My maternal great-grandfather, his son - my nana hazrat, and now nana hazrat's son are a part of a student/master chain (silsila) that goes all the way back to Abdul Qadir of Jilan who died in 1166 and from him all the way back to Ali who learned from the Prophet Muhammad.
Learned what?
...the Tariqa.
Tariqa meaning method.
a Spiritual method...
a how to...
On loving Allah.
There are "orthodox" sufis and "unorthodox" sufis.
The orthodox sufi's primary claim to legitimacy is the fact that he/she is part of an unbroken chain of teachers all the way to the prophet. Their #2 claim to legitimacy is the fact that they do not deny the Shariah of God.
Shariah means "the way" or "the path".
It is the way we should live our life. In surat al Fatiha, Allah refers to the "sirat al mustaqeem". The straight path. The word implies a destination.
What destination?
Towards The Divine Beloved Himself.
More then just Do's and Don'ts.
It is said that the way of God is Truth, it is divine, it is one and it is unchangable. Its principles can be found in God's revelation to Muhammad, the Quran. And also in the way that Muhammad lived his life. But in our attempt to extract these principles from these two primary sources, another thing creeps in....
Human interpretation.
One of the Interpreters of the way of God was Abu Hanifa who embraced the human intellect and our ability to use reason. Abu Hanifa learned of the way of God from a student of Abdullah Ibn Masud, Ibn Masud was a companion of the Prophet, and he became the chief judge in Kufa after the Muslims conquered Iraq.
Another Interpreter was Ahmad Ibn Hanbal who denyed the use of reason to discover God's will. Ibn Hanbal was a literalist, a tradition-ist when it came to the path God wants us to follow.
Abdal Qadir of Jilan was a Hanbali literalist when it came to Shariah, and his spiritual Tariqa, focused on eliminating the diseases of the heart. Greed, Jelousy, Arrogance, etc. His spiritual pracitices focused on orthodox worship instead of unorthodox means. By removing the diseases, one becomes selfless, open to loving, love - defined as giving one's self entirely to another.
In this case the other being The Divine Beloved.
The goal - to be in His company after we part from this physical world.
In the case of my great-grandfather, i assume he first became an initiated student (murshid) and then eventually a master (murid) in the Qadiriyyah, one of the oldest and most prominent spritual methods in Islamic history, the name given to the sufi brotherhood established by followers of Abdal Qadir of Jilan. And in terms of the method of interpreting the Shariah, the way, the path, the law of God. He studied the Quran, the traditions of Prophet Muhammad, and usul (methodology) of Abu Hanifa and eventually became a master of it as well, a mufti, a grand mufti in Hyderabad, with permission (official ijazat from a previous master) to give a fatwa, an opinion of what is the will of the Divine on any given matter.
So... My great-grandfather was a great "orthodox" sufi master. It is something to be very proud of. He has students throughout the sub-continent and many many people think very highly of him. And my grandmother grew up learning about Islam and spirituality from him. But that does not make her, or my mother, or me, sufi's, -just plain muslims.
Because technically none of us are initiated into the Qadiriyyah tariqa, and none of us follow a master's guidance in terms of our spiritual practices, rising through the stages of awareness until we reach the ultimate stage of consciousness (mu'arifa) where we experience extiction of ourselves (fana) and eventually subsist in the Divine presence (baqa).
All I can say is that some of my islamic religious/spiritual traditions were sanctioned by Qadiri sufis. and my methods of praying and fasting or marriage contracts, etc. are guided by Hanafi religious opinions.
Now... I also have family members who are initiated into the Chisti tariqa, one of the sufi brotherhoods that sanctioned some "unorthodox" practices like musical gatherings.
I myself am a fan of the more unruly, anarchic, and anti-authoritarian Qaladari wandering sufis.
