Suhbah Before Maghrib
First Night of Ramadan
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.
أَطِيعُواْ اللّهَ وَأَطِيعُواْ الرَّسُولَ وَأُوْلِي الأَمْرِ مِنكُمْ
Atee`oollaha wa atee`oo 'r-Rasoola wa ooli 'l-amri minkum.
Obey Allah, obey the Prophet, and obey those in authority among you. (Surat an-Nisa, 4:59)
When Allah (swt) says “Atee`oollah,” it means, “Come to Me and ask repentance;” “wa atee`oo 'r-Rasool” means, “and come to the Prophet (s) and ask repentance;” while “wa ooli 'l-amri minkum” is plural. “Atee`oollah” is One, there is only One Creator; “atee`oo 'r-Rasool” is one, but “wa ooli 'l-amri minkum” means there are many authorities, some of which are on the Right Path and some are not. It means we don't have to accept what `ulama are saying and if their direction is radical and unacceptable we must not follow them, but use your common sense. If there were not many to follow but only one, Allah (swt) would have said, “atee` ooli 'l-amri minkum,” but He did not mention “atee`” in regards to “authorities among you.” Today there are millions of authorities and they might all be doing wrong.
It is related from Abu Sa`eed al-Khudree that the Prophet (s) said:
أفضل الجهاد كلمة عدل عند سلطان جائر
Afdal al-jihad kalimatu `adlin `inda sultaanin jaa'ir (in another version, aw kalimat al-haqq).
The best jihad is a word of justice (or a word of truth) before a tyrannical king.
(Tirmidhi)
You have to stand up and that is jihad. If you or the ummah face a problem, people have to stand up. You can see Allah (swt) has put in the hearts of people to stand up today against tyrant leaders of countries, what began in Tunis, then Libya, then Egypt and Yemen, ending up in Syria, and tomorrow and after tomorrow you don't know who will see that. They stood up for haqq, and had they stood up for dunya they would fail, but if they stood “li-`alaa kalmimat al-haqq,” to raise up the word of Islam and justice, they will be supported by Allah (swt).
To stand up against a tyrant sultan or leader is a must! the Prophet (s) said it is the best of jihads, and that means forget all other jihads and focus on the jihad against tyrant leaders. Before saying “I want to do jihad against this or that one,” first fix your homes. Before we demonstrate in the streets, let us demonstrate against what is happening in our homes, where there are lot of problems. Here “home” means our self, the ego. We human beings are always struggling against our ego, the struggle of bad desires and good desires. To be a good person, a good mu’min, a good Muslim requires struggling against desires to be a bad person; therefore, it is better to fix our inside or else we are not understanding Islam. As mentioned in Surat al-Kahf, when Sayyidina Khidr (a) went with Sayyidina Musa (a):
حَتَّى إِذَا رَكِبَا فِي السَّفِينَةِ خَرَقَهَا قَالَ أَخَرَقْتَهَا لِتُغْرِقَ أَهْلَهَا لَقَدْ جِئْتَ شَيْئًا إِمْرًا
Hattaa rakibaa fis-safeenati kharaqahaa, Qaala akharaqtahaa li tughriqa ahlahaa?
Until when they were in the boat he scuttled it. Said Moses said, "Have you scuttled it in order to drown those in it? Truly a strange thing you have done!" (Surat al-Kahf, 18:71)
أَمَّا السَّفِينَةُ فَكَانَتْ لِمَسَاكِينَ يَعْمَلُونَ فِي الْبَحْرِ فَأَرَدتُّ أَنْ أَعِيبَهَا وَكَانَ وَرَاءهُم مَّلِكٌ يَأْخُذُ كُلَّ سَفِينَةٍ غَصْبًا
Amma ’s-safeenatu fakaanat li-masaakeena ya`maloona fi ’l-bahri fa-aradtu an a`eebahaa wa kaana waraahum malikun yakhudhu kulla safeenatin ghasba
As for that boat, it belonged to some needy people who toiled upon the sea, and I desired to damage it because [I knew that] behind them was a king who wants to seize every boat by brute force.
