Celebrating the Love of Prophet (s)
Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani
23 September 2012 Singapore
SimplyIslam Mawlid Festival at Singapore Expo
I was telling Muhammad Nassir that we heard me speak many times so we can skip that, but he insisted I give a speech. I just told him what we saw today was a beautiful opportunity to hear and see the qasaa’id and praising the Prophet (s)! I don’t know from where to begin, so will very quickly summarize about love of the Prophet (s) and shed light on a very important subject.
We can ask, “Who is our teacher?” which is a simple question a child can answer: the Prophet (s) is our teacher. And who is the teacher of the Prophet (s)? Allah (swt) taught the Prophet (s) and the Prophet (s) taught the ummah. When, in His Greatness, Allah (swt) sent Jibreel (a) to Sayyidina Muhammad (s) to recite Surah Maryam, Jibreel (a) said, “Kaf,” and the Prophet (s) said, “`Alimtu. I knew it!” Then he recited, “Ha,” and “Saad,” the Prophet (s) said, “`Alimtu.” What did he know? He knew something even Jibreel (a) didn’t know about. What are these holy letters from the Holy Qur'an that Jibreel (a) revealed to the Prophet (s) and he said, “I know.”
Can you trust someone with your bank account, even a family member? No, because we are not trustworthy! So whom can we trust? We can trust Muhammad ‘al-Ameen’ (s), “the Trustworthy,” which his title that means he can be trusted with the revelation of the Holy Qur'an, Allah’s Ancient Words that He sent with Jibreel (a). What more can we say? Already he has been taught what Allah taught no other. It is Kalaamullah al-Qadeem, the Ancient Words of Allah, which are Divine and not created, as Allah (swt) said in Surat ar-Rahman:
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Ar-Rahmaan `alam al-Qur'an.
The Most Merciful has imparted this Qur'an. (Surat ar-Rahmaan, 55:1,2)
Then He created Creation, so first, teaching is for the Prophet (s), and that doesn't come from no love, it comes from the best love Allah has, and to the Prophet (s)! And Allah (swt) said in Holy Qur'an:
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Qul in kaana aabaa’ookum wa abnaa’ookum wa ikhwaanukum wa azwaajukum wa `asheeratukum wa amwaalun iqtaraftumoohaa wa tijaaratun takhshawna kasaadahaa wa masaakinu tardawnahaa ahabba ilaykum mina ’Llahi wa rasoolihi wa jihaadin fee sabeelihi fatarabbaaoo hatta y’atiya ’Llahu bi amrihi wa ’Llahu laa yahdi ’l-qawm al-faasiqeen.
Say, “If it be that your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your mates, or your kindred, the wealth you have gained, the commerce in which you fear a decline or the dwellings in which you delight are dearer to you than Allah or His Messenger and the struggle in His cause, then wait until God makes manifest His will and (know that) God does not grace iniquitous folk with His guidance.”
(Surat at-Tawbah, 9:24)
That means love of the Prophet (s) is a sacred issue, and no one can say it is except the greatest love that Allah planted in the heart of Sayyidina Muhammad (s). And I will give an example of the love from Allah (swt) for the Prophet (s). What is the first letter of “Allah?” Alif. And what is first letter of the Prophet’s name? In Jannah it is “Alif,” for “Ahmad.” The first letter of “Allah” is Alif and Ahmad’s first letter is Alif. That is not shirk here! So when you read Holy Qur'an, as Zainuddin when explaining “Iqra” in poetry, it comes “bismi” and the Alif is gone because that is a secret:
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Kuntu kanzan makhfiyyan fa ahbabtuhu an u`rafa fa khalaqtu ‘l-khalq.
I was a Hidden Treasure (and) I wanted to be known, so I created Creation. (Hadith Qudsi)
So no one can know Allah except through His Beautiful Names and Attributes, which do not describe the Essence as no one can describe the Essence except Him.
What comes after Alif? It is the Ba, which used to be a straight line in ancient Arabic script, and it is lying down, but what for? The Ba is the letter representing Sayyidina Muhammad (s), which is an Alif laying in sajda to the Alif, which represents laying in sajda to Allah (swt)! All this comes in the letters Alif and Ba. The Ba is always in sajda to Allah (swt).
O Muslims! The Prophet (s) didn't make sajda only 1400 years ago. Since Allah (swt) created the Light of the Prophet (s), that Light has always been in sajda and is what comes to the heart of many Ahlu ’s-Sunnah wa ’l-Jama`ah scholars. This is an interpretation for the youth and ourselves, that love of the Prophet (s) must come before the love of our children, ourselves, our money and our business. That is why it is necessary to have love of the Prophet (s) to reach love of Allah, Who said:
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Qul in kuntum tuhibboona 'Llaaha fattabi`oonee yuhbibkumullaahu wa yaghfir lakum dhunoobakum w 'Allaahu Ghafooru 'r-Raheem.
Say (O Muhammad), "If you (really) love Allah, then follow me! Allah will love you and forgive your sins, and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Surat Aali-`Imraan, 3:31)
So that is why the Sufi people, the mutasawwifoon praise the Prophet (s) so much, saying in every moment, “Yaa Muhammad!” Salloo `ala an-Nabi (s)! If you recite salawaat a thousand or even a million times a day, it is still not enough to praise him! You go to Madinah to visit the Prophet (s) and it is a small city that, were it larger, you would see hundreds of millions of people going to visit the Prophet (s)! Similarly if there was no government quota, millions of people would go to the Ka`bah to glorifying Allah (swt) and also to praise the Prophet (s)! Therefore, did we think about the glorifying of Allah (swt) in Heavens by a human being? What status has Allah (swt) given to the Prophet (s) besides love? He gave the Prophet (s) the ability to express His Tawheed in Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa!
Did any human or anything created reach Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa? Even Sayyidina Jibreel (a) was not able to reach there! This means the only one who reached that level was the Prophet (s). Do you know how much love Allah (swt) gave to Prophet (s)? What do you do when you see the one you love? For example, if your husband goes away for work for two months and finally returns, what will you do? You hug him and kiss him! Then what about the Best of Creation? What love did Allah (swt) express and show to the Prophet (s) when he was invited to Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa? Does anyone know? Do we even think about it? No one knows!
Allah gave that honor to the Prophet (s) because he deserves it! Why did Allah (swt) test Sayyidina Ibraheem (a) to slaughter his son? It was because he mixed so much love in his heart for his son with his love of Allah (swt), Who is al-Ghayoor; He doesn’t want a second love in the hearts of His Servants. Therefore, Allah tested that love by asking Sayyidina Ibraheem (a) to slaughter his son. Similarly, Sayyidina Ya`qub (a) had so much love in his heart for his son, and Allah (swt) separated them for 35 years, took away his eyesight and more until only the love of Allah (swt) remained in his heart. Prophet (s) is the only one to reach Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa, the only one to have the love of Allah (swt) exclusively in his heart!
O Muslims, love Sayyidina Muhammad (s)! You have to catch some signals. I was sitting in the audience and the moderator said, “The sweethearts were singing.” Out of their love of Prophet (s), they were singing, “Nuru `aynee, yaa Rasoolullah(s)!” They finished and left the stage, and the moderator wanted to speak but there was complete silence; due to some technical issue with the microphone or too many tears in her eyes, there was a moment of silence, just like they say, “Let us observe a moment of silence.” That moment of silence might be a nazhar from the Prophet (s) on us! I don't want to confirm it by saying it was, because some (outside our group) might object, but I say it might be! Is it possible? We always ask for nazhar from the Prophet (s), but that doesn't happen when there is too much talking. Tears were coming to my eyes from feeling the love of Sayyidina Muhammad (s)! What did you all come here for? For the Mawlid Festival, which is held to express our love to the Prophet (s). That was a moment of silence and to Allah (swt) a moment might be a thousand years! He can stretch a moment to a thousand years as He can stretch the head of a pin for the whole Earth to fit inside it!
O Muslims, don't sleep! The majority of the people who express such love believe in tasawwuf. What do some people say about tasawwuf? They say too many things that I cannot repeat as I want to be moderate. We love everyone, but if we go a little forward, they say it is, “Bida`, shirk, kufr, haraam,” from left, right and center! I was recently in Africa and something more came to my heart about this. I said, “We are in the middle and we need a wheelchair to move us through at an angle, so that there is no objection of bida`,kufr, shirk or haram.”
This is important research which I did long time ago for an event in Indonesia. There are too many questions on the Internet about this. I am going to give quotations only:
What did Imam Abu Hanifa (r) say? Do you accept Imam Abu Hanifa or not? He is from Ahl as-Sunnah wa 'l-Jama'ah, the imam of one of the Four Schools of Thought (Hanafi School) and is the follower of a great teacher of tasawwuf. He said, “If not for two years, I would have been lost!” He would have lost his madhhab and his way. What are those two years? He related they were the two years he spent studying with Sayyidina Ja`far as-Sadiq (r), one of the twelve imams and descendant of the Prophet (s) (and a Shaykh of the Naqshbandi Golden Chain). He was one of the strong scholars of tasawwuf. He said, “I also took it from Imam Shibli,” who is very famous and well-known among scholars. In addition, he took from Imam Siirr as-Saqati, who is recognized by Ibn Taymiyya, from Ma`ruf al-Karkhi and from Dawud at-Tayy, who took it from Imam Abu Hanifa as did all these famous scholars of tasawwuf.
