The Path of Service

“A service that is conducive to pleasing another Muslim takes precedence over dhikr and muraqabah. Some people think that dealing with optional ibadah is superior to service. However, fayd (Inspiration received into the heart) is the product of service.”

The Naqshbandiyyah way, a highly widespread branch of irshad (guidance given by a wali to other people to show them the righteous path) in the history of Islam, also stands out with its approach to service. The great importance given to acts of service by the Naqshbandiyya has become one of the core principles of the tariqah thanks to the wise words and manqibahs of Haja Bahaaddin Muhammad Naqshiband (quddisa sirruhu). (d:1389)

In the following periods, Naqshbandi murshids always kept the issue of service on the agenda both with their own practices and with their sohbahs and works. Based on this, it can be said that "The way of Naqshbandiyyah is one of service."

Let's try to point out the content and framework of Naqshbandiyyah's understanding of service with a few sohbahs and manqibahs by Bahaaddin Shah-i Naqshband (quddisa sirruhu) and some other Naqshbandi murshids.

Whom to Serve and When?

Haja Bahaaddin Shah-i Naqshband (quddisa sirruhu) took care of animals in Bukhara for seven years and also cleaned the roads where people came and went. He explained this matter as follows:

“I was advised: Beware of hearts. Help the afflicted, the weak, and the heartbroken. Compliment those whom the public does not compliment and be humble towards them. Take care of animals without taking pride in it because Allah's gaze of rububiyyah falls upon animals due to them being His creatures. If they have wounds on a limb, treat it with medication. Engage in the maintenance of roads and crossings. If you see something on the road that people do not like, remove it and throw it away so that no harm will come to passers-by.”  (Prof. Dr. Necdet Tosun, Bahaeddin Nakşibend - Hayatı Görüşleri Tarikatı, İnsan Yayınları, p. 324) 

Furthermore, he carried the mortar of the mosque built in Qasr-i Arifan, the town where he was born and died, on his head, to the mosque’s roof and even cleaned the toilets of the madrasas in Bukhara for a while. He explained the method and disposition of the Naqshbandiyya path as follows:

“Our method is to be with Allah Almighty in public. Our way is the way of sohbah and public service. There is fame in escaping from the public, and there is disaster in fame. Khayr is within being among the people and serving for the sake of Allah.”

Haja Ubaydullah Ahrar (quddisa sirruhu), one of the great awliya of the Naqshbandi tariqah (d.1490), says the following about service: “In the way of Naqshbandiyyah, one acts according to what the time requires. Dhikr and muraqabah can only be practiced when there is no issue that will serve the Muslims. A service that is conducive to pleasing another Muslim takes precedence over dhikr and muraqabah. Some people think that dealing with optional ibadah is superior to service. However, fayd (Inspiration received into the heart) is the product of service.”

These words ultimately summarize the motto of the Naqshbandiyyah path regarding service. No Naqshbandi murshid ever made a statement against those words; on the contrary, they confirmed it with their practices and sohbahs.

Love and Humility

Sayyid Ahmad al-Kasani (quddisa sirruhu) (d.1542), a prominent figure of his time and a Naqshbandi murshid, advised his followers that they should not discriminate between people during service. He also wanted animals to be served. (Necdet Tosun)

When we look at more recent times, we see that the service emphasis of the tariqah of Naqshbandiyyah has continued without weakening. For example, Ahmed Ziyaeddin Gümüşhanevi (quddisa sirruhu), who lived in the last period of the Ottoman Empire and contributed significantly to the Naqshi-Khalidi path becoming widespread (v:1893), summarized the Naqshbandis' understanding of service as follows:

“The darwish must serve in order to earn rewards, to gain Allah's approval. This is the way of service. He will serve the wolf, the bird, the stork, the cat, the lamb, the dog, the human, the Kamil Murshid(The true guide in tasawwuf and tariqah)... He will serve everything! If a man serves, he gains dignity.”

It can be said that the Naqshbandis' understanding of service and the breadth of the scope of this service are based on a perspective that is far from arrogance, together with the “reflection of the love of Allah on His creatures.” An example of this is the manqibah of Haji Aziz Efendi (quddisa sirruhu) (d.1949), a Naqshbandiyyah murshid, about a mad person. Haji Aziz Efendi, when a Sufi laughed at someone with a mental disorder, said to him:

“You know what it's like for you to laugh at this man? They put so much weight on your back that you can hardly carry it. Under this load, you are climbing a hill in sweat. You laugh at the man who does not have a burden on his back and who is running up the hill. My son, by the time the sane gives an account for himself, the man who is deprived of sanity will have found Jannah long ago! The man who has been given sanity as a burden does not laugh at those who do not possess it; he thinks about how he will carry his own burden.” (Osman N. Çataklı, Hacı Hasib Efendi and Hacı Aziz Efendi, p.151-152)

From a Sociological Perspective

As those examples showed, the Naqshbandis competed to serve all creatures, especially human beings, and revived the spirit of service of Islam in the society in which they lived. What the sociology teacher Ergün Yıldırım said on this subject is noteworthy. He said:

“Naqshbandiyyah is one of the most important ways to understand Islamic societies. Naqshbandiyyah has a world of social imagination and social practices that have influenced Islamic societies in the widest form for centuries. With the principle of 'Safar dar watan,’ references are made to both internal and external journeys. It focuses on the journeys that people make in their inner world through tafakkur (contemplation). The murid matures with these journeys in his inner world. The outer expedition, on the other hand, sits in a more sociological context. It is a journey to visit, help, and be with one’s brothers in society, people of knowledge and wisdom, and one’s shaykh. The state of this journey also indicates the existence of tasawwuf in a 'network society.’

