Ati` Allah wa ati` ar-rasula wa uli 'l-amri minkum
First of all I would like to say that it is an honor for us to be hosted here in Colombo with brother Haneef, and with you and your brother Dr. Hosni and your family and Shaykh Izzat, and may Allah swt give you honor dunya and akhira.
May Allah keep us together with Mawlana Shaykh Nazim and Allah give him long life.
Alhamdulillah that everywhere you go in this country you look you see a tea plantation, everywhere. And who planted these trees? Someone. And who is benefiting from these trees are us, the people. So Allah swt wants us to benefit. He doesn’t want us to be like animals, although animals are benefiting, but Allah said he honored human being.
Wa laqad karramna banee adama wa hamalnaahum fi ’l-barri wa ’l-bahri wa razaqnaahum mina alttayyibati wa faddalnahum `ala katheerin mimman khalaqnaa tafdeela
We have honored the sons of Adam; provided them with transport on land and sea; given them for sustenance things good and pure; and conferred on them special favours, above a great part of our creation. Al-Isra [17:70]
Allah didn’t say I honored animals but Allah said he honored us he honored us with what? There are many explanations on that. Honored us to make us human beings. He made human beings calipha on earth. He honored us because he sent as a messenger Sayyidina Muhammad (s) and he made Sayyidina Muhammad (s) to intercede for everyone of us. There are a lot of honors that Allah gave to humanity.
As everyone thinks that “why we are on earth? Why we are here, for what reason? Why did we not stay in paradise?”
Allah’s swt wisdom Allah’s Will, is to make this earth to be a house for humanity. This earth is a house for people. But Allah makes every people and every person, in his heart he gave him a house, a heavenly house. People don’t think. They think this heart is this big and is always pumping. What is bigger? Which is more intelligent, which is more clever? The mind or the heart? Do you think with your heart or you think with your mind? Hug? Confusing question. We think with mind or we think with heart. Everyone will say no, “we think with the mind.” The Mind has limitation or no limitation? People say “no limitation” because the mind can think too much. The heart has limitations or no? The heart has limitation. But in reality the heart has no limitation, but the mind has limitation.
All scholars, not Muslim scholars but scientists, the say the mind is the main focus for the whole body to give commands and orders; to make everything work. And that is why it says that as much as you have high IQ, as much as your intellectuality grows up. And that is why you see people have no limitation of money, they are greedy. People are running after what? They are running after money. If they are running after something else they would be like Sayyida Maryam.
Whenever he entered her niche he (Zakariyya) found provision there. Al-Imran [3:37]
Awliyaullah they left dunya and Allah made dunya to come after them. He made dunya slave to them. Now we are slave to dunya. But dunya is servant to awliyaullah. That is why you see awliyaullah they are sitting in their chair or lying in their beds, Allah sends provisions to their hands, either money or food or what. But people, human being, running after what? Running after money, because they are what? Greedy. So mind takes you so far in greediness in order to get more, to get more. If Allah gave you this much you want this much. If He gave you this much, you want thiiiiis much you cannot stop.
Then when He makes you sick, you begin to say, “Ya Rabbee! Cure me!” Before that no. So the mind, they say, scientists, has no limits, it goes so far. But what Allah says? We want scientists or we want Allah swt. Allah said:
ما وسعني أرضي ولا سمائي ولكن وسعني قلب عبدي المؤمن
That is why Allah, the Exalted, said, “Neither heavens nor earth contained Me, but the heart of My believing servant contained Me.”
It is holy hadith, hadith qudsee, that is revealed to the Prophet (s) and it is a hadith that is revealed by Jibreel. Neither my heavens nor my earth contained me…
Can mind contain… Allah didn’t say the mind will contain Me. But he said the heart. The heavens and earth cannot contain me. Because He is the creator. Nothing can contain the Creator. Everything is contained by Him. Allah said the heavens and earth are folded in His Hands. How you fold a book, heavens and earth, everything is in His Hands. When Allah wants to resurrect people, He will change this earth to another earth:
Yawma tubaddalu’l-ardu ghayra ’l-ardi wa’s-samaawaatu wa barazoo lillahi ’l-wahidi ’l-qahhaar
One day the earth will be changed to a different earth, and so will be the heavens, and (men) will be marshalled forth, before Allah, the One, the Irresistible; Ibrahim [14:48]
Then He says by Himself to Himself? "To whom is the kingdom today?" Telling to these tyrants… because we are tyrants. We might not be tyrants to others but we are tyrants to ourselves. We are not obeying Allah’s orders. We are not obeying the Prophet’s orders. We are not obeying those who are in authority on us, awliyaullah. So we are tyrants to ourselves. So Allah will say "to whom is the kingdom this day?" And the answer is lillahi’l-wahid al-qahaar.
Nothing can contain Allah but the heart of the believer. That means the one who gave his heart to Allah, Allah will fill it with the manifestation of Allah’s lights. All these manifestations are coming from heavens. Wherever there is a group like that, remembering Allah and remembering the Prophet, Allah will send His sakinah on those people, the tranquility on those people. You might not feel it but the heart will feel it.
You have computer, when you want to download information, huh? The computer doesn’t feel it. It is a box made of metal. But what is inside is the chips that work together. The outside body that is full of bad manners and bad behavior will not feel the information that Allah is downloading to the heart.
Awliyaullah, Allah gave them the code to upload and download. They can take and see what they have inside. Us no. So the information went there but you don’t have the code to bring it up. So that is why people are sitting. You think they are sitting for free. No Allah is rewarding. But it goes to the chip which is recording.
يقول الله : ما وسعني أرضي ولا سمائي ولكن وسعني قلب عبدي المؤمن
That is why Allah, the Exalted, said, “Neither heavens nor earth contained Me, but the heart of My believing servant contained Me.”
How big is the heart. How big is the brain, doctor? The size of the skull. In reality the intelligence comes from a small part of the brain. So small, I was reading about it, they say, the scientists they say is smaller than the seed of a lentil, where all this intelligence. Comes from. This is a small planted seed inside the brain where all the intelligence goes and from brain goes to the body.
Small chip. Now in the computer you have small chip carrying all that information. What do you think about the heavenly chip that Allah planted in your brain.
For computer these chips, how many software they make in order to understand these chips and take info out. How many software is there in dunya. How many engineers is needed. How many engineers are needed to get only one software. Might be 5-6 eng. Work together to make one software in one or 2 years. Let us say there are 1 million software. Are there more. No way. And how many engineers are going to work for 1 million software.
Allah swt kun fayakoon. Today there are 6 billion software. How many human beings. Every human being has a software by himself. Do you think the software in one person is the same as the software in another? No, everyone is different, but all of them relate to each other.
How many languages are there in [human] software. 50, 60, 100 that they can speak with each other. For one software to talk to another they must have a language.
But all of us relate to each other. So look every human being can relate to every other human being. How many software do they have the?
So even as big as the mind is, the heart is bigger. If the brain with that small chip has all this intelligence and all this... and this power it has and look with all the laboratories they have and all this technology, all is through the brain, not the heart. But Allah said if you use the heart you can contain the Nur. My light. That means if we are giving the code to open the heart then we see miracles. That is why awliyaullah they do miracles. That is why they bring you knowledge you never heard before. That is what you see with Bayazid al-Bistami, that is what you see with Sirr as-Saqati, with Shah Naqshband with Shaykh Nazim with Grandshaykh, with Abdul Qadir Jilani, how many there are. How? Because they have the code.
You go to his office, you want to take information out of his computer - can you do it? No, you cannot because why? He has a password. He has so strong a password. But there are hackers who can get it. The world is not nice, but awliyaullah are hackers. They can open up any password. That is why you have to be very careful in front of them. That is why as much as you can to be away, as much as it is better. People say, "why don’t you stay there?” No, awliyaullah are like fire. Any mistake in their presence… Make a mistake outside… But in his presence, you cannot - it is difficult. You cannot - it is not easy.
