`Isha Suhbah at Manor House
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh. Alhamdulillahi Rabbi 'l-`Alameen, wa ’s-salaatu wa ’s-salaamu `alaa ashrafi 'l-mursaleena Sayyidina wa Nabiyyina Muhammadin wa `alaa aalihi wa sahbihi ajma`een. Alhamdulillahi ‘Lladhee hadaana li ’l-Islami wa maa kunna li-nahtadiyya law laa hadaana ’Llah, alhamdulillahi `alaa ni`amihi zhaahiran wa baatina. W 'alhamdulillahi ’Lladhee ja`alanaa min ummati habeebina Muhammad al-Mustafaa. Amma ba`d. Alhamdullahi Rabbi 'l-`Alameen. Nahmaduhu wa nastahdee...
O viewers who are watching us and all those who are listening: may Allah (swt) bless you and grant you what He granted for His awliya. If you look too high you get tired, but look a little bit down as you take lessons when you look down. If you look high, the Sun will burn your eyes, but there is meaning also in looking high. When you look at the Sun and look down you don’t see anything, you will be blinded. Now I am looking at the lights and if I look away, it looks blurry. If you look higher to the Sun and look down, then you are completely blind.
Awliyaullah are spotlights; their lights are not like the light of the Sun, but their light is a Heavenly Light. If the Sun makes you blind, their lights make you more blind because they are taking you to that Ocean of Enlightenment and they dress you with it and that is why they don’t want you to see that knowledge and those high levels until your body can take it. Now, if you put a paper under the Sun and use a magnifier, what will happen? It will burn. Awliyaullah don’t want you to burn and that is why they veil what they are doing for you. When they put you in the Ocean of Knowledge, the Ocean of Light, you cannot see anything anymore and then you will be completely in fanaa, the Station of Annihilation. When annihilated you don’t see with your power, you see with their power, so when they want, they can open or they can close and that depends on how much we are diving in their ocean and struggling against our selves (ego).
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, may Allah grant him long life and to be with his followers to see Mahdi (a) inshaa-Allah. (...) Now if you see Mahdi (a) or you don’t, you are waiting and that is enough to make you rewarded as if you are with him! With that hikmah, Grandshaykh `AbdAllah, may Allah be pleased with him and raise him higher, Shaykh `AbdAllah Daghestani, every suhbah must be, for sure, something about Mahdi (a) because:
أفضل العبادة، انتظار الفرج
Afdal al-`ibaadah, intizhaar al-faraj.
The best of worship is to await an opening (relief) from difficulty. (Tirmidhi)
To wait for relief is worshipness. If you have a sickness--and Allah sends sickness to reward people, not to punish--and you have patience, you will be raised. So intizhaar will be considered as if you are worshipping, especially for Muslims and mu’min, and we don’t want to speak about others but we are concerned about mu’mins and Muslims. You will be raised and when you are raised into higher levels, the struggle with your self becomes stronger. Shaytan is on one side and awliya on the other and you will be like in the middle of a battle with shooting arrows on you, one with heavenly arrows and the other ones are from the devil. You are struggling and if you struggle it is good, because it will elevate your level to what they want to elevate.
That is why Prophet (s) said in a very authentic hadith:
من عادا لي وليا فقد آذنته بالحرب
Man `adaa lee waliyyan faqad aadhantahu bi ’l-harb.
(Allah [swt] said) Whoever comes against My wali, I declare war on him.
(Hadith Qudsi; Bukhari, from Abu Hurayrah)
Allahu Akbar, if Allah says He declares what war is that? Not like the war of countries or what is going on in different countries. If Allah wants to declare war on us, Allah akbar, without declaring war with our `amal, we are punished! The evidence is, as you have to give proof or they say, "Your suhbah is not supported, you are only a philosopher," and we are trying to listen to what Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) has taught us for many years! I will say something very simple: if you have this microphone and if it is plugged in you can hear and if not you cannot. If the awliya plug you in then you can say something good. Sometimes I feel myself saying something good and sometimes I feel I am saying soup, one word here and there. In any case, people are happy but you have to say the truth, you cannot lie on these issues as it is dangerous!
