THE TRAINING OF SELF (NAFS)

Prof. Dr. Mahmud Es'ad COSAN
translated from the book Islam, Tasavvuf, Hayat , Istanbul: Seha, 1996

Bismillâhir rahmânir rahîm.

Elhamdu lillâhi rabbil àlemîn... Hamdan kathîran tayyiban mubârakan fîhi alâ kullî hâlin wa fî kulli hîn... Was salâtu Was salâmu alâ sayyidinâ wa sanadinâ muhammadinil mustafâ wa alâ âlihî wa sahbihî wa men tabiahû bi-ihsânin ilâ yawmil jazâ... Emmâ ba'd.

In the name of Allah, the most compassionate, the most merciful.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters, may the peace, mercy and bounty of Allah be with you all. May He give you blessings and happiness both in this life and in the hereafter. May He honor you with His Beauty in His Paradise.

This world and life, these days and the living things are all ephemeral; not permanent or endless but short and limited, finite and temporary. The real life and the eternity are in the hereafter for which we are to be prepared.

This is the manner of thinking our faith advises us to embrace. It is the way our beloved Prophet SAS treated this life. He neither idolized and held fast to this mundane world nor did he dearly love and cultivate it. In fact, he recommended us to make all efforts to earn the love and consent of Allah. He himself lived his life contemplating about and longing for the life in the hereafter.

(Mâ lî wa lid dunyâ) "What do I have got to do with this [mundane] world? (Innemâ ana karâkibun istazalla tahta zillish-shajarah) I am only like a passerby [in this life] who takes a little rest in the shade of a tree." That is to say, "The tree is not the aim to get to, but it is just a tool in attaining the real goal."

Belonging to his Ummah, we must adjust our life to the same thinking and have to plan and organize it accordingly. That is why we try our best to abide this principle; we observe the worship, avoid sins and prohibitions. We believe that this is the true path to earn a good life in the hereafter.

Some follow this way of life well while some others indolently do it and sometimes end up with committing sins, going astray and failing to put up efforts to do good deeds.

Of course, all of our actions are recorded in our personal record-book by the angels (kirâmen kâtibîn) in the divine world, and we will be held accountable for them on the Day of Judgment.

(Famen ya'mel mithqàla dherratin khayran yarah. Wa men ya'mel mithqàla dherratin sharran yarah.) "And whoever has done an atom's weight of good will see it; while whoever has done an atom's weight of evil will see it."

In Tasawwuf the way to earn Allah's love and pleasure is called "taqwa" or "ihsân." It is called taqwa because it means avoiding sins and haraams and all the things that incur Allah's dislike and doing what pleases Him. In other words, a Muslim is to avoid sinful things and misconduct even if he may have strong urge to committing them, and he is supposed to keep away from them. On the other hand, he shall do good and benevolent deeds in spite of his reluctance. Taqwa means avoidance, abstinence and self protection in literal sense. That is why the Tasawwuf is being called the taqwa path.

So the crux of the matter is to have taqwa and to live the life with strict observance of it. But then here comes the conflict with self or ego (nafs). The nafs likes to commit sins and aspires haraams. It loves the self-indulgence, fun, sleep, and vacations. But it feels so lazy and evasive when it comes to doing good deeds.

Take an adolescent or a child for example: He would not pray unless his parents insist. He may even pretend he performs the prayers and lie about it. "I already prayed, Mom!" he may say, but he actually did not. Now what makes him behave so? It is because his nafs has not been trained yet. He may think praying is indeed something good for him, but he does not have as yet self-discipline to overcome his reluctance in performing prayers. Sinful deeds come as more enticing and attractive for someone at that age.

To earn Allah's love and consent, one has to learn how to go against the desires of his nafs. This is essentially the backbone of the Tasawwuf, the pivotal point of the "taqwa path." One has to overcome the desires of his nafs, so he can force his nafs to look for spiritual rewards in spite of its reluctance and to avoid the deeds that Allah dislikes and prohibits in spite of its eagerness.

The taqwa path, the method to train the self, is the central teaching of Islam and the core of the religion. It comes no surprising to me that those who do not comprehend what I am talking about tend to become contentious with this. It is because those who worship their egos (nufus) and enjoy self indulgence very much do not want to accept it. People who follow Satan cannot accept it, either. Yet, that is how the truth stands out.

So we have to find a straight path to organize and train ourselves which will help us control our nufus. We should be able to distinctively tell apart what is sin and what is not and teach ourselves how to avoid or otherwise follow them up.

A good dervish (mureed) wrote to me, whose name is with me, with all due respect and in earnest, "My dear Khawaja, I have failed to be a good student. I have a serious weakness in avoiding looking at haraams!" Well then, this is an extremely difficult training. He is a sincere mureed, knowing the fact that looking at haraam is a sin and yet failing to avoid it. Haraam is all over the place: it is on television, in the street, on the Internet, in magazines and newspaper and in all kinds of media. Everywhere is full of haraam, so it is not easy to avoid.

