8 June 2011 Kuala Lampur, Malaysia
After `Isha / Private Residence
A'oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytani 'r-rajeem. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem. Dastoor yaa Sayyidee, madad.
What the Prophet (s) said, ad-deenu naseeha, “Religion is advice.” If there is no advice, the meeting is dead. What we have to take with us when we go home from that meeting? Every meeting has a different taste: either it is a Rahmaani meeting, an akhirah meeting, or a dunya meeting. If it is a dunya meeting, it has no value. No appreciation. He is a jeweler, he is dealing with diamonds. He is a jeweler dealing with different stones. He is a jeweler dealing in pebbles, rocks. So where people have to run? To him, the diamond jeweler. They don’t go to pebbles.
If you go to a blacksmith where they forge iron, you will get burned if you are standing inside the store. If you go to a parfumerie, at least you get one line of perfumes (on your arm). So do you prefer to go to blacksmith or to a parfumerie? From the parfumerie you get something that lasts with you, but after one or two hours that perfume evaporates, then you need to get more. When you do anything for Allah (swt) it lasts, but anything you do for your ego evaporates. If he or I am speaking, or singing, to say, “I know something,” then there is perfume as anyone can speak, but that will evaporate after a while because there is no light in it and it is dead. But when you want to say something and you understand that you yourself are in need of what you are saying, and you are the lowest in the meeting, then that will be akhirah perfumes coming, and they will never die. That is an akhirah meeting, so the perfume lasts forever!
In such a meeting under awliya's name, Mawlana, may Allah grant him long life--because if I say “Mawlana, may Allah grant him long life,” some people say, “Maybe he means himself.” You have to be careful; every word is in the balance, because there are some people who say, “There is no ‘Mawlana’ except one.” There was someone on the Internet 5-6 years ago who posted, “There is no Mawlana except one.” So I replied, “Go to Pakistan, where even the janitor of the mosque is known as ‘Mawlana’!” Everyone there is “Mawlana” or “Sahib”. So you have to know, be careful. May Allah grant long life to Mawlana Shaykh Nazim. Not to make a mistake, be careful.
So this is a majlis under their name; therefore, it is not a dead majlis, it is a majlis that is alive. And perfume is filling the place because you are mentioning their names, and when you mention their names their presence appears and they are not far. Who likes to accept this, accept. Who doesn't like to accept is free (in their own belief).
When they appear, what do they bring with them? What do you like in this dunya most? To be always surrounded with nice perfume. They bring for you all kinds of perfumes. They dress you with a unique perfume and they will not dress the other one with the same perfume as every one there has no copy! They don’t use a copy or then it is not sainthood, it is not wilayat, which is far from a copy machine. What they dress this one with, they dress a second and third one differently, and with a different perfume. Don’t expect to have the same perfume in the presence of awliyaaullah. Awliyaaullah give unique scents to mureeds to identify them, and they grant power to their noses to smell if they are going to higher level. They can smell which wali is passing by them at that moment, and every wali is identified by a different smell. As Sahaaba are identified by different lights and every Sahaabi has a different star, they cannot be the same. Also, Allah does not give you or His awliyaullah the same dress; it has to be different.
In every moment the Prophet (s) is ascending, and in every moment mithlayn mithlayn, in continuous mi`raaj, he is reaching to awliyaaullah with his spiritual power and addressing that wali from that level. So the wali will be raised in every moment with the Prophet (s) and awliyaaullah can see. And may Allah grant long life to Mawlana, Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani. In the old days in London, Mawlana used to say that every nationality must have a different color of turban. Correct? Even here he gave them a different color of turban. Every wali is identified by a color. “Color” in this sense is a heavenly light that a wali is dressed with, which every moment becomes stronger and stronger.
Now if you take the red color and put it under a huge microscope, how many colors you see there? Only one red color? You will see infinite numbers of colors of red under the microscope: the yellow, the black, the green, all different colors, there is no one color the same. Do you think that Allah has only seven colors in the rainbow, or that there are colors that we are never able to see? There are infinite numbers of colors that the eyes cannot see, even the spiritual eyes cannot see.
