Bismillahi Rrahmani Rrahim!
In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful!
Dear clergymen, myhibans f the Dedelik of Father Shememi!
First of all, let me thank you for coming to this memorial event and I ask the Almighty God to protect you and your families from this pandemic that has fallen! Blessed are you and your families our dervishes and fathers that believe in the Ahl al-Bayt, that are present even in these difficult moments!
Such events are more than acts of remembrance and respect. Such evenings force us all to look back and think deeply, that the Bektashi order has not been at all easy to come to these days. Bektashi philosophy and wisdom have not infrequently encountered religious and state barricades, through which they have miraculously survived. But of course, in this miracle, they have their irreplaceable role, are the life and work of hundreds of dervishes and fathers, who are not only in Albanian lands and in the Balkans, but as far away as America, preserved and developed our most valuable traditions.
An evening like this, which will surely bring us all close, the memory of father Selim Kalicani and father Shaban Dervishi, although even in the difficult conditions of the pandemic, is a deep sense of citizenship for all of us. This shows that we have had and will always have a vital need to talk to the persons that passed away from this world, for them,who left their lives and work hostage to the tariqah, hostage to sacrifices, and declared that the Bektashi mission should not be interrupted, that faith in God should not be shaken, that the lamps of hope should not be extinguished in the hearts of our believers.
It takes whole nights, it takes whole written papers, to illuminate the work of father Selim Kalicani, but today is neither the place nor the right moment. Today, suffice it to say that the work of father Selim Kalicani, this devout believer who came from the Albanian areas of Kosovo, remains a living example, in the Albanian Bektashi movement from the 1930s to the end of 2000. Brave even in the most moments hardly passed of the tariqah, devoted to the end to the philosophy of Haxhi Bektash Veliu, an incorrigible rebel against the dogmas of the communist regime, inspiring the revival of Bektashism in democracy. This is how father Selim Kaliçani will always be remembered, from whose spirit there are today myhiban clerics, who carry on their shoulders the religious responsibilities of the time.
Likewise, dear to the believers of Kruja, Martanesh up to Skrapar, was and remains the father Shaban Dervishi. His life, like the lives of dozens of Bektashi clerics, went through that tragic ordeal imposed by the atheist regime we went through. But even this clergyman did not agree with the regime, fought to the end to spread faith in God, kept alive hopes in the years 1967-1990, proving not just his own courage and sacrifice, but the whole religious and human brotherhood, with which he was endowed his Bektashi generation. Even in the Bektashi activity after the 90s, the wisdom of father Shaban Dervishi would stand out bringing as many believers as possible to the doors of the tekkes.
Sisters and brothers!
We live in a time of other sacrifices today and for this I want to thank all the Bektashi clerics and believers, especially those of Albania.
I say this because it is not easy to be neglected in this Albania, where the younger generation only dreams of leaving, where poverty and corruption are square, to stay and educate generations with love for Haxhi Bektash Veliu. We must keeping alive the hope for better days, as the aforementioned fathers hoped.
Let us all work, tirelessly, to maintain the flame of faith!
Let us always remember with respect, the sacrifices of father Selimi and father Shabani!
Let us pray to God to have mercy on us even when we are sad!
God bless you all!
Amin!
BEKTASHIAN WORLD GRANDFATHER
HIS GRACE
HAXHI DEDE EDMOND BRAHIMAJ