A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani 'r-rajeem.
Bismillaahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem.
Nawaytu 'l-arba`een, nawaytu 'l-`itikaaf, nawaytu 'l-khalwah, nawaytu 'l-`uzlah,
nawaytu 'r-riyaada, nawaytu 's-salook, lillahi ta'ala al-`Azheem fee hadha 'l-masjid.
Dastoor, yaa Sayyidee, yaa Sultan al-Awliya. Dastoor, yaa Sayyidee wa Mawlay. Madad, yaa RijaalAllah.
Bismillaahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem.
We are Naqshbandi-Haqqanis. Don’t ever forget that. You don’t belong to anyone else. Don’t chop different turuq, don’t chop different shuyookh. If your eyes start wavering here and there, you will not be on the right path. One is enough. Our Way is Naqshbandiyya. We don’t go to another Way. We have believed in this Way and we have taken it by the love we have in our hearts to our shuyookh.
Why did you trust them, if you keep changing? No. That is ath-thabat fi ‘d-deen. You have to be steadfast, firm. Yaqeen. You have to have certainty about the one you are following. You have to have certainty about the way you are following. All of them take from Rasoolullah (s), of course, but you cannot follow all of them. Rajulan salaman li rajulin.
ضَرَبَ ٱللَّهُ مَثَلًا رَّجُلًا فِيهِ شُرَكَآءُ مُتَشَـٰكِسُونَ وَرَجُلًا سَلَمًا لِّرَجُلٍ هَلْ يَسْتَوِيَانِ مَثَلًا ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ بَلْ أَكْثَرُهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
Darab Allahu mathalan rajulan feehi shuraka’oo muttashaakisoon wa rajulan sallaman li rajulin hal yastawiyaan.
Allah puts forth a parable of a man belonging to many partners at variance with each other, and a man belonging entirely to one master: are those two equal in comparison? Praise be to Allah. but most of them have no knowledge. (Surat az-Zumar, 39:29)
Allah (swt) says in the Holy Qur’an, one many is peaceful for one man. That means one man will give you peace. Some take shurakaa, partners, mutashaakisoon, quarreling partners.
Allah (swt) gives an example. There is a man who has taken partners, quarreling among each other. Each one pulls this man one way. Wa rajulan salaman li rajulin, and a man who is peaceful to one man.
We are Naqshbandis. We have taken our shuyookh as our guides. What did they teach us? What is the difference between us and others? We say, nawayna al-arba`een, `itikaaf, khalwah, `uzlah and all the rest. Sulook. We intend to take the inner journey. The difference between us and others is we are not too much into outside knowledge. Rather, we want to find the true inner knowledge. If you don’t understand outside knowledge correctly, it can be deceiving, it can be confusing and it can take you to many different ways. That is dangerous.
We are not out there. We take from that what we need for our religion: for fasting, praying, Hajj and this and that. We take what is necessary for us and we leave the rest. Mashaa-Allah, the `ulama are doing all of that but we have taken the inner journey, sulook.
What is the inner journey? Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) has explained it. He said, if you have a house, like your house in DC. Did you lock it before you came? You locked it. Why did you lock it? So thieves and burglars do not enter.
Bismillaahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem. We start over again. Naqshbandi-Haqqani. Nobody can take you out of that. Don’t accept.
Sulook. Inner journey. What do we do in Naqshbandiyya? We take the inner journey. Nawayna ‘s-sulook. Mawana Shaykh Nazim (q) has explained it in very simple terms. We won’t go into technicalities. I will talk about ruins, kharaab.
He travelled here from DC. He locked his door. Why did you lock your door? So no ill-mannered or ill-intentioned person enters your home. Singapore. You locked your home. Why? So someone with bad intentions does not enter your home. What happens when that ill-intentioned person enters your home? He ruins it for you. He destroys it for you. He ravages it for you. What do you do? You lock your door.
The hearts of Muslims are wide open to Shaytan. That’s how our teacher explained it. The doors of our hearts are open. Shaytan throws in every idea and thought in the books and outside of the books. Isn’t it true? How many khawaatir did you get today? How many intentions did you get today and thoughts and ideas? “I will do this. I will do that.” Many.
The door of your heart is unlocked. It’s wide open. If it’s wide open, Shaytan enters and leaves as much as he wants. What do you have to do? You have to close the door? What happens if the wall has a big hole in it and is broken? He enters from there. What happens if there’s no roof? He enters from there.
Basically, your heart is a kharaba. As they say in Turkish, virane, ruins. It’s a ruin that anyone can enter at any time and anyone can leave at any time. What do you need to build that wall? What did they have in the old time? Now they have steel and all this fancy stuff but in the past what did they build the homes with? Bricks made out of mud. For you to build up that ruin, to make it a secure home with a roof, correct walls and a door that locks...because if walls are not aligned, the door will never lock. You need mud bricks to build that wall. Mud bricks are made out of water and earth. Not only that, you have to let it dry in the sun and wind before you can use it. I’m talking about the old-fashioned mud brick. You need air or wind, you need the sun, let’s say fire, you need water and you need turaab, soil, to make a mud brick so you can build your wall.
Awliyaullah have said it is the same thing for a human being. A human being is made from these four elements. Unless you discipline these four elements, you will not be able to build a secure heart or a secure wall. In these elements there are characteristics inherent to water, wind, fire and soil that prevent your heart from becoming a pure heart. When it becomes qalbun saleem, Shaytan cannot enter anymore, it’s finished.
What are these characteristics? That is the inner journey. That is the sulook. We turn inwards to find out about these four characters that are inherent to water, wind, fire and earth, as Awliyaullah have explained. Why? To build up that wall, to refine that heart of yours. Once it’s refined, the heart goes back to its natural state which is Malakoot, it only watches Malakoot.
What does turaab do? Yamsik, imsaak. The earth contains whatever you put it in. It holds onto it tight. In turab there is bukhul, stinginess. One of these four elements that are within you, that turab, is designed to keep or secure things tightly within itself, not let out. Stinginess or miserliness is one of the major characteristics that prevent your heart from reaching qalbun saleem. Bukhul. That is inherent to turab, to earth. Earth keeps what is in it. It does not allow it to go out.
What does water do? It seeps everywhere. If you leave it running, it goes everywhere. What happened when it rained? It went all the way down to my basement. Alhamdulillah, the pump sump is still working. I have not touched it yet. Water goes everywhere. That is the character of hirs, greed. A human being carries that character from that element. Harees, he is greedy. He seeps everywhere. He wants to extend himself everywhere. Awliyaullah teach us that when you take the inner journey, you have to be aware of greed and discipline that greed. You have to discipline that stinginess by counteracting that character.
Turab, dirt, maa, water, carry the characteristics of bukhul, stinginess or keeping things tight, withholding and greed. The fire is ghadab, anger. The wind is desires. The wind is the element that contains desires. When it is in a human being, it takes him everywhere. Aw tahwee bihi ar-reeḥu fee makanin saḥeeq.
حُنَفَآءَ لِلَّهِ غَيْرَ مُشْرِكِينَ بِهِۦ وَمَن يُشْرِكْ بِٱللَّهِ فَكَأَنَّمَا خَرَّ مِنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ فَتَخْطَفُهُ ٱلطَّيْرُ أَوْ تَهْوِى بِهِ ٱلرِّيحُ فِى مَكَانٍ سَحِيقٍ
Being true in faith to Allah, and never assigning partners to Him: if anyone assigns partners to Allah, it is as if he had fallen from heaven and been snatched up by birds, or the wind had swooped (like a bird on its prey) and thrown him into a far-distant place. (Surat al-Hajj, 22:31)
When somebody makes shirk with Allah (swt), it means he follows his ego. Allah (swt) says the one who makes partners with Me, tahwee bihi ar-reeh, that wind will take him to a very deep ending. Allah (swt) mentioned, tahwee bihi. It means it takes him from Malakoot down to earth, ar-reeh, the wind. Desires are the character of wind. You have the four elements inside of you: wind, fire, water and dirt.
The biggest problems for us in our Way, in Islam are these inner characters, not the outside characters too much. In our tariqa, in Naqshbandiyya, and all other turuq, they claim that they take the student into sulook. If you take the student into sulook, the first thing you have to teach them is not to be greedy, hirs. “I have one center. I am going to make two. I have two centers. I am going to make three.” Who are you making them for? It depends on the intention. If it’s for Allah (swt), mashaa-Allah. But most of it is not for Allah (swt). It is for fame, power, control or to be known. Allah (swt) does not like the shirk. Your desires will take you away from Allah (swt) to a very deep, faraway place.
Our shuyookh teach us, turn inside of you and find out that hirs that appears in you, find out the greed that appears in you, find out the anger that appears in you, find out the stinginess that appears in you and find out the desires that appear in you.
What happens when stinginess appears? You have to counteract it with sakhawa, generosity, karam. To fight the anger, you have to counteract it with hilm, forbearance. To fight off the greed, you have to counteract it with contentment. “I am content. I don’t need to go any further.” To fight the desires, you have to practice abstinence, celibacy. Allah (swt) has created these elements and He wants you to struggle, to put your best effort to fight them off. Once you fight them off, you can build that wall up.
The shaykh takes you to show you these deficiencies in you. Khidr (a) saw a wall. The wall was collapsing. He immediately rebuilt it. He was with his discipline. I don’t want to bring down the honor of Sayyidina Musa (a) but Sayyidina Musa (a) said, “Can I follow you?” So we say “follower.” The master was with the follower. The master saw a wall that was on the verge of collapsing. He immediately rebuilt it. The follower said, “If you had wished you could have taken some money for it.”
What was Sayyidina Khidr’s (a) purpose? It was to build up the walls of Musa (a). His purpose was to build up the wall and transform the walls to true inner knowledge. The master will build up your will, will build up your mud brick. He will refine it from all the bad characteristics. That is the duty of the master. If the master is showing you how to be more greedy, how to be more proud, how to be more arrogant, how to be more famous and known, how to be more stingy and keep things for yourself and not share, you are with the wrong master. That master needs to be following someone.
This is our Way. Sulook is not too much what happens with the outside knowledge and all of these books. We keep it to them and to Shaykh Gibril and the others. We are simple ones. We are the ones who have to recognize hirs. It is said that the spouse of hirs is hasad. As Allah (swt) created Hawa (a) for Adam (a), hasad is for hirs. Jealousy is for greed. Because when you’re greedy you want what that one has. You’re jealous. “I want everything for myself. I’m jealous of what he has. I want it.”
The hawa, the wife, spouse or the mate of greed is jealousy. The mate of stinginess is hiqd, rancour because if somebody asks you for some money, you get angry at them because you love your money. “Don’t ask me for anything. I’m angry at you.”
Allah (swt) allowed us to know these characteristics as it was explained in Surat al-Baqarah by Sayyidina Ibrahim (a) and the four birds. I won’t go into that now, but Allah (swt) told him, “Get rid of the birds. You will see how I revive the dead.” The reviving of the dead is the reviving of your dead heart.
Masters, Awliyaullah, our teachers, are teaching us the ways to recognize the inner traits that we carry and the bad characteristics that we carry. If you do not refine them, you will never ever reach an alive heart, you will never reach a qalbun saleem, pure heart. You will never ever be able to close your doors against Shaytan. Your door will be wide open. Every thief will come in and steal your iman and go out. Shaytan doesn’t go inside for your jewelry, he goes there for your iman, faith.
May Allah (swt) forgive us. Keep the Way. Keep the teachings of shuyookh. Stick to one. Don’t move here and there then you will lose your focus. May Allah (swt) forgive all of us.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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© Copyright 2026 Dr. Nour Kabbani. All rights reserved. This transcript is protected. by international copyright law. Please attribute when sharing it. JazakAllahu khayr.