1st Rabi` al-Awwal
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh.
Allah Allah, Allah Allah, Allah Allah, `Azeez Allah
Allah Allah, Allah Allah, Allah Allah, Kareem Allah
Allah Allah, Allah Allah, Allah Allah, Subhaan Allah
Allah Allah, Allah Allah, Allah Allah, Sultaan Allah
First, I would like to say there is a greeting from our teacher to all of you, a heavenly greeting that comes with a lot of blessings. I am surprised to say that our teacher is giving a lot of respect and love to Argentinian, Chilean, and Brazilian people, because no one expects that in these countries, which are so far from the main lands, by which I mean the lands of spirituality. The land of spirituality is very well known as “the land of prophets”, where most of the prophets came in that area. But we found that spirituality exists in these lands from the relics of (indigenous) Indian natives, who brought spirituality with them.
God is Just. That is why saints, for sure, know there are prophets that might have come to these lands from the people of this land itself, and they guided them toward a tradition they can follow. Those native (indigenous) Indians, who you call “mapuches”, were present here a long time ago and because of them God has blessed these countries, since they were victims for a long time. That’s why in these countries people like spirituality, because the element of the human body hasn’t overcome the element of the heavenly soul. The people of these countries, through their ancestors, have been uploaded with spirituality in the hidden area of their unconscious minds. Because of this, they are driven to always look where there is spirituality; they like to run for it.
Spirituality is like intelligence. There is a big difference between the brain and intelligence, and there is a big difference between the spirit and the body. You cannot see intelligence, but you can see the brain. The body you can see, but spirituality, which comes from the soul, you don’t see. So people are always running to what has been buried inside them. When you want treasure, you always look for it in deep, hidden places. You cannot look for a treasure on the street outside or on the mountain, but you look for treasure in a very hidden area.
God said in a holy hadeeth to Sayyidina Muhammad (s):
كنت كنزا مخفياً فأحببت أن أعرف فخلقت الخلق
kuntu kanzan makhfiyyan fa ahbabtuhu an u`rafa fa khalaqtuhu ‘l-khalq.
I was a Hidden Treasure (and) I wanted to be known, so I created Creation. (Hadith Qudsee)
God is saying, “I was a Hidden Treasure. I wanted to be known, so I created Creation. I created human beings and I also created for them a beautiful paradise so they can live on it and come back to Me.”
So where do you look for treasures? You look for treasures in a hidden place, like the miners were looking for treasures 700 meters deep; they were not looking outside. There is a wisdom in their being trapped: Allah did this to show His miracles, that if He wants people to be trapped anywhere in the seven Earths, or deep in anything that we cannot find, or deep within the Earth, He is saying, “I can provide for them and give them life as much as I like! It is not in anyone else’s hands but Mine!”
Grandshaykh, may Allah bless his soul, said, "Awliyaullah know there are seven most precious stones that we can describe as diamonds, but they are not diamonds. They are heavenly stones that were sent with Adam (a) to Earth.” And this is the first time I am mentioning this secret because it is the time to open it up. You know, for many things we say ‘seven’: “seven wonders on Earth,” “seven days in a week,” “seven heavens.” For everything important we say seven. If someone can open up the meaning of the number “seven,” he or she will be able to trace its originality to these seven stones that came from Heaven with Adam (a).
Every stone has been placed by Adam (a) somewhere around the world. Adam was not like us; when he walked, if he wanted to reach a place by Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem, by God’s Name, he’d be there. So these seven stones have been distributed around the Earth, very deep in the Earth and in the ocean so that they keep the Earth from falling. On every stone there is the picture of Sayyidina Jibreel (a). No one saw that except Adam (a), but some of awliyaullah are able to see that. These heavenly stones are always emitting light that is full of knowledge of the secrets of the alphabet, because all Knowledge of Before or After is between two letters; all of the alphabet is within these two letters. The first letter, for example, in Spanish, in Latin, is “a” and the last letter is “z”. All human knowledge, for those who speak Latin, is between “a” and “z;” there is no more.
