Suhbah, Mawlid an-Nabi Singapore Expo Max Atria
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh. Salloo `ala ’n-Nabi (s), salloo `ala ’n-Nabi (s), salloo `ala ’n-Nabi (s), Allahumma salli `alaa Sayyidina Muhammad.
A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani 'r-rajeem. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem. 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.
We thank Allah (swt) that He made us Muslims, and made us at the threshold of Prophet (s), standing, waiting and asking permission to go inside. I would like to thank all those who organized this event tonight for the Mawlid of Prophet (s).
I don’t know where to begin, because there is a motivator here who might speak better than me, but we have a motivator for Islam also, a motivator for Akhirah, a motivator who dropped dunya from your eyes and built the Akhirah in your eyes. Islam wants a motivator and we hope all of you here become motivators for Islam, carrying high the flag of Prophet (s)! We say, Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadu ‘r-Rasoolullah, `alayha nahya wa `alayha namoot, wa `alayha nalkal-Llah.
What is written there on the Qubbat al-Khidrah? It is written “Muhammad (s).” We have to know also the meaning that these letters carry; if you don’t know the meaning of these letters and what they carry, then you are completely not understanding the high level of Islamic teaching.
Muhammadun basharun wa laysa ka ‘l-bashari bal huwa yaqootatun wa ’n-naasu wa ‘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 is a human being, but not like us.” He said wa laysa kal basharee, “He is a human being but not a human being, not like the others,” bal huwa yaqootatun wa ’n-naasu wa ‘l-hajari, “He is a jewel and everyone else is a rock,” which means everyone else is dead. He is alive and if he is alive within us, we are alive; if he is not alive within us, we are not alive! Also, Allah (swt) said in Holy Qur’an:
وإعلموا أن فيكم رسول الله
W`alamoo anna feekum rasoolullaah.
And know Allah's Messenger is in you. (Surat al-Hujuraat, 49:7)
“You must know that Prophet’s power, energy and existence is within you,” he didn’t say, “among you” or “between you.” He said, “Within you!” so that “within you” is veiled and when that veil goes out, then you are able to see that Divinely Presence that you will be put in!
You don’t think except of Muhammad (s) as a true servant to Allah (swt). We are celebrating Mawlid and as the presenter mentioned, every day we have to make Mawlid, not one day. But that day, why is it important, why? Because it is the beginning of Islam. Islam did not begin when Prophet (s) was 40 years of age, Islam began when Prophet (s) was born, because he is carrying Uloom al-`Awwaleen wa ‘l-Akhireen, “Knowledge of Before and Knowledge of After.” His name declares that, what Allah has given him of a name through what his mother and his relatives were inspired, they gave him the name Muhammad (s). That name consists of Meem, Haa, Meem, Daal. This perfect name consisting of Meem and Meem; the first Meem represents al-Malakoot, Heavenly Paradises; the second Meem is the Mulk, Earthly Kingdom; Haa is hayaat, Life: life is Malakoot in Akhirah and life is Mulk in dunya. Daal in Arabic is ad-dawaam, “continuity,” it never ends. It means the presence of the Malakoot and the presence of the Kingdom in dunya, and with them existence, hayaat with Haa, that will be completely continuous in your life.
So Prophet (s) is not only someone ‘that gave something and left;’ no, no, he is in our life and he observes us one-by-one, he looks at us one-by-one, he hears us one-by-one by Allah’s permission. He (s) inspires in our hearts one-by-one, inspires us what is good. When Prophet (s) was born, he was concerned about his ummah and in his life he was concerned about his ummah. At his death he was concerned about his ummah, asking, “Yaa Rabbee, what is going to happen to my ummah?” When he comes from his Holy Grave, he is going to come asking, “Yaa Rabbee, what happened to my ummah?” So he is completely within the framework of his ummah and he is not seeing except his ummah although he sees everything, but his focus is on his ummah. That is why he is calling you, this day and every day like this day.
