Ramadan Series 2019, Part 1
From Mawlana Shaykh Nazim’s Notebook
Dr. Nour Mohammad Kabbani
6 May 2019 Fenton Zawiya, Michigan
Fajr Suhbah
A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytani ‘r-rajeem. Bismillahi ‘r-Rahmani ‘r-Raheem. Alhamdulillahi Rabbi ‘l-`Alameen, wa ’s-salaatu wa ’s-salaamu `alaa ashrafi ‘l-mursaleena Sayyidina wa Nabiyyina Muhammadin wa `alaa aalihi wa sahbihi ajma`een. Wa man tabiahum bi ihsaanin ila yawmi ‘d-deen. Laa hawla wa laa quwatta illa billahi ‘l-`Aliyyu ‘l-`Azheem. Dastoor yaa Sayyidi, yaa Sultan al-Anbiyaa, Dastoor yaa Sayyidi, yaa Sultan al-Awliya, madad yaa Rijaalullah.
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh. Ramadan Mubarak for all of us inshaa-Allah. May Allah (swt) make this month a means for cleansing our sins, corruption, bad intentions, and bad goals. Everyone has a goal in life; they say dream on, set your dreams high.
Your Workers Are Your Deeds
قد روي أن أعمالكم عمالكم، وكما تكونون يولى عليكم،
(al-Hafizh al-Sakhawi in his al-Maqasid al-Hasanah)
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim says here that Rasoolullah (s) has said, `amalukum `umalukum, “Your workers are your deeds.” As far as our dealing with people is good, their dealing with us is good, and the mistake around the world these days is people are not following this Hadith. If you do good to people, expect good from them, and when you do wrong to people–if you are unjust, harm others, harbor envy and enmity toward others–for sure they are going to be the same toward you. This is the khata, the mistake that has spread between people. Everyone has the disease of enmity, hiqd, which is beyond just envy: you have intent to harm them. So Grandshaykh is saying follow that Hadith, do good, receive good, as your workers are your deeds. Who does not do good, how do they expect good to come back to them? SubhaanAllah, our Grandshaykh’s wisdom. If our leaders, families, professors and bosses follow this wisdom, they will become the best of people, whom Allah says are the people of goodness.
Allah (swt) orders us:
وَلْتَكُن مِّنكُمْ أُمَّةٌ يَدْعُونَ إِلَى الْخَيْرِ وَيَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَيَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ ۚ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ
And let there arise from you a nation inviting to (all that is) good, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, and those will be the successful. (Surat Aali `Imraan, 3:104)
O our leaders! Look at the Holy Qur’an, the gateway of happiness and goodness for those who understand. Our Lord orders us, “Let there be among you those who are inviting to goodness.” They are known, the malaa, elite people. “O you who claim to be the elite! You must be the first to invite people to goodness.” Oh, how we lost the way, Mawlana is saying.
Kullu nabiyyin illa wa … ma`roof. There is no prophet except he called to goodness. The Seal of Messengers (s), the Last Prophet, is showing people the way to goodness, but we have left the way. O Leaders! Do you invite people to goodness, or to war, killing, cheating, lying, and harming? Listen to the Heavenly Message. Allah is ordering people to invite others to goodness. May Allah (swt) make us among them.
What Is Al-Khayr?
They say the true inviters to truth and goodness, al-khayr, are the shuyookh of Tariqah. And what is al-khayr? Ar-Rahmaan, The Compassionate, The One Who has mercy for everything: whether they believe or not doesn’t matter. His Goodness encompasses all things. The reality of khayr is isaal ul-wujoodu ilayk. Allah (swt) exists and He allows you to exist, which is the greatest khayr: He allows you to exist in order to take from His Goodness!
The real ones that invite to khayr are not the elites; rather, they are the ones who know about The Creator–shuyookh, grandshaykhs, imams, awliyaullah–and they invite to Khayru ‘l-Mutlaq, Absolute Goodness, which is Allah (swt), Ar-Rahmaan. What are we dealing with and leaving? While we were praying, I heard a ringtone make a sound, ba-ba-ba-ba. That is a sign, “O you human beings, what you speak is ba-ba-ba-ba, nonsense!” They go on the news and speak nonsense, they gossip nonsense behind each others’ backs, they plan nonsense among themselves, all of which has no taste. Sometimes when you sit with people that gossip you feel d`eeq, constricted, because Rahmah leaves and la`na, cursing descends. Most of what human beings say all day is ba-ba-ba-ba, with no value or benefit, which is from al-khayr. Just now Imam Sahib recited, man ittaba`a dhikr: khayr is the one who follows dhikrullah, which is Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah of Rasoolullah (s).
Find and follow the good ones, those who teach goodness, ya`muroona bil-ma`roof. Don’t follow those who call for the destruction of humanity, but rather those who call for goodness towards humanity. They teach goodness, direct others to goodness, and forbid badness. Wa oolaa’ika hum al-muflihoon, they are the successful ones. If you want to be successful here and Hereafter, follow someone that calls to goodness. Mawlana Shaykh is teaching that the best ones in the Divine Presence are those who teach goodness, and when you do good Prophet (s) is telling you, you will find good: `Amalukum `umaalukum, “Your workers are your deeds.” May Allah (swt) forgive us, inshaa-Allah Allah (swt) will make us from the ones that follow goodness. Yadu`oonaa ila al-khayr, they invite people for goodness.
There is both general goodness and private goodness: goodness that is specifically for you and goodness that is for others. The grandshaykh will invite you to perfection. Mawlana is saying, “Every servant has treasures,” everyone has vaults, safes that have a key, so why don’t you look for these treasures Allah (swt) granted you? How to look for it? Awliyaullah teach us how to reach the khayr Allah has given each of us, al-Kamaal al-Mutlaq, the Absolute Perfection, which is to reach the Divine Presence. Among Prophet Muhammad’s (s) 201 Holy Names in Dalaa’il al-Khayrat are Waasilun, The One Who has Reached, and Mawsoolun, The One Who Connects. You can reach! Rasool (s) reached in dunya, he came to the Divine Presence and so near, and it is unknown how ‘near’ Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa is, but you can reach.
Or if you don’t reach Haqq, Truth, you can reach the road to the Truth. If you were granted the honor to reach the Divine Presence, they will make you reach there. If you were given honor to be near the Divine Presence, they will make you reach to your station.
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The Different Roles
So for general ones, the elite of society, you are on our heads, you are in charge, so you must invite to goodness. But the khawwaas, special ones, followers of awliyaullah, must go with the shaykh to reach their treasures. The sign you are on rushd, the right course of actions, the Right Path, is that you advance the Will of Allah (swt) in front of your own. Our Lord is saying:
أَرَأَيْتَ مَنِ اتَّخَذَ إِلَهَهُ هَوَاهُ
Araa’ita mani ‘t-takhadha ilaahahu hawaahu. Have you not seen those who have taken their desires as their God? (Surat al-Furqaan, 25:43)
الَيْسَ مِنكُمْ رَجُلٌ رَّشِيدٌ
Alaysa minkum rajulun rasheed. Is there not one of you that wants to follow the right course?
(Surat Hud, 11:78)
These people wanted to sin and their prophet told them, “Isn’t there anyone among you who doesn’t want to follow his desires, but instead follow the Right Path?” Grandshaykh (q) said so many times, “I give `aql to people, but nobody wants it, they just ask me for their desires, ‘Shaykh, can I marry?’ ‘Shaykh, can I divorce, I don’t like this one any more.’ They are all following their desires.”
“I give people `Aql” means, “I give them rushd, the right course to take to their treasures in the Divine Presence, but they come and ask me about dunya, about marrying, money, business, this and that.” That is okay for common people, but those who say they follow grandshaykhs have to put the will of the shaykh ahead of their own. May Allah (swt) make us from those who follow rushd: the Right Path is fadl min Allah, mercy from Allah. Inshaa-Allah we reach that with our grandshaykhs.
May Allah forgive us. Nowadays, the mistake that spreads among people is not offering goodness to others, which is why they don’t receive goodness. Wickedness and unhappiness is moving between nations and societies because the majority doesn’t show goodness to others, especially those in charge. May Allah guide all of us, all humanity, the ones on top and the ones on bottom, to what prophets, holy ones, and saints brought: the Heavenly Message and guidance. Follow the Heavenly Messages as they teach you goodness; otherwise, you won’t know goodness. May we follow the path of the Heavenly Messages. May Allah (swt) forgive us. Ameen, ameen, ameen.
Bi hurmati ‘l-habeeb, wa bi sirri Surat al-Fatihah.
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