(Surat al-Kahf, 18:79)
So they sailed on the boat and he made a hole in it, and Sayyidina Musa (a) asked, “Did you make a hole to sink the people on it?” Sayyidina Khidr (a) explained: “Yes, because there is a tyrant coming to take the boat and the people in it.”
That tyrant is within us: that boat represents our egos in which Sayyidina Khidr (a) made hole; he also killed the boy, which means “kill your self (ego) before Shaytan kills you.” You need to kill your self. Prophet (s) said, “I am the only one who killed my Shaytan,” and to kill your self is to kill your Shaytan. No one can kill it, but you cannot remain lazy: you must kill your self and then there is no place for Shaytan. When you narrow, narrow, narrow (the wrong within you), you focus on him and then he cannot move. However, no one can completely eliminate him, only the Prophet (s) can do that. No wali can say, “I killed my self (ego)!” as that perfection is reserved exclusively for the Prophet (s).
Sultan al-Awliya inherits from the Prophet (s), which means that tajalli comes on him, but it is not what is coming on the Prophet (s) as perfection is only for the Prophet (s). That tajalli emanates from Sultan al-Awliya to the five qutbs, and that tajalli comes, but they do not give you everything; still you have gaps, imperfections. Then that tajalli emanates to the 313 awliyaullah, then to the 7007 awliya, then to 124,000 awliya, and it becomes less and less and less.
Awliyaullah know perfection is only for the Prophet (s), so they struggle more and more against their egos. Today no one is trying to struggle against his ego, which is why you see so many people fighting with each other, especially families: husband and wives, children and parents, children against children. Then the fight becomes community against community, and country against country! That is because of ego, an-Nafs al-Ammaara, “the Commanding Self/Ego” that commands what you have to do, as always the nafs tells us to do what it likes, not what the soul likes.
Then the ego rises from an-Nafs al-Ammaara and goes to an-Nafs al-Lawwaamah, “the Self-Blaming Self/Ego,” like climbing a rope. If you want to reach that, you have to keep climbing and there is nothing to hold you securely, so if you fall you kill your self, but you have to do it. Awliyaullah say, “No problem, if we fall we fall, but we want to keep going up,” and as they go up they surrender more, surrendering, surrendering, until they become as Ibn `Ajiba explained, “Awliyaullah are like earth because they carry people with all their sins.” As much as you step on it, dig it, or try to destroy it by throwing explosives on it, earth doesn't say anything; it is in complete taslimiyya, submission, and never so much as asked, "Why?" Awliyaullah are like the earth.
Awliyaullah don't weigh people by their body weight, they weigh you by your sin, by bad or good. If you are bad, you might weigh hundreds of thousands of pounds, and if you are good, you might weigh hundreds of thousands of pounds in hasanaat! No one can evaluate you except Allah (swt), His Prophet (s) and His angels, who are weighing you every day, what you do of good or bad, and awliyaullah know this.
When we do dhikr, we do it on stones, not as we are doing it now. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, may Allah grant him long life, is doing it this way, but it is not the way as it was from Grandshaykh from the lineage all the way back to the Prophet (s). Mawlana Shaykh (q) is doing it this way in order for new Muslims, converts, to know, learn and memorize, but in Sham we did dhikr with Mawlana Shaykh on 108 stones, which they distribute among all the people in attendance. Sometimes you had two-hundred people and not everyone got a stone . With even one stone, Allah (swt) gives you the weight of all 108 stones, and even if you don't have a stone in the association, because there are not enough to distribute, those present get the weight of 108 stones as their reward.
Grandshaykh (q) said “One stone of dhikr is heavier than Mt. Uhud, and Mt. Uhud is heavier than all mountains of all dunya, and to look at Mt. Uhud is more barakah than to look at forty qutbs!” That is why when you are going to Madinat al-Munawarrah in a car or bus, you see everyone looking at Mt. Uhud. Even if you have a house near Mt. Uhud, look at it because it is heavier in barakah than looking at forty qutbs, which we know is very great! If you are of the high calibre and on the way of awliyaullah, then the mu`adala, formula, is to look at the qutb is like looking at forty Mt. Uhuds, because then you know the secret as you are looking at his face with all the secrets! Otherwise, if you are not on that calibre, to look at Mt. Uhud is equal to looking at forty qutbs because you don't have the secrets.
