Sultan ul Awliya

In the year 1364 H/1944 CE, Shaykh Nazim moved on to Tripoli by bus. The bus took him to the harbor and dropped him there. He was a stranger there, not knowing anyone. As he wandered around the harbor area, he saw someone coming from the opposite side of the street. That person was Shaykh Munir al-Malek, the Mufti of Tripoli. He was, at the same time, the Shaykh of all Sufi Orders in the city. He approached and said, "Are you Shaykh Nazim? I saw a dream with the Prophet telling me, 'One of my grandsons is coming to Tripoli.' He showed me your appearance and told me to look for you in this area. He told me to take care of you."

Shaykh Nazim relates:

"I stayed with Shaykh Munir al-Malek for a month. Then he arranged for me to go to Homs and from Homs to Damascus. I arrived in Damascus on a Friday, in 1945 CE/1365 H. at the beginning of the Hijri year. I knew that Shaykh `Abdullah was living in the district of Hayy al-Maidan, near the tomb of Sayyidina Bilal al-Habashi (r) and many descendants of the Family of the Prophet , an ancient area full of monuments from long ago.

"I didn't know which house was the Shaykh's. A vision appeared to me at that moment, while standing in the street, that the Shaykh was coming out of his house and calling me inside. That vision ended but I could see no one in the streets. It was empty because of the bombardment by the French and the English. Everyone was afraid, hiding in their houses. I was alone in the streets. I was contemplating in my heart to know which house was the Shaykh's. Then in a vision I saw a specific house with a specific door. I looked until I found that door. As I approached to knock on the door, the Shaykh opened the door. He said, 'Welcome, my son, Nazim Effendi.'

"His unusual appearance immediately attracted me. I had never seen such a Shaykh before. Light poured from his face and forehead. Warmth was coming from his heart and from the brilliant smile on his face. He took me upstairs, climbing up to his room telling me, 'We have been waiting for you.'"

"In my heart I was completely happy to be with him, but I also had a yearning to visit the city of the Holy Prophet . I asked him, 'What shall I do?' He said, 'Tomorrow I will give you your answer. For now, rest.' He offered me dinner and I prayed the Night Prayer with him and slept. In the early morning he woke me for tahajjud (after-midnight) prayer. Never in my life had I felt such power as that in his prayer. I felt myself in the Divine Presence and my heart was more and more attracted to him.

"A vision came to me and I saw myself climbing a ladder from our prayer place to the Bayt al-Ma'mur, the Ka`ba of the Heavens, step by step. Every step was a state in which he put me, and in each state I received, in my heart, knowledge that I had never before learned or heard about. Words, phrases and sentences were put together in such a magnificent way, transmitted inside my heart in every state that I had been lifted to, until we reached the Bayt al-Ma'mur. There I saw 124,000 prophets standing in rows for prayers, with Sayyidina Muhammad as Imam. I saw 124,000 Companions of the Prophet Muhammad standing in rows behind them. Then I saw the 7,007 Saints of the Naqshbandi Order standing behind them for prayer. Then I saw 124,000 saints of the other orders, standing in rows for prayers.

There was a space left for two people directly on the right side of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (r). Grandshaykh went to that open space and he took me with him and we prayed Dawn Prayer. Never in my life had I experienced the sweetness of that prayer, and when the Prophet Muhammad lead the prayer, the beauty of his recitation was indescribable. It was an experience that no words can describe, because it was a Divine matter. As the prayer ended, the vision ended, and I heard the Shaykh telling me to call the adhan for Fajr."

"He prayed the Dawn Prayer and I prayed behind him. Outside I could hear the bombardment of the two armies. He gave me initiation in the Naqshbandi Order and he said to me, 'O my son, we have power that in one second we can make our murid reach his station. As soon as he said that he looked into my heart with his eyes, and as he did so they turned from yellow to red, then to white, then to green and black. The color of his eyes changed as he poured into my heart the knowledge associated with each color.

The yellow light was the first and corresponded to the state of the Heart (Qalb). He poured into my heart all kinds of the external knowledge which is necessary for the daily life of people. Then he poured from the stage of the Secret (Sirr), the knowledge of all forty Orders which came from Sayiddina `Ali (r), and I found myself a master in all these Orders. While transmitting the knowledge of this Stage, his eyes were red. The third stage, which is the Secret of the Secret (Sirr as-Sirr), is only permitted for Shaykhs of the Naqshbandi Order, whose imam is Sayyidina Abu Bakr (r). As he poured into my heart from this stage, his eyes were white in color. Then he took me into the Stage of the Hidden (Khafa), the station of hidden spiritual knowledge, where his eyes were changing to green. Then he took me to the Station of Complete Annihilation, the Station of the Most Hidden (Akhfa) where nothing appeared, and the color of his eyes was black. Here he brought me into the presence of Allah. Then he brought me back to existence."

"My love for him at that moment was so intense that I could not imagine being away from him, and I desired nothing more than to stay with him forever and serve him. Then the storm arrived, the tornado descended, and turbulence threatened the calm. The test was gigantic. My heart was in despair when he told me, 'My son, your people are in need of you. I have given you enough for now. Go to Cyprus today.' I had spent one year and a half to reach him. I spent one night with him. Now he was ordering me to go back to Cyprus, a place I hadn't seen in five years. It was a terrible order for me, but in tariqat the murid must surrender and submit to the will of his Shaykh."

