Question:
salaam sheikh hisham
i just wanted to know the benifits of seclusion/chilla which the awliyya used to do and people also do now
the chillla of hizb ul bahr
im 18 years of age and baith to another naqshbandi sheikh
i just wanted to know main benifits and inshAllah if my sheikh giv me ijazath i wil do
but for some reason im scared of jinns and i wnt to do it but i dont
ehat shal i do,…..
Answer:
wa `alaykum salam,
Seclusion (khalwat) is better than isolation (`uzlat). It is a kind of isolation, that can only be prescribed by the shaikh. Its shortest time limit is 40 days, as mentioned in the Holy Qur’an about Sayiddina Musa (s), {And remember We appointed forty nights for Moses} (Surah al-Baqarah, 51). Muslim narrated that the Prophet (s) made seclusion in the cave of ara for one complete month. Its aim is to clean the heart of connection to this world of material pleasures, and to bring it to a state of remembrance of Allah, Almighty and Exalted. In it countless visions occur, and it elevates the murid to a state of knowing the self, and from there to a state of knowing Allah.
Seclusion requires the seeker to disconnect himself from people and to disengage himself from all material interactions for a set period of time. His heart must be engaged only in God’s Remembrance, and his mind relaxed from daily concerns. All this must take place under the guidance of a gnostic shaikh, to teach us if we forget, and to remind us if we are heedless, and to throw out of the heart all gossip and whispers of the ego.
The shaikh orders the murid to seclude himself in a room where he will be served every day only with what is necessary for survival. Then he will teach his tongue the way of reciting Dhikr, until he will be engaged with that recitation. The shaikh will support his murid in opening the Vision of the Divine Presence in the heart (surat al-mushahada fil-qalb). Whatever happens to the murid during the seclusion, he must tell his shaikh, and he must conceal it from anyone other than the shaikh.
Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani
[Excerpted from the Article “Seclusion” at the Naqshbandi Website]”
