3 June 2017 Fenton Zawiya, Michigan
Zhuhr Suhbah
In the old times when I was young, in Madinatu 'l-Munawwara we held Majlis Salaat `ala an-Nabi (s) with fifty or a hundred people reciting Dalaa’il al-Khayraat, and afterwards for at least ten or fifteen minutes, we recited Fatihah with the intention for everyone who had a problem or difficulty, which is good because:
إنما الأعمال بالنيات
Every action is according to (its) intention. (Bukhari)
If their niyyah is pure and for Allah (swt) and His Messenger, Allah will be happy and dress all the people sitting together, even if some don’t know how to read or write still blessings will come on them. May Allah (swt) make us part of those people! May Allah (swt) make us to be with Prophet (s), with his `ibaadah and his knowledge, inshaa-Allah. Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, al-Fatihah.
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.
Today is 8th Ramadan; subhaanAllah, so quickly ten days have passed! Everyone is busy with his shortcomings, because in Ramadan Allah (swt) opens Abwaab al-Jannah, the Doors of Heavens, and He closes the Doors of Hellfire. In Ramadan, no one from Ummat an-Nabi (s) will be punished, ihtiraaman li ‘n-Nabi, in honor and respect of Prophet (s) all the Doors to Hellfire are closed. We are in the last of the first ten days, which is rahmah, mercy.
Allah yatajalla ‘ala ‘ibaadihi tajaliyyati ‘r-rahmah, Allah manifests His Beautiful Names and Attributes with mercy that He sends on those who are fasting, obeying and praying. Alhamdulillah, we know that our shuyookh have guided us in the best way, but we put obstacles for ourselves; however, because we are trying our best we will succeed inshaa-Allah, either in dunya or in Akhirah, so we are guaranteed. Ummat an-Nabi (s) is Ummatan marhooma maghfooran lah, a nation upon which Allah sent His mercy: without looking at what they did or did not do, He forgave them. We must thank Allah day and night that He made us Muslims from Ummat an-Nabi (s). Look at all the millions and billions of people that came to dunya before us, yet only the Prophet (s) has received that mercy in a public announcement of the title of this Ummah: Ummatan Marhooma, the nation blessed with Allah's Mercy!
Allah (swt) said to Prophet (s):
وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ إِلَّا رَحْمَةً لِّلْعَالَمِينَ
(O Muhammad!) We have sent you not except as a Mercy for all the Worlds. (Surat al-Anbiyaa, 21:107)
Allah didn’t say to anyone else, “We have sent you as a mercy to the Ummah that comes after you.” That is a great honor for us, our children and our ancestors. May Allah bless them, bless us, and bless those to come after us. We hope some changes in the world will come soon, what we are now seeing appear very slowly, as mentioned in the Hadith of the Prophet (s) about what is going to happen. Prophet (s) wants everyone to know what he knows. He is ready to give everyone as much as we can take, and there are Awliyaullah that can suck the whole river of knowledge in one minute, as described:
Wa kullun min rasoolillaahi multamisun, gharfan min al-bahri aw rashfan min ad-diyami.
