Allah (swt) says in Holy Qur’an:
أَطِيعُواْ اللّهَ وَأَطِيعُواْ الرَّسُولَ وَأُوْلِي الأَمْرِ مِنكُمْ
Atee`oollaha wa atee`oo 'r-Rasoola wa ooli 'l-amri minkum.
Obey Allah, obey the Prophet, and obey those in authority among you. (Surat an-Nisa, 4:59)
This is the balance. If you break any of these three dimensions--atee`oollah, for a mu’min to struggle and proceed to obey Allah is one dimension; atee`oo 'r-Rasoola, to obey Prophet (s) is another dimension, that you have to follow the Sunnah of Prophet (s); wa `ooli ‘l-amri minkum, and obeying those who have authority in their hands is another dimension. This means you have the three dimensions of this universe and when you have three dimensions means you can climb, with three dimensions the triangle can sit in a base. So these three dimensions that Allah gave to us we have to follow them. For example, today people are very informed on iPads or computers, and when you get sick you go to a doctor who says, “You have this sickness and you have to take this medicine.” Then they go home and become their own doctors, not anymore trusting the doctors as they are looking for themselves in their iPads or phones, and now everyone becomes a doctor! What the doctor prescribed for him he doesn’t trust, he wants to do it his own way! If the doctor was right, he will curse the doctor and the iPad; he doesn’t like what the doctor says or what the iPad says.
So in any case, we are all trying to find understanding or knowledge of our sicknesses, but the question is, why are we are disobeying Allah (swt) and Prophet (s), not doing what Prophet said and we do what we like to do? Why are we rejecting? They gave us a religion covering everything and we say, “No, we have to check it on our computers.” What will happen? Shaytan will interfere and turn the situation upside down and you will fall into a misunderstanding. Allah is happy when you listen to His order.
Before they came I was showing you that clip from the Arab countries, for the first time in public in The Emirates, I will not say which one, they gave Eid Khutbah in front of the Prince, for the first time promoting Tasawwuf in front of the Emir of Dubai, and the Imam said, and we know that but people might not know because it was completely covered, “Tasawwuf is the characteristics of good manners and without Tasawwuf you cannot achieve good manners.” He said the characteristics of Tasawwuf goes to the core of the problem, because it elevates you from mud up to ma`rifah, from Earth to heavenly characteristics, like what Allah (swt) mentions about Prophet (s) in the Holy Qur’an:
وَإِنَّكَ لَعَلى خُلُقٍ عَظِي
You are of the most exalted character. (Surat al-Qalam, 68:4)
Tasawwuf is that ayah; the Imam is saying that is Tasawwuf, and not very long ago all scholars of Islam were people of Tasawwuf, every scholar studied tasawwuf, which is:
أدبني ربي فأحسن تأديبي
My Lord perfected my good manners and conduct. (Ibn `Asakir)
Tasawwuf is how to polish yourself from falling into the hands of evil power or Shaytan. Today they realize that from the time of the Prophet (s) until 100 years ago, most scholars around the world were in Tasawwuf, then known as Tazkiyat an-Nafs. The technical word ‘Tasawwuf’ came from a particular scholar, Abu Hisham as-Sufi, who was trying to perfect his manners. “Sufi” means “so soft”, like a sponge, pure like crystal water; in its Arabic roots, saafi means “clean, pure”. The Tariqah became after his name, Tasawwuf, the Sufis are like Abu Hisham as-Sufi. There are five derivatives for Tasawwuf, and in Qur’an it is called Tazkiyat an-Nafs.
This has to be addressed in the Muslim communities, and I was surprised because I knew the background (history there) and that alhamdulillah, everything is changing now for the best for the Muslim community. So now people in the Gulf cannot say anything [against Tasawwuf] because their Imam is accepting.
Allah (swt) wanted people to be pure and to be cured, so such gatherings can elevate people to be in good characteristics because if you have a flower, you try to plant the best possible roses in the garden and you don't put one rose and that's it; no, you put many different roses for people to come and see and say, “SubhanAllah, why are we sitting in the deserts or jungle and we have here a beautiful garden?”
They say a garden is better than sitting in a jungle or a desert or in a place where they throw garbage. Our smell is worse than the place they throw garbage, sorry to say that; not the physical smell, but our sins give a bad smell. Angels cannot come near someone when they commit adultery [the smell is so bad]! So you must have a nice garden and when you sit in it you praise Allah (swt). Allah gave you a garden already, there is a garden through His Prophet, His Message! Everyone knows there is a garden, but they are not sitting in it. What did he say to his Sahaabah?
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)
“If you pass by the Gardens of Heavens, sit with the people in that garden.” The Sahaabah (r) were surprised, they were in a desert, there are few gardens, and Prophet is saying if you pass by the Gardens of Heavens sit in the them. So they wondered, and we wonder, but Prophet explained it.
They said what are the Gardens of Heavens that you are saying? Prophet looked at them and said, Sahaabah (r) wanted to know for us to get the answer from the mouth of Prophet (s), so from their question Prophet (s) answered, like Sayyidina Musa and Khidr in the Holy Qur’an. So they said where are these gardens? He said, the circles of dhikrullah.
So it means any masjid or any place you sit even a moment, even five minutes, where you see people sitting and reading Qur’an, explaining Hadith or Fiqh, sit with them, this will be a Garden of Heaven. If you pass by them and you didn't enter, you are sinning. If you pass by them, Prophet (s) says:
لا يشقى جليسهم
The one who sits with them will not be forsaken. (Bukhari)
“If you sit with them, I will be the one sitting beside them.” We are running to go to visit Prophet in Madina and pray two raka`ats in his Rawdah, in his garden, it will be an honor for us to pray two raka`ats there! Here, around the world Allah gave us an opportunity as not everyone can go there, they try as much as they can. Turn your house into a Garden of Heaven by making dhikrullah! That’s why Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) said to me, "Hisham, I want you to put forty masjids and to make every corner a place of dhikr," and then he was crying. He said, "Do you accept?"
I said, “Of course, yaa Sayyidi!”
There is bismillah and it will happen, but if you want to use your mind to analyze what he said, then every 'amal is by intention: if your intention is good you will be rewarded. He wanted me to make an intention to try to do that, make them, don't stop. That's why from 1400 years ago, Prophet (s) told the Sahaabah (r), “Turn your places into Gardens of Paradise.” You can be by yourself, saying, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llaah.” So it's the `amal that we are after and the niyyah, the intention. There is good `amal, and there is the intention to deliver, but there are obstacles, so what can you do? You will be rewarded.
قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَى أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَطُوا مِن رَّحْمَةِ اللَّهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًا إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ
Say: "O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah for Allah forgives all sins. Verily, He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Surat az-Zumar, 39:53)
Allah is saying, “Don't lose hope of Allah's Mercy, Allah will forgive all sins, but say ‘astaghfirullah’.”With astaghfirullah Allah will grant us. When you are a child and you are calling, to where you run to? To your father or mother. When you grow up you realize you have an obligation and you run to Whom when you sin? You run to Allah (swt)! Allah will forgive all sins, but ask Him, repent, ask for His forgiveness, then Allah will forgive us!
May Allah (swt) forgive us and forgive our children and get them married and take all our difficulties from us, and those who are old will go to Paradise, inshaa-Allah! We thank you for coming here, alhamdulillah that Allah granted us to be with these Awliya that we knew in our lives. It is difficult to find a Wali these days; there are scholars, but Awliya are few. May Allah keep us with them! Bi hurmati ‘l-Fatihah.
http://sufilive.com/Who-is-the-Sufi-6000.html
© Copyright 2015 Sufilive. All rights reserved. This transcript is protected
by international copyright law. Please attribute Sufilive when sharing it. JazakAllahu khayr.