Private Residence
A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani 'r-rajeem. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem.
Nawaytu 'l-arba`een, nawaytu 'l-`itikaaf, nawaytu 'l-khalwah, nawaytu 'l-`uzlah,
nawaytu 'r-riyaadah, nawaytu 's-sulookay, lillahi ta`ala fee haadha 'l-masjid.
Ati`ullaha wa ati`u 'r-Rasoola wa ooli 'l-amri minkum.
Obey Allah, obey the Prophet, and obey those in authority among you. (4:59)
We have to obey the leaders of a country, and if they are on the right way we have to follow the leaders of religion. Most importantly, we have to follow the guidance of our shuyukh, because Allah (swt) granted them by saying in Holy Qur'an: Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem.
أَلا إِنَّ أَوْلِيَاء اللّهِ لاَ خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلاَ هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
alaa inna awliyaaullahi laa khawfan `alayhim wa laa hum yahzanoon.
Behold! Verily on the friends of Allah there is no fear, nor shall they grieve. (al-Yunus, 10:62)
The Prophet (s) said:
as-haabee kan-nujoom bi ayyihim aqtadaytum ahtadaytum.
My Companions are like the stars (on a dark night); whichever one you follow, you will be guided.
Stars only appear at night. The Prophet (s) also said:
The scholars of my nation (who practice what they teach) are like the prophets of Bani Isra`il.
Prophet (s) gave them very high respect, since they deliver the Prophet's message, when he said, as-habee kan-nujoom, "My Companions are like the stars." And we said you cannot see stars except at night. Which night? Singapore's night, Europe's night, America's night, Australia's night? Which night? This means there are nights that appear consecutively around the world because of subsequent time zones, so as time is moving, night and day are moving. Night becomes day and day becomes night. That means there are awliyaullah in different parts of the world that can guide from the guidance of the Sahaabah (r) and from the guidance of the Prophet (s). They are not guides because of studies they achieved, but from a grant from Allah (swt); He gave them that ability.
As we said yesterday, who dives in the oceans of knowledge in the heart of Sultan al-Awliya take from these treasures, and Sultan al-Awliya gives to everyone. Therefore, masters and leaders cannot lead anyone astray. Anyone who says that puts himself into a state of kufr, because he has accused his masters and leaders of leading him astray. That is directly attacking and accusing his shuyukh, and the shaykh on top of all these shuyukh is the Grandmaster. So anyone from whose mouth comes such words has to repent, or la`anatullah, the curse of Allah (swt) will be on him, because he is putting doubts in the hearts of people, just as Iblees put doubts in the heart of Adam (a) to eat from the Forbidden Tree. Those who are saying these words and putting doubts in the hearts of followers are not less than Iblees! This is their rule in life, to keep humiliating shuyukh, and when they are done with one shaykh they go to another, to humiliate him, and another one, and another one.
So we have to be very careful what words come out of our mouths. Every word has to be balanced; if we don't balance our words then we will be losers. Sayyidina `Ali (r) said, "There are four important principles in everything that a person must learn."
Prophet (s) said:
أنا مدينة العلم و علي بابها
`anaa madinatu 'l-`ilmi wa `Aliyyun baabuha,
I am the City of Knowledge and `Ali is it's door. (al-Haakim, Tirmidhi)
No one is wiser than him except the four khulafah, and all of them are equal: Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, Sayyidina `Umar, Sayyidina `Uthman, and Sayyidina `Ali (r). We have to respect all of them, and the wives and children of the Prophet (s), up to the Day of Judgment. Sayyidina `Ali (r) said this 1400 years ago, for all to learn. He is at the door of the City of Knowledge, which is Prophet (s)! So anyone here or there or in the future must be careful.
The first thing he said was, as-sukoot, Be silent." Do not talk, keep silent, because you don't know what words may come out of your mouth, so you have to be patient to be silent. They say in Arabic, "If talking is like silver, then silence is like gold." If you talk too much then your level is silver, and between silver and gold there is a big difference. So he said, "Keep silent." When you keep silent, you listen. And then he said, an-nutuq, "Keep your mouth frozen." Those who speak too much are nothing but tools in the hands of Shaytan, since they are creating fitna everywhere. That is why the media has the first curse on them, because they twist the news or the facts, then the government comes to them and says, "You twisted the words. Stop." The government judges them and the media outlets have to uphold the law; the media must not go against the law, so they must maintain balance.
And there is another media, which is the human media, and that is what Allah (swt) and His Prophet (s) prohibited:
وَلَا تَجَسَّسُوا وَلَا يَغْتَب بَّعْضُكُم بَعْضًا أَيُحِبُّ أَحَدُكُمْ أَن يَأْكُلَ لَحْمَ أَخِيهِ مَيْتًا فَكَرِهْتُمُوهُ
Wa laa tajasassoo wa laa yaghtab b`adakum b`adakum ayyuhibboo aahadukum an yaakulu lahma akhihi 'l-mayta fa karihtumooh.
