8 November 2014 New York City, New York
Suhbah at The Church of the Holy Apostles
Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Huwa, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, wa lillahi 'l-hamd. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem.
O Muslims, brothers and sisters here and around the world, Muslim and non-Muslim. I don't know from where I have to begin as to speak about the life of our master is not easy. His life, to be with him is difficult because you cannot be him and he wants perfection from everyone. It is impossible. He is perfect yes, are we perfect? No. Whatever we say is like an atom in an ocean or like a particle of sand in a desert.
I don’t know from where I have to begin and to where I have to end, but I can say that I know that I have known him for 60 years, that I spent with him 60 years since I was 9 years of age, and I saw a lot and I knew a lot from him. First, he came to Lebanon, to Beirut, when I grew up a little bit more to understand and I was praying in the biggest masjid in Beirut, Masjid al-`Umari, that Sayyidina `Umar had turned that place into a masjid and he came to the imam of the masjid who was not an imam but the president, head of Awqaaf of Lebanon, my uncle and we were praying behind him, all three brothers. And Mawlana came and mentioned my name, my brother's name and my other brother's name. Why? For a certain reason, to tell us: I know your names without you telling me. And I was surprised, my brother was surprised and my other brother was surprised, and my uncle was surprised. And he told us, “There are two types of mureeds: one is following the shaykh all his life and that is mureed and the other is muraad, one is the student following the teachings of the shaykh all his life, the mureed and the muraad is the ones who are special ones picked up from the community for a certain reason by Allah and you and your brother are muraad, Grandshaykh is calling you.” Who was Grandshaykh? “You have to come to Damascus, I came only as a messenger.”
So after a while deciding whether to go or not to go and my parents decided to go and we went and we met there in Damascus in the presence of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, where Mawlana Shaykh showed us the way, that giant master, the great master, the Master of Masters, Sayyidee Shaykh Abdullah al-Fa`iz ad-Daghestani. We sat with him and our hearts were attracted to him, to see someone like him might be in Heaven not on Earth because my uncles were shaykhs and they were controlling the Muslim Islamic affairs in Lebanon and some parts of the Middle East, the Ministry of Islam in Lebanon. And we know their way of talking and dressing and we see the shuyook that come to talk with them but none are like Grandshaykh, the light coming from his face. This was our first journey to go there and see. And so after some years in 1958, when I was 13 years of age, we went the second time to Grandshaykh with Mawlana Shaykh and from there he was telling us why they chose us from many people. I don’t like to say these things but you have to share these things and now it is exposed to everyone in many places everywhere.
He ordered Mawlana Shaykh Nazim to teach us from what he taught him in seclusion of secret knowledge that you cannot tell to ordinary mureeds; if you reveal to ordinary mureeds their hearts will blow up. So we were under that kind of guidance, in that way of life, and we would go every weekend until I began to enter university at 18 years of age. I was studying medicine, chemistry and medicine but I didn't feel any taste. What was I using my time for? The grave is nearapproaching us, for what am I studying? That inspiration kept coming and kept coming to my heart. I felt there is something special that they are attracting us to them. I didn’t know but I continued it and in 1953, I will share this with me though you might laugh at me.
In Grandshaykh's house we were visiting him and he had no food in the house to feed us and he ordered his servant to go down to Muhiyuddin ibn `Arabi's maqaam and go buy vegetables, someone (attendee) just mentioned Ibn `Arabi. So he went downtown to buy these vegetables because we were there with my uncle, my father and my brothers, and he came with the vegetables to Grandshaykh, who cut the vegetables and prepared the food with his own hands, not even letting his own wife touch the food, telling her, “These are my guests.” And there was one young girl running left and right between the hands of Grandshaykh and Mawlana Shaykh Nazim. I said in my heart, “May Allah (swt) make me to get married to that girl, she is beautiful,” she was running and she was only four or five years of age. So time passed and we ate and he told us a story and I will reveal that story to you. Grandshaykh said it and Mawlana Shaykh Nazim was translating. We say ‘Mawlana Shaykh’ but at that time Shaykh Nazim was near our age and we were living with him, so there was not too much formality between us.
