Performing dhikr is done by repeating the name of Allâhu ta’âlâ or by seeing someone who is a Walî. If you cannot find a Walî, you can make râbita to a Walî whom you have heard of before. It is stated in a hadîth-i sherîf: “When they are seen, Allâhu ta’âlâ will be remembered.” In other words, seeing a Walî is dhikr of Allâhu ta’âlâ. This is one of the hadîth-i sherîfs quoted in Irshâd-ut-tâlibîn, in Ibni Mâja, in Edhkâr, in Râbita-i sherîfa of ’Abdulhâkîm Efendi, and in the eleventh letter of Dost Muhammad Kendihâr›. Râbita does not necessarily have to be made to the exact figure of a Walî. When a person sees a murshid or reads his books, he will love him as he loves himself, for the murshid is the person who has taught him Islam correctly, who has saved him from worldly disasters and perdition in the Hereafter, and who has guided him to everlasting felicity. When he sees him or, if he cannot see him, thinks of him lovingly, the fayds coming to the murshid from Rasûlullah will flow into his heart, too. It is stated in the seventy fourth page of Maqâmât-i-Mazhâriyya: “As Mukarram Khân was dying, they put Ubaydullâh-i-Ahrâr’s skullcap on his head. ‘Take it off! Fetch my murshid’s headgear, instead. For he is the person who caused me to attain happinesses,’ he said.” The figure with which Râbita is made does not necessarily have to be exactly the murshid himself. If a person closes his eyes and makes râbita to the same image for five to ten minutes in the morning and in the evening every day, after a while the Walî’s soul will appear in the same image and will begin to talk like in a dream, and will do him favours. As is understood from the hadîth-i-qudsî we have quoted in the thirty-fourth chapter of the second fascicle of Endless Bliss, if a Muslim mentions the name of a Walî whom he knows and loves upon attending his sohbats or reading his books and calls on him imploringly, Allâhu ta’âlâ will make that Walî hear him, even if the Walî is absent or dead. The Walî will come and help him. If a Walî wishes to know about something that has happened before or which will happen later, Allâhu ta’âlâ will make him know about it. Such favours and gifts which Allâhu ta’âlâ bestows upon Walîs are called karâmat. Bedr-ad-dîn Serhendî writes in his book Hadarat-ul-quds that he has seen and heard of thousands of Imâmi-Rabbânî’s karâmats and relates more than a hundred of them. When the heart becomes fânî, that is, when (it attains a grade where) it remembers nothing, the brain, mind, memory, does not necessarily become oblivious of worldly matters. The heart, when it becomes fânî, still lets all the limbs, including the brain, mind, and memory, carry on all sorts of worldly activities, and a person in this state, like other people, goes on working for his worldly needs. He does all his human tasks and favours with the intention of obtaining the grace of Allâhu ta’âlâ. Whatever he does becomes dhikr. See the final part of the thirty-fourth chapter of the second fascicle of Endless Bliss! It fulfills all its human tasks and favours with the intention of obtaining the consent of Allâhu ta’âlâ. Whatever it does becomes dhikr. Endless Bliss First Fasicle | Page 295-296