`Asr Suhbah at Private 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`alaa fee haadha 'l-masjid.
Ati`ullaha wa ati`u 'r-Rasoolaa wa ooli 'l-amri minkum.
Obey Allah, obey the Prophet, and obey those in authority among you. (4:59)
Alhamdulillah, Allah made us meet another time, due to the love and respect of this Australia group for Mawlana, may Allah give him long life. I am not coming here to make myself a shaykh, I am coming here like you, as a student. And it might help to shed some light on issues of life. Just because there is one sitting on a chair doesn't mean he or she is better than others; the one on the floor may be better. Allah (swt) doesn't care for the chair you are sitting on, He cares for the purity of your heart! People ask the question, "What do we benefit from such meetings?" Are you listening, all of you? In Arabic, the word insaan means "human being," and it also means, "what is good for me." And at a young age like 16 or 17 years, when we think about what is good for us, immediately the mind thinks it is to acquire knowledge in the university in order to establish a family. Correct? It is good and is true, but also we have to think that this life is not eternal, it is ending. People are happy to celebrate their birthday, they bring a cake and celebrate, but they don't know they lost one year of their life and yet they are happy they lost one year. Why? Because Allah put that happiness of approaching their destiny in their hearts, although they don’t know. Allah is happy that they are coming back to Him and He is happy to welcome them back. That is why you see people laughing and so happy on their birthdays.
Sayyidina `Isa (a) said:
وَالسَّلاَمُ عَلَيَّ يَوْمَ وُلِدْتُ وَيَوْمَ أَمُوتُ وَيَوْمَ أُبْعَثُ حَيّا
Wa 's-salaamu `alayya yawma wulidtu wa yawma amootu wa yawma ub`athu hayyaan.
Peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I will die, and the day I will be ressurrected. (Surat al-Maryam, 19:33)
So there are three days in your life that are crucial: the day of birth, the day of death, and the Day of Resurrection, so your schedule is three days. The day I was born, I am working for it. The day I am dead, am I working for it? Am I preparing myself? If that second day occurs and I am dead, am I thinking about the Day of Judgment and what I'm going to answer my Lord when He asks me? So what we benefit from such meetings is to refresh our memories, to remind ourselves that our life is short, three days, to go back to our origin, to be in the Presence of the Divine. People are running, running and running, but at the end they are going to reach the Divine Presence. At that time, none of your days will count except for the day al-mahboob yaraa` mahboobu, "The lover meets his Love." The Day when we meet our Lord is the happiest day in our life! That's why our Lord, Allah (swt), as a way to show us His Mercy, said:
وَرَحْمَتِي وَسِعَتْ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ
wa rahmatee wasi`yat kullaa shay
My mercy encompasses everything (al-'Araaf, 7:156)
Grandshaykh, Sayyidina Shaykh `AbdAllah al-Faiz ad-Daghestani, may Allah bless his soul, said, "One time Iblees, Satan, came to Sayyidina Muhyiddin ibn `Arabi (q), a big wali in Damascus." Today they still read his books and no one can understand anything from his writings from a very high spiritual knowledge. "Satan came to him and said, 'Yaa Muhyiddin! Allah said in Holy Qur'an, 'My Mercy encompasses everything.' Am I not from 'everything'? Everyone is a part of that 'everything'. If I am from everything, which I am, then I am under His Mercy. Is it true or not? Can you confirm this to me or not?" He was not able to answer, because if he says 'yes', Allah could say to him, "How do you bless someone I cursed?" and if he says 'no', Allah could say, "How do you know? Who gave you that judgment?" It means whatever human beings do, don’t judge them as hey are not Satan; they have been honored.
Allah (swt) said in Holy Qur'an:
وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِي آدَمَ وَحَمَلْنَاهُمْ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ
Wa laqad karamna Bani Adam.
We have honored human beings. (17:70)
So don't judge people. When you don’t judge people, Allah will not judge you. Dr. Abdul Wahid, if the police knocked on your door and said, “The judge wants you in court; there is a complaint, you have to appear in front of the court,” what would happen to you? You would say, "What did I do?” You would be shaking! It might be that you were backbiting someone. So don’t judge people, then Allah (swt) will not judge you and you will be saved. Our mistake is that we judge each other. You asked me a question before we came: "What can people do to get benefit for their lives, to get something?" Don't judge anyone in your life! Ahsan li man asaa ilayk, "Return goodness to those who harm you." What will happen? They will come to you! Islam came to show the softness and subtleness of everything. Islam came with the taste of tasawwuf, the state of perfection, in order to make sure that people can taste the sweetness of everything. So why do people come and sit together and say laa ilaaha illa-Llah? Do you say laa ilaaha illa-Llah? He was just reciting in his song, laa ilaaha illa-Llah. What did Prophet (s) say?
من قال لا اله الا الله دخل الجنة
Man qaalaa laa ilaaha illa-Llah dakhal al-Jannah.
Whoever says, "Laa ilaaha illa-Llah, enters Paradise.
So Islam is coming to you, saying, "Do you want the key to Paradise? This is the key: say, laa ilaaha illa-Llah." Say laa ilaaha illa-Llah, and for sure you will enter Paradise! Allah said in Holy Qur'an about afdalu al-dhikr (the best of dhikr):
فَاعْلَمْ أَنَّهُ لَا إِلَهَ
Fa`lam annahoo laa ilaaha illa-Llah.
Therefore, know that there is no god except Allah. (47:19)
The Prophet (s) said:
افضل الذكر لا اله الا الله
Afdalu al-dhikri laa ilaha illallah.
The best remembrance of Allah is to say: There is no god but Allah. (Tirmidhi)
He (s) also said, "The best thing all the prophets that came before me said, as I am saying, was laa ilaaha illa-Llah." Always keep your tongue saying laa ilaaha illa-Llah. If you have a problem, say laa ilaaha illa-Llah. If you face a difficulty say laa ilaaha illa-Llah and Allah will fix it for you. You know, on cars when it's raining, what do the wipers do? They clear the way. laa ilaaha illa-Llah is like that in your life, clearing the way in order for you to reach to the other side of the tunnel, the side of safety. We are dipped so much in dunya, in this world, that we are no longer feeling the ecstasy of what they were feeling before us. They felt the benefit of saying laa ilaaha illa-Llah.
You know, doctor, that if one person says laa ilaaha illa-Llah, Allah will immediately create an angel that will say laa ilaaha illa-Llah after him. And when that angel says laa ilaaha illa-Llah, Allah will create another angel from that angel who said laa ilaaha illa-Llah. And He will create another angel from that one that said laa ilaaha illa-Llah, creating an atomic reaction. So every time that you, as humans, say laa ilaaha illa-Llah, Allah (swt) will create from now until the Day of Judgment, angels that say laa ilaaha illa-Llah. And they will be given to you. And from each, He will create other angels till the Day of Judgment. So from every laa ilaaha illa-Llah, Allah is creating more angels. That is showing azamatullah, Allah's greatness. That is an understanding of when people say Allahu Akbar. Don’t you hear this in conferences? When they see or hear something nice, they say takbeer and Allahu Akbar. You cannot truly express the greatness of Allah. If you limit it, you are doing something wrong. So every time you are saying laa ilaaha illa-Llah, Allah is creating angels non-stop, till the Day of Judgment, multiplying.
I'll give an example of what I am saying. One of the great saints in the Naqshbandi Golden Chain, Sayyidina `Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani (q), was doing dhikr one day in Merv near Uzbekistan, where Muhammad Ismail al-Bukhari (q) and Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q) came from. Our dhikr is imitation and their dhikr is real. One day he was doing dhikr. In this dunya it is good to work, but also you have to work for Akhirah. Where was he doing dhikr? There was a well he dug with his own hands. There was a big school in Uzbekistan; all of them came to Bukhara, to that school. If you go now, you can see the greatness of the architecture of Central Asia's mosques, even more than in Turkey, which are very nice, but these are better, like in Iran. So he dug a well and it was 40 meters deep. SubhaanAllah, how did water come? It was on a hill. Every time he made dhikr, and he was Shaykh ul-Tariqah so he can do dhikr anywhere for it to be accepted, not like us, where we have to do as the shaykh is saying for it to be accepted. But nowadays we sit by the TV and say, laa ilaaha illa-Llah. When we have to finish our daily awraad, dhikr, recitation, we are watching a movie or the news and saying, laa ilaaha illa-Llah. This is technology now, improving! (laughter)
In the well had to go down, then come up to take a breath, then go down to continue his dhikr. Because shaytans are afraid of water; they cannot touch water or their life is finished. Like we cannot touch fire or it burns us, also they cannot touch water.
In the Holy Qur'an, Iblees said:
خَلَقْتَنِي مِن نَّارٍ وَخَلَقْتَهُ مِن طِينٍ
khalaqtanee min naarin wa khalaqtahu min teen.
You created me of fire and You created him of clay. (7:12)
Adam (a) was created from mud. They are from fire. That is why you must be careful when you are doing dishes or laundry or cleaning at night as there are too many of them at night. Therefore, you must say, a`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani ‘r-rajim. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem. So this is how past shaykhs were. Today people call themselves "shaykh". What is a shaykh? We are the worst of the worst, and if we are accepted under the feet of the shuyookh we are happy! We don’t claim anything; we are nothing!
One day after Fajr, Sayyidina `Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani (q), with his honor and greatness that Allah dressed him with, was resting and a majestic voice came, saying, “Yaa `Abdul-Khaliq! By order, go to that rock in the city and wait for the order coming from Heaven.” He was hearing the voice of an angel. When you are saying, laa ilaaha illa-Llah, if your heart is open, you will hear that sound heavenly sound that you will be more than astonished, you will melt from its sweetness, from the sound of that angel! When you say, laa ilaaha illa-Llah, Allah (swt) will keep creating angels and you will be melting. Like when you melt ice, it disappears and becomes water. If you put it back in the fridge, it's previous form returns. You will disappear without a form. As much as you melt your ego, you will disappear, ending up with an angelic form.
Your body will begin to function like Mansour al-Hallaj (q), the great wali. He used to say, anaa 'l-Haqq, "I am al-Haqq (Allah)!" Grandshaykh (q) said, "Once al-Hallaj was on the minbar and he said, "anaa 'l-Haqq" so the people stopped his khutbah, brought him down from the minbar and said, "You are speaking kufr!"
He said, "No, I didn't say that."
They said, "You said it, and if you say it again we will cut your neck with a sword!"
He said, "Okay! If I say it again, kill me."
He was a big scholar. The next time he ascended the minbar he was in a state, a trance (hal), and he said, anaa 'l-Haqq, "I am al-Haqq (Allah)!" They attacked him with their swords, which went through him, as he was composed of heavenly Light and his physical body was gone! If you have an ego, your body will have a form, a reality.
Sayyidina `Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghudawani (q) went to that big rock by the tree. And Grandshaykh (q) was saying that he had been ordered to hit it with his stick on the stone. As soon as he hit, water began gushing from thas tree, from under the rock. Water; you cannot control it. It was white, you know, as when it is foaming. He hit with his stick and that water started coming out. He was surprised. And that voice came: “Yaa `Abdul-Khaliq! You are going to be responsible on the Day of Judgment in front of your Lord, if you will not be able to perform what we are going to ask you to do." What did they want to ask him? You forgot? The order came to him. How many drops of water are in this cup? Does anyone know how? I don’t know; no one knows.
The voice said, "From every drop of water gushing out of that rock, I am creating an angel." Allah is creating an angel that will make tasbeeh till the Day of Judgment. "You have to dress the tasbeeh of these angels, divide them among the mureeds of the Naqshbandi Tariqah that are coming from Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (r) and Sayyidina `Ali (r), all the way to Sayyidina Mahdi (a)." This is true even if they are mureeds by name, and came only one time in their lives to sit in a dhikr gathering, because in a hadith, it is mentioned that if someone who is not part of them and is only coming to ask for a favor sits for five minutes, he is considered to be from that association. That is Allah's Mercy!
“You have to divide the tasbeeh that the angels are making. From every drop, I'm creating an angel that's going to make tasbeeh, and from his tasbeeh another angel is being created. And from the tasbeeh of that angel, I'm creating another angel. So from every drop, angels are being created like that. And you have to divide them into those from the Naqshbandi Order, from beginning to end. And not only that, but you are under heavy responsibility because Allah is ordering you." And that voice was coming as an inspiration, "Allah is ordering you to give every angel a name and the name you give cannot be repeated twice. For every angel from every drop until the Day of Judgement, you have to give a name." If you go there now, you'll see that water is still running there.
Allahu Akbar! Allah gave that power to one of His servants. What do you think about the power of Prophet (s)? What do you think about the power of khulafaah ar-rashidoon, the Four Khalifahs? What do you think about the power of the Sahaabah (r), his companions, if a wali has this power? Every wali in the Naqshbandi Order is considerd to be a Sultan al-Awliya! And think how much power awliyaa have until reaching our shaykh, Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Haqqani! What power he has and people cannot see. Don’t ask me, find it by yourself. If Sayyidina `Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghudawani (q) had that power one thousand years ago, and every one after, multiplying until it reaches Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, imagine what kind of power he has! This is Allah's Greatness, His rahmah: "My mercy encompasses everything." That's why we should say, laa ilaaha illa-Llah, morning and evening. Don’t be afraid; say it in every moment and difficulties will go away. That is why we don’t need his machine (speaking to a doctor) (laughter), but only for amusement we use this machine. You are doing him a favor; he will be rewarded because he is trying to fix you. You (addressing the doctor) have to thank us because we are going to your machine.
Don’t ever think you are doing a favor for a wali; he is doing you a favor by accepting your gift, whatever it is, it could be a book. If he accepts it, he is doing a favor for you. That is what is important, because Allah (swt) supports awliyaullah and Prophet (s) supports them, and they don’t need any support from anyone else! But when they come to you and you do them a favor, your problem is fixed.
