NAQSHBANDI DEVOTIONS AND PRACTICES Striving for Servanthood 2 - Naqshbandi Devotions and Practices Published by Naqshbandi-Muúammadi South Africa Cape Town © Naqshbandi-Muúammadi South Africa All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise without the written permission of Naqshbandi-Muúammadi South Africa. Published and distributed by: Naqshbandi-Muúammadi South Africa P.O. Box 41 Gatesville 7766 Republic of South Africa Tel: +27 (21) 5933348 Fax: 086 6182201 Email: [email protected] First Edition: 2007 Naqshbandi Devotions and Practices - 3 Table of Contents Page Foreword v Transliterations xi Abbreviations xii The Principles of the Naqshbandi Way 13 The conduct of the murid with his Shaykh 15 The conduct of the murid with his brothers 15 The Daily êal¿hs: 1. êal¿tul-Maghrib 18 2. êal¿tul-Ish¿’ 36 3. Fajr: i. Pre-Fajr Programme 52 ii. êal¿tun Naj¿h (The Prayer of Salvation). 54 iii. êal¿tut Tahajjud 58 iv. êal¿tut Tasb∞ú 62 v. êal¿tush Shukr 66 vi. êal¿tul-Fajr 68 vii. êal¿tul Ishr¿q 102 viii. êal¿tuè ëuú¿ 104 4. êal¿tuˆ-üuhr 106 5. êal¿tul >Asr 122 6. Waz∞fah Naqshbandiyyah i. Spiritual Practices (Adab) (Part 1) 138 ii. Wird for Novices (Part 2) 142 iii. Wird for the Prepared (Part 2) 144 iv. Wird for the People of Determination (Part 2) 146 v. Optional extra daily dhikrs 148 vi. Extra practices for the last days 150 7. Khatmul-Khwajagan - weekly dhikr 154 8. The silsilah of the most distinguished Naqshbandi Order 180 9. Im¿m Mahdi (a.s.) and his deputies 182 4 - Naqshbandi Devotions and Practices 10. 10th Muharram 184 11. 12th Rabi ul Awwal 186 12. 15th Sha’b¿n 188 13. Tar¿wiú 192 14. Lailatu l-Qadr 194 15. Rajab i. Rajab Night Programme 196 ii. Invocation (du>¿’) for the month of Rajab 206 iii. Other practices during Rajab 208 iv. Practices on the Blessed Night of Desires 212 v. Practices on the Night of Ascension, Lailatul Isr¿’ 214 vi. Additional Awr¿d for Rajab 218 Appendices: a. îizbul Wiq¿yah by Ibn Arabi 220 b. Grand Transmitted Invocation of Grand Shaykh 225 c. S´rah Alam nashraú 231 d. Adab of Laylatul-Qadr 234 Naqshbandi Devotions and Practices - v Foreword (cid:6)(cid:7)(cid:8)(cid:3)(cid:4)(cid:5) (cid:1)(cid:2)(cid:3)(cid:4)(cid:5) (cid:10)(cid:5) (cid:6)(cid:11)(cid:12) (cid:16) (cid:17)(cid:22)(cid:3)(cid:23)(cid:5) (cid:24)(cid:3)(cid:25)(cid:26) (cid:27)(cid:17)(cid:28) (cid:29)(cid:30)(cid:11)(cid:4)(cid:5) (cid:21) (cid:31)(cid:30) (cid:4)(cid:5) (cid:21) (cid:16)(cid:14)(cid:17)(cid:18)(cid:4)(cid:5) (cid:19)(cid:20) (cid:10) (cid:13)(cid:14)(cid:15)(cid:5) (cid:16)(cid:18)$(cid:26) %(cid:12)"&'(cid:26) (cid:21) %(cid:4)(cid:26) (cid:27)(cid:17)(cid:28) (cid:21) (cid:13)(cid:14)! "#(cid:13)(cid:7)(cid:22) Verily, we have sent thee with the Truth, as a bearer of glad tidings and a warner: for there never was any community, but a warner had lived amongst them (xxxv: 24). Throughout the long history of humanity, from the time of Nabi ˙dam (a.s.), all peoples throughout the world had received Divine teachings of one form or another. The essence of these teachings was always the existence of one Supreme Being. There is, for example, considerable documentary evidence of the belief in a Supreme Being amongst the original inhabitants of North America; and this continent is far removed from the major areas where the great monotheistic religions arose. With the passage of time, most of the religions of the ancient world deviated into paganism, became extinct, or were replaced by Christianity, which accompanied imperialistic control of the major parts of the world. It was not only the religions of the ancient world that had undergone such major changes. The great modern monotheistic religions prior to Islam, which developed out of the teachings of such Messengers as Nabi M´s¿ and Nabi ∂s¿ (a.s.) were in fact far removed from the original teachings brought by these Messengers. Numerous verses in the Qur’an deal with this phenomena. Thus, just prior to the “birth of Islam”, more than fourteen centuries ago, there was very little left of the streams of Divine teachings that had regularly reached humanity through the hearts of Messengers or Prophets. In retrospect, if at that stage of history a special Divine Messenger had not been sent to all of humanity it is doubtful whether any people would have been able to extricate themselves from the quagmire of religious darkness into which people generally had sunk. Humanity had in fact reached a point of unprecedented religious desperation. There was either going to be “direct Divine intervention” in the religious affairs of humanity or the belief in one Supreme Being vi - Naqshbandi Devotions and Practices would have disappeared totally from the surface of the earth. Allah, Glory to Him, would once more have become “a hidden treasure”. Divine intervention did in fact come. Sometime in the years 570-571 AD, the last bearer of Divine revelation, the Prophet Muúammad (s.a.w.s.), was born in the city of Mecca, in the semi-arid region of Arabia. As an adult, Prophet Muúammad (s.a.w.s.) used to go to the cave of Mount Hir¿’, especially in the month of Ramaè¿n, to spend time in the private worship of Allah. One day, in his fortieth year, while in the cave near the end of Ramaè¿n an Angel suddenly appeared to him. The Angel showed him a piece of cloth on which were embroidered Arabic words in gold, and told him to read. The Prophet Muúammad (s.a.w.s.) replied, “I do not know how to read.” Describing the incident, Prophet Muúammad (s.a.w.s.) said, “The Angel caught me (forcefully) and pressed me so hard that I could not bear it any more. He then released me and again asked me to read and I replied, ‘I do not know how to read.’ Thereupon he caught me again and pressed me a second time until I could not bear it any more. He then released me and again asked me to read but again I replied, ‘I do not know to read (or what shall I read)?’ Thereupon he caught me for the third time and pressed me, and then released me and said, Read in the name of your Lord, who has created! He has created man from a clot. Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous (xcvi: 1-3). He then read the words. The first words of the Qur’anic revelation had been recorded on his heart. It appears as if these words were used to unlock his heart for the reception of the rest of the revelation. Once his heart had gone through the experience of receiving these words, it was ready to receive the flood of revelation that was to come later. What happened in the semi-darkness of the cave is the greatest spiritual event of modern times. It was much more than just the reception of revelation. It was the beginning of the greatest modern revolution in religious thought; the commencement of the re-establishment of what is sacred in the lives of people. The event in the cave recaptured the fundamental teaching of all revelation, and that is the Unity of God. What had also been set in motion in the cave was the awakening within him of all those dormant qualities, which would raise him, amongst other things, to the status of the most perfect human being and the final and greatest of all the Messengers. Part of this was the next revelation: O thou wrapped up! Arise and deliver thy warning (lxxiv: i-ii). Naqshbandi Devotions and Practices - vii Being wrapped up or covered also suggests that his status as a Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.s.) had up to that stage been hidden. For about forty years nobody knew who he in fact was. To all who knew him, he was Muúammad, the son of >Abdull¿h. Although he was considered to be of exceptional character, and was highly respected because of this, there was nothing in his behaviour that suggested the historical role he was to play and the degree of spirituality he would attain. When this verse was revealed all this was at an end. “Arise!” Allah says to him. It is as if it was being told to him, “Make yourself known as the Messenger of Allah. Declare your new status publicly as a Messenger, ‘... deliver thy warning’ i.e. declare the Oneness of Allah and the consequence of not being obedient to Him.” This verse represents, in no uncertain terms, the transition of Prophet Muúammad (s.a.w.s.) from Muúammad ibn >Abdull¿h, the inhabitant of Mecca, to Muúammad, the bearer of the Divine Message to all of humanity. This phenomenal transition appears to have even taken him by suprise. The beginning of the revelation did not only herald the transition to his new status but was also the commencement of what can only be considered as his remarkable transformation from an unlettered originally sheep-tending inhabitant of Mecca to the most outstanding figure in the history of humanity. Under Divine Guidance and also the impact of the Qur’an all dimensions of his personality and his spirituality were so transformed as to allow his being, and the Message he carried, to become a mercy for all categories of existence in the universe. Allah, Glory to Him, refers to Himself as “...Lord of the Worlds” (1: ii), and to his beloved Prophet as “... a mercy for all the Worlds” (xxi: 1-2). Those whom he eventually converted to Islam from amongst the members of his family and others of his contemporaries underwent lesser transformations as a consequence of the impact of the “new religion” and his personality on them. These people, the Members of his Household and His Companions (r.a.), as they readily absorbed the teachings of Islam, underwent personality and spiritual changes of such magnitude that they became the best ever generation of Muslims. Allah, Glory to Him, says of them in the Qur’an: And the first to lead the way, of the Muhajirin and the Ansar, and those who followed them in goodness - Allah is well pleased with them and they are well pleased with Him, and He has prepared for them Gardens underneath which rivers flow, wherein they will abide. That is the supreme bliss (ix: 100). viii - Naqshbandi Devotions and Practices Imr¿n ibn îusayn reported that the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.s.) said: “The best of my people is the generation in which I had been sent ...” The practice of Islam of this generation became the launching pad for the successful spread of Islam into different parts of Africa and Eurasia; a spread which contributed in no uncertain terms to the reaffirmation of the Oneness of Allah in different parts of the world. This expansion was accompanied by a major explosion of knowledge in both the natural and social sciences, and by the development of an unrivalled spirituality; the impact of which is still being felt in large parts