As-salamu `alaykum wa rahmatallahi wa barakatahu.
Before we continue defining the guide of the third level, we gave a brief summary yesterday, and we arrived to the third level, and there is more to explain by Grandshaykh’s قدس سرّه, by Mawlana Shaykh Nazim’s, and by Shaykh Sharafuddin’s قدس سرّه notes.
After the mureed has been raised up by the Guide of Purification, they come to the level of attending with the Guide of Tasfiyyah, siftness. He sifts the mureeds as a whole by the order of the higher level of guide, which in this time is Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani, may Allah bless him, the Guide of Tarbiyyah. This is the highest level, the fourth level. Before reaching to that level, the Guide of Tasfiyyah (who is under him), sifts people and gets the cream, the best. He presents them to the highest level of guidance, which is the guide of the one who raises the mureeds up, Murshid at-Tarbiyyah, the guide of raising people from childhood. When you raise your son or daughter, we say you are the father. So, he raised these, the best of the cream, the best of the mureeds. He will take them into his circle and build them up.
Before we go into that, I would like (to say) anything I see, I’m going to criticize; whatever I see wrong. Allah gave His favors. As Allah said in the Holy Qur`an, wa amma bi ni`mati rabbika fa-haddith, “By Allah’s favors, you have to tell people when Allah gives you a favor.” If you hide that, it’s okay. But if you put it in front of people and say, “Oh, Allah gave me that favor, but I’m not going to let you feel it,” that is like torturing you, winding you up. I don’t like these games people play. They put an air condition there (pointing to the right corner). I asked it to be opened. People here in these days are fasting, sitting, at least they can relax. They came with an excuse that the windows are open. I said, “Close the windows, we open the fans.” They came with an excuse after a while that, “Oh, the remote control is lost, we lost it.” What is this? They think we are stupid? Yes, we are stupid to believe that. We believe them, we are stupid. I’m not believing what he said to me. I’m not saying the name, but I don’t believe what he said to me, (not) one word. He said, “Oh, we put it for winter.” They came with an excuse that they put it only for winter; air conditioning for winter, because it can heat. You have to believe this nonsense. If you believe, you are (a) good mureed in their eyes. If you don’t believe, you are (a) bad one. Okay, we are from the bad ones; we are not going to believe it. Because people might say “Why is this air condition not opened?” It looks pretty. Yes, it looks pretty; that’s torturing you saying, “Ah, we have this but when we’ll open it when we want. When we don’t want, we won’t open it. If you put money in our pockets, we’ll open it.” Allahu Akbar! Allah is going to punish these people who are trying to control everything in this place and Mawlana doesn’t know. I don’t like to go to Mawlana Shaykh and tell these things.
Let’s continue now our discussion. (In) any case, as we said yesterday, we will go back to the suhbah of the characteristics of the Shaykh of Tasfiyyah; the third level of guidance. After he puts in his heart 500 obligations and 800 forbiddens, he has to be able to put (it) in the heart of his mureed. He has the power that he took from his shaykh, who is in the fourth level. That shaykh, which is Mawlana Shaykh in this time, took from Prophet (s) . So, it all has to come from Prophet (s) . Everything, the door for it is Prophet (s) . There is no other way, there is no other door. Allah said in the Holy Qur`an, wabtaghaw ilayhi’l-waseela, “Seek for him the means.” And the means is Prophet (s) and is always Prophet (s), and from him to your shaykh, and from your shaykh to different levels of murshid that are under his way. He has to put these 500 obligations, as if you have done them and you will be rewarded for them.
(Also), he has to take away from your heart 800 forbiddens, as if you have seen them and stopped yourself from committing these sins. That’s not easy. Who can control himself in twenty-four hours (by) not committing any sin? Even if you lock yourself in a room for twenty-four hours, you are committing an infinite number of forbiddens. One of them may say, “Oh, I locked myself in a room, I’m good.” That is a forbidden by itself. “I locked myself in the room. I’m not going to talk to anyone.” That is from ego; you are proud of yourself. That is a sin. That’s why Prophet (s) said, “The most thing I fear for my ummah is the hidden shirk.” These hidden shirks are in everyone. We don’t feel them, they come. They try to affect human beings.
Grandshaykh قدس سرّه said, the shaykh has to eliminate 800 forbiddens from the heart of the mureed, according to what Allah likes and what Prophet (s) likes. Also, he will give you for every one of these 800 forbiddens, a power to understand them and learn them. That’s why many of us might say, “How can that be?” Did anyone say that? To say, “How it can be,” is the secret. This means you did not reach that level yet to know what the murshid can put in your heart. Then how are you thinking you are a murshid? Even this you cannot understand! When the Murshid puts in our heart to block these 800 forbiddens, he said he will give a meditation, a thought about every forbidden; at that moment, in your heart you will realize it. This is not for everyone. It’s only for the cream of the mureeds, not for every mureed. As you go up in levels, first you were under the level of murshid of baraka, the Guide of Blessings, then you were under the Murshid of at-Tazkiyyah, “The Guide of Purification.” Now we are coming to the guide to sift, to collect the cream. So, in every level it becomes less, and less, and less. In (the third) level, it’s very limited to very few people who can understand what the guides are putting in their hearts. They can realize the good from the bad, and understand that the shaykh has put the good in his heart and eliminated the bad.
For example, Grandshaykh قدس سرّه said Sayyidina Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani قدس سرّه put a mureed in seclusion for forty days, and told him, “If something strange happens with you, tell me.” Everyday they sent him his food, one small bowl of lentils in twenty-four hours. That is the food; training. When you eat less you’ll be awake, cannot sleep. They don’t want you to sleep; they want you to be awake. When you eat too much, you go and sleep without feeling. You eat too much food? [Mawlana asks someone]. Somali people are very famous in eating big lambs stuffed with rice and meat. That’s why they are eating each other in
“A rat was speaking to me in perfect Arabic language”, said the mureed. It’s nice for a rat to speak Arabic. It’s good, because in khalwah (seclusion) everything is possible; don’t think it’s too much. Shaykh Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani قدس سرّه said, “What happened?” “Ya Sayyidi,” said the mureed, “When you sent me the food, I started eating, but the prayer time came. This rat came from the hole in the room and went to the food and started eating. I was praying, and I was seeing. I wanted to finish quickly because this rat was eating the food. As soon as I said as-salamu `alaykum, I ran to the rat and it went away to the hole. Then I put a paper to close the hole and continued my prayer. The rat pushed the paper and came another time to eat; then ran away another time. I said as-salamu `alaykum, quickly finished my prayer, and kicked the rat out. The rat went to the hole and extended its head saying in perfect Arabic, ‘Oh idiot! Do you think if my name was not written on that food, I would be able to touch it?’ Oh my shaykh, this is the strangest thing that happened to me.”
Sayyidina Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani قدس سرّه said, “Oh my son, you have failed your test, because your Trust was going to be given to you, your Amanaat, your secrets, but you blocked them.” “Oh, I didn’t do anything”, said the mureed. His shaykh said, “Oh my son, do you think the rat can speak Arabic? You must not see the rat. You must see the one behind the rat. It was me speaking to you, telling you that you did something wrong. You must let that rat eat because it is written the name of that food for that rat. You lost your Trust. I was ready to give you your Trust, but awliyaullah prohibited me. They stopped me saying, ‘No, he’s not ready yet,’ because you didn’t see me in that rat.”
That’s big. He’s showing him even to that small detail awliyaullah are (with) opened eyes on their followers, their mureeds. They know what’s happening. Every detail they know, but sometimes they don’t talk. You think Mawlana doesn’t know about this air conditioner here, and that they don’t open it? Awliyaullah keep quiet. But we have permission to not keep quiet, to criticize. If there is no permission to criticize, we keep our tongue and mouth zipped. So, to this extent awliyaullah are looking at their followers. Even in their twenty-four hours, of every moment of their lives. Grandshaykh قدس سرّه used to say, “When you move in the bed at night right or left, when you are sleeping; I can hear your movement stronger than thunder. When thunder comes, I can hear that movement of my mureed, even if he is in the East and I am in the West, I can hear it.”
So, they put in your heart this knowledge of knowing these forbiddens one by one. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, may Allah give him long life (ameen), told me Grandshaykh قدس سرّه ordered him into seclusion for six months in Madina tul-Munawwara, ala saakiniha afdalu’s-salaatu was-salam. He was ordered to do the five prayers in Masjid an-Nabawi (s) in the Rawdah Shareef, so, he has to go early for every prayer. That was a long time ago. Not like now, it’s crowded. And going to the Masjid he had to look at his step, where he is putting his feet. He cannot look further. Going, praying, and coming back; continue this seclusion.
At the beginning of the seclusion, he said to me that he got an order to count as much as he can from the 800 forbiddens. He was young, it was his second seclusion. His first seclusion was in
Mawlana Shaykh said, “I began to count everyday whatever Allah opened to me in my heart through Prophet (s) and my shaykh. And by the end of the seclusion, six months, I was able to count 187 forbiddens. Understanding them and knowing their remedies like a medication, to give medication to these forbiddens in order to eliminate them. But I was not able to go more than 187.” It’s not easy. “In the beginning I was able to count 30 maximum. And then one week later, they left me without able to count anything more. Then they gave me a push. And then I was able to count more and more until they came to 187. After three months they opened for me to know the 800 forbiddens. They opened them for me to teach to the hearts of Mawlana’s students.”
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim continues, “I’ll give you an example. One time, Sayyidina Abdul Qadir Jilani قدس سرّه was walking with his mureed by the river.” I mentioned that story in
According to awliyaullah, there are five levels in the heart. The first level is the Heart. Here, Shaytan can come in for bad inspiration, bad gossips, or bad thoughts. Dunya comes in, nafs comes in, and hawa (desires) come in; all in the first level. Only certain levels of awliyaullah can enter the second level which is called the Maqam As-Sirr, The Secret. This is in everyone’s heart. That level, that state, and that maqam, is in everyone’s heart. But no one can access it without the code. Allah gave these codes to the Prophet (s). Prophet (s) gave them to awliyaullah who are responsible of this second level; they can access the hearts of their mureeds. The third level is especially for Naqshbandi Tariqat guides; not for anyone else. Allah gave them that level. The second level was for other tariqats and the third level was for Naqshbandi Tariqats, awliyaullah. They can access Maqam Sirr as-Sirr, The Secret of Secrets. They can zoom in the Secret and go deep inside.
When you have a circle and you zoom in straight forward, you come to the center, is not? The center is a small, very small dot. But if you put a microscope on that small dot, it becomes a huge universe, another face, another level. Like you take blood from someone, you put one little drop inside and look in the microscope. You (can) see millions of bacteria or millions of viruses full of it, a huge universe by itself. A cell of the body is a huge universe. Any cell of the body has its own mechanism system. It’s like a huge army battalion against any bacteria to come and defend the body. So when awliyaullah zoom inside the Secret, they go to another universe which is Secret of the Secret; a huge universe in front of them. They see more of the human being’s characters: not (the) physical body, they are not looking into a medical system, they are looking into the wild characters and behaviors we carry. They want you to reach Maqam al-Ihsan; they want to take you to Moral Excellence.
But awliyaullah have a level they cannot go beyond. So it ends, and then it comes to the level of Prophet (s), Maqam al-Akhfa or Maqam al-Khafa, The Hidden State where Prophet (s) can zoom in. It gives him (s) the whole picture of Creation, awliyaullah cannot enter there. Then there is the fifth level, which is only in Allah’s hand; even Prophet (s) doesn’t go there without permission: Maqam al-Akhfa. So, these are the five levels.
Sayyidina Abdul Qadir Jilani قدس سرّه was looking from the second level, from Secret. He pushed his mureed and his mureed fell down all the way without any doubt about the shaykh. (He had) complete love, submission, and surrender to the shaykh at that moment. When the shaykh saw him clean, he caught him with his hand under the mureed’s feet and the shaykh pulled him back to the hill, and gave him his Trust. Grandshaykh قدس سرّه said, at that moment awliyaullah from the Naqshbandi level said to Sayyidina Abdul Qadir Jilani قدس سرّه, “Why you gave him his Trust?” Shaykh Abdul Qadir said, “I didn’t detect anything wrong in the second level.” They said, “But we detected on the third level that he did something wrong.” If it was for a Naqshbandi shaykh, they would never give him his Trust.
I am asking viewers of this suhbah, who are considering themselves (to be) huge guides. Like a king, a king has a huge kingdom. His entire kingdom consists of his ministers, cabinets, and army inside the fences. And at the door of the fence, there is one person sitting on a chair. He begins to think (of) himself he is the king. He begins to say, “Oh, I am the best one. I open the door, I have Secrets.” Those that have permission or authorization of dhikr, they think they have become guides. If they are guides, can they detect above Sayyidina Abdul Qadir Jilani قدس سرّه, the ghaus of his time? (Can they) detect what happened in the heart of his mureed? These people reached that level? Allahu Akbar!
That’s why sicknesses are too much. Like, hubbub ’r-riyasa, love to be presidents glued to the chair, these pseudo representatives. I’m not saying out of hate, no; I am saying out of love. Correct yourself. Tell your followers that you have nothing. When Mawlana gives these suhbah everyday live on the Internet, he says, “I’m the weakest. I’m nothing. I’m zero.” If Mawlana says about himself like that, where is your authority to say you are something? You walk like a peacock, which is the house of Iblis.
So the Naqshbandi guide was on the level of Irshad, the highest level, because of the Golden Chain. In the time of Sayyidina Abdul Qadir Jilani قدس سرّه they had an association every night with Prophet (s), all of the awliyaullah, no discrimination, with shaykhs from other tariqahs and from the Naqshbandi Tariqahs, everyone has his name where he must be present, to stand or to sit in the presence of Prophet (s). The Naqshbandi shaykh from the Golden Chain said, “Ya Sayyidi, Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani قدس سرّه, how you gave him the Trust?” Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani قدس سرّه replied, “I didn’t detect anything.” “We detected”, the Naqshbandi shaykh said. Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani قدس سرّه asked, “What you detected?” “We detected, when he was falling down,” said the Naqshbandi shaykh, “he was not objecting. But for us, it was an objection. He was saying ‘With what wisdom my shaykh pushed me in the water?’ In Naqshbandi Tariqah that is a question mark, an issue that will prevent him from getting his Trust. If he did not have that complain, which is how we consider it, he would have already passed from The Secret to The Secret of Secrets, and we would have given him all those trusts from that level, now we cannot.”
What did the mureed say? He didn’t say anything. He thought, “With what wisdom my shaykh pushed me?” He didn’t say, “Why he pushed me!” He only thought, “I want to know the wisdom because I am happy.” He was submitting to the push of the shaykh into the river, and he knows he can’t swim. He didn’t say, “I’m going to die, my shaykh pushed me to get rid of me!” Many of us say, “Oh, the shaykh is not seeing us, he wants to get rid of us.” Or, “Oh, I’m not coming back because I didn’t see the shaykh.” It’s a blessing when you carry the name of your father. If you don’t carry the name of your father, it means you are an illegitimate child, is not? If you don’t know your father, you are an illegitimate child. If you know your father, then you are a legitimate child. You are proud if your father is someone important, an honorable person in the tribe or community, is not? And what do you think if your father is a saint, a spiritual father, that you call yourself after his name? Is it not a high level? It’s enough for us; we are dignified with his name. For people to say, “Oh, these people are Naqshbandi-Haqqani.”
