HADRAT IMÂM-I RABBÂNÎ

We shall quote a few of the sayings that emanated from Imâm-i- Ahmad Rabbânî’s ‘qaddas-Allâhu ta’âlâ sirrah-ul’azîz’ blessed heart and were expressed through his blessed pen’s tongue:

• Ghaws-ul-a’zam (Abd-ul-qâdîr Geylânî) ‘quddisa sirruh’ and the great Shaikhs of Qâdirî path ‘rahmatullâhi alaihim’ visited me. With the arrival of these great people, I found myself in the haloes of Qâdirî nisbat (path). I thought to myself, “I was educated by the superiors of Naqshbendî. How is it that the Qâdirî order seems to have had more effect on me?” As soon as this thought passed through my heart, hadrat Khwâja-i-jihân Bahâ-ad-dîn Bukhârî ‘quddisa sirruh’, accompanied by his disciples, honoured the place with his presence and sat against the Ghaws-us- saqaleyn. Addressing the other group, he said, “Ahmad is one of us. He attained perfection and maturity through our methods of education.” In the meantime, leaders of the orders Cheshtiyya and Kubrawiyya arrived, too. They poured their own nisbats into my heart. They gave me new ijâzats. I already was in possession of the nisbats of those superior people, and now they became firmer and brighter. If I wish, I can make my disciples reach perfection through all these paths.
• One day I was pervaded with a feeling of seeing my deeds deficient. I was in a mood of utter penitence and contrition, when I heard a voice saying, “I have forgiven thee and those who invoke through thee, whether through another means or without any intermediary in between, till the end of the world,” as it had been expressed in the hadîth-i-sherîf, “If a person humiliates himself for the sake of Allâhu ta’âlâ, Allâhu ta’âlâ will exalt him.”
• They have shown me all those men and women who have joined our order as well as those who will join us through means or directly till the end of the world. They have given me their names, family names, and countries. I could name them all one by one if I liked to. All these people have been forgiven for my sake.
• I have been given the good news, “If you attend a person’s funeral he shall be forgiven.” I was also inspired, “If you ask for a dead person’s forgiveness, his torment shall be stopped once and for all.” At some other time I was inspired, “If a handful of soil from your grave is put on a grave, the person lying in this grave shall attain maghfirat-i-ilâhiyya (Allah’s forgiveness).” [This shows how great the person who lies in this grave (hadrat Imâm Rabbânî) must be].