Tariqah Naqshbandiyyah

"Po fikhskim pitanjime se uzima u obzir ono što su rekli Imam Ebu Hanife, Imam Ebu Jusuf i Imam Muhammed, a ne praksa Šiblija ili Ebu'l-Husejn en-Nurija."

Hazreti Imam Rabbani, rahmetullahi teala alejhi

Naqshbandiyyah Naqshbandi order is refered to the sufi order or path revealed by Allah (SWT) to the great shaikh of 8th century Hijrah shaikh Baha’uddin Naqshband Bukhari, who lived in Bukhara (currently Uz…

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The blessed tomb of Imam i-Rabbani Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi [qs], who was the pillar of Tariqah Naqshbandiyyah in India [died 1034 Hijri] ,widely known as The Reviver of the second hijra millenium, -MUJADDID E ALIF THANI-His annual urus at Sirhind Shareef,Punjab India,is this week [safar 28],being attended by lakhs from Indo-Pak subcontinent.
He was the Pearl of the Crown of the Knowledgeable Saints. He was the Treasure of Those who Came Before and of Those who Came After. In him were combined all their favors and generosity. He was the Sinai of Divine Manifestation, the Furthermost Lote Tree of the Unique Knowledge, and the Fountain of the Hidden Prophetic Knowledge. He was the Genius of Scholars and he was the Sultan of the Earth, which smiled when he was born and was honored by his existence. He was the perfect Perfected Guide. He was the Caller to Allah's presence, the One Qutb and the Unique Heavenly Imam. He was the Reviver of the Second Millennium, Sayyidina wa Mawlana (our Leader and Master) ash-Shaikh Ahmad al-Faruqi as-Sirhindi, ibn ash-Shaikh cAbdul Ahad son of Zainu-l-cAbidin son of cAbdulhayy, son of Muhammad son of Habibullah, son of Raficuddin, son of Nur, son of Sulayman, son of Yusuf, son of cAbdullah, son of Ishaq, son of cAbdullah, son of Shucayb, son of Aad, son of Yusuf, son of Shihabuddin, known as Farq Shah al-Qabidi, son of Nairuddin, son of Mahmud, son of Sulayman, son of Mascud, son of cAbdullah al-Waci al-Asghari, son of cAbdullah al-Waci al-Akbar, son of Abdu-l-Fattah, son of Ishaq, son of Ibrahim, son of Nair, son of Sayyidina cAbdullah (r), the son of Amir al-Mu'minin, the khalif of the Prophet , Sayyidina cUmar al-Faruq (r).

He was born on the day of 'Ashura, the 10th of Muharram in the year 971 H., in the village of Sihar Nidbasin. In some translations it is called Sirhind in the city of Lahore, in India. He received his knowledge and education through his father and through many shaikhs in his time. He made progress in three tariqats: Suhrawardiyya, Qadiriyya, and Chistiyya. He was given permission to train followers in all three tariqats at the age of 17 years. He was busy in spreading the teachings of these tariqats and in guiding his followers, yet he felt that something was missing in himself and he was continuously searching for it. He felt an interest in the Naqshbandi Sufi Order, because he could see by means of the secrets of the other three tariqats that it was the best and highest. His spiritual progress eventually brought him to the presence of the Ghawth and Qutb of his time, ash-Shaikh Muhammad al-Baqi, who had been sent from Samarqand to India by the order of his shaikh, Muhammad al-Amkanaki. He took the Naqshbandi Order from the shaikh and stayed with him for two months and some days, until Sayyidina Muhammad al-Baqi opened to his heart the secret of this tariqat and gave him authorization to train his murids in the Order. He said about him, "He is the highest Qutb in this time."

