Suhbah at As-Siddiq Institute & Mosque (ASIM)
Dastoor yaa Sayyidee, yaa Sultan al-Awliya, Dastoor yaa Sayyidee, yaa Sultan al-Awliya, Dastoor yaa Mawlana Shaykh, Dastoor yaa Sayyidee yaa Qutb al-Mutasarrif. RijaalAllah `ayeenoonaa bi `awnillah wa koonoo `awnan lana billah `asaa nahdaa bi fadlillah. [Du`a.]
Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem. As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa ta`ala wa barakaatuh. People think dhikr is only for a certain groups of people, only done by Tariqah people. When Muslims and non-Muslims see a humble group of servants gathered to make dhikr, some people think, “This is for them and not for us,” but as Mawlana Shaykh (q) tells us, it’s quite the opposite: dhikr is for everybody. All the sons and daughters of Adam, peace be upon him, have been ordered to do dhikr. Allah (swt) gathered all human beings on the Day of Promises, we all know the holy verse of Allah (swt) taking the generations of Sayyidina Adam (a) from his back, and He said, asta`eedhu billah:
وَإِذْ أَخَذَ رَبُّكَ مِن بَنِي آدَمَ مِن ظُهُورِهِمْ ذُرِّيَّتَهُمْ وَأَشْهَدَهُمْ عَلَى أَنفُسِهِمْ أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ قَالُواْ بَلَى شَهِدْنَا أَن تَقُولُواْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ إِنَّا كُنَّا عَنْ هَذَا غَافِلِينَ
When your Lord drew forth from the loins of the Children of Adam their descendants and made them testify concerning themselves, (saying), "Am I not your Lord?" They said, "Yes, we do testify!" (This), unless you will say on the Day of Judgment, "Of this we were never mindful.” (Surat al-A’raf, 7:172)
Alastu bi Rabbikum, “Am I not your Lord? Qaloo bala, we said, “Yes, You are our Lord!” We agreed, all human beings--everybody you see in the street, in the university, company, airport, in the pool, on the beach, in the market--wherever you see human beings, all of us agreed to remember our Lord. When Allah (swt) said, ‘Am I not your Lord?’ it means, “Remember who is your Lord!” All human beings said, “Yes, You are our Lord, we will remember You, we will worship You, we will follow Your orders!” So remembrance of Allah (swt) and dhikr, mentioning of Allah's (swt) Holy Names and Attributes, were taken as a promise from all human beings on that day.
So on that day He gathered all human beings, all of us agreed, Muslims and non-Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Atheists, "Yes, You are our Lord," and this is the ahd, the promise, vow, path, contract, agreement given on that day, and who were the witnesses among human beings on that day? They were special ones. Do you think the anbiya were absent on that day? Was an-Nabi (s), the Sahaabah, the Holy Family, the saints absent on that day? No, they were present as witnesses on that day when humans gave the Promise to remember Allah, and as Mawlana Shaykh says, when we gave that Promise our hands were all together in bay`a, and on top of our hands was the hand of an-Nabi (s) and Allah's Hand was on top when he recited the verse:
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يُبَايِعُونَكَ إِنَّمَا يُبَايِعُونَ اللَّهَ يَدُ اللَّهِ فَوْقَ أَيْدِيهِمْ فَمَن نَّكَثَ فَإِنَّمَا يَنكُثُ عَلَى نَفْسِهِ وَمَنْ أَوْفَى بِمَا عَاهَدَ عَلَيْهُ اللَّهَ فَسَيُؤْتِيهِ أَجْرًا عَظِيمًا
Verily, those who swear allegiance to you (Muhammad) swear allegiance only to Allah.
(Surat al-Fath, 48:10
Holy Qur'an is not restricted by time, so what happened on that day, was it the words of the Prophet (s) or Jibreel? No, it is Allah's Words recited by Jibreel, Allah's Hand on top of everyone's hands. Therefore, whoever fails to fulfill their promise betrays it and is only harming himself by turning back on his word. Those who remember their promise after coming to and returning from dunya will fulfill their oath and some will not, but everyone was given chance to do bay`a with anbiya and awliya there. That bay`a we do here was done on that day to each respective shaykh, saint and prophet. Some nations have prophets, but after the Seal of Messengers (s) there is no further prophet, now we have a shaykh and take bay'a to him. We come to this world to find the shaykh, saint, prophet, and some, the Companions and Ahl al-Bayt, were honored to give bay'a to an-Nabi (s).
When we find our shaykh in this world and make bay'a, we don't need to repeat it again and again as our bay`a was given on that day to saints and to the Prophet (s) and Allah (swt) with that verse, and our job on this Earth is to find someone who will fulfill our oath to Allah (swt). Mawlana Shaykh (q) talks about our `ahd as-saabiq, the former promise, that it is a vow to Allah (swt), that in Surat al-Ma’idah
Allah says to those who fulfill their promises:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ أَوْفُواْ بِالْعُقُودِ
O you who believe! Fulfil (all) obligations. (Surat al-Ma’idah, 5:1)
That is the contract that follows our oath `uhood in the Day of Promises, and now it becomes `aqd in dunya, which is a contract to adhere to the teachings of Islam, then you will be able to fulfill the promise you made on the Day of Promises where you gave bay'a to your shaykh and he to his shaykh, to his shaykh, all the way to an-Nabi (s), who fulfilled that oath on Day of Promises. So if we found our shaykh and took bay'a, that is enough because he took the oath to help us fulfill our contract on Judgment Day, so there is purification of al-baatin inside us, the inner self.
فَأَيْنَ تَذْهَبُونَ
Where are you going? (Surat at-Takweer, 81:26)
“Where are you going? You gave Me your contract, your agreement, you said I am your Lord! Where is your head?” It is between the two legs, that is where your head is! It is a reminder to the worlds, to everyone that promised that day, “We remember You are our Lord.” Allah said you will be two groups: those who accept and fulfill the promise and those who refuse to accept and fulfill it, so, “Where is your mind? Come back to Me!”
Some people think dhikr is only for certain people and Mawlana Shaykh (q) says no, dhikr is for everyone, al-`Alameen. So when we give bay`a to our shaykh, we are following up on the promise we made, which is a way to fulfill our contract. Taking bay`a over and over is not necessary, you already found your shaykh and he will complete your oath for you, but Mawlana (q) says we have to tread the path of the inward, as-sulook, as the Prophet (s) said:
إن الله لا ينظر إلى صوركم وأموالكم ، وإنما ينظر إلى قلوبكم وأعمالكم
Verily, Allah does not look at your appearances, but He looks at your hearts and your deeds. (Muslim)
Allah does not look at your outer forms or apparel, He looks at your inside, which must be clean from gossiping, holding grudges, lying, harming others, killing, spreading fitna, creating problems between brothers and sisters. If we don’t clean what is inside, we cannot fulfill the bay`a we gave on the Day of Promises and then we will be in a big, big problem on Judgment Day as we will be punished and away from Allah’s mercy. Alhamdulillah, we are gathered here tonight asking for Allah's (swt) mercy, happiness and pleasure on us, and we are asking our shuyookh to take us clean to the Divine Presence!
The Prophet (s) said:
النظافة من الايمان
Cleanliness is from faith. (Tirmidhi)
It doesn’t only mean the outside, it means the inside has to be clean because if our `amal, deeds are not good, our inside is tainted, impure and Allahu Jameel wa yuhibbu ’l-jamaal, “Allah is Beautiful and loves beauty.” Mawlana (q) reminds us so many times to be beautiful as that Allah accepts the beautiful ones. We ask Allah (swt) not to makes us among those who are ugly. Mawlana Shaykh (q) sometimes says things that have a deeper meaning. We heard so many times not to put makeup, not only women but now men put makeup. They look like dolls and they have makeup artists. Mawlana says don't put makeup, it does not make you beautiful, beauty comes from inside, so don't put things on yourself to make yourself appear beautiful. Don't put the beautiful deeds to make yourself a shaykh; all these deeds, prayers and so on, to make yourself beautiful when your inside is dirty. Mawlana (q) does not mean makeup we put on our faces, he means the piety we pretend to have and the imam, the shaykh, the scholar we pretend to be. If you dress like a shaykh or scholar that is beautiful thing, but if your inside is not beautiful, don't dress like that. That is the way we present ourselves: at the meeting you put on makeup to look presentable, so it is same thing in Islam: if you go to dhikr or prayer and you put on beautiful dresses because you want to be and act presentable, but your inside is still dirty and, therefore, you are still ugly. If the inside is still dirty from gossiping, hurting, fighting and abusing, that is not real beauty.
When the inside is clean, it reflects on the outside: automatically we pray well, we adhere to Sunnah and put jubba and turban, use miswak, make good du`a. How many people make du`a for show? But when we are good inside, the du`a comes good. Tariqah is about the internal, nothing about external. If we look at dervishes in old times, they had torn clothes that they patched, khirqa. Their inside was clean, the outside was clean for prayer but without glamor. So Mawlana Shaykh says don't put on a dress of `ilm and adab and present yourself so clean when inside is so dirty. We will stay ugly because in the grave we have no clothes, no turban, no hat, no perfume, we only have our inside: our spirit, `amal, soul, manners, what you go into the grave with.
When we follow the shaykh, we tread the path of the bay`a we took on that Day of Promises, and you take bay`a one time in dunya, and your shaykh will not leave you: he was with you then, he is with you now and he will be with you when we are all gathered on the Day of Judgement. Mawlana Shaykh said, “My soul attracts the souls of my followers because my soul was present that Day with all of you.” That is why we are here together with him and that is how we will be on Day of Judgment. So we found our shaykh, we gave our bay`a and we are thanking our Lord, alhamdulillahi Rabbi 'l-`Alameen. He taught us how to sit down and pray and make dhikr and how to clean ourselves on the inside so we can fulfill our promise to our Lord.
We are saying, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah” and we say, “Allah, Allah! O our Lord we accept You as our Lord, but we forget, we are not perfect, we are anything but pure.” Let us be realistic! People say we are pure, but no, we are not pure. Look at yourself, go home and see what thoughts come into your mind and then talk about purity. No, we confess our impurity, bad manners and sinning, yaa Rabbee, but You are The One Who said You will change us if we change ourselves! We are trying, Yaa Rabbee! So with Your Tawfeeq and Your Help and the suhbah of Mawlana Shaykh, transform us! We said, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah” then and we say it now and inshaa-Allah on Judgment Day! Mawlana Shaykh (q) said, “I want to be on streets saying, ‘Laa ilaaha illa-Llah, laa ilaaha illa-Llah, laa ilaaha illa-Llah!’” So we all say “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah” with him: in our homes, our mosques, our universities, and we are asking You, O our Lord, to let us say “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah.” We ask You humbly to forgive us our sins, our shortcomings, our mistakes and those of our parents, grandparents, our deceased ones and our brothers and sisters and children, and our descendants, the future generations, to forgive Ummati Muhammad (s), forgive all of us, yaa Rabbee! Your forgiveness is vast. You said Your mercy encompasses everything, and we are part of everything, so Your mercy encmpasses us, as well!
Yaa Rahmaan, yaa Raheem, yaa Dhu ‘l-Jalaali wa ‘l-Ikram wa sallAllahu `alaa Sayyidina Muhammadin wa `alaa aalihi wa saahbihi wa sallim tasleeman katheera! Rabbana taqabbal minna wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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