Sufi orders

As I have already written in the previous writing about ihsanuddin, tasawwuf or science of the heart is one of the compulsory sciences that all muslims have to learn and master the knowledge at least at the essential level of it: that is a fardhu ‘ain level. Tariqah on the other hand is a science in its own league and a subset of tasawwuf. Thus we can say that not all muslims who learn tasawwuf also do learn tariqah, but those who learn tariqah by all means is learning tasawwuf at the same time. According to Maulana Muhammad Zakariyya Kandhlawi rah.a, tariqah is a way to achieve the purpose of tasawwuf: and one of the essential of tasawwuf is to achieve a total cleanliness of the heart from aghyar or ma siwaLlah: anything else but Allah. When someone takes bai’ah, he/she will devote him/herself under the guidance and teaching of syeikhul murshid of the tariqah. Then sheikhul murshid will guide his murid on how to achieve the purpose of tasawwuf by putting him/her under a so-called riadhah or physical and spiritual training according to the syari’ah al islamiyyah as shown by Messenger of Allah, Muhammad s.a.w and his great companions r.anhum.

There are so many tariqah al mu’tabarah but today am going to discuss only a few of them, especially those tariqahs that have influenced muslim society in Nusantara the most. According to the research done by Ustaz Wan Muhammad Saghir Abdullah, the first ulama’ that brought the teaching of tariqah in Malaysia was Sheikh Abdul Samad bin Muhammad Saleh known as Tuan Tabal. He received the ijazah of the tariqah directly from Sidi Ibrahim Ar Rashidi a successor of Qutubul Aqtab Sidi Ahmad bin Idris. Then the teaching of tariqah ahmadiah has been spread in Malaysia by Mufti Haji Wan Musa Tuan Tabal’s son, Sidi Muhammad Al Azhari and Sheikh Muhammad Said Linggi: these three prominent ulama were studying under Sidi Muhammad bin Ahmad Ad Dandarawi, a successor of Sidi Ibrahim Ar Rashidi. Then later, tariqah ahmadiah became famous especially in Kelantan under guidance and teaching of Sheikh Haji Daud Shamsuddin Bukit Abal who studied under Sidi Muhammad Al Azhari in Makkah al Mukarramah.

Another tariqah that has been widely practiced by ulama in Malaysia and Indonesia is tariqah naqshabandiyah. This tariqah is named after the great ulama of naqshbandiyah order Sheikh Bahauddin Naqshbandi. The most prominent ulama that has been spreading this tariqah is Sheikh Abdul Wahab Rokan who opened up a famous learning institution in North Sumatera known as Babussalam. Almost all of silsilah of tariqah naqshbandiyah in Malaysia lead back to Sheikh Abdul Wahab Rokan.

Other than those two tariqahs, there are a few more big sufi school which has been widely practiced all over the world such as suhrawardiyah (is named after Sheikh Diyauddin Abu An Najib As Suhrawardi), qadiriyah (is named after Sheikh Abdul Qadir Al Jilani) and chishtiyah (is named after Sheikh Mo’inuddin Chishti). For your info, all deobandi ulama including the ulama’, du’at and ahlullah at Hadhrat Basti Nizamuddin or to be specified at Banglawali masjid have been authorized with the nasab silsila of four great tariqahs: naqshbandiyah, suhrawardiyah, qadiriyah and chishtiyah. If you go to Darul Uloom Deoband or Kashiful Uloom Saharanpur, there exist khanqah the place for do riadhah ruhaniyyah which has been built in the madrasah. So the teaching of tasawwuf and tariqah is not separated from other physical sciences of Islam such as fiqh, tauhid, hadith etc as what a most of people think it is. Metaphysical science has to be taught together with other knowledge and that’s what built a true center of excellence for Islamic education. Thus only with the integration of teaching of all those sciences would be beneficial to the ummah, where fuqaha as sufiyyah could be produced from the institution. Other than Darul Uloom Deoband there are a few more institutions that has combined all those physical and metaphysical sciences into their curriculum such as Dar Al Mustafa in Tarim and Abu Nour in Damascus. Those are exemplary institutions that all other universities have to follow their footsteps. But the issue here is, not all of muslim scholars and universities are capable to do so! Because we have to have guidance from sheikhul murshid and sheikhul murshid is not someone who exists anywhere in this world.

All those tariqahs has a line of chains back to Saidina Ali bin Abi Talib r.anhu (qadiriyah, suhrawardiyah and chishtiyah orders) or Saidina Abu Bakar r.anhu (naqshbandiyah order), and those two great sahabahs received the orders from Saidina Al Mustafa Muhammad s.a.w. Only tariqah ahmadiah has a different line of chains as Sidi Ahmad bin Idris received the authorization of tariqah from Saidina Khidr a.s, and Saidina Khidr received from Saidina Al Mustafa s.a.w.

In the spiritual journey to achieve the inner truth and ma’rifatullah, all murids will be guided by the sheikhul murshid whose will supervise the spiritual training for each and every one of them. They have to undergo some riadhah or spiritual training such as to do zikr, to get into suluk (an intensive spiritual training) etc. To be with sheikhul murshid is not only to do zikr, but the murids will learn everything: from ulumul fiqhiyah, ulumul quran, al ahadith and all sorts of sciences in Islam, also every aspect of life i.e. how to socialize with local community, how to manage family, how to doing business etc. By doing so, the murids will achieve a true knowledge of Islam which would lead them to be among those servants of Allah who are called al muttaqun. That is the difference between learning ulumuddin from sheikhul murshid the one who knows both physical and metaphysical sciences and from other ulama’ who just expert in one physical branch of sciences.

Allah knows best!

To be continued in later time insyaAllah…