The Prophet predicted his advent in one of his hadith when he said, "There will be among my nation a man called Silah. By his intercession many people will be saved." It was mentioned in the collection of Suyuti, Jamc ul-Jawamic. What confirmed the truth of this hadith is what Imam Rabbani wrote about himself: "God has made me the Silah between the two Oceans." Silah means "connection." So he meant that God had made him a connection between the two oceans -- the two knowledges, external and internal. Shaikh Mir Husamuddin said, "I saw the Prophet in one of my dreams standing on the minbar (pulpit) and praising Shaikh Ahmad as-Sirhindi. The Prophet was saying, 'I am proud and happy with his presence among my Nation. God has made him a reviver of the religion.'"

Many saints predicted his advent. One of them was Shaikh Ahmad al-Jami (q). He said, "After me will appear seventeen men of the People of God, all of whom are named Ahmad and the last one among them will be at the head of the millennium. He is going to be the highest of them and he is going to receive the state of Unveiling. He is going to revive this religion."

Another to predict his advent was Mawlana Khwaja al-Amkanaki (q). He said to his khalif, "A man from India is going to appear. He will be the Imam of his century. He will be trained by you, so hurry to meet him, because the people of God are awaiting his arrival." Muhammad al-Baqi (q) said, "That is why I moved from Bukhara to India." When they met he told him, "You are the one whose appearance the shaikh Muhammad Khwaja al-Amkanaki predicted. When I saw you I knew you were the Qutb of your time. When I entered the region of Sirhind in India, I found a lamp which was so big and so bright that its light reached up to the heavens. Everyone took from that lamp's light. You are that lamp."

It is said that the shaikh of his father, Shaikh cAbdul Ahad, who was a shaikh of the Qadiri Order, had been given a jubba (cloak) from his shaikh which had been passed down from the Ghawth al-Azam, Sayyidina cAbdul Qadir al-Jilani (q). Sayyidina cAbdul Qadir had said about it to his successors, "Keep it for that one who is going to appear at the end of the first millennium. His name is Ahmad. He is going to revive this religion. I have dressed him with all my secrets. He combines in himself both the internal and external knowledge."



The Seeking of the Kings and the Kings of Seeking

Sayyidina Ahmad al-Faruqi said,

"Let it be known to you that the Heavenly Guardians attracted me because They wanted me to be attracted, and They facilitated for me the passage through time and space (at-tayy) in the different states of the seeker. I found that God is the Essence of all matter, as it had been said by the People of Sufism. Then I found God in all matter without incarnation (hulul). Then I found God together with all matter. Then I saw Him ahead of everything and then I saw Him following everything. Finally I reached a state where I saw Him and I saw nothing else. This is what is meant by the term, Witnessing the Oneness, which is also the state of Annihilation (fana'). That is the first step in Sainthood, and the highest state in the Beginning of the Way. This vision appears first on the horizons, then secondly in the Self. Then I have been lifted to the station of Subsistence (baqa') which is the second step in Sainthood.

"This is a station which many saints did not speak about because they did not reach it. All of them speak about the station of Annihilation, but following that state is Subsistence. In that state I found all creation another time, but I found that the essence of all these creations is Allah, and Allah's Essence is the Essence of Myself. Then I found Allah in everything, but in reality in myself. I was raised to a higher state, to find Allah with everything, but in reality He was with myself. Then I was lifted to see Him preceding everything, but in reality He was preceding myself. Then I was lifted to a state where He was following everything, but in reality He was following myself. Then I saw Him in everything, but in reality He was in myself. Then I saw everything and I didn't see God. And this is the end of the Stations by which They had brought me back to the beginning. In sum, they lifted me to the Station of Annihilation, then to the station of Existence, then they brought me back to be with people, in the Station of the common people. This is the highest state in guiding people to the Presence of God. It is the perfect state of guidance, because it matches the understanding of human beings."

