Hierarchy of Saints Series, Vol 13
The Oceans of Sayyidina `Ali (r) and Sayyidina Abu Bakr (r)
Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani
26 August 2010 Fenton Zawiya, Michigan
Fajr Ramadan Series 2010
Allahuma salli ‘ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa 'ala `ali Muhammadin.
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.
Obey Allah, obey the Prophet, and obey those in authority among you. (4:59)
What did we say yesterday? Qul Huwa Allah, "(Yaa Muhammad) Say, 'Allah.'" Thumma dharhum fee khawdihim yala`boon, "And then leave them to waste their time and play. Don't bother with them, only connect your heart with Me." So connecting the heart is very important, and that is why Allah (swt) said in the Holy Qur'an:
وَلَا تُطِعْ مَنْ أَغْفَلْنَا قَلْبَهُ عَن ذِكْرِنَا وَاتَّبَعَ هَوَاهُ وَكَانَ أَمْرُهُ فُرُطً
Wa la tut`i man aghfalnaa qalbahu `an dhikrina wataba`a hawaahu wa kaana amruhu furuta. Don't follow those whose hearts we made heedless from our remembrance. (al-Kahf, 18:28)
So that means keep you heart always in remembrance of Allah, keep that connection. That connection when you took baya`, the fitting in the pipe is there but don't lose that connection. Don't be heedless! You are forgetting there is connection from you to the shaykh and from the shaykh to Prophet (s).
أَفَلَا يَتَدَبَّرُونَ الْقُرْآنَ أَمْ عَلَى قُلُوبٍ أَقْفَالُهَا
Afalaa yatadabaroona al-quraan aw `ala quloobin aghfaalaha.Do they not then earnestly seek to understand the Qur'an, or are their hearts locked up by them? (47:24)
إِنَّا نَحْنُ نَزَّلْنَا الذِّكْرَ وَإِنَّا لَه ُُ لَحَافِظُونَ
Inna nahnu nazalnaa 'dh-dhikri wa inna lahu la-haafizhoon.Verily, We sent down the dhikr and surely, We will guard it (from corruption). (Al-Hijr, 15:9)
Or are there locks on their hearts? They don't want to remember Allah. Keep remembering Allah, as He has said in Surat al-Ikhlas, Qul Huwa Allahu Ahad, "He is Allah, Ahad; no one is Creator except Him." Don't let them have locks on their hearts or be heedless. It is said al-quloob awweatun wa idhaa umliyat imma al-haqq wa imma al-baatil, "Hearts are containers." The heart is a container that has to be filled; either you fill it with Haqq, Truth, or you fill it with baatil, falsehood. Fill it with Truth and with Allah's remembrance, as He said, "Don't let your heart have a lock; I am giving you dhikrullah to fill it." And when it is overflowing as you fill it, when it reaches the top, what happens? It will overflow. When you fill the cup slowly, slowly, don't stop here and say, "I am not seeing anything," there is nothing need to see, you don't need to see because it is not for you to ask for something, it is for Allah, as Rabi`a al-`Adawiyya (q) said, "I am not worshiping from the fear of Hellfire, and not for the love of Paradise, but I am worshipping for Your love, yaa Allah, so put me where You like!"
So don't stop filling, fill and keep going, keep going, and when you reach to the top, fill more. Then Shaytan will come and say to you, "You are crazy, you wasted your time." If you don't listen, then keep going, then it overflows. At that time the light that was inside, when filling up, you can't see it , it is veiled, but when it overflows, it comes outside and that light of dhikrullah's light will overflow to all the parts of the body. And that happened in Lama in a moment, in one blink of an eye you will see that overflow of the heat and that is not easy to get. You have to struggle very hard against the ego. We are all struggling, as Grandshaykh (q) said, thumma aamanoo thumma kafaroo, "One day up, one day down."
There are two ways to fill our containers: one is to fill it with dhikrullah, to not be heedless, and to not put a lock; and the other way is to do what Shaytan wants and fill it with dunya, and then all this darkness will come out of the heart and spread through the whole body. So our duty is not to let darkness fill our hearts, but rather to make that light of dhikrullah come out. Allah is Merciful with ummat an-Nabi; He said, "Remember Me, I remember you." wa la dhikrullahi akbar, "And Allah's remembrance of you is greater." It cannot be expressed or described; it is over limits.
