Man with Facial Paralysis

Date: 23/11/2014
Location: Saraipalya – Bangalore – Karnataka

A dervish who had taken the pledge of Ṭarīqa Kasnazāniyya several years before my arrival in India came to the takya. He recounted the following karāma which occurred to him in either 2005 or 2006:

I had a stroke about sixteen or seventeen years ago. At the time, an English doctor treated me, and I achieved eighty per cent recovery. I was left with partial paralysis of the face, as my mouth remained permanently twisted toward the right side. This prevented me from speaking properly. For example, I could not pronounce the letter “f.”

Sometime after taking the pledge of the Ṭarīqa, I went to work in Saudi Arabia. One day, after performing the dawn prayer, I stood in front of a photo of Shaikh Muḥammad al-Kasnazan to talk to him directly, and said to him: “In the past, I did not pray and used to talk nonsense and say anything, even if it was not good. Nevertheless, before my stroke, I did not have any problem with my mouth and used to speak fluently. Yet, I am now a practicing dervish, observing the prayer and dhikrs, but I cannot pronounce words properly; why are you not helping me?” I was talking with some anger.

When I slept that night, I had a strange dream. I was in a hospital that was unfamiliar to me. There was a doctor who had come from China. He was wearing a surgical face mask. He said to me that he was going to cure my facial paralysis. I lay in bed and the doctor started treating me with acupuncture. The treatment lasted about half an hour, during which time he inserted needles into various parts of my body. When he finished, the doctor said to me: “Your treatment is now complete. You are ninety-eight per cent cured.” I asked him: “Sir, who are you?” He then removed his facial mask, and I realized that it was Shaikh Muḥammad al-Kasnazan.

I woke up scared. It was about three o’clock in the morning. I performed my ablutions and the dawn prayer. I then looked into the mirror and saw that my facial paralysis had completely gone away. My mouth was now normal. The other two per cent that the Shaikh mentioned in the dream concerns a little issue I still have at times when I swallow food and I am not careful. All I need in such cases is a drink of water.

I have filmed this dervish describe his illness and the karāma that healed him.