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Muhammad al-Baqi bi-l-Lah

Sayyid! A gnostic of high degree used to say,
‘Being a dervish is to correct the imagination.’
In other words, nothing other than the Real
should remain in the heart. In truth, he spoke well.
O Sayyid! Since the veil is nothing but imagination,
the veil must be lifted through imagination.
Night and day you must dwell in imagining Oneness.

Shaykh Baqi’s son, Khwaja Khurd

He was the Knower, Annihilated in God (fana billah) and Existing in His Existence (baqa billah), who was lifted to the highest station of Vision. He was a Secret of Allah’s Secrets and a Miracle of Allah’s Miracles. He combined in his person the two types of knowledge: the Outer Knowledge and the Heavenly Knowledge. God gave him from the two Oceans, and conferred on him Authority in the two worlds of men and Jinn.

Imam Rabbani Ahmad al-Faruqi (q) said, “Muhammad al-Baqi was the One Sitting on the Throne of all Shaikhs, and he was the Deputy of all Masters of the Naqshbandi Golden Chain, who reached the end of the Infinite, who achieved the highest states of wilayat (Friendship of God). He was the qutb (Spiritual Pole) who supported every creature on this earth. He unveiled the secrets of Reality. He was the Verifier of the Station of the Reality of Muhammad . He was the Pillar of the People of Guidance. He was the Essence of the Knowers and the Guide of the Verifiers (muhaqqiqin).”

He was born in 972 H. in the city of Kabul in the land of `Ajam which was a colony of the Sultanate of India. His father was the judge Abdu-s-Salam. He went to India in the first instance on personal business. There he was attracted to an attraction from God’s attraction. He left this worldly life behind and sought spiritual knowledge from the Master of the century. He kept company with masters and saints, until he himself became an ocean of intellect and a saint of spirituality. He traveled continuously until he reached the city of Samarqand. There he connected himself to the Master of his time, Muhammad Khwaja al-Amkanaki (q). He received from him the Way of the Naqshbandi Order. In a very short time he received what most seekers require a lifetime to receive. He was elevated also through the spiritual care of Ubaidullah al-Ahrar (q). His honor became known everywhere. His shaikh, Muhammad Khwaja al-Amkanaki, authorized him to take followers and to train them in the conduct of the Order. He ordered him to go back to India. He predicted, “You are going to have a follower who will be like the sun.” This would be Imam Rabbani Ahmad al-Faruqi (q).

He moved back to India and stayed in the city of Delhi-Jahanabad, which he filled with faith and knowledge and secrets and lights. Through him the Naqshbandi Order was spread with great swiftness throughout the Indian Subcontinent and millions of people were connected to him through his deputies. All nations in the Subcontinent were attracted to his knowledge and his Heavenly Power and to the Prophetic Characteristics dressing him. It became known throughout the Indian Subcontinent that anyone coming to him and looking in his eyes, or sitting in his association doing dhikr, would enter a state of Self-Effacement, through which he could reach a state of Annihilation, in a single meeting. By this miraculous power he attracted millions of people, until this Naqshbandi Order was on the tongue of every person in his time.

He died on Wednesday, the 14th of Jumada al-Akhira, 1014 H., in the city of Delhi at the age of 40 years and four months. His grave is on the West side of the city of Delhi.

Muhammad Khwaja al-Amkanaki

“O perfect, full Moon! The house of the heart is Thine! The intellect–which was once the master–has become thy slave and doorman.
From the day of Alast [“Am I not”] the spirit has been drunk with Thee, though for a time it was distracted by water and clay.
Since the clay has now settled to the bottom, the water is clear–no more do I say, ‘This is mine, that is Thine.’”

Rumi, Divan

He was the Inheritor of the Secrets of the Prophet. Shaykh Muayyidu-d-Din Muhammad al-Baqi (q).

Darwish Muhammad as-Samarqandi

“It is not my part, if trials come my way, to turn away from them,
Nor, if I am flooded with joy, to abandon myself to it;
For I am not of those who, for the loss of one thing, are consoled
By another; I wish nothing less than the All.”

Shaykh `Abdul-Qadir al-Jilani.

He is the Ghawth (Arch-Intercessor) of the Famous Saints and the Blessing of the Scholars of Islam. He is the Dawn and the Light of both the East and the West. He is the Master of the Kingdom of Guidance. He grew up in the house of his uncle who taught him the best manners, educated him in spiritual and religious knowledge, and nursed him from the fount of morality and ethics. He quenched his thirst with the Heavenly Realities and Unseen Knowledge, until his heart became a House of Revelation, as Allah said in the Holy Hadith, “Neither my heaven nor my earth could contain Me, but the heart of my Believing Servant contained Me.”

He was known in his time as Darwish Wali. He grasped all kinds of understandings of the Religion and he was able to erase the mischief and the misguidance of many of the false teachers of his time. He revived languishing hearts and he mended broken hearts, until he became the blessing of his time and the Human Essence of Guidance. He had many followers throughout the country. His house and his mosque were filled with visitors asking and seeking his guidance.

One time after an association he had just held with him and other murids, Shaykh Muhammad az-Zahid told him to go up a certain hill at some distance and wait for him there. The Shaykh told him he would be coming later. Darwish Muhammad was so obedient to his Shaykh that he surrendered his will to him completely. His conduct was perfect. He went and waited for the Shaykh to come, without using his mind to ask: “how shall I go there, what shall I do when I get there, etc.” He moved immediately. He arrived and began to wait. The time for afternoon prayers came and the Shaykh did not show up. Then the sun set. His ego was telling him, “Your Shaykh isn’t coming; you have to go back. Maybe the Shaykh forgot.” His truthful belief, however, told him: “O Darwish Muhammad, believe in your Shaykh and believe that he is certainly coming, as he said. You have to wait.”

How was Darwish Muhammad’s heart to believe his ego when his heart was being lifted up to be with his Shaykh? He braced up and waited. Night came and it was very cold on the hill. He was freezing. He spent all night awake and his only source of warmth was his dhikr of “la ilaha illallah”. Dawn came and the Shaykh had still not shown up. He was hungry and started looking for something to eat. He found some fruit trees, ate, and kept waiting for the Shaykh. The day went, and then the next day. He was again in a big struggle with his ego, but he kept thinking: “If my Shaykh is a real Shaykh, he knows what he is doing.”

A week went and then a month. The Shaykh was not coming. The only distraction Darwish Muhammad had from waiting was dhikrullah, and his daily prayers were his only other activity. He kept on only until the power of his dhikr made the animals come and sit around him to make dhikr with him. He realized that this miraculous power had come to him from his Shaykh.

Winter came and the Shaykh didn’t come. It began to snow. It was extremely cold and there was no more food. He began to cut the bark of the trees and feed himself on the moisture inside, and from roots and whatever green leaves he could find. Deer came to him and he began to milk the ewes. This was another miracle which appeared to him. The ewe did not move when he milked her, and another came. He was being lifted up to higher and higher spiritual levels, and his teacher was sending him spiritual knowledge through these miracles and visions. Khidr ” He said, “What if something had happened to me?” Darwish Muhammad said, “O my Shaykh, if I had not stayed here and waited for you and obeyed, you would have never come to me by permission of the Prophet ” Darwish Muhammad had detected in his heart that his Shaykh was coming by the order of the Prophet

The Shaykh laughed and said: “Come with me.” At that moment he poured to him the secret and the power of this Golden Chain of the Naqshbandi order that he had in his heart. He then ordered him to be the Shaykh of the murids. Darwish Muhammad remained in his Shaykh’s service until Shaykh Muhammad az-Zahid passed away.

Darwish Muhammad died on the 19th of Muharram, 970 H. He passed the secret of the Order to his son, Muhammad Khwaja al-Amkanaki (q).

Muhammad az-Zahid

My illness is that I no longer care about my illness.
O Remedy of my illness — it is You Who are my illness.
For a time, I repented; but since I’ve known You,
My repentance became lost in You.Your coming near is now like Your growing distant.
When shall rest come?

Abu Bakr ash-Shibli

He was the Perfection of the Pious, the Genius of the Guides, the Essence of Sainthood. Upon him was bestowed the Godly Khalifate (al-Khilafa al-Rabbaniyya), and the Spiritual Kingdom was his shelter. He combined in his person the Heavenly Knowledge and the Sharaca Knowledge, and he grasped the best of the tariqat and haqiqat, until he became the locus of all Heavenly Revelations and Inspirations. In him appeared the Knowledge of Spiritual Knowers. He is known as the Unique One in Knowledge and in the Use of the Pen. He carried in his heart the secrets of attracting the hearts of people. Praise belongs all to Allah who established in him the Heavenly Revelation, and who gave him miraculous power in every important matter. He adorned him with the Perfect Light of Muhammad in the beginning of his ascent to the State of Spiritual Knowledge. He was the Secret of his Shaykh, the Qiblah for his Shaykh’s people, the Inheritor of his Shaykh’s knowledge.

He wrote a book on the spiritual trademarks of his Shaykh, Shaykh Ubaydullah (q), called Silsilat al-^carifeen wa tadhkirat as-siddiqeen wherein he said,

I served my Shaykh for 12 years until he died, from 883 to 895 H. The cause of my connection and my initiation to him occurred one day when I went with a companion, Shaykh Nicmatullah, from Samarqand to Herat for the sake of furthering our education. When we reached the village of Shadiman, we stayed there many days to rest because it was the hot season. One day Shaykh Ubaidullah al-Ahrar came to the same city, and we went to visit him at Asr time.

He asked me where I was from. I said, ‘From Samarqand.’ He was speaking to us in the finest manner. Through his speech, he revealed all the private matters that were in my heart, piece by piece, until he told me why I was travelling to Herat. That was so amazing that it made my heart connect with him. He said to me, ‘If your goal is to seek education and knowledge, you can find it here, there is no need to go to Herat.’ I acknowledged that every petty gossip and every inspiration that were in my heart were as open to him as the pages of a book; even so, I was still intending to go to Herat.

One of his followers who was unhappy with my intention said, ‘The Shaykh is busy writing, you can go.’ I did not go but waited until the Shaykh came back again. The Shaykh came back and said to me, ‘Now tell me your real story. Why are you going to Herat? Are you going in search of the spiritual path or are you going there to seek external knowledge?’ My friend replied on my behalf, ‘He is seeking spiritual knowledge, but he is using the pursuit of external learning as a cover.’ He said, ‘If that is the case that is good.’ Then he took me in his private garden and we walked together until we disappeared from the sight of the people. He took hold of my hand and I immediately entered the state of Self-Effacement (fana’) for a long time. I understood he was connecting me to his Shaykh, and from him to his Shaykh, and from him to his Shaykh, all the way to the Prophet and from the Prophet to Allah, Glorious and Exalted.

He then told me that I will be able to read and understand his writings. He wrapped them up, gave them to me, and told me

In them is the reality of worship through obedience and piety and humbleness. By means of this paper, if you follow it, you will realize a vision of Allah, Almighty and Exalted.

This Way is based on the love of God, which is based on following the footsteps of the Prophet , which, is based on knowledge of his Sunna. The Prophet said, ‘You have to follow my way and the way of my khalifs after me.’ For this you must accompany the righteous scholars who are the inheritors of the Knowledge of the Religion and the Inheritors of the Knowledge of Heaven; the Inheritors of the Unseen Knowledge and the Knowledge of the Holy Attributes; the Inheritors of the Love of the Divine Presence. Their company will lead you to manifest the Divine Knowledge and to follow the pure way of the Prophet .

You must keep away from corrupt scholars who use religion as a means to collect the pleasure of this dunya and to acquire fame and position. Avoid the Dancing Sufis, who are like children, irresponsible. Do not listen to those who speak without understanding about all kinds of nonsense, about halal and haram (the Lawful and the Unlawful) without ever speaking of the importance of not deviating from the beliefs of Ahl as-Sunnah wal-Jamaat (the Community of the Way of the Prophet ).

Do not listen to the arguments of the philosophers and the people who understand nothing of Tasawwuf except its name, and yet pretend to be Sufis. May Allah, my son, greet you with the greetings of Islam.

He then went back to his association, read Fatiha for me and gave me permission to go to Herat. I left his presence directing myself to Bukhara. He sent after me a messenger with a letter addressed to the Shaykh Kallan, son of Mawlana Sad ad-din al-Kashgari. In it was written, ‘You have to look after my son who is carrying my letter and to keep him from mixing with bad scholars.’ When I saw that lovely gesture from him, my love for him deepened in my heart. Yet I didn’t go back to him, but continued to Herat.

The way to Bukhara took a long time, because my mount was weak. I had to stop every one or two miles. I had gone through six donkeys by the time I reached Bukhara. When I finally arrived, my eyes became afflicted and I was unable to see for many days. When my condition improved and I prepared to leave for Herat, I came down with a high fever. I was so sick that it came to my heart that if I continued I might die. I decided not to travel further but to go back and serve the Shaykh.

After I reached Tashkent, I decided to visit Shaykh Ilyas al-Ashaqi. I left my books, my clothes and my animal with a caretaker. One of Shaykh Ubaydullah’s servants saw me on the way. I said, ‘Let us visit the Shaykh.’ He asked, ‘Where is your animal? Bring it to my house and then we will go to visit.’ As I was going to retrieve my animal, a voice came to me saying, ‘Your animal is dead, and all that is on it has disappeared.’ A great confusion came over me. I realized that the Shaykh was not happy with my planned visit to Shaykh Ilyas. The thought came to my heart, ‘Look how my Shaykh is directing all his power to lift me up while I have decided to visit someone else.’ I decided not to visit Shaykh Ilyas al-’Ashaqi but instead to go directly to Shaykh Ubaidullah al-Ahrar. When this came to my heart, a man came to me and said, ‘We have found your animal with all your possessions on it.’ I returned to the person with whom I had left the animal and he told me, ‘I tied your animal here, and when I looked up, it had disappeared. I looked everywhere. It was as if the earth had swallowed it up. Then I returned again, and there was the animal, right where I had tethered it in the first place.’ I took my animal and set off to Samarqand to Shaykh Ubaidullah al-Ahrar (q). When I arrived he came out saying, ‘Welcome, welcome.’ I stayed with the Shaykh and never left him until he left this world.

He had perfect belief. He accepted whatever his Shaykh taught him and nothing anyone could say would change that belief. He said,

My Shaykh used to speak about spirituality and secret knowledge. He would always direct his speech towards me and ask me, ‘When you hear me speak about Divine Realities, does it cause any conflict in you with regard to the beliefs which you got from your parents and your teachers and scholars?’ I said, ‘No my Shaykh.’ He said, ‘Then you are one to whom we can speak.

One day my Shaykh was sick and he ordered me to get a doctor from Herat. Mawlana Qassim came to me and said, ‘O Muhammad, make your travelling very quick coming and going, because I can’t stand for the Shaykh to be sick for long.’ I traveled quickly and returned with the doctor but I found that the Shaykh was well and Mawlana Qassim had died. My trip had taken me thirty-five days. I asked my Shaykh, ‘How did Mawlana Qassim die when he was so young?’ He said, ‘When you left Mawlana Qassim came to me and said, ‘I am giving my life for your life.’ I told him, ‘O my son, don’t do that, because so many people love you.’ He said, ‘O my Shaykh I didn’t come here to consult you. I have made the decision and Allah has accepted it from me.’ No matter what I said, I couldn’t change his mind. The next day he became sick with the sickness I had, which was reflected on him. He died on the 6th of Rabi’ul Awwal and I was immediately well, without the need of a doctor.’”

Shaykh Muhammad az-Zahid died on the 12th of Rabi’ul Awwal, 926 H/1520 CE in Samarqand. He passed his secret to his nephew, Shaykh Darwish Muhammad as-Samarqandi (q).

Ubaydullah al-Ahrar

As soon as I remember You — my secret, my heart,
And my spirit starts to disturb me during Your remembrance.
Until an observer from You used to call to me,
‘Beware, beware — of remembrance beware.’
Do you not see the Real? His proofs appeared.
The meaning of totality joined Your meaning.
The rememberers when remembering him
Are more forgetful than the ones who forget to remember Him.
The Prophet (s) said, ‘The one who knows Allah,
His tongue is paralyzed

He was the Pole of the Circle of the Knowers of God, an Ocean of Knowledge which would never be exhausted, even though all of creation were to drink from it to quench their spiritual thirst. He was a King who owned the pure light of the Unique Essence and released it from its captivity in the Hidden to spread it among all Knowers. He unveiled the hidden side of the moons of the Attributes of the Lord from the cradle until his perfected state. He was given authority as a youth and set to work to receive the Secret of Secrets and to unveil the Veils. He never looked at a worldly desire. He progressed until he reached the highest states of sainthood, where knowledge of the Essence of the Unseen is bestowed and the secret of Absolute Nihility becomes revealed. Then he travelled on from Absolute Nihility to Absolute Light. Allah revived this Order through him during his time and He supported him with His Favor. He made him a golden link in this Golden Chain, and He made him one of the most elevated inheritors of the Prophet (s).

Shaykh Ubaydullah (q) tried his best to wash from the hearts of people the dirt and darkness that had covered them. He became a sun to light the way of the seekers to the state of Certainty and the Hidden Treasure of Spiritual Knowledge.

He was born in the village of Shash in the year 806 H., in the month of Ramadan. It was related that before he was born his father began to exhibit a tremendous state of renunciation, which made him leave all worldly actions and enter seclusion during which he nearly gave up sleep and food, disconnected himself from people, and took to practice the spiritual way of the tariqat. While in this spiritual state, his wife became pregnant with Ubaydullah. That is one reason for the latter’s high station; his spiritual training began while in his mother’s womb. When his mother became pregnant, his father’s unusual spiritual state ended and he returned to his normal life.

Before Ubaydullah was born, the following incident took place in which his great station was foretold. Shaykh Muhammad as-Sirbili said, “When Shaykh Nizamuddin al-Khamush as-Samarqandi was sitting in my father’s house, meditating, he suddenly screamed in a tremendous voice. This made everyone afraid. He said, ‘I saw a vision of an enormous man coming to me from the east, and I could see nothing in the world except for him. That person is named Ubaydullah and he is going to be the greatest Shaykh of his time. Allah is going to make the whole world subject to him, and I hope I will be among his followers.’”

The Beginning of His State and The State of His Beginning

The signs of happiness were visible on him in his childhood. The Light of Guidance appeared in his face. One of his relatives said, “He did not accept the breast of his mother for nursing until she was clean of any post-partum bleeding and discharge.” He used to say,

I still recall what I heard when I was one year of age. From the age of three years, I was in the Presence of God. When I studied the Qur’an with my teacher my heart was in God’s Presence. I used to think that all people were like that.

He said,

One day during the winter, I went out while it was raining and my feet and shoes sank into the mud. It was very cold. I tried to pull my feet out of the mud. I realized that my heart was in big danger, because for that moment I had forgotten to remember Allah. I immediately began to ask for forgiveness.

He was raised in the home of his uncle, Ibrahim ash-Shashi, who was the greatest scholar of his time. He taught him very well and when he had completed his training, his uncle sent him from Tashkent to Samarqand.

He said to his uncle, “Whenever I go to study I feel sick.” He replied, “O my son, I know the state you are now in. So I am not going to force you to do anything. Do as you like. You are free.”

He narrates,

“One day while in that state, I went to visit the grave of Shaykh Abi Bakr al-Kaffal. I took a nap and I had a vision. I saw ^cIsa (s) in the vision. I rushed to bow down and kiss his feet. He raised my head and said, ‘O my son, don’t become sad, I am taking the responsibility of raising you and educating you.’ That vision ended. I related the vision to many people. One of them was an expert in the interpretation of spiritual states. He explained it this way: ‘You are going to be very high in the science of medicine.’ I didn’t like his explanation. I told him, ‘I know better what the vision represents: Jesus, Peace and Blessings of God be upon him, in spiritual knowledge, represents the state of the Living Ones. Anyone who reaches that state among the saints will be given the title of ^cIsawi, which means Living One. Allah mentioned in the Holy Qur’an a verse describing them, bal ahya’un ^cinda rabbihim yurzaqun (“Truly, they are alive with their Lord, receiving sustenance“)

[3:169]. Since he promised to raise me in that line, it means that I am going to reach the state of the Living Hearted.’ It was not much longer before I received that state from ^cIsa (s) in my heart.”

“I saw the Prophet, Muhammad (s), in a grand vision. He was accompanied by a very large crowd, standing at the foot of a mountain. He looked at me and he said, ‘Ya Ubaydullah, lift up this mountain and take it up to that other mountain.’ I knew that no one can carry a mountain, but it was a direct order from the Prophet (s). I lifted that mountain and I carried it to the place he asked me. Then the Prophet (s) looked at me and said, ‘I knew that this power was in you. I wanted people to know about it and to see the power you are carrying.’ From this I knew that I would be the means of guiding a great many people to this Way.”

“One night I saw Shah Naqshband (q) come to me and work on my internal state. When he went, I followed him. He stopped and looked at me. He said, ‘May Allah bless you my son. You are going to have a very high position.’”

“I followed the Qutb (Spiritual Pole) Nizamuddin al-Khamush in Samarqand. Then I went to Bukhara, when I was 22 years of age, where I met the great Knower, Shaykh Sirajuddin al-Birmisi. He lived four miles from Bukhara. When I visited him he looked at me intensely and he wanted me to stay with him. But my heart was telling me to travel to Bukhara. I only stayed with him briefly. He used to work in the day making clay pots and at night he used to sit in his prayer room, on the floor. After finishing his ‘Isha prayer, he would sit until Fajr. I never saw him sleep during the day or the night. I stayed with him seven days, and never did I see him sleep. He was one of the most advanced in both external and internal knowledge.”

“Then I moved to Bukhara, where I kept company with Shaykh amiduddin ash-Shashi and with Shaykh Alauddin al-Ghujdawani. They were among the followers of Shah Naqshband, Alauddin al-Attar and Ya^cqub al-Charkhi. Shaykh Alauddin al-Ghujdawani would sometimes disappear completely while lecturing, and then he would reappear. He had an excellent way of speaking. He never stopped making dhikr and struggling with his self. I met him when he was 90 years of age and I used to frequent his company. One day I went for a walk to the grave of Shah Naqshband. When I came back I saw Shaykh Alauddin al-Ghujdawani coming halfway to meet me. He said, ‘I think it is better that you stay with us tonight.’ We prayed ^cIsha, he offered me dinner, and then he said to me, ‘O my son, let us keep this night alive.’ He sat cross-legged and I sat behind him. He was in perfect meditation and dhikr and he never moved right or left. I know through my spiritual knowledge, that a person in that state must be in complete Presence and Vision of the Divine. I was surprised that at his age of 90 years, he did not feel tired. I myself, by midnight, began to feel exhausted. So I began to make litle sounds, hoping he would give me permission to stop. He ignored me. Then I stood up to attract his attention, but he still ignored me. Then I felt shy and I went back to my place and sat again. At that time I experienced a vision in which he was pouring into my heart the secret of the Knowledge of Firmness and Constancy (at-tamkin). From that time on, I felt that whatever difficulty came my way, I would be able to carry it without any disturbance. I realized that this Order is based completely on the support of the murid by the Shaykh. He taught me a lesson that one must struggle to keep firm and constant in the dhikr, because whatever you acquire easily, without difficulty, will not stay with you. Whatever you earn by the sweat of your brow, however, will stay with you.”

“One time I went to visit Shaykh Sayyid Qassim at-Tabrizi in Herat. There I followed an ascetic way of life leaving everything of the world. When he ate he would give me the remains, and I would eat them without saying anything. One day he looked at me and said, ‘You are going to be very rich. I am predicting this for you.’ At that time I had nothing. When I returned to my country, I was a farmer. I had one acre of land on which I kept some cows. In a very short time his prediction came true and my land increased until I had many farms and herds of cattle. All this wealth didn’t affect my heart. I dedicated it all for the sake of Allah.”

The Superiority of Service

His benevolence in private and public marked his way. He said,

One time I went to the school of Qutb ad-Din as-Sadr in Samar. I found there four people with very high fevers. I began to serve them, cleaning their clothes and feeding them, until I too became infected with the same fever. This didn’t stop me from serving them. The fever in me increased and increased until I felt that I was going to die. I made an oath to myself, ‘Let me die, but let these four people be served.’ I continued to serve them. The next day I found myself completely cured, while they were still sick.

He said,

To help and serve people, in the understanding of this Way, is better than Dhikr and meditation. Some people think that to do the superogatory Sunnas is better than serving and helping those in need. It is our view, however, that to take care of people and to help them and to show them love is better than anything else.

In this regard, Shah Naqshband (q) used to say, “We love to serve, not to be served. When we serve, Allah is happy with us, and this brings more attraction to the Divine Presence and Allah opens that state more for us. However, to be served, brings pride and weakness to the heart and causes us to recede from the Divine Presence.”

Sheikh Ubaydullah (q) said,

I didn’t take this tariqat from books, but I pursued this tariqat by service to people.

Everyone enters through a different door; I entered this Spiritual Order through the door of service.

He was extremely strict in keeping the adab (right conduct) of both external and internal behavior, in his seclusion and among the people. Abu Sa^cad al-Awbahi said, “I accompanied him 35 years and was with him continuously. In all that time I never saw him remove the skin or the seeds of fruit from his mouth, so as not to open his mouth with food inside. When he was sleepy he would never yawn. I never saw him spit. I never saw him do something which would disgust people. I never even saw him sitting cross-legged. He sat only on his knees in perfect good conduct.”

From His Miraculous Speech about the Glorious Qur’an

He said,

I will tell you a secret from among the many secrets of Alhamdulillahi Rabbi-l-^calameen (‘Praise is to Allah, Lord of the Worlds’) [1:2]. The perfect Praise is to Allah from Allah. The perfection of praise is when the servant praising Him knows that he is nothing. The servant must know that he is completely empty, no body or form exists for him, no name and no action belongs to him, but he is happy because Allah, Almighty and Exalted, made His Attributes to appear in him.

What is the meaning of Allah’s saying in the Qur’an, wa qaleelan min ^cibadi ash-shakur (‘And few of My servants are thankful’) [34:13]? The servant who is truly ‘thankful’ is the one who can see the Grantor of favors to human beings.

What is the meaning of the verse, f’arid ^can man tawalla an dhikrina (‘And leave the one who turns away from Our Remembrance‘) [53:29]? It indicates that for the one who is in deep contemplation of Our Divine Presence, and has reached the state of seeing nothing except Us, there is no need for acts of remembrance. If he is in the state of complete vision, do not order him to recite dhikr as it might cause a coldness in his heart. While he is totally preoccupied with his state of vision, anything else is a distraction and might interrupt the state.

Muhyiddan Ibn Arabi said, regarding this matter: ‘By Dhikrullah, the Remembrance of God, sins increase, and visions and hearts will be veiled. To leave the Dhikr is a better state because the sun never sets.’ What he means here is that when the Knower is in the Divine Presence and in the state of Absolute Vision of the Oneness of God, at that time everything is annihilated in God. For him dhikr would be a distraction. The Knower exists in His Existence and appears in His Appearance. He is in a state of Annihilation in the Divine Presence, whereas in Dhikrullah he would be in a state of absence, in need of reminding himself that God is there.

What is the meaning of the verse, kunu maa-s-sadiqeen (‘Be with the trustworthy ones’) [9:119]? This means to keep both their physical and their spiritual company. The seeker may sit in the physical company of the People of Truth, watch them, listen to them and Allah will enlighten his heart and will teach him to be like them. To keep the spiritual company of the People of Truth the seeker must direct his heart toward their spiritual heart. The seeker must keep their company always in his heart until they reflect all their secrets and all their stations on him. He must not turn his face to anything in this world except to the master who will take him to the Presence of Allah.

Love and follow Lovers. Then you will be like them and their love will reflect on you.

They asked him about the dhikr with LA ILAHA ILLALLAH. He said,

Some of the Masters say, LA ILAHA ILLALLAH is the dhikr of the Common People and ALLAH is the dhikr of the Preferred People (al-Khawas), and HUWA is the dhikr of the Preferred of the Preferred. But to me LA ILAHA ILLALLAH is the dhikr of the Preferred of the Preferred, because it has no ending. Just as Allah is the Creator in every moment, so in every moment knowledge increases for the Knower. For the Knower, his previous state is as nothing once he enters a new, higher state. The Knower negates one state as he discards it and affirms a new state as he enters it. This is the manifestation of LA ILAHA ILLALLAH in the servant of God.

What is meant by the verse Ya ayyuha-l-ladheena amanu, aminu (‘O you who believe, Believe!’) [4:136] is, ‘O Believers, you are safe.’ You are safe because you have connected your heart with Allah Almighty and Exalted, and anyone who connects his heart with Allah is guaranteed safety.

About the verse, limani-l-Mulku-l-yawm, lillahi-l-Wahidi-l-Qahhar (‘to whom belongs the Kingdom on this day? To God, the One, the Irresistible‘) [40:16], he said:

This verse has had many explanations, but the key is to understand that the kingdom referred to is the Heart of the Seeker. If Allah looks at the heart of the seeker with the light of His Vision then He erases the existence of everything except Allah in his heart. That is what caused Bayazid to say subhanee ma a^cdhama sha’nee (‘Glory to Me for my Greatness!’) and Hallaj, ana-l-haqq (‘I am God’). In that state the heart is speaking, the heart from which Allah has erased everything but Himself.

What is the meaning of the verse kullu yawmin Huwa fi sha’n (‘Every day (moment) He manifests Himself in yet another wondrous way’) [55:29]? This ayat relates to two aspects of Subsistence after Annihiltion.

First, the seeker, after he realizes the Truth through his heart and is firmly established in his vision of the Unique Essence of Allah Almighty and Exalted, returns from the station of Self-Effacement to the station of Complete Presence. His senses become the place of appearances of Allah’s Names and Actions. He finds in himself traces of both the Heavenly Attributes and the Worldly Attributes. He is now able to distinguish between the two different levels of attributes, and is able to obtain a benefit from every Attribute and Knowledge.

The second meaning of the ayat is that the spiritual traveller finds in himself, in every moment and in every minuscule particle of time, a Trace of the Unique Essence of Allah, which cannot be found outside the State of Annihilation in the Vision of the One. From one fractional moment to another, he will visualize the Parts of the States of the Unique Divine Essence, and understand the ‘connectedness’ of everything in the Divine Unity. This connectedness varies in its colors and effects on the person, because it will thus be distinguished according to the time in which it appeared. This state is a very rare state and few saints attain it. Those few in each century who reach it are in a state of great honor, and they observe the meaning of the verse, kullu yawmin Huwa fi sha’n.

What is the meaning of the hadith, ‘Close all doors which face my mosque except the door of Abu Bakr?’ Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (r) existed in a state of perfect love toward the Prophet (s). All doors to the Prophet (s) are closed except the door of love, as represented by the open door of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. The way of the Masters of the Naqshbandi Order is connected through Abu Bakr As-Siddiq to the Prophet (s). Love for the Master brings the seeker to the door of Abu Bakr which leads him to the love of the Prophet, and from the love of the Prophet to love of Allah Almighty and Exalted.

The Meaning of Siddiq

If a Truthful Saint (Siddiq) progressing in the Way of Allah, is heedless for one moment, he loses in that one moment more than the attainment of a thousand years. Our Order is a Way in which all states are multiplied quickly in every moment. One second may be multiplied to the value of a thousand years.

There was a group of my followers who were reported to the khalif as hypocrites. He was advised, if you kill them you will be rewarded, because people will be saved from their misguidance. When they were brought in front of the khalif, he ordered them to be killed. The executioner approached to kill the first one. His companion called out and said, ‘Leave him and kill me first.’ When the executioner approached the second, a third one called him and said, ‘Kill me first.’ This was repeated for all four of them.

The executioner was very surprised. He asked, ‘What group do you belong to? It is as if you like to die.’ They said, ‘We are the group that prefers others to ourselves. We have reached a state in which for every action we perform, our rewards are doubled and we are increased in spiritual knowledge. Each of us tries his best to do good for someone else, even if only for a brief moment, in order to be raised higher and higher in the eyes of Allah.’ The executioner began to shake and could not take their lives. He went to the Khalif and explained their state. The Khalif immediately had them released and said, ‘If these are hypocrites, then there are no more People of Truth (Siddiq) left on the earth.

The Conduct of Shaykh and Murid

He said,

Sufism requires you to carry everyone’s burdens and not to put yours on anyone.

He said,

The best time of the day is one hour after the Asr prayer. At that time the murid must make progress in his worship. One of the best forms of worship at this time is to sit and evaluate the deeds of the day. If the seeker finds what he has done to be good, he must praise Allah. If he finds anything wrong he must ask forgiveness.

One of the best deeds is to follow a perfect Shaykh. To follow him and to keep his company will enable the seeker to reach the Divine Presence of Allah, ‘Azza wa Jall

Keeping the company of people of different mentalities causes the people to fall into differences.

One time Bayazid al-Bistami (r) was sitting in association and he found disagreement within the group. He said, ‘Look carefully among yourselves. Is there anyone who is not from us?’ They looked and did not find anyone. He said, ‘Look again for there is someone who is not from us.’ They looked again and found the walking stick of someone not from the group. He said, ‘Throw that away quickly, because it is reflecting its owner, and that reflection is causing disagreement.

The Shaykh must appear in the presence of his murids dressed in the best clothes and beautiful and neat. It is through their rabitah (heart’s connection) that the murids connect with the Shaykh. If he is dirty or unkempt, it will be difficult for the murids to maintain the quality of their rabitah. For that reason the Prophet (s) ordered his followers to comb their hair and wear their best clothes during worship.

Allah gave me great power to influence anyone I like. Even if I send a letter to King Khata, who proclaimed that he was God, he would come crawling barefoot to me. I have never used that power, however, because in this tariqat the will must follow the Will of Allah, Almighty and Exalted.

One of Ubaydullah’s (q) followers said, “We were sitting in his presence and he asked for ink, paper and a pen. He wrote many names. Then he wrote one name on another piece of paper, and that name was Abu Said. He took that paper and put it in his turban. We asked him, “Who is the man whose name you put in your turban? He said, ‘That is the man all of the people of Tashkent, Samarqand and Bukhara are going to follow.’ After one month we heard that the King Abu Said was coming to take over Samarqand. No one had ever heard of him before that.”

It is related, “One time King Abu Said had a dream in which he saw the great Imam Ahmad al-Yasawi, one of the khalifs of Yusuf al-Hamadani (q), asking Ubaydullah al-Ahrar (q) to read al-Fatiha with the intention that Allah give support to Abu Sa’id. In the dream Abu Said asked, ‘Who is that Shaykh,’ and was told, ‘Ubaydullah al-Ahrar.’ When he awoke, he still had the image of the Shaykh in his mind. He called his advisor in Tashkent and asked him, ‘Is there anyone by the name of Ubaydullah?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ Then the Sultan went to Tashkent to meet him and he found him in the village of Farqa.

“The Shaykh came out to meet him and the Sultan recognized him rightaway. Immediately his heart was attracted. He dismounted and ran to the Shaykh, kissing his hands and feet. He asked the Shaykh to read al-Fatiha for him. The Shaykh said, ‘O my son, when we need something we read Fatiha once and that is enough. We already did that as you saw in your dream.’ The king was astonished that the Shaykh knew the content of his dream. He then asked permission to move to Samarqand and the Shaykh said, ‘If your intention is to support the sharia of the Prophet (s) then I am with you and Allah will support you.’ The king said, ‘This is my intention.’ The Shaykh said, ‘When you see the enemy coming against you, be patient and don’t attack immediately. Wait until you see the crows coming from behind you, then attack.’ When this came to pass and the two armies were facing each other, Abu Said waited while the larger army of Abdullah Mirza was attacking. The generals urged Abu Said to attack. He said, ‘No. Not until we see the blackbirds coming, as my Shaykh foretold. Then we will attack.’ When he saw the crows coming, he ordered the army to attack. The horse of Abdullah Mirza became stuck in the mud, and he was captured and imprisoned. Then Abu Said was able to take all the territories.

“He then called Ubaydullah al-Ahrar (q) to move to Tashkent from Samarqand. Ubaydullah accepted and moved there with all his followers. He became the advisor to the king. After some years Sultan Abu Said received the news that Mirza Babar, nephew of Abdullah Mirza, was moving towards Khorasan with 100,000 warriors in order to avenge his uncle and take back his kingdom. Sultan Abu Said went to Ubaydullah and told him about this, saying, ‘We don’t have enough soldiers.’ Ahrar said, ‘Don’t worry.’ When Mirza Babar arrived in Samarqand, Sultan Abu Said consulted his advisors. They advised him to retreat to Turkestan. He prepared to return to Turkestan. The Shaykh came to him, and said, ‘How is it that you are disobeying my orders? I told you not to fear. By myself I am enough for all the 100,000 soldiers.’

The next day plague attacked the army of Sultan Mirza Babar, causing them to die by the thousands. Sultan Mirza Babar made a peace treaty with Abu Sa^cid. Then Mirza Babar left Samarqand in defeat with the remains of his army.”

Shaykh Ubaydullah (q) died after Isha prayer on Saturday, 12th of Rab’i ul-Awwal, 895 H./1489 CE, in the city of Kaman Kashan, in Samarqand. He left behind many books including Anas as-Salikin fit-Tasawwuf, and al-Urwatu-l-wuthqa li Arbaba-l-itiqad. He established a big school and mosque which are still in use today.

His son Muhammad Yahya and many of the people present at his death saw a light so brilliant shine from his eyes that it made the candles appear dim. All of Samarqand, including the sultan, were shaken and grief-stricken at his passing. Sultan Ahmad came with all his army to the funeral. The Sultan carried his coffin to its final resting place in this lower world.

He passed his secret to Shaykh Muhammad az-Zahid al-Qadi as-Samarqandi (q).

Yaqub al-Charkhi

I have known God and I see none other than Him
So that the ‘Other’ inus is shut out.
Since I realized unity, I no longer fear separation;
This day I have arrived and am united

Anonymous

Scholar of Saints and Saint of Scholars

He appeared among human beings dressed in the two knowledges, the exernal and the internal. His conduct and character were so refined that he reflected the attributes of God to all people. He revived spirituality within Divine Law and he revived Divine Law (sharia) within spirituality. People followed him because his way was the best, for he had inherited Knowledge of the Unseen from the Prophet (s).

He was born in the city of Jarkh, a suburb of Garnin, between the two cities of Kandahar and Kabul, in Transoxiana. In his youth he went to the city of Herat to educate himself. He then went to Egypt where he learned the sciences of shara^ca and logic. He memorized the Qur’an as well as 500,000 hadiths, both the correct and the false. One of his teachers was Shihabuddin ash-Shirawani, known as the Encyclopedia of the Age. He continued his education until he reached the level where he could give fatwas (legal decisions) on any matter that faced Muslims. He was a mujtahid mutlaq (capable of independent legal reasoning) in the two knowledges, external and internal. He returned to his country and followed Baha’uddin Naqshband (q) then Alauddin al-Attar (q) to educate himself in the hidden knowledge..

Of his teacher in Spiritual Knowledge he said,

I was sincere and loyal in my love for Shaykh Baha’uddin before I even knew him. When I got the ijaza (permission) to be a mujtahid mutlaq and to give fatwa, I went back to my country and I went to visit him and pay my respects. I said to him, with complete humbleness and obedience, “Please keep me always in the Essence of your Vision.” He said, “You came to me on your way back to your country of Jarkh?” I said to him, “I love you and I am your servant because you have the greatest fame and you are accepted by everyone.” He said, “That is not a good enough reason for me to accept you.” Then I replied, “O my Shaykh, the Prophet (s) said in his authentic hadith, ‘If Allah loves someone, he will influence the hearts of people to love that person as well.’” Then Bahauddin smiled and said, “I am the spiritual inheritor of Azizan. What you say is true.” When he said this phrase I was so surprised, because I had heard in a dream one month before, a voice saying to me “Be the murid of Azizan.” At the time I didn’t know who Azizan was. But he mentioned the word as if he had been aware of the dream. Then I took his leave. He said, ‘You may go, but let me give you a gift by which you will remember me.’ He gave me his turban. He said, ‘When you see this or use it you will remember me, and when you remember me you will find me and when you find me you will find your Way to Allah.

He told me, ‘On your way back to your country of Balkh, if you meet Mawlana Tajuddin al-Kawlaki, keep your heart from gossiping in his presence because he is a great saint and he will scold you.’ I said to myself, ‘I am going back to Herat by way of Balkh, but I am not going through Kawlak, where Mawlana Tajuddin is living. So I don’t think that I will see him.’ But on the way an event occurred to the caravan with which I was traveling and obliged us to go by way of Kawlak. I remembered the words of Shaykh Bahauddin, ‘If you pass by Kawlak, then visit Shaykh Tajuddin al-Kawlaki.’ It came to my heart that Shaykh Bahauddin caused the event to occur so that I would go to visit the Shaykh. When we arrived in Kawlak, it was very dark, with no stars in the sky. I went to the mosque to ask about Mawlana Tajuddin Kawlaki. One person came to me from behind a pillar and said to me, ‘Are you Yaqub al-Charkhi?’ I was astonished. He said, ‘Don’t be surprised. I knew you before you came here. My Shaykh, Shaykh Bahauddin, sent me to take you to Shaykh Tajuddin al-Kawlaki.’ On the way to see him, we met an old man, who said, ‘O my son, our way is full of surprises. Whoever enters it cannot understand it. The seeker must leave his mind behind.’ We then entered the presence of Mawlana Tajuddin and it was very difficult to keep my heart free from any gossip. Mawlana Tajuddin gave me a piece of spiritual knowledge that he possessed and which I had never heard before. All that I had learned was nothing compared to this knowledge. I was so happy with my Shaykh, Shaykh Bahauddin, and the way in which he arranged for me to meet with Mawlana Tajuddin, that my love for him increased greatly.

After I reached my country, from time to time, I would go to Bukhara to visit Shaykh Bahauddin. In Bukhara there was a majdhub, a person lost in the Divine Love, who was very well-known and whom people used to go to for blessing. One day when I intended to visit Shaykh Bahauddin, I decided to pass by that person and see what he would say. When he saw me he told me, ‘Quickly go to your destination and don’t stop. What you have decided is the best.’ He began to draw many lines in the dust. It came to my heart to count these lines. If the number of lines was odd then it would indicate a good sign for me, because the Prophet (s) said, ‘Allah is One and He like the odd number.’ I counted the lines and found their number to be odd. It made my heart happy. I went to visit Shaykh Bahauddin and asked him to give me initiation and teach me dhikr. So he taught me the station of Awareness of Number, wuquf cadadi, and he said to me, as if he had been with me when I met the majdhub, ‘O my son, always keep to the odd numbers, just as you wished the number of lines be odd, and it gave you a sign, so keep that awareness when you make dhikr.

I was so deeply immersed in the fountain of light and love that was my Shaykh, that I was visiting him more and more and love for him was increasing ever more in my heart. One day I opened the Holy Qur’an to the ayat, ula’ik alladheena hada-l-Lahu fa bi hudahum uqtadih (‘Those are the Ones who have been guided by Allah, so follow their guidance’)

[6:90]. I was so happy to read that verse. At that time I was living in a city called Fatahabad. At the end of the day I decided to visit the mosque and the grave of Shaykh al-Bakharazi. On my way, a thought came to my heart, which upset me, so I decided to visit Shaykh Bahauddin instead. When I came into his presence, it was as if he had been waiting for me. He looked into my eyes and then said, ‘The time of the prayers has come and then we will speak.’ After the prayers he said, ‘Look at me.’ I saw in his face a majestic vision, which made my heart shake. I kept my mouth closed and he said to me ‘Knowledge is of two kinds: knowledge of the heart, and this is the beneficial knowledge and it is the knowledge of Prophets and Messengers; and the knowledge of the tongue, the external knowledge, and this is, as all visible and audible teaching, the Proof of Allah to His Creation. I wish that Allah will give you good fortune in the Internal Knowledge. And it came through hadith: ‘If you sit with the People of Truth, sit with them with a true heart, because they are the spies of the heart. They can enter and see what is inside your heart.

He continued,

I have been ordered by Allah, Almighty and Exalted, and by the Prophet (s), and by my Shaykh, not to accept anyone in my way unless Allah, the Prophet and my Shaykhs accept that person. So I will look tonight to see if you are accepted.’ This was the most difficult day of my life. I felt I would melt from the fear that they would not accept me on this Way. I prayed Fajr behind him and I was so afraid. When he looked into my heart everything disappeared and he was appearing everywhere. I heard his voice saying, ‘May Allah bless you. He accepts you and I accept you.’ Then he began to recite the names of the Masters of the Golden Chain from the Prophet to Abu Bakr, Salman, Qassim, Jafar, Tafar, Abul Hassan, Abu Ali, Yasuf, Abul cAbbas, Abdul Khaliq. Every Shaykh he mentioned appeared in front of him. When he mentioned Abdul Khaliq he stopped and Abdul Khaliq appeared in front of me. He said, ‘Give him to me now,’ and he taught me more of the knowledge of wuquf al-cadadi, the Science of numbers. He told me that knowledge came to him through Khidr (s). Then my Shaykh continued reciting the silsilah (chain), Arif Mahmoud, Ali Ramitani, Muhammad Baba as-Samasi, Sayid Amir Kulal. They were each appearing by turn and giving me initiation. I continued serving him, standing at his door, learning from him, until he gave me permission to be a guide to people on this Way. He said to me, ‘This Way is going to be the greatest happiness for you.

