How to get rid of the love of Dunya
This is a great night of Sha’ban, and in this night, Allah subhana wa ta'ala, with His grace, blessings and special Mercy has seated a few of His servants in His home and has given the Tawfeeq for His Dhikr to be performed. This is a tremendous gift that Allah ta’ala has given, and I can see only one reason: it must be due to the Barakah of a Wali of Allah that we are assembled here. The Friends of Allah do depart from the Dunya, but their Barakaat are ongoing, and not just in the region where they lived; rather, Allah ta’ala spreads their Fuyudh and blessings to the corners of the world. So tonight, this gathering in which we have come to sit is all from the Faidh of my Hadhrat Sahib rahmatullah alayh.
I always mention to you that Allah ta’ala has shown us the path by means of those pious elders – and may Allah ta’ala keep us steadfast on this path until Qiyamah. We assemble at these Majalis once a week, and during the week, Nafs and shaytan certainly attack a person. Within hours, or even minutes, shaytan can make a person deviate, so it is essential that we sit, and that, in regard to the path that Allah ta’ala has given us the blessings to embark on, we revise and repeat the lessons that are needed to get to the destination, and give each other reminders. Where we see that there is something lacking or where we are holding back, then we should rectify that and do our Islah. This is the objective of our sitting here. A Majlis such as this should not be wasted; rather, Allah subhana wa ta'ala gives us reminders in these Majalis. Allah ta’ala is assisting and helping and giving His Karam. {إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ مَعَ ٱلَّذِينَ ٱتَّقَواْ وَّٱلَّذِينَ هُم مُّحۡسِنُونَ} Allah is telling us ‘I help those individuals who want to save themselves from Nafs and shaytan in order to follow My Path; I assist them.’ Obviously, we have sat down physically, but at this moment in time, I am not in a condition or state where I can speak in front of you. However, it is Allah who has seated us and given us the Tawfeeq, and it is Allah who will enable our speech through which the cure is given to our wounds.
So I make this request that you should at least not waste this week’s Majlis, because life is passing by so quickly. We can see this. New issues come, one after another, and a big new dawn is about to come upon us – a regeneration, you could say – and then a person will only be able to take with him those things that he has done practically. It is then that we will realise what we have done. Yes, we will be able to say we were forced to do this or that we couldn’t do that due to illness and so on – Allah knows all of this. But if we waste these opportunities to sit for small excuses, that means that shaytan and Nafs have overwhelmed us – so then what is left for us? All that is left for us is to follow our own desires. We shouldn’t follow our own desires and opinions – whose desires should we follow? Allah’s desire and choice – that is what we should follow. That’s it.
Now remember- why do we give so much importance to Dhikr in line with the statements of the pious predecessors? Why do we sit down for Dhikr? Why did our pious predecessors make this the platform of the Deen, the pivot of the Deen, the leader of the Deen? They did so because they surveyed Hadith and Qur’an and deduced from there the importance of Dhikr. They understood that Dhikr, the remembrance of Allah, is totally and wholly the Ruh of the Deen. Dhikrullah is the spirit, the Ruh, of the Deen. Now we are revising our Sabaq, our lesson – remember this: if Dhikr is present, then Deen has been established; and if Dhikr goes away, then your Deen goes away. We have organs throughout the body - we have ears to hear, and eyes to see, and mouths to eat and stomachs to digest, and from all these functions we derive enjoyment. But this is nothing, for all of this is linked to one organ. What is that organ? The Ruh, the soul. It is all the game of the Ruh. When Allah ta’ala takes out your Ruh during sleep at night, can you eat? Can you do anything? No – you have gone. The Ruh has gone to the heavens for a little while to wander around. So when the Ruh is extracted permanently, that’s it – end of story. It is all the game of the Ruh, the soul. Whether the body is weak or handsome or beautiful and does all of its actions depends on what? On the Ruh – when the Ruh goes, everything goes.
So what is the Ruh of the Deen? Dhikrullah. If Dhikrullah has gone, then all your A’maal have gone. Salah has gone, Qur’an has gone, Ramadhan has gone – everything has gone. It is like a person who is lying down after death – he is still. You can see that he has eyes and a nose and everything, but he is useless. In the same way, all the A’maal that we perform are there, but they have no Ruh within them; there is no spirit within them. The Ruh of A’maal is established by means of Dhikr of Allah. Dhikr is the Ruh of the Deen, and upon it depends the success of the Deen and the success of the Hereafter. The acceptance of all our deeds is based upon the Ruh they contain, and therefore the acceptance of those deeds is based upon Allah’s Dhikr, upon Allah’s remembrance. And this is why it is announced in Qur’an and Hadith that shaytan is the biggest enemy of Dhikrullah. He is the biggest enemy because where there is Dhikr, there is no shaytan – remember this. Where there is Dhikr, there is no shaytan.
Hadhrat Shaykh rahimahu-llah has recorded in Fazaa’il-e-A’maal that once, in the time of Hadhrat Junaid Baghdadi, he once saw shaytan naked in the marketplace. He was there naked, in the form of a human being – the Friends of Allah sometimes see these things. So Hadhrat Junaid said to shaytan ‘Are you not ashamed of yourself? You are wandering around naked, causing offence to people.’ ‘To which people?’ he replied. Hadhrat Junaid said ‘Look - all these people in the marketplace. Can’t you see them?’ At this, shaytan started laughing and said ‘Do you think these are human beings? Do you call these people Insan?’ This was the dialogue between Hadhrat Junaid Baghdadi rahmatullah alayh and shaytan. Shaytan then said ‘If you want to see Insan, then go to that Masjid where people sit every morning – they are human beings. It is those people who have made me like this – they have finished me off! They have melted me!’ Hadhrat Junaid said to himself ‘What? How can shaytan be saying this?’ – so he went and travelled to that Masjid. What was the Amal those people were doing, those who shaytan had described as real human beings, and due to whom shaytan was saying that he had been destroyed and finished off? This is the account of this event – has it not been recorded? Do you think these are made-up stories or folktales? Listen to the end of the account - Allahu Akbar, this was a unique and extraordinary event. So Hadhrat Junaid sahib rahmatullah alayh, such a great Wali of Allah of that time, went there - and what did he see? He saw that after Salah, the congregation sat in Muraqabah Dhikr – Dhikr! With his own eyes, he saw Rahmah descending – he saw Allah’s Fadhl and so much Rahmah. The Rahmah for the whole world was descending upon the Dhakireen, those who were performing Allah’s remembrance.
So what of our laziness and negligence? We run away from Dhikr, we are lazy in respect to Dhikr, we are far from Dhikr, and we make complaints and have doubts – all of this is part of whose game? Remember this point. Alhamdulillah. Say Alhamdulillah and be grateful for the fact that Allah ta’ala has taken us out of this conundrum by means of Hadhrat Sahib. Allah ta’ala has eliminated all doubts and negative feelings and has made us so solid on Allah’s Dhikr that there is nothing else that can compare – nothing. This is the benefit of sitting with the friends of Allah. No matter how much this generation changes and tosses and turns and takes people away from Dhikr, the Dhakir continues to do Dhikr. He knows nothing else. A storm can come, or rain can come, whatever Hisab can occur around him, but he doesn’t know anything other than this. He does not want to be separated from the remembrance of his Lord – he is utterly devoted to the remembrance of his Lord; the thought of Allah is always in his heart - the attachment to his Rabb is ever-present. His thoughts are not with himself – he doesn’t worry about what he is going to eat and so on. He says to himself ‘I have no other regard and no other care; just one thing concerns me, which is that I must attain His nearness and find my Rabb. That is my one objective.’ He has this one aim, and he keeps on traveling with this in mind, working on that path of Allah morning and evening – and he wants nothing else, no politics, no going here or there, no fighting and quarrelling, just one action, alhamdulillah.
The true Ashiq who is trying to attain the beloved doesn’t know if it is night or day – he just wants to see his Mehboob and nothing else is in his vision. That is all he can see. This is what happens to young people when they fall in love, and this is when it starts, for in this way a person really begins to understand the Ishq of Allah. Allah ta’ala shows the taste of Ishq in the Dunya first. I am not talking about illicit relationships here, but rather lawful ones – love of the wife, which is Halal and permissible. A person does get Ishq in his marriage, so when a person gets the true Ishq of Allah, can you imagine what that is like? So the basis for the success of everything is what? The Dhikr of Allah. I have given this example to you so that you can understand and so that I can summarise this point.
So we have understood now how important Dhikr of Allah is. The acceptance in the Akhirah of all the A’maal that we do will be based on what? Dhikr of Allah. They will be accepted by means of Dhikr. Allah has told us to pray Salah while doing Dhikr, to read Qur’an while doing Dhikr, to do Hajj while doing Dhikr. Whatever action, it is essential for Dhikr to be attached to it. Now some people will say, regarding these points that I am making ‘Why is he saying this? It is because he does Dhikr himself.’ Look, I do Dhikr myself because Dhikr is an action that must be done! Why do I keep saying this and repeating it? Not so that somebody is tricked or to make them come to me or to trap them - no. I say this because my Hadhrat Sahib said it, and because it is only fair that when you are getting the sweetness of something, you should offer that to other people. Allah will ask tomorrow – ‘I gave you this taste and enjoyment and the reality was made clear to you, so why did you not share this with people?’ This is the reason. Whether others understand or not, I have to mention what I know and explain what Dhikr of Allah is. I know that it is a fantastic action, so don’t disregard this.
The one who makes us lazy and detached from Dhikr of Allah is shaytan – he loves making a person lazy about Dhikr. Just look at how effective Dhikr is at giving success – what does the Qur’an say? Let me give you an example first so that will be easier for you to understand. You know this Dunya that we are living in, so understand the reality of this world. Take the example of a person who doesn’t own his own home and lives in a rented house, or of someone who doesn’t have a car, so someone lends him one to use, or of someone who is wearing a watch that is not his own but has been lent him by another person. If someone has allowed a person to live in their house, even if that person lives there for eight years or ten years, it still won’t be his home, will it? It is the other person’s house, isn’t it – you cannot live there permanently. Even if you stay for twenty years, you will never feel properly comfortable and at ease – I am telling you this from personal experience. You can live in someone else’s house for twenty years, and even though the owner has not told you that you have to leave, the feeling that it is not your own place will always be in your heart. If he does ask for it back, you will have to give it. Compare that to the situation of that person if he then buys his own home. He buys it outright, and though it is smaller than the other with only two bedrooms, he lives there, content and satisfied and happy. He says ‘This is my own home – mine!’ Previously he might think ‘I would like to fix that wall or have an extension’, but because he lived in the house as a tenant, he would say ‘Well, we are only here temporarily, so there is no point.’ Is this not the difference? There is a big contrast in the feelings. In your own house, you will be happy and feel connected to it, whereas in a house that you rent, if something breaks, you say ‘Oh, it’s ok – the landlord will fix it. Nothing to do with me.’
