Always in the train there is a track; you cannot go on the side, you have to follow the track of the train in order that you reach your destination. So the tracks keep continuing. Wherever the tracks are, the train goes. Sometimes they have diversions, but the end is a…it ends quickly, there is … it’s only for turning and coming on the right track. You have the main track, and then you have side tracks. The main destiny is the straight-forward track. Diversions always you go there, diverting from the trail and then it becomes closed, then you come back. So there is only one track.
That track for us, is may Allah give him long life, Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani. So anyone who is on the train, will be saved and go straight forward, but he has to be on the main track. If he wants to divert, he will see a dead end, and has to go back on the main track. The train has one engine, but many wagons. If you want to jump, jump on anyone just to reach. There are the wagons, there are first wagons. If you are in the last wagon, you don’t see anything, but you will be pulled wherever the train is going. If you are in the first or second wagons or the third one, you would be so near to the main engine that you can see what the engineer is doing. So if you have some luck, you’ll be in the first and second and third wagons. Those who have also luck but not as the first three, the train is still pulling them. They will reach their destiny.
Whenever people try to do, the murshid is aware in order to try to as much as he can clean a child. When a child makes… he’s a young one, and you have to change him every time. A murshid has to change us all the time by asking forgiveness from Allah to forgive us through Prophet (s) on our behalf. So Murshid at-Tazkiyyah, which we were discussing yesterday, is said from his characteristics, that he has to take away laziness from those who are connected to him. They are lazy. They ask you 10,000 dhikrullah, we do 5. They ask us do 5 we do 1000. They ask us do 1000, we don’t do anything. We are like that. That’s how we’re created.
Sayyidna Musa (a), when Prophet (s), went on Mi’raj, Allah ordered him to do 50 prayers. Coming back he saw Sayyidna Musa (a). He asked him, “Ya Muhammad (s), what did Allah give you as prayer obligations? O, be careful! Ask less, because I know with Bani Israel, whatever I asked them to do, they were lazy, so ask less!” And Prophet (s) asked less until they became 45 prayers, but Musa (a) kept telling him to ask for less, ask for less, until Allah lowered the amount of daily prayers to five. Then Musa told him: “Ya Muhammad (s)! Ask less, I know they are not even going to pray the 5 prayers.” Prophet answered, “I feel shy from my Lord,” and Allah said, “Ya Muhammad (s), it is 5, but on the Scale (of deeds) it is 50. Al-hasanatu bi `ashrati amthaaluha (one hasana is multiplied by ten). I’m giving them 10 rewards for every prayer.”
So, while they order us to do something, Shaytan is behind us. We are lazy, we don’t do, we run away. So Murshid at-Tazkiyyah has the power of taking laziness out of his followers. Shaytan tries his best to keep us lazy, but that murshid is trying his best to pull us from laziness. (Wal futoor ‘al jawarih ittibaih) and he takes away…to encourage us not to follow Shaytan, so always his talks and advice is always not to follow Shaytan. And you see Mawlana, may Allah give him long life, always talks against Shaytan today because he is treating us at the first level. He didn’t go to the highest level which we will come to it later, of Murshid at-Tarbiyyah, it’s the highest of the guides. He’s not treating us at the highest level and that’s why we see his advices today in these many, many years after Grandshaykh’s time, his lectures, his talks, his advice, are from the level of ego, against ego, against Shaytan, against the four enemies, because he wants to make sure that we are clear from them so that we can rise up to listen. Still we are not listening.
“Wa qaloo samina wa at`ana - They say, ‘YaRabbee! We heard and we obeyed!” When we reach that level, when we say we listened and obeyed, then at that time they can give us from the highest level of knowledge. Now still all talks are very basic in spirituality. You cannot, if I am going to go through this notebook of Grandshaykh, you’d be amazed about what they speak. It’s something beyond the limitation of the mind. That’s why the level of awliya is very high and we cannot understand them. That’s why they used to come against them, many, many, many times. But these days, Mawlana is going to the lower level to talk in order to keep it to our understanding.
