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Our Blessed Times with Grandshaykh (ق)

Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

20 September 2016 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Suhbah at Private Residence

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.

أَطِيعُواْ اللّهَ وَأَطِيعُواْ الرَّسُولَ وَأُوْلِي الأَمْرِ مِنكُمْ

Atee`oollaha wa atee`oo 'r-Rasoola wa ooli 'l-amri minkum.

Obey Allah, obey the Prophet, and obey those in authority among you. (Surat an-Nisa, 4:59)

وَإِنَّ يَوْمًا عِندَ رَبِّكَ كَأَلْفِ سَنَةٍ مِّمَّا تَعُدُّونَ

Verily, in your Lord’s view, a day as you know it is like a thousand years. (Surat al-Hajj, 22:47)

“One day to Allah (swt) in Heaven is like one thousand years in dunya,” so time has no limits for Allah. Inshaa-Allah there will be peace on Earth for everyone. May Allah bring that power as soon as possible.

[The days before Mahdi (a) will appear are terrible days.]

Muhiyidin Ibn `Arabi (q) prophesied that at that time out of seven, six will die and one will live, so you will be walking on bodies. This is what happened last year on Hajj, at Mina there was a horrific stampede when they opened one door and people rushed and crushed each other, moving over bodies. It will be like that not only in one place but across the whole Earth. That is why Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) said, “Go to the mountains as it is remote and safe, don’t be in cities.” May Allah make our homes mountains.

Where are you going to stay to be protected? Now that mountain where you went is becoming a city, a tourist area. That’s why Buddhist monks go to the Himalayas and build shrines such as Lhasa in Tibet, because they know. In Lebanon there are monasteries and churches from 2,000 years ago on top of very steep mountains, where it is difficult to reach, with a special way for tourists. There is no way to build there, how did they do it? Even with technology you cannot build there, first you would have to blow up the mountain. They put one stone at a time; look how they taught patience. We are Muslims on Haqq and we don’t have patience, but they took their time and built it because they know it is a safe place.

They and we are waiting for Sayyidina `Isa (a), but the difference is they believe he will rule and extend life on Earth a thousand years, while we Muslims say as it is in Signs of the Last Days, that when he comes will be the end of dunya. The Prophet (s) said that Sayyidina `Isa (a) will descend on Minarat an-Bayda, the white minaret in Masjid Umawiyya in Sham, then Sayyidina Mahdi (a) will lead the Jumu`ah prayer. First Sayyidina Mahdi (a) will step aside to let Sayyidina 'Isa (a) lead the prayer, but Sayyidina 'Isa (a) will say, “You are from Ummat an-Nabi (s), you lead the prayer.” Then Sayyidina `Isa (a) will order Jibreel (a) to open his wings, and Dajjal, the Anti-Messiah will appear on the other side, where `Isa (a) will pass, cut Dajjal’s neck, then declare he is from Ummat an-Nabi (s)!

Inshaa-Allah we will see these days if we are lucky; if not, inshaa-Allah we will see these days from Akhirah. When we were young we anticipated we will see these days soon, but Allah has His Ways, He planned something and we plan something else, so we don’t know. We follow what He said to His Prophet (s). If we are living, alhamdulillah and if not, still we say alhamduillah, inshaa-Allah we can see from Akhirah.

In 1957, the first time I came to Grandshaykh (q) I was 12 years old. I went to visit him in a yellow and white Hudson that my father bought, an American car manufactured by General Motors. Grandshaykh (q) saw us coming up the mountain until we reached his house. He had an elderly servant, AbuBakr, who was 107 years old, whom he sent to Shaykh Muhiyiddin’s maqaam to buy the small black eggplants and bell peppers, which he fried and served us, so the first meal we ate there was vegetarian that he cooked. Daghestani people like to eat meat, but he told us to be vegetarian, which meant:

يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ ٱجۡتَنِبُواْ كَثِيرً۬ا مِّنَ ٱلظَّنِّ إِنَّ بَعۡضَ ٱلظَّنِّ إِثۡمٌ۬‌ۖ وَلَا تَجَسَّسُواْ وَلَا يَغۡتَب بَّعۡضُكُم بَعۡضًا‌ۚ أَيُحِبُّ أَحَدُڪُمۡ أَن يَأۡڪُلَ لَحۡمَ أَخِيهِ مَيۡتً۬ا فَكَرِهۡتُمُوهُ‌

O you who believe! Avoid suspicion as much (as possible) for suspicion in some cases is a sin, and spy not on each other, nor speak ill of each other behind their backs. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? No, you would abhor it! (Surat al-Hujuraat, 49:12)

The sign of Tariqah is to not backbite your brother, mother, father, sister or your friend, as Allah does not like that. He said, “Don’t eat the flesh of your brother.” Grandshaykh (q) meant to say, “When you enter this house, don't make fitna, only peace.” Grandshaykh (q) sat on the floor where there was a small hallway, although it changed now, and we used to sit there. One day he was speaking and I sat beside him on the same mattress with my knee touching his knee, and suddenly he turned his face toward the wall and said, “As-salaamu `alaykum, yaa Rasoolullah (s),” so I jumped to kiss the wall and he said, “You kissed Prophet (s).” I was young and did that out of love.

Grandshaykh (q) was so powerful that you cannot describe it. He used to put me and Shaykh Adnan near him and give lectures non-stop. He taught us religion; otherwise we also learned from our uncles, who were Azharis. Alhamdulillah, we knew him and Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) since 1957. By mentioning their names mercy comes down.

عِنْدَ ذِكْرِ الصَّالِحِينَ تَنْزِلُ الرَّحْمَةُ

When the names of the pious are mentioned Allah’s Mercy descends.

(Narrated Sufyan ibn `Uyayana in Imam Ahmad’s Zuhd)

Our history with him is nice. When we were old enough to drive, we traveled every two days from Beirut to Damascus. Sometimes there was snow. One time at midnight they said the road was closed, but we wanted to go to Grandshaykh (q), so we returned to Beirut and went south from Sayda (Sidon), near the Israeli border. It was a dark night and raining, and by mistake we entered Israel and armed guards stopped us, saying, “What are you doing?” They weren’t as intense as today. We said, “We are going to Syria and took a wrong turn.” It took us eight hours to reach Damascus.

We often went in the morning, prayed Tahajjud, Fajr and Ishraaq, and ate breakfast. After the time he served the vegetarian meal he put meat and said, “Now you don't eat the flesh of your brother, so you can eat meat.” He had a closet where he stored food and meat, but the sun was shining on it and it became so smelly that when me and Shaykh Adnan entered we looked at each other in amazement. Grandshaykh (q) cooked that meat and when he gave it to us there were still maggots crawling from inside it, and he said, “Bismillah, eat!” How could we eat it when we could not tolerate the bad smell! Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) and Shaykh Husayn’s mureed were there. Mawlana also looked and no one touched that food, then he said, “Eat,” we put it in our mouths and immediately all the worms disappeared from the whole plate! It was a test; Grandshaykh was checking are we going to eat it or not? There were hundreds of maggots, but he can show you something that is not there, like a mirage in the desert when you see water that's not there. There are no worms, but your see worms because you are a worm from your desires and bad `amal. This is a forgiveness for the bad `amal you show the shaykh: through his own power with his own way, he removes that. So are you going to eat or not? We will test you one day!

We have many long stories of time we spent with Grandshaykh (q) and Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q), may Allah bless their souls. Mentioning their names is rahmah.

Bi hurmati’ l-Habeeb, bi hurmati ‘l-Fatihah.

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