Rafaee and Zarb

Rafaee and Zarb, a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr.

Rafaee is the adherent of a Sufi sect that partakes in ritual body piercing called Zarb.

They are followers of Hazrat Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani...

Hazrat Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani r.a. (1077 - 1166) - was a noted Sunni Hanbali preacher, Sufi Shaikh and the figurehead of the Qadiri Sufi order. He is a great Scholar & Sufi of Islam. He is know as the Shaikul Mushaikh of the Awliyaa (Saints).

His contribution to thought in the Muslim world earned him the title al-Gauth al Azam (the "Supreme Helper").

H e died on Saturday night 1166 (8th Rabi' al-Awwal 561AH on the Islamic calendar) at the age of eighty-nine years, and was entombed in a shrine within his Madrassa in Baghdad, Iraq.