A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani 'r-rajeem.
Bismillaahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem.
Laa hawla wa laa quwatta illa billahi 'l-`Aliyyu 'l-`Azheem.
Dastoor, yaa Sayyidi, yaa Sultan al-Awliya, madad. Dastoor, yaa Sayyidi wa Mawlay.
Dastoor, yaa Sayyidi, yaa Sultan al-Awliya. Dastoor, yaa Sayyidi wa Mawlay. Madad, yaa RijaalAllah.
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh.
Welcome again. Mashaa-Allah, we have guests from out of town. Those from out of town are more than those from in town, but that’s how it is. Alhamdulillah. May Allah (swt) accept your visit. Astaghfirullahi ‘l-Adheem.
Anbiyaullah are the first. Awliyaullah follow a Nabi. they cannot be without a Nabi. A saint cannot declare himself a prophet. He has to follow a Nabiullah. We read part of Surah Tawbah during Salatu ‘l-`Isha and in the last verse, Allah (swt) says, asta`eedhubillah:
إِلَّا ٱلَّذِينَ عَـٰهَدتُّم مِّنَ ٱلْمُشْرِكِينَ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَنقُصُوكُمْ شَيْـًٔا وَلَمْ يُظَـٰهِرُوا۟ عَلَيْكُمْ أَحَدًا فَأَتِمُّوٓا۟ إِلَيْهِمْ عَهْدَهُمْ إِلَىٰ مُدَّتِهِمْ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُحِبُّ ٱلْمُتَّقِينَ
InAllah yuhibbu ‘l-muttaqeen.
(But the treaties are) not dissolved with those Pagans with whom you have entered into alliance and who have not subsequently failed you in aught, nor aided any one against you. So fulfil your engagements with them to the end of their term: for Allah loves the righteous. (Surah at-Tawbah, 9:4)
Muttaqeen can mean so many things but one of the meanings is to shield yourself, `ittiqah. As Rasoolullah (s) has said, `ittaqu ‘n-naar wa law bishaqi tamara, “Shield yourself from fire even by giving half a date.” Allah (swt) said: Fattaqun naarallati wa qooduha ‘n-naas wa ‘l-hijara.
فَإِن لَّمْ تَفْعَلُوا۟ وَلَن تَفْعَلُوا۟ فَٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱلنَّارَ ٱلَّتِى وَقُودُهَا ٱلنَّاسُ وَٱلْحِجَارَةُ أُعِدَّتْ لِلْكَـٰفِرِينَ
But if you cannot, and of a surety you cannot, then fear the Fire whose fuel is men and stones,- which is prepared for those who reject Faith. (Surah Al-Baqarah, 2:24)
Shield yourself from fire. Taqwa also means to shield yourself. Allah (swt) likes those who shield themselves. From what? First of all, from kufr. Prophets have come to shield humanity from unbelief. When you are a muttaqee, Allah (swt) loves those who shield themselves from pitfalls. The first one is kufr, unbelief, not believing in the Creator. The work of Anbiyaullah and Awliyaullah is to invite others to God.
When they accept, the next step is to avoid disobedience to Allah (swt), not to me and you. Leave that. We are not gods. Avoid coming against what Allah (swt) likes from you to do. Awliyaullah teach you how to do your best to obey Heavenly Messages and Orders. If a “Waliyullah” is telling you to disobey Allah (swt) then you have to put a question mark. You have to use your mind.
The third is to shield yourself from ignorance. Awliyaullah or those speaking have to teach you `ilm. They cannot teach you more ignorance. We are already swimming in ignorance and lo and behold, somebody comes and starts talking to you and makes you fall deeper into the ocean of ignorance. Awliyaullah have to teach you from the Qur’an and the Sunnah, the knowledge of Allah (swt) and the knowledge of Rasooullah (s).
When a prophet or saint comes upon a group of people and he wants to teach them something, he first teaches them how to avoid disobedience of Heavenly Messages, second, he teaches them how to avoid ignorance and teaches them knowledge. Once you get past unbelief, disobedience and ignorance, the fourth step is they have to teach you how to take yourself away from everything that is not Allah (swt) and not to turn towards something that Allah (swt) does not like.
Your heart has to contain one love, the love of Allah (swt). Allah (swt) likes those who shield themselves from loving other than Him. One time you are the lover and He is the Beloved and one time He is the Lover and you are the beloved. One time you are muhib and He is Mahboob and the other time Allah (swt) is sending love and you are the mahboob, the one receiving love. Allah (swt) said I love the muttaqee: the one who avoids kufr, disobedience, ignorance, and loving other than Me. That is our Way. It is to go through these four steps. Be an intelligent one, O human being. Know that Allah (swt) is calling you to Him, not to others.
In order to reach these stages, you have to do four things. Al-muttaqee, the pious one has four signs. One is when you keep the boundaries that Allah (swt) has set for you. If you go over, you are not muttaqee anymore. If somebody claims to be something, is he keeping the boundaries that Allah (swt) has set? The second is, he keeps his promises. He does not lie. He’s truthful towards his Lord and towards others. The third is, he gives his best for Allah (swt). The fourth is, he is content with what he has. There is no greed, no running to grab more dunya, to grab more power and fame. He is happy with whatever Allah (swt) sends to him.
Allah (swt) loves these ones. When you take yourself away from disbelief and enter into Islam then you put yourself in the way of obedience rather than disobedience. When you learn rather than staying ignorant and when you take every other love out of your heart, the four signs will appear on you.
