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So as we said the importance of halaqah, is that the Sahaba used to sit with the Prophet (s) in a halaqah a circle learning form him what they need to know. And He would be the center of that circle. And the center of the circle, the Prophet (s), that was for the companions similarly is the Ka`bah the center for earth that people are always focusing their prayers towards Ka`bah.

So in dhikrullah, when you ar sitting in a circle you have to make sure that there is a center that you focus on it. And as we explained in the previous session like when you pray you cannot direct your face to anywhere in the world but you have to direct yourself to Ka`bah as it is focal center were you have to be in that presence as it is House of Allah.

And we mentioned that Ka`bah is the House of Allah that is reflection of the real Ka`bah, in the fourth Heaven, the Bayt al-Ma’moor, where the Prophet (s) prayed with all prophets in Laylat al-Isra and Mi’raj.

Imam Shafi`i has been asked about that halaqah about the importance of halaqah and the benefits of halaqah. He said that “it is a piece of Paradise, that halaqah that people sit and listen or recite dhikr they are in Paradise. And cannot be other than that because of the hadith of the Prophet (s) maa jalasa qawman yadhkuroona Allah illa hafathum al-malaika. When people sit remembering Allah, angels will encompass them.  And another hadith says that Allah swt

"إنَّ لله تبارك وتعالى ملائكة يطوفون في الطرق يتلمسون أهل الذكر، فإذا وجدوا قومًا يذكرون الله تنادوا هلموا إلى حاجتكم فيحفونهم بأجنحتهم إلى السماء الدنيا، قال فيسألهم ربهم وهو أعلم بهم ما يقول عبادي؟ فيقولون: "سبحونك ويكبرونك ويحمدونك ويمجدونك..".

lillahi malaikatan yatalamassoon ahli’dh-dhikr - There are angels roaming in the streets looking for circles of dhikr that they can sit in it and Allah sent them there.

And he said that angels in heavens are always in remembering in circles non-stopping so any circle that people sit remembering Allah are in Paradise. And anyone step in Paradise cannot go to hell. Wherever you enter a Paradise you are continuously entering a Paradise doing dhikrullah then Allah will take you to Paradise on last breath.

So ard al-halaqah ard al-jinaan. The earth of halaqah is earth of Jannah.

Allah swt, awliyaullah say, our Grandshaykh Abdullah al-Faiz Daghestani says in his notes that Allah will change that piece of land that you are sitting on and doing dhikrullah to a piece of heaven. Because angels cannot sit in a dirty place. We can sit, in a place that is not clean because we are sinners. But angels cannot sit in a place that is dirty and there is smell from it. And Allah promised His servants if you sit remembering Me then angels will come and Allah will remember you in better place. That means Allah will change that place you are sitting in and change to heavenly place otherwise angels cannot sit there.

So for sure halaqaat adh-dhikr are important as it makes us to enter in Paradise. And when Allah gives something He will not take it.

And that is why when you go to Madinatul-munawwarah the Prophet (s) said,

ما بين قبري و منبري روضة من رياض الجنة

 "Maa bayna qabree wa minbaree rawdatan min riyaadu’l-jannah - between my grave and my pulpit is rawdatan min riyaadu’l-jannah – a garden from the gardens of Paradise.” (Ahmad)

Allah gave it to be a piece of heaven and you are praying there.

And that is why people go to pray -there and if they get to do that they say, "I was very successful. Iwas able to pray in the rawdah.” So when you put your feet in rawdah between the pulpit, minbar and the Prophet’s grave you are entering Paradise and you will never see hellfire.

And anyone entering circle of dhikr Allah will dress from these blessings and make his circle from a circle of Paradise.

Here awliyaullah say something important. They say that a circle to be considered a heavenly circle, for circle of dhikr to be considered a heavenly circle it has nine conditions.

Not any circle can be considered circle of dhikrullah though you  might be doing dhikr there and these are many different conditions that you have to achieve.

And if that circle was fulfilled with its conditions it will be having, everyone that is sitting there doing dhikrullah will be rewarded more than 50 shaheed.