Miracle of the British Lady Who Came to Grandshaykh
Grandshaykh was telling a story from the 1940’s and he was laughing, it was after the war in the Middle East either 1943 or 1945. He said, “I was in a meeting with scholars, as they come every Monday to learn from me, though they are not mureeds,” as he gave lessons to scholars although he does not even read or write other than Qu’ran and hadith or anything religious, nothing else. “I was giving a lecture and at Ibn `Arabi's maqaam there was a barber who came knocking at the door and he asked permission to come in. He said, ‘I have with me a lady, but she is not covered and she is a western person. She is insisting to see you. What should I do?’ And so I said to let her in.” Look how his heart is so big and scholars hearts are so limited, and these were scholars of the Ummah in Damascus, Sham, who are very well known, like the great `ulama of Cairo.
So that lady entered, she wore a hat which was very western, very European, with flowers on it and she came in and looked directly at Grandshaykh. She never knew him or saw him or had ever come to Sham, but between all these scholars at least one-hundred of them, she came directly to Grandshaykh and she was hugging and kissing him. All the scholars were astonished. They did not have words to say, their tongues were frozen, what to say? And that lady looked at them and then pointing to Grandshaykh said, “Teach me what you have taught the Indian lady.” When she says “The” Indian lady in that way it means there was someone known to her and known to Mawlana Shaykh. And Grandshaykh said to her, “I will teach you what I taught the Indian lady,” but before that but all these `ulama there have to know the reality, they have concern how she came and kissed Grandshaykh like that? So he asked her to tell the story of why she came there.
In summary, she said, “I used to receive letters from a lady in India. I do not know her and there was no name on the envelope and there was only an address of a British lady. I received the envelope, opened it and inside was a letter in which she said, ‘I have a shaykh that comes to me every night and teaches me Qu’ran and Hadith. I hope you will one day learn from him,’ with no other address, no telephone number, no address of the shaykh, no name or who he is. Every month I received one letter. Finally, she sent one letter with your address and a telephone number and I called and asked to visit you.”
At that time it was very rare to have telephone in that area and it was the telephone number of the barber. So without visiting Grandshaykh (q), that British lady went to India to find out who is that lady there and found that she had died. She went to her daughter, who said, “I never saw a shaykh coming to her, but I saw that she closed the door and I heard her studying and there were voices coming in another language; I heard it but I didn’t understand that language.”
The British lady said, “Do you have anything of hers?”
The daughter said, “Yes, I have a photo.”
“Okay, please give me the photo.”
She took the photo, then went to Damascus and met the barber, who took her to Grandshaykh’s house, and she asked him to teach her what he taught the Indian lady and showed him the letter.
That shows there are no obstacles to awliya to move in time and space, they can reach anyone at any moment! And this story was so amazing for all those `ulama sitting there and they said, “Allahu Akbar! How is he still in Damascus and yet he went to India? What kind of power does he have?”
We don’t want to go into that discussion of why they have that power, but this is the kind of saints or awliya we are following. So he taught her what she needs to know.
She said, “I want to be like that Indian lady.”
He said, “We are Muslim.”
So she said, “I want to become Muslim, teach me what I have to do.”
He taught her the Five Pillars of Islam and she became Muslim and went back to England, from where she had traveled to India and from India to Sham and from Sham back to England. She died there after one week. So what can we say? You stand astonished in front of these events that happened in front of you and that is not a small miracle.
Miracle of the Communist Who Came to Belief
There was one who was living in Beirut and his brother was living in Tripoli, Lebanon, a mureed of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim. His brother was a communist who does not believe in religion and whenever Mawlana Shaykh Nazim comes to Lebanon he stays with us and all the mureeds come to us, but that communist would not come as he did not believe. His brother was pushing him to come to us and he said, “I don't believe in shaykh not in awliya, not in anything, I believe in eating and drinking and this dunya is all then I am finished.” And he was so angry with his brother for pushing him to come and so one day he said, “Look, last night I bought twenty chicks for my children you know to play with and they all died. My wife threw them in the garbage. If your shaykh is a true shaykh then he will make them alive and I will come back to Islam and become a mureed.” What to say to him? The brother came to Beirut and told Mawlana Shaykh this and Mawlana said, “Call him by phone and say to him, ‘Your chicks are alive.’” I was sitting there and he called and said to his brother, “Did you check on the chicks?” He said, “No.” He said, “Go to the kitchen and check,” and he went to the garbage in the kitchen and checked and found them alive! Allah (swt) said in Holy Qur’an awliya are alive in their graves provided for by Allah.
