Postby SultanOrder » Mon Sep 24, 2012 8:02 pm
I need to see one by one what people refer to as incorrect aqida.
Sufi's all over the world, are the predominant manhaj of the muslims for a great part of the world; which is based on firm religious principles in accordance with the four schools of thought and domininant aqida of the muslims. Sufism has gone under an unexpected blitzkrieg attack by those who claim to follow the "salaf al salihiin" more prodominately known as 'Salafis' or 'Wahabi's'. The strength, size, and speed of the attack is thanks to oil money in the gulf. In using the oil money a new sect was able to grow disproportionate to their monopoly of truth, religious knowledge, connection to the foundations of the deen, and merit. They were able to draw in many students from various parts of the world to their methodology and then fund their own schools and mosques in other parts of the world.They did this by attracting students with scholarships and cheap schooling.
In my view, this resurgence of Salafi or non-orthodox muslim ideology is going to peak out, and a counter more prepared "sufi" resurgence is going to gain back a lot of it's territory and win the next generation who will be disenfranchised with the salfi movement. Sufi's everywhere are doing this not by having access to great wealth but by producing quality scholars who have a strong connection with the muslim lands and the west, who are able to balance both worlds. This is a more attractive path to the majority of the muslims especially in the west, that are not looking for polarizing messages, of us and them, and of those who are disenfranchised by "Salafism". Also, they will be attracted to the strong foundation of islamic principle judicial knowledge, islamic scholarly, authenticity, history, and the spiritual framework that "sufism" has to offer. I see this resurgence everyday when I see the type of "sufi" scholars that are returning from their 5 or more years from muslim lands, and high quality scholars. As for the muslim world, "sufi's" are already curbing the salafi growth by waking up. They are becoming more accessible to the people through media. Also, they are able to counter the one-sided message of Salafis of attacking sufis by having the necessary arguments and dispersing these to the wider public.
In the West the rise of Salafism is due to the following
1. A weak Islamic Scholarly foundation in the west. (ignorant population)
2. Ignorance of Islam
3. Lots of students returning from Salafi schools in the middle east.
This gave them the opportunity to corner Islam in the west.
In the Middle East, I attribute it to.
1. A decreased scholarly foundation.
2. A susceptible population faced with an attack on Islam by secularists, and radicalized by Western encroachment later Western control over Muslim countries.
3. A population disproportionately young.
4. A mass campaign by Salafis due to oil money (funding students, and mosques) attacking the predominate sufi-leaning ignorant population.
5. A slow or weak response by Sufis to counter intellectually (not enough scholars, little access to the scholars) and funding.
All in all, I believe that the rise of Salafism will be checked, and Sufism will grow. Just remember people, what you consider "sufism", has been there for a very very long time; and by this I mean that it is scholarly and spiritually capable of weathering the worst environments. Also, as Salafism lives longer and longer, it will splinter, contradict, and collapse on itself at the scholarly level, and decline in the population.
