Three Doors
Abu Layth Samarqandi rahmatullah alayh was a Faqih of Islam and a very great, pious Wali of Allah in his generation. Obviously, when a person like this presents a statement or says something, or when you read one of his statements in a book, then those words should be analysed and focused upon, because the words that they deliver are based on reasoning and research of the Qur’an and deep thought. And this individual was not just a Faqih, but he also had a high Maqam in Tasawwuf, which was also a subject about which he wrote much. In reality, he presented his points with the Ruh of Tasawwuf, and if Allah ta’ala gives us the understanding of one of his beautiful statements that I am going to present to you, it will be very beneficial indeed for us.
This is because everything about these people who we call the friends of Allah contains Shifa, a cure. There is Shifa in their words, Shifa occurs through looking at them, and Shifa occurs through sitting close to them, SubhanAllah. There is an important Hadith on this point which makes clear that a person who sits next to a friend of Allah will never suffer any loss thereby. This is a great statement – and this is Hadith. It is stated that the status of the friends of Allah is such that a person who sits next to them will never incur a loss. This is a great statement, and therefore it is a great honour if a person gets an opportunity in his life to sit near a Wali of Allah and acquire his Sohbat, his company. And the nature of this ocean is such that, no matter how much a person drinks, his thirst is still not quenched, SubhanAllah. If you see him, you keep on looking and looking, and Allah’s Rahmah descends while you are near to him and alhamdulillah, through nearness to him, the Ma’arifah of Allah is attained.
Having said this, the Niyyah inside must be correct – so what should the intention be? It should be that every action we do is done to obtain Allah’s nearness. If we go to a friend of Allah, we should go with the intention that we are doing so only for the sake of attaining Allah’s nearness, knowing that this is a great means for doing so. When this door is opened, alhamdulillah, then Faidh - the flow of spiritual blessings - is there. If you go with other intentions, that is what spoils the matter. Allah ta’ala says ‘If you bring something else between Me and you, then this is a mistake.’ Everything else is secondary. What is the real objective? Whose nearness are we trying to obtain? Allah subhana wa ta'ala! This is our destination. La ilaha illa-llah, Muhammadur-Rasoolullah – for a Mu’min, there is no destination apart from this. So when we go to a Wali of Allah, and pledge allegiance through the Bai’ah, and gain the Sohbat, and work hard, struggling and striving – all of this is for what? We are not doing it for that Wali of Allah; we are not doing it for the Sheikh, but rather so that Allah’s nearness can be obtained.
This is Ibadah. Allah ta’ala says that if you get up in the night for Tahajjud, this is Ibadah because you are making effort for Allah. There is nothing in Tahajjud in itself. Waking up in the night is what you do if you have to catch a flight at 3am – that person has to get up too. Similarly, a person who is ill may be awake all night, or a person who gets a stomach pain and has to go to hospital will get up as well. The achievement is not in the getting up itself – it is not the physical action. The person who wakes up for Allah, however, his deed is connected to Allah, and that becomes waking up for Tahajjud and then blessings come. The physical side is the same whatever you wake up for – it is an effort, there is tiredness etc – but alhamdulillah, who must the connection be with? With the Rabb, with Allah, the Creator. Otherwise, who will the connection be with? With the Nafs. This is the point.
So for all striving and working hard and acts of worship, if the connection is with Allah, then it is a great and elevated action. What a great point has been established by this Hadith. What is said about the Walis of Allah? The Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that you will never incur a loss if you keep the company of the friend of Allah. So how can a person say ‘Don’t do this action’? What is real loss? It is not the loss of wealth or money, but SubhanAllah, it relates to the loss of nearness to Allah. That is what will be lost. You will lose the Ma’arifah of Allah. Your destination will be attained by getting close to the friend of Allah. So what should the Niyyah be for going into his company? To attain our Rabb, our Lord.
So I was saying that in the words and in the sight of the friends of Allah there is Shifa, and that we should therefore listen attentively to their words. He presented a great statement, alhamdulillah, which makes the path easy for us! He said that there are three qualities that a human being needs, or, you might say, three doors that Allah ta’ala has given which you need to pass through, by which a person will not just become a Wali or one who is loved by Allah, but rather he will become an ‘Arif of Allah ta’ala, an ‘Arif bi-llah. What is an ‘Arif bi-llah? It is when the ‘Irfan of Allah ta’ala, a high level of awareness of Allah, has come into that person. A person with a high level of Ma’arifah is called an ‘Arif bi-llah. He has come into realization and has recognised Allah; he knows who Allah is, and is aware of whether Allah is happy or displeased in respect of every action. He knows what causes the pleasure of Allah, and he knows what we should ask Allah for. This is a great connection - his Qalb has become Munawwar, enlightened. This is such a great treasure - and how many qualities have we been told here are needed for this? Three qualities. A person needs to develop three attributes in himself – why? Because these are all things that Allah has given to enable us to travel to Allah. Allah is Karim and Allah is Rahim.
Allah ta’ala has made the paths to attain His nearness through the Dunya hard – say SubhanAllah. It is very difficult to make money, my brothers – opening up a shop or market stall every day and so on. It is not easy to work and to follow all the paths of Dunya, meeting one’s living expenses, living with one’s wife, dealing with other people and children – all these paths have difficulties and barriers. But when Allah ta’ala tells us about Himself, Allah says ‘There is no easier path than the one to attain My nearness.’ SubhanAllah – look at this point. Why? Because Allah ta’ala created the human being for Himself. These other matters are secondary factors – the pain and difficulty and striving that you have to go through to make things in the world. But Allah says ‘The real path is to attain My nearness, and in that path, there is no difficulty! There is only one difficulty – and what is that? I have let loose two enemies, Nafs and shaytan, who are barriers on the path to Allah.’ Allah says that if we do not move these barriers out of the way, then the path is difficult, but otherwise, the path is very easy. You could sit right here and find Allah ta’ala so easily - Allah ta’ala is so close. We cannot imagine how close Allah ta’ala is, SubhanAllah. So if it is hard to obtain money to buy bread, then we wonder how hard it will be to attain these three attributes. How will we manage to do this? But Allah ta’ala has made it very easy for us.
So, step number one – but before I tell you, make Dua that Allah gives us the ability to practice upon these things. Ameen. If we do this with an honest heart, then the doors will open straight away. The first factor the Sheikh stated is a beautiful point – and remember, he had experienced this in his own life. He had attained Allah’s nearness by means of these factors. So he said ‘Listen, if Allah ta’ala gives you the Tawfeeq to do His Dhikr’ – to do what? Allah ta’ala’s Dhikr! - ‘then remember that Allah ta’ala’s Dhikr should be practiced, but in such a way that you develop the awareness inside you when you do Dhikr that you are attaining the greatest Ni’mah of Allah at that time.’ What a beautiful point he made here. He said that a person should do Dhikr physically, for sure – like when Allah ta’ala gives you the Tawfeeq to tap the Tasbeeh even though you are sleepy, and thousands of barriers present themselves. One person is trying to reach his prescribed quantity, another person is doing it for another reason – the Sheikh’s Hukm, for instance - and others are doing it for this or that reason. But he said ‘Do Dhikr of Allah, but behind that there should be one quality that you develop within you, namely that inside you should have the recognition and awareness that there is no greater Ni’mah than this one that you have been given at that moment of time.’
I will give you a small example to understand this, which is to think of a situation in which a human being attains a treasure that he could not conceive of acquiring. It might be some desire that he had nurtured for years, wishing that this or that might come to him – a shop or a house or a business or a visa to a certain country – and years pass with these wishes and aspirations inside him, filling his thoughts and dreams. Then one day, he suddenly gets what he has longed for. A letter comes in the post through the letterbox that he has acquired this thing and he can come and collect it. Imagine that person’s happiness at that moment! His body starts to tremble, tears come to his eyes, his breath catches in his throat, his hands start shaking – why? Because he has obtained the biggest Ni’mah he can imagine, and he is reacting physically to this as his heart and eyes and body show appreciation. Unconsciously and involuntarily, his condition and his emotions change and are transformed due to having attained that thing.
But what is that Ni’mah compared to the real Ni’mah? According to a Hadith, Allah ta’ala tells us ‘Everything in the Dunya that you consider to be My Ni’mah – kingdoms, leadership, children, wealth, Dunya, businesses – I give you all of these things. Do you know the distribution of the One who gives? I know what I am giving and to whom I am giving it!’ SubhanAllah. Allah says ‘I know, so I am telling you, for it is I who am the Giver. And I tell you that the person who gets the Tawfeeq to recite My Name has been given the biggest Ni’mah of all - to recite My Name is the biggest Ni’mah!’ So if you have the Ni’mah to do this every morning, say SubhanAllah! Will you regard it as a small thing, or will you be jumping for joy, with tears in your eyes while your body trembles? If a person considers it as a Ni’mah, then SubhanAllah, his emotions will be transformed when he comes to Dhikr. He will feel completely changed emotionally when he comes to Dhikr. But this won’t happen if he just regards it as routine, or he sits thinking ‘What’s this? I suppose if I sit down, I might get some Thawab afterwards.’ The proper feeling should be that this is a great Ni’mah and a massive blessing.
Alhamdulillah, we have sat down for this. Count the number of people sat here – is this all that come from the population of Bolton? For example, if the news goes round about a special gathering in a Masjid, that Masjid fills up, doesn’t it? Tell me. So is this it for that Ni’mah about which Allah ta’ala says ‘I know what that Ni’mah is’? Why are there so few people here today? Because as the generations get closer to Qiyamah, the people will not be grateful for Allah ta’ala’s Ni’mahs – the real Ni’mahs will not be recognised. Wasteful actions will increase, and where wasteful actions are taking place, those places will be full - large tents will be erected and the Dunyawi announcements will be made that such and such a person is coming from here or there. And yet when that Ni’mah takes place which Allah says is the root of all Ni’mahs, it is a sign of Qiyamah if there is limited attendance. People’s hearts will not feel inclined to come. One hundred years will pass in the Dunya during which there will be nobody reciting Allah’s Name. During those one hundred years, Allah will be asking ‘Is there not one person who will say My Name? No-one?’ Today we see this with our own eyes. When we speak about Dhikr, just a few broken-down and tired people come to sit – and how do those who do sit down feel? They see how others behave and say ‘Oh look, he is not staying, so what should I do? He is such a big shot, but he is running away from Dhikr, so why should I go to this Majlis? That must mean that this Majlis is not important.’
