How to Turn Your Home into a Paradise

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

24 December 2013    Jakarta, Indonesia

Suhbah at Private Residence

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.

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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)

As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh. Alhamdulillahi Rabbi 'l-`Alameen, wa ’s-salaatu wa ’s-salaamu `alaa ashrafi 'l-mursaleena Sayyidina wa Nabiyyina Muhammadin wa `alaa aalihi wa sahbihi ajma`een. Yaa Sayyidi, yaa Rasoolullah, yaa Rahmatan li ’l-`Alameen…

Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem.

There is no way to reach anywhere on the Day of Judgment without the nazhar, the vision of Prophet (s) on us. We are asking that he looks at us, that he takes us without consideration of our `amal under his shafa`ah. If we are not under his shafa`ah we are lost. And already we are lost, not knowing where to head. He is the goal for us.

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Ilaahee Anta maqsudee wa ridaaka matloobee.

O my God, You are my Goal and Your Good Pleasure is my Aim.

( Du`a narrated by Shaykh `Abd al-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani )

“You are our goal and Your happiness and acceptance of us is what we want,” to accept us, and this cannot be done except through Prophet (s) through his shafa`ah; through his shafa`ah we will be succeeding. May Allah take us under the shafa`ah of the Prophet (s)!

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Inna andharnaakum `adhaabaan qareebaa.

Verily, We have warned you of suffering near at hand. (Surat an-Naba, 78:40)

They just read that ayah of Holy Qur’an, “We have warned you of a very near punishment.” Allah warned us that there is a punishment and it is very near: Inna andharnaakum `adhaabaan qareebaa, “We have warned you, O people, that there is a punishment.” And that is a heavy and fiery punishment, never extinguished, always burning more and more. Allah is warning us and everyone else from such a punishment that made the unbelievers to say, “I wish I had been mere dust.” I ask a question here: is there anyone who wants to be mere dust now instead of living? Of course, everyone would say no, but Allah (swt) is saying in the Holy Qur’an that the kufaar are going to say, “I wish I had been mere dust,” which means (to have) no responsibility or, “I don’t want to be known, I don’t want to have an existence! O Allah! don't punish me!” But punishment is coming, so we have to know that everything we are doing Allah looks at it and when He looks at it, we want Him to look with rahmah, and that means to obey Him and to obey His Prophet (s).

Everyone in this world, Muslim and non-Muslim, are going to be judged. Prophet (s) said to Sayyida `Ayesha:

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Man hoosiba `udhdhib.

Who will be judged will be punished for sure. (Bukhari)

When you want to ask Allah (swt), ask Him that He will not to judge you, yaa `Ayesha, as anyone who is judged will be punished for sure, because Allah (swt) can see the Hidden, He knows everything, you cannot hide anything from Him! But we acknowledge that we are sinners, and that is why we have to say, “Yaa Allah, we are following the order that Prophet (s) gave to Sayyida Ayesha (r), ‘Yaa Rabbee, don’t judge us, laa tuhaasibnaa, because if You judge us, we will be punished for sure.’”

For us, shafa`at an-Nabi (s) will take us to Paradise, but Allah will judge the unbelievers and He knows best where He will send them. According to the ayah, they (kuffaar) will say, “We wish we were mere dust, not to be asked.” So let us ask, “Yaa Rabbee, don’t take an account of our deeds, don’t judge us, don’t audit us!” That is what every Muslim must ask for, maghfirah in every moment from Allah (swt) and not to be judged, as, “Verily, We have warned you of suffering near at hand.” (78:40)

When Allah says “soon,” it is soon, very soon, not delayed. When the Holy Qur'an says “soon,” it is very soon, sam`ina wa ata`naa, we listen and we obey! We don’t say, “We listen and we don’t obey,” what is the benefit? We listen and we have to obey. Allah (swt) said, “Inna andharnaakum `adhaabaan qareebaa,” means “a very near punishment”. When someone is in jail and sentenced to death, how much concerned he has to count the seconds and moments to stretch his life a little more in order not to be punished. He is so concerned and sad and feels the pain for what the judge has given him for the ten or fifteen days or one month before the punishment! How much pain is he feeling in that time? Every moment he is thinking about it! That is for someone in jail. We are in jail, this dunya is a jail: it is taking us in its hand and trying to not let anyone remember Allah (swt). But alhamdulillah in such a majlis of salawaat `ala an-Nabi (s), invoking blessings on the Prophet (s). What do you think in such a gathering where we are making salawaat `ala an-Nabi, we will receive? If, for example, I give him (a mureed) a gift ‘from me to you,’ he is more generous and will bring a bigger gift! Allah is the Absolute Generous, so if you give a little bit, Allah will give you His whole dunya for you and His whole Akhirah for you! That is why Allah gave His awliyaullah the reality of that verse:

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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)

There is nothing to fear, He gave them everything for the benefit to the whole ummah. And the Prophet (s) gives the whole benefit to all the umam from Sayyidina Adam (a) until the Day of Judgement. So such associations take away that `adhaaban qareeba and give us freedom from fear. If Allah opened our eyes, we can see what kind of majlis this majlis is. It is not a majlis like a normal one, this majlis is part of Paradise and the Prophet (s) said to Sahaabah (r):

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Ibn `Umar reported that the Prophet (s) said, “When you pass by the gardens of Paradise, avail yourselves of them." The Companions asked, "What are the gardens of Paradise, O Messenger of Allah?" He replied, "The circles of dhikr. There are roaming angels of Allah who go about looking for the circles of dhikr and when they find them they surround them closely." (Tirmidhi)

Now this place is a jannah, there is nothing on us, we cannot enter jannah with our sins, so Allah will forgive us for the barakah of Prophet (s) and salaat an-Nabi (s). Allah will forgive His servants. So this is a Paradise! When you pass by Paradises, sit there.

The Sahaabah (r) asked, “What are these Paradises yaa Rasoolullah, are they in Heaven?”

“No,” answered the Prophet (s), “they are the circles of dhikr.”

They are these majaalis that turn the Earth we are sitting on into a Paradise. We are not sitting here only to listen and enjoy the salawaat and the voices of people, the sincerity and piety of everyone, but we are enjoying more if Allah will open to us what Allah is giving us because we are sitting here. That is what is important. That is why the Prophet (s) said to Sahaabah (r), “Sit where they are making dhikr, as that is piece of Paradise.” This “now” is a piece of Paradise, rawdat min riyaad al-Jannah, because of what Prophet (s) said, “Farta`oo,” so sit in such pieces of Paradise that are all over the Earth.

Yaa Rabbee, yaa Allah, enter us into the oceans of your Paradises in order to sit there with the blessings of Sayyidina Muhammad (s). Turn your homes into Riyaad al-Jannah by sitting in your room and making dhikrullah, that makes it a garden of Paradise; not the Rawdah of the Prophet (s) however, haasha, that is something else, we must not make a mistake.

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Maa bayna qabree wa minbaree rawdatan min riyaadu’l-jannah.

Between my grave and my pulpit is a garden from the Gardens of Paradise. (Bukhari and Muslim)

That is for Prophet (s), but here we are following the hadith of Prophet (s), wa idhaa marartum min riyaad al-Jannah, “Sit in gardens of Paradise,” and turn your homes into a Garden of Paradise, sit in your room for five minutes or ten minutes and do dhikrullah or salawaat, or say “laa ilaaha illa-Llah” and that area becomes an area of Paradise, a garden of Paradise, then anyone who enters your room will feel inshiraah as-sadr, the opening of the heart, the expansion of your lungs and the expansion of your self, feelings of happiness, because it is a hadith of Prophet (s) that Allah (swt) said:

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Anaa jaleesu man dhakaranee.

I sit with him who remembers Me. (Ahmad, Bayhaqi)

How does it become a Garden of Paradise? Allah will manifest His Beautiful Names and Attributes on you when you are making dhikrullah and that will turn your house into a garden of Paradise. It is not difficult, but it is easy. Allah is not asking too much; say, “astaghfirullah, alhamdulillah, shukran lillah,” say, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah,” say, “Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadu ‘r-Rasoolullah,” say salawaat! Turn your room and your whole home into a Paradise!