One time the Sahaabah (r) asked the Prophet (s), "Yaa Rasoolullah! Does the mu’min steal or rob?" The Prophet (s) replied, "Perhaps." They asked, "Does the mu’min make zina (adultery)?" The Prophet (s) replied, "Perhaps." They asked, "Does the mu’min steal?" The Prophet (s) replied, "Perhaps." Then they asked him, "Does the mu’min lie?" To this the Prophet (s) replied, "This, no!" Then the Prophet (s) followed it by (reciting), "Only they invent falsehood who believe not Allah's revelations, and (only) they are the liars." (Surat an-Nahl, 16:105) (Reported in Kanzu ’l-`Ummal, 8994)
Prophet (s) was asked, does the mu’min steal, and he said might be. If you are hungry do you steal? Yes, that is why in the time of Sayyidina `Umar (r), those who stole food, he didn't punish them. Does the mu’min make adultery? Prophet (s) said rubamaa, might be. He was asked, does the mu’min lie? He said, amma haadhihi falaa, this, no way! So we cannot lie. You say, "I am with Rasoolullah (s)," and there are people who say, what kind of lie is that? Some people say, "I am with Grandshaykh `AbdAllah (q)," or "I am with Mawlana," that is a lie. Yes, you have inspiration from the shaykh to your heart, you were in meditation thinking about the shaykh and you got something, but you cannot say, "I am with the shaykh." He is answering you, he is inspiring you.
So Allah said to the Prophet (e), who said to us, man `adaa lee waliyyan faqad aadhantahu bi ’l-harb, “Whoever comes against My wali, I declare war on him.” How many awliya? There are 124,000 awliya, and how do we know? It’s not recorded, but as I was saying, I heard this from Grandshaykh `AbdAllah (q), may Allah bless his soul. How did he count them? But there are, they exist, 124,000 awliya, so where are they? Might be there are some here, might be they do not yet have their amaanah and they don’t know.
Grandshaykh, may Allah bless his soul, said that there is one in Sham, and in the beginning of the Arabic month the scholars of Sham used to go up to Grandshaykh `AbdAllah’s (q) house, sit with him for suhbah and sleep in his house and and after Fajr they would go to the maqaam of Sayyidina Khalid al-Baghdadi (q), at the Maqaam al-Arba`een. These scholars would go and sit to listen to him although Grandshaykh didn't write, fountains of knowledge were coming. These were big `ulama of Sham and one, whose name is Ibrahim al-Ghala`ayni, Mufti of Qatar, Grandshaykh `AbdAllah (q) said he didn't receive his amaanat in dunya, he had to go in seclusion for forty days in the grave and then he was given his amaanat in the grave. In dunya, he didn't know he was a wali, he got it in the grave. There are some like that. Allah chose them and dressed them with knowledge, but they are not awliya because wilayah is a grant from Allah (swt). They were not because they were not being raised, if I can say that. Wahhabis now are observing us 100% and if we say one word this or that they attack immediately on the Internet. They are listening now, they are watching! We know that.