He said, "I accompanied today one who has reached the End of Ends, the Qutub of all Creatures, the Perfect Man, Shaikh Muhammad al-Baqi. Through him I received incredible blessings, and by his blessing I was granted a power of attraction that allowed me to reach every human being that Allah had created. I was honored to attain a station that combines the state of the Ending with the state of the Beginning. I achieved all the states of Seeking and I reached the Ending, which is the meaning of 'Reaching the name of ar-Rabb' (the Sustainer), by the support of the Lion of God, Asadullah, cAli ibin Abi Talib, May God ennoble his face. I was raised up to the state of the Throne, which is the Reality of the Truth of Muhammad , by the support (madad) of Shaikh Shah Baha'uddin Naqshband. Then I was lifted even higher, to the state of Beauty, which is the state of the Truth of the Muhammadan Qutbs, by the support of the Prophetic Holy Spirit.

"I was supported by Shaikh Ala`addin al-Attar, from whom I received the states of the Greatest Spiritual Poles (al-qutubiyyati-l-cuzma) from the Presence of Muhammad . Then Allah's Heavenly Care attracted me and I ascended to a State that is beyond that of the Qutubs, the Special Original State. Here the support of al-Ghawth al-Aczam, Abdul Qadir Jilani (q) pushed me up to the State of the Origin of Origins. Then I was ordered to come back down, and as I was descending I passed by all 39 tariqats other than the Naqshbandiyya and the Qadiriyya. I looked at the states of their shaikhs and they greeted me and saluted me and they threw on me all their treasures and all their private knowledge, which unveiled to me realities which had never been unveiled to any person in my time.

"Then on my descent I met Khidr , and he adorned me with the Heavenly Knowledge (cilmu-l-ladunni) before I reached the state of the Qutubs."

"Abu Dawud said in an authentic hadith that the Prophet said, 'Allah will send at the beginning of every century someone by whom the religion will be revived,' but there is a difference between the Reviver of the Century and the Reviver of the Millennium. It is like the difference between one hundred and one thousand."

"In a vision, the Prophet gave me good tidings: 'You are going to be a spiritual inheritor and Allah is going to give you the authority to intercede on behalf of hundreds of thousands on the Day of Judgment.' He bestowed on me with his holy hand the authority to guide people, and he said to me, 'Never before have I given that authority to guide people.'"

"The knowledge that is emerging from me is coming from the state of Sainthood, but I am receiving it from the Light of the Prophet Muhammad . Saints are unable to bring forth such knowledge, because it is beyond the knowledge of saints. It is the Knowledge of the Essence of this Religion and the Essence of the Knowledge of Allah's Essence and Attributes. No one before has spoken about it and Allah has granted me to be the one to revive the religion in its second millennium."

"Allah unveiled to me the Secrets of the Unique Oneness and He poured into my heart all kinds of Spiritual Knowledge and its refinement. He unveiled to me the Secrets of the ayats of Qur'an so that I found beneath every letter of the Qur'an an ocean of knowledge all pointing to the High Essence of Allah Almighty and Exalted. If I were to reveal one word of the meaning of it they would cut off my head, as they did to Hallaj and to Ibn 'Arabi. This is the meaning of the hadith of the Prophet , in Bukhari, narrated by Abu Huraira (r), "The Prophet poured into my heart two kinds of knowledge, one of which I have revealed and another which if I were to reveal they would cut my throat."

"Allah, Almighty and Exalted, has shown me all the names of those who are entering our Tariqat, from the day of Sayyidina Abu Bakr (r) to the Day of Judgment, both men and women, and all of them are going to enter Paradise, with the intercession of the shaikhs of the Tariqat."

"Al-Mahdi will be one of the followers of this Tariqat."

"One day I was in association with my followers doing dhikr and it came to my heart that I had done something wrong. Then Allah opened to my eyes, 'I have forgiven anyone who sits with you and anyone asking intercession by means of you.'"

"Allah has created me from the residue of His Prophet ."

"The Kacba was always coming and making tawaf (circumambulation) around me."

"Allah Almighty and Exalted said to me, 'Anyone for whom you pray janaza (funeral prayer) will be forgiven, and if anyone mixes earth from your grave with the earth of their grave, they will be forgiven.'"

"Allah said, 'I have given you special gifts and perfections which no one will receive other than you until the time of the Mahdi.'"

"Allah gave me an incredible power of guidance. Even if I direct my guidance to a dead tree, it will become green."

One great shaikh wrote to him asking, "The states that you reached and you are speaking about, did the Sahaba receive them, and if they did, did they receive them at one time or did they receive them at separate times?" He answered, "I cannot give you an answer unless you come into my presence." When the shaikh came, he immediately unveiled to him his spiritual reality and cleaned the darkness of his heart until the shaikh fell prostrate at his feet and said, "I believe, I believe! I see now that these states were all revealed to the Sahaba simply by looking at the Messenger ."

One time in the month of fasting, Ramadan, he was invited by ten of his murids to break fast with them. He accepted the invitation of each of them. When it came time to break the fast, he was present at each of their houses, breaking the fast, and they saw him in each of their houses at the same time.

One time he looked at the sky and it was raining. He said, "O rain stop until such and such hour." It stopped until the exact time he had said, after which it started raining again.

One time the King ordered that a man be executed. That man came to Shaikh Amad and said, "Please write a stay of ex*****on for me." He wrote to the Sultan, "Don't execute this man." The Sultan was afraid of Sayyidina Ahmad al-Faruqi and pardoned the man.

One time a murid made intention to visit Shaikh Ahmad al-Faruqi (q). On his way he was invited to be the guest of a man who disliked the shaikh. The murid, however, didn't know this. After dinner, the host began reviling the shaikh. As he went to sleep that night, in his heart he was saying, "O Allah, I came to visit the shaikh, not to hear someone curse the shaikh. Forgive me." Then he slept and when he awoke he found that the man had died. He went quickly to the shaikh and began to tell him the story. Sayyidina Ahmad al-Faruqi raised his hand and said, "Stop! There is no need to tell me what happened. I am the one who caused it."

He said,

"I was authorized to give Tariqat in three tariqats: Naqshbandi, Suhrawardi and Chistiyya."

He was so famous that the scholars of external knowledge in his time became jealous of him. They went to the king and told him, "He is saying things that are not accepted in the religion." They pushed the King until he put him in jail. He stayed in jail for three years. His son, Shaikh Sayyid, said, "He was under very intense security in jail. Guards surrounded his room on every side. Yet every Friday he would be seen in the big mosque. No matter how much security he was under, he would disappear from prison and appear in the mosque." From this they knew they could not put him behind bars and therefore they released him.

He wrote many books, one of the most famous of which is the Maktubat.

In it he said,

"It must be known that Allah has placed us under His Obligations and His Prohibitions. Allah said, 'Whatever the Prophet gave you, take it, and whatever he prohibited you, leave it.' [59:7] If we are going to be sincere in this, we have to attain to Annihilation and the love of the Essence. Without these we cannot reach this degree of obedience. Thus we are under another obligation, which is to seek the Way of Sufism, because this Way will lead us to the state of Annihilation and the love of the Essence. Each Order differs from the other in its states of perfection; so too does each Order keep the Sunnah of the Prophet and have its own definition of what that entails. Every order has its own way of keeping the Sunnah of the Prophet . Our Order, through its shaikhs, requires us to keep all the commands of the Prophet and to leave all the things he prohibited. Our shaikhs don't follow the easy ways (rukhas) but insist on keeping the difficult ways. In all their seeking they keep in mind the verse of Qur'an, 'Men whom neither business nor trade will divert from the Remembrance of Allah' [24:37].

"In the journey leading to the unveiling of the Divine Realities, the seeker moves through various stages of knowledge of and proximity to His Lord:

- "Moving to Allah is a vertical movement from the lower stations to the higher stations; until the movement surpasses time and space and all the states dissolve into what is called the Necessary Knowledge (cilm ul-wajib) of Allah. This is also called Annihilation (fana').

- "Moving in Allah is the stage in which the seeker moves from the station of Names and Attributes to a state which neither word nor sign can describe. This is the State of Existence in Allah called Baqa.

