THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT

After the Prophet came the Age of the Conquest. This was when the Muslims gained the empires of Rome, Persia and Egypt!

But the Age of Conquest was followed by the Darkest days as Muslims began to fight Muslims and raised their swords against Hazrat Ali. Soon afterwards the Prophet's family was murdered in Karbala. It looked as though Islam would be lost just as the other messages of earlier Prophets had been lost!

But then, like a breath of fresh air, the scholars of Islam came! They brought to the Muslims the Age of Enlightenment! They taught the Muslims the principles on which Islam was based! It was in this Age when Islam was saved! It was also in this Age that Islam got it's two strong arms: Sunni and Shia!

Lesson 1: IMAM JAFFER E SADIK

1.1 THE IMAMS FROM THE PROPHET S FAMILY

The grandson of Imam Zainul Abidin was Imam Jaffer E Sadik. He is regarded as the most important scholars from the family of the Prophet at the time when the Abbasides had betrayed the Muslims and forced themselves on the Muslims as caliphs. But the truth was that the Abbasides were not caliphs but kings who passed on the kingdom from one Abbaside to another.

Imam Jaffer E Sadik (born 69AH) was greatly respected by all Muslims and even the Abbaside kings had to pay respect to him in public. One of the early Abbaside king called King Mansur also praised Imam Jaffer E Sadik even though privately he was jealous of the Imam. One day when a minister of King Mansur asked him why he was so afraid of Imam Jaffer E Sadik the king said: While I control the people by fear the Imam controls the people by love!

One day King Mansur returned back to Imam Jaffer E Sadik some important scrolls. These scrolls were the writings of Imam Zainul Abidin and were later called Saeefa-e-Sajadiya. These scrolls were of prayers and today they are read by Shia Muslims throughout the world. These prayers teach Muslims about patience and about how to deal with life s problems. When Imam Jaffer E Sadik got the scrolls he had them copied and distributed to many Muslim cities.

Imam Jaffer E Sadik continued the world of enlightenment in Medina. He became a great teacher of Ahadith, Quranic Tafsir and Science. He taught many great scholars and was invited by King Mansur to teach at the new university in Bagdad. But the Imam refused to go to Bagdad.

One of the things Imam Jaffer is remembered for is the way he explained what Islam stood for: He said that Islam is a religion of rights for God s creatures. He said that even a hard handshake will be accounted for. His idea of Islam was therefore a humanistic idea. In the modern world this idea is becoming more and more acceptable.

1.2 THE STYLE OF TEACHING

Imam Jaffer told the students the importance of using the whole brain and not just the memory part. He said that learning takes place when the whole brain is activated. To make the students use different parts of their brain he taught them by various styles. His ideas were therefore very modern and he was a teacher of very high caliber.

People who came to visit the Imam liked the way the Imam taught. The students enjoyed listening to him and discussing things with him. He was never rude to his students and he always answered them according to their understanding. It is said that in his university over 6,000 students studied and they included men, women and children. The education he gave was free to the students.

The most famous work of Imam Jaffer E Sadik was to bring about new ideas to the world. One of his ideas was that science is to be studied by proof and not by assertions and stories . Until today science is learnt in this way across the world. Even Jabir, the father of Chemistry, learnt the ideas of science from the Imam. Tabari, the Father of Modern History, is said to also have got his ideas from the Imam. The first great Sunni Imam by the name of Imam Hanafi was also the student of the Imam and the Shias also make their laws from the teachings of Imam Jaffer E Sadik.

The Imam also told his students that all knowledge was important but they should learn that which is the most useful in order for them. He also said that history and religion should be studied for it s usefulness to the people and not just for the sake of praising past people. One of the Imam s famous saying on health was: If you look after your stomach then your stomach will look after you! He also said that peoples life-span does depend on how much they look after themselves. These kind of things may be obvious to us today but at that time they were a great source of contention.

1.3 POLITICAL SITUATION

The Abbasides had come to power by using the Shias. They had promised the Shias a role in the political leadership and many Shias were hoping that Imam Jaffer E Sadik would become the Caliph. They were of the opinion that a descendent o f the Prophet was a rightful caliph and this was the only way for Muslims to have a true Caliph. But the situation turned against the Shias as a new generation of Abbasides got in to power and began slaughtering the Shias. The Shia hopes that Imam Jaffer would be the new Caliph were destroyed when King Mansur took over.

