Bismillahi Al-Rahmani Al-Rahim

Tariqas and Murids (2)

Q
salam,

Brother, thank you for your answer about not letting murids get in the way of benefiting from the sheikh's murids get in my way.

An incident that happened when I visited the sheihk and his murids still puts me off. We were having dinner, and one of the elder murids was talking about some project he was working on. When I asked him what source he was using, he looked at me and challenged me with, "Brother, complete this hadith: 'min husni islam al-mar'... Can you complete it? Do you even know this hadith?” I responded with, "tarkuh ma la ya`nih.” This was talk over the dinner table, spoken loud enough for everyone to hear. It's not like I was intruding. What sort of behaviour it this?

[Punctuation slightly edited for clarity.]


A
Wa `alaykum al-salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu

With behavior like this, it is easy to understand why someone would feel put off. But it is important to remember that it is not well people who need doctors the most. And while everyone around the doctor may not be sick, around the doctor is where you can expect his sickest patients. And this person you encountered may be one of them, whether he is an elder or junior on the path.

As I said in the last message: murids are part of each other's tarbiya. This brother may not benefit from you, but if you were able to keep your cool and have patience with this murid's behavior, you surely will have benefited from him. Whatever the case, may Allah grant us pure hearts.

And Allah knows best.

Wa al-salamu `alaykum,
--Musa