Nawaytu'l-arba`een, nawaytu'l-`itikaaf, nawaytu'l-khalwah, nawaytu'l-riyaada, nawaytu's-salook, nawaytu'l-`uzlah lillahi ta`ala fee hadha'l-masjid
Ati` Allah wa ati` ar-rasula wa uli 'l-amri minkum
They are very light on the tongue, very heavy on the scale SubhanAllah wa bihamdihi subhanAllah
عن أبي هريرة رضي الله عنه قال قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم كلمتان خفيفتان على اللسان ثقيلتان في الميزان حبيبتان إلى الرحمن سبحان الله وبحمده سبحان الله العظيم.
Kalimatan khafeefataan `ala al-lisan thaqeelataan fi ’l-meezaan.
Two words that are light on the tongue and heavy on the scales.
It is only one sentence, they very light to say it but very heavy on the scale; they take all the sins that day. So don’t forget so say, “SubhanAllah wa bihamdihi, praise be to Allah, SubhanAllah il-`adheem , praise be to the Greatest One, praise be to Allah, the Greater,” and repent “istaghfirullah.”
Alhamdulillah that Allah swt gave us the opportunity to come and visit you. What is the wisdom, no one knows. Allah swt knows, the Prophet (s) knows and our shuyukh and Mawlana Shaykh knows.
I am not pretending to be a shaykh, first of all. I am not asking anyone to call me a shaykh and I am the worst between you, those who are present here. I am not claiming khalifa or deputy or anything. I am like you, I like to be a sheep, not to be a shepherd. Sheep never going to be asked anything. Shepherd is going to be asked everything. Those who like to be shepherds, let them be.
Let us take that away from our hearts and be a mirror to each other - to be looking at each other in equality. You gave lectures, tons of lectures, thousands of lectures, no benefit. If there, if someone wants the benefit, one lecture is enough for everyone to be saved and to go to
وَذَكِّرْفَإِنَّ الذِّكْرَى تَنفَعُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
Wa dhakkir fa inna adh-dhikra tanfa`u ’l-mu’mineena
But teach (thy Message) for teaching benefits the Believers.
Remind them because when they are reminded they get benefit. It means when we are reminded we get benefit.
When Grandshaykh was asked to carry the responsibility of khilafah, when Shaykh Sharafuddin قدس سرّه, may Allah bless his soul, grand Grandshaykh, before he left dunya, he said to Grandshaykh Abdullah al-Faiz Daghestani قدس سرّه, “I am asking you and giving you the responsibility to be my successor. Whatever the Prophet (s) gave to me I am giving to you, to follow and to take forward the followers, the mureeds.”
Don’t think that I am better than you. No way. You, everyone of us must think he is the worst one, because if he will give a little bit of tazkiyyah, uplifting his ego, one moment, shaytan will trick him. Always you have to cut down your ego. “O my ego you are nothing. Don’t think you know something you are speaking you are speaking because they ask you to speak. Not because you know something. Because they are humble, they ask you to speak. If they are not humble they don’t ask you to speak. That means they are better than you.
When Shaykh Sharafuddin قدس سرّه… I am saying this because we have to know our limits. We must not pretend to be something. the Prophet (s), Allah gave him all kinds of knowledges and he made him the mirror of all His Beautiful Names and Attributes and He made him the door to His heavens and He dressed him with ma`rifatullah the knowledge of his Lord and He brought him to “two bows length of an arrow” and still he said, "O Allah don’t leave me to my ego for the blink of an eye.” With all these knowledges he said, “I am nothing, Ya Rabbee. I am worried.”
If that is the Prophet (s) who is Sahib jawaami` al-kalimi [owner of the Comprehensive Word] and who is Owner of all different knowledges and all different languages of heavens and earth and he is saying, "O Allah don’t leave me to my ego for the blink of an eye… or else I will go to a bad ending” what about us?
So when Shaykh Sharafuddin قدس سرّه said to Grandshaykh قدس سرّه, “You carry the responsibility, I am leaving.”
Why did Shaykh Sharafuddin قدس سرّه died so soon, so young? Because he was extracting from
He said, “I am giving you the authority.” What did he say? “I don’t want it.” If our shaykh says to us now, “I am giving you calipha what do we do?” We take it and we run. Before he changes his mind. [everyone laughs] If Mawlana Shaykh Nazim calls you now and says, “You are my best one, I am going to give you the khilapha.” “O my shaykh , yes, yes!” Take it and run.
إِنَّا عَرَضْنَا الْأَمَانَةَ عَلَى السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَالْجِبَالِ فَأَبَيْنَ أَن يَحْمِلْنَهَا وَأَشْفَقْنَ مِنْهَا وَحَمَلَهَا الْإِنسَانُ إِنَّهُ كَانَ ظَلُوماً جَهُولاً
Inna `aradna al-amanata `ala as-samaawaati wa’l-ardi w’al-jibaali fa abayna an yahmilnaha wa ashfaqna minhaa wa hamalahaa a-linsanu innahu kana dhalooman jahoolan.
We did indeed offer the Trust to the Heavens and the Earth and the Mountains; but they refused to undertake it, being afraid thereof: but man undertook it;- He was indeed unjust and foolish;- [33:72]
We gave our trust, we gave our amana, we gave our khilapha – Allah is saying, to human beings. We gave it to heavens and hearth and they said, "no, Ya Rabb, we cannot carry it, it is too much.” We offered it to human beings and they said, “Yes,” we took it and run away. What did Allah describe us? Innahu kaana dhalooman jahoola - Oppressors and ignorant. We are oppressors and ignorant. Because we are tyrants to ourselves, we destroyed ourself. Because we thought we are something.
Look Iblees, Iblees didn’t leave one hand in heavens and in earth without doing a sajda to Allah swt. Every space of a hand. One hand, 2 hands, 3 hands, 4 hands, 5 hands, 6 hands. How many? In every hand he made one sajda. Allah gave him long life, from when Allah created him before creation of Adam, up to Judgment Day, Iblees has life. When he was in paradise before Adam and when Adam was created before he created him, he didn’t leave one hand without sajda. How much work he has and it was only one mistake. And it was one moment only. It was not a continuous one even. Allah said, "Make sajda and in his heart what happened, he refused. Why? Pride. Everyone says “pride.” And Holy Qur'an says “pride.” [He said:] “You created me from fire, you created him from mud, from clay, from soil, whatever. How am I going to make sajda to him? I am better than him.”
The reality of the secret of this verse is that he was saying, “How can I make sajda to other than you? I cannot. I cannot accept it.”
For example, you, Look someone comes to you and Sultan, Mawlana gave you something and you are becoming a big shaykh, turban, I am [with] turban, and look, his turban is bigger than my turban. Like you have been asked an order to bow to someone who is nothing to you. You feel it is “How am I going to listen to that person. I listen to my sultan.”
If now I tell you listen to him, sit with him and listen to him. I will tell you no, I cannot accept it. “I sit with my sultan and listen to my sultan. How am I going to listen to him?”
Grandshaykh after his seclusion of five years, I am jumping to another subject here, Grandshaykh with his seclusions he was counting the days when he finished his seclusion he was counting the days when he will go and see his shaykh and he is in the cave 5 years with olives and dates. He sent him a message at the last moment. He said, "Don’t come to me, go listen to Muhammad Effendi.” Muhammad Effendi was the most crazy one in the village. Shaykh Sharafuddin قدس سرّه said, "Sit with him and take suhbat from him.” He was after all these secrets coming to him for five years and he was ordered to go and sit with a majnoon, which means mentally sick, and go and sit with him and listen to his lectures. And Muhammad Effendi is so happy to have a student. And giving him lecture 24 hours a day, and not stopping. And giving lectures that are complete nonsense. And he said, "I am giving him respect as if he is my shaykh. I looked at him as if he is Shaykh Sharafuddin. If I look less than this then I will be kicked from tariqah.”
When the Shaykh orders then listen. If you do less then you will be kicked out.
So today who will listen to who? “Who is caliph? He is mureed, I am mureed, He is shaykh, I am shaykh.” Believe me, no one of us reached to be a mureed yet. There is no mureed. I won’t explain this but that needs long explanation.
So he said, "I am choosing you to be successor.” ”I don’t want.” What you don’t want. Shaykh is saying and you don’t want. He said, "Ya Sayyidee.” He said, "This is coming from the Prophet (s), and you are saying ‘I don’t want it’?” Ya Sayyidee, with all my respect I cannot carry that.” So Shaykh Sharafuddin قدس سرّه was not feeling good. He came to the Prophet (s) in the association of awliyaullah and said to the Prophet (s) “this is what is happening.” The Prophet (s) said, “Ask him why.”
