I start with the name of Allah, praise to Him.
Thereafter, Allah said in the Qur’an, in Surat-al An^am—,ayah 1
الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ وَجَعَلَ الظُّلُمَاتِ وَالنُّورَ ۖ
which means: Praise be to Allah, the One who created the skies and the earth and created the darkness and the light.
In this verse, Allah mentioned the skies and the earth. He mentioned all of them are created by Allah; they did not exist and Allah brought them from the state of non-existence into the state of existence. Likewise, everything other than Allah was not a thing, and then Allah created it. It was nothing, and then it existed, i.e., it became a thing.
The meaning of “thing” is “the existent”, i.e., what exists. So, the created thing which exists after a state of nonexistence–is called “shay’” in Arabic. Also, the creator who exists without a beginning and without an end–is called “shay’” because He exists. So the meaning of shay’ (thing), in this context, is what exists. Therefore, everything that exists–whether there was a beginning to its existence or not–is “a thing”, i.e., “shay’”.
In the aforementioned verse it is also mentioned that both the darkness and the light were created by Allah. Both did not exist in eternity, and both exist after a state of non existence, because Allah brought them from the state of non-existence into the state of existence. We have to believe in this, even though the mind cannot imagine a time when neither the darkness nor the light existed. Our Prophet, sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam, told us that neither the light nor the darkness was the first creation; rather, the first creation was the water. Allah did not create all the creations all at once, rather Allah created them one after the other, some before the others. The first of all the creations was the water, as was narrated by a continuous sahih chain of narrators from the Prophet. Abu Hurayrah once said to the Prophet, “O Prophet of Allah, when I see you I feel very delighted in my heart. Please tell me about everything.” Abu Hurayrah meant: “What is the origin of everything.” The Prophet answered him by saying, “Allah created everything from the water.” This hadith was narrated by Ibn Hibban. From this hadith we know Allah did not create anything before the water; neither the light nor the darkness nor other than that. The ^Arsh, (the Throne), the angels, and all the other creations–whether huge or small–were created after the water. They were brought from the state of non existence into the state of existence after the creation of the water.
As we know some of the creations are very huge and some are not. The ^Arsh is the largest creation of Allah. This earth compared to the ^Arsh is like a drop of water compared to the ocean. Even the skies–which are very vast–when compared to the ^Arsh are like a drop of water compared to the ocean, i.e., a very small thing compared to the ^Arsh. Also, some of the angels are very huge, and our Prophet told us about one of them. To cover the distance between the ear lobe and the shoulder, a fast bird would need to fly for seven hundred (700) years.
Allah created the ^Arsh after the water. The ^Arsh was created from that water, and huge angels were created after the water, from that water. So, the origin of all the creations is that water–without an intermediary stage between them–i.e., some of the creations were created directly from the water, and some of the creations were created from other creations, but originally, everything was that water. The first thing created by Allah, tabaraka wa ta^ala, was water. From this we know it is not permissible to say the Prophet is the first creation of Allah. Some people claim the Prophet said–in talking with a Companion named Jabir, “O Jabir, the first thing your Lord created was my light.” This is a lie; a fabricated hadith! The Prophet did not say that. It is not permissible to leave out that sahih hadith and lie to praise the Prophet. We praise the Prophet with which Allah praised the Prophet in the Qur’an, and we praise the Prophet with which the Prophet praised himself in the hadith. We do not lie to praise the Prophet. Some of the people who call for prayers (adhan); especially some of them in Damascus, Allepo, and Hims in Syria, like to say after the adhan: “As–salatu was-salamu ^alayka ya awwala khaliqillah” They mean the Prophet by their statements “O you, who was the first creation of Allah.” This is not lawful to say; it is prohibited to say the Prophet is the first creation. It is permissible to say, “O you, the one who is the best among the creation, the greatest,” or the like.
Also, their fabricated hadith claims the Prophet was created from light. This is another lie, because the Prophet is a human being like us. Prophet Muhammad was born from two parents–his mother and his father. He is a human being like us, but he is the best among the human beings; he is the best of all the creations. The bodies of the Prophets were created like our bodies, from the maniyy of their two parents–their fathers and their mothers– with the exceptions of Prophet ^Isa and Prophet Adam who were not born from a marriage. Some of the people who make songs to praise the Prophet say, “Allah created our Prophet from light.” This is a lie, and it is not permissible to say. Also, note, it was not narrated from the Prophet that even the souls of the Prophets were created from light; rather, we say the origin of the souls is the water that Allah created as the first of the creations.
