You must know that according to the Sufi, the Awliya (q), connection is the contemplation of the murid with the eye of inner sight to the Ruhaniyya [1] of the Shaykh, turning his heart by the love essence.
The practice of connection with the Naqshbandi Shaykhs, it is of two kinds:
1. In the Presence of the Shaykh: Its method is that the murid focuses love essence, to the heart of the Shaykh with submission to him and wipes away himself until he annihilates all of his characters in the characters of the Shaykh.
2. The second is the absence of the Shaykh: Its method is that the murid imagines the image of the Shaykh between his eyes, then directs towards the Ruhaniyyah of the Shaykh in this vision. He doest cease from directing towards it until he either obtains absence or the effect of attraction. After he reaches either one of the matters, he leaves the connection to he can annihilate his characters in his form. At that time, he witnesses his perfection in his image, however his image doesn’t overtakes or drown his Ruhaniyya.
- After that the Ruhaniyya of the Shaykh trains him and connects him to Allah then he becomes among the perfect ones who have arrived.
- For the connection brings the murid to the Shaykh, even if one of them were in the east and the other in the west, by the connection, the Shaykh pours into the perfect seekers and the living.
- Also the living seeks the abundance among the dead whom have the right of disposal.
- With the disposal of the Ruhaniyya by his Wilaya, it is supplied from Divine Perfection and the Spiritual Manifestations to the High Presence, all of this whether he is alive or not.
The connection is the best way to arrive to Allah, thereafter the murid is not in need of anything and it is the basis of arriving because all of the ways are in need of a connection in manifesting its specialties, especially in this lofty tradition. Because every action is in need of it, for nothing benefits except by balance of the connection (Muqaranatul-Rahbitah) and its intensity. Therefore, this way is named the Way of Connection.
You must know that the connection is a type of love (Mahabah), for he who doesn’t have it in him, doesn’t have in him a connection. From it is where he receives the exuberance. He who has the connection in him, then it is possible for him to have training and the exuberance. And one who doesn’t have it, doest receive that exuberance even if he has associated with Khidr (as). You must know that the connection is accepted when it is with al-Insan al-Kamil who has the power to distribute through power of wilayah. Because al-Insan al-Kamil is the mirror of al-Haqq. And the one who has observed his Ruhaniyya with the eye of inner sight, has witness Allah, in which is of two types; either it is with the living or either with the dead.
As far as it being with the living, we have already explained its method. But as far as the dead, its method is that the murid strips his self from all elemental connections and locks his inner (self) from the connections physical bonds. He strips his heart from knowledges, forms and inclinations. Then he pictures the Ruhaniyya of that Wáli, the transmission to Allah as a light, striped off from sensory manner. He preserves this light in his heart until he reaches something from the exuberance of that Wáli or something from his states.
Because the Ruhaniyya of those who are perfect (Kamalin), are the springs of Divine Outpouring and he who one places it in his heart, he obtains the exuberance from it.If the connected is in the presence of a grave, or a maqamm of a Prophet or a Wáli, he must greet the owner of the grave, then sit on the right near the legs. He places his right hand over his left above his navel and rest his head on his chest then he is to read the Fatihah, Ikhlass three or eleven time and Kursi once. Then he donates its rewards to the owner of that grave or maqam. Then at that time he sits and directs to the Ruhaniyya in the grave proceeding to obtain the exuberance.
The one who directs to the Ruhaniyya of the Prophet (saw) in his noble grave in al-Madina al-Munawwarah, wherever he is, would obtain the exuberance. The same if he was to direct in any place to the Ruhaniyya of the (other) Prophets and Awliya in their graves, for he would obtain the exuberance.
For the connection is without direction in the attainment of the exuberance. Rather it the power is on the strength of the connection. Who is constant on it, he obtains all the states of the Tariqat and the perfection of Haqaiq.
But the one who leaves his connection, his exuberance is cut off and he doesn’t obtain the states of Suluk and the secrets of arrival doesn’t manifest to him.
Ash-Shaykh Adnan
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1. As an adjective (ruhani), it means spiritual. As a noun (ruhaniyya, pl. ruhaniyyat orruhaniyyun), it means spiritual beings. According to Ibn al-‘Arabi (d. 1240), the ruhaniyya is the spiritual essence of a prophet or a deceased wali whose murid receives supernatural assistance.