Spiritual Health Learning Community Center Exploring Life's Horizons   »   Streams Menu Say: Surely, my prayer and my service, my life and my death are all for Allah, the Lord of the worlds. - [The Qur'an 6:162] Khalifah Among the practitioners of the Sufi path, a person who acts on behalf of, and under the authority of, a spiritual guide is known as a khalifah. A khalifah is someone who has been selected to assume certain spiritual responsibilities as a vicegerent or steward of the Sufi Order or branch to which the individual belongs. A khalifah is not elected into her or his office of vicegerency by the members of a Sufi Order. Moreover, becoming a khalifah is neither due to a political patronage appointment nor is it a matter of blood relationships. The shaykh is the one who gives the indication concerning whom is to be a khalifah. However, no khalifah assumes his or her responsibilities without the approval of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and without, ultimately, the permission of God. The reasons why a given individual is selected as a khalifah are not always readily apparent. To be sure, often times, the person chosen displays obvious qualities of piety, scholarship, depth of spiritual understanding, and so on. On the other hand, there are occasions when the individual who is to become a khalifah may not possess many of the qualities one might normally associate with such responsibilities. A person who becomes khalifah may be relatively ignorant with respect to many spiritual matters. Alternatively, there may be other individuals within the Order who possess greater knowledge, understanding, and so on than does the person chosen to be khalifah. Nonetheless, due to the presence of some quality within the spiritual character of the individual, the person is selected. This quality might give expression to a very deep, yet hidden, love, loyalty, nobility, humility, sincerity, compassion, reliability or some other feature or set of features. Whether or not the reason(s) for selection are discernible to other people in the Order, and irrespective of whether or not the members of the Order agree with the appointment, the person chosen is deemed by: God, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the shaykhs of the Order, to be the appropriate person to be khalifah. What anybody else thinks or feels about the matter is irrelevant. Another point to keep in mind is that a khalifah does not really do anything on her or his own. In fact, no matter how brilliant or pious a person may be, no one actually has the capacity to accomplish anything independently of Divine support. Success comes from the grace of God and not from an individual's personal qualities and abilities. To whomever God gives help, in that assistance, the individual has all he or she needs. At any given time, there may be more than one khalifah appointed by a Sufi master. Each of these people will have different responsibilities. Generally speaking, a khalifah is appointed in order to look after things, administratively and/or spiritually, in the physical absence of the Shaykh. For example, the shaykh may have initiates who live in another region of the country or the world who need various kinds of help. There also may be certain activities which the shaykh wants to take place on a regular basis in other localities, far removed from the physical presence of the shaykh. Consequently, the spiritual guide may appoint a variety of people to meet these sort of needs in different communities. In addition, when the shaykh, for whatever reason, must be away from the normal 'home base' of operations, there are any number of activities, commitments, and observances which must continue. The shaykh often will appoint a khalifah to oversee these affairs in her or his spiritual absence. Among the various people selected by a shaykh to be a khalifah, there may be one person who is designated as the spiritual successor to the shaykh. This person would serve as spiritual guide for the Order or branch after the current shaykh passes away. However, for reasons best known to God, not all shaykhs necessarily will have a successor. Historically, there have been any number of lines of spiritual lineage which have come to an end with a certain shaykh. Sometimes these chains of spiritual authority start up again after an interim hiatus, and sometimes they do not. God arranges all of this according to the character of the Divine plan which gives expression to God's will in such matters. From the perspective of Sufi masters, the khalifah who becomes successor to a given shaykh, is, in effect, only a different locus of spiritual manifestation of the Divine grace which flowed through the predecessor. The underlying spiritual reality, which is the actual source of guidance, remains the same. This is not a matter of reincarnation. Divinity always remains One. Nevertheless, Divinity is manifested through different forms and modalities. Each modality or locus of manifestation has its own unique qualities and capacities. In an indirect and rather passive manner, these capacities tend to shape, color and orient, to a certain degree, the spiritual light which is transmitted through such loci of manifestation. As far as essential capacity is concerned, each spiritual guide is unique. Yet, the spiritual support, protection, grace, wisdom, and so on, that makes mystical guidance possible, all comes from the same source - namely, God. The successor merely constitutes the latest modality of manifestation through which the lineage of spiritual authority is being transmitted. Sufi masters also speak of being a khalifah in a sense other than the foregoing. This sense has nothing to do with the assuming of spiritual responsibilities for a particular Sufi shaykh. More specifically, God has created everyone with the potential to be a vicegerent or steward of Divinity. This potential points inwardly and outwardly, and the outward aspect of this potential cannot be satisfied until the inward dimension has been realized. According to Sufi masters, only when the sirr-illahi, the mystery of God, has been activated in the core of our essential spiritual capacity will we be able to become the khalifah of God. This will not happen, however, until all of our spiritual affairs are in a condition of impeccable order, harmony, purity and perfection. When we have become proper vicegerents of the Divine gifts within us, then, and only then, will be permitted to become authorized vicegerents of creation. Unfortunately, virtually everywhere we look in the world we see overwhelming evidence of what happens when human beings, who are not spiritually ready, unjustly usurp the role of khalifah and proceed to despoil, degrade, and corrupt everything in creation with which they come into contact. As a result, many of us have become the anti-khalifah of creation. Instead, of fulfilling the duties and responsibilities of service to, and care of, creation, as God had given us the spiritual potential to do, we have become the inveterate enemy of everything in creation, including ourselves. | Return to Streams Menu | Copyright © 2004 Interrogative Imperative Institute. All Rights Reserved.