praised by all humanity all day and all night,  … as the saints watch over all good deeds of believers and invoke the Lord for our sake on our behalf … as the Lord tells all the Saints about the unknown and what lies in hearts of people on earth … Praised be the Lord Who is Allah, and we testify that Allah is the Lord, with no other gods or associates with Him … May our Islam be without polytheism … We testify that Our Master and Our Holy Prophet is Muhammad, peace and blessings of the Lord be upon him  … The banners of Muhammad are raised in the seventh heaven with higher arch-angels carrying them … Muhammad the Immortal with the Everlasting Stature in the heavens … May the Lord praise and bless Our Master and Prophet Muhammad, and his Family, and his Companions forever and ever … the fakir who seeks God, Muhammad Al-Balkini, the writer of this introduction, testifies here that Our Master the Qutb Al-Ghawth Ahmad Ibn Othman Al-Sharnouby was our sheikh and we were his disciple in his order … we once asked him about sharia, but he told me to focus on gaining the science of the Way and the Knowledge of the Path … we implored him to tell us about the miracles of the Four Magnets who safeguard the earth … he told us that their miracles are countless  … When Our Master Al-Sharnouby, peace and blessings of God be upon him, read the Preserved Tablet, he knew that he was the disciple of Our Master Ibrahim Al-Disouky, the one who deciphered all symbols of the Preserved Tablet and understood it all … Al-Sharnouby became a Qutb in the constellation, and he met Our Master Al-Disouky, who told him he is his vizier … he told him about miracles of Our Master Al-Rifaai … they met on top of the roof of the Glorious Kaaba … Our Master Al-Disouky told everything to Our Master Al-Sharnouby … about how God told Our Master Al-Disouky that he was created from the Divine Light of God and he was rewarded with the glad tidings … Our Master Al-Disouky controls now all Houris of Paradise … Fires of Hell feared Our Master Al-Disouky and went out and he extinguished them … they turned into dust … Our Master Al-Disouky cried out and Hell was afraid of him and shut its seven gates … God brought glad tiding to Our Master Al-Disouky, by telling him that he and his disciples will enter Paradise … for the sake of their following the Great Qutb Our Master Al-Disouky … All good bounties on earth are controlled by Our Master Al-Disouky … and he was given a carpet of light to roam the universe as he pleases … Our Master Al-Disouky  will make his enemies enter Hell and spare his friends … Our Master Al-Disouky  will open the seven gates of Paradise for all his beloved ones … If the scales show that his disciples have little good deeds, Our Master Al-Disouky will outweigh the scales to make the disciples enter Paradise if they obeyed and followed his order all their lives … The first one to utter the word of Tawheed was Our Prophet Muhammad and then Our Master Al-Disouky … Our Master Al-Disouky was born as a Qutb before Adam and Eve were created … before Adam was created out of mud … before the Divine Throne, before the Preserved Tablet, before the Quran, before the earth, before the Kaaba of Mecca … God granted Our Master Al-Disouky full knowledge of the unknown and the future … of this world and the next world of the Afterlife … Our Master Al-Disouky can decipher all secrets and codes … Our Master Al-Disouky knows when the Hour will occur … Our Master Al-Disouky is the omniscient Qutb who knows about when each person will die … Our Master Al-Disouky was given eternity before he descended to earth … Our Master Al-Disouky knows all names written on the Tree of Life and Knowledge … Our Master Al-Disouky  can control bounties of the Lord on earth, clouds and rain, rivers, … Our Master Al-Disouky knows the name of each angels in heavens and on the earth … Our Master Al-Disouky knows all the Holy Names of God … when we sleep, our souls are maintained in Barsakh by Our Master Al-Disouky who will keep those souls of those who will die and send the rest back to earth … God told Our Master Al-Disouky to say that he and Him are one, and never to fear blame of people …) 

3- We have quoted this long passage of balderdash of sick minds to prove the disbelief and polytheism of Sufis and to provide an example of how they have made the Kaaba, in their sick imagination, a center for the gatherings and meetings of living saints with the so-called four magnets and the Qutbs (who are dead saints). We assert here that such mythology has nothing to do with Islam; they reflect perfectly the nonsensicality of the Sufi religion and its tenets that dominated the religious life in Egypt during the Mameluke Era and Ottoman Era. No atheist or disbeliever in our modern age would dare to utter such nonsense and blasphemous words like the above, because we are no longer living within a Sufism-dominated age.      