King Mansur was a master mind and a great builder. He built roads and mosques everywhere. He also built a his new capital city in Iraq. The city was called Baghdad and was a city greater than any city ever built. It was said to be the most beautiful city of it s time where litter was not allowed on the streets. There were many schools and universities in the city. The city was much advanced for it s age. It had bath houses, markets, good roads and large in-door shopping areas. King Mansur had used slaves to build this city and some of the great Muslim Imams were arrested and imprisoned in slave quarters of the city.

Imam Jaffer E Sadik had two well known sons. The first son by the name of Hazrat Ismail gathered an army to fight King Mansur. The younger son of Imam Jaffer E Sadik called Hazrat Musa Kazim lived with his father until he was arrested and locked up in a desolate prison in Baghdad. Hazrat Ismail fought all this life and later his generations established a Shia empires in Egypt called the Fatimid Empire. But then the Abbasides split up in to two parts. The second part was ruled from Iran by a new king called Harun Al Rashid. He was first friendly to the Shia Imams who had popular support in Iran. So the son of Musa Kazim was invited as a prince by King Al Rashid. His name was Ali Rezza and he is the Imam who freed all the slaves from King Al Rashid s palace! The stories of Imam Ali Rezza are very interesting to study if you want to know how the Abbasides behaved with the people and how the Imams lived in these times.

TASKS TO DO

Questions to answer

1.Who was the Abbaside king at the time of Imam Jaffer E Sadik? 2. Why did he show respect to the Imam? 3. What thing did he return to the Imam? 4. At what place did he invite the Imam to come? 5. What was the new idea of the Imam for the study of science? 6. How many students did he have at his university? 7. Name two of his famous students 8. Complete this statement: If you look after your stomach .

Task to do:

1. What ideas of the Imam are useful in the modern world? 2. Write a short passage to explain why all Muslims respect Imam Jaffer E Saidik 3. The Imam fought King Mansur by the changes he made in people s thinking. What proof is there for this statement. 4. The Imam said that Islam teaches that even a hard handshake will be accounted for! What did he mean by his? 5. Write down what his style of teaching was? 6. Imam Jaffer is an Imam from the family of the Prophet. Draw a family tree to show how he descended from the Prophet.

Lesson 2: THE FOUR GREAT SUNNI IMAMS

2.1 THE AGE OF SCHOLARS

The Age of Enlightenment is an age of scholars. These scholars endured to lead the Muslims in to creating an enlightened society. Imam Hassan (the grandson of the Prophet) had started this process by signing the peace with Muawiya and teaching Ahadith in Medina. As time progressed and the political situation changed different scholars rose and among the most famous of these scholars are the four great Sunni Imams.

The great Sunni Imams lived at the time when the Abbassides ruled. They were opposed to some ideas of the Abbasides like whether the Qur an is of created speech or not. Their teachings also gave Sunni Muslims the parameters around which to make laws. Before them other forms of laws existed like the Awazi and the Zahiri laws but the four Sunni Imams were widely accepted by the rulers and the people. The books of the four Sunni Imams are called Musnabs from which the laws are derived.

2.2 Imam Abu Hanif (72AH):

Imam Abu Hanif was born in Kufa, Iraq which had become a great city of learning! His grandfather is said to be blessed by Imam Ali. Here in Kufa he is said to have learnt about Saheefa E Ali which was a book written by Hazrat Ali on Ahadith. After his studies in Kufa he traveled across the Muslim world to gather more knowledge by meeting more scholars. When he came to Medina he studied under Imam Jaffer E Sadik whom he greatly praised for his wisdom.

Imam Abu Hanif was a remarkable man and he spent his life resisting the king Mansur who was the Abbaside king. Imam Abu Hanif would openly praise Hazrat Ali which made some people annoyed of him. Often the Imam would say: Faith cannot be achieved without the love of the Prophet and his family! Many shias think that Imam Abu Hanif may have started as a Shia because he highly praised Hazrat Ali and contradicted the King Mansur. However, it is clear from the teachings of Imam Hanif that he was not a shia because some of his ideas are different from that of the shias.

Imam Abu Hanif is buried in Baghdad and is widely followed by Sunni Muslims across the world. Most Muslims in Turkey are followers of Imam Abu Hanif!

