From Points of Light: The Visit II

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

The following is an extract of “From Points of Light”, by Shaykh Harun Michael Sugich. 

He wrote, “Humaythra is in the middle of nowhere.  Hours driving from Aswan, or from the opposite direction from Marsa Allam, it is a barren outpost that was once on the pilgrimage caravan route.  If Imam ash-Shadzili (q.s.) had not been buried here, it would have been no more than an insignificant speck on an empty map.  The passing of the saint has been reconstructed in ibn as-Sabbagh’s Durrat al-Asrar wa Tuhfat al-Abrar. 

It is related that Imam ash-Shadzili (q.s.) said, ‘When I fell ill, I prayed, ‘My God, my God, when will the encountering with You take place?’ 

‘O ‘Ali,’ I was told, ‘when you reach Humaythra, then will the encountering be.’ 

‘I saw as if I were being buried at the base of a mountain before a well containing a little salty water that was becoming more abundant and fresh.’’ 

We arrived in Humaythra, a village surrounding the tomb, in the afternoon. 

Shaykh Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn ‘Abd ar-Rafi’ (r.a.) related, ‘When the Shaykh Abu al-Hasan set out to perform the pilgrimage on the journey during which he passed away, he said to his companions, ‘This year I shall perform the pilgrimage of substitution.’  He died before accomplishing the pilgrimage.  When his companions returned to Egypt, they questioned the Mufti ‘Izz Al-Din ‘Abd as-Salam, and informed him of what he had said. 

He wept, and then said to them, ‘The shaykh, by God, informed you that he would die.  Do you not know by that he has instructed you that the angel is the one who will perform the pilgrimage in his stead?  For a tradition relates that the Prophet said, ‘If anyone leaves his home for the purpose of performing the pilgrimage, and dies before accomplishing it, God Deputises an angel to take his place in the performance of the pilgrimage each year until the day of resurrection.’’ 

Shaykh Sharaf ad-Din (r.a.) related, ‘That evening, Imam ash-Shadzili assembled his companions, and gave them various final injunctions.  He enjoined upon them the Hizb al-Bahr, adding, ‘Teach it to your children, for in it is the Greatest Name of God.’  He talked in private with my master Abu al-‘Abbas al-Mursi, ‘for he is my successor.  He will have an exalted station among you.  He is one of the doors of God, praise be to Him.’ 

‘Between sunset and dusk he said to me, ‘O Muhammad, fill for me a receptacle with water from this well.’ 

‘O my master,’ I replied, ‘its water is salty and bitter, but the water that we have with us is fresh.’ 

He said, ‘Give me some of it, for what I have in mind is other than what you think.’ 

So we brought him a receptacle of water and he drank of it, rinsed his mouth, and spat into the receptacle.  Then he said to me, ‘Pour it back into the well.’ 

I poured it back, and the water of the well turned sweet and fresh and became abundant, by the Permission of God. 

He passed that night in devotion to God and the recitation of the dzikr.  I heard him saying, ‘My God, my God.’ 

When day broke, he became still.  Thinking he was asleep, we shook him, and found him dead – may God have mercy on him.  We called my master Abu al-‘Abbas and washed the shaykh.  We prayed over him and buried him in Humaythra.’ 

We rolled into Humaythra in the afternoon.  As soon as we descended from the bus we went to perform our prayers in the new but unfinished mosque designed by my friend, the Egyptian architect ‘Umar Faruq. 

Humaythra had been a military security area from the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.  Civilians were not permitted to travel without government permission.  This changed in the 1980s and the settlement was once again opened to visitors but for a long time the tomb could only be reached by dirt tracks.  It was a long, slow, rugged journey.  Eventually a decent road was constructed and more visitors began to come.  Still, for all that, the village was a bleak, forlorn place. 

We repaired to the blessed tomb of the great Andalusian saint who received his opening from Mawlay ‘Abd as-Salaam ibn Mashish (q.s.), may God be well pleased with him, and took his knowledge east, first to Tunisia and then to Cairo, transmitting ma’arifah to men who would become among the greatest saints in the history of Sufism and Islamic spirituality and establishing one of the greatest and most abiding spiritual traditions in the history of Islam. 

The tomb was draped in dusty tinsel, leftover from some celebration.  While Shaykh Ahmad gathered his acolytes to one side of the tomb, I slipped around to the other, out of sight, to spend a few minutes before the master of all our masters with the recitation of; his famous Hizb al-Bahr, and the remembrance of God.”