Stories and Sayings of Abdul Khaliq al-Gijduvoniy

Khwaja Abdul Khaliq al-Gijduvoniy (may God sanctify his innermost being), the eleventh Shaykh in the Naqshbandi Golden Chain and the second of the ‘Khwajagan’ – the Masters of Wisdom of Central Asia, said the following:-

One day, a dervish said to Khwaja Abdul Khaliq, “If Allah (Exalted is He) has made me free to choose between paradise and hell, I am choosing hell. That is because, throughout my whole life, I have never acted in accordance with the desire of the lower self. In this situation, paradise is the aim of my own self, whereas hell is the aim of the Lord of Truth.”

The Khwaja rejected this statement, saying, “What does the servant have to do with choice? Wherever He commands us to go, that is where we go. Wherever He commands us to stay, that is where we stay. Servitude is this, not what you say it is.”

The Dervish replied, “Does the hand of Satan reach the traveller on the spiritual path?”

The Khwaja answered, “If a traveller on the spiritual path has not attained to the secret of the degree of self-annihilation because he has retained a feeling of anger, the hand of Satan reached him. As for the traveller who has attained to the secret of self-annihilation, he feels no anger. He is inspired by zeal, and wherever zeal exists, Satan flees from that place. The following description has been applied to that person: He has turned his face towards the path of Truth, holding the Book of Allah in his right hand and the Tradition of Allah’s Messenger (peace & blessings be upon him) in his left hand. Between these two lights, he continues to progress along the path.”

 

Source:- “The Naqshbandi Way – History and Guidebook of the Saints of the Golden Chain”, by Mawlana Shaykh Hisham.