Hamzah Wald Maqbul – 12 1440 Ramadn Late Night Majlis Mujaaddids Letter and Ibrahim b Adham and the Monk 05162019
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
So today, I wanted to read a little
bit from a different book.
This is a gift that was given to
me by Milana Tamim,
in California,
and the name of the book is,
the, the life of the hearts,
in the pleasure of the beloved.
And it is a,
a a compilation
by Moana Kamrozaman,
Ilahabadi.
Allah protect him and give him long life.
One of the preeminent masha'i of tariqa in
the Indian subcontinent,
and excellent representative of, the tariqa of Moana
Ashraf Ali Khanug
translated
by Moana Muhammad,
a veteran translator from South Africa. So the
whole book, the the the the the reason
for the writing of the book is that
there is
a statement that, Shah Abdul Aziz,
the son of makes
that, he says that this is what we
what what we learn as a summary or
of the tariqah from our elders and the
the the Nakshbandi tariqah,
from the Hajj Gan
That, oh, my my my god,
you are my.
You are the thing that I seek,
and,
your pleasure is what I desire.
So give me your,
give me your your love, and let me
know you. Give me your your noses. Reveal
yourself to me.
And so this is a elegant summary of
what the the point of the tariqa is.
It has nothing to do with wearing a
particular type of clothing or tobi or, having
a particular type of or
or anything of the sort. Rather, Allah to
Allah, making him your and
making your desire in life that he should
be pleased with you in order that he
should give you from his love and give
you his,
his gnosis.
So it's a long book,
it's the translation comes up to some
over 550
pages or so,
but there are certain anecdotes from it that,
I wanted to share.
So tonight we, read
the Sheikh Mujadid al Thani
his advices to his sons,
and this has to do with the resignation
to the commandment of Allah
and holding his,
his rida, his pleasure as above all other
things.
The Mujadil al Thani is the Sheikh Ahmed
Sarhindi, Rahimu Wa Ta'ala, Uqaddas Allahu Sirabu.
And for those of you who are not
familiar with him, he's one of the epic
and legendary mashaikh of the tariqa
and ulama,
and guardians and defenders of Deen in the
Indian subcontinent.
Sarhend is a place which is not East
Punjab, it's in the Indian side of Punjab.
Unfortunately,
because of the violence of the partition, it
was abandoned otherwise. It was a great mark
of Din in the Indian subcontinent,
in pre partition times.
And,
he was
the one credited with establishing
the the,
Tarekha of the Nakshbandhis in the Indian subcontinent.
And to my knowledge,
all extent lines of the,
of the Nakshbandi tariqa go through him,
including in Turkey and in Central Asia and
the Caucasus, etcetera.
So he,
he was amongst other things, services he gave
to the dean. He was put through a
great fitna,
during his time that Akbar,
the,
young and upstart prince in order to
depose,
depose the courtiers who were running the court
because he received the,
he received the imperial scepter at a very
young age. He basically rebelled against everything,
that he could, and part of what he
rebelled against was Islam.
And, he had
a court,
His court,
a lackey,
scholars for dollars,
basically convinced him to start a new religion
which was a Dajalic syncretism
between
between a number of different religions in which
he propped himself up as god.
And,
Mujaddad al Thani was, at the forefront at,
at the forefront of basically contracting whatever propaganda
that they put out. And, because of that,
he he, spent a great amount of time
in jail. He spent a great amount of
his life in jail.
Sheikh Mujadid al Thani's advice to his sons.
The Mujadid, may Allah have mercy on him,
wrote a letter from prison to his sons,
Khaja Muhammad Saeed and Khaja Muhammad Masum
in which he instructed them to make a
habit of repeating the, shahad attained, the
He also ordered them not to make efforts
to obtain his release from prison. He gave
them a few other pieces of advice as
well. The letter reads as follow.
The letter reads as follows.
