’ABD-UL-HAKÎM EFENDI ‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih’ (I)

He was a great Islamic scholar. His biography is written in the two hundred and fifteenth (215) page of the fourth edition of the book entitled SAHÂBA ‘The Blessed’. He was born in the township called Bashkal’a of the city of Van in 1281 [1865 A.D.], and passed away in Ankara in 1362 [1943]. In a time when Communists, Fremasons, Wahhâbîs, Apostates, Shiites, Jews and Christians were attacking Islam with writings and propagations and the English Empire was trying to demolish our blessed religion with their forces and wealths and doing their best to deprive Muslims of their faith and religion, he protected the Ahl as-Sunnat against annihilation by means of his lectures, preaches and writings and eradicated with great dexterity the poisonous lies with which the youth had been imbued. In this way he endured tremendous hardships and ill-treatments ‘rahimahullâhu ta’âlâ’. ’Abd-ul-Hakîm Efendi’s father, Khalîfa Mustafâ Efendi, was from the Sâkitan village of the city called Yüksekova.

Amidst the Armenian onslaught bolstered with British weaponry and which was aimed for the Muslim population, Sayyid ’Abd-ul-Hakîm Efendi left Bashkal’a during the Rajab month of 1332 [1914 A.D.], embarking on a migration destined for Istanbul. He was settled first in written madrasa at Eyyûb Sultân and thereafter in the Mustafâ Efendi Mesjîd on the Gumushhâna upland. Delivering religious lectures in various mosques, teaching in Vefâ High School and in the Suleymâniyya Madrasa, he began to spread Islam and silence and subdue the enemies of Islam. His appointment as a muderris, i.e. senior professor with a chair, for the Suleymâniyya Madrasa, the highest ranking university of all madrasas, was announced with the fermân dated 8th. Dhu’lqa’da, 1337, or 5th. August, 1335 [1919 A.D.]. The fermân read as follows:

As regards the seats vacant in the Dâr-ul-khilâfa-t-il-’aliyya Suleymâniyya Madrasa, Vildân Fâiq Efendi of Debra (Debar, Dibra, in Albania) has been appointed as Professor (Muderris) of Hadîth-i-sherîf; ’Abd-ul-Hakîm (Arwâsî) Efendi, one of the Islamic scholars (’Ulemâ) of Hakkârî, has been appointed as Muderris of Tasawwuf; and Sayyid Tâhâ Efendi, a former member of the Grand National Assembly for Hakkârî, has been appointed a Muderris of Fiqh-i-shâfi’î. The Meshîkhat-i-islâmiyya (Office of the Ottoman Shaikh-ul-islâm) has been charged with the execution of this irâda-i-seniyya (imperial decree).

Muhammad Vahîdeddîn (hundred –and– first, and the last, Ottoman Emperor).