Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim
The following text is taken from observations of two murids, as arranged by me in order to clarify the question:
When Sheikh Nazim first arrived in the West he was still very much using the adab of Damascus, which meant he did not even look ladies in their eyes, and they were only allowed to kiss the sleave of his coat. But he was then made aware of the fact that such attitude, while indeed islamically correct, at the same time raised difficult barriers to people completely new to Islam in the West, and in Islam, as per hanafi fiqh (Maulana’s madhhab) there is also another stance that, if its conditions were met, could be used for the benefit of da’wah of Islam.
Allah Most High said, addressing shaytan: {You will have no power over My servants, only over the ones who go astray and follow you} (15:42).
The key words are “lets” and “allow.” There is a big difference between allowing (out of mercy) and wanting (out of lust). The contemporary Mauritanian Shaykh Abd Allah bin Bayya` was asked about this and he replied: “If it causes rancor (tabaghud) not to handshake then it is permissible, far from sexual interest in the woman.” This is why Shaykh Nazim’s da`wa in the West has towered over that of all others without exception.
Here is an excerpt from an interview with Mawlana Shaykh Nazim that took place in the nineties:
INTERVIEWER: If you were to tell your
followers not to address you as the perfect one, not to kiss your hands
and feet – and they say that in meetings even women come and kiss your
hands, and the Prophet would never allow that… I want your comments on
that?
SHAYKH NAZIM: No. They are always untrue
people. They are always changing things from their real light. They are
liars. They make iftira‘ [fabrications] and backbiting, because they are hasud – jealous, envious people. I never say to my followers that I am ‘a perfect one.’
But until they find a perfect one, I am
only training them. I never said that I am a 100% perfect trainer but I
am a good opportunity; while I am here, I only try to do my best with
people. Like a doctor who is not a specialist, but still he must treat
his patients. Should he say: I cannot touch you because I am not a
specialist? I never said to anyone: ‘I am a 100% perfect person and I am
training you: Come and kiss my hands!’ I am not so foolish as these
people. They are thinking that I say to people come and kiss my hand!
INTERVIEWER: They say that it is a necessary part of your training…
SHAYKH NAZIM: No, never. My training is
written in my books and the associations I hold, but they are not
reading my books because shaytans are so proud. Can they find it
anywhere that I say: Kiss my hand, kiss my feet? But I may enter through
a crowd and without doing anything, people are completely unable to
remain seated, they will stand up. I am not saying to them to do it. It
is something granted to me, from the greatness of Allah, called haybat [dignity].
They can’t stop. When I pass, they stand up and rush to me. I am not
telling them to. Once I was in Madina praying, facing Qibla. As I was
finishing, one of these people said to me: ‘O shaykh! Why did you bring
all these people behind you!’ I was surprised. My eyes were closed and I
was making du`a without sound, only what I may hear. But I
looked around and I saw 100 people behind me. I said I am nobody, I am
an ordinary person, a visitor here. I do not know them. Why are you
telling me this? Tell those people to go away! Prophets have a magnetic
power called jazba [attraction]. That makes people run to that
person. I have some of that which I received through our spiritual way. I
am not an empty one, like those people. But they are hussad [enviers]…
What happens if my followers kiss my hand? The Prophet – blessings upon
him – kissed the Stone, and all Sahaba kissed the Stone. All the Hujjaj [pilgrims] kiss the Stone, and the Ka`ba. It is not haram to kiss the Ka`ba. Is the Ka`ba more honored than Man? No.
INTERVIEWER: But the Ka`ba has a special place in their hearts.
SHAYKH NAZIM: We have a special place also.
Shaykh Taher Siddiquie explains from the following
Kissing Shaykh’s Hand Revisited
Question:We are still seeing some people who object about Mawlana Shaykh Nazim calling himself the Sultan al-Awliya. Also they repeatedly bring up the objection of kissing his hand.
Answer:
wa `alaykum salam,
Shaykh Hisham has clarified, that Mawlana Shaykh never claimed to be Sultan al-Awliya, rather it is his mureeds who consider him so. He only says “I am nothing; I am the most humble servant of Allah; I am the most weak and helpless one.”
Regarding the kissing of hands, Mawlana Shaykh himself addressed this in detail (excerpted from interview on Sufismus-online):
Q: People object on your hands being kissed.
S.N: I am not a sultan. Let people go and kiss their hands! These people are envious, because they are not giving full respect to their Lord. If they were, people would respect them. Maybe I am respected in the Divine Presence and that is why people run up to me. I am not begging people to come up to me and to kiss my hands! They rush on me from all over the world and I do not tell them to go away. Why should I? Are my hands dirty? If they were I would prevent it.
S.N: I am not a sultan. Let people go and kiss their hands! These people are envious, because they are not giving full respect to their Lord. If they were, people would respect them. Maybe I am respected in the Divine Presence and that is why people run up to me. I am not begging people to come up to me and to kiss my hands! They rush on me from all over the world and I do not tell them to go away. Why should I? Are my hands dirty? If they were I would prevent it.
