Suhbat

 

Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani

 

04-07-2008

 

Oakland Zawiya

 

 

 

 

Many people today say that I have a murshid. Is it true or not? I have a murshid, I have a teacher; I have someone who is guiding me and teaching me and that is hwy they have been known as subcontinent pir. A pir is a murshid, is it not? And many of these pirs are either young children, become pirs because their parents were pirs. Or their parents were by name pirs. Or they become pir because they have a PhD degree and they learn a little bit about spirituality or psychology, they mix it and people get fascinated with them because they didn’t listen to any other except them.

When you don’t listen except to one person you think his knowledge is high, but when you compare and listen to another one , you compare and find that the other one might have better knowledge. Because Allah said wa fawqa kulli dhi `ilmin `aleem.

I am not on that subject to discredit anyone but I am trying to shed light on what is a murshid. What are the murshid’s qualifications? According to awliyaullah who have been in that field and who now its secrets and know its ins and outs and they know every detail because they passed their life in these experiences.

These explanations are related to Mawlana shaykh and Grandshaykh and grand Grandshaykh Shaykh Sharafuddin their explanations about the different levels of murshids.

As I said, today you find in an area like any are or any place, in the west or in the east, many people say, you see them, they say we have a murshid. And from the name that they mention it is enough to understand if that person is a real murshid or not. It might be he is a murshid of what he learned from what he learned from reading some books of spirituality or psychology.

But now we come to the real meaning of murshid. As has been classified there are four different levels of irshad and in every level there are the pirs of that level. And from one level to another these pirs their knowledge changes.

To what let us go to the first level and he is the level of the first step or the first station that a murshid guide, which is the real meaning of guide, as we explained one time the meaning of guidance. Guidance means you are able to take this person form this shore to the other shore without that person drowning.

A guide is if you accepted as a student to be your student to be his guide, you have a liability in front of Allah swt if you misled that student by lying, you cannot or if you give teachings which are not yours, but you put things together and you tell him do it and you are not doing it.

So the murshid of guidance is the one that really take you from falling into the valley, and he is the top of the mountain and he puts his hand and even if you are 100 miles or meters away or you are100 yards away he put his hand and his hand can reach you and that is a murshid. It means he can take you from any difficulty.

These murshids have different levels.

The first of these levels is the murshid of benedictions or murshid of blessings – murshid at-tabarruk, that he has been dressed through a special blessing by Allah that you get blessings. Sitting with him in his associations you will feel that tranquility and peacefulness come into your heart and you feel you become light because of his power.

That kind of murshid, as he said, yajib an yakoonu lahu malakatun fee `ilm tasbeehaat al- makhlooqaat.

The first level, which is the level of tabarruk, blessings, one of his conditions is that that guide has reached a station of understanding the wisdom from every creation that Allah created whatever kind of tasbih that created creation, al-makhlooqaat, created beings, beings or jinn, or animal or rocks or trees or anything, they make tasbih.

Allah said in Holy Qur'an,

 

He said, “everything every smallest thing, even an atom, or a cell, a worm or a tree, or a rock or anything, they are praising Allah swt and they are making tasbih and their tasbih is a kind of, as much as you do tasbih, tasbih is the secret of living. When tasbih stops life stops. When tasbih stops your heart goes to zero. As long as you see these graph, these parabolas, they have name, sine waves, electromagnetic waves, when you see these waves, these are the waves of the tasbih, that have a certain vibration that they are moving with. That means they have a certain template. If you change the template of that organ that means there is something wrong there.

So every part of your body creates a kind of wave that scientists can read it. Even every cell. When that cell is not alive you don’t see that frequency.

So anything that generates electromagnetic waves the indication that it is living is that is making tasbih. The murshid must understand the tasbih of every human and non human being in every moment. Al-makhluqat jami`yyan natiqan wa ghayru natiqan. He must understand their language that is first level of irshad. When someone says “I have a murshid.”

What murshid? Murshid is a heavy duty saint, a pious person. Someone beyond description. That is why awliyaullah are hidden these days, there is no way for them to appear to people as there is no one who can follow them.

They can read your heart when you are sitting in for not of them. How are you sitting in front of them with a dirty heart. How you are sitting in front of them with gossips and backbiting, they can see that. Are we not feeling ashamed.

