Is It Wrong to Feel the Salaf Were Harsh and the Sufis Gentler?

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Question

I don’t mean to malign the salaf, whom I believe were the best people after the prophets, but some accounts make them seem harsh. Imam Ahmad, for example, condemned al-Karabisi, Ibn Kullab, and Muhasibi, though they defended the Sunna.

By contrast, I’m drawn to the Sufis’ gentleness, good manners, gnosis, and love of God. Stories such as Ibn Umar refusing to speak to his son over mosque attendance, or Umar striking his daughter for grammatical mistakes, trouble me. I love Sufism and want to admire the salaf more, but reading about them seems to deepen these doubts while increasing my admiration for the Sufis.

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Merciful and Compassionate.

I hope you’re doing well, In sha’ Allah. It isn’t wrong to be troubled by what you read, and your wish to love the early Muslims more is itself a good sign.

However, the contrast you draw doesn’t hold:

The Companions and the Sufis each had both firmness and gentleness, and leaned on one or the other according to the people they were calling to Allah.

Firmness and Gentleness Serve One Call to Allah

The scholars explain that calling people to Allah (daʿwa) has four elements: (a) the Call itself, (b) the One called to, (c) the caller, and (d) the one called.

The call is to Allah Most High, and it doesn’t change. However, callers and the people they call do change.

Firmness and gentleness are two ways of serving that one call, each where it fits.

The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) perfectly combined two qualities: merciful and gentle with people, and firm in the truth.

Sayyida Aisha al-Siddiqa (Allah be pleased with her) said, “The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) never avenged himself in anything, unless something Allah made sacred was violated; then he would avenge it for Allah.” [Bukhari and Muslim]

The Companions Were Firm With People Who Welcomed It

The Companions and the early Muslims dealt with people of strong resolve who accepted the truth and welcomed correction so they could do better.

The people they were firm with revered Allah and His Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace) deeply, and welcomed firm correction from the senior Companions.

With one another they were also tender, caring, and merciful, as Allah Himself describes them: “Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. And those who are with him are unbendingly fierce toward disbelievers, tender with care for each other.” [Quran 48:29; Keller, The Quran Beheld]

What About Umar’s Firmness?

The firmness of Sayyiduna Umar (Allah be pleased with him) is often highlighted.

However, as an inheritor of the Prophet’s way and character (Allah bless him and give him peace), he too was gentle when it was needed, and he listened to the Quran reciters, young and old, whom he kept as counselors.

When Uyayna ibn Hisn came in and accused Sayyiduna Umar of giving too little and judging unjustly, Umar grew so angry he was about to punish him.

One of those reciters, al-Hurr ibn Qays, reminded him that Allah told His Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), “Accept from people what they can do, bid the good, and turn away from rude fools.” [Quran 7:199; Keller, The Quran Beheld] Umar went no further.

As Ibn Abbas (Allah be pleased with him) put it, Umar “was one who stopped at the Book of Allah.” [Bukhari]

Read the Hard Moments for What Moved Them

The incidents that upset you need to be understood in their proper context. (This is also why it is important to ground one’s Islamic learning and readings in study with and consultation of classically trained, learned scholars.)

When Abdullah ibn Umar (Allah be pleased with him) related the Prophetic command not to bar women from the mosques, his son Bilal said, “By Allah, we will bar them.” Ibn Umar rebuked him severely and said, “I tell you from the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace), and you say, ‘By Allah, we will bar them’?” [Muslim]

Ibn Umar’s anger was at a son meeting a Prophetic command with an oath. It wasn’t over a difference of opinion.

Sayyida Aisha’s concern, which you mention, shows that a Companion could hold another view on the matter itself.

As for other reports, such as the one about Umar and his daughter, not every report in the books is sound, and even a sound one needs its setting.

The Scholars After Them Led With Gentleness

The scholars who came after, inheritors of the prophets and of the way the Companions understood, met people of differing levels of understanding and practice.

So they placed more emphasis on gentleness than on firmness.

That is the “change” you noticed: later scholars often answered with respectful disagreement where some early figures had condemned.

As for Imam Ahmad (Allah have mercy on him), his stance toward Karabisi, Ibn Kullab, and others is a separate matter, treated in an answer linked below.

