Najmuddīn-e Kubrā (Persian: نجم‌الدین کبری‎) or Najm al-Din Kubra, (Shaykh Abū al-Jannāb Ahmad ibn ‘Umar) was a 13th-century Persian Sufi from Khwarezmia, the founder of the Kubrawiyya or Kubraviyah Sufi order, influential in the Ilkhanid and Timurid. His method, exemplary of a "golden age" of Sufi metaphysics, was related to the Illuminism of Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi as well as to Rumi's Shams Tabrizi.^[1] Kubra was born in 540/1145 and died in 617/1220.^[2]

Biography[link]

Born in 540/1145, Najm al-din Kubra began his career as a scholar of hadith and kalam. His interest in Sufism began in Egypt where he became a murid of Shaykh Ruzbihan Baghli Shirazi, who was an initiate of the Oveisy order. After years of study, he abandoned his exploration of the religious sciences and devoted himself entirely to the Sufi way of life. Sufi shaikh Zia-Al-Din-'Ammar Bedlisi was Kubra's teacher, who tried to present Sufi thought in a new way to provide contemplation and influence for the reader.^[3] After receiving his khirka, Kubra gained a large following of gnostics and writers on Sufism ^[4] It is because his followers are predominantly Sufi writers and gnostics, that Kubra was given the title "manufacturer of saints," and his order was named the Kubraviyah.^[4] Kubra's main body of works concerns the analysis of the visionary experience. He wrote numerous important works discussing the visionary experience, including a Sufi commentary on the Qu'ran that he was unable to complete due to his death in 617/1220. Kubra died during the Mongol conquests after refusing to leave his city, where he fought in hand-to-hand combat against the Mongols.^[4] Overall, Kubra is remembered as a pioneer of the Sufi tradition and explanation of spiritual visionary experiences. Kubra's work spread throughout the Middle East and Central Asia where it flourished for many years, until it gradually was taken over by other similar more popular ideologies and Sufi leaders.

His Work[link]

In addition to his work centering around the Sufi commentary of the Qu'ran, Kubra wrote other important treatises including ^[4] :

• Fawa'ih al-djamal wa-fawatih al-djalal
• Usul al- 'ashara
• Risalat al-kha'if al-ha'im min lawmat al-la'im

His works discuss the analysis of dreams and visions, such as the "significance of dreams and visions, the degrees of luminous epiphany that are manifested to the mystic, the different classes of concept and image that engage his attention, and the nature and interrelations of man's 'subtle centres.'"^[4] The interpretation and understanding of dreams was important because the Prophet Muhammad had developed the Islamic faith based on dreams and visions, so the Qu'ran was seen as a visionary text. The Kubraviya order were avid practitioners of seeking the meaning of visions through ritual performances and meditation. Kubra, being the manufacturer of saints, led him to analyze popular dream episodes from Muslim hagiographical works, and his disciples would follow in his analyzation of these well known and important works.^[5]

The Kubraviyah (His Order)[link]

The Kubraviya was Kubra's Sufi order, focusing on explaining the visionary experience. The influence of the Kubraviya can be seen on the Islamic world as a whole because of its relationship to the strong influence of Shi'ism in Iran.^[6] The Kubraviya was not largely popular until after Kubra's death in the 16th century. The Kubraviya found great development outside of Central Asia, but it's influence and presence only lasted till the 19th/20th century, when it was replaced by the Nawshbandiya (another, more attractive Sufi group) during the Ottoman Empire. The Kubraviya's influence in Central Asia established many political, social, and economic activities there, but the Naqshbandiyah developed these ideas to their fullest potential. The Kubraviya's main teaching was a "well-developed mystical psychology based on the analysis of the visionary experience." ^[7] They focused on explaining the spiritual visionary experiences that Sufis underwent in everyday life. Their largest concern was the total focus on the zikr as a means of allowing for the perception of spiritual visions.^[7] Today, the Kubraviyah is almost non-existent, but groups such as the Naqshbandiyyah and Yasawiyyah continue to practice similar Sufi rituals and ideas about analyzing spiritual visions.

