7 September 2014 Feltham, London, UK
Manor House (1)
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh.
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)
Are you hearing? Inshaa-Allah we are hearing the Words of Allah (swt) and the Prophet (s) dunya and Akhirah.
إِنَّ اللّهَ مَعَ الَّذِينَ اتَّقَواْ وَّالَّذِينَ هُم مُّحْسِنُونَ
For Allah is with those who restrain themselves, and those who do good. (Surat an-Nahl, 16:128 )
Alhamdulillah, we are very happy to see you on this occasion and yet also at the same time, it reminds us of Sultan al-Awliya, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim `Adil al-Haqqani (q), and the sadness that he left in our hearts when he left dunya. Now everyone is leaving dunya, but it is different when you lose someone you love. Sometimes you might love the shaykh more than you love your parents. People ask, “Why are you in sadness?” When the Prophet (s) left, the Sahaabah (r) were in sadness and Sayyidina `Umar (r) did not want anyone to say that the Prophet (s) died. He said, “Anyone who says that the Prophet (s) died, I will cut his neck!” It does not mean that he will kill them, but that he will have an issue with them. The ayah is there:
وَمَا مُحَمَّدٌ إِلاَّ رَسُولٌ قَدْ خَلَتْ مِن قَبْلِهِ الرُّسُلُ أَفَإِن مَّاتَ أَوْ قُتِلَ انقَلَبْتُمْ عَلَى أَعْقَابِكُمْ
Muhammad is no more than a Messenger and many Messengers passed away before him. If he died
or were slain) will you then turn back on your heels? (Surat Aali-`Imraan, 3:104)
“Muhammad is not but a Messenger; many messengers came before him, so will you turn upside down after he passes?” People today are happy studying with teachers who teach them Fiqh, but they have to also ask them to teach them how to behave. We are lacking that teaching, that the trunk is the Prophet (s). So they are focusing on one issue in Islam, which is very important, but they are not focusing on another issue in Islam, which is also very important: Tawheed. People must know the meaning of Tawheed and, on the other hand, they must know the meaning of being a perfect and an excellent person.
The Prophet (s) said:
اإنما بعثت لأتمم مكارم الأخلاق
I was sent not except to perfect the best of conduct. (Bukhari in Adab al-Mufrad)
You pray, you sit, you enter your home, you have obligations with other people, that is Fiqh; but no one is talking about the good manners, that is the mujaahadah, the struggle to perfect yourself. You might be an important person in the community with good manners and everyone might love you; at the same time, you might be a good person in the community, but with bad manners. So that does not work in Islam. On the one side you are showing the relationship with others, but on the other, you have bad manners towards them. It is like someone who says “Allahu Akbar,” he is praying and cheating others at the same time. Someone is praying, but also lying. I brought this example because they asked me on this trip to focus on the principles of Shari`ah. This was first time for me. So they want to focus on Fiqh, and don't care for courses on good manners. They called me to America, “Can you speak this time on the doctrine of Oneness, the Shari`ah?”
Let us shift a little bit. Islam is Islam. You can see Shari`ah, as it is action. What is action? When they make a movie they say ‘action!’ meaning, begin. When your soul enters the mother’s womb, it is ‘action, begin your life.’So Shari`ah is action. Maqaam al-Ihsaan or Imaan, are not visible, it is not action, but the soul. Can we see the soul? No we cannot see the soul, but if Allah wants, awliyaullah can. They can come out of their body and they can see. And to share this with you without further explanation, this happened to me two times under Mawlana’s gaze. You can come out of your body and look at your body how it is moving. Like when someone is navigating his car with GPS it says go this way then that way. When you follow the guidance of a sultan, you never fail because he is monitoring your behavior and when you reach a level that your shaykh wants you to reach and you can see your body, then you can direct your body in the right way, as it is no longer in that cage. Now our soul is confined in the limits of that cage, as awliyaullah explain it, so it cannot go out and see what can be seen. You are in a prison with four walls, but when you are free, you can see all these beautiful scenes of the universe. It is different from being inside a prison.
It is like you are in a box with a few tiny holes and when the sun comes, light goes through those holes and you can see the light coming in. So when someone follows Shari`ah and Maqaam al-Ihsaan, Allah will open holes in that box that you can see that light. When the light increases you see more. It is like a flashlight, when it increase more you see more. When you take away the box completely, you are there with them, you can see what people cannot see and hear what people cannot hear. At that moment you will understand the meaning of Tawheed. Whatever they speak about Tawheed is only a very primitive explanation for us. We speak about Tawheed in limitation. Still the box is there, the soul in the cage of body.
