Leader of Sufism

out of utmost respect he said, “O Abu Bakr! You have set the bar so high that it has put people following you into a trial.”

Allah has mentioned four rewarded groups in the Quran17 which are the Prophets, the truthful, the martyrs and the most pious. The second group following the Prophets is of the truthful people. The truthful are the Mystics who pray Allah while beholding Him. This group is named after the title of Abu Bakr. He was the first person to give the invocation (dhikr) to the seekers of Allah for the purity of self and purgation of inward. Junayd of Baghdad narrates that the best word regarding Oneness of Allah (tawhid) is Abu Bakr‟s quote: “Glory to the Lord, Who opened the way for His creation towards Him by only being humble in His court.” It is written in Kashf-ul-Mahjub18 that Abu Bakr is the leader of Sufis and the truthful.

Abu Bakr was perfect in the love of Prophet Mohammad, free from the filthy love of the material world and he proved it on many occasions specially the Expedition of Tabuk. When the Prophet asked him, “What did you leave for family?” He replied, “Love of Allah and His Prophet is enough for them.” Shah Waliullah states that Abu Bakr possessed all the qualities that make base of Sufism like, trust on Allah alone, being careful in one‟s deeds, submission to Allah, fear from Allah‟s wrath, truthfulness, best morals etc. There is an incident about Abu Bakr‟s fear of Allah that once he saw a sparrow on a tree and said in a wishful manner, “O sparrow how lucky you are! You eat fruit and spend life in the shade of a tree and you are not

17 Sura an-Nisa, verse 69. 18 Author Ali bin Usman al-Hajveri commonly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh.