Suhbah Before Salaat azh-Zhuhr (1)
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
Ati`oollaha wa ati`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)
Grandshaykh `AbdAllah, may Allah bless his soul, and Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, may Allah give him long life, used to say, "Don't think I am the one speaking to you, but look to The One Who is making me speak, the Source of light and knowledge for you.” All of us are born on imaan, as the Prophet (s) said:
يولد الانسان على الفطرة وانما ابواه يهودانه او ينصرانه او يمجسانه
Yoolidu al-insaanu `ala ‘l-fitra fa imma abbawaahu yuhawwidaanihi aw yunasaraanihi aw yumajjisaanih.
Human beings are born on fitra, innocence; either his parents make him Jewish or Christian or Zoroastrian.
This means they are born on pure faith. In the womb of the mother, for nine months or whatever period you spend there, you are one hundred-percent pure and honored as human beings, but veils begin to veil you from the spiritual life you lived in the womb, until slowly they close you off and you no longer see what you saw there.
The womb of the mother is the most real seclusion for everyone, and The Divine ordered all humans to have at least one seclusion, and also in the spiritual life one also has to complete other seclusions. The seclusion in the womb is so pure that as soon as you come out, negative energy around us and mistakes of the mother and father begin to veil the child from seeing those realities, and it becomes so thick that they cannot see anything. Sometimes it is a thin veil through which we can still see, but not as clearly as in the womb, where the real seclusion is done.
Some become awliyaullah and their veils are lifted during their lifetime, as Allah (swt) grants hedieh, a gift you don't deserve except by making progress in your spritual life. For others the veils are lifted before they are born, which is hibbah, a gift from Allah (swt), not a grant. Allah grants Prophets their prophecies, like all the brothers of Sayyidina Yusuf (a) were Prophets although they him in the well. Some awliyaullah are inheritors of Prophets; they are not Prophets and not ma`soom like Prophets, but are granted from birth not to be veiled. There are also awliyaullah that are not granted except through their progress in their life to do their best for the ummah and themselves, a result from their excessive worship and passing through excessive difficulties and obstacles, finally to be granted unveiling and to reach the Reality of Sainthood.
This doesn't mean awliyaullah that have been granted unveiling from birth do not have to worship; they have to do even more worship, but they see what others cannot. Grandshaykh `AbdAllah, may Allah bless his soul, was one of them. He used to say, “When I came from my mothers' womb, I never experienced the slow veiling (he remained unveiled).” When the parents feed their child, often there is negative energy in that food from people around them or even from the nanny, and that veils the child. We know Prophet (s) said, “Everyone is born on innocence,” which means they are born on sainthood.
Today no one is spared from big problems because he or she may be carrying unclean energy from their lifestyles, from the outside, and they bring it back home, which affects the relationship between parents, which in turn affects the children. So everyone in the home is affected and their spiritual levels drop down, and from this there will be fire in the house between everyone! So we have to be very careful not to carry these bad energies from outside and dump them on others as that is not fair. You chose tariqah as your way, so keep yourself as much as you can saying istighfaar during your day and night, and show a smile, as the Prophet (s) said:
تبسمك في وجه أخيك صدقه
Tabasamak fee wajhih akheek sadaqah.
Even a smile in the face of your brother is from imaan. (Bukhari)
To smile in the face of your brother is from imaan. What do you think about a husband and wife who smile at each other? Today you only see them looking away from each other, fighting and accusing, “You did this, you did that!” Then they come to us and say, “We have problems.” They have problems because their veils are thicker! Today one person said, “I want to be more spiritual and involve myself in spirituality.” Spirituality doesn't come from a window or door, as some people are teaching on the Internet. You cannot buy spirituality. Fix yourself first! If you have problems in your house and are teaching people, whoever follows you will receive negative energy instead of positive energy.
Today many call themselves representatives of Shaykhs, and they mix teachings and practices from Hinduism, Zenism, Shaytanism or jinnism, put this all together and spice it up with sprinkles of real spirituality, saying, “This is it.” People look at that made-up package and say, “O! A nice, beautiful cake.” As soon they go inside it (acept it), Shaytan dresses them, because there is no other true spirituality except that of Islam: the spirituality of the Prophet (s), of Holy Qur’an and Hadith! Spirituality has to go hand-in-hand with the Six Pillars of Imaan, and with the main pillar of Ihsaan, Moral Excellence! This is what we believe, and whoever believes differently, that is not our responsibility.
There is nothing wrong with lighting a candle to do your awrad in that light; I saw Mawlana Shaykh Nazim and Hajjah Anne do it many times, also using a kerosene lamp, and you can ask Hajjah Naziha about it. In 1980, when Mawlana Shaykh moved back to Cyprus, he used to light a small candle and perform the night prayers, until he went to the masjid to pray Fajr. Awliyaullah have said don’t be in a completely dark room, keep some light there as jinn run away from light. So he used to light a small candle with a nice smell and pray until daylight came and then put it off, or when he prays in the masjid or in jama`ah he would put it off. Many times I used to stay in his room in Cyprus, which Ruqiyah has now, and when she used to stay in the same room with him, she lit a candle and put it off when it was time to go to the mosque. Back then, candles did not melt quickly.
اللَّهُ نُورُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ مَثَلُ نُورِهِ كَمِشْكَاةٍ فِيهَا مِصْبَاحٌ
Allaahu nooru 's-samaawaati wa 'l-ardi mathala noorihi kamishkaatin feehaa misbaah.
Allah is the Light of the heavens and earth. The parable of His Light is as if there were a niche and within it a lamp. (Surat an-Noor, 24:35)
Light gives you light; don’t be without it. In old times they used to put oil lamps in the streets, is it not? It is sunnah of the Prophet (s) to see where you are walking as there may have been scorpions or snakes to avoid. To have a light is sunnah.
Grandshaykh, may Allah bless his soul, said, “One time the Prophet (s) was eating and the wind came and blew out the light, and Prophet (s) said, ‘Laa hawla wa laa quwatta illa billahi 'l-`Aliyyu 'l-`Azheem,’ showing his displeasure that the light was off, and he ordered the Sahaabah (r) to relight it.” So it is okay to light candles. Spirituality has to comply with teachings of Islam and the practices of Maqaam al-Imaan and Maqaam al-Ihsaan. You can take from Holy Qur'an, hadith of the actions of the Sahaabah (r), and then from the teachings of awliyaullah. Whoever takes from their teachings and summarizes them is doing his best, because he is saying, “This is not my teaching, it is my Shaykh's teaching,” and that is connected to his Grandshaykh and his Great-Grandshaykh, going back to the Prophet (s)!
You cannot say, “I have a website that teaches spirituality,” and you don’t have one verse of Holy Qur'an on it! When you take from what awliyaullah say, they are responsible. When I was young I used to speak without opening anything and it was not correct although it was Mawlana's teaching, but because it makes one proud, to think, “I am qualified.” Open a notebook, a salawat book, the Holy Qur'an or hadith, and read from what I or Mawlana said, or what the Prophet (s) said, then from one line they will open one lecture! Don’t be proud that you can speak from what you memorized as that is arrogance, but when you say, “It is from my Shaykh's teaching,” and you have notes in front of you, when you address people in this way you will be trying to open more doors. Then you speaking will be like video games that open to one level after the other. When a notebook is in front of you, Allah (swt) inspires you and takes away veils one by one, when you show humility that, “This is not my teaching or from me, it is the teaching of my Shaykh.” Don’t put foreign sprinkles from outside of Islam; don’t bother with that, but be bothered with what you have! Make salawat, not something that will contaminate people with foreign ideas outside the realm of Islam and imaan. Now too many people are falling into that danger. To avoid that, Grandshaykh (q) said, “Never speak without looking at my notes.” Even one look is enough to let people know that you are not speaking from yourself, but the one really speaking is behind you and you are only delivering his message.
Just now I got the inspiration from Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) that Sayyidina Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (q) is saying, “Talk about my story,” which we mentioned many times before. Sayyidina Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (q), who is Ghawth al-`Azham, said, “If you see someone flying in the air and breaking Shari`ah, say, ‘that person is a Shaytan,’ even if he is a big wali, as he has no right to do that.” A real wali will do things in an indirect way with humility, and will show that someone else did it. The Qadiri, Naqshbandi and Chisti tariqahs have real awliyaullah that follow this important principle.
Grandshaykh (q) mentioned that when they were taking Muhyideen ibn `Arabi (q) to be hanged, he passed by a Naqshbandi shaykh and asked him, “Pray for me.” That shaykh prayed for him, but they still took him to prison. A month later when they were going to hang him, he saw another shaykh and said to him, “I am Muhyideen ibn `Arabi, pray for me,” and then they didn't hang him. Although it appeared the prayer of the second wali had released him, in reality it was the prayer of the Naqshbandi wali, and this was veiled from Muhyideen ibn `Arabi (q) as Naqshbandi saints do not show miracles. Thereafter, Muhyideen ibn `Arabi and Mansour al-Hallaj (q) continued to spread their teachings, but after a couple of years they were both hanged.
Grandshaykh, may Allah bless his soul, said, “I could see everything from the time I was in the womb of my mother.” That is a miracle of awliyaullah. According to a medical report that I read, the unborn child reacts to whatever the mother sees and does in her daily life. For instance, if the mother is reading Holy Qur'an so is the child, and it can feel the energy of the mother. The child is born innocent, meaning it can see and witness. Grandshaykh (q) said, “When I came out of my mother’s womb I didn't cry like other babies, because I was still seeing and connected with Akhirah, and I was happy.” When the child cries at birth, doctors assume it is to open his lungs, but can’t Allah (swt) make the child born with his lungs already open, as He made all his other organs? Therefore, why does he have to cry? Awliyaullah say, “The child cries because it begins to see the veils coming down one after another.”
Grandshaykh (q) said, “I was born without veils. and Allah (swt) gave me the power to see the Preserved Tablets. At age seven, parents of Daghestan came to me and asked which girl should marry their boys. Allah (swt) gave me the power to see the names on the Preserved Tablets and then I consulted the parents, whjo sometimes said, ‘We want this boy to marry that girl,’ and I sometimes refused and said, ‘No, go and find this one instead.’ They found that person and they all lived happily, as it coincided with the Preserved Tablets.”
Before he passed away, Grandshaykh (q) said, “I’ve never had a veil on me since the day I was born.” Throughout his life he was never veiled, and he showed us a miracle after he passed away to prove that. Shaykh Adnan and I were with a cardiologist beside Grandshaykh’s (q) bed before his passing. He said, “Check my pulse, it is beating very fast.” It was at 200 beats/minute. Then Grandshaykh said, “I don’t want anyone in the room,” so we went upstairs to the zawiya. Five minutes later his daughter, Madiha, shouted, “My father is not breathing and not moving!” so we went to see him. At this point Grandshaykh had a zero pulse and no blood pressure. Out of love, the cardiologist ran to his car, 12 minutes there and back, and he returned with an adrenaline injection. As soon as he prepared to give it, Grandshaykh (q) opened his eyes and said, “Burak! Leave it, don’t touch it!” He was not veiled in dunya or in Akhirah, he merely passed from one to another.
Awliyaullah are not veiled. Most scholars say, “If you are consistent with your prayers and obligations, you are a wali but you might get it in your grave and not in dunya, as you would make seclusion in the grave and become a wali. Grandshaykh (q) always said that seclusion in dunya is better than seclusion in the grave by a thousand times. This is not a random teaching, like a cake with many layers of different ingredients from here and there, then sprinkling an Islamic flavor on top! That is not normal, and it might suit the ego of the one who baked it, but it is not a cure for everyone.
