Shaykh Abd al-Rahman Shaghouri died, 8th June 2004

[Mujib]

In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate

May His blessings and peace be on His Beloved Prophet, the best of creation, and his family, companions, and followers

Shaykh Abd al-Rahman Shaghouri died, 8th June 2004[/color]
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Assalamu alaikum,

Shaykh Abd al-Rahman Shaghouri, the Shadhili murshid, knower of Allah, master of the sciences of faith, pious scholar, caller to Allah, and Prophetic inheritor, died on the evening of Tuesday, 8th June 2004, in Damascus.

Please remember the Shaykh, his family, students, and the Muslims in your duas.

The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said,

?Allah does not lift knowledge by lifting it from the hearts of people. Rather, He takes the lives of scholars, so knowledge is lifted with them?? [Bukhari and Muslim]

May Allah shower His blessings, mercy, favor, and peace on our Beloved Prophet Muhammad, his family, companions, inheritors, righteous followers, and all believers.

Wassalam,

Faraz Rabbani (faraz@sunnipath.com)
Sunni Path - //www.sunnipath.com New design and services now live, including daily lessons and free e-mail addresses...
Seeker's Digest: http://blog.masud.co.uk/faraz.htm
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Shaykh Abd al-Rahman al-Shaghouri said,
?Dear friend, make the most of your life!?

[EMTL]

Assalamu alaikum,
InnalilLahi wa inna ilaihi raji'uwn.
May Allah (SWT) forgive the Sheikh and grant him His (SWT) mercy. Allahumma agfirhu warhamhu-amiyn.

[Mujib]

Damascus Breeze
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Dedicated to our beloved Sheikh 'Abd ar Rahman ash Shagouri, rahimahu Allah ta'ala.

This was written in Oct.2003, after a summer of swimming amongst the scholars of Damascus, it is one of a collection of essays to be published insha Allah.

by Asra Bukhari

In the name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Benificent. From Him alone we come and to Him alone we return. Peace and Blessings on His beloved, our Prophet, the Elect, ere and anon.

Source: http://www.modernmuslima.com


Five years and a split second brought me into Damascus, Syria. Five years of waiting and within a second I was transported there. After one realizes how little one knows about his Lord, and spends some time next to those who know more, something gnaws inside to seek and be around those who have spent most of their lives in that sole pursuit. As Edward Hall, the anthropologist said, ?The drive to learn is more basic than the drive to reproduce.? One hopes to either receive some of the knowledge the erudite attained or at least to be in their company for the boon felt beyond the bone in their midst.

This is what led me on the road to Damascus. It was a fortuitous bounty from heaven that the scholar and sage hailing from Syria, Sheikh Muhammad al Yaqoubi, frequented my country, my town, my heart. I sought the Sunnah and found it in his country, his town, his heart.  As one studies the Sunnah, one prays to implement everything learned and pines to see its traces on the bodies of brethren.  After years of such studies, I was aglow to find that the Damascene scholar is drowned in the Sunnah, his walk, his talk, and the way he doles and delivers, with every instance and interaction. One sees a strain of the way of our beloved prophet, peace be upon him, on many a scholar in Syria who has spent years of study, inhaling his hadith and exhaling his aura afterwards.  I realized the wonder of sheikh Muhammad?s exhortation for students in the West to plan the best vacation and ?visit the ?ulema of the Muslim world.?

The late sheikh Mekki al Kattani [d. 1974] May Allah have mercy on him, was one of the recent scholars who brought his brimming love of the Prophet, peace be upon him, [from his native Morocco] and filled the oasis of Damascus with its fragrance.  The great wali, Sheikh Ahmad al Habbal one of the foremost elderly scholars of today, glorifies Allah and doles several odes and salutations on the Prophet, peace be upon him, almost every morning after fajr, enrapturing the worshippers, many who come from oceans away to satisfy the necessary desire of loving the prophet, more than one loves his or herself or anything else except his Lord. As the Algerian sage, Sheikh Ahmad al Alawi, May Allah have mercy on him, had remarked, ?Chanting is not crippled with the dry bones of words, liquid and flowing like a stream, it carries us into the presence of God.?[1]  

One of the Grand Sheikhs of this city, Abdur Rahman al Shagouri, though a bit weak from his old age, may Allah preserve him, whose Dimishq musk lingers on many students throughout the world, still heads his regular sessions glorifying Allah, Most High and singing salutations on the prophet and his family.  Truth be told, he is one of the main reasons I landed in Damascus. I had heard about him for years and wanted to quench the two ponds, my pupils, with his presence. My fondest scenes of Syria are of watching the Hadra Sunday nights after  ?Isha from the balcony of Masjid al Warid al Kabir(which stands at the end of a maze consisting of some of the narrowest alleys in the world) and watching all the great men of Allah of this fair city, led by Sheikh Abdur Rahman, taking those present, to the presence of their Lord.

