Haqqani Fellowship Suhbats: April 2009

Sunday, April 26, 2009

No One in their Gathering Will Suffer

Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani


Allah sent the Prophet (s) as mercy, he is the mercy for all
creation.

Allah created the creation but there is a secret that awliyaullahreceived from the heart of the Prophet and they leak it out to their followers but not everything.

I will say a few words, when Allah swt created He didn’t create yet anything, according to the hadith of the Prophet narrated by ibn Asaakir.

before Allah created anything Allah created the essence of the Prophet (s), the reality of the Prophet (s).

and He put that essence, it needs a very highly holy
divinely house.

Allah will not create without creating what goes with it. And Allah described it in Holy Qur'an as a lamp.

اللَّهُ
نُورُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ مَثَلُ نُورِهِ كَمِشْكَاةٍ فِيهَا مِصْبَاحٌ الْمِصْبَاحُ فِي زُجَاجَةٍ الزُّجَاجَةُ كَأَنَّهَا
كَوْكَبٌ دُرِّيٌّ

Allahu nooru as-samaawaati wa’l-ard. mathalu noorihi ka-mishkaatin feeha misbaah. Al-misbaahu fee zujaajatin az-zujaajatu ka-annaha kawkabun durriyy.

Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. TheParable of His Light is as if there were a Niche and within it a Lamp: the Lamp enclosed in Glass: the glass as it were a brilliant star… 24:35

This creation is like a lamp and He put the essence of His Holy Prophet in a kawkabun durri, in a heavenly pearls, heavenly pearly, from pearls, which we can speak about jewels as pearls are mainly white. A lamp that he put His Prophet, the essence, that there it will be more under Allah's direct manifestation.

That is why it is impossible to compare, there is not comparison. You are something and the Prophet (s) is everything. So Allah was manifesting His Light and His Beauty on that essence. And He put that in bahr al-qudrah the Ocean of Power, and that essence was whirling like an engine, turning and generating more and more lights.

So when the Prophet (s) was under that manifestation Allah asked him a question: "who am I and who are you?" O professor ibn Waqqaar!

Allah asked him, “Who am I and who are you? The Prophet (s) said, “Ya Rabbee! Anta al-Qahaar, You are the Subduer is there any other word [for Qahhaar] in English? Yeah but al-Qahaar is the One that crushes everything. The Destroyer who destroys everything. And he said, " wa ana al-`abd - I am the servant."

He didn’t say "a servant" he said, “ana al-`abd - I am the servant.”

It means there is no other `abd that really worshipped as the Prophet (s) worshipped, so there is no comparison.

And Subduer, in the meaning is what? It is the One that crushes, makes something that exists doesn’t exist. He didn’t say to him, “Ya Rabbee you are al-Razzaq; You are al-Hakeem; You are al-Wadud. No, he said, "You are al-Qahaar.”

He didn’t say, "You are al-Rahman and al-Raheem.” Because the Prophet (s) knows what he is saying.

We don’t say, "Ya Rabbee! You are al-Qahaar” because we are afraid of His qahr, He will destroy.

We say, "You are Rahman, al-Rauf, al-Sattaar,” but he said, "You are The Destroyer; The Terminator; nothing exists before The Exterminator. He is a medical doctor, is that correct? [all are correct]

And Allah said, "What do you mean Ya habeebee? Define.”

Who can define there? Can anyone define? No. Can anyone stand this position that the Prophet (s) stands in? No way.

And he said, “Ya Rabbee, did you create anyone yet?” Allah swt said " Ya Muhammad (s) you are the first to be created, so I didn’t create anyone.” The Prophet (s) said, “Ya Rabbee! You didn’t create creation and you are al-Qahaar, the Subduer. That means to me that You are the One that crushes all kinds of sins, [subhanAllah]that You will not let one sin to exist. You are the al-Qahaar, to qahr, to make sins to disappear. That is what I want from you, Ya Rabbee! To terminate and destroy and crush all sins that Your creation is going to do.”

He knew, he was able to see with what Allah gave to him and he said, “What about your description of al-`abd?”

He said, “Ya Rabbee, to me al-`abd is the one who in every moment is in continuous need of your mercy. [subhanAllah] not only when... this is Holy Prophet (s) who is saying, not from time to time, no but in every moment from the beginning of my creation to the end, when there is no end, “I am in need of your presence in dunya in akhira, I am in need always to be under Your Mercy.”

Allah said, " Ya Muhammad (s)! I created for you an Ummah that never gets tired of doing sins and I am their Lord that I never get tired of forgiving them.”

So what do you think now about we just finished dhikrullah, [whether] we were doing it correctly or with mistakes or whatever. The hadith of the Prophet (s), the holy hadith that Allah revealed to the Prophet (s) and the Prophet (s) revealed to the Ummah that “Allah has angels that are roaming in the streets – inna lillahi malaikatu yatufooona feet-turuqaat,
yatalamsoona majalis ahl adh-dhikr
. They are roaming looking for the circles of dhikr like telephones roaming with you. That is an authentic hadith of the Prophet (s) and it is a long hadith where Allah asks them “do they know about My Mercy and do they know about My Paradise and do they know about My Hellfire…?” until He says at the end of the hadith to the angels, “fashhad annee ghafarta lahum – be My witnesses that I have forgiven them their sins.”

Sitting half an hour and Allah says, “O my angels you are my witnesses that I have forgiven them.” And the angels say “O there was one who was just waiting to take the keys of the car from one of them [is he included as well?]” Allah says, “hum ul-qawm la yashqa jaleesahmu.” “I am forgiving him for being with them, even though he is not part of that group.”

So we spent half an hour, doing dhikr do you think there will be any sin on us? No, that is a holy hadith of the Prophet (s). I was going to finish without doing dhikr but my shaykh came and said “do the dhikr and do the long dhikr even.” And I recited that as I saw new faces they will get the baraka of that dhikr.

And may Allah keep us on the right way and keep us connected with our shuyukh and especially with our master Mawlana Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani, may Allah give him long life and give us.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

How to Eliminate Negativity from Your Life

Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani

03-29-2009
Hounslow Mosque Milad

 

Salaam alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh

Please be seated

Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem

Alhamdulillahi rabbil-alameen was-salaat was-salaam ala  ashrafil-`alameena Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam wa ala aalihi wa sahbihi wa sallim,

O brothers and sisters may Allah bless you all. It is an honor for me to be here today with Shaykh Suleymani, and Dr. Abdus-Salaam from Palestine and Shaykh Irfan Chisti. May Allah give to Shaykh Suleymani and the board to keep running this mosque on love of Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam.

I have to ask you that If you didn’t fill these papers you can fill them and give to us before you go out so we can arrange and call you to events.

Mawlana Shaykh has asked me and his asking to me is like an order to come to London frequently and to look after his students.

The topic I cannot speak about most is to speak about the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam. you can speak about any topic, such as discussing hadith and Tafsir, but when it comes to showing our love and the respect to our prophet, I feel my tongue is frozen. Because it is not an easy subject to say what we don’t experience.

To say as professor Dr. Abdul Salaam just mentioned how you love your son and your leader by saying salam day after one day. The feeling of love is not easy and the feeling that takes over your heart and possesses and to become honored by the, light Nuri Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam, is not something so simple that needs a lot of work. The Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam has built up his Sahaba on that. We need builders, we need contractors, we need machineries we need all kind of wirings, we need all kinds of vehicles in order to be able to connect ourselves with this huge contractor that can contract to build us up in every dimension of our lives.

Wiring is not so easy, if you want that energy, that light, you need an electrician to come or an engineer to come and wire the whole system or it will burn everything it will not work. Our whole body has been wired by wires, by veins and capillaries and arteries. If you add them together these arteries and capillaries and veins make millions of millions of miles in order to understand Allah swt and understand the greatness of Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam.

That is why Imam al-Busayri was unable to describe the description of the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam greatness. Huwa basharun wa laysa kal-bashari - He is  a human being but he is not like human beings. He is the original and we are the copy. We are photocopying machine making copies. And it is good to be copies as they are not responsible. He is the original he is responsible. That is why he said, shafa`atee li ahl al-kabair min ummatee. So we are not responsible we and all scholars in all centuries are like an ant in front  of a lion.

But Allah said `amaloo. Do. So we must do. So we have to know is the wring working or not working.

Allah said in Holy Qur'an: 

 

هَلْ يَسْتَوِي الَّذِينَ يَعْلَمُونَ وَالَّذِينَ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ إِنَّمَا يَتَذَكَّرُ أُوْلُوا الْأَلْبَابِ

hal yastawoon alladheena ya`lamoona walladheen la ya`lamoon - are those who know the same as those who know? [39:9]

What is the different between those who know and those who don’t know. What are these two groups? Those who know are whom? Are they scientists? are they professors, doctors, Nobel prizes’ people or are they scholars, or they are ulama are those who are eyes are opened..?

...

Allah gave that responsibility to Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam who is basharun wa laysa kal-bashari. How he went for Isra wa Mi’raj with this body. Did anyone check his body. How can we express… who saw his body, as scientists of today were able to check the body of the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam. that is why Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam al-Busayri is amazed and cannot express it very well he wants to express out of his love to Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam how the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam went for Mi’raj. We can understand how he went from Mecca to Madina and to masjid al-aqsaa some scholars say he went to Madina as well.

سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَى بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلاً مِّنَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ الأَقْصَى الَّذِي بَارَكْنَا حَوْلَهُ لِنُرِيَهُ مِنْ آيَاتِنَا إِنَّهُ هُوَ السَّمِيعُ البَصِيرُ

Subhan-alladhee asra bi `abdihi laylan min al-masjid al-haraam il al-masjid al-aqsa alladhee barakna hawlahu li-nuriyahu min ayaatina innahu huwa as-samee`ul-baseer

Glory be to He who transported His servant by night from the Inviolable House of Worship [at Mecca] to the Remote House of Worship [,at Jerusalem] - the environs of which We had blessed -so that We might show him some of Our symbols: for, verily, He alone is all-hearing, all-seeing. [17:1]

That we can understand. But can you go in space. You cannot go with very complicated machine. What Allah gave to him he was able to move beyond this universe. The creator is Allah swt cannot give direction or space on these issues. These issues we don’t open. But we know the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam was able to reach where no one reached. Not using any kind of machinery like they use to go to Mars today. And it has to go in a speed that it takes 3-4 years to reach mars and 3-4 years to return and that might be nearer than sun, where sun is 60 million miles and mars is shorter distance and going and coming needs 8 years.

Yet the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam ….

Today they call us extremist and radical but we are the ones who extend our hand to everyone. Love of the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam will take extremism from ourselves. Those extreme ideas that some Muslim are going deep into it.

Not to thinks as something from outside.

One sahabi, Sayyidina `Umar (r), he asked about Sayyidina Uwais al-Qarani, and that story I heard it many times from Mawlana Shaykh Nazim. And he said there are things that are known, those who know are not equal to those who don’t know. Those how have cataract cannot see and those who don’t can see. Even between Sahaba they differed on what they received from the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam. That is why those who came after, they were collecting the narrations, they were getting from different groups and not every Sahabi had all the knowledge. So the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam gave some to some and not to others and vice versa.

And so when the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam asked Sayyidina `Umar (r) and Sayyidina `Ali (r) to go to Sayyidina Uwais after he passed and give him a trust. So Sayyidina Uwais asked Sayyidina `Ali (r) can you describe the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam. and Sayyidina `Ali (r) said, "Ya Uwais I saw the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam one time, in a vision, he asked me to look at him and I saw him from at me from belly and up and I saw whole universe disappeared and up to his neck past the throne.”
“And then he said, ‘Look from my belly and down’ and I looked and everything disappeared of the whole universe and all I saw was the Prophet from the belly down to his knees which I were reaching to the seventh earth and I could not see below his knees”
“And then he said, ‘look at me all.’ And he said then everything disappeared and I saw the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam from up to down filling this entire universe.”
So Sayyidina Uwais said, yes, Ya `Ali you really saw him.

When we raise our children with love the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam then …

Let us ask ourselves are we able to do that?

Salaam alaykum [scholar leaves]

So when we go one hand they come to us, Allah swt said, I am waiting.

قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَى أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَطُوا مِن رَّحْمَةِ اللَّهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًا إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ

Qul ya `ibadiya alladheena asrafoo `ala anfusihim la taqnatoo min rahmatillahi inna Allaha yaghfiru aldh-dhunooba jamee`an innahu huwa al-ghafooru’r-raheem.
Say: "O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah. for Allah forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. Az-Zumar
[39:53]

 

And we mentioned before in kuntum tuhiboon Allah:


قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَاللّهُ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ

In kuntum tuhiboona-Allaha fatabi`oonee yuhbibkumullah.
We are not stress this because, “If you really love Allah you follow Muhammad, Allah will love you.”
[3:31]

That means as soon as you say I want to follow the way of Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam and you put your foot step one foot is enough for the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam to welcome us and taking us in Allah swt presence and take that cataract away.

