Sufism is a process of attaining closeness to Creator through love which is attained by purification of your ego.
What is Sufism?
by Shaykh Taner Ansari – transcribed from a talk to his students
Sufism is the science of being with Allah. Ilm Qalbi and Sufism is being with Allah in harmony and with His creations with harmony. The science of this is Sufism.
Sufism is not only talking, teaching or hearing. Sufism is also having the right feelings, right assumptions, and ACTIONS. When you are Sufi in the action , that is , the ilm (knowledge) of haal. The word haal means is this case, situation.
So Shariah is Qawli Muhammad, which means what the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said, Tariqat is the Fi’li Muhammad (What the Prophet SAW did), Haqiqat is Sirr Muhammad (the Secret of Muhammad SAW) , Marifaat is Haali Muhammad. So in other words, the actions, how he acts, how he gets. Marifaat is the direct knowledge. You can get direct knowledge but don’t act with it. You can get direct knowledge now, I’m telling you frankly. But as soon as you hear, you must put into action, and these are actions that Allah is pleased with, that’s why I’m trying to teach you one by one, and I want you to practice it right away.
Alright, so today, I want to teach you why it is important to be part of the group, and how to be part of the group. Why it is important to be part of the group in Sufism? Because first of all, you are trying to surrender and you want to surrender the best way it’s possible for Allah, if you’re a Sufi, this is the science we are trying to teach you. We have to surrender by love, more than anybody else, as much as possible as we can…..This is not going to happen just because you want to surrender, it’s going to happen right away. This is a long process working on all the factors that require surrender, living it, learning them one by one. And as long as you keep the intention of surrendering and you want to be with Allah, this will, and if you have this in the form of passion and love then it is called ishq, then this will be the motivation to push you forward.
Your nafs is going to get hit, your body is going to be hit, your finances are going to get hit, everybody’s going to get hit and you still have to carry this will to be with Allah and to move forward. That’s why you need a Shaykh and you have to hold on to the Shaykh because we together are going to go through this. I’ll be right there with you.
So, that’s why you need to learn these things one by one. In a group, being in a group is good for surrender, why? Because you’re not on your own. When you’re on your own, you’re with you. Then you’re responsible for every action you do. When you’re in a group, it also has positives and negatives.
The group that you are in has to have a large connection to Allah and a mature Shaykh who is running the group, so that you won’t be sidelining like some groups. So you should always be watching how to get along with the group. That’s why Shariah is a must. Is Shariah being observed? Is Tariqa being observed? And is Hakikat being observed? And is Marifaat being observed? Some part of it is your job. Some part is the job of the Shaykh. Some part of it is the job of the Wakil, etc. So if everybody, every factor of the group does their job, then the group will do well.
Group is one of the closest things for surrender because you create your inner path to be with Allah. But if you don’t like the Kurdish, you don’t like this, you don’t like that, you don’t like this…. how can you love Allah: when you hate everything that Allah has created? I hate kids, I hate that, I hate this…. how can you claim that you love Allah?
That comes because you don’t know Allah very well so you must learn Allah and you must learn to differentiate between nafs and haqq. Then when you look at people, you don’t have to like their nafs, but you have to like the haqq, the truth in them, Allah in them, try to see the goodness in them. In other words, positivity. When you see the goodness, Allah says all good is from Me, and all bad is from YOU.
The fiercest animals, you look at the panther and the lion and the crocodile and so on and so forth. Like say the crocodile, has nothing soft in them, everything is hard, big teeth. But when you see how the mother takes care of the babies with their roughness, they don’t hurt the babies! They can take them in their teeth. Let’s take the fiercest animal (nobody’s worse than a human, that can be worse animal.) … crocodile, there’s nothing soft in crocodile, maybe only his tongue. But still, they are so soft and kind to their babies. They can take them in their mouth and carry them away. The lion can pick up their cubs by the neck, like the cats, and carry them around and don’t hurt them, don’t hurt the baby. So they can be as kind as you can see.
