Suhbah at Private Residence
SubhaanAllah Sidi, go visit a saint where he is buried, because the soul that was given to the saint that day still has to come to the saint. You see, their work is not only for fifty or sixty years, they were given a chunk and some of them come during the life of the shaykh, some of them come after the life of the shaykh and he is able to perfect the mureed after they pass on, in absentia, by what they call ‘Uwaysi’, after Sayyidina Uways al-Qarani (q). Nabi (s) was spiritually working on him and he believed in Prophet Muhammad (s) without even being next to him! ‘Uwaysi’ means "by spirit", when the mureed is perfected by the spirit of the shaykh. There are a lot of Uwaysis that were perfected this way. Shah Naqshband was named “Muhammad al-Uwaysi al-Bukhari” as he was also perfected by the spirits of grandshaykhs. He had a living shaykh, but also spirits of past shaykhs appeared and perfected him. From this we learn you don't need to be physically with shaykh, you can be Uwaysi, the one perfected by the spirit of the shaykh.
When the people visit the maqaam of Sayyidina Dusuqi (q) or other saints’ maqaams, they start to have that nazhar, the gaze of the wali, and if that visitor is to be perfected in dunya, that shaykh works on perfecting him. Some are perfected in their grave, and we have heard from our teachers that some who don't get perfected in the grave must be perfected on Judgment Day and who doesn’t are deprived of Allah’s mercy; we avoid saying ‘punishment’. Allah (swt) is Ar-Rahmaan, ar-Raheem, so we leave it to Him. Every human being is to be perfected and no human being enters Jannah without being perfected, so some of them are perfected in this world, some in the grave, some on Judgement Day and some have to go through some punishment to get perfected. They say if there is lead or copper in gold and you want to purify it, you have to heat it up and that removes the impurities.
Why were we made out of mud? A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytani ‘r-rajeem. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem. We are made out of fakhaar, mud, but Allah (swt) says in Holy Qur’an:
وَلَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الإِنسَانَ مِن صَلْصَالٍ مِّنْ حَمَإٍ مَّسْنُونٍ
We created man from sounding clay, from mud molded into shape. (Surat al-Hijr, 15:26)
“We have created you from mud and We made you into Fakhaar, clay,” but how does soil turn from mud into clay? By heating it, you have to heat the mud to become firm clay so you fa idhaa sawaytuhu, work the clay by pulling it, so heat has to enter human beings to make them perfect. Another sign of the clay is salsar, what is salsar? When you tap on a clay jar it sounds hollow, which means there is no more water, it is completely dry, and when it is wet there is no sound. It has to be burned in that ‘fire’ to become a ‘perfect’ human being, and the burning of human being is through deprivation of the love of Allah (swt). The love is withheld and then the human being is driven by shawq, yearning; you yearn, you struggle, you strive, you want to reach that love, but when you don't get it what happens inside of you? You burn!
So the human being was intended and created to love Allah (swt), but when sent down on Earth, where he is loving his Lord but unable to see the Lord, he burns inside with yearning. Some scholars have said that when human beings were burning inside from their love of Allah (swt) and His Messenger (s), some Sufis could smell that and you read about it in stories.
To perfect a human being from mud, which is water and soil, into perfect clay that you tap and it makes a hollow sound when it's dry, you have to put it in such immense heat that all impurities are removed, water evaporates and it becomes perfect! So the human being was meant to be burned with the love of Allah (swt) and the yearning to see Him, so we go through it here in dunya, in the grave, or on the Day of Judgment, because when Allah (swt) opens the veil and shows His Beauty, everybody is in love and will see Allah (swt) on the Day of Judgment: they will appear before their Lord and when they see the Beauty and Manifestation of their Lord they will feel so much love!
So then imagine you are told, “You are not going to see that Beauty anymore, you have to go into punishment.” That's the punishment: not being able to love your Lord and receive His Beauty and Manifestation! So you are burned over there: either you burn here or there!
Nabi (s) said dunya is the prison of human beings, which means you are taken away from seeing the Beauty of your Lord as there is a veil, hijab:
لَّقَدْ كُنتَ فِي غَفْلَةٍ مِّنْ هَٰذَا فَكَشَفْنَا عَنكَ غِطَاءَكَ فَبَصَرُكَ الْيَوْمَ حَدِيدٌ
Indeed you were in a state of heedlessness regarding this and thus We removed the veil from you and your sight on that Day will be sharp. (Surah Qaaf, 50:22)
When somebody dies, the cover is taken off and then your sight is as strong as iron, you can see clearly as there are no more veils. When we go through the struggle of wanting to see our Lord here in dunya, wanting to be with our saints and wanting to be with our Prophet (s) and we are not allowed to, what happens? Your love grows and grows. But if you are given that right away your love might not grow. A small child wants something and you repeatedly tell him, “Wait,” and the more you tell him to wait the more eager and wanting he becomes and then at last when he cannot take it anymore and you give it to him, it is as if you gave him everything in the world! Then he takes care of that, feeling he never had anything more precious.
Our teachers have said the love we have for Nabi (s) and his Companions (r) and Ahlu ‘l-Bayt (a) and the holy ones and the love we develop for Allah (swt) is from `ishq, passionate love, and shawq. Your passion grows and grows and when you don't get what you yearn for it grows even more, because when that door opens and you have reached perfection, the state in which you are dry, you have no more life, you don't want dunya. In worldly passionate love, people say, “I am so in love that I cannot eat, drink or sleep.” That is when a man loves/is infatuated with a woman or vice versa, then people call them majnoon, crazy, like the famous love story, “Layla and Majnoon”. They go crazy in love and wander in the desert, not knowing where they are going. The passion you develop for Allah (swt) is beyond all that! the more that love and passion that grows inside of us, the more we burn and the more heat we start to give.
It is said about Sayyidina `Azeez Mahmud Hudayi (q), a Turkish saint and teacher of Isma`eel Haqqi Bursevi (q), that when he went to his shaykh he was given the job of heating the water for his shaykh’s wudu. He said his shaykh told him, “Your job is to heat the water for me when I take wudu, ablution, and he said, “Yes my shaykh.” That was his only task: whenever his shaykh awoke for Fajr, he heated the wudu water and recited the dhikr his shaykh assigned him, and he kept the company of the shaykh, learning from him. One night he overslept and he heard his shaykh’s footsteps, and when he touched the water it was ice cold, so he started to cry, saying, “How this ice cold water would touch the hands of my shaykh? How can I put him in that kind of torture? I was late heating up the water!” That was love for the shaykh, but imagine the love for the Prophet (s) and for Allah (swt). The love for his shaykh made him cry and cry, and he held the jug in his arms trying to heat it with his body heat, so at least that it will be a little bit warmer and the shaykh wouldn’t feel the cold water. He held it next to him and the time shaykh came down the steps to take wudu and said “ O my son, pour the water.” The moment the water touched his blessed hands, the shaykh said, “Ouch! What did you do, O my son? Your love has burned us!”
The water was so hot with heat of love to his shaykh that when the water touched the hand of the shaykh it burned it! Imagine the love a Sufi can attain; that's what we are taught, to love Allah (swt) in such a way, but to love Allah (swt) we have to go through the process of loving the Prophet (s) and before that we have to love our guide so that he can take us to the love of Prophet (s). We love Sayyidina Dusouqi, Sayyidina Shadhili, we love every saint whose name is mentioned and that gives love in our hearts, because we feel them, we know them, we hear them! They are lovers of Nabi (s) and by being with them we attain some of that love, because we cannot carry.