You think in this mehfil you think in this gathering today there are no awliyaullah sitting here? But we don’t have eyes to see. There are no angels? There are, Allah mentioned it, the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam mentioned it in hadith. Where are they? We cannot see them. Why? Because we are blind.

Are we improving or not? We are improving, showing respect coming here but not enough. How many of us know about his event and didn’t not come. There is no excuse when the name of Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam comes in any mosque and any center you must run for it. Naqshbandi, Qadiri, Chisti, anything any tariqah. Even  those who have no tariqah, you hear they are remembering and celebrating the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam love and birthday run to celebrate. But we don’t know, we don’t do that.

I was visiting Imam Bukhari mosque in Bukhara where he used to teach Sahih al-Bukhari. It is a big mosque and a school. Not like this mosque, but bigger than that. A huge area. And it takes 10,000 people and I was told not only 10,000 people, but when Imam Bukhari sit to give hadith the masjid capacity is enough for 10,000 people if you include the courtyard and the “parking area” that no, there were more than 30,000 or 40,000 people and there was no speaker system. And everyone was hearing what he was saying. How did that happen? They are wired with this light. We are wired but we are blocked.

I will not be long, but when that light moves, that light of Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam the whole heavens, Allah is not waiting for us to make salawat on the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam. He ordered us to make salawat, but he and his angels are doing salawat in every moment. By Allah’s orders angels are yusalloon wa la yazaaloon – they are praising and not stopping. They are not in need of our salawat on the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam. I will leave that with you. That is the code. I know some people. Don’t smile and don’t laugh. I have to take example and you have to take example. I saw people who are reading 1 million salawat on the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam. That is by means of tayy al-lisan. Allah will fold your tongue. There are people with tayy al-lisan. That Allah put light on their tongue they do salawat even when they are talking with people they are doing salawat in their heart in spite of that.

So we must begin by doing salawat on the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam.

This will take us to bahr as-salam - the ocean of safety and take away all kinds of radicalization and extremism. I would like to thank Professor Sulaymani and the board and thank Sufi Muslim Council and may Allah give you long life in love of the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam. Don’t forget these papers fill them as quickly as possible and we will collect them.

Reality of Guidance and the Heaviest Thing for the Shaykh to Clean

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

Tuesday, July 1, 2008
London UK, Home of Dr. Fatima

Ati` Allah wa ati` ar-rasula wa uli 'l-amri minkum.

Obey Allah, obey the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam and those who are on authority. [4:59]

Advice is not an easy task, and guidance is more difficult than advice. Advice is something that you learn you study, and you give advice to people. They like it, they like it, they don’t like it, it is up to them.

But guidance is something that people have to touch on it and look on it very well. May Allah give long life to Mawlana Shaykh Nazim. He is under a very heavy task.

It is not an easy task that Allah has put him in. people might, anyone might, if there is a scholar who knows too many knowledge might be scholars get jealous from each other, o if I was like him, I would have studied and I would have been a scholar and so on. But for a guide it is better not to be jealous and to say I wish to be like him. Because it is not something in your hand or his hand or your hand or anyone’s hand. Guidance is a very big responsibility that Allah put his awliyaullah under it. Guidance is when a wali receives maqam al irshad - the station of guidance - he is under responsibility to Allah and to the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam to present his mureeds clean every 24 hours to the presence of Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam.

So it is not something that is enjoyable, no, it is something… that is why you see sometimes Mawlana Shaykh is like you cannot approach, he is dressing that majestic dress. You feel him he is under a big majestic power that you run away from his presence. One time I was passing in Grandshaykh time he has his zawiya on the top floor, but to pass his zawiya you have to pass by a room that he used to use as a living room and he used to sit there sometimes you have to pass it and one day I was passing and as soon as I reach the window I said, let me look inside because Grandshaykh was sitting inside. And sometimes we peek on Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, you don’t sometimes peek from the door. to look to see what he is doing? Don’t you see him sometimes lying down, and how is he lying down? Every morning, every time after ishraq [shows lying back with mouth open and arms spread.] at that moment his soul is not in his body, his soul is gone to presence of the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam, at that time if you happen to be around, don’t bother but keep around because you will get the baraka of the presence where he is.

So one time, Grandshaykh, may Allah bless his soul, we were sitting in his presence and there were only 3 people and my brother and someone else, and suddenly Grandshaykh said, "Now the Prophet appeared to me from this wall and the wall was gone and the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam appeared and for some guidance to give to me." And immediately - I was sitting by the wall - I stood up and touched the wall and I kissed the wall and Grandshaykh said to me, "you kissed the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam."

Awliayullah you think they are in your presence and they are not in your presence. And one time I was passing the window, and I said, let me look. And then I said, “O it is not adab to look”, and I was arguing with myself: “look? not look? Look! not look!” What do you think I did? I looked!

He was sitting on his couch (shows eyes closed mouth open, arms by his sides) similar of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim. And there was light coming from his eyes like a laser beam. As soon as I looked, this light like a slap, came, and threw me out from the stairs! As if to say it now I am trembling, remembering that. It means "what is your concern to look inside? You have no right to look inside!" But I was happy because I took the advantage, and I looked and if I didn’t look I would never have saw that light. So here you have two, it plays double ways. In one issue you don’t need to look and in one you look to gain something, at least you gain that light and you see the strength of awliyaullah, when they are not present. In reality they are there, so you see them not present but they. What they have been dressed by the Prophet (sa)…

I took these examples to speak about guidance. Advice - you can advise anyone. Scholars are advising people, they listen they listen, they don’t listen, they don’t listen. But guidance - no way. Guidance is responsibility to take your hand to take you on a journey to the presence of the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam. Else you will not leave dunya. Don’t think you will not leave dunya before seeing the Prophet. That is one of basic principles of guidance. They took an `ahad (oath) from the Prophet that anyone who took initiation with them, they have to see the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam when they are passing away. There are others who can see the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam whenever the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam wants. There are others who are able to see Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam when they request to see, and there are others who are always in presence of the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam.

Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, may Allah bless his soul and give him long life, one time me and my brother, Grandshaykh ordered us to go for hajj. It was 1967. It was the year that Grandshaykh came out from seclusion. That means he ordered us to go for our second hajj and he ordered Mawlana Shaykh Nazim to go with us and at that time Mawlana Shaykh Nazim used to take pilgrims from Cyprus to go for hajj and they go first to Damascus and then from Damascus to Madina.

And I am sharing this with you, not speaking of guidance, but sharing these small stories. And I am from one month putting these stories I am giving them in Cyprus by Mawlana’s order I am giving subhat there.

Grandshaykh said to Shaykh Nazim, "Give them from the private associations suhbat, that I gave to you in seclusion. Explain to them from these knowledges, nothing else, only these ones that are very, very private." We were so excited me and my brother Shaykh Adnan. I was at that time maybe 23 and my brother Shaykh Adnan was maybe 21 and we were anxious for that day to come. And Mawlana Shaykh went to Cyprus and came back and then we had to go from Damascus and we started from Beirut. And Grandshaykh said, "When you go there, tell `Abbas Qaari, (who was the representative of Grandshaykh and he leads the dhikr there and he is one of biggest scholars of Madina. And he has a trust and school there Waqf Bukhari. And he got married, when he was 70 years and he has his life there and nothing else. He got married at age of 70 and when his wife came and he married her, she went in that room and she never came out and never came out for 27 years. Look how they were and how we are. She entered that room with her husband and she left that room to go to cemetery after 27 years not going out in Madinatul-munawwara.).

So Grandshaykh said, "When you go to `Abbas Qaari, tell him to put him in the room I did seclusion in it – that room was a little larger. And not the room Shaykh Nazim did it in, which was very small.…." We went to `Abbas Qaari and said “This is what Grandshaykh said.” He said, “Ok, do you have a letter?” We had no letter, only Grandshaykh's words to us. Anyway there was someone in that room, so he wants to cut us, [in order] not to ask. So he said, “Ok I have a place for you.” We said, “Ok let us see that place.” He took us to see it. And there was someone there. He said, “I don’t have any place except one place,” and I thought it will be the toilet. There is no place except on the roof. On the roof he has all the goats and his sheep living there. And he said, “I have place here for you and your brother until Shaykh Nazim comes. We said “where?” He said, “You see this roof here and the neighbor’s roof. There is between them a bridge.” Really it was a bridge, not wider than this piece of fabric. I get one mattress for you and one for your brother, one behind the other. And we looked and what you think we did? And everywhere there are lizards living there and goats and sheep there. Is it not... in these countries you see lot of these lizards. We looked me and my brother and you step on the bridge and the bridge is shaking. And there is space between the steps. You look down - it is 3 floors. So we said, “Ok.” So they brought the mattress and they brought the sheets and they brought the pillows. You see these sheets are white. The sheets there were not white… but they were black from dirt.