 

Thirdly: Khedr, the Kaaba, and pilgrims:

1- Within the pilgrimage season in Mecca during the Mameluke Era, Sufis used to imagine the roof of the Kaaba as the location for meetings and gatherings of Sufis saints, Qutbs, and Khedr. The Khedr for Sufis is the supreme immortal deity/saint who exists before Muhammad and all prophets as per their myths, and they assume that he was the one meeting with Moses in the Quranic Chapter 18. Yet, this imaginary character named Khedr is NEVER mentioned in the Quran at all! 

2- We personally tend to think that the good servant of God mentioned in the Quranic Chapter 18 as meeting with Moses was another mortal prophet and not a supernatural being; as God describes him in the Quranic Chapter 18 by all descriptions typically fit prophets when they are described in the Quran. this good servant of God is a prophet; God granted him knowledge like the rest of prophets: "Then they came upon a servant of Ours, whom We had blessed with mercy from Us, and had taught him knowledge from Our Own." (18:65). Prophets were the only mortals receiving divine revelation or knowledge to convey God's message to people; for examples, God says the following about Muhammad: "… God has revealed to you the Scripture and wisdom, and has taught you what you did not know. God's goodness towards you is great." (4:113). Part of this knowledge is related to some aspects of the unknown, revealed by God to some prophets; God addresses the believers in the following verse: "God will not leave the believers as you are, without distinguishing the wicked from the sincere. Nor will God inform you of the future, but God elects from among His messengers whom He wills. So believe in God and His messengers. If you believe and practice piety, you will have a splendid reward." (3:179). Within the Quranic story of Moses and the good servant, we discern that Moses did not know some aspects of the unknown, whereas these aspects were taught by God to this good servant; this means that this unnamed good servant was a prophet receiving divine revelation, and God commanded him to meet with Moses to teach him emotional self-restraint and not to become hasty. This unnamed good servant told Moses the following: "… I did not do it of my own accord. This is the interpretation of what you were unable to endure." (18:82). That we are not told the name of this good servant of God does not lead us to cast doubts on the fact that he was a prophet; we do not know all prophets stories and names: "Some messengers We have already told you about, while some messengers We have not told you about…" (4:164). Even within some Quranic stories about some prophets, names are not mentioned in the Quranic text; for instance, in the following verses, no name is mentioned: "Have you not considered the notables of the Israelites after Moses? When they said to a prophet of theirs, "Appoint a king for us…" (2:246); "And cite for them the parable of the landlords of the town-when the messengers came to it. We sent them two messengers, but they denied them both, so We reinforced them with a third. They said, "We are messengers to you."" (36:13-14). Hence, we conclude that this good servant of God, unnamed in the Quranic story in the Quranic Chapter 18, was one of God's prophets whom God revealed to him certain aspects of the unknown like some other prophets in some Quranic stories; yet, Sufis consider him as a Sufi saint and they named him Khedr, and they made him more elevated in stature than Moses and he was the one to teach Moses Sufism! The Sufi authors deliberately misinterpret and warp the meanings of certain Quranic verses to assert their view that this so-called Khedr is immortal and they invented myriads of hadiths to support such view, including a narrative that this eternal Khedr met with Muhammad!      

3- For Sufis, Khedr roams the world for eternity and he appears in due time at the Kaaba or within pilgrims' route; for instance, if Sufis  anywhere need anything or get into trouble, Khedr would emerge to come to his aid. A Sufi once said that he desired to eat a certain dish, while he was alone without food in the deserts of Hejaz, on his way to Mecca, with no money and no food, and thinking he saw a nomad or desert-Arab before him, he begged some food, and the Sufi man was surprised to find the dish he desired is before him, and the fake nomad told him that he was actually Khedr [1].  Another Sufi mythical story narrated by Al-Ghazaly before the Mameluke Era is that the immortal Khedr met with another immortal prophet in their Sufi cosmology, named Elijah [2].   

4- Sufis made this Khedr on top of their imagined realm hierarchy of Qutbs, magnets, saints, etc. that control the universe, with Mecca as their capital and meeting point. During the Mameluke Era, Ibn Hajar writes what the Sufi sheikh Ibn Abou Fares mentioned about the seven 'holy' Qutbs and their saints under them, and how Qutb Al-Ghawth resides in Mecca where he meets them, while Khedr is roaming the universe to control four things: saving those in need, guiding those who are lost, spreading carpets for sheikhs to pray, and appointing another new Qutb Al-Ghawth when the previous one died, especially that Qutb Al-Ghawth controls and dominates all magnets, poles, and saints from his position above Mecca [3]. 

