30 April 2011 Lefke, Cyprus
(Translated from Turkish and Arabic)
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim: For 70 years I am awaiting Sayyidina al-Mahdi (a).
Shaykh Hisham Effendi: And did you find him?
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim: Yes, alhamdulillah.
Shaykh Hisham Effendi: Good tidings to you from Allah, O Sayyidee. (Speaks in Turkish about Shaykh `Abdus-Salam during the time of Grandshaykh)
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim: Allah (swt) is sending him (Shaykh `Abdus-Salam) to be khalifah. Are you accepting him as?
Shaykh Hisham Effendi: We believe and confirm what you say, from long back! We love him, Sayyidee.
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim: When he (Shaykh `Abdus-Salam) was born I was 30 years old.
Shaykh Hisham Effendi: You have made yourself old, Sayyidee.
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim: He is fifty years younger than me. I never saw him to be angry, Shaykh `Abdus-Salam not even once in his life. Grandshaykh passed away and he was happy with `Abdus-Salam and used to call him 'Effendi' (title indicating shaykhhood).
THE CAT
Umm Kawthar had a yellow cat that jumped from the highest wall, which was between the homes of Umm Kawthar and Grandshaykh. That cat used to bring down Grandshaykh's anger if he was upset, there was a threat to the area. That cat used to make Grandshaykh angry because it used to urinate on a barrel of water which was there in Grandshaykh’s courtyard in order to mark its territory. Once he saw that cat urinating on it, so he frightened it and threw acorns at it. The cat fled in the other direction and crashed into the lid of the barrel. Don't you remember that yellow cat (Mawlana asks Hajjah Naziha)? That cat also ate the show pigeons of Jibrani! Once on May Day, people gather at Jibrani's to watch the pigeons flying in a show, and by coincidence, Grandshaykh was also present for some reason. A policeman, was also there. The cat jumped at one of the smaller pigeons and ate it. Jibrani was so upset, he asked the policeman to shoot the cat and motioned at it with his hands.. The policeman took out his rifle and shot the cat three times in front of Grandshaykh, who was watching, and the cat fell to the ground. Everyone said, "We finished the problem with that cat!" This annoyed Grandshaykh, for he never wanted that cat to be killed despite whatever it did. Grandshaykh returned and sat in his maqaam like this (demonstrates) and he began to repeat this qaseedah.
I don't recall a single qaseedah by memory, but Grandshaykh memorized many qaseedahs and a murshid must do that. Doesn't the qaseedah go laa budda min murshidin, “one must have a guide” (unclear)
Shaykh Hisham Effendi: Yes, Sayyidee.
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim: Grandshaykh did not want any harm to come to that cat. And it came back and continued to urinate (on the barrel), as its normal habit, to show “ownership.” In fact the policeman’s three bullets had hit the cat, but because Mawlana Shaykh did not want it to be harmed, it was not affected at all by any of those shots.
Mawlana Shaykh did not want any harm to come to that cat, and it continued its habit of urinating on the barrel of water. and Mawlana Shaykh would throw at it and shout at it, and it would turn and flee up on Umm Kawthar’s wall.
Hajjah Naziha: With Mawlana's barakah, the cat was not harmed.
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim: Grandshaykh used to shout at it and it would flee to Umm Kawthar's wall. Grandshaykh had many miracles (karamaat) but he never liked to show them.
Hajjah Naziha: And you also don't like to show them.
THE GREEK SHAYKH
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim: One time Grandshaykh got very angry with the people of Iskenderun (in southern Turkey mountains). There lived in that city a venerable shaykh from Arnaut (Albania) who had come there from Greece and Grandshaykh married (one of ) his daughters to that Greek shaykh. One day the people of Iskenderun came against that Greek man, those people who lived in the mountains. They came to the mosque and attacked us, too. When they attacked us, Grandshaykh stood up on a small terrace and shouted at them with force and courage, "If you are able to do that, come on (and try)!" They all fled from the majestic tajalli of Grandshaykh, as if they had been heavily whipped!
DAMASCUS REVOLUTIONARIES
Once there was a revolution in Sham, and the (revolutionaries) took over the reins of government. Those who yesterday had been under them overthrew them. One of the former government's ministers, Nadheer ash-Shama`ah, was the son-in-law of Grandshaykh `AbdAllah (q). The security forces came to Grandshaykh, searching for Nadheer ash-Shama`ah. One day they received news that he was hiding at the house of “uncle” (his father-in-law, Grandshaykh). A military car came to Grandshaykh’s house and inside it was a troop of military police with all their weapons. They knocked on the door and entered the house, and Grandshaykh asked them "Why are you here?" They said they had come to take his brother-in-law, and Nadheer ash-Shama`ah was shaking from fear. Grandshaykh called him, "Nadheer ash-Shama`ah! Come here!" and Nadheer ash-Shama`ah came out and so he was there in front of the military men who were like bears, their bodies were so huge! Grandshaykh said to them, "Are you afraid this man will stand up and make a coup against you? Here he is, with me. Take him if you are able!" The leader of the detachment was shocked by Grandshaykh's majesty. I saw Grandshaykh dressed with an immense majestic appearance.
So the leader of the soldiers put down his weapon and said, "O our master and shaykh! We have been ordered (to search for him). So just let him stay here with you and don't let him go out." And the leader took his group and left.
No one would ever dare to utter a word against Grandshaykh nor raise their voice above his. He was like a lion in his courage; fear had no path to enter his heart by any means! If he picked up a man he would put him down on the ground. Was there not a time that happened, Shaykh `Abdus-Salaam Effendi?
Shaykh Abbus-Salam: I was there when that happened but I did not have the luck to witness that event.
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim: I was present and I saw that with my own eyes.
THE CASE OF ABU BAKR
There was a man named Abu Bakr at Grandshaykh's. The government did not agree to give him a Syrian identity card. One day Grandshaykh went to the Office of Immigrant Affairs and spoke with the director about the issue of Abu Bakr's papers, but the director refused to grant him Syrian citizenship and said he would be repatriated to his home country. I did not personally witness this event, but Grandshaykh informed us of it. Grandshaykh hit the desk of the director with a sharp blow and said, "Do you want to send him back to a nation of unbelievers to become like them? I will make you regret this decision!" They said, "Please, leave us in peace and safe Shaykh Effendi! We will give him immigrant status. What is his nationality? What country did he com from?" And the shaykh replied to them: "He came from Jahannam (Hell)!" So they gave him immigration papers and on it was written, "Original citizenship not specified." They granted it to him and never asked about him again.
Grandshaykh told us about it, laughing, and he said, "When I hit the table, the problem was dissolved and finished." The following week the director who had initially refused to grant him his papers was dismissed, tawbah istaghfirullah, Allah have mercy on him.
THE TOUGH DOG
In the city of Rashadiyyah in Turkey (founded by Great Grandshaykh Sharafuddin ad-Daghestani, where Daghestani immigrants settled), there was an Armenian man. He would not allow a single Muslim to pass in front of his area. In front of his home was a wild and vicious dog that scared people, because if it attacked someone it could tear him to pieces. Once Grandshaykh passed there as the dog slept in front of the house. The Armenian said (to himself), "The dog will attack the shaykh and tear him to pieces." The shaykh passed in front of the dog, and he was carrying a tasbeeh in his hand. Grandshaykh said, "I never feared anything in my life, not a dog and or anything else." So he passed right in front of the dog and the dog raised its head, but as soon as it saw Grandshaykh it lowered its head from shame before him and and went back to sleep. The Armenian was astonished how the dog did not attack the shaykh.
THE ABUSIVE SCHOLAR
There was a scholarly man who always opposed Grandshaykh, and his tongue never ceased to revile him and his shaykh, Shaykh Sharafuddin ad-Daghestani (q) One day Grandshaykh passed in front of the house of that scholar and he found him mixing cement. And Grandshaykh was well aware of his bad intentions towards him and his shaykh. And without a word or greeting, Mawlana Shaykh took that man and turned him upside-down and planted his head into that cement! The man tried to get out using all the strength of his body but he was unable to escape Grandshaykh's grasp, for he had immense strength in his arms. Grandshaykh said, "If you don't stop your tongue from attacking us, know that this will be your end!"
Grandshaykh said, "That power Allah (swt) put in my two hands He never gave to anyone (in our time)." So how would that man open his mouth to speak about Grandshaykh after he saw that? Allahu Akbar! May Allah raise their levels without end! Allah, Allah. How much time has passed since that event?
Hajjah Naziha: More than 38 years.
Shaykh Hisham Effendi: Mashaa-Allah! Your Excellency has been waiting seventy years for Sayyidina al-Mahdi (a)!
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim: Yes.(Turkish)
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim: Yes, since the time I once visited Istanbul in 1940. O our Lord, forgive us!
We are speaking about an event as if it were a child's toy. Our Grandshaykh used to possess immense power in his arms. If he would hit the earth like this (demonstrates), it would have been dislodged from its way (through the Heavens). They said the power awliyaaullah carry has no limit:
وَمَا رَمَيْتَ إِذْ رَمَيْتَ وَلَكِنَّ اللهَ رَمَى
wa maa ramayta idh ramayta wa laakin-Allaha ramaa.
And you did not throw when you threw, but Allah threw. (Surat al-Anfaal, 8: 17)
mashaa-Allaha kaan wa maa lam yashaa lam yakun.
Whatever Allah wills will be and whatever He does not will, will not be.
MAWLANA SHAYKH’S SONS
When Shaykh Mehmet Effendi was born and he reached the age of one week, Hajjah Amina (r) said, "This son was born circumcized, so do we need to perform circumcision on him?" I said to her, "Give me the child and I will take him to Mawlana Shaykh." So I took him and Mawlana Shaykh said to me, "Nazim Effendi, put the boy here so I can see." He put on his eyeglasses and looked at him, and then he pinched him. No one had pinched him before. And he said, "It is okay, O Nazim Effendi. But for the sake of establishing that sunnah, go ahead and circumcize him slightly."
Grandshaykh never looked at the private parts of anyone ever, except that one time. Mawlana Shaykh was the possessor of a great secret, and Grandshaykh loved Mehmet Adil greatly.
Grandshaykh said, “Where is my second son (Shaykh Bahauddin)? And him also!” When he (Bahauddin Adil) was young he worked as a laborer at his brother's. When he earned some money, he went to Rajab's shop and he would jump for joy.
This Effendi (Shaykh Mehmet), as we said previously, possessed a very great power of spirituality. He has the power to rule.