5 June 2017 Fenton Zawiya, Michigan
Zhuhr Suhbah
A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytani ‘r-rajeem. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem. As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmnatulahi wa barakatuh. 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. Alhamdulillah alladhee hadaana li ‘l-Islam wa ma kunna li nahtadee law la hadaanallah. It is the best favor and highest level of honor that Allah (swt) chose us and made us Muslim, because Inna ad-deena `inda Allaahi al-islaam:
إِنَّ الدِّينَ عِندَ اللّهِ الإِسْلاَمُُ
The religion in Allah’s view is Islam (submission to His Will). (Surat Aali-`Imraan, 3:19)
It means salutations of peace on everyone, as-salaam min al-Islam, as salutations show good manners, behaviors and perfection because Allah (swt) is perfect and He likes everything in His Creation to be perfect. He chose a Perfect One, Sayyidina Muhammad (a), wa rafa`na laka dhikrak:
وَرَفَعْنَا لَكَ ذِكْرَكَ
And We raised up your remembrance. (Surat al-Sharh, 94:2)
Allah (swt) raised Prophet’s name with His Name. When you raise something, you physically show it, so did Allah raise only Prophet’s name or did He raise him physically? There can be no doubt that Allah (swt), khaaliqu ‘l-ashyaa` khaaliqu ‘l-jinni wa ‘l-ins, is our Lord, The Creator of jinn, ins and all Creation. There can be no one except Him, laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah. Sayyidina Muhammad (s) is very happy to be honored as `abd, Maqaam al-`Abdiyya aw al-uboodiyya, the Level of Worshipper. Allah likes perfection so He created Creation in the best way: everything in your body, in your mind, in your legs, in your arms, it all has its purpose and perfection as Allah does not like imperfection.
One of the Awliyaullah dreamt that Allah (swt) was calling him for Judgment. That sincere person in the dream, [Fly buzzing around, Mawlana is trying to wave it away...] That is our test, it is okay, Allah created that fly, to run and turn and turn and then in 21 days it dies, so all its circumambulating was for what? Allah gave her a secret to circumambulate around something He likes, even a different style of fly. Sometimes something like that happens to advise us and help us see that it is Allah's Qudrah that makes even a fly circle around something, it knows where it goes and where to come back, and then it dies as its role is finished. All of us, our role will finish one day. Allah (swt) likes perfection and people who perfect themselves, as Prophet (s) said, “Allah has sent me to perfect you.”
انما بعثت لاتمم مكارم الاخلاق
I have been sent to perfect the best of conduct (your behavior and character). (Bazzaar)
That means, if we think a little bit with our limited minds, this Hadith of Prophet (s) means there is a connection between Prophet (s) and everyone that no one can take away. Prophet (s) has his own control on that line of connection, like to email someone you have a connection, is it not? There is a heavenly connection from Prophet to everyone, because he (s) said, Innamaa bu`ithtu li utammimu makaarim al-akhlaaq, “I have been sent to perfect every character.” To perfect a character, a human being, an animal or a tree requires that you work on it to enter the Land of Perfection, and that line between you and Prophet (s) and between Prophet (s) and Allah (swt) is never cut, it is there, so you have to care for it or it will die, like the example of caring for a tree: you water it, keep it wet, like the Bedouin asked Prophet (s):
عن عبد الله بن بسر رضي الله عنه أن رجلا قال: يا رسول الله إن شرائع الإسلام قد كثرت علي فأخبرني بشيء أتشبث به؟ قال لا يزال لسانك رطبا من ذكر الله" الترمذي.
A man came to the Prophet (s) and said, "O Rasoolullah! The rules of Islam became heavy on me, so give me news of something I can maintain." Prophet (s) said, "Make your tongue wet with dhikrullah."
(Tirmidhi)
He said, “There is so much Shari`ah al-Islam, so many rules! Give me something easy to do as I am a Bedouin.” Prophet (s) advised him, aj`al lisaanak ratban bi dhikrillah, “Keep your tongue moist with dhikrullah,” which is the connection between us and Heavens: that muraaqaba, meditation, will take you to Heavens! Some people say they do muraaqabah to Allah (swt), but that is not going to reach as it is not easy, it takes time and a lot of worship, it takes meditation, contemplation, it takes perfection of manners and character.
تفكر ساعة خير من عبادة سبعين سنة
To remember Allah (swt) (contemplate or meditate) for one hour is better than seventy years of worship.
إِنَّ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلاَفِ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ لآيَاتٍ لِّأُوْلِي الألْبَابِ الَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ اللّهَ قِيَامًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىَ جُنُوبِهِمْ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقْتَ هَذا اطِلاً سُبْحَانَكَ فَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ
Behold! In the creation of Heaven and Earth, and in the alternation of night and day, there are indeed signs for men of understanding, those who remember Allah (always, and in prayers) standing, sitting and lying down on their sides, and contemplate the creation of the Heavens and the Earth, (saying), "Our Lord! You have not created (all) this without purpose! Glory to You! Grant us salvation from the torment of the Fire.” (Surat Aali `Imraan, 3:190-191)
Allah (swt) said, “Continue to contemplate the creation of Heavens and Earth,” then later they will open contemplation of Allah (swt) to your heart. First, make dhikrullah and then you will enter the door of contemplation: they take them happily inside to contemplate nearer and nearer and nearer, and as much as they are sincere and increase their worship they reach inside that heavenly place. That dhikrullah never stopped since Allah created the angels, and no one knows when He created them, that is in His Hands; no one can say where or give a literal or physical description of that. Laa hudood wa laa zamaan wa lqa makaan, Allah has no limit, no place, no time.
Allah (swt) sent Prophet (s) to perfect our good manners against our bad manners, Wa innaka la-`alaa khuluqin `azheem:
وَإِنَّكَ لَعَلى خُلُقٍ عَظِي
You are of the most exalted character. (Surat al-Qalam, 68:4)
Here Allah describes Prophet by saying, “Verily, you are of tremendous good character,” perfect; `azheem means “unlimited greatness.” In every moment in his life in dunya and in Akhirah, Prophet (s) dressed his Ummah with what Allah (swt) dressed him, and Allah dressed him specifically so he would dress human beings, Allah’s Creation.
وَتَرَى الْجِبَالَ تَحْسَبُهَا جَامِدَةً وَهِيَ تَمُرُّ مَرَّ السَّحَابِ صُنْعَ اللَّهِ الَّذِي أَتْقَنَ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ إِنَّهُ خَبِيرٌ بِمَا تَفْعَلُونَ
You see the mountains and think them firmly fixed: but they shall pass away as the clouds pass away: (such is) the artistry of Allah, who disposes of all things in perfect order: for He is well acquainted with all that you do. (Surat an-Naml, 27:88)
When you see the mountain you think it is solid, not moving, but it is moving at a very high speed that your eyes cannot see and you cannot comprehend. Bring a fan and put it on, it will turn. Blades on an electric fan can turn with tremendous speed and sometimes you think the fan stopped because you no longer see the blades, they seem to have disappeared. At maximum speed the blades become invisible. Shine a flashlight on it and you will see it is turning, but before you thought it was not turning. Allah says in the Holy Qur’an that you are going to see the mountains and they are moving, but you think they are solid, not moving. How are huge mountains moving and we cannot see it? The one who has perfect vision, Prophet (s) sees details of everything as Allah gave him `Uloom al-Awaleen wa ‘l-Akhireen.
Today when scientists discover something new, they upload details on the computer and to the Internet so that information goes everywhere and for many days they are happy with what they found. In every moment Prophet (s) put seven stones in his hand and they began to make tasbeeh, “SubhaanAllah, alhamdulillah, laa ilaha illa-Llah, Allahu Akbar.” Then Prophet (s) put the same seven stones in Sayyidina Abu Bakr's hands and they continued to make tasbeeh; then in the hands of Sayyidina `Uthman and Sayyidina `Ali they kept making tasbeeh; then he (s) put the stones in the hands of other Sahaabah and they stopped making tasbeeh. How could those stones speak and have a voice? It was from Allah (swt): He wants to show His miracles among His servants.
Today they tell you to take medicine to make you feel better, yet it has fifteen side effects. We wonder how they prescribed something that is worse than the disease, such as a heart attack, who will buy it?. Now people are running away from side effects so they try organic treatments, but we also don't know what side effects they will have. I know a very good person who has a clinic and he drank organic energy drinks from China as he was running all day. He went for a checkup and that doctor forgot to check his lab results and didn’t call him. After three months, that man’s face become so bloated, and when then they reviewed the lab report they saw his Creatinine level exceeded limits in the thousands. There was no solution for him and he was threatened with death. Because of that, he left his work for one year and took Cortisone treatment, which also has side effects.
Treat the sickness with its poison; that is why they used to search for the cause that made the patient ill and treated them with the poison of that specific illness, then the patient recovered. In the time of Prophet (s), Arabs knew this through homeopathy. Allah (swt) likes His servant to maintain his physical body in a normal, balanced state between the good and bad. Allah likes perfection and that is why He described Prophet (s) as, “You are of a tremendous, magnificent character.”
وَإِنَّكَ لَعَلى خُلُقٍ عَظِي
You are of the most exalted character. (Surat al-Qalam, 68:4)
He (swt) didn’t speak of any other prophet like that.
No one is allowed to say "I am, I am," as Allah said for Prophet (s). Allah wants you to benefit, which is why He ordered you to make salawaat as He ordered angels to also make it.
