Sayyid Muhammad Fahîm bin
’Abdulhamîd Effendi was born in 1241 and passed away in 1393 [1895]. His mother
was Âmine Hâným. He
was from the Arwas village of Muks, a district of Van. He was tall and thin.
His beard was neither short nor long. His nose was a little high in the middle.
His forehead was broad. He had a white-complexion. His teeth were not
incomplete. His turban was large. He wore a white dress made of three pieces of
cloth, a green or blue robe, wool socks and leather slippers. He used
eyeglasses during his last years. He had black eyes. His hair was white for the
most part. His eyebrows were connected in the middle. When he travelled, he did
so only on horseback until his death. He became so weak during his last days
that he carried his turban with great difficulty. He wrapped an âbânî[1] on his turban when he
performed salât. He passed away on the fourteenth of Shawwâl. Because he was
tall, a tall gravestone was erected by his grave, which was later destroyed by
Armenians. He had an awe-inspiring look. People would fear his shadow. Those
who saw his shadow could see that he was a beloved slave of Allâhu ta’âlâ. He was matchless in Van and
during his time. He was profound in every branch of knowledge, even in
agriculture, arts and political sciences. His knowledge was an endowment from Allâhu ta’âlâ. The Governor of Van used to
solve his problems by asking him. He missed no congregational salât and no
tahajjud (supererogatory midnight salât) throughout his life.
While studying religious and
scientific knowledge at a madrasa, he also attained the honour of receiving the
tawajjuh of al-murshid al-kâmil[2] Hadrat Sayyid Tâhâ al-Hakkârî, who was the qutb[3] of Eastern
Anatolia.
While he was leaving Shamdinân,
where his murshîd lived,for the village of Âbirî, Bulanik, Muþ, to study Mutawwal, his
---------------------------------
[1] Âbânî: white cotton material embroidered all over with small squares of yellow thread.
[2] Al-murshid al-kâmil: the perfect guide.
[3] Qutb: the highest Walî in one or several countries, with whom other Walîs consult about their problems
murshid said to him, “When you have difficulty in understanding a
point in the book, remember (râbita) me! Visualize me!” Later while he was
learning Mutawwal
from his master Molla Rasûl as-Sýbkî, he could not understand a
sentence. His master re-explained it. He asked his master to explain it further
in detail. Molla Rasûl read the sentence several times and said, “I am tired
today, I’ll explain it tomorrow.” The following day he again could not explain
it. While his master was reading it repeatedly, Hadrat Sayyid Fahîm closed his
eyes and tried to bring into his mind the figure of his murshid. Sayyid Tâhâ
appeared to him with a book in his hands. He opened the book before Sayyid
Fahîm. It was the same page of Mutawwal on
which the vague sentence appeared. Sayyid Tâhâ read the sentence openly and
Sayyid Fahîm listened to him carefully and saw that he read an additional waw-i
âtifa (wa). When Sayyid Tâhâ disappeared, he opened his eyes and saw that Molla
Rasûl was continuously reading and thinking about that sentence. He then asked
for permission and read it to himself adding a ’wa’ as he had heard from his
murshid. His master said, “Now the meaning is clear.” They both understood it
thoroughly. Molla Rasûl said, “I’ve been reading and explaining these lines for
twenty years, yet without understanding. Now I understand them clearly. Tell me
now... Reading it correctly cannot be out of your own ability. I could not
understand it for years. How is it that you did? You added a ’wa’ and the meaning
became clear?” Hadrat Sayyid Fahîm told his master, who now rests adjacent to
the door of Alâ’ ad-dîn Pashâ Mosque in Muþ, how he learned it through râbita.
Hadrat Sayyid Fahîm used to
leave Muks once a year and stay in Van for a month or two. Those who loved him
would gather around him and receive faid. He usually was the guest of Ahmad
Bey, who loved him very much and was the first secretary of the court. The year
Ahmad Bey went on hajj,[1] he stayed again at his house. One day late at midnight, he called
one of his intimates and said, “Wake your friends! We’ll leave here at once and
go to the house of...” He was answered, “Sir, wouldn’t it be unsuitable to
leave at midnight? Can’t we go tomorrow?” He said, “No, we’ll go now. Tell
Ahmad Bey’s sons.” Ahmad Bey’s sons came and begged, “Sir, forgive us if we
have committed a fault. Do not leave us. Father will be shocked if he
---------------------------------
[1] Hajj: pilgrimage to Mecca.
hears it. How could we answer him? Please forgive us.” They
lamented much. Hadrat Sayyid Fahîm said, “No. I am very pleased with you.
You’ve fulfilled your responsibilities beyond what was needed. I pray for you.
But we have to go now.” Ahmad Bey’s sons said, “Be it as you command, sir.” At
midnight they went to the house of another one of those who loved him. The
following day, his son Muhammad Amîn Effendi told him that Ahmad Bey’s sons
were deeply grieved. “Father,” he asked, “what if we stayed at that house until
morning?” Hadrat Sayyid Fahîm said, “My son! Don’t tell it to anybody now.
Ahmad Bey passed away in al-Makkat al-mukarrama last night. The house became a
house of orphans. The property became theirs’. We used to use everything, eat
and drink everything, because I knew that Ahmad Bey would willingly make all of
them halâl[1] for us. But afterwards, it was not permissible to use anything
that belonged to the heirs with whom we were not acquainted. I left abruptly
because it was necessary to abstain from depriving others of their rights.” The
pilgrims returned a month later. Everybody returned, but Ahmad Bey did not. “He
died in Mecca at midnight,” they said. It was calculated and coincided with the
same midnight.
Once when Hadrat Sayyid Fahîm
was walking along the shore of Lake Van with his disciples, a priest came out
of an Armenian Church on Ahtamar Island and began to walk on the surface of the
water. Some of his disciples thought, “While a priest, whom we call an enemy of
Allah, walks on water, how come Hadrat Sayyid, whom we know as a great Walî and
a beloved elect of Allâhu ta’âlâ, cannot do the same but walks all the way around the shore?”
Hadrat Sayyid was somehow aware of this thought and took his slippers off his
blessed feet and struck them against each other in his hands. Everytime he
struck them, the priest went into the water. When the priest’s body was in
water up to his neck, he struck them once more and the priest drowned. Then
Hadrat Sayyid turned to those who had contrary thoughts, and said, “He walked
on water by using magic. Thus, he wanted to destroy your îmân.[2] When I struck my
slippers, his magic was destroyed and he drowned. Muslims do not use magic and
consider it shameful to ask for
---------------------------------
[1] Halâl: permitted, unquestioning.
[2] Îmân: faith, belief.
karâma from Allâhu ta’âlâ.” He broke the priest’s magic with his karâma.
Abdulwahhab Effendi, who died in
1963 and who was the father of Rifat Bey, a soap manufacturer, said, “When I finished
the madrasa in Erzurum, I wanted to study further. It was said that the great
scholar I was looking for was ’Abduljalîl Effendi, who lived in Bitlis. I went
to Bitlis where I was told that he was gone and that I should wait for his
return from Van. I could not be patient and went to Van and learned there that
I could find him in the Sha’bâniyya Mosque in the company of a Shaikh of Muks,
Hadrat Sayyid Fahîm, who had recently come to Van. I went to the mosque where
the great scholar Abduljalîl Effendi, as I thought on my way, would be speaking
at the dais while everybody gained benefit from his lecture. I entered the
mosque and saw everybody sitting respectfully, their heads bowed. There was a
luminous and affable person sitting high, across from the entrance. Everybody
sat facing him respectfully. ‘This aweinspiring and effective person must be
’Abduljalîl Effendi,’ I thought. But there was nobody around to whom I could
ask concerning thim, for everybody was bowed and looked towards their front.
Suddenly, a youth came up to me and asked who I was looking for. When I
mentioned Hadrat ’Abduljalîl, he pointed to someone sitting respectfully bowed
in the back row, he said, ‘There he is... You may sit if you like.’ I asked who
the speaker was. ‘Hadrat Sayyid Fahîm,’ said the young man whom, many years
later, I learned to be Sayyid ’Abdulhakîm Effendi. A little later the adhân was
called. The sunnat[1] salât was performed. Hadrat Sayyid Fahîm became the imâm.[2] We straightened the
rows; then while saying the beginning takbîr[3]
with the imâm, we, the whole jamâ’a (congregation),
trembled as if shocked by electricity. Sixty years have passed since then. When
I remember the imâm saying that takbîr, I tremble and there occurs a sence of
upliftment in my heart as it did on that day.”
The karâmât of Hadrat Sayyid
Fahîm and the high degree of his status in Allâhu ta’âlâ’s view cannot be measured or described appropriately. His
greatest and most obvious karâmat
---------------------------------
[1] Sunnat: those things done and liked by the Prophet.
[2] Ýmâm: A Muslim leading the congregational salât.
[3] Takbîr: the phrase "Allâhu akbar" (Allah is the Greatest).
was his educating an ’ârif[1] kâmil and Walî mukammil such as Hadrat ’Abdulhakîm Effendi. “The
regularity in the effect indicates the perfection in the cause.”
