After Salat al-Isha at As-Siddiq Mosque
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`ala fee haadha 'l-masjid.
Ati`ullaha wa ati`u 'r-Rasoola wa ooli 'l-amri minkum.
Obey Allah, obey the Prophet, and obey those in authority among you. (4:59)
I was not planning to speak, but will say two words inshaa-Allah, as an advise to myself and to you. As Sayyidina Shah Naqshband (q) said, Tariqatuna s-suhbah wa l-khayru fi 'l-jam`iyyah, "Our way is companionship with the group." That means, to sit together and listen. The best of your daily worship is to be together. And that is why prayers are recommended to be done in jama`at, congregation. The best jama`ah is the one which is not coming together for dunya, to ask about dunya issues, but to come in a little bit of a spiritual gathering, to uplift themselves and accept what situation Allah has put them in, and be content with it.
Contentment is very important. In downtown San Francisco, you see a lot of homeless people living under bridges. One time I saw a homeless person had built himself a three-storey living area out of cardboard. It rained, but it didn't rain there because it was under the bridge. He was storing things inside, and he was very happy, content. Some people might have houses, money, cars, and they are still not content or happy with their lives, but this homeless person had nothing and he was happy. Happiness cannot be bought, it is a grant. When you try to close the doors of Shaytan, from attacking you, coming against you and telling you to do this or that, when you close that door, then your Lord will open the door of contentment. But if you keep your house with no doors, thieves can enter easily. If you keep your heart without doors, Shaytan can easily disturb you. There is no benefit as it makes you unhappy. Allah (swt) created you to be happy, so why are you making yourself miserable?
Some people making only $1000 a month and they are happy. They have a wife, children, they have a job and home, and they are happy. Money cannot make you happy. To be happy you must close the door of gossip in the ear. Shaytan has nothing to do but gossip. When he sees you, he comes with all kinds of gossip in the ears. We all have this problem. I am not saying I am clean, I am speaking about me and you. But this is advice coming from Mawlana Shaykh to me and you. Most important is to close the door through which the wind comes, close it and relax. Don't ever think that friends like to help you if you are better than them. They are jealous of you. Those who pet you, they take benefit from you. If they cannot benefit from you, they curse you!
وَدَخَلَ جَنَّتَهُ وَهُوَ ظَالِمٌ لِّنَفْسِهِ قَالَ مَا أَظُنُّ أَن تَبِيدَ هَذِهِ أَبَدًا
Wa dakhala jannatahu wa huwa zhaalimun li nafsihi qaala maa adhunnu an tabeeda hadhihi abada.
And he went into his garden while oppressing himself. He said, "I think not that this will ever perish." (al-Kahf, 18:35)
Here "oppressing" means arrogant, proud of himself, thinking, "I know everything." You know nothing and no one knows anything! Don't raise your head! There are millions of heads above your head. Allah (swt) said:
وَفَوْقَ كُلِّ ذِي عِلْمٍ عَلِيمٌ
wa fawqa kull dhi `ilmin `aleem.
Above every knower is a (higher) knower. (Surah Yusuf, 12:76)
That means you keep quiet, don't talk! When you talk you are expressing arrogance and pride. "I know how to speak, and I know how to make presentations." Take those presentations and throw it in your face. You have to be humble! Don't enter your kingdom by being arrogant, or Allah will give you a hard time. He entered his garden oppressing himself, how? By saying, "I own this kingdom; I own my mind and my brain." You don't own anything. In any moment Allah can send you a very small sickness and you will be in a coma; then your brain will be gone. They say that you have become a vegetable. What vegetable? Throw him in the garbage! Don't think that you are something. You are nothing, you can't even raise your eyes above your eyebrows! Allah wants to show you that your forehead and eyebrows are for Him, for sajdah! "Don't be arrogant, or I will take everything from you."
He entered his garden as an oppressor to himself, thinking, "I made it, I entered my kingdom, I made all that. It is never going to disappear. I made it very strong." However many palaces they build, along comes one tornado and they are gone. So he entered his garden and Allah sent a tornado. What happened? He said, "I don't believe in the Hour and I don't think this will ever perish." His friend said to him, "What are you trying to do? Where are you going? Allah will take it! Don't disbelieve in Allah's strength and power! Remember what you were and from where you came, from soil."
Allah (swt) created you from soil, khalaqaka min turab, from one cell that comes from dirt, from Earth. Thumma, He created Adam from clay, mud, and thumma min nutfah, after creating the first man from soil, everyone else was created from a sperm and an egg. Is it not? From where did that sperm and egg come from, your eye or your nose? You say you are a king, the master, a professor, or an engineer. No one can talk to you. You are arrogant, You are arrogant. From where you did you come? From a bottle, or a cup? You came from the lowest place in the body, that disgusts everyone, from there you go to the toilet. How can you raise your head? When you eat where do you go? From where do you eat? You eat from your mouth. Do you eat from anywhere else? But what you eat from your mouth goes down from where you came! So why are you arrogant? It is all from Allah's favor, Allah gave food to you by your mouth to show you not to raise your head in pride, as He made you come from that place. Can you raise your head anymore?
Think about it! Islam is about thinking. You say we are intelligent people, so think about it. Can you raise your head and say, "I am here." I wonder about the president of any country; when he goes to the toilet in the morning, what is he thinking? Is he a president or a king in the toilet also? He is Allah's servant! Wa fawqa kulli dhi `ilmin `aleem, "Above every knower is a (higher) knower." So there must be a top one; there cannot be two at the top. And he is the one whose name Allah raised with His own name, La ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah, `alayha nahyaa wa `alayha namoot wa `alayha nalqa 'Llah!
Whatever you are going to try to do, men or women, you are not going to be able to stretch your life and you are going to face death. Are you remembering that day? Did you prepare something for that day? People say they have a "401K" (retirement fund). What you did with your money? "I saved for my pension, my 401K." Okay, you are brilliant. How much did they take from your salary, twenty, or ten or five percent? You worked like a donkey all your life, and run like a monkey and bark like a dog all your life, and what are you paying? You are paying your bills, and they take ten percent and say, "We will give that to you when you become 75 years old." What will you do with it at that time? You work for them day and night, and your pension goes away with the economic crisis and nothing is left. You reach 75 years of age and have nothing. You worked all your life and end up with nothing. (It's better to) prepare yourself for death. Do you want to be a snake, a dragon, a monkey or a donkey? Which one do you like? None of them. Then prepare something for your akhirah!
Now some people of different beliefs, not the Muslim belief, say you become a snake, a monkey or a barking dog, or even a worm or an ant, in your second life; through "reincarnation" you become an animal. But you are human being. Why do you have to become an animal? You don't get anything. They promise you that you will become an animal or a worm later. Be happy to be a worm, that someone will come and crush you! (laughter) Allah (swt) has given you dignity and honor, to pray and worship, to have a pension for your akhirah. Are we doing work for our akhirah? So many are not. I am not talking about this group, masha-Allah they are doing, but I am speaking to everyone through this camera. That camera has one red light that shows it is alive, and if that goes out it is dead. I am speaking to that red light. We want it to be a green light, a passage from dunya to akhirah with pension. Make a pension for akhirah as this dunya is going.
Close your heart to Shaytan, and be content with what Allah is sending you. Open doors for angels. Say, "I don't know anything and I need to take advice from everyone around me." Today there is no respect for fathers, no respect for mothers, no respect for husbands, no respect for wives, no respect for sons and daughters! Everyone likes to say, "Today I am Einstein." You are what? Okay, remember that smallest ant, the smallest you were able to see. Grandshaykh `AbdAllah (q) was giving a lecture and suddenly stopped, and his followers wondered why. He is big `alim of fiqh, tasawwuf, hadith, Qur'an. He said, "Did you see that ant, that very small ant it came from the right, all the way to stairs, it picked up a little crumb of bread and took it back. Who moved that ant? Was it a reincarnation, or Buddha, or Jesus, or Moses, or the Prophet (s), or did Allah (swt) move it? How did that ant know there is bread there. Go and check, as I can't see from here."
How was that ant is able to see from far away, when you have bigger eyes? Don't you sometimes see an ant going to a plate, and they are so small that scientists don't know their stomach from their head. Who made that ant move and take that bread, then take it to its house, then eat it, and then make waste from it? Don't raise your head. Allah (swt) made the ant, can you make an ant? And He sent their provision, and the Prophet (s) is the one who is dividing the provision to that ant, yet you want to raise your head and say, "White is black and black is white (nonsense)!" So be careful. Bring yourself to normality. What is normal? It is to be like an ant, to surrender to Allah's will. Don't nag, don't keep speaking, "blah blah blah," complaining, never stopping. Leave everything to Allah's will!
If you see a misunderstanding, don't interfere. I had someone complaining to me like Yuhanna. The two of them have a problem and are trying to fix it, but one of them insists on bringing up stories from two or three years ago, incidents which they hadn't discussed. But it is gone! You are today's child. What happened before is gone. If you want to fix something, fix the future. Don't keep trying to fixing the past. Until today they are speaking of Hitler, of WWII. It killed millions and finished. Look to the future of your community and your country, that is what counts. May Allah forgive us.
So don't go from this door today closing your heart without realizing that you are smaller than an ant! Don't raise your head. Allah (swt) raised the Prophet (s) because he never raised his head; he was humble, always in sajdah. Remember, that is your pension, that is your real estate, those are your children, and remember how to make a pension for you, your children and your wife in akhirah. It is not what you are doing now for your children and your wife. Don't forget to show them and teach them about Akhirah. Behave lovingly in front of your wife, and your wife in front of them, to be a happy, content family. Try hard, no problem. Allah didn't say not to work. Don't be lazy. Allah doesn't want you to be lazy. We are getting emails from someone who is saying, "I am lazy, I want to keep lying down." The Prophet (s) urged the Sahaabah to work.
Sayyidina `Ali (r) famously said:
`Amal lidunyaka ka-annaka ta`ayshu abadan wa `amal li-akhiratik ka-annaka tamooto ghadan.
Work for your dunya as if you will live forever, and work for the Next Life as if you are dying tomorrow.