Ubaydullah al-A rar reported that Yaqub said to him: “O my son, I received an order from Shah Naqshband (q) to accompany Shaykh Ala’uddin al-Attar after his [Shah Naqshband’s] death. By the order of my Shaykh I was in his company as his murid from the time of Baha’uddin’s death until Ala’uddin’s death in Jaganyan in Bukhara. By the blessing of his companionship my state was elevated and my training completed.”

Ubaidullah al-Ahrar said that Shaykh Yaqub al-Charkhi and Shaykh Zainuddin al-Khawafi were like brothers when they studied together in Egypt under the teaching of the scholar, Shaykh Shihabuddin as-Shirwani. Shaykh Zainuddin said that Shaykh Yaqub al-Charkhi used to disappear and appear during his lectures. This miracle symbolizes the state of complete self-effacement into the Presence in Allah Almighty. This was his state in Egypt, until he came and followed Shah Naqshband, and then he reached a state of perfection.

He died in the village of Hulgatu, on the 5th of Safar, 851 H. He had many khalifs. He passed the Secret of this Order to Shaykh Ubaydullah al-Ahrar, may Allah bless his secret.

Ala’uddin al-Bukhari al-Attar

Your image is constantly before my eyes,
Your remembrance always upon my lips;
The thought of you forever in my heart.
Where can You hide from me?

Attributed to Hallaj

He is a Star from among the Perfect Saints. He was one of the scholars who act on what they know (calimun camil). He is known as the fruit of the tree of Divine Knowledge, the Life of Spiritual Knowledge, the Eraser of Darkness, the Guide of the noble and common people alike, the Fountain that never dries up, the best Guide to Enlightenment on the Path to the Lord. He is first in removing the thorns of falsehood from the Path of Truth. He stands in the Center of the Realm of the Poles (aqtab) and he carries the burden of the spiritual khalifate. He raised the souls of his brothers until the whole Universe was calling him and remembering him. The external and internal knowledge of religion flourished because of his truthfulness.

He was born on the 18th of Rajab, in the year 802 H. He left everything that he had inherited from his father to his two brothers and devoted himself to study in the schools of Bukhara. He became accomplished in all arts, especially in the Knowledge of Sufism and the Islamic Sciences. He proposed to the daughter of Shah Naqshband, asking for her hand in marriage. Shah Naqshband’s answer came one day, after midnight, when awakening from his sleep in Qasr al-’Arifan, he went quickly to the school in Bukhara where Alauddin lived. There he found everyone asleep except Alauddin, who was up reading the Holy Qur’an by the light of a tiny oil lamp. He came up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder but Alauddin didn’t respond. He prodded him more but still he didn’t react. Then, through his spiritual vision, Shah Naqshband perceived that Alauddin was not present but was in the Divine Presence. He then called him spiritually and Alauddin immediately looked up and said, “O my Shaykh.” Shah Naqshband (q) said, “I have had a dream in which the Prophet accepted your proposal for my daughter. For that reason I have come to you by myself, late at night, to inform you of the good news.” Alauddin said, “O my Shaykh, I have nothing to spend on your daughter or myself, because I am very poor, having given all my inheritance to my brothers.” Shah Naqshband replied, “O my son, whatever Allah has written for you on the Day of Promises will accrue to you. So don’t worry, Allah will provide.”

He said, “One day a Shaykh asked me, ‘How is your heart?’ I said, ‘I don’t know how my heart is.’ He said, ‘I know my heart, and it is like the moon in the third night.’ I related this story to Shah Naqshband who said, ‘He answered according to his heart.’ When he said this, he stepped on my foot and pressed on it. Immediately I left myself and I saw that everything in this world and this universe was in my heart. When I awoke from that state of unconsciousness, he was still standing on my foot, and he said, ‘If the heart is like that, then no one can describe it. What do you think now about the holy hadith: ‘Neither My earth nor My Heavens can contain Me, but the heart of the Believer contains Me.’ This is one of the hidden secrets you must come to understand.’”

Then Shah Naqshband took full responsibility for him. He raised him from one state to another and prepared him to appear in the Divine Presence and to ascend the lofty towers of Spiritual Knowledge and leave behind all kinds of ignorance in order to reach the state of Reality. He became unique among the many followers of Baha’uddan Naqshband (q). The Shaykh ordered him, during his lifetime, to enlighten some of the Shaykh’s followers also. Thus Shaykh Muhammad Parsa followed him as well. Shaykh Muhammad Parsa wrote that he heard from Shaykh Alauddin: “I was given a power by my Shaykh, Shah Naqshband, such that if I were to focus on everyone in this universe, I would raise all of them to the state of perfection.”

One time the scholars of Bukhara had a disagreement concerning the possibility of seeing Allah in this world. Some of them denied the possibility and some of them affirmed it. All of them were followers of Shaykh Alauddin. They came to him and said, “We are asking you to be judge in this matter.” He said, “Those of you who have denied the possiblity of seeing Allah in this life, stay with me three days, keeing ablution at all times and remaining silent.” He kept them in his presence for three days, directing his spiritual power on them, until they all beheld a very powerful state, causing them to faint. When they regained consciousness, they came to him crying out, amanna wa saddaqna (“We believe and we confirm that it is true!”) and kissed his feet. They told him, “We accept what you said, that it is possible to see Allah in this life.” They devoted themselves to him, never leaving him and making it their custom to kiss the threshhold of his door. They composed the following verse:
Out of blindness they asked,

How can we reach the Divine?

Put in their hands the candles of purity.
They will know that the possibility
of seeing is not impossible.
Shaykh Alauddin was very dear and special to Shah Naqshband, just as Prophet Yusuf had been dear to the heart of his father, Prophet Ya^cqub .

From the Light of His Sayings

He said:

The intention of seclusion is to leave the earthly connection and to direct the self to the Heavenly Truth.

It is said that the seeker in external knowledge must hold tight to the Rope of Allah, and the seeker in internal knowledge must hold tight to Allah.

When Shah Naqshband got new clothes he would give them to someone else to wear. After they were used he would borrow them back.

Levels of Annihilation

When Allah makes you forget both worldly power and the Heavenly Kingdom, this is Absolute Annihilation. And if He makes you forget Absolute Annihilation, it is the Essence of Absolute Annihilation.

Proper Conduct

You have to be at the level of the people around you and to hide your state from them, because the Prophet said, ‘I have been ordered to speak with people according to what their hearts can contain.

Beware of hurting the hearts of Sufis. If you want their company, you must first learn how to behave in their presence. Otherwise you are going to harm yourself, because their way is a very delicate way. It is said, ‘There is no place in Our Way for the one who doesn’t have good manners.

If you think you are behaving well then you are wrong, because seeing your own behavior as good is itself a form of pride.

On Visiting Graves

The benefit of visiting the graves of your Shaykhs depends on the knowledge you have of them.

To be near the graves of pious people has a good influence, although to direct yourself to their souls is better and carries with it a higher spiritual influence. The Prophet said, ‘Send prayers for me wherever you are.’ This indicates that you can reach the Prophet wherever you are, and it applies to His saints as well, because they take their power from the Prophet .

The adab, or proper way, of visting graves is to direct yourself to Allah and to make these souls your means (wasilah) to Allah Almighty and Exalted, humbling yourself to His Creation. You humble yourself externally to them and internally to Allah. To bow before human beings is not allowed unless you look on them as appearances of God. Then that humbleness will be not directed to them, but it will be directed to the One Who is appearing in them, and that is God.

The Best Dhikr

The way of contemplation and meditation is higher and more perfect than the way of Dhikr by la ilaha illallah. The seeker, through contemplation and meditation (muraqabat), can reach the internal knowledge and will be able to enter the Heavenly Kingdom. He will be authorized to look at Allah’s Creation and he will know what is passing in their hearts, even the slightest gossip or whispering. He will be authorized to enlighten their hearts with the light from the essence of the essence of the state of Oneness.

Protecting the Heart

Silence is the best state, except under three conditions: you must not keep silent in the face of bad gossip attacking your heart; you must not keep silent in directing your heart to the remembrance of Allah; and you must not keep silent when the vision inside your heart orders you to speak.

To protect your heart from evil thoughts is very difficult, and I protected my heart for twenty years without letting in a single whisper.

The best deed in this Way is to punish the whispering and gossip in the heart.

I was unhappy with some of my followers, because they do not try to keep the state of vision that appears to them.

Love of the Shaykh

If the heart of the follower (murid) is full of the love of the Shaykh, this love replacing all other loves of the heart, then the heart will be able to receive the transmission of the Heavenly Knowledge, which has no beginning and no end.

The murid has to tell all his states to his Shaykh, and he has to believe that he will never reach his goal except through the satisfaction and love of his Shaykh. He must seek that satisfaction and he must know that all doors are blocked, internal and external, except the one door, which is his Shaykh. He has to sacrifice himself for the sake of his Shaykh. Even if he has the highest knowledge and the highestmujahada (capacity for effort), he must leave all that and feel as though he has nothing in front of his Shaykh. The seeker must give the Shaykh authority in all his affairs, religious and worldly, in such a way that he has no will before the will of his Shaykh. The duty of the Shaykh is to look at the daily activities of the murid and to advise and correct him in his living and his religion, to help him find the best way to reach his reality.

To visit saints is a Sunnah Wajiba, a duty on every seeker, at least every day, or every other day, while keeping the limits and respect between you and your Shaykh. If the distance is great between you and your Shaykh, visit him at least every one or two months. Don’t rely only on your connection with their heart, lest you become disconnected.

I guarantee to anyone who seeks this Way, that if he imitates the Shaykh with sincerity he will eventually find its reality. Shah Naqshband ordered me to imitate him and whatever I did in imitation of him immediately brought its results.

However, he also warned:

The masters of our Way cannot be known except in the Station of Colors and Changes (Maqam at-Talwin). Whoever imitates their behavior in that station will succeed. Whoever imitates their behavior in their Station of Perfection, however, will be corrupted. He will be safe from corruption only if his master has mercy on him and reveals to him the Reality of that Station.

What he means, and Allah knows best, is that the seeker cannot reach Perfection until he has been perfected. The Station of Color and Changes is the one in which the seeker struggles hard by fasting, by worshipping, by seclusion, and by maintaining steadfastness in his love and respect for his master from one difficulty to another. Imitating his master in this manner will bring him success, because his master excels in all these efforts. However, if he imitates the master when the latter is in his state of Perfection, he will be in danger, just as if he tried to fly without first growing wings. It is necessary for the seeker to climb the mountain first before he enjoys the view at the top.

To climb the mountain, the seeker must journey from the Lower world to the Divine Presence. He must travel from the ego’s world of sensual reality to the soul’s consciousness of the Divine Reality. To make progress on this journey, the seeker must bring into his heart the picture of his Shaykh (tasawwur), as it is the most powerful means of detaching oneself from the hold of the senses. The Shaykh becomes, in his heart, the mirror of the Absolute Essence. If he is successful, the state of Self-Effacement (ghayba) or “absence” from the world of the senses, appears in him. To the degree that this state increases in him, his attachment to the world of the senses will weaken and disappear, and the station of the Absolute Void of Unsensing Other-than-Allah will dawn on him.

The highest degree of this station is called Annihilation (fana’). Thus Shah Naqshband (q) counselled his murids: “When that state of Self-Effacement comes on me, leave me alone and give yourself to that state and accept its rights on us.”

Of this journey, Shaykh Alauddin (q) said to his murids:

The shortest path to our goal, which is Allah, Almighty and Exalted, is for Allah to lift the veil from the Essence of the Face of His Oneness that appears in all creation. He does this with the State of Erasure (ghayba) and Annihilation in His Absolute Oneness (fana’), until His Majestic Essence dawns upon and eliminates consciousness of anything other than Him. This is the end of the Journey of Seeking Allah and the beginning of another Journey

At the end of the Journey of Seeking and the State of Attraction comes the State of Self-Effacement and Annihilation. This is the goal of all mankind as Allah mentioned in the Qur’an: ‘I did not create Jinn and Mankind except to worship me.’ Worship here means Perfect Knowledge (Ma^crifat)

On the 2nd of the month of Rajab, 802 H., Alauddin said, “I am going to leave you to go to the other life and no one can stop me.” He died on the 20th of Rajab, 802 H. He was buried in the city of Jaganyan, one of the suburbs of Bukhara.

He passed his secret to one of his many khalifs, the Shaykh Yaqub al-Charkhi (q).

Muhammad Baha’uddin Shah Naqshband

The turtle-dove sings its lament at dawn, and weeps.
My tears disturb her sleep and her tears disturb mine.
When she and I complain, we understand not each other.
But I know her grief and she knows mine.

Abul-Hasan an-Nuri

He is an Ocean of Knowledge that has no shore. Its waves were woven with the pearls of Heavenly Knowledge. He cleansed humanity with his Ocean of Innocence and Piety. He quenched the thirst of souls with the water of his spiritual Support. The whole world, including its oceans and continents, were within his grasp. He is a star decorated with the crown of Guidance. He sanctified all human souls without exception with his holy breath. He adorned even the remotest corner with the secrets of Muhammadun Rasul-Allah . His light penetrated every dark lair of ignorance. His outstanding proofs cast away the least whisper of doubt from the hearts of humanity. His powerful miracles brought life to hearts after their deaths and provided souls with their provision for the spiritual realm. He was nursed in the Station of the Arch-Intercessor when he was a child in the cradle. He sipped the nectar of Unseen Knowledge from the cup of Reality. If Muhammad were not the last of the Prophets , he would have been a prophet. All Praise to Allah for sending such a Reviver of Religion (mujaddid). He uplifted the hearts of humanity causing them to soar in the sky of spirituality. He made kings to stand at his door. He spread his guidance from North to South and from East to West. He left no one without heavenly support–even the wild animals in jungles. He is the greatest Ghawth, Arch-intercessor, the Sultan of Saints, the Necklace of all the spiritual Pearls that were bestowed on this world by the Divine Presence. By the light of his guidance Allah caused the good to be the best and transformed evil into goodness.

He is the Master of this Tariqat and the Shaikh of the Golden Chain and the Best of those who carried this lineage from the Khwajagan.

He was born in the month of Muharram, in 717 H./1317 CE, in the village of Qasr al-’Arifan near Bukhara. Allah granted him miraculous powers in his childhood. He had been taught about the secret of this tariqat by his first teacher, Sayyid Muhammad Baba As-Samasi (q). Then he was given the secret and the mastery of the Order by his shaikh, Sayyid Amir al-Kulal (q). He was also Uwaysi in his connection to the Prophet, as he was raised in the spiritual presence of Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani (q), who preceded him by 200 years.

The Beginning of His Guidance and the Guidance of His Beginning

Shah Naqshband (q) was eighteen years of age when he was sent by his grandfather to the village of Samas to serve the Shaikh of the Tariqat, Muhamad Baba as-Samasi (q), who had asked for him. From the beginning of his companionship with the Shaikh, he perceived within himself countless blessings and the urge for great sincerity and devotion. Of his youth he relates:

I would arise early, three hours before Fajr prayer, take ablution, and after making Sunnah prayers, I would go into prostration, supplicating God with the following prayer: “O my Lord, give me the power to carry the difficulties and the pain of Your Love.” Then I would pray Fajr with the Shaikh. On his way out one day he looked at me and said, as if he had been with me when I made that supplication, “O my son, you have to change the method of your supplication. Instead say, ‘O Allah, grant your pleasure to this weak servant.’ God doesn’t like His servants to be in difficulties. Although God in His Wisdom might give some difficulties to His servants to test them, the servant must not ask to be in difficulties. This would not be respectful to your Lord.

