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Real Submission is Based on Respect

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

6 June 2015 Fenton Zawiya, Michigan

A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani 'r-rajeem. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem. As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh. 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.

To Make Sajda is to Enter Maqaam at-Tawheed,

the Station of Knowing Allah’s Oneness

Alhamdulillah, that Allah (swt) created us from Ummat an-Nabi (s). That is an honor which is by itself enough to worship, to keep sajda for Him day and night and never finish, because sajda is t`azheem Allah `Azza wa jall. Whenever you do sajda, you are praising Allah (swt) and you are entering Maqaam at-Tawheed, meaning no one is independent, we are all dependent on Allah (swt) and the key for entering that dependency is the key of sajda.

When you do sajda you are doing t`azheem or you are keeping respect, adab, or you are stating an issue that you want to honor. The example is that the best t`azheem is endless t`azheem from Allah (swt) to His Prophet (s) and whatever we do we cannot pay back what Allah gave to us! We can learn from an example in Holy Qur'an, when Allah ordered them to do sajda for Sayyidina Adam (a), fa qa`oo lahu saajideen, “Go make sajda to him!”

Allah Honored His Prophet by Creating Prophet from His Light

and by Ordering All Creation to Respect Him

He was only a form in Paradise; some scholars say a form and a soul. What we take from here is that Allah wanted to honor His Prophet and He wanted to honor Bani Adam, and what honor is greater than all the angels to make sajda to Adam? In reality that sajda is to the Prophet (s), as the noor of the Prophet (s) was in the forehead of Prophet Adam (a). It means that in every sajda the Prophet (s) was making sajda with Sayyidina Adam (a).In every prayer the Prophet (s) was with that noor that was in the forehead of Sayyidina Adam (a) and was making sajda also.

Allah is giving t`azheem to the Prophet (s) and not only from the sajda that Sayyidina Adam (a) was doing, the light of the Prophet (s) that Allah made the Prophet (s) from, or he planted in the Prophet (s), but Allah asked the angels to make sajda to Sayyidina Adam (a) to give respect to Sayyidina Muhammad (s). That is why scholars and awliya say that sajda was a sajda of respect and of t`azheem and Grandeur to show the greatness of the Prophet (s). That was not a sajda of worship, `uboodiyya, as that is for Allah alone.

When Allah put that light in the forehead of Sayyidina Adam (a), that was the beginning of:

أدبني ربي فأحسن تأديبي

My Lord perfected my good manners and conduct. (Ibn `Asaakir)

Allah has perfected and has made the respect the high level of excellence and purity He gave to His Prophet (s). The Light that Allah (swt) created the Prophet (s) from was created with adab!That is why Allah said about the Prophet (s):

وَإِنَّكَ لَعَلى خُلُقٍ عَظِي

You are of the most exalted character. (Surat al-Qalam, 68:4)

Those with High Adab Do Not Defend Themselves

from Aggression, They Submit

So from the beginning, the Prophet (s) had the highest adab. If someone tries to kill you, what do you do? You try to push him away, but adab is submission and respect. It shows in the ayah that when Haabeel (Abel) was going to kill Qaabeel (Cain), what did Qaabeel say?

لَئِن بَسَطتَ إِلَيَّ يَدَكَ لِتَقْتُلَنِي مَا أَنَا بِبَاسِطٍ يَدِيَ إِلَيْكَ لِأَقْتُلَكَ ۖ إِنِّي أَخَافُ اللَّـهَ رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ

Even if you lay your hand on me to kill me, I shall not lay my hand on you to slay you: truly, I fear God, the Lord of all the Worlds. (Surat al-Maa’ida, 5:28)

Haabil (a) said, “Even if you are extending your hand to kill me, I am not extending my hand to kill you”, although he was stronger than Qaabil due to his high adab. He did not accept to kill his brother because this is Dar al-Balaa, dunya is always full of afflictions and there are always problems to solve.

