Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani
Fajr Suhbah at CSCA
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`ala fee haadha 'l-masjid.
Dastoor yaa Sayyidee, madad!
In every suhbat we have to ask the one who has support, as without support the naseeha is not real advice; it will still be an advice, but with no light in it. When we ask for support, we show we are in need for them, and they come to us with power, sending to our hearts what to say.
Ati`oollah wa ati`oo 'r-rasoola wa ooli 'l-amri minkum
Obey Allah, obey the Prophet, and obey those in authority among you. (4:59)
As soon as we say, “ati`ullah, obey Allah,” from the power of that ayah Allah (swt) will immediately dress us as if we have obeyed Him on everything! In Holy Qur’an every letter has oceans of knowledge. As Grandshaykh (q) and Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) said, with every letter of the Holy Qur’an, even if it is repeated hundreds or thousands of times, Allah opens 24,000 oceans of knowledge to His awliyaullah, which they keep hidden. They give to their followers little by little, like giving from a dropper. They give a little bit to the hearts of their listeners and continue to upload that until one day Allah (swt) will give permission to fully open it to the hearts of their mureeds, perhaps when they are leaving dunya.
As soon as you say, “ati`oollah, obey Allah,” it has a power and a secret. There are 500 maamoorat, obligations that Allah ordered us to fulfill, and 800 manhiyyaat, forbiddens that we must leave. How to count and follow 500 orders and leave 800 forbidden actions? If you repeat that word alone, “ati`oollah, ati`oollah, ati`oollah,” reminding yourself with it, then Allah (swt) will completely dress you as if you have fulfilled all 500 obligations and left the 800 forbiddens. Allahu Akbar! Then you continue with, “ati`oo 'r-Rasool, obey the Prophet,” and with Allah’s order, Prophet (s) will dress you with all his sunnah, voluntary actions, and in the meaning of Khaatam ar-Rasool, “Seal of Prophets,” as if you have obeyed him from beginning to end! When you recite, “wa ooli 'l-amri minkum, and those who are on authority,” Allah will give you safety from the `ulama of Islam and the normal authorities, so that you will never experience any problems with them, neither political or religious.
That is why Grandshaykh (q) ordered us to write down that ayah (4:59), and he began each suhbat with it: Ati`oollaha wa ati`oo 'r-Rasoola wa ooli 'l-amri minkum. If we recite this 100 times a day, we will gain safety from Hellfire and safety in dunya from any problems. Allah (swt) will be happy with you and dress you as if you have done the 500 obligations and left all 800 forbiddens, and Prophet (s) will also dress you with his sunnah! Then someone with eyes that can see will see you are dressed with angelic power, as angels are always in worship, in prayer, in sajdah, or doing tasbeeh. So any wali who looks at you will see you as angelic, and you will not be less than that. In fact, in the eyes of a wali you will be higher than that, and this is only by reciting, “Ati`oollaha wa ati`oo 'r-Rasoola wa ooli 'l-amri minkum.”
See Allah’s mercy on His servants! Unfortunately we forget and we don't follow it and this is our problem: we don’t keep what Allah wants from us. Don't think that an ayah from the Holy Qur’an does not have secrets. We read the ayah and think it has only one literal meaning, but every letter of the ayah has 24,000 oceans of knowledge! If all of you here are awliya and let’s say there are 100 people and everyone is a wali, as there are 124,000 walis, Allah will open to each one of you 24,000 oceans of knowledge for each letter, and it will be different from each person depending on the level of that person, as Allah (swt) said:
لاَ يُكَلِّفُ اللّهُ نَفْسًا إِلاَّ وُسْعَهَا
laa yukallifullahu nafsan illa wusa`haa,
Allah does not burden any soul more than it can bear. (Suratu ‘l-Baqarah, 2:286)
Allah will not put on you more than you can take. If your intake is stronger than someone else’s, you will be dressed with higher knowledge and more power than him, but if he is higher, he will be dressed higher than you. So everyone will be dressed in a different way; it depends on how big is the container in the heart. If the container is big you will get more; if it is small you will get less. But in either case you receive by reciting, “Ati`oollaha wa ati`oo 'r-Rasoola wa ooli 'l-amri minkum.”