All of them partake from the Prophet of God a handful of his oceans or a sip from his continuous rains. (Shaykh Muhammad al-Busayri, Burdat ash-Shareef)
It means all of them are taking from the Prophet (s). In whichever direction Imam al-Busayri (r) turned his face, left or right, he saw the Prophet (s). He wrote his Qasidat al-Burdah by dictation from Prophet (s) and was unable to write it without Prophet’s support. When he was writing and reciting it on the bank of the Nile River, the water was boiling. That is one Wali, so what do you think about all Awliyaullah? If they want they can move the whole planet to where they like, and that day is coming, when the mountains are moved and you will see the Earth still:
وَيَوْمَ نُسَيِّرُ الْجِبَالَ وَتَرَى الْأَرْضَ بَارِزَةً وَحَشَرْنَاهُمْ فَلَمْ نُغَادِرْ مِنْهُمْ أَحَدًا
One Day We shall remove the mountains, and you will see the Earth as a level stretch, and We shall gather them all together, nor will We leave out any one of them. (Surat al-Kahf, 18:47)
لِّمَنِ الْمُلْكُ الْيَوْمَ ۖ لِلَّـهِ الْوَاحِدِ الْقَهَّارِ
To whom is the Kingdom this Day? To Allah, The Unique, The Irresistible. (Surat Ghafir, 40:16)
Allah (swt) answers Himself, “To whom is the Kingdom after everyone dies today?” Everyone will die: on that Day no one will be left behind, not even the great angels Sayyidina Jibreel, Israfeel, Azra`eel, Mika`eel (a). Sayyidina Jibreel (a) took the Prophet (s) on the Night Journey and showed him everything; they passed through all the universes to reach a maqaam that has no zamaan and no makaan. They reached a level where Hadd ad-Dunya, the limit of dunya, ends and although he is highest angel that came to the Prophet (s) with alfaz al-kalam, Jibreel (a) could not move forward. Some knowledge only the Prophet (s) knows and Allah did not give that to Jibreel (a).
When Jibreel (a) came with the Message and said, “Iqraa!” the Prophet (s) said, “I have a load of `ilm supporting me, so from which knowledge do you want me to speak?”
اقْرَأْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ
Read in the Name of the One Who created. (Surat al-`Alaq, 96:1)
“In the Name of Allah Who creates!” It means, “Yaa Muhammad! We have given you the knowledge and understanding of how We created Creation,” because the Prophet (s) was the first to be created: the first thing Allah created is the Light of Muhammad (s). That means he witnessed everyone being created after that, so he knew whatever is going to happen in dunya. In Jannah there is no time, it is a continuous existence, and therefore we cannot express it, only the Prophet (s) can speak about it because he saw it.
When we say “ash-hadu” we are witnessing. Allah made His Prophet (s) say, “Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadu ‘r-Rasoolullah.” He dictated Kalimat ash-Shahadah to the Prophet (s) and if you don’t say it in salaat, your prayer is not accepted. Can you pass over it in at-Tahiyyat? No, you say it because it’s an order from Allah: He wants us to witness that. Therefore, it means we witnessed something, knowledge that is now implanted in our heart. Everyone says, “Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadu ‘r-Rasoolullah” in different ways, everyone’s voice is different, there are no twins here. Twins are born in dunya, but in Akhirah there are no twins, we are all individuals. Allah gives to everyone who says Shahadah five times a day (or more) in their prayers. In every Shahadah, Allah makes us witness something we never witnessed before and that must be brought out by Awliyaullah to Ummat an-Nabi (s). However, all of us are in the hands of the Prophet (s) and all of us, including the Prophet (s), are figuratively ‘between Allah’s Hands,’ when whatever Tajalli comes at that moment cannot be delayed. That is why when you begin to say Shahadah, you will be granted more from its meanings to polish your heart more, like a lens.
The biggest lens in dunya is the Hubble Telescope. One of the main people who built it told me the required lens would be the size of the distance from San Francisco to New York, but due to polishing and polishing and polishing, its three-foot-wide lens can see so far. If we all polish our hearts, we will become like the Hubble Telescope and will see what people cannot see and will hear what people cannot hear, because at that moment our heart is very well-connected with our shaykh, which is why you begin to see visions and dreams. As narrated by one of most precious Awliya, Sayyidina Muhiyyidin ibn `Arabi (q), when Allah wants to look at His Creation He does not look directly, but rather looks at Sayyidina Muhammad (s), the mirror!
