Hamzah Wald Maqbul – 11 1440 Ramadn Late Night Majlis DhulNn Misr AbulQsim Gurgn 05152019
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We reached the 1st night of the 2nd
10th of Ramadan.
The hadith indicates that this is the Asharah
of Mafirah,
of the forgiveness from Allah to Allah. Allah
to Allah forgive all of us. It's a
great blessing that we even reach this Ramadan,
and it is
a sign inshaAllah that Allah ta'ala wants to
forgive us, that He gave it to us.
It's so close, you have to just reach
out and take it. So, Allah give us
the tawfiq to do just that.
Inshallah, we read today,
a couple of
entries.
The first one I wanted to read was
Abu al Fayd
ibnun Ibrahim al Misri who
was one of the very well known of
the mashaikh,
and, his entry in, the kashf al Mahjub
is unusually long,
and it should indicate, you know, something about
his, his
his status. It's interesting.
I
purchased
from
a bookstore once a small biography of the
Nun al Masri
that was written by.
So if he's going to compile, like, a
small biography about the person, he must be
somewhat important,
in the tariq.
And Allah
He was the son of a Nubian, and
his name was Thoban.
Nubian here means someone from upper Egypt, from
the southern part of Egypt.
He he he looked like a,
like, what they would refer to as a,
Nilo Saharan person.
So what we call, like, black Africans, quote,
unquote, there are actually several different races.
One of them is the Nilo Saharan people.
One of them is the Niger Congo people.
There's the Khorasan people, they're, what they call
the bushmen. They're all they're all they're all
different races, although,
I guess, Europeans just referred to all of
them as black. But,
the the the Nile Saharan people who are
in the south of
the south of of Egypt and up upstream
in the Nile. He
was a son of a Nubian and his
name was Thoban.
He's one of the best of our people
and the most imminent of their hidden,
spiritualists.
For he tried the path of affliction and
traveled on the road of blame.
The road of blame, not meaning blameworthiness,
but people he he he had a rough
life.
Basically, people treated him bad, and he had
to go through a lot of difficulties. His
life from beginning to end was all difficulty,
and, people would treat him badly,
without without without
just reason or just cause.
All the people of Egypt were lost in
doubt, as to his true state and did
not believe,
in his sainthood until after he had passed.
On the night of his disease,
70 people dreamt that they saw the Messenger
of Allah
who said,
I have come to meet Dunoon, the friend
of Allah, the wali of Allah.
At his funeral,
the birds
of the air gathered around his bier and
wove their wings around us to shadow it.
On seeing this, the Egyptians felt remorse and
repented
of the injustice which they had done to
him. He has many fine and admirable sayings
on the verities of mystical knowledge, spiritual knowledge.
He says, for example, the Gnostic, the person
of,
who knows Allah, the is
more lowly,
everyday because he's approaching nearer and nearer to
his lord in every moment.
In as much as he thereby becomes aware
of the overpowering,
force of the divine,
omnipotent.
And when the majesty majesty of Allah has
taken a a possession of his heart, he
sees how far he is from God,
and there's no way of reaching him. There
therefore, his loneliness has increased.
Right? So this is his
this is what he how he experienced Allah
The the sheikh in the beginning
said he tread the path of of of
tribulation,
affliction, and, blame.
And this was his his his, witnessing of
Allah
that he said that the person who knows
Allah is more and more lowly every day
because he is approaching nearer and nearer to
his lord in every moment.
In as much as he thereby becomes aware
of the the the overpowering,
might and brute force of the divine omnipotence.
And when the majesty of God has taken
possession of his heart, he sees how far
he is from God, and that there is
no way of reaching him, thus his lowliness
is increased.
Thus, Musa Alaihi Salam said when he conversed
with his lord, oh lord, where shall I
seek you? And Allah answered amongst those who
are uh-uh brokenhearted.
Musa Alaihi Salam,
said, oh, Lord, there's no heart broken more
broken and more despairing than mine. And Allah,
answered to him, then I am where you
are.
This is something that is,
a similar,
a similar concept is narrated in many of
the books of tafsir with regards to Sayid
al Musa alayhi
Alaihi Salam, Allah calls him his Kalim. He
talked to him in so many different places,
he spoke to him.
And so,
Allah asked
brings us in his tafsir.
