The Virtue of the Companionship of the Naqshbandī Masters (Qaddasallāhu Asrārahum)
Addressed to: Ḥaḍrat Mīr Muḥammad Nuʿmān (may Allah have mercy on him)
All praise is due to Allah, and peace upon His chosen servants.
With what tongue can I express gratitude for this supreme blessing — that Allah, Glorious is He, after granting us, the poor ones, correct beliefs according to the Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jamāʿah (may Allah reward their efforts), honored us with attachment to the Ṭarīqah ʿĀliyyah Naqshbandiyyah, and blessed us with the bond and discipleship of this noble spiritual family.
In this servant’s view, taking one step in the Naqshbandī path is better than taking seven steps in any other path. This is because the way that leads — by inheritance and emulation — to the perfections of Prophethood is uniquely found in this exalted ṭarīqah.
For this reason, I have written in several of my books and treatises that the way of the Naqshbandī masters is, in truth, the very way of the Ṣaḥābah (may Allah be pleased with them). Just as the companions inherited and realized a complete share in the prophetic perfections, the advanced followers (muntahīs) of this path also attain such a share by following their example.
As for the beginners and those in the middle stages of the path, though they have not yet reached the station of perfection, since they adhere to this path and have sincere love for its perfected adherents, they too can hope to attain a share in the prophetic legacy. The ḥadīth states:
“A person will be with the one whom he loves.”
This is a great glad tiding for those wayfarers who are still distant from the goal.
The one who fails in this path is he who enters the Naqshbandī ṭarīqah but does not observe its etiquettes — who innovates new practices of his own, relies on his dreams or mystical unveilings (kashf), and acts in contradiction to the method of the path. In such a case, there is no flaw in the ṭarīqah itself, for it is he who is walking not upon the prophetic way, but on the path of his own visions and fantasies.
It is like turning one’s face away from the Kaʿbah and heading instead toward Turkistān, yet still claiming to be on the way to the House of Allah.
Poetic verse:
O Bedouin! I fear you shall never reach the Kaʿbah,
For the road you tread leads to Turkistān, not Makkah.
May Allah protect us from self-deception and grant us steadfastness on the true path. Āmīn.