English translation of Maktubat Imam Rabbani (selective 100) | Mujaddid Alf sani | Sheikh Ahmad sirhindi

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This letter, written to Khwaja Muhammad Abdullah "sallamahullahu wa abkahu wa awsalahu ila ghayati ma yata-mannahu', his master Muhammad Baqi Billah's "quddisa sirruh" son, says that the first thing to do is to hold fast to the sunnat-i saniyya and to refrain from bidats, and many other things.

Praise be to Allahu ta'ala. I pray to Him to bestow salvation and goodness upon those people whom He has chosen. My dear son! The primary advice that I will give you and to the other beloved friends is to hold fast to the sunnat-i saniyya and to refrain from bidats. The Islamic din has been becoming gharib and weak. Muslims are now forlorn. From now on it will go on being gharib, too. This will go so far that there will not be anybody left on earth to say "Allah." It has been said that Doomsday will come when there are no longer any good people on the earth and evil has spread everywhere.

[Our Prophet stated: "There will come such a time when only the name of Islam will remain on my Ummat. Believers will do only a few Islamic customs, and they will not have any iman left. Qur'an al-karim will only be recited. They will not even know of the commandments and prohibitions. Their only thought will be about eating and drinking. They will forget about Allahu ta'ala. They will worship money only. They will become women's slaves. They will not be contented with earning a little, nor will they be satisfied with earning much."

Hadrat Abdulwahhab-i Sharani "rahmat-Allahi 'alaih' says in his brief explanation of the Mukhtasar-i Tazkira-i Qurtubi: "It is declared in a hadith quoted by Ibni Maja: "There will come such a time when Islam, as the color, the beauty of a dress fades, will fade away from the earth so much so that namaz, fasting, hajj and alms will be forgotten. None of the Qur'an's ayats will be left on the earth.' " Imam-i Qurtubi states: "The forgetting of Islam will occur after Hadrat Isa's (Jesus) descent from heaven and death. Before that, Muslims will be gharib (forlorn). Though Qur'an al-karim will not be obeyed, it will not be forgotten altogether." It is written in Marifatnama, "There are many presages of Doomsday. Mosques will be plentiful, but the jamaat (congregation of Muslims in mosques) will be small. Buildings will be tall, dresses thin, and women will be domineering. Men will become effeminate."]

The happiest, the most fortunate person is he who recovers one of the forgotten sunnats and annihilates one of the widespread bidats during a time when irreligiousness is on the increase. We are now in such a time when a thousand years have elapsed after the Best of Mankind (Hadrat Muhammad "sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam'). As we distance from the time of happiness of our Prophet, the sunnats are gradually being buried and, lies being on the increase, bidats are spreading. A hero is needed who will uphold the sunnats and stop, expel the bidats. To spread bidats is to demolish Islam. To respect those who make up and commit bidats, to deem them great will cause Islam to perish. It is declared in a hadith: "He who says "great' about those who commit bidats has helped the demolition of Islam." The meaning of this should be given due consideration. Utmost energy should be spent in striving to uncover one sunnat and to annihilate one bidat. To strengthen Islam anytime, especially when Islam has become so weak, it is necessary to spread the sunnats and demolish the bidats. Former Islamic savants, maybe having seen some beauty in the bidats, gave some of them the name of hasana [beautiful]. But this faqir [Imam-i Rabbani] does not follow them in this respect; I do not regard any of the bidats as beautiful. I see all of them as dark and cloudy. Our Prophet declared: "All bidats are aberration, deviation from the right way." During such a time as this when Islam has become weak, I see that salvation and escaping from Hell depends on holding fast to the sunnat; and the destruction of the din is, no matter how, in falling for any bidat. I understand that each bidat is like a pickaxe used to demolish the building of Islam and all sunnats are like brilliant stars guiding you on a dark night. May Allahu ta'ala give enough reason to the hodjas of our time so that they will not say that any bidat is beautiful or permit any bidat to be committed. They should not tolerate bidats even if they seem to illuminate darkness like the rising of the sun! For, the satans do their work easily outside the sunnats. In earlier times, Islam being strong, the darkness of bidats were not conspicuous, but, maybe, along with the world-wide powerful light of Islam, some of the darkness passed as being bright. Therefore, they were said to be beautiful. In fact, those bidats did not have any brightness or beauty, either. But now, Islam having become weak and disbelievers' customs and even the symptoms of disbelief having become settled [as fashion] among Muslims, each bidat has displayed its harm, and Islam, without anyone noticing it, has been slipping away. Our hodjas should be most vigilant in this respect, and they should not pioneer the spreading of bidats by saying, "It is permissible to do so and so," or "Such and such things are not harmful," by putting forward old fatwas. As the saying goes, "The din will change in the process of time." It is wrong for disbelievers to use this saying as tongs for demolishing Islam and for establishing bidats and disbelief. The bidats having covered all the world, this age looks like a dark night. The sunnats being on the decrease, their lights blink like fire-flies flying here and there in the dark night. As the committing of bidats increases, the darkness of the night has been increasing and the light of the sunnat has been decreasing. But the increasing of the sunnats would decrease the darkness and increase the light. He who wishes may increase the darkness of bidat, thus strengthening the devil's army! And he who wishes may increase the light of the sunnat, thus strengthening the soldiers of Allahu ta'ala! Know well that the end of the followers of the devil is calamity, loss. He who is in the army of Allahu ta'ala will attain endless bliss.

