Chapter (17) Dealing with Political Persecution

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Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān in a praise session at the Baghdad takya (perhaps middle 1990s).

Indeed, those who believe and do righteous deeds” (al-Baqara 2:277). Righteous deeds include dhikrs, wirds, repentance, truthfulness, and consuming only what is permissible. It is distancing oneself from lying, that which is prohibited, spying, destruction, killing, stealing, and thievery. Above all, you must be a righteous member of society, “The best of people are those who benefit people”.[1] If you hurt people, you are not a seeker. If you commit oppression, treachery, or anything that contradicts the Messenger’s Sharia, then you are a contravener and would not benefit from your worship. This is what Allah said to you about prayer through the Messenger, “Indeed, prayer prohibits immorality and wrongdoing” (al-ʿAnkabūt 29:45). O my brother! Even if you are not a seeker, but a believer who prays—whether you are a farmer, an officer, an employee, a merchant, or a believing worker—the sign of ʾĪmān is staying away from violating Sharia. Otherwise, how can you be a believer? How can you have ʾĪmān when you cheat? How can you have ʾĪmān when you consume what is prohibited? You have ʾĪmān and spy on your country? You have ʾĪmān and sabotage your country? You have ʾĪmān and, God forbid, wreak havoc on your country, community, and people? Is this Islam? Islam has conditions, “A Muslim is one whose tongue and hand Muslims are safe from”.[2] [You must meet these conditions] for you to call yourself a Muslim, let alone be a seeker.

Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān (Sermon, 12 September 2013)

As already mentioned, after becoming Master, Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad started the building of a grand takya in Baghdad to become the central takya of Ṭarīqa. Construction began in 1980, and he moved from Kirkuk to live there permanently in 1982. He thought that moving the location of the Shaikh’s takya to the capital was necessary for Ṭarīqa to spread more and faster inside and outside Iraq.

The new takya not only attracted large numbers of ordinary people, but it also became a place frequented by many famous and learned individuals, including scholars, writers, artists, and media professionals. VIPs, military officials, ambassadors, and diplomats also visited the takya, with many taking the pledge. Foreign TV stations and media visited the takya to document the Ṭarīqa’s activities, including dhikr and darbāsha, and air programs about Ṭarīqa. As a result of the increasing popularity of Ṭarīqa, the number of takyas in Baghdad and other cities in Iraq drastically increased.

It is not surprising that the spread of Ṭarīqa aroused suspicion and concern from the government in a one-party country that was controlled by an absolute dictator. Ṭarīqa was always under observation by security agencies, but the central takya, in particular, was under intense and constant surveillance because it was the residence of the Shaikh, hence the takya with the largest gatherings of dervishes. The presence of secret security members was often subtle but it was at times visible. They pretended to be dervishes but their mission was to listen to the Shaikh’s sermons, note what dervishes talked about, and observe what took place in the takya in general.

Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān during the construction of the Basra takya (3 March 1990).

Our Shaikh would respond to the surveillance indirectly by stressing in his sermons that the goal of dervishhood was to draw near to Allah and that the takya was a place for remembering Allah, not for pursuing worldly purposes, including political ones. At times, he would take a completely different stand, exposing spies who had infiltrated the dervishes’ community. One day, he interrupted his sermon in the central takya in Baghdad to address someone in the sitting crowd, saying, “My brother, why are you recording what I am saying? What do you hear me talking about? Go to the people who sent you and tell them that all this man speaks about is what Allah (mighty and sublime is He) has said and what His Messenger (PBUH) has said”. The person pretended not to realise that the Shaikh was speaking about him, so our Master pointed to him for emphasis, “Yes, you. Go back to whoever sent you”. The man stood up and was extremely embarrassed. A couple of caliphs who managed the takya went to him and asked him about the recording device that our Shaikh had referred to, so he took it out of his pocket. Our Shaikh asked them not to harass him, asked him to approach, and he gave him the Ṭarīqa’s pledge. He told the spy to return to those who sent him and tell them that he did not find the Shaikh saying or doing anything that would be a cause for concern or suspicion.

