Simply Islam Event at Singapore Expo Hall
Titled, “Even Though We’ve Never Met” (2)
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh. Alhamdulillah, for Who made us from the ummat of al-Mustafa (s) and made al-Mustafa the intercessor for the Muslims and for those who said, “Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llah, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan `abduhu wa habeebuhu wa rasooluh.”
I would like to thank Simply Islam for this event in general, because whenever they do an event it is successful. They need your support, your prayers and they also need your help. Help them and they will help you. I don't know where Muhammad Nassir of SimplyIslam is. He surprises me every time with a new title that I never heard before; now he came up with the title "We Never Met Before," which is a very technical point taken from Islamic principles. We have to be aware of many things in order to understand it and I hope to address it with the lower knowledge I have, which is less than a drop. I am not claiming to be anything; no, I am nothing. I am not claiming to be a scholar; no, I am by the door with the shoes rather than on the podium. To be on the podium you have to be responsible, but if you are at the door you can take your shoes and run away!
The hadith he mentioned is a more comprehensive riwayah than they mentioned, and it is related from Ibn Abbas (r):
وعن بن عباس أنه قال لجلسائه يوما :أي الناس أعجب إيمانا؟ قالوا : الملائكة. قال: وكيف لا تؤمن الملائكة والأمر فوقهم يرونه؟ قالوا :الأنبياء. قال: وكيف لا يؤمن الأنبياء والأمر ينزل عليهم غدوة وعشية؟ قالوا: فنحن .قال: وكيف لا تؤمنون وأنتم ترون من رسول الله ما ترون؟ ثم قال: قال رسول الله :" أعجب الناس إيمانا قوم يأتون من بعدي يؤمنون بي ولم يروني . أولئك إخواني حقا ".
`An ibn `Abbas annahu qaala li-julasaa’ihi yawman: Ayyu’n-naasi a`ajabu imaanan, qaaloo al-malaa’ikah. Qaala: Wa kayfa la tu’min al-malaa’ikata wa ’l-amru fawqahum yarawnahu. Qaaloo: al-anbiyaa. Qaala wa kayfa laa yu’min al-anbiyaa wa ’l-amr yanzil `alayhim ghadwatan wa `ashiyya? Qaaloo: fa-nahnu? Qaala: wa kayfa laa tu’minoona wa antum tarawna maa tarawna min rasoolillah maa tarawn? Thumma qaala: Qaala Rasoolullahi: a`ajaba ’n-naasi imaanan qawmun yaatoona min ba`dee yuminoon bee wa lam yarawnee. Oolaa’ika ikhwaanee haqqan.
The Prophet (s) asked the Sahaabah (r), “Who has the strongest faith in their heart?” They answered, “The prophets!” Prophet (s) said, “How will they not have strong faith when revelation comes to them?” They said, “Then it is the angels!” Prophet (s) said, “How will they not have strong faith when they are in the Divine Presence?” They answered, “Us, your Sahaabah!” Prophet (s) said, “How will they not have strong faith when you also see me?” He (s) said, “The best of people will come at the End of Time, and they will not see me but they still believe in me. They are my brothers, truly.” (Sahih Bukhari)
You are those people! You are “the brothers of the Prophet,” Sayyidina Muhammad (s) whom he mentioned to his Sahaabah, “There are coming people who never saw me and they accepted me and they are my brothers, they are so close to me.” That is how the Prophet (s) is looking at us!
In another hadith the Prophet (s) said:
Aqwaamun min aslaabi 'r-ijaal yaatoona mim baadee, yu’minoona bee wa lam yarawnee.
A group of people, who will come after me until the Day of Judgment, from the piety of these men (like the Sahaabah), who will believe in me and they never saw me.
