EXPOSURE OF NAZIM AL-QUBRUSI

EXPOSURE
OF
NAZIM
AL-QUBRUSI

and guidance for the wanderers



by ‘Aboû Houdhayfah
(‘Aboû Houdhayfah ^Aliyy ibn Rujjâr al’Urdumâniyy alFaransiyy, whose madhhab is Shâfi^iyy, tarîqah is Rifâ^iyy and theology is ‘Ash^ariyy and Mâturîdiyy)



Allâh said what means: “And this is My straight path, so follow it, and do not follow different paths, lest you should become divided, away from His path. This is what I recommend to you, may be will you fear your Lord” (al’An^âm 6:153).

Our master Ibn ^Arabiyy (may Allâh have mercy on him) mentions in his book ‘Mishkâtu l’Anwâr ’ a hadîth transmitted by atTirmidhiyy from ‘Abû Hurayrah, in which the Prophet (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) said what means: “Before the end of the world, some men will appear, who will deceive people of this world with religion. For the eyes of men they will put on skins of sheep to show gentleness. Their tongues will be sweeter than honey but their hearts will be like those of wolves. Allâh says: “Are they deluded about Me or are they provoking Me. I swear by Myself that I shall send against them a punishment that will leave the most gentle of them bewildered”.”

In his book ‘‘Adabu lMurîd’, our master ^AbdulQâdir alJîlâniyy (rahimahu-llâh) said: “If you know that the sheikh has made a mistake, let him know. If he corrects himself, good, otherwise leave him and follow the Law”.













TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
1* Foreword
2* Who are Nazim and Hisham Kabbani?
3* The sources of information
4* Imposture
5* The status of Nazim
6* The Naqshbandi chain revised by Nazimites
7* The double language on ^Aqîdah and Sharî^ah
8* Surfing on the Internet
9* A new Nazim in the making: Zainul Abedin Kazmi
10* Their evading ploys
ESOTERICISM AND THE OCCULT
11* The bâtiniyy (or esoteric) system
Historical background
The Nazimite sect
12* Revealing Friends
Pythagoras, Neoplatonists, occultists and Sufi claimants: links
The case of Gurdjieff
Links with Perennialists in particular
Inayat Khan
The case of Stephen Turoff
RELIGION AS AN OUTER SHELL
13* Their problems with knowledge and ^ulamâ’
Their debasement of formal knowledge
Their ignorance of spiritual knowledge
Dazzling as part of their strategy
14* Their treatment of ‘Abû Hanîfah (radiya-llâhu ^anh)
PERSONALITY CULT
15* Their belief concerning his power
16* The alleged spiritual rank of al-Qubrusi
17* Their need to increase the prestige of Nazim
18* Their exaggeration concerning Sufism and the status of the sheikh
19* Their idea of sainthood or wilâyah
THE “MURÎDS”
20* The licentious behaviour caused by their ideology
21* Slander and violence
Blatant lies
Physical pressure
TRIFLING WITH ARTICLES OF FAITH
22* About our master ^Îsà (^alayhi ssalâm)
23* About the Mehdi
24* Their attitude with non-Muslim Westerners and Muslims
In general
Their claim that actually, Muslims are idol worshippers
25* What do they call ‘kâfir’ or ‘believer’?
26* Their belief that all religions are right and lead to salvation
A useless exercise
27* Their trifling with Hell
28* They pray for dead kuffâr
29* Their taste for predictions
30* Emotional manipulation and the alleged picture of the Prophet (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm)
31* Their beliefs about the Prophet (‘Allâhumma salli wasallim ^alayh)
32* Their debasement of prophets (^alayhimu ssalâm)
Their belief that prophets can be rebellious, idolaters and great sinners
Their belief that prophethood is by progress, not by divine election
33* Their debasement of angels
34* Their debasement of our master ^Umar (radiya-llâhu ^anhu wajazâhu khayrâ)
35* Their belief on death
36* The tales about the Preserved Tablet (allawhu lmahfûz)
37* Their debasing Allâh’s promise of reward
VIOLATIONS OF TAWHÎD
38* Their lack of knowledge of Allâh’s attributes
39* Their bid^ahs concerning the reality of Allâh
40* Their belief in creation by emanation or ’inbi^âth
41* Their belief that Allâh is in space
42* Their setting analogies and resemblance between man and Allâh ta^âlà
Their belief that man is in the image of God
Their belief that God is like His creatures
43* Their belief in alHulûl or divine incarnation
44* Their belief in wahdatu lwujûd or pantheism
Their endorsement of alHallâj
The Islamic position concerning wahdatu lwujûd
The Nazimite endorsement of pantheism
45* Their justification of what contradicts revelation
ODDNESS IN FIQH & OTHER PECULIARITIES
46* Their attitude towards Wahhabism
47* Their idea of responsibility
Women not responsible?
What about the innocent?
48* Music
49* Meat
50* Shaking women’s hands
51* Other peculiar inventions or bid^ahs
Eight hours worshiping
Compulsory retreat
Strange ideas about sainthood
Visiting saints claimed to be wâjib
Anger!
And he called Allâh “proud”
Have they put marriage before tawhîd?
Warning to angry women
Did he say “dragons”?
No surgery for the murîds
Will everybody look like Nazim?

CONCLUSION
Glossary
Bibliography
Contact



INTRODUCTION


1
FOREWORD


The Prophet (peace be upon him) said what means: “If one of you sees something bad, let him change it with his hand; if he is not able to do that, then with his tongue; if he cannot do that, then he should disapprove of it in his heart, and this is the very least for one who has faith” (transmitted by Muslim through ‘Abû Sa^îd alKhudriyy).



We aim at warning people against the reality of Nazim’s teaching and give some help to those who wish to refute him. It is inevitable that many of his disciples will feel hurt when they read this work. Our purpose is not to hurt them but to fight the deceitful evil of this man and his lieutenants, such as Hisham Kabbani. It is a religious duty which we carry out with determination. We cannot knowingly let them lead people astray and bring shame upon the name of Sufism.

Disciples of Nazim! We call upon you to listen and enquire, if you do so, you are bound to find confirmation for many of the points found in this work ‘in shâ’a-llâh. Like so many before you who had to open their eyes, bitterness and dejection will most likely fill your hearts and you will find it very hard to trust any one for a long time; but you have little choice. Your end, like ours, is close and you need to integrate or reintegrate orthodoxy in order to save yourselves. Many are those who have left Nazim and in spite of what you may feel , many of you will be forced by your own consciousness or simple disgust, to disown a people who have conned you into fake spirituality and false Sufism.

Do not say to yourselves: “How can I judge such a great saint” when you see one of them contravening the laws of Islam, they are not saints, they are not even scholars, you have simply been manipulated into believing so by people who specialise in this kind of trade.

We do hope that this work will also reach people before they get emotionally entangled in this group. They are most welcome to check our information and enquire; actually we encourage them to do so.

To speak of sheikh Nazim’s followers and things related to him we use the word ‘Nazimite’. We have had to restrict our report to some of the main points we found in their documents. There is more information coming continuously. Hisham Kabbani is publishing book after book. Some old ones have been revised, such as ‘The secrets behind the secrets behind the secrets’ under the title ‘Mystical secrets of the last days’.

In our quotations we have tried to transcribe their words with exactitude, with the grammatical and spelling mistakes, with some unpleasant habits we disapprove of, such as writing (s) or (Sal) instead of praying on the Messenger of Allâh (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm). We want you to have a good idea of their style and manner, but mainly, we want it to be authentic. The underlining or bold character of some parts is our doing, for stressing purposes. We have also introduced comments in italics, between brackets, in a number of quotes.

If you cannot find a Qur’ânic verse given as reference, look two or three verses later. The numbers we use are those of the Cairo numeration, whereas those found in many interpretations such as Yusuf Aly’s are taken from Flügel’s edition.

I apologise for my own mistakes and the poor quality of this work. The threats and violence some Nazimites used against us, forced us to accelerate its publication, so that no villain could imagine being able to prevent the truth from being published.

Sheikh Samîr alQâdî published a short book in order to expose the same impostors, under the title ‘Kashfu Dalâlât Nâzim alQubrusiyy’. It was translated in English and is now available to the public under the title “The Irrefutable Proof that Nazim al-Qubrusi Negates Islam” and can be read or downloaded at http://www.aicp.org/. Their answer, instead of bringing evidence, was to slander, spread rumours and false news on the Internet with the purpose of discrediting him. The nature of their response to documented accusations says a lot about the true nature of Nazim, Mr H. Kabbani and their other assistants.


2
WHO ARE
NAZIM AND HISHAM KABBANI?


Allâhu ^azza wajall said what means: “Those who conceal the proofs We have sent down and the guidance, after We have made it clear for the people of the Book, - on them shall be Allâh’s curse, and the curse of those who are entitled to curse” (alBaqarah 2:159).


Let us start with an extract from Hisham Kabbani’s book ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’, pages 375 and 376. He describes his master Nazim in the following terms: “He is a miracle of God’s miracles, walking on earth and soaring in the heavens. He is a secret of God’s Secrets, appearing in His Divinity and existing in His Existence. He is the owner of the throne of guidance...” Whoever has learned will know how to classify this statement.

Nazim is the disciple of a man called ^Abdullâh Faiz ad-Daghestani, himself denounced for his inventions. That person claimed to have left Daghestan when the Russian took Sheikh Shâmil (rahimahu-llâh) as a prisoner. This is an interesting detail, for Sheikh Shâmil had made Arabic the official administrative language over all the area he controlled. It would not have been possible without a good number of people mastering this language. People of religion were of course the first ones to be expected to have such a knowledge. AdDaghestani could not read or write and his Arabic was so poor that he needed an interpreter, who was Nazim in some instances. The conclusion is that he was quite far from being an Islamic scholar. The philosophical knowledge he seemed to have is a good indicator that he did not inherit his doctrine from an Islamic source.

Nazim al-Qubrusi himself is a Turk from Cyprus who studied chemical engineering at the university of Istanbul in the forties. This means he can read Latin alphabet and we know also that he addresses his audience in English, Turkish or Arabic. He is reported to have had some political ambition in his native island, but it has not worked very well and his old age - he was born in 1922 – seems to have destroyed any chance he ever had of becoming for Northern Cyprus what archbishop Makarios was for the Greek side. This failure is certainly one of the reasons of the hostility he sometimes expresses towards Muslims, whom he calls then ‘Eastern people’.

When adDaghestani died al-Qubrusi assumed the leadership of the movement, against the will of another disciple, Sheikh Hussayn of Syria, who eventually conceded for fear of a disastrous split. He seems to have already established two successors, as he himself said when questioned about it: “There is Sheikh Adnan from Lebanon and Sheikh Hisham, my son-in-law, the brother of Sheikh Adnan Kabbani. They are the successors” (page 1 of the booklet called ‘The fruit of real belief and perfect practising is peace’). Nazim’s rival, does not seem to consider that this decision was part of their agreement when he accepted to recognise the authority of al-Qubrusi.

Hisham Kabbani is becoming more and more important. He seems now to be the real source of power within the movement. He has to crush the opposition of those who would have liked to be linked directly to Nazim, as it happened in London in particular. Ex-Nazimites talk of him as a very clever type of bully who will not have anybody standing in his way. His personality is very different from his master’s: he does not have his charm and gentle manners. A good number of murids simply cannot get along with him. The major difference between al-Qubrusi and his successor is that the latter writes. He has published books which we quote in this work. Our sources indicated that he was the source of much of the slander and libel thrown at opponents.

The strength of Nazim’s link with his followers seems to come mainly from the rumours people spread around him, describing him as a leader of scholars and a saint of many karâmât[1]. So far, everything that has been reported could be explained differently. We were told, for instance, that he looks into the eyes of some people, and it is enough for them to convert. He is said to show some knowledge of future events, something he shares with mediums. Some people have had strong hallucinations or emotional reactions in their first encounter with him; others appear completely immune to it. One of my friends had such an experience and followed him for some time, nothing of the kind happened to me when I shook his hand in Birmingham in Bowyer’s road Mosque.

Nazim is not a horrible old man whose wickedness appears obvious to anyone looking at him. He does not bully people into becoming his disciples, it would not succeed very well and violence is rather used against disgruntled dissidents and opponents. Al-Qubrusi looks like a sweet elder with a gentle face and a beard that symbolises all the wisdom they believe him to have. He has good manners on the whole and shows great patience in front of the enthusiasm and intrusiveness of his admirers. It was reported to us that when he gets really angry with someone, he has the very useful ability of switching immediately to a totally different mood to welcome other people.


3
THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION


Allâhu ^azza wajall said what means: “... Those whose weakness was taken advantage of will say to those who thought themselves to be great: “Had it not been for you, we would certainly have been believers!» The arrogant ones will say to those whose weakness was exploited: “Was it we who kept you back from the guidance after it reached you? No, it was rather you who transgressed.” Those whose weakness had been taken advantage of will say to those who saw themselves as great: “No! It was what you plotted by day and night: behold! You constantly ordered us to be ungrateful to Allâh and to attribute equals to Him!” They will declare their repentance when they see the torment: We shall put yokes on the necks of the unbelievers. Will they not simply be rewarded for what they used to do;” (Saba’ 34:31 to 33).


Nazim al-Qubrusi did not write books himself. This fact is used by his followers to protect him from blame. In order to deflect harm they even explain how such book was actually written by a Jew who used to be a murîd or by somebody else. The reality is that the publications we quote from were used among them up to 1995 at least.

Everything we report has come to us through five channels:
1: Nazim’s followers and disciples, whom we call ‘Nazimites’,
2: People who have left the movement, sometimes called ‘ex-Nazimites’.
3: Direct or indirect reports from people who have met them or gone to their places and meetings.
4: Publications commonly used by his followers, distributed by them inside or outside their ranks. They have altered at least one[2] and I have a feeling many of Nazim’s lectures are being phased out, if only to reflect H. Kabbani’s takeover
5: Tapes of some of his sessions, which we obtained mainly through a former disciple. You will notice a difference between the quality of Nazim’s English in books and that of the tapes. This is probably due to the corrections made by the disciples when they put his teaching in writing. Nevertheless, what is heard on the tapes (I have tried to transcribe them as faithfully as possible as the quality of the sound allowed me to) shows that his English is good enough to understand what is going on around him and to know what is in the publications of his followers.
Hisham Kabbani is doing his best to erase the many traces of Nazim’s blunders (especially the dated predictions of the coming of the Mehdi). It was reported to me how he confiscated Zero Thyra Quensel’s tapes and was forced to return them by the lady’s obstinate persistence.
6: Their sites on the Internet and their friends’.
Ambiguity is raised to the level of an art in sects, especially in fake Sufi orders such as Nazim’s, so we have tried to restrict ourselves to the clearest statements available. On the other hand, when they feel safe, they do express their real ideas openly. One just needs to wait and search.

Like any autonomous sect, which does not seriously seek justification outside their ranks, Nazimites cannot be classified simply as Wahhabis, Ismailis or others. Their method and doctrine can be directly related to a number of other movements or organisations like the Masons, Jehovah’s witnesses, Shiites, etc. They establish their own dogma, which they adapt and transform according to circumstances. For example they had to justify the fact that ad-Daghestani died without the Mehdi appearing as he had claimed he would. They will have to perform the same readjustment when Nazim passes away, if the Mehdi does not come before.

We have tried to organise a meeting in a neutral place with Nazim and his successor Hisham Kabbani, so as to discuss the very serious matters you will find in this report. It was to no avail, for they persistently evaded our attempts to reach them. Two letters and several phone calls remained without concrete answers. They forbade their representative in Birmingham at the time, Mr. Bashir (he has left them since), to intercede in our favour for this encounter. Several visits paid to him did not change the situation. The physical violence Nazimites started to use against us made it impossible to question him in one of their places. I often speak about “us” because I could not have written this report and refutation without the help of former Nazimites and the support of Rifâ^is and Naqshbandis, particularly in Birmingham.

On Monday, March 10th 1997, Nazim came to Birmingham to the mosque in Bowyer’s Road. He was supposed to arrive at half past six in the evening and we arrived after eight o’clock, hoping to be at long last able to ask him questions. We found that they were still reading dhikr and he had not started his speech. After Mr. Mahmood H. Rashid had finished singing his praise and the lecture had ended, we asked his followers whether we would be allowed to ask him questions. We were told to write them and pass them on. Nothing happened and one of his former disciples informed us they were starting the rituals they usually performed before taking him away. Desperate to talk to him we even queued among the people who wanted to shake his hand: that enabled me to ask him in Arabic whether he would be able to speak with us, explaining that the ’Ahlu sSunnah of this area had questions to put to him. He did not even have time to answer me, for I was pushed away very firmly.

When he started to leave, protected by a wall of bodies (as if Sunnis in this mosque ever endangered him) I asked loudly if we would eventually be allowed to put questions to him. One of their leaders then said clearly that everybody was going to have dinner and after that questions would be answered. What actually happened was that they whisked him away, not to be seen again. Then some of Birmingham Nazimites started to try and provoke incidents. A young man came to me, asking angrily: “What was the pushing for?» to which I answered that I did not push anyone, that it was not the way of the Sunnis, if anybody was pushed it was me. I suppose he was told I had misbehaved. It would not have been the first time they misinformed people to push them to violence.

The same evening we had another incident when one of them tried to hit a former Nazimite who was attempting to talk with them. We were in a difficult position, torn between the desire to stay and wait for Nazim (we did not know yet he was not coming back), and the will to avoid any of the brutalities they are familiar with. To diffuse the situation we started to have a mild dialogue with one of them who seemed to be able to contain a bit the most excitable ones. In the end read Fâtihah[3] together and it was confirmed that we would not see al-Qubrusi again, so we left.

Some brothers who stayed behind informed me later that they had managed eventually to have some kind of conversation with a number of them. Let us pray it will have a positive effect.

Recently I read on one of their sites this statement of Dr Gabriel Fouad Haddad[4]: “I originally intended to visit them and debate them concerning the slanders and fabrications that I found issuing from them. However, upon re-reading what they have said, and after receiving some information about them from concerned brothers (are these the brotherly brothers who beat me up for speaking out or those who threatened to spread by internal organs on the pavement?), I decided that my complaint with the author of these slanders, Samir al-Qadi, and his friends was beyond the benefit of a public debate.” When you read of his effort at refuting Sheikh Samîr alQâdî’s evidence, you can understand why.


4
IMPOSTURE


Sheikh ^Izzuddîn alKhaznawiyy (rahimahu-llâh) one of the greatest masters of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order in our Islamic fourteenth century, said: “Any tarîqah (sufi order) that contradicts Sharî^ah is out of Islam” and: “A tarîqah needs knowledge and action”.


One of Nazim’s biggest impostures is his claim to be the head of the honourable Naqshbandi order worldwide, something he inherited from his master ad-Daghestani. Al-Qubrusi is called in an article by one of his disciples ‘leader of the Naqshbandis’, in the Q-News magazine of February 1998, page 28[5]. Like other pseudo Sufis who arrived in the early English Muslim community, few questioned his status or had the ability to see through appearances. Since then the situation has considerably changed, if only because information did come from the Middle East and his home island. Real Turkish Sufis are also spreading in Britain and they will not put up with Nazimites, ‘in shâ’a-llâh.

This claim cannot be confirmed anywhere among the main branches of this order. Actually, when I informed local Naqshbandis in Birmingham, England, they were shocked and since then they have kept their distance from him. The sheikh of one of their most popular branches, Zinda Pir Sahib from Gamkhol, Northern Pakistan, has even declared him to be a kâfir, something he is not known for doing frequently.

The Turkish masters of the Naqshbandi order have never recognised him either. Sheikh Muhammad Zâhid (rahimahu-llâh) said that Nazim’s master, adDaghestani, was an ignorant Shiite who claimed falsely to belong to the Naqshbandi order, a link we demonstrate later on in this work. Sheikh ^Uthmân Sirâjuddîn (rahimahu-llâh), one of the brightest masters of this tarîqah in our century, never acknowledged him either. Sheikh ^Abdullâh alHarariyy has also openly warned people of his evil ways on several occasions and keeps doing so. Sheikh Muhammad alHâmid[6] condemned and refuted the main beliefs spread by Nazim and his team.

Nazim would not feel very comfortable with the masters of the Naqshbandi order in Turkey. The khalîfah of Sheikh alKhaznawiyy said to Sheikh Jamîl Halîm (President of the Association of Sufi Sheikhs in Lebanon): “...because our masters taught us that the way to orientate hearts towards Allâh ta^âlà is to perform the duties and avoid what is harâm ... because Sheikh ^Izzuddîn alKhaznawiyy told us that tarîqah is accomplished by righteousness through Islamic Law. He used to tell us “Flying in the air and walking on the water are no signs of goodness. Righteousness through Allâh’s Law is the greatest karâmah. The sparrow in the sky flies and the devil travels from East to West, but only knowledge and action with correct knowledge will save in the Hereafter...”« Anyway, we know it is not among real Sufis that al-Qubrusi finds company when he visits Istanbul.

Even in Daghestan, the country where his master originated, there is not recognition for him in Sunni circles. The Mufti of this Caucasian land, master of the Naqshbandi Sufi order, Sayyid ’Ahmad ibn Sulaymân Darwîsh Hâjjieff produced a fatwà warning Muslims against the impostor. The contents of one of his letter are as follow: “In the name of Allâh the All-Merciful, the Merciful. Praise be to Allâh. Now, warning against people who have gone astray is a duty we have been ordered to perform. Especially those who use the name of religion to disguise, in order to lead people astray when actually, they are the enemies of religion and so far from it. Among those, we count Nazim al-Qubrusi who has spread a lot of corruption over the earth and has distorted the name of Islam among those who know little about Islam. He dresses like scholars to conceal what he is to the people. This Nazim is the disciple of ^Abdullâh (ad-Daghestani).” You may want to contact the Daghestan Moslem Spiritual Board yourself at this address: Makhachkala 367015, Aziz Aliev Street 2, Daghestan, Russia.

In spite of world wide Naqshbandi rejection, Nazim al-Qubrusi is still introduced as “world leader of the Nakshabandi Sufi order” to uninformed Christians looking for Muslim representatives. You could still find an example of that in http://www.gospelcom.net/apologeticsindex/an991028.html in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424[7]. Enthousiastic followers, during his visit to Kataragama in Sri Lanka, said about him: “His Holiness Sheikh Nazim Adil Al-Haqqani, world leader of the Naqshbandhia Order, is respected as a servant of Allah throughout the Islamic world.” It is completely untrue but which devoted Nazimite is going to question that? They hardly know the names of real Sufis and they mainly hear about gurus like Gurdjieff, Inayat Khan and others. They are isolated from real Sunnism and Sufism and see the world through the eyes of their master.


5
THE STATUS OF NAZIM


Allâh said what means: “ ... The wrong-doers will be made to stand for their Lord, throwing back the blame on one another ...” (Saba’ 34:31).


People of authority among Nazimites play an enormous role in establishing al-Qubrusi’s status in the followers’ minds. They show him as a man of extraordinary knowledge and extremely high spiritual level, in permanent contact with the greatest souls, the holy Prophet in particular (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam). To give an example of the kind of attitude expected from disciples, here are Nazim’s master (ad-Daghestani) words: “It is not allowed for the murid to ask his shaykh any question, on anything he has ordered him to do” (‘AlWasiyyah’ page 9). That attitude is noticeable with many of them. When shown evidence which no Muslim could accept, they answer: “We do not understand these things now, but we will, when we reach a higher spiritual level”. These ones are already obedient and trusting enough to adopt the unacceptable and believe that their error is spiritual enlightenment.

The vast majority of his followers appeared to us as ignorant of the basis of fiqh. They are considerably impressed by his alleged power and the supernatural phenomena which they may have witnessed, but most of the time have just heard of. In our discussions with them we realised that they ignored an essential point: supernatural phenomena are not evidence of anybody’s sainthood. Kashf and ‘ilhâm[8], awake or in dreams, are not accepted as proof in religious matters. We tried to convey that to them, with some success.

From our discussions with his followers it appeared they had almost no sense of perspective. They had no idea that pseudo Shâdhilis and Tijânis, Ismailis and Bahais used the same method. They had been induced into believing that Nazim is the greatest sheikh in the universe. The conversations of a few were full of names of scholars alleged to have supported al-Qubrusi and of known falsified books attributed to great Sufis. Their understanding of reality had clearly been thwarted.

One can easily find samples of their literature on the Internet. At some stage you could find in it a refutation written by Hisham Kabbani against alleged accusations, most of them were so ridiculous that one wonders whether they did not make them up in order to divert attention from the real issues. We also found in it a report of Nazim’s visit to the pope, an opportunity they relish because he is seen and photographed in the company of important people, thus reinforcing his prestige. The report presented the story as if every person who found himself in the presence of al-Qubrusi was there for him, as though they had come all the way to confide in him and take advice.

Murids and admirers are quite unaware of the real state of Nazim’s fame in the outside world. Videos of him and the visits of some sheikhs surrounded by their followers have definitely established his status in their minds. They do not realise he is just one among many others of his kind. The feeling that the whole world is about to fall in the arms of the sheikh was already prevalent at the time of ad-Daghestani. Muhammad Majdhûb reported in an article for the ‘al’Anwâr’ newspaper that a disciple he met in the hospital room of al-Qubrusi’s predecessor told him: “Sheikh ^Abdullâh is the miracle of his time, millions of people know him and there is no limit to the number of his disciples”. It was untrue at the time and it has not changed much since.

And what does Nazim, the alleged worldwide leader of the Naqshbandi order, think of Sufis; well, he said: “…Because the other 40 Tariqats use the Zikr of their tongues, and only the Naqshbandi Order uses the hearts…”[9].

Although they boast very loudly to have the whole universe centred around them, they often have to face the fact that numerous scholars and Sufis have denounced them. Then the rhetoric changes and their isolation and rejection by the mainstream are used to justify their position. They claimed in my presence that a true Sufi has to be excommunicated many times: the more rejection, the more they feel how unique their master is. It reached such a point in our discussions that they appeared to relish the idea of new fatwas against their leader. This shows how well conditioned they had been and many readers will recognise here a common phenomenon among sects.

Al-Qubrusi is reported to have told them that their first test would be their people trying to take them away from him, which is part of their strategy of isolation and reinforcement.

6
THE NAQSHBANDI CHAIN
REVISED BY NAZIMITES


At the very end of ‘Mercy Oceans’ Hidden Treasures’, one can find the so-called Naqshbandi silsilah of which they claim Nazim is the fortieth sheikh. In the tenth position, between Yûsuf alHamadâni and ^AbdulKhâliq alGhijuwâni, they put alKhidr (^alayhi ssalâm)! When we asked them about this ridiculous claim, we were answered: “What’s wrong with this?» There are reasons behind this: the prestige they hope to gain by this addition, but also, they claim that Nazim is the last of their imams before Mehdi, the fortieth! Without this addition, al-Qubrusi would only be the thirty ninth and would miss the highly symbolic number forty. One of our sources told us that actually they may be thinking of changing again that chain, eliminating one of its members, so that Hisham Kabbani would also claim to be the fortieth when his turn comes. We shall see whether this happens or not. From what we heard, ad-Daghestani also claimed to be the fortieth. It seems quite flexible.

This chain is also found at the end of ‘The secrets behind the secrets behind the secrets’ and confirmed by Hisham Kabbani in ‘Mercy Oceans’ Secrets of the Heart’. He wrote[10]: “...then Abu Bakr gave everything to Salman al-Farisi, Salman to Qasem, Qasem to Ja‘far, Ja‘far to Tayfur (Bistami), Tayfur to Sayyidna Khidr...» Eventually, you will find a very detailed form of it, in a tree shape, in ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’, by the same author, and on many of their web sites.


7
THE DOUBLE LANGUAGE
ON ^AQÎDAH AND SHARÎ^AH


Allâh subhânaHû wata^âlà said what means: “Hypocrites, men and women, belong together, they order what is evil and forbid what is good...” (atTawbah 9:67)


We should say ‘triple’ or ‘multiple’ language at the very least, to express the ability leaders of this sect have to say one thing and then do or say the opposite. Let us take a characteristic example; H. Kabbani declared[11]: “Sufi people believe that God is One, and everything else is His slave. Do not think that true Sufi people have different beliefs. True Sufis know that the slave is the slave and that God is God ... Sufi people must keep the shari‘ah of the Prophet (s) they must keep all conditions and laws that God has showed us; and they believe that God is merciful to everyone... Do not think that Sufi people can accept the view that Sufism contradicts shari‘ah? This was never the case, is not, and can never be the case”.

We love this text! How pleasant it would be from them, if they did not disprove their sincerity through words and actions. Do we need to mention again the beliefs they spread and their unlawful habits? Shall we remind ourselves about the lies they tell against Allâh jalla jalâluH Himself? As for Sharî^ah, they are very keen on denouncing people who do not wear the turban (which is recommended, not obligatory), but on the other hand, and so often, they cannot be bothered to write the full prayer on the Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam). They put instead a few letters, when it is not a simple ‘s’, a custom started by Wahhâbis and classified as makrûh. Now, what about avoiding what is harâm too? If it is forbidden for Nazim to let stranger women kiss directly his bare hand in spite of his old age, what about Hisham Kabbani and other representatives ?

Their pretended endorsement of Sharî^ah is sometimes done very seriously. You can indeed find some of their texts which will convince any sincere person unaware of other aspects of their teaching, that these people stick to the revealed Law with all the strength one expects from true Sufis. For instance you can find a very interesting article by ^AbdulHakîm Murâd, called ‘The Four Schools of Fiqh and the Need for Taqlîd’ in number 5 of their magazine ‘an-Naseeha’ (Ramadân 1415). But how could we forget all their actions and words which go against the Sacred Law. For example, when Nazim was a guest at the house of Mr. ’Ahmad Fakhrû in Lebanon, in Ra’s an-Nab^, a lady called Ruqayyah Faqîh questioned him on ribâ. His answer was “take it”, and when she said “but the Qur’ân forbade it!”, he added: “Today this whole world has become filled with ribâ”. In this same house he was seen shaking hands with women, and they were kissing his. This was during the lifetime of ad-Daghestani. Type ‘Shaykh Nazim Haqqani’ in the Internet search system and see if you cannot find more of that hypocrisy we discovered in their Web site.

