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Sheikh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Qubrusi al-Haqqani, a leading figure of Sufism, the mystical branch of the Islamic faith, died on Wednesday in Nicosia, Cyprus. He was 92.
Imam Shakir Alemdar, the vice grand mufti of Cyprus, confirmed the death.
He called Sheikh Nazim one of the world’s great Islamic scholars and a spiritual leader to followers of Sufism, which traces its origins to the roots of Islam itself about 1,500 years ago.
Sheikh Nazim was leader of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi order. He was born on April 23, 1922, in Larnaca, Cyprus, in the east Mediterranean. He received his first religious instruction from his grandfather, an Islamic scholar, before studying chemical engineering in 1940 at Istanbul University. In 1944, he visited Lebanon, where he received further religious instruction.
He traveled within Europe in the 1970s and in the 1990s to the United States, where he gained many followers. He opened a study center in Fenton, Mo.
Later in life, Sheikh Nazim received guests at his home in Lefka, Cyprus. He met Pope Benedict XVI during the pontiff’s 2010 visit. The encounter came as the pope was walking in a procession to a Mass at a Nicosia church near the United Nations-controlled buffer zone that divides the island into a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north and an internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south.
Sheikh Nazim married in 1941 and had four children.
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Nazim Al-Haqqani
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Nazim Al-Haqqani | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Mehmet Nazım Adil 21 April 1922 Larnaca, Cyprus |
| Died | 7 May 2014 (aged 92) Lefkosa, Turkish-Cyprus |
| Occupation | Leader of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order |
| Religion | Sunni, Sufi Islam |
| Website | |
| www.Saltanat.org | |
| Sufism and Tariqa |
|---|
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  Portal |
Mehmet Nâzım Adil (Arabic: محمد ناظم الحقاني , April 21, 1922 CE / Sha'ban 23, 1340 AH – May 7, 2014), formally referred to as Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Qubrusi al-Haqqani (Turkish: Nazım Kıbrısi), often called Shaykh Nazim, was aTurkish Cypriot Sufi Sheikh and leader of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Order.[1]
Born in Larnaca, Cyprus, Haqqani is claimed by followers to descent from a lineage including the 11th-century Sufi SaintAbdul Qadir Jilani and 13th-century mystical poet Jalaluddin Rumi.[2] He was fluent in Turkish (native) and Arabic and could also speak English.
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[hide]Early life[edit]
Having completed secondary education in 1940 at the age of 18, Haqqani moved to Istanbul, where two brothers and a sister were living. He studied chemical engineering at Istanbul University. While advancing his non-religious studies, he continued his education in Islamic theology and the Arabic language under the tutelage of Cemalettin Elassonli. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim studied chemical engineering, yet he would later state, "I felt no attraction to modern science; my heart was always drawn to the spiritual sciences."[2]
At some point during his first year of life in Istanbul, Haqqani met his first spiritual guide, Suleyman Erzurumi, who was a spiritual leader in the NaqshbandiSufi order.[2] Shortly after obtaining his degree, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim received inspiration to go to Damascus in order to find the Naqshbandi leader ShaykhAbdullah Fa'izi ad-Daghestani. He left Istanbul and arrived in Syria in 1944, but the unrest caused by the Vichy French government prevented his entry into Damascus until 1945.[2]
While in Cyprus, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim came into conflict with pro-Atatürkgoverning body of the Turkish community of the island. However, all these were dropped shortly thereafter, with the coming to power of Adnan Menderes in Turkey, whose government chose a more tolerant approach to Islamic traditions.[2]
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim moved back to Damascus in 1952, though every year he visited Cyprus for at least three months.[2]
Living abroad[edit]
In the year following the death of Shaykh Abdullah Fa'izi ad-Daghestani in 1973, Haqqani began visiting Western Europe, travelling every year from the Middle East to London. While in the United Kingdom, Haqqani was a teacher and associate ofesoteric Christian George Gurdjieff and spiritualist John G. Bennett.[3][4] Among Mawlana Shaykh Nazim's students and devotees are Hisham Kabbani, Gibril Haddad and Stephen Suleyman Schwartz.
In 1997, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim visited Daghestan, the homeland of one of his spiritual leaders, Shaykh Abdullah Fa'izi ad-Daghestani. He also made repeated visits to Uzbekistan where he made the pilgrimage to the tomb of the eponymous founder of the Naqshbandi Order, Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari.[2]
In 1991, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim visited the United States for the first time, at the invitation of his son-in-law and representative Shaykh Hisham Kabbani. At that time Haqqani made the first of four nationwide tours.
In 1998, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim was the chief guest of honor at the Second International Islamic Unity Conference, held in Washington, D.C. Later in the same year, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim traveled to South Africa and visited Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban.
Mission[edit]
The mission of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi Order of America is to spread the Sufi teachings of the brotherhood of mankind, and the Unity of belief in God that is present in all religions and spiritual paths. Its efforts are directed at bringing the diverse spectrum of religions and spiritual paths into harmony and concord, in recognition of mankind’s responsibility as caretaker of this fragile planet and of one another.
The directorship of the Haqqani Foundation is a position assigned by the grandshaykh of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi Order, Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani. He had appointed his representative (calipha), Shaykh Hisham Kabbani, a Sufi shaykh who has been authorized and given permission to guide followers to the Love of God and to their spiritual stations. Shaykh Kabbani’s arduous religious and spiritual training has endowed him with the qualities necessary for a guide on the Path. He meets many Westerners, advising and teaching them on a daily basis, aided by his own lengthy education in Western institutions, his excellent command of English, French, Turkish and Arabic, and his deep knowledge of psychology and spiritual discipline.[5]
Political opinions[edit]
Haqqani had been involved in the political realm as well. In the 2000s, he declared that former President of the United States George W. Bush and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair had achieved sainthood in Islam due to their efforts in "fighting tyrants and evil and devils."[6] Having been born just before the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Haqqani was an admirer of the Empire's history and civilization, as opposed to the modern-day Republic of Turkey to which Haqqani's feelings were lukewarm.[7]
Predictions[edit]
Starting in the 1980s, Haqqani has made a number of Doomsday predictions. In 1978, he predicted that the Mahdi would appear in 1980 and rid the world of evil; when this didn't occur, Haqqani predicted in 1986 that the Mahdi would appear in 1988.[8] When the second prediction also failed, Haqqani again predicted in the 1990s that the Last Judgment would occur before the year 2000. Haqqani has claimed that the source of these predictions is the Muslim prophet Muhammad.[9]Haqqani also predicted that the regimes in the Middle East would be replaced by one ruling sultanate before the end of 2011 and that Prince Charles would forcibly dissolve the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Death[edit]
Nazim al-Haqqani passed away at the age of 92 in Northern Cyprus.[10] [11] Al-Haqqani had been receiving intense care since April 17 when he rushed from his home in Lefka to the Near East University Hospital in Nicosia after suffering from respiratory problems.
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Nazim al-Haqqani
Nazim al-Haqqani or Mehmet Nâzım Adil (Arabic: محمد ناظم الحقاني , April 21, 1922 / Sha'ban 23, 1340 AH – May 7, 2014), formally referred to as Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Qubrusi al-Haqqani (Turkish: Nazım Kıbrısi), often called Shaykh (or Sheikh) Nazim, was a Turkish Cypriot Sufi Sheikh and leader of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Order.
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