In another hadith it is mentioned that the Sahaabah (r) saw the Prophet (s) had so much emotion and love, and he said:
كان صلى الله عليه وسلم في مجلسه ذات يوم فقال: "متى ألقى أحبابي؟". فقال بعض الصحابة: أوليس نحن أحباؤك؟ قال: "أنتم أصحابي، ولكن أحبابي قوم لم يروني وآمنوا بي أنا إليهم بالأشواق
“Matta alqaa ahbaabee? When will I meet my lovers?” They said, “Are we not your lovers?” and the Prophet (s) said, “No, you are my Companions. My lovers are those who believed in me and didn't see me, and I am so in love with them, I want to see them.”
And in another version:
اشتقت لاحبابي . فقال اصحابه رضي الله عنهم : نحن يا رسول الله ؟ , قال لا انتم اصحابي أما احبابي فأناس من أُمتي يأتون في اخر الزمان يحبونني ولم يروني , اعوانكم على الخير كثير , وأعوانهم على الشر كثير
Anas bin Malik (r) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (s) said, " I wish that I could meet my brothers." The Sahaabah (r) asked, "Aren't we your brothers?" He replied, "You are my Companions, but my brothers are those who will believe in me without having seen me." Al-Albani graded it sahih in al-Silsilah al-Sahihah.
Here we have to be very careful with the Arabic words. Prophet (s) said, “Ayna ahbaabee? Where are my lovers?” Can you love someone without seeing him? No, you cannot love someone without seeing her or him. Today, can you marry like they did before, where they would say, “This is your wife,” and she would be covered from head to toe? No, you want to see at least the face, and that is sunnah. So, can you love someone without seeing him or her? Then what do you think about the Prophet (s), did he know his ummah or not? That's the question. When he asked to see the people he loved and wanted to see the most, he said, “They are my brothers.” Didn't they see each other? You might or might not see your companions, but you have to know your brothers who come from the same mother and father. So I ask, did the Prophet (s) know us? This is the question and it is very simple, but before we go into the hadith of the Prophet (s), I will ask a question.
Do you know a person called Ahmad Tijani? (No.) If you Google “Ahmad Tijani” you find this gentleman, who is a shaykh; then you go to Facebook and you see his profile and find hundreds of fans. How can Google know this information, but the Prophet (s) would not know? It is impossible! Allah (swt) gave Sayyidina Muhammad (s) heavenly technology, and what technology does Google have in comparison to the heavenly technology of Allah (swt)? What technology does Facebook have, and is it comparable?
Some say, “The Prophet (s) doesn't know as he is a human being like us.” Okay, what has been mentioned in the hadith of the Prophet (s) related by Jabbir ibn `AbdAllah and written in the famous work Musannaf of `Abdur Razzaq, the hadith that all scholars of the ummah accepted after him?
رواه عبد الرزاق بسنده عن جابر بن عبد الله بلفظ قال قلت: يا رسول الله، بأبي أنت وأمي، أخبرني عن أول شيء خلقه الله قبل الأشياء
I sacrifice myself for you, yaa Muhammad, and my father and my mother. Tell me, what has Allah created first?
What did Allah create first? Does anyone know? They say the “Big Bang,” as interpreted in this hadith:
. قال: يا جابر، إن الله تعالى خلق قبل الأشياء نور نبيك من نوره
The Prophet (s) said, “Allah created the Light of His Prophet; before creating anything, the Light of the Prophet (s) was created.”
From where can this Light be created? Some scholars say, “The Light of the Prophet (s).” … and that is why I said this topic is very technical. Don't get bored, but it is very good to know the answer. It is from Nurillah; Allah huwa an-noor, and one of Allah's Beautiful Names and Attributes is an-Noor. If we shut down every light here, we will not see anything, and even the microphone will not work since there is no energy, no light in it. If there is no light you cannot see anything, and if the light comes, you can know everything and also see it.
Allah (swt) created Sayyidina Muhammad (s) before anything was to be created, qabl al-ashyaa, wa ja`ala dhalik an noor yudawwir kamaa yashaa, that Light of the Prophet (s). The evidence Allah (swt) gave in the Holy Qur'an might be something that is a controversial issue to some scholars as they explain it in their ways, but the Holy Qur'an carries secrets; every ayah can carry millions of meanings, so don't object. Allah (swt) said in Holy Qur'an:
إِنَّا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ شَاهِدًا وَمُبَشِّرًا وَنَذِيرًا
inna arsalaanaka shaahidan wa mubashshiran wa nadheera,
We have sent you as a witness and as a bearer of glad tidings and as a warner. (Surat al-Fath, 48:8)
If we look at the first part only, Allah didn't say, “We sent you as a witness for 1500 years.” He didn't limit with an age or time, but He said, inna arsalaanaka shaahidan, “We sent you as a witness,” which means, “We sent you to be a witness, yaa Muhammad, on everything I created, from Day One until the Day of Judgment.”
After Allah (swt) created the Light of Muhammad (s), He put that Light in what we cannot explain, but he said that Light began to turn around. Yadurr, “turning.” When it is turning faster than the speed of light, energy is produced, and that was found in science. If you go back to science, you find that everything on earth is created with energy. Does anyone ask how this earth is turning on its axle non-stop? It is with energy.
The Prophet (s) said:
ولم يكن في ذلك الوقت لوح ولا قلم ولا جنة ولا نار ولا ملك ولا سماء ولا أرض ولا شمس ولا قمر ولا جِنِّيٌ ولا إنسي فلما أراد الله أن يخلق الخلق قسم ذلك النور أربعة أجزاء
And there was not, at that time, a Tablet or a Pen or a Paradise or a Fire or an angel or jinn or a heaven or an earth. And when Allah wished to create creation, he divided that Light into four parts.
There is a hadith that says Allah (swt) created the spirit of the Prophet (s), who was a Light in front of Allah (swt) 2,000 years before he created Adam (a). There is another hadith that says Allah (swt) created Muhammad (s) 14,000 years before the creation of Adam (a). This means that Prophet (s) saw the creation of the human being through Adam (a), and therefore, it makes sense to scholars when the Prophet (s) said,
كنت نبي و ادم بين الماء و الطين
Kuntu Nabiyyin wa adamu bayna 'l-maa'i wa 't-teen,
I was a prophet when Adam was between water and clay.
كنت نبيا وآدم بين الروح والجسد
Kuntu nabiyyan wa adam bayna ar-roohi wa ’l-jasad.
I was a prophet while Adam was between soul and body.Allah (swt) said:
وَرَفَعْنَا لَكَ ذِكْرَكَ
Wa rafa`na laka dhikrak.
And We have elevated your remembrance! (Ash-Sharh, 94:4)
It means, “‘Dhikrak’ means not only your name, but We raised your level, yaa Muhammad, that no one can understand or know! We raised you so that everyone created after you can know you and point to you!” That is why Allah (swt) told the angels to make salawaat on Prophet (s):
إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا صَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيمًا
Inna-Llaaha wa malaa'ikatahu yusalloona `ala 'n-nabee, yaa ayyuhal-ladheena aamanoo salloo `alayhi was sallimoo tasleema.
Verily, Allah and His angels send praise on the Prophet. O Believers! Pray upon him and greet him. (Surat al-Ahzaab, 33:56)
How long have Allah and His angels been making salawaat on the Prophet (s)? Did Allah (swt) say to them, "Stop making salawaat." No! That means every angel that Allah created before, is presently creating and will create, will make and are making salawaat on the Prophet (s)! This means even beyond the Day of Judgment, because Allah (swt) is “al-Khaliq” and His creation never ends; He knows what kind of creations and angels He will be making. It never ends, and because it never ends, they are making salawaat on Prophet (s). Are they seeing the Prophet (s) or not? Of course they are seeing him! You cannot make salawaat without seeing someone there, or to whom would you address your salawaat? Allah (swt) brought His Beloved Muhammad (s) to Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa, the Station of Two Bows' Length or Nearer (to Allah), so we have that knowledge that he can go there. The angels already knew through that hadith that Allah created him first and that he is there!
