Run to the Cave of Naqshbandiyya

Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani

Ati` Allaha wa ati` ar-rasoola wa uli 'l-amri minkum

Allah said and is still saying that we have to “obey Allah swt and obey Him and obey Sayyidina Muhammad (s) and obey those who are on authority.” Those who are responsible; those who are taking care of us; those who are guiding us. Those who are inheritors from the Prophet (s).

And to follow them there are rules and regulations, like when you buy a computer, they say to you there are rules and regulations to make your computer. Like when you buy anything there are rules and regulations you cannot leave behind. If you don’t follow these rules that instrument doesn’t function. So to make our ... function is that we have some rules that we have to obey and follow. For sure, we are weak and we are helpless, but at least we have to try. If we don’t try then you be blamed, because Allah will ask you did you try. You cannot say I didn’t try. Try you didn’t succeed you didn’t succeed, but at least you tried.

Sahaba were trying to gain the love of Sayyidina Muhammad (s). they were competing who will give salaam first that the Prophet (s) will answer them a better salaam. So they were trying even in salaam to get the attention of Sayyidina Muhammad (s). and his attention, is so, Allah has mentioned it to us, in his Holy Qur'an, in many many places and one of the main places to draw the attention of the Prophet (s) that people today say “How are going to draw attention towards us.” They say, make du`a that we see the Prophet (s) in dream. Don’t they say that? Yes, many. To see him in the dream is everyone’s expectation; everyone wants that and everyone that. But first you have to show him you can handle it. You can be able to see him in the best way of a dream, to draw his attention. And his attention is so simple because the prophet is so humble, he accept anything and Allah said, Allah and his angles are praising prophet. O mu’mins, praise him. Ya ayyuhalladheena amaanooo salloo `alayh. If you mention the name of someone and praise him all the time that person will feel shy from you and give you what you want. So if we are not getting what we want we are not praising as we should be.

So it is very simple, inna Allah wa malaikatahu yusalloona `ala an-nabi… o believers, Muslims, praise Sayyidina Muhammad (s) and you will get his attention. The Prophet (s) said, “Man salla alayya marra radaAllaha ruhi ilya hatta usalim `alayh - Whoever praises me one time Allah send my soul back to my body and I respond.”

[aaaaaah. Yaaa sayyideeeee!!!!]

He gets attention from the Prophet (s).[aaaah, aaaah!aaah!] he didn’t begin yet.

Sajjalnaak, his mother is on the internet and his sisters. Allahuma salli `ala Sayyidina Muhammad. [aaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!]

When you smile, it means the tajallis iscoming down that tajallis he feels it quickliy, he is crying or smiling. He didn’t cry yet. [ Ya saaaayideee, Ya rasululllaaaaaah, hhaaa, hhaaaa]

Ashhadu an la ilaha ill-Allah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadun rasul.

 

[short dhikr]

 

Ila hadratin-nabi…

So to bring the attention of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) is to keep always mentioning him and praising him. Because to show your relationship to someone is always either today you send him or her, an SMS or email, or you give a call every now and then, to keep that relationship fresh. When you separate for a long time you feel shy to call. If you call you say, “I broke the ice, I melted the ice.” So you need not to have ice between you and the Prophet (s). you need always that hot warm relationship between you and the Prophet (s) that anyone you call upon him he answers you. Although you might not hear it but he answers you.

And the whole Islam is based on the relationship between you and the Prophet (s) and between you and Allah through the Prophet (s) and between you and your shaykh that he guided you to keep that relationship strong. Because whenever he sees that relationship is beginning to be cold he brings it back to be warm and to bring it back to be warm you have to have a good relationship with the guide, the Shaykh if you don’t have a good relationship you will not be able to bring you back to the presence of Sayyidina Muhammad (s). that is why the company of the Shaykh is important. Else you will have between him and you there is some kind of coldness that you are not seeing him, you are not listening to him physically you are not building up your relationship with him, if you are able to visit you visit and if not, at least you have to keep his guidance in you. Today nothing is guiding us except our egoes. People their ego guides them today. Whatever their ego or their desires ask they respond. Whatever inspiration comes from Allah and his prophet from the Prophet (s) or from the shaykh directly to the heart you struggle to fufill it, too many obstacles in front of you.

So Allah swt wants you to build that relationship and not to be a friend only you can say “I am his friend” and now it is very famous, “friend, friend, friend” with Facebook. You are my friend I show you all my private pictures. From where he became your friend. You saw him one time on internet and he became your friend and you expose all your pictures to him. And whatever friends you have with you in the picture become available to him. And that is not relationship - that is nakedness. Not you are naked but you are exposing yourself to everyone on the internet, millions of people.

Friendship is something like “that person I like him, we sometimes go places together for dinner,” or rafeeq. Sahib is different. Who is your companion. [you.] No, not me; not yet.

Your companion is by definition by normal life, your spouse. Your wife or your husband is your companion. Is it not? Because you relate to each other everything. That means the companion is companionship going along in every moment of your life. If you divorce because today they divorce a lot or separate that is not a real companion. That means you chose a false companion. A companion is someone if you cut him into pieces that will not change his love to her or to him.

Sahaaba, the Prophet (s) build them up, that is why they are called Sahaaba. They are not call friends, rufaqa’ih. They are called ashaab, ashaabee, or ashaabuh. Ashaab an-Nabi that means if he wants to go anywhere they are with him. If they are not with him physically they are with him spiritually. They will never lose sight of his presence

When two people teenagers love each other you can define them as real companions. Huh? They cannot sleep. You are like that before you are still like that. You cannot they want to see each other daily. Look Romeo and Juliet. The story. How is it? He was playing the guitar or musical instrument under her window. You were playing for her also?

So Sahaaba, ashaab an-Nabi (s), Allah honored them, no one is like them. Because their companionship to the Prophet (s) cannot be described.

So companionship is important. And that is why the word, as I explained before from ashaab an-Nabi. Ashaab came from sahib. Pakistani the say sahib, everyone is sahabi. Muhammad Ilyas saheb. What’s your name Selim saheb. Everyone is saheb. Saheb if you cut him into pieces he will not change his love to the one he loves. Ashaab an-Nabi (s) comes from suhbat. Sahib is the name and suhbat is… sahib is the noun and subhat is the description the adjective, that you are always with the, always making the companionship to be really described as real subhat.

That is why Sayyidina Shah Naqshbandi imam of the tariqah and sultan of this tariqah always he defines his meetings with a title before he begins, “Our way - tariqatuna as-suhbat wal-khayru fil-jami`yyah - Our way is companionship [and the good is in the gathering].” If it is not companionship it means we are not in reality - no relationship. So he wants to make sure whenever he opens a majlis, he wants to say,

'"Our way is companionship," as Allah swt mentioned in Holy Qur'an, about the verse that mentioned in it suhbat and that person in particular that Allah mentioned as companion of the Prophet (s) who is mentioned in Holy Qur'an by name, Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (ra) .

إِلاَّتَنصُرُوهُ فَقَدْ نَصَرَهُ اللّهُ إِذْ أَخْرَجَهُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ ثَانِيَ اثْنَيْنِ إِذْ هُمَا فِي الْغَارِ إِذْ يَقُولُ لِصَاحِبِهِ لاَ تَحْزَنْ إِنَّ اللّهَ مَعَنَا فَأَنزَلَ اللّهُ سَكِينَتَهُ عَلَيْهِ وَأَيَّدَهُ بِجُنُودٍ لَّمْ تَرَوْهَا وَجَعَلَ كَلِمَةَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ السُّفْلَى وَكَلِمَةُ اللّهِ هِيَ الْعُلْيَا وَاللّهُ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌ

Illa tansuroohu faqad nasarahu Allahu idh akhrajahu alladheena kafaroo thaaniya ithnayni idh huma fi ’l-ghaari idh yaqoolu li-saahibihi laa tahzan inna Allaha ma`ana fa-anzala Allahu sakeenatahu `alayhi wa ayyadahu bi-junoodin lam tarawha wa ja`ala kalimata alladheena kafaroo as-sufla wa kalimatullahi hiya al-`ulya w’Allahu `azeezun hakeem

If ye help not (your leader), (it is no matter): for Allah did indeed help him, when the Unbelievers drove him out: he had no more than one companion; they two were in the cave, and he said to his companion, "Have no fear, for Allah is with us": then Allah sent down His peace upon him, and strengthened him with forces which ye saw not, and humbled to the depths the word of the Unbelievers. But the word of Allah is exalted to the heights: for Allah is Exalted in might, Wise. 9:40

So where that verse has been revealed? In the cave from where they were migrating from Mecca to Medina they were passing through that cave an they were going there to rest and ..and Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (ra) was sad. We won’t mention here the reason and he was sad and Allah revealed that verse to the Prophet (s) in the cave. It means you want to have real companionship with Allah and his prophet and with the mashaykh you have to go to the cave. That suhbat cannot be anywhere. It cannot be in the park and it cannot be in the home. You must find it in the cave.

Who is that cave. Ashaab al-kahf, the Surah of ashaab al-kahf, the Companions of the Cave, Allah said to them:

فَأْوُوا إِلَى الْكَهْفِ يَنشُرْ لَكُمْ رَبُّكُم مِّن رَّحمته ويُهَيِّئْ لَكُم مِّنْ أَمْرِكُم مِّرْفَقًا

fawoo ila alkahfi yanshur lakum rabbukum min rahmatihi wa yuhayyi lakum min amrikum mirfaqa.

