5 July 2015 Fenton Zawiya, Michigan
Fajr Suhbah (1)
A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytani ‘r-rajeem. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem.
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.
أَطِيعُواْ اللّهَ وَأَطِيعُواْ الرَّسُولَ وَأُوْلِي الأَمْرِ مِنكُمْ
Obey Allah, obey the Prophet, and obey those in authority among you. (Surat an-Nisa, 4:59)
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.
Everything is in Allah's Hands, in His Qudrah. He created His Creation from Bahr al-Qudrah. How many Secrets are in that Ocean of Bahr al-Qudrah? When Allah (swt) wants to be known, His Will is to create Creation, that Will came of creating Creation for everyone to know that there is a Creator; we are lucky that He created us or else we would not be existing. That existence we are in is temporary, until our soul is gone, then the real existence is there. Now it is a picture of the real existence. Allah (swt) created dunya and He did not look at it: Kun fayakoon.
Dunya is the Earth of pious people and at the same time the Earth of non-pious people. As we said before, we are going through some explanations of adab and adab is under Ahkaam ash-Shari`ah. That is why the Prophet (s) said:
أدبني ربي فأحسن تأديبي
My Lord perfected my good manners and conduct. (Ibn `Asakir)
The Prophet (s) mentioned how Allah (swt) perfected his adab, and he said:
انما بعثت لاتمم مكارم الاخلاق
I have been sent to perfect the best of conduct (your behavior and character). (Bazzaar)
We are happy that he was sent to perfect and complete the good manners of everyone in the Ummah, he took that responsibility and we are always thankful for Allah's Guidance:
وَلِكُلِّ قَوْمٍ هَادٍ
For every nation there is a guide. (Surat Ar-Ra`ad, 13:7)
Allah said in the Holy Qur'an that for every group of people there must a guide; even if you are one, Allah will find a guide for you. Grandshaykh `Abdullah al-Fa’iz ad-Daghestani (q) said, “Even if there is someone on top of a mountain living there by himself, for sure there must be a guide who will pass by them in every 24 hours.” Allah will not leave anyone without a guide. The Prophet’s (s) guide was Sayyidina Jibreel (a). Cannot the Prophet (s) go by himself by Allah's invitation? Yet, Allah wanted to honor him and at every level he stopped in Mi`raaj, in the First Paradise, Second, Third, Fourth...to be dressed with different levels of Manifestations of Allah's Noor:
اللَّهُ نُورُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ مَثَلُ نُورِهِ كَمِشْكَاةٍ فِيهَا مِصْبَاحٌ
Allah is the Light of the Heavens and Earth. The parable of His Light is as if there were a niche and within it a lamp. (Surat an-Noor, 24:35)
He was addressing from that Paradise until Prophet (s) reached Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa, where there is no one; the Prophet (s) was by himself and felt a little bit of khashiyaa, fear, then Allah made him hear the voice of Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (r), his closest friend, in order to calm him down. I mention this because it is important for us to know how big Allah’s Mercy is. Awliyaullah say from their visions that when the Prophet (s) was in that Reality, we cannot say ‘place’, and he had that fear, khashiyya min Allahi ta`ala, he was afraid that anything can happen. How to even speak? Through Revelation, a voice or a movement? He was not in that place, Allah sent him without letter or voice, then He sent to the Sayyidina Muhammad’s (s) heart from that Light and he was able to take the meaning of it in that level. So what we have to mention here is that Allah (swt) called His Prophet to Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa where He gave him the Ummah as clean as on the Day of Promises, when He said:
أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ قَالُوا بَلَىٰ
[Allah asked] “Am I not your Lord?” They said, “Yes!” (Surat al-`Araaf, 7:172)
In that Divine Presence, the Ummah had no sins on them and He told Sayyidina Muhammad (s), “I am giving you this Ummah and as you get it clean and pure, so must you return it.” There was revealed that verse of Holy Qur'an:
كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللّهِ
You were the best of Nations evolved for Mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong and believing in Allah. (Surat Aali-`Imraan, 3:110)
“You were the best of Ummahs sent to human beings.” The Prophet (s) looked at that Ummah which was clean and the Best of Nations and he was so happy! He took it and hugged them and said, “Yaa Rabbee, I accept!”
وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِي آدَمَ
We have honored the Children of Adam. (Surat al-Israa’, 17:70)
Allah (swt) gave karmiyya khaasa, a special favor to Ummat an-Nabi (s): He made them to be above every nation. So the Prophet (s) looked at that and was happy and said, “Yaa Rabbee, I accept.” Then Allah (swt) showed him how they were going to be in dunya, full of ma`asiyya, and he was worried and said, “Yaa Rabbee, what to do? Give me helpers,” although the Prophet (s) does not need anyone; if He says, “Yaa Rabb!” Allah answers, “Yaa `Abdee!” We say “Yaa Rabb” hundreds of times, we don't hear any sound or inspirations as there are too many veils, but that doesn’t mean Allah (swt) will not say “Yaa `Abdee,” only we are deaf, we cannot hear because there are too many veils.
So Allah (swt) gave him 124,000 Awliya existing on Earth at all times; if one leaves dunya, another one replaces him. They are from different backgrounds, different awraad and different knowledge, but all of them go to oceans at the same time like waterfalls coming down from the mountain and making rivers, then going to the ocean. Everyone of these Awliyaullah are big rivers, and the Niagara is nothing compared to those Haqaa’iq and Secrets. Out of the 124,000 saints there are 7,007 Naqshbandiyyoon, Awliyaullah of the Naqshbandi background.
These Awliyaullah are guiding us and that is why Allah (swt) said, Wa li kulli qawmin haad, “For sure, for every group of people there must be a guide.” The guide we are speaking of is Awliya, not of something else. So they guided us and in their guidance we said there are four levels: First Station is for the Prophets, Second Station for the Sahaabah (r), Third Station for the Four Righteous Imams and Fourth Station for Sa`adaat an-Naqshbandiyyoon and all other Awliya.
Many people want to be guided, many are in Tariqah and say, “I have been in Tariqah for 20 years and did not see anything.” If they are not seeing anything, that does not mean it doesn’t exist, it means they are not following the procedures. When a doctor gives you a procedure to follow, you follow it continuously and perfectly, but when it comes to spiritual remedies prescribed by Awliya:
فَأَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَاهَا
He inspired the self of its good and its bad. (Surat ash-Shams, 91:8)
When you are going in the bad direction you are losing. If we purify our soul through the guidance of shuyookh, how do the shuyookh guide you? Some come spiritually and some come through the recitation of awraad. That will guide you to Purification of the Self and you will be guided to Allah’s Will. So every wali, Naqshbandi or not, gives certain awraad to mureeds in order to be guided. The best time Awliyaullah give to their mureeds to do their awraad are three: Qiyam al-Layl up to Ishraaq, `Asr to Maghrib, Maghrib to `Isha. These are the three periods of time that if you observe you will be at the Threshold of the Reality of the Prophet (s) and from there the Prophet (s) will put you at the Threshold of the Divine Presence!
With Naqshbandi Awliya, anyone who did not follow these procedures will be thrown out, not from Tariqah, but whatever that mureed has struggled and achieved, the Awliya will bring them back to step one and they will have to climb the stairs from the beginning. Every time you climb the stairs, Shaytan comes in front of you to make you fall, then you have to start from the beginning another time. He is the one who will be thrown out, he is al-Matrood!
Awliyaullah are afraid of ghadabAllah, Allah’s Wrath; they care, we don't care. If ghadabAllah comes on you, you will be destroyed! Iblees, who was the head of angels and disobeyed once, was thrown out of Paradise. Allahumma salli `alaa Sayyidina Muhammad wa `ala alee Sayyidina Muhammad! The mureed who disobeys his shaykh will be rejected from the Throne of the Hearts of Awliya: he [Shaykh `Abdul Qadir al-Jilani] referred to the hearts of Awliya as:
Thrones they let you sit on; they let you sit on their hearts and they take care of you. They try their best to make you avoid falling into mistakes from arrogance and anger, the two major bad characteristics we are facing. Arrogance will destroy you and your `ibaadah.
Like the story Grandshaykh `AbdAllah (q) mentioned many times about two brothers who were following GreatGrandshaykh Shaykh Sharafuddin ad-Daghestani (q), the uncle of Grandshaykh `Abdullah al-Fa’iz ad-Daghestani (q), and at the same time his shaykh is in the Golden Chain. There were these two who did their awraad and after finishing they teased each other, like Sahib and `Ali. They injured each other by punching and wrestling, then when they became exhausted, they fell on the ground and looked at their hearts to see if any anger came from these fights, or not? If they found anger coming against each other, they immediately repented and wouldn’t eat or talk to anyone for one day. They tried to struggle against their ego and because of their struggle, Allah gave them something special: whenever they said “Allahu Akbar” to start the prayer, their spirits were in front of the Ka`bah and they disappeared from where they stood. This happened every time they prayed.
