Tariqah is nothing but adab, good manners: how we eat, sleep, pray, speak, read the Holy Qur’an, where we put the Holy Qur’an and Dalail al-Khayraat. All these small things we don’t pay attention to are part of Tariqah. Grandshaykh `AbdAllah (q) said that angels complete whatever worship you missed. Also, if you speak, give a lecture, and there is a joyful environment, Allah likes that. Allah likes the `abd that is bashush, smiling, not serious. You can be serious outside (in the world) as much as you like, that is okay, but not here in the majlis of adab, association of good manners.
Awliyaullah observe their followers, what they are speaking about, and if in that moment they need something special to be sent to them through inspiration. Alhamdulillah, Allah (swt) gave all of us authority over two angels. Some might ask, “How are they given authority?” He said, “Yes, because Awliya wait 24 hours for their followers to repent their sins, which means they have power over the angels, so the angel is not going to write anything against that mureed if he repents. The other angel writes your good `amal, and whatever dhikr or salawaat that angel completed in this period will be written for the follower of the Tariqah.”
So Tariqah kulluhu adabu, Tariqah is all respect and honor, so if the shaykh doesn’t show you respect and honor, what kind of Tariqah is that? The shaykh must show his followers how to behave, to listen and accept advice. That’s why when the shaykh says something coming from Prophet (s) into his heart, there is no interference, it’s directly to the heart. No one [in our Tariqah] can claim to have that power except those whom Mawlana Shaykh Nazim appointed, and unless it is necessary, they don’t say, “We have this, we have that (power).” They have to be more humble than the mureeds. This is where they like you: if you see yourself higher than the mureeds, it’s not accepted.
Such associations to make people laugh and be happy is from the Tariqah, but not to exceed the limits of joking; they must be nice and not disturbing the mind, that is the way. In Grandshaykh’s time, we sat respectably on our knees and listened. Mawlana sometimes interrupted his suhbah to say, “Sit well (comfortably),” ya`aanee, don’t overburden yourself or you will fidget and distract everyone, like now you entered and disturbed the association, then that flow is cut. It works like that: they must stand by the door waiting a permission to enter! If there is no permission, you stay by the door. This is adab at-Tariqah. Tariqah kulluhu adabu. All of it is adab!
When you do dhikr in a big area, the naughty ones sit behind us discussing, speaking; then why did you come? But Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) allowed them to come because he is carrying their burden, and that is the big adab of the shaykh, to carry the burden of the mureeds in the Majlis adh-Dhikr at that time. That’s why we say At-Tariqatun Naqshbandiyya ti’l-`Aliyyah, that it is higher than every other Tariqah, not from the follower, from the teachings it provides the mureed.
Adab is important in Islam, in Sunnat an-Nabi (s), in all Tariqahs, among all mashayikh. You see followers’ faces change when they reach age 70, they begin to resemble their shaykh. We saw Mawlana Shaykh Nazim’s face change at age 70, and he looked like Grandshaykh (q).
Even if you starve 24 hours and they didn’t give you food, don’t ask for food. One lady the Qadiri Tariqah was very fond of Sayyidina `Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (q) . She was very poor and one day she was not able to take it anymore, so she came to the table of the shaykh and saw all the nice food and that his house was full of gifts and foods. So she thought, “Why don’t I get my son to enjoy everything they are eating and drinking? I will send my son to be one of his mureeds.” So she came and stood by the door, she had adab, but she had jealousy in her gaze, because in her heart she demanded, “They have everything, why not me?” That is not adab. Are you saying the shaykh is ignorant of what you need? He knows what you need, but may not be giving it to you to make you struggle to teach you what you need. So she kept quiet, but the shaykh insisted as he wanted to teach the others by her example.
He said, “What is your problem? Why are you coming here?”
“Yaa Sayyidee, I am a poor lady, I have nothing to provide to my son and I want him to learn Qur’an. Can you accept him and make him like you and your mureeds?”
He said, “Why not? You want to be like me, alhamdulillah, you found the wrong way, but if you want to be like my mureeds following me, you reached the best way. Don’t look at them, look at what they have done to become like that.”
She was very happy when she saw every night forty of them each had one big chicken to eat, so she thought now her son will come there and eat well! She said, “Yes!”
Sayyidina `Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (q) said, “Bring your son,” and he gave her a chicken to eat.
The next day she came, thinking, “Now we are going to eat chicken,” but she didn’t find her son. She thought maybe the shaykh had sent him somewhere, so she waited, but he didn’t show up. Her third and fourth visits were the same.
When she saw `Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (q), he told her, “He is here, in the basement.”
She saw her son there and he was miserable, shivering with no blanket! She said, “I gave you my son as a trust, amaanah, and this is what you do?”
Shaykh `Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (q) said, “You said you want him to be like me and these mureeds, and all of them went through this test. No one can carry the responsibility or claim to be a shaykh or a Wali when his teachings are full of anti-Islamic ways (what was then common), so I want him to know everything we teach, then we can make him like us and to sit with us to eat, to be number 41.”
That boy became one of the best `ulama of the time, but not because of the favors. There was no meat, no chicken. You do not respect the guest when you don’t give him delicious food, but only bread and water. What did Prophet (s) eat? Bread, olive oil, and vinegar; he never asked for more than that, although they could provide it. Jabal Uhud came said to Prophet (s), “I will turn myself into gold for the Battle of Uhud and you can do what you want with it,” and he said, “We don’t need it, we have Allah (swt).”
That is why we said at the beginning, at-Tariqah. Tariqah kulluhu adabu, how you sit in front of the shaykh is adab. It is better to eat by yourself, because you need to show more adab if you eat with him. May Allah (swt) forgive us and bless us. There are so many tracks that people are confused. I don’t know if this story is correct, I won’t mention their name, but one shaykh in another Tariqah overseas collected millions of dollars in charity for Syrian refugees, and what happened at the end? People that managed the charity he started stole all the money. In Tariqah it is most important to provide for the shaykh and the mureeds, to run the center, but) they stole millions! In any case, adab is necessary.
Sayyidina Shah Naqshband (q) had three weekly sessions at his masjid: on Mondays, Thursdays, and Jumu’ah. One of them was meditation, not like today, which is full of anti-Islamic teaching. Meditation as Sayyidina Shah Naqshband (q) showed is:
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 contemplate the creation of the Heavens and the Earth, (saying), "Our Lord! You have not created (all) this without purpose! Glory to You! Grant us salvation from the torment of the Fire.” (Surat Aali `Imraan, 3:190-191)
True meditation is when you reach the level of this ayah, as then Allah and Prophet (s) order angels to open to the mureed’s heart. No one can claim to open their heart, only Allah and His Prophet open it! Sayyidina Shah Naqshband’s meditation was attended by at least five thousand mureeds all dressed in fresh white kameez, and they sat on their knees, without electrical lights or microphone. Those whose level was higher, their meditation reached the Sahabah, and those whose meditation was even higher, it reached Awliyaullah. From there it ascended to Prophet (s), then as mentioned (in the above ayah), “Alladheena yadhkuroonallaaha, they meditate on the creation of Heavens and Earth,” not a statue or kissing someone’s feet. Tariqah taught us to not do such things. Grandshaykh (q) said, “Allah will punish the one whose forehead went in sajda to anyone other than Allah.” People wrongfully kiss the feet of a shaykh because of something they might have learned somewhere else. The only exception of such an act was in the time of the Sahaabah (r), when they kissed Sayyidina `Umar’s (r) feet when he was on is horse, and a few other occasions, which we will not go into right now.
Sayyidina Shah Naqshband (q) often meditated with his mureeds for three hours, with no talking, eyes and ears closed, in pin-drop silence. When you close your ears, then Allah opens for you Sam’aa hud-Daylee Yasma`oonee, the Power of Hearing, and you begin to hear dhikrullah of angels, as mentioned by Prophet (s) in the Holy Hadith that we often mention, “...and I will become the ears with which he hears.”
That is step one of meditation, not what they do today, sitting behind something, meditating in a false way. Those shaykhs misguide their followers. At-tariqah kulluha adaab, the entrance of our friend was incorrect. [A mureed entered and greeted Mawlana.] He should stand at the door as we said before. What did we say? [Wait at the door and ask for permission to enter.] Also, don’t ask the permission if the shaykh might tell you to enter or not. That is one of the issues, but people don’t know, and if they don’t know they are not officially responsible. In Shah Naqshband’s gatherings, all of them prayed `Isha at the same time. Then, the highest one whose meditation reaches the Prophet (s), you heard them recite in one voice, “Qad daaqat heelatee. Adriknee, yaa RasulAllah (s)!
You remember how they do dhikr in Lamu Island, Kenya (where the Sahabah settled)? The courtyard of the masjid can accommodate one hundred thousand worshipers, and all ladies’ faces are covered except their eyes, and all the men wear turbans. They are upholding the Sunnah and they are peaceful people. Don’t try to teach them other than what they believe; they are Ahlu ‘s-Sunnah wa ‘l-Jama’ah, and if you try to teach them other than that, they will kick you off the island! Do ziyara there.
May Allah (swt)...there is so much to learn and I don’t claim anything, but in the time of Grandshaykh we wrote whatever he spoke, and at the same time I was his driver and we used to clean it, prepare it and also memorize the suhbah! What are they doing now? Where is the mureed? There are no mureeds! Now it is friendship, people showing love to each other, but they have yet to reach the Level of Mureediyya. Like in some memberships you have to accumulate points to receive more benefits, and today you haven’t yet accumulated a single point, you have minus points!
May Allah forgive us. Bi hurmati ‘l-Habeeb bi hurmati ‘l-Fatihah.
Now you are thinking all this is in Tariqah, and they say, “Yes, but how we can do all that?” One night, Grandshaykh called us at the time of Qiyaam al-Layl. He looked at me and my brother and said, “I know that you cannot come up with all these items, that is why I have been appointed out of my mercy to help both of you. Anything action you complete, wrap it with du`a and salawaat on Prophet (s), and also say, “Yaa Rabbee, whatever we have done in this association of dhikr and Qur’an, or anything according to Your intention, we send it to You according to the intentions You have. Where You want to distribute the rewards of that association, You are free.”
Every association has rewards that, when you share them they double, or extend ten times up to seven hundred times, and when Awliyaullah share it we don’t know how much the reward is. May Allah make this an association of love to Awliyaullah, to put us on the right track of meditation, to make sure we don’t mix it with other types. Those who don’t like their mureeds to mix with others are correct, as then they begin to take on the ways of the other shaykhs, and it becomes like shopping for cabbage in a store. If you are happy with cabbage it is okay, but you have to think, what will happen after eating cabbage? [Laughter.] So, don’t give them cabbage or radish. They give us the cabbage and radish and they eat the meat! Grandshaykh (q) said, “I will eat the cabbage, you eat the meat.” You see the big difference? “When I present your association, you give it to me and I will present it to Prophet (s), which is different from you presenting it, as your presentation has a lot of holes, but in my hands, what I am doing for you has no holes in it, and Shaytan can't steal it.”
What to steal? It is a hole, it ends up in fire and Awliyaullah they throw it in fire and it disappears. So we have to be about claiming we are something. We are nothing! Innaka mayyitun, you are going to die and they are going to die, then on the Day of Judgement we are going to fight in front of Allah (swt). May Allah (swt) not put us in that position, and forgive all what we have done in dunya and Akhirah. We did our best for dunya, but not Akhirah.
When we do our best for Akhirah, we will be like Sayyidina Abdul Qadir Jilani (q), who told that boy’s mother, “You asked me to make him like us, and I trained all of them through that situation, and he is going to see more than what you saw.”
She said, “I am satisfied. Do what you want with my son.”
So alhamdulillahi Rabbi ‘l-`Aalameen, this suhbah teaches us how to have adab. Now when we drink we must have adab, to keep the Sunnah and sit, and slowly take three sips, as Prophet (s) prohibited exhaling (breathing out) while drinking water, so we sip it. There are many issues and advice we learned in this suhbah. May Allah (swt) change it from imitational to a real suhbah and give us the benefit of Awliya in dunya and Akhirah.
Bi hurmati ‘l-Habeeb bi hurmati ‘l-Fatihah.
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