O Allah! Confer for ever Your best blessings and ever increasing and never ending favours and Your Purest and Gracious boons on him who is exalted in the realm of the realities of the nature of humans and jinns, and is fully aware of all subtleties of faith, and is the Mount Sinai recieving Divine Illuminations and the place on which descend the mysteries of the All-Beneficent and who is a bridegroom in the Kingdom of the Lord, the centrally placed jewel in the chain of prophets, the first and the foremost in the front line of the army of Messengers, the leader of the caravan of the saints and the truthful, the most graceful of all creation, the bearer of the highest flag of honour, the owner of the keys to the shining gallery, the beholder of the secrets of eternity, the beholder of the pristine glow of Primal Light, the interpreter of the Divine Language, fountain-spring of knowledge, tolerance and wisdom, the manifestation of the existence of the secrets of the whole and its parts, and the person who is the (cause of the) existence of (everything) above and below, the soul in the body of both the worlds (that keeps them alive), the fountain of life of this world and of the world to come, the one who knows the reality of the high rank of servitude of Allah and is created with the highest spiritual stations of morality, the foremost among the friends of Allah and His beloved, highly honoured; our master, our patron, our beloved, Muhammad, son of 'Abdullah, son of 'Abdul Muttalib, Allah's blessings on him, his family and companions, in the number which is in Your Knowledge (O Allah) and as many times as Your Words, whenever You are remembered and he is remembered by those who remember and whenever You are not remembered and he is not remembered by the negligent, and abundant, never ending, complete salutations on him.

Saturday, February 3, 2007

11 Principles Of The Naqshbandi Sufi Order

The following eleven principles show the exercise aims of the Tariqat Naqshbandiya. The first eight were formulated by Khwaja Abd-al-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani and the last three were added by Khwaja Bahauddin Naqshband.

01-Yad Kard
Remembrance or making mention, both oral and mental, be always repeating the Zikr imparted to you so that you may attain the beatific vision. Khwaja Bahauddin Naqshband said, “The aim in Zikr is that the heart be always aware of Al-Haqq[The Truth, a Beautiful Name of Allah], for its practice banished inattention.”

02-Baz Gasht
Restraint: The person saying the Zikr when engaging in the heart repetition of the blessed phrase [shahada] should intersperse it with such phrases as “my God you are my Goal and your satisfaction is my aim”, to help keep one’s thoughts from straying. Other masters say that it means ‘return’ or ‘repent’ i.e. return to Al-Haqq by way of contrition [inkisar].

03-Nigah Dasht
Watchfulness: Over wandering, passing thoughts when repeating the blessed phrase.

04-Yad Dasht
Recollection: concentration upon the Divine Presence in a condition of Dhawq [zoq], foretaste, intuitive anticipation or perceptiveness not using external aids.

05-Hosh Dar Dam
Awareness while breathing: the technique of breath control. Khawaja Bahauddin Naqshband said, “The external basis of this tariqa is the breath.” One must not exhale or inhale in forgetfulness.

06-Safar Dar Watan
Journeying in one’s homeland: This is an interior journey, the movement from blameworthy to praiseworthy qualities. Others refer to it as the vision or revelation of the hidden side of shahada.

07-Nazar Bar Qadam
Watching one’s steps: Let the salik [pilgrim] ever be watchful during his journey whatever the type of country through which he is passing that he does not let his gaze be distracted from the goal of his journey.

08-Khalwat Dar Anjuman
Soltitude in a crowd: The journey of the salik though outwardly is in the world, inwardly it is with God. Leaders of the Tariqa have said, “In this tariqa association is in the crowd [assembly] and disassociation in the khalwa”. A common weekly practice was to perform Zikr in the assembly.

09-Wuquf-e-Zamani
Temporal pause: Keeping account of how one is spending his time, whether rightly and if so give thanks or wrongly and if so asking for forgiveness, according to the ranking of the deeds, for “verily the good deeds of the righteous are the equities of those who are near [to God]”.

10-Wufuf-e-Adadi
Numerical pause: Checking that the ‘heart Zikr’ [said in the heart, silently] has been repeated the requisite number of times, taking into account one’s wandering. Bahauddin Naqshband considered numerical awareness the first stage of esoteric knowledge.

11-Wuquf-e-Qalbi
Heart pause: Forming a mental picture of one’s heart with the name of Allah. Engraved thereon, to emphasize that the heart has no consciousness or goal other than Allah. This is the meaning of “Naqshband”.

at 4:30 PM

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