Originally published in Sufi Journal Issue 40 (Winter 1998-99)
Reprinted from Discourses on the Sufi Path
With great regret it must be conceded that certain masters of our time are themselves slaves to their nafs (ego).
The nafs within them is so strong that it has commanded them to become Sufis for the purpose of becoming masters, so that they use this Path to fulfill their ambition and compensate for the setbacks in their lives.
Such “masters” have used the zekr (remembrance of God), which is meant to be applied like an ax to the roots of their being, for the purpose of self-worship. They employ the remembrance (zekr) of God as the capital for their own shops, solely to deceive people. The wine of divine love, which is meant to blind one to one’s own existence, they pour down their front, mesmerized by the nafs, displaying it on the garment of hypocrisy and self-display, heedless of the fact that Sufism means the abandoning of outward pretension, not the claiming of spiritual guidance.
Furthermore, these “masters” have faithful disciples who, ruled by the nafs, perceive the fulfillment of the nafs in such “masters”. As a result, these disciples, being unaware of the true nature of their so-called masters, submit to them, so that their nafs-worship, like that of their masters, may be perfected.
As Rumi says:
Like to like
in this earth and heaven
Are drawn to one another
as iron to a magnet.The remembrances that such “masters” prescribe without authorization, being founded on the basis of the nafs, involve trickery and only serve to mislead the disciple, making him all the more a prisoner of the nafs.
What is even more remarkable is that the deceitful nafs can often produce visionary experiences and miraculous powers in the sleeping and waking states of these people. This, however, only serves to confirm their involvement in nafs-worship, since they are unaware that these are but tricks of the nafs. In this way, disciple and “master” are kept contented and comfortable with each another. But alas, the Truth is missing between them! As Rumi describes it:
You’re the disciple
the guest of one
Who, out of meanness takes your gains.
He is not strong, so how can he make you strong?
He has no light, rather,
he makes you dark.
Not having light himself,
how can others
By associating with him
gain light?
Like a blind man applying drugs to the eyes,
What can he put on your eyes
other than wool?
There’s no scent of God in him, not a trace;
Yet his claim is greater than that of Adam.
In his talk, he finds fault with Bayazid;
His inner being puts Yazid to shame.
He has stolen the words of the Sufis
So that others think he is someone special.
Even Satan is ashamed to show him his face
Since he claims he is higher than God’s closest friends!
Destitute of bread or provisions from heaven,
He has not been thrown even a bone by God.
He has proclaimed, “I have laid out the feast!
I am God’s chosen, the king’s own son!”
Welcome, simple-hearted ones,
writhing in hunger;
At my festive table eat your fill—of nothing.
For years, on the promise
of “tomorrow,” some people
Have gathered around that door; but “tomorrow”
never comes.
It takes a long time for a person’s inner
Being to emerge in its entirety.
Once the seeker finds out that this
“master” is nothing,
His life has run out—So what
good is his knowledge?