He says he asked Musa alaihis salam,
I believe it's in the tafsir of Surat
Taha, maybe in Qasas. He says he says,
do you know why I chose you for
my, for for to speak to? Out of
all of the creation, why did I choose
you that you should speak to me and
you should carry my message?
And, Musa alaihis salam asked him why. He
said, because there was nobody more humble in
front of me than you.
That nobody has humble themselves like the way
you humbled yourself in front of me. And
this is why Allah chose him,
to to give him nubuah and to speak
with him, and give him a nubuah of
such a high rank.
He says, oh Lord, no heart is more
broken and despairing than mine. God answered, then
I am where you are.
Accordingly, anyone who pretends to know god without
lowliness and fear is an ignorant fool and
not a knower of Allah.
The sign of true knowledge is sincerity of
will, and a sincere will cuts off all
secondary causes and severs all ties of relationship
so that nothing remains except for God. Says,
sincerity
is the sword of Allah on the earth.
It cuts everything it touches.
That's you and me.
The sword of Allah on the earth. It
cuts everything that it touches.
Now sincerity causes sincerity regards the causer and
does not consistent affirmation of secondary causes to
affirm the latter is to destroy the principle
of sincerity.
Amongst the stories, this is a this is
an important story for people to hear as
well. This is amongst the stories told of
the Nun I read that one day he
was sailing with his disciples
in, on a in a boat on the
river Nile as is the custom of the
people of Egypt when they desire recreation, which
is still kind of true to this day.
Right?
So that that, and,
I read that he was sailing with his
disciples in a boat on the river Nile
as is the custom of the people of
Egypt when they desire recreation.
Another boat was coming up filled with merrymakers
whose unseemly behavior so disgusted the disciples
that they begged the noon to implore God
that he sink the boat.
They're drunk and they're doing God knows what
kind of weird stuff people people still do
weird stuff on boats nowadays, you know, like
it's if you go out on a boat,
they do weird things. So
it was a boat of these weirdos, like,
came up filled with merrymakers whose unseemly behavior
is so disgusted to the disciples that they
begged to implore god to sink their boat.
Raised his hands and cried, oh, lord, as
you have given these people a pleasant life
in this world, give them a pleasant life
in the next world too.
The disciples were astonished by his prayer.
When the boat came near, those in it
saw the noon, and they began to weep
and ask pardon, and they broke their musical
instruments and repented.
The noon said to his disciples, a pleasant
life in the next world is repentance in
this world.
The dua what does a mean?
The dua if if the dua has answered,
it doesn't mean they're gonna go on, like,
in their, like, weird drunken orgy that they're
having on a boat on the
the Nile. Right? The answer, that's not the
they're going to take the exit and go
to the other freeway that go somewhere else.
This is a pleasant life in the next
world is repentance in this world. You and
they are all satisfied without harm to anybody.
And this is this is the the logic
that appeals to
the people who are like there's some people
they see other and this is, by the
way, this is the deen
Allah
describes the the believers. Right? Uh-uh,
that their their their
Shadid, they're, like, harsh on the the
the belligerent and antagonistic,
and
they're
merciful between them. They save their mercy for
for one another.
Help me out here.
So, you know, they're they they have they
have a izah when they're in front of
the kuffar and they're they're lowly, they're humble
when they're in front of the meek, in
front of the believers.
Whereas nowadays, the cult of Dawah is what?
Like, you run around the masjid screaming and
it's because you people drive everyone out of
the masjid, then you smell like this, and
you look like that, and the carpets aren't
nice enough, and I'm unmasked and yell and
scream. Let's make a documentary about how much
we hate everything about Islam. But when we
stand in front of a non Muslim, it's
like, did you know Islam means peace? Like,
you know, okay. Yeah. I mean, we should
be nice to people and stuff, but, like,
there's this compass is a little bit off
at that point, you know? And so there
are people who this this this, like, you
know, this compass being off goes, like, way,
way, way out of bounds. That's why all
this and
Qaeda, and all these weird, you know, nut
job groups running around in the backwoods in
Syria and Iraq and in the Sinai and,
you know, even some of them in other
places as well. They're crazy, you know, in
the and things like Mali and and stuff
like that. What are they doing? They're gunning
down Muslims in the in the Masjid. Right?
So that's not the way of the
That's not the the the way of the.
