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The Shaykh Needs the Mureeds

Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

16 December 2015 Jakarta, Indonesia

As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullah wa barakaatuh. A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytani ‘r-rajeem. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem. 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. Alhamdulillahi ’Lladhee sharrafanaa bi 'l-ijtima` bikum wa nawwaranaa bi noori 'l-habeebi 'l-Mustafa `alayhi afdal as-salaati wa 's-salaam wa sahhala lana majee'ana ilaa hadha 'l-makaan.

O Muslim brothers and sisters! Thank you very much for welcoming and honoring me to be among you. I think today we are not in a formal event, inshaa-Allah it will be informal, which is better, nicer as it is not necessary to select fancy, sophisticated words, but to speak from East to West.

I heard from mawaalina 'l-kiraam, our shuyookh, may Allah bless their souls and bless us with them, who said, and I kept it in my mind to not forget it as I forgot a lot of things, sometimes I forgot my name also, but this I don't forget, what they put in my mind. Grandshaykh (q) said, laa qeemah li 'l-mutakallim, li 'sh-shaykh, laa qeemah lahu bi doon murideen, he is in need for the mureeds because as much as the mureeds are able to progress that much the shaykh can ascend higher and higher in his levels. You give the shaykh an honor to be with you: because of you Allah grants him to speak; because of you Allah sends His rahmah on him; because of you Allah lifts him higher and higher in levels in order to progress with you and direct you to the Right Way. If the shaykh has no mureeds he has no value, mureeds bring value for the shaykh. I heard this from Grandshaykh (q), who is showing so much humbleness in order to make sure the mureeds understand that they are necessary for the shaykh to be a shaykh. If they are not in his presence, the shaykh has no importance.

He said Allah (swt) sent the Prophet (s) to his Ummah, and if there is no Ummah then for what purpose did He sent the Prophet? Prophet is for the Ummah, so similarly the shaykh has been sent to guide a group of people who feel connection with him and every group connects with one that they like. You can connect with two or three, it is up to you; it is open, no one closed the door for anyone else.

If there is no one sitting in the presence of the shaykh, what will the shaykh do? He will keep quiet, so they make the shaykh speak because they are thirsty for his knowledge. If there is no one, to whom will he speak? That's why when Grandshaykh (q) was ordered into a five-year seclusion, when he was finishing the last days he was so anxious to go see his teacher, Shaykh Sharafuddin (q), but instead his shaykh sent him to someone who has no mind, and said, “`AbdAllah Efendi, when you finish your seclusion go to that person and speak to him for forty days before you come to me.” That was for him to give out that `ilm; for that he needs someone, so Shaykh Sharafuddin (q) sent him to a mentally disabled person to see someone to whom he can give knowledge and people can benefit from it.

Without the students there is no knowledge. In university, if there are no students whom will the professor teach? No one. So the importance of the shaykh is due to the importance of the mureeds. If the mureeds are from higher levels of knowledge, the shaykh can give them from higher levels and if they are from lower levels then the shaykh gives them from lower levels, he can go either way.

The `ilm that Allah sends to the heart of the shaykh to address the followers never ends. Alhamdulillah here many years ago we began with five people when I first came, Shaykh Mustafa was with them, and alhamdulillah now we cannot count anymore! The heart of the shaykh is like a container: when it is full he has to empty it in order to get new knowledge, if you don't empty it then no new knowledge can be poured in your heart because the container is full and they don't want it to leak out, so they empty it and Allah (swt) sends more. That is why:

وَفَوْقَ كُلِّ ذِي عِلْمٍ عَلِيمٌ.

Above every knower is a (higher) knower. (Surah Yusuf, 12:76)

Allah increases their knowledge higher and higher. Grandshaykh (q) said sometimes the shaykh wants to empty his heart and there is no one in front of him, so he puts his turban on the pillow and he speaks to it, emptying his heart in order to receive more knowledge to fill the container in his heart. That is how they are raised, that's why people give lectures, advice, suhbah, tawsiyah, in order that they benefit themselves: by benefiting the mureeds they get benefit. If there are no mureeds there is no benefit and they keep their `ilm to themselves, it doesn't disseminate, it stays in limits, but Allah wants `ilm to be spread out, so He sent mureeds to the shuyukh so they teach them.

The example is of Sayyidina Khalid al-Baghdadi (q), who went to India and stayed at the feet of Sayyidina `Abdullah ad-Dahlawi (q) and got the secret from his shaykh and came to the Middle East to Shaam and made a zawiya on Jabal Qasyoun, where he is buried and his house is still there. He was a big scholar on top of scholars as Allah (swt) gave him `Ilm al-Ladunni that Prophet (s) poured in his heart, so he wanted to give it out in order to get more, but he had no students; no one going all the way up that steep mountain to listen to him. They left him, he had no students, he was not able to get any students and he saw Prophet (s) in a dream saying, "Yaa Khalid! Go to Masjid Ibn `Arabi (down the mountain from his place). There are so many people who want to work, so give them money to come up the mountain with you, sit and teach them and pay them for their labor.”

So for seven years, he went down to Ibn `Arabi Mosque, paid workers and taught them. At the end of the seven years Prophet (s) said to him in a dream, "It is enough now, don't go after them, they will come after you." Then hundreds and hundreds of people and `ulama went up to the mountain to Sayyidina Khalid al-Baghdadi at the first of the month. The wali needs someone to listen, he needs students and if there is no student he cannot empty his heart in order to get more. Sayyidina Khalid al-Baghdadi paid to to teach students, the students didn’t pay him!

