Suhbah at Masjid Grandshaykh Muhammad Baqi-billah (2)
As-salaamu `alaykum wa `alaa `ibaadillaahi ‘s-saaliheen, ayyuha ‘l-muslimoon, ayyuha ‘l-haadiroon nahnu hunaa fee masjid sayyidinaa muhammad al-baaqi bi-llaah ahad saadat an-naqshbandiyya al-mujaddadiyya. Alhamdulillah alladhee sharrafanaa bi-an nahdura `indaha wa nahmaduhu ta`alaa an yusharrifunaa daa’iman fee ziyaarati maqaam al-awliyaa’ li-anna ‘Llaah `azza wa-jall ahabbahum wa hum yuhibboonah
Peace be upon you and on the righteous servants of Allah. O Muslims, you who are present here, we are here in the mosque of Sayyidinaa Muhammad al-Baqi billah, one of the Naqshbandi Mujaddadi Saints. Praise be to Allah, Who has honoured us to be present with him, and we praise Allah for always honoring us in visits to the resting places of Awliya, for Allah (swt) loved them and they loved Him.
O brothers and sisters, mu’mins and mu’minas, Muslims and Muslimas. We are very happy that we are in the presence of one of the Awliya, Sayyidina Muhammad Baqi-billah (qs), from whom Sayyidina Ahmad al-Faruqi al-Mujaddid Alf-Thani (qs) took his secrets. I will not be too long, but it is a barakah to be here as this is not an empty place. It has been here 500-600 years and is always full of people visiting the shuyookh of the Naqshbandiyya Sufi Order, the Most Distinguished Order, al-`Aliyya an-Nazimiyya, after the name of our shaykh, Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani (q).
Here it is called by the name of Sayyid Muhammad Baqi-billah (q), Sayyid Ahmad Faruqi Mujaddid alf-Thani, al-Mujaddidi (Tariqah), alladhee jaddada ’d-deen wa arja`a ’d-deen ilaa maa kaana `alayh li-annahu kaana hunaaka katheer min al-firaq. There were too many differences and Sayyidina Ahmad al-Faruqi (q) came and fixed all of them. He took all the bid`a away and kept the religion in its right way, and that is what we are today: Ahlu ‘s-Sunnah wa ‘l-Jama`ah. We are with the people from Awliyaullah whom Allah (swt) has mentioned in Holy Qur’an:
بَلْ أَحْيَاء عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ يُرْزَقُونَ
No, they live, finding their sustenance provided in the Presence of their Lord. (Surat Aali-`Imraan, 3:169)
“They are alive in the Presence of Allah (swt), provided for.” Allah provides them with all kind of spiritual knowledge. Allah gave them what they need from the love of Prophet (s) and love of Allah (swt). They are not deprived, they have been given and given all these years! And the biggest signal, as the Qur’an says, “They are alive in their graves” is to look at yourself. You are here because of them! So who is alive, them or you? Who brought you here? Who brought us here? Who brought everyone here? It is their presence, or else if they were not here it would be like an ordinary cemetery and you would not see anyone here, because everyone is afraid of death. Are you afraid of death or not? Everyone is afraid from death, but those Awliya are not afraid from death because they are attracting everyone through their hearts.
That is why Allah (swt) said:
قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَاللّهُ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ
Qul in kuntum tuhibboona 'Llaaha fattabi`oonee yuhbibkumullaahu wa yaghfir lakum dhunoobakum w 'Allaahu Ghafooru 'r-Raheem.
Say (O Muhammad), "If you (really) love Allah, then follow me! Allah will love you and forgive your sins, and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Surat Aali-`Imraan, 3:31)
“If you really love Me, show Me.” We say we love Allah (swt), but we don’t show our love through our actions. Allah is saying in Holy Qur’an, in kuntum tuhibboon Allah, “If you really love Me, show Me by following Muhammad (s).” It is so simple: if you claim to love Allah then you have to follow Muhammad (s) in everything that He ordered us, not by tongue only!
This month is Rabi` al-Awwal, the month of Prophet (s). I don’t call it “Rabi` al-Awwal” only, I call it “Rabi` al-Islam”, “Rabi` an-Nabi (s)”, “Rabi` an-Noor (s)”, “The Spring of Islam, the Prophet, Divine Light.” In that spring everything comes alive! Here you are lucky in these countries like here in India or any countries that are on the equator, where we always see the trees are green, we don’t see anything after its death come alive. Go up north where there is snow, you don’t see leaves as all the leaves of the trees fall, and in spring what happens? Everything comes alive. Anyone who says “Muhammad” his heart comes alive! He (s) is ‘The Spring of this Universe’, ‘The Spring of Heavens’, ‘The Spring of Every Lover to him’.
And the evidence that he is ‘The Spring of Heavens’ is that Allah (swt) ordered all angels to make salawaat on Prophet (s) because he is The Spring, The Beautiful One that angels are in need to look at him to take power and to make salawaat on him!
You look at a picture and you say, “Mashaa-Allah a very nice picture,” the artist drew a very nice masjid, “it looks like this masjid is alive in the picture.” “I wish this masjid were alive because this picture is nice!” What do you think about the heart of a wali? The heart of a wali...the Qur’an has mentioned the heart, and a Haafizh is here, but I don’t want to ask him a question; the Qur’an has mentioned the heart ninety-seven times, which means it is so important. It is said:
ما وسعني أرضي ولا سمائي ولكن وسعني قلب عبدي المؤمن
Maa wasi`anee ardi wa laa samaa'ee wa laakin wasi`anee qalbi `abdee al-mu'min.
Neither My Heavens nor My Earth contain Me, but the heart of My believing servant contains Me.
(Hadith Qudsi, Al-Ihya of Imam al-Ghazali)
“Neither My Heavens nor My Earth contained Me, but the heart of the Believer contained Me,” contained Anwaar al-Haqq, Lights of Truth. So mentioning the name of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) is enough to change everything within our heart!
If someone makes a painting of a picture of the masjid, we look at it and say, “Mashaa-Allah, very nice,” but you are not inside it, you are only seeing a picture. We need to be realistic, we want to be inside that picture! We are a picture, we are a form from our origin on the Day of Promises.
أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ قَالُوا بَلَىٰ
Alastu bi-rabbikum qaaloo balaa.
[Allah asked] “Am I not your Lord?” They said, “Yes!” (Surat al-`Araaf, 7:172)
That is like a picture [image], like if you look in the mirror it appears as a picture, but the inside of it is the masjid; from outside it is a painting, but from inside it is a very beautifully decorated masjid. The masjid of your heart must not be a picture, the masjid of your self must not be a picture, the masjid of your mind must not be a picture, the masjid of your body must not be a picture, it must be a reality, and that reality is:
وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ فِيكُمْ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ
W`alamoo anna feekum rasoolullaah.
And know Allah's Messenger is in you. (Surat al-Hujuraat, 49:7)
Allah is saying in Holy Qur’an, “O Human Being! Know that Muhammad (s) is in you!” It is not ‘among you’, or Allah would have said “baynakum”, but He said “feekum”. Feekum and baynakum farqun kabeer. Qaal `azza wa-jall fi ‘l-Qur’an: w`alamoo anna feekum, it means that Light, the reality of the masjid is not the picture that you see from the outside, but the reality is the masjid itself: Allah has made you a masjid that maa wasi`anee ardee wa laa samaa'ee wa laakin wasi`anee qalbi `abdee al-mu'min, “Neither My Heavens nor My Earth contained Me, but the heart of the Believer contained Me.” It means it contained His Light, Allah’s Light comes in the hearts of people. That is why He said:
قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَن زَكَّاهَا
Whoever purifies the soul will succeed. (Surat ash-Shams, 91:9)
Whoever is able to purify himself, that one will succeed because that one will see the reality of Muhammad (s) within him, as the Qur’an said, “Muhammad is in you.” His Light is in you, his mercy is in you, you will see that. But if you want to keep looking at the picture [image] okay, there are too many pictures, like some other people who only want the pictures; I don’t want to mention their names, but I think everyone knows them. So they look at the picture, they look at the statue--we are like a statue form with three dimensions--they look at that statue but they don’t look at the hearts of the Ahlu ‘s-Sunnah wa ‘l-Jama`ah, whose hearts are full of love for the Prophet (s)! That is why Prophet (s) said:
يحشر المرء مع من أحب
Yuhshar al-maruw ma` man ahhab.
Each person will be resurrected with the one he loves. (Tabarani)
People will be resurrected with whom they love, so if we love Prophet (s) we will be resurrected with Prophet (s), and if we love the masjid, the inside of the masjid, we will be with that masjid, that Jannah, that Paradise. If we love the picture, eh, go then until that picture can speak to you. And never that picture speaks with anyone, only the Reality of Muhammad Rasoolullah can speak to the heart of the Believers!
When we make ziyara of Prophet (s) in Masjid an-Nabawi, where do we go first? We try to go to the Rawdah and enter from there, as Prophet (s) said:
ما بين قبري و منبري روضة من رياض الجنة
Maa bayna qabree wa minbaree rawdatan min riyaadu ’l-jannah.
Between my grave and my pulpit is a garden from the gardens of Paradise. (Ahmad)
So where do all the hujjaaj or zaa’ireen go? They go to the Rawdah to pray two raka`ats, they don’t pray outside although they can, but they pray inside in the Rawdah, because they know the Rawdah has a special reality to Allah (swt), a special reality to Heaven. So all of us want to pray in the Rawdah. If we are lucky we go in, if we are not lucky we cannot pray there, so where do we pray? Outside, but you will be crying. So when you come to the Presence of Prophet (s) you like to enter into that Reality, you don’t want the outside.
Prophet (s) showed the Sahaabah (r) his reality, he (s) didn’t show them the ‘picture’ only. Today people like Shaykh Gibril, when you say Shamaa’il of Prophet (s), they describe his eyes, his ears, his nose, which is alhamdulillah very nice, but Awliyaullah are not yet laa yaktafoon, it is not enough for them to speak only about the outside, they want to go inside, where the Noor al-Ilaahi, Allah’s Light is, where thamarat at-tasawwuf, thamarat al-hubb al-ilaahi, the fruit of the Love of the Divine Presence of Allah (swt) is! They want to go inside and this is all in the heart of Prophet (s)!
So like Shaykh Muhammad Baqi-billah (q) and other mashaa’ikh of the Naqshbandi Order and other orders, they want to go into these Rawdahs to take that out and become a wali. It is not easy to become a wali, it is not by memorizing the Holy Qur’an and reading the Holy Hadith and fasting and making zakaat, no. It is because they were able to enter that reality of Muhammadun Rasoolullah. It is so simple in words, but very difficult in action.
This is a very big question, I am not going to enter into that today as we have to leave, but I have to thank Muhammad Najeeb Naqshbandi and his brother Sajjaad, both of them. We thank them for welcoming us here today and inshaa-Allah we hope to see them soon. May Allah (swt) accept it from us.
Wa ‘s-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh.
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