The Sufis Were Firm on the Truth Too

The Sufis, too, were firm on the truth, as were the other people of knowledge and guidance. Imam Junayd said, “This knowledge of ours is bound by the Book and the Sunna.” [Qushayri, al-Risala]

In fact, some criticized the Sufis as too strict, in their own practice and in what they asked of their students.

The great Hanbali jurist (faqih) and hadith expert (and himself a Sufi), Imam Ibn al-Jawzi, one of their sharpest critics, faulted specific practices of the Sufis, such as what he felt was excessiveness in hunger, and going “beyond the limits” in strict practices. [Ibn al-Jawzi, Talbis Iblis]

There Is No Dichotomy

Nor did the Sufis ever set themselves against the Companions.

Imam Abu l-Qasim al-Qushayri opens his account of the great early Sufis by saying that the best of the early Muslims took no title but companionship of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace), “since there is no rank above it.” [Qushayri, al-Risala]

He counts al-Harith al-Muhasibi, whom you mention, among those great early Sufis.

The serenity and gnosis you love in the Sufis is the Companions’ own inheritance, passed down.

Read works like Hayat al-Sahaba of Mawlana Kandahlawi, which our teachers praise highly, for the great examples of the “tasawwuf” of the Companions.

One Path, Upheld Differently in Every Age

The spiritual path (tasawwuf) has classically asked its own people for high resolve (uluww al-himma), because it is the way of those brought near to Allah (al-muqarrabun), a way of struggle and sacrifice.

Imam Qushayri tells the seeker to take the more cautious position when the jurists’ rulings differ, “for dispensations in the Sacred Law are for the weak and for those with needs and occupations, and this group has no occupation but upholding His right, glorified is He.” [Ibid.]

Toward others, the Sufis were gentle, meeting people where they were and according to their levels and readiness. This was a Prophetic approach they inherited from the Companions, through the early Muslims. Our religion, in its branches, is one of a living chain, connected back to the guidance of Allah and the Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace).

The Sufis’ firmness with themselves and their gentleness with others belong to this inherited understanding.

Allah Most High tells His Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace) to say, “This is my path: I summon to Allah upon the full light of insight, I and whoever truly follows me.” [Quran 12:108; Keller, The Quran Beheld]

That one path is the path of the prophets, the path we ask for in every recitation of al-Fatiha: “Guide us the Straight Way.” [Quran 1:6]

How one upholds it, and meets people on it, varies with time, place, and audience.

Different scholars and spiritual paths have shown the gentleness or the firmness of the Prophetic teaching according to their temperaments.

The Adab Owed to Those Who Came First

Imam Ghazali lists among the beliefs of Sunni Islam that one think well of all the Companions and praise them as Allah and His Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace) praised them. [Ghazali, Ihyaʾ Ulum al-Din]

You may still notice what troubles you, but read the Companions with a good opinion, as the Sufis you love read them.

I would advise:

One. Ground your Islamic knowledge in (a) systematic study under qualified scholars; and (b) actively consulting them when things are unclear—such as when anything is unclear or unsettles you. Scholars are inheritors of the Prophets, and manifestations of mercy for us in understanding, faith, practice, and life.

Two. Understand events that trouble you from the Companions or Early Muslims (Salaf) as a whole, with their context and background, and through reliable sources, not just one snapshot incident.

Three. Make the supplication below part of your day.

Love Them as the Sufis Loved Them

In sha’ Allah, the more you come to know the Companions and Early Muslims, the more you’ll find in them the gentleness you love in the Sufis.

Allah taught those who came after to pray for those who came before:

رَبَّنَا اغْفِرْ لَنَا وَلِإِخْوَانِنَا الَّذِينَ سَبَقُونَا بِالْإِيمَانِ وَلَا تَجْعَلْ فِي قُلُوبِنَا غِلًّا لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا رَبَّنَا إِنَّكَ رَءُوفٌ رَحِيمٌ

Rabbana-ghfir lana wa li-ikhwanina-lladhina sabaquna bil-iman, wa la tajʿal fi qulubina ghillan lil-ladhina amanu, Rabbana innaka Raʾufun Rahim.

“Our Lord, forgive us and our brethren who won unto true faith before we; Nor put the slightest rancor in our hearts for any who believe: Our Lord, verily You are all-tender, all-compassionate.” [Quran 59:10; Keller, The Quran Beheld]

And Allah knows best.

Faraz Rabbani

Related Answers

One. Did the Great Companion Abdullah Ibn Mas’ud Prohibit Group Dhikr? — Shaykh Faraz Rabbani: A Companion’s strict reaction to a practice, read in its context.

