25 August 2011 Fenton Zawiya, Michigan
Suhbah after Salat al-Fajr
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.
أَطِيعُواْ اللّهَ وَأَطِيعُواْ الرَّسُولَ وَأُوْلِي الأَمْرِ مِنكُمْ
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)
Dastoor yaa Sayyidee, madad. Every moment we have to seek support, for without it we cannot survive, like a car needs fuel or it will stop running. These days we have tech support for computers that crash, or mechanical support, medical support, life-threatening support, engineering support, but what about heavenly support? We accept all other forms of support, but when we say, “Yaa Sayyidee, yaa Rasoolullah!” asking support from the one whose name Allah (swt) raised with His Name, we are asking for Prophet’s (s) support to reach us.
Allah (swt) said to the Prophet (s) in Holy Qur'an:
وَأَنذِرْ عَشِيرَتَكَ الْأَقْرَبِينَ
wa andhir `asheeratik al-aqrabeen.
Warn those who are closest to you, yaa Rasoolullah! (ash-Shu`ara, 26:214)
His family members are closest to Prophet (s) and he warned each of them until he reached Sayyida Fatima az-Zahra (r), then they said, “Muhammad is not going to help you in any way!” That means, “Warn them, O Sayyidina Muhammad, to seek heavenly support, not technical support.”
وَاخْفِضْ جَنَاحَكَ لِمَنِ اتَّبَعَكَ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
wakhfidh janaahak liman taba`aka min al-mu’mineen.
And spread the wings of your tenderness over all of the believers who may follow you. (ash-Shu`ara, 26:215)
Then He will give you Paradise. Heavenly support comes with dhikrullah, remembrance of Allah (swt), so He remembers us in Akhirah. There is nothing else to remember except Him. “When you remember him, O Family of the Prophet,” which means the address is to them privately, and also to the ummah in general. “Remember Him in every moment, then you will get eternal Paradise.”
الَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ اللّهَ قِيَامًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىَ جُنُوبِهِمْ
Allladheena yadhkuroona-Llaha qiyaaman wa qu`oodan wa `alaa junoobihim.
(And) who remembers Allah when they stand, and when they sit and when they lie down to sleep. (Ali-Imraan, 3:191)
That is the key: they are remembering Allah (swt) in every moment of their lives, as He described the three positions of human beings: qiyaam qu`ood wa sujood, “standing, sitting and laying down.” That is the key: every moment is a moment to remember Him, standing, sitting and lying down. “Qiyaaman” is standing, “ruku” is bowing, then there is sitting, and then “sujoodan” is to be in submission, lying down. So in every category you are in, you need to remember Allah (swt), but He is not waiting for us to remember Him, He made our hearts pump with dhikurullah voluntarily or involuntarily, as He made your body say, “Huwa, Huwa,” the sound of the beating heart, “The Unique One, the Essence, known only to Himself..
So Allah is giving you heavenly support, such that if you are not getting that fuel in every moment you no longer live, you become without movement, zero. That heavenly support is what Allah honored us with.
وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِي آدَمَ
Wa laqad karamna Bani Adam.
Truly We have honored the Children of Adam. (al-Israa, 17:70)
This verse has many meanings. Allah (swt) honored us with Islam, with the Prophet (s), to be Muslim, to eat, to breath, to think, and He honored us to be forgiven! It can also mean, “We have honored them and We know they are like little babies, so We carry them.”
وَحَمَلْنَاهُمْ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ
Wa hamalnaahum fil-barri wal-bahr.
We carried them in land and sea. (al-Isra, 17:70)
“We are carrying them as they cannot carry themselves,” in bahr, the sea, which means “in dunya and in Akhirah. “Barr” is limited, but the ocean is unlimited and refers to Akhirah. fi ‘l-barri, means “too many obstacles,” (in dunya to test them). When they are okay, they end up in the ocean of ma`aarifatullah. It means, “We carry them in both dunya and in Barr al-Amaan, and give them safety and security in their life.
The ocean has no limitations; you see it’s uninhibited vastness all the way to the horizon. On the other hand, dunya is filled with forests, trees, buildings, etc. The word “bahr, ocean” has two meanings: sea and ocean. A sea is limited but an ocean is not. Allah (swt) gave an ocean to honor human beings and that is Akhirah. And awliyaullah get that in dunya so their dunya becomes an ocean.
He (swt) didn’t say, wa razzaqahum min al-khabeethaat, “We provided them with dirtiness,” He said, “We provided them with tayyibaat, good things,” and “We carried them on land with their obstacles and their dirtiness from not listening and We brought them to the Ocean of Safety.” But what do they need? fadhkuroonee adhkurukum, “Mention Me! Call people to Me and I will mention you in My Presence. What is that, He mentions us in His Presence? How? Does He say, “`Ali is good and Usmaan is better;” is that what Allah says? adhkuroonee! “Mention Me with your handicapped tongue and disabled heart, then I will dress you from My heavenly dresses that I created in Paradise!” That will enable you to enter in the heavenly dress codes into the Ninety-nine Names: He dresses you with His Beautiful Names and Attributes.
This is now controversial, but awliyaullah were given knowledge by Allah and this is one of the very deep meanings that Grandshaykh said, may Allah bless his soul, and it is coming from him to mention it now. Allah gives them knowledge in every moment! If you don’t understand what they say, don't reject it, rather say, “My knowledge is limited;” don’t ask, “From where he brought it? Show me the footnotes!” There are no footnotes as awliyaullah receive fresh knowledge.
May Allah bless Grandshaykh’s soul! That knowledge which he opened is also according to the hadeeth of the Prophet (s) and in some verses of Holy Qur'an, that Allah (swt) will be seen in Paradise. Grandshaykh said, “How can we explain that? It is unexplainable, but awliyaullah receive traces of knowledge on that issue from the Prophet (s) from knowledges to which Sayyidina Abu Hurayrah (r) referred in the famous hadeeth, ‘I memorized two kinds of knowledge from the Prophet (s): one I shared with everyone and that is knowledge of Shar`iah, and one I kept to myself because if I were to say it they will cut my neck.’”
Grandshaykh (q) continued, “In the assocation of awliyaullah, the Prophet (s) inspired their hearts as they were asking for an understanding of how will Allah (swt) appear in Paradise. He (s) said, “There is no way Allah will appear in Paradise, because when Sayyidina Musa (a) asked to see Allah (swt), kharra Sayyidina Musa saaiqa, the whole mountain shattered when Allah sent His tajalli on the mountain and Sayyidina Musa (a) lost consciousness (from shock). In fact, the whole universe and Heavens will shatter from His Manifestation of Glory, so how can He be seen?’”
So then in reality, what will be seen? Grandshaykh (q) said there is a Heaven in which Allah (swt) puts only the Muhammadiyoon, those who have been guided by the guided masters to follow in the footsteps of the Prophet (s). They are in the presence of Prophet with the pious trustworthy ones and the martyrs, all praising the Prophet (s) with various recitations, poetry and salawaat, and all glorifying Allah (swt) with various tahmid, tasbeeh and tamjeed. There Allah dresses them in His Beautiful Names and Attributes according to the different levels they reached, as in the verse:
وَمَن يُطِعِ اللّهَ وَالرَّسُولَ فَأُوْلَـئِكَ مَعَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمَ اللّهُ عَلَيْهِم
wa mam yuti` illaha wa ’r-rasoola fa oolaa’ika ma` ‘Lladheena an`am Allahu `alayhim.
For all who pay heed unto Allah and the Messenger shall be among those upon whom Allah has bestowed His Blessings. (Surat an-Nisa, 4:69)
Allah (swt) will dress them according to their levels, and anyone that looks at them will think Allah is appearing in Paradise. Allah sends them in special groups to different groups in Paradise and when the common ummat an-Nabi see them, they say, “Oh! It is Allah appearing in Paradise!” Why? Because they see the traces of Allah's Beautiful Names and Attributes appearing on those, and they think, “Oh! Allah has been seen!” but Allah cannot be ‘seen’ by anyone except Prophet (s) and the sincere pious ones of the Muhammadiyoon, and still they do not see the Essence as la shareek lah, there is no one in dunya or Akhirah to be a partner to Allah! They may be somewhere in nearness to the Divine Presence, but they will never see Allah (swt)! His Essence, His Reality, His Dhaat al-Buht, that Unique Essence that has been dressed in every moment and which produces infinite dresses of Allah's Beautiful Names and Attributes, and every angel or group of angels is mazh-har min asmaa’illah `azza wa jall, One Appearance from the Infinite Appearances of what The Divine Essence shows!
What angels see is a Name, a Manifestation, and they glorify the Name they see by the tasbeeh they receive. Each angel glorifies according to the dress in which he is dressed and there is no resemblance between one angel and another, and in every moment more appearances appear on that Name, and all the blessings of their praising are put on ummat an-Nabi! We can liken it to Niagara Falls, which does not take back or recycle that water. They say there are fifty million gallons a minute pouring over the falls, and it flows downstream perhaps one mile, and then there is a hole into which it disappears! Where does it go? Someone is not absorbing it but rather drinking it. Awliyaullah say that with every drop of that water Allah (swt) creates an angel making tasbeeh for ummat an-Nabi.
That water goes in that place; it has an end of the way. I went with Mawlana Shaykh Nazim to see to where that water immediately disappears but it does not continue beyond that point. Where is it going? Who is bringing that water? In 1980 when they cleaned Zamzam, they found its source is directly under the Ka`bah thirty meters below the Black Stone, and it is pouring out like Niagara Falls. After they cleaned it, the whole ummah is going there, collecting and drinking gallon upon gallon, but it never ends!