Yesterday, a lady told me, “I am doing meditation.”
I said, “What kind?”
She said, “ I found one on the Internet and am following it, but I began to feel pain in my shoulder and neck. I see different colors, but with difficulties and pain.”
I asked, “Is that the meditation we taught?”
She said, “No, but they say they are mureeds of Shaykh Nazim.”
I said, “Meditation is an accepted principle, which is either muraaqabah, to observe, muraabitah, to connect, and tafakkur, to think.”
Allah (swt) said in Holy Qur'an:
الَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ اللّهَ قِيَامًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىَ جُنُوبِهِمْ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقْتَ هَذا بَاطِلاً سُبْحَانَكَ فَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ
Alladheena yadhkuroonullaaha qiyamaan wa qu`oodan wa `alaa junoobihim wa yattafakkaroona fee khalqi 's-samawaati wa 'l-ardi rabbanaa maa khalaqta hadhaa baatilan subhaanaka fa qinaa `adhaaba 'n-naar.
Those who remember Allah (always, and in prayers) standing, sitting, and lying down on their sides, and think deeply about the Creation of the Heavens and the Earth, (saying) "Our Lord! You have not created (all) this without purpose! Glory to You! Give us salvation from the torment of the Fire." (Surat Aali `Imraan, 3:191)
“Those who reflect on the creation of heavens and earth” means who do their dhikr or awraad and then reflect on the creation of heavens and earth.
All tariqahs follow what the Prophet (s) said:
تفكر ساعة خير من عبادة سبعين سنة
Tafakkarru sa`atin khayrun min `ibaadati saba`een sannah.
To remember (contemplate or meditate) Allah for one hour is better than seventy years of worship.
To meditate, contemplate, reflect or whatever word you want to use, on how you are doing and how to reach the Divine Presence is accepted as if you worshipped seventy years. So look how important meditation is, but it has to be religious meditation and you cannot bring something from left or right and say, “This is mediation.” No, you close your eyes and have a dim light in a small room, just like I saw Hajjah Anne (q), Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) and Grandshaykh (q) do, and connect your heart with your teacher. That is the first connection, and then the Shaykh will connect you to the heart of the Prophet (s). Sometimes it is easy to connect your heart with Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) because he is living and in front of you, so it is easy to see him in your mind. To connect from him to the Prophet (s) and from the Prophet (s) to Allah (swt) must go step by step.
Grandshaykh (q) and Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) often said if you are unable to connect to your Shaykh and then to Prophet (s) and with Allah (swt), then connect with al-Rawdah, the muwaajaha. Can you not see the grille of Prophet’s maqaam when you close your eyes? Close your eyes and connect to the Prophet (s); can you see him? I say for sure not one of you can see him. You cannot, but you can feel a presence, something going on and you cannot explain it. Close your eyes and say, “I am connecting to the Prophet (s) through my Shaykh.” You can feel something because the Prophet (s) doesn't appear before your eyes as that is only for awliyaullah. And then, if you want to connect to the Divine Presence for sure you cannot do it, until you establish the line of connection to your Shaykh and from him to the Prophet (s). So for sure you cannot, but to connect to the Divine Presence you connect to the Ka`bah. Can you connect to the Ka`bah or not? Everyone can. This method is the real meditation. We don’t want to discuss other things you find here and there, but it is important to teach what we learned, which is a different way of meditation.
Now some people might say, “Why do you put your fingers like that? Buddhists and Hindus do that.” Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (r) closed his fingers like that and said, “O Coolness of my eyes, yaa Rasulullah!” And I explained many times that the ID finger is here (thumb) and here (index finger) and they are witnessing that the Prophet (s) is the Prophet of Allah (swt)! And in them are points, are there not? You are a doctor, do you treat patients with points? (Yes.) You are Muslim, you pray your prayers and fast Ramadan, and confirm that you treat pateints with points? (Yes.)
In a hadith, the Prophet (s) mentioned there are 360 points in human beings, and these points are used for treatment in Chinese medicine. Some Egyptian doctors studied that hadith (and the science of points) and found it coincides with the number of points in human beings. There are nine main points in human beings and these are related to the nine awliyaullah that can do Sultan adh-Dhikr. And I will not go into detail, but the first one to know about this was Sayyidina Bayazid al-Bistami (r), who completed the Holy Qur'an once with Sultan adh-Dhikr, with its secrets. Until the time of Great Grandshaykh they were using these points. And there are seven lataa'if on the chests of human beings.
Some people criticize our use of numbers, but we follow the Prophet (s), who mentioned numbers! He said, “If you recite ‘subhaanAllah, alhamdulillah, laa ilaaha illaLlah, Allahu Akbar’ one-thousand times, you go to Paradise.”
And it is mentioned to recite salawaat in specified numbers. Even your awraad follows numbers. Why do they say numbers are not accepted? You recite 250 salawaat on the Prophet (s) on Monday, Thursday, and Friday, and some people recite 1,000 times and others do more, in the thousands. And you recite 500 times “yaa Samad,” as written in The Naqshbandi Sufi Way. “Yaa Samad” means, “Don’t leave me, Yaa Rabb, O the One Who Does Not Need Support, Who has Absolute Power, support me!” And then, we are ordered to recite “alhamdulillah” 500 times a day, praising Allah (swt) that He created us from Ummat an-Nabi (s), and another 500 times a day we recite “alhamdulillah” that we were not created outside Ummat an-Nabi (s). Many other recitations are according to prescribed numbers: “laa hawla wa laa quwwata illa billah” a thousand times; “laa ilaaha illa-Llah” a thousand times.
So, do we use numbers or not? Then how can they be against numbers? Some of Asmaa ul-Husna, like, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem” corresponds to the number “786.” So some awliyaullah say to recite according to the number of that Name or that ayah. For example, recite “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem” 786 times. Asmaa ul-Husna are Allah's Beautiful Names and Attributes. So according to these numbers you recite the names, and that is well established in Islam,
Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (r) was a Sufi and he followed Shari`ah, and he wrote of many such recitations. Also the months are numbered. Every wali comes with numbers, which must coincide with what we believe.
So Grandshaykh (q) was not veiled and he was able to see dunya and Akhirah, and there are many awliyaullah like that. We pray to Grandshaykh (q) from here, and of course his spirit is here. When you make salawat on the Prophet (s) he is there, as his soul is returned to him each time we recite salawat on him. We ask him (s) to cure us of all diseases, and relieve our difficulties, and give us good of this life and the Next, and to join us with the Prophet (s) in Paradise!
I explained that whoever uses our name or Mawlana Shaykh Nazim's name is responsible for what he puts on his website, and people cheat and use our names everywhere! There are many websites today that add “sprinkles” (bead candies on cakes) to make it look like we are behind it and we are not related to them. We are only affiliated with Sufilive.com, eShaykh.com, Naqshbandi.org, Sunnah.org, islamicsupremecouncil.org, and Worde.org, an organization in Washington, DC.
So to those attacking us without knowing anything, this Bengali newspaper has evidence that came to us that we didn't know anything about. My picture is here, but I did not put the advertisement, but it is shown as if I am the pir answering their questions and asking for money.
(Translated from popular Bengali Newspaper)
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If you started a project and feel obstacles, we will help remove them. If you want to marry a girl in another country to get a greencard, or resolved from debt, or you are doing business and want benefit, or if you have children not listening to you, any sexual problems, if you want to get good results in your exams, if you want to win immigration lottery Pir Jalal Shah Sahib will help you. (Advertisement includes a photo of Mawlana Shaykh Hisham!)
Mischief-makers accuse us of supporting Buddhist and Hindu teachings, and if anyone saw this advertisement and he didn’t know better, he will say, “Shaykh Hisham is claiming to be Jalaluddin Rumi and collecting money in Ajmer Shareef!” (Laughter)
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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