East London Conference “Seeking the Beloved”
With Mawlana Muhammad Naqib ur-Rehman and his son,
Shaykh Muhammad Hassan Haseeb ur-Rehman
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh. (Du`a.) I thank Allah (swt) that He gathered us on the love of Awliya Tariqat an-Naqshbandiyya, the saints of the Naqshbandi Tariqah, as they are the princes and the kings of the Muslim world because their love relates to Rasoolullah (s) so extensively! So we say, Yaa Sayyidi, yaa Rasoolullah! Anta nazhirunaa wa anta shaahidunaa--you are seeing us, you are listening to us, you are witnessing us. Without you we cannot do anything as we are weak servants, yaa Sayyidee, yaa Rasoolullah, except with the Mercy Allah (swt) has dressed on you, the Mercy with which Allah made every possible Creation and worlds to exist!
My tongue is frozen when it comes to speak about Prophet (s). “Seeking the Beloved” is not an easy topic. Everyone has to seek the Beloved or else he can't go to Paradise. “The Beloved” in Arabic is Habeebullah. You can say Muhammad Habeebullah and you can say Habeebullah Muhammad, but you cannot say Ibraheem Habeebullah, it does not work in the Arabic grammar, you can say Khaleelullah. Only Muhammad (s) is the Habeeb, no one else. That is why Imam al-Busayri (q) said:
Wa kullun min rasoolillaahi multamisun, gharfan min al-bahri aw rashfan min ad-diyami.
All of them partake from the Prophet of God a handful of his oceans or a sip from his continuous rains.
(Shaykh Muhammad al-Busayri, Burdat ash-Shareef)
“Everyone is seeking and taking from Prophet (s) either by pitcher or by handful, that knowledge, that water, that Fountain of Youth that Sayyidina Khidr (a) and Dhul-Qarnayn (Alexander the Great) competed for. They say Sayyidina Khidr (a) took the Water of Youth and was able to drink it, but if we go back to the ayah mentioned before:
فَوَجَدَا عَبْدًا مِّنْ عِبَادِنَا آتَيْنَاهُ رَحْمَةً مِنْ عِندِنَا وَعَلَّمْنَاهُ مِن لَّدُنَّا عِلْمًا
So they found one of Our Servants, on whom We had bestowed Mercy from Ourselves and whom We had taught knowledge from Our Own Presence. (Surat al-Kahf, 18:65)
The Test of Sayyidina Musa
When Allah (swt) ordered Musa (s) to look for someone, it was a test for Sayyidina Musa (a), but because of what? What did he do to get that big test, that he needed to hear Sayyidina Khidr (a), although he is higher than him in levels? What was the test? He gave an advice, a naseeha in front of the Jewish and many other people, and one of the `ulama of that time came to him afterwards and Sayyidina Musa (a) asked, “How was my speech?” He wanted to show that he had done something great, thinking, “I gave a very nice lecture and everyone was motivated by it.” So that `alim kept quiet. Then Allah (swt) tested him, “Yaa Musa, you are in need of knowledge that you don’t know, that I didn’t yet show to you; had I shown it to you then you would know, but I put it with that one who was looking for the Water of Youth.”
فَوَجَدَا عَبْدًا مِّنْ عِبَادِنَا آتَيْنَاهُ رَحْمَةً مِنْ عِندِنَا وَعَلَّمْنَاهُ مِن لَّدُنَّا عِلْمًا
Fawajada `abdan min `ibaadinaa. “Among one servant of many We gave him Rahmah then We taught him Divine Knowledge...”
If Allah didn't give him rahmah he would never have entered the Ocean of the Divine Presence or the Divine Knowledge. That’s why rahmah came first, then knowledge:
aataynaahu rahmatan min `indinaa, “We gave him Rahmah from Ourselves,” wa `allamnaahu min ladunna `ilma.“
“At that time, We taught him the knowledge he needs to know,” the secret, Divine Knowledge. And who is that rahmah? And everyone of you knows that rahmah is Sayyidina Muhammad (s)! That’s why he was able to enter the Divine Knowledge, with that rahmah tha
t Allah dressed Prophet (s) and Prophet (s) dressed Khidr (a). He entered the Divine Knowledge, which is why he knew what happened and he told Sayyidina Musa (a):
قَالَ إِنَّكَ لَن تَسْتَطِيعَ مَعِيَ صَبْرًا
(The other) said, "Verily, you will not be able to have patience with me.” (Surat al-Kahf, 18:67)
“You can't be patient, so you cannot continue with me! Wait until I tell you what everything is [the meaning of what happened].” These awliya here, or our Shaykh, or our Grandshaykh (q), or our shuyookh or all Naqshbandis and all Tariqats taught about rahmatullah, because they are the lovers of Prophet (s)!