But the hands of the people who oppose
this are dirty with their dirty works. When people come close to a
blessed person they feel familiarity and want to kiss and embrace. When
a person wants to show their respect by kissing the hand it is not
prohibited in the Islamic Shariah. No-one can bring any evidence that
Muhammad* did not allow it.
Q: But not only men are kissing your hand, but women too. Is that allowed in Islam?
Q: But not only men are kissing your hand, but women too. Is that allowed in Islam?
S.N: Do they have evidence on that? If that was prohibited we would not be allowed to approach our women. They have no fiqr [sic - fiqh]. (Quran, Surat 4, Ayat 43 {or ye have been in contact with women} and Surat 5, Ayat 6 {or ye have been in contact with women}). You may touch.
Q: For the mahram, or…?
S.N: [Surat] ..an-Nissa, is alif lam [I.e. al-nisaa]
a sign for all women, or just for some? There is a secret reality
there: You can touch a lady, but if your ego awakes with a bad desire
it is prohibited. A person may touch his daughter or his mother and it
is not prohibited. He may touch his wife and it could be prohibited.
Nothing awakes in a person with his mahram, but if it is not a mahram it
is dangerous. That is why the Shariah prevents you to touch without a
reason. Otherwise a doctor couldn’t touch the body of a woman. No-one
objects to the millions of ladies who every day go to the doctor and
show everything. It did not exist at the time of the Prophet (s). When
they give birth they show themselves completely! How can that be? Why
do people not complain about that? Instead they come to me, a person
who is 80 years old!
The Shariah does give the permission for
the hands of prophets and their inheritors to be kissed. I do not tell
the ladies to come and kiss my hand. No! They come to give their
respects. I cannot refuse it, because I am calling Europeans, non
Muslims, into Islam. They are still new and if I would prevent them
from kissing my hand their hearts would be broken. They would accuse
Islam of having no gentleness. We are not living in Saudi Arabia,
Libya, Algeria, Turkey, Iran or in Pakistan! I am calling people here,
in Europe. This is why we can use the methods which the Prophet (s) was using at the beginning of Islam.
People at that time were also not using scarves. For the first 13
years in Mecca, they were mixing freely with men and not wearing
scarves. All that came in Medina. The people who are accusing me of
these points have no understanding of Islam. They are scholars, but
empty!
Q: According to the Hanafi school what are the rules of a woman touching you without desires? Would you need an ablution?
S.N: All the four schools of thought were
going to agree on this point, but then Imam Shafi prevented it. He
wanted to close the door of fitna which arises through young
people touching each other. Abu Hanifa gave the permission under a
condition: if your feelings do not change and become haram, it
is all right. If they do, it is prohibited in the school of Abu Hanifa
too. When feelings change, our body awakens and we discharge, making
our wudu invalid.
for complete interview :- http://www.sufismus-online.de/BayatKissingofHandsTouchingWomenIslamicClothes
Regarding Shaykh Gibril Haddad, he explains this as follows.
____________________________________________________________________________________
“From the Shari`a viewpoint hand-contact
between the sexes is wrong for someone who is not old. At the same
time it is a fact that the conditions of da`wa in the West for a
Sufi Shaykh who is completely accessible to hundreds of people a day
on any given trip are such as to make contact unavoidable. It has
nothing to do with a brains-vs.-heart opening. It is a practical
matter.
The strongest proof for the conditional licitness of this particular situation for the da`i is
probably the hadith of Anas in al-Bukhari, that the slave-women of
Madina would take the Prophet (s) by the hand to ask whatever need they
had.
The meaning of this is that even the
lowest and least educated level of society had complete free access to
him (s) and that there was not one iota of haughtiness in him, hence
al-Bukhari placed this report in the chapter on kibr in the book of adab in his Sahih.
This is a prooftext for the leeway of at the very least a passive handshake for the da`i in the West – and Allah knows best.”
I heard from Suhayl al-Omani in Damascus
this May 2002, from his teacher Shaykh `Isa al-Himyari of Dubai that
when Shaykh `Isa was in Germany some years ago with Mawlana he
witnessed a woman making her way to Mawlana and kissing his hand.
Shaykh `Isa in his heart said: “This ought not to be, you are a
respected Shaykh who should not breach the Shari`a.”
Shaykh `Isa said that Mawlana [Shaykh
Nazim] turned to him and said: “I know what you said. Remind me to tell
you about it later.” Later, Mawlana said to him that he did not use to
allow this and that the Western ladies felt relegated to an inferior
status. He then saw the Prophet (s) in a dream and the Prophet (s) gave
him permission to let them kiss his hand”. [I add:] Hence the change
in approach, as a dream is a strong point for the one who received the
dream, and it is confirming a legal opinion for conditional exceptional
circumstances (that is, the dream was not establishing shariah, merely
pointing from the highest authority of Shariah to a possibility
already considered inside Shariah).
In conclusion, as far as can be ascertained the position of Mawlana [Shaykh Nazim] in the matter is:
(1) `Umum al-balwa – the
prevalence of general ignorance of Islam, necessitating complete
availability of the transmitters of Islam to the public including in
customary contacts such as handshake or handkissing;
(2) Da`wa in the West, whose
unprecedented nature necessitates unprecedented measures, especially
since in the West the avoidance of any physical contact with the
opposite sex is regarded as insulting and demeaning, just as the
avoidance of eye contact;
(3) Mawlana’s age”
[I add:
(4) Maulana’s ikhlas as a most solid internal barrier against misuse of it].
- Shaykh Gibril Haddad
Once a student posted some questions to Mawlana Shaykh Nazim & following is the dialogue.
As for the silsila issue, besides what has been already mentioned, it is very simple. I quote one of Maulana Shaykh Nazim's words on it to a talin of ilm who made questions on it:
Brother: In the research about you, there is something that says, it was criticised that Sheikh Nazim lets women kiss his hand. How can we answer them with this study I am making?
Moulana: Say that, "Sheikh Effendi keeps the Order of Divine Law, Shariat!" Our school is Hanafi, not Shafi, it does not break our Wudu (ablution).
Brother: I have my contact information here, I will continue my research. I am also in contact with Sheikh Mohammad Effendi, if you have any order I may do. I reside in Kars but I do my PhD in Ankara.
Moulana: We are not the one to order. We are common people, who struggle on this way. There are great ones above, what can I do? If they give me responsibility, I can handle, with the permission of Allah. We reach from East to West. When they don't give me a mission, I am here like this, sitting here in a helpless position. What can I do? Do we fight with people for the Tariqat?
This is in the way of Allah. Wherever a person finds the spiritual comfort, enlightenment, if there is a spiritual fountain of light, they may drink from it. We don't have anything such as jealousy. That feeling is finished in us long time ago. But they say that, "our Sheikh has spiritual light", OK, go to him then. Whomever he left behind to replace him, continue with him, in the way of Allah. This is not an earthly trade.
If you have someone among you, who can consult the great ones, he may ask to the Master of the Naqshi Order, Shah al Naqshband: "Is this person in the Golden Chain? Is he a true one or a liar?" If they have men who can speak to Shah al Naqshband! If not, they may ask to the spiritual presence of their own Sheikh. If they have such men who can ask. They may ask Hasan Burkey as well. They may ask Sheikh Sami Effendi Hadrat. How many more awliya's were there?
Brother: There was Iskender Pasha.
Moulana: They may ask the spiritual presence of all awliyas that passed away:"is this person authorised or not?" they may ask. If we had permission, then we would already..we are only an ordinary mureed, we are trying to be mureed. We don't have a claim for this world, finish! What will I do with it now?
Here is the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly8wIDjz3dc
Refer the Fatwa of Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah on this matter
Abdullah Bin Bayyah permits shaking hands with opposite sex if it is custom
http://www.islamopediaonline.org/fatwa/it-permissible-men-and-women-occasionally-shake-hands
Website URL:
http://www.binbayyah.net/
Fatwa Question or Essay Title:
Is it permissible for men and women to occasionally shake hands? هَل تَجُوزُ مُصافَحَةُ النِّساءِ للرِّجالِ بِحالٍ مِنَ الأَحوالِ؟. الجواب الأَصلُ أنَّ الرَّجُلَ لا يُصافِحُ المَرأَةَ. لَكِن؛ إذا كانَت عَجُوزاً فَمَذهَبُ أَبِي حَنِيفَةَ رَحِمَهُ اللهُ تَعالى أنَّ مُصافَحَتُها تَجُوزُ. ورُبَّما أَنَّ السائلَ يَسألُ ـ وهوَ فِي بَلَدٍ إفرِيقِيٍّ ـ فَيَقُولُ: إنَّ عَدَمَ المُصَافَحَةِ يُؤَدِّي إلى حَرَجٍ وتُؤَدِّي إلى تَباغُضٍ ونَحوِ ذَلِكَ. فَإذا كانَت تُؤَدِّي إلى ذَلِكَ فَيَجُوزُ لَهُ أن يُصافِحَ بَعِيداً عَن الشَّهوَةِ وبَعِيداً عَن الاهتِمام بِالمَرأَةِ. أَمّا إذا
Also
http://www.binbayyah.net/portal/fatawa/225
| الجواب | |
ورُبَّما أَنَّ السائلَ يَسألُ ـ وهوَ فِي بَلَدٍ إفرِيقِيٍّ ـ فَيَقُولُ: إنَّ عَدَمَ المُصَافَحَةِ يُؤَدِّي إلى حَرَجٍ وتُؤَدِّي إلى تَباغُضٍ ونَحوِ ذَلِكَ. فَإذا كانَت تُؤَدِّي إلى ذَلِكَ فَيَجُوزُ لَهُ أن يُصافِحَ بَعِيداً عَن الشَّهوَةِ وبَعِيداً عَن الاهتِمام بِالمَرأَةِ. أَمّا إذا كانَت جَمِيلةً أو كانَت هُناكَ شَهوَةٌ فَلا تَجُوزُ المُصافَحَةُ بِحالٍ مِن الأَحوالِ. |
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