Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān and Kakā ʿAzīz Lāla Mārf in the Baghdad takya (early 1980s).
Shaikh Nahro is my heart; he is my liver. He is your servant—a servant of your Ṭarīqa. I, my children, and everything we own are in the service to Ṭarīqa. We are servants to your Ṭarīqa. We are all soldiers of the Messenger (PBUH), soldiers of Sharia because it is our foundation.
Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān (Sermon, 2006)
Towards the end of 1957, Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad married his paternal uncle’s daughter. At the time, he lived in Karbchna. This marriage, which resulted in a son, who later died, and a daughter called Sardasht, was not destined to last. Our Shaikh’s involvement in 1961 in political and military activities, in defence of Kurdish national rights, made reconciling his new commitments and his family responsibilities impossible. His work for the Kurdish movement required him to not have a fixed address and to be in a state of constant movement. He divorced his wife that year.
Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Kasnazān with three of his sons (around 1970).
A few years after he retired from the Kurdish movement, he decided to remarry. Out of the love he had for his mother and the confidence he had in her judgement, he let her choose his wife, if Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm would bless her selection. She chose a young woman named Kažāl from a well-known family that is related to our Shaikh’s family. She is the daughter of Shaikh Maʿrūf, son of Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm Qādir Karam, a maternal uncle of sayyida Ḥafṣa who took care of his niece as a little girl after her mother’s death.
Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān in a praise session at the Amman takya, Jordan (12 December 2013).
There was a strong relationship between the two families, even when Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm’s family lived in Karbchna and Penjwin before they settled in Kirkuk, where sayyida Kažāl’s family lived. Sayyida Ḥafṣa had a lot of love for her cousin and milk-brother, Maʿrūf, who was also a close friend of her son, Ḥusayn, and later became Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm’s lawyer for issues related to farmland in Sangāw. The Shaikh of Ṭarīqa also had a lot of love for him. In 1959, the Iraqi authorities sentenced Shaikh Maʿrūf to death for political reasons. The sentence was carried out in 1963.
Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān visiting one of the takyas of Ramādī (26 December 1991).
Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad married sayyida Kažāl in early 1969. At the time, he lived in Hawmarāmān, Qaradāgh. He used to move between Hawmarāmān and Kirkuk, where Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm lived. In 1971, he permanently moved to Kirkuk, next to his father’s house. He later built an additional parlour in front of his house to receive guests.
He was blessed with his eldest son, Nahro, on 12 December 1969. After about a year and a half, Ghāndī was born. Our Shaikh’s two eldest sons were named after the eminent leaders of the Indian independence movement, Mahatma Gandhi, who led India to independence in 1947, and Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi’s political successor and the first prime minister of independent India. Our Shaikh’s choosing of these two names reflects his admiration for these two leaders and what they did for their people. The word “Nahro” in Kurdish also means “small river”.
Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān in a praise session at the Amman takya, Jordan (2013).
Our Shaikh always wanted to have many children. In 1972, when he only had Nahro and Ghāndī, a dervish named Maḥmūd Gulāl, who had “ḥāl”, said to him, “Would you be satisfied with seven? I guarantee that you will have seven sons”. Indeed, our Shaikh had five more sons, so that is seven in total! In 1973, he had Malās, whose name means “prepared” and “vigilant” in Kurdish. It is also the name of the highest mountain in Karbchna. He next had Bresh, whose name is that of a mountain summit near Karbchna. He then had ʿAmmār, Junayd, and, finally in 1983, ʿAbd al-Karīm. As we have mentioned, our Shaikh had a daughter, Sardasht, from his first marriage.
Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān near the orchard at the foot of Mount Sagarma, Sulaymaniyah.