فَانطَلَقَا حَتَّى إِذَا رَكِبَا فِي السَّفِينَةِ خَرَقَهَا قَالَ أَخَرَقْتَهَا لِتُغْرِقَ أَهْلَهَا لَقَدْ جِئْتَ شَيْئًا إِمْرًا قَالَ أَلَمْ أَقُلْ إِنَّكَ لَن تَسْتَطِيعَ مَعِيَ صَبْرًا
So they both proceeded until, when they were in the boat, he scuttled it. Moses said, "Have you scuttled it in order to drown those in it? Truly you have done a strange thing!" He (Khidr) replied, "Did I not tell you that you will never be able to have patience with me?" (Surat al-Kahf, 18:70-72)
To cut the story short, Sayyidina Musa (a) went on the boat and Sayyidina Khidr (a) cut a hole in the boat. Sayyidina Musa (a) said, “Why are you making a hole in the boat? You are going to sink the boat and everyone is going to die!”
Sayyidina Khidr (a) said, “Didn’t I tell you that you cannot carry on with me?”
What the Boat, the Child, the Wall Represent
What was that boat and what was Khidr (s) doing: the boat, the child, the wall...you know the story, but what was that boat? Why was he opening a hole in the boat? It means he was opening a hole, as we can understand from Abu Yazid al-Bastami (q), from whom all of Tariqah Naqshbandiyya takes.
Abu Yazid (q) said, Yaa Rabbee! Kayfa al-woosoola ilayk? “ O my Lord! How can I reach You?”
Allah (swt) said, Itruk nafsaka wa ta`al. “Leave your ego, put your ‘self’ away, and come to Me. You cannot come to Me with your ego!”
Any shaykh or mureed who doesn’t listen to his peers, who doesn’t listen to his shaykh, is going to develop arrogance and pride. We are calling from this minbar, from this podium, to everyone in Tasawwuf: leave your arrogance and come to Allah (swt)!
So what did Khidr (a) do? He opened a hole for the boat to sink, which means, “I am opening a hole in your ego, in your bad desires, to sink them so that you will go to Allah (swt) clean. If I don’t open that hole to take away your ego, there is Iblees, who is waiting for all of us. That king who is waiting on the other side will take all of you hostage and take the boat away. So when I sink the boat, he will not take you.”
That is Iblees waiting for us to fall into a mistake and Sayyidina Musa (a), "Did you sink it in order to drown everyone in it? Truly you have done a strange thing!" Khidr (a) told him, “You cannot be patient with me,” and Sayyidina Musa (a) said, “Try me another time.”
قَالَ لَا تُؤَاخِذْنِي بِمَا نَسِيتُ وَلَا تُرْهِقْنِي مِنْ أَمْرِي عُسْرًا
Said (Moses), "Take me not to task for my having forgotten (myself), and be not hard on me on account of what I have done!" (Surat al-Kahf, 18:73)
But then they found a child and Sayyidina Khidr (a) killed him, which Sayyidina Musa (a) did not like.
فَانطَلَقَا حَتَّى إِذَا لَقِيَا غُلَامًا فَقَتَلَهُ قَالَ أَقَتَلْتَ نَفْسًا زَكِيَّةً بِغَيْرِ نَفْسٍ لَّقَدْ جِئْتَ شَيْئًا نُّكْرًا
Then they proceeded until, when they met a young man, he slew him. Moses said, "Have you slain an innocent person who had slain none? Truly a foul (unheard of) thing you have done!" (Surat al-Kahf, 18:74)
But in the Station of Reality, from the perspective of awliyaullah, that wasn't a physical child but it was the soul from which all kind of things are built: negative energy that has been put on the self and it becomes a deadly person, a negative person in the community. That’s why awliyaullah know their mureeds, their followers: they look at their hearts, they clean them from within and the person doesn’t know what the awliyaullah are doing.
The third instance between Khidr and Musa was:
فَانطَلَقَا حَتَّى إِذَا أَتَيَا أَهْلَ قَرْيَةٍ اسْتَطْعَمَا أَهْلَهَا فَأَبَوْا أَن يُضَيِّفُوهُمَا فَوَجَدَا فِيهَا جِدَارًا يُرِيدُ أَنْ يَنقَضَّ فَأَقَامَهُ قَالَ لَوْ شِئْتَ لَاتَّخَذْتَ عَلَيْهِ أَجْرًا
Then they proceeded until, when they came to the inhabitants of a town, they asked them for food, but they refused them hospitality. They found there a wall on the point of falling down, but he set it up straight. (Moses) said, "If you had wished, surely you could have demanded some recompense for it!"
(Surat al-Kahf, 18:77)
They saw a wall falling down. Sayyidina Khidr (a) knew the wall was going to be destroyed and the owners would lose their inheritance from their father, which here means, “Build your wall yourself, don’t be arrogant.” Who follows you follows you, who doesn’t follow you doesn’t follow you. We follow our teachers, our masters, Mawlana Muhammad Naqeeb ur-Rehman and his son, Shaykh Muhammad Hassan Haseeb ur-Rehman and we are Husayn Haseeb ur-Rehman! [Laughter.] Why not? We like every shaykh, we like to be with them and to follow them!
So he built the wall, which means when you kill your ego. Allah gives you power to build up your wall because your treasures are there, so build the wall to protect them so no one can easily take them.
Who is Prophet (s) Really?
O Muslims! When you lose your treasure you get sad, but when you lose your peers there is no sadness but you cannot live anymore because you feel something lost in your life. Jibreel (a), look `azhamat an-Nabi (s), with Prophet’s Greatness, that rahmah came to him before Islam.
فَجَاءَهُ الْمَلَكُ فَقَالَ اقْرَأْ. قَالَ " مَا أَنَا بِقَارِئٍ ". قَالَ " فَأَخَذَنِي فَغَطَّنِي حَتَّى بَلَغَ مِنِّي الْجَهْدَ، ثُمَّ أَرْسَلَنِي فَقَالَ اقْرَأْ. قُلْتُ مَا أَنَا بِقَارِئٍ. فَأَخَذَنِي فَغَطَّنِي الثَّانِيَةَ حَتَّى بَلَغَ مِنِّي الْجَهْدَ، ثُمَّ أَرْسَلَنِي فَقَالَ اقْرَأْ. فَقُلْتُ مَا أَنَا بِقَارِئٍ. فَأَخَذَنِي فَغَطَّنِي الثَّالِثَةَ، ثُمَّ أَرْسَلَنِي فَقَالَ {اقْرَأْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ * خَلَقَ الإِنْسَانَ مِنْ عَلَقٍ * اقْرَأْ وَرَبُّكَ الأَكْرَمُ}
Sayyida `Ayesha (r) narrated: “...the Angel came to him and asked him to read. The Prophet (s) replied, "I do not know how to read." The Prophet (s) added, "The Angel caught me (forcefully) and pressed me so hard that I could not bear it any more. He then released me and again asked me to read and I replied, 'I do not know how to read.' Thereupon he caught me again and pressed me a second time till I could not bear it any more. He then released me and again asked me to read but again I replied, 'I do not know how to read (or what shall I read)?' Thereupon he caught me for the third time and pressed me, and then released me and said, 'Read in the name of your Lord, who has created (all that exists), created man from a clot. Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous.” (Bukhari)
He said to Prophet (s), “Iqraa! Read!”
What did Prophet (s) say? “What am I going to read?”
And Jibreel hugged him (s) and pressed his chest so tight and said, “Read!”
Prophet (s) said, “What am I going to read?”
They explain it that Prophet (s) is ummiyy, he doesn’t know how to read, but is awaiting the wahiyy to tell him what to read, but Prophet (s) doesn’t know how to read? He was created of Noor in Allah’s Presence, he doesn’t know what Jibreel (a) wants? But he said, wa maa ana bi qaariyy, “What do you want me to speak about?” Science, technology, of which you can find a lot in Holy Hadith and Holy Qur’an? “What do you want me to speak about? I have`Uloom al-Awwaleen wa’l-Akhireen, what do you want me to say?”
Prophet (s) is looking at us and I am not making it up from myself, because Prophet (s) said:
"إِذَا مَرَرْتُمْ بِرِيَاضِ الْجَنَّةِ فَارْتَعُوا "قَالَ وَمَا رِيَاضُ الْجَنَّةِ قَالَ " حِلَقُ الذِّكْرِ
“When you pass by the Gardens of Paradise, avail yourselves of them." The Companions asked, "What are the Gardens of Paradise, O Messenger of Allah?" He replied, "The Circles of Dhikr."
(Narrated Ibn `Umar, Tirmidhi)
“When you pass Riyaad al-Jannah, Gardens of Paradise, sit there with the people.” They asked, “Yaa Rasoolullah, wa maa riyaad al-jannah? What are the Gardens of Paradise?”
