Sufism and Tasawwuf - Naqshbandi Sufi Way

Personal Account from One of the Trapped Chilean Miners

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

24 November 2012 Lefke, Cyprus

Zhuhr Suhbah

(Portions translated from Spanish)

A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytani 'r-rajeem. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem.

Today is going to be the first suhbah that Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) has asked to be mentioned and it is going to be a little bit different. We are honored to have our guide, Sayyidee Sultan al-Mawlana, Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani, to guide us in the Way of Allah and Prophet (s). And we are very honored that my brother, Shaykh Adnan Kabbani, is here. Many of you are here showing a united rainbow of different personalities, different people coming to sit together, from the Far East all the way through Europe, passing through the Arab countries, to Chile, Argentina, America and Canada. So it is meant to be like that in order to have some advice that is necessary for all of us.

First, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) wants us to be one hand, and Allah said in the Holy Qur’an:

??? ???????? ???????? ?????? ???????????? ???? ?????? ???????? ??????????????? ???????? ??????????? ????????????? ????? ???????????? ????? ??????? ??????????? ????? ??????? ??????? ???????

Ya ayyuha an-naasu inna khalaqnaakum min dhakkarin wa untha wa ja`alanaakum shu`uban wa qabaa’il li-ta`arafoo, Inna akramakum `ind-Allahi atqaakum. inna Allaha `aleemun khabeer.

O Human Beings! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other (not that you may despise (each other). Verily the most honored of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you and Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things). (Surat al-Hujuraat, 49:13)

May Allah make all of us to be righteous and sincere under the guidance of Mawlana. Seclusion is very difficult. We did seclusion by order of our shaykh and it was easy, but there are seclusions that are not easy. When Grandshaykh `AbdAllah, may Allah bless his soul, and Mawlana Shaykh Nazim went into seclusion in one room and Grandshaykh (q) closed the window completely with wood before he went into seclusion because he wanted to disconnect himself completely from normal life. And he said, “No one did seclusion with their student except me.” We won't go in detail about what happened, but Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) said at that time Grandshaykh (q) was not eating anything and he gave all his food to him. They got food twice a day, a small portion of lentil soup or bread and olives, whatever it was. And Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) was ordered to pray in Masjid an-Nabawi and return promptly to seclusion. He said, “I never saw Grandshaykh sleeping and when he was making du`a it shook Heavens and Earth.”

I don’t want to say more because scholars are watching us on the Internet and questioning us through various emails, and they made a fake organization (for that purpose), asking, “Why did you say this or that?” So you have to be careful in selecting words. Sometimes some representatives who don’t know what they are saying begin to throw words that no scholar can digest, and that is why they attack us. There is a lot of that on the Internet; they ask, “Are you real or not?” We answer them and they answer back, and we have to carry the responsibility of other representatives, although we have nothing to do with what they say, but they say things and who is in the picture? Questioners always come back to us in America, through Naqshbandi.org or Sufilive.com! Even other agencies around the world question us, as if we (said those wrong things) and we have to explain to them (that we did not do it). We are always under a microscope, and we are peaceful people who live moderate lives and we speak according to Shari`ah.

I am not going to be too long. Shaykh Abdul Mateen (from Chile), Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) wants everyone to hear in detail the story from the miner, and we are honored by his presence here and to know how much they have suffered. They didn't have food and water and Allah made them survive, and it was seclusion for the whole ummah! Mawlana wants us to hear about the miraculous power that came to them and made them survive. So whatever he (Brother Esteban, a rescued miner) wants to say, let him come on a chair and give him a microphone.

Everyone here understands English and Turkish? (Yes.)

(Translation from Spanish to English by Shaykh Abdul Mateen from Chile.)

Brother Esteban (Miner): I am very honored to speak. What I experienced through the accident was very difficult and terrible, until the day we came out. In spite of the fact that we were 700 meters down and not knowing if we will come out or not, we thirty-three miners organized ourselves to survive and to pray in order to be taken out. Many of us thirty-three didn’t know each other because we were from different shifts, so it was the first time we had all met and we became like brothers.

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham: Can he explain from the beginning how this situation came to be?

Brother Esteban: We were all working in the mine and all of a sudden there was a big explosion in the hill. After one hour there was a second huge explosion and we were underneath and felt a strong wind coming to us, almost blowing on our heads. After this happened, we started to run around looking for a way out, so we looked for an exit but there was a huge rock blocking our way, and we knew we couldn't get out. There was another possibility for an exit that was like a tube, a chimney, but it was also blocked by a huge boulder. So after three days of looking for a way out, we realized it was impossible to get out, so we met together and acknowledged that we were trapped. Then we started to organize ourselves to survive and paid special attention to the younger ones among us so that they felt reassured and supported. Then we started to pray for rescue. We had very little food and organized it like brothers, to eat very little and for each the same amount. (We calculated) the food was enough for three days for thirty-three people! So we realized we had to eat as little as possible and to share as much as possible to make it last as long as we could. After some days passed, we realized the food was decreasing too quickly, so we began to eat every two or three days and we drank water. Luckily, we had a big tank of water just above us under the hill, although it was brown industrial water that we used in drilling, but it was the only water source so we drank it because we knew we wouldn’t make it otherwise. On some days we had no food, and when we drank that water, we realized it was a miracle because it didn't make us sick; rather, it felt fresh and pure!

Everyday we prayed, although we held different beliefs, so no matter if we were Catholic or Evangelists, every day we prayed as people of one religion. After six days inside the mine, we started hearing sounds of drilling all around us and we cried and prayed, “Maybe there is a miracle and it will take us out!” After the seventeenth day, the drill broke through to where we were, and we were all crying and happy that we were able to communicate to our families that we were all alive! So that was the end of the first time period for us down there, those seventeen days before the drills came in.

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham: He missed something. How were they able to breathe?

Brother Esteban: Some of us had grown up in mines, and since childhood I was in mines, so we have a trick to tell if there is air or not. We took a cigarette lighter to see if the flame is moving or not; if it moves there is air flowing, and if the flame goes out there is no oxygen.

After they put this tube with the first drill, we were able to send messages to our families and our families sent messages to us and it kept our hopes up while we were waiting for them to make a bigger tube to take us out. We were very happy and hopeful to wait for that moment (of our rescue)!

Every day at noon we gathered for prayer and as soon as we start to meet every day at noon, (Esteban is unable to hold back tears), we felt like we weren’t thirty-three but rather thirty-four. And every time we prayed, we felt a breeze blowing around us, embracing us, telling us it would be okay and that we would go out, and it was fresh air blowing on our backs. That moment of the day gave us strength and the hope we would meet our families again. Through that experience, we were filled with strength and hope, knowing that we would be rescued, and we felt the whole world was united and praying for us. That gave us so much strength and we will all keep that gratefulness until we leave this world! We have very strong gratitude in our hearts for the whole world’s prayers for our safety!

Especially I want to thank Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, as he was the only one supporting us and helping us from the beginning, and I want to thank him on behalf of the thirty-three miners. Mawlana Shaykh told us that we are like his children and he feels strongly for us, and we feel like his children, so we feel gratitude because he has always been with us since the beginning. I ask for forgiveness because when I remember all this I feel very emotional!

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham: When they were trapped, what did they feel? What was the first thing that came to his mind?

Brother Esteban: I knew the mine was dangerous and it was a very unstable mine, so as soon as the hill collapsed I thought of my children and grandchildren, and I prayed to God, to Allah, to take us out if it was His Will, and otherwise, I was certain that He would look after my family because I was fighting for a job for the sake of my family.

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham: Any questions from anyone?

Question: Tell us the story about a butterfly.

Brother Esteban: There were two other miners who were driving a pickup truck, coming into the mine. They were driving along the road and they saw a butterfly or a white dove that went with along them, and they just barely missed the collapse of the mountain; had they stopped with the sound they would not have made it out.

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham: We didn’t hear about the food, what kind they had and how they were distributing it. Did they eat one spoon a day?

Brother Esteban: If we had eaten a normal meal, it would have been enough for one day. So at the beginning we ate two square crackers each and nothing else for the whole day, and then after that we switched to two very small teaspoons of tuna fish a day, then to one spoon. We split all food equally, like a cream filled cookie: first we had one each, then we split them into halves, then the spoons of tuna, then we had canned peaches and we cut four pieces equally into thirty-three portions, exactly the same amount for each person, and at the end we had three days of no food, just water. That industrial water kept us alive.

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham: He didn’t mention the fresh water; we heard they had diarrhea when they received it.

Brother Esteban: No, no, they sent one can of milk from NASA and when we had that everyone had diarrhea! (Laughter.)

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham: Did they have any dreams while they were there?

Brother Esteban: Whenever we heard the drill we could barely sleep.

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham: When did they first hear the drill?

Brother Esteban: It was the sixth day when we heard the drill and we were able to rest a bit, but when it stopped drilling we were worried and so we couldn’t sleep, but then we heard them again and could rest again.

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham: So they went into a miracle of the number seven: when they first heard the drilling it was on the sixth day going into the seventh day, and on the seventeenth day they were found, and they were 700 meters down, so it was all 7-7-7.