So you need to sit in their presence, means you need to control your heart from falling into the hands of shaytan at that time.

Like you go to Mecca, one sin can be multiplied, as the prayer is multiplied when you pray in Ka`ba it is worth 100,000 raka`ats and when you pray in Madina it is like 10,000 rakaats.

In Madina you cannot have bad intentions. That is why it is very heavy to sit in the Prophet (s)’s mosque in presence of the Prophet (s) and have bad intentions or backbiting people.

In our normal place if you have a bad intention it s not written as a sin. But if you are there then it is written.

So that murshid has to have a malaka, not authority, or expert in the knowledge of understanding every voice how it comes from which vocal chord it came, that is what takes you to realize the murshid knows the knowledge of every letter and `ilm kull huroof wa …

He has to know the knowledge of every huroof of the tasbihat of every creation that they are making. So we are hearing for example English language. Say ‘a’. That is coming from the vocal cord, but that ‘a’ when it goes and comes out, how many vibrations it makes, it has a secret in every vibration. He has to know that.

He has to have knowledge of every language. He needs to know what people speak even though he doesn’t know their language. That is why the Prophet (s) encouraged people to learn languages of others in order to be able to communicate. So how can a murshid communicate when he doesn’t know the languages of his students. And what is the language of his student. It is not Arabic and Urdu and English. Not every human being has a separate language. It is on the number of human being that have been created. His language different than his language, his different than his language everyone has different nervous system, different brain, different cells, different organs.

Os that is why when in medicine they want to transplant a heart or kidneys or any organ, the body rejects. why? Because it is different language.

That murshid a t-tabarruk. Because the blessing is going to reach him he has to understand the body language and soul language. What you are working and thinking and what your eyes were following in the day, what your had did during the day, what your kidney heart, and every part of you did during the day. Not only that he has to know every detail of the language of animals. Living and non-living. As Grandshaykh, may Allah bless his soul is saying: “And he has to separate everyone’s praises from the other, and he can hear you as he is hearing him and you are making a tasbih different from the other one’s tasbih.”

Your body might be creating some kind of tasbih might be different from the one that one is creating. Each one has to suit himself, each one has his own body. Since they don’t match he must understand each one.

So what you think murshid level. We hear today, I have this murshid and I have this murshid. So now you can judge, who is a murshid and who is not murshid. Where can you find such a murshid? They are rare jewels. Alhamdulillah that Allah connected us to Sultan al-Awliya Mawlana Shaykh Nazim who carries that power.

So these praises are either praises that believers are saying or praises that are coming from unbelievers. Because wa in min shayin illa…

Even they are not praising by tongue their system and body are praising Allah. It doesn’t means they are not praising but they are praising without knowledge form himself. In fact they are against his wish praising Allah. He is not a believer and he doesn’t want to do that praising but his body has to praise Allah. If a pebble is praising Allah what about a human being. That is why he said you cannot understand their praises.

A believer at least when he praises by mouth you can hear and understand. You say this person he is praising by tongue and we hear him. That unbeliever is not doing that.

The murshid must be able to hear and understand the praising of the believer and the unbeliever.

And today Allah is sending his mercy on everyone and providing everyone. A wali who is representing the Prophet (s), he has to know human beings what they are doing, and to know what they are practicing, if they are mu’min or not mu’min he has to know.

And he has to know also to overlook on everyone through the reality that Allah swt gave to him, not through imaginations. Today there are many shaykhs, that they say they are shaykhs or they say they are murshid but everything they say is imagination. They say they are seeing but everything they do is imagination. Like the people who do black magic. They show you on TV, people doing something that people cannot do. Allah mentioned them in Qur’an sahara `ayoon an-naas. They put black magic on eyes of people because they twist your vision, there are many like these today who people think are calipha or murshid but in reality it is a product of their imagination and that is why they mislead their students.