One day they were discussing how they were able to achieve that and they said, “It is because of our awraad and our prayers that we achieved that,” which is signifies pride and arrogance. As soon as they said “Allahu Akbar,” they were in front of the Ka`bah. One was stronger and had more power to move quickly towards the Ka`bah and the other held his jubbah and was taken there. One day when the two brothers discussed how they reached that level, their wives, who were also two sisters, heard them and got upset. They said, “It is not because of `ibaadah that they reached such levels, it is because of us they reached these levels and we will show them it is because of us they got that power.”
They usually baked the bread at night, so that night they made the dough mixed with the drips (waste matter) of chickens. They mixed and mixed until the dough became big with the drips of chicken inside. Also, they normally cooked with complete ghusl and wudu, they never cooked anything without being in wudu, which takes sins away completely. That is why it is prefered not to pray `Asr with the same wudu of Zhuhr or `Isha prayer with the wudu of Maghrib, it is preferable to make new wudu, noorun `ala noor, “light upon light.” This is a very well-known true story in Daghestan.
They next day was Jumu`ah and the brothers ate from that bread and when the time of prayer came they said, “Allahu Akbar,” but were not able to move one inch, it was closed! They did not see the Ka`bah and did not appear there! They began to think about what happened. The two ladies came and told them, “You are able to do that because of us, as we give you pure food.” When you get pure food, Allah will open to you all levels. What is pure food? It is when you are doing your awraad, that is food for the spirit or soul. When you are doing awraad and keeping clean, on that day you will be dressed with the secrets of what is being dressed on the Preserved Tablets, Allah (swt) will open them for you! So if you want to be dressed with Allah's Mercy and with Prophet's (s) love, then keep your awraad pure. For those who don't know the awraad, go to http://www.naqshbandi.org/awrad/.
For every group of people there is a guide to whom your heart is open. There are 7,007 guides in the Naqshbandi Order, but your heart will open to one and you cannot jump from one to another. You can sit in their majlis, but your guide is one and you can accept and listen to whatever he says, because, Masdar al-`aafaat w ’adh-dhunoob al`aql, “The measure of sins and wrongdoing is via the mind.”
That is where the waswasa whispers of Shaytan comes and misguides you, and these awraad direct you to the normal track, to something that will save you. The most that Awliyaullah are worried for their followers is something that might take them to be away from reaching the Haqaa’iq wa ’l-Asraar, the Realities and Secrets, which is al-ghadab, the anger. You cannot have ghadab in Tariqah as it is like kufr; it throws you into places that you don't want to be.
Like that story of Grandshaykh `Abdullah al-Fa’iz ad-Daghestani (q). It is not a story, but reality. There was a wrestler in Daghestan, a very strong body builder. One day it came to his mind, “I want to repent”, so he went to look for a shaykh and they told him about Shaykh Sharafuddin ad-Daghestani (q). He approached the shaykh with his sword and gun, and cocked his hat (crooked), to say, “I am a [tough guy] wrestler,” for people to be afraid of him, a characteristic of the ego. He came to the shaykh and said, “Yaa Shaykh, I want be a mureed!” Awliyaullah don't throw jewels in the hands of the ignorant; you can give candy to children, but not jewels. That wrestler jumped all the way, asking for the jewels. His shaykh looked at his heart and found he really wanted to be a mureed, to repent and do as the Awliyaullah tell him. Although from outside he looked like a terrorist, he was not.
So the shaykh said, “O my son, before I give you Tariqah and guide you and put you in khalwah, I want to send you downtown to the city.”
He said, “Okay Sayyidee, I will go.”
Then the shaykh said, “Go to the center of the city, where you will find someone carrying the intestines of sheep and goats [leftover from the slaughter] on their shoulders. Go behind him and with all your power, slap him on the neck and then tell me what happens.”
He looked at the shaykh and said, “Is there in Tariqah something like that, to slap someone?”
Shaykh Sharafuddin ad-Daghestani (q) said, “Yes.”
The wrestler was happy and said he would slap everyone! He did as the shaykh said, went to the city center and found that person. How did the shaykh know there would be someone there selling intestines? He guided the wrestler to that person, at that precise moment. The wrestler came from behind and slapped him on the back. That man turned and looked at him, and he was upset but did not say one word, not even “Saamahak Allah, may Allah pardon you.”
The wrestler went back to the shaykh, who said, “You go rest now and tomorrow we will send you to someone else.” The next day he said, “Go to such-and-such, there you will find a person selling sheep intestines. Go and beat him up.” That man fell down from the power of his hand and looked at him smiling. Can you do that, can anyone do that, smile at your attacker? The shaykh said, “Leave that, tomorrow there is one more.” So the next day he said to him, “Go to that field where there is an old man in his 70's plowing. Go behind him and take a big stick and beat him until the stick breaks.” The wrestler went there and saw the old man plowing the field and he took the stick from his back and hit him, first time, a second time and the third time it broke the stick.
