Shahzad Bashir

Baha’ al-Din Naqshband indicated that dhikr was effective only when a master specifically instructed a disciple to perform it. This meant that the method of dhikr had to be conveyed through a human chain down the generations and that it had no effect, or could even be harmful, if one took it up solely on personal initiative.

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Originally published in Meditation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Bloomsbury, 2013.