SPIRITUAL PATH, SPIRITUAL REALITY SPIRITUAL PATH, SPIRITUAL REALITY Selected Writings of Shaykh Yusuf of Macassar EDITORS YOUSUF DADOO AND AUWAIS RAFUDEEN First published 2023 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 University of South Africa The right of the contributors to be identified as author(s) of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. 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Print edition not for sale in Africa British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 9781032433929 (hbk) ISBN: 9781032433936 (pbk) ISBN: 9781003367086 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003367086 Typeset in Times New Roman by UNISA Press, South Africa CONTENTS Acknowledgements vii Contributors viii Foreword ix 1 Introduction: The worldview of Shaykh Yusuf 1 Auwais Rafudeen Translations 2 Providential gift: A breeze from Ceylon (Al Nafḥat al-Ṣaylānīyyah fi 23 l-Minḥat al- Raḥmānīyyah) Yousuf Dadoo 3 The essence of secrets (Zubdat al-Asrār) 46 Suleman Dangor 4 Consolation for the eyes (Qurrat al-‘Ayn) 70 Yousuf Dadoo 5 Conditions of the verified gnostic (Shurūṭ al-‘Ārif al-Muḥaqqiq) 81 Suleman Dangor 6 The crown of secrets regarding gnostic realisation (Tāj al-Asrār fī taḥqīq 87 Mashārib al-‘Ārifīn) Suleman Dangor 7 A gift regarding the virtues of remembrance (Tuḥfat al-Amr fī Faḍīlat al- 97 Dhikr) Suleman Dangor 8 The goals of the spiritual wayfarers (Maṭālib al-Sālikīn) 101 Suleman Dangor 9 The secret of secrets (Sirr al-Asrār) 106 Suleman Dangor 10 The gift of goodness to the people of innermost secrets (Tuḥfat al-Abrār 120 li Ahl al-Asrār) Ebrahiem Moos 11 The method of remembering God (Kayfīyyat al-Dhikr) 124 Ebrahiem Moos 12 A saving bequest (Waṣīyyah Munjīyyah) 126 Ebrahiem Moos v CONTENTS 13 The sequence of remembering God (Tartīb al-Dhikr) 131 Yousuf Dadoo and Auwais Rafudeen 14 The essential, indispensable existence (Wājib al-Wujūd) 141 Yousuf Dadoo 15 The specification of remembering God (Ikhtiṣāṣ al-Dhikr) 144 Yousuf Dadoo and Auwais Rafudeen 16 The meaning of existence (Ma‘nā al-Wujūd) 147 Yousuf Dadoo and Auwais Rafudeen 17 The meaning of the phrase “There is no god but God” (Ma‘nā Qaul 155 Lā ilāha illa llāh) Yousuf Dadoo and Auwais Rafudeen 18 Twenty attributes (Ishrīn Ṣifah) 157 Yousuf Dadoo and Auwais Rafudeen 19 The reality of the soul (Ḥaqīqat al-Rūh̟) 162 Yousuf Dadoo and Auwais Rafudeen 20 The permanent archetypes (Al ‘Ayān al-Thābitah) 166 Muhammad Jaami and Auwais Rafudeen Transcription of the Arabic originals 169 Nadia Sabah Bibliography 233 Auwais Rafudeen, Muzdalifah Sahib and Yousuf Dadoo Index 242 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This translation of selected writings of Shaykh Yusuf would not have been possible without the support of the following people: • The members of the Shaykh Yusuf Project team, both those directly involved in these translations and transcriptions as well all those who provided the essential support behind the scenes; • Mawlana Ahmad Mukadam of Pretoria, who suggested the project and provided invaluable leadership and guidance at all of its stages; • Ms Muzdalifah Sahib, a descendant of Shaykh Yusuf, crucially provided the source texts for this translation; • The Muslim Education Institute Trust, together with al-Ghazali College, provided the critical backing for the project. In this regard we would like to particularly mention Mr Haroon Kalla, Mr Abdul Kader Kurtha and Mr Haroon Aziz for support that went beyond the simply financial; • Ms Nasreen Cassim helped considerably with crucial typing services; • Mogamat Kamedien provided important bibliographical input, while Mufti Usman Solehri and Mufti Abdul Hafeez Maturidi of Darul Uloom Pretoria helped scour the sources for the less well known hadiths; and • Professor Ismail Jaffer, chairperson of the Department of Religious Studies and Arabic also provided support for the project at crucial stages. Our colleagues in this department took a great interest in our project and for this we thank them. We would also like to acknowledge the kind and efficient service provided by the Unisa Press personnel which deserves special recognition. In this regard, we would like to make particular mention of Mr Jack Chokwe, Ms Sharon Boshoff, Ms Thea Bester-Swanepoel, Ms Monica Martins-Schuld and Ms Catherine Sehlodimela. Last, and certainly not least, we would like to thank Ms Shakira Hoosain for her superb and expeditious copyediting of this book. The language editing process would have been much poorer without her meticulous oversight. We would like to express our deepest appreciation to all of the above as well as to all others who assisted and encouraged us with this project. The texts and images were sourced from Leiden University Libraries’ Special Collections and we acknowledge the Library’s role in preserving Shaykh Yusuf’s manuscripts. In particular, we would like to thank Dr Arnoud Vrolijk, Curator of Oriental Manuscripts and Rare Books, Special Collections, Leiden University