Brother Esteban: We said (to ourselves) we were thirty-three trapped miners, the same age as `Isa (a), and the rescuers took thirty-three days to complete the drilling to make the bigger tube for the rescue, and when we started to get out it was thirteenth of the tenth month of 2010, which totals thirty-three.

Question: How did they know it was Mawlana Shaykh Nazim supporting them?

Brother Esteban: When we received the taweezes we put them on and never took them off, and in that moment we knew the support was from Mawlana Shaykh Nazim.

Question: How did they receive the taweez?

Brother Esteban: We were inside and after the tube was made, packages, what we called “doves,” consisting of all the letters and food that was all sent down through the tube. And one day we received a dove with thirty-three taweezes and a letter saying that Mawlana Shaykh is telling us to say, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah,” and that we will come out safely, and we knew they were praying for us and that we had some support.

Question: Maybe Abdul Mateen could elaborate on how they got the taweez to them?

Brother Abdul Mateen: It was very miraculous. One evening in Ramadan, we were eating dinner and wondering what we could send them to support them. The children were saying to send a photo of Mawlana, someone else said a book, etc. Then the next day I got a phone call from Kamaluddin from here, saying, “Mawlana is telling them to recite, ‘Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadur Rasoolullah’ and they will be rescued.” So we took one book (of Mawlana Shaykh) and prepared the taweezes in envelopes and sent the package to a brother who lived very close to the mine. Then the government said only family members could go there, so we tried several times to deliver it, but they refused to let us go through. Then we decided to use our events email list to ask to find a family who has a relative inside the mine to contact us, because we had something to tell them. In between I received one or two calls from Mawlana Shaykh, telling us to hurry up and tell them! We were all desperate!

So one sister named Habiba, who had recently become Muslim, replied that she was the daughter of the sister of one of the miners, a niece. She gave us the number of the daughter of Omar, who visited here before, and `Abdur-Ra`uf, who lives near there, called her and arranged to meet. She took the package from him and said, “Don’t worry, I will get this to them.” So she went alone and took the package that included Mawlana Shaykh's message, a picture of him, the thirty-three taweezes and a book, and it was sent down to the miners (through the tube).

Question: You mentioned when you prayed you became from 33 to 34. Who was that 34th one?

Brother Esteban: When we were praying we were thirty-three miners and we felt that “miner number thirty-four” was our Lord, Who was present with us at that moment. His Presence was among us at that time of the day when we were praying. That is why it is difficult for me to speak about it, because I remember it very strongly and my heart is full and moving with it. And through His Presence, every day we were able to rest and have hope and to keep going through that very difficult situation we were in.

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham: Prophet Muhammad (s) says that Allah (swt) says in a Holy Hadith:

????? ???????? ???? ?????????

Anaa jaleesu man dhakaranee.

I sit with him who remembers me. (Ahmad, Bayhaqi)

So whenever they prayed, that Presence was with them, Allah’s Presence was there.

Brother Esteban: I think each of the thirty-three feel the same, because they commented after the prayers that they felt that relief, because all the pressure was gone.

Question: How was their reaction when they received the things (from Mawlana)?

Brother Esteban: When we received that, it was a very beautiful moment because we sensed we were not alone and all other were religions were supporting us. We don’t have enough time to thank everyone, but we were very happy to know that someone from so far away was with us.

Question: What did you think about the picture of Mawlana?

Brother Esteban: I am very proud of having the picture of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) in a frame in my house and I go up to it every day to thank him and I prayed that I could come to meet him, so I was very happy to have met him twice yesterday, so my highest wish was accomplished yesterday when I met Mawlana Shaykh!

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham: SubhaanAllah, naray takbeer. (Allahu Akbar!) Naray Siddiq. Jeevay, jeevay Shaykh Nazim!

(Shaykh Abdul Rahman recites Qur'an.)

Fatihah. (Du`a.)

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham: Alhamdulillah, we thank Shaykh Abdul Mateen and Esteban very much. Please put your hand on mine and repeat after me, “Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llah, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan abduhu wa habeebuhu wa rasooluh (three times).” (Baya`.)

Inshaa-Allah Mawlana is giving him the name “Muhammad Saleem,” so Estaban is now Muhammad Saleem. Saleem is peaceful and it also means complete health. Thank you very much for coming and Shaykh Abdul Mateen’s barakah brought you here, and Mawlana is thanking all the Chileans here. We will see you later.

As-salaamu `alaykum.

http://sufilive.com/Chilean_Miners_are_Back_in_Lefke_Retelling_Their_Story-4712.html