19 August 2011 Fenton Zawiya, Michigan
Fajr Suhbah
A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani 'r-rajeem. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem.
Nawaytu 'l-arba`een, nawaytu 'l-`itikaaf, nawaytu 'l-khalwah, nawaytu 'l-`uzlah,
nawaytu 'r-riyaadah, nawaytu 's-sulook, lillahi ta`ala fee haadha 'l-masjid.
Ati`oollaha wa ati`oo 'r-Rasoola wa ooli 'l-amri minkum.
Obey Allah, obey the Prophet, and obey those in authority among you. (4:59)
See these overhead fans: this is a shaykh fan (fast) and that is a mureed fan (slow). The shaykh always has very strong power and even if he feels sleepy he will try his best not to close his eyes, but the mureed thinks, “No problem; my shaykh is turning quickly so I will turn slowly.”
You cannot put your fingers on the shaykh's fan, but can you put your finger on the mureeds’ fan. Shaykhs are like this fan; when they are whirling, every wali is always in circumambulation, always making taw`aaf in Bayt al-Ma'moor. Therefore, no one can approach their followers; if any Shaytan approaches they are cut in half as the shaykh has heavenly blades that can cut the Shaytan. The mureed fan says, “My shaykh is doing the work, so why do I have to work hard?” But if you become like the shaykh fan you will become a wali.
Don’t Order People
Sayyidina Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (q) said, Wayhak, yaa ghulam! “O (youthful) boy! Shame on you! You say you memorized the Qur’an, tahfazh al-qur’an, wa laa ta`mal bihi, and you say, ‘I am hafizh.’”
I meet many people who send their children for tahfeezh al-qur’an and they memorize the Holy Qur'an, alhamdulillah, but when they grow up they don't follow it. So how do you claim you memorized the Holy Qur'an but you are not following it? They say, “We are Ahl as-Sunnah wa 'l-Jama`ah,” but they don’t practice the Ahl as-Sunnah wa 'l-Jama`ah beliefs. You memorized the Holy Qur’an, which is a sunnah, but you don’t do what the sunnah teaches. So for what reason are you wasting your time and memorizing, when you are not following? Tell people, “I am hafizh, but I am not following.”
Yaa ghulam, wayhak, “Shame on you, boy!” Although Sayyidina Abdul Qadir’s followers were sixty or seventy years old and spent their lives in an appropriate way, he called them “boy;” actually here ghulam means “servant.” Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (q) continues, ta’mur an-naas, “Don’t give orders to people and you are not following your orders.” Don't say to them, “Do this and that."
I heard it from Grandshaykh `AbdAllah (q) many times: if you are following this tariqah, the only one who is nadheeran, a warner, who has the right to warn people is the Prophet (s). Everyone else after the Prophet (s) and the Sahaabah (r) do basheeran, give good tidings. So look into what you have memorized and take the verses that are good tidings for everyone and mention them to those who are following you.
Verses of Mercy and Punishment Affect You
Grandshaykh, may Allah bless his soul, said there are different categories of verses in Holy Qur'an: some verses are for someone doing good, and Allah will reward him with good, while other verses are of `adhaab, punishment, and rahmah, mercy. Grandshaykh (q) said, “Anyone who reads or passes through verses of rahmat and continues his recitation of that verse, Allah (swt) will dress him with it, and no one knows what kind of ocean He is dressing him with His Endless Mercy that never finishes. Further, not one angel will know what Mercy Allah (swt) dresses him. With that he will become a merciful human being in the eyes of Allah, the Prophet, the angels and the awliyaullah.
When a wali looks at his mureed and sees these dresses on him, he knows his mureed has been raised because he is reading Allah's living Words. Holy Qur'an is not makhlooq, created, it is Allah's Words. So when we pass through ayaat al-`adhaab, verses of punishment, what will happen? At that moment when you read verses of `adhaab, if you deserve punishment Allah (swt) will take it away! That is one of the secrets of the verses of Holy Qur'an: when you read verses of `adhaab, Allah takes `adhaab from you. It might be from a sin you committed an hour ago, or the day before, or a week before. So it is important to read Holy Qur’an every day because Allah (swt) grants His mercy and removes His punishment!
Don’t order people to follow! Allah (swt) says, “I am forgiving them because they are sheep; they don’t know what they are doing.” At the Battle of Badr when they broke the teeth of the Prophet (s), he didn't curse them, instead he prayed, “O my Lord! Don’t punish them because they are people who don’t know.”
1. When you read Holy Qur’an it removes punishment.
2. Don’t hate anyone, because they don’t know what they are doing.
3. `Alims and shaykhs who give fatawa and make themselves above everyone, who judge what people say, need to be careful as Allah (swt) says, “Don’t order people if you are not following what you are learning, or then I will judge you according to what you know.”
The Shepherd and the Sheep
If the shepherd wants to judge the sheep, does he say to them, “Why you did that ?” They can only answer, “Maaaah!” So, Allah doesn't judge the sheep because they don’t know; instead He will judge the shepherd. May Allah make us be among those who can only say, “Maaah.” That is safe, and that is why it is better to know less. If you want to dig too much and know more, then you will be under that.
Today they dig too much, searching for what is ‘wrong with Islam.’ This is the century of learning about Islam; people want to know what kind of power Muslim shaykhs have. They cannot understand why people follow them. Salafis say, “Why should we follow the Prophet (s); we wear jeans now!” They don’t understand the particularity of the Holy Qur'an in human life and the secret of reading and studying hadith. They are digging and some are coming to Islam. Don’t pretend, “I am something,” then Allah (swt) will judge you according to what you are pretending to be, and to be judged as a shaykh is very difficult.
So we say, “Yaa Rabb! We are weak servants, we are sheep just like others.” To have less knowledge is better. That is why Grandshaykh (q) didn’t like anyone to read books. SubhaanAllah, he was like a fountain of knowledge and yet he never read a book other than the Holy Qur'an!
The Holy Qur’an Narrates the Meeting of Shari`ah with Haqiqah
Going to a prophet is not the same as a prophet coming to you. Sayyidina Musa (a) came to see Khidr (a); it was an honor for Khidr (a), not for Sayyidina Musa (a). Heavenly knowledge cannot be balanced without knowledge of Shari`ah, because zhaahiran wa baatinan. So Allah sent Shari`ah to meet with Haqiqat, He sent Sayyidina Musa (a) to meet Sayyidina Khidr (a) and the `Ilm al-Haqiqah.
That is why Allah (swt) said:
مَرَجَ الْبَحْرَيْنِ يَلْتَقِيَانِ
Maraj al-bahrayn yaltaqeeyaan.
He let forth the two seas so that they meet together. (al-Rahman, 55:19)
He made the two oceans meet. At that moment, when Musa (a) returned:
فَلَمَّا جَاوَزَا قَالَ لِفَتَاهُ آتِنَا غَدَاءنَا لَقَدْ لَقِينَا مِن سَفَرِنَا هَذَا نَصَبًاََقَالَ أَرَأَيْتَ إِذْ أَوَيْنَا إِلَى الصَّخْرَةِ فَإِنِّي نَسِيتُ الْحُوتَ وَمَا أَنسَانِيهُ إِلَّا الشَّيْطَانُ أَنْ أَذْكُرَهُ وَاتَّخَذَ سَبِيلَهُ فِي الْبَحْرِ عَجَبًا
falamma jawaza qala li fataahu aatinaa ghadaa’anaa laqad laqeenaa min safarinaa hadha nasaba. Qaala araayta idh awaynaa ila ’s-sakhrati fa-innee naseetu ’l-hoota wa maa ansaaniyahu illa ash-shaytaanu an-adhkurahu w ’at-takhadha sabeelahu fi ’l-bahri `ajaba.
So when they had passed further on (beyond that fixed place), Musa said to his assisting youth: "Bring us our morning meal; truly, we have suffered much fatigue in this, our journey."He replied, 'What do you think, I forgot the fish when we were resting on the rock. None but Satan made me forget to mention this. It made its way into the sea in a marvelous fashion. (al-Kahf, 18:62-63)
Sayyidina Yusha` (a) was holding the whale, not a huge fish, but one that can feed two or three people, in something that prevented it from running away. That is why he said, w ’at-takhadha sabeelahu fi ’l-bahri `ajaba, “It made its way into the sea in a marvelous fashion.” He saw it escape to the ocean after it had been caught for some time, which means Allah (swt) again restored life to it. So Sayyidina Yusha` (a) was told that would happen, and when it goes to the ocean that they have to meet someone there, and he was to tell Sayyidina Musa at that place. But unfortunately, Sayyidina Yusha` forgot to tell him and they went further downstream. As they continued, Sayyidina Musa (a) became hungry and tired, and felt he could go no further. How did Sayyidina Musa (a) get tired and hungry when he was on Mount Sinai for forty days and never ate and or drank? Mt.Sinai Mountain is a desert with no vegetation or water. In this case, Allah (swt) made him hungry to teach us a lesson.
