Tasawwuf, as defined by ibn al-Hajj al-Maliki in his al-Madkhal:
Spirituality is not that you wear patched wool garments,
Nor is it that you weep when the singer sings hymns.
It is neither your shouting nor your dancing nor your feelings of ecstasy;
Nor is it your fainting as if you have gone mad.
Rather Spirituality is that your soul is purified without blemish;
And that you adhere to Divine Truth, The Book of God, and the True Faith
And that you humble yourself before God brokenhearted
Over your sins, inwardly sorrowful at all times.
That is the epic of Ibn al-Hājj al-Mālikī. One of those men of the Book and the Sunnah and opposed to Innovations. His book “al-Madkhal” is a source of “practical guidance”.
This book (al-Madkhal) along with Umdat al-Murid as-Sadiq (The Reliance of the Sincere Disciple) by Shaykh Ahmad az-Zarruq and Ihya as-Sunnah al-Muhammadiyyah (The Revival of the Muhammadan Sunnah) by Imam Uthman ibn Fodio are essential for basing one’s spirituality/tassawwuf/sufism solidly within the Prophetic Path and avoiding non-essentials and innovations.
~ Ustādh Abdus Shakur Brooks al-Maliki ~
One of the scholars said:
“Whoever disciplines his ego with the etiquettes of the Sunnah, God will illuminate his heart with the light of His inspired knowledge.”
May God make us amongst those who are content and pleased with adhering solely to the Sublime Sunnah on our spiritual journeys and all of our affairs and protect us against the heretical innovations which the pseudo-sufis have innovated in this noble science of Tasawwuf.
