RÂBITA-İ ŞERÎFE (THE NOBLE RÂBITA)
This book is a compilation of the original 1926 treatise "Râbıta-i Şerîfe" by the late Abdülhakîm Arvasî Üçışık—a professor of Sufism at the "Medresetü’l Mütehassısîn," known as the high-level "School of Specialization" in Istanbul during the final years of the Ottoman Empire and the early years of the Republic—alongside its faithful transliteration into the new Latin-based script.
As is known, Râbıta consists of bonding one's heart to a perfect and perfected person who has realized the Divine and Essential attributes and reached the station of contemplation, and maintaining the image of that person in one’s treasury of imagination, both in their presence and absence. It is a valid and significant principle in nearly all Sufi orders, particularly in the Naqshbandi path, proven by numerous verses, hadiths, and works of past religious authorities.
Râbıta is a pioneer in every endeavor. It is especially helpful and facilitating in the practice of dhikr. It cleanses the heart, which is God’s special chamber of seclusion, from carnal impurities and satanic appearances. It has been resorted to in order to cultivate the aptitude for the arrival of the superior, sultan-level dhikr.
This work, which explains Râbıta in a very concise and exceptionally detailed manner, serves as a key to the door of reaching God. It delineates, point by point, the sacred regimen of the secret of attaining eternity and existing within it.