Spiritual Guides
Question:
I have recently got to know of some pir (spiritual guide) who is known to have special spiritual powers students in my daughters class are taking bait from him he is predicting. And offering advice on which Surat to read and what not to recite like surah muzamil causes anxiety I personally do not believe in this stuff kindly explain, secondly role of spiritual guides in a Muslims life.
Answer:
Obviously I cannot judge about the person you are referring to. I can only comment on the two features that you described about him:
1. Predicting: The Qur’an instructs the prophet (pbuh):
“Say, "I hold not for myself [the power of] benefit or harm, except what Allah has willed. And if I knew the unseen, I could have acquired much wealth, and no harm would have touched me. I am not except a warner and a bringer of good tidings to a people who believe."” 7:188
This clearly shows that even the prophet (pbuh) did not have the knowledge of future.
Where he needed to have this knowledge it was only for the sake of his mission and it was granted to him by means of revelation in a limited, controlled and temporary manner.
I find it very difficult to accept that the last prophet of God (pbuh) in principle did not have access to the knowledge of future (unless this was granted exceptionally at times) while at our time there are people who talk about future events related to everything apparently so naturally and generously as if they have been granted unconditional and limitless access to the knowledge of unseen.
Please bear in mind that there are many psychological means and many tricks by which one can give the impression that he can see the future. You can easily see videos and read articles about these people in the internet. These are known as skilful showmen rather than spiritually elevated persons.
2. The use of the chapters of the Qur’an (or Azkar) for specific purposes.
I do not see any problems with people using the chapters of the Qur’an or Azkar intending particular benefits as long as two conditions are met:
a. People do not use these as prescriptions and divinely formed cures. One person’s experience can easily differ or be totally opposite to another person’s experience. If it was supposed that a specific chapter of the Qur’an or Zikr had a divinely ordained healing or problem solving quality then I assure you that the prophet (pbuh) would have informed us about it. Unfortunately many of the Hadiths related to healing or problem solving powers of some of the chapters of the Qur’an or Azkar are not reliable.
b. This should not lead to practically replacing the guiding function of the Qur’an with a healing or problem solving function. If it was the case that the Qur’an could have been used for these purposes as well then again we would have had plenty of reports from the time of the prophet (pbuh) or companions about people getting this sort of benefit from the Qur’an.
3. I think a person should always look for people who he could look up to for spiritual guidance and role models. However there are a few points that I think should be seriously taken into consideration with this regard:
- The real and genuine people who are capable of being spiritual guides for others are normally very humble. They are not keen to show others any of their spiritual gifts. In fact they often do not like to make themselves known to the others. It is the others who have to chase them and convince them to spend some time with them.
- We can of course learn from any person who has some spiritual advances even if he/she is not a Muslim. However when it comes to finding a spiritual role model within the fold of Islam then being a strict follower of Shari’ah should be one of our main criteria. For a Muslim, no spiritual level justifies being mindless to the law of God.
- If we are interested in getting spiritual guidance then our aim should be to learn rather than to become a member of a club. The idea that we need to find one person who we would follow no matter what, is against rationality and is not in line with the spirit of Islam. The correct attitude is to take every opportunity to learn and become better, and to always compare and assess the validity of any given advice based on rationality and the teachings of religion. No spiritual leader, no matter how excellent he/she might be, should stop us from this.
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August 2013
I have recently got to know of some pir (spiritual guide) who is known to have special spiritual powers students in my daughters class are taking bait from him he is predicting. And offering advice on which Surat to read and what not to recite like surah muzamil causes anxiety I personally do not believe in this stuff kindly explain, secondly role of spiritual guides in a Muslims life.
Answer:
Obviously I cannot judge about the person you are referring to. I can only comment on the two features that you described about him:
1. Predicting: The Qur’an instructs the prophet (pbuh):
“Say, "I hold not for myself [the power of] benefit or harm, except what Allah has willed. And if I knew the unseen, I could have acquired much wealth, and no harm would have touched me. I am not except a warner and a bringer of good tidings to a people who believe."” 7:188
This clearly shows that even the prophet (pbuh) did not have the knowledge of future.
Where he needed to have this knowledge it was only for the sake of his mission and it was granted to him by means of revelation in a limited, controlled and temporary manner.
I find it very difficult to accept that the last prophet of God (pbuh) in principle did not have access to the knowledge of future (unless this was granted exceptionally at times) while at our time there are people who talk about future events related to everything apparently so naturally and generously as if they have been granted unconditional and limitless access to the knowledge of unseen.
Please bear in mind that there are many psychological means and many tricks by which one can give the impression that he can see the future. You can easily see videos and read articles about these people in the internet. These are known as skilful showmen rather than spiritually elevated persons.
2. The use of the chapters of the Qur’an (or Azkar) for specific purposes.
I do not see any problems with people using the chapters of the Qur’an or Azkar intending particular benefits as long as two conditions are met:
a. People do not use these as prescriptions and divinely formed cures. One person’s experience can easily differ or be totally opposite to another person’s experience. If it was supposed that a specific chapter of the Qur’an or Zikr had a divinely ordained healing or problem solving quality then I assure you that the prophet (pbuh) would have informed us about it. Unfortunately many of the Hadiths related to healing or problem solving powers of some of the chapters of the Qur’an or Azkar are not reliable.
b. This should not lead to practically replacing the guiding function of the Qur’an with a healing or problem solving function. If it was the case that the Qur’an could have been used for these purposes as well then again we would have had plenty of reports from the time of the prophet (pbuh) or companions about people getting this sort of benefit from the Qur’an.
3. I think a person should always look for people who he could look up to for spiritual guidance and role models. However there are a few points that I think should be seriously taken into consideration with this regard:
- The real and genuine people who are capable of being spiritual guides for others are normally very humble. They are not keen to show others any of their spiritual gifts. In fact they often do not like to make themselves known to the others. It is the others who have to chase them and convince them to spend some time with them.
- We can of course learn from any person who has some spiritual advances even if he/she is not a Muslim. However when it comes to finding a spiritual role model within the fold of Islam then being a strict follower of Shari’ah should be one of our main criteria. For a Muslim, no spiritual level justifies being mindless to the law of God.
- If we are interested in getting spiritual guidance then our aim should be to learn rather than to become a member of a club. The idea that we need to find one person who we would follow no matter what, is against rationality and is not in line with the spirit of Islam. The correct attitude is to take every opportunity to learn and become better, and to always compare and assess the validity of any given advice based on rationality and the teachings of religion. No spiritual leader, no matter how excellent he/she might be, should stop us from this.
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August 2013