بَلْ أَحْيَاء عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ يُرْزَقُونَ
Rather, they are alive, finding their sustenance in the presence of their Lord. (Surat Aali-`Imraan, 3:169)
يا عبدي اطعني اجعلك ربانيا تقول لشي كن فيكون
O My servant! Obey Me and I will make you lordly; (if) you say to a thing "Be!” and it will be (come into existence).
“O My servant! Obey Me and I will make you Rabbani, lordly; then you will say to a thing ‘Be’ and it will be.” Today due to too much technology and too much entertainment around us, people are leaving completely in Islam or other religions, and people don't believe anymore because of the bad energy around us. So that person became a devoted follower of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q).
Hajj Miracle of Rain that Quenched a Severe Drought
Let us go now to America, but before we do that... Mawlana Shaykh used to do things no one can understand. Now the prime minister of Lebanon invited Mawlana to go to Hajj with him and you know the prime minister will do a very high standard of Hajj. Then, he said, “No I cannot I have something to do this year.” So he was with us in Beirut and Tripoli in Lebanon. And the governor then came and said, “Please come with us,” and Mawlana said, “No, I am not going,” and he stayed back. They went for Hajj and the prime minister and the governor came back and they visited Mawlana Shaykh and said to him, “Why did you tell us you are not going to Hajj and then you went with another group?” I asked the prime minister how? And he said, “How? He was with that group and I asked him at Hajj how he came with this group and we spoke around the Ka`bah, we were making tawaaf together and he left with that group.” They returned complaining that he did not go with them and Mawlana never left Beirut!
There are too many miracles and we are not speaking about spiritual miracles, but about physical miracles. For spiritual haddith wa laa haraj, there are infinite number of miracles, you can speak all you want and there will be more. I went for Hajj with him in 1967 and Mawlana was tired as we arrived late in Mecca. So the adab is to take a shower and then make Tawaaf al-Qudoom, to go around the Ka`bah seven times preparing yourself for Hajj. We went down to the Haram then entered the Mosque and we began to do the tawaaf, one time, two, three, then four, and it was very hot and he stopped. We were pushing him to continue because of the crowd behind us and as if there is no crowd around us, it was completely gone and my brother and me were the only ones with him and Mawlana raised his hands and said, “Yaa Rabb we are coming here all this way and it is very hot with all these pilgrims coming to see You. Shower us with rain.” Within less than two minutes it became cloudy and with thunder it began to pour rain and there was no cloud in the sky. The water was filling the streets and filling the Ka`bah flooding it everywhere.
What do we say? We say, as Ali sings in his qaseedah, “You are like us, but not like us.”
محمد بشر وليس كالبش بل هو ياقوتة والناس كالحجر
Muhammad is a man, but not like other men! He is a gem and human beings are stones.
(Imam Muhammad al-Busayri, Qasidat al-Burdat ash-Shareefah)
“Muhammad is a man , but not a man like us. Muhammad is a diamond and we are pebbles, rocks.” So we are rocks and awliya are Inheritors of Prophet (s). They are not rocks, they are alive and they can do if there is permission from Prophet (s), they can do what they like.
Miracle of Finding One Man in all of Africa with Only a Photo
I’ll tell you another story of Mawlana Shaykh. He called me one time recently, like seven years ago. He asked what charity work we are doing and we said we are digging fresh water wells and feeding people in Kenya, Ghana and Somalia.
Mawlana said, he said, “I want you to dig more wells and find me that man,” and showed me a photo.
I said, “Mawlana, how, in which country?”
He said, “I don’t know which country. I don’t know how it came to be on my bed, but I received that photo so find that man, that is your responsibility.”
How to find that man? He has a turban and white beard, he is African. I gave the picture to Ahmad Fouad, ‘the Captain’, and said, “Since you go to Ghana, find this man.”
He looked in all of West Africa and did not find him, there was no clue about that man. We looked everywhere and we did not find him. And so we had to go to Ivory Coast and go to Ghana and return to Ivory Coast in order to go to Kenya. So we were leaving Ghana and going out of immigration from the VIP lounge in the airport, I saw a man running and I said, “Where is the picture?” I took the picture and it was that man.
He came and said, “Are you looking for me?”
I said, “How did you come?”
He said, “Last night I saw a dream of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim and he told me, ‘My son-in-law is coming, go meet him.’"