Hadrat Sayyid Fahim, al-Arwâsî
was one of the great scholars of Islam and one of the Sûfiyya al-’aliyya.[2] He was the thirty-third
in a Silsilat al-’aliyya.[3] He attained perfection in the subha of Hadrat Sayyid Tâhâ al-Hakkârî,
After Sayyid Tâhâ’s passing away in 1269 [1853], he continually visited his
brother Hadrat Sayyid Muhammad Sâlih, who passed away in 1281 (1864). For
further information, please read the biography of ’Abdulhakîm Effendi and
Tâhâ-al Hakkârî. His father was Molla ’Abdulhamîd Effendi. His grandfather was
Sayyid ’Abdurrahman who was the great grandfather of Sayyid ’Abdulhakîm
Effendi. ’Abdulhamîd Effendi, the grand son of Molla Safiyuddin who was the
brother of Sayyid Fahim Effendi, passed away in 1967 (A.D.)
Sayyid Fahim Effendi had nine
sons and four daughters:
1. Rashed Effendi had a son named Muhammad
Bâkýr and a daughter named Â’isha Haným.
Â’isha Haným was the second wife of ’Abdulhakîm
Effendi.
2. Muhammad Amin Effendi was the most
superior of his brothers. He was a scholar, virtuous and a litteratuer. After
having returned from Hidjâz, he passed away at Tûr-i Sînâ. He has a daughter
named Fâtima.
3. Muhammad Ma’sûm Effendi was a wise and
religiously perfect man. He passed away in Arwâs before ’Abdulhakîm Effendi.
’Abdulhakîm Effendi, being one of his eight sons became a member of parliament
in 1957 (A.D.). He passed away in Istanbul before joining the parliament and is
buried in Edirnekapý cemetery. Tâhâ Effendi,
his second son who lived in Çatak, passed away during his pilgrimage in Mecca
in 1400
---------------------------------
[1] Ârif: a great Walî whose heart has gained knowledge about Allâhu ta'âlâ's Person and Attributes. One higher among the 'ârifs is called "kâmil." An 'ârif kâmil who can pour this knowledge into his disciple's heart is called a "mukammil."
[2] Sûfiyya al-'aliyya: the superiors of Tasawwuf: Awliyâ'
[3] Silsilat al-'aliyya: a chain of Walîs each of whom was a mukammil and who acted as an intermediary for the ma'rifa, nûr and faid to come from the blessed heart of Rasûlullah to that of a Walî. (Every Walî, murshid, has a silsila.)
Hijri. His sons are Arjumand, Atâullah, ’Ubeydullah and Andar
Effendis. He had three daughters as well. His third son, Muhammad Amîn Garbî
Effendi, was the son-in-law of Ibrâhîm Arwâs Beg. His sons, Murad and Hamid
Effendis are in Istanbul. His fourth son Bâkýr Effendi, passed away in Konya in 1399 (A.H.) He had four
children. His fifth son Salim Effendi died in Arwâs in 1392 (A.H.). His son
Zaynal’âbidin Effendi is a teacher in Istanbul. Salâhaddin Effendi, his sixth
son, passed away in Mar’aþ in 1939
(A.D.) His son is Yahya and his daughters are Sahâbat and Muzayyan. His seventh
son is Ibrâhîm Effendi. Habîb, Muhib and ’Irfan Effendis are the sons of his
eighth son Badraddin Effendi.
4. Muhammad Sýddîk
Effendi was martyred by Armenians while he was Mufti of Van. He was buried in Aþaðý
Kaymaz, Gürpýnar, Van. His sons Fahmî
Effendi and Ma’þuk Effendi are imâms in the town of
Gürpýnar.
5. Sayyid Hasan Effendi passed away in
Medina in 1388 (1968 A.D.). Of his three sons, Nacmuddin Effendi passed away in
1959, Muhammad Rashid Effendi in 1945 and Sýddîk
Effendi in 1982. The first had three sons, the second had a son called Saîd
Effendi and the third had four sons. Muhammad Rashid Effendi was the husband of
Hicret Haným.
6. Molla Huseyn Effendi was the father of
virtuous Kasým Effendi, who was the
former muftî of Van, and was the father of Shamsaddîn and Ihsân Effendis.
7. Mazhar Effendi. His son is Mazhar, whose
son is Abdulahad, and his sons are Muhammad Nûrî, Bahjat, Sarwat, Fâtih and
Najdat Effendis.
8. Muhammad Sâlih Effendi. His
son is Mazhar Effendi.
9. Nizâmaddîn Effendi. He had two children
from one of his wives, namely Sadraddîn Effendi and Hicret Hâným.
Sadraddîn Effendi passed away in 1393 Hicri in Diyarbakýr.
He was buried in Van. He had four children, all
from his second wife. One of these, Wahbî Effendi, was an agricultural
technician at Çemberlitaþ in Istanbul. Nasîba Hâným
is the wife of Certified Public Accountant Hayâti Çiftlik Beg. The husband of
Âsiye Hâným, Abdurrahman Ekinci, has been propagating
Islam. Sâriye Hâným is in Van. Sa’îd
Effendi is the son of Hijrat Hâným
and virtuous Kâsým Effendi is one of four
sons-in-law of Hijrat Hâným. The second one is Aydýn
Beg, who is the son of Rukiye
Haným
and is the nephew of Hadrad ’Abdulhakîm Effendi. The third son-in-law is
pharmacist Fâtih Yýlmaz Beg, the owner of
Kumrulu Pharmacy in Fâtih.
