Originally Posted by Abdur_Rahman
Every field of study in the Islamic Sciences has a chain. Just like a chain exists for every Sahih Hadith, likewise chains must exist also for Fiqh, Aqeedah, Tasawwuf etc. This ensures that the Tasawwuf, Fiqh Aqeedah is "Sahih" just like ahadith. So chains are not just restricted to ahadith. They are employed in every field of Islamic Knowledge.
Wallahu Ta'ala 'Alam
The Guiding Helper teaches about Tassawuf in a very simple, easy-to-understand fashion in the Song "The Path to Allah" both I and II.
2602 These last two songs are the most important ones in the Guiding Helper (besides songs 2 and 3). These two
songs explain the method for taking a person from the state of heedlessness to that of witnessing Allah. This
method and way is known as the Path to Allah. People who sincerely and regularly practice all twenty-one
rhymes (from line 1743 to line 1784) will eventually reach Allah and be among the very elect of His creation
(i.e. those brought near).
2603 The original teacher of the Path was the Prophet (May Allah bless him and give him peace). Junayd came
six generations afterwards and is given credit for first expressing the precepts of the Path in simple short
phrases. His great-grand student, `Abd al-Karim al-Qushayri, wrote a book entitled The Letter of Qushayri
which summarized the teachings of Junayd backed up with primary and secondary text evidence. Three
centuries later, Ibn `Ashir summarized The Letter of Qushayri in twenty-two rhymes and we have simply
adapted Ibn `Ashir's summary into these last two songs of the Guiding Helper. Thus, these last two songs
contain the main teachings of Junayd taken from the Prophet (May Allah bless him and give him peace) about
the Path to Allah.
2604 The Path from its very inception was taught using spoken words and not written ones.
2646 The person travelling the Path must watch over his heart all day long and make sure that it does not go into
the following twenty major unlawful states: (1) Showing off for people by performing acts of worship for them
(rather, all acts must be done for Allah alone), (2) conceit or feeling that one is doing a tremendous good by
worshipping Allah (rather, it is Allah's favor on the servant that He is letting the servant worship Him), (3)
becoming enamored with or relying on something that is not important (e.g., the world, money, physical
strength, etc.) (rather, only Allah should be enamored with and depended upon), (4) arrogance or thinking that
one is worth more than other people or creatures because of some perceived superior quality (e.g., having more
wealth, being of a more noble lineage or ethnic background, having greater social rank, being physically
stronger or braver, being more intelligent, being more beautiful, etc.) (rather, the person should know that he
like all of Allah's creation is merely a slave), (5) resentful envy or wishing that another person did not have some
good thing that Allah has given him (rather, the person should be pleased with whatever Allah gives to him and
to others), (6) malice or harboring ill feelings towards others (rather, the person should realize that all people are
Allah's creation and are as they are for a higher purpose), (7) anger for other than Allah's sake (rather, the person
should try his best to restrain anger and change his mode of thought), (8) being unhappy with what Allah
sent/decreed (rather, the person should accept and feel tranquil with all things good and bad that are from
Allah), (9) fearing poverty (rather, the person should know that his sustenance has been already written and
decreed by Allah), (10) loving wealth (rather, the person should stop loving everything besides Allah and
besides the acts/people Allah loves), (11) loving prestige (rather, the person should be indifferent to his rank in
society), (12) loving praise from people (rather, the person should become indifferent to the praise of people and
care only about the praise of Allah), (13) disliking blame from people (rather, the person should become
indifferent to the blame of people and care only about the blame of Allah), (14) feeling that one will live forever
in the world (rather, one should remember one's imminent death often (at least twenty times a day (please also
refer to footnote 2597 and 2598)), (15) disliking death (rather, the person should know that the world is a prison
for the believer and a paradise for the disbeliever and the next world is a paradise for the believer and a prison
for disbeliever), (16) looking up to rich people because they have wealth and looking down on poor people
because they do not have wealth (rather, the person should view people equally regardless of their economic
standing), (17) forgetting about one's own faults, especially when it is accompanied by being busied with other
people's faults (rather, the person should know that he is imperfect by the standards of the din), (18) fearing
punishment from other than Allah and hoping for reward from other than Allah (rather, the person should know
that all punishment and reward (in this world and the next) is only in Allah's control), (19) persisting in acts of
disobedience without any intention in the heart to repent (rather, the person should always have an intention to repent), and (20) being unaware that Allah is present and watching (rather, the person should continuously be
aware of Allah's presence and His watching over His creation).
2653 If the person travelling the Path does not have an experienced and qualified living human male Muslim
guide/teacher, the chances are slim that he will ever reach the Goal. Nevertheless, people vary in the amount of
guidance they need. Some people need to stay with the teacher for only a couple of days and then they work
independently afterwards and finish fine. Other people need to stay with the teacher for many years under his
constant direct supervision until they are finished. The actual amount of time that the person needs to stay with
the teacher depends on his ability to learn through other means (e.g., listening to audio recordings and reading
written materials) and his ability to be objective (i.e. view himself as an unrelated third person).
