Audhu billahi min ash-shaytan ir-rajeem Bismillahi ir-Rahman ir-Raheem
Ati` Allah wa ati` ar-rasula wa uli’l amri minkum.
Obey Allah; obey the prophet and those in authority among you.
As we said in the previous session of the series, that human beings nature is built up on mistakes and if it was not built on mistakes then Sayyidina Adam would never have made a mistake by Iblees whispering in his ear and he ate from the tree which was forbidden. And he was a prophet. But he was ma`sum, so he repented and Allah forgave him.
So our nature is to always be doing sins, not in our nature, in our nature he created us perfect and revealed to us what is good and what is bad.
فَأَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَاهَا
Fa-alhamaha fujooraha wa taqwaha
And He inspired us to do the good and to avoid the bad.
But how we know we are defective, we like mistakes. We run towards the bad quickly and we never run towards the good. That is why we are khataa’oon, in Arabic, the ones who always make mistakes. So to eliminate these mistakes from yourself is to follow a guide. Without a guide it is impossible to be able to learn or to be able to understand. You can learn the theory but you don’t have the practice. With a guide you can practice the reality of taste of eliminating the sins and eliminate the bad from the self. That is why we see that many wise men would put their followers in severe training in order to teach them the real life, the real life of the journey that you are asking to follow. The example of that difficult journey of following a shaykh, a guide in order to show you the way, is that when Bayazid al-Bistami his mother sent him to study when he was young. She sent him to a school to study and the teacher, on the first day, was reciting the verse of Surah Luqman
وَوَصَّيْنَا الْإِنسَانَ بِوَالِدَيْهِ حَمَلَتْهُ أُمُّهُ وَهْنًا عَلَى وَهْنٍ وَفِصَالُهُ فِي عَامَيْنِ أَنِ اشْكُرْ لِي وَلِوَالِدَيْكَ إِلَيَّ الْمَصِيرُ
wa wasayna al-insan bi walidayhi ihsanan hamalathu ummuhu wahnan `ala wahnin Fisalihi fee `amayn an ishkur lee wa li-walidayka ilayya al-maseer
And We have enjoined on man (to be good) to his parents: in travail upon travail did his mother bear him, and in years twain was his weaning: (hear the command), "Show gratitude to Me and to thy parents: to Me is (thy final) Goal. Surah Luqman, 31:14.
That we have in Surah Luqman that Luqman was teaching his son, that Allah advised human beings to look after their parents and to take care of their parents.
We have advised human beings to look after his parents. His mother carried with difficulties.
To carry that difficulties, of a carrying a child means that Allah swt honored her by getting that experience of these difficulties. That is why men are going to be questioned more than women. They have that experience of difficulties, to give birth, they have the experience of pleasure only, they don’t have the experience of difficulties.
w\so when Bayazid heard this verse he left the school immediately and went to his mother. She said to him why are you coming back early. He said I cannot continue now. She said, why, did the teacher scold you, beat you, do anything to you.
No but he recite the verse of Surah Luqman … and to me Allah swt now is saying to take care of you.
Now I am confused, I don’t know what to do. She said, why? He said, because that Allah mentioned in that Surah also:
وَوَصَّيْنَا الْإِنسَانَ بِوَالِدَيْهِ حَمَلَتْهُ أُمُّهُ وَهْنًا عَلَى وَهْنٍ وَفِصَالُهُ فِي عَامَيْنِ أَنِ اشْكُرْ لِي وَلِوَالِدَيْكَ إِلَيَّ الْمَصِيرُ
Wa wassayna al-insana bi walidayhi hamalathu ummuhu wahnan `ala wahnin wa fisaluhu fee `amayni ani ushkur lee wa li-walidayka ilayya al-maseer
And We have enjoined on man (to be good) to his parents: in travail upon travail did his mother bear him, and in years twain was his weaning: (hear the command), "Show gratitude to Me and to thy parents: to Me is (thy final) Goal. Surah Luqman, 31:14.