If spiritual leaders are not here to set an example, who will most Muslims learn it from? If they do not teach the straight path by their manners and methods, who will? Hisham Kabbani does not differ from his master at that level, whether it is for essential matters or for details like the mirror calligraphies he uses in ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’, without respect for the order of revealed words; or the drawing in his book on angels.

Page 43 of ‘Mercy Oceans’ Secrets of the Heart’, we were surprised to discover these words: “We spend a lot of time teaching from the shari‘a.” What a pity we did not notice! After reading so many of their books, listening to their tapes, discussed with their followers, attended their conferences, we have not yet noticed that they even had the basics in fiqh. Actually we have come to the conclusion that most of them hardly know anything apart from what they received from tradition through their parents. Have they been hiding it?

So many sects pretend to be Islamic, claim to stick to Qur’ân and Sunnah and to apply Sharî^ah better than everybody else. We do not judge them by their claims.

’Ahmad arRifâ^iyy (rahimahu-llâh) said[12]: “The aim of the Sufis’ way is the aim of the fuqahâ’s[13] way, and the aim of the fuqahâ’s way is the aim of the Sufis’ way. The obstacles by which the fuqahâ’ are tested in their search are the obstacles by which Sufis are tested in theirs. Tarîqah is Sharî^ah and Sharî^ah is Tarîqah, the difference between them is a lexical one...»

8
SURFING ON THE INTERNET


When I started surfing on the Internet some years ago I found obvious examples of their double language. Their claims to a strict orthodoxy was displayed, but at the same time they could not help giving hints about their real nature. For instance, in one of them, in a section called ‘Muslim Scholars’, I found in Rajab 1419 the following title: ‘The Endowment of Divine Grace and the Spread of Divine Mercy’[14], attributed to ^AbdulQâdir alJîlâniyy (qaddasa-llâhu sirrah). This is what they wrote: “O ye people! When you join spiritual study circles (halaqãtu zikr) you mainly go there as spectators, not to cure your illnesses. You refrain from hearkening to the advice of the gnostic shaikh, ... Child, your progress has been curtailed by your ... Your current dependence on created resources and your forgetting to trust the causal being Who created everything... karmic habits ... how can you then reach the Causal Being Who created everything?”

Do they really expect knowledgeable people to believe our master ^AbdulQâdir alJîlâniyy would suddenly start speaking like a Hindu or Buddhist guru, referring regularly to “karma”, that he would fall into such blatant kufr as calling Allâh subhânaHû wata^âlà ‘The Causal Being’. Our master anNasafiyy (rahimahu-llâh) said that whoever calls God ‘cause’ goes out of Islam. Causes are part of creation, Allâh is the One who creates causes and effects. This is one more case of belief in creation by emanation which we explained in chapter 34.

Again we find the word ‘Gnostic’ used by them, a word so much loved by Western esoteric orders, but worse, we also discovered the use of ‘karmic’. This refers directly to the Hindu and Buddhist belief in ‘karma’. So they claim that ^AbdulQâdir alJîlâniyy (rahimahu-llâh) thought that everything which happened to people was caused by actions done in their present life or during previous incarnations. This defamation for which they will have to give accounts on the Day of Judgement, along with all their other lies, contradicts the proven integrity of this august master of Sufism. May Allâh join us with him in the hereafter and preserve us from them.

I have not been able to find again the same site and at the time my lack of experience made me neglect taking down the full URL. I actually suspect they took away the text which was too obvious a violation of Islamic orthodoxy. But they still advertise it on their so-called Islamic Supreme Council of America pages and their friends put the next on the World Wide Web for them.


9
A NEW NAZIM IN THE MAKING:
ZAINUL ABEDIN KAZMI


The method initiated by Abdullâh adDaghestani and Nazim alQubrusi inspires others. A man called Zainul Abedin Kazmi has been touring some parts of the United States, claiming to be sent by Nazim, to be part of the so-called “golden chain”, talking smoothly to people, sound more Sufi than Sufis themselves and making quite a following for himself. Hisham Kabbani and his master are doing their best to stop him but of course it is difficult to impair the progress of a person who is using the very recipe they have been using over and over again.

A whole article can be found on this topic on Wahiduddin’s Web[15]. The impostors are now victims of another impostor. What is said applies strikingly closely to what Abdullâh adDaghestani and Nazim alQubrusi did.

Wahiduddin wrote: “He was very likable, loving and charismatic. I thoroughly enjoyed his seated zikr. His ego seemed a bit large as he told about his healing abilities and described the great "station" that he had achieved, but all humans do have their own peculiarities”

Both Nazim and his master adDaghestani never hesitated much to boast about their “experiences” and “powers”. They wrote: “When dawn arrived, the Sheikh woke him to pray and Nazim affirms that never in his life did he feel a power like that which his teacher transmitted during his prayer. Abd Allah ad-Daghestani gave him initiation into the Naqshbandi order: "Oh my son, we have the power to make our disciple reach his station in a second."[16] You can find more lies, ego display and alleged great stations, as told by Nazim himself in: “http://www.naqshbandi. org/chain/40.htm” or “http://www.sufi.it/sufismo /shaykh.htm” in Italian.

Wahiduddin wrote, “He said that his master who had authorized his US tour is Shaykh Nazim of the Naqshbandi Sufi order. He handed out photographs of himself along with Shaykh Nazim, a page of prayers, a list of the Golden Chain of the Naqshbandi Tariqat, some small prayer beads and other small gifts. He did not ask for any money. He was kind courteous and seemed to be genuinely concerned for everyone that he encountered.
“…The comments from the Naqshbandi Order seem harsh and unkind, almost threatening, yet Zainul Abedin Kazmi is a gentle, kind person who seems to be living an exemplary life, bringing the blessings and grace of Allah into the lives of many people.”

Unfortunately it did not bother Nazim’s disciples that the official Naqshbandi order of Daghestan denounced him and thus disqualified all his claims to be part of their chain. They found much comfort in the fact that Nazim appears like “a gentle, kind person who seems to be living an exemplary life, bringing the blessings and grace of Allah into the lives of many people.”

It is ironic to see people ignoring H. Kabbani’s warnings and denunciations, writing:
“I know very little of this man except that many people have reported to me that he has had a profound effect on their lives---in a positive way. As I read the response you sent, it made my heart sink. Here is a man who touches people's hearts and souls and yet is not being supported by the Sufi order to which he claims to be a part of. It feels a little like politics to me. I don't care what this Sufi order says, if the man changes lives and brings people closer to God and asks for no money, then what exactly is the problem?”

Wahiduddin comments with great wisdom:
“But alas, that is exactly the sort of blind follower attitude that allows the formation of deceitful cults. The prevailing attitude seems to be: "so what if he is lying or dishonest, as long as he makes me feel good".”
Who would disagree with that? If Nazimites did really enquire about Nazim and adDaghestani’s credentials they would realise it is this very attitude which enabled these impostors to form their own cult.


10
THEIR EVADING PLOYS


When faced with questions or accusations, the first aim of Nazimites is to protect their sheikh. Al-Qubrusi is the base of the whole system, on him it stands and without him it might crumble down. If he shook, their whole universe would quake, so anything unfriendly is warded off by all possible means. For this reason, the transition to Hisham Kabbani is being prepared long in advance.

The first reaction of Nazimites, when their sheikh stands accused, is often to deny anything happened or was said. If they cannot do that they will point to other people as guilty of the fault, claiming even that there are some very strange people around their sheikh who are hypocrites working against him, or that those who wrote his words misinterpreted them. Yet, the controversial books and tapes which shock Muslims have not stopped being used and spread openly among them for years. Why did Nazim not do anything against them, for it is established that he can read English[17].

Another common argument used by them is that his opponents maliciously misinterpret him, but that is not true. One may not say that something is black and then claim he meant white. When al-Qubrusi states very clearly that no kâfir, not even Iblîs (la^anahu-llâh), will stay forever in Hell, or when he says that saints have divine attributes, there is no way to explain that these statements do not contradict Islam blatantly, and interpretation will not be accepted. Islam classifies statements or words in two categories. They are either ‘zâhir’ - i.e. they can have several meanings, in which case the person saying them is asked which one he intended, or they are ‘sarîh’, i.e. they have only one meaning, in this case the person is not asked what he meant. The things Nazim al-Qubrusi is blamed for belong to the latter, and his knowledge of the English language cuts for him any escape route his followers would like him to find.

We have come across many of these people and witnessed them using these tactics, not maliciously most of the time, simply because they could not face the pain of seeing their sheikh as he is. You will see them sometimes assailed by doubts when they remember the things that hurt a Muslim conscience. The next moment they will rub off their memories what disturbs them or invent silly excuses for it, as they often do when asked why al-Qubrusi lets stranger women touch his hand.

When Nazimites realise they cannot deny something, that they cannot blame someone else for it, that no far-fetched interpretation is acceptable and that they run out of silly justifications, some start falsifying Islam, as we describe further on in this report. This is what worries us most. In the end there is no way they can save the reputation of their leader, except by going openly away from orthodoxy and inventing their own religion which they will call Islam.


ESOTERICISM AND THE OCCULT


Here we enter a spiritual jungle: the esoteric and occult modern world. It is very much like a market where customers shop for their favourite brand of spirituality while gurus compete with one another in order to recruit and sometimes make alliances so as to survive or grow. All loose in this bazaar because it is a universe of delusions and deceptions.

The products displayed on the stalls range from Western political esoteric organisations and spiritual occult orders, to all kinds of brands with the name “Sufi”: some have abandoned any effort to conform to Islamic orthodoxy or have officially separated themselves from Islam, inventing a so-called non-Islamic Sufism; others still try keep up appearances to different degrees, but keep links with their colleagues.

Let us know try and explain what happened and where adDaghestani, Nazim and H. Kabbani stand.

11
THE BÂTINIYY (OR ESOTERIC) SYSTEM


Allâh said what means: “As for those who divide their religion and break up into sects, you have no part in them in the least: their affair is with Allâh: He will in the end tell them the truth of what they were doing” (al’An^âm 6:159).


Historical Background:


‘Bâtiniyy’ is a word used to describe sects or movements whose official doctrine is different from what they really teach within their ranks. Ismailis of the Musta^li[18] branch are typical of this kind of system. They work on a progressive initiation pattern: common followers receive a teaching which is not so different from the mainstream they left that it would be repugnant. As for those who want to progress in knowledge or hierarchy, the real content will progressively be disclosed to them. In spite of the sophistication of the organisation, secrets always leak out, and the modern era has seen the disclosure and publication of many books which had been meant for an elite only.

When Islam expanded over the world, it did not find a planet empty of beliefs and religious practices. When it replaced them, it left an important number of highly intelligent people frustrated to see a religion their desires could not accept, destroy what they had worked for and lived by. Islam could not be destroyed from the outside, so they tried and corrupt it from the inside. They had already done so with previous communities, they only had to apply the same methods over again. Those beliefs could roughly be described as Indo-European and Semitic[19] paganism, revamped by Hellenistic[20] philosophers.

Many cases of tampering in sacred books and in forged hadîth find their origin in philosophical ideas, but some ideas were too shocking for people to accept. They had to go underground in order to survive in Europe. This is the origin of esoteric Rosicrucian, Masonic or Templar orders. These ideas penetrated the Islamic environment through the translation of Greek and Hellenistic literature. Ismaili Shiites really elaborated their doctrine when they seized power in Egypt and came under the influence of one of the greatest centre of philosophy for centuries: Alexandria. Internal fights and the destruction of their dynasty forced Ismailis to scatter, mainly towards the north and eastwards, where they founded Shiite pseudo Sufi orders and hid until the British invasion.

The ability of those people to infiltrate a religious community and pretend to agree with its ideals is a disturbing reality. It is put to their followers in an idealistic manner which aims at silencing their conscience. The former Supreme Legate of the A.M.O.R.C. Rosicrucian order, Raymond Bernard wrote: “Far from taking the faithful person away from his religion, Rosicrucian teaching often has the subsidiary consequence of making him closer to it”[21]. After entering a community unobtrusively, new converts are attracted by letting them believe they will find the underlying meaning of their religion and plunge in its real mystical depth.

When Imâm alQushayriyy[22] (rahimahu-llâh) wrote his Risâlah, the infiltration of Hellenistic philsosophies had started in the Sunni environment and his book was meant to denounce those who had started to use the Sufism as a disguise to justify their erring ways. He set the record straight and he was followed shortly by ^AbdulQâdir alJîlâniyy[23], ‘Ahmad arRifâ^iyy[24] and then the rest of the great masters (may Allâh have mercy on them all) who founded the Sufi orders. These organisations played a major role in protecting the Path from corruption for a long time but the battle between truth and evil carried on. Esoteric heresies are viruses which adapt all the time, looking for new carriers to spread the disease, to they did manage to infect some branches of the venerable orders. The decline of the Ottomans, the ever increasing interference of Western powers and eventually the colonisation of Islamic lands, greatly favoured all types of pseudo Sufism.

Modern times have been very interesting for all direct inheritors of this tradition, as for those who have been influenced by them. Contact was re-established with their European brothers and cooperation could start again on a large scale. This is the context which makes pseudo Sufi organisations so eager to go westward. They have many affinities with esoteric orders here, which themselves have spread in our Islamic world. Modern western minds are in general a very fertile ground for those orders. It is a revealing topic which deserves much longer explanations, but we need to concentrate now on one of them: the Nazimites.

The Nazimite sect:

Ismaili and Imami clergies are very experienced professionals whose methods of dissimulation have been refined by centuries of practice. When one talks with common followers of these sects, one realises that they have little idea of the horrific beliefs held in stock.

Nazimites are far from having such a long experience. Their control over the system is fairly weak, so there are many leaks from people who got access to their real doctrine before their conditioning was completed, or were shocked to realise that few of their many predictions ever came true. Hisham Kabbani and his collaborators would certainly like to have a stronger hand over everything and they seem to be managing that more and more. I have noticed since 1995 a more organised approach to propaganda, less blunders and embarrassing disclosures by ill-disciplined followers.

Back in 1995 and the following years, we strongly suspected that things were hidden from us because of the strange reactions and contradictions encountered among Nazimites. Each time we thought we had discovered evidence of heresies in their books we were told that such publication was not authorised any more, that another was about to be revised, that the author was somebody who had left Nazim since, etc. They had a very evasive strategy which delayed our gathering of information. They also constantly dodged our attempts to have an encounter in a neutral place.

Our suspicions were confirmed eventually by an important murid of the inner circles who decided to leave them and explicitly described a system in which very different things are said to various audiences. The stories told to non Muslims are very different indeed from those given to Muslims, and inside the organisation, the teaching imparted to established members is shockingly at odds with what is granted to common followers. Even old murids are at different levels.

The first surprising piece of information we obtained was that the book called ‘Haqiqat ul-Haqqani’ which is filled with nonsense and outrageous statements about the alleged spiritual states of Nazim, a publication which is officially disapproved of (they even claimed to be suing people about it) was actually totally accepted by them. They believe in all its contents but were terribly embarrassed that an opponent who got hold of it spread it around in order to show outsiders the reality of the movement. What we found in the rest of their literature confirmed that.

Nazim himself confirms their system of different levels of beliefs. An interviewer called ‘Z’ in the text, asked him: “... You said once that even Shaitan will go back to Allah after a big, big period of cleaning. In the end everybody is with Allah”, then they report that al-Qubrusi answered: “Everything. Now we are speaking on the first level of beliefs and you are speaking to me about the top point of sufi-orders.”[25]

His successor, Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, known among them as Sheikh Hisham, confirms this too when he writes[26]: “God has cursed tyrants and unbelievers. Now we are going to say something big--be careful[27] Mawlana asked: In what circumstances did this curse that God has pronounced on tyrants and unbelievers come! It came through the holy book, but on what tongue? Who brought the Holy Qur’an? Who recited it? From whom did the sahaba listen to it? From God? No, but from the Prophet (s). Therefore it is according to that level, the level of the Prophet (s), that God is cursing tyrants and unbelievers. Above that level, at the level of His Majesty and His presence, do you think, Mawlana asks, that there is such a curse? It is impossible, because he has honoured humankind--how could He be cursing them? ... What came on the tongue of a human being, therefore, came for human beings...»

When they think that a murid has been sufficiently entangled in their emotional ties, that he has reached the level where the sheikh is not seen any more through Islam, but Islam through the sheikh - remember here that most of them had very little previous knowledge, if any in the case of converts - they start disclosing beliefs which this person would have been unable to accept before. At that moment, it makes him feel special, as if he was progressing spiritually. The final stage of conditioning is when the murid judges his or her progress by the distance with official belief and law. The further they are, the higher they think to have ascended. This delusion is reinforced among some by hallucinations, self-hypnosis and unusual phenomena which they are unable to interpret correctly, such as contacts with jinns who let them believe what is useful for them. The person who has reached that stage has fallen in complete zandaqah, outside the fold of Islam. Reports we have from former Nazimites show that there is quite a number of them.

Followers are encouraged to take part in the cover up. Hisham Kabbani wrote[28]: “He must not mention from the speeches of his shaikh what listeners cannot understand. This might harm the shaikh in a way of which the disciple is unaware. Ali (^alayhi ssalâm) said in a tradition narrated in Bukhari, “Speak to people at a level they can understand, because you do not want them to deny God and His Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam)”.” The last quote is correct, but it was not meant to hide secrets which contradict Islam.

One of the official Nazimite web sites, http://www.naqshbandi.org/, which proudly proclaims it was founded by Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, has a link with one of the Gurdjieff sites: http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/gurdjieffsufi/. On the page “Naming names”[29] they wrote: “Gurdjieff spoke of an inner circle of humanity, a group of conscious men who more or less ran things at the local level in each age. The idea was not new, but the terms he used to describe it were. He explained to Ouspensky at one point that humanity was divided into three concentric circles: the inner circle of conscious men, the middle circle of men mediating between the two other circles and the outer circle containing most of humanity.” This is what is the esoteric (bâtiniyy) system, put in a way that will be acceptable to many.

Mr H. Kabbani also gave away their liking of esotericism, magic and the occult when he wrote[30] about the angels Hârût and Mârût (^alayhima ssalâm): “They taught human beings all the esoteric arts and branches of the “occult” knowledge: astrology, alchemy, numerology, the healing arts, and magic. They never give away their knowledge, however, without a warning to the would-be-practitioner: if his or her heart is pure, he or she is safe. If not, they are in danger of losing themselves among the lower beings of the eart, the jinn… Magic may be equally constructive and destructive when it comes to the mind…” Actually the two angels were sent to teach deported Hebrews the difference between miracles and magic, to prevent them from being led astray. There is no good magic or witchcraft: it is a great sin in any case and whoever gets initiated by devils into the worst kind is taken out of Islam by them.

Fake Sufi orders base their heresies on the claim that the Prophet (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) gave a secret, esoteric (bâtin) teaching to our masters ‘Abû Bakr and ^Aliyy (radiya-llâhu ^anhumâ) . They claim it to transcend the exoteric (zâhir) teaching found in the holy Sharî^ah - actually its alleged contents contradicts it. Of course, every sect claims to be the best or sole inheritor of this knowledge and they still have to agree on what it is exactly. Heretics use that tale in order to justify their disregard for the revealed Law which the Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) and all the saints (‘awliyâ’) strictly applied to themselves.

12
REVEALING FRIENDS


Pythagoras, Neoplatonists, occultists and Sufi claimants: links

Pythagoras is the first famous Greek philosopher to have clearly organised his teaching into esoteric (internal/secret) and exoteric (external/public) branches. Much later on, the Neoplatonists made a synthesis of Plato, Pythagoras and other Greek philosophers’ teaching with Egyptian, Persian and Hindu traditions. This Neoplatonic ideology is still the most influential among pseudo Sufis and the presence of its tenets is often what gives them away. The rest of the time, their common vocabulary and persistent links are enough to point to their real nature.

When they feels exposed Nazimis will throw labels such as “masons” at others but the rest of the time, they do not make much of an effort to hide their links with western esoteric groups, the latter being more than happy to add so-called “Sufis” to the list of their friends: it reinforces their delusion to be within what they call: “the Tradition”.

An example of this cosy relation is illustrated in a dialogue between James Moore and Jim Gomez[31] The dialogue is filled with famous names of the western esoteric/pseudo Sufi society. They said:
“And so I really put this question to you out of respect for your scholarship, fastidiousness and so forth. Is it your position - and you have made these contacts and have inquired - that the enneagram probably has its antecedents, peculiarly, in the Sufi tradition? I ask again with some background. I knew very well Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Annemarie Schimmel, these people. And I have also heard refrain from Idris Shah, who I very much associate with the Naqshibandi Sufis. At the same time, at this conference we have had people who say they see the sources of Gurdjieff's teaching in the Christian Fathers, in the work of Mouravieff, for example.”
…
James Moore: Now, is it your position or is it not that the enneagram is peculiarly owed to an Islamic-Sufi tradition?
Jim Gomez: Yes. But. I'll give that a 'but' because the way I am understanding it at the moment is that it is Pythagorean in origin, and goes back to at least the Pythagoreans.
Before Pythagoras, who was a very interesting figure, we have no real history because Pythagoras was at the 'cusp' of our Western World and its history. Before that, we have only mythology … (note - as Guenon points out, even when we do have more ancient records or annals, such as ancient astrological readings in China, for example, which should be accepted as 'scientific', even then scientists and historians still tend to refer to these periods as 'legendary' - for a more lucid account of this idea, see R. Guenon, The Crisis of the Modern World, ch. 1) …
…
the interesting idea that Laleh Bakhtiar has talked to me about, is how the Islamic world 'incorporated' ideas from, say, the Platonic tradition.
…
This image is a picture of another Sufi Shaykh - Shaykh Nazim ( Maulana Sheik Nazim Al Haqqani Naqshibandiya). He is the 40th Master of the Kwajagan (Masters of Wisdom) Golden Chain. And this is a picture of him when he was 40. Now he is very old, he is 91 or 90 I believe.”
Then these gentlemen put a photograph of Nazim, finely-worked as usual, all centred around the eyes, the whole face doing its best to look both benevolent and profound. A young man asked me recently how could such a kind and gentle looking old man be so evil; I would say that in general, forgeries look better than the real thing. Some of the people mentioned in this dialogue, such as Seyyed Hossein Nasr[32], Gurdjieff and René Guenon, have nurtured through their books a new generation of enthusiasts who were bound to fall for pseudo Sufis such as al-Qubrusi.

The site where the dialogue above is to be found: http://users.moose.co.uk/ userfiles/gomez/first.html has a page of links which is very revealing in itself. Two of these links will take you straight to official Nazimite sites: http://naqshbandi.org/ and http://naqshbandi.net/haqqani/haqqani_english.html. The links page of the latter did not work when I tried but the former: the self-proclaimed “Naqshbandi Sufi Homepage” founded by Mr Hisham Kabbani, does have links sending straight to the so-called “Sufi Enneagram Website”, the Beliefnet[33], the “Gurdjieff and Sufi Paths” site and the “Gurdjieff International Review”.

Tell me who your friends are and I shall tell you who you are. Compare the links of these different sites:



http://naqshbandi.
org/links.htm
#Spiritual
http://users.moose.
co.uk/userfiles/
gomez/links.html
http://www.
sufienneagram.com/
http://www.angelfire.
com/ca3/gurdjieffsufi/
index.html
The Spiritual Traveler
Sufi Enneagram
Beliefnet.com - Hosting faiths and spiritual paths from around the world
Gurdjieff and Sufism - what is the connection?
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These links from the world of spiritual superficiality were still working in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003).

The case of Gurdjieff:

In ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’[34], Hisham Kabbani related the visit of George Gurdjieff[35] to ad-Daghestani, writing: “At the time of the dawn prayer, Shaykh Abd Allah called Gurdjieff to come and pray with him...” then he quoted the Russian teacher describing a vision he claimed to have had: “...I found myself entering into your heart and becoming part of you...”. Eventually he wrote that ad-Daghestani concluded the meeting with these words: “This meeting of ours has been blessed. Keep it as a secret in your heart and do not speak of it in this life. Abd an-Nur, for that is your name with us, you are free to stay or go as your responsibilities allow. You are always welcome with us. You have attained safety in the Divine Presence. May God bless you and strengthen you in your work”.

Who is that Gurdjieff who was treated as a saintly Muslim by ad-Daghestani, making him pray with him and asking Allâh to help him in his work?

Gurdjieff is well known in some western esoteric circles. In a book called “The dawn of Magic”[36] they report these words of his: “My way is to develop the hidden potentialities of man, a way that is against nature and against God”. Where are the reliable Muslim sources proving that this man ever became a Muslim? . The Gurdjieff International Review quotes him saying: “We can only strive to be able to be Christians.”[37].

Once again we see the collusion between western esoteric orders and pseudo Sufi orders. On the World Wide Web Nazimites and their western counterparts are officially connected. http://www.naqshbandi.org/, of Hisham Kabbani, is linked to two sites of Gurdjieff’s disciples: http://www.gurdjieff.org/ and http://www.angelfire.com/ ca3/gurdjieffsufi/ and another esoteric site: the Portland Practice Circle[38] has a link to naqshbandi.org.

Links with Perennialists in particular:

Perennialism started as a major western philosophical movement with René Guénon in the 1920s and developed with other philosophers after him, such as Frithjof Schuon, Titus Burckhardt, Martin Lings and Seyyid Hossein Nasr. Their belief is that all religions have the same core of ideas, that official dogmas and rituals are essential for common people but that an elite can go beyond appearances and find the real meaning of existence. They assert the validity of all religions which they see as different ways of reaching the essence.

You will find in the speeches or writings of ^Abdullâh adDaghestani, Nazim al-Qubrusi and M. Hisham Kabbani the very same ideas and we quoted them abundantly in this work. The whole ideology is a distortion of facts. Most traditional religions can be traced back to the teaching of prophets and our master Muhammad (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) said what means: “Prophets are brothers … and their religion is one”. This asserts that revelation always revealed the same truth and that differences among present day religions are due to progressive alterations of the original message, it does not say that these systems still contain a door to salvation and real knowledge. The last Messenger (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wa^alà ‘âlihî wasallam) was sent to a world which had lost Islam altogether and blocked all paths to leading to it.

There is not difference of opinion among Muslims, whether they are scholars or common people, inside or outside Sufi orders, on the belief that since the Best of All Creatures (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) brought us back Islam, there is no salvation out of it that its very core contradicts the essence of other religions.

Sufism is by its very nature the champion of Islamic orthodoxy and we shall not trust modern time philosophers who officially embraced Islam, only to carry on with their previous frame of mind. Perennialist writers like René Guénon, Frithjof Schuon and Martin Lings only made a new attempt at revitalising inside the Muslim community the tenets of Hellenistic philosophy, Neoplatonism in particular, which Imâm alGhazâliyy dashed in his time. They were joined in their effort by the surviving inheritors of this accursed tradition, such as Seyyid Hossein Nasr, adDaghestani, Nazim and H. Kabbani. Pseudo Sufis see in the spread of western civilisation a real opportunity to recover from the crushing defeat they suffered centuries ago: their old books and forgeries are published on a grand scale in many languages and spread among a new generation of Muslims who are easily deceived by their rhetoric.

It is no accident if Perennialism, other brands of Hellenistic philosophies and pseudo Sufism spread among westerners as well as Muslims brought up in the West or educated in the largely westernised universities of the Islamic world. They plot but Allâh plans and He is the best of planners.

The links of Nazimites with Perennalists is sometimes advertised. One of their Spanish speaking sites: http://www.haqqani.arrakis.es/ advertised in its book section one of René Guénon’s works in their language: “El reino de la cantidad y los signos de los tiempos”.

Inayat Khan:

In his interview with ‘phenomeNEWS’ Hisham Kabbani said: “Enlightened masters in all countries are preparing their followers with limited power because there is not permission to reveal and use miraculous power. Sufism from its beginning was supported by the miraculous power of its saints but that miraculous power is not allowed to be used now. Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan is not using it, but is using the ordinary way to teach. They are not going into a higher level of consciousness because if they go to a higher level... ohhh, that would bring confusion to this world, and there is no permission to use such power until the proper time.[39]”

Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan was the son of Inayat Khan[40] who was one of the many gurus from the Indian subcontinent who came to the West to find keen listeners, thirsty for an oriental flavoured philosophy. His doctrine is a typical case of pseudo Sufism, the kind which is much valued in Western esoteric and occult circles. He is one of the first to have understood that modern times made it possible to preach openly what had before been spread secretly, giving up any pretence to respect orthodoxy.

These are some of his statements:
“There is One God, the Eternal, the Only Being; none exists save He. The god of the Sufi is the God of every creed, and the God of all… He sees his God in the sun, in the fire, in the idol which diverse sects worship…
“There is One Holy Book, the sacred manuscript of nature, the only scripture which can enlighten the reader…The Sufi has all ages respected all such books, and has traced in the Vedanta, Zendavesta, Kabala, Bible, Qur’an, and all other sacred scriptures, the same truth which he reads in the incorruptible manuscript of nature, the only Holy Book…
“…the Sufi concerns himself little with the name of the religion or the place of worship.All places are sacred enough for his worship, and all religious convey to him the religion of his soul. ‘I saw Thee in the sacred Ka’ba and in the temple of the idol also Thee I saw.’…
“There is One Brotherhood, the human brotherhood which unites the children of earth indiscriminately in the Fatherhood of God…[41]”

Dr H.J. Witteveen[42] reported that Inayat Khan said: “In this stage the Sufi hears through the ears of God, sees through the eyes of God, works with the hands of God; then his thought is the thought of God and his feeling is the feeling of God. For him there is no longer that difference which a worshipper makes between himself and God”

We shall see later in this work how this doctrine, which is so similar to Nazim and H. Kabbani’s beliefs, is incompatible with Islam and at odds with the teaching of the great masters of Sufism. The only serious difference between the Nazimite leadership and Inayat Khan is that the former are still concerned with appearing orthodox to the Sunni public.
Inayat Khan founded his personal pseudo Sufi order called the “Sufi Order International”. His son Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan succeeded him (this is the person H. Kabbani refers to) and the organisation is now in the hands of the founder’s grandson: Pir Zia Inayat Khan.

