Imagine you are working with a client on a physical or emotional issue that has been difficult to resolve. You are unsure about your client’s response-have your methods been effective or will your client experience only a slightly improvement, if any? If you follow the 3 steps outlined below, over time you will become 100% positive you are truly helping your clients and making a powerful difference in their lives. I’ll tell you the crux of the matter now, before we begin. The most important step in becoming an effective healer is to heal your lower, created self, also known as the “ego,” which in Sufism is called your “nafs.” 1. First, acknowledge that you need to heal yourself before you can heal others. In 2003, Sidi Muhammad al-Jamal ar-Rifa’i ash-Shadhili explained, “It is impossible for anyone to heal another person unless he starts with healing himself. It is only through healing yourself that you can know how to heal others.” Then in 2008, he followed this up: Allah is saying to you, “If you want to become a true healer, if you want to heal people after you heal yourself, then become a unified slave. Purify yourself totally with the water of divine truth, the water of the Real, which is the unseen water. It is the water of witnessing the unity, the oneness of Allah. This water comes from surrendering to Allah and obeying Him. Use only His name (to heal yourself or others). Do not do anything that is not done in His name and do not listen to illusions and falsehoods. Start to walk through the stations; travel from the commanding self (an-nafs al-amarra) to the blaming self (an-nafs al-lawamma) to the contented, secure self (an-nafs al-muʾmainna) and then to the pleasing self (an-nafs al-mardiyya). If you arrive at the station of the pleasing self, then your healing is complete. Then, when you put your hand on the patient and say, “In the name of Allah, your pure hand will carry the healing of Allah. You have to heal in the greatest name of Allah, because in it is the secret of healing.”[2] Stay tuned for Step 2 coming in our newsletter on November 23 and Step 3 in December. ~Shams Deckter Wesley [1] Sidi Muhammad. The Sufi Realities Pope Valley: Shadhiliyya Sufi Center, 2004. [2] Sidi Muhammad. A Righteous Word is Like a Righteous Tree Pope Valley: Shadhiliyya Sufi Center, 2009.
