Pasadena Yoga Center
[Prelude music by Zevk Ensemble praising Prophet in Turkish with daff and saz]
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-riyaada, nawaytu ‘s-salook, nawaytu ‘l-`uzlah lillahi ta`ala al-`adheem
Ati` Allaha wa ati` ar-Rasoola wa uli ’l-amri minkum
Allah swt said “Obey Allah, obey the Prophet and obey those who are on authority.”
First of all I would like to thank you for letting me to use your place. Whoever’s place it is. God’s place. Long time I didn't come to Los Angeles, but alhamdulillah, still we are welcome. And it is an honor to be tonight here with many of our respected brothers and sisters.
It is not easy to speak. It is very difficult to speak because if a speech did not reach the heart of the listeners it is a waste of time. And if a speech does not have the juice in it is a dry speech and everything must have something that makes it accepted. Like this bottle of water, if there is no water in it, it doesn’t make any meaning to us. It is a plastic, dry element. What makes it useful is the water. And that water Allah said in the Holy Qur'an:
وَجَعَلْنَا مِنَ الْمَاء كُلَّ شَيْءٍ حَيٍّ أَفَلَا يُؤْمِنُونَ
wa ja`alna mina’lmaa’i kulla shayin haayyin afalaa yuminoon
We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe? Al-Anbiya [21:30]
That means that water indicates, taa'nee, indicates a flowing of like how water or a river is flowing into the ocean water here, anything that give you life, anything that give you happiness, anything give you more satisfaction, contentment, we say this person is like water, he is so easy, because he is juicy, he has that taste of life in him or in her. But when someone is completely dry there is no such easiness in his or her life, that person becomes depresses, that person begins to feel that he is pressured and whatever he does is not working well. Of course because he didn’t build his or her life on feeling content with whatever is around that person him or her. So if that speech is not reaching the heart of people it is a waste of time. No need for listening because it is not going to make any sense. How many conferences have been made or they are going to be made people go there listen and they sleep and it doesn’t mean anything. Many people they are tired they go to rest on the chair and the speaker is speaking. That is the difference between a speech that has in it nur, light or a speech that has no light.
And we have to notice and make sure that the one that his speech has light means that one has connection. It is impossible, no way, that a light that comes out of a speaker; that speaker must be connected. Connected, might be that light, bright light, might be very well-connected or it might be dim light, not very well-connected. Might be a different kind of light; negative light that one must be connected to a negative situation. So it different from one light to another; from one energy to another energy. You have positive energy and negative energy. Without these cons people cannot give a speech. If you are well connected to a negative energy listen to politicians. If you want to be connected to a good energy then sit with pious and sincere people as pious and sincere people have a connection with their teachers. There are many teachers. There are different tastes. Everyone takes what he likes or she likes. No one can force that taste or that taste. It is you what you choose. You can choose a sweet taste, you can choose a very high sweet taste or you can chose a sour taste. And you can choose if you like not a sugary taste that gives you energy but you can choose a Splenda taste that goes not give you anything or NutraSweet or Sweet and Low. Artificial taste. But it is sweet. That is why you might hear a speaker speaking and says sweet things but it might be artificial sweetener, Splenda or Sweet and Low.
But on the other hand you may find someone speaking but with a well sugary taste, what he is saying is full of light. And on the other hand there are people on the other side who like a sour taste.
That is why when he recited it was one of the top of the sugary taste. If someone knows Arabic they can understand what is the meaning. It is not the sound or the voice but it is the meaning of the love those teachers whom many of them passed and many of them are still living and many of them are coming and they wrote in praising of the Prophet (s). In one line of that poetry you can put a book. That is why people have to know that there is something that is hidden in every person. Something that he wants and she wants to hold in order that they can climb, they can move upwards or they can move in any direction in order to satisfy their needs.
All of us here, don’t tell me “no,” all of us have problems. Except this one, that young one or those two kids there, there are two or three kids around. They don’t feel any problem. Eh, what is the difference? They are human beings. But no problems. Because their life, their lives is sweet. They don’t try to put their fingers in a soury life. They don’t burn their fingers. Someone else is burning his finger or her finger. But the child is not concerned of anything. Because he gave all his belief that he is safe to his father and mother. He believed in them. So what is important? It is the belief. If we have the real belief, the good belief then there is no fear. If we don’t have belief, lot of fears.
So belief is the most important in order to make our soup or our juice sweet or not sweet. If our belief is not, we are not putting the right kind of belief, we are not putting sugar then we might be putting Splenda or Equal, it becomes imitational belief. Real belief is when you put sugar. So either you decide you want real belief, or imitational belief or no belief when it becomes sour. That is the big difference And all human beings fall into these three categories.
Either you have sour belief, no belief at all, or you have imitational belief, and then you have real belief.
Awliyaullah have true belief and true love to Sayyidina Muhammad (s). That is why their lives were nur. It was light. Their beliefs was not just in writing but their belief is in expressing their feelings in every moment. They cannot imagine that their lives can be alive without the reality of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) with them. It is impossible. That love has overtaken them. It dressed them. They cannot move right or left without feeling the presence of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) or else they see their lives is no reason for it.
These are the ones that they have put the real sugar. When you put the real sugar you taste the real sugar. They taste that love to Prophet and they were producing these poetries. They were seeing what they were writing. They were not composing only for singing. Because I don’t believe anyone can compose a poetry in the love of the Prophet (s) in the way that is, there are different levels. You can see that someone can compose poetry about love of Prophet, like “I love you, you love me.” Ok, sorry, like, “Fidaak bi abee wa ummee, ya Rasulullah – may my father and mother be for your sake O Prophet of Allah!” You can write something like that. But it is impossible to put the way that was put in the writing of this poetry, he was reading from the writing of one of these awliya, al-Habib Muhammad from al-Maghrib.
So that reality they begin to see it and express it and he was describing the secret of creation that is coming thru Muhammad. Someone that cannot write something like that if he is not into it, if that reality is not coming to him.
That is why awliyaullah, this is an introduction - Allah gave them a specialty when they describe something that they are seeing because of their piety and sincerity to their Creator. They never had any time a doubt, their beliefs is from three categories, their belief is from the sugary one, not the fake one or the imitational one or no belief. That is why every matter we look into it, we look from belief or no belief. Then we see a huge difference and a huge difference. And today I was been asked a question, which is very very important question, that it is good to touch on it a little bit because is might open some ideas or realities if we like to say.
Human beings they think too much. And thinking too much either takes you to the …to find the truth or takes you to be confused more.
The Prophet (s) passed by his Sahaba one day and he saw Sayyidina Abu Hurayra . You know Abu Hurayra, you heard about him?
He said, that about the Prophet. “I memorized from the Prophet two kinds of knowledge, one I shared with everyone and one if I share they will cut my neck.” And he was a companion of Prophet (s). That means the knowledge he cannot share he cannot share with sahaba. That is what it means, those living in his time.
So one day the Prophet (s) was passing by him and said, “Ya Aba Hurayra, what do you understand from this verse of Holy Quran:
الَّذِينَيَذْكُرُونَ اللّهَ قِيَامًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىَ جُنُوبِهِمْ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِيخَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقْتَ هَذا بَاطِلاً سُبْحَانَكَفَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ
Alladheena yadhkuroona Allaha qiyaman waqu`oodan wa`ala junoobihim wa yatafakkaroona fee khalqi as-samawati wa’l-ardi rabbanaa maa khalaqta haadha baatilan subhaanaka faqina `adhaaba annari
Men who celebrate the praises of Allah, 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. Al-Imran [3:191]
Those who are remembering their Lord, making dhikrullah, standing, sitting or laying down,” and we are not going to explain from this, coming. And they think and contemplate on creation of heavens and earth. What do you understand from that?
He said, "When I meditate or think on the creation of heavens and earth I see Allah’s Greatness. I see the stars and the sun. Allah is great and I think about His greatness.
The Prophet (s) said to him taffakaru sa`atin khayrun min `ibadati yawm.
“That will be rewarded as if worshipness of one day.”
Then he passed by Ibn `Abbas. Ibn `Abbas is the one who explained why each verse of Quran was revealed and when and the meaning behind it, why it was revealed. He was one of the big knowledgeable ones. He said, “when I think of that verse, I feel the greatness of Allah swt in everything, not only in the skies and in the system the universe system, how Allah swt has made it and how it has been in a situation that it is not affecting the other and the greatness of Allah putting these stars in these constellations, in these different diagrams, when you see stars at night different drawings of stars and I think of the creation of a human being.” And the Prophet (s) said, taffakaru sa`atin khayrun min iba`adati sannat. Your thinking for one hour is like the worship of one year.
It means worshipness is that you are in very second worshipping Allah being rewarded. How many moments in a second?
[Infinite? ]
They tried to count how many moments in a second and what they were able to find 10-22 of a second. Which is a figure you cannot say it by tongue, you cannot read it. After that it disappears, it becomes energy, there is no more time. It means we are timeless we are in no time zone. Because we are in an energy. What we are saying has a meaning but we are not going to discuss that.
Then he passed by Sayyidina Abu Bakr as–Siddiq and said, “Ya Aba Bakr what do you think about that verse?” He said, "When I think about that verse and I think of Allah’s greatness and all these stars and constellations. And I think of all human beings and that one day Allah is going to reward them and those who did - I don’t like to say ‘bad,’ but those who didn’t do good, there is Allah’s mercy, but there is also punishment. So I feel pity for human beings. So I say ‘O Allah let me receive that flame of hellfire myself and then no one else will feel it anymore.’” The Prophet (s) said, “The way you are thinking and you are asking is rewarded more than worship of 70 years.”
How much a human being is living? Average life is what? 70-80 years. 70 years. So it means for one hour, O human being, one hour sitting by yourself, thinking about yourself, making an account of yourself, thanking Allah and what you have done of bad, asking forgiveness. That will take you to 70 years of worship as if one whole life of worship.
Anyone sitting and trying to make account of himself or herself, to see what we have done in ours lives. To think back, “I did this, I remember that, Ya Rabbee forgive me. I did something wrong. Or I did good Ya Rabbee. Thank you Ya Rabbee. That is what awliyaullah are doing and that is why their belief is sugary and our belief is not. Because when they keep thinking like that every day and every day, asking forgiveness, and keep asking, and when they keep asking and keep asking, you are ending with complete forgiveness. As Allah said, id`unee astajeeb lakum.
Unfortunately we are not doing that. We pray our prayers and we don’t think about that. We do what we must not do and we like more than what we have to do. This is a problem. We came here, and yadullah ma al-Jama`at - the Hand of Allah is over the gathering or the group. We are here, nothing for dunya, not for business, not for nothing, only coming to meet here to express our love of Allah and love of prophet. That is counted from that hour because we are coming here and remembering and refreshing our memories. That is important for our lives. The one who thinks with a belief and tries to understand what he is reading or hearing with belief, is completely different from one who reads with no belief. And that is why there is a huge difference between the two. The one who is reading with belief, because Allah said:
وَلَقَدْكَرَّمْنَا بَنِي آدَمَ وَحَمَلْنَاهُمْ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ وَرَزَقْنَاهُممِّنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ وَفَضَّلْنَاهُمْ عَلَى كَثِيرٍ مِّمَّنْ خَلَقْنَا تَفْضِيلاً
wa laqad karamna bani Adam wa hamalnahum fi'l-barri wa'l-bahr wa fadlanaahum `ala katheeran mimma khalaqna tafdeela.
We have honored the sons of Adam; provided them with transport on land and sea; given them for sustenance things good and pure; and conferred on them special favours, above a great part of our creation. al-Isra [17:70]
That is a belief and if we take that and apply to what we study today then it has important meaning and if we don’t study this and apply tow hat we have today then it does not make sense now people might be confused what I am speaking but Is coming.
Allah honored human beings and when he honored them he raised them. Because we know human being is from earth.
مِنْهَاخَلَقْنَاكُمْ وَفِيهَا نُعِيدُكُمْ وَمِنْهَا نُخْرِجُكُمْ تَارَةً أُخْرَى
minha khalaqnaakum, wa feeha nu`eedukum wa minha nukhrijukum taaratan ukhraa.From the (earth) did We create you, and into it shall We return you, and from it shall We bring you out once again. [20:55]
“And from it We are bringing you back.” So that is a belief, if you don’t want to believe that then evolution is going to have a completely different meaning for you. Then it will not give you right meaning.
So if you believe that then you want to know how to understand that. Allah ordered Jibreel to bring handful of dirt from earth to Paradise. And so taking from earth to Paradise is an honor. Allah honored us by bringing from dunya to heavens. That is from place of death to place of ever living. He honored us by taking us up all the way. So what he took? That is where it comes evolution? What he took.
Because in evolution they say that everything came from one cell. And in every life, in every species it consists of many of these cells and in human beings it is like that and in others it is like that and it depends on how many of that cells there. What did Jibreel bring from earth? He brought that cell. That cell that was the beginning of creation. He brought that dirt, up, if we don’t want to call it dirt, turaab, soil and he brought that up to be created and molded. What did the Prophet said?
كنت نبيًا ولا آدم ولا ماء ولا طين
He said, kuntu nabiyyin wa Adam bayna al-ma’i wat-teen. We are not speaking of the Prophet now but of Adam. About that procedure that makes Adam from clay, from soil, and putting in it that force that makes it having and giving it life. Because as we were today speaking every cell has a force in it, a driving force. It is a force, from where it came? We know where cell came but where force came; where did they find that?
Of course they found the cell. Because Allah said minhu khalaqnakum.
But the driving force, in that bacterium, where is that from? The reality of that life, that Allah created Adam. And in that one cell at the beginning might be was the DNA.
So the understanding of evolution is that they say that cell over long period of time changes, becoming this and becoming that. Why Allah cannot make human being, from how much we said? 85%. The human being is composed of 85% of these cells but the originality of that one cell is from earth. And the rest, Allah swt, in a perfect way put them together. Human being was there. It is not that it has to be that we were monkeys and we were evoluting, evolving, to a higher standard of different cells that were perfect in order to make that human being. Allah has no power? The One who put that force in that cell that is not known, Allah cannot put that power and the human being is there?
I was asking you before, they found, I didn’t ask but, everything if you look into life, everything must be in pairs, male and female. Who put that? Also we say that by chance these evolved to be one to be male and one to be female. It is not!
Allah swt from everything He makes pair. Look at animals, look at human beings. Even look at insects. Worms, flies, must be male and female. Who made that? In all these big quantities and gave them that driving force to make them to fly or to live under dirt, worms, many living a long time there, you open it and how do they get their food? Who sent their food to them? Animals they go after their food. But these worms don’t move. Some of them sitting in the same place. They found worms in rocks living, under rocks living. From where they were eating?
That cannot be evolving. It might be evolving in the same gender. In insects it might be evolving to an insect that is colored today, we see colored flies one wing colored and one wing not colored. But in human beings we don’t see. I was reading something some time ago. In the DNA, they found something different in the women than the men. Mitochondrial DNA. They found that only in women. They cannot find it in men. It doesn’t give the child. When child grows in the womb of the mother it mean only receiving in the womb of the mother. And from whom did she received it. Allah swt His greatness in these issues, when we think we must think to look into it to see the Greatness of Allah. We must not look into how it was made. The Prophet (s) prohibited it.
He passed by some sahaba and asked them what they are discussing. They said “we are discussing how Allah is [?]” And he said “don’t think on how but think on the creation.”
… that is why it is important to build our belief strongly and then when that belief is so strong then you will find so many issues they are discovering today are in the Holy Quran. May Allah give us belief like awliyaullah that inherited from the Prophet and build us up to understand that evolution can be understood that it is not coming from other species but evolution from the first cell of Adam and Allah made it in the highest perfection and he was the one able to receive the light of Sayyidina Muhammad and he was the one able to receive the Names that Allah has taught him. Allah is not going to teach an animal. Haasha.
Allah was teaching him when He said:
وَعَلَّمَآدَمَ الأَسْمَاء كُلَّهَا ثُمَّ عَرَضَهُمْ عَلَى الْمَلاَئِكَةِ فَقَالَأَنبِئُونِي بِأَسْمَاء هَـؤُلاء إِن كُنتُمْ صَادِقِينَ
Wa `allama adama al-asmaa kullaha thumma `aradahum `ala al-malaikati faqaala anbioonee bi asmai haaulaa’i in kuntum saadiqeen
And He taught Adam the nature of all things; then He placed them before the angels, and said: "Tell me the nature of these if ye are right." Al-Baqara [2:31]
He taught him all the names and taught him all the creation. If he was not a perfect form at that moment when he was being taught he could not receive these manifestations so Allah’s creation and he could not be in Paradise even.
You cannot bring a monkey to speak. It is not in the evolution. Evolution in the genus of the monkeys, evolution of different fish, evolution of birds in the species of fish. Also the evolution of human beings in the same species it doesn’t change from one to another.
May Allah support you?