The link between them is so strong that on his first visit to the United States, Nazim visited Pir Vilayat Khan at his New York spiritual centre. An event they publicise on Naqshbandi.org, with a photograph to prove it[43].

The case of Stephen Turoff:

There is a book read by some disciples of al-Qubrusi, called ‘Wings of the messenger’ (published in 1993), written by a dedicated follower, Zero Thyra Quensel[44], who has been quoted earlier. This work is about an open kâfir called Stephen Turoff, who claims to be possessed by the spirit of a dead man known as Dr. Abraham Joseph Kahn. The reason why she wrote the book is given in page 7 where it is explained that Nazim allowed people to go to that man. He does not simply give permission to go there, as she said: “Within days the news of the extraordinary healing of Sheik Nazim’s wife and many others had become the topic of the community ... Sheik Nazim actually started telling us to go.”

What kind of man is that person whom Nazim entrusts his murids with? Well, Ms. Quensel reports in page 5 that he told her: “You are the Creator! You are truly one with God!” The author carries on saying: “This is hard to swallow, even for believers, because it puts the whole responsibility on us. We are creating this.” This is actually the only thing that shocks her in his statement! I suppose she thinks she is a Muslim and looks down to us as people of very poor spiritual understanding, ‘hidden polytheists’.

Page 9 of the same book she mentions Turoff saying: “All of us are Creation and Creator”, which is a direct reference to wahdatu lwujûd, an innovation to which we dedicate chapter 38. The man has the same religion as Nazim’s, which is why al-Qubrusi is so eager to help him preach to his grateful patients while he is operating on them. This is confirmed by Thyra Quensel, in page 6, when she says: “He opens the body with various strange instruments, sometimes even with his bare fingers, operates within a minute and closes the wound without a trace of blood. While doing this he gives profound talks and Messages from the Most High”.


RELIGION AS AN OUTER SHELL


Chapters in this part show the attitude which results from the Nazimite bâtiniyy system. Most of the time it is not specific to them, it is a common phenomenon among esoteric orders. Nazimites belong to a type of organisation which tries and give the appearance of orthodoxy to some audiences.

13
THEIR PROBLEMS WITH KNOWLEDGE
AND ^ULAMÂ’


Allâh subhânaHû wata^âlà said what means: “But most of them only follow their own opinions. Opinion will be of no avail against truth. Indeed Allâh is aware of what they do” (Yûnus 10:36).


Their debasement of formal knowledge:

Imâm alQushayriyy reported that when Abû Bakr azZâhirâbâdiyy was asked about knowledge (ma^rifah) he answered[45]: “ ‘Ma^rifah’ is a noun and its meaning is to have such great a reverence in the heart, that it will prevent you from denying Allâh’s attributes (ta^tîl) or comparing Him with His creation (tashbîh).”

The aim of Nazim and his team is to debase orthodox scholars in the murids’ eyes and introduce themselves as an alternative. Their purpose is to discourage followers from learning Allâh’s religion and thus getting a knowledge that would shatter their inventions.

The best is to illustrate this point by a story found in their book called ‘Mercy Oceans’ Endless Horizons’. They say in it:
“When the Last Day is announced, Allâh Almighty will call one religious scholar forward and ask him: ‘Are you a knowledgeable religious man’ He will answer: ‘As you know, oh my Lord. ‘By virtue of what knowledge are you claiming to be a learned person - what did you know in your life?’ ‘Oh my Lord, I knew all of the Qur’ân by heart.’ ‘That is your knowledge?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘No, you are mistaken, for the Qur’ân is My knowledge, not yours. So now, tell me, what else did you know?’ ‘I knew thousands of the Holy Traditions by heart.’ ‘That is My Prophet’s knowledge, not yours.’ ‘Well I knew so many points of Divine Law and jurisprudential verdicts.’ ‘That is the knowledge of the Imams of those schools of Law, not yours.’ ‘I knew many tales from the lives of the great Sufis.’ ‘That is also not your knowledge, but theirs. When you quoted Abu Yazid or Salman or Hasan al-Basri or Imam Ghazzali, it was their knowledge, not yours, of which you spoke. But what about you, does any knowledge belong to you?’

“Thus does Allâh Almighty strip him bare so he may see that actually, he had gained no knowledge whatsoever during the course of his life. Then Allâh ask him: ‘What kept you back so that now you have nothing to show? Those Imams and Sufis are human beings, just as you are, they started out just as you did. Jut they made real attempts to receive a portion of My Knowledge Oceans. They asked Me and I gave them. If you would have but asked, I would have given you too, but you didn’t ask - you only read and memorized’.

“Therefore, according to the true Inheritors of the Prophet, only knowledge that springs from the heart can really be called knowledge. Knowledge that is kept in the mind will be lost with the demise of the mind; but knowledge that has been absorbed by the heart, gnosis, will never be forgotten.”

How very revealing is their use of the Greek philosophical word ‘gnosis’! It expresses perfectly the concept developed in this text and shows again the real origin of their beliefs. The problem is not so much that they believe there is a spiritual knowledge that Allâh grants to His saints through ‘ilhâm and kashf. It is that - just like their western counterparts - they consider it to be the most reliable source of knowledge. They interpret everything through their desires, delusions and hallucinations. With this belief, they reverse the criteria set by Allâh: instead of judging what comes into their hearts by Qur’ân, Sunnah and ’ijmâ^, their so-called spiritual experiences is the base of their understanding of wahi[46].

The passage quoted debases scholars, making the ignorant believe that people who spend years learning the sciences of religion are like big balloons full of air. They want us to think that only sheikhs like their own have an inner spiritual knowledge received from Allâh. Will there not be among them some who will be struck by the fact that so many sects pretending to be Islamic, so many religions, have the same claim. They too declare they have spiritual knowledge, an infallible one, but they never manage to be one because the reality of it is human desires, pride and ambition.

How are Nazimites going to refute Agha Khanis’ claims that their leader is the manifestation of God on earth and that the Day of Judgement has already taken place, freeing them from Sharî^ah? This particular Ismaili sect also claims to have spiritual knowledge taken directly from Allâh, and that it is their own leader who is at the head of all ‘awliyâ’[47]. The only way to answer is through revealed evidence, and if they accept that against others, that cannot refuse it for themselves.

Their ignorance of spiritual knowledge:

A recording of Nazim dated from the 24th of April (probably 1987) seems to go in the same direction as previously, he said: “Therefore it is important for people to try to reach through endless levels of people, and through endless understandings of people, to try to give them something from that divinely knowledge. If you are giving, Allâh give you more.” This is the supermarket version of esotericism.

Hisham Kabbani wrote[48]: “This knowledge is restricted to saints. Alhamdilillâh, you are believing in awliya’, and this is the best and most important belief.” No it is not! Sainthood is part of our beliefs, but our faith in one God only and His Messenger (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) is the foundation. We judge everything through the Qur’ân and Sunnah given to us. We judge who is a waliyy[49] or an impostor through them. Saints (‘awliyâ’) judge whether their inspirations and experiences are from Allâh or Shaytân through the same revealed texts.

Spiritual knowledge (^irfân) is subjected to the criteria of the revealed text and is only accepted as such if it is in total conformity with it, inwardly and outwardly (bâtinan wa zâhiran). The founder of the Shâdhili Sufi order, ‘Abû lHasan ashShâdhiliyy (rahimahu-llâh) said[50]: “If your kashf (spiritual unveiling) is in contradiction with the Book and the Sunnah, stick to the Book and the Sunnah and leave the kashf. Say to yourself: “Allâh has guaranteed my protection in the Book and the Sunnah, He did not guarantee it in kashf, ‘ilhâm (inspiration) or contemplation, except when it has been tested by the Book and the Sunnah...”«

Allâh said what means: “Likewise we made for every messenger an enemy, devils from men and jinns, inspiring each other with flowery discourses by way of deception...”[51].

Dazzling as part of their strategy:

If Nazimite leaders were unable to respond to their audience, they would not have deceived half of the people who follow them. It was reported to us that they have an answer to everything, an interpretation, an explanation or a comment for every word, gesture or event. This convinces many that they possess a wide knowledge and they easily impress people who have never seen a real scholar working.

You will not find in Nazim and his team that carefulness, rigour and discipline which is so characteristic of scholars. You will not hear them recognise their ignorance, for it would destroy the image they have been giving of all-knowing and all-understanding masters. If they cannot find a proper answer they will let you believe that they keep silent because you are not yet ready to receive what they could say, or they will look deeply into your eyes and tell you to look for the answer in your heart.

If they show skill in convincing the inexperienced that they have an extraordinary science, they could not deceive very long somebody who has learned in depth according to traditional Sunni methods. They are very careful not to uncover any embarrassing detail when they know such a person is present. Nazim particularly would find it very difficult to fulfil the condition set by his successor Hisham[52]: “The shaykh must be deeply imbued with the knowledge of the religion, externally and spiritually”, and: “He must be a scholar in all the obligations of the religion”[53].

In spite of their claims that so many scholars follow their sheikh, you will notice that the overwhelming majority of their followers hardly have any culture or religious knowledge. Many of them are youngsters who are totally dazzled by the impressive superficial knowledge displayed by their leader. They have no means to judge how deep it really is. The method is very common among pseudo Sufi orders as among western esoteric orders. It is an old trick which proves to be very effective, based on the exploitation of people’s gullibility and trustfulness.


14
THEIR TREATMENT OF ‘ABÛ HANÎFAH (radiya-llâhu ^anh)


The Messenger of Allâh (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) reported that His Lord said what means: “Whoever shows hostility to one of My saints, I declare war against him...”[54].


In one of his numerous spurious stories, Hisham Kabbani relates the following alleged incident[55]: “One day a Sufi joined a group of the scholar, Mawlana Zaynuddin at-Tibabi. The Sufi was asked, ‘Who do you love more, your shaykh or Imam Abu Hanifa?’ He answered, ‘For a long time, I followed the Way of Imam Abu Hanifa very carefully. Yet for all those years the bad manners that were in my heart would not leave me. After I had followed my shaykh for only a few days, all my bad manners disappeared. So how could I love the Imam better than my shaykh even though I give Imam Abu Hanifa full respect?”

Is that full respect? We say: whoever finds it difficult to make his bad manners disappear by following the way of Qur’ân and Sunnah as shown by any of the four Founders, should look into himself for an explanation. As for that person, if he ever existed and said those words: it demonstrated he still had not lost his bad manners and his spiritual knowledge did not allow him to see the rank of those he followed.


PERSONALITY CULT


The devotion shown by common followers to Nazim cannot be based on his Sunni credentials or his orthodox learned discourses. There is not much Islamic scholarly knowledge in his lectures. Their enthusiasm and blind trust is based on a whole system, which represents him as something he is not, and then an overwhelming presence of his carefully made portraits, among other things.

We shall expose now some of the ploys they use to produce the ‘mythical Nazim’. Whoever has experience or knowledge of methods used by sects to start a cult around their leader, will recognise many of these.

15
THEIR BELIEF CONCERNING HIS POWER


Allâh said what means: “When those who used to be followed disown those who followed them, they will see the torment and all relations between them will be cut off.” (AlBaqarah 2:166).


In a booklet entitled ‘About Our Master Sheikh Nazim Effendi’ by Hisham Kabbani, which I found in 1992 in their centre of Sheffield, England, it is written on the first page: “Now most Eastern people are like Abu Jahl and his followers and all the western people now have this delicate veil...Maulana Sheikh is directing all his power there - zahiri (external) power not mani’ (spiritual) power. If he directed internal power all of them would be Muslim, but no permission...”

Mr. Bashir, their former representative[56] in Birmingham, denied that this brochure was published with their permission. We know they accept all the beliefs which are in it and it has that typical style of theirs.

They are so convinced that Nazim is a waliyy that they call him “Sultânu l’awliyâ’”[57]. So whatever they say about saints is of paramount importance to understand their beliefs concerning him. For instance they say: “When Allah likes and trusts a servant He gives him from His Divine Power. Once a wali was speaking in front of a crowd, saying: “If a Saint says to a mountain “move” it moves. Then the mountain behind him actually began to move until the wali shouted: No! Stop! I was only giving an example.”[58] How embarrassing!

Let us remember that the Holy Prophet himself (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) did not always obtain from Allâh what he asked for. For instance he asked for the people of this Community not to fall into intestinal wars but it was not given to him. Muslim transmitted from Thawbân that the Messenger of God (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) said what means: “I asked my Lord three things, He granted me two and refused me one”.

In the book called ‘Haqiqat ul-Haqqani’, pages 15 to 16, it is said: “Mowlana has been given the power to be in every heart of every human being in this universe. He also has the immense power of being able to make the Divine Light of Allah Almighty and all the 124,000 prophets to enter into the hearts and bodies of all humanity in just one moment. In one moment Mowlana is able not only to make an unbeliever to believe but also to be able to make him attain the rank of Siddiq (the rank of Siddiq) is the highest rank of sainthood), and to make him to always be in the light of Allah Almighty...”

Page 23 of the same book it is said: “All the people of the Ummah now have been given by Allah Almighty to Seyyidina Mahdi (Alai). All of them are also now under the tutelage of Mowlana Sheykh Nazim. He is now teaching them and dressing them with maqams (stations) so that when Seyyidina Mahdi (Alai) comes, they will have the capacity to talk to Allah Almighty”.

In the same book, pages 26 to 27 it is written: “Shaykh Adnan relates this incident as follows: “We were in Mecca with Mowlana Sheykh Nazim making Tawaf. The sun was out and there was no cloud in sight. Mowlana then prayed to Allah Almighty saying “Oh! Allah Almighty, I have come here as Your guest to please You. I would like it to rain so that I can take some Barakah from the rain that comes down at the Ka’aba.” The clouds built up and it began to rain. It rained so hard that Mecca began to look like a river.”

Nazim is not innocent of the myths concerning his alleged powers. He plays the part himself, as convincingly as he can on certain occasions. Such was the case when he said: “From today up to end of the world, if (they are) making me to speak, I may speak on the honour of mankind. My heart (is) full like (a) volcano to burn those tyrants, who take honour of mankind, making them under their feet. I am making all of them under my feet! I am nothing now- I am sleeping volcano- , but sometimes, when coming under it…Brrrrrrr!….Time should come that my volcano waking up to take them away…and I am nothing…Fatiha…Only for you, o my Lord…I will destroy their Kufr…[59]” Actually he and his successor H. Kabbani are too busy getting photographed with the Pope, the Sultan of Brunei, President Bush, etc. to be able to indulge in much volcano activity.


We know through our discussions with Nazimites the paramount importance his alleged powers have in their mythology. They are considered by them as evidence that he is a saint, the highest of all. A typical reaction to doubt was reported by one of them: he explained that while he was in terrible emotional suffering because of the conflict in his heart between his love for al-Qubrusi and the evil he knows from him, he said in despair: “O Sheikh, if you are right, then appear to me now!» fortunately for the young man, no malicious passing shaytân answered his request, for he would have accepted this as proof and submitted to his desires until his conscience awakened him again.

‘Abû Yazîd alBistâmiyy (rahimahu-llâh) said[60]: “If you look at a man who performs (what looks like) karâmât, to the point that he flies in the air, do not be deceived by him. See what he does when it comes to ordering what is good and forbidding what is bad, keeping away from evil and applying Sharî^ah”.

’Ahmad arRifâ^iyy (rahimahu-llâh), founder of the Rifâ^iyy Sufi order said[61]: “O brother, I fear for you the joy given by karâmât and (the temptation) to show them. Saints hide their karâmât as women hide their periods”.


16
THE ALLEGED SPIRITUAL RANK OF AL-QUBRUSI


Allâh subhânaHû wata^âlà said what means: “No, the wrong-doers follow their desires, being devoid of knowledge. But who will guide those whom Allâh leaves astray? Nobody will be able to help them” (arRûm 30:29).


In the book ‘Haqiqat ul-Haqqani’, page 12, it is said: “Mowlana Sheykh Nazim is the Sultan ul Awliya of his age. Most people think that the rank of Qutub ul Ghauz is the highest because they have no knowledge of the rank of Sultan ul Awliya. Mowlana Sheykh Nazim was given the rank of Qutub ul Ghauz 30 years ago by his Grandsheykh. When Grandsheykh Abdullah Al Faiz ad Daghistani (Qad) passed away from this earth, Mowlana Sheykh Nazim became the Sultan ul Awliya and he granted the rank of Qutub ul Ghauz to someone else”. I call that outbidding: what will other sects do next, invent a bigger title like ‘Emîr Salâtîni l’Awliyâ’?

Page 375 of ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’, Hisham Kabbani describes him in these terms: “He is the unveiler of secrets, the keeper of light, the shaykh of shaykhs, the sultan of ascetics, the sultan of the pious, the sultan of the people of the Truth. He is the chief master without peer of the Divine Knowledge in the late 20th Century. He is the rain from the ocean of knowledge of this Order, which is reviving spirits in all parts of this world. He is the saint of the seven continents, his light having attracted disciples from all quarters of the globe. He wears the cloak of the light of the Divine Presence. He is unique in his time. He is the orchid planted in the earth of Divine love. He is the sun for all the universes. He is known as the saint of the two wings: the external knowledge and the internal knowledge.” Not among Sufis, he is not.

Indeed, the way Nazim is described by his disciples bears many similarities with what was done by his own master, adDaghestani and his followers. For example, in the interview by Muhammad Majdhûb of the ‘Al’Anwâr’ newspaper, adDaghestani was reported to have said: “I was dead for seven days, when a bullet hit me in the back and stayed in one side of my heart. 120,000 prophets carried me to Paradise, I visited heaven and contemplated ^Azrâ’îl. Today, here, 24,000 people see me, apart from you, in 24,000 different places, in different shapes”. More or less the same is said nowadays about his successor, with variations: jinns and saints are said to attend his lessons in great numbers and they claim that he is seen in thousand of places at the same time, that there are three places he does not leave in twenty four hours for one second: at the black stone of the Ka^bah, in the assembly of the Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) in Medînah and the mountain of Qâsiyûn in Syria, where his sheikh was buried[62].

They said[63]: “The Sultan ul Awliya of the time also has the tajalli and the power of all the 124,000 prophets”. Page 27 it is said: “No one can ever imagine the spiritual shape of Mowlana Sheikh Nazim, because all the heavens and the earth enter into him”. Page 41 they wrote: “This is why Mowlana says: “No one really knows me. All they know about me are only aspects of me”. I suppose they think that at his level he is beyond modesty. The idea that Nazim is a microcosm of the whole universe is a typical Masonic and Rosicrucian teaching.

They also wrote[64]: “Bayazid Bistami (Ral) lived a thousand years ago and the tajalli of Mowlana Sheikh Nazim is stronger and more powerful and more precious as he now has all the secrets of all the previous Grandsheikhs including that of Bayazid Bistami (Ral) in his heart. He also possesses the secret of all the prophets and the secret of Holy Prophet Muhammad (Sal) in his heart. He is therefore the most remarkable Saint in the Dîwân of the Saints of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Sal).” This means of course that Nazimites who know that this book is in reality accepted by them and believes these words, believe that Nazim is superior to ‘Abû Bakr (radiya-llâhu ^anh) , to the nine other best Companions of the Messenger of Allâh (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) , to the rest of the Sahâbah, the Tâbi^ûn and the next generation, all this in complete contradiction with reliable hadîths which establish their superiority until the Day of Judgement.

AlBazzâr related through a reliable chain of transmission starting from Jâbir ibn ^Abdillâh (radiya-llâhu ^anh) that the Messenger of Allâh (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) said what means: “Allâh has chosen my Companions over all humankind and jinns, apart from prophets and messengers”.

AlBukhâriyy related that the prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) said what means “The best generation is my generation, then the next one, then the next one, then the next one ...”.

I want to attract the reader’s attention to the fact that here, as usual, they have no evidence for their beliefs. They are pure fabrication of their egos (’anfus) or of previous deviants.


17
THEIR NEED TO INCREASE THE PRESTIGE OF NAZIM


It is reported that our master ^Aliyy ibn ’Abî Tâlib (karrama-llâhu wajhah) said: “Truth is not known through men but men are known through truth”.


Increasing Nazim’s prestige is done in various ways like telling stories about an unbelievable number of great scholars recognising his alleged rank, making him meet important or seemingly important people, who are kept unaware of the true nature of his doctrine. Then there are tales invented about very famous characters or imaginary ones.

In their book ‘Haqiqat ul-Haqqani’, page 39, it is said: “Shaykh Adnan relates that once when he was in Mecca making Tawaf with Mowlana Sheikh Nazim a person with a long beard came up to Mowlana Sheikh Nazim, kissed his hand and continued to do Tawaf with Mowlana. Mowlana then told those who were present with him on that occasion that this person was khidr (Alai) and that he had come specially to kiss mowlana’s hand and to perform Tawaf with him”. The question is: who invented this. Was it Adnan or Nazim, or were they both deluded? The last hypothesis does not sound likely.

In the next paragraph, one can read: “Sheikh Adnan also relates that on another occasion when he was performing Tawaf around the Ka’aba with Mowlana Sheikh Nazim a very old man came up to Mowlana, kissed him, spoke to him and performed Tawaf with mowlana. Thereafter this old man disappeared without a trace. When mowlana was asked as to who this old man was, he answered that this man was one of the sons of the Adam before our Adam (Alai)”. This is quite interesting; because this incident cannot be understood if one does not know Ismaili Shiite belief it refers to. Indeed, Ismailis teach that there were several Adams, each ancestor of one humanity, and that we are the descendants of the last one, in the ultimate cycle.

Hisham Kabbani who is taking over the group has now the same need. In his interview with phenomeNEWS I found him altering his own name to try and link it to the Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam). They said:
“phenomeNEWS: What does your name mean?
Shaikh: Hachem[65] means "From the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad and his family."[66]”
Mr Kabbani cannot be so ignorant of Arabic that we would actually believe what he said.
His name is “Hishâm” which has now the mening of ‘generosity’. It comes from the Arabic custom of crumbling bread for their meal (from the verb ‘hashama’, to crumble, to break into pieces). The person who did this would be the “hâshim” and would give out the food to fellow travelers. Gradually “hâshim” became synonymous with “generous”. “Hishâm” (generosity) and “Hâshim/Hachem” (generous) are drawn from the same root. The great grandfather of Prophet Muhammad (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wa^alà ‘âlihî wasallam) was named “Hâshim”, not “Hishâm” and his descendants have neither been called “Hishâm” nor “Hâshim” as a reference to their noble ancestor, even though some had it as a first name like the rest of the population. Traditionally we call the desendants of the Messenger of Allâh (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) “Hâshimis” ( “Hachémites” in French) or Muttalibis and the popular custom is to refer to them as the “shurafâ’ (among Arabs) or “the Sayyids” (in the Indian subcontinent).

To sum it up, Mr Kabbani’s name is Hishâm, not “Hachem” and even “Hachem” does not mean "From the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad and his family." As he puts it.

18
THEIR EXAGGERATION CONCERNING SUFISM
AND THE STATUS OF THE SHEIKH


Allâh said what means: “So if they believe as you believe, they are indeed on the right path; but if they turn back, it is they who are in schism; but Allâh will be enough for you against them, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.” (AlBaqarah 2:137).earHHHHnbvbcv


In their book ‘AlWasiyyah’, page 9, they report that adDaghestani said: “The second definition of the tarîqah (i.e. Sufi path) is that the murid is prepared to receive the order from his guide as the messenger is waiting for the coming of the revelation (wahi) from Allâh”. This simple sentence which dares to compare the orders of the spiritual guide with revelation, should frighten any sensible mind. Let us also remember these other words, previously quoted: “It is not allowed for the murid to ask the sheikh any question, on anything he has ordered him to do”, found in the same page of this book. We say: the holy Prophet (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) taught us what means: “There is no obedience to a creature, if it is disobedience to the Creator”.

Some of their followers, when faced with the evidence against them, just sweep it aside saying: “What are they talking about, these are Sufi matters!” This kind of statement which was reported to us shows what a perverted idea of Sufism they are induced to believe in, which they reinforce by reading books often as bad or worse as their own.

There is no way out of Sharî^ah, at any level, especially not in Sufism, and definitely not at the highest levels. The greater the Sufi, the more attached he or she will be to the revealed Law, in every detail. This is actually the means by which we recognise true Sufis and how they recognise each other. People failed that test for errors which were not as important as letting strangers of the other sex touch them.

True Sufis will be most careful not to let their disciples give them too much importance. There is a limit to devotion towards them, which they are first to stress. The perfect example is the Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) , he is the one to be imitated in everything, to be defended in all circumstances, to be believed in all, not to be argued against in any way. Sufi sheikhs are guides who help to reach the top of the mountain where themselves are going. Their own hearts are cracking with the love for Allâh and his blessed Messenger (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) . In no manner will you ever find them exempting themselves from the Law which applies to all human beings and jinns.

When the rules are not observed many followers start accepting such outrageous statements as: “The Kâbah often came and circumbulated around me” an alleged saying of ’Ahmad asSirhindiyy (rahimahu-llâh) quoted by Hisham Kabbani[67]. May Allâh increase the torment of those who dare tarnish the reputation of the Imams of this community.


19
THEIR IDEA OF SAINTHOOD OR WILÂYAH


Imam Junayd (rahimahu-llâh)said:
“A corrupt scholar is a great evil
but greater than that is a devout ignorant
Both are in this universe a great calamity
for whoever follows them in his religion”


By now the reader should have a clear picture of what Nazimites think a saint (waliyy) is. In order to make it totally clear we will quote adDaghestani. Hisham Kabbani reports in ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’[68] that he said: “One day I was sitting amongst a large group of people. We saw Shaykh Ismail approaching wearing a woollen cloak and on his feet were new shoes. I said to myself, ‘That shaykh Ismail is a real Sufi shaykh. I am going to go to him and ask him a difficult question to see if he can answer it or not.’ I approached and he saw me. As I drew near he said, ‘O Abdur Rahman, God said in the Holy Quran to avoid bad thoughts. Do not try to question me. That is not good behavior.’ I said in my heart, ‘What a miracle! that is a great miracle! How did he know my question and how did he know my name? I must follow him and ask him more.’ I ran after him but I could not find him.

“One day I saw him in a village. He was standing and praying. His eyes were full of tears. When he had finished, I ran towards him.It came to my heart to ask his forgiveness for what I had done the last time. He looked at me and said, ‘Recite for me the Quranic verse, “Without doubt, I am He that forgives again and again, to those who repent, believe and do right - who, in fine, are ready to receive true guidance” (20:82). Then he left. I thought to myself, ‘Surely he is one of the deputies of the spiritual pole. This is the second time he has addressed the thoughts in my heart.’

“Later the same day, on my way home, I passed by that village again and I saw him standing by a well with a cup in his hand. He wanted to drink from the well. While I was watching him, the cup fell into the well. Then I saw him raise his hands and recite this supplication, ‘O God, I am thirsty for water and water is my only food. O God, You know my heart and You know that I am thirsty.’ By God, not a second had passed before the water in the well rose up until it reached the top. It flooded out of the well and with it the cup. He took the cup and drank. Then he performed ablution and prayed four cycles of prayer. He put sand in the cup, put some water in with the sand and stirred it with his finger. He then sat and ate from the mixture. I came and said, ‘O Shaykh Ismail, let me eat with you. What are you eating, dirt?’ He replied, ‘O Abdur Rahman, keep good thoughts of God.’ He gave me the cup. I put it to my mouth. It was water and honey...”

It is quite worrying to see that this is how they trust someone to be a saint. What will they do when they will meet people clever enough to guess their thoughts or able of more surprising phenomena? What will they do when alMasîhu dDajjâl [69] comes and performs his wonders? They are not even equipped to distinguish between the friends of Satan and the saints of Allâh.

A person is not a saint because of karâmât or so-called miracles, but saints do have karâmât. A waliyy is a person who is righteous in private as in public and does more than his or her duty. This is the basic criteria for recognition of sainthood. Yet, only Allâh knows all actions and intentions. Many a saint is unknown to us whereas some people deemed to be ‘awliyâ’ are mere sinners or worse.


THE “MURÎDS”


These are the fooled: most of these will get very little from Nazim but they are useful for the maintenance of the group. Most will leave one day, as ignorant as they were when they came in or more, bitter and dejected. To this day I find people who left about five years ago but whose beliefs are still corrupted, such as believing angels can commit big sins and be punished for them. The same followers are also manipulated to exert violence against opponents.

20
THE LICENTIOUS BEHAVIOUR CAUSED BY THEIR IDEOLOGY


The Messenger of God (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) reported that Allâh said what means: “... My servant has no better way of getting closer to me than performing the duties I imposed on him ...”[70].


Reports from Lebanon said that many of their followers there were known for not performing salâh. This was confirmed to us in the city of Birmingham by several reliable sources who came in contact with them. When asked about it, Nazimites replied that they did not need to pray since al-Qubrusi obtained forgiveness for them. In another instance, one of them ate food, which was known by him to contain harâm substances. These are not isolated incidents. Many are famous for their lack of care towards Sharî^ah. Several witnesses reported the mixing of men and women in prayer[71].

A former French Nazimite who is now safely in the fold of Sunnism reported that during the Ramadân of 1987, in the former church of Coburg, near Peckham in London. Some German followers were seen eating during fajr. Shocked by such an obvious violation of Sharî^ah, a Palestinian man expressed his outrage and there was an argument between them. They decided to settle the matter by asking Nazim, who confirmed that it was halâl according to him. He added that it was possible to break the fast during ^asr if one felt tired.

How on earth are Nazimites going to show respect and obedience to Sarî^ah when a bad example is regularly set by their leaders and that they even invent excuses for sins. They go as far as to attribute forged statements to great saints. Mustafà al^Allâylî[72] claimed that ^AbdulQâdir alJîlâniyy (rahimahu-llâh) said to his disciples: “Change the direction of Qiblah”.


21
SLANDER AND VIOLENCE


Allâh’s Messenger (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) said what means: “The good Muslim is he from whose tongue and hand other Muslims are safe...”[73]


Blatant lies:

People who endeavour to expose Nazimite ideology and methods can expect to be slandered at some stage, although what we have seen so far does not strike by its intelligence or subtlety. Such was the case for Sheikh ^Abdullâh alHarariyy who, because of his efforts to inform Muslims, was abused in the lowest manner. A pamphlet was distributed in Nazimite centres in which he was accused to be a Falasha Jew from Ethiopia, of Masonic obedience[74].

