Maghrib Suhbah
A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytani 'r-rajeem. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem.
Kalimataan khafifataan `alaa ‘l-lisaan thaqeelataan fi ‘l-meezan subhaanAllah wa bi-hamdihi subhaanAllahi ‘l-`Azheem astaghfirullah.
(حديث مرفوع) حَدَّثَنَا إِسْمَاعِيلُ عَنْ يُونُسَ ، عَنِ الْحَسَنِ ، أَنّ النَّبِيَّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ قَالَ : " وَاللَّهِ ، لا يُعَذِّبُ اللَّهُ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ حَبِيبَهُ ، وَلَكِنْ قَدْ يَبْتَلِيهِ فِي الدُّنْيَا "
Innallaaha laa yu`adhibahu habeebahu wa laakin qad yabtalee fi ‘d-dunyaa.
The Prophet (s) said, "Allah (swt) doesn't punish, laa yu`adhdhbib, doesn't torment His Beloved One, but He might send him afflictions or test him." (Ahmad)
That is big, because if you love me, you don't want to harm me and if I love you, I want everything good for you. But the Prophet (s) said, "Allah doesn't punish His loved ones, but He might test them." So it means that Allah wants His Beloved Ones to be patient as He may test them with anything, and if Allah sends you a test--pain or difficulties or fighting with some other people--all these are tests that you might face in your lifetime and especially those who think they are above everyone.
If Allah says, "I don't punish My Beloved One, but I test him," it means that even though He loves him, He wants him to be patient as even the most heavy test will come, but be patient on these tests as the last of Allah's Beautiful Names and Attributes is “as-Saboor,” the Patient. So Allah wants the loved one to be patient when faced with tests and the Prophet (s) said, “I am the most afflicted one with tests and problems." All his life he didn't have quiet and peace--leaving Mecca to migrate to Madinah, building a state, fighting the enemies--and he did not have one moment to be resting, but the Prophet (s) was happy and he never complained. We complain, day and night we complain, even against the breath we are breathing!
Your ego complains if you are breathing a breath in a prayer, your ego comes and says, "Why are you tiring yourself? Don't pray.” Many people are not praying. If you ask them, “Do you believe in Hellfire?” they answer, “No, where is it?" Shaytan comes and plays with us, as soon as we say, “Allahu Akbar (takbeer in the prayer), all kinds of gossips and bad thoughts come to you. Can you stop them? No, so Allah is testing us and when you see this, if you want to know if Allah is testing you, just pray two raka`ats, and as soon as you say “Allahu Akbar,” what will happen? You think, “What I am going to have for dinner tonight?” No, as soon as you begin, Allah lets Shaytan out of his prison so that he makes you forget how many raka`ats you prayed: was it three raka`ats, five raka`ats, ten raka`ats, or even one raka`at?
But the mu'min has a different view. What did Sayyidina `Abdul-Qadir al-Jilani (q) say about the mu'min? When Allah tests him, he will understand that there is maslaha, benefit that comes after that, because when Shaytan is coming and gossiping in your ears, then if you struggle with him and do opposite of what he is saying, Allah will give you reward and Allah's reward has no limit, we don't know what is that reward! But unfortunately, we don’t run after that reward, we run after what Shaytan is saying.
Awliyaullah want their students to accept the afflictions, because to be patient on the affliction, Allah will reward them. Three days ago Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) said, "I am going, I have been ordered not to speak for three days. I am fasting from talking. After three days I am going to give a very hard lecture.” In that lecture, he mentioned about time, the watch. The way he brought the subject, he said, “People have watches. Why do you have a watch? To know the time. Why do you want to know the time? You don't need to know the time if you are really someone who is focused, because Maghrib is your time and Fajr is your time; you know it's Maghrib immediately when adhaan is called and you don't need a watch. After 1.5 hours you know it's `Isha, and then after `Isha is time to sleep. You know Fajr is before sunrise by 1.5 hours and after sunrise is time to pray Ishraq and then Duhaa. So a watch is for dunya, not for Akhirah.”
Mawlana opened the subject to say don't follow dunya, follow Akhirah and there is no time there. In dunya you are counting your days less and less and less, so they have the day and the month on the watch and as those hands turn you lost one day of your life. Mawlana, may Allah grant him long life, said, “If you want to have a watch you can, but be sure you use it for the best of your Akhirah.”
Awliyaullah look for the future, they don' look at what is past. What passed has passed, finished. Your age is ? 22, it is good. 42 years went of your life, finished. Don't bother yourself, but try to achieve better in the coming time. Mawlana brought a suhbah on time to bring a symbol, “Look forward and don't follow those who don't want the best for you; don't follow those who are connected with Shaytan. The one who loves you is the one who tells you about Akhirah. That is where you have to focus your life.”
He said, "Don't be busy with dunya" and da`a `ankum al-kalaam fee hadhihi 'l-maqaamat, don't speak about high levels too much. Everyone wants you to speak on high levels, but build the infrastructure. Don't look at the top floor. If you don't build the foundation of the building, you can't get to the top floor, and if you leave the foundation the whole building will fall down.”
That is what you see now, the people who are ‘Goofi Sufis,’ who think they are Sufis and they studied different kinds of philosophy and logic, but they build for you castles in the skies. What did Allah say?
يَا مَعْشَرَ الْجِنِّ وَالْإِنسِ إِنِ اسْتَطَعْتُمْ أَن تَنفُذُوا مِنْ أَقْطَارِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ فَانفُذُوا لَا تَنفُذُونَ إِلَّا بِسُلْطَانٍ
Yaa ma`ashara al-jinni wa ’l-insi in istata`tum an tanfudhoo min aqtaari ‘s-samawaati wa ’l-ardi fa-anfudhoo la tanfudhoona illa bi-sultaan.
