Turkish American Society of Chicago
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmutallaahi ta’ala wa barakaatu. I am here today, I don't know why, except it might be to receive these flowers and this turban. Alhamdulillah, wa ‘s-salaatu wa ‘s-salaamu `alayka yaa Sayyidina Muhammad (...).
MashaaAllah there are so many people here celebrating the love that comes through their hearts. I don't believe that a community like yours is coming here only to spend time on a Sunday evening, but there is something special and that is the love that comes from Prophet (s) to the hearts of everyone present. No one can come to sit this way if there is no direct connection with Prophet (s)!
Today they speak about telepathy, connecting with someone who is far away. If someone is in America they can speak to someone in China from heart to heart; there is that kind of knowledge, that kind of science. If they can do this from one person to another person, what do you think about Prophet (s) being able to connect with everyone in this room? For sure! And for sure everyone has to go through something. Today, all over the world, everyone has to go through a server in the different countries in order to get their emails. This is a worldly server, and if there is a worldly server isn’t there a Heavenly server? There must be a Heavenly server through which everyone has to pass and that is Sayyidina Muhammad (s)!
Muhammad basharun wa laysa ka ‘l-bashari huwa yaaqootatun wa naasu ka ‘l-hajari.
Muhammad is a man, but not like other men! He is a gem and human beings are stones.
(Shaykh Muhammad al-Busayri, Burdat ash-Shareefah)
Prophet (s) is a human being, but he is not like us, like a normal human being. This is our aqeedah, our belief. If you want to say that Prophet (s) is like us, go into space! Can you live there? Prophet (s) went and came back, he went on Mi`raaj and reached Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa! Can you reach Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa through your physical body and your spiritual body? No, but Prophet (s) could reach there as Allah gave him something special. He is not like us, that we can speak to him the way we speak with a normal person. In Holy Qur’an, Allah (swt) instructed Sahaabah (r) that if they wanted to speak with Prophet (s), they could not enter unless they had permission. If we ask permission to talk to Prophet (s) do you think that he will say no? If we say, “Yaa Sayyidee, yaa Rahmatan li ’l-`Alameen,” do you think his door will be closed? No! These young girls that are singing, whether they are Bosnian, American or from other countries, are trying to show their love to the one to whom the whole universe shows love.
I will give an example for those that know our aqeedah, our belief. All Muslims with different idealogies believe that Prophet (s) went for `Israa wa'l-Mi`raaj, no question about it. He moved from Mecca to Masjid al-Aqsa. That is isra’a, to move within the limits of the Earth and the limits of the atmosphere and gravity, from Mecca to Masjid al-Aqsa.
سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَى بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلاً مِّنَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ الأَقْصَى الَّذِي بَارَكْنَا حَوْلَهُ لِنُرِيَهُ
مِنْ آيَاتِنَا إِنَّهُ هُوَ السَّمِيعُ البَصِيرُ
Subhaan-alladhee asraa bi `abdihi laylan min al-masjid al-haraam ila 'l-masjidi 'l-aqsaa 'Lladhee baaraknaa hawlahu li-nooriyahu min ayaatinaa innahu huwa ‘s-samee`u 'l- baseer.
Glory be to He Who transported His servant by night from the Inviolable House of Worship (at Mecca) to the Remote House of Worship (at Jerusalem), the environs of which We had blessed so that We might show him some of Our symbols, for verily He Alone is All-Hearing, All-Seeing.
(Surat al-'Israa, 17:1)
Allah didn’t say, “Subhaan-alladhee `araja bi abdihi, but rather, “asraa bi `abdihi.” Allah (swt) moved His servant through dunya through the world and what we know about it. If you look at Earth, that small planet, you can see it from far away but we are only like what is on top of a pin compared to the solar system and this is not even compared to the universe. Within the solar system, you might not even be able to see the Earth, yet it is making us all fight with each other even though you can’t see it on the Heavenly map of the universe. If you go to GoogleMaps, you don’t see the Earth, it just disappears and all you can see are stars, constellations. You can see, as the physicists say, that in this galaxy we have 80 billion stars, not one star or a hundred stars, not two million, but 80 billion stars in this galaxy and there are 6,000 galaxies! We are in one of these galaxies on a small planet that you might not even be able to see and still we are fighting for it!
Allah (swt) took Prophet (s) from Mecca to Masjid al-Aqsa. Some say, and I am from this belief, although I don’t know about others, that he also landed in Madinatu 'l-Munawwara and then Masjid al-Aqsa, because he said in his hadeeth:
لاَ تُشَدُّ الرِّحَالُ إِلاَّ إِلَى ثَلاَثَةِ مَسَاجِدَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ، وَمَسْجِدِ الرَّسُولِ صلى الله عليه وسلم وَمَسْجِدِ الأَقْصَى
Do not set out on a journey except for to three mosques, i.e.: Al-Masjid al-Haram, the Mosque of Allah's Apostle, and the Mosque of Al-Aqsa, (Jerusalem). (Narrated Abu Hurayrah, Bukhari)
It means Prophet (s) has put his foot in Madinatu 'l-Munawwara then in Masjid al-Aqsa, but within the Earth’s limits, then from Masjid al-Aqsa, where he has visited all prophets because most of them are from Palestine, he prayed with all the prophets and then he began his Ascension. What greatness, going in Ascension that isn’t on the Earth anymore or its atmosphere, but is in the universe! Prophet (s) passed through 6,000 galaxies not only in spirituality, as some scholars say, but also physically. We believe as Ahlu ’l-Sunnah wa’l-Jama`ah, that Prophet (s) physically moved from Masjid al-Aqsa in Ascension with his body and his spirit. He passed and it was like when someone is driving and can see everything, all the different stores and places.
They have this lady they invented that is on the navigation systems now; everyone has her in their car. One time I was with a friend called Simon, who is from California, but was originally from Ireland, and he is the one who invented this navigation system. I was with him in California and that lady was saying to him, “Go around, go left, go straight.”
I said, “Simon, who is that? Do you have a lady in the car?”
He said, “No, this is the device that I invented.”
I was the first to see it. And it navigates you everywhere. So what do you think about the Buraaq on which Prophet (s) was riding? It took him through this universe. Do you know the story of the Buraaq? I don't think so, because it is a heavenly creature. When Allah ordered Jibreel (as), “Yaa Jibreel! Go to My beloved one, to Prophet (s), and bring him to My presence,” Jibreel (a) went and there was one creature that was ready for him. He went, by Allah’s order, into that paradise and it was full of those beautiful creatures, who resembled each other so that you couldn't tell one from the other. There was no way to count them, and all of them were doing salawaat on Prophet (s) because they are angels.
إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا صَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيمًا
Inna-Llaaha wa malaa'ikatahu yusalloona `ala 'n-nabiyy, yaa ayyuha ’Lladheena aamanoo salloo `alayhi wa sallimoo tasleema.
Verily, Allah and His angels send praise on the Prophet. O Believers! Pray upon him and greet him him with a worthy salutation. (Surat al-Ahzaab, 33:56)
The angels are ordered to make salawaat on Prophet (s). Why are they ordered to make salawaat? There is hikmah there. They are ordered to make salawaat, because when we make salawaat to Prophet (s) they answer us with salawaat. Their answers will elevate us and make us ascend through our spiritual powers. You don't know about it because you don’t feel it since it is veiled, but in reality, when you do salawaat you will receive a salawaat and you cannot imagine what kind of reward Allah (swt) is going to give you. If you do one salawaat you get a reward, if you do two salawaats you get more rewards, and never will the first salawaat resemble the second one; it must be different. And as long as you are making salawaats, Allah (swt) is sending you salawaats, He mentioned that.
It is simple mathematics: if you have $1,000 and you go to the bank, how much will they give you for interest? Some people don’t take interest and some do according to their belief, but this is an example. Let’s say 10%, okay? You go to another bank and they say, “We will give you 20%.” You say, “Oh, that’s good.” Then today there is no 10% or 20%, there is just ½%, so you go to another bank and they will give you 15%. You say, “That’s good, I will put my money in there.” Allah is giving you not 5%, 10%, 20%, nor 100%, for one he gives ten! Not 10% or ten out of 100, but He is giving you ten for one, which means for 100 you get 1,000. And there is no way to compare the reward from Allah (swt) with any other value; it is so valuable that there is nothing in this dunya that can compare to the reward you get for making one salawaat! So we can do that, we can run to the bank or we can run to the Divine Presence making salawaat and not waste our time. All day we are wasting our time!
So, to go back, Prophet (s) went into this Ascension by means of the Buraaq that Jibreel (a) brought. Who was that Buraaq? He was one of the buraaqs that were making salawaat, but he was separate and alone. He was crying and crying, and every tear that came from his eyes was a house for a believer! That is how big the reward is for salawaat, as explained by Shaykh Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi (q), one of the greatest saints. Every tear from his eyes was as huge as a palace for a believer!
Sayyidina Jibreel (a) came to him and said, “Yaa Buraaq, why are you crying?” Every one of them had been making salawaat on Prophet (s), but he was crying.
He said, “Yaa Jibreel, leave me alone, let me be with my sadness.”
“What sadness? This is a paradise, no one should be sad in here.”
“I’m sad because when Allah created us,” and we don’t know when this was because there is no time for Allah, just pre-Eternal and post-Eternal, “He said, ‘I created you so one of you could carry Muhammad (s), My Beloved Servant, to Me.’ From that moment the love of Prophet (s) came into my heart and since that moment I have done nothing but cry. For every tear that comes into my eyes, Allah (swt) creates a house in Paradise for a believer, and this comes from that love that is within my heart.”
So imagine that angel is crying for the love of Prophet (s) and Allah rewards him by making a palace for a believer for every tear that comes from his eyes! Then what do you think about human beings, since Allah (swt) has made them higher than anyone else?
وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِي آدَمَ
Wa laqad karamnaa Bani Adam.
We have honored the Children of Adam. (Surat al-'Israa, 17:70)
What do you think Allah (swt) will give to one of those human beings who have been honored if he makes salawaat? Imagine. I am asking a question, so think about it. Is He going to give him more or less than He gave to the Buraaq? He is going to give more!
Jibreel (a) took that Buraaq to the presence of Prophet (s) and said, “Yaa Rasoolullah! Allah (swt) is inviting you and this is your carrier.” Prophet (s) went on the Buraaq, and as soon as he got on him, the Buraaq was holding onto the Prophet (s). They moved up, but who was holding whom? Prophet (s) was on top and the Buraaq on the bottom, but Prophet (s) was keeping that Buraaq from falling. This was from that power that Allah gave to Sayyidina Muhammad (s).
As Imam Muhammad Busayri (r) said, Muhammad basharun wa laysa ka ‘l-bashari huwa yaaqootatun wa naasu ka ‘l-hajari, “Muhammad is a man, but not like other men!He is a gem and everyone else is a rock, pebble.” Wa laysa ka ‘l-bashari, Imam Busayri was writing that poem, which is considered the best poem in Arab countries and that poetry of Muhammad al-Busayri is recited by everyone around the world. The story is that Imam Busayri was sitting by the Nile River with his feet in the water, and from the `ishq for Prophet (s), from the love in his heart for Muhammad (s), he wasn’t aware of himself and he was producing energy from within himself like a laser beam through his body. He was focusing on the Nile and on the poetry, taking inspiration and reflecting on that big river, when together both Muhammad al-Busayri and the river started boiling. The river was boiling at the same time that he was reciting, fa mabalaghun `ilmun fannahu basharun, “Whatever a human being can say, you cannot say that he is more than a human being. From this we know that he is bashar.” Imam Busayri (r) was not able to continue to the second part of the verse and as much as he was trying to write and continue, there was no way as everything was blocked. Allah (swt) wanted to show him, “Whatever high level of praising Prophet (s) you can reach, still you need Prophet (s).”