To have a ‘garden of Paradise’ means to have an expensive place, like a palace full of jewels. Don’t you expect a thief to come and steal it? Yes, a thief will come to steal and rob you of all the jewels that are in this Paradise. And the best Paradise you can make in this life is to turn your heart into a garden of Paradise where it is full of light and beauty, and full of the Light and understanding and manifestations of Allah’s Beautiful Names and Attributes. So, of course, it is a place where Shaytan is working hard to try to jump in and steal it away from you. All of his efforts are to go through the place where Allah has made an entrance into your heart in order to try to take what you have already achieved. That is the intention of Shaytan: to steal the garden of Paradise that you have built in your heart by dhikrullah.

So to “fill your house,” means to fill your garden of Paradise. You can fill it with dhikrullah or salaat `ala an-Nabi (s). Just one salawaat on the Prophet (s) is enough to enlighten your heart from the day that Allah created everyone! From pre-Eternal to post-Eternal, one dhikrullah or salawaat is enough to purify you and the whole ummah of all that makes it dirty! Then that salawaat illuminates your heart; it is like a spotlight and awliyaullah can see your heart that it is illuminated, and it makes Shaytan to run away as he cannot stand that light.

I will mention a story that I have heard narrated two ways, one from Grandshaykh `AbdAllah (q) and the other is a hadith I have read. A group of unbelievers came to Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (r) and asked, “Why is it that when a group of Muslims come to pray, all kinds of gossips come to their mind?” Do you have gossips? All kinds of gossips and whisperings come to the ears. They said, “We don’t have these gossips, these bad things enter our minds. We know that for you Muslims, all kinds of gossips come into your minds.”

So we are now sitting and nothing is coming into our minds, but as soon we say “Allahu Akbar” or you are sitting doing dhikr or salawaat, all kinds of gossips come into the mind. And in another narration, a group of unbelievers came to the Prophet (s) and asked that question and the Prophet (s) said, “Yaa Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (r), you answer them,” as the Prophet (s) never said anything to someone that would make them feel bad. That is how Grandshaykh (q) narrated it. The other narration I read is that they asked the question directly to Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (r).

So Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (r) said, “On the one side you have a palace full of wealth and jewels and on the other a shack. Will a thief steal from the shack or from the palace first? He will, of course, steal from the palace first. Your hearts are shacks, but the hearts of believers are gardens of Paradise full of dhikrullah and salaat `ala an-Nabi (s), full of jewels and treasures, and that is why Shaytan comes to us: he doesn’t need you, as you are already kuffaar.”  

No one can take that place of Shaytan! He goes and gossips and comes out of the hearts of people. Only the Prophet (s) made his shaytan Muslim, as he said:

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Kaana shaytaanee fa-a`anane’llahu `alayhi hattaa aslam.

My shaytan was an unbeliever but Allah assisted me until he accepted Islam. (Bayhaqi’s Dalaa’il an-Nubuwwat)

So Shaytan will go in and out of heart and make gossips and doubts in many things, just as we were saying that many people come and say, “We have doubts on many different issues; we cannot stand it and it is too big of a problem.” You don’t have such a problem, everyone cannot take it away, but you try your best and say “astaghfirullah” and it will go. And just now Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) is saying, “Tell that person that when he gets those doubts in his heart he must be happy, because it is a clear evidence that this person, man or woman, has a pure heart and is full of treasures. Shaytan is coming and trying to take away these treasures.”

You must be happy that Shaytan is acting against his wish; he is acting, but he doesn’t know that you are benefiting from it. He is like an alarm system in your heart that will make you to throw away Shaytan and say “astaghfirullah,” to know that your heart is full of the treasures of Paradise and it is a garden that Shaytan is trying to steal from, but you are facing him with your steadiness and your power. And know that all of us must face Shaytan when he comes to steal by saying “astaghfirullah.” He is an alarm system to make you to remember that there might be a trick there, so say “astaghfirullah” and it is finished; what can Shaytan do? He will be thrown away, but you have to be strong willed for everyone.

For each and every one of us, whether an elder, a scholar or a wali, something from Shaytan comes in our hearts depending on our levels. There is no way that this will clear up. That is what we face today with our dhikrullah: Shaytan tries to make us feel...some people come and say, “I feel so heavy when I try to read Holy Qur’an that I cannot continue.” This is because Shaytan puts obstacles in front of you. When you try to pray, you feel very heavy. Shaytan is trying to make you find excuses, “O, I feel so heavy, I have no power and energy, I cannot continue. It is as if I am choked.” Alright then, choke and at least if you die, you will go to Paradise!

I wil