Shaykh Abdullah Nooruddeen Durkee

Shaykh Abdullah Nooruddeen Durkee is a Muslim scholar, thinker, author, translator and the khalifah (successor) for North America of the Shadhdhuli School for Tranquility of Being and the Illumination of Hearts, Green Mountain Branch. Shaykh A. Nooruddeen Durkee received idhn and ijaza in 1984CE/1405H from late Shaykh Dr. Ibrahim Muhammad al-Battawi, may Allah have mercy on his soul, to teach Islam from the Sufic (tasawwuf) perspective and to initiate, train and guide people specifically in the way of Shaykh Abu’l Hasan ash-Shadhdhuli, may Allah sanctify his secret.The Green Mountain School is actively dedicated to making known in English language and Arabic transliteration the ahzab, adhkar, awrad and du’aa’ of Sidi Abu’l Hasan ash-Shadhdhuli, may Allah sanctify his secret, which have informed, inspired and delivered to spiritual salvation many thousands of people from all over the world for more than 800 years.Sidi Abu’l Hasan said, “Of all the Ways there are two: the way of traveling (suluk) and the way of attraction (jadhb). Our way is the Way of Jadhb. Our beginning is their end. Their beginning is our completion.”“Who is illumined in the beginning is illumined in the end.”Shaykh Ibrahim Muhammad al-Battawi, the teacher of Shaykh Nooruddeen, received his ‘ijaza and khilafa from Shaykh Sidi Salama ar-Radi in the line that comes down from Sidna Yaqut al-Arsh, who, along with Sidna Ibn Ata ‘Illah, was the khalifah of Sidna Mursi Abu’l Abbas, who was the khalifah of Shaykh Abu’l Hasan ash-Shadhdhuli, may Allah sanctify their secret.


Sidi Salama ar-Radi gave Shaykh Ibrahim the specific duty to teach foreigners (‘ajami) and named him Shaykhu-l-Afandiya. He fulfilled this duty in the course of his twenty-five year tenure at al-Azhar University, where his main focus was the teaching of Islamic philosophy, specifically the Ihya ‘Ulumu-d-Din of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, may Allah be content with him. The students of Shaykh Ibrahim have come from, and then returned to teach in, areas all over the world, including Turkey, Central Asia, China, Indonesia, the Subcontinent, Africa and the West.While attending the traditional course at al-Azhar, these students would come for personal teaching in weekly classes at the nearby zawiyah of the Shaykh. There, he instructed them in the Sufic understanding of the Qur’an, hadith, fiqh, usul-ud-din and the other Islamic sciences, and there they also met, ate, shared ideas and attended hadrah, dhikr, and made khalwa, especially itiqaf during the holy month of Ramadan. Upon completion of their studies, these students have returned to their countries to become teachers, professors, social workers and leaders, setting up masajid, orphanages, hospitals and other centers for the teaching and assistance of their various communities.


Shaykh Ibrahim in his mid-eighties (may Allah give him good health), is now retired, but continues teaching from the zawiyah on Azhar St. as well as from a new Masjid and Zawiyah he has constructed in the Heliopolis area of Misr Gadeed on the desert outskirts of Cairo. Shaykh Ibrahim has visited the United States four times and has spoken and taught at many centers and masajid, including the Dar al-Islam Foundation in Abiquiu, New Mexico where he served on the Board of Religious Education and development of Islamic Curriculum.Insha’Allah he will make another visit to the US in the near future. Please check our latest news section coming soon.Shaykh Nooruddeen came to this traditional Sufic Islam after embracing Islam in his early thirties in al-Quds. He is now in his mid sixties (may Allah give him health).His embrace of Islam came after many years of traditional religious education as a youth followed, in his early manhood, by a decade of intense study of the world’s major religions, along with the principles of geography, history, art and world culture. As a result he brings to his teaching a very broad and inclusive view. Being originally from the West, he has an understanding of the needs and problems of western people, particularly Americans. His language is often laced with references to places, items of pop culture, and situations familiar to that audience, and he has a particular heart-felt understanding for their need to understand Islam from within as well as without. At the same time, his long years in the East, especially in the ancient sites of the origins of spirituality including extended stays of many years in Makkah and Egypt as well as intense visits to Madinah and al-Quds, have given him an awareness of The Long View and a tolerance for the universal Source of religious and spiritual consciousness, as well as a clear understand of Islam and how exactly it is in Truth the past, the final, and present operating system (OS) of those who heed The Command; the very seal and fulfillment of the myriad revelations sent by Allah in the history of humankind.An historian and geographer by inclination, he has traced the origins of language, the movement of ideas, and the development of religions across continents and cultures, and this knowledge informs his teaching with a depth and breadth the students find challenging, informing and invigorating.The Green Mountain School is the third school Shaykh Nooruddeen has founded.

The first was established in 1969CE/1389H on Flag Mountain in New Mexico. This school was the site of the first purpose-built masjid ever erected in New Mexico.The second school he founded was Dar al-Islam, established by him in Abiquiu, New Mexico in 1980/1400. In addition to its use for the Islamic education of children, it has been used for teaching by such well-known teachers as Shaykh Seyed Ali Ashraf, Shaykh Umar Abdullah, Shaykh Nazim Adil al-Haqqani and Shaykh Hisham Kabbani, Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller and Imam Hamza Yusuf, and well as his own Shaykh, Sidi Ibrahim al-Battawi among others.After founding and then serving as the president of Dar al-Islam Foundation for eight years, Shaykh Nooruddeen moved to Alexandria, Egypt where he lived for five years. There he taught under the direction of his own Shaykh and translated, transliterated, edited and produced the Orisons and Origins of the Shadhdhuliyyah, which include all of the well-known and widely accepted Awrad, Ahzab, Adhkar, and Du’aa’ of Shaykh Abu’l Hasan, Allah sanctify his secret, as well as the snatches and tatters of the oral teaching which were recorded by various students of Shaykh Abu’l Hasan and his teachers. The wide dispersal of these texts has been and continues to be among the basic objectives of the Green Mountain School.A new edition of the Orisons of the Shadhdhuliyyah is presently proceeding to press in Malaysia and it will, Insha’Allah, be back in print by Ramadan 1406/2005.Shaykh Nooruddeen started the Green Mountain School, named after the mountain ridge on which he presently lives, in 1995 when he returned from Egypt.


The major concentration of the school was and continues to be the teaching of the Qur’an.In the course of transliterating the Orisons, he had received a number of requests for the transliteration of such surahs as Ya Seen and al-Wa’qiyah. This in turn led to his concentration for over twelve years on the transliteration of the Arabic of the Holy Qur’an and, consequentially, the translation of the text into literate 21st Century American English.The transliteration aspect of the Transliterated Tajwidi Qur’an is more important to him than the translation, although the translation has proved very useful and easy to understand. But the transliteration has the ability to help the non-Arabic reader to enunciate a semblance of the original text, and thus to fulfill the primary Order of Allah which is to “Read” (‘Iqra ) or “Recite”. This Tajwidi Qur’an is now being read and used in teaching all over the English-speaking world.Shaykh Nooruddeen, along with two close associates, has now developed a course which enables, and has enabled, young people and adults to move quickly from using transliterated texts to actual recitation of the Qur’an. This course of Reading, Writing and Reciting Qur’anic Arabic uses the system of orthography created by Dr. Zafr Iqbal, in which the rules of tajwid are graphically represented in the text as an aid to the student reader.This text is the same as the one used in the Transliterated Tajwidi Qur’an and also the final lessons in the teaching book “Qur’an Made Easy”, by Shabbir Behlim, which, along with the rules in “Easy Tajwid” by Dr. Syed Muqri al-Husayni forms the basis of the teaching.


In the past year alone more than forty people, using this system, have learned to read directly and without hesitation from the Arabic text of the Qur’an.The Green Mountain School also serves to make more widely known some of the thinking of Shaykh Nooruddeen on many contemporary issues. These can be found in various written, audio and visual forms on this website.A large part of Shaykh Nooruddeen’s work has been in the realm of education, and for many years specifically in the realm of teaching reading, writing, and reciting of Qur’anic Arabic, which grew out of his work in the translation and transliteration of the sacred texts of the Shadhdhuliyyah and finally the Qur’an. He, along with other teachers affiliated with the school, are deeply involved in work with children and adults, in the local masjid and nationally, particularly in the south-eastern United States.Additionally, Shaykh Nooruddeen lectures widely, nationally and internationally. On a local level he has for ten years delivered the weekly khutbah (sermon) at a number of different community masajid where he serves a varied constituency, including prisoners, students, immigrants and refugees, Afro-Americans and Euro-Americans.In 2005 and he gave the Eid Khutbah to the United Muslim Communities of Richmond, Virginia where he spoke to over 6000 people on the theme of “One Deen, One Ummah.”His talks and sermons are based on the understanding of Islam as the vehicle for the advancement of the prophetic ideals of peace, justice, mercy, love and freedom, which the Prophet, peace & blessings be upon him, made clear in the fulfillment of his mission as a Mercy to all the worlds:“And We have not sent you save as a mercy to all the worlds.” (Q21:107)

Shaykh Nooruddeen is deeply convinced that this message of Universal Mercy (ar-rahmah) is the message that all kinds of people are thirsting for, and that it is a positive way forward for Muslims, especially those living in minority circumstances. Rather than believing in ideas of progress or reformation or the re-invention of Islam, he believes that what is necessary is that we pay attention to the actual message of Mercy and Justice that Allah revealed and that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, demonstrated, and seek to become messengers of mercy to the various worlds in which we live.He believes that when we, as the humble followers of the followers, embody that message of Mercy and Justice in the world in accordance with the teaching of Allah connecting belief (al-’iman) and good actions (‘al-amal salih) we will be successful as was the Prophet, blessings of Allah and peace be upon him and his family, for deep down all people everywhere yearn for peace.