2.3 Imam Malik (93AH):

He was born in Medina where he lived all this life. He learnt Islam directly from the people who taught in Medina at a time when there were many great debates about Islam taking place all over the Muslim nation. One of his great teachers was Imam Hanif. He therefore received a broad education and managed to learn about the different ideas that existed among Muslims at that time.v He is also thought to have first joined a group called the Alawids who were fighting against the Abbasides kings. The Alawids were Shias and Imam Mailk is thought to have joined them because he openly gave a decree to support a Shia fighter by the name of Muhammad Abdullah. But history tells us that Imam Malik was not a Shia and that he had given a decree because in this case he thought that Muhammad Abdullah was right and the Abbasides were wrong! Because he supported a group against the king he was flogged by the mighty Abbaside king called Mansur! However, there are some historians who tell us that the reason Imam Mailk was flogged was because he gave a different law on divorce than the one that the Abbaside king believed in.

Imam Malik famous book is the Muwatta which was among the first book on Ahadith he had written. During the end of his life he lived away from the mosque and did not attend prayers in the mosque. This may be because he saw some wrong things happening in the mosque or he did not agree with the political leadership that controlled the mosque. His absence from the mosque tells us that Imam Mailk did not coerce with things he thought were against Islam. Imam Malik died in Medina and was buried in Janat ul Baki. One of his famous students was Imam Shafi-ee! Today most Muslims in North and West Africa are followers of Imam Malik because they follow his books to derive laws!

2.4 Imam Shafi-ee (150AH)

Imam Shafi-ee was born in Gaza, Palestine and studied in cities like Baghdad and Medina. When he went to Yemen he was accused of supporting the Zaidis who were also fighting king Mansur and King Haroon. But he was called back to Baghdad and he denied any involvement with the Zaidis. He became a great scholar and traveled to many places to teach his Risala which is his book on law. He advised the Muslims to live in peace with each other, never to be afraid to learn from each other, to discuss and debate in peace, to do justice at all times, to show mercy to the enemies and never to shed the blood of innocent people! All these teachings of Islam were important for a new generation that was growing up in the times of war!

Imam Shafi-ee died in Egypt where he is buried. Most people of Egypt follow his ideas about law. Imam Shafi-ee s students included the great Sunni Imam called Imam Ahmed bin Hanbal.

2.5 Imam Ahmed Hanbal (169AH):

Imam Ahmed Hanbal saw many shia groups fighting the rulers. The Zaidis and Alawids were just two examples. Others were Ismailies who had a lot of support in Egypt. The opinion of Imam Hanbal was that the shias were creating problems and that the rulers were right to fight them back. He said that when Muslims are faced with bad leaders then they should just wait until God sends a good leader. He refused to oppose the rulers. He said: If your Amir is bad then don t hate the Amir of the Muslims but hate his bad actions! It is thought that the Imam Ahmed Hanbal said this because he wanted the whole Muslim nation to be united under one ruler who should not be opposed. Some people today accused him of wanting to create a dictatorship in Islam but some say that he just wanted the Muslims to have one leader so that the Muslim world can live in peace with itself. Imam Hanbal is also said to be a Traditionalist because he said that Islam is a religion based on the lifestyle of Medina at the time of the Prophet. He believed that to be a good Muslim you should just do as the Prophet did as related to us by the Sahabees who lived with the Prophet. Many of his ideas were supported by the king Mutawakil who lived after King Mansur. The king Mutawakil gave him great respect and endorsed his teachings. Today the rulers of Saudi Arabia also follow the law which came from the teachings of Imam Hanbal.

Though there are some main differences between the teachings of the four great Imams there are a lot of lessons to be learnt from their lives. These Imams lived at a time when the Muslim world was in turmoil. There was upheaval everywhere and the descendants of the Prophet were being slaughtered. These Sunni Imams taught that when we face differences we should not fight but we should learn to deal with each other with patience. In addition the great Imam Jaffer E Sadik said that we should not only learn to respect the human rights of all people but that we should progress life forward by brining new and better ideas to the world. These Imams were often flogged and put in prison for what they said but they patiently carried out with their work. The Sunni Muslims says that though it is not compulsory to follow the teachings of these Imams the lives of these Imams have many important lessons for us.

TASKS TO DO

1.Draw a calendar chart of when the four great Sunni Imam lived! 2. For each Imam write down one important thing they are famous for? 3. Imam Hanafi was poisoned by King Mansur! The other Sunni Imams were flogged by him! The king was a nasty piece of work! But none of the Sunni Imams accepted to fight him! What was their reason for not fighting him? 4. Imam Shafi-ee did not attend mosque prayers at the end of his life. What possible reasons could there be for this? 5. History tells us that Imam Jaffer E Sadik was progressive because he taught that Islam was based on the principles of Prophet s life, but Imam Hanbal was a traditionalist and wanted Muslim to copy the life of the Prophet as reported by the famous Sahabees! What do you understand by this and how do you think both these things can be useful for us today? 6. All these Imams lived over a thousand years ago and none of them lived at the time of the Prophet. So why are they so important to us today?

TASK 2

Your task is to find out more about some of the laws that come from the great Imams of the Age of Enlightenment. You can choose laws about marriage and divorce or laws about Hajj. Find out how the laws were made and what principles were used to make the laws!

Lesson 3: REAL OR FORGED

3.1 THE AHADITH RECORDS

The life and sayings of the Prophet are called Ahadith and some non-Muslim historians say the Ahadith of the Prophet Muhammad were not important until Age of Enlightenment came. They say that this is proven by the fact that in the time of the first four Caliphs only the recording of the Qur an was important.

This is not true as history shows to us that Hazrat Ali had written much of the sayings of the Prophet in Saheefa E Ali during the time of the first caliphs. There were also many other people who taught Hadith at the time of the first three Caliphs and the Ahadith were constantly discussed and memorised by the poeple throughout their lives.

However it is true that by the time of the Umayads and Abbasides a lot of forgeries had taken place and there were no known collections of Hadith which could be 100 % trusted. So there was always a lot of discussion and confusion about which Ahadith were real and which were forged.

3.2 THE NARRATORS

Imam Zuhri was one man who collected hundred of thousands of Ahadith. He lived about 150 years after the Prophet in the town of Nisapur. One of his great students was Ismail Bukhari who had a photographic memory. Bukhari thought that it was time that the forged Hadith were left out, but he had to work out a way of finding out which Hadith were genuine and which were forged.

He came up with his solution: He said that he was only going to accept those Hadith that were reported by trusted sources which linked to the great Companions. He said that where a source was not totally trusted he was not going to accept it as a totally genuine Hadith. The collection of Hadith that he accepted were written in his books called the Sahih Bukhari. Another student from the same town called Mohammad Muslim also did the same and came up with books called Sahih Muslim. All this happened about 200 years after the Prophet.

Other great narrators of Hadith came who selected which Hadith to accept and which to doubt. They were Abu Dawood, Nasai, Tirmizi and Ibn Majah. All these collections of Ahadith are very useful for Muslims to learn about the life and sayings of the Prophet and are greatly used by historians.

All these books are greatly respected by the Sunni who believe that the Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim are 100 % accurate because they come from reliable sources. However, the Shias have another viewpoint! They say that Hadith that have obvious personal, political or sectarian bias cannot be fully trusted. So for example they reject those Ahadith which are in praise of those who fought Hazrat Ali. They also says that narrators like Bukhari were doing a limited work in limited circumstances. They says that even the Shia books like Usul E Kafi are not 100% accurate because these books were written by human beings and were likely to have mistakes in them. The Shias therefore have a different attitude on books and how to decided which Ahadith is true and which is forged. The discussion on the point of which Ahadith is real dominates Sunni-Shia mentality. Both groups have many internet sites to prove to each other who is right and it is worth taking advantage of these sites to see what each one is saying.

All this tells us how much work and discussion must have taken place in the past about Ahadith and luckily all these discussions are giving us today a good idea of how attitudes of Muslims have been shaped from past events. It is amazing that no other record in world history has been collected in such detail as the work on Ahadith. Today most independent historian also agree that since the work on Ahadith did start with the Hazrat Ali and the great Companions much of the Hadith rhave been recorded in books. Most Muslims also like the idea that if you want to follow a Ahadith then it has to be validated by: The Qur an and by the principles of justice as practiced by the Prophet.

TASKS TO DO

1. What evidence is there to tell us that Ahadith were important to Muslims even before Imam Bukhari wrote his books? 2. How could the Ahadiths have been forged? 3. How did Imam Bukhari try to select the real Ahadith from the forged ones? 4. Which other narrators are there who recorded Ahadith for us? 5. What kind of Ahadith are not accepted by the Shias? 6. In today s world what are the two criteria that help us decide whether a Hadith is totally valid or not?

