Suhbah before `Asr
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.
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)
Alhamdulillah. First of all, kullu `eidin wa antum bi khayr, kullu `am is after a year, but the `Eids come quickly: there is `Eid ul-Adha, `Eid al-Fitr, `Eid saba` ashreen Rajab, `Eid Mawlid an-Nabawi ash-Shareef, Dhikr `Ashoora, Eid Nisf Sha`baan, Laylat ‘l-Bara`ah, `Eid Sana Hijriyyah--too many `Eid’s are inside so it’s better to say, “kullu `eidin wa antum bi khayr,” or “kullu `amin bi khayr,” as it covers everything.
There are too many discussions about the adab a mureed has to show his shaykh. As Shah Naqshband (q) said, at-tariqah kulluhaa aadaabun, “All tariqats are based on adab, discipline.” Shuyookh are not coming to teach us fiqh, tafseer or different Islamic aqaaid/principles as they consider that we have already been taught that or we have learned it. The shuyookh consider their mureeds/students have already studied what is necessary in Islamic jurisprudence, and it’s not only when you go to the Shaykh. There are two types of Shaykhs: one you go to learn Shari`ah from, and one you go to him not waste his time to learn Shari`ah, because already Shari`ah is available through any teacher. Anywhere you go around the world, you will find teachers of Shari`ah as they have schools and universities, but not everywhere you go will you find teachers of spirituality, awliyaullah. They are rare to find and even more rare to have them accept you!
But for shaykhs of Shari`ah there are huge universities all around world in every country. So you can learn from them as long as you like to know about principles of Islam and what Islam came with, and they teach you in detail, even teach you principles of tajweed in reciting Holy Qur’an: where to stop or not stop, where to put a period, a comma, a semi-colon or colon, is it not? But a wali is not going to waste his time and your time to teach you tashkeel or grammar, because he understands that just as he was with his shaykh: he studied Shari`ah somewhere elese and then came to his shaykh to take his guidance on spiritual issues which we call `Ilm al-Haqaa’iq, Knowledge of Realities. Not every shaykh can give that.
Now everything is soup, mixing everything together, in which you are unable to complete Shari`ah or Haqiqa, the Knowledge of Realities or Knowledge of Jurisprudence, without going all the way on Shari`ah or Haqiqa. Why do we go after awliyaullah? Is it to learn how to pray? You know how to pray. To learn how to fast? You know how to fast. You can ask any `alim, he will tell you. If you go to Hajj and want to know what to do, there are many who can teach that, is it not? You can go to Hajj and you can pray, fast and do whatever you want to do, and many will teach you, but no one will teach you how to behave or how to handle your discussion and deal kindly with people or how to speak with them. This is what you call “protocol,” the Islamic etiquette.
What is Islamic etiquette? In western education they teach us etiquette. What is that? It is how to behave. If people do not understand what is Maqaam al-Ihsaan, “the Station of Moral Excellence,” and you want to tell them how to behave, you can say it is Islamic etiquette. The Prophet (s) taught his Sahaabah (r ) how to behave, speak and respect each other and how to be guided to Allah (swt) and His Prophet (s).
For example, you might be fasting and be in a car on the highway and you drive fifty miles ahead and if you did your prayers on the road, it might move you two-hundred miles more and you still keep moving. But you have to know that you might have a flat tire and may not be able to move anymore. And what is that flat tire? It is when Shaytan comes and pulls you out from driving normally on the highway. So on Siraatu 'l-Mustaqeem, you might advance by your prayers and fasting, but in between Shaytan pulls you and you might find yourself back to zero, because you are not behaving well. You might be in the a car driving with five people to another city and you begin to fight. What will happen? You will find that everyone wants to separate; they don’t want to drive together anymore. So the Prophet (s) taught the Sahaabah (r ) moral excellence, and this is very important for everyone. He taught them adab, and if you have adab you will succeed; if you don’t have adab, you are losing your fasts, prayers, Hajj, zakaat and your Shahaadah; you are losing everything to your temper!