Adab Plants Us Firmly in the Right Way

Even [if you are isolated] on top of a mountain, you will find something to make you angry! Allah (swt) made mountains to raasikhaat, strengthen the Earth because when He create the Earth it was wobbling, so Allah put mountains on Earth like pegs, to balance them, to keep Earth from wobbling. That is why you don't see earthquakes on mountains, but two days ago there was earthquake on top of the Himalayas! Some people from Singapore and Malaysia were affected there and some people died, even though monasteries are located there; despite that people died on top of the Himalayas. So if you don't have adab you will always be wobbling and always not knowing what to do. Have adab, respect, don't try to be stubborn and use your bad manners even if someone is going to hurt you.

Lesson of the Two Walis Assaulted by Children

Grandshaykh `AbdAllah, may Allah bless his soul, mentioned the reality of what awliyaullah inherit from prophets and what Prophet (s) pours in their hearts from Allah’s inspirations that guide them, they are known as al-Warithoon al-Muhammadiyoon.

He said that there were two walis that travelled with each other and one was higher than the other. You know the bad characters of children, always children have bad characters, they don't respect and especially today there too much of that, the children like to break things and attack people and harm in many ways with bad manners. So when these two walis were passing through the city, and they were foreigners, the children ran behind them throwing stones that wounded them. Children are notorious for hurting others; you see young gangsters today carrying guns in school and they hurt people, and it is their family’s responsibility to raise them well. We are now seeing that problem around the world.

So one was higher than the other and those children were hitting them with stones and one of them could not take it, although the other was like Sayyidina Haabeel with the attitude, “If you are extending your hand to hurt me or kill me I am not coming against you, I am submitting.” That wali was submitting, the other was not able to, and he moved his hand {a sweeping motion] and made them all those children fall down. Had he moved his hand any further he would have hurt them, but he only moved it enough to make them fall on the ground.

The other wali said, “What are you doing?”

He said, “They hurt me!”

The other one said, “Did you not hear about the Prophet (s) when he went to Ta’if and Ma`rakati Uhud?”

Our Prophet Forgave and Prayed for Those Who Assaulted Him

In both places he (s) was hurt; in Uhud they hurt him a lot. Grandshaykh, may Allah bless his soul, said that not only that he was hit by a stone that broke his four front teeth, but also, adaban ma` an-Nabi (s), the Sahaabah (r) mentioned that they hid a lot of how much the Prophet (s) was hurt by those who tried to kill him. He said that in every part of his body there was a bruise. He said with adab, but I am breaking the adab to tell it, as that is to learn. With all that injury, bruises and four broken teeth, the Prophet (s) raised his hands and said:

اللهم اغفر لقومي فانهم لا يعلمون

O Allah! Forgive my people for they don't know. (Bukhari)

Grandshaykh `AbdAllah (q) said, “I am leaving adab to tell this story because it will be evidence for us of how much the Prophet (s) has shown patience, and patience comes from adab.”

أدبني ربي فأحسن تأديبي

My Lord perfected my good manners and conduct. (Ibn `Asakir)

“I am the source of adab in my community.” Show even the lowest level of adab, which is:

الإيمان بضع وسبعون، أو بضع وستون شعبة، فأفضلها قول لا إله إلا الله، وأدناها إماطة الأذى عن الطريق.

There are some seventy or sixty branches of faith; the best of the them is to say,“Laa ilaaha illa-Llah” and the lowest is to remove something harmful from the streets. (Bukhari)

They used to walk in the street. If you found something in the street like a branch, bag or anything else, you got off your horse and removed it, and that adab is from faith, as the Prophet (s) said. Grandshaykh (q) said, “That means that you have to remove from the street by hand whatever harms someone, not by your foot.” Pushing that with your foot is tark al-adab and everything has to be done with good manners and in a proper way.

