In Sufism, there is a concept of ‘Peer’ and ‘Mureed’ or in other words, of teacher and the student. A Mureed or student chooses a highly spiritual person to be his Peer or master and obeys his directions and guidance for rising up in the levels of spirituality. On the other hand, the Peer always remains vigilant about the spiritual condition of his student and gives him continued guidance.
Of this relationship, it is very necessary that the student should have an absolute love and respect to his master and whatever he says, he should follow it without any objection. Every single word of the master should come as an order for the student and his orders should be whole-heartedly accepted and followed. On the other hand, it is also said that master knows about the spiritual condition of his student or students (as a master may have many students at the same time) and keeps directing his students according to their needs.
Anyhow, this was a very useful setup as the acknowledged master used to train and bring up highly spiritual and perfect students. This was not limited to the religious scholars only rather every common man was bound to this relation and thus men of noble character were brought up who left their impressive marks of honesty and sincerity in the society and thus the great achievements of Muslims in the early ages of Islam can be credited to the Sufism as well.
In this regard, a friend of mine told me an interesting joke. A student or Mureed went to see his master or Peer. He went to him with all the due respect and sat in front of him. They greeted each other and master inquired about the reason of his visit. The student replied humbly, ‘Dear Master, I came to see you only because whenever I see you, I feel great mental and spiritual contentment and satisfaction.’ To this, master smiled and got busy with his work. After some time, two guests of master came. He welcomed them and made them sit and greeted them with good words. Then he said to his Mureed, ‘My dear, please serve the guests with water. They might be tired’. The Mureed smiled and said, ‘My dearest master, as I told you, I have come here to see you only so I cannot move from my place. I will sit here and keep looking at you.’ This surprised the master but he didn’t show this to his guests and got up and served the guests with water. After some time, the tea was brought and again the master said to his Mureed, ‘My dear, please pour the tea into the cups and serve my guests’, but to this, the student smiled and said, ‘As I told you my respected master, I cannot take my eyes away from you even for a single moment as I have come here to see you, so many apologies from my side, but I cannot do this work either’. This unexpected answer of the student annoyed the Peer a bit but he did not let his expressions to be revealed and gave a usual smile and served the tea himself. Then came the lunch time and once again, same thing happened and the Mureed refused to obey the orders of his master. This was a clear indication that this relationship could no more be beneficial to either of them and after the guests left, master called his student and told him that he has dismissed him from the list of his students and now he should no more come to his place. To this, the ignorant and stubborn Mureed started crying and left the place in a great hue and cry.
He shared this story on the occasion of birthday of our Holy Prophet (PBUH). On 12th Rabi-ul-awwal of Islamic calendar, the holy birthday of our kind prophet is celebrated in all the Islamic countries of the world. There are different ways of celebrating this joyous occasion in different parts of the world. It is true that, it is an occasion when we need to show our love, respect and gratitude to our Prophet in the most polite and appropriate manners but it has been noticed that with increasing ignorance, there are increasing traditions and rituals that are against the teachings of Islam and have destroyed the good image of our religion.
As you might have witnessed in media, in different parts of our country and in some other countries of the world, there were such gatherings that were at the same time strange and meaningless. Gathering of large number of people at a place, arranging walks and demonstrations, shouting slogans, wearing strange clothes, carrying placards and banners on which the love to the Prophet was claimed, then gathering in mosques or other public places, the bombastic and adrenaline-boosting speeches of religious scholars, later on shouting on such occasions and in the end there is always great disturbance and indiscipline on the occasion of distribution of food. All these gatherings were arranged in the name of reviving the love of Holy Prophet (PBUH) but there were people, who were totally unaware of the conditions demanded by the love of Holy Prophet (PBUH). They were physically present on the occasion but majority of them were laughing, smiling, pushing each other and it looked as if they did not have the slightest idea about the character and attitude of Holy Prophet (PBUH) on different occasions of life.
The first and foremost importance of this day is to review the teachings of Holy Prophet (PBUH) and make a vow to implement them in our daily lives so that we may become better and responsible humans. In order to review the teachings, first we need to know about them. We all know this and repeat this time and again that life of Holy Prophet (PBUH) is a perfect example for all of us and his sayings have perfect guidelines for us to follow. It is necessary that on such an occasion we should take books about life and sayings of Holy Prophet (PBUH) and read and understand them. We are very lucky that we have great collection of such books in the form of Sahhah-e-Satta (or Five Perfect Books). When you will start reading those books, you will discover the hidden treasures of knowledge and thus your love and respect to Holy Prophet (PBUH) will be based on knowledge and understanding.
Secondly, we need to assess with our common logic as if how much these gatherings are going to benefit our character or spiritual condition (as they are claimed to be) or how it is going to increase our love to our beloved Prophet (PBUH). It is unfortunate to see that most of these gatherings have proved to be gatherings of undisciplined mob, and has no such benefits at all. It is also useless to think that they might please our Holy Prophet (PBUH) or increase his love and respect in our hearts. It doesn’t mean that we should not arrange any such gathering; rather we can arrange gatherings in more decent and polite manner in which we can learn from each other discipline and cooperation.
In this regard, the important responsibility lies on our religious scholars who should guide the people in getting true benefits from this blessed occasion.