of the world today. The first generation of Muslims and many generations and individuals afterwards had used the religious energy inherent in Islam to transform their lives and personalities, and to take many of them to unique intellectual and spiritual heights. And in some cases the combination of the intellectual and the spiritual produced luminaries such as the imams of the major madh-habs and the founders of the tariqah orders. The Islam, which they used in this way, is essentially the same religion, which we have in our hands today. There are no differences in the teachings and basic texts which they had and which we have. We have exactly the same Qur’an and Aú¿d∞th. In fact we are far more favoured than many of them because of the easy access we have to these texts and to many others. During the last few decades especially, with the explosion in writings on Islam in a variety of languages and with the growth of technology, it is possible to gain access to teachings of Islam unheard of before. The question that must be asked is: “Why is it that it appears that we are incapable of drawing from Islam the same energy that others have drawn and successfully utilized for their transformation?” For all intents and purposes, it appears that we have either “lost” our religious direction, or we have “lost” part of our religion by imposing a silence on certain of its most essential and valuable teachings. Perhaps both processes have happened; we have lost religious direction because of the imposition of silence on aspects of Islam. And it is those aspects that we have silenced that are in fact the primary sources of the religious energy that we need for transformation. Without those sources, Islam has, to a large degree, collapsed into an assortment of seemingly unrelated rules and regulations, and impositions and denials. In the process, its original holistic nature, the dynamic interrelation of all its teachings and practices, has been lost. What we have today, especially in this country, is an Islam that is largely “foreign”, in many of its aspects, to the original revealed religion. One cannot blame distance in time from the “advent” of Islam for this. In South Africa we have had a number of individuals during the last few centuries that have successfully drawn on this energy. And during Naqshbandi Devotions and Practices - ix their own transformation, they have contributed immensely to changes in the personality and spirituality of others. These individuals include, amongst others, Shaykh Yusuf of Macasser, Tuan >Abd al-Raúm¿n Matebe and Tuan Maúm´d of Constantia, Imam >Abdullah ibn Qaèi >Abd al-Sal¿m (Tuan Guru) of Cape Town, Shah Ghul¿m Muúammad (Sufi Sahib) and Badsha Peer of Natal, Maulana >Abd al-LaÃ∞f Kagee of Athlone, Shaykh >Abd al-Raú∞m Ir¿qi of Cape Town, and Shaykh Muúammad S¿liú Solomon (Ab¿di) of Wynberg. The “hearts” of these individuals, here and in the rest of the world, are the major, if not the sole, “custodians” of the resources of the remembrance of Allah; and they safeguard such remembrance for distribution to the “hearts” of others. In this way Allah is remembered. And they strive in their approach to Him with acts of remembrance until He loves them, is satisfied with them, and remembers them. And it is through His remembrance of them, that they are remembered by others. In a Holy Tradition, the following words were spoken about such people by Allah to His Messenger (s.a.w.s): Truly My awliy¿’ of my obedient servants, and those whom I love of My creation; they are remembered by My remembrance and I am remembered by their remembrance. Each one of us has within ourselves the potential to draw from our religion those teachings and practices needed to transform our personalities, and to develop our spirituality to a level at which we fall into one of the categories mentioned in the tradition. Islam has within it a massive reservoir of religious energy in the form of a vast array of practices from which we can draw for our own transformation. We have to find the means of accessing those practices, and use them as our means of approach to Allah, Glory to Him. In the final analysis, it would depend on each one of us whether we want to do this or not. The present work is a compilation of the major Naqshbandi devotions and practices, most of which had originated from Sayyidun¿ Abu Bakr (r.a.), and which are thoroughly grounded in the Divine Law. These practices have been used during the ages as one of the means for spiritual purification and attainment. They came to us through a series of tar∞qah shaykhs, starting with Sayyidun¿ Abu Bakr (r.a.). The present Grand Shaykh of the Order is Mawlan¿ Shaykh N¿zim al- Haqq¿ni of Cyprus, perhaps the greatest living exponent of Islamic spirituality, a Sult¿nul Awliy¿’, a very special “Friend of Allah Almighty”. He stands out today as a major inspiration to all those who want to recapture the original teachings of Islam, and who want to walk x - Naqshbandi Devotions and Practices a path of spiritual transformation. We call on our Creator to place us firmly on the path of this transformation, and to give us the strength and consistency to walk this path successfully. And Allah knows best. There is no strength or power except with Allah. Yusuf da Costa April 2006