As a matter of fact, this is only a visual experience in committing sins. Likewise one could commit offenses with what he hears, what he says or what he desires. Say, he desires to eat something from the neighbor's orchard. His mouth gets watery; his appetite increases. He goes and steals some fruit. What happens here is that it is a simple failure of taking the nafs under control.

It is not halal: "Thou shall not steal!" Allah forbids stealing, yet he cannot help it! Committing an offense such as eating haraam strikes someone strangely enticing, attractive and appealing. Fruits in the neighbor's yard start to look so beautiful that eating them without their permission becomes almost unavoidable. We can think up and cite more examples for various circumstances. So it can be inferred at this point that one's nafs is like his most formidable enemy! Nafs, the very self, incurs the unwanted again by himself. It is like there is an insidious enemy inside working against him. it is like a spy made his way into a fortress and is trying to conquer it from the inside. Yes, that is why our beloved Prophet SAS said, "The most dangerous enemy is the nafs" because it inflicts the evil upon the Muslim.

Man thinks up and does whatever he wishes using his mind. Even rubbing a bank takes a lot of careful planning and mental activity. So, it is important to know where and how we use our mind. Therefore, the focal point of Islam, its very principle and essence, its backbone is Tasawwuf, the training of nafs. Nafs is to be trained, so that one can curbs his desires. Nafs is to be trained, so one can get rid of his evil habits and replace them with the good ones. Nafs is to be trained, so one will be beneficial to the society and become a decent and caring person.

Thus, the disapproval of Tasawwuf arises from being ignorant of the Holy Qur'an, the ahadith, and fiqh. You may object saying: "But, how about those who are professors at theology schools or who are scholars in Saudi Arabia? Still more, a scholar who wrote such and such books, a renowned author. They too, have objections to the Tasawwuf."

If you carefully analyze their point of view, you can see that they either are not well informed of Tasawwuf, so they unknowingly tend to look down upon and contend against it, or they observe people who sell themselves as righteous Sufis (mutasawwif) but actually far from it, thereby give negative impression about Tasawwuf and end up being critical of it.

We are, too, proponent of Tasawwuf and tariqa, but we are against those who poorly practice the Tasawwuf. You read the Qur'an and ahadith: Is drinking haraam? Yes, it is! One claims that he is a follower of a tariqa, yet he drinks wine. How could this discrepancy possibly be overlooked? If this misconduct goes without condemnation, where is the Muslim understanding of the true Islam? Of course we are, too, against a tariqa that allows or promotes drinking.

The president of Islamic affairs, the Grand Mufti, of Albania visited us once. He said, "40 percent of Albanians are members of Baktâshî tariqa, and they drink hard liquor." I had heard that also and read it on the papers. In our opinion, a tariqa that allows drinking is entirely unacceptable; it cannot be a tariqa! But they do claim to be a tariqa. Well then they are evidently off the track, pervert to say the least!

I know Hadji Baktâsh-i Velî, the founder of the Baktâshî tariqa. I wrote a dissertation on one of his works. He certainly opposes drinking. Here is what he said, "Suppose a well were contaminated with a droplet of liquor and people emptied the water in order to the clean the well. Then the grass throve at the place where the water was poured, and a lamb ate the grass. I would not eat the meat of that lamb." He would not eat the meat because the water of the well was adulterated with alcohol and used to grow grass, and the lamb ate the grass. Thus the meat would be contaminated with the smallest amount of liquor; hence, he refuses to eat the lamb's meat.

Now what does this indicate? I am aware that the example is a bit exaggerated, and yet in the literature it is an art. Occasionally something is deliberately overrated to draw people's attention. We know that the meat is not contaminated, nor is the grass, yet he makes a point to emphasize how bad drinking liquor is.

But we know for fact that Hadji Baktâsh-i Velî is squarely against drinking. Now where does it leave the Albanian men who drink liquor yet claim to follow the path of Hadji Baktâsh-i Velî? Apparently they are diverted from Baktâshî teachings. They have no right to claim that they follow the Baktâshî tariqa!

Let us suppose for a moment that Hadji Baktâsh-i Veli used to drink. He lived in a century that came seven hundred years after our beloved Prophet died. Our leader and role model is our Prophet Muhammad Mustafa SAS, and our book is the Qur'an. The Islamic code of law is based on our holy book and the ahadith. Therefore, actions or words of a person can not set an example for us, nor can it be cited as evidence in the religious matters. He who drinks liquor commits a sin on his account and can never set an example as such! We cannot say, "If he drinks, so can I."

