Suhbah after Jumu`ah Salaat
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 Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani.
Sometimes people get upset; sometimes Allah (swt) gives them happiness, but it depends on the environment and situation. When so much different tajalli comes, some are strong and you see awliya are tense from that and sometimes they smile. And we, as mureeds of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q), are this way or that way, and the best way is to be in the middle.
Prophet (s) said, “The best of things are the middle (moderation).” So inshaa-Allah, may Allah (swt) make us all in the best middle line. Allah gave everyone a position so everyone stays according to their position. Yours might be different, mine may be different, and sometimes we can meet in agreement or sometimes in disagreement, and we hope it will be constructive. So we apologize if we did harm to anyone and may they apologize if they harmed us and may this make awliyaullah and Prophet (s) happy, and may Prophet (s) accept it.
I will not be long, but I was struck by one of Shah Naqshband’s stories that I came across recently. He was young and a big `alim in Tariqah, in the Haqiqat of Islam: an `alim in hadith, tafseer, and Qur’an; in everything he was an ocean! One time while in a trance, in state of ecstasy, he could not control himself. Too many mureeds of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q), I can say all of them, have that ecstasy and want to be with Mawlana 24 hours a day. It came in Shah Naqshband’s heart, “I have to go out.” So he left the house and as my uncle says when he sits on it, “This is the coffee chair,” now it is not a coffee chair, but he makes people happy. So me and Shaykh Adnan are more in a serious case, meaning that sometimes we need (more often) to keep people happy, but this story will make us look deeply into Tariqah.
So Shah Naqshband (q) went out of the house feeling himself being moved (in a specific direction). He had not yet met Shaykh Ameer Yusuf Kulal (q) but had taken baya` with him. At that time they didn’t give baya` except when you are trained in patience, because everything depends on patience. The last of the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names and Attributes is “as-Saboor,” which means from the beginning to the end is patience. Awliyaullah like patience, not that I begin to quarrel with you, and it teaches us patience to show how much we need to improve ourselves.
So in that trance, Shah Naqshband (q) didn’t know where he was going and was attracted by a nice smell and noor that was coming, and he was being pushed and he reached the door and asked, “Where am I?”
They said, “You are at the door of Sayyidina Ameer Kulal (q).”
He was in a different, unfamiliar village that he didn’t know just by going along, and he entered that door. Here there are so many doors. How many doors are there to enter Ka`bah? There are hundreds of doors to enter Haram Shareef, but only one door to enter the Ka`bah! Awliyaullah are like the Ka`bah and every mureed is a door that someone might enter through, and when you have more doors it is more accessible, whereas if there is only one door it is difficult to enter. To be around or near the Ka`bah there are many doors. Awliyaullah are like the Ka`bah, not in physical shape but in spiritually. It’s like a magnet and not everyone can reach it; perhaps only ten or twenty can go in, while there are millions going around. Those who enter the presence of the Shaykh, are very few. They are those who actually enter his oceans, as not everyone can enter!
In Tariqah, this concept, that the Shaykh has many doors and anyone can enter, is because they want many to come to the Ka`bah, but the outside door is different and the inside door which is Real is different and not many enter through it. This story tells us about this.
As soon as Shah Naqshband (q) came from one door, they looked and the Shaykh asked, “Who is this?”
This story is different. Everyone there was happy to tell the Shaykh who was there so they answered, “This is Bahauddin Naqshband.” Sometimes Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) does this to people when they come to visit.
The Shaykh said, “Throw him out, he is not welcome!”
How? He was attracted like a bee to that smell of his Shaykh, like a bee travels for hundreds of miles; according to scientists bees fly up to 400 kilometers following a scent to collect nectar and then return to the hive. So Who gave him that smell that attracted him all that way, and then did not allow him to enter the door? What to do? In his case, he was humiliated in front of everyone when the Shaykh said, “Who is that? Throw him out!” But Shah Naqshband (q) knew he was not allowed to stay in his Shaykh's house, so he said to himself, “Okay, I am not allowed, but my ego is saying to me, ‘How can you accept someone throwing you out and you are the highest of scholars? Why do you accept this? Go and don’t come back!’”
At that time Shah Naqshband (q) was feeding 5,000 people who regularly came to his lectures, and then he had come to the Shaykh and had been thrown out! Then his nafs began to speak, “Don’t accept this!” But the good side encouraged him:
فَأَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَاهَا
Fa alhamahaa fujoorahaa wa taqwaahaa.
He inspired the self of its good and its bad. (Surat ash-Shams, 91:8)
So he was in the struggle between good and bad. Finally he said, “Who brought me to this door? I didn’t want to come, but they pulled me and since they did it, I have no finger in it. So if it is good they know and if it is bad they know. Therefore, I am not going to leave this house!”
Then he left the masjid and put his head on the threshold, still in a trance, and he asked for Allah’s Forgiveness and the Prophet’s Support, saying, “If that is my Shaykh, I am not going to ask why, but I am going to bow at his threshold.” His head was in sajda and it began to snow, not like the snow in Michigan or England, but in Central Asia it is dry snow and the cold seeps into the bones, like dry ice. It is made from Allah knows what, helium or something like that. So he said to himself, “I am not leaving,” and the snow covered him. How was he going to feel the snow when he was filled with `ishq, fervent love, like in the case of Sayyidina Ibrahim (a):
يَا نَارُ كُونِي بَرْدًا وَسَلَامًا عَلَى إِبْرَاهِيمَ
Yaa naaru koonee bardawn’ wa salaaman `alaa Ibrahim.
O fire! Be cool and a means of peace for Abraham. (Surat al-Anbiyaa, 21:69)
The snow was cool, but peaceful. So he kept his head on the threshold until Fajr, when the Shaykh came out and stepped on his head and crushed him. Don’t say this is difficult! The Seal of Messengers (s) had the worst time of all. This dunya wants to make us upset, so that we will hate each other. We feel upset, like when Sayyidina Adam (a) listened to the power of evil. We must drop (what upsets us); it is enough to drop that character that is not good for anyone.
So Sayyidina Ameer Kulal (q) stepped on his head and crushed him, as awliyaullah want to check, do you want to run away or stay? Then the one who stepped on his head looked at him and said, “O! You’re still here? I threw you out!”
Shah Naqshband (q) knew that was Sayyidina Ameer Kulal’s voice and he said, “I didn’t know how I came here.”
The Shaykh said, “They sent you to me, come in.”
He took him in and cleaned him and dressed him, and removed all the thorns--I missed the part when he was in the alley walking through thorn bushes to reach the Shaykh--the Shaykh cleaned his legs and removed all those thorns. Mawlana does this for us everyday, cleaning all our wounds. You ask how, and Shari`ah people will criticize this, so you have to support it with hadith; otherwise, you leave it in the air and the mureeds accept it but scholars do not. They have many questions pulling me and my brother; people in many different countries are questioning us. The hadith (proof) is:
قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ : حَيَاتِي خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ ، تُحَدِّثُونَ وَيُحَدَّثُ لَكُمْ ، فَإِذَا أَنَا مُتُّ كَانَتْ وَفَاتِي خَيْرًا لَكُمْ ، تُعْرَضُ عَلَيَّ أَعْمَالُكُمْ ، فَإِنْ رَأَيْتُ خَيْرًا حَمِدْتُ اللَّهَ ، وَإِنْ رَأَيْتُ غَيْرَ ذَلِكَ اسْتَغْفَرْتُ اللَّهَ لَكُمْ
Hayaatee khayrun lakum tuhadithoona wa yuhdathu lakum fa idhaa anaa mittu kaanat wafaatee khayran lakum. Tu`radu `alayya `amal ummatee, fa in ra’aitu khayran hamidtullaha wa in ra’aitu ghayra dhalik astaghfartu lakum.
...I observe the `amal of my ummah. If I find good I thank Allah, and if I see other than that, bad, I ask forgiveness for them. (al-Bazzaar)
So it means Prophet (s) is watching us every day and says, “If I see it is good I pray, and if I see not good then I ask forgiveness.” It means we must look at the greatness of Prophet (s)! He observes you and me and one billion today; it means everyone is being observed at the same time and no one is overlapped! How? It is beyond description.
So the Shaykh began to clean Shah Naqshband’s wounds, like Prophet (s) looks at us and prays! The Shaykh began to look at him and take away, then said, “Yaa waladee! Come, I am ready to dress you with Ma`arifatullah,” which is Knowledge of Allah (swt) and is the Real Knowledge, as when Sayyidina Shah Naqshband (q) was asked about `Ilm az-Zahir and `Ilm al-Baatin, he said, “We know about `Ilm az-Zahir because for us everything has been opened and `Ilm al-Baatin no longer remains.” Such as Salawaat al-Faatih, which I will explain.
Then Sayyidina Ameer Kulal (q) began to dress Shah Naqshband (q) with the Six Powers of the Heart and dressed him as his khalifah, although Shah Naqshband (q) came to him only once. So why did Shah Naqshband (q) tell that story? He did not yet consider himself a mureed, which we know because he said, “Do not say ‘I am a mureed,’ instead say, ‘I am muhibb (a lover).’” The Station of Mureed is to carry heaviness and still standing up. So, alhamdulillah, many of us here and many of you are holding and carrying, and may Allah (swt) keep us carrying the tests from our shuyookh, but make it easy on us because we are not people of tests and we fail.
May Allah forgive us. Next time we will speak about Salawaat al-Faatih and the greatness of salawaat on Prophet (s) and what it means.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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