Around this founding principle, we see that the Naqshbandis have been traveling between various cities, towns, and dwellings. Travels create vital social networks in terms of knowledge, wisdom, and solidarity. Social, physical, and ethnic boundaries between shaykhs, caliphs, and murids are overcome thanks to these transitions between different geographical regions.

Ethnic identities defined with borders by one of today's leading social anthropologists, F. Barth, are overcome precisely with this founding principle. For this reason, these ethnic identities prevented many Islamic tribes, such as Arabs, Turks, Kurds, and Circassians, from isolating themselves and created an important brotherhood/ikhwan network among them. This has made considerable contributions to the integration of Islamic societies. As a matter of fact, this Islamic network has had a wide span, including tens of ethnic structures, languages, tribes, etc., from Central Asia, Mesopotamia, India, Anatolia, the Caucasus, the Balkans, and Africa. In this respect, the path of Naqshbandiyyah is an area of 'social transition.’ It is a transition between ethnicities, geographies, cultures, and languages in Islamic societies. Thanks to this, it builds an identity that overcomes ethnicity, geography, and language.

Being an anthropologically and sociologically advanced community is an advantage. It is a feature that makes man different and superior to other beings. Imam Rabbani (quddisa sirruhu), one of the great thinkers and wise people of the path of Naqshbandiyyah, shows this by saying that the quality that makes human beings superior to other beings is their ability to gather and come together despite their differences. He talks about the communal feature that enables people to live together in spite of their individuality. He further states that both the Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu alayhi wa salam) and Abu Jahl came out of this community and that the Naqshbandis are the "guarantors of this apparent community.”

One of the integral dimensions of integration is institutions. In this respect, Naqshbandi dargahs have been important centers in terms of cultural integration. Religious education, language education (such as Arabic and Persian), and literature education (poetry, writing, and masnavi lessons) are given in these Naqshbandi dargahs. These educational activities play a central role in the transfer of knowledge, in the production of knowledge, and in the enlightenment of society.

We see that Naqshbandiyyah serves as a cornerstone for social networks in certain regions of Islamic society. The tomb of Bahaaddin Naqshband (quddisa sirruhu), the founder of Naqshbandiyyah, has become a center around which social relations are focused. It has been an important educational and visiting place for Inner Asia, Turkestan, and China. Along with these, the tomb and its surroundings have undertaken important functions in the region within the framework of education, science, and social relations. Again, Iraq, Syria, Anatolia, and Caucasus, especially with the activism of Khalidiyyah, have turned into the geographical spaces of various Naqshbandi centers. Naqshbandi dargahs, caliphs, and madrasas here have played great roles in science, culture, and social life. The great Sufis and scholarsthat Islamic society needed were brought up here and the society was included in the socialization process through these dargahs. It has been observed for many generations that three important regions of Ahlu’s-Sunnah, India, Ottoman, and Central Asia, have been integrated into a tight-knit social structure through Naqshbandiyyah.

Naqshbandiyyah also makes great contributions to integration in order to eliminate the crisis that Islamic society went through during the great wars and depressions. The main threats to the integration of societies are occupations, colonization efforts, and wars because these threats can result in great chaos, depression, and trauma. With the weakening of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the 18th century, Islamic societies began to take place among the targets of colonialism. From the beginning of the 19th century, enemy factions began to take action. European countries such as France, England, and Italy began occupying the Islamic lands in Africa, the Middle East, and India. Russia also began to colonize Muslim societies in the Caucasus.

Against these occupation, war, and colonization activities, we see that the Naqshbandis were making a great effort for political and social integration. Many Naqshbandi shaykhs engaged in anti-colonial resistance. In the letter he sent to caliphs, Mawlana Khalid (quddisa sirruhu) says to stand by the Ottoman Empire against the colonial enemies. He defines the Ottoman Sultan as the 'general caliph' (al-Khalifatu'l-Amm). He writes to pray for him for the destruction of the infidels, the enemies of religion, the resurrection of the sunnah, and the exaltation of the shari'ah." (Ergün Yıldırım, Sociological Imagination of Naqshiband, International Bahaaddin Naqshband and Naqshbandi Symposium Texts 2016)

In summary, the Naqshbandis, who see all the work done for the sake of Allah in order to be useful to people in terms of their religion and worldly affairs as service, are known to define it as "sacrificing the nafs for the benefit of the Ummah of Muhammad.”

Ömer Yücel