Tasks 2

1. History comes to us by books. Some of the things in the books could have been changed. It takes a great amount of research to bring the truth to us! So suppose this happened: Some historians found out that one major book had been changed to make Muslims fight each other. A bad king had done this!

i. What kind of things do you think a historian should be looking for in order to see if Muslims are being misled to fight each other or not!

ii. Islam is a religion of peace. But Muslim are engaged in wars! Why do you think this has happened? Is it the fault of our Imams or is it the fault of those who misuse Islam?

iii. What should we Muslims never do in our lives which can help save Islam from becoming a misused religion?

2. The Islam we follow today comes to us by the work that was done during the Age of Enlightenment. At that time there were other ideas about what Islam is. One idea was that of the Muntazalites. The others were Asharites. Then there were Druze and the Kharijies. Your task is to find out one similarity and one difference between all these sects!

Lesson 4: THE COMING OF THE SUFIS

4.1. WHAT IS SUFISM

You will heard that Sufis were the ones who took Islam across the world. The true Sufis were people who accepted the truth in all sects in Islam and did not get in to arguments that would lead to problems more misunderstanding between people. So the Sufis did not get involved in to politics but only in to knowledge. Today there are many different types of Sufi movements around the world but they all believe in these main things:

1. To love humanity and justice by words and deeds
2. To believe and worship only Allah and love the Prophet and his family
3. To be aware of the spiritual side of life

Because the Sufis were involved in understanding spiritual matters there were some Sufis who believed that they could fly and even move from one world to another. They believed that the spirit has all sorts of powers, even the power to heal the sick and bring the dead back to life. However, most Sufi teachings are about becoming a good person and becoming aware of God in daily life.

4.2 THE SUFI MOVEMENTS

A real Sufi will not say which sect he or she belongs to and will accept teachings from different books and people from across the world. A real Sufi will not believe in making Islam in to sects but will act on the Qur anic verse that God does not want the people to live in division and hate of each other. All true Sufi movements teach this if they are real Sufis. They will say that it does not matter which sect you belong to as long as you believe in Allah, the finality of the Prophet Muhammad and love the Prophet and his family then you can gain benefit from the Sufi teachings.

The Sufi movement are present across the world from India to America. There are major Sufi movements in Africa, Iraq, Turkey and China.

The reason there are so many movements is to do with the ability of Sufi teachings to adapt to the state people are in. So in Senegal in Africa there are many Sufi movements which seek spiritual benefits from music. In India too there are many Sufi movement that use musical notes and melodies to move human feelings towards God. However, to be a Sufi you do not need to accept music. Your source of knowing and feeling about God may be something else because all things reflect the beauty of God!

The Sufi movement can also be about concentrating on particular things like concentrating on certain names of God or certain verses in the Qur an. Then when the Sufi students have gained spiritual benefits from these things then the student moves on to other things. This way the Sufi students not only gains knowledge of God s names but also gains Spiritual benefits from the knowledge. Chanting and getting feelings about what you have learnt is, therefore, very important.

The kind of Sufi movement that exist today include the Qadiris, Naqshbandi, Bektash, Chisti, Mevlevi etc. All theses are different Sufi movements that have tried to create spiritual understanding of Islam.

4.3 SUNNI AND SHIA SUFIS

Though most of these movements are Sunni they do not attach themselves to only Sunni ideas. For example, the vast majority of Sufis do not believe that God has a body, but the main Sunni book Sahee Bukhari tells us that God has a body. The vast majority of the Sufis also believe that Hazrat Ali was their first spiritual guide while they say that Hazrat Abu Bakr was their first political leader. They respect both but in different ways. This way they have brought a compromise between both Sunni and Shia sects. The Naqshabandi Sufis are different because they believe that Abu Bakr was their first spiritual guide as well as their first political leader while Imam Jaffer E Sadik was their fourth spiritual guide. But the fact that they too accept Imam Jaffer E Sadik has the potential of bringing a compromise between Sunni and Shia Muslims.

The Shias Sufis are often called ARIFS. Among the most famous of the Arifs were Mulla Sadra, Mir Damad, Ahsai and Kashani. But the Shia Arifs, like the Sunni Sufis, do not like dividing the Muslims in to groups. They will visit Sunni Sufis as much as the Sunni Sufis will visit them. In fact, when you study the teachings of great Sufis of the past you cannot say whether they were Sunni or Shia. These is true about Sufis like Rumi and Sadi who were great Sufi poets and when you read their books you see that they talk about humanity, justice and the soul but they never talk about Sunni or Shia controversies.

