Sufi Shaykh should be poor or else he is not a good teacher

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah.

Al-hamdu lillah for Allah’s generosity to Shaykh Hisham and to the clear openings He has given him in the U.S. May Allah give him more, according to His boundless generosity, in dunya and akhira. Support and success are only from Him.

It is sad to see such discussions going on while Shaykh Hisham and Shaykh Nazim are hosting the muftis of the Balkans and Russian federation and the president of Chechnya in DC. But, no doubt, Allah gave permission to shaytan to do his evil, and at the same time He said that shaytan can do nothing to harm Allah’s sincere servants. Try as he will.

"And when they meet you they say we believe, but when they are alone they bite their fingers out of spite [against you]. Say: Die of your spite! Allah knows full well what is inside the hearts.” (Surat Al `Imran)

“O Allah I seek refuge in You from envy which destroys good deeds like fire destroys wood.” (hadith)

“A clear mark of Allah’s wrath with a servant is when He busies him with what does not concern him.” (al-Junayd)

Al-Kharkushi, `Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim, Abu Sa`d ibn Abi `Uthman al-Naysaburi al-Shafi`i (d. 407), named Shaykh al-Islam, al-Imam al-Qudwa by al-Dhahabi, one of the leading scholars, commentators of Qur’an, exceptional orators, pious ascetics, and hadith narrators of Khurasan, “one of the imams of the Religion and eminent ones among the believers by whose mention mercy is sought.”

One of his biographers said: “The fuqara’ in al-Kharkushi’s house are emirs.” The fuqara’ in Shaykh Hisham’s house are emirs also. And some people attacked Abu Yazid al-Bistami for his wealth, but he kept saying in his দু'আ: “O Allah! You know, above Your Throne, that poverty is more beloved to me than wealth.” And Ibn Khuzayma, one of the mujtahid imams of the Shafi`i school, humble, modest, generous, scrupulously God-wary, and immensely wealthy. He once went out into the streets and marketplaces of Naysabur and invited everybody he saw to his gardens for a feast where all kinds of food were served to them. When he was criticized he said: “I do not remember ever owning more than two shirts.” It is not the things you possess, it is the degree to which you possess them to do good, or else they possess you. No-one is safe from the leers of hypocrites, but who cares for their approval?

May Allah bless Shaykh Hisham and support him. They tried criticizing him for loving the Prophet too much, and now they try criticizing him for living in a big house. These are the ways that shaytan inspires to them. They are used to see non-Gulf Muslims in poor attire, downtrodden, unorganized, or else completely Westernized. When they see the opposite, they say to themselves: it is too good to be true, we must fight this. May Allah guide these people to judge by the reality of things, not the illusions that come to their minds.

“Say: If your fathers, and your sons, and your brethren, and your wives, and your tribe, and the wealth you have acquired, and merchandise for which you fear that there will be no sale, and dwellings you desire are dearer to you than Allah and His messenger and striving in His way: then wait till Allah brings His command to pass. Allah guides not wrongdoing folk.” (9:24)

Written by Dr. Gabriel Haddad

abulhasan1@… wrote:

>The age-old “Sufi vs. Salafi” >debate is not the issue on the table in this discussion. The issue, in fact, >is that a handful of people with largely unknown sources of funding-not to >mention backing from people with links to Israeli intelligence-are attempting >a hostile takeover of the American Muslim community.

The “American Muslim community” is a balkanized, fragmented community. Essentially, there is little to “take over.”

However, it must be said that Shaykh Hisham Kabbani’s community has shown an ability to attract conference participation, for example, from among the most reputable scholars, both American and from around the world.

To slander him and his community with vague charges of “unknown sources of funding” and “backing from people with links to Israeli intelligence” is exactly what it appears to be: evil suspicion and worse.

The Shaykh has followers in many communities in the United States, and I have seen how some of them can become, perhaps, over-enthusiastic, so there are real scandals to discuss, if one has a need to find and discuss scandal. But these things will happen in any growing and poorly-centralized and undisciplined movement. There is plenty of room to discuss the shortcomings of our leaders and potential leaders, and their followers, without resorting to slander and a smear campaign.

And we do not need informants who hide behind a hotmail account….

If there is an attempt to takeover the community, as abulhasan1 charged, surely the *community* can respond openly. How could a putative representative of the majority claim a necessity to hide? Only in a place where the government rules without law, or where opinion is punished by force of law, is secrecy legitimate. And this is not the United States, at least not to the extent necessary to allow hiding as abulhasan1 has hidden.

Let him come into the open, if he has any truth to impart, and let him lay bare his history and motives, so we can judge for ourselves if he is a trustworthy witness. Until then, he is no witness at all, merely a slinking whisperer.