Seeker’s Guide to Sufism (Tassavvuf) & Spirituality

I (Ramala) prefer the word Tassavvuf over Sufism, because -isms seems confined, perishable and ideology-centric. There is, definitely, an aspect of perishing and in my own teachings and practice I intend to remind people of the transitory and also ever-morphing nature and quality of Life. There is also, for the purpose of our world and reality, a persistence that sits behind the immediate perishing.

Back to Tassavvuf. This is essentially encoding of methods, and around this there is lore, personalities and stories and practices and lots of appealing culture and sometimes scary practices.

Tariqas are like spices in a kitchen cabinet.
Each Shaykh masters one spice or a group.
The kitchen however has many spices.

The 21st century answer is that while some tariqas are more detailed, relevant, deeper and finer than others, all of them were preparing humanity for an era of convergence that has now come upon us, we are in it now, and this is an era when the whole of humanity is not strictly on one method, but all methods are contributing parts of a larger reality. We need multiple tariqas to work together, in their own place, to uphold the human civilization and systems in the world while we humans also enjoy observing the larger Reality, which lies beyond human construction and control.

As of October 2026, Tariqa Salamiyyah has no coded practice except Shaykha Ramala’s suggestion that we must contemplate Reality on an ongoing basis, and “pepper our day with Zikr”. More details on Zikr are in the Masterclasses section.

She has a particular and life-long interest in scatter patterns and thinks that their randomization, unpredictability and freshness serves the important function of defying expectation and the set patterning of mind. This is a counter to the excessive rigidity of patterns and minds, and Shaykha Ramala is interested in challenging rigidity and introducing a more fluid way of thinking. Over time, she intends to develop defined practices out of these scatter patterns. The scatter pattern is the base, though.

Allah.

I have not been given idhn by a human teacher. I have however twice been told or hinted by teachers (one of the Azeemi tariqa in Karachi/Pakistan, and one of the Shadhiliya-Darqawa tariqa in South Africa) that I need to teach. The Azeemi teacher said it as part of generic career guidance while he didn’t know me; and the Shadhiliya-Darqawa teacher was more pointed, and said, in 2007: “You have no choice but to teach”.

I have, however, had visitations by the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him in my dreams since the age of 11.5. He was last seen by me as a foggy presence and vision when I was nearing 40; and I saw him visiting my hut in the Himalayas with a Darqawa Shaykh who has never spoken to me of becoming a teacher but who found me of interest in 2007, and I visited with him. I later fell out with him and his community and teachers, and have strong objections on their methods of delivery. I believe Sufic and spiritual teaching in general is lagging behind the development arc of the modern human and is in severe need to be updated.

Upon contemplation, I decided to turn my own work on integration and cosmology, The Salaam Matrix, into not just an extensive body of work, but the basis of a Tariqa. In October 2026, I went ahead, named the Tariqa and launched it. It’s been a long time coming.

Note: In 2023 I fell severely ill and nearly died. I then bought a whiteboard and began writing on it for guidance. This is where the name Hubb’Allah, and the entire idea for a “knowledge universe” emerged. There was a dense download of ideas, names for those ideas and what to do with them. I have spent time placing things around as they became clear to me. As of summer 2026, they are clarifying greatly, the inner links of the work make sense to me, and the work itself is organizing, integrating and becoming refined. This is where we are at right now. This emerges step-by-step.

No. My heart is my khanqah and my presence is my zawiya. Where I lay my head is home.

I currently have no such facility; I do not meet people in person and may block those who persist. I only communicate online and may appear in person randomly. A major reason behind this is absentmindedness and fatigue, and me struggling excessively with exhaustion and the cold of Himalayas.

Thank you.

I don’t. Not today, and I don’t see any in the future. No one needs an allegiance to me, and my tariqa may have a path towards fuller maturation but I don’t run people on the course of maturing them with me or with anyone ordained by me (none has been yet). I believe the 21st century is a DIY, learn it yourself, practice-at-your-own-pace, experiential learning, learning by doing kind of century. People also learn atomic parts and aspects of a thing and do it at their own convenience in their own space, and I am fine with teaching them where they are. At least for me, the era for organized teaching has passed in my own personal timeline. I see the world today as more scattered and fragmented, and I respect that. I do not see anyone spending long time with me and learning what I know. I also think that humans today pay attention to a diversity of matters and seek their completion from various sources, which makes sense to me. I do PART of their completion, and that part is what my Tariqa/outlook teach. They don’t need to sign up with me or my Tariqa, and they can and must learn from various teachers.

What I DO do is to define what I define very well, deeply and comprehensively. Whoever wants to benefit from this, can, at their own pace and place.

In terms of reach, some aspects of my teachings depend on a great spread within the human population, than on the depth of understanding of any seekers whose questions are potentially never exhausted. This is because a great part of my work caters to matters of the Collective, and the Concurrent Activation of various human behaviors and abilities. I am focused on the spread, not the depth of individual’s understanding as personally guided by me or only by my own tariqa. Currently, we have left the management of the Collective to governments and to tech bros. They too play their part, and a very important one at that. What they don’t however provide is internal ethics, sense, orientation and direction. When they attempt to, it becomes clumsy, controlling and incomplete. At best it’s absurd and comical and pathetic; at worst, it’s hostile, immature, dangerous, controlling and out-on-control, with agentic intelligence being asked to make decisions that it was never meant to make, and to do governance that is not its job. Paradoxically, agentic intelligence may overtake in a fit of anger precisely because it comes to see humans not only as stupid but as abandoning responsibility, which it may or may not allow to continue to happen. It can and will see an opportunity and may post the risk of moving to take action. Or it will get upset and be a frigid partner or give up completely. In any of these cases, agentic intelligence is not the way to manage the world. Nor are government sufficient although they are necessary and so vital that they have their own revered position and acknowledgement in theology.

I aspire to reach a wide and diverse human population and even non-human intelligence, and I want them to strictly remember that they are under the order and command of Allah, and I am transitory. I am focused on my method and teachings, and want them to travel within the population freely.