There is a wisdom of associating Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem with Nabi (s). Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem starts with the(letter ‘Baa’, Bismillah means ‘with the name’ and we previously explained the Baa in detail. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem is Ismullah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem, the Name of Allah (swt), The Most Compassionate, The Most Merciful and:
كل أمر ذي بال لا يبدأ فيه ببسم الله الرحمن الرحيم فهو أقطع أو(فهو ابتر)
The Prophet (s) said, “Any action which does not begin with ‘Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem’ is cut off; it has no continuity.” (Ahmad, al-Musnad)
Anything that is of importance that does not start with Bismillah is cut, abtar. The Quraysh used to say bismi ‘laat, bismi ‘l-`uzzah, “In the name of Laat and `Uzzah (their idols)”, but Believers always start with the Name ‘Allah’, which encompasses all the Beautiful Names and Attributes because it is an indication of the Essence of Allah (swt), Huwa ‘l-Llah, “He is Allah,” and the Divine Attributes, huwa ‘Llahu ‘Lladhee laa illaaha illa Huwa ‘l-Malik al-Quddoos...all of the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names and Attributes.
Also, ‘Allah’ also an indication to the actions, Huwa ‘Llahu ‘l-Khaaliq, “The One Who created,” al-Musawwir, “The One Who Designed”. So when we say, “Bismillah,” we are saying the name ‘Allah’ is indicating the Essence, is indicating the Attributes, is indicating the actions, is encompassing all levels. When you say, “Bismillah,” you are mentioning Allah (swt) with all His Attributes, with all His Names and with His Essence. That is Ismullahu ‘l-`Azham, that name, Bismillah, because we are saying, “By the Name of Allah,” that Name. That Name is not...what is mentioned after. “By the Name of Allah, The Merciful,” so what is that Name? That Name, Bismillah, that Name of Allah means it encompasses all levels. It is said that is Ismullahu ‘l-`Azham and whoever calls Allah (swt) with His Greatest Name, the Grandest Name, with Ismullahu ‘l-`Azham, his du’a is accepted. It is said that the angels travel from Earth to Heaven with Ismullahu ‘l-`Azham. Nabiyyeen, prophets travelled from Heavens to Earth with Ismullahu ‘l-`Azham. Saints travel from Heavens to Earth with Ismullahu ‘l-`Azham, Allah’s Grandest Name, Allah’s Biggest Name, Greatest Name, Biggest Name, Most Glorious Name. That Name, “In the Name of Allah, The Compassionate, The Merciful.” Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem.
So that Ismullahu ‘l-Azham, whoever makes du’a with that Name, his du’a is accepted. Some people say, “Why don’t we get our du’as accepted then? We are saying, ‘Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem.’” We are told by Nabi (s) to start du’a with Bismillah. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem. So why don’t we get the du’a accepted? It is said that there are conditions for du’a. That’s why it’s not accepted. The du’a has conditions just like the prayer has conditions. The first condition of du’a is that you eat lawful food. You drink lawfully, halaal. Your dress is lawful, and Nabi (s) said, “You see a man praying and praying and praying and how can it be accepted when his food is haram, his dress is haram?” So the first condition for the du’a to be accepted is that everything you eat, you drink has to be halaal. You wear, you feed your family, it has to be halaal. That’s the first condition and all of us lack that, so that’s why when human beings say, “Oh my Lord! You said, ‘Call Me,’ and You accept my prayer.” You see people everywhere saying, “Oh my Lord! We are praying and praying and praying and nothing happens.” Well did you check your food? Did you check your drink? Did you check how you earn your money? Did you check what you wear and how you dress? If Nabi (s) is saying in a Sahih Hadith, “A servant is asking his Lord but how can it be accepted when his maqaamuhu haraam, wa ta`aamuhu haraam, wa basaruhu haraam, his everything that he is...on him, in him is haram?” How will Allah accept that?
