A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani 'r-rajeem. Bismillaahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem.
Alhamdulillahi Rabbi ‘l-`Alameen wa ‘s-salaatu wa ‘s-salaam `alaa Sayyidina Muhammadin wa `alaa alihi wa as-habihi ajma`een wa man tabi`ahu bi ihsanin illa Yaumi ‘d-deen wa `alaa sa’iri ‘l-Anbiya wa ‘l-mursaleen wa ‘l-Awliya wa `ibaadillahi ‘s-saliheen wa `alayna ma`ahum ajma`een, yaa Arhamu ‘r-Rahimeen.
Laa hawla wa laa quwatta illa billahi 'l-`Aliyyu 'l-`Azheem.
Nawayna al-arba`een, nawayna ‘l-itikaaf, nawayna ‘l-khalwa, nawayna ‘l-uzla, nawayna ‘r-riyaada, nawayna ‘s-siyaam, nawayna ‘s-sulook lillahi ta`ala ‘l-`Azheem fi hadha ‘l-masjid.
Dastoor, yaa Sayyidi, yaa Sultan al-Awliya. Dastoor, yaa Sayyidi wa Mawlay. Madad, yaa RijaalAlah.
Allah, Allah. Allah, Allah. Allah, Allah. `Azeez Allah.
Allah, Allah. Allah, Allah. Allah, Allah. Kareem Allah.
Allah, Allah. Allah, Allah. Allah, Allah. SubhaanAllah.
Allah, Allah. Allah, Allah. Allah, Allah. Sultan Allah.
Madad, yaa RijaalAllah. Bismillaahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem.
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi ta`ala wa barakaatuh.
Mashaa-Allah. May Allah (swt) increase the love of our shaykh in our hearts. May Allah (swt) make us look like them externally, carrying their noor, inshaa-Allah, and internally like them. It is said if you look at the face of your shaykh, it is `ibaadah. That is a Hadith of Rasoolullah (s). If you look at the face of the `alim, it is `ibaadah. If you look at the face of the Qur’an, just the mushaf, it is also `ibaadah, worship. If you look at the face of the parents, it is also worship. May Allah (swt) make us carry the noor of Qur’anu ‘l-Kareem, externally and internally, make us carry the noor of our shuyookh externally and internally.
That is what tariqah is. Tariqah is basically the internal aspect of Islam. We have neglected that. Human beings have neglected that. Muslims have neglected the internal aspect of Islam. They are into the external aspect and trying their best, alhamdulillah, and we are also trying our best externally, but there is an internal aspect to Islam is as well. That is what I opened when I wanted to see what I could read from Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q)’s suhbas. May Allah (swt) always keep us under his gaze.
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) said, when somebody visit Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (r), [whose name was] Khalid bin Zayd, Sayyidina Ayyub Sultan in Istanbul and they enter his holy maqam and say, “As-salamu `alayka wa rahmatullahi ta`ala wa barakatuh,” as Rasoolullah (s) taught us. He said, when you enter the cemetery to visit someone in their grave, you say, “As-salamu `alaykum, yaa ahlu ‘d-diyyaar.” Greet them. Send them salam. When they enter Hadrat Khalid bin Zayd (r), Sayyidina Ayyub al-Ansari and they say, “As-salamu `alayka wa rahmatullah ta`ala wa barakatu,” he looks at them from his maqam.
Awliyaullah look at you from where they are. Whenever you mention the name of Waliyullah, that Waliyullah is looking at you. You have to have that belief. When you mention the name of Rasoolullah (s), he is looking at you. Your greeting is reaching him because you are addressing him. Rasoolullah (s), when somebody sends salam to me, Allah (swt) will allow me to send salaam back to them.”
He also looks at you from his maqam. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) looks at you from his maqam. If you are not able to connect with him spiritually, it’s your fault. He is with you. Allah (swt) has given them that power. They are not muqayyad, prisoners. They are free to help whoever is in need externally and internally, physically and spiritually. When you call their names, they will reach you wherever you are. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) has said, Sayyidina Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (q) said, if you call me and you are in the mountains, I will reach you. If you call me and you are lost in the desert, I will reach you. If you are in the middle of the sea, I will reach you.”
Awliyaullah are free to give help to whoever calls them. Don’t forget that. Don’t think or don’t say, “My beloved cannot hear me. My beloved cannot reach me.” Don’t be a blind one. There are so many blind ones out there. Awliyaullah always reach you. If you have believed in Waliyullah, that he has guided you to the right path, be sure that he will continue to guide you in dunya, in qabr when you are giving your answers, he will guide you in Qiyamah when you stand up from your grave to go to what Allah (swt) has destined people to walk to, to the gathering, he will guide you there and he will guide you to the door of Jannah. He will take you to your maqam and from your maqam, you will be watching your beloved in Jannah. From your station in Jannah, from your palace in Jannah, you will see all the ones you love.
He said the dog of the People of the Cave, Ashabu ‘l-Kahf, is najis, dirty, but he will be purified because of his love to the People of the Cave, because of his love to Awliyaullah. These are all Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q)’s words. Because of his love to Awliyaullah, Allah (swt) will purify that najis kalb and allow him to be admitted to Jannah. He is one of the animals to enter Jannah. There are ten animals.
It doesn’t matter if you think you have not reached the level of Insaan Kamil, a Perfect Human. Don’t worry. Even if you are still a dirty one, full of dirty characteristics and dirty thoughts and ideas, if you keep your love to your beloveds, by the barakah of their love, you will be admitted to where they are. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) said that dog will be given a station in Jannah that wherever he turns, all he sees is his beloveds, the People of the Cave. He will see Ashabu ‘l-Kahf wherever he moves.
Don’t lose that love. Don’t be a blind one. Waliyullah looks at you whenever you mention his name. But if you don’t believe he is Waliyullah then there’s no need to call him. Why do you call him? What does a mayyit benefit another mayyit? How can a dead one benefit another dead one? How can a drowning one benefit another drowning one? They can’t. You have to have a lifeguard. If you believe that your shaykh was a lifeguard, swimming in the ocean of dunya, rescuing you by holding you--isn’t that what the lifeguard does? He says, “Submit to me. Keep flapping. Calm down. I got you.” Then I think you turn on your back and the lifeguard swims you to safety.
When you are in the ocean of dunya and you have found Waliyullah and that Waliyullah was telling you, “Submit to me. I will save you,” and you don’t submit to him, what happens? He will let you go because you can drown him too.
This happened in front of me one time where a person argued with Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q). He said, “Don’t do it,” but the man said, “No, I want to do it.”
“I’m warning you, don’t do it.”
“I will do it.”
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) said that Grandshaykh (q) told him, “Burak, leave him.”
If you do not submit to the lifeguard that is swimming you to safety, he will leave you because you are not compliant. Both of you might drown. He leaves you. The lifeguard doesn’t drown but you will drown and you will pull him down, so he leaves you.
Waliyullah that you have believed in has picked you up. The saint that you followed, the saint that you loved, whenever you mention his name, he will look at you from his maqam. He will continue to guide you if you are asking to reach safety. If you are not asking to reach safety, they will not guide you.
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q), may Allah (swt) bless him and raise his station higher and higher, if you love him, if you have believed in him, he will always be with you. He will never leave you. Mawlana Shaykh Hisham, the others, all Awliyaullah, whatever you believe that he is a true one, whoever you believe that he is the one to help me here and help me Hereafter, these ones don’t die. The one who dies is the blind one, the one who does not see in the darkness of this world.
I’ll read a little bit of what Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) said to understand how tariqah cleans you and addresses your internal being. Tariqah addresses your heart, it doesn’t address the outside too much. I heard from Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) that a person came to Sayyidina Abu Ahmad as-Sughuri (q), one of the grandshaykhs, the shaykh of Shaykh Sharafuddin (q). He asked him a Shari`ah question, “O my son. Two blocks from here there is a mosque. There is an imam. Go ask him that question.” If you’re asking Shari`ah, just Google whatever you want and you will find so many websites that will address what you need. He said, “But if you are asking for tariqah, I am here for tariqah. What you ask us is different and I will tell you how different it is.”
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) said that 35 imams of Sham, Damascus, came to visit Grandshaykh `AbdAllah ad-Daghestani (q). With them they had the grand imam of Jami` Al-Amawi, the famous Umayyad Mosque. Grandshaykh said, “If you did not pray, why don’t you go pray? You did not pray yet.”
They said, “Sir, we prayed. How can you say we did not pray? We prayed and we came up here.”
“O imam! Don’t talk to me like that. I don’t lie. You did not pray yet. I will tell you something and Allah (swt) will curse the liars. Which one of you until you reached my masjid here, did not look at a woman? Rasoolullah (s) has said, al-`aynu taznee. There is the zina of the eye.”
Have you ever heard of the zina of the eye? Tariqah addresses you internally. How many of us make zina by the eye, by the ear, by the tongue? Not the grand zina. That is known, but there is also other types of zina as Rasoolullah (s) has said. He said, after zina, you have to make ghusl or at least wudu.
He said, “Without ghusl, how can you come up front and lead people in prayer?” How many imams leave their homes and they’re looking right and left? Among the People of Reality or saints, the one who has looked at a foreign woman, and not only a foreign woman but also a foreign man, so the women should also not look at men. Where is it nowadays? Mashaa-Allah, our brothers in tariqah and Shari`ah and deen, all they do is look at the women and the women look at them, especially our brothers, the mureeds.
May Allah (swt) forgive us. The one who looks at the strange woman or man, which means what is not halal, they become adulterers with their eyes. They cannot pray before taking ghusl or at least renewing their wudu. This is our madhab, our way, following the words of Rasoolullah (s) who said the eye will make zina by looking.
He said, “Which one of you can say, ‘I did not look and I came to you, O shaykh’?” That is why tariqah is important. People don’t understand these hidden, subtle ways. That is what tariqah is about. It’s about cleaning and purifying your heart from zina, purifying your eyes from zina. The zina of the heart is when it moves towards dunya. The heart makes zina with dunya. These are some of the meanings you can find in tariqah, in the suhbahs of our shuyookh. When your heart muqubil `alaa dunya, iqbal.
Mashaa-Allah, so many people call their children Iqbal. ‘Iqbal’ means when you turn fully towards something, when you’re approaching something. When you turn your heart towards dunya and your heart is immersed in dunya, this is the zina of the heart with dunya. This is the spiritual zina. All of that has to be purified. The job of the shuyookh in tariqah is to purify you internally, not to tell you about the prayer and the fasting. Everybody knows that. Everybody can study that. It’s all over. Everybody knows. The true purification that you need to do, O Muslim, is clean up your heart.
Mashaa-Allah, the other day I was looking on YouTube. As usual, I get some feeds. I saw a lady singer in Jeddah. This was recently. I clicked to see what they are doing in Jeddah. What do you think they’re doing? Look at the ladies on the stage singing and all the men are looking. In our Way, that is not allowed. In tariqah you’re not allowed to do that. That is zina of the `ayn. The zina of the eye will lead to more. It will lead you to a way you don’t want to go. That’s why Allah (swt) says, wa laa taqraboo ‘z-zina.
وَلَا تَقْرَبُوا۟ ٱلزِّنَىٰٓ إِنَّهُۥ كَانَ فَـٰحِشَةً وَسَآءَ سَبِيلًا
Nor come nigh to adultery: for it is a shameful (deed) and an evil, opening the road (to other evils). (Surat al-Isra, 17:32)
Don’t approach. He didn’t say, “Don’t do it” only. Not only don’t do it but don’t even approach. Don’t even look. Don’t take that path down. Muslims need purification. Yes, you followed Shari`ah for 60, 70, 80 years and you were teaching all over the world. What happened? The heart was not pure. If the heart was pure, your limbs would not commit sins. You would not find it in you to move your eyes towards where Allah (swt) told you, “Don’t,” or to move your eyes towards where Rasoolullah (s) told you, “Don’t,” to move your eyes where your shaykh is telling you, “Don’t.”
That’s why Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) said, every time I used to go to Grandshaykh (q), I used to tell him, “Do you have any need? I am going down to the market.” Everyday. He said, “O my son! Go clean and pure, unharmed, unhurt and come back clean and pure, unharmed, unhurt. That’s what we need from you. I don’t want anything else except that you go down clean and come back unscathed, untouched, unharmed by the arrow of Iblees.” The look is an arrow of Iblees. If it strikes your heart, it poisons your heart. One look can poison your heart, so be careful. But if you do one look by mistake, Rasoolullah (s) said you’re forgiven. If you repeat it, it’s against you. The first one is okay. It will be erased.
They did not purify their hearts, they were only by the tongue. Look what’s happening nowadays. When a Muslim does not work on the inside, no matter what they do on the outside, it doesn’t work. After a while, they quit. That’s why we follow shuyookh. Grandshaykh (q) is saying it is not allowed in tariqah to look at a haram place, to a haram woman. Rasoolullah (s) said your eye will make zina by looking. They go to the subtlety of Islam. That’s why tariqah is the `Azeemah. It means you go deep into applying all that you know and all that you learn from Rasoolullah (s) and from Awliyaullah.
May Allah (swt) make us with them. Don’t forget, your shaykh is with you no matter if he is here or somewhere else. He will look at you when you mention his name. If you want to be guided, they will continue to guide you. May Allah (swt) allow us to be with them.
Don’t look where you’re not supposed to look. Look with the gaze of `ibrah, to take a lesson. You can look around, take a lesson from what’s happening and find the reason for what you’re seeing in Allah (swt)’s Holy Words, in the words of Rasoolullah (s) and in the words of Awliyaullah. You will find everything that’s happening in the world in Qur’anu ‘l-Kareem. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) used to say that Grandshaykh said that there is no need to look at newspapers. The Qur’anu ‘l-Kareem mentions all the news that happened, all the stories that happened, and all the news and stories that will happen. It’s all in Qur’anu ‘l-Kareem. But for the blind ones, you can’t see it. It’s for those with open eyes.
That’s why you purify your heart so the eyes of the heart open. When the eye of the heart opens, you will see with Nooru ‘l-Llah, the Noor of Allah (swt). When you see the Noor of Allah (swt), you see the things in their reality and what they are really about, not camouflaged or hidden. You will see things as they are. You will see the wisdom of everything that is happening. We have a long way to go. May Allah (swt) forgive us.
Don’t poison your heart with the look. Protect yourself as much as you can. Follow the guidance of your shuyookh. Try to stick to what tariqah teaches and what Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) is teaching today that you cannot pray if you have committed zina with the eye. Renew your wudu and then come and pray. Be careful.
If you have glasses, don’t put them on when you go outside. Leave it. No sunglasses because nobody knows where you’re looking. That’s what Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) said one time. He said, all of these Gulf people put on the black sunglasses so nobody can see where they are looking. In the Holy Qur’an, Allah (swt) says:
يَعْلَمُ خَآئِنَةَ ٱلْأَعْيُنِ وَمَا تُخْفِى ٱلصُّدُورُ
Ya`lamu khaa’inatu ‘l-`ayooni wa maa tukhfi ‘s-sudoor.
(Allah) knows of (the tricks) that deceive with the eyes, and all that the hearts (of men) conceal. (Surah Ghafir, 40:19)
He knows the betrayal of the eyes and what the hearts are concealing. Allah (swt) knows the betrayal of the eyes and what lurks deep inside your heart, O insaan, O human being. Be ashamed of Allah (swt) that He is seeing that. Rasoolullah (s) said that Allah (swt) looks at the hearts. He doesn’t look at how you appear.
They put on big hats, big turbans, big beards, the kohl, they look fully presentable. His outside looks great but his inside is empty as they stay in Turkish. Allah (swt) does not look at the outside. He looks on the inside, He looks to the heart. What’s in your heart? If Allah (swt) and Rasoolullah (s) and the love of Awliyaullah is in your heart, great. May Allah (swt) increase it. That will open for you ways to Heavens. But if the love of dunya and the love of desires are in your heart, you will always be blinded. You will not see anything. We are not seeing anything. All that we are seeing is this dunya and whatever this dunya is offering us.
Astaghfirullahi ‘l-`Azheem. Don’t aspire to be a president please. Don’t aspire to be a congressman. Don’t aspire to be rich. Don’t aspire to be the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company. Don’t aspire to any of that. All of that remains here. Titles remain here. Wealth remains here. Nobody takes anything with them up there. What they take with them up there is that love. If you have love of Allah (swt), it will save you. Love of Rasoolullah (s) will save you. Other stuff will stay here.
May Allah (swt) forgive us. Watch your eyes. I’ve been trying to watch my eyes for the past 40 years and I'm still struggling, but it’s okay. As long as you have the intention to protect where you look, Allah (swt) knows that. He will help you. There’s always wisdom in everything. May Allah (swt) forgive us.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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