Isha Suhbah
A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytani ‘r-rajeem. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem. 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. Dastoor yaa Sayyidee, yaa Sultan al-Anbiyaa! Dastoor yaa Sayyidee, yaa Sultan al-Awliya! Dastoor yaa Sayyidee, yaa Qutb al-Mutassarif!
Nawaytu 'l-arba`een, nawaytu 'l-`itikaaf, nawaytu 'l-khalwah, nawaytu 'l-`uzlah,
nawaytu 'r-riyaada, nawaytu 's-salook,nawayna as-siyaam lillahi Ta`ala al-`Azheem fee hadha 'l-masjid.
Alhamdulillahi Rabbi 'l-`Alameen, we give our thanks to Allah (swt) that He granted us to recite what our shuyookh recited. He honored us by making us go on their Way; whatever way they have traveled we are going down that way. They have seen what happens when we go down this road.
Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil (q), may his gaze be upon us this evening, said, “If it were up to me, I would choose khalwah and `uzlah so that nobody knows me.”
When we sit to recite, we intend seclusion and isolation, but do we really? Everyone can check their hearts. Mawlana Shaykh (q) said, “If it were up to me,” and their words are Haqq, they don’t lie, “I intend seclusion and isolation,” which means that no one knows us, no one thinks about us, we are intending isolation and seclusion. Are we? All Tariqah people can ask themselves, are we really intending isolation and seclusion? If we are, we would want to be unknown, hattaa laa ya`rifoonee ahad, “I don’t want anyone to know me (because I am really serious in my intention of isolation and seclusion.)”
Why did Mawlana Shaykh (q) say that? What did Sayyida Maryam (a) say? She was a worshipper, `abida, she was always worshiping her Lord and she said while giving birth to her child:
فَأَجَاءهَا الْمَخَاضُ إِلَى جِذْعِ النَّخْلَةِ قَالَتْ يَا لَيْتَنِي مِتُّ قَبْلَ هَذَا وَكُنتُ نَسْيًا مَّنسِيًّا
And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree. She cried (in her anguish), "Ah! would that I had died before this! Would that I had been a thing forgotten and out of sight!" - 19:23
She asked that (if only) she had died before this and that she could be a thing forgotten! We have to be true to our intention or else it does not work. If there is no battery in our car, how will it start? If there is no real intention, how will we be in khalwah and isolation? But when Mawlana Shaykh (q) says this he is true to his word, according to the Hadith:
أولياء الله تحت قبابي لا يعلمهم غيري
My saints are under My domes; no one knows them except Me. (Hadith Qudsi)
Mawlana is true to his word: he does not want anyone to know him. That Hadith Qudsi explains who the saints are: the ones who no one knows except Allah (swt). Sayyida Maryam (a) said, “I wish I were a thing forgotten.” To be a saint, we have to be true to our intention. Who is Nour, who is Ishaq, who is `Ali? Did not Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) disappear one time when he left from Istanbul to go to Damascus? Where was he? He was in Aleppo and Homs and here and there, no one knew, not even his friends in Istanbul!
So that intention of the Saint, “I am with my Lord,” when no one knows us, it means our ego has been let go and we all say, “Let us leave our ego.’ Okay, how do we leave our ego, do we chop it or cut it off from somewhere? When you don’t let your ego seduce and entice you with the pleasure of the world, then you are cutting off your ego. When we say, “I am not going to allow anything of this life to enter my heart,” that means we are now cutting the ego off.
So when we leave everybody and cut them off, there is nothing more to enjoy in life. How do we enjoy life? We are with others. When you are alone you say, “I am bored.” It all makes sense: Tariqah is all common sense and real. We enjoy ourselves when we are with our brothers, when we are dining out, when we are traveling, but when you have no one with you, you are bored. To cut off the ego you have to stop enjoying what you like. you cannot let it enter the heart.
Then when Mawlana Shaykh (q) says, “I prefer seclusion,” it means, “I am no longer allowing my ego to enjoy.” That is key to sainthood and that is what we are trying to do by following Mawlana Shaykh, but unfortunately a lot of us are struggling with that.
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) said that when we reach such levels, and Allah (swt) dresses prophethood or sainthood on that person, they are seen as Haqq, Truth, which means Allah (swt) has dressed that person from His Attributes, no more of that person remains, he left the world and for him there is no more dunya. It means Allah (swt) is favoring him and the attributes of Haqq manifest on him and He becomes a manifestation of truth and that is why people flock to them: what they see and speak is truth.
That is the appearance of Anbiyaa, they are Mazhaahir al-Haqq, Representatives of Truth. That is Haqqani, no more a human being, that person has been dressed with the Attributes of Haqq, which is why the Prophet (s) said:
من رآني فقد رآني حقا
Whoever sees me has seen me in Truth (haqqan). (Bukhari)
أن تعبد الله كأنك تراه، فإن لم تكن تراه فإنه يراك
That you worship Allah as if you see Him, for, if you don't see Him, truly He sees you. (Bukhari)
But there is another way of reading that Hadith, in lam takun, literally, “If you are not seeing Him,” but if we stop at 'not', if you are ‘naught’, taraah, then you see Him, in lam takun. The Prophet (s) is teaching Saints, and these are not my words, these are Mawlana's words. That is why Sayyidina Musa (a) did not see His Lord, lan taraanee, “You will not see Me as long as you are present.” So when someone disappears from view, they disappear from themself. When we don’t have someone to compare ourself to, then we disappear. When you are alone, how can you say, “I am more beautiful than that one,” or, “I am better, richer… than that one. ” You don’t see yourself, it is finished. “I am a better shaykh than that shaykh. I am better scholar than that one, I am better person than that one,” there is no longer anyone in front of us to compare to. Then we don’t see ourselves: when we are ‘naught’ we see our Lord.
Prophet (s) saw his Lord and ‘how’ cannot be explained. That is an individual experience for each Saint. Tariqah is the path to nothingness. Okay, that is it, to be nothing. Mawlana Shaykh (q) said, “I want no one to know me.” Are we true to that seclusion or do we want to be known? The door to sainthood, the true intention of Khatm al-Khawajagan is not to be known by anyone, like Sayyida Maryam (a), who asked to be not known.
Let us truly follow them, that is what Mawlana said, “Let no one know me,” and that is the door to sainthood, that we intend true seclusion and isolation. “O our Lord, You show whomever You want to show. No one can oppose Your Decree. We only want to be on the footsteps of Your Habeeb (s), of your Saints. We say it, Ya Rabb, but we are too weak to be on footsteps of our shuyookh.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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