Khwaja Najmuddin Kubra (1145–1221) was a renowned Persian Sufi saint and mystic, born in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. He founded the Kubrawiyya Sufi order, emphasizing spiritual discipline, inner purification, and devotion to God. Traveling widely, he sought knowledge from various masters before settling in Khwarazm, where he established his spiritual center. His teachings attracted followers across Central Asia, promoting the path of love and inner transformation. Despite his spiritual pursuits, Kubra engaged in political and social matters, offering counsel to rulers. Tragically, during the Mongol invasion, led by Genghis Khan, Kubra was executed in 1221. His death marked a significant event in Sufi history, and he is revered as a martyr within the tradition. His legacy persists through the Kubrawiyya order’s practice and his teachings, which continue to inspire seekers of spiritual enlightenment.

Khwaja Najmuddin Kubra Quotes

01. “Prayer according to Shariah is service, according to Tariqa proximity, and according to Haqiqa union with God.”
— Khwaja Najmuddin Kubra

02. “Seclusion protects the sight from gazing with desire, hand from taking-and receiving the forbidden. When the external senses are shut off, the internal senses, which are the doors of the hidden world, are opened.”
— Khwaja Najmuddin Kubra

03. “Man as a microcosm contains everything that exists in the macrocosm.”
— Khwaja Najmuddin Kubra

04. “Recollection of ‘There is no god but God’ is the highest of the seventy-seven signs of faith, for the Prophet said that ‘The loftiest of them is the testimony that there is no god but God.'”
— Khwaja Najmuddin Kubra

05. “The lower soul, the Devil, and the Angels are not realities external to you. You are them. So too Heaven, Earth, and the Divine Throne are not outside you, nor are Paradise, Hell, Life, or Death. All exist within you, as you will realize once you have accomplished the initiatic journey and become pure.”
— Khwaja Najmuddin Kubra

06. “The heart possesses subtle organs of perception, which are progressively purified by the performance of zikr, together with other spiritual discipline and exercises.”
— Khwaja Najmuddin Kubra

07. “The traveler must also give up resistance to God’s decree and refrain from prayer for reward in the hereafter.”
— Khwaja Najmuddin Kubra

08. “If one is silent, it may be that one hears the speech of angels as the Prophet said: ‘God speaks by the tongue of Omar and his heart.'”
— Khwaja Najmuddin Kubra

09. “In the state of elevation, the mystic may be able to read heavenly books in languages and characters previously unknown to him and learn the heavenly names of things and beings including his own eternal name which is different from his worldly name.”
— Khwaja Najmuddin Kubra

10. “The carnal soul is disciplined by silence, for this carnal soul is an idle talker. Silence guarantees salvation from Hell.”
— Khwaja Najmuddin Kubra

11. “He says in a similitude: ‘If speech is silver, silence is gold.’ In silence there is continuous recollection (zikr) of God by heart and tongue.”
— Khwaja Najmuddin Kubra

12. “Kubra gives an exact description of the revelations of coloured light that occurs to the initiate during his spiritual training: These are dots and spots and circles; the soul passes through periods of black colour and of black and red spots until the appearance of the green colour indicates that divine grace is near-green has always been considered the highest and heavenly colour.”
— Khwaja Najmuddin Kubra

13. “Permanent concentration upon the Divine Names in the retreat leads to mystical awareness.”
— Khwaja Najmuddin Kubra

14. “Included in the mystical journey ‘way of Junaid’ are Practices such as: constant ritual purity, constant fasting, constant silence, constant retreat, constant recollection of God, and constant direction of a spiritual Guide who explains the meaning of one’s dreams and visions.”
— Khwaja Najmuddin Kubra

15. “Fasting overpowers the carnal soul that commands evil. It resembles spiritual being. It closes off the roads to Satan which are the veins in the body because Satan goes in the vein and skin. Fasting causes bodily and spiritual health. The faster receives aid and help, for ‘they seek and through fasting and prayer.'”
— Khwaja Najmuddin Kubra