Burton, Michigan As-Siddiq Mosque after `Isha
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.
Allahu akbar, allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, wa lillahil-hamd!
Ati`oollaha wa ati`oo ‘r-Rasoola wa ooli ‘l-amri minkum.
Obey Allah, obey the Prophet, and obey those in authority among you. (4:59)
Anything that Yaqool Mawlana Shaykh `ala-Allahu ta`ala darajaatihi daaiman wa amadana bi-madadidhi daaiman, Mawlana Shaykh says, and also the masters all the way to the Prophet (s) keep reminding us that anything you insist to exist has no value. The value is for that One that always exists and does not disappear. Anything that disappears means it cannot exist by itself; it is dependent on someone or something else. Like today people say, “We are independent.” How can say you are independent? If you have a flu you run to a doctor. So are you dependent or independent? Dependent. If you want to buy shoes you go to someone who has shoes. Are you dependent or independent? You are dependent even for shoes. You are dependent on a shoemaker, you can’t make shoes by yourself. If you need eyeglasses to see, you are dependent on the one who makes eyeglasses. If you were really independent then you don’t need anyone to give you anything. If you are independent you must say, “Be,” and it will be.
If you have that power then you can be independent. Do we have this power? No way. We are even dependent on flies, even to that extent! What if there were no flies flying from one tree to another taking the pollen, fertilizing the other trees? Because trees are male and female, so to pollinate them you need all kinds of different insects. You are even dependent on a small insect, so what is the value of your saying, “I am independent?” No value! It is not correct. Anyone who says “I am independent,” you are not independent. If you are independent then say, “Be,” and it will be. Can you say? No, only One can say, the One who is not dependent on anyone. Everyone else is dependent on Him and He is independent from everyone else. That is our Lord, Who created us. For that reason there is this trend today in students, as soon as they become 15 years of age, or even at 10 or 12 years of age they say to their parents, “We are independent.” You cannot even tie your shoelaces and you say you are independent!
So since we know that we are dependent on each other, we have to be soft with each other, and lenient with and thankful to each other, and to appreciate and show gratitude to each other, or else you are an arrogant person. The problem is this brain. This mind is very nice, it acts according to what it has been ordered to do. It gives information to the whole body, but it likes to be independent. But the mind has to know that it is not and cannot be independent, because if the heart stops pumping blood to the brain, the brain will die, but the human being will still be alive. So the heart is not dependent on the brain, but the brain is dependent on the heart. You can live with a damaged brain, but you cannot live without a pumping heart. So which one depends on the other?
Those who are wise ones, we call them saints or sages, or in Arabic “awliyaaullah”, they know that reality not by the tongue; you can talk as much as you like, but if you don’t try to experience it and implement it, it is only talk. “Talk shows” are filling the Earth, especially in this era of cable networks. You listen to them and see that they speak garbage. No mind! They bring you all kinds of the worst possible topics and gossips. They bring husband and wife, make them to talk against each other and to tell on each other about what they do in the bed even. What is the benefit? There is no benefit, wasting everyone’s time and money. Those saints or sages, wise men or wise women, know the reality. They implement it. They make their minds to be in the container of the heart. They make sure the mind follows the heart, not for the heart to follow the mind. We make the heart follow the mind, but they follow their heart.
If you want to know the realities that have been veiled from us, try to train your heart to be able to see what cannot be seen, to feel what cannot be felt, and to hear what cannot be heard. That is the way you can become a wise person, or else we are not knowing the truth. This indicates that we are dependent on everything in every moment of our lives. God has sent messengers and prophets in order to guide humanity. So you cannot come and say, “Religion does not correct us.” No, religion is a heavenly message that came on Earth by such messengers and prophets in order to guide humanity. And after the Last Prophet, Sayyidina Muhammad (s), (Mawlana stands) Allahumma salli `ala Sayyidina Muhammad, you can find saints. Prophet (s) is the Seal of Messengers. After that era, our Lord Allah (swt) gave permission to prophets to inspire the hearts of wise men (saints, awliyaaullah), in order that we can be guided.
Two-thousand years after Moses (a) delivered the message, Jesus (a) came, and 600 years after Jesus, Sayyidina Muhammad (s) came (almost) 1500 years ago. Allah (swt) inspired the hearts of people through guidance of His prophets Abraham, Moses, Jesus (a), and Prophet Muhammad (s). (Mawlana stands.) Prophet inspired the hearts of his companions to guide those who came after. That is why he (s) said:
اصحابي كالنجوم بأيهم اقتديتم اهتديتم
As-haabee ka ‘n-nujoom bi ayyihim aqtadaytum ahtadaytum
My companions are like stars; whichever one you follow, you will be guided.
(`Abd ibn Humayd, ad-Daraqutnee, ibn `Adiyy, ibn `Abd al-Barr, with unsound chains but the meaning is sound)
The Companions are wise ones.
Everyone, when they come out of their mother’s womb at birth, can see what people cannot see and hear what people cannot hear. From their birth, saints can see things that concern them and those around them. That is why from their birth they are open-hearted, with open-eyes and open-ears. Inside the womb they are in seclusion. They are happy, isolating themselves from this life, from this materialistic world, dunya, and when they come out, they cry. Why don’t they laugh? Why do they cry? Doctors say because their lungs are not yet open, they have to cry in order to open the lungs. But when you laugh, you also open your lungs. Why do they cry and not laugh? Strange, isn’t it? There must be a wisdom. They cry because they don’t want to come to this materialistic world. They were happy in their seclusion with their Lord in the womb of their mother. No Shaytan, no devil there. It is pure there, swimming in that ocean of heavenly knowledge and heavenly environment.
