Waiz al-Ummah Sultan ul-Awliya Mawlana Shaykh ‘Abd Allah al-Faiz ad-Daghestani (qad) Murshid of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani
“In our path (the Naqshbandiyya) arriving at the degree of perfection is related to a loving bond (rabita) with the exemplary shaykh. The sincere disciple, through his love of the shaykh, receives divine energy (fayd) from the inner being (batin) of the shaykh and becomes colored with the color of the shaykh, having an essential connection to the shaykh… They call this “dissolution” of the ego self (fana) in the shaykh, the beginning of true dissolution [into Allah]. [Anyone doing] dhikr without bonding his heart with the master (rabita) and without achieving dissolution in the shaykh will not arrive.” –The venerable Khwaja Muhammad Ma’sum Rabbani, Maktubat
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim wearing the blessed turban from the tomb of Ghawth al-Adham Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani in Baghdad, Iraq