Zhuhr Suhbah (1)
A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytani ‘r-rajeem. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem.
Nawaytu 'l-arba`een, nawaytu 'l-`itikaaf, nawaytu 'l-khalwah, nawaytu 'l-`uzlah,
nawaytu 'r-riyaada, nawaytu 's-salook, lillahi ta'ala al-`Azheem fee hadha 'l-masjid.
As-salaam `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh. Allah (swt) honored us:
وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِي آدَمَ
Wa laqad karamnaa Bani Adam.
We have honored the Children of Adam. (Surat al-Israa’, 17:70)
“Verily, We have honored the Children of Adam (a).” By what has Allah honored us? People might think Allah has honored us for this or that reason, but in reality He honored them because He loved them! Allah (swt) loved them so He created them, as He said:
كنت كنزا مخفياً فأحببت أن أعرف فخلقت الخلق
I was a Hidden Treasure (and) I wanted to be known, so I created Creation. (Hadith Qudsi)
The Founding Principle of all Creation
“I was a Hidden Treasure,” and He still remains a Hidden Treasure and from that Name ‘al-Khalaaq’ He loved to be known and here that word ‘loved’ is important: “I loved to be known so I created Creation.” That is the founding principle of creation of all Creation, He loved to be known! He put all the secret of His Creation in His Love, which is why He said, “I loved to be known so I created Creation and by My Love they knew Me, through My Love to them they knew My Creation.” It means wherever Creation is they are are being loved by Allah (swt)! So the principle of Creation is love, and love is not something easy: even not loving dunya won’t take us to the reality of the meaning of that Holy Hadith that Allah (swt) mentioned to the Prophet (s), “I was a Hidden Treasure and I wanted to be known so I created Creation.” He loved to be known through love, it is not through dunya, it is not even through Akhirah! There are some Awliyaullah like Rabi`a al-`Adawiyya (q), who was so well known for her `ishq al-ilahiyy in her poetry: she said, “O Allah! I am not loving You to be put in Your Paradise and I am not loving you to escape punishment of Hellfire. If you reward me or You punish me it does not matter. I have no pleasures except to be with You to Love You!”
The Divine Condition to Enter Allah’s Presence
Not everyone can say that or can claim they love Allah (swt): when you love it means as Allah (swt) said in Holy Qur'an, “If you really love Me, then you have to come to Me.”
قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَاللّهُ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ
Say (O Muhammad), "If you (really) love Allah, then follow me! Allah will love you and forgive your sins, and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (Surat Aali-`Imraan, 3:31)
How to ‘come to Me’? There is no door and no highway except One! If you want love of Allah you must take that highway, which doesn’t have two doors, but only one: that door is Sayyidina Muhammad (s)! Allah (swt) said, “If you claim that you love Me, then follow Muhammad!” In kuntum tuhibboona 'Llaaha fattabi`oonee! So you cannot come to Allah alone, you cannot come by yourself, He put it in a condition, “If you love Me, you have to come with Muhammad to Me! If you say you love Me, then follow Rasoolullah, follow Muhammad (s), because when you come with him then the door is open, but if you don't come with him, no love.” So it is a condition from Allah (swt): “Wherever you try to make du`a or awrad or dhikr or salawaat, if you don't come with the Prophet (s) you cannot enter My door.”
In airports in the old times, when a plane landed they had a yellow car with "Follow Me" written on it. Did you not see that a long time ago? Now they don't have that except in some. The plane had to follow the car and the plane has many people in it, it is bigger than the car, but they all have to follow that car, and if they didn't follow the car they would be stuck in the plane and the plane would go in circles. If you want to get out of plane, follow the car. If you really love Allah, then follow the Prophet (s) in everything! Allah is ar-Ra’uf ar-Raheem, The Tenderest and The Most Merciful, He does not want His servant to have difficulty, which we can understand that from the Hadith of the Prophet (s):
أَنَّ رَجُلاً، مِنْ أَهْلِ الْبَادِيَةِ أَتَى النَّبِيَّ صلى الله عليه وسلم فَقَالَ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ مَتَى السَّاعَةُ قَائِمَةٌ قَالَ " وَيْلَكَ وَمَا أَعْدَدْتَ لَهَا ". قَالَ مَا أَعْدَدْتُ لَهَا إِلاَّ أَنِّي أُحِبُّ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ. قَالَ " إِنَّكَ مَعَ مَنْ أَحْبَبْتَ ". .
