DAY 8 - Wednesday, September 20, 2000

Ziayarat to Sayyidina Amir al-Kulal

Visited mosque, maqam of Sayyidina Amir al-Kulal (q). On arrival at maqam, Shaykh besieged by large group of Naqshbandi followers, mostly from highly religious Ferghana Valley. 40 men emerged from gates and surrounded Shaykh.  Tears filled their eyes, crying, emotionally overwhelming, begged Shaykh Hisham to pray for President Karimov and for Allah to support them in fight with “Islamist” radicals coming to their land from outside, terrorizing peaceful traditional agrarian population. Accompanied Shaykh to maqam. 

Shaykh made long du’a, asking Allah for the sake of that great saint to support these sincere devout men’s fight against extremism; to protect them and their families from destructive influence of intolerant religious sectarianism which seeks to split up families, tribes and even whole towns. All men had tears flowing from their eyes, literally balling, seeking Shaykh’s blessings and prayers. 

Men never spoke to Shaykh directly- inherently knew him to be living saint,  larger than life –could only look at him and cry and cry endlessly from first moment they saw him come down from bus until he boarded again. One even videotaped entire event; could not stop crying while handling camera.

Ziayarat to Shah Naqshband

Visited madrasa and maqam of Sayyidina Shah Naqshband (q). On this visit Shaykh Hisham Kabbani noticed Wahabi placard written in Uzbek language warning people not to commit “shirk”. Large placard, right at entrance of one maqam. After Shaykh Kabbani made du’a at gravesite, told Dr. Sabirov, (who had by now flown from Tashkent to join him) and Mufti of Bukhara not to be afraid. He said, “With a President like Islam Karimov, you don’t have to be afraid to fight Wahabis.” Sabirov ordered signs removed (they tore down). Shaykh Hisham Kabbani then noticed the museum contained Arabic book by Abdur Rahman al-Dimashqi against tasawwuf and Naqshbandiyya. Shaykh Hisham told them such books are poisonous.

Wednesday evening - flew back to Tashkent.

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