To an American Sufi Scholar:

 Salaam,

I was interested to hear your recent remarks on the state of American Sufism on a podcast sponsored by Ibrahim Jaffe's group. I also found your audio interview with a couple of the other authors of your book. I read your entry in the book as well as that of PhD candidate on the Sufi farm.  I was rather delighted at first blush to find scholastic interest in what I had surmised was mostly a  detour of well off the main highway of Western Sufism.

To be perfectly honest, my interest in the progress of American Sufism only persists to the extent that I have relatives and former friends still involved. I personally find most of it rather hierarchical and irrelevant to my own personal path.  Not to speak of the plague of amateurs infecting whatever original integrity it might have had. Not to criticize anyone else, but as you may see, I have run the gauntlet with it all and am done. Though I wish any sincere seeker of any stripe more success that I may have had.

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For the moment, however, the most important question surrounding the Sheik's life raises to me is—how does an individual so well-versed in his own rich tradition, and to all external appearances, a model of virtue, and Islamic scholarship as well as the Higher Fiqh of Sufism seek out and maintain a covert, venal, promiscuous, casually contemptuous interference into the lives of those vulnerable souls who came to him seeking help? And to what extent are followers of the same order who knew of these things, culpable for not questioning the status quo in a public way that might prevent the future suffering of others?

It is my assertion and my experience that corruption, both financial and sexual followed Sidi for decades, though it later reached tumultuous proportions in his last years. As did the unfortunate practice of serving as an intermediary between his disciples and God. To the extent that they frequently called Jerusalem at all hours—not to ask questions about spiritual practice, but to solve family problems.

I joined the group on the cusp of the late 70's/early 80's when there was but a handful of disciples and no printed books, only 'subjects' written by Sidi which were hand-copied in the zawiya as a spiritual practice.

Towards the end of his life, when I was long gone, I got indications he had really 'let himself go' in both instances. Apparently, you haven't been apprised of some of the Sheik's later public appearances, which alienated many newcomers for their insistence on donations and the incessantly-practiced Marriage Game wherein Sidi paired off new adherents seemingly at random--with little attention to compatibility.

How could you miss attending to this practice, so totally unorthodox and cultic? And which began way back in the 70's before the Sidi's move to the new house in At-Tur? If you want to learn more, you really need to start asking more questions or perhaps the older European fuqara, including going to some of the Anti-Cult Education Sites and even re-reading Nurideen Durkee's obituary and his discussion of the Sufi Healing groups approaching and telling him they couldn't 'sell' the Islamic part of Sufism.

“ When the time came to give my talk, (and mind you that every week I was responsible for giving a khutba at one or another of the local masajid where I was living, and remembering the environment of the previous year’s visit) I decided to give a straight talk on Islam as such, not as an adjunct to contemporary life in America, or as a side issue of Sufism, but as the determining factor in how a human being was supposed to live their life, according to Allah and His Prophet, peace be upon him & his family. When the time came I gave my talk, which lasted an hour; I had allowed time for questions, but nobody saw fit to ask me anything, so I returned to my room in the hotel where I was staying and where the conference was being held. I had just settled in when there was a knock at the door, and three of the organizers and students of Shaykh Muhammad were there. I invited them in, though I didn’t exactly know them, but had seen them in his company at the conference. After a few minutes of small talk, the person, a doctor, who seemed to be the principal person in the group, said: “We liked your talk, but we have to tell you, we can’t sell this on the basis of Islam.”

I was very much taken aback by this, and told them I wasn’t selling anything in any case, but I was asked to come an to give a talk, and I did so, and they should take it up with Shaykh Muhammad. What were they selling, I wondered. (Later I understood that they were talking about the University of Spiritual Healing).”

Sidi demonstrated a preoccupation with the sex lives and marriages of his disciples throughout his teaching of Westerners, but of course, his 'sessions', at least in earlier years, were confined to after-hours when the uncommitted camp-followers had gone home . Perhaps some of this has to do with taking some of the 'Al-Hubb' imagery to their logical conclusion--that one's physical partner/Beloved is some sort of Teacher of the Divine Love in a sort of Tantric way.

