The Secret in the Prescribed Adhkār of the Shaykh
Counsel of al-Sayyid al-Shaykh Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ b. ʿAbd al-Ghanī b. Ṣāliḥ al-Jaʿfarī (ḥafiẓahu Allāh)
Shaykh of the Jaʿfariyya Aḥmadiyya Muḥammadiyya Ṭarīqa in Egypt and the Islamic world
Why does the Shaykh prescribe a particular dhikr a particular number of times? Why might one remembrance be recited after Fajr, another after Maghrib, and another during the night? In his counsel, al-Sayyid al-Shaykh Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ al-Jaʿfarī (ḥafiẓahu Allāh) explains that the prescribed adhkār of an authorised Shaykh contain secrets that may not be apparent to the murīd, and that ijāza — permission and authorisation — occupies a foundational place in the transmission of the spiritual path. Readers can first consult his original counsel in The Secret in the Prescribed Adhkār of the Shaykh (PDF).
The murīd may know what he has been told to recite.
He may not always know why it has been given in precisely that way.
And therein lies an important lesson in the nature of spiritual transmission.
There Is a Secret in the Prescribed Dhikr
Sayyidī Shaykh Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ al-Jaʿfarī (ḥafiẓahu Allāh) explains that there is a secret in the particular dhikr or adhkār given by the Mashāyikh to their murīdīn.
That secret may relate to the words themselves.
It may relate to their number. Their timing. Or the manner in which they are recited.
The murīd does not necessarily know all of these secrets.
The Shaykh gives the example of reciting:
Yā Laṭīf — 129 times.
A person may ask: why 129?
The reciter himself may not know.
But Sayyidī Shaykh Ṣāliḥ al-Jaʿfarī (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu) knew why that particular number was prescribed.
Sayyidī Shaykh Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ (ḥafiẓahu Allāh) explains that such a secret may have been transmitted between the Shaykh and his own Shaykh, or through a spiritual transmission connected to our Master, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
This includes not only the quantity of the dhikr, but its methodology.
How should it be recited?
When should it be recited?
Is it connected to the day or the night?
Is it to be recited after a particular prayer?
These details are not necessarily arbitrary additions.
They form part of the prescribed spiritual discipline.
A Time for Every Dhikr
Some adhkār are prescribed after Fajr.
Others are connected to Maghrib.
Some are recited during Qiyām al-Layl.
Others may be recited after ʿIshāʾ or before Fajr.
This teaches the murīd something important about the nature of the wird.
The prescribed adhkār are not simply a collection of beautiful phrases gathered together by personal preference.
There is an order to them. A discipline. A time. A number. And there is a transmission.
The seeker may not initially perceive the wisdom contained within every detail. But the path teaches him that not everything of spiritual value must first be reduced to something he can independently calculate or explain.
Sometimes the wisdom of the murīd lies in faithfully receiving what has been transmitted to him.
Learning How to Say “Allah”
Sayyidī Shaykh Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ (ḥafiẓahu Allāh) illustrates this with a beautiful account concerning Shaykh Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Wāḥid (raḥimahu Allāh), who worked in the Egyptian Ministry of Endowments and was close to the Mashāyikh.
During his time as a student at al-Azhar, Shaykh Aḥmad was once holding his subḥa and repeatedly making dhikr:
“Allah, Allah, Allah…”
His Shaykh, Sayyidī Shaykh Ṣāliḥ al-Jaʿfarī (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu), passed by and asked him what he was saying.
Shaykh Aḥmad explained that he was repeating the Supreme Name of Allah.
Sayyidī Shaykh Ṣāliḥ (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu) corrected him:
his pronunciation was not right.
He then personally taught Shaykh Aḥmad how to pronounce the Supreme Name — Lafẓ al-Jalāla — correctly.
He taught him how its letters should be formed, their points of articulation (makhārij) and the characteristics (ṣifāt) by which the sounds of the letters are distinguished.
Shaykh Aḥmad would later spend considerable time describing this lesson.
Consider what this means.
The student was already saying “Allah.”
He was already making dhikr.
But the Shaykh taught him how to make that dhikr properly.
Dhikr Is Received Through Teaching
This incident contains an important lesson for the seeker.
