12 January 2013 Fenton Zawiya, Michigan
Zhuhr Suhbah
A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytani 'r-rajeem. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani '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)
We are taking some ahadith, sayings that have been mentioned in many different sources, and we are taking from the book Al-Jawaab al-kaafee liman sa'ala `ala ad-daw`a ish-shaafee, The Sufficient Answers for Those Who Asked about the Healing Medicine by Ibn Qayyima al-Jawziyya, who was a student of Ibn Taymiyya. We are taking from there because it is from their own things that they accept, in order that we can build on it as Ahlu ’s-Sunnah wa ’l-Jama`ah, lovers of Prophet (s).
We are mentioning about du`as and we have about ten or twelve lectures on the importance of du`a in curing, what we shouldn’t do in order to be saved in dunya and Akhirah, and how the Sahaabah (r) used to look at what the Prophet (s) was saying to them and build on that with their own sayings and their own statements. In the last lecture we mentioned about Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (r), Sayyidina `Umar Farooq (r) and Sayyidina `Uthmaan Ibn `Affan (r) and what they have said.
Du`a saves you from the poison of Akhirah and poison of dunya, if we can call it poison, through which different kinds of negative energy affect your body and your system. Also, the poison of Akhirah are things that affect your Akhirah, the poison that you build up on your soul from sins. So the sins that you do in dunya will affect your dunya and Akhirah. The Sahaabah (r) tried to be careful and to run away from it and they wished many things in order not to see that kind of poison that we will be dressed with in Akhirah.
We mentioned about Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (r) and I am not going to repeat it, but he used to cry a lot and say, “O Allah! I wished You had made me a hair on the body of a mu’min,” meaning, “a hair for me is enough in the body of a mu'min because that hair will not be judged on the Day of Judgment as it is already in the body of a mu'min.” That means, “I wish I will not be left to my ego, as Prophet (s) said, ‘O Allah! Don’t leave me to my ego for the blink of an eye!’” So Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (r) used to say the same that he heard from the Prophet (s), and he used to say, “Ibkoo, cry, and if you are not able to cry, then tabaakoo, try to cry to your self,” as Allah's Punishment is not easy. And Abu Qatada (r) said that Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (r) said, “I wish to be vegetation that animals eat me,” meaning, “I wish not to exist!”
Sayyidina `Umar (r) said to his son, “When I die, put my face directly on the soil.” Today they don't put it directly on soil, but they put it in a coffin and the coffin is first on the soil, then the sand. He said, “Put my face directly on the ground and perhaps with this humility that I do to myself Allah (swt) will forgive me.” Sometimes when he was reading Holy Qur'an at night and passed by a verse that would make him cry, he cried for several days and would get sick and not leave his house for many days until he felt better. So the verses of Holy Qur’an as he was passing through them, it was terrifying him from Allah’s `adhaab, Punishment, which we have explained.
And Sayyidina `Uthmaan (r), as we explained, said, “If I was between Jannah and Naar waiting for Allah’s Judgment on me, at that moment I wish to be ashes, not to exist anywhere, because I don’t know what Allah’s Judgment will be, so I wish I am non-existing,” meaning, “I am like ashes.”
It is said that Sayyidina `Ali (r) used to fear so much when he read the Holy Qur'an, and all his life he was afraid, worried that Allah is not happy with him. He was worried about two issues that we have to put in front of our eyes. Today, people are not living for their day, but some people say, “I am living for this day, I don’t have something for tomorrow.” We could say, “Living for today;” they don't have any thinking about tomorrow. Sayyidina `Ali (r) used to say, “I am afraid of two, tool al-amal, looking too far in the future, that I wish to live so much that I want to have all this in my future life.”
Today everyone feels that they have to plans for ten years ahead, or twenty years ahead; companies today make twenty year plans, countries plan for twenty years. Perhaps you die, or perhaps a tsunami comes and takes you all? So how are you planning and Allah might call you at any moment? What you really need to plan is for your Akhirah, and not for your dunya. That is why Sahaabah used to live for the day. And he said, “Toola al-amal makes me to think too much in the future, that is a danger on me, and I always try hard not to think like that.”
