Until I met people who are true “masters” or “Sheikhs” of the Islamic spiritual path, I didn’t know they existed and would have been quite skeptical of anyone claiming such a noble position.
In reality, it’s not a claim. It’s just a fact. There are, walking among us, those who actually follow the Quran and Prophetic Way (Sunnah) as closely as possible and for whom Allah has opened the doors of knowledge and spiritual growth.
Let me tell you the story of how I met one (and then I’ll let you know how you can meet him, tomorrow)…
In 2014 after a couple of years after going through the “Psychological Switch” which transformed my life and is now the basis of all my coaching work, I finally decided to hold a live event in London. And, due to the great fortune of Allah’s abundant grace, things lined up such that British Muslim TV were intrigued, and then on board with filming the event and the journeys of a few of the attendees to create a brand new show. (That show became ‘Taqwa Transformation’ and you can catch re-runs now and then or watch it on YouTube).
But the real back story is this: I didn’t have a clue about how Television worked, what was expected and what was necessary to make the show work. What we did have was a cameraman (Tariq Chow from Film Pill), who is an award-winning film-maker. His first question the night before we started filming for the show was:
“Where’s the pre-production work and script?”
Myself and the show’s producer had blank expressions. We were both new to this.
It turns out that ‘reality’ TV shows aren’t just about filming what happens. They’re meant to be ‘scripted’ scene by scene, depticting all the drama, the highs and lows and eventually capturing or ‘creating’ a moment where it looks like someone’s life changed.
That would have been awesome. But we didn’t have time for that.
The conclusion of the conversation was that we would go ahead and film anyway, even though Tariq thought this was a disaster waiting to happen.
Three days later and the event was over.
There were highs and lows. Tears and laughter. And most importantly:
Deep, profound transformations for many audience members, including all the participants who agreed to be filmed.
In the car on the way back to my hotel, Tariq shared something quite meaningful for me. He said:
“That was amazing! Usually shows like this are all faked and based on careful scripts… but the reality is, they need that because nothing actually happens. But with you… you ACTUALLY CHANGED those people’s lives! The tears were real and totally unpredictable. Their minds were blown, because of the substance of what you were teaching. We actually have a viable TV show now, against all odds.”
That was a relief to hear from a seasoned professional. Next, he said something really curious:
“The only other time I’ve seen an audience affected in that way, is at a retreat with Sheikh Babikir”
My immediate response was:
“Who…?!”
Tariq almost crashed the car. Then freaked out at me for not knowing who this man was.
It later turns out that all my friends in London knew him as ‘The Saint of London’. Every story I heard about him was better than the last.
I genuinely wanted to know who this “Real Sheikh” is, that’s able to not only teach, but actually transform an audience and change the trajectory of their lives, based on his knowledge of the Islamic spiritual path. In reality, I had always been looking for someone like that, who knows the true Prophetic Path.
In my journey as a personal development coach, I’ve met many such teachers from other paths, including Buddhist monks and spiritual-not-religious ‘gurus’, but I’d never had the honour of meeting a true ‘sheikh’ of the Islamic spiritual path.