My first attendance at this session, I went alone, and could not rely on a soul to point him out to me, yet I needed no introduction, as five years of waiting intensified my introduction and when he was brought in the musalla, [in a wheelchair] I knew it was he. Allah.  I was privy to meet him thrice during my trip (in his private chambers twice), wal Hamdulilah.  He delighted me and my friends with his charm and humor and most tearfully, with his concern for seekers of Truth throughout the world.  He asked us, ?Who is ahead in their efforts for their Lord, the students in America or those in England??  I, the American, said resolutely, ?The English,? much to the dismay of a dear friend, also an American (Californian) and the glee of my English friends whom were present.  Hopefully, I provoked more of his pity to be directed westward, thus securing more du?as for us!  

Of course, I did mention to him that our beloved Master the great 'Alamah, Shaykh Muhammad al Yaqoubi al Hassani, who strode into our lands with the wheel of knowledge and the weal of wisdom, has been spreading the sanctified Syrian soil and making great leaps in America and throughout the world, taking us on the chariot that leads to our Lord.  May Allah preserve and protect him and all of our shuyukh. To this he smiled proudly from ear to ear and nodded, acknowledging he knew this. We asked him to pray for all of our teachers including, Shaykh Nuh Keller, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf  Sheikh Imam Zaid, Shaykh Jamal al Zahabi, and all those we know and those we don't.

Also in that attempt, I asked him to bless a few bags of sweets so that I can return with them to spread some of his barakah to these lands.  As it happened, one of those bags was sent to India via my aunt and the others distributed to students in the East Coast and a few blessed friends still have to this day, some of those choicest candies.  This city, as all Muslim lands, is known for her hospitality and the homes of the scholars are the actual ?open universities? as they all have revolving doors making way for the seekers of knowledge and wisdom. Damascus is a denizen of voices making music elocuting their love for the prophet, peace be upon him, at every interval between prayer and party.

Complete article here

[Mujib]

A Century of Guidance

A letter from al-Shaykh MUHAMMAD AL-YAQOUBI

On the News of the Death of the Great Shaykh Abdur-Rahman Ash-Shaghouri


By the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Most Merciful. To Allah only do we belong and to Him alone do we return

To the respected sons of the Gnostic, the Imam of the guides, and the leader of the seekers, the great famous erudite scholar Shaykh Abdur Rahman ash-Shagouri (may Allah sanctify his secret) and to his disciples, students and lovers.

Peace be upon you and the Mercy of Allah and His Blessings.

What could a tongue say and what could a pen write better than the words of Allah, which mean, "To Him alone do we belong and to Him alone do we return?"

It is a calamity that is heavy on the whole ummah to bear, let alone you, dear sons and students. An aperture in Islam has been opened and it will not be closed but by one similar to him and how could time allow a similar to our late sheikh? It is a loss that breaks the shoulders of all Muslims so how could the heart of this weak servant who has immense love for the sheikh be able to carry it?

The calamity of his departure is a calamity that visited Islam. His loss is a loss of a community not a loss of a single man. His absence is the absence of a generation and his departure is a departure of a library not of a single scholar. And more important than all, is that he, may Allah show him Mercy, was foremost in practice, an exemplar in following the sunnah, teaching through his state before teaching by his words. If he spoke, he practiced what he said, when he admonished, he reminded of Allah, and when he guided, he ushered people to Allah. We have no doubt that he, may Allah be satisfied with him, was one of the pillars of wilaya and ma'rifah on the face of the earth. One of those, whom when Allah Ta'ala glances at, He is content, such that He removes calamities from the world.

There has gone the Pole of irshad, the star of bliss, the shaykh of knowledge, and the imam of practice of the remaining righteous salaf, and the exemplar of the true seekers of the people of devotion. No wonder the Ummah upon his departure is like a widow. The calamity is painful and Allah is Merciful. As I said in his presence in a eulogy of his late son Hassaan sixteen years ago:

Power belongs only to the Most Merciful, as He does what He wills And our sheikh is the servant of the Most Merciful

We ask Allah Almighty to bestow on his children, his students and his lovers all, patience and condolence and we beseech Him to wrap our sheikh with His Mercy and satisfaction, and that He give us of his barakah and that He allow us to benefit from him after his death more than what we benefited from him during his life.

For you, the sons of the sheikh and his students, we send you the condolences of our brothers and sisters and our students in the USA, Europe, the Middle East and the Far East. May Allah bless you.

At the end, the best quote I have is what Shaykh al-Islam Ibn al-Sabouni said in his eulogy of al-Imam Abul Qasim al-Qushayri,

They said that the Imam departed this life
And the herald cried loudly that he is no longer alive I said, ?It?s not about a person who left
We are of a whole community indeed now bereft.?

We pray to Allah that He resurrect us in the group of our sheikh together with our late sheikhs and fathers. May Allah be satisfied with them all.

The servant of the people of knowledge
Muhammad Abul Huda al-Yaqoubi al-Hasani


http://www.lightstudy.org/