36.)
Isn’t the Sufi path really a matter of bi’dah or innovation and, therefore,
should be condemned and shunned?
While
there are many warnings given by the Prophet concerning the introduction of innovative
practices into the fabric of Islam, many people make the mistake of supposing that
whatever they happen to disagree with is precisely what the Prophet had in mind whenever
he mentioned the idea of such problematic bi’dah practices and beliefs. In point of
fact, not all bi’dah constitute the sort of innovations against which the Prophet was
speaking.
Hazrat
Omar (may Allah be pleased with him), for example, introduced the public observance
of tarawih prayers even though the Prophet had withdrawn from this sort of observance
during the latter’s lifetime. The practice carried on by Hazrat Omar and subsequent
Kalifahs was referred to as a ‘good innovation’.
To be
bi’dah in the negative sense, an innovation must satisfy certain conditions. First,
it must require people to stop doing that which they are obligated to do according to
Shari’ah. Or, such a practice must insist that some given action or belief is,
according to Shari’ah, obligatory when this is not the case. And, finally,in order to
be considered bi'dah in the negative sense, the intention behind introducing something new
must be motivated by some clearly dubious purpose rather than - as Omar (May Allah be
pleased with him) did in the aforementioned case of tarawih prayers - being offered with
the idea of helping or strengthening the spiritual condition of the Muslim community.
The
teachings and practices of the Sufi path do not satisfy any of the aforementioned
conditions of bi’dah against which the Prophet warned Muslims. Unfortunately, there
are those with an axe to grind concerning the mystical dimension of Islam who engage in a
form of sophistry which attempts to mislead people by equating the Sufi path to the kind
of bi’dah practices, values and ideas about which the Prophet Muhammad was attempting
to warn Muslims. Such people do this despite failing to possess any reliable and
authoritative proof capable of demonstrating that the Prophet had the Sufi path in mind
when he spoke about the notion of that which is bi'dah.
Finally,
one finds in the Hadithic literature reports of the Prophet which extol the virtue of
introducing good practices or customs among a people, while warning against the introduction of bad
or evil customs among a people. The Prophet indicated that those who introduce good customs are given blessings equivalent to that received by all those who follow such a custom without lessening the blessings accruing to the latter group,
while those who introduce evil customs earn an amount of bad deeds which is equivalent to that earned by all those who follow such an evil custom without lessening the sin of the latter group.
Clearly,
therefore, simply because something new is introduced does not make this
"innovation" good or evil in and of itself or merely due to the quality of
newness which it has. One must measure the value or worth of such a practice against the full
body of teachings of the Qu'ran and Hadith.
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