Fajr Suhbah at Private Residence
Pre-Salaat al-Fajr
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim would say kamaa yuhibbu rabbanaa wa yardaa, “As our Lord pleases and likes. As He likes.” That is key in Tariqah: to accept our Lord’s decree we just have to say, “As you like, O our Lord.” That is when I used to complain to him, he used at looked me with a big smile and said, “As He likes,” because to tell someone about your Lord [something you don’t like] is complaining about your Lord. We cannot complain about our Lord, we have to stay happy, but even you tell someone, not even complain, but it is a complaint if you don't like it, so when he used to say, “As He likes,” I kept quiet and stayed busy with tasaabeeh.
His eyes used to be green and blue; you look and it is sea green, then it just becomes blue and then green again.
Inshaa-Allah when we die, we die with iman and Shahaadah. Some people die suddenly. I have seen a footage of someone healthy and strong, and suddenly he collapsed! If you are not given time to say Shahaadah....when we die, we give our soul with iman and Shahaadah and they take our body, wash us, cover us and pray on us, which is also a favor. After that, Allah is Merciful. May Allah shower us with His mercy!
It is said when someone goes in the grave that is the first station of Akhirah, so if that goes easy then everything else is easy, but if that is difficult everything else is harder. Inshaa-Allah Allah gives us a chance to utter the Shahaadah!
Post-Salaat al-Fajr
Dastoor, madad yaa Sayyidee. As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh. Astaghfirullah, I am shy and ashamed to sit here and talk, but Mawlana Shaykh has spread teachings and told us to spread his teaching, so whoever sits and talks and conducts dhikr and gathers people as found here, that one has to be aware we are gathered under the name of Mawlana Shaykh: this is their gathering, we are just here sitting and listening. We are not a shaykh, they are.
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) said that Nabi (s) is our master, our teacher. He teaches Mankind adab and according to our teachers, Nabi (s) said in his Hadith:
حسن العهد من الإيمان
The perfection of fulfilling trusts is from faith. (Bukhari)
عن النواس بن سمعان ، أنه سأل رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم ، عن البر فقال : « حسن الخلق »
Nawas ibn Sam’an asked the Prophet (s) what obedience is. He said, “Perfection of manners.” (Muslim)
Also according to our teachers, Nabi (s) said in another Hadith:
أدبني ربي فأحسن تأديبي
My Lord perfected my good manners and conduct. (Ibn `Asakir)
“My Lord has corrected me,” and in Holy Qur'an we read, for example, the story of the blind man who came to ask naseeha, advice from Nabi (s), who was guiding the unbelievers, and Allah (swt) said, “This person came to you, attend to him.” Allah is saying in Holy Qur'an that these people need this or that, giving him adab, so he (s) said, “My Lord has given me ahsan, the best adab.” Therefore, whoever does not follow the adab of Nabi (s) or tramples over observance of adab has no way in Tariqah, as Tariqah is adab.
Allah (swt) is Rabb, Lord. Nabi (s) is saying, Adabanee rabbee, “my Lord”; the Lord gives good manners by showing how we should behave outwardly. Our ego is taught adab by Shari`ah, how to behave in dunya, and inwardly Allah (swt) teaches how to follow Adab at-Tariqah, so outwardly, Allah teaches us adab by His ni`mah, favor: He gives eyes, ears and a tongue and we learn how to pray and fast outwardly, that is ni`mah. If Allah took your legs or understanding away you will not be able to perfect Shari`ah, you will struggle, and it is not like you have full ni`mah to perfect your physical ni`mah, so Allah has given the nafs to the outward by favors and He has given inwardly to the heart by rahmah, mercy. Outwardly is ni`mah and inward is mercy, as we mentioned last night.
Alhamdulillah ni`mah addresses the outward and Rabb, Allah is Lord, ar-Rahmaan addresses the inward: Allah is correcting our outward by alhamdulillahi Rabbi 'l-`Alameen and correcting our inward by rahmah, with love, and that is Tariqah. According to our teachers the adab, discipline, is to:
1. Observe good manners, muroowah, virtue/righteousness/goodness.
2. Observe Sunnah; and,
3. Observe hurmat, high respect.
Who has no righteousness and piety cannot follow Sunnah because the Sunnah of Nabi (s) is all about righteousness, so if he cannot follow Sunnah he cannot give due respect, hurma, so righteousness allows us to follow Sunnah and a righteous person who follows can give adab and respect; similarly, whoever does not have adab cannot observe Sunnah. The first thing is good manners and whoever lacks these three manners cannot be clean, so we repeat: first is good manners, muroowah, because a wicked person cannot follow Nabi (s), they are not compatible. First we clean our inner selves and then we follow muroowah. Righteousness helps us follow customs, the Sunnah, and allows us to give high respect to our Lord. We know how to give respect to our teachers and to our shaykh and Grandshaykh, so muroowah, Sunnah and hurmat: who does not have these cannot advance in Tariqah and the gateway is manners; who does not have these cannot enter through that door, which is Sunnah.
