12 October 2013 Burton, Michigan
Suhbah after Khatm
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`alaa fee haadha 'l-masjid.
[Khatm]
Salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh. Alhamdulillahi Rabbi 'l-`Alameen, wa ’s-salaatu wa ’s-salaamu `alaa ashrafi 'l-mursaleena Sayyidina wa Nabiyyina Muhammadin wa `alaa aalihi wa sahbihi ajma`een.
كلمتان خفيفتان على اللسان ثقيلتان فى الميزان حبيبتان إلى الرحمن سبحان الله و بحمده سبحان الله العظيم
Kalimataan khafeefataan `ala al-lisaan thaqeelataan fi ’l-meezaan habeebataan li’r-rahmaan: SubhaanAllah wa bihamdihi subhaanAllahi ’l-`Azheem.
There are two words that are very easy to say, yet very heavy on the Scale, most beloved to The Merciful, “SubhaanAllah wa bihamdihi subhaanAllahi ’l-`Azheem.”
O Muslims, O Believers! Wherever you are and wherever we are, we don't know where we are. We are in a land, are we belonging to that land? No. Does the land belong to us? No, everything belongs to Allah. Wherever He takes you, you will be there. No one can run away from his destiny. Nothing can be obstacle for the Angel of Death (a) when he comes to you. Inshaa-Allah, Allah give everyone happy life, long life on Iman and Islam.
We are here today, we sat together in an association of remembrance, circle of remembrance, which is a blessed circle, because the Prophet (s) said in many ahadith about the importance of dhikrullah and mentioned that angels will be with us all the way up to First Heaven. How many of them? From here up to the ceiling, if you put one above one, one above one of human beings, how many can you put? Ten? And how many lengthways, how many rows, twenty rows? Also multiplied by ten this way and that way, how many? We have a rectangle here, not square, one side ten and the rows are like 20, so it is 200, multiply by [a height of] 10, it is 2000. If you can put 2000 up to the ceiling straight and rows this way, say 1000, angels don’t take space; if humans, it would be 1000, and the Prophet (s) said angels will be making circles all around us, all the way to First Heaven. If here takes 1000 human beings, then imagine how many angels it can take--to the Moon, to the Sun, to the galaxies, above galaxies! You cannot count and all of them are written for you, all their istighfaar, all their dhikr, and while we are doing dhikr here, their dhikr is continuous, non-stop, up to the Day of Judgment.
That is why awliyaullah can look, because Allah gave them perception, vision, and they understand things that we don't understand. And let us say ‘vision’, as you said. They said that such associations of dhikrullah, hadhihi ’l-adhkaar maahiyy adh-dhunoob, “All these recitations erase all sins, you come as if you are newly born with no sins when you are saying istaghfirullah.” Did we not say ‘istaghfirullah,’ did we not say ‘laa ilaaha illa-Llah,’ did we not say salawaat on the Prophet (s)? Are these not enough to take away our sins? On Judgment Day, as it is mentioned in book Talkhees al-Ma`arif li Sayyid Muhammad `Aarif, Allah will call us on Judgment Day to judge us. May Allah not call us, because, as the Prophet (s) said:
من حوسب عذب
Who will be judged will be punished for sure. (Bukhari)
Anyone who will be picked up for hisaab, to judgement, must be punished, because Allah knows all our sins and mistakes; we forget about them, but Allah does not forget. May Allah forgive us! He said, on the Day of Judgment, Allah will call one person to judge him and He puts his `amal immediately from east to west, it says in the hadith that it opens all his suhoof, his books, his deeds that angels have written all his life, and it is as big as from east to west. They put them on one side of the Scale and his good `amal on the other side of the Scale, and the good `amal will be lighter than the bad `amal, bad `amal will be heavier, and the ruling is made “Go to Jahannam!” Allahu Akbar! May Allah forgive us. And they angels look and they see a heavenly paper is coming, and written on it is ‘laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammad Rasoolullah,’ because in all his life, if that man said, ‘laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammad Rasoolullah’ one time he will be admitted! Immediately that Heavenly paper comes on the Scale and makes the Scale heavier from the good side, and his bad `amal will be fly away, as if:
وَقَدِمْنَا إِلَى مَا عَمِلُوا مِنْ عَمَلٍ فَجَعَلْنَاهُ هَبَاء مَّنثُورًا
And We shall turn to whatever deeds they did (in this life), and We shall make such deeds as floating dust scattered about. (Surat al-Furqaan, 25:23)
“We come to what they have done and We make it as if it doesn’t exist,” only the good `amal by reciting one time, laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammad Rasoolullah, So say, laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammad Rasoolullah! Now we are on that Way. So awliyaullah know, that’s why every week it is necessary to sit in association of dhikrullah, because with it will be a cause that Allah will forgive us, it takes away all the sins anywhere you are! You can do your dhikr anywhere, with yourself, with your wife, with your children; it is accepted, but sit and do it.
This sitting here and association, is one of the advice that the Sultan al-`Arifeen, Ibraheem ibn al-Adham (q), whose story we mentioned two days ago, he was Sultan of Ascetics, Sultan of Zuhaad, the ascetics consider he was their sultan, because he completely left dunya. He left his sultanate and left his kingdom, he left everything, running to find Allah (swt), the reality of this Heavenly Message of the Prophet (s). He sacrificed himself to find the reality of hidden knowledge; he wanted the knowledge that Sayyidina Khidr (a) was dressing, Heavenly knowledge:
فَوَجَدَا عَبْدًا مِّنْ عِبَادِنَا آتَيْنَاهُ رَحْمَةً مِنْ عِندِنَا وَعَلَّمْنَاهُ مِن لَّدُنَّا عِلْمً
Then they found one of Our slaves, to whom We had given mercy from Us, and had taught him knowledge from Our presence. (Surat al-Kahf, 18:65)
They asked him, the Sultan of Ascetics (q), and he said one time when his son was looking all over the world to find his father and he had a ring on his hand, his father’s ring that was given to him when he was fifteen years old, and when Ibraheem ibn al-Adham (q) saw the boy, he felt something special to him and saw the ring and knew this was his son.
He said, “Yaa Rabbee, my heart cannot contain two! Either take me or take my child,” and the child died. They know better, these are awliyaullah! May Allah make us to be at their footsteps. He was able to say, “O Allah, guide him to run the kingdom and leave me alone,” but he said, “Yaa Rabbee, my heart cannot contain two!” Like Sayyidina Ya`qoob (a), why did Allah test him? Because Sayyidina Ya`qoob (a) was having a lot of love in his heart for Sayyidina Yusuf (a) and mixing it with love of Allah, so Allah gave him a hard time, to understand that no one can contain your heart except Allah (swt). When we reach that level, then we are awliyaullah, if we can reach that level.
So they said to Ibraheem (q), “Awsinaa, advise us, what benefits us?” Too many things to benefit: dhikr is benefit, reading Holy Qur'an is a benefit, reciting salawaat is a benefit, but here they want something special from him, because when a wali says something he will take that responsibility from you and take it on his shoulders. So if he says to you, “Don’t be busy with dunya,” wherever you were busy with dunya and you made a lot of difficulties for yourself, he will carry that load for you that he mentioned.
So they said, “Guide us, give us something benefiting us.”
So he said, “When you see the people are busy with umoor ad-dunya, when you see people’s focus is their life, everything in their mind is universities, schools, children, studies, everything that takes you to forget Akhirah,” if you are not forgetting it is okay, if you are balancing it is okay, “but if you see them busy bi `amri-dunya, in the orders of dunya, what dunya orders all of us to do, when you see people like that, fasthtaghil antum bi amr al-Akhirah, be not like them, but be busy with what Allah orders you for Akhirah.”
Why? When you see people are busy in dunya, you be busy for Akhirah, but Allah said:
رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ
Our Lord! Give us good in this world and good in the Hereafter, and protect us from the torment of the Fire! (Surat al-Baqara, 2:201)
It means when you balance between your dunya and your Akhirah, that is a balanced situation and you are fulfilling Allah’s order. When you are not balancing, when you make a higher priority for dunya than Akhirah, then you are falling into the trap the of dunya. Understood? So what do we have to do? Balance dunya and Akhirah, as Sayyidina `Ali (r) said:
اعمل لدنياك كأنك تعيش أبداً ، و اعمل لآخرتك كأنك تموت غدا
Work for your dunya as if you will live forever, and work for the Next Life as if you are dying tomorrow.
“Do for your dunya as if you are living forever,” which means be mu`tadil, balanced, moderate. And `amal li akhirahtika ka-annaka tamootu ghadan, “work for your Akhirah as if you are going to die tomorrow.” So which one gets more attention according to Sayyidina `Ali (r)? Akhirah. He said, “Do for your dunya as if you are living forever,” but you are not living forever, one moment is coming and will take you away. And he said, `amal li Akhirahtika ka-annaka tamootu ghadan, “Do for your Akhirah as if you are dying tomorrow.” If someone has cancer and they tell him, “In one month you are going to die,” they do that or they don’t? What are you going to do? Will you play basketball? What he said? What they will do? Those for dunya run after dunya more. So, there are some they tell them you have six months or three months, and immediately they begin to fix any problems and enjoy and be content, because they know they are going to die in two or three months, that’s a person for dunya. But someone to whom you say, “You have one month to live,” he will not sleep day and night, he will be worshipping, making dhikr, asking forgiveness, reading Dala’il al-Khayraat, making salawaat on Prophet (s), doing anything that Allah will forgive him, is it not?
What Ibraheem ibn al-Adham (q) wants to say to you is, “This dunya is a cancer.” You want that cancer? So since it is cancer, what you have to do, to chose? To do the Akhirah, to do the worship, because at any moment it is grabbing you, and this is:
وَمَا تَدْرِي نَفْسٌ بِأَيِّ أَرْضٍ تَمُوتُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌ
Wa maa tadree nafsan bi ayyi ardin tamootu inna’Llaha `aleemun khabeer.
Nor does any one know in what land he is to die. Verily with Allah is full knowledge and He is acquainted (with all things). (Surah Luqman, 31:34)
Wa maa tadree nafsan bi ayyi ardin tamootu, no one knows which earth will be their grave, and:
لاَ يَسْتَأْخِرُونَ سَاعَةً وَلاَ يَسْتَقْدِمُونَ
Laa yastakhiroona sa`atan wa laa yastaqdimoon.
Not an hour can they cause delay, nor (an hour) can they advance (it in anticipation).
(Surat al-A`raf , 7:34)
Laa yastakhiroona sa`atan wa laa yastaqdimoon, “They cannot put off death by one hour or increase it by one hour,” not one moment more or one moment less, and they don’t know which earth will be their grave. That is why he saw the dunya as a big octopus with long tentacles reaching everyone and the octopus has eight tentacles and they’re long, they go everywhere, catching whatever they can catch. This is dunya. So what do you have to run to do? To run after Akhirah, because there is no other way, but dunya will reach you one day and get you in its claws when you leave this dunya on your last breath.
Grandshaykh (q) used to describe the last moments of death, not an inhale, but everything is exhale, seven breaths and that person falls down. So what we need? To leave the tentacles of this octopus and run after the pleasure of Heaven. So when he was asked for advice, he said, “When you see people busy with dunya life, run for Akhirah life.” Don’t mix with them, don’t be like them. You want to go study, study. Get a degree and get work, get a family, this is `ibaadah, because you are trying to reach and learn, as the Prophet (s):
طلبوا العلم ولو في الصين
Seek knowledge even unto China. (al-Bayhaqi in Shu`ab al-Imaan)
“Seek knowledge even as far as China,” run after knowledge, and the first ayah of Holy Qur'an is, “Iqraa, read!” It means education is important, ao learn, but don't be lazy. If you are lazy, you are in dunya, Shaytan is running after us, like when we come to pray we come lazy to pray. We don’t want to pray, “I delay a little bit, I delay a little bit,” when Zhuhr reaches `Asr they say, “Pray Zhuhr quickly!” Then you stop. What? Continue `Asr! No, you wait, you wait until Maghrib comes and then you want to pray `Asr. Shaytan is playing with us. That is the sickness of dunya and that sickness, you know how it goes, when there is an epidemic it goes from one to another, it is contagious. This dunya is a contagious sickness that reflects from one to another, how, if you are near someone who has the flu, what happens to you? Immediately you get the flu, it contaminates you, it is a contagious epidemic.
This year, how many went for Hajj? One million. Last year it was four million. Why? They say there was renovation in Mecca, but there is a virus killing human beings, that’s why they want to reduce the number of hujjaj. So when that virus comes among the ummah, between people for the love of dunya, it goes from one to another, it is an epidemic. They think, “This one has a car, I must have car.” “This one has a TV, I must have a TV.” “This one goes to places that are not nice, I have to go there.” They imitate each other, this is the imitation sickness. “You wear this, I need to wear this.” Fashion. Look at this one: he is so fashionable, but it is nice fashion (Sunnah), but they want Western fashions...we have to run away.
