30 May 2017 Fenton Zawiya, Michigan
Zhuhr Suhbah
A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani 'r-rajeem. Bismillaahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem. 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.
Today is a new day and a new inspiration from Allah, and ‘new day’ means a new heart, new light, new knowledge and new health! So inshaa-Allah, may Allah bless you and your families wherever they are.
The head of every suhbah, as we mentioned so many times, but we must remember this so much that we say it with every breath. Every suhbah of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim and Grandshaykh `AbdAllah al-Fa'iz ad-Daghestani (q) began with the head:
أَطِيعُواْ اللّهَ وَأَطِيعُواْ الرَّسُولَ وَأُوْلِي الأَمْرِ مِنكُمْ
Ati`oollaaha wa ati`oo 'r-Rasoola wa ooli 'l-amri minkum.
Obey Allah, obey the Prophet, and obey those in authority among you. (Surat an-Nisaa, 4:59)
طريقتنا الصحبة والخير في الجمعية
Our way is companionship (to be together in association) and the best is in the gathering.
Our way is the advice, above that there is no other way. It is to advise ourselves, our friends and those whom we love to the Way of Allah (swt) and Prophet (s) and to make sure that we are with them, because they are nearer than towards the Divine Presence, as they struggled much in their lives and brought to us knowledge that we could never imagine in our lives had we not followed them. Ittib`a is to follow Sayyidina Muhammad (s), not anyone else. That is why Allah (s) said in Holy Qur'an:
وَمَا آتَاكُمُ الرَّسُولُ فَخُذُوهُ وَمَا نَهَاكُمْ عَنْهُ فَانتَهُوا
Leave what Prophet forbade and take what he ordered. (Surat al-Hashr, 59:7)
Whatever the Prophet (s) gives you take it, with no argument, no discussion. You have to accept and say that he knows everything and we know nothing! We are ignorant, but he (s) has `Uloom al-Awwaleen wa ’l-Akhireen, Knowledges of What is Before and What is After, and `Ilm azh-Zhaahir and `Ilm al-Baatin, Knowledge of the Heart and Knowledge of the Tongue. Therefore, we must always make sure we are facing the right direction, that we are in the proper position to achieve our goal, which is to receive more knowledge by attending meetings of scholars or Awliyaullah. Our way is to say, Rabbee zidnee `ilman, “O my Lord, increase my `ilm.” The Prophet (s) often recited, “Yaa Rabb, give me knowledge from Your End.”
`Ilm does not finish and jahal, ignorance does not finish: as there is `ilm, there is also jahal. Ignorance is a tool Shaytan uses and `ilm is knowledge Allah spread to the hearts of the mu’minoon. And we are asking, yaa Rabbee zayyin quloobina bi zayn al-Qur’an, “O Lord! Decorate our hearts with the knowledge of the Holy Qur'an.”
When you go to the Middle East or Pakistan etc., you see the halls decorated very nicely to attract people. And I saw something I never saw before: rich people’s weddings where they rent a convention center and decorate all of it, spending millions and millions of dollars to make it possible and to attract people. What about the Holy Qur'an? Zayynioo masaajidakum bi ‘l-Qur’an, decorate your mosques with the Holy Qur'an. That is why it is important to decorate your heart with the Holy Qur'an, and we take whatever Holy Qur'an taught us and whatever Allah wants us to know and spread it. That is our goal before Allah and Prophet (s). For sure, Shaytan will find a way to distract us, but we must override that obstacle and find a way to remain on the Way of Allah and His Prophet (s).
Sayyidina Bayazid al-Bistami (q) said, “My way is to look where there are obstacles and opposition, and to train myself to be patient, then I go there. I look for places where I can be distracted, beaten, cursed, to make sure I am as patient as I can be.” He did not go to places where there is no `addaad, conflict; rather, he went to places where there is conflict to see if he is strong enough to conquer it or not. So he asked Allah, “Yaa Rabbee, open Your Door for me.” After many years of saying, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah, Laa ilaaha illa-Llah,” through which one decorates their heart with love and peace, then you will be like Sayyidina Bayazid al-Bistami (q), struggling for Allah to open His Door to you.
After years of requesting, “Open Your Door for me,” Allah sent him back and said, “Go become a dump for My servants.” That means whoever dumps their garbage on you, you must carry it. Sayyidina Bayazid al-Bistami (q) taught his students to carry the load in order to acquire patience. Today you rarely see any patient people; today if you say something they don't like, immediately they fight you or even kill you! How many people are now being killed with no reason? Today technicians are working to make a broadcast, trying to solve a technical problem, so there is an opposition there, they have to be calm. Sometimes the camera works and other times it doesn’t. We have to do our best, but the importance is not to fix the camera, but to fix the heart.
The tajalli Allah sends on us with His angels cannot be described. When a general of the army attends a function, he goes with all his medallions decorated on his uniform to show how much he has been honored. Allah is waiting for His `abd to say Kalimat at-Tawheed; when you say it once you get one heavenly medallion, when you say it twice you get two heavenly medallions that no one can comprehend except Allah and His Prophet (s). Therefore, laa tukthir li hammik, don't give too much attention to happiness in dunya if you are following it, because at the end you will lose everything. We cannot balance dunya and Akhirah. In our minds and hearts, when we make our Akhirah matter more than dunya is the best way to make Allah happy with us, we need to promote and decorate our Akhirah in order to reach Allah (swt).
Sayyidina Bayazid al-Bistami (q) asked, “How can I be a dump?” and struggled with that and to make it happen, he did something in the city to get the people to say he is a corrupt person. In reality, he was not corrupt, but he was doing it to attract their abuse to see how patient he could be. Today you cannot find anyone agreeing as one heart, people are arguing and fighting. May Allah keep us from that. When people argue, move away because zhulma comes on that majlis.
Sayyidina Imam Shafi`i said, “If you bring me a hundred scholars to debate, I will win, but one ignorant scholar will defeat me.” al-jidalu yutfi'u noor al-qalb, “Argument extinguishes the light of the heart.” Don't argue; there will be no light in the heart, there will be darkness that will grow and grow until it kills you.
Awliyaullah want to save their followers from the trap of Shaytan. Allah (swt) told Sayyidina Bayazid al-Bistami (q), itruk nafsak wa ta`al, “If you want My Door to open, leave your nafs, ego, and come to Me.” There is no way to come with your ego. You cannot say, “I know everything.” People do not know anything, Allah has written what you are going to do in dunya and Akhirah; it is already decided and what we see here is only a reflection of what was written on the Day of Promises. Here, when people get to know each other, they already knew each other from the Day of alastu bi rabbikum:
أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ قَالُوا بَلَىٰ
[Allah asked] “Am I not your Lord?” They said, “Yes!” (Surat al-Araaf, 7:172)
Those who were together there are together here: these associations for Allah’s love and for love of Prophet (s) are part of that reality. The reality is in Heaven and the image is on Earth. When you want to find yourself, stand in front of the mirror and throw a stone at it. The mirror will break and you will not see yourself there anymore. Try to kill the mirror, your nafs. Awliyaullah say if Allah (swt) ordered the angels to open a grave, the foul smell of that deceased person would cause people all over the world to faint, but the stench of gheebah and nameemah, backbiting and slander, is the worst of all bad actions! If Allah wants to punish us in the grave:
من حوسب عذب
(Yaa `Ayesha!) Who will be judged will be punished for sure. (Bukhari)
“Whosoever is taken to task will be punished.” Allahumma laa tuhaasibnaa! O Allah, do not judge us! If we want to free ourselves, we must recite Kalimat at-Tawheed. That is what he is after: Shaytan wants to prevent everyone from saying “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah.” We are saying it now on behalf of everyone and to discipline our ego we must say “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah `alayha nahya wa `alayha namoot wa `alayha nalqallah.” Inshaa-Allah, as a general wears all his medals and decorations to any meeting, take your medallions to every association.
يَا بَنِي آدَمَ خُذُواْ زِينَتَكُمْ عِندَ كُلِّ مَسْجِدٍَ
O Children of Adam! Wear your beautiful apparel at every time and place of prayer. (Surat al-A'raf, 7:31)
In dunya, you check what you will wear to a function and think, “Oh, this red one is not appropriate, people will laugh at me.” But he wants all the dunya medallions to overwhelm people’s eyes so they will say, “Oh! This is a nice car, nice clothes.”
And what do you think when Allah says ‘khudhoo zeenatakum,’ what is best to take to the masjid? To decorate the heart, so decorate it with divine knowledge so that the dress you take from Allah never goes away, it stays with you and the dress today is different from tomorrow, laa nihaya wa laa bidaya, and is azaali abaadi in Heavens. May Allah (swt) keep our hearts decorated with what He loves! What must we do? What is the murshid doing? He polishes the hearts, which is very important. Here is an example. There were two finalists in an art competition from two-hundred applicants. They were supposed to draw something acceptable by art enthusiasts. One was from Persia and the other was from China. So the king said, “To the winner, I will give something never dreamed about.” One artist was on the left and one on the right. He said, “Y'Allah. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem, begin!”
The two artists focused intently on what they were going to do and they began. The Persian artist was clever, he had nothing except a sponge. The other was also a good artist and drew something very nice. One drew and the other rubbed the wall, polishing it. There was a curtain between them so neither could see the other. One was rubbing the wall and the other was reesha, drawing with the feather, making very nice artistic work with a paintbrush. But that one Persian was rubbing the wall, and the other was sweating and sweating, trying to get the best of what he can draw.
Finally came the time for judgment and the king removed the curtain from between them. The audience was ready to say which was nicest. The Chinese artist had drawn a beautiful drawing that everyone was happy with and shocked from its beauty. Then the king told the Persian artist, “What a genius you are.” The Persian did not draw anything, he only used a sponge to polish the wall until it became like a mirror reflecting the Chinese artist’s work. He received the king’s medallion by polishing his wall.
By polishing your wall, Allah will create a mirror that can reflect the whole universe! How much you polish your heart in dunya will determine the quality of the mirror. Allah makes the heart like a mirror to reflect all that He created in the universe! You will begin to know why Allah created them, and get the knowledge of all herbs and their remedies for human beings at the end of seclusion. Herbs come in mureed’s seclusions to inform them which ones are for this or that sickness. And our hearts have too many illnesses. There are 70,000 veils between us and the Prophet (s) that you cannot remove if you spend your whole life trying, but with inaayatullah they are removed. May Allah (swt) lift all the veils between us and Prophet (s) by polishing our hearts to become mirrors, like that Persian artist was able to see the images coming from any direction he looked and whatever way he turned his face, he found the Divine Presence.
وَلِلّهِ الْمَشْرِقُ وَالْمَغْرِبُ فَأَيْنَمَا تُوَلُّواْ فَثَمَّ وَجْهُ اللّهِ إِنَّ اللّهَ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ
And Allah is in the East and the West, and wherever you turn, there is Allah’s Countenance. Behold, Allah is Infinite, All-Knowing.
In whatever direction you turn your heart, you will find Allah’s Presence, so let your heart be polished by this Ramadan, inshaa-Allah, and be careful not to fall into the trap of Shaytan. Say, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah,” as much as you can as it is the heavenly sponge that erases bad and brings the good.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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