If Zamzam never ends, what do you think about the Creator? The Essence never ends; the Creator never stops creating Names describing Allah (swt), knowledge of which only the Prophet (s) and the angels are given, and the knowledge Prophet (s) is given is only a drop in the ocean! Then Prophet (s) dresses the ummah in that knowledge, as Allah (swt) orders, “Dress them! I am not going to ask anyone of them.” So when He says, “O heedless ones! Adhkuroonee! When you mention Me, I will mention you in that Greatness that no one can approach without My permission, and there I dress you with dresses and you will appear in Paradise, and when people see the appearance of that Heavenly Name on you, they will say, ‘Oh! This is the appearance that we were expecting!’ I send them to lower levels of Paradise and the inhabitants say, ‘Oh! Allah is appearing to us.’”
It means they will be sent by Allah (swt) as appearances that Heaven can carry, as in reality even Heavens cannot carry Him! For our understanding, Allah (swt) is somewhat described by His Beautiful Names and Attributes; they gives us a slight idea of His Magnificence, and the Name “Allah” encompasses all of them! But the Reality of Appearances is beyond description:
فَاذْكُرُونِي أَذْكُرْكُمْ وَاشْكُرُواْ لِي وَلاَ تَكْفُرُونِ
wa ashkuru lahu wa laa takfaroon
Then do ye remember Me; I will remember you. Be grateful to Me, and reject not Faith. (al-Baqara, 2:152)
which means, “And thank Allah and do not reject faith.” “Say, He (Huwa) is Allah!” That means Allah is being described by the Name that encompasses all Allah's Beautiful Names and Attributes, but the Reality has more and more Names and Realities that Allah shows to the Prophet (s), and then the Prophet (s) shows to awliyaullah and the awliyaullah show to the ummah.
So He said, “Remember Me and I remember you, and then say, ‘Shukran yaa Rabbee.’” That is what you need to say, not more; every moment say shukr as that is how you will be able to survive in dunya and Akhirah, by remembering Him and thanking Him!
May Allah (swt) forgive us and may Allah (swt) bless our association and give us more and more from these hidden knowledges that awliyaullah are mentioning. Grandshaykh (q) mentioned this forty years ago! How much more knowledge has come since then; what do you think it will be today? We are limited, but awliyaullah can go and bring more to you when they want, when they see that you are fertile ground. Usually you can't plant a tree in the desert, you need fertile ground to plant and then it grows and it must be a place where there is water. So if mureeds show they are fertile, awliyaullah give to them. That is why if those in attendance are not fertile ground, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim speaks only about the ego, or to do this and that, but when there is fertile ground he opens from knowledge that has immense meanings, but there must be fertile, red soil and water there.
When you plant rice, you flood that muddy field with water and a hard, dry grain of rice that you cannot even break emerges. With all that water, where is the juice in the grain? However, if you plant watermelon in the desert where there is no water, but that melon yields so much juice! It means if you don’t have heavenly support, you will be like that rice: even though it is in water it is dry, but it can be softened by boiling it. So boil yourself, then you become a watermelon and when they throw you in the desert you will be juicy! (laughter) Awliyaullah take you from being a dry rice kernel to a moist watermelon.
عن عبد الله بن بسر رضي الله عنه أن رجلا قال: يا رسول الله إن شرائع الإسلام قد كثرت علي فأخبرني بشيء أتشبث به؟ قال لا يزال لسانك رطبا من ذكر الله" الترمذي.
One person came to the Prophet (s) and said, “Yaa Rasoolullah! inna shara`ia al-islaam qad kathurat `alayya, The rules of Islam became heavy on me." Prophet (s) said, “Ija`l lisaanak ratban min dhikrillah, Make your tongue wet with dhikrullah." (Tirmidhi)
Allah (swt) gave authority to awliyaullah when they say, “ati'oollah wa ati'oor-rasula wa uli'l-amri minkum” to take you, if you show them you are fertile soil, to change you from a dry husk. They change the very dry characters that you are in as a dry form, just as some people make religion very dry, but awliyaullah make religion very nice and juicy! Tasawwuf gives you the taste of Islam and makes your life moist; dhikrullah makes your life beautiful and puts you on the right track.
When you remember Allah (swt), even if you go right and left and commit sins, awliyaullah use the huge, endless floods of water to quench your thirst in spite of yourself! They carry that ocean in their hearts, and keep it there until you come, and they let you quench your thirst, and then you come back to the right track, like race cars making a pit stop to be serviced, they return to the race like rockets! Awliyaullah’s care will take you so far so fast, as if you hadn’t stopped, and that allows you to come back to where you should be on the track. They dress you with their worship and bring you back to the right path, as if you completed that worship!
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.