As for the actual amount of time required to finish the Path (i.e. to reach Allah (as the Path keeps going on
afterwards onto higher levels)), it also varies from person to person. People who try very hard and have an
innate talent for the Path can finish in as little as two full years. People who are more lax or do not have an
innate talent for the Path may require forty or more years to finish.
Additionally, people who quit in the beginning or middle (when the Path gets rough) usually never finish.
2654 The teacher must be authorized (please refer to footnote 92) and qualified. Among the qualifications for the
teacher of the Path are:
a) He must have taken the Path from an authorized teacher and been granted permission to teach
once his teacher saw that he had mastered the Path.
b) He must know the methods used to bring people from heedlessness to witnessing Allah (e.g.,
giving Arabic phrases which the student can recite everyday, giving systematic exercises that the
student can perform everyday, etc.).
c) He must know all necessary parts of the din (i.e. our belief system, our law system, and our
system of studying the states of the heart).
d) He must try his best to practice the good of the din that he knows (but, he does not need to be
perfect).
e) He must know Arabic and have mastered the branches of knowledge connected with the
Qur'an (e.g., exegesis, rhetoric, logic, law derivation, etc.) and with the sayings of the Prophet
(May Allah bless him and give him peace) (e.g., hadith terminology).
f) He must know the Arabic technical vocabulary of those of the Path (e.g., annihilation (fanā'),
subsistence (baqā'), knowledge of Allah (ma`rifah), reaching Allah (wu#ūl), etc.) and understand
their meanings through experience.
g) He must know and understand through experience the ontology (study of how things exist) of
the people in the Path (e.g., that there is physical world (mulk), a metaphysical world (malakūt),
and a world of timeless lights (jabarūt)).
h) He must know and deeply understand the three parts of the human being: (1) physical body,
(2) thinking mind/heart, and (3) perceiving living soul.
i) He must not love the physical/material things on earth at all.
j) He must be in a constant state (a constant state is called a station) of witnessing Allah with his
soul which rarely or never goes away.
If a person cannot find a teacher that fits the above criteria, then he can choose one that is still sincere but has
some shortcomings. Please note that it is better to have no teacher at all than to have a bad teacher who
misleads one.
2655 One of the teacher's jobs is to keep the student from wandering off in the wrong direction and becoming
prey to the dangers (pitfalls) of the Path (e.g., becoming too extreme in one's practice of the Path, acquiring a
mental illness (this can easily happen to people who try too hard to control their thoughts), losing one's din all
together (even though one entered the Path trying to come closer to Allah), going into a coma or other state of
unconsciousness, etc.).
2657 The first of two major functions of the teacher of the Path is to point his students to (or remind them of)
Allah until they remember Allah in every situation of their life. He may do this by verbal advice, physical
example, or by using his spiritual will to bring the student into a state of remembering Allah.
forgiven for having stray bad thoughts as long as he does not act by them or speak according to them.]
2663 The person travelling the Path must try his utmost to perform all the wajib acts of our din (e.g., praying five
times a day on time, paying Zakat, etc.) and to stay away from all the unlawful acts in our din (e.g., lying,
backbiting, stealing, taking illicit drugs, etc.).
2664 Only after the person can perform most or all the wajib acts in a certain category should he attempt to add
extra mandub acts in the same category. The mandub acts in such a case will help the person come even closer
to Allah. As for people who perform mandub acts in a certain category while neglecting wajib acts in this
category (e.g., they give charity but do not give Zakat), they are deluded and must realize that mandub acts have
a lower priority than wajib acts.
Similarly, avoiding disliked acts is of a lower priority than avoiding unlawful acts.
2665 Keeping night vigils alive is a metaphorical way of saying that the person should pray the Night Vigil Prayer
every day.
2666 The person travelling the Path who has the wajibs under reasonable control should perform mandub acts
that are praised in the Qur'an or the sayings of the Prophet (May Allah bless him and give him peace) like the
Night Vigil Prayer (please refer to footnote 1184) and giving charity.
2667 It is absolutely necessary for the person travelling the Path to utter the specific Arabic remembrances/dhikr
that are given to him by his teacher at the intervals that the teacher recommends (e.g., after Subh and after `Asr).
Additionally, the student should also recite some Arabic Qur'an and some remembrances from the sayings of the
Prophet (May Allah bless him and give him peace) every day. He may recite these remembrances alone or
together with a group in a soft-to-medium tone in unison (as there is a certain synergy when people recite dhikr
together in unison). If there are unrelated men and women reciting the dhikr together, they should sit apart and
away from each other.
Goto Guidinghelper.com download the explanatory notes and goto the 2 chapters called the path to Allah for more on the TRUE tassawuf. As you can see the true person practicing tassawuf is always doing tahajjud, always doing his wajib acts, etc. and not believing in Greek philosophy or some other nonsense.
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