Allah (swt) gave women a lot of honor, but they don’t believe it. They say, “Why are men better than us?” Why better than you? Allah (swt) gave you a sacred womb, to keep it pure and to carry purity in it. He selected you, why? You think He was not able to give men that? He gave it to you, so be happy. Say, “Thank you, O our Lord, that You created us as women. We don’t want to be men.” Men are men, women are women. We are happy with what You chose for us. Don’t complain, because the first to enter Paradise are women, then men. Is it not enough honor for you to enter Paradise first? Men have to be jealous, so make du`a to become a woman! (laughter)
There was one person in the time of Prophet (s) named ad-Dahhaak, “the one who laughs too much.” It was a miracle in the time of Prophet (s) that he stayed in the womb of his mother for seven years. He did not want to come out. His mother’s womb is big and he doesn’t want to come out. It was not like today with Caesarian Sections; there was no cutting then and they waited for the child to come out naturally. When he came out, he was laughing not crying. Why? Because he delayed his birth for seven years and was able to do what no one else could. He came out laughing non-stop.
So the problem in this dunya, this materialistic life, this world is that people are running after it like a lion running after a buffalo or a tiger running after a deer, his prey. Any prey the lion or tiger can see, they run after it; even if it is a carcass, smelly and stinky, they run after it. This materialistic world that we are running after is stinky. You have to run after purity, because you came pure. Don’t try to immerse yourself into the traps of devils to become a sinner. All of us are sinners, but one sin from another is different. You go on streets you might commit a sin, do something wrong. But the main sinners are those who are arrogant, those who have envy and who are proud of themselves. You can see a lot of that, especially when elections come in a country. You see a lot of people badmouthing each other. You build your success on backbiting and exposing dirty laundry. God said, “Cover your dirty laundry,” cover your brother or sister if you see something wrong in them. During elections they don’t cover anything. They want to bring the worst possible things to make the opposition look bad.
Wise men cannot accept this kind of way. That is why they come and build up their disciples and students on good manners. Don’t look at the mistakes of others; look at your own mistakes or look at yourself before you look at others. The eye cannot see except others; our eyes cannot see within themselves, so it is better to turn the eyes upside down, to see inside. God gave you a heart to be able to see and to know what kind of mistakes you must avoid in your life. I am not going to count them. I am leaving it to you; you know your mistakes. Everyone knows his mistakes, no one is a hundred percent clean or else why God had to send messengers and prophets? If everyone was clean, than everyone was a messenger and prophet.
God sent messengers and prophets to make you clean and pure, because we are not clean and pure. We were clean and pure in the womb of our mothers. When we came out, at first we were able to see everything around us, even angels. But slowly the pollution filled up our eyes and veiled us. They say, “Pollution, pollution, pollution, stop all the factories!” You are have an inner factory within yourself polluting everyone! They say now there is swine flu going from one person to another, and we are worse than swine flu in contaminating others with our negative energies and pollution. Not only pollution of nature but pollution of your own self, which is a complete world by itself. Look at the doctors and scientists who study medicine and they don’t know more than two percent of the human body. If they say they know more, they are lying. They don’t know everything. Is that correct doctor? (Of course.)
They make bigger and bigger machines in our time. Before there was nothing except X-ray machines and they used to check with that. And people were living for 90 or 100 years. Now they made machines so sophisticated that you don’t know what button to push. Radiologists who studied X-rays all their lives cannot run the machines; they need technicians of lower medical training! And they can read every slice of your bone and people are still dying at 50, 60, and 70 years of age. Where are those people who were living 130, 120, 115, or 90 years? They are still there, but less today, because there was no negative pollution then and they were living in a safe haven. There is no safe haven anymore. We are all into difficulties and problems. There was a safe haven; if you go somewhere there was no fighting and no war, no bloodshed, everything was pure and clean. Now wherever you go you find war and bloodshed. Because they brought cable network to your home and office to cheat you, to keep you depressed and then sell you Zoloft, an anti-depressant! (laughter) They make money, and keep war running in the world.
So everything is built on bad intentions; that is the problem today. There are innocent people, what can they do? Is there anything in your hand? Nothing. So what can we do? Ask our Lord, “O our Lord, bring back happiness on Earth as it is filled with oppression.” There is nothing else you can do. Even those presidents and kings cannot do anything anymore. Everything is built upside-down. Our responsibility and our duty is to help others and not to look at their mistakes. Pray for them to be guided, because if they are guided you will be in safety. Don’t fight them; that will only increase bloodshed and you cannot change anything by fighting but it increases hatred and enmity. Go and pray in your prayer room, not necessarily in a mosque, a temple, or a church; you can pray in your car or in the mall. Pray in your heart, that is where it is important. Ask your Lord to bring happiness and justice on Earth. There is no way a human being can now bring any justice on Earth; that has to be from a heavenly power.
May Allah (swt) guide us to the best for humanity, Sayyidina Muhammad (s). (Mawlana stands.)
May Allah (swt) forgive us and accept from us.
I was going to speak from these notes about Shah Naqshband (q). When he was 10 years of age, he directed people in their lives, how to live their lives, and even he directed scholars 70 years of age. And similarly, when Grandshaykh `AbdAllah (q) was seven years old, people were coming to him, even scholars, for advice and guidance. He answered them because his eyes were not veiled; he was able to see and able to hear inspirations coming to his heart, and he was guiding people. He was sitting on a chair of guidance at the age of seven. These are wise men, awliyaullah.
May Allah (swt) forgive us. Bi hurmati ‘l-habeeb, bi hurmati ‘l-Fatihah.