18 August 2010 Fenton Zawiya, Michigan
Fajr Ramadan Series 2010
Allahumma ma salli ‘alaa Sayyidina Muhammad, hatta yarda Sayyidina Muhammad (s).
A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani 'r-rajeem. Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem.
Nawaytu 'l-arba`een, nawaytu 'l-`itikaaf, nawaytu 'l-khalwah, nawaytu 'l-`uzlah,
nawaytu 'r-riyaadah, nawaytu 's-sulook, lillahi ta`ala fee haadha 'l-masjid.
Ati`oollaha wa ati`u 'r-Rasoola wa ooli 'l-amri minkum.
Obey Allah, obey the Prophet, and obey those in authority among you. (4:59)
As we said yesterday, Sayyidina Abu Yazid al-Bistami (q) said, man la shaykha lahu shaykhahu as-Shaytan, "Who does not have a shaykh, his shaykh is Shaytan. Because Shaytan is very clever, he comes at the right time to deviate us from the real path. Everyone says, "Oh, why are we speaking of Shaytan and devils? We are praying, we are fasting, we are doing this, we are doing that." It is true, we are praying and fasting in our eyes, but in Allah's eyes, Shaytan is still playing with us, as he played with Adam (as) in Heavens. Isn't Shaytan able to play with us on Earth then? He can. That is why you always need a guard. Today if you go travel to Malaysia or Indonesia, you will see that there is a guard at every house. It is mostly in Malaysia. You see guards at the doors, they hire them. Why? Although Malaysia is a country with not too much crime, but still they are hiring guards because they don't want to fall into a heedless moment and suddenly something happens. So they are taking care. Likewise, we have to take care by understanding and knowing that at any moment we might fall into heedlessness and if we don't have a shaykh to guide us, we fall into the miseries of this dunya. Allah (swt) sent messengers. He has messengers and He has prophets. A Prophet is not a messenger. A messenger is a Prophet and a messenger at the same time, Sahib ar risalah.
وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا مِن رَّسُولٍ إِلاَّ لِيُطَاعَ بِإِذْنِ اللّهِ وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ إِذ ظَّلَمُواْ أَنفُسَهُمْ جَآؤُوكَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُواْ اللّهَ وَاسْتَغْفَرَ لَهُمُ الرَّسُولُ لَوَجَدُواْ اللّهَ تَوَّابًا رَّحِيمًا
Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem, Wa maa arsalnaa min rasoolin illa li yuta`a bi idhnillahi wa law annahum idh zhalamoo anfusahum jaa'ooka fastaghfarullah wa 'staghfara lahumu 'r-rasoola la-wajadoollaha tawwaaba'r-raheema.
We sent an apostle but to be obeyed in accordance with the Will of Allah. If they had only, when they were unjust to themselves, come unto you and asked Allah's forgiveness, and the messenger had asked forgiveness for them, they would have found Allah indeed Oft-Returning, Most Merciful. (Surat an-Nisaa, 4:64)
The messenger has a message to deliver so you have to obey his message. A prophet does not have a message to deliver. He obeys the messenger of his time or the messenger that came before him. So any prophet who is not a messenger must obey the messenger that came before or the messenger who is in his time. Allah has appointed many prophets. What is the hikmat (wisdom) of appointing many prophets if they don't have a message? Why did they became prophets? We understand that a messenger has a constitution and Shari`ah, and Allah sent him with that message to follow it. But a prophet can be in the same time of a messenger. So who follows whom? A prophet follows a messenger, a messenger doesn't follow a prophet. So every messenger that came, was a cycle of this lifetime. Allah sent messengers and ended them with the seal of Messengers, Sayyidina Muhammad (s). That is why Islam orders us to accept all the messengers that came
before the Prophet (s).
Wa arsalnaa min rasoolin illa an yuta`a bi idhnillahi. He didn't say, "we didn't send a nabi," He said, "we didn't send a messenger until he will be obeyed." So Prophet (s) wrapped all messengers that came before. But it is not necessary to accept prophets that came before as you have Sayyidina Muhammad (s) as a messenger. But prophets are appointed to accept the messenger that came before them and in their time. Why? Because we have to have a role model. If there is a messenger in the east, there was no technology at that time, it was not opened yet, it opened in the time of Prophet (s). There was no tech to reach (far) and so Allah sent messengers and prophets. Prophets means `ibaadAllah as-saliheen, servants that are symbols, role models for everyone. Prophet (s) mentioned maqam al-ihsaan, to worship Allah as if you are seeing Him. And if you are not seeing Him, know that He is seeing you. So Allah sent prophets as role models to be symbols for the community around them.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ اتَّقُواْ اللّهَ وَكُونُواْ مَعَ الصَّادِقِينَ
Yaa ayyuhalladheena aamanoo ittaqoollah wa koonoo ma` as-saadiqeen.
O you who believe! Fear Allah and be those who are pious (in word and deed). (Surat at-Tawbah 9:119)
So that is an indicator to be with prophets in the time before the Prophet (s). They are trustworthy ones, and thus are symbols and examples for their communities in their time, as awliyaullah are today. There are no more prophets or messengers after Sayyidina Muhammad (s). There are inheritors of the pious and sincere people, the prophets, and they are awliyaaAllah. Some awliyaullah carry knowledge they take from the heart of the Prophet (s) and that is how they guide their followers. Some take with a prophet who had no message but who was pious. So they dress in that piety and become a role model between their communities.
This is a very, very important point in our understanding and the teaching. That is why Allah (swt) said, as mentioned by Prophet (s):
مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ رِجَالٌ صَدَقُوا مَا عَاهَدُوا اللَّهَ عَلَيْهِ فَمِنْهُم مَّن قَضَى نَحْبَهُ وَمِنْهُم مَّن يَنتَظِرُ وَمَا بَدَّلُوا تَبْدِيلًا
Min al-mumineena rijaalun saadaqoo maa `ahadullah `alayh. Faminhum man qadaa nahbahu wa minhum man yantazhir wa maa badaloo tabdeela.
Among the believers are Men who accepted and did what they promised of the Covenant they took with Allah. Of them some have completed their vow (to the extreme), and some (still) wait: but they have never changed (their determination) in the least. (al-Ahzaab 33:23)
They are men who kept their covenant and did their best in dunya. Some of them left and some are living. They are passing away slowly with time and others are coming in their turn. They are the real models whom we can learn from. Not every mureed is a wali or a role model. The shaykh picks up or appoints some role models because he wants the barakah to be spread. These people might not have knowledge to guide, but the shaykh appoints them as they are sincere and pious to do dhikrullah, as when Prophet (s) was asked by one Sahaabi:
عن عبد الله بن بسر رضي الله عنه أن رجلا قال: يا رسول الله إن شرائع الإسلام قد كثرت علي فأخبرني بشيء أتشبث به؟ قال: " لا يزال لسانك رطبا من ذكر الله" الترمذي.
Yaa Rasoolullah, inna shara`ia al-islam qad kathurat `alayya. "The rules of Islam became heavy on me."
Prophet (s) said, Ija`l lisaanak ratban min dhikrillah, "Make your tongue wet or alive with dhikrullah." Tirmidhi
So those who make themselves busy with dhikrullah are pious ones. They are not necessarily murshideen to guide you through knowledge, but they are like blending a beautiful smell, as when someone with a nice scent comes in and makes everyone smell that way. It is like a rose that makes everyone in its environment smell nice. One of these awliyaaullah are appointed by the shaykh. That is why Sayyidina Abu Yazid al-Bistami (q) said, "Who has no shaykh, Shaytan is his shaykh." Why? Because Shaytan will bring him stinky roses and will guide him not to remember dhikrullah. The one who does dhikr will have a nice smell. The Prophet (s) said, "The smell of a fasting person's mouth is better than the smell of Paradise." Because the angels approach the fasting person and reflect their smell on them. So the person disobeying Allah will smell of Shaytan, bad smell. This is `ilmu 's-sulook, knowledge of that journey where you are going, to Allah's Divine Presence. as-saalik is the one who is following the path.
Everyone of us has a different way or a different journey. Our journey is full of miseries because we are blending it with dunya work. But awliya's journey is perfect. If you follow that wali or that role model, you will reach your destiny and he will bring you to the Divine Presence. That is why a guide is important in the lives of people. As we said, there are two types of guides; the one spreading the teaching of Prophet (s) and Islam, and the one who is a role model, who guides through his behavior. He has Maqaam al-Ihsaan, the Station of Perfected Character. You like his ways and you follow him. He doesn't need to say anything to you. That is why you have many different kinds awliyaullah. They are, Budala, Nujaba, Nuqaba, Awtad, and Akhyaar. They are everywhere to guide the ummah through their destinies.
So Allah (swt) has chosen, as He chose His prophets and His messengers, from Ummat an-Nabi (s) guides that carry and inherit knowledges continuously from the heart of Prophet (s) and spread it.
Some are only to be role models for others and Allah loves them. He doesn't like their love to be for other than Him; it has to be to Him only. That is why in tariqat there is ghareeh, not in the meaning of jealousy, but karaahat mushaarakat li-ghayrih (hatred of sharing with anyone else), but possessiveness. You dislike that someone shares the love of your beloved. If you love someone, you want that one to be yours only, and it is not jealousy. You feel, "I don't like anyone to share that love except me."
Let us give a dunya example. A husband doesn't like to share anyone with his wife and a wife doesn't like to share anyone with her husband; that is gheerah. So in another meaning, Allah chose his saints and He doesn't like His saints to share their love with anyone, it must be exclusively to Him. The students of the shaykh have to know that the final level of their love is to reach the Divine Presence and love to Allah (swt)! That is why we say mahabbat ash-shaykh guides you to mahabbat an-Nabi (s), which guides you to mahabbatAllah, the last landing. This means that you don't see anyone in your life. In every `amal, action, you do or every moment of life that passes, you have to see the Will of Allah (swt), no one else. If you don't do that as a wali, Allah doesn't like it. He likes His wali only to be to Him. That is why He likes the heart of His servant not to be attached to anyone.
When Rabi`a al-`Adawiyya (q) got sick, they asked her what is the problem. She said, "I looked at Paradise with my heart. That was a mistake. I looked with my heart at something created and my heart must be only for my Lord." Maqaam al-Wilaya it is not easy to reach. That is why these awliya, Aqtaab, Budalaa, Nuqabaa, Nujabaa, Awtaad,. Akhyaar, have excellent characteristics. We are only able to speak about it, but they are able to taste it. We are not tasting, we are only listening and reading, but they are listening and tasting. Adam (a) listened to Iblees and he lost. That is why Prophet (s) said:
Hubbuka li-shay ya`mee wa yasum.
O my Lord! Your Love to someone will make that one blind and deaf.
Your love to someone or to any of your Creation, will make that one blind and deaf. It means Allah has gheerah; He doesn't like anyone to share His servant and wants the love of that servant directed only to Him. And when He loves that servant completely, that servant becomes blind and deaf to this dunya; he cannot see and hear anything of this world, he only hears and sees Allah (swt). That is why Prophet (s) said:
لي ساعة مع الرب وساعة مع الخلق
Lee sa`atun ma` al-khaaliq wa lee sa`atun ma` al-khalq.
I have a picture or an hour with My Lord in which no angels can be in the middle of that relationship.
Prophet Muhammad's (s) heart is completely blind from dunya, although he is not, but in the meaning and he is deaf and blind from dunya. That is why he was invited to Mi`raj, where no angel reached. At (the station of) qaaba qawsayni aw adnaa, he is not seeing or feeling anything but the Divine Presence of His Lord. Grandshaykh (q) said Allah asked him there, "Who are you?" and Prophet (s) said, "I am You."
There is the real tawheed for the Prophet (s). He understood the level of Oneness, that in the Divine Presence everything was not existing, and awliyaaullah quench their thirst from that ocean. When you are near, you are not seeing anything except Holy Divine Attributes that Allah will be manifesting on you. Wa al-haqqu anna al-gheeratu lillah haqqan, "The reality is, Allah has the right not to share anything of His servants with Him." Allah (swt) said:
أوليائي تحت قبابي لا يعلمهم غيري
Awliyaee tahta qibaabee la ya`lamahum ghayree.
My awliya are under My domes; no one knows them except Me. (Hadith Qudsee)
من عادا لي وليا فقد آذنته بالحرب
Man `adaa lee waliyyan faqad aadhantahu bi 'l-harb.
Whoever comes against a wali (friend) of Mine, I declare war on him. (Hadith Qudsee)
That is gheerah. So Allah's servants have no right; all their actions, all their breaths, and all their remembrance must be only for Allah (swt). And when someone has gheerah, it means he loves someone and doesn't want to share. This shows there is love there. Gheerah takes you to love. When you become pious, gheerah to Allah comes to you and when that happens, mahabbatAllah blows to you. So then you enter the first level of mahabbatAllah, mahabbat al-habeeb, and mahabbat al-shaykh, which leads to hudoor, and then that leads to annihilation. It is said, al-gheera gheerataan, (possessiveness, jealousy, is of two kinds). Gheerat al-bashar `ala an-nufoos wa gheeratallah `ala al-quloob, the possessiveness of the self, the body loves the ego and the ego leads to bad desires. When body is attached to the ego, then you are making a detour and that is why we call it al-gheerat al-bashariyya `ala an-nufoos. The body doesn't want to share anything with the self. The ego must be "for the body only" and that is where Shaytan can play.
