Mawlana Sheikh Nazim Al-Haqqani
Courtesy : Wikipedia
Mehmet Nâzım Adil (Turkish: Muhammed Nazım El-Hakkani Arabic: محمد ناظم الحقاني , born April 23, 1922 (CE) / Sha'ban 26, 1340 AH), best known as Shaykh Nazim, is a Turkish Cypriot Sufi, leader of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Order.He was born in Larnaca, Cyprus. He traces his lineage to the 11th century Sufi Abdul Qadir Jilani and the 13th century mystic Jalaluddin Rumi. His maternal and paternal grandfathers were sheikhs in the Qadiri and Mevlevi orders respectively. As a child, the young Nazim showed a propensity towards spirituality. His father sent him to school to study secular knowledge during the day, and in the evening he studied Islam at the local maktab, where he learned the basics of Islamic law, jurisprudence, the hadith and Qur'anic exegesis.
Biography
At a very young age Nazim displayed unexplained talents in the form of explaining to his teachers what they were going to teach before it was introduced.[2] After completing secondary school in 1940, at the age of 18 Nazim moved to Istanbul, where two brothers and a sister were living. He studied chemical engineering at Istanbul University. While advancing in his non-religious studies, Nazim continued his education in Islamic theology and the Arabic language under the tutelage of Shaykh Cemalettin Elassonli (d. 1955 CE). Nazim received a degree in chemical engineering. Yet he would later state, "I felt no attraction to modern science. My heart was always drawn to the spiritual sciences." He later came to master not only his native tongue Turkish, but Arabic, English, and Greek as well.At some point during his first year of life in Istanbul, Nazim met his first spiritual guide, Shaykh Suleyman Erzurumi (d. 1948), who was a murshid in the Naqshbandi Order.
Sheikh Nazim attended the gatherings of this particular shaykh which were held in the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. Here he learned the basic spiritual methods of the Naqshbandi Order, in addition to those of the Qadiri and the Mevlevi. His focus on spirituality was further reinforced by the unexpected death of an elder brother who died serving as a doctor in World War II. Shortly after attaining his degree, Sheikh Nazim received inspiration to go to Damascus in order to find the famed Naqshbandi master, Shaykh Abdullah al-Fa'izi ad-Daghestani. He obtained permission from Shaykh Erzurumi to leave Istanbul and in 1944 he arrived in Syria, although the unrest caused by the Vichy French government prevented his entry into Damascus until 1945. Upon meeting with the master, whose tekke is located on the slopes of the Jabal Qasyoun, Sheikh Nazim took his hand in bay'ah, or initiation.
Shortly thereafter Shaykh Abdullah Daghestani ordered Shaykh Nazim to return to his native Cyprus to deliver spiritual guidance. Shaykh Abdullah also conferred the title of "Shaykh" to Shaykh Nazim thus giving him the legitimacy to speak on behalf of the Naqshbandi Order.
While in Cyprus, Shaykh Nazim came into conflict with pro-Atatürk governing body of the Turkish community of the island. His repeated act of making the adhan in Arabic rather than the prescribed Turkish brought several lawsuits against him and there were some 114 cases lodged against him for crimes against the secular order. Nevertheless all these were dropped shortly thereafter with the coming to power of Adnan Menderes in Turkey, whose government opted for a more tolerant approach to Islamic traditions.
Shaykh Nazim moved back to Damascus in 1952, when he was wed to the daughter of one of the murids of Shaykh Abdullah Daghestani, Amina Adil, whose family came to settle in Syria after fleeing Soviet rule of their native Kazan. From that time, Sheikh Nazim took up residence in Damascus, and every year he would visit Cyprus for at least three months. The couple have two daughters and two sons.
Worldwide mission work
In the year following the death of Abdullah Fa'izi ad-Daghestani in 1973, Shaykh Nazim began visiting Western Europe, traveling every year from the Middle East to London. On his return trips to Damascus, he would often drive by car through the former Yugoslavia, spending time visiting the Muslim communities there. It became his practice to spend the month of Ramadan in the large centre established in London. In 2000 this practice was discontinued.In 1997, Shaykh Nazim visited Daghestan, the homeland of his murshid, Abdullah Fa'izi ad-Daghestani. He also made repeated visits to Uzbekistan were he made the pilgrimage to the tomb of the eponymous founder of the Naqshbandi Order, Shah Baha'uddin Naqshband.
In 1991 Shaykh Nazim visited the United States for the first time. At that time Shaykh Nazim made the first of four nationwide tours, during the course of which he brought several hundred individuals into the fold of Islam.
In 1996, Shaykh Nazim was guest of honour at the First International Islamic Unity Conference. Over 8,000 people attended this conference, which included major Islamic scholars from around the world and whose theme focused on Islamic spirituality. While in the United States, Shaykh Nazim gave widely attended speeches and associations and dhikr gatherings in a number of venues, including churches, temples, universities, mosques and New Age centers.
In 1998 Shaykh Nazim was again chief guest of honour at the Second International Islamic Unity Conference, held in Washington DC. Attended by over 6000 people, the highlight of this conference was the ringing denunciation of terrorism by Shaykh Nazim to the 160 Islamic scholars and VIPs from around the world, including the current Grand Mufti of Egypt, Grand Muftis of Russia and neighboring nations and dignitaries from Malaysia, Indonesia, the Middle East and Africa.
Later in 1998, Shaykh Nazim traveled to South Africa, accompanied by a large contingent of students from around the globe. There he visited Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban, in each city giving lectures in mosques filled to capacity.
In 2001, Shaykh Nazim, made the 2001 "Naqshbandi-Haqqani Eastern World Tour of the Muslim World", starting in Uzbekistan, from where he then traveled to Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. In the course of this journey, Shaykh Nazim met with people of all walks of life, from the highest dignitaries and leaders to the common folk. The Shaykh, despite his advanced age, was able to maintain an incredibly hectic schedule of meetings, speeches, dhikr gatherings and spiritual gatherings with little or no rest for a period of forty days and covering a distance of over 15,000 miles.
Shaykh Nazim made his last trip to the United States in 2000, during which he was invited to speak at a United Nations conference on Religion and Spirituality.
Shaykh Nazim has had close relations with several notable politicians, notably the late president of Turkey, Turgut Ozal, as well as the ex Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş. During his travels in Southeast Asia he gave his spiritual blessings to His Majesty Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei. His Highness Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X of Yogyakarta and several members of Malaysia's royal families, including His Highness Prince Raja Dato' Seri Ashman Shah have taken initiation into the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Order at his hand. He also traveled on numerous occasions to India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka where he has been received with great fanfare. In the late 1990s he visited South Africa where he established contacts with the Sunni Muslim community. Shaykh Nazim has made the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) some 27 times.
Shaykh Nazim rarely travels abroad nowadays. He currently resides in his family home and spiritual dergah in the town of Lefke, Northern Cyprus, where he is still visited by hundreds of murids each week.
In 2010 Shaykh Nazim launched his own official online journal titled Saltanat.org which contains articles written by him and broadcasts his lectures via livestream.
