Islam's Reformers .pdf

writings praising the four madhhabs in his works Al-insâf and’Iqd al-jayyid [2] are quoted in full length. Even the Turkish bookNi’met ul-Islâm clearly states that the madhhabs cannot beunited and it is a heresy to be a mulfiq. In the fatwâ bookFatâwâ al-Haramain and Persian Saif al-abrâr, which werewritten in India, and in Hadrat ’Abd al-Wahhâb ash-Sha’rânî’spreface to his Al-Mîzân al-kubrâ, [3] ‘madhhab’ is explainedclearly, and it is proved with documents that the madhhabscannot be united. To pioneer something which has beenunanimously said to be ‘impermissible’ for a thousand yearsmeans to turn Islam upside down. Are those who defend itMuslims or are they are enemies of Islam? It devolves on thereaders to decide about it.Shâh Walî-Allah explained and praised tasawwuf and thetarîqas throughout his Persian work Hama’ât (Pakistan, 1944),from which the following lines are borrowed:“If the sâlik is not so learned as to study the hadîth books orthe knowledge coming from as-Sahâba and the Tâbi’ûn, heshould follow one of the four madhhabs. All the tarîqas are thesame in respect of belief, of doing the commands andabstaining from the prohibitions. They have been different indoing the dhikr and supererogatory worship. If worldly thoughtscome to one’s mind while performing the dhikr, one should sitnear an exalted person whose tawajjuh is strong and pay histawajjuh to him. Or one should pay his tawajjuh to the souls ofthe mashâyikh al-kirâm, and, therefore, visit their graves andbeg them to attract him towards themselves. If the dhikr causesvexation to the nafs, this has various reasons. One of them islack of following the rules of âdâb towards the mashâyikh of thetarîqa one follows. If the sâlik cannot understand the reason,the shaikh will understand it with his tawajjuh and insight andwill let him know of it. This faqîr [Walî-Allah ad-Dahlawî himself]paid my tawajjuh to the world of souls and understood that eachtarîqa had a different relationship to it. Also i’tikâf in shrines willhelp one make progress. Speaking ill of the Salaf as-Sâlihîn isone of the reasons which block the way. It has often been seenthat angels scatter blessings onto the gatherings of dhikr and[2]These two Arabic books are reproduced photostatically in onevolume by Hakîkat Kitabevi, Istanbul, 1395 (1975).[3] These three books are reproduced in Istanbul.- 181 -