One should not be a follower of a person who speaks without proofs for what he is saying, i.e., who dares to say anything without proof for what he is saying. The person should be on guard, because not everything the people say is truthful, even if it was said in a famous place. When that man claimed the Prophet was created from light he was among some people. One of them advised him not to say that, so the first he replied by saying, “I heard it from the Radio Station of Cairo. One of the people was singing, praising the Prophet, and he said it.” So what? Is everything which is said on the Radio Station of Cairo truthful? It is not! Even if there are scholars in Egypt, we know the scholars do not have the power there to change the unlawful things, and correct the wrong things. Therefore, the person cannot rely on everything he hears. Each person should be careful and not be like the one who collects the branches at night. One cannot see as well in the dark so he might not notice a serpent on the branches that would bite him. This warning means the person should follow the proof and not take everything he hears as a truthful thing.
We rely on the Book of Allah, the Sunnah of the Prophet, the Consensus of the top Islamic scholars,(ijma^) and the sayings of the mujtahids of the scholars who attained the level of ijtihad (like Shafi^iyy, Ahmad, Malik, Abu Hanifah. On the other hand, it is not the proper way to follow just anyone–who says whatever he likes–as it is not the proper way to take from everyone who sings in praising the Prophet. Even the waliyy, the one who attained a very high level of piety, who was a great scholar, might make a mistake. It is not permissible to say the waliyy does not commit any sin, and it is not permissible to say he does not commit any mistake.
The true waliyy says, “Follow me in the right path. When I commit a mistake, do not follow me in that.” The truthful waliyy says, “Advise me if you see me commit a mistake.” Ar Rifa^iyy, al Jilaniyy and the people like them did not say to the people, “Follow us in everything we do and everything we say;” even ^Umar and Abu Bakr did not say that.
^Umar, when he was a caliph, thought about something related to the mahr, (that which the husband gives to his wife.) ^Umar, the ruler at that time, once addressed the people by saying, “Do not pay high marriage dowery-payments (mahrs) to your wives, when you conduct the marriage contract. [i.e., do not agree on a high amount], because if I know about anyone who pays more than 400 dirhams to his wife as a mahr, I will take the extra amount (the amount which exceeds 400 dirhams) and put it in the treasury of the Muslims. ^Umar said that because he felt pity for the Muslims, but he was wrong.
A knowledgeable woman among them said to him, “You are not allowed to do that, O leader of the believers’, because Allah said in the Qur’an:
وَآتَيْتُمْ إِحْدَاهُنَّ قِنطَارًا فَلَا تَأْخُذُوا مِنْهُ شَيْئًا ۚ أَتَأْخُذُونَهُ بُهْتَانًا وَإِثْمًا مُّبِينًا
which means <if you give your wife–as a marriage payment (mahr)–a qintar of gold [which is a huge amount], it is not permissible for you to take any part of it without her permission>
One Qintar is 12,000 ounces of gold. If he gives her this, he is not allowed to take any piece of it back without her permission. So this woman told ^Umar you are not allowed to say this, because of that ayah in the Qur^an. ^Umar then knew he was wrong, so he went back and told the people; he told everyone:
فقال عمر كل أحد أفقه من عمر . وفي رواية قال : امرأة أصابت وأمير أخطأ والله المستعان
which means: “^Umar committed a mistake and this woman is right.”
This is the methodolgy of the pious people; This is how a waliyy truly acts. This is a sahih narration from ^Umar. ^Abdul Razzaq as San^aniyy, who was a famous scholar of hadith among the sheikhs of Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, narrated this from ^Umar. This hadith was also narrated by Abu Ya^la al Musiryy with a sahih chain of narrators to ^Umar. This is the methodology of the waliyy, because the Prophet said:
كل أحد يؤخذ من قوله ويرد إلا صاحب هذا القبر
which means: Every person says things which are not correct, except the Prophet of Allah. Every person, says things which you should not follow except a prophet of Allah. This is a sahih hadith narrated by at Tabaraniyy. This is why Imam Malik used to say, “Everyone among us– he meant the top scholars– commits mistakes, so everyone among us advises and corrects the others except the one who is in this grave,” and he pointed to the grave of the Prophet. He meant: When the Prophet said something, this is truthful and we have to follow what he said.”
