The Naqshbandi Lineage of Shaykh Muhammad Ma'sum Naqshbandi: Alan Abd al-Haqq Godlas, Ph.D - Sufi Illuminations Journal

The Naqshbandi Lineage of Shaykh Muhammad Ma'sum Naqshbandi: 

Alan Abd al-Haqq Godlas, Ph.D, Assistant Professor, University of Georgia

Risala-yi Anwar as-Sufiyya, Sufi Illuminations: A journal dedicated to Islam and Tasawwuf

Volume 1: August, 1996 Part 1. Published by Naqshbandiya Foundation for Islamic Education (NFIE)

Although the various branches of the Naqshbandiyya have had considerable historical impact throughout the world, that impact has not been felt in the United States- until recently. Now,American Muslims are growing disenchanted with dry, rule-dominated, and often politically fixated versions of Islam that have dominated American Islamic Centers and mosques for the last twenty years.As a result, the Naqshbandiyya and other traditional Sufi Orders are filling the void that exists in the lives and hearts of American Muslims.

One way in which the Sufi Orders are filling this void is by sponsoring events through which traditional Islamic devotion is returning to the hearts of Muslims. The most significant of these events is the celebration of the birthday of the Prophet ﷺ . The annual International Milad an-Nabi ﷺ  Conference held in Chicago, in which numerous Sufi orders and traditional Islamic scholars participate, is an important contribution to the renaissance of the Islamic heart.

The organization sponsoring the Annual International Milad an-Nabi ﷺ  Conference in Chicago is the Naqshbandiya Foundation for Islamic Education (NFIE). In North America, the board of Naqshbandiya Foundation consults with Shaykh Ma'sum Naqshbandi on religious and spiritual matters. Consequently the spiritual lineage of Shaykh Ma'sum should be of interest to Muslims and the general scholarly community. What follows consists of the names in Shaykh Ma'sum's lineage ( silsila ) leading back to Baha al-Din Naqshband ( Rahmat Allah alayhi ) - the shaykh from whom the Naqshbandi order takes its name -- and then from Shaykh Baha al-Din back to the Prophet ﷺ.

Scholars interested in researching the shaykhs of Shaykh Ma'sum's lineage are advised to pursue the references that I have indicated in the notes to the lineage. In addition , the general reader is now fortunate in having at his or her disposal The Naqshbandi Sufi Way: History and Guodebook of the Saints of the Golder Chain. This is an easily readable work, part of which surveys most of Shaykh Masum's lineage, this lineage being the Naqshbandi- Khalidi silsila from the Prophetﷺ to Mawlana Khalid (d. 1242/1827) ( Rahmat Allah alayhi ) . Readers who know Persian and are interested in links between Shaykh Ma'sum and Mawlana Khalid of Baghdad can read Tavakkuli's Tarikh-i tasvvuf dar Kurdistan.

The Chain of transmission ( silsila ) from Shaykh Ma'sum Naqshbandi , leading to Shaykh Baha al-Din Naqshband ( Rahmat Allah alayhi ) 

1. Shaykh Muhammad Ma'sum Diya'i Naqshbandi - 2. Shaykh Jamil Naqshbandi (d.1349/1930-31)

3. Umar Diya al-Din (d.1318/1900-1901)- 4. Muhammad Baha al-Din (d. 1289/1872-73)

5. Uthman Siraj al-Din (d.1283/1866-67) - 6.Mawlana Khalid (d.1242/1827)

7. Abdallah ( Shah Ghulam Ali) al- Dihlawi (d.1240/1824)-8. Shams al-Din Habib Allah ( Mirza Mazhar) Jan Janan (d. 1195/1781) -9. al-Sayyid Nur Muhammad al-Bada'uni (d.1135/1722-23)

10. al-Sayyid Muhammad Sayf al-Din (d.1095/1683-84) 11.Muhammad Ma'sum (d.1079/1668)

12. al-Imam al-Rabbani al-Shaykh Ahmad al-Faruqi (d.1034/1624) 

13. Muhammad Baqi Billah (d.1012/1603) - 14. Muhammad Khwaja al-Amanaki (d.1008/1599-1600

15. Darwish Muhammad (d. 970/1562) 16. Muhammad Qadi al-Zahid (d. 936/1529)

17. Ubayd Allah Ahrar (d.895/1490) 18. Yaqub al-Charkhi (d.851/1447)

19. Ala al-Din Attar (d. 802/1400) 20. Baha al-Din Naqshband (d. 791/1389)

The Khwajagan chain of transmission traced back from Baha al-Din Naqshband to Prophet ﷺ.

20. Baha al-Din al-Naqshband (d.791/1389)  21. al-Sayyid Amir Kulal (d. 772/1371)

22.Muhammad Baba Sammasi ( d. 755/1354) 23. Ali al-Ramitani (d. 715/1316) or (721/1321)

24. Mahmud Anjir Faghnavi (d.685/1286-87)  25. Arif Rivgari (d. 649/1251-52)

26.Abd al-Khaliq al- Ghijduvani (d.575/1179) 27. Yusuf al-Hamadani (d. 535/1140)

28.Abu Ali al-Farmadi (d.477/1084) 29. Abu al-Hsan al-Kharaqani (d. 425/1033)

30. Abu Yazid al-Bistami (d.261/874) 31. Jafar al- Sadiq (d. 148/765)

32. Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al- Siddiq (d. 107/725) 33. Salman al-Farsi (d.36/656)

34. Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (d. 13/634) 35. Muhammad, the Messenger of Allahﷺ . (d 11/632)

In tracing their lineages back to the Prophet ﷺ , the Naqshbandiyya- and all traditional Sufi orders-affirm that the origins of Sufism derive from the quality of consciousness and actions of the Prophet ﷺ .  They assert , like Hazrat-i Data Ganj Bakhsh (Hujwei) that at the time of the first generations of Muslims, Sufism was a reality that did not have a separate and verbalized identity; Sufism and Islam were one and the same. Furthermore , in tracing their lineages back to the Prophet ﷺ , Sufis affirm that Sufism is not a foreign import into Islam , that it is not some alien " innovation", but that it is a particular menifestation of inherently Islamic principles. All traditional Sufi lineages, all Naqshbandi lineages, including that of Shaykh Masum's, represent particular flowerings of the spirit of Islam.

Notes not included