B Saint
Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari Founder of the Naqshbandiyya order and the great Sufi who gave it his name. His full name is Khwaja Muhammad b. Muhammad al-Bukhari ; among his followers, especially in Turkey, he is known by the title Shah-i Naqshband . He was born in 718 (1318) near Bukhara, in the village of Qasr-i Hinduvan, later renamed Qasr-i Arifan . As a three-day-old infant he was accepted as a spiritual son by Baba Muhammad Sammasi , his grandfather's spiritual guide, who was then in the village; Sammasi charged his accompanying disciple Amir Kulal with the boy's Sufi training. No detailed information exists about these relationships. He remained with Amir Kulal for many years; his guide assigned him to carry ablution water to the lodge. In this period, while learning the rules and conduct of the path, a dream led him to attach himself to the spiritual presence of Abd al-Khaliq Ghujduvani , who had died about a century before his birth (617/1220), and he received the epithet Uwaysi ; his many years of benefiting from the spiritual presence of al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi are connected with this as well. It is related that one day, walking among the graves of Bukhara, he beheld in the world of meaning the Sufis reaching from Sammasi back to Ghujduvani; Ghujduvani counselled him to keep the commands and prohibitions of religion, to hold to strict rulings rather than dispensations, and to follow the way of the Prophet and his Companions. This event turned him from vocal to silent remembrance . His devoting himself thereafter to silent dhikr alone caused dispute among the dervishes, yet his respect for his shaykh did not change, and Amir Kulal defended him before his disciples. Amir Kulal then called Baha al-Din, who was carrying bricks for a mosque being built in Sukhar, Amir Kulal's native village, and told him that he had completed his wayfaring and could now benefit from all Turkish and Tajik shaykhs. He then joined the gatherings of Mawlana Arif Dikgarani, and later formed ties with two Turkish shaykhs of the Yasawiyya: his connection with Qusam Shaykh was brief, while with Khalil Ata he stayed twelve years. After this long period of discipleship he returned to his birthplace Qasr-i Hinduvan and began training disciples. Thereafter he left Bukhara three times, twice for the pilgrimage. On his second pilgrimage, in Herat, where he stayed three days, he visited Zayn al-Din al-Khwafi, founder of the Zayniyya; some time later he went to Herat again as the guest of the Kart ruler Mu'izz al-Din Husayn and explained to him his Sufi understanding and the principles of his order. The teachers of the madrasas respected him as much as the Sufis of his time, and he in turn honoured the scholars; he submitted his Sufi views to Mawlana Hamid al-Din, asking to be corrected if anything was mistaken. His refusal to accept sama and seclusion as ways of spiritual growth is closely tied to the importance he gave to silent dhikr. He held that attachment to a chain means nothing in itself and gave little value to miracles; his avoidance of a particular dress for his disciples and his dislike of sitting in the lodge are mentioned in the source as features recalling the Malamatiyya. He died in his native village on 3 Rabi al-Awwal 791 (2 March 1389). He had asked that this couplet be recited at his funeral: "We are great paupers in your lane, O king; from your beauty we beg something for God's sake." His Circle of Influence â His sayings have come down through the works of others, the most important being the Risala-yi Qudsiyya of his khalifa Khwaja Muhammad Parsa (d. 822/1420), one of the leading scholars of Bukhara. Khwaja Ala al-Din Attar emerged as chief successor, while his most important khalifa for the continuation of the chain was Mawlana Ya'qub Charkhi (d. 851/1447). Charkhi's disciple Ubaydullah Ahrar (d. 895/1490) made the order the most important in Central Asia and spread it across the Islamic world. The path, called tariq-i khwajagan since Yusuf al-Hamadani, became known from Baha al-Din onward as tariq-i Naqshbandi ; his insistence on silent dhikr determined the order's identity. The source also stresses that the Turkish influence on his spiritual growth through the Yasawiyya should not be overlooked. His Works â No work containing his Sufi views has survived. Most of the poems and treatises attributed to him can hardly be his; only the al-Awrad al-Baha'iyya , which bears his name, is said possibly to have been composed by him. His Tomb and Complex â In later years Qasr-i Arifan took his name ( Baveddin in the Bukharan pronunciation), and as the Naqshbandiyya spread a large complex grew up around his grave. At the end of the XIX. century the complex's monthly rental income amounted to thousands of rubles. The people of Bukhara called him "Khwaja-yi bala-gardan" (the khwaja who wards off calamity) and regarded him as the city's spiritual protector; his spiritual presence was an important factor in Bukhara becoming a centre of learning and sanctity for the Muslims of Central Asia.
Died 791 AH View â 