About A Sufi Mystic from Srilanka : Bawa Muhaiyaddeen

[seeker_ikb]

I am looking for more information about the following sufi saint. From the web, I have found
the following information. Does anyone know his spiritual chain ?


Muhammad Raheem Bawa Muhaiyaddeen is a a Sufi mystic from Srilanka.


Little is known of his early personal history. Records of his life began in the early 1900's when religious pilgrims traveling through the jungles of Sri Lanka first caught glimpse of a holy man. They were overwhelmed by the depth of divine knowledge that he imparted.

Sometime later a pilgrim invited him to a nearby village, and with that began his public life as a teacher of wisdom.

According to an account from the 1940s, Bawa Muhaiyaddeen had spent time in 'Kataragama', a jungle shrine in the south of the island, and in 'Jailani', a cliff shrine dedicated to 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani of Baghdad. His association with that Shaikh indicates his connection to the Qadiri order of Sufism.[4] Many of his followers who lived around the northern town of Jaffna were Hindus and addressed him as swami or guru. His role was often as healer of both medical and spiritual illnesses, including curing demonic possession.


Throughout Sri Lanka, people from all religious and ethnic traditions would listen to his public discourses. Many consulted him on how to conduct life's affairs, including public figures, politicians, the poor, and the learned.

In 1971 Bawa Muhaiyaddeen accepted an invitation to visit the United States. Here, once again, people from all religious, social and ethnic backgrounds would join to hear him speak. Across the United States, Canada and England, he won recognition from religious scholars, journalists, educators and world leaders.

[Sunni_Student786]

This post doesn't contain any of the info that you are looking for, but I'd like to say that I have visited his grave as it is located about 50 minutes away from where I live.

There are some things about the "society" that is in charge of maintaining his grave and publishing his books that seems a bit dodgy (e.g. holding "Urs" yearly and not forbidding Hindus and some others from prostrating to his grave), but I have not witnessed them myself.

I have gone to his grave twice, as has my father, when it was not Urs and we have merely prayed for the inhabitant of the grave and sought to gain some spiritual blessings. And we have not gotten any "sense" of anything that unnerved us.

I don't know if the above helps, but I hope that it does.

Wa'salaam.

[abdul_ahad]

This post doesn't contain any of the info that you are looking for, but I'd like to say that I have visited his grave as it is located about 50 minutes away from where I live.

There are some things about the "society" that is in charge of maintaining his grave and publishing his books that seems a bit dodgy (e.g. holding "Urs" yearly and not forbidding Hindus and some others from prostrating to his grave), but I have not witnessed them myself.

I have gone to his grave twice, as has my father, when it was not Urs and we have merely prayed for the inhabitant of the grave and sought to gain some spiritual blessings. And we have not gotten any "sense" of anything that unnerved us.

I don't know if the above helps, but I hope that it does.

Wa'salaam.

assalaamu alaikum W R W B

are you referring to the thalayan bawa masjid?

wassalaam

[ahlezikr]

Assalamu Alaikum WW,

Hes referring to the shrine in Jailan, close to Rakwana it seems. Ive heard some things about him. Will try to ask the older people for more information. I met one person who said he saw this Bawa (rah) in a dream and he wanted him to come and spend a chilla in the forest adjoining the place. Will check up.

[London786]

Ahlezikr maybe you could start a thread about sri lanka and islam there….how the silsilas are spread….tableegh etc…I heard the shadili silsila is widespread???

[ahlezikr]

Ahlezikr maybe you could start a thread about sri lanka and islam there….how the silsilas are spread….tableegh etc…I heard the shadili silsila is widespread???

Yes I should, insha Allah. Shadili and Qadiri Tareeqs are found everywhere. But authentic silsilahs are a problem. I should say none of them conform to Shariah and Sunnah, which is very sad.

Tabligh is what shall I say, growing, 5 Amals are happening at a good pace. I should get down some statistics, I have them stashed away somewhere. But now the Chisti silsilah is growing slowly through Maulana Ismail (db) whos was a khadim of Hazratji Inamul Hasan (db). He has Ijazat from 4 Shaikhs, Alhamdulillah. He is a Shamail-e-Tirmidhi in practice.

[ahlezikr]

There are some Sri Lankan brothers here I suppose, some bay't to Shaikhs and going on Jamat, they and the others can add more

[seeker_ikb]

This post doesn't contain any of the info that you are looking for, but I'd like to say that I have visited his grave as it is located about 50 minutes away from where I live.

There are some things about the "society" that is in charge of maintaining his grave and publishing his books that seems a bit dodgy (e.g. holding "Urs" yearly and not forbidding Hindus and some others from prostrating to his grave), but I have not witnessed them myself.

I have gone to his grave twice, as has my father, when it was not Urs and we have merely prayed for the inhabitant of the grave and sought to gain some spiritual blessings. And we have not gotten any "sense" of anything that unnerved us.

I don't know if the above helps, but I hope that it does.

Wa'salaam.

Recently someone informed me of a book named " Come to the Secret Garden: Sufi Tales of Wisdom " where you can
find profound wisdom displayed by this man .

You can read the book in Google book website
http://books.google.com/books


His followers have made a website about him. There I have found his answer to a tricky question as shown in the
following link.

http://www.bmf.org/wisdom/golden-words-465.html

You see the answer. Very interesting. However, still there are some confusing issues such as lack of sex-segregation among
his admirers as shown in one video in the website. Anyway, I need more information about him.


I am just wondering who is the spiritual guide of Bawa Muhaiyadden. Has he left any khalifas before his death ?
Which Tariqah did he follow ? How strict are his followers in following sunnah etc ?

[abdul_ahad]

if this thread had simply come to a standstill i wouldn't be posting this. but since the OP seems quite interested and assumes the person under consideration to be genuine shaykh, though i am not qualified to criticise the bawa concerned, i would say things don't appear correct.
try googling for "Bawa Muhaiyaddeen" AND "sri lanka" and browse through the results. ( i have already done this) things look a bit fishy. For followers a pious person to deviate after several generations is quite possible and in fact has happened in the past. But for immediate followers (those who were directly under the guidance of the person concerned, without any intermediaries) not to adhere to shariah and sunnah is disturbing, to say the least