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 masjid Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani.
In the mosque of Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani (q), salaam `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh. Ayna ma kuntum yaa ahbaabi rasoolullahi wa yaa ummat an-Nabi (s) naskhuru kafiyaa wafiyana `ala ni`amaihi ...
We say O brothers and sisters wherever you are, we have to know we are weak servants. As much as we were strong, there will come a day that we are weak. As much as we are weak, we are never going to be strong. We are only strong by Allah (swt): we are strong by His Prophet (s); we are strong by His awliyaullah and we are strong by Sultan al-Awliya Mawlana Sayyidee Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani (q)!
Yes, then we are strong, but physically Allah created us weak and we grow up, as He mentioned in Holy Qur'an, reaching the age of maturity and then after age 40 we begin to decline physically. Wherever we are going to live, give a number, any number, and what will happen at the end? We are leaving this dunya. In the forest, who is the strongest animal? The lion. Everyone is afraid from the lion, but one day in the forest, for sure the lion wants to be the strongest and he wants to show his strength and he jumps on everyone and kills them, but at the end, one hunter who has no power will come, but he only has an arrow or a rifle and one bullet will finish the lion!
Wherever we are arrogant and proud of ourselves, one day we are going to leave zhaleel, humiliated, very...no friends around us and no one cares, they bury you and what happens? They leave. Only those who are up in age and they reach to be in the presence of Rasoolullah, they are awliyaullah.
من عادا لي وليا فقد آذنته بالحرب
Man `adaa lee waliyyan faqad aadhantahu bi ’l-harb.
(Allah [swt] said) Whoever comes against My wali, I declare war on him.
(Hadith Qudsi; Bukhari, from Abu Hurayrah)
If Allah declares war on enemies of awliya, what will happen to them? He will be finished in dunya and Akhirah! Not necessarily finished in dunya because Allah keeps giving you a chance to repent, but if you don’t repent and if you don’t remember your mistakes you are going to lose Akhirah also, not only dunya. In dunya you might be living like many people, as you see lot of people, non-Muslims living a long life, then they die. What do they take with them? If they are not Muslim, mu’min, believers, they are going to have a bad time. We are not taking anything with us. I am saying this to myself and to anyone hearing this suhbat, you can understand that you are not taking anything with you, so don't fight for dunya, don't try to get yourself into deep mistakes and fabrications of stories; you cannot, as one day you will be exposed! All of us, one day we are going to be exposed. Exposed to what? Exposed to whom? Not necessarily to people, as you might die and people might not know you were a hypocrite, people might think you are a decent person, but you were not. And you will be exposed when the two angels come to you in the grave, Ankar and Nakeer. When they come and they ask you, can you lie? If Rahmatullahi azza wa jal does not catch you, what will happen to you? You are not Sayyidina `Umar (r). Sayyidina `Umar (r) died and his two sons of Sayyidina `Umar (r) and Sayyidina `Ali (r) were there; this is Grandshaykh `AbdAllah's (q) story and it is not just a story, but it is in seerah, that the two children each used to say "my father is better", "no my father is better" and they fought, they were the sons of the two khalifahs, khulafah rasoolillah, saying, “My father is stronger,” “No, my father is stronger,” until Sayyidina `Ali (r) came one day and found them fighting.
He asked, "Why are you fighting?"
One said, "I said you are my dad and you are better than `Umar, and the son of `Umar is saying, ‘My father is better than yours.’”
What did Sayyidina `Ali (r) say? He told them a story, and that story is what we are after, that no one can be like `Umar (r), of whom Prophet (s) said, “If there were a prophet after me, `Umar would be a prophet.” Ankar wa Nakeer were coming, Sayyidina `Ali (r) tells this story and that is the story Grandshaykh (q) told, Ankar wa Nakeer came to ask him, “Who is your Creator, your Lord, man rabbuka?”
He said, "What? What are you saying?"
He said, "Man rabbuka? Who is your Creator?"
He said, "I am not hearing, approach.”
They approached him and said, "Who is your Lord?"
“I cannot hear well, come closer.”
They came to his ear and they said, "Man rabbuka?" and he took his hand and hit one in his eyes.
He (Sayyidina `Umar) said, "Are you not ashamed? Are you not ashamed? I am coming from five minutes’ distance and it is not possible that I will forget, but you are coming from a huge distance, Allah knows how far it is, you might have forgotten, not me!"
Are you going to be like that, like Sayyidina `Umar (r) to save ourselves? Grandshaykh said, may Allah bless his soul, that one of them, I forget, it was either Ankar or Nakeer, has no eye from the fist of Sayyidina `Umar (r)! Might be Mawlana was joking, but…are we going to be like that, to be able to say to Ankar or Nakeer, or our tongues will be frozen? Or you never accepted Allah in your life, as there are atheists. Or you are in-between, one day thumma aamanoo, thumma kafaroo as Allah (swt) said in Holy Qur'an, one day a believer and one day not. Are you going to be able to answer? If you are able, say. [Yes!] No, you are not! You are not able to even speak with all these sins that dress you! You are not able unless you get shafa`at an-Nabi (s) and unless you get shafa`at ash-shaykh that Allah gives permission and the Prophet (s) gives permission to intercede! That is not like how the Prophet (s) intercedes as the shuyookh are in their limits, they cannot go over that. It may be Wahhabis might take one word now and send it around, saying, “He said ‘shafa`at ash-shaykh.’” Yes, that is a petition before the Prophet (s). Yes, the shaykh petitions for you, your guide petitions for you in the presence of Prophet (s). Yes, if your shaykh reaches that level, yes!
