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The covenant is one of the cardinal principles of Sufism, upheld by all Sufi orders. It is taken during a ceremony in which the shaikh and murid hold hands, fingers interlaced and eyes closed. Then the shaikh or deputy administers the oath to the murid that he takes the shaikh as his leader and his guide before Allah the Most High, according to the way and the tareeqah (order) of the shaikh, that he shall adhere to this order throughout his life, never converting to another, and that he pledges loyalty and obedience to the shaikh. Then the shaikh recites the verse,
The Qur'anic verse quoted above, from surat al-Fath (#48), has a serious
connotation. Allah revealed this verse when 1500 companions of the Prophet
swore allegiance to him in al-Hudaybiah, and swore to support him and fight in the
way of Allah. But to use such a verse to trap simple-minded Muslims into
taking an irrelevant oath is sheer deception. Sufis also base the principle
of 'ahd on fabricated hadeeth (tradition) telling of a similar 'ahd
which they allege that Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, made to the Prophet
.
The oath of allegiance made to the Prophet by his companions to obey
him and to fight in the way of Allah was made later on by the Muslims to the
Khalifah, the head of the Muslim ummah.
The practice of taking 'ahd to a shaikh, and the ceremony surrounding
it, were unknown at the time of the Prophet and also during the time of
the best three generations of the Prophet's companions and their followers. The
Sufi order system and the rituals associated with it are no more than bid'ah
(innovation) originated by subsequent generations.
The Prophet repeatedly warned his ummah against every form of
innovation. He was very particular about that, to the point of prefacing all his
speeches with the warning:
"Verily, the best of speech is the Book of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad
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