Sermon by Shaykh Said Afandi al-Chirkawi on the ziyarat to Shaykh Shu`ayb Afandi | Bagini | 2005

Dear brothers in faith, we should all give thanks to Allah. It is amazing how many people are here today! Daghestan has been really blessed with Barakah! Never since our ancestors’ times Daghestan has been so religious and advanced in spiritual knowledge and Tariqa.

I have met a lot of people. Many came to me to say that we need to give up this country and wage ghazawat [holy war]. They asked how long we can tolerate this chaos. I turned all of them down. Praise be to Allah, I take no credit for this. Allah protected me, and today we realized how good it is!

We see what is going on in Chechnya, and still there is no end to it. I want to remind you that we live in Akhir Zaman (a period before the end of the world). It is time of unrest, when a careful one is saved, and the unwary are trapped in turmoil. We must be reasonable and treasure the knowledge.

Today there are preachers out of nowhere with completely misleading slogans: politics, money, and so on. I plead you: do not listen! Since this country was allowed to preach Islam, I have been with the Clerical Department and all I can say is: whoever needs Islam and wants to do good unto people, need nothing else but the Clerical Department. Regarding others I do not know.

Do not listen to the random people. Men can go too far in pursuit of their own selfish purposes. Do not follow them. They can say anything, including myself. But we have books, Ulama. Some of them are not trustworthy, but there are good ones also. What books our ancestors read, what knowledge they abided by, what Shariah and Tariqa followed – books have it all. Follow what they did, ignore the claptrap. Be careful! We need it more than ever now. You know that the whole world is watching us.

Even during the atheist period, they could not destroy our religion, however they tried. Today we see, that the enemies united against Dagestan; and they are a lot more violent now. But the Almighty will protect us, just like He has been doing it up to this day, InshaAllah! We can also help preserve Islam, by following the true Ulama and – what is more – teaching the younger generation, passing knowledge.

Those who grew up in Soviet times and have no religious knowledge should give religious education to their children. Allah says he hesitates to punish those parents whose children seek `ilm (Islamic knowledge).

Once Sayfullah-Qadi (May Allah bless his soul) wrote to Hasan-ustaz (May Allah bless his soul) in a letter: “You can be sure, Hassan, without any doubt Islam is now nothing but a mere outward image in all parts of the world, except Dagestan.”

I was surprised by these words. But when we go on Hajj and on the way back travel through many countries, we see that in fact they have no such purity and beauty of faith, like us. It is the Barakah of our ustazes. We follow the Tariqa of Shu`aib-afandi al-Bagini, his successors and followers. May Allah help us to follow them and revere them!

May Allah unite all those gathered here – men and women, the young and the old – under the name of the Prophet (PBUH). May everyone here be rewarded in paradise. Thank you all. I am very pleased and happy for you, for your Jamaat. May Allah help you to continue reading the Mawlid and visiting ziyarats in the future.
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The above sermon was delivered at Majlis dedicated to the ziyarat to Shaykh Shu`ayb-afandi (May Allah bless his soul) in the village of Bagini, Charodinsky district, Dagestan, 2005.