Of Guide And Guidance

In our usual book club meeting every Tuesdays, one of the issues raised was about the need for a guide. In the "Conference of the Birds", Farid ud-Din Attar described:

"Another bird said: 'Hoopoe, you're our guide.

How would it be if I let you decide?"

In reply of a long response, illustrated by various stories, Attar said:

"When once a slave accepts his Lord's control

And hears Him whisper in his inmost soul

He does not boast, no outward signs are shown

But when life's crises come - then he is known"

He continued in another related story:

"Forsake idolatry; if you do this

You are His slave, you cannot go amiss;

All else is pride. If you are neither slave

Nor God you're substanceless, however brave -

I call you 'No-one'; turn now, no-one, seek

Devotion's path, be humbled, lowly, meek.

... If you combine

True servitude with dignity your Lord

Will not deny your desired reward"

It seems quite clear to me that the benefits to be reaped are for those who submit. In another powerful lesson in history, Allah, The Almighty chose and prepared The Man first, in the form of our beloved Prophet (saw) before He made our deen known to us.

In the various conferences and seminars which I have chaired or presented, when this topic come about, the perennial question asked was: "What makes a teacher qualified for the job?". Whilst this is a valid question to be asked, it is strange that no students ever asked: "What makes a good student?"

Hence, this brings to mind another extract from a lecture I delivered in 2005:

Of Lovers

Love toward Allah, the Almighty is possible for the servant through obedience to the object of his love, through wanting nothing more than to be His slave and by lovingly carrying out His commands. In other words, it is possible by letting oneself fall like a drop into the ocean. Love is the ocean – and this ocean has no bottom, no shore, no beginning and no end...

What do we do now that the Prophet (saw) is not physically with us? The early generations of Muslims, owing to the strength of their desire for sacred knowledge, would journey to distant lands seeking a single prophetic hadith. This spirit has been captured in the Qur’an about Prophet Musa’s (as) journey with his young companion. Allah said:

“And behold! Moses said to his young companion, ‘I will not cease until I reached where the two seas meet, or I shall spend an exceptionally long time traveling” [al-Kahf 18:60]

If there ever existed a person who had no need to travel to seek knowledge, it was Prophet Musa (as), for Allah, the Almighty had spoken to him direct and given him the Torah in which all divine principles, then, had been revealed. Still, when Allah, the Almighty informed him of a man who had been favoured with knowledge, he set out with his young companion to find him: to learn from him.

We have also seen in what is popularly known as Hadith Jibril (as) that amongst the many lessons included therein, that the student do go to his teacher to obtain that knowledge face-to-face. It is not time spent scouring through hundreds of books or surfing the internet for information, but the immense blessings of obtaining your knowledge with an ijazah from your teacher that ensures your protection from harmful or useless knowledge.

Such knowledge must affect you positively – it must make you a better person. As Frithjof Schoun puts it in his book Spiritual Perspectives and Human Facts:

“Knowledge saves only on condition that it enlists all that we are: only when it is a way which tills and which transforms, and which wounds our nature as the plough wounds the earth”

Intimate conversation by way of suhbah (companionship) is one of the most important practices in the way of Love. Love therefore is not developed from mere knowledge alone, but is acquired from being in the company of those who have tasted and experienced the sweetness of that Divine Love - hence the need for a spiritual teacher.

Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani said:

“You must work hard to ensure that your hearts are not locked out of the door of His nearness. Be sensible! You are getting nowhere. You must seek the company of a Shaykh who is learned in the law [hukm] and knowledge [`ilm] of Allah (Almighty and Glorious is He), and who will show you the way toward Him. Without seeing the successful [muflih], one cannot succeed. If a person does not seek the company of scholars who put their knowledge into practice [`ulama `ummal], he is a chicken from an egg abandoned by the rooster and the mother hen”

A spiritual teacher, or a Shaykh, is like our soul’s gardener. He takes you from where you are right now, and uses your inner materials as fertilizer to grow your heart. Parts of you - the garden - need weeding, some need hoeing, burning, planting, landscaping. The Shaykh represents your highest potential. By putting your trust in the Shaykh as a guide, you make the first step towards unifying with your Lord. On a personal basis, the Shaykh goes within you, sees the distinction between yourself and your True self, and helps you to initiate the process of unification. In another analogy, he is like a taxi-driver: you get on wherever you are, and the driver takes you where you want to go.

There are however responsibilities imposed on the seeker or the student. Good students makes good teachers. We give loyalty and love because this person serves us. We give this person what is needed to get the job done. Of course, the necessary ore needs to be there, but the students are also responsible for the kind of leadership they receive. In a very real sense, it is they who create the guide with their own sincerity and yearning.

If we attempt to go this way alone, we will only find our own ego. Trying to attain truth through books alone is like trying to fall in love with a static picture. But if we meet the divine love in others who have tasted and melted in that Love, if we stay close to those who have understood this Love, then we will begin to sense the Love behind all forms of love.