- "Moving from Allah is the stage in which the seeker returns from the heavenly world to the world of cause and effect, descending from the highest station of knowledge to the lowest. Here he forgets Allah by Allah, and he knows Allah with Allah, and he returns from Allah to Allah. This is called the State of the Farthest and the Nearest.

- "Moving in things is a movement within creation. This involves knowing intimately all elements and states in this world after having vanished in Annihilation. Here the seeker can achieve the State of Guidance, which is the state of the prophets and the people following the footsteps of the Prophet . It brings the Divine Knowledge into the world of creation in order to establish Guidance.

"The entire process is like threading a needle. The thread seeks the eye of the needle, passes through and then proceeds down to where it began. There the two ends meet, form a knot and secure the entire thread. They form a whole, thread, eye and needle, and any material they catch is sewn into the fabric of the unity."

"It must be known to everyone that the Naqshbandi shaikhs chose to guide their murids first through the movement from Allah, travelling from the higher states to the lower. For this reason they maintain the common veils over the spiritual vision of the murid, removing the veil of ordinary consciousness only at the final step. All other tariqats begin with the movement to Allah, moving from the lowest states to the highest, and removing the common veils first."

"It is mentioned in the Hadith of the Prophet , 'Scholars are the inheritors of the prophets.' The knowledge of prophets is of two kinds: knowledge of laws and knowledge of secrets. The scholar cannot be called an inheritor if he does not inherit both knowledges. If he takes only one knowledge he is incomplete. Thus the real inheritors are the ones who take the knowledge of the laws and the knowledge of the secrets, and only the saints have truly received and protected this inheritance."

