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.
Awliyaullah say that if you do that intention every time, for every worship you do it, will be as if you had done forty days seclusion, isolation, six different categories of work in tasawwuf. If you did it before your prayers, it is as if you did those six categories of worship in that prayer. So we do it again:
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)
[Khatm.]
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)
كلمتان خفيفتان على اللسان ثقيلتان فى الميزان حبيبتان إلى الرحمن سبحان الله و بحمده سبحان الله العظيم
Kalimataan khafeefataan `ala al-lisaan thaqeelataan fi ’l-meezaan habeebataan li’r-rahmaan: SubhaanAllah wa bihamdihi subhaanAllahi ’l-`Azheem.
the Prophet (s) said:
There are two words that are very easy to say, yet very heavy on the Scale, most beloved to The Merciful, “SubhaanAllah wa bihamdihi subhaanAllahi ’l-`Azheem.”
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)
Every meeting has its own characteristics, any meeting: if you are in a school, you are in a university, you are in a circle of hadith, Shari`ah, Fiqh, or you are in a meeting of circle of dhikrullah or you are listening to an advice, each one has its own taste. Never will a meeting have the same taste as the one before it or the one after it, dunya meetings or Akhirah meetings. Dunya meetings are blended with all kinds of worldly life, Akhirah meetings are blended with all kinds of heavenly life, and you are being presented or offered which one you choose and into which one you fit. Some people fit in dunya life and some fit in Akhirah life, it is their taste. You don’t see everyone sitting in a circle of Akhirah life, and you don’t see everyone sitting in dunya life. Some here, some there, some in-between, some neither here nor there, those who are stressed and depressed, they don’t know where they belong. And this meeting is also a circle of remembrance, dhikrullah, and the meetings of dhikrullah are always favored by Allah, Allah always favors those who sit in such circles.
I was...someone, a lecturer, mentioned that Allah said in Holy Qur'an, “If you really love Allah follow Sayyidina Muhammad (s) in his teachings,” which is very precise and correct.
قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَاللّهُ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ
Qul in kuntum tuhibboona 'Llaaha fattabi`oonee yuhbibkumullaahu wa yaghfir lakum dhunoobakum w 'Allaahu Ghafooru 'r-Raheem.
Say (O Muhammad), "If you (really) love Allah, then follow me! Allah will love you and forgive your sins, and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Surat Aali-`Imraan, 3:31)
“If you want to love Allah, then follow me and Allah will love you.” And you have to follow him in what? In his afa`al, in his aqwaal, is it not? In his afa`al, actions, and in his aqwaal, sayings, speeches, advice, because he (s) said in an authentic hadith:
الدين نصيحة
Ad-deenu naseeha.
Religion is advice.
It is not “reading” when we say in Arabic, laa yukhadh al-qur’an illa min afwaahi ’l-muqrieen, “You cannot take the Holy Qur'an except from the mouths of the reciters.” It means you cannot present it as it should be except by sitting with those who recite it, the muqrib, who know how to recite the Holy Qur'an. So laa yukhadh al-qur’an illa min afwaahi ‘l-muqrieen means you cannot read Holy Qur'an by yourself (self taught). You can, but you will make mistakes, so you have to learn from those who recite well and learned well. You look at their mouths, how they are pronouncing, and then you learn and then you can recite the Holy Qur'an correctly with all its ahkaam.
Also books don’t give you (that knowledge). You read, you memorize, you understand, but it doesn’t give you the meaning of when you are sitting with someone who is teaching you the meaning of the ayah or hadith; it is completely different than reading by yourself. That is why it is important to study with a teacher, because the teacher already has the experience, the training and the learning from his shaykh up to his grandshaykh, to his grandshaykh, up to one of the Four Imams. This was the way of ijazah before, this was the way of certification, license, ijazah, not like today: you go to university, even a Western university that doesn’t know anything of Islam and they bring you a non-Muslim teaching you Islam and call him ‘Dr.’. In the Islamic tradition you have to take ijaazah from a shaykh on these hadith, or on these tafseer or this ahkaam, and he relates from his shaykh and that goes all the way back to the Four Imams or to one of the `ulama or sanad, those who can give sanad to you. Those who have that kind of certificate are in a better situation than the one who is called ‘Dr.’ and from them you can learn more traditional Islam, which we don’t see today except in a few places in the world where Islam is still presented in a traditional way as it was presented 1500 years ago.
So we were saying such teachers’ `ijaazah comes from a chain of scholars that is unbreakable. They heard the hadith or tafseer and they relate it, then the student becomes a teacher afterwards and he explains it and adds to it, because as it is moving from one to another, it is growing, it doesn’t stay the same tafseer, because everyone has a perspective and an opinion on what he learned and he will add on more of his analysis or intelligence or verdict. That is why you see the hadith and the tafseer of the ayah changes and increases in the material in it, because they follow the ahkaam of what the Prophet (s) has said and done, af`al and aqwaal, speech and actions.
Also the Holy Qur'an, as we said, the principle is that you have to learn it from the mouth of the reciter: you see how he pronounces and then you pronounce. And also there is another group of people who have learned and studied to become one of the greatest teachers and masters of tafseer of the Holy Qur'an and ahadith an-Nabi (s). Those are people who follow the Prophet (s) in every step. They are not only taking from teachers, but they are trying to understand it through a kind of tafakkur, contemplation. And I was, I have spent a lot of years, fifty or more, with Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) and Grandshaykh `AbdAllah al-Faiz ad-Daghestani (q), and I saw how they struggled in their life in order to achieve more and more heavenly understanding.
وَعَلَّمْنَاهُ مِن لَّدُنَّا عِلْمًا
Wa `allamnaahu min ladunna `ilma.
And whom We had taught knowledge from Our Own Presence. (Surat al-Kahf, 18:65)
Beside their study of Shari`ah, they were acting on what they have learned. For example, the hadith of Prophet (s), Akhshawshanoo fa innal ni`amal tadoom, “Live roughly and don’t waste.” Live frugally, roughly, because you cannot always find favors. So when you live in a humble way, then when you face a problem you are already used to it. So I saw Grandshaykh (q) and Mawlana (q) in their seclusions, how they were carrying responsibility by their du`as and their reciting of Holy Qur'an and their ibti`adahum `an ad-dunya, staying away from dunya, making seclusion for six months, nine months, one year, five years, Grandshaykh (q) for five years, in order to struggle with their desires, because it is very important to polish yourself from as-sadaa’u ’dh-dhunoob, the rust of the heart through sins, through oxidation and you have to clean that. And all of us today, shaykhs, scholars and normal people, have this oxidation of dunya on their heart. Wherever they become famous and wherever their level is, they have that taa’theer, the effect of oxidation on their hearts, because of the negative energy that comes from the people who are around them.
So awliyaullah carry a lot because they are carriers. Normal shuyookh are not carriers; normal shuyookh give advice and teach you, but awliyaullah not only give advice, they carry you and they carry whatever badness comes from you. And people appear in front of them, according to their characters, they appear in a wild figure. Some might appear as a dragon, some might appear as a snake, someone might appear as a peaceful lamb. We are speaking about character. Someone might appear as whatever and the shaykh can see that. So that’s why to approach too much is not nice, except to clean yourself before you appear in their presence.
So when that person was mentioning that ayah, “That we have to follow,” which we usually speak about, “To follow me…” fatabi`oonee yuhbibukumullah, “If you say you love Allah, then follow Muhammad,” when Allah said, Qul in kuntum tuhibboona 'Llaaha fattabi`oonee, here “at-tib`a li ‘n-Nabi” (s), He didn’t say “at-tib`a” to Allah (swt), because Allah is the Creator and He ordered Prophet (s) with orders, so you have to follow the orders of Prophet (s) that come from Allah (swt), as Allah (swt) said:
وَمَا آتَاكُمُ الرَّسُولُ فَخُذُوهُ
Wa maataakumu ’r-rasoolu fakhudhooh.
Take what the Prophet ordered. (Surat al-Hashr, 59:7)
“Whatever the Prophet (s) gives to you, take it and follow!” So that speaker finished and it came my turn to speak, and it came to my heart, at that moment a signal came from Mawlana Shaykh (q). He said, “What he said is correct 100 percent, but today who can do that? No one.” Allah will judge you according to...He is the Just, and Huwa Arhamu ’r-Rahimeen, the Most Merciful of the Merciful, Ahkam al-Haakimeen, the Absolute Just Judge. Judges in dunya have to take the whole picture into account before they give judgment. So we are in a fire, we are in a fire and we are going to act according to the fire we are in. We are struggling to be safe from that fire, but we are involved in many things the fire is giving us. We are in a fire of fitna, confusion. Everywhere we go there is a fire, which means fitna. So you are deeply immersed in the well of sins, even without you wanting to make the sin you are there. Already this time, this period of life, this century is the century of sins, everywhere! Look at these computers. We are immersed, and Mawlana (q) is saying in my heart, “People are immersed inside, so how will Allah judge them?”
Allah (swt) is Ahkam al-Haakimeen, He is the Absolute Judge. So Allah will take...and as He is also Arhamu ’r-Rahimeen, the Most Merciful of the Merciful Ones, and He knows the situation we are in, and because He knows everything He is going to judge according to His Rahmat, because now His full Rahmat is opened to carry the sins of this world! Today there is too much sin everywhere, and Allah is sending Rahmat on His servants and that is the meaning of that ayah and the Rahmat that will follow with it. And then I began to say in my speech that in kuntum tuhiboonallaha fat-tabi`oonee, “If you really love Allah, then follow Sayyidina Muhammad (s).” To ‘follow’ means you are showing love to the Prophet (s).
أَنَّ رَجُلاً، مِنْ أَهْلِ الْبَادِيَةِ أَتَى النَّبِيَّ صلى الله عليه وسلم فَقَالَ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ مَتَى السَّاعَةُ قَائِمَةٌ قَالَ " وَيْلَكَ وَمَا أَعْدَدْتَ لَهَا ". قَالَ مَا أَعْدَدْتُ لَهَا إِلاَّ أَنِّي أُحِبُّ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ. قَالَ " إِنَّكَ مَعَ مَنْ أَحْبَبْتَ ". .
A Bedouin came to the Prophet (s) and said, "O Allah's Messenger (s)! When will The Hour be established?" The Prophet (s) said, "Wailaka (Woe to you)! What have you prepared for it?" The Bedouin said, "I have not prepared anything for it except that I love Allah and His Apostle." The Prophet (s) said, "You will be with those whom you love!" (Narrated Anas, Bukhari)
So when the Bedouin came and asked the Prophet (s), “When is the Last Day?” and the Prophet (s) said, “What have you prepared for the Last Day, that is a long journey?” and the Bedouin said, laa min kathrati siyyaam wa laa minkathrati salaah “I have not prepared a lot of prayers and fasting; yes I have that, but I have one thing, yaa Rasoolullah, I have love for you!” that is when the Prophet (s) said:
يحشر المرء مع من أحب
Yuhshar al-maruw ma` man ahab.
Each person will be resurrected with the one he loves.
And I am speaking: if someone shows love to Prophet (s), this is the ittiba`, this is the...because you cannot show love to someone if you don’t like his way, so you follow. One salawaat on Prophet (s) is enough to put you in that circle of ittiba` and because of the fire all around you it will save you, one salawaat! Allah has ordered angels and mu`min to follow because Allah loves Prophet (s), so what did He order the angels? Make salawaat! So if we really love Allah, what do we have to do? Make salawaat on Prophet (s) and then you will be there!
So salawaat on the Prophet (s) will take you from the fire of this dunya life to a clean Heavenly Life. Even if you are immersed in sins, the salawaat will pick you up and put you in a spiritual way. You don’t see it, you don’t see it because your heart is veiled, but it is there. It dresses you and the Prophet (s) presents you to Allah (swt) every day. Now that constant struggle in a life where you are immersed in fire of this life and yet trying to be someone good, is an immense fitna, test, and an immense struggle.
I was surprised to see how big scholars from 700 years ago, 800 years ago, 1,000 years ago were living and Grandshaykh (q) was doing seclusion for five years continuously, not seeing anyone, not seeing anyone during those five years and only eating seven olives and one piece of bread as big as the hand in 24 hours, drinking water as much as he liked, doing seclusion for five years, not sitting with anyone. He was sitting, but not with human beings; he was sitting with subtle Creation. He was sitting, of course, with awliyaullah and with the Prophet (s). So you can imagine how that small area he was in, a cave or a room, and how difficult it was, but you cannot really taste it. No taste. You can read a book, but it has no taste. You like the poetry, you like what they say, but you forget it. But when you see and taste, then you can understand.
With Mawlana’s order, not permission, but order, which is more than permission, he said to me to go to India, “Go to India!” And people, when you say, “India,” you want to go where there are Muslim people. And I asked and they prepared a program in the south of India and then I asked, “Where are awliya?” and they said there are many awliyaullah on the north side. So now there was a choice: to go to people and sit with them or to go to these saints. I said, “We go to the north,” and we went. I am not going to describe all of what we saw, but I will describe two, but let me say that they died, some of them 700 years ago. And their shrines, maqaams, are full of visitors from around the world, not only Muslim, but non-Muslims: Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, they come and visit the maqaam of that wali. Who is attracting them? Some say they don’t have a life in the Barzakh. How, if they don’t have life, do they attract them? They come in thousands, thousands of people visiting and coming, and reading Surat al-Fatihah or making du`a, and those who are not Muslim coming and standing like something pulled them. And then you will be amazed how they are pulled to come and visit them. If these people were not alive in dunya and not alive in Barzakh life, in the grave life, people would not come. Maybe ten, fifteen or twenty visitors or tourists would visit the shrines, but to come like that, in thousands, and making du`a and prayers and recitation of Holy Qur'an outside, and sitting in their masjid, and sitting in the maqaam on the other side, that is something you cannot understand! But we saw that and that was the first one, Shaykh Nizamuddin Chisti (q).
Then we visited some more maqaams; in Delhi there were three or four of the Naqshbandi Golden Chain, like Nur Muhammad Badawani (q), Habeebullah Jan-i-Janan (q), `Abdullah ad-Dahlawi (q). Then they said we have to go up (further north), so we were driving six hours and then we saw Ahmad Farooqi Sirhindi (q) and Muhammad Ma`soom (q) and Sayfuddin Noor Muhammad (q). And it was similar there, people coming from everywhere!
But what I saw, what we saw, when we were coming out, one man came, his name is Saajid, and he said, “Come, come!” He was a Hindu who became Muslim and in this trip we gave shahadah to perhaps five or six or seven people. So that Saajid who was Hindu and became Muslim said, “Come, this is the place Muhammad Ma`soom (q) used to do seclusions.” We looked and this (much space) was the floor where we were standing and in front of us was a small door, but you cannot enter straight, you have to bend all the way down and go in, and there are stairs that go all the way underground about 15 meters, about 45 feet, with no light, nothing. And it was not open, for how many years? [70 years.] For 70 years they didn’t open it, they closed it. The last khaadim, servant for that maqaam locked it, and I asked for it to be opened. I said some words, they liked it, and they opened it.
When you go down there is no air, only a little bit and it was dark, but subhaan-Allah, it was as if there was light. We went down and it was as big as this sajaadah where he sat and prayed. That was his seclusion. As big as this and (the floor was) stone. He was praying down there; he prayed down and ate down and didn’t go up for years and years. And he was a big scholar, `alim of Shari`ah, but this was to teach his ego, “You don’t deserve except this. You want to kill me? No, I will kill you here!” It is a struggle between the self and the ego, not whatever the ego wants you give!
Shari`ah is not that simple, because it has to go along with Tarbiyyat an-Nafs, how to raise what we call in Arabic an-nafs at-tifl al-madhmooma, that is the young child that his ego has been poisoned. Because awliyaullah describe that our ego is like a child that has been brought up on these bad characteristics and that is why you have to cut them down. So we were going and they invited us for some tea and that same Saajid said, “Come, come there is more.” We went and it was another cave, that one deeper and this one very deep. And also they hadn’t opened it, but in this one were too many insects, ants and spiders. They don’t open it and you could see them at the door of the entrance, all the worms, ants, spiders, you could see them moving, but they didn’t go far, only one foot away and then back, as if that was their limit which they could not pass. They are providers. In your eyes you see them as ants, but in reality they are jinn who are protecting the maqaam. So we asked them to open it and they said, “Yes, but on your responsibility.”
You have to pass through these ants saying, “A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani 'r-rajeem. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem,” bowing, putting your heads down, and you go backwards, you cannot go from the front because you have to turn and go backwards. And we reached down. It was different from the other one. There was one place where he sat and prayed and on the other side there are two rooms, about 3x3, very small, and two sides that students might come down to sit with him. And all of those who came down were full of animals on their body and finally one big spider came and he said, “Okay, pray quickly and we go up.” So we prayed and then everyone was happy, some going up, some going down, and everyone was happy because it was opened.
How were they able to do that? And today if we don’t have a carpet we complain, if we don’t have water we complain! How were they making wudu? And how were they living with these ants, if we don’t say jinn, how were they living with this? And when we went up, everyone was killing ants on their pants and shirts; they came from everywhere. Then I went to one of the bathrooms, took everything and cleaned everything away, then wearing everything and going up, and still they were attacking me! I found them in the khuffs were they had gone inside and then they began to come out one after one.
It is the land of awliya. More than fifteen we visited. And Saajid said, “There is one more I have to show you.” And no one wanted to go, the roads were bad, but he took us and we were driving two hours and we lost the way between the fields. And finally we reached a cemetery and beside it a nice masjid, very nice old, old masjid and they were fixing it. It was in a Hindu village on top of the mountain and you can see the whole area down. And you looked at the graves and they are old-style graves, very long, because in the time before Islam, in the time of Sayyidina Nuh (a), Sayyidina Musa (a), Sayyidina Yusha (a), their graves are very long, like ten or fifteen meters, and there were nine of them: nine prophets’ meters. And that will explain the ayah of the Holy Qur'an:
وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا رُسُلًا مِّن قَبْلِكَ مِنْهُم مَّن قَصَصْنَا عَلَيْكَ وَمِنْهُم مَّن لَّمْ نَقْصُصْ عَلَيْكَ وَمَا كَانَ لِرَسُولٍ أَنْ يَأْتِيَ بِآيَةٍ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ
Wa laqad arsalna rusoolan min qablika minhum man qasasna `alayka wa minhum man lam naqsus `alayka. Wa maa kaana li rasoolin an yaatiya bi ayaatin illa bi-idhni Allahi.
And, indeed, (O Muhammad,) We sent forth Prophets before your time; some of them We have mentioned to you and some of them We have not mentioned to you. And it was not given to any Prophet to bring forth a miracle other than by God’s Permission. (Surat al-Ghaafir, 40:78)
“Some of the prophets We have told you about and some of them We have not told you about because it is not necessary.” Prophet (s) knows because he was given `Uloom al-Awwaleen wa ‘l-Aakhireen, Knowledge of Firsts and Lasts, and of all prophets under him. But Allah is Just and He sent prophets in that part of the world, but it was not mentioned except in that ayah: “Some We told you about, some We didn’t.” So there are nine prophets and Saajid said, “In the same cemetery there are in total 24, but we cannot locate them yet,” so there must be somewhere 15 and these are nine on top of the mountain. Sirhind is a land of pious, sincere servants of Allah who brought Shaykh Ahmad Sirhind (q), who wrote Maktubat, and many awliyaullah came there.
So we go back to where we began. It is not easy to be a shaykh that, when you sit in his presence, there will be a special manifestation that comes different every time and you will be dressed with it, and in Judgment Day you will appear with all these medallions because of the barakah of that ittib`a an-Nabi (s) by coming and sitting in the presence of that full shaykh. And as I said in the beginning, every circle of dhikrullah has its own taste even if you mention the same things, but the taste is different and you will not know it until it opens to your heart. Awliyaullah recommend to attend dhikrullah every week in order that you will be dressed with that. They don’t want more than that, and of course that you fulfill your obligations in Islam, but today we are burning in a fire of sins.
Regarding such associations, the hadith from Sayyidina `Abdullah ibn `Umar (r)
إِذَا مَرَرْتُمْ بِرِيَاضِ الْجَنَّةِ فَارْتَعُوا "قَالَ وَمَا رِيَاضُ الْجَنَّةِ قَالَ " حِلَقُ الذِّكْرِ
who reported that the Prophet (s) said, "When you pass by the gardens of Paradise, avail yourselves of them." The Companions asked, "What are the gardens of Paradise, O Messenger of Allah?" He replied, "The circles of dhikr. There are roaming angels of Allah who go about looking for the circles of dhikr and when they find them they surround them closely." (Tirmidhi)
“If you pass by Paradises, heavenly Paradises sit in it.” And they said, “Yaa Rasoolullah, how are these Paradises from Heaven?” He (s) said, “The circles of remembrance.” And this is a circle of remembrance, or any circle that is for Allah and His Prophet (s) that is a circle of `ilm and knowledge, but it differs from shaykh to shaykh: one shaykh is using a rocket and one shaykh is using a plane, so which one is quicker? The one who has a rocket. The plane is okay, it is still better than a car, and a car is better than a truck, and a truck is better than a camel, and a camel is better than a lamb as the lamb will break his back! Wa min Allahi ‘t-tawfeeq bi hurmati ‘l-Fatihah.
I was going to mention a story, but my eyeglasses (to read with) stayed back so we changed, they changed, but I can mention a little bit. Adab. Tariqah is built on adab. I am not speaking...too many people speak on issues that are very important, like fiqh and hadith, but not too many touch on tasawwuf. So Mawlana, may Allah grant him long life, always from when he was young, in his 40s when we knew him and Grandshaykh (q), before they stressed on adab and tasawwuf, on discipline:
أدبني ربي فأحسن تأديبي
Adabanee rabbee fa’ahsana taa'deebee.
My Lord perfected my good manners and conduct. (Ibn `Asaakir)
That adab that Allah taught the Prophet (s) and dressed him with, that’s what we need to learn. And everything has adab. For example, that food like that is nicely packed, nicely put in plates, that is adab, respecting the food, but it is not adab because they are on the floor; they have to be raised from the floor, then it is adab. So everything, like your turban, you have to give it adab in the way to present it nicely. So everything has adab.
Sayyidina Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q) was moving with his followers in Bukhara and one of his main mureeds that was with him long time…look, some times you have to be careful with shuyookh, you cannot hurt them, because if you hurt them they hurt you, they don’t hurt you, but by Gheeratullah, (Allah’s Possessiveness) they don’t hurt you but with Allah’s Love to them, His caring for them will hit you if you didn’t keep your adab and your limit. That mureed was with him walking and Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q) passed by someone who was very well known and had millions of students in Bukhara at that time. Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q) was passing from the alley and the other one was coming from other end of alley and they met. So Sayyidina Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q) walked with him about three meters, accompanying him and talking with him, and then they separated.
Then one of the mureeds of Sayyidina Shah Naqshband (q) said, “This is one of the big scholars and I think Sayyidina Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q) did not give him enough respect.” So he went and accompanied him another few meters, then came back to Sayyidina Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q).
And Sayyidina Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q) said to him, “Where you went? You show more `ilm than me? According to what is in the Preserved Tablets, I walked with him, but you walked with him with your ego. You are not my mureed anymore, go away.”
For one small mistake! How many of these do we do a day? Especially when I say to this one, “Do this,” he gives me a hundred answers here, and this one, where is the other one? With me no problem, but with Mawlana Shaykh (q), I want to send (this mureed) there and see how long he survives! This one can manage. So adab is important and today there is no adab with young ones in the school, in the university, to their teachers, to their friends, no adab. They put their feet on the table facing their teachers. Can the teacher say anything? Nothing. That’s no adab. May Allah teach us adab and keep us in the circle of awliyaullah!
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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