No. Their basis is a hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ found a Mother of the Believers using date-pits to count her glorification of Allah. The beads are only a counting aid; the string simply holds them together. Some object to the tasbih as a later invention. The practice of the Prophet’s ﷺ own household … Read more
Because the Qur’an ties success, in this life and the next, directly to it, and because Allah looks not at your appearance or wealth but at your heart. Purifying the self is one of the four tasks Allah gave the Prophet ﷺ, alongside reciting the Qur’an, teaching the Book, and teaching wisdom. And the Qur’an … Read more
Many of the most respected scholars in Islamic history were. To discard the works of those trained by Sufis would mean discarding “75 percent or more of the books of Islam.” Tasawwuf is sometimes cast as opposed to serious scholarship. History says the reverse. Among those connected to it are Imam al-Ghazali, Imam al-Nawawi, al-Suyuti, … Read more
Tasawwuf is the branch of Islamic knowledge concerned with purifying the heart, submitting to Allah with both body and heart, the body through obedience to the Shariah and the heart through constant awareness of Him. Tasawwuf is not a separate religion or a mystical add-on. It is the part of Islam that deals with the … Read more
In the hereafter, no, faith is the foundation that gives deeds their worth. But once a person accepts Islam, even the good he did beforehand is credited to him. Faith without action and action without faith are both barren. Deeds performed without iman carry no reward in the hereafter, as when the Prophet ﷺ was … Read more
Because in Islam the inner and outer are one fabric. There is no sincerity without action, and no action becomes worship without sincerity, you cannot have one without the other. Some say their heart is sincere, so they need not perform the outward acts like prayer. This is a deception. The inner aspect of an … Read more
They are opposites. A Sufi seeks Allah; the Yogi turns away from the very existence of Allah toward Nirvana. What looks similar on the surface comes from entirely different sources. Some assume the discipline a Sufi undergoes is a form of yoga. The aims could not be more different: a Sufi’s whole striving is to … Read more
Zuhd is not giving up what is permitted or throwing away wealth. It is trusting what is in Allah’s hand more than what is in your own, and meeting hardship with patience. Detachment is widely misunderstood as poverty or self-denial. The Prophet ﷺ corrected this: “Zuhd does not mean forbidding what is permitted, or squandering … Read more
Yes, and doing so well is part of the path, not a distraction from it. Your sleep, your time with family, and your lawful earning all become worship when done to please Allah. Being a seeker never meant abandoning the world or retiring to a corner. When a Companion resolved to fast every day and … Read more
No. Islam does not permit monasticism. Tasawwuf calls a person to live fully *in* the world, as a good son, spouse, parent, neighbour, and worker, not to retreat from it. There is a major difference between a monk and a Sufi. Islam is a complete code of life and does not allow withdrawal from society. … Read more