From Points of Light: The Visit III

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

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

He wrote, “Humaythra is a remote, impoverished village of no more than about 3,000 inhabitants.  Apart from the sporadic traffic of visitors to the revered tomb, there is virtually no economy.  The mosque and tomb complex were littered with the detritus of kitsch sacred souvenirs and cheaply printed pamphlets with the litanies of Imam ash-Shadzili (q.s.), and his saintly disciples. 

A short distance from the mosque and tomb of Imam ash-Shadzili (q.s.) lies the saha of the 20^th century saint Hajjah Zakiyah (q.s.), where she is buried.  I would not have been aware of this blessed complex a few steps away from the tomb without Princess Reem.  This place had great meaning for her because Hajjah Zakiyah (q.s.) had been the spiritual master of Reem’s saintly mother who had only recently passed away in a state of grace after a prolonged illness.  Hajjah Zakiyah (q.s.) was an extraordinary saint, who lived a life of unrelenting service to others on the path of remembrance. 

She was born in 1899 and when she was very young, was flooded with illumination and was ordered to travel from Alexandria to Cairo to serve the people of the Way.  She had already begun to lose her eyesight, yet it is said that she walked alone from Alexandria to Cairo and, in a dream, she was admonished for this excess by Imam ash-Shadzili (q.s.).  She set up a saha in the Sayyidina Husayn district in Cairo and spent her life remembering God, serving and feeding seekers and the needy and giving counsel.  She prayed every juma’ah prayer in the Mosque of Sayyidina Husayn.  She made haj twenty-six times and made the ‘umrah fifty times.  She also made the long journey to Humaythra to visit the blessed tomb of Imam ash-Shadzili (q.s.) three or four times every year.  She began to make her visits in the 1920s and it was said that she was the first woman ever to visit the blessed tomb.  When Shaykh ‘Abd al-Halim Mahmud, the Shaykh al-Azhar, built a shrine around the tomb during the 1970s, Hajjah Zakiyah (q.s.) returned with a group of women devotees.  She became acutely aware of the dire poverty of the people of the settlement and built a saha to serve them and feed them, which was completed in the last year of her life.  More than this, she was responsible for bringing electricity to the community and for arranging deliveries of water and food supplies. 

Toward the end of 1982, Hajjah Zakiyah (q.s.) visited the tomb of Imam ash-Shadzili (q.s.) again during the feast of haj, ‘Iyd al Adhha’.  She asked a friend to remain in Humaythra with her for 20 days after the ‘Iyd.  He asked her why and she replied, “So you can wish me farewell, for I am travelling soon”.  But he had to leave.  She passed away exactly 20 days after ‘Iyd al Adhha’ on the 24^th December 1982, and was buried in her saha, close to her master. 

We repaired to her tomb to pay our respects, and I recited Sura Yasin for Reem’s mother, and asked Allah to bless Hajjah Zakiyah (q.s.), and have mercy upon us all and accept our visit.  We then visited Hajjah Zakiyah’s (q.s.) quarters in the saha.  Everything was perfectly preserved and in place.  Her bed was festooned with a white canopy.  What struck me was how incredibly feminine the décor was, in this Spartan complex in the middle of a cruel wasteland.  We took our rest in dainty chairs covered in white and sipped tea the caretaker brought to us.  They wanted to feed us, in the tradition Hajjah Zakiyah (q.s.) established so many decades past, but we made our excuses.  I came away with a sense of intense wonder at how powerful and moving was the act of faith and devotion. 

We took our leave of Hajjah Zakiyah (q.s.) and made the short walk back to Imam ash-Shadzili (q.s.).  I noticed that the caretaker was busy removing the dusty tinsel from the tomb.  I sat beside the tomb again, prayed for our group, for my family, for my friends and for all the awliya’ and swalihin that have guided me on my way.  Night was falling and we prayed maghrib.”