The Fifth Letter

In His Name, be He glorified!

And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.(17:44)

In his Letters (Maktubat), Imam-i Rabbani1  (May God be pleased with him), a sun of the Naqshbandi Order 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.”[2]

He  also  said:  “The  final  point  of  all  the  Sufi  ways  is  the  clarification  and unfolding of the truths of faith.”[3]

He also said: “Sainthood is of three sorts: 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 prophethood a direct way to reality without entering the intermediate realm of Sufism.”[4]

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.”[5]  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 (UWBP) under the veil of the Sufi way.

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[2] Imam Rabbani, al-Maktubat, i, 182 (no: 210).

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid., i, 240 (no: 260).

[5] Ibid., i, 98 (no: 91); i, 99 (no: 94).