The Need of a Guide
In principle, the path to tazkiya for a person is to reflect upon the Quran and to study the Hadith in order to find guidance from the lives of the Prophet and the Companions of the Prophet. This is the basic source of tazkiya, and its importance will last for all eternity. Besides this, there is also a practical way of attaining tazkiya, and that is to find a living guide, thus benefitting from his learning and experience. When a guide is found, he ought to be accepted as such unconditionally. Making conditions before accepting a guide only sets up a hurdle in the path of tazkiya.
When anyone says that he has accepted someone unconditionally, this does not mean that he has entered into this arrangement with blind faith. It only means that, as a result of the development of moral consciousness, two human beings have come together on the same wavelength. This is a case of intellectual affinity, rather than a case of blind faith. When two human beings reach the core of truth, they naturally enter a state of intellectual commonality. They become, as it were, intellectual “twins”.
A guide is essential for the attainment of tazkiya, but the importance of the guide is practical rather than a matter of creed. The importance of a guide, in actual fact, relates directly to the general way (sunnah) of God. This way has been described in the following verse of the Quran: “It is We who distribute among them their livelihood in the life of this world, and raise some of them above others in rank, so that they may take one another into service.” (43:32). This verse shows that it is not the way of God to bestow on everyone the qualities required for a guide. It is the way of God to give leadership qualities to particular persons and others are required to follow them. This is the natural system of life according to the way of God.
The case of a religious guide also relates directly to this way of God, for God grants special help to those who have to perform this role. The duty of tazkiya-seekers is to recognize them, and receive guidance from them in order to achieve their objective. Those who fail to do so will be treated as failures in this test of nature.
There is nothing mysterious about this. It falls within a known and natural sphere and can be understood upon reflection. What is received from a religious guide is not something mysterious in nature: it is the same as what in general terms is called a training course. A religious guide is a living guide rather than a sacred personality in some mysterious sense of the word.