His Disciples[link]

Among his twelve students one can mention Najmeddin Razi, Sayfeddin Bakhezri, Majd al-Dīn Baghdādī, and Baha'uddin Walad, father of Jalaluddin Rumi. However, one of his most well-known and influential disciples though was Sa'd al-Din Hamuwayi. Kubra informed Hamuwayi to leave the city in which they resided with the impending Mongol invasion on the horizon. However, Hamuwayi stayed with Kubra and received his ijaza from him, which shows his favorable reputation with the Sufi Master, as not only a student, but as a friend. Hamuwayi wrote over thirty important manuscripts and other works concerning the work of Kubra, and the influence of the Kubraviyah.^[8]

Future Evidence[link]

Today, the practices of the Kubrawiyya are similar to certain Tibetan Sufi yoga rituals, which allow the practitioners to focus on prayer, fasting, seclusion, and entry into visionary states. The focus on visionary states allows the practice of yoga to be attributed to the influence of the Kubraviyah. The concentration attributed to yoga is a way to connect to the divine in a spiritual way, and Kubra himself said "the mystical traveller will similarly sense the generation of lights from the whole of his body and the veil will possibly be withdrawn from the entire selfhood, so that with all of the body you will see the All!" ^[9] The physical action of yoga will help one to see the All (God) through dreams, visions, and experiences. In a modern attempt to explain the connection of the divine through yoga, they attribute another quote of Kubra saying "The light that is derived from God's lights and witnessed by the heart serves to make God known to the heart: He makes Himself known by means of Himself." ^[9] These two groups show similar spiritual experiences such as total isolation which invokes a connection with the divine seen in accounts by both parties.^[9] Overall, the connection between these two groups can largely be attributed to the spread of the Kubraviyah's ideologies in the 15th century, and Tibetan yoga practices attest to the widespread nature of the Kubraviyah, and therefore the teachings of Kubra himself.

See also[link]

• List of Iranian scientists and scholars

References[link]

v t e Sufism and Tariqa Ideas Qutb Wali Abdal Fakir Dervish Tazkiah Baqaa Fanaa Haal Keramat Haqiqa Ihsan Irfan Kashf Lataif Manzil Marifa Nafs Noor Sufi cosmology Sufi metaphysics Sufi philosophy Sufi poetry Sufi psychology Sulook Yaqeen Silsila Practices Anasheed Dhikr Haḍra Muraqaba Qawwali Sama Whirling Ziyarat Sufi orders Azeemia Akbarī Alians Ba 'Alawī Bayramī Bektashī Chishtī Galibī Gulshanī Ḥurūfī Idrīsī Jelvetī Jerrahī Khalwatī Kubrāwī Madarī Malāmatī Mawlāwī Mourīdī Naqshbandī Naqshbandi Uwaisī Khalidiyya Nasuhī Ni'matullāhī Nuqtawī Qadirī Qalāndārī Rifa'ī Safāvī Shadhilī Suhrawardī Sunbulī Tijanī Ussakī Uwaisī Zahedī Notable early Sufi saints and mystics Abdul-Qadir Gilanī Abul-Khayr Ahmad Ghazālī Ahmed Yasāvī Al-Ghazālī Al-Hallaj al-Misrī Al-Qāsim al-Qunawī Amīr Kulal Ardabilī Ata Allah Attar Balım Sultan Baha ūd-Dīn Naqshband Bande Nawāz Baqī Billah Bastamī Bhita'ī Bulleh Shah Shah Waliullah Dehlāvī Farīd ūd-Dīn Fozail Gālib Gharīb Nawāz Ghujdawanī Ghulam Farīd Sheik Edebali Gül Baba Hajji Bayram Hajji Bektash Hazrat Mai Safoora Qadiriyya Haddad Hamadānī Hansvī Harabatī Baba Hasan Basri Mahmud Hudayī Hujwirī ibn ʿArabī Jābir ibn Hayyān Jahangasht Jamī Jan-e-Jānāān Jazoulī Junayd Baġdādī Kākī Kaliyarī Karkhī Kharaqanī Kubrā Nāimī Najib al-Suhrawardī Nasīmī Mansur Al-Hallaj Ni'matullāh Nizām ūd-Dīn Nurī Otman Baba Pir Sultan Qutb ūd-Dīn Haydār Rabbānī Rabia Basri Razī Rifa'ī Rukn-e-Alam Rūmī Ibrahim ibn Adham Saadī Salman al-Farisī Sanai Mevlana Halid-i Bagdadi Sarı Saltuk Semnanī Shadhilī Shahāb al-Dīn Suhrawardī Shams Tabrizī Shiblī Shirazī Sultan Walad Surkh Bukhari Taj al-Dīn Gilanī Umar al-Suhrawardī Uwais al-Qarni Yunus Emre Magtymguly Pyragy Zakariya Zarruq Notable modern Sufi saints Auliya Azeemi Nagpuri Meher Ali Sheikh Muhammad Uthman Sirajuddin Qadeer Piya Muhammad Maliki Gohar Shahi Tahir ul-Qadri Tahir Allauddin Taqi Usmani Abdal Hakim Murad Nazim Al-Haqqani Hisham Kabbani Nuh Keller Nooruddeen Durkee Abdalqadir as-Sufi Zaheen Ghulam Mustafa Reshad Feild Ahmad al-Alawi Ashraf Ali Thanvi Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Abd al-Rahman al-Shaghouri Omar Shah Haeri Raza Khan Syed Shujaat Pir Zulfiqar Abdullah Naqshbandi Sufi Barkat Ali Hafiz Qamaruddin Saheb Qibla Fultali Feisal Abdul Rauf Osman Nuri Topbaş Sufi studies Aguéli Almqvist Burckhardt Chittick Corbin Ernst Frager Guénon Hixon Lindbom Lings Nasr Schimmel Sells Shah Schuon Topics in Sufism Art Fiction History Music Poetry Shrines Texts Portal

Qalandar Baba Auliya (Urdu: قلندر با با اولیا) is the title of the Sufi mystic Sayyed Muhammad Azim Barkhiyya (can also spell Azeem) (1898, Uttar Pradesh, India – January 27, 1979, Karachi), the founder of the Azimiyya. His mother was adopted by Baba Tajuddin of Nagpur and hence Qalandar Baba always referred the latter as his nana (maternal grandfather).^[1] He was given the honorifics Abdal-i-Haq and Hasn-e-Ukhra (Urdu: سید محمد عظیم برخیا).

Living in Aligarh he spent much time in the company of the local Sufi Kabli Baba.^[1] After he had completed the 12th grade of school, Baba Tajuddin summoned him to Nagpur, where he spent nine years under Baba's guidance until his death in 1929. During this time his mother died, leaving four daughters and two sons, Muhammad Azim being the eldest son. Baba Tajuddin arranged his marriage with one of his disciples' daughters in Delhi. Muhammad Azim moved his family to Delhi and worked there as a journalist until the partition of India in 1947.^[1] After this he and his family migrated to Pakistan, settling in Karachi's Lyari subdivision. He was appointed sub-editor of the Daily Urdu Dawn.^[1]

In 1956 Hazrat Abul-Fayz Qalandar Ali Suhrawardi, a dervish of the Suhrawardi Sufi order, came to Karachi and Muhammad Azim asked to be initiated into the order. Hazrat Abul-Fayz blew three times on the forehead of Qalandar Baba Auliya. "On the first blow the cosmic world (Alam-e-Arwah) was revealed, on the second the angelic realm (Alam-e-Malkut) and on the third one the Divine Throne Arsh-e-Mu'alla." ^[1] The Sufi sheikh taught him for three weeks, after which, he said, he received knowledge from many past saints including Najmuddin Kubra.^[1]

Qalandar Baba Auliya would go to the residence of his disciple Khwaja Shamsuddin Azeemi to hold sohbet(satsang, meeting with the spiritual master).^[2] He taught that man's first and foremost purpose of is to recognise his own self and have an intimate relationship with his Creator.[2] One can not find truth in the outward (zahir) but only by turning inward (batin). Here is the doorway to the Cosmos - that is why Man is called microcosm (al-alam sughra).^[2] One week before his death he told his disciples and friends; "I am a guest here for a maximum of one week". He appointed Khwaja Shamsuddin Azimi head of the order of the Azimiyya and died, on January 27, 1979. His tomb is in the Shadman Town subdivision of Karachi.^[1]

See also[link]

• Qalander
• Sufism
• Auliya
• Baba Tajuddin of Nagpur
• Khwaja Shamsuddin Azeemi
• Azeemia

References[link]

External links[link]

• http://www.esnips.com/web/Azeemi-books THREE BOOKS BY Qalandar Ba Ba Auliya

1. Loh-o-Qalam - (The Pen and the Scripturum) - a treasury of mysteries and secrets
2. Tazkira-e-Tajuddin Baba
3. Ruba'iyat i Qalandar Baba Auliya - anthology of verse

