Suhbah at International Cultural Center (ICC)
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh.
Nawaytu 'l-arba`een, nawaytu 'l-`itikaaf, nawaytu 'l-khalwah, nawaytu 'l-`uzlah,
nawaytu 'r-riyaada, nawaytu 's-sulook, lillahi ta'ala al-`Azheem fee hadha 'l-masjid.
MashaaAllah, alhamdulillah that Allah (swt) sent His best servants to be together. We hope that, insha Allah, Allah accepts us to be at the threshold of Prophet, to make us to be as He mentioned in the Holy Qur’an, to be with these groups:
مَعَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمَ اللّهُ عَلَيْهِم مِّنَ النَّبِيِّينَ وَالصِّدِّيقِينَ وَالشُّهَدَاء وَالصَّالِحِينَ وَحَسُنَ أُولَـئِكَ رَفِيقًا
Those whom Allah has blessed from among the Prophets, the Truthful Ones, the Martyrs and the Pious Ones. What a wonderful companionship they are! (Surat an-Nisa, 4:69)
When I was young, I used to pray as imam but I didn't realize its dangers, as the imam is the first one who will be asked and carries the responsibility of everyone else. Is it correct or not? We ask Allah to make our imams sincere and pious, because then they can carry the Ummah.
We begin with a short dhikr, inshaa-Allah, then a suhbah. Tariqatuna ‘s-suhbah wa 'l-khayru fi 'l-jami`yya., our Way through our shuyookh is companionship, as Companions of Prophet (s) are called the Sahaabah (saahib, one who accompanied) because they saw Prophet (s), and even if only one time it is enough to be from the Sahaabah.
This secret is not in one time, awliya they inherit from Prophet. The Companions of Prophet (s), no one can reach their ranks, that’s for sure, but the Ummah have the Sahaabah, not like the Sahaabah of the Prophet (s), but if a scholar has sahaabah, this group of people are the friends of the scholars, but not the same level as the Sahaabah of the Prophet.
العلماء ورثة الانبياء
The (genuine) scholars are Inheritors of the Prophets. (Tirmidhi)
Prophet (s) said, “Scholars are inheritors of prophets,” what a great title Allah gave them. Who is saying it is not a normal person, it is Prophet (s). So let us be happy, our Way is full of rahmah! Be happy that Allah created you from Ummat an-Nabi (s) and don't rush to make yourself an imam, run away from it, that's my advice because you have to carry everyone and you are responsible for what they say. They ask, “Who are you studying with?” They answer, “Imam x,” then whatever that imam said. Especially I am speaking to people who are rushing to be something, not like Shaykh Tarek; I’m not speaking of these sincere people, students of high scholars in Islam in this time, without mentioning names, but alhamdulillah, especially in the last ten years, Allah (swt) has blessed some `ulama to stand up and now `ulama are standing up for the love of Prophet (s)!
يحشر المرء مع من أحب
Each person will be resurrected with the one he loves. (Tabarani)
That is it, we don’t want to go left or right. We don’t want to say, “Salafis say this, Wahhabis say this.” In spite of their noses, we love Prophet (s) and we love that Hadith, “People will be resurrected with whom they love.” Ask yourself, “Do I love Prophet (s) or not?” When I love and show love to him, I do salawaat on him, is it not? When you love someone you mention his name so much!
الَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ اللّهَ قِيَامًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىَ جُنُوبِهِمْ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ
Those who remember Allah always, and in prayers standing, sitting and lying down on their sides, and contemplating the creation of the Heavens and the Earth. (Surat Aali `Imraan, 3:190)
He said katheeran, too much, out of love. Prophet (s) said it clearly to Sahaabah (r), “People will be resurrected with whom they love,” which is also why he said:
لا يؤمن أحدكم حتى يحب لأخيه ما يحب لنفسه
You are not able to perfect your faith until you want for your Muslim brother what you want for yourself. (Bukhari)
Prophet (s) said, “There are levels in imaan and no one is considered a real Believer until he loves me more than his brother, his father and everyone else.” You love your watch more than anyone else, is it not? You love your car more than anyone else, and we don’t think to love the Prophet (s). “This is a nice car, I love it! This is a nice car, I love it!” No one said, “Prophet, I love him!” although he is caring for us, giving us many ways to be out of punishment on the Day of Judgement, but we are not considering this! Like that Prophet (s) has mentioned to read Holy Qur’an, so read it, don’t keep the Qur’an yateem, orphaned on the shelf! Read! If you have a library in the house and you have many masaahif, we cannot say many ‘Qur’ans’ because Qur’an is one, we cannot make it plural--mushaf is Qur’an, it is the papers--if you have many, try when you complete one to go to the second. Do not leave it yateem because Qur’an is going to make shafa`ah for you! People keep one mushaf, then when you finish reading it (khatm) the other one is calling you.