Allah is dressing the Prophet (s) in every moment of his ascension, he is moving mithlayn mithlayn, double and double. Grandshaykh said, may Allah bless him, that between every ascension that he is ascending up to Judgment Day, he is ascending 500,000 light years! To where is Allah (swt) raising him? That gives you an idea of how vast Allah's Kingdom is in Heavens. As the Prophet (s) is ascending in continuous mi’raaj from beginning to end, and moving up mithlayn mithlayn, in every moment ascending 500,000 light years and moving in that vast heavenly Creation, what is the Prophet (s) reaching and seeing? Is it empty or is there a void? Is it empty or is there something there? Can it be empty? Why? Doesn’t Allah have the ability to create to fill it?
If you say it is empty, void, then you are diminishing Allah's Greatness. The Prophet (s) is moving towards the Presence of his Lord (Mawlana stands), in a speed that cannot be described, reaching in every moment, and awliyaaullah are reaching behind him, dressing their followers with that light. From one follower to another comes different light; there are no clones or twins there. At that level, Allah laa shareek lah, He has no partner! Also, the Prophet (s) has no partner. Awliyaaullah are different from each other in their levels, and not one of them shares what they have as a wali. As a servant they may share, but they are under the prophets assigned to them, and from wali-to-wali they differ, so there is no way for any two to resemble each other.
If you are lucky, you will be connected. If you have been from the Day of alastu bi-rabbikum and you are connected by Allah to a wali connected to the Prophet (s), then you are a lucky one! If you are not, then look for someone like that! If you find hadu `alayhi bin-nawaajiz, bite onto him with your molars! Don’t let him disappear from you, as his presence is a favor for you in dunya and in akhirah.
People are not giving akhirah a dime, making it lower than zero importance. If we say “no importance” it still has meaning, but if we say “dime”, it means less than that as all their thinking is for dunya. If they are thinking for dunya, Allah said, “Take it”. For Allah (swt) dunya weighs less than the weight of a mosquito! Those who are for akhirah are not doubled rewards, not triple, not this or that, but are granted from Allah (swt) an unknown number of rewards. Why? Because if the owner of this house says, “If you come every day I am putting a waqf, trust, of golden coins. I am saying to distribute that waqf to each one coming here. If 500 come each may take two, if 100 come each may take ten.” On the Day of Promises, Allah has done that for those who want akhirah, saying, “I am going to give them rewards that never end, infinite rewards are for those to whom this message of Islam enters, and they will receive the barakat of this message daily.”
If six billion come they share these rewards; if five billion come they share these rewards; if one billion share, if a hundred million they share. Allah gave it! The meaning of kareem, generosity, is when He gives He doesn’t take it back! So if only ten people come, they take everything. Grandshaykh said, may Allah bless his soul, “This group that is taking from me, who took from my shaykh, and who took from his shaykh up to the Prophet (s), they are never going to be sad in dunya or in akhirah. They are never going to be sad, but will always be happy.”
What is the meaning of happiness in dunya? It means they will never leave dunya without the presence of the Prophet (s). He has been granted through his many years of seclusion to ask the presence of the Prophet (s) when his mureed is leaving dunya. When that one is dying, the Prophet (s) appears and that one says, “Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llah,” and he doesn’t say, “Ash-hadu anna Muhammadan Rasoolullah;” instead he says, Ash-hadu annaka Rasoolullah, “I am seeing and witnessing that you are Prophet!”
That is the barakah of this tariqah. That is not filling books of tasawwuf; what fills books of tasawwuf is `Ilm al-Awraaq, Knowledge of Papers. `Ilm al-Adhwaaq, Knowledge of Taste that exists in hearts of awliyaaullah is not going to be given in books. When awliyaaullah say, “You don’t leave dunya without seeing the Prophet (s),” can that knowledge be given in a book? That cannot give the feeling of when you are leaving dunya and facing the Prophet (s). So when they dress you cannot choose your dress and in every meeting there is a dress. They know what fits you and they don’t give you more than what fits you as they don’t want to waste material. When they cut the dress it has to be your size. So they dress you in what you are able to carry at that moment in your ascension.
