Centre for Spiritual & Cultural Advancement (CSCA)
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh. Alhamdulillahi Rabbi 'l-`Alameen, wa ’s-salaatu wa ’s-salaamu `alaa ashrafi 'l-mursaleena Sayyidina wa Nabiyyina Muhammadin wa `alaa aalihi wa sahbihi ajma`een.
Nawaytu 'l-arba`een, nawaytu 'l-`itikaaf, nawaytu 'l-khalwah, nawaytu 'l-`uzlah,
nawaytu 'r-riyaada, nawaytu 's-salook, lillahi ta'ala al-`Azheem fee hadha '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)
A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani 'r-rajeem. Bismillaahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem.
Every beginning has an end and every end has a beginning. We have come to the end of this trip and alhamdulillah we have had very nice ten days with you all. Inshaa-Allah we are going back to two other countries; please pray for us and we will pray for you. Time is passing, no soul knows in which land it is going to die and where it will be buried. You can die anywhere and the Angel of Death will come to you wherever you are.
كُلُّ نَفْسٍ ذَآئِقَةُ الْمَوْتِ وَإِنَّمَا تُوَفَّوْنَ أُجُورَكُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ فَمَن زُحْزِحَ عَنِ النَّارِ وَأُدْخِلَ الْجَنَّةَ فَقَدْ فَازَ وَما الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا إِلاَّ مَتَاعُ الْغُرُورِ
Every soul shall have a taste of death and only on the Day of Judgement shall you be paid you full recompense, your full reward. Only he who is saved far from the Fire can be admitted into the Garden of Paradise will have attained the purpose of life, for the life of this world is nothing but goods of deception. (Surat `Aali-Imran, 3:185)
We understand the literal meaning of that ayah, kullun nafsin dhaaiqatu ‘l-mawt, like we said yesterday, the taste of death will be either sour or sweet. When thinking about the soul being pulled out by Sayyidina Malak al-Mawt (a), our mind always goes to the sour taste. He comes and calls you by Allah’s Order and you immediately respond, you cannot say “no”. You go with him wherever he goes, like a magnet, one group goes to Hellfire, punishment, and one goes to Jannah, Paradise. We ask that Allah takes our soul in a Muslim place, like Mecca, Madina, Quds or Sham, these four places. There are many Ahadeeth about the virtues of Sham. On the Day of Resurrection Allah’s Throne will come over Sham. There are over one-hundred Ahadeeth on the virtues of Sham. When were young we never thought about death. When you grow up, you begin to feel it and think about it. You are going to die in a place that is not in your hands, but in Allah’s Hands. Grandshaykh (a) said that the virtues of Sham is such that when a Muslim or mu’min dies in a foreign country, angels will carry him to be buried in Sham, Mecca, Madinah or Quds Shareef. The angels will carry you to one of those holy places by Allah’s Order. We ask Allah to take our soul in these areas and if not, angels transfer us there by His Order.
Grandshaykh (q) was one of the few Awliya whose majlis was always full of scholars. Those who reached him when he was alive knew that. He used to give lectures that scholars from all around the globe would come and listen, because what he said was like a sword. He interpreted Holy Qur’an in a way that no one knows how to. My uncle, `Abdullah `Alayli (q), was one of the rare individuals to memorize Holy Qur’an at the age of seven from al-Azhar Shareef. He wrote many books and was the head of scholars in the Middle East. In 1958, he went with us to visit Grandshaykh (q). Even though we hadn’t informed him that we were coming, he was waiting for us at the door, we entered. `Ulama now have that pride in their knowledge. He shook Mawlana’s hand and sat beside him, we sat on the other side. Grandshaykh (q) gave a suhbah about certain issues that lasted for three hours, he was a fountain of knowledge. After the suhbah, my uncle kissed his hand and touched his feet, which is a nice gesture from a big `alim. He said, “Yaa Sayyidee, I came with seven questions in my mind and you answered all of them.” He later said to us, “Grandshaykh (q) answered all the questions I had in my heart. I need hundreds of books to explain this three hour lecture.” He told us one question he had. Like all prophets, Awliya were asking for the same thing. They inherit from prophets and other Awliya, and follow according to the time they are in. They all wanted to know Sirr Ismullah al-`Azham, the Secret of the Greatest Name, because with that, you can say “Kun faya kun.” Allah (swt) gave that Secret to Prophet (s) and no on else.
