14 July 2014 Fenton Zawiya, Michigan
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.
As-Salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh. In the previous session we were speaking about how to find the Warith al-Muhammadi, the Inheritor of the Prophet (s), because in every time there is an Inheritor of the Prophet (s) and it is very difficult to know that one, but there are some hints telling you what you have to look for in a person who is sincere and pious, and you will see these qualifications in him.
We said before he has to have four different qualifications:
1. He must be a knower in obligations which is Shari`ah, salaat, siyaam, zakaat and Hajj, Tawheed.
2. He must be an expert in Tazkiyyat an-Nafs, Purification of the Self, and what kind of approach the mureed has to follow in order to reach the state of Ma`rifah and to clean and purify himself.
3. An yakoona `arifun bi-Llah, “He must be a Knower of Allah (swt),” knowing Allah swt's Beautiful Names and Attributes and their Realities that he can get from the Prophet (s).
4. He must have permission to give guidance to his mureeds from his shaykh, in order that he can sit on that post.
So we explained the first two and now we have to go to the third and fourth, which I will mention briefly.
The Warith al-Muhammadi is an Expert in Tazkiyyat an-Nafs
The third one is Tazkiyyat an-Nafs, to purify the ego from Shaytan and make himself far from being his target. He cannot say, “I am perfect,” not the murshid, not even the shaykh, not even the Warith Muhammadi, because perfection is only for the Prophet (s). But he has to follow someone who is, in his eyes, reaching the way that can take him to presence of the Prophet (s), to be perfect, and that is why it needs lot of experience and a lot of prayers and worship.
He needs to be trained under a murshid and when he trains himself under a murshid then he will know all the defects in himself. I will mention a story from Grandshaykh (q). There was someone in his country, Daghestan, who was a wrestler, a very big body builder and a wrestler that he can knock anyone down and he had a big ego. When Allah wants to guide, He can make it easy for you to find the murshid. That is why we have to always submit to Allah’s Will and at the same time we are doing our awraad, our rituals, our dhikr, our obligations, but always submitting to Allah's Will concerning others: not to fight with others, to be patient with others, to extend one's hand to the others. That is all training, like coming and sitting after Fajr and listening to an advice, it is training.
The Prophet (s) used to go with his Sahaabah (r) after Fajr until Ishraq time towards Jabal Uhud for training and he gave them advice and he gave them suhbah and he gave them instructions and they applied it to themselves. It takes time, it is not in one day that you become a murshid, it takes time. It is not that easy, they have to test you, they do many, many tests on you to find if you are patient, always moving forward, not paying attention to anyone.
Story of Grandshaykh’s Smelly Soup
I will give an example that happened with me. We usually travelled every night or every other night from our country, Lebanon, to Syria to pray tahajjud with Grandshaykh (q) and after we prayed with him he does dhikr until Ishraaq and then we went back. It was not easy coming and going, it was difficult because there were borders, customs, immigration, where they checked you going and coming from Lebanon to Syria. Every day he put food, but one day he said, “Don’t go, as I am cooking for you a special food.” And we had to go back as we were studying for university. But what to do? He told us to stay and he cooked the food, Mawlana Grandshaykh (q) himself. And usually Daghestani people like lamb meat, and he cooked it with all the fat, not like some countries, mashaa-Allah, that they remove the fat, saying it causes cholesterol. Now scientists found that the fat stabilizes the meat and does not allow it to become cholesterol.
But the house was so smelly from the meat. You couldn’t breathe due to that smell, I thought it might be some rotten meat, many days under the sun and there were no fridges. He brought it and put it on the table and took his sleeves and rolled them up and said, “Y’Allah, bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem!” and took the meat into pieces, Bismillah! And we looked at the meat there were hundreds of maggots swimming in the ocean of soup of the meat. What you say, no? You have to eat it! And at that moment, he said, “Y’Allah, bismillah” and there was one shaykh there, I won’t mention his name, and he was looking at us and we were looking at him and he nodded his head to say, “Eat.” What to eat? You cannot bring it to your mouth! It was so smelly, the whole house was smelling and the worms were coming on our hands, there was no fork or spoon to eat with, so all these worms were coming on our hands and the meat was full of worms, and Grandshaykh (q) said, “Eat!” He wanted to see how far we can go.
We took the meat with the maggots and put it in our mouths and until it reached our mouth it was so smelly and when we put it in our mouths all the maggots disappeared from the soup, all the smell was gone and there was only the very nice smell of meat soup! So they put you through these tests to see if you reject or not. If we had said, “No, we cannot eat,” we might be fired. We did it, but we struggled a lot to take a piece, but he was happy.
And so that is a struggle, not in science, but to train you in eating anything they offer you. The Prophet (s) never rejected a food. He never said, “I like this,” or “I don't like this.” What they put in front of him he ate and if he didn't like it he ate the bread he had--they had bread at that time, no rice. Never he said, “I like this and don't like this.” Whatever they give him, it is Allah's ni`mat and he takes.
This is the sickness of the nafs of the ego, too many sicknesses and gossips to you and Shaytan knows how to trap you. The shaykh who is training you, al-Waarith al-Muhammadi, the head murshid knows how to take you in ways that Shaytan cannot attack you to reach the other side of the shore. They navigate you today to reach an address, these navigation systems now, they take you a way that you will reach quickly and easily and today they tell you if there is police or not or if there is traffic jam or not in order to take you from another way quickly. The wali knows all kinds of shortcuts and he knows all the navigation, the spiritual navigation system that takes you from right to left or left to right. He knows that in order to take you.
Grandshaykh’s Story of the Wrestler
The other story, of Grandshaykh (q), they have this huge wrestler in time of Shaykh Sharafuddin (q). If Allah wants He guides, like He guides converts to Islam, through many means and ways. So Allah threw in that wrestler's heart to seek Tazkiyyat an-Nafs, the purification of the self. So what to do? At that time the most famous shaykh in the village was Shaykh Sharafuddin (q), Great-Grandshaykh, who was at the same time the uncle of Grandshaykh (q) `AbdAllah Fa`iz ad-Daghestani. He said, “Where is that shaykh?” without saying his name even, out of the pride of his ego. They said, “He is in the mountain in his seclusion.” He went. Who was guiding him? Allah making him to move in this way. And he reached and Shaykh Sharafuddin (q) came out to see him. He had one dagger here and one sword there and one gun here. He said, “I want baya`!” And his hat, as that time they always wore hats, was like that [crooked] and he said, “I want baya`.” And Great-Grandshaykh (q) looked at his heart, as the Prophet (s) said:
اتَّقُوا فِرَاسَةَ الْمُؤْمِنِ فَإِنَّهُ يَنْظُرُ بِنُورِ اللَّهِ
Ittaqoo firasat al-mumin fa innahu yanzhuru bi nooorillah.
Beware of the believer's intuition, for indeed he sees with Allah's Light.
(Narrated Abu Sa`eed Al-Khudri, Tirmidhi)
“Beware the gaze of the mu’min because he sees with the Gaze of Allah's Heart.” He looked and found him kaana saadiqan fee talab amrihi, “Honest in looking for that;” if not he would have kicked him out. He said in that moment coming to him from his shaykhs, Abu Muhammad al-Madani (q) and Sayyid Jamaluddin al-Ghumuqi (q), they said, “He is honest in his intent.” So he said to him, “Tomorrow I will teach you spirituality, how to uplift yourself, how to take all the defects from your heart, but now you rest.” He gave him a mattress and he slept.
The next morning he told him, “I want you to go to the village and you will immediately see a man carrying on his shoulder the intestines and stomachs of meat. And sometimes they eat and sometimes they sell them. You come from his back and hit him on his neck.”
And he said, “Oh! Tariqah is nice! If it is from the beginning to beat people up, that is good to follow.”
