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He said,
"The best time of the day is one hour after the cAsr 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.'"
"One day a Sufi came to the association of the scholar, Mawlana Zainuddin at-Tibabi. The sufi was asked, 'Who do you love more, your Shaykh or Imam Abu anafa?' He answered, 'For a long time, I was following the Way of Imam Abu Hanifa very carefully. Yet for all those years the bad manners that were in my heart would not leave me. After I had followed my Shaykh for only a few days, all my bad manners were taken away. So how could I love the Imam better than my Shaykh even though I give Imam Abu anifa full respect?'"
"The Shaykh must appear in the presence of his murids dressed in the best clothes and beautiful and neat. It is through their rabi ah (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 rabi ah. 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 Sacad. 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 Sacad was coming to take over Samarqand. No one had ever heard of him before that."
It is related, "One time King Abu Sacad 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-A rar (q) to read al-Fatiha with the intention that Allah give support to Abu Sa'id. In the dream Abu Sacad asked, 'Who is that Shaykh,' and was told, 'Ubaydullah al-A rar.' 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 sharica 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 Sacad waited while the larger army of Abdullah Mirza was attacking. The generals urged Abu Sa'id 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 Sa'id 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 Sacad 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 Sacad 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 Sacad 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 Sacad. Then Mirza Babar left Samarqand in defeat with the remains of his army."
Shaykh Ubaydullah (q) died after cIsha 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-cUrwatu-l-wuthqa li Arbaba-l-ictiqad. 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).
taken from:
The Naqshbandi Sufi Way: History and Guidebook of the Saints of the Golden Chain,
KAZI, 1995
by Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani
