21 April 2012 Washington DC Metro Area
Suhbah at International Cultural Center (ICC)
A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani ‘r-rajim. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem. Dastoor yaa Sayyidee, madad. Dastoor yaa awliyaullah, madad. Madad yaa Rasoolullah, yaa Rahmatan lil-`alameen!
Abu Hurayrah (r) narrated from the Prophet (s):
كل أمر ذي بال لا يبدأ فيه ببسم الله الرحمن الرحيم فهو أقطع أو (فهو ابتر)
kullu amrin dhi baalin la yabtada bi Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem fa huwa aqta` aw fahuwa abtar.
To act on any matter that comes to your mind that does not begin with "Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem" is cut off.
That means there is no benefit from anything that begins without Bismillahi ‘r-Rahmaani ‘r-Raheem. That means, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem” is “in the Name of Allah” because you are mentioning ismAllah, the Name of Allah. He (swt) didn't say, “Bismi ‘r-Rahmaani ‘r-Raheem” (without the Name of Allah), but He first said, “Bismillah, in the Name of Allah.” He was able to say, “Bismi ‘r-Rahmaani ‘r-Raheem,” or “Bismi ‘l-Mukawwir,” or “Bismi ‘l-Musawwir,” or “Bisma ‘l-Khaliq,” but in order to dress us more with Allah's Heavenly Lights, He began with the Name that encompasses all Beautiful Names and Attributes of Allah (swt)!
If your capacity is high you will be dressed with higher capacity, and if your capacity is not so high faith-wise, if one day you are in belief and one day in unbelief, thumma aamanoo thumma kafaroo, then you are struggling between good and evil and this whole life is a struggle between good and evil.
In this life there is nothing but struggle: Sayyidina Adam (a) struggled with Iblees; Qaabil and Haabil struggled with each other; Sayyidina Nuh (a) and Sayyidina Ibraheem (a) struggled with their people; Sayyidina Musa (a) struggle with Pharoah; Sayyidina `Isa (a) with one disciple who betrayed him; and Sayyidina Muhammad (s) carried the torture and abuse of all humanity on his shoulders, as he will never accept to enter Paradise without his ummah!
Allah (swt) said in Surat al-Inshiraah:
وَوَضَعْنَا عَنكَ وِزْرَكَ
Wa wada`na `anka wizrak.
And removed from you your burden. (Surat al-Sharh: 94:2)
He removed that heavy bad load you are carrying We are taking from you and then:
وَرَفَعْنَا لَكَ ذِكْرَكَ
Wa rafa`na laka dhikrak.
And We raised up your remembrance. (Surat al-Sharh: 94:2)
And not only raising his (s) name, but raising him with what Allah dressed him in a heavenly, subtle light from which Allah created him! So when we say, “In the Name of Allah, bismillah,” it means you are asking Allah (swt) in His Names that no one can count! It is not only Ninety-nine Names, that is only what we know, but as `ulama of al-Azhar have said, Allah's Beautiful Names and Attributes are in groups of Ninety-nine, there is not only one “Ninety-nine Beautiful Names and Attributes” but many Ninety-nines.
Let’s say we know the Ninety-nine, but there are an infinite number of them, as every moment of Allah’s Divine Reality, from His Essence that no one knows, not even the Prophet (s), He is pouring from His Light into these Beautiful Names and Attributes, and they shine more and more enlightenment on the Prophet (s) and awliyaullah!
Take “ar-Rahman” for example, which in English translates as “The Most Merciful.” Most Merciful on whom, on ten people or a hundred people? When someone is merciful it means he forgives and gives generously. When someone didn't harm you, you give him a present. So when Allah (swt) forgives, it means all wrong or harm that has been done is now erased, and that person becomes clean and Allah gives to them. In every moment He is giving; not a moment of earth time but in heavenly time Allah keeps giving non-stop, until the Day of Judgment.
Allah’s Rahmat continuously increases on every servant! That is why He said:
وَرَحْمَتِي وَسِعَتْ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ
Wa rahmatee wasi`at kulla shay.