When we think of the birth of Prophet (s), what kind of `ibrah, example came with it? What happened when Prophet (s) was born? Go read Kitaab al Bidaya wa ‘n-Nihaya of Ibn Katheer, and I am saying this intentionally not mentioning other books, because Ibn Katheer is a student of Ibn Taymiyya, and if you don’t know, he has a whole section in his book al-Bidaya wa ‘n-Nihaya on Mawlid an-Nabi (s)! They say today, “Don't celebrate Mawlid an-Nabi (s).” No, (celebrating) Mawlid an-Nabi (s) will remind us what we are doing. Ibn Katheer has put a complete section on every detail and from these details he mentions that when Prophet (s) was born, at that moment of his birth, the fire in Persia that was burning for 1,000 years was put out because he is Rahmatan li ’l-`Alameen, he is the rahmah for everyone! That fire was stopped when Prophet (s) was born, which means the fire within us: the fire of sins, the fire of jahiliyya, and the second jahiliyya which we are in now will be put down. That fire in our hearts that is now throughout the whole world, where there is too much struggling and fighting, by Muhammadun Rasoolullah, by Allah’s permission to Prophet (s), that fire will be put down if we remember and if the ummah will return to its conscience. Fa yaa Sayyidee, yaa Rasoolullah, yaa HabeebAllah, anta tad`oona wa nahnoo nujeeb, “You are calling and we try to come!”
So what is Prophet (s) calling for, what is he calling us to, what is he saying? Very simple: he said in a hadith to his Sahaabah (r), narrated by Bukhari:
الدين نصيحة
Ad-deenu naseeha.
Religion is advice.
He is coming to teach us religion, to teach us the Message of Islam. He said, “The Message of Islam is advice.” Who are you going to advise? Ad-deen, religion, is an-naseeha, an advice. Qaloo li man yaa Rasoolullah, “Who are you going to advise?” The ummah, of course, but to advise what? What Prophet (s) said? Qaala lillah, “I am advising you to go back to Allah (swt), to say, ‘Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah’ in every moment of your life.” In every moment of our life we need something to remind us:
أَلاَ بِذِكْرِ اللّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوب
Alaa bi dhikrillahi tatma’in al-quloob
Without doubt, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find satisfaction. (Surat al-Ra`d, 13:28)
Dhikrullah will remind us to go back, to do good. When Prophet (s) said to the Sahaabah (r):
"إِذَا مَرَرْتُمْ بِرِيَاضِ الْجَنَّةِ فَارْتَعُوا "قَالَ وَمَا رِيَاضُ الْجَنَّةِ قَالَ " حِلَقُ الذِّكْرِ
Qaala Rasoolullah (s) idhaa marartum bi-riyaada ’l-jannatu farta`oo. Qaaloo wa maa riyaadul-jannah? Qaala hilaq adh-dhikr.
Ibn `Umar reported that the Prophet (s) said, “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. There are roaming angels of Allah who go about looking for the circles of dhikr and when they find them they surround them closely." (Tirmidhi)
Prophet (s) said to his ummah, to the Sahaabat al-Kiraam (r), “When you are passing by Riyaad al-Jannah, when you pass by that place, sit there.” They said, “What is that place, yaa Rasoolullah?” He said, “That place that becomes a piece of Paradise, hilaq adh-dhikr, the circle where you remember Allah and His Prophet (s).”
Like here now, anyone entering here, we are remembering Allah and His Prophet (s) and so for anyone entering here, it is becoming a halaqa adh-dhikr, it becomes a piece of Paradise, not a piece of Paradise of marble and couches, but the tajalli, the manifestation that Allah will send on those people who are here, as if He is sending to them in ParadiseQ As He sends to them in Paradise, it will be the same sending to us here because we are under the tajalli of ‘circles of dhikr.’
Prophet (s) advised when someone came to him and said, “Yaa Rasoolullah, Islam has too much Shari`at, too much constitution, too many principles! Give me something easy for me to be able to do it.”
عن عبد الله بن بسر رضي الله عنه أن رجلا قال: يا رسول الله إن شرائع الإسلام قد كثرت علي فأخبرني بشيء أتشبث به؟ قال لا يزال لسانك رطبا من ذكر الله"
`An `Abdullah bin Busir (r) anna rajulan Qaala: Yaa Rasoolullaah inna shara`ia 'l-islaam qad kathurat `alayya fa-akhbirnee bi-shayin atashabbathu bihi. Qaala: laa yazaal lisaanak ratban min dhikrillah.
