Shaykh Abdul Hamid’s Residence
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`ullaha wa ati`u 'r-Rasoola wa ooli 'l-amri minkum.
Obey Allah, obey the Prophet, and obey those in authority among you. (4:59)
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh. First of all we have to say, alhamdulillahi Rabbi 'l-`Alameen, was-salaatu wa 's-salaamu `ala ashrafa 'l-Mursaleen, Sayyidina wa Nabiyyina Muhammadin wa `ala aalihi wa sahbihi ajma`een. We have the honor to be here tonight with Shaykh Abdul Hamid in his house. It's the house of Allah (swt), because we are coming for no business except to be with pious and sincere servants of Allah (swt). Whatever our shaykh, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim Adil al-Haqqani, sends we will speak.
First of all, we say, a`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytani 'r-rajeem to make Shaytan run way. When Shaytan runs away, inspirations will come. There is no way to have Shaytan together with inspirations, but when we focus on Allah (swt), divine and heavenly manifestations of His Beautiful Names and Attributes, inspirations will come.
I am nothing, I am like you; don't think I am this or that. I'm an ordinary person, knowing my limits and standing by my limits, and asking Allah (swt) to show me always my limits, so I will not to trespass them. Trespassing is forbidden, it is not allowed. Whenever Shaykh Sharafuddin (q) asked Grandshaykh (q) something, he never answered, he always said, "O my shaykh, you know better." If he asked him about a dunya issue, he answered because he didn't want him to spend his heavenly power on dunya issues. So when the shaykh asks about dunya issues, answer, and when he asks about spiritual issues, you say, "You know better." Because we have to know that there are secrets moving around us and we cannot detect them. Everyone will think, "Where are these secrets you are speaking about and how do they come?" When Shaykh Hussain Zakariyya was saying he was meditating on Allah's Names, how do we know there are secrets that open up from these Names? Or when we say, la ilaaha illa-Llah in dhikr all together, how do we know there are secrets coming? We are blind. Don't increase your self-esteem. Allah said in the Holy Qur'an:
فَلَا تُزَكُّوا أَنفُسَكُمْ
Falaa tuzakkoo anfusakum.
So ascribe not purity to yourselves. (53:32)
Don't praise yourself, don't lift up yourself, but always lower yourself, humble yourself, so then you can detect secrets, because secrets move. An example from dunya technology is, this is a telephone and you have a SIM card and there are some companies now who can detect when you make a call and send a message, “You have 18 dollars or 18 shillings balance." How can they reach you? They are able to reach you immediately with one message for one phone call. Immediately they send you a message, "Now your balance is X." Do you think when you say, laa ilaaha illa-Llah, laa ilaaha illa-Llah, that Allah (swt) cannot send you a message? Ask yourself. We have not yet reached that heavenly technology, but we know dunya technology. Awliya can reach it. So when we say, laa ilaaha illa-Llah, la ilaaha illa-Llah, within seconds millions of inspirations come; they don’t prepare anything.
That is why when you mention that hadith of Prophet (s),
من صلى علي واحدة صلى الله عليه عشرا
Man salla `alayya marratan sal-Allahu bihaa `alayha `ashr.
If anyone invokes a blessing on me once, God will grant him ten blessings. (Bukhari and Muslim)
If you can make a telephone call to Prophet (s), if we can say that, sending salaat to him like an SMS as we do today. If you say, "as-salaamu `alaykum" to someone by SMS, email, or whatever, what do you expect to get? "Wa `alaykum as-salam" immediately! Allah is saying anyone who sends one salaam to Prophet, He sends ten! What kind of ten salaams are they? Salaam means “safety.” When Allah sends salaam, it means He is sending you safety from hellfire. Our salaam is not like Prophet’s salaam, our salaam is blended with all kinds of dunya garbage. We are sending a salaam still but our salaam is not clean. I do not want to use a bad word, but I can say it is impure or not perfect. Is Allah's salaam perfect or not? It is perfect, so in relationship to Allah’s greatness it has to be great. Not like if you say salaam or I say, wa `alaykum as-salaam, it is nothing. But Allah's salaam is showing the greatness of His Prophet (s), "If you send salaams to My Prophet, I will give you ten salaams, the minimum of it is freedom from hellfire."
قُلْنَا يَا نَارُ كُونِي بَرْدًا وَسَلَامًا عَلَى إِبْرَاهِيمَ
Qulnaa ya naroo koonee bardan wa salaaman `ala Ibraheem.
(Allah) said to the fire, “Be cool to Ibraheem." (Suratu 'l-Anbiya 21:69)
And if it stopped it would have been so cold that he would have frozen. But He said “to be safe, bardan," which means when Allah (swt) said that, you have a safe deposit box for saving what is valuable. What is valuable for human beings in Day of Judgment? To be in Paradise, to be with Prophet. So when Allah sends salaam He makes hellfire, every sin you have done, to that a salaam, Allah will respond with salaams on Prophet, giving you ten in return, that is the lowest response. And it is higher according to their levels, for awliyaaullah it is knowledge, don’t underestimate the power of that, when heavenly technology comes. Today Google or Hotmail carry hundreds of millions of emails and all of them have to go through satellites, but they also have to go through one huge system. If man-made technology can do that from human innovation, can't heavenly knowledge reach the heart of Prophet (s)? Everyone has an address with the heart of Prophet (s), who reaches us through the heavenly names that Allah gave you in His Presence when you said, “Balaa!" Every soul has a name with Prophet (s) and he is able to reach you. Awliyaaullah can decode that name because it is an open server and everything is there, everything will be open for you.