Allah ta’ala has said that this is absolutely the same situation in respect of the Dunya. Allah tells us this in the Qur’an, my brothers. If a person reads it, looks deeply at and understands this one verse, then his life becomes totally in line with the Deen. By understanding this verse, he becomes aligned to the Deen – Deen-Dar; and if he does Amal on it, he becomes Qutb-al-Aqtab and an ‘Arif bi-llah! It is just a part of a short verse, from Surah an-Nahl, I think: {مَا عِندَكُمۡ يَنفَدُۖ وَمَا عِندَ ٱللَّهِ بَاقٍ۬}. We open Tafseers and commentaries saying that we want to do Amal based on that; but, my brothers, if a person’s Niyyah is correct, then {ٱهۡدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٲطَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ} is enough for him – just that one verse. But we say ‘No, I want to read’, and then we try to impress other people and tell them ‘I have got ‘Ilm because I have studied this Tafseer.’ We share how much knowledge we have with people, saying ‘Which Tafseer should I read? Which one have you read?’ and so on. If a person wants Hidaya, this can only be found in the Qur’an, remember this. Where do you get Hidaya from? The Qur’an. If you sit in front of the Qur’an and say ‘Oh Qur’an, please give me Hidaya’, then just that one verse of the Qur’an will make you a human being. If you say ‘I want knowledge and ‘Ilm, and to be able to debate and compete with people and explain to people’ – not yourself – ‘and to be able to speak to people and quote this Tafseer and that Tafseer’, then you can keep studying those Tafseers all life-long, but you will acquire absolutely nothing – zero.
I have given you just one verse here, and I am giving you this with a reference, because we all know about the Maqam of the person who explained this verse. If I say it or somebody else says it, people would say ‘What is this?’ but Hadhrat Thanwi rahmatullah alayh mentioned this, and he made a unique statement about this verse. Remember the first part of the verse I quoted: {مَا عِندَكُمۡ يَنفَدُۖ} – whatever you have got in the Dunya is not yours. Say SubhanAllah. Allahu Akbar – have I unraveled the matter and opened up the secret? Now the Qur’an is ours, and we belong to the Qur’an – say SubhanAllah! What is the Qur’an saying to me? ‘Oh servant, oh son of man, this Dunya is not yours, this home is not yours. Is this car yours? Is your wife yours forever? Are your children yours? Is this bed yours? How can it be yours when Allah ta’ala has said {مَا عِندَكُمۡ يَنفَدُۖ}? It is not yours – it has no value.’ What did Hadhrat Thanwi rahmatullah alayh say? He said ‘Collect all the deficiencies and defects of the world and put them to one side, and understand that the biggest defect of the Dunya is that it is not ours; this {مَا عِندَكُمۡۖ} is not for us.’ Allah tells us clearly in the Qur’an.
Who is saying this? Not Moulana Sahib, not some scholar or Mufti Sahib – who is saying this? Our Rabb, our Lord is saying this - SubhanAllah. So you can’t say ‘Oh, Mufti Sahib said this’, and then make excuses and reject it and play games and tricks. ‘Oh Moulana Sahib said this so let’s try to save ourselves from their words.’ Who can save themselves from Allah’s words and deny and avoid them? Allah ta’ala says ‘This is not your house, so how can you say that it is your home?’ We say ‘No, no, no, I took a mortgage out and my name is on the registration document. Who can touch my house?’ Allah is saying ‘Ok, fine. If this is the case, then have any of all those who have departed until today taken one atom of the Dunya with them?’
Has anybody buried someone with their watch on inside the coffin? Once he is there, nobody will ask him for his house papers and documents, will they? Rather, the Qur’an says the opposite. SubhanAllah – what a statement the Qur’an is giving to us. The Qur’an is saying the opposite, that whatever you say ‘Mine, mine, mine’ about, in reality, people loot it from you after your death. They take your watch off your wrist, and even the Qameez which you call your own will be the first thing to be removed from your body – Allahu Akbar. Allah is announcing in the Qur’an ‘Oh servant, understand reality! When you pass away, you take nothing. Nothing that you consider to be yours is yours.’ Why has this been said? Do remember the example I gave? The home that I am living in is a house on rent. The house that I say is mine is not mine – who is the real owner, the real Malik? Rabbil-Karim says ‘Whenever I want, I can take it away from you – yes? I have given it to you for a few days – our objective is different.’ The Qur’an has said this – SubhanAllah.
So do you see the difference? Look at how shaytan and Nafs make us live in this world as if it is permanent, but actually, it is all through the permission of Allah. But we think that what is ours is really ours – Allahu Akbar. Actually, whatever is ours is not ours! If someone says ‘This is my car’, we can say ‘How can it be yours? It is no more yours than it is mine - Allah says that what you say is yours is actually not yours!’ What a difference this makes in how we live our lives. All the quarrels and disputes of life, the courts, divorces, arguments, squabbles about wealth, and fighting and beating – this is all due to one thing: we haven’t read and understood the Qur’an. If there was awareness in our hearts that ‘This is not mine’, there would be no quarrels or disputes in the world – say SubhanAllah. Do you understand what I am saying? So all of our Muamalaat and our condition and situation in the Deen is destroyed in the world. Why? Allah ta’ala is saying ‘Because that individual considers that his shop and his house and his business are his, whereas they are not his at all. He makes no link between Me and what he says is his. It doesn’t matter how much prayer or Hajj he does, his Deen is not complete because he considers that the things I have let him use are his.’ Say SubhanAllah.
Is this not the case? So tell me, my friends, where is our Deen? If that is the case, we are without Deen, without Iman, because we consider Allah’s things as our own. We have no right to say that things are ours or that we own them permanently, because time and time again, Allah ta’ala reminds us that when a person departs from this world, his Hal is such that he has nothing to his name; he owns nothing. He can be in charge of kingdoms and palaces and sultanates, but they are not his. Allahu Akbar. So what does this mean? It means that you should live in this world just like a tenant who lives in a rented house. You should be disconnected from whatever you have in the world and feel no link with it, just like a tenant in a rented house feels no permanent connection with his home. But instead, you have that same passion and desire about your rented place as if it were your own, always wanting to correct this and improve that – and you are like this with everything around you in the world. You get one house and then a second and now you have a third house. You live here while you are constructing a house in Gujarat in India, or in Karachi or Islamabad in Pakistan – what is this passion of yours for the Dunya that has increased so much? SubhanAllah. Look at how much our lives contrast with reality. The direction of our lives is wrong – should we live like this? A person who does live like this is living a life of extreme negativity, in reality. He needs to correct himself, because he is not living as a human being should rightly live – the Qur’an is telling us this.
Allah says {مَا عِندَكُمۡ يَنفَدُۖ وَمَا عِندَ ٱللَّهِ بَاقٍ۬}. Allah is saying that everything belongs to Allah – and that will come afterwards. Is the whole Deen coming to us today or not? Is it not coming, my brothers? This is Qur’an, isn’t it - is it coming or not? Are you understanding what I am saying, which is that as long as we have this feeling within us that considers the Dunya as our own – the business is mine, the house is mine – then what does it mean to be stuck in this attitude, and to be wandering around in these worldly issues? Allah says ‘Then there is no link between Me and you – no link. Your Salah has a different aim, your Sujud has a different aim, your Tilawat is for something else – in reality, you are not doing this for your Rabb.’ The first feeling that a person has when he is doing something for his Rabb is that it has no connection with this Dunya. Who will he do everything for? For Allah ta’ala. Will that person waste his time in the Dunya? Tell me.
We have such a big illness in this respect. We are patients with a sickness, so how can we be successful in the Hereafter? This is all a lie – the Qur’an is telling us the reality. If you want to be the right sort of Muslim and be successful, the Qur’an is saying ‘I will tell you how to become this.’ If we want to be a real human being, first and foremost, the Qur’an is saying that we have to see ourselves as patients, as people who are ill. If a madman says that he is not mad, will he take the medicine? You have to give him the medicine by force, because he says that he is fine. He says ‘Don’t say that I’m crazy – you’re crazy.’ Such a person dances around outside naked, saying ‘I’m fine – you are the crazy ones for wearing clothes!’ Will he take the cure? What should we do then? We are in the same position. Are there just one or two people like this? No – 99.9% of people in this world are in this situation. Say SubhanAllah. Make it your habit to learn what reality is. Don’t just sway around going ‘I am a Jannati and I will get Paradise because I have done the right thing – that is the reward for my deeds.’
My brothers, there is a method for every action, and that is why it is stated in the Qur’an {فَسۡـَٔلُوٓاْ أَهۡلَ ٱلذِّكۡرِ} – Go and ask the Ahl-adh-Dhikr about these points. Allahu Akbar – go and ask the Ahl-adh-Dhikr what the reality is. A unique point arises from this verse. The commentators say that you should ask the people of ‘Ilm, but this humble person says that Dhikr has been mentioned here – say SubhanAllah. What name has come here? Ahl-adh-Dhikr! Go and ask those Alims who do Tazkiyyah through Dhikr for the Masa’il. Ask an Alim, but remember that there are two types of Alim. One is the Alim who just has ‘Ilm but is empty and hollow and gives Fatwa based on that, while the other is the Alim who attains knowledge and has Khashiyah - awe of Allah. His knowledge is alongside Khashiyah. The Qur’an tells us that when a person of knowledge has Khashiyah, then he becomes a true scholar. Is this not a verse of the Qur’an? {إِنَّمَا يَخۡشَى ٱللَّهَ مِنۡ عِبَادِهِ ٱلۡعُلَمَـٰٓؤُاْۗ} Allah is saying that the Alim is the one who has Khashiyah inside him. It is not about being an Alim who has studied here and graduated from there and has got this and that knowledge – that is what we say in our discourse. But the Qur’an says that he is not an Alim.
There is another example in Surah Jumu’ah where the Qur’an says that there are two types of scholar. One is the Alim who becomes an Alim through books, but the Qur’an says that you can put many books on top of a donkey – read the verse of Sural Jumu’ah. But if you put all those Kitabs on the back of a donkey, has it become an Alim? No. That is one type. So it is stated that it is not Kitabs that make an Alim, rather ‘Ilm is created alongside that Khaishyah. ‘Ilm is a great thing indeed, of course. It is a great thing, obviously, because the Alim becomes a deputy of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Remember this point: the highest status in the Hereafter will be whose? After the Ambiya, the highest will be the ‘Ulema Haqq, the true scholars, those people who spend their whole lives saying ‘Qala qala Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam’ – and they didn’t just say it, but rather they were immersed in ‘Qala qala Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam’ for every single second of their lives. What Alims are these? Not the book scholars; not the people of the books. After the Kitabs, they continued their journey to the destination – they read this verse.
Hadhrat Thanwi Sahib said this – I am not saying this. This is his reference, and my Hadhrat Sahib rahmatullah alayh would always make reference to and present the statements of Hadhrat Thanwi Sahib rahmatullah alayh. He was an Ashiq, because he was his Ustadh, his teacher. So, my brothers, I am someone who has learned something in the dust from their footsteps, and that is what I am presenting to you. Hadhrat Thanwi Sahib rahmatullah alayh has said that an Alim is he in whom Khashiyah is present. And where does Khashiyah come from? From which shop and which place is it acquired? Khashiyah is acquired from the Naqshbandi shop, from the Qadiri shop, from the Chishti shop. This shop is called the Khanqah Naqshbandia, so enter into that shop! After attaining ‘Ilm, enter the shop and run to the Khanqah. {فَفِرُّوٓاْ إِلَى ٱللَّهِۖ } – Run to Allah! Run to the Khanqahs after attaining ‘Ilm. Don’t just say ‘Oh, I’ve got knowledge’ and then run to the mosque and here and there saying ‘I want to become this, and to graduate from there’ – you will end up being deviated because you are doing actions which are against the Qur’an and Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. This is the reason that we see destruction today in the world. Am I wrong or am I right? Tell me. It is the Qur’an that is telling us this.
So if an Alim attains Khashiyah, he becomes a real Alim with this. And where do you get Khashiyah from? You have to spend your whole life long engaged in Tazkiyah – and for that, you have to become a Faqir. You have to humble yourself, lower yourself, and give up Takabbur – you have to rub everything into the dust. It all goes into the dust. You have to extract every negative aspect and all the thinking of ‘I’m this and I’m that – I’ve studied this and I’ve got knowledge’ – all this has to finish in order to acquire Khashiyah. When all these things are annihilated – Takabbur, Riya, showing off, Bayans, debates, passion and argumentative speaking – when all of this is annihilated, then suddenly Khashiyah li-llah comes into a person, SubhanAllah. Such strong fear of Allah comes into that person that when he opens Bukhari Sharif and starts to teach it – SubhanAllah. Ask such an Alim who teaches Bukhari – and ask the students about their Hal while he is teaching them. This is the true scholar.
Let us talk about the elder generations now, about those Madaris and those institutions where such people taught Bukhari and other Kitabs of Hadith. Those true teachers used to teach by candle-light or oil lamp – and when the oil was used up, SubhanAllah, the teachers would carry on teaching and the listeners would carry on listening. They had such a taste and flavour from those words and discussions about the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. When Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam is being discussed, does a man feel like getting up and leaving? They had Khashiyah and desire and deep-rooted passion. They had so much fear of Allah and deep-rooted passion for Allah, that at times, a scorpion would bite them, but they would still continue. I think it was Imam Malik rahmatullah alayh whose body was bitten and wounded by a scorpion, but he carried on teaching the Hadith. Only when he had finished the class did he realise that he had been bitten in so many places – and if you know the scorpions of Madina, they are as big as the palm of your hand. This was not an act – it was reality. He had so much Khashiyah that it overwhelmed him; the words of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam were coming onto his tongue as he was teaching, so he wasn’t in this world at that time and therefore did not realise the pain that was being inflicted upon his body. This was Imam Malik. If you want to become an Alim like this, absolutely you can become like this. The Qur’an is saying ‘Become like this!’ But what I am telling you is that there is a Tariqah, a method, which has to be applied in order to become like this.
To become a Muslim, to become a Wali of Allah and be successful in the Hereafter, there is a Tariqah – so follow that path. This is what we are being told. Allah is saying that the Deen of Allah means that the house you are living in is not yours – so why do you say ‘It is mine’? It is not yours. If you think that everything in the world is yours, your Ibadaat are weird and strange. So from today, let us really consider ourselves as patients. In order to get a cure, first you have to consider yourself as ill and say ‘Yes, I have got a pain and a malady.’ If you have understood, you will do so, but today, when you explain that people have maladies, you get Fatwas delivered against you! Tomorrow they will give Fatwas about what I am saying today. The Fatwa will come tomorrow, and they will say ‘What nonsense is he talking about? He is not an Alim – he is not a scholar and he has no knowledge.’ Tomorrow the Fatwas and stamps will come, but this is reality. Reality is reality – we cannot deny it. The reality is the reality. So if we do not consider ourselves as patients, then how will we get the cure? Today, nobody considers themselves as sick – and when a person does acknowledge he is sick, others grab him to make him doubt this.
So the first point to remember is that if we have this feeling that this is mine, that is mine, everything is mine, then we are not Insan and we are not true Muslims yet; we have no connection with Allah because our connection is not correct. When will the connection with Allah be correct? When we have the attitude in line with what Allah says {مَا عِندَكُمۡ يَنفَدُۖ وَمَا عِندَ ٱللَّهِ بَاقٍ۬}. Allah is saying ‘It is not yours – I have given it to you on rent. This is your wife, so consider you are like a tenant in this as well. Once you pass away, it is Lazim on her to try to marry again – this is a Hukm of Shari’ah. You are present now, but why do you think there are laws of inheritance on your belongings? Your name may be on the ownership documents of your assets, but if your enemy is one of the inheritors, then your estate has to give his share of your possessions to him. Nobody can stop the laws of inheritance. You can’t say ‘Oh, he is my son but I don’t like him so I won’t give to him.’ No, you can’t stop this after your death; it has to be distributed to him because his name is on the list of inheritors. This is such a big point. Even if you don’t like or you hate such a human being, he can take away items of yours that you love – because it is not yours! Who does it belong to? Allah! Say SubhanAllah.
Do you understand Deen now? Are these points true? Am I wrong? MashaAllah - at least I can enjoy afterwards. SubhanAllah. So you have heard this – and do you have a solid understanding of this point? Whatever we are and whatever we were in this world is all a charade – there are no positions, titles, games, tricks. We are all sick patients, and we need to get this feeling into our hearts and minds. What is that? {مَا عِندَكُمۡ يَنفَدُۖ وَمَا عِندَ ٱللَّهِ بَاقٍ۬} Allah says ‘All that is with you is bound to come to an end, whereas that which is with Allah is everlasting.’ Now I have remembered the statement of Hadhrat Thanwi Sahib rahmatullah alayh. I will present it to you, for it is an Ajeeb and unique point. He says that we die for the things that die out; we die for what will finish - what a beautiful statement! Hadhrat Thanwi Sahib said that the things which will come to an end are the things we die for. We consider ourselves as such big achievers in the world, but we are giving our all for things that will finish and do not last. Do you understand what I am saying?
So how can we correct ourselves in respect of this point. The Qur’an is saying ‘I have told you the solution as to how to correct yourselves.’ Allah is saying ‘I will tell you in the Qur’an. If anybody wants to be corrected, then open the Qur’an.’ Outside of the Qur’an, there is no solution. Where is the solution for everything to be found? In the Qur’an – so read the Qur’an. Allah ta’ala says ‘I will tell you the method that will change your feeling and emotion and will make you such a human being that you will consider yourself a tenant in the world, even if you are living in your own home. You will say ‘No, no - it’s not mine.’ Everything will seem strange to you and you will feel that it is all disconnected from you. Allah says ‘I will tell you the Tariqah.’ Do you want to become like this or not? Tell me. The Qur’an says:
{يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ ٱذۡكُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ ذِكۡرً۬ا كَثِيرً۬ا (٤١) وَسَبِّحُوهُ بُكۡرَةً۬ وَأَصِيلاً (٤٢)}
{هُوَ ٱلَّذِى يُصَلِّى عَلَيۡكُمۡ وَمَلَـٰٓٮِٕكَتُهُ ۥ لِيُخۡرِجَكُم مِّنَ ٱلظُّلُمَـٰتِ إِلَى ٱلنُّورِۚ وَڪَانَ بِٱلۡمُؤۡمِنِينَ رَحِيمً۬ا (٤٣)}
{تَحِيَّتُهُمۡ يَوۡمَ يَلۡقَوۡنَهُ ۥ سَلَـٰمٌ۬}
Is the Qur’an not telling us – ‘Oh people of Iman, do you not want to be corrected? Do you want to improve your feelings and emotions?’ The Qur’an tells us clearly: ‘Oh people of Iman, do the remembrance of Allah in abundance’ - in your heart, not with the tongue. Katheer can only be done with the heart, not with the tongue. Do Qalbi Dhikr - find a Naqshbandi Sheikh and imprint the Name of Allah on your heart. Say SubhanAllah. When your heart is alive, your Ruh and your Lataif and every part of your body will start to do Dhikr of Allah. Immerse yourself in Allah’s path; you have to struggle and make effort; you have to sell yourself when you become a student and make that connection between the student and the Ustadh; you have to annihilate yourself and you have to give yourself away.
Somebody once asked Hadhrat Sahib how they could become Fana fi-Sheikh – listen to this point. This was the Sheikh of his time, a high-grade Sheikh, and this person came to become his Mureed, so he said ‘Hadhrat Sahib, I want to become Fana fi-Sheikh.’ So Hadhrat Sahib said to him ‘Do you want to be Fana fi-Sheikh? Then listen: all of this came from as-Siddique himself, so you will have to follow his path.’ SubhanAllah. How do you become Fana fi-Sheikh like Abu Bakr as-Siddique radhiAllahu anh? The method to become Fana fi-Sheikh in our Naqshbandi Silsila is what? The first step to become Fana fi-Sheikh is that you should have this feeling inside you, which comes from Jadhbah and passion, that you feel that everything inside you is not yours, but rather it is from your Sheikh. SubhanAllah! Brothers, this is the path to attain Allah’s nearness. Whoever has this passion and thinks ‘This is not my wealth – everything is my Sheikh’s. If my Sheikh tells me to spend here or there or give to that person or do this, then my heart will not wish to keep one penny, but rather I will fill my fists and give. If the Sheikh tells me to, I will continue to give. It is not mine.’
This Dunya is not ours, so how can you consider your wealth to be yours? When this passion arises in the Mureed, then he is Fana fi-Sheikh – he has got to the footsteps of Fana fi-Sheikh. After that comes Fana fi-Rasool – brothers, these are the stages, and you have to make effort to achieve them. They are not folk tales or stories. After sitting for forty years or eighty years in the Khanqah, if you ask that person when he came, he will say ‘It feels as if I have just arrived today!’ This is the feeling after decades – look how the time has passed. Why? Because when a person follows the journey of the path of Allah, even if that journey lasts a thousand years, it will feel as if he only started yesterday. Why? Because this is a tasty and delightful journey – it is a journey of love. It is a journey in reality in which you do not notice the time or pain or difficulties or obstacles. You don’t notice them.
So Allah says {يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ ٱذۡكُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ ذِكۡرً۬ا كَثِيرً۬ا} - Allah says ‘Oh you who believe, do My Dhikr in abundance, and then Me and My angels will send Rahmah and mercy upon you.’ Allahu Akbar – Qur’an is saying this. We read this morning and evening, and Allah is giving us the path and the definition. And what does Allah then say? This is the point to hear – this is the cure:
{لِيُخۡرِجَكُم مِّنَ ٱلظُّلُمَـٰتِ إِلَى ٱلنُّورِۚ} SubhanAllah. Allah is saying that when you do Dhikr Katheer, abundant Dhikr, then your cure has started. And what is the cure? {لِيُخۡرِجَكُم مِّنَ ٱلظُّلُمَـٰتِ إِلَى ٱلنُّورِۚ } – the impurities of the Dunya, and the Dhulm, the oppression, that results from considering what you have to be yours, this will be extracted and replaced with Nur, light! SubhanAllah. Who is saying this, my brothers? Our Rabb – our Lord. This is the Barakah of Dhikr – as I said, this Deen is Dhikr. Everything depends on Dhikr and our Deen is being looked after by Dhikr. Without Dhikr, there is no Deen – Deen will not be in your life. If you do Dhikr in abundance, then what should your Niyyah be? It should be ‘Oh Allah, I want to attain that Nur, that light, which You have said will remove the dirt and impurity of the world and will remove the idea that everything I have is mine.’ And Allah will replace that with what? Allah says ‘Light will be given; I will bestow it upon you.’ {لِيُخۡرِجَكُم مِّنَ ٱلظُّلُمَـٰتِ إِلَى ٱلنُّورِۚ} Allah says ‘I will extract the Dhulumaat and replace it with Nur.’ SubhanAllah.
Hadhrat Thanwi sahib rahmatullah alayh also speaks about this. He says ‘Do you know what that Nur is that Allah ta’ala will instill?’ Say SubhanAllah – this is his explanation. What is that Nur, that light with which Allah will replace the Dhulm after Dhikr, that Nur which will arise after Dhikr? What is that Nur? Hadhrat Thanwi sahib rahmatullah alayh said ‘That Nur is the light through which you meet Allah subhana wa ta'ala.’ You meet Allah subhana wa ta'ala and you attain the objective of life by meeting Allah subhana wa ta'ala. You become an ‘Arif bi-llah, and you get that understanding and emotion through that Nur. And that light of Allah ta’ala that He will instill into your heart will make dislike for the Dunya arise inside you. The Nur that will come is the dislike for the Dunya – it is an Ajeeb Nur. What a point! Do Katheer Dhikr, do it abundantly, and you won’t become anything. You won’t get Kashf and Karamaat and miracles, no. After genuine Dhikr, what does a person become? The love for the world is removed from within him, and the connection with the Dunya and the love for the Dunya is cut off. You are distanced from the Dunya. Hadhrat Thanwi Sahib rahmatullah alayh says that distancing yourself from the Dunya is the Nur. {لِيُخۡرِجَكُم مِّنَ ٱلظُّلُمَـٰتِ إِلَى ٱلنُّورِۚ} - Allah says ‘I take the darkness of the world out and replace it with a Noor that I put into your heart. I make you distant from the Dunya – that is the Nur that I put into your heart.’ Say SubhanAllah.
And listen further. Allah says {تَحِيَّتُهُمۡ يَوۡمَ يَلۡقَوۡنَهُ ۥ سَلَـٰمٌۚ} – Allah is saying ‘Now listen! When this Nur comes into you, when you consider the Dunya as detached from you and that your possessions are not your own, when you get to this Maqam, all of the colours and effects of this come onto your Ibadaat and you become such a human being that {تَحِيَّتُهُمۡ يَوۡمَ يَلۡقَوۡنَهُ ۥ سَلَـٰمٌۚ}, I have prepared something for you for that day {يَوۡمَ يَلۡقَوۡنَهُ } when Me and you will meet!’ SubhanAllah – what is that day { يَوۡمَ يَلۡقَوۡنَهُ}? Who is that meeting with? It is between me and you with our Rabb – the Qur’an is explaining this. That is the day { تَحِيَّتُهُمۡ يَوۡمَ يَلۡقَوۡنَهُ } on the Hashr on the Day of Resurrection, and Allah says ‘When you come to Me, then I will receive you with ‘Welcome, welcome, welcome!’ { تَحِيَّتُهُمۡ يَوۡمَ يَلۡقَوۡنَهُ }’ – SubhanAllah – ‘because you have come with that Nur inside you due to Dhikr. I instilled that Nur into you due to your doing Dhikr. Once that Nur is inside you, when you die, then Me and you will meet in such a way that when I receive you, I will say “Salam!”’ Allahu Akbar! Allah will say As-Salamu alaykum to you and me! Allah will give Salam to us, and then Allah will say ‘Come – let Me tell you what { وَمَا عِندَ ٱللَّهِ بَاقٍ۬} means. I will give you palaces which are truly yours and no-one can take them away from you. Nobody can claim them back from you; they are not on mortgage. In the world, you were fighting over the registration of mud-huts with your brother and your uncle, but this palace and this wife is yours; these children are yours and the title is yours {خَـٰلِدِينَ فِيہَا} forever. This is now yours permanently!’
Do Dua that Allah ta’ala makes us all Dhakirs – all of this comes with this field of Dhikr. Do you understand what I am saying? Allah ta’ala is saying ‘Only the Dhakir will meet Me in this way, the Dhakir Hafiz, the Dhakir Qari, the Dhakir who fasts, the Dhakir who stands in prayer, the Dhakir Hajji – all of these Dhakireen, if they have been Dhakir and they have this Nur instilled within them, they will meet Me with this Nur {تَحِيَّتُهُمۡ يَوۡمَ يَلۡقَوۡنَهُ ۥ سَلَـٰمٌۚ}.’
Will we do this? Will we do Dhikr brothers? This is the purpose of the Dhikr of Allah. Listen to the statement of my Hadhrat Sahib rahmatullah alayh – what did he used to say? SubhanAllah. He said ‘If you want to see, brothers, whether your Dhikr is going in the right direction and is succeeding’ – a person thinks about this, doesn’t he – ‘then what is the sign for this?’ What is the measuring gauge that will tell us whether our Dhikr is succeeding? Maybe we have been doing Dhikr for ten years or fifteen years or sixty years, but we have had no success. Within just a day you should have success - within an hour, in that first lesson, success should come straightaway. Rather, I say that as soon as you do the Ziyarah of the Sheikh, the success starts. It doesn’t take long to attain Allah, my brothers. It doesn’t take long – Allah, our Rabb, is so close to us.
We shouldn’t think ‘Oh, after ten years, then I will find Allah’ – this is not the attitude of the true Ashiq. Prior to my eyes falling upon my Sheikh for the first time, I thought there was no bigger Wali than me, but after seeing him, I felt that there was no bigger sinner than me in the Dunya! Such a change came after seeing Hadhrat Sahib in that first encounter, and our dialogue went as follows. He said ‘Why have you come?’ and I replied ‘I have come to leave the Dunya and to attain Allah.’ This was the first exchange between us. He said ‘If this is what you came for, then sit in front of me and you will not leave without having received this.’ It was Dhuhr time when I arrived and I left after Isha, and Hadhrat and I had prayed Salah in Jamah there in his Hujrah. This is the point – when you are making such a deal, make it properly. My brothers, leave as true Ashiqs. I knew what I would have to leave - my whole career ended there and then. I had three Dunyawi degrees, an MSc, a PhD, but all of that went to waste, and for years I swept streets and homes and sold bread and worked with my hands as a labourer – you have to sell yourself my brothers. Put Dunya with its enjoyment and money and alcohol and women to one side, and take the opposite way, that of the Faqir – simplicity and nothing else.
And then {تَحِيَّتُهُمۡ يَوۡمَ يَلۡقَوۡنَهُ ۥ سَلَـٰمٌ۬ۚ وَأَعَدَّ لَهُمۡ أَجۡرً۬ا كَرِيمً۬ا} – Allah ta’ala will accept our efforts, and then what will we get at that time? The announcement will be made ‘This is your palace; this wife is yours; everything is yours!’ And nobody will question you or interfere or poke their nose into your business. In this world, when you get a new car, the value depreciates, or when you buy a house, it needs repairing, but in the Hereafter, whatever is yours will appreciate and improve! You will be beautiful, for Insan will be very beautiful; and there will be a marketplace there which, when he returns home from it, his wife will be amazed and say ‘Are you the same man?’ The Hoors will say ‘Are you the same man?’ They will say ‘Allahu Akbar – you have become so handsome since you came back from the marketplace – you are more handsome now!’ The Husn will increase and increase – everything in the Hereafter will be increased and multiplied. Do you want these things my brothers, or do you just want to hear about them? Do you want this?
{ يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ ٱذۡكُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ ذِكۡرً۬ا كَثِيرً۬ا (٤١) وَسَبِّحُوهُ بُكۡرَةً۬ وَأَصِيلاً (٤٢)} Be immersed in the Dhikr of Allah at every moment – that’s it! This is not a folk tale or story. Deen is not taken from stories or from debates or Bayans or lectures. Masjids are full of lectures and debates and people going ‘Wow!’, but only when a person jumps into the ocean does he learn how to tread water – remember this. If you stay standing on dry land, saying ‘How do I tread water?’ you won’t learn to do it; you have to jump in! If you stand on the shore, you will never learn to tread water – this is the point. You have to jump in, otherwise you will keep on living in the Dunya, surrounded by Dunya. And Hadhrat Sahib was asked ‘What is the sign that will tell me whether my Dhikr is being successful or not?’ It is not about one year or two years or ten years or twenty years – as I said, it is not about how long, for this can happen within minutes. Hadhrat Sahib said ‘The sign that your Dhikr is successful is this, that if your Dhikr is eliminating your love for Dunya and making you consider that you are only a tenant in the world, while your love for the Hereafter is increasing, then the stamp is applied that not only have you become successful, but that you have become a Qutb and Abdal!’ Whether the world accepts that or not, your name is written on that list.
This is what we need to attain – this is the destination of our Dhikr. And dislike of Dunya doesn’t mean that we have hatred of the Dunya, no, rather that we do not have love for the Dunya. Yes, we need to live in the world, but don’t consider that it is yours; regard it as strange and know that you have no permanent connection with it. Keep your relationship with the world to the extent that is needed – that is a topic in itself. For example, we need to cover our bodies and our Satr, so we need clothes, and we also need bread and food – Allah ta’ala has not told us not to fulfill our needs. But Allah is saying ‘Don’t end the relationship with the world in respect of your needs, but rather end your love for the world.’
There is a difference between love and need. For example, you know how a boat floats on the surface of the water and doesn’t sink. When can it sink? When water comes into the boat, then it can sink. In the same way, this is what happens to the human being when he has love of the world. We should stay afloat on the surface of the world – afloat. Keep to your needs and you will never sink into the Dunya. But when the water comes in, the boat sinks; and in the same way, if too much love for the world comes into your heart, you start drowning. You don’t know about Halal and Haram, and all day and night you are engrossed in transfers of assets and plans to put this house in that person’s name and lying and cheating and committing fraud and stealing – this is love of the Dunya. If you are earning a Halal income for your children to buy clothes for them and to buy food for their needs and wants and studies and education, this is not Dunya. This is not love of the world, this is Ibadah – to earn a Halal income is Ibadah. But apart from filling the stomach, if you start filling treasure chests and safes, and doing unnecessary things and earning Haram, with no decency or regard for giving due time for Salah and for prayer in the Masjid and instead, just bopping up and down in a hurry, then this is love of Dunya, and this is a wasteful life. Allah has not told us that we should not earn Halal income. If you earn Halal, SubhanAllah, absolutely it is worship – all of it. And when you pray your Salah within that Halal work, you will get a beautiful taste from that Salah. There is a unique taste when you pray in the course of your Halal occupation. Allah has created us with a stomach attached to our bodies and we have needs and wants, so understand what I am saying here.
Understand that when Dhikr comes into you, when love for doing Dhikr comes into you, then Allah ta’ala is saying {لِيُخۡرِجَكُم مِّنَ ٱلظُّلُمَـٰتِ إِلَى ٱلنُّورۚ} – ‘When I take out the darkness of the world and the greed that is inside you, then you will understand what Halal Dunya is and what Haram Dunya is. You will realise what the standard is.’ We do Dhikr for this reason. The Qur’an has said that if you do Dhikr, then you will attain this feeling and emotion; but if you don’t do Dhikr, you will bop around all life-long, but you will remain sick.
May Allah ta’ala give all of us the Tawfeeq. Ameen
1st Apr, 2021
MashaAllah.