To me is the end destiny. He is asking me to do my responsibility towards my parents and he is asking me to do the responsibility towards him so now I have you and I have him. And I cannot be protector to two homes. I have only one heart. I can protect one place. I cannot protect two places. I am not an ADT Awliya Defense Technology. I am not ADT. Advanced Defense Technology. Also Awliya Defense Technology. I can take care of my home only. I cannot take care of two places. I am coming to you O my mother, if you release me from my responsibility to wards you, and will be at that time able to look after my responsibility towards my Lord. So you have to ask on my behalf to your Lord to release me from my responsibility to you in order to focus on my responsibility to my Lord.
That is what we call a spiritual trance that he was in it when he was young. Who can think like that? When she saw that in him, she began to cry. She said, “O my son I am releasing you from my responsibility. Go in your way and feel free to protect your house, the house of Allah, the house where Allah said:
يقول الله : ما وسعني أرضي ولا سمائي ولكن وسعني قلب عبدي المؤمن
ma wasi`anee samaee wa la ardi wa lakin wasi`anee qalbee abdee al-mu'min - My sky could not contain Me nor My earth, but the heart of My believing servant contained Me.” You are right you cannot divide your attention to two; your focus must be one.”
Who has that kind of experience from us as Bayazid had? He was feeling that responsibility. That is why he doesn’t want to be away from his Lord one second. That is a perfect guide. That is what we need, to accompany a perfect guide.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ اتَّقُواْ اللّهَ وَكُونُواْ مَعَ الصَّادِقِينَ
“O you who believe be pious and accompany trustworthy people.” At-Tauba [9:119]
You cannot be like that but accompany them.
At that moment Sayyidina Bayazid al-Bistami was able to direct his heart completely, so before that he was not able to go to his Lord to make his mother happy.
Who among us is making his mother happy? He says at sixteen I am leaving and gong to live in dorms.
If his mother did not say I am releasing you he is never going to leave. Look how much the respect for the mother in the heart of awliya. That is what the Prophet said, “paradise is under feet of mothers.”
He knew, that paradise, make your mother happy and you will end in paradise. She knows her responsibility to her Lord also. She will say yes, go find your way to the Lord. Not to make her happy by going to disco and nightclubs. But make her happy to guide her to go to your Lord.
So he went as ibnat `Imran, the mother of the Virgin Mary, when she said, ":
إِذْ قَالَتِ امْرَأَةُ عِمْرَانَ رَبِّ إِنِّي نَذَرْتُ لَكَ مَا فِي بَطْنِي مُحَرَّرًا فَتَقَبَّلْ مِنِّي إِنَّكَ أَنتَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ
Idh qalati imraatu `imrana rabbi innee nathartu laka ma fee batnee muharraran fa taqabbal minnee innaka anta as-samee`u al-`aleem
Behold! a woman of 'Imran said: "O my Lord! I do dedicate unto Thee what is in my womb for Thy special service: So accept this of me: For Thou hearest and knowest all things."
“ya Rabbee, I am making an oath making that child that is in my belly for your free, to go in your way.” When she delivered she brought a girl and said I brought a girl. Even a girl, I am giving in your way. She released her, even though she was a girl. Allah made that girl mother of Sayyidina `Isa. She was provided her provision in her niche without running after it.
So when Sayyidina Bayazid al-Bistami reached that level, got form his mother that permission, he was always looking to the best way to make his Lord happy.
And to make his Lord happy he said, "Ya Rabbee I am coming to Your door.” At the beginning of his life, he said “Allah made me to be standing at the door of scholars,” as he was a very big `alim in his life. He said, "I accompanied `ulama for along time and I learned from them, every different kind of Shariah-wise I learned from them. Until my self, my ego began to tell me that now you reached the highest level of knowledge and you don’t need more than that. And you became a Gnostic in the highest level of Gnosticism. As I was in that ascension of knowledge and Gnosticism, I reached a place where I saw too many like me standing at that door waiting for it to open. Too many of these ulama and Gnostics, many of them standing in the same place and it is too crowded and I cannot find the way to reach the door. Like when you go to any place and you see a long queue, you cannot reach. There was no queue there, all of them behind each other, running behind that door to be the first to enter. Wa lam ara li nafsee mawdi`..”
“I didn’t find a place to put my feet due to their great number. I said it is impossible to get in. so what when people find a big queue?”
