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Before Salat al-`Asr, Antar's home
 
A`udhu billahi min ash-Shaytan i`r-rajeem.
Bismi`lLahi `r-Rahmani `r-Raheem.
Nawaytu ’l-arba`een, nawaytu ‘l-`itikaf, nawaytu ’l-khalwah, nawaytu ’l-`uzlah,
nawaytu 'r-riyadah, nawaytu 's-sulook, lillahi ta`ala fee haadha ‘l-masjid.

Ati` Allah wa at`i ar-Rasoola wa uli ‘l-amri minkum.
Obey Allah, obey the Prophet, and obey those in authority among you. (4:59)
 
May Allah bless the soul of Grandshaykh every moment, raise his level every moment higher and higher in the footsteps of Sayyidina Muhammad (s), and may Allah give long life and blessed life to Mawlana Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani قدس سرّه.
 
This house, masha'Allah, is hosting too many people today. And it is one small house and you can see the people coming from different backgrounds. So "wa man dakhalahu kana aminan, … whoever enters it attains security…” (3:97) When you are on the street, you feel insecure but when you enter your home you feel safe and secure. So Allah gave everyone a house to be safe, to secure himself or herself, and that is where all al-anwaar al-ilaahiyya, the Divine Lights go.  
 
Allah says in Holy Qur'an:
 الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ وَتَطْمَئِنُّ قُلُوبُهُم بِذِكْرِ اللّهِ أَلاَ بِذِكْرِ اللّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ
Alladheena aamanoo wa tatma'innu quloobuhum bi-dhikri Allahi alaa bi-dhikri Allahi tatmainnu 'l-quloob.
Those who believe, and whose hearts find satisfaction in the remembrance of Allah. for without doubt in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find satisfaction.(13:28)
“Whose hearts find satisfaction in remembering Allah’s Beautiful Names,” that is because there is Divinely Light with it. We cannot say it has heavenly lights, which cannot be compared to Divine Lights. Al-anwaar as-samaawiyya makhlooqah wa 'l-anwaar al-ilahiyya ghayru makhlooqah -  the heavenly lights are created and Divine Lights not created. “Divine Lights” is a very minimal description of the meaning of Allah’s Essence that no one knows, adh-dhaat al-buht.
 
We say about human beings we have a self, we have something. You cannot describe Allah's realities to be described in words. That is why they say in Arabic, as Arabic words carry a lot of subtle meanings, dhaat al-buht lillah ta`ala, meaning, the Uniqueness of the Absolute Unknown Essence of the Creator, Allah. That is why in Surat al-Ikhlas it says,  "Say to them (Ya Muhammad), Huwa (The One).” (112:1)  "The One" that cannot be described on any tongue or in any language is Allah . Anyone you can describe is not Allah. Anything that has an angelic, human, or jinn reality or reality to be created can be described. You can say whatever you want to describe that. “The One Who cannot be described” is Allah. Stars can be described although they are so far away. What you see, you can describe; what you cannot see, you cannot describe, but still they are there. You can see by telescope but not beyond, yet still that is within this universe and can be described. The One Who cannot be described, Ya Muhammad, can only be described by Himself, yasifu nafsihi bi nafsihi. Through His Beautiful Names, Allah described His Essence by His Beautiful Names and Attributes such as al-Kareem, al-Ghafoor, ar-Rahman, as-Salaam, al-Mu’min, al-Muhaymin. Keep describing; it never ends. But that might be a drop of the reality of Allah’s Essence; that reality cannot be known.
 
Allah said in Holy Qur'an, "Ya Muhammad, say Huwa,”. The One Who cannot be described is Allah, Unique, Ahad, by Himself. He is not in need of anyone, He is not dependent on anyone and lam yalid wa lam yulad wa lam yakun lahu kuffuwan ahad - He begetteth not, nor is He begotten and there is none like unto Him. (Surat al-Ikhlas) No one can say “I” in His Presence, not even the Prophet (s). That is why he felt shy in the Divine Presence during Laylatu 'l-`Isra wa 'l-Mi'raj when he was asked, " Who is that coming?" Prophet (s) answered, "I am not seeing anyone here but You, Ya Allah. I am not existing."
 
