29 August 2011 Fenton Zawiya, Michigan
After Zhuhr Prayers
Allahuma salli `ala Sayyidina Muhammad (s) hatta yarda Sayyidina Muhammad!
A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani 'r-rajeem. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem.
Nawaytu 'l-arba`een, nawaytu 'l-`itikaaf, nawaytu 'l-khalwah, nawaytu 'l-`uzlah,
nawaytu 'r-riyaadah, nawaytu 's-sulook, lillahi ta`ala fee haadha 'l-masjid.
Ati`oollaha wa ati`oo 'r-Rasoola wa ooli 'l-amri minkum.
Obey Allah, obey the Prophet, and obey those in authority among you. (an-Nisa’, 4:59)
Awliyaullah have been described as those whose hearts are alive. Everyone else’s hearts are dead, because although the bell is always ringing, some people can hear it and others cannot. That is a heavenly bell ringing to call people to Allah's Divine Presence, where the door never closes. Those who do not hear it have dead hearts.
Today when you watch TV, you see the news which they say is a live broadcast from the scene. Allah’s message that He sent to Sayyidina Muhammad (s) is continuously alive every moment of twenty-four hours, seven days a week, 365 days a year from beginning to end, saying, “Come to Me! If you don’t want to come, I will take you by force. I want that amanah back that I entrusted to you, which you said you would keep.” Awliyaullah respond to that call, in fact they run to answer it, but we normal people don't respond. We have a saying in Arabic:
Inna Allah yumhil wa laa yuhmil.
Allah will delay (His response to a matter) but He will not leave it.
“Delay, give him more time to change,” but finally there is the order, “Come!” Can you say to the Angel of Death, Sayyidina Azra`eel (a), “I will not come!” The only one who has the decision to go or not is the Prophet (s). When Sayyidina Jibreel (a) and the Angel of Death (a) came, Jibreel said to Prophet (s), “I am reading to you salaams from Allah and I am coming to give you the choice, as it is your decision to leave this world or not. It is an open invitation.” Because the Prophet (s) is already in the Divine Presence, so else where is there for him to go? Even his holy grave is not a grave, it is Paradise, as he is already there! But Allah (swt) gave him a choice: “If you would like to stay, then stay. Sayyidina Nuh (a) is not better than you.” You know, Allah (swt) limited Sayyidina Nuh’s life in this world to a thousand years minus fifty (950 years), but He gave to the Prophet (s) with no limit or end.
“You may come Sayyidina Muhammad (s), anytime you like.” And the Prophet (s) said, “laa yaa Rabbee, al-iltifaq bil-malaa il-`alaa. I like to join with the heavenly life, the highest, ar-Rafeeq al-`alaa. There is better than here.”
It means that your heart is already dead, so don’t follow someone whose heart is dead like yours as you will not get benefit but only darkness. Follow living ones, whose hearts are alive, because they know where to guide you. Left to yourself you are already a grave, so how will you benefit in the other grave? You are a grave, so do you want to come to a grave like you or do you want to come to a paradise? A grave is not going to benefit you. You are blind, so will you follow another blind one? No, a blind person follows one who can see. Blind people today follow trained “sight” dogs, which shows they accept the dog can see more than them. As we are blind, we must find someone whose heart is alive, a guided shaykh who can take you wherever he went.
Don’t let dunya take you in! For every moment in your life, there is a moment that faces you and you will leave this dunya completely dead! Don’t let that moment grab you suddenly, secretly, as you will be finished before you can repent! No, repent in every moment in your life so you can reach what you need to reach!
The Prophet (s) said, mal`oonun, mal`oonun, “Cursed upon cursed,” or squared (in math). It means he who depends on a creation like himself is doubly cursed, so don’t depend on just anyone but depend on Allah (swt), the Prophet (s), and on awliyaullah. Don’t trust what people tell you as you will be affected by their dead hearts and their advice will send you astray. Don’t ask for dunya and don’t be angry if you see they have dunya and you can’t get it: in such cases it is better to have nothing, as that dunya will only be a problem for you!
The one who wants secrets to open to his or her heart believes what awliyaullah say, as Imam al-Junayd (r) said, at-tasdeequ bi `ilmina hadha wilaya, “To believe in what we say is a level of sainthood.” Do not to object or question; take it as it is. In the adab of tariqah there are no questions, because when you ask questions you make the shaykh look as if he doesn’t know, so don’t speak. However, a poor person questioned Sayyidina Junayd, as he saw he cannot do anything because he is poor. May Allah (swt) continue providing us with continuous provisions in dunya and Akhirah, because poverty is not easy.
