Mercy Oceans, Book 10 (239 pages, 11/21)
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de, feeding stubbornness. Every bad characteristic we are feeding, and all the prophets just came to make people stop feeding the wild animals in themselves.
Understand? So many wild animals we are feeding. In our hearts, dogs, foxes, wolves, oxen; not snakes - more than snakes, dragons, we are feeding, always. And all the prophets came to make people to stop, to stop feeding.
Let them die. Then you will be free for your Lord's worship, because now you have, from morning up to night, from night up to morning, no work except feeding your wild animals. That is true: yes, no work for people except feeding their wild animals, they have so many. And scorpions and lions, leopards, tigers - every kind you may find; more than in the zoo you may find in yourself.
will
Then, how can we be free for our Lord's service, always engaged, engaged? Sometimes you try the telephone; "Dhu-dhu-dhu," it says - busy, engaged.
Allah Almighty wants to be in contact with your heart all the time but He sees always, "Engaged-engaged-engaged."
Yes, it is an important thing. And He says, "When is My servant going to be free for Me? I can't catch him for even a moment to speak to him," because waves from the Divine Presence are always going around. If you are able, you may receive them.
The divine addressing never stops; it goes on from pre-eternity to post- eternity, never cutting off. His words are not like our words, no; always speaking. Therefore, at any time you can receive them. We say "hatif ar- Rabbani96," the divine "telephone" - divine telephone, but always hearing, "Dhu-dhu-dhu," never finding our heart without being engaged. And Allah Almighty is saying, "When is My servant going to be for Me? He is always for someone else."
That is a shame for believers; we must be ashamed if Allah Almighty looks at us and asks, "Where is My servant?" Therefore, the Prophet said, "Throughout your days, nafakhat Rabbikum, divine addresses, are blowing into your ears. But you must be ready to receive some of His addresses to you; you must be ready to listen."
Therefore meditation is important, even for a few minutes daily, and in the nighttime meditation is easier so that you can be by yourself, not occupied as much as you are in the daytime. You must keep a few minutes to be with your Lord. Perhaps at any time you may catch His "phoning" to you, or He may catch you free for Himself
But, as they are saying to us, I have seen farmers going to the stable, with candles to feed their oxen and sheep in the nighttime, also. We, too; we see that all the time we are feeding, not our domestic animals, no - wild ones, also, we are feeding. At every hour of the day we are busy. Even when we are praying, our hearts are occupied: we are not free to be with our Lord even while praying. We are thinking about how we are going to feed our oxen, our wolves, our foxes, our dogs; we are engaged.
Therefore, we must try to make our hearts free from khawatir, stray thoughts, and the main purpose of all worshipping is to make our hearts free of everything except our Lord. You may pray once a year or once a month or
96 Our Lord's voice or call to us
once a week or every day, but still your heart may be occupied. Therefore, every day and every night, for every hour, we have a sunnah prayer, making us free to be with our Lord more and more.
And fasting especially makes us more free to be with our Lord. As much as you are hungry, you can understand that you are in need of your Lord, Allah Almighty, and you are going to think that if you should be in a situation where no eating or drinking is possible, how you are going to be.
At that time you are going to be with your Lord! "O my Lord!" you will cry, you will shout. "O my Lord, O my Lord! Where are you?" - looking around, and He is with you, in you, outside of you, and He is all-in-all. And we are waiting to be with Him on the Day of Resurrection, but now we think that we are free from Him, that we are far away, so far away from him!
Therefore fasting is a very important worship, making people to be so close to their Lord, Allah Almighty. Allah Almighty says, "I spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai behind 70,000 veils. But when people fast, at the time of their breaking fast, I leave only one veil, I am so close to My fasting people."
That is an honour for us. If we knew that honour, we would ask for the whole year to be Ramadan. But we do not know, and we say, "Today is the fifteenth, the sixteenth, the seventeenth... Now twenty days more, fifteen days more, ten days more. Little by little," our egos say, "it is going by." If we could understand what is given to fasting people during Ramadan, no one would want Ramadan to go but would want Ramadan to be twelve months. But Allah Almighty makes only one month for fasting, and He gives to us for every day as if it were ten days, 'so that in thirty days' fasting people, are given the equivalent of 300 days' fasting. And as a sunnah, after Ramadan come six days more, and Allah gives us tenfold for each day of fasting during Shawwal97, equivalent to 360 days of fasting.
It is impossible for a person to be free from feeding his animals without finding someone who is free for his Lord; if you don't find such a person, you are never going to be free from feeding your wild animals. Therefore Allah sent the prophets, and, after the prophets, their inheritors, awliya, to look after people.
Awliya may be anywhere. One foot may be in the East and the other may be in the West, one foot in London, one foot in America; doesn't matter - it is so
97 Shawwal is the month which follows Ramadan in the Islamic lunar calendar. It is sunnah (the Holy Prophet's practise) to observe six days of voluntary fasting in Shawwall in addition to the twenty-nine or thirty days of obligatory fasting in Ramadan
short a distance for them. He who is free for his Lord Almighty is free from bonds.
Our feet are tied, tied with chains; we can't move more than one yard, like this, but they are free. He who is free for his Lord is free in his territories, in his sovereignty. Therefore, the highest honour for you is to be free for His service, for His worship, and with every worship we are practising being free from the hands of our egos. But you can't practise it perfectly till you reach and find some of them. And when you ask sincerely, a wali may step from East to West and come to you. The whole universe is free for them, everywhere.
Therefore, the one who is free for his Lord Almighty has been given divine authority to pass freely, without hindrance, throughout the whole universe, and he makes tawaf98, circling around the Holy K'abah, may Allah give it more honour. He is free to make tawaf of Bait al-Mamur99," the Place of Security in the Heavens. Then, he is also free to make tawaf around the Divine Throne. When you are free, the chains are taken from your feet. Try to be free. Don't be a slave!