But there is the second part; gheeratallah `ala al-quloob, the heavenly gheerah which is on the hearts, as it is said, ma fee qalbee illa-Llah, "There is nothing in my heart except Allah." So the heart is the House of Allah (swt). Constantly for twenty-four hours that heart is in dhikrullah. If you put a speaker on the heart, you can hear it saying, Huuu, Huuu, Huuu. You see these palpitations in this sound. That is a sound that has been coded and covered. Everyone has a code in their heart; if they open it, they will understand what kind of dhikr their heart is doing. And every person's dhikr doesn't resemble the dhikr of another. Even if both say Huuu, each one will be different from the other or else, that will diminish Allah's Greatness. Just as every angel has a different dhikr, each person's heart has a dhikr, voluntary or involuntary. The human being is born on fitrah, on the natural way, but his parents make him either Christian, Jewish, or Zoroastrian. But you are born on fitratu 'l-Islaam, and that is the light put in the heart of people.
إن الدين عند الله الإسلام
Inna ad-deena `ind-Allahi al-Islam,
The religion before Allah is Islam. (Aali `Imraan 3:19)
all religion end up in Islam, even Adam (a) and Ibrahim (a), who said:
إِنِّي وَجَّهْتُ وَجْهِيَ لِلَّذِي فَطَرَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضَ حَنِيفًا وَمَا أَنَاْ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ
innee wajahut wajhiyya lilladhee fatar as-samawaati wal-`arda haneefa muslimaan.
I have directed my face to the One Who created Heaven and Earth, and I am Muslim.
It is from that time. So the religion to Allah is Islam as it came last, but it came with Ibrahim (a) and ended with Prophet (s) wrapping everything together. The hearts of human beings are created and born on Islam, that is why it is voluntary or involuntary, and that is why it is making that dhikr by pumping. When the heart stops pumping, you are finished. If the brain stops you are still alive, but if the heart stops you are dead. Allah doesn't like His servant's heart doing anything other than remembering Him. When Allah loves someone, He wants that one to be for Him only.
One of the awliya said, "Why did Allah send Adam on Earth?"
قال القشيري: لما وطّن آدم نفسه على الخلود في الجنة ولذاتها غار الله عليه. كان آدم يحب أن يركن إلى الخلود في الجنة فلم يقبل الله منه هذا
Al-Qushayri (q) said, Meethaalaha lamaa watana Adam nafasahu `alaa al-khulood fi'l-jannahi wa ladhaatiha ghaar Allah `alayh. Kaana Adam yuhib an yarkan ila'l-khulood fi'l-jannat falam yaqbal-Llahu minhu haadha. akhrajahullah minha gheeratan `alayh.
the example of this is Adam whose homeland was Paradise living there eternally, with all its delicious tastes, then Allah became possessive of him. Adam loved to be live for eternity in Paradise, which Allah did not accept. To show him that Allah does not accept his self to love other than Him. Allah does not become harmed by someone but you will be harmed by losing Allah.
This is the explanation of Al-Qushayri (q). And he said, Wa Ibrahim lamma `ajabahu Isma`eel amarahu bi dhabhih, "When Ibrahim became so fond of Isma`eel, Allah said to go slaughter him," as there can be no competition, no love for anyone else in the hearts of His servants. Prophets have no love except to their Creator, and here we are speaking of real love. When Isma`eel was born, Ibrahim was so happy that his love went to Isma`eel. That is why today humans are receiving that kind of love for their children, which is okay. But for Ibrahim, Allah said, "Go and slaughter your son, Isma`eel."
So Allah told Ibrahim to slaughter Isma`eel, and when Ibrahim took the knife to slaughter Isma`eel, at that moment Allah (swt) took his love for `Isma`eel out of his heart, then He sent the lamb to be slaughtered.
But Adam (a) wanted to be eternally in Paradise. So for Ibrahim (a), Allah accepted his intention to slaughter, saying, "That is enough for Me."
Dhikrullah is important. That is why the guidance of shuyookh took their followers to dhikrullah. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) says that even if two people have homes next to each other, both do dhikr to increase the tajalli." May Allah give long life to Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q)!
We will continue tomorrow, inshaa-Allah.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah. Taqqabal-Allah.