Today’s post is a special treat which I hope you can share with your friends. You will find here an (edited) chapter from my very own as yet unpublished bio (Average Whiteman) about a concert in Sarajevo fourteen years ago in 1997 that Yusuf Islam and myself appeared in. I’ve also loaded up an mp3 of one song – Tashaffa Ya Rasulallah -from that concert that I sang with Burhan Saban, a wonderful singer and hafiz from the famous madrasa in Sarajevo. Burhan only heard this the day before the concert and does this amazing heart-rending prayer at the end. If there is a good response from this I can try to get the rest of this remarkable concert released as a CD or whatever. But do tell me.
Ian Whiteman 
Great stuff, brother!
The singing was extremely beautiful and I can only imagine that the time and setting added to the great baraka of the words. It took my ears a while to get used to the instruments after hearing this Qasida — which is a supplication for help — sung so many times here in Morocco acapella, but I suppose it was appropriate for that particular moment. It would be a great gift to hear more of that concert. Thank you, too, for sharing those pages of Average Whiteman which I still hope will be published in some form. Who else has documented those days from the perspective of a traveler in the Sufic path?
Salams, dear brother, and may blessings fill all your days
Assalaam ‘alaykum.
Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to more.
Peace from Berkeley.
Yusuf
PS
Can you establish an e-mail subscription feature to the blog? Thank you.
Dear Yusuf, Not sure what an email subscription is (sorry senior moment here). As far as I know on WordPress you can become a follower (sounds like a cult to me) which means you get notified when I post. Others have done it. Adios.
I really enjoyed the very beautiful peace of music. Alhamdulillah. Especially the instrumentation which brought something new and powerful to what could have been a more traditional performance of a Moroccan qasida. The Bio seems very well written in an easy and accessible language. Looking forward to read the whole book in the future, as well as more of the music from the concert. With peace and joy, your brother on the path, Abdul Hadi Stendlert
Salaams,
Thank you for sharing this beautiful dthikr. Heart warming and light filled words expressed through beautiful voices was a joy to listen to. I would be very much interested in having access to a copy of the whole concert.
Many thanks
Bara
inPeace
could an english translation of Tashaffa Ya Rasululla be put up here please…
Many Thanks
Jack
English translation of Tashaffa Ya Rasulullah as requested.
O Messenger of Allah, intercede for us.
we do not hope for intercession from anyone except you.
Oh best of Allah’s creation, give help to a weak people
whose protection is always your banner.
Hasten to aid us, for we see that the Lord is swift to
approve of you
May the blessings of your Lord be upon you, at every
instant and all your family and those who are your
friends, the gathering of trusting slaves.
thank.u
that’s really beautiful.
Salaam,
Wonderful! Please try to get a CD of the concert released or even better post it somewhere for free download with a facility to make a charitable donation. Iljas
Thank you very much for that very amazing chapter from your book. Really looking forward to the whole book. Please let us know when it will be released. Thanks.
Ps. Would be extremely grateful if you could upload the recitation by Aziz Alili
JazakumAllahu khair
Abdullatif
MashaAllah beautiful song and beautiful voice. First came across this song in Sidi Peter Sander’s video for In The Shade Of the Tree. 🙂
What are the words in Arabic please ?
I’ll have to dig them up.
Tashaffa ya rasulullahi feena
famaa narjuw al’shafaa’ata min siwaakaa
Aghith ya khayra khalqi ‘llahi qawman
Dhi’afaan dhilluhum abadan liwaakaa
wa asri’ fi ighathatinaa fa innaa
narja ‘lmawla yusaari’u fi ridhaakaa
‘alayka salatu rabbinaa kulla heenin
wa aalika kullihim wa man wa laakaa
…………………………………………………………………..
O Messenger of Allah, intercede for us.
we do not hope for intercession from anyone except you.
Oh best of Allah’s creation, give help to a weak people
whose protection is always your banner.
Hasten to aid us, for we see that the Lord is swift to
approve of you
May the blessings of your Lord be upon you, at every
instant and all your family and those who are your
friends, the gathering of trusting slaves.
