The Joy of Cyprus in the Association of Rajab (Shaykh Nazim, 35 suhbat, 82 pages, 2/4)
https://www.nvrislam.net/index.php?j=eng&post=6071
impossible to reach to an end. Beyond your imagination may come countless imaginations. To think about it – can’t be. And they are so small. So small! Physi-cally. Among material beings – so insignificant that they can’t be mentioned.
O ur being, through this huge greatness, is never going to be acknowledged. Never. The physical being – you can’t say anything about it in this huge vastness of space! If you fill it, you are going to open another space into which the first space disappears …
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T hey are saying now, “God and Man.” – Allāh and Man! Allāh and His Deputy – Man. Who are you? How are you claiming to say, “I am something.” How are you going to speak on Wah.dat al-Wujūd (“Oneness of Existence”). That is ignorance. Where is Existence – true, real Wujūd? Wujūd H.aqqānī? Where is that one? Where is your existence?
B ut men are not blamed to say about themselves, “I am some-thing, I am someone.” Greatness Allāh Almighty is giving to men when He was saying, And when your Lord said unto the angels: Lo! I am about to place a viceroy in the earth (2:30). That is to be. Through the material world: nothing. But this quality that is qualifying man, no-one can know. No-one can know about it. And they are so happy to say they are such big ones, strong ones… Man that is granted to be Khalīfa (Caliph) may spread his hand towards the moon and take it in his hand like this. Khalīfa! And no-one knows the real position of being Khalīfa of Allāh Almighty.
T herefore, Man is going to be great also. Great one through creatures. H.ad.rati Insān: “His Exalted Highness – Man.” Do you understand? La H.awla wa la Quwwata illa biLlāhi al- ‘Alī al-‘Az.īm. Allāhu Akbarul-Akbar. Allāhu Akbarul-Akbar.
T herefore, Allāh Almighty was ordering to Rasulullah to ask, O my Lord! Increase me in knowledge (20:114).
Because Allāh Almighty is saying and of knowledge you have been vouchsafed but little (17:85). That but little (qalīlan) is never going to be “much” (kathīran). You also are always on the limit of qalīlan. Limited (mah.dūd). And “unlimited” (bilā h.add) – for Allāh Almighty. And everything in limits is going to be, finally, zero. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
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A nd ignorant people are claiming, “We are something. I am something. I am something.” I am going to say to them when they are through their coffins, I am going to ask them, O our fellow, what do you think now? You are something? You are nothing! Where is your greatness that you were claiming through your life? Where did it leave you? Where is your great-ness? Do you think that your greatness consists in being put under a pyramid? Or under such a building? That building – its greatness belongs to it, not to you. You are under it, only bones! No-one can look at you. Mummies. No-one can look at you. If you can look at them, perhaps you can’t sleep in the night-time! From fear – is it coming from this side or coming from that side? You will lose your appetite because of his ugliness.
A nd death is coming, and this brightness [of the face] is going quickly away, except for the Believers – it is OK.
Mu’mins’ faces are never going to be ugly, because familiarity, much more, is coming on them when they are leaving this life for the next life. But for others – ugliness comes upon them. Therefore, people never like to look at those persons. They take a cover and quickly cover them. Because they have such ugly, such bad faces. Most people. Only a few people, you can look at them and see that the interest of their soul is not yet finishing and not cut off.
K halīfa. That is a grant from Allāh Almighty. Dressing. If Allāh Almighty showed Ādam through the real clothes that He dressed him with for being His Deputy, Shaytan was the first to make sajda to him. But, because this world can’t carry that appearance – Divine appearance, Real appearance – therefore, He made it less, less, less and put on his physical being only one ray. And through one ray, Sayyidunā Ādam was
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shining like the sun. But it was not enough for Iblis to surrender. And Allāh Almighty is not giving that appearance to Ādam, be-cause the whole world can’t carry it. May Allāh forgive us.
T his is something from the sciences of realities of Sayyidī Muh.yī al-Dīn [Ibn ‘Arabī], and Sayyidī Mawlānā al-Shaykh ‘Abd Allāh Daghistānī, Allāh sanctify their souls and elevate their stations always! Always and ever, with the sanctity of him after whom there is no Prophet . Al-Fātih.a.
T his light [of the Walī], if it were to appear, that would be the Nūr Muh.ammadī. Because of it all creation would dis-appear because it cannot endure it. It would disappear from existence. Disappear from appearance.
Nescience Is Without Limits
M awlānā said in another talk: “What is not known is without end while what is known is within limits” (al-majhūl bilā nihāya wal-ma‘lūm ilā nihāya). And: “The perfections of Man are true wonders!” (kamālātu-l-insān ‘ajā’ib). And: “Outwardly Man is disconnected, but in reality he is connected” (al-insānu z.āhiruhu munfas.il wahuwa h.aqīqatan muttas.il). He declaimed:
Don’t fret so much:
The Decree’s out
Sit in your place;
Each lot shall pass.
While the world turns.
Try to keep still.
The Sources of Shaykh Muh.yī al-Dīn’s Knowledge
M awlānā said: Shaykh Muh.yī al-Dīn wrote out of spiritual openings but he did not understand all that he wrote. He
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used to speak according to three Presences (h.ad.arāt). The first was the Divine Presence – and this is the type of knowledge that he did not understand; but he told of it so that the great saints would scoop from it at a later stage. The second was the Pro-phetic Presence, and the third was from the Presence of the great Saints. At times, he wrote in a state of near-unconsciousness and reported types of knowledge of concern to later authorities that understood that knowledge exclusively of others.
Revering the Divine Secret in Man
M awlānā said: One time I was walking with Mawlānā al-Shaykh. We were going home on Mount Qasyūn, upwards from the Shaykh Muh.yī al-Dīn Mosque. I kicked aside a stone that was in the middle of the road and might have caused harm. Mawlānā al-Shaykh said: “Do not do this again. This stone is one of the creatures of Allāh and every single creature subsists through the light of Allāh. Therefore, bow down out of respect for that light and take it with your hand.”
T hen Mawlānā told us the story of Mawlānā Jalāl al-Dīn al-Rūmī walking with his disciples in one of the streets of Konya when a monk came walking from the opposite direction. The monk bowed down as a sign of humbleness before Mawlānā, but Mawlānā bowed down before him even more. His disciples were astonished: how can he bow in such fashion before the monk? Mawlānā answered them: “We surpass them in humble-ness also.” This explanation is outwardly for the common kind. For the elite its meaning is: We bowed down only in reverence for the light that was stored in him by Allāh Most High Who said: We have honored the children of Ādam (al-Isrā’ 17:70).
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The Excellence of Syro-Palestine and the Invocation of Blessings on the Prophet Loudly after Adhān
M awlānā said about the muezzins that leave out the loud in-vocation of blessings and peace after the call to prayer:
Leaving it out is treachery (khiyāna) against the Prophet . Then he mentioned, about the people of Shām, the h.adīth: “It is forbidden for its hypocrites to have authority over its Believ-ers.”4 He said this h.adīth is proof of the correctness of their belief.
T hen he said: There is a stronger proof for raising blessings and peace in the two noble verses: That [do]. And whoso magnifies the symbols of Allāh, it surely is from devotion of the hearts (al-H.ajj 22:32) And the great camels! We have appointed them for you among the symbols of Allāh (22: 36). Therefore, whoever objects to the loud invocation of blessings and peace after the call to prayer is asked: Do you not consider it devotion to magnify the symbols of Allāh, among them the great camels? Or do you say that magnifying them is idolatry and innovation? Rather, the explicit Qur’anic text stipulates that it is obligatory to magnify them. So then, what is the Mes-senger of Allāh in your eyes? Is he not one of the symbols of Allāh, or rather the greatest? Therefore, what is the status of mag-nifying him – Allāh bless him and his Family and Companions – in your opinion? Is magnifying him “obligatory” (wājib) or “of-fensive” (makrūh)? Or do you deem him less than a great camel?!
4Narrated from Khuraym ibn Fātik, from the Prophet by al-T.abarānī, and from Khuraym himself by Imām Ah.mad and Ibn Abī ‘Ās.im, all with good chains according to al-Mundhirī and al-Haythamī. Al-Suyūt. ī declared the h.adīth sound (s.ah.īh.) in al-Jāmi‘ al-S.aghīr.
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F urthermore, Allāh said, Lo! Allah and His angels shower blessings on the Prophet (33:56) in the present-and-future tense (mud.āri‘), not in the past, but forever and in permanence. No-one hates to raise the loud invocation of blessings and peace after the call to prayer except a Jew or a Christian!
The Followers and the Master M awlānā said: They told Rūmī, “You are a remarkable man but your students are unworthy.” He replied: “Who do you see at the physician’s door, the healthy or the sick?”
M awlānā continued: People carry unlit torches and come to the sun in order to light them. The followers of the Prophet lived in the Time of Ignorance, then they became the best of human beings and the models of perfection. It is for this that the great guides came: to render people beautiful and perfect.
I asked Mawlānā about certain advanced persons who hold per-mission (ma’dhūn) and seek successorship (mustakhlaf) who, if someone differs with them or questions them – even in sincere faithful advice (nas.īh.a) – become upset and say: If you contra-dict or object to me, such-and-such harm shall hit you! Mawlānā’s face changed to sadness when he heard this and he said: “They are the Shaykh and I am the doorman.” He said this in disap-proval to mean – and Allāh knows best – that they put them-selves in the place of the Shaykh and obviate him as if he were merely their instrument or he were their follower.
I mentioned to Mawlānā the story of Sayyid Ah.mad al-Rifā‘ī al-Kabīr – Allāh be well-pleased with him! – cited in al-Munāwī’s T.abaqāt al-S.ūfiyya when the Sayyid told his followers,
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“If you see anything wrong in me, do not hide it from me but tell me of it immediately.” He made them promise. One of them said: “O my master, I saw one thing wrong in you.” He asked what? The student replied: “Your one wrong is that you have such as ourselves for disciples.” Mawlānā said: “They kept adab with their Shaykh.”
Discernment Is Through Seclusion
M awlānā said: An Englishman came to GrandShaykh sent by J.G. Bennett who had accepted Islām at the hand of Grand-Shaykh and named himself Muh.ammad ‘Alī. His envoy came, carrying questions – he was a man with many questions, he be-gan around mid-morning and did not finish until after ‘Ishā! Among other things, he asked about the science of physiogno-my (al-qiyāfa aw al-firāsa) so that he could find out which among his students was suitable for certain things and what the best ori-entation was for such students. GrandShaykh mentioned the h.adīth of al-Bukhārī and Muslim, “Each is facilitated for that for which he was created.” Then he said, “Seclusion is crucial so that the heart-apparatus (jihāz al-qalb) will work. There is no egg without rooster. If the Shaykh is other than a Shaykh of educa-tion (tarbiya), then yes, there will be an egg without rooster in which case it would be only a Shaykh of blessing.”
W hen he was asked whether the khalwa will bear fruit if entered upon the request of the Murīd asking permission rather than the Shaykh’s own order, Mawlānā replied: “No.” Then he added: “Except in the way of training and self-control.” When I asked him what is the way to kill the ego he joked: “The Arabs use the sword while the English have the axe, the French the guillotine, and the Barbarians (al-‘ajam) hanging!”
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M awlānā said one time of one of the Murīds who were pre-sent, “He has gravitas” (hayba). The latter said: “A certified donkey, Yā Sayyidī!” Mawlānā said: “The donkey is useful and carries much; the wolf is a harmful predator.”
Seclusion Is Through Sincerity
O ne of those present exclaimed one time, “Yā Sayyidī, I never saw in my life more eloquent or knowledgeable than you!” Mawlānā said: “Whoever dedicates purely to Allāh (akhlas.a lillāh) forty mornings, the wellsprings of wisdom break forth from his tongue.” This authentic noble Prophetic h.adīth was narrated by Imām Ah.mad in the book of Simple Living (al-Zuhd), Ibn Abī Shayba in his Mu s.annaf, and others through many narrative chains. It forms enough proof of the in-sincerity of whoever comes out of the Forty-Day seclusion in the same poor state in which he entered it, indulging in slander, vulgar speech, obsession with what he considers his inviolable right, self-importance, and harming people – none of which has anything to do with wisdom.
GrandShaykh’s Seclusion in Madīna
M awlānā told us: The order came from the Prophetic Pres-ence that GrandShaykh should enter seclusion in Madīna Munawwara and that he should take with him Shaykh Muh.am-mad Nabhān of Aleppo. When the latter heard the news, he said: “This is for beginners! As for ourselves, Yā Shaykh, we are be-yond [seclusions].” He refused to accompany GrandShaykh or respond to his call. So, GrandShaykh then entered the Forty-Day seclusion with Mawlānā al-Shaykh Nāz.im and no-one else except Allāh and His Prophet.
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W e heard in Shām from the noble Sayyid Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qādir al-Jīlī al-Madanī al-Qādirī the son of Abūnā al-Shaykh – Sīdī Muh.ammad Ah.mad al-Māh.ī al-Bukhārī who was one hundred and forty years old when he died – that Sīdī al-Māh.ī saw Mawlānā al-Shaykh Nāz.im in Madīna when the latter came out of that khalwa, shook his hand, and supplicated for him.
The Advent of al-Mahdī, upon Him Peace
I mentioned to Mawlānā that one of the Yemeni Shaykhs, Shaykh ‘Alī Jafrī of Tarīm, H.ad.ramawt, the friend of Sayyidī al-Shaykh H.abīb ‘Umar ibn H.afīz. Bā ‘Alawī – Allāh bless and keep our Shaykh and them! – said that the Mahdī shall appear before the year 2004. I also heard from one of the foremost Schol-ars of Shām, also from the Prophetic Tree, that the late H.adīth Master of Damascus Shaykh Badr al-Dīn al-H.asanī – originally from Morocco – had declaimed:
And in the Sixth shall appear the Grandson of the Prophet
– The Best of all creation with the best mother and father! Then blessed is he who lives in his time
And blessed whoever is still a child being raised.
