al waliuLLAH al habib as sayyid as syeikh Nazim Adil al qubrusi al haqqani
Syeikh Nazim ibn Adil al haqqani
He is the Imam of the People of Sincerity, the Secret of Sainthood, who revived the Naqshbandi Order at the end of the 20th Century, with Heavenly guidance and Prophetic ethics. He infused into the Nation and the Planet, love of God and love of the lovers of God, after they had been darkened with the fire and smoke of tribulation and terror, anger and grief.
He is the Unveiler of Secrets, the Keeper of Light, the Shaykh of Shaykhs, the Sultan of Ascetics, the Sultan of the Pious, the Sultan of the People of the Truth. He is the Chief Master without peer of the Divine Knowledge in the late 20th Century. He is the Rain from the Ocean of Knowledge of this Order, which is reviving spirits in all parts of this world. He is the Saint of the Seven Continents, his light having attracted disciples and students from all quarters of the globe. He wears the Cloak of the Light of the Divine Presence. He is unique in his time. He is the orchid planted in the earth of Divine Love. He is the Sun for all the universes. He is known as the Saint of the Two Wings: the external knowledge and the internal knowledge.
He is a Miracle of Allah's Miracles, walking on the earth and soaring in the Heavens. He is a Secret of Allah's Secrets, appearing in His Divinity and Existing in His Existence. He is the Owner of the Throne of Guidance, the Reviver of Divine Law, the Master of Sufi Way, the Builder of the Truth, the Guide of the circle, the Lyric Poem of All the Secrets. He is the Master of Saints and the Saint of the Masters. Seekers circle the Kabah of His Light. He is a Fountain always flowing, a Waterfall continuously cascading, a River always flooding, an Ocean endlessly cresting and breaking on infinite shores.
He was born in Larnaca, Cyprus, on the 23rd of April 1922, a Sunday, the 26th of Shacban, 1340 H. His lineage from his father's side traces its roots to Sayyidina `Abdul Qadir Jilani, founder of the Qadiri Order. His lineage from his mother goes back to Sayyidina Jalaluddin Rumi, founder of the Mevlevi Order. He is Hassani-Hussaini, related to the Prophet s.a.w through the lineages of his grandfathers to the Family of the Prophet s.a.w. From his father's side he received the Qadiri Tariqat. From his mother's, the Mevlevi Tariqat.
During his childhood in Cyprus he sat with his grandfather, who was a Shaykh of the Qadiri Tariqat, to learn its discipline and its spirituality. Extraordinary signs appeared early in him. His conduct was perfect: he never fought nor argued with anyone. He was always smiling and patient. His grandfather from his father's side and his grandfather from his mother's side trained him for the spiritual path.
As a youth, Shaykh Nazim was given great consideration because of his unusually high spiritual station. Everyone in Larnaca knew about him, because at a young age he was able to advise people, and to predict the future and reveal it spontaneously. From the age of five there were times when his mother couldn't find him. After searching, she would find him either in the mosque or at the grave of Umm ul-Hiram (r), a Companion of the Prophet (s) whose grave has a mosque built next to it. Tourists come to her grave in large numbers, attracted by the spectacle of a rock suspended in space above her grave. When his mother would try to bring him home, he would say, "Leave me here with Umm ul-Hiram, she is one of our ancestors." He was often seen speaking to Umm ul-Hiram, who was buried fourteen centuries ago, listening and then speaking, listening and answering, as if having a conversation with her. Whenever anyone would disturb him, he would say, "Leave me, I am speaking with my grandmother who is in this grave."
From His Miracles
In 1971, Shaykh Nazim was in Cyprus for the three months of Rajab, Shacban, and Ramadan, as was his custom. One day, in Sha`ban, we received a call from the airport in Beirut and it was the Shaykh telling us to come and get him. We were surprised that he had come, as we were not expecting him, but we quickly went to pick him up. He told us, "I have been ordered by the Prophet s.a.w to come to you today, because your father is going to die. I am to wash him, shroud him and bury him and then go back to Cyprus." We said, "Oh our Shaykh, our father is healthy, nothing is wrong with him." He said, "That is what I have been ordered." He was absolutely certain, and since we had been taught to accept what the Shaykh says, we submitted to him.Masya ALLAHu ta'ala...