It is difficult for all of us. What do we do? There is a shortcut. Zaiem will like this one. If you want to be from Awliyaullah, take the characters of children. There are five characters. This is a good lesson because how do we know the boundaries that Allah (swt) has set? We don’t even read anything. How are we content with what He has sent when we invest and go after plans and projects? That is difficult for us, so be like the children.
The first one is they are not worried about rizq. Do you worry about what is coming your way tomorrow? “What am I going to do tomorrow, next week, next month?” Children do not worry about that. If you see somebody who is concerned about his rizq for the next day, know he is not there yet.
The second is, they do not complain to the Lord of Heavens when they get sick. Do we complain when we get sick? Yes, we do. If we get a thorn in our legs, we start using all the curse words we know in English and in French.
The third is, they like to eat together. Children like to eat with other children or their parents.
The fourth is important, when they fight, they run to make up. I see it in my children, in my nephew and Rayhan and some others. They fight in the basement and after ten minutes they come up and are best buddies again. All the quarreling and fighting disappeared. Do you do that? They hasten to make peace.
The fifth is, when they are afraid, their eyes run with tears.
If you can take on these five characteristics, you will become a saint.
Don’t worry about the rizq of tomorrow. Do you know the sign of that? At the end of the day, some Awliyaullah used to empty their kitchens and give everything to the poor. One Awliyaullah took all the food and went outside to see who was there. Nobody was there, so he found some stray dogs and gave the food to them. In the morning he came out for Fajr and he saw all the neighborhood dogs at his door. He went to the masjid and all the dogs followed him. Dogs are loyal. If you feed them, they will be loyal to you.
If they fight, they run to make peace. They like to eat together. If they are afraid, their eyes run with tears. If they get sick, they don’t complain to Allah (swt). If you can do these five things, it is the shortcut to be Waliyullah. Otherwise, you have to use the hard way which is to keep the boundaries of Allah (swt) and that is hard. Rasoolullah (s) said, “Surah Hud gave me white hair.” Why, because there was an order there, asta`eedhu billah:
فَٱسْتَقِمْ كَمَآ أُمِرْتَ وَمَن تَابَ مَعَكَ وَلَا تَطْغَوْا۟ إِنَّهُۥ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ
Fastaqim kamaa umirta.
Therefore stand firm (in the straight Path) as thou art commanded, thou and those who with thee turn (unto Allah; and transgress not (from the Path): for He seeth well all that ye do. (Surah Hud, 11:112)
Be straight as you were ordered. Keeping the Orders of Allah (swt) a hundred percent is very difficult. Even Rasoolullah’s (s) hair turned white. If you don’t believe that, go read.
Be mustaqeem, be straight as you were ordered and the ones who have followed you repented from running after dunya and now they are running after you to Me. Wa la tatghaw, “Don’t transgress the boundaries.” He said, “This ayah gave me white hair” because of the difficulty of being on Siratu ‘l-Mustaqeem.
It is almost impossible for a person to keep the boundaries of Allah (swt). That’s why Allah (swt) says:
وَإِذْ أَخَذْنَا مِيثَـٰقَكُمْ وَرَفَعْنَا فَوْقَكُمُ ٱلطُّورَ خُذُوا۟ مَآ ءَاتَيْنَـٰكُم بِقُوَّةٍ وَٱذْكُرُوا۟ مَا فِيهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ
Khudoo maa ataynakum bi quwwah.
And remember We took your covenant and We raised above you (The towering height) of Mount (Sinai) : (Saying): "Hold firmly to what We have given you and bring (ever) to remembrance what is therein: Perchance ye may fear Allah." (Surat al-Baqarah, 2:63)
Take what We have given you with power. Awliyaullah have said, take what I have given to you but I am going to supply you with My Power. You cannot do it with your own power. With Divine Power you can be straight. That’s why He said: Wa ma sabruqa illa bi ‘l-Llah.
وَٱصْبِرْ وَمَا صَبْرُكَ إِلَّا بِٱللَّهِ وَلَا تَحْزَنْ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا تَكُ فِى ضَيْقٍ مِّمَّا يَمْكُرُونَ
And be patient [O Muhammad], for your patience is but from Allah. nor grieve over them: and distress not yourself because of their plots. (Surat an-Nahl, 16:127)
You cannot be patient except by Me. It means, the patience will come from Me, the Power will come from Me. That is difficult. Take the character of children and be happy and content. May Allah (swt) forgive us. Our way is an easy way. If you want to take it, there is an easy way but some people like it the hard way and then they suffer over there. That's why we always run to the doors of Allah (swt), to Awliyaullah. They are the Rahmah of Allah (swt) . We run to Anbiyaullah. They are the rahmah of Allah (swt). We run to Rasoolullah (s). They are the rahmah of Allah (swt).
We don’t agree with what they say, “Go straight to allah (swt).” You cannot go straight to Allah (swt). Astaghfirullahi ‘l-`Azheem wa utubu `ilay. Be with Awliyaullah. Be in the majlis of Dhikrullah and love this Way, the way of Rasoolullah. With the intercession of Rasoolullah (s), may we be accepted because we are weak. With that shafa`ah, may Allah (swt) put us with Awliyaullah in Paradise. Ameen.
They say, “Don’t ask madad.” Allah (swt) is saying, take what I have given you by Divine Power. You have to ask for that Power. Where is that Power? It’s through the channels. As our teachers have said, you cannot reach the water of Niagara Falls directly. It has to come in steps until it comes to your home. You open the faucet and the water comes out. Inshaa-Allah, we can be with them and take power from them.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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