The Sufi Path is a spiritual path which first assists the follower to focus and deal with his distractions. After that, a follower on the Sufi Path should strive to know himself with the assistance of his teacher.
Self realisation cannot be given by any one and those who claim this ability are not truthful. It is only achieved by the free will of the follower and his own work, assisted by a teacher.
The teacher is a friend and a coach who helps the follower to empower himself. His work is to assist the follower to break all idols, including breaking away from idolising the teacher. A real Sufi teacher avoids fame and sometimes they appear to others as an ordinary person.
“A Sufi is a child of the moment.
He does not dream about the future or
Try to rediscover or linger on the past.”
A teacher who advertises his line of heritage is using this as a qualification of his excellence. But most Sufi mystics and teachers, such as Attar, Junaid, Abu Said, Hafez, Saadi, Hallaj and Shams-e-Tabriz, did not use their lineage to emphasise their abilities.
The only time such a teacher’s work becomes well known is when his followers achieve the high state of spirituality or his work has been used to help others, even after his death.