Wa dawihi bi-llatee kanat hiyya ad-da`oo he was “treating him with his own poison.” He has that poison to beat up and wrestle people and the shaykh was giving him an example from that. He didn’t ask, “How did he know that man will be in the city?” or, “How will I find that man?” when the shaykh said, “You go to the center of the city and you will find that man.” No questions! Not like someone who says, “Oh, it’s closed,” or gives an excuse or passes the work to someone else.
O Muslims! May Allah (swt) purify us as everything is in His Hands. The Prophet (s) said:
من قال لا اله الا الله دخل الجنة
Man qaala laa ilaaha illa-Llah dakhal al-Jannah.
Whoever says ‘Laa ilaaha illa-Llah’ enters Paradise.
This is good tidings for all Muslims. Then on the side is the Purification of the Self that Prophet (s) came with:
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 these are the good manners beside the obligations [on Qiyamah]. So that wrestler was happy and said, “It’s easy for me to go and beat up some people and come back and take baya`.” So he went into the city and as soon as he entered he saw that man carrying intestines and stomaches, smelly. With his hand, he hit him on his neck and the man looked at him and he was very angry with him, but he did not fight back. Then he hit him a second time and the man fell down; still he looked very angry with him, but he didn’t fight back, and the wrestler was surprised as his hands had the power of 200 kilos, a few hundred pounds, and that man did not say anything, although the stomaches and intestines were spoiled and falling all over him, but he did not say a word.
He left that man and came back to Great-Grandshaykh Sharafuddin (q), who asked, “How was it?”
The wrestler said, “Yaa Sayyidee! I saw something I never saw before. I saw someone and when I beat him he did not do anything.”
Great-Grandshaykh (q) said, “Okay, you rest now, we’ll talk about it later,” like Sayyidina al-Khidr (a) and Sayyidina Musa (a):
قَالَ إِنَّكَ لَن تَسْتَطِيعَ مَعِيَ صَبْرًا
Qaala innaka lan tastatee`a ma`iya sabran.
(The other) said: "Verily you will not be able to have patience with me! (Surat al-Kahf, 18:67)
So that was too much for him, a wrestler beating up someone who is innocent and he rested. In the evening Shaykh Sharafuddin (q) said, “We’ll see tomorrow what to do.” In the morning after Ishraaq he (q) said to the wrestler, “Today go downtown and you will see a similar person carrying meat on his shoulders. Beat him on his back.”
He said to the shaykh, “Wa ‘Llahi yaa shaykh! I never saw a shaykh like you. You know me very well. I like that! I will beat him up, why not? I take the order.”
The order came to Shaykh Sharafuddin (q) from his shuyookh, “This one is trustworthy and we need him for Tariqat as he will bring many people in Daghestan to Islam.” He was a famous wrestler.
He went to the market, he never said “no” to Shaykh Sharafuddin (q) or question, “What is this beating? I did not come here to beat people, I came here to learn and you are sending me to beat people?” So he went and beat that one, who immediately fell down with all he was carrying on top of him, and looked at the wrestler and smiled. The first one got upset. The second one was looking at him, smiling, laughing, as if to say, “No problem! You want to beat me one, two, three times? Go ahead, I am smiling.” And the wrestler got upset, because usually in his life when he hit someone they got angry and fought back, but here he was hitting people and they weren’t say anything!
He went back to Shaykh Sharafuddin (q) and said, “One was angry, but not saying anything and the other is laughing at me saying, ‘More, no problem!’ I don't understand what is this Tariqah? I beat the first one and he was sad, then I beat the second one and he was happy?”
Shaykh Sharafuddin (q) said, “You sleep now, tomorrow we will send you somewhere else.” The next day he (q) said, “Today you go and see an old man with an ox, he is plowing and putting his feet on the plow and moving the ox forward. Go there. That man is in his 70s. Go and beat him on his back until the stick breaks.”
The wrestler said, “Allahu Akbar! That is the top of my happiness!” But he felt bad for the man; however, he saw the man and hit him with the stick and without looking back, the old man pushed the plow to make it move faster. Then he hit the man a second time and the man pushed the plow harder. On the third time the stick broke and then the man ran to him, kissed his hands and said, “Sorry I made your hands hurt! Forgive me on the Day of Judgment as I didn’t mean it! Allah has sent you to me to perfect me from my sins by beating me up to correct me.”
Now this time the wrestler went back to Shaykh Sharafuddin (q) and said, “Finished, now I want baya`! The first one was angry, second one was laughing, third one I beat him up and he didn’t say anything, just pushed the plow! That’s too much. Now I need to know the answer!”
Shaykh Sharafuddin (q) said, “Yaa waladee, O my son, I will tell you the answer, come with me.” He took the wrestler to the garden to some apple trees andsaid, “Take this stone and hit the branch where there are many apples.”
The wrestler threw the stone and hit the branch and many apples fell.
He said, “Count them.” The wrestler counted ten apples. “So now I will explain to you. The first one is a beginner, so when you hit him he got angry. You must not get angry in Tariqah, but your ego is making you angry. His ego did not accept what you did, but since he is in Tariqah he accepted what you did. The second one was musta`id, a prepared one, and when you hit him he smiled, to say he is looking from far away, saying to me, ‘O shaykh, I know you are sending these tests.’ It means still he has ego and pride, to say to his shaykh, ‘I know that is you. I am smiling, I don’t get angry.’ That is still pride and arrogance in the heart. And the third one is a mureed, he already has his baya`. When you hit him he hit the plow, which means he is saying, ‘Someone came from my shaykh to correct me, means I am not plowing well so I have to work harder,’ so he pushed on the plow. The third time, when the stick broke he felt that he was hurting your hand, because you are correcting him and he doesn’t want you to come on the Day of Judgment and say to Allah (swt), ‘He hurt me, I want my rights!’ So he is a mureed. The first one is Beginner, second one is Prepared, third is Mureed.”
The wrestler said, “Yaa Sayyiddee, I surrender! But what about the tree you told me to hit with the stone?”
He said, “Look what you did: you hit the tree with the stone, you wounded the tree, the branch, and what it did in return? It gave you ten apples. That means if you kill the ego, Allah (swt) will give you ten rewards, and no one knows how big these rewards are except Allah.”
This means if anyone hurts you don't hurt him, then Allah will keep rewarding you ten hasanaat as much you are patient. I say now, look at ourselves! I don't think anyone fits in this category. All of us are angry, not patient, proud, and I am saying for this group, I don’t want the others to say we are interfering, but we are examples of others. So what we have to do? Only the shaykh knows how to take you out of this kind of anger. He knows the defect and the sickness of this wrestler, he has nothing bad except anger and pride that he is a wrestler. So the shaykh will show you the way to the fourth level and we leave that to tomorrow; that is the certificate the shaykh will give to you, the Ijazah. So what is the meaning of Ijazah, we leave that ‘til tomorrow.
Wa min Allahi ‘t-tawfeeq bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
So you learn how to keep your anger down and carry the tests of the shaykh. There were four being tested, the wrestler and the three: Beginner; the second was ready, Musta`id; and the third was Mureed. I don't think we fit in there even! If someone hits you on the back, what do you do? You hit back or you curse. The first one was sad, angry, but said nothing and only showed it in his face. The second one was smiling, showing he knew what is wrong with him, his ego was playing with him. So the wrestler came with honesty, that he wants the truth, and had he not come with honesty he would not have been put through such tests. He came with the intention of joining the Tariqat and then Shaykh Sharafuddin (q) gave him the baya`.
Today it is open with rahmah, Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil (q) opened the baya` for everyone with no llimitations, no framework, no “fits in or not” and that is purely from rahmah. They open the baya` to carry you, but you have to struggle on that way of experience. Also the shaykh has gone through that and knows the defects, so you go through that to reach the Golden Chain. Tomorrow we will mention the sanad; what you can consider the sanad, as the hadith of the Prophet (s) has a chain, sanad, of relaters and if it has no sanad it is not acceptable. So the sanad is the record of that one said it to that one, who said it to that one...back to Prophet (s). We will continue that fourth condition tomorrow.
Wa min Allah at-tawfeeq bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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