When we did our first website in 1990, there were five websites on the internet. Not Naqshbandi websites; there were CNN, AT&T, these news agencies. We were considered the fifth between the best websites; this was in the beginning of 1991. And all of them were linking with us. We were called “Naqshbandi Sufi Order.” Then we found out that there are many people who call themselves Naqshbandis, but they are not with Mawlana Shaykh. So then we began to put “Haqqani” which is Mawlana’s title. We were the first to use it. “Naqshbandi-Haqqani” was used to say we are a different branch. Like Naqshbandi-Mujjaddadi of Sayyidina Ahmad Faruqi Sirhindi قدس سرّه. This was to show there is another branch, another line, in order to separate from the others and for everyone to know his father. So we were proud, honored, and dignified to be using “Haqqani” because it is our father’s title. Even if you don’t see Mawlana, you must be proud that he accepted you and you are within his territory. His territory is not this mosque, but the whole world. And the whole world is not his territory, because Allah gave awliyaullah access to heavens. I will mention to you tomorrow inshaAllah, what Allah gave to Sayyidina Shah Naqshbandi قدس سرّه, just one example of how you can understand how much they have access to heavens.
So they raised Mawlana Shaykh Nazim up to all 800 forbiddens at the completion of his seclusion. He was able to know and differentiate them one-by-one, and give remedies for each one. Just like a doctor gives you different medicines, he will give you different things. And he said the guide of the third level is able to take 350 signs from the Moon alone, 350 signs of Allah’s Oneness. It means that he is able to see different things that NASA was not able to see. Also, he is able to take ten times more than that from the existence of the Sun. Imagine the center of the Sun and its surroundings, hundreds of miles from the center. The temperature is 50 million degrees Celsius! When they cremate at a temperature of 3,000 or 2,000 degrees, the bones and the body disintegrate; nothing will be left, everything will be ashes. At 5,000 degrees, iron and gold melt. At 50 million degrees Celsius, everything falls apart! At 5,000 degrees Celsius, the Earth melts. At 50 million degrees, how is the Sun still standing? A volcano which is 5,000 degrees Celsius under the Earth is shooting and blowing lava out and making everything into ashes. If two or three times the heat of that volcano comes on Earth, what will happen? It will blow. What kind of matter that Sun has? We don’t know. No one knows. Ulama don’t know, but awliyaullah know. That’s why they can take big signs from the Sun about Allah’s Oneness.
Everything in this universe shows different signs of Allah’s Oneness. Take the leaf of the tree; it shows you many signs of Allah’s Oneness. Is a leaf living? How is it living? Water comes in it. What kind of valve does it have? It turns carbon dioxide into oxygen through the leaves, then it dies and falls down. Allah is Yuhyi wa Yumeet: He creates and He takes away. (The leaf) gives you oxygen to breathe. This is a sign of Allah’s Oneness, one leaf that you don’t pay attention to. You step on it with your feet when you are walking. You know that to step on a leaf intentionally is one of the 800 forbiddens? Because that is Allah’s light, Allah created that leaf. It’s been created by Allah ; no one created the leaf except Him, so when you step with your feet on a leaf intentionally, that is a sin. But if you are working in the jungle or in a garden and you step, that’s okay. But (if it’s) intentionally, that’s not accepted. How many people throw food in the garbage? Don’t ask!
Awliyaullah can take from the Moon, from the Sun, and from the stars, and one sign does not interfere with the other. They can take infinite number of signs. May Allah forgive us.
Wa min Allahi’t-tawfeeq bi Hurmatil Fatiha.
As-salamu `alaykum wa rahmatallahi wa barakaatuhu.