Shaykh Ibrahim was the best example of a Sufi according to the description “The Sufi is the son of his hour (ibn waqtihi).” He will respond to the needs of the time. At every moment he is dealing with the requirements of that moment. The Muslim who is greatest in understanding is he who submits to the rule of his hour. That is, he gives everything the position it requires in action and speech. He is a person moving with time in a circle. He does not attempt to stop time, not to become stagnant in it, nor to regress in it. His effort is aimed at continually moving forward. In the season of Ramadan he reads Qur’an and Hadith and presents their explanations. In the season of Hajj, he expounds the virtues of the Muslim pilgrimage. At the time of Mawlid, he recites the Prophet’s Sira or Biography. All of this behavior characterized the Sufism of Shaykh Ibrahim. It was based on action and practice, traveling all over the Muslim world, giving speeches, writing pamphlets. In every endeavor, his goal was to direct Muslims to the right path ( siratul mustaqim). Sickness did not bother him unless it halted his activity in behalf of spreading Islam. Indeed, his tasawwuf was not characterized by heedlessness and neglect ( ghafla). It was based on real Islam, mastering the self ( nafs ) and ruling over it with Qur’an and Sunnah. His Sufism was producing and working in various fields of life on the farms, and so forth. In a speech in the 1960s, Shaykh Ibrahim addressed a group of Muslim youth and said, “For the youth, I thank you all for your papers. And I am here to tell you to go ahead and be in the vanguard of things. Surely the future of every nation is based on its youth. But it is not based upon all of them, not upon every individual, but only on the intellectual ones, the educated ones with good character, good manners, and zeal. As for the youth lacking education and good character, he is like a seed unfertilized. So make every effort to seek and do your best to acquire more knowledge, not only Islamic knowledge, not only mathematics and its branches, but also be part of and cooperate with those whose zeal is to discover the unknown and unseen things of this world.” Throughout his life, Shaykh Ibrahim’s character was based on the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet, a fact verified by prominent Muslim leaders who knew him. For example, we note in the letter of Shaykh Muhammad al‑Hafiz al‑Tijani – the Egyptian who was known as the foremost man of Hadith in his age – the words:
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 10:10:00 +0000
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