What we have to do… they asked this shaykh in tariqah… any tariqah.  This is a joke.

They asked him, “Don’t you go to picnics?”

He said, “Yes.”  He said, “Our picnic is a very famous picnic—better than your picnic. 

They said, “We don’t see you.  All the day we go to picnic, we barbecue here, barbecue there, we go to the park and so on—we have a lot of picnics.  We don’t see you.”

He said “No, we have picnics.” 

He said, “What’s your picnic?”

He said, “Eat dry bread and water, or rice and water, make wudu, and pray.  This is our picnic.”

So tariqah shuyukh don’t offer you a dunya picnic.  They offer us a spiritual picnic.  Picnic for the soul.  I was explaining the meaning of picnic.  These two months I was in California, we had every night a session 7:30 to 8:30, and we were discussing from Grandshaykh’s notes, and Grand Grandshaykh, and Mawlana Shaykh Nazim’s notes, and they are very important series—I recommend that everyone check them on the internet, on sufilive.  Those who have time, and they want to check—let them check that.  It is very difficult to repeat them, because it depends on the tajalli, or the blessings that were at that moment coming, from Allah to Prophet , Prophet to Awliyaullah—and then from them to those we are sitting with. 

I spoke about what is the meaning of journey—this last 3 or 4 days, together with the principle of adab and respect. 

So what we need to say now is, the journey, and I spoke about it last night a little bit—the journey that Sayyidina Shahul Kul—Sayyidina Shah Naqshband, that all of you are related to him through—he is considered as a spiritual father, all the way to Sayyidina Abu Bakrin as-Siddiq , he is a spiritual father.  Although the Prophet who is to some of you a physical father, grandfather, and also spiritual grandfather.  And some people are from both sides, spiritually and physically from Prophet —some are only spiritual.  And some they are only physical.  So all of you Alhamdulillah have a connection in any way.  So the journey—the beginning of the journey—when we decide to go on a journey, what do we do? We could journey from this place to that place, and we call it “Oh, where did you go?”

One person came to me, one week ago, and he said, “Shaykh, you are so tired.  Every night, every night, every night, and running from Mawlid to another Mawlid, from one city to another city—you need to take a vacation from this.” 

I said, “Yes.”

He said, “What about, O my shaykh, what about… Hawaii?”

I said, “Yes.”

He said, “There are five star hotels, and a very fine area, nice mountains, nice volcanoes.”

I said, “Yes.  You want to take me to volcanoes?”

He said, “No, no they have nice beaches.”

They want to take me to beaches also. 

He said, “It’s a nice place!”

That’s according to people—if I travel overseas, to different countries—when I come back, they say, “Oh, how was your holiday?” 

The holiday is 20,000 people, 10,000 people, 5,000 people, 1,000 people, 100 people… It is not a holiday—with two people it is not a holiday even.

So our thinking… a journey is a journey that we are trying to travel from one place to another.  That is a journey in the eyes of everyone.  But a real journey is the journey that is to Allah and His Prophet .  That is the real journey that Awliyaullah are looking for.  They want a journey that really they will be—that there is pleasure in it.  Heavenly pleasure.  Not worldly pleasure.  Worldly pleasure… a pleasure that finishes in five minutes.  Correct? Right?  [Yes sir]  Worldly—we give our life for a worldly pleasure that might not be more than one hour.  But heavenly pleasure is a pleasure that if you drink this water… This water, and you have here milk—you drink milk.

You drink water—how long are you going to drink water, take pleasure from drinking water, how long? Half a minute.  Then you take pleasure from drinking milk.  Is that not right? Then you take pleasure from drinking juice.  So you cannot take pleasure from drinking all of them at the same time.  Heavenly pleasure… when Allah gives you a pleasure, for example water, He keeps the pleasure of the water running in your body forever.  And at the same time you are taking milk—the pleasure of the milk will be continuously now… you are now tasting the water, tasting the milk, forever in your system.  The juice, the same thing—so one does not overtake the other.  Continuously going.  If Allah opens for you this knowledge, and opens this knowledge, and this knowledge, and this knowledge—this knowledge has its own journey that you go in it, even though it is parallel to another knowledge that has its own journey going through it, both of them they are parallel to each other, and never do they meet—so it means no intersection.  All of them they have their own pleasure, continuous—and you can see yourself moving in this direction, in the second, in the third, in the fourth—all at the same time, and taking knowledge from all of them at the same time.  That’s why Awliyaullah they say from every letter of the Holy Qur’an, Allah opens for them 24,000 knowledges.  And not one knowledge overtakes the other—all of them different knowledges—and we are going through them all, and we are feeling as if we are 24,000 persons.  The power of the soul cannot be described. 

So the journey of a wali is not like our journey.  His journey is like Sayyidina Muhammad —the Night Journey, the Night of Ascension—where Allah raised him, took him in a journey, a real journey.  A real journey equal to Mi`raj—but what kind of mi`raj that… different.  Sayyidina Muhammad went into Mi`raj and he said at that time, 1400 years ago, more, reached “qaaba qawsayni aw adna—reached so near that two lengths-of-a-bow, and less”—and he is now not any more two lengths-of-a-bow and less, he is nearer now, because this was about 1450 years ago.  Because he went into Mi`raj, the second year of his… in Mecca… of the Message.  So 1450 years, Prophet —Allah mentioned in Holy Qur’an that Prophet reached Qaba qawsayni aw adna—length of two bows, and less.  Less, Allah knows how much less.  And he is still moving in that space of “less.”  Nano less.  You know nano? Not nano.  You know nan? You like it? You like nan? You like nan? You like nano?  Nano second, nano less—it means that less, is already by itself nano, micro, atom.  He said less.  And less, and less, and less, and less, and less.  It means he is… as much he is approaching less, Allah is making that “less” bigger than this whole creation, to keep His beloved one approaching, approaching, approaching, approaching.  Because no one can unite—this whole idea of Wahdata al-wujood that’s wrong.  No one can unite—Allah is Creator, Sayyidina Muhammad is created.  He is beloved servant.  So he is in that journey - that was his journey- a journey to reach the Heavenly One.  That’s why when he was there, and he is still there, and he is advancing.  Are you there? Huh?  If he says “yes”, he is not Muhyiddeen Ibn Arabi.

When Iblis came to him, and said, “Allah said in Holy Qur’an, ‘My Mercy encompasses everything’—Am I not from ‘everything’?”  Muhyiddeen Ibn Arabi didn’t answer—if he says “Yes, you are” Allah will say “Why did you answer and say ‘yes’? He is out of it.”  If he says “No, you are not in it,” Allah will say “Why did you say ‘he is not in it’?”  So he kept quiet.

Khairuddin—quiet.  He saved himself.  We are wherever Prophet is because he will not leave his ummah behind.   Especially those who go to the hand of Sultanu ‘l-Awliya, Sayyidina Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani, who took it from Sultanu ‘l-Awliya, Sayyidina Shaykh Abdullah al-Fa’izi ad-Daghestani, who took it from Shaykh Sharafuddin, Sultanu ‘l-Awliya, Shaykh Sharafuddin all the way to Prophet .  We hope, insha’Allah that we are there.  With Prophet , dunya and akhira.  Regardless of our sins and mistakes and weaknesses. 

So… there, as he is approaching, Allah sends him more and more beauty, and more and more manifestations on him, giving him more knowledges, more and more, so he is able to see himself there, not above… “I am nothing.”  When he left qaaba qawsayni aw adna it was at that time, less, and now it is more “less” and continuously less, and still this less—becoming bigger and bigger there.  Allah’s Greatness.  That, in your eye is less—it is less, because you are… someone is approaching in it, the distance becomes less.  But as the approaching—it is widening.  Bigger and bigger.  Not less and less, like you are driving one place to another place—you say “Oh that is 10 miles, that is 5 miles, that is 2 kilometers, one kilometer, arrived.”  There, wherever you have arrived, there is still bigger ahead of you.  So he was completely in shyness in front of his Lord—in that presence.  And he heard a voice—“Ya Muhammad ”—everyone hearing?  “Ya Muhammad , who am I and who are you?” 

Eh? You heard it?

And what did he say?

So what did you hear? Did you hear the voice?

Who am I, and who are you?

He said, “Ya Rabbee, Anta’ l-Qahhaar. Anta’ l-Qahhaar.  Wa ana ’l-`abd.”  What is Qahhar in English? You are the Subduer.  What is it? You are the Subduer.  What is Subduer, Crusher? [It makes everything else underneath to be less.]  Crushing.  Ya Rabbee, you are the One that crushes everything—it means Al-Qahhar does not accept anyone to be standing in His existence—He is the One that can be seen, can exist—the rest, absolutely `adam—no existence.  You crush everything.  And He said, “What about you, what are you?”  He said, “Ya Rabbee, I am your servant.”  And he said, “Ya Rabbee, You are the Subduer that crushes everything, makes everything nonexistent.” Nonexisting better than crushing—it means eliminate, terminated.  Huh? You understand more?  It means no one can be, only Him—Allah .  He said, “Ya Rabbee, You are the One that You are Al-Qahhar, the Subduer, that to me You are the One that will crush all the sins of my ummah, and they will not anymore be see n—You are the Crusher, You are the Eliminator, the Terminator, You are the One that—the meaning of Subduer to me, Al-Qahhar, that You are going to crush all the sins of human beings.  After you open to me what you opened, I understand now why people, they make sins, and why you said “Wa Rahmate wasi`at kulla shay”.  My mercy has encompassed everything.  And now I understand why You said “Wa ma arsalnaaka illa rahmatan li ’l-`alameen—it means I am the one, the machine, the bulldozer, that you will be sending to crush everything—although You can crush everything without any bulldozer—but I am that one that You are crushing everything with it. 

Look how awliyaullah, they understand wisdoms! How can you know these things? And he said, “Ya Rabee, ana ’l-`abd—I am the `abd, the servant, that is in need, all this because of what? The journey—that journey is what takes you to these knowledges.  awliyaullah, they are able to follow the journey of Prophet , they are there holding his hand and moving—that’s why bay`ah is important.  When you give bay`ah, it means they take care of you.  You don’t… they know we cannot take care of ourselves, they have to take care of us.  So he said, “Ya Rabbee, I am the servant, Your servant, that I am in need, in every moment,” he is in need for something—do we need something urgently every moment in our lives? Yes.  Prophet , what did he express? His needs.  He didn’t express his needs as dunya issues.  Or he did not express his needs for Jannah or Fire or Heaven.  He said, “Ya Rabbee, I am in need of Your marhamah, for Your rahmah, for Your Mercy.  If that Mercy does not reach me, I will be away from Your presence.

See this light—if you look at it like this, you can see the rays coming, is not?  You can see it? Which light? This light.  The first one, on the right.  Look at the second, no.  Look at the third, no.  Look at the fourth, less.  The first one only—do you see the rays? Second? Nothing.  The others? Nothing? The others? The last one is… garbage.  So this is a best example of how the rays, the traces of mercy, are reaching us.  The other one that they cannot… have no power… you cannot ask them to give you light.  They have no light.

But that one, like a spotlight, sending all these different rays.  Prophet , “Ya Rabbee, don’t exclude me”—the meaning of “servant” is “don’t exclude me from the rays of Your Mercy.”  Although Allah made him rahmatan li ’l-`aalameen!  He is the mercy for humanity.  But he is shining—Prophet —on every human being, from his ummah—he is sending that rahmah, because Allah is sending it to him in a huge indescribable power.  These are like transformers, small ones, like transformers, in order that you can look at them.  You cannot look at the sun—if the sun comes closer, how can you look at it? You see the rays of the sun—if you look by telescope, what happens? What, you cannot see?  If you put a magnifier and look at the sun, what happens? It burns your eyes—you become blind.  They cannot let someone who cannot have eyes that are able to… what you say in English—eyes that can stand, withstand the light—they will not give it to you.  It means, if you cannot reach the power of a transformer, you cannot be a transformer.  That’s why Prophet has this mercy that comes to him from Allah —he sends it to awliyaullah, and awliyaullah are… look like these lights—those you are lucky, who are lucky can connect with a strong wali that gives rays—you can see them coming.  Another wali, gives you light, but no rays—you cannot see them.  The other one—the last one is zero—he is still wali, but wali for himself. 

Look, prophets. You have prophets… And messengers, and another type is prophet and messenger at the same time.  So leave these, take the prophets—there are different kinds.  One is prophet to himself, as a prophet—he is not being sent anywhere.  He is only a prophet, Allah granted him that level. He is a prophet to himself, like the children of Sayyidina Ya`qub . Only Sayyidina Yusuf was the messenger, and was sent, prophet for an ummah. But his brothers were prophets to themselves.  There is a prophet to himself, there is a prophet for his family, a family prophet, only he gives advice to his family, and there is a prophet who is sent as a messenger.  So even between prophets there are different ranks.  Also between awliyaullah… there are different awliya—some of them are for themselves.  They cannot give more.  Some of them, only the family.  Some of them for the whole ummah.  And that’s why you look today at… the whole ummah, you can see Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, may Allah give him long life—he is everywhere, his rays are everywhere.  Allah wants that.

So journey, go back to the story of the journey—our journey as like Sayyidina Shah Naqshband, his journey was not on earth—he was going in a journey for seven days, on the seventh of Muharram, when he was 31 years of age—he was very…  not an ordinary wali, he was given power.  He said, “I went in a spiritual journey,” where he was using the spiritual power of movement, moving, heavenly… what we call mi`raj, moving—mi`raj speed. 

There is brain speed, and there is the speed of light—that is mi`raj speed.  Because Prophet went into Mi`raj, qaaba qawsayni aw adna, came back, his mattress was warm.  A very short time.  Sayyidina Shah Naqshband was going in that journey for seven days and seven nights, and he came back.  His journey finished on the fourteenth of Muharram, in seven days.  I explained that—anyone can go to Sufilive.com and check it. 

But we want to say that, he came back with all these knowledges—his journey was beyond this universe.  Moving through this universe, and going beyond.  And he said, “Many people in the future will be moving in a journey for migrating from one place to another in dunya, and there is another migration—in a different way.”

We leave this to later today insha’Allah, about what this migration, and what is the meaning of immigrant, and what are the characteristics of an immigrant—what he has to or she has to do. 

Wa min Allahit tawfeeq, bi hurmatil Fatiha.