What are the Fruits and Benefits of Following a Tariqa?

 

• Through straightforward tariqa, one can attain, to the degree of certainty of seeing, full perception of the truths of faith which are the keys to, and means of, obtaining the eternal treasures in the Eternal World of happiness.
• By setting, through tariqa, the heart to work, which is the center and spring of the human factory, and thereby directing the other human faculties to their creative functions, one can attain true humanity.
• By following tariqa, the believer joins a chain or caravan of saints in the journeying to the Intermediate World and the Hereafter, and he makes those saints friends in that way to eternity, thus being relieved of solitude and benefiting from their noble company in both this and the intermediate worlds. He also regards each of his spiritual masters as a support and strong proof against the attacks of doubts and, relying on their concern for him, he saves himself from falling into misguidance.
• By experiencing the pleasure of knowing God through belief and of love of God coming from the knowledge of Him, he is relieved of utter solitude in the world and loneliness in the universe. As explained in many of the Words, the happiness in both worlds, and the pleasure without sorrow, as well as communion without loneliness, lie in the truth of beliefs and the Islamic way of life. As was stated in the Second Word, faith bears the seed of what is in effect a Tuba tree of Paradise.
• It is through the training of tariqa that that seed germinates and grows.
• By inwardly feeling, through tariqa, the truths contained in the religious duties, through spiritual alertness and the remembrance of God, he performs those duties willingly and enthusiastically, not like a slave compelled to a task.
• He attains the station of reliance on, and absolute submission to, God, and the rank of being approved and loved by Him, which are the means for a true pleasure and consolation without grief, and familiarity and communion without loneliness and separation.
• He saves himself, by means of sincerity and purity of intention achieved through tariqa, from disguised association of partners with God and degrading attitudes like show and pretence. He is also delivered, by purifying himself through the spiritual operations particular to tariqa, from the dangers caused by egotism and the carnal self.
• Through turning in heart and mind toward God, and spiritual peace and sound intentions acquired through silent recitation of God’s Names and reflection, in tariqa, he transforms his everyday acts into acts of worship and his ordinary dealings and transactions into deeds related to the Hereafter, thus making good use of the capital of his life-span in a way to make its minutes like innumerable seeds to multiply into seed-pods for his eternal life.
• Through the journeying by heart and the unceasing struggle against the temptations of Satan and his carnal self, and the spiritual progress attained, he tries to be a perfect man. That is, by becoming a true believer and perfect Muslim, in other words, by attaining the truth or the essence of faith and Islam, and therefore reaching, as a representative of the universe, the rank of being a true servant of God, as well as being His addressee and friend, and a mirror reflecting His Names and Attributes, and by demonstrating his being the best pattern of creation, he proves the superiority of humankind to the angels and, by flying through the highest ranks of humanity with the Islamic wings of belief and practices, he gains, or even experiences, the eternal happiness while in this world.

Glory be to You, we have no knowledge save what You have taught us. Surely You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

O God, bestow blessings and peace on the Greatest Saint of Helping for all ages, and the Mightiest Pole of Sainthood for all times - our master Muhammad, the magnificence of whose sainthood and the degree of whose being beloved by God were manifested in his Ascension, and in the shadow of whose Ascension are all forms and degrees of sainthood contained, and on all of his family and Companions! Amen. And all praise be to God, the Lord of all the Worlds.

 

This article has been adapted from Risale- i Nur Collection.