This is our way of practising. That is the purpose of the whole Shari'ah, the Divine Law - only to make us free. But ignorant people suppose that the Shari'ah's laws are tying them down, chaining them. That is the final, utmost degree of ignorance. If anyone understands concerning the Divine Law that he is going to be chained by it, that is the ultimate ignorance, because in reality it is giving freedom to everyone, freeing them from the hands of their egos and making them a slave to their Lord, and therefore free.
No one can imagine what is the pleasure when you are free for your Lord. If a person is imprisoned in a prison - not like English prisons, no; a prison like that in which Prophet Joseph, Yusuf, p.b.u.h., was imprisoned, a dungeon (no one could stay there for even one hour now, so terrible it was in that dungeon) - if a person is imprisoned in a dungeon, how does he look at being free? And when he is free, what does he feel of pleasure and happiness? You can't imagine what your pleasure will be when you are free for your Lord from the hands of your ego; you can't imagine.
Therefore, all prophets are free and all awliya are also: free. But yet they are asking to be free, completely free, from this body, also, and they are waiting
98 Tawaf, the act of making seven circuits around the Holy K'abah absorbed in devotion to Allah, is one of the principal rites of the major and minor pilgrimages (Hajj and Umrah). Likewise, in the spiritual dimension, the souls or spiritual bodies of prophets and awliya are present at that holy place, circumambulating the K'abah as do the pilgrims at all times of the day and night.
99 The celestial prototype of the Holy K'abah in the Seventh Heaven
for 'Izrail, the Angel of Death. They look for him every day, morning or evening, when he will come to take them away, to open the cage, opening the door and it goes "Prr!"
No one stays. When the cage is opened, no one stays in it, believers or non- believers; for unbelievers, also, "Prr!" But it is not enough when the cage is opened and the soul goes to Hell For some of them, the doors will open and there will be a reception, a heavenly reception, for his sacred soul. But for some of them there will be no reception; no doors are opening - only falling down for them.
I am asking forgiveness from Allah Almighty for everything, saying, "Astaghrifullah." And I am also saying "Astaghfirullah" for those who are not asking forgiveness on behalf of themselves because the Prophet, p.b.u.h., always asked forgiveness for himself and for his nation.
AWLIYA ARE LIVING POWERS
I was at the tomb of 'Abdul-Qadir Jilani Sayyidi in Baghdad for khalwah, seclusion. He is a living wali. All awliya are living, speaking to you or listening to you. Now, therefore, I am saying, "Madad, ya sayyidi100 - your heavenly help." And he is listening, can hear and can send from his heavenly powers to us, his heavenly power coming, blowing, on us. And he was saying, "In every assembly, every meeting, where our name is mentioned and people are listening or speaking, those people are going to belong to us. On the Day of Resurrection we will have shafa'ah, intercession, for them in the Divine Presence."
If awliya are deaf, they can never listen, can never hear. But they are not deaf. The Prophet, p.b.u.h., is in his grave, seeing, hearing, speaking, understanding - a living power. That is our belief. And we also believe that every wali is a living power in his tomb. Yes. When someone goes to the tomb of a wali, of someone who has been given such a living power, he must know that that wali can see, can hear, can know that person.
Subhanallah, glory to Allah Almighty! There was a well-known writer who was working on Islamic knowledge, John G. Bennett, a famous one; he has so many books. He has a book called Subud; there are personal references in it to Grandsheikh. He came to Damascus, and I said to him, in connection with finding our Grandsheikh, "You must go to Sayyid Muhiyuddin ibn al-
100 Support, o my master
Arabi101, may Allah bless him." And he wrote in his book that when he first went down to Muhiyuddin ibn al-'Arabi's tomb, he felt that he was just standing in front of a living person.
Yes, anyone may go and may feel that they are not like ordinary people. Therefore, you may find people coming and going at the tombs of awliya; all kinds of people, not only learned people, visit the tombs, the graves, of awliya and Sahabah. At least, they feel a sense of pleasure, of something different, as though feeling themselves to be out of this atmosphere. Yes, for all awliya.
BEING AN OBEDIENT SERVANT TO ALLAH ALMIGHTY
Our Lord has given us the honour of being His obedient servants. And Sultan al-'Arifin Abu Yazid Bistami, may Allah bless him, said, "O my Lord, I am not surprised that we like you, but I am surprised that you like us."
It is honour enough for us: Allah Almighty likes us. That is the greatest good tidings. But what is this? For what would He like us? He has rights that we should like him; yes. He has perfect attributes; absolute perfection is His, absolute power, endless Beauty Oceans, endless Mercy Oceans, endless favours, endless giving by Him. We must like Him; no one can deny that.
But, "O my Lord, Abu Yazid addressed Him, "You like us? What are we? We are nothing."
But He says, "I have given you something from Myself": Allah Almighty gave to Adam from His holy Spirit, blowing something from His holy Spirit into him. Therefore the Sons of Adam were created at the end. The whole universe had been created and ornamented; then Adam, p.b.u.h., was created, and Allah Almighty said, "I am creating Adam and his descendants as My deputy in the world."
No one else among creatures has been given the honour that we have been given. Endless happiness, endless pleasure, for those who understand that secret, who understand about themselves what Allah Almighty has given them. We must be the happiest people, the happiest creatures.
O people, o believers, ask an ant. It has an ear to listen, to hear, because it hears its Lord, and it has a tongue to glorify its Lord. Be Solomon, p.b.u.h.,
101 This great wali of early times is buried in Damascus
and you can hear what it says102. And now, such proud people, with their technology! Yes, if they have so much technology, so much science, so much knowledge, take an ant, one ant, and ask it.
What are you going to ask? Do you know? You must ask the ant because, although there is something smaller than an ant, you can't take it in your hands, and that ant is enough. Take an ant and ask.
But, because of our egos' wildness, it wants to run away from us. If there were no cruelty from our egos, none of the domesticated animals would run away from us and wild animals would never attack us. A lion or tiger or snake never attacks the Sons of Adam except out of fear that they may kill him, because they have been ordered to be obedient to the Sons of Adam: "As much as they are My obedient servants, you must be their obedient servants."
You understand? When you are obedient to your Lord, every creature is going to be obedient to you. But we are not obedient servants to our Lord; only for our egos we say, "Yes, sir! All right!" All the prophets came to teach us how we should be obedient servants to our Lord. And Abu Yazid, may Allah bless him, asked his Lord, "How can I come to You? How can I be Your obedient servant and reach You?" And Allah Almighty replied, "Leave your ego and come to Me, to be My obedient servant and to be with me forever."
And we are trying to be with our Lord. There is no happiness nor honour greater than being with our Lord and our Lord with us - yes. And the Prophet, p.b.u.h., said, "Prayer is Me'raj. It is the meeting of servants with their Lord," because when you say "Allahu akbar103!"' everything else is finished; you are in the Divine Presence. Allah Almighty makes an atmosphere around you and you are with your Lord. If there is any pleasure greater than this, who can imagine it? No one!
But people are running away from praying; even Muslims now are saying that prayer five times a day is too much: "We are too busy, we must work - and what is five times?" They understand praying as a burden. A burden?
102 The prophet-king Solomon, p.b.u.h., was gifted with the ability to understand the speech of animals and birds. See XXVII:15-19
103 This invocation, known as the takbir, means "God is the Most Great." The Islamic prayer, salat, is begun with its utterance, and it is repeated at each change of posture throughout the prayer. With its initial pronouncernent, the Muslim is supposed to be consecrated to his Lord's worship, leaving everything else for the duration of his prayer
Do it as a pleasure for yourself, do it as if you are meeting with your Lord and you are escaping from everything to Him, as He says, "O people, escape from yourselves to Me - fa-firru ila-Llah104."
We must escape. Leave everything. Leave even yourself, even your ego; leave and come. Escape from everything, because everything except your Lord is nothing. If you find your Lord you find everything. If you lose Him, there is nothing for you; you have lost everything.
Now we will return to that ant. It tries to escape, as that ant in the Holy Qur'an warned its people, "Quickly, to your holes and hide yourselves, because King Solomon, and his soldiers, his armies, are coming, so that they will not step on you105."
Is Allah telling a tale or speaking of Reality in the Holy Qur'an? That ant saw Solomon and his armies. You must believe what Allah says; yes. Then, we shall ask the ant. You must give it a guarantee that you will not harm it but only want to ask it one question to teach the Sons of Adam, to allow them to learn that they have been given perfection among all creatures; they must know, they must learn.
"What are you asking?" says the ant.
"O ant, o my Lord's creature, are you satisfied with your position - that Allah Almighty created you as an ant? Are you pleased with your Lord who created you as an ant?"
Listen to what it says: "Glory be to my Lord who created me and gave me a chance to glorify Him, to say 'Subhanallah!!" And yet you, we, all of us - we are not pleased with our Lord, we are not saying that He gave us the honour of being the Sons of Adam, of being His deputies, and that He has given us everything, making us governor over all creatures and promising us eternal life.
All creatures will go. On the Last Day, Allah Almighty will order them, "Be dust," and they will be dust, will be nothing. And He has promised us eternal life but still we are not pleased with our Lord, a shame for everyone!
104 Then escape (or flee) to Allah(LI:50)
105 See XXVII:18
Yes, it is true; we must think about that. We do not think about our Lord and His favours; we only know about running after this dirty life and its pleasures. Astaghfirullah! And we say, "Five times a day prayer - it is too much," without feeling ashamed.
Allah Almighty is trying His servants, whether they are obeying Him or not. That is important, to be His obedient servants; we must obey our Lord. Yet, no matter how much He gives us, we say, "This is no good. Another one.
People now are living like spoiled children. No matter how much we are given, we say, "This is no good. Another car - that one is no good. Another set of furniture, another plane."
If it were something that would make us more excellent, more obedient servants, then we could ask for more - more pleasure, more complete, more perfect things. But we are not looking at our service to our Lord, and yet we are asking for more perfect things, to be more pleased.
Give pleasure, take pleasure. You are too tight-fisted a person, not giving pleasure to your Lord but asking for more pleasure. No - give pleasure, take pleasure; give respect. take respect; give mercy, take mercy, not just asking but not giving!
THE IMPORTANCE OF KEEPING THE PROPHET'S WAYS
May Allah Almighty make us as He likes, not as we like. It is dangerous for a person to be as he likes, but he must try to be as his Lord likes. The one who is as his Lord wants him to be is going to be in peace and satisfaction and pleasure here and Hereafter.
The greatest sin is to fight against Allah Almighty. Therefore, the Prophet, p.b.u.h., says, "Man ramana fa-laisa minna - the one who throws his arrow against us is not of our nation". But it is not only the one who puts himself on the enemy's side by sending his arrow against the Prophet's army. Rather, it has a very broad meaning: to be against the Prophet, and, if the Prophet liked some thing to say, "I don't like it”.
In everything we have been ordered to take him as the most excellent example. Therefore, if anyone is against what the Prophet liked, it means that he is leaving the Prophet's way, that he is not following the Prophet's way perfectly. If anyone does this, it is also a kind of shooting of arrows against the Prophet's will and against in his desires. Even in his habits, a perfect follower of the Prophet must be in agreement with the Prophet's habits.
Once the son of Sayyidina Umar, may Allah bless them both, was riding on the way to Hajj, pilgrimage, going with people. Then he arrived at a place where there were two ways. One way was winding and the other was straight.
When he reached that fork, he turned and followed the winding way. Then his followers asked, "Why did you turn this way instead of going by that?"
He said, "I saw beloved Muhammad, p.b.u.h., arrive at this point and turn from here and then go on. And I like to follow his footsteps everywhere".
That is a perfection for Muslims, for anyone who desires to be a perfect follower, because nur lights every spot where the Prophet put his holy footsteps. But blind people do not see even the light of the sun - and the Prophet's light is more than the light of a hundred suns.
How could the son of Sayyidina 'Umar leave that nur and go by another way? It is impossible. The Sahabah, Companions of beloved Muhammad, p.b.u.h., saw his nur, his lights, and followed them. Therefore the Sahabah reached the lights of the Prophet, so that everyone who follows the ways of the Companions of Muhammad, p.b.u.h., reaches his nur.
Now, we have been ordered to follow his ways because in the ways of the Prophet, p.b.u.h., we can find lights which make our ways clear for us, as the sun makes clear for people their ways. We are in need to find our way through the darkness of the future through the lights of the Prophet, p.b.u.h.; you can't find your way among the future's darknesses without his lights.
Therefore, as much as you are able to be a real follower of your Prophet, you may acquire more lights, and as much as you acquire more lights, your future is going to be more clear for you; the ways to your destination are going to be more clear.
Everyone has a private destination, and you must make clear your way to your destination. And it is impossible for a person to make clear the way to his future or the ways to his destination without taking a light from the Prophet. The sun never shows you the way to your destination, and you are in need of another sun to make your way to your destination clear: shamsu nubuwwah, the sun of prophethood. That is important.
Then, whoever goes against the Prophet's steps, sending his arrows against the Prophet's ways, is not going to receive lights from the Prophet.
Therefore, in every way in which the Prophet, p.b.u.h., is an example for us, we must be suited to being on his way, not being against his sunnah, even in eating, in drinking, in habits.
We must follow him. Even in simple things, if you know what you are doing and yet you go against his sunnah, you lose his lights. And inasmuch as something was liked by him, it was liked by his Lord Almighty, because if Allah Almighty did not like it, the Prophet would not have liked it. That is impossible, because he was as his Lord asked him to be in everything; then how could our Prophet consider being on a way other than the way his Lord was asking him to be on? Therefore, when anything, even from the customs of our Prophet, p.b.u.h., reaches us, we must keep it.
But now, in our time, Muslims generally are losing the ways of the Prophet,
p.b.u.h. Now most scholars and learned people, and most Muslims, are speaking about the customs or habits of the Prophet, p.b.u.h., and they are saying, "It doesn't matter if we leave them. They are not worships, they are not like prayers"; saying, "We will keep only what the Prophet brought us like worships, like prayers. But as for what he used to do as a custom, it doesn't matter if we leave that and if we follow new customs in eating, in drinking, in dressing. Accommodation - yes? We can do as we like now."
Yes, there is tolerance in Islam. But that is for dunya, for this world. If you are asking for Dar al-Akhirah, the Eternal Home, you must be closer to the life of the Prophet, p.b.u.h.; you must be a more careful follower of his ways.
Arabs are running after new fashions, and Turks, also. Pakistanis, also; they like to follow new fashions. Yes, everyone who comes to Western countries is affected by the new fashions, and they say, "Doesn't matter, doesn't matter."
That is suitable only for beginners; yet, alhamdulillah, those who are newly coming into Islam from Western countries are keeping the ways of Prophet Muhammad, p.b.u.h., firmly. Yes, we must keep them. We must not be against the Prophet, even in customs or habits, because he always asked his nation to be the leader, not to be a follower. You must be guides, you must be the first, not imitating others, no; you must be in front and people will follow you. But in everything we are making non-Muslims first; then we are following them. And it is not suitable for us. If we have been honoured by Islam and real faith, we must be the first.
What customs can be better than the customs of the Prophet, p.b.u.h.? But now we are following the desires of our egos and we are saying to our egos, "As you like." We are finding satisfaction in saying, "Those are only customs, not worships," and we do not understand that even the customs, the habits of the Prophet, are like worships; as much as we follow his customs, it is a kind of worship. Therefore, if the Prophet said, "I like this," and you say, "I like it, also," it is a kind of worship; and if he said, "I don't like this," and you say, "I also don't like that," it is a worship, because we know clearly that the
Prophet would never say for something, "I like it," without his Lord making him like it. "Hubbiba 'ilayi106," - he says; "my Lord made me like it, and if I like something, Allah Almighty made me like it." And when he dislikes something, you must know that his Lord dislikes that thing; therefore he dislikes it, and you must follow him. That is perfection in following the Prophet, p.b.u.h.
Therefore, in the spiritual ways of Islam, grandsheikhs always advised people, believers, saying, "O mumins, o muslims, you must follow someone, because it is an order from your Lord Almighty. You must have an imam, o muslims; you can't be without an imam."
Imam means leader or guide. You can't be without a guide: that is the order of the Shari'ah, the order, the command, of our Lord Almighty, and the Prophet says what his Lord Almighty orders him to say.
You must have an imam. If you take an imam for your prayers, how can you not be in need of a guide for your life? Therefore grandsheikhs say to believers, "You must take someone as your guide." But you must look for someone who is very careful about keeping sunnah.
If you can find a person who is very careful to keep sunnah, follow him as much as you are able; insofar as you can find a perfect person, you must follow him. If he is not perfect, it is useless. It will be like a person down in a well, saying to a little boy, "Take my hand and pull me up from here," while he drags that boy into the well, also. Ask that a more powerful one than you should take your hand and pull you out.
May Allah Almighty make us find such a person, such people, so that we can take benefit from them in order to be more perfect. If he is more perfect than we, his perfection will come on us, also. There
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de, feeding stubbornness. Every bad characteristic we are feeding, and all the prophets just came to make people stop feeding the wild animals in themselves.
Understand? So many wild animals we are feeding. In our hearts, dogs, foxes, wolves, oxen; not snakes - more than snakes, dragons, we are feeding, always. And all the prophets came to make people to stop, to stop feeding.
Let them die. Then you will be free for your Lord's worship, because now you have, from morning up to night, from night up to morning, no work except feeding your wild animals. That is true: yes, no work for people except feeding their wild animals, they have so many. And scorpions and lions, leopards, tigers - every kind you may find; more than in the zoo you may find in yourself.
will
Then, how can we be free for our Lord's service, always engaged, engaged? Sometimes you try the telephone; "Dhu-dhu-dhu," it says - busy, engaged.
Allah Almighty wants to be in contact with your heart all the time but He sees always, "Engaged-engaged-engaged."
Yes, it is an important thing. And He says, "When is My servant going to be free for Me? I can't catch him for even a moment to speak to him," because waves from the Divine Presence are always going around. If you are able, you may receive them.
The divine addressing never stops; it goes on from pre-eternity to post- eternity, never cutting off. His words are not like our words, no; always speaking. Therefore, at any time you can receive them. We say "hatif ar- Rabbani96," the divine "telephone" - divine telephone, but always hearing, "Dhu-dhu-dhu," never finding our heart without being engaged. And Allah Almighty is saying, "When is My servant going to be for Me? He is always for someone else."
That is a shame for believers; we must be ashamed if Allah Almighty looks at us and asks, "Where is My servant?" Therefore, the Prophet said, "Throughout your days, nafakhat Rabbikum, divine addresses, are blowing into your ears. But you must be ready to receive some of His addresses to you; you must be ready to listen."
Therefore meditation is important, even for a few minutes daily, and in the nighttime meditation is easier so that you can be by yourself, not occupied as much as you are in the daytime. You must keep a few minutes to be with your Lord. Perhaps at any time you may catch His "phoning" to you, or He may catch you free for Himself
But, as they are saying to us, I have seen farmers going to the stable, with candles to feed their oxen and sheep in the nighttime, also. We, too; we see that all the time we are feeding, not our domestic animals, no - wild ones, also, we are feeding. At every hour of the day we are busy. Even when we are praying, our hearts are occupied: we are not free to be with our Lord even while praying. We are thinking about how we are going to feed our oxen, our wolves, our foxes, our dogs; we are engaged.
Therefore, we must try to make our hearts free from khawatir, stray thoughts, and the main purpose of all worshipping is to make our hearts free of everything except our Lord. You may pray once a year or once a month or
96 Our Lord's voice or call to us
once a week or every day, but still your heart may be occupied. Therefore, every day and every night, for every hour, we have a sunnah prayer, making us free to be with our Lord more and more.
And fasting especially makes us more free to be with our Lord. As much as you are hungry, you can understand that you are in need of your Lord, Allah Almighty, and you are going to think that if you should be in a situation where no eating or drinking is possible, how you are going to be.
At that time you are going to be with your Lord! "O my Lord!" you will cry, you will shout. "O my Lord, O my Lord! Where are you?" - looking around, and He is with you, in you, outside of you, and He is all-in-all. And we are waiting to be with Him on the Day of Resurrection, but now we think that we are free from Him, that we are far away, so far away from him!
Therefore fasting is a very important worship, making people to be so close to their Lord, Allah Almighty. Allah Almighty says, "I spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai behind 70,000 veils. But when people fast, at the time of their breaking fast, I leave only one veil, I am so close to My fasting people."
That is an honour for us. If we knew that honour, we would ask for the whole year to be Ramadan. But we do not know, and we say, "Today is the fifteenth, the sixteenth, the seventeenth... Now twenty days more, fifteen days more, ten days more. Little by little," our egos say, "it is going by." If we could understand what is given to fasting people during Ramadan, no one would want Ramadan to go but would want Ramadan to be twelve months. But Allah Almighty makes only one month for fasting, and He gives to us for every day as if it were ten days, 'so that in thirty days' fasting people, are given the equivalent of 300 days' fasting. And as a sunnah, after Ramadan come six days more, and Allah gives us tenfold for each day of fasting during Shawwal97, equivalent to 360 days of fasting.
It is impossible for a person to be free from feeding his animals without finding someone who is free for his Lord; if you don't find such a person, you are never going to be free from feeding your wild animals. Therefore Allah sent the prophets, and, after the prophets, their inheritors, awliya, to look after people.
Awliya may be anywhere. One foot may be in the East and the other may be in the West, one foot in London, one foot in America; doesn't matter - it is so
97 Shawwal is the month which follows Ramadan in the Islamic lunar calendar. It is sunnah (the Holy Prophet's practise) to observe six days of voluntary fasting in Shawwall in addition to the twenty-nine or thirty days of obligatory fasting in Ramadan
short a distance for them. He who is free for his Lord Almighty is free from bonds.
Our feet are tied, tied with chains; we can't move more than one yard, like this, but they are free. He who is free for his Lord is free in his territories, in his sovereignty. Therefore, the highest honour for you is to be free for His service, for His worship, and with every worship we are practising being free from the hands of our egos. But you can't practise it perfectly till you reach and find some of them. And when you ask sincerely, a wali may step from East to West and come to you. The whole universe is free for them, everywhere.
Therefore, the one who is free for his Lord Almighty has been given divine authority to pass freely, without hindrance, throughout the whole universe, and he makes tawaf98, circling around the Holy K'abah, may Allah give it more honour. He is free to make tawaf of Bait al-Mamur99," the Place of Security in the Heavens. Then, he is also free to make tawaf around the Divine Throne. When you are free, the chains are taken from your feet. Try to be free. Don't be a slave!
This is our way of practising. That is the purpose of the whole Shari'ah, the Divine Law - only to make us free. But ignorant people suppose that the Shari'ah's laws are tying them down, chaining them. That is the final, utmost degree of ignorance. If anyone understands concerning the Divine Law that he is going to be chained by it, that is the ultimate ignorance, because in reality it is giving freedom to everyone, freeing them from the hands of their egos and making them a slave to their Lord, and therefore free.
No one can imagine what is the pleasure when you are free for your Lord. If a person is imprisoned in a prison - not like English prisons, no; a prison like that in which Prophet Joseph, Yusuf, p.b.u.h., was imprisoned, a dungeon (no one could stay there for even one hour now, so terrible it was in that dungeon) - if a person is imprisoned in a dungeon, how does he look at being free? And when he is free, what does he feel of pleasure and happiness? You can't imagine what your pleasure will be when you are free for your Lord from the hands of your ego; you can't imagine.
Therefore, all prophets are free and all awliya are also: free. But yet they are asking to be free, completely free, from this body, also, and they are waiting
98 Tawaf, the act of making seven circuits around the Holy K'abah absorbed in devotion to Allah, is one of the principal rites of the major and minor pilgrimages (Hajj and Umrah). Likewise, in the spiritual dimension, the souls or spiritual bodies of prophets and awliya are present at that holy place, circumambulating the K'abah as do the pilgrims at all times of the day and night.
99 The celestial prototype of the Holy K'abah in the Seventh Heaven
for 'Izrail, the Angel of Death. They look for him every day, morning or evening, when he will come to take them away, to open the cage, opening the door and it goes "Prr!"
No one stays. When the cage is opened, no one stays in it, believers or non- believers; for unbelievers, also, "Prr!" But it is not enough when the cage is opened and the soul goes to Hell For some of them, the doors will open and there will be a reception, a heavenly reception, for his sacred soul. But for some of them there will be no reception; no doors are opening - only falling down for them.
I am asking forgiveness from Allah Almighty for everything, saying, "Astaghrifullah." And I am also saying "Astaghfirullah" for those who are not asking forgiveness on behalf of themselves because the Prophet, p.b.u.h., always asked forgiveness for himself and for his nation.
AWLIYA ARE LIVING POWERS
I was at the tomb of 'Abdul-Qadir Jilani Sayyidi in Baghdad for khalwah, seclusion. He is a living wali. All awliya are living, speaking to you or listening to you. Now, therefore, I am saying, "Madad, ya sayyidi100 - your heavenly help." And he is listening, can hear and can send from his heavenly powers to us, his heavenly power coming, blowing, on us. And he was saying, "In every assembly, every meeting, where our name is mentioned and people are listening or speaking, those people are going to belong to us. On the Day of Resurrection we will have shafa'ah, intercession, for them in the Divine Presence."
If awliya are deaf, they can never listen, can never hear. But they are not deaf. The Prophet, p.b.u.h., is in his grave, seeing, hearing, speaking, understanding - a living power. That is our belief. And we also believe that every wali is a living power in his tomb. Yes. When someone goes to the tomb of a wali, of someone who has been given such a living power, he must know that that wali can see, can hear, can know that person.
Subhanallah, glory to Allah Almighty! There was a well-known writer who was working on Islamic knowledge, John G. Bennett, a famous one; he has so many books. He has a book called Subud; there are personal references in it to Grandsheikh. He came to Damascus, and I said to him, in connection with finding our Grandsheikh, "You must go to Sayyid Muhiyuddin ibn al-
100 Support, o my master
Arabi101, may Allah bless him." And he wrote in his book that when he first went down to Muhiyuddin ibn al-'Arabi's tomb, he felt that he was just standing in front of a living person.
Yes, anyone may go and may feel that they are not like ordinary people. Therefore, you may find people coming and going at the tombs of awliya; all kinds of people, not only learned people, visit the tombs, the graves, of awliya and Sahabah. At least, they feel a sense of pleasure, of something different, as though feeling themselves to be out of this atmosphere. Yes, for all awliya.
BEING AN OBEDIENT SERVANT TO ALLAH ALMIGHTY
Our Lord has given us the honour of being His obedient servants. And Sultan al-'Arifin Abu Yazid Bistami, may Allah bless him, said, "O my Lord, I am not surprised that we like you, but I am surprised that you like us."
It is honour enough for us: Allah Almighty likes us. That is the greatest good tidings. But what is this? For what would He like us? He has rights that we should like him; yes. He has perfect attributes; absolute perfection is His, absolute power, endless Beauty Oceans, endless Mercy Oceans, endless favours, endless giving by Him. We must like Him; no one can deny that.
But, "O my Lord, Abu Yazid addressed Him, "You like us? What are we? We are nothing."
But He says, "I have given you something from Myself": Allah Almighty gave to Adam from His holy Spirit, blowing something from His holy Spirit into him. Therefore the Sons of Adam were created at the end. The whole universe had been created and ornamented; then Adam, p.b.u.h., was created, and Allah Almighty said, "I am creating Adam and his descendants as My deputy in the world."
No one else among creatures has been given the honour that we have been given. Endless happiness, endless pleasure, for those who understand that secret, who understand about themselves what Allah Almighty has given them. We must be the happiest people, the happiest creatures.
O people, o believers, ask an ant. It has an ear to listen, to hear, because it hears its Lord, and it has a tongue to glorify its Lord. Be Solomon, p.b.u.h.,
101 This great wali of early times is buried in Damascus
and you can hear what it says102. And now, such proud people, with their technology! Yes, if they have so much technology, so much science, so much knowledge, take an ant, one ant, and ask it.
What are you going to ask? Do you know? You must ask the ant because, although there is something smaller than an ant, you can't take it in your hands, and that ant is enough. Take an ant and ask.
But, because of our egos' wildness, it wants to run away from us. If there were no cruelty from our egos, none of the domesticated animals would run away from us and wild animals would never attack us. A lion or tiger or snake never attacks the Sons of Adam except out of fear that they may kill him, because they have been ordered to be obedient to the Sons of Adam: "As much as they are My obedient servants, you must be their obedient servants."
You understand? When you are obedient to your Lord, every creature is going to be obedient to you. But we are not obedient servants to our Lord; only for our egos we say, "Yes, sir! All right!" All the prophets came to teach us how we should be obedient servants to our Lord. And Abu Yazid, may Allah bless him, asked his Lord, "How can I come to You? How can I be Your obedient servant and reach You?" And Allah Almighty replied, "Leave your ego and come to Me, to be My obedient servant and to be with me forever."
And we are trying to be with our Lord. There is no happiness nor honour greater than being with our Lord and our Lord with us - yes. And the Prophet, p.b.u.h., said, "Prayer is Me'raj. It is the meeting of servants with their Lord," because when you say "Allahu akbar103!"' everything else is finished; you are in the Divine Presence. Allah Almighty makes an atmosphere around you and you are with your Lord. If there is any pleasure greater than this, who can imagine it? No one!
But people are running away from praying; even Muslims now are saying that prayer five times a day is too much: "We are too busy, we must work - and what is five times?" They understand praying as a burden. A burden?
102 The prophet-king Solomon, p.b.u.h., was gifted with the ability to understand the speech of animals and birds. See XXVII:15-19
103 This invocation, known as the takbir, means "God is the Most Great." The Islamic prayer, salat, is begun with its utterance, and it is repeated at each change of posture throughout the prayer. With its initial pronouncernent, the Muslim is supposed to be consecrated to his Lord's worship, leaving everything else for the duration of his prayer
Do it as a pleasure for yourself, do it as if you are meeting with your Lord and you are escaping from everything to Him, as He says, "O people, escape from yourselves to Me - fa-firru ila-Llah104."
We must escape. Leave everything. Leave even yourself, even your ego; leave and come. Escape from everything, because everything except your Lord is nothing. If you find your Lord you find everything. If you lose Him, there is nothing for you; you have lost everything.
Now we will return to that ant. It tries to escape, as that ant in the Holy Qur'an warned its people, "Quickly, to your holes and hide yourselves, because King Solomon, and his soldiers, his armies, are coming, so that they will not step on you105."
Is Allah telling a tale or speaking of Reality in the Holy Qur'an? That ant saw Solomon and his armies. You must believe what Allah says; yes. Then, we shall ask the ant. You must give it a guarantee that you will not harm it but only want to ask it one question to teach the Sons of Adam, to allow them to learn that they have been given perfection among all creatures; they must know, they must learn.
"What are you asking?" says the ant.
"O ant, o my Lord's creature, are you satisfied with your position - that Allah Almighty created you as an ant? Are you pleased with your Lord who created you as an ant?"
Listen to what it says: "Glory be to my Lord who created me and gave me a chance to glorify Him, to say 'Subhanallah!!" And yet you, we, all of us - we are not pleased with our Lord, we are not saying that He gave us the honour of being the Sons of Adam, of being His deputies, and that He has given us everything, making us governor over all creatures and promising us eternal life.
All creatures will go. On the Last Day, Allah Almighty will order them, "Be dust," and they will be dust, will be nothing. And He has promised us eternal life but still we are not pleased with our Lord, a shame for everyone!
104 Then escape (or flee) to Allah(LI:50)
105 See XXVII:18
Yes, it is true; we must think about that. We do not think about our Lord and His favours; we only know about running after this dirty life and its pleasures. Astaghfirullah! And we say, "Five times a day prayer - it is too much," without feeling ashamed.
Allah Almighty is trying His servants, whether they are obeying Him or not. That is important, to be His obedient servants; we must obey our Lord. Yet, no matter how much He gives us, we say, "This is no good. Another one.
People now are living like spoiled children. No matter how much we are given, we say, "This is no good. Another car - that one is no good. Another set of furniture, another plane."
If it were something that would make us more excellent, more obedient servants, then we could ask for more - more pleasure, more complete, more perfect things. But we are not looking at our service to our Lord, and yet we are asking for more perfect things, to be more pleased.
Give pleasure, take pleasure. You are too tight-fisted a person, not giving pleasure to your Lord but asking for more pleasure. No - give pleasure, take pleasure; give respect. take respect; give mercy, take mercy, not just asking but not giving!
THE IMPORTANCE OF KEEPING THE PROPHET'S WAYS
May Allah Almighty make us as He likes, not as we like. It is dangerous for a person to be as he likes, but he must try to be as his Lord likes. The one who is as his Lord wants him to be is going to be in peace and satisfaction and pleasure here and Hereafter.
The greatest sin is to fight against Allah Almighty. Therefore, the Prophet, p.b.u.h., says, "Man ramana fa-laisa minna - the one who throws his arrow against us is not of our nation". But it is not only the one who puts himself on the enemy's side by sending his arrow against the Prophet's army. Rather, it has a very broad meaning: to be against the Prophet, and, if the Prophet liked some thing to say, "I don't like it”.
In everything we have been ordered to take him as the most excellent example. Therefore, if anyone is against what the Prophet liked, it means that he is leaving the Prophet's way, that he is not following the Prophet's way perfectly. If anyone does this, it is also a kind of shooting of arrows against the Prophet's will and against in his desires. Even in his habits, a perfect follower of the Prophet must be in agreement with the Prophet's habits.
Once the son of Sayyidina Umar, may Allah bless them both, was riding on the way to Hajj, pilgrimage, going with people. Then he arrived at a place where there were two ways. One way was winding and the other was straight.
When he reached that fork, he turned and followed the winding way. Then his followers asked, "Why did you turn this way instead of going by that?"
He said, "I saw beloved Muhammad, p.b.u.h., arrive at this point and turn from here and then go on. And I like to follow his footsteps everywhere".
That is a perfection for Muslims, for anyone who desires to be a perfect follower, because nur lights every spot where the Prophet put his holy footsteps. But blind people do not see even the light of the sun - and the Prophet's light is more than the light of a hundred suns.
How could the son of Sayyidina 'Umar leave that nur and go by another way? It is impossible. The Sahabah, Companions of beloved Muhammad, p.b.u.h., saw his nur, his lights, and followed them. Therefore the Sahabah reached the lights of the Prophet, so that everyone who follows the ways of the Companions of Muhammad, p.b.u.h., reaches his nur.
Now, we have been ordered to follow his ways because in the ways of the Prophet, p.b.u.h., we can find lights which make our ways clear for us, as the sun makes clear for people their ways. We are in need to find our way through the darkness of the future through the lights of the Prophet, p.b.u.h.; you can't find your way among the future's darknesses without his lights.
Therefore, as much as you are able to be a real follower of your Prophet, you may acquire more lights, and as much as you acquire more lights, your future is going to be more clear for you; the ways to your destination are going to be more clear.
Everyone has a private destination, and you must make clear your way to your destination. And it is impossible for a person to make clear the way to his future or the ways to his destination without taking a light from the Prophet. The sun never shows you the way to your destination, and you are in need of another sun to make your way to your destination clear: shamsu nubuwwah, the sun of prophethood. That is important.
Then, whoever goes against the Prophet's steps, sending his arrows against the Prophet's ways, is not going to receive lights from the Prophet.
Therefore, in every way in which the Prophet, p.b.u.h., is an example for us, we must be suited to being on his way, not being against his sunnah, even in eating, in drinking, in habits.
We must follow him. Even in simple things, if you know what you are doing and yet you go against his sunnah, you lose his lights. And inasmuch as something was liked by him, it was liked by his Lord Almighty, because if Allah Almighty did not like it, the Prophet would not have liked it. That is impossible, because he was as his Lord asked him to be in everything; then how could our Prophet consider being on a way other than the way his Lord was asking him to be on? Therefore, when anything, even from the customs of our Prophet, p.b.u.h., reaches us, we must keep it.
But now, in our time, Muslims generally are losing the ways of the Prophet,
p.b.u.h. Now most scholars and learned people, and most Muslims, are speaking about the customs or habits of the Prophet, p.b.u.h., and they are saying, "It doesn't matter if we leave them. They are not worships, they are not like prayers"; saying, "We will keep only what the Prophet brought us like worships, like prayers. But as for what he used to do as a custom, it doesn't matter if we leave that and if we follow new customs in eating, in drinking, in dressing. Accommodation - yes? We can do as we like now."
Yes, there is tolerance in Islam. But that is for dunya, for this world. If you are asking for Dar al-Akhirah, the Eternal Home, you must be closer to the life of the Prophet, p.b.u.h.; you must be a more careful follower of his ways.
Arabs are running after new fashions, and Turks, also. Pakistanis, also; they like to follow new fashions. Yes, everyone who comes to Western countries is affected by the new fashions, and they say, "Doesn't matter, doesn't matter."
That is suitable only for beginners; yet, alhamdulillah, those who are newly coming into Islam from Western countries are keeping the ways of Prophet Muhammad, p.b.u.h., firmly. Yes, we must keep them. We must not be against the Prophet, even in customs or habits, because he always asked his nation to be the leader, not to be a follower. You must be guides, you must be the first, not imitating others, no; you must be in front and people will follow you. But in everything we are making non-Muslims first; then we are following them. And it is not suitable for us. If we have been honoured by Islam and real faith, we must be the first.
What customs can be better than the customs of the Prophet, p.b.u.h.? But now we are following the desires of our egos and we are saying to our egos, "As you like." We are finding satisfaction in saying, "Those are only customs, not worships," and we do not understand that even the customs, the habits of the Prophet, are like worships; as much as we follow his customs, it is a kind of worship. Therefore, if the Prophet said, "I like this," and you say, "I like it, also," it is a kind of worship; and if he said, "I don't like this," and you say, "I also don't like that," it is a worship, because we know clearly that the
Prophet would never say for something, "I like it," without his Lord making him like it. "Hubbiba 'ilayi106," - he says; "my Lord made me like it, and if I like something, Allah Almighty made me like it." And when he dislikes something, you must know that his Lord dislikes that thing; therefore he dislikes it, and you must follow him. That is perfection in following the Prophet, p.b.u.h.
Therefore, in the spiritual ways of Islam, grandsheikhs always advised people, believers, saying, "O mumins, o muslims, you must follow someone, because it is an order from your Lord Almighty. You must have an imam, o muslims; you can't be without an imam."
Imam means leader or guide. You can't be without a guide: that is the order of the Shari'ah, the order, the command, of our Lord Almighty, and the Prophet says what his Lord Almighty orders him to say.
You must have an imam. If you take an imam for your prayers, how can you not be in need of a guide for your life? Therefore grandsheikhs say to believers, "You must take someone as your guide." But you must look for someone who is very careful about keeping sunnah.
If you can find a person who is very careful to keep sunnah, follow him as much as you are able; insofar as you can find a perfect person, you must follow him. If he is not perfect, it is useless. It will be like a person down in a well, saying to a little boy, "Take my hand and pull me up from here," while he drags that boy into the well, also. Ask that a more powerful one than you should take your hand and pull you out.
May Allah Almighty make us find such a person, such people, so that we can take benefit from them in order to be more perfect. If he is more perfect than we, his perfection will come on us, also. There
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