The Blessing of Following Without Question

Mawlana (Shaykh ʿAbd Allāh al-Fāʾiz al-Dāghistānī ق) says if a person follows with this perfection and takes some steps, at that time, even if there appears a wall or a sea or a river, then the power of the Shaykh will open a way for him to walk on water. For whoever commands in this fashion has this power with him, and whoever obeys in this fashion will subsequently have everything with him. You might walk two or three steps and you will be present in front of the Ka'ba. Nothing prevents it. This is the blessing of followership, just as there is not found with the people of reality anything lovelier than the attribute of the followership of the murid for his shaykh.

One of the shaykhs called out from his seat, "Ghazi! Come. Something of ours was left in the president of Sudan's trust. Go and bring it!" Ghazi said, "O our master, where is he?" He said, "Sit." Then the shaykh said, "Samir! Come. Something that belongs to us was left in the Sudanese president's care. Go and bring it." He said, "O my master, where is he?" The shaykh said, "Sit." Then the shaykh said, "Shorbaji!" "Yes, my master." "Go bring our trust from that Indian merchant." He got up without a word and went on his way. There are plenty to show him the way. The murid walked a few steps on the road then, all of a sudden, he found himself inside a certain country. He had moved from Anatolia to some other country where all the inhabitants were coloured. He was in India. He saw a city. He entered and kept walking until he reached the market place. There, someone saw him and invited him to be his guest that night. This stranger accepted his invitation and slept the night there. In the morning that man brought out a bag containing a thousand pieced of gold and said to him, "Take this." He said, "How can I take it? What for?" The merchant said, "How do you mean? Have you not come to this country for the sake of this trust?"

Then the host told him the story of that trust. "I was traveling in the Indian ocean when all of a sudden a storm struck the ship and we were about to sink. Then I supplicated by the intermediacy of the wali who had discretionary power at that time and I supplicated by the intermediacy of the people of Allah when, lo and behold! a man of light appeared on top of the shipmast and he was pointing us to the right direction between the waves. We followed his instructions until we came out safe, whereupon I vowed to give up 1,000 pieces of gold from my halal property. He accepted it and said, 'I shall send you someone to take it.' And this is the trust which I am now remitting." Then he gave the murid another 1,000 gold pieces to keep for himself because he had come from a far away country—and he had come in only three steps.

This is the blessing of following without question.