When we say, “Yaa Rabbee! Guide us not to go to these places,” you are repenting and asking support not to fall in that trap. If you fall, you will be forgiven by asking istighfaar. That’s why, remember, like some now on their phones they press these buttons on their phones, these are reminders that pop-up on the screen, reminding you of what you need to do. We have to have a reminder of istighfaar, we have to have a reminder of when we fall into a mistake we ask, “Yaa Rabbee, keep us reminded,” so when we fall into mistake, immediately that will pop up from the heart computer and remind us to say, “Astaghfirullah.” Don’t you think Allah will forgive? We are from Ummat am-Nabi (s), the Most Honorable Ummah!
كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ
You are the best of nations evolved for Mankind. (Surat Aali-`Imraan, 3:110)
You were the best ummah that has been sent to humanity, so don’t look at the mirror and begin to curse. There is a talk group that tells you, “Look at the mirror and talk to yourself,” or go to a group gathering and talk anything. That is ourselves. We talk too much garbage and a very little bit of remembering Allah (swt) and His Prophet (s), but with that little bit of remembering, Allah and His Prophet(s) Allah said:
لَا تَقْنَطُوا مِن رَّحْمَةِ اللَّهِ
Despair not of the mercy of Allah! (Surat az-Zumar, 39:53)
“Don’t lose hope of Allah’s Mercy,” so don’t run only after dunya, keep that popping up from your computer to remind you to make istighfaar. I recommend to all Mawlana’s mureeds around the world, all of them who have iPhone or Blackberry and everyone else, like I have a phone and I was sending a message and immediately something popped up on my phone and I looked and it says it is the birthday of x-person. I never put this, I don’t know how to put this, Ishaq programmed it. Someone else’s birthday came up, suddenly, and I was in a meeting and Ishaq had programmed it and any birthday he knows he put in the computer and we are sharing info and it pops up! So for everyone that really wants to repent, let him put every hour a pop-up on his telephone to say “don’t forget to make istighfaar, say, astaghfirullah.” For example, now it is nine o’clock, “Don't forget istighfaar,” at ten o’clock, “Don't forget istighfaar,” at eleven o’clock, “Don't forget istighfaar.”
So what are you going to do? Immediately you are going to say “astaghfirullah!” but if that was not there, you may not say it. So why are you using your telephone for dunya only? Show you are using it for Akhirah. Do you have a timer on your phone to wake you up at a certain time? Why don't you put a timer for every hour to make you say “astaghfirullah, aataghfirullah, astaghfirullah.” So everyone who is hearing here in or Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Far East, in Central Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, wherever you are of the Muslim ummah, put a reminder!
And the evidence is Sayyidina `Umar (r): he hired someone to sit outside his door and remind him, “Yaa `Umar! Remember Akhirah, remember death.” He appointed him to remind him. Why? Does Sayyidina `Umar (r) need a reminder? But he appointed him to remind him, until one day he called that man and said, “Come. Thank you for your work. Here is your money and no need to do that anymore.”
And the man said, “Yaa `Umar, did I do something wrong that you are upset with me?”
He said, “No, but I Have someone from within me who can remind me now.”
He said, “Yaa `Umar, what is that?”
“It is my beard, it is becoming white now. I know that I am soon going to the grave, so I don’t need your reminder anymore.”
We are not like Sayyidina `Umar (r), we forget. So what do we need to do? Allah gave us this machine, so make an hourly reminder that pops-up on your computer screen, “Make istighfaar! Say ‘astaghfirullah’!” What’s so difficult? Is it difficult? [No.] So tomorrow, until `Eid Day I am going to ask how many people have turned that on in their computer to remind them, because it might be you are passing by a movie theatre and one leg is saying, “Go in,” and the other leg is saying, “Don’t go in,” and then this pops up like that, “Say istighfaar!” and you run away. Or you pass by a pub, a bar, thinking, “I’ll go in to drink coffee, I’ll go in to drink a Coke,” and then that pop-up reminds you, “Yaa majnoon! Are you going inside? For what? It’s not your business, don’t take coffee or Coke here, go to normal store, not in this bar!” Saying ‘astaghfirullah’ will help us.
I will continue this series of Ibraheem ibn al-Adham (q) tomorrow.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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