24 June 2015 Fenton Zawiya, Michigan
Fajr 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-riyaada, nawaytu 's-salook, lillahi ta'ala al-`Azheem fee hadha '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)
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 are continuing Tafsir Surat an-Naazi`aat. Shaykh Sahib will recite:
يَوْمَ تَرْجُفُ الرَّاجِفَةُ تَتْبَعُهَا الرَّادِفَةُ قُلُوبٌ يَوْمَئِذٍ وَاجِفَةٌ أَبْصَارُهَا خَاشِعَةٌ يَقُولُونَ أَإِنَّا لَمَرْدُودُونَ فِي الْحَافِرَةِ
أَئِذَا كُنَّا عِظَامًا نَّخِرَةً
The Day when a violent convulsion will convulse [the world]. Hearts that day will be in agitation, cast down will be (their owners') eyes, [And yet,] some say, "What! Are we indeed to be restored to our former state when we will have become rotten bones?” (Surat an-Naazi`aat, 79:6-11)
I didn't come last night and I am here today, and we are asking where we arrived in the last suhbah in the tafseer and we were not able to remember, from yesterday until today we forgot. This is the human nature: we are so busy with dunya and human issues we forget where we arrived. It brings to my mind the story of Grandshaykh `AbdAllah (q) about the son of Sayyidina `Umar (r) and the son of Sayyidina `Ali (r). They were arguing, “My father is better, more knowledgable, he did this!” and the other, “My father is better, he did that!” Sayyidina `Ali (r) was passing by and heard them and asked “What is going on?” and they felt shy from him.
That is the human nature, that we are always focusing on “I”, anything that is good we want to say, “I am that”, yet everyone is going to die, no one can raise his head and say he will not die, so when the first blow of the Trumpet sounds, Allah takes the soul of everyone, everything dies, so then where are we at that time? At that time there is nothing, all are dead, so there is no “I” in Tariqah, there is only Allah (swt). So they were arguing and one said, “O my father is better,” and the other said, “No! My father is better,” and Sayyidina `Ali (r) came and said to his son, “No, Sayyidina `Umar (r) is better.” See how they are humble and love each other so much? They don’t say, “No, I am the one”, he said, “His father is better.” The story goes like that, the story of visions of awliya. When Sayyidina `Umar left dunya, they were going to bury him and everyone is going to taste that.
Our end is the grave. I don't know why we love dunya so much when we know our end is in the grave! What kind of arrogance are we showing to Allah when we say, “I am here” and “You are there.” We are not saying “O our Lord! You are The One Who created everything, Who will forgive and dress and bless Your servants!” He is The One. So when he was buried as any person, but he is Khalifat Rasoolillah, but everyone has to go to the grave, and either it is a Paradise or it is a punishment, so make sure that our graves are a Paradise.
The story continues. When Sayyidina `Umar (r) was buried and people read what they had to read, Surat Yaseen, as it is mentioned in Hadith, “Recite Yaseen on your deceased people,” and then the people left, at that time two angels will come, Munkar wa Nakeer, to question the person in the grave. Everyone is going to see that except prophets, because they are infallible, without sin, so they don't need to be questioned and who dares to question a prophet, unless he is naakir, a denier of the prophecy of a prophet!
So they came and asked Sayyidina `Umar (r), “Who do you worship?” that means, “Who is your Lord?” If they ask us, what do we have to say? First, before we are going to say anything, is our tongue frozen or not? If someone is an unbeliever and does not accept the Oneness of Allah (swt), and he associates partners with Allah, Who has no one with Him, his tongue will be frozen, unable to speak; but the mu’min will say, “Allah!”
So the angel asked Sayyidina `Umar (r), “Who is your Lord?” Allah (swt).
Sayyidina `Umar (r) said, “Oh! I didn’t hear well. Approach nearer, I cannot hear you.”
So he approached another time and asked, “Man Rabbuk, who is your Lord?”
Sayyidina `Umar (r) said, “I cannot hear you, approach.”
The angel approached very near and Sayyidina `Umar (r) said, “Okay now I can hear, what is your question?”
What will we say at that time? Inshaa-Allah we will say, “Allah!” and we hope Allah allows us to say it and that the Prophet (s) intercedes for us. Yaa Rabb, we are saying it here before we die and we don't know what we will say then, but we say it here, before our Akhirah and we hope it will work for Akhirah!
So he said, “Who is your Lord?” and Sayyidina `Umar (r) said, “Come closer I cannot hear,” and this is khaass, just for Sayyidina `Umar (r). He said, “You are asking me, ‘Man Rabbuka?’ You don't know who is my Lord?” and he punched him in the right eye and broke it. He said, “Now you learn ‘who is my Lord’!”
That angel said, “Why are you doing that?”
Sayyidina `Umar (r) said, “I came 100 yards from my home to my grave and you are coming from Heavens all that distance, cutting through millions of light years with heavenly power to ask me these questions and you did not forget, so why do you think I forgot?!”
Take it another time, that is the story of Grandshaykh (q), a story, hikaayah, to show how much even angels of death have to respect the Khulafat ar-Raashidoon. That reminded me how much we forgot of yesterday's talk and we are all trying to yatahazzar, guess to where we reached! I think we reached to the second blow of the Trumpet where everyone is alive. The first blow is where Allah leaves it with nothing existing and says:
لِّمَنِ الْمُلْكُ الْيَوْمَ ۖ لِلَّـهِ الْوَاحِدِ الْقَهَّارِ
To whom is the Kingdom today? To Allah, The One, The Irresistible! (Surat Ghaafir, 40:16)
He is sending that message from Himself to Himself, “Is there anyone who can raise his head?” No way. Allah is saying, everyone is trembling in the Day of Judgement, even every nabi (a) is trembling! That is why all anbiya come to the Prophet (s) with their nations.
Quloobun yawma’idhin waajifah, waajifah means shadeedatu ‘l-idtiraab, hearts on that day will be shaking so much, hearts other than Sayyidina Muhammad’s heart, and the hearts of all other prophets will be shaking as they will be afraid of what will happen to them min soo’i `amalihim, they will feel as if they are in an earthquake that will crush you down with such trembling and people are shaking, people will be trembling so much and they won’t know what to say. This is because the hearts are katheerat al-idtiraab, meaning `aasiyyah, full of sins, and everyone's heart is full of sins, is that not correct? Allahumma salli `ala Sayyidina Muhammad (s) wa `alaa aali Sayyidina Muhammad (s).
In the interpretational, spiritual meaning, when you sit and begin to contemplate, when meditation is a priority, and you begin to think how your heart is and what you have to do to fix its trembling, when you are in advanced meditation, as the ayah says:
إِنَّ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلاَفِ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ لآيَاتٍ لِّأُوْلِي الألْبَابِ الَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ اللّهَ قِيَامًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىَ جُنُوبِهِمْ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقْتَ هَذا اطِلاً سُبْحَانَكَ فَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ
Behold! In the creation of Heaven and Earth, and in the alternation of night and day, there are indeed signs for men of understanding, those who remember Allah (always, and in prayers) standing, sitting and lying down on their sides, and contemplating the creation of the Heavens and the Earth, (saying), "Our Lord! You have not created (all) this without purpose! Glory to You! Give us salvation from the torment of the Fire.” (Surat Aali `Imraan, 3:190-191)
When you begin to meditate on the creation of Heavens and Earth after making dhikr sitting, standing and lying down, then you will have like an earthquake in your heart against the bad desires and hearts at that moment will be shaking like when Allah orders Israfeel to blow the trumpet. So your body is the grave for your soul and Allah (swt) wants to take the soul back pure through real meditation, not un-Islamic meditation with all kinds of practices, experiences, imaginations, hallucinations and there are tons of websites promoting that! I know one person who sells ‘spirituality’ on the Internet and he himself goes to a psychiatrist to solve problems in his life. How is that possible? You sell spirituality with money and you are not fixed in your heart? Teach yourself, it’s better!
So when you do real meditation as Allah mentions in Holy Qur'an, your heart will be rejuvenated. The nafs has a heart and in the practices of real meditation you have to try to bring that heart back from the prison of the self. Now our soul is in the prison of the body and the nafs' heart is in the prison of the self, because that nafs is rebellious and does not want anyone to share the heart with it, so it doesn't let the heart come out; shaaridah, it is running away from anything that goes to Allah. It wants you to worship it, to worship yourself. That is why the Prophet (s) said:
أخوف ما أخاف على أمتي الشرك الخفي
The Prophet (s) said, What I fear most for my ummah is hidden shirk. (Ahmad)
They say, “Me! I am the best, my mind is the best, super duper, no one has more mind than me.” They study in universities to get a certificate to put in bathrooms because they are happy with it. It does not mean anything to Allah and His Prophet or awliya. Do you have a certificate like that? So the nafs is running away from iman and ihsaan and perfecting of the good characters, an-nafs al-mutamarrida ash-shaarida, it is running away and not wanting anything correct, or does not accept Allah (swt).
At that moment, or on that day that is coming, that nafs is holding the heart, waajifah, so when the day of rebellious is beginning to diminish in the self of the believer and the believer begin to see reality appearing the believer will begin to shake. That is not for those who are accepting Allah (swt) and accepting Islam and they are believers in Islam and they have good manners, they have khashyah, the have fear from Allah and they begin to be on Sirat al-Mustaqeem that is why they begin to feel waajifah, too much shaking. That shaking mostly occurs to unbelievers, they are afraid of the second blow because they are going to be alive and they will be asked. That is in real meaning, and in interpretational meaning the self of the Muslim or mu’min will shake when he reflects on Allah's greatness and greatness of Heavens and Earth.
Allah created the Heavens with no poles or posts and that skies full of planets and stars and none of them hit each other. I said it before, I was watching a documentary about the Sun and you can see a flame coming from big explosions on the Sun and scientists, some are good, but most of them don't believe Allah is holding together the universe, just as He is holding the Sun together with all these great explosions. They have big proofs, but just as there are explosions on it, it is still in its form of a circle despite so many explosions and heat and fire.
Who can hold that? The One that can hold that can hold Hellfire! That sun is like Hellfire, is it not? It is not the reality of Hellfire; the Sun is like a toy compared to Hellfire on Judgment Day.
Those who absaaruhaa khaashi`ah, when they see that shaking in their hearts and hear the sound of the second blow coming quloobuhum waajifah , their hearts are so afraid that Allah will punish them and they become khasahi`atan lillah, submitting to Allah (swt), all whom Allah wants to be saved, and those who let Allah down will be let down to suffer.
They say, a-innaa la-mardoodoona fi ‘l-haafirah, “It is not correct, how can they bring us alive after we have been dead and sent to graves? We don’t accept that, we deny that!” Those who deny that Allah is saying to them, “Yes, you are going to be thrown in the graves and I am going to recreate you, even your bones with holes in them, even if you broke down to be only a coccyx, I will bring you back!” as it is mentioned in the Holy Qur'an, that the whole body will disintegrate except one small molecule, particle or element which is alive and contains the secret of the soul of the human beings, and that never dies. That bone, the coccyx, the last bone in the human body, is so small and contains the living species. Scientists want to check what Holy Qur'an and Hadith say:
ليس من الإنسان شيء إلا يبلى ، إلا عظمًا واحدًا وهو عجب الذنب ، ومنه يركب الخلق يوم القيامة
There is nothing of the human body that does not decay except one bone; that is the little bone at the end of the coccyx, of which the human body will be recreated on the Day of Resurrection.
(Narrated, Abu Hurayrah. Sahih Bukhari)
It means the entire human being will disintegrate except one small bone in the coccyx, so they took it in the lab and crush it under very high pressure until it was crushed into tiny particles, then they examined the powder and found there was still a living element there. Then they tested it with fire, like cremation. They torture the human being three times: one time in cremation, then in the grave and then in Hellfire, but they bury Muslims, alhamdulillah. So they took the coccyx and burned it at a very high temperature until nothing was left but ashes and they found still there is a living element.
يبلى بن آدم إلا عجب الذنب
yablaa jasad ibn Adaam illa `azam adh-dhanab,
The Prophet said 1,400 years ago: “The whole human body will disintegrate except for the bone of the coccyx.”
From that small bone fragment Allah brings back everyone alive. The second blow, everyone will hear, even if they are in the deepest graves of the world. So we have to know that this Day is coming, so what do we have to prepare for it? First of all, to be a Muslim you fulfill the Five Pillars and you know that the Prophet (s) was sent to perfect the manners and characters of the Ummah, so we have to have good character with each other, not fight for dunya rank.
When Grand-Grandshaykh Sharafuddin (q) passed away and wrote in his will that Grandshaykh `AbdAllah al-Fa'iz ad-Daghestani (q) is his successor, then he took that will, tore it and threw it away in the river and said, “I don’t want anyone to know who I am.” Next they might say trinity, we don't know. Be careful, don't harm innocent people with your crazy understanding. When things go to the first level of mureeds everyone wants to say, “My shaykh, my shaykh,” and they make problems. Leave that matter, it is not in your hands and whom Allah wants He wants, and we say may Allah bless everyone who is doing good for this Tariqah or for Imaan or for Islam. We don't want to have problems in Akhirah like those who deny that they will be thrown [with force] in the graves!
Wa ‘l-haafirah has another meaning, it is the one who digs the grave, so when you are digging al-haafir means digging and walking, making a continuous mark non-stop, when someone is digging in a straight line you see it, and so everyone whose heart is good or whose heart is not is digging to reach his destiny. If you are digging for Siraat al-Mustaqeem then you are saved, and if you are digging for dunya, not good dunya but wrong dunya, then you have problems. It is said al-haafirah, mostly you dig in earth, so the body is earth for the souls; the soul will dig in the body to extract the bad desires from it, to clean them and clean the qubooru sudoorinaa, graves of our chests.
Allah says that they say, a'idhaa kunna `izhaamun nakhirah, “Even when we are deteriorating bones with holes in them, is it possible to come back?” Of course we are coming back! Just as The One Who made the soul reach from Paradise all the way to the womb of the mother, cannot He make us come back? Look at our souls. How many children are born every day? One or two-hundred thousand, so many, and every soul will leave from the point that Allah put them, moving like a laser with so many lights of different colors, and everyone is a light going in its direction, the light does not go crooked; like when you shine a flashlight the light goes straight, not crooked. Souls are from lights, they go straight, so how do these hundreds of thousands of souls go in the womb of the mother every day, as there are hundreds born every minute? They don’t make a mistake. They cut through all that distance and enter the correct womb. Can The One Who allowed that not bring us back from death? Even all the bones are gone but from life in the coccyx He will bring you back!
He mentioned `izhaamun nakhira, meaning the bones that are completely deteriorated, completely full of holes, showing this is the most disintegrated and most essential part of the human body. To erect a ladder, it must stand on three dimensions or it will fall down. Why human beings don’t fall down? They have only two dimensions, how do they not fall down? They are balanced, but how can they balance themselves? Allah knows best.
So the human being is the form Allah wanted for His servants through a skeleton, in which there are billions of cells. They say the body has three-trillion cells and every six months it rejuvenates. How does Allah bring them all back into that body? Everyone will appear as they appeared in dunya. Also, some scholars say that we reappear in the age of 37, the middle age. As Allah created everything from Absolute Nothingness, `adam, He can bring them back from Absolute Nothingness! As Allah created the milk: when it comes from the cow the milk contains cheese and water, correct? They mix together and each one separates. I recall the story of Grandshaykh (q), that in the previous times they had debates between Believers and unbelievers, and Imam Shafi`ee had a debate in Baghdad where he put his first madhhab; when he moved to Cairo, Egypt he changed his madhhab to be more strict due to the extensive corruption there.
So one time the unbelievers came to debate the Muslim scholars. There was a pious king in that area and he was worried the unbeliever scholars were coming to debate Muslim scholars with different kinds of knowledge and he was worried about who will win, so that night he made istikhara and slept and he saw the Prophet (s) in the dream, and he said, “You go in the evening to that masjid and you will find someone reading Holy Qur'an and the rest are sleeping. Take him and he will debate them.”
He was so happy with that dream because seeing the Prophet (s) in a dream is true, so he went to that place and saw everyone sleeping except one young boy who was not even 10 years old, reading Holy Qur'an. He approached the boy and said, “Yaa waladee.”
The boy said, “I know, don’t worry.”
The sultan said, “What do you know?”
The boy said, “I know you are coming by order of the Prophet (s) for the unbelievers and I will debate them.”
He saw that dream of the Prophet (s) so he believed, not like today when the king has security and bodyguards, but this one went by himself at night to the mosque, so the unbelievers came to the place of debate and were waiting for the Muslim scholars, and Imam Shafi`ee delayed his arrival in order show them, “We are the Believers, you are the unbelievers” and to make the unbelievers stand up for him, to acknowledge that someone is going to speak to them, as this is different from all arriving at the same time, in which case no one will stand for the other.
So leader of unbelievers stood up and said, “O my son, is your father coming to debate us?”
He said, “No, I am coming to debate you.”
The leader of the unbelievers said, “Are you sure?”
The boy said, “Yes, because Egypt is an ocean of scholars, you are nothing to them, so they sent me. I am enough for you, so ask your questions.” Al-harbu khud`a, war is strategy, tricking people, so they asked their questions and he answered all the questions.
The priest said, “Okay, you answered my questions, but let us say there is Allah, but for my heart to be at ease, let me see him.”
He said, “Okay no problem, O King! I am hearing a milk seller. Go and get me the milk.” The young boy was sitting with the unbelievers, with the King, with the Muslim community, and was sending the king to find the milk seller and no one had heard the milk seller except him; that was a miracle. The king went to find the milk seller but could only hear him so he waited.
When he came the king bought the milk and went to Imam Shafi`ee, who called the priest and said, “Look at the milk,” and pointing it he said, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem” and immediately the milk separated into cheese and whey, and then he said, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem” a second time and the milk and cheese separated into milk, cheese and whey, and he said to them, “The one who has eyes like mine can see and who has eyes like yours cannot see. Do what I did, here is another bowl of milk.”
That unbeliever accepted to say Shahaadah. The One Who did that is Allah (swt), He does not need to bring chemicals to rejuvenate us from death as even the milk is mixed with water, and one is more advanced and more accepted in the Divine Presence; the milk is more accepted in some cases. The water is the necessity of every human being and Allah can bring back the milk and the water and can separate them, so both of them are soul and body and body and soul.
May Allah forgive us. These are stories of our shuyukh that they tell us to strengthen our belief and knowledge of Imaan, Islam, Ihsaan.
Wa min Allahi ‘t-tawfeeq bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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