The Albaani Site

As you must have heard by now, Abu Talhah Daawood ibn Ronald Burbank, passed away in an accident in Jeddah along with his wife today.  It is truly distressing news, and one can only take comfort in the fact that they were on their way to perform Hajj, were in ihraam and that they died in a fire, one who does so being regarded as having died the death of a martyr, and one who dies in ihraam is raised in ihraam, saying the talbiyyah.  His sons were able to leave the vehicle and then the explosion caught Daawood and his wife, and as far as I have heard, the janaazah will be held in Makkah tomorrow.

May Allaah have mercy on them both, forgive us and them, accept their righteous deeds and forgive them their shortcomings, and grant them both a place in Firdous, wa sallallaahu alaa Muhammad, aameen.

There is a paragraph or two written about the accident in this article.

Here’s is today’s post, continuing from the first post.

Shaikh al-Albaani said, “There is a type which is less [severe] than it, and it is the person who has deviated in his conduct from that which the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was upon by burdening the soul with more than it is able to bear, in the name of refining it. And here we say: we, as Muslims, are not in any need whatsoever of a means which we–in order to nurture ourselves–take on through a way other than that of our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم.

How so when in the hadith which Imaam Ahmad reports in his Musnad and others in their collections from Jaabir ibn Abdullaah al-Ansaari, may Allaah the Most High be pleased with him, [there occurs that he] said that, ‘One day the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم saw a page in the hand of Umar ibn al-Khataab which he was reading. He said, ‘What is this, O Umar?’ He said, ‘This is a page a man from the Jews wrote for me.’ So he عليه الصلاة والسلام said, ‘O Son of al-Khattaab! Are you all puzzled/bewildered as the Jews and Christians were puzzled/bewildered?’ [Compiler’s note: it is as though the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم is saying, ‘Are you puzzled/bewilderd about the Truth and not sure that you are upon it such that you have to return to the narrations of the Jews?’] By the One in Whose Hands is the soul of Muhammad! If Moses were alive he would have no alternative but to follow me.’’

So if Moses, the one whom Allaah spoke to and to whom He revealed the Torah directly, met the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم it would not be possible for him to follow his Torah–rather he would have no choice but to follow our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم.

Thus: how is it with us today that in the name of Sufi Islaam we nurture ourselves through a certain method of burdening [ourselves] under the impression that it is a [way of] refining the soul that orders evil, [doing so by] being severe/harsh against it.

They have very strange and odd stories. One of them, and this was in the time of the early generations whose righteousness has been testified to, [and was a time when] Sufism had started to raise its horns, … as for that which followed later in the time of ash-Sha’raani–and what will make you understand what ash-Sha’raani was, then narrate [the reality about him] and there is no harm in doing so … amongst them would be someone who would wear the coarsest of garments and then immerse himself in the Tigris River on a bitterly cold day. Then he would stand on the roof of his house, the cold wind whipping his face. [When asked], ‘What is this?’ He replied, ‘Refining the soul.’

This is not a refining of the soul, it is punishing it.

And the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, in Truth–and we need to recognise the effect of this statement in our knowledge and Islamic [way of] life today–, ‘I have not left anything which will bring you closer to Allaah except that I have ordered you with it, and I have not left anything which will distance you from Allaah and bring you closer to the Fire except that I have forbidden you from it.’”