Aḥmad Razā Khān رَحْمَةُ الـلّٰـهِ عَلَيْه took the oath of allegiance from that young man again, and he returned happily to his home.^[1]

صَلُّوۡا عَلَى الۡحَبِيۡب                 صَلَّى اللّٰهُ عَلٰى مُحَمَّد

Dear Islamic brothers, you heard how our Imam Aḥmad Razā Khān       رَحْمَةُ الـلّٰـهِ عَلَيْه kept an eye on his murids despite having so many commitments. That individual whom the young man gave an oath of allegiance to perhaps was not a good person, and therefore, the people around him said, “There (with Imam Aḥmad Razā Khān), you have an oath of allegiance in shariah; pledge an oath of allegiance in tariqah here.”

This is complete heresy. Even now, some people consider shariah and tariqah to be separate; they are not. The latter is a part of the former. True spiritual guides perform worship in abundance and spiritually train themselves. They also encourage their murids to do the same, such that they even encourage them to observe nafl prayers and fasts as well. However, these ignorant people who separate shariah from tariqah rarely offer the obligatory salah and consider shariah’s commands to be unnecessary. In fact, some of them mock shariah (مَعاذَ الـلّٰـه).  Considering a person who does this to be a murshid is utterly wrong.

It is for this reason that Imam Aḥmad Razā Khān رَحْمَةُ الـلّٰـهِ عَلَيْه observed what his murid was doing. His murid was at Ajmer Sharīf when he made a mistake, and the imam became aware of this, which was a miracle. He appeared in his murid’s dream, expressing his displeasure, and corrected his murid.

صَلُّوۡا عَلَى الۡحَبِيۡب                 صَلَّى اللّٰهُ عَلٰى مُحَمَّد