Mawlid & Suhbah
(Mawlana stands to honor Prophet [s] throughout opening du`a and salawat.)
As-salaamu 'alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh!
Allah Allah, Allah Allah, `Azeez Allah.
Allah Allah, Allah Allah, Kareem Allah.
Allah Allah, Allah Allah, Subhaan Allah.
Allah Allah, Allah Allah, Sultaan Allah.
Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem, alhamdulillahi Rabbi 'l-`alameen. Wa 's-salaatu wa 's-salaam wa `ala ashrafil mursaleen Sayyidina wa Nabiyyina Muhammadin wa `ala `Aalihi wa saahbihi ajmaeen. (Recitation of salawaats in Arabic) Allahumma salli `ala Muhammad (s). Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar .....yaa Sayyidee yaa Habeebullah...
(Mawlana sits, speaks Arabic)
... Those who love Sayyidina Muhammad (s) will be with him! O lovers of Prophet (s)! The sweetest thing you can speak about is love; there is nothing else except cinta ("love" in Bahasa language). The whole world is based on cinta: Sayyidina Adam (a) has cinta with Ummina Hawa (a) and Hawa (a) has cinta to Adam (a). The enemy of love is Iblees, because he wanted everything bad for Prophet (s) and for Sayyidina Adam (a). He loves to be the most accepted in the eyes of Allah (swt)! That is why he was not able to make sajdah to Sayyidina Adam (a). The angels were making sajdah to Adam (a) because they saw the light of Muhammad (s) on Sayyidina Adam's (a) forehead. We just finished Mawlid, and those who speak Arabic understand how much the awliyaa are praising Prophet (s).
If we love Prophet (s), we give him the highest possible level we can. So what do you think about Allah (swt), Who created Muhammad (s)? In every creation there must be the light of Muhammad (s) or else that creation will not appear. One time a Bedouin came to Prophet (s) out of the desert, to the masjid where Prophet (s) was giving the Jumu'ah khutbah and he asked, "Yaa Muhammad, mata as-sa`ah - O Muhammad when is the Hour? ?" He didn't say O Prophet of Allah! As he was a Bedouin, they are simple, rude. Prophet (s) didn't answer because he was giving the khutbah and couldn't speak. The Bedouin asked another time, "Yaa Muhammad, mata as-sa`ah?" Prophet (s) did not answer. Then that one asked a third time, "Yaa Muhammad, mata sa`?" Then Allah (swt) sent him a message, "Yaa Muhammad, you must answer." Prophet (s) said, "O Bedouin, it is a long travel. What have you prepared for it?" This means, it's a long way; for your dunya you prepare everything, for Hajj you prepare your passport, money, everything. For travel to Yawm al-Qiyamah, the Day of Judgment, what have you prepared?
Do you know how Sayyidina Azra`eel (a) is going to take our souls: with punishment or mercy? Do you know how the angels of the grave are going to treat our souls: with punishment or mercy? How will Allah (swt) treat us on the Day of Judgment, with punishment or mercy? Are we prepared for that? Can we guarantee that? (No!) No, we are prepared, I bring you good tidings. Why? Because Sayyidina Muhammad (s) answered the Bedouin and gave him good tidings, with the good answer that will take us to Paradise! From that answer you can know that you will be in Paradise, inshaa-Allah.
He (s) said, "What have you prepared for Yawm al-Qiyamah?" The Bedouin answered, "Mahabbatak, yaa Rasulullah (s)," meaning cinta for you Rasulullah (s)! Not for a woman, not for a man, not for a child, not for a car, not for money, not for business. The Bedouin has nothing saved, except for his love for Rasulullah (s)! What did he say? "Mahabbatak, yaa Rasulullah (s)." Who does that Bedouin love? He is coming for the first time to the door of Prophet (s) saying, "I love you!" Allah (swt) has servants that if they ask from Him, He gives them immediately! That Bedouin has love for Rasulullah (s)! Prophet (s) answered, Kafi yaa `Arabi, "Enough, O Bedouin." When Prophet (s) finished his khutba and came down from the minbar, Sayyidina Abu Bakr (r) said, "We heard something very astonishing today. What is that hikma, wisdom?" Prophet (s) said, "Abu Bakr (r), I am also astonished by what Allah (swt) gave me to say, that people will be with the one they love on the Day of Judgment."
People here are reading and reciting (Mawlid, qaseedas, na`at) out of love. There are many who do not read the Mawlid, they hate it and say it is bid`ah. Bid`ah on their heads, and our shoes on their heads also! When you go to hajj and you throw jumaraat (small pebbles) at Shaytan, these pebbles are on the heads of those people! Some don't throw pebbles, they throw their shoes. It is not accepted to throw your shoes, you have to throw pebbles. But shoes on those who do not do Mawlid is accepted!