When Shaikh Muhammad Baba as-Samasi died, my grandfather took me to Bukhara and I married there. I lived in Qasr al-’Arifan, which was God’s special care to me because I was near to Sayyid Amir Kulal. I stayed in his service, and he told me that Shaikh Muhammad Baba as-Samasi had told him a long time before that, ‘I will not be happy with you if you will not take good care of him.’ One day, I was sitting with a friend in seclusion, and the Heavens opened and a grand vision came to me and I heard a voice saying, ‘Is it not enough for you to leave everyone and to come to Our Presence Alone?’ This voice reduced me to a state of trembling, causing me to run away from that house. I ran to a river where I threw myself. I washed my clothes and prayed two rakats in a way that I had never prayed before, feeling as if I was praying in the Divine Presence. Everything was opened to my heart in a state of Unveiling (kashf). The entire universe disappeared and I was not aware of anything other than praying in His Presence.

I had been asked, in the beginning of my state of Attraction, ‘Why are you going to enter on this Path?’ I answered, ‘In order that whatever I say and whatever I want will happen.’ I was answered, ‘That will not be. Whatever We say and whatever We want is what will happen.’ And I said, ‘I cannot do that. I must be permitted to say and to do whatever I like, or I don’t want this Way.’ Then I received the answer, ‘No, it is whatever We want to be said and whatever We want to be done that must be said and done.’ And I said again, ‘Whatever I say and whatever I do is what must be.’ Then I was left alone for fifteen days, until I was overwhelmed with a tremendous depression. Then I heard a voice, ‘O Baha’uddin, whatever you want, We will grant.’ I was overjoyed. I said, ‘I want to be given a Path (tariqat) that will lead anyone who travels on it straight to the Divine Presence.’ And I experienced a great vision and heard a voice saying, ‘You are granted what you have asked.

His Progress and Struggle on the Way

One time I was in a state of Attraction and in a state of absent-mindedness, moving from here to there, not aware of what I was doing. My feet were torn and bleeding from thorns when darkness fell. I felt myself attracted to the house of my shaikh, Sayyid Amir Kulal. It was a pitch black night with no moon nor stars showing. The air was very cold and I had nothing on but an old leather cloak. When I arrived at his house, I found him sitting with his friends. When he saw me he told his followers, ‘Take him out, I don’t want him in my house.’ They put me out and I felt that my ego was trying to overcome me and that it was taking over my heart and my feelings, trying to poison my trust in my shaikh. At that point Allah’s Divine Care and His Mercy were my only support in carrying this humiliation in the Cause of Allah and the Cause of my shaikh. I said to my ego, ‘I am not allowing you to poison my trust in my shaikh.’ I felt so tired and so depressed that I put the state of humbleness at the door of pride, placed my head on the threshold of the door of my teacher, and took an oath that I would not remove it until he accepted me again. The snow was beginning to fall and the frigid air was penetrating my bones, causing me to tremble in the dark night. There was not even the warmth of the moon to comfort me. I remained in that state until I froze. But the love that was inside my heart, the love for the Divine and the love for the door of the Divine, my shaikh, kept me warm. Dawn came and my shaikh stepped out of his door without seeing me physically. He put his foot on my head, which was still on his threshold. On sensing my head, he immediately withdrew his foot, took me inside his house and said to me, ‘O my son you have been dressed with the dress of Happiness. You have been dressed with the dress of Divine Love. You have been dressed with a dress that neither myself nor my shaikh has been dressed with. Allah is happy with you. The Prophet is happy with you. All the shaikhs of the Golden Chain are happy with you…’ Then with great care and delicacy he pulled the thorns from my feet and washed my wounds. At the same time he poured into my heart such knowledge that I never experienced before. This opened for me a vision in which I saw myself entering into the secret of MUHAMMADUN RASULULLAH. I saw myself entering into the secret of the verse which is the Haqiqa Muhammadiyya (Reality of Muhammad). This led me to enter the secret of LA ILAHA ILLALLAH which is the secret of wahdaniyyah (Uniqueness of God). This then led me to enter the secrets of Allah’s Names and Attributes which are expressed by the secret of ahadiyya (Oneness of God). Those states cannot be put into words, but can only known through taste which is experienced in the heart.

In the beginning of my travel on the Way, I used to wander at night from one place to another in the suburbs of Bukhara. By myself in the darkness of the night, especially in the wintertime, I visited the cemeteries to take a lesson from the dead. One night I was led to visit the grave of Shaikh Ahmad al-Ajgharawa and to read al-Fatiha for him. When I arrived, I found two men, whom I had never met before, waiting for me with a horse. They put me on the horse and they tied two swords on my belt. They directed the horse to the grave of Shaikh Mazdakhin. When we arrived, we all dismounted and entered the tomb and mosque of the shaikh. I sat facing the Qiblah, meditating and connecting my heart to the heart of that shaikh. During this meditation a vision was opened to me and I saw the wall facing Qiblah come tumbling down. A huge throne appeared. A gigantic man, whom no words can describe, was sitting on that throne. I felt that I knew him. Wherever I turned my face in this universe I saw that man. Around him was a large crowd in which were my shaikhs, Shaikh Muhammad Baba as-Samasi and Sayyid Amir Kulal. Then I felt afraid of the gigantic man while at the same time I felt love for him. I had fear of his exalted presence and love for his beauty and attraction. I said to myself, ‘Who is that great man?’ I heard a voice among the people in the crowd saying, ‘This great man who nurtured you on your spiritual path is your shaikh. He was looking at your soul when it was still an atom in the Divine Presence. You have been under his training. He is Shaikh Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani (q) and the crowd you are seeing are the khalifs who carry his great secret, the secret of the Golden Chain.’ Then the shaikh began to point to each shaikh and say, ‘This is Shaikh Ahmad; this is Kabir al-Awliya; this is ‘Arif Riwakri; this is shaikh Ali Ramitani; this is your shaikh, Muhammad Baba as-Samasi, who in his life gave you his cloak. Do you know him?’ I said, ‘Yes.

Then he said to me, ‘That cloak which he gave you such a long time ago is still in your house, and with its blessing Allah has removed from your life many afflictions.’ Then another voice came and said, ‘The Shaikh who is on the Throne is going to teach you something you need while traveling on this way.’ I asked if they would allow me to shake hands with him. They allowed this and took the veil away and I took his hand. Then he began to tell me about sulook (wayfaring), its beginning, middle and end. He said, ‘You have to adjust the wick of your self in order that the light of the unseen can be strengthened in you and its secrets can be seen. You have to show constancy and you have to be firm in the Divine Law (shari^ca) of the Prophet in all your states. You have to “order the right and forbid the wrong”

[3:110, 114] and keep to the highest standard of the Shari^ca, and leave the dispensations of ease, and throw away innovation in all its forms, and make your Qiblah the Prophet’s Narrations (Hadith). You have to investigate his life (sirah) and the sira of His Companions, and to urge people to follow and to read the Qur’an both day and night, and to do the prayers with all their superogatory worship (nawafil). Do not ignore even the smallest thing from what the Prophet has shown us of deeds and good works.

As soon as Abdul Khaliq finished, his khalif told me, ‘In order to be assured of the certainty of this vision, he is sending you a sign. Tomorrow go and visit Mawlana Shamsuddin al-Ambikuti, who will be judging between two people. Tell him that the Turk is right and the Saqqa is wrong. Say to him, ‘You are trying to help the Saqqa, but you are mistaken. Correct yourself and help the Turk.’ If the Saqqa denies what you say, and the judge continues in helping the Saqqa, tell him, ‘I have two proofs. The first requires you to tell the Saqqa, ‘O Saqqa, you are thirsty.’ He will know what that thirst means. As for the second proof, you must tell the Saqqa, ‘You have slept in adultery with a woman and she became pregnant, and you have had the baby she was carrying aborted, and you buried the baby under the grapevines.’ On your way to Mawlana Shamsuddin, take with you three dry raisins and pass by your shaikh, Sayyid Amir al-Kulal. On your way to him you will find a shaikh who will give you a loaf of bread. Take the bread and don’t speak with him. Continue until you meet a caravan. A wrestler will approach you. Advise and reproach him. He is going to repent and become one of your followers. Wear your qalansuwa (hat) and take the cloak of ‘Azizan to Sayyid Amir Kulal

After that they moved me and the vision ended. I came back to myself. The next day I went to my house and I asked my family about the cloak that had been mentioned in the vision. They brought it to me and told me, ‘It has been sitting there for a long time.’ When I saw the cloak a state of internal crying overcame me. I took the cloak and went to the village of Ambikata, in the suburbs of Bukhara, to the mosque of Mawlana Shamsuddin. I prayed Fajr with him and then I told him about the sign which astonished him. As-Saqqa was present and he denied that the Turk was right. Then I told him about the proofs. He accepted the first and he denied the second. Then I asked the people in the masjid to go to the grapevine which was near the masjid. They did and found the child who was buried there. The Saqqa came crying and apologized for what he had done, but it was over. Mawlana Shamsuddin and the others in the mosque were in a great state of astonishment.

I prepared to travel the next day to the city of Naskh and had with me the three dry grapes. Mawlana Shamsuddin tried to detain me by telling me, ‘I am seeing in you the pain of longing for us and the burning desire to reach the Divine. Your healing is in Our Hands.’ I answered him, ‘O my shaikh, I am the son of someone else and I am his follower. Even if you offer to nurse me from the breast of the highest station, I cannot take it, except from the one to whom I gave my life and from whom I took my initiation.’ Then he kept quiet and permitted me to travel. I moved as I had been instructed until I met the shaikh and he gave me a loaf of bread. I didn’t speak with him. I took the loaf from him, as I had been ordered. Then I met a caravan. They asked me where I was coming from. I said, ‘Ambikata.’ They asked me when I had left. I said, ‘At sunrise.’ They were surprised and said, ‘That village is miles away and crossing that distance would take you a long time. We left that village last night and you left at sunrise and yet you have reached us.’ I continued on until I met a horseman. He asked me ‘Who are you? I am afraid of you!’ I told him, ‘I am the one on whose hand will be your repentance.’ He dismounted his horse, showing complete humbleness to me and repented and threw away all the wine that he was carrying. He accompanied me to my Shaikh, Sayyid Amir Kulal. When I saw him I gave him the cloak.

He kept silent for some time and then he said, ‘This is the cloak of ‘Azizan. I was informed last night that you would be bringing it to me, and I have been ordered to keep it in ten different layers of covering.’ Then he ordered me to enter his private room. He taught me and placed in my heart the silent dhikr. He ordered me to keep that dhikr day and night. As I had been ordered in the vision of Shaikh ‘Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani to keep to the difficult way, I kept that silent dhikr which is the highest form of dhikr. In addition, I used to attend the associations of the external scholars to learn the Sciences of Divine Law (shari^ca) and the Traditions of the Prophet (Hadith), and to learn about the character of the Prophet and his Sahaba. I did as the vision told me, and this resulted in a big change in my life. All that Shaikh Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani taught me in that vision bore its blessed fruits in my life. His spirit was always accompanying me and teaching me.

On Loud and Silent Dhikr

It is mentioned in the book al-Bahjat as-Saniyya that from the time of Mahmoud al-Faghnawi to the time of Sayyid Amir al-Kulal they kept the way of loud dhikr when in association and silent dhikr when alone. However, when Shah Bahaudin Naqshband received his secret, he kept only the silent dhikr. Even in the associations of Sayid Amir Kulal, when they began to do the loud dhkir, he used to leave and go to his room to do silent dhikr. This was making the murids somewhat upset: although his shaikh was doing the loud dhikr, he was doing the silent dhikr. Yet he stood in the service of his shaikh all his life.

One day, as Shah Baha’uddan and all the followers of Sayyid Amir Kulal were taking a rest from building a new mosque, Sayyid Amir Kulal said, “Whoever was keeping bad thoughts about my son Baha’uddan was wrong. Allah has given him a secret that no one was given before. Even I was unable to know it.” And he told him, “O my son, I have fulfilled the will and advice of Shaikh Muhammad Baba as-Samasi when he ordered me to raise you and nurse you in my way of training until you surpassed me. This I have done, and you have capacity to continue higher and higher. So, my dear son, I am now giving you complete permission to go wherever you like and to obtain knowledge from whomever you find.”

Subsequent Sheikhs

He said

One time I followed Mawlana ‘Arif ad-Dik Karrani for seven years. Then I followed Mawlana Kuthum Shaikh for many years. One night I slept in the presence of my shaikh and I saw the Shaikh al-Hakim ‘Attar, who was one of the famous shaikhs of the Turks, telling something to a dervish named Khalil Ghirani. When I awoke the picture of that dervish stayed in my mind. I had a pious grandmother to whom I mentioned the dream. She told me, ‘O my son, you are also going to follow many Turkish shaikhs.’ So I looked in my travels for Turkish shaikhs and I never forgot the picture of that one dervish. Then one day in my own country of Bukhara, I saw a dervish, and I recognized him as the one in my dream. I asked him his name and he told me, ‘I am Kahlil Ghirani.’ I had to leave him, but I felt terrible to do so. At Maghrib time someone knocked at my door. I answered and a stranger told me, ‘Darwish Khalil Ghirani is waiting for you.’ I was so surprised. How had that person found me? I took a gift and went with him. When I reached his presence I began to tell him the dream. He said, ‘No need to tell me that dream, I know it already.’ This moved my heart to be more attached to him. In his company new unseen knowledge was opened to my heart. He was always looking after me, praising me, and lifting me up. The people of Transoxiana put him as a king over them. I continued to keep his company, even in his time of Sultanate, and my heart grew in love for him more and more and his heart lifted me ever higher in knowledge. He taught me how to be in the service of the shaikh. I stayed in his company six years. In his presence and in my seclusion I kept my connection with him.

In the beginning of my Travel on this Way, I met a lover of Allah and he told me, ‘it seems as if you are from Us.’ I told him, ‘I hope you are from Us and I hope to be a friend to you.’ One time he asked me, ‘how do you treat your self?’ I said to him, ‘If I find something I thank Allah and if not I am patient.’ He smiled and said, ‘This is easy. The way for you is to burden your ego and to test it. If it loses food for one week, you must be able to keep it from disobeying you.’ I was very happy with his answer and I asked his support. He ordered me to help the needy and to serve the weak and to motivate the heart of the brokenhearted. He rdered me to keep humbleness and humility and tolerance. I kept his orders and I spent many days of my life in that manner. Then he ordered me to take care of animals, to cure their sicknesses, to clean their wounds, and to assist them in finding their provision. I kept on that way until I reached the state that if I saw an animal in the street, I would stop and make way for it.