There was one wali in Damascus, Shaam, and I have mentioned that before, he used to live his day. Any gifts that came to him during the day, he could not sleep without giving it out. Many people might give him something as a gift or sadaqa to distribute, but we are talking about what he owns, the gifts he has to make sure it is being given out. One day he came to his house and he already advised his daughter, “Distribute it if I am late, give everything out. One day he came to the house, he made wudu, prayed two rak`ats and went to bed, but he was not able to sleep. He knew that if he was not able to sleep it meant there is something from dunya in the house above their needs. Today, what do you need to live your life? A mattress, if you want a mattress. Prophet (s) and the Sahaabah used to sleep on a mattress of straw. Now they tell you there is a mattress from foam and springs, and a mattress you could buy for $5, now you can buy for $3,000! And now not only that, they have mattresses with electricity, it heats up and goes up and goes down the way you like, and they say it takes your body pattern and it functions similarly. They used to sleep on a straw mattress!
What was the Prophet's food? Bread, and in the morning a cup of hot water with one spoon of honey. Do we do that? We need coffee, tea and we need breakfast. He took one cup of hot water with honey and at noon time before lunch, he took seven dates and one cup of milk. Before Maghrib, he took one piece of broken bread, and it was very hard and mainly with olive oil and vinegar he dipped it in salt and ate it. This was the main meal and some days only three dates. This is doing for Akhirah. For dunya you need what all of us are falling into, the trap of Shaytan. They have everything and planning also what you have to save in your freezer and fridge and everything, in case if something happened what to do. So Sayyidina `Ali (r) used to be afraid from that.
So that wali was checking and he was not able to sleep, (and he knew) there is something from dunya in the house that had not been given out. He woke his daughter and asked, “What do we have in the house that has not been distributed today?”
She said, “W’Allahi! O my father, we have nothing. I gave everything out, whatever came of food or gifts or cloth I distributed, anything that came like wheat or chickpeas or lentils, I gave out. There is nothing.”
So they lived for their day, day-by-day. The next day, Allah Kareem, they didn’t think about the next day. Do we think of next day? Too much thinking about next day; we don’t think of today because today we know already we have prepared for it like a month ago! We think about tomorrow.
وَلَا تَقُولَنَّ لِشَيْءٍ إِنِّي فَاعِلٌ ذَلِكَ غَدًا إِلَّا أَن يَشَاء اللَّهُ
Wa laa taqool li-shay’in innee fa`ilun dhaalika ghadan illaa an yashaa-Allah.
And never say of anything, "Indeed, I will do that tomorrow," except (when adding), "If Allah wills."
(Surat al-Kahf, 18:23)
“Don’t say about something, ‘I am going to do this tomorrow.’ Leave it to Allah.” It might be if you leave it to Allah, Allah will give you millions more than what you planned.
So that man said, “No, no there must be something in the house.” Then she remembered that someone had brought them a leg of lamb and she had put it above the cupboard and she forgot about it, so he took it down and cut it into pieces and went out. Who was on the streets? Cats and dogs; who else is out after midnight? What to do, knock on doors of people’s houses? So he gave it to them and went home and he was able to sleep. Before Fajr he woke up and made wudu and prayed Qiyaam al-Layl and was going to the masjid and all those dogs and cats were following him to the masjid, because they were happy with him and they were loyal to him because he gave to them; a dog is loyal when you give him something, is it not? Allah gave to us everything.
وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِي آدَمَ وَحَمَلْنَاهُمْ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ وَرَزَقْنَاهُم مِّنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ وَفَضَّلْنَاهُمْ عَلَى كَثِيرٍ مِّمَّنْ خَلَقْنَا تَفْضِيلاً
Wa laqad karamna Bani Adama wa hamalnaahum fi ’l-barri wa ‘l-bahri wa razaqnaahum mina ’t-tayyibaati wa faddalnaahum `alaa katheerin mimman khalaqnaa tafdeela.
We have honored the Children of Adam, provided them with transport on land and sea, given them for sustenance things good and pure, and conferred on them special favors above a great part of Our Creation. (Surat al-’Israa, 17:70)
“We have honored the Children of Adam and carried them in lands and seas and provided them from the most delicious that they want to eat.” So we must be loyal to Allah (swt) by obeying Him. That is why Sayyidina `Ali (r) said, “I am worried if I am not loyal to obey Allah and obey His Prophet (s) and tool al-amal, looking for what you need to do for the future will take you away from loyalty to the Prophet (s) and loyalty to Allah, because you are going to be loyal to yourself first when are looking for what you are going to do in the future, not loyal to what Allah has given to you and depending on Allah (swt), not depending on your ego, on yourself.” So he was worried that this might happen and he could not deal with it because the ego always asks you, “What are you going to do tomorrow? What kind of work do you want to do?” Today, big companies do 2020 plans or 2030 plans; everything today is built contrary to what Allah likes.
مَا أُرِيدُ مِنْهُم مِّن رِّزْقٍ وَمَا أُرِيدُ أَن يُطْعِمُون إِنَّ اللَّهَ هُوَ الرَّزَّاقُ ذُو الْقُوَّةِ الْمَتِينُ
Maa ureedoo minhum min rizqin wa maa ureedoo an yut`imoon, inna-Llaaha huwa ‘r-razzaaqu dhul-quwwat il-mateen.
No sustenance do I require of them, nor do I require that they should feed Me. Indeed, it is Allah who is the (Continual) Provider, the Firm Possessor of Strength. (Surat adh-Dhaariyat, 51:57-58)
“I don’t want from them any provision! Allah is the Provider of whatever they want.”
إِنَّ اللّهَ اشْتَرَى مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَنفُسَهُمْ وَأَمْوَالَهُم بِأَنَّ لَهُمُ الجَنَّةَ
Inn Allaaha ‘shtara min al-mu’mineena anfusahum wa amwaalahum bi anna lahumu ‘l-jannah.
Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties; (in exchange) for that they will have Paradise. (Surat at-Tawbah, 9:111)
Allah bought from those believers everything, He took from them their lives! Ashtara means, “He bought.” allah (swt) is saying, “Give Me this, I will give you Paradise; give me struggle in dunya in My Way and I will give you Paradise.” Allah bought from believers themselves and their wealth in order that He gives them Paradise. Today, what are we doing? We are not selling to Allah (swt), but we are selling to Shaytan; we are selling him ourselves, saying, “Take it!”
“Eh, how I can take it? You have to think about what is going to happen to you after a hundred years.”
“A hundred years, Allah Kareem!”
“No, you have to keep thinking.”
So you begin to fight it, because when you think you need something you fight for it. That's why countries are fighting with each other, because everyone wants the chair.
هَزَمَ الأَحْزَابَ وَحْدَهُ
Wa hazama ’l-ahzaaba wahdah.
He is the One that demolished all different parties. (Sahih Bukhari)
كُلُّ حِزْبٍ بِمَا لَدَيْهِمْ فَرِحُونَ
Kullu hizbin bima ladayhim farihoon.
Each party rejoices in that which is with itself. (Surat al-Mu’minoon, 23:53)
These parties in politics, wa hazama ’l-ahzaaba wahdah, “Allah destroys these parties by Himself,” Kullu hizbin bima ladayhim farihoon, “Every party is happy with what they have.” They are not happy with Allah (swt), they are happy with their Shaytan! So Sayyidina `Ali (r) was worried. He said, “I am worried thinking about the future as I am here today and after one minute I might not be existing, I might die.”
Today they sell you a house and you take out a thirty-year loan. They know you might not live thirty years, you might die after five years, and then they take the house because the wife cannot continue paying. They take everything from you, and they made it thirty years in order to get three times the value of the house; if you buy the house for $300,000 you pay a million dollars over thirty years! So everything (in their way) is built on wealth, on money and on Shaytan, while anything built on imaan takes you to Akhirah and saves you there. Can you buy hasanaat with money? Can you go to him and say, “Can you send me some hasanaat, I will give you that money?” How? He does not have a guarantee of hasanaat. Everyone, all of us, we cannot guarantee that we have something good or that we are doing something good. How am I going to give him what I don't own? So how am I going to go to him and say, “Give me ten hasanaat”? What is the value? If you put ten hasanaat on one side of the Scale and the whole value of dunya from yourself on the other, the ten hasanaat side is heavier! So how much do you want to sell it for? You cannot know, so what can you sell? And today they don't sell us anything except plans in air, from which there is no benefit. What has benefit? Only to obey Allah (swt) and obey Prophet (s)! The Sahaabah (r) knew that.
Sayyidina `Ali (r) said, “Tool al-amal.” It means that you want to do for the future, and that makes you forget about Akhirah, because ‘tool al-amal’ is to live long and you look forward to get a lot of things in the future. So you are building for your future; for example, the average lifespan is seventy-five years and you are thirty years of age, so you are building your hope for forty or fifty years ahead. You might die tomorrow and lose everything and you lose your Akhirah, but if you build your hope looking to build in Akhirah, that is acceptable. You can do that because it comes under the chapter of “Obey Allah and obey Prophet (s).” He said, “Tool al-amal, I am worried because wa yunsee al-akhirah, it makes you forget about your Akhirah.”
Wa amman tibaa al-hawaa fa yasudu `ala ‘l-haqq, “And the second thing is to follow your desires.” Following desires takes you away from Truth, because desires are never on truth. Bad desires, are always what Shaytan is pushing into your mind to do. Good desires are very rare to come to your mind. For example, a good desire is not only to pray Zhuhr, like we just prayed Zhuhr, but to come to your mind to pray a hundred raka`ats! Do you do that? Or it comes to your mind to pray fifty raka`ats. Do you do that? Or to read Holy Qur'an. If you open Holy Qur'an to read, hundreds of phone calls come. So what do you need to do? Unplug the telephone; that is a good desire. Do you turn off the phone? When I am giving khutbah on Jumu`ah, I am seeing people sending sms to each other; the telephones are on vibration and as soon as it vibrates, people open the phone and are checking. (According to Shari`ah) if you carry a stone or a masbaha when the imaam is on the minbar, your prayer is false! Today too many people even speak with each other and the khutbah is part of the prayer; it is the two raka`ats of prayer. You cannot even move in Jumu`ah, your focus must be on the imaam, the khateeb!
So Sayyidina `Ali (r) is worried to follow bad desires, ittib`a al-hawwa, that will take him away from haqq. O Human Beings! He said, “This dunya is moving, finishing its days, and Akhirah, heavenly life is coming.” So then which one you have to work for? Akhirah. I am not saying this to these people here or people who go to masaajid. Alhamdulillah, may Allah's Beautiful Names and Attributes be on all of you as it is not easy to come from far distances to spend some time and go back. That is against the Desire of the Self, ittib`a al-hawwaa, as Sayyidina `Ali (r) was saying.
And he said, “For everyone there is a child; dunya has its children, Akhirah has its children. Be from the children of Akhirah, not from children of dunya.” And those who go for good cause to learn in masaajid are ‘Children of Akhirah,’ and don’t fall into ittiba` al-hawwaa, the Desire of the Self. May Allah keep us safe here and there, wherever they are.
But too many today have programs called “leadership programs,” to teach them to be leaders, injecting them with a full injection of arrogance and pride. That is it! I am not saying not to teach them leadership, but teach them leadership with humbleness, because good leadership is a humble leadership, just like Sayyidina `Umar (r) was disguising himself, going around carrying sacks of food on his back and checking which houses are in need and giving to the poor. And one lady complained to him, “I wish that Sayyidina `Umar learns from you!” So speaking to leadership, there are also leadership using any possible way to put themselves on top of everyone, from people of dunya and from people of Akhirah. They don’t care if they divide the community, but if they find a chance to sit on the chair-- and that is what they are trying to do in every tariqah and especially this tariqah, the Naqshbandi- Haqqani Sufi Order! They are trying to divide, ittib`a al-hawwaa, they are following their bad desires. If I say what I have heard from many, many people about what they are trying to do to divide this community, some people in different countries are trying to divide the community and make different branches. What is the benefit? Then I will tell you what will happen at the end: if you continue to do that, then each will take his branch and go with it and no one will accept what you try to portray that this one is responsible and the other one is not responsible. “You follow this one! Leadership will be this one or that one.” It is not going to happen. No, there will be a big division into hundreds of branches in the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi Order!
