15 January 2022 Fenton Zawiya, Michigan
Shaykh Taher Siddiqui
Alhamdulillah, today we are fortunate to have Imam Senad and his jama`ah visiting from Chicago, and every time they bring a very special nour and tajalli. They have a lot of intense love for Mawlana Shaykh Nazim and for the tariqat. They come a long way to make ziyarah to the shaykh. They say even if he is not physically present, they know that his spirituality is here.
They come from a line of Tariqah people: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania; all these areas are comprised of tariqah people from the Ottoman times, and they are Ottomans, look at their hats. So, alhamdulillah, their spirit is strong. I remember visiting Sarajevo and Prizren and Pez (Peja) when I was about 11 years old. My father took us there on a trip.
If you indulge us, Shaykh Senad, I request you to tell us the story of that one hafiz who, through his strong intention, protected the whole of Sarajevo.
Shaykh Imam Senad Agic:
That is the story about one hafiz who was born in Sarajevo and died in Sarajevo, passing away at the age of 95 or 96. He dedicated his life to teaching students and teaching the Qur’an. Whenever I met Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q), he asked about this hafiz. They knew each other, and when Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) visited Sarajevo right after the war, maybe in 1996, he was looking for this hafiz to meet with him, so they met.
According to Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q), and he shared that with me, this hafiz, Hafiz Halid Effendi Hadzimulic [Hadži Hafiz Halid ef. Hadžimulić] was the only khatib, only imam in Bosnia who was appointed by the Prophet (s) to give khutbah on his behalf in all of Bosnia.
So, the story that Shaykh Taher mentioned is about how this hafiz, along with several others whom he selected, went on a circle around Sarajevo reciting the entire text of the Holy Qur’an. I don’t know how many hours or days it took them to complete the recitation of the entire text of the Holy Qur’an going around Sarajevo. The purpose of this was to ask Allah (swt) to protect Sarajevo with that Qur’anic ring.
What happened later, when experts of war analyzed how close the enemy’s lines got to Sarajevo, they found out that they couldn’t breach those lines of the circle that he made along with several other huffaaz, they couldn’t enter that. So, this is really interesting, something that reminds us of the power of Holy Qur’an, that we all should also continue with this. It was not only once that he did this, in 1941, 1943, 1963, and before the war. So this was done several times.
If you allow me, I would like to share with you how we came to buy the masjid in Franklin Park, Illinois. As you know, we used to be members of and I used to be imam of the Islamic Cultural Center of Northbrook, and something happened that I don’t want to go into the details of, but we were forced out for whatever reason. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) knew that we were going to establish a new jama`ah and look for a new masjid. So we were looking, looking, looking, and we got this message from Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q): “Tell Imam Senad that I found one church and I stepped on it and it is waiting for his jama`ah.”
So we were looking for various churches and buildings, and we ended up at a court suing a village for not allowing us to buy one building [due to discrimination]. It was settled and we got some money from the settlement. Then, when we were on the verge of losing hope that we will find anything suitable for us, someone who is not in the business of looking for property to buy, one who later became a follower of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) and Mawlana Shaykh Hisham (q), showed up, and he connected with one lady who was in the business of selling churches. She proposed a church to him, and although we had professional people looking for churches they could not find any, and this brother, Senad—he has the same name as mine—said there is a church on sale.
We asked, “How do you know?”
He said, “I am in contact with one lady, she wants to show it to us.”
“Where is that church?”
“In Franklin Park.”
“Let’s go.”
We went and saw the building. It was a huge, huge building, and we were then expecting how much it would cost. The lady said the price is $950,000, something like that. We said, “For sure, it is not more?” Because the building is really big—you saw it. “That is the price.” So, we came up with the whole amount and we closed the sale in a very quick, easy way.
Also, we went to the village and we established (what was needed), thanks to this guy. He was waiting for us, he lived in Franklin Park, so Allah (swt) appointed him to be someone who is going to give us a hand and connect us with the village people through him. He didn’t know anything about tariqah at that time. So then we went to the village and we had a hearing, we presented our case.
They said, “Okay. You can buy it, it can be a masjid; whatever you want to do, do. We are happy with you.” [Allahu Akbar.]
And, another thing: when we signed the agreement to buy it, we did not have enough money. We had some, maybe we had $400,000 something, and then we had to quickly do fundraising, and that fundraising happened to be on May 7th, when Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) passed away (in 2014). On May 7th, 2016, it was Saturday, we had fundraising in a Turkish center in Mount Prospect. We started by invoking blessings on the Prophet (s) and blessings on Mawlana and praying for Mawlana, because it coincided with the date when he passed away. When we started, we were thinking, “We may raise some money, but still it may not be enough to have $950,000.”
That night we raised enough money to pay it off at once, right away! So, when we think back to this whole journey, Mawlana was with us; we felt his support.
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim and Hadži Hafiz Halid ef. Hadžimulić, 1998.
Imam Senad Agic in the white turban, with the mureed from Franklin Park wearing the Ottoman fez hat, and Shaykh Taher in green.
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