بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

The decision to leave a shaykh or religious community can be a difficult decision with conflicting emotions and considerations. However, once you have made a decision to leave, there are further considerations such as whether or not to tell the shaykh you are leaving, and whether or not to maintain contact with the shaykh. This depends of course upon the reason you are leaving, but below are five common scenarios and considerations for each.

1. The shaykh is corrupt or abusive

With a corrupt or abusive shaykh, you do not need to tell the shaykh you are leaving. The shaykh is likely to know you left if other students also left.  One can try to give nasiha or tell him to stop his wrong actions, but it may be pointless.  If the shaykh hid his corrupt actions, it indicates he already knows they are wrong.  Following the general rules of commanding to good and forbidding the wrong, one may still do so, but unless there is reason to believe there will be a benefit it is not an obligation. This also applies to telling other students.

2. The shaykh is not qualified

If your teacher is not qualified, you should not waste your time with him.  However, an unqualified teacher may have been the means for your guidance and taught you the basics of Islam.  Assuming no other issues, you should remember the good he did for you and can maintain a relationship while not being his student.

In the case of a shaykh who has lied about an ijaza, whether in sharia sciences or in tariqa, do not wait to see any other issues. Lying about an ijaza is not a sign of fraud- it is the presence of fraud.

3. You have outgrown your teacher

We should always remember the benefit our teachers gave us.  One of my own teachers, a respected scholar in his country, told me that as a child he memorized the Quran with a teacher who was not an alim. Nevertheless, he made sure to always treat him like one of the ulema given that he was his personal teacher.

We may learn Arabic or basic fiqh from someone only to discover they don’t have much else to offer. We should avoid the pressure to think of our teachers as only the popular or highly respected ulema that benefit our bios.  We should remember the way all our teachers benefitted us and they should be happy for us moving on to more rigorous studies.

4. You want to leave for another shaykh or just leave the tariqa

There is no process for leaving a tariqa. An assumption I’ve encountered many times is that by giving bayah to a shaykh the murid has in some way given the shaykh a part of this soul.  This is a total misconception. A bayah is a pledge of adhering to the shaykh’s guidance, not a signing over of one’s soul. One can simply leave the shaykh by the mere decision of leaving. Nothing else needs to be done in terms of process.

Some former murids maintain an amicable relationship with their former shayukh.  In cases of abuse, some choose to just drop out and not maintain a relationship.  Either way, there is no official exit process.

5. You want to benefit but redefine the relationship

If a shaykh is discovered to be corrupt in action, yet strong and reliable in knowledge, a student may want to maintain a beneficial correspondence. In this case it is better to not have him as your main resource. For advanced students who can read commentaries on their own, cross verify, engage critically, and are able to separate personality from knowledge, it can make sense to maintain a correspondence for questions, advice on research, and the like. This is far from ideal, but knowledge is knowledge. One should do this in a way that does not promote the teacher, which can cause harm to unassuming students and also esteem someone misusing his position. A corrupt teacher can be especially detrimental to beginner students who have not reached a level of critical engagement and are at the mercy of their teacher for their foundations. If a teacher’s corruption is not secret or he has dealt with students distancing themselves in the past, he will understand you are redefining without explanation.

Moving on

Finally, when moving on to a new teacher, all you need to look for is outward uprightness (zahir al-adala). Just as you would not inspect the personal life of a math teacher, you don’t need to pry into the lives of your sharia teachers.  A teacher does not need to be pious or exceptionally upright for you to benefit from his knowledge. However, if the relationship is to move beyond classes, and you wish to take a teacher as a role model, you need to ensure that this person has character that you would aspire to yourself.  You should witness this good character yourself- well beyond the superficial or anecdotes. You need a reason to regard someone highly in character, not just an “ajeeb experience” that affirms what you already wanted to believe.

Do not believe hyperbolic praise or myths about teachers. It is normal in traditionalist circles to exaggerate the character and good deeds of teachers.  Myth building benefits the shaykh’s image, his organization, Islamic conferences, and retreat circuits.  Exaggerated praise and hagiographic myths make it harder to point out and redress wrongs.  Testimonials are solicited and used to increase the shaykh’s aura, and also aid in selling tickets, fundraising, and marketing.  These end up being incentives to cover abuse and excuse manipulation that challenge the myth production.   You are far more likely to hear exaggerated praise than an assessment which will give you realistic expectations.  Pay attention to see if behavior, not what they say while teaching, is in correspondence with good Islamic character and ideals. Do not gloss over contradictions or inconsistencies in favor of good experiences or stories you hear from others. Give everyone a clean slate, but don’t be naïve.

والله أعلم

 

Related reading:
https://inshaykhsclothing.com/is-the-knowledge-tainted/
https://inshaykhsclothing.com/backlash/

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