26 January 2014 Fenton Zawiya, Michigan
A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytani ‘r-rajeem. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem.
وَالَّذِينَ جَاهَدُوا فِينَا لَنَهْدِيَنَّهُمْ سُبُلَنَا
And those who strive in Our (Way), We will certainly guide them to Our Paths.
(Surat al-`Ankaboot, 29:69)
When awliyaullah mention any name, you get the barakah of that name. There is a well-established saying:
عند ذكر الصالحين تنزل الرحمة
`Inda dhikr as-saaliheen tanzal ar-rahmah.
When you mention the names of the pious, mercy descends.
So if we mention now, “Yaa Sayyidee, yaa Rasoolullah,” the rahmah is here. What he put in your heart, when you are saying this word, it has no ceiling and based on this saying it is a reward that will go over eight Paradises! Why eight Paradises? There are seven, but including Maq`adi Sidqin, above Firdaws is the eighth. It goes all the way; there is no restriction.
When you mention the saaliheen, rahmah comes. Who is the rahmah? The Prophet (s) appears! When you mention a wali, the appearance of the Prophet (s) will be there. It is not like an `alim, when you mention the ayah he will give you the tafseer and that is good, that is correct, and everything is known, but in tariqah it is not only giving a taste, he (the wali) will raise you up even if he doesn’t answer your question or if he changed the subject, as he is not concerned with your question, it is a waste of time for him, but he wants to pour what is in his heart to you. There is a big difference between a scholar and a wali.
Who was Imam Shafi`ee’s (r) teacher? Sayyidina Bishr al-Hafee (q). Who was listening to whom? Imam Shafi`ee (r) was the biggest muhaddith of his time; was there anyone higher in his time? In every time period there is a madhhab, and the consensus of the scholars of Ahl as-Sunnah wa 'l-Jama`ah was to follow the Four Madhhabs, although there were 472 madhhabs according to Imam Abu Zahra of Egypt from al-Azhar. I have his book, Tareekh al-Islam in which he mentions 472 madhhabs, but we are considering four. So the other madhhabs are there, accessible for the `ulama, and they can go to these other 472 madhhabs to take the right answer in a fatwa if they do not find the answer in the Four Madhhabs. Imam Malik (r) never gave a fatwa in his life, saying, “I am not that person who is eligible to give fatwa.” It is well known that he gave only three fatwas in his life. Today anyone on TV and the Internet can give a fatwa.
So it is enough to just sit with awliyaullah; even if they don’t say one word, it is enough for the appearances of many awliyaullah, many angels, and sometimes the appearance of the Prophet (s)! Though we cannot see them, they can. One time I was sitting with Grandshaykh `AbdAllah (q). When you come up to his house, there is a small hole from one wall to the other. I was sitting directly beside him, as is in the picture in the calendar and the Naqshbandi book. I was sitting directly beside him and Shaykh Adnan was on the other side. Grandshaykh (q) was sitting in the corner. I was on his left side, for me it was the right. He was speaking about the Prophet (s), and suddenly he turned his face and said, “Yaa Sayyidee, yaa Rasoolullah!” He was seeing! I didn't know, but I kissed the wall and he said, “You kissed the Prophet (s).” Just the wall disappeared and the Prophet (s) appeared.
So if you sit with an `alim even for billions of years, he cannot make you to reach that level, it is impossible. On the other hand, sitting with a wali for three or five minutes or half-an-hour to one hour and he is giving you advice will suddenly make something happen. You will give all your wealth and your life for that! That is why Sahaabah (r) gave all of their life for the Prophet (s): they were not seeing the Prophet (s) as the unbelievers did in that time, but they were seeing Prophet (s) in different haqaa’iq, in different states, and one Sahaabi (r) didn't see the same as the other; they all saw differently. That is why when the Prophet (s) was leaving dunya, he said to Sayyidina `Umar (r) and Sayyidina `Ali (r), “Take my jubba, robe, and look for Uwais al-Qarani (r) and give it to him.” Is that correct, according to Shari`ah and hadith? Yes.
The Prophet Muhammad (s) said:
Allah, Exalted and Mighty is He, loves from His Creation the God-fearing, the pure in the heart, those who are hidden and those who are innocent, whose face is dusty, whose hair is unkempt, whose stomach is empty, and who, if he asks permission to enter to the rulers, is not granted it, and if he were to ask for a gentle lady in marriage, he would be refused, and when he leaves the world it does not miss him, and if he goes out, his going out is not noticed, and if he falls sick, he is not attended to, and if he dies, he is not accompanied to his grave." They asked him, "O Messenger of Allah, how can we find someone like that?" He (s) said, "Uwais al-Qarani is such a one." They asked him, "And who is Uwais al-Qarani?" He (s) answered, "He is dark-skinned, wide-shouldered and of average height. His complexion is close to the color of earth. His beard touches his chest. His eyes are always looking downwards to the place of prostration and his right hand is on his left hand. He weeps about himself with such a flow of tears that his lips are swollen. He wears a woolen garment and is known to the people of the Heavens. If he makes a promise in the Name of Allah, he keeps it. Under his left shoulder there is a white spot. When the Day of Resurrection comes and it is announced to the slaves, "Enter the Garden," it will be said to Uwais, 'Stop and intercede.' Allah, Mighty and Exalted is He, will then forgive them to the same number as are the people of Rabi'a and Mudhar (the two tribes that Uwais belonged to). So, O `Umar and O `Ali, if you can find him, ask him to intercede for you, then Allah will forgive you." (Hadith Qudsi, Narrated Abu Hurayra, Muslim)
And it is mentioned in the hadith that he was in Yemen, so after the Prophet (s) left dunya, Sayyidina `Umar (r) and Sayyidina `Ali (r) took the robe to Yemen. It is a well-known story. They came to that village asking for Sayyidina Uwais al-Qarani (r). The people there said, “There is no Uwais al-Qarani,” as he was not known in the village by that name.
So Sayyidina `Umar (r) began; he is like that and Sayyidina `Ali (r) saved him in many cases, (such as) when he was saying to the Black Stone, “You are nothing but a stone; if I didn't see the Prophet (s) kissing you, I would not kiss you,” and Sayyidina `Ali (r) was behind Sayyidina `Umar (r) and said, “Wait `Umar! That stone is alive and it will witness for you on the Day of Judgement; that is a stone from Paradise.”
So they said, “Why we don’t ask someone different, might be he has a different name?” and they asked a boy. “There is someone who looks after sheep, a shepherd. Do you know where is he?”
He said, “Yes, `Abdullah, I know and I will show you.”
So when they went, he was sitting on a rock looking at the sheep and they were coming from behind. Without looking behind, he said, “Yaa `Umar, give me the amaanah.” Sayyidina `Umar (r) was surprised. This is how Grandshaykh `AbdAllah (q) explained it to me. Sayyidina `Umar (r) handed him the amaanah. Sayyidina Uwais (r) kissed the amaanah three times and then put it on his head and on his heart, saying, “I accept.” It is well known that he never saw the Prophet (s), because his mother said, “I am an old lady. How do you leave me alone?” although they were Muslims, but he did not go (to visit Prophet), he stayed with her and then Prophet (s) left dunya. So how did he know? Allah gave him the knowledge, but now we come to the main point of how each Sahaabi (r) saw the Prophet (s).
Sayyidina Uwais al-Qarani (r) asked, “Yaa `Umar, did you see the Prophet (s) in your life?”
“What is this?” he thought. “A few moments ago he showed me a miracle by saying to me without looking, ‘Yaa `Umar, give me the amaanah,’” and now what kind of a question is he asking?
Sayyidina `Umar (r) said, “Of course, I was with the Prophet (s) every moment.”
Sayyidina `Uwais (r) replied, “Yaa `Umar, I am not asking you that. The unbelievers saw that as well,” as `Umar was describing the features of the Prophet (s). “If I ask someone from the Quraysh, he will give the same description. You are the second khalifah of the Prophet (s). I am asking you, how did you see the Prophet (s)? You saw him with the shamaa'il, that is not what I am asking you.” So he turned to Sayyidina `Ali (r) and asked, “Did you see the Prophet (s)?”
He said, “Yes, I saw him one time.” He saw the Prophet (s) different than how Sayyidina `Umar (r) saw him.
One day Prophet (s) called Sayyidina `Ali (r) and said, “Yaa `Ali, look at me from my belly up,” and he opened his shirt. As Sayyidina `Ali (r) looked, this whole universe disappeared. He looked from the belly up and his whole knowledge disappeared, everything that he knew about disappeared, and with that vision that Prophet (s) asked him to look, he saw everything in this universe. He saw that Prophet’s (s) neck was from the Earth up to the `Arsh, and he could not see beyond the `Arsh. Then Prophet (s) told him, “Look down below from the belly,” and he looked from his belly down and dunya disappeared and saw that the Prophet’s knees reached to the Seven Earths below and Sayyidina `Ali (r) could not see beyond that. Then, as Sayyidina `Ali (r) relates, “He said, ‘Look at me completely,’ and I saw nothing in this universe except Muhammadan Rasoolullah (s)!”
And if we asked Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (r) or Sayyidina `Uthman (r) how they saw the Prophet (s), they will see different, but everyone has seen Prophet (s).
Sayyidina `Umar (r) had a question about the specialty of that robe. He asked, “What is the secret of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) sending you that robe?”
`Ulama say that it was a gift, but a gift with responsibility and duty. Now here comes Grandshaykh’s (q) tafseer, which is: `ajaz `an tafseer hadha al-hadeeth, “They were incapable to interpret this hadith.” What was in that dress and why did the Prophet (s) give it to Sayyidina `Umar (r) to give to Sayyidina Uwais (r)? They don’t know, but Grandshaykh (q) said that when the Prophet (s) was leaving dunya, Jibreel (a) came to the Prophet (s) and said, “Yaa Rasoolullah, inna Allah yuqriuk as-salaam, Allah is giving you salaam and giving you a choice: either you stay until the end of the Day, until the Day of Resurrection or you come to Ar-Rafeeq al-`Aala.” Prophet (s) said, “No, I prefer to go to my Creator.”
During the last two days when his soul was leaving, the Prophet (s) was sweating and it is very well known in ahadith that the Prophet (s) had a very high fever and was sweating continuously. Grandshaykh, may Allah bless his soul, said, “Every drop of sweat he was sweating represented one Muslim. He didn't want to leave dunya unless everyone said, ‘Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadu ‘r-Rasoolullah,’ and that appeared as a drop of sweat,” and all that sweat was in that robe. So Prophet (s) sent that robe to Sayyidina Uwais al-Qarani (r) as an amaanah that, “You are responsible for them for 24 hours of everything they do daily. You are going to clean them and present them to me.” Prophet (s) did not leave dunya until the number of the drops of sweat was completely correct!
So Sayyidina Uwais al-Qarani (r) took that responsibility and he had that robe with him until he died, and no one knows where it went. Mawlana said that it went to the relics that have been collected for Mahdi (a) by jinn.
Every drop of that sweat represents one person. On the Day of Judgment, the first to be called will be Sayyidina Uwais al-Qarani (r) and the Prophet (s) will say to him, “Give me back that trust; you must give it back to me clean as it was your responsibility,” because he stood up and kissed the robe three times, put it on his heart and so he had accepted it. Sayyidina Uwais al-Qarani (r) will give back Prophet (s) his robe on the Day of Judgment. So that ‘robe’ here means everyone will be clean in the presence of the Prophet (s)!
How did he see the Prophet (s)? When awliyaullah mention `inda dhikr as-saliheen tanzal ar-rahmah, what about if we mentioned the name of the Prophet (s), what do you think will come, and what will come when we mention the name of Allah (swt)? We don’t know. When you say “Allah,” it is written in the Holy Qur’an:
قُلِ الله ثُمَّ ذَرْهُمْ فِي خَوْضِهِمْ يَلْعَبُونَ
Quli 'Llaah thumma wa dharhum fee khawdihim yal`aboon.
Say "Allah," then leave them to plunge in vain discourse and trifling. (Surat al-An`am, 6:91)
The others say, “Don’t make dhikr with ‘Allah,’” but Allah is saying in the Holy Qur’an to make dhikr with ‘Allah’. If we are allowed to make mention of saaliheen, are we not then allowed to mention the Prophet (s) and Allah (swt)? Which has more priority? When we mention Allah (swt), Allah is happy; no one knows what kind of mercy He sends on you! Look at how much Sayyida Rabi`a al-Adawiyya (q) struggled. She was living a life different from a saintly life and when Allah guided her, she became a very devoted lady in worshipping Allah (swt) and in her love to the Prophet (s). Many people might say, “O, it is too much,” but that is what she did. She was married to a husband who was always drunk. He used to come home after midnight and as soon as she would open the door for him, he would beat her up and then go to bed drunk and vomiting, and she had to clean up all of that. She was struggling and being patient.
Tariqatuna tahammul al-`adaad, the Naqshbandi Way all the way to Allah (swt), is to carry al-`adaad, frustrations. When you are hit by an obstacle, you must be patient to carry the frustrations that are put in front of you, to accept them. So she was accepting; if her husband asked her for a cup of water she would get him a cup of water, which was not as easy as it is today, and she would stand at his bedside waiting until he would wake up to give him that cup of water. Can you do that? Can the husband do that for his wife or vice versa? No, no one would do that from either side! After he awoke she would give him the cup and he would throw it in her face. It is a good thing that the cup was not made of glass, it might have been made from wood. That is how she was going through her life, until one day she was able to see the reality of Sayyidina Muhammad (s), Allah opened for her to see that noor.
In her house, beside the bedroom there was another room which would shine with a beautiful Light from the appearance of Sayyidina Muhammad (s). When she finished with her husband she would go into that room and that Light would appear, because she was patient; she carried the frustrations and the beatings by her husband and thus Allah gave to her! She was able to be in that room watching that noor up to the time of Fajr and then she would pray Fajr and that noor would disappear. That is the Light of Sayyidina Muhammad (s).
Look at what Allah gave her as compensation! It was not necessary for her to wait for her husband so that she may give him the cup of water, but she did that out of respect, to gain his heart for Allah’s sake as it might be that he would change. She did that for many, many years, perhaps seventeen years according to some narrations, that she was in that difficulty. One night her husband came home, but was not drunk. He went inside, ate and slept. After midnight, as usual she went to the room and that Light appeared. He woke up after midnight and didn’t find her. He went looking for her and found her in that room. Feeling his presence immediately, she came out and closed the door. He was begging her, as he could see from the keyhole a light that was not normal. It was not like the light from a lamp or oil; the Light that was coming from that small hole looked like the Sun which pulled his heart and he began to question her about it.
“What is that light?” he asked.
She said, “It is a light.”
He said, “No, you have to tell me, for Allah and Prophet’s (s) sake, you have to show me!”
“No, I cannot!” she replied. She then asked him to go take a shower, make wudu and come back. When he came back she said, “Look from the hole.” He looked from the hole but he was not satisfied.
He said, “No, no, open the door!”
She opened the door and he died immediately as he could not carry it, but he still saw the Light. With her patience on him, she saw the Prophet (s) and because of her, he saw that Light as well. So patience will teach us a lot. That is why:
وَالَّذِينَ جَاهَدُوا فِينَا لَنَهْدِيَنَّهُمْ سُبُلَنَا
Wa 'Lladheena jaahadoo feena lanahdiyannahum subulanaa
And those who strive in Our (cause), We will certainly guide them to our Paths.
(Surat al-`Ankaboot, 29:69)
We think our ego is so big: we are this and that and we mention this and that. No, run away! Don’t be something, because if you are something you are responsible. If you are nothing, as Mawlana used to say for two to three years on the Internet, “I am nothing,” then you are zero.
The Prophet (s) used to say to Sayyidah `Ayesha (r):
من حوسب عذب
Who will be judged will be punished for sure. (Bukhari)
Whoever is selected to be judged will be punished; you will be punished for whatever you have done in your life, so the Prophet (s) was always asking in his prayers not to be judged.
May Allah bless us and forgive us and Mawlid Mubarak.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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