So He made that Light into four parts. From the first part He created the Pen and ordered it to write, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah.” From the second division He created the Preserved Tablet, and from the third Light He created al-`Arsh, the Throne of Allah (swt). Then He divided the last part into four more parts. From the first part, He created the Kursi and in the second part He created the angels. He divided the third part into four different parts. In the first part He created as-samawaat, and in the second part al-ard, the earth; in the third He created Jannah, Paradise, and in the fourth He created Naar, Hellfire.
What was left, He divided into four different parts, and this is what is important for us: from the first part He created the Light of the believers in their foreheads. When Sayyidina Adam (a) disobeyed and Allah sent him to earth, He stroked Sayyidina Adam’s back and all his descendants appeared from drips that came from that stroke. Sayyidina Adam (a) looked at them and asked, “Who are these?” and Allah told him, “These are your children.” As further mentioned in the tafseer of the creation of Sayyidina Adam (a), Allah (swt) put the Light, Noor ‘l-Mu’mineen, in their foreheads:
عن أبي هُرَيْرَةَ قال: قال رَسولُ الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: "لَمّا خَلَقَ الله آدَمَ مَسَحَ ظَهْرَهُ فَسَقَطَ مِنْ ظَهْرِهِ كُلّ نَسَمَةٍ هُوَ خَالِقُهَا مِنْ ذُرّيّتِهِ إِلَى يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ، وَجَعَلَ بَيْنَ عَيْنَي كُلّ إِنْسَانٍ مِنْهُمْ وَبِيصاً مِنْ نُورٍ، ثُمّ عَرَضَهُمْ عَلَى آدَمَ فَقَالَ: أَيْ رَبّ، مَنْ هَؤُلاءِ؟ قال هَؤُلاَءِ ذُرّيّتُكَ، فَرَأَى رَجُلاً مِنْهُمْ فَأَعْجَبَهُ وَبِيصُ ما بَيْنَ عَينَيْهِ، فقال: أيْ رَبّ، مَنْ هَذَا؟ فقال: هَذَا رَجُلٌ مِنْ آخِرِ الاْمَمِ مِن ذُرّيَتِكَ يُقَالُ لَهُ دَاوُدِ، قال: رَبّ وَكَمْ جَعَلْتَ عُمْرَهُ؟ قال: سِتّينَ سَنَةً، قال: أيْ رَبّ، زِدْهُ مِنْ عُمْرِي أرْبَعِينَ سَنَةً، فَلَمّا انْقَضَى عُمْرُ آدَمَ جَاءَهُ مَلَكُ المَوْتِ فقال: أَوَلَمْ يَبْقَ مِنْ عُمْرِي أرْبَعُونَ سَنَةً؟ قال أَوَلَمْ تُعْطِهَا لاِبْنِكَ دَاوُدَ؟ قال: أو لم تعطها ابنك داود قال : فَجَحَدَ آدَمُ فَجَحَدَتْ ذرّيّتُهُ وَنَسِيَ آدَمُ فَنَسِيَتْ ذُرّيّتهُ، وَخَطِىءَ آدَمُ فَخَطِئَتْ ذرّيّتُهُ". قال أبو عيسى: هذا حديثٌ حسنٌ صحيحٌ
When Sayyidina Adam (a) was created, Allah (swt) stroked his back and drips came from it and all his offspring began to appear from those drips. When all those whom Allah created through Adam (a) appeared, (and He taught him all the names, not only of human beings), he said Allah made Light come out between the eyes of people, (and that Light is a trace of noor an-Nabee (s) that Prophet (s) gave to each of his ummah and every human being inherited a little bit of that Light). Sayyidina Adam (a) saw one of them who was very beautiful and he cried, asking, "Yaa Rabbee, who is that?" Allah (swt) said, "That is one of your ummah." One riwaya says it is from the ummah of Sayyidina Muhammad and one says it is one of Sayyidina Adam’s children and that one was Sayyidina Dawood (a). Sayyidina Adam said, "Yaa Rabbee, why did you make his life short, give him part of my life?" And when the Angel of Death came to take his soul, Sayyidina Adam said, "Why have you come? I still have forty years left."The angel said, "You forgot that you gave forty years of your life to Sayyidina Dawood?" (Tirmidhi, Hasan Sahih from Abu Hurayrah)
Sayyidina Adam (a) said, “Yaa Rabbee, what is this?” and Allah (swt) said, “This is the Light with which you can know them.” That is why Allah ordered the angels to make sajdat al-ihtiraam, the sajda of respect, and they bowed to Sayyidina Adam (a) for the sake of the Light of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) in his forehead. Everyone has a trace of that Light in his forehead, so be happy! That is what the Prophet (s) mentioned to the Sahabah (r), and I will mention that hadith since it is very important.
Abu Hurayrah (r) related that the Prophet (s) said:
عن أبي هريرة عن النبي قال: لما خلق الله عز وجل آدم خير لآدم بنيه فجعل يرى فضائل بعضهم على بعض قال فرآني نوراً ساطعاً في أسفلهم فقال يا رب من هذا ؟ قال هذا ابنك أحمد هو الأول والآخر وهو أول شافع ولفظ سعيد والبيهقي
When Allah the Most High created Sayyidina Adam (a), He selected from his descendants and caused him to see the merits of some of them over others. He saw me as a brilliant Light among the last of them and he said, “O my Lord! Who is that one?” He said, “This is your son Ahmad (s). Huwa ’l-awwalu wa ’l-akhiru wa huwa awwalu shafa`ian. He is the First and the Last and he is the Foremost Intercessor.” (al-Bayhaqi)
No one can be an intercessor except Prophet (s), unless Allah (swt) gives that to them, and we know that all of the Prophets and their nations will come to him for intercession on Judgment Day. So here we see that Adam (a) was able to see Sayyidina Muhammad (s). There are 7,000 years between them, but Sayyidina Muhammad (s) saw Sayyidina Adam (a) because he was “witnessing” what was Before and what is After. Look at the difference between Prophet Muhammad (s) and other Prophets, as Allah (swt) gave Sayyidina Muhammad (s) what He did not give anyone else.
Allah (swt) then created from the second part of that Light the hearts of the believers and knowledge of Allah, and from the third He gave them unsuhum, “to be familiar,” or “to be happy” and Kalimat at-Tawheed, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadun Rasoolullah.”
اللَّهُ نُورُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ مَثَلُ نُورِهِ كَمِشْكَاةٍ فِيهَا مِصْبَاحٌ الْمِصْبَاحُ فِي زُجَاجَةٍ
Allaahu nooru 's-samaawaati wa 'l-ardi mathalu noorihi kamishkaatin feehaa misbaahun ‘l-misbaahu fee zujaajatin.
Allah is the Light of the Heavens and Earth. The parable of His Light is as if there were a niche and within it a lamp, the lamp is in a glass. (Surat an-Noor, 24:35)
Allah (swt) also said, as scholars mention:
لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ البَصِيرُ
Laysa ka-mithlihi shay’un wa huwa ’s-samee`u ‘l-baseer.
There is nothing like Him and He is the One Who Hears and Sees (all things).
(Surat ash-Shura, 42:11)
So we ask scholars, “Whom does that verse imply?” We know it implies Sayyidina Muhammad (s) and not Allah (swt), because of the verse:
قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ
Qul huwa Allahu ahad.