If you remember, I said yesterday to program your phone to, “Say ‘istaghfirullah’” every hour, not every moment or then it is ringing every minute, but every hour, to remind you to say “istaghfirullah.” When we say “istaghfirullah” it means we are saying, “Yaa Rabbee, we are weak servants!” What are you going to say? “Astagfirullah yaa Rabbee, I am weak for making sins.” Yes that is correct, but you are at the door where all angels are standing, waiting to welcome servants who are saying “istaghfirullah.” “Yaa Rabbee, I am coming to your door as a weak servant and have nothing in my hand and I am asking Your Forgiveness.” Will Allah forgive? No, Allah will not forgive unless, as Allah said in Holy Qur'an in a very famous verse:
وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ إِذ ظَّلَمُواْ أَنفُسَهُمْ جَآؤُوكَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُواْ اللّهَ وَاسْتَغْفَرَ لَهُمُ الرَّسُولُ لَوَجَدُواْ اللّهَ تَوَّابًا رَّحِيمًا
If they had only, when they were unjust to themselves, come to you and asked Allah's forgiveness, and the Messenger had asked forgiveness for them, they would have found Allah indeed Oft-returning, Most Merciful. (Surat an-Nisa, 4:64)
Istaghfirullah, his (a mureed’s) telephone is saying “istagfirullah,” at the right moment. Say “istaghfirullah,” why are you quiet? Yaa Rabb! Our istighfaar is mixed, blended with our arrogance, but we ask that the tajalli of that ayah be dressed on us! The ayah says, “If they are oppressors to themselves,” which means if they made all kinds of mistakes as they were oppressors to themselves with their sins, “but they come to you, yaa Muhammad.” Sahaabah (r) used to come to the Prophet (s) if they did something wrong, so what is our duty? He is present, they can see him and say, “Yaa Rasoolullah, we did this or that, ask Allah for forgiveness.” Now after 1500 years, can you see the Prophet (s)? No, but many people said and many made a mistake when they said meditation is not within Islam, tafakkur, as the Prophet (s) said:
تفكر ساعة خير من عبادة سبعين سنة
Tafakkarru sa`atin khayrun min `ibaadati saba`een sannah.
To remember Allah (swt) (contemplate or meditate) for one hour is better than seventy years of worship.
To meditate for one hour or even one moment, you will be rewarded more than seventy years of worship. It is hadith of Prophet (s). How do they say there is no meditation, no tafakkur, when the ayah says, “When you do a sin, go to the Prophet (s).” And how do we do that? We from here, we sit and meditate through our shaykh because he is in that presence, he is in that enlightenment presence, he is in that ma`arifah, he is in that level! If he says, “Yaa Sayyidee, Yaa Rasoolullah (s)!” Prophet (s) will answer him! Or if he says, “Yaa Rabbee!” Allah says, “Yaa `abdee, what do you want?” “Yaa Rabbee I want forgiveness.” So how to do that? Is that to sit in front of the TV and doing istaghfirullah or to sit by yourself meditating, connecting your heart with the shaykh and from the shaykh to the Prophet (s)? “When they are oppressor to themselves they come to you, yaa Muhammad, and in your presence they ask forgiveness!”
So in order for our repentance to be accepted, we have to be in the presence of the Prophet (s) and we cannot be in presence of the Prophet (s) with our situation, so we sit and meditate, not imagine, but think about your connection, concentrate on your shaykh, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani, may Allah give him long life, and from Sultan al-Awliya to the Prophet (s), and it reaches. “In your presence, yaa Muhammad, they have to make istighfaar,” so is it accepted yet or not? Not yet, still it is in preparation. If you are an oppressor to yourself, come to the Prophet (s) and make istighfaar, is it accepted? Not yet, there is one more for it to be accepted, next is wastaghfara lahumu ‘r-rasool, at that time the Prophet (s) will make istighfaar on your behalf.
Look at the power that Allah gave the Prophet (s)! In the same moment around the world, if there are millions and millions making istighfaar, he can know everyone by name and the Prophet (s) is making istighfaar on all their behalf! So what will happen when Prophet (s) makes istighfaar? La wajada tawwaba ‘r-raheema, “They will find Allah the Forgiver and the Merciful.” Then your sins will be forgiven! That is why istighfaar is very important in dunya because it will save you in the grave, to not expose you when Ankar and Nakeer come to ask questions; you will not answer, but someone will be appointed to answer for you. What did the Prophet (s) say?
