[Suhbah in progress.] To worship and avoid falling into the traps of Shaytan is more effective than to sit and think, "I am sitting in dhikrullah." No! When you have this intention in your heart, as soon as you finish dhikrullah you go and attack other people that's the problem. This group was very supportive of each other and now fitna is entering. I can point to the people who are making fitna, but I don't want to. It's enough!
Allah (swt) said in the Holy Qur'an:
كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللّهِ
You were the best of Nations evolved for Mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong and believing in Allah. (Surat Aali-`Imraan, 3:110)
You have to keep this in your heart: Allah praised it, keep the honor Allah gave us, don’t backbite each other! If you see people backbiting, forget about them, leave them alone, try to come out of it. Don't be partners in backbiting! Why are people suffering everywhere? Because they are backbiting each other. Everyone wants to sit on the chair, thinking he owns the chair, but no one owns it, Allah has the Kursiyy and the Throne, He owns everything! May Allah forgive and bless us. Don't look at others, look at yourself! Do you think you are clean? Can anyone here raise his hand and say, "I have no sins?" No way!
Abu Yazid al-Bistami (q) was one of the great scholars and Sufis of Islam, and Tasawwuf and Maqaam al-Ihsaan are the core of Islam. In his time, suddenly the rain stopped in the village and in two or three months everything died, not like today when you have fridges and freezers to preserve food, everything was dead. The respected, sincere people got together and said, "Let us go to Abu Yazid al-Bistami to ask him to make du`a that Allah showers us with rain."
They went to him in the well where he did dhikr and said, "Yaa Abu Yazid, we are dying up here and you are happy in the well. Come out and make du`a for Allah (swt) to send us rain and the best for us to live or else everyone will die."
He said, "Leave me alone, look after yourself. I am enjoying myself here. You want dunya, but it is going away from you because you are not following Allah’s order to not backbite! You are spiritually bankrupt; however, I will do this but need someone pious to say ‘Ameen’ when I make the du`a. That person must check that he did not commit any sin in his life. If you find someone like that, I will make du`a."
Today when we make du`a everyone is silent, I don't understand it, is it not? Some in the congregation say “Ameen” but some don't. Why don't you say, “Ameen”? They say it’s hidden, but a du`a has to be aloud, not silent; dhikr can be silent, yes. The people went around the village looking, they didn't cheat at that time, and they found one person who said, "I will go, I didn't sin."
If Sayyid Abu Yazid al-Bistami (q) would ask us, all of us would say we don’t have any sins! Ameen. People came to Abu Yazid al-Bistami (q), very happy. Allah was teaching them through their own people, both good and bad. If the good ones say “Ameen” Allah will accept. We are the bad ones, we have to admit that we all have sins, no one can say, "I don't have sins." If you acknowledge you have sins, what must you do? You have to keep busy making istighfaar and then you won't find time to backbite and throw accusations around, not even if you see something wrong. Allah’s Beautiful Name is as-Sattar, The Veiler; He is veiling us from sins on the Day of Judgement because He loves Ummat an-Nabi (s). That's why He (swt) said, “You were the best of Nations evolved for Mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong and believing in Allah.” He is praising Ummat an-Nabi (s), not because we are doing well, but He cares for us because of Prophet (s): what Prophet (s) loves Allah loves, and Prophet (s) loves his Ummah, so Allah loves his Ummah.
They brought that man to Abu Yazid (q) and he exclaimed, "You claim you didn't sin in your entire life?"
He said, "No, only one time I sinned."
He admitted it, are we admitting? Allah is as-Sattar, He veils our sins inshaa-Allah and forgives us. This is a true story. He was a very pious person in the village.
He said, "One Jumu'ah I was going for prayer from my house to the masjid and my eyes were always following where to put my footsteps, not looking left and right."
Today we look left and right. Wherever you move your gaze you sin, but what can you do? Allah forgives us, may Allah forgive us. Shaykh or not, as you are walking you are facing forbiddens in everything, is it correct? Going to the mall has become a necessity, you have to go there to buy something and Shaytan traps us. When you enter the mall, say, “Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadu ‘r-Rasoolullah, yaa Rabbee ‘ghfir lee.” Allah is Ghafoor ar-Raheem and you are not sinning on purpose, both men and women.
He said, “I left my home to go to Jumu'ah and on the way I passed by a house and I don't know why but I turned my face towards the house and saw the underwear of a lady hanging to dry. I said to myself, ‘This is my sin, I did a sin. I saw underwear of a female hanging on the washing line to dry in the sun!’ So I went back home, I was struggling with myself that my eye committed a sin. My right eye was first to look. So I lit some charcoal and put a skewer in it until it became hot, then I took it and pierced my eye for looking at something forbidden.” See, this story is to give us a lesson that sincere people they hold religion very firmly, to that extent in the past. Allah Ghafoor ar-Raheem!
Prophet (s) said, yassiroo wa laa tu’assiroo:
يسروا ولا تعسروا
Make things easy, do not make things difficult. (Bukhari, Muslim)
It is not necessary to pierce your eye with a skewer, just say, "Yaa Rabbee, forgive me."
Shaykh Abu Yazid al-Bistami (q) said to him, "O my son, you are the one who will say ‘ameen.’ Come down with me in the well."
As Abu Yazid al-Bistami (q) made du`a and the man was saying, “Ameen!” the rain began to fill the rivers and did not stop for seven days, like when I went with Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) to Mecca for Hajj in 1967. We were in ihraam, we had arrived in Mecca and went directly to Ka`bah to perform Tawwafu ‘l-Qudoom, the Circumambulation of Arrival. We began the tawaaf from Baab as-Salaam, saying, “Bismillah, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar.” We were looking at the Ka`bah. When we pray here we look at the place where we put our head, at our sajda, but in tawaaf and when you pray in the Haraam you have to look at the Ka`bah all the time. We completed the first three tawaafs, and in the fourth tawaaf we stopped by Baab al-Multazam, where people put their hands and chest on the Holy Door. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) put his chest on the door and said, "Yaa Rabbee! We are coming from a distant place, we are coming to Your Mercy, so shower us."
The temperature was around 50 degrees Celsius, about 130 Fahrenheit. Our heads were boiling! Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) said, "We are boiling, yaa Rabbee, shower us." He trembled very strongly. I looked around and thought, “Where is it going to shower?” There were no clouds, only heavy sand and everyone was boiling; many people were taken to hospital for heat stroke. Then suddenly it began to thunder, then clouds gathered and during the fourth tawaaf it began to rain and filled the floor of the Ka`bah, with water reaching up to our chests! We ran up the stairs facing Ka`bah and stood there, because the water continued to rise. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) said, "Yaa Rabbee, I didn't ask You to drown us, I asked for You to shower us." [Laughter.] Then subhaanAllah, all Mecca was full of water; no cars could move for 24 hours. Slowly, slowly the water seeped away so we continued our tawaaf.
Yes, when someone knows Allah knows best, although he might make mistakes he tries to be good, and to be good is to acknowledge one's mistakes and ask forgiveness from those whom one has hurt. There are some people in this group that have hurt others and that is not nice. They have to apologize and confess they did wrong. Allah is The One that Knows Best. Whatever the circumstances were, you have to go and apologize or else in Akhirah those whom you injured will take all your hasanaat.
أتدرون ما المفلس؟ قالوا: المفلس فينا من لا درهم له ولا متاع، فقال: إن المفلس من أمتي يأتي يوم القيامة بصلاة، وصيام، وزكاة، ويأتي قد شتم هذا، وقذف هذا، وأكل مال هذا، وسفك دم هذا، وضرب هذا، فيعطى هذا من حسناته، وهذا من حسناته، فإن فنيت حسناته قبل أن يقضى ما عليه أخذ من خطاياهم فطرحت عليه، ثم طرح في النار
The Prophet (s) said: Do you know who the muflis (bankrupt one) is? The muflis from my Ummah is one who comes on the Day of Judgment having performed prayer, fasting and giving zakaat. However, along with all of this, he abused this person and slandered that person, ate the wealth of this person and unlawfully spilled the blood of that person. These people will take from his good deeds. If, however, his good deeds become exhausted, then their sins will be put upon him and he will be thrown into the Fire.
(Tirmidhi)
“The oppressed will take all hasanaat from the oppressor.” Don't leave it to Akhirah, go and repent, acknowledge your mistake! Those who are here, tell those who are not present this it is what they must do by any means: ask forgiveness, repent and don't interfere in other people's problems, interfere with your own problems. Look at your home, at yourself, look at your “inn,” heart, don't look at someone else! To be sincere is to look like that man: he wanted to take his eye out with a skewer because he saw underwear, although he didn't see a woman! He didn't do it intentionally, but still believed it was a sin. To atone, he punched his eye. For Ummat an-Nabi (s), the last Ummah, Prophet (s) said about us:
عن أنس بن مالك قال: قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: متى ألقى أحبابي؟ فقال أصحابه: بأبينا أنت وأمنا، أو لسنا أحبابك؟ فقال: "أنتم أصحابي، أحبابي: قوم لم يروني، وآمنوا بي، وأنا إليهم بالأشواق أكثر"
“Matta alqaa ahbaabee? When will I meet my lovers?” They said, “Are we not your lovers?” and the Prophet (s) said, “No, you are my Companions. My lovers are those who believed in me and didn't see me, and I am so in love with them, I want to see them.” (Abu Shaykh)
“In the Last Days there will come people who are my ahbaabi, my lovers who believed in me and they did not see me," which is this Ummah now, so keep that honor, don't destroy it! Those who heard this message should tell those who did not hear it: you have to apologize and acknowledge. I am going to check if they apologize or not. I give them one week's notice to apologize and ask forgiveness or else in the Day of Judgement they will be responsible for themselves! We are not in need of anything from you, as Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q), may Allah bless him, said in California when he came first visit in 1991. He was there when we were in Nassir’s house, and what did he say? [Prophet (s) is enough for Grandshaykh (q) and Grandshaykh (q) is enough for me.] Ya`nee, they are supported, we are supported. We lean on him, he leans on Prophet (s) and Prophet (s) leans on Allah (swt). He said, "He is enough for me, enough for Shaykh Hisham, enough for me and him, enough for Grandshaykh, enough for Prophet," getting from Allah (swt) through that chain.
I know everything and I keep quiet, but now it is reaching its maximum limit. So you don't need to think too much. Days are coming and everyone knows his limit. Man `arafa haddahu waqafa `indahu, “Who knows his limits stands by his limits.” Stand by your limits, don't cross them! You are not a Wali to cross the limit, you are not `alim to know what is right and what is wrong. When you cross the limit you are responsible, so don't cross the limit Allah gave you by trying to promote something to divide the community, for what? Yesterday during dhikr one person came and sat on a chair in the back by the door. He was passing business cards to people attending dhikr, telling them about his center, inviting people to go make dhikr there with him, and for what? Take them all! Allah will send those who say, "Okay, we'll go." Get the clean ones, but no one went with him. There are such people who try to divide the small group for nothing.
I am not interested to come here. You went with me to Malaysia, how many people were there? [A million.] They come for lectures. In India, how many (people came)? [More than millions.] They come for barakah, they feel the necessity for it. Here people are spoiled, these countries are spoiled. Now there are `ulama who attack each other. I don't want to give names, but one `alim from here, one from there, speaking about this or that one to minimize each other's influence, for what? We like to support `ulama, not to make gossips against them.
I am not speaking to this group now, I am speaking about what is happening there. Before you could hear about many conferences and lectures from Habib Ali al-Jifri or `Umar bin Hafiz, but now some are humiliating them, trying to take their voice and power. Everyone knows who it is, but I am not mentioning his name; he was a nurse before, so you guess. Why? To try to sit on the throne. Take it! One day that person is Ikhwaan (al-Muslimeen), another day Wahhabi, one day you are Salafi, one day you are Ahlu 's-Sunnah wa 'l-Jama`ah, one day you are Sufi, they change like a chameleon. Where he can influence he influences and Allah doesn't like that, so don't be like that. We are people of dhikrullah. If you are free, keep yourself busy with dhikrullah.
We are now issuing a restraining order against the one that came yesterday so that he cannot come to this place. They don't understand except like that.
One day while Sayyidina `Umar (r) was calling the adhaan, the unbelievers sent their children to attack Prophet (s)! He (r) asked the Prophet (s), "Are we on Haqq or baatil?"
Prophet (s) said, "We are on Haqq."
He said, "Then why are we keeping quiet? Let's come up."
So he went up to the roof of the house and called the adhaan. The unbelievers sent their children to throw stones at him. As he called adhaan, he was identifying the children. When he went down he attacked all their parents and gave them a lesson in tarbiyyah. They became Muslims, but you have to be strong. We are supported by Awliyaullah, we are strong because of them, but Allah knows best the hikmah, wisdom why this happened. Prophet (s) mentioned this kind of fitna will come in the Last Days,
May Allah forgive us, bless us and support us. Ramadan is coming. If you hurt or wronged anyone, make sure to ask forgiveness and apologize in the nicest way you can to take away that enmity and animosity. It is better for you to receive Ramadan with a pure heart.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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