He took us to his mosque very primitive and his school, and I gave him money that Mawlana Shaykh had given to give to him and he asked, “What should I do with this?” I said, “We are making wells, do you want to make a well?” He said, “Look, this whole city in Ghana has no water and there are many masaajid and all of them are getting water only by trucks delivering it,” and he said, “all these mosques drilled wells and they went down 600 feet,” and normally you find water at 50 or 60 feet, maybe a maximum of 100 feet. And I asked, “What kind of masaajid?” He said, “You know them our friends, they dig a lot in every masjid and don't find water.” I asked, “How much do you need?” He said, “To dig a well to 600 feet I need 20,000 Euros,” and I said, “I can give you the maximum that I have which is 11,000 Euros.” So they began to dig a well and all of them were saying there is no water, but they began to dig. They arrived to 40 feet and water was gushing out, about 6 inches in diameter from where they were digging. That whole city has no water and they are 90% Muslim. Today the whole city is drinking from that well in that masjid and this barakah will go to Mawlana Shaykh!
You want to hear more stories? [Yes!] Let us jump in our focus.
Mawlana Shaykh Brought the Light of Naqshbandi Tariqat to America and Was First to Stand Against Extremist Doctrines
I was in Singapore, and since I am speaking about Singapore, we have our best friend’s son who just came from there, Sulayman, son of Dr. Azhari, please stand up. They are very big donors and hosting us each time we are there. I was in Singapore and they said, “You have a letter from the American Embassy in Sham.” There was war in Beirut at that time.
I said, “For what?”
They said, “The computer has picked you from 30 million applications to go to America.”
I told Mawlana Shaykh and he said, “You did not ask for it.”
I said, “Correct.”
He said, “That is why you go, you don’t need to stay.”
I said, “Mawlana, I don’t know America. America is big, it is not like London.”
He said, “You go,” and he called me before I left and said, “I want something from you: to stand for Ahl as-Sunnah wal-Jama`at and I will never forgive you if you stand with the Salafis or Wahhabis. You have to stand for the love of Prophet (s).”
I said, “Okay,” and went to America, landed in Jersey City, New Jersey and at that time there were six or seven mureeds in America and Taher was one of them; that was all there were.
Standing for Ahlu ‘s-Sunnah wa ‘l-Jama`ah While Others Slept
In Jersey City, the first week I went to Jumu`ah at the masjid, the imam was blind and he went up on the minbar and started attacking love of Prophet (s) and attacking Mawlid an-Nabi (s)! I thought, “What is this country? What is going on?”
So I called Mawlana and he said, “Never mind, you speak wherever you have a chance.”
So I went to another mosque the next week and the same thing. At that time I called Mawlana and he said, “Be patient, don’t give up hope.” So alhamdulillah with his barakah after a while we began publishing and sending information all over America about Mawlid an-Nabi. We made pamphlets and distributed them here and there until Rabita al-`Alam al-Islami was fed up with us, especially the New York branch. They assigned one `alim from Saudi Arabic who was an Egyptian to debate me on the Internet. Is that correct? [Yes.]
So we began our journey where everyone from Cyprus and centers from around the world of Mawlana Shaykh’s mureeds were silent. We put our life in our hands and tried to fulfill Mawlana's wishes in areas where no one cared or thought about it. Even here, when I used to speak with ISNA and ICNA and their big scholars about Ahlu ‘s-Sunnah wa ‘l-Jama`ah and speak about Mawlid, Salafi and Wahhabi extremists, there was no one speaking on these things. They looked at me as if I am handicapped, as if I had no-mind. I remember one big organization saying to me, “It is ridiculous what you are saying, there are no Wahhabi or Salafi in America.” There is a lot, but…time is running.
So Mawlana Shaykh said to me, “No, you have to answer that person,” Muhammad Adly, a scholar from Rabita al-`Alam al-Islami, an Egyptian who challenged on the Internet and we had a debate for four months until he ran away. He was unable to stand in front of his people and he sent questions and we sent answers from their own scholar Ibn Taymiyya, and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya from their own books and finally answered all his questions.
We sent him some questions and said, “You need to answer now.”
He said, “Okay, I will answer those questions in a mosque in Washington DC after Fajr time.”
We said, “Okay,” and he thought we did not have people (mureeds) there. We sent all the Washington people there, maybe a hundred of them to meet him there and he saw them all with red turbans and he hid. He prayed Fajr and entered another room and ran away. We won!
