Suhbah after Zhuhr
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`alaa fee haadha 'l-masjid.
أَطِيعُواْ اللّهَ وَأَطِيعُواْ الرَّسُولَ وَأُوْلِي الأَمْرِ مِنكُمْ
Atee`oollaha wa atee`oo 'r-Rasoola wa ooli 'l-amri minkum.
Obey Allah, obey the Prophet, and obey those in authority among you. (Surat an-Nisa, 4:59)
It is not easy to speak, because you don't want your speech to be mixed with all your ego and your anger. Many `ulama came, wrote books and then died. Many awliyas came and they are (still) alive. Do they have `ilm? Yes. They have knowledge? Yes. They have power? Yes. Do `ulama have knowledge? Yes. They have `ilm? Yes. They have power? Yes. To each one of `ulama, scholars or awliyaullah, saints, Allah gave something special, but they are still in need of more. `Ulama need to know more and awliyaullah need to know more.
Allah raised Sayyidina Muhammad (s) to Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa, which means He (swt) ascended him (s) and gave him knowledge as he (s) was ascending, and still he is ascending and Allah is giving him knowledge and Allah's knowledge never ends. The knowledge of `ulama ends, but the knowledge of awliyaullah never ends because Allah is giving to the Prophet (s) and the Prophet (s) is always giving to them. Since the Prophet (s) is still in Ascension, he is giving awliyaullah more and more in every moment.
Now does `ilm change? No. What the Prophet (s) taught Sahaabah (r) and what Sahaabah taught al-a'immat, some of whom became scholars, did their knowledge change? No, but new meanings are coming from the same knowledge. When you say, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah,” Laa ilaaha illa-Llah didn't change, but it might be that you are saying it superficially and when someone else who is more on the spiritual knowledge, following the way of awliyaullah in his journey says, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah,” stronger tawheed comes with it. If our focus is on tawheed, as much as you are closer to Allah’s love and you are more pious and righteous, more meanings come to you from the words, 'Laa ilaaha illa-Llah.'
So the trunk is there, but the branches have different kinds of food and you can take from wherever you want as it is the same trunk, but there is more fruit/food. Until today, awliyaullah are spending their whole lives giving advice or giving new meanings to their followers, but are they sure the followers follow what they say? We are not sure that we are following what our awliyaullah or our teachers are saying because there is too much negativity and too much depression or destruction. There is too much that comes between us and our teachers. We love or sometimes spend more time in dunya and do not spend time in learning spiritual and Islamic knowledge. Our concern is more toward dunya than for our Akhirah, so the Prophet (s) said in one of his ahadith:
اضنوا شياطينكم بقول لا اله الا الله محمد رسول الله فان الشيطان يضني بها كما يضني أحدكم بعيره بكثرة ركوبة وشيل أحماله عليه
adnoo shayaateenakum bi qawli la ilaha ill ‘Llah Muhammad rasoolullah fa inna ’sh-shayaateen yadna bihaa kamaa yadnaa ahadakum ba`eerihi bi-kathrati rakoobati wa shayla ahmaalahu `alayh.
Exhaust your shaytans by saying la ilaha illa allah Muhammadu rasulullah. For verily the devils get exhausted by it just as one of your camels gets exhausted by excessive riding and putting a crippling load on it.
“Give your shayaateen exhaustion, give them a hard time.” He (s) knows that we are followed, the shayaateen are always following and trying to change us to their ways, and the Prophet (s) is telling us, “No, their ways are wrong, don’t follow their ways, but make them to be exhausted.” If you exhaust them, they run away. So who doesn't like his Shaytan to run away? We say, “No, we don't want,” but in reality, whether we want or we don't want, Shaytan is running after us. I don't like to say it is his job, but it is his fitna way, to throw confusion, and he is running after human beings trying to pull them from Allah's Divine Presence to his presence. So the Prophet (s) said, “Be careful! Adnoo shayaateenakum, exhaust your shayateen, give them hard time.” You there! It might be you, it might be me. You there! Don't be on the side of fitna if you are really considering yourself a wali, because everyone thinks himself a wali. This what I am saying, I am pointing to the camera because the people are going to see from the camera, but it’s not them as it might be me or everyone, not “might be,” but it is me, you and everyone! You try to smile in the face of awliyaullah and say, “Yes, yes,” but on the other side your fitna is everywhere, spreading confusion everywhere, spreading microbes everywhere, spreading contagious characters and behavior everywhere. So what do you need to save yourself and save those around you because Shaytan is after you?