 

Fourthly: the Kaaba and Qutbs:

1- Thus, Sufis made the Kaaba the center of their Sufi pantheon that controls the physical and metaphysical realm, within a hierarchy of magnets, poles, all lesser and greater saints, etc. led by Khedr. Until today, Sufis who perform pilgrimage in Mecca know such cosmology quite well, and they would wish to meet there with Khedr or any Qutbs of this pantheon, whose deities do not differ at all from gods/deities worshipped at the Kaaba before the advent of Islam/ the Quran. Indeed, Sufis deify and sanctify their Qutbs more than Arabs used to do the same with their pagan idols, and one of the Sufis has asserted that the whole universe with its movements, stars, planets, celestial bodies, etc. are controlled by Sufi poles and magnets who are led by Khedr and that Qutb Al-Ghawth changes so that every era has its own one [4].   

2- Al-Yafei writes about some Sufi man who claimed he saw in Qutb Al-Ghawth Mecca, riding in a chariot of pure gold driven in the air by the angels with pure golden chains, and when asked about his present destination, Qutb Al-Ghawth said he would visit one of his beloved brethren; when asked about bringing this friend to him instead, Qutb Al-Ghawth insisted on gaining the reward of paying a visit to a dear friend [5]. A similar story is recounted about the saint Abou Al-Abbas Al-Morsi as being Qutb Al-Ghawth , enthroned in above Mecca in the sky [6].

3- When Al-Khawwas, the Sufi saint/sheikh, was asked about Qutb Al-Ghawth and if he resides eternally above Mecca or not, he said that Qutb Al-Ghawth eternally circumambulates the Kaaba, and if seen by the chosen lucky ones, they will enter Paradise, and simultaneously, his reincarnated images or 'avatar' roams the earth to help and aid anyone in need only among Sufis who believe in him. [7].

 

Lastly: pilgrimage of Sufis is not to the Kaaba alone, but to Sufi deities:

1- Within the last decades of the Mameluke Era, the four magnets within the Sufi cosmology came to be known as the Sufi saints: Al-Badawi, Al-Rifaai, Al-Jilani, and Al-Disouky, and we read in ''Tabakat'' by Al-Sharnouby that three centuries after the respective death of each of them, they met on top of the roof of the Kaaba, each recounting his miracles, powers, and Manaqib [8]. This means that Sufis detracted and belittled the Kaaba, God's House on earth, by making it a social club for Sufi deities to meet and talk; thus, Sufis   have ascribed their falsehoods to Islam!

2- Hence, it is not surprising that Sufis sought to perform pilgrimage to the Kaaba in Mecca, hoping to meet with saints, Qutbs, etc. For instance, Al-Yafei writes about a Sufi man who left his trade goods and took the journey to Mecca to perform pilgrimage, a revered journey to him that was of paramount importance than any worldly profits and gains of trade; he sought dearly to meet saints of God after he heard their stories about their gatherings in Mecca above the Kaaba, as Sufis told people that all true saints gather on Fridays there at night, and Sufis returning from Hajj told everyone that they saw prophets, angels, Qutbs, Khedr, and saints circling the Kaaba in the air on Fridays, and sometimes sitting on spots allotted to them around the Kaaba [9]. This means that they made their deities/saints like idols, with each having its special position round the Kaaba (thus imitating idols of Qorayish) and Sufis when in Mecca approach these places to worship their saints. The aim is clear: to make those saints enjoy the biggest share of sanctification and worship by Sufi pilgrims inside the Sacred Kaaba Mosque. At the same time, the Sufis confiscate certain mausoleums and living sheikhs all over Egyptian cities and villages to urge people travel to them from everywhere to worship at them in a form of Sufi pilgrimage, as per Sufi rituals and legislations, which has nothing to do with Islam.   

 

 

References:

 [1] Rawd Al-Rayaheen 59.

[2] Ehiaa 1/285.

[3] Al-Dorar Al-Kamena 2/483-484.

[4] Al-Ilmam 1/178.

[5] Rawd Al-Rayaheen 187.

[6] Al-Tabakat Al-Kobra by Al-Manawi, a manuscript 341b.

[7] Al-Tabakat Al-Kobra by Al-Shaarany 2/145.

[8] Al-Tabakat by Al-Sharnouby, the introduction, a manuscript.

[9] Rawd Al-Rayaheen 53 and 54.

 

 

 

CHAPTER XII: Corrupting Islamic Pilgrimage to Mecca by Performing Sunnite Pilgrimage to the Yathreb Mausoleum

 

 

Introduction:

1- The founders of the Sunnite religion were the ones to begin such abomination and falsehood as a sequel of the devilish Qorayish tawatur of lies and fabrications. Later on, Sunnites invented sharia legislations to incorporate this abomination by declaring Yathreb a 'holy' city and its mosque a 'holy' ground as it contain the mausoleum dedicated to their imaginary god whom they named Muhammad. Of course, the historical figure of Prophet Muhammad found exclusively in the Quranic text, is innocent of such abomination. The Sunnites have deemed the Yathreb mosque as a second sanctuary or haven after the Sacred Kaaba Mosque in Mecca. The mausoleum that they assume as pertaining to Muhammad is an abomination created by Satan, as per the Quranic description of any erected monument, mausoleum, or building dedicated to any deities. Surely, hundreds of nonsensical hadiths/narratives were invented and phrased to add sanctity to such mausoleum in Yathreb, such as hadiths about the claim of attaining the assumed intercession of Muhammad by those visiting it, about the claim of declaring that mausoleum as a garden of Paradise to be visited to attain benediction and blessings, about the claim that supplication an d imploring God on that spot is rewarding and prayers are answered soon, and about Muhammad being immortal and alive inside the mausoleum hearing, seeing, reviewing, and reading deeds of the Muhammadans to pardon them! Indeed, no one among the Muhammadans at the time dared to declare such acts as 'pilgrimage', and they have called it 'visits' or 'visiting the Prophet', a duty they imposed on all pilgrims to perform after they leave Mecca, by inventing a hadith about an angry Muhammad who is furious and resentful if not visited by pilgrims who finished their rituals in Mecca! With the passage of centuries, the main aim of the masses when performing pilgrimage to Mecca (Umrah or Hajj) has become 'to visit the beloved' (and they mean the Yathreb devilish abomination!), and once they leave Mecca, they hurry toward Yathreb to touch and revere windows of the mausoleum. It is as if pilgrimage at the Kaaba has turned into a mere step toward a larger, greater aim in Yathreb: to gain benediction and intercession of a mortal deemed by them to be immortal!         

2- Those early Sunnites forgot all about hundreds of Quranic verses that prohibits worship and deification of things/items and mortals/beings. With their bovine stupidity, they overlooked the fact that by claiming such falsehoods of an immortal prophet inside a tomb, they have placed Muhammad in a despised, humiliating  position of being imprisoned, confined, and buried alive for centuries inside a hole under the ground and that they tread on the ground with his head and body (thought to be never decomposed!) underneath their feet! This laughter-inducing falsehood led them  place Muhammad in the same position like Moses' Pharaoh, whose punishments in the Quran include his body remaining for others as an example to see and draw a lesson about never to commit similar sins. God has honored the progeny of Adam by ordaining their dead bodies to decompose and return to the earth as dust and other elements, while preventing Moses' Pharaoh from such honor. The fools among the early Muhammadans made their imaginary figure of Muhammad as well as their saints alive while buried in a hole underground! Other Muhammadan fools past and present have believed such myth! Shame on them!       

3- The fabricators/authors of the Sunnite religion began this falsehood and abomination, followed soon enough by fabricators/authors of the Shiite and Sufi religions.  

 

Firstly: corrupting Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca by performing Sunnite pilgrimage to mausoleum ascribed to Muhammad in Yathreb:

1- It all begin by considering Yathreb and its mosque as a sanctuary and a haven second only to Mecca and the Kaaba, God's House and the only real sanctuary mentioned in the Quran.

2- Countless hadiths and narratives were fabricated in Sunnite religion books and tomes for the purpose of elevating the stature of Yathreb as a 'holy' city, especially Al-Bokhary within hadiths in his volumes that came later to be known as "Sahih Al-Bokhary" that include hadiths ascribed to famous fabricators/narrators of hadiths: Anas Ibn Malik and Abou Hurayrah. Many of such hadiths have many versions, and all of them are believed by Sunnites until now as part of the Sunnite religion faith tenets.