At times I've also considered perhaps this 'Sufi Marriage Spin-the-Bottle' was another way of keeping up a bond on the part of those thusly married to him, as they inevitably found weaknesses in each other and went to Sidi for resolution. As an Islamic judge, Sidi often fielded requests from Palestinian couples for divorce, and reportedly did as much as he could to avoid granting them.

Additionally, Sidi's marrying his disciples to each other was a tool for making continuing loyalty to Islam/Sufism more likely as to lose faith and/or commitment to the Sidi/ the Order might also mean to lose one's spouse and possibly, eventually to one's continuous access to one's children if there were any. Why not keep trying to make the marriage work, then?

Of course, it was indeed remarkable how the 'perfect' beloved was, believe it or not, the very next person to walk in the door from America or Germany! But who can know the workings of Allah!?

When it became apparent Sidi intended to make a marriage between myself and another murid, he personally attended and directed premarital sex sessions, complete with full nudity and genital congress with his fingers, at one point, checking the progress of the procedure. He said such things as, “Be the real Eve for him, be the Real Adam for her.”

Though at the time I mistook this for some sort of transcendental procedure, later dealings with him convinced me it was something else. Something definitely wrong, but perhaps experimental. In any case, I allowed it to happen, so 'my bad'. Although I think had I felt better about myself I would have left when those things started to happen.

Moreover, he was evidently a legendary predator at the end of his life. So much so that his own sons had to take him aside NS lecture him on the forbidden nature of this. (Though he was, it was thought, well-advanced down the road of dementia that this point. So much so that his sons worried about how his speaking engagements would pan out. Fortunately, a translator was found who filled in many of the blanks.)

Tangentially here, too, it has been mentioned by more than one ex-murid that Sidi's sons were the benefactors of some of the donations which were received by him for purposes of charity. I saw one or two early instances of this—when zakat was given to his sons with the rationalization that they were, at that time, poor. This would possibly explain the chain of villas in which this 'very poor' man of God managed to house his family.,

Here's something you probably haven't heard about and might find interesting. Sidi used to conduct what he called a 'Majliss'. Was that still going on when you visited? These took place almost nightly for awhile in the 80's. It consisted in one murid consenting to be a 'wasid' or medium, and having a number of inscriptions written on his or her hand. After the initial incantations in Arabic took place, --during which I heard the words 'Kalima' and 'wasid', obviously invoking the etheric witness to manifest in the hand of the medium--Sidi would then ask, thru the medium, “Who are you? From what Heaven do you come?” The response would be written down by the Wasit as presumably directed by the disembodied spirit. As I recall it would usually be an Angel--was there a Usafil? Or maybe it was Gabriel? I can't remember-- and sometimes the King of the Jinn.

Sidi posed certain test questions of the wasdit. It occurred to me that he was curious himself in whether real dis-corporated being were involve or just some part of the Wasid's suggestible personality. I dont think the question was settled definitively. In one such test, Sidi asked the Wasit where my American father was born. While it is possible I discussed his upbringing at some point with the wasit at the time , I don't recall giving her any clues. It took her 3 tried, but on the third, she guessed successfully the location of Dad's birth.

Several of the fuqara successfully served as wasits, though it was thought that women were more open to receiving instructions from the Other World. ( I tried it, but being male and perhaps more than a little skeptical, it failed to work in my case).

One day, Sidi said he wanted to try asking one of the Angels, or maybe it was actually the Prophet Issa himself, to show up in visual form . Adding even MORE interest was the addition of a mirror to the proceedings, which I believe also had some inscriptions written on a piece of paper attached to its back. This was the first time we ever used a mirror. The idea was that the Spirit would show up in the mirror. (Totally Sci-Fi, right?) The 2 or three of us in attendance perhaps had some sense of foreboding, for to see the actual visage of an Angel, while evidently feasible in Sidi's worldview, was also thought to be potentially devastating to human psychology.

In any case , and I am NOT making this up, right after all the customary invocations took place and I personally re-opened my eyes having kept them closed thru much of the preliminary, the creature that chose that precise moment in time and space to show up was a lengthy and from my point of view, totally hideous centipede, which writhed menacingly from underneath one of the rough carpets typically covering the cement floor, Sidi quickly put a cloth over it and pounded it vigorously to death, explaining that it could have given someone a nasty bite. I think probably ALL of us thought this was some sort of message from the Divine NOT to take up an exploration of this kind again. I dont recall if there were further 'majlisses' of this kind again, but of course, there was always a different crew of Westerners coming thru the zowiyaa in those days, so someone else may have more information.

