Eleven Naqshbandi principles


The Eleven Naqshbandi principles or the "rules or secrets of the Naqshbandi", known in Persian as the kalimat-i qudsiya, are a system of principles and guidelines used as spiritual exercises, or to encourage certain preferred states of being, in the Naqshbandi Sufi order of Islamic mysticism.

Background

There were originally eight principles formulated by the Central Asian Sufi teacher Abdul Khaliq Gajadwani, the last three of the eleven being added later by Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari, founder of the Naqshbandi Order. Both were Khwajagan of the Sufi tariqah.
These principles are designed to be borne in mind and used as spiritual practices or exercises in the Naqshbandi system of spiritual development. They are carried out under individual tuition, expertly prescribed, monitored for changes, and carefully adjusted by a teacher, rather than being automatically performed.
The principles have been brought to the attention of contemporary Western audiences through the works of the writers Idries Shah, John G. Bennett, Omar Ali-Shah and J. Spencer Trimingham. The exercises were an important aspect of Omar Ali-Shah's work with groups in the modern Naqshbandi tradition in the West. For instance, one of Ali-Shah's books of edited transcripts, The Rules or Secrets of the Naqshbandi Order, was devoted to this subject.

The Eleven principles

The Eleven principles are as follows, shown in the order used by Idries Shah in A Perfumed Scorpion, which differs slightly from the order presented by Omar Ali-Shah:
1. Hush dar dam — awareness of breathing
2. Nazar ba kadam — watching over the steps
3. Safar dar watan — travelling in the Homeland
4. Khilwat dar anjuman — retirement in company
5. Yad kardan — remembering, recollecting exercises
6. Baaz gasht — restraint
7. Neegar dashtan — watchfulness, use of special faculties
8. Yad dashtan — keeping of the memory, sensing of the being and the body
9. Ukufi zamani — time-halt
10. Ukufi adadi — number-halt
11. Ukufi qalbi — heart-halt ''or visualisation''

General background

  • First published 1964.