Hosting Ground-Breaking Conferences Where Mawlana Shaykh Addressed
US and International Audiences
Then the idea came to offer the International Islamic Unity Conference (IIUC1) and bring Mawlana Shaykh to speak from the highest podium in the world. So we decided to put a conference in 1996 to announce Mawlana Shaykh’s coming. I went to Los Angeles and sent a letter to meet with the Board of Trustees, the heads of fifty-two mosques in the Los Angeles and San Diego area. They met and they decided, “No way we can support or sponsor you,” and then the chairman, who was a hidden Ahl as-Sunnah wal-Jama`ah said, “We can remain quiet and let him do what he wants. Why don’t you let them do the conference, what concern is it for you?”
So alhamdulillah we got 10,000 people and we held the conference and Mawlana Shaykh spoke from the highest podium in Los Angeles about Islam, Tasawwuf, and things that concerned us in that time. Hundreds or even thousands took baya`and followed Mawlana Shaykh Nazim and many of them are around and they still come when I visit.
Similarly in 1998 with the International Islamic Unity Conference in Washington, DC (IIUC2), this is how you reach people. We opened 7 August 1998, the day that big explosion when terrorists bombed US Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.. We had previously invited all the media to attend and with that incident all major news outlets came to the conference. That is why in the tribute video you see a clip from C-SPAN, a major news outlet that covers government activity. Alhamdulillah, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim also spoke on Capitol Hill at the highest level and many congressmen attended.
When I was arranging the list of speakers for IIUC1, usually Islamic conferences feature 25-30 speakers maximum; even ISNA does not have more than 25 speakers at their conferences. So for the first conference I called Mawlana and said, “We have 25 speakers.”
He said, “What? You must bring 200!”
That means bringing each speaker at $2,000 per round-trip ticket, which was $400,000 only for airfare! At IIUC1 in Los Angeles, we sponsored 157 leaders who addressed multiple parallel seminars and workshops, and two years later in IIUC2 we had more than that. We had one hotel completely reserved for us! When Mawlana Shaykh came you saw people running after him like ants to take baya`! So we did what we did and we publicly denounced extremism and said in Islam there is no such thing, and that was covered by all major news outlets broadcast and printed around the world.
Mawlana Shaykh Introduced Muslim Participation in Counter-Terrorism Efforts
Alhamdulillah, we were introduced to influential people who told us that there will be an attack on the US. So I spoke with the officials in an open forum, not closed, and all Muslim organizations were invited, and we said, “There is going to be a problem that will hit America through student visas and charity money,” and a third thing which I forget now, but it happened as I said and they said, “It is a prophetic statement,” at that time, and we got a lot of heat from that.
Naqshbandi Tariqat Development in the Far East
Alhamdulillah, we did all that Mawlana asked us to do and that is how you spread Islam and Tariqah, until it reached Indonesia, and with the help of some people we got an orphanage that is helping 2,800 orphans from childhood to university, providing their food, clothes and education, which are free until they reach university. This is all his light, his guidance.
Mawlana had told me, “Go to Indonesia.”
I said, “Mawlana what will I do in Indonesia? I don't speak the language and they don’t speak English.”
SubhaanAllah it is becoming like bees, and any lecture I give 20,000 or 30,000 people come and sometimes there are 300,000 in one stadium reciting Mawlid. We have Mawlid an-Nabi (s) every night there; it is not like in Malaysia and Singapore. In Malaysia they don’t have Mawlid as they consider it not accepted in Islam. By Mawlana's barakah, before he died we were able to hold Mawlid in a stadium in Malaysia, and that is the first time in recent history that such a thing happened. We held Mawlid with 80,000 attendees in the stadium by permission of the government. You can see it on Sufilive.com. Mawlana was very happy. Before that, in Indonesia we held Mawlid with 300,000 attendees and all were reciting and we gave the speech in Arabic which they translated to their language, Bahasa.
Mawlana Shaykh’s Miracle in Africa
So coming back to that story in Africa, Shaykh Zakariyya met us and said, “I saw a dream with Mawlana Shaykh telling me, ‘My son-in-law is coming, go and meet him at airport.’” And we went to the mosque with him and he told me, “When I was fourteen years old, I had dream of a shaykh with a beard and white turban and blue eyes, and sitting with me and giving baya` in the dream. He told me, ‘One day I will give baya` physically.’And I am waiting for that one and through the Internet I found out that one is Shaykh Nazim, but I have no means to go there. (He was poor.) So since I was fourteen, I have been taught by Mawlana Shaykh through dreams; he comes in my dreams and tells me, ‘do this’, ‘do this’, or ‘do that’. I am waiting and now you came, so now can I take baya`?”