He told us to gather the family and to bring them to see my father one last time. We believed him and we called all the family to come. Everyone was surprised and some didn't believe when we called them; some came and some didn't come. My father knew nothing about that matter, but only saw the relatives coming to see him as something ordinary. It was a quarter to seven. The Shaykh said, "Now I have to go up to your father's apartment to recite on him the chapter of Qur'an Yaa Sin ash-Sharif as he passes away." He went up to my father's flat from our flat below. He was greeted by my father at the door. My father said, "O Shaykh Nazim, it has been a long time since we heard you recite Qur'an, won't you read for us?" Then Shaykh Nazim began to recite the chapter of Quran Ya Sin ash-Sharif. Just as he was finishing the chapter, the clock struck seven. Just then my father cried out, "My heart, my heart!" We lay him down and my brother and sister, who are both doctors, came to check him. They found his heart racing out of control and within minutes he breathed his last.
Everyone looked at Shaykh Nazim with awe and astonishment. "How did he know?" we were wondering. "How did he come from Cyprus just for this? What kind of saint is he? How did he know that time so precisely? What kind of secret was he carrying in his heart? What kind of perfect saint is he who knows things that people cannot know?"
The secret he carries is a result of Allah's love and mercy to him. Allah authorized him with that power and prescience because he maintained his sincerity and piety and loyalty to Allah's religion, and kept his obligations and his prayers, and honored His Holy Qur'an. He is like all saints of the Naqshbandi Order before him, like all saints of other orders before him, like his grandfathers Sayyidina `Abdul Qadir Jilani and Sayyidina Jalaluddin Rumi, and like Muhyideen Ibn 'Arabi who followed and preserved the tradition of Islam for 1400 years.
We were caught between two emotions. On the one hand we cried for our father's passing, and on the other we were happy with our master and what he had done for our father. His coming to take care of our father at his last breath was a gesture we will never forget, and was a blessed miracle written with words of light. He washed his body with his holy hands, covered him with a shroud, and buried him with his holy hands. Having accomplished his task he took a flight back to Cyprus the very same day.
What kind of emotions and feelings enter the heart of a person when he sees such events in front of his eyes, events which the material mind cannot encompass or even imagine? The pen cannot express these feelings. We can only say one thing: this is the truth, this is what happened. It is a reality that happens with a mystical power, an unbelievable power that can be given to a person when he has been granted love from the Divine. With that love he will be granted knowledge from the Divine, wisdom from the Divine, spirituality from the Divine. He will be granted everything. He will be a Knower of the past, a Knower of the present and a Knower of the future.
Shaykh Nazim conducts Naqshbandi dhikr, the Circle of the Masters in the Peckham Mosque, formerly St. Mark's cathedral, London. |
Once Shaykh Nazim was visiting Lebanon for a period of two months during the hajj (pilgrimage) season. The governor of the city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Ashar ad-Daya, was head of the official convoy to the hajj. He invited Shaykh Nazim to go with him on the Pilgrimage. The Shaykh said, "I cannot go with you, but, Insha-Allah, I will meet you there." The governor insisted, "If you are going, please go with me. Don't go with anyone else." Shaykh Nazim replied, "I don't yet know if I will go or not." After the season of hajj finished, and the governor had returned, he rushed to the house where Shaykh Nazim was staying. In front of 100 people, while we were watching, he said, "O Shaykh Nazim, why did you go with someone else, why didn't you come with me?" We said, "The Shaykh did not go on hajj. For two months he has been here with us, traveling around Lebanon." He said, "No! He was on hajj. I have witnesses. One day I was making the ritual circumambulation of the Ka'aba (tawaf), and Shaykh Nazim came to me and said, 'O Ashar, are you here?' I said, 'Yes, my Shaykh.' Then he made circumambulation with me. We spent the night together in our hotel in Makkah. He spent the day with us on Arafat, in our tent. He spent the night with me in Mina, and he stayed with us in Mina for three days. Then he told me, 'I have to go to Madinah to visit the Prophet.'"
As he told this story, we were carefully observing Shaykh Nazim, as we knew that he had never left our presence in Lebanon. We saw that unique, hidden smile, as if he meant to say, "That is the power that Allah grants to his saints. When they are on His Way, when they reach His Divine Love and His Divine Presence, Allah will grant them everything."
