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Recitation of “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem”

Solves Problems!

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

8 October 2011 Burton, Michigan

Suhbah at As-Siddiq Mosque

Dastoor yaa Sayyidee, madad.

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`ala fee haadha 'l-masjid.

kaleemataan khafeefataan `alaa ‘l-lisaan...

The Prophet (s) said:

الدين يصيحة

ad-deenu naseeha,

Religion is advice.

It means everyone has to listen to advice because not everyone is perfect, and to be perfect is not easy. So everyone of us makes mistakes that need advice: children, teenagers, adults, elderly people and also shaykhs make mistakes. Only the Prophet (s) and all other prophets are ma`soom, infallible, with no mistakes; there is no way they made mistakes!

So other than the Prophet (s), everyone will makes mistakes and commit sins. The biggest mistake that all of us are in is very simple: we are lazy, we don't like to do anything. If we can find someone who will allow us to lay down twenty-four hours and feed us food, we would be happy! Shaytan doesn't want you to be active, he wants you to be inactive, although he is active and doesn't have a moment to rest. He doesn't like to sleep; he is running after us to make us to fall into his traps.

And because we are lazy, sometimes it is good to sleep twenty-four hours because then we don't sin, but that is also nuqsaaniyya, a deficiency.

The Prophet (s) said, ad-deenu naseeha, “Religion is advise.” “Deen” means anything you are living, as Allah sent you to this world to make `ibadah.

وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ مَا أُرِيدُ مِنْهُم مِّن رِّزْقٍ وَمَا أُرِيدُ أَن يُطْعِمُونِ

Wa maa khalaqtu‘l-jinna wal-insa illa lee y`abudoo maa ureedoo minhum min rizqin wa maa ureedoo an yut`imoon.

I have only created jinn and men so that they may worship Me. No sustenance do I require of them, nor do I require that they should feed Me. (Surat adh-Dhariyat, 51:56-57)

Allah (swt) is saying, “I honored human beings so I will provide for them, but all I want from them is to worship Me.”

Worship has many categories: to be a good person, to smile all the time, to help others and to complete your obligations, the five daily prayers, etc. You must not be lazy and you must accept others’ opinions; you must have good character and good behavior: don’t lie, steal or do things people don’t like.

‏‏ انما بعثت لاتمم مكارم الاخلاق

Innamaa bu`ithtu li utimu makaarim al-akhlaaq.

I have been sent to perfect the best of conduct (to perfect your behavior and character). (Bazzar)

That means besides worshipping, fasting, giving zakaat, charity, going to hajj, accepting His Oneness and declaring that He is our Creator, the Prophet (s) said, “I have been sent to perfect your human behavior, for you to have good manners.” Let all of us ask ourselves, do we have good manners? We do not, but we are struggling to achieve that. So what we need to do when we struggle is to remember Allah (swt) and the means He gave us, the word that we can say that will make Him happy and prevent us falling into the trap of Shaytan.

The first of the things that keeps Shaytan away is if you have ablution all the time. When you know your ablution is gone, go make another one. Remain in ablution all day on ablution until you sleep. Keeping ablution gives you awareness and is an alarm system that prevents Shaytan from coming into your house, which is your heart. When you have ablution, Shaytan cannot approach as Allah (swt) prevents him, but we are not keeping that; some are and some are not. Because we are lazy we don't want to make ablution.

Grandshaykh, may Allah bless his soul, said, “The power of ablution is such that if for forty days you keep it day and night, Shaytan is not able to approach you.” It means to be awake at night (only in seclusion) then after forty nights you will never need to sleep because Shaytan is not able to approach you for forty days, he surrenders. But you need to do that, so that for every moment of these forty days you are never without ablution and after forty days you don't need to sleep.

Also in a different way, Grandshaykh (q) said, “If you don't want to fall into the sleepless hands, i.e. be lazy, whenever you feel sleepy make ablution and pray two raka`ats and it will wake you up. Then after half-an-hour, when you feel sleepy take ablution, then maintain that for forty days and afterwards you will never need to sleep.” The need to sleep will be taken away, because it saves us from our imperfections, our sins. Therefore, Allah (swt) gave us eight hours to sleep so that at least we don't bother anyone! When you sleep six, seven or eight hours with ablution and two raka`ats prayer, for every breath Allah creates an angel that is praying on the Prophet (s), and that reward is given to you and will eat the sins you commit during the day!

Allah (swt) wants us to feel and to know that deen, religion, is an advice. If you don't want to listen to advice, what is the benefit of your life? The Prophet (s) said, ad-deenu naseeha, “Religion is advice.” Allah (swt) gave us one sentence that He likes to hear from His servants. Last time we spoke about “laa ilaaha illa-Llah” and I don't know how many of you made notes on that; most of us forgot about it. Why? When we go to university, we study there from the professor and take notes, in order to study after and then we never forget, but in religion we don't bother; who cares?!

But the Prophet (s) said, “ad-deenu naseeha,” and Allah gave us Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem, “In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.” You are saying, “In His Name, the Most Beneficent the Most Merciful” and beginning your `amal--cooking, study, whatever you are doing--with “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem.”

