Chapter (4) Religious and Academic Education

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Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān with a group of dervishes in Penjwin on the borders with Iran (1988).

We do not instruct a seeker to abandon knowledge, because it is through knowledge he worships his Lord. Knowledge makes the person understand the act of worship because knowledge is light, “Are those who know equal to those who do not know?” (al-Zumar 39:9). We instruct the disciple to perform righteous deeds. We instruct the disciple to study, to read, to go to school, to learn, to become educated, and to worship. How beautiful it is when a seeker is well-educated!

Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān (Sermon, 29 January 2010)

Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad inherited his forefathers’ love for learning in general and for studying the sciences of Sharia in particular. As a child, he entered Karbchna’s religious school, which was founded by Shāh al-Kasnazān. There, he studied under prominent scholars and jurists, such as Mullā Kāka Aḥmad Sayf al-Dīn, the encyclopaedic scholar who authored many books and studied several disciplines, including history, sociology, mathematics, and physics. In his diaries, this scholar mentions that he decided to go to teach at Karbchna’s religious school because the spiritual influence of the Karbchna Shaikhs gave him a tremendous ability to serve students. Our Shaikh also studied under Mullā Saʿīd Zamnākū, who authored an entire Qur’anic exegesis, and Mullā ʿAlī Musṭafā, also known as “ʿAlī Laylān”.

Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān in Karbchna (early 1980s).

Ḥusayn, who was about eleven years older than our Shaikh, cared for his younger brother, especially since their father was busy managing the Ṭarīqa’s affairs. He preferred that his brother join a secular school and study Medicine, instead of continuing his education in a religious school. At the time, secular schools accepted graduates from religious schools, as long as they passed a special exam. Ḥusayn hired a private teacher, Karīm Zindī (may Allah have mercy on him), to teach his twelve-year-old brother the subjects that are taught in secular schools, such as history, science, English, and mathematics, to prepare him for the admission exam. Zindī taught our Shaikh for four years.

Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān in Kirkuk (1978/1979).

Our Shaikh passed the exam in Kirkuk and was accepted into the sixth grade. He then completed secondary education at a school located near the historic Kirkuk Citadel. Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm would leave Karbchna with his family during the winter and reside in the takya within the Citadel. In the latter half of the 1940s, Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm bought a tract of land in the Citadel on which he founded the first takya in Kirkuk that had a residence for the Shaikh. When Sultan Ḥusayn would visit Kirkuk, he used to live in a takya in the Citadel, which was run by one of his caliphs. It was near the land where Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm later built a takya.

Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān in the dhikr circle in the takya in Kirkuk (27 August 1993).

During his years of study in Kirkuk, our Shaikh would stay in the takya to continue his studies when Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm returned to Karbchna or went to the village of Hawmārāmān in Qaradāgh in Sulaymāniyya. Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm rotated his place of residence between Kirkuk, Hawmārāmān, and Karbchna.

Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad completed secondary education and entered high school, which at the time took two years to complete. Towards the end of 1954, his brother, Ḥusayn, became ill with a disease that doctors failed to diagnose. His condition gradually worsened until he became bedridden. After his second operation at the al-Imām Hospital in Baghdad, it became clear that he had cancer. The disease prevented him from helping his father, so Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad was forced to abandon his studies to be close to his father and his ailing brother. In early 1956, Shaikh Ḥusayn passed away in the Kirkuk Citadel takya.

Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān in Karbchna (late 1980s or early 1990s).

The death of his brother made our Shaikh abandon any thought of resuming his studies as he was needed to be in the service of his father. He had to take on the responsibility of managing the many social and tribal relations and overseeing his father’s farms. His father bought him a Jeep for transport for his new responsibilities. Since childhood, our Shaikh was active and full of energy and enjoyed taking on responsibilities.

In 1956, he had to perform compulsory military service, but he only stayed in the army for about forty days. He took the option then of paying the set amount of money in lieu of performing mandatory military service.

Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān at the Ibn Khaldūn Hotel in Baghdad (1978/1979).

After he abandoned his secular studies and returned to Karbchna, he enrolled at the local religious school once again and received certification as a religious scholar from Mullā ʿAbd Allah Muḥammad ʿAzīz al-Karbchnī (may Allah have mercy on him). The latter was one of Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm’s caliphs and washed his noble body after his death. The political developments after the military coup that overthrew the monarchy in 1958 and his interest in defending the rights of the Kurdish minority in Iraq led to the migration of our Shaikh with his father to the village of Būbān in Penjwin in Sulaymāniyya on the Iraqi-Iranian border in early 1959. At the beginning of 1961, he joined the armed Kurdish movement, which he remained part of for six years. We will read about this period in the next chapter. He could no longer continue his studies, which required stability, dedication, and persistence.

Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān during the Friday prayer in the Baghdad takya. Next to him is the martyred poet caliph ʿAlī Fāyiz (middle of 1990s).

Our Shaikh’s love for education is seen in his attempt to go to university when he was about forty years old. He took permission from Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm to study at al-Āzhar University. At the end of 1977, he travelled to Cairo and stayed there for forty-two days. He obtained an initial certificate from al-Āzhar that would allow him to continue as an external student. He planned to live in Kirkuk and travel to the university every year for the necessary exams. About two months after his return, in early February 1978, Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm passed away. Upon succeeding his father as the Master of Ṭarīqa, he was forced to completely abandon any thoughts of completing his studies.

Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān at the Ibn Khaldūn Hotel in Baghdad (1978/1979).

Being forced to terminate his academic studies did not stop the Shaikh from self-educating through reading, which was his main hobby. We will discuss this in more detail in Chapter eighteen.

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