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Pray, Fast and Cry

Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani

09-22-2008 | Michigan Zawiya

A`udhu billah min ash-shaytan 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

Every action has to be balanced. If it is not balanced, then we are going to face problems. Don’t try to acquire something with your desires. Because desires are going to trick you. Acquire what you want to acquire through zuhd, asceticism. Be an ascetic, you will win. Don’t be someone who likes to fulfill the desires of the ego, he will lose. It is not like someone who eats and drinks and cries the same as the one who eats and drinks and laughs. The one who cries for Allah will be saved and the one who laughs for Shaytan will be punished. Try … try to eat from the hand of the guide or the doctor for he knows the origin of the food he is giving to you. Don’t try to eat from the hand of desires for it doesn’t know the origin of the food and what it is taking you to.

How much the hearts are becoming hard, don’t keep your heart hard but keep it soft. The trust that Allah honored you with don’t lose it. Allah said:

إِنَّا عَرَضْنَا الْأَمَانَةَ عَلَى السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَالْجِبَالِ فَأَبَيْنَ أَن يَحْمِلْنَهَا وَأَشْفَقْنَ مِنْهَا وَحَمَلَهَا الْإِنسَانُ إِنَّهُ كَانَ ظَلُومًا جَهُولًا

Inna `aradna al-amaanata `ala as-samawaati wa'l-ardi wa 'l-jibaali fa-abayna an yahmilnaahaa wa ashfaqnaa minhaa wa hamalahaa al-insaanu innahu kaana dhalooman jahoola.

We did indeed offer the Trust to the Heavens and the Earth and the Mountains; but they refused to undertake it, being afraid thereof: but man undertook it;- He was indeed unjust and foolish; (Surat al-Ahzab, 33:72)

We gave the trust to heavens and earth and they said, "we cannot! It is too heavy. But human being took the trust to himself and he was oppressor to himself."

If he had done as heavens and earth did, then he would not have that responsibility. But since he said, "yes" he has that huge responsibility before his Lord and he will carry wherever he goes. If he is in the sea riding on a boat he has to carry it; if he is on the desert riding a camel he has to carry it, and if he is in a city riding a car he has to carry it.

And that trust is not something easy - it is obedience to Allah swt. Whatever is good you follow and whatever is evil you must leave. Don’t try to close your eyes. Close your eyes to your desires and else you will be blind. That black water or blue water - as they call it - will come into your eyes and you will be blind and you will be handcuffed and then you will be chained and Allah will close his door and throw you out.

Allah opened his door to every human being but don’t come to Him with bad desires. Don’t sit on the table of forbiddens to eat from it. Sit on the table of good things, tayyibaat, to eat from it. Sit at the table as Jesus’ Table, when his students asked for a table from heaven and to have peacefulness in their hearts. When he asked:

قَالَ عِيسَى ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ اللَّهُمَّ رَبَّنَا أَنزِلْ عَلَيْنَا مَآئِدَةً مِّنَ السَّمَاء تَكُونُ لَنَا عِيداً لِّأَوَّلِنَا وَآخِرِنَا وَآيَةً مِّنكَ وَارْزُقْنَا وَأَنتَ خَيْرُ الرَّازِقِينَ

Qaala `eesa ibnu maryama allahumma rabbanaa anzil `alayna maaidatan mina as-sama’i takoonu lanaa `eedan li-awwalinaa wa aakhirinaa wa aayatan minka wa ’rzuqnaa wa anta khayru ’r-raaziqeen

Said Jesus the son of Mary: "O Allah our Lord! Send us from heaven a table set (with viands), that there may be for us - for the first and the last of us - a solemn festival and a sign from thee; and provide for our sustenance, for thou art the best Sustainer (of our needs)." (Surat al-Ma’ida, 5:114)

He gave them what they liked and he said I gave you what you like but you have to fulfill what is ask you.

O Muslims, O believers! You have to carry the message in this life to open the good … to be with the Prophet (s) and to be with awliyaullah.

Remember death because it is coming. No one can survive death. Today they call them “survivors”, those who do very difficult and heavy exercises. They do this and they survive through very strong obstacles that face them. But from death there is no survivor. You cannot run away.

أَيْنَمَا تَكُونُواْ يُدْرِككُّمُ الْمَوْتُ وَلَوْ كُنتُمْ فِي بُرُوجٍ مُّشَيَّدَةٍ

Aynamaa takoonu yudrikakumu ’l-mawta wa law kuntum bi buroojin mushayyada

Wherever ye are, death will find you out, even if ye are in towers built up strong and high! (Surat an-Nisa, 4,78)

No king, no president, no one can survive death. Even prophets, Allah sent death on everyone.

And when you die where do you go? After a while you disappear in the grave. You become what? Dirt. You become dirt, you become earth. So if you can make yourself dirt or earth, before you die then your grave will not eat you anymore because you already turned yourself into dirt while you were living.

That is why awliyaullah in grave they found their bodies as if they had been buried just now even hundreds of years later because Allah prohibited the earth to eat the flesh of prophet and inheritors of prophets. Because they gave up their lives to him. If we give up our lives to Him we will save our bodies to be eaten in the grave. But unfortunately we don’t listen only momentarily we listen for 5-50 minutes as Mawlana is speaking but then we forget everything.

Why do we forget? If you have an account in the bank you don’t forget how much you have even to the penny. And you keep checking everyday to see if it increased or decreased. And if there is a mistake you call the bank immediately and say there is a mistake my account is more.

Whey then we do forget to ask ourselves, why were are forgetting so quickly the guidance our shaykh is giving. As soon as we leave or he leaves we go back to what we were before. Fighting, nagging, sleepy, lazy. Desires, happy. Forgetting how much prophets suffered. How much they have been abused and tortured for Allah’s sake. What we can do? We have to improve ourselves. At least be like a video camera or be like an audio recorder. Audio recorder doesn’t miss one word. Why our hearts will miss everything. No our hearts doesn’t miss any word. No when shaykh gives advice the heart will download it and take it inside like a video recorded or audio recorded. The problem is we don’t have a software to bring it out. Too many viruses in our heart software attacking our heart. What you do have to do? Install virus cleaner. It will read the whole disk. Hundreds of thousands of files. It reads them all in half an hour more or less. Then if finds the virus and picks it up and says “this is the virus” and cleans it up. Why are we not finding a software to clean our heart’s virus? Which is better to clean for dunya or clean for akhira?

So what we miss is that cleaner. From where we can buy it? From where we have to buy it? From what prophet has showed us. From Maqam al-Ihsan.

Ihsan has another meaning. Ihsan means, not just to be excellent, it means to be a generous person to give without asking. That is a level that Allah swt will give you without asking, even.

Huwa l-muhsin. He is the one who manifests His generosity on you. He will give without asking. We are asking His Ihsan, His generosity. With that He gave to the Prophet (s) that level, that state of Ihsan. It is not only moral excellence as we translate. What is Ihsan? Manifest His goodness on us, His generosity on us. Try to go and enter in that under that generosity. How you can enter in that and you can get more. You thank me I give more from my Ihsan to you.

They call in our life, here now, they say if someone gives a lot of money to poor people they say al-muhsin al-kabeer. The great giver from his favor. He is giving from his favor to fix a school and to fix a hospital. Don't you see that in Arab countries? Al-muhsin al-kabeer. If you enter that state of Ihsan it means Allah will give and give and give from his endless oceans of giving. Eat from his tables of goodness and obedience. Sit at his table it is full of products there. Any one of these products of obedience, if you begin with one, 2, 3 you will find his doors are open. Don’t sit and eat from the table of shaytan, because shaytan is enemy to you and in the Judgment Day what shaytan says? O Allah they did it. I didn’t do it. Why they followed me.

When human beings have been asked why you did that? They say Shaytan told us to do that. He says “no I didn’t do it.” “No, you did it!” He tries to save himself even.

Don’t sit at his table to eat, for what you eat there is a whip behind it. You eat from Allah’s table and you will be petted with love. Because we are haywaanun naatiq - speaking animal. The

Human Being is a speaking animal. Intelligent animal and there are un-intelligent animals, with no mind. You whip them. They whip them. You see how they whip the horse he moves faster.

Shaytan is always whipping us to move faster towards his door Allah is saying come to me and we say, no this is nicer we go to door of shaytan. Allah says, come to me I have for this life and for the next life. We say, no we don’t believe in next life.

Awliyaullah believe in the next life and that is why they ask:

رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ

Rabbana atina fee 'd-dunya wa fi'l-akhirati hasanatan wa qina `adhaaba 'n-naar.

O our Lord! Give us something good in this life and in the next life and protects us from the punishment of the Fire. (Surat Al-Baqara, 2:201)

When ease comes to you thank him. Thank him for ease and for comfort and when difficult comes to you, obstacles, ask him forgiveness for your sins. That is why they came, these obstacles. Wa naqsihoo anfusikum - Check yourself, Allah is not an oppressor. Remember death and what is behind death. Remember your Lord and call him, mention his name. He will look at you. Be are till when you are sleeping. You keep sleeping and sleeping and sleeping. It means you are not remembering what Allah came with his message and what awliyaullah are telling you. You are keeping it down and listened only to what Shaytan is saying. O ghulam, "O kid.”

Don’t - laa tukhaalit an-naas. Don’t mingle with people who are blind. They will make you blind. Mingle with people whom their eyes are open they will make your eyes open. Mingle with intelligent people, not intelligent for dunya but intelligent how to direct you to akhira. You will see from them things that you like, as Allah likes that.

If you see something from people that is not right don’t mingle with those people as those people will take you somewhere else. We are in complete heedlessness from our Lord because we are always sleeping. We are not sleeping 8 hours. How many hours are you sleeping? We are not sleeping 7 and 6 hours; we are sleeping 24 hours. We are not aware that Allah is observing us.

Sleeping means here not real sleeping, but it means making your eyes blind from what Allah wants from you and you are awake from what Shaytan wants from you. O ghulam, you aren't taking anything with you. You are leaving everything behind and going. You have to make sure you are always aware and you have always to be around good people in mosques and to be praising Allah swt and praising prophet.

Turn your room in your home into a musalla. When you have free time, pray. As the Prophet (s) said, in hadith, "law nazala min as-sama naaran ma najaa minhaa illa ahl al-masaajid - If from the heavens fire is coming down on earth to burn it, only people of mosque will be safe from it." That means those who turn their homes into mosques. It means turn your place into place of worshipness. It means keep your heart busy with praising Allah and praising the Prophet (s).

Allah said in holy hadith:

ما وسعني أرضي ولا سمائي ولكن وسعني قلب عبدي

Ma wasi`anee ardee wa laa samaa'ee wa laakin wasi`anee qalbee `abdee al-mu'min.

My Earth did not contain Me, nor My Heavens, but the heart of My believing servant contained Me.

And the Prophet relayed to us in holy hadith from Allah, the hearts of the believer are the House of God.

Because if fire comes, it means a disaster comes, it will not burn you and it will burn everything else and you will be safe.

If you try to, tawaanaytum fi 's-salaat, to delay and decrease your prayers, as they say today “it’s not necessary to pray too much, pray fard and don’t pray Sunnah”, anqa`atatum silatakum billah - your connection with Allah will be broken." It means there is no more relationship. Don’t say, "O Allah forgive me,O Allah I have a problem!”

“O My servant! You have a problem you are not praying to Me!”

That is why the Prophet (s) said, " the most near when a servant is near his Lord is when he is in sajda.” Aqraba ma yakoonu `abdan lillahi fi ’s-sajda.

As much as you can do sajda as much as you will be nearer to Allah swt. Don’t go to lower levels of worship, but go to higher levels. Always keep busy in sajda and keep in remembrance of Allah and His prophet. Then we will be saved. Else we will be lost.

Awliyaullah tried their best to guide their students and as I said, “there is a harsh way to guide people but they don’t use it now. They used to use it before. Now they let everyone to be as he likes. They don’t give more heavy burden. Before they must make you disciplined. They give you hard job to be disciplined. Today you cannot say to anyone do this, he will run away.

When scholars come to them to take initiation and say “we want to be with you” - as they see the reality is with the wali, the saint the guide - he puts them to work in very unaccepted work, like going to cut trees and they have to bring 2, 3 loads of trees every night. Else he will put them with no food for 24 hours. And he doesn’t give them a penny. Scholars. They have to cut the wood, sell the wood, bring some for fire and give the shaykhs what they make.

Here you have to give them and you have to give them to eat, especially this one. And he doesn’t care. If you say more he hides himself in a forest. This one also. If that happened in the past they would throw them out, “we don’t need you, go!”

So now they are not any like that more, because they know every time has its ways. Now you have to “pet” people. “O you are good, mashaa-Allah we love you, you are a lion.” He is happy he is lion. But a lion is an animal also, a donkey is also. If he says o shaykh says you are good, you are a donkey he will be upset. What is different between lion and donkey? Look his eyes are sleeping.

This one is good. He is very efficient and very hard worker for tariqah. And this one is lazy. Look the big different look how this one is covering and sitting like he is in Siberia and there is too much snow. Eh wants to cover to keep warm in order to sleep quickly. This one not even a coat, nothing see the difference. May Allah forgive us.

Bi hurmati ’l-habib, bi-hurmati ’l-Fatiha.

The shaykh can say, "Don’t come here except with the turban and jubbah and white clothes. If you come without that I don’t want to see you."

They used to have sitting with awliyaullah they bring white clothes, clean, they don’t touch it. And as soon as they come in they are waiting on their knees until the shaykh comes. They are waiting on their knees - their hearts with Allah and the Prophet (s). They are waiting for the shaykh to come and immediately they are praising Allah and His Prophet (s). And we say “we are in tariqah.” Which tariqah? They are sitting on the TV waiting for the shaykh.

May Allah accept us as his weak students.

Alhamdulillah `alaa kulli haal siwa al-kufri wa ’d-dallaal.

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