He was the Pearl of the Crown of the Knowledgeable Saints. He was the Reviver of the Second Millennium, Sayyidina wa Mawlana (our Leader & Master) ash-Shaykh Ahmad al-Faruqi as-Sirhindi, ibn ash-Shaykh 'Abdul Ahad s/o Zainu-l-'Abidin s/o 'Abdulhayy, s/o Muhammad s/o Habibullah, s/o Rafi'uddin, s/o Nur, s/o Sulayman, s/o Yusuf, s/o 'Abdullah, s/o Ishaq, s/o 'Abdullah, s/o Shu'ayb, s/o Aad, s/o Yusuf, s/o Shihabuddin, known as Farq Shah al-Qabidi, s/o Nairuddin, s/o Mahmud, s/o Sulayman, s/o Mas'ud, s/o 'Abdullah al-Wa'i al-Asghari, s/o 'Abdullah al-Wa'i al-Akbar, s/o Abdu-l-Fattah, s/o Ishaq, s/o Ibrahim, s/o Nair, s/o Sayyidina Abdullah radi Allahu ta'ala anhu, the s/o Amir al-Mu'minin, the khalif of the Beloved Prophet [Allahs grace & blessings upon him], Sayyidina 'Umar al-Faruq radi Allahu ta'ala anhu.
He was born on the day of 'Ashura, the 10th of Muharram in the year 971 H., in the village of Sihar Nidbasin. In some translations it is called Sirhind in the city of Lahore, in India. He received his knowledge and education through his father and through many shaikhs in his time. He made progress in three tariqats: Suhrawardiyya, Qadiriyya, and Chistiyya. He was given permission to train followers in all three tariqats at the age of 17 years. He was busy in spreading the teachings of these tariqats and in guiding his followers, yet he felt that something was missing in himself and he was continuously searching for it. He felt an interest in the Naqshbandi Sufi Order, because he could see by means of the secrets of the other three tariqats that it was the best and highest. His spiritual progress eventually brought him to the presence of the Ghawth and Qutb of his time, ash-Shaikh Muhammad al-Baqi, who had been sent from Samarqand to India by the order of his shaykh, Muhammad al-Amkanaki. He took the Naqshbandi Order from the shaykh and stayed with him for two months and some days, until Sayyidina Muhammad al-Baqi alayhir ar-rahman opened to his heart the secret of this tariqat and gave him authorization to train his murids in the Order. He said about him,
The Shari'ah is of fundamental importance to the Sufi path. This point is very strongly made by the great Naqshbandi Sufi, Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi (also known as Imam ar-Rabbani), in his letters. Here is a small excerpt from one of his letters, where he clarifies this topic:
The Shari'ah has three parts: knowledge, action, and sincerity of motive (ikhlas); unless you fulfil the demands of all these parts, you do not obey the Shari'ah. And when you obey the Shari'ah you obtain the pleasure of God, which is the most supreme good in this world and the Hereafter. The Qur'an al kareem says:"The pleasure of God is the highest good."
Hence, the Shari'ah comprehends all the good of this world and the next, and nothing is left out for which one has to go beyond the Shari'ah.
The tariqah ["way"] and the haqiqah ["reality"] for which the Sufis are known, are subservient to the Shari'ah, as they help to realize its third part, namely, sincerity. Hence they are sought in order to fulfil the Shari'ah, not to achieve something beyond the Shari'ah. The raptures and ecstasies which the Sufis experience, and the ideas and truths which come to them in the course of their journey, are not the goal of Sufism. They are rather myths and fancies on which the children of Sufism are fed. One has to pass over them all and reach the stage of satisfaction (rida) which is the final goal of suluk ["travelling", i.e. the Sufi path] and jadhbah ["overwhelming love"].The purpose of traversing the stages of tariqah and haqiqah is nothing other than the realisation of ikhlas which involves the attainment of rida. Only one out of a thousand Sufis is graced with the three illuminations (tajalliyat sih ganah) and gnostic visions, given ikhlas and elevated to the stage of rida.
[Quoted from "Sufism and Shari'ah: A study of Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi's Effort to Reform Sufism," by Muhammad Abdul Haq Ansari, pp. 221-2. Originally from Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi's letters, Vol. I:36.]
It is said that the shaykh of his father, Shaykh Abdul Ahad, who was a shaykh of the Qadiri Order, had been given a jubba (cloak) from his shaykh which had been passed down from the Ghawth al-Azam, Sayyadina Shaykh 'Abd 'al-Qadir al-Jilani Radi Allahu ta'ala anhu. Ghawth al-Azam Radi Allahu ta'ala anhu had said about it to his successors, "Keep it for that one who is going to appear at the end of the first millennium. His name is 'Ahmad'. He is going to revive this religion. I have dressed him with all my secrets. He combines in himself both the internal and external knowledge."
He wrote many books, one of the most famous of which is the Maktubat.
In it he said,
"It must be known that Allah has placed us under His Obligations and His Prohibitions. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said,
'Whatever the Prophet gave you, take it, and whatever he prohibited you, leave it.' [59:7]
If we are going to be sincere in this, we have to attain to Annihilation and the love of the Essence. Without these we cannot reach this degree of obedience. Thus we are under another obligation, which is to seek the Way of Sufism, because this Way will lead us to the state of Annihilation and the love of the Essence. Each Order differs from the other in its states of perfection; so too does each Order keep the Sunnah of the Prophet [Allahs grace & blessings upon him] and have its own definition of what that entails. Every order has its own way of keeping the Sunnah of the Prophet [Allahs grace & blessings upon him]. Our Order, through its shaikhs, requires us to keep all the commands of the Prophet [Allahs grace & blessings upon him] and to leave all the things he prohibited. Our shaykhs don't follow the easy ways (rukhas) but insist on keeping the difficult ways. In all their seeking they keep in mind the verse of Qur'an ;'Men whom neither business nor trade will divert from the Remembrance of Allah' [24:37].
He passed away on the 17th of Safar 1034 H. at the age of 63. He was buried in the village of Sirhind. He was a shaikh in the four tariqats: Naqshbandi, Qadiri, Chisti and Suhrawardi. He preferred the Naqshbandi, because he said, "It is the Mother of all tariqats."
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