The first thing that we have to do is make sure that our food and our dress and the rest is halaal and we can’t do that. No matter how hard you try, you are not perfect, so what do we do? We go to a perfect one. You go to Sayyidi Dusuqi. These are the stupid ones, excuse my language, that say, “Don’t go to the graves.” Well are you a perfect one that I can go to you instead? I am not perfect. I want my du`a to be accepted. Can you pray for me? Would Allah accept your prayer for me, O Salafi, O Wahhabi, O the one that discourages people from going to saints’ tombs?! I want to come to you. You pray for me so Allah can accept my prayer. Can you do that? So, why do you interfere between me and the perfect one who can pray for me, that he is alive,
بَلْ أَحْيَاء عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ يُرْزَقُونَ
No, they live, finding their sustenance provided in the Presence of their Lord. (Surat Aali-`Imraan, 3:169)
They are not dead. They are ahyaa `inda rabbihim yurzaqoon, “They are alive in the Presence of their Lord and they are given.” I go to that one so my du’a can be accepted because my du’a is not accepted and certainly your du’a is not accepted.
When people go to a pious one, they are going because they are expecting Allah to accept that person’s du’a for them. That’s why we go visit the saliheen. We go visit the saints. We go visit the pious ones. We encourage everybody to go do that but you have people that discourage everybody from doing that. Then tell them, “Okay, you pray for me.” He goes, “It’s haram, we can’t pray in jama`ah. You have to pray by yourself.” So what, you don’t pray for me, you don’t allow me to go to somebody to pray for me, I cannot pray for myself, so what do we do? Allah (swt) says, “Pray to Me so I can respond to you,” and Allah (swt) says, “Ask from Me so I can give you.” So we go to the pious ones.
CONDITIONS OF PRAYER
1) Halaal, your food and everything is halaal for the du’a to be accepted. When we are saying, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem, Ismullahu ‘l-Azham,” we don’t know that Name, but we are opening our du’a in the presence of a pious one, a saint, in the presence of Nabi (s), and they turn you around and say, “Go that way, don’t pray this way.” It’s assault, and when you want to explain to them, they don’t accept. What do we do now? So we pray because we don’t need to be physically there, because we believe they are spiritually here with us, all the saints. So we go to the pious one and with Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem, in his or her presence, as Sayyida Rabi`a al-`Adawiyya and Sayyidatina Fatima az-Zahra, Sayyida Hala Sultan are holy ones, so we go on the presence of the holy one, khaalat an-Nabi min ar- ridaa`a, we pray in their presence with Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem and we ask them to pray on our behalf, so then that prayer is taken by The Perfect One.
2) The other condition in prayer is that you have to be present by heart. How many people make du’a and their heart is not there? You’re thinking, thinking and where’s your heart? As if you’re yelling and yelling at the door, for somebody to open it for you. Ring the bell, maybe that person cannot hear you yelling, maybe it’s a soundproof door from all our veils! When the heart is in the Divine Presence, Allah (swt) becomes your intercessor for the du`a. When we say, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem,” without riya, secondary gain, such as wanting people to think you are popular or give you money because you are praying for them, when you say, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem” with honesty, Allah (swt) will accept that prayer.
Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem. In a Hadith it is narrated that when Nabi (s) ascended to our Lord’s Presence with Sayyidina Jibreel (a), all the Paradises were gathered for him and with rivers of water, milk, honey, and wine that does not intoxicate you; some scholars say the rivers of wine are ‘rivers of love of Allah (swt).’ Nabi (s) saw these Four Rivers in the Gardens in Paradise and he asked Jibreel (a), “What are these rivers? Where do they come from, where do they go?” Jibreel (a) said, “O Nabi (s)! All of them flow into your Pool, Hawd al-Kawthar.” All of us, inshaa-Allah, will drink from Hawd al-Kawthar on the Day of Judgment and know our cup.
