Sufi Thought and Action by Idries Shah

Author:Idries Shah
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ISF Publishing
Published: 2017-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

If you are told, or if it is hinted to you, that “something important is going to happen soon”, know that you should abandon that group and seek the alternative.

5 Any supposed Sufi wearing clothes or other apparel foreign to the country in which he is living, or which he visits, means that you should avoid such a man.

6 Any alleged Sufi teacher who claims or implies that he is “on the Path of Blame” (deliberately courting unpopularity) is false. This is never claimed by real Sufis, since the Path of Blame must be anonymously trod.

7 Anyone who says or does anything in your presence implying that he has influence in affairs of the world and is exercising it, is not a Sufi teacher; unless he is on the Path of Blame, in which case he is not an instructor but is only there to signal that you, too, must shun him, and approach the legitimate source of the Teaching which is always present under such circumstances.

8 No real Sufi will claim or imply supreme Mastership, or being a Qutub, or Concealed Teacher; though former dervishes (representatives for limited purposes) of Sufis may do so, if they have succumbed to the temptation of exercising power.

9 Similarly, the assumption of military, clerical or official rank is a sign of the deterioration of faculties (earthsickness) which can attack anyone, and which is often found among channels (i.e., people who, though not Sufis, may be related to some of them and employed for low-level and preparatory or “test” work).

10 The following signs are common when Sufi teachership is claimed by those not entitled to it: assumption of importance; loss of physical co-ordination; convincing others (as a major characteristic) that one is taking a deep interest in them, especially when they are ill or in distress; mysteriousness and hinting; tolerating the deluded; confusing friendship with teaching; organising inconsequential journeys; allowing one’s hand to be kissed; appearing on platforms with “other mystics”; believing that Sufi teaching is a matter of individual opinion, not of inevitability in techniques; allowing exercises ( Zikr ) to be carried out without supervisors to intervene at appropriate moments.’

I sought elucidation of the foregoing statement from an authoritative Sufi source because of the problem raised by its method of phrasing. Reference is made both to ‘testing’ and also to ‘falsity’. Which were we dealing with, I wanted to know: false schools or genuine schools which wanted to test actual or potential members?

The answer to this illuminated a further dimension of Sufi understanding:

‘There are three conditions under which any or all of the considerations referred to may exist. These are: (a) the false Sufi school or the deluded one (former school now in decay); (b) the legitimate school applying tests; (c) the representative(s) of a Sufi school who have developed “Earthsickness” (though not themselves Sufis, have through vanity arrogated to themselves the rank of Sufi, generally adopting high pretensions).

‘In reality, though not in appearance, all these “work together”, just as, say, fire and water “work together” to produce steam.

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