The expansion of Ṭarīqa throughout Iraq was the main reason that the security agencies increased their harassment of the Shaikh and the activities of Ṭarīqa. But there was another factor that directly contributed to this escalation. At times, some caliphs and dervishes engaged in talking against the government and the Ba’ath Party. This violated the Shaikh’s instructions not to attack the government and to avoid anything that could trigger the fear, anger, and concern of security agencies and cause them to look at dervishes with more suspicion.

One instance of this harassment happened after our Shaikh’s return from visiting the holy sites in Najaf and Karbala in 1995. Officials from the leadership of the Ba’ath Party visited him and told him to stop visiting those holy shrines. This perhaps reflected their fear of closer relationships between Ṭarīqa and the centre of Shia religious leadership. Ṭarīqa traces its origin to Imām ʿAlī Ibn Abī Ṭālib after the Prophet Muḥammad (PBUH) and it does not discriminate between the various jurisprudential doctrines, allowing it to attract Shias as well as Sunnīs, which was concerning for the authorities.

Dealing with the growing suspicion, harassment, and restrictions of the government, while simultaneously preserving the Ṭarīqa’s ability to preach and the freedom of dervishes, required tremendous wisdom. Our Shaikh would resort to speaking with and seeking the help of powerful individuals who were on good terms with Ṭarīqa to influence the way the security agencies dealt with it. But, in addition to the harassment of authorities in general, some high-ranking and influential officials also personally harboured enmity for Ṭarīqa, for one reason or another.

Among the decisions of the security authorities that show the escalation of its harassment of Ṭarīqa was in 1998 when the Interior Ministry banned Ṭarīqa from holding its annual celebration of the birth of the Prophet (PBUH), banned army officers who were also dervishes from going to the takya, and stopped Ṭarīqa from sending out dervishes to preach. It also stipulated that there could only be ten takyas in Baghdad and the remaining tens of takyas had to be closed, confining the majority of Ṭarīqa’s activities in Baghdad to the central takya. The authorities also banned Ṭarīqa from using drums and tambourines when performing dhikr in the takyas of Baghdad.

Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān after taking the pledge of Ṭarīqa Kasnazāniyya of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman, Jordan (2010).

Shortly after, our Shaikh saw the Messenger (PBUH) in a dream so he decided to go ahead and celebrate the blessed birthday as usual. He and a few individuals were visiting the Prophet (PBUH), who was sitting in an old-style home in a room whose door was open. In front of the room, there was a courtyard with a column. The Shaikh sat beside the Prophet (PBUH). A man was standing near the Messenger (PBUH), and there was also someone named ʿAlī, who probably represented Imām ʿAlī, sitting in front of the Messenger (PBUH). He was reciting poetry to the Prophet (PBUH) that he hoped would bring joy to his noble heart. The Prophet (PBUH) was looking at him, delighted by what he was hearing. After this lengthy sitting, lunch was brought. The loaves of bread were old-fashioned, red, and in the shape of circles. After they finished having lunch with the Messenger (PBUH), our Shaikh saw the Messenger’s (PBUH) noble hand reach into his chest, take out a muṣḥaf (written copy of the Qur’an) with a zipper on it, and place it on the table spread in front of him. He repeated this movement several times, extracting many muṣḥafs from his noble chest. The Prophet (PBUH) wanted to send these muṣḥafs as gifts to people in different parts of the world. This scene reminds us of this noble verse, “There has come to you from Allah a light and a clear Book” (al-Māʾida 4:15). The Messenger (PBUH) is Allah’s light through which He sent the clear Book.