Now when you recite the first time, you will be dressed one time; when you recite the second time, you will be dressed two times, but this time it will be higher than the first, because you are repeating. Allah is not poor; He does not need to make a copy of the first. In the first time you will get whatever you will get of knowledge and spirituality, but in the second, third, or forth time you recite, Allah will open to you different than before and every time you recite it will be different. “Ati`oollaha wa ati`oo 'r-Rasoola wa ooli 'l-amri minkum,” is the head of all worship--`ibadaat, beliefs, `itiqaadaat, and daily activities, mu`amalaat--as to obey Allah (swt) and His Prophet (s) is Islam. Everything that is included in jami`ah is in that verse, so if you obey that will include everything.
When you recite it, Allah (swt) is dressing you from the Ocean of Obedience, which never ends, because in every moment angels are in obedience to Allah. Allah will also dress you from the angels, and whatever tajalli He dresses them through their obedience, the angels will dress you. Each angel is different than the other, so if Allah (swt) ordered angels to dress you by reciting, “Ati`oollaha wa ati`oo 'r-Rasoola wa ooli 'l-amri minkum,” then you will be dressed in an infinite number of dresses.
So don’t forget to recite daily, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem. Ati`oollaha wa ati`oo 'r-Rasoola wa ooli 'l-amri minkum,” as that will be your ticket to Heavens, not to the first or second Heaven, but to be with Prophet (s), because you are obeying!
Allah (swt) dresses you with that obedience when you are saying, “Yaa Rabbee! We are obeying You, we are obeying Your Prophet (s), and those whom You have ordered us to obey.” That will turn your whole day into a worshipping day, as if you have worshipped the complete 24 hours, because Allah (swt) orders angels to fill up all nuqsaaniyya, deficiencies. So on the next day, when you recite another one-hundred times, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem. Ati`oollaha wa ati`oo 'r-Rasoola wa ooli 'l-amri minkum,” you will be dressed again, as if you worshipped twenty-four hours a day. Everyday you will be dressed again and again. When you leave dunya, all of this will be uploaded to your heart and you will take them with you.
Sayyidina Abdul Qadir Jilani (q) said, haadhihi ‘d-dunya soukun bid`aa sa`atin laa yabqaa feehee ahad, “This world is like a market of a few hours where you can buy anything you like, but at the end no one remains in it." He compared this dunya to a street market where you can buy anything you like, but at the end you will leave it. So we run all the day to gain something: if it is in obedience to Allah (swt) and His Prophet (s), you will win akhirah, but if it is not in the way of Allah and His Prophet, then there is a question mark.
May Allah give Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) long life, because he taught us how to save ourselves, when he said, “Who is going to pass by the street markets while his eyes are not attracted to its displays? Everyone looks inside the shops to see what they are selling, saying, ‘If there is something nice, I will buy; if there is something good, I will take.” Our eyes are attracted to that which will stay in dunya. So in order to make it easy for us, Allah (swt) said, “Recite, ‘ati`oollah,’” as reciting it alone has secrets, and saves us from the street markets.
That is why awliyaullah’s knowledge is completely different from knowledge of academics or scholars. Scholars follow qeela wa qaala, "he said, she said." They rely on footnotes. If you write a book with no footnotes, it will not be important to them. If there are no footnotes, if it was not said before them, then it is not important. For example, they speak of modernity or civilization and believe in every ten years there is modernization of the community. That is why they are so civilized, mashaa-allah, now that they have YouTube and Facebook to watch all kind of haraam! So the civilization which they say is evolving and provides you a much better life, as that increases, similarly, we can also say when you are looking for akhirah, it evolves level after level, going higher and higher, with which Allah will be dressing you.. So awliyaullah know there is progress in the hearts of people by reciting some verses of the Holy Qur’an, because not everyone is going to recite all the verses of Holy Qur’an. They know our weaknesses, so they give us one verse which has all the secrets!
Grandshaykh (q) said, (...video cut...) and he died in those clothes, long white ones, and I saved them until today. So sunnah is to be dressed in loose-fitting clothes; any loose dress is considered sunnah. However, wearing loose dress does not mean you reached high spiritual levels, but to have discipline and akhlaaq, good character, is important.
رب اشعث اغبر لو اقسم على الله لأبره
rubba ash`ath aghbara law aqsama `ala allahi la-abbarah.
There may be a disheveled, dusty person who, if he swears an oath by Allah, Allah will fulfill it. (Muslim)
Someone from a forest or desert may be smelly, dusty, and his hair is greasy, and you look at such a person and think he is homeless, but Prophet (s) said, “There could be someone like that, tbut if he asks Allah (swt) for anything, He will immediately respond to his prayer.” His du`a is accepted like lightning! If he asks anything from Allah, He gives. So don't look at a homeless person, or to anyone, with disgust because he might be a wali coming to check you.
Islam is purity, discipline, and goodness. You may dress however you want, but is your character good? It is not only dunya, dunya, dunya; we have to have naqad dhaatiyy, self-criticism, in order to improve. This tariqah is not founded on money and business. There are some whose only thought is how to make a business out of being students of Mawlana Shaykh, how to fill their pockets and for them it is like a market. Try to avoid such greediness, and try to be like that dusty, curly-haired one who, if he asks anything from Allah, Allah will give him! That is what takes you to Akhirah to be saved.
We are asking, “Yaa Rabbee! We are weak servants, forgive us! Yaa Sayyidee, yaa Rasoolullah! We ae weak among your ummah, help us! O awliyaullah! Help us and guide us to door of the Prophet (s). The door to Prophet is Akhirah and the door to dunya is money: choose, which one do you want?
Yaa Allah! Show us the right door.
To give money in way of Allah (swt) is very acceptable. Allah might even clean that money for you if it was earned in a doubtful way because you are helping. If you are looking after your family, your wife and parents, or help build a mosque, that is okay. Do as much as you can, because the intention to give is in your heart, but to cheat and build up your wealth on the name of Islam and, Allah (swt) and the Prophet (s0, and on the name of Mawlana Shaykh is dangerous! We ask forgiveness. We are weak servants and might fall sometimes, but we ask that they help us.
Everything is built on good character and good manners. If someone has lost them, truly he is lost. Look at this one (mureed). SubhaanAllah, he never changed since I knew him. He is very humble and has very good character. He doesn’t raise his voice and he shows respect to all. With the fitna going around, with all what has been said here and there, he is safe, like the one whom I mentioned yesterday: a Sahaabi (r) ate with Muawiya and prayed with Sayyidina `Ali (r). The people asked, “What is this?” He said, “Sayyidina `Ali’s prayer will go to Paradise directly; therefore, I am praying in Paradise, and with Muawiya I am eating the best food.”
So they try to make fitna but they are not successful. The shaykh can test and appoint anyone, and our sole duty is to accept, not to deny. It might be a test, who knows? Snd there is not only one wali in the world, there are 124,000 awliya; there is not one powerful person and the rest are finished. So if the shaykh says, "I want this one in this place to be khalifah, to carry responsibility in this area," we have to understand what it means. So when Mawlana Shaykh Nazim said that Shaykh Muhammad is in Sham, I called Mawlana and said, "Congratulations!"
He asked, “For what?”
I said, “For Muhammad, Mawlana”
He was so happy, and said, "Are you happy?"
I said, “Of course I’m happy Mawlana!”
When the shaykh says something, you must say “alhamdulillah” and make him happy. You lose nothing. Mawlana is the sultan sitting and we are happy going around the world calling people to him.
So what is the big issue? If he is says, “This one represents me as my deputy,” we say, “Yes!” What we are losing? But they want to make fitna. I am not yet opening my machine gun. (laughter) I am keeping quiet because what is the benefit? Stupid, ignorant people have no sense of spirituality and are after money only. Let them eat it in Hellfire! By their wrong actions, here they are preparing the wood that will feed the fire of Hell to burn them! Those who are creating fitna, separation and division, what do they benefit?
Allah (swt) said:
وَاعْتَصِمُواْ بِحَبْلِ اللّهِ جَمِيعًا وَلاَ تَفَرَّقُواْ
w`atasimoo bi hablillahi jami`ayya wa laa tafaraqoo.
Hold fast to Allah's rope and don't separate. (Aali-`Imraan, 3:103)
Why are you making groups and trying to separate everyone? Whht is the benefit? If this one or that one is khalifah, what is going to change? Nothing! And you are making groups and groups for what? if I open my mouth to say what I know everyone will run away, then they know the truth. But I will not as it is not necessary. I know things no one knows! I have been with Mawlana Shaykh for fifty years and if I open my mouth (on specific events) no one will stay, but what is the benefit? We have to keep Mawlana Shaykh Nazim happy. He used to keep Grandshaykh happy because he said many times, "Please don't tell me something that makes me sad," so we have to make him happy.
May Allah forgive us and forgive everyone.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.