Suhbah at Shah Jehan Mosque
I would also like to thank the audience, because if the audience is not there, what is the value of what the speaker says? Nothing. So I hope I find benefit from your presence.
لا يؤمن أحدكم حتى يحب لأخيه ما يحب لنفسه
laa yu’minu ahadakum hatta yuhibu li akheehi maa yuhibu li nafsih.
(The Prophet [s] said:) You are not able to perfect your faith until you want for your Muslim brother what you want for yourself. (Bukhari)
Allah (swt) does not like people who see themselves as something, which is arrogance; He doesn’t like you to think you know something. All animals have life, but you can't compare an ant to an elephant or to human beings, whom Allah (swt) has honored:
وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِي آدَمَ
Wa laqad karamnaa Bani Adam.
We have honored the Children of Adam. (al-'Israa, 17:70)
وَفَوْقَ كُلِّ ذِي عِلْمٍ عَلِيمٌ
Fawqa kulli dhi `ilmin `aleem.
Above every knower is a (higher) knower. (Yusuf, 12:76)
Above every knower there is a knower, Gnostic above Gnostic, seeker above seeker, so don't claim you are knowing. If you take the awliyaaullah, for example, you can't compare them to other human beings and all of them together can't compare to Prophet (s), who said:
من عرف نفسه فقد عرف ربه
Man `arafa nafsahu faqad `arafa Rabbah.
Who knows his Self knows his Lord.
This means someone who knows his limits, and we must know our limits or we will get fire from Heavens; not like shooting stars, but it is the fire of your heart when it doesn’t reach reality. All of us want to find benefit here, but more than that, we are outside of dunya and have come together for Akhirah. There is no dunya here, only Akhirah; it is a masjid with no computer, movies or TV. We are only trying to understand the greatness of Sayyidina Muhammad (s), and this is what Allah (swt) ordered for humanity. Look at a simple example: how much everyone prays for the shaykh. You like to give to him the highest level of sainthood, saying, “This is my shaykh, ‘Sultan al-Awliya,’” etc. and for all of them it is true. They can say, “Our shaykh is Habeeb,” and that is okay, but he cannot be compared to Prophet (s). Everyone is saying, “My shaykh is the highest, in my opinion.” Yes, but it is said out of love. Allah (swt) has the whole ocean of the highest love for Muhammad (s), so He raised him when there was yet no Creation.
Many people think about this love of Allah (swt) because they are lovers of Prophet (s) and they want to love more, like when you have a sweet taste you keep eating because it is delicious. Also, the Prophet (s) is spicy. What is the meaning here? There are awliyaa who are burned from being close to the Prophet (s); it is burning their hearts and they burn more and more from their love of him. It is like the burning of the Paskistani food, and if they give you a plate of sweets you want more and more. The shaykh takes the spice from the food, eats it and leaves the sweet for you. He understands it is spicy and burns, but the student cannot understand that.
You are ascending, so don't think you are not. Prophet (s) is always ascending and you are all on miraj, going higher and higher, and that mi`raaj will be higher from eating the sweets the shaykh has given you. The shaykh is carrying the flour in order to give this sweet to you. If this is true of the shaykh, then what do you think about the Prophet (s)? There are 124,000 awliyaa and if one dies, another always takes his place. They are from Prophet (s) and, alhamdulillah if the doors are open to find them, because they are hiding themselves.
Imam Busayri (r) said, “Everyone, wa kullun, is taking from Prophet (s),” and, “He is adding more to the one who came before.” This means that which is given in the present time is not just from those in the present, but it is also from those who in the past and those who will come. All the time they are seeking that dot of honey from Prophet (s), the knowledge of Islam hegave to the ummah. “Wa kullun” means not only human beings but jinn also, and the galaxies, stars and everything that Allah created, all of which He gave to Prophet Muhammad (s)! Something that big is beyond the understanding of not only the mind, but also the heart. When Imam Busayri (r) was writing that, he was putting his feet in the light and writing.
Everything, even a small piece of sand, is in need of the Prophet (s) and we cannot say it is dead because it doesn't speak. No, it speaks, because Allah (swt) said in Holy Qur'an:
وَإِن مِّن شَيْءٍ إِلاَّ يُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدَهِ
wa in min shay'in illa yusabihu bihamdih.
And there is not a thing but celebrates His praise! (17:44)
He is assuring that every small atom is praising Allah (swt) in a different way from the other. How many people are here, 400 or 500? We make one tasbeeh that seems the same, but that is not true because my breath is different from your breath, yours from hers and hers from his. When you say, “Allah,” it goes in a different way from your mouth than it goes from mine. The angels sees how it goes from our mouths, how high and perfected the breath is from the sincerity of saying, “Allah.” Immediately it is analyzed, and the rewards that go with it. So when you all say, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah,” there is not one being saying it but 500 different ones. Everyone has said it in a way that is of the level Allah gave to him.
(...) Traditional Islam takes away radicalism, but don't forget that radicalism is in our hearts and our faith; it is in us. Radical Islam is a violent or extreme understanding, and anything extreme is from Shaytan. So are we sometimes in Shaytan’s hands? Of course! Therefore, before we go out to fix something, like when they give grants to fix radical Islam among people, we first have to fix ourselves. When love of Prophet (s) increases, that will balance out any extreme actions. Shaytan always wants to trap and chain us, and Allah (swt) always wants us to be free from him.
Prophet (s) said, “Love the human self and fix it, because Allah (swt) is Just, not unjust.”
We ask His forgiveness, and Mawlana (q) is saying to say it now, “Astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah...wa atoobu ilayh.” That is why you have a teacher, because there are certain times a beautiful manifestation of Allah has to be mentioned. Allahuma salli `alaa Sayyidina Muhummad! You don't know when the door of tawbah will be opened, and you need the shaykh to guide you. For that reason, they gave three times when it is best to do dhikr or pray: three hours before Salaat al-Fajr up to Salaat al-Ishraaq, then Salaat al-`Asr up to Salaat al-Maghrib and Salaat al-Maghrib up to Salaat al-`Ishaa.. May Allah (swt) forgive us and bless us.
Wa in min shay'in illa yusabihu bihamdih, everything is praising, even the sun and even something that looks small but which is a whole universe! Allah created the smallest thing giving praise because Allah created it; that is why we say, “bi hamdih.” Everything is making tasbeeh, but you should understand your own tasbeeh. Do you think that all salt has the same tasbeeh? No, every crystal of salt has its own tasbeeh. Allah (swt) said, “Allah and His angels are making praise on Prophet (s).” It is Allah's order, and He said, “I am sending salawaat on Prophet (s), making him higher and higher, and I am ordering My angels to bow to Adam (a).” When Allah (swt) ordered them to make sajda to Sayyidina Adam (a), they immediately went into sajda. That is a sign of `ubudiyya, worship.
Is there anything in Holy Qur'an where Allah ordered them to come out of sajda? When He said, “Make sajda,” did he order them to come out of it? No. They are still making sajda and salawaat! When He ordered them to make sajda it was salawaat on Prophet (s), whose light is in the forehead of Sayyidina Adam (a) and it is still going today, because He never ordered them to raise their heads. What Mawlana (q) gives of knowledge is more than a book and now there is no other knowledge coming.
When Grandshaykh `AbdAllah al-Fa’iz ad-Daghestani (q) was 18 years old, he was ordered into seclusion for five years with no one seeing him. His wife was ordered to get him food, and from the second floor he knocked and she would bring him a small bowl of lentil soup. When he was finished, she saw he only drank the tea and did not eat the lentils. He did that for five years, and with it he had daily only one piece of bread and seven olives. When he entered seclusion his cheeks were full, he was fat, and when he came out he was as thin as my finger, very slim, because he lost all that weight.
When Grandshaykh (q) finished that seclusion he was ordered to see no one, not even his wife or mother. What a teaching! He was five years in that room with no light, the door closed, with little food and making tasbeeh 24 hours a day. Then he was finished and told, “You are ordered to go for 40 days to listen to that one.” He said, “Forty days passed for me as if it were five years. I had to sit with Shaykh Ahmed Effendi for forty extra days, to listen to a crazy one.” This was to teach patience and how to be alone, because in reality you are not alone in the Divine Presence. And that is not easy to do! They want to teach you patience so they keep cutting you down.
Allah (swt) wanted to teach the angels, saying, “I created you for the love of Prophet (s).” We know that Allah first created the light of Muhammad (s) and from that he created al-Qalam, the Pen, and then from that light He created human beings. The first to be created from that light was the Pen and He ordered it to write, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah,” and for 70,000 years it wrote that. Then Allah (swt) said, “Write, ‘Muhammad’,” and the Pen said, “Who is Muhammad, that you want me to write his name?” Allah (swt) said, “Yaa Qalam! Were it not for Muhammad there would be no Creation!” Then the Pen wrote, “Muhammadun Rasoolullah,” for 70,000 years.
In the books they say that the angels make salawaat on Prophet (s). Do you know the number of angels? You don't know, but we know for every bite of food three-hundred angels come into your system to spread vitality to your body and your organs. For example, so that you know the work of angels, may Allah protect all of us, if someone has kidney disease, he undergoes dialysis with a machine for five or six hours every other day. The machine doesn't know what to take out, so all the vitamins and nutrients are taken out and they have to put them back in. Allah (swt) made a small organ, the kidney, and this big machine is there to replace this small organ.
