Today in the masjid there were one man and two women who took bait (baaayt). All those religious scholars on gupshup here forgive on my ignorance. I did ask this friend of mine who i went with the meaning of it. As per her " ap un ki nigrani mein a gaey hain and you listen to him". Not sure if her explaination was good enough or baayt is something that i wont agree with.
Guidance to learn about islam etc you can learn that from anyone one could be your mentor etc. But you can have mentorS as well.
Your friend has explained it right. Bayyet does mean the same. I am not too sure how effective it is these days, but in Islamic history Bayyet has always been a very important aspect. All the Khulafa used to get Bayyet from their people.
Once you do a Bayyet on someone, its like you entrust him for all his decisions and you follow those no matter what (obviously, ofcourse as long as he is not directing to go totally against Islam). The movement which is being run by Prof Dr Israr in pakistan also follows the same principle. Anyone who is close to him has to have a Bayyet on him.
bait yani one takes allegiance with a sheikh or peer-e-tareekat like here in england their is a sufi silsila and one takes bait on the ghadi nasheed's hand etc.
BAit should only be done on the hand of ( in case of men by taking mentors hand in his hand normaly- and in case of women through some medium like both mentor and women holding ends of a rope etc in purdah) a shaikh who has been given ijazah by some pious mentor , so that thier chain of ijazah reaches hazrat Muhammad :saw:
I think we are talking about two different things here.
The "bayyat" that the Prophet (Peace be upon him) and the khalifa-tul-Muslimeen used to take was primarily for loyalty and on the faith of Islam. If I remember correctly, the Prophet used to take bayyat on other important issues as well.
So bayyat by the ruler is one thing, and that concept is on hold till muslims revive khilafa.
In the meantime, there are small muslim groups who do bayyat on the hands of various (what they consider) religious scholars or pious persons. Their relationship is primarily similar to a student-teacher. Here the religious scholar/peer saheb is supposed to guide you in the matters of sharia. In some cases they will guide their students in more advanced matters of Islam if the student is found capable and is so inclined. It is not so much a "loyalty" bayyat, but more of a "respect and learning" bayyat. Correct me if I am wrong.
^ I think there is a discussion here, some place, that talks about various silsilas... chistiya, naqshbandia etc. I think all of them are forms of sufism in Islam.