30 Ramadan 1427/22 October 2006
A`udhu billahi min ash-shaytaan ir-rajeem
Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem
Nawaytu'l-arba`een, nawaytu'l-`itikaaf, nawaytu'l-khalwah, nawaytu'l-riyaadah, nawaytu's-salook, nawaytu'l-`uzlah lillahi ta`ala fee hadha'l-masjid
A
s we said in the previous session that Allah I has ordered us to obey Him and obey His Prophet e and obey those who are on authority. And disobedience means you are rejecting what Allah I has commanded us. You cannot reject shahada, only to make the first part and not the second part.
That is why you have to say ashhadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullah e else our prayers will not be accepted it will be thrown in our face.
يَوْمَ يَرَوْنَ الْمَلَائِكَةَ لَا بُشْرَى يَوْمَئِذٍ لِّلْمُجْرِمِينَ وَيَقُولُونَ حِجْرًا مَّحْجُورًا وَقَدِمْنَا إِلَى مَا عَمِلُوا مِنْ عَمَلٍ فَجَعَلْنَاهُ هَبَاء مَّنثُورًا
Yawma yarawna al-malaikata laa bushra yawmaidhin li’l-mujrimeena wa yaqooloona hijran mahjoora. Wa qadimna ila ma `amiloo min `amalin faja`alnaahu habaa’an manthoora.
The Day they see the angels,- no joy will there be to the sinners that Day: The (angels) will say: “There is a barrier forbidden (to you) altogether!” And We shall turn unto the work they did and make it scattered motes. [25:22-23]
That they rejected, if we see angels then we believe, or if we see hell then we believe. They rejected what Allah I ordered them and they disobeyed so they rejected Sayyidina Muhammad e with their disobedience so what did Allah I do, for what they rejected of the Prophet e even though they did many good things, I take away their good `amal and take them to Hellfire. It means take them to punishment.
That is the importance of the Prophet e, as you mention Allah’s I Name, you must mention Prophet’s e name or your prayer is not accepted.
And uli’l amr minkum. The physical authority is the political authority you cannot reject, but more important you cannot reject the spiritual authority. Allah I doesn’t want us to rejects any of His saints and you … and reciprocal, Allah I ordered the Prophet e to accept everyone and ordered the awliyaullah to accept everyone they cannot reject anyone. As we cannot reject the Prophet e and awliya, not one, they must also accept everyone.
وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ إِلَّا رَحْمَةً لِّلْعَالَمِينَ
Wa maa arsalnaaka illa rahmatan lil-`alameen
We sent thee not, but as a Mercy for all creatures. [21:107]
They have to have a place to go to ask for forgiveness and mercy.
وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا مِن رَّسُولٍ إِلاَّ لِيُطَاعَ بِإِذْنِ اللّهِ وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ إِذ ظَّلَمُواْ أَنفُسَهُمْ جَآؤُوكَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُواْ اللّهَ وَاسْتَغْفَرَ لَهُمُ الرَّسُولُ لَوَجَدُواْ اللّهَ تَوَّابًا رَّحِيمًا
Wa maa arsalnaa min rasoolin illa liyuta`a bi-idhnillahi wa law annahum idh dhalamoo anfusahum ja’ooka fastaghfaroo Allaha waistaghfara lahumu ar-rasoolu lawajadoo Allaha tawwaban raheema.
We sent not an apostle, but to be obeyed, in accordance with the will of Allah I. If they had only, when they were unjust to themselves, come unto thee and asked Allah's I forgiveness, and the Messenger had asked forgiveness for them, they would have found Allah I indeed Oft-returning, Most Merciful. [4:64]
So both sides, you cannot reject awliya and you cannot reject the Prophet e and they cannot reject the Ummah, else they are responsible and we are responsible.
And what is the evidence? It is that Allah I is the Creator and everything else is His creation. And whatever He created He manifested His Beautiful Names and Attributes on that creation. That creation became a manifestation of Allah’s I Beautiful Names and Attributes which means they become like a shadow of these Beautiful Names and Attributes. And that is what is said in spirituality that al-`ibaad dhilullah the human beings are the shadow of their Creator, like it is said as-sultan dhilullah `ala al-ard, the sultan—the king—is the shadow of Allah I on earth. It doesn’t mean a real shadow, Allah I has no form. Allah I has no shadow; even the Prophet e has no shadow.
