Alhamdulillahi Rabbi 'l-`Alameen, wa ’s-salaatu wa ’s-salaamu `alaa ashrafi 'l-mursaleena Sayyidina wa Nabiyyina Muhammadin wa `alaa aalihi wa sahbihi ajma`een.
Inshaa-Allah tomorrow I am leaving, so today will be the last suhbah and inshaa-Allah Allah will make Dr. Munir to give suhbah also….and other people are coming in a few days, inshaa-Allah they can also give a suhbah. The one who does the suhbah is not going to be higher than the one who is listening. Might be the one who does the suhbah is the one who needs it more than the one who is listening to the suhbah. Sayyidina Abdul Qadir Jilani (q)...and before we go into that we say, as-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh wherever you are, uhayyeekum bi tahiyyatu ’l-islam, we send salaams, and that is from Islam and we ask forgiveness from Allah (swt).
We are in the masjid of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, may Allah give him long life, Sayyidee Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani (q). We are very happy and honored to be here, especially to those who love us, and especially to those who don’t love us, no problem, (still) we send salaam and we praise them and we say may Allah guide us and guide them.
The one who is speaking, as I heard many times from Grandshaykh `AbdAllah al-Fa’iz ad-Daghestani (q) and Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q), that they are in need more than the one who is listening because the one listening might do what he listened to or he might not do and there is no responsibility on him: if he does it, then alhamdulillah and if he doesn’t do it, then also alhamdulillah, because still he is a mu’min and a Muslim. But the one who is speaking has more responsibility and more liability, so he has to pay more insurance, he has to pay a premium as they say it is ‘too risky,’ so (he needs) all kinds of insurance which is very expensive, because he is speaking and making himself as if he knows something and he is not applying what he is saying. He is the one that has to apply first what he says, not telling people, “You do that,” then if the people do or don’t do it they are not responsible, other than being, of course, responsible for Shari`ah and their daily prayers and fasting and Hajj, and you know all that, the regular thing, charity and Hajj.
The one who is speaking must carry the responsibility and the liability of what he is saying if he is not applying it on himself, that is the problem. So now who is better? The one who is speaking or the one who is listening? The one who is listening! Don’t be a shepherd, to be responsible for the sheep. Yesterday we went with Mawlana to the mountain here and they released the sheep and there were three or four shepherds running after them, especially sheep they are okay but goats, they were like kangaroos! They jump and you have to keep an eye on them. So don’t be shepherd, for what? Be like the sheep, you follow it is easy. Shepherd is difficult, you will be responsible. May Allah make us not to be responsible. Those who are claiming responsibility is dangerous. Let someone else carry the responsibility and you sleep. I used to hear Grandshaykh a lot of times praying for the government. He included al-hukaam in his prayers, and I was surprised because hukaam in my mind are not pious. They might not even pray. Why was Mawlana praying for them? One day he explained by himself. He said, “They are not sleeping, they have all kind of security around them; every moment they are in danger. They are keeping peace in the country but they are under big liability and responsibility. But you, you go to your bed and raise your leg and sleep, no one is bothering you. No one is saying to you, ‘Why are you sleeping?’ anytime during the day or the night, but the government, can they sleep? They are worried, from this side there is a problem, from that side there is a problem.”
So that is dangerous. I am advising everyone here, “Don’t be a shepherd.” When Shaykh Sharafuddin ad-Daghestani (q) gave Grandshaykh his will and said, “This is my will, you will be responsible after me,” he tore it up and threw it and he didn’t want it. He said, “After me you will be my successor.” He didn’t want for anyone to know and bother him. He was happy with making his dhikr, he was in that trance in that presence. He didn’t want that kind of responsibility. So Shaykh Sharafuddin was concerned. He asked, “Yaa `AbdAllah Effendi, why are you not accepting?” He said, “I will accept on one condition.” Shaykh Sharafuddin asked, “What is the condition?” He didn’t jump to Rasoolullah directly, everything coming from Rasoolullah directly...everything “Rasoolullah said this, Rasoolullah said that.” Yes, you can mention a hadith that, “Rasoolullah said this or this,” yes, that’s acceptable, but good manners, he addressed his Shaykh.
Grandshaykh said, “I cannot take it, I cannot carry myself unless I get that responsibility to be taken away from me.” He said, “What do you want then?” He didn’t say, “I can go directly to Rasoolullah,” although he can, because he is a great wali. Awliyaullah can, and we don’t want to go into this explanation, it is on Sufilive.com already, and I am also advertising it now, so you can hear the suhbah on that issue that awliyaullah can speak with Prophet (s). He said, “Ask Rasoolullah for me,” he didn’t say, “I will ask Rasoolullah.” That’s big, that is tark al-adab in front of the shaykh. Why you want to jump over the shaykh? You have to ask the shaykh in a nice way. “Yaa Sayyidee, I accept from you but on a condition. Although it is not a condition, but I am requesting; it is a request, and I will be honored if it happens, then it is easy for me (to accept the will of my shaykh.)” He said, “What do you want? What is your request?” It was a petition, not a written or verbal petition but heart-to-heart petition. He was speaking to Shaykh Sharafuddin with his mouth but also the heart-to-heart connection was there. Because you can be saying something but your heart is saying something else. That is a munaafiq, it is nifaaq. You can be something but your heart is saying something else, you can pet someone with your tongue but in your heart you hate that one. What is the benefit?
So he said, “Yaa Sayyidee, if I get that it would be easy for me and I request that.” “What do you request from the hadratu ‘n-Nabi (s), the association of Prophet?” Grandshaykh said, “I don’t depend on the mureeds to do their awraad, I don’t depend on what they are doing because...” do you know the blender? What does it do? It blends things; so you might blend a sour apple with a nice banana and what will happen? It will be sour! But you can blend a good apple with a banana and it will be nice. “I don’t depend on what they do because they are like blenders, their awraad is soup, it might be sour or it might be sweet. There might be between them some who are very good and some who are not.” It’s life, it is nature.
انما بعثت لاتمم مكارم الاخلاق
Innamaa bu`ithtu li utammimu makaarim al-akhlaaq.
I have been sent to perfect the best of conduct (your behavior and character). (Bazzaar)
Prophet (s) was sent to perfect the good manners. Everyone has bad manners and Prophet (s) wants to take it away. So Sayyidee Shaykh `AbdAllah al-Fa’iz ad-Daghestani (q) was describing the mureeds and it was not something offensive, said, “The mureeds are like blenders, they don’t know the sour from the sweet, so what can I depend on them for? I cannot.” They have to do their awraad, right. They have to do their ijazah, yes, because they come to the shaykh and say, “Shaykh please give me ijazah.” Ijazah is not baya`; baya` is something else, ijazah and is something else, people here don’t know. The Hadramawt people (Yemeni’s) know that to give them ijazah is like a wird of Laa ilaaha illallah to read one-hundred times, that is ijazah; give me something and I read it, it is not baya`. [Mawlana mentions to Shaykh Mehmet--they messed it up, I have to keep quiet, it is better.]
“Baya`, baya`, shaykh baya`!” One time I was at the Priory in London, and in front of 500-600 people when they finished dhikr someone came running to me, “Shaykh there is someone who wants baya`, baya` baya`,” and everyone wanted baya`, baya`...
I came to him and said, “You want baya`?”
He said, “What’s baya`?”
I said, “From where have you come?”
He said, “I came from the street, this person told me, ‘Come inside,’ and I came inside and he is telling me, ‘Take baya`’ what is that?”
The blender is there blending everything, sweet with sour. Poor guy, he took baya` and he didn’t even know what baya` is. Everyone put their hands and someone carried his hand and put it on my hand! He took baya`. Ay, give Shahadah first! Shuyookh never gave baya` until you finished learning Fiqh, and all kind of Fiqh and to be an `alim in Shari`ah and then they give you baya`. Not like today you can bring one from the street and give him baya` and he doesn’t even know what that is.
Do you know Dr. Munir what baya` is? I don’t even know! Now they ‘cut and paste it,’ and say that I said “I don’t know what is baya`” on FaceBook and Twitter and they say, “Okay read this,” they are famous in that, no problem.