So, when you are in a group, you have to find your role in the group. What is your role in the group? Don’t say I want to be the leader of the group. That’s the problem. If Allah wants you to be the leader, but if Allah doesn’t want you to be the leader, and you want the bigger power, what must you do? Fight for leadership!
When you fight for leadership, what happens to surrender? Out of the door, gone! And good leaders asks to be also a good follower. In order to be a good leader, first you need to be a good follower! How can you be a good leader if you’re not a good follower! And the important thing is, what’s the important thing? For there to be a leader? Or to serve the purpose of Allah? You have to make this clear with yourself! Do you want protection,
socialization, financial gain, or do you want to be with Allah and be amongst the people who want Allah?
So the group starts with learning to love each other. Our groups love each other. There is only one thing that they want Allah, that’s why we’re in it together so we can be practice being with Allah together, and be a force to serve Allah together. That’s our purpose. That’s my purpose. If you’re not this person, I want you to get out now. We’re here for Allah’s sake, to serve Allah together, and to bring this to the world and show that people can live in peace, harmony and with love, by fighting their nafs, keeping their nafs under control, and Allah’s will be done. Allah’s will, be done.
So this is better than carrying each other, this is better than “I’m better than you”, trying to prove you’re better than anybody else. This is an exercise, how to be in the paradise. Because in paradise you don’t have no fights, no bosses, no ‘I’.
So I want you to make a group, a loving place where people can find comfort. A Sufi is like that. One of the principles of Sufism is that people should find comfort in you, in your group, when they come. Do they feel love, do they feel love, or do they watch how people are at each other’s throats? If you are at each other’s throats, I don’t want you. Allah doesn’t want you, you want you, you can have you. Go and have you, what have you done so far with you, what do you gain?
Look at the space and contemplate….. and Allah is in every cell, every atom.. and you are created to be the spokesman for all the big universe and you are the observer of this universe. When you watch and say: O Allah you are great, and thank you for making me to observe you, and thank you for sharing your knowledge, Your Power, Your Mercy, your 99 Names with me. I deserve nothing, I am nothing, how Graceful you are that, and you have chosen and created me for this job.
So when you learn to be part of a small group, then you can assimilate this and see that you are also part of the bigger world, and then we’re part of a small group called the solar system. Solar system is part of a bigger group, they call nebula or whatever. And the nebula is part of a bigger group yet we call galaxy. And galaxy is part of a bigger group called the universe. So, you are part of earth, you are also part of the galaxy. So how can you be part of the galaxy if you cannot even be part of your family?
OK if you cannot be part of a family, how are you gonna be part of a group? If you cannot be a part of a group, how can you be part of the human race? If you cannot be part of a human race, how are you gonna be part of the solar system, and etc etc, etc etc. So everything is… education is here. Educate your understanding, educate your actions, because the understanding will
flow itself in the actions, that is the heart/hal. From the heart… many years I talk to them, they don’t grow one inch, they are the same people!
Make the effort to go up or down to Allah so Allah can walk to you. This is Hadith Sharif: “If you take a step to Allah, Allah will walk to you, if you walk to Allah, Allah will run to you.”
So what I want from you is learn how to be in a group. Respect every member of the group for Allah’s sake. Another thing I want to talk about in the family. Most of the world still lives tribal, so when you are in a tribal life, tribal life comes first. That’s why no religion of the 124,000 prophets got in there and they couldn’t change the state of the human beings. Why? Because Allah doesn’t come first, tribe comes first!
So I don’t want you to be tribal. We have a tribe, you have a tribe, what is that tribe? The tribe of Allah, this is called, Ahl’Illah. If you are a Sufi, your priority is this: what Allah tells you, not your father, mother, nafs, your friend, not your family, not your anything…..we are the people of one family, that’s Allah’s family.
So make Allah’s family your family, OK? We are one family. Colour, race,
this, that, even religion don’t mean nothing. We are all from Allah and we
are gonna return to Allah and we’re gonna love our family and that’s it.
Allahu Akbar.
From email of July 10, 2008, added here on September 17, 2025
