Abulolaiya order
The first of its kind in the Indian sub-continent, Abulolaiya order emerged as the amalgamation of Chishtia and Naqshbandia order in northern India. The order emerged during the mid of eleventh century hijri in Agra and over the past four centuries has spread its influence all around the sub-continent.
The order is mistaken by a few to be an offshoot of Chishtia or Naqshbandia. It actually is a perfect example of amalgamation of two entirely different Sufi orders, the Chishtia and Naqshbandia into one. The eponymous sufi of this order is known as Syed Abulola Akbarabadi or Syedna Abulola or simply as Syedna Sarkar by the locals of Agra where he lived and was buried after his death.
Syedna Abulola was highly inclined towards the Chishti practise of Sema and also towards the towering spiritual personality of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. The amalgamation happened in a way that Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti bestowed his spiritual blessings on Syedna Abulola but spiritually ordered the latter to accept the bait on the hands of Syed Abdullah as it is mandatory, for gaining spiritual enlightenment, to be associated officially(murid) with an order. Syedna Abulola hesitated as Syed Abdullah followed Naqshbandi way of Sufism which strictly prohibits Sema, which the former enjoyed just like the Chishtis. He said to Khwaja Gharibnawaz about this matter. The spiritual discourse between Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti and Syedna Abuolola ended when the former said, "He will give you the ijaza(permission) of Sema". Thus, Syedna Abulola got initiated in Naqshbandia order directly and took spiritual lessons from Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti through Owaisiat(when a dead sufi teaches a living sufi through spiritual means of dreams and meditation, etc.) The latter also awarded him Owaisi khilafat(the khilafat awarded by a dead sufi to a living sufi in which the latter could initiate pupils but can not give permission to others to initiate further during the living sufi's lifetime).
When Syedna himself became a master of Sufism, he practised Sema just like Chishtis, initiated pupils into either of the two orders he had permission of and amalgamated all the major teachings of both the Naqshbandiya and Chishtia order. This beautiful amalgamation came to be known as Abulolai order. This order produced many great Sufis such as Syed Muhammad Kalpvi, Syed Dost Muhammad, Shah Farhad Dehlavi, Syed Burhanuddin Khudanuma and many others. The era of Maqdum Munampak and his disciples took this order to new heights and could well be said as the time when this order was at its zenith. Maqdum Munampak became the progenitor of a new order named after him which again was an amalgamation of five different orders, the Chishtia, Qadria, Suharwardia, Naqshbandia and Firdausia. I will discuss about this in a later post inshAllah.
Before I present the chain of Abulolai Sufis upto Shah-e-Ata, I want to talk some lesser known facts of early Naqshbandis. During the early ages of Islam spiritual order of all four Rashidun Caliphs continued but only the order of Syedna Ali survived after a few centuries. The order of Syedna Abu Bakr survived through a descendant of Hazrat Ali, i.e. Imam Jafar Sadiq, who took the permission of that order from his maternal grandfather, Syedna Qasim bin Muhammad bin Abu Bakr.
The Naqshabndis were actually associated with the order of Hazrat Ali but continued the order of Hazrat Abu Bakr also. At some time after Hazrat Ubaidullah Ahrar Naqshbandi, one branch of sufis discontinued the spiritual chain of Hazrat Ali and continued the permission of Hazrat Abu Bakr only. After few generations the towering personality of Sheikh Ahmed sirhindi a.k.a Mujaddid alif sani got associated with that respective branch of Naqshabndi order. He is not only remembered as the revivalist(mujaddid) of the second millennium but also of Naqshbandia order. Had he not got associated with the Naqshandia order, this order might not have been regarded among the top four practising orders of the world. More than fifty percent of the Naqshbandis today trace their lineage through Mujaddid alif sani. This is the reason why Naqshbandia order today has become famous as the lone order tracing its lineage to Hazrat Abu Bakr. Although other Naqshabndi lineage such as Abulolai lineage continued the permission of both orders.
I have mentioned the Spiritual chain of Hazrat Abu Bakr in my previous post. Here I present the Naqshbandi Abulolaiya lineage through Hazrat Ali.
1. The prophet of Islam Hazrat Muhammad(S.A.W)
2. Syedna Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib Rz
3. Syedna Imam Hussain Rz
4. Syedna Imam Zainul Aberdeen Rz
5. Syedna Imam Muhammad Baqar Rz
6. Syedna Imam Jafar Sadique Rz
7. Hazrat Khwaja Bayazeed Bistami RA
8. Hazrat Khwaja Abul Hassan Qirkhani RA
9. Hazrat Abul Qasim Gorgani RA
10. Hazrat Abu Ali farmed RA
11. Hazrat Khwaja Abu Yusuf Hamdani RA
12. Hazrat Abdul Khaliq Ghajdawani RA
13. Arif reogari RA
14. Khwaja Mahmood abul khair faghnavi RA
15. Khwaj Azeezan Ali ramitni RA
16. Khwaja Muhammad Baba Samasi RA
17. Hazrat Syed Ameer Nooruddin Kulal RA
18. Hazrat Khwaja Bahauddin Naqshband RA
19. Khwaja Maulana Yaqub Charkhi RA
20. Khwaja Ubaidullah Ahrar RA
21. Khwaja Abdul Haq al mubashir Mohiuddin RA
22. Khwaja Muhammad Yahya RA
23. Khwaja Syed Abdullah Akbarabadi RA
24. Ameer Syedna Abulola Akbarabadi RA
25. Syed Dost Muhammad RA
26. Shah Muhammad Farhad Dehlavi RA
27. Syed Asadullah Abulolai RA
28. Maqdum Shah Muhammad Munampak RA
29. Syed ul Waseleen Syed Shah Ghulam Hussain Danapuri RA
30. Syed Shah Ata Hussain Fani RA