3- At the time when such hadiths were authored, no one discussed the fact that such hadiths contradict the Quran; as for the hadith about Abraham making Mecca a sanctuary and 'holy' city and Muhammad did the same with Yathreb, it contradicts the following verses: "We showed Abraham the location of the House: "Do not associate anything with Me; and purify My House for those who circle around, and those who stand to pray, and those who kneel and prostrate."" (22:26). This shows that God is the One to make this place a sanctuary as His Ancient House for people, not Abraham himself. As for Muhammad he was not a legislator as far as Islam, God's religion, is concerned, as we discern from this verse: "O prophet! Why do you prohibit what God has permitted for you…" (66:1). Thus, Muhammad had no authority to prohibit or to introduce any legislations; God in the Quran is the Only Legislator in Islam. Besides, the Quran tells us that Muhammad testified the fact that God has made Mecca a sanctuary: ""I was commanded to worship the Lord of this town, who has sanctified it, and to Whom everything belongs; and I was commanded to be of those who submit." (27:91). Hence, Allah is One God, the Quran, God's Word, is one book, the monotheistic testimony is one (There is no God but Allah), and therefore, God ordains but one sanctuary as His Ancient House for pilgrimage of all human beings: the Kaaba in Mecca. Muhammad and his contemporaries among early believers performed pilgrimage only to Mecca and never elsewhere. After Muhammad's death, the Quranic revelation of legislations ended, and there is no room whatsoever to add anything else in the sharia laws of God. sadly, the Muhammadans have created bottomless, limitless sharia laws and other locations of pilgrimage, especially in Yathreb, a location of a pagan mausoleum that the Muhammadans insist and suppose wrongly that it is ascribed to Muhammad.          

4- Polytheistic hadiths and narratives accumulated and spread orally among people to distort their faith tenets since the 2^nd century A.H., before being written down in the Abbasid Era. Gradually, their love for Prophet Muhammad turned into deification and sanctification for him, and this polytheistic notion of disbelief led later on to sanctify Yathreb and its mosque as a sanctuary housing the so-called grave of Muhammad inside a mausoleum within this mosque. Pilgrims past and present consider this mausoleum as another Kaaba to be visited and pilgrimage to Yathreb is performed. Hadiths were made up soon enough to 'legitimize' such practices, and among them the one about Muhammad purportedly saying that a garden of Paradise is located between his pulpit in this mosque and his grave. This is absurd indeed! How could he managed to know where and when to die and be buried? In the Quran, we read that Muhammad never knew the future; consequently, he never knew where and when he would die and be buried: "…no soul knows in what land it will die …" (31:34).   

5- This polytheistic fabricated addition has imposed itself on the Islamic pilgrimage as a religious duty; people who come to Mecca to perform Hajj or Umrah assume they must  perform pilgrimage to Yathreb to visit its mosque/mausoleum as well. Later hadiths entailed everyone to perform yet a third pilgrimage to a mosque in Jerusalem, a city never mentioned in the Quran at all. This threefold pilgrimage to three different cities has introduced trinity to the monotheistic creed tenets, and hadiths about rewards by God to those who perform prayers in the Yathreb mosque/shrine are insulting to Muhammad and God and to Islam of course. Of course, Muhammad followed only the Quranic revelation, and God in the Quran ordains that mosques should be dedicated only for Him: "The places of worship are for God. So do not call, besides God, upon anyone else." (72:18). When Muhammad announced this truth to the Qorayish tribesmen, who worshipped 'holy' tombs of 'saints' inside mosques in Mecca, and told them to remember and glorify only God alone with no associates or deities alongside Him, those tribesmen were about to kill him: "And when the servant of God got up calling on Him, they almost fell on him in a mass." (72:19). God has told Muhammad to say the following to them: "Say, "I pray only to my Lord, and I never associate anyone with Him." Say, "It is not in my power to harm you, nor to bring you to right conduct."" (72:20-22). Reading these Quranic verses, how come anyone would believe hadiths about the Yathreb mosque dedicated to remember and worship Muhammad?! This pagan Yathreb mosque marks the beginning of dedicating mosques to names of mortals within the Sunnite, Shiite, and Sufi religions, a phenomenon that persists until now!   

 

Secondly: the role of the Sunnite religion in developing such falsehood:   

1- Both Al-Qosheiry and Al-Ghazaly were the first Sufi authors to attempt to reconcile the Sunnite and the Sufi religions by making them overlap and contain one another, thus serving their Sufi religion and legitimizing it to spread and proselytize it later on among the masses. Both in their writings focused as a start on shared aspects and the common ground between the Sunnite and the Sufi religions; namely, deification of Muhammad and sanctification of the Yathreb mausoleum dedicated to him. This is why the hadith about rejecting, spurning, and shunning Muhammad by never visiting his grave in Yathreb after pilgrimage to mecca has been a very popular hadith for centuries until the present day among the Muhammadans. One may wonder if Muhammad has purportedly said such nonsense before or after his death?! All hadiths and narratives ascribed to him are mere balderdash, falsehoods, lies, and fabrications.     