4.3 SUFI TEACHINGS

Read these two poems and see what deeper meanings you can get form them:

i. TO DIE

I died as inanimate matter and arose a plant, I died as a plant and rose again an animal. I died as an animal and arose a man. Why then should I fear to become less by dying? I shall die once again as a man To rise an angel perfect from head to foot! Again when I suffer dissolution as an angel, I shall become what passes the conception of man! Let me then become non-existent, for non-existence Sings to me in organ tones, "To him shall we return."

ii. AN ANSWER OF JESUS

Some Israelites reviled Jesus one day as he was walking through their part of town. But he answered by repeating prayers in their name. Someone said to him: 'You prayed for these men, did you not feel incensed against them?' He answered: 'I could spend only of what I had in my purse.'

Here are other metaphors the Sufis use for us to understand the spiritual meanings of knowing God:

i. Wine is used to describe the madness of love! Sufis often talk of wine and going to the bar, but the meaning is not real wine or real bar. The reason the Sufis have used the symbol of wine is because wine is tasty and it makes a person forget the real world. The Sufi says that if taste the love of God the you too will forget the problems of this world. You will also forget that you are black or white or rich or poor. In fact you will forget all the division.

ii. Music is used to describe the harmony between God and the creation. Some Sufi use music and dance as a symbol of this harmony. Here is an extract from the words of Hazrat Inayat Khan who was an Indian Sufi of the 20th century

To me, architecture is music, gardening is music, farming is music, painting is music, poetry is music. In all the occupations of life where beauty has inspired, where the divine wine has been poured out, there is music. But among the different arts, the art of music has been especially considered divine, because it is the exact miniature of the law working within the whole universe. For instance if we study ourselves we shall find that in the beats of the pulse and the heart, in the inhaling and exhaling of the breath, all is the work of rhythm. Life depends upon the rhythmic working of the whole mechanism of the body.

iii. The Sufis talk a lot about the love, humility and Truth. Here is an extract:

Allah says in Hadith-e-Qudsi, "I created some of My servants for my Zat (Essence)." In order to reach Allah's Essence the first requirement is the intention to surrender to Allah. This means that your first priority should be Allah, your second priority, Allah, your third priority, Allah, and on ad infinitum. Your relationship with others has to depend on this relationship. For the sake of Allah, you love me. For the sake of Allah, I love you.

Another element is humility. How can you reach Allah if you are not humble? When you are arrogant or full of pride, you are making your nafs (self, ego) into God. With this attitude you will get nothing and in the end you are back where you started and not closer to Allah. Humility is not looking down on the ants and thinking how big you are, but looking up at the mountains and seeing how small you are.

The path of reaching Allah is Truth. We must lay the foundations of our actions on the Truth, not on illusions! We should not be afraid of truth even if it is against our deep beliefs and convictions. We should accept the truth, even if it comes from the mouth of a Kafir for truth is the property of God and as Muslims we should seek the ownership of it at all times.

4.6 THE EFFECT OF SUFI TEACHINGS

The Sufi ideals made wonderful impact in Muslim history after the Age of Enlightenment. They gave hope to the Muslim masses to be united while the political turmoil engulfed the Muslim world. But the Sufi movement was not one movement! There were many different types of Sufis across the world and today some of them have become cults or fringe movements. Instead of uniting the Muslims in knowledge and love for God they too have become sects of their own and have got entangled in arguments and endless praising of past personalities. In fact, in some Sufi movements the master of the sect is treated like a Prophet as though he gets revelations and commands from God. This is a diversion from the real purpose of Sufi tarika (way)! Remember, Sufism came to improve human awareness of God but some tarikas only mislead people and get them involved in music and dance without any spiritual benefits. Some of the Sufis also pretend to be able to talk to jinns and remove evil spirits. Some of them have pretended to be spiritually gifted and have hoodwinked many innocent Muslims. Muslims should therefore be very careful when looking for a good Sufi who can guide them.

In the modern world Sufism is vast and there are excellent Sufi masters and tarikas across the world. They offer discipline, good moral training, high thinking and high level of skills. Muslim history may again rely on these good Sufis or Arifs to bring the message of Islam to the new generation at a time when there is exploitation, contradiction and upheaval in the Muslim world. Sufism has a lot to offer and men like Imam Khomenie of Iran too spoke highly of the ways of the Arifs and the Sufis. Imam Khomenie was a Shia but he liked many of the teachings of Sunni Sufis and used to quote many poems from Chisti, Tijani and Qadari sufis. In the modern world Sufism can therefore act as a bridge between Sunni and Shia divisions.