SUBHANALLAH
27th Mar, 2021
Subhanallah so many beautiful points and each point is a topic in itself
SUBHANALLAH
This is a great night of Sha’ban, and in this night, Allah subhana wa ta'ala, with His grace, blessings and special Mercy has seated a few of His servants in His home and has given the Tawfeeq for His Dhikr to be performed. This is a tremendous gift that Allah ta’ala has given, and I can see only one reason: it must be due to the Barakah of a Wali of Allah that we are assembled here. The Friends of Allah do depart from the Dunya, but their Barakaat are ongoing, and not just in the region where they lived; rather, Allah ta’ala spreads their Fuyudh and blessings to the corners of the world. So tonight, this gathering in which we have come to sit is all from the Faidh of my Hadhrat Sahib rahmatullah alayh.
I always mention to you that Allah ta’ala has shown us the path by means of those pious elders – and may Allah ta’ala keep us steadfast on this path until Qiyamah. We assemble at these Majalis once a week, and during the week, Nafs and shaytan certainly attack a person. Within hours, or even minutes, shaytan can make a person deviate, so it is essential that we sit, and that, in regard to the path that Allah ta’ala has given us the blessings to embark on, we revise and repeat the lessons that are needed to get to the destination, and give each other reminders. Where we see that there is something lacking or where we are holding back, then we should rectify that and do our Islah. This is the objective of our sitting here. A Majlis such as this should not be wasted; rather, Allah subhana wa ta'ala gives us reminders in these Majalis. Allah ta’ala is assisting and helping and giving His Karam. {إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ مَعَ ٱلَّذِينَ ٱتَّقَواْ وَّٱلَّذِينَ هُم مُّحۡسِنُونَ} Allah is telling us ‘I help those individuals who want to save themselves from Nafs and shaytan in order to follow My Path; I assist them.’ Obviously, we have sat down physically, but at this moment in time, I am not in a condition or state where I can speak in front of you. However, it is Allah who has seated us and given us the Tawfeeq, and it is Allah who will enable our speech through which the cure is given to our wounds.
So I make this request that you should at least not waste this week’s Majlis, because life is passing by so quickly. We can see this. New issues come, one after another, and a big new dawn is about to come upon us – a regeneration, you could say – and then a person will only be able to take with him those things that he has done practically. It is then that we will realise what we have done. Yes, we will be able to say we were forced to do this or that we couldn’t do that due to illness and so on – Allah knows all of this. But if we waste these opportunities to sit for small excuses, that means that shaytan and Nafs have overwhelmed us – so then what is left for us? All that is left for us is to follow our own desires. We shouldn’t follow our own desires and opinions – whose desires should we follow? Allah’s desire and choice – that is what we should follow. That’s it.
Now remember- why do we give so much importance to Dhikr in line with the statements of the pious predecessors? Why do we sit down for Dhikr? Why did our pious predecessors make this the platform of the Deen, the pivot of the Deen, the leader of the Deen? They did so because they surveyed Hadith and Qur’an and deduced from there the importance of Dhikr. They understood that Dhikr, the remembrance of Allah, is totally and wholly the Ruh of the Deen. Dhikrullah is the spirit, the Ruh, of the Deen. Now we are revising our Sabaq, our lesson – remember this: if Dhikr is present, then Deen has been established; and if Dhikr goes away, then your Deen goes away. We have organs throughout the body - we have ears to hear, and eyes to see, and mouths to eat and stomachs to digest, and from all these functions we derive enjoyment. But this is nothing, for all of this is linked to one organ. What is that organ? The Ruh, the soul. It is all the game of the Ruh. When Allah ta’ala takes out your Ruh during sleep at night, can you eat? Can you do anything? No – you have gone. The Ruh has gone to the heavens for a little while to wander around. So when the Ruh is extracted permanently, that’s it – end of story. It is all the game of the Ruh, the soul. Whether the body is weak or handsome or beautiful and does all of its actions depends on what? On the Ruh – when the Ruh goes, everything goes.
So what is the Ruh of the Deen? Dhikrullah. If Dhikrullah has gone, then all your A’maal have gone. Salah has gone, Qur’an has gone, Ramadhan has gone – everything has gone. It is like a person who is lying down after death – he is still. You can see that he has eyes and a nose and everything, but he is useless. In the same way, all the A’maal that we perform are there, but they have no Ruh within them; there is no spirit within them. The Ruh of A’maal is established by means of Dhikr of Allah. Dhikr is the Ruh of the Deen, and upon it depends the success of the Deen and the success of the Hereafter. The acceptance of all our deeds is based upon the Ruh they contain, and therefore the acceptance of those deeds is based upon Allah’s Dhikr, upon Allah’s remembrance. And this is why it is announced in Qur’an and Hadith that shaytan is the biggest enemy of Dhikrullah. He is the biggest enemy because where there is Dhikr, there is no shaytan – remember this. Where there is Dhikr, there is no shaytan.
Hadhrat Shaykh rahimahu-llah has recorded in Fazaa’il-e-A’maal that once, in the time of Hadhrat Junaid Baghdadi, he once saw shaytan naked in the marketplace. He was there naked, in the form of a human being – the Friends of Allah sometimes see these things. So Hadhrat Junaid said to shaytan ‘Are you not ashamed of yourself? You are wandering around naked, causing offence to people.’ ‘To which people?’ he replied. Hadhrat Junaid said ‘Look - all these people in the marketplace. Can’t you see them?’ At this, shaytan started laughing and said ‘Do you think these are human beings? Do you call these people Insan?’ This was the dialogue between Hadhrat Junaid Baghdadi rahmatullah alayh and shaytan. Shaytan then said ‘If you want to see Insan, then go to that Masjid where people sit every morning – they are human beings. It is those people who have made me like this – they have finished me off! They have melted me!’ Hadhrat Junaid said to himself ‘What? How can shaytan be saying this?’ – so he went and travelled to that Masjid. What was the Amal those people were doing, those who shaytan had described as real human beings, and due to whom shaytan was saying that he had been destroyed and finished off? This is the account of this event – has it not been recorded? Do you think these are made-up stories or folktales? Listen to the end of the account - Allahu Akbar, this was a unique and extraordinary event. So Hadhrat Junaid sahib rahmatullah alayh, such a great Wali of Allah of that time, went there - and what did he see? He saw that after Salah, the congregation sat in Muraqabah Dhikr – Dhikr! With his own eyes, he saw Rahmah descending – he saw Allah’s Fadhl and so much Rahmah. The Rahmah for the whole world was descending upon the Dhakireen, those who were performing Allah’s remembrance.
So what of our laziness and negligence? We run away from Dhikr, we are lazy in respect to Dhikr, we are far from Dhikr, and we make complaints and have doubts – all of this is part of whose game? Remember this point. Alhamdulillah. Say Alhamdulillah and be grateful for the fact that Allah ta’ala has taken us out of this conundrum by means of Hadhrat Sahib. Allah ta’ala has eliminated all doubts and negative feelings and has made us so solid on Allah’s Dhikr that there is nothing else that can compare – nothing. This is the benefit of sitting with the friends of Allah. No matter how much this generation changes and tosses and turns and takes people away from Dhikr, the Dhakir continues to do Dhikr. He knows nothing else. A storm can come, or rain can come, whatever Hisab can occur around him, but he doesn’t know anything other than this. He does not want to be separated from the remembrance of his Lord – he is utterly devoted to the remembrance of his Lord; the thought of Allah is always in his heart - the attachment to his Rabb is ever-present. His thoughts are not with himself – he doesn’t worry about what he is going to eat and so on. He says to himself ‘I have no other regard and no other care; just one thing concerns me, which is that I must attain His nearness and find my Rabb. That is my one objective.’ He has this one aim, and he keeps on traveling with this in mind, working on that path of Allah morning and evening – and he wants nothing else, no politics, no going here or there, no fighting and quarrelling, just one action, alhamdulillah.
The true Ashiq who is trying to attain the beloved doesn’t know if it is night or day – he just wants to see his Mehboob and nothing else is in his vision. That is all he can see. This is what happens to young people when they fall in love, and this is when it starts, for in this way a person really begins to understand the Ishq of Allah. Allah ta’ala shows the taste of Ishq in the Dunya first. I am not talking about illicit relationships here, but rather lawful ones – love of the wife, which is Halal and permissible. A person does get Ishq in his marriage, so when a person gets the true Ishq of Allah, can you imagine what that is like? So the basis for the success of everything is what? The Dhikr of Allah. I have given this example to you so that you can understand and so that I can summarise this point.
So we have understood now how important Dhikr of Allah is. The acceptance in the Akhirah of all the A’maal that we do will be based on what? Dhikr of Allah. They will be accepted by means of Dhikr. Allah has told us to pray Salah while doing Dhikr, to read Qur’an while doing Dhikr, to do Hajj while doing Dhikr. Whatever action, it is essential for Dhikr to be attached to it. Now some people will say, regarding these points that I am making ‘Why is he saying this? It is because he does Dhikr himself.’ Look, I do Dhikr myself because Dhikr is an action that must be done! Why do I keep saying this and repeating it? Not so that somebody is tricked or to make them come to me or to trap them - no. I say this because my Hadhrat Sahib said it, and because it is only fair that when you are getting the sweetness of something, you should offer that to other people. Allah will ask tomorrow – ‘I gave you this taste and enjoyment and the reality was made clear to you, so why did you not share this with people?’ This is the reason. Whether others understand or not, I have to mention what I know and explain what Dhikr of Allah is. I know that it is a fantastic action, so don’t disregard this.
The one who makes us lazy and detached from Dhikr of Allah is shaytan – he loves making a person lazy about Dhikr. Just look at how effective Dhikr is at giving success – what does the Qur’an say? Let me give you an example first so that will be easier for you to understand. You know this Dunya that we are living in, so understand the reality of this world. Take the example of a person who doesn’t own his own home and lives in a rented house, or of someone who doesn’t have a car, so someone lends him one to use, or of someone who is wearing a watch that is not his own but has been lent him by another person. If someone has allowed a person to live in their house, even if that person lives there for eight years or ten years, it still won’t be his home, will it? It is the other person’s house, isn’t it – you cannot live there permanently. Even if you stay for twenty years, you will never feel properly comfortable and at ease – I am telling you this from personal experience. You can live in someone else’s house for twenty years, and even though the owner has not told you that you have to leave, the feeling that it is not your own place will always be in your heart. If he does ask for it back, you will have to give it. Compare that to the situation of that person if he then buys his own home. He buys it outright, and though it is smaller than the other with only two bedrooms, he lives there, content and satisfied and happy. He says ‘This is my own home – mine!’ Previously he might think ‘I would like to fix that wall or have an extension’, but because he lived in the house as a tenant, he would say ‘Well, we are only here temporarily, so there is no point.’ Is this not the difference? There is a big contrast in the feelings. In your own house, you will be happy and feel connected to it, whereas in a house that you rent, if something breaks, you say ‘Oh, it’s ok – the landlord will fix it. Nothing to do with me.’
Allah ta’ala has said that this is absolutely the same situation in respect of the Dunya. Allah tells us this in the Qur’an, my brothers. If a person reads it, looks deeply at and understands this one verse, then his life becomes totally in line with the Deen. By understanding this verse, he becomes aligned to the Deen – Deen-Dar; and if he does Amal on it, he becomes Qutb-al-Aqtab and an ‘Arif bi-llah! It is just a part of a short verse, from Surah an-Nahl, I think: {مَا عِندَكُمۡ يَنفَدُۖ وَمَا عِندَ ٱللَّهِ بَاقٍ۬}. We open Tafseers and commentaries saying that we want to do Amal based on that; but, my brothers, if a person’s Niyyah is correct, then {ٱهۡدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٲطَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ} is enough for him – just that one verse. But we say ‘No, I want to read’, and then we try to impress other people and tell them ‘I have got ‘Ilm because I have studied this Tafseer.’ We share how much knowledge we have with people, saying ‘Which Tafseer should I read? Which one have you read?’ and so on. If a person wants Hidaya, this can only be found in the Qur’an, remember this. Where do you get Hidaya from? The Qur’an. If you sit in front of the Qur’an and say ‘Oh Qur’an, please give me Hidaya’, then just that one verse of the Qur’an will make you a human being. If you say ‘I want knowledge and ‘Ilm, and to be able to debate and compete with people and explain to people’ – not yourself – ‘and to be able to speak to people and quote this Tafseer and that Tafseer’, then you can keep studying those Tafseers all life-long, but you will acquire absolutely nothing – zero.
I have given you just one verse here, and I am giving you this with a reference, because we all know about the Maqam of the person who explained this verse. If I say it or somebody else says it, people would say ‘What is this?’ but Hadhrat Thanwi rahmatullah alayh mentioned this, and he made a unique statement about this verse. Remember the first part of the verse I quoted: {مَا عِندَكُمۡ يَنفَدُۖ} – whatever you have got in the Dunya is not yours. Say SubhanAllah. Allahu Akbar – have I unraveled the matter and opened up the secret? Now the Qur’an is ours, and we belong to the Qur’an – say SubhanAllah! What is the Qur’an saying to me? ‘Oh servant, oh son of man, this Dunya is not yours, this home is not yours. Is this car yours? Is your wife yours forever? Are your children yours? Is this bed yours? How can it be yours when Allah ta’ala has said {مَا عِندَكُمۡ يَنفَدُۖ}? It is not yours – it has no value.’ What did Hadhrat Thanwi rahmatullah alayh say? He said ‘Collect all the deficiencies and defects of the world and put them to one side, and understand that the biggest defect of the Dunya is that it is not ours; this {مَا عِندَكُمۡۖ} is not for us.’ Allah tells us clearly in the Qur’an.
Who is saying this? Not Moulana Sahib, not some scholar or Mufti Sahib – who is saying this? Our Rabb, our Lord is saying this - SubhanAllah. So you can’t say ‘Oh, Mufti Sahib said this’, and then make excuses and reject it and play games and tricks. ‘Oh Moulana Sahib said this so let’s try to save ourselves from their words.’ Who can save themselves from Allah’s words and deny and avoid them? Allah ta’ala says ‘This is not your house, so how can you say that it is your home?’ We say ‘No, no, no, I took a mortgage out and my name is on the registration document. Who can touch my house?’ Allah is saying ‘Ok, fine. If this is the case, then have any of all those who have departed until today taken one atom of the Dunya with them?’
Has anybody buried someone with their watch on inside the coffin? Once he is there, nobody will ask him for his house papers and documents, will they? Rather, the Qur’an says the opposite. SubhanAllah – what a statement the Qur’an is giving to us. The Qur’an is saying the opposite, that whatever you say ‘Mine, mine, mine’ about, in reality, people loot it from you after your death. They take your watch off your wrist, and even the Qameez which you call your own will be the first thing to be removed from your body – Allahu Akbar. Allah is announcing in the Qur’an ‘Oh servant, understand reality! When you pass away, you take nothing. Nothing that you consider to be yours is yours.’ Why has this been said? Do remember the example I gave? The home that I am living in is a house on rent. The house that I say is mine is not mine – who is the real owner, the real Malik? Rabbil-Karim says ‘Whenever I want, I can take it away from you – yes? I have given it to you for a few days – our objective is different.’ The Qur’an has said this – SubhanAllah.
So do you see the difference? Look at how shaytan and Nafs make us live in this world as if it is permanent, but actually, it is all through the permission of Allah. But we think that what is ours is really ours – Allahu Akbar. Actually, whatever is ours is not ours! If someone says ‘This is my car’, we can say ‘How can it be yours? It is no more yours than it is mine - Allah says that what you say is yours is actually not yours!’ What a difference this makes in how we live our lives. All the quarrels and disputes of life, the courts, divorces, arguments, squabbles about wealth, and fighting and beating – this is all due to one thing: we haven’t read and understood the Qur’an. If there was awareness in our hearts that ‘This is not mine’, there would be no quarrels or disputes in the world – say SubhanAllah. Do you understand what I am saying? So all of our Muamalaat and our condition and situation in the Deen is destroyed in the world. Why? Allah ta’ala is saying ‘Because that individual considers that his shop and his house and his business are his, whereas they are not his at all. He makes no link between Me and what he says is his. It doesn’t matter how much prayer or Hajj he does, his Deen is not complete because he considers that the things I have let him use are his.’ Say SubhanAllah.
Is this not the case? So tell me, my friends, where is our Deen? If that is the case, we are without Deen, without Iman, because we consider Allah’s things as our own. We have no right to say that things are ours or that we own them permanently, because time and time again, Allah ta’ala reminds us that when a person departs from this world, his Hal is such that he has nothing to his name; he owns nothing. He can be in charge of kingdoms and palaces and sultanates, but they are not his. Allahu Akbar. So what does this mean? It means that you should live in this world just like a tenant who lives in a rented house. You should be disconnected from whatever you have in the world and feel no link with it, just like a tenant in a rented house feels no permanent connection with his home. But instead, you have that same passion and desire about your rented place as if it were your own, always wanting to correct this and improve that – and you are like this with everything around you in the world. You get one house and then a second and now you have a third house. You live here while you are constructing a house in Gujarat in India, or in Karachi or Islamabad in Pakistan – what is this passion of yours for the Dunya that has increased so much? SubhanAllah. Look at how much our lives contrast with reality. The direction of our lives is wrong – should we live like this? A person who does live like this is living a life of extreme negativity, in reality. He needs to correct himself, because he is not living as a human being should rightly live – the Qur’an is telling us this.
Allah says {مَا عِندَكُمۡ يَنفَدُۖ وَمَا عِندَ ٱللَّهِ بَاقٍ۬}. Allah is saying that everything belongs to Allah – and that will come afterwards. Is the whole Deen coming to us today or not? Is it not coming, my brothers? This is Qur’an, isn’t it - is it coming or not? Are you understanding what I am saying, which is that as long as we have this feeling within us that considers the Dunya as our own – the business is mine, the house is mine – then what does it mean to be stuck in this attitude, and to be wandering around in these worldly issues? Allah says ‘Then there is no link between Me and you – no link. Your Salah has a different aim, your Sujud has a different aim, your Tilawat is for something else – in reality, you are not doing this for your Rabb.’ The first feeling that a person has when he is doing something for his Rabb is that it has no connection with this Dunya. Who will he do everything for? For Allah ta’ala. Will that person waste his time in the Dunya? Tell me.
We have such a big illness in this respect. We are patients with a sickness, so how can we be successful in the Hereafter? This is all a lie – the Qur’an is telling us the reality. If you want to be the right sort of Muslim and be successful, the Qur’an is saying ‘I will tell you how to become this.’ If we want to be a real human being, first and foremost, the Qur’an is saying that we have to see ourselves as patients, as people who are ill. If a madman says that he is not mad, will he take the medicine? You have to give him the medicine by force, because he says that he is fine. He says ‘Don’t say that I’m crazy – you’re crazy.’ Such a person dances around outside naked, saying ‘I’m fine – you are the crazy ones for wearing clothes!’ Will he take the cure? What should we do then? We are in the same position. Are there just one or two people like this? No – 99.9% of people in this world are in this situation. Say SubhanAllah. Make it your habit to learn what reality is. Don’t just sway around going ‘I am a Jannati and I will get Paradise because I have done the right thing – that is the reward for my deeds.’
My brothers, there is a method for every action, and that is why it is stated in the Qur’an {فَسۡـَٔلُوٓاْ أَهۡلَ ٱلذِّكۡرِ} – Go and ask the Ahl-adh-Dhikr about these points. Allahu Akbar – go and ask the Ahl-adh-Dhikr what the reality is. A unique point arises from this verse. The commentators say that you should ask the people of ‘Ilm, but this humble person says that Dhikr has been mentioned here – say SubhanAllah. What name has come here? Ahl-adh-Dhikr! Go and ask those Alims who do Tazkiyyah through Dhikr for the Masa’il. Ask an Alim, but remember that there are two types of Alim. One is the Alim who just has ‘Ilm but is empty and hollow and gives Fatwa based on that, while the other is the Alim who attains knowledge and has Khashiyah - awe of Allah. His knowledge is alongside Khashiyah. The Qur’an tells us that when a person of knowledge has Khashiyah, then he becomes a true scholar. Is this not a verse of the Qur’an? {إِنَّمَا يَخۡشَى ٱللَّهَ مِنۡ عِبَادِهِ ٱلۡعُلَمَـٰٓؤُاْۗ} Allah is saying that the Alim is the one who has Khashiyah inside him. It is not about being an Alim who has studied here and graduated from there and has got this and that knowledge – that is what we say in our discourse. But the Qur’an says that he is not an Alim.
There is another example in Surah Jumu’ah where the Qur’an says that there are two types of scholar. One is the Alim who becomes an Alim through books, but the Qur’an says that you can put many books on top of a donkey – read the verse of Sural Jumu’ah. But if you put all those Kitabs on the back of a donkey, has it become an Alim? No. That is one type. So it is stated that it is not Kitabs that make an Alim, rather ‘Ilm is created alongside that Khaishyah. ‘Ilm is a great thing indeed, of course. It is a great thing, obviously, because the Alim becomes a deputy of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Remember this point: the highest status in the Hereafter will be whose? After the Ambiya, the highest will be the ‘Ulema Haqq, the true scholars, those people who spend their whole lives saying ‘Qala qala Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam’ – and they didn’t just say it, but rather they were immersed in ‘Qala qala Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam’ for every single second of their lives. What Alims are these? Not the book scholars; not the people of the books. After the Kitabs, they continued their journey to the destination – they read this verse.
Hadhrat Thanwi Sahib said this – I am not saying this. This is his reference, and my Hadhrat Sahib rahmatullah alayh would always make reference to and present the statements of Hadhrat Thanwi Sahib rahmatullah alayh. He was an Ashiq, because he was his Ustadh, his teacher. So, my brothers, I am someone who has learned something in the dust from their footsteps, and that is what I am presenting to you. Hadhrat Thanwi Sahib rahmatullah alayh has said that an Alim is he in whom Khashiyah is present. And where does Khashiyah come from? From which shop and which place is it acquired? Khashiyah is acquired from the Naqshbandi shop, from the Qadiri shop, from the Chishti shop. This shop is called the Khanqah Naqshbandia, so enter into that shop! After attaining ‘Ilm, enter the shop and run to the Khanqah. {فَفِرُّوٓاْ إِلَى ٱللَّهِۖ } – Run to Allah! Run to the Khanqahs after attaining ‘Ilm. Don’t just say ‘Oh, I’ve got knowledge’ and then run to the mosque and here and there saying ‘I want to become this, and to graduate from there’ – you will end up being deviated because you are doing actions which are against the Qur’an and Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. This is the reason that we see destruction today in the world. Am I wrong or am I right? Tell me. It is the Qur’an that is telling us this.
So if an Alim attains Khashiyah, he becomes a real Alim with this. And where do you get Khashiyah from? You have to spend your whole life long engaged in Tazkiyah – and for that, you have to become a Faqir. You have to humble yourself, lower yourself, and give up Takabbur – you have to rub everything into the dust. It all goes into the dust. You have to extract every negative aspect and all the thinking of ‘I’m this and I’m that – I’ve studied this and I’ve got knowledge’ – all this has to finish in order to acquire Khashiyah. When all these things are annihilated – Takabbur, Riya, showing off, Bayans, debates, passion and argumentative speaking – when all of this is annihilated, then suddenly Khashiyah li-llah comes into a person, SubhanAllah. Such strong fear of Allah comes into that person that when he opens Bukhari Sharif and starts to teach it – SubhanAllah. Ask such an Alim who teaches Bukhari – and ask the students about their Hal while he is teaching them. This is the true scholar.
Let us talk about the elder generations now, about those Madaris and those institutions where such people taught Bukhari and other Kitabs of Hadith. Those true teachers used to teach by candle-light or oil lamp – and when the oil was used up, SubhanAllah, the teachers would carry on teaching and the listeners would carry on listening. They had such a taste and flavour from those words and discussions about the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. When Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam is being discussed, does a man feel like getting up and leaving? They had Khashiyah and desire and deep-rooted passion. They had so much fear of Allah and deep-rooted passion for Allah, that at times, a scorpion would bite them, but they would still continue. I think it was Imam Malik rahmatullah alayh whose body was bitten and wounded by a scorpion, but he carried on teaching the Hadith. Only when he had finished the class did he realise that he had been bitten in so many places – and if you know the scorpions of Madina, they are as big as the palm of your hand. This was not an act – it was reality. He had so much Khashiyah that it overwhelmed him; the words of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam were coming onto his tongue as he was teaching, so he wasn’t in this world at that time and therefore did not realise the pain that was being inflicted upon his body. This was Imam Malik. If you want to become an Alim like this, absolutely you can become like this. The Qur’an is saying ‘Become like this!’ But what I am telling you is that there is a Tariqah, a method, which has to be applied in order to become like this.
To become a Muslim, to become a Wali of Allah and be successful in the Hereafter, there is a Tariqah – so follow that path. This is what we are being told. Allah is saying that the Deen of Allah means that the house you are living in is not yours – so why do you say ‘It is mine’? It is not yours. If you think that everything in the world is yours, your Ibadaat are weird and strange. So from today, let us really consider ourselves as patients. In order to get a cure, first you have to consider yourself as ill and say ‘Yes, I have got a pain and a malady.’ If you have understood, you will do so, but today, when you explain that people have maladies, you get Fatwas delivered against you! Tomorrow they will give Fatwas about what I am saying today. The Fatwa will come tomorrow, and they will say ‘What nonsense is he talking about? He is not an Alim – he is not a scholar and he has no knowledge.’ Tomorrow the Fatwas and stamps will come, but this is reality. Reality is reality – we cannot deny it. The reality is the reality. So if we do not consider ourselves as patients, then how will we get the cure? Today, nobody considers themselves as sick – and when a person does acknowledge he is sick, others grab him to make him doubt this.
So the first point to remember is that if we have this feeling that this is mine, that is mine, everything is mine, then we are not Insan and we are not true Muslims yet; we have no connection with Allah because our connection is not correct. When will the connection with Allah be correct? When we have the attitude in line with what Allah says {مَا عِندَكُمۡ يَنفَدُۖ وَمَا عِندَ ٱللَّهِ بَاقٍ۬}. Allah is saying ‘It is not yours – I have given it to you on rent. This is your wife, so consider you are like a tenant in this as well. Once you pass away, it is Lazim on her to try to marry again – this is a Hukm of Shari’ah. You are present now, but why do you think there are laws of inheritance on your belongings? Your name may be on the ownership documents of your assets, but if your enemy is one of the inheritors, then your estate has to give his share of your possessions to him. Nobody can stop the laws of inheritance. You can’t say ‘Oh, he is my son but I don’t like him so I won’t give to him.’ No, you can’t stop this after your death; it has to be distributed to him because his name is on the list of inheritors. This is such a big point. Even if you don’t like or you hate such a human being, he can take away items of yours that you love – because it is not yours! Who does it belong to? Allah! Say SubhanAllah.
Do you understand Deen now? Are these points true? Am I wrong? MashaAllah - at least I can enjoy afterwards. SubhanAllah. So you have heard this – and do you have a solid understanding of this point? Whatever we are and whatever we were in this world is all a charade – there are no positions, titles, games, tricks. We are all sick patients, and we need to get this feeling into our hearts and minds. What is that? {مَا عِندَكُمۡ يَنفَدُۖ وَمَا عِندَ ٱللَّهِ بَاقٍ۬} Allah says ‘All that is with you is bound to come to an end, whereas that which is with Allah is everlasting.’ Now I have remembered the statement of Hadhrat Thanwi Sahib rahmatullah alayh. I will present it to you, for it is an Ajeeb and unique point. He says that we die for the things that die out; we die for what will finish - what a beautiful statement! Hadhrat Thanwi Sahib said that the things which will come to an end are the things we die for. We consider ourselves as such big achievers in the world, but we are giving our all for things that will finish and do not last. Do you understand what I am saying?
So how can we correct ourselves in respect of this point. The Qur’an is saying ‘I have told you the solution as to how to correct yourselves.’ Allah is saying ‘I will tell you in the Qur’an. If anybody wants to be corrected, then open the Qur’an.’ Outside of the Qur’an, there is no solution. Where is the solution for everything to be found? In the Qur’an – so read the Qur’an. Allah ta’ala says ‘I will tell you the method that will change your feeling and emotion and will make you such a human being that you will consider yourself a tenant in the world, even if you are living in your own home. You will say ‘No, no - it’s not mine.’ Everything will seem strange to you and you will feel that it is all disconnected from you. Allah says ‘I will tell you the Tariqah.’ Do you want to become like this or not? Tell me. The Qur’an says:
{يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ ٱذۡكُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ ذِكۡرً۬ا كَثِيرً۬ا (٤١) وَسَبِّحُوهُ بُكۡرَةً۬ وَأَصِيلاً (٤٢)}
{هُوَ ٱلَّذِى يُصَلِّى عَلَيۡكُمۡ وَمَلَـٰٓٮِٕكَتُهُ ۥ لِيُخۡرِجَكُم مِّنَ ٱلظُّلُمَـٰتِ إِلَى ٱلنُّورِۚ وَڪَانَ بِٱلۡمُؤۡمِنِينَ رَحِيمً۬ا (٤٣)}
{تَحِيَّتُهُمۡ يَوۡمَ يَلۡقَوۡنَهُ ۥ سَلَـٰمٌ۬}
Is the Qur’an not telling us – ‘Oh people of Iman, do you not want to be corrected? Do you want to improve your feelings and emotions?’ The Qur’an tells us clearly: ‘Oh people of Iman, do the remembrance of Allah in abundance’ - in your heart, not with the tongue. Katheer can only be done with the heart, not with the tongue. Do Qalbi Dhikr - find a Naqshbandi Sheikh and imprint the Name of Allah on your heart. Say SubhanAllah. When your heart is alive, your Ruh and your Lataif and every part of your body will start to do Dhikr of Allah. Immerse yourself in Allah’s path; you have to struggle and make effort; you have to sell yourself when you become a student and make that connection between the student and the Ustadh; you have to annihilate yourself and you have to give yourself away.
Somebody once asked Hadhrat Sahib how they could become Fana fi-Sheikh – listen to this point. This was the Sheikh of his time, a high-grade Sheikh, and this person came to become his Mureed, so he said ‘Hadhrat Sahib, I want to become Fana fi-Sheikh.’ So Hadhrat Sahib said to him ‘Do you want to be Fana fi-Sheikh? Then listen: all of this came from as-Siddique himself, so you will have to follow his path.’ SubhanAllah. How do you become Fana fi-Sheikh like Abu Bakr as-Siddique radhiAllahu anh? The method to become Fana fi-Sheikh in our Naqshbandi Silsila is what? The first step to become Fana fi-Sheikh is that you should have this feeling inside you, which comes from Jadhbah and passion, that you feel that everything inside you is not yours, but rather it is from your Sheikh. SubhanAllah! Brothers, this is the path to attain Allah’s nearness. Whoever has this passion and thinks ‘This is not my wealth – everything is my Sheikh’s. If my Sheikh tells me to spend here or there or give to that person or do this, then my heart will not wish to keep one penny, but rather I will fill my fists and give. If the Sheikh tells me to, I will continue to give. It is not mine.’
This Dunya is not ours, so how can you consider your wealth to be yours? When this passion arises in the Mureed, then he is Fana fi-Sheikh – he has got to the footsteps of Fana fi-Sheikh. After that comes Fana fi-Rasool – brothers, these are the stages, and you have to make effort to achieve them. They are not folk tales or stories. After sitting for forty years or eighty years in the Khanqah, if you ask that person when he came, he will say ‘It feels as if I have just arrived today!’ This is the feeling after decades – look how the time has passed. Why? Because when a person follows the journey of the path of Allah, even if that journey lasts a thousand years, it will feel as if he only started yesterday. Why? Because this is a tasty and delightful journey – it is a journey of love. It is a journey in reality in which you do not notice the time or pain or difficulties or obstacles. You don’t notice them.
So Allah says {يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ ٱذۡكُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ ذِكۡرً۬ا كَثِيرً۬ا} - Allah says ‘Oh you who believe, do My Dhikr in abundance, and then Me and My angels will send Rahmah and mercy upon you.’ Allahu Akbar – Qur’an is saying this. We read this morning and evening, and Allah is giving us the path and the definition. And what does Allah then say? This is the point to hear – this is the cure:
{لِيُخۡرِجَكُم مِّنَ ٱلظُّلُمَـٰتِ إِلَى ٱلنُّورِۚ} SubhanAllah. Allah is saying that when you do Dhikr Katheer, abundant Dhikr, then your cure has started. And what is the cure? {لِيُخۡرِجَكُم مِّنَ ٱلظُّلُمَـٰتِ إِلَى ٱلنُّورِۚ } – the impurities of the Dunya, and the Dhulm, the oppression, that results from considering what you have to be yours, this will be extracted and replaced with Nur, light! SubhanAllah. Who is saying this, my brothers? Our Rabb – our Lord. This is the Barakah of Dhikr – as I said, this Deen is Dhikr. Everything depends on Dhikr and our Deen is being looked after by Dhikr. Without Dhikr, there is no Deen – Deen will not be in your life. If you do Dhikr in abundance, then what should your Niyyah be? It should be ‘Oh Allah, I want to attain that Nur, that light, which You have said will remove the dirt and impurity of the world and will remove the idea that everything I have is mine.’ And Allah will replace that with what? Allah says ‘Light will be given; I will bestow it upon you.’ {لِيُخۡرِجَكُم مِّنَ ٱلظُّلُمَـٰتِ إِلَى ٱلنُّورِۚ} Allah says ‘I will extract the Dhulumaat and replace it with Nur.’ SubhanAllah.
Hadhrat Thanwi sahib rahmatullah alayh also speaks about this. He says ‘Do you know what that Nur is that Allah ta’ala will instill?’ Say SubhanAllah – this is his explanation. What is that Nur, that light with which Allah will replace the Dhulm after Dhikr, that Nur which will arise after Dhikr? What is that Nur? Hadhrat Thanwi sahib rahmatullah alayh said ‘That Nur is the light through which you meet Allah subhana wa ta'ala.’ You meet Allah subhana wa ta'ala and you attain the objective of life by meeting Allah subhana wa ta'ala. You become an ‘Arif bi-llah, and you get that understanding and emotion through that Nur. And that light of Allah ta’ala that He will instill into your heart will make dislike for the Dunya arise inside you. The Nur that will come is the dislike for the Dunya – it is an Ajeeb Nur. What a point! Do Katheer Dhikr, do it abundantly, and you won’t become anything. You won’t get Kashf and Karamaat and miracles, no. After genuine Dhikr, what does a person become? The love for the world is removed from within him, and the connection with the Dunya and the love for the Dunya is cut off. You are distanced from the Dunya. Hadhrat Thanwi Sahib rahmatullah alayh says that distancing yourself from the Dunya is the Nur. {لِيُخۡرِجَكُم مِّنَ ٱلظُّلُمَـٰتِ إِلَى ٱلنُّورِۚ} - Allah says ‘I take the darkness of the world out and replace it with a Noor that I put into your heart. I make you distant from the Dunya – that is the Nur that I put into your heart.’ Say SubhanAllah.
And listen further. Allah says {تَحِيَّتُهُمۡ يَوۡمَ يَلۡقَوۡنَهُ ۥ سَلَـٰمٌۚ} – Allah is saying ‘Now listen! When this Nur comes into you, when you consider the Dunya as detached from you and that your possessions are not your own, when you get to this Maqam, all of the colours and effects of this come onto your Ibadaat and you become such a human being that {تَحِيَّتُهُمۡ يَوۡمَ يَلۡقَوۡنَهُ ۥ سَلَـٰمٌۚ}, I have prepared something for you for that day {يَوۡمَ يَلۡقَوۡنَهُ } when Me and you will meet!’ SubhanAllah – what is that day { يَوۡمَ يَلۡقَوۡنَهُ}? Who is that meeting with? It is between me and you with our Rabb – the Qur’an is explaining this. That is the day { تَحِيَّتُهُمۡ يَوۡمَ يَلۡقَوۡنَهُ } on the Hashr on the Day of Resurrection, and Allah says ‘When you come to Me, then I will receive you with ‘Welcome, welcome, welcome!’ { تَحِيَّتُهُمۡ يَوۡمَ يَلۡقَوۡنَهُ }’ – SubhanAllah – ‘because you have come with that Nur inside you due to Dhikr. I instilled that Nur into you due to your doing Dhikr. Once that Nur is inside you, when you die, then Me and you will meet in such a way that when I receive you, I will say “Salam!”’ Allahu Akbar! Allah will say As-Salamu alaykum to you and me! Allah will give Salam to us, and then Allah will say ‘Come – let Me tell you what { وَمَا عِندَ ٱللَّهِ بَاقٍ۬} means. I will give you palaces which are truly yours and no-one can take them away from you. Nobody can claim them back from you; they are not on mortgage. In the world, you were fighting over the registration of mud-huts with your brother and your uncle, but this palace and this wife is yours; these children are yours and the title is yours {خَـٰلِدِينَ فِيہَا} forever. This is now yours permanently!’
Do Dua that Allah ta’ala makes us all Dhakirs – all of this comes with this field of Dhikr. Do you understand what I am saying? Allah ta’ala is saying ‘Only the Dhakir will meet Me in this way, the Dhakir Hafiz, the Dhakir Qari, the Dhakir who fasts, the Dhakir who stands in prayer, the Dhakir Hajji – all of these Dhakireen, if they have been Dhakir and they have this Nur instilled within them, they will meet Me with this Nur {تَحِيَّتُهُمۡ يَوۡمَ يَلۡقَوۡنَهُ ۥ سَلَـٰمٌۚ}.’
Will we do this? Will we do Dhikr brothers? This is the purpose of the Dhikr of Allah. Listen to the statement of my Hadhrat Sahib rahmatullah alayh – what did he used to say? SubhanAllah. He said ‘If you want to see, brothers, whether your Dhikr is going in the right direction and is succeeding’ – a person thinks about this, doesn’t he – ‘then what is the sign for this?’ What is the measuring gauge that will tell us whether our Dhikr is succeeding? Maybe we have been doing Dhikr for ten years or fifteen years or sixty years, but we have had no success. Within just a day you should have success - within an hour, in that first lesson, success should come straightaway. Rather, I say that as soon as you do the Ziyarah of the Sheikh, the success starts. It doesn’t take long to attain Allah, my brothers. It doesn’t take long – Allah, our Rabb, is so close to us.
We shouldn’t think ‘Oh, after ten years, then I will find Allah’ – this is not the attitude of the true Ashiq. Prior to my eyes falling upon my Sheikh for the first time, I thought there was no bigger Wali than me, but after seeing him, I felt that there was no bigger sinner than me in the Dunya! Such a change came after seeing Hadhrat Sahib in that first encounter, and our dialogue went as follows. He said ‘Why have you come?’ and I replied ‘I have come to leave the Dunya and to attain Allah.’ This was the first exchange between us. He said ‘If this is what you came for, then sit in front of me and you will not leave without having received this.’ It was Dhuhr time when I arrived and I left after Isha, and Hadhrat and I had prayed Salah in Jamah there in his Hujrah. This is the point – when you are making such a deal, make it properly. My brothers, leave as true Ashiqs. I knew what I would have to leave - my whole career ended there and then. I had three Dunyawi degrees, an MSc, a PhD, but all of that went to waste, and for years I swept streets and homes and sold bread and worked with my hands as a labourer – you have to sell yourself my brothers. Put Dunya with its enjoyment and money and alcohol and women to one side, and take the opposite way, that of the Faqir – simplicity and nothing else.
And then {تَحِيَّتُهُمۡ يَوۡمَ يَلۡقَوۡنَهُ ۥ سَلَـٰمٌ۬ۚ وَأَعَدَّ لَهُمۡ أَجۡرً۬ا كَرِيمً۬ا} – Allah ta’ala will accept our efforts, and then what will we get at that time? The announcement will be made ‘This is your palace; this wife is yours; everything is yours!’ And nobody will question you or interfere or poke their nose into your business. In this world, when you get a new car, the value depreciates, or when you buy a house, it needs repairing, but in the Hereafter, whatever is yours will appreciate and improve! You will be beautiful, for Insan will be very beautiful; and there will be a marketplace there which, when he returns home from it, his wife will be amazed and say ‘Are you the same man?’ The Hoors will say ‘Are you the same man?’ They will say ‘Allahu Akbar – you have become so handsome since you came back from the marketplace – you are more handsome now!’ The Husn will increase and increase – everything in the Hereafter will be increased and multiplied. Do you want these things my brothers, or do you just want to hear about them? Do you want this?
{ يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ ٱذۡكُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ ذِكۡرً۬ا كَثِيرً۬ا (٤١) وَسَبِّحُوهُ بُكۡرَةً۬ وَأَصِيلاً (٤٢)} Be immersed in the Dhikr of Allah at every moment – that’s it! This is not a folk tale or story. Deen is not taken from stories or from debates or Bayans or lectures. Masjids are full of lectures and debates and people going ‘Wow!’, but only when a person jumps into the ocean does he learn how to tread water – remember this. If you stay standing on dry land, saying ‘How do I tread water?’ you won’t learn to do it; you have to jump in! If you stand on the shore, you will never learn to tread water – this is the point. You have to jump in, otherwise you will keep on living in the Dunya, surrounded by Dunya. And Hadhrat Sahib was asked ‘What is the sign that will tell me whether my Dhikr is being successful or not?’ It is not about one year or two years or ten years or twenty years – as I said, it is not about how long, for this can happen within minutes. Hadhrat Sahib said ‘The sign that your Dhikr is successful is this, that if your Dhikr is eliminating your love for Dunya and making you consider that you are only a tenant in the world, while your love for the Hereafter is increasing, then the stamp is applied that not only have you become successful, but that you have become a Qutb and Abdal!’ Whether the world accepts that or not, your name is written on that list.
This is what we need to attain – this is the destination of our Dhikr. And dislike of Dunya doesn’t mean that we have hatred of the Dunya, no, rather that we do not have love for the Dunya. Yes, we need to live in the world, but don’t consider that it is yours; regard it as strange and know that you have no permanent connection with it. Keep your relationship with the world to the extent that is needed – that is a topic in itself. For example, we need to cover our bodies and our Satr, so we need clothes, and we also need bread and food – Allah ta’ala has not told us not to fulfill our needs. But Allah is saying ‘Don’t end the relationship with the world in respect of your needs, but rather end your love for the world.’
There is a difference between love and need. For example, you know how a boat floats on the surface of the water and doesn’t sink. When can it sink? When water comes into the boat, then it can sink. In the same way, this is what happens to the human being when he has love of the world. We should stay afloat on the surface of the world – afloat. Keep to your needs and you will never sink into the Dunya. But when the water comes in, the boat sinks; and in the same way, if too much love for the world comes into your heart, you start drowning. You don’t know about Halal and Haram, and all day and night you are engrossed in transfers of assets and plans to put this house in that person’s name and lying and cheating and committing fraud and stealing – this is love of the Dunya. If you are earning a Halal income for your children to buy clothes for them and to buy food for their needs and wants and studies and education, this is not Dunya. This is not love of the world, this is Ibadah – to earn a Halal income is Ibadah. But apart from filling the stomach, if you start filling treasure chests and safes, and doing unnecessary things and earning Haram, with no decency or regard for giving due time for Salah and for prayer in the Masjid and instead, just bopping up and down in a hurry, then this is love of Dunya, and this is a wasteful life. Allah has not told us that we should not earn Halal income. If you earn Halal, SubhanAllah, absolutely it is worship – all of it. And when you pray your Salah within that Halal work, you will get a beautiful taste from that Salah. There is a unique taste when you pray in the course of your Halal occupation. Allah has created us with a stomach attached to our bodies and we have needs and wants, so understand what I am saying here.
Understand that when Dhikr comes into you, when love for doing Dhikr comes into you, then Allah ta’ala is saying {لِيُخۡرِجَكُم مِّنَ ٱلظُّلُمَـٰتِ إِلَى ٱلنُّورۚ} – ‘When I take out the darkness of the world and the greed that is inside you, then you will understand what Halal Dunya is and what Haram Dunya is. You will realise what the standard is.’ We do Dhikr for this reason. The Qur’an has said that if you do Dhikr, then you will attain this feeling and emotion; but if you don’t do Dhikr, you will bop around all life-long, but you will remain sick.
May Allah ta’ala give all of us the Tawfeeq. Ameen