A Life of Love for the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH): A Biography of Shaikh Muhammad Al-Muhammad Al-Kasnazan

The Author

Louay Fatoohi was born in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1961. He and his wife migrated to the UK in 1992. He lives in Birmingham, England. He obtained a BSc in physics from Baghdad University, Iraq, in 1984 and a PhD in astronomy from Durham University, UK, in 1998.

Originally from a Christian family, Louay reverted to Islam in his early twenties. He is one of the caliphs (representatives) of Ṭarīqa Kasnazāniyya. In addition to being his faith of choice and way of life, Islam is for him a subject of deep intellectual interest. He is interested in Qur’anic and Islamic studies in general, but his main areas of research are as follows:

The comparative study of history in the Qur’an, Jewish and Christian scriptures, and independent historical sources

Sufism

The history of the Qur’anic text and revelation

Qur’anic exegesis

Louay is a prolific author who has published over twenty-five books in English and Arabic in Islamic studies. He has also published over twenty research papers on cosmology, applied historical astronomy, and the Islamic calendar.

Contents

The Author

Preface: Sources and Documentation

Introduction: Structure and Contents

1 Prophetic Lineage and Eminent Shaikhs

2 A Birth of Good News

3 Upbringing in a Spiritual Household

4 Religious and Academic Education

5 Political and Military Activity with the Kurdish Movement

6 Family Life

7 Being Chosen for the Shaikhdom of Ṭarīqa

8 Assuming the Shaikhdom

9 Retreating to Worship Allah

10 Moving the Central Takya to Baghdad

11 Calling People to Allah and His Prophet (PBUH)

12 Developing the Dhikrs of Ṭarīqa

13 Worshipping and Qiyām al-layl

14 Introducing the Muḥammadī Calendars

15 Caring for Holy Sites

16 Listening to Odes of Praise

17 Dealing with Political Persecution

18 Self-Educating and Admiring Knowledge

19 Appointing the Next Shaikh

20 Muḥammadan Traits

21 Leadership Qualities

22 Hobbies and Interests

23 The Absent Yet Present Full Moon of Kasnazān

Biographical Timeline

References

Allah (high is He) is present and sees and witnesses what happens. He is the King of Kings, His is the creation and the command (al-Aʿrāf 7:54). Allah is eternal; Allah is alive and never dies, To Allah we belong and to Him we will return (al-Baqara 2:156); every soul will taste death (Āl ʿImrān 3:185). Every day, we come closer to death because every day brings the appointed time closer. We have to take advantage of life and dedicate it to obeying Allah (exalted and high is He). No one lives forever.

Think well and have faith in Allah (high is He), obey His commandments, and refrain from what He ordered you not to do. Your Ṭarīqa guides you to the closeness of Allah. Always hold yourselves to account, exchange advice and guidance, and love each other in Allah’s cause. Remember Him often and often read prayers on our Master the Messenger (PBUH). May Allah bless you. Allāhumma ṣallī ʿalā sayyidinā Muḥammadi ʾl-waṣfi wal-waḥyi war-risālati wal-ḥikmati waʿalā ʾālihi wa-ṣaḥbihi wa-sallim taslīmā. Our Lord! Give us good in this world and good in the hereafter and protect us from the torment of the Fire! (al-Baqara 2:201).

Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān

(Sermon, 2 April 2000)

Preface: Sources and Documentation

This book is mainly extracted from my detailed biography of Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān. I should introduce that book first before talking about the current derivative work.

The first Arabic edition of my detailed biography of our Master (may Allah sanctify his secret), Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān al-Ḥusaynī: A Life in the Footsteps of the Best of Lives, was published in October 2018. A revised second edition followed in May 2019. As the English translation of the biography was about to be completed, on 4 July 2020, Allah chose our noble Shaikh to be with Him, in the company of the Prophets, the truthful, the martyrs, and the righteous. After serving as the Shaikh of Ṭarīqa of his great-grandfather, the Prophet Muḥammad (PBUH), for forty-two years, he was succeeded by the man he had chosen decades earlier to take over after him, his eldest son, Shaikh Shamduddīn Muḥammad Nahro al-Kasnazān. Less than two months later, the English translation of the biography was published at the end of August 2020.

I compiled the material of the biography from a variety of sources. I took the thinking and opinions of our Shaikh directly from him. I confined my sources in this case to his public sermons that I was fortunate enough to attend or obtain video or audio recordings of, his speeches and conversations in private sessions that he was generous enough to give me the opportunity to attend, and his published writings. When quoting from his sermons, I converted the wording from the Iraqi dialect to standard Arabic and edited them, carefully preserving the original meaning without any change.

I have taken the details of our Shaikh’s life, as well as the history of the Kasnazānī Shaikhs before him, from two main sources, in addition to him: first, his relatives and followers who accompanied him in the various stages of his life, before and after assuming the Shaikhdom; second, his sermons, conversations, and writings. I would like to particularly thank Shaikh Sāmān Maʿrūf, who is married to one of our Shaikh’s sisters and whose sister was married to our Shaikh; caliph Yāsīn Ṣūfī ʿAbd Allah, who accompanied our Shaikh closely and knew him since his childhood and was a dervish from the time of his father and predecessor, Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Kasnazān. I am also greatly indebted to caliph ʿImād ʿAbd al-Ṣamad who, in addition to providing me with some of the material of the book, facilitated the collection of other material. My wife, Dr Shetha al-Dargazelli, contributed immensely valuable corrections and comments on drafts of the book.

I carefully examined the historical details that I did not get directly from the Shaikh. He instructed me to be particularly careful when examining accounts of supernatural feats of the Shaikhs of Ṭarīqa, to spot and discard false reports and to investigate and verify any inaccuracies in reports of real events. He asked me to check with him or with Shaikh Sāmān if need be. Many events are decades old, and human memory often forgets some details over time or even changes them inadvertently. Additionally, the narrators of some events did not witness them but conveyed what they had heard. I compiled and scrutinised these narratives with care, something that I was helped with by the multiplicity of sources. I did not include narratives where I could not feel confident in their authenticity and accuracy. At times, I could not verify certain details of a particular event, so I documented the details that I determined to be accurate and ignored the rest.

While listening to my interviewees talking about the history of our Shaikh during the compilation of the material for the book, the following majestic line of poetry would appear in my head now and then:

Never I sat to talk to people

but you were the subject of my speech with my conversants.

The martyr al-Hallāj here describes the complete engrossment with the love of Allah (mighty and sublime is He) that took over his mind, heart, and senses such that he could no longer talk about anyone other than his Beloved. Talking about the Shaikhs of Ṭarīqa and their lives is a form of remembering Allah. What distinguished them and made them the centre of attention is the life of piety and worship that every one of them led. In addition, they dedicated their lives to guiding those who seek nearness to Allah and urging and showing them how to be a source of good for themselves and others.

Nearness to Allah grants every Shaikh of Ṭarīqa great, special blessings that are manifested in countless supernatural wonders. These karāmas, as they are known, are the ink with which a large part of the Shaikh’s life is written. Karāmas play a major role in the Shaikh’s life, surrounding him even before becoming a Shaikh. Some karāmas point to him even before his birth, confirming his selection by Allah for that spiritual leadership. Accordingly, wonders permeated all stages of the life of Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān. It is only natural, then, that his biography is imbued with supernatural feats.

As there are countless karāmas and they continue to occur all the time, no book can compile more than a tiny number of them. I have only mentioned wonders that have explanatory functions in their respective contexts. The life of our Shaikh cannot be sufficiently covered without referring to the history, legacy, and karāmas of the Shaikhs of Ṭarīqa Kasnazāniyya who preceded him. I have, however, quoted only a small part of this blessed history, as required by the subjects and objectives of the book.

I wrote the biography in a unique way. It introduced the life of the honourable Shaikh in the context of explaining the Sufi method to get close to Allah, and it expounded Sufism in the course of narrating his life story. Said differently, the book explained Sufism through our Shaikh’s life and, at the same time, recounted his life events through an introduction to Sufism, which represents the spiritual side of Islam. Many who are interested in the life of the Shaikh would also be interested in an introduction to Sufi concepts and practices, in particular, if they are not familiar with Sufism. This integrated introduction to both the life of a Sufi Shaikh and his thought is possible because his life embodies his beliefs.

Some readers, however, would rather read the biography of our Shaikh and his Sufi thought separately so that they can concentrate on one of them at a time. I, therefore, decided to extract two middle-sized books from the large-volume biography: one focuses on the biography of the Shaikh and the second introduces Sufism according to Ṭarīqa ʿAliyya Qādiriyya Kasnazāniyya (Ṭarīqa Kasnazāniyya). I did my best to avoid any repetition between the two books other than the minimal amount that I considered necessary to appear in both books. To ensure the two books covered all the topics of the sourcebook, I worked on them at the same time. I also had to restructure and rewrite the source material. I have also taken this opportunity to add to both books additional materials that I did not include in the sourcebook.

I substantively abbreviated the two chapters on the Shaikh’s involvement in the Kurdish movement and the persecution of Ṭarīqa by the Iraqi regime in the 1990s. Details of various events in these chapters were necessary to cover in the original book to serve as a reference for historians, but much of this information is of little interest to those who are not specifically concerned with the details of these two periods. The two abbreviated chapters in this book document what is relevant from these two periods to the life of the Shaikh and Ṭarīqa.

I decided to write these two books in Arabic first and then translate them into English. The first book, Ḥayātun wa fanāʾun fī ḥubbi al-Nabī Muḥammad (PBUH): sīrat al-sayyid al-Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān, which focuses on the biography of the Shaikh, came out in November 2020. The second, which explains the Sufi path according to Ṭarīqa Kasnazāniyya, was published one month later, under the title al-Taṣawwuf fī al-Ṭarīqa al-ʿAliyya al-Qādiriyya al-Kasnazāniyya: manhajun taṭbiqiyyun lil-jānib al-ruḥī lil-Islām. The present volume is the English translation of the biography book.