TASKS TO DO

TASK 1

1.What three things do all Sufi believe in? 2. What is a Tarika? 3. What does wine and music represent in Sufi poems and songs? 4. When did the idea of Sufism come to the people and how did it help? 5. In what way have the Sufis tried to unite the Muslims? 6. What kind of things do bad Sufis do which Muslims should watch out for? 7. Write down one poem of the Sufis and in your own words explain some of the deeper meaning of the poem 8. How can Sufism help the Muslims of today?

TASK 2

1. Find out the history of one of the Sufi orders. Write down their story and what they believe.

2. Do you think it is okay to believe that dead Sufi leaders can guide you through their spiritual connection to this world? Why?

3. Find out more about the Golden Chain of the Naqsbandi order.

4. Find out more about Sufi shrines and find out how the followers of the Sufi saint draw spiritual benefits from the shrines.

Lesson 5: DIVIDED BY FAITH

5.1 THE DIFFERENES BETWEEN SUNNIS

You will have heard how the message of the Prophets had been changed throughout history until the coming of Prophet Muhammad who brought the final message in the Qur an. Nobody could change the Qur an and so the bad leaders tried something else! They tried to change the stories around the Qur'an and the Ahadith of the Prophet. They did this in order to create hate and confusion among the Muslims.

The Sunnis Imams came at the time of the Abbasides and tried to gather those Ahadith which they believed were genuine and recorded them in books called the Saheehs. However, though the Sunnis gathered the Ahadith which they believe to be accurate they were still divided on many of the things about Islam. So each era in history produced a Sunni reformer or reviver!

Many of these reformers and revivers claimed that they knew what true Islam was and one of them was Ibn Tahmiya. His ideas were totally different from most of the Sunni Reformers and until today arguments on who is right are found on many internet sites. Ibn Tahmiya was a staunch follower of Imam Hanbal and his ideas were therefore traditional! One of his idea of Islam was that everything is disallowed in Islam unless evidence can be found that it was allowed by Prophet and his Companions. However, the another group of the Sunnis disagree and say that nothing is forbidden unless if was forbidden by the Prophet and his Companions! So the group who follow Ibn Tahmiya say that Muslims should not celebrate the Birthdate of the Prophet because he never celebrated anybody's birthdate, while the second group of Sunnis will say that it is okay to celebrate it because the Prophet and his Companions never forbad it!

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a staunch supporter of Ibn Taymiya s ideas. They are called Wahabis because they also follow another reformer by the name of Ibn Wahab who lived before Ibn Taymiya.

5.2 SHIA VERSUS SHIA

The Shias believe that only Hazrat Ali should have been the caliph after the Prophet! They say Ali was the favourite candidate of the Prophet and so the Muslims of the early days should have chosen him instead of Hazrat Abu Bakr! But just as the Sunnis have differences between themselves the Shias too have their differences. The Shias were much persucuted at the time of the Umayads and Abbasides! Their Imams were imprisoned or murdered! Many Shias rose up armies and assasination squads to kill their enemies! The Shias had their own books of Ahadiths but they do not call them Saheehs. The idea of the Shias is that nothing is as accurate as a Qur'an and only the Qur'an is Saheeh! This idea of the Shias allows the Shias to interpret the Qur'an by the method called Ijtihad! The main shia sect at one time of the Shias used to be the Ismailies who were founders of the Fatimid Empire. They were called Ismailies because they followed the elder son of Imam Jaffer E Sadik whose name was Hazrat Ismail! The Fatimid empire was named after the Prophet's daughter Fatima Zahra and it gave a lot of good things to the Muslim world. The university they built in Egypt called Al Azhar is today the world`s oldest university! p> After the fall of the Fatimid empire another group of Shias were established in Iran. These Shias followed the second son of Imam Jaffer E Sadik called Hazrat Musa Kazim. These Shias believed in twelve masum Imams and they believe that like Hazrat Isa the twelth Imam was rescued by Allah and will return before the Day of Judgement! The twelth Imam is called Imam Mahdi!

The Iranian Shias are well known for the revolution of 1979. This revolution changed many things around the world as it inspired and challenged many societies! Until today many Sunni countries and the Western countries remain against Iran because of the 1979 revolution!

Today most of the Shias of Iraq, Lebanon, Bahrain, Pakistan and other places are followers of the twelve Imams. But there are other Shia like the Boras, Aga Khanis and the Druze. The leaders of the Boras live in India while the HH Aga Khan resides in France!