Having hopefully gotten some interest and perhaps credence from you, I have to admit I am dismayed to see you inadvertently lending some academic and/or personal approbation to Sidi's 'order'. It is entirely possible you haven't been exposed to the 'dark side' of Sidi's life. And the very solemnity and prophetic appearance of his visage/manifestation do make it difficult to accept as feasible that he should behave in such wildly un-Islamic ways as pertained during his later visits to America. Perhaps he was emboldened by this the increasing adulation by a growing circle of disciples.

It may also be the case that,as one critic as suggested, the entry of Ibrahim Jaffe gave Sidi the idea of monetizing himself but while feigning ignorance of any ongoing financial misdeeds. In return, he bestowed upon Ibrahim some of his charisma and connections with a long silsila of mystics. And a 'miracle story' of Ibrahim's recovery from a 'life-threatening illness due to which I only had 6 more months to live'. A claim his ex-wife's siblings dispute as nonsense.

From my perspective, even worse than the apparently-non-stop request for donations, which took place after I had left the group, was the practice of 'Beloveds Matching' or 'Sufi Dating'--whatever you want to call it.

It took place, as far as I know, at the EARLIEST period of Sidi's acceptance of western disciples, where people from disparate backgrounds were put together, much to the delight of the (mostly female) onlookers, who engaged in a lot of happy gossiping about whom Sidi would match with whom.

Particularly after his agreeable and well-loved wife Hurriya died and his libido sought and apparently found, new and younger outlets. I have little personal experience there, except in the case of meeting his American 'wife' shortly before his death. To any American, her appearance and demeanor would have led a casual observer to suspect her to be a lesbian by inclination. In any case, it seemed a little odd that he should 'marry' again, somebody decades younger than himself and from an entirely different milleu? This was no 'sunset' affair between two seniors. Obviously, though aged, his libido was still active.

True enough, Islam does not advise celibacy, but in this case, as I am sure in many other, Sidi proved himself to be controversial. For example, did you know that his eldest son, Mahmud, who currently resides in at-Tur, was convicted of several felonies in the US and spent 7 years at a prison in Vacaville?

Of course, nobody would fault the family for wanting to keep such a scandal quiet. BUT, that his eldest son should choose a life of crime than ended in a dramatic freeway chase and shoot-out with law enforcement does at least raise the question why Sidi was not enough of a role model for his eldest son? Did Sidi's venality and sexual depravity begin earlier and perhaps accustom the son to luxury and success to such a degree that he chose a life of crime when he (Mahmud) came to America? Did the small boys mischeviously find what must have been many chinks in the windows and doors of the very basic zowiyya at the time and seen things that were inappropriate between a man of Allah and an attractive Western woman or couple?

At one point he told me he would carry significant sums from the waqf in Jerusalem back to Jordan. And he of course collected taxes from other Muslims. Presumably it was all on the honor system, and with Sidi's severe demeanor, who would DARE question any malfeasance?

So, the suffering swirling around this 'Man of God' did not end with the broken relationships or financial hardships he threw Westerners—it happened within his own family. As such, it also raises the question of the place of women in general in all of this. After all, Sidi's sons, who on the surface seem nothing if not proud by the behavior of their father, were also sons of a generous, loving mother who could never have brought any complaints against her husband had she known anything of this, as totally dependent women were in that society. Perhaps this question is a little abstratct for the present. In any case, before you sully your own career any further with more of the kind of endorsements you lent to him on recent interviews, I urge you to do a little more research.

Including the question of what happened to his Eastern fuqara. On important dates on the Islamic calendar, his house used to be filled with Eastern faqirs. Even when I left in the 80's/90's they were much diminished. Was it the progress of political Islam over Sufism that caused that, or perhaps some controversies about Sidi's Western disciples?

I can certainly understand the exotic attractiveness of Sufism in its natural environment. At-tur in the 70s and 80s was a quiet Arabian desiderata/backwater—with no Wall and at the time, little organized , militant resistance to Israeli occupation. The Arabs are a generous, hospitable people who make a traveling foreigner feel welcome. So many wonderful 'Zorbas' walking around. At least among the men. The religion of Islam feels particularly appropriate and at peace with itself there. Or did at that time.

