Someone inquired about a particular group which referred to itself as a Sufi silsilah, and the individual wanted to know whether, or not, either the alleged shaykh leading that group or the adherents of the circle of individuals who were associated with the so-called 'teacher' had a history of spiritually abusive behavior because the individual was entertaining the idea of taking initiation through the group. The person asking this question was especially concerned about this issue because a number of members of the individual's family had experienced considerable spiritual abuse at the hands of several non-Sufi groups. The following is a response to that individual's inquiry.

Given the abusive experiences of some of your family members, and given the nature of your own doubts and concerns with respect to the issue of whether, or not, to take initiation through the group in which you are interested, I think there are some questions that you need to ask yourself and issues which you need to address before you proceed any further. First, although one should observe appropriate spiritual etiquette when doing so, the fact of the matter is, a person has every right to ask whatever questions are deemed necessary in order to arrive at a sound, considered judgment about the advisability of taking ba'yat or initiation with a given shaykh, and if you are being given the impression that to ask questions concerning the authenticity of an alleged teacher is to betray the teacher, then, if I were you, I would ask myself whether I wished to be associated with a 'teacher' or group in which asking questions vital to spiritual health and success are discouraged.

Doubts are a natural part of the mystical path. This does not mean that one should hang onto doubts at all costs, but it does mean that doubts do occur at many stages of the Sufi path, and these worries and questions should not be swept beneath the prayer rug but, instead, need to be addressed in an artful and constructive fashion.

The transition from doubt to faith is not an arbitrary exercise, nor can it be done by fiat. Faith is not blind but rooted in experience, and the more experience one has with respect to the issues and questions surrounding a particular point of faith/doubt, the stronger the foundation through which to meet the challenge of a given doubt.

If I ask you if you will lend me $5.00, the fact of the matter is, you don't know me, and you don't know if I will pay you back, so, you will have doubts about whether, or not, you should consent to my request. But, let us suppose, that you figure, well, $5.00 is no big deal and you are prepared to take a chance with me and lend me the money such that even if I am scamming you, you will not be out all that much and, in addition, you will find out something which may be worth more than $5.00 - namely, whom not to trust with important issues and questions ... i.e., in this case, me.

So, you send me the money. I thank you and tell you that in a week's time, I will repay the loan.

A week later, I give you back the money. This constitutes actual lived experience which you have had concerning me, and a result, the nature of the doubt/faith with respect to me has changed a little.

However, in truth, you still do not know very much about me except that on one occasion I asked to borrow $5.00 and I paid you back as promised. Conceivably, I could be setting you up for something else and just using the loan re-payment to prime the pump, so to speak.

A month later I approach you and ask for a loan of $25.00 with the stipulation that I will repay you within 10 days. Now, $25.00 is five times as much as $5.00 and just because I paid you back once doesn't mean that I will be fair with the second time around.

Nevertheless, let as assume you are in a charitable mood and, as well, a little curious to see what I will do. Consequently, you send me a check for $25.00 and go into a 'wait and see' mode.

Nine days later you receive a check from me for $25.00 and a note of appreciation. Now, you have even more experience with me, and, once again, the nature of the doubt/faith ratio has changed such that the numerator has decreased a little, while the denominator also has increased slightly.

The more times we do this, and the more times I repond properly, then, the smaller does your doubt become and the larger your faith in my integrity as a human being becomes. Things may develop in such a way that there might even come a time when doubts would never enter your mind if I made a loan request and that as long as you had extra money available you might not think twice about complying with such request from me.

Given enough experience about such issues, your data base grows, and with this comes a deeper understanding of the possibilities within this aspect of our relationship. Nonetheless, the fact of the matter is that even with all of this experience to fall back on, you may never be completely certain that, at some point, I might renege on our arrangement and end up disappointing you.

Thus, although you may have considerable knowledge about me and how I behave in certain circumstances, your knowledge is not certain. Rather, it is form of faith - that is, informed experience and understanding about a particular facet of life - namely, your relationship with me in conjunction with financial matters.

Now, the issue of initiation is not about someone asking to borrow $5.00 from you, or even $10,000. Initiation is about someone offering to be a caretaker of your soul, the most precious treasure you have in your possession.

Not being able to ask questions about the person who is making such an offer is tantamount to my asking you, relatively early in the process of our financial relationship, for a loan of a million dollars, even if this means that you have to mortgage your house, take on three other jobs, and ransom your children in order to raise the money. Now, of course, there is a disparity in the foregoing comparison because the truth of the matter is my asking for a million dollars is less outlandish than is someone offering to look after your soul for you with no questions asked.