When he saw that, the governor said, "O my Shaykh, what is this miraculous ability that you showed us? It is incredible. That is something I never saw in all my life. I am a politician, and I rely on my mind and my logic. Yet I must say that you are not an ordinary person, you have superhuman powers. It must be something that Allah Himself has dressed you with!" He kissed the hand of the Shaykh and asked him for initiation in the Naqshbandi Order. Whenever Shaykh Nazim would visit Lebanon, that governor and the prime minister of Lebanon would sit in the Shaykh's association. Up until today, their families and many of the Lebanese people are his followers.
From His Sayings
About the state of Unique Oneness (wahdaniyya) he said:
"It means the impossibility of the existence of multiplicity, and it is of three categories:
-The unique Oneness of the Essence: This means that His Essence is not compounded or combined from two or more parts, and there is nothing which resembles His Divine Essence.
-The Unique Oneness of His Attributes: This means that Allah, Almighty and Exalted, does not possess two kinds of Attributes which represent the same thing. For example, He does not have two Wills nor two Intentions. He is One in every attribute.
The Unique Oneness of His Actions: It means that He is the Creator, by His Own Wish and His Own Will, of everything that appears in this universe. All creations are either a substance or a description or an action. Thus all His Actions are created by Him for His servants."
"If the love is true, then the lover must keep respect for the Beloved and proper manners with Him."
"The highest Certainty of Truth is when the Shaykh glorifies the Divine Presence in your eye and diminishes everything other than God."
"There are three big snakes that harm human beings: to be intolerant and impatient with the people around you; to be habituated to something you cannot leave; and to be controlled by your ego."
"To achieve dunya (the world) is humiliation, and to achieve the next life is honor. I am amazed at those who prefer humiliation to honor."
"If Allah, Almighty and Exalted, opened the Essence of His Divine Love, everyone on earth would die from that love."
"We must always be engaged in the following: pondering Allah's verses in the Holy Qur'an and his signs which cause love to evolve in us; thinking about His Promise to reward us, which will generate and bring forth in us yearning; and thinking about His Warning of punishment, which will generate in us shyness of Allah."
"Allah said, 'Whoever will be patient with Us will reach Us.'"
"If fear of God is grounded in the heart, the tongue will never speak what is of no purpose."
"Tasawwuf is the purity of progressing to Allah's Divine Presence, and its essence is to leave this materialistic life."
"One time Junayd (q) saw Iblis (Satan) in a vision, and he was naked. He told him, 'O Accursed one, are you not shy of people to appear naked?' He said, 'O Junayd, why should I be shy of people when they are not shy from themselves?'"
"When you meet a seeker in the way of Allah, approach him with sincerity and loyalty and with lenience. Don't approach him with knowledge. Knowledge might make him wild at the beginning, but leniency will bring him quickly to you."
"A seeker should be someone who has left himself and connected his heart with the Divine Presence. He stands in His Presence performing his obligations while visualizing the Divine with his heart. Allah's Light has burned his heart giving him a thirst for the nectar of roses, and withdrawing the curtains from his eyes, allowing him to see His Lord. If he opens his mouth it is by order of the Divine Presence. If he moves it is by the order of Allah, and if he becomes tranquil it is by the action of the Divine Attributes. He is in the Divine Presence and with Allah."
"The Sufi is the one who keeps the obligations that Allah has conveyed by the Holy Prophet s.a.w, and strives to raise himself to the state of Perfected Character, which is the Knowledge of Allah, Almighty and Exalted."
"Tasawwuf is a knowledge from which one learns the state of the human soul, praiseworthy or blameworthy. If it is blameworthy he learns how to purify it and enable it, by becoming praiseworthy, to journey to Allah's Divine Presence. Its fruits are the heart's development: Knowledge of Allah, Glorious and Sublime, through direct experience; salvation in the next world; triumph through gaining Allah's pleasure; the attainment of eternal happiness; and illumination and purification so that noble matters disclose themselves, extraordinary states are revealed, and one perceives what the inside of others is blind to."
"Tasawwuf is not a particular type of worship, but is rather the attachment of the heart to Allah. Such attachment demands that whenever something is preferred (mandub), according to the standards of the Sacred Law, for someone in one's circumstances, then one does it. This is why we find that Sufis have served Islam in a wide variety of capacities. Islamic scholars must acquire the higher education of Sufism."
