Could you please tell me the concept of “tasawwur-e-shaikh” (remembering your murshid) in sulook, what it means and is it still practiced among soofia of Deoband? (2)Some of the wrong statements uttered by some sufia-e-kiraam (RAHIMAHUMULLAH) like Hussain Mansoor Hallaj (RA) and also by Hassan Basari (RA) are because of a state of mind called “ghalba-e-haal”, what I would like to ask is, did the Ambiya (AS) or the Sahaaba (RZ) also said some wrong statements in ghalba-e-haal or is it proven that the concept of ghalba-e-haal was present at the time of the Prophet (SAWS). (U.S.A)
In ‘Tasawwuf’ there are different ways and methods that are adopted to acquire concentration of mind and heart from everything to only Allah. There are many exercises regarding this, one of them is to try to make someone concentrate on just one object. And then when the person is seemed to have acquired perfection to some extent in this the object is removed and the concentration is focused towards Allah. There are different methods in this, for example, to try to listen to the voices of one’s mind than to think about it, to try to focus on a dot without blinking an eye, if a person has something that he loves it becomes easier to create concentration. Some time ago people used to say that people should concentrate on their spiritual guide because the next level was to concentrate on Allah. But for sometime this practice has been forsaken because of the fact that it creates a lot of misunderstanding. If somebody wants to do this individually then there would be exceptions. But in general, this would not be allowed.
Sometimes humans become overpowered by their conditions and because of that they end up doing things or saying things like this. During the time of the prophet peace be upon him his companions have also done things like this, the prophet peace be upon him during the Battle of badr said to Allah that if you destroy this group then you shall never be worshiped. It is obvious that the statement was because of overpowering of the conditions at the time on him. It doesn’t mean that everything said under these conditions ought to be right or appropriate sometimes they are and sometimes they aren’t. Under these conditions at person is excused.
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