A man came to the Prophet (s) and said, "O Rasoolullah! The rules of Islam became heavy on me, so give me news of something which I can maintain." Prophet (s) said, "Make your tongue wet with dhikrullah." (Tirmidhi)
“Make your tongue wet with dhikrullah.” Make dhikrullah. We are so busy in dunya, we cannot make dhikr and we need someone to notify us, because Shaytan makes us so busy not to make dhikr! Say, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah,” or say, “astaghfirullah,” or say, “subhaan-Allah,” or “alhamdulillah,” or “shukru lillah,” or “Allahu Akbar.” Shaytan is trying his best to move us away from that and we become weak to remember to say dhikrullah. So I was saying to many of our people that everyone, young and adult, all of you have a phone, is it not? (Mawlana holds up a cell phone.) That is a haraam phone. How it can become halaal? Because this phone, you can look into it, especially children and you can see anything haraam, they can find it. So how to make it halaal? Make it to remind you for dhikrullah when you adjust your alarm system that every hour to give a buzz to say, “astaghfirullah.” So what will you do? Of course you will say, “astaghfirullah.” It will be on the screen, “Say, ‘astaghfirullah,’” so you will say, “astaghfirullah.” It will say, “Say Shahadah,” and you will say, “Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadu ‘r-Rasoolullah.” It will remind you and then that phone will become halaal or else these phones are not necessary to be in the hands of those people who are not putting an alarm system to remind them to be Muslim, mu’min, and muwahidoon lillahi ta`ala.
So Prophet (s) said to his Sahaabah (r), “Ad-deenu naseeha, religion is advice.” And what is better to advise? To advise people to believe in Allah (swt). They said, “To what else, yaa Rasoolullah?” He said, “Wa li-kitaabihi, to His Book, to the Holy Qur’an.” If Prophet (s) was not born, who would bring us the Qur’an? No one! Allah (swt) gave us a gift by sending Sayyidina Muhammad (s) for all humanity, for all Creation; Prophet (s) is not only for one Creation, but he is showing he is Rahmatan li ’l-`Alameen and he is telling us on the other side, “Okay, I will intercede for you on the Day of Judgment, but don’t fall into sins and mistakes that Shaytan will whisper in your ear.”
Especially, Allah (swt) said in the Holy Qur’an:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اجْتَنِبُوا كَثِيرًا مِّنَ الظَّنِّ إِنَّ بَعْضَ الظَّنِّ إِثْمٌ وَلَا تَجَسَّسُوا وَلَا يَغْتَب بَّعْضُكُم بَعْضًا أَيُحِبُّ أَحَدُكُمْ أَن يَأْكُلَ لَحْمَ أَخِيهِ مَيْتًا فَكَرِهْتُمُوهُ
yaa ayyuhalladeena ammanoo jtaniboo katheeran min ad-dhann inna ba`d ad-dhanee ithmun wa laa tajassasoo wa laa yaghtab b`adukum b`adan ayyuhibu aahadukum an yaakula lahma akeehi maytan fa-karihtumoohu
O you who believe! Avoid suspicion as much (as possible) and spy not on each other behind their backs. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? No, you would abhor it.
(Surat al-Hujuraat, 49:12)
“O mu’min, yaa ayyuhalladeena ammanoo,” He is calling on the mu’min, the higher level of Muslims; The first level is Muslim, the second level is mu’min, and the third level is Muhsin which is from the Level of Ihsaan. Yaa ayyuhaladeena ammanu ’jtaniboo, “Be away from doubting people,” ijtaniboo katheeran min ad-dhann, “Run away from doubting people, don’t doubt people.” Don't say, “This one this,” or “This one that,” Allah is saying in Holy Qur’an for those who are doubting others, their brothers and sisters in Islam: this one is doing this, or this one is doing that or we are not happy with what they were doing. You do what you want, and you do what you learnt from your madhaahib and we use our madhaahib. We have four madhabs. You choose whatever you want and we choose whatever we want; we are following any madhab we like. If we like Maliki, we follow Maliki, or Hanafi or Shafi`i or Hanbali. There is no other madhaahib. So we are following these madhabs, we are Ahlu ’s-Sunnah wa ’l-Jama`ah.
Allah said, ijtaniboo katheeran min ad-dhann, inna b`ad ad-dhanni ithmun, “Those who doubt, they are making sin,” because you have to check, you cannot doubt without checking. All scholars of Islam, even Ibn Taymiyya was accepting tasawwuf. I am not saying this to make someone not happy; no, let us sit and if you have your arguments, come and sit. Not on the websites where you are throwing words which have no sense and many people look at you and say, “What is this person? Why is he putting this on his website like that?” Allah says, “Unite,” and they say, “Separate”!
وَاعْتَصِمُواْ بِحَبْلِ اللّهِ جَمِيعًا وَلاَ تَفَرَّقُواْ
W `atasimoo bi hablillaahi jamee`an wa laa tafaraqoo.
