(Special thanks here to Munirah Maclean who is one of the few,if not only, persons able to follow my unfolding process.)

In 2001 shortly before his demise,we visited Sheikh Mahshur al-Haddad one of the great awliya of the Habaib tradition of Yemen.He told us that the process of ‘bayat'(sworn allegiance to the Sheikh) was over.He explained that people in this time were not able to carry that level of surrender.Ahmad Zerrouk,one of the great sheikhs of the Shadhili lineage, had made a parallel statement several hundred years earlier,claiming that there were no people left who could carry the mantle of Sheikh.

I have come to the conclusion that,in fac t, the problem,metaphysically if you wish ,goes beyond the weakness of the murids and shuyukh -to the very nature of Truth itself..Since all people,including legitimate awliya an d Prophets themselves make mistakes,if we are determined to be with the Truth as much as possible,we would be called upon to disagree with them at times.There were several incidents like that in the life of our own Prophet Mohammed saws where he had to give way to the more accurate understanding of one of his followers.So we shouldn’t be surprised.

However, for Sufi zealots ,this truth is anathema.They are of the “The Sheikh is always right,we have to obey him because he is systematically Divinely inspired and every contrary idea or action is treachery and apostasy”school of belief. I,personally have never been able to accept that point of view.At numerous points in time my Sheikh,for whom I had the greatest respect and from whom I learnt enormously,was wrong.My Istighara told me so.Each time the Istikhara proved right.And I never regretted following the latter.Why should I ? The latter was from God!

Ironically ,as I am fond of denouncing “democratic illusions’, this all sounds llike the liberal,democratic point of view.’.Abadan”(never) lol.The liberals believe it is all a matter of opinion and that one opinion is as good as another.That is not at all what I am saying.I am,rather,saying that there is an objective Truth in every situation.The real spiritual teacher has regular access to that Truth but not always.Sometimes he,or she,is caught up in his own belief systems, in projections of his own experience or even to some emotional reaction to one reality or another.I wrote specifically about this in my article entitled”Why I had to leave my last tariqat”

Don’t get me wrong here.We need teachers;we need guidance.And we have to show the utmost respect to the true saints and spiritual guides.But we musn’t take them for gods.Doesn’t Islam teach us as much?! But that is exactly the error that many Sufis get involved in.May Allah protect us from ‘shirk'(idolatry) of all types and open our eyes,ears and hearts to the Truth of each and every situation.That is the way of peace and lessening of suffering.Salaams,Respectfully,Ibrahim Kreps As-Sufi