My dear sons, although a tribulation is very
bitter and unpalatable, it can be a great
boon. It can be a great
blessing. Now that you have the opportunity, remain
occupied with your work while expressing your gratitude
to Allah most high, and saying this, to
his sons while he's in prison.
Do not waste a single moment of opportunity.
There are 3 points.
1, reciting the Quran, 2, performing salat with
the rest lengthy recitations of the Quran,
and 3,
repeating the
shahada of
Any one of these 3 must always be
done. When you say La with
meditate and
concentrate,
in your heart that you reject everything other
than Allah reject all gods and repulse your
wants. So he says reject all gods and
repulse even your own desires in the saying
of that. Uh-uh,
because,
you're asking for your wants is also a
claim to Godhood.
Obviously, this is not like an Akhidah pronouncement.
You can't just say, oh look, you want
something, now you're a mushrik. But this is
a, an expression,
viewed to the prism of the that a
person who wants to purify their heart from
other than Allah
they use language like
this. Apart from and by the way, before
we move on, these these three things that
he mentioned, these are this is mentioned by
a number of the mashaikh,
That these are they are the the the
word of the tariqa. The tariqa to Allah
is 1,
in the Kasher al Mahjub also,
the sheikh Ali Hajwari has, like, a long
track in which he mentions that the names
of the different turoq are different and the
means may be different, but the the the
tariqa is is 1. So these are the
primary,
avakar and the primary,
of the tariqa, which is what
reciting the Quran, 2, performing salat,
in length with lengthy recitation of the Quran,
and 3, repeating the the shahad of La
ilaha illallah.
Shah Ismail Shahid Raheem
he mentions this. This is a summary of
the sufic maqam of the Sahaba used
to
pray,
pray, long prayers in which much Quran was
recited.
So Mujadid continues
apart from the time of tribulation,
your wants and desires come as obstacles.
Other than other than when you're in tribulation,
when you're doing well, your wants and desires
come as obstacles.
May Allah
keep you well and preserve from them. Whether
we meet again or not, my advice to
you is that you must have no want
or greed. No matter what happens, it is
through Allah's pleasure and His will.
In fact, even my release which has become
a major concern of yours should not become
an objective.
You must be fully pleased with the decree
of Allah Most High and His will. Explain
this theme clearly to your mother as well.
So it's not just like, you know, it's
not like just like late night majlis. I
mean, it's very real, when he's when he's
writing
this. The remaining conditions of this life are
not worthy of being noted because they are
bound to end. Be affectionate toward your juniors
and keep encouraging them to study. As far
as as possible,
keep those who have rights over us happy.
Worries about a dwelling, a well, an orchard,
or books are most insignificant.
They would have still,
they would have still,
met destruction,
if we had died. Now that they are
gone while we are alive, there's nothing to
worry about.
So he says what? He said, those things
were all gonna end anyway. So if they
happen to end in your life in front
of your eyes, don't worry about it. That
was what was gonna happen anyway.
The of Allah most high used to give
up these things of their own will, be
grateful that Allah has released these things from
us through His will.
No matter where you are, consider that,
consider that to be your home. No matter
where you are, consider that to be
your home. No matter where this few days
life is spent,
it must be spent in Allah's remembrance.
The affairs of this world are easy, Focus
more on the hereafter.
Constantly console your mother and encourage her toward
the hereafter.
If Allah most high wills, we all will
meet and if not, be happy with Allah's
decree and make dua that we are all
assembled together in one place in, Dua Salam,
meaning in Jannah, and that Allah Most High
through His kindness enables us to meet in
the hereafter as a compensation for our separation
in this world. All praise is due to
Allah Most High in every situation and condition,
and
so the letter ends. So
we see that the maqam of our elders
and our mashaif, it wasn't gotten for free
or through fancy words, rather it was through
sacrifice and it was through
carrying pain inside of their heart.
