By Umar Ghumman
Little is known of his early personal history. Records of his life began in the early 1900’s when religious pilgrims traveling through the jungles of Sri Lanka first caught a glimpse of a holy man. They were overwhelmed by the depth of divine knowledge that he imparted. Sometime later a pilgrim invited him to a nearby village, and with that began his public life as a teacher of wisdom.
Throughout Sri Lanka, people from all religious and ethnic traditions would listen to his public discourses. Many consulted him on how to conduct life›s affairs, including public figures, politicians, the poor, and the learned.
In 1971 Muhammad Raheem Bawa Muhaiyaddeen accepted an invitation to visit the United States. Here, once again, people from all religious, social and ethnic backgrounds would join to hear him speak. Across the United States, Canada and England, he won recognition from religious scholars, journalists, educators and world leaders.
Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, the only Sufi Qutb of the Qadria silsila in USA, can best be remembered for his efforts to bring unity through understanding to the faithful of all religions. One can also say that the seed of Sufism was firmly planted in the United States of America by this great Shaykh. Before we dwell into this great personality, we must never forget that the true values of the Islamic Faith have always been spread by these very sufi saints from all across Asia and now in the United States. Similar to the Great Sufi Saint Data Sahib of Lahore, who stands as the unparalleled majestic Sufi Leader in Pakistan, it would be unfair if we don’t call Bawa Jee the Great Sufi Saint of the United States. (Love from Both have touched this scribe hence the comparison).
The United Nation›s Assistant Secretary General, Robert Muller, asked for Bawa Muhaiyaddeen›s guidance on behalf of all mankind. Time Magazine turned to him for clarification during the hostage crisis in 1980. Thousands more were touched by his wise words when interviewed in Psychology Today, the Harvard Divinity Bulletin, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Pittsburgh Press. Wherever he went, he tirelessly answered the many personal and mystical questions that people brought to him until his death on December 8th, 1986.
For fifteen years, M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen authored over twenty books and the Fellowship he founded recorded thousands of hours of audio and video discourses. The Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship now serves as a thriving community dedicated to studying and disseminating the vast treasury of his teachings. You are warmly invited to attend meetings at the central branch in Philadelphia on Sundays at 10 a. m. ,
The name Muhaiyaddeen literally means ‹the giver of life to the true belief.› And indeed Bawa Muhaiyaddeen did spend his life awakening and strengthening faith in God within people›s hearts. Though he was an unlettered man, he was able to guide and inspire people from all walks of life.
Many scholars and leaders from the Islamic, Judaic, Christian, and Hindu communities considered him to be a true saint.
History of the Mosque
In May of 1984, barely six months after construction began, the exquisitely decorated Mosque of Shaikh M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen was officially opened, in a beautiful, moving dedication ceremony.
The entire congregation recited the Suratul- Fatihah, and the Mu’azzin gave the call to prayer. In the talk that followed Shaikh M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen reminds those present that “unity is the noblest ideal in our life.”
In that spirit of unity and love, this Mosque, built by the members of the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship has been opened for the five daily prayers (salat), Jum’ah prayers every Friday, as well as for early morning dhikr recitation (remembrance of God). We offer classes in Arabic, Qur’an recitation, Salat and introductory classes in Islam.
History of the Mazar Sharif
Nestled some forty miles from Philadelphia, among the rolling hills and tall trees of Chester County, is the Mazar, the resting place of Muhammad Raheem Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, the Sufi saint, and founder of the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship, who passed away in 1986.
This beautiful Mazar, the first in the United States or perhaps the entire western hemisphere, was conceived, designed, and built by the members of the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship, and dedicated in 1987. Spread over 200 Acres and growing, the mazar is the center of attraction on Father’s Day and all events in the United States that revere the pious and the elderly as well as the Thanksgiving Day.
Devotees of all faith are welcome to visit the Mazar of Sheikh M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.) between sunrise and sunset everyday. People from all over the United States, Canada and visit and rekindle their faith by just being in this extremely spiritually enlightened place. Though Bawa Jee’s teachings have been purely unifying in nature but he has defined the Lower Soul (Nafs) and the jihad against it in detail. This is the only division he talks about and best quoted by him in the following verse:
“Live with that faith that your body and your soul do not belong to you. Then God will share the suffering that comes to you. Place your trust in God all the time; in every moment say, “O God, this is Your property, Your duty.” One who was born as a man and has lived as a man will exist in this state. For whatever happens he will say with contentment and gratitude, “All praise belongs to God, al-hamdu lillah.” For what might come in the next moment, he will say, “It is Your responsibility, O Allah, tawakkul-‘alallah,” and praise Him.”
— M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, The Golden Words of a Sufi Sheikh
No visit of a Muslim is complete to the North East part of the United States without a visit to the mazar of this great sufi saint. The mazar provides regular spiritual strength to local and leaders from all over the world that are brought their to show the other side of the story of the American Fabric. Interestingly to note for the skeptical and fundamentalist Wahabi reader, sajda to the mazar is prohibited as well as incense due to the care of the people having allergies.
Though, there are plenty of sufi saints in the US now from various silsilas such as our Naqshbandi Sufi Order’s Shaykh Hisham Kabbani but the first place will always be reserved in honor of the Qutab of the Qadria Silsila. In the end, I would like to take this opportunity to implant the ideals that Bawa jee writes in his book Islam and the western civilization where by in 1980, he spoke of a War in the new millennium between the East and the West and how Islam was to spread from the west and not by the so called fundamentalist and terroristic champions of the Islamic faith in the East.
The writer of the article is a Pakistani US Citizen, Penn Graduate, former Member of Parliament and Cabinet member from Pakistan. Currently resides in the US half an hour from the Mazar Sharif. Source: BMF.