When you chain the external senses,
your internal senses will be free
to reach the Heavenly Realm.
This will bring you to the second category:
the internal seclusion.
Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani
Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani
He was known as the Shaikh of Miracles, One Who Shone Like the Sun, and he was the Master of the highstations of spirituality of his time. He was a Perfect Knower (carif kamil) in sufism and accomplished in asceticism. He is considered the Fountainhead of this Honorable Sufi Order and the Wellspring of the Khwajagan (Masters of Central Asia).
‘Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani coined 8 of the 11 phrases which are now considered the principles of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order (see article: THE 11 PRINCIPLES OF THE NAQSHBANDIYA)
His father was Shaikh ‘Abdul Jamil, one of the most famous scholars in Byzantine times in both external and internal knowledge. His mother was a princess, the daughter of the king of Seljuk Anatolia.
Abdul Khaliq was born in Ghujdawan, a town near Bukhara in present-day Uzbekistan. There he lived and passed his life and was buried. He was a descendant of Imam Malik. In his childhood he studied the Qur’an and its tafsir(exegesis), ‘ilm al-Hadith (the study of Prophetic Traditions), the sciences of the Arabic language, and Jurisprudence with Shaikh Sadruddin. After mastering Shariha (the legal sciences) he moved on to jihad an-nafs (spiritual struggle), until he reached a high station of purity. He then moved to Damascus, where he established a school from which many students graduated. Each became a master of fiqh and hadith as well as spirituality, both in the regions of Central Asia as well as in the Middle East.
The author of the book al-Hada’iq al-Wardiyya tells us how he reached his high station within the Golden Chain: “He met Khidr (as) and accompanied him. He took from him heavenly knowledge and added it to the spiritual knowledge he had obtained from his shaikh, Yusuf al-Hamadani.
“One day when he was reading the Qur’an in the presence of Shaikh Sadruddin, he came upon the following ayat: “Call unto your Sustainer humbly, and in the secrecy of your hearts. Verily, He loves not those who transgress the bounds of what is right” [7:55]. This ayat prompted him to inquire of Shaikh Sadruddin about the reality of silent Dhikr and its method. Abdul Khaliq put his question thus: “In loud dhikr you have to use your tongue and people might listen to you and see you, whereas in the silent dhikr of the heart Shaytan might listen to you and hear you, since the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said in his holy hadith: ‘Satan moves freely in the veins and arteries of the Sons of Adam.’ What, then, O my Shaikh Sadruddin, is the reality of ‘Call in the secrecy of your hearts?’ His shaikh replied, ‘O my son, this is a hidden, heavenly knowledge, and I wish that Allah Exalted and Almighty send you one of his saints to inspire on your tongue and in your heart the reality of secret dhikr.’
“From that time Shaikh Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani waited for that prayer to be fulfilled. One day he met Khidr who told him, ‘Now, my son, I have permission from the Prophet to inspire on your tongue and in your heart the hidden dhikr with its numbers.’ He ordered him to submerge himself under water and to begin making dhikr in his heart (LA ILAHA ILLALLAH MUHAMMADUN RASUL ALLAH). He did this form of dhikr every day, until the Light of the Divine, the Wisdom of the Divine, the Love of the Divine and the Attraction of the Divine were opened to his heart. Because of those gifts people began to be drawn to Abdul Khaliq and sought to follow in his footsteps, and he took them to follow in the footsteps of the Prophet (s.a.w.s.).
“He was the first one in this honorable Sufi Order to use the Silent Dhikr and he was considered the master of that form of Dhikr. When his spiritual shaikh, al-Ghawth ar-Rabbani, Yusuf al-Hamadani, came to Bukhara, he spent his time in serving him. He said about him, ‘When I became 22 years of age, Shaikh Yusuf al-Hamadani ordered Khidr to keep raising me and to keep an eye on me until my death.’”
Shaikh Mu ammad Parsa, a friend and biographer of Shah Naqshband, said in his book Faslul-Kitab, that the method of Khwaja Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani in dhikr and the teachings of his Eight Principles were embraced and hailed by all 40 tariqats as the way of truth and loyalty, the way of consciousness in following the Sunnah the Prophet, by leaving innovation and by scrupulously opposing low desires. Because of that he became the Master of his time and the First in this line of spirituality.
His reputation as an accomplished spiritual Master became widespread. Visitors used to flock to see him from every land. He gathered around him the loyal and sincere murids that he was training and teaching. In this regard, he wrote a letter to his son, al-Qalb al-Mubarak Shaykh Awliya al-Kabir, to specify the conduct of followers of this Order. It says:
O my son, I urge you to acquire knowledge and righteous conduct and the fear of Allah. Follow the steps of the pious Salaf (early generation). Hold fast to the Sunnah of the Prophet, and keep company with sincere believers. Read jurisprudence and life-history of the Prophet and Quranic exegesis. Avoid ignorant charlatans, and keep the prayer in congregation. Beware of fame and its danger. Be among the ordinary people and do not seek positions. Don’t enter into friendship with kings and their children nor with the innovators. Keep silent, don’t eat excessively and don’t sleep excessively. Run away from people as you would run from lions. Keep seclusion. Eat lawful food and leave doubtful actions except in dire necessity. Keep away from love of the lower world because it might fascinate you. Don’t laugh too much, because too much laughter will be the death of the heart. Don’t humiliate anyone. Don’t praise yourself. Don’t argue with people. Don’t ask anyone except Allah. Don’t ask anyone to serve you. Serve your shaikhs with your money and power and don’t criticize their actions. Anyone who criticizes them will not be safe, because he doesn’t understand them. Make your deeds sincere by intending them only for Allah. Pray to Him with humbleness. Make your business jurisprudence, your mosque your house, and your Friend your Lord.