Awliyaullah say, we heard it and we saw it, we have permission now to speak more now about visions that we were not permitted before to speak about by Grandshaykh `Abdullah al-Fa’iz ad-Daghestani (q) and more recently by Mawlana Shaykh Nazim `Adil al-Haqqani (q), and now they are allowing us to say a little bit about that. We are in a limited situation on how to describe Tawheed. We say “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah,” Tawheed is to say that there is no creator but Allah (swt). This has to take us to a higher level. What is that higher level? That is where their guidance is important in order that they can guide you on the right way. When we read some ayahs on Tawheed from the Holy Qur’an, we understand that Allah (swt) wants us in every `amal we are doing to show that He the Creator and that Sayyidina Muhammad (s) is His Messenger. So the key of Tawheed is ‘Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah.’ The lock and the key is “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem,” as you cannot open the lock without it. When you will be given the reality of Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem:
إِنَّهُ مِن سُلَيْمَانَ وَإِنَّهُ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ
It is from Solomon, and is (as follows): “In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.”
(Surat an-Naml, 27:30)
All that Allah gave to Sayyidina Sulayman (a), who was the richest; he had a kingdom where jinn, animals, angels, and all creatures were working for him; he is the most rich in Allah’s Eyes with everything that Allah gave him. Allah is saying, “Yes, all that is what I gave you, but it all comes from ‘Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem.’ It might be a little bit of condensation, like a drop of an ocean, that I gave to you yaa Sayyidina Sulayman.” What did he give him? He gave him dunya, but what did He give to the Prophet (s)? He gave him Akhirah. He brought him to Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa. No one, no wali can be in Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa, as that is only for the Prophet (s). If you are by the ocean, but two kilometers away, you are only looking at the ocean. Yes you can see it, but if you are one kilometer away, how can you really see it? It is better with more details. If you are one meter away, you can see everything. If you are half a meter, you can see what is in the ocean. And if you are diving in the ocean, what can you see? The Prophet (s) was diving in the ocean of Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa, so is his Tawheed like our tawheed?
On that point that I will mention this hadith related by Tirmidhi. The Prophet (s) said as related by Anas bin Malik (r), to show you how far you can go in Tawheed, you might look at it and think how is that possible, but it is. The Prophet (s) wants to show how far a person can go in Tawheed, how far you can ask. Tawheed is asking; to ask the One Who has the power, to ask Him and not to anyone else. If you do, you might not get it, but if you ask the One Who has the power that owns what you are asking, He can give to you. That is the One Who can give everyone and can keep giving without end. What do you think if you ask Him? If you go to a king can you go directly and ask him a favor? You have to add someone to make a favor, to petition someone who is so much near to the Prophet (s) through their love, like awliyaullah in general and of course like our Shaykh, may Allah bless his soul.
So how far can you go asking? People might ask once, twice or three times, then they would leave it. But the Prophet (s) ordered us to ilhaa, persist in asking, because Allah likes the one who keeps persisting in asking.
وَقَالَ رَبُّكُمُ ادْعُونِي أَسْتَجِبْ لَكُمْ
Ask Me and I will give you (Surat al-Ghaafir, 40:60)
Allah likes the one who keeps asking and has persistence power asking. People come to the one who is pious, and say, “Pray for me,” and it does not happen. They come one more time and if they don’t get it, they stop asking, but you have to keep asking. Shaytan might come at that last point of asking and say “ah that is enough,” and you stop asking. So keep asking from one horizon to the next, the horizon never ends. Why does it never end? If you look at the map of the world, it is round and surrounded by oceans. So as you go on a boat, it continues.
The Prophet (s) said:
عَنْ أَنَسِ بْنِ مَالِكٍ ، قَالَ : قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ : " لِيَسْأَلْ أَحَدُكُمْ رَبَّهُ حَاجَتَهُ كُلَّهَا ، حَتَّى يَسْأَلَهُ شِسْعَ نَعْلِهِ إِذَا انْقَطَعَ "
`An Anas ibn Maalik qaala: qaala Rasoolullahi (s) la-yas'al aahadakum rabbahu haajatahu kullihaa ..
“Let everyone ask their Lord for every one of their needs.”
How far can you go? This is a question for all of us. What are your needs that you are asking for? That Allah save us from the four enemies we all have: nafs, dunya, hawwa, Shaytan. What are your needs? To do good in school. What did the Prophet (s) say as he continued the hadith? Pleasure of Allah. Yes that is nice, but the Prophet (s) said that you must ask, even if it is the lowest need and does not necessarily need to be asked; even if your slipper rips from where you tie it and they slip from their place, ask Allah for it.
