MashaAllah … Amazing discussion …
Peace Sister Little Princess
**
“If Shari’ah paves the road for your destination, then Tariqah is the manner in which you walk that road”
**The taking of tariqah is like going on a journey in a group rather than saying “You go on your way, I’ll make my own way there, see you at the finish line” … The road to success is paved with hurdles, pot holes, avoiding the twists and turns … and the awliya karam have walked that path, come back to get us and are showing us how to get there. Without them there is a slight chance we can still make it … but with them and with each other we can enjoy companionship on that journey. A companionship that otherwise would not be found in the lonely traveller.
In a hadith we are told to travel in groups, well this applies to our spiritual journeys as well. We do this by taking tariqah on the hands of those who hold Khirka (literally this means rough cloak, but in reality it is the passing of the symbolic right to continue the spiritual sufi chain)
This chain is called a silsila and in English means Spiritual Lineage and can be examined like a geneaology (family tree), except it features the successive order of the people who held khirka from their own spiritual teachers, all the way to the prophet Muhammad (SAW) …
Upon studying the chain we can visualise our real connection to RasoolAllah (SAW).
Now the people of tassuwwuf are people who agree with Sufi practice - such as dhikr … but it is important to realise that true submission of ones will and reduction of ego can only be achieved through a disciple process where a person willingly enslaves themselves to the spiritual guidance of a master. Ego will remain as long as we live in this world with our own self management - This is tadbir … Tadbir is minor form of shirk - it is not punishable and most humans are prone to it … However … Karamah only occurs on the hands of walis and walis are those people who have learned to place their full trust in Allah (SWT) …
So one can say that “tariqah” is the path of becoming a wali … however, simply by taking tariqah it is also the path of helping us iron out our defects. Hence my recommendation of Ihya Uloom ud-Deen …
I’ll leave it here for now if there are any questions that you want to ask to elaborate I’ll try to answer inshaAllah …
One amazing thing about taking bayah (allegience) to a spiritual guide is that we “feel” the sunnah of the Sahabah when they pledged to RasoolAllah (SAW) … and became companions of one another …
Sitti (Which means respected madame, and Sidi = Sir) Afshi and myself are not only connected through our faith as Muslims, but we are brother and sister in tariqah, through our connection of Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi and Shaykh Faisal Abd Al-Razzaq … May Allah (SWT) protect them. We gather in a spiritual gathering without our knoweldge and we are informed that people who belong to a lineage will be raised in that lineage on the Day of Judgement … it is amazing to know in this life who will be with you on that Day … It is hence in my interest to bid Sitti Afshi the Shade of Allah (SWT) on Judgement Day, because then perhaps I shall be able to get some of it on account of her receiving it. And with the friends who I have made here in the UK who are from the tariqah … they are no longer friends - but companions … people who will lay their lives down for me as I for them.
I have said too much … so I’ll wait for you to respond inshaAllah …