Question:
Asalamu alaykum shuyukh,
Please excuse me if I’m lacking manners in asking this. I’m a female mureed and I would like to know how female seekers can benefit from the short time they’re given with their shaykh. Given that we naturally don’t have the same direct access as male seekers:
1.what are some of the things we can do to gain enormous benefits in our given time?
2. Is our relationship with the shuyukh the same as the one the males have?
3. Can you please give me guidelines on the adab we’re to have in and outside the presence of our shaykh and with the shuyukh.
Jazakallahu khayr
Answer:
wa `alaykum salam,
1) Develop the practices of rabita and muraqaba
2) The relationship is not the same, as Mawlana Shaykh Nazim has often said, the wife is responsible to her husband and the husband is responsible to the Shaykh. If the wife will please her husband, her portion is Paradise.
3) The adab with the Shaykh is to keep his love and respect in his physical presence and outside it; to remember he is your spiritual master and his eye is on you; to lower one’s gaze in his presence; to respond to his directions and restrictions; to believe what he says without questioning.
Taher Siddiqui