That is this, these meetings of dhikrullah: when you sit with people making dhikrullah, these shuyookh, saints and all other saints make you to remember Allah (swt). So then, when you remember Prophet (s) of course he is looking at us, he is seeing us! How is he seeing us, can anyone explain? Let’s take Judgement Day for example: on Judgement Day how can he see billions and billions of people? They say billions of people, some awliya said that Ummat an-Nabi alone is 400 billion! That includes Ummat al-Ijaabah, who accepted him, not the rest we haven’t counted here. 400 billion! How is he going to speak with everyone? Today we cannot speak with more than two people maximum at the same time. Prophet (s) is going to know your name, your ancestors, your DNA, everything about you and is going to mention all of it and take you within his presence by asking Allah (swt) forgiveness for his ummah one by one! How can he do that, how? What kind of power did Allah give him? What is he?
قُلْ إِنَّمَا أَنَا بَشَرٌ مِّثْلُكُمْ يُوحَى إِلَيَّ أَنَّمَا إِلَهُكُمْ إِلَهٌ وَاحِدٌ فَمَن كَانَ يَرْجُو لِقَاء رَبِّهِ فَلْيَعْمَلْ عَمَلًا صَالِحًا
وَلَا يُشْرِكْ بِعِبَادَةِ رَبِّهِ أَحَدًا
Say, "I am but a man like yourselves, (but) the inspiration has come to me. (Surat al-Kahf, 18:110)
Muhammad basharun wa laysa ka ‘l-bashari huwa yaaqootatun wa ’n-naasu ka ‘l-hajari.
Muhammad is a man, but not like other men! He is a gem and human beings are stones.
(Shaykh Muhammad al-Busayri, Burdat ash-Shareef)
Muhammad (s) is a human being, but not like us! Prophet (s), The One That Has No Shadow, is what? The one that the sun cannot give him a shadow, he is a subtle Creation that Allah created; he is a subtle one, he cannot be seen by only the eyes, or if we are able to see we can see him now, but our eyes are not like the eyes of the Sahaabah (r) that can see, not like the eyes of the Four Imams, not like the eyes of awliyaullah, who see what you cannot see, they hear that which you cannot hear. And this is not from us, it is from a Holy Hadith of Prophet (s):
عن أبي هريرة قال قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم إن الله قال من عادى لي وليا فقد آذنته بالحرب وما تقرب إلي عبدي بشيء أحب إلي مما افترضت عليه وما يزال عبدي يتقرب إلي بالنوافل حتى أحبه فإذا أحببته كنت سمعه الذي يسمع به وبصره الذي يبصر به ويده التي يبطش بها ورجله التي يمشي بها وإن سألني لأعطينه ولئن استعاذني لأعيذنه وما ترددت عن شيء أنا فاعله ترددي عن نفس المؤمن يكره الموت وأنا أكره مساءته
ولا يزال عبدي يتقرب إلي بالنوافل حتى أحبه، فإذا أحببته كنت سمعه الذي يسمع به وبصره
الذي يبصر به، ويده التي يبطش بها ورجله التي يمشي بها،
My servant does not cease to approach Me through voluntary worship until I will love him. When I love him, I will become the ears with which he hears, the eyes with which he sees, the hand with which he acts, and the legs with which he walks (and other versions include, “and the tongue with which he speaks.”). (Hadith Qudsi, Bukhari)
“I will be, as long as My servant approaches Me through love.” When you pray to Him other than your obligations you are loving Him, then, “I will open for his ears that he can hear things that no one can hear like him, he can see what people cannot see.”
We are Guided to the Ocean of Prophet Muhammad (s)
O Muslims! Awliyaullah guide us to the Right Way like a river: where is the river going to go in the end? To the ocean, the Ocean of Prophet (s). We don’t say Muhammad (s) is an ocean, but an ocean is not even a drop of the Ocean of Prophet (s)! Awliyaullah say that on every letter of Holy Qur’an there are 24,000 oceans of knowledge! Once someone asked me, “Yaa Shaykh, how many Alif are in the Holy Qur’an?” How many Alif in the Holy Qur’an, does anyone know? How we can say we know everything?We don’t know, but awliyaullah know.
He said 2,800 Alif, it was repeated 2,800 times and Alif is the first letter of Allah’s Name, always standing, Allah! If you take away the Alif, what is left? li ’Llah, means Allah owns that, owns you if you take the Alif out the continuation of the Name is li ’Llah, means Allah owns everything. If you take the Laam out it will be left Lahu, which means everything is for Him. If you say Haa, if you take the second Laam, it leaves you with Hu, where “He is God in the Ocean of the Absolute Nothingness” that no one can see anything from this Divine Knowledge except Prophet (s). That is why one of the greatest awliya said:
Alhamdulillahi’ ladhee khalaqa’ l-khalq min `adamin thumma `adamahu.
