A disciple wrote that I shall be arriving on that date and time, I shall stay for that much of time and will leave on that date at that time.
This is equivalent to making your Shaikh subservient to you. You are trying to make a person, from whom you intend to benefit, subservient to you. Shah Muhammed Ahmed Pratapgarhi (RA) once replied to such a person that go back and do not show your face for next one year.
Those who are aware of the etiquette (aadaab) they act differently. A disciple informed his Shaikh of his arrival at the Shaikh's door step and then waited for two hours. He did not complain and gave the excuse that the Shaikh must be busy. In reality the Shaikh heard about his arrival but then forgot about it due to distractions.
(A person trained in current manners might be puzzled by some of the above events. In brief, when we visit our Shaikh the etiquette demands that we seek his permission. We mostly think of informing and take some sort of pride in that. The Path, the Method is about submitting ourselves to the Will of Allah Almighty. That is Islam. Practicing that by adhering to the instructions of our Shaikh is the Path, the Method. Those of us who believe that it is sufficient to inform usually forget that before that we need permission, to visit the Shaikh. If we indulge in informing, rather then seeking permission, then depending upon the Shaikh we shall receive different responses and all of them will be puzzling, irrespective of Shaikh. The crux is simple: we might have put the cart before the horse. Cart=to inform, horse=to seek permission.)
(Sitting (majlis) on Friday, October 15, 2010)