He said that Murshid at-Tazkiyyah, the guide of purification, needs to purify his followers as we said from laziness and from feeling cold toward tariqah, and from feeling warm toward bad desires. It means feeling cold toward bad desires and feeling warm toward heavenly desires. “And then the most important thing,” he said, “is to take away from their minds al-awhaam wa ’l-khayalaat.” He has to take from their minds. He wants them to be reasonable. He doesn’t want them to go with hallucinations and illusions. There are many today who hallucinate. They have hallucinations and illusions in their minds. They cannot be basic.
They say tasawwuf is be in a journey of ma`rifatullah (to know Allah ). How will you know Allah? With a diaper? No one knows Allah; they only know about His Beautiful Names and Attributes. Before you know ma`arifatullah, you have to know yourself, as it is said, “man `arafa nafsahu `arafa rabbahu - Who knows himself, knows his Lord.” What is the benefit of a guide sitting and talking to you from Unseen Knowledge that he has seen, but you have not? What are you going to understand? It will make you more lazy.
There are people who say, “Oh, that shaykh is speaking so high.” What is the benefit? If you are not praying the five prayers, if you are not doing the basics of Islam, if you don’t call for unity, if you don’t bring people together, if you don’t build your community and help them through your business, your work, your donation, your generosity—what’s the benefit of going up high and seeing the penthouse? You don’t have the money to buy the penthouse or rent it because it’s benefit to look at it. Look at those who are below you, then you will appreciate what you have.
So basic issues they asked Prophet (s) in a hadith. That’s why in all the………..(with the permission of Grandshaykh and Mawlana Shaykh, may Allah give them long life, I have direct permission from them to speak for that from spirituality), but I went East and West and saw many people in Arab world. I saw what is the benefit to speak from a high level when they are still in the primary Kindergarten? Even if you put a turban on your head and have long beard, and they say, “We are wearing like sunnah of Prophet.” What is sunnah? It’s wearing something loose. In reality he used to wear a robe, a dress. In any case, I saw many people calling themselves Naqshbandi or Rifa`i or Qadiri or Burhani, Qaribi, Shadhili … they follow only what is being described as spirituality and they don’t pray. So what’s the benefit? So I saw it is better to talk to about Shari`ah teachings and leave teaching of tariqah as they are not going to understand it.
You need to apply the Shari`ah first before going to Haqiqah. Prophet came with Sharia`h, first with the five obligations, the five pillars of Islam, then with the six levels of Iman: your `aqidah. You have to learn your `aqidah first. Do you know what is your `aqidah? If I ask this question, I’m 100% sure no one can answer. `Aqidah is our belief, how we believe in Allah’s Oneness. It is a basic question in Islamic Shari`ah. So many Muslims don’t know Prophet (s) came with five obligatory pillars of Islam, six pillars of Iman, and then after that, the highest level of moral excellence (ihsan). It’s the highest level of spirituality of tazkiyyat an-nafs, “purification of the nafs.” Then you are able to understand.
That’s why Muhyiddeen Ibn al-`Arabi قدس سرّه, they hanged him because they didn’t understand. Even scholars, they said Muhyiddeen Ibn al-`Arabi قدس سرّه did something wrong, so we hanged him. What he did wrong? What he wrote in his books and finally he said, “What you worship is under my feet. Your god in under my feet.” So they got upset; like today there are scholars in some countries in the East who don’t understand what is tariqah, haqiqah, shari`ah. They say, “O, tariqah is bad, so (we must) question these people.” They send questions to be answered. It’s so funny. This is Kindergarten. You are asking questions you don’t even know their meaning. In Malaysia today, they are asking for someone to answer those questions about tariqah, because all their knowledge is basic. They cannot go beyond their minds. That’s why it is useless to speak to these people about tariqah.
In the book al-Futuhatul-Makiya, Muhyiddin Ibn al-`Arabi قدس سرّه said, “The secret of Muhyiddin Ibn al-`Arabi قدس سرّه cannot be known ‘until the seen enters the sheen (Arabic letters).’” So they hanged him. So they are not going to understand what he’s talking about, and you are going to confuse people if you speak to them from high levels, and say you’re kafir. So what is the benefit? Nothing. So speak normally, from basics.
Muhyiddin Ibn `Arabi قدس سرّه, they hanged him and dumped him in the dump. They didn’t even bury him because they said he is a non-muslim, a kafir (unbeliever), a murtad (apostate). This was what was said about Muhyiddin Ibn `Arabi قدس سرّه, one of the biggest saints of Islam. And they hanged him. So when Sultan Selim came to Turkey, the Ottoman Emperor, and he invaded Damascus (Sham) (seen for his name “Selim”, entered Sham with a sheen) he took it out of the hands of the unbelievers, and it became the holy city of Damascus. Prophet Muhammad (s) gave more than forty hadiths on the “arrow of Sham” because according to the hadith of Prophet, Allah’s throne will descend in that area. That’s why Sayyidina Isa (a) will come to the white minaret of Masjid al-Umawiyyah; most of the wives of Prophet Muhammad (s), his grandchildren are buried there, and many of Sahaba.
So when Sultan Selim entered, he ordered his army to prepare for him the Turkish bath. You know at that time they had a huge area they used as a bathroom, bathtub like sauna, vapor comes out. He entered and sitting in the bath he noticed someone relaxing. He could see things as if they were there, like virtual spiritual telephone, its not real, its like seeing a vision of someone sitting in this bath. Something comes in his eyes to make him say ‘I saw’ but in reality it is a vision. I don’t want to say he saw in reality then these Wahhabis will say how could he see (a dead one) so, I leave it as a vision although it was a reality. So we say it is a vision in order to please everybody. Allah knows best.
He said, “Ya Selim!” (to Ottoman Emperor in his bath tub!) He was wondering, who is that person calling him “Selim”, not “Sultan Selim.” He got frightened. He said, “Ya Selim, come and rub my back!” If you want to say a vision, it’s a vision. The bathtub was trembling out of fear. No one could enter through security. Sultan Selim was rubbing his back. He said, “Ya Selim, tonight I want my secret to come out. I wrote in my books that my secrets will come out when the seen enters the sheen. It is written in the Preserved Tablet that today, my secret has to appear. I am Muhyiddin Ibn `Arabi قدس سرّه. I’ve been killed wrongly. I was executed through wrong rumors. I’ve been backbited, backbited, backbited!”
If people are backbited for one year, some will believe it, then it becomes a legend and they build on it. They don’t know from the beginning that it was wrong. They build on what they’ve heard from one generation to another. They don’t know truth from falsehood; they think it is a reality. They build on it then they execute whatever they want. That’s why the Prophet prohibited backbiting to spread confusions and rumors. It’s haraam. They’re not real.
They did that with Muhyiddin Ibn `Arabi قدس سرّه and the people killed him. Don’t kill your brothers with your backbitings. Repent, and Allah will forgive. Have the courage to repent and ask for forgiveness from the ones you backbited; I’m telling myself and everyone. Have the courage, say “I’m sorry,” then it’s going to be finished. To be cleared up here is better than to be cleared in the Hellfire.
So Sultan Selim answered, “Is your secret to be revealed tonight? How am I going to know where you are buried?” Muhyiddin Ibn `Arabi قدس سرّه answered, “First you have to take me out of my place where they threw me.” This occurred 300 years later, not a few years later. He is saying, to take him from where he is still existing. It’s all remaining bones. So Sultan Selim wondered, how he will find him? Muhyiddin Ibn `Arabi قدس سرّه said, “Go to Masjid al-Omawiyyah in Damascus.”
That mosque was once a church, and before that Jews prayed there. So when Sayyidna Omar used to pray there, he took the church he left the Jews and Christians to pray in their places, and he left the Muslims to pray on the other side so as not disturb anyone. Look how Sayyidna Omar was just; he did not stop the Christians and the Jews, no. Allah…everyone is happy for what he has كل حزب بما لديهم فرحون let them ….they were praying there all three faiths, so that place has lots of secrets. You go there up the white minaret and look up the mountain of prophets, Jabal Qasyun, many prophets are buried there and there are many secrets there; I will not go into it now.
Muhyiddin Ibn `Arabi قدس سرّه said, “You will see light coming from Earth up to the sky. Follow that light where it begins.” Sultan Selim went there to the minaret, ordered his army to go there and he saw that light coming. He went to the origin of the light, which is now Masjid al-Muhyiddin Ibn `Arabi قدس سرّه, a famous big mosque built by Sultan Selim of the Ottoman Empire. It’s like you are on top of the hill to the bottom of the hill. It’s a dump where people have been throwing their garbage for years and years and it melted, decomposed and gone.
Sultan Selim ordered the army to dig the dump and take the garbage away. He went like 70- 80 meters down. As soon as they reached the bottom, between this bad smell a huge nice smell came out. And a shroud came and Muhyiddin Ibn `Arabi قدس سرّه was as if still alive, fresh, nothing happened to him, not his skin changed, his face was pink as if he died this morning, with this nice smell coming out of him. Sultan Selim immediately carried him with the help of the army and put him somewhere and immediately they buried him in a grave they dug, and ordered a masjid to be built which still exists today, the maqam of Sayyidina Muhyiddin Ibn `Arabi قدس سرّه.
But he did not stop at that; he wanted to check. He said, “I want to kill all those ulama and I’m going after their children even. I want to see the reality of what happened.” So they found someone; you know people didn’t eat like what we eat today, with too much oil and preservatives and chemicals in the food. It was natural, and they used to live above 100 years. They found someone who was 137 years of age. Sultan Selim called him and said, “O my father, do you remember anything about Muhyiddin Ibn `Arabi قدس سرّه, what he said and where he was killed?” He said, “Ya Sayyidi, I remember that my father who lived another 100 years told me that his grandfather told him before he died, that they killed him in this spot. And he showed me the spot, and because it is written and fact that he said, “What you worship is under my feet,” they hanged him in the same place.
Sultan Selim asked that the man take him to the place which happened to be near the place in which they buried him, and now it’s a masjid. Sultan Selim asked them to mark the spot and dig there, they dug a huge hole like a well going 3-4 meters down, and they found seven barrels of gold coins from olden times, buried there. It means Muhyiddin Ibn `Arabi قدس سرّه was telling them, “What you worship is that dunya under my feet! I don’t worship what you worship! I worship Allah subhanahu wa ta`ala!”
They didn’t understand and they backbited him. You see where backbiting took them? It ended up in a killing. That’s why awliyaullah today they don’t speak from high level, but if they do, they have to be at a high level. Sometimes when we are upstairs with him, he speaks a very high suhbah in `Arabi قدس سرّهc, which cannot be posted because others can’t understand it or else it would cause problems. The problem is not with Mawlana Shaykh; he doesn’t care. The problem is with us, that we cannot understand!
So backbiting is dangerous. Some people say, “Why don’t you speak about things on high level?” One time we spoke something and they printed a book, and we were never able to come out of it. Always this issue has been brought up. I tried to defend it but we couldn’t, so in the end I said I don’t know anything about it. You cannot. They cannot understand it, so they backbite you. Until today they are backbiting you on the Internet. Not me, but some of what has been published by some people. Backbiting is not good.
I’ll tell you a story that affects some converts. One person since 1995, he and his Buddhist mother (and he was a Buddhist) who converted to Islam, very dedicated person. He got married and was teaching, and asked for a place to attend prayer, dhikr. I saw him later not happy, saying he doesn’t want to attend dhikr. He said, “It came to my ear, spreading garbage in my ears, asking me not to have any relationship with you.” He may have been brainwashed. Allah will take revenge. Help people come together. All awliya have been criticized; Grandshaykh was taken to court because he said something that some people wrote it in a wrong way (out of context).
Curse comes on someone to stir in the mud something that happened one minute ago. The smell of badness accompanies backbiters in the grave. Be careful from stories; even if they are true, don’t contaminate others. Dirty flu, swine flu, Subhanallah. First thing is they will kill the pigs (and it is) a sign for the arrival of Sayyidina `Isa . Some are saying (about the swine flu pandemic), “Don’t kill pigs but it’s okay to kill other infected animals.” You will be cursed if you backbite!