Our Grand Shaykh, Maulana Nazim al-Haqqani

Our Grand Shaykh, Sultan Awliya Shaykh Mehmet Nazim al-Hakkani is the Grand Shaykh of the Osmanli Naks-i’bendi Sufi Association. And it is difficult to put his life into words. The impact that his sohbet (association) and instruction has had on people across the world has served to renew the faith of so many Muslims as well as carefully leading an unthinkable number to witness that ‘there is only One God and that Muhammad is the Last in a successive line of Holy Messengers bringing the Divine Message’.

Just as Maulana Shaykh Nazim’s life is difficult to put into words it is likewise difficult to describe the effect that the authenticity and integrity of his unbroken spiritual tradition, coming directly from the Holy Prophet (may Peace and Blessings be upon him), has had on us here in America and even less-likely places around the world. By sitting in association with Shaykh Abdul Kerim Efendi, deputy to Grand Shaykh Nazim Efendi, I have witnessed something remarkable and it has enriched my spiritual life to something that I can actually differentiate from the mundane.

Recently, Shaykh Abdul Kerim and a group of murids traveled to Cyprus to visit the Grand Shaykh. Yursil will be posting videos, pictures and describing the time spent in the presence of Grand Shaykh Nazim Efendi at his dergah in Cyprus. Below you will find an excerpt from an interview with Shaykh Nazim published by the Turkish-Cypriot magazine, Denge, in September 2007.

clipped from www.nakshibendi.com The incarceration of Sheikh Nazim for making the call to prayer in the original Arabic� Around the end of World War II many restrictions were brought to the religion of Islam and prayers had to be performed in Turkish. After a difficult day journey by boat, Sheikh Nazim reached Cyprus from Damascus. The first thing he did was go to a mosque and make the call for prayer (adhan) in Arabic. He was immediately arrested for this and jailed for one week. After his release, he went to Selimiye Mosque in Nicosia and made the call to prayer in Arabic again. Sheikh Nazim went all over Cyprus to different mosques and continued to make the call in Arabic. As a result Sheikh Nazim attracted much attention from the government and was charged with 114 cases.