A Muslim Convert Once Before

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is adapted from Signs on the Horizons by Shaykh Harun Michael Sugich.   “At that time the summer capital of Saudi Arabia was in Tha’if and all the government was in the mountain city.  My brother-in-law had a friend from Tha’if who offered to help get me to the Minister.  The friend was Bukhari, a Saudi of Central Asian extraction.  He was very friendly and well-meaning but also a little crazy, and I was completely at his mercy.  By this time, it was Ramadhan, the month of fasting, and during the day my new friend regaled me with stories about his sexual fantasies until I had to ask him to stop.  When we would get to his house in the afternoons, he would light up a cigarette and eat - just being in his company made me feel like I was breaking my fast.   A kindly Indian professor I met in Jiddah had generously lent me his car to use while he was away on his summer break, and my helper from Tha...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is an extract of “From Points of Light”, by Shaykh Harun Michael Sugich.   He wrote, “Muhammad ‘Amir Ahmad Khan was the Raja of Mahmudabad, one of the richest estates of the Awadh in what is now Uttar Pradesh.   Born in 1914, ‘Amir Ahmad succeeded his father as Raja in 1931.   He was a deeply devout Muslim, an ascetic and, in his youth, a great idealist active in the All-India Muslim League.   He formed the All-India Muslim Students Federation in 1937 and supported the Pakistan Movement.   He was, however, adamantly against the creation of an independent state.   Muhammad ‘Ali Jinnah, who was a family friend, eventually won him over but he did not immigrate to Pakistan until 1957 and then he was almost immediately disillusioned by the country’s political turmoil.   He left Pakistan two years later to settle in Iraq and later in England, where he became the director of the Regent’s Park Mosque, a p...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following is an extract of “From Points of Light”, by Shaykh Harun Michael Sugich.   “It was late and I was tired after an intensive mawlid in Meknes.   He plopped himself down in front of me, beaming. ‘I know you,’ he exclaimed.   ‘I recognise you!’   I had never seen him before but I fell for him as soon as he sat down.   I put my hand on his shoulder like an old friend.   His eyes glowed.   We asked his name.   Sidi Ahmad.   He was in a worn out brown jillabah with a peculiar window pane pattern and faded, frayed red piping, coming undone in some places.   His yellow-gold turban looked more like a rag or a pile of threads.   I am an old man now but he was really old.   I would have been surprised if he was not well over 80 years of age.   But he was bursting with energy.   He said, ‘I came from Sawq al-Arba,’ and asked me where I came from.   I told him ...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following is adapted from Signs on the Horizons by Shaykh Harun Michael Sugich.   “At one point, I let myself become completely caught up in my work and family life and kept putting off a visit to the house in Bani Malek.   One day, finally, I decided to force myself to make a long overdue visit.   When I arrived in Bani Malek and knocked on the door, one of the female members of the household answered and told me that Habib [Mashhur al-Haddad] ( q.s. ) was at the airport, preparing to depart for Kenya.   Suddenly, I was overcome with remorse. I had wasted six months and the opportunity to sit with one of the world’s greatest living saints.   I drove straight to the airport, parked and rushed into the terminal reception area.   To my relief, I found Habib ( q.s. ) sitting with his sons, grandsons and disciples amidst the rows of seats for waiting passengers while he was checked in to the flight.  ...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following is adapted from Signs on the Horizons by Shaykh Harun Michael Sugich.   “During the early 1970s we encountered the last vestiges of traditional Sufism in Morocco, alive with the gatherings of saints and ecstatics, men of transcendent knowledge and blazing illumination.   The gross materialism that has long since overwhelmed societies across the Muslim world was only beginning its inevitable corrosive subversion of tradition and spirituality.   Televisions and refrigerators were novelties only the rich could afford.   Advertising had not yet reached the interiors.   Traditional bazaars were the only shopping centres.   The mosques were filled with worshippers and the litanies of the people of the Path were still a feature of Muslim life.   As novices we were naturally captivated by the great Sufi saints, some of whom are described on these pages.   In the background were fuqarah w...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following is an extract of “From Points of Light”, by Shaykh Harun Michael Sugich.   He wrote, “In the late afternoon, Princess Reem had scrambled up the shale mountain overlooking the tomb with her camera and captured images of this haunting place.   She told me when she came down that I had to scale the crag to see the view for myself, evening though the Sun had set.   In the darkness I climbed the peak with the help of the local police constable, a lovely young man who was from another part of Egypt.   The view was desolate, the tomb an anomaly in the wilderness.   It had been a long day and we had another plane to catch.   We gathered at the mosque and made our way to the van. But Shaykh Ahmad was missing.   We found him behind the mosque at the home of another high court judge, a colleague of Judge Yassir’s, who was also the leader of a Sufi order.   We were ready to hit the road but Shay...

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 ...

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 ...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following is adapted from Signs on the Horizons by Shaykh Harun Michael Sugich.   “‘Abd al-Halim Mujahid was not a Sufi.   In fact, he was a Salafi who was against the practice of Sufism.   But he had a business acquaintance that encouraged him to consult with the Shaykh of al-Azhar before deciding on where to build his mosque.   When they met, the Shaykh of al-Azhar immediately recommended that the businessman build a mosque beside the newly re-discovered tomb of Shaykh ibn ‘Atha’illah ( q.s. ).   ‘Abd al-Halim came away from the meeting with profound misgivings, and went back to his Salafi friends who talked him out of building a mosque beside the tomb of a Sufi.   Then he had a vivid dream. In the dream he was standing before the famous Mosque of Abu al-‘Abbas al-Mursi, in Alexandria.   Abu al-‘Abbas al-Mursi, the heir of Imam ash-Shadzili, was ibn Atha’illah’s spiritual master and predecesso...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is adapted from Signs on the Horizons by Shaykh Harun Michael Sugich. “The Holy Mosque was an ocean of humanity during the days before the haj , the annual pilgrimage to Makkah.   As daylight faded, I joined thousands of worshippers and pilgrims making the thawaf , the seven circuits around the Ka’bah , calling out His Divine Names.   As time approached for the sunset prayer, circular prayer lines formed around the House of God, rank by rank, closing around the vast mathaf , the white marble floor surrounding the House all the way to the raised arcades designed by Sinan Pasha in the 16 th century.   The mathaf was reduced, line-by-prayer-line, as individual worshippers peeled off from the shrinking thawaf to take their places in the encroaching ranks.   I completed my seven circuits only moments before the call to prayer. In a state of exaltation and hope, I knew that within this ocean there were deep ...