A`udhu billah min ash-Shaytaan ir-rajeem

Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem

Nawaytu'l-arba`een, nawaytu'l-`itikaaf, nawaytu'l-khalwah, nawaytu'l-riyaadah, nawaytu's-salook, nawaytu'l-`uzlah lillahi ta`ala fee hadha'l-masjid  

Ramadan mubarak for all of you, Insha-Allah Allah give us forgiveness for every sin we have made.

There was first of all...:

Ati` Allah wa ati` ar-rasula wa uli 'l-amri minkum

Obey Allah, obey the Prophet and obey those who are on authority. Suratu’n-Nisa, [4:59]

Those who are on authority are not easy people. Those who are on authority means they have something to depend on or they cannot be on authority. No one will listen to them. They have to be supported.

If they are not supported it means they cannot keep their obedience. It means they cannot keep people obeying and accepting them.

And this is what we can see in physical life, those in authority they have those behind them, they enforce the law, there is a law or constitution that people must follow. So those who on authority, people are afraid of them as they have something they can depend on which is enforcing the law.

But in spirituality those in authority have different criteria or different kind of support.

First they depend on whom they are taking their powers from and where they took it and when they took it. And those are awliyaullah who depend on the Prophet , because they are inheritors from the Prophet .

And one time in the time of Sayyidina Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani one of the masters of the Golden Chain in Central Asia. He was famous for doing dhikr in his well which was besides his school and we saw it when we visited Uzbekistan. And from 1000 years ago they dig that well and til today it is running. He used to go down in the well, go down in the water, do his dhikr, then quickly to come up to breathe then go down again and do his dhikr. Summer and winter. In winter it is cold and even in summer it is cold because it is a well.

Why? because Shaytaan cannot be under water; because what kills Shaytaan is water, because he is fire.

Fire moves quickly to eat everything. The only way to put fire down is whenever you see fire eating anything - trees or mountains or homes - the only thing stronger than fire is saying "Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar” three times. Keep saying that and you see the fire going down, because fire is anger.

Shaytaan, because he is created from fire, fire wants everything to itself. And anger wants everything to be what it accepts to himself or he gets angry. So putting anger down is like to put fire down. (You say: ) “Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar on nafsee, on my ego, Allahu Akbar on my bad behaviors, then it will drop down.

So awliyaullah they know this wisdom: that nothing can put fire down except water. So nothing can put Shaytaan down except water because Shaytaan is created from fire and naar al-hasad, the anger from jealousy is the head of every sin.

As soon as you speak with someone and he gets angry, finished. You cannot control him; he is lost.

And if you speak with anyone today in a way that he doesn’t agree with and he will be with fire on you; anger on you. That means there is no taslimiyya. Islam means to submit to Allah swt. Tariqah, is a way in Arabic, the way how the student, or the mureeds, can put down their anger in order to submit to the teachings of their teachers.

Now today the student wants to teach the teacher. Before, the teacher used to teach the student. Today the student is the teacher. So if you have 1000 students and one teacher then you have 1000 “teachers” (of the teacher).

Now, the teacher must submit to the student. He has hope that by doing this, one day he will bring him (to the correct way). The student will run, run, run away, but one day the teacher will bring him back. So then he brings him back, then Shaytaan enters in and make him run again. It is always a struggle. Run, bring him back; run, bring him back. Then at the end if he doesn’t bring him back he may send him a big test and finished.

So better not to take baya`. Why to be under that heavy burden? If you don’t take baya` then you will be flying like a bird. But when you decide to take baya` , he (the master) is going to give him a hard time. Like the jallaad, the one who whips you, in old times. When they want to torture you in prison they tie your two legs and then they are whipping you and blood is coming out all over, and pus is coming out. Sins are like pus. The teacher wants to take them away, so he keeps beating where there is pus and you cry because there is where is the pain. Until it is clean. Like a surgeon. But the problem with the shaykhs is they don’t give you anesthesia. Doctors they give you anesthesia so you don’t feel it. But shaykhs they want you to feel it. They want you to know how difficult the pain is when Azra’eel, (the Angel of death) comes and takes the soul, takes the trust back -  how much you are going to suffer from the pain of the soul coming out of the body.