Someone once said if you want to find out about someone, go on a trip with that person. When people are traveling, they tend to be taken out of their usual support system, comfort zone, and familiar surroundings. And, when this occurs, much of the actual character of someone begins to show through as one encounters different difficulties, hardships, setbacks, delays, and so on.

However, in the case of someone who is seeking initiation, the nature of the trip on which one may be embarking is not like a trip across North America, or even a trip around the world. Rather, it is a trip toward eternity, so, the question is this: why should you trust someone as your guide for such a journey when you haven't even gone on the simplest of travels with the individual?

You indicate in your e-mail that a variety of the dervishes associated with the Order which you are thinking about joining have been counseling you about what is required, appropriate, expected, involved, and so on, with respect to a person who takes initiation with the alleged shaykh. In truth, you should not be taking your lead from what they say, but, rather, you should be basing your decision on your direct experience with the person whom you are contemplating taking ba'yat.

Moreover, your decision should not be based on reading books written by the so-called shaykh, or by listening to his or lectures, or watching video tapes of the alleged shaykh in action. Instead, your decision should be based on direct observation of the gentleman, and the more observation and experience, the better.

If you cannot ask questions and if your experiential access to the individual with whom you are entertaining the possibility of taking initiation is extremely limited or non-existent, then, you are being asked to make one of the most important decisions of your life based on what? - someone else's say so?

Decisions made in the foregoing fashion are not an exercise rooted in faith, but, rather, in foolishness. When there is no direct, prolonged experience, and when no or few questions are permitted, and when obedience is demanded or expected of a seeker - even though, in truth, the shaykh should be the servant of those who seek his or her spiritual counsel and assistance (and good, loyal, sincere, committed, conscientious, wise, humble servants are extremely difficult to come by these days, and if and when one comes across such rare individuals they should be treated with the utmost care and consideration lest they disappear or seek to do service elsewhere), and when other dervishes assume the responsibility of grooming someone for initiation or begin to exert various kinds of pressures involving the wielding of subtle social influences that are designed to shape thought and understanding, then, really, one needs to ask oneself what one is becoming entangled in.

Being initiated into a Sufi silsilah is not like joining a social club. Furthermore, a silsilah is not an organization.

A silsilah constitutes the chain of spiritual lineage which links a given shaykh with the esoteric teachings and barakah which flow through the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). When a person takes ba'yat or initiation, the seeker does so with the understanding that the nature of the initiation is a commitment of reciprocity with respect to that silsilah - in other words, a shaykh has as many, if not more, responsibilities in relation to an initiate as the initiate has in relation to - not the teacher per se - but to Allah. In addition, if a seeker has sincere love for the truth and is committed to seeking the truth with spiritual etiquette, a shaykh cannot ask more of the seeker than this, and part of this etiquette is to treat the locus of manifestation of truth (namely, the shaykh) with love and respect - which is not the same thing as the demand for obedience and submission ... the truth is always authoritative and has no need to make any demands of submission, and those who do not recognize the truth and act accordingly are obedient to something other than the truth - and this is true both with respect to the seeker and an alleged teacher.

An authentic shaykh is but the most readily accessible locus of manifestation through which the spiritual barakah, support, assistance, wisdom, protection, and guidance of a legitimate silsilah is given expression. The character, quality, and capacity of the shaykh may color the nature of such barakah and help, but the shaykh is not the origin of these spiritual gifts.

No matter how talented, intelligent, gifted, attractive, interesting, and engaging a person may be, and no matter how many languages such an individual may speak, and no matter how many books she or he may have written, and no matter how many followers the person may have, and no matter how many centers, buildings, and projects the person may have, if such an individual is not rooted in an legitimate silsilah ( that is, one which has been sanctioned, by the leave of Allah, with the blessings of the Prophet Muhammad - peace be upon him), and if such a person has not officially been authorized by a legitimate silsilah to act in the capacity of a spiritual guide, then, all of the foregoing assets are worthless from the perspective of someone who seeks to have their holy longing requited through the realization of one's unique spiritual capacity and essential identity.

Once upon a time, authentic teachers could produce a sejrah (the list of names which provides the chain of transmission from first (the Prophet Muhammad - peace be upon him) to last (a given shaykh who is currently living and providing assistance to spiritual seekers) which would demonstrate the legitimacy of a particular silsilah. Now, many spiritual charlatans have illegitimately appropriated such lists, and, with or without amending the document, they offer the sejrah as proof of their ill-begotten 'authenticity'.

We live in dangerous times. Blinded by an arrogance which supposes that we live in the spiritually enlightened period in history, we fail to see the signs of spiritual dissolution, ignorance and darkness all about us.