My Mercy has encompassed everything. (Surat al-A`raaf, 7:156)
That means there is nothing outside of His Mercy! So when we say “Bismillah”-- for example, the Name “al-Khaaliq” means Allah (swt) is creating non-stop, continuously, and not just the six billion human beings on the planet, but rather in every moment Allah (swt) is creating creations that we do not know of! However, there are some who do know, because the Prophet (s) knows and he gives that knowledge to his inheritors to tell his ummah. Ummat an-Nabee are lucky because the Seal of Messengers (s) is the Prophet sent for the whole ummah, beginning from Sayyidina Adam (a) up to the Day of Judgment. And if we want to go deeper, whatever Allah (swt) created is part of ummat an-Nabee, who are under him or from his nation!
Allah (swt) made angels the first to know about Sayyidina Muhammad (s). When He (swt) created the light of the Prophet (s), which was the first thing He created, angels were looking at him without cessation and Allah (swt) ordered them to make salawaat on him non-stop.
Every salawaat that reaches the Prophet (s) reflects its rewards, blessings, and mercy on his ummah and the Prophet (s) doesn't keep anything only for himself as he shares everything with his ummah. It is difficult for people to understand this, especially in these times, but what I am going to say now will explain it all, although they might ask, “Who told him that?” Allah (swt) created and gave knowledge to the Prophet (s) who, in turn, gave to those who can understand. Even if we cannot understand with our bodies, our souls understand because the Prophet (s) speaks to our souls, not to our physical forms. Evidence of this is how Allah (swt) brought the Prophet (s) to Qaaba qawsayni aw adnaa, where he is still in ascension because in his holy grave he is alive, which we have explained in detail many times; Allah (swt) returns Prophet’s soul to his body when someone makes salawaat on him, as mentioned in the hadith:
ما من أحد يسلم عليَّ إلا رد الله عليَّ روحي حتى أسلم عليه
Maa min ahadin yusallim `alayya illaa radd-allaha `alayya roohee hatta usallim `alayh.
No one prays on me, except that Allah will send back my soul to me to return his greeting. (Abu Dawud)
About this hadith, Imam Suyuti (r) said in his tafseer that the Prophet (s) said, "I am fresh, alive in my grave. Whoever recites salawaat on me, Allah returns my soul to me to return the salawaat.” This means whenever someone sends salawaat on the Prophet (s), Allah (swt) sends back Prophet’s soul to respond to the salawaat.
And the Prophet (s) said:
من صلى علي مرة صلى الله عليه بها عشرا
Man salla `alayya marrah, salla ’Laahu `alayhi bihaa `ashara.
Whoever prays on me one time, Allah prays on him ten times. (Sahih)
Imam Suyuti (r) said, “The Prophet’s (s) soul is always there and alive, because in every moment thousands of people are sending salawaat on him, which means his soul never leaves his body and is always present.”
From a scholarly point of view, Imam Bukhari’s Sahih is the most accepted among all the sihah. He traveled from place to place to get one hadith:
One time Imam Bukhari (r) heard that someone had a hadith of the Prophet (s), and so he traveled three months in order to get it. When he reached there, he saw that man with his horse trying to trick it to come to him with a piece of food in his hand. He refused to take the hadith from him, saying, “If he is doing this with his horse, what will he do with a hadith?”
We accept all other hadiths from the Prophet (s) from all other books, but we say that Imam Bukhari’s Sahih is the best. This is not a concern of just Ahlu ’s-Sunnah wa ’l-Jama`ah, but most Muslims know that Imam Bukhari (r) never certified or recorded a hadith in his manuscript unless he saw the Prophet (s) in his dream telling him whether the hadith is correct or not. So he would get a heavenly seal directly from the Prophet (s) verifying the authenticity of the hadiths. Also, Imam Bukhari didn’t categorize the chapters of any hadith until he saw the Prophet (s) in his dream telling him to put it in this or that chapter.
The Prophet (s) said:
من رائني في المنام فقد راءني حقا
Man ra'anee fi 'l-manaami faqad ra’anee haqqan.