"After kissing his hands and feet, and taking his permission, I tried to find a way to travel to Cyprus. The Second World War was reaching its end. There was no transportation. As I was in the street thinking these thoughts a person came to me and said, 'O Shaykh, do you need a ride?' I said, 'Yes! Where are you are going?' He said, 'To Tripoli.' He took me in his truck and after two days we reached Tripoli. When we arrived there I said, 'Take me to the seaport.' He said, 'What for?' I said, 'To find a ship to Cyprus.' He said, 'How? No one is traveling in the sea with this great war going on.' I said, 'Never mind that, just take me there.' He took me to the seaport and dropped me there. I was again surprised when I saw Shaykh Munir al-Malek coming towards me. He said, 'What is that love your grandfather has for you? The Prophet came again to me in my dream and said, 'My son Nazim is coming. Take care of him.'"

"I stayed with him three days. I asked him to help me arrange passage to Cyprus. He tried, but it was impossible at that time because of the war and the shortage of fuel. He could find nothing except a sailboat. He told me, 'You can go but it is dangerous.' I said, 'I must go, because that is the order of my Shaykh.' Shaykh Munir payed the owner a heavy price to get him to take me. We set sail. It took us seven days to reach Cyprus, a trip which normally takes four hours by motorboat."

"As soon as I landed and put my foot on the soil of Cyprus, immediately a spiritual vision was opened to my heart. I saw Grandshaykh `Abdullah Daghestani saying to me, 'O my son. Nothing was able to keep you from carrying out my order. You have acheived a lot by listening and accepting. From this moment I will always be visible to you. Anytime you direct your heart towards me I will be there. Any question you have you will receive an answer directly from the Divine Presence. Any spiritual state you wish to achieve it will be granted to you because of your complete submission. The Saints are all happy with you, the Prophet is happy with you. As soon as he said that I felt him beside me, and since then he has never left me. He is always beside me."

During his first year in Istanbul he met his first spiritual Shaykh, Shaykh Sulayman Arzarumi, a Shaykh of the Naqshbandi Order who died in 1368 H/1948 CE. While he studied Chemical Engineering, he would attend the gathering of this Shaykh to learn the discipline of the Naqshbandi Order, in addition to his two orders, the Qadiri and the Mevlevi.

He could usually be seen in Sultan Ahmad's Mosque, meditating by himself throughout the night. He says,

"There I received great blessings and great peace in my heart. I always prayed the Dawn Prayer in that mosque with my two Shaykhs, Shaykh Jamaluddin al-Alasuni and Shaykh Sulayman Arzarumi. They were educating me and putting in my heart the spiritual knowledge. I had many visions during that time, drawing me to go to the Holy Land of Damascus, but I didn't yet have permission from my Shaykh. Many times in my visions, through Self-Effacement, I saw the Prophet Muhammad calling me to his presence. There was a deep yearning in my heart to leave everything and to migrate to the Holy City of the Prophet .

"One day, when this longing in my heart was particularly intense, I saw a vision in which my Shaykh, Sulayman Arzarumi, came, shook me by the shoulder, and told me, 'Now the permission has come. Your secrets and your trust and your spiritual guidance are not with me. I only held you as a trust until you were ready for your real Shaykh, who is also my Shaykh, Shaykh `Abdullah ad-Daghestani. He is holding your keys. So go to him in Sham. This permission comes from me and from the Prophet ." [Shaykh Sulayman Arzurumi was one of the 313 saints of the Naqshbandi Order, who stand in the footsteps of and represent the 313 messengers.]

"That vision ended, and with it I had received the permission to move to Sham. I looked for my Shaykh to tell him about that vision. I found him coming to the mosque after about two hours. I ran to him. He opened his arms and said to me, 'My son, are you happy with your vision?' Then I knew that he knew everything that had happened. He said, 'Don't wait. Direct yourself to Sham.' He didn't give me an address or any other information, except the name, Shaykh `Abdullah ad-Daghestani, in Sham. I traveled from Istanbul to Aleppo by train, where I stayed some time. While there I would go from one to mosque to another, praying, sitting with scholars and spending time in worship and meditation.

"Then I travelled to Hama, which, like Aleppo, is a very ancient city. I tried to move on to Sham, but it was impossible. The French, who occupied Sham, were preparing for an attack by the English. So I traveled to Homs to the grave of Sayiddina Khalid ibn Walid (r), a Companion of the Prophet . I visited Khalid ibn Walid (r) and then I went into the mosque and prayed. A servant came to me and said, 'I saw a dream last night in which the Prophet came to me. He said, 'One of my grandsons is coming here tomorrow. Take care of him for me.' Then he showed me how you would look. Now I see you are that person.'

"I was so taken by what he said, that I accepted his invitation. He gave me one room near that mosque, where I stayed for one year. I didn't go out except to pray and to sit in the majlis of two eminent scholars of Homs, who were teaching Recitation (tajwid), Exegesis (tafsir), Narration of Traditions ('ilm al-hadith) and Jurisprudence (fiqh). They were Shaykh Muhammad `Ali `Uyun as-Sud and Shaykh Abdul `Aziz `Uyun as-Sud, the Mufti of Homs. I also attended the spiritual teachings of two Naqshbandi Shaykhs, Shaykh `Abul Jalil Murad and Shaykh Sa'id as-Suba'i. My heart was yearning to go to Sham. Because the war was so intense, I decided to go to Tripoli in Lebanon, from there to Beirut and from Beirut to Sham by a safer way."