It is possible to know the words of a dhikr without yet knowing everything about how that dhikr is to be performed.
A person might find a litany in a book.
He may discover a particular formula online.
He may hear someone else reciting it.
He may know its number.
Yet the spiritual tradition contains something more than the transmission of written information.
There is ṣuḥba — companionship.
There is teaching.
There is correction.
There is authorisation.
There is the Shaykh observing the murīd and guiding him according to his condition.
Sayyidī Shaykh Ṣāliḥ (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu) did not merely hand Shaykh Aḥmad a word on a page.
He heard him.
He corrected him.
He taught him.
And through that encounter, something was transmitted.
Sayyidī Shaykh Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ (ḥafiẓahu Allāh) describes this as a special kind of lesson and itself a form of dhikr.
Within it, he says, was a secret.
Every Shaykh Has a Secret Within His Adhkār
This brings us to one of the central statements of the counsel:
Every Shaykh has a secret within his adhkār.
This is why the prescribed wird cannot be understood merely as a list of words and numbers.
The words matter.
The numbers matter.
The times matter.
But so does the chain through which they have been received.
The murīd is connected through his Shaykh to those who preceded him, and they to those who preceded them.
The spiritual path is therefore received through transmission.
It is not reinvented by every generation.
And it is not constructed according to the preferences of every individual seeker.
The Nafs and Shayṭān Resist Dhikr
There is another reason the murīd requires discipline and guidance.
Dhikr involves struggle.
Sayyidī Shaykh Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ (ḥafiẓahu Allāh) explains that as a person increases in dhikr, he may also experience increased resistance from Shayṭān — and we seek refuge in Allah from him.
Shayṭān wants the servant to stop remembering Allah.
At the same time, the nafs resists the discipline required to maintain the remembrance.
The seeker therefore finds himself in a struggle.
The nafs says: leave it.
Shayṭān whispers: stop.
The wird says: continue.
This is part of the mujāhada of the spiritual path — the struggle against oneself for the sake of Allah.
It is not always easy.
But through consistency, the murīd learns not to make his spiritual practice dependent upon his passing moods.
He remembers Allah when the dhikr feels light.
And he remains faithful when the nafs finds it heavy.
The Danger of the False Shaykh
It is here that Sayyidī Shaykh Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ (ḥafiẓahu Allāh) gives a serious warning.
There is danger in people presenting themselves as Mashāyikh without genuine authorisation and then prescribing adhkār to others from their own thoughts and imaginations.
A person may have heard about a particular dhikr.
He may have seen it practised elsewhere.
He may even have found it in a book.
But that does not automatically give him the authority to prescribe it to other people as a spiritual regimen.
This distinction is extremely important.
There is a difference between:
- reciting something virtuous, and
- prescribing something as a Shaykh to a murīd.
The second carries a responsibility of transmission and authorisation.
For this reason, Sayyidī Shaykh Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ (ḥafiẓahu Allāh) emphasises that ijāza is a foundation within the science of Taṣawwuf.
Ijāza: Permission and Transmission
Ijāza means permission or authorisation.
Within the traditional Islamic sciences, the concept is familiar.
Knowledge is not merely taken from anonymous words upon a page. It is received through people who themselves received it from those before them.
Taṣawwuf likewise possesses its chains of transmission, permissions and spiritual inheritance.
The authorised Shaykh does not simply invent a spiritual path.
He has received.
And having received, he transmits.
This is why direct permission from an authorised Shaykh matters in the prescribed practices of the ṭarīqa.
The seeker is not simply gathering spiritual exercises.
He is receiving a trust.
General Permission and Specific Permission
There is, however, an important distinction.
Not every beneficial work requires an individual, private permission.
Some works have been explicitly opened to everyone.
Sayyidī Shaykh Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ (ḥafiẓahu Allāh) explains that Sayyidī Shaykh Ṣāliḥ al-Jaʿfarī (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu) would give general permission for people to benefit from his works.
These included his lessons, his poetry and works connected to the heritage of Sayyidī Aḥmad ibn Idrīs (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu) that Sayyidī Shaykh Ṣāliḥ (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu) had laboured to collect and make available for the Umma.
