Question:
As salaam alaikum wa rahmatullah,
If one has taken Bay’ah and soon realises that he cannot commit to the Awraad and the whole Tareeqah scene then how does he do the following:
How does one leave the Tareeqah (or break one’s Bay’ah) in such a manner that it is done with respect and Adab? And how can one still benefit from the Shaykh without his/her spirituality being harmed? Also, can one break one’s Bay’ah with an intention to make Bay’ah to the same Shaykh when he/she is ready to commit? (And how will one inform the Shaykh without offending or upsetting him.)
Jazaakallahu khair for your time and help, much appreciated.
Wa salaam alaikum wa rahmatullah.
Your brother in need of your advice.
Answer:
wa `alaykum salam,
May Allah Most High bless you here and hereafter.
The Holy Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) refused to cancel any baya` once given, and that is also the practice and mandate of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, Allah sanctify his soul. Bear in mind that baya` is not a function of preparedness on the part of a murid – in which case there would no longer be any valid baya` for the most part – but of Divine and Prophetic munificence. To believe otherwise in view of our purported imperfections is a kind of self-worship and aggrandizement of our shortcomings. One always benefits, even if one feels and does nothing, but connection remains because its linkage is outside world and time, back to the Day of Promises. As the Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) said, “Every energetic phase (shirra) has a low phase (fatra), so whoever is kept by his low phase within the Sunnah succeeds, and whoever does not, goes astray.” Narrated by al-Tabarani through the narrators of al-Bukhari and/or Muslim.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
