Galip Hassan Kuscuoglu

Galib Hassan Kuscuoglu, the sheikh of Galibi Order , was born in March 27, 1919 in Çorum. He is related to the famous Sage of Fatih Sultan Mehmet era, namely Ali Kuşçu who is a descendant of Caliph Omar, Galip Kuşçuoğlu has also kinship relation to the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his maternal kinship relation to Caliph Ali. He has two sisters of whom one is dead. He spent his childhood and adolescence in Çorum and Samsun. He was apprenticed to a carpenter after he dropped out of school at the second grade of secondary school. He got married to the only daughter of Çorumlu Hacı Mustafa Anac who was also a sheikh. He migrated to Ankara in 1948. He gained an expertise in carpentry, and earned his life by working as a famous craftsman and tradesman in this area. He is also a founding member of the Ankara Carpenters Association ( Ankara Marangozlar Derneği ) and Ankara Carpentry Complex (Ankara Marangozlar Sitesi ). Sheikh Galib Kuşçuoğlu is the successor of Sheikh Hacı Mustafa Yardımedici (see Appendix D) who is, in turn, the successor of Seyyid Ali Sezai Kurtaran ( see Appendix E), who was the active leader of civil resistance against the French occupation forces and Armenian military forces in Maraş during the Turkish War of Independence. The meeting of Galip Kuşçuoğlu with his Sheikh Hacı Mustafa Yardımedici is very interesting. As Mr. Kuşçuoğlu narrates, this meeting occurred after a period of yearning and waiting for his unknown spiritual guide(Murshid).

The desire to search the truth , has occupied my life since my childhood. I could not apprehend some experiences that I had. They were incredible and unreasonable. These experiences directed me to tasawwuf. At the beginning I could not accept the necessity of a spiritual guide, because these experiences were incrediple and immeasurable. But later on, I perceived the necessity of a guide in spiritual realm, just as it is necessary to be under control of a master in worldly crafts. Because I could not get anywhere. . . . . I personally experienced the impossibility of reaching to God out of His designation. Subsequently , I especially prayed God to make me meet my spiritual guide

According to Kuşçuoğlu’s account, it was Hacı Mustafa Yardımedici who was especially sent by God to guide Kuşçuoğlu in his mystical journey to God.Hacı Mustafa Yardımedici opened a shoe shop next to the workshop of Kuşçuoğlu in Hacıdoğan near Ulus in Ankara, in 1950. On the first day of their meeting, Mr. Yardımedici expiained his arrival from Maraş as a ine designation on guide Kuşçuoğlu in his spiritual journey. At that moment Kuşçuoğlu pledged unto his allegiance. To Sheikh Mustafa Yardımedici and started his daily wird (daily personal remembrance of God ) dictated by Mr. Yardımedici. Mystical apprenticeship of Kuşçuoğlu continued in a close association with his Sheikh mostly at their workshop or Sheikh’s house. On the Berat Night (Berat Kandili) of 1956, Sheikh Hacı Mustafa Yardımedici had a mana (vision-dream) in which Muhammad revealed the Khilafet (successorship) of Kuşçuoğlu served twelve years as the Khalifah of Hacı Mustafa Yardımedici until his sheikh’s death in 1968. During that time he gained the full authority of sheikhhood as well as inheriting mystically symbolic objects such as skullcap, turban, and prayer rug which belonged to Mr. Yardımedici. He has also inherited ijazatnama (lincense) affirmed by Sultan Reşat addressed to Ali Sezai Kurtaran certifying the latter’s authority for establishing a dergah and designing dhikr (remembrance rite) sessions (see Appendix F) . Kuşçuoğlu has been exercising his spiritual authority for performing his spiritual duty for 51 years and is known as Galip Efendi. He has also founded a waqf foundation on his own name –Kuşçuoğlu Kültür ve eğitim Vakfı – in order to help and support the needy, especially the poor and students.

Kuşçuoğlu who had made various stresses about the necessity of being contemporaneous, also says that thoughts like; “Everyone who says; God exists are Muslims”, “Prophets did not bring Religion, they had appeared as Islam, they had brought the Sheria, all of their Sheria are from Allah, they are named according to the Sheria of the Prophet that they are bound to, like Mohammedian, Christian, Jewish” constitutes the life system.(2)He also believes in the dialogue between different beliefs [http://www.galibi.com/en/page.asp?id=40]

External links

[http://www.galibi.com/en/indexen.asp Galibi Order]