Persecution of Early Sunnis and Sufis

 

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

الصلاة والسلام عليك يا سيدى يا رسول الله

In the Name of Allah, the Rahman, the Merciful

Throughout the history of this Ummah we find that the eminent imams, saints and sages of Ahl-us-Sunnah were persecuted. The idea that orthodox Sunni Islam is the imperial version of the Faith crafted and approved by the Umayyads and thereafter the Abbasids is nothing but a myth. Consider the four mujtahid imams and jurists, Abu Hanifah, Malik bin Anas, ash-Shafi’i and Ahmad bin Hanbal, may Allah be pleased with them. When the tyrant Abbasid ruler al-Mansur sought to have Imam Abu Hanifah made the chief Qadi, he refused and was consequently imprisoned. The great Imam was mistreated and starved while in prison, where he tragically passed away. Imam Malik was flogged by al-Mansur’s governor in Medina for teaching that a divorce given under duress is null and void. It is said he was beaten so severely that his shoulders became permanently dislocated. Imam ash-Shafi’i was arrested in Yemen and falsely accused of abetting insurrectionists during the time of the Abbasid ruler Harun ar-Rashid. Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal was the most famous victim of the Mihnah, the Mu’tazilite inquisition that persecuted Sunni imams and scholars who refused to accept the heresy of the creation of the Quran. He was not only imprisoned for an extended period of time, during the period of the Abbasid ruler al-Ma’mun, but also flogged and beaten so severely that he would lose consciousness during the period of al-Mu’tasim. He was then banished from Baghdad by the next Abbasid ruler, al-Wathiq. Incidentally, the great mystic and ascetic Dhu un-Nun al-Misri, whose name was Thawban bin Ibrahim, was also persecuted during the Mihnah for refusing to assent to the Mu’tazilite heresy that the Quran is created. This demonstrates that the early Sufis were orthodox Sunni Muslims. Certainly, the heretical sects like the Mu’tazilah, the Khawarij, the Shi’ah and so many others failed to produce the saints, mystics and Sufis that are the fruit of Sunni orthodoxy. Jesus Christ famously said “for the tree is known by his fruit”. And what is the fruit of the tree of the Prophet Muhammad, sall Allahu alaihi wasallam, if not the Sahabah and thereafter this galaxy of Sufi saints? There was the controversial ascetic Ghulam Khalil, whose name was Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Ghalib al-Bahili, judged a liar and fabricator by the Muhaddithin. Abu Dawud as-Sijistani declared him the “Dajjal of Baghdad” (Sir A’lam an-Nubala, v.13, p.283). The rulers and judges of the time being under his influence, he had another Mihnah initiated in 264 H in which the Sufis were persecuted. Ghulam Khalil hated the Sufis of his time and accused them of heresy. About seventy eminent Sufis were persecuted under his inquisition, among them Abu ul-Husayn an-Nuri, al-Kharraz, Abu Hamzah, Sumnun and even Junayd al-Baghdadi.