10 January 2015 Hyderabad, India
Grand Mehfil-e-Milad at Quli Qutb Shah Stadium
Salaam `alaykum wa rahmatullahi 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.
I like to thank from bottom of my heart all who organized this event, the event commemorating of the birth of the Prophet (s). Alhamdulillah that Allah has guided us and we would not have been guided if He had not guided us, and alhamdulillah that Allah honored us by making us from the Ummah of al-Mustafaa (s)! I will not be long but, inshaa-Allah, will be precise in what I am going to say.
Past Muslims Did Not Need Our Modern Technology
Mashaa-Allah we have technology: we have TVs, speakers and microphones for us to hear. I was in Bukhara, Uzbekistan in Central Asia, where Muhammad Isma`eel al-Bukhari came from, who compiled Sahih Bukhari, and they showed me the school and masjid of Imam Bukhari, where he spoke to the people. The masjid capacity is 5000 and the courtyard accommodates an additional 5000, so in total it takes 10,000. The scholars there told me that when Sayyidina Isma`eel Bukhari taught Hadith at least 30,000 people attended. What is important is not the volume of people attending--ten, twenty or thirty thousand--what is important is there were no microphones or speakers, but all the people were able to hear! Allah (swt) gave them to hear even as if they are with him in the mihrab even though they are far away.
They did not need physical technology as they were after Heavenly technology, which is mentioned in the Holy Qur'an, that one small creature was able to speak with no microphone and everyone was able to hear it. That creature, an ant, al-namla, as mentioned in Surat an-Naml, you don’t know its head from its stomach.
قَالَتْ نَمْلَةٌ يَا أَيُّهَا النَّمْلُ ادْخُلُوا مَسَاكِنَكُمْ لَا يَحْطِمَنَّكُمْ سُلَيْمَانُ وَجُنُودُهُ وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ
Qaalat namlatun yaa ayyuha 'n-namlu 'dkhuloo masaakinakum laa yahtimannakum Sulaymaanu wa junooduhoo wa hum laa yash`uroon.
One of the ants said, "O Ants! Enter your homes unless Sulayman and his armies unknowingly trample you." (Surat an-Naml, 27:18)
It spoke to millions of ants as they were ordered to hear that one ant, even with no microphone! What kind of speech was that ant using when she saw Sulayman a coming with his armies? She said, “O ants! Fa-firroo ila ‘Llah, run to Allah! (51:50) Run to your homes before Sayyidina Sulayman comes and destroys you with his army!” And all ants ran and Sayyidina Sulayman laughed when he heard the ant speak, an ant that can speak with millions. Why, with our hearts, we cannot speak with anyone?
صُمٌّ بُكْمٌ عُمْيٌ فَهُمْ لاَ يَرْجِعُونَ
Summun bukmun `umyun fahum laa yarji`oon.
Deaf, dumb, and blind, they will not return (to the path). (Surat al-Baqarah, 2:18)
O Muslims! The Qur'an is not so easy to read; you can read it, but it is difficult to understand. One ayah may change the whole universe and one wali with a secret from the Prophet (s) is enough to change the whole world, but we are not yet at that level.
The Lesson of “Take Off Your Shoes to Approach Me”
إِذْ رَأَى نَارًا فَقَالَ لِأَهْلِهِ امْكُثُوا إِنِّي آنَسْتُ نَارًا لَّعَلِّي آتِيكُم مِّنْهَا بِقَبَسٍ أَوْ أَجِدُ عَلَى النَّارِ هُدًى
Behold, he [Musa] saw a fire, so he said to his family,“You stay. I perceive a fire; perhaps I can bring you some burning branch from there or find some guidance at the fire.” (Surah Taha, 20:10)
Sayyidina Musa (a) said to his family, “Wait, I see fire. Let me go get some of that fire (it was a cold night); maybe you will get warmth from it.” Allah (swt) said to him, “I am your Lord. You are in the Holy Valley of Toowaa. Take off your shoes, don’t come to Me with your shoes.” But Allah did not tell Sayyidina Muhammad (s), “Take off your shoes”; no, He invited him to come to Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa! Look at the difference.
Sayyidina Muhiyyidin ibn `Arabi (q) said in his explanation of this ayah, why did Allah order Sayyidina Musa (a) to take off his shoes? There must be a secret. This is to show a difference between Sayyidina Muhammad (s) and Sayyidina Musa (a). Allah wants Sayyidina Musa (a) to know, “No one can come to Me with an ego, you cannot come here with your desires and self, you must come pure, like Muhammad (s).”
Why did He say to take off the shoes and not the hat or turban? Because shoes are the sign of ignorance and in that time of Sayyidina Musa (a) 5,000 years ago, shoes were made from the skin of donkeys, known to be ignorant. So it means, “Don’t come to me with ignorance, yaa Musa! I am sending you to Sayyidina Khidr to learn divine knowledge from him, although you are from Oolu ‘l-Azam, the Five Great Prophets.” But Sayyidina Muhammad (s) was already perfect, everything about him is perfect, and that is why Allah invited him to come to Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa.
Look, the first part of Holy Qur'an after Surat al-Fatihah is what? It is Alif. In the Arabic alphabet, what is the first letter? The Alif. How do you write the Alif? It is standing erect, one line. What comes after it? The Baa. Why is it not standing, it is laying down? The Reality of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) is always in sajda to Alif, to Allah! The Baa is a straight line in sajda to Alif, which is Allah (swt), and Baa is first letter of ‘Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem’. It means bi Ismillah, in the Name of Allah (swt), ar-Rahman ar-Raheem. The reality of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) is that he is always in sajda like the Baa to the Alif.
الرَّحْمَنُ عَلَّمَ الْقُرْآنَ خَلَقَ الْإِنسَانَ عَلَّمَهُ الْبَيَانَ
Ar-Rahmaan. `Allama 'l-qur'an. Khalaqa 'l-insaan. `Allamahu ‘l-bayaan.
(God) Most Gracious! It is He Who taught the Qur'an. He created Man. He taught him speech (and intelligence). (Surat ar-Rahmaan, 55:1-4)
Why Allah Created Human Beings
O Muslims! If you pay attention to what Allah (swt) is saying in the Holy Qur'an, first is `allam al-qur’aan then khalaq al-insaan, but to whom He taught the Holy Qur'an? He taught the Qur'an and then created Creation, insaan, Mankind. That means Allah first taught Holy Qur'an to the Prophet (s) when he was noor in the Divine, and that is why we know Allah (swt) revealed the Holy Qur'an to heart of the Prophet (s) all of it in one time. Allah `allam al-quraan khalaq al-insaan `alamahu'l-bayaan. So after he taught the Qur'an to Prophet (s), from that moment Prophet (s) knew the Secret, and that is why Allah (swt) created human beings!
Allah (swt) taught him, but at the beginning He taught the Light of Sayyidina Muhammad (s). That is why it is said, awwal maa khalaq Allahu, the first thing Allah created is the Light of the Prophet (s); and He put it in Bahr al-Qudrah. That Light was moving and moving, receiving Manifestations (tajjaliyaat) from Allah (swt), and there, by Allah’s power, Creation came from Bahr al-Qudrah.
So Sayyidina Muhammad is not like us, as written by Muhammad al-Busayri (r) in Burdat ash-Sharifah:
Muhammadun basharun wa laysa ka ’l-bashari, bal huwa yaa’qootatun wa ’n-naasu ka ’l-hajari.
Muhammad is a human being, but not like me and you. He is a gem, a diamond, a jewel and the rest are pebbles, rocks, hajar.
We are rocks and the Prophet (s) is jawhar nooraani, a jewel from Allah (swt), and Allah dresses that Jawhar with His Light, the Light from an-Noor from `Asmaaullah al-Husnaa, His Divine Names and Attributes!
O Muslims! Allah did not leave us without teaching us. Today you are in need for many scientific, New Age technologies, but if you go back to the story of the ant, one ant with no speaker or microphone was able to send its message to millions of ants at the same time, and that was 5000 years ago in the time of Sayyidina Sulayman (a). Now after 5000 years, they built technology to communicate with each other through email, text message or Whatsapp (private messaging), but the ant used Heavenly Whatsapp, Heavenly text message, Heavenly email.
The Prophet (s) is the Perfect One. Allah taught him `Uloom al-Awwaleen wa ‘l-Akhireen. They say today there is one huge company that has a server which receives emails and channels them to millions of people. The Prophet (s) said, “I observe the `amal of my Ummah; I see my Ummah one-by-one. I can relate to their heart from my heart. I can speak to them heart-to-heart,” especially the Ummah of Sayyidina Muhammad (s). If technology can reach millions of people, Sayyidina Muhammad (s), who reached Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa, can reach the whole Creation! The mountains and rocks were making tasbeeh when he passed them and he could hear them:
وَإِن مِّن شَيْءٍ إِلَّا يُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِهِ وَلَـٰكِن لَّا تَفْقَهُونَ تَسْبِيحَهُمْ
And there is not a thing but celebrates His praise, but you cannot understand their praise.
(Surat al-Israa’, 17:44)
Everything speaks--rocks, creatures, worms--Allah is saying everything speaks, but you cannot understand their tasbeeh. Prophet (s) hears and sees them and understands their tasbeeh. If you want the Prophet (s) to hear you and come to you, make salawaat on the Prophet (s)! Say:
Yaa Sayyidi, yaa Rasoolullah, yaa Habeebullah, yaa Shafee` al-Mudhnibeen! Munaajeeka min haadhaa l-maakaan, nas’aluka an tuqaddimunaa li hadrati ’Llaahi `azza wa jall taahireen mutatahhireen, laa khawfun `alayhim wa laa hum yahzanoon.
Yaa Rasoolullah! We are calling you from this place! We are asking you to present us to Allah (swt) clean and pure with no dust on us, without any sin!
Can the Prophet (s) do that? Yes, of course. So why we are not doing salawaat on the Prophet (s) every day? Because our hearts are not yet perfect. Allah (swt) said to Prophet (s) and he mentioned it to us:
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)
Fa idhaa ahbabtahu, “If I love him, I will give him ears that he can hear with.” Look at your ears, how are you hearing my voice? We are using a microphone here, and this microphone goes through a wire to the speaker and creates an electromagnetic wave that moves. When it comes to the speaker it is the voice. Allah gave you not an analog Heavenly system, but a digital Heavenly system with acute electromagnetic waves which give you a digital picture and sound. That is easy for Allah (swt) through kun fa yakoon. We don’t need microphones and speakers, Allah gives you sound that you can hear.
Now there is in this stadium an empty space. Please keep your attention because this is difficult to understand. This stage has a big empty area. In that area, is there sound in it? If you bring a TV here, do you see a picture? Yes. Do you see China? Yes. Do you see Africa? Yes, through a TV. You can hear what they are saying, you can see what they are seeing. Why are we not hearing and not seeing these images and sounds, but if we bring a TV you can see and hear? That means these waves are carrying a picture and sound. A TV can turn them into pictures and sounds, so why can our hearts not turn them into pictures and sounds? This ear, do you know how it functions? It is like a dish that collects all the sound into a small device in your ear that picks up the sound. Who made that? Allah (swt)! The One Who made an ant to speak, He can make us to speak and everyone to hear us. But the condition is to make salawaat on the Prophet (s). Allah (swt) even ordered His angels to make salawaat.
إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا صَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيمًا
Verily, Allah and His angels send praise on the Prophet. O Believers! Pray upon him and greet him with a worthy salutation. (Surat al-'Ahzaab, 33:56)
It is an order, an obligation, salloo `alayh!. It is an order, fi`l amr, a verb of command. By sending salawaat on the Prophet (s) you can see and hear him! He is very near to everyone, because Allah said:
وإعلموا أن فيكم رسول الله
W`alamoo anna feekum rasoolullaah.
And know Allah's Messenger is in you. (Surat al-Hujuraat, 49:7)
You have to know that the Prophet (s) is in you. Now, I will end up saying some scholars counted Ayaat al-Qur’an and there are two opinions: one is that they are 6,666 ayaat, the major opinion. Look at the secret: 6 thousand + 6 hundred + 66. 6 + 6 = 12 + 6 + 6 = 24. So there is meaning in that 6.
خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ فِي سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍ
He created the Heavens and Earth in six days. (Surat al-Araaf, 7:54)
He created the Heavens and Earth in six days. And the holy Qur'an is giving the secret of creations of Heavens and Earth through all the ayaat, it’s Allah’s Ancient Words. 6+6+6+6 makes 24, 2+4 =6. that’s why numbers are important to understand. How many surahs we have in Holy Qur'an? 114. Add them. 6. What is in 6? It is the secret of the creation of Heavens and Earth. O Muslims! How many letters are in ‘Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem’? 19 letters. How many angels are the angels of Hellfire? 19. With every letter of Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem you read, ba, one angel of Hellfire Zabaniyya, frees you from hellfire, and when you complete all the 19 letters of Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem then these 19 angels of hellfire will close hell in your face, you go to jannah. How many are the family of Prophet (s), the Ahl al-Aaba, the Family of the Prophet (s)? They are the Prophet (s), Khadija, Sayyidina `Ali (r), Sayyida Fatima, Sayyidina al-Hasan and Sayyidina al-Husayn. How many letters are their names? Add them they are 19. So you go through Ahl al-Aaba and 19 letters and 19 angels of hellfire will go away from you.
O Muslims! Read the Holy Qur'an with your thinking and your heart (awareness), then you can understand many secrets!
اقْرَأْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ
Read in the Name of your Lord Who created. (Surat al-Alaq, 96:1)
“Read, O Muhammad, in the Name of your Lord Who created Creation!” When He said, “created Creation”, He taught the Prophet (s) `Uloom al-awaleen wa ’l-akhireen, Knowledge of the Firsts and the Lasts. When He said “Iqraa!” He told him read from the knowledge of the first and last.and the Prophet (s) does not read that means that he does not read because Allah is going to give him the honor to read in front of Him on Day of Judgment in front of all human beings that the Prophet (s) is given honor to read, no one else. He is keeping that for akhira for our benefit what is there in that "read" no one knows.
May Allah forgive us and bless us and we want to thank you very much for coming today to listen to me, I am smaller than an ant. I have no power, I need to learn from you, especially from the `ulama. I don’t deserve to be standing at the podium but I should be standing at the door with the shoes of these `ulama. That’s where we want to be.
The Prophet (s) said.
العلماء ورثة الانبياء
Al-`ulama warathatu 'l-anbiyaa.
The (genuine) scholars are Inheritors of the Prophets.
May Allah make us at threshold of the Prophet (s) always! Let me tell you a story before I end, to emphasize the importance of the Hadith:
أدبني ربي فأحسن تأديبي
My Lord perfected my good manners and conduct. (Ibn `Asakir)
He never said to anyone ‘no’. All of us have a big ego, al-nafs al-ammaratu bi-l-soo’. That nafs is always ordering bad desires. One day there was one shaykh, one wali who has many students and among them there was one special one who had been with his shaykh for 27 years. One day, look how much it is not easy to sit in presence of Awliyaullah; that is why Allah said, “Don’t fight My Awliya!”
من عادى لي وليا فقد آذنته بالحرب
Whoever attacks one of my saints, I declare war on him. (Bukhari)
اولياء الله تحت قبابي لا يعلمهم غيري
My saints are under My domes; no one knows them except Me. (Hadith Qudsi)
It might be a dot of Awliya, here we don’t know. Some `ulama might ask, “Why you said this story?” but I like this story as it teaches how to drop desires from the heart. The mureed came to his shaykh and said, “I love you, but I wasted my time. I have been with you 27 years and I never felt anything of Heavenly knowledge in my heart. I need the spiritual knowledge. Yes, I am a scholar, I know Fiqh, Hadith and Tafsir, but I feel empty and void in myself and in 27 years you did not put anything in my heart. I cannot continue like that.”
The shaykh said, “O my son, if you really want Heavenly knowledge and spiritual knowledge, look at Sayyidina Ya`qoob: Allah took from him Sayyidina Yusuf to tell him, because he used to love Sayyidna Yusuf so much, ‘There cannot be two in one heart. Either I am in your heart or Yusuf, choose one. There cannot be two, Allah is Ghayoor, Allah does not want sharing. He is the Creator, no sharing. The Prophet (s) is His Perfect Servant and there is no sharing with the Prophet (s) in servanthood and no one can share with Allah in his Lordship.’”
Do you want that knowledge that Allah gave to Sayyidina Khidr? Who likes that knowledge, raise your hand?
The shaykh said, “Go buy a basket and fill it with walnuts and sit by the threshold of the masjid and keep there a stick. If anyone comes, say to him, ‘If you want a walnut, beat me with the stick one time on my head; if you want two walnuts, beat me two times on my head.’ Then when you finish your walnuts, come to me and I will teach you Heavenly knowledge.”
The mureed said, “No, I cannot do that as I am a scholar. I cannot do that!”
Look at how Allah (swt) made Sayyidina Musa (a), who was hundreds of time higher in knowledge than Sayyidina Khidr, but Allah sent him to Khidr to learn from him. So what is our problem? It is pride, arrogance. If we throw the arrogance outside our hearts, Allah will open to us Heavenly knowledge!
The Prophet (s) said:
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)
“I was sent to take anger from your heart, to take stinginess from your heart, to take jealousy from your heart!” as all these are characters of Iblees! O Muslims! You must take these bad characteristics from your heart. O `Ulama! You must teach this to the people, as not everything is only Shari`ah: the Maqaam al-Ihsaan, the Station of Moral Excellence, is to take the bad characters from our hearts.
May Allah make you all Awliyaullah! `Ulama al-Hind, I mentioned it many times, that in our Middle East countries when we heard that an `alim is coming from India we ran to see them as they are very strong [in `Aqeedah and `Ilm]. May Allah keep them very strong, working for the Ummah.
Salaam 'alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh.
[Bay`a]
http://sufilive.com/The-Way-to-Attaining-Heavenly-Knowledge-5769.html
© Copyright 2015 Sufilive. All rights reserved. This transcript is protected
by international copyright law. Please attribute Sufilive when sharing it. JazakAllahu khayr.