Oakland Zawiya

Allahuma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad (s)

Allahuma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad (s) wa ala aali Sayyidina Muhammad (s)

Audhu billah min ash-Shaytaan ir-rajeem

Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem

Nawaytu'l-arba`een, nawaytu'l-`itikaaf, nawaytu'l-khalwah, nawaytu'l-riyaada, nawaytu's-salook, nawaytu'l-`uzlah lillahi ta`ala fee hadha'l-masjid 

As-salaam alaykum wa rahmatullah,

Ati` Allah wa ati` ar-rasula wa uli 'l-amri minkum

 قُلْ هَلْ يَسْتَوِي الَّذِينَ يَعْلَمُونَ وَالَّذِينَ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ إِنَّمَا يَتَذَكَّرُ أُوْلُوا الْأَلْبَابِ

qul hal yastawee alladheena ya`lamoona wa’lladheena laa ya`lamoona innama yatadhakkaru uloo’lal-baab

Say: "Are those equal, those who know and those who do not know? It is those who are endued with understanding that receive admonition. [Az-Zumar, 39:9]     

Allah swt said in Holy Qur'an, are they going to be equal those who knows and those who don’t know?

Only those Allah gave them uloo’l-albaab, are the owners of the hearts, those who can read their hearts. Those who can know their limits. uloo’l-albaab are those who have intelligence, those who are awake and they are ready in every moment.

Those who know and are in that group are intelligent of whatever is going in their hearts are aware of what is going on, or those who don’t know anything and they are blind, of course there is no way of comparison. One knows and one doesn't know.

Then those who knows, are only those who are uloo’l-albaab. Those who have fitna [with tha], inspirations, who can understand between the lines and they can understand the secrets behind every verse of the Holy Qur'an. Those who are open-eyed as we explained in the previous session, as this is a series.

Those who don’t know can not be compared those who know. Those who don’t know are blind. They don’t know any farther than their nose. After that they cannot.

That is the description of awliyaullah: Hal yastawee…

Those who knows are awliyaullah. Those who don’t know are common scholars. We are not speaking about the difference between common people like us. We are speaking about the difference between a scholar and a wali. We are speaking of those whom Allah said, "

Ya ayyuhalladheena aamanoo ittaqullah wa koonoo ma as-saadiqeen

O you believers. Ya ayyhualladeheena aamanoo. Those who say we are believers. The English explanation is “O believers.” But in reality it is, “O if you consider yourself a believer then what do you have to do?” Ittaqullah. How if you are a believer is it said “ittaqullah – fear God”? A believer is going to have taqwa for sure. If he doesn’t have taqwa, sincerity, then how is he fitting the description of believer. If he is a mu’min for sure he is going to have taqwa, sincerity. It means you are not yet considered a believer but if you consider yourself a believer then you are with trustworthy people.

He said:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ اتَّقُواْ اللّهَ وَكُونُواْ مَعَ الصَّادِقِينَ

 Ya ayyuhalladheena aamanoo ittaqullah wa koonoo ma as-saadiqeen.

O ye who believe! Fear Allah and be with those who are true (in word and deed). 9:119

It means, “you are not yet a believer, but if you consider yourself a believer then keep with trustworthy people.”

Not trustworthy in our description we look at someone and say that is trustworthy. Not to our knowledge or our evaluation. It has to be trustworthy from heavens. Allah will dress him as he dressed Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq . Siddiq, he dressed him as “the Trustworthy.” Always he said, "sadaqta ya rasulullah.” No doubt Allah dressed him.

It means: “O ye believers, whom you considered yourself a believer, then you have to have taqwa.” Do you have taqwa? We are struggling. We cannot say we have taqwa. We cannot say “yes.” We can say we have nothing. We have nothing. You need taqwa. You cannot declare something that doesn’t belong to you. They will not give to you. Go to the bank and say “I am Mr. so and so, I have an account with you, I have 10 million dollars.” They say, "no, no you are not that person. You cannot take it.” You cannot take the personality of someone else – we say in Arabic yantahil ash-shakhsiyya – someone who makes himself someone else. You cannot go to bank and say I am that person. You are not that person.

So we cannot say to ourselves that we have taqwa. We don’t have it. You cannot declare something that you don’t own.

Taqwa is when you are reaching the highest level of discipline and no lies; no deceit; no conspiracy, nothing. It means you are loose from the hand of Shaytaan. Are we loose from the hands of Shaytaan?

And what is the smallest, the lowest, uh… if we have that it means we are still in the hand of Shaytaan. When you argue with someone that you are right and he is wrong. That means you are still in control of Shaytaan. Whatever that person says, close your ears. Let him say whatever he likes. Then you are not in the hands of shaytaan.

So are we in the hands of Shaytaan? We hope we are not and wish we are not. We ask Allah swt that we are not in the hands of Shaytaan; that we are in the Divine Presence. Without Allah’s support, without the Prophet’s support, without sincere awliyaullah support we cannot.

هَلْ يَسْتَوِي الَّذِينَ يَعْلَمُونَ وَالَّذِينَ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ إِنَّمَا يَتَذَكَّرُ أُوْلُوا الْأَلْبَابِ

qul hal yastawee allatheena ya`lamoona w’alladheena la ya`lamoona innama yatadhakkaru uloo’lal-baab.

Say: "Are those equal, those who know and those who do not know? It is those who are endued with understanding that receive admonition. 39:9

It is a question mark. So Allah is asking are those who know the same as those who do not know? No; no way.

So those who know are the awliyaullah the saadiqeen. Allah is ordering us to be with the company of trustworthy people. Where your heart is attracted to is the place where it is, you can feel whether that is a trustworthy person. You will be attracted.

And from one to another it differs. From one trustworthy to another trustworthy differs. It might be someone is trustworthy for dunya so what you get? You get trustworthy for dunya. And it might be someone for akhira.  So what do you get? You get akhira. So if you be with him he is trustworthy for akhira.

So what it means is be with those who are trustworthy for Allah’s Divine Presence. Don’t be with those who are trustworthy for dunya. For example there are those who are trustworthy in finance. They are trustworthy for money. They know about money but they don’t know about akhira.

Our focus is on akhira. Awliyaullah their focus is on akhira. So from those who know where Allah says hal yastawee… They say … they say according to their levels.

So what we are going to speak about today is from the level of Grandshaykh’s wilayah, sainthood and level of Mawlana Shaykh sainthood. It is not from the level of normal [awliya]… Between awliyaullah there are different levels.

We are speaking from what they say from their high levels.

May Allah give them high and higher levels. Because if they get higher levels we get higher levels with them. We cannot go by ourselves. we go with them. That is why Allah said,

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ اتَّقُواْ اللّهَ وَكُونُواْ مَعَ الصَّادِقِينَ 

Ya ayyuha alladheena aamanoo ittaqullaha wa koonoo ma`a as-saadiqeen

O you who have attained to faith! Remain conscious of God, and be among those who are true to their word! [Tawba, 9:119]

Saadiqeen - trustworthy ones. You cannot be a trustworthy one, but be with them.

So to be with them, we must understand, as we said yesterday, is a drop from an ocean they are speaking from, and that ocean is but a drop from the ocean of the Prophet (s). The Prophet (s) has infinite knowledge oceans, no limits.

All awliyaullah in total, with all their knowledge they are taking but a drop of the oceans of the Prophet (s) knowledge. And in that drop, every wali has oceans and what they are saying here is a drop.

Say that Allah swt created Sayyidina Muhammad (s) before any creation. Because when you love,.. .we cannot make this comparison, I don’t want you to say “O we did,” but [we say this] only [as a means for us] to understand.

An artist will have something inside of him he has an artistic touch. So what will he do? He will draw a beautiful calligraphy. Look all these big calligraphers of the Holy Qur'an who wrote the Holy Qur'an.

They want to show all their beauty for the Holy Qur'an. They want to show their best for Holy Qur'an from time of Holy Prophet (s) up to today. They innovated all kinds of different styles of writing to show the beauty of the Holy Qur'an through their love of the Holy Qur'an. Because there must be something in them that makes them do that.