But we know the most important language, that of saints, is the Arabic language, since Allah has revealed the Holy Qur’an through that language. And we know the language of Paradise is Arabic, and it is between two letters, also: “a” or alif (in Arabic), and the last letter in the Arabic alphabet is “yaa,” which is “y”. The alif is the first letter of the Name of Allah (swt). Yaa is the first letter of the name of Prophet (s), in a different name, because he has many names, and one of them is “YaaSeen”. So all the knowledge, all the words of Arabic are between these two letters. As we said, to give an example in Latin, between “a” and “z” all your knowledge is expressed through words made from the alphabet; millions of books have been written. Also, in other languages such as English, French, German or whatever, the alphabet is between two letters.
So these heavenly stones that came from Paradise are emitting knowledge through the Arabic alphabet and saints can see that and can understand it. If someone is able to see this kind of light, the light of these stones, he is lucky. No one can own these stones, but anyone can learn from what is coming from them when they are emitting that kind of light.
These heavenly stones, in what we can express in normal language, are like the part of our brain from which intelligence comes. Our intelligence and our IQ level or understanding, is coming from a very small piece of the brain no bigger than a lentil. Scientists have found that all intelligence--all our memories, all information, all knowledge--has been implanted into that small seed connected to the brain. That is where your memory, your information, your knowledge comes from; not from the brain itself, but from that small piece which, in scientific language, is a chip. As with a computer, you have a small chip that, if you put it in the computer, gives all kinds of knowledge and memories, gigabytes and megabytes. As much as you are opening the treasures that are hidden, that is how much you pull out.
To make software, how many engineers are will work on it? (100 or 200.) To make software, doesn’t it take that many? And it takes years to make perfect software. Now they are making software because computers have too many languages. Is it not? Science has too many kinds of software, too many languages, and every company makes a language. We have 30 or 40 languages or more, and now they have software so that all these languages can understand each other. Allahu Akbar! Is it not? It is correct.
So you need thousands and thousands, millions and millions of engineers to make the computers speak with each other in so many languages, and companies are busy with that, making thousands of kinds of software. But you have to know, in our time, there are six billion human beings, and God has given every one of us a software in the brain, in that small chip from which intelligence comes. We can speak with each other in many different languages and make more discoveries, and all of this is implanted in our brain in a small piece of flesh no bigger than the lentil. Do you know that? Now you know that! (laughter)
It is there but you must focus on knowledge, then more knowledge will come to you. People are only focusing on, “How can I learn spirituality?” Use your software that God has given you, use your intelligence that you cannot see but which you can feel. Reach that Hidden Treasure, about which God said, “I was a Hidden Treasure and I wanted to be known, so I created you. I wanted you to know Me, so I gave you this world. Come back to Me. Don’t work for this world; only work for Me.”
But we are not doing this. We are going to this teacher or that teacher, learning superficial knowledge. Knowledge is within you, but it is hidden. You know how when someone faints you slap him a little bit (to revive him)? We need a slap. Wake up! No, we are always sleeping. You are sleepy. Wake up! There is a lot of knowledge around you from six billion softwares, six billion computers that God created, in every time, in every century, but you must go find it.
These heavenly stones are glowing with knowledge and they are in various places. I heard Grandshaykh (q) say, "Once a real saint was on the ocean doing his daily worship and he saw something glowing in the ocean. He looked and realized it was a heavenly light there. He went diving down and found that stone, then brought it up to the shore. He saw the picture on it; he was full of knowledge." That is not a normal stone; it is like a heavenly mirror that reflects light, the knowledge that comes from the heart of the Prophet (s).
Grandshaykh continued, “Immediately, as soon as he got it from down there and was looking at it, a spiritual being appeared and said, ‘Give it back! It is not yours, you cannot possess it. That has its own time.’"
These spiritual beings are moving throughout the universe, keeping things in their place. Their movement is like very beautiful music.
So when you need to find a treasure, you dive in the ocean, like divers who search for pearls and corals and treasures. Also, when you dive underground, going inside the Earth, you find diamonds and you find gold for jewelry and all that. So when these miners were diving into the mine, they were going down, down, down, down, seven hundred meters, which is seven multiplied by one hundred. Originally the number is seven, which is important. They were approaching so near to that cave, and as soon as they approached 700 meters depth, that mountain collapsed on them, because that area is restricted; one of the seven stones is there!