Let’s stop here to quickly define the concept of “ḥāl”, which is often encountered in Sufi literature. This term refers to various spiritual states that transcend the material world that Allah bestows upon some of his servants. This is done through the Messenger (PBUH), who passes them down to the present Shaikh of Ṭarīqa, who grants them to whichever seeker he wants. Ḥāl is not earned by the dervish but, rather, it is granted by the Shaikh. It is a spiritual power that takes different forms. It may last momentarily, such as an incident, feeling, or experience that happens to the dervish, or be a continuous matter. Some ḥāls are particular spiritual powers that the Shaikh gives a disciple to help with the needs of Ṭarīqa. In this case, the person of ḥāl would have certain roles in Ṭarīqa. The effects of ḥāl sometimes appear in the form of karāmas that occur at the hands of those who have it. Such ḥāls are ranks gifted by the Shaikh to the seekers. Just as the Shaikh is the one who grants a seeker any particular ḥāl, he may change it to another ḥāl, the same way he may also withdraw it from the seeker if he no longer qualifies for that responsibility.
Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān at the Amman takya, Jordan.
Like any children of a Shaikh who are brought up in the centre of Ṭarīqa, our Shaikh’s children, as noted earlier, treated him first and foremost as the Shaikh of Ṭarīqa and second as their biological father. They referred to him only as “Shaikh”, did not sit in his assembly unless they had to do so, and did not speak before him, unless he spoke to them or when they had something to tell him.
Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān in Amman, Jordan (5 May 2015).
Just as he asked the seekers to serve Ṭarīqa and selflessly devote themselves to calling people to the way of the Messenger (PBUH), our Shaikh demanded the same sincerity and sacrifice of his children. He directly taught them Ṭarīqa’s etiquettes and also appointed those who educated them in this regard. This was the practice of all Shaikhs. For example, Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Kasnazān gave one of his elder cousins, Shihāb, the responsibility of educating his children about Ṭarīqa. He would say to him, “Teach the children to be close to the takya and the dervishes. The cobbler teaches his son his craft from an early age”. Whether his children were working in business, politics, or any other field, our Shaikh would ask them to put themselves at the service of Ṭarīqa. This is one of his sayings in this regard in a sermon to dervishes:
My only concern is preaching. Everything I have is in service to you. Even my children are at your service, in service to Ṭarīqa. My soul is in service to you and Ṭarīqa. I am a servant to Ṭarīqa and its dervishes. I am proud of this title because my forefathers referred to themselves in writing as “Servant of the Poor”.[1]
Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān at the Sulaymaniyah takya.
The Arabic term that here is translated as “the poor”, is “fuqarāʾ”, the plural of “faqīr”. The latter literally means “poor person”, but this term is figuratively used for those who seek nearness to Allah, i.e. the followers of Ṭarīqa. Here, our Master was referring to the fact that every Kasnazānī Shaikh called himself “Servant of the Poor” and some of them sealed their letters with this title.
In the same way that our Shaikh urged disciples to attain the greatest degree of knowledge they possibly can, he made sure that each of his sons obtained at least a university degree. Despite his huge amount of Ṭarīqa work, he followed his children’s progress in their studies since their youth. When his youngest child, ʿAbd al-Karīm, was a small boy, he did not like going to school, and at times would manage to stay at home. When our Shaikh would see him in the house when school was still in session, he would ask someone to take him to school, even if there was not much time left in the school day. He also appointed a close relative to follow up on the details of their studies closely.
Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān in a praise session at the Amman takya, Jordan (2018).
All of his sons obtained a basic university degree. Shaikh Nahro obtained a bachelor’s in Accounting, then completed his doctorate in Islamic History; Ghāndī holds a BA in Law and an MA in Media; Malās holds a BA and an MA in Architecture; Bresh holds a bachelor’s degree in Dentistry; ʿAmmār holds a bachelor’s degree in Medicine; Junayd holds a bachelor’s degree in Pharmacology; and ʿAbd al-Karīm holds a bachelor’s degree in Medicine. He let his sons choose whatever fields they wanted to study, but he particularly liked Medicine because medicinal fields provide a great service to people. He described it as a form of worship. His preference influenced his sons, with medical fields dominating their choices of study.
As we mentioned earlier, a Shaikh’s wife helps her husband in managing the affairs of the takya. After the death of our Shaikh’s mother, these tasks were passed down to sayyida Kažāl. One beautiful attribute that she has is that she never gets angry, even in the most difficult and irritating circumstances. She is a very humble woman who receives female visitors to the takya, looks after their needs, and makes sure that they are cared for and treated generously during their visit.
[1] Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān, sermon, 22 December 2005.
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