A`udhu billah min ash-shaytan ir-rajeem
Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem
Nawaytu'l-arba`een, nawaytu'l-`itikaaf, nawaytu'l-khalwah, nawaytu'l-riyaada, nawaytu's-salook, nawaytu'l-`uzlah lillahi ta`ala fee hadha'l-masjid
The suhbat of morning we continue in the morning (but) this is a different one.
Ati` Allah wa ati` ar-rasula wa uli 'l-amri minkum.
Obey Allah obey the Prophet and obey those who are on authority. (4:59)
Allah swt gave Prophet Sayyidina Muhammad (s) revelation and the one who gets revelation… not everyone gets revelation - only prophets they get wahiy. Others they get ilham, inspiration. And prophets, some of them, they got wahiy - it means they are messengers and they have to reveal what they are getting and some Allah made prophets but they have no message to deliver. And always the best is the last. You keep the best one for the cream, if you have a conference you leave the keynote speaker to the end to keep the people staying, not running.
Allah swt did not only keep Sayyidina Muhammad (s) to be the Last Prophet (only) but He made him the First to be created and the last to be sent.
He was the First in creation, as we know that when the Prophet was asked, “what was created first?” he said, "The first thing that Allah created was the Light of Muhammad, Ya Jaabir.”
And when Adam was between clay and water and still not yet formed the Prophet (s) was a prophet and Adam between clay and water.
So the Prophet (s) is as-saadiq al-masdooq – he (s) always says the truth and he is the trustworthy one that from his birth until he left dunya he was the only prophet that Allah swt raised his name with His Name.
You cannot raise anyone's name to (be beside) your name unless he is carrying your light or your name.
Sayyidina Muhammad (s) is carrying, dressed by Allah swt, the 99 Beautiful Names and Attributes that there is no one above him and no one near him.
The Prophet (s) is the only one that he is in the Presence, the Divine Presence in ... I was listening to Mawlana, may Allah give him long life, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim Sultan al-Awliya. He said something that someone needs to stop at it and understand it.
We say that. He said that "we say that the Prophet (s) reached qaaba qawsayni aw adna, he reached two bows-length of an arrow or less. It means he was so near Allah’s swt Presence.” He said that, "We have to understand that that Presence although it is so near, it is still out of the realm of Allah swt's Reality, His Essence. No one can be near His Essence.”
You can be, prophets can be in the (Divine) Presence but the (Divine) Presence is not the Essence. The Presence means you can be so close but still it is His Divine Presence, it is not His Essence. The Essence is completely out of the 99 Divine Names. It is completely out of the Divine Presence.
Let us explain. In dunya a king of a country, you can feel his presence everywhere by the different projects he did.
You go in and they tell you “this has been built by this king”, and “that one by this king”, and “this projects was done by this king”, and you feel the presence of that king in the city wherever you go. But you cannot be with that king. That is not the same as being with him. Anything around can show his presence the presence of his touch.
He said, even the Prophet reached the divine presence but no wujudiyya ma` wujood Allah `azza wa jall there is no presence with Allah you cannot be there present in His Essence but everything around the Divine Presence can indicate His touch.
So this will show that there is a big misunderstanding from people today is that they say, "O my shaykh is always with Allah."
No one can be there, even he is worshipping day and night, he can be in the Divine Presence but he cannot be in the Essence Presence, the dhaat al-buht. That in Arabic means the Unique (Divine) Reality that cannot be in any time or period revealed. It is only revealed through the 99 Beautiful Names and Attributes.
So the Prophet (s) may Allah Always keep us in the presence of Sayyidina Muhammad, awliyaullah can be in the presence of the Prophet not his reality but his association.
Yes, they are inheritors of him (s) and they are servants of Allah. They can be with Prophet (s) but not alone with Allah in the Divine Presence - they must be with Prophet (s). No one can enter the Divine Presence without the Prophet (s) and the Divine Essence, not even the Prophet (s) can be there. As much as he is near it is still (near in) the Divine Presence, not (near in) the Essence.
So the Prophet (s) was revealed to him the Holy Quran in this month and awliyaullah are inheriting from these knowledges that make us stunned of what they speak or of what they have received from Prophet and are sharing some of it with their mureeds and their students. And this what I am saying here now is one of these things that has been shared with students about the importance of fadeelat al-halaqah, the reward, or the importance of the circle.
Why they always call it halaqah, a circle, why not rows? Why it has to be a circle? Because in the circle there is the center. The importance is the center and from the center goes in radiuses to the circumference of the circle. So at equal distance it will be reaching everyone but when you are in rows you are not the center.
There is no center there, but they are rows of people.
Allah swt gave us an indication that center is important and halaqa, circle, is important. The example is the Ka`bah. Ka`bah is the center and wherever you are praying, if you look at the lines around the Ka`bah you see them going in circles although when you are standing you see yourself like in a line, but it is not a line it is a circle. If you look from far, you see people from different sides of Ka`bah praying and these form circles and they increase and increase.
A wali cannot be a wali if he is not inheriting the manifestations of whatever has been manifested on Allah's House, Ka`bah, if a wali cannot dress from these manifestations he cannot take the authority of being a wali. Because a wali has to be what you say in English, qiblatuka waliyuka, your qiblah is your wali.
I am speaking only similarity, that means the central focus is your teacher, as when you pray your focus is Allah's house you say Allahu Akbar and you are facing to Ka`bah. also when sitting in association the Shaykh has to be your focus as he is inheriting the manifestation coming on Ka`bah, it depends
on the wali how much he can take and he is like focal point for everyone to be looking at in order to understand and learn from him.
As everyone goes to Allah’s house and pray and get blessing, and awliyaullah say looking at Ka`bah, when you pray here or in any other masjid, where your eyes have to be looking? At the point of sajda. when you go to Mecca and you are praying in Masjid al-Haraam you don’t look at point of sajda, it
is ordered when you pray there to look at Ka`bah. That is the House of Allah you are ordered to look there.
Awliyaullah when they enter their prayers they are there in front of Ka`bah. Not like us, we look only where we put our sajda we see carpet or we see the floor. That is why when people praying you see them eyes going right and left. If your eyes go right or left your prayers are going right and left away
from you and must be always looking at Ka`bah when you are there. And awliyaullah say looking at Ka`bah is better than looking at 40 wali, because it is House of Allah swt.
Awliyaullah are our central point that we have to look at them, and as Grandshaykh, may Allah swt bless his soul, said that "when we go to Ka`bah to do hajj or umrah or prayer, we have to give salam to Ka`bah first: salaamu `alayki ya Ka`abatullah as- salaamu `alayk ya hajar al-aswad, as- salaamu `alayka ya baytullah and awliyaullah hear a response the salaam coming wa `alayk as-salaam ya `AbdAllah. from where that salaam comes? it is coming from the house of Allah and from Hajar al-as`ad.
And Grandshaykh said, "salam from Ka`bah is not like salam from you and me and even if you don’t hear it, awliyaullah hear it, but you have to give it, if you hear or not, Ka`bah will answer and that answer is coming from the heavens carrying with it all power of Jannah. The Bayt al-Maamur in the fourth heaven that is heavenly Ka`bah, that when the Prophet (s) went Isra and Mi’raj and prayed on 27th Rajab prayed there in 4th heaven.
That salaam is coming from there. That means you already been put in fourth heaven. You have established the first step in heaven. That is why hajj is important. It is the fifth pillar of Islam. Not because you go there for going up and going down from Mecca to `Arafat, but there are secrets that have been carried along all the way.
And one of these secrets is what we just said, that Allah want to give those who go for hajj or `umrah or go to pray there are established to be in Fourth Heaven already. Allah's mercy is big and huge. That is why it is a fard, an obligation to speak with Ka`bah and say as-salamu `alayki ya Ka`batullah. Some people who don’t know ask “Why you are talking? It doesn’t talk.” When Sayyidina ``Umar (r) was kissing the Black Stone, the Happy Stone, he said, "You don’t give harm or benefit. If I didn’t see the Prophet kissing you I would never kiss you."
Today people are dying to kiss the black stone. So what did Sayyidina Ali (r) respond to Sayyidina `Umar (r), as reported by ibn `Asaakir?
He said, "Don’t say that Ya `Umar! That stone is going to witness for you on Judgment Day that you said shahada there.” And Sayyidina `Umar (r) said, “Sayyidina `Ali (r) saved me two places in my life” and that was one.
So knowledge changes in different time and place and you have to keep looking at Hajar al-Aswad or to Ka`bah when praying there.
We have a question to say to ourself: “Ya Rabbee, we cannot be there. Are we going to be mahroomoon? Deprived from this baraka? We cannot go, we like to go but we are not able to go. Are we deprived from that?”
What awliyaullah say? They say you can say from here as-salaam `alayk Ya Ka`batullah as-salaam alayk ya Baytullah Allahu akbar.
You think you cannot get that from here. Everything according by intention our intention to be there all the time. to be in Your House all time, in Grandshaykh’s presence all the time in presence of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani all the time.
And that will be accepted on condition we are always asking that Presence.
How every day you want to see your children, or you want to see your wife or you want to see your mother or you want to see your brother, or any relative, (similarly) you have to show importance that you want to be there. That is why there are five prayers, every prayer takes you there.
Allah is merciful. Grandshaykh said, “If someone prays within one hour of the prayer it is considered as if he went all the way to Mecca al-Mukarramah and stood facing Ka`bah and prayed there.”
And he said, "This tajalli has been opened recently some time before, recently.”
So awliyaullah they are carrying as they are focus point for you they are inheriting from reality of Ka`abatullah in order that they can pass that to their followers when they are sitting with them they pass these lights, manifestation and energies and these beautiful blessings that cannot be described.
Whatever you describe cannot convey it. Allah describes Paradise as full of jewels, palaces, diamonds, food - for you to understand: cups, pitchers, silver pitchers, young people serving you. Everything is described for you to understand that this is Paradise. This is for you to understand but real Paradise is to be in the Divine Presence. That is what awliyaullah are trying to take their followers with them.
So the importance of the circle is necessary, fadeelatal-halaqah - benefits of an association is to be in circle not to be like that, (points to those sitting) scattered. But all the time they like to have scattered, but if the circle is tightly closed and shaytan cannot enter.
You didn’t realize to see, you didn’t see that when they do hadrah, Mawlana likes them to stay in a circle is it not?
Because that is the right way. the shaykh will be in the circle as he will send the signals to those in the circle. Not like rows as we stand in prayers. Did you see like that? So it has to be a circle and dhikrullah always has to be in a circle.
Without a circle we are losing parts of these blessings and they see loose places and they come and go away instead of being human shield getting it in and not letting it out.
We will continue on the benefits of the circle tomorrow. That will be different for noon lecture but for morning that will be continuation of the story we began in the morning.