Ḥadīth and Sufism in Ethical Discourse : Exploring ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī’s Conception of Taḥbīb

The Ḥanbalī Sufi scholar ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī (d. 561/1166) argues in his works, Futūḥ al-Ghayb (“Revelations of the Unseen”) and al-Fatḥ al-Rabbānī (“The Sublime Revelation”), that a Sufi may enjoy certain worldly pleasures after struggling through various stages of asceticism (zuhd). This chapter discusses the scriptural foundation of this idea and how al-Jīlānī avoided the contradiction between the enjoyment of worldly pleasures and Sufi ethics, which is based on “self-purification.” We will analyse ḥadīth al-taḥbīb that translates as “I was made to love (ḥubbiba ilayya) from your world women and perfume, and I found the coolness of my eyes (qurratu ʿaynī) in performing the prayer,” and compare al-Jīlānī’s interpretation with that of other scholars in pre and post Jīlānī era.

Some ascetics and Sufis believed that marriage and family life are hindrances to achieving excellence in the path of Allāh, as evident from different quotations recorded in Sufi and zuhd literature. However, the majority refuted this idea pointing to the life of the Prophet and his encouragement for marital life. At the same time, the former opinion highlights the Prophet’s foresight of later generations becoming worse overtime, and in such a time, it will be better for a person to live isolated from people. Likewise, some scholars found two key terms in the ḥadīth, “ḥubbiba” and “dunyā” problematic, hence necessitating explanation. How could the Prophet say that he loves things from this world (dunyā), whilst he has described it as a damned place elsewhere. Abstaining from the dunyā has often been regarded as the fundamental principle of asceticism and Sufism. These contradictions have triggered various interpretations and have sometimes placed the Sufis in a defensive mode.

Furthermore, some have criticised Sufis for enjoying worldly pleasures, and even al-Jīlānī himself had faced such criticism. By intertwining ḥadīth with Sufi perspectives, al-Jilānī responded to this criticism and apparent contradictions. At the same time, he tried to establish that the Sufi concepts of fanāʾ and baqāʾ, which refer to the developed form of asceticism, are not contradictory to the Qurʾān and Sunna as some may have claimed. Indeed, the ḥadīth mentioned above is a piece of excellent scriptural evidence to substantiate his stance.

Other Information

Published in: Ḥadīth and Ethics through the Lens of Interdisciplinarity
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
See chapter on publisher's website: https://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004525931_008