North Watford Mosque
Shaykh `Ali Elseyed Introduction
Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani is known as “Thamir al-Haqq” and another of his titles is “`Awn Allah as-Sakhawi”. According to Mawlana Shaykh Nazim’s words, he is, and you can go on YouTube.com and hear Mawlana Shaykh Nazim telling Shaykh Adnan that Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani is one of the Qutbs, Qutb al-Mutassarif. Out of 124,000 saints five are of the highest level and one of them is sitting here among us.
Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani
Salaam ‘alaykum wa rahmatullahi ta`ala wa barakaatuh. It is always a pleasure to be here in this masjid, a masjid that is full of light and iman and a masjid that I like. That is why I asked to today …I would like to thank brother … director and chairman of the …
Awliyaullah, it is not easy to be a wali and it is not easy to be ??. I know what `Ali said is out of love, but I would be very happy if I can be a dust on the shoes of our shaykh. That is my request of them, for awliyaullah to petition for me to be a dust on their shoes and to be, and I know my place is not here, my place is at the door asking permission to enter, but it is very difficult.
How to Reach Allah?
Sayyidina Bayazid al-Bistami (q) wanted to enter, but he was trying with no success. He was asking, “Yaa Rabbee, kayfa al-wusoolu ilayk, How can I come to You, how can I enter to Your presence? How can I be a sincere servant to You?”
For many, many years, not for one year or two or three years. He lived a long time and for many years he was crying day and night, asking, “Yaa Rabbee, how can I come to You?” He was someone that knew the Sunnah of the Prophet (s) and followed the orders that Allah (swt) has sent with His Messenger, the Holy Qur’an. So all his time he used to be in a dry well, making his `ibaadah in it, not caring for what is going outside in dunya, not caring about his rizq as Allah will send his rizq, so he was caring about his love and for Allah (swt) to accept him.
How Sayyidina Bayazid Ended the Drought of His People
One day of his days in the well making dhikr and reading Holy Qur’an and reading salawaat on the Prophet (s), someone came to him from the village and said, “Yaa Aba Yazeed! The people are outside suffering, there is too much drought. The don’t have food to eat. Come and pray for Allah (swt) that He will take that drought away. Please come out.”
He said, “No way that I will come out,” because he wanted to give an example to himself and others. In every movement we make there must be wisdom. Who brought these people here tonight?. For sure it was love of the Prophet (s), the love of Allah (swt).
After they tried many times to get him to come, he said, “I will not come out, but in order for me to make du`a for you, you must find someone who can say, ‘Ameen’ and he must be someone who did not do a sin in his life, and all his life has been dedicated to the Holy Qur’an and to Shari`ah, the constitution of Allah (swt) and the Sunnah of the Prophet (s).”
They looked throughout that city and did not find anyone. Finally they found a person, someone whom today we say he has no mind.
He said, “According to my `ilm, I don’t know `ilmullah and `ilm an-Nabi (s). I might have made a mistake, I don’t know, but to me I did not make a mistake in my life except one time.”
Sayyidina Bayazid said, “What is that one time, people are listening.”
And he said, “Yaa Bayazid. One time I was walking to Jumu`ah from my home, looking only at my feet (not like today, we look right and left and wherever we look we might look at haram. But what can we do, that is the situation we are in we ask forgiveness), and without my irada, will, I looked to my right and I saw the laundry of people hanging out and I saw the laundry of a female. My right eye was the one that saw it first. I went back home and I took a skewer and put it on the fire and I took that skewer and poked my eye out and I asked Allah to forgive me.”
Some people might not understand that here in western countries. Now I am not saying that we have to poke out our eyes or then we need too many skewers, one here and one here and one here [laughter], but we need the skewer of Allah’s repentance, inna huwa ‘l-ghafoor ar-raheem.
Bayazid (q) said, “You are the right one to say ‘ameen’.”
So Sayyidina Bayazid al-Bistami (q) was making du`a and that man was saying “ameen” and rain was coming, filling the whole village and the reservoirs with water. That person was asking the importance of Holy Qur’an and Sunnah in his life; that one whose du`a made the rain to come was asking “O my Lord! How can I reach you?”
He said, kayfa al-wusoolu ilayk, he heard a voice coming through an angel, “Yaa Bayazid! If you want to reach leave your nafs, your self/ego and come.” Leave yourselves! It menas, “If you want to come it is not allowed, you want to come to Me, come with your heart by yourself as there is no ithnayniyya here, there aren’t two here, there is only One.”
When Sayyidina Musa (a) came from Yemen back to Egypt, it was cold where they were camping. He said to his family, “Wait for me, I see a fire, la`alee ajidoo `ala an-naari huda. I might find a piece of wood there for the fire to warm us."
So when he approached, Allah (swt) said, “Yaa Moosa!”
He said, “I am coming towards the fire, seeing the fire of light.”
Allah said, “Yaa Moosa! To where are you coming? You are in the holy valley; take off your shoes, you cannot come with your shoes, your shoes are dirty, don’t come to Me with your shoes, ikhla` na`layk:
فَاخْلَعْ نَعْلَيْكَ إِنَّكَ بِالْوَادِ الْمُقَدَّسِ طُوًى
Verily I am your Lord! Therefore (in My presence) put off your shoes: you are in the sacred valley Tuwa. (Surah TaHa, 20:12)
Take off your shoes: you are in the holy Valley of Toowaa. He took them and …Holy Qur’an? What was his shoes? There must be a symbol. In that time shoes were made with the skin of donkeys, and you know the donkey is ignorant, so it means, “Yaa Moosa, yaa Moosa, don’t come to me with ignorance for I am the Knower! Take your ignorance and come to Me with no nafs, then you will find Me; otherwise, you cannot find Me. Take away what is for dunya and come to Me with knowledge.”
O Muslims! It is not easy to reach where we are aiming. Yes, you are all awliya, all of you, those who come and sit in masaajid listening to what benefits them and benefits their families, Allah (swt) will make them awliyaullah in Akhirah if not in dunya, but they will reach that level because Allah (swt) said:
أَنَا جَلِيْسُ مَنْ ذَكَرَنِي
I sit with him who remembers Me. (Ahmad, Bayhaqi)
“Remember me and I sit with you,” is the literal meaning, but Allah does not physically sit with you, so it means He will bestow on you His mercy: when you remember Him He remembers you, when you praise him He praises you, and when you glorify Him He glorifies you, and when you make salawaat on the Prophet (s) He will send on you ten salawaat!
So Sayyidina Bayazid al-Bistami (q) was able to do all that as he was able to see the door of the Divine Presence, the door that leads to realities, to `Uloom al-Awwaleen wa ‘l-Akhireen, to inherit one drop of that `ilm will drown the whole dunya. The Prophet (s) is speaking, He will be giving but when? Either in dunya or at death, or in the grave or on Judgment Day he will inspire you with that `ilm. So he was able to see the door, we are not able to see the door. Do you see the door? There is a door from which people are going and coming, but there is a heavenly door and he was yatma`, hoping to reach and open that door.
Allah (swt) said, “Leave yourself and come.” And that is not only what He said. “What I want from you is to make yourself mazbalatan li `ibaadee: you have to be where I am the Creator, I created the Creation, I love them because I created them.”
When you have a child, you love the child because you are the father or mother. No person resembles the other, which is Allah’s Greatness, to show you, “I am the Lord, you are the Creation!” To show you, “I am the Creator and I create what I like, everyone unique. If you want to reach Me then carry my servants, be a dump for them, carry them.”
Who can be that? He was tired and he reached, but it is a long story, you say a ‘summary’of what happened? How to make yourself a dump to people. He went into a city, in the alley, he went out of his house, went into the alley and he saw a lady coming, he grabbed her, pushed her in the door and went in. You have to be a dump. How will you be a dump? He thought, this is the best way to be a dump. He took her inside and everyone left him; all his mureeds said, “What kind of shaykh is this? We don't follow him anymore because he does not follow limits of Shari`ah anymore!”
O People! O Muslims, especially mureeds of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, keep Shari`ah in front of you. Tariqah is completion of Shari`ah. Tariqah is good behavior, innama bu`ithtu li utamimu makaarim al-akhlaaq. Tariqah is to have the best manners, but Shari`ah is the basis.
And he opened the door and looked, but only one person was there. He said to him, “What are you doing here?”
He said, “I am waiting for you. I have hot water and towel waiting for you.”
He said, “Where are your friends (other mureeds)?”
He said, “W’allahi, I was busy only with you, I am not busy with what the mureeds are doing. You are the one who sees them, my shaykh. I don’t know about them.”
He said, “You are going to be my khalifah. Come with me,” took him inside his room and said, “This is my sister. I asked her to come in order for people to speak badly about me as then it becomes my responsibility to carry their burdens.”
The duty of shuyukh is not what people think; they have a heavy responsibility. If that is for shuyukh , then what do you think about the Prophet (s)?
The Prophet (s) said:
انما بعثت لاتمم مكارم الاخلاق
Innamaa bu`ithtu li utammimu makaarim al-akhlaaq.
I have been sent to perfect the best of conduct (your behavior and character). (Bazzaar)
O Prophet of Allah! Let us be with you in this life and the Next! That means he took the responsibility of completion, not leaving one person of the Ummah to Shaytan, and he took the responsibility even if that person is not aware, to perfect and complete that person. So that is the meaning in Arabic. That means if he does not complete you, even leaving one percent, he did not complete his mission to the Ummah! With his power, Prophet (s) can read the whole Ummah from beginning to end, he can see each and every one in his holy grave or in his life, in his day, and he will perfect each one, leaving them with no sins on them.
And Allah (swt) said:
وَمَا آتَاكُمُ الرَّسُولُ فَخُذُوهُ وَمَا نَهَاكُمْ عَنْهُ فَانتَهُوا
Leave what Prophet (s) forbade and take what he ordered. (Surat al-Hashr, 59:7)
And bless this evening, don't think it is only half-an-hour, but it is hours and hours we are gathering for dhikrullah!
And Prophet (s) asked for one thing from us. He said:
"إِذَا مَرَرْتُمْ بِرِيَاضِ الْجَنَّةِ فَارْتَعُوا "قَالَ وَمَا رِيَاضُ الْجَنَّةِ قَالَ " حِلَقُ الذِّكْرِ
Ibn `Umar reported that the Prophet (s) said, "When you pass by the Gardens of Paradise, avail yourselves of them." The Companions (r) asked, "What are the Gardens of Paradise, O Messenger of Allah?" He replied, "The circles of dhikr." (Tirmidhi)
May Allah forgive us and forgive everyone.
[Adhaan.]
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