Suhbah and Khatm
Kulli `am wa antum bi-khayr, barakah comes from Mawlid an-Nabi (s). We are in Rabi` ath-Thaani now, maybe 3-4 days. [Khatm.]
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)
This is an advice and I hope that everyone stays, not to go until I finish. This is an advice as the Prophet (s) said, in his hadith:
الدين نصيحة
Ad-deenu naseeha.
Religion is advice.
“Religion is advice.” Advice to obey and advice is to be careful of disobedience. Obedience leads you to Siraat al-Mustaqeem and the way of disobedience leads to Allah knows what, we don’t want to say. Allah knows everything, but Allah recommended to us, said to us to obey and to say, sami`naa wa ata`anaa, “We listen and we obey,” the advice that comes. If the advice is not fair or acceptable, you can say that according to Islam and Shari`ah, “I cannot accept your advice,” and you may leave that advice. If someone says, “Leave Islam, come I will show you another way,” would you do that? No one will do that. And in every religion it is in their interest, and if they accept or they don’t accept, it is not up to us as:
لاَ إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ
There is no compulsion in religion. (Surat al-Baqarah 2:256)
Allah gave us, as is well-established in Islam, 24 hours a day, and in these 24 hours you have to make sure that it is encompassing everything that we have been asked. First of all, we have been asked to do Shahaadah, accepting Allah as our Creator and accepting Sayyidina Muhammad (s) as His Messenger. When you accept you have to obey, you cannot say, “I accept, but I don’t want to obey.” You have to obey. And there are 500 maamooraat, good deeds that awliyaullah counted and 800 forbiddens. Now, I am not saying we can do the 500 good deeds and leave the 800 bad deeds; it’s impossible, because we fall in the trap of dunya and we might do the unacceptable, and we might fall in the hand of Heavens and do what is acceptable. It is always a struggle and this struggle is with everyone; no one can say, “I am perfect.” Even awliyaullah cannot say they are perfect. The only one that is perfect is the one whom Allah created from His Noor, from His Light, Sayyidina Muhammad (s)!
No one is able to describe the grandeur of the Prophet (s), Azaamat un-Nabi (s), no one! If all this universe and this world came together and wrote from beginning of dunya to its end, it would not encompass the greatness of the Prophet (s), it is impossible!
So that is the Shahadah, then the other four obligations. We have iqaamu ‘s-salaat. Allah said, “You have to pray.” You have to pray or else you are breaching your contract of Shahadah with Allah (swt) and his Prophet (s). Allah and his Prophet (s) said, “You have to pray,” so can you say, “No, I don’t want to pray!” And you have to fast, you cannot say, “I don’t want to fast.” To say, “I cannot fast as I am sick,” is acceptable, but, “I don’t want to fast, I drop (leave) fasting,” that is not acceptable. Then to give (zakaat) in the Way of Allah even one penny, that is acceptable, and then to do your Hajj. Can you leave one of these? No, these are obligations and you cannot leave them. You will be asked! So we listen and we obey.
Now Allah (swt) has given us, as Grandshaykh `AbdAllah. may Allah bless his soul, said, 24 hours, a day and a night: 8 hours for `ibaadah and you do your obligations, you sit with your family, you speak with them, you socialize with them, you raise them, that is 8 hours. If you do it in this way it is considered `ibaadah, as if you prayed 8 hours of prayer. Then 8 hours of sleeping, rest, because some people need 8 hours, not everyone needs 5 hours. And you rest, Allah gave for people, in general, 8 hours to sleep, to rest, because:
إِنَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ الظَّالِمِينَ
Verily, He does not love evildoers. (Surat ash-Shura`, 42:40)
“Allah does not like oppression.” When you are not sleeping eight hours, you are oppressing yourself. Why did Allah say in Surat al-Muzammil:
قُمِ اللَّيْلَ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا. أَوْ زِدْ عَلَيْهِ وَرَتِّلِ الْقُرْآنَ تَرْتِيلًا
Stand (in prayer) by night, but not all night, of one-half thereof or less, or add to it (at will), and recite the Qur'an calmly and distinctly, with your mind attuned to its meaning.