I have often wondered what happens when a person, like Sidi, who seems to give in to the Dark Side. Why was God not enough? Or was God never there in the first place? How is it that someone can claim to speak for God, and never say, “Oh, by the way, I am only human. And this is just my opinion”. Sidi would almost always ask Allah questions on behalf of his followers and present the answers as if they had been given by God Himself. Or say something like, 'This is what Allah shows me', which gives him a little wiggle room. But for a depressed, confused person with no religion or self-confidence, having a spiritual Guide of sufficient stature to speak with God must be a temptation. I spoke with one of Sidi's sons on this and what I was told is that Sidi was just being 'nice' and trying to help them by telling them what they wanted to hear as a kind of gesture of mercy if somewhat, well, FAKE.

It's depressing how often this sort of thing happens with 'spiritual teachers' of all religions when they come to the West. So much so it would seem to the the rule rather than the exception. Perhaps the West is just too naughty? When all is said and done, one wonders whether basic MORALITY itself shouldn't get a little more emphasis--dhikrs, Wirds, 'Sufi healings', and graduate courses on 'Fana-21', not withstanding.

By many, Sidi was asked to be the Intermediary between them and God, and he found that to be too much of a temptation to resist. (Although, one or two of his followers figured out that THEY TOO could get God to say what they wanted if they just prevailed on Sidi long enough). To my knowledge, there was no murid that was ever turned out from the fuqara for bad behavior. Seemingly the practicing of a high degree of morality was not so important.

If Sidi's ambivalence of character is relatively hidden, Ibrahim's Jaffe could hardly be more transparent. Why would Sidi spent 10 minutes with such a grand-standing Snake-Oil charlatan if he weren't interested in the Diving Marketing by this Master Salesman? Or perhaps Jaffe's manifestation changed after his 'conversion' in Jerusalem, here summarized second-hand by a anonymous entry in a dissenter forum:

I had a few more sessions and was still hungry for more. So when I learned that there was to be a Sufi healing workshop given by Dr. Jaffe in NYC in late 1998, I made the arrangements and went to it.

Dr. Jaffe told a very moving story of how he'd been a hugely successful "energy healer" with his own school, but then he became quite ill with some sort of heart condition and was supposedly dying. (He claimed he "asked God" how much time he had left and heard the response, "six months.") Jaffe said that he then began putting his affairs in order and was preparing to die. But then a friend approached him and said that he had found a Sufi master whom he thought could help Jaffe. He decided it was worth a shot and so he traveled to Jerusalem to see if Sheikh Sidi Muhammad could help him.

Jaffe said that he was at first unimpressed by Sidi, that the man actually fell asleep in front of him at one point. But then Sidi said to him, "Allah tells me you have six months to live." He further said something to the effect of, "You are dying because you have forgotten how to love yourself the way God loves you." (I cried away when I heard that. It really got to me.)

And so Jaffe suposedly learned how to love himself ala God and was rescued from death's door.

He then shifted from his "energy mastery" approach to one of spiritual healing. He believes that all illness springs from spiritual disconnection. 

https://forum.culteducation.com/read.php?12,57030,57030,quote=1#REPLY

You indicate there is no evident heir and that is a relief. Perhaps all the Eastern disciples evaporated with the changes wrought by the endless succession of Imtifadas, a stricter emphasis on more puritanican versions of Islam, or Sidi's own declining local reputation due to the presence of so many Western disciples, including many Jews.

Whatever the case, something happened to this man which rendered him and all of his followers caricatures, even before the advent of Jaffe. Sidi's less-than-discriminate association with Ibrahim's indiscriminate mixing of phony and probably dangerous New Age Healing therapies with Sidi's Islamic Sufism makes one wonder whom was exploiting whom. Or maybe both were exploiting a fascination with sex, money, and power over the lives of the many broken and unwary. Maybe absolute power does indeed corrupt absolutely.

