From Mawlana Shaykh Nazim's Personal Notes
A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani 'r-rajeem. Bismillaahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem.
Laa hawla wa laa quwatta illa billahi 'l-`Aliyyu 'l-`Azheem.
Dastoor, yaa Sayyidi, Qutbu ‘l-Mutassarif. Madad, yaa Sultan al-Awliya. Nadarak himatak, yaa Sayyidi ‘l-Kareem. Dastoor, yaa Sayyidi wa Mawlay, yaa Sayyidi Shaykh Nazim. Madad, yaa RijaalAllah.
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi ta`ala wa barakaatuh.
There were three people that came to the presence of a holy one. They came to a holy dhikrullah. One found room in the circle and sat down. One shied away and sat in the back. One came in through one door and escaped from the other door. At the end they asked the holy person about the wisdom of these three men who have each done something different.
The first one came to Allah (swt) full-heartedly and Allah (swt) also welcomed him. That was the one who found a spot and sat down. He came with an open heart to his Lord and his Lord accepted him. The second one shied away, so they also shied away from him. The third one turned his back to the dhikr of Allah (swt) and Allah (swt) threw him a way, “Go somewhere else.”
When you find a spot, don’t be in the back. You’re not like the shoes. Nobody should say, “I’m like the shoes.” When you leave the dergah, you’re not like shoes. They are the biggest people in Dearborn. You can see them walking around with so much in the air. When you see a spot in a halaqah of dhikrullah, come forward to Allah (swt). Allah (swt) will accept you. If you shy away, they will shy away from you. That means you might not get what the people in the circle are getting.
The one who comes from one door and escapes out the other door, Allah (swt) will let him go wherever he wants to go. May Allah (swt) not make us from the third group. The second group is still accepted. The first group is the best. May Allah (swt) always make us with them, in the presence of Awliyaullah.
Today is a day of remembrance of our beloved master, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q). Usually when you remember Waliyullah, you speak about his good actions, good words or good behavior--something that people will take a lesson from. You talk about his status, his level, his maqam, what he is about, what he did. That’s what you usually do when you remember someone who has passed on to Eternity, to the other life.
When I woke up this morning, I talked to someone who saw Mawlana in a dream, so we thought we could speak about something beautiful about Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q). He was not serious. Nowadays the more they frown, the more depressing the atmosphere becomes. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) was always jolly and happy, which made others happy. He made people smile and laugh.
I remembered one clip I watched where Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) was singing and he sang this since I was little. I have known it since I was little. My mother knows it.
“Alif laa finnani balaani aliy, aliy, aliy.”
My mother, Hajjah Naziha, is here. May Allah (swt) give her long life, strength and patience, inshaa-Allah. How is it at the end? “Boo baa bee boo.” That’s what I remember. “Too taa tee too. Saa see taa too tee,” something like this. This is a rhyming children’s song to teach them the Arabic alphabet. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) used to sing it to us when we were children to make us laugh, and to make others who are depressed and gloomy laugh.
A reporter was asking Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) about something so high. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) told him, “I’ll tell you a children’s rhyme. Let’s start there.” That’s what I remembered. I said I would mention this because what Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) does not do maa laa yani`, that which has no purpose. Rasoolullah (s) does not speak out of desire or things he wants or to reach his goals, he only speaks what is revealed to him.
وَمَا يَنطِقُ عَنِ الْهَوَى إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا وَحْيٌ يُوحَى
Wa maa yantiqu `ani’l-hawaa, in huwa illa wahiyyun yoohaa.
He doesn't say anything from his desire, except Revelation. (Surah an-Najm, 53:3-4)
Wa maa yantiqu `ani’l-hawaa. When Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) speaks, even if it’s a joke, there is always wisdom behind it. I learned a few things from Awliyaullah that I thought I would share with everybody. This children’s rhyme is an alphabet. He starts with the alif, baa, taa, thaa, jeem, haa, kha, dhal, zhal, raa, zaa, seen, sheen, saad, daad, tha, zhaa, ayn and all the rest until you come to noon, haa, waw, yaa. How many letters, big mureeds? How many letters, shuyookh? I didn’t even know. I had to Google it today. They think I’m a big shaykh; no, I had to Google how many letters.
It’s 28 and a few people say it’s 29, but it’s 28 letters. Letters of what? Huroofu ’l-Qur’an. Which language is the Qur’an written in? Arabic. It’s 28 Qur’anic letters. When you learn the Arabic letters, you are not only learning the letters of the Arabic language so you can go to Dubai and speak to the people there about the next ticket to the ski mountain over there. No. They learn Arabic to learn the Qur’an. Nowadays people learn Arabic because they have business in the Gulf, Saudi, Egypt or Morocco. Few people learn Arabic for the sole reason of learning the Qur’an.
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) learned Arabic for the Qur’ani ’l-Kareem because Rasoolullah (s) said, Iqra wartaqi, “Read and ascend.” Read what? Read the Qur’an, because it is said that it will be said, “Read Qur’an as you were reading it in dunya, until you reach your last ayah. That will be your position in Jannah.” If you don’t believe the Hadith, go find it.[1]
That is the Hadith. When you read Qur’an al-Kareem, iqraa w ’artaqi, “Elevate, ascend.” Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) learned Arabic. He didn’t know Arabic. He’s a Turkish person but he started to learn Arabic. He started with the rhyme. He is telling you the beginning of his way. Who learned Arabic? You went to Saudi twice, have you learned any Arabic yet? No. But you got me a ring, thank you. Start to learn the Arabic alphabet.
There are 28 letters. How many days are in the lunar month? Twenty-eight. You see the moon. The moon disappears for one or two nights. If the moon disappears for one night, you have a 29-day month. If the moon disappears for two nights, you have a 30-day month. It’s always 28 days of visible light from the moon. The moon starts with a very small sliver of light and then every night it increases and starts getting closer to the sun.
Allah (swt) says in Surah Yaseen:
وَٱلْقَمَرَ قَدَّرْنَـٰهُ مَنَازِلَ حَتَّىٰ عَادَ كَٱلْعُرْجُونِ ٱلْقَدِيمِ
And the Moon, We have measured for her mansions (to traverse) till she returns like the old (and withered) lower part of a date-stalk. (Surah Yaseen, 36:39)
Wa ’l-qamara qadarnaahu manaazila. “And the moon, We have determined it as stages, levels, different stages every day.” It is said that the qalb is the same as the moon. The stages of the heart are like the Qur’anic alphabet. You start with alif. Your heart has to start with alif. It has to land in that station of alif, then it has to go to the station of baa, then taa, then tha and all the stations until it reaches yaa. Each station is a maqaam of the spiritual heart. You start with the alif and you end with the yaa. Awliyaullah have said yaa is “yaqeen,” certainty. There is no more doubt. You have basically reached a stage where you see what you believe in and what you believe in is visible. That is the last level.
If you go through the 28 stages of the heart according to the 28 letters of the Qur’an, your heart will have all the manners and behavior that Rasoolullah (s) has according to the Holy Qur’an. That is the way. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) is telling you how to start by using a children’s rhyme. What is alif? Ulfa. Awliyaullah have said if the heart likes Allah (swt), befriends Allah (swt), loves Allah (swt), to have familiarity-- “ulfat” is Urdu.
When your heart turns to Allah (swt), loves Allah, likes Allah, wa barra, then you will be truthful in what you like and what you want by doing `amalu ‘s-saalih. First your heart has to find a way to like Allah (swt). When your heart likes Allah (swt), the next thing you do is to confirm that love by having iman and doing good deeds. That is the baa.
Taa is “tawbah.” When I love Allah (swt), I start doing what Allah (swt) has ordered, the righteous acts, and then I make tawbah, repent from everything that was in my past. Thaa is thabaat. I become firm on my repentance. You say, “Yaa Rabbee, I have come to You. I love You. I’m doing good actions now. I have confirmed what I believe in and am doing good actions. I repent from the bad things I have done.” Don’t go back. You have to have thabaat, which means you’re firm on your tawbah.
When Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) is telling that reporter about alif, he says the spiritual way to the Lord is that your heart has to incline and find friendliness in the companionship of Allah (swt). What is the sign? The sign is when the darkness comes and everyone goes with their beloved, you go into prayer with your Beloved. Do you do that at night? Takhlu ma` Allah. What is “takhlu”? To seclude yourself with Allah (swt). Do you seclude yourself with Allah (swt)? Why not? That means your heart doesn’t like him. Can you stay for one, two, or three hours only with Allah (swt)? That is ulfat, alif, that feeling that you have. You become taken by the love that you have in your heart towards Allah (swt) and you can spend hours just with Him. You don’t need anything else.
That is our Way, when your heart leans towards Allah (swt), as Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q)’s heart did. And then he started doing good actions, he started following the Sunnah of Rasoolullah (s). He tossed away all the new innovations that they brought during the Turkish revolution and he only followed the Sunnah of Rasoolullah (s) from that time. He repented from everything other than Allah (swt) and he was firm. If you want to reach where he reached, if you want to be on his way, you have to follow the alphabet.
Alif is ulfa. Baa is barr. Taa is tawbah. Thaa is thabaat. Jeem is jami`yya, when you come together. When your heart does that and you are firm on Allah (swt)’s Way and on your repentance that you will not go back to your old ways, Allah (swt) will gather you in His Presence. What happens when you are gathered with Allah (swt)? What happens to the moon when it faces the sun? It gains light. The more it approaches the sun, the more light it gains, until it becomes a full moon. You see the two planets, the sun and the moon, facing each other, east and west. You see it sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the middle of the month when the sun is dawning from the east.
That is what happens to your heart when you turn towards Allah (swt) and He gathers you at the fifth level, jeem, jami’ya. They say, “Al-khayru fi ‘l-jami`yya.” What is jami`yya? When you’re gathered together in the Divine Presence. You start having the Light of Allah (swt) shine upon you, until you reach the full moon. What happens after that? The more the moon approaches the sun, what happens? The more it loses existence. The more the moon approaches the end of the month, it loses its existence. It loses until on the 28th day there’s no trace. Where is it? It has vanished in the light of the sun. That is like your heart.
The more it approaches the Divine Presence, the more it loses from itself. You lose from your existence until you come to a point where there’s no trace of you. You have disappeared in the Divine Light, gone. But Allah (swt) will give you existence from His Divine Presence. That is something else. We don’t need to go there.
The way to Allah (swt) is through the maqams of alif, baa, taa. According to the number of letters of the Qur’an, the heart has to traverse through these stations until you get to the last three letters. I don’t want to mention all of them. Alhamdulillah, I still remember most of the stages. What are the last three stages? Nun, haa, waw, yaa. Nun is “Noor.” The qalb has to be immersed in Noor, the Divine Light. When you are on Noor, you find hidaya, guidance.
أَفَمَن شَرَحَ ٱللَّهُ صَدْرَهُۥ لِلْإِسْلَـٰمِ فَهُوَ عَلَىٰ نُورٍ مِّن رَّبِّهِۦ فَوَيْلٌ لِّلْقَـٰسِيَةِ قُلُوبُهُم مِّن ذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ فِى ضَلَـٰلٍ مُّبِينٍ
Is one whose heart Allah has opened to Islam, so that he has received Enlightenment from Allah, (no better than one hard-hearted)? Woe to those whose hearts are hardened against celebrating the praises of Allah. they are manifestly wandering (in error)! (Surah az-Zumar, 39:22)
Fa huwa `alaa noorim mir-Rabbih. Allah (swt) says in the Holy Qur’an, the one that I'm guiding is on Noor from Me. When your heart reaches that letter, noon, and it’s immersed in the Divine Light, it’s guided by that Divine Light. Allah (swt) is your Guide, Hadi. That haa is hidaya. After haa is waw. Waa is wilaya. When He is guiding you, you have become His wali, He has become your Wali. You are Waliyullah. Yaa is yaqeen, certainty. Your doubts disappear. You have reached that certainty that Allah (swt) is Ever-Existing, Hayyun Qayyum.
In the Holy Qur’an, Allah (swt) has ordered Rasoolullah (s):
وَٱعْبُدْ رَبَّكَ حَتَّىٰ يَأْتِيَكَ ٱلْيَقِينُ
And serve your Lord until there comes to you the Hour that is Certain. (Surah al-Hijr, 15:99)
Wa `abud Rabbaka hattaa ya’teeakal-yaqeen. Worship your Lord until you arrive at the Station of Yaqeen. That means you go through the stages of servanthood until yaqeen reaches you. That is the last stage when you are from Awliyaullah that are Ahlu ‘l-Kashf.
What Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) teaches is so simple. He starts with a children’s rhyme because all of us are children. Learn the Arabic alphabet. Each letter corresponds to a stage of the moon until you reach the last stage. The last stage is Fanaa fillah and Baqaa billah. You have disappeared in the Divine Light and you exist only by Divine Light. May Allah (swt) allow us to reach there.
What is the first stage? Ulfa. Love Allah (swt). Like your Lord and do good actions, and then you will continue through the stages of the hard. May Allah (swt) forgive us. May Allah (swt) allow our hearts to turn to Him as Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q)’s heart turned to Him, as he has preached with jokes, as he has preached with seriousness, as he has preached with songs, as he has preached with words from the bottom to the top. May Allah (swt) allow us to understand every wisdom he has shared and follow what he has said. Ameen.
Inshaa-Allah, tonight we will read Surah Yaseen for his holy soul and we will make du`a. It is a custom to read du`as for the deceased. We believe it was a transition. We believe that he is from the people that Allah (swt) said about them:
وَلَا تَحْسَبَنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ قُتِلُوا۟ فِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ أَمْوَٰتًۢا بَلْ أَحْيَآءٌ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ يُرْزَقُونَ
Think not of those who are slain in Allah's way as dead. Nay, they live, finding their sustenance in the presence of their Lord. (Surah Aali-`Imran, 3:169)
Certainly they are alive in the Presence of their Lord and they are provided for. That is this special group that has passed on to the other life. They are ever-alive. This is our belief that he is an ever-alive person in the Divine Presence and he is being provided for.
May Allah (swt) allow us to be on his way, inshaa-Allah.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, wa bi sirri Surat al-Fatihah.
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JazakAllahu khayr.
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[1] قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم : " يقال لقارئ القرآن : اقرأ ورتل وارتق كما كنت ترتل في الدنيا فإن منزلتك عند آخر آية كنت تقرؤها "
`Abd-Allah ibn ‘Amr (r) narrated that the Prophet (s) said: “It will be said to the reciter of the Qur’an: ‘Recite and rise in status as you used to recite in the world, and your position will be at the last verse you recite.’” (Narrated by Abu Dawood and at-Tirmidhi).