A`udhu billahi min ash-Shaytaan ir-rajeem

Bismillahi ’r-Rahmaani ’r-Raheem

Nawaytu ‘l-arba`een, nawaytu ‘l-`itikaaf, nawaytu ‘l-khalwah, nawaytu ‘l-riyaada, nawaytu ‘s-salook, nawaytu ‘l-`uzlah lillahi ta`ala al-`adheem

We coming to the sixth level, the sixth station which is at-tawakkul, after the station of as-sabr, now is the station of tawwakul, now when you are patient when you establish that station to be patient on everything and not to complain, but you are accepting what is around you, it uplifts you to the station of submission, which is the station of tawwakul. That means you surrender your matter to Allah, tawakaltu `ala Allah. Allah said, In Holy Qur'an to make sure we are dependent on Allah swt. That station cannot be easy coming without accomplishing and reaching the complete station of patience, sabr. Which we described in previous session. When we accept everything that is coming or going around us then we are reaching the level of Islam taslimiyya. To surrender yourself to Allah.

Islam Is not a basic teaching, as people say today to do five prayers that is Islam. That is part of Islam that is infrastructure in order to reach complete submission.

There was one sahabi that the Prophet (s) said, "that one will enter Paradise.” And Sayyidina ``Umar (r) said, "We need to learn from him to see what kind of things he is doing that is special.” So he followed him to his house. That sahabi saw Sayyidina ``Umar (r) coming to his door knocking and so he invited him in. And from culture or generosity of Arabs at that time when a guest comes, you don’t ask him “what do you want?” or “how can I help you?” No, you let someone in. Today if you let someone in and ask him, “Do you want to eat something?” out of shyness he will say, “no thank you.” Here they will say, “ok, no problem.” But they say “ok.” So there they understand “it is ok” means “don’t push more, I don’t want.”

And in Islamic culture the way is to insist and if he says no, still you insist. He is for sure hungry. He is driving all that way and not to give him something is not acceptable. So in different cultures, he says no, no. so after 15 minutes you say “what do you want?” “ Bring me a mattress; I want to sleep.”

So that sahabi was neighbor to Sayyidina `Umar (r) and he didn’t ask him “what do you want?” And he went for Isha prayer and Sayyidina `Umar (r) went with him and they prayed behind the Prophet (s) and came back. He gave him a mattress and didn’t ask him anything. He stayed first day, second day, third day. Finally after three days you can ask him. So after three days, he said, “Ya `Umar, is there anything I can understand from what you are doing?” He said, "Yes, the Prophet said you are going to enter Paradise. And I said, ‘I can learn from you; maybe you are doing excessive worship during the night.’ And I am not seeing you do any more, we do more. Everyone does more [than you]. And I see you go to Fajr, pray, come home and sleep, quickly. We see for Dhuhr  the same. And we don’t see you doing extra, night prayers. So how are you entering Paradise?”

He said, "Ya `Umar! There are three things I do that you don’t see it. I do them within myself. I have these three characteristics. I am completely submitting to Allah’s will, mutawakill `ala Allah. I am giving all my life, my soul, He owns me, not me, so He can do whatever He wants with me.

[so for him it was] not “I can do this”, “I can do that”, “I am sitting on the chair, You cannot take me down.” This anaaniyya is from Shaytan.

“I don’t own myself, so why do I have to be proud or arrogant? Whatever comes, comes. That is why he said, "If the whole wealth of the dunya comes to me in the morning it doesn’t make any difference to me and I will not change my life.”

[It means:] I am not going to be a leader or anything that I can buy with my money. No I am going to be the same.

“And if in the evening it is not going to change anything with me, I will not be sad as I know that this is Allah’s Will. If I get the entire dunya in the morning and lose the entire dunya in evening I am not changing.”

That is tawwakul.

That is you are submitting to Allah’s swt Will. You are not submitting to the end of the month for your salary to come. People are waiting to end of month for their salary. What comes, comes, what doesn’t come doesn’t come. You came to dunya naked and you leave the dunya naked. You came naked as a child and you grow up and then you die and they wrap you with a shroud, kaffan and they put you in the cemetery.

So he said, "Whatever happens I am submitting to Allah’s Will.”

Are we submitting to Allah’s Will. We are always fighting. Whenever we desire something we want to get it, we want to buy it. Our eyes are ghayr shab`an. Our eyes are hungry. we see something we wish we have it. You cannot say that. You must say, mabrouk to the one who has it.

Alhamdulillah if I have it, and if I don’t have it, alhamdulillah.

لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ لأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ

“Wa la’in shakartum la-azeedanamkum - If you thank Me I give you more.” [Surah Ibrahim, 14:7]

So that is submission. And then he said, "Ya `Umar, another thing I do, every day, before I sleep, I know that Allah created everyone through His Will, [through  Allah’s Will]. That means Allah created us. So how am I going to be angry with whom Allah created? So if anyone harmed me during the day until I sleep, before I sleep, I say, ‘Ya Rabbee, from my side I forgive anyone and from Your side forgive them. If anyone harmed me, I don’t keep one drop of revenge.
Today we can say, “I am forgiving everyone” but in our heart there is something still there. [It means we must say:] “O if that one harmed me, it is Allah’s Will to test me am I really submitting or not.”

So how many times men and women are getting upset from anything and how much husbands and wives are fighting with each other every day. You say something, he says something you say, he says, then at the end what happens? You fight. Submit.

In the time of Sayyidina Musa , to give an example of tawwakul. To give example of how when you are submitting to Allah, He does what you want. Why when awliyaullah make du`a for you Allah accepts it? Because they are submitting to Allah’s Will.

So one time the neighbor of Sayyidina Musa said, “O Musa, ask Allah when you go to Tur Seena (Mt. Sinai), how much age he gave to my neighbor.”

That is a question that doesn’t make too much sense. What do you need of the age of your neighbor, ask of the age he gave you. And he was asking “Ya Rabbee how much age you gave my neighbor?”

So Sayyidina Musa went to Tur Seena and he stayed and did …. And as he was leaving Allah swt said, did you forget your neighbor. He said, “Istaghfirullah he asked how much life you are giving his neighbor and it didn’t make much sense.”

So that man was waiting, as if holding coal in his hand, he wants the answer. So he said, "did you get the answer from Allah swt; how much age He gave him?” “Yes, 300 years.” He [the man] said, one word, that phrase is what we need to repeat 100 times a day. La hawla wa la quwatta illa billahi  al-`aliyy il-`adheem – there is no might and no power except with God the Exatled the Great. 

Then he was going and on his way to tend his crops and so on passing and the wife was passing and she said, “Ya Musa, my husband asked a question and did you get an answer ?”  He said, "Yes, that neighbor is going to live 300 years” and she didn’t say anything, except “La hawla wa la quwatta illa billahi  al-`aliyy il-`adheem. »

And then he continued walking and he saw the son. The son said, “Ya Musa my father asked a question and did you get an answer ?” Look at the adab of Sayyidina Musa . He didn’t say “I answered your father already, go and ask him.” No, he answered the father, he answered the mother and he answered the son. So then he said, “300 years” and the son said, " La hawla wa la quwatta illa billahi  al-`aliyy il-`adheem. ».

So look the three all submitting to Allah. And the adab Musa didn’t ask, “what is the problem?” And they didn’t ask to change it. And so they submitted to Allah’s Will. If you submit to anyone else you … that is why when you come to your teacher your guide and ask him a prayer it is answered as he is closer to Allah.

So as soon as the son said, La hawla wa la quwatta illa billahi  al-`aliyy il-`adheem there came a noise of shouting and crying from the neighbor’s side. “What happened?” They said, "He died.” And so from 300 years, he died.

So the father, mother and son came and said, “What is this?” So Sayyidina Musa said, “Ya Rabbee you told me 300 years and now he died. What is this?”

So Allah said, “When someone asks My support and that neighbor was tyrant, then when that man said, “La hawla wa la quwatta illa billahi  al-`aliyy il-`adheem » I took 100 years from his life, and when wife said, “La hawla wa la quwatta illa billahi  al-`aliyy il-`adheem » and when the son said, " La hawla wa la quwatta illa billahi  al-`aliyy il-`adheem,” I took another 100 years and the man died.”

So submission to Allah is not that you will be left alone. Rather you will be more supported. That is why if anything faces us during the day, say “La hawla wa la quwatta illa billahi  al-`aliyy il-`adheem ». Then all our problems will be dissolving. Then Allah will solve all the problems.

So tawwakul is to let the body, in the train of servant hood. It means tarh al-badan fee … al-`uboodiyya. Tarh means “I put something in a bigger place” like a tray. You have to throw your body and your desires in Allah’s servanthood. “Allah’s servanthood comes first, My desires comes after” that is one of the levels of obedience. “And my desires have to come after.”

First Allah, then yourself. Not yourself first. And submission is always when your heart becomes to be always connected with the Divine Presence. Never away from the Divine Presence.

Yesterday we spoke in previous session about sabr. And we said that Sayyidina Bayazid al-Bistami and Sayyidina Ahmad al-Badawi were examples of the most patient. When they were submitting to Allah and they submitted at the door of the Divine Presence. They were there asking “Ya  Rabbee open Your door for us.”

So Sayyidina Bayazid, Allah said to him, “If you want Me to open My door, go and carry the dump of My servants burdens. Go and help them and love them and take care of them and then come to Me. Don’t come to Me directly. You have to come to Me by means of the ones I created with My touch I engraved them with My touch.”

But he was very patient and knocking on the door, knocking knocking. He didn’t get fed up and went away. And he didn’t sit at the door of the teacher to get his trust. Sainthood is not so cheap. People think they are awliyaullah because they are sitting in the presence of the saints. No awliyaullah go that through very hard work. They were patient and submitting to Allah and they were patient in their `amal.

So they were knocking, and knocking until Allah said, “go and be a dump for My servants.”

They didn’t stop. That is why awraad must be continuous. That is why many people come and ask me, and I say to say La hawla wa la quwatta illa billahi  al-`aliyy il-`adheem 100 times or people go to Mawlana Shaykh and he gives them an awrad to do. They come after 40 days, “Do we finish [i.e. continue] or do we stop?” What “you continue or you stop.” Anyone can stop from reciting Allah’s Beautiful Names and Attributes? So in their mind they got tired from reciting 100 times hasbunallah wa ni`ma ’l-wakeel. They want to stop. That is the problem.

Ahmad al-Badawi didn’t stop, Bayazid didn’t stop, kept asking. Rabi`a kept asking. They didn’t stop. And though Ahmad al-Badawi was different from Bayazid. Allah sent a man to him and he said, "Do you want the key?” He said, "I only take key from Keymaker.” He said, “ok,” and left him banging on the door. So after six months, as Grandshaykh said, he heard a voice and He said, “I sent that man to you, I don’t do anything directly. You are asking and I sent someone to give you the key. You refused it.”

Then he knew it. But he was still patient asking to get the key until that happened. So then he searched for that man and found him. He said, “Can you give me the key.” He said, "No, now there is a price.”

So now he is submitting. Allah is answering him. He knows the truth. So now today the price. He said, “I will give you all my wealth.” “No I don’t want your wealth. That is garbage. Your knowledge all that you know, I want it to be nothing.” So he accepted. Allah sent him a voice saying, “do you want the key, go to this one.” So he accepted and that one looked into his eyes and and he pulled all the knowledge out of him like a vacuum. He was the biggest `alim in that time and he is buried now in Tanta. The children began to throw stones at him. They said, “Our mufti, our shaykh became crazy. Still he didn’t stop.” And he kept on until that man appeared another time and said, “Ya Ahmad I will give you now.”

Before he had knowledge for his ego. It was egoish, egoistic style. You cannot have spirituality thru your ego. You have to have spirituality when they pour in your heart. It is coming from them, not from your ego. So when they cleaned him from all his egoistic knowledge he doesn’t read Fatiha without making a mistake. Then he poured from his eyes into his eyes and until he became famous. That was such that his eyes were full of light and if anyone would look in his eyes will faint.

That is because submitting to Allah’s Will, not to his desires, “I want to go here, I want to go there, I want to do this.”

And it is said, “If he is given something he thanks Allah. He doesn’t ask for it, but if he is given, he thanks Allah and if he is prevented from getting anything he is patient.”

Look at these homeless people. Take a lesson from these people not from their ego. You see them a lot in cities. They are pushing a shopping cart and it is full of garbage that in your eyes is garbage and in their eyes is treasures. They go and pull from garbage cans, for you is garbage and for them is treasures. If they find a can that has a little bit of juice in it, or they find something that has bread or cheese they take it, and for them it is a holiday, a feast. If they find clothes they take it and clean and wear it. They are submitting and they are content with their lives. You don’t see them complain. They are more than us content - we are not content. People who are not homeless are not content. They have cars, homes, children, wives, husbands, they have everything and still they are not content. That homeless one who doesn’t have anyone or she doesn’t have anyone, are content with that shopping cart, with whatever is in it. We have to take a lesson from these people.

Alhamdulillah, Allah gave you, and we must be content more than these homeless. People come and complain; they want more. Don’t complain, then Allah will give more. “If he is given something he is thankful and if he is prevented he is patient.”

And Allah said, "If they thank me I give them more.”

And it is said that “at-tawwakul an yakoon al abd bayna yadayillah ka’l-mayt – dependence on Allah means he has to be like a dead person - the servant to Allah. When he is dead, between the hands of the person washing him, he turns him how he likes.” Can you hear him say anything? Although the Prophet (s) said, that when the washer is moving him, let him move him slowly as he is still complaining there, [saying, but the washer doesn’t hear:] “turn me slowly, the water is cold, get me warm water.”

That is why you see in Islamic respect to the dead they wash with warm water and in other cultures they don’t give respect. They use cold water and there is no respect. Sometimes they cut them and they want to know how he died. That becomes punishment for them and for that person. And sometimes they cremate people. Prophet said that Allah leaves one part of the soul in the person but he cannot speak, his tongue is frozen. So the Prophet (s) said, “move him slowly. Don’t break his hands.” Sometimes you see the stiffness in the hands. Don’t break it. Wash nicely with warm water. Here they don’t give the dead body peace even. They want to cut and see what is wrong. That is haram to cut any part of body when a person is dead or to harm him.

Awliyaullah said, Grandshaykh used to say, “We don’t want mureeds like those dead bodies in the hands of the one washing them, that say, please be mercy on us, turn us slowly, give us warm water. We want mureeds like the dead leaves of the trees. Wherever the wind takes them they go with taslimiyya. That is more submission than dead body. Still the dead body is complaining. We want mureeds that fall like leaves in the fall, submitting to the wind where it takes it, goes right, goes left, goes in fire, goes in water, but not complaining. That is highest level of submission. Don’t show your will in Allah’s presence. Don’t show your will in Prophet’s orders, the Prophet’s will comes first. Don’t who your will in front of your shaykh and your shaykh’s will comes first. And the last is rida to be satisfied with what Allah gave you

As-salam alaykum wa rahmatullah.