In the kidney you have one-million holes to purify the blood, and it takes what is good and leaves the rest. We were proud. Allah gave everything to His Prophet (s) for the ummah, and when Allah ordered His angels to make salawaat, remember one kidney has one-million holes and one body has three trillion cells, and every cell is a complete factory to make what is needed for the body, to fight bacteria and viruses, perform security, so if we can't know our body, how can we know about the angels?
Each bite of food has three-hundred attending angels and you eat at least forty bites, multiplied by six-billion human beings, multiply by 365 days for one year, multiply by the average age of seventy years, multiply by all from the time of Adam (a) to see what Allah has created! Every moment an unlimited number of new angels are created! Allah (swt) is al-Khaaliq, The One Who Creates in every fraction of a second. Also, angels don't die until Allah wants them to and all are making salawaat on Prophet (s), so imagine how many salawaats are recited in the fraction of a second and it is non-stop!
This creates more to do salawaat, coming from the first a second, from the second a third, and so forth. All are different, not from a copy machine. Scientists found 6,000 galaxies, and each has at least a billion stars and each star is bigger than our solar system. And this is only what they know! This is for only one small corner of this universe. And all of this is praising Allah (swt), they are all doing salawaat and tasbeeh to Allah (swt).
O Muslims! It is impossible for you to undress yourself, so how can you undress Prophet (s) or Allah (swt)? One Name you can't undress, then what about His infinite number of Names and universes? According to Shari`ah and many scholars of Islam, there are more Names than the ninety-nine, there are infinite Names and all have universes. On the Day of Promises, we have seven spiritual names given to us, and they are connected to the seven Paradises, and all are different from what you were given by your father and mother. So what can we do? We can say, “Yaa Rabbee! We are weak, helpless servants, and You are the One with all the power!” Show complete helplessness, and Allah (swt) will raise you. If you think you are something, Allah (swt) will not be happy.
Remember the story of Sayyidina Sulayman (a), when one ant passed by, and the whole valley was full of millions of ants.
قَالَتْ نَمْلَةٌ يَا أَيُّهَا النَّمْلُ ادْخُلُوا مَسَاكِنَكُمْ لَا يَحْطِمَنَّكُمْ سُلَيْمَانُ وَجُنُودُهُ وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ
Qaalat namlatun yaa ayyuha 'n-namlu 'dkhuloo masaakinakum laa yahtimannakum Sulaymaanu wa junooduhoo wa hum laa yash`uroon.
One of the ants said, "O Ants! Enter your homes unless Sulayman and his armies unknowingly trample you." (Surat an-Naml, 27:18)
One small ant spoke to millions of ants, how did they hear him? What kind of sound system or communication system did Allah (swt) give them? What is our ‘home’? The home of safety, and who is the ‘home of safety’? Muhammad (s)! “Run to Muhammad,” or there is no safety!
قَالَتْ نَمْلَةٌ يَا أَيُّهَا النَّمْلُ ادْخُلُوا مَسَاكِنَكُمْ لَا يَحْطِمَنَّكُمْ سُلَيْمَانُ وَجُنُودُهُ وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ
Qaalat namlatun yaa ayyuha 'n-namlu 'dkhuloo masaakinakum laa yahtimannakum Sulaymaanu wa junooduhoo wa hum laa yash`uroon.
One of the ants said, "O Ants! Enter your homes unless Sulayman and his armies unknowingly trample you." (Surat an-Naml, 27:18)
“Before Sayyidina Sulayman (a) steps on you, enter your homes!” So compared to ants, human beings are ignorant. Run to your home so you are not ignorant! Allah (swt) is teaching us through a small creature, in order to tell us, “Don’t think you have conquered the dunya.” When Alexander the Great died, he said to bury him with his hands out, “To show the people that we take nothing with us.”
The Prophet (s) said:
ينقطع عمل ابن ادم الا من ثلاث: صدقه جاريه; علم ينتفع به; ولد صالح يدعوا له
Yanqati` `amal ibn ’Adam illa min thalath: sadaqatun jaariya wa `ilmun yantafi`u bih wa waladun saalihun yada`u lah.
The deeds of the Children of Sayyidina Adam are cut except three: a flowing donation in Allah’s Way, and some knowledge that you leave behind (that benefits people) and a child who prays for you.
Three things you may do in this life are sadaqatun jaariya, a continuous flowing reward: sadaqah to help build a mosque, if you raise your child well, and knowledge you leave behind from which people benefit. That is why in tariqat, every organization left knowledge behind them and, I say this with sadness, they also left behind them a university to study Qur'an, tafseer, etc. They were anxious to find a foundation to carry their names or that of their teachers. Go put your head underground; that is better for you if you are not better today than yesterday!
