and not merely the conventional one. Unless this procedure is followed,
experienced guides insist that the novice cannot be accepted into theWay.
The three requirements are: one year’s service on behalf of other people,
one year devoted to God, and another year spent in watching over one’s
own heart.’
3
Of the perfect guide he writes: ‘It should be noted that the foundation
of the qualifications and claims to rank of a shaykh or a religious leader
rests in brief, on five supports. The first is the submission of servanthood
common to our servants; the second is an aptitude to receive truths directly
fromGod without any intermediary; the third is a submission distinguishable
from the first submission by a very special grace; the fourth is the honour
of receiving divine knowledge of God without any intermediary; and the
fifth is the riches of receiving infused knowledge.’
4
‘Discipleship is a matter of wanting something from the heart.A sincere
novice is one who resolves to be purified of all pleasures and self-interest.’
5
Only such a person is capable of fixing his attention on God, the source of
all knowledge. If a disciple wants to benefit from the spirituality of his
master, he must surrender himself to him. The teacher is the channel for
the transmission of blessing and mercy from heaven to earth.
The disciple can receive divine blessing only when he is able to fully
detach himself from the world. To do that he must lose himself in the
teacher. He has to cast off all his desires and follow the teacher in a mode
of true submission. It is by submitting entirely to his teacher that he submits
to his Lord. As we learn from the
hadith
, “One who obeys the Messenger
obeys God.”
3
letter 5: Searching for a spiritual guide in Letters from Maneri, tr. Paul Jackson, 1980, p..29
4
letter 6: The Qualifications of a Sheikh, ibid., p. 30
5
letter 7: Discipleship, ibid., p. 34
