Advice is the Structure of Islam

Ramadan Series, Vol 31

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

7 August 2013 Fenton Zawiya, Michigan

Isha Suhbah (3)

Kaalimaatani khafeefataan `ala al-lisaan thaqeelataan fi’l-meezaan subhaanAllah wa bihamdihi,subhaanal-`Azheem, astaghfirullah. Allah (swt) said in the Holy Qur’an that every time you see each other, remind each other of Islam, remind each other of the Prophet (s), remind each other of tawheedullah azza wa j’al. Allah loves the most that we remind us of:

Bismillahi ‘r-Rahmaani ‘r-Raheem. Qul Huwa Allahu Ahad, Allahu ‘a-samad, lam yalid wa lam yulad, wa lam ya kunllahu kufuwan Ahad.

Three times, subhaanAllah, how much Allah is Merciful. They say, “We don’t know how to read Qur’an.” For three times’ recitation of Qul Hu Allahu Ahad, you will be rewarded as if you read the whole Qur’an, as if you mentioned 6,666 verses and you have read them all and all 114 surahs, as if you have accomplished reading them all! So in such an association, although it is `Eid tomorrow, but in `Eid it is all the days of farh, joy and happiness, and silatu ’r-rahim, to go make ziyarah to each other and to make ziyarah to someone you love, like to Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, may Allah give him long life (Ameen). To make ziyarah there is silatu ’r-rahim, you are connecting with your teacher, with his representative, with his deputies, with his khulafah; you are accomplishing something that is accepted and very well-demanded in Islam, silatu ’r-rahim. So in such associations, although it is `Eid tomorrow, but for ten or fifteen minutes it is better to end our fasting of Ramadan with a small naseeha, as Prophet (s) said:

الدين نصيحة

Ad-deenu naseeha.

Religion is advice.

Our religion is based on advice, so the infrastructure is advice. Without advice how can people know each other, how can people understand knowledge, how can people understand Shari`ah? It is by naseeha, by advice. So advice is the guide, if we really go deep into the secret of the meaning of “naseeha.” Naseeha is the guidance, it is an advice that guides you through your heart. If you don’t have a teacher to guide you, then through your heart Allah will guide you. So naseeha really is the noor that Islam came with and made advice part of Islam to accomplish what you need. Prophet (s) came at the beginning of the naseeha, giving advice to people to drop worshipping of idols and to worship Allah (swt). That was the naseeha and many people went into it. After that it began to build up. So the basis, the infrastructure of naseeha is Tawheed. Without Tawheed, all your naseeha is thrown in your faces. Tawheed is the main infrastructure for naseeha and on top of it, after Tawheed, we have the Five Pillars of Islam, of which the first one is Tawheed: Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadu ‘r-Rasoolullah. That is the infrastructure that you make sure to always check, has something been rusted? Has it been covered in some rust from our rusted heart or is that Shahadah that we are bringing, that Tawheed, still clean and pure every day, morning and evening, when you wake up and when you sleep with “Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadu ‘r-Rasoolullah,” so you have a very strong infrastructure? Then if any earthquake comes that cannot change it, take it, or demolish it. ‘Earthquake’ means any shaytanic, false gossips or information that comes to your mind is thrown on the face of Shaytan when you are saying Shahadah, “Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadu ‘r-Rasoolullah.”

So ad-deenu naseeha, for Allah, for His Prophet (s) and for the ummah. Allah loves people who advise each other and so, alhamdulillah, this Ramadan all the people attending the naseeha that has been made in this, we are speaking about our association now here, they didn’t go empty. One of the most important is that we were all on one heart and our heart was on one direction; we didn’t go right or left but in one direction, straight-forward, connecting our hearts with our teacher. And if you don't mention the name of the teacher then they might say, “Oh! He didn’t mention the name of his teacher.” No, our teacher is Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim `Adil al-Haqqani, may Allah give him long life, from him to Prophet (s)! Or we can say from him passing through the chain of awliyaullah, passing through Grandshaykh Sayyidi Shaykh `AbdAllah al-Fa’iz ad-Daghestani, Sultan al-Awliya, and from one to another to another in a chain of awliyaullah.