Whoever starts to follow these three, righteousness, respect and Sunnah, can achieve taqwa. It is the highest form of respect, but it has a component of fear, that element of awe of the greatness and power of God. Taqwa is to respect, but at the same time you are humbling yourself in front of that Great One; for example, some people bow in front of a king. There are three rules to follow, the first is adab with his Lord: to behave at all times as if you are in the presence of a king. Jibreel (a) came to Prophet and said, “Yaa Nabi, sit as if you are in the presence of your Lord.” His (s) legs were drawn in and he said, “I sit as a servant sits.” So when you are in the presence of a king you sit, if you are allowed, as if you are sitting in front of your master.
It is said there was a saint who, for forty years, never leaned against the wall and always sat on his knees, and when asked about it he said, “I am in the presence of my king. I sit as Nabi (s) said, ‘in front of your Lord.’” So that is our adab in private and in public: sit as servants do in the presence of a master.
There was a saint who used to stand, the only time he sat was in prayer. He was asked about that and said, “I did not yet reach the level of the presence of my master.” That is why Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) taught that when you enter salaah to stand in qiyaam, be upright, so when we are in the presence of our Lord we are standing, we don't enter salaat sitting. We stand, that is adab with our Lord. That is why it comes wa aqimi ’s-salaat, stand for salaat. Aqimi means “upright”. On Siraat al-Mustaqeem we stay straight, to be upright in the presence of your master, in the presence of Allah (swt). That is the first one: to act and behave as if in the presence of our master at all times.
The second form of adab is the adab towards oneself, how we should act when we are with ourselves. It is said the way to have that adab is to avoid ourself, meaning, don't declare yourself to be something, don't claim, “I am this or that,” don't show anything about yourself to people, not even your goodness, as that must remain hidden. Also, don't reveal the bad things people do to you. Any form of bringing up yourself is contradictory to the manners one must keep with himself, so, for example, shuyookh don't declare anything about themselves. One is adab to our Lord, to act as if you are in His presence at all times, and one is adab with oneself, where he or she does not declare anything about themselves.
Third is our adab with people, to follow what Nabi (s) did: how he traveled, changed, prayed, gave charity, gave goodness to people, to observe his Sunnah when around people.
So inshaa-Allah we adhere to these rules and when we understand the importance of respecting each of these rules, then the door of Tariqah opens and we keep good manners. To acompany you have to be good or else you cannot. There was a saint in Ka`bah, we all pick books and make du`a and mostly for ourselves, but this saint said, “O my Lord! Make my brothers good, or this, or that,” always praying for them, not himself, “And make them nice as they can be, make them good.”
They asked him, “How about yourself?”
He said, “I make du`a for them back home: I pray if they are good I will be good, but if they are wicked and I am good, I will be wicked,” because a good one keeps company with the wicked, he likely becomes wicked because they will teach him their ways. So to be with good ones we follow these ways of muroowwah; Sunnah, which leads to high respect with our Lord; and keeping adab with ourselves and our fellow human beings.
O our Lord! Make us follow Sunnah and Righteous Ones. O our Lord! Bless this Friday and our companions and neighbors. Shower us with mercy, give us from Your Mercy and make us to enter the Divine Presence of our Prophet and our Lord!
Bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
These are teachings of Grandshaykh `AbdAllah (q) and Imam `Ali Hujwiri (q) and other saints. When Mawlana Shaykh Nazim was talking, he said, “Talk easy things about the state you are in, don't talk big Hadiths.” This is what I learned from Mawlana and Imam `Ali Hujwiri, simple stuff that when we follow it opens more for us. When you go up high [discussing high level knowledge] we don't understand, then it is a waste of knowledge, so this is the way of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim and we try to follow.
Sayyidina `Ali Hujwiri (q) said, “Some people can follow effortlessly.” These are saints: they don't use effort anymore because Allah (swt) is guiding them, so all their actions are correct even it doesn't appear correct to us. Some people put effort, ijtihaad, and they follow Sunnah with effort; our example is that. Some reach that state where it is second nature, that is their state. They are guided by Allah (swt) and whatever they results from them executing Allah’s will. Inshaa-Allah we reach that! We can’t do more than we are able, so yaa Rabbee, make us be with the ones who do effortlessly so we can benefit from them. We struggle.
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