The Prophet (PBUH) stood up, so our Shaikh wanted to ask for permission to leave. He looked at the Messenger (PBUH) and implored him, “For Allah’s sake, Nahro; for Allah’s sake, Nahro”. He was asking the Messenger (PBUH) to keep Shaikh Nahro under his care. Asking the Messenger (PBUH) to take care of Shaikh Nahro, but not asking the same for anyone else, including himself, demonstrates our Shaikh’s exceptional love for Shaikh Nahro. The Prophet (PBUH) continued to look at our Shaikh without saying anything. The man standing next to the Prophet (PBUH) said that Nahro was the Shaikh’s eldest son. The Prophet (PBUH) signalled to our Shaikh and those who came with him to sit so that he could give them something for blessings. He told the standing man to bring a pair of scissors to gift them some hair from the front of his noble head. A towel was placed on the ground so that no hair would fall on the ground and the man began cutting the Prophet’s (PBUH) hair. This was so vivid that our Shaikh could hear the sound of the hair being cut. The intense blackness of the hair made it reflect colours. After a tuft of hair was cut, it grew in length. When it was given to our Shaikh, he put it around his neck, held its ends in his hands, began to cry tears of joy, and started saying that he would take it to his children and would not give any of it to anyone else.

The standing man mentioned that ʿAlī, our Shaikh’s nephew, who was in Sulaymāniyya, was sick. He was suffering from a heart condition, had lost a lot of weight, and was depressed. The doctors were unable to help him. The Messenger (PBUH) positively responded to the request, and the patient was cured immediately.[3]

A month after the birth celebration, the security authorities arrested Shaikh Nahro. Along with others, he was accused of forging the signature of the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, to authorise the granting of rights to export and sell a quantity of Iraqi gas outside the country. They then arrested two of Shaikh Nahro’s brothers, first Malās and later Ghāndī. The three stayed in prison for more than eight months before they were put on a sham trial. Shaikh Nahro and Malās were sentenced to ten years in prison while Ghāndī was freed.

The imprisonment of his sons caused our Shaikh deep sadness, one consequence of which was developing diabetes. Two days after the sentencing, his eye bled, marking the beginning of the deterioration of his eyesight and the multiple operations that followed. He trusted that Allah would safely return his sons, especially since the elder of the two was destined to be his successor to the Shaikhdom of Ṭarīqa, but this did not prevent him from grieving. This is similar to how the knowledge of Prophet Jacob that Allah would one day reunite him with his son, Joseph, did not prevent him from grieving over him and temporarily losing his eyesight because of that grief, “[Jacob] said, ‘Rather, your souls have enticed you to something, so total patience [is my choice]. May Allah bring them to me altogether. Indeed it is He who is the Knowing, the Wise’. He turned away from them and said, ‘Oh, my sorrow over Joseph’; and his eyes became white from grief, for he was [of that] a suppressor” (Yūsuf 83-84).

Our Shaikh’s sister, ʿĀʾisha, applied to meet Saddam to ask him to pardon her two nephews. He approved her request and they were released from prison in the middle of January 2000. In April, accompanied by Shaikh Nahro, our Shaikh travelled to London to treat his eyes. He stayed for five months during which he gave many talks to dervishes and lovers of Sufism who visited him. He gave the pledge of Ṭarīqa to a large number of people. He also designated several caliphs to continue preaching and giving the pledge in Britain. Almost every morning, he would spend a few hours in the British Library to review its collection of Sufi manuscripts. I accompanied him on most of these visits.

Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān in the Kirkuk takya (late 1980s or early 1990s).

The following is one incident that shows the extent of the surveillance and the controlling of movement the Iraqi regime had placed Ṭarīqa under. Months before our Shaikh’s decision to visit Britain, I had planned to organise a celebration of Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Gaylānī in London on 7 May 2000. It was serendipitous that this celebration coincided with our Master’s visit to London. I asked Shaikh Nahro to participate by giving a speech. Before the celebration, a security officer visited Shaikh Ghāndī in Baghdad and told him that Shaikh Nahro intended to deliver a speech in a celebration of Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Gaylānī and warned him that this would make matters worse for our Shaikh and his family. Our Shaikh decided that Shaikh Nahro would not attend the celebration to avoid any escalation and asked me to deliver Shaikh Nahro’s speech on his behalf. Delivering a speech at that religious celebration would not have affected Iraq’s security in any way whatsoever, but this attitude of the security authorities reflects their continued and growing suspicion of everything our Shaikh and Shaikh Nahro did and their fear that they were working against the regime in one way or another.

