The Qadiri silsila and Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani

Link to section: Bottom lineBottom line

The breath technique appears in the Qadiri line later and in a documented way. Dara Shikoh, writing in 1646, describes habs-i nafas and says it descends from Jilani. That is a claim made nearly five centuries after Jilani's death, and it should be read as the line's own tradition, not as evidence from his texts.

This paper is a continuation of Pas Anfas: guarding the breath, which sets out the terms.

Link to section: Who he wasWho he was

He was a Hanbali jurist and preacher in Baghdad. The title Ghawth al-Aʿẓam is a later hagiographic one. Lawrence thinks the claim of sayyid descent may have been constructed after the fact.11Dates follow the Wikipedia article on Abdul-Qadir Gilani, which also records Chabbi's doubts about his birth and Lawrence's about his descent. None of this lowers his standing in the tradition. It does mean that careful work separates what he is recorded as saying from what the line later attached to him.

Link to section: What the works actually say about breathWhat the works actually say about breath

In Holland's translation of al-Ghunya, four places where breath appears are worth quoting. They are the nearest the book comes to the subject.

• In the murāqaba (watchfulness) section: the seeker is "taking care of every breath he breathes in the company of Allah". That is vigilance.
• Dhikr is kept "under his breath" among fellow paupers. That means quietly, not a pranayama.
• "Praise is for the very breaths we breathe, while thankfulness is for the blessings of the senses."
• One of the divine names is Muhsi'l-anfas, the Enumerator of breaths.

In al-Fath ar-Rabbani, the "breaths" of the siddiqin are their spiritual influence on the listener.

Link to section: Sirr al-Asrar: useful, but with a caveatSirr al-Asrar: useful, but with a caveat

Sirr al-Asrar (in Bayrak's translation, The Secret of Secrets) has the most explicit dhikr instruction of any text attributed to him. Its authenticity is disputed (verified in a primary source). That should be said whenever it is cited.

What it describes, and where:

• Chapter 5, the talqin: the face is turned to the right on "La ilaha" and to the left, toward the heart, on "illa Llah", three times, from a living teacher.
• Chapter 7: dhikr aloud, then silent, descending through tongue, heart, ruh, sirr, khafi and akhfa, and ending in fana.
• Chapter 8: begin with wudu, and begin aloud.
• Chapter 21: inner, silent dhikr.

Nothing in these chapters is a breath instruction. The turning of the face on the kalima is the nearest thing, and it moves the head, not the lungs.

Link to section: How breath practice enters the Qadiri lineHow breath practice enters the Qadiri line

Dara Shikoh's Risala-i Haqq-numa (1646; Vasu's translation) describes the practice as above, with the in-breath through the left nostril and the out-breath through the right.22Dara Shikoh describes left-nostril inhalation on "la ilaha", retention, and right-nostril exhalation on "illa'llah". He says it comes down from Ghaus-us-Saqalain, that is, Jilani, as "Awurd-burd". He adds that Mian Mir introduced mental recitation during the retention. He also warns of suffocation and lung injury, and he describes an inner sound called Sultan-ul-Azkar.

The other route into the line is the Qalandariyya-Qadiriyya pas-i anfas of Shah Wahhaj al-Din Qalandar, which is natural-breath "Allah" in, "Hu" out, with no retention.

Link to section: Sultan BahuSultan Bahu

The line جو دم غافل سو دم کافر ("jo dam ghafil so dam kafir") is widely attributed to Sultan Bahu.

Attributed to Sultan Bahu; wording not checked against an edited text

An abyat, number 116 on sultanbahoo.net, says to recite the remembrance of Allah with every breath. That is one site, and I did not check it against an edited text. Sultan Bahu's Ism-e-Allah Zaat practice is described in stages: Allahu, Lillah, Lahu, Hoo. A link from there to pas anfas is unconfirmed (unverified).

The kalima, divided as the practice divides it

The Kasnazani claim that Qadiri breath practice is "Allah in, Hu out" is unverified (unverified).

Link to section: A safer way to read thisA safer way to read this

Link to section: Register of claimsRegister of claims

Link to section: Further readingFurther reading

• Holland's translation of al-Ghunya (Sufficient Provision for Seekers of the Path of Truth).
• Bayrak's Secret of Secrets, with the authenticity caveat above.
• Dara Shikoh, Risala-i Haqq-numa, trans. Vasu.
• Tariq Ashfaq, Oriens 6 (2009).
• Arthur Buehler, Sufi Heirs of the Prophet.
• Idries Shah, A Perfumed Scorpion, and Omar Ali-Shah, The Rules or Secrets of the Naqshbandi Order — both for context, with care.