A Most Beneficial Light for People of the Present
In His Name, be He glorified! And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.
İn his Letters (Maktûbât), Imam-i Rabbani¹

(May God be pleased with him), a sun of the Naqshbandi Order² and its hero, said: "For me, the disclosure of a single matter of the truths of faith is preferable to thousands of illuminations, ecstasies, and instances of wonder-working."

He also said: "The final point of all the Sufi ways is the clarification and unfolding of the truths of faith."

He also said: "There are three sorts of sainthood (veldyet): one is the lesser sainthood, which is the well-known sainthood. The others are the middle sainthood and the greater sainthood. Greater saint­hood is to open up by way of the legacy of prophet-hood (verdset-i niibiivvet) a direct way to reality without entering the intermediate realm of Sufism."

He said also: "The Naqshi way is traversed with two wings." That is, "By having firm belief in the truths of faith, and by carrying out the religious obli­gations. The way cannot be covered if either of these two wings is defective." In which case, the Naqshi way consists of three veils:

The First and most important is to serve the truths of faith directly; Imam-i Rabbani travelled this way in his later years.

The Second is to [advance the cause of] the relig­ious obligations and serve the glorious practices (Sunna) of the Prophet (PBUH) under the veil of the Sufi way.

The Third is to strive to eliminate the sicknesses of the heart by way of Sufism and to journey with the feet of the heart.
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1.Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi was also known by the titles of Imam-i Rabbani, Ahmad Färüqi, and Regenerator of the Second Millennium. He lived in India 971/1563-1034/1624, where he purified the religion of Islam of polytheistic accretions and efforts to degenerate it. He is also famous for his efforts to reform Sufism. (Tr.)
2.Lit. silsile: line of initiatic descent.