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Inheritance of the Grave, Vol 1

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

14 September 2009 Fenton, Michigan

A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani ‘r-rajeem. Bismillahi ‘r-Rahmaani ‘r-Raheem.

Nawaytu ‘l-arba`een, nawaytu ‘l-`itikaaf, nawaytu ‘l-khalwah, nawaytu ‘l-`uzlah,

nawaytu ‘r-riyaadah, nawaytu ‘s-sulook, lillahi ta`ala fee haadha ‘l-masjid.

Ati`ullaha wa ati`u ‘r-Rasoola wa ooli ‘l-amri minkum.

Obey Allah, obey the Prophet, and obey those in authority among you. (4:59)

In this association we will not speak about the Dome of Provisions; we will leave it for the morning suhbahs. This is a different subject that is important. We will begin with some advice and shedding some knowledge on what awliyaaullah understand about inheritance, to bequeath what you own to those who come after you, because this dunya is moving. Allah (swt) said in the Holy Qur’an,

إِنَّا نَحْنُ نَرِثُ الْأَرْضَ وَمَنْ عَلَيْهَا وَإِلَيْنَا يُرْجَعُونَ

inna nahun narithu ‘l- arada wa man `alayha,

It is We Who will inherit the earth, and all beings thereon: to Us will they all be returned. (19:40)

But Allah (swt) doesn’t need to inherit, but the verse says inna nahnu narithu ‘l- arada wa man `alayha, "We will inherit whatever is in or on the Earth.” It means Allah (swt) owns it and He takes it back, because He gave it to humanity to carry. Instead of giving it clean as they took it, they are giving it dirty, full of bloodshed, as the angels said:

وَإِذْ قَالَ رَبُّكَ لِلْمَلاَئِكَةِ إِنِّي جَاعِلٌ فِي الأَرْضِ خَلِيفَةً قَالُواْ أَتَجْعَلُ فِيهَا مَن يُفْسِدُ فِيهَا وَيَسْفِكُ الدِّمَاء وَنَحْنُ نُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِكَ وَنُقَدِّسُ لَكَ قَالَ إِنِّي أَعْلَمُ مَا لاَ تَعْلَمُونَ

wa idh qaala rabbuka lil-malaaikati innee ja`ilun fi 'l-ardi Khalifa, qaaloo a taj`alu feeha man yufsidu feeha wa yasfik ud-dimaaoo wa nahnu nusabihoo bi hamdika wa nuqaddisa lak, qaala innee a`alamu maa laa t`alamoon

Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: "I will create a vicegerent on earth." They said: "Wilt Thou place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood?- whilst we do celebrate Thy praises and glorify Thy holy (name)?" He said: "I know what ye know not." (2:30)

When He said to the angels, ‘I am putting a representative to inherit…’” So inheritance is important. innee ja`iloon fi 'l-ardi khalifah, “Someone to take from Me the responsibility and to represent Me.” That one is inheriting secrets.

If you represent your father it means you are entitled to inherit from him. So Allah (swt) is not like us but Allah (swt) gave to human beings to inherit the Earth. It means to take it and give it back; as they took it clean, to give it back clean. But what they did? They did bloodshed. What angels said? Allah (swt) doesn’t know? He knows, but He said, “I want to show My angels even though I have honored and love human beings, I created them.” Angels have no sin, because there is no evil power running after them, so they are in complete `uboodiyyah, worshipness. One understanding is that Allah (swt) honored human beings because He put on them that temptation of Iblees and his soldiers, his army and evil power, to see if they are going to follow Iblees or His beloved prophet, Sayiddina Muhammad (s).

So angels complained, “Yaa Rabbee, what you are putting? You are giving them Earth to make bloodshed on it? We are better. We are praising You and glorifying You. You don’t need them. No, no, no. Allah (swt) answered them, qaala innee a`alamu maa laa t`alamoon, “Don’t even try to speak in My Presence. You are not entitled. I know what you don’t know!” Angels were shaking, afraid.

So it is important to know what we will inherit and what others will inherit from us. It was passed to you and from you it is passed to them and like that. So Mawlana (q) explains how human beings inherit from each other: every human being has five different heirs who inherit from him five different inheritances. So Allah (swt) gave every human being five different things to pass on to someone else. Three of them he passes to the others and two of them come directly. He has no control over it; it has to be passed by Allah (swt) and He takes it. So people must understand nothing is going to be left for them. They are only security agents on what they have. Three that they own and pass directly, and two that Allah (swt) takes back from them. He doesn’t leave anything to you, nothing! So even your hat doesn’t belong to you. After you have died, who will take it? Might be one of your children, but they are daughters, grandsons, whatever. Even your ring you cannot take. Even thieves in old times, still in Central Asia they have golden teeth; it is a fashion. Even if their teeth are OK they put gold on their teeth. So even that gold you don’t take, because thieves dig up the grave and beat your skull with axes to remove those teeth! So don’t put gold in your teeth! (laughter) They will take it, they know that. That’s why you come in the morning and find many graves are open and the skull has been beaten. They steal the gold and they go. Where do they go? Torturing in dunya with golden teeth, torturing in ahkirah. That’s why Allah (swt) prohibited men to wear silk and gold. Women can wear them; no problem. So even that they are running to take whatever you own, they don’t leave you anything.

So what inheritance does a human being inherit? The first one is from the three that are being given to everyone. First someone will inherit something, before they divide it between the heirs. Who is that one? When they close the grave on you, Allahu akbar! And Allah (swt) sends back your soul and you see, you want to sit, you hit that big stone and you know that you reached the last place for you on dunya. How much is that difficulty? Sometimes they put you on an MRI machine and you have to go inside, that long tube. Many people have panic attacks, they cannot breathe when its closes over their faces. It is very difficult. Many people faint, even in an MRI machine.

When Mawlana asked me to do seclusion in 1996 in a cemetery, it is a masjid but beside it is a cemetery, graves of awliyaaullah buried in Istanbul, near the Bosphorus area called Beylerbeyy. So Mawlana said, “Use my room there.” You sit in it and do your awraad. I was happy, his room where he used to go and rest when he is in Istanbul. It’s a very nice place. You cannot look outside the windows, it has to be all closed so you cannot see people or through to outside. So I went to Istanbul and he said, “Go check the room, get the key and one day before 1st Rajab, enter.” The one responsible there, Hajji Mustafa, may Allah bless his soul, passed away, a very nice person, he used to run the dhikr there. Now the place is being run by Mawlana’s son, Hajji Muhammad.

I went there and Hajji Mustafa was responsible for the whole place: the cemetery, the graves and so on. I said, “Can you show me the place?” He took me inside the masjid, then out to the cemetery and he cut a box. He built a wall that might be one-meter high. If you are sitting like that you might hit your head. It was 3-feet wide and 8-feet long. He said, “Here is the place you are going into seclusion.” Where is the room? Is that the room?! The room disappeared. They want you to make seclusion there in a very difficult place. What you can say? Nothing! But they check your heart—changing, not changing? Between these graves at night you don’t know what happens and you have to be up all night and you are also sitting in a coffin like coffins beside you! You are neighbors, so they (the deceased) might knock at your door and come! (laughter)

In any case, Mawlana called next day and asked, “Did you see the room? You like it?” I said, “Mawlana thank you very much. It is the best! Bahr, ocean!” They didn’t tell me that it was a test until the day I have to go inside. They said “No, you come and stay in Mawlana’s room, a normal one!” So they want you to feel the difficulty.

So the first guest who comes to you in the grave from the inheritors, it’s not angels. The inheritor is something within you, that is going to inherit from you. Who is that honorable heir that comes and says, “Now its my turn to take over your self!” You know? No? Simon? Doctor? First inheritors are the worms that eat your flesh, before the family inherits. Might be next day your stomach explodes and all these worms come and begin to eat you. Did you think about it? Tariqah is to make you think. Why tariqah is important? Because they are bringing your attention back to realities. This is one of the main realities, that worms are the first inheritors. Can you run from them? No. Worms cannot eat the flesh of prophets or awliyaaullah. Allah (swt) prohibited them because worms eat what is dirty. Prophets’ and awliyaa’s bodies are not dirty, they clean them. So what worms have to eat then? But through our bad `amal Allah (swt) created worms to eat us. It’s a cleansing process. Still there wisdom in it: it’s a punishment from one side, but a cleaning from the other side. Then after a while when Allah (swt) stops that punishment, you will be clean for the Day of Judgment, and blessings will be coming on you.

Like one person was a thief who doesn’t care about anyone, stealing from everyone, goes on streets at dark nights with his knife, pistol or gun and steals from people. He died and his wife was pregnant with his child. No one wanted to bury him because he’s a thief in the village. And finally one poor person, a humble one said, “No one to bury him. I will bury him in the cemetery.” He buried him in the cemetery and put a sign that this is the place of that person, to be known. His wife delivered after that a boy. She was working and raising that boy and that deceased one, that thief, the whole cemetery when you approach it, you can hear at night someone, like someone has pain, moaning, that everyone can hear. In winter as soon as snow comes on his grave, because it was in Grandshaykh Sharafuddin's village, Rashadiyya, (now known as Gunekoy, about 150 km. from Istanbul). The cemetery is on top of the mountain, you can see it. Go there and see, still today how Sayyidina Shaykh Sharafuddin is buried in that cemetery.

So when snow comes on all the graves, they have snow, only his grave as soon as the snow comes, it melts, from the intensity of punishment inside that grave. Until one day this moaning stopped and the snow was not melting anymore. They knew that something happened. They begin to question, to ask what caused it. They found at that time at that moment that his wife, her son reached the age of seven and they sent him to someone like you, haafizh to teach him Quran. All the other huffaazh, all other teachers they didn’t want to take him because he has no money, he’s poor and he is the son of that burglar, that thief; except this poor (one) haafizh. He said I will take him free for Allah (swt). The first day he was saying ‘Bismillahi ‘rahmaani ‘r-Raheem’, Allah (swt) stopped punishment on that person. The son is saying Bismillahi ’r-rahmaani ‘r-Raheem and Allah (swt) will punish him? He stopped punishing him.

