One thing is true: although teachers cannot give the knowledge, they can kindle the light if the oil is in the lamp.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
No one can give spiritual knowledge to another, for this is something that is within every heart. What the teacher can do is to kindle the light which is hidden in the heart of the disciple. If the light is not there, it is not the fault of the teacher. There is a verse by Hafiz in which he says, ‘However great be the teachers, they are helpless with the one whose heart is closed.’ …
In ancient times, the disciples of the great teachers learned by a quite different method, not an academic method or a way of study. The way was an open heart. With perfect confidence and trust they watched every attitude of their teachers, both towards friends and towards people who looked at them with contempt. They watched their teachers in times of trouble and pain, how they endured it all. They saw how patient and wise they had been in discussing with those who did not understand, answering everyone gently in their own language. They showed the mother-spirit, the father-spirit, the sibling-spirit, the child-spirit, the friend-spirit, forgiving kindness, an ever-tolerant nature, respect for the aged, compassion for all, the thorough understanding of human nature. This, also, the disciples learned, that no discussion or books on metaphysics can ever teach all the thoughts and philosophy that arise in the heart. People may either study for a thousand years, or may get to the source and see if they can touch the root of all wisdom and all knowledge. In the center of the emblem of the Sufis there is a heart; it is the sign that from the heart a stream rises, the stream of Divine Knowledge.
Sufis have no set belief or disbelief. Divine light is the only sustenance of their soul, and through this light they see their path clear, and what they see in this light they believe, and what they do not see they do not blindly believe. Yet they do not interfere with another person’s belief or disbelief, thinking that perhaps a greater portion of light has kindled that heart, and so they see and believe what the Sufis cannot see or believe. Or, perhaps a lesser portion of light has kept that sight dim and they cannot see and believe as the Sufis believe. Therefore Sufis leave belief and disbelief to the grade of evolution of every individual soul. The Murshids’ work is to kindle the fire of the heart, and to light the torch of the soul of their mureeds, and to let the mureeds believe and disbelieve as they choose, while journeying through the path of evolution.
It is not that Murshids give their knowledge to someone else. It is not possible to give one’s knowledge that way, so the Murshids do not profess to be able to do this or that. Their work is to help others to find out for themselves, to discover for themselves what is true and what is not. There are no doctrines to impart, there are no principles to lay down, and there are no tenets according to which their pupils must order their lives. They are just guides along the path. They are the ones who kindle the light that is already in the pupils.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad) Samuel L. Lewis
This oil is love, and the lamp is the heart. Once the flame even flickers a bit, it starts a commotion and a motion which reaches to the furthest parts of one’s being. Often this occurs in sorrow or in trepidation, yet it awakens the life-spark in one to the real life. Thus this awakening comes with sympathy and understanding. If one then keeps in the rhythm of the heart and watches the heart fully, all things become clear in the light and life of the heart, and that very attitude fans the flame therein to greater brightness.