T hat scholar said that “the Sixth” may refer to the year 2006. However, Mawlānā said: “We do not accept that Allāh be disobeyed and the Umma tortured and the flag of Satan to be raised for one, two, or four more years nor for one day more. Therefore, every morning we say, ‘Tonight he will appear’; and
every night we say, ‘Tomorrow he will appear.’”
I n a previous visit I had asked Mawlānā about the saying of some of the people of Maghreb – among them Shaykh Muh.yī al-Dīn in one of his treatises and Imām al-Qurt.ubī in his book
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al-Tadhkira – that the Mahdī shall come out of the Maghreb. (Al-Qurt.ubī even said there was a report from Ibn Mas‘ūd to that effect but he did not cite it.) But Mawlānā said: “It is not as they said. The one who knows is not like the one who does not know.”
Tyrants
H e said: The method of tyrants is to show contempt and be-little the people until they are obeyed. Sick souls accept and submit to this. This is part of the Pharaonic principles. Thus did he [Pharaoh] make fools of his people, and they obeyed him. Lo! they were a wanton folk (al-Zukhruf 43:54).
Silence and Inquiry
I asked Mawlānā about the Murīd who queries and the Murīd who does not query but receives his answers from the Shaykh through the heart: is not the latter preferable? He replied: “The Shaykh might cast the question into the heart of the Murīd so that the latter will ask him with his tongue, for entertainment.”
The Red Sulfur
I mentioned to Mawlānā the saying of one of the eminent per-sonalities of Damascus – known by the title of “Doctor” due to the pervasive unpopularity, in the “educated” Arab and Islamic world, nowadays, of true Islamic and Arabic titles such as Faqīh (Jurisprudent), Shaykh al-Islām (Chief Umma Jurisprudent), Imām (Major Jurisprudent), H.āfiz. (H.adīth Master), Muh.addith (H.adīth Scholar), Musnid (H.adīth Narrator), Ustādh (Master), Shaykh (Teacher), Muftī (Formal Legal Respondent), Murshid (Guide), Qād.ī (Judge), Muqri’ (Qur’ānic Tutor), Wā‘i z. (Admon-
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isher), etc. – who said in one of his Jumu‘a sermons: “The one who seeks the path of sincerity and self-purification definitely needs a Murshid, but where can one be found? There are too many charlatans and impostors in our time. Therefore, Brother, let your Murshid be the Book and the Sunna.”
O ur Murshid said when he heard this: “This heedless Shaykh has trodden the path of Satan. How did he, himself, obtain Islamic knowledge, and how is Islamic knowledge presently taken from him? So then, how can the Book and the Sunna and
the Arabic dictionary be one’s Murshid?”
T hen Mawlānā mimicked for us a person who sits surrounded with open books, perusing them one after another until he becomes confused and starts to pull his hair out! Then he said: “Even if there are too many impostors, the Murshid Shaykh is like the red sulphur [pure gold]: very rare, and almost unobtainable. One must search in earnest. Whoever strives, finds.”
Honey is not Taken from the Bee’s Mouth
O ne of the Murīds present asked Mawlānā: “Yā Sayyidī, do you authorize and entitle us to narrate from you all your answers?” He replied: “Honey is not taken from the mouth of the bee. We wait until it digests it.” The bee is the Murīd and the digestion is Divinely-granted spiritual maturity. May this tran-scription approximate the latter! And “Many a transmitter of knowledge does not himself understand it, and many may transmit knowledge to others who are more versed in it than they.”5
5 Mass-transmitted (mutawātir) h.adīth of the Prophet narrated from 19 Companions.
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Looking Without Learning is a Capital Offense
S imilar to Mawlānā’s reply is what I heard him say in a pre-vious visit, when I asked him about the astounding book al-Ibrīz (“The Pristine Gold”) – the transcription of the discourses of the Moroccan Ghawth Sayyidī ‘Abd al-‘Azīz al-Dabbāgh by his scholarly Murīd Sayyidī ‘Alī ibn al-Mubārak – whereupon he turned to one of those present and asked: “Yā Shaykh X., did you read Kitāb al-Ibrīz?” The latter replied: “Mawlānā al-Shaykh
‘Abd Allāh did not permit us to read books!” Mawlānā said:
“Y ā Shaykh X., I was with Mawlānā al-Shaykh one time as we were crossing the ‘As.rūniyya Souk in Damascus.
We passed by a certain shop. GrandShaykh looked at the win-dow so I looked too. When I looked, he turned to me and said: ‘Nāz.im Effendī, looking without wisdom is a capital offense’ (al-naz.aru bidūn h.ikma jināya).” Meaning – Allāh knows best – to look at the variegations of the world (al-aghyār) without spe-cific order nor necessity is harmful to the light of the heart and for-bidden to the Awliyā’. But if it is for wisdom then it is not ha
Link: https://www.nvrislam.net/index.php?j=eng&post=6071
impossible to reach to an end. Beyond your imagination may come countless imaginations. To think about it – can’t be. And they are so small. So small! Physi-cally. Among material beings – so insignificant that they can’t be mentioned.