Also, the words have to be carefully picked up, you can’t just say you are reading ‘something’, it’s not something! You are reading Allah’s Ancient Words, kalaamun qadeem. You must be happy. Now if they find a mushaf in a bazaar they sell it as an antique. How can you dare to say Qur’an is antique? They buy it not because of the words in it, but because it is an antique, astaghfirullah al-`azheem, and the price goes higher and higher if it is old. Even leave Qur’an, if you have a 1000 years old book, what do they do with it? It is a big relic, any book they buy it, they save it, they keep it and it’s a treasure. What you think about Hadith, is it not a treasure? It is a higher level than any treasure! What do you think about Qur’an? It’s Allah’s Words, so how will He punish you when you are reading and memorizing His Words? Allah will be happy, Qur’an will be happy, you will be happy!
When you read Qur’an, you say to yourself every day, “I will read one juz’,” and sometimes when you are reading you check how many pages are left, because you have to finish the juz’ and then go to what’s waiting for you at the door. You see, “Okay, two more pages,” then a sajda comes in the text and you have to make sajda. You have to think, “Yaa Rabbee! I am reading Your Ancient Words with the eyes You gave me, so don’t make me blind!” Awliya can dive in the ocean of Holy Qur’an. Prophet (s) mentioned that you have to read Qur’an, for which you get one reward. When Prophet (s) says that anyone who read Qur’an has a reward, that reward has no limits because Allah (swt) is giving it to you for reading Qur’an and Qur’an cannot be compared to anything!
Look at how Allah (swt) gave His Prophet (s) knowledge that benefits everyone! A convert became Muslim and he doesn’t read the Qur’an, he doesn’t know how, so even when his intention is to read Qur’an, due to many reasons he is unable. Like today some Muslims are afraid to expose their Islam, and even among born Muslims, Ahlu ‘s-Sunnah are not revealing themselves much because of so much fitna in the Arab countries. So a convert wants to read but cannot, he says Shahaadah every day and whatever sins he did in his life, at the end it’s waved because he said Shahaadah. So if we as Muslims say Shahaadah, will Allah give a convert more or He will give us like He gives them? Why is reciting Shahaadah in our salaat in at-Tahiyyat a requirement? To revert you back to what you were, to ‘convert’ you before you finish your prayers, because it is the last thing to say in prayer before the salawaat, and even that salawaat we recite is not obligatory and only one line is enough. So when you are reading Qur’an, Prophet (s) said in his Hadith:
انما الاعمال بالنيات
Truly actions are only by their intention. (Bukhari, Muslim)
Every ‘amal you do is according to the intention, so for everyone, whatever he intends he will get. A convert may think, “Okay, yaa Rabbee, I intend to read Qur’an but I don’t know how.” Will Allah leave him struggling? Prophet (s) said that ones’ sins will be waived, so it means say another time Shahaadah and another time your sins are waived!
إن أخوف ما أخاف على أمتي الشرك الأصغر
Truly the thing I fear most for my Ummah is the hidden shirk. (Ahmad)
Every moment in your life you are sinning from shirk khafee, the hidden shirk, so don’t say, “I am Muslim or mu’min,” you didn’t reach that high level, still you need to work on yourself. If they say Shahaadah their sins are waived, they become Muslim, then what about us? Will our sins not be waived if we say Shahaadah, just as their sins are waived? For sure they will be, because your niyyah as a Muslim is to read, but you cannot read, even Muslims don’t know how to read; they send their children to secular schools, but they don’t teach them religion and therefore they don’t know how to read. Even with all this, still we are given a way out! That convert, what is his job? He says Shahaadah and his sins are waived. We say Shahaadah our sins are waived. He doesn’t know how to read Qur’an, it is enough to point. What did the Prophet (s) say?
