Abuz Zubair
28th April 2004, 02:11 PM
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IslamicAwakening.Com Discussion Board: Islaam in general: Topics started in July 2000: Keller's Deception
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By Abu Amatullah Tamim on Friday, September 08, 2000 - 03:26 am: Edit
By Abu Amatullah Tamim on Monday, July 31, 2000 - 03:24 pm:
Bismillahir RaHmaanir RaHeem
as-Salaamu`alaikum wa raHmatullahi wa barakaatuh
Beloved brothers and sisters, please allow me to share with you a recent encounter I experienced regarding seeking Islaamic knowledge.
Like most of you, I, myself am trying to gain knowledge in the basics of our noble deen, may Allah ta`ala give us the success to attain and absorb the beneficial knowledge with Ikhlaas and to act upon it throughout our life until we meet
our Lord, Most High. Ameen. As our noble prophet (saws) told us in authentic hadeeth narrated in Sunan at-Tirmidhi:
"The two feet of the servent will not move until he is asked about five matters, (one pertaining to this email is) about his knowledge and what he did with it......"
And the beloved Prophet Muhammad (saws) also said, "Whoever treads a path seeking knowledge, Allah will make easy for him the path to Paradise" (Ibn Majah) May Allah make us amongst those who seek this "knowledge"..ameen.
We all know how great of a responsibility having knowledge is, because we will be asked about what knowledge we sought (Quran/Sunnah or otherwise), what reason did we seek it, whether or not we acted upon it and spread it to others close to us. These are some of the few responsibilities
that knowledge carries, may Allah keep us mindful of them. Ameen.
So this knowledge that we are obligated and/or encouraged to seek is none other than the Qur`an and Sunnah. For us youth in America, who are eager to seek this knowledge, we seek it through the du`aat (callers to Islaam, Students of
knowledge) that are close to us or those whom we hear about. However, it seems that the banner of Qur`an and Sunnah is being carried by everyone, even those who may reject the hadeeth (smile).
The reason I shared this little introduction is because I wish to share my experience with you regarding what I have mentioned above. Recently I was in the Northern Virginia area for two weeks, and during this time, I was notified by
my cousins that Noah Ha Mim Keller had come to the U.S. and was having some lectures. This news interested me to say the least because we have all come across the translation that Noah Keller has completed entitled "Reliance of the
Traveler" which is Fiqh Manual of the Shafi`i madhab, that is excluding the commentaries by Noah Keller in his translation of the book.
Anyway, since I had always read and heard that Noah Keller calls musilms to the Qur`an and Sunnah, then why not go and see what Noah Keller was teaching. The following account is what I observed when I arrived at the place where the lectures were being delivered.
When I arrived there, the students (15-20 men, 10-15women) were waiting around for the next session, so I waited until Ha Mim Keller came in. All of the sudden as he was walking in the room, everyone jumped out of their positions off the floor and stood straight up, so I said SubhanAllah to myself, being amazed about this action when the prophet (saws) clearly ordered the companions not to stand for him when he entered upon them in their gatherings.
So then Keller began speaking so lightly that it was hard to hear what he was saying. He was reading from a booklet entitled "Murajat-Tasawuf" by Ibn Ajeeba. Keller started by talking about dhikr and its importance to the heart, and mentioned the verse "verily in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find tranquility".
I started to ponder why he is not teaching Qur`an and ahadeeth instead of reading from this strange book that is about Tasawuf.
Then he starting quoting Mohiudeen Ibn Arabi and referred to him as "Shaikhul Akbar" (keep in mind that the scholars of Ahlal sunnah wal Jammah has considered Ibn Arabi outside the fold of Islaam and Imam Dhahabi said, "if what he says is not kufr then i don't know what is")
Then he said "our scholars have mentioned that 10 athkar have been made obligatory on every human being in his life time" (Anyone know of a ayah or Hadeeth to confirm this statement? He certainly did not provide one.
Then he mentioned that to understand "la illaha illallah" you have to step out and turn your face to Allah and turn your back to creation, once you come ONE with La illaha illallah then if you come back safe from this stage then you turn to the creation and fulfill Muhammadur Rasoolilah... (if you are asking yourself what is he talking about, this normal sufi rhetoric and philosophy from what I have read on tasawuf and sufism)
Basically the point Keller was making (which was also the point of the book he was reading from) is that nothing in reality exists, only Allah is the true Existence, this is Wahdatul Wujood whch Ibn Arabi introduced, which is absolute Kufr. If you read some of the passages from Fusoos al Hekam or Futoohatal Mekkayah from Ibn Arabi you will understand how extreme his views were. For instance he exhorted his followers his followers in his poetry to pray to themselves and not to anything else outside themselves because he believed that God was inside man. (Vol. 2 pg 64,
Futoohat al Mecceyah) and Yet Keller refers to this ibn Arabi as "shaikhal Akbar"..The greatest shaikh..