Dhikrullah is food for Akhirah. Everything in dunya stops except dhikrullah, which goes to Akihirah and never finishes. Also, Salaat `alaa an-Nabi (s), qira’at al-Quran and reading Ahadith of the Prophet (s) never finishes.
عند ذكر الصالحين تنزل الرمة
`Inda dhikr as-saaliheen tanzal ar-rahmat.
To mention pious people, rahmat comes down.
What then if you speak about the Prophet (s), If to remember awliyaullah Allah’s Mercy descends on you, it means you are present in the Prophet's Presence as he is the Rahmat! So if you remember the Prophet (s), Rahmatullah dresses you and then you are in Allah's Divine Presence!
So we have to struggle against our bad desires, because the good desires are there waiting for us. This dunya is not only about eating, drinking and having families, no. This dunya is like you begin a business and you improve and improve, and then sometimes you make a bad decision and you fall, and then as you improve you end up with savings (more inventory, expansion) etc. Also for Akhirah you need to do something as you are trading with heavens. You cannot say, “I don't need to remember Allah (swt) as I am praying my prayers and it is enough.” Yes, pray your prayers and you will be in heaven, but not be in highest level with the Prophet (s)! You might see him, but you might not be at his Hawd, at his Kawthar. You might come to drink once and go, but there are people who sit there. So what we have to do is fix our inside and make sure there is no way for Shaytan to come in: we have to fix our homes. It means someone has to stand up, when you see all what is going on from cheating, deceiving, bribing, conspiring, controlling, lying, envy and jealousy, and trying to divide people. You see that and you know it is happening, and you don't stand up. But if you stand up and say the truth, as afdal al-jihad kalimat `adlun `inda sultanin jaa'ir, in every home there is tyrant sultan! So you have to stand up against that one and if your friends don't support you, they will be among the first ones thrown into Hellfire, because they know the truth and didn't stand up! Some people will stand up and Allah (swt) will reward them.
Also in a home where there is a wali and too many people around him try to hijack his voice (wishes, orders, instructions), then you must stand against them or else you are Shaytan! Let us understand this. Tomorrow is Friday and Ramadan begins. You must stand for haqq against Shaytan or you will be defeated! Your job is to stand up and continue to say the truth.
May Allah bless us!
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem as-salaat wa 's-salaam `alayk yaa rasoolullah as-salaat wa 's-salaam `alayk yaa habeebullah, as-salaat wa ’s-salaam `alayk yaa man zayyanahullah, as-salaat wa 's-salaam `alayk yaa ya man `azhamahullah, as-salaat wa ’s-salaam `alayk yaa man karamahullah , as-salaat wa 's-salaam `alayk yaa khatim an-nabiyyeen, as-salaat wa ’s-salaam `alayk yaa shafi`ee al-mudhnibeen, as-salaat wa 's-salaam `alayk yaa sayyid al-awwaleen, as-salaat wa 's-salaam `alayk yaa sayyid al-akhireen, as-salaat wa 's-salaam `alayk yaa `azheem al-himmat, as-salaat wa 's-salaam `alayk yaa sahib al-maqaam al-mahmoud, as-salaat wa ’s-salaam `alayk yaa sayyida waladi adam ajma`een, as-salaat wa ’s-salaam `alayk yaa basheer, as-salaat wa 's-salaam `alayk yaa nadheer, as-salaat wa 's-salaam `alayk yaa siraaj al-muneer, as-salaat wa 's-salaam `alayk yaa khayra shafi`an wa mushafa`, as-salaat wa ’s-salaam `alayk yaa Maahi, as-salaat wa 's-salaam `alayk yaa Taahir as-salaat wa 's-salaam `alayk yaa Saahib al-qawm as-salaat wa ’s-salaam `alayk yaa saahib al-mighfar, as-salaat wa 's-salaam `alayk yaa rooh al-haqq, as-salaat wa ’s-salaam `alayk yaa rasool al-malaahim, as-salaat wa 's-salaam `alayk...
