What does a shaykh actually do for a seeker?

In Tasawwuf, the purpose of the shaykh is to help the seeker get rid of the spiritual ailments, assist in the fight against the nafs, and guide him through to the path of true love, which is ihsan, spiritual excellence. The shaykh takes the seeker to follow the Beloved Prophet ﷺ and adjoins him to Allah.

The seeker takes the path of Tasawwuf, and by the special favours of Allah, the shaykh's training and dua, the journey begins. A true shaykh always ensures that the seeker follows the way of the Shariah and the Prophetic Sunnah.

A shaykh loves his students because he is assigned the duty of purifying them, and they are the means of his worship by guiding them to the path of Tasawwuf. The shaykh is the guide who takes one to the path of Allah and takes him through the journey of love.

The shaykh is the spiritual father for the seeker: he takes the raw materials and shapes the seeker to achieve a higher plane of consciousness. The disciples vary in their level of purity and taqwa, but the true shaykh guides them with his own example and through the classical works of the scholars of the lineage.