It's not the way of the Quran and
it's not the way of the.
There may even be a time and a
need. Right?
That, that that that some party of the
party of the Muslims becomes so,
so belligerent and so flagrant
in their
and other party, the Muslims that they need
to be fought.
And that's also mentioned
that that that that then you fight
the you fight the the the group that
is, that that that is on Zoom.
But it's not like something that you
persecute to the end. It's just like a
bare minimum. It's like a small medicine that
a person uses. And as soon as you're
able to not use it anymore, then then
you leave it. A person shouldn't take,
happiness in it in any way, shape, or
form. So what did he say? He said,
there's a pleasant life in the next world.
There's repentance in this world. You and they
are all satisfied without any harm to anybody.
And this is the logic of imam. He
thus, he acted thus from his extreme affection
toward the Muslims,
following the example of the messenger of Allah
who notwithstanding the ill treatment with he which
which he received from the kuffar, never ceased
to say, oh Allah, guide my people for
they don't know.
The the nun relates as he was journeying
from Jerusalem to Egypt,
that he saw in the distance someone advancing
toward him. He felt impelled to ask a
question. When the person came near, he perceived
that it was an old woman carrying a
staff and wearing a woolen jubba.
When he asked her when she from when
she came, she answered from Allah.
And, where where do you where are you
going to? And she said to Allah. The
noon drew forth a piece of gold which
she had with him and offered it to
her. But she shook her hand in his
face and said, oh, the noon, the notion
which you formed of me arises from the
feebleness of your intelligence.
I work for God's sake and accept nothing
unless from him. I worship him alone and
take from him alone. With these words, she,
went on her way.
Meaning what? He's saying that he he's saying
that this was a a a a,
an experience that affected me. Because we oftentimes
think that religious people are just some sort
of scandal or whatever. This happens. This happens.
I've I've I've I went to Umrah. This
happened actually 2, 3 times. I myself feel
embarrassed every time I do it. I don't
I don't know. I mean, like, how do
you know what a person wants? You know?
So someone comes and ask for dua, I
make dua for them and you give them,
like, 5 rials, dua. It's not what we
come for. You know, it's there are people
there are people like that, and, it's his
humility also that he he mentioned that. So
the old woman saying that she worked for
God's sake is a proof of her sincerity
and love. Men in their dealings with God
followed to 2 classes. Some imagine that they
work for God's sakes when they're really just
working for themselves.
And though their work is not done without
any worldly motive,
they desire recompense in the next world. Others
take no thought of reward or punishment in
the next world, any more than of ostentation
and reputation in this world, but act solely
from the reverence of the commandments of Allah.
Their love of Allah requires them to forget
every selfish interest when they do his bidding.
The former class fancy that what they do
is for the sake of the next world.
What they do for the sake of the
next world is for the sake of Allah
and fail to recognize that the devout have
greater self interest in devotion,
than the wicked have in sin because the
sinner's pleasure lasts only for a moment whereas
the devotion,
is a delight forever.
So this is a very subtle point. Obviously,
you know,
it's it's piety to do it for the
reward in the next world. That itself is
also iman and the layba. At least it
means that you believe in the word of
Allah ta'ala. Whereas there are some people who
believe that the wahi is all pie in
the sky in July, and they just rather
enjoy themselves in this world. But the the
the point is a subtle point, and it's
true that the the devout,
are more selfish than the wicked. Why? Because
they want more that they're gonna get an
than the small amount that a person is
gonna get in this world. But the one
who loves Allah for who he is,
and, follows him because, the the the rab
is the rab, and the abd is the
Abda. The Lord is the Lord, and the
slave is the slave.
This is, this type of love is a
higher with Allah,
no doubt.
And this is proven by the prophet that
said that Aisha
asked him,
why is it that you pray in the
night until your feet have swollen up even
though Allah
said that you're, you know, any mistakes you
may have made,
and may make in the future are all
forgiven.
He says, should I not be a?
Should I not be a a a a
grateful slave?
And and
this is this is the that reverence of
subhanahu wa ta'ala. Right? He says, others take
no thought and reward and punishment to the
next world, any more than they do of
ostentation or reputation in this world, but act
solely for reverence of the commandments of Allah
The person
is aware of Allah's presence and does it
because he's he's the rabbi and and and,
we're the slave, and that's it. You know,
Allah deserves to be obeyed because of who
he is.
If all the world acted with the veracity
of Abu Bakr, the gain would be wholly
theirs. And if all the world acted with
the falsehood of Firoun,
the loss would be wholly theirs as god
has said. If you do good, it is
to yourselves, and if you do evil, it
is to yourselves. And also, whoever exerts himself
does so for his own advantage,
Verily Allah is independent, of created things. They
seek, for themselves an everlasting kingdom, and they
say we're working for the sake of Allah.
But do tread to but to tread the
path of love is a different things is
a different thing. Lovers in fulfilling the divine
commandment
regard only the accomplishment of the beloved's will
and have no eyes for anything else. This,
a similar topic will be,
addressed,
on the chapter with regards to Ikhlas.
And,
I wanted to read one more entry.
Gorgani, Gorgan,
I guess in in in Arabic is
usually rendered as.
Is,
one of the great,
of of Tasawwuf. His name is a prominent
name on
the Shajar of the Najbandis,
except for this book is written before Bahadih
Najband was born.
So that's why he's not mentioned, as that
in the book, but his name is an
important name. A number of the the the
people who we read are the,
their names appear in the the different
the different
the different, like, initiatic chains of the different
turoq, except for this book was written before
those turoq took the name that we're familiar
with by this day.
So it's Abu Qasim Abdul Ali bin Abdulal
Gorgani. And so this is a unique entry.
Why?
Because the author actually met him.
And out of all the, he's probably the
one who he considers to be his Sheikh
the most out of all of them, if
you listen to the the way he phrases
him.
In his time, so he says so he
says,
May God prolong his life for the benefit
of us and all the Muslims.
In his time, he was unique and incomparable.
His beginning was very excellent and strong, and
his journeys were performed with
complete and punctilious
observance of the sacred law. Thank you, Nicholson,
for some
little dig throwing a little dictionary up in
there. The source up in there.
At the time,
the hearts, of all initiates,
were turned toward him. And all seekers, Taliban,
obviously, Taliban means something very different in this
context than than than what it does on
CNN. So all the seekers, the Taliban had
a,
a firm belief in him. He possessed a
marvelous power of revealing the inward experiences of
novices,
and he was learned in the various branches
of knowledge. Meaning what he,
he he knew he knew what the the
the the the people who came to him
for his for their Islam. He could see
what was going on with them very clearly.
All his disciples are ornaments of the societies
in which they move. There are some people
like that also, some you can tell that
whoever took from somebody, wherever they go, they
bring benefit.
And that itself is a sign of Allah's
his acceptance of their Sheikh.
Please God, he will have an excellent successor
whose authority the whole body of Sufis will
recognize, namely Abu
Ali, al Fadl ibn Muhammad al Farmadi,
may Allah lengthen his days, who, has not
admitted to fulfill his duty toward his master
and has turned his back on all worldly
things.
And through, the blessings,
of that renunciation has been made by God,
the spiritual mouthpiece of the venerable sheikh, his
zabani hal,
the one who
is the tarjuman, the translator of the halal
of his sheikh.
One day, I was seated in this this
is great. This is one of the things
that,
you have to love about actually, Nicholson even
even,
mentions this, that he's he's very, humble man.
And oftentimes, he'll teach a tell a story
or teach a principle at the expense of
his own nafs. He's not, like, pretentious show
off guy. So the Nicholson gets a real
chuckle out. Even though, Niski Niani Nicholson,
had he died on Iman, maybe he would
have also had a high maqam just for
this translation.
Is the king and he does what he
chooses. But,
Nicholson actually,
chuckles about there's another story in the book
somewhere about where he talks about how his,
like, all of his zikr and maraqabat were
fudged up for, like, you know, so many
months because,
or for so many days because
he heard overheard one man talking about the
beauty of a woman to another man, and
he fell in love with this woman that
he'd never seen or heard before and just
couldn't get her out of his out of
his thoughts. So he's, like, a very humble
guy. Like, regular stuff happens to him, and,
he he talks about that. Right? So he's
he's gonna tell a story at his own
expense here. Don't take it as his feebleness
or whatever. It's just his humility,
Otherwise, he was also a great
Don't, you know, don't take his, his his
humility as
a sign of his, lack of status.
One day, I was seated in the sheikh's
presence. So he's saying about the sheikh Abu
Qasem Gorgani. So one day I was seated
in the sheikh's presence and was recounting,
to him my experiences and vision
in order that he might test them for
he had unrivaled skill in this that he
could, you know, assess what my my state
is. You know? So he's telling him all
his and
dreams and
that come over him and all this
great stuff. You know?
He was listening kindly to what I said.
The vanity and enthusiasm of youth made me
eager to relate those matters, and the thought
occurred to me that perhaps the sheikh and
his,
novitiate
did not meaning in in his his, like,
lack of experience,
didn't himself enjoy such experiences. Otherwise, he would
not have shown so much humility,
toward me, nor would he be so anxious
to hear about the about about my states.
Right?
He he said, the sheikh perceived what I
was thinking and said, my dear friend,
you must know that my humility is not
on account of you or your experiences,
but is shown toward him who brings the
experiences to pass. Otherwise, they're not peculiar to
yourself but common to all seekers of God.
This is something
I've I've seen I see I saw this
with my own Sheikh, Ramesh,
you know, that, when there's between
people, it's as if the sheikh can read
your mind. Allah knows best if you can
read your mind or not. I don't think
it's past the of some people, but it's
that question is kind of like not the
point.
Uh-uh sometimes sometimes someone knows through intuition, sometimes
maybe someone can read your mind. I I
remember sitting and asking questions in my head
and the sheikh will answer the question and
then I ask another one, and then
it's time for dinner. And then
I I I just sit at the dasirhan
with the sheikh, and, you know, I'm like,
I'm just thinking to myself, well, if you
really can read my mind, what should I
eat first, roti or jowl? And he's like,
you should eat jowl first because it's good
for your, you know, it's easier to digest
than the roti. And then at that point,
I just said, like, learn to shut up
every time, like, when I, you know, like,
shut up my mind, like, when I sit
with the sheikh. There's another rule for the
benefit of sukba. Right?
Is that if you're not concentrating, just sitting
in the with the sheikh is not of
any benefit.
Shut off all the clutter of your mind.
Think of thinking of other things while you're
there just like you're talking while while the
sheikh is talking.
Otherwise, you're not gonna get any benefit from
it. So he he says, my dear friend,
you must know that my humility is not
on account of you or your experiences, but
is shown to him who brings the experiences
to pass. Otherwise, they're not from peculiar to
yourself, but common to all seekers of god.
On hearing this, I was utterly taken aback.
He saw my confusion and said, oh, my
son, man has no further relation to this
path except for that when he's attached
deposed from it, he clothes his imagination and
words.
He says, oh, my son, man has no
further relation to this path except for that
when he's attached to it, he imagines that
he's the one who found it. And when
he's deposed from it, he clothed his imagination
and words.
Hence, both his negation and his affirmation,
both his nonexistence and existence are imagination.
Man never escapes from the prison of his
imagination. It behooves him to stand like a
slave at the door and put away
from himself every but every relation
except for that of manhood and obedience.
Manhood is what? That you discharge your responsibilities,
and obedience is what? That you do what
you're told. Other than that, all of the
other stuff you can put it to the
side, Mulvihaf is American citizen,
Pakistani, Iraqi, Sayed,
Sayed
is very impressive to me. It's very well
well, that's very impressive to me. What is
it to Allah? Right?
Right? In front of Allah, even Rasool Allah,
even that
court, they're they're you know what I mean?
They're they're themselves like, you know, like
in that court.
And the other than Allah gave him a
special on that day. Otherwise, he was the
most humble of them all. Right?
Sayed on
that day, there's nothing
in in front of that court. Everybody is,
like, equals nothing.
He says he says, man never escapes us
from the prison of his imagination.
It behooves him to stand like a slave
at the door and put away from himself
every but every relation except for that of
manhood.
Meaning, what? Discharge your responsibilities,
and obedience that we hear and we obey.
Afterward, I had a much spiritual conversation with
him. But if I were to enter upon
the task of setting forth his extraordinary powers,
my purpose would be defeated.
Allah
give us
standing with manhood and slavehood in the court
of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah strengthen our
backs and make them straight in order to
be able to stand. Allah gave us the
tawfiq of meeting His people that He loves
and benefiting from them, in this world and
the Hereafter.