The Door to Doors

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

Shaykh Swalih ibn Muhammad al-Ja‘fari (q.s.) wrote in al-Fawa’idh al-Ja’fariyyah, as translated by Sidi Samir Dajani, that everyone who follows a spiritual path should consider the founder of that path, the one who composed its litanies, as his shaykh; the founder of the path and the author of its litanies would have been authorised as a spiritual guide by the Prophet (s.a.w.) himself. 

In most cases, that founder’s soul was now in the ‘alam al-barzakh, intermediary realm, which is connected to this physical world.  As for the living shaykh from whom one takes the path, the seeker must respect him, obey him, and think well of him, for he is the door or link to the founder of the path, and without him, arrival becomes extremely difficult. 

All that is required of the living shaykh is that he is upright in acting upon the shari’ah, he does what is obligatory and abstains from what is forbidden.  If this shaykh errs or commits a sin, as any human is capable of sinning, it will not harm the seeker.  The real guide for the soul for the seeker however, is the shaykh who founded the path.


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