7 August 2013 Fenton Zawiya, Michigan
`Asr Suhbah
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-sulook, lillahi ta`alaa fee haadha 'l-masjid.
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)
من بنى لله مسجدا، بنى الله له قصرا في الجنة.
Man banaa li ‘Llaahi masjidan bana ‘Llaahu lahu qasran fi ‘l-jannah.
Whoever built a mosque for Allah, Allah will build a palace for him in Paradise. (Ibn Abi Shaybah)
The Prophet (s) said whoever builds a masjid for Allah (swt), Allah (swt) will build for him a palace in Paradise. Not only that, if anyone put a brick in building and he was not able to donate or build a masjid, but he was able to put just a brick in the mason, put it in the building, that brick is going to witness for him on the Day of Judgment that it was a piece of a masjid. Like the hadith we mentioned about the seven stones which the person had put in his qiblah where he was praying and when the Angel of Death was going to come, every stone was coming and preventing the angel to take his soul until one after the other came and joined together to make a big fence, not allowing the Angel of Death to take his soul. This is a hadith of Prophet (s). So if anyone builds a masjid for Allah (swt), Allah (swt) will build him a palace in Paradise and we don’t know what the description of that palace is, but since it is a qasrah, palace--they didn’t say kookha or bayta, a shack or a house--he said, qasr, which means all kinds of excitements are there.
What is the biggest excitement a mu`min can see in Heaven? It is to see Allah (swt)! In Heaven, Allah (swt) will manifest Himself on the mu`minoon, the mu`mins, the believers, that they are in Maqaam as-Sidq with the Prophet (s) and they will be able to see that indescribable Greatness of Allah (swt)! That is the minimum of qasr that we understand of a ‘palace’ where it has that manifestation, but the reality is more and more than that. If we build a house for Allah (swt) in dunya and one goes in and comes out, the reward will be written double: one for the one who is praying and one for the one who has built the masjid and anyone who helped. Allah (swt) will give those who helped to put together something for a masjid, Allah (swt) will make them happy in dunya and Akhirah and give them what they never imagined! So be happy that all of you are part of masajid that are being run by good people and inshaa-Allah, Allah (swt) will dress you and me and everyone with the noor of Prophet (s)! Ameen!
What is the meaning of man banaa li ‘Llaahi masjidan bana ‘Llaahu lahu qasran fi ‘l-jannah, “Whoever builds a masjid, Allah will build him a palace in Paradise.” Your masjid is what? Our masjid is not just the physical one, but the body is our masjid and the heart is always towards qiblah. That masjid in your heart, you always think like Allah (swt) ordered:
الَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ اللّهَ قِيَامًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىَ جُنُوبِهِمْ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ
Alladheena yadhkuroonallaha qiyaaman wa qu`oodan wa `ala junoobihim wa yatafakkaroona fee khalqi ’s-samawaati wa ’l-ard.
Behold! In the creation of Heaven and Earth and in the alternation of night and day there are indeed signs for men of understanding, those who remember Allah (always, and in prayers) standing, sitting and lying down on their sides and contemplating the creation of the Heavens and the Earth. (Surat Aali `Imraan, 3:191-192)
That is the masjid of the heart, it is the place of remembrance of Allah (swt). The more you remember, the bigger that masjid will become in yourself, as much as you are focusing towards (contemplating) the creation of Heavens and Earth (tafakkur), as much as you are approaching. Engineers today, in order that we want to have a space shuttle to go up, they focus on their computer, do they not? And also on their work, in order to make sure that they are within the limits of that space shuttle which can move in a certain direction and not to blow up. Also, Shaytan tries to blow up our heart, especially now after Ramadan finishes, because in Ramadan shayaateen have been chained. Prophet (s) said devils will be chained in Ramadan, but outside Ramadan they come to destroy what we have done in Ramadan. So that is why it is always requested when you do any `amal, in the end of that `amal wrap it with the salawaat on Prophet (s), because then that package is done and Shaytan cannot reach it because it is wrapped with salawaat on Prophet and it is put for you and you save it for Akhirah.
Do another package, continuously we are doing packages after packages, and wrap it with salawaat on Prophet (s) and it will save you like Ramadan saves you. The salawaat on Prophet (s) will save whatever you do of worshipness, inshaa-Allah it is accepted. It will be saved with Prophet (s) for you in Akhirah. So the most important thing is to build a palace in your heart, to build a masjid in your heart. If you cannot build a masjid then Shaytan can penetrate, because in a masjid Shaytan cannot come; Shaytan is prohibited to enter a masjid. Where there is dhikrullah, there will be no Shaytan! When there is no dhikrullah Shaytan can come in, but in masaajid there is always dhikrullah. Shaytan has bricks; he can come as a thought, whispering in your ear things to make fitna between people, because doing a sin is not as dangerous as a fitna. A sin can be forgiven, but a fitna cannot be forgiven, it is cursed as Prophet (s) said:
الفتنه نائمه لعن الله من ايقضها
Al-fitnatu naa'imatan la`anallaha man ayqadahaa.
Fitna is dormant and Allah cursed the one who awoke it.
Fitna is dormant and Allah puts His curse on the one who brings the fitna up. What happened to Iblees, what was his difference? He was an angel, but what happened to him? He got cursed! So anyone who brings up a fitna and is cursed is equal in disobedience to Allah (swt) as when He cursed Iblees, so we have to be careful in letting Shaytan to whisper a thought in our mind, which creates a fitna for nothing, although you might be oppressed, but if you can push, like when you have suppressants you suppress yourself by being patient, your reward from Allah (swt) is endless because you covered a fitna! Even if the fitna is against you but you kept quiet and gave no answer to defend yourself, then the fitna will calm down.
One time there was too much fitna going on and I went to Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q), may Allah give him long life, to say to him that there is too much fitna attacking me and he knows, because he was in it and hearing it. He said, “You want Allah or you want dunya? Please don’t tell me, leave them!” Al-fitnatu naa'im, fitna is dormant. If you don’t answer, it goes to dormant. Today you have your computers and they say, “The computer went dormant, went to sleep, too much fitna inside this computer.” Sometimes…these people watching all these things on this computer…it goes to sleep. Go to sleep! Take your computer! Take your heart with you and go to sleep. Don’t be awake in the fitna! Because when you answer...what are Yajooj and Majooj waiting for? To answer a million times! So don’t answer. This person doesn’t answer, he is like a sheep. Always be like him, very calm. He is accepting what Allah (swt) is giving him.
Allah (swt) said in the Holy Qur`an:
لاَّ يُحِبُّ اللّهُ الْجَهْرَ بِالسُّوَءِ مِنَ الْقَوْلِ إِلاَّ مَن ظُلِمَ وَكَانَ اللّهُ سَمِيعًا عَلِيمًا
Laa yuhibbu ’Llaahu ’l-jahra bi ’s-sooi mina ’l-qawli illa man zulima wa kaana Allaahu samee`an `aleema.
Allah loves not that evil should be voiced in public except where injustice has been done, for Allah is All-Hearing and All-Knowing. (Surat an-Nisa, 4:148)
Allah (swt) doesn’t like His servant to expose the badness except if he was so oppressed. If he was patient it is better, but if he was not patient, he can (open the details publicly). But this is the extreme, when the other side transgressed all the red lines and there was nothing to say except saying the truth, that time you are allowed. So we have to make our heart a masjid where Shaytan cannot enter and Allah (swt) in that moment, in that time, will give you what Allah (swt) wants for you, will give you what you like from Him! Since you are obedient to what He is asking, He will give what He promised to give without count! Allah (swt) will send it to you and dress you, but you cannot see it because we mentioned it many times in the Naqshbandi Tariqah miracles are not allowed to be shown. It’s not allowed if someone comes to you and you make a miracle and he becomes alright (that you reveal it)! It was requested from awliyaullah not to do it, so if they do it they will be responsible. It is not forbidden, but you will be responsible and liable for why you did that.
Sayyidina Shah Naqshband (q) did that in his life one time when he was on his deathbed, falling from the bed to the floor, and (he was asked), “Why, yaa Muhammad Baha`uddin Shah Naqshband (q), why did you interfered in My will?” When there was drought, there were no crops, there was no bread as there was no flour, no wheat and they came to him and he said, “Bring whatever is left,” and in the whole city they couldn’t find anything except little bit that a rich person had. They brought it to Sayyidina Shah Naqshband (q). You know in that time there was a stone mill that grinds wheat and they got flour. He put his head in that noose with the ox, one was on the ox and one was on him and he began to turn (the mill) and he put the wheat that they brought for him in between the two stones. As he was turning, wheat came out! He said, “Fill as much as you can fill!” And they were filling
until the whole village was full with wheat and the wheat was gushing out in every direction from between the two stones, not coming out just a little. People were collecting and yet there was coming more and more until everyone had filled their stores and warehouses, then he stopped! Then Allah (swt) said, “Yaa Muhammad Baha`uddin, why you interfered in My will?” He was falling from his bed on his chest saying, “Yaa `Afoow, Yaa `Afoow!” Then his student put him on his bed and he fell down again. “Yaa `Afoow, Yaa `Afoow!” asking forgiveness, because he showed one time a miracle.
Grandshaykh (q), may Allah bless his soul, said, “Why? Because he did not take permission from Prophet (s); he thought that it was okay because the people were in need and he had to do it or else the whole village will die from hunger. He didn’t have time to ask in the real sense of asking.” When we make du`a we ask, “Yaa Sayyidee, yaa Rasoolullah! We are weak servants,” but for them, they see it, they are there! So why you didn’t ask before you did it? That’s why the responsibility came to him, “Why you showed the miracle?”
Grandshaykh (q) finished his seclusion of five years. Imagine! He was in seclusion for five years! When you get out of seclusion sometimes people can see too many things like miracles coming from you. Some people went to Rashadiyya, his village where he did his seclusion of five years. I described to them what Grandshaykh (q) described. I said that the cave where he did seclusion is very difficult for someone to reach. It’s in a mountain in the village. And I explained that to one person and he went there, to Rashadiyya, recently about a month ago, he went to the zawiya which is still there and asked them. When Grandshaykh (q) came from that cave, too many miracles! The Prophet (s) appeared and said, “Yaa Shaykh Sharafuddin stop it. You are not allowed! Divorce the miracles three times!” It means don’t come to them anymore. Don’t approach miracles. If du`a comes you make du`a you make something, indirect it is okay, but direct, sometimes there is a responsibility.
So that person went to look for that cave and he went to the zawiya of Shaykh Sharafuddin (q) there, where Grandshaykh (q) used to live, because he was his uncle and he asked and they said no one knows. One old person he found said, “Look at that mountain, in that direction, but be careful because there are too many wild animals. Be careful, especially from snakes.”
He said, “Come with me,” but the old man said, “I cannot. You go there and you fill find.”
It was a huge mountain and he pointed in one direction and that one went climbing in that direction looking left and right, but found nothing. Then he climbed some more and he found a cave, but it was not facing out, but it was inside that you had to climb down into it with a ladder. He looked and saw that a ladder was left there since a long time ago. How many years ago, he doesn’t know. He saw that ladder standing and he put it inside and going down with no light. He told me that he was using his iPhone for light! He came down to a space like here, like 10 feet x 10 or 12 feet wide, and he was afraid to go down because the old man had told him to be careful of wild animals like snakes and lizards, anything. It’s very well known that there are snakes there, which Grandshaykh (q) saw. He went down, he was courageous, SubhaanAllah! He went down, I don’t know how many steps. The ladder was broken and shaking. He went down and reached the bottom. It was a surface area 10 x 10 (square feet). He saw a prayer rug. He took it and brought it! He was taking pictures with his iPhone.
Then he saw another cave under that cave; there were two caves there, one lower than the other, but he said to me, “I was afraid to go in the lower cave. I saw one carpet and one very old Qur`an.” He said, “I felt afraid to touch the Qur`an so as to take it. To take the carpet was okay, but it might be that I would be coming for ziyarah of the Qur’an.” The awliya also pass by for ziyarah and want to read the Qur`an. To take the carpet was okay as they can pray on the floor, no problem, but to take the Qur`an away, might be there is rasd on it, like when some people have gold and they hide it under the ground or in a cave, the jinn immediately come and put a block on it and no one can open it. He was afraid that there is something on it that no one can take it and if they take it might be a snake will attack you. He didn’t touch it to take it, but he opened it to read, and he said he didn’t know how light was coming inside that he didn’t need the iPhone anymore as he was reading. So he took pictures and sent them to me. They are really astonishing pictures!
Grandshaykh (q) made seclusion there for five years. Every day he ate seven olives and one piece of bread not bigger than the hand that they sent to him by a rope going down. How he made wudu don’t ask, Allah knows whether he was coming out or going to the other cave where there might be water. No one dared to go there.
And the old man said, “Don’t go to the second cave.” So awliyaullah are like that. It’s not cheap, it doesn’t come on a golden plate. Doesn’t come (easily), it needs work. Today representatives or whatever title they have, they think everything is easy and that it is easy to achieve power of sainthood. The power of sainthood is not given for free. It means there is no life for you, no private life! Your life is for Allah (swt) and his Prophet (s) and for awliyaullah, and those who are with you and around you, also no life for them. They like to have lives like other people, but they cannot because they are related to the wali, to the one whom Allah (swt) has dressed him. So wilayah is not something you achieve because you are only worshipping, but it is a grant from Allah (swt). Allah (swt) grants you, like when you go to school they have a system. You pay the tuition fee or you take a scholarship that you have to pay back or a grant.
There are two types of awliyaullah: Allah (swt) grants to some awliya and some awliya have to work hard, but even those who have been given a grant have to go in Allah’s Way, not in the way of their ego. So tariqah or spirituality is not that simple: you have to choose between Allah, His Prophet (s) and awliyaullah or to enjoy your daily life. Like Sayyidina Jamaluddin al-Ghumuqi al-Husayni (q), whose son-in-law was Imam Shamil (q), who was fighting the Russians. One Friday he was going to the masjid to pray Jumu`ah and, as you know, he has to dress nicely to go. His wife went crazy!
She asked him, “Where are you going?”
“I’m going for jumu`ah!”
She said, “No you stay here!”
She was crazy, pushing him to stay back! There are some awliyaullah wives like Grandshaykh, may Allah bless his soul, said, “Out of one-thousand, only two understand their husband.” Only two ladies married to awliyaullah out of a thousand understand the level of their husband!
So that one went crazy, shouting, “You cannot go and anywhere you are going I have to know!”
Leave him! Let him go where he wants to go because he’s doing da`wah, he’s bringing people to Islam and to tariqah, so leave him. So he didn’t listen and he came out of the house and he was passing under a window and she had water from the laundry with which she had washed the diapers; in those days they didn’t have pampers so they had a cloth for the children and had to wash it. So all the dirty water she threw over his head on the street and he didn’t say anything, he didn’t go back to the house because she was already going mad.
He went toward the masjid and the mureeds saw him in this situation and they said, “What is this, yaa Sayyidee? How we can help you?”
He said, “Get me new clothes, fresh and clean ones.”
He showered in the masjid, changed his clothes, prayed Jumu`ah and he did not say one word to anyone! Can you do that? O representatives! Can you face a problem like that and not to say one word? Even though she was oppressor to him, he did not open his mouth, but came back home as if nothing happened. He didn’t say to her anything. Wilayah is not easy and those who are around a wali are blessed. Some of them know his level, some don’t know, but their presence is a blessed presence. Their marriage is a blessed marriage. It is according to what is written in the Preserved Tablets. They have to be happy. I don’t know why we came to this subject; they changed my tongue, it is not in my head.
So awliyaullah don’t show miracles, but they are allowed to show one thing: they work on the hearts of their mureeds. They are allowed to work on the heart of their mureeds as if a surgeon is working on the heart of a patient, cleaning, fixing and arranging whatever needs to be done. Awliyaullah work and give you an anesthetic to keep you sleeping, not knowing what is going in your heart from these enlightenments, and they keep filling you up until one day comes and that Light will appear. If it doesn’t appear in dunya it will appear at death, in the grave or on the Day of Judgment, because dunya is already a big and thick veil. That is why we came to these beads (Mawlana shows his prayer beads). Grandshaykh (q) was describing it as we are here (beginning) and here are all the veils (the rest of the beads).
There are 70,000 veils towards the Prophet (s). A wali has to take them away for his mureed one after the other. So in most tariqahs they take away from the beginning one veil after the other, becoming like ten or fifteen veils. They take it away and that person begins to see like this (places tail of his turban over his eyes), I cannot see anything. If one veil is taken away, I can see now a little bit of images. I can see you. If that is taken away, then you are there! So in many other tariqahs, not in the Naqshbandi Tariqah, what they do is take away the first veil, the second, third and you keep going higher and higher. You can begin to see a little bit a very fuzzy picture, but there is something. People will be fascinated, you will be fascinated with yourself and you will stay on that level!
In the Naqshbandi Order they begin from the back. They don’t take Maqaam al-Awaam, the thick veil--the first veil is the thick veil--but they begin with the light veils from the back. They go all the way (backwards) until they reach here (the starting point) and it might be you reach there when you are dying. They take it away and you begin to see the reality. They might take it before you die by one year, by one month or they might take it immediately by permission of the Prophet (s). If you are a granted to be wali, a wali kasban, you reach it by work, progressing, and they take it slowly.
Awliyaullah don’t show miracles because they want to fix the heart, they want to make your heart a musallah. That’s what Sayyidina Abu Yazid al Bistami (q) meant when he told people, “Make sajda for me!” He was in a trance, in a state of ecstasy, in Allah’s love. He said, “Make sajda for me!” Why did he say that? He was a big scholar, even Ibn Taymiyya recognized him as a big scholar. Why he asked that? Because his heart became a musallah where the light came.
قلب الموءمن بيت الرب
Qalb al-mu'min bayt ar-rabb.
The heart of the believer is the House of the Lord.
The heart of the believer is the house of Allah (swt), so Allah (swt) wants your heart to become His House, a masjid. Musallah is a small masjid, a place to pray, but a masjid is a bigger place. You can increase your heart from a musallah to a masjid, but begin with a musallah. A musallah is where the Light descends. That Light is:
اللَّهُ نُورُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ
Allaahu nooru 's-samaawaati wa 'l-ard.
Allah is the Light of the Heavens and Earth. (Surat an-Noor, 24:35)
Allah (swt) said:
ما وسعني أرضي ولا سمائي ولكن وسعني قلب عبدي المؤمن
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.
(Hadith Qudsi, Al-Ihya of Imam al-Ghazali)
“Neither the Heavens nor the Earth could contain Me, but the heart of the believer contained Me.” It contained Allah’s Light. So that heart of yours will become a place of enlightenment and light will be coming in it. So that’s what awliyaullah want from their followers. Wherever you see a struggle try as much as you can to be patient. I know it’s not easy, it is difficult to be patient. For me and everyone around the world, it’s not easy to be patient, but if we try to calm ourselves down and that’s why Grandshaykh (q) gave a cure for that, a medication to calm yourself. He said, “If you are too much upset and you cannot take it and it’s too much and there is no one there to speak to, try to make wudu and pray two raka`ats. If it (your anger) doesn’t go, try to take a shower and pray two raka`at. If not, go out of the house, relax, sit in a park, make tasbeeh, make dhikr until people call you crazy, majnoon!”
أَكْثِرُوا ذِكْرَ اللَّهِ حَتَّى يَقُولُوا مَجْنُونٌ
Akthiroo dhikrullahi hattaa yaqooloo majnoon.
Remember Allah (swt) so much that people start saying, “He has gone mad.” (Ahmad, Musnad)
Make dhikr until people call you crazy! We mentioned this in the Ramadan Series. I will tell you the benefit of craziness. Be crazy! I will tell you about someone who has a problem with insurance; they are not paying him and he and his family are very humble and good people. They are not paying him and they want to eat his money. Always insurance companies, that’s it! If you want them to pay a big bill, then they will make a lot of problems for you in order not to be paid. They begin to search every detail. They put cameras, private investigators and so on. He came to me and I said, “Okay, every day at Fajr go to the beach, sit there and make dhikr and carry a big stick. Don’t go at night when there are too many people, go at early Fajr time, sit and pray there and make dhikr. All the jinn at the beach will also be making dhikr with you.”
So these private investigators were watching him! They were taping him and he didn’t know. He was doing loud dhikr, silent dhikr and praying on the sand. They said he’s crazy! So make dhikr until they say you are crazy. So finally they decided this man is crazy so give him his money, and they gave him his money, big money! I will not mention his name, but you all know him. But he was dedicated to make dhikr until they said he is majnoon. As soon as they said he is majnoon, the money was released, not because they want to release it, but it is tasdeeqan bi ‘l-hadith, confirmation that the hadith of Prophet (s) cannot go down. That confirmed the hadith of Prophet (s)! “Make dhikr until they say you are majnoon,” means if they say in dunya you are majnoon, they will say in Akhirah you are majnoon, which means you are out of state, you are not involved in dunya so go to Paradise! That’s what Prophet (s) said, “Until they say you are majnoon,’” means they cannot understand you anymore, only Heaven can understand you, no one else.
May Allah (swt) makes us to be understood by Heavenly understanding through his angels and forgive us for our sins and accept from us the fasting of Ramadan. Tomorrow is the first day of `Eid, it has been confirmed by most countries around the world. May Allah (swt) forgive and bless us wa kullu `aamin wa antum bi khayr, every year and inshaa-Allah every `Eid you are in happiness and let us make every day of our lives `Eid inshaa-Allah by making a lot of dhikrullah, by being patient, calm yourself down as Allah loves that. Many of you do that, I know.
Alhamdullilahi Rabbi 'l-`Alameen, al-Fatihah. Make everyone happy. Inshaa-Allah all your days are happy days, with all your children and may they be happy children. And the reward depends upon how much you take. Might be there is one person whose patience is more than everyone who is here added together. Allah (swt) knows, His Prophet (s) knows, awliyaullah they know. I know some are so patient and they are accepting the situation they are in with no rejection. Don’t think these people will be given as you will be given, these people will be given more than anyone. May Allah (swt) bless us all and bless these people especially.
Bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
As much as you are in love with Allah (swt), in love with His Prophet (s) and awliyaullah, that is what comes. The rest is going, but this is staying and that’s what I said: those among us who are patient so much, they will get these rewards. May Allah (swt) make us from them. (Ameen).
Bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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