Naqshbandi Order

The Naqshbandi order, one of the most widely spread Sufi orders, whose tomb complex remains an active pilgrimage site.

One of the major tariqas of Sufism.

The Mujaddidi line after Ahmad Sirhindi replaced Ibn Arabi's oneness of being with a oneness of witnessing, holding that the unity the mystic perceives is a unity of experience and not of being.

Baha al-Din Naqshband, whose teaching in Bukhara gave the order its lasting name and form.

Breath retention held with the silent formula belongs to the Naqshbandi path and is counted among the principles Abd al-Khaliq Ghijduwani set down for it.

The Naqshbandiyya kept unusually close to the scholars and the law schools, and its shaykhs were commonly madrasa trained jurists, which is one reason it drew less criticism than the orders built on audible remembrance.

The ode is known and honoured across the orders, but Naqshbandi assemblies do not chant it as the vocal orders do.

Music and sung audition have no place in Naqshbandi practice, whose remembrance is made without voice.

The Naqshbandi order performs its remembrance silently, in the heart, and refuses the audible and danced forms other orders use. The refusal is not incidental to the order; it is one of the things that defines it.

Trust in God is a station of the path in Naqshbandi teaching, reached through the silent remembrance rather than a disposition a believer simply has.

Tawhid is affirmed in the Naqshbandi order, and the Mujaddidi line reads it through the oneness of witnessing rather than the oneness of being, which is the order's signature doctrinal position.

Ahmad Sirhindi reformed and revitalised the Naqshbandi order in Mughal India, founding its Mujaddidi line.

Mawlana Khalid reformed and revitalised the Naqshbandi order in the nineteenth century Ottoman lands, founding its Khalidiyya line.

Blessing is held to pass from shaykh to disciple through the chain, and the order is comparatively restrained about tomb visitation.

Annihilation of the self in God is affirmed as the goal, approached by silent methods rather than by audible ones.

The order understands its discipline as the cultivation of ihsan, pursued inwardly and without outward display.

Authority to guide passes by explicit licence, and the Naqshbandi lines are documented in unusual detail as a result.

The Naqshbandi sheikh guides chiefly through silent dhikr (khafi) and rabita, the disciple's inward attachment to the master's image, and the order holds unusually close to Sharia observance among the major tariqas.

Naqshbandi teaching insists that the interior path is bounded by the law at every point, and the order is the most consistently law-observant of the major tariqas.

The Naqshbandi chain is unusual in running back to the Prophet through Abu Bakr rather than through Ali, which is one of the marks of the order's strongly Sunni character.

The order recognises instruction received from a master no longer living, and Baha al-Din Naqshband is himself described as trained in that way by Abd al-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani.

Wahdat al-Shuhud, the unity of witnessing rather than of being, is chiefly associated with the Naqshbandi order, particularly its South Asian branch.

The finality of prophethood is affirmed in the Naqshbandi order.

The distinction between stations attained by effort and states that arrive as a gift is affirmed in the Naqshbandi order, and the order's method of silent remembrance is described in those terms.

Sabr is affirmed in the Naqshbandi order as a station of the path.

Shukr is affirmed in the Naqshbandi order as a station of the path.

Taqwa is affirmed in the Naqshbandi order as a station of the path, and the order's reputation for sober observance rests on it.

Tawakkul is affirmed in the Naqshbandi order as a station of the path.

Tawbah is affirmed in the Naqshbandi order as the first station of the path.