May Allah (swt) guide them all and guide us all not to reach that way, to check people, asking them, “With whom are you? With which division are you?” in different countries and you promote one against others and try to make a huge sharkh, fracture. If you fracture a bone, it needs one month or six weeks to heal, but these fractures will never heal!
In the Muslim community today there is a fracture. In the Salafi community there is a fracture, they are fighting with each other; in Ahlu ’s-Sunnah wa ’l-Jama`ah there are fractures; in Shi`a madhhab there is a fracture; in the Sufi’s there are fractures; in Naqshbandis there are fractures. And who is going to take responsibility in front of Allah (swt) and His Prophet (s)? You are only trying to promote fitna, you are not trying to keep fitna dormant or eliminate it. When you ask someone coming at the door of awliyaullah, “Which group are you following?” or you promote one group against another, then you know that you are doing something against Allah (swt) and His Prophet (s), and against the shaykh that you are following! We have to tell you that in dunya there are 124,000 shaykhs. There is a sultan and everyone thinks his shaykh is a sultan, so we believe that Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) is our sultan. So don’t destroy that way of belief in people!
May Allah (swt) guide us towards Akhirah, as Sayyidina `Ali (r) said, “For dunya there are children and for Akhirah there are children.” Don’t be the children of dunya, and we are running after it only for collecting from here and there things that awliyaullah never touch. You are touching it for fame or for a chair? And Allah knows the hearts and who is doing what. May Allah forgive us and forgive you. Be from the children of Akhirah and not from the children of this life!
Today there is `amal bi laa hisaab, `amal with no judgment. Whatever you do today you don’t feel any punishment or reward, you will not get any answer, but tomorrow in Akhirah there is no `amal, but there is hisaab, judgment! So we have to choose.
I will read that hadith and will not explain it today, but one day insha-Allah. Allah is Great! Imam Ahmad (q) said in his Musnad, and in this book a majority of the hadith, if not all, have a strong sanad:
عن عبد الرحمن بن جبير بن نفير عن أبيه قال: لما فتحت قبرص فُرق بين أهلها، فبكى بعضهم إلى بعض، فرأيت أبا الدرداء جالساً وحده يبكي، فقلت: يا أبا الدرداء ما يبكيك في يوم أعز الله فيه الإسلام وأهله، فقال: ويحك يا جبير ما أهون الخلق على الله إذا أضاعوا أمره، بينما هي أمة قاهرة ظاهرة لهم الملك، تركوا أمر الله فصاروا إلى ما ترى.
Lammaa futihat qubrus fariqat bayna ahluhaa, fa bakaa ba`duhum illa b`ad, fa rayatu aba dardaee jalasan wahdahu yabkee. Fa kultu yaa aba dardaee maa yubkeek fee yawmin a`azallahu feehi ‘l-islama wa ahluh. Fa qaala wayhaka yaa jubayr maa ahwana ’l-khalqa `ala-’Llaahi `azza wa jalla idhaa adaa`oo amrahu baynamaa hiya ummatun qaahiratun zhahiratun lahumu ’l-mulk tarakoo amrullah fa saaroo ila maa taraa.
I will keep it in Arabic and translate it in English to correctly understand every word we are saying. I will leave it until another time to explain it. It is on page 66 in al-Jawab al-kafee liman sa'al `an dawaa ash-shafi`ee. As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh. We will translate it later.
Bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
This is about what sins can affect people in their lives, and especially when Cyprus was opened to Muslims, how their sins have affected the people there and we will mention it in the future.
Fatihah.
http://www.sufilive.com/Stunning_Examples_of_the_Sahabah-4785.html
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