In the conclusion of Inayat Khan's book: The Soul Whence and Whither one finds the following:

"The second way of trusting is to trust and to continue to do so until the person is proved unworthy of trust. Those who trust in this way are better-suited than the first, for if their trust makes their sight keen they will have every prospect of development, provided that intelligence guides them all the way.

"But the third way of trusting a person is to have an absolute trust, and to continue until it be proved true. This is the trust of devotees. It is these mureeds who make the Murshid. It is such worshippers who make God. 'By faith, a tongue is produced from the rock, and it speaks to us as God, but when faith is lacking, even God, the Eternal Being, is as dead as a rock.' The word of the Murshid is as useless to the doubting mind as a remedy to the unbelieving patient."

The foregoing quote from the aforementioned book operates with an unstated assumption -- namely, that any Murshid with whom one is contemplating taking initiation actually is an authentic teacher -- for that would be the only condition under which the foregoing advice would constitute sound counsel. Unfortunately, this is precisely the issue which needs to be questioned, because, in point of fact, and as many have noted, authentic teachers and charlatans don't necessarily have some identifying mark stamped on their forehead for all to readily see which gives indisputable proof about who is the genuine article and who is counterfeit.

To have absolute faith in an alleged teacher just because someone else considers that individual to be a Murshid, or because the so-called shaykh considers himself or herself to be a pir or murshid is to assume one's conclusions without benefit of any evidence, reflection, or critical examination whatsoever -- surely, this is the sort of mind-set through which we end up with, among other things, suicide bombers killing innocent people, or people being sexually exploited by spiritually abusive teachers, or seekers having to pay for so-called Sufi guidance, or misguided individuals being induced to participate in armed jihad because some nabob, somewhere, has issued a fatwa or legal opinion which has all the binding authority of cheese.

I was going to post something in response to the foregoing quote from the Inayat Khan book that is drawn from my Web Page -- an essay which, actually, is an excerpt from a 400-plus page book on the issue of Spiritual Abuse and the Sufi Tradition, but, instead, I will simply encourage those who are interested to go to:

I believe this essay does begin to demonstrate that the problem of distinguishing between an authentic and inauthentic spiritual guide is quite difficult. The ramifications and implications which ensue from the need to make a correct discernment are enormous.

The foregoing issues are not about the differences in temperament, practice, orientation, or emphasis which are recognized and accepted among different Orders and silsilahs. The central question is about sources of spiritual abuse which occur as obstacles to having access to legitimate, athentic, and transformative spiritual teachings, or which occur as obstacles to having an appropriate sort of understanding about what the nature of the central problem is in such contexts.

Someone once said: "We become what we dream, so choose the dream wisely." Choosing wisely and with circumspection concerning the issue of spiritual authenticity would seem to possess the potential to have a substantial impact on the nature of the dream which one aspires to become.

None of what has been said in any of my three postings says anything about whom or what one should choose. Instead, what is being said is that there is a very big problem inherent in this question of spiritual authenticity, and one should exercise caution and discretion in exercising one's God-given right to choose in whatever way one will in this matter.