It is an understanding and we have to be very careful here, that it is the manifestation of the Beautiful Names and Attributes on us and so everyone has been manifested with a different Name.
Al-wujood al-mutlaq lillahi, wal-makhlooqaat mazaahir min khalqillah. The absolute existence is for Allah I and the servants of Allah I are only appearances of His existence.
No one exists but we are appearances of that existence. We are appearances of the manifestations of the Beautiful Names and Attributes so if someone rejected one of these appearances it is as if he rejected the One that gave that appearance; the One that created that appearance. If you reject anyone from Allah’s I servants that are appearances from Beautiful Names and Attributes we are trying to nu`ayyib an-Naaqish, we are trying to find faults in the Engraver. The One carving us or engraving us.
They do very nice sculpture, very fine art work. You cannot come and say, “I reject, this is bad.” If you cannot do this for an artist in dunya how can you reject these appearances that have appeared and reject them? Then you are coming against the One who produced them, molded, sculpted and designed them. That goes back to Allah I. As if we are disobeying Allah I, by rejecting His creation.
So obedience has to be perfect from every side. You cannot comparing from something and praise something else. You have to be like water flowing in the river flowing to the ocean. The flow of the water goes acceding to the inclination of that course, the river bed. If in front of it comes a stone it doesn’t object. It moves around it and continue. It does not say, “This is a bad stone, who put it here? Throw it out!”
We need to be like that water, like a flowing river. It is not everything through contemplation only. Religion is not exercises. Religion is wisdom. Today people do exercises, different kind of exercises, breathing in and breathing out. That is ok. But that is not all. Doing movement, hand up, hand down. Right. I used to be in French school in Lebanon, Beirut and we had gymnastics in physical education class. We go in a huge playground and standing there raise you right hand. Take down your right hand. Raise you left hand. Take down your left hand. Stretch your leg. Bring your leg up. Run in place. We run in place. This is something that it is not a religion. It is a physical education.
Religion is bringing the person to his Lord to understand his wisdom to understand what Allah I prepared for those who obey Allah I and his Prophet e and the guides. It is not only a body movement. We are not saying, “Don’t do body movements.” The Prophet e did body movements when he told them to teach your children to shoot bows and arrows and swim and ride horses. So this is a Sunnah.
Anyone who learns to shoot arrows you need to know that to go for hunting. This is physical education—it is ok. But creation is not created to know physical education. Creation is created to know your Creator. Your Creator is not doing physical education. Haasha. Is Allah I going to be with us! Is Allah I going to raise His Hand? Allah I has no form, no physical hands. So Allah I wants us to understand the wisdom behind everything and to understand the wisdom of the Prophet e, which we are coming to.
Allah I wants us to learn education, not physical education but soul education, spiritual education. So this kind of teaching is only with awliyaullah. This kind of teaching is only for these whom Allah I gave them a vision to be able to explain this hidden treasures. Those whom Allah I did not give these hidden treasures, what do they go after? They go after energy and they go after physical experiences and they go after imagining this and focusing on it and imaging that and focus on that. This is ok but this is for kindergarten. This is ok to build a person up but you have to come out of that kindergarten. You cannot stay in that structure like children in kindergarten. You have to go beyond that when the Prophet e said to Abu Hurayrah y, “Ya Aba Hurayrah y, did you contemplate on the verse:
إِنَّ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلاَفِ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ لآيَاتٍ لِّأُوْلِي الألْبَابِ الَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ اللّهَ قِيَامًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىَ جُنُوبِهِمْ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقْتَ هَذا بَاطِلاً سُبْحَانَكَ فَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ
Inna fee khalqis-samawati wal-ardi wakhtilafi al-layli wan-nahari la-ayatin li ulee al-albab. Alladheena yadhkuroona Allaha qiyaman waqu`oodan wa `ala junoobihim wa yatafakkaroona fee khalqis-samawati wal-ardi rabbana ma khalaqta haadha baatilan subhanaka faqina `adhaba an-naari.
Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day,- there are indeed Signs for men of understanding,- men who celebrate the praises of Allah I, standing, sitting, and lying down on their sides, and contemplate the (wonders of) creation in the heavens and the earth, (With the thought): “Our Lord! Not for naught Hast Thou created (all) this! Glory to Thee! Give us salvation from the penalty of the Fire. [3:190-191]
Those who are remembering Allah I day and night standing and sitting and laying down and they contemplate and meditate on the creation of heavens and earth. It means yatafakkaroona `ala ma siwa Allah. They think on what is other than Allah I, they meditate on heavens and earth. They don’t meditate on the creator, they are still in kinder, they need authority to do that, they need uli’l amr, those awliyaullah who are on that authority to take them there.
That is what Grandshaykh said when he was granted authorization, he said, “I accept only on condition that I am given authority to raise my students to the level of the saints I am speaking about.” That is awliyaullah. That is not kindergarten. That is for instructors. They cannot go above kindergarten. To go above kindergarten you need a wali. So he asked Abu Hurayrah y and asked him if he was contemplating that verse. He said, “Yes, I am thinking about the stars and the moon and the sun and planet, how they are and how they are going about.” The Prophet e said, “Your contemplation of hour is like the reward of one day of worship.”
He was meditating on the atmosphere above us. Today many people meditate on that, they call it the cosmos, that energy. So he said, that is a kind of `ibadah, and this is teaching to us, Sayyidina Abu Hurayrah y is trying to bring up an issue in order to explain to us. If he didn’t bring that up we never would have known about it.
Then the Prophet e passed by Sayyidina ibn Abbas y, the one who explained the Qur'an, and asked him, “What do you think about that verse?” He said, “When I hear that I contemplate on Allah’s I greatness.” The Prophet e said, “To contemplate like that is rewarded like one year of worship. Khayran min `ibaadat sannah.”
Then he passed by Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq y. He asked him, “What do you think about that verse?” He said, “Ya Rasulullah e, whenever I think about that verse, I think that Allah’s I greatness is so huge and it is bad for anyone to reject obedience to their Lord.” And human beings are rejecting obedience and so then they deserve to be punished. And I say 'O my Lord! Let me be the one to be punished and let all of them go to Paradise.” So Prophet e said, “Your contemplation is like seventy years of worship.”
They were feeling that; not like a story teller. When he says that he is feeling the intensity of that heat and flame to burn him and in order to save the Ummah. He had put himself in that fire in order to carry the burden of the whole Ummah. So it means that how much the Ummah was going to be burned in hellfire he carried and felt it and thru that the whole Ummah was cleaned. That is the kind of teaching and wisdom we need. Not only raise my hand and feet, balance my feet with hand, Seni Silat also. Although that is from the Sunnah, but it is keeping you in the first levels. Awliyaullah are not going to waste their students time to keep them on first levels. They want to fly them up.
That is why instructors on first levels are finished. It is no longer important to do what they do. The mureed needs to be raised.
So as I said this morning as that is very close to heavenly support and those instructors that has been pulled from them and thy have no more work. That is their level and I am speaking about here in America—I don’t interfere with outside. Here there is no one representing me. And that authority Mawlana gave to me no one is authorized to represent except himself. And he can teach, it is ok but it is not going to be the same as this teaching. I am not speaking to a person or an individual. We have to keep bringing people, but everyone his teaching is blended with his thoughts; it might not coincide with the what is coming today. Everyone knows his limits and is free to go and come and they are free. Now we want to shift the gears from normal teaching to a higher level of teaching of wisdom. These doors of heavenly treasures that Allah I said, “I was a hidden treasure I wanted to be known so I created creation, and thru that creation they knew Me.”
We are after these treasures if we can go there. To prepare people to receive Mahdi u. Mahdi u is present with everyone. If the eyes of the heart are open he can see Mahdi u in his heart. It only needs purity and clarity. When you have clarity, today they are selling tablets for clarity. Antihistamine is to keep our noses clean and our lungs clean not to have mixed different pollution. So what we need today is clarity and shafaafiyya transparency in everything we are going. When we reach that transparency and clarity in what we are doing we will be raised, all of us together. We don’t want one to be higher and one to be lower. We are after these treasures. So Grandshaykh took a promise that whatever he speaks of levels we need to reach and be raised up to that authority and in authority to be ready at any time that heavenly support comes that we be ready; peaceful people standing up like stars in dark nights.