• Silsila-i-Azeemia
• http://irfanfaooqi.spaces.live.com Blog of Azeemia
• http://www.mmhall.net/ Meditation Halls Network
• http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/irfanfarooqi/ShrineQalandarBabaAuliaTheGreatSpiritualScientist Pictures of Shrine of Qalandar Baba Aulia
• http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/irfanfarooqi/AzeemiaSufiOrder Pictures of Khwaja Shamsuddin Azimi
• http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/qalander+baba+/video/x7yvox_urs-2009-canada_people See the short documentary of Qalandar Baba Auliya

v t e Sufism and Tariqa Ideas Qutb Wali Abdal Fakir Dervish Tazkiah Baqaa Fanaa Haal Keramat Haqiqa Ihsan Irfan Kashf Lataif Manzil Marifa Nafs Noor Sufi cosmology Sufi metaphysics Sufi philosophy Sufi poetry Sufi psychology Sulook Yaqeen Silsila Practices Anasheed Dhikr Haḍra Muraqaba Qawwali Sama Whirling Ziyarat Sufi orders Azeemia Akbarī Alians Ba 'Alawī Bayramī Bektashī Chishtī Galibī Gulshanī Ḥurūfī Idrīsī Jelvetī Jerrahī Khalwatī Kubrāwī Madarī Malāmatī Mawlāwī Mourīdī Naqshbandī Naqshbandi Uwaisī Khalidiyya Nasuhī Ni'matullāhī Nuqtawī Qadirī Qalāndārī Rifa'ī Safāvī Shadhilī Suhrawardī Sunbulī Tijanī Ussakī Uwaisī Zahedī Notable early Sufi saints and mystics Abdul-Qadir Gilanī Abul-Khayr Ahmad Ghazālī Ahmed Yasāvī Al-Ghazālī Al-Hallaj al-Misrī Al-Qāsim al-Qunawī Amīr Kulal Ardabilī Ata Allah Attar Balım Sultan Baha ūd-Dīn Naqshband Bande Nawāz Baqī Billah Bastamī Bhita'ī Bulleh Shah Shah Waliullah Dehlāvī Farīd ūd-Dīn Fozail Gālib Gharīb Nawāz Ghujdawanī Ghulam Farīd Sheik Edebali Gül Baba Hajji Bayram Hajji Bektash Hazrat Mai Safoora Qadiriyya Haddad Hamadānī Hansvī Harabatī Baba Hasan Basri Mahmud Hudayī Hujwirī ibn ʿArabī Jābir ibn Hayyān Jahangasht Jamī Jan-e-Jānāān Jazoulī Junayd Baġdādī Kākī Kaliyarī Karkhī Kharaqanī Kubrā Nāimī Najib al-Suhrawardī Nasīmī Mansur Al-Hallaj Ni'matullāh Nizām ūd-Dīn Nurī Otman Baba Pir Sultan Qutb ūd-Dīn Haydār Rabbānī Rabia Basri Razī Rifa'ī Rukn-e-Alam Rūmī Ibrahim ibn Adham Saadī Salman al-Farisī Sanai Mevlana Halid-i Bagdadi Sarı Saltuk Semnanī Shadhilī Shahāb al-Dīn Suhrawardī Shams Tabrizī Shiblī Shirazī Sultan Walad Surkh Bukhari Taj al-Dīn Gilanī Umar al-Suhrawardī Uwais al-Qarni Yunus Emre Magtymguly Pyragy Zakariya Zarruq Notable modern Sufi saints Auliya Azeemi Nagpuri Meher Ali Sheikh Muhammad Uthman Sirajuddin Qadeer Piya Muhammad Maliki Gohar Shahi Tahir ul-Qadri Tahir Allauddin Taqi Usmani Abdal Hakim Murad Nazim Al-Haqqani Hisham Kabbani Nuh Keller Nooruddeen Durkee Abdalqadir as-Sufi Zaheen Ghulam Mustafa Reshad Feild Ahmad al-Alawi Ashraf Ali Thanvi Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Abd al-Rahman al-Shaghouri Omar Shah Haeri Raza Khan Syed Shujaat Pir Zulfiqar Abdullah Naqshbandi Sufi Barkat Ali Hafiz Qamaruddin Saheb Qibla Fultali Feisal Abdul Rauf Osman Nuri Topbaş Sufi studies Aguéli Almqvist Burckhardt Chittick Corbin Ernst Frager Guénon Hixon Lindbom Lings Nasr Schimmel Sells Shah Schuon Topics in Sufism Art Fiction History Music Poetry Shrines Texts Portal