We are very vulnerable. There are very good reasons why the Prophet (peace be upon him) is reported to have said to his Companions: "You see me and hear me, and, consequently, if you were to leave out even 1/10th of what is incumbent upon you, you will be denied Paradise, but there will come a time when there will be a people who will not see me or hear me, and if they do even one-tenth of what incumbent upon them, they will be granted Paradise."

Moreover, we should take to heart the saying attributed to the Prophet (peace be upon him) that: "Islam began as something strange, and it will revert to being strange as it was in the beginning, so good tidings for the strangers." Someone asked: "Who are the strangers?" and he said: "The ones who break away from their people for the sake of Islam." There are many groups - both so-called Muslim and Sufi - from which one might break away from in order to serve Islam and, thereby, become one of the strangers to whom the Prophet (peace be upon him) gave good tidings.

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is also reported to have said: "There are 71 sects among Jews, and only one of them is correct. There are 72 sects among Christians, and only one of them is correct. There are 73 sects among Muslims, and only one of them is correct." There are all too many alleged Sufi groups these days who deserve to be listed among the aforementioned sects rather than the one way which gives true expression to the Divine wish for human potential.

These days, anybody who writes or reads a book on tasawwuf, or the Sufi Path, is proclaimed, or proclaims himself or herself, to be an expert and adept of the mystical way. These days people dream themselves to be shaykhs, and so they become one, or they take courses to become a shaykh and receive 'official' certificates , or they announce that Kizr (peace be upon him) has appointed them to be a shaykh, or they boast about their special relationship with the Mahdi (may Allah be pleased with him), or they offer spiritual attunements at a distance through the Internet, or they provide a special of the day which combines martial arts and the mystical path, or they get appointed as a khalifah of someone who has proclaimed himself or herself to be a shaykh, or they hijack the sejrah of an authentic silsilah, or they create circles of mutual admiration who join forces to lend the aura of authenticity to their activities through their willingness to endorse one another as great spiritual guides, much like the blurbs on the back of a book's dust jacket comment on the brilliance of some writer quite independently of whether the description is deserved or not.

The very fact that you are asking someone whom you don't know about whether, or not, you should take initiation with a particular group should tell you something. Among other things, it tells you that you do not know enough about your present situation to warrant going further because your doubt to faith ratio is weighted heavily on the side of the numerator due to your lack of experience, understanding, and trust concerning the alleged shaykh in question.

If and when you acquire such experience, understanding and trust, you shouldn't have to ask someone else what you ought to do. You need to learn, as we all do, to develop a trust in your own capacity to discern the spiritual dhawk or taste of your experiences - this is best done under the guidance of an accomplished spiritual teacher, but sometimes we get thrown into the deep end of the pool and have to learn to swim the best we can through our own efforts until such assistance comes along - if it ever does. You need to learn, as we all do, to listen to your heart and differentiate between, on the one hand, the currents of nafs, Iblis, dunya and unbelievers (and there are quite a few so-called shaykhs who are unbelievers even as they speak about Divinity). You need to learn, as we all do, to pay attention to your intuitions and reservations about situations that cause you concern - God has many avenues through which to communicate with us, and sometimes, if we pay attention, we may find that Divinity teaches from the inside-out, not from the outside-in (although one must be extremely careful here because we have within us a variety of fraudulent shaykhs). You need to learn, as we all do, that trust is something which must be earned by a so-called teacher, not demanded or expected. You need to learn, as we all do, that there are no simple, easy, unproblematic, risk-free answers to the questions you are asking. You need to learn, as we all do, that although the rational mind has its limitations, nevertheless, Divinity has endowed it with a certain capacity for insight, understanding, and rigorous logic which we fail to utilize to our own detriment.

I could respond to your queries about the authenticity of the group in which you are interested with a: "yes, they are authentic," or, a: "no, they are a spiritually abusive, illegitimate group." But, what, precisely would this mean?

You don't know me. You don't know on what I am basing such possible replies. You don't know if you can trust what I say. You don't know if I have a hidden agenda. You don't know what my intentions and motivations are. You don't know if, on the one hand, I harbor various kinds of resentments and biases concerning the group with which you are concerned, or, if, on the other hand, I have a vested interest and stand to benefit in some way from encouraging you to seek them out.

All I can do is put forth a chain of reasoning and logic for you to examine, and it is your responsibility to try to come to some sort of workable conclusions concerning the degree of reliability which is, or is not, inherent in the chain of reasoning which I have put forth. I have responded to your question in the best and most helpful way I know how to do ... the rest is up to you, but if there are things which I have said in the foregoing about which you have questions, then, by all means, write again, and we will proceed forward, and, hopefully, constructively, from that point onward.