This is the generation that is coming; these are the days that are to come. People will follow the names of the people of Dunya and say ‘Oh, that man is not doing this, and he is a big shot with a lot of knowledge. If Dhikr is not important for him, then why should I go there?’ And then when the Majlis comes, he will have disappeared as well. May Allah not allow this to occur. The Name of Allah is so great and precious, and this Faqih, Abu Layth Samarqandi rahmatullah alayh has stated that you should not let this happen in your life. If you consider the Ni’mah of Allah to be minor and insignificant, then what does the Qur’an say? That this is an ungrateful person - and Allah ta’ala takes His Nimah away from ungrateful people. This is such a great Ni’mah that the thousands of other Ni’mahs that are spread out are nothing in comparison – this Ni’mah of Allah is the best! If you trace the combined Barakah of all other Ni’mahs, they all come from Dhikr of Allah – even if you add up all the Ni’mahs of the whole Dunya. If this is the greatest Ni’mah, then obviously the Ni’mah of Dhikr that Allah ta’ala has given to you will draw out every other Ni’mah of the world. Whatever you desire, you will start getting that as well, but the condition is – and may you and I have this condition when we die – that we are prepared to leave everything else and run to that Ni’mah.
We should always run to this Ni’mah. We are getting it today, but maybe tomorrow we won’t get this Ni’mah. Today it is happening, but maybe tomorrow it will not take place – and I have seen this in my life, that big gatherings and crowds used to come to certain places and destinations, but they no longer do so. At that time people would say ‘Why shouldn’t this still be taking place tomorrow? Why not?’ but when you look now, there is nothing there. It is all closed up. Why? Because, my brothers, as I have told you many times, today is good for a person, and is a better day than the one which is to come tomorrow. The day that we have passed today is a far better day than the day which will come tomorrow. The conditions in a person’s life change and alter, so we should be offering Shukr and gratefulness millions of times over for the Ni’mahs that you are attaining now. ‘Allah ta’ala, You are so great and Your Ni’mahs are so great! You have defined this action as being incomparable to any other Ni’mah, and yet You have given this Ni’mah to me! You have selected me and have given me the permission!’ SubhanAllah.
So in the light of this, all the other words you hear to the contrary are Wasawis of shaytan trying to diminish the importance of this practice, so reject them straightaway. If such a message comes from anyone, no matter how much of a big shot he is, reject that message. Take the message from Allah – the rest is shaytan and Waswasah. Leave that place or that person. This is that day and age, so I am telling you clearly. Fitnahs will arise; so many Fitnahs will drop on you – and Fitnah doesn’t mean storms and calamities and so on. No, Fitnah in Islam entails jolts that come against Deen, against Islam, that diminish and weaken the practice of Deen. Certain actions will become weak and then disappear from our lives. Fifty or one hundred years ago, could anyone have imagined the immodesty that is common today? Could our grandfathers have imagined that a time would come when the dirty, immodest things that are around today would exist? At that time, the standard was different. The things that they would have considered as immodest in their days are considered as good things by us nowadays. If we attain that today, it is a hundred times better because we think those things pure and clean which they regarded as impure at that time. Do you understand, my brothers?
So when you are given this Ni’mah by Allah, whatever condition or situation is in front of you, when you sit down, remind yourself that Allah ta’ala has given you a very great Ni’mah. If other things seem better to you, do not trust that feeling, for it is Waswasah of shaytan. Make a resolution: ‘I will stick to what Allah has advised and follow what He has said.’ So if Allah has given us this Ni’mah of Dhikrullah, alhamdulillah, then we will get no greater Ni’mah than this. And if this comes to you, then this Faqih has said that this is the first quality that you need to develop within yourself. Do we need to make effort on this, my brothers? Allah ta’ala has given this to us, so we should start appreciating it. That’s it – end of story.
We should appreciate it as much as its status demands and fulfil its rights – that is how much we should appreciate it. What is this appreciation? We should say over and over again ‘Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, oh my Maula, I am grateful that You have brought me to Your Dhikr, to Your Karam, to Your blessings and mercy. You have given me health just for this reason - so that I can come to Dhikr. I know that I was sick already, and it is just due to the Niyyah that I made that I would remember You. If I didn’t have this reward and Ni’mah that You have given me at this time, I would not have had this nourishment today – I would have been busy and caught up with something else. You could have thrown me somewhere else and made something else seem important to me.’
You can experience this, that when your love for this Ni’mah increases, then your work in the Dunya will become easier for you and you will become more be even more grateful for this Ni’mah of Dhikrullah. Experience what I am saying for yourselves – your world in the Dunya will become easier. You hear thousands of people saying ‘Oh, I don’t have time to do Dhikr. I want to come to the Majlis, but I don’t have time.’ But the person who orientates himself towards Dhikr and strives for it, he says ‘I don’t know how, and without me realising, Allah has allowed me to accomplish all my tasks of the world easily.’ SubhanAllah – this is from Allah. He makes it easy. If Allah has defined something as a Ni’mah, then will that Ni’mah not pull on all the other Ni’mahs? Does Allah not know what our needs of life are? Is He not Khabir and Basir? Will He not fulfil our requirements? So when we leave everything for the sake of Allah in order to obtain the Ni’mah of Dhikrullah, then SubhanAllah, that Ni’mah of Allah’s remembrance will cause all of the other Ni’mahs to run after us. So we have to struggle and strive - and this is being grateful for the Ni’mah of Allah. Say SubhanAllah.
What is the second quality that he said we need to develop? This is a very important factor. Brothers, we are human beings – and what is the definition of a human being? The definition of a human being is that he is a collection of sins – that’s it. A collection of sins, a platform of sins, a foundation of sins – we have sin upon sin within us. After we are born, we sin – why? Why did Allah make us able to sin and not sinless like the angels? What is the difference between us the angels? The angels are consistent every day, but for us, we are elevated every day. The angel stays there on the same status and level, the poor soul, doing the same action and the same Tasbeeh or the same Sajdah, but we are different. Every time we do a sin, Allah gives us the chance for elevation and promotion, SubhanAllah. Yes? This is the Hikmah of Allah. But how can this happen? There is a system that Allah has developed that we have to follow. Where do we get this system from? From Allah we find out what to do in this and that situation.
So we are a collection of sins, but the ability to sin is a very valuable quality that Allah ta’ala has given to us. If there was no sin, then we would also be like the angels, stuck there in one place doing the same thing all the time - decades and centuries would pass. So what is it about sin? SubhanAllah. Today is the night of Me’raj, mashaAllah, isn’t it? Say SubhanAllah – this is a spiritual night, a fantastic night. Where did Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam travel from, and where did he go on this night of Me’raj? The people who follow his way will also overcome all the barriers and attain Allah’s Qurb. The days and nights of his followers are the same. We talk about a Wali of Allah or a Qutb or a Ghawth – do we think that they did not commit sins? Were there no sins in their lives? No, they became a Qutb due to their sins, they became a Ghawth due to their sins! They received a jolt and a shake, and then they jumped. But there is a difference in their sin. Our biggest sins are Zina or alcohol, but for them, if they noticed even a minor difference in their good deeds, or if a bad thought came into their mind, for them it was a sin as big as Zina. But hey saw it as a sin and did Tawbah, and through that Tawbah, Allah ta’ala elevated their status. Say SubhanAllah. Do you understand what I am saying?
So where is this all coming from? Have I prepared this before I came? Have I got this from a book? No. So where is this coming from? This is Faidh, the flow of blessings from Gadai Sharif! This is where the Faidh is coming from – it is the Faidh of Hadhrat Sahib, my Sheikh. You should believe in these words, for through them the doors open up – all of the doors open up. This is the spiritual path. At this moment in time, this is not just a Masjid; rather, this place we are sitting in is a Masjid and also a Khanqah. It is a Khanqah now. Different angels attend, different words come out, different emotions are felt. The situation in the Masjid is different now – it has become Masjid plus Khanqah now. So you are sat in a Khanqah – which Khanqah? Khanqah Naqshbandia Mujaddidia Murtazaia – SubhanAllah! That is where we are sitting – that is what you are and that is what we are. You have attained this connection. All the Naqshbandia Mashaykh are paying attention right now – their souls are paying attention to this gathering. Is this a minor point? The Dhikr of this Silsila Naqshbandia is happening now on this earth, and all you Naqshbandi individuals are sat here - is this a minor point that I am making my brothers? I am reminding you of this Ni’mah within which you are now sitting.
This is such a great fact, that a few minutes ago, Allah ta’ala transformed this Masjid and converted it into Noor! This is a Khanqah, and all of you have now come to a Khanqah. My voice will go across the whole Dunya, and the Dhikr of Allah will be spread. There are no Masa’il delivered here – nothing else apart from one thing: Allah! That is it. SubhanAllah – look at this! Say SubhanAllah. This is Allah’s Glory, for Allah is Glorious. These are Allah’s places, and He selects. It is Allah’s system, so He can change what he wants when He wants. No-one can raise question marks and doubts; the doors are shut, and nobody can come in and nobody can go out – only those people can attend who have been selected by the Fadhl of Allah. Is this not Shab-e-Me’raj? This is the Night of Me’raj. This is our Me’raj – SubhanAllah, alhamdulillah. This is our celebration and commemoration of Me’raj.
So the second point is that we are Insan and we commit sins through which we can attain promotion and elevation. What did the Faqih Abu Layth say in this regard? He said ‘Look, committing sins is in your nature, but after sinning, you have to do an action’ – what is that action? After sinning, after committing an error or making a mistake, immediately ask Allah for forgiveness, and then that sin will become a means of promotion for you. Allahu Akbar. Your sin will become a means of your promotion, for Allah ta’ala will immediately elevate you at that time and increase your status. The bigger the sin that you commit, the more promotion you will get – Allahu Akbar. Due to what? Due to that big sin that you are committing which fills you half full of sin, for which you then do Tawbah and Allah ta’ala says ‘Look at My servant here. He has come through difficulty and darkness into the light and has been raised to the heights.’ What is the reason for this? This arises due to that dialogue which occurred long ago, when shaytan said ‘Ok Allah, You are sending him into the world, and oh Allah, I swear by Your ‘Izzah and greatness that I am going to trap him with sins!’ Hasan al-Basri rahmatullah alayh has reported that shaytan said ‘Oh Allah, I swear by Your greatness and Your glory and Your respect, as long as I have energy and life, I will make the lives of human beings wretched – look at the sins I will make them commit!’ He promised this to Allah.
Meditate for a minute and do a bit of self-reflection – what sins do we commit? Don’t take what I am saying badly. We have got beards and everything, but we still make mistakes, don’t we? Let’s be honest – we do, don’t we? So after we sin, what should happen? Allah has explained everything. We have beards, Imamahs, faces – but we sin again. What is this? When this happens, there is a formula which we must implement to counter shaytan’s action. He swore by Allah and said ‘Ok Allah, You are expelling me, but give me this permission.’ And then Allah gave the reply: ‘I also swear by My glory and My respect’ - SubhanAllah! – ‘that up until the last breath of a human being is drawn, if that servant keeps on asking forgiveness, I will forgive him until death takes him.’ Say SubhanAllah!
So you have heard that the first quality is Dhikrullah, and quality number two is Astaghfar, seeking repentance through Tawbah. That’s it! ‘Begone shaytan, because just one Astaghfar will destroy all of my sins!’ I am explaining Hadith to you here. When you commit a sin, the angels are ordered not to write it with their pens. The angels cannot write that you have committed a sin – the angel cannot move the pen and the ink is dry; at the second sin, the ink will still not come out of the pen; at the third sin, the sin will still not be recorded and the angel will not write it; when the fourth sin is committed, the pen is still dry; when the fifth sin is committed, the ink still will not come out. And Allah’s Rahmah is such that when you reach the fifth sin, the limit is reached and a red light comes on, and when that sin is committed, an angel is sent who makes you do a good deed, and due to that good deed, all five of the sins are then erased! Say SubhanAllah. All five sins disappear, and shaytan is there rubbing dust into his face, saying ‘Ya Allah, he only did one good deed, and it was only a small good deed! He just removed a twig from the path, he just smiled at someone, he just said Salam to someone, and due to this, all of these big sins have been erased. He committed big sins against You repeatedly!’ Allah says ‘Yes, that is the case, but through My power, due to that one good deed all those sins are eliminated.’ Allahu Akbar.
If we end up in Jahannam even despite this, does this make sense? Do we have any Aql if we still end up in Jahannam? Think about it. Can’t we even repent and do Tawbah when we commit a sin? Can’t a human being even do some small good deed to compensate? How can a person with Iman go into Jahannam? Think about it. So what should a human being do if he commits a sin? Astaghfar – keep doing Tawbah. As long as you keep doing Tawbah, Allah will keep elevating you.
So what is the third quality that is needed, without which there will be no success? This third quality should definitely be developed. The first quality is Dhikrullah, the second quality is Astaghfar, and the third quality is Sunnat-e-Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Without this Ittiba-e-Rasool, without obedience to and love for his Sunnah, there is no success and no progression. We need unlimited Ishq, and our tongues should never utter the excuse of ‘Oh, it’s a small Sunnah so I don’t need to do this.’
I will share an event with you so that you understand what this third quality means. There was once a person who was immersed in sins, surrounded by sins. He was a human being who was consumed in sins so innumerable that they could not be counted. And his were the biggest sins, which are those that cause grief to creation. Zina or drinking alcohol are personal sins – they are actions that affect the one who does them. But when you inflict oppression on another creature, whether by pestering him or causing him pain or distress, that is the biggest oppression in the Court of Allah. InshaAllah I will address this topic on another occasion and explain what this is and the importance of understanding this issue. But this biggest form of oppression - Astaghfirullah, Astaghfirullah. If I spend time on this or that personal sin during the day and add all those sins together, then swearing at somebody or dishonouring them or backbiting or thinking bad or doing bad to them is bigger than all of those other sins.
The biggest sin is when you affect somebody else adversely - remember this. Allah does not like this. Why? Because Allah says ‘My Makhluq are like My family!’ Allah will put up with so many of the sins that you do, but if someone says a bad word to about your father or mother, you will never put up with that because that is your family; and Allah is saying ‘My Creation is My family. Ok, so you are doing this or that sin, but if you affect a member of My family and pester them, then I will not allow that; I will not let that pass.’ So the message here is that while we should strive not to commit any sins, we should be especially cautious about this type of sins. Don’t cause pain to anybody’s heart, don’t distress anybody. And if you cannot do good to someone, I will tell you what my Hadhrat Sahib used to say, alhamdulillah, in whose Khanqah we are sat right now, MashaAllah. My Hadhrat Sahib said ‘If you can’t do a good deed, fine – but don’t do a bad one.’ Allahu Akbar – what a great statement! In a beautiful, loving way, he said ‘If you can’t do good – okay; but at least don’t do bad things. If you can’t do good deeds, at least don’t do sins.’
So we should be saving ourselves from sins. If you can’t feed someone by giving him a chapati or you can’t serve him with water or help him, then at least don’t do anything bad to him. Don’t bother him all the time or think bad thoughts about him. At night when we go to bed– and this is also another topic that we will cover - many points are coming to my mind – when we are lying down before going to sleep, then think about these points. Think about any sins you have done against Allah’s Makhluq, because the Tawbah for sins against Allah’s Makhluq is different. The repentance is different. Allah says ‘Don’t come to Me for forgiveness for those sins – go to the person you have oppressed!’ SubhanAllah – phone him and seek forgiveness. And on this topic, if it is a Wali of Allah that you have pestered, Allah has made a big announcement in the Qur’an, where He tells us ‘Leave it now. You can keep on asking for forgiveness, but now be ready for a clash with Me because you are pestering My friend. You said bad things about him and spread gossip about him. If you have enmity with My Wali, the situation is different now. It was bad enough when you bothered My Creation, but now you have raised your hand against My Mehboob, against My beloved!’ So we should be very careful and cautious in this regard.
Is this not the case? Life is all about being cautious, my friends. We are not animals; we are not dogs and cats. Allah has given us Aql, intelligence, awareness, consciousness, Qur’an, Iman, understanding, Deen - so with this should come what? Caution in how you implement the Deen - Deen means caution. You know how when you pass by a muddy puddle, you are cautious, thinking ‘I don’t want a splash of that mud to make my clothes dirty.’ Well, that is how we should live our lives in the world. Save yourselves. Think ‘Did I say something bad to that guy? Did I think badly of him or cause him pain? Did my actions give rise to pain to his heart?’ Caution! I am not just talking about your behaviour with elders. With youngsters also, think ‘Did I give him pain? Is his heart broken?’ Even if it is a tiny child - a one-year-old, say – if you look at him with an angry face, show him love and affection afterwards, because he is also the beloved creation of Allah. When you become like this, SubhanAllah.
Become like my Sheikh, Sheikh Ali Murtaza rahmatullah alayh, who, when people would see him, they would smile. The Wali of Allah had this quality inside him, and there was Sukoon beyond Sukoon in his company. Your wife should be happy with you, your children should be happy with you; everyone who sees your face should say ‘SubhanAllah – he is a good person. He so nice and easy to be with. He causes no issues, and he doesn’t ask for anything or cause quarrels. He just keeps himself to himself.’ Dunya should testify, and when the Janazah of a person like this occurs, the angels go with that Janazah, SubhanAllah.
So there are three factors, my brothers. I was telling you the story about a person who committed sins – he was in a very bad situation in respect of the sins he had committed. He was immersed in sins and kept on giving grief to the creation of Allah. He was thief and a bandit – a highway robber. He would force entry into people’s houses by day and night, and kidnap women from their homes – this was his life. Banditry, kidnap, highway robbery – what kind of a human being must he have been? Tell me. Imagine the level of sin that person would have be on. This was his regular condition. Killing was nothing to him – this bandit didn’t have a clue about Akhlaq. He just indulged himself in his bad actions and was intent on creating fear in everyone he met.
One day, he arrived at a certain place where a tribe was living, among whom was a Sharif, a pious person - like Moulana Sahib perhaps - who was sitting down reciting the Qur’an. Now that bandit didn’t care about Tilawat of the Qur’an or whether a person was in Sajdah or whatever – he was just intent on enjoying the sins of a bandit and a robber. So the Sheikh was reading an Ayah in the 27th Juz:
{أَلَمۡ يَأۡنِ لِلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓاْ أَن تَخۡشَعَ قُلُوبُہُمۡ لِذِڪۡرِ ٱللَّهِ}
SubhanAllah – what a verse! Allah ta’ala explains here that hearts are unlocked by the Dhikr of Allah. What a beautiful verse – and the time came. Remember one point: it doesn’t matter if a person is very impure and dirty – it is an aspect of Iman that Allah ta’ala delivers these messages to a person, whatever situation he is in. This message is reaching you now as well, is it not? How many people are listening at this moment in time? Perhaps eight hundred or nine hundred people. Is this message reaching you all? Allah subhana wa ta'ala is Rahim and Karim – at every moment, Allah ta’ala delivers this message to those who have recited the Kalima, saying ‘I am not going to let those who have recited the Kalima of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam go into Jahannam.’ The message arrives! And what a clear message is travelling across the world right now - in this generation of Fitnah, in this day and age of Corona, this message of the Qur’an is being delivered.
Allah says {أَن تَخۡشَعَ قُلُوبُہُمۡ لِذِڪۡرِ ٱللَّهِ}. We recite the Qur’an, but we don’t reflect and ponder and analyse and understand the Qur’an. So, people of Bolton and Muslims, the Qur’an is saying, SubhanAllah ‘What has happened to you? Has your Aql disappeared altogether? Is it not your time now? Has your heart not become filled with Dunya and the seal stamped on your back that you have only one week left to live? Has your allotted portion of food and drink not come to an end? Is Corona not coming to take you away?’ Look at the personalities who have passed way – what guarantees do me and you have? Allah says {أَلَمۡ يَأۡنِ لِلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓاْ} – ‘What kind of person of Iman are you, oh man or woman? You are trapped in the shackles of the Dunya, stuck running after wealth and money and children – have you still not realised? You want to make money and buy houses and build mansions, but your time has run out. Don’t you have any thought or regard for these things? When will your time for thinking and analysing come? In the grave?’
{أَن تَخۡشَعَ قُلُوبُہُمۡ لِذِڪۡرِ ٱللَّهِ} Due to this verse, your heart should shake, and the fear of Allah should come into you. What have the commentators stated about this verse? That Allah subhana wa ta'ala is inviting in this verse, giving Da’wah. What is the Da’wah that is being delivered? Allah ta’ala is saying ‘Do My Dhikr, for when you do My Dhikr, then Khauf will come into you – fear of Me will come into you.’ SubhanAllah. Allah is saying ‘Oh blind man, when will you start doing My Dhikr? What opportunity are you looking for that stops you from coming towards My Dhikr? Dhikr will not come to you and your padlock will not unlock and our rust will not disappear. When will you come towards My Dhikr and towards My reward which contains the cure to your ills? Why do you run away from My Dhikr?’ Say SubhanAllah. This is the Qur’an isn’t it? Allah is saying ‘Why are you running away from My Dhikr? What are you waiting for? Why are you delaying? Are you waiting for fear of Me to come into your heart, so that when fear of Me comes into you, then you won’t sin? What will make that happen? My Dhikr! When you make an effort to come towards My Dhikr, then you will learn these things. When will you do My Dhikr?’
So he was a thief and a bandit, but the message was announced. If you give this message today, even educated people don’t understand it. They do not comprehend the message. Remember, when Allah ta’ala gives a message, who is the most intelligent person and who is the one with the best understanding is not gauged by looking at how much a person sins. If the message comes to you, no matter what worldly condition you are in at that time, even if you are lying next to a woman and about to commit Zina, if the message arrives, that person can leave that action and do Tawbah – then see how the doors of Jannah open for that person. Allahu Akbar – Allah ta’ala always delivers the message. You won’t be given Da’wah at a special time and in a special way, and then the message will come – no. In any condition, in every way, form and time, Allah ta’ala wants to save you from Jahannam. If you are ready for Zina, and you and the woman are lying down naked about to commit the act, the message will definitely come to your heart, even there, if only you can catch it - I can give you examples of this. And then you will be successful.
So he was a big thief, but as soon as he heard the message, immediately this massive bandit who was deep in the displeasure of Allah, said ‘Oh Allah, I have come, I have come! I will do Dhikr – I have come!’ Allahu Akbar! So he left everything behind him there and then, saying ‘Oh Allah, I have come to You!’ And he came into the court of the Wali of that time and said ‘This sinner has come to do Tawbah – my time has arrived, my time has arrived!’ Say SubhanAllah. So he took Bai’ah, and what did he attain from the company of the Wali of Allah? Dhikrullah! Through what did he attain success? Through Tawbah, through the Astaghfar that he did. His Tawbah elevated him so high that you cannot imagine. His name was Fuzail bin Ayaz and he became a great Buzurgh from the Chishti Silsila, SubhanAllah. He was such a great Wali of Allah, and you will amazed when I tell you name of his Khalifah: Ibrahim bin Adam rahmatullah alayh was his Khalifah - and he himself was the third generation of Shaykhs of that Silsila. That person who had been a bandit and a thief is now rahmatullah alayh wa qaddasAllahu sirrah, such a pious servant of Allah against whom we cannot say anything bad or Allah ta’ala will seize us! SubhanAllah – where did that thief, that bandit, that highway robber go? What did he do? He repented. He made Astaghfar in Allah’s Court, and Allah ta’ala changed his condition. Allah ta’ala said ‘Your Tawbah from that condition of extreme dirt that you were in has gained you a Maqam that is not small. At the time that you did Tawbah, I raised you up and gave the Maqam of My Wali.’
This was Fuzail bin Ayaz, who was such a great person, and he acquired this a status from this one event of his life. True Tawbah is true Tawbah – there is no contamination. If I do true Tawbah today, everything bad in my life breaks – I will leave interest and looking here and there. And as I said, the biggest sin is to oppress other human beings, and if I did so, first and foremost I will make amends. I will give back any money I acquired wrongly and ask for forgiveness, because that is the biggest sin. We don’t consider this, even though we do Tawbah and pray Tahajjud and this and that. My brothers, understand the Deen – these are not the acts that attain Allah. Don’t think that the stamp will come, even if people say ‘Oh, he’s pious, he reads Salah and does Umrah and does this and that.’ Don’t run after these things; rather, keep to the essentials that Allah ta’ala has explained.
So as soon as he had done that true Tawbah, the first action that he did was to go to every person whose wealth he had stolen and return their money to them. After that, he kept solid on Dhikr and Salah, but first he had to please Allah by making up with His Makhluq who he had grieved - say SubhanAllah. By chance this message reached him, and though he had been a big bandit, he had kept the accounts of what he had done over the years, SubhanAllah. He knew who he had taken money from and how much he had taken – without him knowing why, Allah ta’ala had made him keep a record of everything. So he took that list out and went to each and every door, saying ‘I took this money from you and stole this item, so here is money to make up for what you lost.’ The whole Dunya was amazed, but he kept going through his list.
Eventually he came to the name of a Jewish man from whom he had stolen, for a thief does not leave anyone safe from his work. So when he knocked on the door of the Jewish man, that man said ‘Yes – what is it?’ When he saw who it was, he said ‘Why have you come here, you thief and bandit? What are you doing here?’ So Fuzail said ‘I have come to seek forgiveness from you, and to return the money that I stole from you.’ The Jewish man said ‘Eh? This was not my money. I had only gold - what is this that you have brought? I demand the gold that you stole from me or I will not forgive you.’ Fuzail said ‘But this is what I stole from you.’ ‘It is not’, replied the man, and would not accept what he was being offered. So then he said to Fuzail, ‘Ok, go inside that room and you will find a little container in a bag. Pick that up and then I will speak to you again.’ He went inside and came out with the bag, and the man said ‘Now open it up with your own hands.’ When he opened it, the Jewish man found all his gold inside! When he saw it, he said ‘SubhanAllah, you have confirmed the Tawrah with this. There is a verse in our Kitab the Tawrah in which it is written that Allah puts so many blessings in the one who does true Tawbah that even if he picks up dust, it will turn to gold at the touch of his hand! SubhanAllah! You have proved that your Tawbah is honest, and have confirmed what is written in the Tawrah that the one who does true Tawbah turns everything he touches into gold. So take my hand now and turn my heart into gold and make me a Muslim right now!’ SubhanAllah – he was the first person who became Muslim at the hand of Fuzail bin Ayaz rahmatullah alayh.
This is Tawbah - but this is not the Tawbah that we do. Do you understand, my brother Sufis? Say SubhanAllah. We should correct ourselves. Look at how Tawbah starts – that’s it. If a human being does true Tawbah, alhamdulillah, he should then do Dhikrullah. And how should you do Dhikrullah? You should appreciate what you have been given. And what was the third quality that was explained? A person cannot be a Wali of Allah if he does not have these three qualities. If you want to see if someone is a Wali, then look for the signs, which are these three things: First, Dhikrullah – he will be at the stage where he will leave everything else and run after Dhikrullah. Second quality – he will be very strict about giving and taking in respect of the Makhluq. More than Nawafil Salah, which he might or might not do, he will always be concerned about Allah’s Creation. He will worry first about the Makhluq – every Wali has this quality. A person without this quality cannot be a Wali of Allah, so if we want to be a Wali of Allah, then we need to develop these Sifaat, these attributes, within us. Without them, we cannot become Walis, however much we pray. Even if our ankles and heels get worn out, and we have a Mihrab, the sign of prostration, on our forehead, and we spend money on tickets to travel for Umrah and Hajj, we will attain nothing from this. Nothing – we will be raised totally empty-handed.
I need these three qualities, and these are the signs of the Wali of Allah. Number one – Dhikrullah; number two – Tawbah; and three – Sunnat-e-Rasool sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Just look at this quality of his. Once, Fuzail bin Ayaz rahmatullah alayh – everyone should say rahmatullah alayh after this name Fuzail bin Ayaz rahmatullah alayh, for he was a friend of Allah. So once, while he was doing Wudhu, he repeated the washing of one part of his Wudhu twice only, instead of three times. How many times? Twice. He knew that the Masa’il is to wash the face and arms etc three times each – there are the Fara’idh and the Sunnah elements of Wudhu. For us, we take these matters as nothing or a minor matter, which is why we are empty boxes. But he was a Wali of Allah, and it so happened that once he washed that part only twice. So afterwards he went to sleep, and there he gained the true appreciation of the Master of Madina! We say ‘Oh, it’s a small Sunnah’, but look at the value of the Master of Madina.
Listen so that our eyes can open about Sunnah. We say ‘Oh, it’s a minor Sunnah, a small Sunnah – it is not important, so what difference does it make? It is not important.’ Look at the appreciation he gained - he did it twice instead of three times and then he went to sleep. As soon as his eyes closed, the Master of Madina sallallahu alayhi wasallam came to him and said ‘Fuzail, you have done an amazing thing’ – and the Wali of Allah was listening to him. ‘Today you have sacrificed my Sunnah!’ Listen – think! He was shocked and he sat up, both happy and upset at the same time. He had been granted the Ziyarah, alhamdilullah, but Allahu Akbar, a complaint had been made – ‘You have left my Sunnah. Did you not have trust in following my Sunnah?’ So now, tell me – what love of Rasollullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam he must have that Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam came himself to warn and admonish him!
And we can see the importance of Wilayah in this, and we can realise something about those who claim friendship with Allah, those who claim they are Walis of Allah – think about this. This is the generation of liars, of nonsense and stories and fairy tales and wasteful comments - this is not the generation of reality. Fuzail bin Ayaz rahmatullah alayh was an Ashiq of the Sunnah, so what did he do? After that, for the rest of his life, he made a habit of doing one thing; he would read five hundred Rakahs Nafl every day as compensation, continually thinking ‘How did I do this wrong action?’ Say SubhanAllah. He did this every day until he died – five hundred Nafl he would read as compensation, and he always regretted having disregarded that Sunnah. This was his Maqam - he had become a Wali of Allah, hadn’t he? He absolutely did not want to regress.
And Allah ta’ala has opened these doors for every human being. It is so easy for every human being to be like him, changing from how he was before to how he became. So why can’t me and you become beloveds of Allah like this? Say SubhanAllah. Why can’t we become like this? That’s it – we just have to leave the playacting. Just for the sake of Nafs, we leave the Deen, so for the sake of Allah, Allah ta’ala says ‘This is how you attain My nearness.’ So grab hold of these points, grab those A’maal, grab those deeds, and leave the other things when Nafs keeps telling us ‘Do this; do that; do this, and Allah will give you.’ No, do what Allah says He likes – do that.
His Maqam was such that even today, if you look for him, that Fuzail who was a bandit – where will you find him? Where will you find Fuzail bin Ayaz rahmatullah alayh? Imagine – he is there, near the grave of one of the Ummahaat-ul-Mu’mineen, Khadijat-ul-Kubra radhiAllahu anha! He would spend all year long in Makkah for the rest of his life, near the Ka’abah engaged in Dhikrullah night and day. He remained always in the Dhikr of Allah, and he passed away in Makkah. When he passed away, his Janazah took place in Makkah, and where was the place chosen for his grave? Next to Khadijat-ul-Kubra radhiAllahu anha , the Mother of the Believers – he is buried near her. How beloved a servant of Allah he must have been, SubhanAllah, to have been laid to rest there until today. On the Day of Qiyamah, all of the people in the world will arise, some from here, some from there, and where will Fuzail, that bandit and robber, rise up from? Where is his grave? SubhanAllah – he is laid to rest next to that great woman of Islam.
So, my brothers, understand the reality of life and what life is about. Don’t waste time – we have a lot of time still. Make Niyyah from today for these three qualities, inshaAllah, and resolve that we will do Dhikr like this, and we will love the Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam like this, and that we will try our best - and that we will also do Tawbah in the way that Fuzail bin Ayaz did Tawbah.
May Allah ta’ala give us all the Tawfeeq. Ameen
Abu Layth Samarqandi rahmatullah alayh was a Faqih of Islam and a very great, pious Wali of Allah in his generation. Obviously, when a person like this presents a statement or says something, or when you read one of his statements in a book, then those words should be analysed and focused upon, because the words that they deliver are based on reasoning and research of the Qur’an and deep thought. And this individual was not just a Faqih, but he also had a high Maqam in Tasawwuf, which was also a subject about which he wrote much. In reality, he presented his points with the Ruh of Tasawwuf, and if Allah ta’ala gives us the understanding of one of his beautiful statements that I am going to present to you, it will be very beneficial indeed for us.
This is because everything about these people who we call the friends of Allah contains Shifa, a cure. There is Shifa in their words, Shifa occurs through looking at them, and Shifa occurs through sitting close to them, SubhanAllah. There is an important Hadith on this point which makes clear that a person who sits next to a friend of Allah will never suffer any loss thereby. This is a great statement – and this is Hadith. It is stated that the status of the friends of Allah is such that a person who sits next to them will never incur a loss. This is a great statement, and therefore it is a great honour if a person gets an opportunity in his life to sit near a Wali of Allah and acquire his Sohbat, his company. And the nature of this ocean is such that, no matter how much a person drinks, his thirst is still not quenched, SubhanAllah. If you see him, you keep on looking and looking, and Allah’s Rahmah descends while you are near to him and alhamdulillah, through nearness to him, the Ma’arifah of Allah is attained.
Having said this, the Niyyah inside must be correct – so what should the intention be? It should be that every action we do is done to obtain Allah’s nearness. If we go to a friend of Allah, we should go with the intention that we are doing so only for the sake of attaining Allah’s nearness, knowing that this is a great means for doing so. When this door is opened, alhamdulillah, then Faidh - the flow of spiritual blessings - is there. If you go with other intentions, that is what spoils the matter. Allah ta’ala says ‘If you bring something else between Me and you, then this is a mistake.’ Everything else is secondary. What is the real objective? Whose nearness are we trying to obtain? Allah subhana wa ta'ala! This is our destination. La ilaha illa-llah, Muhammadur-Rasoolullah – for a Mu’min, there is no destination apart from this. So when we go to a Wali of Allah, and pledge allegiance through the Bai’ah, and gain the Sohbat, and work hard, struggling and striving – all of this is for what? We are not doing it for that Wali of Allah; we are not doing it for the Sheikh, but rather so that Allah’s nearness can be obtained.
This is Ibadah. Allah ta’ala says that if you get up in the night for Tahajjud, this is Ibadah because you are making effort for Allah. There is nothing in Tahajjud in itself. Waking up in the night is what you do if you have to catch a flight at 3am – that person has to get up too. Similarly, a person who is ill may be awake all night, or a person who gets a stomach pain and has to go to hospital will get up as well. The achievement is not in the getting up itself – it is not the physical action. The person who wakes up for Allah, however, his deed is connected to Allah, and that becomes waking up for Tahajjud and then blessings come. The physical side is the same whatever you wake up for – it is an effort, there is tiredness etc – but alhamdulillah, who must the connection be with? With the Rabb, with Allah, the Creator. Otherwise, who will the connection be with? With the Nafs. This is the point.
So for all striving and working hard and acts of worship, if the connection is with Allah, then it is a great and elevated action. What a great point has been established by this Hadith. What is said about the Walis of Allah? The Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that you will never incur a loss if you keep the company of the friend of Allah. So how can a person say ‘Don’t do this action’? What is real loss? It is not the loss of wealth or money, but SubhanAllah, it relates to the loss of nearness to Allah. That is what will be lost. You will lose the Ma’arifah of Allah. Your destination will be attained by getting close to the friend of Allah. So what should the Niyyah be for going into his company? To attain our Rabb, our Lord.
So I was saying that in the words and in the sight of the friends of Allah there is Shifa, and that we should therefore listen attentively to their words. He presented a great statement, alhamdulillah, which makes the path easy for us! He said that there are three qualities that a human being needs, or, you might say, three doors that Allah ta’ala has given which you need to pass through, by which a person will not just become a Wali or one who is loved by Allah, but rather he will become an ‘Arif of Allah ta’ala, an ‘Arif bi-llah. What is an ‘Arif bi-llah? It is when the ‘Irfan of Allah ta’ala, a high level of awareness of Allah, has come into that person. A person with a high level of Ma’arifah is called an ‘Arif bi-llah. He has come into realization and has recognised Allah; he knows who Allah is, and is aware of whether Allah is happy or displeased in respect of every action. He knows what causes the pleasure of Allah, and he knows what we should ask Allah for. This is a great connection - his Qalb has become Munawwar, enlightened. This is such a great treasure - and how many qualities have we been told here are needed for this? Three qualities. A person needs to develop three attributes in himself – why? Because these are all things that Allah has given to enable us to travel to Allah. Allah is Karim and Allah is Rahim.
Allah ta’ala has made the paths to attain His nearness through the Dunya hard – say SubhanAllah. It is very difficult to make money, my brothers – opening up a shop or market stall every day and so on. It is not easy to work and to follow all the paths of Dunya, meeting one’s living expenses, living with one’s wife, dealing with other people and children – all these paths have difficulties and barriers. But when Allah ta’ala tells us about Himself, Allah says ‘There is no easier path than the one to attain My nearness.’ SubhanAllah – look at this point. Why? Because Allah ta’ala created the human being for Himself. These other matters are secondary factors – the pain and difficulty and striving that you have to go through to make things in the world. But Allah says ‘The real path is to attain My nearness, and in that path, there is no difficulty! There is only one difficulty – and what is that? I have let loose two enemies, Nafs and shaytan, who are barriers on the path to Allah.’ Allah says that if we do not move these barriers out of the way, then the path is difficult, but otherwise, the path is very easy. You could sit right here and find Allah ta’ala so easily - Allah ta’ala is so close. We cannot imagine how close Allah ta’ala is, SubhanAllah. So if it is hard to obtain money to buy bread, then we wonder how hard it will be to attain these three attributes. How will we manage to do this? But Allah ta’ala has made it very easy for us.
So, step number one – but before I tell you, make Dua that Allah gives us the ability to practice upon these things. Ameen. If we do this with an honest heart, then the doors will open straight away. The first factor the Sheikh stated is a beautiful point – and remember, he had experienced this in his own life. He had attained Allah’s nearness by means of these factors. So he said ‘Listen, if Allah ta’ala gives you the Tawfeeq to do His Dhikr’ – to do what? Allah ta’ala’s Dhikr! - ‘then remember that Allah ta’ala’s Dhikr should be practiced, but in such a way that you develop the awareness inside you when you do Dhikr that you are attaining the greatest Ni’mah of Allah at that time.’ What a beautiful point he made here. He said that a person should do Dhikr physically, for sure – like when Allah ta’ala gives you the Tawfeeq to tap the Tasbeeh even though you are sleepy, and thousands of barriers present themselves. One person is trying to reach his prescribed quantity, another person is doing it for another reason – the Sheikh’s Hukm, for instance - and others are doing it for this or that reason. But he said ‘Do Dhikr of Allah, but behind that there should be one quality that you develop within you, namely that inside you should have the recognition and awareness that there is no greater Ni’mah than this one that you have been given at that moment of time.’
I will give you a small example to understand this, which is to think of a situation in which a human being attains a treasure that he could not conceive of acquiring. It might be some desire that he had nurtured for years, wishing that this or that might come to him – a shop or a house or a business or a visa to a certain country – and years pass with these wishes and aspirations inside him, filling his thoughts and dreams. Then one day, he suddenly gets what he has longed for. A letter comes in the post through the letterbox that he has acquired this thing and he can come and collect it. Imagine that person’s happiness at that moment! His body starts to tremble, tears come to his eyes, his breath catches in his throat, his hands start shaking – why? Because he has obtained the biggest Ni’mah he can imagine, and he is reacting physically to this as his heart and eyes and body show appreciation. Unconsciously and involuntarily, his condition and his emotions change and are transformed due to having attained that thing.
But what is that Ni’mah compared to the real Ni’mah? According to a Hadith, Allah ta’ala tells us ‘Everything in the Dunya that you consider to be My Ni’mah – kingdoms, leadership, children, wealth, Dunya, businesses – I give you all of these things. Do you know the distribution of the One who gives? I know what I am giving and to whom I am giving it!’ SubhanAllah. Allah says ‘I know, so I am telling you, for it is I who am the Giver. And I tell you that the person who gets the Tawfeeq to recite My Name has been given the biggest Ni’mah of all - to recite My Name is the biggest Ni’mah!’ So if you have the Ni’mah to do this every morning, say SubhanAllah! Will you regard it as a small thing, or will you be jumping for joy, with tears in your eyes while your body trembles? If a person considers it as a Ni’mah, then SubhanAllah, his emotions will be transformed when he comes to Dhikr. He will feel completely changed emotionally when he comes to Dhikr. But this won’t happen if he just regards it as routine, or he sits thinking ‘What’s this? I suppose if I sit down, I might get some Thawab afterwards.’ The proper feeling should be that this is a great Ni’mah and a massive blessing.
Alhamdulillah, we have sat down for this. Count the number of people sat here – is this all that come from the population of Bolton? For example, if the news goes round about a special gathering in a Masjid, that Masjid fills up, doesn’t it? Tell me. So is this it for that Ni’mah about which Allah ta’ala says ‘I know what that Ni’mah is’? Why are there so few people here today? Because as the generations get closer to Qiyamah, the people will not be grateful for Allah ta’ala’s Ni’mahs – the real Ni’mahs will not be recognised. Wasteful actions will increase, and where wasteful actions are taking place, those places will be full - large tents will be erected and the Dunyawi announcements will be made that such and such a person is coming from here or there. And yet when that Ni’mah takes place which Allah says is the root of all Ni’mahs, it is a sign of Qiyamah if there is limited attendance. People’s hearts will not feel inclined to come. One hundred years will pass in the Dunya during which there will be nobody reciting Allah’s Name. During those one hundred years, Allah will be asking ‘Is there not one person who will say My Name? No-one?’ Today we see this with our own eyes. When we speak about Dhikr, just a few broken-down and tired people come to sit – and how do those who do sit down feel? They see how others behave and say ‘Oh look, he is not staying, so what should I do? He is such a big shot, but he is running away from Dhikr, so why should I go to this Majlis? That must mean that this Majlis is not important.’
This is the generation that is coming; these are the days that are to come. People will follow the names of the people of Dunya and say ‘Oh, that man is not doing this, and he is a big shot with a lot of knowledge. If Dhikr is not important for him, then why should I go there?’ And then when the Majlis comes, he will have disappeared as well. May Allah not allow this to occur. The Name of Allah is so great and precious, and this Faqih, Abu Layth Samarqandi rahmatullah alayh has stated that you should not let this happen in your life. If you consider the Ni’mah of Allah to be minor and insignificant, then what does the Qur’an say? That this is an ungrateful person - and Allah ta’ala takes His Nimah away from ungrateful people. This is such a great Ni’mah that the thousands of other Ni’mahs that are spread out are nothing in comparison – this Ni’mah of Allah is the best! If you trace the combined Barakah of all other Ni’mahs, they all come from Dhikr of Allah – even if you add up all the Ni’mahs of the whole Dunya. If this is the greatest Ni’mah, then obviously the Ni’mah of Dhikr that Allah ta’ala has given to you will draw out every other Ni’mah of the world. Whatever you desire, you will start getting that as well, but the condition is – and may you and I have this condition when we die – that we are prepared to leave everything else and run to that Ni’mah.
We should always run to this Ni’mah. We are getting it today, but maybe tomorrow we won’t get this Ni’mah. Today it is happening, but maybe tomorrow it will not take place – and I have seen this in my life, that big gatherings and crowds used to come to certain places and destinations, but they no longer do so. At that time people would say ‘Why shouldn’t this still be taking place tomorrow? Why not?’ but when you look now, there is nothing there. It is all closed up. Why? Because, my brothers, as I have told you many times, today is good for a person, and is a better day than the one which is to come tomorrow. The day that we have passed today is a far better day than the day which will come tomorrow. The conditions in a person’s life change and alter, so we should be offering Shukr and gratefulness millions of times over for the Ni’mahs that you are attaining now. ‘Allah ta’ala, You are so great and Your Ni’mahs are so great! You have defined this action as being incomparable to any other Ni’mah, and yet You have given this Ni’mah to me! You have selected me and have given me the permission!’ SubhanAllah.
So in the light of this, all the other words you hear to the contrary are Wasawis of shaytan trying to diminish the importance of this practice, so reject them straightaway. If such a message comes from anyone, no matter how much of a big shot he is, reject that message. Take the message from Allah – the rest is shaytan and Waswasah. Leave that place or that person. This is that day and age, so I am telling you clearly. Fitnahs will arise; so many Fitnahs will drop on you – and Fitnah doesn’t mean storms and calamities and so on. No, Fitnah in Islam entails jolts that come against Deen, against Islam, that diminish and weaken the practice of Deen. Certain actions will become weak and then disappear from our lives. Fifty or one hundred years ago, could anyone have imagined the immodesty that is common today? Could our grandfathers have imagined that a time would come when the dirty, immodest things that are around today would exist? At that time, the standard was different. The things that they would have considered as immodest in their days are considered as good things by us nowadays. If we attain that today, it is a hundred times better because we think those things pure and clean which they regarded as impure at that time. Do you understand, my brothers?
So when you are given this Ni’mah by Allah, whatever condition or situation is in front of you, when you sit down, remind yourself that Allah ta’ala has given you a very great Ni’mah. If other things seem better to you, do not trust that feeling, for it is Waswasah of shaytan. Make a resolution: ‘I will stick to what Allah has advised and follow what He has said.’ So if Allah has given us this Ni’mah of Dhikrullah, alhamdulillah, then we will get no greater Ni’mah than this. And if this comes to you, then this Faqih has said that this is the first quality that you need to develop within yourself. Do we need to make effort on this, my brothers? Allah ta’ala has given this to us, so we should start appreciating it. That’s it – end of story.
We should appreciate it as much as its status demands and fulfil its rights – that is how much we should appreciate it. What is this appreciation? We should say over and over again ‘Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, oh my Maula, I am grateful that You have brought me to Your Dhikr, to Your Karam, to Your blessings and mercy. You have given me health just for this reason - so that I can come to Dhikr. I know that I was sick already, and it is just due to the Niyyah that I made that I would remember You. If I didn’t have this reward and Ni’mah that You have given me at this time, I would not have had this nourishment today – I would have been busy and caught up with something else. You could have thrown me somewhere else and made something else seem important to me.’
You can experience this, that when your love for this Ni’mah increases, then your work in the Dunya will become easier for you and you will become more be even more grateful for this Ni’mah of Dhikrullah. Experience what I am saying for yourselves – your world in the Dunya will become easier. You hear thousands of people saying ‘Oh, I don’t have time to do Dhikr. I want to come to the Majlis, but I don’t have time.’ But the person who orientates himself towards Dhikr and strives for it, he says ‘I don’t know how, and without me realising, Allah has allowed me to accomplish all my tasks of the world easily.’ SubhanAllah – this is from Allah. He makes it easy. If Allah has defined something as a Ni’mah, then will that Ni’mah not pull on all the other Ni’mahs? Does Allah not know what our needs of life are? Is He not Khabir and Basir? Will He not fulfil our requirements? So when we leave everything for the sake of Allah in order to obtain the Ni’mah of Dhikrullah, then SubhanAllah, that Ni’mah of Allah’s remembrance will cause all of the other Ni’mahs to run after us. So we have to struggle and strive - and this is being grateful for the Ni’mah of Allah. Say SubhanAllah.
What is the second quality that he said we need to develop? This is a very important factor. Brothers, we are human beings – and what is the definition of a human being? The definition of a human being is that he is a collection of sins – that’s it. A collection of sins, a platform of sins, a foundation of sins – we have sin upon sin within us. After we are born, we sin – why? Why did Allah make us able to sin and not sinless like the angels? What is the difference between us the angels? The angels are consistent every day, but for us, we are elevated every day. The angel stays there on the same status and level, the poor soul, doing the same action and the same Tasbeeh or the same Sajdah, but we are different. Every time we do a sin, Allah gives us the chance for elevation and promotion, SubhanAllah. Yes? This is the Hikmah of Allah. But how can this happen? There is a system that Allah has developed that we have to follow. Where do we get this system from? From Allah we find out what to do in this and that situation.
So we are a collection of sins, but the ability to sin is a very valuable quality that Allah ta’ala has given to us. If there was no sin, then we would also be like the angels, stuck there in one place doing the same thing all the time - decades and centuries would pass. So what is it about sin? SubhanAllah. Today is the night of Me’raj, mashaAllah, isn’t it? Say SubhanAllah – this is a spiritual night, a fantastic night. Where did Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam travel from, and where did he go on this night of Me’raj? The people who follow his way will also overcome all the barriers and attain Allah’s Qurb. The days and nights of his followers are the same. We talk about a Wali of Allah or a Qutb or a Ghawth – do we think that they did not commit sins? Were there no sins in their lives? No, they became a Qutb due to their sins, they became a Ghawth due to their sins! They received a jolt and a shake, and then they jumped. But there is a difference in their sin. Our biggest sins are Zina or alcohol, but for them, if they noticed even a minor difference in their good deeds, or if a bad thought came into their mind, for them it was a sin as big as Zina. But hey saw it as a sin and did Tawbah, and through that Tawbah, Allah ta’ala elevated their status. Say SubhanAllah. Do you understand what I am saying?
So where is this all coming from? Have I prepared this before I came? Have I got this from a book? No. So where is this coming from? This is Faidh, the flow of blessings from Gadai Sharif! This is where the Faidh is coming from – it is the Faidh of Hadhrat Sahib, my Sheikh. You should believe in these words, for through them the doors open up – all of the doors open up. This is the spiritual path. At this moment in time, this is not just a Masjid; rather, this place we are sitting in is a Masjid and also a Khanqah. It is a Khanqah now. Different angels attend, different words come out, different emotions are felt. The situation in the Masjid is different now – it has become Masjid plus Khanqah now. So you are sat in a Khanqah – which Khanqah? Khanqah Naqshbandia Mujaddidia Murtazaia – SubhanAllah! That is where we are sitting – that is what you are and that is what we are. You have attained this connection. All the Naqshbandia Mashaykh are paying attention right now – their souls are paying attention to this gathering. Is this a minor point? The Dhikr of this Silsila Naqshbandia is happening now on this earth, and all you Naqshbandi individuals are sat here - is this a minor point that I am making my brothers? I am reminding you of this Ni’mah within which you are now sitting.
This is such a great fact, that a few minutes ago, Allah ta’ala transformed this Masjid and converted it into Noor! This is a Khanqah, and all of you have now come to a Khanqah. My voice will go across the whole Dunya, and the Dhikr of Allah will be spread. There are no Masa’il delivered here – nothing else apart from one thing: Allah! That is it. SubhanAllah – look at this! Say SubhanAllah. This is Allah’s Glory, for Allah is Glorious. These are Allah’s places, and He selects. It is Allah’s system, so He can change what he wants when He wants. No-one can raise question marks and doubts; the doors are shut, and nobody can come in and nobody can go out – only those people can attend who have been selected by the Fadhl of Allah. Is this not Shab-e-Me’raj? This is the Night of Me’raj. This is our Me’raj – SubhanAllah, alhamdulillah. This is our celebration and commemoration of Me’raj.
So the second point is that we are Insan and we commit sins through which we can attain promotion and elevation. What did the Faqih Abu Layth say in this regard? He said ‘Look, committing sins is in your nature, but after sinning, you have to do an action’ – what is that action? After sinning, after committing an error or making a mistake, immediately ask Allah for forgiveness, and then that sin will become a means of promotion for you. Allahu Akbar. Your sin will become a means of your promotion, for Allah ta’ala will immediately elevate you at that time and increase your status. The bigger the sin that you commit, the more promotion you will get – Allahu Akbar. Due to what? Due to that big sin that you are committing which fills you half full of sin, for which you then do Tawbah and Allah ta’ala says ‘Look at My servant here. He has come through difficulty and darkness into the light and has been raised to the heights.’ What is the reason for this? This arises due to that dialogue which occurred long ago, when shaytan said ‘Ok Allah, You are sending him into the world, and oh Allah, I swear by Your ‘Izzah and greatness that I am going to trap him with sins!’ Hasan al-Basri rahmatullah alayh has reported that shaytan said ‘Oh Allah, I swear by Your greatness and Your glory and Your respect, as long as I have energy and life, I will make the lives of human beings wretched – look at the sins I will make them commit!’ He promised this to Allah.
Meditate for a minute and do a bit of self-reflection – what sins do we commit? Don’t take what I am saying badly. We have got beards and everything, but we still make mistakes, don’t we? Let’s be honest – we do, don’t we? So after we sin, what should happen? Allah has explained everything. We have beards, Imamahs, faces – but we sin again. What is this? When this happens, there is a formula which we must implement to counter shaytan’s action. He swore by Allah and said ‘Ok Allah, You are expelling me, but give me this permission.’ And then Allah gave the reply: ‘I also swear by My glory and My respect’ - SubhanAllah! – ‘that up until the last breath of a human being is drawn, if that servant keeps on asking forgiveness, I will forgive him until death takes him.’ Say SubhanAllah!
So you have heard that the first quality is Dhikrullah, and quality number two is Astaghfar, seeking repentance through Tawbah. That’s it! ‘Begone shaytan, because just one Astaghfar will destroy all of my sins!’ I am explaining Hadith to you here. When you commit a sin, the angels are ordered not to write it with their pens. The angels cannot write that you have committed a sin – the angel cannot move the pen and the ink is dry; at the second sin, the ink will still not come out of the pen; at the third sin, the sin will still not be recorded and the angel will not write it; when the fourth sin is committed, the pen is still dry; when the fifth sin is committed, the ink still will not come out. And Allah’s Rahmah is such that when you reach the fifth sin, the limit is reached and a red light comes on, and when that sin is committed, an angel is sent who makes you do a good deed, and due to that good deed, all five of the sins are then erased! Say SubhanAllah. All five sins disappear, and shaytan is there rubbing dust into his face, saying ‘Ya Allah, he only did one good deed, and it was only a small good deed! He just removed a twig from the path, he just smiled at someone, he just said Salam to someone, and due to this, all of these big sins have been erased. He committed big sins against You repeatedly!’ Allah says ‘Yes, that is the case, but through My power, due to that one good deed all those sins are eliminated.’ Allahu Akbar.
If we end up in Jahannam even despite this, does this make sense? Do we have any Aql if we still end up in Jahannam? Think about it. Can’t we even repent and do Tawbah when we commit a sin? Can’t a human being even do some small good deed to compensate? How can a person with Iman go into Jahannam? Think about it. So what should a human being do if he commits a sin? Astaghfar – keep doing Tawbah. As long as you keep doing Tawbah, Allah will keep elevating you.
So what is the third quality that is needed, without which there will be no success? This third quality should definitely be developed. The first quality is Dhikrullah, the second quality is Astaghfar, and the third quality is Sunnat-e-Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Without this Ittiba-e-Rasool, without obedience to and love for his Sunnah, there is no success and no progression. We need unlimited Ishq, and our tongues should never utter the excuse of ‘Oh, it’s a small Sunnah so I don’t need to do this.’
I will share an event with you so that you understand what this third quality means. There was once a person who was immersed in sins, surrounded by sins. He was a human being who was consumed in sins so innumerable that they could not be counted. And his were the biggest sins, which are those that cause grief to creation. Zina or drinking alcohol are personal sins – they are actions that affect the one who does them. But when you inflict oppression on another creature, whether by pestering him or causing him pain or distress, that is the biggest oppression in the Court of Allah. InshaAllah I will address this topic on another occasion and explain what this is and the importance of understanding this issue. But this biggest form of oppression - Astaghfirullah, Astaghfirullah. If I spend time on this or that personal sin during the day and add all those sins together, then swearing at somebody or dishonouring them or backbiting or thinking bad or doing bad to them is bigger than all of those other sins.
The biggest sin is when you affect somebody else adversely - remember this. Allah does not like this. Why? Because Allah says ‘My Makhluq are like My family!’ Allah will put up with so many of the sins that you do, but if someone says a bad word to about your father or mother, you will never put up with that because that is your family; and Allah is saying ‘My Creation is My family. Ok, so you are doing this or that sin, but if you affect a member of My family and pester them, then I will not allow that; I will not let that pass.’ So the message here is that while we should strive not to commit any sins, we should be especially cautious about this type of sins. Don’t cause pain to anybody’s heart, don’t distress anybody. And if you cannot do good to someone, I will tell you what my Hadhrat Sahib used to say, alhamdulillah, in whose Khanqah we are sat right now, MashaAllah. My Hadhrat Sahib said ‘If you can’t do a good deed, fine – but don’t do a bad one.’ Allahu Akbar – what a great statement! In a beautiful, loving way, he said ‘If you can’t do good – okay; but at least don’t do bad things. If you can’t do good deeds, at least don’t do sins.’
So we should be saving ourselves from sins. If you can’t feed someone by giving him a chapati or you can’t serve him with water or help him, then at least don’t do anything bad to him. Don’t bother him all the time or think bad thoughts about him. At night when we go to bed– and this is also another topic that we will cover - many points are coming to my mind – when we are lying down before going to sleep, then think about these points. Think about any sins you have done against Allah’s Makhluq, because the Tawbah for sins against Allah’s Makhluq is different. The repentance is different. Allah says ‘Don’t come to Me for forgiveness for those sins – go to the person you have oppressed!’ SubhanAllah – phone him and seek forgiveness. And on this topic, if it is a Wali of Allah that you have pestered, Allah has made a big announcement in the Qur’an, where He tells us ‘Leave it now. You can keep on asking for forgiveness, but now be ready for a clash with Me because you are pestering My friend. You said bad things about him and spread gossip about him. If you have enmity with My Wali, the situation is different now. It was bad enough when you bothered My Creation, but now you have raised your hand against My Mehboob, against My beloved!’ So we should be very careful and cautious in this regard.
Is this not the case? Life is all about being cautious, my friends. We are not animals; we are not dogs and cats. Allah has given us Aql, intelligence, awareness, consciousness, Qur’an, Iman, understanding, Deen - so with this should come what? Caution in how you implement the Deen - Deen means caution. You know how when you pass by a muddy puddle, you are cautious, thinking ‘I don’t want a splash of that mud to make my clothes dirty.’ Well, that is how we should live our lives in the world. Save yourselves. Think ‘Did I say something bad to that guy? Did I think badly of him or cause him pain? Did my actions give rise to pain to his heart?’ Caution! I am not just talking about your behaviour with elders. With youngsters also, think ‘Did I give him pain? Is his heart broken?’ Even if it is a tiny child - a one-year-old, say – if you look at him with an angry face, show him love and affection afterwards, because he is also the beloved creation of Allah. When you become like this, SubhanAllah.
Become like my Sheikh, Sheikh Ali Murtaza rahmatullah alayh, who, when people would see him, they would smile. The Wali of Allah had this quality inside him, and there was Sukoon beyond Sukoon in his company. Your wife should be happy with you, your children should be happy with you; everyone who sees your face should say ‘SubhanAllah – he is a good person. He so nice and easy to be with. He causes no issues, and he doesn’t ask for anything or cause quarrels. He just keeps himself to himself.’ Dunya should testify, and when the Janazah of a person like this occurs, the angels go with that Janazah, SubhanAllah.
So there are three factors, my brothers. I was telling you the story about a person who committed sins – he was in a very bad situation in respect of the sins he had committed. He was immersed in sins and kept on giving grief to the creation of Allah. He was thief and a bandit – a highway robber. He would force entry into people’s houses by day and night, and kidnap women from their homes – this was his life. Banditry, kidnap, highway robbery – what kind of a human being must he have been? Tell me. Imagine the level of sin that person would have be on. This was his regular condition. Killing was nothing to him – this bandit didn’t have a clue about Akhlaq. He just indulged himself in his bad actions and was intent on creating fear in everyone he met.
One day, he arrived at a certain place where a tribe was living, among whom was a Sharif, a pious person - like Moulana Sahib perhaps - who was sitting down reciting the Qur’an. Now that bandit didn’t care about Tilawat of the Qur’an or whether a person was in Sajdah or whatever – he was just intent on enjoying the sins of a bandit and a robber. So the Sheikh was reading an Ayah in the 27th Juz:
{أَلَمۡ يَأۡنِ لِلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓاْ أَن تَخۡشَعَ قُلُوبُہُمۡ لِذِڪۡرِ ٱللَّهِ}
SubhanAllah – what a verse! Allah ta’ala explains here that hearts are unlocked by the Dhikr of Allah. What a beautiful verse – and the time came. Remember one point: it doesn’t matter if a person is very impure and dirty – it is an aspect of Iman that Allah ta’ala delivers these messages to a person, whatever situation he is in. This message is reaching you now as well, is it not? How many people are listening at this moment in time? Perhaps eight hundred or nine hundred people. Is this message reaching you all? Allah subhana wa ta'ala is Rahim and Karim – at every moment, Allah ta’ala delivers this message to those who have recited the Kalima, saying ‘I am not going to let those who have recited the Kalima of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam go into Jahannam.’ The message arrives! And what a clear message is travelling across the world right now - in this generation of Fitnah, in this day and age of Corona, this message of the Qur’an is being delivered.
Allah says {أَن تَخۡشَعَ قُلُوبُہُمۡ لِذِڪۡرِ ٱللَّهِ}. We recite the Qur’an, but we don’t reflect and ponder and analyse and understand the Qur’an. So, people of Bolton and Muslims, the Qur’an is saying, SubhanAllah ‘What has happened to you? Has your Aql disappeared altogether? Is it not your time now? Has your heart not become filled with Dunya and the seal stamped on your back that you have only one week left to live? Has your allotted portion of food and drink not come to an end? Is Corona not coming to take you away?’ Look at the personalities who have passed way – what guarantees do me and you have? Allah says {أَلَمۡ يَأۡنِ لِلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓاْ} – ‘What kind of person of Iman are you, oh man or woman? You are trapped in the shackles of the Dunya, stuck running after wealth and money and children – have you still not realised? You want to make money and buy houses and build mansions, but your time has run out. Don’t you have any thought or regard for these things? When will your time for thinking and analysing come? In the grave?’
{أَن تَخۡشَعَ قُلُوبُہُمۡ لِذِڪۡرِ ٱللَّهِ} Due to this verse, your heart should shake, and the fear of Allah should come into you. What have the commentators stated about this verse? That Allah subhana wa ta'ala is inviting in this verse, giving Da’wah. What is the Da’wah that is being delivered? Allah ta’ala is saying ‘Do My Dhikr, for when you do My Dhikr, then Khauf will come into you – fear of Me will come into you.’ SubhanAllah. Allah is saying ‘Oh blind man, when will you start doing My Dhikr? What opportunity are you looking for that stops you from coming towards My Dhikr? Dhikr will not come to you and your padlock will not unlock and our rust will not disappear. When will you come towards My Dhikr and towards My reward which contains the cure to your ills? Why do you run away from My Dhikr?’ Say SubhanAllah. This is the Qur’an isn’t it? Allah is saying ‘Why are you running away from My Dhikr? What are you waiting for? Why are you delaying? Are you waiting for fear of Me to come into your heart, so that when fear of Me comes into you, then you won’t sin? What will make that happen? My Dhikr! When you make an effort to come towards My Dhikr, then you will learn these things. When will you do My Dhikr?’
So he was a thief and a bandit, but the message was announced. If you give this message today, even educated people don’t understand it. They do not comprehend the message. Remember, when Allah ta’ala gives a message, who is the most intelligent person and who is the one with the best understanding is not gauged by looking at how much a person sins. If the message comes to you, no matter what worldly condition you are in at that time, even if you are lying next to a woman and about to commit Zina, if the message arrives, that person can leave that action and do Tawbah – then see how the doors of Jannah open for that person. Allahu Akbar – Allah ta’ala always delivers the message. You won’t be given Da’wah at a special time and in a special way, and then the message will come – no. In any condition, in every way, form and time, Allah ta’ala wants to save you from Jahannam. If you are ready for Zina, and you and the woman are lying down naked about to commit the act, the message will definitely come to your heart, even there, if only you can catch it - I can give you examples of this. And then you will be successful.
So he was a big thief, but as soon as he heard the message, immediately this massive bandit who was deep in the displeasure of Allah, said ‘Oh Allah, I have come, I have come! I will do Dhikr – I have come!’ Allahu Akbar! So he left everything behind him there and then, saying ‘Oh Allah, I have come to You!’ And he came into the court of the Wali of that time and said ‘This sinner has come to do Tawbah – my time has arrived, my time has arrived!’ Say SubhanAllah. So he took Bai’ah, and what did he attain from the company of the Wali of Allah? Dhikrullah! Through what did he attain success? Through Tawbah, through the Astaghfar that he did. His Tawbah elevated him so high that you cannot imagine. His name was Fuzail bin Ayaz and he became a great Buzurgh from the Chishti Silsila, SubhanAllah. He was such a great Wali of Allah, and you will amazed when I tell you name of his Khalifah: Ibrahim bin Adam rahmatullah alayh was his Khalifah - and he himself was the third generation of Shaykhs of that Silsila. That person who had been a bandit and a thief is now rahmatullah alayh wa qaddasAllahu sirrah, such a pious servant of Allah against whom we cannot say anything bad or Allah ta’ala will seize us! SubhanAllah – where did that thief, that bandit, that highway robber go? What did he do? He repented. He made Astaghfar in Allah’s Court, and Allah ta’ala changed his condition. Allah ta’ala said ‘Your Tawbah from that condition of extreme dirt that you were in has gained you a Maqam that is not small. At the time that you did Tawbah, I raised you up and gave the Maqam of My Wali.’
This was Fuzail bin Ayaz, who was such a great person, and he acquired this a status from this one event of his life. True Tawbah is true Tawbah – there is no contamination. If I do true Tawbah today, everything bad in my life breaks – I will leave interest and looking here and there. And as I said, the biggest sin is to oppress other human beings, and if I did so, first and foremost I will make amends. I will give back any money I acquired wrongly and ask for forgiveness, because that is the biggest sin. We don’t consider this, even though we do Tawbah and pray Tahajjud and this and that. My brothers, understand the Deen – these are not the acts that attain Allah. Don’t think that the stamp will come, even if people say ‘Oh, he’s pious, he reads Salah and does Umrah and does this and that.’ Don’t run after these things; rather, keep to the essentials that Allah ta’ala has explained.
So as soon as he had done that true Tawbah, the first action that he did was to go to every person whose wealth he had stolen and return their money to them. After that, he kept solid on Dhikr and Salah, but first he had to please Allah by making up with His Makhluq who he had grieved - say SubhanAllah. By chance this message reached him, and though he had been a big bandit, he had kept the accounts of what he had done over the years, SubhanAllah. He knew who he had taken money from and how much he had taken – without him knowing why, Allah ta’ala had made him keep a record of everything. So he took that list out and went to each and every door, saying ‘I took this money from you and stole this item, so here is money to make up for what you lost.’ The whole Dunya was amazed, but he kept going through his list.
Eventually he came to the name of a Jewish man from whom he had stolen, for a thief does not leave anyone safe from his work. So when he knocked on the door of the Jewish man, that man said ‘Yes – what is it?’ When he saw who it was, he said ‘Why have you come here, you thief and bandit? What are you doing here?’ So Fuzail said ‘I have come to seek forgiveness from you, and to return the money that I stole from you.’ The Jewish man said ‘Eh? This was not my money. I had only gold - what is this that you have brought? I demand the gold that you stole from me or I will not forgive you.’ Fuzail said ‘But this is what I stole from you.’ ‘It is not’, replied the man, and would not accept what he was being offered. So then he said to Fuzail, ‘Ok, go inside that room and you will find a little container in a bag. Pick that up and then I will speak to you again.’ He went inside and came out with the bag, and the man said ‘Now open it up with your own hands.’ When he opened it, the Jewish man found all his gold inside! When he saw it, he said ‘SubhanAllah, you have confirmed the Tawrah with this. There is a verse in our Kitab the Tawrah in which it is written that Allah puts so many blessings in the one who does true Tawbah that even if he picks up dust, it will turn to gold at the touch of his hand! SubhanAllah! You have proved that your Tawbah is honest, and have confirmed what is written in the Tawrah that the one who does true Tawbah turns everything he touches into gold. So take my hand now and turn my heart into gold and make me a Muslim right now!’ SubhanAllah – he was the first person who became Muslim at the hand of Fuzail bin Ayaz rahmatullah alayh.
This is Tawbah - but this is not the Tawbah that we do. Do you understand, my brother Sufis? Say SubhanAllah. We should correct ourselves. Look at how Tawbah starts – that’s it. If a human being does true Tawbah, alhamdulillah, he should then do Dhikrullah. And how should you do Dhikrullah? You should appreciate what you have been given. And what was the third quality that was explained? A person cannot be a Wali of Allah if he does not have these three qualities. If you want to see if someone is a Wali, then look for the signs, which are these three things: First, Dhikrullah – he will be at the stage where he will leave everything else and run after Dhikrullah. Second quality – he will be very strict about giving and taking in respect of the Makhluq. More than Nawafil Salah, which he might or might not do, he will always be concerned about Allah’s Creation. He will worry first about the Makhluq – every Wali has this quality. A person without this quality cannot be a Wali of Allah, so if we want to be a Wali of Allah, then we need to develop these Sifaat, these attributes, within us. Without them, we cannot become Walis, however much we pray. Even if our ankles and heels get worn out, and we have a Mihrab, the sign of prostration, on our forehead, and we spend money on tickets to travel for Umrah and Hajj, we will attain nothing from this. Nothing – we will be raised totally empty-handed.
I need these three qualities, and these are the signs of the Wali of Allah. Number one – Dhikrullah; number two – Tawbah; and three – Sunnat-e-Rasool sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Just look at this quality of his. Once, Fuzail bin Ayaz rahmatullah alayh – everyone should say rahmatullah alayh after this name Fuzail bin Ayaz rahmatullah alayh, for he was a friend of Allah. So once, while he was doing Wudhu, he repeated the washing of one part of his Wudhu twice only, instead of three times. How many times? Twice. He knew that the Masa’il is to wash the face and arms etc three times each – there are the Fara’idh and the Sunnah elements of Wudhu. For us, we take these matters as nothing or a minor matter, which is why we are empty boxes. But he was a Wali of Allah, and it so happened that once he washed that part only twice. So afterwards he went to sleep, and there he gained the true appreciation of the Master of Madina! We say ‘Oh, it’s a small Sunnah’, but look at the value of the Master of Madina.
Listen so that our eyes can open about Sunnah. We say ‘Oh, it’s a minor Sunnah, a small Sunnah – it is not important, so what difference does it make? It is not important.’ Look at the appreciation he gained - he did it twice instead of three times and then he went to sleep. As soon as his eyes closed, the Master of Madina sallallahu alayhi wasallam came to him and said ‘Fuzail, you have done an amazing thing’ – and the Wali of Allah was listening to him. ‘Today you have sacrificed my Sunnah!’ Listen – think! He was shocked and he sat up, both happy and upset at the same time. He had been granted the Ziyarah, alhamdilullah, but Allahu Akbar, a complaint had been made – ‘You have left my Sunnah. Did you not have trust in following my Sunnah?’ So now, tell me – what love of Rasollullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam he must have that Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam came himself to warn and admonish him!
And we can see the importance of Wilayah in this, and we can realise something about those who claim friendship with Allah, those who claim they are Walis of Allah – think about this. This is the generation of liars, of nonsense and stories and fairy tales and wasteful comments - this is not the generation of reality. Fuzail bin Ayaz rahmatullah alayh was an Ashiq of the Sunnah, so what did he do? After that, for the rest of his life, he made a habit of doing one thing; he would read five hundred Rakahs Nafl every day as compensation, continually thinking ‘How did I do this wrong action?’ Say SubhanAllah. He did this every day until he died – five hundred Nafl he would read as compensation, and he always regretted having disregarded that Sunnah. This was his Maqam - he had become a Wali of Allah, hadn’t he? He absolutely did not want to regress.
And Allah ta’ala has opened these doors for every human being. It is so easy for every human being to be like him, changing from how he was before to how he became. So why can’t me and you become beloveds of Allah like this? Say SubhanAllah. Why can’t we become like this? That’s it – we just have to leave the playacting. Just for the sake of Nafs, we leave the Deen, so for the sake of Allah, Allah ta’ala says ‘This is how you attain My nearness.’ So grab hold of these points, grab those A’maal, grab those deeds, and leave the other things when Nafs keeps telling us ‘Do this; do that; do this, and Allah will give you.’ No, do what Allah says He likes – do that.
His Maqam was such that even today, if you look for him, that Fuzail who was a bandit – where will you find him? Where will you find Fuzail bin Ayaz rahmatullah alayh? Imagine – he is there, near the grave of one of the Ummahaat-ul-Mu’mineen, Khadijat-ul-Kubra radhiAllahu anha! He would spend all year long in Makkah for the rest of his life, near the Ka’abah engaged in Dhikrullah night and day. He remained always in the Dhikr of Allah, and he passed away in Makkah. When he passed away, his Janazah took place in Makkah, and where was the place chosen for his grave? Next to Khadijat-ul-Kubra radhiAllahu anha , the Mother of the Believers – he is buried near her. How beloved a servant of Allah he must have been, SubhanAllah, to have been laid to rest there until today. On the Day of Qiyamah, all of the people in the world will arise, some from here, some from there, and where will Fuzail, that bandit and robber, rise up from? Where is his grave? SubhanAllah – he is laid to rest next to that great woman of Islam.
So, my brothers, understand the reality of life and what life is about. Don’t waste time – we have a lot of time still. Make Niyyah from today for these three qualities, inshaAllah, and resolve that we will do Dhikr like this, and we will love the Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam like this, and that we will try our best - and that we will also do Tawbah in the way that Fuzail bin Ayaz did Tawbah.
May Allah ta’ala give us all the Tawfeeq. Ameen