إنَّ اللَّهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ
Verily, Allah and His angels send praise on the Prophet. (Surat al-'Ahzaab, 33:56)
If you are not in love with Prophet (s), he doesn’t need your salawaat! Awliya know who among their mureeds have the problem of not loving Prophet (s), so they want to prepare them to love him, to love Awliya and everyone! The main purpose of Tariqah is to love Prophet (s) and everyone: that is why we mentioned the Hadith, Tafakkarru sa`atin khayrun min `ibaadati saba`een sannah:
تفكر ساعة خير من عبادة سبعين سنة
To remember Allah (swt) (contemplate or meditate) for one hour is better than seventy years of worship.
Prophet simplified it to one hour: contemplate for one hour and you will get the reward of having worshipped for seventy years; contemplate for two hours and get the reward of having worshipped for 140 years; then you are saved and you go to Paradise with no sins. He erased the sins because one hour takes you to seventy years of worship, which does not mean don't do your obligations, you must do them, but Tariqah is based on nawafil, voluntary worship:
عن أبي هريرة قال قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم إن الله قال من عادى لي وليا فقد آذنته بالحرب وما تقرب إلي عبدي بشيء أحب إلي مما افترضت عليه وما يزال عبدي يتقرب إلي بالنوافل حتى أحبه فإذا أحببته كنت سمعه الذي يسمع به وبصره الذي يبصر به ويده التي يبطش بها ورجله التي يمشي بها وإن سألني لأعطينه ولئن استعاذني لأعيذنه وما ترددت عن شيء أنا فاعله ترددي عن نفس المؤمن يكره الموت وأنا أكره مساءته
ولا يزال عبدي يتقرب إلي بالنوافل حتى أحبه، فإذا أحببته كنت سمعه الذي يسمع به وبصره
الذي يبصر به، ويده التي يبطش بها ورجله التي يمشي بها،
My servant does not cease to approach Me through voluntary worship until I will love him. When I love him, I will become the ears with which he hears, the eyes with which he sees, the hand with which he acts, and the legs with which he walks (and other versions include, “and the tongue with which he speaks.”). (Hadith Qudsi, Bukhari)
So approach through one hour of contemplation you get the reward of seventy years. Alhamdulillah all our mashayikh showed us ways, at-turuqu ila allah ka `adad anfaas al khalaa'iq:
الطرق الى الله على عدد أنفاس الخلائق
The paths to Allah are as many as the breaths of Creation.
The ways to Allah (swt) are as numerous as every breath in and every breath out of all human beings. There are ways to Allah (swt) and His Prophet (s). The first is wa yatafakaroon fee khalqi ‘s-samaawaati wa ‘l-ard, “And contemplate the creation of the Heavens and Earth.” (3:191). When you perfect that, it means you can see what people cannot see and you enter the Ocean of Perfection and begin to receive drop after drop of perfection from Prophet (s). When you look at the mureed who reached that, he resembles the shaykh so much in his features. Awliya have that power and those mureeds who are very strong Believers begin to look like their shaykh until you almost can’t distinguish them. In general, this happens to most followers who come every time to contemplate; they begin to have a shape like the shaykh and his way of talking and his movement becomes like the shaykh’s, who takes them to Prophet (s), where they swim in the Ocean of Good Character.
Allah (swt) first created the Light of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) and from it He created the important principles of Islam: al-`Arsh, al-Kursi, al-Qalam, al-Lawh. For that reason, He said:
وإعلموا أن فيكم رسول الله
And know Allah's Messenger is in you. (Surat al-Hujuraat, 49:7)
You have to know that Prophet’s Light is with you, you are created from his Light. Qabadtu qabdatan min nooree qultu laha koonee Muhammad, Allah took a Handful from His Light and said, “Be Muhammad!” and that Light appeared. May Allah (swt) take us into that Ocean.
So Mawlana (q) said, “Say ‘Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem’ once and it will open for you seven-hundred gates, ways to Allah and His Prophet (s).” For one favor you get seven-hundred favors. You are a soup, a mix of good and bad character, but for one worldly favor you do on Earth, Allah sends it back to you pure, as Prophet (s) mentioned in the Hadith, “Whoever makes salawaat on me, Allah sends ten pure and clean salawaat on him!”
من صلى علي مرة صلى الله عليه بها عشرا
Whoever prays on me one time, Allah prays on him ten times. (Muslim, Ahmad, Nisa’i)
No one knows what rewards Allah sends with those salawaat; it will be written in the notebook of the `abd on his right hand and angels will make sure it is not taken away by Iblees and his conspiracy. That is a privilege for Ummat an-Nabi (s): they save the good you do and not the bad, they give you time to correct the bad. As soon as you make wudu, it takes all sins away, and when you say “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem” it takes sins away, so they don't write your sins. Also, Allah doesn't like to look at dirty laundry, He looks at His servant's hasanaat, not his dirtiness, laa yaleek bi shaanihi, it doesn’t befit Him. He looks at the goodness He planted in that person.