Grandshaykh's Predictions Concerning Shaykh Nazim
Grandshaykh, before he passed away said in his will, "By the Order of the Prophet (s), I have trained and lifted up my successor, Nazim Effendi, and put him through many seclusions and trained him in severe training and I am assigning him to be my successor. I am seeing that in the future he will spread this Order through East and West. Allah will make all kinds of people, rich and poor, scholars and politicians, come to him, learn from him and take the Naqshbandi Order, at the end of the 20th Century and the beginning of the 21st Century. It will spread all over the world, such that not one continent will be devoid of its sweet scent."
"I see him establishing and founding huge headquarters in London through which he will spread this tariqat to Europe, the Far East, and America. He will spread sincerity, love, piety, harmony, and happiness among people, and all shall leave behind ugliness, terrorism, and politics. He will spread the knowledge of peace within the heart, the knowledge of peace within communities, the knowledge of peace between nations, in order that wars and struggles will be taken away from this world and peace will become the dominating factor. I am seeing young people running to him from everywhere, asking for his barakah and blessings. He will show them the way to keep their obligations in the Islamic tradition, to be moderate, to live in peace with everyone of every religion, to leave hatred and enmity. Religion is for Allah and Allah is the judge of His servants."
That prediction has come to pass, just as Grandshaykh `Abdullah had described it. In the year after Grandshaykh (q) passed away in 1973, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim made his first return trip to Turkey, visiting Bursa. Then he went to London. Many young people, especially the followers of John Bennett, came to meet him. As many people began coming to hear him he established his first center there in 1974.
He followed his first visit with annual visits to England and the Continent during and after Ramadan. The Order spread quickly, penetrating all of Europe, together with the United States, Canada and South America. He opened three centers in London for training people in the ways of spirituality, removing their depression and lifting them to a state of peace in their hearts. His teachings continued to spread to all parts of Europe, North Africa, Southern Africa, the Gulf countries, America, North and South, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Russia and parts of China, Australia and New Zealand.
On his first visit to the United States, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim visited with Pir Wilayat Khan at his New York spiritual center. |
You cannot find in the countries we have named and countries we have not named, a place where the touch of Shaykh Nazim is not felt. This is what differentiates him from all saints that are living now and all saints that came before. You find all languages are spoken in his presence. Every year, in the month of Ramadan, a huge conference is held in London, which more than 5,000 people attend from all over the world. As Allah said, "We made you nations and tribes that you might know one another" [49:13].
His followers come from all walks of life. You find the poor, the middle class, the wealthy, the businessman, the doctor, the lawyer, the psychiatrist, the astronomer, the plumber, the carpenter, Ministers of government, politicians, senators, parliament members, prime ministers, presidents, kings, sultans, and royalty of all kinds, everyone attracted to his simplicity, to his smile, to his light and to his spirituality. Thus he is known as the multicolored, Universal Shaykh.
His sayings and associations (sohbet) have been collected and published in many books that are available. These include the Mercy Oceans series, which number more than 35 books, thousands of feet of videotapes, and thousands and thousands of hours of audiotapes.
His life is always intensely active. He is a traveler in Allah's Way, never staying home, always moving from one place to another. One day he is in the East and the next he is in the West. One day he is in the North and the next he is in the South. You don't know where he will be from one day to the next. He is always meeting with officials to encourage reconciliation and peace and preservation of the natural world. He is always sowing the seeds of love and peace and harmony in the hearts of mankind. We hope that in the spirit of his teachings all religions will find paths to reconciliation and leave behind differences to live in peace and harmony.
His predictions for the future of the world are a continuation of Grandshaykh `Abdullah's predictions, announcing events before they occur, warning people and bringing their attention to what is going to happen. Many times he has said, "Communism is going to come down and the Soviet Union is going to split into pieces. He predicted the Berlin Wall would fall.
The secret of the Golden Chain of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order is in his hands. He carries it with the highest power. It is shining everywhere. May Allah bless him and strengthen him in His Holy Work. May Allah send much peace, blessings, salutations, and light upon the Beloved Prophet Muhammad , his family, his companions, and all prophets and saints, especially His devoted servants in the Naqshbandi Path and all the Sufi Orders, and especially upon His friend in our time, Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani.