Hazrat Khalid al-Baghdadi (r.a) - Spiritual Foundation

Hazrat Khalid ibn Husayn al-Baghdadi al-Uthmani [d.1242 H - 1826 CE] 'alayhir ar-rahman w'al ridwan

Khalid al-Baghdadi was a Naqshbandi shaykh and founder of the Khalidi branch of the Naqshbandi order. He was born [in the year 1193 H./1779 CE] in Shehrezur, Karadag an area near to Sulaymaniye in northern Iraq. His full name was Khalid ibn Husain taking the nickname "Ziyauddin" and al-Baghdadi later.
His grandfather was Par Mika'il Chis Anchit, which means Mika'il the Saint of the six fingers. His title is 'Uthmani because he is a descendant of Sayyidina 'Uthman ibn 'Affan Radi Allahu ta'ala anhu, the third caliph of Islam. He studied the Qur'an al-kareem and its explanation and fiqh according to the Shafi'i school. He was famous in poetry. When he was fifteen years of age he took asceticism as his creed, hunger as his horse, wakefulness as his means, seclusion as his friend, and energy as his light.
Young Khalid studied with the two great scholars of his time, Shaykh 'Abdul Karam al-Barzinji and Shaykh 'Abdur Rahim al-Barzinji [Allah be pleased with them], and he read with Mullah Muhammad 'Ali. He studied the sciences of mathematics, philosophy, and logicas well as the principles of jurisprudence. He studied the works of Ibn Hajar, as-Suyuti, and al-Haythami. He memorized the commentary on Qur'an by Baydawi. He was able to find solutions for even the most difficult questions in jurisprudence. He memorized the Qur'an according to the fourteen different ways of recitation, and became very famous everywhere for this.
He then entered seclusion, leaving everything he had studied behind, coming to Allah's door with all kinds of pious actions and much dhikr, both loud and silent. He no longer visited the sultans, but kept to himself and to his murids, until the year 1220 H./1806 CE, when he decided to make the Pilgrimage and to visit the Beloved Prophet . He left everything and went to Hijaz through the cities of Mosul and Yarbikir and ar-Raha and Aleppo and Damascus, where he met its scholars and followed its Shaykh, the master of both the ancient and the modern knowledge and the teacher of hadith, ash-Shaykh Muhammad al-Kuzbara. He received authorization in the Qadiri Tariqat from Shaykh al-Kuzbari and his deputy, Shaykh Mustafa al-Kurdi, who travelled with him until he reached the city of the Beloved Prophet .
He praised the Prophet in Persian poetry in such a way that people were astonished at his eloquence. He spent a long time in the City of the Beloved Prophet . He reported,
"I was looking for someone of rare piety in order to take some advice when I saw a Shaykh on the right-hand side of the Blessed Gravesite (Rawdatu-sh-Sharifa). I asked him to give me advice, counsel from a wise scholar to an ignorant person. He advised me not to object when I enter Makkah to matters which might appear to be counter to the shari`a, but to keep quiet. I reached Makkah, and keeping in my heart that advice, I went to the Holy Mosque early on the morning of Friday. I sat near the Ka’ba reading Dala'il al-Khayrat, when I saw a man with a black beard leaning on a pillar and looking at me. It came to my heart that the man was not showing the proper respect to the Kacba, but I didn't say anything to him about the matter.
"He looked at me and scolded me, saying, 'O ignorant one, don't you know that the honor of the heart of a believer is far more than the privilege of the Ka`ba? Why do you criticize me in your heart for standing with my back to the Ka`ba and my face to you. Didn't you hear the advice of my Shaykh in Madinah who told you not to criticise?' I ran to him and asked his forgiveness, kissing his hands and feet and asking him for his guidance to Allah. He told me, 'O my son, your treasures and the keys to your heart are not in these parts, but in India. Your Shaykh is there. Go there and he will show you what you have to do.' I didn't see anyone better than him in all the Haram. He didn't tell me where to go in India, so I went back to Sham and associated with its scholars."
He then returned to Sulaymaniyyah and continued his teachings of self-denial. He was always looking for someone to show him the way. Finally, there came to Sulaymaniyyah the Shaykh Mawlana Mirza Rahimullah Beg al-M'aruf, known by the name of Muhammad ad-Darwish 'Abdul 'Azim al-Abadi, one of the khalifs of the spiritual pole, Qutb al-A'zam, 'Abdullah ad-Dehlawi (q). He met with him and gave him respect and asked him about the perfect guide to show him the way. He told him, "There is one perfect Shaykh, a Scholar and a Knower, showing the seeker the way to the King of Kings, expert in this delicate matter, following the Naqshbandi Way, carrying the Character of the Beloved Prophet , a guide in the Knowledge of Spirituality. Come back with me to his service in Jehanabad. He had told me before I left, 'You are going to meet someone, bring him back with you.'"
After travelling to India where he studied under revivalist Naqshbandi Sufi Shaykhs he returned to Syria where he engaged himself in teaching his students. He died in 1242 after Hijri [1826 Common Era]. His funeral was performed at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.

Coutesy : Spiritual Foundation http://www.spiritualfoundation.net/sufisshaykhs5.htm#111014245

Belief & Islam by Mawlana Khalid (r.a)
http://www.hizmetbooks.org/Belief_and_Islam/