So the discipline of the Shaykh will become very easy relatively speaking compared to the Angel of Death taking the soul of that person - that is very difficult. But still they have been dressed, awliyaullah by the Prophet ; they have been dressed a heavenly dress of mercy that they can be there at the time of taking the soul of their followers to make it so easy as they have already been disciplined by the Shaykh. Don’t think when you take hand of Shaykh you will be suffering. Yes in dunya you will suffer, but when you are leaving this dunya you will be very easy, comfortable and satisfied. We hope that when our soul is being taken away we will be in presence of our Prophet and it will be very easy, the taking of the soul away.

So when Sayyidina Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani was doing dhikr in water so Shaytaan cannot approach. Don’t say Shaytaan cannot approach, Shaytaan can approach anyone except one, that is the Prophet and the inheritors of the Prophet . But Shaytaan - the house of Shaytaan is in the heart.

فَوَسْوَسَ لَهُمَا الشَّيْطَانُ لِيُبْدِيَ لَهُمَا مَا وُورِيَ عَنْهُمَا مِن سَوْءَاتِهِمَا وَقَالَ مَا نَهَاكُمَا رَبُّكُمَا عَنْ هَـذِهِ الشَّجَرَةِ إِلاَّ أَن تَكُونَا مَلَكَيْنِ أَوْ تَكُونَا مِنَ الْخَالِدِينَ

Fa-waswasa lahuma ash-Shaytaanu li-yubdiya lahuma maa wooriya `anhuma min sawaatihima wa qaala ma nahakuma rabbukuma `an haadhihi ash-shajarati illa an takoona malakayni aw takoona mina al-khaalideen

Then began Satan to whisper suggestions to them, bringing openly before their minds all their shame that was hidden from them (before): he said: "Your Lord only forbade you this tree, lest ye should become angels or such beings as live for ever." Suratu’l-A'raf [7:20]

Shaytaan whispered in the hearts of Sayyidina Adam and Sayyidatuna Hawwa. Sayyidina Adam is the father of human beings. He is a prophet! How Shaytaan is able to whisper to them and is not able to whisper to us? He can whisper at any moment. If he whisper to Sayyidina Adam , and whey he whispered in order to show as Allah said in Holy Qur'an, because for one second Adam gave an ear to Shaytaan, it made Adam to be naked. li-yubdiya lahuma … to show them how they had been veiled, sawaatihima means their bad characters. Private parts is where problems comes. So any bad behavior is also a private part to the soul, any bad character. So as soon as Shaytaan whispers and you give an ear, you are now exposed, naked, you are now exposed to every negative energy, there is no more Allah’s covering. Like when you go to x-ray room, they close very thick doors, lead doors, as they don’t want any x-ray to go out. Shield. When you go to dentist, there is a shield from x-rays.

Also there is a spiritual shield that awliyaullah put on you that Shaytaan cannot approach, as Shaytaan has a fiery x-ray, a damaging x-ray. As soon as he approaches you are finished. As soon as you accept what he says, for a moment, the plug is there, there is no shield - it is as if you took away your shield.

Awliyaullah they know you need a shield and therefore they put it for you.

So Sayyidina Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani  did not want Shaytaan to approach - he has a shield. But to get the spiritual shield you need to get the physical shield first. So that is to protect yourself when doing your dhikr from Shaytaanic whispering. So he used to do dhikr underwater. Because Shaytaan cannot approach water.

But today we do our dhikr with Shaytaan. (We) open the TV and sit and do our dhikr and we are watching. What are we watching? Watching movies, news. And we say, "we finished our dhikr today.”

So where you do your dhikr? Watching a movie.

So how you are going to shield yourself if Sayyidina Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani was doing it under the well? Who is better: Sayyidina Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani or us? But today because of so much ignorance, even you do it on TV, still Allah is happy with you. But not more than a TV. Is there something more? Allah knows best.

So Sayyidina Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani , one time, one of the shaykhs came to him. His name is Abdur-Raheem al-Maghribi.  He is from Morocco, from North Africa, coming and visiting. You know North Africa? Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, that area, also Senegal, Ghana, that area they have lot of tariqats there and many scholars came from that area in Islam. That was a very famous Shaykh visiting Central Asia from Maghrib, from Morocco. He came to Sayyidina Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani  asking him a question. So Sayyidina Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani  is someone who is carrying the reality of Ghawthiyya at that time, the highest level to be inheriting from the Prophet , means Sultan al-Awliya of his time.