We stayed there 7 days. We didn’t go to a hotel; we didn’t go anywhere else.

After 7 days we saw Mawlana Shaykh coming and he said, "What are you doing here?" We said, "You know best."

You cannot say in front of your shaykh to show you know something. When it comes to dunya knowledge don’t say to the Shaykh “you now best,” when he asks you. When the Shaykh asks you spiritual things say you know best, adab. Dont say you know better. Of course he knows better. Allah didn’t ask Sayyidina Musa “what is in your hand?” Of course He knows.

Many times when Shaykh asks people say “you know best.” If he knows best why he will ask? Of course he knows best. But why he has to use his power, his energy. Like someone who wants to kill an ant uses a rocket. For dunya issues, answer. Akhira issues, don’t answer. Don’t show `ilm. Many people begin to tell the shaykh this answer and that is bad adab.

So he looked and said “What are you doing here?” What we are doing here? We came here or you sent us. He said, “Ok you come with me; it is enough.”

It was a test. It is something we never imagined, the first time going for hajj and we never saw such kind of harshness in our life because alhamdulillah my father one of the very rich people in Lebanon. But the Shaykh wants to cut all kinds of ni`am, favors, that you are living in it, the elite life, he wants to cut that, because they don’t like the mureeds to be living an elite life. The Prophet said, “Ikhshawshanoo fa inna an-ni`am lam tadoom - Live a rough life because the favors are not going to last.”

Sometimes you are going find heavy situation. Sometimes people live high life standard and something happens and they go crazy. They want to bring you down, down, down until you become zero. Zero is still not yet …zero still exists. It means you did not yet submit. Submission must be lower than zero, Ya Marwan. At-Taslimiyya al-mutlaqa. Absolute submission is not zero. People make the mistake when they say zero, that is still number. There is minus one, there is minus 2 there is minus 5. there is minus minus. When they asked to know the smallest fraction of a second, scientists, when they wanted to know what is the smallest division of a second. Where is that lady, she is a physicist. That young lady is very clever. That is why they say, “behind every good man is a wise woman.”

So they are studying time which has no dimensions. 4th dimension, not like 3 dimensions of the universe. So they cut time down, and they cut it 10-1, -2, -3… up to 10-22. can you read that number point 000000 then one after 22 zeros.

There everything is submitting to Allah just energy. There is no more existence of time there anymore, only energy. Time is even gone. So awliyaullah go up to the power of 10-22 [ten to the minus twenty-two] up to that zero, zero, until they reach the station of complete immersion in the ocean of energy. ..there are 124,000 wali, that means it goes up to 144,000 after zero. 0.0000 124,000, the wali that reached that level of submission will be Sultan al-Awliya in presence of the Prophet. So we must be lucky, not because we did something. What we did is garbage. Allah swt does what He likes; He chose that group and dumped it in the ocean of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim. You think Mawlana happy with us? No we are a burden on him. But Allah favored us to be connected to that Sultan.

So that Sultan came and said, “What are you doing here?” And he … all these lizards coming and going. But SubhanAllah not one lizard came on us. Some of them are dangerous. The breath, they make you white that poison when they touch you, that comes from them, abrasa - leprosy. So they were running around between these two building and these lizards going up and going down. Because they closed the Masjid an-Nabawi at night, they close it so we went back to the madrasa, but what to do there in the day. So we stay there and until they close it.

So Mawlana Shaykh said, “Come down.” And who was there? Abbas Qaari. And they planned it. And he was waiting there with the key for Grandshaykh’s room. There was no one there. They want to first cut you down. They will… the doctor will first take the dummal, some people they have on their skin a small lump. They take it first, then they clean that spot that is left. So that big lump is like a big hump. Our hump like a camel. A camel cannot see his hump. The camel thinks he is the most beautiful giraffe in the world. He sees the giraffe and he see himself and thinks he is the most beautiful giraffe in the world. Then like you; a big hump you have. Yes, you there. We have a big hump and we think we are giraffes, or we think we are deer. We think we are beautiful. People look at our hump and say like this one like the one on Notre Dame he had a big hump on his back and he was thinking himself the most beautiful.

Then he opened the room and it was very nice room and you can see the lights coming out of that room.

