However, after the pilgrimage was over, Abah Anom and his wife did not return home immediately. Still, they spent seven months in the holy land to gain knowledge with the great scholars there. They also diligently visited Rabitah Naqsbandi in Jabal Gubaisy to study Sufism with Sheikh Romli, a mursyid from Garut, West Java, who lived in Mecca. In addition, Abah Anom studied the books by Sheikh Abdul Qadir Al-Jilani, namely the books of Sirr al Asrar and Ghaniyyat at Thalibin on a scholar from Garut, Sheikh Romli.
Abah Anom had excellent service in the struggle against foreign invaders; this was proven when Indonesia was almost independent of 1939 to 1945. So when he returned from the pilgrimage, Abah Anom devoted more of his time to fight against the invaders. However, in addition to being attacked by foreign invaders, he also faced the Darul Islam movement (DI/TII), which already controlled half of West Java. Seeing that there were two attacks at once, Abah Anom decided to join the TNI.
In 1956 when his father, Sheikh Abdullah Mubarok bin Nur Muhammad (Abah Sepuh), died, finally Abah Anom inevitably had to lead the pesantren left by his father. When he led the pesantren, he received terror from the Darul Islam or Di/TII group; the terror came more than thirty-eight times. To deal with the attacks and terrors of DI/TII, he ordered his students to fight these terrors persistently. For his services, he received a star of respect from the Indonesian government.
When we talk about Abah Anom, it feels incomplete if we don’t tell them about his karamah. Many stories tell about Abah Anom’s karamah, one of which is when he had a guest who had the rank of captain and had high supernatural powers; this captain went to Abah Anom intending to pit his supernatural powers with Abah Anom’s supernatural powers. The story is as follows, one afternoon, a captain and some of his subordinates came to the Suralaya pesantren; the captain went with a large boulder about the size of his fist, the stone he kept in his pocket. When invited to enter, the captain and several of his men were met by Abah Anom in his living room. The captain took out a stone from his pocket and then placed the stone in his hand with the power that it had; finally, the stone was split into two parts. Then, after a show of magic, the captain arrogantly handed the stone to Abah Anom so that he would show his magic.