A few days before the celebration, our Shaikh contacted the poet ʿAlī Fāyiz in Baghdad and asked him to compose a poem in praise of Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Gaylānī to be read at the celebration. The caliph wrote it in about four hours and sent it to our Shaikh in London by fax on 3 May. This is the poem, and its first two lines explain its genesis:

Write for the people of piety in the farthest of cities,

     about the Quṭb of Baghdad ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Ḥasanī.[4]

A full moon that shone on the two rivers at a time

     When darkness was so long as to almost hid the morning.

Guidance flew to all places no matter how far,

     Like manifestations of the soul flow in the body.

He excelled over all walīs in knowledge and deed,

     He is the Quṭb of karāmas in secret and publicly.

A great Ghawth whose ranks are unattainable,

     No matter how much Allah’s servants pay.

Stand in Riṣafa[5] at the Bāz,[6] our master,

     He is the best to answer when you ask him in affliction.

In Karkh[7] I have a progeny from the same lineage,

     My Shaikh Muḥammad, the saviour from temptation.

The Kasnazān are Shaikhs whose seeker wins,

     The cornerstone of Ṭarīqa in obligatory duties and supererogation.

They are the heirs of the secret of the Shaikhdom of the Bāz,

     The guides to righteousness with the best of advice.

Our Shaikh’s extreme caution and prudence did not prevent the regime from going too far in exposing him, his family, and Ṭarīqa to further persecution and injustice. The official attitude towards him and Ṭarīqa was going from bad to worse. Even the relatively small celebration of the birth of the Prophet (PBUH) organised by Ṭarīqa after our Shaikh’s return from the trip for medical treatment in London was a source of concern for the security authorities.

About two months later, ʿIzzat al-Dūrī, the second highest-ranking official in the state, asked our Shaikh to visit him in his on his farm in the city of Dūr. Unlike the rest of the political leadership who harboured enmity for Ṭarīqa, Dūrī had great love and respect for our Shaikh. He had taken the Kasnazānī pledge from Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm in the 1950s. He was a patron of Sufi Ṭarīqas in Iraq in general.

Our Shaikh took his two eldest sons, Nahro and Ghāndī, and met Dūrī on 27 November 2000, which coincided with the first day of the blessed month of Ramadan. Dūrī described the release of our Shaikh’s sons from prison as “the greatest karāma of Shāh al-Kasnazān”. He explained that the Revolutionary Command Council had decided to execute them and that he was surprised when he learned that Saddam had pardoned and released them. He grimly added that it was in Shaikh Nahro’s best interests to go somewhere out of reach of the government, as the authorities were planning a new plot against him. The secrecy with which Dūrī spoke and his urging of Shaikh Nahro to quickly flee showed the seriousness of what the government was preparing. Perhaps, the authorities had decided to permanently eliminate Shaikh Nahro this time. The Shaikh decided that his eldest son must leave Baghdad for Sulaymāniyya in secret that night without delay.

About three weeks later, on Monday 18 December 2000, while attending the dhikr circle at night, our Shaikh felt that he was about to fall to the ground had he not leaned on his staff. After the dhikr, he told some of those who were close to him that the regime was planning harm for him and his family, so he decided to leave Baghdad for Sulaymāniyya. Kurdistan had been outside the jurisdiction of the central government since 1991 when the Iraqi army withdrew from it after the first Gulf War. He left Baghdad on 21 December 2000, stayed one night in Kirkuk, and then left for Sulaymāniyya in the morning.

Our Shaikh always showed caution and patience and exercised diplomacy when dealing with the authorities to avoid conflict. His principle was to “sacrifice a part for the sake of the whole” when dealing with the harassment of the security agencies, as any escalation of confrontation came with serious consequences for Ṭarīqa. But this policy had its limitations, as some constraints and encroachments on freedom are unacceptable and cannot be lived under. He had to leave Baghdad.

Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān in the Sulaymaniyah takya (possibly 2006/2007).