The first time we traveled, one time we traveled with Mawlana Shaykh both of us, we were visiting Southeast Asia, I will not say where, you know where. And it was first time to go to that country. They put both of us in one room, me and Mawlana Shaykh Nazim and one bed. A big bed, one bed. And Mawlana said, “Sleep on the bed,” but I felt shy so I was sleeping on the floor. He said, “No sleep on the bed with me.” He is on one side and I am one side. All night you cannot sleep. You cannot as you will lose your wudu. You cannot lose your wudu in the presence of the Sultanu ’l-Awliya of this time. When he is sleeping he is in the presence of the Prophet (s) and when he is awake he is in presence of the Prophet (s). How are you going to be in that presence and you lose wudu. And I am afraid to make any movement you might disturb him.
That is why it is not easy to be all the time near. Though we love to be there all the time, but hey are spies of the heart. So any mistake, it will be considered a big mistake in their presence. You cannot. That is why when the Prophet (s) was describing Maqaam al-Ihsan, he said, "You can pray your prayer, but when you reach Maqaam al-Ihsan, you cannot any more have any bad thoughts come to your mind when you are praying.” Then you aren’t in Maqaam al-Ihsan. In that maqaam you cannot see and you cannot hear except the Presence of Allah swt. You cannot say “Allahu Akbar” and as soon as you say it you begin to think about the car you are going to drive and the white car and black car and the motorcade in front of you and you are sleeping. When you enter in prayer doesn’t it come, these thoughts? That is not Maqaam al-Ihsan - you are still in the normal level. .
So awliyaullah when you are sitting there any gossip comes to your heart they get it out, they see it quickly. When you are far they don’t look. But when you are in their presence, they see. That is why it is not simple. Many times they tell me, “come and sit,” but I run away. But the other side will say, "O no, no leave it.” Especially when he has guests. When he has guests you run. I used to see him when he was with Grandshaykh, he used to run. He never stays.
Then after 10,15 minutes he says, “Mawlana do you need anything? I am going to market.” He knows, when Shaykh needs me, he will call me. Leave him, with his own work.
So in any case Allah said, “Neither heavens nor earth contained Me, but the heart of My believing servant contained Me.”
That means the believer the mu’min the one who reached the highest level of sainthood is able to get all these manifestation and all these secrets. What we know about secrets. We speak about secrets but did we enter. Like someone taking a book and reading and reading and reading. So that Dr. Abdul Wahid prescribed me an antibiotic. If you take the antibiotic you will get well. Ok, so I go to pharmacy and buy the antibiotic. And open it and read the pamphlet and it says, "it does this and it is good and it is good and also at the end it has side effects." But I am not taking it. When you take it, it clears it up, opens it up. When you have flu or cough if you are not taking the medicine it does nothing. But if you are reading, reading to eliminate the side-effects if you are no taking the medicine… Take away all these veils from the presence of the Prophet (s) and presence of Allah.
So today what do we do? We read. Do we do anything else. All of us. What differ us from awliyaullah is that they live these experiences. They live the instructions. The instructions say take this, they take this. If Mawlana said, "Don’t do this!” they don’t to this. If Mawlana says, “Do that,” they do that.
Mawlana Grandshaykh used to say, in every suhbat, he said that we are under two orders that the Prophet (s) showed to us. You are under these two: eliminate forbiddens and encourage yourself to orders. There are 500 commands to do that we will be rewarded and there 800 forbiddens. With two zeros. 800 forbiddens that you must not do in your life. Like cheating, conspiring, backbiting, lying, jealousy. All these bad chars, you have to eliminate.
Awliyaullah they eliminate one after one, one after one.
And Mawlana Shaykh said one time to me, in a suhbat, that when Grandshaykh ordered him for seclusion in Sayyidina Abdul Qadir Jilani قدس سرّه Mosque in Baghdad, he was thinking about, Mawlana said, “that there are 800 forbiddens. And Mawlana Grandshaykh was telling him, “try your best to eliminate these forbiddens.” Because what do you do in seclusion? You teach yourself to eliminate bad thoughts and to do dhikr and salawat, which will become very difficult especially in last ten days of seclusion.
