Rawda Cemetery

05/02/2025

Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem
The entrance of Rawda Cemetery just got an upgrade. We will be working throughout the summer to beautify the grounds, insha-Allah.

12/17/2024

PASSING AND BURIAL OF MAWLANA SHAYKH MUHAMMAD HISHAM KABBANI (ق)
أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Raheem

إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّآ إِلَيْهِ رَٰجِعُونَ
Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji`oon
'Verily, unto God do we belong and, verily, unto Him we shall return.'

Greetings!
Our hearts are broken, our eyes are filled with tears and our souls are in grief as we state that our Master, our Teacher, our Saint, our Guide Qutb al-Mutassarif Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani (ق), has passed from this worldly life this evening, and moved to al-Rafeeq al-`Alaa, the Highest Companionship of Allah `Azza wa Jall and His Beloved Prophet Sayyidina Muhammad(s), Ahl al-Bayt, the Blessed Companions of the Prophet (s), and their Followers in Goodness, the Highest Saints and Martyrs and the Righteous servants of Allah (swt).
The majestic and noble leader of millions of people around the world will feel an immense void in their temporal lives without his physical presence to comfort them.
Insha-Allah Mawlana Shaykh's janaza was held Thursday, December 5, 2024 after 'Asr at the Fenton Zawiya followed by three days of mourning on Mawlana's behalf.
We request all Mawlana's mureeds and lovers around the world to pray Janaza Ghayb for Mawlana, recite Surah Yaseen, Surat al-Mulk, Tahlil, salawat, Khatm Khawajagan and to serve meals on the name of Mawlana Shaykh gifting the reward for his soul.
As-salam alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu,
Hajjah Naziha Adil Kabbani, Shaykh Nour Kabbani, Hajj Omar Kabbani, Hajj Nazem Kabbani, and all the Kabbani Family.