The scholar in question is actually of recognised Qurashi ascendance, from the ^Abdari and Shaybi clans of the Prophet’s tribe (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam). When his ancestors moved to Ethiopia, they were integrated among the citizens of the famous Islamic town of Harar where anyone can go and ask Sunnis what is the status of their noble fellow countryman. Hararis do not belong to the various ethnic groups around them, they have an identity of their own and they are orthodox Muslims.

The disciples of this august scholar have been accused of calling a kâfir whoever has not done bay^ah to their sheikh, not to marry outside their ranks and to trade only among themselves, among other slanders! By these standards, I should live in cave, not be married and I would have starved to death long ago, my garden not being able to provide for my family. Then there was a stern warning that if they did not stop, more of their alleged evil deeds would be exposed. Scary! I took it upon myself to spread this pamphlet among my friends and even to translate it in French[75]. After so many years, the fun of reading such an amateurish leaflet has won over the worry for my reputation.

The author of these lines is still called a Jew and a Mason by them although I am not aware of any Jew in my whole family[76]. As far as I know my relatives and ancestors have been Catholics for centuries. If I had Jewish origins, my reversion to Islam would be one more demonstration of the strength of Islam.

To conclude about slander, I shall just mention some of the allegation made against me, for the entertainment of the readers: it was said that I put posters where I work, telling girls they are free to do whatever they want, I am also alleged to work for the C.I.A. and to have a flying carpet (does one get air miles for that?)!

Allâh jalla jalâluH said what means: “The servants of the Merciful God are those who walk on earth with gentleness and when the ignorant address them they answer: “peace”” (sura alFurqân 25:63).

Physical pressure:

In spite of their many assurances that they are peaceful Sufis, they have already committed several acts of violence in England. The first case I was informed of was that of the father of a youngster in Woking, who was beaten up for saving his son from their hands. I am sure it was not the first time and I am hopeful to discover evidence of more. I suspected that I might soon become one of their victims and what happened next proved me right.

On the night of the 6th of Dhu lQi^dah 1415, a group of them came to me and beat me up at the parking entrance of the old Golden Hillock Mosque in Small Heath, Birmingham. I was warned that if I did not stop this work I would meet a horrible end. Some Nazimites were my guests at the time and they were warned by members of the gang not to talk to me. A young man who left them was threatened too, then there were rumours that they intended to give him the same treatment in the near future. The aim of this action was not simply to frighten me into silence; it was also to stop the dialogue that was taking place between us. The leaders of the movement had encouraged a deep hatred of me, declaring me to be a covert Jew. They knew that it was bound to provoke this kind of reaction from some of the excitable youngsters who followed them.

I do not want the reader to think that we cannot succeed in exposing Nazim and his supporters. All the people who were my guests that night have left this impostor. Some of those who took part in the beating came later on to apologise and most of those who used to follow al-Qubrusi at the time have now forsaken him. Unfortunately, some just moved to other pseudo Sufis. There is no strength against sin, except by Allâh’s protection, and no power to obey Him, but with His help!

Since then, we have had another occasion to see how potentially dangerous their fanatical devotion makes them, during the incident of the tenth of March which I related in chapter 3, ‘the sources of information’. What saved us from another attack was probably the great number of witnesses and the wisdom of those of them who could see how disastrous a clash would be for their image. Ex-Nazimites have confirmed to me that they do resort to covert or open threats when they fear exposure and that a number of them carry weapons. We also know through one of their magazines that they train in martial arts. It is a pity they use it against good people.

After all this, statements such as: “For my part I ask Allah to accept my intention that I sought to defend the reputation of Shaykh Nazim, and not to spread division and enmity” sound a bit hollow. They are to be found on the same web site which advertised the aforementioned pamphlet[77].



TRIFLING WITH ARTICLES OF FAITH



How else could I describe their attitude towards beliefs and orthodoxy: the following texts show a general state of carelessness and faith corruption hidden under a heap of Sufi sounding speeches and cheap spirituality.


22
ABOUT OUR MASTER ^ÎSÂ
(^alayhi ssalâm)


In a conference given in Basel, Switzerland, they report that al-Qubrusi was asked: “Will Jesus come back?» He answered: “He will come soon. In a few years. The year 2000 will not be completed. It is impossible for the year 2000 to be completed. He will be with us before then.” Then he was asked: “Is he coming to stay?”. He replied: “He is coming to stay for 40 years first. For 40 years he will stay with us... after 40 years, evil devils will reappear little by little again. After 10 years it will have grown up, after those 10 years Jesus Christ will die, just like His Lord will order Him to.[78]”


23
ABOUT THE MEHDI


During a night of Ramadân 1406/1986 in Cambridge (England), Nazim said: “.. so and so many years ago we were on Arafat with Mehdi Alahi Salâm. Sometimes this day of Arafat is moved a day ahead or a day behind. Sometimes ... That year it was moved. Mehdi was present and 12000 Rical[79] Allâh (saints) too. We were all taking bayat from Mehdi Alehi Salâm ... With Mehdi Alehi Salâm there are three kinds of bayat:
“One kind was with him and with all Aulias. That has just happened, like it is declared in the Hadith.
“The second kind of bayat is through dreams. Some people take their bayat with Mehdi Alehi Salâm through their dreams, because they are not prepared to meet him now.
“Thirdly it will be for common people when he has been ordered to appear.
...
“He is going to appear after 101 hindrances ... 99 of the hindrances have passed away. Now only two of them are remaining.
...
“He was born between 1930 and 1940, so he is between 40 and 50 ... Then he was ordered to be in the Empty Quarters. That is where Jemen’s and Hijas’[80] joining place is ... Here there is a huge cave. Inside that cave there is the Dome of Happiness, which has been built by angels. Mehdi Alehi Salâm and his 99 Caliphs are there. They are waiting and expecting the Holy Command of Allâh Almighty to appear. And his appearance should be soon, Inch a Allâh ...”[81].

Whoever invented some of these details can definitely be said to have a vivid imagination. Of course, as usual, not a shred of evidence is given. We are supposed to believe all this because he says so.

In ‘Haqiqat ul-Haqqani’, page 25, it is said: “The sword of Seyyidina Mahdi (Alai) will take the heads of those who reject what Mowlana Sheikh Nazim will say in this time.”


24
THEIR ATTITUDE WITH NON-MUSLIM WESTERNERS
AND MUSLIMS


Allâh said what means: “O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians as your friends and protectors: they are only friends and protectors to each other. Whoever among you turns towards them for friendship belongs to them. Indeed Allâh will not guide and unjust people” (alMâ’idah 5:51)


In general:

Nazim said: “The Prophet says: “Travel, you will find health and provision.” SubhanAllâh, now American and European people are using this hadith saving money to travel on holidays. They are keeping the order of the Prophet without knowing it. Anyone keeping a hadith of the Prophet is hooked. He will be in the Divine Presence on the Last Day, saying: “Oh my Lord, these people followed me, travelling once a year. I ask intercession for them.” For the honour of the Prophet, his intercession is accepted.”[82].

These words imply that Americans and Europeans who travel around on holiday to places where they intend to commit fornication and adultery, to show they bodies indecently, to drink alcohol and consume unlawful drugs, that those people keep a hadîth of the Prophet (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm)? Or does he aim at the multitude of them who use travels to realise transactions forbidden by Allâh?[83] Once again, his eagerness to please Westerners has pushed him to make shameful statements.

What Allâh actually promised the kuffâr is this: “They are those whose works will be deprived of reward in this life and in the hereafter, nor will there be anyone to support them” (Meaning of ‘Âlu ^Imrân 3:24). As for the Prophet’s intercession (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam), it is only for Muslims, as it is said in the hadîth: “My intercession on the Day of Judgement is for those who commit big sins in my Community”[84]. The term “my Community” does not include Kuffâr, as they would have us believe.

They said[85]: “Because there are many people in Europe... because they are Mahdi’s soldiers - many of them - and what Maulana sheykh said is that on Western hearts, European hearts - there is a very delicate veil - if that veil is taken away all of them will come to... (?). But on the hearts of Eastern people, especially Muslims, they don’t have such delicate veils - they are so stubborn - they don’t believe - they think that their knowledge is enough for them - they don’t want, they are not humble to listen.” How can anyone not feel how degrading it is to grovel to blatantly?

Why do sects always show Muslims as the worst kind and are so fond of kuffâr? Page 125 of ‘Mercy Oceans’ Hidden Treasures’, you will find the following chapter title: “One bud in each tree confirms the approach of spring: Westerners Being Granted faith as Muslim Nations Abandon it”[86]. What a terrible thing to say about our Community, as imperfect as it may be!

In ‘The secrets behind the secrets behind the secrets’ they report[87] a dialogue between a person ‘Z’[88] and ‘SN’, which stands for ‘Sheikh Nazim’. They said:
“SN: Armageddon, which is the name of the Biggest War, must be before Mehdi comes. That will be a war between east and west.”
Z: “And this has nothing to do with Anti-Christ or Mehdi?”
SN: “This is before Mehdi comes and before Anti-Christ comes. This biggest war before the Mehdi comes will be between east and west. And the west will win, not the east. It is written. The west wins and the east vanishes”.”

This seems to be the very style of Nostradamus, which would confirm Nazim’s links with western esoteric orders. It is also inspired from the Bible, something the al-Qubrusi justified by this phrase: “Everything is in the Qur’ân”. No! The Book of Allâh does not include seducing lies.

In ‘Mercy Oceans. The Teachings of Maulana Abdullâh al-Faizi ad-Daghestani’[89] they report the following conversation between Nazim and his master:
“ “Once”, said Maulana, “I was walking in the market place with our Grandshaykh, when a Christian priest came to him, and kissed Grandshaykh’s hand. Then, he gave salaams and went on his way quickly.
“Seeing my surprise, our Grandshaykh turned to me and said, “There are others like him, Nazim Effendi, who wait secretly for the Mahdi (peace be upon him) to come. They are hidden. The time is not yet come for them to be known”.”

They said: “Qur’ân says, “Do not trust those who are not of your faith, character, or way.” Even if a man is a Muslim -if he does not think and feel like you, don’t trust him.”[90]

Their claim that actually, Muslims are idol worshippers:

Allâh said what means: “What! Do those who seek after evil ways think that We shall treat them equally in life and death, with those who believe and do righteous deeds? How badly they judge!” (alJâthiyah 45:21).

In ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’[91] Hisham Kabbani relates some of the many forged quotations he seems to have in store. He claims that Râbi^ah al^Adawiyyah said: “If your worship is to save yourself or to gain some reward for yourself, it is a hidden polytheism, because you have associated something with God, either the reward, or the punishment...” I have often found this text reported by orientalists and fake Sufis, never by ’Ahlu sSunnah. Accusing Muslims of association (shirk) is very reminiscent of Wahhabi methods. They too love to throw that word at us, but neither do they really know what it means. This is one of the areas where you realise that extremes always have something in common: their hatred for the middle path followed by the overwhelming majority.

Then Hisham Kabbani claims in the same page that Arslân adDimashqiyy said: “O God, Your religion is nothing but hidden polytheism and to disbelieve it is obligatory on every true servant. The people of religion do not worship you, but they are only worshipping to attain paradise or to escape from hell. They worship these two as idols, and that is the worst idolatry. You have said, ‘Whoever disbelieves in idols and believes in God has grasped the Firm Handhold’ (2:256). To disbelieve in those idols and to believe in You is obligatory on the people of Truth.”

A few lines later he alleges that the founder of the Shâdhiliyy order, ‘Abû lHasan (rahimahu-llâh) said: “The people of laws and external knowledge hold fast to their deeds and on that basis they establish the concept of reward and punishment ... To the People of the Way, this is the hidden polytheism, because one is associating something with God...”, and we say: shame on those who vilify the memory of the greatest Sufis! Sufism is built on foundations without which it has no existence: perfect Islamic beliefs, total adherence to Sharî^ah and renouncing the world (zuhd).

In Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424[92] I went on one of their website: http://www. naqshbandi.org/topics/onhidden.htm and found exactly the same type of discourse. They even made Shâh Naqshband (rahimahu-llâh) quote alHallâj as a reference, a man who was condemned by Sufis for apostasy. May Allâh grant us protection from those who try and blemish the reputation of Naqshband in the name of Naqshband and the integrity of Sufism through the appearance of Sufism.


25
WHAT DO THEY CALL ‘KÂFIR’ OR ‘BELIEVER’?


Allâh said what means: “And those who believe in Allâh and His Messengers - they are the sincere, and their Lord takes them as witnesses: they shall have their reward and their light. But those who reject[93] and deny our signs, they are the inhabitants of the Fire” (alHadîd 57:15).


Page 14 of their book ‘AlWasiyyah’, ad-Daghestani is quoted as having said: “Even if one of us worshipped like men and jinns, he would not get anything from these positions (maqâmât) until he read sura “’alam nashrah” with the intention of taking part in the tajallîs, this because of the divine greatness found in it.” As usual, there is no evidence. Actually he contradicted here what the Messenger of Allâh (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) said about the man who swore to stick to obligations only, nothing more. He said: “ ’aflaha rrajulu ’in sadaq”, i.e. “The man will succeed in the next life if what he says is true”. Whoever performs all the duties and avoids what is prohibited will enter Paradise, even without nawâfil[94], that is Allâh’s promise. Nobody is allowed to make a recommended action a condition to gain the position of believers.

In the same book, page 12, he said: “If a kâfir reads the first sura of the Qur’ân, even once only in his life, he will not leave this world without obtaining part of that protection, for Allâh does not differentiate between kâfir, great sinner (fâsiq), believer (mu’min) or Muslim. Actually they are all equal”. Those words contradict the ’âyah where Allâh said what means: “Are We going to treat Muslims like the guilty. How can you judge like that!” (sura alQalam 68:35-36). In his book ‘Rudûdu ’abâtîl”, the contemporary Hanafi scholar, sheikh Muhammad alHâmid (rahimahu-llâh) said in response to this heresy: “Will our master Muhammad (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) be like ‘Abû Jahl (may he be cursed by Allâh ta^âlà)? Allâhumma no!”

They report that Nazim said: “Our Grandsheikh says whoever is never saying “ALLAH” is a kafir, unbeliever. Anyone saying “ALLAH”, even in his own language, you must not say to him “kafir”. ... “Anyone saying “God” must be considered a believer. Even if a person says, as we do in English, “Oh my God”, Allah is catching him. This is gigantic good news. The Prophet, peace be upon him, says if a person says: “Ya Rabb”, Allah says to him: “I am here, oh my servant, what do you need?” Allah is closer to you than you to yourself.”[95].

Actually this is gigantic false news. They try to apply a hadîth concerning Muslims, to kuffâr. This would make it contrary to what is revealed in the Holy Qur’ân where Allâh says what means: “Believers are only those who believe both in Allâh and His Messenger and then do not doubt ...”[96] and where He defines the kâfir: “And whoever does not believe both in Allâh and His messenger, for the kâfirîn we have prepared a fire”[97].

But he insists, saying: “Our Grandsheikh says that whoever speaks the holy name of Allâh Almighty, he is accepted in the Divine Presence as a believer; and he told me a tale on this point, that even if the child of a man, says the holy name, the father will take benefit.”

According to their beliefs, ‘Abû Jahl, ‘Abû Lahab and Pharaoh were believers, for they all pronounced the name of God in Arabic or in another language.

You will notice here that sometimes they use the word ‘kâfir’ as opposed to official ‘Muslim’. Some other times they use ‘kâfir’ for the one who (according to them) is not open to the spiritual dimension, and ‘mu’min’ for those they believe to have some kind of spirituality. They will not see this as a contradiction, for them these are just different levels of understanding of the words. They also mention ‘believer’ and ‘Muslim’ as if they were different states, a typical distinction among pseudo Sufis.

Nazim was heard saying[98]: “But Prophet saying don’t keep a friend unbeliever. Must be your friend a believer.” Then he says: “May be believers from Christians better from atheist people, may be from Jewish faith better than to be from mushrik”. Then he says: “Therefore if you never finding from Muslim believer, ask Christian believer, Jewish believer, but don’t be with red devils”. It appears from the rest of the tape that ‘red devils’ means ‘communists’. Afterwards he added: “and even from Muslims if you are not finding sincere ones, ask sincere believers from Christians, they should be more useful for you, at least you may learn sincerity from a sincere Jewish person. But don’t believe to atheist people, to red devils...”.

We have quoted before two verses which define what is a mu’min and a kâfir. All people who do not call themselves Muslims belong to the second kind. If anyone has a doubt about the status of Christians and Jews after that, let them look in the fifth sura, alMâ’idah: 17,72 and 73, and alBaqarah 2:85 to 88. There Allâh subhânaHû wata^âlà said what means: “They have committed kufr those who said: “God is the Messiah son of Mary”...”, “They have committed kufr those who say “God is the third of a trinity” ...”, and: “... it is rather Allâh who has cursed them for their kufr...”.


26
THEIR BELIEF THAT ALL RELIGIONS ARE RIGHT
AND LEAD TO SALVATION


Allâh jalla jalâluH said what means: “As for those who believe and Jews, Sabaeans, Christians, Zoroastrians and Pagans, Allâh will rule over their differences on the Day of Judgement. Allâh is a witness for everything” (sura alHajj 22:17).


AlQâdî ^Iyâd (rahimahu-llâh) said in ‘ashShifâ’’: “Whoever does not consider as kuffâr all the groups which take another religion than Islam, who doubts about their state or refuses to call them kuffâr or believers, is a kâfir himself”.

Page 15 of ‘Al-Wasiyyah’, ad-Daghestani is reported to have said: “The person who reads this sura (i.e. al’ikhlâs) is bound to succeed in the hereafter by the tajallî (unveiling) of the two divine names ‘al’Ahad’ and ‘asSamad’. To such an extent that even a kâfir who reads it must obtain part of that tajallî”.

Nazim said: “We may be Muslims, Christians or Jews or Buddhists, but our souls are all the same. They are all slaves of our Lord. Only here our titles are different. But you must not be changed by your titles, you must remember your promise to your Lord: to service Him, the Almighty. That is important”[99].

Nazim said to an interviewer: “As much as the sons of Adam may come and go they are only going to their Lord. Ultimately they will all reach their Lord, and though their ways may be different, they will all meet in the Divine Presence”[100].

In the introduction of ‘The secrets behind the secrets behind the secrets’, Ms. Quensel thanks the people who hosted al-Qubrusi with these words: “The fact that you called our Islamic Sufi Master to come and stay with your hinduistic community, shows that spiritual people-of-the-heart are beyond the divisive barriers of religious segregation. Al Hamdulillah!”[101].

In the same book[102] we find the following words of Nazim: “Dalai Lama? Yes! Some people asked him, “Are you waiting to return to the Himalayas, to Tibet?” and he said, “I am not waiting for anything. I am happy here. Everywhere I may be , I am happy. Everywhere I go with my Lord is happiness for me... I am with Him now. So I am not waiting to go back to the Himalayas.” Then al-Qubrusi commented: “That is the biggest degree of servanthood of the Lord Almighty, to be with him. I don’t mean as a person. But I mean to say, to be with his will, and to try to be as He likes...” (lecture given in the Babaji-centre 17.7.85).

Page 138 of the same book, a transcription of a lecture given in Basel on 18.7.85, Nazim was asked: “Why were 6 million jews killed by the Nazis? 6 million jews in the second world war!» so he answered: “This is meant as a trial for them from Allah almighty and as something to give them spiritual improvement through that trial...”

He said: “A person may follow any religion. He is free to follow any religion. He is free to follow any belief from east to west. He is free to follow the prophets, to follow the saints, to follow the shaykhs, to follow babajis ... they are free, but the main purpose of following must be to face towards heavens. In our times we call all the methods in the religions showing the ways to heavens: the Sufi ways.”[103].

Page 99 of the same book, they wrote: “the Shaykh continued: “We must respect all men in their religion, for no one can know what is the relationship between a man and his Lord”. Hisham Kabbani had his “naqshbandi.org” linked to the Gurdjieff International Review site, which quoted Gurdjieff saying: “Respect every religion.”[104].

For those who hope that things might get better when Nazim will disappear, let us mention his successor’s words: “Now, we are not against any kind of belief for all beliefs will take you to your destination”[105].
“Naqshbandi.org” has a whole page entitled “A Talk to the Gurdjieff Group”. It is written:
“I am very happy that you came all the way here to see us. I heard many things from my shaykh about your master, Gurdiief, the closeness he felt towards him and how, after he died, John Bennett used to come frequently to see him. Gurdjieff met Grandshaykh Abdullah Daghistani, at least, once. Some of John Bennett's American followers met Shaykh Nazim.
In the path to God, we do not think that there are differences between brothers. All masters are one in this universe. All of them are the same. If you met this or that one, in our belief, it is the same; for all of them receive their power from One who is the center of everything, whose name in Arabic is Allah, the God, our Lord.
One day, Gurdjieff met our Master secretly. Our Grandshaykh wished nothing to be known of that meeting and so it was not mentioned. All that was said in Gurdjieff's books was that he met some saints in Damascus and Baghdad with no mention of names. Still, he ordered John Bennett to meet with Grandshaykh frequently and allowed him to mention these meetings in his books. That is why John Bennett spoke about Grandshaykh. On the occasion of their secret meeting, Grandshaykh gave permission to Gurdjieff to use the power of the Nine Points with which some of you, I think, are familiar. However, he did not give Gurdjieff permission to use all that power and so Gurdjieff did not pass the full measure of that power on to his followers.”[106]


A useless exercise:

I find interesting to mention an attempt by Hisham Kabbani to prove the superiority of Islam over the spirituality of all other religions in his book ‘Mercy Oceans’ Secrets of the Heart’[107]. His argument is that there is no religion in which the spiritual leaders can claim to come from a complete line of masters going back all the way to a prophet, whereas Sufism has such lineage, so he said: “And without such a claim you cannot go anywhere. That is why you need a Sufi teacher to take you to your destination”. A few lines before he wrote: “for all beliefs will take you to your destination”.

Mr. Kabbani, the reason why kuffâr cannot get to Paradise is because of their kufr, not because the chains of their masters are incomplete. As for your ‘golden chain’, it is quite a strange one.


27
THEIR TRIFLING WITH HELL


Allâh ^azza wajall said what means: “Those who commit kufr and die as kuffâr, those ones will be cursed by Allâh, by His angels and by all the people. They will stay in Hell forever. Their suffering will not be diminished, nor will it be delayed for them” (alBaqarah 2:161-162).


They said: “ “Buddhists, Christians, Catholics, Communists, Confucians, Brahmans, Negroes: who created them? He created them, all of them, and each one says, “We are going on a way that leads to the Divine Presence. So many, many ways: you cannot know...
“Maulana?” asked a disciple, “What about the ways leading to Hell? Do they lead to Allah also?”
“Yes” replied the shaykh. “The ways to Hell are going to Him, also, after Hell. Hell is cleaning people, cleaning them from sins and bad characters, and then guiding them to Allah. “And some stay in Hell always?”
Yes” the Shaykh paused, and then continued, “Iman is original, kufr is temporary. With all the people, faith is the permanent condition. There may be one man to be endlessly in Hell, if He so orders, but everyone is going to His Divine Presence. He is not going to leave His servants to the hands of Satan, and Satan will not be the judge of His servants either! Do you think that Satan will win? Satan will never win! Allah almighty is victorious! His mercy is not leaving any to endless Hell.”[108].

They said: “God has created us with love. He did not create us for hell fire. When we who have children see them do something bad, we try to correct them. We do not burn them up. We do not put them in hell. We try to correct them. We do not even beat them, that is not allowed. We only try to correct them, and tell them: 'This is right'; 'This is wrong'. God did not create human beings for punishment. Many people nowadays say this, but it is not true. They are showing a cruel side of human nature which is evil and springs from Satan. God is merciful, God is full of love, God is Light. With His mercy and love He created us. Why are we not using that love and mercy which God has given us, that love and mercy for which we were created? Why are we not using it to reach out to others?”[109]

The most original of their inventions we could find is in the book ‘Mercy Oceans’ Hidden Treasures’ (1981), page 138. There it is reported that al-Qubrusi answered: “... but from those dirty actions which have come out of the interaction of body and soul, Allah will create shapes in the exact likeness of the sinners to represent them in Hell. This likeness of effigy will be just as dirty as those actions were, and it will stay in Hell until it is cleaned. In the face of this punishment, one will suffer intensely - his shame will be so great, and at that time so difficult to bear, that he will wish for the Earth to swallow him.” Is this not comfortable? They have managed to get rid of the disturbing thought of Hell. They have only kept shame. Seeing how well indeed some people live in shame nowadays, it should not worry anybody believing in these inventions. This lie probably accounts a lot for the licentious behaviour often witnessed among Nazimites. Once again: is there a shred of evidence?

Nazim and his disciple H. Kabbani go to great extent to try and prove their point, but very rarely with the revealed texts. They know this is their weak point. Instead they come with all sorts of spurious stories, such as the marriage of Fâtimah (radiya-llâhu ^anhâ). There they allege she obtained as a dowry that Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, everyone without discrimination, would enter Paradise with her[110].

We saw by the end of the chapter 6 that they believe ’Iblîs himself will come out of Hell. Some people also have been taught, probably at a particular level, that Allâh’s threats of the Fire is like that of a father saying to his son: “I’ll kill you” to frighten him into obedience, claiming that Arabs were a very coarse people unable to understand any other language. These texts prove they are taught that Allâh ta^âlà lied, that truth is for the so-called elite, while the rest are given scary tales so as to control them.

In order to try and justify their position, we heard them mention the verses of the holy Qur’ân where Allâh speaks about Muslims at the time of Mûsà and ^Îsà (^alayhima ssalâm) and the believers among the Sabaeans. We know that all those who followed previous prophets were Muslims, Believers. We know also that after a while some started altering revealed texts and committing association (shirk) or other kinds of apostasy. When our master Muhammad (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) came, there was no believer left among men. They were all immersed in kufr and needed a new book.

Islam teaches that since ‘Abû lQâsim’s mission (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam), and unless a person lives isolated from the knowledge that there is only one God and that Muhammad is His Messenger, there is no way one can remain a kâfir and be saved after death. Whether that person is a Christian, a Jew or a member of another religion, does not affect Allâh’s ruling against them. If they do not deny it and yet do not leave their religion, they are still outside Islam. One may not claim to believe in Muhammad’s Risâlah (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) and carry on practising kufr, for Allâh clearly stated that He does not forgive that one should associate anything or anybody to Him (anNisâ’ 4:116).

How dares Nazim claim that Allâh would not be merciful or victorious if He sent some creatures to Hell for an everlasting torment! What is the logic behind such a claim? How dare they question God’s justice! Such a statement is not only stupid; it is insulting towards the Creator. Even if He wanted to send everybody to the Fire forever, it would be His absolute right. This is a basic belief of ’Ahlu sSunnah. All Sunnis know that whoever dies without accepting the two shahâdahs will be sent to Hell forever where he or she will never find any rest or respite. Whoever does not reject what contradicts the beliefs implied by the two shahâdah is called a kâfir. We have seen this definition earlier.

Remember the meaning of the verse quoted at the beginning of this chapter and that Allâh said also what means: “Those who commit kufr, even though they would have all which is on earth, or twice that, to buy themselves out of the suffering of the Day of Judgement, it would not be accepted from them, and they will have a terrible torment”[111].

In our discussions with them, they used the verses where Allâh declares He has honoured the sons of ’Âdam[112] in complete contradiction with the rest of the Qur’ân and Sunnah, an idea already found in one of Nazim’s quotations we gave before. This is confirmed by adDaghestani’s own words, pages 12 and 14 of ‘AlWasiyyah’, where he mentions this ’âyah to justify the belief that reading some parts of the holy Qur’ân is enough for a kâfir to be saved. How can they say that all human beings are concerned by the verse when Allâh calls kuffâr the worst beings on earth, when the Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) said that what the beetle pushes with its head is better than kuffâr or that if this dunyâ was at least worth the wing of a mosquito, He would not have given kuffâr a gulp of water. Allâh has honoured the sons of ’Âdam (^alayhi ssalâm) who have accepted the honour of becoming believers. One may not interpret the Qur’ân in contradiction with itself.

They also try and use the verse where Allâh said He sent Muhammad (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) as a mercy to mortals[113]. Sunnis accept this verse as all the other parts of revelation, but it cannot be used to deny the promise our Lord made to send kuffâr to eternal torment in Hell. Non-believers cut themselves from the mercy of God. Nobody is entitled to blame Allâh for their choice when they still had time to make the right decision.

The belief that ’Iblîs will be saved in the end is one of those by which many fake Sufi orders are to be recognised, they have even worse in store concerning this particular topic. As usual they come up with books to try and prove their point. They attribute this heinous belief to some famous sheikhs. The truth is that no true Sufi would go against orthodoxy, and certainly not against such clear texts as the twenty second ’âyah of sura ’Ibrâhîm. There ’Iblîs says to the damned blaming him for their torment, that he is not any more able to help them out of Hell than they can help him.

Expressing the universal belief of ’Ahlu sSunnah concerning Hell, Imam Taqiyyuddîn asSubkiyy (may Allâh have mercy on his soul) declared to be kufr the belief that kuffâr would come out of Hell or that the Fire would disappear, because of its contradicting thirty two verses of the Holy Qur’ân and Unanimity (’ijmâ^). Of course, to deny one of them would be enough to be an apostate[114].

In a discussion I personally had with their ex-representative in Birmingham, Mr. Bashir, more than a month before Ramadân 1415, I discovered that belief of theirs. When I asked him whether he believed that a kâfir dying without pronouncing the two shahâdahs would stay in Hell forever, without any rest, he would not say yes. He claimed that it was not for him to judge, that if Allâh wanted to forgive such a non-believer, He would do so. Yes indeed, if He wanted he would, but He has clearly promised He will not, so that it is a main belief of Muslims. Not even the mention of Qur’ânic evidence would change his mind. Reports we have about their disciples in Lebanon confirm this. Mustafà al^Allâylî preaches that Hell does not exist, that it is not real and that Allâh simply frightens His servants with it. One day, while he was sitting in the sun, he said: “I’ll sit in the sun until I get used to the heat so as to enter Hell”.


