Isha Suhbah at TASC
Madad, yaa RijaalAllah. Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Raheem. Laa hawla wa laa quwwata illa billahi ‘l-`Aliyyu ‘l-`Azheem.
As-salaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi ta'ala wa barakatuh. We have a special guest, Shaykh Abdul Haqq. Inshaa-Allah we will talk about what our teacher, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, may Allah sanctify his secret and raise him higher and higher, said that we human beings, servants, `abd, have to know.
Allah (swt) and His Messenger (s) and the mashaykh are testing our every action, even when we are not doing anything, and either we are honored or dishonored. If you look at each action, according to Shari'ah there are seven categories of deeds: fard, wajib, sunnah, mustahabb, mubaah, makrooh, and haraam. Basically we can narrow them to three broader groups: halaal, what is permissible; haraam, what is forbidden, that we avoid; and mubaah, what is allowed, there is no sin in it, but at the same time it is not Sunnah, wajib or fard from which you are rewarded, it's just something people do.
Our teacher says each action of human beings falls into these categories: fard, what Allah (swt) obliged us, such as fasting, praying and Hajj; Sunnah, what Prophet (s) did; wajib, which is between fard and Sunnah, what we are required, such as praying Salaat al-`Eid; and mustahabb, something Allah (swt) and Prophet (s) love when we do it. So our actions fall into these categories: something we are ordered to do, something we are ordered to avoid, and whatever is in-between that is not a sin, but at the same time it wasn't an order. Further, Mawlana Shaykh (q) said Allah (swt) is testing us in two things, as He says in the Qur'an, asta`eedhu billah:
كُلُّ نَفْسٍ ذَائِقَةُ الْمَوْتِ وَنَبْلُوكُم بِالشَّرِّ وَالْخَيْرِ فِتْنَةً وَإِلَيْنَا تُرْجَعُونَ
Every human being is bound to taste death and We test you [all] through the bad and the good [things of life] by way of trial, and to Us you all must return. (Surat al-Anbiya, 21:35)
"We test you with goodness, evil, badness, what is difficult, and We see what you do." It means Allah (swt) has two ways we know of to test a servant and our teacher explained either He sends a lot of goodness, He sends a lot of wealth to us, He sends a lot of health to us, He sends favors to us, and then He sees if we use these favors according to what He wants or according to our pleasures. For example, when so much khayr comes, if suddenly you have so much money flowing from your business, Allah (swt) is looking at what you will do. Do you buy an expensive boat and go on an island vacation for two weeks? Is this what Allah (swt) is ordering, or this is what our pleasure is ordering?
Also, Allah might send difficulty in the form of a disease that affects your mental or physical health, or something that affects your whole family, such as losing a child, losing your job, to see are you going to have sabr, patience. When Allah (swt) sends us good, He likes our shukr, thankfulness, when we give or use it in His Way and the Sunnah of Prophet (s) in goodness toward people, and when He sends difficulty, Allah (swt) likes to see our sabr: our shukr for the ni`amah, favor and sabr during difficulty.
Mawlana Shaykh (q) says when we are patient, Allah (swt) will reward us according to the Holy Verse, asta`eedhu billah:
إِنَّمَا يُوَفَّى الصَّابِرُونَ أَجْرَهُم بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ
Those who patiently persevere will truly receive a reward without measure! (Surat az-Zumar, 39:10)
“Allah (swt) will reward as-saabiroon, the patient ones, without limit or calculation.” Further, Mawlana Shaykh (q) says that from His generosity, Allah (swt) will reward without limit those who succeed, but He will reward 10 to 700 times those that don't succeed, such as ourselves. Allah (swt) put us in difficulty, tested and examined us and we failed, but He will still reward us, because:
وَاللّهُ يُحِبُّ الصَّابِرِينَ
Allah loves those who are patient. (Surat Ali-`Imraan, 3:146)
Allah says in the Holy Qur'an, "Be on guard," to expect testing and exams from Allah (swt) of His servant, from Prophet (s) of his Ummah, and by the shaykh of their sons and daughters (followers), that each moment is a test, whether we are doing something or not. So we ask Allah (swt) to make us from those who are alert, awake, not ghaafil, heedless, to see the test coming and that we give thanks for the ni'mah and remain patient in the difficulty! That way we can keep ourselves under control; otherwise, when the ni'mah comes we will mistakenly follow our pleasure and then if we follow dunya, when the difficulty comes we will follow our anger, our nafs and Shaytan. If we follow pleasure or anger, both are not what Allah (swt) wants: He wants our shukr on the favor and our patience on the difficulty.
May Allah (swt) make us alert and awake to expect that, and to succeed, because then we are joined with the patient ones who passed these tests before us. We want to be with them. Everybody gets their turn--our shaykh, our grandshaykh, our saints, those whom we were tested and passed and now they are waiting for us to follow them. If we chose another way, we are not going to be with them. We don't want to chose another way, we want to chose their way. We ask Allah (swt) to join us with them, to forgive our sins, to forgive our deceased who passed on to the Next Life, to cure our ill and give health to all who are gathered here, men and women, and to make our ending a very good ending with Shahaadah and on imaan and to be with the Prophet (s) and his Saints and the rest of the Good Ones.
Bi hurmati ‘l-habeeb bi hurmati ‘l-Fatihah.
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