As-salaam alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakutuh.

Really I don’t know from where to begin.

Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem

Before I begin, I have been given this paper to announce that one of our very good brothers from Manchester who is Chinese and he converted into Islam two years ago and his name is Dr. Simon and he has Chinese Sufi traditional medicine in his stall outside and free health care, he will check up free. So you can line up there outside. And there is the Sufi bookstore outside, you can get books from them. So if anyone has a health problem take the opportunity and go, get a checkup.

Alhamdulillahi rabbil-`alameen….

Alhamdulillah, nastaghfirahu was nastahdiyah wa natawakalu `alahyh…

Wa ashhadu an la ilaha illa Allah wahdahu la shareek laha wa la matheela lahu fee `uluwi shaanihi wa `adheemi sultaanih wa nashhadu anna Sayyidina Muhammad (s)`abduhu wa habeebahu wa Rasuluh…

O brothers and sisters, I know we are very thankful for the shuyukh and for the ahl at-turuq that they are present here. And they know for sure, and no doubt, that we are not alone in this hall and this audience. We have our masters’ spirits that is over all of us and are supporting the shuyukh and supporting you and supporting me. Without their support we are losers. On top of that we must know and believe and understand that Allah we cannot say has “chosen” Sayyidina Muhammad (s) because many people say today that Sayyidina Muhammad (s) been chosen, but we cannot say that, Sayyidina Muhammad (s) has been created to be the master of creation. Allah created him and created creation for him, not for anyone else. That is what Allah said to Sayyidina Adam when he committed the sin.

So that means that Sayyidina Muhammad (s) is the Insan al-Kamil, He is the complete perfect master, owner, of the creation that Allah gave it to him and he is servant to Allah. He is happy when Allah calls him “`abd” – “Ya `abdee.” Because he likes that word. He likes to be the one who is always prostrating to Allah swt. So that perfect man and that Seal of messengers, the first to be created and the first to be called on the Day of Resurrection, Allah sent him as the engine… as the engine of this universe, as the mechanism of these whole galaxies that we are seeing in front of us. He is the one that Allah gave him the authority on the universe when he went for Isra and Mi’raj up, or wherever he went up or wherever he went when he went to qaaba qawsayni or less, he is the one who was able to penetrate all these universes and that means he has ability to reach anyone in these universes. And that ability we can explain in a very simple to give us an idea there is a very simple proof that the Prophet (s) can reach everyone of us, every angel, every star, every person, every jinn, every angel he can reach because he was able to reach qaaba qawsayni by that power that Allah gave him.

Look today you can reach anyone around the world by your email. It goes through a server. That server can take billions and billions of messages and that server can reach anyone around the world. Because it has an engine that worked by electromagnetic waves or different kind of waves. And they have main servers, the main one is in San Francisco, California that all messages of the world go through it, or they have satellites.

What do you think about Sayyidina Muhammad (s) - he doesn’t have a server in his heart? He doesn’t have the capacity of a server that human being invented, he doesn’t have the capacity that Allah has given him a heart that he w as created by lord of heavens and brought him to qaaba qawsayni.

He cannot reach us? If we say “Ya sayyidee, ya Rasulullah!” he will look at us. If we don’t say, he is seeing us. If we say “Ya sayyidee! ya Muhammad (s)!” it is a double way, he is reaching from his side and we to our side. So Sufism is to reach to Sayyidina Muhammad (s) through our channels. Through our emails.

Each Shaykh has a server. You think a Shaykh doesn’t have a server to reach his mureeds, or what is the benefit of the Shaykh. If he doesn’t have a server how do we consider him a shaykh? Shaykhun.  Now shaykh we use as a word of respect but real shaykhs, real shaykhs have to reach their mureeds at any moment in 24 hours. At any second they are there.

This is what we know about Sufism. I don’t want to go to explain the different aspects of Sufism. The bad characteristics and the good characteristics that is what Sufism teaches. But most important is to show that there is relationship, Sufi people have always accepted there is relationship between shaykhs and the Prophet (s).

That is why SMC came out and was born with understanding of reaching everyone and to be part of everyone’s life. We are not interested in who is going to be SMC. We want to work out. We want the voice out. Anyone has a voice, anyone has a power to speak, anyone who can go and make himself available - that is what we need. That is what it is all about other organizations they are reaching out and we are the SMC supporters of Sayyidina Muhammad (s). That is why you look you see SMC, what does SMC stand for?

