A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani 'r-rajeem.
Bismillaahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem.
Dastoor, yaa Sayyidi wa Mawlay. Madad, yaa RijaalAllah.
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi ta`ala wa barakaatuh.
Alhamdulillah, we are back again in majlisu ‘dh-Dhikr, a gathering of remembrance of Allah (swt). Allah (swt) is looking and He has sent angels to see who is attending Dhikr. Alhamdulillah. There are associations of Dhikr everywhere. The important thing is to find one and go. Wherever you are, there is definitely majlis of Dhikr. May Allah (swt) allow the people going to majlisu ‘dh-Dhikr to have the Rahmah that comes down, to have the sakina that comes down, to have the mercy and blessings that Allah (swt) sends down to His servants.
When I was praying and after we prayed, I remembered something that Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) said. There is a bridge like the Mackinac Bridge that will be put on top of Jahannam. Did you ever cross the Mackinac Bridge? Basically, Jahannam is a pit of fire and there is a bridge across it, as-Siraat. If you are able to cross the bridge, you are safe in the upper peninsula in Jannah. The UP [Michigan Upper Peninsula] of Jannah--no people. Trees, wilderness, rivers--very nice, upper. If you can cross that bridge in Akhira, you will reach Jannah, Paradise, the upper place where rivers flow and birds fly and whatever Allah (swt) created of delights and pleasure. That will be for the Muslim.
If you don’t reach, you might drown or you might stay in the ‘Lower Peninsula,’ in Jahannam. The lower levels. If you think the ‘Lower Peninsula’ is a good place, or if you think the “Upper Peninsula’ is a bad place, think again. Allah (swt) knows best.
What I’m trying to say is that our master, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q), tried to teach people what he learned. There is no point in teaching people what you don’t do. Mashaa-Allah, everybody talks so much and they don’t do any of that. They know volumes of this and that and they got a diploma from here and there. What’s the benefit? Do you act on it?
يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ لِمَ تَقُولُونَ مَا لَا تَفْعَلُونَ
Yaa ayyuha ‘l-ladheena aamanoo limaa taqooluna maa laa taf`aloon.
O you who believe! Why do you say that which you do not do? (Surat as-Saff, 61:2)
How many people talk? If you ask them, “What did you talk about yesterday?” “I don’t remember.” What are you saying then? Everybody over 50 is a shaykh. Alhamdulillah, we have so many shuyookh here. Everybody is a shaykh. What Awliyaullah teach is what they practiced. What Rasoolullah (s) taught is what he practiced. Don’t say something that you have not practiced. Allah (swt) will tell you, “First do it and then show it to others.”
What I heard from Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) is that the bridge is 3,000 years’ travel. I think Mackinac Bridge is three miles long. Three minutes. That siraat is 3,000 years. The first 1,000 years are uphill. The second 1,000 years are straight. The third 1,000 years is downhill. When the mu’mins starts walking uphill, they say, “SubhaanAllah. SubhaanAllah.” Every time we are doing tasbeeh after prayer, you have to bring to your mind the siraat, the bridge.
Rasoolullah (s) said, “A servant will not have full iman until he believes in four things: Allah (swt). Laa ilaaha illa-Llah. Believes in me, Muhammad (s). Muhammadun Rasoolullah. The Resurrection Day.” What’s on Resurrection Day? There are a few things and the most important is that bridge. Qadr is the fourth thing, your destiny. Allah (swt) has decreed your destiny.
When we are in prayer and saying, “SubhaanAllah. SubhaanAllah,” and most of the time I have seen our shaykh hold the beads up like this. I don’t know if any of you paid attention but when I was little, I used to be with him most of the time. They hold it up like this. You’re saying, “SubhaanAllah. SubhaanAllah. SubhaanAllah,” all the way up to the first junction where the uphill meets the flat part, a straight line. Then you say, “Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. I’m almost there.” When you make tasbeeh, hamd, and you reach downhill, you say, “Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar.” When you reach the last one, what do you say? You are at the door of Jannah. You say, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah wahdahu laa shareeka lahu ‘l-mulk walahu ‘l-hamd. Yaa Rabbee. To You belongs everything, me and whatever you have created besides me. All praise is to You. Lakal Mulk wa laka ‘l-hamd wa Huwa `alaa kulli shay’in Qadir. You are capable of everything, including bringing me to the door of Jannah.”
Then you made du`a. What do you ask for in the du`a? “Yaa Rabbee. Taqabalna. Accept from us, yaa Rabbee. Yaa Rabbee, make me enter your Jannah.” That’s what you need to do. In life, that’s what you need to do, O human being. So many people are heedless. They talk about things that do not matter to you or to others and don’t matter to themselves either. They are showing off. They are pretending. They are faking. What’s important is that you remember that you will be on that bridge one day. That’s what you need to do, O insaan. O human being, take lessons from everything you see.
You know I’m into bumper stickers. Do you like bumper stickers like I do? I drive and I see bumper stickers. Alhamdulillah, Americans put reading material on the highway so you don’t get bored. Read this and that bumper sticker. Some of them say, “Back off,” or whatever they say. One of them I saw with a really tiny print. It was a red light, I approached and it said, “If you can read this, you’re too close.” Yesterday or the day before I noticed a big Jesus on the back window with some fine print. I said, “Let me get closer to see.” I approached and I looked and it said, “Are you following Jesus this close?” Somebody is trying to give wisdom. “Are you as close to Jesus as you are to my bumper?” Then I started to think, “What does Jesus say?”
We are talking about the siraat and the bridge and all of that. What does he say? What does the Bible say? “For you are dust and to dust shall you return.” Isn’t that what Jesus said? Isn’t that the practice of the Christians? What came to our Islamic knowledge is that Jesus has said the following and I mentioned this a year ago. The same as you, “For you are dust and to dust shall you return,” and after that there is resurrection at the end of that verse in the Bible. I Googled it today because I was curious. It’s in the Book of Genesis. What is that book? I don’t know but I just read a little bit on Google and it is exactly what our `ulama have narrated. What did Jesus, peace be upon him, say? In Arabic we say `Isa (a) and Masih. Those are the two names mentioned in the Holy Qur’an, `Isa and Masih.
He was asked, “Which type of people are better?” What did Sayyidina `Isa (a) do? He took two fistfuls of dirt and he turned to the one who asked the question. He said, “Which one is better?” For you are dust. As Awliyaullah have said, fa jama`ahuma, he put the two fistfuls of dust together and he spread them. He said, “kullu naasin min turaab, all people are from dust. Tell me then which one is better, the white or Hispanic? What does Jesus say? You are from dust and to dust shall you return. What does it matter if you’re white or non-white? What does it matter if you’re Black or non-Black? What does it matter if you’re Arab or non-Arab? What does it matter if you’re from Sweden or from Mali or from Indonesia?
To Jesus Christ it does not matter. Does it? The Bible says, “For you are dust.” Does one dust feel better than the other dust? They’re both the same. Sayyidina `Isa (a) was teaching people that you are all from dust. Who is better? The one who is better is more pious, the one that is more involved in good work. Do you do good work or do you do bad work? Check yourself, O insaan? How do you know if you’re good or bad? It is said that when the person is dying, he will not die until he sees his two angels, the one that writes on the right and the one that writes on the left. They will appear in front of you as mentioned by the Tabi` named Wahab. Awliyaullah have narrated what he has said.
He said that these two angels will appear to you because `Isa (a) said, “You are from dust but the best of you is the most pious, the most righteous, the most honest.” Where is your honesty, O human being? You can claim that you’re the most honest person on earth. These two angels will come out and look at you. If you are a good one they will say, “JazakAllahu khayran. May Allah (swt) reward you with the best. Fa rubba majlisa khayrin qad ajlastana. How sweet of an association you made us sit in. Wa rubba kalamin tayibbin qad asma`tana. And how sweet words you made us hear from you. And how good of work you made us be present in while you were doing it.” That will appear to the good servants, the pious servants, to the ones who are following messengers, not the ones you claim. No, the ones who are following messengers. These two angels will say, “You have made us hear the most beautiful words. Glad tidings to you, O our friend. You have made us sit in the best associations. Glad tidings to you, O our friend. You have made us be present and witness the best actions you have done. JazakAllahu khayran. May Allah (swt) reward you with the best.”
If you were not a pious one like most of these people nowadays, claiming this and claiming that, how closely are you following Jesus and how closely are you following Muhammad (s)? How closely are you following Moses? They will say, “JazakAllahu sharran. May Allah (swt) reward you with the worst. How many bad associations you made us sit with you in. How many bad words you made us hear from you. How many bad actions you made us be present in with you.”
If these two angels tell you the first, then you are from the pious ones. That’s what Isa (a) has said and that’s what came to our Islamic knowledge that `Isa (a) said, “The best of you are the pious.” These angels are your witnesses, not your neighbor, not your online friend, not this and not that but the angels that are with you wherever you go. These are the witnesses. If you are a good one, these angels will give you that shahadah, that testimony.
What happens to you if you are a good one? Awliyaullah have said that if you were a good one, if these angels say you were a good one as `Isa (a) said, the best of you is the one that is most pious because you are all dust. It doesn’t matter what color you are, it doesn’t matter what race you are. It’s all nonsense. You are dust and to dust shall you return. Isn’t that the Bible? It’s the Bible. Follow the Bible. Understand that there is no superior race. There is no superior color. That’s all nonsense. That is not the real prophetic knowledge or the knowledge of the messengers.
If you are a good one and these two angels say that you are a good one, what is the promise that Allah (swt) has given to the good ones? He has promised the obedient ones Jannah. He has promised the repenters with love. InAllaha yuhibbu ‘t-tawaabeen.
إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُحِبُّ ٱلتَّوَّٰبِينَ وَيُحِبُّ ٱلْمُتَطَهِّرِينَ
For Allah loves those who turn to Him constantly and He loves those who keep themselves pure and clean. (Surat al-Baqarah, 2:222)
Allah (swt) loves the ones who repent. He has promised the ones that repent with love. He has promised the saints with closeness, intimacy. He has promised the `arifeen, the knowledgeable ones, the scholars, with connection, wusla. They will reach the Divine Presence. He has also promised the disobedient ones with fire. He has also promised the ones who never repent from their sins with dislike, no love. The ones who repent, get love. The ones who never repent, Allah (swt) hates them more, dislikes them more. He has promised the enemies of Allah (swt), the enemies of the Divine, with distance, being far away from the Divine Presence as Shaytan is.
Which category are you from, O insaan? Read the bumper stickers and see what they say. How close are you following? Are you following Jesus this closely? That’s what it said. Jesus did not say, “The whites are better than the Blacks. The whites are better than the non-whites. The Arabs are better than the non-Arabs. The Semites are better than the non-Semites.” He never said that. He said, “You are all from dust.”
Understand the wisdom of messengers. If they understand that, all the problems will disappear. Poof! You will be considered by what you have done that is good, not by your color. You will be considered in the Divine Presence by what you have said of good words, not hateful words. You will be considered by what you have done of good deeds, not bad deeds. You will be considered by which associations you sat in, not in places or associations where you plot evil. Understand, O human being. May Allah (swt) make us understand.
Follow the messengers closely. All the messengers have come with the same message: turn to your Creator. You are all from one father and one mother. All of you are from Adam and Eve, as Rasoolullah (s) has told us. You are all from one mother and one father and Adam min turaab, Adam was from dust, from earth. There is no reason to feel better than others by the money, by the power, by the wealth, by the beauty, by the stature, by the height, by the shortness and all of that.
May Allah (swt) forgive us. Humans are from dust. The best of humans are the pious ones. The angels will testify which ones are the pious ones and which ones are the bad ones. If they give you the glad tidings and thank you and ask Allah (swt) to reward you with goodness, you have succeeded. You will cross that bridge. Otherwise, you will never cross the bridge. You will stay in the lower part of Michigan. You will never go to the upper part. Your journey is to go to the upper part, O human being. You have to ascend from the desires of your selfish ego, from that pit of fire that you have put yourself and others in. You have to ascend. You have to detach. You have to climb out to the roohani, the angelic world, to the spiritual world, to the purified world. Innaka bi ‘l-wadi ‘l-muqaddasi Tuwa. You are in the sacred valley, purified valley. Muqqadas, purified, clean.
إِنِّىٓ أَنَا۠ رَبُّكَ فَٱخْلَعْ نَعْلَيْكَ إِنَّكَ بِٱلْوَادِ ٱلْمُقَدَّسِ طُوًى
"Verily I am thy Lord! therefore (in My presence) put off thy shoes: you are in the sacred valley Tuwa.” (Surah Ta-Ha, 20:12)
Where do we start? Dhikrullah. Inshaa-Allah, with Dhikrullah. Bismillaahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem. Inshaa-Allah, with Dhikrullah we can sit in a good majlis, we can say good words and we can do good acts. Inshaa-Allah, Allah (swt) will honor us by following the messengers.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
https://sufilive.com/Will-You-See-Your-Recording-Angels-at-Death--8321.html
© Copyright 2024 Sufilive. All rights reserved. This transcript is protected. by international copyright law. Please attribute Sufilive when sharing it. JazakAllahu khayr.