This is what Shaykh Ahmad al-Hadi al-Hasani al-Tijani—may Allah preserve him—wrote some time ago in response to a question sent to him from the Western Sudan by a descendant of noble lineages, the son of imams and warriors, the upright young scholar, al-Sayyid Muhammad Salih Sakhu al-Sarkuli al-Tijani. May Allah admit us and him into stations of nearness and intimacy:

My brother in the path of spiritual excellence (ihsan), know with certainty that the key to this Noble Presence—and the easiest road to attaining what it offers—is to immerse your time and consume your breath in sending blessings upon the Master of Masters. The seeker should purify his intention of every ulterior motive (aghrad), recognizing his own unworthiness to let the sacred name of the Prophet ﷺ pass across a tongue stained by distraction and idle speech. Were it not for the Prophet’s generosity and grace, he would not even be deserving of remembering him, let alone invoking prayers upon him. One should cut off any expectation of reward, seeing oneself instead as deserving only punishment and banishment, were it not for Allah’s pure pardon and beautiful concealment.

Let the seeker who walks the path of Ṣalāt al-Fātiḥ remain in this state and bind himself to three practices in addition to the inner courtesies already mentioned.

First—and most important—is to keep the noble Muhammadan Presence before you, either through mental representation or imaginative contemplation. The one invoking should exert himself to hold his focus there, keeping his thoughts gathered upon it during the remembrance, until the degrees of Muhammadan Manifestation begin to unveil themselves to him—first as an image, then as an impression, then as a vivid form, until it opens into the Great Union.

Second is to follow the noble Prophetic Sunna with exactitude—heel to heel, step by step—in all matters, great and small, and never allow the soul to belittle even a single Sunna. If a servant is not conforming his movements and stillness to the Prophetic model, then without doubt he is following the lower self instead; there is no third possibility. To clarify: imagine binding yourself to this imitation constantly, and then one day you abandon even a single Sunna through heedlessness—such as removing your shoes in the wrong manner, exiting the lavatory with the left foot, neglecting the appropriate invocations, and so forth. If you do not feel that you have approached apostasy by turning away even once from Prophetic guidance, consider that you have not yet mastered this gate of imitation, and that you have not truly taken the Muhammadan Reality as your exemplar. In truth, you are still turning away from it, preferring your own soul above the Prophet ﷺ—even once.

Treating this matter lightly—this matter of complete and perfect following—is precisely what has prevented many people of affiliation from reaching the Prophetic Presence and ascending in the Muhammadan Realities. Mastery of this principle makes the journey through Muhammadan Degrees easy and opens the secrets of the prophetic prayers and other mysteries. This is why Satan has worked so hard to make the so-called “Sufis of our age” belittle the Sunna—though Allah has exalted it by saying, “Say: ‘If you love Allah, follow me‘…” We seek refuge in Allah from abandonment.

Third is to keep the soul constantly engaged with studying and learning the exalted Muhammadan Qualities—his noble character and attributes—for this strengthens the first condition: presence and envisioning the Muhammadan Reality until union is reached. This union is attained only through two avenues: divine favor, or reaching the seventh degree of the soul, the “Perfect Soul.” (al-Nafs al-Kamila) At that point the seeker’s individuality dissolves and is consumed in the Muhammadan Self, for the Perfect Soul does not admit multiplicity; it is one. Entry into it occurs only through shedding the cloak of one’s own separate identity. The other six degrees of the soul beneath it differ according to what Allah has placed within each creature.

So persist in knowing the outward Shama’il of the Prophet ﷺ and in cultivating a vivid, precise image of his radiant physical form: his parted hair, noble head, luminous forehead, arched brows, deep eyes, beauty mark, eyelashes, the straightness of his nose, the evenness of his teeth, the fullness of his beard, the line of hair upon his chest, the slight arch of his feet—all the bodily particulars of the noble, Hashimite, Arab Muhammadan form. This is the means of keeping the mind engaged during remembrance through the Muhammadan Image. Once firmness is gained here, one moves on to deeper knowledge—the inner, luminous qualities of the Muhammadan Reality. There is no path to the latter without the former. This is the way of the great ones; as for those who are content with mere impressions and guesses, they stop long before this station.

As for what you asked—whether it is better to gradually increase Ṣalāt al-Fātiḥ until reaching a thousand, as the people of the path teach, or to dedicate yourself to reciting it in the number of “Fātiḥ,” with the proper conditions and etiquettes (adab)—the answer is that there is no harm in doing both. In fact, combining them is better. Set for yourself a “Fātiḥ gathering”—what I call the “Gathering of the Muhammadan Reality”—where you recite Ṣalāt al-Fātiḥ with full presence, especially ascending through the degrees of prophetic envisioning. Then fill the rest of your days and nights—publicly and privately—with abundant recitation of Ṣalāt al-Fātiḥ until you reach twelve thousand. “Twelve thousand is never overwhelmed due to paucity in number;”[1] once you attain it, you cannot escape the advancing radiance of the Muhammadan Countenance.

Know that Ṣalāt al-Fātiḥ possesses absolute possessiveness in its nature (ghayra). It does not accept that one who is devoted to it turn to anything else, for it mirrors the Greatest Name of Allah, which consumes all other invocations. For this reason, my counsel to you, noble seeker, is to set aside other litanies. If Ṣalāt al-Fātiḥ is pleased with you and opens the locks of its door, it will drown you in its oceans and draw your very spirit into itself.

This is not to belittle other invocations, but such single-mindedness is required for one who seeks entry into the chambers of its secrets. A person could spend an entire lifetime reciting Dalā’il al-Khairāt and not reach even a single letter of the realities contained in Ṣalāt al-Fātiḥ—especially since doing so would mean leaving what is superior. As for the Burda, it is recited out of love and melody for the Prophet ﷺ, and is best read on one of his two blessed nights—either the night of Monday or the night of Friday—or even once a month in a gathering of audition and praise.

Whoever fulfills even part of the due of Ṣalāt al-Fātiḥ will be carried—by pure unmitigated grace—into its inner levels: first the heart, then the spirit, then the secret. In these lofty realms, Ṣalāt al-Fātiḥ is identical to the Greatest Name itself; there is no difference between them.

[1] An allusive use of the Prophetic narration recorded in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad, in which the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said that an army numbering twelve thousand will not be defeated solely on account of their small number.