Then he ordered me to look after the dogs of this Association with Truthfulness and Humility, and to ask them for support. He told me, ‘Because of your service to one of them you will reach great happiness.’ I took that order in the hope that I would find one dog and through service to him I would find that happiness. One day I was in the association of one of them and I felt a great state of happiness overcome me. I began crying in front of him until he fell on his back and raised his forepaws to the skies. I heard a very sad voice emanating from him and so I raised my hands in supplication and began to say ‘amin’ in support of him until he became silent. What then opened for me was a vision which brought me to a state in which I felt that I was part of every human being and part of every creation on this earth.

After Wearing the Cloak

He said,

One day I was in my garden in Qasr al-Arifan (where his mosque and tomb are located), wearing the cloak of Azizan and around me were my followers. I was suddenly overwhelmed by the Heavenly Attractions and Blessings, and I felt I was being dressed and adorned with His Attributes. I trembled in a way that I had never experienced before, and I couldn’t remain standing. I stood facing the Qiblah and I entered into a great vision in which I saw the True Annihilation. I found myself completely annihilated and I didn’t see any existence except my Lord’s. Then I saw myself coming out from His Divine Presence reflected through the Mirror of MUHAMMADUN RASULULLAH, in the image of a star in an ocean of Light without beginning or end. My external life ended and I saw only the meaning of LA ILAHA ILLALLAH MUHAMMADUN RASULULLAH. This led me to the meaning of the essence of the name ‘Allah,’ which led me to the Absolute Unseen, which is the essence of the Name huwa (“He”). When I entered that ocean my heart stopped pumping and all my life ended, putting me in a state of death. My soul left my body and all those around thought I had died and were crying. Then after six hours I was ordered to return to my body. I perceived my soul slowly re-entering my body and the vision ended.

To deny your existence and to neglect and disregard your ego is the currency of this Order. In this state I entered into every level of existence, which made me a part of all creations and which developed in me a certainty that everyone is better than me. I saw that everyone provides a benefit and that only I give no benefit. One day a surprising state came upon me. I heard the Divine Voice saying, ‘Ask whatever you like from Us.’ So I said, with humility, ‘O Allah, grant me one drop of Your Oceans of Mercy and Blessings.’ The answer came, ‘You are asking from Our Great Generosity for only one drop?’ This was like a tremendous slap on my face and the sting of it lasted on my cheek for days. Then one day I said, ‘O Allah grant me from Your Oceans of Mercy and Blessings the Power to carry it.’ At that moment a vision was opened to me wherein I was seated on a throne and that throne was over an ocean of mercy. And a voice said to me, ‘This ocean of mercy is for you. Give it to My servants.

I was receiving secrets from every side, especially from Uwais al-Qarani, who greatly influenced me to depart from all worldly matters and to attach myself exclusively to spiritual matters. I did this by firmly keeping the shara^ca and the orders of the Prophet , until I began spreading the Unseen Knowledge and the Granted Secrets from the Unique Oneness that no one before had ever shared

The Miracles of His Sayings and the Sayings of His Miracles

On the Differences Among Imams

In an assembly of great scholars in Baghdad he was asked about the differences in the sayings of the four khalifs of the Holy Prophet . He said:

One time as-Siddiq said, ‘I never saw anything except that Allah was before it,’ and Umar al-Faruq said, ‘I never saw anything except that Allah was behind it.’ And ‘Uthman said, ‘I never saw anything except that Allah was next to it,’ and ‘Ali said, ‘I never saw anything except that Allah was within it.’” He commented that, “The differences in these sayings was based on the differences in the circumstances at the times they were spoken and not on differences in belief or understanding.

On Traveling in the Path

He said,

What is behind the meaning of the Prophet’s narration, ‘Part of faith is to remove what is harmful from the Way’? What he meant by ‘the harmful’ is the ego, and what he meant by ‘the Way’ is the Way of God, as He said to Bayazid al-Bistami, ‘leave your ego and come to Us.

He was asked one time, “What is meant by Traveling the Path?” He said, “The details in spiritual knowledge.” They asked him, “What are the ‘details in spiritual knowledge?’ He said, “The one who knows and accepts what he knows will be raised from the state of evidence and proof to the state of vision.”

He said,

Whoever asks to be in the Way of God has asked for the way of affliction. It was narrated by the Prophet , ‘Whoever loves me I will burden him.’ One person came to the Prophet and said, ‘O Prophet I love you,’ and the Prophet said, ‘Then prepare yourself to be poor.’ Another time a person came to the Prophet and said, ‘O Prophet I love God,’ and the Prophet said, ‘Then prepare yourself for affliction.

He recited a verse:

Everyone desires the good,
But no one has attained the Ascension,
Except by loving
The One who created the good.

He said,

Everyone who likes himself, must deny himself, and whoever wants other than himself, wants in reality only himself.

On Spiritual Training

He said,

There are three ways that knowers reach their knowledge:

Muraqaba – Contemplation
Mushahada – Vision
Muhasaba – Reckoning

In the state of Contemplation the seeker forgets the created and remembers only the Creator.

In the State of Vision inspirations from the Unseen come to the heart of the seeker accompanied by two states: contraction and expansion. In the condition of contraction, the vision is of Majesty, and in the state of expansion the vision is of Beauty.

In the state of Reckoning the seeker evaluates every hour that has passed: was he in complete Presence with God or in complete presence with the world?

He said

The seeker in this way must be busy in rejecting evil whisperings and the ego’s insinuations. He might reject them before they reach him; or he might reject them after they reach him but before they control him. Another seeker, however, might not reject them until after they reach him and control him. He cannot get any fruit, because at that time it is impossible to take the whisperings out of the heart.

On Spiritual Stations

He said one time,

How do the People of God look at the hidden actions and the whispers of the heart?” He said, “By the light of the vision that Allah granted them, as mentioned in the Holy Hadith, ‘Beware of the vision of the Believer, because he looks with the light of God.

He was asked about showing miraculous powers. He said,

What more miraculous powers do you want than that we are still walking this earth with all these sins upon us and around us.

He was asked, “Who is the reciter and who is the Sufi in the saying of Junayd, ‘Disconnect yourself from the reciters of books, and accompany the Sufis?’”

He said,

The reciter is the one busy with the words and names, and the Sufi is the one who is busy with the essence of the names.

He warned,

If a murid, a shaikh or anyone speaks about a state that he has not attained, Allah will forbid him to reach that state.

He said,

The mirror of every shaikh has two directions. But our mirror has six directions.

He said,

What is meant by the Holy Hadith, ‘I am with the one who remembers Me,’ is a clear evidence and a proof supporting the people of the heart who remember Him always. And the other saying of the Prophet speaking on behalf of God, as-sawmu li (‘the fast is for Me’) is an affirmation that the true fast is to fast from all that is other than God.

On Spiritual Poverty

He was asked,

Why are they called al-fuqara’ (the poor)?

He said,

Because they are poor, but they don’t need to supplicate. Just as Prophet the Ibrahim , when he was thrown into the fire and Jibril came and asked him ‘Do you need any help?,’ replied, ‘I have no need to ask, He is well aware of my state.

He said,

Poverty is a sign of annihilation and the erasure of the attributes of existence.

He said one time,

Who is the poor one?” No one answered him. He said, “The poor one is the one whose inside is always in struggle and whose external is always at peace.

On Proper Manners with One’s Sheikh

He said,

It is necessary for the follower, if he is confused about something his shaikh has said or done and is unable to understand his reasons, to be patient and carry it, and not to become suspicious. If he is a beginner, he might ask; but if he is a murid, he has no reason to ask and should remain patient with what he doesn’t yet understand.

He said,

It is impossible to reach the love of the people of God until you come out of yourself.

He said,

In Our Way there are three categories of conduct (adab):

Good conduct with Allah Almighty and Exalted, requires that the murid be externally and internally perfect in his worship, keeping away from all that is forbidden and keeping all that has been ordered and leaving all that is other than God.
Good conduct with the Prophet Muhammad requires the murid to fly in the state of in kuntum tuhibbun Allah fa-t-tabi^cunee(‘If you want to love Allah then follow me’) [3:31]. He has to follow all the states of the Prophet. He must know that the Prophet is the bridge between God and His creation and that everything in this universe is under his high orders.
Good conduct with shaikhs is a requirement for every seeker. The shaikhs are the causes and the means for following in the footsteps of the Prophet . It is a duty for the seeker, in their presence or their absence, to keep the orders of the shaikh.[/blockquote]

One time one of my followers greeted me. I didn’t respond to him, though it is a requirement of the Sunnah to respond if someone greets you. This made my follower upset. I sent someone after him to apologize, saying to him, ‘At that time, when you greeted me, my mind, my heart, my spirit, my body, my soul were completely lost in the Divine Presence, listening to what Allah was saying to me. This made me so engrossed in the Speech of God that I was unable to respond to anyone.

Shah Naqshband

On Intention

He said,

To correct the intentions is very important, because intentions are from the Unseen World, not from the Material World.” “For that reason,” he said, “Ibn Sireen (author of a book on the interpretation of dreams) didn’t pray at the funeral prayer of Hasan al-Basri. He said, ‘How can I pray when my intention has not yet reached me connecting me to the Unseen?

He continued,

Intention (niyyah) is very important, because it consists of three letters: Nun, which represents nurullah, the Light of God; ya, which represents yadullah, the hand of God; and ha, which represents hidayatullah, the Guidance of Allah. The niyyah is the Breeze of the Soul.

On the Duties of Saints

He said,

Allah created me to destroy the materialistic life but people want me to build their materialistic life.

He said,

The people of God carry the burden of creation for creation to learn from them. Allah looks at the heart of his saints with his lights, and whoever is around that saint will get the blessing of that light..

The shaikh must know the state of his murid in three categories: in the past; in the present and in the future in order for him to raise him up.

Whoever is initiated by us and follows us and loves us, whether he is near or far, wherever he is, even if he is in the East and we are in the West, we nourish from the stream of love and give him light in his daily life.

On Loud and Silent Dhikr

From the presence of al-^cAzizan there are two methods of dhikr: the silent and the audible. I preferred the silent because it is stronger and more advisable.

The permission for the dhikr must be given by the Perfected One, in order to influence the one who is using it, just as the arrow from a Master of Archery is better than the arrow thrown from the bow of an ordinary person.

He added Three Principles to Sheikh Abdul Khaliq’s (q) Eight:

Awareness of Time (“wuquf zamani“)

It means to watch one’s composure and check one’s tendency to heedlessness. The seeker must know how much time he has spent in moving towards spiritual maturity and must recognize at what place he has arrived in his journey towards the Divine Presence.

The seeker must make progress with all his efforts. He must spend all his time making his one and only goal the arrival at the station of Divine love and Divine Presence. He must become aware that in all his efforts and in all his actions Allah witnesses the smallest detail.

The seeker must make an account of his actions and his intentions every day and every night and analyze his actions each hour, each second, and each moment. If they are good, he thanks God for it. If they are bad, he must repent and ask Allah’s forgiveness.

Ya’qub al-Charki said that his shaikh, Ala’uddin al-Attar said, “In the state of depression you must recite istighfar (asking forgiveness) excessively, and in the state of elation, praise of Allah excessively.” And he said, “To take into consideration these two states, contraction and expansion, is the meaning of wuquf zamani.”

Shah Naqshband (q) explained that state by saying, “You have to be aware of yourself. If you were following the shari^ca then you have to thank Allah, or else you must ask forgiveness.”

What is important for the seeker in this state is to keep secure the smallest period period of time. He has to stand guard on his self and judge if he was in the Presence of Allah or if he was in the presence of his ego, at every moment of his life.

Shah Naqshband (q) said, “You have to evaluate how you spend every moment: with Presence or in Negligence.”

10. Awareness of Numbers (“wuquf `adadi“)

This means that the seeker who is reciting dhikr must observe the exact number of repetitions entailing the silent dhikr of the heart. To keep an account of the dhikr is not for the sake of the account itself, but is for the sake of securing the heart from bad thoughts and to cause it to concentrate more in the effort to achieve the repetition prescribed by the shaikh as quickly as possible.

The pillar of dhikr through counting is to bring the heart into the presence of the One who is mentioned in that dhikr and to keep counting, one by one, in order to bring one’s attention to the realization that everyone is in need of that One whose Signs are appearing in every creation.

Shah Naqshband (q) said, “Observance of the numbers in dhikr is the first step in the state of acquiring Heavenly Knowledge (ilm ul-ladunni).” This means that counting leads one to recognize that only One is necessary for life. All mathematical equations are in need of the number One. All creation is in need of the only One.

11. Awareness of the Heart (“wuquf qalbi“)

This means to direct the heart of the seeker towards the Divine Presence, where he will not see other than his Beloved One. It means to experience His Manifestation in all states. Ubaidullah al-Ahrar said, “The state of Awareness of the Heart is the state of being present in the Divine Presenece in such a way that you cannot look to anyone other than Him.”

In such a state one concentrates the place of Dhikr inside the heart because this is the center of power. All thoughts and inspirations, good and bad, are felt and appear one after another, circling and alternating, moving between light and dark, in constant revolution, inside the heart. Dhikr is required in order to control and reduce that turbulence of the heart.

The Meaning of Nation of Muhammad

He said,

When the Prophet said, ‘The portion of my Nation destined for the Hellfire is like the portion of Ibrahim destined for the fire of Nimrod,’ he was giving the good news of salvation for his nation just as Allah had written salvation for Ibrahim : Ya naru kunee bardan wa salaman ^cala Ibraham (‘O fire, be cool and safe for Abraham’) [21:69] This is because the Prophet said, ‘My Nation will never agree on error,’ affirming that the Ummah will never accept wrong-doing, and thus Allah will save the Nation of Muhammad from the fire.

Shaikh Ahmad Faruqi said that Shah Naqshband said: “The Nation of Muhammad includes whoever comes after the Prophet . It is composed of three types:

Ummatu-d-Da^cwah: absolutely everyone who came after the Prophet and simply heard his message. That the Prophet came to all people without exception is clear from many verses in the Qur’an; furthermore, his Community is the Moderating Witness over all other Communities, and the Prophet is the one Witness over everybody, including the other Communities and their own respective witnesses.
Ummatu-l-Ijaba: those who accepted the message.
Ummatu-l-Mutaba^ca: those who accepted the message and followed the footsteps of the Prophet .

All of these categories of the Prophet’s Community are saved. If they are not saved by their deeds, then they are saved by the Intercession of the Prophet , according to his saying, “My intercession is from the big sinners of my Community.”

On Reaching the Divine Presence

He said,

What is meant by the hadith of the Prophet , as-salatu mi^craj ul-mu’min (“Prayer is the Ascension of the Believer”), is a clear indication of the levels of Real Prayer, in which the worshipper ascends to the Divine Presence and there is manifest in him awe and reverence and obedience and humility, such that his heart reaches a state of contemplation through his prayer. This will lead him to a vision of the Divine Secrets. That was the description of the Holy Prophet’s prayer. In the life-history of the Prophet , it is said that when the Prophet would reach that state, even the people outside the city could hear coming from his chest a sound which resembled the humming of bees.

One of the scholar of Bukhara asked him, “How can a worshipper reach the Divine Presence in his prayer?” He replied, “By eating from the hard-earned sweat of your brow and by remembering Allah Almighty and Exalted inside your prayer and outside your prayer, in every ablution and in every moment of your life.”

