20 December 2010 Lefke, Cyprus
(Spanish translation to English is by Shaykh Abdul Metin of Argentina, who is accompanying the miners. He was ordered to deliver Mawlana Shaykh's package to them when they were trapped in the mine.)
Buon bonito (good, nice ones), sit down buon bonito! SubhaanAllah alhamdulillah wa la ilaaha illa-Llah w'Allahu Akbar wa la hawla wa la quwatta illa billahi 'l-`Aliyyu 'l-`Azheem. Omar and Dario (two Chilean miners), I hope those people who were imprisoned 700 feet underground--and it is a miraculous happening to make people think about spirituality and miracles--as an ordinary position, if all technology came together, it could never save them!
One night I was informed about their terrible situation, and that night I prayed for those people to be saved. Throughout the east and west there are 313 miraculous people. I called on one of them to look after them, and he ordered me to send items to them. (Mawlana Shaykh turns to the translator.) Perhaps you took my message, for them to recite, "laa ilaaha illa-Llah," and also if it was possible, to take to them our "triangle" (taweez.), and all blessings are from our Lord, Almighty Allah. (Mawlana Shaykh stands) All glory and majesty is for Allah Almighty, and also for His most honored and glorified deputy, Sayyidina Muhammad (s)! (Mawlana Shaykh sits.) Help came from an unknown direction and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven people just entered that place, and they did not see them, but they saw the trapped miners, who were taken up on the date that was written on the Preserved Tablets, and it all transpired in such a way. Those miners observed a very, very weak miracle, an ordinary miracle, that the mountain was taken away in a moment but others could not carry it, even the whole world's people could not carry it! Therefore, slowly, slowly, they were given what they were in need of until that period was complete.
SubhaanAllah, two miners have come here and we are looking at them, and those people I was following here also got out. If it was not a holy one who used that (drilling.) machine, it would have come on their heads! It is so difficult, but one holy one was in that area and took it up, or else the rescue would have been impossible! The Lord of Heavens makes the impossible become possible through the weakest holy one. Now I am happy to see them here, that it is their good chance to come here, also to look at them and to see them. Behind our guests there is coming an opening for spirituality in that area. As much as North America becomes materialistic, those people are going to be more spiritual and power will be given to them. Yes, it is now good. I hope that they will reach to Mahdi (a) and also Jesus Christ (a), and mostly those people are coming to Islam!
(Mawlana Shaykh gives money to the miners.) It is a little amount but I hope to reach to them every month. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem. Inshaa-Allah, you may reach me through my son, and you may ask him and what is coming to me of more charity, I am sending; I am not leaving them. I don't like you to work once again on that (in the mine), no. He may stand in a fleamarket by himself and it is enough, but monthly inshaa-Allah what is coming to me, I am sending inshaa-Allah.
Translator: (Translator gives Mawlana Shaykh a Chilean flag signed by the 33 miners.) They signed it inside the mine and it is a gift from all of them to you. (The miners gave coal and mineral as a gift as well as an embroidered cloth and a rosary from one of the miner's family.) They are saying this is nothing, in return for all the prayers and all you did for them.
Mawlana Shaykh: Our reward is coming from Heavens. We are weak workers, weak servants. (Mawlana Shaykh gives several tasbihs for the children of the miners.)
(The daughter of one miner sits at Mawlana Shaykh's feet, weeping. Last summer she took shahadah with Naqshbandi mureeds in Santiago, Chile, and she was able to get Mawlana Shaykh's package to the miners.)
Translator: In May, she lost her son in the sea.
Mawlana Shaykh: Inshaa-Allah, he will come when Jesus comes down. Don't worry, we may bring inshaa-Allah. Fatihah.
(Chileans take baya`.)
Mawlana Shaykh: Happy days to you, here and Hereafter. Pray, pray, pray for me. Shukr, yaa Rabbee.
Translator: May Allah bless you.
(Mawlana Shaykh hugs the miners.) Mashaa-Allah. Mashaa-Allah. (They are) lions! Send my salaams! Inshaa-Allah thousands and thousands, ten thousand, one-hundred thousand will be coming to Damascus on the sea!
Translator: He is saying they are very grateful for this invitation. They are honored and they will tell all the other miners about their experience here.
Mawlana Shaykh: Send my regards and salaams to all the other miners, and (tell them) if possible, I don't like them to work under the Earth. A small amount of work is better on the Earth. Yes, and they are like my children. Inshaa-Allah, I hope that I can reach them monthly. Don't go down (in the mines), there is no need.
Translator: They are honored for what you are saying.
Mawlana Shaykh: Allah is enough for us. Work outside, don't go down. The second time, we are not carrying the responsibility! (laughter) As-salaamu `alaykum. I shall send to them money to make a dergah and they may have goats. Goats and planting crops is enough for them. I shall send to you money to buy one-thousand goats, and in the second year there will be ten thousand!
Translator: He was a shepherd of seven hundred goats when he was a child.
