FOURTH VOLUME, 29th LETTER

This letter was written to Mirzâ ’Ubaydullah by Muhammad Ma’thûm. It stresses the necessity of advice and the importance of jihâd:

Some people suppose that Tasawwuf means to care for one’s own business, not to interfere with others and not to deal with anybody. This is not true. This kind of thinking injures Islam. I wonder what kinds of people a person who talks like this about men of Tasawwuf means? If he means the great men who were attached to Hadrat Abû Bakr Siddîq ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’; that the way guided by those great people was to adhere to the Sunnat-i-seniyya (Islam) and to avoid bid’ats is writen in their books. On the other hand, Amr-i ma’rûf and Nahy-i munkar and Bughd-i fillâh and Jihâd-i fîsabîlillah are requirements of the Sunnat-i-seniyya of our Prophet; that is, they are among the fards and wâjibs of Islam. [‘Bughd-i fillâh’ means ‘to feel hostility (towards disbelievers) for Allah’s sake,’ and ‘Jihâd-i fîsabîlillâh’ means ‘to struggle for Allah’s sake.’ We explained Amr-i ma’rûf and Nahy-i munkar earlier.] Then, to abandon Amr-i ma’rûf means to abandon the way of those great people. As a matter of fact, Imâm-i Muhammad Bahâaddîn-i Bukhârî ‘quddisa sirruh’, who was one of them, said: “Our way is to cling to the ’Urwa-i wuthqâ, that is, to follow the way of Rasûlullah and of his Ashâb.” For this reason, an insignificant deed on this way gives birth to a great profit. He who abandons this way falls into great dangers. If Tasawwuf meant that you abandon Amr-i ma’rûf, Muhammad Bahâaddîn-i Bukhârî ‘quddisa sirruh’, who was one of the chiefs of Tasawwuf, would not have performed Amr-i ma’rûf to his own master, Sayyid Amîr Kulâl. While it was incompatible with manners to warn his master, he still did Amr-i ma’rûf. Gathering the savants of Bukhârâ, he proved in the presence of them all that it was not acceptable in Islam to repeat Allâhu ta’âlâ’s name loudly, thus explaining to his master the importance of stopping it. Being very pious and in love with a true word, his master admitted it and stopped doing it. Men of Tasawwuf wrote thousands of books in order to communicate the things that will cause men to attain salvation and those things which will draw them to perdition. What are these works of theirs, if not Amr-i ma’rûf? Khwâja Mu’îniddîn-i Cheshtî, one of the great men of Tasawwuf, was told by his master: “The darling’s path is very subtle and dangerous. Advise everybody and inform them of the danger!” Why did Shaikh-i-Ekber Muhyiddîn-i ’Arabî ‘quddisa sirruh’ prohibit the men of Tasawwuf in his time from playing music and dancing, while it was he who spread Wahdat-i wujûd[1] all over the world? Some of them obeyed him and stopped doing so. And others did not obey him and did not stop it. But eventually they confessed their fault. [It is written in the book Hadîqa and also Akhî Chalabî writes in this book Hadiyya: “It is fard to do Amr-i ma’rûf. But it is necessary not to do Amr-i ma’rûf if it will result in fitna or events that Islam disapproves of.”]

[1] Not to know that creatures also exist. To know that only the Creator exists, who is one, and that creatures are His various reflections. Please see the thirty-fifth and the fortieth chapters of the sixth fascicle of Endless Bliss.