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Adab of the Naqshbandi Tariqah, Part 9

Ramadan Series 2015, Vol 16

Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

6 July 2015 Fenton Zawiya, Michigan

Fajr Suhbah

Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem. Salaam `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh. Alhamdulillahi Rabbi 'l-`Alameen, wa ’s-salaatu wa ’s-salaamu `alaa ashrafi 'l-mursaleena Sayyidina wa Nabiyyina Muhammadin wa `alaa aalihi wa sahbihi ajma`een. Alhamdulillah alladhee hadaanAllah (swt) ila habeebahi al-mustafa wa nawarana bi noorihi al-azaali wal-abaadi. yaa `ibaadullah ittaqoollaha feemaa amara w’antahaa `ammaa nahaa `anhaa wa zajjar.

Brothers and sisters, may Allah (swt) bless you the happiness in dunya and grant you the utmost pleasure in Akhirah. We were discussing the adab of Ahkaam ash-Shari`ah and there is adab also of Ma`rifah or Haqiqah, for Fiqh and adab for the Knowledge of Taste, as Ibn `Ajeeba (r) said, “There are two kinds of knowledge, Knowledge of Papers/Books, `Ilm al-Awraaq, and Knowledge of Taste, `Ilm al-Adhwaaq. Therefore, there must be adab for both of them and now we continue on that.

The awliyaullah expect their followers to be completely clean on both of them and, as we said yesterday, if someone missed their awraad because they were busy, they can make istighfaar 100 times asking forgiveness that they did not do it, and Allah (swt) will forgive His servants because the Awraad at-Tariqah is nafl (voluntary), not waajib (mandatory) on every Muslim. As mentioned in Holy Qur'an, those who are lucky found the Tariqah:

وَأَلَّوِ اسْتَقَامُوا عَلَى الطَّرِيقَةِ لَأَسْقَيْنَاهُم مَّاء غَدَقًا

If they had (only) remained on the (right) Way, We should certainly have bestowed on them rain in abundance. (Surat al-Jinn, 72:16)

“If they were firm on the Tariqah, We would have showered them with rain,” in order to make everything green for them. In another meaning in Adab at-Tariqah, “shower them with mercy and blessings.” So this is where we left it yesterday. Today Awliyaullah expect their followers to eat from everything halaal and to do everything halaal. The meaning is that they eat from their sweat and feed their families from what is halaal. They also have to work outside to feed their families and themselves with endless blessings by not touching anything that ma la ya`nee, is a waste of time, including listening to and spreading bad rumors, and losing discipline towards Allah (swt) by backbiting each other. So that’s why Awliyaullah say that one of the conditions to reach the Reality of Siraat al-Mustaqeem, to continue walking on it is to eat halaal food.

Allah (swt) said in Holy Qur'an:

وَلَا تَجَسَّسُوا وَلَا يَغْتَب بَّعْضُكُم بَعْضًا أَيُحِبُّ أَحَدُكُمْ أَن يَأْكُلَ لَحْمَ أَخِيهِ مَيْتًا فَكَرِهْتُمُوهُ

And spy not on each other behind their backs. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? No, you would abhor it. (Surat al-Hujuraat, 49:12)

“Do you like to eat the flesh of the carcass of your dead brother? You would hate that, because it is disgusting!” We have to eat from halaal and not speak bad about anyone, nor keep it in our heart. It is said that even if your heart was severely broken, Allah will rejuvenate your heart from the Hawd al-Kawthar of the Prophet (s) by you eating spiritual and physical food. Spiritual food is to not do sins, especially backbiting, and physical food is what you earn by your sweat. If you do that you will succeed and if you eat haraam food by cheating and deceiving, then even if you are a mureed, you will be away from the vision of the shaykh, he will drop you down. Even if you sit in a gathering of Khatm al-Khwajagan, you will be deprived of its blessings.

The second thing for today is, the mureed must avoid all 800 forbiddens and he has no excuse to say, “I don't know what they are.” You can know if something is forbidden by checking with your mind if it is good or bad: if it is good do it and if not, don't. That is the measure in the Last Days to know if something is allowed or forbidden. Grandshaykh (q) said, “The mureed must completely avoid all the 800 forbiddens and it will open to him slowly, slowly to know all of them.”

As I have mentioned before, Grandshaykh (q) ordered Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) to do seclusion for nine months in Madinatu 'l-Munawwarah where Grandshaykh (q) did seclusion for one year, in the same building but a different room. Grandshaykh (q) sent us there and said, “You stay in my room.” When we went for Hajj, he sent us to Shaykh Abbas Qari from Bukhara, who is the head of Bukhari mureeds in Madinah, one of the grand mureeds of Grandshaykh (q). Grandshaykh (q) sent us to stay in his room and said, “Stay there and wait, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) will join you.”

We went to that building and met Shaykh `Abbas Qari for the first time. We said, “Grandshaykh (q) said for us to stay in his room.”