2- Al-Ghazaly committed the crime of introducing legislations about pilgrimage rituals to Yathreb, with minute details about what to do and what to say, as we read in ''Ehiaa'' [1], and Al-Ghazaly became the pioneer of Sufism for both Sufis in the Mameluke Era and the present-day Muhammadans.

3- Within the Mameluke Era, the Sunnite Sufism dominated every aspect of life; people were deifying and sanctifying any mortals and anything. Within such a cultural and religious climate, it was easy to convince people without much supporting evidence, that pilgrimage to the Yathreb mausoleum is part of 'Islam' basic tenets. Let us tackle this topic below within by the scholar of fiqh Taqi Eddine Al-Sobky in his book titled "Shifaa Al-Sukam fi Ziyarat Kheir Al-Anam" [2] (literally: 'remedy for the sick by visiting the best of people', meaning to visit such pagan mausoleum attributed and dedicated to Muhammad as the supreme deity beside God for the Muhammadans!). Al-Sobky has divided his boom into parts; Part One deals with hadiths about the topic of visiting the Yathreb mausoleum, Part Two tackles all stories and accounts about such visit and its rewards in this life and the next world (!), though Al-Sobky never calls this visit a ''pilgrimage'', Part Three talks about urging people to pay such a visit to the Yathreb mausoleum, Part Four quotes scholars who urged people to visit the Yathreb mausoleum and talk to Muhammad as if he were alive (!) as all 'Muslims' unanimously agree on that issue, Part Five asserts that visiting the Yathreb mausoleum draws one nearer to God, Part Six repeats and asserts the previous part, Part Seven refutes any doubts and refutations about visiting the Yathreb mausoleum, Part Eight tackles how-to in detail about to supplicate using Muhammad's name and seek his intercession and aid, and lastly, Part Nine talks about existence of prophets in another realm immortalized after their death. It is clear in this book that the author Al-Sobky depended on all hadiths and views of Sunnite scholars that were widespread at the time and influencing the cultural and religious life, thus asserting the hybrid religion of Sunnite Sufism, not to be confused with Shiite Sufism. Of course, such nonsense has nothing to with Islam, found only and exclusively in the Quran, with no room for adding anything else. Every human being is free to believe or disbelieve in the Quran, while bearing the consequences in the Afterlife: "And say, "The truth is from your Lord. Whoever wills-let him believe. And whoever wills-let him disbelieve". We have prepared for the unjust a Fire, whose curtains will hem them in. And when they cry for relief, they will be relieved with water like molten brass, which scalds the faces. What a miserable drink, and what a terrible place. As for those who believe and lead a righteous life-We will not waste the reward of those who work righteousness." (18:29-30).    

 

Thirdly: faith tenets which are the bases of Sufi sanctification of the mausoleum ascribed to Muhammad:

1- The so-called 'the Muhammadan Truth' is a Shiite-Sufi basic tenet that underlies the deification of Muhammad and the sanctification of the Yathreb mausoleum/shrine ascribed falsely to him, making almost all religious scholars and clergymen urge people to visit such shrine as part of pilgrimage (both Umrah and Hajj) rituals. The so-called 'the Muhammadan Truth' means simply that Muhammad is deemed an immortal god/deity created from the Light of the Lord, that the universe is created for Muhammad's sake (!), and that Muhammad was created even before Adam, as per Sunnite and Sufi hadiths!    

2- This tenet is polytheistic and definitely against the Quran; yet, it is a commonly shared one by Sunnites and Sufis despite their earlier differences, disputes, and conflicts over the Sufi tenets of unity of existence, (re)incarnation, and union with God as oneness with Him. Sunnites usually reject such notions as polytheistic ones, but they agree wholeheartedly with Sufis about the deification of Muhammad!   