O ur being, through this huge greatness, is never going to be acknowledged. Never. The physical being – you can’t say anything about it in this huge vastness of space! If you fill it, you are going to open another space into which the first space disappears …
15
T hey are saying now, “God and Man.” – Allāh and Man! Allāh and His Deputy – Man. Who are you? How are you claiming to say, “I am something.” How are you going to speak on Wah.dat al-Wujūd (“Oneness of Existence”). That is ignorance. Where is Existence – true, real Wujūd? Wujūd H.aqqānī? Where is that one? Where is your existence?
B ut men are not blamed to say about themselves, “I am some-thing, I am someone.” Greatness Allāh Almighty is giving to men when He was saying, And when your Lord said unto the angels: Lo! I am about to place a viceroy in the earth (2:30). That is to be. Through the material world: nothing. But this quality that is qualifying man, no-one can know. No-one can know about it. And they are so happy to say they are such big ones, strong ones… Man that is granted to be Khalīfa (Caliph) may spread his hand towards the moon and take it in his hand like this. Khalīfa! And no-one knows the real position of being Khalīfa of Allāh Almighty.
T herefore, Man is going to be great also. Great one through creatures. H.ad.rati Insān: “His Exalted Highness – Man.” Do you understand? La H.awla wa la Quwwata illa biLlāhi al- ‘Alī al-‘Az.īm. Allāhu Akbarul-Akbar. Allāhu Akbarul-Akbar.
T herefore, Allāh Almighty was ordering to Rasulullah to ask, O my Lord! Increase me in knowledge (20:114).
Because Allāh Almighty is saying and of knowledge you have been vouchsafed but little (17:85). That but little (qalīlan) is never going to be “much” (kathīran). You also are always on the limit of qalīlan. Limited (mah.dūd). And “unlimited” (bilā h.add) – for Allāh Almighty. And everything in limits is going to be, finally, zero. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
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A nd ignorant people are claiming, “We are something. I am something. I am something.” I am going to say to them when they are through their coffins, I am going to ask them, O our fellow, what do you think now? You are something? You are nothing! Where is your greatness that you were claiming through your life? Where did it leave you? Where is your great-ness? Do you think that your greatness consists in being put under a pyramid? Or under such a building? That building – its greatness belongs to it, not to you. You are under it, only bones! No-one can look at you. Mummies. No-one can look at you. If you can look at them, perhaps you can’t sleep in the night-time! From fear – is it coming from this side or coming from that side? You will lose your appetite because of his ugliness.
A nd death is coming, and this brightness [of the face] is going quickly away, except for the Believers – it is OK.
Mu’mins’ faces are never going to be ugly, because familiarity, much more, is coming on them when they are leaving this life for the next life. But for others – ugliness comes upon them. Therefore, people never like to look at those persons. They take a cover and quickly cover them. Because they have such ugly, such bad faces. Most people. Only a few people, you can look at them and see that the interest of their soul is not yet finishing and not cut off.
K halīfa. That is a grant from Allāh Almighty. Dressing. If Allāh Almighty showed Ādam through the real clothes that He dressed him with for being His Deputy, Shaytan was the first to make sajda to him. But, because this world can’t carry that appearance – Divine appearance, Real appearance – therefore, He made it less, less, less and put on his physical being only one ray. And through one ray, Sayyidunā Ādam was
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shining like the sun. But it was not enough for Iblis to surrender. And Allāh Almighty is not giving that appearance to Ādam, be-cause the whole world can’t carry it. May Allāh forgive us.
T his is something from the sciences of realities of Sayyidī Muh.yī al-Dīn [Ibn ‘Arabī], and Sayyidī Mawlānā al-Shaykh ‘Abd Allāh Daghistānī, Allāh sanctify their souls and elevate their stations always! Always and ever, with the sanctity of him after whom there is no Prophet . Al-Fātih.a.
T his light [of the Walī], if it were to appear, that would be the Nūr Muh.ammadī. Because of it all creation would dis-appear because it cannot endure it. It would disappear from existence. Disappear from appearance.
Nescience Is Without Limits
M awlānā said in another talk: “What is not known is without end while what is known is within limits” (al-majhūl bilā nihāya wal-ma‘lūm ilā nihāya). And: “The perfections of Man are true wonders!” (kamālātu-l-insān ‘ajā’ib). And: “Outwardly Man is disconnected, but in reality he is connected” (al-insānu z.āhiruhu munfas.il wahuwa h.aqīqatan muttas.il). He declaimed:
Don’t fret so much:
The Decree’s out
Sit in your place;
Each lot shall pass.
