Today I noticed a blog on Blogspot.com that had copied many posts from my blog, without even mentioning my name or linking to the original posts. Although I believe that Islamic content should not be copyrighted strictly, and copying others’ posts for the purpose of spreading sacred knowledge is fine. But it is a moral obligation of the copier to acknowledge the original author, and if possible, link to the original content or provide proper reference.
I am not a learned person or scholar of Islam, neither am I a prolific and qualified writer. I write only because of my love and attraction to the masters of Sufism, and my sole wish is to propagate their teachings. I feel pleased when my writings are spread on other blogs as well, either linked or copied. But at the same time, it is sad to see that some copiers do not even mention the original author’s name, effectively claiming the content to be their own (which is obviously false and could be counted as a lie).
This reminds of the great saint and Sufi master, Hadrat Sayyid ʻAlī Hujwerī, alias Dātā Ganj Bakhsh, who is the author of reputed book of Tasawwuf “Kashf al-Maḥjūb”. He writes in that book that a few of his previous writings, including texts and poetry, were stolen by some fraudsters, who later tried to publish those writings under their names. When such exalted saints of Islam are not saved from the act of plagiarism, what am I?
The blog I mentioned seems to represent a well reputed Naqshbandi organization in the USA, the Naqshbandiya Foundation for Islamic Education (NFIE). But the owner, it looks to me, is not officially connected to NFIE, and copies content from this blog freely and posts it under his name. Here is the address:
http://wwwnfiecomblogspotcom.blogspot.se/
It should be noted that I often update the posts of my blog, so any copy-pasting will lead to old and inaccurate content being distributed through other channels. Please visit this website only for up-to-date blog posts.
May Allah forgive the owner of that blog for his actions, and forgive me as well as the readers of this blog. Ameen
Dear Brother-in-Islam,
Assalámo-Alaikum W. W.,
My Pir-o-Murshid in the Silsiláh Chistiyah Imdádiyah Sufi Order made the same complaint about articles of his Shaykh-e-Tariqat (my Grand-Shaykh), which he personally gave to his Pirbhais: nevertheless none of them acknowledged this (passing off these articles as though they acquired them through their own efforts!) …