Actions are based on their intentions and this is very true when a person is going to a shaikh for islah. People go to a shaikh or give bayt for various reasons. Some people do it just for barakah purpose. The man is a big alim, he is very spiritual, he is very pious and upright, he is known to be a virtuous man, they want to earn his duas and stay in his sohbat. They want to get the barakah of the silsilah. They attend his lectures and talks, they sit in his company. They are happy with this and its fine. Some people do it for wordly purpose, they want to get a name. You are known by the company you keep - they want to be known as a companion of such and such big shaikh, they want to be known in the community as a devotee of such and such alim, they want to make a name. Some people do it to make money or some worldly gains. There was a man who went around claiming to be the son in law of Hazrat Haji Imdaadullah sahib Muhajir Makki (ra) just so that people will hold him in high regard and serve him, open their homes to him, feed and clothe him - this has happened. Haji sahib (ra) denied his relation to him. There was an alim who was bayt to a big buzrugh. He claimed to be the buzrughs khalifah. He went from town to town, masjid to masjid, village to village with his claim. The people, in reverance to the shaikh, out of respect to the buzrugh, thinking this man to be his khalifah opened their homes to him, fed and clothed him, took good care of him. The shaikhs real khulafah came to know of this imposter and his false claims and reported it to the shaikh. The shaikh stayed quiet on the matter for some time. Why? Primarily to give the guy the chance to make tawbah from his action. Also, to let him continue doing it so that once his scheme fails he falls twice as hard on his face. Shuyookh always have their batini works going on though they may not seem apparent to the student. The shaikh had gotten really ill and at this point decided it was best to make a list of his khulafah, sign off on the list and have it published and hung up in every masjid in town. After the list was put up in the masajid the people saw it and didnt find the name of the alim who was going on about his khilafath. They became very angry and displeased with the man, gave him a good beating, and the man who was an alim and had imamat in a masjid had then completely stopped offering his salaat - what a grevious punishment! He fell twice as hard on his face. Did not the man claiming to be Haji sahibs son in law get what he intended? Didnt he eat well? Didnt he live well? Didnt he earn dunya? Yes he did, for a short time. Didnt the man who claimed to be the shaikhs khalifah eat well, have the best clothing at his disposal, didnt he live well? Didnt he earn his dunya? Yes for a short time. And those people who go to the shaikh for barakah purpose, or for some duas or wazeefahs to cure their ailments, dont they earn what they intend? Yes they do. Actions are based on intentions and the results of those actions are also based on intentions and this is very true especially when someone goes to a shaikh for islah. Whatever the persons intention is he will surely earn it even if he intends dunya he will surely, without doubt, earn dunya from the barakah of the shaikh. So what should the niyyat be when going to a shaikh? To attain siffat of ehsaan. Whoever goes to their shaikh to attain siffat of ehsaan will surely, without doubt, earn the siffat of ehsaan. So a person goes to a shaikh, so now what should he do? What are his responsibilities? First, from what I see with the youth here, I think a person needs to read up on the adaab of the shaikh. There isnt one or two adaab, there are many adaabs of the shaikh. One has to read and learn them and carry them out. Next comes the issue of the real islahi taluq. Islahi taluq is a relationship a person establishes with a shaikh, someone who rectifies his deeni/spiritual condition. So the person who is going to the shaikh is called a seeker, you can say, salik. Sulook is a journey, to go from one place to another, and a salik is one who is carrying out this journey. Sulook is a journey from the nafs e ammara bis suu to the nafs e mutmainnah. When a person goes to a shaikh in the context of an islahi taluq, to rectify his baatin, to establish his deen, to correct his errors, he has the responsibility to openly express his condition to the shaikh regularly. This is where a lot of people fail. Some people dont do this at all, some people do this once a year, some do it once a month. Some people just give the shaikh a yearly allowance, a few hundred dollars, and go on their way. How insulting! They sit in the shaikhs company or sit in his lectures but they never inform him of their condition, the shaikh has no clue what is going on with them. The guy could be comitting zina, cheating people, treating his parents/wife/children like garbage, and the shaikh has no hint of his spiritual death. It is possible that Allah swt will express to the shaikh, will put into the shaikhs heart, the condition of the salik, and even if it does happen the shaikh will rarely mention it, why? The shaikh wants the salik to take initiative, show some concern for his condition and express his condition himself to the shaikh. Why should the shaikh do the mureeds work? The best mureed is he who openly expresses his condition to the shaikh