Say, “He is Allah, the Unique One!” (Surat al-Ikhlas, 112:1)
He is Unknown, but is known through His Beautiful Names and Attributes. Allah (swt) is “an-Noor,” the Absolute Light, but He is not noor, a light. He says, “Allah is the Light of the heavens and earth,” and in another place He (swt) says, “Nothing can be like Him,” so it means that Light of heaven and earth is Sayyidina Muhammad (s)! So we have explained, Allaahu nooru 's-samaawaati wa 'l-ard.
Then Allah (swt) says, Mathalu noorihi, “The example of His Light is like a bundle of lamps or lights.”
How can we say, “He is not like anything,” but then say “He is like a bundle of lamps?” If He cannot be compared to anything, if there is “nothing like Him,” then “the example of His Light” here means the reality of the Light by which Allah’s creation came into existence is Sayyidina Muhammad (s)! Al-misbaahu fee zujaajah, “the illuminated misbaah,” candle or lamp, is Muhammad Rasoolullah (s), and with that Light he was able to see what Allah is creating!
Therefore, we cannot say, "We have never met;" no, we have met! It was not in a meeting of our forms, haasha!, but we were in the Divine Holy Presence and Allah (swt) asked, "Am I not your Lord?" We said "Yes, You are our Lord!" And when we said this, for sure Allah (swt) put His Name with the name of Prophet (s). Wa rafa`na laka dhikrak, “We have raised your remembrance,” so for sure we are with the Prophet (s) and we met. Everyone will see Prophet (s) with them because he is not going to be outside humanity! The Prophet (s) is mushtaaqan lakum, “missing you,” so don't say, “no.” He is missing every mu’min who has believed in him but does not see him! You are his brothers and sisters and he is missing you! This is how Allah (swt) described His Holy Prophet (s)!
In another hadith, Prophet (s) said:
أنا من الله والمؤمنون مني
Anaa min Allah wal mu’minoon minnee.
I am from Allah and the believers are from me. (Kashf al-Khafaa, 1:237)
Sayyidina Abdul Qadir Jilani (r) mentioned this description in Sirr al-Asraar: “First I created the Light of Muhammad from the Light of My Face.” And he added to that what the Prophet (s) said (in different narrations):
“The first thing Allah created is my soul”, and “the first thing Allah created is the Pen”, and “the first thing Allah created is the intellect”. What is meant by all this is one and the same thing, and that is Haqeeqat al-Muhammadiyya, the Muhammadan Reality.
It is a description of the rooh, noor, the knowledge and the intelligence of Prophet (s). Abdul Qadir Jilani (r) mentioned that in his book:
Ar-Roohu’l-Muhammadi, the Muhammadan Light, is the Cream of all the Universes and it is the beginning of creation. The origin of it is what is in the hadith of Prophet (s), ‘anaa min Allah, “I am from Allah,” because the Prophet (s) said, “I am from His Light and the believers are from me.”
It is said in the Holy Qur'an, alaysa as-subhi bi qareeb, when Sayyidina Musa (a) said to Allah, “Destroy Fira`un for me because he is a tyrant,” and Allah (swt) said, “Is not the morning near?”
K`ab al-Ahbaar (r) makes the entire verse refer to Muhammad (s); it is a metaphor of the Light of Muhammad:
The Messenger of Allah (s) is the Niche, the Lamp is prophethood, the Glass is his heart, the Blessed Tree is the revelation and the angels who brought it, the Oil are the proofs and evidence which contain the revelation. They say in the commentary of the verse: Know that the Prophet (s) is among you, but it must be known that Muhammad is in you, the trace of his Light in your forehead is in you, so he cannot be far. Everyone, if he looks well into his heart, will find the Light of Sayyidina Muhammad (s)!
Sayyidina Isma`il al-Bukhari (r) never wrote a hadith without first confirming that hadith with the Prophet (s), and it is a very well-confirmed principle that before putting a hadith in a chapter, he used to sleep and see the Prophet (s), who would say, “Put this hadith under that chapter and this hadith under that chapter.” It is well established that one can see the Prophet (s) in a dream.
And I am stunned [when pondering] the verse when Allah (swt) ordered the angels to make sajda to Adam and they all made sajda except Iblees. There is a question here: can you find one ayah in Holy Qur'an in which Allah (swt) said to the angels, "Raise your heads!" So what are they doing now? They are in sajda of respect to the one whom Allah raised to Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa, “two-bow’s length or nearer” [whose light was present in the forehead of Sayyidina Adam (as) ]. Allah (swt) never told them to raise their heads, and you cannot find one ayah or hadith saying that! Allah (swt) said, “arfa`oo ruusikum,” and [it can then be inferred that] they are in continuous sajda.
O Believers! The Greatness of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) is beyond our minds, you cannot imagine it. He mentioned one hadith, "I am in love with my brothers who will come in the Last Days and who didn't see me." What about the angels who went into sajda and didn't raise their heads? Are they tired or not? So what is our duty? It is to make continuous praise of Sayyidina Muhammad (s)!
This is mentioned by `Abdal-`Aziz ibn ad-Dabbagh, you came across his books in Syria, did you not? He said, “I have one student whom I love so much, and one day I was mentioning the Greatness of the Prophet (s) and I said, law laa noor Sayyidina Muhammad (s) ma zhahar sirr min asraar al-kawn, ‘If not for the Light of Sayyidina Muhammad (s), not one secret of this universe would have appeared.’”
How did he go to Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa without a space shuttle and when he came back, his mattress was still warm? What kind of human being can do that? How can they say, “He is like us.”
Muhammad basharun wa laysa ka ‘l-bashari huwa yaaqootatun wa naasu ka ‘l-hajari.
Muhammad is a man, but not like other men! He is a gem and human beings are stones.
(Shaykh Muhammad al-Busayri, Burdat ash-Shareef)
If not for him, not even one spring nor river would have flowed, and truly the spring come from the Light of Sayyidina Muhammad (s), with a smell that makes all the fruits and flowers of the earth fruitful by his Light.
The one who has the lowest imaan is the one who thinks he has imaan; he thinks he is such a big mu’min and that he is so pious, and he is carrying his imaan like a mountain on his back! I will cut it to this point. That the mureed said, “For the sake of Sayyidina Muhammad (s), tell me the secret of how you know these things.” As the shaykh, `Abd al-`Aziz ibn ad-Dabbagh [1]entered a trance and was in the presence of the Prophet (s); can anyone say this is not true? There are many people here who saw the Prophet (s) in their dream, but they feel shy to say it. They have goosebumps when they wake up, which demonstrates they are still in that presence even after seeing that dream.
The mureed saw his shaykh in the trance and he had goosebumps on his arm. He said to the shaykh, “I ask you for Allah's sake to give me the secret!”
The shaykh said, “Don't ask me that.”
The mureed insisted and finally the shaykh gave him that secret code to see the Prophet (s), which is a PIN code like you use at an ATM machine, and there are many ahadeeth on that. People began to gather around the mureed and listen to him speak about that secret and they began to think he had lost his mind and was a heretic, so they killed him, just like they killed Sayyidina Muhiyyideen ibn `Arabi (q)!
If we want to go into the secrets that we learned from our mashaykh people might not understand it, but we will stop here and can say it is enough.
I would like to mention one thing. There are a group of people who recite the name of the Prophet (s) every day, and this is in Jawharat al-Kamaal, “The Jewel of Perfection,”[2] a du`a that is very famous in North Africa, wa ism al-`aliyy hiya ismu ‘n-Nabee (s). Whoever recites that salawaat is mentioning the highest of names of Prophet (s), then Allah (swt) will open for him as He opened for His awliyaullah!
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
Was-salaam `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakutuh.
Shaykh Ahmad Tijani:
Shaykh Hisham has had a hard struggle in the US and I have known him and fadilat ash-Shaykh Nazim since 1993. He is the sword of Islam to understand Islam in its pristine state. Sayyidina Muhammad (s) was controversial in his time, he was the most controversial man. When he started his work, you know that you become controversial when you try to change a system that is well known. You know he came in a time when the entire Arab world was in state of jahiliyya and his controversy began when he began his mission! Allah sent him to teach the Word. He began to preach against the idols and today if he, hasha!, had been worshipping idols, then if someone comes to say stop that, it would be controversial. But Rasoolullah was not controversial, rather Allah (swt) sent him to know Allah's Mercy. And Shaykh Hisham, as we are not able to know Rasoolullah, was raised by Shaykh Nazim to know him and to teach love of the Prophet (s) and to worship Allah.
Paul Simon said in Chicago at ISNA in public forum when he conducted poll in America in 1998 near Chicago Hyatt Regency Park, he asked ten Americans, “When you hear the word ‘Islam’ what comes to your mind?” and nine of ten said terrorism. But when Shakh Nazim set foot in America and with a few that are like him, there was a complete storm of spiritual revolution going around America! Everywhere he went, he was teaching the love of Allah (swt) and love of Rasoolullah (s) which was there before, but not in such a wide, revolutionary manner. And through Shaykh Nazim, Shaykh Hisham Kabbani became very well-known around the US and when he established the ISCA, he invited ISNA and ICNA to attend that conference that, through efforts of Shaykh Hisham, became a very successful conference. I was a moderator of that conference and it was real unity there, where Salafis and Sufis attended.
I was asked, “What is the meaning of ‘Sufi’?” which means “suffering people.” If you don't want to suffer, then don't be man of tasawwuf! This is tribute to Shaykh Hisham, and Allah (swt) knows him and I don't know him that well, but as Shaykh Hisham said, there is the noor of Allah in everyone's forehead. It is true Shaykh Hisham has support of Allah from Qur’an.
Sometimes when I see that symbol, that black spot, and I am chocolate, but you have to see that as chocolate color and I don't have it, but sometimes I press my head on the ground so hard and here, the sajda is so soft, and I pressed my head on African ground which is so hard, while here you have the softest carpets... alhamdulillah … Allah! I was doing 11,111 salawaat voluntarily and I saw the Prophet (s) with a white turban sitting with Sahaabah, and I said, “Yaa Rasoolullah! Are you Rasoolullah?” and I asked him to bless me. And I had not finished my shafi` and witr, so when I got up I went to pray them quickly and I was shivering and ... I heard him (s) physically speak to me. He said. ... I saw a lady covered in veil and she said, “Did you see Rasoolullah pass by here?” and that was Sayyida Fatimah (r). you can! let us start doing salawaat as it is `ibaadah and let us do Mawlid an-Nabee (s)! Do it and I will come with Shaykh Hisham and we are going to rock Singapore!
Moderator:
Mashaa-Allah! We will close the event right now and ask Shaykh Hisham to give the closing du`a.
Mawlana Shaykh Hisham:
Salaam `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh. Thank you Shaykh Tijani, may Allah bless you and turn all Ghana to Islam. And I like to mention about Du`a al-Fatih, which he mentioned just now; it is mentioned by scholars that if you recite it one time, it is as if you recited the Dala`il al-Khayrat 600,000 times! Another says that if you recite salawaat on the number of human beings from the time of Sayyidina Adam (a) until Judgment Day, that is the value of that salawaat!
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[1] This account of shaykh and mureed was quoted from al-Ibriz by Abd al-`Aziz ad-Dabbagh al-Masri, a wali. See https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jDsjI787jTE5t_8rIBQsY2PspK6kxQm5tQQYxcD4tTI/edit
[2] See https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FF_jz6eCw7dqItDOPcX4K_0EFUg1GS3vxrRK9Srme8c/edit