Mawlana Shaykh: Ah! Therefore, I am saying this. He was looking after seven hundred?
Translator: With his grandfather.
Mawlana Shaykh: I shall send you money for five hundred goats! Mashaa-Allah, mashaa-Allah you are happy, happy, happy! In Argentina there is too much wood they are selling. They may make a company. Shaykh Abdul Metin, may Allah Almighty help you. Allah bless you, Allah bless you!
INTERVIEW WITH OMAR AND DARIO
Question: Now that they met Mawlana and took baya`, how do they feel?
Answer: He is saying when they grabbed the stick and gave baya`, he thought that he was getting drunk. When he felt that feeling he thought his pressure was going up, up, up to the mountain. Then he talked to Dario and he said the same, he was also feeling like this. But after, he felt a heavy burden was taken from his back and he feels very good, very peaceful, and very pleased.
Question: Generally, how was this trip?
Answer: He is saying that he feels this trip is completely wonderful. He has had a very peaceful, quiet, and restful time. Before coming here, he had a very difficult problem with sleeping and here he said he is sleeping like a baby, every night very relaxed and peaceful. They feel completely honored and blessed because they see how other people are waiting many days to meet Mawlana for only a few minutes, and they have been with him every day, going in the car two times, having dinner, etc. Generally it is very difficult for him to put in words this experience. He feels really, really grateful for all the words that Mawlana told them and what he gave them and what he told them about not going (back) to the mines and taking care. And he is going to tell his family and children what he experienced here, and about not going back to the mines and living a different lifestyle than he was living before.
Question: And now after arriving here, because of the accident that happened in the mine, how does he see the accident, because the accident is the reason they were brought here, although they were also invited?
Answer: (Omar speaks.) He is saying that his way of looking at the accident is that first, he doesn't think it was an accident, he thinks it was a test that God sent to them in order for them to forget about unimportant things and to remember Him. And for him, from that point of view, this test is to put them back on the track to remember God and forget other things.
(Dario.) He wanted to add some words to what Omar said. He is saying that he is very grateful for everything that happened here. He feels he was invited, because two others miners were supposed to come with Omar, but at the last minute they canceled, and at the last minute he jumped on the plane to come here! So he feels blessed and honored to be here with such nice people, and especially with Mawlana, because he feels he is a really, really special grandmaster.
(...) It was really, really dark and with the dust it was impossible to see anything and then they reached to a certain level and realized there was no exit. On Level 190, everything was blocked with no way to get out, but the awliya must have called one of the blessed ones, because the drill was going down in a different direction, and at some point, without any explanation, the drill turned and started going in a different direction, and it reached their place by only 20 centimeters (7.86 inches) and they were found, otherwise they would have been lost again!
The main thing they did was that everyday at noon they made a prayer, and that was very important to them. He said that this is something they haven't told anyone in a public way, but at the beginning of the ordeal, the first thing they ate was two teaspoons of tuna fish every 24 hours. Then after a short while, they started eating the same two teaspoons, but every two days. And at the end they started to eat the two teaspoons every three days, every 72 hours. That was what they ate.
(After they were located) scientists took a sample of the water in the mine to analyze it and the chemical analyst said, "Don't even take a bath with that water!" But it kept them alive for the first seventeen days (until communication was reached). He (Omar) was drinking six liters every day! They were under very difficult breathing conditions because with a consistent 40 degrees Celsius there is very low oxygen and very heavy air, but he said that sometimes just before they would start to become desperate and had problems breathing, a fresh breeze came. They never explained where the cool air was coming from.
On Sunday, we received a phone call from Mawlana in Cyprus saying, "Tell them that in order to quickly get out of the situation, they must recite, 'la ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah.'" So he put on the hijab (taweez) and started giving each of his companions the hijab and the letter, and they were all reading the letter and putting on the hijab. Just before receiving the bucket (with Mawlana's package), the drill got stuck. When they received the bucket, that day the rescue workers were able to unblock the drill and they continued digging down. And one brother from Santiago heard a journalist (who was viewing the miners via closed circuit cameras lowered into the mine) speaking and he asked, "What is this black triangle hanging from all of the miners' necks?" He was wondering, and no one knew (what the taweez was).
Omar needed to see in person who was the master sending this blessing to him and he especially wanted to experience what was going to be his feeling when he was in front that master. He says when he was in front of Mawlana, he had a very nice feeling. It is very difficult for him to explain what he experienced. And to leave this world in the best way, he could imagine at that moment, and he prayed to our Lord, "Please, if You are going to take me and this is my time, I am here, so just take me." He made a du`a and immediately felt this fresh, cool breeze that filled him inside. He breathed it inside of him and he knew that it was Mawlana's presence that was coming into him at that moment.
For the first 17 days they were very close to each other, really like one entity, with no discussions and no differences. They had a very strong attachment to each other and they were just one group. They are reminding not only their families but the whole world, to remember God through their prayers. It is what makes us realize that we are forgetting something essential, and very, very important, to be with our Lord first, and then attend to other responsibilities.
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