Sufis, Bengalis, Sufis

Salaam,

Just had my first set of classes (8am till 11am...) and Alh they went pretty well. Iv been put in level 2 for both Grammar and for reading/writing so im pretty happy with that.

Well since the last time i wrote something alhamdulilla the weather has got better ! Its still been pretty cold the last few days though but thankfully for me no rain. Anyway all iv been really doing is going round Amman and the local area and just getting a feel of things here.

All i have to compare Amman to is Cairo and Sylhet and at the moment Amman is coming on top (sorry egyptians and bengalis..). Its basically as close to any main city in the UK without being in the UK; the streets are pretty clean, their is some sense of order on the roads, all the shops are decent etc etc. Maybe im getting a biased view on things as im seeing mainly the rich areas but there just seems to be a sense of order in the air wherever you go in Amman. Also the fact theres only 1.5m people in Amman compared to the 30m in Cairo might be a factor...

Closer to home, the main "attraction"is Sheikh Nuh and his Zawiyyah. To be honest with you im not too familiar with the sheikh and only very briefly heard about him in the UK but i knew there was much talk about him and his ways...for those who know about him, basically to them he is a legend. He is a master in shafi fiqh but recently has become more well known for being a sheikh of the Shadili tariqa of Sufism. I know a lot of people who know about this sheikh would salivate over the prospect of praying everyday with him and living 50 metres away from him..(one of my room mates (more about them later) travelled 18 hours across the states to attend a serious of talks by him) but i wasnt all too fussed about it to be honest.

Sufism. Sufis. Arrrggggghhhhh....! I knew qasid wasn't officially affliated with Sheikh Nuh but pretty much all the students and teachers at Qasid have given Ba'yah (pledged allegance) to Sheikh Nuh and his Tariqa and so are Sufi's. Again, to be honest i dont know about Sufism in depth but i do know that with a lot of the tariqa's 90% of things they do might be with concensus of the majority of the scholars, but there Is some dodge stuff. I think the most contraversial thing they do is their "hadra" - basically every thursday and saturday after maghrib they do loud dhikr in a circle, whilst jumping up and down waving their hands about with the sheikh in middle shouting some stuff and th circle rotates round and round...or thats what iv been told happens. This in itself might be dodge but apparently (the people who haven't given him ba'yah) say that the things they say itself is dodge as the sources are questionable. So im feeling quite awkward surrounded by these guys But the knowledge of Sheikh Nuh is unquestionable so inshaAllah im going to start attending his talks he does on other topics 3 times a week.

Thats one neighbour dealt with. On the other side, literally next to our block of apartments lives Sheikh Faraz Rabbani of Sunnipath fame. So subhanallah, thats one set of neighbours ! So if there are any questions raised regarding fiqh, there's enough people to go and see...

Anyway regarding the other students here, the vast majority of them seem to be from the states and canada but theres quite a few from the UK too. In terms of new students who started with me, a very broad mix; from the brothers theres an Italian convert, an American convert, a malayisian born and bred in Perth, Australia, an Indian born and bred in Chicago, USA and an indian guy born and bred in South Africa. So just form here you can see the diversity of people around.

Regarding the people im living with again a good mix; The malaysian guy from above, an american convert, an american originally from India, a canadian originally from Pakistan. And Iqbal. Yes the boy wonder couldnt keep away so decided to move in so he can be with me. I dont blame him to be honest. But alhamdulillah i think its a good group of people; these guys are Hardcore. OK, everyone except me and Iqbal are sufis but lets just say congregational tahajjud is taking place every night.

Anyway i need to dash, but another quite big thing iv done is visit a castle where SalahUddin once lived in and visited the "shrines" of the sahabi Abu Ubaidah (one of the ten sahabi guranteed paradise whilst on earth) and the prophet Shuhaib (who was around at the time of the prophet Musa) , so inshaAllah info on that and pics will come on the next post.

Salaam Warahmutallah

Farouk

PS, there are Soooo many bengalis here...!