Imam Malik (r) said, “Whoever studies Islamic Jurisprudence (fiqh) and didn't study Sufism (tasawwaf) will be corrupted, and whoever studied Sufism and didn't study Islamic Jurisprudence will become a heretic, and whoever combined both will reach the Truth!”
Imam Shafi`i (r) said, “Three things in this world have been made lovely to me: avoiding affectation, treating people with kindness and following the ways of the Sufis.”
Have you heard that before? No! Now we come to Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (r), who was strictest in the madhdhabs. He said to his son, “I don't know people better than them.” Someone said to him, “They listen to music and reach states of ecstasy,” just like the music we are hearing here. Did that happen to you tonight? Yes! Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (r) answered, “Do you prevent them from enjoying an hour with Allah?”
Now we jump to what Imam Nawawi (r) said in his published letters, al-Maqasid `Ilm at-Tawassuf, that the specifications of the Sufi Way are five:
I will jump far now to what Ibn Taymiyya said about Tasawwuf from his own book, Fatawa ibn Taymiyya, Vols. 9 & 10, in which he quoted many saints:
The upright among the followers of the Path, like the majority of the early shaykhs, the Shuyookh al-Salaaf, such as Fudayl ibn `Iyad (r ), Ibraheem ibn Adham, Ma`ruf al-Karkhi, al-Sari al-Saqati, al-Junayd ibn Muhammad, and others of the early teachers, as well as Shaykh Abd al-Qadir, Shaykh Hammad, Shaykh Abu al-Bayan and others of the later Masters.
Ibn Taymiyya quotes from Bayazid al-Bistami (q) on page 518, Vol. 10:
The great Sufi Shaykh, Bayazid al-Bistami, and the famous story of when he saw God in a vision (kashf) and said to Him, “O Allah, what is the way to You?” and Allah responded, “Leave your self and come to Me!”
Ibn Taymiyya continues quoting Bayazid al-Bistami (q), who said, “I shed my self as a snake sheds its skin.” Ibn Taymiyya took Tasawauf and he was a Shaykh of the Qadiri Tariqah! We now turn to the evidence of Ibn Taymiyya's affiliation with the Qadiri Tariqah and to his own acknowledgement, as related by his student Ibn `Abd al-Hadi (d. 909), that he had received the Qadiri khirqa or cloak of authority from `Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani through a chain of three shaykhs; these are no other than the three Ibn Qudamas who are among the established authorities in Fiqh in the Hanbali school.
This information was brought to light by George Makdisi in a series of articles published in the 1970s. In a manuscript of Yusuf ibn `Abd al-Hadi al-Hanbali entitled, Bad' al 'ilqa bi Labs al Khirqa “The Beginning of the Shield in the Wearing of the Sufi Cloak,” Ibn Taymiyya is listed within a Sufi spiritual genealogy with other well-known Hanbali scholars. The links in this genealogy are, in descending order:
`Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani, Abu `Umar ibn Qudama, Muwaffaq al Din ibn Qudama, Ibn Abi `Umar ibn Qudama, Ibn Taymiyya, and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya and Ibn Rajab.
I will not quote what Ibn Qayyim said, as he was a student of Ibn Taymiyya, but will jump to Muhammad bin `Abdul Wahhab. His son, Shaykh `Abdullah, said about Tasawwuf:
“My father and I don't deny or criticize the Science of Sufism, but on the contrary, we support it because it cleans the external and the internal of the hidden sins, which are related to the heart and the outward form. Even though the individual might externally be on the right way, internally he might be on the wrong way, and for its correction Tasawwuf is necessary.”
I am not going to go any further today with mentioning what Shaykh Muhammad `Abduh, Shaykh `Ali Rida or Abul-`Ala al-Maudoodi, etc., said about Tasawwuf.
Who hasn't read the Tafsir al-Jalalayn, commentary of the Holy Qur'an by Jalaluddin as-Suyuti (r)? What does he say about Tasawwuf? He is like Imam Nawawi (r), so that is why I will quote him. Shaykh al-Islam al-Suyuti, the Reviver of the Islamic 8th century and the Mujtahid Imam, said in his book on Tasawwuf entitled, Ta'yid al-haqiqa al-`aliyya wa-tashyid al-tariqa al-shadhiliyya, “The Upholding of the Lofty Truth and the Buttressing of the Shadhili Path:
Tasawwuf in itself is a most honorable knowledge. It explains how to follow the sunnah of the Prophet (s) and to leave innovation, how to purify the ego and truly submit to Allah (swt). I have looked at the matters which the Imams of Shari`ah have criticized in Sufis, and I did not see a single true Sufi holding such positions; rather, they are held by the people of innovation and the extremists who have claimed for themselves the title of ‘Sufi’ while in reality they are not.
Sufis love the Prophet (s). Whenever something happens we say, “We are fasting.” We only showed that Tasawwuf is love of the Prophet (s).
We thank SimplyIslam for this nice event, although they empty our pockets, but never mind!