regardless of what his condition is - good or bad - the best mureed expresses his condition openly as it is. He doesnt hide things, he doesnt tell half truths, he certainly doesnt lie. Even if he does, the shaikh will catch it. The shaikh is the shaikh for a reason. The shaikh may have a certain preference for his mureed to contact him. This may be done via phone/email/in person/whatever the shaikhs preference is. The mureed should ask the shaikh what is the best way to keep in regular touch with him and the shaikh will let him know. As far as the mureed, probably the best thing he can do for himself is that he should keep a regular journal of his islahi questions to the shaikh and the shaikhs responses. This journal should be his most prized possession. In this journal he should keep an account of when he contacted his shaikh, what was discussed, what the shaikh said. Then the next time he reports to his shaikh he should continue and add on to his journal. A person may only get in contact with the shaikh via phone - thats fine. A person may only get in contact with the shaikh via email - thats fine also. Whatever the method of contacting the shaikh is, he should keep a journal. If his method of contact is in person, then the journal becomes nur ala nur because he could just submit the journal and get his answers. The mureed who keeps a regular islahi journal progresses fast. The way to set up the journal is as follows: Open the journal from the right, dont open it from the left. Leave the first page blank, put your name on it or something. This blank page serves to protect your personal info. Then go to the second page, fold that directly in half. This is how every single page is going to be set up. Now on top date the journal, then write "Assalaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu" and then write a (1) or some mark you use to indicate your first issue and begin writing. There is a crease in the middle of the page from the folding, the mureed will write on the right side of the crease and the shaikh will write his response on the left side of the crease. After you are done writing your issues then keep the page folded and submit your book to your shaikh. The folded page will serve as a bookmark for the shaikh showing him where you have written so he doesnt waste his time searching through your book - he sees the folded page and turns to it and sees your issues written legibally on the right and he has space on the left to write his response. There could be 2-5-10 folded pages, he will obviously go to the 1st folded page and work his way down. This is a proper islahi journal set up. I didnt want to put a pic of my journal so I found something on line that closely illustrates what the setup looks like: Look at the top picture, thats going to be the entire page. The mureeds side is the one that has 'front cover' written on it, you will only write on that side. The white area is where the shaikh will write his response or in the case that you contact via phone you will write down his response on the white side. You see the crease in the middle? You will never write past that crease to the other side, thats your boundary. You will continue writing down but never across into the shaikhs boundary. The bottom picture illustrates how the page will look folded serving as a bookmark to you and to the shaikh of an entry that is unanswered. Any pages in your journal that are folded like that will automatically indicate an unanswered entry and serve as a bookmark for your shaikh and for you. After the shaikh writes his answer or you note down his answer, this page will again be folded out properly looking like the original image on top. So, after you write your issues the page is going to be folded just like this with a crease down the middle - you dont write past the crease, your boundary is the crease. The shaikh will commence his response on the other side of the crease. Thats another image I found. Maybe it would be easier if I showed pics from my journal but I am sure with the last two pics and the explanation, you got the idea. Ok so now the journal has a proper shape, the islah of the journal itself is done, what do we fill it with and how do we get to our islah? The proper way to do this is to cover the following topics: (1) Aqaid (2) Ibadaat (3) Mamulaat (4) Muashirat (5) Akhlaaq This is a proper, thorough report of ones halaath. This is a complete report and will give the shaikh a complete picture of what is going on with the mureed, where he is, what he needs to cover, how he is progressing. The questions one may write for the above mentioned topics might be like this: These are just examples (some are very sarcastic), you dont have to title your questions, just keep in mind when jotting down questions or explaining your condition that you want to cover all 5 areas. They dont have to be questions, they could just be explanation of your current condition in each area: (1) Aqeedah - These questions are going to pertain to all of your beliefs. They might start small but before you know it might end up big. Some days you wont have any questions at all, some days you will be loaded with these questions. "Hazrath, I want to learn the depths of tawhid wat shall i do?" "Hazrath, please recommend some books of aqeedah so I can rectify my aqaid." "Hazrath, I believe the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam to be hazir nazir at all times, is this correct?" etc. whatever the question may be with regards to your aqaid. "I am now constantly making moraqab e khalq and moraqaba e haq" "The thoughts of ummahatus siffaat come to me in salaat throughout the salaat" whatever (2) Ibadaat - These pertain to all of your worship activities. Most people are stuck on these only so most of your entries will be loaded with these questions. Refraining from sin is also an ibadat so you have to mention that also. "Hazrath, I am lazy in my fajr salaat, sometimes I wake up and sometimes I dont, what shall I do?" "Hazrath, I am not punctual in my mamulaat, sometimes I do them sometimes I miss them." "I love to offer tahajjud but I am super lazy in Fajr" (3) Muamulaat - These pertain to all financial/business transactions. The number of these questions will depend on how many financial and business dealings you carry out in your day to day life. "Hazrath, I owe such and such person such and such amount of money, I have no way of paying it back at the current time." "I make such and such amount of money per month I dont know where it disappears to." "I want to take out a loan for school." "I have no barakah in my wealth" State whatever your financial dealings/situation are. (4) Muashirat - These are very important to mention! These are your day to day interactions with the people around you; your parents, your wife, your kids, your husband, your boss, your coworkers, your neighbors, your bus driver - these all pertain to how you function in society, in the environment around you. "Hazrath, my dealings with everyone are very good, I dont have fights or arguments with anyone, I keep about my own work only." "Hazrath, yesterday my wife and I really got into it. She said this and that, I got soo upset, I responded with this and that, next thing you know she threw a baby bottle at me, in response I did this or said this, whatever." "Hazrath, yesterday I was making zikr and my parents called me for some work but I was very strong and did not fall into this temptation of shaytaan, I kept making my zikr" "I was watching tv and my mom asked me to throw out the garbage so I made such and such comment to her" (5) Akhlaaq - These all will pertain to your internal deeds, the deeds of your heart, your qualities such as anger, love for aakhirat, love for dunya, shahwat, justice, riyaa whatever, these will pertain to the qualities you find in yourself. "Hazrath, I feel I have intense anger, it rises but I dont act out the demand of my anger" "Hazrath, my shahwath is such that I think I will go crazy" "Hazrath, yesterday on the bus a couple of Muslim people came on and I took out my Quran to start reading, when they left it put it away" whatever Dont go crazy thinking of what to write, just write whatever condition you are in. Speak from the heart. Be honest and open. Your shaikh will never think low of you, if he does hes not worth going to for islah in the first place. *If you dont know what to write then just write in there "I was thinking of what to write but I couldnt think of anything to write" your shaikh will get it out of you. Be specific, give examples. This journal is nur ala nur if you do in person contact. You write your stuff, leave it with the shaikh, he writes his response and you got your new halaath ready to report. This also works great for those people who contact their shaikh via phone. You write your questions and are prepared, you arent wasting time on the phone "uhh, ummm, ya....so" - you are prepared with questions and you go from point to point. As he answers write down his answer on the shaikh response side. Also jot down the date and time and write 'contacted shaikh via phone at such and such time, shaikh was busy/free/whatever'. This also works great if you have email contact with the shaikh. You just print out the emails and stick them in a folder. In a short time you will see great improvements insha'Allah and in a short time you will see just how much you amass in your islahi journal. I dont think I have left anything out. O, one thing, you want to keep your Nizam e Awqaat, your timetable, in this journal. Anytime your timetable is changed, or your work schedule is changed, whatever big change happens in your schedule, you want to make a note of that in the journal and report it. Also, obviously keep a list of your current mamulaat on a separate page in the book and from time to time, once a month, report your current mamulaat. I dont think I have missed anything out. At the end of your questions, always, always, always, request the shaikh for his duas. The last thing you should write is "Hazrath, I request for your khaas duas for my islah, wa alaykum as salaam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu." Whatever the shaikh advises you should strictly adhere to that to see change otherwise youre just dreaming of islah. I pray that on the day of judgement Allah swt will only ask us regarding this journal, the journal we keep for our islah, and will pardon us simply from scribbling our chicken-scratch insignificant conditions in it and that Allah swt will not take us to account of our book of deeds, Allah swt is Qadir upon this, with a'fiyat. Na ley hisaab, Hum ahley nisaab nahin - Arif Billah Hazrat Sufi Ghulam Muhammad sahib (ra) Dont take us to account, We have nothing to give account for.