Preface by Sheikh Nazim al-Qubrusi
As for other Tariqahs, the veils are rent from the bottom. As each is successively cut through the mystical practices, the murid beholds a new panorama. But that very vision may keep him from progressing, as, when he dies he leaves the world at that station only. Those who attain such stations during this life may discover that they have become powerful and famous among people.
Therein is the danger, as power and recognition are conditions conducive to the tendency towards worldliness. You can be sure that the ego will never be heedless of such a cardinal opportunity to demand its share of the excitement and admiration, thus lending its taint to the whole process of spiritual endeavour.
My advice is to leave fame to those who pursue it. If you are a Sufi aspirant seek your Lord, not fame. Look, history’s most renowned Holy Woman, the Virgin Mary, once prayed:
“If only I were nameless and forgotten”
She has taught all mankind to seek only obscurity in the sight of the world, not to desire recognition. The hankering for power and fame is the heaviest burden anyone can shoulder. I don’t advise anyone to pursue fame: seek only to be forgotten in the Ocean of Unity of Allah Almighty.