If we can say a wali is at the beginning or middle of a pyramid, he needs a wali above him, he needs to stand at the feet of the one above, it is a pyramid and so on until you reach the top. At the top is Rasoolullah (s). You cannot deny awliya. We meet different kinds of people and although you can say between yourselves and the mureeds of Mawlana that he is sultan, but you cannot say, “Mawlana is sultan” and argue in front of other tariqats as they say they have their sultans. We don't want to make fitna, we want unity. So in that pyramid there are 124,000 shuyookh or walis. Where did they get this number from? From Surat al-`Araf, when Sayyidina Musa (a) asked to see Allah:
قَالَ رَبِّ أَرِنِي أَنظُرْ إِلَيْكَ قَالَ لَن تَرَانِي وَلَـكِنِ انظُرْ إِلَى الْجَبَلِ فَإِنِ اسْتَقَرَّ مَكَانَهُ فَسَوْفَ تَرَانِي فَلَمَّا تَجَلَّى رَبُّهُ لِلْجَبَلِ جَعَلَهُ دَكًّا وَخَرَّ موسَى صَعِقًا فَلَمَّا أَفَاقَ قَالَ سُبْحَانَكَ تُبْتُ إِلَيْكَ وَأَنَاْ أَوَّلُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
He said, "O my Lord! Show Yourself to me, that I may look upon You." Allah said, "By no means can you see Me (directly), but look upon the mountain; if it abides in its place, then you shall see Me." When his Lord manifested His glory on the mount, He made it as dust, and Moses fell down in a swoon. When he recovered his senses, he said, "Glory be to You! To You I return in repentance, and I am the first to believe." (Surat al-`Araaf, 7:143)
He wanted to see. There was no intermediary, he is kaleemullah, he spoke directly. Does the Prophet (s) have an intermediary? Yes, he has one, but why? Who is better, him or Sayyidina Musa (a)? Him, but he refused out of humbleness by saying, "Yaa Rabbee! I don't want to be direct, I might say something that might affect Your Greatness. I am Your servant. I don't like to call directly.” Although he can call as much as he likes, out of humbleness Sayyidina Musa didn’t have that, but from humbleness Prophet (s) said, “I will wait and go the right way. I will go through an intermediary.”
So when Sayyidina Musa (a) asked, "O my Lord! Show Yourself to me, that I may look upon You," Allah (swt) said, “You cannot see Me.” But Musa (a) insisted, “I speak with my Lord, why can't I see Him?” He went too high. Allah said, “Look to the mountain, you cannot look at Me,” but he could not even look at the mountain. “If that mountain stays in place then you can see Me.” When Allah revealed His Beautiful Names and Attributes on the mountain, He manifested them, the mountain was crushed and Sayyidina Musa (a) fainted. To awliya that mountain means, in tafseer it is Mount Sinai, but in reality it refers to the hump on the back of a camel, which means, “Look at the hump on your back, don't come to Me with your ego,” that hump. “Don't say, ‘I am doing prayer’ or this or that. No, that is for you, not for Me.” Allah (swt) said, “When you want to come to Me, come surrendering with no hump, no mountain on your back full of sins, come as `abd.” Allah crushed him and he fainted, he repented. That is why he was sent to Sayyidina Khidr (a), which we will mention tomorrow.
So 124,000 that came from tafseer of that surah, that particular verse. Ibn Abbas (r) said when Sayyidina Musa (a) fainted and came back, he had seen 124,000 Prophets standing behind Prophet (s) and praying and they were standing in du`a. Prophet (s) was at the beginning and behind were 123,998, the two were Prophet (s) and Sayyidina Musa. So on every prophet, one Sahaabi is standing at the feet, which means taking the secret from that one. This dunya is never left from Prophets because they are there in their inheritors! Sahaabah (r) were the first inheritors, and after the Sahaabah left dunya then the awliyaullah and when every wali leaves dunya another replacement comes. From that Surat al-`Araf, from that verse came that number 124,000 nabi 124,000 Sahaabi and 124,000 wali!
Prophet (e) said according to that hadith, that Allah (swt) said, “Who comes against that line of 124,000--which is the only line, 124,000 wali--even the wali on the first level, if you come against him Allah will declare war on you!” How do you come against a wali? By speaking bad about someone, might be he is a wali and if I come and say something bad against you and you are a wali and I don't see you are like a wali, so I curse you and you curse me, but both of us, if we know he is wali, I have to be worried because Allah said, "I declare war against anyone who comes against My wali!" He put ‘wali’ at the beginning of that hadith, then he continued the hadith. Why? Man `adaa lee waliyyan faqad aadhantahu bi ’l-harb. “Whoever comes against My wali, I declare war on him.”
In the first part, Allah declares war on him, then he gave the characteristic of wali:
عن أَبَا هُرَيْرَةَ ، يَقُولُ : قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ : " قَالَ اللَّهُ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ : أَنَا عِنْدَ ظَنِّ عَبْدِي بِي وَأَنَا مَعَهُ حِينَ يَذْكُرُنِي ، إِنْ ذَكَرَنِي فِي نَفْسِهِ ذَكَرْتُهُ فِي نَفْسِي ، وَإِنْ ذَكَرَنِي فِي مَلَإٍ ذَكَرْتُهُ فِي مَلَإٍ خَيْرٍ مِنْهمُ ، وَمَنْ تَقَرَّبَ إِلَيَّ شِبْرًا تَقَرَّبْتُ إِلَيْهِ ذِرَاعًا ، وَمَنْ تَقَرَّبَ إِلَيَّ ذِرَاعًا تَقَرَّبْتُ إِلَيْهِ بَاعًا ، وَمَنْ جَاءَنِي يَمْشِي جِئْتُهُ مُهَرْوِلًا " .
From Abu Hurayrah that the Prophet (s) said, Allah the Praised and Glorified said: I am as My servant thinks I am. I am with him when he mentions Me. If he mentions Me to himself, I mention him to Myself, and if he mentions Me in an assembly, I mention him in an assembly better than it, and if he draws near to Me a hand’s span, I draw near to him an arm’s length, and if he draws near to Me an arm’s length, I draw near to him a fathom’s length, and if he comes to Me walking, I go to him running! (Hadith Qudsi)
So if you approach Allah by one hand He approaches you by one arm, so it means when you are approaching Allah (swt) through perfection of manners, because Prophet (s) said, “I have been sent to perfect your manners,” then you have to do your obligations--you have to fast, you have to pray, etc.--but if you perfect that, and we can come to more description later, but if we approach by one hand, how to approach? Prophet (s) said to Sayyidina Abu Hurayra (r), `alayka be husna ‘l-khulooq, “You have to have good manners.” And Sayyidina Abu Hurayra asked, “What is husna ‘l-khulooq, what are best of manners?” He (s) said:
وأوصى النبي صلى اللّه عليه وسلم أبا هريرة بوصية عظيمة فقال: يا أبا هريرة! عليك بحسن الخلق. قال أبو هريرة رضي اللّه عنه: وما حسن الخلق يا رسول اللّه؟ قال: تصل مَنْ قطعك، وتعفو عمن ظلمك، وتُعطي من حرمك
Awsaa ‘n-nabiyyu sall-Allahu `alayhi wa sallim Aba Hurayrah bi-waseeyyati `azheematin fa-qaala: yaa Aba Hurayrah radiAllahu `anhu, `alayka bi-husnu ‘l-khuluq. Qaala Abu Hurayrah: wa maa hasana ‘l-khulqi yaa Rasoolullah. Qaala: tasila man qata`k, wa ta`foo `amman zhalamak, wa tu`tee man haramak.
As the Prophet (s) said to Sayyidina Abu Hurayrah (r), “You must keep good character.” And he asked, “What is the good character?” And the Prophet (s) said, “To connect with the one who disconnected with you; to forgive the one who oppressed you; to give to the one who blocked you from getting what you like.” (Bayhaqi)
There are too many today, if there is a project to do someone comes and takes and not let you get anything, then to forgive the one who oppressed. Can we do that? Impossible, no one can claim they can do that! We are oppressors to ourselves, because we are not keeping the hadith of Prophet (s), but if a wali approaches by one hand length, it means he left behind these bad manners, and he is coming with struggling with good manners.
Like Sayyidina Aba Yazid al-Bistami (q), one of the big walis of the Golden Chain, was asking always, “Yaa Rabbee, how can I come to You?” After many years he heard, but are we asking? Always we sit and then we remember but we ask then we forget, you go and forget, its over. But for Sayyidina Aba Yazid (q) every food he put in his mouth, he asked, “Yaa Rabbee, how can I come to You, how can I reach You?” What is our goal in dunya? It is to come to Allah (swt), but not by stealing from others. They even steal paperwork and after a while they make it their book (from them).
“How can I reach you, yaa Rabbee?”
Allah (swt) said, “Approach hand-by-hand.”
He said, “I am approaching, please open Your door. How can I reach?”
He heard a voice, “Leave your ego and come to Me.”
Can we do that? If we cannot, then how do we claim? But alhamdulillah, we can claim that we have a shaykh, may Allah give him long life, who guides us to the presence of Prophet (s). So hold his hand and go with him! Jump on the train! A train has an engine, but don't jump on the engine, you will burn there as it is very hot. If you approach awliya too much you have to be careful, they carry you in the wagons but don’t jump when you are full of mistakes, try to clean yourself.
So Allah (swt) said, “Leave your self and come to Me I will open for you.” He said, “Yaa Rabbee how to leave myself, what do I have to do?” That is the issue. What do you do? “Make yourself a dump for My servants where they throw garbage,” which means, “Carry their mistakes, then come to Me.” You don't hear Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) on Aishq ar-Rasul tape (song), saying, "Come to me." Have you heard it? How does he say? “Come to me,” meaning, “Come to Allah (swt) and to Prophet (s) through your guide!” That is how we can approach by one hand and Allah comes by one arm. Allah says, “Come walking, I will come running.” You only need to take the first step and He will come running! SubhaanAllah!
And then He said, according to the hadith of Prophet (s):
عن أبي هريرة قال قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم إن الله قال من عادى لي وليا فقد آذنته بالحرب وما تقرب إلي عبدي بشيء أحب إلي مما افترضت عليه وما يزال عبدي يتقرب إلي بالنوافل حتى أحبه فإذا أحببته كنت سمعه الذي يسمع به وبصره الذي يبصر به ويده التي يبطش بها ورجله التي يمشي بها وإن سألني لأعطينه ولئن استعاذني لأعيذنه وما ترددت عن شيء أنا فاعله ترددي عن نفس المؤمن يكره الموت وأنا أكره مساءته
ولا يزال عبدي يتقرب إلي بالنوافل حتى أحبه، فإذا أحببته كنت سمعه الذي يسمع به وبصره
الذي يبصر به، ويده التي يبطش بها ورجله التي يمشي بها،
My servant does not cease to approach Me through voluntary worship until I will love him. When I love him, I will become the ears with which he hears, the eyes with which he sees, the hand with which he acts, and the legs with which he walks (and other versions include, “and the tongue with which he speaks.”). (Hadith Qudsi, Bukhari)
‘One hand’ is from nawafil: do a lot of voluntary worship prayers. We can count many, not obligations as you have to do those, but through voluntary worship. Allah says, “I will love you.” When you love someone you connect, the connection is there. Many young men and women make a connection when they are in love. What do you think about the love of the shaykh, of Prophet (s) and love of Allah? It is completely different. “I will love you.” If Allah loves, what will He give? Will He give perfume, a jacket, a shirt or money? Jabal Uhud came to Prophet (s) and said, “Allah sent me and with one ishaarah from you I will turn it into gold and you do whatever you want with that wealth.” He said, “No,” because he wants to take his ummah to Paradise! When Allah loves, what will He give? “I will be his ears and the power that other people cannot hear. I will make him hear things that he cannot hear.”
Just now I was there and he said, “This microphone is better. He gave me an order.”
I said, “Why?”
He said, “This one has a different sound.”
Is it not? Yes, so it means every microphone has a sound, clear, unclear, different frequencies. Okay, we accept the different frequencies. Then, who can declare or who can dare to claim that he really reads the Qur'an according to what Allah wants? No one! Did we hear whose sound are we hearing when listening to the Qur'an? It might be that he does not even have wudu. How is the sound? `Aimmah, our `ulama throughout history, whose sound were they hearing? The imams’. And whose sounds the imams were hearing? The Sahaabah’s. And then whose sounds were they hearing? Is it the same as the imams hearing the Sahaabah (r) or what the Sahaabah heard from Rasoolullah (s)? And what kind of musical, heavenly sound did the Prophet (s) hear from Jibreel (a) and what sound was Prophet (s) hearing after he went to Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa?
