Page 118 - The Importance of the Ahl Al-Sunnah

HARUN YAHYA

Sayyid AbdulHakim al-Arwasi
Sayyid AbdulHakim al-Arwasi was born in 1865 in the
Baskal’a district of Van. His father, Mustafa Effendi, was a man
of tasawwuf who dedicated himself to Islamic education.
Following the education, AbdulHakim al-Arwasi Effendi was
educated in Qur’anic commentary, hadith, jurisprudence, and
Islamic theology in Iraq.
When he was fourteen, he started to receive an education in
tasawwuf from Fahim Effendi and became his student. After
reaching a certain level of maturity, when he was around twen-
ty years old, he returned to homeland and spent all that he had
to establish a madrassah and a library that the students could
use for free. However, this madrassah was looted by the
Armenians and the Russians during the World War I.
Eventually, he was compelled to leave Van. However, out of 150
of his companions, only twenty-nine reached Istanbul alive.
In 1919, AbdulHakim Effendi settled in a madrassah in the
Eyup area of Istanbul, which was allocated for him and his com-
panions. He began to teach in the Sulaymaniyya Madrassah, but
was dismissed in 1924-25, when the religious lodges were
closed down. In 1930, following the Menemen incidents, he was
arrested and later acquitted. Then he started to preach in the
Beyoglu Aga and the Beyazid Mosques. During his final years, he
was arrested and exiled several times. During these years, he
guided Necip Fazil Kisakurek, an Islamic poet, to faith.
He died in Ankara in 1943. His burial was as simple and mod-
est as his life.
AbdulHakim Effendi wrote two books: Ar-Riyad-ut-
Tasawwufiyya and Rabita-i Sharifa. The answers he gave in his
letters and conversations were also compiled in a book.

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