Being absolutely shocked at what I was hearing and observing, I left to do a little bit more research to see what the beliefs of Noah Keller's own sufi Tareeqa is. Noah Keller informed us that he follows the Shaathili sufi Tareeqa, so I tried to investigate who started that tareeqa
and what were some of their beliefs. I found one very scary quote from the founder of his tareeqa (As-Shaathili d.765) Ash-Sha`raanee reported that Shaathili said: "The Truth (Allah) said to me;
'O special One!...Nothing is like unto you, you are the essence of My Reality..." (Kashf, p.174, quoting Tabaqaat v.2, p.22) So you see they practice wahdatul Wujood, pure shirk.
I saw for myself the deception of this person Noah Ha Mim Keller and his hiding behind the Quran and Sunnah claiming to follow the Sha`fi madhab. That is his call and what attracts people to him, but when you listen to what he teaches on tasawuf you would be shocked as I was..
So my dear brothers and sisters, please be cautious about this person and others like him who are outwardly claiming to follow the Qur`an and Sunnah and are using that as a veil for their deceptive agendas. This matter is so important
that it determines whether any of our deeds are accepted or not, because without a proper Aqeedah and Faith, one's deeds will be nullified through shirk, may Allah protect us all from that.ameen. It is of utmost importance that you inform all the youth and musilms about Noah Keller and
others like him who are calling people towards shirk and Tasawuf. As you all know, we are forbidden to keep beneficial knowledge of this religion to ourselves, because if we withhold such information, we may be responsible on the day of Judgement for those who are misled by such
callers to shirk as Noah Keller and others.
To end, I will leave with a beautiful du`aa the our beloved Messenger (sallal lahu alayhi wa salaam) taught us regarding being able to understand truth and following it and being able to distinguish falsehood as it trully is and staying away from it.
Allahuma arenal Haqqa Haqqan war zuqna ittiba`u, wa arenal batila batilaan war zuqna ijtinaba...Ameen.
O Allah, please give us the ability to observe truth as truth really is in Reality and make us follow it and give us the ability to see and understand falsehood as it trully is in reality and keep us away from it and let us reject it.
Ameen.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to email me.
Jazakum Allahu khairun.
Your brother in Islaam,
tamim popalzai
p.s. If you are listening to any lectures on audio or video tape and you hear the name Ahmad Zarooq come up, please keep his statements in mind and then ponder about theperson who would quote such a person.
Ahmad Zarooq (a sufi born in Morroco in 842 H). Ahmad Zarooq described himself in his poem Al-Manthoomah ala Safeenat An-Najaat, as someone who has been given the possession of the entire East and West, running the affairs, giving and taking souls, brining life to the dead hearts,: and more! After such description he offers his help by saying: :And in case you are in a state of distress, depression and adversity, then call (saying)"O Zarooq, and I will come in haste"(Kashf p.585)
By Anonymous on Friday, September 08, 2000 - 03:42 pm: Edit
By Muslim on Thursday, August 17, 2000 - 06:44 am:
A certain youth was always speaking against Sufis. One day Dho'l-Nun took the ring off his finger and handed it to him.
"Take this to the market and pawn it for a dinar," he said.
The young man took the ring to the market, but they would not take it for more than one dirham. The youth returned with the news.
"Now take it to the jewellers and see what they value it at," Dho'l-Nun told him.
The jeweller priced the ring at a thousand dinars.
"You know as much about Sufis," Dho'l-Nun said to the youth when he returned, "as those stallholders in the market know about this ring."
The youth repented and disbelieved in the Sufis no more.
--------------------------------------------------
Taken from Tadhkirat al-Auliya : 'Memorial of the Saints' By Farid al-Din Attar,
By Anonymous on Friday, September 08, 2000 - 03:43 pm: Edit
By Anonymous on Thursday, August 17, 2000 - 01:03 pm:
what,........? is this story , supposed to get us all thinking about suffis , and re examine them again , in the hope that we will think they are right ?
brother, you are the one who needs to examine, which path your following, ask yourself one question, am i following what the prophet (p.b.u.h) and the sahabaah, what they did in their life ? or following new invented , notions,
brother , make sure, of what you believe in is right, because when malik al mode , pulls the soul out there will be no more time to change. or to think .
may Allah guide us to the right path, and keep us guided until death .
IslamicAwakening.Com Discussion Board: Islaam in general: Topics started in July 2000: Keller's Deception
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Abu Amatullah Tamim on Friday, September 08, 2000 - 03:26 am: Edit
By Abu Amatullah Tamim on Monday, July 31, 2000 - 03:24 pm:
Bismillahir RaHmaanir RaHeem
as-Salaamu`alaikum wa raHmatullahi wa barakaatuh
Beloved brothers and sisters, please allow me to share with you a recent encounter I experienced regarding seeking Islaamic knowledge.
Like most of you, I, myself am trying to gain knowledge in the basics of our noble deen, may Allah ta`ala give us the success to attain and absorb the beneficial knowledge with Ikhlaas and to act upon it throughout our life until we meet
our Lord, Most High. Ameen. As our noble prophet (saws) told us in authentic hadeeth narrated in Sunan at-Tirmidhi:
"The two feet of the servent will not move until he is asked about five matters, (one pertaining to this email is) about his knowledge and what he did with it......"
And the beloved Prophet Muhammad (saws) also said, "Whoever treads a path seeking knowledge, Allah will make easy for him the path to Paradise" (Ibn Majah) May Allah make us amongst those who seek this "knowledge"..ameen.
We all know how great of a responsibility having knowledge is, because we will be asked about what knowledge we sought (Quran/Sunnah or otherwise), what reason did we seek it, whether or not we acted upon it and spread it to others close to us. These are some of the few responsibilities
that knowledge carries, may Allah keep us mindful of them. Ameen.
So this knowledge that we are obligated and/or encouraged to seek is none other than the Qur`an and Sunnah. For us youth in America, who are eager to seek this knowledge, we seek it through the du`aat (callers to Islaam, Students of
knowledge) that are close to us or those whom we hear about. However, it seems that the banner of Qur`an and Sunnah is being carried by everyone, even those who may reject the hadeeth (smile).
The reason I shared this little introduction is because I wish to share my experience with you regarding what I have mentioned above. Recently I was in the Northern Virginia area for two weeks, and during this time, I was notified by
my cousins that Noah Ha Mim Keller had come to the U.S. and was having some lectures. This news interested me to say the least because we have all come across the translation that Noah Keller has completed entitled "Reliance of the
Traveler" which is Fiqh Manual of the Shafi`i madhab, that is excluding the commentaries by Noah Keller in his translation of the book.
Anyway, since I had always read and heard that Noah Keller calls musilms to the Qur`an and Sunnah, then why not go and see what Noah Keller was teaching. The following account is what I observed when I arrived at the place where the lectures were being delivered.
When I arrived there, the students (15-20 men, 10-15women) were waiting around for the next session, so I waited until Ha Mim Keller came in. All of the sudden as he was walking in the room, everyone jumped out of their positions off the floor and stood straight up, so I said SubhanAllah to myself, being amazed about this action when the prophet (saws) clearly ordered the companions not to stand for him when he entered upon them in their gatherings.
So then Keller began speaking so lightly that it was hard to hear what he was saying. He was reading from a booklet entitled "Murajat-Tasawuf" by Ibn Ajeeba. Keller started by talking about dhikr and its importance to the heart, and mentioned the verse "verily in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find tranquility".
I started to ponder why he is not teaching Qur`an and ahadeeth instead of reading from this strange book that is about Tasawuf.
Then he starting quoting Mohiudeen Ibn Arabi and referred to him as "Shaikhul Akbar" (keep in mind that the scholars of Ahlal sunnah wal Jammah has considered Ibn Arabi outside the fold of Islaam and Imam Dhahabi said, "if what he says is not kufr then i don't know what is")
Then he said "our scholars have mentioned that 10 athkar have been made obligatory on every human being in his life time" (Anyone know of a ayah or Hadeeth to confirm this statement? He certainly did not provide one.
Then he mentioned that to understand "la illaha illallah" you have to step out and turn your face to Allah and turn your back to creation, once you come ONE with La illaha illallah then if you come back safe from this stage then you turn to the creation and fulfill Muhammadur Rasoolilah... (if you are asking yourself what is he talking about, this normal sufi rhetoric and philosophy from what I have read on tasawuf and sufism)
Basically the point Keller was making (which was also the point of the book he was reading from) is that nothing in reality exists, only Allah is the true Existence, this is Wahdatul Wujood whch Ibn Arabi introduced, which is absolute Kufr. If you read some of the passages from Fusoos al Hekam or Futoohatal Mekkayah from Ibn Arabi you will understand how extreme his views were. For instance he exhorted his followers his followers in his poetry to pray to themselves and not to anything else outside themselves because he believed that God was inside man. (Vol. 2 pg 64,
Futoohat al Mecceyah) and Yet Keller refers to this ibn Arabi as "shaikhal Akbar"..The greatest shaikh..
Being absolutely shocked at what I was hearing and observing, I left to do a little bit more research to see what the beliefs of Noah Keller's own sufi Tareeqa is. Noah Keller informed us that he follows the Shaathili sufi Tareeqa, so I tried to investigate who started that tareeqa
and what were some of their beliefs. I found one very scary quote from the founder of his tareeqa (As-Shaathili d.765) Ash-Sha`raanee reported that Shaathili said: "The Truth (Allah) said to me;
'O special One!...Nothing is like unto you, you are the essence of My Reality..." (Kashf, p.174, quoting Tabaqaat v.2, p.22) So you see they practice wahdatul Wujood, pure shirk.
I saw for myself the deception of this person Noah Ha Mim Keller and his hiding behind the Quran and Sunnah claiming to follow the Sha`fi madhab. That is his call and what attracts people to him, but when you listen to what he teaches on tasawuf you would be shocked as I was..
So my dear brothers and sisters, please be cautious about this person and others like him who are outwardly claiming to follow the Qur`an and Sunnah and are using that as a veil for their deceptive agendas. This matter is so important
that it determines whether any of our deeds are accepted or not, because without a proper Aqeedah and Faith, one's deeds will be nullified through shirk, may Allah protect us all from that.ameen. It is of utmost importance that you inform all the youth and musilms about Noah Keller and
others like him who are calling people towards shirk and Tasawuf. As you all know, we are forbidden to keep beneficial knowledge of this religion to ourselves, because if we withhold such information, we may be responsible on the day of Judgement for those who are misled by such
callers to shirk as Noah Keller and others.
To end, I will leave with a beautiful du`aa the our beloved Messenger (sallal lahu alayhi wa salaam) taught us regarding being able to understand truth and following it and being able to distinguish falsehood as it trully is and staying away from it.
Allahuma arenal Haqqa Haqqan war zuqna ittiba`u, wa arenal batila batilaan war zuqna ijtinaba...Ameen.
O Allah, please give us the ability to observe truth as truth really is in Reality and make us follow it and give us the ability to see and understand falsehood as it trully is in reality and keep us away from it and let us reject it.
Ameen.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to email me.
Jazakum Allahu khairun.
Your brother in Islaam,
tamim popalzai
p.s. If you are listening to any lectures on audio or video tape and you hear the name Ahmad Zarooq come up, please keep his statements in mind and then ponder about theperson who would quote such a person.
Ahmad Zarooq (a sufi born in Morroco in 842 H). Ahmad Zarooq described himself in his poem Al-Manthoomah ala Safeenat An-Najaat, as someone who has been given the possession of the entire East and West, running the affairs, giving and taking souls, brining life to the dead hearts,: and more! After such description he offers his help by saying: :And in case you are in a state of distress, depression and adversity, then call (saying)"O Zarooq, and I will come in haste"(Kashf p.585)
By Anonymous on Friday, September 08, 2000 - 03:42 pm: Edit
By Muslim on Thursday, August 17, 2000 - 06:44 am:
A certain youth was always speaking against Sufis. One day Dho'l-Nun took the ring off his finger and handed it to him.
"Take this to the market and pawn it for a dinar," he said.
The young man took the ring to the market, but they would not take it for more than one dirham. The youth returned with the news.
"Now take it to the jewellers and see what they value it at," Dho'l-Nun told him.
The jeweller priced the ring at a thousand dinars.
"You know as much about Sufis," Dho'l-Nun said to the youth when he returned, "as those stallholders in the market know about this ring."
The youth repented and disbelieved in the Sufis no more.
--------------------------------------------------
Taken from Tadhkirat al-Auliya : 'Memorial of the Saints' By Farid al-Din Attar,
By Anonymous on Friday, September 08, 2000 - 03:43 pm: Edit
By Anonymous on Thursday, August 17, 2000 - 01:03 pm:
what,........? is this story , supposed to get us all thinking about suffis , and re examine them again , in the hope that we will think they are right ?
brother, you are the one who needs to examine, which path your following, ask yourself one question, am i following what the prophet (p.b.u.h) and the sahabaah, what they did in their life ? or following new invented , notions,
brother , make sure, of what you believe in is right, because when malik al mode , pulls the soul out there will be no more time to change. or to think .
may Allah guide us to the right path, and keep us guided until death .