`Isha, Suhbah at Private Home
2010 Africa Tour Series
(First minute of broadcast was cut.)
…to come from the back doors. There is, but come from the front doors. Don’t think you are hiding yourself when you come from the back door, because you know yourself, you feel shy, you have done something wrong. They come from the back door, no! Come from the front door.وأئتوا البيوت من أبوابها Wa u’tu al-buyuta min abwaabiha, "Come into homes from its doors." You don’t want to come from the front door? Then you go back home, you have nothing to do here! Many people think that they are worthy of something. If they come from the front door, yes, no problem, they are worthy of something. If they come from the back doors, they are not. Our front door means, "Don’t claim something you don’t own!" If you want to claim something you don’t own, this is a claim, it’s not a reality. At the end, it needs a last signature. It might go through the first, second, third, fourth, fifth secretary. When it comes to the last one to stamp it, "Oh, sorry, wrong! Send them back! Make another form, a new form. You cannot come to me from the back door. Come from the front door."
A front door is not easy to come through, because as we just came through the front door here, what is this front door? It’s a fortress! You need to unlock many locks. Awliyaullah’s hearts have lots of locks; for those who want to come to them, they must overcome all these locks with good manners, discipline and respect. الطريقة كلّها اَداب At-tariqatu kulluha aadaab, "The tariqah, all of it is discipline."
Don’t come with your knowledge. Leave your knowledge at the door. Don’t say, "I am something." Leave it at the door and come. Empty your heart and come. If you have a cup full of water, can you fill it with more water? No, it will fall on the floor. But if you empty your cup, you want to put more? Yes, you can! So empty your cup and come. And you have to go to the source and the source is of high voltage. Sultan, no one can approach him. But those who are standing at his door, you can approach them; it's easy, they’ll speak to you, they’ll be happy and they let you in. Awliyaullah are sultans of Earth. When you want to come to them seeking knowledge, knock on their doors. If you ask permission, they let in anyone who wants to put his knowledge out and come to the door empty and seek permission to enter. What is the permission?
دستور يا سيّدي مدد ألف ألف صلاة و سلام عليك يا سيّدي يا رسول الله يا رحمة للعالمين ألف ألف صلاة وسلام عليك يا شفيع المذنبين نظرة منك يا رسولالله يا حبيب الله يا سيّدي يا سلطان الأولياء يا الشيخ عبد اللهفايز الدّغستاني نظرة منك يا سيّدي يا سيّدي يا سلطان الأولياء يا الشيخ محمّدناظمالحقّاني نظرة منك لقلوبنا تنوّرها وتعرّفنا بمعرفة الله
Dastoor yaa Sayyidee, madad. Alfu alfu salaat wa salaam `alayka, yaa Sayyidee, yaa Rasoolullah, yaa Rahmatan li 'l-`Alameen. alfu alfu salaatu wa salaamu `alayka yaa Shafi`ee al-mudhnibeen nadhrata minka yaa Rasoolullah, yaa Habeebullah, yaa Sayyidee, yaa Sultan al-Awliya, yaa Shaykh `AbdAllah al-Fa`iz ad-Daghestani. nadhra minka, yaa Sayyidee, yaa Sultan al-Awliya, yaa Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani. Nadhra minka li quloobina tunawwiraha wa tuarifana bi maarifati Allah.
You ask. You seek permission from awliyaullah first. طريقتنا الصّحبة والخير في الجمعية Tariqatuna as-suhbah wal-khayru fi 'l-jami`yyah. The main discipline of this Order is not only dhikr, you do dhikr at home. This dhikr that we are doing is not the Naqshbandi dhikr, I can say this to you, but you are hearing it for the first time. This, what we are doing of dhikr together, is to share with the other tariqah their rewards. Grandshaykh ordered that dhikr is done jharee, loudly, not silently. Khatm al-Khawajaghan. There is the big Khatm and there is the small Khatm, what we do before coming to 'Laa ilaaha illa-Llaah' . (In jama'ah.)
We are doing the small khatm when we recite, 3 times shahadah, 25 astaghfirullah, du`a, Rabitatu 'sh-Sharifah, 7 times al-Fatihah, 10 salawaat, 7 Alam Nashrah, 11 times Qul huwa Allahu Ahad, 7 times Fatihah, Salawaat ash-Sharifah, Holy Qur'an.