If women were allowed to be 'Sheika's,' the tireless Scribe/Author Amina 'Al-Jamal' might more legitimately have been considered for Sidi's Ring. Her devotion to 'classical Sidi' remains unsullied by the latter New Age antics of the Ibrahimites, though apparently she has been careful not to make any theological disagreements with them too public, their being a major source of the demand for Sidis books. Or so we are told.

I look upon Sidi as a mixed bag. Unfortunately, nothing in this world appears to 'only' to consist of light and no darkness, innocence and no experience, and the list goes on. Someone who probably started out with a fair degree of righteousness. Your descriptions of his 'voluminous' divan in Arabic surprised me and indicate he had a great deal of exposure to Sufi and Islamic literature. Unfortunately, just because I don't have a reasonable explanation for why he went over to the dark side doesn't mean he didn't. And just because some people felt he helped them in some vaguely spiritual way doesn'e mean those with evidence of wrongdoing surround him need to keep silent. I regret I may have kept silence for too long.

In the case of Ibrahim, in particular, I can see no motivation other than the most venal and concupiscent. One deserter mentions Ibrahim brought women to Sidi so that they could have their walking 'accelerated'. This sounds like the same sort of session I and my former partner were subjected to. Prior to Ibrahim's arrival on the scene, Sidi had little to no interest in medicine or healing. Nor did I notice it very often taken up in Sufi circles.

All of a sudden, there is a whole new field called 'Sufi Healing'. I bought Ibrahim's book along with yours, and it is laughably unscientific and not particularly Sufic either. He describes an episode in an AIDS hospice where a dying patient 'fell in love' with a caregiver and was thusly cured of the disease. I'm not even sure what he was trying to say. I guess that the Power of Love can make miracles happen. Which maybe we all hope for and maybe believe it, but it is also extremely rare. And to use it to conclude that it is actually a realistic option is incredibly callous and predatory. Only the most desperate would fall for this idea. Perhaps these are who Ibrahim will set his sights on in the future—the desperately ill. They sometimes have large savings for retirement that they will no longer need. What a happy coincidence.

I was also amazed to find that Ibrahim's book is also stamped with a 'best seller' award from no particular authority. Doesn't this bald attempt at assuming notoriety strike you as particularly amateurish and pathetic?

On the other hand, the 'content' is so vapid and pointless one could understand that it is more likely printed more as a sort of prop than anything of consequence. As is the implicating that he somehow 'earned' the muqaddam status for his understanding of traditional Islamic Sufism, of which Sidi was an adherent. Apparently, there were 2 or 3 others with the title, which was never given in the early days and is most probably in this context meaningless and probably borrowed from another order at Ibrahim's request.

You know, of course, that Ibrahim's earlier wife Birgit died of cancer despite his Energy Healing. Apparently, her sister and brother felt Ibrahim had bilked their father for $100,000's and at the last moment requested he send $35,000. for 'special medicine' to save her life. And after her death, he sent his children with Birgit to live with his own parents and his new, much younger wife, didn't like having them around.

Yes, you could say this man is not Sidi, but then again, Sidi certainly must have had SOME sort of ability to judge the character of others. That he would choose to be rolled around the country with Ibrahim's Medicine Ball Caravan might be indicative of likes attracting likes.

I dislike the secrecy which may make me seem as untrustworthy and deceptive as everybody else in this carnival. Even though the Sheik is dead, his prestige and family remain. Ibrahim's group, though diminished, still persists. I have already suffered much for my long involvement with this group and don't propose to endure more by going public at this particular moment, at least. Especially since, in the case of the terminally cultic, the revelation of my identity or not will do little to turn him from the object of his fascination anyways.

I hope and believe you as a responsible academic with presumably a professional commitment to Truth above all else, will begin to put together all the pieces here. I will be glad to reveal my identity to you in the future if you are careful to be discreet about me in your public writings and appearances and built up enough of your own evidence such that a reliance upon me exclusively does not mean I shall be uniquely responsible for any turn for the worse of any individual or groups fortunes.

I'm inclined to believe the drift of disorganized complaints rather than the

Please excuse my poor prose and perhaps inadequate documentation. Of course, none of the less savory aspects of the Sheik's life were meant to be seen. My sole purpose is to prevent furthur damage to spiritual seekers, and to request you be aware of these matters before recommending anybody take bayat in this particular branch.

Peace.