We are lucky that we are part of the students of someone who refused to take the khilafah of the Naqshbandi Order without getting it from Prophet (s) and awliyaullah, and his request is that anyone that sits in his association has to be in the same level with him in dunya and in Akhirah! That was Grandshaykh `AbdAllah! When the message from Shaykh Sharafuddin was passed to him, the khilafah on the Naqshbandi Order, he asked this request: that anyone who comes into his association will be raised to his level and to be with him dunya and Akhirah. And alhamdulillah, all Shaykh Nazim’s students or followers are also, in the same time, followers of Grandshaykh `AbdAllah al-Fa’iz ad-Daghestani (q).

Sayyidina `Abdur-Rauf al-Yamani, may Allah bless his presence, for a long time we didn't mention his name and now he is indicating to mention his name. Any wali, when you mention their name, they are present or he looks from far and his presence comes with a high level of enlightenment that he will dress us with by permission of awliyaullah, by permission of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q), as they don't overlap and each has his own students. By permission he took everyone of us in his presence, and he will for sure present them to Prophet (s) on behalf of Grandshaykh (q) and Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) as he wants to do that favor to their followers. He wants to make that favor, because he is appreciating the level where Grandshaykh (q) is putting us, he is appreciating and feeling that he is obliged to give us a gift and that gift from awliyaullah between each other is highly recommended, because they always give gifts to each other. And this Ramadan, his gift was to present us and carry all our burdens and present us to Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q), to Grandshaykh (q), and all the way up to the Prophet (s)! May Allah keep us with them, because we benefit a lot from them. People who are here or people who are somewhere else have been blessed this Ramadan with this gift!

Spiritual gifts are more accepted and valuable than dunya gifts, while in dunya it is nice to give each other gifts, but Akhirah gifts are more important. Akhirah gifts are not to attack someone else or to criticize someone else. Allah (swt) tests His servants. Look at Sayyidina Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q). He was a rich person and a big scholar. Awliyaullah do a test. They don’t say, “This is Sultan al-Awliya,” and “This is not Sultan al-Awliya.” Everyone is under a big test, especially awliyaullah. Don’t think they are sitting happy and enjoying, no, no! The burden on their heads and shoulders cannot be described. There are a lot of burdens from the badness that they see from their followers, because all of us have rusted, if not all the heart then part of the heart or a little bit of the heart, but there is rust there. So one day Sayyidina Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q) was in a trance and as he was thinking:

تفكر ساعة خير من عبادة سبعين سنة

Tafakarru sa`atan khayrun min `ibaadati saba`een sannah.

To remember (contemplate or meditate) Allah (swt) for one hour is better than seventy years of

worship.

I don’t know from where some people say, “There is no tafakkur in Islam or there is no muraaqabah, there is no raabitah, you don’t do that, only Hindus do that!” Allahu Akbar! Ajeeb, it’s strange. Prophet (s) said, Tafakarru sa`atan khayrun min `ibaadati sannah, and in some narrations, khayrun min `ibaadati saba`een sannah, “To think for one hour you will be rewarded as if you worshipped one year, or seventy years.” So how there is no tafakkur (contemplation, meditation) in Islam?

So he was in tafakkur on all the problems that came on him from his brothers, sisters, wives, families, children, students, too many attacks from right and left. As we said this morning, don’t think the wali is out of burdens, he is full of burdens! Don’t run to be a shepherd, as we said in morning, don’t ask to be shepherd, be a sheep, it is better for you. Presidents don’t sleep, Grandshaykh (q) always used to pray for presidents.

They asked “Yaa Sayyidee, some of them are bad!”

He said, “At least we are sleeping okay in our homes, sleeping in our beds. They are not sleeping, they are thinking day and night; whether they are good or bad they are thinking day and night how to rule their country.”

So we are sleeping, so why we have to be shepherds? And awliyaullah don’t like to be a shepherd, but they have been put in their positions. It is not with their efforts or their choice; if they would be asked their choice, they don’t want it. Grandshaykh (q), after Shaykh Sharafuddin ad-Daghestani (q) died, he tore up the will and said, “I don’t want to be known by any thing except ‘Hajji’.”

Can you imagine the Prophet (s) was 23 years with the Sahaabah (r) day and night, day and night, day and night he was with the Sahaabah, and not one single moment without an advice or a hadith or an issue or a problem, or a sickness or a revelation. He was always 24 hours with speeches, delivering the Message of Allah (swt). And they come and say, “There are only 3,000 ahadith.” `Ulama of Ahl as-Sunnah wa 'l-Jama'ah say, “Are you crazy? He was speaking to them day and night, giving to them.” Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (r) said only 23-25 ahadith and he was Prophet’s friend in the cave, he was with him day and night, but only 23 hadith? Where are these ahadith? Open this debba, baqshoo, Pakistani debba, Bengali baqshoo. Open that box! Let us smell the breeze of the cool air that we don’t find it now here, the fans are not working well. Open the box that everyone can breathe nicely!

Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q) was in that tafakkur, he was “opening the box.” When you open the box you are in the light everywhere, under the sun, under the noor. He was in that trance and felt himself standing up, opening the door of the house and moving in the alley and moving out of house, following that smell that was coming to him, a spiritual smell coming to him that was full of beautiful incense, perfumes, following, guiding him where to go. He was pulled by that smell. Like today some children say, “Oh! I smell nice food,” coming from outside to kitchen. “What is that smell? Come and eat.” We are children and it is good if we smell something like Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q), so make tafakkur and you will smell.

So he was smelling and following, following until he reached from one side of the alley to the other side, until he reached the door of Sayyidina Ameer al-Kulal (q), who was his shaykh but not yet. He reached him and was standing by the door. You cannot enter the door without asking permission, isti'dhaan, you have to ask permission to enter.

So the shaykh looked at him and immediately said to his people, “Who is this? Who is this?”

They said, “Yaa Sayyidee, this is the famous Muhammad Bahauddin Naqshband (q), the famous one that his reputation is East and West in the world. All Central Asia comes and learns from his hadith and Shari`ah and tafseer.”

He said to them, “Take him and throw him out, we don’t need such things here.”

That was a big slap in his face. Can you take that? If the shaykh takes your hand and gives you a slap, spiritual, not physical, “I don’t want you here. Go!” Slap from left, slap from right and from bottom, and from the top, everywhere you are being slapped. And then at the end they shout at you and curse you, in polite cursing, and your heart will be broken. Shah Bahauddin Naqshband’s (q) heart was broken. A wali through tafakkur, instead of his heart getting more and more light, his heart was broken. Don’t say the wali’s heart is not broken. Yes, they are but they keep quiet. The treatment they receive, especially from those who are around them, is not nice. Some, not all of them. May Allah (swt) relieve Mawlana from any bad hands and relieve us from any bad hands.

So he went with a broken heart and Shaytan began to play. A wali, does Shaytan come? Yes, of course. Shaytan did not leave Sayyidina Adam (a) free, and Iblees came to the Prophet (s), but he cannot go without permission of Allah. “You want to go to My Prophet (s)? Then go.” And he got a big slap from the Prophet (s). He came to the Prophet (s) with a long list of questions in his heart. So Sayyidina Jibreel (a) came to the Prophet (s) and said, “Allah sends His greetings on you and says He gave permission for Iblees to speak to you. He has a lot of questions for you and these are the answers.” Iblees, la`anahullah, came to the presence of the Prophet (s), (and Prophet said), “Iblees, you are cursed! These are your questions and these are the answers,” and the Prophet (s) said, fooooh on him and then he was thrown 700 years a horse-rider's distance into a ditch and he was vomiting continuously. And as Grandshaykh (q) said, that is his part of the story, the first part is hadith. So Grandshaykh said he was thrown far away and he was vomiting from up and from down, and after a while when he woke up, he was seeing a shoot coming up from his vomit and he was so happy. And he said, “Now I have power to to destroy everyone, Muslim and non-Muslim,” with that shoot which has many leaves on it from his vomit.

