Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem
Nawaytu'l-arba`een, nawaytu'l-`itikaaf, nawaytu'l-khalwah, nawaytu'l-`uzlah, nawaytu'l-riyaada, nawaytu's-salook lillahi ta`ala fee hadha'l-masjid
Ati` Allah wa ati` ar-rasula wa uli 'l-amri minkum
Obey Allah, obey the Prophet (s) and obey those who are on authority.
I will repeat and make sure that we understand, all of us, that sainthood is not something easy to get. Saints are, Allah swt granted them that level. There are two types: one has been granted that level without even trying to do anything. They do their own obligations and Allah granted them. And the other group, are because of their work and their progress, Allah give them that level of sainthood. But to achieve between six billion of what we have today on earth, and anytime, average was like that or less of human beings, also to be a saint from that high numbers of people is not so easy. Because awliyaullah are known to be 124,000 wali on the footsteps of 124,000 prophets. So it is a very low percentage? Less than one. So it is so low that it is a saying “an-nadir ka’l-ma`doom - Something that is rare is as if it doesn’t exist.” So awliyaullah are rare to find, those who have kashf and visions, and those described in the hadith of the Prophet (s) that was revealed to him by Allah that they will hear things that no one hears, it means “I give them hearing that no one can hear and they will see with Allah’s light what others don’t see. They will bring knowledge that others cannot bring.”
I am not saying like some say, “every Muslim is a wali.” Yes every Muslim can be a wali but not the wali of kashf and visions. And there are many people who their students think their shaykhs are walis but in reality they are not. Their students call them pirs. But they are pirs on their students but they are not awliyaullah. Not as described in the Holy Qur'an:
أَلا إِنَّ أَوْلِيَاء اللّهِ لاَ خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلاَ هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
ala inna awliyaullahi la khawfan `alayhim wa lahum yahzanoon – Behold! Verily the friends of Allah, there is no fear on them nor do they grieve,” [10:62] and as the Prophet (s) mentioned in hadith “Awliyaee tahta qibaabee la ya`alamhum ghayree – My saints are under My domes, no one knows them but Me.”
So it is important to understand it is not so simple to be a wali. If you want to be a wali, try, it is an open race. If you get, you get, and if you don’t get it, don’t say, " I didn’t get it” if you didn’t get it. Try harder. If Allah wants to give he gives.
And don’t think it is not responsibility. Every wali has responsibility for the people that are under his guidance. Some people are under his guidance they visit him and others are guided by him without meeting him and not aware of his guidance but are guided in their dreams.
People today are running and having under them 10-15 people and the people are saying “this is a wali, this is a deputy and this is a representative.” That is not the reality. To be a wali is responsibility. They cannot carry themselves even, how they can carry students? A real wali is like a mountain.
So Mawlana Shaykh and Grandshaykh said, that “no one knows what Allah will give His servant. No one knows what Allah will open to His servants from His endless mercy oceans.”
Only we can describe it as endless mercy oceans. But what is endless mercy oceans? What is there? It is an infinite manifestation of Allah’s mercy and when we say Allah’s mercy it is not like the Prophet’s mercy and when we say the Prophet’s mercy and Allah sent him “mercy to all humankind” and the Prophet’s mercy is not like a wali’s mercy. A wali’s mercy, it is lower level and the wali’s mercy is not like the normal person’s mercy. The minimum description of a normal person’s mercy is that Allah gave him good life in this life and in akhira. That means having health, having a family and having good health; he might be sick a little here and there. His children are good. And Allah gave him mercy in akhira, in
If you go higher to the level of awliyaullah their definition of mercy is completely different and the first level of mercy is they know every sickness of their students and they clean it, whether of the soul or the body. With their prayers and in the presence of the Prophet (s) they present their students clean. That is from their mercy. So that is from the feeling of rahmat in their hearts that Allah put there. And from wali to wali it is differing. Don’t think awliyaullah the mercy in their hearts is the same.
And I give an example. When Grandshaykh was ordered by his shaykh, Shaykh Sharafuddin to carry the responsibility of irshad, guidance, and I think and I believe and I know, that if anyone his Shaykh will tell him “I am giving you the secret of guiding people,” and that means you become a spotlight, a speaker to the hearts, not a speaker to a presentation in a university, but a speaker to the hearts of people, to guide them to way of Allah and to the way of the Prophet (s), everyone will say, “yes, I like it.”
When Grandshaykh was asked to carry that he said, "Oh, oh, I don’t want.” People run for their pleasurely desires to get that. Even awliya want that. Awliya run for that. Anyone who is offered to get that will not say “no.” Is it correct professor?
If someone gives you a telescope and says, “Look on the moon how nice Allah created the moon.” You don’t take it and look? You take it and look and see what people cannot see.
But they don’t tell you take that telescope and look at the sun. Why they say look at the moon but not at the sun. Why professor? [it is harmful] It will burn you, it will burn the eyes. The moon is a mirror, so you can look at the reflection. You cannot look at the reality - it will take you away.
As when Sayyidina Musa said, "ya rabbee arinee anthur ilayk. O my Lord! Let me look at You.” He didn’t say let me see You.
He said, "No, you cannot see Me, but look at the mirror. There you can. You cannot look at Me, but since you asked, I will manifest My mercy on the mountain. If the mountain stays the same you can see Me and if it doesn’t then you cannot see Me.”
So the mountain shattered when Allah sent his Beautiful Names and Attributes ar-Rahman ar-Raheem on the mountain, and the mountain disappeared and Musa fell down fainting. Fa khara Musa saa’iqan.
You cannot look if you are not ready. The Prophet (s), Allah gave him the capacity to reach qaaba qawsayni aw adna – two bow’s length or nearer. Allah gave him the capacity to see. There he was asked “who are you?” He was asked to describe everything. There is no more existence even to the Prophet (s). He was seeing only Allah, but Sayyidina Musa when he asked he was able to see himself. The Prophet (s) didn’t come with his self. Sayyidina Musa came with his self. That is why he could not see Allah. But Imam Nawawi in his Sharh said, "the Prophet (s) saw Allah with the eyes of his head.”
So you cannot take telescope and look at the sun you will be damaged. Because you cannot come with your ego there. When Allah looked at the mountain, he destroyed the mountain, the mountain of the self of Musa .
That is why when he woke up he saw the Divine Presence that the Prophet (s) is praying with all 313 messengers praying standing and all other 124,000 prophets were in sajda. Then he understood.
So wilayah is not so easy. Today you cannot see the reality – it is not for everyone. But everyone likes to reach there and to be there, but not everyone can reach that level. So normal wali, they are seeing the reflection of the moon. It means they are getting the reflection of the light of the sun that reality the reflects on the moon they are getting the reflection. They are smelling traces of ma`rifatullah but you are not able to enter there. Even reflections, someone gets 2, or 3 rays of reflection. Some get 10 or 15. No one gets all the rays. Like the Sahaba, that is how they were getting.
If you look at the hadith that were accumulate and gathered by different imams, and show the chain of the one who mentioned the hadith all the way to the Prophet (s) you will find most of the ahadith are not been narrated by the same people. Different chain and different chains in this hadith and this hadith. It means no one took everything. There is not someone who took everything. Each one took something. The Prophet (s) gave everyone what he needs to carry and what his heart can carry. And you cannot say one Sahabi narrated all the hadith, there is no such thing.
Too many companions that mentioned too many hadith. But the Prophet (s) picked up those whom he likes and gave them something special that they kept through hearts from one to another.
He gave to Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, he gave to each Sahabi something that he passed from one to another. But to Abu Bakr as-Siddiq the one who was closest to the Prophet (s) and Sayyidina `Ali (r). Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq how many hadiths did he narrate? 25. Is that what the Prophet (s) gave to him? No, but that knowledge of hadith that Sayyidina Abu Bakr has cannot be given except to whom the Prophet (s) selects.
So awliyaullah take from realities that come to them from reality of the Prophet Muhammad (s). The reality of the Prophet (s) is like the sun, always a fountain of knowledge is coming out, that reality that we are symbolizing like the sun always has energy, always in it is diya, that is not just light, but that is something that produces light. The moon there is no light in it. You are more expert. It is the mirror. So the Prophet (s) is in continuous in every moment he is producing through his reality through his essence where Allah gave la ilaha illa-Allah Muhammad Rasulullah it is not a fountain but it is waterfalls of knowledge. You cannot describe the waterfall of dunya like what is happening on the sun.
How can you describe what is happening on the sun, professor, can you give me one sentence?
Continuous non-stopping fission and fusion reaction and constantly producing that light. How is it produced? From where is that fuel coming? Is it like a bank of atomic fuel has been put there and slowly it is been given and then it is finished. Or something beyond our understanding. Whatever scientific explanation is still short of the reality.
O what Awliyaullah know about the Prophet (s) is like what scientists know about the sun.
And everyone according to what he receives.
But here is perfect moon the one at 15 days is full. That perfect one is sultan al-Awliya, he doesn’t only take like the hilal, the crescent, he is the perfect [full] moon. What is coming is channeled to him and then raise to her and there to the small crescents.
