Fajr
Allahumma salli `ala Sayyidina Muhammad hatta yarda Sayyidina Muhammad
A`udhu Billahi min ash-Shaytan ir-rajeem
Bismillahi'r-Rahman'r-Raheem
Nawaytu'l-arba`een, nawaytu'l-`itikaaf, nawaytu'l-khalwah, nawaytu'l-riyaadah, nawaytu's-salook, nawaytu'l-`uzlah lillahi ta`ala fee hadha'l-masjid
As we said in the previous session about the discipline when you are attending a gathering, you must pay attention to what that person is speaking. That person is not an ordinary person, the head of the tariqah: the shaykh, the master, is someone that Allah swt has granted to carry the responsibility of everyone on his shoulders. So when he is guiding and advising the listeners, the students, their responsibility is to pay attention to what he says. It is not a classroom here that you can talk or you can think the way you like or criticize your teacher. Here, there is no such thing with awliyaullah. Sami`na wa ata`na, "listen and obey." The obligation of listening is to obey, and the obedience is to listen. You cannot obey if you don't listen, and when you listen you must obey. When you listen, you are under the responsibility to obey; otherwise, you are disobedient.
What Allah swt said for the Sahaba (r), sami`na wa ata`na, "We listen to the message of Islam and obey." We cannot say, "Wait until we grow up and then we'll obey when we reach 60 years old and go to Hajj." Many Muslim think, "Oh no, if I go to Hajj I will have to cover with hijab (ladies)." Men think, "If I go now I have to obey, if I go at age 60 or 70, no one looks if I am ugly or not, and then I will dress modestly." So men also are postponing their responsibility to wear a hat (kufi) or turban.
For sure, if you think someone is ugly, because we cannot think good; we think bad always. How you can accuse someone of being ugly? Does Allah swt create ugliness? Your eyes see that thing as ugly, because you cannot see into Reality of Creation, to see everything perfect. You look through your ugliness of your bad behaviour, so you see someone ugly. So might be someone ugly in your opinion and with dirty smell, might be like Prophet (s) said, Rubba asha`th aghbar law aqsama `ala allahi la-abarrah, "If that greasy, curly-haired, dusty person asks something of Allah swt, He will respond (to his du`a) immediately." Because that one, who you think is ugly or crude, may be pious, pure, and sincere and Allah swt loves him.
So awliyaullah look at your manners. If you have good manners then you shine for them; if you have bad manners, not. Even if you are Mr. Universe or Miss Universe, but have bad manners, then to awliyaullah you are ugly. So what is necessary? You must listen and then you must obey: if you don't obey you are sinning. So Allah sent for you messengers to deliver His message. You have to listen! Do you accept your daughter or son not to listen to you? What did you do? You scold them or punish them. You might lock them in the room, grounded. Who gave you that authority? Why you accept to ground someone when you don't accept Allah swt telling you to listen and obey? So listen and obey. To listen and obey is to do what? It means not to think bad about others, to respect them like Idrees, how much he respects Yusuf Bey? And Yusuf Bey respects Idrees so much. So this is how it has to be: a brotherhood. They don't fight these two, and even if they fight, after one moment it is over because they are very close friends. So what you think about Allah's servant to whom Allah swt gave the choice to repent and Allah will forgive?
So awliyaullah, adab with them, respect and good manners with them, is that when you sit in their association you must pay attention. This is the first principle. One time I was young, in my early 20's, sitting, taking notes for Grandshaykh's speeches, and not missing one word of what Grandshaykh saying. Immediately I wrote what he said and I was very fast, using shorthand. And one time he was speaking and I was writing and something came on my cheek like a bite. So I put the pen down as he was speaking and scratched the bite. He scolded me, "Don't bring the association down seven levels! With your scratching you brought the whole association down!" Maybe 200 people were listening in the association. He was speaking from very high knowledge of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) in that association. "You brought the whole association seven levels down for just a small scratch on yourself!" They don't want that; they want full attention of everyone. If that scratching brought it down, what do you think of bad gossips in the heart when shaykh is speaking? The baraka will disappear! It is enough for one person to have bad gossip in his heart, to bring that association down to zero even!
That is why they say, mana` il-khawaatiri afdal `ala man anfaqa alf dinaar fee sabeelillah. "To prevent even one gossip from entering your heart when you are in association with the shaykh, to awliyaullah it is highly better than giving 1000 golden coins in the way of Allah."
Today one ounce of gold is valued at one thousand US dollars, so 1000 golden coins equals one million US dollars! To prevent one gossip, as in the of blink of an eye thousands of gossips come, it is far better than giving 1000 golden coins fee sabeelillah, because you don't bring the level of association down; you keep it up always. So what if you prevent two gossips, or three? See how much it is increasing? So they don't like when you don't pay attention even for a moment. These are from principles of attending with the association of the shaykh.
Gossips must come, but if you must try to push it away. That is also rewarded better than 1000 golden coins. Don't follow it. Our problem is we follow our gossip. If gossip comes to heart we think about it. Let it go, don't think about it and when you say astaghfirullah Shaytan will go, and he is the one bringing the gossip. That will burn him, say astaghfirullah. You want to stop his black magic, recite the last seven verses of Surah YaSin. Put your shoes upside down and recite Surah YaSin backwards, from the end in reverse (as we described in a previous suhbah). Remember the story of Sayyidina Shaykh Sharafuddin (q) and the priests who were flying in the air in Masjid as-Sofia in Istanbul? How was he able to recite Qur'an backwards? He can recite whole Qur'an from Surat an-Naas to Surat al-Fatiha backwards, from the power of Sultan adh-Dhikr. Does anyone know the power of Sultan adh-Dhikr? No one. They know, but they don't want to say they know. So he has the power to recite the Qur'an from beginning to end, and then from end to beginning. That mean the letters will be put from front to back and the words change.
