The title, “Rightly Guided Teacher” was chosen by me for this site, in hopes that I can attract all of my brother and sister muslims out there who have been allured to the way of the Irfan, Sufi, or Mystic. Before you say, “I don’t call myself a Irfan, Sufi, or Mystic”, first know that rarely anyone does.
I have hardly seen any books from the Shia school that come out and debunk Irfanism. I have seen some statements and videos here and there (that will be discussed in other posts), however they fail to go into specific details debunking specific beliefs and hadiths held by irfans.
You could be a irfan/sufi/mystic if you believe in some or all of the following:
- That Islam has a deeper meaning and goal, that is hidden from the average muslim, and is only meant for those with a “pure heart”.
- That Imam Ali (AS) not only has unlimited “knowledge”, but that if you “work on it” you can share in this unlimited “knowledge” too.
Duplicitous meanings for Words
See for a mystic, irfan, sufi, certain words have one meaning for the average lay muslim, but they have a deeper meaning for those who “chose to” take a “deeper” path. Some words with a duplicitous meaning are:
- “Knowledge” (ilm): knowledge is not learning and retaining information regarding a specific field of study, rather for a mystic “knowledge” can also mean spiritual ability to see the spiritual reality of things and this sometimes means that one can acquire data without having studied it.
- “Heart” (alb): for a mystic the heart is a container that can accumulate divine knowledge downloaded to those who are worthy.
- Spiritual “Teacher”: for a mystic a teacher is not someone who educates you with the accepted sources and methods of interpreting these primary sources as passed down through our Holy Prophet (SAS) in the way of divine revelations and the hadiths, the Ahlul Bayt, and a marjah, but rather its a person from any community that people have deemed has high spirituality, and this teacher is able to guide you into attaining high spirituality.
- “Spirituality”: Spirituality is not a personal experience one has through his relationship with God as encouraged by the practices prescribed by our Holy Prophet and our Imams, rather spirituality is a process that a “student” can do to purify his soul as defined by the standards set forth by his “teacher” which may or may not encompass the prescribed recommendations accepted by our Holy Prophet and imams.
- “Miracle”: Rather than being a term used to explain an action or thing that is not explained as possible through the laws of physics which represents a direct intervention by Allah (SWT), for a mystic this explanation is just what is given to a lay person because their belief is too weak to handle the truth. The reality for a mystic is that this world is spiritual rather than material, and that they say Allah can unlock your potential to perform these seemingly supernatural acts if you are worthy.
- “Hadith” is not something that is narrated through a chain of narrators with independent verified sources confirming its authenticity, rather a hadith is any quotation attributed to a prophet or an Imam so long as it was written down in a book hundreds of years ago. A mystic might say, likely the chain of narrators is missing because people tried to hide this “truth” because they couldn’t understand it.
Why make a website about Islamic Mysticism?
- Because I see this belief system as widespread now and if one digs a little deeper into the hadiths that mystics rely upon, one will realize they are weak at best and often outright fabricated. Its sad that any debate about hadith should even occur, since the hadith mystics highlight are well outside of the scope of what we are taught by Allah (SWT) in the Quran, and our Holy Prophet (SAS) in the authentic hadith, and even by all of the imams. Even our religious scholars in the present day freely debunk some or all of the mystic’s hadiths. Because of the internet, the devil now has a direct link with our minds with the help of his army of humans, but thanks to the internet we have a wealth of knowledge and information to debunk the devil’s deceptions.
- Many of those who believe this version of reality do so from a personal experience point of view, often backed up with one or more emotional experiences. Sadly, they ignore the fact that these spiritual experiences are also explained away through the mercy of Allah’s divine intervention into your lives, which is also confimed by Allah SWT in the Quran.
The Mission for this Blog:
To shed light on the false claims made by Sufi, Irfans and mystics. To educate people that all sources from these groups are actually the same. And to hopefully allow those enchanted with the allure of mysticism realize that they are actually being corrupted down a dark path that they may lose decades if not their entire life in. I do not know what Allah would do with a mystic’s soul, perhaps Allah may forgive their misguidance due to their good intentions, but then again perhaps Allah will not. Based what Allah (SWT) states in the Quran,
“Obey God and obey the messenger, and beware: if you turn away, then know that the sole duty of Our messenger is the clear delivery.” [5:92]
To the mystic, sufi, irfan the Quran is riddled with secret meanings that only the “rightly guided” can interpret and pass along. Unfortunately for them, this belief goes against the clear words of Allah, that the message was “clear”. The message is not hidden through obscure duplicitous meanings meant only for the elite to find, otherwise how would Allah (SWT) judge us fairly?
Conclusions about Irfans
Do people with special insights or intuition exist? I think not. However, even if I am wrong, and there exists some out there with mystical powers, the question becomes can those individuals then teach this to others? Is there anything to actually teach? My belief is no.
Can one learn to be a Irfan? No
Is mystical knowledge, powers, or experiences acquired or given by God? Any type of power can be given by Allah. We are all powerless except through the blessings of Allah. One cannot acquire even a breath if it wasn’t for Allah’s intervention.
Tags: Irfan, Sufi, Mystic, Islam, Muslim, Islamic.
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