Awliyaullah take from that reality of Prophet (s) in order to understand how to be a real servant. We come, we go. We listen, all of us, we are here in the house. We feel secure. Is it not? Allah gave you a house but you are not securing it. You have to get an alarm company to secure your house every moment, to report, "O there is an intruder, there is a thief, the window is open. Fire is there."
 
I have a security system in our house. This one (Ishaq) doesn't give me the code even! They call at midnight, or 3:00 a.m. and tell me, "O, there is a security problem, a fire in the basement." 
"What fire in the basement?" Immediately, I say, "There is no fire." 
They say, "No, what is the code?"
"I don't know it."
I called him (Ishaq), woke him up and asked, "What is the code?"
(Sleepy, he answers) "Ahhh, what code? I have so many codes." 
I don't know the code, so I have to call him for the code! We go check and there is no fire. 
And they say, "OK, override the code."
 
We need an alarm system that if any intruder enters, it warns us that our home is not safe. Allah said in Holy Qur'an وَمَن دَخَلَهُ كَانَ آمِنًا- wa man dakhalahu kaana aaminan whoever enters it attains security (3:97 ) - to go for Hajj to Mecca and when you go to the Ka`aba you are safe because you are entering Allah's House, where no one can harm you. Shaytan cannot enter there and attack you, wa man dakhalahu kaana aaminan, if you really enter with the right code. Many people go for Hajj and enter with no code. So what they do there? They fight with each other. And especially they tell you when you go for Hajj, don’t get angry, be patient or else your Hajj is not accepted. As you go, you come. You are only torturing yourself.
 
You have to arm your heart. Can we say our heart is armed? No one else, no wali, no nabi, except Sayyidina Muhammad (s), who said, "I won over my Shaytan; I control him." That is why awliyaullah are trying their best to be armed. That is why you see them in constant worship, in constant dhikrullah, in constant meditation, not like us, wasting our time on different entertainments. 
 
Now you have a car and you are driving, and you have young children. Now they make for you a new way to get your money.  They put in your mind, you don't want children to bother you when driving, so put a Shaytan screen there. Is it not enough to have in the home a Shaytan screen? So put in your car a Shaytan screen to make the children busy, not to disturb the driver, who has to be focusing.  When they do that, there is a flu, like today they get vaccine from within Swine Flu itself to fight the poison of the flu with poison of the vaccine. Allah gave you something to recite to fight that poison, to throw it out of your heart. When you begin reciting Holy Qur'an, you recite a`udhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani 'r-rajeem, "I seek refuge in God from devils," or else you will be a victim, and there is no safety. This is the armor against Shaytan. Swine flu is coming from Shaytan because it’s coming from pigs, which don't eat except dirty things.
 
As Mawlana shaykh said, two or three years ago they burned millions of lambs, cows, chickens, geese, to fight the spread of various types of flu. Mad cow, when you eat from that you become a mad cow. (Laughter) They burned them in millions. Did you see them burning a pig? Why? Why they didn't burn a pig? Pig is holy for them. Lamb is holy for Sayyidina Ibrahim (a); Allah ordered him to sacrifice a lamb instead of his son. Cow is holy for some people. Why you burn them? Holy for Jews, Muslims, Christians. Why pigs you cannot touch, others you can touch? Because Shaytan is controlling them and pigs eat the dirt of everything, even the dirt of each other. The one who eats them is eating the dirt of pigs, and he is a pig. If they say, "You eat lamb, you are lamb," that is OK, the lamb is very soft by nature! (laughter) So when you want to fight Shaytan, Allah gave us in Holy Qu'ran to say a`udhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani 'r-rajeem. Whenever a bad thought comes to mind, you have to recite a`udhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani 'r-rajeem. 
 