3- Decades later, Sufis desired to deify themselves and their sheikhs as well and they had to develop the tenet of 'the Muhammadan Truth' to incorporate this, while Sunnite scholars have confined this tenet to Muhammad alone. Thus, Sufis fabricated a notion summarized in the idea that the Divine Light transmitted from God to Muhammad, then from Muhammad to Ali and his progeny, and then from Ali's progeny to Sufis saints in their hierarchy, who all claimed they were among the descendants of Ali! It is noteworthy that Sunnite scholars and imams never denounced or denied wholly such Sufi idea because they felt that this denunciation may undermine 'the Muhammadan Truth' itself! 

4- The tenet of 'the Muhammadan Truth' spread more in the 10^th century A.H., and most books authored at the time include in their introductions such praises and glorification of Muhammad that incorporates ideas drawn from this tenet (especially creating Muhammad before Adam), even in all letters such as the one sent by Ottoman caliph Selim I to Tuman Bay to surrender [3].  This marked the formal, official acknowledgment by sultans that their religion had the basic tenet called 'the Muhammadan Truth'. Even Abdul-Samad Al-Ahmady mentions ideas drawn from 'the Muhammadan Truth' in his introduction to this book about Manaqib of Al-Badawi, titled "Al-Jawaher Al-Sunniyya" [4]. The so-called 'the Muhammadan Truth' also meant that Muhammad is the very first creation of God, through Divine Light, even before the universe and all beings and that all realms emanated from the Light of Muhammad granted to him by God (!), as per what Al-Aideroos writes in his book titled ''Al-Noor Al-Safer'' [5], who was a Sunnite scholar and a historian but not a Sufi at all. The same ideas drawn from 'the Muhammadan Truth' is written by the unnamed author of Nafais Al-Majalis Al-Sultaniyya [6]. Ibn Jaffer Al-Haythami the historian of the 10^th century A.H. repeats and imitates Al-Aideroos the historian, with slight alterations, as he writes ideas drawn from the so-called 'the Muhammadan Truth' in the introduction of his book titled ''Mawlid Al-Nabbi'' (i.e., Birth of the Prophet) [7].

5- For their part, Sufi sheikhs made use of the tenet of 'the Muhammadan Truth' by assuming that Divine Light emanates from God to Muhammad and from him as a deity/god to a series of deified beings/saints especially sheikhs whose fame spread during the Mameluke Era. All Sufi poets encrusted their lines of poetry by mentioning ideas drawn from 'the Muhammadan Truth', apart from doing so in introductions of books and letters and through prayers, like the ones uttered by Al-Badawi [8], as well as in his poetry where he asserted through 'the Muhammadan Truth' that he himself was a magnet in the Sufi cosmology and hierarchy, as if prophets were precursors to him and he incarnates them and was indeed created before them all! Al-Badawi assumes that he read Torah calmly in heaven before Moses was born to receive and read it while trembling  [9]. Al-Disouky felt envious of Al-Badawi and incorporated more self-praise in his poems and prose to compete with him, declaring himself the essence of all existence/universe and all beings and that he preexists all creation, as asserted by Al-Shaarany and Al-Sharnouby [10]. Ideas drawn from 'the Muhammadan Truth' are repeated in poems and prose as well as prayers recited by Sufis of Al-Shaziliyya Sufi order, especially by Al-Buseiry, the most famous Sufi poet [11]. Strangely, Al-Shazily at one time did not like a line of poetry composed by Al-Buseiry (saying that Muhammad was a human being) despite the poet's deification of Muhammad in his lines about him, because Al-Shazily asserted that Muhammad is never a human being but an immortal being that took a body form for a while on earth to reveal himself to humankind, as Al-Shazily claimed he saw Muhammad in a dream telling him about his true divine nature (!) [12]. Ali Wafa Al-Shazily composed another poem to praise Muhammad by drawing and invoking upon the so-called 'the Muhammadan Truth', while asserting that all prophets were precursors to the poet who incarnated Adam and Muhammad and all of them (!), thus adapting 'the Muhammadan Truth' to deify himself [13]. Al-Shaarany repeats in his some of his Sufi books ideas drawn from the tenet of 'the Muhammadan Truth', and he mentions in his book titled ''Al-Yawakeet wa Al-Jawaher'' that all saints and prophets emanate from the 'Muhammadan Light' and that Muhammad is the original pole or Qutb in the universe and all other saints and magnets and Qutbs revolve around him in the cosmos since the creation of the universe and until the Day of Resurrection (!) [14].

