Quora Answer: What Do Naqshbandi Sufis Believe?

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “What do Naqshbandi Sufis believe in?” 

The Naqshbandi thariqa’ is a Sunni Sufi Order.  As such, in theology, Naqshbandis are mostly orthodox Sunnis, primarily of the Ash’ari creed.  Their theological beliefs do not differ from mainstream Islam. 

In terms of spiritual practice, the Naqshbandi generally follow the doctrine of sahw, sobriety, with an emphasis on the silent dzikr, as opposed to loud chanting.  Whilst there are elements of hadhrah and whirling, these are not central to the order, unlike for example, the Mawlawi and Rifa’i.  That aside, like any Sufi order, there are certain guiding principles. 

The following is a brief explanation of the Eleven Naqshbandi Principles.  There were originally eight principles formulated by Khwaja ‘Abd al-Khaliq ibn ‘Abd al-Jamil al-Ghujdawani (q.s.).  The last three were later added by Shah Muhammad Baha’ ad-Din an-Naqshband (q.s.).  The Eleven Naqshbandi principles, known in their original Persian as Kalimat-i Qudsiya, “the Sacred Words”, are a system of guidelines used as spiritual exercises. 

The first principle of the Naqshbandi Haqqani Sufi Order is called Hosh dar Dam, “Conscious Breathing”.  “Hosh” means “mind.”  “Dar” means “in.”  “Dam” means “breath.”  According to Khwaja ‘Abd al-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani (q.s.), “The wise seeker must safeguard his breath from heedlessness, coming in and going out, thereby keeping his heart always in the Divine Presence; and he must revive his breath with worship and servitude and dispatch this worship to His Lord full of life, for every breath which is inhaled and exhaled with Presence is alive and connected with the Divine Presence.  Every breath inhaled and exhaled with heedlessness is dead, disconnected from the Divine Presence.”  In another text, he was quoted thus: “Every breath which is exhaled from within must be exhaled with awareness and presence of mind and so that the mind does not stray into heedlessness.” 

The second principle is Nazar bar Qadam, “Watching the Step”.  By this, the seeker must keep his eyes on his feet while walking.  Wherever he is about to place his feet, his eyes must be there.  He is not allowed to cast his glance about because unnecessary sights will veil the heart.  Most veils on the heart are created by the pictures which are transmitted from our eyes to our mind during our daily living.  These may disturb our heart with turbulence because of the different kinds of desire which have been imprinted on our mind.  These images are like veils on the heart.  They block the Light of the Divine Presence.  Thus, the awliya’ do not allow their muridun with hearts through constant dzikr to look at other than their feet.  Their hearts are like mirrors, reflecting and receiving every image easily.  This might distract them and bring impurities to their hearts.  The seeker is ordered to lower his gaze in order not to be assailed by the arrows of devils. 

The third principle is to Safar dar Watan, “Journey Homeward”.  This refers to the seeker travelling from the world of creation to the Creator.  It is related that the Prophet (s.a.w.) said, “I am going to my Lord from one state to a better state and from one station to a higher station.”  It is said that the seeker must travel from the desire for the forbidden to the Desire for the Divine Presence.  Our journey is towards our homeland.  We are travelling from a world of illusion to a world of reality.  The wayfarer travels from the world of Creation to the Creator.  The journey home is the transformation that brings us out of our subjective dream state, so that we can fulfill our Divine Destiny. 

The Naqshbandi Sufi Order divides that travel into two categories.  The first is external journeying and the second is internal journeying.  External travel is to travel from one land to another searching for a perfect guide to take and direct us to our destination.  This enables us to move to the second category, the internal journey.  Seekers, once they have found a perfect guide, are forbidden to go on another external journey.  In the external journey, there are many difficulties which beginners cannot endure without falling into forbidden actions, because they are weak in their worship. 

Internal journeying requires the seeker to leave his low manners and move to high manners, to throw out of his heart all worldly desires.  He will be lifted from a state of impurity to a state of purity.  By this time, he will no longer be in need of more internal journeying.  He will have purified his heart, making it pure like water, transparent like crystal, polished like a mirror, showing the realities of all matters essential for his daily life, without any need for external action on his part.  In his heart will appear everything that is needed for his life and for the life of those around him. 

The fourth principle is Khalwat dar Anjuman, “Solitude in the Crowd”.  “Khalwah” means “seclusion”.  It means to be outwardly with people while remaining inwardly with Allah (s.w.t.).  There are also two categories of seclusion.  The first is external seclusion and the second is internal seclusion. 

External seclusion requires the seeker to seclude himself in a private place.  The seeker, far from people, sits alone in his cell until he comes into contact with the spiritual world.  This result comes about because the external senses withdraw themselves and the inner senses extend themselves to signs from the spiritual world.  Staying there by himself, he concentrates and meditates on dzikrullah, in order to reach a state in where the Divine becomes Manifest.  This is a means for spiritual openings.  When we chain the external senses, our internal senses will be free to reach the Divine.  This brings us to the second category, the internal seclusion.  

The second kind of retreat is the hidden one, where the seeker is inwardly witnessing the secrets of the Real while he is outwardly surrounded by people.  Khalwat dar Anjuman is of this second type of retreat: outwardly to be with people, inwardly to be with Allah (s.w.t.).  In all our outer activities, we remain inwardly free.  We learn not to identify with anything whatsoever.  The internal seclusion means seclusion among people.  Therein the heart of the seeker must be present with his Lord and absent from Creation while remaining physically present among them.  Shaykh Nazhim (q.s.) said, “The seeker will be so deeply involved in the silent dzikr in his heart that, even if he enters a crowd of people, he will not hear their voices.  The state of dzikr overcomes him.  The Manifestation of the Divine Presence pulls him and makes him unaware of all but his Lord.  This is the highest state of seclusion, and is considered the true seclusion, as Mentioned in the Holy Qur'an: ‘Men whom neither business nor profit distract from the recollection of God.’  This is the way of the Naqshbandi Order.” 

