Khwaja Muhammad al-Amkanaki

Khwaja Muhammad al Amkanaki (may God sanctify his innermost being) is the twenty third Shaykh in the Naqshbandi Golden Chain and at the same time, the fourteenth Khwaja of the ‘Khwajagan’ – the Masters of Wisdom of Central Asia.

He was born in the village of Amkana, a village near Bukhara and was raised by his father, Khwaja Darwish Muhammad as-Samarqandi, the twentieth Shaykh in the Naqshbandi Golden Chain and his uncle.

Under the teaching of his father, he became a fully enlightened Master. His fame spread far and wide, so that people came to him to be enlightened by his guidance.

Some of his sayings are as follows:-

“Everyone must know that for the seeker to progress in this Way, he must first sear into his heart the image of his Shaykh, until the traces of the heat of that connection become visible. He must direct that heat to the essential universal heart. This is the level of the heart in which exist the combined realities of all humanity and all creation, worldly and heavenly. Although there is no physical incarnation, all ancestors and eventually all creation exist in the essential heart. The seeker must not be distracted by the details of the creation, but must direct the power of the heart towards the One whose Reality encompasses everything. He must be free of any doubt regarding the manifestation of the One who is always Present, and must see with the eye of Truth, that all creation appears and exists through God alone.”

“The demand of this Way is to direct yourself to the state of erasure and annihilation, which is the first state of bewilderment. This will lead you to the state of receiving the pure light of the Essence. In that state, there will be no other element existing except that Pure Essence. Even the Names and the Attributes cannot exist in that state of the Pure Essence. The one who can reach the state of the Pure Essence is higher than the one who has reacheed the state of the Names and Attributes.”

Khwaja Muhammad al-Amkanaki died in 1599 AD in Kitab, 100 kms from Samarqand in the Shakhrisabz region of Uzbekisatan, where he is buried next to his Mosque.

He passed his secret on to Khwaja Muhammad al-Baqi Billah, who took the teachings of the Naqshbandi Golden Chain to India. As the Golden Chain moved away from Central Asia, Khwaja Muhammad al-Amkanaki was the last of the ‘Khwajagan’, ‘The Masters of Wisdom of Central Asia’.

May Allah be well pleased with him.

 

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