Sufism

The eleven principles of the Naqshbandi path guide the breath, the awareness, and the return of attention to God in every act

The Naqshbandi order's core training is not abstract doctrine but a set of concrete instructions for how to hold attention and breath during ordinary activity.

The Naqshbandi path's foundational teaching is organized around eleven principles known as the kalimat-i qudsiyya, the sacred words, attributed to early masters in the order's lineage including Abdul Khaliq Ghujdawani, a predecessor whose teachings Baha-ud-Din Naqshband later systematized. These principles function as practical instructions rather than theology, directing the practitioner's awareness of breath, hush dar dam, awareness in breathing, attention during movement, nazar bar qadam, watching one's steps, and the continual inward return of attention to God during every ordinary act, whether walking, working, or resting. Because the guidance targets breath and moment-to-moment awareness rather than requiring withdrawal from daily life, the eleven principles gave practitioners a method for sustaining spiritual practice continuously through an ordinary day rather than confining it to set devotional periods. This emphasis on disciplined, continuous inner awareness embedded in outer activity is part of what distinguishes the Naqshbandi order's characteristic style of training from orders built more around communal ritual or ecstatic states.