When there is traffic jam? They look for a back way. Already from that way to heavy traffic, many `ulama, all of them want to fight for it. All of them were big rooster peacocks.
We are explaining how to be a perfect shaykh. This comes to your understanding that you have to follow a perfect one. Alhamdulillah that Allah guided us to Shaykh Nazim the perfect guide, waliullah.
“I did not find a way to reach and I left and did not reach the Divine Presence. So I realized that wisdom that `ilm and ma`rifah knowledge, and Gnosticism, divine understanding, without a reality in it, without a taste in it, it is not considered anything. Because I was thinking that the reality is in knowledge and progress (ijtihad) but I found that is not the truth. Because I found that what I was doing is like what everyone is doing and still the door is shut and too many standing at that door.”
“So I realized I didn’t reach the truth, the haqiqat, `ilm al-yaqeen, `ayn al-yaqeen, haqq al-yaqeen. To reach the reality, knowledge of certainty, eye of certainty, reality of reality.”
“I knew that still is another way. So I began to hit the backroads. I found myself following now those people who are worshippers, they always constantly pray and fast. Al-musaleen fil-jama`at. They come to every prayer and I never missed even the first takbir of my five in jama`at for a long time. As soon as the imam says Allahu Akbar I am there, five times a day. Until I had a vision that I am with a huge crowd at a similar door to that of the ulama and at that door all in prostration and I am in prostration with them and the door didn’t open either and I couldn’t find a place to put my head.”
“Now too many again, behind the imam, praying their five prayers, sitting there in prostration. I have no place to put my head, I cannot enter. When I saw that I began to go away and I left them, knowing I would never reach that door. So I said, I will go with the sa’imoon, so I began to fast the whole year and I began to eat with them and drink with them at iftar and sahoor at Fajr and Maghrib. Until I found myself at the door of subh people and with them a huge crowd of fasting people and I didn’t find a place to put my feet.”
“Those who were fasting day and continuing in the night, but I found many and I did not find a place to put my feet and I began slowly to go away and I left.”
“I went to Makkah, and began to make tawaaf around the Ka`ba, for many many years, with every pilgrim that comes there, with every visitor that comes there and I was doing tawaaf with everyone for a long time, until I had a vision that I am at a similar door, with all these pilgrims standing in line there but I have no place to put my feet and all these people standing at that door asking it to be opened.”
“Allah showed me in that vision, that they are standing at that door, Labayk Allahuma labayk, labayk la shareek la… coming from every farthest place min kulli fajin `ameeq, putting ihram and coming to house of Allah and asking, and I saw them at that door and too many of them. So I backed up and I didn’t reach the Divine Presence of my Lord. That door never opened.”
“Then He put me with those who are struggling against their egos, jihad an–nafs and I was fighting along with the others who were fighting sitting in association and trying to reach as much as they can. And then I found myself at a similar door, with all of them standing there, carrying their spiritual swords against their egos, but there were too many of them so I backed up and I didn’t reach my Lord’s Divine Presence.”
“Then I realized this is not going to be the way, that there is something else destined for me. I went into my room, my prayer niche and I said, O my Lord; send your mercy on me. I am confused. I don’t know what to do. Put me in a situation there is no competition, as I cannot compete. Competition is difficult. For when you are gong to compete with other people it means you are building up more your arrogance to reach the goal you are asking. I cannot compete with all these different kinds of people we have mentioned already. Put me in a place where there is not too much competition and in a place where there is not too much traffic. Don’t put in a place that people have already surpassed me they were stronger than me and they moved forward quickly and I cannot pass them.”
“I was asking with a burning heart, until I heard a voice, saying ya Bayazid. And He said, that voice said, ‘ya Bayazid, no one can approach Me with something that does not belong to Me. You have to approach Me with something that belongs to Me.’”
He said, ‘you cannot come with something that is not for Me. You have to come with something that is not My description.’”
I will explain later what that means. That means something that only belongs to human beings, to creation, the Lord is above that. Not belonging to Lordship.
“’You have to come through something on that way. Worship is for Me, fasting is for Me, there is extra things that are for Me, you have to come to Me through those that belong to human beings that taste and that experience is what you have to use to approach Me.’”
