Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Kasnazān, second from the right, and to his left Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad during Ḥajj (1973).
Our actions and our movements are all by the spiritual influence of the Messenger (PBUH), the people of the Prophetic household, al-Karrār (Imām ʿAlī), Imām Ḥusayn, our Master al-Gaylāni, and our Master Shāh al-Kasnazān, may Allah sanctify their secrets. We walk with their spiritual influence, their power, their blessing, and their supervision.
Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān (Sermon, 7 January 2010)
The lineage of sayyid[1] Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān traces back to the Prophet Muḥammad (PBUH) on both his father’s and mother’s side. Descending from the Prophet (PBUH) has great significance, as illustrated in this ḥadīth:
Indeed, I am leaving among you that which, if you hold fast to, you shall not go astray after me. One of them is greater than the other: Allah’s Book, which is a rope extending from the sky to the earth, and my family, the people of my household. They shall not split until they meet me at the basin, so look after how you deal with them after me”.[2]
This ḥadīth has a clear instruction: following Allah and the Prophet (PBUH) means to follow the Qur’an and the Prophetic household. The latter does not refer to all those who are related to the Prophet (PBUH) by blood. Rather, it means that those who are nearest Him, most active in preaching and calling to His way, and the inheritors of most of the Prophet’s (PBUH) spiritual states have been and will be from his progeny. Indeed, history shows that the most successful and effective callers to Allah’s way have been from the Prophetic household. The above ḥadīth explains this verse, “Allah intends only to remove from you the impurity [of sin], O people of the [Prophet’s] household, and to purify you with [extensive] purification” (al-Ᾱḥzāb 33:33).
Some accounts suggest that the Prophet (PBUH) said the above words a few months before his passing from this world. According to the way it is narrated in Saḥiḥ Muslim, before stating the ḥadīth, the Messenger (PBUH) said, “I am only a man who is about to receive my Lord’s messenger [i.e. the Angel of Death]”,[3] which confirms that the ḥadīth was stated just before he departed from this world. This compilation of ḥadīths also mentions that the Prophet (PBUH) delivered the sermon at the brook of Khumm, which means that it is likely the same sermon in which Imam ʿAlī’s authority over the Muslims was declared, “O Allah! Whoever I have been a Master to, then ʿAlī is his Master too. O Allah! Befriend those who befriend him and be enemy to those who take him for an enemy; support those who support him and forsake those who forsake him”.[4] It is evident from the ḥadīth that it was a “final will”, meaning that it is likely one of the last major instructions he issued. This, in turn, confirms its importance and clarifies its meaning and significance.
Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān descended from a family from northern Iraq known as “Barzinjī” after sayyid ʿĪsā al‑Barzinjī. Persecution forced many descendants of the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) to emigrate from his homeland of the Arabian Peninsula. This emigration was apparently harmful to the emigrants but, on a deeper level, it was actually a source of mercy for the inhabitants of the destination areas as the emigrants guided them to the way of their great forefather (PBUH).
One of these descendants, Yūsuf, emigrated north to the city of Hamadān, in northwestern present-day Iran, so he acquired the title of “al‑Hamadānī”. Sayyid Yūsuf al‑Hamadānī was a scholar, a Sufi, and an ascetic, and he was well versed in Islamic jurisprudence. As a result of his piety and knowledge, thousands of people gathered around him to learn about Sufism and other religious sciences. He was known as “the Shooting Star of Religion”.
To avoid any confusion, we should clarify that the Yūsuf al‑Hamadānī we are referring to is not Shaikh Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf al‑Hamadānī, who was a contemporary of Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Gaylānī. When Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir visited Abū Yaʿqūb, the latter said to him, “It’s as if I see you [in the future] in Baghdad, sitting on the preaching chair, addressing the public, saying, ‘this foot of mine is on the neck of every walī’. It’s as if I see the walīs in your time bowing their necks out of reverence for you”.[5] Sayyid Yūsuf al‑Hamadānī, on the other hand, came about two centuries after Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir.
Yūsuf al‑Hamadānī was the son of sayyid Muḥammad al‑Manṣūr; son of sayyid ʿAbd al‑ʿAzīz; son of sayyid ʿAbd Allah; son of sayyid Ismāʿīl al‑Muḥaddath; son of Imām Mūsā al‑Kāẓim; son of Imām Jaʿfar al‑Ṣādiq; son of Imām Muḥammad al‑Bāqir; son of Imām ʿAlī Zayn al‑ʿĀbidīn; son of Imām al‑Ḥusayn; son of Imām ʿAlī Ibn Abī Ṭālib (may Allah ennoble his face) and sayyida Fāṭima al‑Zahrāʾ, the daughter of the Seal of Prophets and Messengers, Muḥammad (PBUH).[6]
Sayyid Yūsuf had a son named Bābā ʿAlī, who became a prominent scholar and Sufi and had three sons: Mūsā, ʿĪsā, and Muḥammad. The three brothers went to perform the pilgrimage and to visit the Messenger (PBUH). Returning via Iraq, they headed north until they reached the area that later became known as “Barzinja”, where they decided to stay for some time. One night, ʿĪsā saw the Prophet (PBUH) order him to permanently settle in the area and build a mosque there. His elder brother, Mūsā, stayed with him, while their younger brother, Muḥammad, returned to Hamadān, before settling in Afghanistan.
Sayyid Mūsā and sayyid ʿĪsā carried out the Prophet’s (PBUH) order to build a mosque and reside in the area. They dedicated themselves to the service of Islam, preaching to people. Sayyid Mūsā married the daughter of a well-known Shaikh there. A short while afterwards, he was preaching in a nearby area when he was assassinated by an extremist group of the Nuṣayriyya sect.[7] Sayyid ʿĪsā brought back his brother’s corpse and buried him in Barzinja. He married his widow, Fāṭima, and Allah blessed them with twelve children. Sayyid Mūsā did not have any children, so all Barzinjī sayyids, including our Shaikh’s family, are descendants of sayyid ʿĪsā. The shrines of sayyids ʿĪsā and Mūsā exist today close to the mosque they built.[8]
The history of the Barzinjī sayyids, in general, shows that they inherited an indescribable blessing from their forefather (PBUH). We see this in the great number of walīs that have come from this blessed lineage and in their countless karāmas. Their offspring are found all over the world. Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān describes his forefather sayyid ʿĪsā al-Barzinjī as the “Reviver of the Family and Religion”.
Sayyid ʿĪsā al-Barzinjī was also known by the title “Nūr Bakhsh”, which means “Giver of Light”, because light would appear on the face of anyone who took the pledge from him. The Messenger (PBUH) kissed him just above his forehead, so he would drape his turban just above his forehead so that the light would not affect the beholder’s sight.
Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad descended from the Barzinjī family through its Kasnazānī branch. The great-grandfather of this blessed family was Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm Shāh al-Kasnazān (1824-1902), from whom it derives its name. He was the son of sayyid Ḥusayn; son of sayyid Ḥasan; son of sayyid ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Khāwī; son of sayyid Ismāʿīl al-Wilyānī; son of sayyid Muḥammad an-Nūdīhī (who is known as “the Red Sulphur”); son of sayyid Bābā ʿAlī al-Wandarīna; son of sayyid Bābā Rasūl al‑Kabīr; son of sayyid ʿAbd al‑Sayyid al‑Thānī; son of sayyid ʿAbd al‑Rasūl; son of sayyid Qalandar; son of sayyid ʿAbd al‑Sayyid; son of sayyid ʿĪsā al‑Aḥdab; son of sayyid Ḥusayn; son of sayyid Bāyazīd; son of sayyid ʿAbd al-Karīm al‑Awwal; son of sayyid ʿĪsā al‑Barzinjī.
Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān, first from the right, during Ḥajj (1973).
Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm acquired the title “Kasnazān” after going for a retreat in a cave on Mount Sagarma in northern Iraq. Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Gaylānī had gone into seclusion in that cave 750 years earlier, which is why it was locally known by the Kurdish name “Gaylān Āwā”, which means “Gaylān’s Shelter”. Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm was instructed to go into his retreat by his uncle and the Master of Ṭarīqa Qādiriyya at the time, Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir Qāzān Qāya. He remained in consecutive seclusions for two years during which his family lost all contact with him and could not find him. This absence earned him the Kurdish title “Kasnazān”, which means “no one knows”, as no one knew his fate. When someone would inquire about what happened to him, the reply would be “Kasnazān”. The Sufi explanation of this title, however, is to be found in these words of the Shaikh later in his life, “Allah has granted me a network of secrets that no one knows of, save Allah and his Prophet (PBUH)”. These secrets that no one has knowledge of are the explanation of the unique title “Kasnazān”.
Three years after coming out of his retreat, Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm moved to live in an area called “Karbchna”. His followers went to live with him there, turning a place that had only two or three houses into a relatively large village. He lived there for the rest of his life. Karbchna became the home village of the Shaikhs of the Kasnazānī family.
Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm Shāh al-Kasnazān became the Master of the Qādirī Ṭarīqa. His great life of piety drew him very close to Allah. He became a renewer (mujaddid) of the practice of Islam. During his time, Ṭarīqa entered a new phase and became known as “Ṭarīqa ʿAliyya Qādiriyya Kasnazāniyya”. Its name is derived from the names of three of its greatest Masters, Imām ʿAlī Ibn Abī Ṭālib, Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Gaylānī, and Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm Shāh al-Kasnazān.
Ṭarīqa Kasnazāniyya, as it is abbreviated, has a continuous, unbroken chain of Shaikhs, meaning it has always had a living Shaikh: every Shaikh was given the Masterdom of Ṭarīqa by hand by his predecessor. This blessed Ṭarīqa goes back to the Prophet Muḥammad (PBUH), who bequeathed his spiritual knowledge to the Master of Ṭarīqa after him, Imām ʿAlī Ibn Abī Ṭālib (may Allah ennoble his face). Imām ʿAlī passed Ṭarīqa through two branches.
Our Master calls the first “the Golden Branch” because it comprises Shaikhs from the Prophetic household. It begins with Imām Ḥusayn, who passed it to Imām ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿAbidīn, to Imām Muḥammad al-Bāqir, to Imām Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, to Imām Mūsa al-Kāẓim, to Imām ʿAlī al-Riḍā.
Imām ʿAlī bequeathed Ṭarīqa through a second route to Shaikh Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, who passed it to Shaikh Ḥabīb al-ʿAjamī, to Shaikh Dāwūd al-Ṭāʾī. The two branches of Ṭarīqa Kasnazāniyya meet at Shaikh Maʿrūf al-Karkhī, who inherited the Shaikhdom of Ṭarīqa from his two Masters, Imām ʿAlī al-Riḍā and Shaikh Dāwūd al-Ṭāʾī.
The unbroken chain of Ṭarīqa Kasnazāniyya Shaikhs continues from Shaikh Maʿrūf al-Karkhī to Shaikh Sarī al-Saqaṭī, to Shaikh Junayd al-Baghdādī, to Shaikh Abū Bakr al-Shiblī, to Shaikh ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Yamānī, to Shaikh Abū Faraj al-Ṭarsūsī, to Shaikh ʿAlī al-Hagārī, to Shaikh Abū Saʿīd al‑Makhzūmī, to Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir al‑Gaylānī, to Shaikh ʿAbd al‑Razzāq al‑Gaylānī, to Shaikh Dāwūd al‑Ṭḥānī, to Shaikh Muḥammad Gharībullah, to Shaikh ʿAbd al‑Fattāḥ al‑Sayyāḥ, to Shaikh Muḥammad Qāsim, to Shaikh Muḥammad Ṣādiq, to Shaikh Ḥusayn al‑Baḥrānī, to Shaikh Aḥmad al‑Aḥsāʾī, to Shaikh Ismāʿīl al‑Wilyānī, to Shaikh Muḥyī al‑Dīn Karkūk, to Shaikh ʿAbd al‑Ṣamad Galazarda, to Shaikh Ḥusayn Qāzānqāya, to Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir Qāzānqāya, to Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm Shāh al‑Kasnazān, may Allah sanctify the secrets of them all.
Shāh al‑Kasnazān was succeeded in 1902 by his youngest son, ʿAbd al-Qādir (1867-1922). Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir was forced to leave Karbchna in the middle of 1919 and emigrate to western Iran, having fought and urged people to fight against the British army that occupied Iraq and reached the north. He was only fifty-five years old when he died. His son and the Master of Ṭarīqa after him, Ḥusayn, returned his body to Karbchna and buried him next to his father, Shāh al‑Kasnazān.
Shaikh Ḥusayn (1888-1939) was renowned for his spiritual exercises, leading a life of unparalleled asceticism. He departed this world at only fifty-two years old, leaving as his successor his brother, ʿAbd al-Karīm (1912-1978), the father of Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad. For more details on the life of each of the Kasnazānī Shaikhs, see our book Sufism in Ṭarīqa ʿAliyya Qādiriyya Kasnazāniyya: A Practical Guide for the Spiritual Path of Islam.
Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad’s mother, Ḥafṣa, also traces her lineage back to the Prophet (PBUH) on her mother’s side and her father’s side. She was the daughter of sayyid ʿAbd al-Qādir Gulanabar, son of sayyid Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ, son of sayyid ʿAbd al-Qādir Qāzānqāya, son of sayyid Ḥusayn Qāzānqāya, son of sayyid Maḥmūd Klīsa, son of sayyid Ismāʿīl al-Wilyānī, the sixth great-grandfather of Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān on his father’s side.
Sayyida Ḥafṣa’s father, sayyid ʿAbd al-Qādir, was a caliph of Shāh al‑Kasnazān. Although he was sometimes called “Guptapa” after the village he resided in, in the district of Sangāw, he was known as “Gulanabar”, which means “bulletproof”. One day, Shāh al-Kasnazān placed his blessed hand on sayyid ʿAbd al-Qādir’s back and told him that bullets would not kill him. He entered many battles, including against the Russians, who invaded northern Iraq via Iran at the beginning of World War I, and later against the British. Despite having slight traces of bullets on his body, he did not die because of any of those shots. He lived to be approximately ninety years old. Sayyida Ḥafṣa recounted that when her father would return from fighting the Russians, he would undo the belt on his Kurdish clothes, and bullets that hit him without harming him would fall from the belt. This was so well known that even a staff member of the British administration in Iraq at the time mentioned that sayyid ʿAbd al-Qādir was famed for being “bulletproof”.[9]
One related miracle of Shāh al-Kasnazān is that some people asked him to give them something similar to the “gula bard”—an amulet that made a person bulletproof—that the renowned walī Kāka Aḥmad al-Shaikh used to give. Shāh al-Kasnazān tore off a piece of the fur rug he was sitting on with his hand and said, “This is a gula bard for you”. He did not need to make a special amulet for protection against bullets, as a small piece of the fur he was sitting on was enough to do the job.
A while after Shāh al-Kasnazān passed away and his relatives had inherited his personal belongings, no one knew where the rug had ended up or who had it. One night, our Shaikh’s niece dreamt that a piece of Shāh al-Kasnazān’s rug and another piece of the belongings of Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir Kasnazān were inside a pillow that was in the possession of her paternal aunt. Upon waking up, she opened the pillow and found what she had seen in the dream. This rug was given to our Shaikh who used to present small pieces of it to some dervishes for blessings.
Thus, Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad descended from the bloodline of Imām Ḥusayn from both parents who belonged to the Kasnazānī branch of the Barzinjī family. One aspect of the blessings of this noble ancestry is that his father and ten of his ancestors on his father’s side were also Masters of Ṭarīqa Kasnazāniyya: his father, Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Kasnazān; his grandfather, Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Kasnazān; and his great-grandfather, Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm Shāh al-Kasnazān. Another Master of Ṭarīqa is Shaikh Ismāʿīl al-Wilyānī, the first person to bring Ṭarīqa Qādiriyya to Iraqi Kurdistan. Then there are the six Imāms: Mūsā al‑Kāẓim, Jaʿfar al‑Ṣādiq, Muḥammad al‑Bāqir, ʿAlī Zayn al‑ʿĀbidīn, Ḥusayn, and ʿAlī Ibn Abī Ṭālib (peace be upon them all). Two of our Shaikh’s ancestors from his mother’s side, Shaikh Ḥusayn Qāzānqāya and his son, Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir, were also Masters of Ṭarīqa.
[1] “Sayyid” (feminine “sayyid”), which means “master” (feminine “lady”), is an honourary title that is used for the desendants of the Prophet (PBUH).
[2] Al-Tirmidhī, Al-Jāmiʿ al-kabīr, VI, no. 3788, p. 125. This ḥadīth is known as the ḥadīth of “ʿitra” or “thaqalayn”, because one or both of these words occur in some of its versions. “ʿItra” means “descendants”, “relatives”, and “clan”, but in this ḥadīth it expressly refers to the descendants of the Prophet (PBUH). The word “thaqalayn” is the dual form of “thaqal”, which means “something immensely valuable and important”. It refers in this ḥadīth to “the Qur’an” and the “descendants of the Prophet (PBUH)”.
[3] Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ, IV, no. 2408, p. 1873.
[4] Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, I, no. 950-951, p. 262-263.
[5] Al-Haytamī, Al-Fatāwā al-ḥadīthiyya, 316.
[6] One source in which the early ancestors of our Shaikh are listed is Al-Najafī, Baḥr al-ansāb, 62.
[7] Nuṣayriyya is another name for the “ʿAlawīs” or “Alawites”.
[8] Al-Mudarris, ʿUlamāʾunā fī-khidmat al-ʿilm wal-dīn, 421-422. There are several different narratives in various sources about how sayyids ʿĪsā and Mūsā settled down in Barzinja, such as the version by Edmonds, Kurds, Turks and Arabs, 68-71.
[9] Edmonds, Kurds, Turks and Arabs, 340-341.
.Louay Fatoohi 2004-2024. All rights reserved
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