The Shattari Wird: Daily Litanies and the Protocols Around Them

A daily litany is what separates remembrance that is felt from remembrance that is kept, and in this heritage the shattari wird is that litany. A wird is the fixed portion of invocation a disciple carries each day, and in its collective form it is recited together after Fajr and Asr, alongside Salawat, Istighfar, Tasbih-e-Fatima and Durood-e-Ibrahimi. What follows explains what a wird is, what is recited in it, when and how it is held, and the spiritual protocols of bay’ah, adab and service that surround it.

What a Shattari Wird Is

The Shattari path has always treated remembrance as a daily obligation of the seeker rather than an occasional burst of feeling. Every new entrant to the fold was asked to practise dhikr, and later sources lay great emphasis on doing it continuously; a wird is the structure that makes continuity possible, because it fixes a portion of remembrance to the day and lets a person keep it whether he feels enthusiastic or not. In that sense the litany is less a ritual than a schedule for the heart.

This order carries its litanies in writing. The manuscript Awrad-i-Shattar, cited in the scholarly study of the silsila by Qazi Moinuddin Ahmad (PhD thesis, Aligarh, 1963), preserves Shattari practice in the form in which it was handed down, and the Awrad-i-Ghauthiyah stands among the works of Hazrat Shah Muhammad Ghawth Gwaliori (d. 1563), whose other writings include the Jawahir-i-Khamsah and the Bahr-ul-Hayat. The companion treatise Adab-udh-Dhikr, dealing precisely with Shattari practices, was completed by Jaffar Muhammad in 1097 AH / 1686 AD and survives as a manuscript in the Asiatic Society Library, Calcutta. A tradition that writes its remembrance and its etiquette down is a tradition that expects to be repeated exactly.

The wird is also the collective face of the order’s inner pillars. Where dhikr-e-qalbi is the silent invocation kept privately, the circle is where the same remembrance is voiced together, and tawajjuh — the master’s direct transmission of attention — is most naturally received in a gathering that has a fixed time, a fixed form and a fixed direction.

What Is Recited in the Collective Wird

On the Academy campus, the collective dhikr consists of the Shattari wird, Salawat, Istighfar, Tasbih-e-Fatima and Durood-e-Ibrahimi, and it is held in circles after Fajr and Asr. Two of these are self-explanatory to any Muslim: Salawat is the sending of blessings upon the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and Istighfar is the seeking of Allah’s forgiveness. The remaining items are kept as they were handed down, recited within the circle rather than improvised outside it.

Three points are worth noticing about that list. First, it is short enough to be kept daily and varied enough to cover the whole of a Muslim’s posture before Allah — blessing the Prophet, asking forgiveness, and supplicating. Second, it is recited collectively, which means the litany is never a purely private affair: the community keeps its remembrance on the same clock. Third, it sits inside a day already structured by the five daily congregational prayers, so the wird does not compete with the salah — it hangs from it.

The wider campus rhythm belongs to the same design. Wird and dhikr circles fall after Fajr and Asr; the weekly Daur gathers the community; the student campus-cleanup rotation keeps khidmat in the timetable; a monthly Khidmat Day is set aside for service; and langar at the dargah feeds whoever comes. The ethos over the whole week is the one this house carries: “Love for ALL, Hate None”.

When and How the Wird Is Kept

Timing is the first protocol. The circles are held after Fajr and Asr — the two moments of the day that belong to no one’s work — so that remembrance is anchored at the beginning of the morning and again at the turning of the afternoon. Between them, the private portion of the litany is carried individually, which is where the distinction between forms becomes useful: Dhikr-e-jali is the aloud, public and shared remembrance suited to the circle, while Dhikr-e-khafi is the silent, private and inward one suited to the hours in between.

Posture is the second protocol. The description preserved in the order’s manuscript material gives a seated, wakeful, qiblah-facing posture with open eyes — alert, directed and undrowsy. The remembrance itself, in its inner form, is silent, continuous and synchronised with the breath, so that the litany and the breathing of the person keeping it are not in competition.

Etiquette is the third. The Adab-ul-Muridin of the Shaikh Suhrawardi tradition governs the relationship between the Shaikh and the disciple, and treatises such as Adab-udh-Dhikr govern the practice itself. What that signals is the ordering of priority: the details of behaviour in the circle are taught inside the order rather than improvised outside it, and a seeker follows them as plainly as he follows the litany.

The Protocols Around the Wird: Bay’ah, Adab and Service

A wird is rarely taken in isolation. Admission into the silsilah comes through bay’ah — the pledge or allegiance by which a newcomer enters the order — and everything recited afterwards sits inside that relationship. Two structures give it its shape:

• The shajrah. The spiritual genealogy links each master in the chain to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ through the Golden Chain, Silsilat al-Dhahab. What is recited in the circle is recited in a line that reaches back to him, not in a free-floating arrangement.
• Khilafat. Spiritual authorisation to initiate others is what permits the chain to continue; the person leading the circle holds it by transmission, not by self-appointment.

Allegiance itself carries the old counsel “yak dar ger u muhkam gir” — hold one door and hold it fast. Classical observers blamed the thirteenth-century habit of changing masters freely for cramped spiritual personalities, and in the earlier period a teacher himself owed allegiance to one order. Stability, though, is bounded: obedience to a guide binds only in matters pleasing to Allah and within the bounds of the Shariah, and Shaikh ‘Abdullah inculcated liberal thinking and hated exclusiveness among disciples. The protocol is discipline without narrowness.

Finally, the litany is tied to work. New entrants were assigned khanqah services — drawing water, cleaning and sweeping — and the classical training of a newcomer began with tajrid (seclusion) followed by that same service. Today the same conviction appears as the campus-cleanup rotation, the monthly Khidmat Day and langar at the dargah: spiritual isolation is incomplete without khidmat, and a circle that recites together is expected to serve together.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a shattari wird?

A Shattari wird is the fixed daily litany of the order: the portion of remembrance a disciple keeps each day, recited collectively on this campus in circles after Fajr and Asr. It gives continuity to the dhikr that every entrant is asked to practise from the day he joins.

What do sufis recite daily after fajr?

In this tradition, the circles held after Fajr (and Asr) carry the Shattari wird together with Salawat, Istighfar, Tasbih-e-Fatima and Durood-e-Ibrahimi. Salawat sends blessings upon the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and Istighfar seeks the forgiveness of Allah; the rest are kept as handed down within the circle.

Is a wird the same as an awrad?

The two words point to the same idea — the fixed portion of remembrance kept daily — and this order’s own heritage preserves it in titles such as the Awrad-i-Shattar and the Awrad-i-Ghauthiyah. Whether a source says wird or awrad, the point is the same: a litany fixed to the day and kept continuously.

What happens in a collective dhikr circle?

The community gathers at the appointed time, keeps the seated, wakeful and qiblah-facing posture, and recites the litany together — the Shattari wird, Salawat, Istighfar, Tasbih-e-Fatima and Durood-e-Ibrahimi — before dispersing to the private portion of the day’s remembrance and to work and study.

Kept Daily, Kept Together

The Shattari wird is how a community turns belief into a timetable: circles after Fajr and Asr, a litany fixed in writing and recited in company, allegiance entered through bay’ah and bounded by the Shariah, and service that proves the remembrance was real. Keep the litany and the day keeps its shape.

To see these circles in the rhythm of ordinary campus days, read Al Hashmi campus life, or explore the institutions where this heritage is taught.