Between Creation and Creator is Sayyidina Muhammad (s): that is why his name was raised, in order for all to know that Reality. Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah: the end of ‘laa ilaaha illa-Llah’ is Allah and the haa means it is hidden: Qul Huw Allahu Ahad. Laa ilaaha illa-Llah ilaa Huw, the end of ‘Allah’ is Huw, which is Ghayban Mutlaaq, The Absolute Unseen, no one can see it, but:
“Say, yaa Muhammad, ‘Qul Huw Allahu Ahad.’ He is The One Who Cannot Be Seen, He is The Unique, The Creator, He is everything!” When Allah wants to look at His servants when they are sent to the First Heavens, He looks at them through the mirror of Prophet (s), because whatever they did reflects on the mirror of the Prophet (s), and from there it reaches Alastu bi-rabbikum qaaloo balaa:
أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ قَالُوا بَلَىٰ
[Allah asked] “Am I not your Lord?” They said, “Yes!” (Surat al-Araaf, 7:172)
Awliyaullah are very careful how they direct their eyes. One Wali, since his birth...because some of them are not veiled, they can see everything, even al-Lawh al-Mahfoozh, whether people like it or not. The Prophet (s) is the one to whom Allah gave authority on all human beings, is it not?
Awliyaullah observe their followers to bring them to the Right Way; they know what their mureed’s are doing in order to support them to be seen in the mirror of the Prophet (s). When a Wali wants to look at the mureed he looks at the heart of the Prophet (s), which reflects what that mureed is doing, either good or bad:
تعرض علي أعمالكم
I observe the `amal of my Ummah. (al-Bazzaar in his Musnad)
He looks at us and he presents us to Allah (swt) clean, which is an honor for us. May Allah (swt) keep us on the right track, connected to Prophet (s), who is the main engine of dunya and all Creation. Allah created Creation and did not give it a glance, He only looked at Prophet (s)! From that Noor that Allah gave him every `abd appeared and when that Noor is taken, you no longer appear to them. If your `amal is good you will be given Paradise, and anyone given Paradise in his life will never be blind, always his eyes can see everything. Let us make our eyes see everything by reflecting Kalimat at-Tawheed because it is the Miftah al-Jannah, Key to Paradise.
من قال لا إله إلا الله دخل الجنة
Whoever says ‘Laa ilaaha illa-Llah’ will enter Paradise. (Al-Haakim)
But, unfortunately, we are running towards dunya more than to Akhirah, and Allah (swt) said:
رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ
O our Lord! Give us goodness in this life and goodness in the Next Life, and protect us from the punishment of the Fire. (Surat al-Baqara, 2:201)
“Give us good tiding in dunya and give us good tidings in Akhirah,” balancing both. Sayyidina `Ali (r) said:
اعمل لدنياك كأنك تعيش أبدا واعمل لآخرتك كأنك تموت غدا
Work for this life as if you will live forever and work for the next life as if you will die tomorrow.
“Live for dunya as if you will live forever,” ya`nee, work hard, not just sitting all day, which is from laziness. Sayyidina Shaykh Sharafuddin (q) made his mureeds work very hard and did not like to see them sitting, He often told them, “You have nothing to do? Go work on the crops, shovel the fields.” The one who sits is with Shaytan, who wants you to not move. Be active in dunya `amal and in Akhirah `amal. Allah gave you dunya to be active and for Akhirah to be active. If you sit and don't want to do anything, only enjoying, it is okay but you will stand in front of the Prophet (s) in a not nice way and you will feel ashamed.
Alhamdulillah for the Awliyaullah among us, who guided us to the best, and we take their teachings and knowledge as the best and keep it dearly, strong in our hands, inshaa-Allah. When these mirrors have been cleaned and polished very well...I mentioned the story before so in summary: there was a competition between two artists to draw their best painting. The one from China drew a very nice picture and the other was (only) polishing the wall until the end and they took the curtain and what the Chinese did was reflected on the wall of the Persian man who had polished his wall. So when you polish your heart it will attract everything that Allah wants you to see and to know from this universe, from dunya and Akhirah. So keep polishing and polishing even though you might find obstacles, keep polishing and it will open. When it opens, your shaykh will be happy and you will be happy because the shaykh wants the mureed to see what cannot be seen, and hear what cannot be heard. Awliya want their followers to win, to succeed. So you need a (heavenly) sponge to clean the walls of your heart.