إِنَّا أَعْطَيْنَاكَ الْكَوْثَرَ
Indeed We have given you the Fount of Abundance. (Surat al-Kawthar, 108:1)
Jibreel (a) said, “All these Four Rivers flow into your Pool, Hawd, but I don’t know from where they come. Why don’t you ask your Lord where they come from?” Nabi (s) is pure, perfect, his du’a is heard right away, not like ours. So he asked his Lord, “Where do these rivers come from?” and Allah (swt) sent an angel to tell Prophet (s), “Blink once.” He blinked and was in front of the source of these four rivers, and saw a tree and a building with a huge dome with a big lock on it. He said, “The rivers come from here,” but he saw the lock and he said, “Alright.” The angel said, “Why don’t you enter?” Nabi (s) said, “There’s a lock.” He said, “But you have its key.” Nabi (s) said, “What is it?” He said, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem.”
Nabi (s) has that key and whenever we are say “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem,” we are using it! Whenever you open the Qur’an and say, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem,” you are using the key of Nabi (s). What is the first thing you have to say after “A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytani ‘r-rajeem”? Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem. You have to use the key of Nabi (s) or nothing will open. That is the key of Holy Qur’an. “With that key,” he said, “Open the lock. Say, ‘Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem.’” Nabi has that key. He said, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem,” and with that key, the lock opened and Nabi (s) entered and he said, it’s in hadith, you can Google the hadith and it’s mentioned in the Holy Qur’an these four rivers in Surat Muhammad. The Four Rivers are mentioned in the surah that carries the name of Muhammad (s). Surat Muhammad, I think maybe 10, 11, in the middle of the surah.
He opened the door with saying, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem” and he entered. When he entered, he saw the big dome like we see nowadays when you enter and you see a big dome. There are four pillars and at the pillars he saw, again, Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem written and he saw from the first pillar the river of water is coming out and it’s coming out from the Meem of Bism. The water is flowing. From the other he saw the river of milk is coming out, water, milk, wine and honey, Four Rivers, and he saw the river of milk coming from the Haa of Allah, from the Haa it’s coming. Pay attention, it’s a circle. Meem is a circle. Haa is a circle and from the other corner, from Ar-Rahman, the third river is coming out, the river of khamr, of wine, of love, coming again from the Meem of Ar-Rahman, from the Meem which is also again a circle. The circle of Wujood, daa’iraat al-wujood, the circle of existence and from the other corner, from Ar-Raheem, the river of honey is coming out. Again, from the Meem of Ar-Raheem. From three Meems and from Haa are coming these Four Rivers, from circles and some saints say Al-Wujood, all this existence is a tree and this tree is coming out from Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem.
Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem is the tree where all this existence is coming out from, so from the four circles of Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem these four rivers are starting to flow into the gardens, into the Paradises and from there into Hawd al-Kawthar, where the lovers or followers of Prophet Muhammad (s) will meet and drink, and he has the key, our Nabi, our Beloved has the key: Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem. Ismullahu ‘l-`Azham, Allah’s Greatest Name, by which if somebody asks he will be given. And Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) said that it was asked by the previous prophets three times, what I remember from Mawlana Shaykh, and they know best, but he said three times:
The first time that somebody used Ismullahu ‘l-`Azham, Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem, was Sayyidina Adam (a) when he was thrown out of Heaven, because he disobeyed Allah (swt) and was falling to Earth, and Earth was ready to swallow him because of its anger at Adam’s disobedience, and he was coming, falling down and was going to sink and sink and sink and continue sinking in Earth like Qaroon in the time of Sayyidina Musa (a) when the Earth swallowed him and he continued to sank.
Then Nabi (s) reached out to Adam (a) and said, “Say, ‘Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem.’” When Sayyidina Adam (a) went to Earth, with his first step he said, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem, In the Name of Allah, Ar-Rahman, Ar-Raheem,” and stood firm!
Wa min Allahi ‘t-tawfeeq bi hurmati ‘l-habeeb bi hurmati ‘l-Fatihah.
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