Byara Khanaqah... The Azhar of Kurdistan

Variety 03:12 PM - 2021-07-16

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In a small town in Kurdistan there is a well-known Madrasa (Islamic school) where many renowned Fiqahs have graduated from.

 

Byara Khanaqah, located in Byara town of Halabja Governorate, is the home of many Fiqahs and scholars of the Islamic world. It is known as the Azhar of Kurdistan.

 

A khanqah or khangah, also known as a ribat – among other terms – is a building designed specifically for gatherings of a Sufi brotherhood or tariqa and is a place for spiritual retreat and character reformation. In the past, and to a lesser extent nowadays, they often served as hospices for saliks, Murids and talibs.

 

Al-Azhar University is a public university in Cairo, Egypt. Associated with Al-Azhar Mosque in Islamic Cairo, it is Egypt's oldest degree-granting university and is renowned as the most prestigious university for Islamic learning. 

 

Fiqh is Islamic jurisprudence. Fiqh is often described as the human understanding and practices of the sharia, that is human understanding of the divine Islamic law as revealed in the Quran and the Sunnah.

 

The Byara Khanaqa was built in 1889 by Sheikh Omar Dhia'aldin and it was later renovated in 1992 by Sheikh Othman Sarajaldin.

 

"We currently have many Fiqahs in the Byara Madrasa," said one of the teachers at the Khanaqah.

 

At first they learn Quran, intonation, the Ahmadi language, after that they begin learning grammar by studying some books, later on they learn morphology by studying some books, and then they learn the mind science, such as logic which they study in some Risalahs (Islamic treatises), and Philosophy which they study in two Risalahs. After that they begin learning Etiquette, debate and research, then they begin learning the science of faith and the believes of Sunnah and with all of these the students also learn the science of Fiqh and many Islamic books and believes.

 

"Our school is not just for a certain are but our Fiqahs are mostly from the South Kurdistan and Iranian Kurdistan. We also have Fiqahs from central and southern Iraq from Baghdad, Diyalah, Falujah and Samarra."

 

"If you look at the history of our Khanaqah, you can find that we have had Fiqahs from all over the world, We had Fiqah from Egypt, Turkey, Syria and even in Afghanistan and Iran parts in general. It became a major studying center in the Islamic world," he added.

 

As for the number of the Fiqahs of the Khanqah, the teacher said that "there are so many of them that they can't be counted like the poem of Qani says:

 

If I ask a Mullah how many Fiqahs do you have?

He said don't ask they keep coming and going

 

We don't register the names of our Fiqahs, some of them finish their whole study here and some of them only finish a part of their study in another Madrasa as we have many other branches."

 

"In the hearts of most of Fiqahs and Mullahs, the Byara Khanaqah is seen as an important scientific school but unfortunately unlike Azhar, ​our Khanaqah is not recognized by the government which  has created issues for our Fiqahs but thank God they were able to modify their certificates and study at universities and colleges," he said.

 

According to the teacher, the Khanaqa has many visitors daily. People from all over the world visit the school to see the beard strands of the Prophet Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him, which was a gift from Sheikh Ahmed Shamsadin to the area during the time of Ottomans. 

 

 

 

By Hiran 

​PUKmedia