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eating, celebrations and festivities held at the graves of popular
saints, invoking the Messenger of Allah believing that the
Messenger is Omnipresent and the like. 68
The Real Ikhtilaaf (Disagreement)
In reality, the Barelawis and the Deobandis differ more in practice
than in principle. This is apparent from books that have been
written by the Deobandis in order to bridge their differences with
the Barelawis. Most disagreements are either in finer details, or
whether those actions are for specific people or for all. A good
example is the issue of meditation (Muraqabah) and seeking
benefit from the graves. Even though, the two groups outwardly
oppose each other on this issue, the only difference is that the
Barelawis call towards and recommend visiting graves to derive
benefit from them for everyone, whilst the Deobandis make it
specific for a few. Therefore, the rift between the Deobandis and
the Barelawis is more of mutual prejudice, than of Aqeedah.
The Barelawis on their part have relied mostly on conspiracy
theories and misinterpretation in their Takfeer (declaring Kufr) of
the Deobandis. They created a lot of noise on Moulana Ahsan
Nanotwi’s statement, “And even if another Prophet arrived…”,
but this statement is not objectionable from the Sufi point of view.
It simply stems from the common belief of all the Sufis that
everything was created from the light of Muhammad , and that
he is the ‘Seal of Prophet hood’ from the very beginning.
Besides, ‘real Sufis’ know that since nothing exists other than
Allah, to believe in the real existence of Allah’s Messenger is
Shirk. This shows that the differences between these two Sufi
groups are superficial and based mostly upon party rivalry than
upon religion. The Sufis in general do not give Aqeedah, which is
the core of Islam, its due position. We shall elaborate further in
light of statements by Haji Imdadullah Muhajir Makki.
68 See Bahishti Zewar, Part 12, p.222, (Unity in Islam by Haji
Imdadullah).
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