Training of a Dervish

Participation in a Sufi tariqa should be viewed as attending a university to which the dervish devotes his or her best time and attention. The training is holistic, meaning that it deals with all aspects of the student's life. The training is also thorough in the sense that if the student truly devotes himself or herself to developing a relationship with the Divine under the tutelage of the Shaykh and his Khalifas, he or she will eventually attain a complete transformation, if Allah wills it.

The training can be broken down in several ways depending upon the angle and emphasis of discussion. The simplest view is to see the training as zahiri and batini, outer and inner. There are practices that affect the inner state of the dervish and practices that affect the outer being of the dervish. An example of the most basic and important of the batini exercises are the Daily Practices or Wazifas. These are the series of Most Beautiful Names as prescribed by the Shaykh that the dervish repeats a set number of times. An example of a basic zahiri exercise is wudu, or ritual washing, at the suggested times. Both of these wazifas together have the effect of internal and external cleaning. This cleaning helps prepare the dervish for the heavier work to come.

There are other ways to categorize the training such as into body, mind, and spirit; or Sharia, Tariqa, Marifa and Haqqiqa. The polarized category of zahiri and batini takes on a triumvirat aspect when we add Dhati, the Essential. This third aspect allows the dervish to see the unified aspect of the inner and outer, light and dark, yin and yang, male and female.

The goal of the training is for the dervish to establish a constant, personal, loving, willing relationship with the Divine. Everything we speak of or allude to in the training is merely a way of helping the dervish to achieve this blessed state

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