That was Friday morning, it was Thursday evening and we went to Fajr with Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, and there was not like today, I am speaking about 57 years ago. There was only the old original mosque and Maktab Sayyidina `Umar and in front of it was Maktabat Othmanli, full of books there. Manuscripts, very old. And there was not like today, between the end of the Masjid and the Holy Grave of Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam and the outside where the imam stands now there was a wal. If you go outside now you see a huge are but before there was a street facing a library `Arif Hikmat library from Ottoman times and some bushes and yasmin (jasmine) trees and there was something closed like a mihraab, it has a door from iron and it can fit 4, 5 people there. And Mawlana Shaykh Nazim took us there and it was like ishraq time and he was showing us and he said, Grandshaykh may Allah bless his soul, and now Mawlana Shaykh Nazim is saying, the first time that I met with Sayyidina Mahdi Alayhissalam was here in that place.

He brought me there, I don’t know how many years ago, to pray with him and to pray with Mahdi Alayhissalam. And he said, the first thing I am going to do, is to pray with both you in that place, I be imam and you follow. And as soon as he said, Allahu Akbar that whole thing disappeared and what we saw? We saw Ka`aba there. And around Ka`aba 40 caliphs of Mahdi Alayhissalam and 59 deputies, each one under one of the 99 Asma’ullah al-Husna and there was Mahdi Alayhissalam there was the presence of the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam. And Mawlana Shaykh said, “here I am renewing your baya`.” And after we said as-salam alaykum wa rahmatullah. And we took baya` with Mahdi there. Grandshaykh never gave baya`. He only gave baya` for two, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim and Mawlana Shaykh Husayn. In the presence of Sayyidina Mahdi Alayhissalam, in the presence of Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam and in the presence of 99 caliphas and wazirs, we gave baya`. There. We said, “If that is beginning what will be the end?”

We did that and then we left and we went back to the room and we were in same room with Mawlana Shaykh Nazim. The rest of pilgrims were distributed in the building in different rooms. This is first time I am saying that, no one heard this before. And for 14 days we were there and every day Shaykh Nazim was giving 3 suhbats lectures, one before Fajr we go for tahajjud and one noon time and one after `Isha time. About knowledge of tariqah and adab at-tariqah, principles of tariqah.

And what I can say now, that they are under big responsibility we go back to the beginning. People don’t see these things. People see Mawlana with us, Grandshaykh with us. This is what we know. But other than us, Mawlana Shaykh Husayn knows more people that are awliya and Shaykh Nazim knows others, of course. We saw only these two that are awliyaullah but they know many and we saw around Mawlana Shaykh many of them.

He taught for 14 days principles. That is why I say what they are carrying mountains cannot carry. That is why it is very difficult to approach the Shaykh an out of ignorance we are approaching too much and we sit around and we are happy. But adab is run away. One mistake cannot be forgiven. Not by Shaykh, but by Allah. Shaykh will forgive. But Allah doesn’t like his saints to be harmed in their hearts.

And he said, and this is because it is also going on internet, but to show how difficult is adab at-tariqah, he said, "It is more easy, but you don’t have to take it, O we have to do it because the shaykh said it is easy, but this is relatively speaking, that it is very easy for the shaykh to help his mureed to ask forgiveness if he did even a big sin, it is easy on the heart of the shaykh and easy to make it to be waived away but it is very difficult on the heart of the shaykh if the mureed has a doubt about his shaykh, even a smallest doubt it is heavier,..." I don’t know if I say it here. Because he is taping. You say it because you don’t do it. Even if you do 12,000 kaba’ir it is more easier for the shaykh to waive them for you than for him to remove the one doubt you have in your shaykh. That is why he said, "Guidance is not a simple issue. Guidance means they are taking responsibility.:

That is why one time, not one time, but many times, I used to stay in the same room with Mawlana Shaykh Nazim and they give us one room. I cannot sleep all night. Because… I am saying my experience. How am I going to sleep and lose my wudu in his presence. I am not able, not able to sleep and we were sleeping on same bed sometime. And I cannot move on the bed. I tell Mawlana I sleep on the floor and he says no. and all night I am not able to move to avoid disturbing him and because he is in presence of the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam. It means the whole area becomes a holy area. Like the mihraab of Sayyida Maryam:

كُلَّمَا دَخَلَ عَلَيْهَا زَكَرِيَّا الْمِحْرَابَ وَجَدَ عِندَهَا رِزْقاً قَالَ يَا مَرْيَمُ أَنَّى لَكِ هَـذَا قَالَتْ هُوَ مِنْ عِندِ اللّهِ إنَّ اللّهَ يَرْزُقُ مَن يَشَاء بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ

wakaffalaha Zakariyya Alayhissalam kullama dakhala `alayha Zakariyya Alayhissalam almihraba wajada `indaha rizqan qala ya maryamu anna laki hatha qaalat huwa min `indi Allahi inna Allaha yarzuqu man yashao bighayri hisabin

To the care of Zakariya was she assigned. Every time that he entered (Her) chamber to see her, He found her supplied with sustenance. He said: "O Mary! Whence (comes) this to you?" She said: "From Allah. for Allah Provides sustenance to whom He pleases without measure." 3:37

So what did Sayyidina Zakariyya do? He went to her mihraab, her room and asked Allah to give him Yahya. When he was 90 years of age. So adab with shaykh is so critical and so delicate. They are carrying that responsibility and it is not an easy task. So our duty is that they are carrying us, alhamdulillah but as much as we keep space in between it is better. Because some people think they are so close to the shaykh so they lose respect. So Grandshaykh many,many times, may Allah bless his soul, he said many people come in and many people going, he said, “Don’t look at the way I am treating my family and the way they are treating me. I have to give them normal life.”

The prophet accepted and gave normal life with his wife and his family. So awliyaullah when someone look into their homes that I s dangerous. Because many doubt come. As Mawlana used to make a mathal: zur khuban tazdad hubban. Visit .. there is an animal, you see him come out and run away inside in the ground. It means come, quickly the shaykh and run. More loves comes to you. But to be there all the time is more dangerous. So some people in presence of the Shaykh all the time think they are doing big favors for the shaykh. No they are ruining themselves and they are losing respect. So guidance is not so easy it is so difficult for the Shaykh. So we must be very happy that Allah has guide us to be with Mawlana Shaykh instead of to be with someone else.

Mawlana was I saw him when he was young and I was young and I saw his respect ot everyone and his love to everyone, may Allah give him long life and give us long life to see Mahdi and to be dunya and akhira with them and for all Mawlana’s mureeds to give them happiness in their lives.

I was sitting with him before I came and I was sitting upstairs with him, and Hajjah [Nazihe, Shaykh Hisham's wife and daughter of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim] was there and Ruqiyya [Shaykh Nazim's other daughter] was there and he said to me, “SubhanAllah, what I am taking more than this soup, and I am having this soup and I am having that clothes, why I have to keep money?” He gives. He showed me his book. How much he has took and how much he gave. You cannot imagine. “So what I will do with it? I take it with me? No I give fee sabeelillah.”

Awliyaullah have a way of expressing themselves that mureeds cannot understand. And I look at myself and say, “what I am going to take from this dunya?”

Onassis what he has? He was the richest one [in his time] and he saw his son crashing the helicopter down on the boat when he was landing.

Alexander he told his ministers, “When I am passing away you put my hands out of the coffin.” They said, “How can we put your hands out of the coffin?” He said, “No you put my hands out of my coffin when you are taking me to the grave. I want people to know that Alexander who conquered the dunya is taking nothing with him to the grave.”

We go we run and … we hope Allah will keep us on right track and keep us with his awliya and not be left alone. May Allah forgive us and bless us and Mawlana Shaykh is expecting this year heavy problems, big problems and he is expecting what the Prophet mentioned about the signs of Last Days that many of them are going to happen and he is asking for Mahdi Alayhissalam to come, ... Sayyidina Mahdi Alayhissalam, the grandchild of the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam is coming with heavenly support ...He is coming to bring the real message of the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam and of Qur’an - love of Allah and love of Qur’an and only by saying “Allahu Akbar.” And we are saying also “Allahu Akbar,” imitating Sayyidina Mahdi. And expecting soon as much as possible, that happiness and peace comes on earth in preparing for Sayyidina `Isa Alayhissalam to come and in preparing for our last days to come on earth to be taken with iman.

Thank you Dr. Fatima. Allah bless you and bless your house and your son. Everyone came and you did it for Allah. It is written there nasrun min Allah wa fathun qareebsupport from Allah and a near opening.” Insha-Allah always be like that Allah open to our heart the importance of our Shaykh and the importance to be in presence of Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam.