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The Life of Ken’an Rifai

Ken’an Rifai was born in Selanica in 1867. His mother was Hatice Cenan. His father, Abdülhalim, was the son of Hadji Hasan, a member of a dynastic family from Filibe.

Having graduated from Galatasaray High School, he was given a position at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Babiali. After that, when he was a Science Instructor at the Iranian School, he was appointed as an Assistant Secretary to the German Supervisor, Mr. Groll at the Ministry of Postal Services. Meanwhile, he studied law at the university.

His mother, Hatice Cenan was the key person who opened the gates of moral and spiritual world for his son. Later on, she aided her son under the guidance and supervision of her murshid, Sheikh Edhem Efendi. These two murshids led Ken’an Rifai’s moral and spiritual personality to reach maturity.

Ken’an Rifai who believed that spiritual and material world are closely attached to one another, found himself working under the roof of educational system. He worked as the Principal of Education in Balikesir, Adana, Manastir, Üsküp, Trabzon and later on, at Numune-i Terakki and Medine-i Münevvere Idadi-i Hamidi High Schools. Having returned to Istanbul, he worked as an instructor of French Language at Erkek Muallim Mektebi (Teachers’College for Males), a Council Member at Tedkik-i Ilmiye (Scientific Research Center), the Principal at Darüssafaka High School and a member at Meclis-i Maarif (Council of Education). After his retirement, he taught Turkish at Fener Rum (Greek) High School for thirteen years. His work at this school is a clear evidence of the fact that he considered all the religions as a whole. It also emphasizes that he accepted and got people to accept the philosophy suggesting that “to serve any person -no matter what religious background he or she comes from- means to serve Allah”. He regarded all the religions as sequential steps to complete one’s journey in spiritual education. That is why there exist only some differences of degree among religions.

Ken’an Rifai’s eleven-month service in Balikesir was a period when his spiritual and moral being based on the teaching of his mother, Hatice Cenan, a wali of Allah, was taken under the full responsibility of her murshid, Sheikh Edhem. His hodja restricted Ken’an Rifai’s materialistic needs and in this way he let him have the pure pleasure of living with the minimum. Through this asceticism (riyazat), he became a spiritual monument that could share all the pain of his people. Balikesir was also the place, where, by the will of his murshid, he started his first musical education and blew the ‘nay’. He, then, learned how to play the violin and the piano. The hymns he wrote and composed constituted one of the most effective ways of spreading his spiritual light to all his students.

While Ken’an Rifai was the Principal of Education in Manastir, his murshid, Sheikh Edhem passed away (walked to Cemal), informing from the spiritual world that Ken’an Rifai succeeded him.

During the time when he was the Principal at Medine-i Münevvere Idadi-i Hamidi High School, he was in the service of Seyh’ül Mesayih Hamza Rifai. After four years, he was given the permission to teach (irsad), thus became a murshid. Once, Hamza Rifai said to him “ I do not know who is whose murshid, you mine or me yours?” This points out quite explicitly how high a degree of spirituality he had attained.

Having returned to Istanbul, he began to teach his murids Islamic Mysticism and Sufism in Altay Tekke, founded by his mother, Hatice Cenan. He knew French, German, Arabic, Persian, Greek, Circassian and English, (which he started to learn after the age of 80) as well as his native language.