Michigan Zawiya
A`oodhu billahi min ash-shaytani ’r-rajeem
Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem
Nawaytu'l-arba`een, nawaytu'l-`itikaaf, nawaytu'l-khalwah, nawaytu'l-riyaadah, nawaytu's-salook, nawaytu'l-`uzlah lillahi ta`ala fee hadha'l-masjid
Ati`oo ’Llah wa ati`oo ’r-rasoola wa ooli 'l-amri minkum
Everything has an end. In dunya. And everything has no end in akhira. In dunya, there is an end for sadness, there is an end for happiness, there is an end for richness, there is an end for poverty, there is an end for difficulties, there is an end for relaxation, there is an end for sicknesses, there is an end for illnesses, there is an end for needing, there is an end for your identity.
All that comes when death comes. It means that all this has no value. The value is for something that is always there. There is no value for something that is going to be disintegrated, finished. There is no value for this earth as Allah said he is going to change this earth with another earth.
يَوْمَ تُبَدَّلُ الأَرْضُ غَيْرَ الأَرْضِ وَالسَّمَاوَاتُ وَبَرَزُواْ للّهِ الْوَاحِدِ الْقَهَّارِ
Yawm tubadil al-ardu ghayra al-ard wa’s-samaawaatu wa barazoo lillaahi’l-waahidi’l-qahhaar
One day the earth will be changed to a different earth, and so will be the heavens, and (men) will be marshalled forth, before Allah, the One, the Irresistible; (Ibrahim 14:48)
When there will be a change of this earth to another earth. Where is that other earth? Because he said there will be a change of this earth to another earth and a change of this universe. That means this whole universe is going to go and appear before Allah al-Wahid al-Qahhaar, means appearing there in that Judgment Day. That means if you are rich and lose everything. You are no longer called rich. You are called poor. Your wealth is all gone.
That means even if you own the whole earth you really own nothing because this earth is going. And if you own this universe you own nothing as this universe is going. What you are going to own is what Allah is going to give you in akhira.
When do you begin to see what Allah is going to give you in akhira?
There is a saying: “Man maata faqad qaama qiyaamatah - When someone dies his resurrection day appeared to him.” You are in the Resurrection Day and that Resurrection Day will stretch itself form the day of death until the Day of Judgment. So you will be able to see from what you are going to get in the hereafter, what you are going to get in the Day of Judgment. Death that is a preliminary step to get there. And Allah said on the tongue of His Prophet that the grave is going to be either a piece of Paradise or a ditch from Hellfire.
That means when you die we are awake. Everything ended, sickness, illnesses, desire, disturbance, happiness, desires, all are gone. Even before you die, I you are in advanced age and you lose your mind, what you call that? […] you lose your mind… it means all that you had before is gone. And at that moment when you lose your mind, because your body cannot respond anymore you will not know who your id is even; you are like a drunk person. You know nothing.
There was one president here, that at the end, he got Alzheimer’s, Eisenhower, one of them, he was president. What happened? He lost everything (his memory). It means he lost completely his status. We are in such sickness today. We are lost our mind is not functioning except dunya issues. We are not function on akhira issues. We are struggling...some people are trying their best. Like those people who are accepting Allah as creator and Prophet Muhammad as his messenger they are not completely lost but they are like completely drunk because they don’t complete what is necessary to be done.
The one who dies his resurrection is quickly coming. What was far for him in dunya is no longer far.
Today, this moment, no one is thinking about it. We think it is so far. Judgment Day, resurrection, the grave. It is so far. We are making plans for 2050, 2060.
وَمَكَرُواْ وَمَكَرَ اللّهُ وَاللّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ
Wa makaroo wa makara ’Llahu w’Allahu khayru ’l-maakireena
And (the unbelievers) plotted and planned, and Allah too planned, and the best of planners is Allah.(Aali-`Imraan, 3:54)
They try to make scheme, but their scheme is nothing.
Allah is the one whose scheme is going to work. Allah’s strategy is going to work, outs is not going to work. Whatever plan they put in the future, we might die after one second.
So awliyaullah are different because they died before their death. Their body died. That means they submitted no will for them anymore. So for them that is not so far. They are in that state; they are in death before death. They are living it now. We are not living it. We will see it when we die. So when we die, we are going to see something that they are going to regret that they did not do and didn’t follow.
But awliyaullah are not going to regret as they were struggling with egos and Allah will give them that death in dunya that they spent their life in the way of Allah so they knew what to do to prepare for res. Day.
That is why we need a guide. We need a guide that already died before death and he sees what is going to happen after your real death. Then he will guide us.
Everything that you are in now is hawwaas. Imaginary. We say in Arabic hawwaas, a way of craziness. You think you are famous, you are nothing. You think you are nothing. You think you are dong good you are nothing. That is hawwaas you believe something that is not there.
That is arrogance built on ego. You are building on something that has no structure, there is no basement and there is no frame for the bldg you want to build. Can you build a building without a frame? You cannot.
But Sayyidina Muhammad (s) can. You cannot put a ceiling without walls. But awliyaullah can. The Prophet (s) even without walls, that shape, that cloud was always covering him, moving with him wherever he goes.
If you go to Cyprus to Greek side, in Larnaca, the auntie of the prophet is buried there. One of the signs, as she died as a martyr there and it is along story that she was very thirsty, and the people didn’t give her water to drink and they didn’t allow her to come near the pond, there is a big pond there. She prayed, "May Allah make the pond sour for you."And it changed, to salt water, it was fresh before. She is buried there an on her grave there is stone that has no walls; it is hanging in the air. You can see it, it might be a stone of 20 tons, very big very huge and it is hanging on top. And the ottomans, some of them were afraid thought it might fall but they put some very thin walls. Those walls cannot carry that stone but that stone is there in the air.
Awliyaullah can have to themselves a structure, that they have built for themselves in their lives a structure so they no longer need structure in akhira.
That is obedience. Let us ask ourselves. Do we have real obedience? We don’t want to have any cheating. You can cheat anyone but not cheat Allah. Let us check ourselves. Do we have full obedience? No we don’t have.
Awliyaullah they tried their best. All of us are trying but we are struggling. We don’t have full obedience. We are trying to make Allah happy with us; at least we can say we are trying.
Prophet built his Sahaaba not trying but they were doing it. When you are obedient to prophet you are obedient to Allah. So they were obedient to Sayyidina Muhammad (s). Ask now are we obedient to the prophet. No unfortunately we are not. But we are fortunate that we are from Ummat an-Nabi (s), because his shafa`at will reach us. But on one condition. His shafa`at will reach you but you have to show your love. You have to show love or they don’t take you in. If you have father and mother and don’t show them love they will tell you we don’t want you, go.
But if you show them love, and even if you have mistakes, they say, “it is ok, you can still come.”
So everything you are in it is a situation that is imaginary. Because you are building it on something that has no structure.
You have built your heart to accept imaginary issues. Imam Ghazali, Abi Hamid al-Ghazali, said that when you die your eyes, now you are blind, and when you die your eyes open.
Muhyideen ibn `Arabi said, "You are in a mirage and you think there is water and you go quickly to where you see water in the desert and you find nothing.”
Everything is a mirage. That is why they come saying, “how is it a mirage? We are living.”
No you are living on something that Allah is changing. It is going. Don’t build your structure on a mirage; it is not going to help.
Dunya has an age, akhira has no age. Dunya has a time to come to end and akhira has no time to end. You want something that has an end or something that has no end, everlasting.
Your life in dunya has no end and your life in akhira has no end. Which you prefer. Let us put these bullet points there in order to remember that we have discussed them and we are trying to think about it. And to do for the life that has no end which is akhira. We don’t want to do for something that has an end. And all of us are spending more time on the one that has an end and we are not spending enough time on the one that has no end.
24 hrs a day has been spent mostly for what has a end, dunya and little bit for what has no end. That is not good balance. You have to balance.
Allah said in Surat ar-Rahman you cannot make one heavier. You have to balance things.
وَالسَّمَاء رَفَعَهَا وَوَضَعَ الْمِيزَانَ
Wa ’s-samaa rafa`haa wa wada` al-meezaan.
And the Firmament has He raised high, and He has set up the Balance (of Justice), (Ar-Rahman, 55:7)
Allah put the Balance. That means there is a balance He gave for everything.
فَأَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَاهَا
Fa-alhamahaa fujoorahaa wa taqwaahaa
And its enlightenment as to its wrong and its right. (Shams 91:8)
He put the Balance for good and bad. Don’t make your balance unbalanced. If it is not balanced they write on it “malfunction” and you have to go and fix it.
Try to be obedient. If you are obedient then you are with the group that is balancing their lives, as Sayyidina `Ali (r) said, "do for your dunya as if you are living forever and do for your akhira as if you are dying tomorrow.” Look at the eloquence in the words. Do for dunya as if you are living forever, but remember you might die tomorrow. So which one you want to look for. So he is trying to say in an indirect way "don’t build your roof with no structure."Your structure is the `amal you do for akhira in order to build a roof there. So that is the balance of Sayyidina `Ali he is giving us a hint.
When you balance you things, it means you are in Allah’s Divine Presence. You will be with that group that is safe on the other side. “Al-ma`siyya wujood an-nafs - sin is existence of the nafs.”
Forbiddens come because of the existences of the self. without the existence of the self there is no forbiddens. Because you gave an existence to your ego you gave a strength to sins. If you lose your ego, if you don’t give a chance for the ego. You end up in obedience.
That is why he said, "Al-ma`siyya wujood an-nafs. Wa ta` at fukhdaniha.” When you are in obedience you have lost the ego. Awliyaullah want to lose their ego and throw it from their body and soul. As long as you are committing sin, then you have ego. But no one can stop committing sin, except the Prophet (s). we know we are doing sins, but let us try to cut them down as much as possible. Let us struggle. Keep struggling.
Today people are struggling due to economic crisis. They are looking for ways to build back the economy. Are we looking for a way to fix that crisis in ourselves? They are doing all their effort to fix their problem are we doing all our effort solve our problem.
They had big meeting for all these officials to solve this problem which is dunya problem you think that problem is worth 700 billion dollars and it might solve or it might not solve.
If you have 700 billion dollars in pocket will we give it for akhira or not. No, everyone will be happy to give it at death. Not in dunya. At death, saying, "Ya Rabbee take it."Then it is too late.
We don’t have 700 billion. At death you will realize what was wrong and realize the value of your wealth is nothing. At that point you will say Ya Rabbee save me it is too late. Except shafa`at` of the Prophet. If you own the whole world you will give it in order to be saved at death. Awliyaullah they give it before death.
We have a crisis within us that is worth trillions and trillions and trillions it is not worth 700 billion and we have to come to realizing of our problem in order to be save in akhira.
How prophet, what the prophet said, in order to solve our crisis. He said in his hadith:
ومن تواضع لله رفعه
man tawada` lillahi rafa`
“Whoever humbles before Allah, Allah will raise him up.”
He didn’t say in dunya. But it means he will solve his spiritual crisis and raise him for akhira.
Wa man takabbara wad`ahullah. Whoever becomes proud and arrogant Allah will put him down.
Iblees said, "… and Allah put him down. Adam said, " Ya Rabbee whatever is good is from you and whatever is bad is from me. And Allah raised him up and forgave him.
So to know you have a crisis is when you do a sin that is the sign you have ego. We do a lot. Try to forbid yourself from the bad desires of the ego and try to drop it by the desires of your Lord.
We have 2 kinds of desires. Fa alhamaha fujooraha wa taqwaaha. He Inspired the self with what will corrupt it and what will make it sincere.
Allah inspired everyone’s self. Everyone separate. as he spoke it individual way. He inspired everyone how It will be corrupted and how it will be sincere. Try to take side of sincerity. Be sincere to Allah and his prophet. Be sincere to humanity then Allah swt will be with you
Try to carry the bad desires by asceticism that means by leaving behind what belongs to dunya in akhira there is no self, there is no pride, no jealousy, no envy, and no hate, there are no bad characteristics. They are all gone. Before Allah sends you to paradise, everything that is on you these wild char, they disappear. They don’t exist anymore. Like someone has dirty clothes he goes and washes them and then he wears them. You don’t wear it dirty. Why? O I cannot. Why I cannot? Because it is stinky. Allah doesn’t like heavens to be stinky. He has to wash you with his mercy. Wash you with shafa`at of the Prophet (s).
وَإِن مِّنكُمْ إِلَّا وَارِدُهَا كَانَ عَلَى رَبِّكَ حَتْمًا مَّقْضِيًّا
Wa in minkum illa wariduha kana `ala rabbika hatman maqdiyyan
{Not one of you but will pass over it: this is, with thy Lord, a Decree which must be accomplished} (Surah Maryam, 19:71)
For sure every one of you is going to enter hellfire. Allah said in Holy Qur'an. Don’t say, "O where it is?” it is in Holy Qur'an. Wa in minkum illa waariduha.
“For sure every one of you waariduha, is passing by it.”
That is why on Judgment Day Allah swt put something like a bridge over hellfire to paradise and everyone is going to go on that siraat al-mustaqeem. Those who were guides, awliyaullah, that bridge, siraat is like a highway. It is so wide you cannot see its borders. You will be running inside to heaven.
Then for those who are not, thinner and thinner and thinner, thinner than a hair and you have to fall inside.
That means that you are going to see, my mercy saved you. You were going to be there in hellfire. But shafa`at saved you let us praise the prophet that by his shafa`at we will be saved. Without shafa`at` an-Nabi (s) we are lost. Without guidance of awliyaullah we are lost. We are passing and that might be thinner than a hair. With shafa`at of the Prophet that siraat may be wider than the universe.
And what you will be seeing on either side of that siraat. What kind of disasters are we giong to be observing as we are crossing. Awliyaullah don’t want us to observe. They want us with du`a and Kun fayakoon to be inside immediately. Because it is a horrible passage. We have to say always Ya Rabbee for sake of your prophet, save us.
Like Sayyidina Adam did. For sake of Muhammad, Ya Rabbee save me. He saved him. So simple he didn’t say me or this and that. He said for the Sake of Muhammad whose name is everywhere. That means he is beloved servant. Save me. So he saved him. So what we have to learn? To say: “Ya Rabbee for sake of Sayyidina Muhammad save us!” Remember that before you sleep. Remember that before you go to work. Remember when you are sitting in your home. When we remember we ill make salawat on prophet. When we remember that we will be saved. If not what happens? If you don’t show respect to his beloved one how are you going to be saved.
Darkness is dunya. How are you happy with darkness? When the sun comes we are happy we can see. When the moon comes we are happy we can see. We want the diya, the nur, the light. Dunya give darkness and akhira give you light. Love of the Prophet gives light. And following shaytan brings darkness. So choose. Allah gave you the choice. You want the light or you want the darkness. Everyone wants light.
Allah said:
لاَ إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ
la ikraaha fi’d-deen
Let there be no compulsion in religion.(al-Baqara, 2:256)
So since we want the light, we must drop from our heart dunya.