The spiritual knowledge is inherited by the spiritual descendents just as the worldly riches of a father are inherited and distributed amongst the children. According to the system of this material world the thinking pattern of the parent’s transfers to the children and they, just like their parents, remain in pursuit of wealth and riches, worldly respect and honor giving preference to the worldly gains. Contrary to this, the children of a spiritual father give no importance to the worldly riches and wealth. Their interest in this world remains limited to fulfillment of their routine worldly needs and even in that they believe that God is the Giver of sustenance’s and the Granter of means to fulfill the needs.
The combination of these two approaches in which spiritual values are mixed with the worldly temptations and greed for the material gains, in terms of Sufism, is called sorcery. Sorcery is the knowledge which is transferred to the disciple from the teacher just like those of the spiritual sciences but are used purely for the material gains and the worldly benefits. Sorcery and similar occult sciences are those sciences which are based upon the devilish and demoniac approach of thinking. And the spiritual sciences are that knowledge which transfers to the spiritual associates from their mentor. According to the thinking pattern of the mentor this material world does not have more than fictional and hypothetical existence.
The spiritual sciences have two categories, the Sorcery and the Presented Knowledge. All those sciences and arts that are acquired after activating the demoniac abilities and through the devilish approach of thinking are sorcery, which just like any other spiritual science are transferred in disciple succession. For learning occult sciences and sorcery a person is made to go through austere exercises and rigorous endeavors. A sorcerer can also perform a supernatural activity just as sometimes it happens by a spiritual person. In that case it is called a miracle or wonder-working (Karamat.) Happening of miracles under the influence of spiritual knowledge and performance of supernatural activities are both testified by the Holy Quran.
In the story of Moses it has been elaborately stated that Pharaoh summoned all the expert magicians of his country to assemble on an appointed day. In a large ground the magicians and sorcerers were gathered, to contest with Moses. Moses was also present in that ground to expose their tricks of sorcery. Moses was asked whether he would like to begin or they should start. The Exalted Prophet; Moses said, “O, magicians you throw first’. The sorcerers threw their ropes which turned into snakes and their rods which turned into dragons. Moses felt sort of frightened.. God, the most Gracious said, “O, Moses fear not I am with you”, throw your scepter”. Moses cast his scepter on the ground which transformed into a big dragon and consumed up all the contrived snakes and dragons of the magicians. And in this way the Presented knowledge won over all the expert sorcerers and magicians but one is required to notice that when the magicians threw ropes and rods they transformed into snakes and dragons and when Moses threw his scepter that also transformed into a dragon. If there is any difference in the acts of magicians and Moses, it is that, the scepter of Moses prevailed after consuming the snakes and dragons produced by the sorcerers. The difference between the magicians and Moses was that Moses had God on his side, so he an upper hand. In simple words, faith in knowledge is common in both the categories. In one, the foundation of the knowledge is lust for wealth, desire of rank and dignity and need of worldly respect and honor. And in the other, the knowledge of reality tells that reality is nothing except God. All that a person with the knowledge of reality hears or beholds is nothing but reality. He is not ambitious for fame, wealth or worldly gains. It never enters his mind that he should perform some supernatural activity in order to impress people and earn respect. Whereas opposite to this is the approach of the sorcerers who want to earn worldly gains by demonstrating their feats of sorcery. This has also been mentioned in the Holy Quran.
Pharaoh summoned the magicians and told them that if they would defeat Moses they would be rewarded with wealth and ranks in his court. This sufficiently establishes that all the tricks and feats of magicians were performed with the motives of earning worldly benefits whereas nothing of the sort occurred to Moses before entering the place of contest. He was there to prove the supremacy of reality, to proclaim the sublimity and majesty of God and to demonstrate that the demoniac knowledge, in comparison to the knowledge of reality, is false, baseless and invalid. The holy statement of God, “Fear not and throw your scepter,” indicates that Moses was not ready for the feats of magic demonstrated by the magicians and he was there to face these powerful sorcerers having faith and relying on God, the most Reliable. Moreover, the ropes and rods thrown by the magicians turned into snakes and dragons was all fictional and illusionary because when Moses threw his scepter they all vanished as if they never existed whereas when Moses recovered his scepter, it turned back into a scepter. The difference between magic and miracle is that the former is short lived and temporary.
Law:– Reality remains unchanged. Reality remains reality under all circumstances. The snakes and dragons contrived due to magic and sorcery annihilated and the scepter of Moses remained existing. In this, there is a lesson, for the students of spirituality. If the thinking approach is unreal and is not based on reality it is temporary and short-lived. And, if the thinking approach is based upon reality it is real and the reality is invariant and there is no change in it. When a sorcerer teaches sorcery to his disciples and transfers his thinking into the disciple the disciple also becomes a teacher but remains isolated from the reality but when a person learns according to the prophetic approach he embraces reality after cognizing the reality. History of mankind cannot offer even a single example when a person after having the real thinking approach had reverted to sorcery or expressed his inclination for that whereas there are thousands of such examples when the great sorcerers and expert magicians became penitent of their knowledge and embraced Islam to become cognizes of reality.
A mentor or the spiritual teacher is like a guru. They both feed their disciples with knowledge. The difference is in their approach of thinking. If the teacher has the demoniac approach he will pass that down to his disciples and if the teacher has his thinking approach based on the reality, that approach enables a person to be familiar with God, the most Kind. This very thinking approach enables a person to behold God by advancing step by step on the paths of spiritual associability and communication with God, the most exalted enables him to be friends with God, a friend who neither fears nor grieves.