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.
Does anyone have a miswak or no miswak? If you don't have a miswak, for tonight only use your finger (like a miswak) and say, Allahumma tahhir qalbee min ash-shirki wa ‘n-nifaaq. “O Allah! Purify my heart of shirk and hypocrisy.”Madad yaa Sayyidi, yaa Rasoolullah. [Khatm.]
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A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani 'r-rajeem. Bismillaahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem.
وَالْفَجْرِ وَلَيَالٍ عَشْرٍ وَالشَّفْعِ وَالْوَتْرِ وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا يَسْرِ هَلْ فِي ذَٰلِكَ قَسَمٌ لِّذِي حِجْرٍ أَلَمْ تَرَ كَيْفَ فَعَلَ رَبُّكَ بِعَادٍ إِرَمَ ذَاتِ الْعِمَادِ الَّتِي لَمْ يُخْلَقْ مِثْلُهَا فِي الْبِلَادِ وَثَمُودَ الَّذِينَ جَابُوا الصَّخْرَ بِالْوَادِ
By the break of day, by the ten nights; by the even and odd (contrasted); and by the night when it passes away; Is there (not) in these an adjuration (or evidence) for those who understand? Do you not see how your Lord dealt with the people of 'Ad of the (city of) Iram, with lofty pillars, the like of which were not produced in (all) the land? And with the people of Thamud, who cut out (huge) rocks in the valley?
(Surat al-Fajr, 89:1-9)
That surah, the beginning of which is wa'l-Fajr, “When the daytime comes,” here Allah (swt) is giving an oath: “By what brings the daytime, what lets us see during the day and not the night.” There is something there. What we see during the day is due to the diyaa ash-shams, the Sunlight. Diyaa is the appearance of an immense light that overtakes the whole night in a few moments. Allah is giving an oath, wa ‘l-fajr wa layaalin `ashar wash-shafi` wa ‘l-witr, mentioning the greatness of this Creation that He created, this universe. He is giving an Oath by al-Fajr, the Sun that never disappears, it is always shining and giving light and heat non-stop.
Today scientists say the Sun is billions of years old and they are wondering how it stays in its place and doesn’t explode. There are explosions on the Sun that, if you put them on the Earth, this whole universe and the Earth would disappear and melt. Allah (swt) is holding the Sun through some angels that are...because our prayers are established according to times shown by the Sun’s orbit, Allah is giving an oath on these prayers that you will pray in these first ten days and nights of Dhu’l-Hijjah: who prays or fasts in them, it will be as if all the sins go out of their body, nothing [bad] will be left on those who pray their five prayers and if they fast it is up to them; it is recommended to fast on Yawm al-`Arafat. Allah is giving an oath, because it is impossible for something to last billions of years with the explosions that occur on the Sun’s surface, so what kind of material is that? If you throw a bomb it explodes and creates a hole (crater), and with all these atomic reactions occurring on the Sun there are no holes?
SubhaanAllah! Allah wants to say to us, “Look at My Qudrah, Power!” The One Who can keep the Sun like that can keep your prayers safe from Shaytan! Awliyaullah are not like `ulama: Allah has opened their eyes and every wali, someone whose eyes are opened as mentioned in many ahadeeth and we are not going to go into that here, they can see and hear from far away. Allah loves them and when He loves them He gives them special power to hear what we cannot hear and see what we cannot see and learn what we cannot learn!
وَفَوْقَ كُلِّ ذِي عِلْمٍ عَلِيمٌ
Above every knower is a (higher) knower. (Surah Yusuf, 12:76)
That means there is a wali above every scholar, that scholars are under Awliyaullah:
العلماء ورثة الانبياء
The (genuine) scholars are Inheritors of the Prophets. (Tirmidhi)
What do you think then about the Awliya? Grandshaykh, may Allah bless his soul, said that Allah throws ibtilaa, affliction, on everyone to test how much they can be patient. If you are patient on the afflictions that come from your brothers, sisters, family, neighbors, work, business, other scholars, if you can absorb and accept what Allah is sending on you without criticism or comment, Allah will open for you from `Uloom al-Awwaleen wa ‘l-Akhireen maa la `aynun raat wa laa udhunun sami`at wa maa khatara `ala qalbi bashr, from that secret Allah will give to your heart!
Grandshaykh, may Allah bless his soul, said that when we go to pray, every one of us feels lazy and we try to delay the prayer, but Allah wants you, with even the lowest presence, that you perform your prayer [promptly] and He will reward you! What kind of reward we will see? This rahmat that Allah has held for Ummat an-Nabi (s), for the Muslims, the mu’mins, because any act worship, even small, Allah will dress you with the mercy that He dresses on His Prophet, Sayyidina Muhammad (s)! If you do a little bit and you are patient on your salaat and perform them even with the lowest care or attention, still you are performing them. Some people will say, “Why do you say that? Prayers have to be perfect!” Yes, of course we believe that, but some people pray in a lazy way, so we have to encourage them and Allah is encouraging His servants through the tongues of his Awliya, to be a little bit tahammil wasbi`h, be patient and carry it. Even if your heart will say about the prayer, “Never mind, pray a little bit later, a little bit later,” try to not to lose it [pray in its allocated time]!
May Allah bless Awliyaullah as for sure they are the people of Shari`ah, but sometimes...the Prophet (s) came with Shari`at al-Islam over the course of 23 years, although in one day he could make all the people memorize all his ahadeeth, as he (s) did with Sayyidina Abu Hurayrah (r), who said:
عن أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ، قَالَ: حَفِظْتُ مِن رسول الله -صلَّى اللهُ عليه وسلَّم- وِعَاءيْنِ، فَأَمَّا أَحَدُهُم َا فَبَثَثْتُهُ في النَّاس ، وأَمَّا الآخر فلو بثثته قطع هذا البلعوم
Abu Hurayrah (r) said, "I memorized two vessels of knowledge from the Messenger of God (s).One I shared with the people and the other if I share it, they will cut this neck.” (Bukhari)
Abu Hurayrah (r) memorized more than 4,000 ahadith, and Grandshaykh `AbdAllah, may Allah bless his soul, said the normal meaning is “to memorize” but the real meaning behind it is that Prophet (s) poured them into Abu Hurayrah’s heart, that he knew them through the gaze of the Prophet (s) into his heart, from which he received the reflections of this knowledge into his heart and from, it memorized more than 4,000 ahadith! So Awliyaullah get such knowledge from the heart Prophet (s) and Grandshaykh (q) said that Allah said to the Prophet (s), “Yaa Muhammad! Yaa Habeebee! I created you from Light, I dressed you with Light and I gave you Light that no one can understand: there is no beginning and no end to that Light!” SubhaanAllahi wa bi-hamdihi subhaanAllah al-`azheem!
Prophet (s) said, “The first thing that Allah created is the Light of Muhammad (s),” and that is a very well-known Hadith:
رواه عبد الرزاق بسنده عن جابر بن عبد الله بلفظ قال قلت: يا رسول الله، بأبي أنت وأمي، أخبرني عن أول شيء خلقه الله قبل الأشياء. قال: يا جابر، إن الله تعالى خلق قبل الأشياء نور نبيك من نوره،...
When Jaabir (r) asked, “Let my father and mother be sacrificed for you, oh Prophet of Allah! What is the first thing that Allah (swt) created?” the Prophet (s) said, “The first thing that Allah (swt) created is the Light of your Prophet from His Light, O Jaabir.” (Musannaf `Abdu ’r-Razzaq)
“The first thing Allah created is the Light of Prophet (s).” If that Light was not created, no Creation could be created because it could not carry that Light. For example, in an electrical transformer, the main current comes with very strong power, 360 volts that will burn everything, so when it comes to your home they reduce it to 110 or 240 volts, and that’s how you can get electricity and light, air conditioning, heat, fans, because that transformer reduces that power to a level they can carry. So the Light of the Prophet (s)--and we are giving this example only to understand--is not a transformer that reduces power, his Light is beyond our limited understanding! When he (s) answered Jaabir (r), “The first thing Allah created is the Light of Muhammad (s)”, the level of that Light is impossible to comprehend, maybe the whole universe is in one drop of that Light! Grandshaykh (q) used to say, “Dharrah,” which is the smallest particle, an atom, as you cannot see smaller than an atom [with the eye] and the whole Creation was created from one of these “atoms” of the Light of Sayyidina Muhammad (s)!
Therefore, Allah (swt) is saying to Prophet (s), yaqool al-haqq aza wa jall, yaa Muhammad; how much the Prophet (s) is happy when Allah calls him, “Yaa Muhammad” or, “Yaa `Abdee”!
سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَى بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلاً مِّنَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ الأَقْصَى الَّذِي بَارَكْنَا حَوْلَهُ لِنُرِيَهُ
مِنْ آيَاتِنَا إِنَّهُ هُوَ السَّمِيعُ البَصِيرُ
Glory be to He Who transported His servant by night from the Inviolable House of Worship (at Mecca) to the Remote House of Worship (at Jerusalem), the environs of which We had blessed so that We might show him some of Our symbols, for verily He Alone is All-Hearing, All-Seeing. (Surat al-Israa’, 17:1)
“Praise be to the One Who moved His Servant to Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa.” The Prophet (s) said, “The best time in dunya and Akhirah is when Allah calls me `Abd.” Now we call ourselves ‘shaykh’ and ‘`alim’, ‘`alaamah’ and ‘president’, ‘king’. What? When Allah says, “Yaa Habeebee,” He is addressing Sayyidina Muhammad (s); Imam Busayri (q) knew this and he said, “Muhammad is Habeebullah, as Ibraheem is Khaleelullah.”
Allah said to the Prophet (s), “Yaa Muhammad (s)! With all the Light I gave you, if you try to see with all your power what I will give the one who prays for Me and makes sajda, even if that person’s sajda is not in a nice way [i.e., if he is thinking about his job, “Should I work in Ohio or in Dubai or in the Middle East?], if all his mind is preoccupied with dunya when he enters the prayer and makes sajda, even if you look with all the power I gave you, you will not reach to know what I am going to give to him!”
That is to Prophet (s), to show that Allah is The Creator and Prophet (s) is His Servant, that, “I am Rabbul `Izza, The Lord of Power and you are My servant!” There is a difference: Prophet (s) is happy to be servant! So… “Wherever I will give, I give wa law bidoonee hadhoor, even without being fully present (focused, aware), and no one can know what kind of fadheela and hasanaat I will give to that person who is making sajda for Me in such a way! The reward that I will give to the one who is praying, even though he is praying and his mind is not thinking about his prayer and he does not know if he prayed two raka`ats or three or four, but he prays even with the lowest degree of attention, no one knows what I am going to give to that servant! As soon as he puts his forehead on the ground, soil, carpet or sand, anywhere, I will dress him with that Tajalli, Manifestation and Shaytan cannot steal from it as it will be kept with My Beloved One, Sayyidina Muhammad (s) until the Day of Resurrection when he will intercede for that `abd and that `abd will become noor,” dressed in that Heavenly Light Allah is giving him. Allah (swt) is giving that for your sajda! What then do you think of the other acts of worship: fasting Ramadan, performing Hajj, giving Zakat, declaring Tawheed? Allah is happy with His servants when they say, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llaah Muhammad Rasoolullah.”
O People! We are so far from understanding and these knowledges are not outside Shari`ah, they are within the framework of Shari`ah, because Allah (swt) gives rewards and Light, and if Allah wants to show what He gives His servant to another servant or doesn’t want to show it, it’s up to Him. There is nothing the Awliyaullah speak outside of Shari`ah! That is why Sayyidina `Ali, karam Allahu wajha, said to the Sahaabah (r), and authors have written a lot of books in his time of whatever Sahaabah (r) explained, such as Ibn `Abbas (r), the Mutarjam al-Qur’an, who explained the meaning of the Holy Qur'an and spent seven years to understand the ahkaam, jurisprudence in Surat al-Baqarah alone, of which he said there are 10,000 hukum, verdicts!
راس الحكمة مخاة الل
The head of wisdom is fear of Allah. (Sayyidina `Ali)
Sayyidina `Ali (r) told some of the Sahaabah (r), “People will come who will write and write, explain and make a lot of books [waraqa nasheed, pages on paper made from trees about that hidden knowledge preserved in the Holy Qur`an that Sahaabah (r) were trying to extract, meanings of these ayaat that the a`imma are trying to extract] and all of that is based on one point, not two: what the Holy Qur'an wants from us and what the Hadith wants from us.” That means what Allah wants from us and what the Prophet (s) wants to teach us through his ahadeeth, all `uloom, knowledge is based on one point. Today they say we have to work in order to live and that is true, you work in order not to be lazy, but that kind of knowledge is not what Allah wants you to know; for example, that the Sun will rise and it becomes daytime and when the Sun goes down it becomes nighttime What’s the benefit? So don't dig too much, dig instead in the Holy Qur'an and try to take knowledge.
