What a seeker should do when no guiding shaykh can be found

A question from a seeker who could find no guiding shaykh to teach him the spiritual path and the religious sciences, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that scholars who train others never cease, so he should seek them earnestly, and that one who finds none should abundantly invoke blessings on the Prophet and keep to remembrance and worship while refraining from the forbidden, citing al-Sanusi and Ahmad Zarruq. ¹

The questioner said he had been searching for some time for a guiding shaykh to teach him the spiritual path and the religious sciences and had found none, and asked what he should do. ¹

The Department answered that there is much good in the community and that scholars who train others never cease, so a student of knowledge must search, ask after them earnestly and draw on their knowledge. ¹ It said that one who finds no guiding and training shaykh should abundantly invoke blessings and peace on the Prophet while keeping to remembrance and worship and refraining from the forbidden, for this brings him to his goal on the journey to God; it quoted Imam Muhammad al-Sanusi that he had seen in the words of some masters of Sufism that whoever lacks training shaykhs should invoke blessings on the Prophet abundantly and will reach his goal by them, and Ahmad Zarruq in Qawa'id al-Tasawwuf (p. 86, rule 114) that remembrance is the charter of sainthood, so whoever is granted remembrance has been granted the charter, together with the saying of his shaykh Abu al-Abbas al-Hadrami: keep up remembrance and abundant blessings on the Messenger of God, for these are a ladder, an ascent and a path to God when the seeker meets no guiding shaykh. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 4524, dated 1 November 2026, in the category of da'wa, advice and commanding good and forbidding wrong, as a short fatwa. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.