One time he heard a voice: “Ya Abdul-Khaliq! Go to that place and hit with your stick on that rock.” Sayyidina Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani  heard that voice and it is a heavenly voice. He was thinking "what is the benefit that I have to go and hit the rock with my stick?" And it came to him, “Ya Sayyidina Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani ! Go and submit don’t question.”

He went and with his stick he hit on the rock. This is showing him, that "you have been inheriting from Sayyidina Musa , also when he hit the rock and 12 springs came out."

So:

وَإِذِ اسْتَسْقَى مُوسَى لِقَوْمِهِ فَقُلْنَا اضْرِب بِّعَصَاكَ الْحَجَرَ فَانفَجَرَتْ مِنْهُ اثْنَتَا عَشْرَةَ عَيْناً قَدْ عَلِمَ كُلُّ أُنَاسٍ مَّشْرَبَهُمْ كُلُواْ وَاشْرَبُواْ مِن رِّزْقِ اللَّهِ وَلاَ تَعْثَوْاْ فِي الأَرْضِ مُفْسِدِينَ

Wa idhi istasqaa moosaa li-qawmihi faqulna idrib bi-`asaka al-hajara fa-anfajarat minhu ithnata `ashrata `aynan qad `alima kullu unaasin mashrabahum kuloo w’ashraboo min rizqillahi wa laa ta`thaw f’il-al-ardi mufsideen

And remember Moses prayed for water for his people; We said: "Strike the rock with thy staff." Then gushed forth therefrom twelve springs. Each group knew its own place for water. So eat and drink of the sustenance provided by Allah, and do no evil nor mischief on the (face of the) earth. Suratu ’l-Baqara [2:60]

When Bani Isra'eel didn’t have anything anymore and everything is drought and Allah ordered Sayyidina Musa to go and hit the rock, and then Allah provided them with provisions.

That means when you need provision you need to hit a rock - that is the rock of the ego, you have to rock it down.

So (it means): “O Abdul-Khaliq! Go and hit on that rock as your followers are in need of the water that is coming out from that rock. It is of benefit to their spiritualities.”

It means to hit on the rock in order for them to submit. And that means heavenly spiritual provisions.

So he hit that rock and a spring came out from it and he heard a voice that said, "Ya Abdul-Khaliq! From every drop of water coming out I am creating an angel and your duty is to give a name to each angel and every angel must have a different name and you cannot repeat any name of one of them. That means 10 trillion angels must have different names. And Allah is giving that great power to Sayyidina Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani  and the praise of those angels will be given to followers of the most distinguished Naqshbandi tariqah.

And that spring is running until today and Sayyidina Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani  is still naming those angels and that dhikr they are making is still being written to the followers of the Naqshbandi Sufi order. That will be written for them and don’t think the Naqshbandi Order is like soccer game and that is it playing. There are behind it very important messages that awliyaullah are dealing with it for benefit of their students.

We mentioned how much knowledge that Allah gave to Sayyidina Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani  to give the name (to each angel). But it is not only giving each one a name, but also how many praises he is going to do and what language he is going to do it in, and from the moment he has been created up to Judgment Day they know how much that angel is going to help the Naqshbandi followers.

So that Shaykh Abdur-Raheem Maghribi came to Sayyidina Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani asking him a question and this question is an important question that everyone needs that.

That Shaykh Abdur-Raheem Maghribi, (I am explaining) in order to understand who he was from Grandshaykh’s notes. He was one of the greatest awliyaullah (of his time) who was studying with Sayyidina Khidr for nine years - studying `ilm al-hadith and `ilm tafsir al-Qur'an. The same tafsir that Sayyidina Musa was trying to learn from Sayyidina Khidr .

So someone like that coming to Sayyidina Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani and asking a question will tell you how much Sayyidina Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani  was higher.

He came to ask a question in order to learn and we leave that question until tomorrow, bi-hurmati 'l-Fatiha.

For you to come else you will not come.

12 o’clock, insha-Allah people if they are awake they need to do some leaves cleaning in order to cook them later for you to eat.