2 January 2015 New Delhi, India
Mawlid at India Islamic Cultural Centre (3)
As-salaamu `alaykum yaa haadiroon. We are here in the masjid of Muhammad Baqi-Billah from whom Ahmad al-Faruqi, the Mujaddid Alf ath-Thaani, took his secrets. It is barakah to be here as this is not an empty place. For hundreds of years, 500-600 years, people who are coming here to visit the shuyookh of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order, the Most Distinguished Order, Naqshbandiyya Nazimiyyati ’l- `Aliyyah, named after our Shaykh, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim. Here the Tariqah is named after Mujaddid Alf ath-Thaani, Imam Ahmad Sirhindi (q). There were too many differences there and Sayyidina Ahmad al-Faruqi (q) came and fixed all of those; he took all these bida`s away and made the religion in the right way. They are Ahl as-Sunnah wa ‘l-Jama`ah and they are [alive]:
بَلْ أَحْيَاء عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ يُرْزَقُونَ
No, they live, finding their sustenance provided in the Presence of their Lord. (Surat Aali-`Imraan, 3:169)
They are provided for by Allah with all kinds of spiritual knowledge and are not deprived. They have been given and given all these years. The biggest signal is what Allah (swt) says in the Holy Qur’an, “They are alive in their graves.” (3:169). The biggest signal is you, you are here. What brought you here? Everyone is afraid of death, are you? Those awliya are not afraid of death, they are attracting everyone through their hearts.
Allah (swt) says:
قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَاللّهُ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ
Say (O Muhammad), "If you (really) love Allah, then follow me! Allah will love you and forgive your sins, and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Surat Aali-'Imraan, 3:31)
If you really love Me, Allah says, in kuntum tuhiboonallah, “If you really love Allah, show Me by following Muhammad (s)!” If you claim that you love Allah, you have to follow Sayyidina Muhammad (s) in everything that he ordered us, not by tongue [speaking] only.
This is Rabi` al-Awwal, the month of the Prophet (s). I don’t call it “Rabi`a ’l-Awwal,” but “Rabi`a ’l-Islam.” Rabi`a means “spring”. In Spring, everything comes alive. You are lucky here and in countries that are on the equator, because your trees don’t lose their leaves, but if you go to the northern latitudes where there is snow, you don’t see leaves, all the leaves turn brown and fall off of the trees in the Fall season. What happens in Spring? The rain comes and everything becomes alive. Similarly, if anyone says “Muhammad,” his heart comes alive as he is the Spring of this universe, he is the Spring of the Heavens, he is the Spring of every Lover of him! And the evidence is that Allah ordered the angels to make salawaat on the Prophet (s), because he is the Spring, he is the Beautiful One whom angels are in need to look at in order to take power from him.
You look at a picture and say, “O, this is a very nice picture drawn by a very nice artist. I hope this masjid is alive in the picture,” because the picture is nice. What do you think about the heart of a wali? The Holy Qur’an has mentioned the heart 97 times, which means the heart is very important.
It is said by the Prophet (s):
ما وسعني أرضي ولا سمائي ولكن وسعني قلب عبدي المؤمن
Neither My Heavens nor My Earth contain Me, but the heart of My believing servant contains Me.
(Hadith Qudsi, Al-Ihya of Imam al-Ghazali)
Translate this please.
Translator:
I like to introduce you to one couplet of Imam Ahmad Reza. He says, “Yaa Rasoolullah, in your lineage every child is of noor, you are the real source of noor, and your whole family is of noor, today Shaykh Hisham Kabbani Naqshbandi.
Mawlana Shaykh Hisham:
So mentioning the name of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) is enough to change everything within our hearts. If someone makes a painting of a picture of the masjid you look at it and say, “O mashaa-Allah that is very nice”, but you are not inside it, it is only a picture. We need to be realistic. We want to be inside that picture, we are an image, we are a form of our origin on the Day of Promises, fee yawma alastu bi rabbikum qaaloo balaa. That is an image; it is like when you look in the mirror you see an image. Inside is the masjid, outside is the paint. Inside is a very nicely decorated masjid. The masjid of your heart must not be a picture, the masjid of your self must not be a picture, the masjid of your mind must not be a picture and the masjid of your body must not be a picture, it must be a reality!
It is said in the Holy Qur’an:
وإعلموا أن فيكم رسول الله
And know [O human beings!], Allah's Messenger is in you. (Surat al-Hujuraat, 49:7)
Allah did not say ‘among’ you, if he meant that He would have said ‘baynakum.’ ‘Feekum’ and ‘baynakum’ are farqun kabeer. Qaala Allahu t`ala fi’l-qur’an, “w `alamoo anna feekum rasoolullah.” That means the Reality, the light of the masjid is not what you see from the outside, the reality is the masjid itself. Allah has made you a masjid, maa wasi`anee ardee wa laa samaa'ee wa laakin wasi`anee qalbi `abdee al-mu'min, “Neither My Heavens nor My Earth contain Me, but the heart of My believing servant contains Me.” That means it contains His Light, that Allah’s Light comes in the hearts of people.
That is why Allah (swt) said:
قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَن زَكَّاهَا
Whoever purifies the soul will succeed. (Surat al-Shams, 91:9)
It is because that one will see the Reality of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) within him, as the Holy Qur’an says Sayyidina Muhammad (s) is in you, his Light and his Mercy is in you. But some people only want to look at the pictures and statues. We are like a statue with a form, with three dimensions. They look at the statue, but they don't look at the hearts of Ahl as-Sunnah wa ‘l-Jama`ah, which are full of love of the Prophet (s), who said:
يحشر المرء مع من أحب
Each person will be resurrected with the one he loves. (Tirmidhi)
If we love the picture, then go until the picture will speak with you; but, the picture will never speak with anyone, only the reality of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) is in the hearts of the believer. When we go to make ziyara of the Prophet (s) in Masjid an-Nabawi (s), where do we go first? We try to go to the Rawdah first, which the Prophet (s) described as:
ما بين قبري و منبري روضة من رياض الجنة
Between my grave and my pulpit is a garden from the Gardens of Paradise. (Bukhari and Muslim)
They pray in the Rawdah, as they know that place has a special reality for Heavens and for Muslims, so all of us try to pray in the Rawdah. If we are lucky we pray inside and if not, we pray outside, but you will be crying. So when you come to the presence of the Prophet (s), you want to enter into that Reality, you don't want the outside. The Prophet (s) showed the Sahaabah (r) his Reality, he did not show them the image only. Today you can ask `ulama like Shaykh Gibril Haddad for the description of the Prophet (s). They describe his shamaa’il: his face, appearance, eyes, nose, and ears, but awliya laa yakhtafoon, for Awliya it is not enough to speak about the outside, they want to go inside, where the Light of Allah (swt) is, where the fruit of the love of the Divine Presence of Allah (swt) is.
That is in the heart of the Prophet (s)! Awliyaullah like Muhammad Baqi-billah ق and shuyookh from other Sufi orders want to go into that Rawdah and take that out. It is not easy to become a wali, it is not just by memorizing the Holy Qur’an and fasting and praying. No! They were able to enter the presence of “Muhammadun Rasoolullah.” It is so simple in words, but so difficult in action. This is a very big ocean, we are not going to go into it.
Today we are going and we have to thank Muhammad Mujeeb Naqshband and his brother, Muhammad Arshad Naqshband, the Sajjada Nasheen (appointed caretakers) in this maqaam, and we hope to see them again soon.
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh. [Recites Salaat wa ’s-salaam.]
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