Methodological note on reading
This article does not deal with the Isnad (the chain of initiatic transmission) from the educational or behavioural angle usual in the literature of Sufism. It is rather an attempt to open another window onto this concept, a window inspired by the spirit of the Way, but one that examines its existential depth: How is the human being formed through connection? And how is the structure of the relationship between the Self and the Absolute, between the Heart and Being (al-Kaynouna), reflected in the Isnad?
It is a philosophical reading that goes beyond the practical dimension of the journey, in order to ask a deeper question about the nature of consciousness and about the way in which man crosses the frontiers of his illusory Self towards the horizon of the luminous Self (al-Dhat al-Nuraniyya). The latter flourishes only within the space of a relationship that gives meaning and reconnects man with his first root.
When man meditates on his journey through existence, he discovers that he is a being in unceasing search of an origin that explains his presence, and of a relationship that restores his first balance. For existence is not an event separated from its root, and the soul is not an entity closed in on itself. We are, in truth, beings who are fulfilled only through connection. It is here that the Sufi Isnad appears as a profound attempt to reconnect man with the world and with the Absolute, through a visible human chain which is, in its essence, an invisible thread linking the body to the Spirit, time to Eternity (al-Azal), and man to the Supreme Source.
Sufism therefore does not stop at the frontiers of worship or of spiritual effort (Mujahada), but asks a founding question: How can man be authentically himself? And how does he recover his inner voice amid the clamour of existence?
In this context, companionship (Sohba), the function of Master (Mashyakha) and the Isnad become existential tools before being spiritual tools, for they reorganise man’s relationship with himself and allow his consciousness to open onto a horizon that appears only when he enters the field of influence of another heart, which awakens him and grants him a light that goes beyond the appearance of things.
The transmission of states (Ahwal) as an ontological act
When the Sufis say that the state (Hal) of the Cheikh is transmitted to the disciple (Mourid), they do not mean a direct psychological influence, but an existential interaction taking place between two subjects.
In philosophy, man is regarded as a centre of energy and meaning, and every centre influences others. For the Sufis, the Cheikh is a centre of light who transforms the form of consciousness without recourse to discourse.
The Sohba is therefore not an external event, but entry into a spiritual and cognitive field that leads the wayfarer to share with his Cheikh a kind of “existential resonance”.
And since spiritual states are not written down and cannot be converted into language, they remain a form of intuitive knowledge that Sufi works call “Taste” (Dhawq).
This knowledge by taste is the driving force of inner transformation. The Cheikh is not a theoretical teacher, but a gateway on whose threshold stands another level of reading existence: a reading that reason alone cannot attain, however precise and capable it may be.
If modern philosophy has distinguished conceptual knowledge from the empirical knowledge of consciousness, Sufism unites them and adds to them a deeper knowledge “of state” (Haliyya): a knowledge that precedes concept and object, and comes close to the first spark from which perception emanates.
The Mashyakha as the structure of meaning and guardian of Being
The Sufi’s refusal to walk the path without a Cheikh is not a search for submission to an authority, but the quest for a structure that preserves his inner harmony. The Cheikh is the living memory of meaning, and the beacon by which the wayfarer experiences the limits of his humanity.
Sufi education here meets the great philosophical questions:
Can the Self reform itself? Is consciousness enough to reorder inner chaos?
The Sufis answer that consciousness alone is not enough, for it is, by its very nature, part of the problem as long as it remains governed by the chains of the ego (Nafs). The Cheikh, for his part, is a transcended consciousness, perfected by purification (Tazkiyah), which has become a mirror in which the wayfarer sees himself freed from his illusions.
This is why Ibn Ata Allah said that “he who has no Cheikh is a (spiritual) orphan* (Laqit)”, not because the Cheikh holds absolute Truth, but because the soul without continuous education wavers between the illusion of power and the illusion of knowledge.
In this sense, the Isnad is not a chain of names, but a chain of meaning that guards understanding from deviation and preserves the spiritual intellect of the Community (Oumma), just as books preserve its theoretical intellect and customs its moral intellect.
Tazkiyah as going beyond the Self and not as moral improvement
Tazkiyah (Purification) is outwardly a refinement of conduct, but it is in truth an ontological project that reshapes the human being from within.
Philosophy speaks of the construction of the Self, whereas Sufism speaks of the effacement of the illusory Self so that the true Human may appear.
When the wayfarer sets out on the Way, he does not seek only to improve his qualities, but aims at a new birth: a passage from a limited human level towards a vast horizon of Presence.
In this crossing, he needs one who knows the road, not for his authority, but for his experience and for having personally passed through the trials of the journey and tasted the subtleties of unveiling (Kachf).
Tazkiyah is not a mechanical process, but a relationship between man’s effort and the Grace (Lutf) of God, between the wayfarer’s attempt and the solicitude of the Cheikh who brings him back to his first harmony.
The further Tazkiyah extends, the more man’s capacity for Presence grows, and the closer he comes to the meaning for which he was created.
From a philosophical point of view, the Sufi Isnad represents one of the most eminent paths by which man has understood himself. It offers not only an educational method, but a complete vision of the relationship between the individual and existence, and between the Heart and the Absolute.
Through it, man realises that his journey is not accomplished in isolation from others, and that Truth is not obtained through separation, but through engagement in a human and spiritual chain that preserves meaning and renews its presence in every generation.
If the Isnad is broken, the light of meaning goes out, for knowledge that is not transmitted through a living heart remains like a distant star: it can be seen, but it cannot guide.
And as long as the chains remain alive, the Secret of Prophethood is renewed, and Sufism is transformed from an individual experience into a cosmic wisdom that offers man an inner light with which to face the mystery of existence.
*(Spiritual) orphan
This translation is used for convenience to evoke the lack of filiation. It is nevertheless inaccurate (the Arabic word for orphan being Yatim). The laqit is literally the abandoned or lost child, not simply the bereaved one.