(Surat al-Muzzammil, 73:1-4)
Then another ayah came, “I am seeing you and your Companions tired, so I am giving you only part of the night, before midnight, and then you go sleep.”Qumi ’l-layl illa qaleela, means “Stand up at night, wake up at night, except a little bit you sleep,” because the Prophet (s) used to stand up nearly all night, until Sayyida `Ayesha (r) said, “Yaa Rasoolulullah, why are you standing so much? Allah has forgiven you, and you stand up so much that your feet are swollen?” And the Prophet (s) said, afalaa akoona `abdun shakoora? “Do you not want me to be a thankful servant to my Lord?”
عَنْ عَائِشَةَ، قَالَتْ كَانَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم إِذَا صَلَّى قَامَ حَتَّى تَفَطَّرَ رِجْلاَهُ قَالَتْ عَائِشَةُ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ أَتَصْنَعُ هَذَا وَقَدْ غُفِرَ لَكَ مَا تَقَدَّمَ مِنْ ذَنْبِكَ وَمَا تَأَخَّرَ فَقَالَ " يَا عَائِشَةُ أَفَلاَ أَكُونُ عَبْدًا شَكُورًا " .
`Ayesha (r) reported that when Allah's Messenger (s) occupied himself in prayer, he observed such a (long) qiyam (posture of standing in prayer) that his feet were swollen. `Ayesha (r) said: “Allah's Messenger you do this (in spite of the fact) that your earlier and later sins have been pardoned for you?” Thereupon, he said, “`Ayesha, should I not prove myself to be a thanksgiving servant (of Allah)?” (Narrated `Ayesha, Muslim)
But then He reduced it, Allah reduced it for those who cannot do it, as we are not Prophet (s), we cannot do that, so Allah made it easy on us. Qumi ’l-layl illa qaleela, nisfahu, “half of it,” aw unqus minhu qaleela, “or reduce a little bit from half, from midnight,” which means go to sleep at 10 o’clock in order to wake up fresh. Then eight hours to look after your dunya: how to eat, drink, work, etc. Allah made it His Sunnah, Sunnatullah: Allah’s Sunnah on Earth, the way you have to follow. Eight hours you have to work, and the Prophet (s) never accepted the Sahaabah (r) to be sitting, but always working.
And Grandshaykh, may Allah bless his soul, said his shaykh, Shaykh Sharafuddin, may Allah bless his soul, when the Greek army was coming into Turkey with the Europeans, the English and French, throwing the Ottomans out, they were invading Turkey. And Mawlana was living in a village that was known as Rashidiyya, now called Gunekoy, by its Turkish name. It is near Yalova, about three hours from Istanbul.
And the Greek army was approaching and the people of the village came to Grandshaykh Sharafuddin (q) and said, “Yaa Sayyidee, what do we have to do? Should we go to work or not? We need to know.”
Grandshaykh said, “No, you go and plant. I don’t want to see you lazy. No, go and plant your crops.”
And they said, “Should we not flee? The Greek army is coming!”
He said, “No, your obligation that Allah ordered you is eight hours work! Plant. When I tell you, ‘Stop, run!’ then run away, but until that time, while there is no danger you are still obliged to plant.”
He didn’t tell them to sit at home, he urged them to go and work, because work is one of the conditions that Allah gave you out of 24 hours. If you don’t work, what will happen? You are not a wali. You might become a wali; then don’t eat, don’t work. Now you are not a wali and your children want to eat or why you brought children? If you want to be free, why did you bring children? You brought a wife and children, so you are responsible now. If you don’t do that, you are breaching your contract with Allah and His Prophet (s), and whatever you are doing of voluntary worship is not going to be counted for you because you are already breaching your contract. Then you have to make tawbah.
Like Grandshaykh (q) explained, and he used to look at very fine points that we don’t think about today, he said, “If someone gives you this to keep for him as an amaanah (entrusts you), when he comes back to take it, say gold or money, and you take it from him, or you don’t take it from him from the beginning, don’t accept it and say, ‘I don’t want to work.’ But if you ask for work and you accept work, then this is an amaanah to you now.”
This money and this gold is amaanah. (For example, he said) “O my brother. I am travelling now to Hajj and when I come back I will take this back from you,” what do you need to do? Keep it safe. Then if for one year he didn’t come, two years didn’t come, three years didn’t come, five years didn’t come, six years didn’t come, seven years didn’t come and ten years he didn’t come, and then you, who are holding the amaanah, became bankrupt, you are in a difficult situation, can you take from that amaanah with the intention that you give it back? Can you take some of that money and pay it back later? No, Islamically you are not allowed to touch it, because it’s amaanah from the beginning. Even if you are in the worst situation, you are not allowed to touch it. It is here and you must keep it in the same situation, you cannot change it even as it’s amaanah.
One time Grandshaykh (q) said, “An old Russian ex-soldier once gave me an amaanah of Soviet Union money to keep for some people, and they said, ‘If they come give it to them and if they don’t come keep it and give it to Mahdi (a).’” And before he left dunya he had some things and said, “Keep this amaanah until Mahdi (a) comes, don’t touch it.” We never touched it, me and my brother, and it is still today an amaanah, so if Mahdi (a) comes or doesn’t come, it’s not our business, it’s an amaanah for Mahdi (a). Also, i we die and he didn’t come, the one who takes it from us has to keep it for Mahdi (a). So if you agree to keep an amaanah, you have to give it back as you received it. So when you agree...when Shaykh Sharafuddin (q) said to plant, whether the Greek army was coming or not, in the early morning after Fajr, he made the whole village go and plant, and in the afternoon he made them to run away! That was teaching them, “Don’t be lazy! We are not lazy people.” He could have told them not to plant, run away, but no, he made them plant and then he called them and said, “The enemy is coming, leave and come!” It means awliyaullah don’t like lazy people.
So, when you accept a condition you must give that amaanah back the same as you accepted it. If you accepted to work 8 hours, 5 hours, 9 hours, you have to give what you have accepted or else takhoon al-amaanah, you are betraying the amaanah. You cannot, or then what you take is haraam, it is not halaal any more, because you are not keeping it as you promised. If you promised ten dollars, you give ten dollars; if you promised ten hours you give ten hours. This will be written as worship when you fulfill it as it is and if you don’t fulfill as it is, it will be written as a sin against you. Out of mercy, rahmah, Mawlana (q) said, “Say that,” because it is not easy on awliyaullah to carry that responsibility, because they don’t like to see their followers are tiring themselves and on the other hand betraying the amaanah, so what is benefit of getting up before Fajr, sitting for one hour and praying and staying up for Fajr, which you have to pray, but speaking of the voluntary prayers, what is the benefit if you are then betraying somewhere else?
That is like a jar of oil which has a small hole in it: whenever you put oil, it is going to go (leak)! So whenever you are trying to do worship, you are losing it from another side. They trusted you, they gave you their trust! To everyone that is listening, hearing us, you have to give to your bosses, if we can call them bosses, your brothers who hired you, to give him what you have already accepted to give him, not to betray. He trusted you and you are trustworthy person as you are pious, so why are you letting Shaytan play with you a game from another hand? Shaytan wants you to fall in that trap and Allah wants you to ask for forgiveness!
May Allah (swt) forgive us and open our minds and eyes not to betray our employer as he employed us for certain work and we are not doing as should be to be correct; you are doing one-quarter of the work or one-half, you know better how much you are giving and doing, and how much you are trying to make people benefit from what you are presenting to them, because anything you put and present and they come and they like, and they come to Mawlana, and they come to Islam, and they come to tariqah, and they come to Sufism and they come to love and to peace and to tranquility, to peacefulness, to feeling that the heart feels good, all that because of your work, Allah will triple and quadruple and give you more barakah! But if you are going to leave what is between your hands and you don’t care, and you fight and give your wrong opinion, “I did this and that,” but you didn’t do anything, you are lying, and you are arguing, Allah said, sami`naa wa a`taana! So then the employer can say, “I want this,” and you have to say, “Yes, sir!” with no argument as you are not the boss, you are not the top. In every kind of work, in Akhirah work there are bosses, 124,000 walis who guide us, and in dunya there are those who know more and ask you to do, so you cannot say, “I know better.”
This is a lesson for me, for all of you here, and specially for some people who are sitting here. May Allah (swt) forgive us and bless us and guide us toward the right way and the Naqshbandi Way of those awliya we saw in India, in Delhi, in Ajmer and in Sirhind, and how much they struggled for Akhirah!
And what do we do? We are happy with a little bit of microphone, toys, mechanics, saying, “I know carpentry, I know plumbing.” Alhamdulillah we know carpentry and plumbing, we know this and that, but those awliyaullah also have plumbing for the heart: be a wali, it is better than to be nothing! Struggle and do exactly what you need to do, then Allah will be happy with you and open more for you, but when you are trying not to accept, if someone tells you, “You have to work nine/ten hours for me,” he is going over the boundaries, then you can argue, “No, I cannot do more than eight or seven.” But not five or three, like people in school, their parents send them to study and pay lots of money for them and they come with (failing marks of) “D” and “F”. Why are you not studying? They know how to go to bars and discos, they know girlfriend/boyfriend, what is this culture? Study, and make your parents happy. You are also breaching your contract with Allah when you are not studying. May Allah forgive us, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
They say, “We want to learn fiqh,” and everyone is running to study fiqh, which is very good, but first let them touch on these subjects: amaana, trust. Allah trusted you with something so don’t breach your trust! How many Muslims today, with my respect to all of them, my love to all of them, we are speaking about ourselves and others, how many hours are they giving their employer? If they are not giving the eight hours then they are breaching their contract. Many of them are playing behind their computers. They give them computers and they are playing all day, giving five hours, three hours, two hours, that’s if they even give. What do they do? Anything behind the computer. They are breaching their contract with Allah and His Prophet (s) and whether the employer is Muslim or non-Muslim you are working for him and you have to do good.
Sayyidina Salman al-Farsi (r) was sold: he worked first in Iran, in Persia for a monk, a Zoroastrian, a fire worshipper. He served him, he helped him as if he was the most trustworthy person, did everything for him, not breaching his contract. Then when the Zoroastrian was dying he said, “To whom will you send me? You are dying and there is no one to look, so who will guide me?” He sent him to Iraq to look after a monk and he said, “I worked for that monk with all my heart for twenty years and I was looking for the Prophet of the Last Days as I knew about him.”
He didn’t find him, and that monk was dying and he said, “What do I do now?”
The monk said, “You have to go to Sham, there are people coming from Medina, you go with them, and there is where the prophet comes.”
He went to Sham and those Arabs whom he met in Sham betrayed him and sold him to a Jewish caravan. Look at those Arabs, see how ‘nice’ they were? The story is very well known, Sayyidina Salman Farsi (r), they sold him to Jewish people and he said, “I worked for them as a slave with all my heart, because this was my destiny. Since they sold me and these have become my bosses, I have to listen and I listened to everything they said to me.” They reached Madinah and they sold him to another Jewish man in Madinah. He was doing everything for him and waiting for Prophet (s), until Prophet (s) came and freed him, and this is a long story, but he didn’t say, “This is a Jew, this is a Zoroastrian, this is a Christian monk,” he worked for all of them nicely!
I am going to monitor and look these coming days if are they going to improve; those people who have been entrusted to do something, are they doing it or are they going to play games? All of us! Let us learn from Sayyidina Salman Farsi (r)! He accepted to work for all of them, the Zoroastrian, the monk, those Arabs who sold him, the Jewish ones who bought him and then sold him to another Jew, he was serving all of them with complete trust, sami`na wa a`taana, until Prophet (s) came and freed him.
May Allah teach us adab and discipline, and forgive us for everything that we have done wrong, because all of us do wrong things. May Allah forgive us, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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