And hold fast, all together, by the rope which Allah (stretches out for you), and be not divided among yourselves. (Surat Aali-`Imraan, 3:103)
Why are you separating? If you believe in a certain ideology go with it and we meet in Jannah, inshaa-Allah. We believe in another ideology and we go with it, and we will meet in Jannah, inshaa-Allah, because all of us are going after shafa`ah of Prophet (s). You are whatever you are, you are `alim or not `alim, you are going to be under the shafa`ah of Prophet (s) and you will not enter Jannah without shafa`ah of Prophet (s).
So Prophet (s) said, “Ad-deenu naseeha, advice the ummah.” Qaaloo li man yaa Rasoolullah? Qaal lillah. Advise lillah. When I am advising someone, I advise myself the same thing that I have to advise you, I cannot advise you something and do the opposite. When you are saying “lillah” and you do something for Allah, it has to be pure. When you do your prayer, you make sure you pray on clean carpets or clean floors so that you don’t have impurities. So your heart must be pure: you must not have anger when you pray, you must not hate, you must not be greedy or stingy or not doing anything to help others as that is bad characteristics that Prophet (s) asked us to drop from our life.
O Muslims! I am not advising you, but I advise myself first, because I know I might be the worst here. I need everyone to help me and to pray for me and I pray for you. Allah (swt) might accept from one of us and save everyone here. That is Allah’s Greatness! They were saying before about salawaat on Prophet (s): who ever makes one salawaat on Prophet (s), Allah will make ten salawaat. Our salawaat on Prophet (s) is blended with all kind of impurities. When we do salawaat on Prophet (s), some people might have a lot of sins blended with everything, but when Allah gives you ten back they are clean; you don’t know what kind of reward He will give you! When Allah gives rewards, He is not giving a reward that is small, not like us that when we visit each other we bring some flowers. When Allah (swt) gives respect to His Prophet (s), and when Prophet (s) was born, the whole Paradise was decorated, the palace of Khosru (Chosroes) was broken, it was brought down, the fire was put off, Paradises were decorated, the universe was happy, the Creations were happy for the birth of the Prophet (s), animals were heard with different kind of voices praising Prophet (s) as well as the leaves of trees, the universe and oceans. Don’t think our small meeting here, which is a replica of the original one where we were sitting together and praising Prophet (s) on the Day of Promises when Allah asked us, alastu bi rabbikum, “Am I not your Lord?” and we said, “Balaa, yes yaa Allah! You are our Lord and we are Your servants.”
May Allah (swt) give us from His Endless Mercy and I would like to mention and will read:
قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم " مَنِ اسْتَعَاذَ بِاللَّهِ فَأَعِيذُوهُ وَمَنْ سَأَلَكُمْ بِاللَّهِ فَأَعْطُوهُ وَمَنِ اسْتَجَارَ بِاللَّهِ فَأَجِيرُوهُ وَمَنْ آتَى إِلَيْكُمْ مَعْرُوفًا فَكَافِئُوهُ فَإِنْ لَمْ تَجِدُوا فَادْعُوا لَهُ حَتَّى تَعْلَمُوا أَنْ قَدْ كَافَأْتُمُوهُ " .
It was narrated that Ibn `Umar said:
The Messenger of Allah (s) said, “Whoever seeks refuge with (the Name of) Allah, grant him refuge. Whoever asks of you in (the Name of) Allah, give him. Whoever seeks protection with (the Name of Allah, give him protection. Whoever does you a favor, then reciprocate, and if you cannot then supplicate for him until you think that you have repaid him.” (an-Nasaa’ee)
“Whoever seeks refuge in Allah, help him, help him.” We are asking refuge in Allah (swt), so we need to help each other. Help each other by a smile to each other, be together, speak together, not to fight and not to argue. If you put two people together for one hour and you come back, they will be arguing, especially husband and wife. (Laughter.) Wa man sa’alakum billah, fa`atoohu, “If anyone asks you anything for Allah’s sake, you must give him, don’t turn him away.” When you turn someone away, Allah will turn away from you on the Day of Judgment!