Not everyone can do that. People who love flowers put flowers together to make a bouquet. Everyone has different ambition or touch or taste. When you have that you have to put all that on what you want to do, is it not?

If that is for human beings, then what do you think about Allah swt. If human beings have this artistic touch they like to express their artistic feelings in something that stands out. Then Allah who created arts and artistic touches, then this whole universe that Allah created is all like a very beautiful appearance, a very beautiful manifestation to His Name al-Qaadir or his name al-Khaaliq, the Creator. So when Allah swt wanted to show His Beauty out, He created the dharratu ’n-Nabi (s) - the atom, if we can say atom. The essence (is a better word than atom). The essence of the reality of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) before any creation.

Allah wants to show that love to his beauty and to his Beautiful Names because He has only been described through his Beautiful Names. You cannot know Him except through his Beautiful Names and Attributes – that is it. So through His Beautiful Names and Attributes that flower, if we can say, that beauty of Muhammad (s) came out from this manifestation of these Beautiful Names together Allah wanted something to appear. So what appeared was haqiqat an-Nabi (s) - the reality of the essence of the Prophet (s).

That made awliyaullah to be stunned from this information. That is not an easy information to understand and get. Because what we are understanding is some notes that they gave and expressed to us. But what they have seen is completely, with its taste it is coming out. With its beauty it is coming out. Like you look at a nice garden full of all different kinds of beautiful flowers and fruit trees. You go inside and you smell the smell of the flowers. You take a fruit and you take a taste of these fruits. So you are tasting it and feeling it. But we are only reading it. It is a big difference. We are not tasting it.

When it was given to them it was given slowly with all its level. Not every wali can bring such kinds of knowledge.

He said, "no human being, wali or not even wali, but even all prophets other than Sayyidina Muhammad (s), there is no way for them to understand in dunya or in akhira about the reality of that essence. That is only for the Prophet (s). He has no partners in that. As Allah has no partner, He is Allah, our lord and our God, He has no partner, so the Prophet (s) has no partner in his servanthood.

So that essence that came out, awliyaullah they took some, they taste some and they understood some but not everything. Because the knowledges of the Prophet’s essence are always pouring out, more knowledge, more knowledge and more knowledge. So no one can reach the complete knowledge of the Prophet (s). You look up and you can see but you cannot see what the one up can see. You sit below the roof you see the roof but the one on the roof sees much farther.

So Grandshaykh may Allah bless his soul, said, "Allah created the reality of Sayyidina Muhammad (s), the essence of the atom of his reality from the manifestation of his Beautiful Names and Attributes, and especially from two of these different names, ar-Rahman and ar-Raheem: ar-Rahman the Merciful and ar-Raheem the Compassionate.

From these two Beautiful Names ar-Rahman and ar-Raheem. That is why He mentioned in Holy Qur'an:

وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ إِلَّا رَحْمَةً لِّلْعَالَمِينَ

Wa maa arsalnaaka illa rahmatan li’l-`alameen - We sent thee not, but as a Mercy for all creatures. Al-Anbiya [21:107]

Because his reality and his essence came out to know the 99 Names. If we can say the 99 Names they are together, like we say, as a bouquet of flowers and in the middle you have the most beautiful flower that everyone looks at it. These Beautiful Names and Attributes have in between them, the two Names ar-Rahman and ar-Raheem and the offshoots of the reality of the Prophet (s) are coming out from in between these two Names. That is why his name is rahmat. Ar-rahmat al-muhdaat - the Gifted Mercy to humanity.

So Allah swt created the reality of the Prophet (s) from the beautiful Attributes of ar-Rahman ir-Raheem and He decorated him with all kinds of lights - beautiful lights. Every Beautiful Name and Attribute has its own light. The Prophet (s) when he looks in the laylat al-isra wal-miraj he was looking at these lights in the Divine Presence, “qaaba qawsayni aw adna - two bow’s-length or nearer” and he was seeing all these beautiful lights the differing lights coming from the appearance of these Names. Every name has its own appearance.