State of the Believer’s Heart

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

Shaykh ‘Ala ad-Din Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn ‘Abd ar-Rahman al-Bukhari (q.s.) said, “One day a shaykh asked me, ‘How is your heart?’  I said, ‘I do not know how my heart is.’  He said, ‘I know my heart, and it is like the Moon in the third night.’  I related this story to Shah Naqshband who said, ‘He answered according to his heart.’  When he said this, he stepped on my foot and pressed on it.  Immediately I left myself and I saw that everything in this world and this universe was in my heart.  When I awoke from that state of unconsciousness, he was still standing on my foot, and he said, ‘If the heart is like that, then no one can describe it.  What do you think now about the hadits: ‘Neither My earth nor My Heavens can contain Me, but the heart of the Believer contains Me.’  This is one of the hidden secrets you must come to understand.’” 

Then, Shah Baha’ ad-Din Muhammad an-Naqshband (q.s.) took full responsibility for him.  He raised him from one state to another and prepared him to appear in the Divine Presence and to ascend the lofty towers of spiritual knowledge and leave behind all kinds of ignorance in order to reach the state of Reality.  He became unique among the many followers of Shah Naqshband (q.s.).  The Shaykh ordered him, during his lifetime, to enlighten some of the Shaykh's followers also.  Thus, Khwaja Muhammad Barsa (q.s.) followed him as well.  Khwaja Muhammad Barsa (q.s.) wrote that he heard from Shaykh ‘Ala ad-Din (q.s.): “I was given a power by my shaykh, Shah Naqshband, such that if I were to focus on everyone in this universe, I would raise all of them to the state of perfection.”