Wazifa
The office: the collection of prayers and invocations proper to a path, recited morning and evening by the disciples.
Wazifa means the charge, the office, the appointed duty. In the Sufi paths the word denotes the collection of prayers and formulas proper to the tariqa, which the disciple recites at set times: the house equivalent of the wird, often with content fixed by the founder or the successive masters.
The wazifa of the Qadiriya Boutchichiya path gathers the prayers upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), the formulas of dhikr and the litanies inherited from the line: it is transmitted to the disciple at the pact, and fidelity to it is one of the signs of commitment. It is recited alone, morning and evening; group sessions add the collective dhikr.
Like everything the guide prescribes, the wazifa is not an interchangeable accessory: its value lies in fidelity to what was received, not in the practitioner’s free composition. On the transmission that carries it, see idhn and sirr.