yaraghi -1-

Muhammad Effendi al-Yaraghi...

thirty-fourth figure on the Naqshbandi Silsila...

born in Dagestan, east of Georgia...

1777AD...

His custom was...

to put his murids [disciples] in seclusion in stages.

The senior murids, who had already undergone many seclusions, he would put in a very intense seclusion in special underground rooms. He accepted both men and women to come to him for advice, and he had both male and female murids, whom he would put in seclusion, each in his or her own separate seclusion.

A scholar who was jealous of Shaykh Yaraghi’s fame...

and who wished to destroy his reputation...

went to the Governor of Dagestan, Shah Shawus...

and claimed that Shaykh Yaraghi was actually mixing the sexes. The scholar told the governor: “That man is destroying the shariah,” even though Shaykh Yaraghi was well-known in his time for his strictness in maintaining the shariah and the sunnah. That scholar tried to pressure the governor to put Yaraghi in jail. The governor sent a messenger to the shaykh, with a letter.

The Shaykh read the letter, and then said to the messenger, “Wait! I am sending a gift to the governor, on the condition that he doesn’t open it, until the day of my appearance before him.” He went into his room, and came out with a box, which he gave to the courier.

The governor received the box...

and he felt a fear at the thought of opening it.

On the day of the hearing, Sayyidina al-Yaraghi arrived with all his followers. When he entered, the governor stood up. The people saw him standing, and knew that something had happened, as he was not in the habit of standing for anyone.

The shaykh said, “Open the box!”

The governor opened the box, and he found a letter in it. Under the letter was charcoal, burning intensely. Under the charcoal was a piece of cloth, completely unaffected by the coals. Under the cloth, there was gunpowder.

The shaykh said, “Read the letter!”

And the governor opened the letter, and began to read it out loud:

“To the governor. Although the charge brought against us is untrue, nevertheless we ask: can the one who is keeping a box full of burning charcoal, which has been lying on gunpowder for one week…” at which point the governor began to shake.

The shaykh told him, “Don’t tremble, read on!” He continued, “…which has been lying on gunpowder for one week, without any harm or explosion, is he not able to keep his murids, men and women, from exploding with the fire of passion?”


~bron~