A Bedouin came to the Prophet (s) and said, "O Allah's Messenger (s)! When will the Hour be established?" The Prophet (s) said, "What have you prepared for it?" The Bedouin said, "I have not prepared anything for it, except that I love Allah and His Apostle." The Prophet (s) said, "You will be with those whom you love!" (Narrated Anas Ibn Malik, Bukhari)
The Heavenly Promise: You Will Be Resurrected with Whom You Love
He said that on a Friday when the Prophet (s) was giving the Jumu`ah Khutbah; a Bedouin man appeared at the door and the Sahaabah (r) looked at him and didn't know who he was. We don't know, maybe he was someone special, maybe he was an angel in the form of a man who wants to teach the Sahaabah (r) about an issue. He appeared and it was as if he was speaking to a person just like him. He looked at the Prophet (s) and said, Yaa Muhammad, matta` as-sa`at, “O Muhammad! When is the Day of Judgement?” He wanted to know because he wanted to be with the Prophet (s) and with Allah (swt) on that Day as his love for them is beyond everything, so out of love that was taking his soul he wants to be with them as quickly as possible. The Prophet (s) did not answer. The man asked another time, matta` as-sa`at, but no answer as the Prophet (s) did not talk except through Wahiyy (Revelation) and if Wahiyy didn’t come, from adab he didn't speak even though he knows, because Allah gave him `Uloom al-Awwaleen wa ‘l-Akhireen, Knowledge of Firsts and Lasts (what happened before and after Creation), but out of respect and adab, Prophet (s) said, “I am only a human being like you.”
The third time the man asked, Sayyidina Jibreel (a) came to the Prophet (s) and said, “Yaa Rasoolullah, answer him.” Look, in a moment Jibreel (a) appeared; what kind of speed and power was he using? That is why munajaat, supplication to Allah (swt) reaches in moments, it does not need to roam, like today we navigate right and left with GPS, “Go left and go right, after half a mile turn right, turn left.” No, supplication goes directly or it does not go at all, it depends on the purity of the one making du`a. That is why is best to ask someone you know is sincere to ask for you, then it reaches directly; otherwise it navigates through millions and millions of light years, like star’s going 300,000 km/seconds and taking a long time to reach us or with some stars, when we see their light they are already gone. That supplication takes too long, it might not reach until the person who made it already passed on, so we need supplication that reaches the Divine Presence instantly! That is why the du`a of Awliyaullah differs from du`a of `ulama and the du`a of Anbiya differs from the du`a of Awliya.
Allah wanted that Bedouin to ask in order for the Sahaabah (r) to hear it and Jibreel (a) came in a moment, saying, “Yaa Rasoolullah, answer him.”
Prophet (s) answered, “To reach Allah is a long way. You are asking about the Day of Resurrection, where Allah is judging between human beings. Resurrection is a far distance.” Akhirah is far off for those who have no love, but for those who have love it is a moment away! “For you it is a long travel, what have you prepared to reach there?” Everyone wants not to be punished in Akhirah, they want to be forgiven and to be with the Prophet (s), so “what have you prepared?”
He said, Laa min katharat as-siyam wa la min khathrat as-salaat, “No, not because I fasted a lot nor prayed a lot, I am not counting on that. I am counting on something that is within me, that I love you.”
“Welcome! In kuntum tuhiboon Allah yuhbibukumullah, follow me, yaa Bedouin! I will take you to the Door.” How to take you? To constantly mention The One you love! That Bedouin was making dhikrullah and making Dhikr an-Nabi and the Prophet (s) looked at him and saw how much the love of Allah and love of the Prophet had taken him and that he was a person with no connection to time and place, he only saw the Prophet (s), not the Sahaabah (r), not the masjid, not anything but the Prophet (s). Then the Prophet (s) said:
يحشر المرء مع من أحب
Each person will be resurrected with the one he loves. (Tabarani)
That man will be resurrected with the one he loves! That is why “love” is mentioned in Holy Qur'an 83 times, al-Hubb al-Ilahiyy, that is why every person whose heart is full of love will become a fountain of poetry, Allah will inspire his heart to write poetry just as he inspired Imam Busayri (q), whose famous poem al-Burdah ash-Sharifah is full of love praising the Prophet (s). It is said that he was praising the Prophet (s) and wrote it from inspiration from the Prophet (s). He had a stroke and the Prophet (s) came to him in a vision and touched him, and when he awoke he was healed. Love does miracles! It can heal people spiritually and physically. One time Imam Busayri was composing his poetry and a shaykh with his mureeds passed by him at the Nile River, when he came to the verse:
فمبلغ العلم فيه انه بشروانه خير الخلق كلهم
The sum of their knowledge concerning him is that he was a mortal and that he was the Best of All Allah's Creation. (Imam al-Busayri, al-Burdah ash-Sharifah)
“The limit of our knowledge is that he is a human being,” but to Imam Busayri (q) Prophet (s) was more than human being and he stopped composing, not knowing what to say. He put his feet in the water and a shaykh passing by with his students wanted to make wudu, but the water of the river was boiling From Imam Busayri’s `ishq and they could not wash.
The shaykh said, “Go up the river and see what is causing it to boil.” They went up the river and found Imam Busayri (q) reciting and trying to continue, his feet were in the river and out of ishq he could not continue, and the students saw the water boiling from his love. Then Imam Busayri (q) saw a vision of the Prophet (s) and he continued the verse, wa annahu khayr al-khalqi kullihim, And he is the Best of All Creation!
Al-Hubb al-Ilahiyy can only be known through tasting and the Awliyaullah put that taste of love in their followers; it is something that comes spontaneously, without preparation, like poets have a pen in their hand and write spontaneously without preparation.
May Allah guide us to that spontaneous and to that heavenly knowledge.
Wa min Allahi ‘t-tawfeeq bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
http://sufilive.com/Love-is-the-Womb-of-Creation-6119.html
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