So awliyaullah don't like distractions and gossips in association. So be sure when you sit with them, you throw away the bad gossips coming to your heart. Don't say, "It never ends." (missing one sentence.) Now you were downloading them all your life and you want to upload them, so you have to search for them on Heavenly YouTube. You have to find them; if you don't find them you are stuck. So that is why Grandshaykh (q) said, your duty is to throw the gossips from the heart. And what is their origin? These gossips come from where? It is not only Shaytan that sends them, but you have to know the manba` (source) of these gossips is the four enemies within yourself. It is your ego, love of dunya, hawa (bad desires) and Shaytan. Anyone has bad desires? You have bad desires, everyone. You are selfish? Everyone. You love Shaytan? (huuuw Allah). Everyone loves Shaytan, because we listen to him. If you don't love him you don't listen to him. You trusted him. Sayyidina Adam (a) trusted him because Shaytan trapped him, because he gave him an oath (saying): "I am giving you an oath that, by Allah, if you eat from the tree you will live eternally." He tricked Adam (a) by using the name of Allah.
They are tricking people today by saying Islam says this and Islam says that. And people go and blow themselves up and people believe that. They are using Islam as a vehicle for terrorist actions. If you want to use Islam to do a terrorist action, I will tell you go blow up your ego. Don't blow up people, go and blow up your ego. Then you can sit in the association of awliyaullah!
So the source of the bad character that your ego is molded with comes from the four enemies, la bud min al-mureed li-muqawamat al-`adaa al-arba`. No way for you to resist the four enemies, but your duty is to try to stop the gossips as much as you can. If you try, there is someone who can take it away from you, alladhee yuzeeluha huwa al-murshid, the one who can remove it from your heart is the guide (murshid) who is not an imitational murshid, like many today who open their mouths like donkeys and think they are a murshid. They are not murshid; they are donkeys! Allah said in Holy Qur'an, "The most disgusting sound to Allah swt is the braying of the donkey."
Don't be a donkey, but be a rooster who is calling and responding to Allah swt. The rooster crows as soon as he hears angels praising and glorifying in Bayt ul-Maa’moor, the real, heavenly Kabah. So don't be a donkey, thinking you have a big body. When awliyaullah see these so-called "murshids" calling people to themselves, they see a donkey. Don't be a donkey in front of your teacher! Be ashamed! There are too many donkeys now; may Allah swt protect us! And we are donkeys also.
So your duty is to prevent and struggle against the gossips coming in your heart. What is the benefit? When you struggle to eliminate it from your heart, you cannot. Don't think you can eliminate it; those calling themselves "guides" are really donkeys. Don't listen to them. Let them give advice to their big egos, sitting at the table, and they want to always be addressed nicely. "O my shaykh, my shaykh, my shaykh!" People come to them and think they are something, while really their egos are so inflated and people are being cheated. May Allah swt forgive us and may Allah protect us and protect them from falling into the trap of nafs, ego, dunya and hawa.
So the duty is to struggle against the ego and what is benefit? When you begin to stop it, and you are struggling, Allahu Ghafoour-Raheem, Allah forgives and is merciful. Your teacher, your shaykh, the real one, the one that is a lion inheriting from Prophet (s) and from Sahaba (r), is a lion at the door of his Lord. He immediately writes a petition to Prophet (s) asking, "Ya Sayyidee, Ya Rasulullah, that student of mine is trying every moment to eliminate as much he can of gossips in his heart." He is in the presence of Allah, the presence of Prophet (s) and the presence of his shaykh and all the time paying attention. He is focusing on what comes in his heart and throws it out, and so his shaykh will immediately write a petition. Don't think your shaykh is blind, deaf and dumb, that he cannot see or hear or talk. Yes he can, but he is showing adab and waiting to see his student tryhis best, then he will help him by writing a petition to Prophet (s), and then Prophet will intercede for that student. So the benefit is, it will be taken from the heart slowly, slowly.
So Grandshaykh is asking, what then is the benefit? He said, that is because they cannot put treasures in front of Shaytan or he will vandalize them. You have to prevent gossip from entering there. Then with support of the shaykh your heart can receive your trust and knowledge. So to come into his association, for sure we are coming to get secrets and knowledge from the shaykh, who is waiting one step from you to come towards you 99 steps. So you need to move, and when you move, you come against these gossips, and he wants to deliver the trust to you. He doesn't want to carry too many, so be ready and take it. Such associations are the key for attracting divine knowledge in your heart through the intercession of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) through the petition of your master, your teacher.
O representatives! Think about yourself; where are you taking those who believe in you? To which ocean? Is it knowledge (you give them) or are you taking them to an ocean or to Hellfire?! Be careful! Don't cheat yourself and cheat them. You have to know you are nothing and you are zero, or else you will be in a bad situation in Day of Judgment. We are asking Allah swt to forgive us and, and prevent us and them from falling into the trap of Shaytan, and to guide and forgive us and them, and to guide those who consider themselves Mawlana Shaykh's representatives.
wa min Allah at-tawfeeq, may Allah give us the benefit of this association. Those are some principles of how to be in an association, listening to our shaykh, Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Haqqani, may Allah give him long, long life. And tomorrow we will speak about the Dome of Provisions.
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