O you, assembly of jinns and men! If you can pass beyond the zones of the Heavens and the Earth, pass! Not without authority (a sultaan) shall you be able to pass. (Surat ar-Rahman, 55:33)
“O you assembly of men and jinn! If you can penetrate limits of Earth, do it, but you cannot do it without a sultan.” It means, “O human beings and jinn! If you can penetrate, penetrate, but you cannot as you need a foundation, a sultan to build you up.” If you have no foundation, whatever you teach falls down and collapses from the top.
وَقَدِمْنَا إِلَى مَا عَمِلُوا مِنْ عَمَلٍ فَجَعَلْنَاهُ هَبَاء مَّنثُورًا
Wa qadimna ilaa maa `amiloo min `amalin faja`alnaahu habaa’am manthoora.
And We shall turn to whatever deeds they did (in this life), and We shall make such deeds as floating dust scattered about. (Surat al-Furqaan, 25:23)
It means they build something in the air. One professor from France who passed away built himself knowledge in all kinds of religion and philosophy--Buddhism, Hindusim, Zenism--and he went to a priest that knows more than him, then to a rabbi that knows more than him, and then to a shaykh that knows more than him, and everywhere he went, he knew there is a rope, but he cannot hold it; he felt like he is holding air. Then he became confused. Finally, he ended with Grandshaykh `AbdAllah (q).
He said, “What do I have to do? I feel I am holding onto air.”
Grandshaykh (q) said to him, “That is because every one of us, our teachings are coming from our desires. Someone puts his desires on papers copied from here and from there and gives it to people. That is like plastic fruit with no benefit. All that knowledge you learned is not going to benefit, as if you are holding an imaginary rope.”
He said to the shaykh, “What do I have to do?”
Grandshaykh (q) said, I will give you three examples:
1. You plant a seed and water it, then a shoot comes out, then you water it and a tree comes up, and finally a fruit emerges. Do you find the seed anymore? No, it is annihilated.
2. Take an egg and put on top of the soil for ten years; it is still an egg. But put it under a chicken for 21 days and you will have chicks. Is there an egg anymore? No, there are chicks.
3. The womb of the mother who got pregnant, first it was a sperm and an egg. When they come together after nine months and twelve days, where has sperm and egg gone? There is now a baby in the womb.
Where is the chick? In the egg. Where is the seed? In the soil. All of them went into seclusion from dunya. The seed entered seclusion, the egg entered seclusion, the baby in womb entered seclusion. In every secluion there is transformation from one form to another form: from seed to a tree, from an egg to a chick, from a sperm and egg in womb to a baby, a child. And if you don't enter seclusion and polish yourself from anger, then you will never change.
That man said, “Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan rasoolullah. No one gave me such an answer, from anyone I asked!”
If you don't step on your desires, good or bad, you will have no desire for Akhira, only desire for dunya. If you have desire for dunya, finished, but if you turn yourself into someone who is only looking for Akhirah, Allah will open for you what is closed!
اللهم صل علي سيدنا محمد الفاتح لما اغلق و الخاتم لما سبق
Allahuma salli `alaa Sayyidina Muhammad (s) al-faatih limaa ughliq wa’l-khaatim limaa ughliq.
O Allah! Send praise on Muhammad who opened that was closed and who sealed what had gone before.
When you completely cut your love for dunya then they open for you your love to Akhirah, so don't waste time to read books or to teach things. But we have to do that, to repeat and repeat for ourselves and for everyone. The only thing we said is to put down your four enemies: nafs, dunya, hawwa, and Shaytan. Nafs is your ego, dunya is love of this life, hawwa is desire, and following Shaytan. When you drop these four, you will then be able to teach.
You are already sick, so what are you teaching them? Sickness. That is why some awliyaullah never talk; when someone comes to them they read on them, but some awliyaullah never open an advice as their presence is an advice by itself. You come to them and they sit and dress you with what they have. Some awliyaullah have a tap and they take from it and give to their followers. We must thank Allah that He connected us to someone whose tap is open, not someone whose tap is closed! Our shaykh can give you from the heart of the Prophet (s), from these hidden knowledges, and sometimes they speak in these very basic languages and sometimes, if they want, they give lectures in a way that no one can understand. They give according to the one who is sitting with them, at their level.
Like the one who, in the time of Sayyidina `Abdul-Qadir al-Jilani (q), gave explanations of Surat al-Fatihah. He spoke half-an-hour and said, “This is for everyone to understand,” and everyone understood. Then he read Surat al-Fatihah and explained it for half-an-hour and said, “This explanation is for `ulama only, ordinary people cannot understand.” Then he spoke about Surat al-Fatihah again, saying, “That is for awliyaullah and only they can understand.” Then he gave another explanation and said, “This is for the one hiding behind the pillar,” and they went to see who was there and it was Sayyidina Khidr (a), and he ran away.
وَعَلَّمْنَاهُ مِن لَّدُنَّا عِلْمًا
Wa `allamnaahu min ladunna `ilma.
We taught knowledge from Our Own Presence. (Surat al-Kahf, 18:65)
So we are lucky to have a shaykh who has two taps: one for the common level of understanding and one for a high level. Even if they don't understand what is being said, they benefit from and and they are dressed with that; even a child will benefit! And therefore, I recommend to bring children to sit with Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q), but only if they are quiet, like the children here now. But sometimes there are children crying and immediately it cuts the level of what is being sent. Why don't parents take their child out and let him be quiet, then come back? But whatever, they will be dressed with those levels.
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