The Eleven Principles of the Naqshbandī Way

Shaykh Bahāʾuddīn Naqshband said: “The foundation of our work is in the breath. The more one is able to be conscious of one’s breathing, the stronger is one’s inner life. It is a must for everyone to safeguard his breath in the time of his inhalation and exhalation, and further, to safeguard his breath in the interval between them.”

As the seeker becomes occupied with the exercise of the moment, he turns his attention away from remembering the past and thinking of the future, and focuses on each breath until it is expired.

Shaykh Saʿd ud-Dīn Kāshgharī added: “Hūsh dar dam is moving from breath to breath so that there is no heedlessness but rather presence, and with each breath that we take should be the remembrance of the Real.”

Shaykh Najmuddīn al-Kubrā said in Fawātiḥ al-Jamāl: “Dhikr is flowing in the body of every living creature by the necessity of their breath — even without will — as a sign of obedience. Through their breathing, the sound of the letter ‘Hā’ of the Divine Name Allāh is made with every exhalation and inhalation. Therefore it is necessary to be present with that breathing, in order to realise the Essence of the Creator.”

In the path of the Khwājagān, awareness in the breath is a very great principle; those in this path regard it a great transgression to become unconscious of the breath.

Shaykh Saʿd ud-Dīn Kāshgharī said: “Looking upon the steps means that the seeker, in coming and going, looks upon the top of his feet, and thereby his attention is not scattered by looking at what he should not look at.”

When the beginner’s attention is taken by shapes and colours outside himself, his state of remembrance leaves him and is ruined. This is because the beginner does not yet have the power of the remembrance of the heart, so when his sight falls upon things, his heart loses its collectedness and his mind becomes scattered.

Watching one’s step also refers to watching circumstances: feeling when is the right time for action, when for inaction, and when for pause. Some have said naẓar bar qadam refers to the wisdom inherent in one’s natural disposition.

Fakhr ud-Dīn Kāshifī added: “Naẓar bar qadam may allude to the seeker’s travelling through the stages of breaking from existence and putting behind self-love.” The first meaning belongs to beginners, the second to those mid-way, and the third to the Attainers.

The journey home is the transformation that brings a person out of his subjective dream state so that he may fulfil his divine destiny.

From the Rashaḥāt ʿAyn al-Ḥayāt: “[The journey home refers to] that travelling which the seeker makes within his human nature — travel from the qualities of humankind toward the angelic qualities, moving from blameworthy qualities to laudable ones.”

Shaykh Aḥmad Sirhindī said: “This blessed expression means travelling within the self. The source of its results lies in putting the final practice at the beginning, which is one of the characteristics of the Naqshbandī Way. Although this inner travelling can be found in other ṭarīqas, there it is found only at the end, after the travelling on the horizons” — referring to the verse: “We will show them Our signs on the horizons and within their selves until they know He is the Real” (41:53).

“Travelling on the horizons” is travelling from place to place. At the beginning of the journey it can mean leaving home to find a guide. In former generations, when the wayfarer had become established and comfortable in a place, they took to travel in order to break habit, cut themselves off from renown, and experience complete emptying.

There are two kinds of retreat. One is outward, in which the seeker sits alone far from people until he comes into contact with the spiritual world. The second is hidden: the seeker inwardly witnesses the secrets of the Real while outwardly surrounded by people. Khalwat dar anjuman is of this second type.

In all your outer activities remain inwardly free; learn not to identify with anything whatsoever.

Khwāja Awliyāʾ Kabīr explained it thus: “Retreat within the crowd is that state when one is so constantly and completely absorbed in divine remembrance that one could walk through the market-place without hearing a word.”

ʿAbdul Khāliq al-Ghujduwānī said: “Close the door of the formality of shaykhhood, open the door of friendship. Close the door of khalwat and open the door of ṣoḥbah.” Bahāʾuddīn Naqshband said: “Our path is in companionship. In physical retreat there comes fame, and with fame comes calamity.”

When the Amīr Ḥusayn of Herat asked Bahāʾuddīn how such a thing was possible, he replied that if it were not, Allah would not have indicated it in the verse: “Men whom neither business nor profit distracts from the recollection of Allah” (24:37). This is the way of the Naqshbandī Order.

In the words of al-Kharrāz: “Perfection is not in exhibitions of miraculous powers; perfection is to sit among people, sell and buy, marry and have children — and yet never leave the presence of Allah even for one moment.”

Keep God, the Beloved, always in your heart. Let your dhikr be the prayer of your heart.

According to Khwāja ʿUbaydullāh Aḥrār, “the real meaning of dhikr is inward awareness of God. The purpose of dhikr is to attain this consciousness.” The dhikr is not merely repeated as words, but lives in the heart.

ʿAbdul Qādir al-Jīlānī said: “At the first stage one recites the name of God with one’s tongue; then when the heart becomes alive one recites inwardly. Then stage by stage the remembrance spreads throughout one’s being — descending to the heart, then rising to the soul, then further to the realm of the secrets, to the hidden, to the most hidden of the hidden.”

This means banishing every thought, good or bad, that comes to mind involuntarily during the dhikr. The heart is required to attain the calm contentment of: “O Allah, my goal is You and Your good pleasure; it is nothing else.” So long as space is left in the heart for other interests, such contentment cannot take shape and the remembrance cannot be genuine. Even if this tranquility is not attained at the outset, one must persist.

Bāz gasht is the return to Allah by complete surrender and submission to His Will, and complete humbleness in giving Him due praise. The seeker cannot manifest the Secrets and Attributes of Allah in his dhikr if he does not make dhikr with Allah’s support and with Allah’s remembrance of him.

As Bāyazīd al-Bisṭāmī said: “When I reached Him I saw that His remembering of me preceded my remembrance of Him.” The seeker cannot make dhikr by himself; he must recognise that Allah is the One making dhikr through him.

According to Khwāja Aḥrār, “returning” means that we have within us the goal of our striving: the seeds of transformation are sown in us from above, and we must treasure them above all possessions.

Be watchful. Be aware of what catches your attention, and learn to withdraw your attention from undesirable objects. Nigāh means sight: the seeker must watch his heart and safeguard it by preventing bad thoughts from entering, for bad inclinations keep the heart from joining with the Divine.

It is acknowledged in the Naqshbandiyya that for a seeker to safeguard his heart from bad inclinations for fifteen minutes is a great achievement. Whoever knows his heart will know his Lord; the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever knows himself knows his Lord.”

Saʿd ud-Dīn Kāshgharī said: “The seeker must, for one hour or two or whatever he is capable of, hold onto his mind and prevent thoughts of other than God entering.”

Khwāja ʿUbaydullāh Aḥrār said: “The meaning of preserving the mind from thoughts is not that the seeker can avoid thoughts at the beginning, but rather that thoughts do not disturb the presence required for the dhikr. They can be likened to straw fallen onto moving water: the water is not prevented from its course.”

Those on the path maintain that when inner love is always present in one’s dealings with the world, then one has achieved this mindfulness. This is the last stage before transformation is completed: the seeker becomes aware that the loss of “self” will be compensated by objective love, and the abnegation of self ceases to touch him, for he discovers the unlimited joy that Truth will bring.

ʿUbaydullāh Aḥrār said: “Yād dāsht is an expression meaning the durability of the awareness of the Glorious Real.” He said further: “It means presence with God without disappearance.”

Khwāja Aḥrār described principles five through eight thus: “Yād kard refers to the work of invoking. Bāz gasht means turning to the High Real so that when saying the fragrant sentence of the dhikr the seeker follows it in his heart with ‘God, You are my true goal.’ Nigāh dāsht is holding on to this turning without words. Yād dāsht means constancy in that holding.”

Bahāʾuddīn Naqshband said that this consciousness is the maker and guide of the disciple. It means keeping account of one’s temporal states, and distinguishing presence (ḥuḍūr) from absence (ghaflah). One should always be grateful when one returns to a state of presence.

He explained: “Wuqūf-i zamānī is the work of the traveller on the Way: to be attentive of his state, and to know whether it is a cause for giving thanks or for repenting — to give thanks while feeling spiritual elation, and to repent while in spiritual dryness or contraction.”

Mawlānā Yaʿqūb Charkhī said: “Khwāja Naqshband instructed that in the state of qabḍ (contraction) one should seek God’s forgiveness, whereas in the state of basṭ (expansion) one should offer thanks. Close observation of these two states constitutes wuqūf-i zamānī.”

Jāmī said: “Wuqūf-i ʿadadī is the observation of the number of dhikrs, and of whether this observation yields results or not.” According to Bahāʾuddīn Naqshband, “The observation of the number of repetitions of the dhikr of the heart is for gathering thoughts which are scattered.”

Khwāja ʿAlāʾuddīn al-ʿAṭṭār said: “The important thing is not the number of repetitions, but rather the composure and awareness with which one makes them.”

According to Bahāʾuddīn Naqshband, this awareness is the first stage of entry into the spiritual world. For advanced disciples it brings a consciousness of the unity within diversity: “Diversity, if you look with open eyes, is naught but unity. Though appearance is in numbers, the substance is but one.”

The individual becomes aware that his own existence is an obstacle to his final transformation, and he no longer fears to sacrifice it, because he sees that he will gain infinitely more than he loses.

Khwāja ʿUbaydullāh Aḥrār said: “Wuqūf-i qalbī is an expression meaning an awareness and presence of heart toward the Most High Real, felt in such a manner that the heart feels no need of anything except the Real.” Heart-consciousness means the heart’s resting with the Beloved, as if nothing and no one else existed.

The other meaning is awareness of the heart itself: during the dhikr the seeker is attentive to the heart, the seat of subtlety, and prevents it from becoming unaware.

Bahāʾuddīn Naqshband considered “the observance of wuqūf-i qalbī the most important and necessary, because it is the summary and essence of the intention of the dhikr.”

Like an expecting mother-bird, sit watchfully on the egg of your heart — since from this egg will result your drunkenness, your self-abandoned laughter, and your final union.