All of you have to thank Allah (swt) for connecting you directly with the Golden Chain. Sayyidina Khalid (q) brought the Tariqah from India to Shaam, where had 299 khalifahs, and his successor in Shaam was Sayyidina Isma`il Muhammad ash-Shirwani (q), although Sayyidina Khalid (q) had three living successors at the same time near each other in the same area of Daghestan: Sayyidina Isma`il Sharwani, Sayyidina Khas Muhammad and Muhammad Effendi al-Yaraghi (q). Sayyidina Isma`il brought the Tariqah in order for you to enjoy and be happy, and from Shaam it came Indonesia and Southeast Asia! It is called Naqshbandiyya-Khalidiyya from Sayyidina Khalid al-Baghdadi (q), which is connected to our shuyukh in the Daghestani line and the Middle East. Alhamdulillah that you are the spiritual grandchildren of Sayyidina Khalid al-Baghdadi (q), such an honor that you must thank Allah (swt) day and night, making sajda day and night, because He made you connected to the shuyukh of the Golden Chain in our silsilah tall the way back to Sayyidina Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, Sayyidina Ali, and Prophet (s)!

This is a privilege Allah selected for you, don’t praise yourself. Allah (swt) istafaakum, chose you one by one, and you are under the gaze of the shuyookh, not because you progressed or were able to achieve that in dunya like what you achieve at university or through hard work, but this is the result of Allah (swt) loving you! He granted all of us the connection with our shaykh, Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Haqqani, who took from Grandshaykh `AbdAllah ad-Daghistani, from Shaykh Sharafuddin, from Shaykh Sayyid Jamaluddin al-Ghumuqi al-Husayni, from Ahmad al-Sughuri, from Shaykh Muhammad Effendi al-Yaraghi, from Shaykh Khas Muhammad, from Shaykh Khalid, who took from Shaykh `Abdallah ad-Dahlawi so it came from India, and then it goes to Sayyidina Ahmad al-Sirhindi Mujaddid Alf ath-Thani, to Sayyidina Shah al-Naqshband from some chain, all to Sayyidina Ja`far al-Sadiq, who took from Sayyidina `Ali and Sayyidina Abu Bakr, to Prophet! That is your connection! You have to be happy because it is not that you chose for yourself, but Allah (swt) chose for you to be from the Golden Chain.

Sayyidina Khalid had 299 khalifahs and each one he sent somewhere in this dunya to spread the Tariqah, and that's why the Naqshbandi Tariqah is spread in Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and many other countries, because of the many khalifahs. As long as you have many khalifahs you can spread the Tariqah, because one khalifah cannot reach everywhere. Before it is not like now, now you can post something on the Internet and reach everyone, but before it was difficult so they needed physical representatives to be in different areas in order to spread the Tariqah.

Alhamdulillah that now in Indonesia you have 113 zawiyahs. You did not do it, Allah (swt) honored and inspired you to do it, as you cannot do it by yourself. This opening here in this country with so many zawiyas and people coming to Tariqah is going to be your ticket to Paradise with no account, because you are guiding people to Heaven, to Allah and His Prophet (s). That is not easy. You are bringing people from the streets, rehabilitating them and making them good Muslims. That is Allah's ni`mah He gave to you, so you must be happy with that and don't throw it with your feet, take it and give it to other people so they also benefit from these 113 zawiyas in Indonesia, mashaa-Allah. Allah gave you amaanah, you cannot throw it in the garbage as you will be responsible.

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

We offered the Trust to the Heavens, the Earth and the mountains, and they refused to carry it and were fearful of it, but Man carried it. Indeed, he was oppressive and ignorant. (Surat al-Ahzab, 33:72)

Allah offered the Trust to the mountains, the Heavens and Earth, but they all said, "Yaa Rabbee, we cannot carry it." But we took it, all of you took that amaanah in your hands and you have to return it clean as He gave it to you clean. You are the head of the 113 zawiyas, you are guiding the mureeds and if every zawiyah has 100 or 200 or 500, some might have 5000 mureeds, then you count in millions. You are responsible for these people, you cannot guide them to nowhere, to something deviant, you have to keep on al-Siraat al-Mustaqeem, on Shari`ah. Tariqah is based on Shari`ah, you cannot base Tariqah on anything else, so don't do something that is abnormal, do something that complies with Shari`ah.

So you are responsible because Allah has chosen you and given you the Trust and you accepted it. Then you have to return it clean as He gave it to you. It is an honor for us that Allah gave that to us because it means He trusted us. So keep Allah (swt) always in your mind, heart, eyes. Remember Him, mention Him, call on Him, and call on Prophet (s) and call on your Shuyukh. You will benefit more and more.

Amaanah: how do we define it, how do we keep it? If someone gives you an amaanah, money, and says to you, “I am going to travel and when I come back I will collect my amaanah,” you have to keep it safe, not spend it, not even if you had a big problem like a flood, earthquake, or your house is broken and if years passed and the man didn't show up, if you say to yourself, “I will spend the amaanah and when he comes I will give it back to him, but I will use it now,” that is not accepted in Tariqah. You cannot do that even in Shari`ah, you cannot touch it because amaanah is amaanah.

So Allah (swt) gave you an amaana and you have to keep it as He gave it to you. That is how it should be, that's why He chose you to have 113 zawiyas. It's not easy to carry the responsibility of mureeds, it is very heavy on you, but you will be raised and Allah (swt) will give you more and more honor, and make you a spotlight that people run to wherever you are and conduct dhikr.

May Allah (swt) forgive us and bless us. If someone has a question, let them ask.

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