The Permission 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 decline from making his own choices.  The murid is not allowed to undertake anything - neither religious nor worldly, universal or particular - without finding out what the shaykh wants and chooses.  We should not eat nor drink, nor dress ourselves, nor give presents, nor sleep, nor take, nor give but with the permission of the shaykh.  We should not perform any religious practices without the permission and the specification of our shaykh, like for instance fasting or taking food, voluntary devotional practices or limiting ourselves to those practices which are obligatory or the remembrance of Allah (s.w.t.), the recitation of the Qur’an and being absorbed in something. 

It so happened, one night, that the Messenger (s.a.w.) passed the house of Sayyidina Abu Bakr ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Utsman asw-Swiddiq (r.a.) and overheard him reciting the Qur’an in his nightly prayers with a low voice.  Then he passed the house of Sayyidina Abu Hafsw ‘Umar ibn al-Khaththab al-Faruq (r.a.) and heard him recite the Qur’an in his nightly prayers in a loud voice.  When the two of them came to the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.) in the morning, he asked Sayyidina Abu Bakr (r.a.) why he recited the Qur’an in his nightly prayers in a low voice.  He answered, “I listen to the One with Whom I converse.” 

He then asked Sayyidina ‘Umar (r.a.) why he recited in a loud voice.  He answered, “I drive away Satan and I awake the one who is sleeping.”  Then he ordered them that they should not recite in a too soft voice nor in a voice that is too loud; they should follow a middle course.  Then the Qur’anic verse was Revealed: 

سُوۡرَةُ بنیٓ اسرآئیل / الإسرَاء

… وَلَا تَجۡهَرۡ بِصَلَاتِكَ وَلَا تُخَافِتۡ بِہَا وَٱبۡتَغِ بَيۡنَ ذَٲلِكَ سَبِيلاً۬ (١١٠) 

… “Neither speak your prayer aloud, nor speak it in a low tone, but seek a middle course between.” (Surah al-Isra’:110) 

This is a proof that when we have a spiritual guide, we should not follow our own insight.  This is also true when this concerns a true insight.