Libraries, for his kind permission in this regard. The Special Collection shelf mark for the images used is Or. 7025. Finally, we would like to acknowledge the warm generosity of Mr Shafiq Morton whose superb photograph of Shaykh Yusuf's resting place in Cape Town adorns the cover . vii CONTRIBUTORS Yousuf Dadoo is Emeritus Professor at the University of South Africa (Unisa). He has taught Arabic and Islamic Studies and has led the respective departments at Unisa for 29 years. He has authored and co-authored more than 50 publications and supervised more than 30 masters and doctoral students. Suleman Dangor is Emeritus Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal where he has taught Islamic Studies for 34 years. He has published widely on Islam in South Africa and is especially known for his breakthrough research on the life and work of Shaykh Yusuf. Muhammad Jaami received his training in classical Islamic Sciences in his homeland of Nigeria. He is currently an Imām and teacher of Islamic Sciences in Pretoria. Ebrahim Moos is a lecturer in Arabic at the University of Cape Town. He has received training in the traditional Islamic Sciences in Syria, Egypt and in Cape Town where he is also a community Imām. He has also completed postgraduate research on Arabic manuscripts in West Africa. Auwais Rafudeen is an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies and Arabic at Unisa where he specialises in Arabic and Islamic Studies. He has published on various aspects of Islam in South Africa. Muzdalifah Sahib is a descendant of Shaykh Yusuf. She teaches at the State University of Makassar, Indonesia. She has made seminal scholarly interventions regarding the life and legacy of her famous forebearer. Nadia Sabah is originally from Jordan. She is based in Pretoria and teaches Arabic. viii FOREWORD Historical and spiritual continuity is one more casualty inside and outside the house of Islam. The traditional stability of religions in general has increasingly come under strain in our fast-changing world and the hyper-politicization of faith systems. We are globally witnessing a move to the religious right and the rise of nationalist chauvinism. This new faith-power nexus tends to displace preceding religious histories and spirituality. One way of recovering such lost origins is via literary archaeology. This book is one such attempt at finding and restoring an authentic, lived spiritual history. In this case it is the history of South African Islam and its founding persons, places and things. Specifically, it finds and translates the texts of one whom many would see as the father of Islam in South Africa. Biography and theology can combine to give us a clear insight into the type of history and spirituality that was generated by the coming of Shaykh Yusuf to the Cape and that was to leave a definitive impression on South Africa’s history and its Muslim community in particular, from the 17th century to the present. Regarding the present, though, and as these lines are being written, we are witnessing the vigorous establishment and institutionalisation of more puritan forms of Islam at the Cape, in South Africa generally, and in the world as a whole. Perhaps this translation and re-introduction of these texts authored by the pre- eminent pioneer of Islam in South Africa, can remind those who lean towards puritanism of the undiluted Sūnnī - Ṣūfī foundations of the religion in this country. A vital contribution of this work then is to place into context and perspective the aberration of puritanism and “militant” Islam, whose adherents have reduced a rich and complex world religion to an instrument for narrow purposes, therefore helping to generate the phenomenon of Islamophobia. Shaykh Yusuf al-Maqassari is clearly an unapologetic Sūnnī - Ṣūfī believer, activist and practitioner of a balanced Islam with an authentic history and spirituality. It is authentic because it is sourced in the pure teachings of the Holy Prophet, the Salutations and Peace of Allāh be upon him, and passed down through generations of pious Islamic scholars and saints. Perhaps we should not exchange our old, proven lamps for new, more artificial ones! In reality, it will be exchanging authenticity for its poor imitation, no matter how attractive the latter may appear to be: There will arise among you a people whose prayer will make your prayer look insignificant, whose fasting will make your fasting look insignificant, and whose deeds will make your deeds look insignificant. They will recite the Qur’an but it won’t pass beyond their throats (it will not affect the heart and soul) and they will pass out of Islam like an arrow passes out of a game animal… (Bukhari, Report No. 5058). While Shaykh Yusuf, following Shaykh Muḥīyuddīn ibn ‘Arabī, is faithful to the philosophy of Waḥdat al Wujūd (namely, the realisation that only Allāh is Necessarily Existent, all else is His Fiat), he does not resort to fatalism. He is fully conscious that activism is itself part ix