Praise be to the One Who created the Creation from non-Existence then made it non-existent.
Allah created Creation, the whole Creation, Allah created them from nothingness, from complete nothing, and with “Kun!” they appeared, then He destroyed them. That moment between Kun fa yakoon--the creation of the Creation to the destruction of the Creation--is what we are seeing in our age, which is now 1,400 years. It is the time that we are living on Earth, that is a moment in Allah’s Time.
O Muslims! I will not be too long, I think there are too many people here, and of course they cannot do dawah, but you, our hosts Mawlana Najeeb ur-Rehman and Haseeb ur-Rehman can do dawah. So they do the work and you give the barakah by your dawah, so this is how it works. They give from their own money, as Allah said in Holy Qur’an to Prophet (s):
خُذْ مِنْ أَمْوَالِهِمْ صَدَقَةً تُطَهِّرُهُمْ وَتُزَكِّيهِم بِهَا وَصَلِّ عَلَيْهِمْ
Take alms of their wealth, from which you may purify them and make them grow, and pray for them.
(Surat at-Tawbah, 9:103)
“Take from their wealth a sadaqah for building a trust (like what they are building),” by force, by order: Allah is giving an order for everyone to give in order that you can build Islam. The Sahaabah (r) helped Prophet (s) in every way they could. Sayyidina Abu Bakr (r) gave Prophet (s) all his money, Sayyidina `Umar (r) gave half of his money, Sayyidina `Uthman gave seven camels full of gold coins, and Sayyidina `Ali (r), may Allah bless Sayyidina `Ali (r), he was the City of Knowledge, Tariqah Naqshbandiyya came from two sources, the main source is from Prophet (s), then Prophet (s) has put on the tongue of...it is said:
Ma sabb-Allahu fee sadree sababatahu fee sadra abi bakr as-siddiq.
Whatever Allah has poured in my heart, I poured in the heart of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq.
That’s khafiyy, the hidden dhikr of the Naqshbandiyya; most of it is hidden dhikr because it is directly from heart to heart. So Prophet (s) gave two: Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (r) and Sayyidina `Ali (r), who asked Prophet (s) when Prophet (s) was mentioning Kalimat at-Tawheed, “Yaa Rasoolullah, what will Allah be happy with us to recite?”
Prophet (s) said, “Say, ‘laa ilaaha illa-Llah’.”
Sayyidina `Ali (r) said, “How do I say ‘laa ilaaha illa-Llah’?” That means, “I want the secret, how I can say it? Anyone can say ‘laa ilaaha illa-Llah’, but I want the secret of it.”
Prophet (s) said, “Then sit in front of me on your knees, and I am on my knees, put your hand on my heart and I put my hand on your heart and repeat after me: laa ilaaha illa-Llah, laa ilaaha illa-Llah, laa ilaaha illa-Llah.”
Sayyidina `Ali (r) said, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah, laa ilaaha illa-Llah, laa ilaaha illa-Llah.”
Then Prophet (s) said, “Yaa `Ali, you say it now and I will repeat after you...”
This is called talqeen in Arabic, I don’t know the English word for it.
He (r) said, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah, laa ilaaha illa-Llah, laa ilaaha illa-Llah,” and Prophet (s) said, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah, laa ilaaha illa-Llah, laa ilaaha illa-Llah.” This is how Prophet (s) gave Sayyidina `Ali (r) adh-dhikr jahri, the loud dhikr like, “Allah Hu, Allahu Haqq, laa ilaaha illa-Llah,” with a loud voice.
So Sayyidina Abu Bakr (r) took the hidden one and Sayyidina `Ali (r) took the loud one. Sayyidina Abu Bakr (r) gave to two: Salman al-Farsi (r) and Sayyidina Qasim (r), his grandson. Sayyidina `Ali (r) gave to two: Sayyidina Hasan al-Basri (r) and to Sayyidina al-Husayn (r). So Tariqah continued until today. Sayyidina Khalid al-Baghdadi (q)--one of the greatest Naqshbandi shaykhs that went to India and learned Tariqah there and spread it in the Middle East--had 299 khalifahs and all of them went around the world, that’s why you find the Khalidiyya everywhere. So mashaa-Allah, you’re the same Tariqah which we are, together: Naqshbandiyya Khalidiyya. I am standing in front of one of the major pillars of the Naqshbandi Order, and may Allah (swt) give them long life to keep showing us the way and give all of you long life, inshaa-Allah. (Du`a.)
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