الماهر بالقرآن مع السفرة الكرام البررة والذي يقرأ القرآن ويتتعتع فيه وهو عليه شاق له أجران
The one who recites the Qur’an beautifully is with the noble and righteous angels, and the one who stutters as he reads the Qur’an, finding it difficult, will have two rewards. (Muslim)
The one who doesn’t know but is struggling to read will get two rewards. Then what is best? To have two rewards because you are reading Qur’an and your tongue is not pronouncing it well! He will get two rewards. Look what rewards Allah is giving to save the Ummah of Prophet (s)! Prophet (s) gave us signs that we have to pay attention to or then it’s your problem. If you pay attention, you will be able to save yourself and the others. So what Sayyidina Muhammad (s) said, he predicted something that will happen in the future. People say, “Because he has `Uloom al-Awwaleen wa ’l-Akhireen, Knowledge of Before and After, why didn’t he predict scientific discoveries we are seeing today?” Prophet (s) predicted everything!
سَنُرِيهِمْ آيَاتِنَا فِي الْآفَاقِ وَفِي أَنفُسِهِمْ حَتَّى يَتَبَيَّنَ لَهُمْ أَنَّهُ الْحَقُّ
We will show them Our Signs on the horizon and in their own selves until it becomes evident to them that it is the Truth. (Surah Fussilat, 41:53)
Allah is saying, “On the horizon,” which means in the future; He didn’t give permission to show them then because they were busy spreading Islam, Shari`ah and love of Prophet (s), establishing social life to build our countries, so He delayed the mention of scientific things. However, does the one who went to Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adna not know the road? He passed everything, saw everything, and he knows everything! Did he reach Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa not knowing what he saw? Immediately Allah (swt) will pour in Prophet’s (s) heart everything, even today! Don’t misunderstand or deny this, because then you will be committing a sin and that is shirk, to dispute the Greatness of Sayyidina Muhammad (s)!
[During the time of oppression by the Quraysh] Sayyidina Bilal (r) went to the roof of the Ka`bah to call adhaan and the Muslims were very happy, saying takbeer. The Prophet (s) gave him through his heart, not through dunya knowledge, a drop of `Uloom al-Awwaleen wa ’l-Akhireen, Knowledge of Before and After. It’s not like today when they go on top of the Ka`bah, they don’t know anything: his heart was open to receive knowledge from Ka`batullah. If Sayyidina Bilal (r) went to the roof of Ka`bah and Sahaabah said “Allahu Akbar,” what about Prophet (s) going to Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adna, when all angels said,”Allahu Akbar!” at least to welcome him, and he was welcomed, passing by every Paradise, the First Heaven, Second Heaven.
Why did Prophet (s) visit them one-after-one when he can go directly? He wanted to show, “Yaa Rabbee! I am Your servant and I don’t go beyond my limit.” If he had wanted to go directly Allah would have let him, but instead He gave him Jibreel (a) to accompany him, to teach us that we need a guide. To go from the Second Heaven to the Third Heaven he did not go without a guide, although he was able, but out of respect he stood by his limit, and who knows his limit stands by his limit:
وَإِنَّكَ لَعَلى خُلُقٍ عَظِي
You are of the most exalted character. (Surat al-Qalam, 68:4)
أدبني ربي فأحسن تأديبي
My Lord perfected my good manners and conduct. (Ibn `Asaakir)
So he stopped where he has to stop and the angels said, “Who is with you, yaa Jibreel?” The answer came from Jibreel (s), “Muhammad.” They asked if he was ordered to come. “Yes, he has been sent.” Why do angels have to ask these questions? Allah wants to show them, “Prophet (s) is superior to you, higher than everyone else, and you don’t need to ask these questions as I am raising him to a place you cannot understand or see: Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa.” Sayyidina Jibreel (a) was not able to go. That is what Allah (swt) gave Ummat an-Nabi (s), `Uloom al-Awwaleen wa ’l-Akhireen, the Knowledge of Before and After!
When you see something massive or when a nice event or something great happens, you say, “Allahu Akbar” and when a disaster happens you also say, “Allahu Akbar,” to calm that disaster down. What happened two days ago is not common, when a sand storm comes so suddenly all over the Arab countries and they were not able to see anything [the crane fell on hujjaj at the Ka`bah, killing some and injuring many]. We never saw such things all our lives, not as strong as this. Allah wants to show, “Everything in My Hand, not your hand, not in your cranes you are using for expansion, but I am showing you My Way! I am The Creator and you are My Servants!”
Say Shahaadah! That is why it is a requirement in salaat: the prayer is not accepted when you don’t say Shahaadah at the end, “Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llaah, I bear witness, I am seeing there is no god except Allah!”
One time in Indonesia they asked me to speak about Shahaadah, which is a very difficult topic; `ulama know this, but juhala, the ignorant don’t know. Ahlu ‘s-Sunnah scholars know as they are very strong and I respect and love them, especially Dr. Ali Gomah [former head of al-Azhar University] and many others, including `Umar ibn Hafeez and Ali Jifri, all these. There were at least 25,000 attendees and all the streets were blocked. To say Shahaadah...whatever was sent to me [by our grandshaykhs] I said it, but the main question is, when you say in Arabic “ash-hadu,” what is the meaning? “In this moment I bear witness, I am witnessing something, I am seeing,” in the present tense. It means, “I bear witness, yaa Rabbee, that there is no Creator except Allah!” But even with that explanation I am lying to myself as it is not yet the level of Shahaadah because you are not witnessing anything: you are saying it but you are not witnessing, not visualizing, you are not experiencing it in the Level of Visions, like when Sayyidina `Umar (r) called his general, Sayyidina Sariya (r) from Madinah when they were fighting a battle 1000 km away in Damascus and said, “Yaa Sariya, al-jabal, be careful of the mountain!” Sayyidina `Umar (r) saw him and spoke with him; that is a vision, Maqaam al-Shuhood, to bear witness on what cannot be seen. Allah (swt) gave it and He said it to the Prophet (s), which he narrated in a Qudsiyy Hadith:
ولا يزال عبدي يتقرب إلي بالنوافل حتى أحبه، فإذا أحببته كنت سمعه الذي يسمع به وبصره الذي يبصر به، ويده التي يبطش بها ورجله التي يمشي بها،
My servant does not cease to approach Me through voluntary worship until I will love him. When I love him, I will become the ears with which he hears, the eyes with which he sees, the hand with which he acts, and the legs with which he walks (and other versions include, “and the tongue with which he speaks.”). (Hadith Qudsiyy, Bukhari)
“I give him from My Treasures.” Are we getting? With His Rahmah, yes, with our ‘amal no, so by saying, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llaah,” your Shahaadah is not completed until you also say, “I bear witness that Muhammad is Your Messenger,” which means, “I am seeing when he reached Qaaba Qawsayni aw `Adna and there he said Kalimat at-Tawheed.” Your Tawheed is not completed if you don’t say, “Muhammad Rasoolullah.” When you say that, they pour `Uloom al-Awwaleen wa ‘l-Akhireen in your heart without you feeling a drop! Prophet (s) wants to prepare us and notify us by his prediction, he is seeing it and Sayyidina ‘Umar was able to see it. Sayyidina Muhammad (s) was able to see Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa, so there is no comparison, he is Sayyid ar-Rasool!
In Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, they included a section on the Signs of the Last Days, about which Prophet (s) predicted:
إِنَّ بَيْنَ يَدَيِ السَّاعَةِ أَيَّامًا يَنْزِلُ فِيهَا الْجَهْلُ , وَيُرْفَعُ فِيهَا الْعِلْمُ , وَيَكْثُرُ فِيهَا الْهَرْجُ
Truly between the hands of the Hour are days in which ignorance will descend, knowledge will be taken away, and killing will increase. (Bukhari)
Prophet (s) was saying 1436 years ago, “Between the hands of the Last Days”, which means from the Signs of the Last Days there are days in which ignorance will descend and fill the Earth. Is that not happening now? Wherever you go there is ignorance. “Jahl” has many meanings, but let’s take the normal one, the first one, “ignorance among the Ummah”, among all kinds of different people there is ignorance.
“Knowledge will be lifted up.” There will be no more knowledge. Today, what is the knowledge? Islamic knowledge? We see the ignorance happening in the Middle East, Pakistan, these countries, count them from Morocco to Algeria to Tunisia to Libya to Egypt to Syria to Lebanon, to Yemen and the Sub-Continent, and the others. “Knowledge will be lifted up, there is no more knowledge.” Don’t consider this is knowledge. This one wali can show you the whole Earth if the Ummah were on the right way. Don’t think technology is what Prophet (s) means by ‘knowledge’. Knowledge is Qur’an. “Seek knowledge in China,” means seek knowledge of Holy Qur’an, read it! To travel from here to China is sixteen hours, so here it means spend sixteen hours to understand the Holy Qur’an, spend sixteen hours as if you are going to China to study and Allah will open for you!
Why do awliya put their followers in seclusion? Because you get inspirations when reading Qur’an and Hadith, not everything they have to spoon-feed you. “There will be too much harj, killings and (more) killings,” and now every day so many people are being killed.
