Suyuti on Tasawwuf

The blessings and peace of Allah on the Prophet, his Family, and his Companions.

The Remembrance of God, Al-Suyūṭī^[1]

Section 1: His Tasawwuf

Al-Suyūṭī's chain of transmission in taṣawwuf goes back to Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī and he belonged to the Shādhilī ṭariqa, which he eulogized in two monographs defending taṣawwuf, Itḥāf al-firqa bi-rafwi al-khirqa (The gift to the group in the mending of the cloak) and Ta'yīd al-haqīqat al-'aliyya wa-tashyīd al-tarīqat al-shadhiliyyah (The support of the higher truth and the strengthening of the Shadhilī path).

In the latter book he states: "I have looked at the matters which the imams of Sharia have criticized in Sufis, and I did not see a single true Sufi holding such positions. Rather, they are held by the people of innovation and the extremists who have claimed for themselves the title of Sufi while in reality they are not Sufis."

In the Tashyīd he also produces narrative chains of transmission proving that al-Hasan al-Baṣri did in fact narrate directly from ʿAlī b. Abī Talib ( كرم الله وجهه ). This goes against commonly received opinion among the scholars of hadith although it was also reported as the opinion of Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal.^[2]

Al-Suyūṭī gave taṣawwuf his Ḥāwi lil-fatāwi, which contains legal proofs and precedents on many issues connected to Sufism and helped the Sufis reply to their objectors and show that the practices of taṣawwuf were part and parcel of Islam, among them the fatwa proving the permissibility of loud dhikr in the mosques, translated as “Remembering God: the outcome of contemplation over loud dhikr” in this book.

In another fatwa titled al-Minḥa fīl-sibḥa (The profit in dhikr beads), al-Suyūṭī recounts the story of ʿIkrima, who asked his teacher ʿUmar al-Mālikī about dhikr beads. The latter replied that he had also asked his teacher al-Hasan al-Basti about it and was told: “Something we have used at the beginning of the road we are not desirous to leave at the end. I love to remember God with my heart, my hand, and my tongue.”

Al-Suyūṭī comments: “And how should it be otherwise, when the dhikr beads remind one of God Most High, and a person seldom sees dhikr beads except he remembers God, which is among the greatest of its benefits?”^[3] Al-Haytami’s later Fatāwā ḥadīthiyya perfects the design pioneered by al-Suyūṭī in defending the Sunni character of taṣawwuf among other important themes.

When one of his teachers, Burhān al-Dīn Ibrāhīm b. ʿUmar al-Bigāʿī attacked Ibn ʿArabī in a tract titled Tanbīh al-ghabī ilā takfīr Ibn ʿArabī (Warning to the dolt that Ibn ʿArabī is an apostate), al-Suyūṭī countered with a tract entitled Tanbīh al-ghabī fī tanzīh Ibn ʿArabī (Warning to the dolt that Ibn ʿArabī is upright). Both epistles have been published.

In his reply, al-Suyūṭī states that he considers Ibn ʿArabī a Friend of God whose writings are forbidden to those who read them without first learning the technical terms used by the Sufis.^[4]

He cites from Ibn Ḥajar’s list in Anba' al-ghumr, among the trusted scholars who kept a good opinion of Ibn ʿArabī or counted him a walī: Ibn ʿAṭa' Allāh al-Sakandarī (d. 709 AH), al-Yāfiʿī (d. 678 AH), Ibn ʿAbd al-Salām after the latter's meeting with al-Shādhilī, Shihāb al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā al-Malwī al-Tilimsānī (d. 776 AH), Sirāj al-Dīn Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar b. Isḥaq al-Hindī al-Ḥanafī (d. 773 AH) the author of Sharḥ al-hidāya and Sharḥ al-ʿaynī, Najm al-Dīn al-Bahī al-Ḥanbalī (d. 802 AH), al-Jabartī (d. 806 AH), the lexicographer al-Fayrūzābādī (d. 818 AH), Shams al-Dīn al-Bisāṭī al-Mālikī (d. 842 AH), al-Munāwī (d. 871 AH), and many others.

Section 2: Six Hadith

The First Hadith

Al-Bukhārī narrated from Aba Hurayra, that the Messenger of God ﷺ (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him!) said:

God the Almighty says, “I am as My servant thinks of Me, and I am with him when he remembers Me If he mentions Me within himself I mentions him within Myself. If he mentions Me in a gathering, I mention him in a better gathering.”

Dhikr performed in a gathering can only be done aloud.

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The Fourteenth Hadith

Al-Bazzār and al-Bayhaqī narrate with a sound transmission chain from Ibn ʿAbbās رضي الله عنها that the Messenger of God ﷺ (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him!) said that God the Almighty said:

My servant, whenever you remember Me in seclusion I remember you in seclusion; and whenever you mention Me in a gathering I mention you in a better gathering and a greater one!!

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The Fifteenth Hadith

Al-Bayhaqī narrated from Zayd b. Aslam that Ibn al-Adraʿ رضي الله عنها said:

I went with the Messenger of God ﷺ one night, and he passed by a man in the mosque who was raising his voice. I said, “Messenger of God, perhaps he is doing this for show?”

He replied, “No, rather, he is an enraptured supplicant (ld wa-ldkinnahu awwdh).?"7

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The Seventeenth Hadith

Al-Bazzār narrated from Anas رضي الله عنها that the Messenger of God ﷺ said:

God the Almighty has wandering groups of angels who search out sessions of dhikr. When they find such gatherings, they surround them closely.

God the Almighty commands them:

“Cover them completely with My mercy! For they are such people as none sits with them and then perishes.”

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The Nineteenth Hadith

Imam Ahmad narrated in al-Zuhd from Thabit:

Salman al-Fārisī رضي الله عنها was with a group of people that were engaged in the remembrance of God the Almighty when the Messenger of God ﷺ passed by them and they stopped.

He asked: “What were you saying?” They replied: “We were mentioning God the Almighty.”

He said: “I saw mercy descending upon you and loved to take part in it with you!”

Then he said: “Praise be to God the Almighty who made such people among my umma and commanded me to keep myself content with them!”

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The Twenty-first Hadith

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, al-Bayhaqī, and al-Aṣbahānī narrated from Anas رضي الله عنها that the Messenger of God ﷺ said:

That I sit with a people who remember God the Almighty after the morning prayer until the sun rises is dearer to me than the whole world over which the sun rises! Likewise, that I sit with a people who remember God the Almighty after the mid-afternoon prayer until the sun sets is dearer to me than the world and all it contains.

Section 3: Three Appendices - Excerpts

I. Published works of al-Suyuti
- List of 141 titles of some of al-Suyuti's works^[5]

II. Hanafi Fatwas on Loud Dhikr in the Mosque
- According to leading scholars of the Hanafi school saying that loud dhikr is permissible. In this respect the Hanafi position is in line with the other three schools.

III. Dhikr “Allah, Allah”^[n1]
- There are many proofs for repeating the name of God alone, saying "Allah, Allah, Allah, (…)."
- First by the glorious Quran
{Say Allah, then leave them to their playing} 6-91, and
{Surely by mentioning Allah hearts become peaceful} 13-28
- Then come all the hadiths in Suyuti's fatwa…
- Imam Nawawi said in his commentary on this chapter: "Know that the narrations of this hadith are unanimous in the repetition of the name of God the Exalted for both versions and that and that is the way it is found in all the authoritative books." ^[6]

Related

Al-Suyuti By GF Haddad
Hadith - Prophetic Tradition
Dhikr "ALLAH, ALLAH"