Ma jalasa qawman yadhkuroonAllah…

Man ahya sunnatee `inda fasaada ummattee lahu ajru mi’at shaheed.

So anyone go in that circle and observe all its conditions will have reward of 70 or 100 shaheed not 50.

So if we are sitting in circle and remembering Allah saying, la ilaha illa-Allah with all its conditions then we will be rewarded more than 100 shaheed and that circle will be turned into a heavenly circle.

 

Conditions of a heavenly circle

 

1.                First of its conditions is that the head of the halaqah, there must be a head for halaqah. There must not be you do it one week, you (another one) do it one week, the next week another does it. No there must be an authorized one to do that halaqah.

That person has to have a permission from his Shaykh and been approved by all Grandshaykhs all the way to the Prophet (s). Not anyone may say “I am leading the halaqah”

 

(adhan) Allahu Akbar.

He has to have authority From his Grandshaykh all the way to prophet, if not he is not up to the level of that halaqah to make it heavenly Paradise that is then only normal halaqah. To turn into heavenly halaqah must be agreed upon authorized one to be able to conduct the dhikr.

Today everyone is trying to do a halaqah and trying to do dhikrullah and there are difference between one halaqah and another halaqah and it depends where the authority is coming from the permission (idhn).

 

2.            All of them have to be coming except for no reason but to attend dhikrullah and go. No discussion, no backbiting, no speaking, nothing. They come with full ablution, enter the halaqah, sit in their assigned places, do dhikr with the shaykh that is authorized and go back home. No dunya talking. That is if you want it to be a heavenly halaqah.

So Taher is this what we are doing? (No.) So it is not heavenly halaqah but it is a halaqah that takes away our sins. Allah has angels that will come and attend but they will not sit, they will be high(above the circle). Qasd al-jaaliseen li juloosihim lil-`ibaadat al-mutlaq. Only to sit and worship nothing else and sitting everyone in his assigned place. Not like we are sitting now, we sit now, up and down.

They have everyone, like you go to parking lot, everyone has his own parking. You cannot park somewhere else you must park in assigned place. Or in conference you must sit in an assigned seat. You cannot sit anywhere else.

Here there is no discipline. So if no discipline, the benefit is not there, not as much as it should be.

 

Three halaqas of Shah Naqshband

 

In time of Sayyidina Shah Naqshband he used to have three halaqas a week:

a)      One halaqah is to teach them `ibaadah, fiqh, hadith or tafseer al-Qur'an. Not talking of dunya. They come and if their homes are far, they have their white clothes with them in a bag or whatever they are carrying it and go in changing room and put on white robes, long dress and come and sit on his assigned seat. They know who is sitting on right and on left who is sitting beside the shaykh on his right and on his left; not like today everyone pushing to sit by the Shaykh right or left thinking he has to be the one sitting there.

There are different levels that have to sit by the Shaykh left or right we don’t see that.

In previous times they come and sit. And they come on time. When the Shaykh arrives everyone is in his seat on the floor. The shaykh is not waiting people to come. And lock the door no one allowed to come in, and they must have white clothes and the Shaykh sitting speaking and they are writing.

 

b)      Then he has another one for dhikr nothing else. All kinds of Asmaullah al-husna and different Suras and they are sitting, then everyone finishing, they go, no discussion.

 

c)      The third one is halaqah of meditation:  they connect their hearts with their shaykh’s heart. And they are sitting on their knees, not like this. And connecting their heart with their Shaykh heart. One hour, two hours, depends. And all their focus is love of Allah, love of the Prophet (s) and love of the Shaykh. Our halaqah is a plastic halaqa, like plastic fruit. But we are helpless and weak. We cannot be like them and we are asking Allah to change it from an imitational halaqah to a real halaqah.

So the  second condition is to have only coming for `ibaadah, nothing else. Anything else is becoming a soup. You know in the soup, they throw all the leftovers and they offer it to people. That is why it is called soup. It is mixed, from everything. But there is special food that you can have that is specialties, what you call them? Delicacies. You want this? They are expensive. You want this you need to sit in discipline and take it from heavens. So no problem everyone can take soup and drink.