He left behind him many more books. He died on the 17th of Safar 1034 H. at the age of 63. He was buried in the village of Sirhind. He was a shaikh in the four tariqats: Naqshbandi, Qadiri, Chisti and Suhrawardi. He preferred the Naqshbandi, because he said, "It is the Mother of all tariqats."
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The great scholar and Murshid-i-kâmil Sayyid ’Abdulhakîm-i Arwâsî (rahmat-Allâhi ’alaih) [The Master of Shaykh Huseyn Hilmi Isik(rh)] wrote:“Rasûlullâh (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam) had three tasks: the first one was to communicate and make known (tabligh) the rules of the Qur’ân al-karîm, that is, the knowledge of îmân and of ahkâm fiqhiyya, to all human beings. Ahkâm fiqhiyya is composed of the actions commanded and actions prohibited. His second task was to transmit the spiritual rules of the Qur’ân al-karîm, the knowledge about Allâhu ta’âlâ Himself and His Attributes, into the hearts of only the highest ones of his Umma. His first task, tabligh, should not be confused with his second task. The lâ-madhhabî reject the second task. But, Abu Huraira (radî-Allâhu ’anh), said, ‘I learned two types of knowledge from Rasûlullah (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam). I told you one of them. You would kill me if I divulged the second one. This word of Abu Huraira’s is reported in the 267th and 268th letters of the Turkish book Mujdeci Mektûblar, and also in those books namely Bukhârî, Mishkât, and Hadîqa. The third task was carried out upon those Muslims who failed to adhere to the advice and warnings concerning carrying out the ahkâm fiqhiyya. Even the use of force is to be applied to get them to obey the ahkâm fiqhiyya.
“After Rasûlullâh (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam), each of the four Khalîfas (radî-Allâhu ’anhum) accomplished these three tasks perfectly. During the time of Hadrat Hasan (radî-Allâhu ’anh), fitnas and bid’as increased. Islâm had spread out over three continents. The spiritual light of Rasûlullâh (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam) had receded away from the earth. The as-Sahâbat al-kirâm (radî-Allâhu ’anhum) had decreased in number., Later no one was able to do all these three tasks together by himself. Therefore, these tasks were undertaken by three groups of people.
[The First task] The task of communicating îmân and ahkâm fiqhiyya was assigned to religious leaders called mujtahids. Amongst these mujtahids, those who communicated îmân were called mutakallimûn, and those who communicated fiqh were called fuqahâ.
The second task, that is, making those willing Muslims understand the spiritual rules of Qur’ân al-karîm, was assigned to the Twelve Imâms of Ahl al-Bayt (rahmat-Allâhi ta’âlâ ’alaihim) and to great men of tasawwuf. Sirrî (Sarî) as-Saqatî (d. 251 in Baghdad) and al-Junaid al-Baghdâdî (b. 207/821 and d. 298/911 in Baghdad) were two of them (rahmat-Allahu ta’âlâ ’alaihimâ). Scholars of Ahl-as-sunnat, learning this second task of our master the Messenger of Allah from the Twelve Imâms, established the (branch of) knowledge (called) Tasawwuf. Some people do not believe in the Awliyâ, in kerâmats, in Tasawwuf. This denial of theirs indicates that they have nothing to do with the Twelve Imâms. If hey had been following the way taught by the Ahl-i-Bayt, they would have learned this second task of Rasûlullah from the Twelve Imâms and scholars of Tasawwuf, Walîs would have been educated among them. Not only were no such people educated among them, but also they do not believe in the existence of such people. As it is seen, the Twelve Imâms are the imâms of the Ahl-i-Bayt. And the people who love the Ahl-i-Bayt and follow the Twelve Imâms are the Ahl as-sunnat. For being an Islamic scholar it is necessary to be an inheritor of the Messenger of Allah in these two tasks of his. In other words, it is necessary to become specialized in both these two branches of knowledge. Abd-ul-ghanî Nablusî (qs), one of such great scholars, quotes the hadîth-i-sherîfs showing the spiritual principles taught in Qur’ân al-kerîm on the two hundred and thirty-third and later pages, and also on the six hundred and forty-ninth page of his book Hadîqat-un-nediyya, and writes that denying this fact is sheer ignorance and lack of good luck.
“The third task, having the rules of the religion done by force and authority, was assigned to sultans, i.e. governments.
The sections of the first class were called madhhabs. Sections of the second one were called tarîqas, and the third one was called huqûq (laws). Madhhabs that define îmân are called madhhabs in i’tiqâd. Our Prophet (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa salam) had prophesied that Muslims would part into seventy-three groups in respect to îmân, and that only one of them would be right and the others wrong. And so it happened. The group that was given the good news of being on the right path is called the Ahl as-Sunnat wa’l-Jamâ’a. The remaining seventy-two groups, which were declared to be wrong, are called the groups of bid’a, that is, heretics. None of them are disbelievers. All of them are Muslims. But, if a Muslim who says he belongs to one of the seventy-two groups disbelieves any information that has been declared clearly in the Qur’ân al-karîm and the Hadîth ash-sharîf and that has spread among the Muslims, he becomes a disbeliever. There are many people today who, while carrying Muslim names, have already dissented from the madhhab of the Ahl as-Sunna and have become heretics or non-Muslims.”[Translated by Shaykh Huseyn Hilmi Isik(rh)]

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Friends of Allah - Al Malibari 'Ilm al-batin does not occur separately from 'ilm az-zahir; those who gain both of them are called 'ulama' ar-rasikhin. Only those are the 'ulama' who are Rasulullah[s]'s inheritors".[Imam Abdul Ghani an Nablusi-qs]

Tomb of Muhammad Baha'uddin Shah Naqshband May Allah Bless His Secret and Sanctify His Soul.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 [saws] , as he was raised in the spiritual presence of Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujda wani (q), who preceded him by 200 years.

Distinctive Qualities of the Naqshbandi Order_Posted on_ http:// maktabah.org/blog/?p=248_onMay 4, 2011 by Talib Ghaffari
"The Naqshbandi Sufi Order is a distinctive exalted and sublime Sufi order, with many qualities that distinguish it from other methods of Sufism. I will list some of them here, narrated from authentic sources.

