Show description

Ibn Idrìs was not an advocate of individual liberty for all Muslims: he was alert to the growth of unIslamic and superstitious practices (bid'a) among the general populace, and regularly condemned them. Muslims who lacked the ability to derive their own rulings (that is, the vast majority) should instead rely on someone who had taqwà, that distinctively Islamic mixture of Godliness and God-fearing-ness. And taqwà was best assured and obtained through proximity to God, through union with the Prophet.

Sufism, p. 87. 30 Almost 300 works are known, dealing one-third with al-˙aqìqa al-ilàhiyya (esoteric sciences), and one third with fiqh; many of these are shar˙s. It was also one of many shar˙s of the †arìqa Mu˙ammadiyya produced by various scholars around this time. 31 Von Schlegell, Sufism, pp. 67–73, 83–84, 88–89, 92. The emphasis on later Kadızadeliler is, however, my own. 32 Al-Nàbulusi is most notable for his defense of Ibn al-'Arabi against the criticisms 29 36 chapter two Sufism. 33 He did not found any †arìqa of his own, but had two devoted followers, who will be discussed below.

56–57. AlMìrghani had also taken the Naqshbandiyya from two further shaykhs. 51 O’Fahey, Enigmatic Saint, p. 147. 52 Karrar, Sufi Brotherhoods, pp. 58–59. 53 Karrar, Sufi Brotherhoods, pp. 59–63. Not all of these remained his followers, 24 chapter one The first †arìqa deriving from Ibn Idrìs had thus come into existence by 1821, but it may have derived from Ibn Idrìs only in a very loose sense. Although al-Mìrghani’s success in spreading a †arìqa is clear, it is not clear exactly what way (†arìq) and order (†arìqa) he was giving at the time.