The path of struggling against the ego, intimate reform and purification of the self, to strive to come close to the One is the essence of our faith. The mystical path is the luminous heart of Islam as a religion and spirituality. Many circles and Sufi ways are serious, sincere and right.
Other so-called sufi ways are much less sincere and we must be vigilant. Four criteria may allow us to distinguish the right from the perverted with respect to sufism :
1- The principles of ‘Aqeedah (creed) and ritual practices must be respected. Exercices of remembrance (dhikr) can be added but no Sheikh or circle have any authority to diminish or remove practices, obligations or prohibitions.
2- The Sheikh, or the guide, must help to better worship God, the One, and not to idealize his person to the point of sacralization and even of worshiping him.
3- The Sufi circle must have a transparent money management, in a moderate way, and not with a contradictory enrichment of the Sheikh or his aides.
4- The guide and the Sufi circle must move away from powers and position itself clearly as independent vis-à-vis governments and their calculations.
Without adherence to these four principles, Sufism can become a diversion, an excuse or a justification for the worst … in clear contradiction with Islam it claims to respect. It is the duty of everyone to evaluate and take a stance knowingly.
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Professor Tariq Ramadan is a man of no need to introduction. He holds MA in Philosophy and French literature and PhD in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Geneva. In Cairo, Egypt he received one-on-one intensive training in classic Islamic scholarship from Al-Azhar University scholars. Tariq Ramadan is Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University (Oriental Institute, St Antony’s College ). He is also teaching at the Faculty of Theology at Oxford. He is at the same time a Visiting Professor in Qatar (Faculty of Islamic Studies) and in Morocco (Mundiapolis) and a Senior Research Fellow at Doshisha University (Kyoto, Japan).[/symple_box]
This was originally posted on Dr. Tariq Ramadan’s Facebook account.