Sahl ibn `Abdullah (r) said, "It is forbidden, haraam, on a heart that the light of reality will enter in it." Because maybe that heart has in it something that Allah hates. What does Allah hate? When you deny His Mercy. When you deny His mercy Allah is not happy, because Allah wants you to know He is All Merciful and then He rewards you. And who is His Mercy?
وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ إِلاَّ رَحْمَة ً لِلْعَالَمِينَ
Wa ma arslanaka illa Rahmatan lil-`Alameen.And We have sent you (O Muhammad) not but as a mercy for the 'Alameen (Mankind, jinns and all that exists). (Al-Anbiya, 21:107)
That is His Prophet! So you must be happy because you don't deny Allah's mercy, His Prophet. But those who deny Sayyidina Muhammad (s) must repent, as Allah is not happy with them. We say, "As-salam `alayk, yaa Rasoolullah! We love you and hope to be with you on Judgment Day. We love our shuyookh and Mawlana Shaykh and we love your family!"
And az-Zuhri (r) said, salaah al-quloob afdal min `ibadati ath-thaqalayn, "To mend, to remedy the heart for one hour is better than the worship of Sayyidina Adam (a) to the Day of Judgment." That means sitting in dhikrullah for one hour is better than the worship of ins and jinn from day one to the end of dunya! That is one wali describing how much he is getting through his experiences through one hour. Imagine then in khalwa how much you are doing dhikrullah! They allow only two hours of sleep. When given permission for khalwa, you feel you don't need to sleep, you have power, you don't need to eat, you have power. So you are reading Qur'an, you are mentioning Allah's Beautiful Names and Attributes and that is dhikrullah. All that is worth more than all the worship of ins and jinn. And when Allah sees you devoting and doing that remembrance, Allah will give you from His Mercy! That means He gives you from Sayyidina Muhammad(s) and when that happens you see things and hear things that never occurred before!
It is said that in our way the only condition that the shaykh takes from the mureed is to leave forbiddens. That is why Grandshaykh (q) said, "There are 800 forbiddens that we have to take away from ourselves, and to leave one forbidden is better than the worship of the ins and jinn." You will be rewarded more than that worship.
It doesn't mean you have to leave your prayers, obligations are required. We are not talking about that, but on top of that Allah gives you, ma laa `aynun raa'at wa laa udhunun sami`at wa laa khatar `alaa qalbi bashar, "What no eye saw and no ear heard and what no one can understand of what Allah give of reward for leaving one forbidden."
That is more valuable, to leave one (of 800) forbiddens than to do all the 500 maamuraat, all the forms of worship. Why? Because you are letting your heart's container be filled with the lights that Allah wants there and not letting Iblees take it from you! What did Sayyidina `Ali (r) say? We know this kind of knowledge is coming from two sources to the Prophet (s), one is Sayyidina `Ali (r)and one is through Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (r). Sayyidina `Ali came to the Prophet and this is not a hadeeth, but it was mentioned by Sayyidina Ali, dhu nafs ar-radiyya. Dullanee `alaa aqrab at-turuq il-Allah wa afdaluha, "Guide me to easiest, nearest of ways to Allah and the most easy one."
Because there is a hadeeth that one Sahaabi (r) came to Prophet and said, qad kathurat `alay Shari`ah al-Islam, "I am a person who is weak. There are too many obligations in Islam and there are too many rules." That is why people today are so dipped in the ocean of liberalism and dipped in the ocean of love of dunya that they cannot accept any more than the easy way. They don't want to be awliya. That relationship with Allah is forgotten that:
أَلا إِنَّ أَوْلِيَاء اللّهِ لاَ خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلاَ هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
alaa inna awliyaulllah la khawfan `alayhim wa laa hum yahzanoon. Behold! verily on the friends of Allah there is no fear, nor shall they grieve; (al-Anbiyaa, 10:62)
As one scholar said, "Wear jeans, pray your prayers and then go to mall. That is enough for you." No, that is not enough! As we said, leaving a forbidden is better than the worship of jinn and ins, and that Sahaabi (r) asked for something to make easy for him Islam. And Prophet said, "Keep your tongue wet with dhikrullah." And is that difficult or easy? It is easy!
