In the heart of Damascus, where the stone alleyways carry the scent of jasmine and echo with the call to prayer, lived a humble grave digger named Abdurrahman. Known simply as Al-Haffar “the digger” his hands shaped the earth for the final rest of scholars, saints, and martyrs in one of the city’s most sacred cemeteries.
One day, he buried the son of a woman whose small funeral procession carried an extraordinary secret. As he lowered the body into the grave, his eyes beheld a vision unlike anything he had ever known a radiant garden of Paradise, and two angels lifting the soul from the confines of the earth. The image left him trembling.
Months later, the same woman returned, this time with the body of another son. Again, as Abdurrahman lowered the body, the vision returned: the same lush garden, the same angels, the same unearthly beauty. The second son, he learned, had been a carpenter who gave all his earnings to support his elder brother’s studies in sacred knowledge.
These moments stirred something deep within Abdurrahman’s soul. Nearing fifty, he walked through the winding streets of Damascus to Jami’ al-Tawbah a historic mosque steeped in centuries of scholarship and sought out the esteemed Sheikh Saeed Al-Burhani. With nothing but humility and an unshakable will, he began at the very beginning, opening the Ajurrumiyyah grammar text and tracing each word, each rule, with the hunger of a man making up for lost years.
His journey never stopped. In time, the man who once dug graves became a scholar whose words nourished souls and whose example inspired others to seek knowledge regardless of age or station.
From his lineage came generations of Al-Haffars men and women who served Damascus through scholarship, trade, and public works. Like the life-giving springs of Ain al-Fijeh that bring water to the city, the House of Haffar has always been about giving life whether by quenching the body or enlightening the mind.
The story of Sheikh Abdurrahman Al-Haffar is not merely a chapter of history; it is the living essence of a name a reminder that with sincerity and knowledge, one can dig not only into the earth, but into the depths of wisdom itself.