Who saw me in the dream saw me in reality. (Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah)
What is meant by, “Who saw me in the dream will see me in reality.” Some scholars say “reality” means if you see the Prophet (s) in a dream, you will see him on the Day of Judgment, but Imam Suyuti (r) said, “This is not a perfect explanation. Whoever saw the Prophet (s) in a dream will see the Prophet (s) not only on the Day of Judgment, but in dunya as well, because everyone will see the Prophet (s) on the Day of Judgment according to their own capacity.” So to see Sayyidina Muhammad (s) in reality means to see the reality of “Muhammadan Rasoolullah,” as Allah (swt) raised his (s) remembrance for angels, heavens and humanity to see and get benefit. That is why Allah (swt) told the angels to make sajda to Sayyidina Adam (a). This was was not a sajda of worship, but a sajda of respect for the light of the Prophet (s) that was on the forehead of Sayyidina Adam (a)!
I asked one imaam, when Allah (swt) ordered the angels to make sajda to Adam (a), did the angels raise their heads or are they still in prostration? There is not one ayah in the Holy Qur’an ordering them to raise their heads, and in their sajda they are making salawaat and istighfaar for the whole ummah!
The Prophet (s) said:
Anaa hayyun tariyyun fee qabree.
I am alive and fresh in my grave.
It means he is alive and in perfect health! Today they inject stem cells in old people to rejuvenate them, and now many world leaders go to Switzerland for that procedure. Now immediately after birth, they freeze the newborn’s placenta to preserve its unique stem cells that can help fight that child’s future illnesses. Through this we see Allah (swt) is giving knowledge through technology. What about the Prophet (s)? When he said, “‘Ana hayyun tariyyun fee qabree,” it means, “I am alive and fresh in my grave, receiving from my Lord what no other received!”
Whenever someone makes salawaat on the Prophet (s), Allah (swt) sends his soul back to him to return the salawaat. However, when we make salawaat it is like plastic fruit: you say it, but not like an`abid who makes salawaat with `ishq, intense love, like when they recite na`at shareef or qasa`id you feel so much love and emotion in the poetry. So when the Prophet (s) says,”anaa hayyun tariyyun,” it means, “I’m fresh and alive, receiving heavenly manifestations in every moment and giving them to my ummah!”
His salawaat is not like ours. Then what do you think about the above hadith, “Whoever prays on me one time, Allah prays on him ten times.” Some `arifeen and awliyaullah that are mentioned in this book said, man faata kathrut as-salaat was-siyaam, fal-yakthur min as-salaat `ala an-Nabee. Some people lost their prayers due to never praying the five daily prayers in their lives, although they must. Some people are not religious enough, so they don't pray and fast. So a Gnostic said, man faata kathrut as-salaat wa ’s-siyaam, fa ’l-yakthur min as-salaat `ala an-Nabee, “The one who did not pray regularly and missed some prayers and fasting must complete them and there is no question about that, but after you make them up, you must increase your prayers on the Prophet (s) and make salawaat excessively!” Fa law fa`al al-insaan jami` at-ta`at, “If a person performed all his prayers and never missed even a single day of fasting in Ramadan, paid zakaat, did Hajj, and said ‘Ash-hadu laa ilaaha illa-Llah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan Rasoolullah (s),’ completing all his obligations, and then made one salawaat on the Prophet (s), laa rajaahat fi ‘l-meezaan, that salawaat would be heavier on the Scale than all worship he completed in his life!”
Why? Man salla `alayya marrah, salla ’Laahu `alayhi bihaa `ashara, because anyone who makes one salawaat on the Prophet (s), Allah (swt) will send on him ten salawaats, and no one can measure the Greatness of Allah's salawaat on you. Your one salawaat on the Prophet (s) on the Scale will be heavier than all your dunya worship, but this does not imply that you don't need to pray and fast. No, this is actually encouraging you to do prayers on the Prophet (s).
It will be heavier on the Scale because it will bring with it the ten salawaat that Allah (swt) has made on you! La-rajaahat tilka as-salawaat wahida `ala kulli maa `amalahu jami`ee `umrihee min jamee` t-ta`aat li annaka tusalli. Whenever you pray, fast, pay zakaat or whatever worship you do, it is always according to your capacity. For example, you might pray and your mind might not be present, but when you make salawaat on the Prophet (s) and then Allah (swt) makes salawaat on you , He will send you His Rahmah from the Greatness of His Lordship! Is there any scale that can carry the Greatness of His Lordship, which is heavier than this whole universe and all things? That is if you pray one time you get ten; if you prayed a hundred times you get a thousand salawaat from Allah (swt), and if you pray a thousand times every day you get ten thousand salawaat!
That is why he said, akthiroo min as-salawaat `ala an-Nabee (s), “Make as much salawaat on the Prophet (s) as you can.” Awliyaullah reached that level of sainthood due to their salawaat on the Prophet (s), and Allah (swt) sent His Mercy on them.
So going back, Imam Bukhari (r) didn't register even one hadith without seeing the Prophet (s) in his dream. Now, let us speak to this crowd. Some of you have seen the Prophet (s) in your dreams, correct? Those who saw, saw; some people see and some don't. The Prophet (s) said, “Who saw me in a dream will see me, haqqan, in reality.”
Abu Hurayrah (r) narrated that the Prophet (s) said:
من رآني في المنام فقد رأى الحق فإن الشيطان لا يتمثل بي
Man raanee fi ‘l-manami faqad raanee al-haqq fa inna ash-shaytan la yatamathala bee.
He who sees me in a dream has certainly seen me, because Shaytan can not take my form.
Shaytan cannot imitate the image of the Prophet (s). Those who did not see the Prophet (s) were hazaana, sad, because they cannot lie and say, “We saw the Prophet (s).” No one can lie on the Prophet (s), so those awliyaullah who saw the Prophet (s) and were told by him how to make salawaat on him received it in different ways from one wali to another.
Al-Hafizh as-Sakhawi (r) relates that once a lady came to one of the big awliyaullah, Sayyidina Hasan al-Basri (q), who was the friend of Imam al-Junayd (q). She said to him, “I had a daughter who died. I miss her and would like to see her in my dream. What do I have to do?” Sayyidina Hasan al-Basri (q) told her, “Pray four raka`at, then recite Surat al-Fatihah and Surat al-Takkaathur. After Salaat al-`Isha, make salawaat on the Prophet (s) until you sleep completely.” That lady did what Sayyidina Hasan al-Basri (q) told her to do and her daughter appeared in her dream. She saw her daughter was in the punishment of Hellfire and wore a dress made with hot, burning tar, and her hands and legs were bound with chains of fire!
The lady woke up very scared and ran to Sayyidina Hasan al-Basri (q) and narrated the dream. He told her to give sadaqa fee sabeelillah. She gave sadaqa and that night Sayyidina Hasan al-Basri (q) slept and saw a beautiful paradise in his dream. In the middle of it there was a bed with a mattress, on which sat a very beautiful lady. There was a crown of light on her head.
She said, “Yaa Hasan! hal ta`rifoonee, do you know me?
He said, “No,” because awliyaullah are humble.
She said, “I am the daughter of the lady you ordered to make salawaat on the Prophet (s) until she slept.”
Sayyidina Hasan (q) said, “Your situation was explained differently by your mother.”
She said, “What you have said is true.”
Then he asked, “How did you escape that situation?”
She replied, “There were 70,000 of us girls in the same situation. A very pious man passed by our graves and we felt the piety coming from him, although we were still in punishment. He was making salawaat on the Prophet (s) (which was the reflection of her mother's salawaat that Allah created a man to recite salawaat and pass through these graves). He made salawaat on the Prophet (s) one time, offered the rewards of his salawaat to us and Allah accepted it from him. With just one salawaat, Allah released us from that punishment!”
O Believers! Salawaat has no limits; as much as you make salawaat the more you receive. There are different methods of salawaat that Prophet (s) taught awliyaullah through their dreams. Don't say, “Where did you get that form of salawaat?” If you accept the way Imam Bukhari saw the Prophet (s) in his dreams and put the hadith, why don't you accept that the Prophet (s) comes to awliyaullah and gives them salawaat to recite, or that he (s) gives awliyaullah advanced knowledge as he is always in ascension?
Today in research papers there are so many footnotes, perhaps filling up half of the pages. Some ask, “Where did you get this from?” Others answer, “From this one and that one who came before.” But we don’t want what they said before, we want something fresh, something with a different taste! Is there no continuity from what was taught before by these great scholars who brought interpretations? Did dunya stop after the left? Are there no more awliya today who bring interpretations what we can ever imagine?