It is as it is Sufi Muslim Council. But in reality the Perfect Human Being, al-Insan al-Kamil that the Prophet (s) has been described by, Sayyidina Muhammad (s), it mean the one who is perfect in every action that he does. A perfect one cannot be dead he is alive in his paradise in his maqaam. He veiled himself from dunya because Allah swt want to show His greatness to the Ummah so it was not necessary for him to stay and Sahaba to see him always. But Allah wants the unseen, when he taught to believe in the Unseen, the Prophet (s) when asked about the importance of the people of the Last days, he said, “They believe in me without seeing me.”

You are the lovers of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) - and lovers cannot keep quiet they have to speak up. We are not lovers - we are sitting at home. Look the others, they are activists and they are raising their voices for everyone ot hear them.

You are followers of al-Insan al-Kamil. The one who is perfect and the one who is perfect cannot be perfect is he leaves one of the Ummah without reaching him. He must not leave one person to be captured by shaytan.

He is al-Qutb ar-Rabbani. The real Qutb is Sayyidina Muhammad (s) whose heart is and whose ruh is reaching to everyone and where Allah said in Holy Qur'an “wa ma arsalnaaka illa rahmatan lil-`alameen – We have not sent you (O Muhammad) except as mercy to all the worlds.”  And he said, “wa feekum Rasulullah” - that means that there are traces of Sayyidina Muhammad’S (s) presence in every heart. Don’t break that relationship.

And as my shaykh, may Allah give him long life, may Allah give everyone long life because he is doing well.

One time he said, those who we are calling in western world the mutasawwifoon, those who are purifying their hearts, Allah will give them a special paradise the Jannat al-Muhammadiyoon. They will be in that place the paradise of the lovers of the Prophet (s). You will be in that. ‘S’ stands for support, ‘M’ for mahabbat an-nabi and ‘C’ stands for community. It means support the Sufi Muslim community. Support those who love prophet Muhammad (s). it means support majaalis dhikrullah. So that means support the gatherings of dhikrullah. So SMC makes many meanings in support of the aspects of the Sufi tradition.

And we are here present and many came from overseas and we say thank to you for coming. The majority of Muslim in this community in England are Sufis. Why we hide behind our fingers. All of them have relation to tariqah and shaykhs. Let us all work together in order to implement the message we want to give to local government. that we are a moderate comm.. support moderate community, support mahabbat an-Nabi community. Support majalis adh-dhikr community. you must be happy you are in this country. There are many in got that are listening to us.

How many have raised their voices. Very few. Now we are hearing support from Tahir Qadiri community. we are hearing support from Sultan Bahoo community. Where are the papers that we distributed? Can you raise them up.

Shaykh Irfan Chisti, what happened. So everyone got a paper? Who did not get  a paper raise his hand. Are you having enough papers here? We don’t want on the way outside, we want on the way inside. When they are on way outside they throw it. This is our tradition we know it.

How many people filled the paper, can you raise your hand? How many people didn’t not fill the paper. Can you get paper to give to these people?  I believe that … get 2, 3 volunteers to get papers and distribute. And you have to fill it and give it back.

Mawlana Riaz Husayn.

Shakeel, I want to ask, when Mawlana invited me to his Mawlid there were at least 10,000 people. Sultan Bahoo, when I visited Spain, I saw Pakistanis, they were speaking Spanish. And Shaykh Tahir al-Qadiri of Manhaj al-Quran and I was thinking why we don’t do Milad an-Nabi in London. Why not like the one in your area with 10,000 people. Why we don’t work out to have Milad an-Nabi in London and invite the government people to celebrate with us; to hear our message and to hear our voices and to balance our voices and to accept that. Do you like to have a Milad an-Nabi 10,000 or  20,000 people to plan for it. It might be this March or later, depends on the time frame.

Shaykh Irfan Chisti - this is your work. This March means the weekend of the 9^th of March. If we can do that in the coming month, I don’t know, but it will be great. It will be our voice for other organizations. It might be they will like what we are doing and go back to Ahl as-Sunnah wal-Jama`at. And to go to government to say these are the Sufi Muslim community. And they are the majority.

And we are still not doing anything. I request from all of you. Our objectives, we are not caring for titles we are only caring for the work that comes out. Only that we get voice to the media and voice to the government because we are the people of this country. We cannot go anywhere else. We are the moderates, the Sufis, the ones who can sing and laugh and pray. We are not giving that message today. “We will be responsible,” I said yesterday in the other event, “we all go to Arafat.” The Prophet (s) said that hajj is `Arafat. If you don’t go to `Arafat then no hajj. Why do we go to `Arafat - 3 million people there? To call on Allah. You think only we are standing there? You don’t think the Prophet (s) is standing there? If the Prophet (s) is not there, there is no hajj. If the  Prophet (s) is not there then no hajj. The Prophet’s presence is needed for Allah to send His Mercy on us.

