The psychoanalysts learnt relatively quickly,  in their work with people, that it was more effective to begin their interpretative work by analyzing the defenses rather than go directly to the “Truth ” of the matter.In a way the first part of the Islamic testification of Faith “laillaha ilallah” says something similar(There is no god besides the One True God) So first you denounce the falsehood and then you affirm the truth.

When there is an entire Community, or at least large sections of it, involved in this kind of defensiveness the problem becomes even more complex.This is because a large-scale social consensus then is involved in  supporting the falsehood-or at least in promoting an incomplete version of the Truth.This is what I have been coming up against frequently for a long time but particularly in the last couple of years as I try to promote authentic Sufism as the best possible spiritual path and the most noble form of Islam itself.The Community pushes back!

In order to give you some concrete examples of what I am talking about, let me cite the following episodes-all occurring recently in the space of a few weeks.1) I message a Facebook friend to describe an event in the endodentist’s office(read root canal) .Although being one of the most skilled people in this specialty,he was unable to find the root canal for what seemed like a long period of time”i don’t understand it”he said”.Usually, especially after a clear Xray like the one I did on you,I hit it in a few minutes.This one seems to be calcified and very difficult to locate”. I tell my friend that I then made dua to Faqih Muqaddam the saint of lost objects –a practice I was taught in Yemen amongst the Habaib. Less than 30 seconds after the prayer the dentist announced with obvious relief in his voice that he found it.”I cant understand why it was so difficult “he said.God isn’t in his equation obviously lol.

My friend then chastised me” I will never make dua to a saint “she said adamantly.It is shirk to do so.We must only make dua to Allah.Please note that this is not someone who self-identifies as a Salafi or even a Dedobandi.The next day I did a little research and found a fatwa on Seekers Hub by Faraz Rabbani(may Allah raise his rank) that stated that ‘Tawwasul'(the name of this kind of practice) to awliya is permitted in all four madhabs of traditional Islam.I sent the fatwa to my friend and I did not receive any response or acknowledgment.It is quite possible that she doesn’t believe either me or Faraz lol

2) Two young Muslim females ‘freeze’ when we do Dhikr with some simple movements from Chigong added to the ritual.They obviously felt there was something wrong or even haram in doing so.One of my most shariah-strict shuyukh,Sheikh Nuh, had used Chigong himself to recover from a post-hajj respiratory infection that had been resistant to all the standard treatments.He did warn us not to pay attention to the Aqida (beliefs)of Taoism but had no problem with their healing movements.And did the Prophet sal not advise us“Seek Ye wisdom even if you have to go to China.”The only reason the Muslims would go to China nowadays would be on a business venture lol.In all fairness, the wisdom traditions in China have more or less been erased by the rampant materialism there..We could,however, say the same,to a lessor degree,about the Wisdom traditions in Islam including Sufism.So what’s the problem of adding in some health-inducing Chigong movements?!The Buddha did say that”habit-energy” is one of the biggest impediments to Enlightenment .Another potential source of wisdom for the Muslims!

3)I go to visit a Sheikh who claims to have been and still be a disciple of Bawa Muhayyideen, one of my earliest sheikhs.I can feel the ‘Bawa hal'(powerful energy force) coming through him but all he talks about to his audience and in his writings is about Shariah.When I confront him with the fact that his discourse sounds nothing like B awa’s he pridefully responds”Excuse-me!” obviously irritated by my statement.He then goes on to say” You have to adjust the talk to the audience” -a plausible explanation but completely unconvincing.Something else is going on here.You see there was a serious problem with the teachings of Bawa which only looked at the inner process and didn’t seem to be concerned about the outer practices of Islam.A serious problem-ironically the opposite one to the one we are addressing here which is the overemphasis on the external.But the sheikh didn’t seem to want to address that.Instead,he seems to have gone into denial- a common ploy in a state of cognitive dissonance but a mistake nevertheless.

So what is going on here?! Why are the internal processes of the Islamic practice being given so little importance and so much energy is devoted to the outer sciences.Where is the Islam of the Middle Ages when Muslims preserved the science of the Greeks in medicine and philosophy and translated their texts into Arabic thus preserving the knowledge?Where is the Islam of the Ottomans where people of all the nations and religious affiliations were able to use their talents for the futherance of the needs of the people?Where is the Islam of the great Sufis like Jellalludin Rumi and Ibn Arabi and Fariduddin Attar. Mostly gone! Instead, we have narrow-mindedness ,rigidity,obsessive rule-following,”cook-book” religion .I call this  process the “Talibanization” of our religion.Follow the rule-book closely and all will be well. Clearly it is not working!

If we go further still, in terms of psychological and sociological analysis,we will see that contemporary Muslims are often more like the Quraysh than like the Sahhabba. Shocking,yes!The Quraysh are the foils for the Muslims-showing them how not to be and yet they have become like them.The Sahhabbas, on the other hand, had to be open-minded people.They adapted a system of thought and behaviour that was radically different from that in which they had been raised.Their lives were turned upside-down both conceptually and concretely and yet they accepted it enthusiastically.Admittedly they had an excellent teacher but that is another matter.Many of their Qurayshi cohorts rejected that same teacher in no uncertain terms as we know from studying the seerat of the Prophet.The Sahhabbas heard the Truth and followed it regardless of the risks involved.Can contemporary Muslims say the same?

Then to continue our historical analogies there was Jesus a.s. and the Pharisees, the believers in the letter of the law but not the spirit..Unlike the Qurash ,they had a proper legal code,a proper shariah.But they misapplied it by losing its life-force. Are contemporary Muslims not somewhat similar to these Jewish Pharisees? Can they hear the Truth beyond  the texts as the apostles of Jesus a.s. had to do? Or are they more like the Pharissees who got stuck on a literalist view of the Revelation?

Now the so-called practical people amongst you, unsatisfied by just being conscious of the problem,will ask what to do to change this.Believe me,it is no easy matter.I have been struggling with this issue for decades and the situation seems to be getting worse rather than better!The simple answer is that we need to bring back and support and disseminate the teachings of the authentic uncorrupted Sufis.But as soon as we try doing this we come up against the defenses.”This is shirk”. This is bida.This is kujfr” the opponents will exclaim.Answering their protestations is usually of no avail.The opponents are”deaf,dumb and blind” as the Quran describes unbelievers of all sorts.Another possible venue for development is learning about psychology and Comparative Religion,something I consider vital for my own students.Both of those disciplines point the way to interiority and away from literalism.Both,understood properly, can have salutary effects on the soul Otherwise,if we continue on the same path,a calamity,an Apocalypse, is certainly on the way.Nothing less seems able to shift peoples’ consciousness.In the meantime it is incumbent on us to try. our best to warn people.That is the purpose of this writing.May Allah give us tawfiq in these efforts,Salaams,Joel Ibrahim Kreps