[What about the great madhab scholars ? What were their views on tasawwuf?]

What about the great madhab scholars ? What were their views on tasawwuf?

Al-Imam al-a’zam Abu Hanifa (rahimah-Allahu ta’ala) gave up the work of ijtihad in his last years. He attended Hadrat Ja’far as-Sadiq’s (rahimah-Allahu ta’ala) suhba for two years. When he was asked why he had done so, he answered, ’Nu’man {footnote}Hadrat al-Imam al-A’zam’s name was Nu’man.{/footnote} would have perished if it weren’t for those two years.

Although both the imams [Abu Hanifa and Ahmad ibn Hanbal] were at ultimately high grades in knowledge and ’ibadat, they went to the superiors of tasawwuf and attained ma’rifa and its fruit, iman al-haqiqi. Was there another ’ibada more valuable than ijtihad? Was there a deed superior to teaching and disseminating Islam? Leaving these aside, they clung to, embraced the service of the superiors of tasawwuf, and thus attained ma’rifa.

“The value of a’mal (deeds) and ’ibadat is measured with the degree of iman. The brilliance of ’ibadat depends on the amount of ikhlas. The more perfect iman becomes, the more ikhlas is attained, and deeds become all the more glorious and acceptable.

The perfection of iman and completion of ikhlas depends on ma’rifa. Since ma’rifa and real belief depend on the attainment of fana’ and death-before-death, the perfection of iman is as much as one’s fana’.

Descending and ascending does not make you closer,
To get closer to Haqq means to cease existing!

It must be for this reason that it was declared in a hadith ash-sharif that Hadrat Abu Bakr as-Siddiq’s (radi-Allahu ta’ala ’anh) iman was superior to all other Muslims’ iman:

‘Abu Bakr’s iman, if weighed against the iman of all my umma, would weigh more,’

‘The one who wants to see a walking corpse must look at Abu Quhafa’s son,’ confirms this.