Everywhere in Middle East, Pakistan, USA, you see foundations of schools and units, but unfortunately, our brothers and sisters didn't do that. With all that was arranged for them they didn't establish a university of Islam, but they are happy to write “Dergah of Shaykh Nazim.” May Allah give us understanding and prevent us from using Mawlana's name for any other purpose. Do they teach there? Is that what Mawlana wants? Astaghfirullah, they will burn in Hellfire, punished. .. to change them into a place of teaching. And by Mawlana's barakah, we opened centers in Indonesia that have thousands of students, carried for from rich people giving money. They are madrassahs, teaching orphans. Here they refuse to have a place. Alhamdulillah, now here Allah (swt) gave and you are doing your best.
I asked yesterday, are we donkeys? Allah (swt) honored us as human beings to think. We had three big places and a masjid closed in the middle of London, (and whoever is responsible for that) they are going to be punished, even if they open for dhikr, because you can go in your homes for dhikr, but to open a university, to have a building in the middle of London, turn it into a tawheed school, not to open only sometimes! May Allah forgive us, and grant us to be with Prophet (s) and as Prophet (s) said, “I am not asking anything for myself, but take care of my Family!”
May Allah give us a way to have schools for our children so the light of Islam is not lost. May Allah forgive us and forgive them and these beautiful people who are here tonight.
Sayyid ad-Du`a
سيد الدعاء لمولانا الشيخ عبد الله الفاءز الداغستاني قدس الله سرّه :
اللّهم أجعل أوّل مجلسنا هذا صلاحا و أوسطه فلاحا و أخرها.نجاحا. اللّهم أجعل أوّله رحمة و أوسطه نعمةً و أخره تكريمةً ومغفرةً. الحمد لله الّذي توضع كلّ شيء لعظمته و دلّ كل شيء لعزته و خضع كل شيء لملكه و أستسلم كل شيء لقدرته . و الحمد لله الّذي سكن كل شيء لهيبته و اظهر كل سيء بحكمته و تصاغر كل شيء لكبريائه . اللّهم ايقظنا في احبّ ساعة اليك يا ودود.
Allahuma ‘j`al aawwal majlisinaa hadhaa salaahan wa awsatahu falaahan wa aakhirahu najaahan. Allahuma ‘j`al aawwalahu rahmatan wa awsatahu ni`matan wa aakhirahu takreematan wa maghfirah. Alhamdulillahi ’Lladhee tawal`a kulli shayin `adhamatihi wa dalla kulli shayin li-`izzatihi wa khal`a kulli shayin li-mulkihi w’astaslama kulli shayin li-qudratih. Alħamdulillahi ’Lladhee sakana kulli shayin li-haybatihi wa adhhara kulli shayin bi-hikmatihi wa tasaaghara kulli shayin li-kibreeyaa’ihi. Allahuma ayqadhnaa fee ahabbi sa`at ilayk yaa Wadood, yaa Wadood, yaa Wadood! Yaa Dha’l-`arshi’l majeed fa`alun limaa yureed. Hal ataaka hadeethu’l-junooda fira`una wa thamood. Bal’illadheena kafaroo fee takdheebin w’Allahu min waraa’ihim muheet. Bal huwa quraanun majeedun fee lawhin mahfoozh.
O our Lord! Make the beginning of this gathering goodness, its middle happiness, and its end success. O our Lord! Make its beginning mercy, its middle bounty and its ending generosity and forgiveness. All praise be to Allah who humbled everything before His Greatness, made all things subservient before His Honor, brought low all things before His Kingship and made all things submit to His Power. And all praise to Allah who made all things tranquil before His Majesty, and made everything appear through His wisdom, and humbled all things before His Pride. O our Lord! Wake us in the time most beloved to Yourself, O Loving One, O “Lord of the Throne of Glory, Doer (without let) of all that He intends. as the story reached thee, of the forces Of Pharaoh and the Thamood? And yet the Unbelievers (persist) in rejecting (the Truth)! But Allah doth encompass them from behind! Nay, this is a Glorious Qur'an, (Inscribed) in a Tablet Preserved!” (al-Burooj, 85:15-22)
May Allah (swt) accept from us and bless this masjid, give the people here long life and bless their children, and the one with no wife to have a wife; take away sickness, and make us as brothers and sisters to love each other for the love of Allah (swt), love of Islam and love of Prophet (s).
I said one by one may Allah bless those who manage this masjid and may Allah bless the young ones who helped put this event on, and the angels who are here and the jinn who are here and the tongue is unable to express the thankfulness I have in my heart to those who arranged this masjid and your shaykh, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, and the shaykh who manages this mosque, and the youth who came here and arranged the food, and those who ate and those who cooked, and may Allah bless this masjid with light in its stones to bless anyone comes to this masjid with the light, may Allah give you the blessing of Masjid Uhud and Masjid an-Nabi (s) and Ka`bah!
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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