Allah said in Holy Qur'an:
خُذْ مِنْ أَمْوَالِهِمْ صَدَقَةً تُطَهِّرُهُمْ وَتُزَكِّيهِم بِهَا وَصَلِّ عَلَيْهِمْ إِنَّ صَلاَتَكَ سَكَنٌ لَّهُمْ وَاللّهُ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ
Khudh min amwaalihim sadaqatun tutahhiruhum wa tuzakkiyyhim bihaa wa salli `alayhim. Inna salaataka sakanun lahum w 'Allahu Sami`un `Aleem.
Of their goods take alms that so you may purify and sanctify them, and pray on their behalf. Verily your prayers are a source of security for them, and Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing. (9:103)
It means, "Take from their wealth whatever you want, because purify them with that," because Allah (swt) knows people are stingy! So He ordered Prophet (s), “Take from them, as you are not taking for yourself; you are cleaning them.”
The Prophet (s) said:
من بنى لله مسجدا، بنى الله له قصرا في الجنة.
Man bana lillaahi masjidan anbaallahu lahu qasran fi ‘l-jannah.
Whoever built a mosque for Allah, Allah will build a palace for him in Paradise. (ibn Abi Shaybah)
What do you benefit from money in dunya? People build a nice house, which is okay, but build a house for akhirah. If you don’t have money, buy one brick for the mosque. Prophet (s) said, "If you put one brick in a masjid, it will benefit you until the Day of Judgment." It means, where is the real masjid? The best that you can imagine in your mind is in Mecca and Madinah. But what about the Hadith Qudsi, “There is one place in a human being that can contain Me." And Prophet (s) said, "The heart of the believer is the house of Allah." Build that! When you build that, do you think you will have anymore difficulties?
Not the spiritual eyes, but these physical eyes and the brain build images, as they teach in Psychology. You can see it that way; it is not a problem. So when your spiritual eyes take over the physical eyes and the mind, there is no problem. Today you asked the question. Keep saying, laa ilaaha illa-Llah, Muhammadun Rasoolullah. So your spiritual eyes take over and we will explain more tomorrow inshaa-Allah. Grandshaykh (q) said you have two physical eyes and you also have spiritual eyes.
It is not an obstacle, it is nothing, and at that moment you are not in a defensive mode; rather, you enter an offense mode against that obstacle. Within ourselves we are afraid because the mind cannot overcome that obstacle, so the mind becomes defensive, like someone who is dying and cannot survive and he is fighting that. But you don’t let that defensive mode take over! You say, laa ilaaha illa-Llah, then you go into offense mode and that obstacle will run away because it sees an attack approaching. That mode is like the second and third military lines of defense that repel that obstacle You created that problem in your mind, so fight it, be the attacker, and the problem will be easily solved. To attack the obstacle you have to go to a healer, to shuyookh that are authorized by Prophet (s). That person can change your situation. He tells you, "Do this, do that," and you can take that power and go with it. Unfortunately, I have to say the truth, there are no such people available to do this healing. It is an experience you have to learn through the company of your shaykh.
I will share with you something. When I was 25 years old, Grandshaykh (q) said, and there were many people sitting there, "Hisham Effendi, I am giving you authority to heal people. Read this, read this, and people will be healed." So that healing doesn't come easily; they have to grant it to you. The secret is passed to you, then you have to use it, like accessing your machine, you need the code or you can't use it. The awliya pass on the code. Here is an example: this gentleman, Ishaq (the Sufilive cameraman), felt pain in his back. One of our friends, a radiologist, did an MRI for him and that man called me, saying, "Shaykh Hisham, Ishaq is dying! He needs an operation immediately or he is finished!"
We sent him to another specialist, who looked at the MRI and said, "How are you walking? You need an operation immediately!"
Ishaq said, "I am walking."
That doctor called me and said, "This one needs an operation."
I said, "No need."
So he examined him and didn't find anything; Ishaq had no pain. He made him walk back and forth and conducted many physical and neurological tests, and said, "Go. I cannot touch you. Mawlana Shaykh has done something. But don’t travel." He told me, “He cannot travel.”
I said, "He is coming with me to Australia," and mashaa-Allah, he is walking!
When Mawlana Shaykh is reading on you he is giving the barakah, and when the shaykh's barakah is coming you are healed. May Allah bless all of us and with His Mercy, with His Greatness, may we be forgiven. And we are coming to you, yaa Rasoolullah (s), asking for your intercession. And Mawlana, we are asking you; you are in Cyprus but hearing us, for sure. We are asking you to present us clean in the presence of Prophet (s)! May Allah forgive us.
Bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
(Khatm al-Khawajagan)
Mawlana Shaykh is saying to me to tell all of you that this house is now a holy place where salaat is accepted, because of the strong faith and service of the owners of the house, our hosts, Zain and his wife, Aisha. May all of you in this group stay together.
Fatihah.