
Hazrat Sultan Shaikh Syed
Ahmad Al Kabeer Ar Refaie (1119-1182) was born on a Thursday in the first
half of the lunar month of Rajab in district Hasen, in the Vasit province of
Iraq.
When he was seven years old, his father Syed Sultan Ali passed away in Baghdad.
From then on his maternal uncle Syed Mansur ar Rabbani al Betaihi took him into
his care and educated him.
The maternal part of Hazrat Ahmad Refaie 's family goes back to Hazrat Imam
Hussain & Hazrat Imam Hasan, the sons of Hazrat Ali (R.A). On the paternal
side his lineage goes back to the Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
Hazrat Ali (R.A), the master of the community, husband of Hazrat Bibi Fatima and
the father of Imams, a cousin of the prophet.
Hazrat Imam Hussain, Imam of Muslims, the chief of the Momins (believers in
Islam) who were tried and afflicted with various troubles and calamities, the Shaheed-e-Karbala.
Ahmed Ar Refaie learned the
Qur'an from Shaikh Abdus Sami al Hurbuni in Hasen, where he was born, and by the
age of seven he had committed it all to memory. (The title Shaikh before a name
indicates a sufi teacher.) That same year, after his father died, his maternal
uncle Mansur ar Rabbani al Betaihi moved with his family to the region of Dikla.
There he sent his nephew to Abul Fadl Ali al Vasiti, who was an expert in the
canon law of Islam, a commentator on the Qur'an, and a great preacher.
In addition to attending the zikr meetings of his uncle Mansur ar Rabbani al Betaihi,
Ahmed Ar Refaie also attended the courses of his other uncle, Shaikh Abubakar,
who was a great scientist of his era and the sultan of scientists. He eventually
memorized the book Tanbih, which deals with the fikh (Muslim canonical
jurisprudence) of Imam Shafi according to Imam Abu Ishaq Shirazi, and wrote an
explanation about the book. (This explanation was lost in the Mongol invasion.)
He occupied all his time with acquiring religious knowledge. Eventually even his
own teachers and the people who taught him respect learned the essence of
respect when they were in his presence.
When
Ahmed Ar Refaie was twenty years old, Abul Fadl Ali al Vasiti, who was the
Shaikh of Wasit province and his teacher, awarded him a sehadetname (teaching
certificate) encompassing the sciences of canon law and permission to initiate a
dervish order, gave him the name "father of external and interior sciences," and
dressed him with his own dervish's cloak. His teachers and his shaikhs agreed
about the greatness of his rank and the superiority of his worth.
He remained in Nehr-e-Dikla for a short time and after that went back to his
father's guest house for travelers in Hasen. He then became very well known.
When he was twenty-eight, his uncle Syed Mansur ar Rabbani al Betaihi requested
that he led the dervish lodge and Caliphs after him. He also instructed him to
live in the dervish lodge of Shaikh Yahya en-Naccari, who was his grandfather
from his mother's side. Ahmed Ar Refaie took up his post (shaikhship) there as
an enlightened master and began teaching in this dervish lodge. His uncle died
in the same year. By the time Ahmed Ar Refaie reached the age of thirty-five,
his murids (disciples) numbered over seven hundred thousand.
He taught the Sunnah (the way of the Prophet Muhammad ) and the details of the
Qur'an to the public, and he always said that "the trade of a wise man is to
show the way that leads to Allah and to direct hearts towards Allah".
He held courses on Hadees, Islamic canon law, religious precepts, and commentary
on the Qur'an on all days of the week except Mondays and Thursdays. He sat in
his pulpit on Monday and Thursday afternoons and preached to intellectuals and
the general public. Because of the depth and the influence of his words, the
people were captivated, their intelligence was stupefied, and their hearts
submitted to him. Apart from the Prophet Muhammad, the companions and disciples
of the Prophet and twelve Imams, there was no other person who spoke as well as
Ahmed Ar Refaie did.
Whenever he sat in his pulpit to give a lecture, crowds-including advanced
scientists, preachers, spiritual teachers and the general public-gathered. When
he began to speak, knowledge gushed out with his words like the gushing sea.
Wise men were enraptured when they heard his beautiful and influential words and
listened to his extensive knowledge. The denying and obstinate were tongue-tied
in the presence of the power of the evidence. Literary men profited from his
outstanding expression, scientists from his skills and talents and philosophers
from his deep and wise manner of speaking.
In
his book Sevad-ul-Ainein, the writer Imam Rafii narrates, "Shaikh Salih Yusuf
Abu Zakariya al Askalani, who was a great expert in the canon law of Islam, told
me: 'I had gone to Umme Abida to visit Shaikh Ahmed Al Kabeer Ar Refaie'. There
were more than one hundred thousand people around the guest house; some were
managers, scientists and shaikhs, and the others were the normal public. He gave
dinner to all of them and was very friendly to everyone. He started to preach in
the afternoon of a Thursday. In the audience were preachers from the province of
Vasit, as well as a religious community of doctors of Muslim theology of Iraq
and the important people of the province. One group asked questions about the
science of commentary on the Qur'an, another asked about subjects dealing with
the recorded sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, another asked about Muslim canon
jurisprudence, another asked about the disagreements between the different
religious opinions, and yet another group asked many questions about different
areas of science. Ahmed Ar Refaie answered more than two hundred questions, and
he did not get angry when he was answering the questions. I became embarrassed
because of the insensitivity of people asking the questions, and I stood up and
said, 'Is this not enough for you? He can answer every question about the
written sciences, without facing any difficulty, with the permission of Allah!'
Ahmed Ar Refaie smiled at my words and said, 'Abu Zakariya, allow them to
ask before I pass away. Certainly the world is a house from which we will
all depart. Allah changes all situations, all of the time.' All the public
cried at this answer. The crowd was perplexed and anxious exclamations were
heard. Forty thousand people became his students because of the spiritual
effect of his talk."
Ahmed Ar Refaie's talks, his actions, his behavior and his every breath were for
Allah. He always had a smiling face, was modest and good-tempered, endured
suffering, and was very patient. He did not get personally cross with anyone,
and did not want any help for his own person. On the contrary, he loved for
Allah, and even his anger was from Allah and for Allah. He did not rebuke
anybody who behaved in a manner that he did not like. He considered neither his
family nor himself superior to other people. Speaking about this he said,
"According to our opinion of Allah, everybody is equal to everybody else: it
doesn't matter if they are close relatives or if they are strangers to us."