He came back after Fajr, and said, "Ya waladee, why you don’t want?" He said, "Ya sayyidee what is the benefit if I give a lecture and they don’t listen and they don’t act on what I am saying? It is a waste of time for me and wasting their time." He said, " sadaqta it is true.” Is it not? "So what do you want then?” He said, "I want something simple. Give it to me then I will accept." "What is it?" "I want from the Prophet (s) and I want from you, if anyone comes and sits with me, and from whatever level I speak and what kind of wali I mention his name, and what he does, I want these people who are listening to be raised up immediately to the level of that wali. Anyone sitting with me I want him to be raised to my level that I am sitting. If you accept, I accept."
So Shaykh Sharafuddin قدس سرّه cannot accept that. He cannot accept directly. That means only by listening and sitting you will be lifted to that level of knowledge of that wali tat is mentioned, and that level of power. Because he knows anyone sits it goes in one ear and comes out the other ear. No one acts on anything. Is it not? It is not an amusement. Amusement, go to the movie, or to roller skaters, amusement areas. That is it. Spend one hour, two hours, eat candies, drink water and then y`Allah. No, he wants that association to be raised so that whatever he is speaking, it has to be raised up to that level. As the association now they all have to be raised to the level of Mawlana Shaykh Sharafuddin and Grandshaykh and Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, because they have that secret. Not because of us, no we don’t have anything. But because we have been authorized on their behalf, so this majlis, this association is their association. This association is Mawlana Shaykh Nazim’s association. He is the one that is responsible. We have no rights to say “We are the shaykh; I am your shaykh.” No right. If we say “I am your shaykh” or anyone says, “I am your shaykh.” Or anyone thinks that he took baya`…
Many people they come and say “I took baya` from you.” No, no, not that is incorrect. If you think you took baya` from me you lost. We always have to tell them always, the baya`, we are only like a bridge, we are only like a car that takes you to your destiny, your your goal, and leave you there. We are only a vehicle to take you to the presence of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim. That is it. When you take baya`, your baya` is with him. Don’t ever say, "I took baya` to `Ali and `Ali is my shaykh.” Many people are falling into this problem. That is why sickness is spreading everywhere among Naqshbandis and representatives of Mawlana Shaykh. Because after a while they consider they are the shaykh. They don’t listen to anyone except if their "shaykh" is present. They don’t move except by permission of their so-called shaykh. That is a big problem.
So Shaykh Sharafuddin said, "O my son I will ask.” So that night Shaykh Sharafuddin in the Diwan al-Awliya asked the Prophet (s) and the Prophet (s) said, "I am accepting. He said, "no one asked that from all awliyaullah except your son. Not that particular request to uplift the follower. They know we cannot do anything we are under our ego.
If the Prophet (s) is asking, "O Allah don’t leave me to my ego. So how is Grandshaykh going to accept.
So Shaykh Sharafuddin was going to pass away and before passing away he called Grandshaykh and said to him, I am passing away after three days and he took the will and gave to him and said, "you are authorized to continue the order of tariqah and the wazaa’if of tariqah. …he was said because he was his uncle, his mother’s brother, and he was the shaykh that raised him. And when he passed away and they were washing him, and when Grandshaykh and other mureed s were washing him, all the mureeds were coming to have a hand in it because it is barakah. So Shaykh Sharafuddin was laying down, he left dunya, he is deceased, and his hands were on the bed like that you know they fall down. As soon as they begin to wash him then his right hand was raised and turned, look at my hand, closed and became like a cup. And then as they are washing, people coming and drinking, baraka of that water. When everyone passed and took some of that water and then his hand came back down. That is a miracle that happened after his death, when they are washing him. See how awliyaullah how they are living.
I think I mentioned that it in the
So they washed him, Mawlana Grandshaykh prayed on him and buried him and Grandshaykh came back and took the will and tear it and went to the river and threw it in the river.
Anyone will do that? He said, “What is the benefit? To please my ego?”
Today they tell you “We need from you ijaza.” What ijaza, who are you to give ijaza? On what responsibility are you giving ijaza.