Sayyidina Musa (a) came and asked Allah about the Greatest Name with pride. Allah made him to not know anything and sent him to Sayyidina Khidr (a) to show him that there is another level of knowledge. Sayyidina Musa (a) came with Shari`ah, but not with interpretations that would bring happiness to the heart. “Look at the mountain, if it stays in its place, you will see Me.”
قَالَ رَبِّ أَرِنِي أَنظُرْ إِلَيْكَ قَالَ لَن تَرَانِي وَلَـكِنِ انظُرْ إِلَى الْجَبَلِ فَإِنِ اسْتَقَرَّ مَكَانَهُ فَسَوْفَ تَرَانِي فَلَمَّا تَجَلَّى رَبُّهُ لِلْجَبَلِ جَعَلَهُ دَكًّا وَخَرَّ موسَى صَعِقًا فَلَمَّا أَفَاقَ قَالَ سُبْحَانَكَ تُبْتُ إِلَيْكَ وَأَنَاْ أَوَّلُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
He said, "O my Lord! Show Yourself to me, that I may look upon You." Allah said, "By no means can you see Me (directly), but look upon the mountain; if it abides in its place, then you shall see Me." When his Lord manifested His glory on the mount, He made it as dust, and Moses fell down in a swoon. When he recovered his senses, he said, "Glory be to You! To You I return in repentance, and I am the first to believe." (Surat al-`Araaf, 7:143)
When Allah (swt) manifested His Attributes on the mountain, Musa (a) fainted as if he had been electrified, and he fell down as he came with a big load of arrogance. Prophet (s) never said to Allah, “I want to see you.” Sayyidina Musa (a) asked from a Shari`ah point of view, but it was not from adab. When he awoke, he saw Prophet (s) leading 124,000 prophets in prayer. So then my uncle spoke about how Awliya find it difficult to express the Greatest Name, but Grandshaykh (q) said it in a way that no one had ever expressed or interpreted before, and not by any Awliya and his explanation fill hundreds of books! We are here to sit together by the order of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) and Grandshaykh (q), and our way is association in a group, to give naseeha, advice. What we saw from Grandshaykh, and we were often attached to `ulama because my two uncles were well known `ulama whom my father often hosted, so while growing up we had seen many `ulama come and go, but what we saw from Grandshaykh (q) was completely different. His majlis was of Paradise. On Mondays they went to the maqaam of Sayyidina Khalid al-Baghdadi (q), who had two wings, which means two knowledges: `ilm ash-Shari`ah and `ilm at-Tariqah. He used to come from India. He took baya` from a shaykh and spread the Naqshbandi Tariqah in the Middle East. His maqaam is on Jabal al-Qasiyoon in Sham. He died 250 years ago. When he first arrived, no one came. He complained to Prophet (s) in a vision that people weren’t coming and Prophet (s) said, “Go down to the maqaam of Ibn Arabi (q) and hire people to come with you to the mountain.”
For seven years he paid them and brought them up for suhbah, hiring and feeding them, and giving suhbah, and he paid them wages as if they were laborers, so they benefited from dunya and Akhirah. So h’ad az-zuloom... he never asked why he had to do that hard task.
يا أيها الناس، أفشوا السلام، وأطعموا الطعام، وصلوا بالليل والناس نيام، تدخلوا الجنة بسلام
Spread (or say) the salaam, give food, and pray at night while people are asleep, then you will enter Paradise peacefully. (Tirmidhi)
Give them food and they all will come. So we were raised among such Awliya and we saw many miracles, but some Awliya come with interpretations that you can never imagine. Anyway, we ask Allah to take our soul to a place where there are Awliyaullah.
In one of his lectures, Grandshaykh said, “It is Sunnah for everyone to know where they will be buried.” So in our lifetime, we must decide where we will be buried. If you die away from the place you wish to be buried, angels will take you there. Remembering death is important, and Prophet (s) used to lay on his right side remembering death for a moment at Fajr time. So all these `ulama went (passed away) and are replaced with new ones who are now hiding themselves because of too much zhulma; they cannot appear because the people will attack them as certainly, if people attacked Prophet (s) and all prophets, they will attack anyone!
The summary today is to have a burial place. Dhul Kifl (a), who is mentioned in the Holy Qur’an, is buried in Qasiyoon in that small graveyard where fifty or sixty are buried. Grandshaykh advised us to buy our graves there when we were young and crazy, so immediately we tried to get a grave in that antique cemetery from Ottoman times. We asked the one responsible and he got us three places: one for Adnan, someone else, and me. You can see the signs there, someone is buried there and next to it is my brother’s. [A mureed ask about Hadith.] Yes, when you read a du`a you can sent it to your grave and angels will carry us to that grave when we die. It is Sunnah to remember death, because:
كُلُّ نَفْسٍ ذَائِقَةُ الْمَوْتِ
Every soul shall taste death. (Surat Aali ʿImraan, 3:185)
Everyone will taste death, and people think immediately that death is `adhaab, but it is waking up. Imam Ghazali (r) said, “When you die, it is an awakening because you see,” but now our eyes are closed. We hope that Allah keeps us together in dunya and Akhirah based on the love of Prophet (s) and love of Awliyaullah. When I look at my life, I see so many mistakes but with good intentions. We all make mistakes, kulluna khitabun, that is why Allah (swt) ordered us to make istighfaar.
Prophet (s) to Sayyida `Ayesha:
من حوسب عذب
(Yaa `Ayesha!) Who will be judged will be punished for sure. (Bukhari)
Whoever wishes to be judged will be punished. So this group and others like it include young people, who come to learn more Shari`ah and spirituality. Elsewhere, young people like going to clubs to dance or they go to sports events, but people here and in other places are sitting and learning, and Allah (swt) will give them a sweet taste (at death). We are counting our days, we don't know when that day to give our souls back will come, and we ask Allah to take our souls on Islam. That is why I am thinking to move back to the Middle East or here. Inshaa-Allah wherever it is written, you cannot change it. Laa nafsin tardee ghayri yamoot, you don’t know. Someone from within you is talking to you and reminding you of death every 24 hours.
Sayyidina `Umar (r) hired a Sahaabi (r) to sit at his door like a bodyguard, but his only job was to remind Sayyidina `Umar of death every Fajr, “Yaa `Umar, laa tans al-mawt.” One day Sayyidina `Umar called him and said, “I don't need you anymore, because I have one white hair in my beard that will continuously remind me of death.” So you don’t know where or when you will leave, or if you will leave good children behind. We ask Allah to give us the sweetness of death, not the sourness. For Muslims, Sayyidina Maalik al-Mawt (a) has “Allah” written on his hand and the soul jumps directly on that. May Allah make us like that. We ask for forgiveness from Allah (swt), from Prophet (s) and from Awliyaullah.
There is not too much to smile or laugh about in dunya. Sahaabah (r) were busy with work, dhikr, remembrance of Allah (swt), salawaat, and remembrance of Awliyaullah.
Salaat al-Faatih
اللهم صل على سيدنا محمد الفاتح لما أغلق و الخاتم لما سبق ناصر الحق بالحق و الهادي إلى صراطك المستقيم وعلى آله حق قدره و مقداره العظيم
O Allah! Bless our Master Muhammad (s), who opened what was closed and who is the Seal of what went before, he who makes the Truth victorious by the Truth, the guide to Your Straight Path, and bless his household as is the due of his immense position and grandeur.
[Du`a.] Our thanks to all of you who helped us at this centre.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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