Visiting Shaykh Muzaffer in the bookstore (Photo: Emily O'Dell)
Visiting his tomb in Istanbul
Philosophy is finished. Now is the time for love.
— Shaykh Muzaffer Ozak al-Jerrahi
In a recent article in the NYTimes about Istanbul, Orhan Pamuk, the Noble Prize winning author, mentions his affection for a certain Turkish book bazaar–where I always bring my friends (but not for the books).
Here’s an excerpt from the article: “Nobody else would be here on Saturdays. I’d be haggling, talking, chatting. I would know every clerk, but it’s all changed now,” he [Pamuk] said, referring to the somewhat touristy atmosphere and the disappearance of characters he’d come to know, such as a manuscript seller who doubled as a Sufi preacher. These days, he said, “I come only once a year.”
If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was referring to Shaykh Muzaffer Ashki al-Jerrahi, a Sufi teacher in the Halveti-Jerrahi Order, who used to sell manuscripts in a corner bookstore of the bazaar (and wrote many books of his own). Every time I meet friends in Istanbul, I take them to the bookstore where Shaykh Muzaffer once worked–to see the photographs and framed calligraphy hung in his memory like a hidden shrine.
Though Shaykh Muzaffer (Muzaffer Effendi) was a beloved Sufi preacher in Istanbul, he was responsible for bringing the Halveti-Jerrahi Sufi Order, founded by Hadrat Pir Nureddin al-Jerrahi (b. 1678), to the “west” at the end of the 20th century by traveling, teaching, and living in America. Today, the Halveti-Jerrahi Sufi Order and the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order (led by Shaykha Fariha) carry on his legacy and teachings.
Shaykh Muzaffer died in 1985, was buried in Istanbul–in the Jerrahi dervish lodge where Sufis still gather every week for whirling and the meditative dhikr ceremony–as led by Shaykh Muzaffer in the video below…
The sheikhs are the pourers of the wine and the dervish is the glass.
Love is the wine. By the hand of the wine pourer, the glass — the dervish — is filled. This is the short way.
Love could be offered to one by other hands. This is the short way.
— Shaykh Muzaffer Ozak el-Jerrahi
Today, February 15th, is the anniversary of Shaykh Muzaffer’s funeral procession through Istanbul (as seen in the video below). Though it was an icy day, thousands of dervishes came out to follow his coffin and attend his funeral prayer in Fatih Mosque, before carrying his body back to the Sufi lodge. For 40 days, la ‘ilaha ‘illa-llah was continuously recited by Sufis in his tomb–together with verses from the Quran and the 99 Divine Names. After 40 days passed, a new Sufi master, Sefer Effendi, was elected to carry on the leadership of the Halveti-Jerrahi Order, along with Shaykh Muzaffer’s memory…
Love and the lover have no rigid doctrine. Whichever direction the lover takes, he turns toward his beloved. Wherever he may be, he is with his beloved. Wherever he goes, he goes with his beloved. He cannot do anything, cannot survive for even one moment, without his beloved. He constantly recalls his beloved, and his beloved remembers him. Lover and beloved, rememberer and remembered, are ever in each other’s company, always together…
— Shaykh Muzaffer Ashki al-Jerrahi
Leaving Shaykh Muzaffer's tomb (Photo: Emily O'Dell)