On this kind of picture we like to be appearing in the Presence of the Prophet e. Mawlana says that you cannot tu`ayyib to find defaults in Allah’s I creation. No one is produced wrongly. There is wisdom in the way he or she is created. In the jungle how it is created, in the virus how it has been created, and there is wisdom in everything. Learn the wisdom. Scientists know there is a wisdom behind every creation. And they try to investigate thru these pharmacy companies to find the benefit of these different creations.
So these word are not addressed to any individual let us look for the wisdom behind everything and look at all equally and with no hatred and no sign of anger in our heart. Then our shaykh will be happy to introduce to the Presence of the Prophet e and not ashamed of our bad manners and bad character.
He said there is a group of people that reject the existence of Allah I. They rejected one time in their life once and for all and they don’t speak about it anymore. But our problem is that in every moment in our `amal we are denying Allah I, the way we are rejecting His servants; the way we are rejecting our brothers. You cannot reject anyone. You have to show humility and humbleness. You cannot reject. Allah I honored human beings. Respect these angels that are with them. Don’t reject that nice picture that servant that Allah I created that person.
One day a funeral passed by the Prophet e and he stood up. They said, “Why did you stand up?” He said, “Is anything wrong to stand up?” They said, “Yes, he is a Jew.” He knew they could not take more of an understanding there were a lot of problems in the community at that time.
So he said, “I stood for the honor of the angels accompanying him.” But in reality that person is not a Jew. His body is not Jew. His beliefs are wrong. So the Prophet e is standing for the angels and it might be, he didn’t say, but it might be that he is standing up for the honor of Bani Adam u - wa laqad karamna Bani Adam u. Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raaji`oon… That soul going back to its origin. Allah I knows best. So our duty is to respect everyone equally.
So that is why we said and Grandshaykh said and Mawlana Shaykh said, “We are appearances of Allah I Beautiful Names and Attributes so how are we going to criticize?” Allah I has these hidden treasures and He created them and wanted them to be known. So what did He do? He invited the Prophet e on Laylat al-Isra wal-Mi’raj. He wants to give him the secrets. He didn’t invite anyone of the other prophets to His Presence except Sayyidina Muhammad e. He invited him body and soul to come and receive these treasures and Allah I kept these treasures hidden and in every moment He is manifesting more and more, more and more, that He wants to give these treasures as compensation and trust that the Prophet e will keep them with him. They are the creation. Allah I is not in need of creation. Creation is in need of Allah I. So He wants to give these treasures to the one responsible and called the Prophet e to His Presence, on the night of Journey and Ascension. And we leave that until later to hear what Allah I gave to the Prophet e on that night.
Bi hurmatil habib bi hurmatil Fatiha
Those who have been cremated will be punished in the grave in the same manner until the Day of Judgment.
Allah I does not like you to say even, “oof” to your parents. To your parents. Even these 2 letters you cannot say to your father and mother. You have to bow down to them because both of them have brought you to life and say, “O Allah I, have mercy on them because they have raised me from childhood.”
How much they have suffered to raise you and on the other hand you are very rude to them and you even do something to make them unhappy. Even in Holy Qur’an if they are non-Muslim, they ask you to take them to church or synagogue or temple then you take them to the door of the temple and let them go in. Only if they ask you to worship other than Allah I or anything that is against Shariah you cannot.
If they ask you, “Don’t pray,” say, “No, I cannot.” If they ask you to drink wine say, “No!” If they ask you to go to church you can go but don’t say their prayers. That is against Shariah you cannot do it, but if it is not against Shariah you can do it.
[What if a mureed falls into bad habits for many years until it becomes compulsion and the still consider themselves mureed and they don't pray?]
You can still consider yourself and you are not praying and not fasting. You still believe in Allah I and His Prophet e. But what will be consequences of that it are in Allah’s I Hands.
You are Muslim, at the end you may end up under shafa`a of the Prophet e. You cannot say to that person, “You are not Muslim.” But Allah I will punish you, Allah I will scold you, He will send you by his mercy to paradise, it is in His Hands. We are weak people. And they have to make intention to get rid by Allah’s I Mercy, of their bad habits. Doors of repentance never close. Even at the last moment of life there can be repentance.