وسعني أرضي ولا سمائي ولكن وسعني قلب عبدي المؤمن
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)
To contain Allah in your heart means that He will be sending you from His Mercy and His Mercy is Prophet (s), that means He made a deal between you and Prophet (s) which is between Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadu ‘r-Rasoolullah to declare openly that you witness Allah, that there is no Creator but Allah (swt) and that Sayyidina Muhammad (s) is His Messenger. To Allah, the whole dunya does not weigh the wing of a mosquito, but for us it weighs a lot because if we can push Shaytan away, that will be a great honor for us on Judgment Day. You might face a lot of obstacles in dunya, but must struggle to take them away. Alhamdulillah, there are Awliyaullah that guide you threough your struggle from within you:
إِذَا أَرَادَ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى بِعَبْدٍ خَيْرًا ، جَعَلَ لَهُ وَاعِظًا مِنْ قَلْبِهِ يَأْمُرُهُ وَيَنْهَاهُ
If Allah (swt) wants goodness for His servant, He will make for him a guide in his heart.
(Abu Na`eem al-Ispahani in Hilyat al-Awliya from Ahmad bin Hanbal)
“Allah will grant the servant He loves a guide in his heart.” The lenses of these eyeglasses need to be polished. Before, it was only thick glass and when they polished it it became thin, and with some lenses you can look close and far. Similarly, if your heart is strong and good, you can look with the special lens of the heart to see what people cannot see. If you want to see better, you clean your lens because dirt comes on it, ghobar, dust particles and fingerprints, so you clean it with your cloth and polish it with your hand, but still it is in limits.
One Wali, about whom we began this suhbat, from birth he was a wali. There are Awliyaullah wahban, to whom Allah grants wilayah even though they only do their five prayers, fasting and Hajj and no other `ibaadah. But others, Awliyaullah kasban, struggle and struggle to worship until they are exhausted, then Allah gives them. Those who are wahban don't struggle. Grandshaykh (q) explained that a lot because Haqiqat ar-Rooh, Reality of the Soul, is not in dunya, it is where it belongs in Alastu bi-rabbikum qaaloo balaa, where Allah asked us in His Presence, “Who am I?” and we said, “You are our Creator.”
أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ قَالُوا بَلَىٰ
[Allah asked] “Am I not your Lord?” They said, “Yes!” (Surat al-Araaf, 7:172)
From that time, the rooh has wanted to return to its origin: inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji`oon. In every moment the Awliyaullah are under that al-fazh, declaration. We say it through our tongue, but the Wali says it with the Reality of tasting it, as if every moment he is dying. That Wali, whose name we will mention later, had no veils from birth: he could see what people cannot see and hear what people cannot hear.
عن أبي هريرة قال قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم إن الله قال من عادى لي وليا فقد آذنته بالحرب وما تقرب إلي عبدي بشيء أحب إلي مما افترضت عليه وما 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 وإن سألني لأعطينه ولئن استعاذني لأعيذنه وما ترددت عن شيء أنا فاعله ترددي عن نفس المؤمن يكره الموت وأنا أكره مساءته
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 Qudsi, Bukhari)
His eyes were like a mill turning, the white covering the black and the black covering the white. The iris circumambulated the pupil, the smallest point in the eye, above which people get cataracts and doctors remove that thick lens, then the patient begins to see clearly. The eye color at that point becomes blue, but when they put something on it that color is covered. So the white part of the eye would overcome the black, or the blue or green color, and at another moment the green would cover the white. That Wali was always struggling to keep his eyes turning continuously because he didn't want to see anything from dunya, he only wanted to see from Akhirah. So he covered that circumambulating light to bring energy for his vision to become like a laser, then with his cleansed eyes he saw and heard what was far away.
