28 Ramadan 1427/20 October 2006
After Salat Fajr and Tahajjud
A`udhu billahi min ash-shaytaan ir-rajeem
Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem
Nawaytu'l-arba`een, nawaytu'l-`itikaaf, nawaytu'l-khalwah, nawaytu'l-`uzlah, nawaytu'l-riyaada, nawaytu's-salook, lillahi ta`ala fee hadha'l-masjid
Ati` Allah wa ati` ar-Rasula wa uli 'l-amri minkum
I
n the previous session we were explaining from the notes of Grandshaykh that about an-nafs al-madhmoumah. And because of that tifl an-nafs al-madhmoumah, the shaykh is giving advice but you never listen to what he says because your self, the bad ego, or ananiyya, will prevent you from listening to what they want you to do and to obey.
Why do we take a shaykh, for what reason. The simple reason is that he knows more than us. Since he knows more than us what is our duty? To listen.
It is the similar example of the parents and the children, the father and mother. The children always resist to listen to their parents. What do they say? They say, “They are backwards, stupid, they know nothing, we know everything.” Even young ones.
But when you are in problem, where do you go? To your parents. So if they are backwards why go to them when you are in a problem? Why run to them? Solve it by yourself. Since you are not backwards and you aren’t from the Stone Age, then why listen to your parents? If you consider your parents from the Stone Age, you are not from Stone Age, you are worse than Stone Age. That is why mashaykh, shuyukh they are not from the Stone Age. They are guides that have learned the way and have become mature, not mature according to the level of the people’s understanding or perception, but according to what Allah I is granting to them that respect and granting that honor that they reached maturity of “manhood”.
“Manhood” applies to men and women, we use a general term, generic that is used in Holy Qur’an. And that is where Allah I said, Rijaalun sadaqoo ma `ahad-allaha alayh.
Here men means saints that keep their covenant with Allah I, they never changed, they reached that maturity and Allah I is certifying that yes they reached maturity and Prophet e is certifying, “Yes they reached maturity, and they are in my association in Diwan al-awliya in the Court of the Prophet e, they are always there and there is not one minute or moment that they are not in that Presence of the Prophet e, according to their levels. They are all in the Presence of the Prophet e but not physically, some of them one hour in presence, some one minute, some 24 hours.”
So those who reached that maturity, that is why we take them as our guides. You cannot take a father who is not your father to consider him your father as a guide. That is impossible.
So awliyaullah know whom Allah I has given to them from the Ummah. For them that is a big sin. They look to their own only, others they are not interested in. They don’t look at others’ students. Allah I did not give them the others. They only look a their own. It is a sin for awliya for one to look at the others’ students.
So Grandshaykh is saying that our ego prevents us from listening to the shaykh as the children’s egos prevent them from listening to their parents.
So that is why the shaykh will have a lot of mureeds. Some shaykhs from the Golden Chain are so famous, are known everywhere. Some of them their names are hidden, only a few know them. That depends on what Allah I has given them. So Sayyidina Shah Naqshband ?, his name was everywhere, Sayyidina Shaykh Khalid al-Baghdadi ?--his name was known everywhere and Sayyidina Shaykh Nazim ? his name is known everywhere. But because his name is everywhere doesn’t mean they are his mureeds. They are at the level of lovers, not mureeds. And they are still running in circles they are not advancing anywhere.
The example of that is Sayyidina `Abdul Qadir al-Jilani ? and Haroon al-Rashid. The whole country was the mureeds of `Abdul Qadir al-Jilani ?. And mureeds were exempt from the army. So Haroon al-Rashid doesn’t have many men in his army. Then one day another country came to attack them. So Haroon al-Rashid went so Sayyidina `Abdul Qadir al-Jilani ? and told him, “They are attacking us and we have not enough army to fight them. What do we have to do?”
Sayyidina `Abdul Qadir al-Jilani ? said, “I will prepare for you a large army. Prepare a large area with a hill and a tent on top of the hill.”
So Haroon al-Rashid prepared that and then Sayyidina `Abdul Qadir al-Jilani ? announced that, “I want all my mureeds to come and this is the day to dress all of them with high level of ma’rifah.” So they all came in huge numbers to that area. So he ordered one butcher to bring two lambs and go inside the tent at the top of the hill.
Then he declared, “I decided to sacrifice my students for Allah’s I Sake. Who would like to be the first one to give his life for Allah I and the Prophet e and myself?” Between the whole crowd one skinny man was coming out running and climbing the hill to the tent and said, “I am ready my Sayyidee!” Then Sayyidina `Abdul Qadir al-Jilani ? said, “This is the first one I am going to sacrifice.”
So he entered the tent and he ordered the butcher to slaughter the goat and show the blood running down the hill and he ordered the mureed to shake. So the mureed is shaking and the blood is running. They looked and said, “What is this? This is real,” and half of them ran away. They are not any more mureeds. They left. They are stubborn, they don’t listen. That is our situation. Then he said, “Who will be the second? I am waiting. Who will be second?”
Then a lady came up and said, “I am ready.” She was wife of the first man. They took her inside and he slaughtered the second goat and he told her to shake. So she was shaking and shaking. They didn’t have at that time binoculars, you can cheat them too much. Even they didn’t have binoculars, but awliya can … it.
So shaking and shaking and Haroon al-Rashid was looking —all of them ran away. In that huge open space, no one was left. Then he told Haroon al-Rashid, “Take them all, I have these mureeds only, not more than that.”
That is an answer that Mawlana Shaykh recently said, in a suhbat that there is coming a time very soon that I will be left with very few sincere mureeds around me and the rest are going to run away. Because there is coming a sift that his going to sift everyone and shake everyone. The stones are going to stay on the top and the ones that have no more self, means they no longer have a form—what happens to them? They go down in that pot, which will contain them. Because there is no form they go thru these holes. They have destroyed their egos; there is no more standing up. They are submitting in the ocean of the will of their Shaykh; they are submitting in the Ocean of the Will of the Prophet e; they are submitting in the Ocean of the Will of Allah I. And they go down into the container, while those who are rocks, take them out and throw them away. We hope not to be rocks, and those who are hearing or listening around the globe not to be rocks, that they are not rocks, but that they are easy going, that they step over their ego.
When you are sick they give you a medicine and they tell you to keep taking until you are clear. If you have cholesterol you have to keep taking it. You cannot stop. You have diabetes, you keep taking it. You cannot stop.
Awliyaullah keep speaking about the ego, so they are seeing us still sick. If we don’t have ananiyya they take us to higher level of journey to reach the Presence of Prophet e and Presence of Allah I. But as long as they are speaking of ego, then there is no way to reach. You still need to be purified of your sickness. So there no sickness is permitted. You must be straightforward. So according to the verse:
مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ رِجَالٌ صَدَقُوا مَا عَاهَدُوا اللَّهَ عَلَيْهِ فَمِنْهُم مَّن قَضَى نَحْبَهُ وَمِنْهُم مَّن يَنتَظِرُ وَمَا بَدَّلُوا تَبْدِيلًا
Mina al-mumineena rijalun sadaqoo ma `ahadoo Allaha `alayhi faminhum man qada nahbahu wa minhum man yantadhiru wa maa baddaloo tabdeela.
Among the Believers are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah I. of them some have completed their vow (to the extreme), and some (still) wait: but they have never changed (their determination) in the least: [33:23]
They are “men” who kept their covenant with Allah I. Some of them died and some of them are waiting. What is qada nahba in English, “Passed away.” Here there is another meaning: “They passed away from their own egos; they passed away from their own selfishness, they left it behind and entered the Divine Presence. The others want to do the same but they are still waiting and they are on the way and on the road, they never changed their way, whatever obstacles were coming they keep going and ma badaloo tabdeela. They didn’t reach yet but their beliefs never changed. They still have traces of their illness.
The Prophet e said, “If you want to see someone who died before he died look at Abu Bakr as-Siddiq y.”
He is the spiritual father of all Naqshbandi students. The chain of Mawlana Shaykh goes all the way back to Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq y. So the Prophet e said, “Who wants to see someone who died before he died look at Abu Bakr as-Siddiq y.”
It means he passed from connection to dunya and he passed from connection to bad desire and he went. But that doesn’t mean don’t do business. He was a businessman and he had people working for him. He spent all his wealth to help the Prophet e. Don’t say, “I have to leave and sit in the corner.” That is not for you, that. That is only for some people; not for everyone. Your duty is to work, to raise your children and guide them to that way and to support the message of spirituality that is in Islam. In that way you fix the difficulties in the world the hegemony of tyranny in the earth will be saved by the teaching of our master. Show it to the human race.
And that is coming here a big example from Mawlana Shaykh where he said that, “For example, if a monk comes to us here, in his presence he is speaking, he comes to the presence of the shaykh in his association, sitting.”
Look that is very important that many students, many mureeds are falling into that sickness. And this is speaking in 1394. Today is 1427. How many years? 37?
He said, “If a monk comes and sitting listening, immediately, out of no respect to me, many of those who are sitting there will begin to do da`wah on him. Try to convert him. Is that correct? Yes, they do that. He said “That is forbidden. You don’t need to do da`wah. He came to my presence. That is not your duty. Even I speak with him it is not your duty to give da`wah to him. Because your business is not him, it is me. Your concentration is on me, not him. You think my words are not enough for him? I put one word and I … You put yourself more knowledgeable than him, then you fall like Iblees in hellfire. You must leave him. Because in our understanding, in spirituality, is that you have to listen to everyone and see what he says. And you have to see who is speaking thru him.”
Don’t listen, that is what we make that mistake, don’t listen at that forum but listen who is behind that forum, that body, that monk. Who is making his tongue to move, who is making his heart to move? Take a lesson, take what you like and leave what you don’t like and make da`wah on yourself. You cannot make da`wah when you have not gotten rid of you ego. Most of our students are da`wah machines, they aren’t trying to clean themselves. Look at yourself. Your garden is invaded by wild animals, and your neighbor’s garden has bees in it. So the bees are going to suck the roses and make them die. Look at your own garden. That sickness is everywhere.
Grandshaykh said, “Don’t listen to the one who is speaking, but listen to the One who makes him to speak.” Laa tasma` lil-mutakallim …
“Let this monk be a teacher to your, listen to what he says and take what you want. The only difference between us and the monk is that the monk is associating with Allah I. So don’t listen to that, but listen to his wisdom. Lot of things come on his tongue of wisdom—leave the shirk aside and take and run with what is good. It is not permitted on my mureeds to throw on him anything back.”
The Prophet e said in a hadith qudsee, “That if a servant comes to Me one hand I come to him one arm and if he comes to Me walking I come to him running.”
Grandshaykh is telling you here that if anyone comes to you one hand, go to him one arm and if he comes walking go to him running. Go with him 99 steps and when he sees you with his wisdom going along, then with one foot he is already there. Then otherwise we are following our ego, “O we are doing him da`wah.”
Allah I said to the Prophet e in the Holy Qur'an:
إِنَّكَ لَا تَهْدِي مَنْ أَحْبَبْتَ وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَهْدِي مَن يَشَاء وَهُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِالْمُهْتَدِينَ
Innaka laa tahdee man ahbabta wa laakinna Allaha yahdee man yasha’u wa huwa a`lamu bil-muhtadeen.
It is true thou wilt not be able to guide every one, whom thou lovest; but Allah I guides those whom He will and He knows best those who receive guidance. [28:56]
When here he was trying to bring his uncle to Islam.
“So don’t try to guide whom you like because there is an obstacle, but Allah I will guide whom He likes to guide to you.” Those how have the luck to be in Ummat an-Nabi e, He guides. So if he walks with you once, just as you walked with him 99 steps, then hold to him and he is ready to listen. Then take all his bad shirk, and take his wisdom he spent all his life in seclusion. So take the shirk he has and throw it in a valley and he becomes fully clean as if he was born today.
May Allah I forgive us and we continue in the second time. Wa min Allah at-tawfiq bi-hurmatil Fatiha.