The fifth principle is Yad Kard, “Essential Remembrance”.  For the Naqshbandiyyah, remembrance is practiced in the silent dzikr.  We keep Allah (s.w.t.), the Beloved, always in our heart.  “Yad” means “dzikr”.  “Kard” refers to the essence of dzikr.  The seeker must make dzikr by negation and affirmation on his tongue until he reaches the state of the contemplation of his heart, muraqabah.  That state will be achieved by reciting every day the negation, “Laa ilaha,” and affirmation, “illa Allah,” on the tongue, between 5,000 and 10,000 times, removing from the heart the elements that tarnish and rust it.  This dzikr polishes the heart and takes the seeker into the state of Manifestation.  We keep that daily dzikr, either by heart or by tongue, repeating “Allah”, the Name of His Essence which encompasses all other Names and Attributes, or by negation and affirmation.  This daily dzikr brings the seeker into the Perfect Presence of the One Who is Glorified. 

The sixth principle is Baz Gasht, “Returning”.  This is a state in which the seeker, who makes dzikr by negation and affirmation, comes to understand the Prophet’s (s.a.w.) phrase, “My God, You are my goal and Your Pleasure is my aim.”  The recitation of this phrase will increase in the seeker the awareness of the Oneness of Allah (s.w.t.), until he reaches the state in which the existence of all creation vanishes from his eyes.  All that he sees, wherever he looks, is the Absolute One.  The Naqshbandi muridun recite this sort of dzikr in order to extract from their hearts the secret of Unity, and to open themselves to the Reality of the Unique Divine Presence.  The beginner has no right to leave this dzikr if he does not find it Manifesting in his heart.  He must keep on reciting it in imitation of his shaykh because the Prophet (s.a.w.) has said, “Whoever imitates a group of people will belong to them.”  And whoever imitates his teacher will someday find this secret opened to his heart. 

The seventh principle is Nigah Dasht, “Attentiveness”.  “Nigah” means “sight”.  The seeker must watch his heart and safeguard it by preventing bad thoughts from entering.  Bad inclinations keep the heart from joining with the Divine.  It is acknowledged in the Naqshbandi that for a seeker safeguarding his heart from bad inclinations for fifteen minutes would be a great achievement.  Spirituality is the ability to safeguard the heart from bad thoughts and protect it from low inclinations.  Whoever accomplishes these two goals will know his heart, and whoever knows his heart will know his Lord.  The Prophet (s.a.w.) has said, “Whoever knows himself, knows His Lord.” 

The eighth principle is Yad Dasht, “Recollection”.  In this, the reciter of dzikr safeguards his heart with negation and affirmation in every breath without leaving the Presence of Allah (s.w.t.).  It requires the seeker to keep his heart in Allah's (s.w.t.) Divine Presence continuously.  This allows him to realise and manifest the Light of the Unique Essence, Anwar adz-Dzat al-Ahadiyyah.  He then casts away three of the four different forms of thoughts: the egoistic, the evil, and the angelic thoughts.  He keeps and affirms solely the fourth form of thought, the haqqani or truthful thoughts.  This leads the seeker to the highest state of perfection by discarding all his fancies and embracing only the Reality which is the Oneness of Allah (s.w.t.). 

The ninth principle is Wuquf-i Zamani, “Temporal Pause”.  Shah an-Naqshband (q.s.) said that this consciousness is the maker and guide of the disciple.  It means to be attentive to one's state of mind at any given moment and to know whether it is a cause for giving thanks or for repenting.  Wuquf-i Zamani is to keep account of one's temporal states, to distinguish presence, hudhur, from absence, ghaflah.  Shah an-Naqshband (q.s.) described this as self-possession or mindfulness.  He added that one should always be grateful when one returns to a state of presence. 

The tenth principle is Wuquf-i Adadi, “Numerical Pause”.  Wuquf-i Adadi is an expression meaning the observation of the number of individual repetitions of the dzikr.  Mawlana Nur ad-Din Jami’ (q.s.) said, “Wuquf-i Adadi is the observation of the number of adzkar and of whether this yields results or not.” 

The eleventh principle is Wuquf-i Qalbi, “Pause of the Heart”.  Wuquf-i Qalbi is when the heart becomes aware of Allah (s.w.t.).  This marks the awakening of Divine Love.  The individual becomes aware that his existence is an obstacle to his final transformation and he no longer fears to sacrifice it because he sees for himself that he will gain infinitely more than he loses. 

Wuquf-i Qalbi has been described as having two meanings.  One is that the seeker’s heart in the midst of the dzikr is conscious and aware of the Real.  On this point, Khwaja ‘Ubaydullah (q.s.) said, “Wuquf-i Qalbi is an expression meaning an awareness and presence of heart toward the Real felt in such a manner that the heart feels no need of anything other than the Real.”  This meaning is similar to that of Yad Dasht.  Consciousness of the heart refers to the heart Resting with the Beloved, as if nothing and no one else existed. 

The other meaning is that there is awareness of the heart itself.  In other words, the seeker during the time of the dzikr is attentive to the cone-shaped heart which is the seat of subtlety, and prevents it from becoming unaware during the saying of the dzikr.  Shah an-Naqshband (q.s.) did not consider it necessary to hold the breath during the dzikr as is done in some thuruq, even though he considered that practice to have its benefits; nor did he consider essential the Wuquf-i Zamani and Wuquf-i Adadi.  But according to the Qudsiyyah, he considered the observance of Wuquf-i Qalbi the most important and necessary because it is the summary and essence of the intention of the dzikr.