Sayyidī Shaykh Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ (ḥafiẓahu Allāh) once asked his father and Shaykh, Sayyidī Shaykh ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Jaʿfarī (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu), why Sayyidī Shaykh Ṣāliḥ (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu) had given such general permission.
The answer given by Sayyidī Shaykh ʿAbd al-Ghanī (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu) was that this had been commanded by our Master, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and that this knowledge had reached Sayyidī Shaykh Ṣāliḥ (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu) through the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and the blessed Ahl al-Bayt, particularly Sayyidinā al-Imām ʿAlī (karrama Allāhu wajhahu wa raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu) and Sayyidinā al-Imām al-Ḥusayn (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu).
Such knowledge was therefore made available for the benefit of everyone.
Knowledge for the Umma
This is an important dimension of the legacy of Sayyidī Shaykh Ṣāliḥ al-Jaʿfarī (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu).
Sacred knowledge was not something to be unnecessarily concealed from the Umma.
Where general permission had been given, people were encouraged to read and benefit.
Sayyidī Shaykh Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ (ḥafiẓahu Allāh) gives the example of al-Aqmār al-Nūrāniyya, a concise work on the Prophetic biography.
Sayyidī Shaykh Ṣāliḥ (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu) gave general permission for people to read it in its entirety on Sundays and Thursdays, mentioning the abundant virtues and benefits associated with doing so.
Here we see the balance clearly.
There are things opened generally to everyone.
And there are particular prescribed adhkār transmitted directly through the authorised Shaykh.
The seeker should understand and respect both.
Why the Living Shaykh Matters
The counsel concludes by returning to the importance of direct permission from the living Shaykh.
This is not merely an administrative formality.
It is part of the etiquette and tradition of Taṣawwuf.
The living Shaykh knows the path he has inherited.
He knows its awrād.
He knows their method.
And through companionship and guidance, he can know something of the condition of the murīd standing before him.
This is one of the differences between merely encountering spiritual information and entering into spiritual training.
A book can tell you that a dhikr exists.
A page can tell you its words.
A recording can teach you its sound.
But tarbiya — spiritual cultivation — involves a relationship of guidance, correction, permission and transmission.
The account of Shaykh Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Wāḥid (raḥimahu Allāh) captures this beautifully.
He already knew the Name he wanted to remember.
But his Shaykh taught him how to say:
Allah.
The Secret Is Not Merely in the Number
The seeker should therefore be careful not to reduce the “secret” of the prescribed adhkār to numerology or curiosity about hidden meanings.
The deeper lesson is one of transmission.
Why this dhikr? Why this number? Why this time? Why this method?
The murīd may not know every answer.
But he knows from whom he received it.
The spiritual path teaches a person that there is wisdom in receiving before assuming that he must reinvent.
There is blessing in permission.
There is discipline in following a prescribed wird.
There is protection in learning from those authorised to teach.
And there is humility in recognising that the seeker does not need to uncover every secret before he can benefit from faithfully remembering Allah.
The purpose of the dhikr, after all, is not the number itself.
The purpose is Allah.
The number disciplines the tongue.
The prescribed time disciplines the day.
The wird disciplines the nafs.
The Shaykh guides the seeker.
And the remembrance turns the heart towards its Lord.
As Sayyidī Shaykh Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ al-Jaʿfarī (ḥafiẓahu Allāh) concludes:
Success is with Allah — Sublime and Majestic is He — alone.
Terminology
Adhkār — forms of remembrance of Allah; the plural of dhikr.
Wird (pl. awrād) — a regular portion of remembrance, ṣalawāt and supplications undertaken consistently by the seeker.
Ijāza — permission or authorisation transmitted by someone qualified to grant it.
Murīd — a seeker or disciple undertaking spiritual training under the guidance of a Shaykh.
Mujāhada — spiritual striving, particularly the struggle against the lower inclinations of the nafs.
Tarbiya — cultivation and training; in the spiritual path, the disciplined nurturing and purification of the seeker.
Lafẓ al-Jalāla — the Supreme Name “Allah”.
Makhārij — the points from which Arabic letters are articulated.
Ṣifāt — the characteristics or qualities of the Arabic letters that distinguish their correct pronunciation.