What do they do with someone who is contagious? They put him in a quarantine until he is clean, and then they take him out. Astronauts, when they come back, they put them in quarantines; divers, who dive in the ocean, when they go down more than necessary, they have to put them in a container or in something that brings them back to normal pressure in their body. So the Prophet (s) wants us to be in a quarantine because we are contagious with Shaytan. Can anyone say he is not contagious with Shaytan? I am not speaking only about here where we are. No, we are speaking in general including everyone. You, means “us,” “us” is better, us, we are contagious. Look at the purity: everything Allah created on Earth is pure.
That is why Allah (swt) said in the Holy Qur'an:
فَتَيَمَّمُواْ صَعِيدًا طَيِّبًا
fatayammamoo sa`eedan tayyiban
then take resort to pure soil (Surat an-Nisa, 4:43)
and in hadith:
وَجُعِلَتْ لِيَ الْأَرْضُ طَهُورًا وَمَسْجِدًا،
And (Allah) made the earth, any place on it, as tahoor, clean, and as a masjid.
You can make sajda anywhere, you can go outside and make sajda as it is clean. Allah said, and the Prophet (s) said, because it’s from Allah (swt), “If you don't have water you can use water from the sea as it is clean,” is it not? So when you are...look, Allah made two oceans: Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Ocean, they meet. Where do they meet? Near Jabal Tariq, which they called Gibraltar. So they meet, the two oceans and many other oceans, like the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, or the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean and the China Ocean. When two oceans meet:
مَرَجَ الْبَحْرَيْنِ يَلْتَقِيَانِ بَيْنَهُمَا بَرْزَخٌ لَّا يَبْغِيَانِ
Maraj al-bahrayn yaltaqeeyaan. Baynahumaa barzakhun laa yabghiyaan.
He let forth the two seas so that they meet together. Between them is a barrier that they do not transgress. (Surat al-Rahman, 55:19-20)
He made the oceans to meet, baynahumaa barzakhun laa yabghiyaan, “and between them there is a quarantine that one doesn’t take over the other.” The two oceans don’t takeover each other, no, no! Allah made for them, and you cannot see it, you, there (pointing to camera)! You can’t see that barrier between the two oceans, but there is a barrier. There is a barrier Allah (swt) has made for the Mediterranean Ocean not to come on the Atlantic Ocean and for the Atlantic not to come on the Mediterranean, but He made between them a quarantine, a circle from the two oceans. The fish that come from the Mediterranean to go to the Atlantic must first go in the quarantine to adopt themselves for the big ocean and those who are coming from the big ocean, from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, they have to go into that quarantine that you cannot see it and I cannot see it, but Allah has made it there. You can see fish from both sides inside and trying to adapt from the big Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. These big fish also have to go inside that quarantine and all kinds of fish in that quarantine don’t attack each other, they stay inside for some time until Allah (swt) orders them to move, and then they can go to the Atlantic or to the Mediterranean.
O People! “Maraj al-bahrayni yaltaqeeyaan” means He also made the two oceans: `Ilm al-Awraaq, Knowledge of Books and `Ilm al-Adhwaaq, Knowledge of Taste; `Ilm azh-Zhaahir, Knowledge of the Literal, the Apparent, what scholars can understand, and `Ilm al-Haqaaiq, Knowledge of Realities. He made them to meet, which is that quarantine. He made these two oceans,`Ilm al-Zhaahir and `Ilm al-Baatin, meet. They call it “Baatin,” but we will go according to what Abdul Wahhab ash-Shara`ni (q) said, one of the big imaams when they asked him about `Ilm al-Baatin, he said, “There is no `Ilm al-Baatin, there is `Ilm al-Haqaaiq for us because what is hidden we can see it.”