حياتي خير لكم تحدثون ويحدث لكم ، فإذا أنا مت كانت وفاتي خيرا لكم ، تعرض علي أعمالكم فان رأيت خيرا حمدت الله تعالى وإن رأيت شرا استغفرت لكم
I observe the `amal of my ummah. If I find good I thank Allah and if I see other than that, bad, I ask forgiveness for them. (al-Bazzaar in his Musnad)
“I observe everyone and what he is doing, if I found something good, nice, from my ummah that they are doing, then I praise Allah (swt), ‘Thank you, yaa Allah,’ and if I see something different, that they are falling into sins,” then what he said? “I will ask forgiveness on their behalf.” Look how much Prophet (s) loves and look how much we don’t care! Just now they remembered, they know us one- by-one. Mawlana Shaykh, may Allah give him long life, he said to me... this is his tissue with tears from his eyes and he said, “I miss them, I miss my children, I miss my mureeds! Send salaams to them from me.” His salaam is peacefulness to your heart, to his followers' hearts! That is when he says ‘salaams’ it means, Yaa naari koonee bardan wa salaaman `alaa Ibraheem (a), Allah ordered the fire when Nimrod put Sayyidina Ibraheem (a) in the fire and he was submitting to Allah's will, and Allah sent Jibril (a) to ask him, “Yaa Ibraheem, Allah sent me to save you, what do you need?” and Sayyidina Ibraheem (a) said, “The One Who sent you knows what I need more than you, you go back.” Allah said, yaa naari koonee bardan wa salaamun `alaa ibraheem, “O fire, koonee bardan, be cool.” Allah made it cool and safe for Ibraheem. And the scholars say, the awliyaullah, if that verse was not added ‘wa salaamun’ then he would have been frozen, bardan would have frozen him, but salaama, peaceful, made it safe like Heaven.
So salaam of the shuyukh when it comes, of Mawlana Shaykh, because he was making a supplication to Allah and salawaat on the Prophet (s) when he said to me, "I miss them." That has a big meaning. What is the meaning? “I miss them. I missed to sit with him,” but when he said, “I miss them,” (it means) “I miss someone, (like) Yusuf sitting with his son Yaqub, playing with him, “I miss them because I am in a state they are not in and I am in a level that Allah granted,” it is an explanation that we can say, “but I am in a level that they are far away from me. I want them, yaa Rabb, to be near to me.” Because a wali does not accept to be away from his followers. He said, “Send my salaams to them,” which means, “I am asking, Yaa Rabbee, make them to be in the same level I am in dunya and Akhirah.”
Can we say that? Can I say for example, “May this one ‘X’ be with me,” as he might say, “No, please I don’t want to be with you,” as you might be in Hellfire! But when Mawlana Shaykh says that, then everyone wants to be with him. What for? For his piety and sincerity in his life as he never was an arrogant person and he never said lies. The signs of a munaafiq, hypocrite, are three: 1) idhaa haddatha kadhdhab, he lies when he speaks, he fabricates and makes stories; that is a hypocrite, who makes people to believe what is not correct. That is dangerous for all of us and we cannot be saying something that has been fabricated. We must not fabricate and we must verify everything, as we said yesterday, and if he speaks he lies. 2) If he promises he doesn't keep his promise; he makes deals with you, but does not keep it. And the Prophet (s) said in another hadith, idha wa`d al-mu’min wafaa, “If a mu’min promises he must complete his promise.” 3) Wa idhaa toomina khaan, if you trust him on something, he betrays in order to be the one that people accept his lies.
That is a problem in the whole world. Many of us, Muslim and non-Muslim, we do either one of those or two or three: we either fall in the category of wa idha haddatha khadhab, “when he speaks he lies,” or we fall into wa idha wa`d khalaf, “he doesn’t keep his promise,” and then you can be in the third category, “if he is trusted he betrays.” So you can be in one and two or one and three or two and three; if you are out of that you must fly, then you are really struggling to become a mu’min. You are a Muslim for sure, but there is nifaaq in your heart. You are a Muslim because you recite, “Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan rasoolullah,” but to become a mu’min and to climb up different levels, you have to struggle with this problem.
This is a problem everywhere that you cannot find `ilaaj, cure from it, except by really listening and accepting what shuyukh say and what awliyaullah say and what the Prophet (s) says in hadith. First comes the hadith, and first comes before that kitaabullah. Bring the hadith of Prophet (s):
الدين نصيحة
Ad-deenu naseeha.
Religion is advice.
(The Sahaabah asked) “(Advise) to whom?” (Prophet said) “To Allah and to His Book, the Qur’an,” “and they asked, “To what else?” and he (s) said, “To His Prophet.” And they asked, “To what else?” and he (s) said, “To their scholars and their leaders and their common people.”
First, religion is advice and you cannot advise on fabricated stories and we cannot advise as hypocrites! We have to be careful, we know we have hidden sins, so we have to go back and as Allah said, “Make istighfaar in the presence of Prophet (s).” So come to the Prophet (s) in meditation at night, when there is no one and you are by yourself. Before you sleep, say istighfaar three times or as much as you like, 70 times or 100 times, and focus that you are saying it in front of your shaykh and the Prophet (s)! Allah will forgive you.
May Allah forgive us and bless us.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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