The old man turned around and kissed the hands of the wrestler inside and out, and said, “Allah has sent you for me to correct myself. I will work on further correcting myself from anger. O my brother, forgive me. I caused you to feel pain in your hand.” He showed him Ihsaan, the highest level of character.
So the shaykh said, “Okay, you rest. We will discuss it tomorrow.” The next day the wrestler came to the shaykh, who said, “Come to the garden with me.” He gave the wrestler a big stone and came to an apple tree. “Throw this with all your power on the tree.” With the power of the hit, ten apples fell down. The shaykh said, “Yaa waladee, O my son! You hurt the tree, but it still gave you ten apples,” meaning, when you repent Allah (swt) will give you ten hasanaat.
Then the shaykh explained the different events. “The first one is the Mubtadi`, the Beginner in Tariqah. He has anger, but he kept it inside and looked at you, but telling me, ‘O my shaykh! I know you are sending someone to test me. Okay, I will keep quiet.’” He knew his shaykh had sent that test. “The second was Musta’id, the Prepared One. He was smiling as if to say, ‘If you want to beat me more, it is okay. I know who is behind it, my shaykh is testing me to see if I will be patient or not.’” Awliyaullah test their followers to check if they have anger or not. “The third one is the complete Mureed; he showed complete submission to Allah (swt), which is why when you hit, he didn’t even turn around, he began to hit the plow to make it go faster. Then when you hit him a second time, he hit the plow to make it go even faster. When you hit the third time, he also hit his plow and then your stick broke, so he apologized to you for causing pain to your hand: you had come to correct him and your hands got hurt because of him. That is a real Mureed.”
So do you want to be a Mubtadi`, a Musta’id or a Mureed? There are different levels; you may choose one and go through it , as Awliyaullah go with the ayah:
لاَ يُكَلِّفُ اللّهُ نَفْسًا إِلاَّ وُسْعَهَا لَهَا مَا كَسَبَتْ وَعَلَيْهَا مَا اكْتَسَبَتْ
On no soul does Allah place a burden greater than it can bear. It gets every good that it earns and it suffers every ill that it earns. (Surat al-Baqarah, 2:286)
Whether you do the first level, the second or the third, you will be rewarded in all of them; Allah will reward you, He will not prevent you from getting rewards. Even if you are in the first level, Allah will reward you from the second and third, but you must keep these three appointed times for your awraad. If you cannot, then, “On no soul does Allah place a burden greater than it can bear.” Even if you do it for five or ten minutes after Fajr, `Asr, Maghrib or `Isha [distributing the awraad throughout your day], inshaa-Allah you can keep these ways.
So the key for the mureed is to not get angry, in any case. You cannot speak with someone, as they will oppose you with hundreds of questions and point of views as today people are stubborn on their opinions and ideas and they argue too much. Don’t argue, sami`na wa ata`na, hear and obey, then you are not losing anything; on the contrary, you will be winning Allah’s Happiness for you! Allah is happy with those servants who don’t argue. Imam Ghazali (r) said, Al-jidaalu yutfi` noorul-qalb, “Argument will extinguish the light of the heart.” Allah has built up your heart with Light and when you argue too much, it will slowly fade and your heart will become dark. Do you want to eat honey? Yes, but then you have to be patient, because you will have lots of stings from the bees. If you want to eat honey, you have to struggle as “The best of jihad is the word of Truth!”
أفضل الجهاد كلمة عدل عند سلطان جائر
The best jihad is a word of justice (or a word of truth) before a tyrannical king.
( Related by Abi Sa`eed al-Khudree)
You extended your hand and Awliyaullah gave you baya`; therefore, they will not leave you even if you leave them and they will reach you no matter how far you go, through dreams, visions or by any measure. They will not leave you in dunya or Akhirah! The one who does not do his wird must do it the next day and make it up [recover it]. Awliyaullah will not allow you to not do your wird, everyone must do their wird. If you don't do it because you are busy that day, make it up. If you are busy the next day do istighfaar 100 times and say, “O my Lord! I was busy that day, forgive me,” and Allah will accept.
We continue with that tomorrow. These issues of anger and arrogance are very important. You must not have arrogance, like those two brothers who failed to reach Ka`bah because of seeing themselves [as the cause when goodness came to them] and the story of the angry wrestler: one story is for arrogance and the other for anger.
May Allah (swt) bless us and give us the best of the Ramadan Tajalli He is sending and dress us in it and accept our fasting, inshaa-Allah.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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