I remember that it was only after the experience of 3 khalwa of 40 days or more that he gave me the authorization to lead people in the retreat and to establish a place in this sense. Of course the stages exist and it is all the work of the tariqa to participate in an educational and progressive way but on the condition of giving oneself the means to go towards the spiritual experience of the Fath Rabbani. In reality, the role of the Tariqa is mainly situated at the level of the da'wa, the call to the Way. At this level as well as at the level of Haqiqa and experience, Sheikh Nazim was also an incomparable master, harmonizing the two aspects in a complementary way. There is no need to recall the number of countries he visited and the number of people he led to Islam, by millions. It is therefore in his footsteps that we try to maintain this teaching from the outside through the da'wa and then towards the inside, especially in the khalwa.

As for the da'wa, some of my companions like S.Khaldoun like to testify fraternally of a thousand people who would have taken the path with me in France but for my part, I have not taken it into account for a long time, especially since my visits to India for more than ten years and now to China, opening hearts to Islam in greater proportions. These visits have also taught me to relativize the importance that the Parisian microcosm gives itself, which believes itself to be at the center of the world. I speak of this aspect of the da'wa, obviously not to call upon me for praise but to justify the use of certain tools on which I am sometimes criticized by the microcosm of Paris and suburbs. I recognize, however, that a quick overview of these tools of da'wa can be confusing, especially when they are poorly presented. I would like to remind you that in a da'wa work we address people who have no Islamic reference, or even a negative reaction to what is muslim. It is clear that those who criticize do not have the experience of da'wa. The international experience has led me to use new pedagogical tools accessible to the general public. This is precisely the case of my work on the Enneagram in sufi practice, which is obviously not the one presented by the "new age" currents, but rather a science of the soul, 'ilm an nafs, based on the Koran. I have written an entire book on how egotic tendencies are perversions of a spiritual calling. Showing how Chapter 9 verse 112 of the Qur'an mentions 9 categories of sainthood (taken from Sheikh Muhyyî dîn Ibn arabi's book, tabaqât al awliyâ, in an unedited manuscript). It is a matter of becoming aware that we are called into a spiritual family by our "predisposition", isti'dâd, and leads to a practice of the divine names that correspond to it. The first step is to discover the mask of our ego and to face it, because it is also the inversion of the virtue that calls us. Thus, according to this icharat (allusion) quoted by Sheikh Muhyyî dîn: " inna dâi, dawa' ", " the disease can be the basis of the remedy ". So it has nothing to do with psychatry or even modern psychology. However, in a website that is supposed to be a "carrier of knowledge" I found that this teaching is identified with "the pasychatry denounced by Guénon" !!!!

Here again the commentator, although not informed, cannot resist the pleasure of a caricature in a Guénonian style, (without the class nor the spirit). All this without prior reading, nor references either to my book or to my positions, which are quite clear in this site through now 7 letters.  The author of the article, who is in a "cultural police" perspective, brandishes the scarecrow of psychatry which has no relation with this subject, forgetting moreover that the da'wa must begin as it should by a work on the ego. It is obviously difficult to control today the confusion that is spreading everywhere and it is too well known that websites can use pieces of material and present us without our consent or control. I think this has happened to many of us as well because of the proliferation of websites. Particularly through text but also through photos. I have to admit that it happened recently in a site presenting me with a great choice of photos in a great confusion that I did not control because of my absence in China for a da'wa work. A new convert to Islam, an excellent designer, had been asked to design a future site related only to professional coaching or training and he took initiatives, without malice but without knowledge and without control mixing all the genres. I had the site suspended as soon as I noticed it. This is only a small problem of coordination far from deserving the anger of my fundamentalist gendarme who wrote, I quote : "repent" !!!! Or again: "highwayman"...! 

One sees the ridiculousness but also the misery in his capacity of measure and discernment ! So let's say, "inna ma'a l'ussri yussra", "With every difficulty or evil there is a positive ease" (Qur'an 94), and let's take advantage of this situation caused by these critics to explain the use of some tools that can be used to address non-Muslims in this era of rejection of Islam. Sometimes it is worth noting that this can also be beneficial to Muslims who are still in the pre-Islamic jahiliya in an unconscious way.

This approach of using exceptional means at this time has its source in some hadiths which state that in the time of fitan, "the tribulations of this end of the cycle", the classical prayers would not be enough. It is like medicine that has to adapt to the new diseases of our time. Who would not understand that the disease of the soul in our time, its cancer, is the growth of the ego.

But prayers, even dhikr, are not enough to reduce this ego. On the contrary, prayers contribute to its development. A bit like vitamins could support the development of cancer. In this, some new tools are necessary to adapt to the disease of this time: the incredible arrogance of the ego and its ambition of control which largely escapes the conscience of the practitioners, including in the brotherhoods. What is our state? Are we aware of it if this "surgical" work has not taken place ? It is well known that before his Isra wal mi'raj, the night ascension, the Prophet Mohammad had the surgery done by the angels who washed his heart with snow and removed a black lump.

But then if this being of perfect excellence had this operation what should be our need to us who are simple and weak humans ? We can understand the importance of working in the depths of the unconscious where what Islam calls chirk al khafi, (associating with God, the "self of Pharaoh"), is nestled. The unconscious from the point of view of Islamic culture is Nifaq, hypocrisy, "harder to spot than a black ant on a black rock on a dark night" according to the prophetic expression. It is a matter of understanding clearly that our "mind", the one that makes analyses, conjectures, is the ego itself. Sheikh muhhyyî dîn says that 'aqida, conceptualization, is a word of the same root as 'uqd, the knot. This means that our "conceptualization" of truths is a distortion of reality operated by the mind itself identifying with the controlling ego. This mind is produced by the identification of the consciousness with the body and this is what makes it produce limiting concepts, "boxing" our ideas, experiences or subtle perceptions, against the fluidity of the experience proposed in the verse (Sura ar-Rahman): "Every day God is at a new work". The angels who have no body have no concept and live this fluidity of the "here and now" which is also the goal of the initiatory pilgrimage, at the station of 'arafat, where it is enough to be : at this place at this time.

It is in this spirit and supported by Mawlana sheikh Nazim (by a handwritten letter which supports this teaching approach) that I started to work on 'ilm an nafs, the science of the soul. This is for everyone, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, because it is a wudu', a cleansing that precedes all rituals. It is not about mixing rituals as some people still misunderstand it (sometimes attending non-Islamic rituals in a pedagogical spirit of da'wa is not mixing either) but it is about using techniques of cleaning the ego. This is how the technique of the Enneagram is situated, which is a work on the ego without any relation with a mixture of religion.

This is also the case with another magnificent tool for cleansing "poisonous memories": the process of "birth" that Sheikh al Akbar Muhhyyî dîn relates to the work on the ego in "Jonah's Verb" (see fusûs al hikam). The belly of the fish is the ego, that is why Jonah says : "la ilhaha ila anta subhanak ini kuntu min ad dhalimîn, No god but YOU, my "self" has obscured me". To come out of this "me" is the second birth.