Read about It. Рахимбергенова М.Х. - 31 стр.

       Hisham Muhammad Kabbani is a Sufi saint, a sheik in the               years, the government official often witnessed Baba work his signature
Naqshbandi Order of Islam, which traces its lineage back to the              miracle – producing out of air mounds of vibhuti, sacred ash that his
Prophet Muhammad. Now 55 and head of the order in North America,             devotees credit with healing properties. But it was in 1986 that Ras-
he has an M.D. from Louvain University in Belgium. He relates a mira-        gotra experienced Baba’s power firsthand. After suffering a heart at-
cle story that occurred in 1971, when his own spiritual master, Sheik        tack, Rasgotra lay in a hospital recovery room. Among the hovering
Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani, made a rare and unexpected visit to               doctors and nurses he saw Baba, though the saint was a thousand miles
Kabbani’s home in Lebanon. «He said to me, «I have received an inspi-        away. When physicians told him he needed bypass surgery to avoid a
ration from a chain of our grandmasters that your father is going to die     fatal attack, Rasgotra consulted Baba in person, who told him he didn’t
tonight at 7 p.m.» I asked, «How do you know this? My father is old but      need it. Rasgotra skipped surgery and today, at 75, he plays 18 holes of
in good health. «He said, «It is through our essence and the spiritual       golf regularly. «I have total faith in Baba,» says Rasgotra. «Whatever
connection that has been passed over thousands of years» It was 5 in         he says comes about. Whenever you are with him you feel you’re shed-
the evening and he told me to call the family together and not to tell my    ding something and acquiring a new kind of life.»
father. At five minutes before 7, my master came to my father’s room.               For more than three millenniums, India has been a land of living
My father told the sheik that he was in pain and his heart was failing.      saints. It is also a land of nearly countless local gods and goddesses –
When the clock was ringing at 7, my father passed away.»                     some 3 million of them, by one recent estimate. All gods, however, are
       In the Qur’an, the Prophet Muhammad rejects every request to          but different forms of a single Absolute (Brahman) which is also the
work miracles, saying that the Qur’an itself is a miracle, the only one a    ground (Atman) of everyone who exists. Just as Hindu gods can de-
Muslim needs. But in the oral traditions (ahadith) of his life, Muham-       scend in human form, so the Hindu saint can achieve god-like con-
mad works numerous miracles. He multiplies food for his companions           sciousness. Thus, through rigorous meditation and other yogic practices,
and heals a variety of ailments. Islamic theology distinguishes sharply      the practitioner can decant his bottled divinity. Given this view, the line
between the miracles (mu’jiza) that God’s prophets could perform and         between human and divine is not as distinct as in the West.
the karama, or wonders worked by later Muslim mystics and saints.                   Both Hinduism and Buddhism are quite precise about the kinds
Islam means «submission» to Allah; Sufi mystics who submit their             of powers or «superknowledges» that a successful practitioner of medi-
minds and bodies in total prayer achieve a level of spiritual knowledge      tation can expect. Among them are knowledge of one’s previous lives,
that produces karama. Thus Sufi spiritual masters can intuit disasters,      and the abilities to traverse great distances in a moment and to penetrate
read the needs of souls and help the sick.                                   the minds of others. But Buddhist sages, in particular, are wary of dis-
       From the beginning, Islam has also maintained a vigorous cult of      playing these powers to others, lest it bolster the ego they are trying to
the saints. The Qur’an itself speaks of friends of God (awliya’ Allah),      overcome. Venerable Master Hsuan Hua, a Chinese Buddhist monk,
and over the centuries Muslims have singled out certain figures for de-      established a Chan monastery in San Francisco in 1970. In Asia, it is
votion, including Muhammad’s favorite daughter, Fatimah. For Shiite          reported that he could heal the ailments of those willing to follow the
Muslims, the Prophet’s son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib even surpasses           dharma of the Buddha. But in the United States, where he died in 1995,
Muhammad as an intercessor with Allah. Pious Muslims venerate their          Master Hua thought that using supernatural powers as a teaching tool
saints, cherish their relics, invoke their protection and look to them for   would be counterproductive in a rational, scientific society.
blessings.                                                                          Outside of Asian cultures, however, few believers encounter liv-
       Maharaj Krishna Rasgotra, a retired foreign secretary of India,       ing saints – or their miracles. Indeed, in all the world’s religions the
remembers the precise day almost 30 years ago when he became a               most common miracles are those connected with prayers offered
devotee of Saty Sai Baba, India’s most celebrated living saint. Over the     anonymously at shrines. The «modern» shrine tradition may well have

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