Our sheikh said, ”Once a person came to me to discuss this issue with me.” That person claimed Allah created the Prophet from light. He had a book which he claimed was authored by a sheikh named Ahmad Ibn Idris. Our sheikh told him, “What you are saying is not truthful; it is not permissible to attribute this to the Prophet.” So this man brought out his book, and told him,”Our sheikhs said so,” and this person claimed to be a Sufi among the followers of ad-Dandarawiyyah tariqah. So sheikh asked him, “Who do you mean when you say “our sheikhs”: ar-Rifa^iyy, al-jilaniyy,?” The man said, ”Ahmad Ibn Idris said that, and it is this book.” Sheikh told him, ”Even if it is truthful that he said this, who do you believe has a higher rank: ^Umar or this sheikh?” So that man said, “Of course, our master ^Umar.” Our sheikh told him, “^Umar committed a mistake. So do you claim that Ahmad Ibn Idris would not commit any mistake?” He did not accept; he was stubborn about this issue.
The one who says “I will follow my sheikh even if he says what is opposite to what is in the Qur’an or to the sayings of the Prophet is not following a path to success. This is the way of stubbornness, and this leads the person to destruction. If one follows this way, then the swindlers among the people would spread anything they want to spread among the nation of the Prophet.
The way of success (Sabilul-najaat) is for the person to follow the Qur’an, the sunnah, and the Imams of guidance like ash-Shafi^iyy, abu Hanifah, Malik, Ahmad, Ar-Rifa^iyy, al-jilaniiy, al-junayd al-baghdadiyy. These are the imams of guidance (A’immaatul huda). These people were not with those contradicting the rules of the religion, even if the one saying it was very famous.
Once al-Hallaj, (who was al-Husain, the son of Mansur), came to al-Junayd to ask him about something, Al-Junayd did not answer because he knew Al-Hallaj was a swindler. Al-Junayd told Al-Hallaj, “you have opened a hole in what pertains to the rules of the Religion and this hole can only be filled by your head.” Al-Junayd meant Al-Hallaj would be killed in the future because he was going the ways of misguidance, i.e., against the sayings of the Prophet. Then Junayd died, and after nine (9) years Al-Hallaj was killed…just as Al-Junayd had said. By the orders of the head of the judges of Baghdad, Abu ^Umar Al-Malikiyy (who was a very famous judge), Al-Hallaj was killed for opposing the rules of the Religion.
An incident took place. One of the followers of Al-Hallaj always carried a leather bag around his neck. Some people started wondering why this person always carried this bag on his neck, so they opened this bag and looked for what was inside. They found a paper with writing on it. It said: “From ar-Rahman ar-Rahim to so and so.” Al-Hallaj wrote a letter to that person and named himself ar-Rahman ar-Rahim i.e., Al-Hallaj claimed the status of Godhood–so they took this person to the judge. The judge asked this man: “From where did you get this letter?” He said “Al-Hallaj sent it to me.” They brought Al-Hallaj and asked him, “Did you write that? Is this your handwriting?” Al-Hallaj said, “Yes, this is mine.” They said “How do you call yourself that? Al-Hallaj said: This is a special terminology for us, the Sufis.” They asked him, “Do the other Sufis agree with you on that?” Although this was said to embarrass Al-Hallaj in that matter–because they knew this was against the rules of the Religion– Al-Hallaj, said “Yes”, and he named three people for them. So the judge called those three. He asked the first one, “What do you say about the one who calls himself ar-Rahman ar-Rahim?” The first Sufi answered, “This is a blasphemer; the judge orders him killed.” They left him and then asked the second one. The second answered, “This person must be asked to repent; this is not lawful.” They left the second Sufi also. Then they asked the third and he agreed with Al-Hallaj –so he committed blasphemy also.
Then all the scholars together agreed the person who does this has to be killed, so they said both of those men needed to be killed. The people of the government at that time kicked both of them. After Al-Hallaj was killed, they burned his body and threw the ashes in the river of Dijlah, in Baghdad.[1] This was to emphasize how bad what he did was, so no one would dare to claim in the future something similar to what Al-Hallaj claimed. In summary, it is not permissible to follow anyone who says something which contradicts the rules of the Religion, and this is what the Imams of guidance said. Ar-rifa^iyy said:
which means: Do not object to the people known as pious ones (the Sufis) as far as they are adhering to the rules of the Religion, but if they do something or say something which does not comply with the rules of the Religion, then be with the Religion. Take the side of the Religion, and do not follow them in that.
This is the way of the Imams of guidance. I asked Allah tabaraka wa ta^ala to make us follow these Imams of guidance, and to make our ending a good ending, and to admit us to the high ranks in Paradise.
And Allah knows best.
[1] In a reference to Al-Hallaj in another article, it said Al-Hallaj was beheaded.