He said, “There is no way I can allow anyone to stay in that room, because of the blessings that are coming on that place and I am feeling it.” He was over 100 years of age. “You might not be able to carry it and I don't have any other rooms, but I will put you on the roof to stay until Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) comes.”

We went on the top of the roof and it was full of goats, as that is where he kept them. Across from that building there was another building and between them a distance of this carpet (6 feet) and a piece of wood linked them.

He said, “This is the only place we can give to you.”

As soon as we put our feet on the wood it wobbled and we were three stories up! That is where he wanted us to stay. You cannot say, “No, I want the five-star package.” That is Tariqah. Didn’t Grandshaykh (q) know this would happen to us? Of course he did, but he said to do that to them and check their hearts. that place was covered in small lizards that make a sound like “tick tack.”

He said, “Sleep there on the wood and don't move too much as it isn’t very strong to hold you and your brother.”

So when Shaykh Nazim (q) came, they sent us to see his room. He opened Grandshaykh’s room and you could smell a nice fragrance; this was in 1967. Although Grandshaykh (q) had returned back to Damascus for almost one year after he finished his seclusion, the nice fragrance of the perfume was still inside that room.

Mawlana Shaykh said to us that Grandshaykh (q) told him, “There are 800 forbiddens and I want you to count them and write them down. You will be in khalwah for nine months. Six months of it will be very severe and three months is khalwati jalwati. You can go out to Prophet's (s) Haram and pray there.” Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) said, “I began to think of these forbiddens and was able to write 187 of them. I was not able to continue and find the diseases of the heart and ego, and this was according to my level.” Grandshaykh (q) knows all 800 forbiddens, for sure. To be a mureed, which is what I want to come to, is to leave all 800 forbiddens as much as you can or else you are falling into the well of Shaytan. Don't interfere in something that does not concern you. Avoid burning your finger and avoid being with bad people. He said that. To Awliyaullah, if you do any kind of worshipness you will be rewarded from Allah, but if you leave one forbidden and not do it, Allah (swt) will give you endless rewards, because you held yourself back for Allah's sake and He will dress you with endless Lights of the Prophet (s).

If the murshid orders you to do something, you have to do it. I don't like to mention it but they mention it here: Grandshaykh said, “If the shaykh orders you to do something that you dislike (like spending money, as everyone hates to give donations), laa yajooz, it is not allowable for the mureed to say, “Why do I have to give?”

Grandshaykh (q) mentioned a story. One time there were two people who wanted to get married. I heard Grandshaykh (q) say, “Where is Shaykh Nazim? Call him here.” We called Shaykh Nazim. He came and Grandshaykh (q) said, “I need 1,000 Syrian Pounds from you (say about $1,000 dollars) and $1,000 from Shaykh Husayn.” He looked at me and my brother and said, “I don't ask anyone for money except for them, they are my two students (talmeedh). If I ask someone else and they don't fulfill it, then they will be in a heavy problem from Awliyaullah.” They don’t like for the mureed to say, “Why do I have to give?” Like today, if you ask someone to give a donation for a masjid or anything else, they will ask, “Why do I have to give?” So he said to Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) to give $1,000 and to Shaykh Husayn give $1,000 and they called that man who wanted to marry. They gave him the money and said, “Give this to your fiancée as her dowry.” Grandshaykh (q) said, “They are the only ones I order, because if I order any other and they don't fulfill it, they will be under heavy burden.”

There was a very famous Naqshbandi shaykh in Egypt, Shaykh Muhammad Amin Al-Baghdadi (q), who taught in al-Azhar University. He is buried by the Masjid Baybars. They recently dug up his body after 100 years and everything was as fresh as if it was buried today. My uncles were his students in al-Azhar. There was a mureed of his from Lebanon who was also a shaykh. He did something that Shaykh Muhammad Amin Al-Baghdadi (q) did not like and he was not happy because that mureed was doing the rabita to himself, which is very heavy on the shaykh for a mureed to collect people through his `ilm and make rabita to himself. There are many representatives who are not the right ones and if they call people to themselves, they will end up in a big problem as Allah does not like His Awliya to be angry; in that case, Allah might send something on that person and make him crazy. So when he knew that person is calling people to himself, he took his miswak in front of all his mureeds and said, “Look at that shaykh in Lebanon, he is on the beach making dhikr. When I break the miswak in two he will go crazy.” The people who were with that shaykh saw him change and become crazy, and he died in that state! That happened because he put the order of the shaykh on the ground, so we have to be very careful: when the shaykh asks something, you do it! You cannot only do the things you like. It is not up to our limited reasoning (to know what is the wisdom). Their reasoning is not limited, they act on what Allah (swt) and the Prophet (s) ordered them according to the knowledge of Reality they acquired from the Prophet (s).

That is why Abu Hurayrah (r) said, “I memorized,” or, “The Prophet (s) poured in my heart two kinds of knowledge: one I spread, which is Shari'ah, and the other I kept because if I say what the Prophet (s) told me they will cut my neck.” So Awliyaullah like for what they say to be accepted and done, as they know things that others do not. As Abu Hurayrah (r) said, “There is knowledge that people cannot follow and it will be dangerous for those who don't fulfill the order of the shuyookh.”

Also from Adab of Tariqah, when someone wants to eat or drink he has to thank Allah (swt) for that ni`mah, even for one sip of water or coffee, because if there is negativity in that drink or food, then Allah will change it. Today you don't know who cooks it; it might be someone who is junoob, needs ghusl, or someone who needs wudu or used the restroom and did not wash. So all that negativity in the restaurant will affect the person eating. When cooking, Awliyaullah recommend to have wudu. Today at the restaurants no one has wudu. To avoid that negative energy coming on you, say, “Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadu ‘r-Rasoolullah” before eating and “Shukr yaa Rabbee `ala hadhan-ni`m.” That reflection will change from negative to positive and will become food that rejuvenates your body. That is better than jogging, which will not change their life expectancy (length of life). He also said to read one verse of the Holy Qur’an, beginning with Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem and one ayah: that will clean what you drink or eat. Why does Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) take salt before and after the food? It is in Hadith an-Nabi (s):

ثَلاثُ لُقْمَاتٍ بِالْمِلْحِ قَبْلَ الطَّعَامِ وَثَلاثٌ بَعْدَ الطَّعَامِ تُصْرَفُ بِهِنَّ عَنِ ابْنِ آدَمَ اثْنَانِ وَسَبْعُونَ نَوْعًا مِنَ الْبَلاءِ ، مِنْهَا الْجُنُونُ ، وَالْجُذَامُ ، وَالْبَرَصُ

[Eating] three pinches of salt before food and three pinches after food will take away from the Son of Adam 72 types of affliction, among them are madness and leprosy. (Musannaf of Nisaburi)

From that Hadith, Awliyaullah know how to expand on it and explain it. It means not only will this cure 70 physical diseases, but 70 spiritual diseases from the 800 forbiddens as well. You will be cured from 70 bad spiritual diseases of the heart and ego just by taking a little bit of salt at the beginning and end, because salt carries some realities of the ocean and in the ocean there are things that no one knows, like in the story of Sayyidina Bayazid al-Bistami (q), when he was being stoned by the `ulama of his time because they thought he did something wrong after they called him to court and judged him as guilty. The judgement was that he must be stoned to death and after being stoned, he fell down and they thought he was dead; there was no stethoscope at that time, so after some time they threw his body in the dump.

He awoke after seven days, left the city and went towards the ocean. There he boarded a ship and they went out to sea, then they encountered a severe storm and the boat was about to sink. Their thinking in that time was not like today. They said, “It must be that someone bad came on this ship and is the cause of the storm.” They decided they must throw that person overboard in order for the storm to calm down. So Sayyidina Bayazid al-Bistami (q) thought to himself, “They are going to take an innocent person and kill him!” so he said, “Yes, I am that one,” and they took him and threw him in the ocean!

Grandshaykh (q) said that he was diving in the ocean and said, “Yaa Rabbee, I am not returning to land until I find the reality of this ocean.” He was moving with Tayy az-Zamaan and Tayy al-Makaan, the Powers of Moving by compressing space and time. He reached a place where he heard, “Huww, Huww, Huww,” and saw a huge number of people from Ummat an-Nabi (s) and on top of them was Sayyidina Baha’uddin Shah Naqshband (q).

He said, “I am not returning until I find the secret of that dhikr.” He felt Baha’uddin Shah Naqshband (q) saying to him, “Why are you in my territory?” so he withdrew. He saw Baha’uddin Shah Naqshband (q) as Allah created him, as a soul, because he had not yet come to dunya So, as the Prophet (s) said:

الارواح جنود مجندة , فما تعارف منها ائتلف , و ما تناكر منها اختلف

The souls were gathered like battalions and those who were related came together.

“Souls are gathered in battalions; those who know each other are together.” He saw that Sayyidina Baha’uddin Shah Naqshband (q) was going to bring all these people to be together on the Naqshbandi Sufi Way, which is the highest way to bring people to Realities. So salt has the reflection of that ocean of Baha’uddin Shah Naqshband (q). When you eat a little bit at the beginning and end, the bad desires will go and the good and positive blessings will come to you.

The Adab of the Khatm al-Khwajagan

We now come to the Adab of Khatm al-Khwajagan. Before gathering for Khatm, you have to believe that all the Saadaat an-Naqshbandiyoon from your time all the way back are present in every Khatm conducted around the world with Awliyaullah and angels. You have to feel ashamed of yourself that you did not follow their orders and that you have too many sins, that you are the only one not following those orders and everyone else is clean by the power of the Awliya that appear in the Khatm al-Khwajagan.

Tomorrow we will discuss more and close the chapter on the Adab of Tariqah and Shari`ah. If you see me speaking slowly, it is because I am tired.

Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.

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