There's a hadith of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa
sallam
It's a hadith narrated by Saidna Abdullah bin
Mas'ud in the, in the, Sunun of Ibn
Majah
that the Messenger of Allah
said, whoever makes all of their worries,
and concerns, and pain, suffering, all of that
into one worry and one concern, which is
the worry and the concern of their akhira.
By the barakah of such a noble act,
Allah Ta'ala will take care of all their
other worries and constraints, And the one whose
worries and concerns are fractured, sometimes they're worried
about this, and sometimes they're worried about that.
It doesn't bother Allah Allah, you know, which
thing a person dies chasing after.
It doesn't bother Allah in the least whether
you die in his path or in another
path.
And we ask Allah for protection.
So this pain that they carried inside of
their heart, this dar, the word dar in
the in the Persian language something that's also
used in the the terminology of the Sufis.
This dard, to carry it is is is
a a mark of a person's ulaya. So
you see that Mujadid
whose sons themselves became great masha'ikh of the
Tarifa as well.
He carried this dar that he taught it
to his,
to his sons as well, that he's less
concerned with the with
the prison.
You know, we just read the Surah, Yusuf,
tonight in the Tarawiyyah,
and said in the Yusuf alaihis salam, he
said that he said,
That, oh my lord,
prison is more beloved to me than that
thing that that, these women are calling me
to because they're calling him to,
indecency.
And so, that's, that's one outward indecency.
But the the dar carrying the darz of
the dunya inside of your heart
is an indecency which, outstrips,
the the passion of zina and outstrips,
many of the bad deeds. That the heart
is there to house the dard of of
the remembrance of Allah
No matter what happens, a person should keep
that inside of their heart. And, this is
the the poverty of the age we live
in. It's not that the Muslims are weak,
and it's not that they are, few in
number, and it's not that they are,
it's not that they are
poor by any stretch of the imagination. We
have the most opulent and ridiculously wealthy countries,
and even in the quote unquote poor countries,
there's so much wealth.
It's not that politically,
they're they're, not sharp and skilled. Muslims are
running scams all over the world right now,
politically, economically, all sorts of hustles and deals
and whatnot are going all over the place.
You know, their their their capitals are hubs
of commerce, industry, travel, all of these other
things. But the dard is not there because
of which Allah has
made them look like a fancy appetizer,
for the wolves of this dunya.
The dar' is not there for political ascendency
or economic ascendency or military ascendency,
Rather, it's there to make you beloved to
Allah. After which, Allah takes care of your
problems in this world and the hereafter.
Sheikh Ubaidullah,
was known as Khaja Khurd,
the son of Khaja Baqi
Billah, Abd al Sheik Abdul Baqi, who was
the sheikh of Mujadib,
who came to the subcontinent
from,
from Central Asia and brought
the tariqa with him.
He said, Allah Most High, open the reality
of this verse to me.
That the truth has arrived and falsehood had
vanished.
Verily falsehood by its very nature is vanishing.
He adds that the seeker must read this
verse with his heart or with his tongue
or both.
And when he says, he should,
he should incline
his head toward his heart. And when he
says,
he flings his head as if to make
a gesture that, that the falsehood is being
thrown behind his back.
And this is the this is one of
the muraqabat of our elders.
The second story I wanted to share with
you tonight is that of Ibrahim ibn Adham,
learning recognition
from a monk.
Ibrahim ibn Adham, for those of you who
are not familiar, his Tabaka was covered, I
think 2 years ago in the
in the,
Tazgiram Masai Chesh.
His name is in the
of the Tarikhat Chishtiya, and he's a universally
recognized and celebrated,
sheikh of the spiritual path in Islam.
Ibrahim bin Adham
said, I learned recognition,
from a Christian monk whose name was Abu
Saman.
He had discarded this world and used to
live in a forest hungry and thirsty for
a long period of time. The monk story
is one of admonition
and astonishment.
Ibrahim bin Adham
continues,
I asked the monk, since when are you
living here? He replied, I'm living in this
monastery for the past 70 years.
I asked, what do you eat? He replied,
I eat just 1 chickpea every night. In
other words, just one chickpea a day. I
said a single chickpea is very little. How
do you make do with such little food
and what is the reason for this?
He replied, can you see those houses in
the distance?
I replied, yes. He said, the residents of
that place come once a year to my
monastery and they decorate it and they make
tawaf, they circumambulate
around it,
out of love and respect for me. Whenever
myself finds burden,
in engaging in worship, I remind myself of
that single hour in the year, which people
pay their respect to me. Thus, I bear
the hardships of the entire year for that
single hour of respect.
Oh, my Muslim brother,
in this one hour of this world,
one's entire life is as if it's an
hour. In this one hour of this world,
you must bear the pain and hardship,
for the eternal life of the Afira.
Ibrahim adhab said, The advice of this monk
created in my heart,
the greatness of recognition of Allah
The foundation of the story is that the
monk discarded the world and engaged in worship
according to the Christian religion by day night
and remained hungry for the entire year and
ate just one chickpea a day because the
Christian people used to assemble in his monastery
only once a year to pay their respects
to him and make tawaf,
of his monastery out of love for him.
The meeting used to last for an hour
or 2. Thus, do we see the monk
bearing hardships and difficulties for the entire year
merely for this annual meeting? Look at how
valuable this piece of advice which he gave
Ibrahim and Adham Ibrahim of Allah. Ibrahim, you
are Muslim and you believe in the eternal
joy and honor of the hereafter.
Therefore, oh Muslim, take lesson from my condition.
In order to enjoy the eternal honor and
unending joy of the hereafter, you must be
willing to engage in Allah's worship and his
remembrance
and bear the hardships,
of discarding the enjoyments of this world. This
worldly life is extremely short, and it will
pass like a single hour after which you
will acquire eternal joy.
So this is what this is the opposite
that that the monk is
bearing hardship for the year for an hour
of joy, and Allah offers you what the
the entire year of meaning eternity of of
of of joy for what for 1 hour
of hardship.
Ibrahim bin Adam continues, The
monk Abu Sam'an said to me, I would
like to apprise my people about your honor
and greatness through additional information.
He then asked me, to go down and
stand on the spot from which I could
see the people, from a distance.
I descended from the monastery and stood on
a certain spot. The monk lowered his pitcher
toward me. It contained 20 chickpeas, and he
said to me, go toward those houses because
the people there saw what I lowered to
you.
When I went to the locality, the people
said to me, oh, Muslim brother, what did
our monk give you when he lowered his
pitcher to you? I informed them that he
20 chickpeas in the pitcher and lowered
it. They asked, what are you going to
do with it? We have more right to
to it over more right over it than
you. Tell us your price and we'll pay
you for it. I said 20 dinars. So
dinars is like, what, like a $150 worth
of gold or so? This is 20 dinars.
They paid me
20, the 20 dinars and,
I bought the chickpeas from me. Ibrahim Al
Adham continues, When I went back to the
monk, he asked, O Muslim brother, what did
you do with those chickpeas? I replied, They
believed your chickpeas were blessed and therefore paid
me 20 dinars for them.
The monk said, you made a mistake. Had
you asked 20,000 dinars for the those chickpeas,
they would have paid you. This is the
honor Allah accorded, to the one who does
not worship him. What then, can be said
of the one who worships him? Oh Muslim,
turn your attention to Allah and worship him,
and give up moving around pointlessly. Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
give us tawfiq. Allah
Allah, through the
of our elders and our and
their sacrifices,
and their vigilance, and their
and their
give us a tawfiq that we should die
with
in our tongues.
If it's overwhelming,
then,
you know, get in line, we're all overwhelmed
by it. But, at least through the love
of the people who Allah loved, a person
can be saved.
And while the rest of the people are
watching TV, at home, they're not going to,
they're not gonna have that honor.