28
THEY PRAY FOR DEAD KUFFÂR


There is no stopping them trying to please Westerners. Nazim’s disciple, Ms. Quensel, published a book entitled ‘Princess Diana’s Death, by Sheikh Nazim al-Haqqani’[115]. She advertised for her master and the new book in Q-News of February 1998. Page 29 of this magazine she gave a few excerpts, in one of them al-Qubrusi said: “Don’t cry, ask for her forgiveness. People should be asking the Allah the Almighty to forgive her, that would be the right thing to do. But praise in this way... Instead of crying they should be saying: “Oh our Lord, give this weak servant Diana some of your endless oceans of mercy. She was so weak and was cheated by devils. Oh, our Lord, give her mercy!” That would be good and Allâh would accept it.”

No, He would not!


29
THEIR TASTE FOR PREDICTIONS


Allâh said what means: “Say, no one in the heavens or on earth knows alGhayb, except Allâh…” (anNaml 27:65).


The Nazimite history of predictions is very similar to what has been taking place with Jehovah’s Witnesses. They discovered how many people were attracted by so-called ‘prophecies’, but just like them, they had to bear the consequences of their predictions failing. Giving far fetched interpretations of their statements after the deadlines was one method used, another is to erase traces of these errors and, after a while, to deny them altogether. We can see now the effort they have been making to control their urges to prophesy; they are much more careful than they used to be. Jehovah’s witnesses officially renounced their old habit.

Discussing with Nazimites about the future, will convince you that many believe Nazim knows all about it. They think he reads in the Preserved Tablet and that alGhayb is his domain. This belief is supported by their literature. Allâh says in the aforementioned verse that this is impossible and this is what Sunnis stick to.

AdDaghestani was fairly well known for his many predictions. Muhammad Majdhûb reported in his interview for al’Anwâr newspaper that this charlatan told him he was informed of the future. He noticed that the nurses of al’Atibbâ’ hospital used to ask him questions about their chances at marriage. In the room of adDaghestani, a disciple told him: “Sheikh ^Abdullâh will not die until the Mehdi comes, rules seven years and then dies”.

The same Daghestani went one day to the house of a person called Muhammad Fakhrû in Ra’s anNab^, Lebanon. He said to him: “I have come here to preserve you from the war and make your hearts feel at rest”. Two hours after his departure, a shell landed next to their home, killing the lady of the house. Later he said: “I have talked with her, for her to come back to this world but she said: “I longed to go to my Lord and I do not want to return to earth”.

This particular practice is known for its failures. We have seen that adDaghestani predicted Mehdi would come before his death and Nazim himself made numerous predictions, many of them centred on the appearance of the Mehdi. In 1988 they managed so well to convince some people that the event would take place before 1990 that a lot of their murids in Woking, England, actually sold their houses or dropped their studies, ready to join the Mehdi’s armies. Their disappointment was such when it did not come true that a lot left the sect. Each time something like this occurs, they claim the spiritual leader was misunderstood.

Not having understood the lesson, and still very confident (as he is reported to always appear), Nazim went for a visit to Glasgow and said to Mufti Muhammad Afdal that he was very lucky to meet him because he was announcing him that Mehdi would appear this same year 1990 to all the pilgrims doing hajj. This person went to perform pilgrimage that very year and nothing happened, as usual. I am sure al-Qubrusi or H. Kabbani would probably answer that the lack of spiritual insight of most people prevented them from witnessing the event.

Nazim has not changed much his habits in this field, actually it looks like one of his ploys to try and get on the good side of people deemed important. See for example what is reported on http://www.profumo.it/ , they wrote: “A few weeks earlier in 1997 an extraordinary spiritual meeting had taken place in London. Cheik Abdoulaye Dieye Deymani, a spiritual heir of Cheik Ahmadou Bamba1 , had come to meet Sheikh Nazim. Sheikh Nazim hugged him and said that he is one of the 99 Caliphs of Sayyidina Mehdi and that the two Tariqats, the Naqshbandiyya and the Mouridiyya should join in preparing for the coming of the Mehdi by bringing people back to the right path.”[116] On the other hand, he is reported to have said too: "Mahdi Alaihi as-Salam and his ninety-nine Caliphs are there (in the Empty Quarter of Arabia). They are waiting and expecting the Holy command of Allah Almighty to appear. And his appearance should be soon, Inshallah."[117] So where does that leave Cheik Abdoulaye Dieye Deymani according to them? In the desert of Arabia?

In ‘The secrets behind the secrets behind the secrets’, page 142, Nazim said: “And 1988 will be the year when Israel is 40 years old. We do not think that they will be more than 40 years old.” The Zionist State is now past fifty, I suppose they are going to say that 40 is only a symbolic number. We cannot wait to see the new version of this book: ‘Mystical Secrets of the Last Days”, to check if any changes or additions have been made.

Mentioning a dream adDaghestani claimed to have, Nazim reported that his ‘grandshaykh’ said about the new generation of his time: “The new generation,they are all going to be with Mehdi (a.s.).”[118]

Allâh said what means: “People question you about the (last) Hour. Say: “The knowledge of it belongs to Allâh only”. What do you know? May be the Hour is close” (al’Ahzâb 33:63).

In M. Majdhûb’s interview, ad-Daghestani declared that the end of this world would occur after 105 or 109 years. In ‘Mercy Oceans’ Secrets of the Heart”, page 23, Hisham Kabbani wrote: “According to Grandshaykh this world has not more than fifty years left. After fifty years, something is going to happen the like of which you have never heard about. Judgement Day is after these fifty years by another forty. All this is finished ninety years from now”. They are starting to be careful about predictions, so many of them having never come true. Yet they still try to use that feeling of imminence to maintain their followers under pressure, which is a classical strategy of many sects like Jehovah’s Witnesses. How dare they determine the date of this event when the holy Prophet himself (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) said on the same topic, to his questioner Jibrîl (^alayhi ssalâm), what means: “The person asked does not know anymore about it than the one asking”, for this knowledge belongs to Allâh only. Whoever claims differently is a blatant impostor.

Yet, nothing stops them and we found again H. Kabbani declaring to an interviewer:
“…We hope that perhaps even by the year 2000, there will be no more corruption in this world. It is going to finish.[119]…” The next excerpt from the dialogue is comical, but I doubt they wil see it like that, they said:
“Enlightened people will help usher in an Age of Enlightenment?
-Of course. There is coming true now, prophecies you may have read about in books. There are major changes in teachings, in what is revealed now in books. But we cannot say everything that will come. It must be kept secret.”
All of this with a straight face, I am sure.



30
EMOTIONAL MANIPULATION
AND
THE ALLEGED PICTURE OF THE PROPHET
(^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm)


The previous chapter is an obvious illustration of how they manage to keep their followers in a high emotional state, with the aim of preventing them from using their reason. Another ploy is that extraordinary image of Nazim which they build into their imaginations. An image which is all the stronger as it seems to be limitless. Once conditioned, many people are so trusting that they are ready to believe almost anything. Regular emotional shocks will then be induced, which they will mistake for spiritual experiences. Our reports also show what looks like a regular use of jinns.

Basically, the proof of Islam is discovered by reason through logic, for there is no part of the revelation which cannot be justified logically. We mean here real logic, not simply clever arguments or sophism. Although emotions play an essential part - for instance: no one can be a Muslim without loving Allâh more than anything else - it is reason which proves Islam right. All other religions, whatever their claims to make use of it, fail at the test of logic at some point, because what is made up by human beings is bound to be imperfect. Sects will be recognised by their very strong use of emotions, even more than mainstream religions: they cannot face a real test of honesty by reason. They need to paralyse their followers’ reason through passion, until passion becomes fanaticism. Fanaticism is not necessarily violent, although it has the potential to become so at any moment. Victims of this conditioning become blind and deaf to anything that does not come through the filter of their leadership. Anything they accept or reject will be done according to instructions or induction.

A perfect example of how such manipulations easily work is the case of the so-called picture of the Prophet Muhammad (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm). A picture appeared among Nazimites, which is an alleged portrait of the Messenger of Allâh (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) as a child, drawn by the monk Bahîrah. It has was reproduced and spread among some members. Scenes were witnessed of people becoming very emotional, crying and kissing the picture, which would be very understandable if only it had any serious base.

How many among realised what a horrible hoax it was? Any reflecting and sound mind will realise that if such a picture existed it would have been known. You cannot hide such an enormous secret, not any more than you can dissimulate an elephant under a handkerchief. Nevertheless, it is unlikely to stop the manipulators who made it, to invent a silly justification. We expect them to say something like: “Al-Khidr kept it in a secret cave for centuries and has just come up with it for the future soldiers of the Mehdi”.

The team around al-Qubrusi has built such an idealised image of him that it is very easy for inexperienced people to fall for their ploys. For most followers, this is their first great emotional experience. All their highest ideals are crystallised around Nazim. When he arrives in a place, many people who have not seen him for some time simply cannot help sobbing and crying, even in the middle of an international airport. There is most probably no pretence in this: it is only the fruit of a very clever emotional manipulation.

Many murids are so convinced of the truthfulness and powers of their sheikh that they have become a real danger for themselves and others. Some are reported, for instance, to drive completely carelessly, because they are sure of the permanent presence and protection of Nazim. In London, they were seen practising dhikr under no serious supervision, and some of them got so carried away that they were banging their heads against the walls.


31
THEIR BELIEFS ABOUT THE PROPHET
(‘Allâhumma salli wasallim ^alayh)


While praising the Messenger of Allâh (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) H. Kabbani wrote[120]: “He is the heart of the Divine Presence. He is the heart of the Unique Essence.” This quotation claims that Muhammad (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) is part of God. No Muslim will doubt that this belief takes out of Islam whomever adopts it. This is real and definite shirk. It is strange that at the same time, their ignorance of basic Islamic tenets concerning the nature of prophets makes them accept spurious stories which debase those chosen men, as it is shown in the next chapter.

Other passages indicate that they believe Allâh to be light in the literal sense of the world, hence comparing Him with His creatures (tashbîh), and Muhammad (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) to have been made from that light. For instance Mr Hisham Kabbani relates[121] that Nazim said: “God created the light of Muhammad (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) from His light. ... Then from that light, He created all creation”. This is based on some known forged tradition and is not to be mistaken with the belief held by some that ‘Abû lQâsim (‘Allâhumma salli ^alayhi wasallim) was the first creation, as light, for they do not believe that light to be part of Allâh.

In the same page, H. Kabbani wrote: “He is the only one addressed by God...” This contradicts the Noble Book where Allâh said what means: “When Mûsà came to the place appointed by Us, and his Lord spoke to him...” (al’A^râf 7:143).


32
THEIR DEBASEMENT OF PROPHETS
(^alayhimu ssalâm)


The Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam)said what means: “Whoever abuses the prophets should be killed...”[122].

Their belief that prophets can be rebellious, idolaters and great sinners:

Nazim said: “After the flood abated God ordered Noah to make forty clay jugs, and to devote extra care and attention to making them perfectly. When Noah had finished making them the Lord ordered him to smash them to bits. Noah obeyed, but he wasn’t happy with the order: it seemed wanton to him to destroy what he had spent so much effort in making.”[123].

Nazim said: “When Abraham was yet a seeker of the truth, at a stage of bewilderment on his road to truth, he became enamoured of the sun, moon and stars, but, as each set he said: “My love is not for those that disappear”[124]. ‘Enamoured’ is defined as ‘being inflamed with love’. In this context in clearly means that according to him ’Ibrâhîm (^alayhi ssalâm) mistook these creatures for his Lord, which is contrary to the basic Sunni belief that prophets are unable to commit any kufr from their birth till their death.

They have again interpreted verses according to their desires, without the necessary knowledge, ignoring the end of ‘âyah 78 (from sura al’An^âm) which shows that this prophet (^alayhi ssalâm) was actually demonstrating to his people how wrong they were. He showed them successively the stars, the moon and the sun, asking in a denying way: “hâdhâ Rabbî?!” (i.e. is this thing my Lord!), and when they would disappear he would say that he does not love what disappears. The fact that he was addressing his people is confirmed by his saying at the end (what means): “Oh my people! I am innocent of what you associate to Allâh!» What is more, Allâh said that He had guided ’Ibrâhîm (^alayhi ssalâm) beforehand: “and We had given ’Ibrâhîm his guidance before and we knew him”[125].

One would have thought that at least they would have had the decency to spare the Best of All Creatures, the Seal of Prophethood, our beloved Master Muhammad (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wa^alà ’âlihî wasallam), but they did not! Among the numerous strange and spurious stories to be found in their books, Hisham Kabbani wrote[126] that the Messenger of Allâh (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) was taken after his birth by angels, to be washed in alKawthar, and that while he was being washed he said: “O my Lord, what about my nation? Aren’t you going to wash my nation also in the water of this river? If not, I am not accepting to be washed alone.” This is properly unbelievable. How could he possibly talk to Allâh in this rebellious and insolent way! What Muslim on earth is going to believe that the Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) would have forgotten that whatever his Lord does is fair, right, just and good!

But he carries on with more, saying: “God showed him there and then how much they (i.e. Muslims) were going to sin when they would come to this world. The Prophet (s) said, “O my Lord, what have you done?” God said, “Never mind: light will never disappear from their hearts.”

Hisham Kabbani translated[127] a passage from Ibn ^Arabiyy’s ‘Fusûsu lHikam in the following terms: “Moses (^alayhi ssalâm) was tested ‘by many ordeals’ (20:40) the first of which was the murder of the Egyptian (28:15), an act which he committed by divine impulsion and with the approbation of God deep inside him... For all prophets are interiorly preserved from sin without their being conscious of it...” Is that text not a bit contradictory? It asserts the impeccability of prophets while accusing one of a crime. The killing of the Egyptian cannot be called a murder, death was not the purpose of our master Mûsà (^alayhi ssalâm). Even if it had been, the kâfir was fighting a Hebrew and the prophet came to rescue the latter.

AlKalâbâdhiyy wrote is his famous “Ta^arruf” on the doctrine of Sufis that it varies on the question of faults attributed to prophets between those who believe that they cannot commit any sin at all and those who only accept minor sins. Where does that leave the idolatry, murder and rebellious behaviour Nazim and H. Kabbani attributed to these chosen and impeccable beings?

Their belief that prophethood is by progress, not by divine election:

^Abdullâh adDaghestani, Nazim’s sheikh, is reported to have said[128]: “The one who will succeed in this time, obtaining a success that the ancient ones could not get through retreats, spiritual exercises and the small and great jihad. The one who will reach a high degree and great rank, which was not attained by the prophets and the Sahâbah. The one who will obtain positions not won by the noble Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam), nor by his inheritor ‘Abû Bakr asSiddîq. The one who will succeed in all these ways, will be from the people of this time.”[129] Nazim, because of the difficult position this declaration of his sheikh put him in, had to make a long explanation, pages 14 and 15 of ‘The Naqshbandi Way, a Guidebook for spiritual Progress’, to try and avoid the accusation of putting people above the level of the Prophet (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) and ‘Abû Bakr, among others. Yet how sincere is this plea? One doubts it when one reads the outrageous statements contained in ‘Haqiqat ul-Haqqani’. It looks like one more case where they make incompatible statements to different publics.

It seems actually that it is their very beliefs about prophethood which are wrong. They seem to have the idea developed by some philosophers that all spiritual stations can be reached through progress, even that of prophets. The following excerpt does appear to say just that, when adDaghestani declared: “No prophet obtained the position of prophethood, nor any saint the position of sainthood, nor any believer the position of real belief, except during the time between the subh prayer and the sun rising, and by these practices”[130]. The Sunni faith is that prophets do not obtain prophethood. Allâh does not grant them nubuwwah because of their merits: they are meant from all eternity to be prophets, and because of this divine election, they have the highest spiritual ranks and the most beautiful characters.


33
THEIR DEBASEMENT OF ANGELS

Hisham Kabbani wrote a book called: “Angels Unveiled: A Sufi Perspective” . The first thing which will shock the Muslim reader is the number of illustrations with drawings of oriental dressed alleged angels, whose faces are veiled. I counted 36 such pictures on pages 1, 2, 14, 20, 26, 28, 32, 37, 38, 44, 48, 56, 62, 68, 76, 115, 116, 122, 126, 142, 148, 158, 164, 168, 176, 182, 187, 188, 192, 196, 202, 206, 214, 220, 223 and 224. Most of these are just repeated images. What a strange thing to do for, especially for a book dealing with such a high theological topic. Angels are represented there in shape which could live if they were real, which makes it harâm in three of the four orthodox schools and makrûh in the fourth one. Putting a veil on their faces does not solve anything, but this is not the main problem we found in this paperback.

As usual Mr H. Kabbani comes up with spurious stories whose outrageous contents he tries to justify in the name of Sufism. In some cases these are famous unreliable accounts whose very nature is enough to discard them. For the author, the border between angelic and human natures is not very clear, he speaks of a so-called angelic nature of men, something which is much more reminiscent of judeo-christian theology than of Islam. For him too, angels can sin, another judeo-christian feature.

H. Kabbani wrote[131]: “To show the angels the exalted ranks of human beings, God asked who among them would go to the earth and live as mortal beings in order to experience the reality of the human condition directly. Two angels stepped forward – Harut and Marut[132] … God sent them down in to a city of believers – one was to act as a judge, while the other was to be a scholar. They lived, ate and drank as mortal people during the day… In that town lived a beautiful woman by the name of Zahra, or some say Anahid. She realized that Harut and Marut were not normal human beings, but rather angels who possessed a great secret. She resolved to obtain it no matter what it cost her… Under the influence of wine and music their heads became light and they forgot that they were angels. They fell in love with Zahra…” This forged story contradicts completely Sunni orthodoxy: angels are not sexed, they neither eat nor drink and they are totally unable to sin, it is as Allâh said in verse sura 66:6 whose meaning is: “…they do not disobey the orders they receive from Allâh and they do what they are commanded”. Whoever opposes the Qur’ân commits kufr.

H. Kabbani wrote[133]: “When Adam died, the angels came down and buried him themselves, showing his children the manner of this ritual and teaching it to them for the first time. After that, the sun and the moon were eclipsed for seven days and seven nights”.

34
THEIR DEBASEMENT OF OUR MASTER ^UMAR
(radiya-llâhu ^anhu wajazâhu khayrâ)


The Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) said what means: “Do not abuse my Companions. For even if one of you spent as much gold as the size of mount ’Uhud, it would not be worth what one of them would put in two joint hands, not even a small half of that”[134], and: “... and whoever abuses my Companions should be whipped”[135].


In ‘Mercy Oceans’ Hidden Treasures”[136] one can read the following words reported from Nazim: “Regarding Omar, our Grandsheikh furthermore said, that because he was sometimes openly stating his desires despite their being contrary to the Prophet’s, that he never attained the secret knowledge which Abu Bakr and Ali attained”. I suspect the actual reason for this unacceptable statement is to reinforce the murids’ submission, making them fear that they might not attain the highest level if they do not comply totally with their master’s wishes.

In ‘Mercy Oceans’ Secrets of the Heart’, Muhammad H. Kabbani tells one more spurious story[137], where our master ^Umar (radiya-llâhu ^anh) is shown as impatient, insolent and actually stupid! Unrepentant he repeats that in pages 12 and 13 of ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’, showing him as spiritually retarded! May Allâh preserve us!

Allâh’s Messenger (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) said what means: “If there was a prophet after me it would be ^Umar ibn alKhattâb[138]”. Would this be said about somebody with a weak spiritual understanding?


35
THEIR BELIEF ON DEATH


Allâh subhânaHû wata^âlà said what means: “What do those who invent lies about Allâh think on the Day of Judgement?...” (Yûnus 10:60).


Page 11 of ‘Haqiqat ul-Haqqani”, it is said: “When Allâh Almighty questions this person Mowlana shall answer all questions instead of him’.

Page 35 of the same book, it is said: “As for anyone who is related to Mowlana Sheikh Nazim as a mureed the Angel of Death, Israel (Alai) will have nothing to do with him. The soul of this mureed at the time of his death will be taken by Mowlana Sheikh Nazim. He shall look at the mureed and immediately the soul of that mureed will leave his body”. Of course, the angel of death is not ‘Israel’, it is ‘^Azrâ’îl’ (^alayhi ssalâm), but this is not the outrageous point in this short statement.

Page 29 of the same book, it is said: “Another of the miracles of Mowlana Sheikh Nazim is the miracle in the grave. When Angels appear in the mureed’s grave to question him, Mowlana Sheikh Nazim will immediately be there and say to the angels “Don’t question my follower, question me instead of him and I will answer on his behalf.” The angels shall not be able to bear the Light of Mowlana Sheikh Nazim and due to this they shall be forced to go away”. No comment.


36
THE TALES ABOUT THE PRESERVED TABLET
(ALLAWHU LMAHFÛZ)


The Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) said what means: “A servant does not have faith until he believes that Allâh has predestined all, what is bad as well as what is good, until he knows that what happens to him was not meant for somebody else and that what happens to others was not meant for him.”[139].


Hisham Kabbani wrote about adDaghestani[140]: “He became so famous at the age of seven that if anyone in his village wanted to marry, they would first go to him and ask if the marriage was destined to succeed. More than that, they would ask if the marriage was according to the Will of God as mentioned in the Preserved Tablets”. This excerpt is of the same kind as the following one, taken from the book they disowned, although they regularly confirm its contents in the rest of their literature and conferences.

In ‘Haqiqat ul-Haqqani’[141] it is said: “Every time that Mowlana Sheikh Nazim gives a lecture, he looks into the Preserved Tablet. Mowlana generally has the habit of looking slightly upwards before commencing a lecture and then he continues delivering his lecture. This is because he reads what he is going to say from the Preserved Tablet. Mowlana once said “When I pray, I look to see what is written in the Preserved Tablet for me to recite in Salat ul Luhr[142] and also for every prayer I do the same to find out what I should recite during that prayer from the Holy Quran. I don’t walk from this place to that except by looking and reading the Preserved Tablet”.

These two quotations show how those people can betray themselves. Had they thought, they would have realised that whatever one does, it is written in the Preserved Tablet. So looking into it in order to know what to do is useless. Nothing happens that is not written in alLawhu lMahfûz.

Several decades ago, when Nazim met Sheikh ^Abdullâh alHarariyy, acting as an interpreter for adDaghestani, he translated from the latter a strange story about Muhyiddîn Ibn al^Arabiyy (rahimahu-llâh). He said that while Ibn al^Arabiyy was in jail, imprisoned by a Persian king, locked behind seven doors, he was presented with a female servant, 17 or 18 years old. He claimed that the Prophet (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) came to him spiritually and said: “Your time in jail has ended so think of what the consequences will be for the truth”. According to him, Ibn al^Arabiyy would have then looked into the Preserved Tablet and seen that the servant was his wife. When Sheikh ^Abdullâh alHarariyy heard this disgusting story he said: “Sheikh Muhyiddîn was too great to have sexual intercourse without legal marriage”. But adDaghestani replied unrepentant: “For those people, the marriage of the Throne is enough”.


37
THEIR DEBASING ALLÂH’S PROMISE OF
REWARD


Nazim said: “To look for some reward for worshipping is like idol worship”[143].

He said too: “It is required that we must worship Allah without asking reward in this life or the next. This action by a servant is kept among Allah Almighty’s treasures. Why do so many hadiths mention a reward for the servant who does that Sunnah? This is because our Prophet (peace be upon him) was ordered to address men according to their various levels and capacities for understanding. In general, nafs wouldn’t do anything without the promise of a reward, like the children who must be promised sweets in order to do their chores promptly. So, as some men are interested in women, gardens, and palaces Allâh almighty has promised them these things as a reward for good actions.”[144].

That implies that Allâh ta^âlà and His Messenger (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) lied to the common people in order to attract them to Islam. It is blasphemous, an insult to our intelligence and is a denial of the du^â’s taught by the prophet (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm), in which he asked for the rewards of the hereafter.


VIOLATIONS OF TAWHÎD


Allâh jalla jalâluH said what means: “... they have taken the demons in preference to Allâh, as their protectors, and think that they have received guidance.” (Al’A^râf 7:30).


Allâh said what means: “And Christians said: ‘we are the children of God and His beloved ones’, say: ‘so why will He torment you for your sins, no indeed, you are only mortals created by Him...» If this is how guilty their words made them in spite of the fact that they did not actually believe God gave birth to them – and Allâh knows what they meant, how guilty are Nazim, H. Kabbani, their likes and those who support them, for trifling with the chore of Islam?

38
THEIR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE
OF ALLÂH’S ATTRIBUTES


There is little we know about Allâh ta^âlà. What we do know came to us through the holy Qur’ân and reliable hadîth. Revelation mentions a number of divine attributes which must be known by a person in order to reach the state of Muslim or Mu’min. Whoever contradicts what has been revealed about our Lord, of these characteristics, actually worships the fruit of his desires and imagination. That keeps him outside Islam.

A divine attribute is simply a characteristic of the reality of Allâh, such as His being All Knowing, All Powerful, unlike any creatures, etc. There is no limit to His attributes, just as there is no limit to His names, for they refer to these attributes.

An attribute does not have an existence of its own. It is not some kind of energy, force or tool which Allâh uses when He wants to. An attribute is only what Allâh has always characterised Himself with, as alBayhaqiyy (rahimahu-llâh) explained: “it is neither God, nor something else than Him”. For example, if you say that a person is generous, generosity is an attribute of that individual, it is a quality, not something in its own right.

A belief has been known to spread among some sects, which comes straight from Hellenistic philosophers influenced by Hinduism, stating that somehow there are different levels of the reality of God: they see His attributes as belonging to the outside circles of it and then they speak of the “essence” of God, as that which they deem to be immutable and non-ending. The inventors of this idea have been applying to Allâh the created work of their imagination and hence compared Him with His creatures.

Now read the following words falsely attributed by H. Kabbani to Muhammad Khwaja alAmkanaki and see if you cannot find some similarities with the belief I have just mentioned: “The demand of this Way is to direct yourself to the state of erasure and annihilation, which is the first state of bewilderment. This will lead you to the state of receiving the pure light of the Essence. In that state there will be no other element existing except that Pure Essence. Even the Names and the Attributes cannot exist in that state of the Pure Essence. The one who can reach the state of the Pure Essence is higher than the one who is in the state of the Names and the Attributes”[145]. The very idea that there are different degrees of Allâh’s reality is in itself tashbîh, i.e. a comparison of God with His creatures. These are the Sephirot of Kabbalah or the spheres of philosophers, what has this got to do with Islam and Sufism?


39
THEIR BID^AHS CONCERNING
THE REALITY OF ALLÂH


Allâh said what means: “Do you see the person who takes as his god his own desire...” (alFurqân 25:43).


The following five chapters all detail the different aspects of their beliefs concerning Allâh and His creation. To sum them up: the teaching found in their books shows they believe that the only reality is God, that creation happened by emanation (’inbi^âth), that this emanation is still part of Him, that it is Him beyond appearances and that all will reintegrate in what they call ‘His essence’. They believe that by finding one’s essence, ones finds God in oneself and that the presence of God is more strongly manifest in some individuals like prophets and saints. They think human attributes are an imperfect manifestation of the divine attributes and that when a person reaches sainthood, these attributes become divine again.

The earliest evidence of this belief is to be found in Hinduism (or in its Aryan origin), from which it moved gradually into late Greek/Hellenistic philosophy, then in Ismaili Shiism, pseudo Sufism and Western esoteric orders such as the Rosicrucians. If the religion chosen by Allâh for His creatures was such, He would have sent us to these people so as to learn from them, not to take Islam to them. There is no trace of such a doctrine in the Holy Qur’ân, in reliable hadîth, nor in the teachings of real Sufis.

Those beliefs we expose are unequally shared by Nazimites. One must not forget that they are imparted gradually to murîds.


40
THEIR BELIEF IN CREATION
BY EMANATION (’INBI^ÂTH)


Allâh said what means: “He does not beget, nor is He begotten”
(al’Ikhlâs 112:3)


The first evidence I found of that teaching was from H. Kabbani, relating one of adDaghestani’s so-called spiritual experiences[146] and quoting from him these words: “I was enjoying that passing so much because I was going back to my origin, which made me comprehend the secret of the Qur’anic verse, ‘to God we belong and to Him is our return’ (2:156)”. No real Sufi would give such an interpretation for this ‘âyah. Allâh is not our origin, we do not come from Him, He created us and this revealed text simply means, “…to Him we will give accounts”.

Page 363 of the same book, I found adDaghestani quoted again, saying: “Because that Divine Essence is the source of all created being...» This kind of idea produced in a number of religions the belief that God gives birth to children, that is to say, takes out of Himself beings which they claim to be divine in some cases, human in others[147].


41
THEIR BELIEF
THAT ALLÂH IS IN SPACE


The Prophet (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) said in a du^â’ what means: “... and You are azZâhir, so there is nothing above You, and You are alBâtin, so there is nothing under You...” (transmitted by Muslim).


AlBayhaqiyy (rahimahu-llâh) in ‘ al’Asmâ’ wasSifât ’ explained about the above-mentioned hadîth that it is one of the evidences that Allâh has nothing to do with space. AlKhatîb alBaghdâdiyy reported that ^Aliyy ibn ’Abî Tâlib (karrama-llâhu wajhah) said: “Allâh uses the Throne to show His power, not as a place for Himself”.

In ‘The secrets behind the secrets behind the secrets’, Nazim says in page 66: “He who is in space is ruling the earth. It is not those on earth who are ruling space”. As for the scholar and Sufi master ^AbdulGhaniyy anNâbulusiyy (rahimahu-llâh), he explained: “Whoever believes that Allâh fills the heavens and the earth and that He is a body sitting on the Throne, He is a kâfir, even though he claims to be a Muslim”.

They said: “And so, when Moses, Peace be upon him, found himself being overcome by sleep and realized that he was totally unable to resist it, he looked up to heaven -toward the Divine Throne, towards his Lord - and...”[148].