Shaikh Salah, his servant, reported: “Shah Naqshband said one time to his followers, ‘Any connection of your heart with other than Allah is the greatest veil for the seeker,’ after which he recited this verse of poetry:

The connection with other than God
Is the strongest veil,
And to be done with it,
Is the Opening of Attainment.

Immediately, after he recited this verse, it came to my heart that he was referring to the connection between belief (iman) and islam. He looked at me and laughed and said, ‘Did you not hear what Hallaj said? “I rejected the religion of God, and rejection is obligatory on me even though that is hideous to Muslims.” O Shaikh Salah, what came to your heart — that the connection is with belief and islam – is not the important point. What is important is Real Faith, and Real Faith for the People of the Truth is to make the heart deny anything and everything other than God. That is what made Hallaj say, “I denied your religion and denial is obligatory on me, although that is hideous to Muslims.” His heart wanted nothing except Allah.”

“Hallaj, of course, was not denying his faith in Islam, but was emphasizing the attachment of his heart to God Alone. If Hallaj was not accepting anything except Allah, how could one say that he was actually denying the religion of God? His testimony of the reality of his Witnessing encompassed and made as child’s-play the ordinary witnessing of the common Muslim.”

Shaikh Salah continued, saying, Shah Naqshband said, “The people of God do not admire what they are doing; they act only out of the love of God.”

Shah Naqshband said,

Rabi’a al-’Adawiyya said, ‘O Allah I didn’t worship seeking the reward of Your Paradise nor fearing your punishment, but I am worshipping You for Your Love alone.’ If your worship is for saving yourself or for gaining some reward for yourself, it is a hidden shirk, because you have associated something with Allah, either the reward or the punishment. This is what Hallaj meant.

O Allah, Your religion is nothing but hidden shirk, and to disbelieve in it is obligatory on every true servant. The people of religion are not worshipping You, but are only worshipping to attain Paradise or to escape from Hell. They are worshipping these two as idols, and that is the worst Idolatry. You have said, man yakfur bi-t-taghuti wa yu’min billahi faqad istamsaka bil-^curwati-l-wuthqa (“Whoever disbelieves in idols and believes in Allah has grasped the Firm Handhold”) [2:256]. To disbelieve in those idols and to believe in You is obligatory on the people of Truth.

Shaikh Arslan ad-Dimashqi

Shaikh Abul-Hasan ash-Shadhili (q), one of the greatest Sufi Shaikhs, was asked by his shaikh, “O my son, with what are you going to meet your Lord?” He said, “I am coming to Him with my poverty.” He said,

O my son, do not ever repeat this again. This is the biggest idol, because you are still coming to Him with something. Free yourself of everything and then come to Him.

The people of laws and external knowledge hold fast to their deeds and on that basis they establish the concept of reward and punishment. If they are good, they find good and if they are bad they find bad; what benefits the servant is his deeds and what harms him is his deeds. To the People of the Way, this is the hidden Shirk, because one is associating something with Allah. Although it is an obligation to do (good deeds), yet the heart must not be attached to those deeds. They should only be done for His sake and for His love, without expectation of anything in return.

On the Naqshbandi Way

Shah Naqshband (q) said,

Our Way is very rare and very precious. It is the ^curwati-l-wuthqa (“Firm Handhold”), the way of keeping firm and steadfast in the footsteps of the Prophet and of his Companions. They brought me to this Way from the door of Favors, because at its beginning and at its end, I witnessed nothing but the Favors of God. In this Way great doors of Heavenly Knowledge will be opened up to the seeker who follows in the footsteps of the Prophet .

To follow the Sunnah of the Prophet is the most important means by which the door will be opened to you. He said, “Whoever is not coming to our Way, his religion is in danger.” He was asked, “How does someone come to Your Way?” He replied, “By following the Sunnah of the Prophet .”

He said,

We have carried in this Way humiliation, and in return Allah has blessed us with His Honor.

Some people said about him that he was sometimes arrogant. He said, “We are proud because of Him, because He is our Lord, giving us His Support!”

He said,

To reach the Secrets of Oneness is sometimes possible, but to reach the Secrets of Spiritual Knowledge (ma^crifat) is extremely difficult.

He said,

Spiritual Knowledge is like water, it takes the color and shape of the cup. Allah’s Knowledge is so great, that however much we take, it is like a drop of a huge ocean. It like a vast garden, however much we have cut it is as if we had cut but one flower.

His Attitude Towards Food

Shah Naqshband was, may Allah sanctify his soul, in the highest states of the denial of desire for this world. He followed the way of piety, especially in the act of eating. He took all kinds of precautions in regard to his food. He would only eat from the barley he had grown himself. He would harvest it, grind it, make the dough, knead it and bake it himself. All the scholars and seekers of his time made their way to his house, in order to eat from his table and to partake the blessings of his food.

He reached such a perfection of austerity that in winter, he only put old and worn carpets on the floor of his house, which gave no protection from the bitter cold. In summer he put very thin woven mats on the ground. He loved the poor and the needy. He urged his followers to earn money through lawful means, that is, by the sweat of their brows. He urged them to spend that money on the poor. He cooked for the poor and invited them to his table. He served them with his own holy hands and urged them to remain always in the Presence of Allah, Almighty and Exalted. If anyone of them put a bite of food in his mouth in a heedless way, he would inform them, through his state of vision, what they had done and urge them to keep remembrance of Allah while eating.

He taught that,

One of the most important doors to the Presence of Allah is to eat with Awareness. The food gives the body strength, and to eat with consciousness gives the body purity.

One time he was invited to a city by the name of Ghaziat where one of his followers had prepared a dinner for him. When they sat for dinner he didn’t eat. His host was surprised. Shah Naqshband said, “O my son, I am wondering how you prepared this food. From the time you kneaded the dough and cooked it, until you served it, you were in a state of anger. The food is mixed with that anger. If we eat that food, shaytan will find a way to enter through it and to spread his evil throughout our bodies.”

One time he was invited to the city of Herat by its king, King Hussain. King Hussain was very happy at the visit of Shah Naqshband and threw a great feast for him. He invited all his ministers, the shaikhs of his kingdom and all his noblemen. He said, “Eat from this food. It is pure food, which I made from the pure earnings which I inherited from my father.” Everyone ate except Shah Naqshband, prompting the Shaikh ul-Islam of that time, Qutb ad-din, to ask, “O our Shaikh, why are you not eating?” Shah Naqshband said, “I have a judge to whom I go for counsel. I asked him and that judge told me, ‘O my son, about this food there are two possibilities. If this food is not halal (lawful) and you do not eat, when you are questioned you may say I came to the table of the king but I did not eat. Then you are safe because you did not eat. But if you eat and you are asked, then what are you going to say? Then you are not safe.’ At that time, Qutb ad-Din was so overcome by these words that he began to shake. He had to ask the King’s permission to stop eating. Then the King was very confused and asked, “What shall we do with all this food?” Shah Naqshband said, “If there is any doubt about the purity of the food it is better to send it to the poor. Their need will make it halal for them. If as you say, it is halal, then there is more blessing in giving it as charity to those who need than in feasting those who do not.”

He used to fast most of his days. If a guest came to him and he had something to offer him, he would sit with him, break his fast and eat. He told his followers that the Companions of the Prophet used to do the same. Shaikh Abul Hasan al-Kharqani (q) said in his book, The Principles of the Way and the Principles of Reaching Reality, “Keep harmony with friends, but not in sinning. This means that if you were fasting and someone came to you as a friend, you must sit with him and eat with him in order to keep proper company with him. One of the principles of fasting, or of any worship, is to conceal what one is doing. If one reveals it, for example by saying to the guest, ‘I am fasting,’ then pride may enter and ruin the fast. This is the reason behind the principle.”

One day he was given a cooked fish as a gift. There were in his presence many poor people, among them a very pious boy who was fasting. Shah Naqshband gave the fish to the poor and told them, “Sit and eat,” and he told the boy who was fasting, “Sit and eat.” The boy refused. He told him again, “Break your fast and eat,” but he refused. He asked him, “What if I give you one of my days of Ramadan? Will you sit and eat?” Again he refused. He told him, “What if I give you my whole Ramadan?” Still he refused. He said, “Bayazid al-Bistami was once burdened with a person similar to you.” After that the boy was seen running after the worldly life, never fasting and never worshipping.

The incident to which Shah Naqshband (q) was referring occurred one day when Shaikh Abu Turab an-Naqshabi (q) visited Bayazid al-Bistami (q). His servant offered him food. Abu Turab said to the servant, “Come and sit with me and eat.” The servant said, “No. I am fasting.” He said, “Eat, and Allah will give you the reward of fasting for one year.” He refused. He said, “Come and eat, I will pray to Allah that he give you the reward of two years of fasting.” Then Hadrat Bayazid said, “Leave him. He has been dropped from Allah’s care.” Later his life degenerated and he became a thief.

His Miracles and Generosity

Shah Naqshband’s state is beyond description and the extent of his knowledge cannot be described. One of the greatest miracles was his very existence. He often hid his actions in order not to display miraculous power. Many of his miracles, however, were recorded.

Shah Naqshband, may Allah bless his soul, said,

One day I went out with Muhammad Zahid (q) to the desert. He was a truthful murid and we had a pickaxe with which we were digging. As we were working with the pick we were discussing such deep states of knowledge that we threw aside the pick and entered deeper into spiritual knowledge. We were going deeper and deeper until the conversation led us to the nature of Worship. He asked me, ‘O my shaikh, to what limit does worship reach?’ I said, ‘Worship reaches such perfection that the worshipper can say to someone ‘die,’ and that person will die.’ Without thinking I pointed at Muhammad Zahid. Immediately he fell down dead. He was in the state of death from sunrise until the midday. It was very hot. I was very anxious because his body was deteriorating from the excessive heat. I pulled him under the shade of a tree and I sat there contemplating the matter. As I was contemplating, an inspiration came to my heart from the Divine Presence telling me to say to him, ‘Ya Muhammad, Be Alive!’ I said it to him three times. In response, his soul slowly began to enter his body, and life slowly began to return to him. He gradually returned to his original state. I went to my shaikh and told him what had happened. He said, ‘O my son, Allah gave you a secret that he has given to no one else.

One time the king of Transoxiana, Sultan Abdullah Kazgan, came to Bukhara. He decided to go hunting around Bukhara and many people accompanied him. Shah Baha’uddan Naqshband (q) was in a nearby village. When the people went out hunting, Shah Naqshband went to the top of a hill and sat there. While sitting there, it came to his heart that Allah gave much honor to saints. Because of that honor, all kings of this world should bow to them. That thought hadn’t yet passed from his heart before a horseman with a crown on his head, like a king, came into his presence and dismounted from his horse. With great humility he greeted Shah Naqshband and stood in his presence in the most polite manner. He bowed to the shaikh but the shaikh did not look at him. He kept him standing one hour. Finally, Shah Naqshband looked up and said, ‘What are you doing here?’ He said, ‘I am the king, Sultan Kazgan. I was out hunting, and I smelled a very beautiful smell. I followed it here and I found you sitting in the midst of a powerful light.’ His very thought, ‘All kings of this world should bow to the saints,’ had instantly become reality. That is how Allah honors the thoughts of his saints.

Shaikh Alauddin al-‘Attar (q)

One of his followers who was serving him in the city of Merv reported,

IOne day I wished to go see my family in Bukhara, having received news that my brother Shamsuddin had died. I needed to take permission from my shaikh to go. I spoke with Amir Hussain, the Prince of Herat, to ask permission on my behalf to Shah Naqshband. On their way back from Jum’ah prayer, Amir Hussain told him about the death of my brother and that I wanted permission to go to my family. He said, ‘No it is impossible. How can you say he is dead when I can see him alive. More than that, I can even smell his smell. I am going to bring him here now.’ He had hardly finished his words before my brother appeared. He aproached the shaikh, kissed his hand and greeted Amir Hussain. I hugged my brother and there was great happiness among us.

Shaikh Shah Naqshband was once sitting in a large association in Bukhara speaking about the Unveiling of the State of Vision. He said, ‘My best friend, Mawla ‘Arif, who is in Khwarazm, (400 miles from Bukhara) has left Khwarazm for the government building, and he reached the station of the horse-carriages. When he reached that station he stayed there for a moment and now he is going back to his house in Khwarazm. He is not continuing on to Saray. This is how a saint can see in his station of gnosis.’ Everyone was surprised at this story but we all knew that he was a great saint, so we recorded the time and the day. One day Mawla ‘Arif came from Khwarazm to Bukhara and we told him about that incident. He was very surprised and he said, ‘In truth, that is exactly what happened.

Shaikh Alauddin al-‘Attar (q)

Some scholars from Bukhara traveled to ‘Iraq with some followers of Shah Naqshband (q) when they reached the city of Simnan. They heard that there was a blessed man named Sayyid Mahmoud, who was a murid of the shaikh. They went to visit his house and asked him, “How did you become connected with the shaikh?” He said, “One night I saw the Prophet in a dream, sitting in a very nice place, and beside him sat a man of majestic appearance. I said to the Prophet , with complete respect and humbleness, ‘Ya Rasulallah, I was not honored to be your companion in your lifetime. What can I do in my lifetime that will approximate that honor?’ He told me, ‘O my son, if you want to be honored by being our friend and to sit with us and be blessed, you have to follow my son, Shah Baha’uddin Naqshband.’ I then asked, ‘Who is Shah Bahaudin Naqshband?’ He said to me, ‘Do you see that person sitting next to me? This is the one. Keep company with him.’ I had never seen him before. When I awoke I wrote his name and his description in a book that I have in my library. Much time passed after that dream, until one day, while I was standing in a shop, I saw a man with a luminous and majestic appearance come into the shop and sit on a chair. When I saw him, I remembered the dream and what had happened in it. Immediately I asked him if he would honor me by coming to my house and staying with me. He accepted and began to walk in front of me while I followed. I was shy to walk in front of him, even to lead the way to my house. He did not look at me once, but took the path directly to my house. I was about to say, ‘This is my house,’ when he said, ‘This is your house.’ He walked inside and went straight to my special room. He said, ‘This is your room.’ He went into the closet and he took one book from among hundreds of books. He gave me the book and asked me, ‘What did you write in this?’ What I had written was what I had seen in the dream. Immediately a state of unconsciousness overtook me and I fainted from the light that poured into my heart. When I awoke I asked him if he would accept me. He was Shah Baha’uddan Naqshband.”

In the beginning of my travelling on the Path I was sitting beside him one day, in the spring season. A craving for watermelon entered my heart. He looked at me and said, ‘Muhammad Zahid, go to that river near us and bring us what you see and we will eat it.’ Immediately I went to the river. The water was very cold. I reached into it and found a watermelon under the water, very fresh, as if it had just been cut from the vine. I was very happy and I took the watermelon and said, ‘O my shaikh accept me.

Shaikh Muhammad Zahid (q)

t was reported that one of his followers was going to visit him. Before the visit, he asked Shaikh Shadi, one of the senior murids, to advise him. “He said to me, ‘O my brother, when you go to visit the shaikh or when you are sitting in the presence of the shaikh, be careful not to place your legs so that your feet face him.’ As soon as I left Ghaziut on my way to Qasr al-’Arifan, I found a tree and lay down under it with my legs extended. Unfortunately an animal came and bit me on the leg. Later I fell back asleep in pain, and as I was sleeping again an animal bit me. Suddenly I realized that I had made a big mistake, I had extended my feet in the direction of the shaikh. I immediately repented and the animal biting me left.”

One time he was pushed to show miraculous power in order to defend one of his successors in Bukhara, Shaikh Muhammad Parsa. This occurred at the time when Shaikh Muhammad Shamsuddin al-Jazari came to Samarkand, in the time of King Mirza Aleg Beg, to determine the correctness of the chains of transmission in Narrations of the Prophetic Traditions. Some of the jealous and corrupt scholars had complained that Shaikh Muhammad Parsa was giving narrations of hadith whose chains of transmission were not known. They told Shamsuddin, “If you try to correct that problem, Allah will give you a great reward.” Shaikh Muhammad Shamsuddin asked the Sultan to order Shaikh Muhammad Parsa to appear. The Shaikh al-Islam of Bukhara, Husamuddin an-Nahawi, was there, along with many scholars and imams from the area.

Shah Naqshband (q) came with Muhammad Parsa (q) to the meeting. Then Shaikh Husamuddin asked Muhammad Parsa about a hadith. Muhammad Parsa narrated the hadith along with its chain of transmission. Shaikh Muhammad al-Jazari said, “There is no error in the hadith, but the chain is incorrect.” Upon hearing this the jealous scholars were happy. They asked Muhammad Parsa to give another chain for the hadith. He did, and it was again said that it was not correct. They asked for another chain, and he gave it and still they found fault with it.

Shah Naqshband interfered, because he knew that whatever chain he gave they would say it was incorrect. He inspired Muhammad Parsa to direct a question to Shaikh Husamuddin and say to him, “You are the Shaikh ul-Islam and the mufti. From what you have learned of external knowledge and shari^ca and the knowledge of hadith, what do you say about such and such narrator?” Shaikh Husamuddin said, “We accept that person and we base much of our knowledge of hadith on his narrations, and his book is accepted by us, and his lineage is one that all scholars accept, and there is no argument on that matter.” Muhammad Parsa said, “The book of that person that you are accepting is in your house in your library, between such and such books. It contains 500 pages and its color is such and such, and the cover looks like such and such, and the hadith you rejected is written by that person on page such and such.”

Shaikh Husamuddin was confused and doubts came to his heart, because he did not remember seeing such a book in his library. Everyone was surprised that the shaikh would know about the book while the owner didn’t know about it. There was no alternative except to send someone to check. The hadith was found as Muhammad Parsa mentioned. When the king heard about this story, the scholars who brought the charges were humiliated, and Shah Naqshband and Muhammad Parsa were raised up.

His State Upon Leaving This World

Shaikh Ali Damman, one of the servants of the Shaikh, said,”The shaikh ordered me to dig his grave. When I finished it came to my heart, ‘Who is going to be his successor?’ He raised his head from the pillow and said to me, ‘O my son, don’t forget what I said to you when we were on our way to the Hijaz. Whoever wants to follow me must follow Shaikh Muhammad Parsa (q) and Shaikh Alauddin Attar (q).’

In his last days, he stayed in his room. People made pilgrimage to see him and he gave them advice. When he entered his final illness he locked himself up in his room. Wave after wave of his followers began to visit him and he gave to each of them the advice they needed. At one point he ordered them to read Surah Ya Sin. Then when they had finished the Surah, he raised his hands to Allah. He then raised his right finger to say the shahada. As soon as he finished, his soul returned to Allah.

He died on a Monday night, the 3rd of Rabi’ul-Awwal, 791 H. (1388 CE). He was buried in his garden as he requested. The succeeding kings of Bukhara took care of his school and mosque, expanding them and increasing their religious endowments (awqaf).

Abdul Wahhab ash-Sha’arani, the qutb (Spiritual Pole) of his time said, “When the shaikh was buried in his grave, a window to Paradise was opened for him, making his grave a paradise from Heaven. Two beautiful spiritual beings entered his presence and greeted him and said to him, ‘From the time that Allah created us until now, we have waited for this moment to serve you.’ He said to these two spiritual beings, ‘I don’t look to anything other than Him. I don’t need you but I need my Lord.’

Shah Naqshband (q) left behind many successors, the most honorable among whom were Shaikh Muhammad bin Muhammad Alauddin al-Khwarazmi al-Bukhari al-Attar and Shaikh Muhammad bin Muhammad bin Mahmoud al-Hafizi, known as Muhammad Parsa, the author of Risala Qudsiyya. It is to the first that Shah Naqshband passed on the secret of the Golden Chain.

as-Sayyid Amir Kulal

We have a way from this visible world to the Unseen,
for we are the companions of Religion’s Messenger.
We have a way from the house to the garden,
we are the neighbor of cypress and jasmine.
Every day we come to the garden and see a hundred blossoms.
In order to scatter them among the lovers,
we fill our robes to overflowing.
Behold our words! They are the fragrance of those roses–
we are the rosebush of certainty’s rosegarden.

Rumi’s Divan

Sayyid Amir Kulal is known as the Rose of the Characteristics and Attributes of the Prophet, the Furthest Lote Tree of Desire for the Ultimate Stations, the Owner of the Throne of Guidance, the Attractor of Heavenly Blessings, and the Teacher with his holy breath of the Secrets of the Divine. He is a mujaddid or Renewer of the shari^ca (Law), a Master of the tariqa (Way), a builder of haqiqa (Reality), and a guide for khaliqa (Creation). He was distinguished for mastery among the saints of his time, who applied the following saying to him: “The Saints of Mastery are the Masters of all Saints.”

He was born in the village of Sukhar, two miles from Bukhara. His family were sayyid, descendants of the Holy Prophet . His mother said, “When I was pregnant with him, whenever my hand went towards doubtful food, I would be unable to convey it to my mouth. This happened to me many times. I knew that I had someone special in my womb. I was careful and chose my food from the best and assuredly halal (lawful) food.”

In his childhood he was a wrestler. He used to practice all of its arts, until he became one of the most famous wrestlers in his time. All the wrestlers would gather around him to learn from him. One day, a man watching him wrestle had the following thought come to his heart: “How is it that a person who is the Descendant of the Prophet and who is deeply knowledgeable in shari^ca and tariqat, is practicing this sport?” He immediately fell into a deep sleep and dreamt that it was the Judgement Day. He felt that he was in great difficulty and that he was drowning. Then the shaikh Sayyid Amir al-Kulal appeared to him and rescued him from the water. He woke up and Sayyid Amir al-Kulal (q) looked at him and said, “Did you witness my power in wrestling and my power in intercession?”

One time his shaikh-to-be, Muhammad Baba as-Samasi (q), was passing by his wrestling arena, accompanied by his followers. He stopped and stood there. An evil whisper came to the heart of one of his followers saying, “How is it that the shaikh is standing here in this wrestling arena?” The shaikh looked at his follower immediately and said, “I am standing here for the sake of one person. He is going to be a great Knower. Everyone will come to him for guidance and through him people will reach the highest states of Divine Love and the Divine Presence. My intention is to bring this person under my wing.” At that moment Amir Kulal (q) gazed at him, was attracted and abandoned the sport of wrestling. He followed Shaikh Muhammad Baba As-Samasi to his house. Shaikh Samasi taught him the dhikr and the principles of this most distinguished tariqat and told him, “You are now my son.”

Shaikh Kulal followed Shaikh Samasi for 20 years, spending all his time in dhikr, seclusion, worship, and self-denial. No one saw him in these 20 years except in the company of his shaikh. He would come to see his shaikh in Samas every Monday and Thursday, although the distance was five miles and the journey difficult, until he reached a state of unveiling (mukashafa). At that time his fame began to spread everywhere until he left this world.

He had four children, as-Sayyid al-Amir Burhanuddin, as-Sayyid al-Amir Hamza, as-Sayyid al-Amir Shah, and as-Sayyid al-Amir ‘Umar. He also had four khalifs, but he passed his secrets to only one of them, the Master of Masters, the Knower of Knowers, the Greatest of Arch-Intercessors (al-Ghawth al-A^czam), the Sultan of the Saints, Shaikh Muhammad Baha’uddin Shah Naqshband (q).

Shaikh Sayyid Amir Kulal died in the same village in which he was born, Sukhar, the 8th of Jumada al-Awwal, 772 H.

Muhammad Baba as-Samasi

We went down to a sea, and stood upon the station of the seashore.Above that station was a sun rising in our horizon.
Its setting is in us and from us rises its dawn.
Our hands touched its jewels, from which came forth our souls.
At that time we too became jewels.
Tell us what is that sun, its meaning and secret;
What is that pearl which came out from the sea?
We went down to a universe whose name in our book is the void.
It is too narrow to contain us but can be contained in us.
We left behind the stormy seas.
How can the people know what we have reached?

Abu Madian

Shaikh Muhammad Baba as-Samasi (q), the distinguished student of al-Azizan, was the Scholar of the Saints and the Saint of the Scholars. He was unique in the two knowledges, the inner and the outer. His blessings permeated every nation in his time. From his desire to learn, he caused every unseen knowledge and secret to appear. He was the pinnacle of the Suns of External and Internal Knowledge of the Eighth Hijra Century. One of his miraculous signs was his Ascension from the Dome of the Rock, which was his heart, to the station of the Knower of the Knowers. From everywhere those versed in spiritual wisdom made the pilgrimage to his Garden of Knowledge and circumambulated the Ka’aba of his Guidance.

He was born in Sammas, a village in the suburbs of Ramitan, three miles from Bukhara. He progressed in his journey by reading from the Sciences of the Qur’an, memorizing the Qur’an and the Prophetic Tradition (hadith), and becoming a great scholar in Jurisprudence. Then he began to study the Speculative Theology, Logic, and Philosophy (‘ilm al-Kalam), as well as History, until he was a walking encyclopedia of every kind of art and science. He followed Shaikh Ali Ramitani al-’Azizan (q) and he was constantly engaged in struggling against his self. He was put into seclusion on a daily basis, until he reached such a state of purity that his shaikh was permitted to transmit to his heart from the Unseen Heavenly Knowledge. He became very famous for his miraculous powers and his high state of sainthood. Shaikh ‘Ali Ramitani (q) chose him before his death as his successor and ordered all his students to follow him.

He used to say, as he passed the village of Qasr al-^cArifan, “I am smelling from this place the scent of a Spiritual Knower who is going to appear and after whose name this entire Order will be known.” One day he passed the village and said, “I am smelling the scent so strongly that it is as if the Knower has now been born.” Three days passed, and the grandfather of a child came to Shaikh Muhammad Baba as-Samasi saying, “This is my grandson.” He said to his followers, “This baby is the knower that I was telling you about. I am seeing in his future that he is to be a guide of all humanity. His secrets are going to reach every sincere and pious person. The heavenly knowledge that Allah is going to shower on him will reach every house in Central Asia. Allah’s name is going to be engraved (Naqsh) on his heart. And the Order will take its name from this engraving.”

From His Sayings

The seeker must always stand on his keeping Allah’s Divine Orders, and he must be constant in the state of purity. He must first have a pure heart that never looks towards anything but Allah Almighty and Exalted. Then he must keep pure that inner self, which is never revealed to anyone. That is perceiving the true vision. The purity of the chest (sadr), consists of hope and contentment with His Will. Then purity of the spirit, which consists of modesty and reverence. Then purity of the stomach, which depends on only eating permitted food, and abstinence. This is followed by purity of the body, which is to leave desire. This is followed by purity of the hands, which consists of piety and endeavor. Then comes purity from sins, which is regret and heartbreak for past wrongdoing. After this is purity of the tongue, which consists of dhikr and asking forgiveness. Then he must purify himself from neglect and slackness, by developing fear of the Hereafter.

We must always be asking forgiveness, being careful in all our affairs, following the footsteps of the good and pious, following their internal teachings, and safeguarding the heart from all whispers.

Be guided by the teachings of your shaikhs, because they are more direct to cure you than reading books.

You must keep in the association of a saint. In that association you must keep your heart from gossiping and you must not speak in their presence in a loud voice, nor should you be busy in their company with prayers and voluntary worship. Keep their company in everything. Don’t talk when they are speaking. Listen to what they say. Don’t look in their homes at what they have, especially in their rooms and their kitchens. Never look towards another shaikh but keep the belief that your shaikh will make you arrive. And don’t ever connect your heart to another shaikh, as you might be harmed by that. leave behind whatever you have been raised on in your childhood.

In keeping your shaikh you must not keep in you heart anything but Allah and His Name.

One time I went to see my shaikh, Shaikh Ali ar-Ramitani. When I entered his presence, he said to me, ‘O my son, I am seeing in your heart the desire for an Ascension.’ As soon as he said that he placed me in the state of vision, where I saw myself walking day and night, from my country to reach the Mosque of the Dome, Masjid al-Aqsa. When I reached Masjid al-Aqsa, I entered the mosque and I saw a man there, clothed all in green. He said to me ‘Welcome, we have been waiting for you for a long time.’ I said, ‘O my shaikh, I left my country on such and such date. What is today’s date?’ He answered, ‘Today is the 27th of Rajab.’ I realized I had taken three months to reach the mosque, and to my surprise I had arrived on the same night as the night of the Prophet’s Ascension.

He told me, ‘Your shaikh, Sayyid ‘Ali ar-Ramitani has been waiting for you here for a long time.’ I went inside, and my shaikh was ready to lead the prayer. He lead the Night prayer. After completing the prayer, he looked at me and said, ‘O my son, I have been ordered by the Prophet to accompany you from the Mosque of the Dome to the Sidratul Muntaha, the same place to which the Prophet ascended.’ When he finished speaking the green man brought two creatures the like of which I had never seen before. We mounted these creatures and we were lifted up. Wherever we were lifted up, we were acquiring knowledge of those stations of what was between Earth and Heavens.

It is impossible to describe what we saw and learned in that ascension, because words cannot express what relates to the heart, and it is not conveyable except by taste and experience. We continued until we reached the State of the Reality of the Prophet (al-haqiqat al-Muhammadiyya), which is in the Divine Presence. As soon as we entered this state, my shaikh vanished and I vanished. We were seeing that there is nothing in existence in this universe except the Prophet . And we were perceiving that there is nothing beyond that except Allah Almighty and Exalted.

Then I heard the Prophet’s voice saying to me, ‘Ya Muhammad Baba as-Samasi, O my son, that path you are on is one of the most Distinguished ones, and those who have been chosen to be stars and beacons for human beings will be accepted in that path. Return, and I am supporting you with all my power, as Allah is supporting me with His Power. And keep in the service of your shaikh.” As the voice of the Prophet came to an end, I found myself standing in the presence of my shaikh. That is a great blessing, to be in the company of such powerful shaikhs, who can take you to the Divine Presence.

Shaikh Muhammad Baba as-Samasi (q) died in Samas on the 10th of Jumada al-Akhir, in the year 755 H. He had four khalifs, but the Secret of the Golden Chain he passed to Shaikh Sayyid Amir Kulal ibn as-Sayyid Hamza (q).

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About Rami

From His Miraculous Speech about the Glorious Qur’an

The Conduct of Shaykh and Murid

On the Differences Among Imams

On Traveling in the Path

10. Awareness of Numbers (“wuquf `adadi“)

11. Awareness of the Heart (“wuquf qalbi“)

On the Naqshbandi Way

His Attitude Towards Food

His Miracles and Generosity

His State Upon Leaving This World

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