One person asking at the beginning, "What is the meaning of mureed?" I answered, "I don't know, it is too high to know the meaning of mureed. To know the meaning of mureed, you have to be a mureed."  In order that you know what is, like a professor. You cannot know what it is to be a professor until you work ten years as assistant professor, giving a paper every week, until you know what are characteristics of a professor. So for a mureed you must be a mureed to know, to know the characteristics one, two ,three, four, five, then you know. Show me one mureed. Forget that, as Grandshaykh explain it and Mawlana Shaykh Nazim explain it and all awliya explain it. Before you put your foot in the level of mureed, first put your foot in the beginning level of mubtadi`, then second level, then the third level, then fourth level, until you reach the level of mureed. We are still in the level of lovers, and then the next level is "initiate," and then mureed. The mureed in Naqshbandi Order can hear the tasbeeh of angels, that's the first level. And he has to smell the scent of a wali when he passes; then he is putting his the foot between the lower step and first step. Still he didn't establish it yet; he is trying. And he has to hear his shaykh from far away; he hears the voice of his shaykh always. So where is mureed and where are we? 
 
So that is why today, Shaykh Omar, I am surprised when they speak about they attended a conference on Sufism. They attended a conference on the enneagram, a conference on Buddhism,  a conference on Hinduism. They attended this and that. And all of them, they don't know where is qiblah, where to turn their faces in prayer. وَلِلّهِ الْمَشْرِقُ وَالْمَغْرِبُفَأَيْنَمَا تُوَلُّواْ فَثَمَّ وَجْهُ  Fa ayna maa tuwalloo fa thamma wajhullah, To Allah belong the east and the West: Whithersoever ye turn, there is the presence of Allah (2:115) "Wherever you turn, direct your face, you see."  Thamma wajhalla means, "Anywhere you will find in that direction you look, you will for sure find Allah's Divine Presence there. What did they find?  Because all of them are becoming lost because of titles. They don't even know how to clean themselves. They go to the restroom and, sorry to say this, but they pee and then put their clothes back without cleaning themselves. If you think your urine is clean, drink it! How you carry something unclean on your clothes?  How are you going to make meditation when you are unclean? That I am saying, "pee;" I didn't say something else. How are you going to do meditation and attend these seminars and workshops, and they speak about this and that, and you are not physically clean? Can you wear clothes that are not clean? How you are wearing something that is physically unclean, that you didn't clean? First, let us clean our bad characteristics and eliminate them. 
 
Allah said Fa ayna maa tuwalloo fa thamma wajhullah. Allah is there observing you, watching you. How you go to Him with ill feelings against each other? Hatred against each other? Hypocrites. Hypocrisy, Allah said they are going to be punished more than anyone else, more than an believer.  Munafiq  (hypocrite) is going to be more punished because he is double-faced. Allah doesn't like he is double agent. He goes tell her something, go tell him something else. He says what is in his mouth, not what is in his heart. He like to deceive. In time of Prophet (s), full of hypocrisy there. . Hypocrites made fight between Sahaba. Allah said they are going to be in lowest level of Hellfire, they are going to be the wood of Hellfire, for punishment.
 
We know Allah is Merciful. That's something else, we are not going into that issue. Allah will forgive. Allah is the best Judge. We cannot judge anyone. But we are explaining about our shortcomings, because someone asked about mureed.  Still we are not in the level of mureed to understand what is a real mureed.  We are still lovers. If you love someone, you are always fond of him. Always, day and night you remember them, like Romeo and Juliet, they cannot leave each other. Now we are in the state to be lovers, not to reach the highest level of love. We love the shaykh when we remember him. When we are busy, we forget about him. Is it not?
 
mureed, when he passes that level, he cannot see other than his shaykh. When Sayyidina `Abdul Qadir al-Jilani, may Allah bless his soul, asked his followers, "I want each of you to take a chicken or rooster where no one can see you and slaughter it." And all of them came in one or two hours and they have already slaughtered their rooster. They cut and came except one. He is still going in circles, like someone put him in circle and said, "Where is the corner?" Shaykh put him in circle and said, "Find the corner." And Sayyidina `Abdul Qadir al-Jilani put all of them  in circle and said, "Go slaughter the rooster in the corner of that circle where no one can see you."
 
No one understood what the shaykh is saying. Only one came, after Maghrib the next day. Sayyidina `Abdul Qadir al-Jilani said, "Where were you? Three days you are having the rooster, why you didn't cut it?" He answered, "Wherever I went to cut, I could not be by myself, as always you are with me, always Prophet (s) is with me, always I am in Allah's Presence. I was unable to cut." Shuyukh put you in a circle and ask you to find the corner. If you really find the corner, and there are too many corners in a circle, if you find it, you can cut the throat of your ego. Rooster is described to awliyaullah as an animal that has ego, because he has worldly pleasure. What a rooster does? (It crows.) Crows? The rooster jumps on chickens; it means he is selfish. He cannot accept any other rooster in the chicken coop. If there are 1000 chickens, he wants 1000 chickens for himself. It is a symbol of dunya that he wants everything for himself.
Shaykh `Abdul Qadir al-Jilani is saying go kill your rooster, the ego. So his mureed understood that he had to kill his self, to annihilate in his shaykh, in Prophet (s) and in Allah's Divine Presence. He cannot. He has a big ego. He went to his shaykh and said he cannot. Shaykh `Abdul Qadir al-Jilani answered,"You are my khalifah; you will be able to do it." So he gave him the secret right there and then. Such peace in the blink of an eye! It is not peace , it is to reconcile with the shaykh. Reconciliation is important in the life of the mureed. He has to reconcile with the shaykh; it means not that he was fighting the shaykh, but he was disobeying. Reconciliation here means he has to give himself and all he has to his shaykh, like Sahaba (r) gave themselves and all they possessed to Prophet Muhammad (s). They gave their lives. What is more than their life?
 
So level of mureed is not that easy to be described. I am speaking about in Naqshbandi Tariqah. Grandshaykh قدس سرّه said he is putting his feet on all the other three different levels so that he can control everyone who is in these three levels. The lovers, the beginners and the ready, in Maqam al-Muhibbeen, Maqam al-Mubtadi`een, Maqam al-Musta`ideen. He is able to reach these three levels, and who are under these levels? The mureed by himself, so the shaykh goes through his mureed; he doesn't waste time to reach everyone, he sends his message through that one.
 
That is in the level of mureediyyah; forget about the level of sainthood, that is far! It is not accessible. It is only accessible from the top, it comes down. You cannot achieve it, it has to be granted. Because there is murad, there is mureed. There is the one who is wanted and that one will be granted. There is one mureed who will achieve through his progress to reach that level. There are murad, means awliyaullah above the level of mureed, chosen ones who are granted that sainthood. Murshid, everyone now call them murshid, which we have explained the four categories of murshid in WHO ARE THE GUIDES? released in June). Grandshaykh and Mawlana Shaykh Nazim explained them in detail:  Murshid at-Tabarruk, Murshid at-Tasfiyyah, Murshid at-Tazkiyyah, and Murshid at-Tarbiyyah.
 
The highest is Murshid at-Tarbiyyah, who raised you from childhood. Is not your mother and father raising you? Mother and father are veiling you with their negativity, their pollution. The child is born on innocence, with no sin, pure. They are not veiled, their eyes are not closed, they see angels. Their parents veiled them and they cannot see the Light anymore. If it is written that you are under his guidance, the shaykh accompanies you from birth, the moment of birth 'til the moment of death.
 
How old are you? (One says, "54 years old.") 54 years, is not true. Heavenly counting is not like that. Heavenly counting is by the number of breaths you are breathing; age begins with the breath, so they count your breaths and don’t count by years. The shaykh has to accompany you with every breath! He has to know he is given that from Prophet (s) for every follower, and Prophet (s) is for the whole ummah. He knows about them through their breath. That is why it is very important what we were discussing through Ramadan, Qubbat al-Arzaaq, the Dome of Provisions is the highest, accompanying through the whole breath. There is a dome, do you have a dome? On top of a mosque there is a dome, on top of a shrine there is a dome, a tower for boats has a beacon to show the light. Everything has to have a dome or else it cannot exist. (Shaykh hits the turban of person seated beside him.) You have a dome, that is dome, not looking like a dome? Look at your body; it is big and on top is a dome, so that dome means a lot. Then there is a big dome that we call Qubbat al-Arzaaq, the dome of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) which we will explain later.
 
Wa min Allahi tawfeeq, bi hurmati' l-Fatiha.
 
So don't say you are mureed. You can say if you want but we must know we have not yet reached Maqam al-Muhibbeen, the level of lovers. People say they are mureed; mureed of what? Mureed of yourself, yes. When you tell yourself "I am in the level of lovers, I didn't progress anymore," you keep encouraging yourself because you are not yet a mureed of a shaykh. You are not a mureed of a guru! Look at Sayyidina `Isa (a). Allah raised him higher and higher. How many students did he have? One of them, what did he do? (Betrayed him.) So how Sayyidina `Isa (a) doesn't know that someone is going to betray him? How, if he is a prophet coming from heavens, does he not know someone is going to betray him? He knows, but they are the real submitters to Allah's will. They don’t come and say, “We are this and that.” They are humble ones. He knew that he was being betrayed, but he kept quiet as though he didn't know anything. When Prophet Muhammad (s) went to Isra wa 'l-Mir`aj, passed through the whole universe, reaching the Divine Presence qaaba qawsaani aw adna. Did he need someone to take him from Mecca to Medina for migration? So may Allah guide us and this ummah for the benefit of humanity. Without peace and love and moderation, our existence is not going to be perfect and we are going to suffer. When you submit and feel yourself obliged to help, then this is what counts for you.
 
A person was sent by his shaykh, Shaykh Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani, to a cemetery to look at the people who died. There was a man standing nearby (Khidr [a]) also visiting the cemetery. First one, written on the stone was, "He died at the age 85," a very big, respected scholar of his time.
 
That one was observing and said,"Subhanallah, this man died at age 85."
(Sayyidina Khidr said), "You are mistaken! He died at 3 years age, he was a baby."
"Everyone knows in the city that he was an important, sincere, respected scholar; he studied everything, he was well known in the community, he did a lot of things."
"Are you not speaking of this one in this grave? He was three years of age."
That visitor thought, "What is this, he is making me to lose my temper, let me move to another grave." He moved to another grave and standing there, hecommented, "That one died now 75 years of age, a very nice person, everyone in the city loves him; I need to make a prayer for him."
"Don't waste your time, he died at age of 5 years."
 
Then another one and another one, and that man was saying their ages - not anyone of them died at the age of maturity. And they are big scholars, very famous people. And that visitor returned to his shaykh.
“And what you saw there, what knowledge you came with?”
“I didn’t see knowledge except a stupid person! I was visiting the graves of all those scholars, and that person said, ‘This one died three years of age, this one four years, no one reached maturity.’”
“O my son, you missed the point! That man spoke the truth. From his 85 years in dunya, if you count his sincere worship and `amal for his community and put them together, they don’t come to more than three years.”
 
It means that 82 years of his life was wasted and three years made him famous, if you accumulate all his good deeds.  The other one, died 75 years of age but he had five years of sincerity; more, if you add his sincerity for the 75 years you will find that he was very well known for his community, sincere. If you go to the other ones until you find any one of maturity, not any one of them are yet adult, all as if died at immature age.  So can an immature one be responsible for anything? No.  Now, if someone under 16 years, he is going to be responsible? So how are we going to be resposible for sins if we are still not mature? It means God’s Mercy is huge, it will cover everyone! You try it . They tried. They accumulated three years, five years, ten years. You have to try. God will be merciful with all of us.
 
We ask our Lord to forgive us and to forgive everyone. We ask for forgiveness and may God be pleased with us. (ameen)  For the best of humanity, for this global world which is becoming like a small village. May God be pleased with us. As-salamu `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Wherever there is humanity, we need to enlighten them about beliefs and call them to the Creator Who created them equal. “Human beings are equal, as the teeth of a comb.” So for us, as Muslims who follow classical Islam, the first level is the five pillars, the second is the six beliefs, and third level is ihsan -- how to make yourself pure. We see, wherever we go, we find people that are interested, they want to fulfill their life and know more, and that is why there are programs more and more. We have a lot of people from Jewish, Buddhist and secular backgrounds. We don’t exclude or discriminate toward and we are open to all people. That is why we see them in our associations.
 
Q & A Session
 
MSH: Since 1990 in America I was calling, might be single-handed. I saw something wrong in USA and Canada. I used to come a lot to Canada and began to explain Sufism because no one understood Sufism at that time, until the bad event of September 11th. And alhamdulillah, people began to understand the reality of Sufism and accept it. 
 
Question: When I came from France, I was very proud of the people who tried to build mosques. Do you think they are in the right position, to be close to God?
 
MSH:
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