One should seek to bind oneself only to living men, as the perfect guide’s function includes two aspects:
· Firstly, he guides you to Al’lah through his sayings, and acquaints you with the ways to Al’lah that were brought to us by His messenger (cpth) and which are to be found in God’s Book.
· Besides that, he teaches you love for God’s messenger (cpth), for through your real love for this perfect guide, sublime love for God will be impressed upon your spirit. In a little time, you’ll find yourself bound to this noble messenger, close and inseparable from him during your entrance into God’s presence.
Then, if your guide finds that you have attained access to God’s messenger, he will say to you: “Adhere to this attainment for my work with you is done. I have helped you reach the one whom Al’lah the Almighty has established as a gateway for all the world; he whom God has ordered all the believers to join and through whom they are to communicate with God Himself”.
Al’lah the Almighty refers to this in the noble verse: “Verily, Al’lah and His angels keep in communication with the prophet. You who believe, communicate with Al’lah through him and fully surrender.”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 33, Al-Ahzab (The Combined Clans), verse 56
That is: connect your spirits, oh believers, with his noble spirit, so that it will ascend with you into the Godly presence where you will receive eternal illumination in God’s light during this life, the interval between death and Doomsday, and the afterlife, so that you will be one of those whose light appears, due to their good deeds and the blessings they have attained. Devils flee from them, defeated and denounced (by themselves and by those who tend to them), as the enlightened ones are the lanterns of guidance and goodness for the whole of humanity.
As for binding oneself to the spirits of guides and true men and women who have already departed from this life, this is forbidden, as it is beyond humanity’s consciousness and perception and attracts their spirits. At the moment that they – the departed guides – shifted from this lower life and became entirely absorbed in God’s grace, their spirits were elated, and in no time at all they will realize that Doomsday has come, as if it had occurred at the moment of their leaving this life. They shall feel the interval between the day they died and the Day of Resurrection as but a moment, because of the great bounties and exalted bliss that the Almighty generously gives them.
After their death, these guides will be unable to turn their spirits towards their followers due to their astonishment at what Al’lah bestows upon them – happiness unseen, untold and previously unimagined. These departed guides are absorbed in passionate rejoicing in the great manifestation that is their Provider. An everlasting bliss overwhelms them as a reward for the honorable and good deeds that they performed in life, and which benefitted all the rest of God’s creation.
As far as these messengers (ptt) are concerned, their task doesn’t end until Doomsday, as they don’t engage wholly with their gift until that time. God says: “And when messengers had been sent in their appointed times, to which day are they delayed? Until the Day of Judgement.”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 77, Al-Mursalat (Rain Sent Forth), verse 11-13
He also says: “Those (prophets and apostles) are the ones whom Al’lah has guided. Follow then their guidance, you who believe…”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 6, Al-An’am (Livestock), verse 90
Thus, it is forbidden to bind with these holy men after their death. Thus it is not allowed to bind oneself to either Sheikh Abdul-Kadir Al-Jaylani or Sheikh Ahmad Al-Rifaee, or even Shah Naqshband (upon whom may God have mercy), or any other. Such close bindings should only be with prophets (ptt), according to God’s own words: “Those are the ones whom Allah has guided. Follow then their guidance…”
The orders and creeds that digress from the straightforward and most Noble Qur’an are all false, in spite of their abundance. God says: “Truly, if you obey most of those in the land, they shall certainly lead you astray from God’s path...”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 6, Al-An’am (Livestock), verse 116
Here is a factual story in which one performer of supernatural tricks and supposedly miraculous actions admits that he saw the reality of his deeds when faced with death…