A message from the Spiritual Leader of the Druze Monotheistic Community in Palestine, Sheikh Abu Hassan Muwaffaq Tarif, for issue 165 of “Al-Amama” magazine on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the passing of the Master of the Island, Sheikh Abu Yusuf Amin Tarif, titled “In the Darkness of the Night, the Full Moon is Missed”:
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Praise be to God, by whose remembrance hearts come alive, and prayers and peace be upon His prophets who call to the most honorable purpose and the most sublime objective.
Every year in the month of October, our hearts are stirred by the impact of this anniversary. We return to gather our longings among the photographs in which the most beautiful moments were frozen, heading with you to the home of the monotheistic beacon of comfort, the foremost diligent leader, the pure, the brilliant, the radiant, and the rare, precious jewel—the rarity of his time and of every time, the Sheikh of Sheikhs of these lands, the one who completed the path of the predecessors of the Turab family, who approached his Lord with sincerity of resolve and intense dedication, the blessed and beneficial amulet, the formidable and exalted pole, the Master of the Island, the Sheikh of the Community, and the owner of the preserved and luminous image: my grandfather, our Master Sheikh Abu Yusuf Amin Tarif, may God bless his resting place and perpetuate upon us and upon you the blessing of his memory and his mention.
As we gather each year around the biography and memory of his eminence, we recall thirty years of the bitterness of loss and sincere yearning, after his person vanished from sight and vision, leaving behind a great void that continues to haunt us year after year.
Thirty years and the memory lives within us in all its minute details. Through it, we recall those features covered by God with a light from the light of knowledge and faith, a fluent tongue from which always emanated the mention of goodness and wisdom, and eyes that shed long tears in the accounting of the self before the Creator, the Most Merciful.
Behind these old stone walls in his house located in Julis, we witnessed our late Master Sheikh many times, immersed in feeling and tears, raising his pure hands in prayer, including the brethren everywhere, asking for them unity, goodness, and victory, and supplicating for their meeting and hearing news of them while they are in the best and most favorable state and condition.
In the room adjacent to his eminence, we witnessed many times the pearl of purity and piety, my late aunt, the virtuous Sitt Umm Almaza Hana Amin Tarif, gathering what remained of her strength after long days of serving guests and visitors, to be alone in her devout and humble prayers away from the eyes of the world. Two rooms, and in each room a prayer, supplication, and tears, meeting in the sea of noble divine love and dissolving into the waves of his wisdom with gratitude and sincerity.
In such difficult days as these, where nations open up to the greater world, and barriers, wires, and borders become illusory before the open doors of communication, the role of our Master Sheikh grows as the one who was—and remains despite his absence—the greatest common denominator that brought together the monotheists in the Middle East and everywhere, and the personality in whom were combined the foundations of spiritual religious leadership and human social wisdom, with all humility and gratitude.
From here, dear brothers and noble Sheikhs, we continue to walk the path left behind by our late Master Sheikh, and by the blessing of the wisdom and guidance he left us, we find light. Carrying with you, in succession to our honorable Sheikhs, the blessed candle of Tawhid (Monotheism) before the darkness of time, relying on the rope of God Almighty, hopeful and steadfast, just as the holy verse stated, “As brothers, facing each other on thrones,” calling for the preservation of unity and the safeguarding of family and brethren, certain that it is the only guarantee for stability, success, and safety. Starting from this pure and noble house, which was and will remain the home of every seeker and neighbor from the members of the Druze community in every place and time, we raise our hands and hearts to God, the Lord of Gentleness, praying for the community in Syria, Lebanon, and everywhere to be united and gathered on a common word, walking on the paths of salvation in the struggle of life that our Sheikhs and masters have charted for us.