I was in India and we finished ziyara of one masjid, we made prayer there and dhikrullah, and we were coming down and there were poor people from the top of the hill all the way down on both sides, very poor and very old. I wanted to give something and for security those people around me, as they would jump on you, they said, “Don’t, don’t give because then everyone will run towards you to give money.” At that moment, I felt what kind of people are we? These people are happy for two cents or twenty cents and they pray for you, and we are stopping our hands to give them! What kind of people are we, saying, “They will come and take your beard,” because they have this culture, they take hairs of your beard, they take your cloth for barakah. So I was giving and I was passing and I saw one man, I don’t know if they have the picture here? Someone was looking at me, resting on the floor and he had no arms, no hand, from his shoulders to his belly and with no legs. He was like sleeping on his chest and he could not move, and he was looking for a little bit of money. Who is that person? We don’t know. So the people who were with me were pushing them and saying, “Don’t stop,” but I said, “No, I have to check on him,” because his eyes were as if he was speaking to me. I approached him and put my hand on his hair and read Surat al-Fatihah on him and he was smiling, but he had no legs and no arms. It reminded me of the story of Sayyidina Musa (a) with one person.
Sayyidina Musa (a) would usually go out by himself on a journey in the desert and one day when he was out he saw a mountain and he heard a voice coming from the mountain, a beautiful voice. Do you have the picture?
...Allah is saying, “Give him, don’t say, ‘I don’t have.’” Wa man istajara billah fa ajeeruh, “If someone is running from a tribe to another tribe, from one country to another country, running away from tyrants in the Middle East, if he asks refuge, give him refuge.” Like the refugees everywhere today from some countries. So don’t let someone to be killed if you think that you can save him. Wa man aata ilaykum bi ma`roofan fa kaafioohu, “Anyone who comes to you and makes a favor for you, give him a gift,” say even a nice word, “Thank you,” and smile in his face. Fa in lam tajidoo, “If you don’t have then no problem.” In that case Allah made it easy, fad`oo lahu, “Make du`a for him.” If you have no money to give him and you cannot give him refuge, then give him du`a; make du`a for him and for yourself as that will be good manners.
May Allah (swt) bless all of you. And I will mention this:
" إِنَّ مِنْ أَحَبِّكُمْ إِلَىَّ وَأَقْرَبِكُمْ مِنِّي مَجْلِسًا يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ أَحَاسِنَكُمْ أَخْلاَقًا وَإِنَّ أَبْغَضَكُمْ إِلَىَّ وَأَبْعَدَكُمْ مِنِّي مَجْلِسًا يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ الثَّرْثَارُونَ وَالْمُتَشَدِّقُونَ وَالْمُتَفَيْهِقُونَ " . قَالُوا يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ قَدْ عَلِمْنَا الثَّرْثَارُونَ وَالْمُتَشَدِّقُونَ فَمَا الْمُتَفَيْهِقُونَ قَالَ " الْمُتَكَبِّرُونَ "
Jabir narrated that the Messenger of Allah said, "Indeed the most beloved among you to me, and the nearest to sit with me on the Day of Judgment is the best of you in character. And indeed, the most disliked among you to me, and the one sitting furthest from me on the Day of Judgment are the tharthaaroon, and the mutashaddiqoon and the muthafayhiqoon." They said, "O Messenger of Allah! We know about the thartharoon, and the mutashaddiqoon, but what about the muthafayhiqoon?"' He said, "The arrogant." (Hasan)
Prophet (s) said, “That those who are most near to me in Paradise, and those who are most loved by me, and close to me, ahaasinakum akhlaaqan, are the ones with the best akhlaaq, character. They are going be with me in Akhirah.” Wa inna ab`adakum ilayya, wa ab`adukum minnee majlisan yawm al-qiyaama, “Those whom I hate and they are far away from me, although they pray, ath-tharthaaroon, they are those who speak too much, anything comes to mind they say without thinking, they don't care.” Wa ‘l-mutashadiqoon, “Those who mock people and make them look bad.” Wa ‘l-mutafayhiqoon, “Those who think they know something.” The Sahaabah (r) said, “We know the tharthaaroon, ‘those who speak too much,’ and mutashadiqoon, ‘those who try to make you low and mock you,’ but what is the meaning of mutafayhiqoon, what is the meaning of that mutafayhiq?” He (s) said, “Al-mutakabbiroon, those who are arrogant, who see everyone lower than them, those who think they are something but in Allah’s eyes they are nothing!”
May Allah (swt) forgive us. May Allah (swt) bless us and pray for me and we pray for you, inshaa-Allah.
Wa min Allah at-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
http://www.sufilive.com/Singapore_Grand_Mawlid_and_Suhbah_
The_Intercession_of_Sayyidina_Muhammad_pbuh_-5401.html
© Copyright 2014 Sufilive. All rights reserved. This transcript is protected
by international copyright law. Please attribute Sufilive when sharing it. JazakAllahu khayr.