So how we can say ‘greatest reciter of Qur'an?’ You cannot stand there (claiming that) and out of humbleness Sayyidina Muhammad (s) didn’t say, “Yaa Rabbee, I don’t want Jibreel.” We think when we read the Qur'an we are the best, thinking, “Oh, you are last in class, to drop your class is better.” Even the best reciter, may Allah bless him and give him a better voice, cannot know how Prophet (s) was reciting to the Sahaabah (r) and how Jibreel (a) was reciting to Prophet (s), and reciting every letter with a musical voice and every verse with a musical voice. Allahu Akbar! So what will Allah will give? He will give power to your ears to hear something that no one hears! He will be your eyes that you can see with; you can see things that no one can see! He will be your tongue that you can speak with, He will be your hand that you can touch with, and He will give power to your feet to walk in the Way of Allah (swt). May Allah (swt) make us to walk on Siraat al-Mustaqeem with the guidance of our shaykh, may Allah give him long life!
Before I left, two or three days ago, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) cried and said, “Hisham, I miss them.”
I was thinking, “Missed whom?”
“I miss them," he said and his tears come easily. He made me and Hajjah Naziha cry, because always he is crying but this was different. When he said, "I miss them, I want to be with them."
I asked, “Whom, Sayyidee?”
He said, "My mureeds, I miss them. Send my salaams.”
I said, “Sayyidee, our salaam is nothing compared to your salaams! May Allah give you shifaa’ that you sit and speak with them.”
Sometimes Allah (swt) puts awliyaullah in a state that they cannot open to everyone or they faint, like the example of Sayyidina Musa and what happened. I saw that level, that state in Grandshaykh (q), may Allah bless his soul. Mawlana made me really feel sad or down too much when he said, "I miss them," which shows how much love he has for them. He doesn't want anyone to be harmed, not just in dunya but in Akhirah, to intercede for them in the presence of Prophet (s), “Yaa Rasoolullah! They are my followers and they are your ummah.” That is why it was really a sad scene, because if he said, "I miss angels," we can understand, or, "I miss Prophet," you can understand because he is near, he is with Prophet (s) and you can understand. “I miss to be a good servant to my Lord,” every wali says that, every `alim says that and Prophet (s) said that. But when he said, "I miss them" and referred to the followers, it shows how much love there is to his followers, that if you put that love on a mountain it will become ashes!
Grandshaykh `AbdAllah (q) said one time, “One yearning for the appearance of Mahdi (a), asking Allah for him to appear, if you put that fire in his heart on the mountain it will become ashes.” That is for him (Mahdi) to come and fix the problem. It is Allah’s iraada, when He wants. So to say, “I miss them,” really, I didn't understand at the beginning before explaining, but then when you understand that he misses his mureeds and would like to be with them, before explaining that, because he said it later, “my mureeds,” I thought he was saying, “I miss Grandshaykh, I want to be with him,” which means intiqaal, “I want to leave dunya,” but he said, “I miss my mureeds, I want to be down with them in the masjid.” Allahu Akbar!
Then he said, “Hisham, don't leave them without giving them a naseeha, an advice. Are you going to give suhbah?”
I said, “Yes Sayyidee, alhamdulillah.”
This is for every representative when he goes there, not to sit without giving naseeha, because Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) likes always for his mureeds to remember about his life.
What a great book Shaykh Khaldun has put about miracles of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim. Do you still have it around? [Itiba`ah.] Inshaa-Allah. It will be good to have these miracles back...I have some copies, but it is a nice book to read. Also, there are a lot more and if he can collect them it will be great. All mureeds of different shuyookh spoke about their teachers and their miracles, but unfortunately, we did not give Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) his right, but with his barakah and with his love, may Allah forgive us.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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