There is no way to describe it; it is beyond any thinking or any description, `azhamatullah - Allah's Greatness. No one can understand it. With this essence Allah (swt) wanted to show the greatness of Muhammad (s). "I was a hidden treasure, I wanted to be known with this. I created the Creation." Allah (swt) wanted His Attributes to appear so, the first one He created is nur an-Nabi, the light of Prophet (s), to carry the knowledge given to humanity. No one can carry, not Adam (a) or any other prophet. And that is why He created the light of Muhammad (s) (as in the hadith:) "Kuntu kanzan makhfiyyan fa aradtu an `uraf fa khalaqtu 'l-khalq - I was a hidden treasure and I wished to be known so I created creation."
Some awliyaaullah from a long time ago described that reality of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) through divine inspirations that come to their hearts. One of the greatest saints in history said, "When Allah (swt) created this light, He wanted to raise these manifestations and put that light of Muhammad (s) in a lamp. Allah (swt) wanted to raise him (s) - and no other in Creation - 70,000 heavenly years. Arada an yukhraja an-noor - Allah wished to bring out that light.
Listen carefully, listen and understand as this is important. Wada`hu fee kawkabun durriy - He put him for 70,000 heavenly years in tarbiyyat ul-Haqq `azza wa jal - under the discipline of Allah, the Ultimate Reality.
Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem.
الرَّحْمَنُ عَلَّمَ الْقُرْآنَخَلَقَ الْإِنسَانَ
Ar-Rahmaan. `Allamal Qur'an. Khalaqal insaan - The Most Merciful, taught the Qur'an, created mankind. (Suratu 'r-Rahmaan, 55:1-3) So ar-Rahmaan, Allah (swt),`Allamal Qur'an.
Taught who? Who was Allah (swt) teaching? First to be Created under that tarbiyyah (learning) was Prophet Muhammad (s). When Allah (swt) was looking, Prophet (s) was sweating drops like condensed water; it was warm, then cold, then condensed. When Prophet (s) was under that tarbiyya, Allah sent His manifestations, and he felt warm; those were small drops of Creation.
Then Allah (swt) asked him, "Who am I, and who are you?" Sayyidina Muhammad (s) answered in a heavenly way, "Anta Rabbee al-Qahhaar wa ana `abduk - You are my Lord with the power of Qahhar, and I am your sincere servant." And he said, "What does al-Qahhaar mean to you?" He (s) said, "Yaa Rabbee, O my Lord, al-Qahhaar means You can shatter anything into dust." Before we are created, Ummatu 'n-Nabi, Ummatan marhooma, a forgiven nation.
You must learn, O m'umins, the level of Prophet (s). You didn't come here for yourself, you came here for Prophet Muhammad (s). He is the vehicle; he called you. You came for the love of Prophet Muhammad (s).
قال لا انتم اصحابي أما احبابي فأناس من أُمتي يأتون في اخر الزمان يحبونني ولم يروني
"Wa afdalu' n-naas b`ada sahaaba ahbaabee. Qaala laa antum ashaabee, ammaa ahbaabee fan-naasu min ummatee yaatoona fee aakhir az-zamaan yuhiboonanee wa lam yarawnee.
The best of people after the Companions are his lovers. He said, "No, you are my Companions but my lovers are those who come in the last days they loved me though they never saw me."
Do you know about computers? Who knows, raise their hands. No one, so we won't give that example; we will give another one. Do you want to be a lover of the Prophet (s)? It's better to be a lover. I'll tell you a story, then we'll finish. There was one big saint, Sayyidina Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (q). Every day every one of his students, in front of him and around him like you, had a big rooster. How many are here now? More than 3,000 people. So Sayyidina Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (q) was preparing roosters. One day he came and saw each student was eating a complete rooster by himself, doesn't share with anyone.
One poor woman who didn't have food to feed her son said, "I don't have anything to give, but if I send my son to Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (q), he can eat half the chicken and bring the rest home. So she took her son and he said, "I will take him." She was very happy, she saw that they are even eating the bones, they were swallowing it. So she came to the shaykh and said, "O Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (q), I present to you my son to make him your mureed," and she left. Sayyidina Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (q) said to a senior mureed, "Put him in the basement for forty days, and give him one piece of bread and seven olives once a day."
So he left him there for 40 days. The boy was this big and with heavy build, and he slowly, slowly became slim, not eating any chicken. The lady came after two months looking for her son and she couldn't find him. She saw everyone eating the roosters, but where was he? Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (q) told them to take her to the basement, and she saw her son had become very, very slim. She ran up to Sayyidina Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (q) and complained, "I gave you my son to eat rooster, I didn't give him to eat bread and water!" He said, "You said to me, make him your mureed. See all these? They went into seclusion to become men. When they came to me, they were not men, they were children who needed diapers. I had to raise them by putting them into hardship. Every day from morning to evening, dhikr. Now they can eat rooster and eat bones."
That is a karamah (miracle) because it is not easy to eat bones. All this for the love of Prophet Muhammad (s). When that love increases in the heart and gets higher and higher and higher, we will feel the presence of Sayyidina Muhammad (s)! Alhamdulillah that Allah (swt) sent such a hadith to bring all these people to Prophet Muhammad (s)! That is enough for them! In dunya and aakhirah they will be with Prophet (s)! They are better than us; better than me at least. May Allah (swt) make me as them, loving Prophet (s). May Allah (swt) forgive us.
Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem. (salawaat, du'a)