I mentioned a story that was on the news two weeks ago. A lady ran away from the drought in Somalia to Nairobi, Kenya, where there is a lot of water. She left Somalia walking with her eight children until she reached a refugee camp in Kenya. Five of her children died on the way from disease and dehydration; she reached Kenya with three children. Here you cannot find anyone who is poor and still we are not content, we don't say, “alhamdulillah. shukran yaa Rabbee!” Five children she lost, and here we waste more than we eat. Everyone wants to go see the new movie released in the cinema, and they spend perhaps twenty-five dollars, which is enough to raise an orphan for one month! In Somalia, twenty-five dollars can feed two families for a month. Poverty might lead you to unbelief. Here we waste; what if we save thatmoney? There are two-hundred people here and if each gives ten dollars, that would be two-thousand dollars, from which so many of the suffering could survive! http://islamicsupremecouncil.org/orphans/?pm=about
So the Prophet (s) said, “Don't trust just anyone.” Imam al-Junayd (r) was asked a big question: to define poverty. He thought, “How can I define poverty when I am eating and drinking!” So he became upset and suddenly left the majlis, which troubled the mureeds. As we have narrated many times from the hadeeth, Prophet (s) asked the Shaabah (r), man al-muflis, “Who is the bankrupt one?” The Prophet (s) tied his stomach with a stone to suppress the pangsof his hunger, as he ate so little! Allahu Akbar! Look how they lived in the time of Prophet (s), and still some live like that.
So Sayyidina Junayd (r) returned the next day. The same people asked, “Yaa Imam, we didn’t get the answer. You left.” He said, “How can I give an answer when I have savings at home?” That was also a reminder for him not to allow any provision to remain without sharing it. He said, “How could I describe poverty when I had one silver dinar? So I spent it fee sabeelillah and gave it to the needy. Now I can describe poverty as I have nothing in my actions that will contradict my words, as the Prophet (s) said, ‘A believer cannot lie.’ How can I speak on what I have not myself done?”
In Grandshaykh `AbdAllah al-Fa'iz ad-Daghestani’s (q) time, there was a famous shaykh in Damascus who did not allow his mureeds or their relatives to socialize in public after Isha because Shaytan comes out then. That is why you see so many criminals operating at night. That shaykh had the habit of distributing any food in his house, cooked or uncooked, at night to the animals, who became accustomed to that and so they waited at his door. One night he forgot to do that, and he could not sleep as he sensed something wrong.
He asked his daughter, “Is there anything to eat in the house?”
She said, “No, you distributed it.”
He said, “No there must be some remaining food here.”
Then she remembered, “Someone gave us a leg of lamb that we did not prepare.”
He took that out to feed the dogs but they were gone, so he found them and fed them and they were content. Then he went home and slept. When he came out the next morning for Fajr and walked to the mosque, the dogs followed him to the door. There he said, “O my followers! One time I gave them meat and they follow me to the mosque so loyally, but I have been giving spiritual food to you for years and still you are not loyal to me!” It means don’t let your hearts die.
Once Sayyida `Ayesha (r) told the Prophet (s) a lady had knocked on their door and she had two babies who had not eaten in twenty-four hours. She said, “Yaa Rasoolullah! I didn't find anything to give them except three dates that I saved fro you. I gave one to the mother and one for each child. The children swallowed them immediately and then they looked at the date in their mother’s hands, which she split and fed to them.” The Prophet (s) said, “She will enter Paradise with no account.”
The Prophet (s) also said Paradise will open with no account to whoever raises two girls in Islam until they marry. So don’t ask from Creation, ask from Allah, Who said, دْعُونِي أَسْتَجِبْ لَكُمْ idu`nee astajib lakum, “Ask Me and I will respond.” Don’t think you will sleep hungry; you will get even a cucumber. Allah gave awliyaullah that power of guidance to lead their followers and to make their hearts alive and to not leave their hearts dead!
O Believers! Make your hearts alive with dhikrullah. “Remember Me; I remember you. I will make your heart alive by My mentioning you and I rejuvenate you completely!” May Allah rejuvenate us. You came here for Allah and His Prophet and for Mawlana. I am not one who can claim anything. I don’t know even if I deserve anything at the end of Ramadan other than sitting at the bottom of the stairs cleaning the shoes!
May Allah (swt) bless this meeting and bless your coming and Ramadan kareem! May Allah change our imitation fasting to real fasting, and may He not to deprive us of any future Ramadans; may He give you hundreds and hundreds of Ramadans!
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.