The divine authorisation (idhn): transmission and Qur'anic sources (2/2)

By Idriss Poughon · September 2, 2024 · 5 min read

Part 2 of 2 · L'autorisation divine (idhn)

It is well known that invocation (dhikr) constitutes a central spiritual practice in Sufism: it is through invocation turned towards God that the disciple’s heart is purified and illumined. The dhikr is transmitted by the living shaykh, the physician of hearts. It is essential to understand clearly that, within an initiatic way, this work of purifying the heart is fully operative through the grace of the idhn (authorisation) with which the invocation is invested. An invocation transmitted with the idhn indeed carries a spiritual and luminous charge that allows a relation, a subtle link, to be established between the master’s heart and the disciple’s heart. It is through the blessing of this ‘charge’ that the guide transmits his spiritual influence (madad), his secret (sirr), to his disciples. The transforming virtue therefore comes essentially from the idhn, and not from the invocation in itself. Conversely, the assiduous practice of an invocation without authorisation could in time prove a possible cause of psychological imbalance for the person performing it. To invoke is to awaken very powerful divine energies, which one must be able to integrate. Invoking assiduously without authorisation would be a little like entering a foreign country without a passport: the border police are watching and may expel us without ceremony; in other words, every dhikr has its guardians.

The two modalities of transmission

There are also two complementary modalities for the transmission of the idhn:

• The authorisation is transmitted outwardly and explicitly by a living master to one of his disciples (or to several in certain cases, or to none). Note that the formalisation of this transmission in a written document (ijaza) is not an indispensable condition; what matters is that this idhn has been clearly formulated.
• This authorisation is also confirmed directly and inwardly in the heart of the one who inherits it and becomes its trustee.

To illustrate this idea, we can do no better than reproduce here a very telling extract from one of the letters of shaykh Moulay al-’Arabi ad-Darqawi. The shaykh relates that his master had transmitted to him the authorisation to teach and educate disciples. Then, he writes:

Thereafter, my soul desired to receive the authorisation of God Himself and of His Messenger (may God bless him and grant him peace). I aspired to it with great fervour. Now, one day when I found myself in a solitary place in the midst of the forest, plunged and lost in an extreme spiritual drunkenness, and at the same time in an extreme sobriety, with great power in both states, I suddenly heard this word spring from the depths of my heart: ‘Urge them to remembrance (dhikr), for remembrance benefits the believers’ (Qur’an LI, 54). Then my heart grew calm and rested, for I had the certainty that this speech had been addressed to me by God and His Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace)… As soon as this authorisation was given to me, the believers came to me, and from the moment we saw them and they saw me, they remembered God and we remembered Him, and we benefited from them as they benefited from us, and there came to pass what came to pass in the way of favours, secrets, virtues, blessings and divine aids¹.

The notion of idhn in the Qur’an

The Prophet is a prophet only by virtue of the divine authorisation:

• ‘We have sent a prophet only so that he may be obeyed, with the permission of God. If those who have wronged themselves came to you imploring God’s forgiveness and if the Prophet asked forgiveness for them, they would surely find God ready to turn back to them and to show them mercy’ (IV, 64).

The Prophet acts only by virtue of the divine authorisation:

• ‘… It is not for a prophet to bring a sign, save with the permission of God. A book has been sent down for each well-determined epoch’ (XIII, 38).

No intercession is possible with God without His authorisation:

• ’… Who will intercede with Him without His permission (man dha alladhi yashfa’u ‘indahu illa bi-idhnihi)?’ (II, 255, the Throne Verse).
• ‘… There is no intercessor save with His permission…’ (X, 3).
• ‘No intercession (shafa’a) will be of use before God, except intercession for the person in whose favour He has permitted it (adhina lahu)’ (XXXIV, 23).

This notion of divine authorisation holds for all the prophets, notably for Jesus:

• ‘God said: O Jesus, son of Mary! Remember My blessings towards you and towards your mother. I strengthened you with the Spirit of holiness. From the cradle, you spoke to men as a grown man. I taught you the Book, wisdom, the Torah and the Gospel. You create, out of clay (tin), the form of a bird with My permission (bi-idhni); you breathe into it, and it is a bird with My permission; you heal the mute and the leper with My permission; you raise the dead with My permission…’ (V, 110).

It holds likewise for the Prophet’s companions:

• ‘Know that the Prophet of God is among you. If, in many cases, he obeyed you, you would find yourselves in great difficulties. But God has made faith lovable to you; He has made it seem beautiful to your hearts, while He has made you detest unbelief, perversity and disobedience; such are those who are rightly guided’ (XLIX, 7).
• ‘Only those are believers who believe in God and His Prophet. When they are with him on a matter that gathers them together, they do not depart before asking his permission (yasta’dhinuhu). Those who ask you this permission (yasta’dhinunaka), those are the ones who believe in God and His Prophet. If they ask your permission (fa’dhan) to enter for a personal matter, grant it to whom you will…’ (XXIV, 62).

Further reading

• The divine authorisation (1/2): transmission and degrees
• What is dhikr?
• Spiritual courtesy (adab) towards the Prophet

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