Grandshaykh (q) said, “With all the pain the Prophet (s) was feeling, he raised his hands and said, ‘I am forgiving them. I am the one who has been bruised and the pain is for me, and I forgive them.’” Then if the Prophet (s) asks Allah to forgive them, what will happen? Allah will forgive them! The Prophet (s) said, “O Allah, those people don't know my Reality. Don't destroy them and don't punish them! If they had known what my Sahaabah (r) knew, they would have become Muslim.”

Who Hurts Others but Asks Forgiveness Will Be Forgiven

It means anyone who does anything to hurt people in this dunya and at the end asks forgiveness, for sure the Prophet (s) will intercede for him, as he interceded for the people who hurt him! He asked Allah to forgive them because they don't know, and we don't know! We are in a difficult time, we don't know how to keep adab. The Prophet (s) said:

‏انما بعثت لاتمم مكارم الاخلاق

I have been sent to perfect the best of conduct (your behavior and character). (Bazzaar)

“I have been sent to perfect your manners, adab.” He (s) has been sent to perfect our adab in everything! This is mentioned in many books as Grandshaykh (q) said, Allah wants to show Jibreel (a) the greatness of His Prophet (s) so He said, “Yaa Jibreel! If a drop of blood will fall from the mouth of My Prophet (s) to the ground, I will make the entire Earth barren, it will not grow anything!” He sent Jibreel (a) to catch the drop of blood falling from the Prophet (s) to the ground.

About that Sayyidina Jibreel (a) said, “That was the fastest time I moved from Divine Presence to the Prophet (s)!”

Then Allah asked Jibreel (a), “What would you do if someone hurt you?”

He said, “I would crush them!”

Allah said to him, “Be like My Habeebee, he forgave them!”

O People! This is a small lecture, but it has lot of meanings. Everything has adab in Islam. For example, entering your house, as the Prophet (s) did, you enter with right foot and when you leave leave with left foot. We don’t consider these things to be important, but they are, because they are the Sunnah of the Prophet (s). May Allah keep us on adab. We are weak, we acknowledge that, we don't want to be deprived of the mercy of Allah, yaa Rabb, so dress us with the mercy you dressed the Prophet (s), and:

وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ إِذ ظَّلَمُواْ أَنفُسَهُمْ جَآؤُوكَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُواْ اللّهَ وَاسْتَغْفَرَ لَهُمُ الرَّسُولُ لَوَجَدُواْ اللّهَ تَوَّابًا رَّحِيمًا

If they had only, when they were unjust to themselves, come to you and asked Allah's forgiveness, and the Messenger had asked forgiveness for them, they would have found Allah indeed Oft-returning, Most Merciful. (Surat an-Nisa, 4:64)

“When they felt oppression in their hearts”, it means we are oppressing ourselves when we leave adab. What do we have to do? Allah is teaching us in Holy Qur'an, jaa’ooka “They come to you, yaa Rasoolullah!” So we come to you, yaa Rasoolullah, in our prayers and ask you to forgive us and we are making istighfaar by saying “astaghfirullah” and the Prophet (s) will make istighfaar on our behalf, then “they would find Allah oft-Returning, Most Merciful!”

May Allah forgive us and bless this meeting.

Wa min Allahi ‘t-tawfeeq bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.

This is adab, to bring a cup of water; if you drink or you don't drink, still it is adab to bring it, but not in Ramadan! [Laughter.] Tariqatuna ’s-suhba wa ’l-khayru fi’ l-jami`yya, as Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q) said, “Our way is suhbat and the benefit and blessings is in the gathering.” It means the baraka is there and multiplied by the number people present.

If I am here or not here, you can come and get the baraka of the older students of Grandshaykh `Abdullah al-Fa'iz ad-Daghestani (q) and Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) and listen, as Shaykh Khalid is doing in Toronto, and we will come every day and don’t slaughter one chicken for us, slaughter a big lamb! [Laughter.]

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