And spy not on each other behind their backs. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? No, you would abhor it. (al-Hujurat, 49:12)
O Muslims! Allah (swt) said:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اجْتَنِبُوا كَثِيرًا مِّنَ الظَّنِّ إِنَّ بَعْضَ الظَّنِّ إِثْمٌ
yaa ayyuhaalladheena aamanoo ijtaniboo katheeran min adh-dhanni inna ba`da adh-dhanni ithmun.
O you who believe! Avoid many doubts (suspicions, assumptions), as doubts are a sin. (al-Hujurat, 49:12)
As believers, we must stay far from fitna or else we will become sinners. And the one who starts the fitna is Iblees. The one who falls into fitna but who didn't start it has to repent, but Iblees is cursed. May Allah's curse come on whoever starts fitna! If you fall into fitna, Prophet (s) said:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِن جَاءكُمْ فَاسِقٌ بِنَبَأٍ فَتَبَيَّنُوا أَن تُصِيبُوا قَوْمًا بِجَهَالَةٍ فَتُصْبِحُوا عَلَى مَا فَعَلْتُمْ نَادِمِينَ
wa in ja'akum fasiqun bi naba'in fa-tabayyinoo an tuseeboo qawman bi-jahaalatin fatusbihoo `alaa maa fa`ltum naadimeen.
If a corrupt person comes to you with something wrong, ascertain the truth, unless you harm people unwittingly, and afterwards become full of repentance for what you have done. (al-Hujurat, 49:6)
fa-tabayyinoo, "Ascertain the truth." Don't be a tool in spreading fitna. One of Allah's (swt) Divine Names is as-Sattar, "the Veiler." You called yourself "Slave of as-Sattar (Abdul-Sattar Kha)" and you are creating fitna! That name does not befit you; you have to say your name is "`Abdul-Fitna," the one who is creating fitna in Australia now! What do you have to do there now? If you want to see friends it's okayay, but it's not okayay to be a representative there. You never had permission to go there, and you have no right to call people there, or to call yourself "the khalifah of Singapore." I have the emails (complaints of your conduct from mureeds). Don't try to divide the people there. You are dividing them already. You are not "`Abdus-Sattar," but you are something else and it is haraam! Shame on you!
You have already considered yourself khalifah. Keep to yourself and your group! We don't want you to even come to our group! Stay away from them; keep to yourself and your own group. Your "summaries" (of suhbahs posted to your blog) are also rejected! You don't even understand Mawlana Shaykh Nazim; you are in kindergarten still, in nursery school.
You are worse than anyone here, since none of them have made fitna here but you. You went to Sri Lanka to see my brother and you claimed you have khilafah; you sent him a message saying, "I am already khalifah." Of course, if you sent him a message that you are khalifah, he will say, "Welcome." Then my brother discussed with you and ordered you, with many witnesses there, after I spokaye to him on the phone, he ordered you not to talk to anyone and to stop! I have the email if you want me to read it in front of everyone. Don't think to come to this pious group of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim's mureeds, who have been with Mawlana Shaykh Nazim for fifteen years and they never had a problem.
Those who are with you are like you. Go alone, even if you conquer the whole world. When Alexander the Great was dying, he told his ministers to put his hands outside the coffin. The ministers asked, "Why?" He said, "To show that the one who conquered the whole world left it with nothing in his hands." So even if you conquer the whole world, that is meaningless!
So Sayyidina `Ali (r) said, "Keep silent." If you knew the Naqshbandi Tariqat, you would have kept silent. Do what you want, but keep silent. And then Sayyidina `Ali (r) said, an-nutuq, "Don't speak." Be careful what stinky smell comes out of your mouth. Brush your teeth before you speak. You need a big brush, what they use for some kind of (...), use that brush. And when you have no stinky smell in your mouth, don't talk even then. Sayyidina `Ali (r) said, as-sima`, "Listen to what people say." Then he said, an-nazhar, "Observe," then you al-haraka, "move." In that case, you know where you are moving. But you (Abdul Sattar Khan) moved so quickly, you thought yourself a star. That is the sickness of the ego.
The shaykh told the mureed, "Collect a basket of walnuts and sit at the mosque. Everyone going in or out, give him one walnut if he beats you on the head with one of your shoes. Do this until the basket is finished, then come to me."
Shaykh Abu Yazid al-Bistami (q) made one mistake, and he was Sultan al-Awliya in his time. He was in Madinatu 'l-Munawwarah, where the Earth there does not absorb the rain so the water will fill people's wells. But we started from the end of the story. Before that, as he was walking in the streets of Madinah, he saw Iblees putting a bridle on every hajji. Abu Yazid said to him, "You are cursed! What are you doing here in Madinah? You can go anywhere in the world, you have carte blanche." He is Iblees; he likes to run after people, so in Hajj time he is putting a bridle on everyone and riding them. That means the first tawsiyya the shuyukh order when you go for Hajj is, "Don't be angry," since you will face a lot of obstacles. Keep patience. You came for Allah; you didn't come to eat and drink and smokaye. Some people smokaye there, but if you want to do this, stay in your country.
There are too many followers of Iblees and he is riding them. Around the world, people are getting angry. Prophet (s) said to Sayyidina Abu Bakr (q), al-ghadabu kufrun, "Anger is unbelief." You don't know what you might do when you are angry; you might kill someone.
So he told Iblees, "I am Abu Yazid. Do you have a bridle for me?"
He said, "O Abu Yazid, you will ride with no bridle."
Sayyidina Abu Yazid (q) cursed him, "You mal`oon!" and he left. Ten days later, rain came showering and people had to cross from one side of the rushing flood to another. Young ones could move, but not old ones. Abu Yazid saw an old man with a stick coming to a crosswalk of the street to cross, but there was a flood.
He was limping, so he said, "O my son, can you help me?"
Abu Yazid (q) said, "Yes, sit on my back and I will carry you across the river to the other side."
He crossed over to the other side, and then that old man said, "Thank you. Didn't I tell you I would ride you with no bridle?"
One time he showed ego, and Allah closed his eyes to reality! So be careful of the ego.
When the shaykh wants to take away burdens from someone, he shouts at that person. Grandshaykh (q) used to say, "The most happy time for the shaykh is when he shouts at someone and they don't run away. I shout at them to carry their burden." That is the hikmat, to shout at them. They are still in diapers. If you don't train a child during childhood to clean himself, he will never learn it. So to the shaykh we are in diapers and when he shouts he carries that burden.
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim said openly, "I don't like anyone to make Shaykh Hisham angry, because then you will be in problems and I will not defend you." So my authority is to face problems. When one is covered with a problem, I will take away that problem from him. I am not shouting at this person, but shouting at him to clean him and to take him from being a servant of Shaytan and instead, to be a servant of as-Sattar. That is why you see Mawlana sometimes shouting; he carries their burden. Hundreds of times Mawlana Shaykh Nazim and Grandshaykh (q) said, "If I throw you from the door, come back through the window." That is because shouting at the mureed will clean him. Also, by shouting at one he cleans the others who have the same problem but who cannot carry the shouting. So he said, "If I kick you from the door, come through the window."
How many tests we saw in Grandshaykh's time and in Mawlana Shaykh Nazim's time? We were in the forefront when others were sleeping or doing nothing. May Allah (swt) forgive us and teach us adab. I will share this story:
One time when I was around 22 years old and Shaykh Adnan was around 20 years old, we used to, from a young age, go and visit Grandshaykh every other day between Beirut and Syria. One day we came to Grandshaykh, may Allah bless his soul, and we said, as many do out of love, "We left everything and came to you. We want to be at your door."
He said, "Are you sure?"
We said, "Yes, 100%."
He said, "But at my door? I have too many."
We said, "We still want to come".
He said, "Okay, approach." So we came near and he said, "Empty your pockets." We emptied our pockets. He said, "How did you come here today?"
We said, "With our car."
"Okay, give me the keys." He said, "Abdus-Salam," calling his servant, "Get the title to the car and let them sign it." Then our hearts went with the car; it was beginning to become difficult. He said, "Go to the masjid. My ex-servant's clothes, who died 107 years of age, are sitting in a basket hanging in the masjid. Take the clothes from that basket," which was there perhaps seven years. "So you came here to surrender?"
Abdus-Salam took the clothes by the tips of his fingers; he could not hold them since they were full of fleas! Abdus-Salam said, "Okay, take the clothes, put them on. And why are you changing your clothes in the masjid?" So we went to the bathroom and put on the clothes and immediately found ourselves covered with fleas, in our beards, everywhere.
Grandshaykh said, "Then you have surrendered. Now go to Ibn Arabi's Mosque and sit there. Take a cloth, like the beggars who are sitting there; people passersby will give small pennies. You collect the pennies and bring this to me. And there at Sayyidina Ibn Arabi's mosque they give soup two times per day, morning and evening. You stay in the mosque and you go there daily, eat, sit and collect money. That is surrendering at my door."
What can you say? Already the car is gone, the money is gone, the clothes are gone, and we are wearing clothes full of fleas! So we went to the mosque. As soon as we began walking to the mosque, Grandshaykh (q) sent Abdus-Salam to us and said, "Come back, the test is finished. Come to the back of the house." There he gave us a medicine that eats all the hair, zanook. It removes all the beard hair, and inside we became like amrad, hairless. We have to go to Hollywood, so hairless! He sent us our clean clothes and said, "Wear these and come." He said, "O my sons, tariqah is what the shaykh sees, not what you see and ask."
It means, don't go to the shaykh and complain. If you want to complain, complain to yourself, don't complain to others. It might be the shaykh assigns someone who no one accepts, but you accept that one out of adab. He said, "We are coming to polish your ego."
Prayers you can learn anywhere, but the most difficult thing in tariqah is to teach us to have no anger and no ego, not to be a peacock, but to be humble, all of us! The most humble act is when you have power to put someone down but you don't, instead you release him. It is to forgive when you have power. And we are not governments, to do something to people. We forgive everyone. The shaykh's testing it is to take the harm away from people and to clean you up and bring you to the Right Path, not to go astray.
May Allah forgive all of us and give us a happy life.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.