Question:

Assalamu alaikum dear sheikh is

Is the relationship between Khwaja Bayazid and khwaja Abul Hassan al Khirqani an Uwaysi link the reason i ask is because Khwaja Bayazid passed away at 261 AH and Khwaja Abul Hassan al Khirqani passed away at 425 AH ?

Answer:

Waalaykumussalam warahmatullah.

It is known that the link between Sultan al-`Arifin Abu Yazid al-Bistami (188-261) and Abu al-Hasan al-Kharqani (352-425) is an Uwaysi-type link, in reference to Uways al-Qarani’s reception of the Prophet’s spiritual guidance without ever seeing the latter physically, upon him blessings and peace.

This is mentioned by Mulla `Abd al-Rahman al-Jami in Nafahat al-Uns (`Ilmiyya ed. 1:426, chapter on Abu al-Hasan al-Kharqani) and al-Khani in al-Kawakib al-Durriyya `ala al-Hada’iq al-Wardiyya fi Ajilla’ al-Sadat al-Naqshabandiyya (Bayruti ed. p. 336). At the same time, Abu al-Hasan al-Kharqani physically received khilafa from other Shaykhs as well. They are Abu Sa`id Fadlallah b. Muhammad al-Mayhani per Ali Huwjiri in Kashf al-Mahjub (Nicholson transl. p. 163), and Abu al-`Abbas Muhammad al-Qassab al-Amuli al-Tabari per al-Jami in Nafahat al-Uns (ditto).

Additionally, Mawlana Jalal al-Din al-Rumi said in his Mathnawi (no. 1800-1850, transl. Nicholson):

How Abú Yazíd (Bistámí) announced the birth of Abu ’l-Hasan Kharraqání—may God sanctify the spirit of them both—(many) years before it took place, and gave a detailed description of his outer and inner characteristics; and how the chronologers wrote it down for the purpose of observation.

Have you heard the story of Báyazíd—what he saw beforehand of the (spiritual) state of Bu ’l-Hasan? One day that sultan of piety was passing with his disciples (on the way) towards the open country and the plain. Suddenly there came to him, in the district of Rayy, a sweet scent from the direction of Kháraqán.

1805. On the spot he uttered the lamentable cry of one who is yearning, and sniffed the scent from the breeze. He was inhaling the sweet scent lovingly: his soul was tasting wine from the breeze. When “sweat” appears on the outside of a pot that is full of icy water, It has been turned into water by the coldness of the air: the moisture has not escaped from the inside of the pot. The scent-bearing breeze became water for him; for him too the water became pure wine.

1800. The perfect (the divine physicians) will hear your name from afar and quickly penetrate into the deepest ground of your being and existence; Nay, they will have seen you (many) years before your birth —you together with all the circumstances (connected with you).

1810. When the marks of intoxication appeared in him, a disciple questioned him concerning that breath; Then he asked him, “(What are) these sweet ecstasies which are beyond the pale of the five (senses) and the six (directions)? Thy face is becoming now red and now yellow and now white: what is the (good) hap and the glad tidings?

Thou art inhaling scent, and no flowers are visible: doubtless it is from the Unseen and from the garden of the Universal. O thou who art the desire of every one who (wilfully) follows his own desire (for God), thou to whom there is (coming) at every moment a message and letter from the Unseen,

1815. Thou to whose (spiritual) organ of smell there is coming at every moment, as to Jacob, balm from a Joseph, Spill upon us one drop from that pitcher, give us one word that smells of that garden. We are not accustomed, O (thou who art the) beauty of (spiritual) majesty, that thou shouldst drink alone while our lips are dry.

O nimble, nimbly-rising traverser of Heaven, spill upon us one draught of that which thou hast drunk. There is no other Master of the Revels in the world except thee: O king, look (with favour) on the boon-companions!

1820. How is it possible to quaff this wine underhand (in secret)? Certainly wine is the exposer of man. He may disguise and conceal the scent, (but) how will he hide his intoxicated eye? In sooth this is not a scent that thousands of veils will keep hidden in the world. The desert and plain are filled with its pungency. What (of the) plain? for it hath passed even beyond the nine spheres (of Heaven). Do not daub the head of the jar with mortar, for indeed this naked one does not admit of covering.

1825. Show kindness: O thou who knowest and canst tell the mystery, declare that which thy falcon (thy spirit) has made its prey.” He said, “A marvellous scent is come to me, even as (a scent came) for the Prophet’s sake from Yemen; For Mohammed said, ‘The scent of God is coming to me from Yemen, (wafted) on the hand of the zephyr.’” The scent of Rámín is coming from the soul of Wís; the scent of God, too, is coming from Uways. From Uways and from Qaran a wondrous scent made the Prophet drunken and full of rapture.

1830. Since Uways had passed away from himself, that earthly one (Uways) had become heavenly. The myrobalan conserved in sugar—its bitter taste is not (retained) any more. (Similarly) the (spiritual) myrobalan that is freed from egoism hath (only) the appearance of myrobalan, (but) not the flavour. This topic hath no end. Return (to the story), that (we may see) what that holy man (Báyazíd) said, (moved) by inspiration from the World Unseen.

The words of the Prophet, may God bless and save him, “Verily, I feel the Breath of the Merciful (God) from the direction of Yemen.” He (Báyazíd) said, “The scent of a friend is coming from this quarter, for a (spiritual) monarch is coming into this village.

1835. After such and such a number of years a king will be born (here): he will pitch a tent above the heavens. His face will be coloured with roses from the rosery of God: he will surpass me in station.” (The disciple asked), “What is his name?” He replied, “His name is Bu ’l- Hasan,” and described his features—his eyebrows and chin; He described his height and his complexion and his figure and spoke in detail of his locks of hair and his face. He also declared his spiritual features—his qualities and the way (he should follow in his religion) and his (spiritual) rank and estate.

1840. The bodily features, like the body (itself), are borrowed (transient): set not your heart on them, for they are lasting (only) one hour. The features of the natural (animal) spirit also are perishable: seek the features of that spirit which is above the sky. Its body is on the earth, like a lamp, (but) its light is above the Seventh Roof (of heaven).

Those rays of the sun are in the house, (but) their orb is in the Fourth Dome (of heaven). The form of the rose is (placed) beneath the nose for idle pleasure’s sake, (but) the scent of the rose is on the roof and palace of the brain.

1845. A man asleep sees terror (dreams of something which terrifies him) at Aden: the reflexion thereof appears as sweat on his body. The shirt (of Joseph) was in Egypt in the keeping of one exceedingly careful (of it): (the land of) Canaan was filled with the (sweet) scent of that shirt. Thereupon they wrote down the (predicted) date: they adorned the spit with the meat for roasting. When the right time and date arrived, that (spiritual) king was born and played the dice of empire. After those years (had passed), Bu ’l-Hasan appeared (in the world) after the death of Báyazíd.

1850. All his dispositions, (whether in the way) of withholding tenaciously or bestowing liberally, proved to be such as that (spiritual) king (Báyazíd) had foretold. His (Báyazíd’s) guide is “the guarded tablet.” From what is it guarded? It is guarded from error. The inspiration of God is not (like) astrology or geomancy or dreams—and God best knoweth what is right.

The Súfís in explaining (their doctrine) call it (the Divine inspiration) the inspiration of the heart, in order to disguise (its real nature) from the vulgar. Take it to be the inspiration of the heart, for it (the heart) is the place where He is seen: how should there be error when the heart is aware of Him?

Hajj Gibril Haddad