That completes the Khatm al-Khwajagan. The continuation is to be under the tajalli, manifestation of the other tariqah's dhikr. Understood? The original one, the big one, is to count on stones. And I’m not going to enter into that now. In the time of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, may Allah give him long life, it changed from the long khatm to the small khatm and to make jahri, because too many converts were coming to tariqah in order to learn. So the real one, both of them are real, but the bigger one is Khatm al-Khwajaqan al-Kabir, the one recited on stones.
So adab is to knock on the door and seek permission to enter, and when you see yourself as nothing they will open the door for you. If they see that you are struggling, they will not open it. Irshaad (guidance) is not for everyone. You can speak to people and give them naseeha (advice), but they may accept it or not accept it. A scholar who is in a university comes and gives a lecture to thousands of students, but students may not accept the advice. Some students may accept.
But tariqah is irshaad, to guide and carry every person present. It means to carry his difficulties and throw them in the ocean, and once they leave that gathering, to make all their sins waived, or else there is no importance for that! And that ocean is ready to swallow anything! If you need ghusl but you have no water in the house, what do you do? Jump in the river or the ocean! There is no river which does not lead to the ocean, and when it comes to the ocean, what happens? It becomes part of the ocean. So you want to wash yourself? They want a shower? Jump in the river if it is easy, because the ocean might be far. Or if the ocean is near, jump in the ocean.
Awliyaullah of high caliber are oceans, so you jump in them and your problems and difficulties will disappear. If you cannot find him, if he is far, jump in the river. They are rivers. His representatives are rivers. They might be big or small rivers, but it is a river. Jump in it and that river is, for sure, taking you to the ocean. Even if it is a stream, it is moving, but that stream might dry out at the end, because it does not carry itself, so how will it carry others? So going through rocks, rocks, rocks, every rock is taking a little bit of that stream and at the end it becomes dry. But rivers are not dry. There are awliyaa who have streams and awliyaa who have rivers. There are awliyaa who are like Niagara Falls, who then end up in the biggest ocean, the Ocean of Sayyidina Muhammad (s)! Allahumma salli wa sallam `alayka yaa Sayyidina Muhammad! So, seek the ocean. You have seen the river, but that river is taking you to the ocean. You have to know that the stream is taking you to the ocean. So your goal is the ocean, your intention is the ocean, and our ocean is Sultan al-Awliya, Sayyidee Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Haqqani. You go to him through a river, you will reach him; through a stream, you will reach him, but you might be delayed.
وكلّ من رسول الله ملتمسا غرفا من البحر أو رشفا من الدّمي
Wa kullun mina RasoolAllahi multamisun, All of them partake from the Prophet of God
gharfun mina al-bahri aw rashfan mina diyami, a handful of his oceans or a sip from his continuous rains.
To reach its destiny, what do you have to say? You have to say, madad yaa Sayyidee, yaa Sultan al-Awliya, because he is taking madad from his shaykh, Grandshaykh `AbdAllah ad-Daghestani (q), who takes madad from the Prophet (s). All of them are taking madad from him (s), either through a river or through an ocean. So we come to you, yaa Sultan al-Awliya, and say we are weak servants, because you are responsible for us; you are our father! We are only weak servants. (Mawlana Shaykh is saying, "I’m here!") Allahu Akbar, yaa Rasoolullah. Sometimes awliyaullah don’t show themselves, but they give you a sign. That is a sign. How it is felt does not concern us, but we know that their presence is there. So we are weak, and when a person is sick they go to hospital; that takes us to Prophet Muhammad (s). They send you what you never expect, that makes the impossible become possible. Mashaa-Allah, look, everyone is coming to listen. They are not coming for any other reason.
Shaykh Abdul Hamid just mentioned to me about these four pictures. There was a fire and these four pictures were saved. Immediately, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) brought to my mind the following story to tell you. Since 1972, Grandshaykh `AbdAllah Faiz al-Daghestani, Sultan al-Awliya (q) kept saying, "I am going to a place where nobody can reach me." We were young and could not understand everything. And he said, "I have to do my seclusion but beforehand, I will first need to have eye surgery (for cataract)." The order of the Prophet (s) was, "You do the eye operation, then you come to me," so Grandshaykh wanted to do it. He was looking for a surgeon but there was none in Syria, so everyone was having this type of surgery in Beirut. So Mawlana Shaykh Nazim took Grandshaykh from Damascus to Beirut, Lebanon, a two-hour drive. We took him to my room, where he stayed. The room was three times the size of this hall, because it was a huge room in a huge house.
After two or three days, they examined Grandshaykh and found that he was also suffering from a hernia. He had both surgeries there. I was present during his operation. When they removed the cataract remains, doctors wanted to throw that away. I said, "Wait! I will keep them." I wrapped that in cotton, put it in a bag and put that in my pocket, as I did not want it to be thrown away. Grandshaykh had his surgery. We then contacted Mawlana Shaykh Nazim who was in Cyprus. It was Rajab and Mawlana arrived after two days. As soon as he entered the hospital, he began to feel pain at the same place as Grandshaykh was operated on for his hernia. Y' Allah, to the operating room! So doctors took him to the operating room for hernia surgery, two or three days after Grandshaykh's surgery.
Grandshaykh ordered everyone to leave the room, except Mawlana Shaykh Nazim. No one knew why. The room, to say that we were very fortunate, had windows, high windows. So immediately, because my brother was also at the hospital, he brought a ladder and we were looking in. Grandshaykh puts his hand, like this, and Mawlana Shaykh Nazim’s hand, like that. For half-an-hour, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim was shaking and Grandshaykh kept strong, unshaken. We knew he was going to pass away. After two days, both Mawlana Shaykh and Grandshaykh came to rest in my room. Grandshaykh was lying down this way, and Mawlana Shaykh that way, his feet facing Grandshaykh’s feet. Adab means the heads of both Mawlana's were resting, so that no one's feet meets a head. On 15 Shaaban, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim attended Laylatu 'l-Bara`ah, where recitation is held for Nisfu Sha`ban, so he went to Cyprus. Grandshaykh said he wanted to go to Damascus. Two weeks and three to four days later, Grandshaykh passed away. That is the interaction he told me to tell you about, between this story and that of the four pictures mentioned by Shaykh Abdul Hamid. It was 1973 and Mawlana Shaykh Nazim came from Cyprus and buried Grandshaykh. A long story that you can find in the book,Classical Islam and the Naqshbandi Sufi Tradition.
In 1976, Lebanon was at war. My father’s home was located within five minutes of the prominent city center and the fight took place behind our local street. From both sides, between Christians and Palestinians, it later became a fight between Christians and Muslims. In 1976, I was in Damascus and a telephone call came informing me that our building was hit by rockets. The whole building was destroyed. As I have told you before, my room was three times the size of this hall. It was a palace that belonged to the Ottoman governors. The whole building fell down. Three-hundred-sixty rockets hit the whole building, which caught fire. Everything came down, except my room. The whole house was on fire, the building was on fire, the roof and windows destroyed. Doors came down. Five huge windows were on fire. When the fire reached my room, it stopped at the door. The room was standing on four columns. It was saved with not even a scratch and no sign of fire! Allahu akbar! Because their maqams are saved.
Wahabis who are destroying tombs of awliyaa think they can destroy the `aqeedah of Ahlu ’s-Sunnah wa ’l-Jama`ah, but what they don't know is that it goes up all the way to `arshullah and it can never be brought down, because awliyaullah left these graves a long time ago; their angels always take them to Madinah or Sham al-Sharif! Allah Akbar! Jabal Qasiyoun, that holy mountain that looks over Damascus. Grandshaykh, may Allah bless his soul, used to always say, jabal al-anbiyaa wa jabal al-awliyaa, "the mountain of prophets and awliyaullah." All awliyaa are brought to Jabal Qasiyoun and every Monday, Thursday and Friday, there is an association of awliyaa there, in the presence of Sayyidina Muhammad (s). Don’t be saddened for their graves, here and there; they are already empty.
اٍنّ أولياء الله لا خوف عليهم ولا هم يحزنون
Inna awliyaullahi la khawfun `alayhim, wa lahum yahzanoon.