 

3.                 The third one, as soon as they sit and waiting for Shaykh they have no right for talking to each other. They are only doing their private dhikr waiting for Shaykh to come. As soon as the Shaykh come and sit in his place then the halaqah becomes connected. All the seats are near each other. The Shaykh comes and sit in his place and the energy will move along from right all the way to left side.

As soon as he sits, the third condition is that immediately he connects their hearts to the love of Allah an to love of the Prophet (s) and if they are disciplined and they are not coming except to do dhikrullah he will cut their hearts from receiving any kinds of gossips,  khawaatir. Any kinds of gossips will be cut. Because they have that power. Like inspirations come good and also bad gossips come. And they let the good to come and they close the box, like these boxes they have all the channels coming in, what you call it, receiver. There is a parental control to lock channels that are not accepted. So through your own box comes everything. Shaytan is there, good inspirations are there, bad inspirations and gossips are there, so awliyaullah put parental lock and control on everything coming bad.

So in this association if they fulfill the two conditions then they are able to stop all gossips that come to the ears. Anything that is connected to dunya they put lock on it and shaytan cannot come in.

And the mureed at that time has to accept what the Shaykh is trying to do. If he is struggling not to lock his box from gossips he has to level the association and go down because he will be contaminating the others that are sitting there beside him.

That is third condition and we leave the rest to next time, and there are nine of them.

 

We pray Dhuhr now as they are going to broadcast soon from Cyprus.

 

So this is important, especially when you go to Cyprus, and attend zawiya of Mawlana with the dhikr. There is not like here - you have to be very careful. Not like anyone else where people conduct dhikr with permission of Mawlana Shaykh there must be more discipline people  must not make gossip not make business there, they must be more disciplines. Everyone coming from far places to visit and Mawlana Shaykh has to have a little bit of discipline to look at himself only and not to look at what others are doing and trying to seclude himself doing `ibaadah in order that he will be considered that his visit will be accepted.

As when you go for hajj, as the Prophet (s) said, "the one who doesn’t make fitna or backbiting there he will come back from there like someone newly born.”

And there are places around the world that are inheriting from that hadith of the Prophet (s) and so those visiting awliyaullah will be granted many rewards and one of them is that they might be forgiven their sins. As Allah said:

أَلا إِنَّ أَوْلِيَاء اللّهِ لاَ خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلاَ هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ وَكَانُواْ يَتَّقُونَ لَهُمُ الْبُشْرَى فِي الْحَياةِ الدُّنْيَا وَفِي الآخِرَةِ لاَ تَبْدِيلَ لِكَلِمَاتِ اللّهِ ذَلِكَ هُوَ الْفَوْزُ الْعَظِيمُ

Alaa inna awliyaaullahi laa khawfun `alayhim wa laa hum yahzanoona. Alladheena amanoo wa kaanoo yattaqoon. Lahumu ’l-bushra fi ’l-hayaati ’d-dunya wa fi ’l-aakhirati laa tabdeela li-kalimaatillaahi dhaalika huwa ’l-fawzu’l-`adheem.

Behold! verily on the friends of Allah there is no fear, nor shall they grieve; they who have attained to faith and have always been conscious of Him. For them there is the glad tiding [of happiness] in the life of this world and in the life to come; [and since] nothing could ever alter [the outcome of] God's promises, this, this is the triumph supreme! [10:62-64]

 

Why was Sajeda as crying after Fajr.

 

Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem

She (Sajeda, Shaykh Hisham’s daughter) is in love of her grandmother and in Cyprus she sometimes goes walking to visit her maqam. And she was always asking her something. Tell them.

 

Sajeda Kabbani:

We were praying Fajr today, and I looked out window saw a light and I looked away cause I got scared and I looked again and I saw a figure of someone wearing a turban and I saw my grandfather’s face and I saw my father’s face going back and forth and then I asked Allah to let me see my grandmother’s face and I saw it for about five seconds.

 

Shaykh Hisham:

 

And that meaning is coming from secret of her grandfather coming to her and it means her grandmother is happy with her. Awliyaullah can reach someone anytime. That is why she was crying at Fajr. She was feeling those goosebumps and seeing them.