The Five Lights of the Heart and the Eleven Principles

In Lesson 37 we found five lights in the heart and three principles to hold them. The Naqshbandi masters taught eleven. Here are the first six, in their own words.

Where we left off

Sufism is the mystical heart of Islam: the path of those who seek a direct experience of God through love, remembrance (dhikr) and the heart. Rumi was a Sufi; so are the whirling dervishes. Among the Sufi orders, the Naqshbandi path is known for one choice in particular. In 14th-century Bukhara, Bahā' al-Dīn Naqshband chose silent remembrance of the heart over chanting aloud.

In the lesson, we placed one silent word into the heart: Hū (هو), "He", the name for God beyond every other name, as in the Qur'an's قل هو الله أحد, "Say: He is God, the One" (112:1). Said like "who", one long soft syllable, without lips or tongue.

The five lights of the heart

The Sufis call them laṭā'if, "the subtle ones": five centres of the heart, each woken with a silent remembrance. This map, with these places and colours, comes from the Mujaddidi branch of the order, founded on the teaching of Aḥmad Sirhindī in 17th-century India. Other branches place and colour them differently.

• Qalbthe heartقلبTwo finger-widths below the left breast · yellow
• Rūḥthe spiritروحTwo finger-widths below the right breast · red
• Sirrthe secretسرّTwo finger-widths above the left breast · white
• Khafīthe hiddenخفیTwo finger-widths above the right breast · black (shown as indigo)
• Akhfāthe most hiddenاخفیThe centre of the chest · green

With each heartbeat, a silent Hū lands in each light in turn, and finally in all five together.

The eleven principles

The Naqshbandi path rests on eleven short Persian phrases, the kalimāt-i qudsiyya, "sacred words". The first eight are attributed to ʿAbd al-Khāliq Ghujduvānī (d. 1179), the last three to Bahā' al-Dīn Naqshband (1318–1389). Different sources order the middle ones slightly differently; this is the common order.

1. hūsh dar dam هوش در دم: awareness in the breath
2. naẓar bar qadam نظر بر قدم: the gaze on the step
3. safar dar waṭan سفر در وطن: the journey home
4. khalwat dar anjuman خلوت در انجمن: solitude in the crowd
5. yād kard یاد کرد: remembrance
6. bāz gasht بازگشت: returning
7. nigāh dāsht نگاه داشت: watchfulness over thoughts
8. yād dāsht یاد داشت: keeping the remembrance
9. wuqūf-i zamānī وقوف زمانی: awareness of time
10. wuqūf-i ʿadadī وقوف عددی: awareness of number
11. wuqūf-i qalbī وقوف قلبی: awareness of the heart

The faded ones you've already met. The gold ones are this article.

The three from the lesson

The next four

Each is a phrase you can carry through an ordinary day.

Naqshbandi teachers give a short Arabic prayer for this return:

إلهي أنت مقصودي ورضاك مطلوبي
ilāhī anta maqṣūdī wa riḍāka maṭlūbī
"My God, You are my goal, and Your pleasure is what I seek."

What I learned from a week with it

My own reflection, written after practising these words myself. It is not part of the text.

[ARVIN: after living the four principles for a day or a week, write what you noticed here, in your own words. Remove this line before publishing.]

How it can help

What the texts say

The principles describe a life in which no breath, step or moment is spent in forgetfulness: travelling inward, remembering constantly, alone with God in the middle of the crowd, and always returning the practice to its goal.

How the tradition uses them

• As daily discipline: the principles are lived, not only meditated on, across walking, working and speaking.
• With a teacher: in the order, the subtle-centre practices are given by a shaykh, step by step, with permission (idhn). This article and the lesson are an introduction, not an initiation.
• Silently: the Naqshbandi dhikr of the heart is usually silent, so it can continue anywhere.

What the practice does

Turning attention inward to the heartbeat trains interoception, the sense of the body from inside, which research suggests improves with practice (Garfinkel et al., 2015). Attending to the heartbeat changes how strongly the brain responds to each beat (Petzschner et al., 2019), and silent repetition of a word is linked with quieter activity in the brain's mind-wandering network (Berkovich-Ohana et al., 2016). These are small, early studies. They describe attention, not spiritual states.

This is a contemplative practice. If strong emotion rises, open your eyes, feel your feet and breathe; nothing needs forcing. It is not medical or psychological treatment.

A practice: a day with the four

1. Morning, safar dar waṭan: choose one habit you'd like to travel away from today, and one quality to travel towards.
2. In company, khalwat dar anjuman: at least once in a crowd or a meeting, feel the Qalb beat under the left breast while you listen.
3. Through the day, yād kard: place a silent Hū in the heart with ten heartbeats, three times today.
4. After each round, bāz gasht: turn the heart back to its goal, in the words above or your own.

Next in this series: the last four principles, nigāh dāsht, yād dāsht, wuqūf-i zamānī and wuqūf-i ʿadadī.

Sources and a note on accuracy

Persian terms follow the standard spellings used in Naqshbandi literature. If you read Persian or Arabic, or follow the path, and see something to correct, please write to me.

• Eleven Naqshbandi principles (overview, with orderings from Idries Shah and Omar Ali-Shah)
• J. Spencer Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in Islam (Oxford, 1971)
• J. G. Bennett, The Masters of Wisdom (1977)
• Arvin Walters, Lesson 37: Five Lights of the Heart (the 112 Paths to Self-Realisation)
• Garfinkel et al. (2015), interoception; Petzschner et al. (2019), heartbeat-evoked potential; Berkovich-Ohana et al. (2016), silent mantra and the default mode network
• Qur'an 112:1

Timeless Teachings shares sacred texts and practices for study and reflection, with respect for the traditions they come from. Meditation and mantra practice support reflection and wellbeing; they are not medical or psychological treatment and do not replace professional care.