So the Nile River was boiling for many miles. One of the big saints was coming with his followers and they were sleeping by the bank of the river. They awoke in the morning to pray Fajr and when they went to the Nile to make wudu, its temperature was so high they couldn’t do it. This was because Imam Busayri had put his feet in the river and had made it boil.
They went to the shaykh and said, “We cannot make wudu.”
He said, “Okay, let’s go up and see what’s going on.”
They walked along the side of the Nile for a little way until they found Sayyidina Muhammad al-Busayri (r) sitting on the bank of the river with his feet in the water. He was reciting and he was stuck on the verse,
Fa mablaghu al-`ilmi fihi annahu basharun, wa annahu kharyu khalqillahi kullihimi.
The sum of their knowledge concerning him is that he was a mortal, and that he was the best of all Allah's Creation. (Shaykh Muhammad al-Busayri, Burdat ash-Shareefah)
Fa mablaghu al-`ilmi fihi annahu basharun, and he wasn’t able to continue with the poem. Many scholars say at that moment, the spiritual power of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) appeared in front of him, saying, “Write!” Wa annahu kharyu khalqillahi kullihimi. “Write, ‘He is the Best of All Creation.’ Write it!” And that was the completion of that verse.
So we cannot compare Prophet (s) with anything. All the salawaat that we are doing, although I don’t like to say it, is not yet reaching the reality. It’s not! The reality of love is like Muhammad al-Busayri putting his feet in the Nile and making it boil from his love of Prophet (s), from that `ishq, al- `ishq illahi. His love was like that of Rabi`a al-Adawiyya (q), the mu’min, the lady saint whom everyone knows in the Muslim world; even Ibn Taymiyyah agrees that she is a saint! Her husband was always drunk and when he came home he would abuse her. It would be after midnight and if he asked her for water, she would have to bring it or he would beat her up; if he wanted to eat she would have to bring food or he would abuse her. But she was very patient, until one night she was reading Dalaa’il al-Khayraat. You know Dalaa’il al-Khayraat, written by Imam Sayyidina Sulayman Jazuli (q) from Morocco? There are two books other than al-Qur’an and Sahih Bukhari or Sahih Muslim, etc. that are read a lot in the Muslim world, and these are al-Burdah and Dalaa’il al-Khayraat.
That night, Rabi`a al-Adawiyya was reciting Dalaa’il al-Khayraat written by Imam Jazuli, and because she was patient and she was struggling, and because she was being illegally and physically abused, Allah (swt) wanted to compensate her. She saw a light begin to appear in her room and slowly, slowly she recognized it was the Light of Prophet (s). Allah gave her something, meaning, “Because you are showing love to Me and to My Prophet, that is the Light of Prophet (s) that is coming and appearing in front of you.”
O Muslims! Don't believe that the Light of Prophet (s) is not upon us here! Don’t believe that the manifestation of Allah’s Ninety-nine Beautiful Names is not upon us here! Don’t believe that angels are not present here, because this is not our summary or our prediction, but it is Holy Qur’an and ahadith, as the hadith says:
قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ - صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - " لَا يَقْعُدُ قَوْمٌ يَذْكُرُونَ اللَّهَ إِلَّا حَفَّتْهُمُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ ، وَغَشِيَتْهُمُ الرَّحْمَةُ ، وَنَزَلَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ السَّكِينَةُ ، وَذَكَرَهُمُ اللَّهُ فَيْمَنْ عِنْدَهُ ( رَوَاهُ مُسْلِمٌ )
Laa yaq`udu qawman yadhkuroona Allah illa hafathum al-malaika wa ghashiyatahum ar-rahma.
When people sit remembering Allah, angels will encompass them and mercy will cover them….
They will be all the way up to the First Paradise. So this means there are angels that encompass us. If you go to someone’s house, what do you do? They brought us a gift here, some flowers; I didn’t ask for flowers, but they brought them out of love. Allah (swt) is not asking for anything.