So I was thinking, when he was telling me, how many can you count of bad manners? You can think of 20, 30 but how to get to 800. And when awliyaullah say 800 it is 800. So we go back to that word “hacking”.
So Mawlana Shaykh said, “I took a notebook like this, that every time comes to my heart ‘do this forbidden,’ I wrote it.” It was a 6-month seclusion. He said, “at the end I was able to count 187 bad manners.” It took how long? Six months to count them; to write it and then try to eliminate it. The Shaykh will inspire to your heart either through a dream or through a vision, .. like a puzzle or a maze you go to this door, this door, this door, any door you are led too, there is this puzzle to open it. For example for this, “Ya Haleem.” At end of seclusion you end with huge list of awraad. You have to be doing awraad in every moment.
So he said, "I counted 187 bad manners.” “Counted them” means he eliminated them. He counted 187 of them means he hacked them. Go into them and tear them apart. It means that a secret appeared, because every time you eliminate one a veil is taken from you and the Prophet (s).
Awliyaullah are not easy in their ways of understanding what is necessary for them, because from their early life they begin to go thru these experiences that take them to reach highest level of sainthood. Else to eliminate 800 forbiddens is not so simple.
Mawlana Grandshaykh, may Allah bless his soul, he said in one of his suhbat, and that is why I have some of his notes, we have a lot of these, like this one, I have 200, 300 of these books. I used to write every word he used to say.
He said, that “to avoid one forbidden, you will be rewarded more than if you have done the 500 commands.” To avoid one forbidden you will be rewarded as if you did the 500 commands, orders that the Prophet (s) ordered you to do. If you leave one forbidden for the sake of Allah it is to Him more rewardable than to do the 500 maamooraat. now some people will take it as “O, I will leave one of the forbidden and then I don’t need to pray.” There are some people who say and do like that, they say “I don’t need to pray.” Then they accuse us of that, of not praying and not fasting, the Sufis, and that is not true. Because there are some people who are crazy.
So one forbidden to leave it to eliminate it from your life, because they come back and repeat itself, it comes back to you each time. So to leave it one time you will be rewarded more than the 500 orders. Imagine how much is Allah generous and generous and wants to give. What is the meaning of al-Kareem. It means He gives without limits. If you limit His giving then you took the value of His generosity. Then you are not giving the honor and the right to His name al-Kareem. Al-Kareem means generous that never ends. Even you have problems, you don’t know what kind of generosity Allah is sending on human beings. That is why He wanted from generosity. Then we go back. Allah wanted this earth. Look Mars, what is on Mars? Can you live on Mars? No water, nothing. Can you live on Venus? No. On Pluto? No. On what other? Jupiter? No? On all these stars that are in our solar system. Can you live? No. Why earth? Why on Earth which is the smallest one. Why not on the bigger planets. Why He gave us this planet, why not everyone can have one planet. He give me the earth, He gives you the sun, He gives you. Then no more problems. Why all these planets. Why not He give you Jupiter; He give you Pluto is it not better.
How many stars are there. [countless] there are 80 billion star in one galaxy and they counted 6000 galaxies and every galaxy 80 100 billion. They are speaking too much about billions these days so we keep in our mind billions. If everyone one of us takes one star, and He leaves him alone there alone, is it not good? Don’t think you don’t have a star there. You have one star there, your reality is in one of these stars. Everyone has a star there. When awliyaullah want to look at you they look at your star. They know what you are and they know all your secrets is there Allah gave everyone a designated star there to represent him in His presence. … don’t think Allah sent us on earth to torture and punish us. He created us out of His love. Out of His love came that beauty in the creation of human being. When that whim came to show His beauty, He showed it in human beings. That beauty, al-Jamal al-Jameel, when that will came to show His beauty, then Adam was created. We are not going into that subject because it is so deep.
But why earth, why not Mars, why not Jupiter? There is nothing there, only earth that has everything. We leave this for next time, tomorrow, insha-Allah.
Wa min Allah at-tawfeeq, bi-hurmatil Fatiha.
So when I leave this to tomorrow he said, ok, say, no now! It is better.