http://naqshbandi.org/adab/fasting/recite_ramadan.htm
Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem! Marhaban ahlan was sahlan yaa shahra ramadan
Marhaban ahlan wa sahlan yaa shahra ramadan! Marhaban ahlan wa sahlan yaa shahr al-nur! Marhaban ahlan wa sahlan yaa shahr al-fuqara'! Marhaban ahlan wa sahlan yaa shahr al-du`a'i wa ’l-wuquf! Marhaban ahlan wa sahlan yaa shahr al-ihsaan! Marhaban ahlan wa sahlan yaa shahr al-fawzi wa ’l-falaah! Marhaban ahlan wa sahlan yaa shahr al-da`wati wa ’l-irshaad! Marhaban ahlan wa sahlan yaa shahr al-masabeeha wa ’l-qanadeel! Marhaban ahlan wa sahlan yaa shahr al-malaa'ikati wa’s-salaam! Marhaban ahlan wa sahlan yaa shahr al-mutheerati wa ’l-asabb! Marhaban ahlan wa sahlan yaa shahr al-ajri wa ’l-jazaa'! Marhaban ahlan wa sahlan yaa shahr al-sa`ada! Marhaban ahlan wa sahlan yaa shahr al-wasli wa ’l-wisaal! Marhaban ahlan wa sahlan yaa sayyid al-shuhoor lam na`rif qadraka wa lam nahfaz hurmataka yaa shahr al-ghufraan fa arda `anna wa la tashku minna ila al-rahmaan wa kun shaahidan lanaa bi ’l-fadli wa ’l-ihsaan w ’alhamdulillah rabbi ’l-`alameen nawynaa an nasooma ghadan yawm al-jumu`ati awwal yawmin min shahri Ramadan ... wa nawayna an nasooma ash-shahr kullahu `ala niyyat sayyidi ’r-rusul wa `alaa niyyat Shaykh `AbdAllah al-Fa'iz ad-Daghestani (q) wa Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani (q) wa an tadkhilna al-janna...wa an tajma`ana ma` sayyidina al-Mustafa wa aalih wa sahbihi ’l-kiraam.
Inshaa-Allah, tonight there is Taraweeh after `Isha, which is at 10:40 pm. The morning awraad will be here at 3:45am for Salaat an-Najaat, Qiyaam al-Layl. It is okay to delay Fajr Prayer half-an-hour or 45 minutes, but Sahoor must stop at 3:57am (Imsaak) or they (who eats later than that) will lose their fast. the schedules must state when is (the time of) Imsaak and then the time of Fajr Prayer. If they didn't put Imsaak on their schedules, how will people know? Normally I ask them when is Fajr and then I know half-an-hour before that is Imsaak.
Pakistanis follow Hanafi School thought which isn’t like Hanbali or Shafi`i. The Shafi`i School considers that Fajr Prayer can be prayed five minutes after Imsaak. If we speak about Umm al-Qurra, the real Fajr enters at 3:58 a.m., so they have to stop eating at that time, and if they don't want to pray right away they can delay to 4:30 a.m. However, if they keep eating until that time they spoil their fasting. The Hanafi School mentions the time of Imsaak, which is, for example, 3:57 a.m., and Fajr is still at 4:30 a.m.. So whatever school of thought you follow, you (local people in Michigan) must stop eating 3:57 a.m., and you can pray Fajr at 4:30 a.m. or even 4:10 a.m., or you can pray Tahajjud and then Fajr, but Imsaak has to be at 3:57 a.m. so we begin tahajjud at 4:15 a.m. and pray Fajr at 4:30 a.m. per ISNA, but Imsaak is at 3:57 a.m.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
http://sufilive.com/Struggle_against_Your_Ego_if_You_Want_to_Advance-4449.html
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