Prophet when Allah ordered the Pen to write la ilaha illa-Allah as is mentioned and Allah ordered the Pen to write and it asked what to write and Allah said, “write la ilaha illa-Allah” for 70k years. And what kind of years? Allah said,
وَإِنَّ يَوْمًا عِندَ رَبِّكَ كَأَلْفِ سَنَةٍ مِّمَّا تَعُدُّونَ
wa inna yawma inda rabbik ka alfi sannatin mimman ta`udoon
Verily a Day in the sight of thy Lord is like a thousand years of your reckoning.
One day is 1000 years and in another verse one day is 50,000 years.
What is Allah giving? How many heavenly years the Pen was writing? What was he writing? La ilaha illa-Allah . La ilaha illa-Allah ., La ilaha illa-Allah .… was that what he is writing.
He is writing la ilaha illa-Allah like a title. Then writing for 70,000 years knowledge that comes from la ilaha illa-Allah, that knowledge that comes without end. Then the pen stopped and said, "Ya Rabbee I cannot write anymore.” So that is the verse
قُل لَّوْ كَانَ الْبَحْرُ مِدَادًا لِّكَلِمَاتِ رَبِّي لَنَفِدَ الْبَحْرُ قَبْلَ أَن تَنفَدَ كَلِمَاتُ رَبِّي وَلَوْ جِئْنَا بِمِثْلِهِ مَدَدًا
Qul law kana al-bahru midadaan likalimati rabbee la-nafida’l-bahru qabl an tanfada kalimaatu rabbee wa law ji’na bi-mithlihi madada.”
Say: "If the ocean were ink (wherewith to write out) the words of my Lord, sooner would the ocean be exhausted than would the words of my Lord, even if we added another ocean like it, for its aid." Kahf 18:109
That is what he was writing and finally he got tired, cannot write any more.
Not that he is starting to write la and it takes 70,000 years to write la ilaha illa-Allah one time.
There is eloquence in Allah’s Ancient Words. One time the Pen writes la ilaha illa-Allah is enough. But what he is writing 70,000 years. What is the secret coming out of tawheed. What they describe tawheed today? Some square minded people that say tawheed all the time.
Then Allah ordered, “write Muhammadun Rasulullah.” He was writing what Allah was giving from secrets of la ilaha illa-Allah to the Prophet (s). What opened to the Prophet (s) from the secrets of that knowledge the Pen was writing 70,000 years. Where is that knowledge that Sayyidina Muhammad (s) has? Who can speak about kashf, sainthood? That is why they say, "No wali and no nabi knows what Allah will do with His servants on Judgment Day.” It goes from la ilaha illa-Allah to Muhammadun rasulullah in that moment. Awliyaullah didn’t open yet from the traces of these reflections that they are taking from that sun. That sun is mirror to Muhammadun Rasulullah and Muhammadun Rasulullah is mirror to the … la ilaha illa-Allah
And the Pen said, "who is that Muhammad (s) whom You put Your name next to his name.” and Allah said, "O Pen! Keep your limits! If not for Muhammad (s) I would not have created you even.”
So these knowledges are traces even. As Mawlana is bringing now telling for first time. He didn’t speak about it before. So these secrets comes with meanings. That is why Muhyideen ibn Arabi, his writing, he was not Muhyideen bin Arabi when he was writing. He was reflecting from the mirror; he was reflection from the sun. It was coming from the sun to write. Always when he was ordered by the Prophet (s) to write, he sleeps with pen in his hand and the pen writes. Writes traces from these knowledges.
That is what Allah gave to him. He likes it, he took it.
Some awliyaullah said “We don’t want it.” When Grandshaykh was asked he said, "I don’t want it.” And Shaykh Sharafuddin was worried because that this is coming from the Prophet (s) for Grandshaykh to carry that responsibility and he said, "I am not.”
So in association of the Prophet (s), Shaykh Sharafuddin presented the situation to the Prophet (s) and said, "my son didn’t want to carry that” and in the spiritual ruhani association the Prophet (s) told Shaykh Sharafuddin to ask him why he didn’t want to carry that responsibility.
And Shaykh Sharafuddin said, that he asked him and he replied, “what is the benefit of my carrying it? Is it going to make my students higher? I know they are not going to do what I describe. What is benefit of throwing jewels instead of candies. Then I am liable if they don’t carry the responsibility. So I don’t accept that responsibility unless you give me my condition.” He said, "what is your condition?”
He said, "If I will get permission from the Prophet (s) and I open from knowledge of anyone or mention the name of a wali, then I want those sitting with him to be raised to the level of that wali. If that is accepted I accept.”
“And even your level, if I speak of your level they will be raised to that level and if I speak of my level then I will take that responsibility.” And Sayyidina Shaykh Sharafuddin presented that in the spiritual association of the Prophet (s).
And the Prophet (s) said, "I am happy with that. And not one wali before asked that.” They accepted that knowledge but they didn’t accept to put their students there.
As he knows they are lazy. What did Sayyidina Musa say to the Prophet (s)? “get a discount reduce the prayers from 50, and he kept asking him get a discount.
And finally when it came to five, he said, "Ya sayyidee, ya Rasulullah! ask me. Even five prayers, Bani Israel will not pray. Ask less - ask none.”
So we are lazy. And the Prophet (s) felt shy [to ask further reduction].
So we are lazy - they know we cannot. But he said, "let them be raised to my level.” That doesn’t mean you don’t have to pray. You must keep your obligations.
So it is not something easy to achieve to reach that level.
We look thru telescope you see the moon and see the rays of light. But when we look closely you see many things. But you cannot look at the sun. Awliyaullah have been given to look at the moon.
Sultan al-Awliya who is Mawlana Shaykh and was Grandshaykh. They are the perfect moon they are always under the Prophet (s)’s look. They are in the center of the prophet’s circle where the vision of the Prophet (s) is always on that center which Muhyideen ibn Arabi called Sultan al-Awliya.
So I can say it is grant from Allah that he granted us that. Or by yourself how can you get that?
So this means “look at me, don’t look at someone else! Don’t search somewhere else; you lose then everything. Look closely to me. Keep your eyes sharp on me. Or else your eyes will take you here and there and you will go on the extreme, on the fringe.”
When Shaykh Sharafuddin was telling Grandshaykh about Sayyidina Shah Naqshband he said, "He is going to fill four paradises alone through the light that Allah gave him through his eyes. On the Judgment Day he will spread that light by permission of the Prophet (s) and that light will go from the right eye and surrounding a huge number of people and then will come back to this left eye. And whoever fit in that rectangle or circle then they will be sent to
That is secret of shafa`a. So three paradises are left to fill. Cannot the remaining awliyaullah fill them?
So when Shaykh Sharafuddin was speaking about Shah Naqshband some of his love split to Sayyidina Shah Naqshband. So those who are looking on the internet or anywhere around the world, you cannot look at them as your shaykh, your shaykh is Mawlana Shaykh Nazim.
Me and other than me, no exclusion, not anyone. The baya is for the shaykh - Mawlana Shaykh Nazim. The Shaykh is Mawlana Shaykh Nazim. No one is a Shaykh. No one is claiming he is a representative. We are nothing. Allah is our witness, the Prophet (s) is our witness, Grandshaykh is our witness. They like to take it or they don’t like. Don’t split your love to representative of the Shaykh your Shaykh is Shaykh Nazim. That one can be changed anytime. Like a car. But the Shaykh is the Shaykh you can get another tire. And keep going. But you cannot get another car. You cannot get another Shaykh.
So when Grandshaykh felt love to Sayyidina Shah Naqshband and he was in seclusion he was supposed to knock on the wood floor to his wife to bring food up. The first night he didn’t knock. The second night he didn’t knock. The third night he didn’t knock. So, because she is not allowed to open the door, she went to his uncle, Shaykh Sharafuddin and asked him.
So he said, "leave him.” And he stayed seven days.
So he said in the time that his love split. And in a vision, we can say, but he said, “Shah Naqshband came and said come with me.” And Grandshaykh said, "my soul left my body and accompanied Shah Naqshband. We left and where our eyes can see that is how we moved wherever our eyes can reach we are there. And we traveled for a long time and we came to place and saw someone coming from the far horizon.
That speed is when they look and where they look they will be there. It is not how far your physical eyes goes. On the beach, when you look it goes how far? 20 km.
Or you look with the computers or with the Hubble how far it goes. Billions of miles.
As he said, "billions of miles, in one… Professor Nazeer Ahmed said in billions of miles you can reach.
You think awliyaullah are like the Hubble telescope?
You said to me that there is light that no one can see that is faster than 300kps. If awliyaullah think now I am on sun they are on the sun that is faster than anything else, than speed of light. That is power of mind. What you think of power of heart. If the mind say, "I am in the first heaven,” he is there. That is the power..
When Sayyidina Muhammad (s) went for Isra and Miraj, you think that Buraq was flapping his wings and he went like that. No, for every program the Prophet (s) has, the Buraq was going to each location in one moment, no more. First heaven, one moment. Second heaven, in one moment. Third heaven, one moment. So awliyaullah’s speed is not like our eye speed, we see 20, 30 km. on the beach.
If the Hubble telescope can go billions of light years cannot vision of awliyaullah go farther.
Allah said, “I will be the ear he hears with, the eyes he sees with.” That is the vision that Allah will give with his support. He can see akhira he can see dunya. No more. That is support.
So he was moving with that speed. With speed of the soul. The soul inna lillahi wa inna i