Hattaa yasa'alahu shis`a idhaa anqata`. There are a certain kind of slippers that have a string to hold them together, if that breaks ask Allah. It means that you need to ask Allah for anything you need. This is the meaning of Tawheed, you need to ask Him for anything you need. Awliyaullah guide you on how to ask. It is not haphazard, like some people make du`a and after a while the du`a is not answered they say, “Okay, who is going to make du`a anymore,” that is kufr. So our duty is to keep asking Allah. If it happened then alhamdulillah and if it did not happen, alhamdulillah there is wisdom that Allah did not yet give, but He will give it in dunya, at death, in the grave or in the hereafter.
One person came two days before I came here. He had a problem for two years and I asked him to make du`a. He went to the maqaam of Grandshaykh (q) as by order of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q). We have a maqam of Grandshaykh and now also a nice maqaam of Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Haqqani (q) and it is a place to sit and read Holy Qur’an. That person asked du`a for two year, he never stopped. Suddenly, that du`a was answered and it changed his life. So the need is persistence, ilhaa fi 't-talab, keep asking. If a mu’min promises he will fulfil.
المؤمن إذا وعد وفى
If a believer promises, he fulfill his promise.
So what you think about a wali, then about the Prophet (s) and then about Allah (swt)? He will give you what He promised you and infinite times multiplied by rewards. Keep like Sayyidina Musa (a), with his greatness of Prophecy he was one of the Five Great Prophets and because of one issue he was sent by Allah to learn from Khidr (a), as I had mentioned yesterday. He gave one khitaab, lecture, to his people and it was so eloquent and so beautiful a khutbah that even he himself was impressed by what he said, he could not believe it.
He said, “This means that I am the highest one in knowledge.”
One person came to him and said, “Yaa Musa (a), what do you think of what you spoke?” Allah sent to him an `abd.
Musa (a) said, “I am the best among everyone.”
Alright, you are the best, thank you, goodbye. Then he fell into the test of Sayyidina Khidr (a) to learn. Learn what? Not to exceed the limits. He asked Allah (swt) if he could see Him. How can the `abd ask to see Allah? You open your head and see the brain, but can you see the intelligence? How then can you ask to see Allah Who created you and created intelligence as well. So people exceed their limits, but the Prophet (s) did not. Sayyidina Musa (a) said:
قَالَ رَبِّ أَرِنِي أَنظُرْ إِلَيْكَ قَالَ لَن تَرَانِي وَلَـكِنِ انظُرْ إِلَى الْجَبَلِ فَإِنِ اسْتَقَرَّ مَكَانَهُ فَسَوْفَ تَرَانِي فَلَمَّا تَجَلَّى رَبُّهُ لِلْجَبَلِ جَعَلَهُ دَكًّا وَخَرَّ موسَى صَعِقًا
He said, "O my Lord! Show Yourself to me, that I may look upon You." Allah said, "By no means can you see Me (directly), but look upon the mountain; if it abides in its place, then you shall see Me." When his Lord manifested His glory on the mount, He made it as dust, and Moses fell down in a swoon.
(Surat al-`Araaf, 7:143)
How can you see Allah (swt)? Can you count the hairs of your beard, how can you count your hairs? If a wali looks at you, he can know the number of hairs you have, or else he cannot get his `ijaza from the Prophet (s). When you get your certification from the Prophet (s), then you can count the hairs. I cannot count them, I still need certification.
It is said:
من عرف نفسه فقد عرف ربه
Who knows his self knows his Lord.
How do you know yourself? Does your self have hair? If you speak in scientific terms, there are small, very tiny hair-like capillaries in your body that are not hair, but veins through which blood flows. If you put them together one to the other, the distance will be in the millions and all of them are in your body receiving blood and oxygen to survive. Who made that ? That is Tawheed! That shows you that Allah does not resemble anyone.
لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ البَصِيرُ
There is nothing whatever like unto Him, and He is the One that hears and sees (all things).
(Surat ash-Shura, 42:11)
There is nothing like Him, He is The Creator and we are the servants. What does the servant do? The servant will mop. Is there anything else to do? Mop and serve the food. Then Allah sends the guests. That is the importance of a zawiya, ribat or dergah; you prepare and Allah will send the food, these are the guests of Allah. If the food is there, go quickly to find food and eat it. That is how it was built up in Indonesia, in Central Asia and in India. They didn’t know the language, but these traders with their faces shining with light were accepted by people and they said “Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadu ‘r-Rasoolullah.”
What did they have in the time of the Prophet (s) that we don’t have today? When the Prophet (s) sent Mu`adh ibn Jabal (r) to the people of Yemen, he gave him an advice to follow. And this advice applies to every Muslim and they were not Muslim, but mushrikeen. Did you know that Abraha came to the Ka`bah to destroy it out of hasad, jealousy. He said, “Why are people going to the Ka`bah to make ziyara to the Quraysh?” He wanted to make a church similar to the Ka`bah in Yemen in order to draw people to Yemen. He does not know that the tajalli is coming on Ka`bah from Allah (swt) and not anywhere else. That tajalli comes down and makes the place holy. So he tried to destroy the Ka`bah and Allah destroyed him.
So when the Prophet (s) sent Mu`adh ibn Jabal (r) to Yemen, he told him how to behave and said, “You are going to a people who are Ahlu ‘l-Kitaab, the People of the Book,” although they were not following the real Injeel and the real Tawraat, as those have been manipulated. in that, “you are going to see them. What will you tell them?” He is giving a teaching here. Are they believers or unbelievers? They are believers, but unbelievers at same time. They believe in Allah but they associate, that Allah has a partner or a child, astaghfirullah. He said, “So you are going to see such people” meaning “don’t cut their necks,” as they are doing today. The first thing you do is to make sure they believe that Allah is the Creator and everyone else is His servant. It means to say “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah,” and then to say “Muhammadu ‘r-Rasoolullah,” this is our da`wah. What did the shuyookh come to do? To make sure that their followers follow Tawheed, that their followers say ‘Laa ilaaha illa-Llah.’ Saying ‘Laa ilaaha illa-Llah’ is the way of talqeen, to put on the tongue of a person something he has to repeat. For example, I tell you to say “Muhammad (s)” or “Rasoolullah” and you say it. For me to say “Rasoolullah” is talqeen, and you say what I put on your tongue to say, “Muhammadu ‘r-Rasoolullah.”
So the Prophet (s) said, “Make them say ‘Laa ilaaha illa-Llah.’” This whole tariqah and all other tariqahs are based on this beautiful Word of Allah (swt), there is nothing else. That is the talqeen of all shuyookh: to put on your tongue to say “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah,” as that is the way to acknowledge that there is no creator but Allah, and up until now, we have not reached that level. The Prophecy is to say “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadu ‘r-Rasoolullah” and for everyone to say this as well. The basis of any tariqah; whether Naqshbandi, Qadiri or Chistiyyah, but we will talk about Naqshbandiyya, is now focussed on two parts. And if you don’t know, know it now. The basics of the Naqshbandi Tariqah is to make talqeen for the shaykh to put on your tongue directly Laa ilaaha illa-Llah. It is said that there is the loud, jahree way and the silent way, we leave it for tonight, but will mention a little now. Both of these ways came from the Prophet (s), jahree and silent. He gave to Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (r) the silent one by saying:
ما صب الله في صدري شيئا إلا صببته في صدر أبي بكر
Maa sab-Allahu fee sadree shayan illa sababtuhu fee sadri Abi Bakr.
Whatever Allah poured into my chest, I poured into the chest of Abu Sayyidina Abu Bakr.
It is poured directly from heart to heart. That is why shuyookh who take from Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (r) give directly to the heart, they pour it. And now Mawlana Shaykh Nazim `Adil (q) says it loudly because there are too many converts in the tariqah and they don’t know, but it is originally silent. The mureed sits before the shaykh and moves his Shahadah finger and he pours the Six Realities into the heart, that is Maqaam at-Tawheed. Sayyidina `Ali (r) does the outward. When he asked the Prophet (s), “What can I do?” the Prophet (s) said, “Say ‘Laa ilaaha illa-Llah.’”
“What is the way to say Laa ilaaha illa-Llah?”
So the Prophet (s) sat on his knees and Sayyidina `Ali (r) sat facing him on his knees. The Prophet (s) put his hand on the heart of Sayyidina `Ali (r) and Sayyidina `Ali (r) put his hand on the heart of the Prophet (s).
He said, “Say what I say.” and he said, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah,” three times. Then he said, “Yaa `Ali, put your hand on my heart and say ‘Laa ilaaha illa-Llah,’” and he did, to make it reciprocal.
So now these two rivers meet in Ja`far as-Saadiq (r). We do that tomorrow or tonight that is only touching on the basics of Tawheed. May Allah bless us and support us and bless our shuyookh who were so gentle and so generous to extend their hands to us and give us baya` on the Naqshbandi Sufi Order, that is a medallion that you will be having on the Day of Judgment, and he is responsible. What they gave us, no one can give and what they distribute to us, that is endless. We ask to make it short to see the Prophet (s) in dream and to see Mahdi (a) in reality.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
Anyone who wants to renew his baya` with Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim `Adil (q) should raise his hand.
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