Rabita/Muraqaba .. connecting to and through, the Sheikh.

Bismi'llah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim...for the sake of Prophet Muhammad saws and Sheikh Nazim may Allah protect his secret.

Someone, a good friend,who is muslim and also a member of th Subud group, was asking me recently about taking a Sheikh as they are wanting to practice a "real" Islam and not a heavily Wahhabi influenced one.

Here is a wonderful talk (the best thing I have ever seen from Sheikh Efendi on the subject.) sent to me in an e.mail from "az"may Allah bless him eternally and bless and protect and raise our Sheikh's station for ever amin. (Fatiha):

Allah Almighty is ordering His servants to follow the steps of His friends, and to be with them. Therefore we should be like neighbors with blessed people with our physical body. Then we may be closer through our hearts.
If a pipe does not connect to a tap there will be no water from the tap; spring water may reach to you through pipes. You must have pipes so that the tap can give water. Likewise all the Prophets, and Sayyidina Muhammad alaihi salaam peace be upon them are carrying heavenly streams and mercy to our hearts. Therefore we must always keep connection to their holy and pure hearts in order to recieve wisdom from heavens; you may reach to them and drink from their grand mercy streams. Without the saints/awliya, it is not possible to reach to this. You simply cannot reach to it. Allah Almighty made the awliya to be His mercy springs. The one who reaches to them is going to be alive and be a real living person. Those who reaching to awliya, will reach to ever lasting life. How can we reach to Allah? This is so difficult. But to reach to His representative is to be with Allah.
If a person does not reach to the awliya, it is difficult to reach to blessings. There are common blessings which reach everyone, to even unbelievers.. if not, they wouldn’t exist. But if you want to get much closer, you need another kind of blessing. The person who is heedless looses his expensive life and wastes his precious time. As for an authorized person, it is not important for him outwardly, but in reality, he is always with his sheikh. He has a kind of telephone to his sheikh, to see what news he may benefit from. This has nothing to do with our own will, but it is the will of the sheikh who is taking from the presence of the Holy Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam peace be upon him. The sheikh is always with the presence of the Prophet Muhammad whose reality is always with Allah.
The servant who is asking to reach to the Divine Presence of Allah Almighty, of the Prophet Muhammad and of the sheikh, must always keep his observation/muraqaba/attentive observation, or watchfulness, on the sheikh. You should always observe your sheikh, as he is always looking after you. He never leaves you. To observe means to know, that the sheikh is always with you, and that he is always watching you. The follower/murid is never alone.
Say 'Ya Allah', 'Don’t leave me alone with my ego'. When the murid is not with his sheikh, he will be with his ego, and with the satan, and the ego has millions of tricks to play on you. When the murid keeps observation of the sheikh --for one minute, a while, or as much as he can do-- the sheikh will be with him, and in every situation, he will support him. The observation brings the support/medad. If you are cutting off, then the sheikh’s support is cut off. The sheikh supports the one who is walking on the way to Allah.. as a car fills up its tank at a petrol station before moving on. A real authorized person, has such a station to make you to reach to Allah Almighty. He is also taking from the presence of his sheikh, who is taking from the presence of the holy Prophet Muhammad who receives from the presence of Allah Almighty. If you cut this connection off, you will be left alone, and be like a tape recorder with finished batteries. Instead if you have support through a cable, it will never cut off, or become less. Always it will continue and go on.
For how long do you want to stay with your ego? To observe the sheikh is one of the most important things, so that you can always be with the sheikh, and so that you may be able reach to the presence of the holy Prophet Muhammad. Then you will be able to observe the Prophet Muhammad, and you may see that the eye of the Prophet Muhammad is looking at you, and that you come to know the meaning of the Quranic verse which says that the holy Prophet is among you, he is not absent. If there is no observation/muraqaba, you will never see or feel anything.
Muraqaba makes the servant to hear things from the sheikh, and he will see and watch events and things also. Then you may see 'the reality of the sheikh' whose power is surrounding the whole world -if he is a true one. There are no borders.. No! Not if the responsibility has been given to him, officially, by the holy Prophet. His power is always present, in every place, on the land and in the Oceans. Wherever you go he is present.
When you have a good connection, at first you will hear -like a kind of divine telephone to the sheikh- and he will show you the way by what he tells you. After this, when the murid becomes higher in his maqam/station, he will begin 'to see' also the sheikh who is directing him with words. This is the highest level from the muraqaba of the murid, until the murid climbs up to the observation of the Holy Prophet Muhammad whom he will first hear until he gets higher and then he will see the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him.
Of this state, the greatest of the holy ones used to say 'If we are not looking at the holy Prophet Muhammad even for the blink of an eye, and if he is cut off from being directly in front of us, we would not count ourselves as being muslims anymore'. This is because if a man is with his ego he is not a believer -no iman/faith. Until he is with Allah Almighty, the holy Prophet Muhammad, and the other Prophets, he will be cut off, and there will be nothing else to serve accept his ego. He would have made himself to be a servant of his ego until they will say of him 'Did you see the one who made his own ego to be his God' the Holy Quran. This person will no longer separate what is allowed or forbidden. He will say 'I am free, and that which I want to do, I will do'.
Therefore, the observation of the sheikh by the murid, is the most important thing for his improvement on the way, and if not, his diesel or petrol will finish, and he will stand on the way without moving. When he insists that he doesn’t want to think about his sheikh, he will be left there.
These are some sensitive points which satan and his supporters have interfered with to cheat the ones who are on the way. They say that it is making partners with Allah -shirk- when one observes the sheikh. It cannot be and is not shirk or unbelief. It is only that these people have no understanding about how to obtain a ‘true state’. Muraqaba is for one on the way, and it is to be done always until he reaches to the Divine Presence. Then he will be from one of those who have reached, and there will be nothing left in him of the worries of the world or of the hereafter. He will be in permanency.
This is a very precise and heavy lecture, and no one else in this time from the authorized people may speak about this except our Grandsheikh’s representative. Tariqat/path is to have adab/good manners, and is for guiding people to the highest level of adab. Becoming a true murid means being an accepted one in the Prophet Muhammad’s sallallahu alaihi wa sallam peace be upon him presence, and in the Divine Presence. 'O Allah, give Your most beloved servant more majesty and honor'. Who does not make dhikr/zikr has no divine light, and the person who has no light is blind.. so the veils cannot be taken away.