Every one is ascending with his guide, who is responsible for his sheep and he doesn’t leave them alone. This is “Knowledge of Taste,” not “Knowledge of Paper.” When the shepherd doesn’t leave the sheep they are happy, but they are not just content, they are overwhelmed! They are excited, not afraid. It is a sensation to feel the reality of the light they are dressing on you. So, what else is the difference between us and other people if we are not able to reach that level? The level of qasida playing is to prepare you.. Why did Hassan bin Thabit (r) used to make poetry in love of the Prophet (s) in front of him? Imam Jazuli (r) used to make poetry of love of the Prophet (s). From themselves, the pen is writing their love of the Prophet (s) and when they write, they write with letters of light.
Grandshaykh (q) said when Muhyideen ibn `Arabi (r) was writing Futuhat al-Makkiyyat, he was often falling asleep, then he was ordered by the Prophet (s) to put a pen in his hand and when he awoke he saw what he wrote. Then he combined spirituality and physicality and he felt the beauty of what he wrote, like a jeweller turns a rough stone to a faceted diamond. Another will kick that with their foot as they don’t that stone is a diamond. The jeweler will cut it and put it in a ring, wear it, and every moment gaze upon it, mashaa-Allah.
There is a spiritual ring that awliyaaullah give their followers. That is not normal ring, that is a ring that puts them in the chain of the Prophet (s), who has a chain and all sincere members of his ummah are on the chain with him.
أَلا إِنَّ أَوْلِيَاء اللّهِ لاَ خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلاَ هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
alaa inna awliyaullahi laa khawfun `alayhim wa laa hum yahzanoon.
Behold! Verily on the friends of Allah there is no fear, nor shall they grieve. (al-Yunus,10:62)
What is the meaning of khawf, fear? Is it safety from fear of people? That has no meaning. It means they reached the Ocean of Safety. They don’t want to be thrown out from the Divine Presence; they want to always be in the Divine Presence, always in the presence of that Divine Holiness that no one can describe and in the presence of the Prophet (s). They don’t want to be there for just one minute or one hour, or for the blink of an eye, they want to always be there! Allah confirmed in the Holy Qur'an, “Don’t fear to be away from My Divine Presence.”
What is the Divine Presence? Why do they want to be in the Divine Presence? Because in every moment there is a heavenly pleasure, not dunya pleasure; when they are in that state of ecstasy, it is pleasure that enables them to understand and count all angels around them and with their tasbeeha and tahleel, they understand all the angels’ recitations. In that moment they can cover those recitations. They don’t want to be away, Allah gave them that bara`ah, laa khawfun `alayhim meen bara`ah. That is bara`ah for awliya, but there are only ten to whom the Prophet (s) gave safety from the Fire. That is special for awliyaaullah, like when you tell your son, “Don’t worry, I will get you what you want.” Then they are not going to be sad, as you confirmed. Not in any moment will you be sad. “I am giving you all kinds of heavenly treasures of Allah's manifestation on you.”
So that is what awliyaaullah are looking for. These associations are with awliya of that caliber and they dress you with perfume and light in every moment. If they look at you in this moment and then in another moment, each moment is different. Dress of Light. Dress from Heavens. How can that heavenly dress go to Hellfire? They have nothing to fear, and nothing to be sad about, not just them but all their followers! Because Allah said:
ادْعُوهُمْ لِآبَائِهِمْ هُوَ أَقْسَطُ عِندَ اللَّهِ
Ad`oohum li-aabaa’ihim Huwa aqsatu `inda-Allah.
Call them to their fathers; that is more just with Allah. (Surat al-'Ahzaab, 33:5)
Who is our spiritual father? That is his responsibility; there is no playing here. When he accepts your baya` and he gives that confirmation, then finished, he is responsible, you are no longer responsible! They cannot retract their responsibility anymore. Mawlana! You are responsible! We are weak servants; we can only hold your rope!
Don’t ask more than that! Especially the Pakistanis. We have one Pakistani here, show him. And one Indian, and here is an Arab. All Arabs are fighting. Germans are not doing anything! (laughter)
May Allah forgive us and keep us all together under the hand of our shaykh, Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani, and may Allah grant him long life, and grant all his followers long life. (May Allah grant you long life.) Inshaa-Allah, to see Sayyidina al-Mahdi (a).