When Sayyidina Musa (a) was disturbed by these realities, Allah (swt) sent him to learn about them from Sayyidina al-Khidr (a). Musa and his helper found an `abd from many, “one servant from among Our Servants.”
فَوَجَدَا عَبْدًا مِّنْ عِبَادِنَا آتَيْنَاهُ رَحْمَةً مِنْ عِندِنَا وَعَلَّمْنَاهُ مِن لَّدُنَّا عِلْمًا
Fawajadaa `abdan min `ibaadinaa aataynahu rahmatan min `indinaa wa `allamnaahu min ladunnaa `ilma.
So they found a servant from among Our servants to whom We had given mercy from Us and had taught him a (certain) knowledge. (Surat al-Kahf, 18:65)
O Muslims! You have to accept that there is no door to Allah (swt) except through the Prophet (s)! This ayah confirms it and there are many aayaat which are the same. This ayah confirms that Allah gave mercy to Sayyidina Musa (a) and then He taught him through Sayyidina Khidr (a). He didn't say that first He gave him knowledge and then gave him mercy! It means that He gave him mercy first, meaning that he was introduced to the Prophet (s) first, because the Prophet (s) is The Mercy!
أنا مدينة العلم و علي بابه
Anaa madinatu 'l-`ilmi wa `Aliyyun baabuhaa.
I am the City of Knowledge and `Ali is it's door. (al-Haakim, Tirmidhi)
There is no way to that knowledge except through the doors and Sayyidina `Ali (r) is one of its doors, so he has to go through the Prophet (s). Khidr (a) was not able to learn heavenly knowledge without going through the Rahmah, which is Sayyidina Muhammad (s)! Why does Allah (swt) have to say ataynahu rahmatan, “We had given (him) mercy,” and not wa ataynahu `ilman, “We had given (him) knowledge,” as in this ayah, which stresses the importance of knowledge:
وَقُل رَّبِّ زِدْنِي عِلْمًا
Wa qul rabbi zidnee `ilman.
And say, “My Lord! Give me more knowledge.” (Surah Taha, 20:114)
But here Allah (swt) said, “We gave him rahmah,” which means, “we gave him a way to the Prophet!” Because he entered into “the city of knowledge,” wa `allamnaahu min ladunnaa `ilma, he was taught from heavenly knowledge and was able to do things Sayyidina Musa (a) was not able to understand. It was humbleness on the part of Sayyidina Musa (a) that opened these situations, to teach us!
There are knowledges that people are unable to study; their mind becomes very rigid. When you look into a rainbow, how many colors do you see? They say there are seven, but when you look deeper there are an infinite number of colors: reds, yellows, greens, blues and violets, and every color is repeated infinitely. Therefore, it is not what your eye can see, but what your heart sees!
ما وسعني أرضي ولا سمائي ولكن وسعني قلب عبدي المؤمن
Maa wasi`anee ardee wa laa samaa'ee wa laakin wasi`anee qalbi `abdee al-mu'min.
Neither My Heavens nor My Earth contain Me, but the heart of My believing servant contains Me.
(Hadith Qudsi, Al-Ihya of Imam al-Ghazali)
Can anyone contain Allah (swt)? Haasha, no! But that is their understanding, so don't complain about what they understand. Can kindergarten students understand what a university professor says? So don't object. The Prophet (s) mentioned that Prophets used to make journeys in fields. One day Sayyidina Musa (a) was on a journey and as he reached a mountain he heard voices coming from it, so he came near and saw a cave. A lovely voice emanated from that cave, saying:
الحمد لله اللذي َفَضَّلنْيْ عَلَى كَثِيرٍ مِّمَّنْ خَلَق تَفْضِيلاً
Alhamdulillahi ’Lladhee fadalanee `alaa katheerin mimman khalaqa tafdeela.
All praise be to The One that honored me over many of whom He honored.
(Du`a based on Surat al-Isra, 17:70)
A man was reciting this and crying. Sayyidina Musa (a) approached him and saw he was in sajda, but he had no arms and legs, but only a torso. Allah (swt) sent him sustenance from a deer that came to him every day and opened its legs so the man suckled milk from it, and that is how he lived. He was saying, Alhamdulillahi ’Lladhee fadalanee `alaa katheerin mimman khalaqa tafdeela, “All praise be to The One that honored me over many of whom He honored.”
Sayyidina Musa (a) thought this was strange and he asked, “You have no arms, legs, hands or feet, and yet you are saying ‘alhamdulillah’ that Allah preferred you over many of whom He created?”
The man said, “Yaa Sayyidina Musa (a)! I am saying that because it is true. Allah (swt) made me a believer, that I believe in Him, and He did not make me an unbeliever. He created me and made me a servant to Him; that is honor for me. He wanted me to be created without arms and hands. He created me and I am a slave to Him. He preferred me over many who are unbelievers.”
So we have to be happy with what Allah (swt) is giving us, but we are still not happy, although that person had no arms or legs but was happy! O Muslims! We have to be very careful. Salaat `ala an-Nabee (s) saves us and respecting awliyaullah will take us a step forward. To disrespect means you are listening to your ego.
The Prophet (s) said:
الا وان في الجسد مضغة اذا صلحت صلح الجسد كله، واذا فسدت فسد الجسد كله، الا وهي القلب.
alaa inna fi’l-jasadi mudghata idha saluhat saluh al-jasad kullihi wa idhaa fusidat fasad al-jasad kullahu. alaa wa hiya al-qalb.
In the body there is a small piece of flesh; if that piece of flesh is rectified then the whole body will be rectified and if it becomes corrupt then the whole body will become corrupt, and truly that is the heart. (Bukhari and Muslim)
Today they can hear the heart saying, “Huw, Huw, Huw,” and Allah (swt) said, Qul Huwa, “Say Huwa, yaa Muhammad (s)!” Huwa is the One Who Is Unknown, Allah!
قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ
Qul huwa Allahu Ahad.
Say, "He is Allah, the Unique One!” (Surat al-Ikhlaas, 112:1)
“Say, ‘The One Who is Unknown,’” which means the One Whose Reality, Greatness, and Essence that cannot be known “is Allah and Ahad, Unique,” not Wahid, One, but above One! Maqaam al-Ahadiyya is above Maqaam at-Tawheed, and Maqaam al-Wahdaniyya, where everything shows you there is a Creator. Above that is Ahadiyya, Uniqueness, which is Maqaam al-Mushahada, the Level of Vision and Witnessing. We ask Allah (swt) in this blessed meeting to open for us more and more from His Endless Mercy!
Sayyidina `Ali (r) said:
قصم ظهري رجلان عالم متهتك وجاهل متنسك
Qasam zhahree rajulaan, `aalimu mutahattiq wa jaahilun mutanassik.
Two kinds of people broke my back: a proud scholar and a rude ignorant.
It means, `aalimu mutahattiq, a scholar that is arrogant and sees himself as someone who left dunya and says, ‘I am not interested in dunya anymore,’ or who has knowledge but is arrogant and his knowledge is only to make people do this and that, saying, ‘This is haraam, this is shirk, this is bid`a!’ because whatever you do, in his eyes it will be wrong.” That makes people to run from Islam; to run from anything!
The second one is jaahilun `abidun mutanassik, who is ignorant but shows himself as a worshipper, and people say about him, “This is a worshipper.” How many of such people fill up the world! (You can find them) in Pakistan, I feel bad for Pakistan, not only Pakistan, but in the Middle East, North Africa, South Africa, Europe and America. There are many who are ignorant about religion and yet they want to teach you tasawwuf. How is that? They have corrupted the name of tasawwuf and made it look bad. So if they are ignorant, that doesn't mean there is no science of Purification of the Self, which is called tasawwuf. Allah (swt) ordered the Prophet (s) to teach his Sahaabah Purification of the Self, Maqaam al-Ihsaan:
أن تعبد الله كأنك تراه، فإن لم تكن تراه فإنه يراك
An ta`bud Allaha ka'annaka taraahu, fa in lam takun taraahu fa innahu yaraak.
That you worship Allah as if you see Him, for, if you don't see Him, truly He sees you. (Bukhari)
Some scholars do not practice what they teach, or what they practice is only to show that they are scholars. Also, there are others who pretend to be a wali. There are lots of them in America; they sit on the chair and have lots of victims whom they teach, but they know nothing from Shari`ah. In the old times, no one could study tasawwuf without first completing studies of Shari`ah. Imam Malik (r) said, “I studied under 600 murshids of tasawwuf and 300 scholars of Shari`ah.” That shows Maqaam al-Ihsaan is so heavy and not so easy. You cannot go to Maqaam al-Ihsaan without first completing Maqaam al-Islam, as indicated when Sayyidina Jibreel (a) asked the Prophet (s) about Islam, and he (s) described the Five Pillars, which is the structure of religion. Then Sayyidina Jibreel (a) asked about the Six Pillars of Imaan and the Prophet (s) described them. He then asked about Maqaam al-Ihsaan, the Station of Moral Excellence., which you cannot achieve easily as there are 800 forbiddens to be overcome!
Once I asked my teacher, “How do we count the forbiddens, because in books we don’t find more than twenty or thirty?”
He said, “When the kidney stops working, they go for dialysis with big machines. It takes five hours to clean the blood, but that machine removes vital elements like sodium and potassium. Yet that small kidney cleans the blood in such a way that it will eliminate all that poison in the body and leave the vital elements.”
There are more than a million holes in the filter of the kidney to purify the blood. And so to purify you, the real heart has different chambers of knowledge in it and the bad ego blocks these small holes from which the light comes. Let us say this is a closed box. If you are inside it and there are small holes in it, you can see light coming inside from the holes, but if you break the box, there are not just rays of light but you entered the Ocean of Light and Knowledge, the source of light which is everywhere! So in dunya we are in a box and cannot see anything except rays of light coming from the holes, but awliyaullah broke their boxes and are swimming in the Ocean of Knowledge with not only rays, but with complete light.
The heart’s diseases are arrogance and pride that comes from the bad ego. Nowadays they teach you to be proud of yourself, but why, when we made all these mistakes? Al-kibriyya, greatness, arrogance and pride are for Allah (swt), not for you; what are you proud of? If you are really proud of yourself, try and keep yourself alive. I am speaking to those on the Internet now. If you are strong and powerful enough, try and keep your soul in your body. If you die, it means you don't exist, that your existence is an hallucination, imaginary! So the box must be broken. If you break it before your life finishes, at that time you will be in real existence, and you will enter into the state of baqa; after fana there is baqa, “real existence.” When you annihilate yourself completely in Allah (swt), no longer existing for your desires, then Allah (swt) will give you real existence.
In Riyadh, they were building a five-star hotel and were digging the foundations when they found graves of two men, and their bodies were as if they had just been put in their graves today and yet it had been more than 300 years since they died. In that area the body begins to disintegrate within thirty hours from the intense desert heat. The government issued a press release and did not call them “awliyaullah” but rather, “pious, sincere people.” Whatever you may call it, this is a fact and a miracle.
Those people were in baqa, after they annihilated and submitted themselves in dunya to their Lord. The earth is not allowed to eat the flesh of Prophets and the inheritors of Prophets. These people who were discovered in the graves were the inheritors of the Prophets, from awliyaullah. So now they have stopped digging and I don't know what they are going to do about those hotels, but they moved the bodies somewhere else.
So what about the Prophet (s), who said, “I am fresh, alive in my grave.” So break the box and then enter reality, as then you will be with them, seeing what cannot be seen, hearing what cannot be heard and speaking what cannot be said! They entrust us with their jewels; they don't give jewels to children, they give them candies. But there are sincere and pious people who understand knowledge, so they give them knowledge.
May Allah (swt) forgive us, bless us and support this majlis salaat `ala an-Nabee (s). Inshaa-Allah we will continue that series about salaat `ala an-Nabee (s) and then with explanation of “laa ilaaha illa-Llah.” We thank everyone who came and we hope to see you next time and in New Jersey, and the people here will drive to New Jersey as the people of New Jersey have driven here, and also the people of Maryland, Washington and Virginia have an obligation to drive. I will give baya` to everyone on the shoulders, so don’t move but sit where you are and bring forward one husband to represent the men and one wife to represent the ladies.
[Baya`]
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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