And we are weak we need your support. We go all in one voice. Labayk Allahuma laka labayk, labayk la shareek laka labayk. Inn al-hamda wan-ni`mata laka wa’l-mulk la shareek laka. We have to come together as Sufi Muslims to come together in thousand and thousand at least one time in our life, and on Judgment Day when Allah asks us, “what did you do to make the message reach others?” We are able to say, “we came in masses to give our message out and call everyone to Allah.”

We don’t want to go out and demonstrate against governments. We are people who as Sultan Bahoo said, “demonstrate for justice.” Our duty is to carry [the message], as the Sahaba.

Tell me, I went to Uzbekistan, what is known as Uzbekistan in central Asia and we were in an area of central Samarqand and they said there is a cousin of  the Prophet (s) buried here. At the border of China. There we visited Quthum ibn al-`Abbas . He didn’t speak one word of the language there. How he brought these people to Islam?...

Naqshbandi tariqah, Burhani tariqah, all these different tariqats. They will see all these banners carrying tariqahs and invite the government. Then they will say “we didn’t know about all these tariqats here.” … you carry the message of prophet of love and peace and harmony.

I am leaving. If I don’t do it, Allah swt will send someone to do that. We don’t know when we die. We are trying to follow the footsteps of our shuyukh. I believe when my shaykh first came here in 1974 he reached many people and all through his life when he visited here, he was reaching Europe. And now look when you go to Sultan Bahoo and Shaykh Tahir al-Qadiri. They have centers around the world. Now ever Naqshbandi they have centers around the world. But we need to come together. We cannot go to government  and say we are Naqshbandis they will say where are the others.

So before I finish I would like to invite Shaykh Azhar up to the poem, Irfan Chisti, Shaukat, all the board members of Sufi Muslim Council. Haras Rafeeq, Hedieh Mirahmadi, Abdur Rauf, Farzana. Shiwana. Ishmael. These are the people who are behind SMC.

[applause]

Three years ago we came with the idea, me, Haras and Hedieh about SMC and we said let us put it. But we were orphans. We didn’t have but one person to represent SMC in England. And now Alhamdulillah after3 years we are no longer orphans we are now honored to be with these ladies and gentlemen who are on board of SMC trying to reach to all tariqats. And I will ask all of them, Azhar, Irfan Chisti and Haras to say if they have anything in their hearts to say, then I will ask the ladies.

Azhar: dear guests, respected elders, shuyukh, a few years ago we had meeting where…Sufi Muslim Council was born and despite the voices of those who give Islam a bad name, some call Wahabis, some call them different names. And these are the ones that non-Muslims listen you. Now people like Shokat Malik, Haras, .represent the silent majority. People like Mawlana Riaz Husayn from Blackburn, people like Shakeel from Milton who has been with us from day one and I like to say that 10 of us cannot make different when we can email you and you email us about your problem. We can demonstrate that Sufis love this country and this country needs Sufis.

Irfan Chisti:

I like to thank my noble shaykhs, as Azhar said, we have different silsila but as we agree that all our silsilah lead to nearly the same goals….our challenge is to unite together. And there are many other salaasil out there that we need to reach out and if we have …responsibility they have bestowed on us… it is not just about individuals, but about us collectively.

When I moved from my career path then Allah swt chose me to serve the deen and Alhamdulillah my father and my teachers, whichever silsila if they stand for love of Holy Prophet (s) and love of awliyaullah and love of Islam then we work together to make sure that path is promoted.

Thank you Shaykh for giving us support. There are many unsung heroes that are behind the SMC and we ask only …

Haras:

I think there is little to add, but I want to share personal story of how I came to tariqah an came back to real Islam. Many in UK many struggle to live as Paki and how to live outside the house. I remember clearly 6 years ago. My daughter said, “Daddy I don’t want to be Muslim.” “Why?” “Because Muslims are always angry and always want to kill someone. And they are always burning Guy Falkes.”

And thank God with the blessing our shuyukh and Shaykh Nazim and Shaykh Hisham and I was able to be brought back to love of the Prophet (s) and to give mainstream Muslims the mic. We look forward to counting on your support.

I would ask one of the ladies or two ladies whoever they choose. And Shavana will speak and last Shokat or Abdur Rauf.