Going Deeper Parts I and II

Part I: From Top Kapi to Topbas

We spent the snowy morning exploring the Top Kapi Place, the main residence of the Ottoman Sultans between 1465 and 1856. There we discovered the many treasures and sacred objects jealously guarded and carefully preserved. It was thrilling to view such items as the, alleged, swords of the Prophet and his companions and the staff of Moses.

But even more thrilling were the treasures of the heart uncovered at Ustadh Osman Nuri Topbas' Sufi Centre. And although, unlike at Top Kapi palace, photography is permitted at the centre, the treasures there are equally elusive and difficult to capture. I didn't take photos at the Sufi centre, but it's riches are indelibly imprinted on my heart.


Sufism, or "tasawwuf", is known as the "mystical" discipline of Islam, intended to assist the believer toward Ihsan or "the internalisation of faith" as Sheikh Osman describes it. Sufic origins can be traced back to Hasan-al-Basri in the seventh century, though Sheikh Osman considers the prophet Mohammad's life, and all the prophet's lives, to have been sufic in in practice. While the term tasawwuf was not used among the prophet and his companions, nor was the word "fiqh". Fiqh was a discipline developed later as a methodology by which law could be extracted from the Islamic sources, now that the prophet was not available to legislate directly to the Muslims. Likewise, sufis maintain that tasawwuf is a discipline developed in order to develop the inner states that were formerly accessible through the direct presence of the prophet himself.

The Naqshbandi order, to which Sheikh Osman is affiliated, is one of the more conservative orders, preferring to chant the silent "thikr" (remembrance) than to chant aloud in group, to whirl or to dance. Naqshbandis claim to adhere the closest to orthodox Islam of all the orders, upholding Rumi's claim "I have one foot in the Shariah, and with the other I traverse the world". Sheikh Osman Nuri Topbas believes that the essence of Islam is "To love God and to serve the creation of God."

When I returned to the institute two days later and met with Sheikh Osman's second-in-charge, Abdullah Sert Hoca, I heard this principle expanded on. Our hearts should be for Allah, said Sheikh Abdullah, and our body for serving humanity. We should worship Allah as if we are the only one worshipping Him. And we should help humanity as if we are the only one helping.

Classically, tasawwuf has been very well-tolerated within Islam, more so in many cases than the mystical traditions of other faiths, although it has been grappled with over the centuries. It has been reformed both from within, most famously by the great Sheikh al-Gazzali, and from without, by the great Sheikh ibn Taymiyyah. But even ibn Taymiyyah never completely rejected sufism. He merely took exception to some of it's more unorthodox manifestations. Even he, one of sufism's harshest critics, considered sufic practices which fell within the scope of Qur'an and Sunnah, to be acceptable.

In recent times regarding sufism, however, it seems that the baby has been thrown out with the bath water, so to speak. This phenomena may originate from the "Wahhabiyyah" reform movement that took place as part of the establishment of modern Saudi Arabia. In "cleansing" the region of deviant religious practices, it seems that ibn Saud and his partner, Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab, whose religious ideology supported the new regime, may have gone to extremes. Upon the discovery of oil in the region, the Saudis were able to export their ideology, their books and their imams, far and wide.

To me this is a tragedy, as I perceive tasawwuf to be the heart, or very essence, of Islam. As Sheikh Osman asserts, Sufism is like the lactose in milk and if you take away the essence, you are only left with the shape. We must follow the law, he said, but we must fill in these shapes with spirituality. We do not throw away hadith science, for example, because of the existence of aberrant practices, such as fabrication. Similarly, we should not dispense with the Islamic science of the heart just because some have deviated and gone to extremes.

The reasons for, and the effects of, the absence of Sufism, or the path of the heart, in certain Islamic quarters are something fascinating to me and I strongly feel that this will be a focus for my future studies. It is interesting to note that there currently appears to be a revival of the spiritual in Islam even among Saudi sheikhs. Not only sufi groups but organisations such as Tablighi Jamaat are concerned with reviving individual development and spirituality among Muslims.