وَاذْكُر رَّبَّكَ فِي نَفْسِكَ تَضَرُّعاً وَخِيفَةً وَدُونَ الْجَهْرِ مِنَ الْقَوْلِ بِالْغُدُوِّ وَالآصَالِ وَلاَ تَكُن مِّنَ الْغَافِلِينَ
Wadhkur rabbaka fee nafsika tadaruan wa khufya wa doon al-jahri min al-qawl wa laa takun mina 'l-ghaafileen. And do thou (O reader!) Bring thy Lord to remembrance in thy (very) soul, with humility and in reverence, without loudness in words, in the mornings and evenings; and be not thou of those who are unheedful. (al-Aa`raaf, 7:205)
"Remember Allah in yourself or in your heart, or don't make it loud." That means keep it in your heart. Don't let Shaytan enter your heart, let Allah enter your heart! Then, "I will let My lights and manifestations enter your heart." So that Sahaabi (r) wanted something easy and so Prophet said, "Do dhikrullah through your tongue," as doing heart dhikr is more difficult. So Sayyidina `Ali (r)said, "Guide me to a way to Allah that is easiest." And the Prophet said, alayka bi dawaamati dhikrillah fil-khalwah, "Your duty is to remember Allah (swt) in your seclusion, when you are alone." It means keep Allah's remembrance always, when you are able to do it, do it. In kalwa means in secrecy, not like the Sahaabi who asked the Prophet and he said, "Keep your tongue busy with dhikrullah," for Sayyidina `Ali it is higher, "Keep doing dhikrullah in hidden way, fill your heart with dhikrullah."
That means your heart has to be with Allah, but your face, your zhaahir with the people as the Prophet said, lee sa`atun ma` Allah wa sa`atun ma` al-khalq, "I have one hour with Allah and one hour with people." Or, "One face with Allah and one face with people." And so you keep that secret. Where do you keep secrets? You lock them up in the heart. And how do you lock them after you do dhikr? It is as Mawlana Shaykh and Grandshaykh (q) taught us, awda`na haadha adh-dhikr `indak, yaa Rasoolullah, (we have placed this dhikr in your presence, O Messenger of Allah) to hand it off to Prophet for him to keep for us, or else we will lose it slowly, slowly to Shaytan. "We deposit that dhikr, yaa Rasoolullah, in your bank, that prayer or du`a or dhikr, we immediately deposit it before we spend it!" You can easily spend it when Shaytan comes. He says, "I give you this, I give you dunya," and you lose it.
And Sayyidina `Ali (r)asked, kayfa adhkur, yaa Rasoolullah, "How do I do that dhikr, what is the technique or way?" He said, ghammi `aynayk, "Close your eyes and listen three times what I am going to say." Why did he say, "Close your eyes." That means, "Disconnect yourself completely from dunya."
وَلاَ تَقْفُ مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌ إِنَّ السَّمْعَ وَالْبَصَرَ وَالْفُؤَادَ كُلُّ أُولـئِكَ كَانَ عَنْهُ مَسْؤُولاً
Inna as-sama` wal-basar wal-fu'aad kullu ulaika kaana `anha masoola. And pursue not that of which thou hast no knowledge; for every act of hearing, or of seeing or of (feeling in) the heart will be enquired into (on the Day of Reckoning) (al-Israa,17:36)
May Allah forgive us. By saying, "Yaa Rasoolullah, we love you," Allah Allah, ala kull man taghaa wa tajabbbar `ala anfusina.
So the biggest connection to dunya is what? It is the eyes. With ears you hear but you cannot see. So to see is through the eyes, and when awliyaullah want to attract mureeds it is through their eyes. They attract people when they look into their eyes. When they look into their eyes then that shaykh will carry them. So that is what we mentioned about Shaykh Sharafuddin (q) and Grandshaykh (q). They went to a mall in Istanbul to make people to look at their eyes. As an ironic thing, seeing these two shaykh with their two turbans and seeing that and smiling and laughing, that is a joke. And they look into their eyes and as soon as they do that they carry them, attract them.
So eyes are very important for awliya. When you look into the eyes of people that attracts them and one day Allah will guide them.
إِنَّ الدِّينَ عِندَ اللّهِ الإِسْلاَمُ
Inna ad-deen `indaallah al-Islam.The Religion before Allah is Islam, (3:19)
So he said, "Close your eyes and repeat three times." When you close your eyes, where are you? Away from dunya and with the One you mention. And he said to him, say, "La ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah," and Sayyidina `Ali was hearing. Aghmid `aynayk wa asma`. So both of that, disconnect from dunya and close your eyes and come in to the garden of the Divine Presence and through you might not see anything, of course Sayyidina `Ali was seeing, but we listen to la ilaha illa-Llah.
فَاعْلَمْ أَنَّهُ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَاسْتَغْفِرْ لِذَنبِكَ وَلِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتِ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مُتَقَلَّبَكُمْ وَمَثْوَاكُمْ
Fa`lam annahu la ilaha illa-Llah w'astaghfir li-dhanbik wa li 'l-mumineena wa 'l-muminaati w 'Allahu ya`lamu muqallibukum wa mathwaakum.Know, therefore, that there is no god but Allah. and ask forgiveness for thy fault, and for the men and women who believe: for Allah knows how ye move about and how ye dwell in your homes. (47:19)
"Know that there is no Creator except Me. When you carry that power, I am giving that power," and then astaghfir li dhanbik wa li 'l-mumineena wa 'l-muminaati, "Then ask forgiveness for believers." That is the biggest power that Allah gave to ummat an-Nabi. Allah will be happy with that laa ilaha illa-Llah, Maqam at-Tawheed. You are declaring that there is none to be worshiped except Allah. That is the message of Islam, you have to know there is no creator except Allah (swt). And if you say laa ilaha illa-Llah, that is the most powerful tool. And then Sayyidina `Ali (r) closed his eyes and repeated what the Prophet said. So at that moment when you say that dhikr, the Prophet is present and that is the dhikr that Prophet (rs) taught Sayyidina `Ali. So Sayyidina `Ali is present, and that takes you to the Divine Presence and you might not see that but Allah is witness that you are saying to Him, "There is none to worship except You!"
So that is the tool that was given to Sayyidina `Ali and we are saying, "O Allah! We are accepting that tool to remember You all the time in our life and if we are forgetting to do that, we ask You to send angels to do that on our behalf!!" And Prophet (s) is the city of knowledge and `Ali is its door. So that is the loud dhikr given to Sayyidina `Ali and that is through every tariqat that comes from him, the door to it is that dhikr. So the other door to Prophet is Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq and the method of Sayyidina Abu Bakr is a different way. Those coming through the Naqshbandi Way are combining the two ways from the prophet of Sayyidina Abu Bakr (r) and Sayyidina `Ali (r), and they combine in Sayyidina Jafar as-Sadiq (r). He was one of the 12 imaams of Islam and they were coming from time to time, and Sayyidina Jafar was combining in him those two sources. In the next session we will mention about how they are combined in Sayyidina Ja`far (r). That is, the two rivers coming together mentioned in the Qur'an:
مَرَجَ الْبَحْرَيْنِ يَلْتَقِيَانِ
maraj al-bahrayni yaltaqiyaan. He has let free the two bodies of flowing water, meeting together: (ar-Rahmaan, 55:19)
The word "merge" comes from Arabic does it not? SubhaanAllah, the English language takes from the Holy Qur'an! Also in French, "merger," takes from the Holy Qur'an.
So, marraj al-bahrayn yaltaqiyaan, "The two oceans are merging," the ocean of Sayyidina `Ali (r) and the ocean of Sayyidina Abu Bakr (r). That is the golden ocean whose value cannot be described! We will continue that next time.
That is why say, laa ilaaha illa-Llah, laa ilaaha illa-Llah, laa ilaaha illa-Llah. That is why we said yesterday, people on the Internet who were typing, "Allah," it is going on forever. That is an electromagnetic voice that goes forever and you will be continuously rewarded! Dhikr of laa ilaaha illa-Llah leads to Allah. We will explain this tomorrow, inshaa-Allah.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah. May Allah forgive us.
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