Two. What Is the Stance of Ibn Al-Jawzi Regarding Sufism and Why Did He Write Talbis Iblis? — Shaykh Faraz Rabbani: Why a sharp critic of Sufi errors still honored the great Sufis.

Three. Why Did Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal Oppose Ibn Kullab and His Followers? — Shaykh Irshaad Sedick: What lay behind Imam Ahmad’s stance that troubles you.

Four. Can Women Go to the Mosque? — Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat: How the early concern about women at the mosque was tied to its time.

النصوص · Source-Texts

[البخاري؛ مسلم] «مَا خُيِّرَ رَسُولُ اللهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم بَيْنَ أَمْرَيْنِ قَطُّ إِلَّا أَخَذَ أَيْسَرَهُمَا مَا لَمْ يَكُنْ إِثْمًا، فَإِنْ كَانَ إِثْمًا كَانَ أَبْعَدَ النَّاسِ مِنْهُ، وَمَا انْتَقَمَ رَسُولُ اللهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم لِنَفْسِهِ فِي شَيْءٍ قَطُّ إِلَّا أَنْ تُنْتَهَكَ حُرْمَةُ اللهِ فَيَنْتَقِمَ بِهَا لِلهِ»

[البخاري] «وَكَانَ الْقُرَّاءُ أَصْحَابَ مَجَالِسِ عُمَرَ وَمُشَاوَرَتِهِ كُهُولًا كَانُوا أَوْ شُبَّانًا … فَلَمَّا دَخَلَ عَلَيْهِ قَالَ: هِيْ يَا ابْنَ الْخَطَّابِ، فَوَاللهِ مَا تُعْطِينَا الْجَزْلَ، وَلَا تَحْكُمُ بَيْنَنَا بِالْعَدْلِ. فَغَضِبَ عُمَرُ حَتَّى هَمَّ بِهِ، فَقَالَ لَهُ الْحُرُّ: يَا أَمِيرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ، إِنَّ اللهَ تَعَالَى قَالَ لِنَبِيِّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم: ﴿خُذِ الْعَفْوَ وَأْمُرْ بِالْعُرْفِ وَأَعْرِضْ عَنِ الْجَاهِلِينَ﴾ وَإِنَّ هَذَا مِنَ الْجَاهِلِينَ، وَاللهِ مَا جَاوَزَهَا عُمَرُ حِينَ تَلَاهَا عَلَيْهِ، وَكَانَ وَقَّافًا عِنْدَ كِتَابِ اللهِ»

[مسلم] «فَقَالَ بِلَالُ بْنُ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ: وَاللَّهِ لَنَمْنَعُهُنَّ، قَالَ: فَأَقْبَلَ عَلَيْهِ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ فَسَبَّهُ سَبًّا سَيِّئًا مَا سَمِعْتُهُ سَبَّهُ مِثْلَهُ قَطُّ، وَقَالَ: أُخْبِرُكَ عَنْ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم، وَتَقُولُ: وَاللَّهِ لَنَمْنَعُهُنَّ؟»

[القشيري، الرسالة] «وقال الجنيد: من لم يحفظ القرآن ولم يكتب الحديث لا يقتدى به في هذا الأمر، لأن علمنا هذا مقيد بالكتاب والسنة»

[ابن الجوزي، تلبيس إبليس] «وهذا الذي نهينا عنه من التقلل الزائد في الحد قد انعكس في صوفية زماننا فصارت همتهم في المأكل كما كانت همة متقدميهم في الجوع»

[القشيري، الرسالة] «اعلموا رحمكم الله تعالى أن المسلمين بعد رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم لم يتسم أفاضلهم في عصرهم بتسمية علم سوى صحبة رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم إذ لا فضيلة فوقها، فقيل لهم: الصحابة»

[المصدر نفسه] «وإن اختلف عليه فتاوى الفقهاء يأخذ بالأحوط … فإن الرخص في الشريعة للمستضعفين وأصحاب الحوائج والأشغال وهؤلاء الطائفة ليس لهم شغل سوى القيام بحقه سبحانه»

[الغزالي، إحياء علوم الدين] «وأن يحسن الظن بجميع الصحابة ويثني عليهم كما أثنى الله عز وجل ورسوله صلى الله عليه وسلم عليهم أجمعين»