We are Naqshbandis we have to learn from what happened before with your shuyukh. So Grandshaykh said, "What I have to tell people I am the calipha in order to my ego to become bigger. They like me, they like me, I am not interested.” So after Shaykh Sharafuddin no one knew who is the calipha except a very few. He was the calipha and he tore it. Threw it away. Look he doesn’t want to please his ego. Now what we do, we frame it, make copies and distribute so people come and kiss our hands. That is what is happening.
When Grandshaykh passed away, before he passed away by one week, he wrote his will. Look how it works. This is to learn - only for us to learn. Mention these to learn. But he said, "I am leaving.” We were young and we were crazy we cannot accept that Mawlana will leave this dunya. I am not going to disclose everything but take some of these things because there is no time.
So he wrote his will and he gave it to us, he said, "one you put in my grave; one you show it to people to know who is after me and whom I appointed.”
We took the will, the will was there and there were five people at that time. After one week he passed - he left dunya. So no one saw the will, and that day when we were burying him, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim was in
So in any case all these `ulama of Sham, scholars of
So all these `ulama they are standing in line at the cemetery and the coffin stayed at that masjid. They prayed and then came to the cemetery to bury him. And we said, me and my brother, two of us, crazy ones at that time. We said, "Anyone likes to stay, stay, and anyone like to go, go. We are not going to bury him until Mawlana Shaykh Nazim comes.” Eh, Mawlana in
At that moment, someone out of the blue, his name is Nazeer Hisham - he passed away recently may Allah bless his soul, – he came and said…. How he came? And he said, "Mawlana Shaykh Nazim called; and he is on his way, coming.”
So these `ulama got angry and said, "we are going.” They shaking hands with us and they left. And we were waiting and waiting.
That man didn’t say how he received from Mawlana Shaykh a call. Might be Grandshaykh putting on his tongue or Mawlana Shaykh put it on his tongue.
And it reached Maghrib time and adhaan being called, it is Ramadan, and the coffin still there, not buried yet. And Mawlana was coming; coming up the stairs.
In any case, at that time, we went together and he buried him and we came out. We said, “Mawlana we have the will.” We prayed Maghrib, we broke fast and prayed and then... Next day Mawlana said, "I am going back.” So then there was no direct flight from
So we slept that day, next day Mawlana Shaykh going back to
So awliyaullah always they are worried to make themselves higher than the others. Because they want. .. Respect comes from heavens they are not waiting respect from human being. Because respect from human being is good but they don't want to trick their egos, they want first heaven to be accepting them. They want Allah swt to be accepting them.
Imagine Iblees, Allah cursed him, the one who did not leave one place he didn’t make sajda. For one disobedience Allah cursed him. How many disobediences a day we are doing? And we think we are this, I don’t want to say; we think we are high level awliyaullah.
So we have to feel we are the worst. I will end with this story.
Sayyidina Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani قدس سرّه, famous as the head of Khatm al-Khwajagan. Because of him, Khatm al-Khwajagan begin. He has thousands of students in his time. You know how he makes dhikr? He has a well? You know the well. He goes in the well until he reaches the water, goes under the water, make dhikr quickly and then go up and breath. And the water is freezing. It is very cold, in Merv, near
We are attending dhikr every week and we are saying “it is too much.” We are coming and attending and eating chocolates.
So one of the mureeds. One day they prayed `Isha all the mureeds with Sayyidina Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani قدس سرّه they left he masjid, except one of the mureeds he was there sitting, because they locked the masjid and he was inside. And he was speaking to himself: “O stupid person. Your Shaykh asked you to do this awraad and you did it one day and you didn’t do it another day. Or you did them with your ego and it is not accepted. Then in order not to make you contaminate your brothers and sisters he ordered you to cut wood in the forest. And you were not able to cut the wood, you come in evening with one wood or two wood for fire, it is not enough. And Shaykh ordered you to look after his sheep because all shuyukh they have sheep to eat. And you look after sheep you destroy his flock. Why did you destroy his flock? Because when first of Rajab comes you say, "O, Rajab came, you slaughtered 1, 2, 3 sheep - without asking your shaykh. Then 27th Rajab comes you go and slaughter some more without asking your shaykh. 15th, nisf-Sha`ban comes you slaughter 15 more. Eid comes, slaughter; hajj comes, Eid al-Adha comes, slaughter. Muharram comes, Ashura comes, Mawlid an-Nabi (s) comes and you slaughter. You finished your shaykh’s sheep stock in one year. So you are the worst of the worst.”
Look at that, awliyaullah look at when it comes the moment of giving the trust they look at that. He said, "I am swearing an oath that I am worse than Iblees.” Who can say that? Who is the worst Allah cursed in this world? Iblees. He is telling this to his ego, and he has the right to say whatever he likes, he is not making kufr. He said, “You, my ego, is worse than Iblees. And if I am not saying the truth, my ego, then my wife is divorced from me!”
That is to confirm 100% that he is in satisfaction 100% with what he is saying, else he will not say “my wife will be divorced from me.” Else it will be haraam between him and his wife.
Then he heard his Shaykh Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani قدس سرّه, his shaykh was hiding behind the pillar and he heard him and he was laughing, “hahaha.” He said, “O my Shaykh you are here?” “Of course I am here.” He came and said, "sit like this.” And so Sayyidina Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani قدس سرّه was sitting on his knees and the mureed was sitting on his knees. And he said, "look into my heart.” So the mureed was looking and Sayyidina Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani قدس سرّه with his right finger was turning it and shooting it, shooting to his heart with his finger. This is how awliyaullah work. They give they give. He gave to this heart six powers. Six realities. He opened them. Because in every human being heart these six realities are there but they are scrambled. They are coded. You need to decode them. You need remote control. So he was using his finger as remote control. Haqiqat al-jazbah, Haqiqat al-fayd, Haqiqat at-tawajjuh, Haqiqat at-tawassul, Haqiqat al-irshad, Haqiqat at-tayy. These six powers, he decoded them back and opened them to him. As soon as he opened these six realities to him he was lighter than a bird and he was flying, he was raised up to the ceiling of the dome hitting his head and coming back down. And he was going up and down. And he said to his shaykh, “In tariqah is there this kind of miracles?” He said, "This the beginning.” He gave him Haqiqat al-jazbah, the reality of attraction. That means you can attract someone to you with just looking at him, without doing anything to him, that light attracts him to you. Haqiqat al-jazbah, Haqiqat al-fayd, Haqiqat at-tawajjuh, Haqiqat at-tawassul, Haqiqat al-irshad, Haqiqat at-tayy.
All these six realities, I explained them I am not going to explain now, it is in the heart of every individual. But it needs to be decoded. It means the Shaykh has to give you the remote control. When will he give you the remote control when you become like that mureed. It is not simple and it is not easy. I will tell you one day how Grandshaykh gave the secret to Mawlana Shaykh Nazim قدس سرّه. Because of what, because of what he said, he gave him the trust. It was in Madinat al-munawwara. So the important of what I want to say is that the fame is for our sultan. The honor is for our Sultan; the dignity is for our Sultan. We have to see ourselves in need of everyone sitting here we are in need to kiss their hand and their feet. Why? Because if they are not here to whom are you going to speak? You are in need of whom? You are in need of them. They are not in need of you. You are in need of everyone. Since you are in need of everyone you have to go and say think you. “Who thanks Allah’s servants is thanking Allah.” You cannot say “Ya Rabbee shukran lak, thank you, Ya Rabb,” and not thank His servants. That is hadith of the Prophet (s). man shakr al-khalq shakrallah. Whoever thanks Allah’s servants is thanking Allah. And Allah said in Holy Qur'an:
وَإِذْ تَأَذَّنَ رَبُّكُمْ لَئِنشَكَرْتُمْ
"wa la’in shakartum la-azeedanakum - If ye are grateful, I will add more (favours) unto you;”
So we are thanking Allah that he made us with Mawlana Shaykh Nazim قدس سرّه. Your shaykh is Mawlana Shaykh Nazim قدس سرّه. Your baya` has to be to Shaykh Nazim قدس سرّه; your love has to be to Shaykh Nazim قدس سرّه; if you focus on someone else you are reducing your love. That is a big problem. There is no time now to explain it now, but when Shaykh Sharafuddin was explaining to Grandshaykh the power of Shah Naqshband قدس سرّه, Grandshaykh, some of his love went to Shah Naqshband قدس سرّه. And he was told by Shaykh Sharafuddin قدس سرّه, “don’t do that.” And Shah Naqshband قدس سرّه appeared to him at that time, and taught him how to have love to his Shaykh. And you can check it on sufilive.com we have over one thousand three hundred lectures there. So all of them live. I cannot give everything in one session. But check there. May Allah keep us all together under the banner of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim قدس سرّه.
Bi-hurmatil-Fatiha