When Allah wants to look at His Creation, He looks at Prophet (s) because he is the mirror, and what is inside, where He looks, is a heavenly place that no one knows. Allah raised you to that place and keeps raising you. For everyone there is a place in Paradise; you will enter through a gateway and no one knows what is inside except that person. What Allah gives to one person he does not give to anyone else, everyone takes his share.
When Allah (swt) created Creation, He first created the Light of Prophet (s) and from that Light He created the `Arsh, the Kursi and then the Qalam, Pen. What kind of pen is it? When Allah told the Pen to write, with Yad al-Qudrah, the Hand of Power, it wrote Laa ilaaha illa-Llah for seventy-thousand years and stopped. The Pen was created from the Light of Prophet (s), which means he knew `Uloom al-Awwaleen wa ’l-Akhireen before Jibreel (a), and the evidence is: Kaaf, Haa, Yaa, `Ayn, Saad. Jibreel (a) brought the Revelation of Surah Maryam and said, “Kaaf,” and Prophet (s) said, `alimtu, “I knew what is in the Kaaf, Haa, Yaa, `Ayn, Saad.” He knew before Jibreel (a), which means `uloom an-Nabi is above `uloom of Jibreel (a). Jibreel (a) came with al-alfaazh, but Prophet (s) received al-alfaazh and al-ma`aani, the uttering and the meaning, the literal meaning and the hidden meaning. From Jibreel’s level down to dunya is literal meaning and from Jibreel and up is heavenly meaning that no one knows except Prophet (s), and he gives to his Ummah through the Awliyaullah.
There are angels who are responsible to stand for the Pen up to the Day of Judgement. When the Pen stopped writing after seventy-thousand years, Allah said, “Write ‘Muhammadun Rasoolullah,’” and it continued. He did not need to tell the Pen to write the name of this or that one, no! He mention the head, “Write ‘Muhammadun Rasoolullah, the Head of Creation,’” as everything comes under him. So the Pen wrote for seventy-thousand years from the Knowledge of Prophet (s).
The first one is under Laa ilaaha illa-Llah which is the knowledge in which Allah describes His Tawheed, Oneness, Uniqueness, His Qudrah; and Muhammadun Rasoolullah represents the Creation. It means that the Pen wrote everything Allah created and delivered it to Prophet (s), and Prophet (s) knew it before Jibreel (a) and even before The Pen, as the Pen was created before anything else from the Light of Prophet (s). Fa huwa khalqun min khalqi ‘Llah, the Pen is a creature from the Creations of Allah and the one who is responsible for it is the Prophet (s). That is why when Allah (swt) yahkum bayn al-`ibaad, judges between the people on the Day of Judgement, He judges according to the ayah:
فَمَن يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ خَيْرًا يَرَهُ. وَمَن يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ شَرًّا يَرَهُ
And he who did an atom's weight of good will see it, and he who did an atom's weight of evil will see it.
(Surat az-Zalzalah, 99:7-8)
He judges according to the verse, “If you do one atom's weight of good you see good, and if you do one atom's weight of bad you see bad.” Then He calls His Prophet (s), who has his Pen with him, Qalam al-Qudrah, the Pen of Power, not an ordinary, physical pen, Allah knows what it is, but to describe it we call it a pen. He comes with Qalam al-Qudrah in the Presence of Allah (swt), Who says, “Yaa Muhammad, I judge between all the Ummah, Creation, and My Judgment is fa-man ya`mal mithqaala dharratin khayran yarah wa-man ya`mal mithqaala dharratin sharran yarah, whoever does an atom’s weight of good will see good, and whoever does an atom's weight of bad will see bad. I finished My Judgement, now you do what you want.”
What? He has placed a big trust in Prophet (s), al-Mustafa, The Chosen One, Habeebu ‘r-Rahman wa Khaleelu ‘r-Rahman. Sayyidina Ibraheem (a) is Khaleelu ‘r-Rahman but Sayyidina Muhammad (s) is Habeebu ‘r-Rahman wa Khaleelu ‘r-Rahman. So Allah says, “This is My Judgement on everyone on the Day of Promises, and I give you the Pen to do what you want. I fulfilled My Promise: fa-man ya`mal mithqaala dharratin khayran yarah wa-man ya`mal mithqaala dharratin sharran yarah.” So if you keep reading that ayah, it will clean you and the sayyi’aat, sins, will run out like flowing water and you will see them run away from you into the ground.
Allah (swt) gives him the Pen and says, “Do what you want!” What will Prophet (s) do? We leave it for next time.
Wa min Allahi ‘t-tawfeeq, bi hurmati ‘l-Fatihah. May Allah (swt) bless you all. As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
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