Here he is saying, Grandshaykh, that murshid who is in 1^st level of irshad has to overlook his follower with the reality of the power of prophecy that the Prophet (s) will dress him and give a little bit of that light, that the Prophet (s) will dress him with a little bit of that light, that is from prophet, he is able to see everyone and overlooking the reality o that person. He doesn’t look to you now but he looks to you at your creation. That means Allah created you clean and pure. He looks to that and sees that everyone on earth has been created with the realty of a real worshipper but when he came to dunya he changed. So what they do is try to bring you back to your real reality. So that is why they appear in dreams to their followers. They even appear to people who never met them or became their students. So Allah want to bring them to the way of istiqamah and sends them power to reach people through dreams and guide them. And many people have been guided in dreams.

He said, a murshid like that, there is no w ay of imagination, khayaal. There is no illusion or imagination with them, they see reality. That is why today you see many with illusion and imagination. You can see from their way of behavior, in their dunya matters it affects them a lot. They are not really in level of irshad they are not yet there.

And they have to look, or overlook you bi kull anwa` anni`m. they over look you by all kinds of favors that Allah sends to you through Allah’s grace and through what prophet opens to them, all kinds of favors.

And that is why you see today, believers and unbelievers are on the same line of rizq. If Allah is no happy with the unbelievers never rizq will come to them, but look at them, thy are richer than believers. They have a lot of money and a lot of wealth. Allah does not differentiate. Allah said

And say: "Work (righteousness): Soon will Allah observe your work, and His Messenger, and the Believers: Soon will ye be brought back to the knower of what is hidden and what is open: then will He show you the truth of all that ye did." At-Tauba [9:105]        

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They are working for dunya so Allah gives them for dunya you are looking for akhira and you receive from Allah for akhira.

So awliya murshids look at them with that eye not differentiation trying to free from hands of shaytan and bring to hands of Rahman. That is why they try to guide people this kind of guidance this level in the first level of irshad, they have to show their students what is right and what is wrong, what is wrong and what is right. If a shaykh doesn’t encourage to do what is right and avoid what is wrong then that irshad is not real irshad.

Today you see these murshid, many of them consider them murshid, they don’t pray even. What first level of irshad is that the murshid must teach what is haraam and what is halaal, ma’moorat and manhiyyaat. What we are obliged to do and what we are forbidden to do. They have to explain and show it. Today no one is explaining that.

From the smallest thing. Are people praying Fajr? Many people are not praying Fajr. It means the power of the guide has to reach you to encourage to pray Fajr. Many people say we cannot pray Dhuhr we cannot pray Asr, we are working. It is not. that is an obligation. As you are working that is an obligation. What comes first your work obligation to your boss or obligation to Allah. We are making an excuse. How are we expecting if the murshid doesn’t bring these up, then he is not a murshid. He has to put you back on the railway. The train is derailed from the track. The wali has to bring you back. So ok, you are not praying Dhuhr and `Asr because of your work. But you can pry when you are sitting. You can pray with your head. Bismillah Allahu Akbar, recite Fatiha, put your hands like that subhan rabbee al-`ala wa bihamdihi, go down., no one can understand what you are doing. I am stretching. I am meditating. At least you are doing your obligation.

Sometimes the Prophet (s) when going from Mecca to Madina in or going on top of camel, he prayed on top of the camel. Mostly the Sunnah, for obligations he went down. But it means there is a window to pray even when you are driving or sitting or on a plan. And in evening you repeat them in order to be sure you don’t miss it. Or else what is benefit of a murshid? The murshid of this level has to tell you what is wrong and what is not.

Then if you go to murshid of 2^nd and 3^rd level the irshad goes higher. Many things change and goes more deep in knowledge that your mind cannot take it any more. So we will go slowly into it.

So that is what the first level of irshad has to guide us what is wrong and what is wrong.

And then he has to give you every detail of diff. kinds of khayraat, favors. He has to open for you abwaab al-khayraat. So through his du`a when you sit in his association or recite Fatiha or recited du`a he is requesting from his shaykh, the murshid himself is requesting form prophet and prophet is requesting form Allah swt to open to you all doors of khayr. All doors of favors, bounty, in order that these doors will not be closed and you will have a breeze coming from these door in order to feel you are in tranquility and peacefulness. That is one of his major secret influence or what he has to do in order to bring his followers forward in that very difficult way full of obstacles In life of a human being.

