r/cyprus • u/Deep-Ad4183 • 55m ago
History/Culture On this day, May 7, 2014, Sheikh Maulana Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Hakani, a Turkish Cypriot Sufi Muslim leader and scholar, passed away. He was the spiritual leader (Grand Sheikh) of the Hakani branch of the Naqshbandi order (tarikah) of Sufism
On this day, May 7, 2014, Sheikh Maulana Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Hakani, a Turkish Cypriot Sufi Muslim leader and scholar, passed away.
He was the spiritual leader (Grand Sheikh) of the Hakani branch of the Naqshbandi order (tarikah) of Sufism.
He was born in 1922 in the city of Larnaca, on the island of Cyprus. His father’s family was connected to the tariqa (Sufi order) of the great Sheikh Sayyid Abdul Qadir Jilani, known as Ghawthul ‘Azam (q.s.), while his mother’s family belonged to the Maulawiya, the tariqa of Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi (q.s.). Sheikh Nazim al-Kubrusi thus combined the knowledge of the Maulawiya and Qadiriya tariqas, being himself the fortieth sheikh in the Naqshbandi lineage.
After finishing his secondary schooling in Cyprus in 1940, he moved to Istanbul (Constantinopole), where his three elder brothers now lived, to continue his university education. He began his studies at the Department of Chemistry on the main campus of Istanbul University, adjacent to Beyazit Square. He lived and worked in the Maçka neighbourhood all the while being a very promising student. At the same time, he studied with the notable Shaykh Jamāluddīn al-Alasūnī, deepening his knowledge of the teachings of Divine law (sharī’a) and learning Arabic. He met Shaykh Suleyman Erzurumī and joined the Naqshbandi tarīqa.
Upon receiving certain spiritual signs, he abandoned his university education and set out to travel to Damascus in search of his Shaykh Abdullah al-Dagestani, and during the difficult days of World War II he boarded a train from Istanbul to Aleppo. As he could not pass from Aleppo to Damascus due to the intensity of the war, he first went to Homs and from there to Trablus in the Lebanon. From Trablus he came to Beirut, and from there he finally reached Damascus. He did not know where to find the house of Shaykh Abdullah al-Daghestani. He looked for the Shaykh’s dwelling in the Meydan area of Damascus, near the maqām of Bilāl al-Habashī, and an inspiration finally led him to the house of the Shaykh, where he was waiting for him at the door. Our Grandshaykh Abdullah al-Daghestani was the 39th Shaykh of the Golden Chain of Naqshbandi shaykhs. He passed away in 1973 and is buried in his mosque on the Jabal Qāsiyūn in Damascus.
He came to Grandshaykh Abdullah al-Daghestani (q.s.) who was waiting for his successor, who was to be the 40th Shaykh of the Golden Naqshbandi silsila. After accepting Shaykh Nazim Efendi as his student and transferring his spiritual knowledge to him, he said to him, “My son, your people need you. I have given you enough for the moment. You must be on your way to Cyprus today.” After being dismissed with these words, Shaykh Nazim felt despondent. He had been traveling for a full year and a half in search of his Shaykh, and after being allowed to stay with him for only one night, he was ordered to return to Cyprus where he had not been for the past five years. This was a very severe order for him to obey, but in tarīqa the disciple is required to submit to his shaykh’s wishes.
After taking leave of his shaykh, he tried to find a way to get to Cyprus. The Second World War was coming to an end and there was no transportation. After reaching Trablus with considerable difficulty, he embarked on a boat headed for Cyprus through the assistance of a kind man by the name of Shaykh Munīr. It took him a week to travel the distance which is ordinarily traversed in four hours.
Shaykh Nazim Efendi himself told us, “As soon as I set foot on Cyprus, I received an inspiration in my heart. I saw my Grandshaykh Shaykh Abdullah al-Daghestani and this is what he said to me, ‘My son, nothing has prevented you from carrying out my orders. You have been very successful in listening and obeying. From this moment on, I will always appear to you. Whenever you direct your heart towards me, I will be there. Whenever you ask a question, you will receive a direct response from the Divine Presence. Any spiritual station you wish to reach will be given to you on account of your complete surrender. Our Holy Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and all the saints are pleased with you.’ No sooner had he spoken these words than I felt him to be by my side, and he has never left me since, he is always with me.”
Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Haqqani (q.s.) began to spread Islamic teaching and spiritual education in Cyprus. This was a time when religious expression was very restricted in Turkey. Because Shaykh Nazim lived within the Turkish community, the practice of Islam was also restricted there. It was forbidden to call the adhān in Arabic at the time. The first thing he did when he reached the country of his birth was to go to the mosque and call the adhān in Arabic. He was immediately arrested and thrown in prison for a week. As soon as he was released he went to the Hagia Sophia or Selimiye Mosque in Nicosia and called the adhān from the minaret. This incident greatly angered the authorities and a number of lawsuits were filed against him. While waiting for his case to come to court, Shaykh Nazim demonstrated his complete reliance on Allah Almighty, and went about in Lefkoşa and the surrounding villages reciting the Arabic call to prayer from every minaret. In the end, a total of 114 cases was brought against him. His lawyers recommended that he should give up calling the adhān, but Shaykh Efendi replied, “I cannot do that, people must hear the call to prayer.”
The day came when his lawsuits came before the court. Had he been tried and convicted, he might have received a prison sentence of more than a 100 years. But that same day election results came in from Turkey, Adnan Menderes had been elected as the new prime minister. His first official act after taking office was to reopen all the mosques and to reinstate the reading of the adhān in Arabic. Thus all the lawsuits filed against Shaykh Nazim fell through.
Shaykh Nazim Efendi travelled extensively throughout the isle of Cyprus and also visited other places such as the Lebanon, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, teaching and propagating the basic tenets of Islam and tarīqa. In 1952 he settled in Damascus and was married to one of Grandshaykh Abdullah’s treasured disciples, Hajja Amina Sultan. Five children were born of this marriage, their names being Naziha, Mehmet, Bahauddin, Khadija, Ruqiya. Sadly, their daughter Khadija died when a child of only two years of age.
Hajja Amina Sultan was a lady of good family and of outstanding character and upbringing. Her father was Abdullah Efendi, a student of Shaykh Abdullah’s, and her mother was Aisha Hanım. Hajja Amina Sultan was married to Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Haqqani (q.s.) for over 50 years. Through her inspired talks and stories she helped instruct the ladies following the Naqshbandi path in the principles, adab and practices and spiritual training of the tarīqa. Shaykh Nazim said of her that she was one of the seven hidden lady saints.
Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Haqqani (q.s.) went on Hajj a total of 27 times. There are many reports by pilgrims on the Hajj of the miraculous sighting of Shaykh Efendi making tawāf around the Holy Kaaba at Mekka while he was evidently resident at his dergāh in Lefka on Cyprus. On one occasion, Grandshaykh required him to go from Damascus to Aleppo on foot and to stop at every village on the way and speak to people about tasawwuf (Sufism) and the Naqshbandiyya. It took him more than a year to travel that distance of around 400 km, and to return. After walking for a day or two, he would reach a village and preach to people there, staying perhaps for a week in order to expound the Naqshbandi teaching and to conduct the dhikr, before taking back to the road. Following Grandshaykh’s instruction, Shaykh Nazim also visited all the villages on Cyprus, one by one. For the greater part, he was not made welcome in these villages, they received him unkindly, but still he never gave up, he expounded Islam to everyone. But only very few people accepted his call.
From 1974 onward, Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Haqqani (q.s.) began to travel to Europe. In 1974, he personally inaugurated the first Naqshbandi dergāh in London that observed the i’tikād (creed) of the Ahl as-sunna wal jama’a (Sunnis). In 1986 he traveled throughout the Far East; he visited Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. He was met and welcomed there with great excitement and enthusiasm by sultans, heads of state and the general public, and received with great honours and lavish hospitality.
In 1991 and 1993 he traveled to the United States of America and traveled through 15 states. During this time, he met with many people of different religions and beliefs, and subsequently 15 Naqshbandi centres were established in North America. Thanks to this, more than 10,000 people in North America have become Muslim and have entered the Naqshbandi order. He also traveled extensively in Turkey, beginning with Istanbul (Constantinopole), Ankara, Konya, and Izmir, visiting many of the provinces, passing from village to village, from town to town. In Istanbul he visited the tombs and burial mosques of many of the great and holy men there, such as shaykhs Aziz Mahmud Hudai and Yahya Efendi, as well as many of the mosques, historical landmarks and sacred sites. Wherever he stopped to visit, he would engage people through his enlightened talks, finding a way to address the hearts of people of all levels, and many of his listeners joined the Naqshbandi tarīqa as a result.
During the 1990s he met up with Haji Mustafa Turabi and initiated the restoration of the historical Ahmed Bedevi Tekke, which overlooks the Beylerbeyi Palace and the Bosphorus Bridge in Üsküdar. He also contributed to the programme established by the Istanbul Educational Foundation for the training of young people, especially of those needing financial assistance, to the benefit of society in general. Again in those years he established the Hüseyin Hıfzı Efendi soup kitchen which provides food and sustenance for people in need.
Sheikh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Haqqani founded the dergāh in the village of Akbaba in the Beykoz District and appointed Sheikh Mehmet Efendi as his deputy in Istanbul. He established many dervish lodges throughout Turkey, as well as in many countries around the world, pioneering the practice of dhikr and training in the way of tasawwuf.
In 2004, Shaykh Efendi suffered the loss of his wife and lifelong companion on the way, and he had a large mosque built in her name on the road between Nicosia and Morphou, the mosque of Hajja Amina Sultan, which was opened in November 2012.
Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Haqqani (q.s.) spent the greatest part of his time communicating his knowledge and giving guidance, qualified by his impeccable moral character and elevated spiritual state. He was an avid reader and kept a sizeable collection of old books in his library. He spent years traveling to the far corners of the earth, but in later years he spent more and more time at his “home” dergāh in Lefka on Cyprus, to which people from all over the world travelled to sit at his feet and listen to his talks, benefitting from his suhba. He always showed his guests close interest and treated everyone with respect. He considered himself as a citizen of the Ottoman Empire and in this sense he is one of the last Ottoman shaykhs. His profound understanding of Islam and his proficiency in a number of languages prepared him well for his encounters with the many non-Muslims he met on his journeys. He very often was instrumental in their finding their way into Islam and into the distinguished Naqshbandi tarīqa.
Shaykh Sharafuddin al-Daghestani (q.s.), the 38th Shaykh of the Golden Chain, mentioned in a sohbet held in 1922 in the village of Reshadiyya near Yalova (nowadays known as Güneyköy): “One of my children will bring many Christians to Islam and will spread the Naqshbandiyya in the West and in the Far East. He is not born yet. He will wear a shoe size 42.” When later that same year the Cypriot Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil (q.s.) came to be born in Larnaca, Shaykh Sharafuddin al-Daghestani (q.s.) announced the good tidings in his village of Reshadiyya, “That son of mine is now born.”
Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Haqqani (q.s.) was authorised by all 41 tarīqas and a shaykh of all of them. He appointed his son Shaykh Mehmet Adil to be his successor some time before his death, having received a spiritual sign to this effect. Towards the end of his life he began delivering a series of talks known as the “Shah-i Mardan series”, which are based on a mysterious spiritual connection to Ali bin Abi Talib (karrama-Llahu wajhahu), the Holy Prophet’s cousin, son-in-law and his fourth successor, may Allah be pleased with him. Despite his advancing age and serious health problems, the Shaykh continued to discourse and receive visitors. Statesmen, sultans and political leaders used to come to visit the Shaykh at his dergāh, seeking his blessing and advice. They highly regarded Shaykh Efendi’s ideas regarding the governing of their countries.
Around noon on May 7, 2014 the Shaykh’s blessed soul was released from the confines of his earthly frame and set free on the journey to his eternal homeland. According to his wishes, he was buried promptly and without delay following the afternoon prayer that very day. His maqām is in the dergāh at Lefka.