أنا مدينة العلم و علي بابه
I am the City of Knowledge and `Ali is its Door (or Gate). (al-Haakim, Tirmidhi)
Sayyidina `Ali is Madinat al-`Ilm, the City of Knowledge, as the Prophet (s) described him and he said everything they are reading other than Qur’an and Hadith [is not the most beneficial]. You will die, so if you read it or studied it or not is important! As long as you are eating your bread, oil and vinegar, the daily food of Prophet (s) he ate at 5 o'clock, today we are not happy with that, astaghfirullah, we want all kinds of food because the eyes are greedy, the problem is the eyes. The taste is where? You have this whole body, it has no taste, you cannot taste from your feet nor your hand, you cannot taste from any organ, you taste only from the beginning of your mouth to your throat, and that’s why you are fighting with everyone, for that taste! You fight with your wife when you come at night, shouting, “What have you cooked for us?”
So Sayyidina `Ali (r) said, “The whole of Qur'an and Hadith are based on one point.” It is like bees running after the queen bee: when they go with the queen they get honey. So when you go with the Holy Qur'an and go deep in it (study), if you are really an `abid you will not be interested in dunya issues anymore, your mind will be focused only on Akhirah. Sayyidina `Ali (r) said, “If you want Akhirah, it is built on one point.” The Sahaabah (r) asked him, “Yaa `Ali, what is that point?” as they could not imagine it. He said, ra`as al-hikmati makhaafatullah, “The head (main point) of wisdom is to fear Allah (to fear losing Him).” Some scholars say to ‘fear Him’ means to fear that He will throw you into Hellfire, to fear His punishment, but why would He throw you in Hellfire if you are praying your prayers? He will send you to Paradise, but He will not be happy with you, which means you cannot achieve His love, so makhaafatullah means to lose His love to you, like Rabi`a al-`Adawiyya (q) was afraid to lose Allah's love to her.
When her husband died, `ulama came to her and said, “You cannot stay alone without marriage (Shari`ah-wise).”
She said, “I don't have time.”
They said, “What do you mean, you don't have time? You are alone at home, whatever you need of food, many people will be happy to get it for you, so what you are busy with?”
She said, “I am busy.”
They bothered her and said, “You have to marry, you have to marry!” because marriage is half of the religion for both men and women, it protects the men and protects the women.
She said, “I am busy, I don't have time for a husband. Husbands are crazy...they want curry!” [Laughter.] Sounds like a Pakistani!
They said, “With what are you busy?”
She said, “If you can answer my three questions, I will feel I got the answer and will not be busy anymore, I will get married.”
They said, “What are these three questions?”
She said, “When the Angel of Death comes and wants to take my soul, is he coming to me with punishment or with forgiveness? Is Allah sending him to punish me for my shortcomings or is He going to be happy with me?” Do you have an answer? You are an `alim, can you answer? Does anyone here have an answer?
She said, “I want to feel secure that there is no punishment, so I am busy with istighfaar, asking Allah's forgiveness. But leave that. When I am in the grave and the two angels Ankar (r) and Nakeer (r) come to ask me about my religion, are they coming with punishment and tricky questions, or they are they coming with forgiveness?” No answer. Taher, do you have an answer? No one can answer. Then she said, “Leave that. On Judgment Day, is Allah going to raise me with punishment or with His mercy? Can you answer? If you have an answer for these three questions, even one of them (I will do as you ask of me).”
That is ra`as al-hikmat, fear of Allah, to fear losing Allah’s love, to fear His punishment. May Allah forgive us. Awliyaullah are absorbed by these three questions and people mock them, saying they are in the corner ‘doing dhikrullah’. Yes, of course they are doing dhikrullah, because they are preoccupied with these three questions, and I am going to say from here, “Yaa Sayyidee, yaa Rasoolullah (s)! For the sake of the Prophet (s), may Allah, forgive us! We are trying our best, but we are weak servants. We cannot do more, we try, we need the Prophet’s (s) support because he is the Intercessor (as mentioned in many Hadith and even Ibn Taymiyya mentioned this in the book At-Tawassul Al-Waseelah; I am not going to explain the Hadith now.)
We are asking: Yaa Rabbee forgive us for the sake of your Beloved One, Sayyidina Muhammad (s), as the Prophet (s) said to Sayyida `Ayesha (r):
من حوسب عذب
Whoever is judged will be punished. (Bukhari)
He (s) told her, “The one who will be asked, who will be judged, for sure Allah will question the many mistakes he made in his life, so ask Allah not to judge you!” That’s for `Ayesha (r), what about for us? May Allah forgive us, may Allah put wisdom in our eyes and let these three questions be always in our minds, whenever we are going to work, coming home from work, staying at home, being lazy at home--be careful! Don't be lazy! May Allah forgive us.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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