On Spiritual Training
He said,
"There are three ways that knowers reach their knowledge:
1. Muraqaba - Contemplation
2. Mushahada - Vision
3. Mu asaba - 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 (s) speaking on behalf of God, as- awmu la ('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 (s), 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):
1. 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.
2. Good conduct with the Prophet Muhammad (s) requires the murid to fly in the state of in kuntum tu ibban Allah fa-t-tabicana ('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.
3. 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 (s). It is a duty for the seeker, in their presence or their absence, to keep the orders of the shaikh."
Shah Naqshband said, "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."
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 Siran (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: Nan, which represents narullah, 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."
He said,
"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."
He said,
"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
He said,
"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."
He said,
"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:
9. 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 sharaca 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."
taken from:
The Naqshbandi Sufi Way: History and Guidebook of the Saints of the Golden Chain,
KAZI, 1995
by Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani
