Understanding Tariqa

As Sufism enters more fully into the milieu of the West, we see some confusion about the different tariqas. We in the West have been exposed to so many differing doctrines, each claiming to be the "right" one that we often think of the many Sufi orders (tariqa) in this light. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Its founders created each of the different tariqas as a response to the needs of different kinds of people. If a person is drawn to a particular school of Sufism, such as the Qadiri or Mevlevi, it is because that school addresses the particular needs of that individual.

This can be thought of in the same light as vocational schools. If a person has a deep desire to become a great chef he does not go to a master carpenter for training. Though both the apprentice chef and the carpenter both learn to Work, each has different needs. These special needs are addressed by the tariqas.

We find that each of the different tariqas was developed by an exceptional teacher to address the needs of a particular kind of person, rather than to address a difference in "doctrine".

What we discover is that among the true tariqas there is a general agreement about all of the essential basics of the path. You do not ever see the tariqas claiming that they have the one true way, or that they are "higher" than all the other orders. The shaykhs of the path understand that they have been given an area of work and that they may only accept the people that belong to them. It would be both silly and detrimental to accept people who had the "vocation" of chef into a school that creates master carpenters.

In the true tariqas, while everyone is welcomed as a guest, it is understood that a shaykh can only accept his or her "own children" as murids, and a true shaykh will recognize the people who belong to him or her.

So there is no competition between the tariqas, no proselytizing of the "one true way of Sufism", no claims of being the "highest" or "best" path. The shaykhs understand that they have the "best" way only for those people who Allah intends to send them, and that no one can be all things to all people except Allah.

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