Behind the cave where they were, after 700 meters there is a restricted area that no human being can reach. And that is particular to that place; you can go 1000 or 2000 meters or anywhere else and it is okay. But that place has a treasure that no one has the right to touch at this time, and that is why it is blocked down there. If it were another mountain or another place they would have died, but they didn’t because of the blessings of what is located there 700 meters down. There is a heavenly treasure emitting light to the whole continent of South America, and that is why they always had fresh air down there! That kept them alive, otherwise they would have died.
That is why, may Allah grant long life to our shaykh, Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil Qubrusi al-Haqqani, who said this was a small miracle, because he saw that the biggest miracle was behind that cave and that if they had pulled it out this whole world would have changed. But it is not time for that to occur. This is why they were alive; even had they did not eat or drank they would have been alive, because they were in a blessed area. That area is only for pure spiritual beings and saints that pass by.
They stayed seventy days, so it comes back to seven. Allah (swt) multiplies His rewards by ten, so for seventy days it is considered for them as seven hundred days of worship!
تفكر ساعة خير من عبادة سبعين سنة
Tafakkur sa`atin khayrun min `ibaadati saba`een sannah.
To remember Allah (swt) for one hour (contemplate or meditate) is better than seventy years of worship. (Nuzhat al-Majalis)
If you meditate for one hour, if you concentrate or think about your Lord, about the universe, about yourself and what is your role in this life, you will be rewarded as if you worshipped for seventy years. That is a hadih of Prophet Muhammad (s). They were down there for seventy days. That was a complete seclusion and they were blessed, they were given a spiritual life.
So the reality is that it was a restricted area, like in an airport where they say, “Restricted, don’t go there.” They were going further down because they didn’t know it is a restricted area, so it collapsed and they were blocked.
When you want to find your treasures, look within you. There are seven levels on the chest. These lata’if - which I think Shaykh Nurjan has explained in workshops before - these seven points are like the engine of a car that has seven cylinders. If one cylinder is not working, the whole engine begins to shake. When you run the seven engines correctly you will be like a plane in flight. But when you are superficially trying to look at them, this is not being done in a real way. [The correct way is] such as by following the footsteps of Sufi people who are really saints.
There are many imitation saints. People think, “This one is a saint” or “that one is a saint.” No. To be a saint is not easy and to teach is not so easy. I can bring a book, open it, read from it and explain, but someone did this before me. That is not fresh knowledge. In every moment there is a fresh knowledge coming; in every moment there is heavenly knowledge descending through this universe.
Like NASA receives information from the outer limits of the universe, there are also knowledges that are descending from the hearts of saints. What we are speaking in this gathering is fresh knowledge coming now, descending from the heavens to the heart of our teacher, and from his heart I am pulling it out.
So if anyone wants to improve himself or herself, make sure that you sit, if you like, with your husband or by yourself, and put a candle there. Sayyidina Musa (a) saw a light and he thought it was fire. No, it was heavenly light. A candle can give you warmth from the flame that is moving; it is not worshipping the candle. This light above us is artificial light, but as God mentioned in Holy Qur’an that honey is a cure for humanity, lighting a candle made of beeswax will attract the blessings that are around you.
Then you are focusing inside yourself on these seven levels or cylinders, that are for different purposes in the chest. They will open for you the nine points that people are learning, but not knowing the secret behind them. These seven heavenly mirrors or stones are represented on everyone’s chest. We call them “lata’if,” which means “very subtle, angelic.” So breathe in and breathe out. Breathe in all the blessings with all the positive energy around you and breathe out all negative energy that is within you. You will find more and more that you are advancing. Don’t look for paper knowledge; look for heavenly knowledge.
I will give you an example, and then we will end. Prophet (s) passed by one Companion, Abu Huraira (r) and asked him, “Yaa Abu Huraira, what do you think about this verse of Qur’an that says:
الَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ اللّهَ قِيَامًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىَ جُنُوبِهِمْ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقْتَ هَذا بَاطِلاً سُبْحَانَكَ فَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ
Alladheena yadhkuroonallaha qiyamaan wa qu`oodan wa `alaa junoobihim wa yattafakkaroona fee khalqi 's-samawaati wa 'l-ard, rabbanaa maa khalaqta hadhaa baatilan subhaanaka fa qinaa `adhaaba 'n-naar.
