As-Siddiq Mosque 1st Night of Rabi al-Awwal, 1431
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh. Tonight is the first night of Rabi` al-Awwal, and tomorrow is the first day of Rabi` al-Awwal. It is a blessed month and a blessed day tomorrow and 12th Rabi` al-Awwal will be Wednesday night, 24th February and Thursday day, inshaa-Allah.
(Mawlana stands.) As-salaamu `alayk yaa Sayyidee, yaa Rasoolullah wa laa khatar `ala qalbi bashar. Madad yaa Sayyidee, yaa Rasoolullah, adrikna yaa Rasoolullah. (Mawlana sits.)
It is now 1474 from the birth of the Prophet (s) in Hijri years; it is now the year 1431 (Hijri) and if you add 40 years, it is 1471 from the birth of Sayyidina Muhammad (s). It is not too much longer to reach 1500 years. That is only 30 years (remaining) that the signs of the Last Days will be within, and Sayyidina Mahdi (a) will be in the remaining 30 years of the 1500 years, as mentioned in the tafseer of Surat al-`Asr, that the life of the ummah is 1500 years.
وَالْعَصْرِ إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ لَفِي خُسْرٍ
Wal-`asr. Inna al-insaan lafee khusr. (I swear by) By the declining day,Verily, man is bound to lose himself. (103:1-2)
Wal-`asr, Allah is giving an oath; `asr in Arabic is a certain time in the day, the time of Salaat al-`Asr. We also say al-`asr is the century. So we have two meanings here, where Allah is giving an oath:
إن الله يبعث على رأس كل مائة عام من يجدد لهذه الأمة أمر دينها
Inna Allah yaba`th `ala raas kulla miat `aam man yujaddid li-hadha al-ummah `amr deenaha, that Sayyidina Mahdi (a) is coming at the end of time to revive the religion. And to awliyaullah the century is not 100 years long, rather it is 63 years, which is the length of the life of the Prophet (s), as He is the reality and his life is the measure of time. These three different periods or measures of time are mentioned in the tafseer of Surat al-`Asr.
ان استقامت امتى فلها يوم وان لم تستقم فلها نصف يوم
It is mentioned in the hadeeth of Prophet (s), In istaqaamt ummatee falaha yawm wa in lam tastaqim falaha nisfa yawm,
وَإِنَّ يَوْمًا عِندَ رَبِّكَ كَأَلْفِ سَنَةٍ مِّمَّا تَعُدُّونَ
wa inna yawma inda rabbika ka-alfi sannatin mimma ta`udoon
Verily a Day in the sight of thy Lord is like a thousand years of your reckoning. (22:47)
If this nation has not been corrupted, Allah will give it one day of life, and if it is corrupt then Allah will give it the life of half-a-day, and one day in the view of your Lord is one-thousand years of what you reckon."
No one will take with them anything when they leave dunya. The Pharaohs left all kinds of jewelery and gold and treasure. What they took? Nothing. Someone came and took all of that and took them also. It means Allah gave 1500 years to the life of the ummah. We are today from the birth of the Prophet 1471 years. So take them out from 1500 years, so what is left? Twenty-nine years (remains) for all the signs of the Last Days, and for Sayyidina Mahdi (a) and Sayyidina `Isa (a) to come!
O People! It is not too much left! You are young and you will see that, and we ask Allah (swt) to make us to see that! We are looking for those days that are coming ahead and awliyaullah are waiting to guide their followers. Don’t think it is so easy when Sayyidina Mahdi (a) comes. (People say,) "O, Mahdi will come, Mahdi will come!" At that time will be the century of miracles, not with cars and technology like now. You will say, bismillahi ‘r-Rahmaani ‘r-Raheem, and you will go east and west without technology! When you say, bismillahi ‘r-Rahmaani ‘r-Raheem, it downloads to the heart what cannot be downloaded to any computer.
And (Pharaoh's people) made mummies. Why they made mummies for themselves? They are now making money on them. Those mummies are on display in museums of England and Allah (swt) is making them a sign for us, "Look at you (mummies)! People are watching you and paying no respect!" It is better to disintegrate (in the grave). Allah covered that for Ummat an-Nabi (s). So Allah downloads to awliyaullah's heart and pancreas, kidneys, and tongue to speak. You have no tongue to speak--blah, blah (Mawlana mimics). Look at that tongue and look at the vocal chords. Did you see them when operating, how sound comes out from them? Can you do that?
O human beings! Believe in Allah and his angels and books and in prophets and in Sayyidina Muhammad (s)! Believe in him and in what he said. Without believing in him we are losers. He told us what is good and what is bad. People are lazy to work but not lazy to do sins. They are lazy to worship but not lazy to do sins. They spend lot of time to make their body happy. Are your bodies happy? Yes, too much, you more than him. (laughter)
So you have two elements within yourself, the element that you can sense with and the other kulli shay tuhiss, everything physical you feel is different and everything spiritual you feel is different. What is sensing? Al-hiss. You can sense through your hands and your feet and your head. That means anything related to the body, you can sense through that. But manawiyyan, you cannot get through physical senses, it is something special through the soul. Do you want the body or you want the soul? We are not going to say sense only through the soul, we have to balance.
Grandshaykh (q) said that the physical senses are for everyone, but mana`wiyya lil-khaas, the inner feeling or revelation or spirituality, is only for those chosen ones, not for everyone, but physical sensing is for everyone. Don't try to over-limit or over-balance the body over the soul, but if you over-balance the soul over the body, it is acceptable. Most people are not balancing between them. This one is not balancing; he likes to sleep too much (laughter), but he is better than one who likes to drink too much, and you know what kind of drinking, not water. Or smoking. Or (some) womanize as much as they like; why not say "menonize". Why do they pick on women, as if men are pure and innocent. Masha-Allah, they are the worst! So now ladies are happy. (laughter)
What kind of smoking, you know? Why they are running after desires of the body? And Shaytan is running after everyone to run after pleasure of the body. That is from sensing. The body always like to feel pleasure. To awliyaullah that is not the meaning, that is the common meaning. The body likes to have pleasure, drink as much as you like, womanize. al-hissiya `inda awliyaullah min al-khawaatir, "The awliyaa look from a different angle." The sense of the body is not just for the body, but every bad thing that comes into the heart and they want to throw it out. If you want to say everything that comes to the heart, you are like a mentally disabled person. That is the description of us today: whatever comes into your heart, you want to say it. It might be bad, it might be good. Don't let your tongue speak too much as whenever you speak, you fight! As soon as Shaytan is there and you begin to speak, you being to fight and make people angry. No, it is better as Sayyidina Ali (q) said, "Zip it, lock it (your tongue)."
And Grandshaykh (q) said, "People go to awliyaullah to tell them what is going to happen in the future." Why do you go to a wali, to guide you? He said, "To speak to you what is going to happen to you tomorrow is not accepted in the highest level of awliyaullah. You have to show yourself normal, not a saint, you have to show you are like the others. Whatever comes to your heart to tell your students what is going to happen in the future or what is hidden, that is from the first level of desires of the body." Awliyaullah must refrain from that kind of guidance. You go to some imaginary shaykhs, they think they are something, even they think they are khalifahs. They begin to throw words from a very high level that no one understands so as to attract you. That is haraam and not accepted to give pleasure to the body. That is what the body likes, as Shaytan is after you. But what is more important is what the soul likes. We will explain later, but now we are explaining what awliyaullah mean by "senses." That is for common people; they like to make more money, drive fancy cars, go to beaches, go here and there, no limits!
So Grandshaykh (q) said, "That is not accepted and you have to veil yourself as if you know nothing and people see you as a poor person not moving from his place." And in reality, you are moving throughout the universe as Allah gave the quwwatil-ma`nawiyyah, spiritual power. And what is the spiritual power? It is to keep highest respect of Shari`ah. People think spiritual power is to do all kinds of miracles. No, highest is to keep the Shari`ah of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) because that is what Prophet (s) came with and what we have to follow. It is the highest level to keep discipline and to elevate yourself from the desires of dunya. That is one of the most important points of guidance of a wali to his student.
The wali cannot say to his student, "Go and enjoy whatever you want to do." No, he must keep discipline of Shari`ah, and today, what do we keep of Shari`ah? A little here and a little there. I will not be long, but we have to be careful, as Grandshaykh (q) said, wa muhafidhan`ala al-waajibaat fee (?) awqaatiha. "We have to fulfill our religious obligations in its time, without delay, and then we don't do it."
And Grandshaykh (q) said, "Anyone who teaches himself to eat two times a day is mukhlis (sincere). Who eats three times or more is an animal." People don't eat three times any more, all the day they are grazing. They call it "snacks" and they sell in supermarket a lot of snacks. They are teaching the way of Shaytan. If you keep 40 days eating one or two times, your body will be in the Station of mukhlis or siddiq. That is why Grandshaykh (q) always ate two times (daily), but he passed most of his food to his students, so really he only ate one time.
We wait till the last time of Dhuhr and pray just before `Asr, and we do same for Maghrib and same for Fajr. Grandshaykh (q) said, "You have to keep everything on its time." You cannot change its time. If you decide to eat two times a day, and most people eat three times, Grandshaykh (q) said, "Who teaches himself to eat one time a day is a siddiq, inheriting from Siddiq al-Akbar, Sayyidina Abu Bakr (q), that is a seclusion. Sometimes, they do seclusion one year, five years, because that energy coming down is uncut. I was reading some of Grandshaykh's notes and he said that there are many types of khalwah (seclusion). If you train yourself not to drink any water, there is a special khalwah that with awrad you can live without water. If you accomplish that you can live without food or water as you take energy directly from Allah (swt), but if that energy is broken then you need food and water.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.