So what do you go to a shaykh for? To learn how to behave with others. Hajjah Naziha is saying from the other side that you go to shaykh to fight. (laughter) The shaykh doesn't fight with you, but he makes you fight your ego; he helps puts it down. So awliyaullah are those who teach us discipline. Prophet (s) said in an authentic hadith to the Sahaabah, “If you do ninety percent of what I ordered you and you drop ten percent of that, it is not accepted. But there will come a time that people will do only ten percent and they will drop ninety percent and it will be accepted from them.”
Today if Muslims do ten percent of what Allah and His Prophet (s) ordered, they will be saved, so you see the rahmah now! There is too much ignorance around, because no one is learning (other than the Five Pillars). We know that Islam has Five Pillars and the Station of Imaan is based on the Six Pillars, so Islam is different from Imaan. Why did the Prophet (s) make different categories? Everyone is saying, “I am a Muslim,” as to say he is covering all of the levels of faith: Islam, Imaan and Ihsaan. No, they are not! In our mind we think we are Muslim; we do our five prayers, we give zakaat, we fast, and we have done Hajj, but in reality that is the first (most basic) level that anyone can learn. But the highest level is to have real `aqeedah. Muslims are fighting today because `aqeedatu ‘l-Muslimeen is corrupted. Prophet (s) does not want it corrupted; he gave it a special level other than the Five Pillars he gave the six other pillars, al-Imaan. Allah (swt) said in Holy Qur’an:
قَالَتِ الْأَعْرَابُ آمَنَّا قُل لَّمْ تُؤْمِنُوا وَلَكِن قُولُوا أَسْلَمْنَا وَلَمَّا يَدْخُلِ الْإِيمَانُ فِي قُلُوبِكُمْ
Qalati 'l-`arabu aamannaa Qul lam tu'uminoo wa laakin qooloo aslamnaa wa lammaa yadkhuli 'l-eemaanu fee quloobikum.
The desert Arabs say, "We believe." Say, "You have no faith; but you (only) say, 'We have submitted our wills to Allah,' for not yet has faith entered your hearts." Don't say, "We are mu`min," but say, "We are Muslim," because imaan did not yet enter the heart. (Surat al-Hujuraat, 49:14)
At that time you will be raised from the level of Islam to the level of Imaan. There is Muslim and there is mu’min and the Muslim is the one that wants to enter Paradise inshaa-Allah yaa Rabb with doing his Five Pillars but when you correct your `aqeedah, and this is very dangerous if you don’t complete it well, it will be a disaster on us, but our `aqeedah is corrupted and that is why Ahlu ’s-Sunnah wa ’l-Jama`ah are worried. And so there came `aqeedatu ‘l-Asha`ariyya and Maatureediyyah. The Asha`ariyya came with Imam Shafi`i and Imam Hanbali and Matureediyyah came with Imam Abu Hanifah an-N`uman. And there are other `aqaaid also, but it is a very dangerous subject to talk about.
Like for example, if we take Shari`ah as a scale and you stand for prayer, (you may wonder), “How much do I have in the bank?” Or you may think, “Ah, this imaam is not correct,” or “How much do I have to entertain myself tonight and where do I have to hide myself so that my wife does not see what I am doing,” or this and that. And in the real scale this thinking is accepted because you cannot stop your mind from receiving such gossips from Shaytan as he can go there. But in the other levels, in Imaan and Ihsaan, you are not allowed to do that; slowly you have to try and avoid as much as you can, by the guidance of the Shaykh, and that is the role of the Shaykh. In the first level (Islam) it is okay and if it comes to your mind you are not questioned about it and it won’t be written as a sayyiaat. But do you know in Mecca and Madinah, if you have a gossip in your mind it will be written against you because of the holiness of the place? So for a normal scale around the world it is not written, but in Meccatu 'l-Mukarrama or Madinatu 'l-Munawwara it is an upgraded scale, like a fine jewelry digital scale that can measure any bad thought that comes to your mind; that scale can detect it, just like for Sayyidina `Abd al-Qaadir al-Jilaani (q), may Allah (swt) give him endless blessings.
One time he was walking near River Furaat (Euphrates) in Baghdad and he went up on a hill and the river was below. Sayyidina `Abd al-Qaadir (q) was walking with his khalifah, telling him about atee`oollaha wa atee`oo 'r-Rasoola wa ooli 'l-amri minkum, “Obey Allah, obey the Prophet, and obey those in authority among you,” (4:59) and how to obey, not to question. In tariqah there are no questions or complaints; you are coming to submit, and if you don’t want to submit then you can go to someone else to teach you adab.
