Darqawa

Bismillahi Babuna,

Shaikh Nuh Keller, hafidhahu Allah, remembers an incident in which Shaikh Abd Ar-Rahman Ash-Shaghouri, radi Allahu `anh, gives a lesson in Futuwwah.


"Twenty-two years ago, we had come out of this mosque together after visiting the shrine of Sheikh Muhyiddin, and I watched for a moment as he stopped to buy some apples from a cart in front of the mosque. He took the plastic bag from the seller and filled it with the worst apples he could find — nicked, bruised, and worm-holed — which he chose as carefully as most people choose good ones, then paid for and with a smile shook hands with the man before we went up the hill to the sheikh’s home. Small and lithe, he had a light complexion, penetrating eyes, aquiline features with expressive lips, and a trimmed mustache and full beard. He dressed elegantly, wearing a few turns of white and gold cloth around a red fez on his head, a knee-length suit and vest over a shirt without a tie, and trousers tapering to the ankles. As we climbed higher and higher, I wanted to carry the bag, but he wouldn’t let me, saying that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) had said, “The one who needs a thing is the one who should carry it.” When I reflected on his strange “shopping,” I realized that it had been to save the apple man from having to throw any out. The incident summed up the sheikh’s personality and life, which was based on futuwwa or “putting others ahead of oneself.”

Taken from the obituary of Sidn Shaikh by Shaikh Nuh.