Hadrat Mawlānā Khālid al-Baghdādī ʻUthmānī Kurdī Shāfiʿī Naqshbandī Mujaddidī (d.1242 AH) qaddas-Allāhu sirrahū is one of the greatest Naqshbandi masters who spread and firmly established the noble Naqshbandi Sufi Order in the Middle East, Turkey and Europe. He was an illustrious deputy of the great Sufi saint of India Shāh ʿAbdullāh alias Ghulām-ʿAlī Dahlawī (d.1240 AH).
In his short life of 47 years, he not only achieved the highest qualifications of exoteric knowledge, but also gained sublime spiritual stations and spread this noble Path into the farthest areas of Earth including the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Indonesia and many other countries.
Biography
Mawlānā Khālid was born in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq in approximately 1190 AH (1779).
He died in Damascus, Syria on 11 Dhul-Qaʻdah 1242 AH (June 1827).
Defender of the Sunni Islam
Mawlānā Khālid was a great saint and an exalted scholar of the Sunni tradition, and always upheld the true path of Islam. He refuted and debated with the misguided sects. His students record that he was a brilliant debater and was hugely successful in his debates against the twelver Shia sect and always defeated them.
During his lifetime, the Wahhabi sect was emerging in the Arabia, fueled and funded by the European colonists. Europeans wanted to destroy the Ottoman caliphate, the last symbol of Islamic power, and followed their strategy of divide and conquer. They supported the Wahhabis against the Ottomans in the form of Arabian nationalism. The Wahhabis raided the holy cities of Islam Makkah and Madinah, and killed many innocent people including scholars and Sufi masters. They attacked and desecrated the holy places such as the noble tombs of the Sahaba and Ahl al-Bayt. Mawlānā Khālid ordered some of his disciples and deputies to take part in the defense of the holy cities and fight against the Wahhabi terrorists.
Deputies
Mawlānā Khālid trained thousands of disciples in the sublime Sufi Path of Naqshbandī Mujaddidī, and a number of them became his deputies and successors. These deputies traveled far and wide and spread this Sufi Order in many lands. Here I want to list the names of these great saints and their whereabouts.
- Mawlānā ʻAbbās Kuwaitī
- Sayyid ʻAbdul-Ghafūr Baghdādī
- Mawlānā ʻAbdullāh Hirātī, Afghanistan (died in 1240’s)
- Sayyid ʻAbdullāh Jīlānī Hakkārī (died in 1250’s)
- Shaykh ʻAbdullāh Makkī Arzinjānī (died in 1240’s)
- Shaykh ʻAbdullāh ibn ʻAbdur-Rahmān Kurdī (died in 1240’s)
- Sayyid ʻAbdul-Qādir Barzanjī
- Shaykh ʻAbdul-Qādir Dimalānī
- Shaykh ʻAbdur-Rahmān Kurdī, Syria
- Mawlānā Abū-Bakr Baghdādī
- Shaykh Ahmad Izmīrī, Turkey
- Sayyid Ahmad Barzanjī (died in 1250’s)
- Shaykh Ahmad al-Khatīb Arbīlī, khalīfa in Damascus
- Mullā Ahmad Kurdī Hakkārī, Makkah
- Shaykh ʻĀshiq Misrī, the last deputy of Mawlānā Khālid
- Shaykh Mawlānā Hidāyatullāh Arbalī
- Shaykh Husain ibn Ahmad Dūsarī Basarī Shāfiʻī (d.1250 AH/1834)
- Shaykh ʻĪsā Kurdī
- Shaykh Ismāʻīl Anārānī Kurdī (d.1242 AH)
- Sayyid Ismāʻīl Barzanjī Kurdī, khalīfa in Madīnah
- Shaykh Ismāʻīl Basarī
- Shaykh Ismāʻīl Shirwānī
- Shaykh Khālid Jazīrī
- Shaykh Khās Muhammad Shirwānī
- Shaykh Mahmūd as-Sāhib Uthmānī, Mawlānā Khālid’s brother
- Shaykh Muhammad ibn Sulaimān Baghdādī Hanafī (d.1234 AH)
- Shaykh Muhammad al-Imām, died during his master’s lifetime in 1230 AH, buried in Baghdad in the shrine of Junaid al-Baghdādī
- Imām Muhammad Amīn Ibn-ʻĀbidīn Shāmī Hanafī (d.1252 AH/1836)
- Shaykh Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Khānī
- Mawlānā Muhammad Qazlarī
- Shaykh Muhammad Sālih, Imam of Shāfiʻī Fiqh in Makkah
- Mawlānā Mustafā ibn Jalāluddīn Kalʻanbarī
- Shaykh Mūsā Bandanījī
- Mawlānā Mūsā Jibūrī Baghdādī
- Mullā Rasūl, Iran
- Sayyid Tāhā Hakkārī Jīlānī
- Sayyid Ubaydullāh Haydarī, Mufti of Baghdād
- Shaykh ʻUthmān Sirājuddīn
References
[1] Al-Hadīqat al-Nadiyyah, by Shaykh Muhammad ibn Sulaimān Baghdādī Hanafī Naqshbandī Khālidī (d.1234 AH)
Links
الشيخ خالد النقشبندي العالم المجدد
Was Grandshaykh Khalid al-Baghdadi Shia?
Gallery
Entrance to the holy tomb of Mawlana Khalid Baghdadi in Damascus
The tombstone on the noble grave of Mawlana Khalid Baghdadi in Damascus
Map indicating the tombs of Mawlana Khalid Baghdadi and Shaykh Abd al-Ghani Nabulusi in Damascus
Assalámo-Alaikum W. W.,
to put the records straight, it is the Ahle-Saud who were primarily conniving with the British when the Saudis took over Hijázul-Muqaddas after an awful lot of blood being spilt … in fact, they are not even Arabs by lineage, which would further unwarrant their Rule in the Peninsula! As far as Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhab being indoctrined by the famous British Spy, Hempher is nothing but concocted material (the Shaykh and the Ahlus-Shaykh may be advocating their puritannical brand of Sunni Islam, yet, to further the idea that the Colonial Powers had a hand in them promulgating their brand of Sunni Islam is nothing further from the truth) … one can see the state of Turkey and its people in particular (even the Haqqáni Sufis of the Naqshbandiyah Silsiláh – at least one of them from the Ottoman lineage – lament the state of the Turkish Muslims nowadays) … so, in conclusion, it does not behove a Muslim to lay the blame squarely on Western Colonial Powers for the malaise permeating the Ummah in general …