With Ataturk's 1925 enforcement of a radical secularization program in Turkey, sufism was banned, seen as a threat to secular Turkey. Dervish meetings, though outlawed, took place in secret. Whirling Dervishes are allowed to meet again now, but their practice must be performance-oriented, not for worship. Though not engaged in any practices such as whirling and loud thikr, the Naqshbandi order was also banned as part of Ataturk's 1925 secularization policy.

Obviously, with the pendulum having swung so far into the extremes of secularism, any Islamist contenders would have been forced to moderate in order to enter the Turkish political race. Indeed, staunch secularists remain concerned about the AK Party, the conservative liberal Islamist party that has been in power for ten years, and has enabled dramatic economic reform. One wonders whether it is also the presence of Sufism, widespread all though for many decades somewhat "underground" which has helped to facilitate moderacy and democracy in Turkey. A provincial AK Party member whom I met in Istanbul actually revealed to me that he was himself Naqshbandi.


Sheikh Osman Nuri Topbas' remarks regarding the maqasid al-Shariah and the Islamic state are reflected on along with Professor Kamali's thoughts on the topic at Appendix III.

Resources:

http://www.turkey-now.org/
http://www.philtar.ac.uk/


Part II
Practically Religious: Istanbul's Muftis and the Muslim Community of Istanbul

The ornate ante room at Suleymaniyeh Masjid in Istanbul, which once served as the Ottoman Sultan’s receiving room, now houses the office of Vice Mufti Sabri Demir. A diminutive man, clean shaven and dressed in shirt and trousers, he belied the stereotype of statuesque, hirsute and turbaned Islamic religious officials in flowing robes.

The role of Mufti was originally developed in the Ottoman period: the Sultan would consult him regarding religious matters. In Turkey today, every city has a mufti. Istanbul has a Grand Mufti. The government pays the muftis, but Vice Mufti Sabri Demir says that the muftis have religious freedom and are not controlled by the government. This is contrary to what we heard from journalist Kerim Balci, who informed us that there is a government organization called Diyanet which directly controls Turkish mosques, imams and even sermons. The mufti says that there was a time when the khutbas came directly from Ankara, but not anymore.

The office of mufti in Istanbul may not be a political one, but nonetheless serves a very practical role in the community. Due to the large number of minute matters of legislation is Islam, Muslims always have a lot of questions. Back in Australia I have noticed that, although local imams are usually accessible by telephone, there is sometimes a reluctance amongst Muslims to go to their imams with questions of fiqh, whether it is because there is a lack of confidence in the imams’ knowledge and qualifications, or whether it is simply more convenient to go to a “fast fatwa” style website.

The least of the problems I see with this approach is that the fatawa distributed on these sites are often culture-specific, and are in answer to a particular individual’s question and context. Secondly, the agenda and intentions behind the website may be unknown, the information unsound. Even worse, some inquiring Muslims, particularly new converts, may take their religious rulings from unqualified peers among them.

Surah an-Nahl instructs us thus: "O people, ask the people of knowledge if you do not know."

And from hadith, a stark prediction of our time:

Allah will not raise up knowledge by erasing it from the slaves (hearts), but He will raise up knowledge by bringing death to the scholars (when their appointed terms expire). When He has not left a scholar, people will then appoint ignorant leaders (or false scholars), and will ask them and they will give Fatwa (religious decrees) without knowledge, and will thus be misguided and also a source for misguidance.[Al-Bukhari, Ahmad & ibn Majah].

What impressed me about the services offered by the muftis here, was that they have a team available to answer religious questions and for counsel on various matters, both at the Suleymaniyeh centre and via a telephone service. There is even a female Vice Mufti available for the women. I think it is a great idea that religious advice can be accessed at a central, accessible source, administrated by local Muslim scholars of proper qualification.