[Let us repeat that those beliefs, words, actions, manners and customs which did not exist during the time of our Prophet or during the times of his four Khalifas, but which were made up, invented later in the din are called bidat. It is bidat to make up all these under the name of the din and worship, and to say about the things which the din holds important, "They are outside of the din, they do not concern the din." Some of the bidats are disbelief. Some others are grave sins. One of these bidats is to read (or recite) Qur'an al-karim or to say the adhan through loud-speakers or radios.

It is written in the explanation of the hundred and eighty-sixth letter of the Arabic and Persian versions of the book Maktubat, "Most Islamic savants classified the bidats of deeds into two groups: Those renovations and reforms that were not against the Sunnat, i.e., those that had an origin in the first century, were called bidat-i hasana. And those that had no origin were called bidat-i sayyia. But Hadrat Imam-i Rabbani would not smear the ones with origin with the name bidat. So he called them sunnat-i hasana. Examples of these are performing the Mawlid and building minarets and tombs. He gave the name bidat only to those without an origin. Wahhabis called these bidat-i hasanas bidat-i sayyia, too. They said that sunnat-i hasanas also were shirk (polytheism). On the other hand, ignorant men of the din called most of the bidat-i sayyias bidat-i hasana, and thus caused these atrocious bidats to become widespread. In censuring bidats, Hadrat Imam-i Rabbani is not against the Islamic savants, but he is against the ignorant men of the din."]

Also, today's men of tasawwuf should come to reason and, realizing that Islam is so weak and concocted things have turned into faith and worships, they should not imitate those actions of their master Darwishes which are not suitable with the Sunnat. They should not adopt those things that are not in the din as faith and worships for themselves only because their masters did them. Holding fast to the Sunnat will certainly rescue you and will make you attain blessings and happiness. Imitating the things other than the Sunnat will lead you to dangers and disasters. Our duty is to inform you of what is right. Everybody may do what he likes, and will get the deserts of what he has done. [Every sane man who has reached the age of puberty is responsible for his own actions.]

May Allahu ta'ala greatly reward our superiors who educated us in order to protect us, the ignorant, against bidats. They did not lead us, who were following them, to dark dangers or an abyss. They did not show us any way other than the Sunnat. They guided us to no way but that of obeying the owner of the Shariat and avoiding even the doubtful acts as well as the harams. For this reason, the blessings of these great people are considerable. The grades which they attained to are very high. They did not even turn to music and dancing, nor did they pay any attention to raptures and ecstasies. They deemed the hals, which others saw and found through the heart and considered great, as far from the purpose and other than what is desired; they expelled and refused the fancies which others fell for. Their deeds are not the kind which can be understood by seeing, finding or learning. They are above knowledge, fancy, tajallis, zuhurs, kashfs and views. Others try to find something, to attain something. But these great people do not want anything other than Allahu ta'ala; they expel all others. Others' expressing the word tawhid again and again is intended to approach Allahu ta'ala. By expressing the word tawhid [la ilaha il-lal-lah], they try to find, to see Allahu ta'ala in this universe, which is only an incapable creature of Allahu ta'ala and which does not have any other relation with Allahu ta'ala. But these great people repeat the word La ilaha il-lal-lah in order to know everything as non-existent, to refuse, to deem non-existent all views, findings, understandings and fancies when saying La; refusing anything which they feel in existence, they do not remember anything. [Half of this letter has been translated. Its latter half has not been translated.]