O Muslims! Islam is not a show or movie, but it is safety, it means peace, but salaam is also safety and without that safety, for example, if you are in the ocean and you are drowning you wish to be by the shore in safety. If in the jungle and you lost your way in these amazons, or in Kenya or Africa, you need safety and that is what is important. Messengers came for safety and nothing else, safety from being tested and punished, to go to a “green zone,” not a “mine zone.”
And Allah mentioned in Holy Qur’an an example that we will be surprised. Allah says, nahnu naqussu alaika ahasana ‘l-qasas, “We tell you the best of stories,” means we relate a story or ahasana ‘l-qasas, “We tell you the best of stories.” Allah gives stories, so don’t say He does not give stories; stories are important. "We are the ones that tell you the best of stories," means there are not good stories and bad ones. You don’t want the ones with punishment and hellfire, you want the good “ahsan stories.” You don’t want stories of `Abraha, you want those of safety. What is the example, and you see the greatness of Allah (swt), when Sayyidina Sulayman was moving with his army with jinns and ins and animals, Allah when He gives He gives, he (Sulayman) doesn’t ask how He gives, so when Sayyidina Sulayman was coming what happened? He passed by the valley of ants, look at sometime on the floor, or on the street, you see ants moving. And what we call in Arabic, ants, other than naml, dhar.The Arabic word is dhar, it means the smallest that can exist because the Arabs at that time considered the ants the smallest ones.
They reached that place, who is guiding them? Leave a piece of bread on the floor and come after two or three hours, you see ants reaching that, how they can see?
One time Mawlana Shaykh was saying how you can differentiate between the head’s and stomachs, and what is that connection between them. They take from the mouth and it then goes through a small pipe; how does it go there? Allahu Akbar! What happened?
قَالَتْ نَمْلَةٌ يَا أَيُّهَا النَّمْلُ ادْخُلُوا مَسَاكِنَكُمْ لَا يَحْطِمَنَّكُمْ سُلَيْمَانُ وَجُنُودُهُ وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ
Qaalat namlatun yaa ayyuha 'n-namlu adkhuloo masaakinakum laa yahtimannakum Sulaymanu wa junooduhu wa hum laa yash`uroon.
One of the ants said, "O ants! Get into your habitations, unless Solomon and his hosts crush you (under foot) without knowing it." (27:18)
Qaalat namlatun, “One ant said.” Look at the adab, not like today with too many `ulama who all want to show their knowledge. Adab is that no one speaks:
وَفَوْقَ كُلِّ ذِي عِلْمٍ عَلِيمٌ
Wa fawqa kullu dhi `ilmin `aleem.
Above every knower is a (higher) knower. (12:76)
The most knowledgable speaks, others remain quiet. If they are given permission then they speak, or else they have no right to speak. In normal life only the elder has to speak, but we don’t have that today because the discipline is gone. Sayyidina Bayazid al Bistami (r) said, “I respect the one younger than me because he has sinned less than me, and I respect the one older than me because he has more `amal." He lowered himself. Our duty is to lower ourselves, how you can say you are higher when the Qur’an is saying, "Above every knower there is a higher knower?"
So when that ant spoke, yaa ayyuha 'n-namlu adkhuloo masaakinakum, “O ants! Enter your homes,” Mawlana Shaykh explained, the ant said masaakinakum, not masaakanakum. So it means that ant was speaking to tribes of people, because ants live in tribes, which means there were many others in that valley of ants, so, "Run to safety before the danger comes," laa yahtimannakum Sulaymanu wa junooduhu wa hum laa yash`uroon, "Unless unless Solomon and his hosts crush you (under foot) without knowing it.” So, run away in order that you will not be destroyed and thrown into an undesirable situation. And the greatness in this verse is, Qaalat namlatun, “One ant said." It means one ant spoke to millions of ants; because in a nest of ants there are millions.
How one ant can be heard by millions of ants? What system did that ant use, a microphone system? That ant sent the message that all ants were able to hear, with what? A wireless network? With electromagnetic waves? And all of them heard it. If an ant can do that, a wali cannot do that? If a wali can do that, As-haab an-Nabi (r) cannot do that? If As-haab can do that, what do you think of Seal of Prophets (s) can do? If there is permission, one wali can turn this whole world into Muslims! But it is Daar al-Bala’a, “the Place of Afflictions.” That is the problem.
وَاعْتَصِمُواْ بِحَبْلِ اللّهِ جَمِيعًا وَلاَ تَفَرَّقُواْ
Wa`atasimoo bihabli Allahi jamee`aan wa laa tafarraqoo.
And hold fast, all of you together, to the Rope of Allah, and be not divided among yourselves. (3:103)
Ants were united, they were together; it means their ears and hearts were open. But we have too many veils, pollution, negative energy polluting our hearts with dunya garbage, closing it. The message comes but you are unable to read it; like when you send a text message it may say “cannot be read.” Why it is rejected? It is still there if you press resend. Why at that moment it did not go and when you resend it goes, because the signal was bad. It means the first time you were not in perfect purity. When you say, Laa ilaaha illa-Llah, laa ilaaha illa-Llah, it is rejected, and it is still there. And when you sent with purity it will go and you immediately receive back an answer. So awliyaaullah get those every moment, but we are impure.
حب الدنيا رأس كل خطيئة
Hubb ad-dunya raasu kulli khatiyyah.
The love of dunya is the head of every sin.
For awliyaaullah, love of dunya is not there; whatever he gets, he gives. Nothing remains in his hand, and this we have experienced with our shaykh, Shaykh Nazim Adil al-Haqqani, may Allah give him long life in dunya and more blessings in Akhirah. So may Allah give them in Akhirah and dunya. Once Prophet (s) called to Sahaabah (r) in Madinatul Munawwara. (Mawlana stands) `Alayhi afdalas salaat was-salaam yaa Sayyid ar-Rasoolullah, alfu salaat was-salaam `alayk, yaa Shaf`ee al-Mudhnibeen. Allahuma salli `alayk yaa Sayyidee, yaa Rasoolullah, yaa Rahmatan lil-`Alameen. (Mawlana sits) He went to Jabal al-Uhud at `Ishraaq time and said to the Sahaabah (r), “Put the sun to your back and look forward,” so the shadow is in front. He (s) said, “Look to your shadow and run to catch it until you reach the mountain of Uhud," about 200 meters, and they were running and unable to catch it, but it was an order from Prophet (s).
When Allah asked angels to do sajdah they did not question, but Iblees questioned and Allah cursed him and threw him out. So when they were told “run,” they did not question, but what will we say? “We cannot catch it, so why do we have to go through this difficulty?” That is the problem; when we use the mind in front of the shaykh we cannot improve. So they ran until they reached `Uhud and then Prophet (s) said, “Turn your face toward me and run.” So their shadow was behind them; they were running and they reached the Prophet (s), who said, “When you run after dunya, you will never catch it, like your shadow; but when you run towards me, towards Allah (swt), dunya will run after you.” So our heart has to become clean. The hearts of awliyaaullah are so clean because Allah cannot accept impurity, so their hearts have to be very clean.
يقول الله : ما وسعني أرضي ولا سمائي ولكن وسعني قلب عبدي المؤمن
ma wasi`anee samaee wa la ardi wa lakin wasi`anee qalbee abdee al-mu'min
My sky could not contain Me nor My earth, but the heart of My believing servant contained Me.”
Prophet (s) said that the pure heart of a servant will receive inspirations and although we cannot go to Ka`ba with full purity, Allah (swt) allows us to circumambulate and purify ourselves. Awliyaaullah have purity. It is a saying, that if you have 50% purity more inspirations will start coming, and if you have more, if there is 51% or 53%, more and more inspirations will come. Allah (swt) said He inspired the heart, so He inspired one after one, and that is why:
وَفَوْقَ كُلِّ ذِي عِلْمٍ عَلِيمٌ
Wa fawqa kulli dhi `ilmin `aleem
Above every knower is a (higher) knower. (12:76)
One wali in this level can say this much, another wali can say on that level, another wali can say higher. And what happened, the follower who is in the lower level says, "O my shaykh said this,” but excuse me, you did not look at the one in the higher level! Don’t say, "I cannot accept the other one." That is very important, if the second one says something, he should say, “Look at the third one.” So may Allah give our shaykh more and more. Like in our tariqah, Shaykh Nazim is known among awliya as "Muhiyideen," Reviver of Faith. He has many different senior representatives on his ladder. Some are on the first step, second step, third step, so I sit with the one on the first step. I have no choice; the one on the second step should look up as the representative has to respect the one above.
Wa fawqa kulli dhi `ilmin `aleem.
Above every knower is a (higher) knower. (12:76)
In every tariqah, wa fawqa kulli dhi `ilmin `aleem, there is a scale of knowledge, in Qadriyyah, Chishtiyyah, and many others. And alhamdulillah we are in here in East Africa, where there are a lot of awliya. And in West Africa and South Africa, there are a lot of awliya; Allah gave them guidance. Even if the shaykh is not present, Allah gives `ahad; he can reach through dreams like in the case of Shaykh Zakaria. I met him six months ago. He was a mureed of Shaykh Nazim for over 50 years and never met him physically, and Mawlana Shaykh said give him baya` immediately. How old are you Shaykh Zakaria? (laughter) You don’t know? Your concentration is so much on meditation! And he gave him immediately baya` and said, “Let him be my representative in Ghana.” This is how awliyaaullah are reaching people, and there are many stories like that and no time to tell. But Allah gave our shaykh to reach east and west.
May Allah forgive us and bless us. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim said every place I go, renew the baya` for everyone, so according to that I am renewing the baya`. You hold this stick and the ladies can put their hands up high.