The fourth son-in-law is Habîb
Effendi. Huseyn and Âmîn pashas are the two sons-in-law of Sayyid Fahim
Effendi. His third daughter Esma Haným has three sons, namely Shawki, Fâruk and Nâbi.
Sayyid Fahîm Effendi, “quddisa
sirruh”, was insân-ý
kâmil (perfect human). His highest disciple was ’Abdulhakîm Effendi, a Walî-yi
kâmil (perfect Walî). Sayyid Fahîm Effendi in his letter of 17 Jamâzýl âhir 1300 (April 1883) writes:
My beloved, esteemed Sayyid
Ibrahîm and Sayyid Tâhâ! May Allâhu ta’âlâ protect you both! I make many duâs for you. As you know, your brother
Sayyid Molla ’Abdulhakîm had been here last Autumn and started to study. This
faqîr taught his lessons with great care and by checking what I said. He, too,
was as much attentive and critical as I, either in his private studies and
during lessons. I didn’t leave time for him to busy himself with anything
except knowledge. Now, he has completed all the books he should according to
the contemporary method. This faqîr has graduated him to teach methodological
science, fiqh and hadîth knowledge in the same way as I was graduated by my
masters. From now on, do not regard him as your brother. In order to be
respectful for the honour of ’ilm, show much humility towards him. I am writing
these for your good and promotion. Besides, to humiliate for ’ilm means to
humiliate for Allâhu ta’âlâ. Apprehend much from this short letter of mine! Assayyid Fahîm
“rahimahullâhi ta’âlâ”
He declares in a second letter: My beloved
son, apple of my eye Sayyid Molla ’Abdulhakîm! After my countless duâs, I
submit that my heart aches much since I didn’t receive news from you. Allâhu ta’âlâ knows every secret. I can say that my
heart is with you almost all the time, He certainy knows. In order for you to
free me of my sorrows, you have to inform me frequently about your implicit and
explicit conditions. Thus ties of love will be activated. If he, the apple of
my eye, will ask about the faqîrs here, may hamds and thanks be to Allâhu ta’âlâ! The comfort and assurance of our body
and our environs are increasing day after day. May Allâhu
ta’âlâ bless assurances to our hearts, the faqîrs, and to the hearts of
all ourbrothers! Âmîn. Please say this faqîr’s duâs to ’Abdulhamîd,
Hasan
and Sayyid Ibrâhîm! I pray for Tâhâ Effendi and Mazhar Effendi. You are my
agent to say this faqîr’s duâs to whomever you deem it suitable. Besides these,
write about the state of those in Nehri, be they good or bad. We heard about
atrocities of Nastûrîs (Nestorians) and their killing four hundred Muslims. I
want you to inform me about what they did and why they did it. Wassalâm. 3
January 1301. Yours prayfully, sinful Sayyid Fahîm.
A letter written by Sayyid
’Abdulhakîm Effendi to his brother Sayyid Tâhâ Effendi follows:
The young seedling of the
mubâraq garden, Tâhâ Effendi! Your beautifully written letter has been
received. We like it very much because it has informed us that my beloved son
and his companions are safe and this has made us feel the desire and eagerness
for the real Matlûb (Beloved). A line:
It is not for me to leave this spring of life.
May Allâhu ta’âlâ increase this thirst of yours!
You ask, “Is it necessary for the image of the guide to be exactly as the guide
himself.”
My beloved son, it is not
necessary to be the same. The aim of râbita is to turn the attention toward the
vision. It is to think of the vision, and to expect help from the one imagined.
It is not necessary to know and to recognize the certain vision. It can be seen
as it is imagined or thought. Most of the time, the soul is seen in the form of
the body and in other forms because it is accustomed to the body to which it
has been tied. Whatsoever the form and state it is seen in, if the vision is
seen in a beautiful, sweet, and joyful manner and if it increases the love and
peace (of mind) it is understood that it is rahmanî (of Allâhu ta’âlâ). Try as hard as possible to
increase your desire and love towards that vision! Extinguish yourself in it!
If the vision is ugly, terrible and horrible it is a satanic vision. Do not
look at it! Let it go away. You ask what you should do in order to get rid of
the other things which come to mind while making dhikr. My dear, these thoughts
will certainly go away and die, by Allâhu ta’âlâ’s permission, in two ways. One way is to turn completely towards
the vision seen during râbita, the other is to make much dhikr, to do the
râbita eagerly and by concentrating all one’s power and senses on the heart. 18
October 1308.