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Vedantic schools. By that time, the Vedantic pantheism among the
Sufis had reached its zenith.”
This observation by S. R. Sharda is correct, because eastern
religions have a well-established and highly revered position for
mysticism and abstinence, and Sufi beliefs are amazingly similar
to them.
Sufi Masters like Ibn Arabee 49 , who is greatly revered by the
Deobandi scholars 50 , believed that every religion has an element of
truth in it. He considered the Pagan religions and idol-worshipers
as followers of the truth because in his view, everything is Allah
and since there is no difference between the Creator and the
created, the worship of the creation is worship of the Creator. His
belief as mentioned in al-Fatoohaatul-Makkiyah is: “The slave is the
Lord and the Lord is the slave, I wish that I knew which was the
49 Abu Bakr Muhyiddin Muhammad bin ‘Ali al-Tai, commonly
known as Ibn Arabee / Ibn ‘l-’Arabee (1165-1240), was born in
Murcia (Spain) and died in Damascus. He was one of the leading
authorities on Sufism, who is respected by Sufis around the
world.
50 The scholars of the school of Deoband consider Ibn Arabee to be
one of ‘the great Soofi saints’ and refer to him, Ash-Shaikh al-Akbar
(The Greatest Shaikh). A Question was put to Mufti Abdur Rahim
Lajpuri, ‘Some Moulvis (religious leaders) allege that Moulana
Rasheed Ahmad Gangohi, Moulana Muhammad Qasim Nanotwi,
Moulana Khalil Ahmad Ambethvi, Moulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi and
other religious divines are infidels and apostates, faithless and
heretic, accursed and denizens of Hell etc. Please comment.
Answer: “The unholy endeavor of vilifying and maligning men...
is not something new”. Mufti Lajpuri then gives the examples of
Prophets, the Sahabah, the scholars, the pious Imams and the
Soofi saints who have suffered likewise. He then states, “(Even)
the mystical statements of Ba Yazid of Bastami were adjudged to
be inconsistent with the Sharee’ah... About the most great Shaikh
Muhiyyud-Din Ibn Arabee it was said, ‘His unbelief (Kufr) is
worse than the unbelief of the Jews and the Christians’.” [Fatawa
Rahimiyyah (English trans.) vol.1, p.2-4]
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