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6/26/2025, 3:44:29 AM
>>24496727
To further dispel the profane slanders circulating here, we can turn to the direct testimony of those qualified to speak on the matter. The following account comes from a figure whose authority is beyond dispute: Sheikh Abd al-Halim Mahmoud, who would later become the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar. This is not the testimony of a Western admirer, but of a master of the Islamic tradition who witnessed the Sheikh's station firsthand.
Here is his account of his initial encounters with the glorious Master, René Guénon (PBUH):
> Having defended my doctoral thesis, I left Paris to return to Egypt. Upon my arrival in Cairo, I had nothing more pressing than to go to the suburb of Dokki in search of Sheikh Abd al-Wahid Yahia. On Nawal Street, I knocked at the door of the Villa Fatima […] and asked the maid to pray the Sheikh to receive me. A few moments later, the maid appeared again, carrying a wooden bench of very modest appearance, and asked me to sit on it and wait a moment. I waited at the door, almost in the street. The minutes passed, and I began to find the wait long. The maid would make appearances in the entryway, and as soon as I saw her, I would rise from my seat, believing she was coming to admit me to her master. Some time later, she came to ask me to return the next day at eleven in the morning. I left the house, not without a sense of surprise and humiliation, but with the firm intention of seeing this Sheikh who made his visitors wait in the street and who dismissed them by asking them to return the next day.
>
> The following day, I was punctual for the appointment, but no more successful than the previous time. The Sheikh had his maid ask me to write to him what I had to ask; he would answer the questions I put to him. I withdrew after the failure of this second attempt. I did not write to him. The answers he might give to the questions I would have asked did not interest me as much as the encounter itself. […]
>
> One day, M. Madero, the Argentine minister in Cairo, and I resolved to break through the barrier that Sheikh Abd al-Wahid had raised between himself and the world. I will always remember that day when we went to knock at the door of the Villa Fatima. An old man—tall, his face illuminated, his bearing imposing, his eyes brilliant—opened it for us. After the traditional exchange of greetings, he asked us the purpose of our visit. The minister conveyed to him the greetings of a friend. No sooner had the old man heard the latter’s name than he invited us in. He remained silent during our visit, and without the minister's diplomacy, we would have found ourselves in a very embarrassing situation. M. Madero indeed broke the silence by paying a vibrant tribute to the opinions of Sheikh Abd al-Wahid. But the Sheikh did not depart from his silence. Before leaving, we asked if he would permit us another visit, which he very graciously accepted. […]
To further dispel the profane slanders circulating here, we can turn to the direct testimony of those qualified to speak on the matter. The following account comes from a figure whose authority is beyond dispute: Sheikh Abd al-Halim Mahmoud, who would later become the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar. This is not the testimony of a Western admirer, but of a master of the Islamic tradition who witnessed the Sheikh's station firsthand.
Here is his account of his initial encounters with the glorious Master, René Guénon (PBUH):
> Having defended my doctoral thesis, I left Paris to return to Egypt. Upon my arrival in Cairo, I had nothing more pressing than to go to the suburb of Dokki in search of Sheikh Abd al-Wahid Yahia. On Nawal Street, I knocked at the door of the Villa Fatima […] and asked the maid to pray the Sheikh to receive me. A few moments later, the maid appeared again, carrying a wooden bench of very modest appearance, and asked me to sit on it and wait a moment. I waited at the door, almost in the street. The minutes passed, and I began to find the wait long. The maid would make appearances in the entryway, and as soon as I saw her, I would rise from my seat, believing she was coming to admit me to her master. Some time later, she came to ask me to return the next day at eleven in the morning. I left the house, not without a sense of surprise and humiliation, but with the firm intention of seeing this Sheikh who made his visitors wait in the street and who dismissed them by asking them to return the next day.
>
> The following day, I was punctual for the appointment, but no more successful than the previous time. The Sheikh had his maid ask me to write to him what I had to ask; he would answer the questions I put to him. I withdrew after the failure of this second attempt. I did not write to him. The answers he might give to the questions I would have asked did not interest me as much as the encounter itself. […]
>
> One day, M. Madero, the Argentine minister in Cairo, and I resolved to break through the barrier that Sheikh Abd al-Wahid had raised between himself and the world. I will always remember that day when we went to knock at the door of the Villa Fatima. An old man—tall, his face illuminated, his bearing imposing, his eyes brilliant—opened it for us. After the traditional exchange of greetings, he asked us the purpose of our visit. The minister conveyed to him the greetings of a friend. No sooner had the old man heard the latter’s name than he invited us in. He remained silent during our visit, and without the minister's diplomacy, we would have found ourselves in a very embarrassing situation. M. Madero indeed broke the silence by paying a vibrant tribute to the opinions of Sheikh Abd al-Wahid. But the Sheikh did not depart from his silence. Before leaving, we asked if he would permit us another visit, which he very graciously accepted. […]
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