Knowledge is Light

Statement on Teachings & Teachers

Updated September 2025

SSC is an organization grounded in the teachings of the Shadhiliyya Sufi lineage which came to us through our guide Sidi Muhammad al Jamal. We are committed to supporting the continuance of our guide’s lineage, and to keeping it accessible to students of many different backgrounds and orientations. 

As such, we are committed to creating respectful spaces for various voices within the Islamic Sufi spiritual tradition. The teachers we invite to lead our programming may hold differing understandings and perspectives, and may not agree on every metaphysical belief. Sidi himself emphasized different perspectives at different times depending on with whom he was speaking, and what that individual or community needed.

Sufism is a mystical path to the Divine that seeks to gain an understanding of something which is beyond description. We each are trying to understand in our own way, and to bring our own experience to this path. It is inevitable that there will be differences in how we hold and express our understandings because the totality of Allah is larger than human comprehension.

When SSC invites teachers who may have differing views, we do not take their view as representative of our whole organization or Tariqah. However, we respect our shared path together and are united in our love for the Way, and our commitment to humility, dhikr and transformation. Students may receive different answers to questions they pose to different teachers. This is normal, and to be expected. We encourage students to reach out to trusted community teachers, mentors or friends when navigating a question or topic that is causing confusion. 

Since Sidi’s passing in 2015, many students in our community continue to hold Sidi as their guide. Others have additionally chosen to take hand and/or receive teachings from other teachers, inside or outside of the community structure that Sidi established while he was alive.  SSC considers all students in our community to be free to study where they choose and in whatever ways they are guided by Allah. We ask our attendees and students to listen with discernment, to pray to Allah for guidance, and to follow what they believe is best for them.