Before saying what is the benefit of that, it is narrated that Jabir ibn `Abdullah (r) said, “When ‘Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem’ descended on His Prophet (s) and on Earth

كل عمل لم يبدأ باسم الله فهو أبتر

kullu `amalim lam yabtadi Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem fa huwa abtar

Whatever deed you do without reciting Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem, at the end you will find that deed difficult.

It means, if you want to open an office, say, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem,” and when you close your office say, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem.” Starting a new project, going home, leaving work, going to your car, say “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem,” otherwise your `amal that day has no value, it is abtar, Allah will not bless you in what you do that day.

عن جابر بن عبد الله قال: لما نزل ( بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَـنِ الرَّحِيمِ ) هرب الغيم إلى المشرق وسكنت الرياح ،وهاج البحر وأصغت البهائم بآذانها، ورجمت الشياطين من السماء، وحلف الله تعالى بعزته وجلاله أن لا يسمى اسمه على شيء إلا بارك فيه

When Allah revealed Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem on this universe, harab al-ghaym ila ’l-mashriq. The clouds we see above Earth might not be clouds, because when Allah (swt) said, "Be!" to this Universe, scientists say that it was in a gaseous state that was moving quickly, and when Allah revealed that ghaym, the gas began to move east, but then there was no east or west, no north or south. Then Allah revealed Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem, and different directions appeared. Then, as the cloud moved, pushed by gases and certain heavenly winds’ force, that first push for the universe to appear was, Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem. The push stopped, however, sakanat ar-reeh, the clouds moved.

and Allah said:

وَكَانَ عَرْشُهُ عَلَى الْمَاء

Wa kaana `arshahu `ala al-maa.

And His Throne on the water. (Hud, 11:7)

When that was created. That is related by Jaabir (r).

وَجَعَلْنَا مِنَ الْمَاء كُلَّ شَيْءٍ حَيٍّ

wa ja`alna min al-maa'i kulla shay’in hayy.

We made from water every living thing. (Al-Anbiya, 21:30)

When you sleep with your wife (have relations), you must say, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem,” or the child that comes in that moment will have deficiencies in his life, in worship and many other things. So in whatever you do, start by saying, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem.” When you wake up and before you sleep, you must say, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem. ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammad Rasoolullah.”

Allah gave His Oath that anything on which you read “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem” will receive barakah, so don't come and say, “I have a problem.” Everyone has problems! Say, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem,” and Allah (swt) will solve your problems!

Sayyidina ibn Mas`ud (r), one of the biggest Sahaabi of the Prophet (s), said, “Allah appointed nineteen different spiritual beings to the Hellfire, angels from whom people are so afraid because they make sure everyone deserving punishment is punished. However, if you recite “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem,” Allah will save you from punishment and those nineteen angels will not touch you.”

Are we saying, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem.” Say it now, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem! In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent,the Most Merciful!” If you say that, how can He punish you? We pray, “O Allah! Don't send punishment on my family, on my father, mother, brother, sister.” Don't ask Allah (swt) to harm anyone, like they declare now in Middle East protest marches, arhal, “go away!” to the tyrant. Don't create confusion. Pray for the tyrant sultan to change from tyranny to good, don't create bloodshed and tyranny in the country.

If anyone wants to save himself from the punishment of the nineteen angels, are you witnesses, they are merciful with you if you recite often, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem.” Allah will make a Paradise for you all of the nineteen (Arabic) letters of “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem.” Nineteen letters and nineteen angels of punishment, and every one of them stops, and Allah gives you nineteen paradises! Say, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem,” and each time another nineteen paradises are granted, over and over again!

So what have we learned here today? To say, Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem. Grandshaykh (q) used to tell the story of one man in his village and you know his village always had snow on the top of the mountain. The man was a gangster, in the full meaning of the word, killing, robbing, raping, everything. He married as no one could refuse him their daughter or he would kill them! After he got married, one month later he died and they buried him in the cemetery. However, snow would not remain on his grave, it always melted, and people heard a moan coming day and night from his grave, like someone sick.

Eight months later, his wife gave birth to a boy child that grew slowly. His mother was an innocent lady and he was an innocent child, but because of the father’s reputation no one helped her, and then her father and mother died, and she begged here and there to feed her child. The child grew one, two, three years and finally he reached seven years. She sent him to school in the village, but no one would accept him in their school because he was the son of that gangster. Finally one pious man began to teach him, first to say, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem, Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem, Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem,” all day, until school finished and he sent him home.

As Grandshaykh (q) said, the village people no longer heard moaning from that boy’s father's grave, and snow began to accumulate on it. They realized that because of the son was reciting, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem, In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Beneficent,” how could Allah (swt) continue that punishment? Allah (swt) said, “When his son is calling on Me, do I punish him?” That gangster was forgiven! Awliyaullah in that area say he was forgiven because his son said, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem,” and the snow started accumulating and became normal. The father came in a dream to the teacher and thanked him for teaching his son to recite, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem.”

Inshaa-Allah next time we will continue to discuss the baraka of Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem. Don't forget to recite, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem,” as it saves us from difficulties. That is why recitation of “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem dhalika taqdeeru ’l-`Azeezu ’l-`Aleem” is part of the daily awraad.

Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.

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