Who is The Authority (Part 4 of 4)

The Role of the Murshid in Tariqa (Part 3)

13 July 2020

The Need For Understanding The Qur’an

10 August 2020

Are all Hadiths Sahih?

This is the Scripture that We have revealed to you. It is full of blessings so that they may contemplate its ayats, and so that the ulul albab may be mindful. (Sad:29)

Allah urges us to think. In sharia, we are not required to think or reflect, we simply have to accept. Especially if somebody makes reference to some imam or scholar that they said this, that’s it! What if the scholar was wrong?! Only Allah is right all the time. And so who is the authority? Who can decide which way to go, what is right and what is wrong?

There are so many hadiths. One of them is this: Supposedly the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “When a child is born, four angels come; one gives the following: you are going to earn this much; one the following: you are going to be believer or not. The other one is where you are going to die.” And the other one, whatever it is. So if we are determined that we are going to be believers or not believers from birth, so what is this game we are playing here? Why are we on Earth? And where is Allah’s justice?!

Our Prophet (pbuh) says, “If they refer, say a hadith, refer it to Qur’an. If there is nothing in the Qur’an, then it is not from me. Then refer it to your heart. If your heart is not happy, it is not from me.”

Same Message, New Understanding

And there is not a messenger We sent before you but We inspired him: “There is no ilah [higher power; god] other than Me. So connect and devote yourself to Me.” (Al Anbiya:25)

(O Muhammad) nothing that is being said to you is different from that which was said to those messengers before you. (Fussilat:43)

It is the job of the Murshid to give us a new way of thinking. There is no new knowledge. Allah says, “I am not giving you anything new.” Yes, for Allah, nothing is new. And it can be new, He can make something new. But for us, if we are learning something, it is always new. So when we are understanding Qur’an and the hadith, understanding is also a different issue. So there is a saying in Turkish, “Half a doctor will rid you of your life, half an imam will rid you of your religion.”

Basically, this is the structure of a Tariqa and the structure of a Murshid, how they work, how they get their messages (click on Tariqa and/or Murshid to read more from the previous parts). The Murshid is not a prophet. They are representing the Prophet (pbuh). There is already the last Prophet (pbuh). That’s it! And one of the Murshids has the Prophetic gene in them. It has to be a descendant of the Prophet (pbuh). The Murshid does not have to defend themselves. Allah will defend them.

“We are your protecting friends in the life of this world and the Hereafter.” (Fussilat:31)

They do everything according to the Qur’an and they explain the Qur’an for us the way they understand it to our thinking mind. So in other words, the message is the same. But the application and the means of application can/must be adapted to the age that we are living in.

Glossary

ayat: sign; portent; lesson; message; proof; revelation; verse; evidence

din: way of doing righteous deeds; way of life; right path of connectedness with Allah; way of relationship with God; system of actions that establish a connection to and relationship with Allah

hadith: tradition; saying attributed to, or anecdote regarding Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), according to traditional eyewitness accounts; narration; revelation

ilm: knowledge; science

imam: leader

sahih: authentic

sharia: the body of Islamic religious canons; injunctions attributed to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) regarding proper behavior for Muslims; proper behavior; commandment; law

tariqa: path; Sufi order

ulama: scholars; scientists

ulul albab: people of zikr; people of reasoning; people of understanding and mature discernment

waliyyan murshid: teacher who guides and protects

This is an excerpt of the Online Saturday Sohbet given on December 10, 2011 by Murshid Shaykh Taner Vargonen Ansari and edited for this article on July 27, 2020. The translation of the Qur’an verses and glossary terms are from Murshid Shaykh Taner Vargonen Ansari.