The chain of spiritual transmission ('chain, lineage' in Arabic) through which a Sufi order traces the authority of its living shaykh back, master to master, to the Prophet Muhammad — most orders route the chain through Ali, the Naqshbandiyya through Abu Bakr. The silsila functions as a shaykh's credential and source of legitimacy: initiation counts because the initiator himself stands in an unbroken chain. The full style of Schuon's order — Tariqa Shadhiliyya-Darqawiyya-Alawiyya-Maryamiyya — is a silsila compressed into a name.[1] [2] [3]