Wednesday, December 23, 2009

أهل التصوف و الجهاد

There is a common misconception that Sufi's are the docile, "good", Muslims that the West can use to consolidate their exploitation of the Islamic world. Or that Sufi's are pre-modern hippies or that they have no interest in politics. This, I am discovering slowly, is in fact not true. The video clip has been sent to me by F, (thank you) along with many helpful resources. I thought I would translate some of the names that appear and the school that they belonged to (the list is in the correct order), in fact I hear there is even a group in the Iraqi resistance called the Naqshabandi resistance movement that carry out operations against the Americans. Sufi Muslim's have been at the forefront of fighting against empire and occupation throughout our history:

Yousef bin Tafsheen Sunni-Maliki Sufi
Aleb Arslan Ash'arite Sufi
The Seljuk state was an Ash'arite Sufi state
Nour el Din Zenki Ash'ari Shaf'i Sufi
Salah al Din Ayoubi Ash'ari Shaf'i Sufi
Muthafar Quturz Ash'arite Sufi
al Zaher Bibars Ash'arite Sufi
Sultan Bayzij "the Thunderstorm" Maturidi Hanafi Sufi
Sultan Muhammad al Fateh Maturidi Hanafi Sufi
Sultan Suleiman the Lawgiver Maturidi Hanafi Sufi
Sultan Selim II Maturidi Hanafi Sufi
Sultan Abd el Hamid II Maturidi Hanafi Sufi
Kheir al Din Barbarossa Maturidi Sufi
The Ottoman Empire was a Maturidi Sufi empire
Imam Shamil Daghestani Maturidi Hanafi Naqshabandi Sufi
Hassan al Banna Ash'arite Sufi
Sheikh Izzidine al Qassam Ash'arite Shaf'i Sufi
Abd al Qadir al Jaza'iri Ash'arite Malki Sufi
Muhammad bin Abd al Karim al Khitabi Ash'arite Malki Sufi
Omar al Mukhtar Ash'arite Malki Sufi

6 comments:

Maysaloon said...

* the images in the video are a bit tacky. But I hope you get the picture :)

MJ said...

Never thought that Hassan Al Banna would be up there..

Maysaloon said...

Neither did I. Quite a few names on there which surprised me to be honest!

Anonymous said...

Surprised too - and actually very glad : ) - to see Hassan al Banna in the list.
Before I start reading Ibn Arabi and Abd al Qadir al Jaza'iri, I had lots of prejudices about Sufis because of the orientalist exploitation of sufism as a light version of Islam, trendy and supercool - which means in the last instance : the only one tolerable by non Muslims.

Whether those looking for a soft - not too demanding - spirituality like it or not : Sufism can't be reduced to their flabby conception of religious truth. I see some people trying hard to turn Sufism into a marketable brand... I personally think that they are serving the Capital's interests more than those of Islam - but الله اعلم and may God guide us to the straight way.

Maysaloon said...

Ameen ya Princess!
Yes, I had similar apprehensions about "The Way", but there is something about it which refuses to be manipulated. The seeds of resistance perhaps?

Mahbub said...

The video doesn't work for some reason