As we mentioned yesterday, the Bedouin came to Prophet (s) saying, “Yaa, Rasoolullah! When is the Day of Judgment?”
To summarize it, Prophet (s) said, “It is a long journey, how have you prepared for it?”
He said, “I didn’t prepare too much fasting or prayer, but what I’ve done is to love you, yaa Muhammad (s) and I love Allah.”
Prophet (s) said, “You will be with me in dunya and in Akhirah.”
أَنَّ رَجُلاً، مِنْ أَهْلِ الْبَادِيَةِ أَتَى النَّبِيَّ صلى الله عليه وسلم فَقَالَ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ مَتَى السَّاعَةُ قَائِمَةٌ قَالَ " وَيْلَكَ وَمَا أَعْدَدْتَ لَهَا ". قَالَ مَا أَعْدَدْتُ لَهَا إِلاَّ أَنِّي أُحِبُّ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ. قَالَ " إِنَّكَ مَعَ مَنْ أَحْبَبْتَ ". .
A Bedouin came to the Prophet (s) and said, "O Allah's Messenger (s)! When will the Hour be established?" The Prophet (s) said, "Wailaka (Woe to you)! What have you prepared for it?" The Bedouin said, "I have not prepared anything for it, except that I love Allah and His Apostle." The Prophet (s) said, "You will be with those whom you love!" (Narrated by Anas, Bukhari)
Show love to Allah (swt)! For example, if you go to one of these big museums in New York and you say, “Very nice, yes, very nice,” as you look at the artwork that is hanging up, the artist will be very happy. If you say, “Very ugly, very ugly,” the artist will be angry. When you demean a person or are rude to him, you are bringing him down. Who created him and fashioned him? How can you come to Allah (swt) and tell Him, “You did something wrong, this person is bad.” Who are you to question Allah (swt)? Allah is Ahkam al-Haakimeen, the Absolute Judge.
أَلَيْسَ اللَّهُ بِأَحْكَمِ الْحَاكِمِينَ
Alaysa ‘l-Laahu biahkami ‘l-haakimeen.
Is not Allah the wisest of judges? (Surat at-Teen, 95:8)
Allah can judge, but we can’t. If we understand that, peace could come on Earth and there would be no problems. (...) In religion competition is accepted; to compete in better worship is okay, it’s not a problem and that’s a principle in Islam, to compete as much as you can in praying, fasting and worshipping.
Why wouldn’t Allah (swt) be able to take Prophet (s) from his bed in minutes, in seconds or in a fraction of a second, let’s say the smallest possible unit of time? What is the smallest possible fraction of a second? Physicists broke time down into minutes and seconds, then they wanted to see how small they could get in the fraction of a second. They found out they could go down to 0.000000... to 22 zeros, meaning 10-22 of a second. They found at this point time disappeared and everything that appeared was energy. This energy is what makes everything possible, that you can see here (a light bulb) or speak there (into the microphone), from that source of Light, that energy which we call electricity. Allah was able to bring Prophet (s) in one fraction of a second to Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa!
Why did Allah (swt) take Prophet (s) from Mecca to Madinah to Masjid al-Aqsa, through all the paradises, until Jibreel (a) said, “Yaa Rasoolullah, I can’t take another step or I will be burned.” Jibreel would be burned if he took one more step, so Prophet (s) entered. Why did Allah bring him all that way, not direct? To honor him and to honor his ummah! He wanted all His angels to see Prophet (s) in all His paradises, to be seen where every Heavenly paradise was decorated, and there is no comparison of these decorations to the way we can decorate the dunya, the way they put a red carpet down when the president is coming. What benefit is there for him if they put down a red carpet? It will neither increase nor decrease him; he will gain nothing. But if we put down a red carpet for Prophet (s), we will increase because of his barakah that comes to us from our love of him! Allah (swt) wanted His angels to see Prophet (s), so He passed through the First Paradise in demonstration, through all the salawaats and all the respect and honor, from one paradise to another, until he reached Maqaam al-Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa.
I don't know the time, but I see Shaykh Senad moving a little from right to left (so we will end here).
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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