Becoming Mureed through SMS

Assalamalaikum wa Rahmatullah Mufti Sahab! Can we become someone's Mureed through SMS? Without seeing one's Murshid who is very far from us.  And we become it because of someone's forcing?  Please answer to this.

Walaikum Assalamalaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa barakutuhu! Bay'ah (pledge) is nothing but a promise, in which the Mureed (disciple) makes the Murshid/Shaykh (master) a means (Wasila) before Allah and repents (Tauba) on his/her past sins and violations of the Sunnah and makes a promise to follow all of them in the future life.  

From times past, for Bay'ah, hands were held and the Jurists (Fuqaha) have declared holding hands (like a handshake) as a Sunnah, as Imam Fakhruddin Zaila'i Hanafi (May Allah shower His mercy on him) says in Tabyeen Ul Haqaaiq.

As per the Hadith, shaking hands is correct and doing Bay'ah in this manner is a Sunnah, which is going on from past times.  However, if there is no possibility of meeting a Shaykh personally and giving Bay'ah by holding hands, then it can be done through SMS also and the teachings and the prescribed Dhikr.  Before giving Bay'ah to someone, one should be completely satisfied about that person.  If there is a real heartfelt desire to give Bay'ah to someone, only then it should be done.  It is not correct to take Bay'ah by force.

And Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala) knows best.

Mufti Syed Ziauddin Naqshbandi Qadri

[Professor, Islamic Law, Jamia Nizamia,
Founder-Director Abul Hasanaat Islamic Research Center.