From Lahore to Bukhara and Samarqand

About the author

Zulfiqar Ahmad Naqshbandi: Zulfiqar Ahmad Naqshbandi (1 April 1953 – 14 December 2025 CE) was a Pakistani Sufi shaykh and one of the most widely traveled teachers of taṣawwuf of his generation. Born in Jhang, Punjab, he first trained and worked as an electrical engineer. After receiving authorization (ijāza) in the Naqshbandi spiritual path, he retired from his profession around the age of forty to devote himself entirely to teaching, guidance, and the service of Islam. He followed the Hanafi school in law and stood within the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi tradition of spiritual training. In 1988 he founded Mahad al-Faqir al-Islami in Jhang, a residential institute combining Qurʾanic exegesis, hadith study, and spiritual purification. From there his reach grew steadily: he lectured in both English and Urdu across more than sixty countries, and a large body of his discourses was gathered into print, with dozens of titles translated into several languages. He was listed among The 500 Most Influential Muslims for 2013-2014. His books, several published in English, are accessible guides to the inner life. Among them are Love for Allah (a rendering of Ishq-e-Ilahi), Love for the Prophet, The Return Journey, and the multivolume Glistening Lights collection of his discourses, along with travelogue and devotional works. Their tone is practical and heartfelt, aimed at ordinary believers seeking sincerity, remembrance of God, and love of the Prophet.