Introduction: Structure and Contents

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Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān in a praise session at the takya in Amman, Jordan (5 January 2019).

Allah willing, we guide the nation with proper guidance, in line with how the Messenger guided the nation. We enjoin virtue and forbid vice. We enjoin brotherhood, love, worship, and equality. We enjoin taking each other for a brother and having love for each other. We enjoin good deeds. We enjoin what Allah (mighty and glorified is He) sent down in the Qur’an on the honourable beloved (PBUH) to enjoin to the Islamic nation. We enjoin what Allah (mighty and glorified is He) enjoined, that is, the instructions in the Book and the Sunna. This is our work. This is our Ṭarīqa.

Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān (Sermon, 7 February 2013)

I have structured this book to follow the life of the Shaikh in chronological order as much as possible. I have compiled in this biography information about the various stages of his life and all of its aspects. This should give the reader a reasonably complete picture of his life, with its many challenges, sufferings, and achievements; events that brought happiness and others that filled the heart with sadness.

This biography is not confined to the history of Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad after becoming the Master at the age of forty, but it also follows the different stages of his earlier life. I have also covered events that predated his birth that are relevant to studying his life. One thing that this biography shows is the fundamental changes that happened to his character, personality, behaviour, and interests after assuming the Shaikhdom. After a life occupied by worldly interests in which Ṭarīqa played a small role, as he was the son of the Master of Ṭarīqa and one of its dervishes, becoming its Shaikh made Ṭarīqa his first concern and calling people to Allah his main activity and the main driver of his behaviour.

This is a brief overview of the contents of the book. Chapter one introduces our Shaikh’s noble pedigree, which goes back to the Messenger of Allah, Muḥammad (PBUH), from both parental sides. It also follows the history of the Barzinjī family in the north of Iraq to which he belongs. The chapter further presents the Shaikhs of Ṭarīqa Kasnazāniyya.

Chapter two recounts how our Shaikh’s parents got married. It also talks about the special love and care that Shaikh Ḥusayn, our Shaikh’s uncle and the Shaikh of Ṭarīqa at the time, had for his infant nephew. Chapter three discusses the spiritual home environment in which the Shaikh was brought up. The chapter focuses on his mother, Ḥafṣa, and her role as the wife of the Master of Ṭarīqa. We learn about his father, Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm, more in later chapters.

Our Shaikh’s religious studies and schooling are explained in Chapter four. Chapter five discusses briefly his role in defending the rights of the Kurdish people in the north of Iraq in the first half of the 1960s. His marriage and children are introduced in Chapter six.

Becoming a Shaikh of Ṭarīqa is an act of divine election through the Prophet (PBUH), not self-appointment or a majority decision by a group of people. Chapter seven explains the selection of Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad for the future Shaikhdom of Ṭarīqa. Chapter eight recounts how he became the Shaikh after the passing of his predecessor. Our Shaikh performed “khalwa” (seclusion) on three different occasions after assuming the Shaikhdom. This is the subject of Chapter nine.

His decision in the early 1980s to move the headquarters of Ṭarīqa from Kirkuk to the capital, Baghdad, led to an unprecedented number of people becoming dervishes of Ṭarīqa Kasnazāniyya. This is discussed in Chapter ten. Chapter eleven introduces Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad’s exceptional preaching efforts. Chapter twelve details the substantial changes that he made to the dhikrs of Ṭarīqa. The Shaikh loved worshipping Allah and would spend most of the day and night performing dhikr. Chapter thirteen discusses his worshipping practices.

In 1990, the Shaikh proposed a new Islamic lunar calendar that celebrates the birth of the Prophet Muḥammad (PBUH), which he called the “Muhammadī” calendar. He followed it in 1994 with an equivalent solar calendar called the “Muhammadī Shamsī” calendar. These calendars are the subject of Chapter fourteen. Chapter fifteen talks about the love the Shaikh had for visiting and renovating holy places. Listening to odes of praise of the Prophet (PBUH) and the Shaikhs is much loved by Sufis, and so was the case with our Shaikh. This is explained in Chapter sixteen.

Chapter seventeen focuses on the political persecution that Ṭarīqa Kasnazāniyya faced in Iraq, which forced the Shaikh to emigrate from Baghdad and eventually from Iraq. Since his childhood, he was fond of reading and, after becoming the Shaikh of Ṭarīqa, he regularly urged dervishes to never stop learning and seeking knowledge. This is discussed in Chapter eighteen. His choice of his eldest son to succeed him as the Shaikh of Ṭarīqa is the subject of Chapter nineteen.

The Shaikhs of Ṭarīqa emulate the traits of the Prophet (PBUH). Chapter twenty presents some of our Shaikh’s noble manners. The Shaikhdom of Ṭarīqa is a position of leadership. Chapter twenty-one discusses some of his leadership qualities.

Chapter twenty-two introduces his various hobbies and interests that had not been discussed in earlier chapters. Chapter twenty-three recounts his last illness and departure to the spirit world.

Appendix A is a compilation of major events and dates in the life of the Shaikh, listed in chronological order.

.Louay Fatoohi 2004-2024. All rights reserved
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