Allah (swt) made him to go further downstream so that he passed the meeting point and continued. That meeting point indicates the meeting of Shari`ah with Haqiqah, which they passed. When Sayyidina Yusha` (Joshua) remembered that they were supposed to have stopped further back, Sayyidina Musa (a) said, “Why didn’t you tell me when the whale dove into the ocean?” It means you cannot go further in Shari`ah without Haqiqah as it will not be balanced. So Allah (swt) balanced that with Sayyidina Khidr (a), to whom He gave heavenly knowledge. It means don’t be focused exclusively on Shari`ah; also mingle with people of tariqah.
Shari`ah will take you to Heaven, but it will tire you. The word is nasaba, “This travel of ours only made us tired.” But if you follow Shari`ah and Haqiqah there is a balance. So he went past the meeting point and got tired, but he went back and met Sayyidina Khidr (a). So Sayyidina Musa (a) needed to be balanced with Haqiqat. Sayyidina `Isa (a) came with spirituality, not Shari`ah. The only one who came with Shari`ah and Haqiqat was Sayyidina Muhammad (s). There is a big difference.
Sayyidina Khidr (a) first took Musa (a) to the ocean and said, “Let us sail on this boat.” Then he put a hole in the boat.
"What? Why are you putting hole in boat?"
“We have to sink, to dive in the Ocean of Knowledge, or else there is no taste.”
The “boat” is Shari`ah, which takes you from one side to the other, but the engine is Haqiqat. Sayyidina Khidr (a) wanted to sink him in the Ocean of Knowledge. That is when Sayyidina Musa (a) first objected, then Sayyidina Khidr (s) said:
إِنَّكَ لَن تَسْتَطِيعَ مَعِي صَبْرًا
innaka lan tastati` ma`yya sabaa.
Surely, you cannot be patient with me. (Surat al-Kahf, 18:75)
The people of Ahl as-Sunnah wa 'l-Jama'ah need to be like the Prophet (s), who said, “If you put the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left hand, I will never leave that.” It means if you are balanced with Shari`ah on one side and Haqiqat on the other side, no one can damage your belief. Some only follow Shari`ah; they are dry and people run away from them! But Allah (swt) made people run after the people of Haqiqat! Allah (swt) made the others, who have difficulty understanding, to run after dunya.
Shaykh `Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (q) said, “Yaa ghulam! It is not like that.” It means that address is to everyone. “You must not order people when you are not following it! First make yourself a role model for everyone, then Allah (swt) will send you everything when you are in His Way.”
وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ مَا أُرِيدُ مِنْهُم مِّن رِّزْقٍ وَمَا أُرِيدُ أَن يُطْعِمُونِ
Maa khalaqta al-jinna wa ’l-ins illa li-y`abudoon. maa ureedu minhum min rizqin wa maa ureedu an yut`imoon.
And I created not the jinns and ins (humans) except they should worship Me (Alone). I seek not any provision from them, nor do I ask that they should feed Me. (Adh-Dhariyaat, 51:56, 57)
“I don’t want you to provide yourself with provision. I will make the bite come to your mouth.” Allah (swt) can make anything happen. He may send a cow full of milk to your house , since He said, “I will send your rizq to your mouth,” not just to your door, but to your mouth. But since we don’t do what we are asked in the Holy Qur'an, Allah leaves us to struggle. But if you run in Allah's Way there is no struggling.
كَبُرَ مَقْتًا عِندَ اللَّهِ أَن تَقُولُوا مَا لَا تَفْعَلُونَ
Kabbura maqtan `indallahi an taqooloo maa laa taf`aloon
Grievously odious is it in the sight of Allah that ye say that which ye do not. (as-Saffaat, 61:3)
It’s so disgusting to Allah (swt) when you say something and you don’t do it. Are you not ashamed? “Why do you claim you have imaan and you don’t submit to Me but you ask everyone to submit?” Don’t struggle! Struggling to call people to Allah (swt) is `ibadah, but don’t struggle for dunya, when Allah said, “I didn’t create anyone except to worship Me."
We are praying five prayers and becoming lazy.It is Ramadan, and if they say, “There is no more fasting,” we will cheer! Allahuma salli `alaa Sayyidina Muhammad (s). After every rainy season comes a drought season. Rain brings green; keep your life like the month of rain, shita, winter. Don’t keep your life like summer, with drought; it is dead. Do you see any tree living? Go to a desert where there are bushes with thorns that poke you. Don’t be dry like summer, be like winter and always you will feel alive, living in a paradise.
May Allah give us Paradise and forgive us from ordering people, "Do this and that."
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.