What was that? Tobacco, and from that they got cigarettes! Those who smoke, all of them have bad characters; they are the worst in character, they cannot control themselves, they are angry and they want to smoke. So he was busy spreading that plant with all his devils in different areas in order to spoil people after the Prophet (s) would leave dunya.

In any case, Sayyidina Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q) was broken-hearted and Shaytan was coming to play with him and his ego was saying to him, “Who are these Sufis? You don’t need him,” like they come now and say, “What is ‘Sufi’?” They are the grandchildren of those who denied tasawwuf. “What is this? Your heart is being broken, you are the big `alim, you go make your own,” like today many representatives make their own groups now. “Do what you want, leave him.”

And he said, “I was in that struggle,” and finally he said to himself, “I am not going to listen.”

When someone shouts and shouts at you on your face, or from your back, and you do nothing, what will happen? Nothing. As Grandshaykh (q) said, “Put a dog in a small room with one small window and lock the door, and send smoke inside the room. What will the dog do? He will bark and bark, and go to the window and bark and bark, until he blows out and dies.” So that barking is like the barking of the dog: Shaytan sends smoke to you through your intestine up to your mind and you become drunk, and you shout and shout until you blow up.

What is the benefit? If you answer, you become worse. If not, you take your luggage and go, it’s easy. So Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q) said, “I will take my luggage and go, why to answer? I am not going to leave Sayyid Ameer Kulal, with all his shouting at me, I am going to step on my ego.”

Anyone who steps on his ego after fighting and leaves it, if he is right he will inherit by Allah from Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q), and that is if he calms down. If he does not calm down the angels will be writing (as bad deeds), because a husband has no right to shout at his wife and the wife has no right to shout at her husband, and the husband and wife have no right to shout at their children except regarding Islamic ways. Children especially don’t have the right to shout at the parents! So keep the house clear and everyone is responsible for his doing, if his rights are within the limits of Shari`ah, or otherwise you have no right to create fitna for nothing.

So Sayyidina Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q) didn’t want to say anything or to tell the students, “This is not fair, this is not true.” No, he moved out of the mosque. He said to himself, “Why am I coming out? I am not going to move from this place until my shaykh comes to me.” Who is stronger, the one who is thrown out, or the one throwing out? The one being thrown, and so he said, “I want my shaykh to come back to me, that is what is important so I am not moving.”

So he put his head on the threshold of the shaykh’s masjid. That night it was snowing and his head was under the snow and could not been seen. SubhaanAllah, how much these awliyaullah can take of difficulties! How much Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani is taking of difficulties from those around him. Sayyid Amir Kulal (q) came out through the door at Fajr to go to mosque, and he put his foot on the head of Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q); he knew it was his head and not only that, he pressed on his head and crushed it!

And Shah Naqshband (q) said, “Is that you, Sayyidee?”

Sayyid Ameer Kulal (q) said, “Who is there? Is that you Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q)? Laa hawla wa laa quwatta illa billahi 'l-`Aliyyu 'l-`Azheem! Come, come,” and he took him and cleaned him up and dressed him and gave him all his secrets that Allah (swt) gave to him.

This is because by permission of awliyaullah and permission of Sayyidina `AbdAllah al-Fa’iz ad-Daghestani (q) and by permission of Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani (q), and Sayyidina `Abdur Rauf al-Yamani (q) who came to all the suhbahs since the beginning of Ramadan to the end of Ramadan! And tonight I was not going to give a lecture, but Sayyidina `Abdur Rauf al-Yamani (q) indicated to me to make that suhbat to inform them. He was spiritually present every night for these suhbats! Alhamdulillah, who came got this barakah and who came took the benefit, even if they came and went, and he indicated to me to make this suhbat. And we were taken to the presence of the Prophet (s) by the barakah of Shaykh AbAllah al-Fa’iz ad-Daghestani (q), and Mawlana Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani (q), and Sayyidina `Abdur Rauf al-Yamani (q). May Allah (swt) forgive us! May Allah bless us!

Bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.

Now tomorrow is `Eid, so don’t play, but go to sleep as Fajr is at four o’clock. On the other hand, since it is rejoicing you may also choose to stay up all night rejoicing!

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