Haqqani Priory at St. Anne's
Before suhbah they played a tape of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani's declaration of 28 January 2009, in which he appointed Shaykh Hisham Kabbani as trustee to three London mosques and also extended his representation to several other countries. http://www.sufilive.com/Mawlana_Shaykh_Nazim_s_Declaration_for_UK_Europe_and_everyone-1517.html
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh.
Someone gave me a pen to sign books. Whose is that pen? Your pen?
Dastoor yaa Sayyidee, madad. alfu-salaat was-salaam `alayk yaa rasulullah. alfu-salaat was-salaam `alayk... thumma as-salaam `alayk yaa Sayyidee AbdAllah al-Fa'iz ad-Daghestani. thumma as-salamu `alayk yaa Sayyidee Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani.
A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytani'r-rajeem. Bismillahi ‘r-Rahmaani ‘r-Raheem.
Are you hearing? Allahuma salli `ala Sayyidina Muhammad hatta yarda Sayyidina Muhammad.
Alhamdulillahi 'l-ladhi hadaana lil-isma wa ma kunna li-nahtadee law la an hadanallah.
Every moment in our life is counted, every action in our life is counted. Today if you go to any place, supermarket, gas station or store, every action is taped so you cannot miss and say I didn't do that. There is a camera, here is your picture and this is what you have done. You go on street, you pass through the red light, you don't need a policeman, you find a ticket at your home. If this is able to be done by human beings, what do you think Allah (swt) is able to do by ordering His angels to count every moment and tape every moment! Don't say I am doing something behind closed doors; for Allah (swt) the doors are always open! Therefore, awliyaaullah are trying to guide their followers and students to what benefits them. So those who get benefit, get benefit and those who don't, it is their problem. Allah (swt) is always merciful, but we don't want to take chances with what we are doing and saying.
I was debating what I wanted to say today and I said to myself might be people didn't hear too much about awliyaaullah's power and might be they are interested. Those who are like you, believers, are always interested to know about the power that Allah (swt) has given to awliyaaullah and I decided to say one issue from Grandshaykh's notes, may Allah (swt) bless him, that he wrote forty years ago. It might shed some light on us! First of all he said that Allah (swt) has created holy places on Earth, holy places in heavens, and holy places in this universe. The holy places that are in the universe, only awliyaullah can reach them and know about them. The holy places that are on Earth, Allah (swt) indicated them to the Holy Prophet (s), and we know about them, which are Mecca ul-Mukarrama, Madinat ul-Munawwara and Masjid al-Aqsaa. This is what everyone knows, but scholars know that Prophet (s) has mentioned many hadeeth about fadaa'ilu 'sh-Shaamu 'sh-shareef, it means Damascus.
People don't know that the Prophet (s) has mentioned that and said al-Mahdi (a) is coming from Mecca, to Madinat ul-Munawwara, to Sham ash-Shareef, to Masjid al-Amawi, the biggest masjid there. Prophet (s) mentioned that Sayyidina Mahdi (a) will be in that masjid praying Jumu`ah khutbah when Sayyidina `Isa (a) comes down from the heavens, descending on that white minaret and leading the people there. A lot of Sahaaba (r) are (buried) there, a lot of Prophet's wives (r) are there, and lot of Prophet's descendants (r) are there. It is very recommended to visit these places.
So these are very important holy places that human beings wish to visit. Like you people here, you wish to visit these places is it not? (Yes.) But there are people who are outside, they wish to visit the Eiffel Tower, or the Taj Mahal, or the Statue of Liberty, or the Pyramids; to them these are holy places. To us it is the opposite; to us it is Mecca ul-Mukarrama, Madinat ul-Munawwara and Masjid al-Aqsaa and Sham ash-Shareef are important to us.
Prophet (s) said, laa tushaddu 'r-rihaal illa li-thalaath, which means, packing to travel is permissible only for three places that will be counted for worshipness. Prophet (s) said the other places you are visiting are not a way of nearness to Allah (swt). If you want to be near to Allah (swt), pack for these three places: Mecca ul-Mukarrama, Madinat ul-Munawwara and Masjid al-Aqsaa. Who visits them receives rewards that no one can describe. So visiting these places will take us to (the realm of) ridwaanullah al-akbar, Allah's Greatest Pleasure. If you want Allah's Greatest Pleasure, then visiting these three places will take you to Allah's Greatest Pleasure with you. For awliyaullah, the Ridwanullah is far better than the Seven Heavens. For that, there is du`a of Grandshaykh (q), "O Allah! Dip us in the ocean of Your Heavenly Pleasure." Because awliyaullah's focus is not on heavens, but their goal is to reach Allah's Greatest Pleasure (ridwaanullah), for Allah (swt) to be happy with them. Every wali tries to reach that level. If a wali reaches the Seven Heavens he is not considered reaching the highest, he did not yet perfect his worship to get the greatest.
Today people like us only think about how to enter Paradise and they follow what Prophet (s) has mentioned; some follow and some do not. Let us say they enter Paradise, but they are going to regret if they are in first or second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh Heaven; it is the best we can get, but still we will be regretting that we didn't take the way of Prophet (s) and awliyaaullah to reach Allah's Greatest Pleasure. That is a place, not a place, but what is described in Holy Qur'an, "Let us be resurrected with those you favored from the prophets, siddiqeen, the trustworthy, the martyrs and the pious," as they will be granted from Allah's Light in their level. Allah (swt) will expose or open to them in that level maa laa aynu ra'at, what no eye has seen, wa la udhunun sami`at, what no ear has heard, wa maa khatar `ala qalbi bashr, what no one has imagined. That is according to the hadith that Allah (swt) will be seen in Heaven by the believers, but not in every Paradise, only in the level with prophets, the trustworthy, martyrs and saints (they will see their Lord). People might say, "How we will see? Do we see a shape?" No way, but Allah (swt) will manifest from his Beautiful Names and Attributes according to your status and achievement in that level. He will dress you from His Beautiful Names and Attributes. He will dress another from a different dress of the same name; don't think that name has only one dress! From each name he will dress them with different lights or dresses, and from each name He will give some from three names or different names, and He will give from Prophet (s). (Mawlana stands.) Those who are on that circle will be most lucky!
Do you want to be in that level or not? Anyone here would like to be in that level, raise his hand! (Mawlana raises both hands and everybody raises both hands!) All of us we like to be there! You think that Allah (swt) did not take a videotape of us? Angels made a videotape of us raising our hands? Yes, they taped it and Allah (swt) said in Holy Qur'an, id`oonee astajib lakum. "Ask Me and I will give." So all of us asked, "Yaa Rabbee, ahshurna ma` al-Mustafa." O our Lord! Make us to be resurrected with the Prophet (s). He said, "Ask and I will give." He is the Generous One, the Kareem! If He promised He will give, who is better than Allah's Generosity?
Yaa Rabbee, we are weak servants! We are asking you to put us in the same heaven that you put Prophet (s), that you sharaf wa karram wa an`am and to put us with Sultan al-Awliya, Sayyidee Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim! You think that will not happen? Today if someone asks you for a favor, you don't give? If this masjid is full of walnuts and someone from the road comes and says, "Give me one," what do you do? You will give him ten! This whole place, how many square feet here, full of walnuts. Someone comes and say, "Can you please give me?" and you will answer, "Yes, take as much as you like!" That one takes ten and the next one takes ten and the next one takes ten. That will reduce to the level that they cannot ask any more. But Allah's (swt) treasures are never (depleting). He is the Creator! Ask Him and you get, and if you don't ask, you don't get? "Yaa Rabbee, give us!"
We get tired, but Allah (swt) doesn't get tired, He is not like us! We are asking and He keeps giving. Awliyaullah know this reality. So they keep asking for their followers, not just followers but for Ummat an-Nabi as a whole. They ask Allah (swt) for more and more. Grandshaykh (q) was in seclusion in Madinat ul-Munawwara and normally you cannot be in the same room with the shaykh doing seclusions. In that time he allowed Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) to do seclusion with him in the same room. You know that? In 24 hours (they eat) one small bowl of lentil soup, and fifty dirham (this is how they count it), half-a-hand sized piece of bread. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) two times a day he ate and Grandshaykh (q) one time. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) is ordered for every prayer to go to Masjid an-Nabawi and come back. Grandshaykh (q) was sitting there always praying in the room. When Mawlana Shakyh came after Maghrib, Grandshaykh (q) passes his bowl of lentils and bread to him to eat, and Mawlana Shaykh eats it. This is Mawlana Shaykh conveying to us that he didn't stay the whole year with Grandshaykh (q), but I remember it was either three months or six months.
So Grandshaykh (q) passed that to him and Grandshaykh didn't sleep. There are awliyaullah... I will explain in another suhbah that there are six levels of seclusion. The first through to the sixth (highest level) is that they don't eat and don't drink for as long as seclusion continues; one year, no eat or drink, they have been trained. This highest level of khalwah, with no food no drink, nothing, is because Allah (swt) will provide them with qootun laa yamoot, a never-ending heavenly sustenance that never dies. It means when they will be dressed with qootun laa yamoot, it is a provision that never dies. Anything heavenly never dies. That is why we say awliyaaullah never die when they go to their graves. That is what is meant when Prophet (s) said, hayyun tarriyun fee qabree, "I am alive, fresh in my grave. (Allah returns my soul to me in order to reply to your salaams.)" Always people sending salaams, some awake some going to sleep. The Prophet (s) is alive always in his grave (returning salaams). So you never heard these stories anywhere. We hope they will one day be published, but sometimes you don't have permission to reveal all these hidden information. I am looking here and seeing things that are at a level that is beyond our capacities. We don't go above first level of these Sufi teachings.
Mawlana Shaykh (q) said, Grandshaykh (q) passed him one spoon and each bowl has a different taste; all from the same pot, the one Mawlana Shaykh gets in the morning and evening and the one Grandshaykh gets in evening. But the one that Grandshaykh (q) passes to Mawlana Shaykh has a different taste. He said nothing has sweetness like that bowl that Grandshaykh passed to him. It is lentils, it has oil and vinegar, so how is it sweet? But he said it is more sweet than honey when he eats the first spoon, and we takes the second spoon it is sweeter than first spoon, and when he then takes the third spoon it is sweeter than second spoon. He takes the fourth spoon and he can see lights coming from that spoon and a different taste coming from each light! So he has four spoons each with four colors, and each color has a different taste. The fifth spoon has eight colors and each color has a different taste and full of knowledge. He was prohibited to express that knowledge until 1968, when Mawlana Shaykh was ordered to go to Hajj. Grandshaykh (q) told him, "Take my two kids, Hisham and Adnan, and give them teachuoings from these knowledges," but he never gave permission to explain them. So I am keeping that, but inshaa-Allah Mawlana gives permission one day to open that.
When Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) comes from Masjid an-Nabawi `ala sakiniha afdal as-salaat was-salaam, Grandshaykh sits after `Isha and raises his hands for du`a. Do you raise your hands for du`a? How long do you raise your hands, five minutes, two minutes, one minute? It depends on where you are. If you are in Madinat ul-Munawwara, you make long du`a, but not more than 15 minutes, 20 minutes, a half-hour or one hour. Then they (officials) come to you and say, "That is bid`a , move!" So Mawlana raises his hands for du`a, like this (to his face). You will get tired raising your hands and sometimes you have pain, numbness, or a heart problem, and you feel numb, and Grandshaykh (q) had heart problem, and still he raised his hands. Mawlana Shaykh says he doesn't drop them until half-an-hour before Fajr, when he makes a new wudu, then he prays Salaat at-Tahajjud, Salaat an-Najaat, Salaat ash-Shukr, and Salaat at-Tasbeeh. It means his wudu is fresh through the entire night! Then comes Fajr and he takes a full ghusl (shower), not wudu. It is recorded in another notebook, that for three or six months, every night Granshaykh (q) is making du`a and Mawlana Shaykh (q) never heard a du`a repeated, all are completely different du`a that never resembles the other. That du`a is how many hours? The night might be long and the days short. Might be `Isha at 7.00 p.m. and Fajr at 6.00 a.m. and that is eleven hours. Not one du`a is repeated and the next day has different du`as that cannot be repeated from the previous day. That means his du`a is not related to human beings, it is related to heavens.
And as we are speaking about heavenly souls and bodies, be careful of anger and fighting. I heard there was fighting today. You have to repent and say astaghfirullah. Hug each other here. You hugged, both of you? No more? Alhamdulillah, they made you to say the right answer. So don't disappoint awliyaullah.
So this means these du`a are heavenly du`a. Grandshaykh (q) said, "One time, Sayyidina Jamaluddin al-Ghumuqi al-Husayni, no in Merv, ... I will remember later. (recites silsilah). Sayidina `Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani after seclusion was ordered by heavenly mesage: Yaa `Abdul Khaliq! Go to Merv." That is a city 50 or 60 miles from Bukhara in Uzbekistan. It is where `Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani (q) is buried and he has there a huge school. Every wali has a school, a place to teach his followers, as without teaching your followers you cannot keep the name of the tariqah. In the time of `Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani our tariqah was called "Ghujdawaniyyah; in the time of Abayazid at-Tayfoor it was called "Tayfooriyyah" ; in the time of Sayyidina Khalid al-Baghdadi it was called "Bahgdadiyyah"; and in the time of the Daghestani shaykhs ir was called "Daghestaniyyah". Today it is called "Haqqaniyyah". In every time it is called after the shaykh and in every time there is place to study to keep the name running. If there is no structure to teach the people, how you (new people) will come to Haqqaniyyah? And you find disputes (among mureeds)! Let us put aside these disputes, let us teach the teachings of our shaykh! And if you don't have correct sources, then you are teaching hallucinatory ideas and your Sufism becomes based on imagination. That is what we are seeing around. We hope it will change for the better, to increase the love of Prophet (s), love of tariqah, love of awliyaa. You go Pakistan you see all these different schools in the name of the shaykh. Here you see many schools and in name of Shaykh and they are co-operating with each other.
That order came to `Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani (q) to go to Merv and that voice came to his heart, "Go to that place that I ordered you and with the power of your heart and your eyes that I gave you, look on that rock. That is inheritance from Sayyidina Musa (a)." Awliyaullah inherit first from Prophet Muhammad (s) and then from the other prophets. So when Sayyidina Musa hit on the rock:
قَدْ عَلِمَ كُلُّ أُنَاسٍ مَّشْرَبَهُمْ
qad `alim kullu unaasin mashrabahoom,
Each group knew its own place for water. (2:60)
So what is your mashrab? Haqqani mashrab.
So Grandshaykh (q) said, "When I looked with the power given to my eyes, I looked with a power of a laser beam," I am using that word to help us understand. Then he hit with that huge rock with that light, it burst open and out of it gushed a huge fountain of water. There was lack of water then. So when they make dhikr they have Tayy al-Lisaan (the Power of Folding Time), and it moves very vast, so they can do millions of dhikrullah. When he wants to make dhikr, what does he do? He goes underwater because Shaytan cannot go there! So he goes under water, makes dhikr and comes up. So what is most powerful creature in the ocean? The whale; they go up to (the surface) to breathe. The one who swallowed Sayyidina Yunus (s) and all whales belive in him; don't think they don't hear and believe. In the belly of the whale when Sayyidina Yunus prayed:
لَّا إِلَهَ إِلَّا أَنتَ سُبْحَانَكَ إِنِّي كُنتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ
laa ilaha illa Anta. Subhaanak! innee kuntu min adh-dhalimeen,
There is no god except You. Glory to You (Allah)! I was one of the oppressors, (al-Anbiya, 21:87)
That whale believed, and the whale is the strongest of all creatures on earth, like when the head of a tribe believes, the whole tribe believes. Not like today; every person wants to be shaykh. Not everyone can be shaykh; that is only by permission of Prophet (s).
So that water was gushing and Allah (swt) told him. "From each drop of water, I am creating angels and every angel is doing dhikr through my Beautiful Names and Attributes." That dhikr is going up to the Day of Judgment and all of it is written for Ummat an-Nabee. Not for everyone of Ummat an-Nabiyy, because everyone will not take from Prophet (s), but he said, "I am ordering to give it as gift to that way of tariqah," which at that time Ghujdawaniyya. "I am giving those rewards to those angels that Allah (swt) created for every drop of water." Think how many drops of water? I saw a document on Niagara Falls and they say that every second, 55 million cubic gallons of water is dropping. How many drops from that water gushing out in Merv, "I am ordering an angel to make tasbeeh until the Day of Judgment and for every angel you must give a name. If you repeat the same name twice, you are out of my Heavenly Presence. You must give a name that no one in My Heavenly Presence has."
Look how great is Allah (swt)! We think so low; only backbiting is on our minds. This one did this, this one did that. No one thinking let us do something for the benefit of Muslims and non-Muslims. Try to innovate something for benefit of our shaykh and our tariqah. There are programmers who can innovate software. You must have something like that in our mind to innovate something of benefit. When we see someone doing something successful we are jealous and spread rumors. This is khalifah? That is stupid and bad! Haraam to speak about khalifah. Our shaykh is alive and may Allah (swt) give him long life. As we are saying it, someone accuses me that I am coming and making myself khalifah. If I am going to take this group and make khalifah with 40, 50 people, what is that for, love of a chair?
So we were saying, Sayyidina `Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani (q) has to name each angel with a unique name and assign the angels to each person, up to Day of Judgment. That means in his holy grave he is entitled be a live wali and to look after these angels, give them names and assign them to people coming. Are we his followers or not? Yes, we are in his line going back to Prophet (s).
We were saying from `Isha to Fajr Grandshaykh (q) was making du`a and not one du`a resembled another, not one sentence resembled another. In one year how many du`as he recited? He was not in need for sleep. He said, "If you leave me to end of dunya, they are coming with angelic power in them." Awliyaullah receive spiritual nourishment to their bodies to keep them awake, by sending message to the brain, "keep awake." Their brain is in their hand and your brain is in your hand, too. If they can reach you any moment can't they reach their brains, to secret hormones not to sleep? Allah (swt) gave them from secrets of Prophet (s), reaching and giving them in every moment. Do we like Prophet (s) to reach us every moment? Yes. So don't backbite. Keep to yourself. Concern yourself with yourself only!
I will mention one of these hints, these secrets. Grandshaykh (q) said, "The dhikrullah that we are sitting to do," and this suhbah is considered dhikr, "we are attracting Ridwanullah al-Akbar, the manifestation of Allah's Greatest Pleasure. As soon as you sit in a gathering for Allah's pleasure, Prophet's pleasure and Those in Authority's pleasure," like this one here, "then Allah's pleasure will be manifest on everyone. You feel it or not, it is okay. There are people who can feel it, there are people who can smell it, there are people who can hear it, and there are people who can see it!"
So in such associations, Allah's Greatest Pleasure is manifest on us. Some people can feel it, smell it, hear it and see it. All of us received knowledge in equal measures and everyone's knowledge is different, not the same knowledge. Now I am looking at you and you are looking at me we are not knowing what knowledge is manifest on you. That is because we are still blind, still deaf, still dumb and, like some people when they have a stroke they don't even feel, we have a spiritual stroke. But when you are in clinic or hospital with a stroke, you are still dressed. So we are blind, we are not feeling, not seeing and not hearing, as we didn't reach the moment. That is why teaching is important. We used to kill ourselves (doing everything possible) to reach Mawlana Shaykh Nazim's suhbah! He used to give suhbah after Salat al-`Asr and he is having tea and with a notebook from Grandshaykh (q), teaching from these heavy-duty suhbahs.
When a strike comes, you see what? Lightning. Then what do you see? Thunder. So that lightening strikes and you can see through the lightening that it creates thunder and you can hear it. No, it is because of the angels as Holy Qur'an said and we believe it. Salafi `ulama know this, but they say positive charges and negatives charges hit. Of course! There is an angel on one side and an angel on the other side and they beat and from the big bang, lightning comes, and you can hear it and see it. Sometimes you can feel it. Is it not? How you feel it? If thunder is strong you shake and after that it will rain on you with mercy of Allah (swt), with the showers.
You know there are many kind of cars? There are the heavy duty ones and you shoot a bullet and it goes through it. Then there are cars with protection even from rockets being shot at it. These suhbahs are rocket proof! The tajalli in this night's suhbah and I didn't yet say more than two lines Ridwanullah al-Akbar, but those two lines will put us on the railway, on the track. What we need today is to be on the track. Later we will be in the (train) wagons. Now we have no track, we don't know where we are giong and where we are coming from. What is left from tariqah today in England is only dhikr. You need a track. I don't want to say more than that, then people will ... whatever. So we need that track in order that we can jump onto it. (transmission cut)
And this is this one and this is that one. This is not your responsibility. Whoever Mawlana likes, this is from Mawlana, alhamdulillah! I am not asking for anything for me or my brother--we hope to die under Mawlana's feet! We are not asking for khilafah! Who wants to take it, take it. We have been mentioned by Grandshaykh (q) and that is enough honor, and to be under Mawlana Shaykh's feet. Who wants to come and sit higher, what is going to change? If you are really a representative or khilafah, they don't ask you, it is not in your hand, it is in Prophet's hand! And it is bad adab to speak on this issue. That issue is not our responsibility. We come and listen to the one who can bring us knowledge from Mawlana Shaykh (q) and Grandshaykh (q), that is our responsinility. Those pseudo shaykhs that come today, are they taking anything with them? Only those who are mentioned by Grandshaykh (q) and Mawlana Shaykh (q) are given support.
In 1993 in California, a large group gathered and we had worked to spread Mawlana's word around the world. There was one who wanted to be shaykh and Mawlana Shaykh said, "My son-in-law Hisham Effendi doesn't need any one of your support. I am supporting him! Grandshaykh (q) is supporting me and Prophet (s) is supporting him." I know that is the same for my brother Shaykh Adnan, that Grandshaykh (q) and the Prophet (s) are supporting him. I also know Mawlana Shaykh (q) is supporting my brother-in-law, Hajji Shaykh Muhammad, whom Allah (swt) and Prophet (s) is supporting. We are happy. Every group is happy with what they have with the level of wali, that is up to them.
Where we arrived? It is not normal for the student to be with the shaykh in seclusion, as the student will do things according to his level. So that is why I explained about the lentil soup, the lights and so on. Grandshaykh said and I am saying to scholars, if Allah (swt) wants to give, He gives. Don't say, "What are you talking about?" If you don't believe what I am saying from my shaykh, then go and ask him. He is in his holy shrine in Damascus. It is his responsibility. (I am speaking to) some scholars listening on-line. I am telling them go and ask Mawlana in the grave, and they are Hizbut Tahrir.
There is one wali in the Naqshbandi Order, Shaykh Yusuf al-Hamdani (q) about whom Grandshaykh and Mawlana said, "When he makes du`a, his du`a is reaching kursee:
وَسِعَ كُرْسِيُّهُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضَ
was`iyya, kursiyyuhu 's-samawati wa 'l-ard,
The Throne (representing His eternal power) overspreads the heavens and the earth, of Heavens and Earth. (2:255)
Grandshaykh used to say he is most mudallal, not a nice word, but it means "the most spoiled," not meaning spoiled in dunya, but the most enjoyable and accepted in the way he made du`a. He made the most happy, amicable du`as in the most happy way. He is the only wali to be in the Naqshbandi Order like that, until Sayyidina Shaykh AbdAllah al-Fa`iz ad-Daghestani (q)!Every wali from before and after used to listen to his du`a, and hear that greatness of his du`a that attracted Allah's Greatest Pleasure.
Grandshaykh (q) said, "In that seclusion Allah (swt) opened for me a door that my du`a was going through and from one side it was coming to me to recite and read it every day in a different way. These du`a open from Allah's Greatest Pleasure to my heart to say, and when I am saying it, it was reaching under Arshullah. And when the mu'min sleeps, his soul will go to sleep under the Throne in sajdah, so scholars cannot say, 'No!' My du`a used to go under the Throne and it was accepted, and something was accepted with it, something that cannot be known, and in each one of these hundreds of du`as there is a manifestation."
We cannot speak about it today, but I will leave to speak a little about it in another session.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.