[Shaykh Hisham begins the Khatm and gives a detailed, heavenly explanation of each step throughout.]
A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytani ‘r-rajeem. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem. Allahumma salli wa sallim wa baarik `alaa Sayyidina Muhammad (s).
Nawaytu 'l-arba`een, nawaytu 'l-`itikaaf, nawaytu 'l-khalwah, nawaytu 'l-`uzlah, nawaytu 'r-riyaada, nawaytu 's-salook, lillahi ta`ala fee hadha 'l-masjid.
1. Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llaah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan `abduhu wa rasooluh. (3 times)
Look--SubhaanAllah, the beginning of the Khatm is like the beginning of every non-Muslim’s conversion to Islam, the Shahaadah. The Khatm al-Khwajagan Sayyidina `Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujudawani (q) said he received that awrad directly from Sayyidina Muhammad (s) has these three Shahaadahs (in the beginning) to testify and to witness on yourself, “O my self! Wherever you go, you will end up in one place, in Shahaadah.” When you do Shahaadah you are in the Hands of Allah, you are in the Divine Presence:
يد الله مع الجماعة
The Hand of Allah is with the congregation.[1]
“Allah's Hands are with the group.” Where is the ‘group’here? Yadullahi ma`a al-jama`ah--when we say Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llaah we are witnessing that Allah is the Creator and Allah’s Hands will come on us, because yadullahi ma`a al-jama`ah, here ‘jama`ah’ means, in the interpretational meaning, not in the literal meaning which is “group of people”--so His Hands are ‘over’ the group of people and we as individuals, in the interpretational meaning, we are a group of organs, we are a group synchronizing everything together, like a genius group of engineers and doctors putting together this sound, this work, this `ibaadah of every organ to synchronize your body, and when you say “Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llaah” all your body, your system, is throwing away poisons and acquiring Allah’s Beauty and Forgiveness, so let us say another time, “Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llaah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan `abduhu wa rasooluh.”
That rooh, Rooh ash-Shahaadah, the soul or the secret of saying Shahaadah, the qudrah, power when you say Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llaah, Allah is happy! What kind of qudrah will Allah dress you with? He will dress you in this moment, forgive you from every sin you have done before and dress you with dresses that will not let Iblees’ army attack you, so let us say another time, “Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llaah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan `abduhu wa rasooluh.”
2. Istaghfirullah, istaghfirullah, istaghfirullah... (25 times)
Shaykh recites the du’a: “Allahumma Yaa Musabbib al-Asbab, Yaa Mufattih al-Abwaab, Yaa Muqallib al-quloobi wa ’l-absaar, Yaa Daleel al-mutahayyireen, Yaa Ghiyath al-mustagheetheen, Yaa Hayyu, Yaa Qayyum, Yaa Dhu ’l-Jalaali wa ‘l-Ikraam! Wa ufawwidu amri ‘l-Llah, innAllaha baseerun bi ‘l-`ibaad.”
Rabitatu ush-shareef: connect your heart to the heart of the shaykh, from him to the heart of the Prophet (s), the Prophet (s) will connect you to the Divine Presence.
Fatihah 7 times
[Mawlana interrupts the dhikr.]
Here we say, “Astaghfirullah al-`Azheem”. When you decide to enter Islam you took a shower and by entering Islam and making Shahaadah you are showering yourself with Maqaam at-Tawheed, you are asking Allah (swt) to dress you to be a good muwahid, worshipper, and someone that in every moment is saying “Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llaah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan rasoolullah”, you prepared yourself to enter that Divinely Presence and Allah is welcoming you, but you have sins and Allah (swt) wants you to make istighfaar in order to ensure that every sin will drop from you with not one sin remaining.
That’s why, as mentioned in many stories, the soul or secret of the power of the Khatm al-Khawajagan was given to Khawaja `Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani (q) by Prophet (s) in a vision when he (s) dressed him with that in order to move from shaqaawa to sa`ada, from a bad end to a good end. Therefore, Allah (swt) is changing all followers coming from the Naqshbandi Sufi Order from shaqaawa to sa`ada, and that is also for other Tariqahs. Every Tariqah has it’s own way and every time we recite 25 istighfaar, even one shower of istighfaar cleans us and 25 istighfaar, the number that came to Sayyidina `Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani (q)m for sure cleans us: 25 is equal to 2 + 5 = 7, corresponding to the seven lataa’if (energy centers in the human body).
May Allah (swt) bless us with all that. When you are blessed and your sins are forgiven by Allah’s Order, then you celebrate the love to Sayyidina Muhammad (s), mentioning him, reciting salawaat ash-Sharifah 10 times, “Allahumma salli `alaa Muhammadin wa `alaa aali Muhammadin wa sallim.” When we said istighfaar, Allah (swt), with His Endless Mercy on every Muslim and mu’min, wants us to enter the secrets of the Holy Qur’an because it is the constitution of Muslims and we have to follow:
وَمَا آتَاكُمُ الرَّسُولُ فَخُذُوهُ وَمَا نَهَاكُمْ عَنْهُ فَانتَهُوا
Leave what Prophet (s) forbade and take what he ordered. (Surat al-Hashr, 59:7)
You have to believe what Allah gave to you [Prophet (s) brought us Holy Qur’an] and the Qur’an is Allah’s Words, so Allah wants you to enter reading the Holy Qur’an by first reading the Fatihah, because it is said:
that al-fatihatyou qalbu ’l-qur’an, Fatiha is the qalb (heart) of the Holy Qur’an.
Yaseen is qalbu ’l-qur’an and Fatihah qalbu ’l-Yaseen and Fatihah is the secret where all the meaning of the Holy Qur’an came into the Fatihah and that’s why I asked us, before salawaat, to do Fatihah seven times.
Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem. (al-Fatihah).
3. Allahumma salli `alaa Muhammadan wa `alaa aali Muhammadan wa sallim...
When we recite salawaat after reciting Surat al-Fatihah, then Allah (swt) is calling on His Servant, Sayyidina Muhammad (s) by saying, “We have--Alam nashrah laka sadrak--expanded your chest to feel happy, to be happy with your Ummah, happy with yourself that for all of them We opened the secrets of Shahaadah; of Tawheed and We took all their sins and We made them really clean and their load that you are carrying has been forgiven.” So that is why recite 7 times alam nashrah laka sadrak, Surat al-Inshirah.
Surat al-Inshirah 7 times
Ikhlaas ash-Sharifa--now we are entering into the Ocean of Tawheed, after cleaning ourselves, after making salawaat Prophet (s) is happy with us, Allah is happy with us; the way is open for every dhaakir, for everyone who does dhikr, the way is open to enter into the Maqaam al-Ikhlaas by reciting Qulu Allah Ahad.
Surat al-Ikhlaas 11 times
Fatihah 7 times
Salawaat 10 times
We with salawaat on Prophet (s) as our shuyookh said to wrap every `amal you do, wrap it with salawaat on Prophet (s) and no one can approach it, Iblis and his armies cannot approach it, an evil person cannot approach: that is saved for you until Judgment Day and that will be encircumambulated by angels and circles of angels are around us ‘til Heaven.
Now the recitation of the Holy Qur'an.
By the order of the shaykh, one person will recite Qur’an.
The Ihda, presentation by the shaykh as gift to the Prophet (s) and to the saints and shaykhs of the Naqshbandi Order and all other Orders.
That is the ‘small’ Naqshbandi Dhikr, the other one is on the stones.
The Loud Dhikr
F`alam annahu Laa ilaha il-Laah
Now what we do of loud dhikr is tashabuhun bi turuq ukhraa, we like to share and imitate the dhikr of other Tariqats that do loud dhikr, they do more on that, to make sure that we are united in every possible way and to show unity between different Sufi Tariqahs. The dhikr in a loud voice was usually not for Naqshbandis, it was in their hearts, hidden, but Mawlana Shaykh (q) found that it is necessary in this time for the many converts coming to Islam and with Muslims who were not practicing Islam to practice and to unite with everyone on these dhikrullah by mentioning Allah (swt)’s Beautiful Names and Attributes.
Every Name of Allah has its own sweetness, every Name has a meaning and it is like a fountain of meanings that never ends. You can go down to my library downstairs in the house and see thousands of books that never ends, new books come all the time on the sweetness of the Beautiful Names and Attributes! That’s why dhikrullah tatma’in al-quloob.
Allah
HasbunAllah wa ni`ama ’l-wakeel.
When you go home, you carry with you your books: everyone makes his account [of their actions] at end of the day, these are our books for Akhirah and everything we do is in our books for our Akhirah. We are going to have lot of books to carry to Akhirah, inshaa-Allah we have many good books and leave the bad books back in dunya and Allah will forgive us. Today, look, this Khatm al-Khwajagan is the main engine in Bahr al-Qudrah, the dhikrullah, which I mean Khawjaagan, is dhikrullah and it is an engine in Bahrul Qudrah and we are turning around and getting power from it.
If you are ghaniyy, rich, you must be rich from your `amal being accepted by Allah (swt), or else you are poor. Today his father lost one of richest people in the world [Shaykh Mohammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, ruler of Dubai] at the age of 33. What did he take with him? He cannot take his buildings with him, he cannot take anything of dunya with him, he took only his `amal! We ask Allah (swt) not to judge us on our `amal because we don't know [what will happen], as the Prophet (s) said:
من حوسب عذب
(Yaa `Ayesha!) Who will be judged will be punished for sure. (Bukhari)
“Whoever is taken to account is punished.” May Allah not punish us and dress us with endless heavenly dresses, inshaaAllah.
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[1] In another narration:
يد الله على الجماعة
Allah's Hand is over the group. (at-Tabarani)