From the Signs of the Last Days, time will collapse and become shorter. When Awliya say “Bismillahi ‘r-Rahmani ‘r-Raheem” they reach East and West! For normal people China now takes sixteen hours to reach, but in the normal way it takes one year. Imagine 100 years ago or less, people walked to Hajj. Walking in the desert, they go caravans, they spend one year to reach Hajj, they stayed as much as they liked, there was no visa, and one day they come back. Today you go by plane and you say you are tired. In the past, when they left for Hajj they sat together and said, “If you come back alive we will be very happy, but if you are dead (killed) may Allah bless you.” It means they looked at death when going to Hajj, one year going and one year coming back.
Someone in the time of Grandshaykh (q) who went to Hajj from Syria, and every step he took he stopped and prayed two raka`ats. It took him three years to reach. Today what are we compared to such people, where is our level? Today they tell you, “It is difficult to go. I will go after I reach seventy years of age.”
He (s) said from the Signs of the Last Days:
1) “The time will be shorter.” Before you needed time to go from one place to another and today you are reaching everywhere in a short time.
2) “Knowledge will be diminished.” Today knowledge is diminishing. If you find old books written one-thousand years ago, how sophisticated they were, spending their time learning all kinds of knowledge such as Arabic grammar, Tafseer, Hadith, and they were meticulous on every the point! Today there is no such thing, that’s why knowledge will diminish.
3) “Too much fitna will appear.” Everywhere there is fitna nowadays, you cannot go outside without seeing fitna.
4) “There will be too much killing.”
Ibn Mas`ood (r) said, “Be careful! Look after knowledge, if you lose knowledge you will lose so much, you cannot gain it anymore. Be careful not to be ‘I know, you don’t know.’”
إن الله لا يقبض العلم انتزاعا ينتزعه من الناس ولكن يقبض العلم بقبض العلماء حتى إذا لم يترك عالما اتخذ الناس رءوسا جهالا فسئلوا فأفتوا بغير علم فضلوا وأضلوا
Truly Allah does not remove knowledge by removing it from people, rather he takes it by taking away the scholars. When there is not a single scholar left people will take ignorant leaders, they will ask them questions and they will give fatwas without knowledge, thereby misguiding themselves and others.
(Muslim)
This is important: Ibn Mas`ood (r) said, “I heard Prophet (s) say Allah will not take knowledge away, but He takes it by the `ulama dying and there will be no substitute to replace them...” and in every century scholars will become less until the Day of Judgement until there will be no more `ulama except a few, and people will follow ignorant ones who claim to be `ulama, and when they follow them they fall into their mistakes. They (followers) ask them and they (ignorant ones) give them fatwas although they are not `ulama. They make fatwas without knowledge so they deviate and they make others deviate.” This is what we are seeing today.
This is what we see today, people often claim, ‘I don’t know, you know. You know, I don’t know.’ Don’t go too deep, because if one word is a mistake and you are not an `alim [to understand it] you will doubt everything. That’s why by his permission, I asked Shaykh Tarek to teach `Aqeedah. Every Saturday he will be here at 6:00 pm before the dhikr, so I ask you, I implore you, to come as much as possible and attend these classes so you know where you are standing. It is not an easy class because it teaches many technical terms that are better to know, so make sure you come. If you love me and you come for me, come for him, because it is a necessity to learn our `Aqeedah, at least you know where you are standing. If I ask anyone if they know `Aqeedah, no one raises his hand. Always seek the old, follow the ancient ones who came before you, follow the `Aqeedah they wrote in their books. Don’t follow Salafis as we never heard about it [what they teach].
When I came to the US on 21st August 1990, I came to New York, went for Jumu`ah, the imam went on the minbar, and he was blind. In the `Aqeedah of Ahl as-Sunnah, you cannot have the blind one when there is a non-blind one. He spoke about there is no such thing as Mawlid and anyone who does Mawlid is kaafir, so he is fully blind! I left and I went to another mosque the next week, which was similar, with no blind imam, but it was the Mawlid month and he was attacking the Mawlid. So our `Aqeedah is important, to know the realities of the Greatness of Sayyidina Muhammad (s)! Do not follow ‘You are right, I am wrong. You are wrong, I am right.’ Don’t discuss with them, there is no way to bring them back, bring the new ones. Always keep the old trusted one, it is baraka for you and the masjid and the Ummah.
I went to India and saw all these ancient masjids, maqaams and centers, which they kept very nice, Pakistan I believe is the same, but they are blowing some of them up, and Yemen also has that problem. Keep following the Ka`bah, keep going to Ka`baatullah. May Allah forgive us and bless us. We won’t continue, this is enough.
Bi hurmati ‘l-habeeb, bi hurmati ‘l-Fatihah.
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