‎هُو³

If you're a younger man perceived as successful, beware of envy. Some of its most vicious forms come from resentful older men who feel that they haven't made their mark. If you ever see me desperately trying to become a "big shot" after 60, please do the kind thing and shoot me.

Mass Sufi orders (in which people are granted entry to "the group" indiscriminately without testing) are intrinsically phoney, and all the more so in 2026. Against all the principles of Sufism, the "Shaykh" must obey the murid (especially if the murid is wealthy), rather than the other way around - "Murid-rights" (really, modern individualism garbed in robe and turban) guarantee this. Despite having to obey his own murids, who he is unable to test lest this testing upsets them, however, the Shaykh is also apparently so holy that if you take the pledge of allegiance with him, he will spiritually heal not only you but all the other lesser Shaykhs you have ever met too. Sooner or later and with or without the best intentions, these groups inexorably turn into neo-trad LARPing cults, which reserve the right to mistreat "outsiders" if doing so even appears to serve the interests of the insiders. This is why although I am constantly asked to recommend Sufi groups, I am unable to do so. I have always recommended the Ba Alawis, because I am genuinely certain of their wilāya, and they are not a "Sufi group", discourage cultish behaviour, and ask their own students to benefit from a number of different spiritual masters instead of elevating a single master to quasi-prophetic status. However, they are making a straightforward error in cosying up to the neo-Ash'ari arch-revilers of the awliya. That is fine, no one alive today is ma'sum.