11/23/2024

MERCY OCEAN
Paul Hardy
October 31, 2019
After searching for some time, the spiritual master I had been looking for found me. This had been predicted in Egypt where my search had taken me. A friend of mine took me to see his spiritual guide in the hope that he was also mine as well. He told me: “I am not your shaykh; you will meet your shaykh in America.” My response was incredulity. America has preachers, not spiritual guides, I thought. I of course affirmed the reality of time (zamān) and was innocent of the implications of Einstein’s theory or time’s illusory nature. As a result, I was blind to the fact that my spiritual guide had already found me, when a friend presented me with a book, “Mercy Ocean.” It contained the associations of Nāẓim ʿAdil al-Ḥaqqānī. I had tried to read this book but stopped, when I read that the author was reading from his spiritual guide Shaykh ʿAbdullāh ad-Daġestānī, who had left this world sometime before the book before me had been written. I carefully placed the book on a shelf, since its talk seemed obviously beyond me. I would read it later after growing in understanding. I put down Mercy’s Ocean, although Shaykh Nāẓim was reaching out to me in 1979. So I had found him then or rather he had found me before 1986, when I met him in the flesh. “Mercy’s Ocean” I came to understand is of course Shaykh Nāẓim himself, who is drowned in the shoreless ocean of the Prophet Muḥammad (ṣ). That means he was not one to consider himself a limited entity, the “I” of the nafs, not even the an-nafsu’l-muṭmaʾinna (the tranquil nafs), which enters janna-the state of riḍwān—“rādīyatan marḍīya” (accepting and accepted). Mercy’s Ocean is transcends all that.
Reflect then! Where does your “I” start? Where does it end? On the body you don't end. For a million miles away the sun, if it dies, so will you, since you are connected with it. That’s why in the Qurʾān Allāh asks the Prophet (ṣ): “Have I not expanded your breast?” The breast is in the body is the symbolic center of the vibratory system. That vibratory system enshrines the oceanic, which the head cannot contain. It can only manufacture thoughts and images. Vibrations are far subtler: Wavelets. To the head, the subtlest entity is captured by mind are atomic and sub-atomic particles. This is the not harmonic motion of wavelets. That’s why those particles must at a deeper level become waves, as we learn in quantum physics. After all, particles have limits. In ṣūfī science particles begin with taʿayyun—delimitation and definition, which is signaled by the Qurʾān with the command “Kun!” (Be!) That is al-mabdāʾ or the beginning but in the return (maʿād) they must take on the attribute of al-Laṭīf (the Subtle) and become wave-like and thus able to harmonize with cosmos. That is the process of spiritual transformation.
“Kun” comes from “kāna/yakūn”(was, will be) and always has a temporal connotation. In this respect it is unlike “waǧada,” whose in-finite form is “wuǧūd” which signifies an atemporal encounter, which knows no temporal limitation or extension. Kaʾināt (delimted entities) are like the atoms (jawāhir) of Imām Ašʿarī. You can believe in them or not, since belief in Arabic is iʿtiqād/ʿaqīda and means tying up the mind (ʿaql) and thus limiting it. Mercy’s Ocean can’t be tied up or limited. It is shoreless. That’s why Shaykh Nāẓim’s great ancestor, Mevlana Jalālu’d-Dīn Rūmī said: “My ocean is drowned in itself/O what a wondrous shoreless sea I am!” (baḥr-e man ġarqeh gošt ham dar ḫwīš / bū’l-ʿaǧab baḥr bī-kirān keh manam). Rūmī continues: “Not in this world, not in the next I am/ Where I am both worlds cease.” The two worlds are the stuff of salvation (naġāt) not riḍwān. “No!” he says: “I am free of profit and loss,” unlike those who seek salvation, profit in heaven and loss in hell. In other words, the delimited thought system situated in the head for Rūmī had become submerged into the vibratory system, where any hint of arhythmia of heart beat signals life’s cessation.
But life ceases also, without sunlight, although you are millions of miles away from the sun. So how can you or I be really distant from that light? We are continuous with it. The string of lights throughout the cosmos are tied to you. That’s why the Qurʾān says: “Allāh is Light of the Heavens and earth” but it also says: “I (sc. Allāh) am closer to you than your jugular vein” and “When my servants ask you about me [O Muḥammad] tell them I am near” (innī qarīb), where “qarīb” is an intensive form (faʿīl) signifying extreme closeness.
The moral is: We cannot consider ourselves narrow egos. Expand the soul, i.e., the nafs, which is the same as nafas (breath). That is, expand it by watching the rhythmic repetition of the Arabic letter “hāʾ” which is an išāra for the gap between one breath and another. That gap allows travel along the infinite line to the source of air, without which none of us sustains life. Those like Shaykh Nāẓim and Mevlana Rūmī know this. They say, “we are breathing in it, it is difficult to say; He is breathing in us, although ‘hāʾ’ is the only phonetically significant phoneme in Allāh. The “al” is the definite article, which delimits the sound so the mind can grasp it.
But the very breath,which was mine, after a moment, will become yours. I will not be able to say that you will not be over, if you cease the hāʾ of breathing. That hāʾ will be someone else’s. Nor can I say, if my hāʾ ceases it will not belong to another. After all, the Prophet (ṣ) said: “They do not die; rather they move from one abode (dār) to another.” For the “Kun!” with which each of us was created is itself outside of time. But the bodily motion measures out time. Except, the body gives out. Does the air sustaining breath then cease? I mean the “nafasu’r-raḥmān” (the Breath of the All-Merciful), Whom the Prophet mentioned, when he said: “Do not curse the wind, for it derives from the Breath of the All-Merciful” and “I find the Breath of the All-Merciful coming to me from the direction of Yemen.”
Except, most of us have agreed to consider ourselves a narrow soul (nafs). We have agreed to be small lakes and narrow fjords. These are just the bodies of water of created in our thoughts and imaginations—taʿayyunāt (limitations). The body is the instrument of tanfīs (breathing) whereby we are expanded. Recall: “Did I not expand your breast?” (alam našraḥ laka ṣadrak). To grasp Mercy’s Ocean is not a matter of thinking about it. It's a matter of tanfīs. Allāh says: "Make murāqaba on me and I shall make murāqaba on you and make you to say to a thing: ‘Be! and it is."

[installation of Dr. Paul Hardy's grave marker, 22 November, 2024]

الفاتحة. Al-Fatiha!

11/22/2024

07/01/2024

Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem
إِنَّا لِلّهِ وَإِنَّـا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعونَ
Verily to God do we belong and verily to Him do we return. (Holy Quran 2: 156)
Our sister in Islam and in the Naqshbandi Tariqah, Deborah E. Dewitt, returned to her Lord on the morning of June 27, 2024/Dhul-Hijjah 21, 1445, after a long struggle with cancer.
We ask Allah to grant her His Forgiveness, Mercy, Blessings, Lights and Peace as she enters the World of the Afterlife. May He (swt) turn her mistakes and sins into perfect worship on the pattern of Rasoolullah (s). May He enter her into the highest Paradise, al-Firdaws al-`Alaa, with the Prophets, the Veracious Saints, the Martyrs and the Righteous Servants of the Lord.
Deborah's funeral was held at the Fenton Michigan Zawiya on Friday June 28, 2024 at 6 pm, and she was buried in the Rawda Cemetery. Her husband Ralph and son Alex provided an `Aza meal afterwards.
Recite Surat al-Fatiha for her soul.