While the world turns.
Try to keep still.
The Sources of Shaykh Muh.yī al-Dīn’s Knowledge
M awlānā said: Shaykh Muh.yī al-Dīn wrote out of spiritual openings but he did not understand all that he wrote. He
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used to speak according to three Presences (h.ad.arāt). The first was the Divine Presence – and this is the type of knowledge that he did not understand; but he told of it so that the great saints would scoop from it at a later stage. The second was the Pro-phetic Presence, and the third was from the Presence of the great Saints. At times, he wrote in a state of near-unconsciousness and reported types of knowledge of concern to later authorities that understood that knowledge exclusively of others.
Revering the Divine Secret in Man
M awlānā said: One time I was walking with Mawlānā al-Shaykh. We were going home on Mount Qasyūn, upwards from the Shaykh Muh.yī al-Dīn Mosque. I kicked aside a stone that was in the middle of the road and might have caused harm. Mawlānā al-Shaykh said: “Do not do this again. This stone is one of the creatures of Allāh and every single creature subsists through the light of Allāh. Therefore, bow down out of respect for that light and take it with your hand.”
T hen Mawlānā told us the story of Mawlānā Jalāl al-Dīn al-Rūmī walking with his disciples in one of the streets of Konya when a monk came walking from the opposite direction. The monk bowed down as a sign of humbleness before Mawlānā, but Mawlānā bowed down before him even more. His disciples were astonished: how can he bow in such fashion before the monk? Mawlānā answered them: “We surpass them in humble-ness also.” This explanation is outwardly for the common kind. For the elite its meaning is: We bowed down only in reverence for the light that was stored in him by Allāh Most High Who said: We have honored the children of Ādam (al-Isrā’ 17:70).
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The Excellence of Syro-Palestine and the Invocation of Blessings on the Prophet Loudly after Adhān
M awlānā said about the muezzins that leave out the loud in-vocation of blessings and peace after the call to prayer:
Leaving it out is treachery (khiyāna) against the Prophet . Then he mentioned, about the people of Shām, the h.adīth: “It is forbidden for its hypocrites to have authority over its Believ-ers.”4 He said this h.adīth is proof of the correctness of their belief.
T hen he said: There is a stronger proof for raising blessings and peace in the two noble verses: That [do]. And whoso magnifies the symbols of Allāh, it surely is from devotion of the hearts (al-H.ajj 22:32) And the great camels! We have appointed them for you among the symbols of Allāh (22: 36). Therefore, whoever objects to the loud invocation of blessings and peace after the call to prayer is asked: Do you not consider it devotion to magnify the symbols of Allāh, among them the great camels? Or do you say that magnifying them is idolatry and innovation? Rather, the explicit Qur’anic text stipulates that it is obligatory to magnify them. So then, what is the Mes-senger of Allāh in your eyes? Is he not one of the symbols of Allāh, or rather the greatest? Therefore, what is the status of mag-nifying him – Allāh bless him and his Family and Companions – in your opinion? Is magnifying him “obligatory” (wājib) or “of-fensive” (makrūh)? Or do you deem him less than a great camel?!
4Narrated from Khuraym ibn Fātik, from the Prophet by al-T.abarānī, and from Khuraym himself by Imām Ah.mad and Ibn Abī ‘Ās.im, all with good chains according to al-Mundhirī and al-Haythamī. Al-Suyūt. ī declared the h.adīth sound (s.ah.īh.) in al-Jāmi‘ al-S.aghīr.
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F urthermore, Allāh said, Lo! Allah and His angels shower blessings on the Prophet (33:56) in the present-and-future tense (mud.āri‘), not in the past, but forever and in permanence. No-one hates to raise the loud invocation of blessings and peace after the call to prayer except a Jew or a Christian!
The Followers and the Master M awlānā said: They told Rūmī, “You are a remarkable man but your students are unworthy.” He replied: “Who do you see at the physician’s door, the healthy or the sick?”
M awlānā continued: People carry unlit torches and come to the sun in order to light them. The followers of the Prophet lived in the Time of Ignorance, then they became the best of human beings and the models of perfection. It is for this that the great guides came: to render people beautiful and perfect.
I asked Mawlānā about certain advanced persons who hold per-mission (ma’dhūn) and seek successorship (mustakhlaf) who, if someone differs with them or questions them – even in sincere faithful advice (nas.īh.a) – become upset and say: If you contra-dict or object to me, such-and-such harm shall hit you! Mawlānā’s face changed to sadness when he heard this and he said: “They are the Shaykh and I am the doorman.” He said this in disap-proval to mean – and Allāh knows best – that they put them-selves in the place of the Shaykh and obviate him as if he were merely their instrument or he were their follower.
I mentioned to Mawlānā the story of Sayyid Ah.mad al-Rifā‘ī al-Kabīr – Allāh be well-pleased with him! – cited in al-Munāwī’s T.abaqāt al-S.ūfiyya when the Sayyid told his followers,
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“If you see anything wrong in me, do not hide it from me but tell me of it immediately.” He made them promise. One of them said: “O my master, I saw one thing wrong in you.” He asked what? The student replied: “Your one wrong is that you have such as ourselves for disciples.” Mawlānā said: “They kept adab with their Shaykh.”
Discernment Is Through Seclusion
M awlānā said: An Englishman came to GrandShaykh sent by J.G. Bennett who had accepted Islām at the hand of Grand-Shaykh and named himself Muh.ammad ‘Alī. His envoy came, carrying questions – he was a man with many questions, he be-gan around mid-morning and did not finish until after ‘Ishā! Among other things, he asked about the science of physiogno-my (al-qiyāfa aw al-firāsa) so that he could find out which among his students was suitable for certain things and what the best ori-entation was for such students. GrandShaykh mentioned the h.adīth of al-Bukhārī and Muslim, “Each is facilitated for that for which he was created.” Then he said, “Seclusion is crucial so that the heart-apparatus (jihāz al-qalb) will work. There is no egg without rooster. If the Shaykh is other than a Shaykh of educa-tion (tarbiya), then yes, there will be an egg without rooster in which case it would be only a Shaykh of blessing.”
W hen he was asked whether the khalwa will bear fruit if entered upon the request of the Murīd asking permission rather than the Shaykh’s own order, Mawlānā replied: “No.” Then he added: “Except in the way of training and self-control.” When I asked him what is the way to kill the ego he joked: “The Arabs use the sword while the English have the axe, the French the guillotine, and the Barbarians (al-‘ajam) hanging!”
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M awlānā said one time of one of the Murīds who were pre-sent, “He has gravitas” (hayba). The latter said: “A certified donkey, Yā Sayyidī!” Mawlānā said: “The donkey is useful and carries much; the wolf is a harmful predator.”
Seclusion Is Through Sincerity
O ne of those present exclaimed one time, “Yā Sayyidī, I never saw in my life more eloquent or knowledgeable than you!” Mawlānā said: “Whoever dedicates purely to Allāh (akhlas.a lillāh) forty mornings, the wellsprings of wisdom break forth from his tongue.” This authentic noble Prophetic h.adīth was narrated by Imām Ah.mad in the book of Simple Living (al-Zuhd), Ibn Abī Shayba in his Mu s.annaf, and others through many narrative chains. It forms enough proof of the in-sincerity of whoever comes out of the Forty-Day seclusion in the same poor state in which he entered it, indulging in slander, vulgar speech, obsession with what he considers his inviolable right, self-importance, and harming people – none of which has anything to do with wisdom.
GrandShaykh’s Seclusion in Madīna
M awlānā told us: The order came from the Prophetic Pres-ence that GrandShaykh should enter seclusion in Madīna Munawwara and that he should take with him Shaykh Muh.am-mad Nabhān of Aleppo. When the latter heard the news, he said: “This is for beginners! As for ourselves, Yā Shaykh, we are be-yond [seclusions].” He refused to accompany GrandShaykh or respond to his call. So, GrandShaykh then entered the Forty-Day seclusion with Mawlānā al-Shaykh Nāz.im and no-one else except Allāh and His Prophet.
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W e heard in Shām from the noble Sayyid Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qādir al-Jīlī al-Madanī al-Qādirī the son of Abūnā al-Shaykh – Sīdī Muh.ammad Ah.mad al-Māh.ī al-Bukhārī who was one hundred and forty years old when he died – that Sīdī al-Māh.ī saw Mawlānā al-Shaykh Nāz.im in Madīna when the latter came out of that khalwa, shook his hand, and supplicated for him.
The Advent of al-Mahdī, upon Him Peace
I mentioned to Mawlānā that one of the Yemeni Shaykhs, Shaykh ‘Alī Jafrī of Tarīm, H.ad.ramawt, the friend of Sayyidī al-Shaykh H.abīb ‘Umar ibn H.afīz. Bā ‘Alawī – Allāh bless and keep our Shaykh and them! – said that the Mahdī shall appear before the year 2004. I also heard from one of the foremost Schol-ars of Shām, also from the Prophetic Tree, that the late H.adīth Master of Damascus Shaykh Badr al-Dīn al-H.asanī – originally from Morocco – had declaimed:
And in the Sixth shall appear the Grandson of the Prophet
– The Best of all creation with the best mother and father! Then blessed is he who lives in his time
And blessed whoever is still a child being raised.
T hat scholar said that “the Sixth” may refer to the year 2006. However, Mawlānā said: “We do not accept that Allāh be disobeyed and the Umma tortured and the flag of Satan to be raised for one, two, or four more years nor for one day more. Therefore, every morning we say, ‘Tonight he will appear’; and
every night we say, ‘Tomorrow he will appear.’”
I n a previous visit I had asked Mawlānā about the saying of some of the people of Maghreb – among them Shaykh Muh.yī al-Dīn in one of his treatises and Imām al-Qurt.ubī in his book
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al-Tadhkira – that the Mahdī shall come out of the Maghreb. (Al-Qurt.ubī even said there was a report from Ibn Mas‘ūd to that effect but he did not cite it.) But Mawlānā said: “It is not as they said. The one who knows is not like the one who does not know.”
Tyrants
H e said: The method of tyrants is to show contempt and be-little the people until they are obeyed. Sick souls accept and submit to this. This is part of the Pharaonic principles. Thus did he [Pharaoh] make fools of his people, and they obeyed him. Lo! they were a wanton folk (al-Zukhruf 43:54).
Silence and Inquiry
I asked Mawlānā about the Murīd who queries and the Murīd who does not query but receives his answers from the Shaykh through the heart: is not the latter preferable? He replied: “The Shaykh might cast the question into the heart of the Murīd so that the latter will ask him with his tongue, for entertainment.”
The Red Sulfur
I mentioned to Mawlānā the saying of one of the eminent per-sonalities of Damascus – known by the title of “Doctor” due to the pervasive unpopularity, in the “educated” Arab and Islamic world, nowadays, of true Islamic and Arabic titles such as Faqīh (Jurisprudent), Shaykh al-Islām (Chief Umma Jurisprudent), Imām (Major Jurisprudent), H.āfiz. (H.adīth Master), Muh.addith (H.adīth Scholar), Musnid (H.adīth Narrator), Ustādh (Master), Shaykh (Teacher), Muftī (Formal Legal Respondent), Murshid (Guide), Qād.ī (Judge), Muqri’ (Qur’ānic Tutor), Wā‘i z. (Admon-
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isher), etc. – who said in one of his Jumu‘a sermons: “The one who seeks the path of sincerity and self-purification definitely needs a Murshid, but where can one be found? There are too many charlatans and impostors in our time. Therefore, Brother, let your Murshid be the Book and the Sunna.”
O ur Murshid said when he heard this: “This heedless Shaykh has trodden the path of Satan. How did he, himself, obtain Islamic knowledge, and how is Islamic knowledge presently taken from him? So then, how can the Book and the Sunna and
the Arabic dictionary be one’s Murshid?”
T hen Mawlānā mimicked for us a person who sits surrounded with open books, perusing them one after another until he becomes confused and starts to pull his hair out! Then he said: “Even if there are too many impostors, the Murshid Shaykh is like the red sulphur [pure gold]: very rare, and almost unobtainable. One must search in earnest. Whoever strives, finds.”
Honey is not Taken from the Bee’s Mouth
O ne of the Murīds present asked Mawlānā: “Yā Sayyidī, do you authorize and entitle us to narrate from you all your answers?” He replied: “Honey is not taken from the mouth of the bee. We wait until it digests it.” The bee is the Murīd and the digestion is Divinely-granted spiritual maturity. May this tran-scription approximate the latter! And “Many a transmitter of knowledge does not himself understand it, and many may transmit knowledge to others who are more versed in it than they.”5
5 Mass-transmitted (mutawātir) h.adīth of the Prophet narrated from 19 Companions.
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Looking Without Learning is a Capital Offense
S imilar to Mawlānā’s reply is what I heard him say in a pre-vious visit, when I asked him about the astounding book al-Ibrīz (“The Pristine Gold”) – the transcription of the discourses of the Moroccan Ghawth Sayyidī ‘Abd al-‘Azīz al-Dabbāgh by his scholarly Murīd Sayyidī ‘Alī ibn al-Mubārak – whereupon he turned to one of those present and asked: “Yā Shaykh X., did you read Kitāb al-Ibrīz?” The latter replied: “Mawlānā al-Shaykh
‘Abd Allāh did not permit us to read books!” Mawlānā said:
“Y ā Shaykh X., I was with Mawlānā al-Shaykh one time as we were crossing the ‘As.rūniyya Souk in Damascus.
We passed by a certain shop. GrandShaykh looked at the win-dow so I looked too. When I looked, he turned to me and said: ‘Nāz.im Effendī, looking without wisdom is a capital offense’ (al-naz.aru bidūn h.ikma jināya).” Meaning – Allāh knows best – to look at the variegations of the world (al-aghyār) without spe-cific order nor necessity is harmful to the light of the heart and for-bidden to the Awliyā’. But if it is for wisdom then it is not ha
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