There is a rule in Islamic jurisprudence about this: "Something that is intrinsically wrong shall not set a valid example to any other cases." We certainly can say, "Our Prophet did this in this manner, so can we." However, we may not say, "Abu Jahl did this in that manner, so will I." It is because he was a disbeliever. This is a rule set by Shariah, by the law, and it is conceivable and rational.

Thus, those who are critical of Tasawwuf are either uninformed about it, or they assume Tasawwuf is practiced only by those who in reality set a bad example with their misconduct. We, too, denounce them and are against malpractice of Tasawwuf. The true path as we believe is to earn Allah's pleasure, hold tight on His Qur'an, and strictly observe the sunnah of the Prophet.

We glare whomever diverts from Shariah. If renown man lets the opposite sexes intermingle in sitting and lets women kiss his hands saying "there is no harm in it," then we get angry at him and say, "come now you liar!"

If man is very decent but does not attend Friday prayers, then we would point him the verse the following verse. Almighty Allah says in His book

(Idhâ nûdiya lis-salâti min yawmil jumu'ati fas'aw ilâ dhikrillâh) "You who believe, when the call to prayer is announced on the day of Friday, hasten to remember God and close your business." If one disobeys the order of Allah, we do not approve him and take a stance against him. We denounce him right away and turn our backs to him since he disregards the word of Allah. If one does not pay attention to the food he eats as to whether it is halal or not, we frown upon that, too. We do not tolerate the utter violation of the orders of Allah even if the violator carries a turban on his head, wears a cloak on his back, and carries a walking stick in his hand. What one wears does not reflect his belief, but his actions do! If the way one lives his life conflict with the Shariah, then we change our attitude towards him. Thus, we actually are not in disagreement with those who criticize the people malpracticing Tasawwuf.

For instance, they portray Ibn Taymiyya as an opponent of Tasawwuf, but he himself is a mutasawwif, a disciple of Tasawwuf, and his book titled Tasawwuf According to Ibn Taymiyya was translated into Turkish. In that book he does not oppose the true Tasawwuf as we understand, but he disapproves what we already oppose.

Because of this mix-up, Abu Hasan Nadwi--may Allah give him a long life--says, "The term Tasawwuf has become a word being used both by righteous and sinful people. I wish we could name it differently, so the controversy due to misconception of it can be terminated." I agree with him. Here is the new name: "the taqwa path" or "the ihsân path."

We have explained taqwa; now what is ihsân? Our beloved Prophet SAS explained ihsân in one of his hadith: "Worship Allah sincerely, in earnest, passionately as if you see Him, as if He is facing you. Although you are unable to see Him, He sees you."

The process of "seeing" deserves attention. Allah has absolute power; He is omnipresent and He is perfectly capable of seeing all that occurs in the universe. He sees you, knows you inside out. So worship Him as though you see Him. Thus, Tasawwuf is being conscious of this fact and behaving and worshipping accordingly.

In another hadith our beloved Prophet says, "The highest rank of faith is believing in Allah and worshipping Him as if one can see Him" Obviously this hadith coincides with my definition of Tasawwuf. Perhaps we should resort to a court to set the records right in using the terminology on Tasawwuf!

Ihsân is our prime principle for our circle. That is, we try to serve Allah in sincerity with the awareness of the fact that Allah sees us in all times. Our beloved Prophet SAS says in a hadith, "A person does not commit a sin while he still has faith in his heart!" What happens, then? His faith leaves him at time of committing the sin, and the person does what is prohibited without faith. A murderer cannot commit homicide while he is still a believer. Likewise, a drunk couldn't have got drunk with iman. His iman leaves out, his brain stalls, his sight blurs, and he loses control of his heart before finally committing the sin. A thief does not and cannot steal while he is a believer! A true believer cannot do that! His iman leaves out, and so he becomes vulnerable. "I did not intend to commit it, but I couldn't prevent myself from doing that. It was not in my hands; I lost control of myself," says a person when pleading guilty.

In brief, the path we follow is ihsân path, as was known during the lifetime of our beloved Prophet, as explained in the Qur'an, and as the companion of the Prophet practiced after him. Our path is the servitude to Allah as if we see Him, though we cannot. Our path is the taqwa path for that matter. It is mentioned over one hundred times in the Qur'an, so our path is based on the Qur'an.

Also, our path is the path of taqwa. We aspire to be supporters and promoters of taqwa, and do everything within the limits of the Qur'an. Our path is the path of the Qur'an. And again, our path is the path of embracing the moral values that our beloved Prophet used to cherish. It is the path of following the Prophet in all aspects of life.

In conclusion, we can name our path with its characteristics: "the Tasawwuf path, the taqwa path, the ihsân path, the Qur'an path, the path of the Prophet, and the path of Paradise."

May Almighty Allah place us among those who study the truth of Islam, practice what they learn, live a fruitful life and arrive in the hereafter having earned His consent and love. Let us seek forgiveness for all of our shortcomings and offenses.

June 13, 1996 - Özelif / ANKARA