However...

However, it is the duty of an individual to find out if the Path, which he/she is following is free from any deviations from the ‘Original Message’ and if the enemies of Allah -azwj have not doctored it during the past hundreds of years, and that should be one’s foremost priority to not only scrutinise all aspects of one’s faith and try to restore it by going back to – the ‘True teachings’ left behind by the last Prophet -saww of Islam?

The formation of Islamic sects is certainly outside the scope of this short article; here we will confine our discussions only to the followers of twelve Infallible Imams -asws , the ‘Shias’. The Shias today, can broadly be divided into two major branches, (1) the ‘unorthodox/rationalist/Usoolis’; (2) the ‘orthodox/traditionalist/Akhbaris’.

The topic covering the formation of these two branches has also been dealt with through a separately articles but here the mystical aspects, which influence, to a certain extent, both these groups as well as all those who are unable to relate themselves with these two streams, are presented.

Mysticism and spirituality in the Islamic history has been linked to very early stages of Islam; it was supposed to elevate a believer’s spiritual level, however, in most cases, misuse of its basic requirements and concepts has led to some negative influences on the society by its fake users.

The miracles and supernatural powers, were bestowed to Prophets -as and Imams -asws by Allah -azwj , as a Proof of their -asws Divine Status, and were shown by them -asws , when and where those acts were required. The non-believers and hypocrites tried to either deny these Divine Powers by calling those as sorcery or attempted to fake such miracles by joining forces with Iblis -la and his army.

[3] In Islamic history, two types of aggressions were committed against the Holy Family of Rasool Allah -saww , the former category belongs to the usurpers of the rights of true successor of the Holy Prophet -saww who took the reigns of government whereas the second one was adapted by the self-made ‘Sufis’ who kept Muslims away from the teachings of Masomeen -asws through inventing chanting rituals.

Both of these groups, have been condemned by the Ahl Al-Bayt -asws as reflected by numerous Ahadith, some of those will be presented later in the article. It is important to note, some of pious followers of Ahl Al-Bayt -asws in Indo-Pak, are also considered as ‘Sufis’ due to broad meanings of ‘Sufi’ terminology.