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

Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān

(Sermon, 7 February 2013)

Introduction: Structure and Contents

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our actions and our movements are all by the spiritual influence of the Messenger (PBUH), the people of the Prophetic household, al-Karrār (Imām ʿAlī), Imām Ḥusayn, our Master al-Gaylāni, and our Master Shāh al-Kasnazān, may Allah sanctify their secrets. We walk with their spiritual influence, their power, their blessing, and their supervision.

Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān

(Sermon, 7 January 2010)

1 Prophetic Lineage and Eminent Shaikhs

The lineage of sayyid¹ Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān traces back to the Prophet Muḥammad (PBUH) on both his father’s and mother’s side. Descending from the Prophet (PBUH) has great significance, as illustrated in this ḥadīth:

Indeed, I am leaving among you that which, if you hold fast to, you shall not go astray after me. One of them is greater than the other: Allah’s Book, which is a rope extending from the sky to the earth, and my family, the people of my household. They shall not split until they meet me at the basin, so look after how you deal with them after me".²

This ḥadīth has a clear instruction: following Allah and the Prophet (PBUH) means to follow the Qur’an and the Prophetic household. The latter does not refer to all those who are related to the Prophet (PBUH) by blood. Rather, it means that those who are nearest Him, most active in preaching and calling to His way, and the inheritors of most of the Prophet’s (PBUH) spiritual states have been and will be from his progeny. Indeed, history shows that the most successful and effective callers to Allah’s way have been from the Prophetic household. The above ḥadīth explains this verse, Allah intends only to remove from you the impurity [of sin], O people of the [Prophet's] household, and to purify you with [extensive] purification (al-Ᾱḥzāb 33:33).

Some accounts suggest that the Prophet (PBUH) said the above words a few months before his passing from this world. According to the way it is narrated in Saḥiḥ Muslim, before stating the ḥadīth, the Messenger (PBUH) said, I am only a man who is about to receive my Lord’s messenger [i.e. the Angel of Death],³  which confirms that the ḥadīth was stated just before he departed from this world. This compilation of ḥadīths also mentions that the Prophet (PBUH) delivered the sermon at the brook of Khumm, which means that it is likely the same sermon in which Imam ʿAlī’s authority over the Muslims was declared, O Allah! Whoever I have been a Master to, then ʿAlī is his Master too. O Allah! Befriend those who befriend him and be enemy to those who take him for an enemy; support those who support him and forsake those who forsake him.⁴  It is evident from the ḥadīth that it was a final will, meaning that it is likely one of the last major instructions he issued. This, in turn, confirms its importance and clarifies its meaning and significance.

Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān descended from a family from northern Iraq known as Barzinjī after sayyid ʿĪsā al-Barzinjī. Persecution forced many descendants of the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) to emigrate from his homeland of the Arabian Peninsula. This emigration was apparently harmful to the emigrants but, on a deeper level, it was actually a source of mercy for the inhabitants of the destination areas as the emigrants guided them to the way of their great forefather (PBUH).

One of these descendants, Yūsuf, emigrated north to the city of Hamadān, in northwestern present-day Iran, so he acquired the title of al-Hamadānī. Sayyid Yūsuf al-Hamadānī was a scholar, a Sufi, and an ascetic, and he was well versed in Islamic jurisprudence. As a result of his piety and knowledge, thousands of people gathered around him to learn about Sufism and other religious sciences. He was known as the Shooting Star of Religion.

To avoid any confusion, we should clarify that the Yūsuf al-Hamadānī we are referring to is not Shaikh Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf al-Hamadānī, who was a contemporary of Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Gaylānī. When Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir visited Abū Yaʿqūb, the latter said to him, It’s as if I see you [in the future] in Baghdad, sitting on the preaching chair, addressing the public, saying, ‘this foot of mine is on the neck of every walī’. It’s as if I see the walīs in your time bowing their necks out of reverence for you.⁵ Sayyid Yūsuf al-Hamadānī, on the other hand, came about two centuries after Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir.

Yūsuf al-Hamadānī was the son of sayyid Muḥammad al-Manṣūr; son of sayyid ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz; son of sayyid ʿAbd Allah; son of sayyid Ismāʿīl al-Muḥaddath; son of Imām Mūsā al-Kāẓim; son of Imām Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq; son of Imām Muḥammad al-Bāqir; son of Imām ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn; son of Imām al-Ḥusayn; son of Imām ʿAlī Ibn Abī Ṭālib (may Allah ennoble his face) and sayyida Fāṭima al-Zahrāʾ, the daughter of the Seal of Prophets and Messengers, Muḥammad (PBUH).⁶

Sayyid Yūsuf had a son named Bābā ʿAlī, who became a prominent scholar and Sufi and had three sons: Mūsā, ʿĪsā, and Muḥammad. The three brothers went to perform the pilgrimage and to visit the Messenger (PBUH). Returning via Iraq, they headed north until they reached the area that later became known as Barzinja, where they decided to stay for some time. One night, ʿĪsā saw the Prophet (PBUH) order him to permanently settle in the area and build a mosque there. His elder brother, Mūsā, stayed with him, while their younger brother, Muḥammad, returned to Hamadān, before settling in Afghanistan.

Sayyid Mūsā and sayyid ʿĪsā carried out the Prophet’s (PBUH) order to build