6- This steadfast, staunch belief in the myth of deification of Muhammad, by Sunnites, Shiites, and Sufis, has been the faith-tenet foundation for all the Muhammadans to deify and sanctify the so-called Yathreb mosque mausoleum ascribed to Muhammad as his grave by worshipping at it and performing pilgrimage to it within a certain rituals described in detail by the scholar of fiqh Taqi Eddine Al-Sobky in his book titled "Shifaa Al-Sukam fi Ziyarat Kheir Al-Anam" (literally: 'remedy for the sick by visiting the best of people', meaning to visit such pagan mausoleum attributed and dedicated to Muhammad as the supreme deity beside God for the Muhammadans!).    

 

Fourthly: two contradictory personalities of Muhammad:

1- Eventually, the Muhammadans have created – based on their personal whims – an imaginary deified personality of Muhammad as a deity/god in control of the worldly existence as well as the Last Day and the Hereafter. Indeed, the Muhammadans in many cases have elevated this deity of their whims above Allah Himself! The Muhammadans have exceeded the limits of the Christians' deification of Jesus. This assumed supreme deity of the Muhammadans is a figment of their imagination with a personality that totally contradicts the real one of the mortal Prophet Muhammad; the real historical Muhammad is asserted ONLY in the Quranic text by God.     

2- God asserts the human nature of Muhammad in the Quran: "Say, "I am only a human being like you, being inspired that your God is One God. Whoever hopes to meet his Lord, let him work righteousness, and never associate anyone with the service of his Lord."" (18:110). Hence, receiving the divine revelation does not make Muhammad elevated above the level of the rest of human beings; his sole mission was to convey the divine revelation to people around him: "The Messenger's sole duty is to convey…" (5:99); besides, Muhammad was the first one to follow and obey the divine revelation: "O Prophet! Fear God, and do not obey the unbelievers and the hypocrites. God is Knowledgeable and Wise. And follow what is revealed to you from your Lord…" (33:1-2). Prophet Muhammad adhered to the divine revelation and he will be judged like the rest of humanity on the Day of Judgment: "" (43:43-44); this is why we discern the equality between him and his foes and people in responsibility, mortality, judgment, and debating before God: "" (39:30-31); "" (6:52). On the Last Day, Muhammad cannot save anyone condemned to enter Hell: "" (39:19), because God has told him during his lifetime: "" (3:128). Thus, Muhammad could not bring harm or benefit for anyone and for himself: "" (10:49); "" (7:188).   

3- Will real believers adhere to the divine discourse in the Quran, God's Word, or to the nonsense and balderdash of Sufis and scholars of fiqh?! One cannot combine both in one's mind and heart!

 

Lastly:

  Most of what we have mentioned about Sufi pilgrimage is pretty much similar to the Shiite pilgrimage, and in many cases match and concur totally with shite notions and practices. Surely, there are certain special features for the Shiite pilgrimage rituals such as Tatbir (i.e., wounding oneself) within the Ashura Day to mourn the murder of one of the Shiite deities, Al-Hussein. Writing a research on Shiite pilgrimage and how it contradicts Islam/Quranism entails a specialist who is well-versed in Shiite religion traditions in order to analyze and compare and contrast in the same way we have done in this book regarding pilgrimage in Islam/Quranism as opposed to Sunnite and Sufi pilgrimage. 

 

 

References:

[1] Ehiaa 1/232 and 243.

[2] Sobeih edition.

[3] Ahmed Fouad Metwalli "Ottoman Conquest of Egypt", p. 170, his translation of correspondences between Selim I and Tuman Bay.

[4] Al-Jawaher Al-Sunniyya 2.

[5] Al-Noor Al-Safer, a manuscript by Al-Aideroos 2.

[6] Nafais Al-Majalis Al-Sultaniyya, edited by Abdul-Wahab Azzam 1.

[7] Mawlid Al-Nabbi, a manuscript by Ibn Hajar Al-Haythami 7.

[8] Al-Nafahat Al-Ahmadiyya by Al-Khafaji 130 and 140.

[9] Al-Jawaher Al-Sunniyya 89, 91-92, and 133.

[10] Jawharat Al-Disouky 98:102 + Al-Tabakat by Al-Shaarany 1/153/154 + Al-Tabakat by Al-Sharnouby, a manuscript 1, 2, and 7.

[11] Al-Buseiry poems collection 2 and 192.

[12] biography of Al-Shazily in Al-Tabakat by Al-Shaarany 2/66.

[13] biography of Ali Wafa in Al-Tabakat by Al-Shaarany 2/20.

[14] Al-Yawakeet wa Al-Jawaher 2/73 and 83 + Al-Babreet Al-Ahmar 10.