5.3 PERSONALITIES AND HISTORY

Most of the conflicts in Muslim history is based on personalities and not on the teachings of Islam. For example the Shias and Sunnis fight over the deeds of Hazrat Aiesha and Muawiya! The Sunnis pay respect to these personalities but the Shia don't!

The Sunnis say that these personalities were better than us because they were with the Prophet, but the Shias say that if they were better than us then they should have known not to fight against the caliph of Islam! This way the two sides keep arguing.

If we notice carefully, then the arugments are based on personalities and what they did! Many sects among the Muslims are also based on personalities. This includes Sufi orders who fight over which Sufi personality is greater than the other! Even in Iran and Iraq there are many arguments over which Ayatuallah is better than the others! In Pakistan too the Muslims fought over the Bhutto personalities and over the enemies of the Bhutto family!

But Islam is not based on personalities, but on justice and truth! The important question is about justice and truth and not about personalities! None of the personalities that came after the Prophet Muhammad were prophets and we are not obliged at all to blindly follow them! Our job is to support those who support justice and we should not do it blindly! If we follow personalities who make us fight then we will go against justice and end up making the same mistakes that have been made throughout history!

5.4 WHAT TYPE OF ISLAM DO WE WANT TO FOLLOW

The one major decision that Muslims need to make is this: "Does Islam teach us to reason or does it teach us to blindly copy the past"

Imam Jaffer E Sadik's idea of Islam was that the Prophet Muhammad based each aspect of his life on certain principles and reasons which are clearly learnt from the Qur'an. He taught that each generation of Muslims should learn to look at the reasons why the Prophet did what he did and then understand the principles behind the reasons! He said that a true scholar of Islam is the one who looks deeper to discover the reasons!

So for example the Prophet used miswak regularly during the day! Imam Jaffer E Sadik said that it was not the miswak that was important but the reasons why he used the miswak. Now one of the reasons for using miswak was to keep the teeth clean and healthy. Hence the principle we learn from this practice of the Prophet is to keep our teeth clean and healthy whether we use miswak or not! So according to Imam Jaffer's idea you can use the latest mouth washes and toothpastes if you want to follow the principles on which the Prophet based his life!

So Imam Jaffer E Sadik taught that the Prophet always wore decent clothes which were clean and humble! So we too should wear clothes like this regardless of what fashion we choose to wear!

Imam Jaffer E Sadik is followed by the Shia and his idea of reasoning is called Ijtihad! For the Shias to look for reasons is important and so they have to follow Ayatuallahs who study the reasons why the Prophet did what he did! The Sunnis are different!

The Sunnis do not have ijtihad on what the Prophet practised! They only had ijtihad for things which he did not happen in his time like using mobile phones or using fork and knife for eating!

The four great Sunni Imams believed that Islam is based on 'copying'the Prophet. They said that ours is not to reason why but to do as the Prophet and his Companions did! So since the Prophet and his Companions used miswak then we too should use miswak! And if it can be proven that they wore a shortened trousers then we too should do the same! And if they kept short hair then we too should do the same!

The great Sunni Imams said that if we start looking at reasons and change our practices then it will lose the original message! The Shias on the other hand say that if we do not reason and change then Islam will get stuck in the past! The two sides therefore both have important things to say and the debate between the two sides are very interesting!

TASKS TO DO

Task 1

1. Who was Ibn Taymiyah? 2. What is one main difference between the ideas of Ibn Taymiyah and the Sufis? 3. What is similar between Shia and Sunnis which is different from other Shias and Sunnis? 4. Who were the Tabaeens? 5. Who were the Assasins? 6. Give one example of personality difference that has caused Muslims to be divided? 7. What kind of category of Ahadith will be acceptable by all Muslims? 8. What are the two choices of Islam we can make for the future?

Task 2

1. Find our more about which Muslim sects:

1. Believe that God has a body and which say he does not have abody

2. Respect the Aga Khan and claim that he is the direct descendent of the Prophet.

3. Believe in Uwaisi which means seeing a saint after his death

4. Believes in keeping everything the same as in the days of the Companions

5. Believe that women can never make good leaders

6. Believe that anybody who does respect the early rulers or caliphs is not a Muslim

2. Find our something about the other sects in Islam like Druze, Muntazalites and Asharies.

3. Find out also about the sects that claimed that other Prophets came after the Prophet Muhammad.