So Grandshaykh said, “I cannot. Ask for me a favor from Rasoolullah.” He didn’t say, “From Rasoolullah it’s coming. Now, now I am receiving this moment from Rasoolullah.” What is that? there are many that say like that or they say, “I am sitting by Grandshaykh’s grave and I received information, ‘Do this, do this.” No, there are many, American, German, Europeans, Far East, lower East, Arab, all of them have connection with Rasoolullah. Mashaa-Allah, alhamdulillah. We have to take baya` from all of them! You don’t see that? Australia, do you have this problem? [No.] Not yet because you are only six. [Laughter.] In Melbourne there are at least fifty or sixty, alhamdulillah at least there is dhikr going on there.
“So what do you want?” Shaykh Sharafuddin was asking.
He said, “Ask for me, I don’t depend on their awraad, and I don’t depend on anything except on you and Prophet (s). If I have to carry the responsibility of the tariqah, I want.”
The responsibility was coming and it’s not easy to carry the responsibility of the tariqah in the Golden Chain, not like now they put the heading “Golden Chain” and they put names under it and we don’t even know those names. Some names are Peter, or George or Antoine, Tony, Michael, Frederick, we don’t know what names are there in the sequence.
Grandshaykh `AbdAllah (q) said, “I don’t depend on them, I want all of them to be the same,” as Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) said, “They are jewels on my turban, all of them, so never mind whatever they do.”
Grandshaykh (q) said, “But I want a promise from Prophet (s), a word from Prophet (s) that anyone who sits in my association will be raised to my level in that association without him doing anything except, of course, his obligations. If they sit with me, that will be enough for them to be raised to my level at that moment when I am giving that particular lecture or else I am not (accepting).” That was Grandshaykh.
Then Prophet (s) said to Shaykh Sharafuddin (q) in a dream, “Anaa raadee, anaa raadee, I accept.” That is adab, we say it was ‘a dream’.
Sayyidina Ibrahim (a) was being ordered to slaughter his son by a dream, is it not? Orders come by dreams, by visions. Is it tark al-adab when you say, “I am taking directly from Rasoolullah (s).” You never heard from Mawlana that he says, “I am taking directly from Rasoolullah,” maybe on very few occasions, but not to everyone. But now everyone says, “I have inspiration from Mawlana Shaykh Nazim from Rasoolullah.” Are you mocking us? We know tariqah, we know Shari`ah, there is no such thing! To reach Rasoolullah there are 70,000 veils and you have to cross them one-after-one! It is not easy to claim that and you will be responsible!
So Grandshaykh (q), to take responsibility, although he is in the association where he said one time and I would like to mention it, although the Wahhabis might not accept, but Mawlana Shaykh `AbdAllah al-Fa’iz ad-Daghestani said this and they can go and ask him in his holy shrine now, go ask at his grave! I am quoting now, he said, “I am sitting beside,” he was in a trance, in a state of ma`rifah, enlightenment, what we can call “in that ascension,” which is not like Prophet’s Ascension. Prophet’s Ascension is different, but this was in that kind of ascension which is inherited from Prophet (s) as Prophet (s) inherits and dresses awliyaullah with some kind of ascension and gives them knowledge and that is still ‘ascension.’
Grandshaykh (q) said, “Always I am sitting between Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (q) and Prophet (s).” He can say it, we cannot say it! Wahhabis, if you don’t believe it’s up to you, you go and ask him! I didn’t say it, I cannot say it. So Grandshaykh (q) asked Shaykh Sharafuddin (q), “Ask Prophet (s) for me if anyone sitting with me when I am making a suhbah, to raise him to be at my level,” and the answer came, “I am happy with it.”
(Excerpt from al-Burdat ash-Sharifah.)
Bushra lanaa ma`ashar al-islaami/al-insaani fa-inna lanaa min al-inaayaati ruknan ghayra munhadimi.
Where Allah addressed Sayyidina Muhammad (s) in Holy Qur'an as ‘Yaseen,’ good tidings for us, O throngs of human beings, for we have of an indestructible pillar of support (in Prophet Muhammad [s])!
“Good tidings for us Muslims,” as Imam Busayri (r) said, “Fa-inna lanaa min al-inaayaati ruknan ghayra munhadimi,” from inaayaat, Allah is taking care of us and from His Mercy we have been dressed! Ghayra munhadimi, the Mercy we have been dressed with is coming from Prophet (s), and he is the pillar for people to lean their back on, ruknan ghayra munhadimi, ‘rukn’ is a post on the corner of a building, a pillar: Prophet (s) is the Pillar for the whole universe!