Bayazid said, “O Allah what is that thing that is not for you that I can come with it? And you will not let anyone reach you without coming with it. Teach me. I heard a voice saying ya Bayazid, ‘laysa lee fakatun wa la faqrun. I don’t need necessity and I am not poor.’ Allah is al-Ghanee, He is the Rich. Faqr cannot be used to describe Allah. Poverty cannot be used to describe Allah. You can describe Allah with poverty but only with richness, you cannot describe him with faaka, needfulness. You have to come through that. There is nothing I am in need of from creation and I have nothing to do with poverty. If anyone wants to come to Me, then this is the way to come. I said, ‘Ya Rabbee, show me these people who are poor in poverty and they are in need and you are not in need for them.’”
“I looked and I saw they are very few people who are poor in poverty and very few that are coming to their Lord asking him through their needs.”
“I reached and found that they are at a similar door like the other doors, but they are very few and there is much space for me to stand there.”
People don’t want to be poor. They want to be always rich. That is why poor people don’t approach, their mind is playing with them, shaytan, you have to be rich, and you have to be riche. So I was thinking, is that poverty what is meant? Spiritual poverty or physical poverty.
“I saw no one by that door, so it cannot be physical poverty for there are many poor around the world; instead it is the spiritual poverty. I am poor ya Rabbee, I am coming with complete helplessness to Your door, not like peacock scholars, not like fasting people not like hajji people who come and write by their names ‘hajj’ so and so.
Some one who throws everything on the side and came to his Lord with poverty. Means not carrying with anything form this dunya. Coming to Allah with pure purity. He didn’t find too many. He said I am happy now, not too many.
Then he said, "Now you have to experience poverty." That is a theory only. Go and make yourself a dumpster to my servants. Carry their difficulties and their garbage. Poverty teaches humbleness. Homeless people go in garbage cans in street, just like cats. They are happy with whatever they find. These homeless people Allah gave them that no pride no arrogance. They go and eat from the garbage and Allah gives them immunity to all the illnesses from what is there. We cannot eat that, we are very delicate. If anyone ate from a spoon we cannot eat from it. If anyone touched it they can eat from it.
These people are immune from all these sickness. They are experiencing poverty Allah gave them immunity from sickness immunity from Shaytan. You don’t see that. They go and find a piece of apple; they clean it off and then eat it.
“’Go and be dumpster, show your complete humbleness and poverty to Me then I open My door.’”
“From that moment that I decided to be a dumpster for all human beings and I gave my promise to my Lord that Ya Allah I will come to you from poverty and weakness to You.”
From that moment every movement became a karamah. These miracles no one can reach except he who accepts to show weakness and helplessness and to show he is poor to his Lord and show patience on it. This shows us how much a perfect guide has to go through experiences in order to reach Allah’s door.
Allah said:
وَاللَّهُ الْغَنِيُّ وَأَنتُمُ الْفُقَرَاء وَإِن تَتَوَلَّوْا يَسْتَبْدِلْ قَوْمًا غَيْرَكُمْ ثُمَّ لَا يَكُونُوا أَمْثَالَكُمْ
w’Allahu alghaniyyu waantumu alfuqarao wain tatawallaw yastabdil qawman ghayrakum thumma la yakoonoo amthalakum
But Allah is free of all wants, and it is ye that are needy. If ye turn back (from the Path), He will substitute in your stead another people; then they would not be like you! Surah Muhammad, 47:38.
Allah is rich and you are poor and if you are not happy Allah will take you and bring another people in place of you. It is not up to you to accept.
So Bayazid al-Bistami accepted that and that is why he became a perfect guide. Poverty here is what makes you to reach your Lord through humility. Not with a head that is always up but with a head that is always down. This is the importance of to reach a perfect guide - to guide you to what is needed and what is wanted from you in order to reach that door that they reached a similar door. You don’t want to be at the door that you cannot put your feet, though you must do your five pillars.
Those doing shahada were standing at the door of shahada. Then those doing salaat were standing at the door of salaat. Those fasting at the door of fasting. Those who perform hajj were standing at the door of pilgrimage.
But the door doesn’t open. That you reach only by the door of humility. May Allah help us and bless us and bless this meeting.
Bi-hurmatil-Fatiha.