Then he has to make sure that whatever you have committed of kaba’ir and sagha’ir, big sins and small ones, he has to make sure you repent from them daily, and if you don’t repent he will repent on behalf of you. And when he repents on behalf of you he goes in presence of the Prophet (s), and he repents for you and then the Prophet (s) will repent for you. That is secret of the ayah:

We sent not an apostle, but to be obeyed, in accordance with the will of Allah. If they had only, when they were unjust to themselves, come unto thee and asked Allah's forgiveness, and the Messenger had asked forgiveness for them, they would have found Allah indeed Oft-returning, Most Merciful. Surat an-Nisa [4:64] 

When the wali sees his followers are oppressors to themselves, what will that murshid at first level do? He will take that on his shoulder sand as if he is the one who became the sinner, as if he could not guide his student correctly and he will do as Allah ordered in that ayah he will come to the presence of prophet and come to you Ya Muhammad,. So these kind of murshids in 24 hours they have to come to the presence of the Prophet (s), and they have to consider themselves the sinner. As a general in the army he has to take responsibility for the soldier. And that is why he is blamed for the mistakes.

So that is why Grandshaykh said many times, don’t put me in a shamed position in presence of the Prophet (s). Don’t humiliate me in the presence of prophet. So what do they do? They come full of their followers mistakes and they ask Allah’s forgiveness and repentance because these sins are already on their shoulder and they purify their students and they don’t say my student did the sin but they say we did the sin we were unable to train and control our students.

So these awliya of benediction all go to presence of the Prophet (s) every night repenting on behalf of everyone and ten the Prophet (s) in his turn will repent and than Allah will accept the repentance of them. So that what the murshid of benediction has to do every 24 hours to raise him to the second level which we will say it later.

So we said, he is responsible for the tasbih of all creation then he also has to have knowledge the names that Allah taught,

 

And He taught Adam the nature of all things; then He placed them before the angels, and said: "Tell me the nature of these if ye are right." Al-Baqara [2:31]        

He has to inherit that secret from Adam with permission of prophet in order to bring them back, especially those whom he is responsible for them directly, in order to guide them, although they are not seeing that and not feeling that. He guided them through their spirits and bring them forward if they become front runners. That is why on Judgment Day they will say “O we didn’t do that.”

That came from the murshid. That is why we are front runners even though we are back runners. Then you see your `amal became so much that you are on first line of people to enter Paradise. His name is murshid of benediction and blessing and all that Allah is giving him through the Prophet he is dressing you.

Then he has to have a knowledge of angels, that are muwakilleeen, guardians, that are responsible, or they are the ones that Allah has put protection, caretakers for his servant, because we know that there are angels that are responsible for everyone. Allah has assigned them. Foe one bite it is said that there must be 300 angels, as soon as you put in your mouth Allah assigned 300 angels to take from your mouth and down to your stomach and to be digested, all the vitamins and all these minerals they are taken to the body by angels. So 100 bites, 300 angels for every bite to diffuse that food and sustenance through your body.

The murshid must know and count the angels that you have and they might be so many today and so many tomorrow. And he must know their names and he must know their shifts also, but they work day and night shifts. You have to know the day shift and the night shift.

And especially the waqt al imsak the time before Fajr by half an hour. May Allah swt bless us with these kind of murshids and to keep them always with us.

That murshid, kind of irshad, he has like you know the umbilical cord to the child to give him what food. There is a spiritual umbilical cord that takes from the Prophet (s) to these kinds of guides they are always `ala tawaasal they are always connected to heart of the Prophet (s) taking whatever they need for everyone they are responsible for. And that is why they have to have the power form prophet in orders to attract their followers to the level they are in. they don’t accept their student to be lower than their level they have to share with them their level. Wherever they are they want their followers to be. This kind of irshad they have permission to give students dhikrullah Allah 5000 times a day and to do salawat 1000 times. If you do the “Allah, Allah” you are connected. Lower than that then you are still connected but there is question mark. Lowest is 5000 Allah, Allah, and 500 salawat and up to 24,000 Allah and 5000 salawat on Prophet. That has to be done.

And he said, “These awliya at first level have 17 stations, I cannot mention them, because I was afraid that if I mention it those who are weak will come against and deny it. So I left it.”

We will mention it one time.

This is one of the level in summary of first level of tabarruk. Insha-Allah we will explain the next level, the level of purification.