I said, “No, I cannot give you baya` over Mawlana’s baya`. You have baya` through Mawlana directly.” So I called Mawlana Shaykh and said, “I found your man.”
Mawlana laughed and said, “Yes, I sent him to meet you at the airport, now give him baya`,” and so I gave him baya` and all his students took baya`.
Developing True Love
Alhamdulillah there are many issues that Mawlana Shaykh Nazim has shown people. We speak of love, but love is not enough for such personalities; love is a word that comes only from the mouth. From the heart it is hubbun wa baqa, hayaatun wa baqa, in Arabic “hubb” is love, made of two letters, Haa and Baa. Haa is for “hayaat”, life, a good life, a strong life, and Baa is for “baqa”, Eternity. That is how your love must be, then you can hear what others cannot hear and see what others cannot see and feel what others cannot feel. That is a strong Holy Hadith (Qudsi) of the Prophet (s).
We have to train ourselves in that love of our shaykh and in doing dhikrullah. You cannot say, “I love you,” without doing dhikrullah. Dhikrullah will make our love not artificial, but make it will make our love real. When love is real, what will happen?
Look what happened to the Bedouin who came to the masjid of Prophet (s) and asked, “When is the Day of Judgment?”
Prophet said, “That is a long journey, why are you asking about it?”
He said, “Because I am worried.”
Prophet (s) said, “What have you prepared for it?”
He said, Laa min kathrat as-salaatin wa laa min kathrat as-siyaam wa laakin hubbullahi wa hubbuka yaa Rasoolullah, “Not too much praying and not too much fasting, O Rasoolullah,” although he was fasting and praying a lot, but he put it that way, and then, “but I love you.”
Prophet (s) said, Yuhshar ul-marru ma` man ahabb,“You will be resurrected with the ones you love.”
That is the true love. Our love is imitational, but it is still good and needs to be perfected and the only thing that perfects it is salawaat on Prophet (s), which awliyaullah ordered us to do at least 2,000 salawaat on Prophet (s) daily and dhikrullah from 1,500 to 10,000 times daily and that will increase the love. People today are busy with work (and they do not fulfill this) so their love is not so real.
من تشبه بقوم فهو منهم
Who imitates a people is one of them. (Abu Dawud)
At least whoever imitates a people will be like them and with them. We are observing the day when Shah Naqshband (q), founder of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order died, and this day also coincides with the commemoration of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q). Look, when inayatullah, Allah’s Care comes, everything unites with each other. Today is 14th Muharram, which is death day of Sayyidina Shah Naqshband and at the same time we are observing the death of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, and so it is doubly observant and you will be granted from both sides, which means there is support from them to observe their death on the same day.
That is not coincidental, but something that is real when Inaayatullah, Allah’s Care comes and merges these two observations together to make us get from both of them, the founder of the Tariqah the Naqshbandi Order and the one who came at the end of the Naqshbandi Order, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, because today the Tariqah’s power is in the hands of Shah-i-Mardaan! The real secret of Naqshbandi and all other Tariqah orders, today all are in the hands of Shah-i-Mardaan, when the time will come when he hands them over to the hands of one of the grandsons of Prophet (a), and that is mentioned in authentic hadiths, even in Wahhabi books:
قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ : " أُبَشِّرُكُمْ بِالْمَهْدِيِّ يُبْعَثُ فِي أُمَّتِي عَلَى اخْتِلَافٍ مِنَ النَّاسِ وَزَلَازِلَ ، فَيَمْلَأُ الْأَرْضَ قِسْطًا وَعَدْلًا ، كَمَا مُلِئَتْ جَوْرًا وَظُلْمً
Qaala Rasoolullahi (s): ubashshirukum b’il-Madhi yuba`thu fee ummatee `alaa ikhtilaafin min an-naasi wa zalaazila. fa yamla al-arda qistan wa `adlan kamaa muliyyat zhulman wa joora.
One of my grandchildren will appear filling the Earth with justice as it is filled with oppression.