Awliyaullah have the power to talk and see each other from far away. Today you use Skype, and Awliyaullah have a heavenly Skype that allows them to see and speak from far away by using telepathy. Why don't we say we can speak from far away? From Madinah, Sayyidina `Umar (r) spoke to his general Sariya (r), who was in Sham. Sariya heard Sayyidina `Umar, who both saw and heard, which is a higher level. The majority of Awliyaullah see far away and some also hear. Some Awliyaullah are inheriting from Sayyidina `Umar (r), others from other Sahaabah (r), and the Prophet (s) said:
أصحابي كالنجوم بأيهم اقتديتم اهتديتم
My Companions are like stars (on a dark night); whichever of them you follow, you will be guided.
(`Abd ibn Humayd, ad-Daraqutnee, ibn `Adiyy, ibn `Abd al-Barr, with unsound chains but the meaning is sound.)
So that Wali did not want to waste that light Allah gave him, he was saving it especially for his followers on Judgment Day when everyone will come before Allah (swt), when souls that know each other well are grouped in battalions and those who hate each other will separate, as the Prophet (s) said:
الارواح جنود مجندة
Souls are conscripted soldiers. (Bukhari’s Al-Adab al-Mufrad)
This Wali keeps the whites of his eyes turning over the green and the green turning over the white to save that energy for Judgment Day, when everyone will be brought forth with their Wali and all Awliya will stand next to the Prophet (s), who will grant that Wali to open his right eye and gaze over the entire area. He will send light from his eyes and go forward to reach each different jam`aat, gazing from the parameter to make a square covering all four sides. Whoever is inside that area will be taken to Heaven with no account! That is the power Allah gave to Shah Baha’uddin Naqshband (q).
Sometimes your doctor prescribes extended release medicine for you that can last up to 24 hours. Similarly, that extended release light will slowly, slowly go over that area and cover many followers from the Naqshbandi Tariqah and other Tariqahs, then come back to Shah Baha’uddin Naqshband (q). To Awliyaullah, there is no difference between Tariqahs, and when Sayyidina Imam Mahdi (a) comes there will be no Tariqah, what he says will be completed by all. So whoever is covered by that light will go to Paradise with no account and later brought to Shafa`at an-Nabi (s). This is the power Shah Baha’uddin Naqshband (q) was given and he doesn't want to lose it because the more area that light covers, the more people will go to Paradise.
When Sayyidina Bayazid al-Bistami (q) knew that Reality of Shah Baha’uddin Naqshband (q), who came hundreds of years after him, he said, “O Awliya!” With the light of his eyes that Allah gave him, Shah Naqshband (q) was able to fill four Paradises, arab`a jinaan. Grandshaykh asked, “Is it not shame on us not to fill the other two or three Paradises when Shah Naqshband (q) filled four Paradises? We hundreds of thousands of Awliyaullah can not fill the other three?”
Awliyaullah are working for us, Ummat an-Nabi (s) needs to be worked on. We have physical therapists, psychiatrists, and so many doctors in various fields, but there is only one doctor who can take us to Paradise: Sayyidina Muahammad (s), who taught us to say, “Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadu ‘r-Rasoolullah.” Here ‘Shahadah’ means, “I bear witness, I hear, see and know there is no Creator but Allah.” Allah will give the opportunity to His `abd to see, hear and know He is The Creator if we say, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah,” as that is our key to Paradise.
May Allah (swt) make us all benefit from this advice. Inshaa-Allah all Ramadan will be full of happiness, noor and obedience. May Allah make everyone reach his goal, whatever he or she likes, and take away all miseries and obstacles. We are weak servants, but we are ordered to ask Allah continuously, non-stop, wa idha salaka `ibaadee `annee fa inee qareeb, “Let them believe in Me, that I will rescue them from their problems.” Allah is saying, “If someone asks you, yaa Muhammad, I am ready to respond to his request and I will give him.” Keep that in mind and we will be successful in dunya and Akhirah, and all problems will be solved. For the sake of Ramadan, may Allah take away from us all heaviness and resolve our problems through His wahban, grant, not through kasban. You don’t pay back a grant, it is a gift. May Allah give us a grant we don't have to pay back, to enter Paradise with no difficulties!
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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