Once I went to Grandshaykh (q) when Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) was in Beirut; he had some problem and was not able to go to Damascus to come with us. We took permission and went. I am trying to remember the ayah about which I asked Grandshaykh (q):
وَلِكُلٍّ وِجْهَةٌ هُوَ مُوَلِّيهَا فَاسْتَبِقُواْ الْخَيْرَاتِ
Wa li-kullin wijhatun huwa muwalleehaa fastabiqoo 'l-khayraat.
And each one hath a goal toward which he turns, so strive as in a race in all virtues.
(Surat al-Baqara, 2:148)
It means competition in Islam is accepted, jealousy in religion and to compete is accepted, like if I want to have a good beard like his, I will be determined to make it happen and that is accepted. For everyone there is a direction to follow, so compete in your direction. So I didn’t ask, but Mawlana Shaykh Nazim was discussing something with me and said, “Ask Grandshaykh the meaning of this ayah.” I was young, perhaps 22 or 23 years old and, like everyone here, was asking, “When I am going to get my Trust? I am doing everything you say, and I didn’t get my Trust yet.” You want to know when to take your trust? There might be 101 stabs like Sayyidina Khalid bin Waleed (r) had, but he was not affected by them and he died a normal death in his bed! So until you are spiritually stabbed like that, only then you can think about your amanaat, until you dissolve like salt in water.
So Mawlana Shaykh Nazaim (q) said, “Ask Grandshaykh.” That was test for me, a trick. So we went to Damascus and Grandshaykh asked about Mawlana Shaykh Nazim and we said he is okay and then I asked him, “Sayyidee, can I ask a question?” He looked at me and said, “Here there are no questions, and if there is then go out. Here you listen, isma`oo wa aa’oo!”
وَقَالُواْ سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا غُفْرَانَكَ رَبَّنَا وَإِلَيْكَ الْمَصِيرُ
Wa qaalloo sam`inaa wa at`anaa ghufraanaka rabbana wa `ilayka 'l-maseer.
And they say, 'We hear, and we obey. (We seek) Your Forgiveness, our Lord, and to You is the end of all journeys. (Surat al-Baqara, 2:285)
There are no questions here! But in any case, he said, “Because I love you, what is your question?” I said, “Yaa Sayyidee! What is the meaning of this ayah, Wa likullin wijhatun huwa muwalleehaa fastabiqoo'l-khayraat?” This was the ayah Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) told me to ask about. Grandshaykh looked at me and said, “Yaa waladee! There is a mufti in Damascus and then there is a grand-mufti for the whole of Syria, so go to them and ask the meaning of that ayah. Here there are no questions like that! If you need to learn something about Shari`ah or tafseer, go ask them. Here you listen, you don’t ask.”
Understand? So adab with shuyookh is to listen and obey. So what were we saying before? Sayyidina `Abd al-Qaadir (q) was going with his khalifah, not a normal follower, but one who had reached the level of khalafah. Sayyidina `Abd al-Qaadir Jilaani (q) and other awliyaullah had many khalifahs; as many as they need they put. So he was walking along the river and the khalifah was beside him and suddenly Shaykh `Abd al-Qaadir Jilaani (q) pushed him into the river and he didn’t know how to swim and was going to drown. As he was falling into the river it came to his mind, "I am not denying the wisdom that he threw me in and I am not complaining, but I am asking my Shaykh, what is the wisdom behind this?” This was the inspiration in his heart: what was the hikmah? And this was supposed to be heard within him and it came unconsciously, but his conscious accepted the Shaykh’s action, and he thought, “Maybe I have done some bad `amal?”
As soon as he accepted the Shaykh had thrown him because of his bad `amal, he found the hand of Sayyidina `Abd al-Qaadir Jilaani (q) under his feet raising him back up to the surface of the river.
Sayyidina `Abd al-Qaadir Jilaani (q) said, “Yaa waladee, I did not push you because of what you thought, that you had bad `amal, but I pushed because I read on the Preserved Tablet that at this moment you had to be under a test to be thrown under water, to have a taste of death and struggle to know that a day is coming like that, but the hand of the Shaykh will save you.”
Look how awliyaullah have power over their followers, how they guide them!
Muhiyideen Ibn `Arabi (q) said, “If it had not been for my hand in the water under the boat, Sayyidina Nuh’s boat would have sunk and everyone on board would have drowned.” Between Sayyidina Nuh and Sayyidina Ibn `Arabi there is five or six-thousand years difference and one is a Prophet and the other a wali.
They asked him, “What does that mean?” (Mawlana pours water.) This is water. As an example for us, (Mawlana dips his finger in the water), this is a drop now and is part of that water, but if it goes inside (returns to the whole), can you find it? No, it is gone, because it is part of the whole. So if you send the part back to its origin, it becomes the whole: there is no part left and it becomes one from top to bottom.
(Muhiyideen Ibn `Arabi (q) said) “I am Sayyid from Prophet (s), my hand is part of his blood, I am a part of him.” So it means, “This hand is his hand as I am part of the whole and that is why the boat was saved.”
Awliyaullah are not like us. In Computer Science, one plus one is two, but for this one (a mureed who has a PhD in Logic and Philosophy) it is not equal to two, it is two one’s. With his logic, ‘two’ is different. In reality one plus one is two ones, it is logic. So if you want to bring a professor to speak about logic compared to your thinking, you will find you know nothing. That is why people like to learn Philosophy and Logic. I also took that course in university and it was the best course I ever took; I studied Science, Chemistry and Physics, but Logic opens your mind. I suggest people study Logic to understand everything more, not like me and him (pointing to a mureed); how stupid we are, we don’t know anything. So even if you are a doctor or scientist (thinking your knowledge is high), when you study Logic you find yourself so low. Computer Science and software programming is based on Logic, but in a different way.
So Sayyidina `Abd al-Qaadir Jilaani (q) threw him out as he wanted to teach him adab with the Shaykh. It means that if the Shaykh throws you, you are not supposed to get any kind of gossips or inspirations. It is for complete taslimiyyah, submission. He meant to teach his khalifah that he did not have any taslimiyyah yet, but he saved him. Awliyaullah like their followers to surrender.
To protect yourself from the gossips that come to you in the presence of awliyaullah or to accept their orders is a must for every person who is saying, “I am following a tariqah.” So it is not as they say, that tariqah “takes you out of Islam” or makes you deviant, but rather, it takes you to the highest level of adab in Islam. Today many are not respecting the Prophet (s) by denying his ahadeeth. Like there are those today who follow al-Albaani and they don't even accept Imam Bukhari, and al-Baani is canceling many of the ahadeeth related by Imam Bukhari! How many ahadeeth did the Ahlu ‘l-Hadith take away? The Deobandis, some of them are this way (left side) and some on that way (right side), but adab is to accept. I heard from Grandshaykh many times that there should be adab to accept. As long as you hear someone says that the Prophet (s) said it, then you should say, “Amannaa wa sadaqnaa,” with no questions and no doubts! If that person made a false hadith, he will take the responsibility and we won't! We believe if anyone says that the Prophet (s) said something, then it is finished for us (we accept), amannaa wa sadaqnaa! We are Ahlu ’s-Sunnah wa ’l-Jama`ah; we don’t accept only five-thousand or ten-thousand ahadeeth (we accept all)!
Imam Ahmad bin Muhammad Hanbal memorized 300,000 ahadeeth. Some of them are not as strong, depends on their levels, but we accept all of them. There are some imaams who memorized 500,000 ahadeeth. They even accept the ahadeeth that are weak (they say “weak,” but it’s not weak for us). For this they developed a good principal, fadaa’il al-`amaal. According to that, you can use a weak hadeeth and take some benefit from acting upon it, even if it is weak, but for example, it encourages you fast or pray more, go for Hajj more, etc., so it’s okay.
Awliyaullah don’t need to ask you, “O (specific imaam or scholar)! Is that hadeeth true or not?” becasue they ask the Prophet (s) directly! Awliyaullah are always with the Prophet (s) because they have connections and therefore they don't need to have footnotes! Today people need footnotes in books or lectures, etc., but they don’t. Footnotes are only for those who quote, “This one said this, this one said that, qaala wa qeel.” Awliyaullah don’t need that. What is the evidence? And it is from Imam al-Bukhari, that any hadeeth he would get, he used to make istikhara at night and would see the Prophet (s) in his dream, telling him if that hadeeth was correct or not and which chapter he has to put it in. And this is known by all Islamic scholars, that Imam Bukhari never posted even one hadeeth if he did not authenticate it directly fromProphet (s) in visions or dreams.
So if Imam Bukhari was like that, then what do you think about awliyaullah? Grandshaykh (q), may Allah bless his soul, once spoke about the tafseer of Surat al-`Asr, and I wanted to come to something also important for us, but it’s taking long. What is “`Asr”? In tafseer of Surat al-`Asr, it is mentioned that Prophet (s) said:
اذا صلحت امتي فلها معيشة يوم و إن فسدت فلها معيشة نصف يوم {وان يوما عند ربك كالف سنة مما تعدون}
Idha saluhat ummatee falahaa ma`eeshatu yawm, wa in fasadat falahaa ma`eeshatu nisfa yawn, wa inna yawman `inda rabbika ka alfa sanattin mimma ta`udoon.
If my ummah was pious and sincere, they will have a life of one day, and if it corrupted, insincere nor pious, then it will have the life of half a day. And a day with Allah, in heavenly days, is one thousand years.
So it means the life of his ummah will be 1500 years. So in tafseer Surat al-`Asr, in Ruh al-Ma`ni, it mentions that hadith which is considered a weak hadith by many scholars, but he mentioned it and said that it has been authenticated by Muhiyideen ibn `Arabi (q) in his book, where he personally asked the Prophet (s) about this hadeeth in his dream. The Prophet (s) confirmed that it was correct and to continue with it. Is Sayyidina Imam Bukhari (r) higher than Sayyidina Muhiyideen ibn `Arabi (q) (for authentication)? They both have access to the Prophet (s) through dreams and any Muslim has that access.
I got the Holy Hair of Prophet (s) from Kenya and you saw it yesterday. And when I got it, I was looking to see where the hair was. I could not see because I thought this was velvet, the hairlock was very black and like velvet and they said it is a bunch of hair and they gave it to me and I brought it here with me. After having it three or four nights in the room, and I am sharing this because it is necessary because it shows everyone has a door if Prophet (s) allows it! Have people not seen Prophet (s) in their dreams? Many people around the world have seen him in dreams and if you see Prophet (s) in a dream it is Reality.
من رآني فقد رأى الحق
man ra’aanee faqad ra’a al-haqq
Whoever has seen me has seen the truth (Muslim 2267)
مَن رآني في المنام فسيراني في اليقظة
man ra’aanee fi’l-manaami fa sayaraanee fi’l-yaqazhah
Whoever saw me in the dream, he is going to see me while awake. (Bukhari).
So that night I was sleeping, but Hajjah Naziha heard me saying salawaat on Prophet (s) in my sleep, because I was thinking about that hair. So then I felt that I stood up from the dream and was continuing the salawaat and then I slept again, and I saw Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, may Allah give him long life. He appeared in his younger age with black and white hair in his beard, reading and putting his feet on my chest, and he said very quickly, “Look there quickly!” and I looked and he said, “Prophet, Prophet (s)!” I saw Prophet’s shape, not the features, and you cannot lie here, but I saw a shape of Light. And I saw myself standing out of the bed, saying, “As-salaatu wa ’s-salaamu `alayka, yaa Rasoolullah (s).” Hajjah was patting me, asking, “What is happening?” and I was already standing. That is a sign that this hair is real. This is the barakah of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) for sure and to see that dream. So for the awliyaullah everyone has a connection with Prophet (s):
وإعلموا أن فيكم رسول الله
W`alamoo anna feekum rasoolullaah.
And know Allah's Messenger is in you. (Surat al-Hujuraat, 49:7)
As I said yesterday, if you want to say, “In you,” “among you,” or however you explain it, Prophet’s (s) presence is there. So that hadith for awliyaullah is why Imam Hanbal could memorize 300,000 ahadeeth and if he had any doubt he would ask. Awliyaullah ask and Imam Bukhari was asking and Prophet (s) instructed him as to which chapter (topic) to put it in.
So we have to keep sidiq with our shuyookh as we said before and always listen to what they order us to do, because Shah Naqshband (q) said:
Tareeqatuna as-suhbah wa’l-khayr fi ‘l-jam`iyyah.
Our way is companionship and goodness is with the group.
Our way is companionship, not to be far away from each other, because then we learn from each other. They say, “Do you know this person; did you accompany him?” And you say, “No I did not accompany him, but I only know of him,” which means you don’t really know him. You need their company; the Sahaabah were Companions to Prophet (s), so we need to be companions to the shuyookh in order to learn from them. When you accompany them you have to follow three principles. And I will not explain them fully, but will give a short meaning. Here it is mentioned in three and a half lines, but I will say only one.
First, don’t show any selfishness, don’t say, “I did this or that,” and I will not explain as it takes time.
Secondly, and this point I will stress, if something comes from Shaykh, because no one is infallible except Prophets, although shuyookh are protected, as Grandshaykh said, al-anbiyaa m`asoomoon wa ‘l-awliya mahfuzhoon, “Prophets are infallible and awliya are protected.” So if something comes out that needs to be fixed and it requires someone to defend them, do not lose hope and keep defending them. Even if millions come against you and attack you, and you see there is something you need to defend, then defend them, don’t keep quiet! Today if we defend, how many times they come against us? If we defend some actions that happen, they come against you, but he said, “Don’t be ma’yoos, lose hope or despair, keep defending.” Your duty is to defend the Shaykh, and if people curse you, backbite you, or stab you in the back, that is not a problem because they are taking your sins! You are doing good for the Shaykh because you are defending him.
Habib `Ali Jafri defended Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) on Egyptian TV because he asked Mawlana Shaykh for ijaazah and this was also on the Internet and people explained it as baya`, but people don’t know what is that, especially those who were filming that (wrongly) called it baya`. So ijaazah means to give some tabarook, some wird, some dhikr for barakah, like to recite, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah” or salawaat one-hundred times, that is what the mashaayikh (prescribe), especially the Yemeni mashaayikh. And they asked him about hadrah, and Habib `Ali Jafri defended Mawlana Shaykh in a nice way, we have it on the Internet and you can see it.
You have to defend the Shaykh, whatever happens. Thirdly, if they ask you or order you to do something, go ahead immediately and just do it, don't ask. I summarized this one-and-a-half page in order to understand, but I will end with this very important point. One of the saifullah was telling his student that he was ordered to keep kindness with mureedeen and everyone, and he was doing that, but the Grandshaykh was forbidding him to show kindness to them, although he had learned he must show kindness. However, because he was in a position of khilafah, the Grandshaykh said not to do that, as when you become familiar and too close to the Shaykh there is danger and it takes away respect for the Shaykh from your heart and you bring down his reverence. That is why Grandshaykh (q) said, “Don't approach too close to the king or the Shaykh. Don’t look at how he deals with his family because then you will lose respect,” and if you lose respect then you lose everything.
So we are many today and we always complain about them and we see them in Lefke, Cyprus taking over and trying to show they are so close to the Shaykh. There is no respect left and they argue with Shaykh, “Why are you doing this? Why are you doing that? You cannot do this. You cannot do that.” It’s none of their business, they should only listen and obey! If he says, “I don’t want this,” then don’t come back and eat his ear! Awliyaullah are on a different plain, in a different world.
So he said, “Too much kindness between the shaykh and his students removes reverence from their heart and they will be forbidden from his support and his barakah.” May Allah (swt) protect us and keep us under His Guidance.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
This book is Talkhees al-Ma`arif by Muhammad `Aarif. He was from the Naqshbandi Order and the Shadhili Order. I like this book because it has been compiled and summarized from almost one-hundred books and it is very easy as it provides references to further information. You can order it. The author died 100 years ago, but its first edition was done many years before.
http://sufilive.com/No_Questions_in_Tariqah-4678.html
© Copyright 2012 Sufilive. All rights reserved. This transcript is protected
by international copyright law. Please attribute Sufilive when sharing it. JazakAllahu khayr.