So that knowledge, `Ilm al-Zhaahir and `Ilm al-Haqaaiq, comes as two oceans, maraj al-bahrayni yaltaqeeyaan, and He made the two oceans meet in a quarantine. Even these two oceans of knowledge have to be quarantined, and where are they quarantined between them? In someone who carries the secret of the quarantine of the real oceans, the sea oceans, that will be the wali that Allah (swt) is giving him, from:
أَلا إِنَّ أَوْلِيَاء اللّهِ لاَ خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلاَ هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
Alaa inna awliyaaullaahi laa khawfun `alayhim wa laa hum yahzanoon.
Behold! Verily on the Friends of Allah there is no fear, nor shall they grieve. (Surah Yunus, 10:62)
They are the quarantine for the ummah! So around them people will come, like the queen bee that all the bees go to. They are the quarantine of the ummah. They, many around the world, and there are 124,000 wali, which means there are 124,000 quarantines between the Ocean of Knowledge, `Ilm azh-Zhaahir and the Ocean of Realities, `Ilm al-Baatin, `Ilm al-Haqaaiq. So they come together in a wali that Allah has given power of attracting. He is a spotlight, and what do you see at a spotlight? Flies, all different kinds of flies coming and they don't care about anything except to surrender to that light. They come and hit the light, they burn and die! Submission, this is submission. They reached submission, the reality of submission and they don't care about this dunya. When they see the spotlight they know that this is their origin and they come and they hit themselves on the spotlight. When it is dark, when there is no spotlight, do you see any fly going and hitting a spotlight that has no light, a lamp that is out? They don’t. They keep running wherever there is no light: they are running, they are coming, they are going, is it not? But if you put the light what happens? All of them are attracted to that light. So that is submission, they submit to that light which they feel safety in it. They don't say, “We might die,” did you hear them saying, “We are dying?” What they do? They fly, they fly, they fly and they hit the spotlight, and there is so much heat that they are finished. Awliyaullah are like spotlights, they teach their followers to submit to Allah (swt). That is why the Prophet (s) said, adnoo shayaateenakum, “Exhaust your Shaytan.”
How to exhaust your Shaytan is to submit to Allah (swt). It so easy by tongue, but Allah likes that. Even by the tongue, as long as you mention how to exhaust your Shaytan, Allah is happy, no problem. So that one who teaches submission to Allah (swt), Allah dresses him and makes him a wali, he is the quarantine of the two oceans.
So, O you who consider yourself something! It is not nice for you to mock people, it is not nice for you to backbite people, it is not nice for you to spread wrong information, it is not nice for you to spread false rumors, it is not nice for you to eat the flesh of your brothers in the community, it is not nice for you to say to people, “Don't run after dunya” when you are the first one to run after dunya, it is not nice from you to be jealous of someone, and it is not nice of you to be so stingy and so greedy! You say you are around that wali, submitting and talking about your Shaytan, exhausting your Shaytan, but on the contrary you are empowering your Shaytan in you and not feeling ashamed to say false things in front of the shuyookh, in front of your teachers, feeling yourself like Fir`aun, (who said), ana rabbukumu ‘l-`alaa, “I am your highest god,” and you make meetings and spread false rumors. Whoever is that person, or these people, and it might be us, we don’t know, or it might be someone outside this area. We are speaking in general through the Internet so it might go anywhere.
So we have to be careful. We have to have adab when we sit with awliyaullah. How many times they taught us and they told us that when we sit with them we don’t open our mouth with anything, only to make them feel happy. That is what the order is to do, not to make them upset by speaking about other people, and who are you to speak about other people? Look at your own self, we have to look at our own self, are we good to give advice to others? If we feel we are not good to give advice, why are we talking, why are we speaking?
So the Prophet (s) said, adnoo shayaateenakum, “Exhaust your Shaytan.” How to exhaust him? To spread bad rumors? To kill our brothers and sisters by backbiting them? To make fitna? To spread hate to others? What did the Prophet (s) say? It’s a quarantine, and you have to go inside that quarantine as it will save you. What is that quarantine that will save you? It is a beautiful word that Allah gave it to us with a flower. “Say it, O My servants, and I will be happy with you!” What does Allah want from His servants? What does He want? He wants them to go be happy in dunya? Yes, he gave dunya. Go be happy with Akhirah? Yes, He gave Akhirah, but when is He happiest, most happy with His servant? It is what the Prophet (s) has mentioned to us, two sentences: Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah. Say, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah.” He (s) said, adnoo shayaateenakum bi qawli laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah, “Exhaust your Shaytan by saying, ‘Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah.’”
O you who is on the Internet or is here or wherever! Don't you feel ashamed when you say, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah” and you are backbiting people? Are you not ashamed when you are in front of a big shaykh, a Sultan, and you are backbiting people and spreading false rumors? How can you accept to say in front of someone whose heart is not in dunya, his heart is in Akhirah, such that whenever Prophet’s name is being mentioned he cries, whenever Allah’s Name is being mentioned he cries? You are putting your poison in such a nice environment, nice surrounding, to say to people, to backbite people, you and your zabaaniyya, those who are around you! You have to be careful for your dunya and your Akhirah. There is Akhirah, you might be questioned!
When the Prophet (s) asked Sahaabah (r), mani ‘l-muflis, “Who is the bankrupt?” They said, qaaloo man laa maala lah, “The one with no money.” The Prophet (s) said, man laa `amala lah, “The one who has no good deeds.” They said, qaaloo wa in saama wa in sallaa, “Even if he prays and fasts?” and the Prophet (s) said, qaala wa in saama wa in sallaa, “Yes, even if he prays and fasts his `amal will be thrown in his face, because he is a backbiter.”
عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ قَالَ أَتَدْرُونَ مَا الْمُفْلِسُ قَالُوا الْمُفْلِسُ فِينَا يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ مَنْ لَا دِرْهَمَ لَهُ وَلَا مَتَاعَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ الْمُفْلِسُ مِنْ أُمَّتِي مَنْ يَأْتِي يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ بِصَلَاتِهِ وَصِيَامِهِ وَزَكَاتِهِ وَيَأْتِي قَدْ شَتَمَ هَذَا وَقَذَفَ هَذَا وَأَكَلَ مَالَ هَذَا وَسَفَكَ دَمَ هَذَا وَضَرَبَ هَذَا فَيَقْعُدُ فَيَقْتَصُّ هَذَا مِنْ حَسَنَاتِهِ وَهَذَا مِنْ حَسَنَاتِهِ فَإِنْ فَنِيَتْ حَسَنَاتُهُ قَبْلَ أَنْ يُقْتَصَّ مَا عَلَيْهِ مِنْ الْخَطَايَا أُخِذَ مِنْ خَطَايَاهُمْ فَطُرِحَ عَلَيْهِ ثُمَّ طُرِحَ فِي النَّارِ . رواه مسلم والترمذي
`an Abi Hurayrah (r) anna rasoolullahi (s) qaala atradoona maa al-muflis? Qaaloo al-muflis feenaa man laa dirham lahu wa laa mataa`. Faqaala inna’l-muflis min ummatee man yaatee yawm al-qiyamati bi-salaatin wa siyaamin wa zakaatin wa yaatee wa qad shatama hadhaa wa qadhafa hadhaa wa akala maala hadhaa wa safaka dam hadhaa wa daraba hadhaa fa-yu`tee hadhaa min hasanaatihi fa in fanayta hasanaatahu qabl an yuqdaa maa `alayhi aakhadha min khataayaahum faturihat `alayhi thumma turiha fi ’n-naar.
The Prophet (s) said:
Do you know who the muflis (bankrupt one) is? The muflis from my Ummah is one who comes on the Day of Judgment having performed prayer, fasting, and giving zakaat. However, along with all of this, he abused this person and slandered that person, ate the wealth of this person and unlawfully spilled the blood of that person. These people will take from his good deeds. If, however, his good deeds become exhausted, then their sins will be put upon him and he will be thrown into the Fire. (Muslim and Tirmidhi)
Don’t be a backbiter! Do what you want, but don’t be a backbiter. That’s what Allah doesn’t like.
الفتنة نائمة لعن الله من أيقظها
Al-fitnatu naa'imatan la`anallaha man ayqadahaa.
Fitna is dormant and Allah cursed the one who awoke it. (al-Rafi`ee)
Any fitna between Muslim and Muslim, between mu'min and mu'min, between non-Muslim and non-Muslim, between non-Muslim and Muslim, Allah doesn’t like fitna. Allah likes people to live in happiness and peace. What is benefit if you are trying to backbite and make bad rumors? They will love you more? They give you more money? Okay, but then you are bankrupted as Prophet (s) said. If you think yourself you are something, a shaykh, hajji, wali, teacher, scholar, doctor, CEO of a company, but one day you are going to your grave. Allah might forgive from any sin we commit, but Allah doesn’t forgive someone who backbited the other because there are rights there, rights of the one who has been backbited. There are rights and you have to pay it on the Day of Judgment from the oppressor to the oppressed. Allah's rights He will forgive, but for the rights of people between people, He will pay it back to them from the oppressor to the oppressed and you might lose your `amal.
O our Muslims brothers! Believers and unbelievers, and those watching on the Internet, Facebook and Twitter. How much backbiting is there on Facebook and Twitter? All of you and those who made Facebook and Twitter are going to be first to be judged and punished because they made a way for Shaytan to go in. If you kept your Facebook and your Twitter clean then it is okay, but if you are involved in backbiting and twittering and Facebook and I don’t know what, Youtube, Google, Yahoo, you will be asked, because this is how to spread fitna. This is they way Shaytan has made it to spread fitna! Today they say it is beneficial to join a social network. What is social networking? Social bad work, social Shaytan work, social sin work, social Jahannam work! You are entering an ocean of Shaytan from which you cannot pull yourself out. What is most effective in exhausting Shaytan is to recite “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah.” Do you write on the Internet, on your Facebook page, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah.” Does anyone write “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah.” Might be a few, but others will write more Shaytan networks there, to make people exposed to all kinds of sins.
Kalimat at-Tawheed, saying, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah” with mujarrad al-lafzh bihaa, just to utter it, just to say it, will burn Shaytan al-ins and Shaytan al-jinn. When you say, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah” on someone, saying, “Yaa Rabbee! This one is spreading bad rumors, spreading all kinds of incorrect information. I am saying on that person ‘Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah!’” then Allah will take your revenge because you are rendering your case to the One Whom everything is rendered to. That is our door for safety, khalas. We say, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah!” on anyone who has made fitna or backbited us or spread false rumors or said something wrong. Yaa Rabbee! Guide them to the right way and guide us to right way, take their sins away and take our sins away and inspire them to stop!
From the Muslim ummah, what happened yesterday in Egypt? They are burning each other! Two groups of Muslims are burning each other, throwing on each other Molotov bombs. Why are they fighting? Both are in between the hands of Shaytan. Say, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah!” and that flag is safety for everyone. Be under that flag and don't worry.
Allahumma salli `alaa Sayyidina Muhammadin wa `alaa aali Sayyidina Muhammad! That is an important message to all of us, that we have to be careful of what we say and what we don't say. We are helpless, we are weak servants, we are helpless, we don’t know what to say but we ask Allah for forgiveness, inshaa-Allah. This suhbah is very important, enough for dunya and Akhirah, because saying, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah” is our ticket to Paradise!
Wa min Allah at-tawfeeq bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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