So in the grave there are lot of our bad `amal. Grandshaykh always says and tell us that you have to be careful. He said if Allah (swt) will open the smell that is coming from your bad `amal in the grave, if Allah (swt) will allow that smell to come out, the whole world will faint from that bad smell. Now if you bring an animal here and let it to completely rot, what will happen? You cannot stay here. You have to run away. He said from one person, from bad `amal of one person, if Allah (swt) opens that smell to come out from the grave, the whole human (race) will faint from the smell. What do you think about two, about three, about four dead persons from their bad `amals? So may Allah (swt) forgive us and take that smell, bad smell that angels they can smell it. That’s why they cannot approach to take your prayers, when your prayer is being blended with bad `amal. You have to make sure your worshipness is clean as much as you can and the rest you leave to Allah (swt) and ask Him for forgiveness.

That’s why we say astaghfirullah after prayers. Before prayer we say astaghfirullah, after prayer we say astaghfirullah, in order that in between the prayer we will be clean. Astaghfirullahi ‘l-`Azheem wa atoobu ilayh. Don’t we say three times after prayer, why? And why it has to be loud? Because the others can hear it and they can say it like you. So the imam has to say astaghfirullahi ‘l-`Azheem wa atoobu ilayh or the mu’azzin in order that the rest can hear and follow. Astaghfirullah Ya Rabbee! I am asking forgiveness for the shortcoming of my prayer. Don’t think your prayer is mashaa-Allah! You prayed 4 raka`ats up and down like - a clown in action? What is a clown in French? Don’t know? So you’re coming up, going down, going up, going down, you’re not in a gym. People they are crazy on the gym, going up, going down, going down, stepping up, stepping down. They’re no mind anymore. Everyone thinks ‘I’m going to make my life longer’. When Allah’s (swt) ajal comes, ‘wa yastaqdhimoona sa’a ta wala yastaqdimoon, not one moment more, not one moment less, so don’t bother. When it comes, it comes, but be ready.

So first inheritor is what? Worms, they are inheriting your lovely flesh. That’s why other beliefs and religions they make make-up for them. They put them in the coffin with make-up. Muslims no, you cannot put make-up, because they know that is a fake, but others they make their eyes nice, their tattoos here instead. Today they take the hair and put tattoos in it and inject their lips with something – Botox, and send them to grave. Oh, worms happy! (Laughter). Beautiful man and woman coming. They invite each other, worms. They begin with your eyes. Nothing in this dunya can satisfy human being other than sand in their eyes, dirt. When eyes begin to see dirt is thrown on its face, then finished. Pleasure of dunya finished because of that. They don’t put gold in your eyes, they put dirt.

So these worms begin to eat, to eat you and they are very happy, like wild animals, what they do with their…when they catch animals to eat them? They will be competing, who is going to eat this part or that part? So you are completely eaten by worms. What is left? Bones, skeleton. Who is the second one to eat the skeleton? Someone inheriting – inherit nice inheritance. First they eat the flesh; now another one, second one wants to eat the bones. Even dogs they don’t eat bones, they throw it. They eat the meat. You saw in jungles lions they eat the meat, they leave the bones, but there is someone who eats the bones? Who is that? Hyena? But our bones are not tasty for hyenas. Might be hyenas share with the worms with these make-ups and they put also lipstick and they also put powder here, to make it pink, so this is a delicacy. So every worm chooses, has to buy, which part?

So finally they leave the rest for (the bones) to be eaten by another inheritor. Who is that inheritor? These are from within you. The second inheritor is the dirt. When you leave bones in dirt, in sand under, slowly, slowly become `izhaamin nakhirah, become bones with holes in it. And slowly, slowly, dirt with sun, sun with dirt, heat under, slowly, slowly, the bones disintegrate.

What is the hikmah wisdom, of dirt yaa Shaykh? If you touch in some madhaahib, you touch saliva of dog in all madhaahib, but in Imam Maalik's madhhab the petting of dog is OK but not touching his saliva. If by accident you touched his saliva, if by accident you touched or he licked a utensil, what does Shari`ah ask you to do? You wash six times and one time with dirt. So dirt first you wash with the dirt, you clean with dirt wherever you touched, then you wash six times. So dirt is like you are taking a bath, is a cleansing process. So Allah (swt) makes the worms to eat you, to clean your flesh and makes the dirt, the sand to eat your bones, to clean your bones, before coming to Day of Judgement. So we have to be very careful that there are heirs, they’re going to inherit you.

So we spoke about two, inshaa-Allah next time we speak about the rest. May Allah (swt) forgive us, and may Allah (swt) bless us and give our Shaykh long life (ameen). This is only something tareeqah try to make you to pay attention to things that doesn’t click in the mind. Mind never thinks like that. Awliyaaullah they know all the details what you need to know in your life in order to be a real believer. May Allah (swt) guide us to reality. Ameen.

Wa min Allahi ‘t-tawfeeq, bi hurmati ‘l-habeeb, bi hurmati ‘l-Fatihah.

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