Ati` Allah wa ati` ar-rasula wa uli 'l-amri minkum.
Obey Allah, obey the Prophet and those who are on authority. [4:59]
Advice is not an easy task, and guidance is more difficult than advice. Advice is something that you learn you study, and you give advice to people. They like it, they like it, they don’t like it, it is up to them.
But guidance is something that people have to touch on it and look on it very well. May Allah give long life to Mawlana Shaykh Nazim. He is under a very heavy task.
It is not an easy task that Allah has put him in. people might, anyone might, if there is a scholar who knows too many knowledge might be scholars get jealous from each other, o if I was like him, I would have studied and I would have been a scholar and so on. But for a guide it is better not to be jealous and to say I wish to be like him. Because it is not something in your hand or his hand or your hand or anyone’s hand. Guidance is a very big responsibility that Allah put his awliyaullah under it. Guidance is when a wali receives maqam al irshad - the station of guidance - he is under responsibility to Allah and to the Prophet to present his mureeds clean every 24 hours to the presence of Sayyidina Muhammad .
So it is not something that is enjoyable, no, it is something… that is why you see sometimes Mawlana Shaykh is like you cannot approach, he is dressing that majestic dress. You feel him he is under a big majestic power that you run away from his presence. One time I was passing in Grandshaykh time he has his zawiya on the top floor, but to pass his zawiya you have to pass by a room that he used to use as a living room and he used to sit there sometimes you have to pass it and one day I was passing and as soon as I reach the window I said, let me look inside because Grandshaykh was sitting inside. And sometimes we peek on Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, you don’t sometimes peek from the door. to look to see what he is doing? Don’t you see him sometimes lying down, and how is he lying down? Every morning, every time after ishraq [shows lying back with mouth open and arms spread.] at that moment his soul is not in his body, his soul is gone to presence of the Prophet , at that time if you happen to be around, don’t bother but keep around because you will get the baraka of the presence where he is.
So one time, Grandshaykh, may Allah bless his soul, we were sitting in his presence and there were only 3 people and my brother and someone else, and suddenly Grandshaykh said, "Now the Prophet appeared to me from this wall and the wall was gone and the Prophet appeared and for some guidance to give to me." And immediately - I was sitting by the wall - I stood up and touched the wall and I kissed the wall and Grandshaykh said to me, "you kissed the Prophet ."
Awliayullah you think they are in your presence and they are not in your presence. And one time I was passing the window, and I said, let me look. And then I said, “O it is not adab to look”, and I was arguing with myself: “look? not look? Look! not look!” What do you think I did? I looked!
He was sitting on his couch (shows eyes closed mouth open, arms by his sides) similar of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim. And there was light coming from his eyes like a laser beam. As soon as I looked, this light like a slap, came, and threw me out from the stairs! As if to say it now I am trembling, remembering that. It means "what is your concern to look inside? You have no right to look inside!" But I was happy because I took the advantage, and I looked and if I didn’t look I would never have saw that light. So here you have two, it plays double ways. In one issue you don’t need to look and in one you look to gain something, at least you gain that light and you see the strength of awliyaullah, when they are not present. In reality they are there, so you see them not present but they. What they have been dressed by the Prophet (sa)…
I took these examples to speak about guidance. Advice - you can advise anyone. Scholars are advising people, they listen they listen, they don’t listen, they don’t listen. But guidance - no way. Guidance is responsibility to take your hand to take you on a journey to the presence of the Prophet . Else you will not leave dunya. Don’t think you will not leave dunya before seeing the Prophet. That is one of basic principles of guidance. They took an `ahad (oath) from the Prophet that anyone who took initiation with them, they have to see the Prophet when they are passing away. There are others who can see the Prophet whenever the Prophet wants. There are others who are able to see Prophet when they request to see, and there are others who are always in presence of the Prophet .
