By Paul Salahuddin Armstrong

“We have four seasons in our lives. First, springtime comes, second, summertime; the third season, autumn; the fourth one, winter. So many people may go during springtime, at the beginning or in the middle or the end. Some people come to summertime, also; at the beginning, the middle, or the end of summer, they may go. Some people come to autumn; yes.

Some people go away at the beginning or middle or end of autumn. Then, a very few people come to wintertime. In wintertime, some people are going at the beginning, some people are going in the middle, but most must go at the end of wintertime. This is our life.”

~ Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, Liberating the Soul: Volume 1.

Mawlana Shaykh Nazim Adil al-Haqqani, a man never promoted by the media, a man not ordinarily famous, not a celebrity in the usual sense, a Muslim, scholar, pious man; a man who nevertheless touched the hearts of millions of people around the world. Mawlana, as he is affectionately known to many of his murids (students), will be sorely missed… At any given time, there are countless Awliya Allah (Friends of God) living in different countries around the world. Many known only to Allah, others known to their murids, a few touch everyone who has eyes to see the Spirit of Divine Love flowing through them; Mawlana Shaykh is of the latter kind.

Nearly a decade and half have elapsed since my heart was guided to make bayah to Naqshbandi murshid (spiritual teacher), Shaykh Sufi Mohammed Abdullah Khan of Ghamkol Sharif. The work and community of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim eased my spiritual journey, helping me discover the authentic spirit of Islam, removing the ideological hurdles to me discovering and making bayah to Shaykh Sufi Abdullah. Hence, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim occupies a special place in my heart, and the Naqshbandi-Haqqani community very much part of my life. One aspect of Shaykh Nazim that really demonstrates his greatness as a Human Being, is how much people like myself feel the loss at his passing, even though he wasn’t my personal murshid and unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to meet him in person…

“When you are respecting, then divine love runs through hearts and you should be a source of divine love, and everyone should also be a channel of divine love for each other.”
~ Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, Liberating the Soul: Volume 2.

Even as a young man, shortly after leaving university, Shaykh Nazim travelled to Damascus to seek out the man who would become his murshid, Shaykh Abdullah al-Faiz ad-Daghestani. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim would go on to spend the rest of his life in the service of Allah SWT, through the guidance of Shaykh Abdullah ad-Daghestani.

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