In ‘Haqiqat ul-Haqqani’, page 13, it is said: “Allah Almighty is everywhere but specially in the Baitullah as He has himself called it the house of Allah. For it to be called the house of the Lord, the Lord must be in it”. The phrase: “Allah is everywhere”, is a most unfortunate expression which has no root in Islam. It was introduced by philosophers and has since become the favourite expression of a lot of people. In fact, if one uses it, one should always add “by His knowledge” or “by His power” for instance, lest people should believe that Allâh is everywhere by His reality (dhât), a typical philosophical idea. As for ‘Baytu-llâh’, it means ‘the House honoured by Allâh’.

In the glossary of ‘Mercy Oceans Hidden Treasure’[149], in the paragraph where they claim to explain alMi^râj, they wrote: “After reaching the top of the Seven Heavens he was taken to the utmost limit of Gabriel’s domain, then continued to the Divine Presence where he came within two bow-lengths of the Majestical and Most Exalted Creator of the Heavens and the Earth”. This obviously refers to sura anNajm 58:8-9 where he saw Jibrîl (^alayhi ssalâm) in his real form and saw Allâh ta^âlà who is nowhere by His reality, with his heart. The sura tells about both events, but the verses they refer to concern the Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) coming very close to Jibrîl (peace be upon him), not to Allâh - subhâna-llâhi ^ammâ yasifûn! Imam Muslim related that our Mother ^Â’ishah (radiya-llâhu ^anhâ) said about these two ‘âyahs: “It was only Jibrîl coming to him, and he came this time in his original shape with which he covered the whole horizon”.

In case someone would still doubt that this is their official position, here is what H. Kabbani says while talking about the Mi^râj[150]: “He ascended higher and higher, until he heard the scratching of the Pen writing out God’s decree. He approached the Divine Presence, closer, closer...»

What are all their words worth against Wahhabis? When they have the same belief which is the very chore and essence of Wahhabism! Let us remember ^Aliyy’s statement (karrama-llâhu wajhah): “Allâh existed eternally and there was no space, and now He exists as He was, without a place” (related by ’Abû Mansûr alBaghdâdiyy), and ^Aliyy Zaynul^âbidîn’s words (rahimahu-llâh): “O Allâh You are too great to be in a place!” (In his letter: ‘asSahîfatu sSajjâdiyyah’).

The famous Hanafi ^Âlim, Imam ‘Abû Ja^far atTahâwiyy (rahimahu-llâh) said: “Allâh is too great to be concerned by limits, extremities, corners, organs or instruments. He is not concerned by the six directions like all creatures”. But most importantly, let us not forget what Allâh ta^âlà Himself taught us when He said in sura ashShûrà that nothing is like unto Him (“laysa kamithliHî shay’ ”). It is this verse and others, by which Muslims understand all difficult (mutashâbihah) verses which Wahhabis use to attribute a body and location in space to our Lord.

We have been assured by several ex-Nazimites that Nazim also claims the universe to be eternal, without beginning. Another case of kufr supported by Ibn Taymiyyah, and before him, by philosophers.

Neither in Sufi circles, nor outside them, is it accepted that one’s soul can come in contact with Allâh. Many among the ignorant are convinced that they can meet Allâh face to face, although God has no face[151]. In Paradise believers will see our Lord who is nowhere. We do not question Him on that but trust it completely to happen.

AlQushayriyy reported that Imâm ‘Abû Bakr Muhammad ibn alHasan ibn Fûrak (rahimahu-llâhu ta^âlà) said: “I heard Muhammad ibn alMahbûb, the servant of ‘Abû ^Uthmân alMaghribiyy saying: “‘Abû ^Uthmân alMaghribiyy told me one day: “O Muhammad! If someone asked you: “where is the one you worship[152]?” what would you answer?”. He replied: “I would say: “As He has always been”. So (‘Abû ^Uthmân alMaghribiyy) added, if they said: “Where has He always been?”, what would you say then?”, he answered: “I would say: “As He is now, that is to say that He is as He was when there was no space and He is now as He was”, so he was pleased with my answer, removed his shirt and gave it to me.[153]” This is how real Sufis speak and they speak as they believe.



42
THEIR SETTING ANALOGIES AND RESEMBLANCE
BETWEEN MAN AND ALLÂH TA^ÂLÂ


Allâh said what means: “and there is none like Him” (al’Ikhlâs).


Their belief that man is in the image of God:


When Junayd (radiya-llâhu ^anh) was asked about tawhîd he said it is “…to reject the belief He might have opponents, equals or anything comparable, without making analogies, looking for modalities, visualising (taswîr: picturing) or believing in similarities…”[154]

Nazim said: “But most people don’t even know about these Mercy, Beauty, Wisdom and Power Oceans, as these Oceans are well hidden inside their own beings. And the Sons of Adam have Will Oceans also, and whoever discovers those Oceans says to a thing “be”, and it is.”[155].

He said too: “What is the great secret within man that he must discover to attain this rank? It is to understand that you are a manifestation of one of our Lord’s endless Divine Attributes. Each person manifests a distinct attribute, no matter how many billions of people appear and disappear from this earth, each one manifests a unique aspect of the Divine Reality. Each Divine Attribute is distinct, and when fully unveiled, equally divine.”[156] Allâh has no aspects.

He said: “Our Grandsheykh was speaking about Awliya: “Who are saints?” They have attributes of Allah almighty”[157].

He said: “First the sheikh will try the mureed for his trustworthiness, then the prophet will try his Ummah, and then Allah will try His servants. If the sheykh is finding him trustworthy, he gives him from his treasures. If the Prophet finds him trustworthy, he gives him from his treasures. If Allah finds him trustworthy, He gives him from His divine Attribute and Powers, so that if that servant says for something to be, it is”[158].

He said: “We have respect for everyone, because every person is the representative of his Lord’s Divine Name which is private (to him) ... (when) we view all people (in this way), we shall take wisdom from everyone, in order to find a way to Divine Knowledge. This is important. In this verse, Allah almighty is speaking to all people; “O People! (Each of) you must look at everyone as being magnificent in himself. You must see your Lord’s glory in everyone.”[159].

In ‘Haqiqat ul-Haqqani’[160] it is said: “Grandsheikh Abdullah Daghistani (Qad) ordered Mowlana Sheikh Nazim to do about 10 to 12 seclusions (Khalwats) in a lot of places. When Mowlana completed these seclusions, his physical body became annihilated and his body became a divine body which is related to Allah Almighty”. Any clever pagan could have written this.

Page 19 of the same book, it is said: “Mowlana Abdulla Daghistani (Qad) once said that he had dressed Mowlana Sheikh Nazim with the Ninety Nine Beautiful Names of Allah Almighty, including also the Ismul A’lam, the Greatest Name of Allah Almighty”. Here there is a typing mistake, they probably meant ‘ ’A^zam’ instead of ‘ ’a^lam’. It does not change the fact that according to them he is ‘dressed’ with the name ‘Allâh’. Since they have publicly disowned this book, let us see if the evidence that follows confirms our accusation as well as what we gave before.

Nazim’s successor, Hisham Kabbani, joined his master when he wrote: “God is going to dress his saints, and to dress the Prophet (s) from His attributes and from His lights in order to take everyone from miseries and sins to the highest levels in the hereafter”[161]. The same author falsely attributes similar words to Yûsuf alHamadâniyy[162].

Page 98 of ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’, H. Kabbani claims that Bayâzid said: “I divorced the lowerworld three times in order that I would not have to return to it and I moved to my Lord alone... This opened to me a vision that I was no longer in existence and I vanished completely from myself into Him. He brought up all that I had divorced before in front of me, dressed me with light and with His attributes”. Page 271 of the same book, he claims that ^Abdullâh adDihlawiyy said: “The Divine Mind is the mind which knows its way to its goal without a mediator...»

I expected them to try and justify this belief by using the hadîth in which it is said that Allâh created ’Âdam (^alayhi ssalâm) according to his image; that is to say: according to the image God always knew of the first man, even before his creation. Allâh has no image that anything could resemble, human or not. Indeed Mr H. Kabbani could not resist the temptation, so he wrote in one of his many stories:
'We angels have been created out of divine light, and we have been greatly honored! Yet we both admire and pity you, human beings, because you have been created in God's image. Haven't you heard the saying of the Prophet: 'God created Adam after his likeness'? We understand this to mean that human beings have been elevated to a rank where He honored them by allowing them to reflect His image. This honor has raised human beings to a very high level. That is why God said in the Holy Koran: 'Verily We have honored human beings, and We have carried them over the earth and over the sea' (17:70). These two bodies, earth and the ocean, here represent the external knowledge and the internal."[163]
This belief is of pagan philosophical origin, accepted by Jews and introduced by them in their book of Genesis, then taken on by Christians when they developed the concept of trinity. Notice the capital ‘H’ used for “His”. I have seen others translating this hadîth, using also a capital ‘H’ for “His”, trying to induce in the inexperienced reader the belief that Allâh has an image manifested by man.

They were also heard interpreting a famous hadîth reported by alBukhâriyy in this way: “... and the servant does not stop coming closer to me through nawâfil until I love him, and when I love him, I become his hearing through which he hears, his sight through which he sees, his hand with which he touches, his foot with which he walks...» This simply means that the saint described here performs all his actions in conformity with Allâh’s commandments, acting in complete harmony with Qur’ân and Sunnah and with his real nature (fitrah).

AlKalâbâdhiyy[164] said: “Sufis state together that … He is not a body, a ghost, an image (sûrah)”, etc.

One must not be misled by the fact that we use words and expressions, both for creatures and for the Creator. The words Allâh chooses to speak about Himself, such as His names, have to be detached from meanings related to the created world. We know for example that Allâh sees everything, but his sight has nothing to do with ours, it has none of its limitations. He sees without any organ or instruments.

Their belief that God is like His creatures:

“...Laysa kamithliHî shay’...”
which means: “...Nothing is like unto Him...”
(ashShûrà 42:11)

They said: “Maulana continued, there is a hadith saying that there is a Paradise where there is no garden, no palaces; only Allah’s face smiling on the inhabitants. He who asks not for Paradise but only to look on Allah’s Divine Face, will be always in that endless beauty, in the Divine Presence. He who looks upon the face of the Lord will forget all else. Clear?”[165].

They said: “Our Grandshaykh says, “If a man is not aware that Allah’s eyes are with him everywhere, all time, that man is not a mu’min (believer), “You must imagine in your heart, that Allah’s eyes are with you.”[166]

They said: “We believe there is a face of Allah Almighty,” says our Grandshaykh, “but a description of His Face is not imagination. You may imagine one face, and he, another, and so on. If yours is right, what about ours? We cannot describe all the attributes of Allah Almighty, we just know that He has them.”.”[167]. This is one of the rare times when Nazim tries and avoid anthropomorphism, but he had to use the word “face”, even though it is quite unable to express the various meanings covered by ‘wajh’ says in the Qur’ân. When we translate religious Arabic in any language, we insure the words can express the meanings contained in the original text. When talking about Allâh, it is an essential rule which makes sure people will not be lead to believe God has a body.

In ‘Haqiqat ul-Haqqani’, page 15, it is said: “This Divine secret of Allah Almighty which was given to the heart of the Holy Prophet (Sal) and transmitted from heart to heart from one Siddiq to another is the Divine secret and Divine Breath which Allah Almighty blew into Adam (Alai).[168]” H. Kabbani reports that Nazim said[169]: “In the Judgement Day. God is going to read Surat al-An‘am by Himself--at that time, all human beings, even saints, and even the Prophet (s), are going to fall unconscious from the sweetness of hearing God’s voice”.

Subhâna-llâhi ^ammâ yasifûn! Allâh has no voice! Not any more than a breath! His ‘kalâm’ is not made of sounds, letters, it is not a language, otherwise it would be created. Whoever has created characteristics is a creature. Imam ‘Abû Hanîfah (radiya-llâhu ^anh) said: “We talk with organs, from points in the mouth and with letters, but Allâh ta^âlà speaks without any organ or letter”.

Page 16 of the same book, it is said: “In a moment Mowlana is able not only to make an unbeliever to believe but also ... to make him always be in the light of Allah Almighty to sit in front of Allah Almighty...» Here, as in most instances, where the words or the contexts are very ambiguous, one wonders whether they speak of the light created by Allâh, or whether they believe that Allâh is light. They would then wrongly interpret the divine name ‘Nûr’. It was clearly explained by scholars like alBayhaqiyy as ‘The One who guides human beings and jinns’. An aforementioned text showed that they do believe Allâh to be literally light.

Some of them actually believe that Allâh takes shapes to come into this world. An example of that was given by Mustafà al^Allâyli in Lebanon: he said that once God took the shape of a man dressed with torn clothes and something dirty coming out of his nose over his mouth, that He went there to Mûsà (^alayhi ssalâm) who rejected him. Then he carried on saying that when this prophet asked to see his Lord, he was told: “I came to you and you rejected me”. This could also have been classified in the next chapter, concerning the idea of incarnation (hulûl) and as often it is the distortion of the meaning of some hadîths.

Page 400 of ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’, H. Kabbani wrote that Nazim said, describing a so-called spiritual experience: “God, Almighty and Exalted, descended on His Throne and judged people.”

All those unacceptable expressions are those which caused the rejection of Wahhabism by the Muslim Community. The source of their problem is that basically, and contrary to what they claim on some occasions, they do believe it possible to imagine Allâh. Otherwise, why would Nazim say: “A seeker should be someone who has left himself and connected his heart with the Divine Presence. He stands in His Presence performing his obligations while visualizing the Divine with his heart.”[170].
If Nazim and his team had anything to do with Sufism, they would stick with their hearts and their tongues, in private as in front of any public, to the attitude expressed by ‘Abû ^Aliyy arRûdhbâriyy: “Tawhîd is righteousness of the heart, by staying away from denial of any divine attribute and rejecting any comparison. In short, tawhîd is (to believe) that Allâh subhânaH is different from anything your delusions may picture/visualise” because He ta^âlà said (what means): “Nothing is like unto Him and He is the One who hears everything, the One who see everything”[171].


43
THEIR BELIEF IN HULÛL
OR DIVINE INCARNATION


Nazim said: “Therefore, you must respect everyone in existence, as, in reality, that respect is the respect for your Lord within him”[172]. Clearly they do not apply that principle to Muslims who expose or oppose them; otherwise they would not be using threats and violence.

He said: “Originally all worshipping is only to make you absent from yourself and present in the Divine Presence. As much as you are with yourself, no real unity.”[173]. The idea of being with God, one with Him, to really become part of Him, is one of the ideas which took people away from the path of ^Îsà (^alayhi ssalâm).

Some of Nazim’s followers who are enthusiastic readers of forged book attributed to Muhyiddîn ibn al^Arabiyy and badly translated, should meditate over these words of the great saint in his book ‘AlFutûhât alMakkiyyah’, in the chapter of the secrets: “Whoever believes in hulûl is mistaken and nobody proclaims it possible to be united to Allâh, without being an apostate”. The text is related by ^AbdulWahhâb ashSha^râniyy in his book ‘AlYawâqît walJawâhir fî ^Awâqidi l’akâbir’, from an authentic version of Ibn al^Arabiyy’s work which he found at the house of Sheikh ‘Abû Tâhir alMaghribiyy, in Makkah.

Nazim said: ‘Do you think that, when Allah ordered the angels to prostrate before Adam, he was ordering them to prostrate to (any) other than Himself ? So all the angels, seeing the Divine Appearance in Adam, prostrated (themselves).”[174].

In ‘al-Wasiyyah’, adDaghestani said: “The one who will receive those keys is the one who will look after the good manners according to their importance and the ’awrâd, who will do the dhikr once every twenty four hours. He will win the position of ‘Abû Yazîd alBistâmiyy who said: “I am the Truth too”.” Allâh forbid! Never did alBistâmiyy say that in this way! What is known among Sunnis is that, seized by ecstasy while reading the Qur’ân, this saint carried on repeating the passage where Allâh states His own divinity. Since then this incident has been used by fake Sufis to try and justify their belief in divine incarnation, although nothing in the teaching of this master allows them to do so.


44
THEIR BELIEF IN WAHDATU LWUJÛD


Allâh said what means: “and they claim that His servants are part of Him, indeed man is an avowed ingrate” (azZukhruf 43:15).


Their endorsement of alHallâj:

Mr. Bashir of Birmingham confirmed that they considered alHallâj a saint. AlHallâj was a disciple of Junayd (qaddasa-llâhu sirrah), one of the greatest Sufi masters. Unfortunately his attitude pushed him to misinterpret his experiences and he claimed to be God, saying: “I am alHaqq”. Junayd (rahimahu-llâh) then told him: “You have opened in Islam a gap which only your head will fill”. Nine years later alHallâj was executed for apostasy, as predicted by his sheikh, in spite of the support he had in some high-ranking political circles. Fake Sufis have since revered this apostate and look for tortuous or imaginary explanations for the fact that his own guide rejected him. Sufis were part of the panel who imposed capital punishment on him and Ahmad asSirhindiyy explained in detail the tragic error that man made.

Ahmad arRifâ^iyy (radiya-llâhu ^anh) said about AlHallâj: “If had been truthful, he would not have said ‘I am the Truth’ (alHaqq)”.

The Islamic position concerning wahdatu lwujûd:

In conversations with Nazimites it appeared that they consider wahdatu lwujûd[175] as part of the Sufi belief. We tried to convey to them that there is no difference whatsoever between Sufi and Sunni belief, that Sufism only exists in total conformity with Sunnism and that wahdatu lwujûd has pagan Hindu and philosophical origins which contradict Qur’ân, Sunnah and ‘ijmâ^.
Sheikh Muhammad alHâmid (May Allâh have mercy on his soul) wrote a whole chapter entitled: “Refutation of those who profess wahdatu lwujûd”, which he explains as believing “that this universe, with its animated and non-animated beings, is divine altogether, and that God is its soul (rûh). This is absolutely kufr, for it is an incarnation (hulûl) which believers reject and declare kufr. As for the poetry and prose which I found about incarnation, there is plenty of it. There is a sentence attributed to the author of ‘al’Insânu lKâmil’ which says that Christians did kufr only because they reduced the extent of divinity to Christ and his mother (peace be upon them), and that it is because of this restriction that they committed kufr, and that they left the Unitarian movement which believes that divinity extends to everything. This statement, whatever interpretation I could give to it, was undoubtedly forged against him.” What pseudo Sufis say about Christians implies that they went out of Islam when they started adopting the theology of Paul of Tarsus instead of Neoplatonic philosophy: that does not make sense.

There is no difference on this point among Sunnis. The belief which Allâh ordered Muhammad (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) to spread all over the world came to correct all existing religions. It is because philosophers and Hindus saw danger in it for their ideas that they fought Islam, both from the outside and the inside. Let us mention a typical fatwà on this topic, given by one of the greatest scholars: In the book ‘^Uqûdu l’Alâs bimanâqibi l’Imâmi lÂrifi lHabîb ’Ahmadu bnu Hasan al^Attâs’, you will find that Sheikh Zayn Dahlân, mufti of the Shâfi^i masters in Makkah said: “Sheikh ’Ahmad arRamliyy was questioned about the person who professes wahdatu lwujûd, so he declared that this apostate should be killed and his body thrown to the dogs, for this belief does not allow any safe interpretation, and its kufr is worse than the kufr of Jews and Christians” (this sentence is applied in countries where Islamic Law rules). It is reported that when Sheikh ibn Hajar learned about this fatwà, he was very pleased.

The Nazimite endorsement of pantheism:

Page 132 of ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’, Hisham Kabbani started a subchapter on dhikr and wrote: “The seeker who has denied all that exists in this world with the words la ilaha, affirms with the words ill-Allâh that all that exists has been annihilated in the Divine Presence”. This interpretation is very frequent among pseudo Sufis but it is in no way justified by the text or tradition. The phrase “lâ ’ilâha ’illa-llâh” (there is no god but Allâh), must never be interrupted purposely after the word ‘ ’ilâha ’[176] because on their own, the first two words mean that there is no god, which is a statement contradicting Islam, taking into kufr whoever says it on purpose, while knowing their meaning. Those two words do not mean that creatures do not exist, they only say, when joined with the rest of the sentence, that divinity belongs to Allâh only.

Page 227 of the same book, Hisham claims that Muhammad Khwaja alAmkanaki said about the seeker: “He must be free of any doubt regarding the manifestation of the One who is always Present, and must know that nothing exists except God, Almighty and Exalted”.

This is one more point Nazim and his team have with their fellow western esoteric orders. Ralph M. Lewis, ex-imperator of the A.M.O.R.C. Rosicrucian order, one of the most important organisations of this kind in the world, said: “The true mystical person, consequently, is categorically pantheistic. This is to say that for him, God is in all, is everywhere”[177]. This man also said: “Since the Divine Spirit is eternal, whatever is part of His nature, or the substances which have their source in Him, physical reality for instance, are also eternal”[178].

Hisham Kabbani claims that ^Ubaydullâh al'Ahrâr explained ’âyah 29 of the 55th sura by saying, among other things[179]: “the second meaning of the verse is that the spiritual traveller finds in himself, in every moment and in every minuscule particle of time, a trace of the Unique Essence of God, which cannot be found outside the state of annihilation in the vision of the One. From one fractional moment to another, he will visualize the parts of the states of the Unique Essence and understand the ‘connectedness’ of everything in the Divine Unity...» This shows the experiences of these people do not come from God: they are deceived by the same demons they think they control. Such words seem to have been literally traced from some western esoteric books, such as the Rosicrucians'.

In the same book[180], Mr Kabbani claims that Sheikh Muhammad Bahâ’uddîn Shâh Naqshband (rahimahu-llâh) said: “Did you not hear what Hallaj said? “I rejected the religion of God, and rejection is obligatory on me even though that is hideous to Muslims.” ... What is important is real faith, and real faith for the People of the Truth is to make the heart deny anything and everything other than God. That is what made Hallaj say, “I denied your religion and denial is obligatory on me, although that is hideous to the Muslims.” His heart wanted nothing except God.
“Hallaj, of course, was not denying his faith in Islam, but was emphasizing the attachment of his heart to God alone...”

The truth is alHallâj went hastily into what he was not ready for and came back deluded about reality. Sheikh ’Ahmad asSirhindiyy (rahimahu-llâh) demonstrated very clearly his tragic error. Those whose heart love God only follow the path He has made for them: they listen to the guide who takes them into the tarîqah, firmly imbedded in Sharî^ah. This quotation, falsely attributed to Shâh Naqshband, shows to what length pseudo Sufis will go in order to justify their rejection or neglect of Islamic Law. Allâh ta^âlà and His Messenger (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) taught us that the more one loves God, the more one sticks to His Sharî^ah. As for these people, they tell us that those who love the Lord most, disobey Him most.

The world has two kinds of people bearing the name of Sufis: some follow Sharî^ah in all circumstances and never contradict it, in appearance or otherwise. Others claim to have gone beyond it and left it. There is a third category of hypocrites who claim to follow orthodoxy but actually work to destroy it. Make your choice, for this life is the time of choice! By Allâh! The closer a person gets to spiritual heights, the more attached they get to Islam and its laws. Islam is the path which matches exactly the original nature of man (fitrah) so whoever purifies himself from the deceptions of this world and the sins they generate, will find his joy and contentment in Law.


45
THEIR JUSTIFICATION
OF WHAT CONTRADICTS REVELATION


’Ahmad and atTirmidhiyy in his ‘Jâmi^’ transmitted through Ibn ^Abbâs that the Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) said what means: “Fear to talk about me, except what you (really) know, for whoever lies about me intentionally, let him take his place in the Fire, and whoever talks about the Qur’ân without knowledge, let him take his place in the Fire” (atTirmidhiyy classified this tradition as hasan).


Hisham Kabbani wrote[181]: “Grandsheikh said, “I am speaking from that Ocean of Knowledge that is going to be opened when the Mehdi (s) is coming. The extent of the knowledge that I am opening up is like light that would be coming through the hole of a needle.” If Mawlana is speaking as if from the hole of a needle, then what is going to come is something concerning which you are going to be mad. This is the explanation of Sayyidna Abu Hurayrah’s affirmation in hadith: Here he mentions the hadîth we explain in the next paragraph, and carries on saying: “What Grandsheikh says is of the second knowledge--something extraordinary which is going to be spread in Mehdi’s (s) time.” This kind of discourse is meant to prepare murîds to the outrageous statements they are bound to encounter if they stay with them.

The hadîth he mentions was transmitted by alBukhâriyy in the chapter concerning knowledge in which ‘Abû Hurayrah (radiya-llâhu ^anh) is reported to have said: I have learned from the Messenger of Allâh (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) two kinds of things, one that I spread, and another one, if I spread it (openly), this throat of mine would be slit”. The blessed companion referred here to the hadîths which condemned all those who rebelled against our master ^Aliyy. Some of them having many supporters and agents, spreading them indiscriminately could have led to assassination at the hands of the guilty party. This is the explanation given by the famous commentators of alBukhâriyy’s Sahîh, al^Asqalâniyy and alQastalâniyy, may Allâh have mercy on them.

Pseudo Sufis such as Nazim and H. Kabbani want to see in this tradition evidence that the Holy Prophet (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) gave a secret (bâtin) teaching to some of his sahâbah, which would be so different from the official (zâhir) doctrine, that if revealed to the common and scholars, it would lead to official excommunication and execution. This is the traditional argument of fake Sufi orders. It has been used to try and justify very different doctrines which often contradict and exclude each other.

The theme of a secret spiritual teaching given out to some sahâbah only is extremely dangerous. How shall we know who has this alleged knowledge? If it is said: “We know because it has been conveyed to us through an uninterrupted line of sheikhs going back to the Prophet himself”, we shall answer: “You are not the only ones to have this claim, yet the others disagree with you on points which they consider to be part of that teaching. The only way to check whether you are the true inheritors of the Messenger of Allâh (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) is by judging it through what is known from the Qur’ân and Sunnah”.

If it is said: “We know we are the true inheritors of the secret spiritual teaching because of the very high spirituality we experienced through the teaching of our masters”, we shall answer: “We hear Jews, Christians, Buddhists and Hindus relating the same type of experience. So do sects which have left Islam like Agha Khanis, Baha’is and Qadyanis. Yet we know that only Muslims will be saved, and from seventy three sects evolved from our Community, only one will find salvation”.

They are very insistent about this tradition which they exploit out of context. Inside one of H. Kabbani’s long and dubious quotations from Sufis, you will find the meaning of the same hadîth. It is said[182]: “This is the meaning of the tradition of the Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam), in Bukhari, narrated by Abu Hurayra (ra’), ‘The prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) poured into my heart two kinds of knowledge, one of which I have revealed and another which if I were to reveal they would cut my throat’ ”. When they do not mention the text itself, what they say alludes to it, as these words of ad-Daghestani[183]: “If I speak what has been put into my heart of Divine Knowledge, even saints will cut my throat.” How deceitful these people are!

They also use the story of the encounter between Mûsà and alKhidr (^alayhima ssalâm) to justify their sheikh’s violations of Sharî^ah, such as his letting stranger women kiss his bare hand or shake it. They say that, just as alKhidr did things which violated the law of Mûsà, but is still considered to be at least a saint, so do ‘awliyâ’ act in ways which are bound to be condemned by the Law of Muhammad (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) , but which can be understood by their very high spiritual level, where they have knowledge of the hidden truths. The truth is clearly this: the higher the spiritual level, the stricter the adherence to Sharî^ah. Kashf or ‘ilhâm are not accepted as religious evidence by true Sufis. One judges the value of one’s experiences by their conformity to revelation.

Remember this major point: if the pseudo Sufis’ interpretation was correct, it could lead anywhere. Because anyone could then come up with strange beliefs and practices and claim that they are part of the secret heritage of the Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam), which is exactly what Nazimites and their peers do.


ODDNESS IN FIQH & OTHER PECULARITIES


Their followers would not put up with what we mention underneath, if they were taught any real Sufism and they would have been exposed much earlier if they were not so careful to adapt to their audience.


46
THEIR ATTITUDE TOWARDS WAHHABISM


Nazimites pose as strong opponents of Wahhabism. They are quite proud of the discussions and debates they claim to have regularly with those dangerous people. They often introduce themselves as the best champions of Sufism against Wahhabi doctrine. Hisham Kabbani even wrote several books more or else directed against them. Attacking a fellow heretical movement will not be enough to prove themselves right, not any more than the vigorous attacks of Wahhabis against Shiites justify their own bid^ahs. It is just a ploy to attract sympathy by fighting a known evil.

In England, the self-proclaimed ‘Salafis’ and Nazimites seem to find useful to publicise their dispute as much as possible. H. Kabbani who is at the head of the campaign does hope to be seen as the champion of Sunnism whereas Wahhabi writers pretend to believe that Nazimites are real Naqshbandis, blaming this noble order for all the inventions of the impostors. One side is as dishonest as the other, and they both hope to find more gullible followers through the argument.

Wahhabism is a ferocious and primitive doctrine which owes its name to a person called Muhammad ibn ^AbdilWahhâb. He revived and made worse the ideas of a man who lived centuries before him: Ibn Taymiyyah, and of some of his disciples like Ibn alQayyim. Their nickname ‘Wahhabi’ sounding so sectarian, they hide nowadays mainly under the names of ‘Salafis’ or ‘Ahl-e-Hadith’ and receive huge financial help from Saudi Arabia and some other quarters. We do not intend to expose their ideas here for it has already been very well done by more knowledgeable than myself.

What is really surprising is that Hisham Kabbani has come up with a strange theory according to which Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn alQayyim and ibn ^AbdilWahhâb never promoted the famous ideas of the wahhabi doctrine. He claims that they were not declared enemies of Sufism; Ibn Taymiyyah is even alleged to have become a member of the Qâdiri tarîqah. He says that they did not deny tawassul (using the intercession or prophets or saints) and did not condemn the commemoration of the Prophet’s birth (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam). These are only some of his points.

Unfortunately it is very hard to believe, although we wish it were true. Wahhabis are bound to be the first ones to find this strange. Sunnis are likely to be more than hesitant about those so-called revelations. There is much evidence from reliable witnesses at the time, from people who knew or met them and from books they propagated, that those men sadly did believe in what they were blamed for. They did their best to convince others, with all the dramatic consequences it has had on the unity of the Ummah and the safety of its members. Sunni scholars who did not excommunicate these heretics are those who were not informed of all their publications and fatwas and did not find evidence available to them.

We found this new theory in a book written by Hisham Kabbani, with the title: ‘Innovation and True Belief: the Celebration of Mawlid...” and in pages of the magazine ‘an-Naseeha’[184], of the same author. The chances of their references being authentic are very little. Somebody would have come up with them earlier if they were reliable.


47
THEIR IDEA OF RESPONSIBILITY


Allâh ta^âlà said what means: “Say: “You will not be questioned about our sins, nor shall we be questioned about what you do” (Saba’ 34:25).


Women not responsible?

Nazim said: “Now in our time, women are making themselves up, going out in the streets, everywhere. Even they are following the funeral procession to the cemetery, wearing their ornaments. Our Grandsheikh says: “Allah is not going to ask them anything about their doings. He is going to ask their husbands, fathers and brothers.”[185].

Further down, in the same page of this book he said: “This is clear. The responsibility for women is on men. Our Prophet says: “All of you are shepherds with the responsibility for their flocks.”.” What an inventive interpretation!

It was also reported by youngsters arguing with followers of Nazim al-Qubrusi that the latter had heard him justify his letting female disciples kiss his naked hand by the argument that it wasn’t his responsibility to prevent them from doing so, that it was their husbands’ responsibility. As for the Messenger of Allâh (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam), he said what means: “It is better for one of you to be pierced with an iron needle than to touch a woman he has no right on”. This hadîth was transmitted by atTabariyy and is supported by a multitude of similar traditions forbidding any direct contact such as skin against skin, between stranger (’ajnabiyy) men and women.

Dr Gabriel Fouad Haddad did try to prove Nazim innocent of this nonsense. When he says: “Prayers are not obligatory on the wives; do not pray”, Mr Haddad writes:
“First of All, the Shaykh was talking to new Muslims at a specific time and place to a particular situation and certainn people, all who are none Arabic speakers. They have never prayed or made a single Sajda for Allah… for the first 13 years in Mecca. Salat was not even prescribed. And even after the Salat was prescribed, when the Prophet(s) used to send messangers to other communities, he used to tell them to use step by step approach as mentioned in the Sahih
… What Shaykh Nazim was saying five Sajda a day to start, he did not say in all his book
"Prayers are not obligatory on the wives; Do not pray." As you have mis-quoted.
By the way, an average student of Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani prays an average of 70 Rak`a a day – nafl, voluntarily prayers.
If someone already prays 5 times a day and you tell them 5 sajda is enough, we all agree that this is Haram and Kufr, but for someone who never prayed or never made a Sajda in his entire life, 5 sajda with Wudu’ to start this is a giant step in the right direction on the straight path.
However, let us all remember that there is something essential before Salat, and before any other form of `ibada, and that is the foundation for everything. This is the Niyat- the intention- The purity of intention is required before our salat or Zakat or Siyam or any other deed, the niya is what determines if the action is accepted or not. (hadith innama al `amalu bil niyat- Deeds are by intentions)[186]”
The “refutation” carries on like this. Does that solve the problem of women told not to pray? What on earth is this “5 sajda” business? Which prayer is made of “5 sajda”? What do “70 Rak’a a day” have to do with Nazim’s obvious belief that women are not responsible beings? This text is worse than what it tries to defend and has very little to do with fiqh.

What about the innocent?

In a conference given in Basel, Switzerland, on 18.7.85, Nazim said: “Don’t ever think that anything comes without a reason. No! There must be a reason. The army destroyed everything of King Feisal in Iraq in just one night. Some of the people even got tied behind cars and were dragged along the streets. And other people were looking. All those who said that it was alright, must be killed, or their children must be killed, or anyone of their relatives must be killed. For the cause of one man a billion people can be killed”[187].

They actually believe that one can be punished for somebody else’s sins. The last extract is worrying: it gives a frightening idea of what they could do one day if they were given power. In sharp contrast with this, let us remember what the angels said to ’Ibrâhîm on their way to destroy the city of Lût (^alayhima ssalâm). They said what means: “We have been sent against a criminal people to throw on them stones of clay, marked by our Lord for those who have exaggerated, and we have taken out of it the believers that were there” (adhDhâriyât 51:32-35).


48
MUSIC


AlBukhâriyy transmitted from ‘Abû Mâlik al’Ash^ariyy that he heard the Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) say what means: “There will be people from my Community who will consider lawful fornication, men wearing silk, taking intoxicating substances and using musical instruments”.


This hadîth is a general statement against musical instruments of which only daff -tambourine), one kind of tabl (the round drum with straight walls, which is a simple extension of the daff) and human voice have been exempted.

After learning how shaking hands or having them kissed by women is such a common public practice among their leaders, I discovered through a report on the British Channel 4 in 1996 that they used a type of old oriental guitar or lute (I am not an expert so I have difficulties making the distinction) for some dhikr sessions. I was looking for some written evidence that would prove they allow the use of prohibited musical instruments. This came when the book of Hisham Kabbani, ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’ was passed on to me.

Page 251 of this book, Kabbani wrote about Muhammad Sayfuddîn: “One day he heard from his neighbor's house the sound of the ney (bamboo flute). He was so enchanted by the sound of it that he fainted. When he came to he said, "Do you think that I am empty of compassion and emotion? No, those who listen to the ney and feel no compassion and emotion are empty”. There is no way a real Sufi would allow himself to get pleasure from a sin. Once more we have a strange story the author comes up with, to support their own devious practices.

Compare their text with the tradition of the Messenger of Allâh (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm), when he said what means: “I did not forbid to weep per se, but I forbade two foolish and sinfully shameless voices: one, the voice singing with musical instruments and the flutes of shaytân; the other...”[188].

Later on, page 296 of the same book, H. Kabbani confirms their attraction for this unlawful pleasure by attributing to Khas Muhammad Shirwani these words: “What causes the heart to feel happiness and peace when it hears a beautiful sound? It is a consequence of Allah's having spoken to the spirits when they were atoms in His Presence and having asked them, 'Am I not Your Lord?' The sweetness of His Speech became imprinted on them. Thus in this world, whenever the heart hears anything of Dhikr or music, it experiences happiness and peace, because these are a reflection of that sweetness”[189].

For this we advise: learn to receive happiness and peace through lawful means and for elevated purposes. One does not come close to Allâh by disobeying Him, and certainly not by falsifying His Law. Let the inexperienced reader know that the use of prohibited musical instruments is one of the signs by which the seeker recognises pseudo Sufis.


49
MEAT


In ‘Mercy Oceans. The Teachings of Maulana Abdullah al-Faizi ad-Daghestani’ a murid asked[190]: “When we are eating meat, how can we know if it is Halal?» Nazim answered this: “...If you are in doubt as to whether meat (assuming that it isn’t pork) is halal or not, you may say , three times, “shahada”, and, seventy times, “astaghfirullah”.” Then, as you eat, you say, “Bismillah” Allah almighty will make that food clean for you, in the time it takes for you to raise it from your plate and put it in your mouth!”


50
SHAKING WOMEN’S HANDS

AlBukhâriyy transmitted that our mother ^Â’ishah (radiya-llâhu ^anhâ) said: “... and the hand of the Messenger of Allâh (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) never touched the hand of a woman who was not his”, and the Prophet (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) said what means: “I do not shake hands with women”[191].

Nazim’s shaking women’s hands and letting them kiss his has continuously been reported to me by Nazimites or former nazimtes, up to this year 1424. It has been a cause of embarrassment for some of them while others have come with silly excuses which showed they had been taught very little fiqh, if any. As usual they also bring in the so-called spiritual knowledge of the Sufi master which they claim allows Nazim to know the Sharî^ah and even obscure fatwas.

One of the very recent past leaders of the Shâdhili Tarîqah in Morocco, sheikh ^Abdul^Azîz alGummâriyy[192] (rahimahu-llâh), wrote forty eight pages to denounce people who dared to allow shaking the hand of stranger[193] (‘ajnabiyyât) women, under the title: “Vehement Refutation Against Those Who Permit Shaking The Hands Of Women”[194], at the request of sheikh Muhammad ibn alFâtimiyy ibn alHâjj asSalamiyy.

Sheikh ^Abdul^Azîz alGummâriyy wrote: “Know, august brother, that shaking the hand of a stranger woman is harâm, no Muslim may commit it. It is an abhorrent sin in our Sharî^ah and it is bad for a believer to commit it. To say otherwise is repugnant and a fallacy…[195]”

“Ibn Hajar alMakkiyy, in his book “azZawâjir ^an Iqtirâfi lKabâ’ir” counted the touching of stranger women among the great sins. This is what is correct and the ruling which one has the duty to apply as far as shaking the hand of a stranger woman is concerned, or touching her otherwise.
As for a person who would not count the preliminaries of fornication among great sins, he would be in grave error. He would contradict the reliable texts on this topic, such as the hadîth of Ma^qil ibn Yassâr (radiya-llâhu ta^âlà ^anh) who quoted the Prophet (peace be upon him) saying (what means): “It would be better for one of you to stab himself with an iron needle rather than touch a woman he is not allowed (to lay his hand on)”, as reported by atTabarâniyy in his great Mu^jam and alBayhaqiyy in “ashShu^ab.[196]”

“Muhammad ibn Nasr asSamarqandiyy (who is one of the imams of tafsîr) gave a good explanation in his book “attanbîh” of Allâh’s words: “walâ taqrabu lfawâhisha mâ zahara minhâ wamâ batan”[197], saying: ‘i.e. great sins and this is fornication (zinâ) and what is hidden is kissing and touching. All of it is zinâ, as in the tradition which says that hands commit zinâ and eyes commit sinâ[198]…”

“Because of that you will not find any scholar within the schools (madhâhib) whose methods are applied in Islamic land, who would allow touching a stranger woman or laying one’s hands directly on any part of her body, even without lust.[199]”

Sheikh ^Abdul^Azîz alGummâriyy gave abundant evidence from hadîth in his work and made it clear that the prohibition was not a ruling applied only to the Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam), but a general rule for all and that touching did mean shaking hands, among others.

Some Nazimites have come up with a fatwa allowing very old men unable of lust to have such contacts with stranger women. Let them check; ‘in shâ’a-llâh they will find out that Nazim has been doing this from the very beginning of his religious carreer. Are they now going to look for a fatwa allowing men in their fifties to indulge in this custom? The next thing would be to use hadîth texts and give them meanings not to be found there. Who is going to do this one? After all, it has been done before. Followers of Nazim, save yourselves and return to Qur’ân and Sunnah.


51
OTHER PECULIAR INVENTIONS
OR BID^AHS


Allâh said what means: “... and conjecture avails nothing against truth”
(anNajm 53:28)

Eight hours worshiping:

In ‘alWasiyyah’[200] ad-Daghestani is reported to have said: “On this basis Allâh ^azza wajall divided the day in three parts: “Eight hours for worship, eight to earn a living and eight to sleep. Whoever is not satisfied with this division and does not apply it, is concerned by the hadîth which says: “whoever goes astray, goes astray forever”. So they condemn our brothers who spend much more than eight hours a day working, although they manage to perform their religious obligations. What is more, they expect everyone to spend eight actual hours worshipping. Instead of inventing new duties, why not concentrate on the real obligations of religion?

Compulsory retreat:

In the same book[201] this impostor said: “The masters of the Most High Naqshbandi order say that those who claim to belong to one of the forty sufi orders, or to the Most High Naqshbandi Order, but have never gone through a retreat, not even once, let them fear to claim to belong to the sufi orders”.

Strange ideas about sainthood:

Nazim said: “For every saint on the steps of the Prophet, it is wajib, mandatory to travel.”[202].

Visiting saints claimed to be wâjib:

H. Kabbani claims[203] that ^Alâ’uddîn ^Attâr said: “To visit saints is a Sunnah Wajiba, a duty on every seeker, at least every day, or every other day, while keeping the limits and respect between you and your Shaykh. If the distance is great between you and your Shaykh, visit him at least every one or two months. Don't rely only on your connection with their heart, lest you become disconnected.»

Anger!

Nazim said: “If a person dies angry, he will go to Hell’[204]. We know what they think of Hell anyway.

And he called Allâh “proud”:

He said too: “If a man is clean in his heart, he is not proud. No one can be proud except the Lord Almighty. He is Al Mutakabbir.”[205]. He does not seem to understand that pride is a shortcoming. You cannot possibly translate ‘mutakabbir’ by ‘proud’ when it refers to Allâh. This name actually means: the One who is too great to have any attribute of the creatures or to resemble them. Nevertheless this is one of the many instances which shows their outrageous carelessness, something completely at odds with the attitude of traditional scholars and Sufis.

Have they put marriage before tawhîd?

Al-Qubrusi also said: “In Islam marriage is one of the holiest actions. In reality it is the first order from Allah almighty to Mankind”[206].

Warning to angry women:

He said: “However, continues our Grandshaykh, “if a woman receives her husband with an angry face, Allah will order his angels to shut Paradise, and will order Hell to burn hotter for her. Because of her anger, all the abundance of this life and the next are made haram for her. She must quickly turn and make repentance, before it is written in Allah’s book!”[207].

Did he say “dragons”?

Nazim seems to have a particular belief in dragons inherited from his master, ad-Daghestani. He alludes to it from time to time. Talking about atheists, he said: “they are like that dragon living in Yemen”[208].

No surgery for the murîds:

Nazim is known for strongly disapproving of any surgical operation. It is mentioned by his disciple Zero Thyro Quensel in her book ‘Wings of the Messenger’ and was confirmed to us. Nevertheless, it seems that on this he disagreed with his master ad-Daghestani, for Muhammad Majdhûb reported in his interview that he claimed to have undergone four operations, some of them directed by Doctor Mahmûd Kabbani, possibly a relative of the Kabbanis declared to be the successors of al-Qubrusi.

Will everybody look like Nazim?

In ‘Haqiqat ul-Haqqani’[209] it is said: “The physical shape of the one who has the Divine secret of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Sal) must also closely resemble the physical shape of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Sal). As Mowlana Shaykh Nazim has this secret, his physical shape closely resembles that of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Sal)”. This is an obvious lie. Anyone who can read the descriptions of the body and face of our beloved master Muhammad (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) will see the big differences in shape, colour and beauty. And according to this invention of theirs, a lot of great saints would not be ‘awliyâ’ any more, including ^Aliyy ibn ’Abî Tâlib (karrama-llâhu wajhah).

The next paragraph, page 28 of the same book, contains these words: “All those who come to visit Mowlana Shaykh Nazim and sit with him will also gradually have their physical features slowly transformed. This is because they are not seated with an ordinary person. They are seated with an extraordinary power which is Mowlana Shaykh Nazim, the more will his love increase and the higher will be his ranks and every Awliya in this time will have the shape of Mowlana Sheykh Nazim.” I have personally seen pictures of Nazim with Hisham Kabbani and another man whom I suppose to be Adnan: it is pretty obvious that they do their best to make this ridiculous claim true. As for other disciples whom I have seen, they still have a long way to go. In any case plastic surgery seems the only real possibility of this happening.


CONCLUSION


The Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) said what means: “Whoever does not want my Sunnah is not one of mine” (transmitted by Ibn Sa^d in his Tabaqât).


We have established that ^Abdullâh Faizi ad-Daghestani, Adil Nazim al-Qubrusi and Hisham Kabbani are impostors posing as Sufis, usurping titles which are not theirs, teaching a doctrine whose source is the same as that of Masons and Rosicrucians. We have demonstrated how dangerous their true religion is for the salvation of those who follow them. We do declare that whoever checks thoroughly our information will find many faces to them and will be amazed at their blatant hypocrisy, ‘in shâ’a-llâh.

Now we call upon all, scholars and common Muslims, to spread among people the truth about those impostors, to warn their brothers and sisters against their danger and deceitfulness. They must not be helped, abetted or their actions condoned. No member of Muhammad’s Ummah (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) should shelter them, offer them mimbars to speak from, mosques to propagate in, Islamic centres to corrupt, columns in newspapers or magazines. The Messenger of Allâh (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) said what means: “Allâh has cursed whoever gives shelter to an author of bad innovations” (transmitted by Muslim).


Allâh ta^âlà said what means: “And that this is My straight way: follow it and do not follow the other paths. They will scatter you about from His path: thus He commands you, and may be will you be righteous” (al’An^âm 6:153).









GLOSSARY


Words and expressions explained in this glossary often have more meanings than those we gave. We restricted ourselves to what is useful for the understanding of this work.

‘Abû lQâsim: one of the names of the Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) of the type called ‘kunyah’. Its meaning is ‘father of Qâsim’.
Ahl-e-hadith: from the Arabic ‘ ’ahlu lhadîth ’ (the people of hadîths, i.e. those who claim to follow strictly the sayings of the Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam), name some Wahhabis chose for themselves in the Indian subcontinent.
^Âlim: scholar, plural: ^ulamâ’.
’Anfus: see ‘nafs’.
^Aqîdah: Belief. Perfect Islamic belief is one of the pillars of Sufism.
Attribute: see ‘sifah’.
‘Awliyâ’: plural of ‘waliyy’, see this word.
’Awrâd: plural of ‘wird’, see this word.
Bâtiniyy: esoteric, i.e. meant to be understood or used by the initiated only. Refers mostly to spiritual matters.
Bay^ah (spelt ‘bayat’ in some of their texts): oath of allegiance done to the head of all Muslims, the Khalîfah, or at a lesser degree to one’s spiritual guide.
Bid^ah: innovation or invention, described in hadîth as being either good or bad, but often bad.
Dîwân: a list, among other meanings.
Dhât: the reality of something, what a thing is. We speak for instance of ‘dhâtu-llâh’: the reality of Allâh, not the ‘essence’ and never a so-called ‘nature’ of God.
Dhikr: remembrance of Allâh, consisting generally in repeated religious phrases or His names, for meditation.
Du^â’: Prayer which is not necessarily ritualised and consists simply in addressing Allâh ta^âlà.
Dunyâ: name given to the universe below the heavens, in which we live.
Esoteric: see ‘bâtiniyy’.
Essence: the permanent, as contrasted with the accidental elements of a being. This is how many fake Sufis and philosophers understand the ‘dhât’ of Allâh.
Exoteric: what can be shown or taught to the general public according to some, as opposed to ‘esoteric’.
Faqîh: a scholar whose expertise is in fiqh, Islamic Law (plural: fuqahâ’).
Fiqh: knowledge and understanding of the Islamic Law. Our master ‘Abû Hanîfah (radiya-llâhu ^anh) said: “Fiqh is the knowledge of oneself, one’s rights and one’s duties”.
Fuqahâ’: plural of ‘faqîh’, see this word.
Ghayb (al-): the unknown, among other things: events of the future which Allâh has not unveiled to anyone, such as the time of the Day of Judgement and the events preceding it like the coming of the Mahdiyy.
Gnosis: it is alleged to be the esoteric knowledge of spiritual truths. This word, along with its adjective ‘gnostic’, is very important in Rosicrucian or Masonic spiritual teaching.
Gnostic: which belongs to gnosis or is related to it.
AlHaqq: One of the perfect names of God, meaning: ‘the One who truly exists, whose existence is confirmed’.
Hasan: term used in hadîth science, meaning ‘good’ or ‘reliable’, of a lesser degree than ‘sahîh’.
Hellenistic: what relates to Greek history, culture and ideas after Alexander the Great. A great number of philosophical ideas were developed at the time, in urban centres such as Alexandria. They were syncretism’s of Greek, Hindu or Egyptian ideas.
Heresy: a bad religious innovation or bad bid^ah.
Heretic: someone who accepts a heresy as his own.
Hulûl: incarnation. For instance: the soul incarnates in the body, i.e. it goes into it, in order to be born as a full human being. Many religions believe in the incarnation of God or so-called ‘gods’ into creatures.
‘ilhâm: spiritual inspiration, whose value is to be judged by its conformity with the revealed texts.
‘îmân: faith. Whoever has ‘îmân is called a ‘ mu’min ’.
’Inbi^âth: emanation, that is to say: coming out from a source. A number of sects or religions believe the world to have been originated from God, to have come out of His very reality.
^Irfân: often used in the meaning of ‘spiritual knowledge’, not acquired through the normal channels of experience and learning. Fake Sufis use it in the meaning of ‘gnosis’ (see that word).
Ismailis: from Arabic ‘ ’Ismâ^îliyy ’, related to an extreme Shiite sect, famous for its esotericism.
Kâfir: non-Muslim (plural: kuffâr, etc.).
Kâfirûn or kâfirîn: plurals of ‘kâfir’, see this word.
Kalâm: word or speech. When referring to Allâh’s attribute, we translate it by ‘speech’, trying to avoid people thinking Allâh speaks a language. Not to be mistaken with ‘qalam’, see this word.
Karma: The Webster’s dictionary gave this definition: “the force generated by a person’s actions held in Hinduism and Buddhism to perpetuate transmigration and in its ethical consequences to determine his destiny in the next existence”. This is directly related to their belief in reincarnation or metempsychosis.
Karmic: belonging to the idea of karma, or related to it.
Kashf: unveiling of hidden truths, like future events. This is also to be judged by its conformity to the revealed texts.
Kawthar (al-): name of one of the rivers of Paradise and title of a sura.
Khalwat: from the Arabic ‘khalwah’, used in these texts to mean ‘a spiritual retreat, or isolation from the world’.
Khulafâ’: plural or khalîfah. Here used as a title for those appointed as representatives of the head of a Sufi order.
Kuffâr: another plural form of ‘kâfir’, see this word.
Kufr: the state of being a kâfir, or doing an action which takes out of Islam a person committing it. A person who has fallen into kufr can still do more kufr.
Lawhu lMahfûz (al-): the Preserved Tablet, that is to say the book in which everything that is or happens is written down by the qalam, or ‘pen’.
Makrûh: advised not to do. If you do something makrûh, there is no sin on you, but if you do not for Allâh’s sake, you are entitled to reward.
Maqâmât: spiritual stations, that is the different stages of the spiritual progression of an individual.
Mason or Freemason: somebody belonging to a secret fraternal society dispensing gradually an esoteric teaching. There are many types and orders of Freemasons, under various titles. Some organisations we call Masonic because they share with them essential beliefs and practices and spring from the same historical source, even though their styles might seem quite different.
Masonic: related to Masons.
Maulana or Mowlana: from Arabic ‘Mawlana’, which means ‘our master’: a title often used for spiritual guides, among others.
Mubtadi^: innovator, or in its most common meaning: heretic.
Mu’min: believer, a title that is only used for Muslims in its true meaning.
Mureed: see ‘murid’.
Murid: from Arabic ‘murid’, member of a Sufi order, aspiring to reach the high levels of spirituality granted to Allâh’s beloved.
Muslim: submitted to God. Basically that means a person who professes that God is the only god and that Muhammad (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) is His Messenger, with all the implications.
Mutashâbihah: obscure. Adjective used to describe Qur’ânic verses or hadîths whose difficult text can lead the ignorant and the careless to dangerous interpretations.
Nafs: (plural: ’anfus or nufûs) ego, personality.
Naqshbandi: related to or member of the Sufi order founded by Shah Naqshband (rahimahu-llâh). The deserved prestige of this name has lead many impostors to adorn themselves with it in order to obtain respectability.
Nawâfil: plural of ‘nâfilah’, i.e. a recommended action.
Nubuwwah: prophethood.
Orientalists: western scholars whose field of expertise is in Eastern civilisations, history, literature and religions. Orientalism is too often turned against Islam. It was initiated after the failure of the crusades in order to obtain as precise knowledge as possible about Islam and Muslims. It was also conceived as an ideological weapon meant to sap the ideological strength and unity of this Community, with a claim to scientific objectivity.
Pantheism: see ‘wahdatu lwujûd’.
Philosophical: related to philosophy.
Philosophy: from the Greek ‘love of wisdom’. In Islamic context it refers mainly to heretical movements born out of the influence of Greek Hellenistic thinking on intellectuals of Islamic background.
Preserved Tablet (the -): see ‘alLawhu lMahfûz’.
Qalam: the ‘pen’, that by which Allâh had all written on alLawhu lMahfûz.
Ribâ: usury, or loan granted on the condition that an interest of some kind will be paid. There are other meanings to this word.
Risâlah: state and mission of a ‘rasûl’ (Messenger) of Allâh.
Rosicrucian: related to or member of an organisation devoted to esoteric teaching, claiming to aim at psychic and spiritual enlightenment. The name appeared in the 17th century. They are related to Freemasons, although most of them do not show great interest in political involvement.
Rûh: soul or spirit. There is very little we know about that.
Sahâbah: Companions of the Prophet Muhammad (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) that is to say Muslims who met the Messenger of Allâh (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) and died with their Islamic faith.
Sahîh: true or reliable. Adjective used to describe a reliable report of what the Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam) said or did, or collections of such reports.
Salafi: from Arabic ‘salafiyy’ i.e. related to the first generations after the Messenger of God (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm), called ‘salaf’. Name chosen for themselves by some Wahhabis to illustrate their claim to follow those generations.
Salâh: ritualised prayer performed a set number of time every day.
Sarîh: clear, not ambiguous. Adjective used to describe words or expressions which have only one accepted meaning, as opposed to the zâhir ones.
Shâdhiliyy: related to or member of the Sufi order founded by ‘Abû l-Hasan ashShâdhiliyy (qaddasa-llâhu sirrah). There are some excommunicated branches of this Tarîqah in the Middle East, the Maghreb and France, among others.
Shahâdah: testimony (of faith), in this meaning the word refers to the utterance of: “I profess that there is no god but Allâh and I profess that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allâh”. It is often called ‘ashShahâdatân’ (the two testimonies of faith).
Sharî^ah: the Islamic Law.
Shayâtîn: plural of shaytân, see this word.
Shaykh, sheykh or sheikh: old man. From that basic meaning many others sprang. It is used for religious teachers and spiritual leaders as a mark of respect.
Shaytân: term used to mention the kuffâr among men and jinns, but mainly used against unbelievers from the jinns.
Sheikh or sheykh: see ‘shaykh’.
Sifah: attribute, or characteristic. That is what a being is characterised by or characterises itself by (plural: sifât).
Sifât: see ‘sifah’.
Silsilah: chain. Word used to describe the chain of spiritual masters in a Sufi tarîqah, starting from the Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam), all the way down to the present head of an order. Sometimes called ‘golden chain’ in Britain.
Stranger (’ajnabiyy): Any person of the other sex who you can legally be married with is called ‘stranger’. He or she must not be touched directly, indirectly with lust or stayed alone with, without a third party able to see, whose presence would make two people of opposite sex ashamed to commit indecent acts.
Subhâna-llâhi ^ammâ yasifûn: “Allâh is too glorious to be as they describe Him”. Qur’ânic expression.
Sufi: from Arabic ‘sûfiyy’. Related to or member of an order (tarîqah) or movement dedicated to help people reach sainthood (wilâyah) through strict adherence to perfect belief (^Aqîdah), Islamic Law (Sharî^ah) and renouncement of worldly desires (zuhd). ‘Sufi’ is also used to speak of a master of Sufism, as compared with a murid who aspires to that state.
Sufism: methods or practices used by Sufis, based on Qur’ân and Sunnah.
Sunnah: originally means ‘a rule, a custom’, used now for all that is reported about the Prophet (^alayhi ssalâtu wassalâm) and his blessed Companions (radiya-llâhu ^anhum). The word is also often used as a name for a recommended action, as opposed to an obligatory one.
Tâbi^iyyûn or Tâbi^ûn: generation of Muslims which came after the Sahâbah.
Taqlîd: following the opinions of those who are competent to give religious opinion, to perform ’ijtihâd, that is to say the mujtahids. The opposite of taqlîd is for one to assume one is able to make one’s own deductions from the revealed texts, before reaching the appropriate level of knowledge. Opposition to taqlîd generally comes from groups or sects opposed to orthodoxy, or from westernised circles.
Tarîqah: (plural: turuq) originally means ‘way, path’, is now often used to speak of Sufi organisations or orders.
Tashbîh: comparison. The word is used in theology to speak of a particular case of kufr which consists in making a comparison between Allâh and His creatures, which violates the explanations given in revelation.
Trinity: ‘thâlûth’ in Arabic, a theory concerning the reality of God, conceptualised by some Hellenistic philosophers such as Philo of Alexandria and later by Christianity in the fourth century of their era. There is hardly any branch of Christianity which does not accept this tenet. Basically it says that God, although one, is also three: the father, the son (Jesus according to them) and the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost.
^Ulamâ’: plural of ‘^âlim’, see this word.
’Ummah: nation or community. Every prophet had a nation or community who followed him, so the followers of a prophet are his ’Ummah.
Wahdatu lWujûd: ‘unity of existence/oneness of being’. Religious theory also called ‘pantheism’, represented in Hinduism, which sees all existence as part of God. Some go more subtlely about it, denying any existence that is not Allâh.
Wahhabi: from Arabic ‘wahhâbiyy’, related to or member of the heretical movement revived by Muhammad ibn ^AbdilWahhâb.
Wahi: revelation of Allâh to the Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam).
Waliyy (plural: ‘awliyâ’): from the original meaning of somebody close, it developed other meanings such as ‘saint’.
Wilâyah: sainthood, among other meanings. Its basic conditions are: being a Muslim, carrying all one’s duties, avoiding all sins and performing recommended actions.
Wird: ‘habit’, used for dhikr and du^â’ read daily.
Zâhir: used in a technical sense to speak of words or expressions which can bear several meanings, as opposed to sarîh ones. The word itself has other meanings.
Zandaqah: a state of complete heresy where a person is seen as clearly out of Islam.
Zuhd: renouncing worldly desires, i.e. to control one’s desires or lust very strictly, not to indulge in many pleasures such as sleeping long, eating or drinking much, having many sexual intercourses, etc.


BIBLIOGRAPHY


Apart from excerpts from the Holy Qur’ân and the major collections of hadîth, our quotations or references can be found mainly in:

AL^AQÎDATU LHAQQAH, by Sheikh ’Ahmad ^Abdullâh arRifâ^iyy, ^Âlamu lMaktab, Beyrouth.
AL^AQÎDATU TTAHÂWIYYAH, ‘Abû Ja^far atTahâwiyy (rahimahu-llâh).
AL’ASMÂ’U WASSIFÂT, by alBayhaqiyy (rahimahu-llâh).
ALFARQU BAYNA LFIRAQ, by ‘Abû Mansûr alBaghdâdiyy (rahimahu-llâh).
ARRISÂLATU LQUSHAYRIYYAH FÎ ^ILMI TTASAWWUF of imam ‘Abu lQâsim ^AbdulKarîm ibn Hawâzin alQushayriyy, published by Dâru lKitâbi l^Arabiyy in Beyrouth, Lebanon.
ASHSHIFÂ’, by alQâdî ^Iyâd (rahimahu-llâh).
MISHKÂTU L’ANWÂR , by Muhyiddîn ibn al^Arabiyy (qaddasa-llâhu sirrah).
RUDÛDU ’ABÂTÎL, BY the contemporary Hanafi scholar, Sheikh Muhammad alHâmid (rahimahu-llâh).
VEHEMENT REFUTATION AGAINST THOSE WHO PERMIT SHAKING THE HANDS OF WOMEN (Shaddu lWat’ati ^Alà Man ‘Ajâza Musâfahata lMar’ah), completed in Muharram 1407 and printed in Tangiers.


Other titles:

Many Nazimite titles have imprecise or strange details but are definitely circulated among them.

ABOUT OUR MASTER SHEIKH NAZIM EFFENDI, by Sheikh Hisham, Trust of Islam Publications, Yorkshire, England. I found a copy of this on the shelves of their centre in Sheffield, in August 1992.
ALWASIYYAH, in Arabic (the title is actually: “Wasiyyat Murshidi zZaman waghawthu l’’Anâm...”), a transcription of adDaghestani’s teachings by his disciples.
ANGELS UNVEILED: A SUFI PERSPECTIVE, by Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, KAZI Publications, Inc. 1995.
AN-NASEEHAH, number 5, Ramadan 1415/January 1995, Newsletter of the Haqqani Islamic Trust for New Muslims, U.S.A.
EXAMINING RELIGIONS, ISLAM, New Edition 1995, by Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood, Heinemann Educational Publishers.
HAQIQAT UL-HAQQANI, written, compiled and edited by Naqshbandi Mureeds of Sri Lanka, P.O. Box 61. Colombo, Sri Lanka.
INNOVATION AND TRUE BELIEF: THE CELEBRATION OF MAWLID by Hisham M. Kabbani, 1994.
ISLAM, A DICTIONNARY, by Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood, Stanley Thornes (Publishers) Ltd, 1996
LE SANCTUAIRE INTERIEUR, by Ralph M. Lewis, published in 1980 by Editions Rosicruciennes, Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, France.
MERCY OCEANS, BOOK ONE, transcription of Nazim’s lectures. I am not sure about the title, for I was given a photocophy including the front and back cover, the front being hardly readable. It might be written on it something like ‘The Teachings of ... Abdullâh ad-Daghestani’..[210]
MERCY OCEANS, ENDLESS HORIZONS, transcription of Nazim’s words, 1981.
MERCY OCEANS, HIDDEN TREASURES, transcription of Nazim’s lectures, 1980-1981. Haqqani Publications, 1987[211].
MERCY OCEANS: THE TEACHINGS OF MAULANA ABDULLÂH AL-FAIZI AD-DAGHESTANI by Shaykh Nazim Qibrisi.
MERCY OCEANS’ PINK PEARLS, SELECTED LECTURES OF SHEIKH NAZIM AL-QUBRUSI
MERCY OCEANS’ RISING SUN, Sheikh Nazim al-Qubrusi, transcription of Nazim’s words[212].
MERCY OCEANS’ SECRETS OF THE HEART by Hisham Kabbani, 1991-1992[213].
MESSAGES DU SANCTUM CELESTE, by Raymond Bernard, published in 1980 by Editions Rosicruciennes, Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, France.
MYSTICAL SECRETS OF THE LAST DAYS[214] By Nazim al-Qubrusi. The revised version of “The secrets behind the secrets behind the secrets”. I could only find the first pages of this book as an advertisement on http://islamicbookstore.com/.
OCEANS OF UNITY, Sheikh Nazim al-Qubrusi.
Q-NEWS MAGAZINE of February 1998, England.
THE DAWN OF MAGIC by Louis Powels and Jacques Bergier, 1964.
THE ENDOWMENT OF DIVINE GRACE & THE SPREAD OF DIVINE MERCY Al Fathu Rabbãni wal Faidhu Rahmãni by Sidi Shaykh Muhyiddeen Abdul Qadir Gilani. Trans. by Shaykh Muhammad Al-Akili. © 1990-1997 Pearl Publishing House
-THE FRUIT OF REAL BELIEF AND PERFECT PRACTISING IS PEACE, AN INTERVIEW WITH MAULANA SHAYKH NAZIM AL-HAQQANI, Lefke, Cyprus, August 1988.
THE NAQSHBANDI SUFI WAY..., by Hisham Kabbani, 1995, published and distributed by KAZI Publications, Inc. 3023 W. Belmont Avenue. Chicago IL 60618.[215]
THE NAQSHBANDI WAY, A GUIDEBOOK FOR SPIRITUAL PROGRESS, according to the Instructions of Sultan Ul-Awliya Sheikh Abdullâh Ad-Daghistani, transcription of Nazim’s words.
THE QUR’ÂN FOR THE TWENTIETH CENTURY MAN.
THE SECRETS BEHIND THE SECRETS BEHIND THE SECRETS........ REVEALED BY SHEIKH NAZIM AL-HAQQANI, DURU Offset -Print, Berlin, Germany, 1987, transcription of Nazim’s lectures or interviews.[216]
WINGS OF THE MESSENGER, Dr Abraham Joseph Kahn / Zero Thyra Quensel, 1993.


CONTACT
If you have a comment to make, a personal experience to share, a useful piece of information, you may e-mail me at alijjurdumani@dcemail.com . Abusive letters will be deleted and threats will be reported to the police.

Exchanging information and spreading it, is what they fear most, I have seen it change their attitude on a number of issue.



Last modified in Dhu lQa^dah 1425 H.





[1] See glossary at the end, for the meaning of this word.
[2] This is “The Secrets Behind the Secrets Behind The Secrets”. I have not fully measured yet the full extent of the new version: “Mystical Secrets Of The Last Days”.
[3] AdDaghestani taught that anybody who read alFâtihah would be saved from the punishment in the Hereafter, Nazim said that even saying “God” is enough. The yound man seemed to have tried to save my soul. I had been informed of that behaviour by former Nazimites but it took me some time to realise what had happened.
[4] http://www.sunnah.org/fiqh/refuting_the_habashis.htm. If you have never heard about “the Habashis”, they owe their nickname to their having Studied with Hâfiz alhadîth ^Abdullâh alHarariyy, from Ethiopia (Habashah). They are all Sunnis, mostly Shâfi^is, ‘Ash^aris and Mâturîdis in theology and Rifâ^is in sufism.
[5] His photograph, along with the pompous title “Khalifah of the Naqshbandi Sufis” and some unacceptable propaganda, is even to be found page 152 of a Religious Education textbook written by Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood and used in English secondary schools: ‘Examining Religions, Islam”. The same author even wrote page 61 of ‘Islam, a dictionary’: “Shaikh (sha-ik) a Sufi (► see Sufism) master or teacher such as Shaikh Nazim, the leader of the Naqshbandi Sufis…”
[6] Sheikh Muhammad alHâmid was not only a major Hanafi scholar of the 14th century H. (XX century of the Christian calendar), he was also one of the masters of the honourable Naqshbandi order who fought against pseudo Sufis trying to destroy Sufism from the inside.
[7] May 10th 2003.
[8] See glossary.
[9] http://www.the-heart.net/sohbet/cyprus2002/jun02/13jun.htm . They located it in Cyprus and dated : June 13, 2002. The speech was still on the site in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003).
[10] Page 22.
[11] In his ‘Mercy Oceans’ Secrets of the Heart’, page 15.
[12] Page 105 of his book ‘alBurhânu lMu’ayyid’.
[13] I.e. scholars of the Law, Islamic jurists. The word is the plural form of “faqîh”.
[14] http://www.pearlpublishing.com/. They wrote: “edited by Pearl Publishing House, 1990-1997. by Sidi Shaykh Muhyiddeen Abdul Qadir Gilani. trans. by Shaykh Muhammad Al-Akili . © 1990-1997 Pearl Publishing House.” It is supposed to be a translation of the fifth chapter, named: “The Reason Behind God’s Love For His Servants”. The self-proclaimed Islamic Supreme Council of America (chaired by H. Kabbani, of course), still advertised it in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003), in its spirituality-sufism section, qadiriyah (see: http://www.islamicsupremecouncil.org/).
[15] http://wahiduddin.net/sufi_mystic.htm . It was still there in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003).
[16] http://www.islamicsupremecouncil.org/country_reports/World_Tour_2001/Cyprus/msn-bio.htm
in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003).
[17] Nazim is Turkish, a language which has been written in the same alphabet as English since the first half of the twentieth century (Christian era). He also speaks English, a language he would have learned in the written form first, as taught to his generation.
[18] This sect founded the famous Fatimid dynasty in Egypt but is now to be found mainly in the state of Gujarat, in northern India, where they are called ‘Bhoras’. The rest of their community is scattered in different countries.
[19] “Indo-European” is used to describe the populations who colonised Europe and the Indian subcontinent, thousands of years ago, and their descendants. Their common origin is to be found mainly in their languages. “Semitic” is use to describe another family of languages , such as Hebrew and Arabic, and the people who have been using them.
[20] ‘Hellenistic’ is used mainly to describe philosophies, cultures and societies which resulted from the conquest of Alexander the Great, their basic feature being the use of Greek.
[21] Translated from page 119 of ‘Messages du Sanstum Céleste’, published in 1980 by the Editions Rosicruciennes.
[22] Died in 465 H. (1072).
[23] Born in 470, died in 561 (1077-1166).
[24] Born in 500 or 512, died in 578 (1106 or 1118-1183).
[25] Page 5 of the book called: ‘The fruit of real belief and perfect practising is peace, an interview with Maulana Sheikh Nazim al Haqqani’ (Lefke, Cyprus, august 1988).
[26] Page 37 of the ‘Mercy Oceans’ Secrets of the Heart’.
[27] I.e.: not to be spread among common Muslims!
[28] Pages 33 and 34 of ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’, chapter entitled ‘the conduct of the disciple with his shaikh’ and: http://www.naqshbandi.org/topics/conduct.htm.
[29] Found on Rabî^u l’Awwal 7th 1424 (May 10th 2003).
[30] Pages 162 and 163 of H. Kabbani’s “Angels Unveiled: A Sufi Perspective”.
[31] http://users.moose.co.uk/userfiles/gomez/essay.html. “Mysterious Coincidences: Gurdjieff, the Enneagram and Tradition”. A seminar presented by Jim Gomez at the Third All and Everything International Humanities Conference UK . March, 1998 . note: all material copyright protected ©jim gomez 2000. Transcription of talk with diagrams. The text was still available in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003).

[32] The Seyyid Hossein Nasr Foundation has a website with this revealing comment at the bottom of its first page: “The Seyyed Hossein Nasr Foundation propagates spiritually through perennial philosophy & traditional teachings contained in the Quran. Studies on various facets of Islamic thought, art, civilization.”
[33] Where you can, among other things, learn about astrology and weight loss: http://beliefnet.com/.
[34] Pages 360 and 361.
[35] George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (1877–1949).
[36] By Louis Powels and Jacques Bergier, 1964, page 147.
[37] Copyright © 1924 G. I. Gurdjieff. This webpage © 2000 Gurdjieff Electronic Publishing. Revision: April 1, 2000. Copied on the 7th of Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (10th May 2003).
[38] http://www.portlandcircle.com/diary%20archive/gomez_mar02.htm. All these links still worked on the 7th of Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (10th May 2003).
[39] http://www.naqshbandi.net/haqqani/TODO/interview.html . The following article appeared in the spiritual magazine phenomeNEWS: “Interview with Shaikh Hicham Kabani.” It was still on the site in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003).
[40] 1882-1927.
[41] From “The Message Volumes of Hazrat Inayat Khan, VOLUME I: The Way of Illumination”. Could still be found in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003) on this site: http://www.twinoakscenter.com/sufi/HIK_ten sufithoughts.htm .
[42] “Universal Sufism”, by Dr H.J. Witteveen, published by Element in 1997. Chapter 8 entitled “mysticism: Unity witht God”, page 101. Dr Witteveen quoted from a book called: “The Sufi Message of Inayat Khan”, XI, p 163.
[43] http://www.naqshbandi.org/chain/40.htm in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003).
[44] In Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003), this lady seemed as linked as ever to Nazim alQubrusi. I found one of her books advertised in http://www.familyhaven.com/bookstore/. The name is “Natural Medecines”, by Thyra Zahra Zero Quensel(Illustrator), Sheikh Nazim al Haqqani an Naqshbandiyya (Editor), with this comment: “Shaykh Nazim describes traditional methods of natural healing in this work”.
[45] The “Risâlah” of Imâm alQushayriyy, chapter concerning the beliefs of Sufis and matters about the fundamentals of religion.
[46] Revelation.
[47] See glossary.
[48] Page 49 of his book ‘Mercy Oceans’ Secrets of the Heart’. I think he is quoting Nazim here.
[49] Saint. See glossary.
[50] In ‘Hâshiyatu tTa^arrufi birRisâlati lQushayriyyah’
[51] Sura al’An^âm 6:112.
[52] Page 25 of ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’.
[53] page 27 of ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’ but also: http://www.naqshbandi.org/topics/qualific.htm.
[54] Transmitted by alBukhâriyy through ‘Abû Hurayrah.
[55] ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’ pages 210 and 211 and: http://www.naqshbandi.org/chain/20.htm. Strange, spurious and unreliable stories are a trademark of fake Sufism, they are supported by the followers’ belief in their leaders’ spiritual knowledge.
[56] I am not sure he ever was their official representative in Birmingham. He did act as Nazim’s khalîfah at the time.
[57] I.e.: the sultan/leader of saints, according to them.
[58] Page 53 of ‘Mercy Oceans, book one'.
[59] http://www.the-heart.net/sohbet/cyprus2002/jun02/10jun.htm . Downloaded in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003).
[60] Reported page 15 of the Risâlah of alQushayriyy.
[61] Page 33 of his book ‘alBurhânu lMu’ayyid’.
[62] This is confirmed in the booklet called ‘Our Master Sheikh Nazim Effendi’.
[63] Page 13 of the same booklet.
[64] Page 33 of the same booklet.
[65] “Hachem” is the French spelling for Arabic “Hâshim”.
[66] “Interview with Shaikh Hisham Kabbani”, an article appeared in the spiritual magazine phenomeNEWS and still publicised in the Nazimite site “http://www.naqshbandi.net/haqqani/TODO/ interview.html” in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003).
[67] Page 237 of ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’.
[68] Pages 289 and 290, and: http://www.naqshbandi.org/chain/32.htm.
[69] The Antichrist.
[70] Transmitted by alBukhâriyy through ‘Abû Hurayrah.
[71] I.e. ladies praying in the midst of men.
[72] The man used to be known among Lebanese Nazimites and their opponents, I do not know his present status.
[73] Transmitted by alBukhâriyy and Muslim through ^Abdullâh ibn ^Amr.
[74] Whoever knows who the Falashas are will appreciate how ridiculous the idea of a Falasha mason is, especially at the time of the last emperor of Ethiopia.
[75] The pamphlet is still to be found on at least one of their sites, on the internet: http://www.sunnah.org/fiqh/muslims_beware.htm.
[76] My family tree was traced back to the 15th Christian century and is mainly filled with Catholic Norman farmers and carpenters, hardly a fertile ground for marriage with Jews.
[77] http://www.sunnah.org/fiqh/refuting_the_habashis.htm. It was still there in Rabî u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003).
[78] Extracted from ‘The secrets behind the secrets behind the secrets’, page 22 of the 1987 edition.
[79] Rical, what is meant here is “rijâl” (“men” in Arabic). The spelling is Turkish.
[80] What is meant here is Yemen and Hijâz. This speech was probably transcribed by Turks living in Germany, for it is a mixture of Turkish, German and English spelling.
[81] Pages 140 to 143 of the book ‘The secrets behind the secrets behind the secrets’, edited in 1987.
[82] Extracted from ‘Mercy Oceans, book one, page 171.
[83] Of course, we do not claim either that all Westerners are evil-doers who only use travelling to sin.
[84] Translation from the narration of Ibn Mâjah, through Jâbir.
[85] In the brochure called ‘About our master sheykh Nazim Effendi’, first page.
[86] The Internet version of the book of the so-called “naqshbandi.org” has a very different table of contents, compared with the book whose copy I have. Yet they show the same cover in the book section.
[87] Page 35.
[88] Zero Thyra Quensel, a Nazimite whose indiscriminate reporting of her master’s saying sometimes caused embarrassment to Hisham Kabbani and his team. The only difference between them is that she does not calculate as much as they do and just reports what she witnesses.
[89] Page 99.
[90] ‘Mercy Oceans: The Teachings of Maulana Abdullâh al-Faizi ad-Daghestani’, page 7.
[91] Page 178.
[92] May 5th 2003.
[93] I.e.: commit kufr.
[94] Recommended ritual prayers.
[95] ‘Mercy Oceans Book One’, page 174.
[96] Sura alHujurât 49:15.
[97] Meaning of sura alFath 48:13.
[98] On tape numbered 18, 13th May, side A. One of the tapes I obtained from a French friend who used to be one of Nazim’s disciples and eventually left him. He had quite a collection of their books and recorded lectures.
[99] Extracted from ‘The secrets behind the secrets behind the secrets’, page 90.
[100] From ‘Mercy Oceans’ Pink Pearls, selected lectures of Sheikh Nazim Al-Qubrusi’, chapter called ‘Coasts of truth, an interview’, page 34.
[101] Edited in 1987.
[102] Page 76.
[103] From ‘The secrets behind the secrets behind the secrets’, Basel, Switzerland, 15.7.85, page 2.
[104] http://www.gurdjieff.org/. Copyright © 1924 G. I. Gurdjieff. This webpage © 2000 Gurdjieff Electronic Publishing. Revision: April 1, 2000. Downloaded on the 7th of Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (10th May 2003).
[105] Page 20 of ‘Mercy Oceans’ Secrets of the heart’.
[106] http://www.naqshbandi.org/, H. Kabbani’s official site. “A Talk to the Gurdjieff Group”, Excerpted from the book Mercy Oceans Shore of Safety. Downloaded on the 7th of Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (10th May 2003).
[107] Pages 20 and 21.
[108] From ‘Mercy Oceans: the teachings of Maulana Abdullah al-Faizi ad-Daghestani’, page 78.
[109] http://www.naqshbandi.org/, H. Kabbani’s official site. “A Talk to the Gurdjieff Group”, Excerpted from the book Mercy Oceans Shore of Safety. Downloaded on the 7th of Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (10th May 2003). The rest of the text shows that “we” here refers to all human beings, not just to virtuous Muslims.
[110] Pages 59-60 of ‘Mercy Oceans’ Secrets of the Heart’.
[111] Sura alMâ’idah 5:36.
[112] Sura al’Isrâ’ 17:70.
[113] Sura al’Ambiyâ’ 21:107.
[114] AsSubkiyy, a great defender of orthodoxy, is the great scholar who exposed Ibn Taymiyyah and defeated his ideology until it was unearthed by Muhammad ibn ^AbdilWahhâb, boosted by English and then American intervention and spread with oil-dollars and violence.
[115] Zero Productions, 1998.
[116] http://www.profumo.it/ospiti/zero/zero1.htm. They wrote: “Healing Hearts” , 16 High Street Butleigh nBA6 8SU United Kingdom tel/fax: 01458 850989. Downloaded in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003).
[117] http://khidr.org/al-mahdi.htm. They wrote: “The Coming of Mystery Imam al-Mahdi, A Turkish Grandsheikh visits Kataragama each year to look for signs of the coming of a saviour”. Kataragama is in Sri Lanka. Downloaded in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003).
[118] http://www.the-heart.net/sohbet/cyprus2002/jun02/13jun.htm . They located it in Cyprus and dated : June 13, 2002. The speech was still on the site in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003).
[119] http://www.naqshbandi.net/haqqani/TODO/interview.html . The following article appeared in the spiritual magazine phenomeNEWS: “Interview with Shaikh Hicham Kabani.” It was still on the site in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003).

[120] Page 54 of ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’.
[121] Page 123 of ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’.
[122]Transmitted by atTabarâniyy in alMu^jam asSaghîr. A sentence which is applied where an Islamic state has authority.
[123] ‘Ocean of Unity’, page 33 to 34. The Spanish version was still available in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (may 2003) on http://www.naqshbandi.net/haqqani/Lang/spanish/unity_oceans2.html, where it said: “Después del Diluvio acaecido Dios le ordenó a Noé hacer cuarenta jarrones de arcilla, y poner empeño extra y atención para hacerlos perfectos. Cuando Noé había terminado de hacerlos el Señor le ordenó romperlos en pedazos. Noé obedeció, pero él no estaba feliz con la orden : parecía malicioso para él destruir lo que le había costado tanto esfuerzo en construir.”
[124] ‘Ocean of Unity’, page 30 to 31. In case the meaning would not be clear enough in English, this is what the Spanish version says: “Cuando Abraham era todavía un buscador de la verdad en un nivel de perplejidad de su camino, se volvió un enamorado del sol, la luna, las estrellas, pero en cada meditación el dijo : "Mi amor no es para aquellas cosas que desaparecen" still available in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (may 2003) on http://www.naqshbandi.net/haqqani/Lang/spanish/unity_oceans2.html.
[125] Meaning of al’Ambiyâ’ 21:51.
[126] In his book ‘Mercy Oceans’ Secrets of the Heart’, pages 25 to 26.
[127] In ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’, page 122.
[128] In their book ‘AlWasiyyah’, page 6.
[129] The same kind of statement is to be found page 13 of this book.
[130] Translated from page 23 of ‘alWasiyyah’.
[131] Pages 160 and 161.
[132] Here he translated verse 102 of the second sura, alBaqarah.
[133] Page 41 of his “Angels Unveiled: A Sufi Perspective”.
[134] Transmitted by alBukhâriyy through ‘Abû Sa^îd alKhudriyy.
[135] Transmitted by atTabarâniyy in alMu^jam asSaghîr.
[136] 1981, page 45.
[137] Pages 52 to 56.
[138] Transmitted by atTirmidhiyy, ’Ahmad, Ibn Hibbân, atTabarâniyy and alHâkim.
[139] Transmitted by atTirmidhiyy.
[140] Page 350 of ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’.
[141] Page 31.
[142] I believe this to be a simple typing mistake here, they probably meant “zuhr”.
[143] ‘Mercy Oceans, Book One, page 15 and on http://www.naqshbandi.org/suhba/looknota.htm in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003) at least.
[144] From the book: ‘Mercy Oceans, the teachings of Maulana Abdullah al-Faizi ad-Daghestani’, page 122 to 123.
[145] Page 227 of ‘The Naqshabandi Sufi Way’.
[146] Pages 357 and 358 of ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’.
[147] One could also mention the common belief in so-called “half gods” such as Hercules and others.
[148] From page 36 of ‘Mercy Oceans: Endless Horizons’.
[149] Page 247.
[150] Page 58 of ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’.
[151] The word “wajh” whose basic meaning is ‘face’ has many other meanings. The Salaf, as the Khalaf, explained the different use of it in the holy Qur’ân, when it refers to Allâh. This is a major source of contention between Wahhâbis and ‘Ahlu sSunnah.
[152] The question “’Ayna ma^bûduk ? » uses the word « ‘ayn » which means « where » but is also used to enquire about the status of something, so the learned Muslim would mean “what is the status of the one you worship, in your belief”, where as the anthropomorphist would understand it as a question about location.
[153] The “Risâlah” of Imâm alQushayriyy, chapter concerning the beliefs of Sufis and matters about the fundamentals of religion.
[154] The “Risâlah” of Imâm alQushayriyy, chapter concerning the beliefs of Sufis and matters about the fundamentals of religion.
[155] ‘Mercy Oceans: Endless Horizons’ page 3.
[156] From ‘Mercy Oceans’ Rising Sun’, page 21.
[157] From ‘Mercy Oceans’, page 53.
[158] From ‘Mercy Oceans book one’, page 53.
[159] Extracted from ‘The Qur’ân for the twentieth century man’, probably page 37 (the number is not very clear on my photocopy).
[160] Page 17.
[161] Page 23 of ‘Mercy Oceans’ Secrets of the Heart’.
[162] Page 116 of ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’.
[163] From the book “Angels Unveiled” , M. H. Kabbani. This particular excerpt was downloaded from www.naqshbandi.org/library/angels/angels1 in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003).
[164] In his reference book: “atTa^arruf liMadhhabi ‘Ahli tTasawwuf”, in the chapter concerning the Sufi position on Tawhîd.
[165] From ‘Mercy Oceans: The Teachings of Maulana Abdullah al-Faizi ad-Daghestani’, page 123.
[166] From ‘Mercy Oceans: The Teachings of Maulana Abdullâh al-Faizi ad-Daghestani’, page 7.
[167] From ‘Mercy Oceans: The Teachings of Maulana Abdullâh al-Faizi ad-Daghestani, page 11.
[168] You might notice here again their use of ‘Sal’ or ‘Alai’ instead of the prayer which is sunnah. This bid^ah is widely encouraged by Wahhabis and so-called modernists who have not time for that. Maybe do they find that word processing on a computer , copying and pasting, makes it too hard and that it was really easy for our predecessors who wrote each du^â’ with their own hands.
[169] In his book ‘Mercy Oceans’ Secrets of the Heart’, page 38.
[170] Found on http://www.naqshbandi.org/chain/40.htm on the 9th of Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424. Or page 404 of “The Naqshbandi Sufi Way”, part II, chapter 40, by M. H. Kabbani (1995).
[171] The “Risâlah” of Imâm alQushayriyy, chapter concerning the beliefs of Sufis and matters about the fundamentals of religion.
[172] From ‘Mercy Oceans’ Rising Sun’, page 21.
[173]‘Mercy Oceans, book one, page 204.
[174] From ‘The Qur’ân for the twentieth century man”, page 37 seemingly.
[175] Translated as “oneness of being”, “unity of existence”, etc. Sometimes it is pantheism, other times it is monism, plus a few other variations.
[176] Meaning “god”, in the nasb case.
[177] I translated the excerpt from ‘Le Sanctuaire Intérieur’, edited in French in 1980, by Editions Rosicruciennes.
[178] Page 32 of the same book.
[179] Page 207 of ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’.
[180] Page 177.
[181] Page 24 of ‘Mercy Oceans’ Secrets of the Heart’.
[182] In ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’, page 237.
[183] Reported page 350 of the same book.
[184] Number 5, Ramadan 1415.
[185] ‘Mercy Oceans, Book One’, page 52.
[186] Still to be found on http://naqshbandi.org/topics/refute/aicp/aicp10.htm in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003).
[187] ‘The secrets behind the secrets behind the secrets’ page 137.
[188] Transmitted by alHâkim in ‘alMustadrak’, vol 4, and classified as hasan.
[189] http://www.naqshbandi.org/chain/33.htm, at least until Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003).
[190] Pages 98 and 99.
[191] Transmitted also by ’Ahmad, anNasâ’iyy, Ibn Mâjah and atTirmidhiyy and classified as sahîh.
[192] This is sheikh ^Abdul^Azîz ibn Muhammad ibn asSidîq alGhummâriyy, of the town of Tangiers in northern Morocco, undisputed scholar in the science of hadîth.
[193] Stranger (‘ajnabiyy) refers in fiqh to any person of the other gender one could marry with if there is no legal impediment at the time. The opposite of a stranger is a mahram, i.e. a person you may not marry with under any circumstance.
[194] In Arabic: “Shaddu lWat’ati ^Alà Man ‘Ajâza Musâfahata lMar’ah”, completed in Muharram 1407 and printed in Tangiers.
[195] Pages 2 and 3.
[196] Pages 8 and 9.
[197] Meaning : « Do not come close to obscene acts, neither what is apparent, nor what is hidden ».
[198] Page 9.
[199] Page 24.
[200] Page 19.
[201] Page 18 of alWasiyyah”.
[202] ‘Mercy Oceans, book one’, page 170.
[203] Page 192 of ‘The Naqshbandi Sufi Way’ or on http://www.naqshbandi.org/chain/18.htm, at least until Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003).
[204] ‘Mercy Oceans, book one’, page 198.
[205] ‘Mercy Oceans, book one’, page 185.
[206] ‘Mercy Oceans,book one’, page 233.
[207] ‘Mercy Oceans: the teachings of Maulana Abdullâh al-Faizi ad-Daghestani’, page 27.
[208] Heard on tape number 18, side A, 13 May.
[209] Page 27.
[210] Still advertised on the in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003) In the so-called ‘Naqshbandi Books’ section of http://www.naqshbandi.org/, the site proudly proclaiming it was founded by H. Kabbani, but I still cannot read the smaller print under the general title. The cover is olive green.
[211] Still advertised in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003) In the so-called ‘Naqshbandi Books’ section of http://www.naqshbandi.org/ and they say: “available on the Internet”!.
[212] Still advertised in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003) In the so-called ‘Naqshbandi Books’ section of http://www.naqshbandi.org/.
[213] Still advertised in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003)) In the so-called ‘Naqshbandi Books’ section of http://www.naqshbandi.org/.
[214] Advertised in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003) on http://islamicbookstore.com/b2956.html with this revealing comment: “Learn about the Sufi Way, which is the origin of the Gurdjieff work and the Enneagram. In these lectures to residents of a Hindu community in Switzerland, the Shaykh unveils the mystical secrets of the Last Days.” Otherwise, I also found it advertised on http://shop.store.yahoo.com/islamicshoppingnetwork/55-0879.html and http://www.naqshbandi.org/ library/list.htm
[215] Still advertised in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003). In the so-called ‘Naqshbandi Books’ section of http://www.naqshbandi.org/.
[216] The Spanish version of this book: “Los Misterios detras de los Misterios detrás de los Misterios” was still advertised in Rabî^u l’Awwal 1424 (May 2003) on their sites: http://www.haqqani.arrakis.es/ direcciones/libros-cd.htm and shop.store.yahoo.com/islamicshoppingnetwork/ spirsuf.html.