Superior Nisbat (Reference)

The foremost distinctive quality of this exalted path is that the Naqshbandi order is connected to the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, through the first caliph of Islam, the best of humans after the prophets, the greatest companion, Sayyidina Abu Bark as-Siddīq, may Allah be pleased with him. Note that all other Sufi orders connect to the Holy Prophet peace be upon him, through other companions, mainly Imam Ali al-Murtada, may Allah be pleased with him. Since Hadrat Abū Bakr is the greatest among all Sahābā (companions of the Prophet) and this fact is accepted unanimously by all Ahl as-Sunnah, the greatness of the Naqshbandi order over others is similar to the greatness of Sayyidina Abū Bakr over other Sahaba.

Registration of the End into the Beginning

(Indirāj an-Nihāyah fi al-Bidāyah)

The journey of the Naqshbandi Path begins with the Latā’if (subtleties, components of the creation of human being) of the Command-World. The first lesson taught to a new seeker in this golden path is the zikr of Latifa Qalb (the heart) which belongs to the Command-World (Ãlam al-Amr). This creates a passion (Jazbah) in the beginner which attracts him/her to the eternal love of Allah Almighty and the seeker forgets the hardships and sufferings of his journey, drowned in this sweet love and passion.

The other Sufi orders, in contrast, train the beginner to purify his Nafs which belongs to the Created-World (Ãlam al-khalq) which is the lower world. Thus, a beginner in other paths has to train hard and endure all the hardships of the journey in order to purify his Nafs. The hidden zikr of Qalb is taught at the end of their journey.

This explains the beautiful words of the founder of the Naqshbandi Order Khwāja Bahā’uddīn Naqshband Bukhari, who said: “I have registered the end into the beginning”. This means a beginner tastes from the end at the beginning stages of the journey.

The Hidden Zikr

The Naqshbandi tariqah is based on khafi (hidden) zikr whereas most other orders teach jahri (loud) zikr. The hidden zikr is not only easier but also greater in reward and spiritual effects as proved from the many Ahadith of the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him.

Nisbat of Ahl al-Bayt

One Nisbat (Reference) of the Naqshbandi tariqah is towards Sayyidina Abu Bakr Siddiq (r.a) through Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq (r.a), but Imam Ja’far also has received spiritual blessings from Sayyidina Imam Ali (r.a) through his fathers. Thus this noble Path is directly attached to the Imams of Ahl al-Bayt and receives their blessings and Fayd.

Moreover, the Imam of this tariqah, Hadrat Khwaja Bahā al-Dīn Naqshband Bukhāri was a great grandson of Imam Hasan al-Askari, the eleventh Imam in the golden chain of Ahl al-Bayt. He was a Sayyid from the best line, a descendant of the Final Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. Hence this sublime Path receives the Fayd of the Ahl al-Bayt in its entirety.

Fayd of all Orders

The Imam of this noble tariqah, the great Mujaddid Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi, may Allah be pleased with him, not only learned this noble Path but was also authorized in all other major Sufi orders including Qadri, Chishti, Suhrawardi, Kibravi, Qalandari and others. He was the ultimate guide in every Sufi order prevalent during his times. And he also authorized his deputies in all those orders. Thus a master of this Path is a master of all those orders and receives the blessings of the masters of all those orders, including the Ghaus al-Thaqalain Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani, Khwaja Gharib-Nawaz Moinuddin Ajmeri, Khwaja Suhrawardi and other great masters.

Naqshbandi Mujaddidi Order is the main river joined by all streams of the Fayd of those orders.

Imam Mahdi

The masters of this Path, specially Khwajā Muhammad Pārsā and Imam Rabbāni Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi have reported that Sayyidina Imam Mahdi, the twelfth Imam of the Ahl al-Bayt and the ultimate leader of Muslims in the end of times, will also belong to this tariqah and will benefit from the Fayd of its masters.

Thus, the beginning of this sublime tariqah is the greatest of Sahaba and the end of this exalted order is the great Imam Mahdi, peace be upon them.

Distinctive Qualities of the Naqshbandi Order The Naqshbandi Sufi Order is a distinctive exalted and sublime Sufi order, with many qualities that distinguish it from other methods of Sufism. I will list some of them here, narrated from authent...