Sidi
Is this a new post being shared with me or a question on the Arabic or translation? At any rate, what a beautiful moment that was… and it seems that some sort of peace has continued to reign there (?).
Someone (rideforever) asked for the Arabic …..so I dug it up and posted it!
Bismillah,
Dear Sidi Abdallateef,
I hope this finds you and Sayyida well in every way. I just wanted to pass on to you (and to Sidi Haroun) something about this visit we had on Wednesday. A couple of months back, a Moroccan who has been living in Singapore for about 12 years and one other person visited Moulay Hachim to arrange a visit of a group of over thirty. That visit happened this past week and Fouad, Moulay Abdelkebir, and I drove to Meknes to help. We really didn’t know what they wanted exactly or how they knew about the Shaykh until I actually we had a chance to sit with them a bit. Apparently, they had been looking for a shaykh of tariqa for a while and some of them had come across Sidi Haroun’s book, which I think was printed in Singapore. The Moroccan who came, named Sidi Hassan, didn’t really know about the Habibiyya or whether Moulay Hachim was still alive, and so the initial planning visit. So basically, we had the chance to sit in on 30 people, about 20 of whom were women, taking bay’a with Moulay Hachim (this was done by reciting the Fatiha together with that intention, not by taking hands). This was followed by a beautiful session of questions which one of them translated from Moulay Abdelkebir’s fusha to the Malay tongue, although the entire group also spoke English. On Saturday, we saw them again, this time in Marrakesh, and did a zayarat of three of the seven saints and then went to Hamza’s house for a majlis. I’m attaching photos from Meknes.
Also during the visit, Moulay Hachim gave us the recent re-printing of the wird in the small book which he pays for and distributes to those who ask. The difference in this printing was the addition of what is called the wazifa hashimiyya — and short wird which he himself composed — it’s all Quran and du’a from the Prophet (S) for those people who have trouble finding time for the full wird (which in this point in time is probably many). Although the complete wird is always the goal and to be recited in majalis, this one has much blessing — he said it contains “the good of this world and the Next,” and can be completed in about 5-8 minutes. I’ve typed out the Arabic and created a pdf for it which I’m attaching. I’ll try to add a translation and maybe even transliteration soon. If anyone who has permission to recite the full wird is interested in having a copy of this one, please share it with them.
Lastly — I don’t have Sidi Haroun’s email. We communicate by FB message. I asked him to send me one, but maybe he doesn’t want to post it, just like I don’t want to post any of this. If you do have his email, I would be grateful if you could forward this message to him in its entirety. I think he’d be happy that his book was a bridge. Speaking of which, none of these people was aware of the new Diwan, but all of them saw it and liked it very much at Hamza’s house, and 10 of them used it for singing al-Hamd. Then they took down the information for ordering it. InshaAllah, that will happen.
Also lastly, I was asked to convey to you and any of the friends in Spain that the Mawlid in Meknes will be on December 26 (a Saturday). So the message is conveyed.
May Allah keep you all in His infinite mercy and protection
Abdurrahman
Can we have the actual Arabic posted please?
Amazing this is still being looked at two years or more after the initial posting!. Anyway, here is the version sung in Morocco, Note that syllables are extended for the music of it, so the transliteration that Sidi Abdallateef posted above makes it easy. Hoping this doesn’t get rearranged by being posted….
تَشَفَّعْ ياَ رَسُولَ اللهِ فِــيــنَا فَمَا نَرْجُو الشَّفَاعَةَ مِنْ سِوَاكَ (3)
أغِثْ يَا خَيْرَ خَلْقِ اللهِ قَــوْماً ضِعَافاً ظِلُّهُمْ أبَـداً لِـــوَاكَ
واَسْرِعْ في إغَـاثَـتِـنَا فَإِنَّـا نَرَى الْمَوْلَى يُسَارِعُ في رِضـَاكَ
عَلَيْكَ صَلاةُ رَبِّناَ كُـلَّ حِيـنٍ وآلِـكَ كُلِّهِمْ وَمَــنْ وَالاَكَ
As I thought, WordPress removed the spaces separating the two parts of each verse …Anyway, with the transliteration it should be clear..