Verily the Friends of Allah, there is no fear no them nor do they grieve. (10:62)
Verily, Allah (swt) protects awliyaullah. They are saved in dunya and akhirah, no harm can reach them; they are untouchable. So a wali’s power is greater in his grave than in dunya. Anyone intending to lay a hand on an awliyaullah’s sacred maqam runs the risk of having his neck slit one day. So that fire did not touch these four, because these four are from that category, from that level of sainthood. Of course, even their pictures show power. So when awliyaullah are under Allah’s protection, can anyone destroy them? No way!
أولياء الله تحت قبابي لا يعلمهم غيري
Awliyaa’ee tahta qibaabi, laa ya`lamuhum ghayree.
My saints are under my domes; no one knows them, except me. (Hadith Qudsi)
No one knows who they are. Sayyiduna Musa (a) met with one of them. `abdan min `ibaadina - "One of My servants." How many are they? There are many. That is why we should never say, Other tariqats? Our tariqah, only. No! All tariqats. There are 124 000 walis, 7007 Naqshbandis, the remaining are from other tariqats. So.the Naqshbandi tariqah has to respect all other tariqats. I was in Ivory Coast and Ghana and some of these big shaykhs are imams, who want to take bayah. And I hesitate into giving them bayah because they are either Tijaani, Qadiri or Salmani. So I called Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, who said to me, "O, my son! I told you, many times, we are carrying all 40 with us beside Naqshbandia. Give them bayah, let them keep Tijaania and Qadiriya and add the Naqshbandia. It will be better for them and better for everyone, because they will be taking from every place."
Imam al-Busayri (r) said,
وكلّ من رسول الله ملتمس غرفا من البحر أو غشوا من الدّين.
wa kullun min Rasoolullah multamisun
gharfan mina al-bahri aw rashfan mina 'd-diyami.
If everyone takes from a stream. If you are taking from all three, what happens? You are a river. If you take from ten, an ocean. If you take from all forty tariqahs, what happens? It becomes Victoria Falls! (We have Lake Victoria.) In Uganda also, the source of the Nile! So you get the Nile moving. So anyone comes, the only thing is adab, discipline.
There was one shaykh, Sayyidina Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (q), who gave them the authority, but he might have given a drop to one and a river to another. It is better to find the river; it takes all garbage away, cleaning you, so you can reach the ocean. His shaykh was the direct shaykh in his time, and that shaykh, and his khalifah is one of the khalifahs, like Khalid al-Baghdadi has 299 khalifahs in the Naqshbandi Order. We cannot say all of them. He gave them the authority but he might have given a drop to one, but a river to another. Big difference. That drop is not enough for that person himself. How is he going to give from that drop to everyone? He cannot. So always, if you find the river it is better, because it will take you to the ocean. It moves faster; not only faster, but any garbage you throw in the river is taken along with it to the ocean and in the ocean it disappears. A stream cannot take anything. A drop is not enough for that person.
In any case, he has this khalifah, one of the khulafah, and that khalifah has a son. He sent his son to Baghdad where Sayyidina Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (q) was. He went to school and he studied Shari`ah and became a big scholar. His father, the khalifah, was not scholar, but he is a sincere, pious person. Being a scholar does not make you a shaykh in tariqah. The khalifah is a sincere pious person. Do not look at those who know how to speak. Prophet (s) said, "What I fear the most for my ummah is those who are eloquent but their hearts are closed." Yes? So it is not important for the title of dunya; the title of akhirah, keep it in your heart! You may find that someone who sits by the shoes is more sincere and becomes a shaykh, and that scholar is nothing. Do not look at those who know how to speak.
Prophet (s) said, akhwaf maa akhaafu `alaa ummatee rajulun `aleemun bi 'l-lisaan jahoulun bi 'l-qalb,
"I fear more for my ummah from a scholar who knows how to speak with the tongue, but who is ignorant with the heart."
So, he had a son who is a big scholar. Like many people you see today, you meet them for the first time, they come to take barakah and say, "Oh, this is my son, he’s a doctor, the other is a lawyer. Why aren’t you introducing me to the shaykh? My son prays five times a day, fasting Ramadan and reads Qur'an." Don’t tell me, "My son is a doctor, my daughter is a pharmacist," as what is the benefit? These titles do not concern tariqah. Take your diploma, your doctorate certificate to the bathroom and look at it everyday! There you can put it, but can you put anything else there? You cannot! So titles are not important, lakabu al-dunya, but lakabu al-akhirah, you cannot take it to the bathroom, it has got to be with you in the heart! So don’t introduce me to your son as a doctor or engineer. What has it got to do with it, if he is an engineer and he drinks? What’s the benefit? Tell me he’s not drinking, he’s fasting, he’s praying, that’s what makes people happy!
