Adab with the Secrets of the Shaykh

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

Imam Mahmud ibn ‘Ali al-Qashani (q.s.) wrote, in Miswbah al-Hidayah wa Miftah al-Kifayah, “The Lamp of Right Guidance & the Key to What is Sufficient”, that the murid should keep silent about the secrets of his shaykh.  Supernatural powers, visions and other things, concealed by the shaykh, for its divulging we should not ask permission.  Because in concealing it, our shaykh has seen a religious or worldly advantage and we are not always able to be aware thereof.  In divulging the same damage may be caused. 

This rule also implies that the secrets of the murid, which are known by the shaykh, belong to the secrets of the shaykh.  The following lines describe his situation: 

“There are many sincere and noble people,

Whose secrets I conceal from others,

As I hide them all in myself.

In every heart there is a corner, which is free,

A realm for intimate conversations,

And their revealing is not desirable.”




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