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OBITUARY - DEBORAH ELAINE DEWITT
Deborah Elaine DeWitt was born on August 12, 1957 in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. She passed on June 27, 2024, after a long battle with
cancer. Deborah is survived by her son, her mother, two brothers and her husband.
Deborah was the first child of Bess Iris DeWitt (maiden name Brown) and Benjamin DeWitt. Her mother was a surgical nurse, her father an engineer and patent attorney. They moved to Southern California in 1961, and eventually settled in Palos Verdes, a suburb of Los Angeles on the Pacific Coast.
Deborah was an excellent student and studied at the University of
California, Berkeley, with strong interests in mathematics, philosophy, architecture, and religion. She later received a Master’s degree in mathematics from State University of New York at Stony Brook. She then worked as an engineer in aerospace and automotive companies. Eventually, she taught mathematics at a high school in Ann Arbor. She loved teaching and found it most rewarding.
Deborah married Ralf Spatzier in 1988 in Los Angeles, and gave birth to her son Alexander in 1990. She devoted herself to her family and especially to her son after that. She also taught her husband humility and the importance of family and teaching.
Deborah was brought up in a Christian tradition, but took great interest in other religions. She found Islam in 2011, and saw its innate beauty. She soon thereafter converted and studied Islam and the Quran in depth.
Deborah loved animals, especially cats and deer.
A friend wrote on her passing: ”She was brilliant, kind, generous and one of the most honest people I have met.”
We all much love her and will miss her tremendously.

12/29/2023

إِنَّا لِلّهِ وَإِنَّـا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعونَ
Verily to God do we belong and verily to Him do we return. (Holy Quran 2: 156)
Our brother Tariq Sheikh has passed to the Divine Presence.
He was buried with honor and dignity in the presence of many members of his family at the Rawda on December 9, 2023.
Biography:
Tariq Mahmud Sheikh (February 15, 1956 -- December 9, 2023)
An ardent lover of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, a man of sound heart and sonorous voice, Tariq Mahmud Sheikh, died in his home in Jersey City, New Jersey, on December 09, 2023, at 67 years of age, after a cancer diagnosis less than a month before.
Born to Ramzan Sheikh and Sharifa Begum in 1956 in Jalalpur Jattan, Gujrat, Pakistan, Tariq was the oldest brother of eight siblings in total. He would often recount, in amazement, the never ending patience of his mother, and the impeccable work ethic of his father. His maternal grandfather, a saint in his own right, instilled a lifelong love for Allah’s Friends and the spiritual Path in Tariq’s heart since he was a child. Wherever he roamed, he sought out the People of Living Hearts, Allah’s Friends, and they in turn always welcomed him, loved him, and graced him with many gifts.
He met Mawlana Shaykh Nazim and Mawlana Shaykh Hisham, may Allah sanctify their inner beings, in 1996 in New York, New York. He recognized them as Friends of Allah, and they accepted him into their circle. Shortly after, he dreamt of his previous Qadiri Shaykh from Pakistan, the late Sayyid Manzoor Shah from Naseeb Abad, approaching him on horseback, with Mawlana Shaykh Nazim also on horseback by his side. When the two saints reached him, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim extended his hand towards Tariq, as if he wanted to give him something. Recounting the dream, Tariq said that he folded his arms and looked away, as if to say, “If I am to receive anything, I want to receive it from him,” meaning his previous Shaykh. At this, the two saints looked at each other and laughed, as if they accepted his loyalty and were touched by his innocence.
In circles of Dhikr around the New York metropolitan area, Tariq is remembered for his beautiful renditions of poems in praise of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, in Urdu and Punjabi, as well as his recitation of the Qur`an, and his moving recitation of Durood Taj.
Just as his father before him, throughout his life, Tariq worked hard to provide for and support his immediate and extended family. After coming to the United States in 1978, he worked many odd jobs, in a shoe factory, a department store, delivering pianos, running a small grocery store, and ultimately, working as a livery driver for over 30 years. He said that if a movie or novel was ever written about him and his experiences as a cab driver, he’d want it to be titled, “Me and My Yellow.”
On Monday, December 11, 2023, Tariq was buried in the Rawda Cemetery, per his longtime wish to be buried at the feet of his Murshid. He will always be remembered for his kind heartedness, generosity, b***y jokes, and loving nature. All who met him attest to the light in his heart, the warmth of his soul. He was an excellent son, brother, father, uncle, grandfather, husband, friend, and a believer of the highest caliber. He will be dearly missed.
We ask Allah Almighty to illuminate his grave, elevate his station, and resurrect him in the company of the Prophets, Truthful Ones, martyrs, and righteous servants of Allah Almighty. Ameen, bi hurmati l-Habib, bi hurmati l-Fatiha.

10/14/2023

Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem
Photo of full outlay of plots of Rawda Cemetery.

09/16/2021

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Rawda Cemetery, located in beautiful Tyrone Township, in SE Michigan, is a 'green' cemetery, licensed by the State of Michigan. Its serene location, far from the bustle of the city, is an ideal location for a loved one's final resting place. Burial without any embalming or concrete vault allows the reality of the transformation 'dust to dust' in the body's return to nature.

Find out more about 'green' burial and what Rawda Cemetery has to offer at www.rawdacemetery.com.

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