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, may Allah bless his soul and give him long life, one time me and my brother, Grandshaykh ordered us to go for hajj. It was 1967. It was the year that Grandshaykh came out from seclusion. That means he ordered us to go for our second hajj and he ordered Mawlana Shaykh Nazim to go with us and at that time Mawlana Shaykh Nazim used to take pilgrims from
And I am sharing this with you, not speaking of guidance, but sharing these small stories. And I am from one month putting these stories I am giving them in
Grandshaykh said to Shaykh Nazim, "Give them from the private associations suhbat, that I gave to you in seclusion. Explain to them from these knowledges, nothing else, only these ones that are very, very private." We were so excited me and my brother Shaykh Adnan. I was at that time maybe 23 and my brother Shaykh Adnan was maybe 21 and we were anxious for that day to come. And Mawlana Shaykh went to
So Grandshaykh said, "When you go to Abbas Qaari, tell him to put him in the room I did seclusion in it – that room was a little larger. And not the room Shaykh Nazim did it in, which was very small.…." We went to Abbas Qaari and said “This is what Grandshaykh said.” He said, “Ok, do you have a letter?” We had no letter, only Grandshaykh's words to us. Anyway there was someone in that room, so he wants to cut us, [in order] not to ask. So he said, “Ok I have a place for you.” We said, “Ok let us see that place.” He took us to see it. And there was someone there. He said, “I don’t have any place except one place,” and I thought it will be the toilet. There is no place except on the roof. On the roof he has all the goats and his sheep living there. And he said, “I have place here for you and your brother until Shaykh Nazim comes. We said “where?” He said, “You see this roof here and the neighbor’s roof. There is between them a bridge.” Really it was a bridge, not wider than this piece of fabric. I get one mattress for you and one for your brother, one behind the other. And we looked and what you think we did? And everywhere there are lizards living there and goats and sheep there. Is it not... in these countries you see lot of these lizards. We looked me and my brother and you step on the bridge and the bridge is shaking. And there is space between the steps. You look down - it is 3 floors. So we said, “Ok.” So they brought the mattress and they brought the sheets and they brought the pillows. You see these sheets are white. The sheets there were not white… but they were black from dirt.
We stayed there 7 days. We didn’t go to a hotel; we didn’t go anywhere else.
After 7 days we saw Mawlana Shaykh coming and he said, "What are you doing here?" We said, "You know best."
You cannot say in front of your shaykh to show you know something. When it comes to dunya knowledge don’t say to the Shaykh “you now best,” when he asks you. When the Shaykh asks you spiritual things say you know best, adab. Dont say you know better. Of course he knows better. Allah didn’t ask Sayyidina Musa “what is in your hand?” Of course He knows.
Many times when Shaykh asks people say “you know best.” If he knows best why he will ask? Of course he knows best. But why he has to use his power, his energy. Like someone who wants to kill an ant uses a rocket. For dunya issues, answer. Akhira issues, don’t answer. Don’t show `ilm. Many people begin to tell the shaykh this answer and that is bad adab.
So he looked and said “What are you doing here?” What we are doing here? We came here or you sent us. He said, “Ok you come with me; it is enough.”
It was a test. It is something we never imagined, the first time going for hajj and we never saw such kind of harshness in our life because alhamdulillah my father one of the very rich people in
Sometimes you are going find heavy situation. Sometimes people live high life standard and something happens and they go crazy. They want to bring you down, down, down until you become zero. Zero is still not yet …zero still exists. It means you did not yet submit. Submission must be lower than zero, Ya Marwan. At-Taslimiyya al-mutlaqa. Absolute submission is not zero. People make the mistake when they say zero, that is still number. There is minus one, there is minus 2 there is minus 5. there is minus minus. When they asked to know the smallest fraction of a second, scientists, when they wanted to know what is the smallest division of a second. Where is that lady, she is a physicist. That young lady is very clever. That is why they say, “behind every good man is a wise woman.”
So they are studying time which has no dimensions. 4th dimension, not like 3 dimensions of the universe. So they cut time down, and they cut it -1, -2, -3… up to 10-22. can you read that number point 000000 then one after 22 zeros.
There everything is submitting to Allah just energy. There is no more existence of time there anymore, only energy. Time is even gone. So awliyaullah go up to the power of 10-22 [ten to the minus twenty-two] up to that zero, zero, until they reach the station of complete immersion in the ocean of energy. ..there are 124,000 wali, that means it goes up to 144,000 after zero. 0.0000 124,000, the wali that reached that level of submission will be Sultan al-Awliya in presence of the Prophet. So we must be lucky, not because we did something. What we did is garbage. Allah swt does what He likes; He chose that group and dumped it in the
So that Sultan came and said, “What are you doing here?” And he … all these lizards coming and going. But SubhanAllah not one lizard came on us. Some of them are dangerous. The breath, they make you white that poison when they touch you, that comes from them, abrasa - leprosy. So they were running around between these two building and these lizards going up and going down. Because they closed the Masjid an-Nabawi at night, they close it so we went back to the madrasa, but what to do there in the day. So we stay there and until they close it.
So Mawlana Shaykh said, “Come down.” And who was there? Abbas Qaari. And they planned it. And he was waiting there with the key for Grandshaykh’s room. There was no one there. They want to first cut you down. They will… the doctor will first take the dummal, some people they have on their skin a small lump. They take it first, then they clean that spot that is left. So that big lump is like a big hump. Our hump like a camel. A camel cannot see his hump. The camel thinks he is the most beautiful giraffe in the world. He sees the giraffe and he see himself and thinks he is the most beautiful giraffe in the world. Then like you; a big hump you have. Yes, you there. We have a big hump and we think we are giraffes, or we think we are deer. We think we are beautiful. People look at our hump and say like this one like the one on Notre Dame he had a big hump on his back and he was thinking himself the most beautiful.
Then he opened the room and it was very nice room and you can see the lights coming out of that room.
That was Friday morning, it was Thursday evening and we went to Fajr with Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, and there was not like today, I am speaking about 57 years ago. There was only the old original mosque and Maktab Sayyidina `Umar and in front of it was Maktabat Othmanli, full of books there. Manuscripts, very old. And there was not like today, between the end of the Masjid and the Holy Grave of Prophet and the outside where the imam stands now there was a wal. If you go outside now you see a huge are but before there was a street facing a library `Arif Hikmat library from Ottoman times and some bushes and yasmin (jasmine) trees and there was something closed like a mihraab, it has a door from iron and it can fit 4, 5 people there. And Mawlana Shaykh Nazim took us there and it was like ishraq time and he was showing us and he said, Grandshaykh may Allah bless his soul, and now Mawlana Shaykh Nazim is saying, the first time that I met with Sayyidina Mahdi was here in that place.
He brought me there, I don’t know how many years ago, to pray with him and to pray with Mahdi . And he said, the first thing I am going to do, is to pray with both you in that place, I be imam and you follow. And as soon as he said, Allahu Akbar that whole thing disappeared and what we saw? We saw Ka`aba there. And around Ka`aba 40 caliphs of Mahdi and 59 deputies, each one under one of the 99 Asma’ullah al-Husna and there was Mahdi there was the presence of the Prophet . And Mawlana Shaykh said, “here I am renewing your baya`.” And after we said as-salam alaykum wa rahmatullah. And we took baya` with Mahdi there. Grandshaykh never gave baya`. He only gave baya` for two, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim and Mawlana Shaykh Husayn. In the presence of Sayyidina Mahdi , in the presence of Sayyidina Muhammad and in the presence of 99 caliphas and wazirs, we gave baya`. There. We said, “If that is beginning what will be the end?”
We did that and then we left and we went back to the room and we were in same room with Mawlana Shaykh Nazim. The rest of pilgrims were distributed in the building in different rooms. This is first time I am saying that, no one heard this before. And for 14 days we were there and every day Shaykh Nazim was giving 3 suhbats lectures, one before Fajr we go for tahajjud and one
And what I can say now, that they are under big responsibility we go back to the beginning. People don’t see these things. People see Mawlana with us, Grandshaykh with us. This is what we know. But other than us, Mawlana Shaykh Husayn knows more people that are awliya and Shaykh Nazim knows others, of course. We saw only these two that are awliyaullah but they know many and we saw around Mawlana Shaykh many of them.
He taught for 14 days principles. That is why I say what they are carrying mountains cannot carry. That is why it is very difficult to approach the Shaykh an out of ignorance we are approaching too much and we sit around and we are happy. But adab is run away. One mistake cannot be forgiven. Not by Shaykh, but by Allah. Shaykh will forgive. But Allah doesn’t like his saints to be harmed in their hearts.
And he said, and this is because it is also going on internet, but to show how difficult is adab at-tariqah, he said, "It is more easy, but you don’t have to take it, O we have to do it because the shaykh said it is easy, but this is relatively speaking, that it is very easy for the shaykh to help his mureed to ask forgiveness if he did even a big sin, it is easy on the heart of the shaykh and easy to make it to be waived away but it is very difficult on the heart of the shaykh if the mureed has a doubt about his shaykh, even a smallest doubt it is heavier,..." I don’t know if I say it here. Because he is taping. You say it because you don’t do it. Even if you do 12,000 kaba’ir it is more easier for the shaykh to waive them for you than for him to remove the one doubt you have in your shaykh. That is why he said, "Guidance is not a simple issue. Guidance means they are taking responsibility.:
That is why one time, not one time, but many times, I used to stay in the same room with Mawlana Shaykh Nazim and they give us one room. I cannot sleep all night. Because… I am saying my experience. How am I going to sleep and lose my wudu in his presence. I am not able, not able to sleep and we were sleeping on same bed sometime. And I cannot move on the bed. I tell Mawlana I sleep on the floor and he says no. and all night I am not able to move to avoid disturbing him and because he is in presence of the Prophet . It means the whole area becomes a holy area. Like the mihraab of Sayyida Maryam:
كُلَّمَا دَخَلَ عَلَيْهَا زَكَرِيَّا الْمِحْرَابَ وَجَدَ عِندَهَا رِزْقاً قَالَ يَا مَرْيَمُ أَنَّى لَكِ هَـذَا قَالَتْ هُوَ مِنْ عِندِ اللّهِ إنَّ اللّهَ يَرْزُقُ مَن يَشَاء بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ
wakaffalaha Zakariyya kullama dakhala `alayha Zakariyya almihraba wajada `indaha rizqan qala ya maryamu anna laki hatha qaalat huwa min `indi Allahi inna Allaha yarzuqu man yashao bighayri hisabin
To the care of Zakariya was she assigned. Every time that he entered (Her) chamber to see her, He found her supplied with sustenance. He said: "O Mary! Whence (comes) this to you?" She said: "From Allah. for Allah Provides sustenance to whom He pleases without measure."
So what did Sayyidina Zakariyya do? He went to her mihraab, her room and asked Allah to give him Yahya. When he was 90 years of age. So adab with shaykh is so critical and so delicate. They are carrying that responsibility and it is not an easy task. So our duty is that they are carrying us, alhamdulillah but as much as we keep space in between it is better. Because some people think they are so close to the shaykh so they lose respect. So Grandshaykh many,many times, may Allah bless his soul, he said many people come in and many people going, he said, “Don’t look at the way I am treating my family and the way they are treating me. I have to give them normal life.”
The prophet accepted and gave normal life with his wife and his family. So awliyaullah when someone look into their homes that I s dangerous. Because many doubt come. As Mawlana used to make a mathal: zur khuban tazdad hubban. Visit .. there is an animal, you see him come out and run away inside in the ground. It means come, quickly the shaykh and run. More loves comes to you. But to be there all the time is more dangerous. So some people in presence of the Shaykh all the time think they are doing big favors for the shaykh. No they are ruining themselves and they are losing respect. So guidance is not so easy it is so difficult for the Shaykh. So we must be very happy that Allah has guide us to be with Mawlana Shaykh instead of to be with someone else.
Mawlana was I saw him when he was young and I was young and I saw his respect ot everyone and his love to everyone, may Allah give him long life and give us long life to see Mahdi and to be dunya and akhira with them and for all Mawlana’s mureeds to give them happiness in their lives.
I was sitting with him before I came and I was sitting upstairs with him, and Hajjah [Nazihe, Shaykh Hisham's wife and daughter of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim] was there and Ruqiyya [Shaykh Nazim's other daughter] was there and he said to me, “SubhanAllah, what I am taking more than this soup, and I am having this soup and I am having that clothes, why I have to keep money?” He gives. He showed me his book. How much he has took and how much he gave. You cannot imagine. “So what I will do with it? I take it with me? No I give fee sabeelillah.”
Awliyaullah have a way of expressing themselves that mureeds cannot understand. And I look at myself and say, “what I am going to take from this dunya?”
Onassis what he has? He was the richest one [in his time] and he saw his son crashing the helicopter down on the boat when he was landing.
Alexander he told his ministers, “When I am passing away you put my hands out of the coffin.” They said, “How can we put your hands out of the coffin?” He said, “No you put my hands out of my coffin when you are taking me to the grave. I want people to know that Alexander who conquered the dunya is taking nothing with him to the grave.”
We go we run and … we hope Allah will keep us on right track and keep us with his awliya and not be left alone. May Allah forgive us and bless us and Mawlana Shaykh is expecting this year heavy problems, big problems and he is expecting what the Prophet mentioned about the signs of Last Days that many of them are going to happen and he is asking for Mahdi to come, ... Sayyidina Mahdi , the grandchild of the Prophet is coming with heavenly support ...He is coming to bring the real message of the Prophet and of Qur’an - love of Allah and love of Qur’an and only by saying “Allahu Akbar.” And we are saying also “Allahu Akbar,” imitating Sayyidina Mahdi. And expecting soon as much as possible, that happiness and peace comes on earth in preparing for Sayyidina `Isa to come and in preparing for our last days to come on earth to be taken with iman.
Thank you Dr. Fatima. Allah bless you and bless your house and your son. Everyone came and you did it for Allah. It is written there nasrun min Allah wa fathun qareeb – support from Allah and a near opening.” Insha-Allah always be like that Allah open to our heart the importance of our Shaykh and the importance to be in presence of Sayyidina Muhammad .