‘He was happy’ means he was accepting. So in a suhbah you are responsible, as when you do suhbah--we go back to what we began with--when you do suhbah and people are listening you get the barakah of the secret of Grandshaykh (q). He will dress you through his inheritor, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, may Allah give him long life. He will dress you with that dress and you will be in that level for the listeners! For the speakers, ah, question mark! Are they complying with what they are saying or are they are not, when they are with themselves and with some other people? You have to apply what you say on yourself: as you are advising them, you advise yourself first and when you advise yourself, be like the khalifah of Shaykh `Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (q).
Sayyidina `Abdul Qadir gave khilaafah to too many, and Sayyidina Khalid al-Baghdadi (q) had 299 representatives, deputies. You cannot say, “That one is wrong, that one is correct, that one is wrong,” you cannot, because everyone took a secret like the Sahaabah (r); every Sahaabi had a connection with Prophet (s) different from the other. That is from hadith and we don’t touch on that now, but the knowledge of hadith is good and it went like that because one Sahaabi heard something, the other one did not hear it, another Sahaabi heard that different, so it is like branches, like many pipes of knowledge.
So that mureed of Sayyidina `Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (q) was one of the khalifahs and he had a son who was a scholar, very educated, an `alim, and he would sit with his father when his father was giving a suhbah and people were paying so much attention listening to what that shaykh was saying.
The son, who was an `alim, thought, “My father is not an `alim and when he speaks everyone pays attention. So I am an `alim, I get from Rasoolullah! If I speak, everyone is going to be listening to what I am saying a hundred times more than to my father.”
And this is a sickness in tariqah; everyone thinks, “If I speak I will be better than the other one, I know better than him.” Is it not? Do they do that or not? Yes, too many. So that khalifah knew that (sickness) was in his son, that his heart was like that, he was able to detect it.
He said to his son the next week, “O my son, I am sick. Can you go….” He wanted to take that disease out, that doubt out of him, “today can you go and give a suhbah instead of me? I cannot, I am sick.”
The son thought, “This is my chance, this is my luck! I will be the spotlight now!”
They accuse us with this in America. They accuse us, “Why do you take all the attention when you come?” Ay, ask Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q), don’t ask me!
In big conferences with 20,000 or 30,000 (attendees), one day they came to me, her brother used to work for us in Saudi Arabia, and they said, “You are taking all the spotlight here. Why is everyone running to you?”
I said, “Ask them, don’t ask me.”
Ask Mawlana Shaykh Nazim! Mawlana has representatives, he is responsible and to that one he gives a spotlight, to the other he gives a bigger spotlight...he gives everyone! He can make a stone, someone who doesn’t know anything, into someone who knows everything! No problem, they have the power.
So the son said, “Now my chance came. I am not sleeping anymore, I am waking up because my chance came. It is big.”
So he finished the Jumu`ah prayer and was sitting on the chair of his father and he began his lecture in very fine, literary Arabic. Everyone started sleeping, like (this one); no, he pays attention! They were sleeping one-after-one.
He thought, “SubhaanAllah! I am giving a lecture that they never heard before and people are sleeping. When my father speaks in normal Arabic (not in prose), everyone is paying attention.”
He went to his father and his father asked, “How was it?”
“O my father, what can I say? I gave them a nice lecture,” still he was insisting on his ego, “better than your lecture, and they were sleeping.”
He said, “Yaa waladee, they were sleeping because you missed one big condition of a lecture. It is to make sure that you apply the lecture to yourself first and apply exactly as you are saying it. You said to them something from your ego, you didn’t say to them something from your heart, and you have to act on it first or else you cannot reach what I was reaching. If you want to reach where people pay attention, you have to apply on yourself first everything that is being said in the lecture.”
May Allah make us to apply everything Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) saysm because this is our safety! If you don’t apply it the lock will not open, there is one number missing and you have make all the numbers and not one of them should be missing, the code of six numbers or four or twelve numbers. Now with the computer and Internet and everything, also these combination of numbers will open your heart, but if you don’t put them in the right way you cannot open your computer, your heart’s computer, because it is locked until you get these numbers. May Allah (swt) give us our numbers that we can open our servers, if we can call it a server, and you open your Internet, the access to reach everywhere!
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
Thank you, as-salaamu `alaykum.
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