Those who remember Allah (always, and in prayers) standing, sitting, and lying down on their sides, and think deeply about the Creation of the Heavens and the Earth, (saying),"Our Lord! You have not created (all) this without purpose, glory to You! Give us salvation from the torment of the Fire." (Surat al-`Imraan, 3:191)
He said, “O my beloved Prophet, Sayyidina Muhammad (s), I always meditate on that verse of Holy Qur’an, and what comes to me is how much my Lord is Great and that I am seeing His Greatness in this system of the sun and the stars and the moon,” or this solar system, as we say today. “And I see how we are small and this is big.”
Prophet (s) said to him, “If you meditate in this way and you think that way, you will get the reward of one month of worship.” This means one month of focused, dedicated worship every day for 24 hours, and that is not easy. That will improve you and it will open your heart. Your heart will be enlightened by the light they send through it and you will be someone whose treasures are opened, but not like the second person that Prophet (s) mentioned.
Then Prophet (s) passed by Ibn Abbas (r), and he asked, “What do you think about this verse of Holy Qur’an?” He said to him, “I can understand now that my existence is nothing compared to whatever I am seeing around me.” Prophet (s) said, “In this way that you are meditating, you will be rewarded as if you worshipped one year.”
Imagine someone sitting for one year in a cave, sitting and worshipping 24 hours every day. He would become a subtle being like an angel, because he separated himself completely from everyone else and he didn’t want to see anything except the Greatness of his Lord!
Then Prophet (s) passed by Abu Bakr (r) and asked him. He said, “Yaa Rasoolullah! I feel worried about the people who did not do any good and who will go to the Hellfire. I feel bad for them and I say, ‘O my Lord! Forgive them and let me go to the Hellfire (instead).’” Prophet (s) said, “The way you are thinking, you will be rewarded as though you worshipped for seventy years.”
This goes back to the number “seven”. As much as we meditate and think about the Greatness of our Lord and His Creation and approach Him day after day, this is the most important thing, to keep that `ishqi‘l-Lahi, that infatuation with our Lord. This means that we don’t think we can live without His love. So meditation is the way to take you to love, more love, and more love towards your Lord, which will open the love of the Prophet (s), the love of awliyaullah and the love of your teacher.
What we have spoken here is the difference between the speech of a normal teacher and a saint-teacher. They may speak in the same way, but the normal teacher might explain to you and that is it. The saint-teacher will take on the responsibility and raise you to that level simply because you listened to what he was saying, without you doing anything. I am speaking from his heart; what he is sending, I am speaking. By what he said, he raised all of you to that level. But the difference is that, for him to do it, he will not open it for you. You might see it in the grave or after your death, in the next world, but you cannot see it now.
But if you, by yourself, showed that kind of meditation and ijtihad, that effort or progress to do it, even if you do not do it completely but you tried, he will reward you and open it for you little by little. A normal teacher can describe the water, and the water is nice, the cup is nice but you don’t taste it. (Mawlana Shaykh Hisham holds up a cup) But the saint will give it to you and say, “Taste it.”
May Allah (swt) forgive us and bless us, and this is a blessed place; that is why Mawlana opened it for us through the miners. You must be happy you are from Chile, and those who came from other countries are also blessed and will go from here with blessings.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
I think that is enough. Tomorrow is the first day of Rabi-al-Awwal, the month of the birth of the Prophet (s). His birthday is on 12 Rabi`-al-Awwal of the Islamic lunar month. It is the month of spirituality, moral excellence, and Islam. It is the month of the Best One that Allah has created. 12 Rabi`-al-Awwal is the 14 February, which is Monday. So Sunday you can do an event, Mawlid, here. Because of that we will now recite one special qasida.
(Hadrah.)
Everyone is showing his love to Allah through this movement they are doing, and Allah (swt) will create angels that will keep doing that until the Day of Judgment, and the angels’ worship will be written for you!
May Allah forgive us and bless you all. We will see you tomorrow inshaa-Allah.
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh.