Suhbah at Private Residence
O Muslims and mu’mins, alhamdulillah we are here today in this mansion of Islam, it is a Paradise from Heaven on Earth, as Prophet (s) said to his Sahaabah (r):
قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: إذا مررتم برياض الجنة فارتع. قالو وما رياض الجنة؟ قال "حلق الذكر"
Ibn `Umar reported that the Prophet (s) said: "When you pass by the Gardens of Paradise, avail yourselves of them." The Companions asked: "What are the Gardens of Paradise, O Messenger of Allah?" He replied: "The circles of dhikr.” (Tirmidhi)
That circle of today’s dhikrullah is purely for remembering Allah, not business, no fitna, no problems, everyone throws his problems out and enters clean. To become clean is not by throwing your shoes and clothes outside and saying, “I have nothing now, I am clean.” No, it is to throw out your bad desires and bad ego, about which Allah (swt) said:
فَأَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَاهَا
He inspired the self of its good and its bad. (Surat ash-Shams, 91:8)
Allah has shown the Nafs al-Insaan, self of the human being, as everyone has a self (ego) is inside him and Allah said that He inspires the self with what is good and what is bad for it to choose. Alhamdulillah, you have chosen to be here today in this garden of Heaven and we thank the one who looks after this mansion. Allah is The Owner, you look after what Allah gave you, and Allah is arham ar-Rahimeen, The Most Merciful of the Merciful, The Absolute Merciful, The One that Gives! We are asking Him, “Yaa Rabbee! For the sake of Your Prophet (s), give us one thing that we wanted for a long time, we try to have this thing.” And Allah (s) told Prophet (s) something which is very easy on the tongue:
كلمتان خفيفتان على اللسان ثقيلتان فى الميزان حبيبتان إلى الرحمن سبحان الله و بحمده سبحان الله العظيم
There are two words that are very easy to say, yet very heavy on the Scale, most beloved to The Merciful, “SubhaanAllah wa bihamdihi subhaanAllahi ’l-`Azheem.” (Bukhari and Muslim)
Two words are light on the tongue but heavy with hasanaat, such that if you have a mountain of sins, when you recite these words every day they become heavier than the mountains of sins you are carrying! Also Allah (swt) wants something from us that we like to have:
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ وَأُنثَىٰ وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوا ۚ إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌ
O people! We have created you male and female and We made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another. Indeed the most noble of you to Allah is the most pious. Allah is the All-Knowing, All-Aware. (Surat al-Hujurat, 49:13)
“O human beings! Allah created you from male and female li-ta`arafoo, to know each other,” and as our `alim just said, to establish ‘mutual acquaintance’, to know each other in dunya because we already had ta`aruf on the Day of Promises. That ayah is asking us to remember what we promised Allah (swt), the oath we gave and to know what you pledged there: was it to be a good Muslim or the other way? All of us say we want to be Muslim, we want the way of Islam:
إِنَّ الدِّينَ عِندَ اللّهِ الإِسْلاَمُُ
The religion in Allah’s view is Islam (submission to His Will). (Surat Aali-`Imraan, 3:19)
We need that. Allah said, “If you want that, remember what you pledged!”
وَاعْتَصِمُواْ بِحَبْلِ اللّهِ جَمِيعًا وَلاَ تَفَرَّقُواْ
Hold fast to Allah's rope and do not separate. (Surat Aali-`Imraan, 3:103)
“Hold tight,” why did He bring us together on the Day of Promises? All of our souls appeared in His Presence, He sees them, He created them one by one, in the same time.
لَّقَدْ أَحْصَاهُمْ وَعَدَّهُمْ عَدًّا وَكُلُّهُمْ آتِيهِ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ فَرْدًا
He contained them and counted them, and all of them are coming to him on the Day of Judgement as an individual. (Surat Maryam, 19:94-95)
“He contained them, He counted them all and all of them are going to come to Him on the Day of Judgement, one by one. He sees them all in the same time.” What does He want from us? He said:
وَاعْتَصِمُواْ بِحَبْلِ اللّهِ جَمِيعًا وَلاَ تَفَرَّقُواْ
Hold fast to Allah's rope and don't separate. (Surat Aali-`Imraan, 3:103)
“I want you to have a good life in dunya, hold tight to each other and don't separate,” ask for unity, ask for mutuality, ask to be obedient to Allah all at the same time--united. They call it ‘United Nations.’ Are they united? They have to write “United The Angry Nations.” Our selves (the self) are a nation. We have this complicated system that is running from nothing. Allah has put in us His Rooh:
وَنَفَخْتُ فِيهِ مِن رُّوحِي
And breathed into him of My Spirit. (15:29)
“I have blown in him from My Spirit, My Noor, to dress him,” and that is enough. What is that in English? “I blew in him from My Rooh.” Now that we cannot describe, because we are not up to that level and we don't want to make a mistake, but Allah blew inside of us that Rooh, that Existence that we cannot see. It sees us, but we cannot see It. The Rooh inside you can see you, but you cannot see It, because we didn't reach that level yet. Awliyaullah can see their souls, their Rooh. It happened to me twice, I saw it by Mawlana's permission, by his order. I saw myself on the bed for surgery, I saw my body there, but I was not sleeping. It was like a vision.
So Allah (swt) wants from us to unite, not to separate. When you separate, that means Shaytan is separating us. What is segregation? Separating is from Shaytan, and to come together is what? [Unity] There is a word for it, but let us say “unity,” to split and reunite. The door is open. Allah's Door to Paradise is always open and doors for reconciliation are always open, but don't reconcile and then after two or three months you begin to do the same things as you did before. You make tawbah and ask for forgiveness. You commit a sin and ask Allah’s Forgiveness, and then after one or two months you come back to it; but Allah’s Door is still open. Even if you come back to it 100 times, Allah will send you ways to forgive you 100 times, but run for it! Don’t let the opportunity go. Islam is unity, that is why He said:
إِنَّ الدِّينَ عِندَ اللّهِ الإِسْلاَمُُ
The religion in Allah’s view is Islam (submission to His Will). (Surat Aali-`Imraan, 3:19)
Deen, religion, consists of how many rituals? There are too many, so Allah called them by one word “deen,” if you do that you are a true Muslim. The religion that you do coincides with what Islam orders you, that is what Allah accepts from you, other than that it is His Rahmah. Whether He accepts or not, we don’t know, it is up to Him. So Allah created us to know each other.
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ وَأُنثَىٰ وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوا ۚ إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌ
O people! We have created you male and female and we made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another. Indeed the most noble of you to Allah is the most pious. Allah is the All-Knowing, All-Aware. (Surat al-Hujurat, 49:13)
Allah is saying, “We made you brothers and sisters and nations and tribes and different races, different people, different creations to know each other, not to fight each other.” What is happening today? They are fighting each other and all of Middle East is burning. Did Allah say that? No He didn’t. To fight Muslim against Muslim is not acceptable, even to fight against a peaceful non-Muslim is not acceptable.
أيما رجل قال لأخيه يا كافر فقد باء بها أحدهما
Whichever man says to his brother “O kaafir,” one of them hit is true of one of them. (Bukhari, Muslim)
“Someone who declares someone kaafir, he is the one who is kaafir.” Man kaffar, that does not necessarily mean “takfeer” in the meaning. Sometimes we use kalimat al-kufr, not in the meaning of “kufr” in Islam, but in the sense that you are not happy with what Allah decided for you, not to give thanks. So that is a kufr bi ni`amillah, and we can say for that kufr, you are not thanking Allah for His Favors. It is not the kufr of Tawheed, but even for that Allah does not like you to do that. Rather, He likes you to extend your hand. The story of Habeel and Qabeel is about this. Qabeel wanted to kill his brother, what did his brother say? He surrendered and said, “Do what you want.”
لَئِن بَسَطتَ إِلَيَّ يَدَكَ لِتَقْتُلَنِي مَا أَنَا بِبَاسِطٍ يَدِيَ إِلَيْكَ لِأَقْتُلَكَ ۖ إِنِّي أَخَافُ اللَّهَ رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ
If you extend your hand to me to kill me I will not be extending my hand to you to kill you. I fear Allah, Lord of the Worlds. (Surat al-Ma’idah, 5:28)
“If you extend your hand to kill me, I surrender to Allah and will not extend my hand to kill you.” That is taslimiyya, full submission. Habeel (r) had full submission. So, “I will not extend my hand to kill you. Why do I have to kill you? I withdraw my hand, I am ready. Do what you want.” Today `ulama have to encourage the Ummah to reconcile between each other. Is this not Islam? To listen to each other:
وَالَّذِينَ اسْتَجَابُوا لِرَبِّهِمْ وَأَقَامُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَأَمْرُهُمْ شُورَىٰ بَيْنَهُمْ وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ يُنفِقُونَ
Those who respond to their Lord, establish the prayer, their affair is consultation between themselves, and they spend from Our sustenance to them. (Surat ash-Shura, 42:38)
“It is not the decision of one person to say, “Either this, or you are not from me,” or “You do this and if you don’t accept, you are kaafir,” no! There are ways, wa amrahum shoora baynahum. Consult between each other. If I have a different opinion, it doesn’t mean I have to come against you. I have a different opinion, perhaps my opinion is better than yours, perhaps yours is better than mine. Sit and discuss, don’t sit and curse, that will not benefit anyone. Sit and discuss and see how you can solve the issue. Or else, everyone will go into misery, like everyone now is killing each other. Why were these innocent people killed in California? They have been killed for nothing, they said they were working for the handicapped? [They were health workers.] So they were doing something good, why would someone kill them? Because there is no more amrahum shoora baynahum, everyone thinks their opinion is the best.
Fix your home. Your “home” is your self. Fix your self, don’t be arrogant. Don't be someone who spies on their brothers and sisters, and their nation. Don’t have bad thoughts and don't spread false rumors:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اجْتَنِبُوا كَثِيرًا مِّنَ الظَّنِّ إِنَّ بَعْضَ الظَّنِّ إِثْمٌ ۖ وَلَا تَجَسَّسُوا وَلَا يَغْتَب بَّعْضُكُم بَعْضًا ۚ أَيُحِبُّ أَحَدُكُمْ أَن يَأْكُلَ لَحْمَ أَخِيهِ مَيْتًا فَكَرِهْتُمُوهُ ۚ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ تَوَّابٌ رَّحِيمٌ
O you who believe! Avoid much doubt as indeed some doubt is sinful, and do not spy on each other or backbite against each other. Do any of you wish to eat the dead flesh of his brother? Indeed you would hate it. Beware of Allah. Allah is The Most-Repentant, The All-Merciful. (Surat al-Hujuraat, 49:12)
Bad thoughts are sins, they are wrong. It is a mere thought, it might not be correct! Don't build an opinion on that thought, because the infrastructure is already breakable; it is not correct, it is wrong. Don’t spy on each other and don’t spread rumors against each other. For what? If someone comes to you spreading a rumor tell them “I don’t want to hear it! What should I hear it for? I am not part of it, why do you make me a part of it? I don’t want to hear it.” Except for the al-muflihoon, the ones who make peace and try to fix the problem; Allah will reward them and the community will reward them. So first is to clean ourselves and to fix what is wrong, we have lots of sins and mistakes. Except for this one, (A little child.) he has no sins or mistakes. Look at his innocence, you were once like that:
يولد الانسان على الفطرة ، فأبواه يهودانه أو ينصرانه أو يمجسانه
Man is born upon fitra (innocence), but it is his parents who make him a Jew, a Christian or a Magian.
(Bukhari, Muslim)
The child is born on innocence, without sins, infallible, but when he becomes this age he changes. I remember when Grandshayh `AbdAllah (q) used to give us suhbah every day, we used to come in order to receive his advise to do good. Tariqatunaa ‘s-suhbah wa ‘l-khayru fi ‘l-jamee`ah, “Our Tariqah is association, and the goodness is in the gathering.” That is because it is Rawdatun min Riyad al-Jannah, as Prophet (s) said, this meeting here is a Paradise, what do you want to better than sitting in a Paradise? When we go to Madinat ul-Munawarah, all of us want to fight to sit in the Rawdah. Allah is offering us, not up to the level of Rawdat an-Nabi (s), but in our homes to have a rawdah when they do dhikrullah. Allah will turn it into a rawdah according to the level of people, He will send Mercy on you. Where can we find that? It is easy. Wherever there is a group of people sitting saying “Laa ilaaha il-Allah.” Allah said:
قُلِ الله ثُمَّ ذَرْهُمْ فِي خَوْضِهِمْ يَلْعَبُونَ
Quli 'Llaah thumma dharhum fee khawdihim yal`aboon.
Say "Allah," then leave them to plunge in vain discourse and trifling. (Surat al-An`am, 6:91)
How they say “No dhikr jalala,” why? Allah is saying it in the Holy Qur’an. If I say “Allah” now, they will say that it is kufr, why? Allah is saying it in the Holy Qur’an, “Say Allah!” They say, “No! say Laa ilaaha ill-Allah,” okay I am saying “Laa ilaaha ill-Allah,” but I like to say, “Yaa Allah!” call on Him directly. “No, no, no, you cannot do this!” So they close the door for every kind of Mercy to come on them. They think they opened the door by saying, “We want to go to Paradise by slaughtering the necks of human beings,” this is Islam? It is not! They come and ask, “How to fight terrorism?” It is to go back to Ayat ul-Qur’an and take the verses of how to build yourself to be a good citizen.
So Allah said:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اجْتَنِبُوا كَثِيرًا مِّنَ الظَّنِّ إِنَّ بَعْضَ الظَّنِّ إِثْمٌ ۖ وَلَا تَجَسَّسُوا وَلَا يَغْتَب بَّعْضُكُم بَعْضًا ۚ أَيُحِبُّ أَحَدُكُمْ أَن يَأْكُلَ لَحْمَ أَخِيهِ مَيْتًا فَكَرِهْتُمُوهُ ۚ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ تَوَّابٌ رَّحِيمٌ
O those who believe! Avoid much doubt, indeed some doubt is sinful, and do not spy on each other or backbite against each other. Do any of you wish to eat the flesh of his dead brother? Indeed you would hate it. Be wary of Allah. Allah is Most-Repentant, All-Merciful. (Surat al-Hujurat, 49:12)
Don't backbite each other, because when you are backbiting you are eating the raw flesh of your brother. How to eliminate yourself from falling into this problem? It is like when Sayyidina Abu Yazid al-Bastami (q) said, “Yaa Rabbee! Open for me Your Door! Kayfa al-wusool ilayk, how can I reach You?” What inspiration came to him? What do you think? “Itruk nafsaka wa ta`al, leave your self behind and come to Me.” Don't come with your ego, don’t come with your bad manners, there are no bad manners in the Divine Presence, everything is clean. How do you claim that you enter the Divine Presence and you receive inspirations, when you are falling into the trap of backbiting? It doesn't work like that. So Allah is saying, “Don’t backbite, don’t eat the raw flesh of your brother.”
How many times we backbite each other? Too many times, it is too much. We have to discipline ourselves. So he said, “How can I reach You, yaa Rabbee?” If you want to reach Allah, you cannot come to Him claiming that you are in a Tariqah, but you are doing all kinds of sins and asking to come to the Divine Presence. No, you can come when you ask for forgiveness, Allah will forgive you. However, when you come, you might reach to a certain, but you will not reach the high levels. You have to fight your ego to reach the high levels, as was the inspiration that came to Abu Yazid al-Bastami (q), itruk nafsak wa ta`aal, “Leave yourself and come.”
He said, insalakhtu min jildee kama tansalikh al-hayya min jildiha, “I came out of my ego like the snake comes out of its skin. I came out like that, I skinned myself.” When you skin a lamb or goat, how many times do you skin with the knife? You think it hurts or not? Sayyidina Abu Yazid al-Bastami (q) skinned himself in order to be clean to reach the Divine Presence. What are you doing when you are saying, “This is an order coming from Allah, this is an order coming from Prophet (s), this is an order coming from Awliya, this is an order coming from…” I don’t know who, I don’t know what, or “coming from the Qur’an or Hadith,” when you are falling into the trap of your ego? All of us have this problem, we have to be very careful. I am looking at all of us here and I regret to myself that I wasted my life for nothing, only falling into sin and the traps of Shaytan. Mashaa-Allah, the young ones here still have a long life, let it be in the Way of Allah (swt), not in the way of Shaytan.
When they asked Abu Yazid al-Bistami (q), “Why do you respect the young ones and the elderly?” He said, “I respect the young ones because they don’t have as many sins as I have, and I respect the elderly because they worshipped more than me.” So he blamed himself, not blaming someone else. I am seeing these young ones here, they have the opportunity now to increase their love to Prophet (s) and to Allah (swt) to enter that Paradise, the Divine Presence. For us it’s faaqiha ta`abayni...what’s that? Rotten fruit. If we say we are fruits, well we are rotten fruits. We don't know when we will leave dunya and go, but you young ones have time. Don't lose your time on drugs, gangs, marijuana, cocaine, propane, or drinking petrol. [Vape, the new one.] Aaah! You are the expert! [Laughter.] Yes, everyone runs for everything new, but they don’t run for saying that it is bad for our health, we have to stop it.
Wa amrakum shoora baynakum, don't come to someone and say, “You said this or that,” try to come to your friend and say, “Please, I heard this, can you deny it for me?” Don’t fight him, try to reconcile with him. May Allah (swt) unite us to be one group of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani (q). He called himself “Haqqani” because he is on Haqq:
وَقُلْ جَاء الْحَقُّ وَزَهَقَ الْبَاطِلُ إِنَّ الْبَاطِلَ كَانَ زَهُوقًا
Say (O Muhammad), "Haqq (Truth) has come and baatil (falsehood) has perished.” (Surat al-Israa’, 17:81)
His life was on Haqq against baatil, so we have to follow and support that way, and be living in that way, not to give ourselves excuses to divert and to establish for ourselves an empire and say, “It’s our empire,” no. Anything you want to establish you have to look for the benefit of his name. I put two international unity conferences in America for Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) to speak from the highest podium in the world, he spoke from the top highest, Capitol Building, The Congress. He spoke to the Congressmen about Islam, this was in 1996 and 1998. Whatever you do it is for your Shaykh, not for yourself; as for yourself, you are nothing. Your Shaykh can say that he is nothing about himself, but you have to respect him. Prophet (s) said that about himself:
قُلْ إِنَّمَا أَنَا بَشَرٌ مِّثْلُكُمْ يُوحَى إِلَيَّ أَنَّمَا إِلَهُكُمْ إِلَهٌ وَاحِدٌ فَمَن كَانَ يَرْجُو لِقَاء رَبِّهِ فَلْيَعْمَلْ عَمَلًا صَالِحًا
وَلَا يُشْرِكْ بِعِبَادَةِ رَبِّهِ أَحَدًا
Say, "I am but a man like yourselves, (but) the inspiration has come to me that your Allah is one Allah. Whoever expects to meet his Lord, let him work righteousness and in the worship of his Lord admit no one as partner. (Surat al-Kahf, 18:110)
He can say that, but we cannot! We say, “He is The Perfect One, al`Azham al-`Azham, `Azheem ul-`Azham, min Noor illah `azza wa jall, He is Great by the Greatness of Allah’s Noor.” You can praise your teacher as much as you like, but don't praise yourself.
وَفَوْقَ كُلِّ ذِي عِلْمٍ عَلِيمٌ
Above every knower is a (higher) knower. (Surah Yusuf, 12:76)
“Above every knower there is a knower,” so you are nothing then. May Allah forgive us, may Allah bless us and we pray for this family hosting us here today in this mansion, a Garden of Heaven, because as Prophet (s) mentioned the hadith to his Sahaabah (r):
قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: إذا مررتم برياض الجنة فارتع. قالو وما رياض الجنة؟ قال "حلق الذكر"
Ibn `Umar reported that the Prophet (s) said: "When you pass by the Gardens of Paradise, avail yourselves of them." The Companions asked: "What are the Gardens of Paradise, O Messenger of Allah?" He replied: "The circles of dhikr.” (Tirmidhi)
This is hilaaq al-dhikr, riyaad ul-jannah, and inshaa-Allah Allah (swt) yatajallaa alayna, Allah manifests His Beautiful Names and Attributes and the Light of His Paradise on us and to gives shifaa to Shaykh Ghulam Nabi, to all of us and to the princess, his wife, and to all the family and all his brothers and sisters. May Allah forgive us.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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