History
Hadhrat Khwaja Abd al-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani qaddas-Allahu sirrahu was born on 22 Sha’ban 435 AH in Ghujdawan near Bukhara (modern-day Uzbekistan). He was a descendant of Imam Malik (r). In his childhood he studied the Qur’an and its tafsir(exegesis), ‘ilm al-Hadith (the study of Prophetic Traditions), the sciences of the Arabic language, and Jurisprudence with Shaikh Sadruddin. His father was Shaikh ‘Abdul Jamil, one of the most famous scholars in Byzantine times in both external and internal knowledge. His mother was a princess, the daughter of the king of Seljuk Anatolia.
He was known as the Shaikh of Miracles, One Who Shone Like the Sun, and he was the Master of the high stations of spirituality of his time. He was a Perfect Knower (carif kamil) in sufism and accomplished in asceticism. He is considered the Fountainhead of this Honorable Sufi Order and the Wellspring of the Khwajagan (Masters of Central Asia).
In his childhood he studied the Qur’an and its tafsir(exegesis), ‘ilm al-Hadith (the study of Prophetic Traditions), the sciences of the Arabic language, and Jurisprudence with Shaikh Sadruddin. After mastering Sharica (the legal sciences) he moved on to jihad an-nafs (spiritual struggle), until he reached a high station of purity. He then moved to Damascus, where he established a school from which many students graduated. Each became a master of fiqh and hadith as well as spirituality, both in the regions of Central Asia as well as in the Middle East.
His reputation as an accomplished spiritual Master became widespread. Visitors used to flock to see him from every land. He gathered around him the loyal and sincere murids that he was training and teaching. In this regard, he wrote a letter to his son, al-Qalb al-Mubarak Shaykh Awliya al-Kabir, to specify the conduct of followers of this Order. He was the first one in this honorable Sufi Order to use the Silent Dhikr and he was considered the master of that form of Dhikr. When his spiritual shaikh, al-Ghawth ar-Rabbani, Yusuf al-Hamadani, came to Bukhara, he spent his time in serving him.
Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani had four khalifs. The first was Shaikh Ahmad as-Siddiq, originally from Bukhara. The second was Kabir al-Awliya (“the Greatest of Saints”), Shaikh Arif Awliya al-Kabir (q). Originally from Bukhara, he was a great scholar in both external and internal Sciences. The third khalif was Shaikh Sulaiman al-Kirmani (q). The fourth khalif was cArif ar-Riwakri (q). It is to this fourth khalif that Abdul Khaliq (q) passed the Secret of the Golden Chain before he died on the 12th of Rabi’ul-Awwal 575 H.
The author of the book al-Hada’iq al-Wardiyya tells us how he reached his high station within the Golden Chain: “He met Khidr (as) and accompanied him. He took from him heavenly knowledge and added it to the spiritual knowledge he had obtained from his shaikh, Yusuf al-Hamadani.