In 2002, after it became clear that the USA, allied with some countries, had decided to launch a war on Iraq under the pretence of removing its weapons of mass destruction, poet ʿAlī Fāyiz visited our Shaikh in Sulaymāniyya. He read to him this excellent poem:

I love you and that love ignites my longing,

     The like of you I had never met and I will never meet.

How many a dear person my heart had in it,

     All of them have left and you are still there.

You are as close as my eyes are close to my eyebrows,

     Yet I feel your separation despite your closeness.

Far away from you in longitude and latitude,

     You reach me so I feel a meeting.

The fire of love burns me in longing to you,

     And the fire of my yearning extinguishes my burning.

Reciprocate the love and do not leave me,

     Otherwise, love would be bitter-tasted.

Help me against your rejections, O beloved

     Who dwelt in the hearts and eyes.

If the heart is broken and I say “Ya Hū”,

     The lightning of your help comes to me like the Burāq.[8]

If your riding camels have departed my country,

     Then Iraq has departed Iraq.

As the poet finished reading the last line, our Shaikh stroke his noble thigh and said “departed”, as departing Baghdad was like leaving Iraq. History was to later show that this departure was permanent.

Our Shaikh built a massive takya in Sulaymāniyya and moved to live there when it was ready before the end of 2002. It became the new central takya of Ṭarīqa Kasnazāniyya. It provided accommodation for a large number of people who had to escape the terror of ISIS after they entered Mosul in the middle of 2014. The takya took over the responsibility of providing for the needs of the immigrants until ISIS was defeated and they could return to their homes.

One karāma of our Shaikh is that in 2004 he sent for a veterinarian to treat cattle of the takya of a certain disease. The vet was accompanied by a talkative old man who questioned Ṭarīqa’s need for a takya that large in Sulaymāniyya, referring to a small takya in Chamchamāl. Our Shaikh pointed with his staff to a wall that separated the takya from adjacent land and said that one day this wall would come down because of the number of people. This, indeed, took place during the celebration of the birth of the Prophet (PBUH) on 29 October 2020. His successor, Shaikh Shamsuddin Muḥammad Nahro, demolished the wall to increase the takya’s capacity to accommodate all dervishes that were expected to take part in the celebration, who totalled around ten thousand. One amazing aspect of this karāma is that when our Master mentioned demolishing the wall, the adjacent land did not belong to the takya. At some later point, the landlord wanted to sell the land so our Shaikh bought it, which is how it became possible to demolish the wall to extend the takya.

After our Shaikh settled in Sulaymāniyya, Ṭarīqa began to suffer harassment from the local authorities. As the popularity of Ṭarīqa worried the government in Baghdad, the visits of dervishes from inside and outside Iraq to the Shaikh concerned the local security agencies. The harassment of the authorities in Kurdistan continued to escalate until they sent an envoy to a close associate of the Shaikh to inform him of their desire for him to leave Kurdistan. In the second half of 2007, he left Kurdistan and moved to Amman, Jordan.

[1] Al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab al-ʾῙmān, VI, no. 7658, p. 117. This ḥadīth also occurs in the form “the best of people are those who are most beneficial to people” (Al-Ṭabarānī, Al-Muʿjam al-ʾawsaṭ, VI, no. 5787, p. 58.)

[2] Al-Bukhārī, Al-Jāmiʿ al-ṣaḥīḥ, I, no. 10, p. 55.

[3] Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān, sermon, 26 May 2000; 10 February 2016.

[4] Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir was a desendant of Imam Ḥasan.

[5] One of Baghdad’s two sides, which is east of the Tigris. This is where the shrine of Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir is situated.

[6] One of Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir’s most renowned titles is “al-Bāz al-Ᾱshhab (the Grey Falcon)”.

[7] The side of Baghdad that is west of the Tigris and where the central takya of Ṭarīqa Kasnazāniyya is.

[8] In Islamic tradition, this is the name of the creature that carried the Prophet (PBUH) in his night journey from the Ḥarām Mosque in Mecca to the Aqṣā Mosque in Jerusalem and in his journey to the heavens.

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