Praise be to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds. He is the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. He is the Owner of the Day of Judgment…

He is Allah, who opens the gate of love to His friends and assists them with the light of guidance. He is the One who shows them His incomparable power, unveils the veils of His sacred attributes of Perfection and Majesty to the souls of His friends, and causes them to observe with certainty that He is One in His Essence and Attributes.

Perfect salat and salams be upon the Master of creation, the imam of the Lordly scholars, the model for the travelers (saliks), the messenger of the Lord of the worlds, the light of our eyes, our Master Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and upon his family, his companions, his followers, and those who follow them until the Day of Judgment.

Allah, glorified and exalted be He, through His grace, generosity, bounty, and benevolence, has made it possible for this blessed treatise to be researched, translated, and published. This treatise is ar-Risālat al-Khālidiyyah fī ādāb al-sālikīn fī al-tarīqat al-aliyyat al-Naqshbandiyyah (The Khalidiyyah Treatise on the Etiquette of the Travelers on the High Naqshbandi Path) by the great scholar of exoteric and esoteric sciences, the Lordly Imam, the Eternal Pole, Mawlana Khalid ibn Ahmad ibn al-Husayn al-Shahrazuri al-Baghdadi al-Uthmani al-Naqshbandi, may Allah sanctify his noble secret. Contributing to the publication of such a work is a great blessing and a most precious gift from Allah the Almighty to us.

This blessed treatise contains the etiquette that must be observed by the travelers (saliks) of the High Naqshbandi Order and Sufis of other orders. In this work, Khalid al-Baghdadi, may his secret be sanctified, mentions the etiquette that the disciple must observe in all circumstances, such as sincerity (sidq), purity of intention (ikhlas), love for the shaykhs, intention, rabita (spiritual connection), service to the perfect shaykh, presence and speaking in the company of the guide, preparing the heart to receive spiritual effusion (fayd) from the guide, the spiritual journey (sayr-i suluk), striving against the ego (jihad al-nafs), and other similar manners. He has compiled these very useful and important etiquette that a traveler on the path of Truth will need, along with evidences from Quranic verses, noble hadiths, and the sayings of the masters of the order and the scholars on this subject.

In conclusion—as the author also stated—a treatise has emerged that is concise and brief in its wording, yet deep in the meanings it contains and vast in its benefit.

In this treatise, Khalid al-Baghdadi, may his secret be sanctified, has included important knowledge consisting of benefits and wisdom that he obtained from his Lordly guides and the works of the Sufis, and which Allah, the Almighty and Majestic, inspired within him for the benefit of the travelers of this path. He expressed these in a fluent style that avoids unnecessary complexity in phrasing and imitates the Pious Predecessors (Salaf al-Salihin).

We have added the Risalat al-Rabita (Treatise on Rabita) to the end of this work, Risalat al-Khalidiyyah by Mawlana Khalid, may his secret be sanctified, as we believe it will be beneficial; it includes a more detailed explanation of the section on rabita mentioned in the work, along with evidences narrated from the scholars of the four madhhabs.

Mawlana Khalid, may his secret be sanctified, sent this treatise to his great deputies residing in the center of the Sublime Ottoman State due to the emergence of certain views that considered rabita an innovation (bid'ah). May Allah, Majestic is His Glory, cause His lights to flow unto us as well.