"betake yourselves to the Cave: Your Lord will shower His mercies on you and disposes of your affair towards comfort and ease." 18:16

And [for many a year] thou might have seen the sun, on its rising, incline away from their cave on the right, and, on its setting, turn aside from them on the left, while they lived on in that spacious chamber, [bearing witness to] this of God's messages:

18:17

He whom God guides, he alone has found the right way; whereas for him whom He lets go astray thou canst never find any protector who would point out the right way.

And thou wouldst have thought that they were awake, whereas they lay asleep. And We caused them to turn over repeatedly, now to the right, now to the left; and their dog [lay] on the threshold, its forepaws outstretched. Had you come upon them [unprepared], thou wouldst surely have turned away from them in flight, and wouldst surely have been filled with awe of them. 18:18

…some will say, "[They were] three, the fourth of them being their dog," while others will say, "Five, with their dog as the sixth of them" -idly guessing at something of which they can have no knowledge -and [so on, until] some will say, "[They were] seven, the eighth of them being their dog." Say: "My Sustainer knows best how many they were. None but a few have any [real] knowledge of them. Hence, do not argue about them otherwise than by way of an obvious argument, and do not ask any of those [story-tellers] to enlighten thee about them." 18:22

O people of the cave, O the people who were running - either they were 3 or 5 or 7, and their dog is with them. No one knows their number except Allah swt. Allah is telling them run to the cave. That cave is al-Kahf al-Muhammadiyya. That means "run to the Prophet (s)!" He is the safety boat, the boat of safety that can carry everyone from these storms in the ocean and his boat will sail in that stormy ocean.

وَخَلَقْنَا لَهُم مِّن مِّثْلِهِ مَا يَرْكَبُونَ

Wa khalaqna lahum min mithlihi ma yarqaboon.

And We have created for them similar (vessels) on which they ride. 36:42

[It means] "And from the exemplar of that we have created an imitational boat they can ride on it." Like today we went on a boat, that boat is an imitation of the real boat that takes you thru that ocean from shore of safety to other shore of safety. That means passing from one side of dunya to the other side of dunya no one can take you except Sayyidina Muhammad. When you run to that cave that is the Safinat al-Muhammadiyya or the Kahf al-Muhammadiyya. When you enter you cannot enter if you are not a companion. Because you have to enter and go all the way. When we entered the boat today, not everyone can go on the boat. Not anyone foreigner can come and enter, they will not let him in. so no one can jump on the Muhammadan boat except those who are accepted by Sayyidina Muhammad (s).

So how we can become companions of the Prophet (s)? Not companions like the Sahaaba of an-Nabi but you can inherit. You be the imitational one. In that cave the reality of talqeen, talqeen is putting on your tongue the secret of this order. Was established in that cave. It means you have been called ot presence of the Prophet (s) in that cave. And Grandshaykh said that the Prophet (s) ordered Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (ra) to bring all the souls of Naqshbandi Order all the souls were there. So all the souls of the Naqshbandi. Disciples were in the Ghaari Thawr, the Kahf al-Muhammadiyya, where Allah called Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Saahib. If the father is saahib what about the children. So the children will be ashaab. So when they called the souls of the Naqshbandi and they attended any dhikr he is for sure stamped as a Naqshbandi and he was present in that cave. And when you enter there in that cave are you not going to see everyone there.

Who was there? Waleed? Who was there. Sayyidina Muhammad (s). So anyone who saw the Prophet (s) can he go to hellfire? Saw the Prophet (s) and believed in him and said la ilaha ill-Allah Muhammad Rasulullah. There everyone was called with Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (ra) and the imam of khatm was called, Sayyidina Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani, to lead them in khatm and to see the Prophet (s) really and to.. that is why Sayyidina Shah Naqshband said in every suhbat “Our tariqah is suhbat.” That means our tariqah has already been with the Prophet (s) in the cave with Sayyidina Muhammad (s) and Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (ra), that means they have already acquire and inherited the secret of Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (ra) that there in suhbat with the Prophet (s) and that is enough to guide them all the way from dunya to akhira and they will not leave this dunya with out seeing the prophet. And that is meaning of tariqatuna as-suhbat that is the meaning of as-suhbat. May Allah keep us always with the suhbat of our shuyukh with suhbat of Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (ra) and with suhbat of all Sahaaba especially with Sayyidina `Umar (ra) and Sayyidina `Uthman and with Sayyidina `Ali (ra) and Sayyidina Al-Hasan and Sayyidina Al-Husayn and with all his sons-in-law and with all awliya who are descending from the Prophet (s) at every moment and with suhbat of our Shaykh Mawlana Shaykh And with suhbat of Grandshaykh . And before I say Fatihah, Mawlana said to tell them they are really in that suhbat and they will never be away from that suhbat of the Prophet (s) .