Noor: I am not the issue here. But let us discuss more productive things. Does your Sufism, if it can be called Sufism, have similarities to the other features of real Sufism? Do you have, for example, a ‘chain of transmission?’

Qutb: Yes, we have a chain of transmission.

Noor: And what, if I may ask, is that chain?

Qutb: Well, there is God to William Blake. There is God to Walt Whitman. There is God to T.S. Eliot.

Noor: How is that a chain? All the people you mention have only one link, and that is to God.

Qutb: Yes. There is only one link in any Blaketashi chain of transmission.

Noor: Not much of a chain.

Qutb: If you think about what you have said, you will be properly ashamed.

Noor: What? ...So there are no human to human links in the Blaketashi chain of transmission?

Qutb: The only connection which counts is to God. Either it is, or it is not.

Noor: Do you not believe in the flow-down of grace, wisdom, and insight through families and other human chains, through-out history?

Qutb: It is for God to say, but if the world is an example of the truth, it is not likely, especially between father and son, as are many of the supposed Sufi chains.

Noor: What do you mean?

Qutb: How often do we hear of, say, an excellent business man who has built a fortune, only to have his children dissipate it within a few years? Now, if the transmission of even such a base thing as shrewdness in the market-place cannot be achieved between a father and a child, how are we to realistically expect that something as subtle as the Vision of Truth can pass down thirty generations?

Noor: Let’s pause here a moment. (Sound of tape recorder going off. Coming on)

Noor: Until recently, I had never heard of the Blaketashi Darwishes, although they seem to have had a long history in the West. Why do you think that is?

Qutb: Junayd sums it up nicely, in regards to his own provenance, when he said that for long periods, we were a reality without a name.

Noor: He also spoke about the situation, then, being a name and no reality.

Qutb: To avoid that, the public projection of our reality will take place only for the next two years. After that, we will return to silence, and our public assertions will soon be forgotten.

Noor: So how is reality of the Blaketashi Darwish passed along?

Qutb: As you undoubtedly know, the course of instruction of the Blaketashi Darwish takes place, typically, within the Literature departments of usually Western Universities.

Noor: You say ‘typically’ and ‘usually’.

Qutb: Well yes. Nothing is absolute. There are Blaketashi Darwish organizations operating within, say History or Psychology Departments as well as Literature. We even have a physicist or two! Imagine that! In addition, we also count many writers and poets amongst our ranks. And while primarily a Western expression, we do have, how-shall-I-say…..missionary work going on in many parts of the world.

Noor: I did not know it was that widespread. How many members do you claim?

Qutb: The Blaketashi Darwishes are not, in general, numbers-oriented people, and we have never counted our membership. But it must number close to one-hundred thousand.

Noor: One hundred thousand! That’s…….. unbelievable.

Qutb: I see you doubt my words. You may count the number for yourself, if you do not easily tire of such matters.

Noor: How would one do that?

Qutb: Simply take the number of tenured Literature professors in the West, add a thousand, say, to compensate for those in the East, and another few thousand poets and writers, and triple that number. That is roughly the number of Blaketashi Darwishes.

Noor: Why the number of tenured professors? Surely, you’re not suggesting…

Qutb: Oh yes, my dear, I am. Almost without exception, every tenured Literature professor in the West is a Blaketashi Darwish. It is only they who are tenured, who are given the freedom of having a perpetual license to teach. And each Professor, as we declare our Sheikhs, has, in general, two ardent pupils, which accounts for the trebling of the number.

Noor: This is unbelievable.

Qutb: Believe as you wish. Having been at University, can you not, upon reflection, see the Sufic aspects of the tenure process? Many a purported teacher who has not received tenure has never understood what went wrong. What went wrong is that they fundamentally misunderstood the nature of the organization to which they were attempting to become a permanent member.

Noor: A hundred thousand…… and all tenured…..

Qutb: And if you consider the impact made by those present and future professors on the totality of their student population, past and present, the reach of the Blaketashi Darwish organization is literally tens-of-million students. Although few of the students understand the depths from which the teachings they receive, flow. And we have other, more dramatic impacts as well.