Engraved in the Heart of the Saints

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

Someone asked Shaykh Bayazid Thayfur ibn ‘Isa al-Bisthami (q.s.), “Show me a deed by which I will be able approach my Lord.” 

He replied, “Love the friends of Allah (s.w.t.) in order that they will love you.  Love His saints until they love you because Allah (s.w.t.) Looks into their hearts and He will See that your name is engraved within the hearts of His friends and He will Favour you.” 

Shaykh Bayazid (q.s.) was the sixth inheritor of the Naqshbandiyya Sufi Order.  Originally called the Path of asw-Swiddiq among the early Muslims, it became known as the Khwajagan Order before it became famous as the Naqshbandiyyah Order in the 14^th century. 

The word, “Naqsh” means “engraving” and the word, “Band” means, “enclosed”.  The name, “Naqshbandi” is mostly translated as “engravings on the heart” like a seal on heart of the lover, a permanent bonding between a seeker with his Lord and His Most Beloved.  The Imam of the Order, Shah Baha’ ad-Din Muhammad an-Naqshbandi (q.s.) used to write the name of Allah (s.w.t.) on the chest of a new murid, putting his fingers and he will recite the Name in a way that the murid will experience that the Shaykh had just engraved the Name of Allah (s.w.t.) upon his heart, enclosing the Name within the heart with his spiritual power and authority. 

Allah (s.w.t.) has Put Power in the pledge of bay’ah, allegiance, that a seeker gives to a true inheritor of the Prophet (s.a.w.).  Khwaja Fazhal ‘Ali al-Qurayshi (q.s.) used to say, “That heart upon which the finger has been placed cannot die without reciting the affirmation of faith.”