God. Thus, he felt that the
shariah
and the
tariqa
were complementary to
one another and led to
haqiqa
. He believed that it was religion that guided
the spiritual journey from this material world to the celestial world. To
him, the
shariah
and
tariqa
were essential concomitants of the spiritual life:
the
shariah
was the body and the
tariqa
was the soul. Although the higher
stages in this journey can be made only by God’s grace, God’s grace can
only be received by obeying the
sunnah
laid down by the Prophet
Muhammad.
He condemned those misguided Sufis who believed that having achieved
the realization of God, they no longer needed to say their obligatory prayers.
The Shaykh made it clear that such was the path of Satan, who had refused
to prostrate himself before Adam. However, he thought that the true Sufi
who realized God was superior to a religious scholar who only had bookish
knowledge. As far as the worldly
ulama
were concerned, they had to be
shunned like the devil, for they had taken the place of the devil in misguiding
humanity.
Further, the Shaykh held that the disciples should single out the perfect
guide to help them along their spiritual path.The absence of a guide would
leave them directionless, and they would go astray. The spiritual journey
could not be undertaken without the guidance of an experienced teacher to
lead them along the path towards the realization of God.
Inspired by the ideas of Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi, Iraqi and Fariduddin
Attar, Shaykh Sharafuddin believed in
wahdat al wujud
. He said that the
tawhid
of the
tariqa
was the highest state of the pursuit of the truth.
2
To him
tawhid
or
wahdat al wujud
was the final stage in the Sufi’s journey to the
2
Manaqib ul Asfiya, pp. 336-337
Th e F i r d a u s i Or d e r 186
