Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm Shāh al-Kasnazan

• Several years before his marriage, Sayyid Ḥussein was told of a prophecy according to which he would have a son who would become a “reviver of religion.” 
• This long-awaited spiritual leader, named ʿAbd al-Karīm, was born in 1824 CE in the village of Birjinza in today’s city of Sulaymaniyah in the north of Iraq.

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• Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm grew to a young man of immense piety. 
• He was totally given to the worship and the love of Allah. 
• After having Bayʿa with his uncle Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir Qāzānqāya, who was the Shaikh of Ṭarīqa at the time, Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm went into retreat to worship Allah on a mountain called “Sara Girma.” 
• He stayed in his isolation with Allah for four years. 
• During that period, his food was confined to plant leaves and pure clay. 
• He dedicated his night and day to worshipping Allah and remembering Him.

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• Having completed disappeared for that long, people thought Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm must have died. 
• However, one day his brother had a visionary dream that disclosed to him the place of the retreat of Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm. 
• Eager to see his brother, he hurried to that place on the mountain which he saw in the vision. 
• When he found Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm he was astonished by his condition. 
• He asked the Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm about what he survived on during this years-long retreat, the Shaikh gave him a piece of red clay mixed with tree leaves and asked him to taste it. 
• When he ate it, he found it amazingly tasty and was left for two weeks feeling satisfied in no need of food or drink. 
• The time had then come for Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm to return to people to offer them guidance to the way of his grandfather, Prophet Muhammad (BPUH), the way of Allah.

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• Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm succeeded Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir Qāzānqāya as the Master of Ṭarīqa ʿAliyyah Qādiriyyah. 
• He became known as “Shāh al‑Kasnazan” which means “Sultan of the ghaib [unseen and unknown)”. 
• His spiritual path became known as Ṭarīqa ʿAliyyah Qādiriyyah Kasnazaniyya (“Ṭarīqa Kasnazaniyya” for brief). 
• The Shaikh settled in an unpopulated area in northern Iraq which became the village of Kirpchina. 
• He built in Kirpchina many takāya (Sufi place of worship) and set up religious schools, turning Kirpchina into a center of knowledge and guidance to which people travelled from everywhere. 
• Apart from his first four‑year retreat, the Shaikh entered another 40 retreats of 40 days each.

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• As predicted years before his birth, Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm Shāh al‑Kasnazan revived the belief in and practice of Islam and re‑established the spiritual bases of Islam which had been neglected. 
• His legacy is set to continue to the Day of Resurrection. 
• The greatest Sufi Shaikhs of the time acknowledged the high spiritual status that Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm Shāh al‑Kasnazan attained. 
• One of those great Masters was Shaikh Kāka Aḥmad whose shrine in Sulaymāniyyah in northern Iraq is visited by thousands of people yearly. 
• When Shaikh Kāka Aḥmad returned from the pilgrimage to Mecca he came to Kirpchina to visit Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm, so Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm received him among a large number of dervishes. 
• Before the end of his visit, Shaikh Kāka Aḥmad delivered a talk to the dervishes on the virtues of Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm. 
• Among the things that he told the audience is the following: “Anyone who is unable to go to Baghdad to visit Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir al‑Gaylānī must visit my uncle Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm Shāh al‑Kasnazan, for he is his deputy. 
• A visit to Shaikh ʿAbd al-Karīm Shāh al‑Kasnazan suffices as a visit to the Greatest Ghawth (Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir al‑Gaylānī)”.

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• This great Sufi Shaikh departed from this world in 1902 CE after naming his son, Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir al‑Kasnazan as his successor as the Shaikh of Ṭarīqa Kasnazaniyya.