“One of my grandsons will come in the Last Days and fill the Earth with peace and justice as it was filled with injustice and oppression.” We are looking forward to those days when everyone will unite and everyone is peaceful and when everyone will have real love through the heart like you have harmonious musical instrument like someone here was playing just now. You think our prayers are...now say “Bismillahi ‘r-Rahmani ‘r-Raheem” in your nicest voice, but you cannot say it because as much as we say there are good reciters of Qu’ran and the best voices they have, there are still better voices above them who will say it in better voice, it never ends.
Just now he was playing the comancha and people were listening. If an angel says “Bismillahi ‘r-Rahmani ‘r-Raheem” then as you were so attracted to that recitation they were making, people were listening, but when you recite “Bismillahi ‘r-Rahmani ‘r-Raheem” angels will immediately take it and transform it to heavenly voices, heavenly music, saying “Bismillahi ‘r-Rahmani ‘r-Raheem” in angelic voices. That is why awliyaullah know this secret, so they order their mureeds to do their daily awraad because behind us angels are fixing it and it becomes angelic recitation, like angels, if you have a nice smell they approach you, so what do you think about Bismillahi ‘r-Rahmani ‘r-Raheem? It becomes the best smell and the best music, but we don’t hear it and we don’t smell it because we don’t have real love, our love is not perfect.
Awliya Taught Us to Perfect Our Love through Good Character
Prophet (s) said:
انما بعثت لاتمم مكارم الاخلاق
Innamaa bu`ithtu li utammimu makaarim al-akhlaaq.
I have been sent to perfect the best of conduct (your behavior and character). (Bazzaar)
So if our manners are not nice, not good, if everyone is fighting and everyone has problems with everyone, if we don’t settle these things then all we are doing will go in vain. May Allah (swt) with the barakah of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, that Prophet (s) said, and this is the hadith I want you to learn:
قال رسول الله ص حياتي خير لكم تحدثون ويحدث لكم ومماتي خير لكم تعرض علي أعمال لكم فإن وجدت خيراً حمدت الله وما وجدت غير ذلك استغفرت لكم.
Qaala rasoolullahi sall-Allahu `alayhi wa sallama: hayaatee khayrun lakum tuhadithoon wa yuhdatha lakum wa mamaatee khayran lakum tu`radu `alayya `amalukum fa in wajadtu khayran hamadtu’Llah wa maa wajadtu ghayra dhaalika astaghfarta lakum.
My life is a great good for you: you relate from and narrations are related to you and my death contains good for you as well, for I observe the `amal of my ummah. If I find good I thank Allah, and if I see other than that, bad, I ask forgiveness for you. (Bazzaar)
So awliya inherit from that hadith, they have more power in their grave than in dunya. In dunya there are too many events to handle, but in the grave they have hayaatun barzakhiyya, “Heavenly life,” they have nothing else, so they can reach us. That is why Prophet said mamaatee khayran lakum min mamaatee, “My death contains good for you as well,” and awliya inherit from Prophet in that regard, so their death is better for us than their life in the spiritual meaning. May Allah (swt )keep us on their footsteps as He said:
قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَاللّهُ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ
Qul in kuntum tuhibboona 'Llaaha fattabi`oonee yuhbibkumullaahu wa yaghfir lakum dhunoobakum w 'Allaahu Ghafooru 'r-Raheem.
Say (O Muhammad), "If you (really) love Allah, then follow me! Allah will love you and forgive your sins, and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Surat Aali-'Imraan, 3:31)
“If you really love Allah, follow the ways of Muhammad.” The ways of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) have been spread all over through awliyaullah’s hearts to teach their followers.
As-salaam `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh.
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Hajjah Sanaa Nadim (facilitator):
Just an anecdote of how Mawlana Shaykh Nazim used to tease Shaykh Hisham. We were on Long Island on our way to the airport and I told Mawlana Shaykh Nazim about a beach on the island next to the house and Shaykh Nazim loves the beach.
Mawlana said, “Take me there.”
Mawlana Shaykh Hisham said, “We are going to be late for the plane!”
But Mawlana Shaykh went there, took off his shoes and splashed in the water and Shaykh Hisham said, “Mawlana, we will miss the plane!” And the beach has stairs so Mawlana decided to go down the stairs to the water.
“We will be late Mawlana.”
Mawlana Shaykh called Shaykh Hisham downstairs and said, “You take your shoes also and come in the water.”
Shaykh Hisham took his shoes and put his feet in the water although the water was very cold. That is to tell you how especially close their relationship was, so emotional and beautiful, and at times funny and at times spiritual, and at times more than words can describe!
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