And when that khalifah of Sayyidina Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (q) spoke, you could hear even a needle when it falls on the floor, because everyone is listening to what he is saying. So he attends to his father. One day Shaytan came, as he did with Sayyidina Adam (a), and said, "You must speak to the people, not your father.You speak to them, and if they are attentive they will become a hundred times more attentive!" So his son became a scholar and that khalifah was ordered by his shaykh to speak to people, and during his association you can even hear a needle when it falls on the floor, because everyone is silent, and their eyes are wide open, they are not yawning, not thinking about here and there. Everyone listens to what he has to say, not playing. Alhamdulillah, here they are listening while I am playing! (laughter) So, he attends to his father by listening.
Shaytan tried it with Sayyidina Adam (a) and never rests, whispering in the son's ear, "Who is this? Are you crazy? Your father did not study Shari`ah! He speaks to thousands of people. You must speak to them, not your father! You speak to them! If they can be this attentive to your father, they will become a hundred times more attentive to you! Try to push your father away!" Sure, Shaytan wants this man to kill his father. Nowadays, Muslims are proud of their children studying Shari`ah in non-Muslim universities, sending their children to pursue their Islamic studies in universities from professors who are not Muslim. What will become of them?
(So that one began to think,) "Take away my father, I will replace him." But this khalifah knows what is in the hearts. He made himself sick, so Friday came and the shaykh had to attend the wa`az (suhbah after Jumu`ah prayer). So he said to his son, "You go and replace me," because he has to take care of his son before he takes care of the people. "You go and do this irshaad." So the son went so happy, and he said, "I will show my father and everyone else where I am going to be! He went and sat at his chair and began to speak highly. When these scholars speak, it is with arrogance. By the time he was ready, everyone in the audience was sleeping, with none paying attention. He was so angered that he left halfway through his speech and decided to go back to his father.
His father asked, "Why did you come back so early?"
He replied, "Of course I finished early, I am so angry because everyone slept! When you give your speech, everyone’s eyes are wide open, and I can speak better than you!"
He replied, "Oh my son, you have to know adab. You have no adab for me, for Sayyidina Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (q), and Prophet (s)! Because that chair you sat on requires adab and that means when you do speak, you don’t say, 'I am speaking.' See who is the one speaking through you! That one has to make sure that everyone can get benefit, because it is medicine. Everyone can pick something meaningful to him and the first one who needs to listen to what comes is me. I see myself with all kind of sickness. Whatever comes from my shaykh through my heart, I have to take heed and experience it and apply it to myself first, then to others. It is only then that people will pay attention to you! Do not to see yourself above everyone else. I see myself as below everyone’s feet. When you become so humble like that, then they will pay attention to you or else you are wasting your time. You cannot move an inch or centimeter!"
O Muslims! Be humble. Humbleness is everything in this life. Humbleness takes you to the presence of Prophet (s)! Without humbleness, you will not be where you are. May Allah (swt) keep us all with our shaykh, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, and make all of us good listeners, otherwise we lose ourselves, our family, our children, our belief and we lose everything. Allah guided us to a sultan. Do not try to be yourself: make him to be in you. If you make him to be in you, then you will succeed. But if you want to be stubborn in your mind and arrogant in what you are claiming for yourself, it is not accepted from you. Don’t give something and say, "I gave." Don’t do something and say,"I did." Act with no one knowing what you did. What you give with your right hand, your left hand should not know. It means give your knowledge and say, "It is not from me." Although it might be from you, but say, "It is not from me, but from Mawlana Shaykh Nazim." He always says, "It is not from me." Did you ever hear him say, "It is from me." No. He says, "It is not from me, but from them." We must learn adab.
May Allah dress us with the hadith:
ادبني ربي فأحسن تأديبي
Adabanee rabbee fa aahsana ta'adeebi
Allah taught me discipline and perfected my discipline.
May Allah forgive us.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.