Hamzah Wald Maqbul – 27 Ramadan 1441 Late Night Majlis Shah ‘Abd alQadir & Unity Addison 05202020
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AI: Transcript ©
So inshallah,
it's a Mubarak night hopefully.
Inshallah, people are engaged in their zikr and
in their duas and their entreaties to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
You
are the one who forgives a complete forgiveness,
leaves behind no rancor ill will, and You
love that people should forgive,
like that. So forgive us like that, You
Allah. You Karim,
oh, the one who's the most generous
most generous of the generous and noble of
the noble.
I wanted to,
just share another anecdote,
maybe, hopefully, in order to get out some
catharsis from the,
the emotion of,
the firaq both of,
Hazrat, Alama Khaled Sab and
Mufti Pal and Puri Rahamu Muhlahu Tabar Khaw
Ta'ala exalt their their rank and all of
those pious people, who, pass away on iman.
And Allah make us amongst them. That one
day, I actually,
I went to him and I asked him
when he came
for permission to bail on America,
just to move to the Muslim world and,
you know, read my books and do my
thing over there and just be done.
And, it's funny because one very popular speaker
type person, you know, he once said to
me, he's like, well, you know,
you
know,
you know, it's good that thank God that
we're in America and we're not stuck in
the Muslim world. And I was like, I
don't even know what you're talking about. I
consider as a matter of akhida, the place
where the adhan is called and the place
where the galaaba of the people is for.
I don't care how many mosquitoes there are
and if there's power or no power or
whatever. I consider there to be a lot
of there. You know? I'm not trying say
anything bad about this place. I'm just where
we're from and stuff. But, like, you know,
I I would rather I'd rather hear the
adhan than, be able to buy, I don't
know, like,
30 flavors of ice cream,
at the shopping mall or whatever. You know,
whatever blessings there are in this place.
So,
I I was kinda hoping that he would
say yes, you know, like, you know, there's
khair in that, and he said no.
And
I tried to argue with him. I said,
Hazrat, but, you know, Imam Malik, his Aslan,
he says that,
he says that, you know, a person shouldn't
live in Dar al Kufr, you know,
and, they should live in Dar al Islam.
He says
He says that the the the place where
the is living affects his. He's living in
Medina. Obviously, he's going to say that, and
he's going to be pro hijra, and there's
a hikmah in it.
And he he said, however, whatever the say
so if you read the books of Tariq,
wherever the Muslim armies of conquest went,
they found that there are already Muslims in
all of those places. And this indicates that
the Muslims went and, took the deen with
them and called the people to Allah,
wherever wherever they they went. And, he said
that, he said that my opinion is that
you should stay.
And I said, Mufti Saab, what about, you
know, because those were the days
of those were the days of the w
where our justice department was, you know, like,
trying to waterboard everyone and their uncle. And,
you know,
where, impunity was rife.
And all of it was focused on us.
See, nowadays, impunity is rife, but it's kind
of like in every direction, you know? But
in those days, the impunity was just doing
its warm up run, and we were the
the the the the scapegoat and the lab
rats for which it was gonna be tested
on. And before anyone cared about black lives
mattering or any of these other things, that
was a time when everyone was together and
beating up on us.
So I I I said, you know, the
war on whatever. And so I I
I asked him. I said, Sheikh, I go,
I feel, so overwhelmed. I go, this place,
we don't know what's gonna happen over here.
Maybe one of these days, one of these,
like, crazy Islamophobic people is going to use,
like, something
as an excuse and shut down all of
our masajid and shut down all of our
madaris and destroy all of the work that
we put in all this effort into building.
Whereas if we're in the dar of Islam,
it will be preserved.
And he looked at me very calmly and
he said, you know, those decisions, making those
decisions is Allah's job.
Doing this work is yours.
You do your work and let Allah do
his.
And, wow, you know, if there's ever something
that,
there's really no, no job to, there's no
response that you give. You just kinda shut
up and go about your your business then.
That was it.
So,
those are some of my memories of him.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala have mercy on him
and give him a high rank. May Allah
accept these efforts and I guess he walked
the walk also because the ulema who are
in India,
you know, if there's anybody who
it's immediately clear why,
they they might want to just bail and,
like, leave the 100 of millions of Muslims
behind and, make a life for themselves somewhere
safer and more comfortable than where they are.
I guess nowadays, we see that, you know,
he he like his sheikh before him, Mawlana
Saeed Hussain Ahmed Madani,
they made good with Wafaa to the Muslims
of, of India and stayed with them till
the end and didn't abandon them. Allah
give them a high rank and, for the
sake of their sacrifices
protect the work of Islam in in India
and in the Indian subcontinent
and, in the entire world, which is just
a a bigger expression of the same, of
the same tumult
and the same,
the same danger, that those Muslims are expressing
or are are are, experiencing right now.
So we continue with,
with,
the
story of Jalani
Shahadu Qadr spent 73 years of his life
in Baghdad.
When he came to Baghdad, the Khalifa,
Mustazir Billah,
Abul Abbas,
who reigned from 4 87 to 5 12
after Hijra was reigning,
the reigning monarch after whom 4 other,
Abbasid
Khalifas,
Mustarshid Billah,
5 12 to 5 29,
Arashid
deposed in 529,
and from 5:30 to 5:55,
and
from 555 to 565
all succeeded the throne one after the other.
This was one of the most troublesome times
of the, Abbasid rule when the Khalifas and
the Seljukid sultans
vied with one another for maintaining supremacy.
The former being shorn of their temporal power
were prevailed upon and sometimes with their permission
but not often through coercion by the Seljukid
Sultans to accept their *.
This also sometimes engulfed the Islamic world into
fratocidal
conflict
in which Muslims shed the blood of one
another
with. Several such incidents took place during the
reign of the, Khalifa Mustarshid.
He was a brave and wise administrator who
had won numerous battles was but was finally,
defeated by the Seljuk Sultan, Mas'ud in 5/29.
Ibn Kathir gives an account of the Khalifa's
defeat.
The Sultan Mas'ud gained victory and the Khalifa
al Mustarsid was taken prisoner.
Baghdad was ransacked
which plunged the city into sorrow.
The people dismantled the pulpits of the mosques
and gave up attending congregational prayers, and women
came out lamenting for the Khalifa and other
captives.
The people in other parts of the country
followed suit with the result that the Malik
Sanjar had to ask his nephew to rein
Khalifa.
Masood acted on the advice of his uncle,
but the Khalifa was assassinated by the emissaries
of the Ba'athinites or the assassins,
while he was on his way back to
Baghdad.
These heart rending incidents were witnessed by, Abdul
Qadr.
He saw the Muslims engaged in internal strife
and bloodshed.
The ghastliness of these feuds and forays, the
cruelty and savagery and treachery of those who
engaged in them, and the miseries they inflicted
upon their foes for the transitory pleasures of
power, position, and riches made him extremely sad.
It is true that he had nothing to
do with these struggles for power. He was
never the nevertheless alive,
to the miseries inflicted on the people and
the evil effects of the unsettled conditions during
his times.
Through his sermons, therefore, he endeavored with seriousness
of purpose and ardent zeal characteristic
of him to give a call to the
moral propriety and rectitude of the self. He
visibly explained the transitory nature of the world
and its fleeting pleasures and the need
for coveting eternal bliss and preparing for the
life to come and the importance of evoking
faith and correct mental attitude consisting of right
conduct and speech, livelihood, and ethical behavior.
And, you know, this is not at all
disconnected from, you know, some of the states
that we mentioned
of, the in
the biographical look at Imam
Ghazali, but it's interesting that Imam Ghazali was
more pointed in his critiques of the the
the elites both intellectually
and temporarily,
whereas, was,
you know, concerned with preserving the amount of
the of the rank and file of the
masses.
The sermons of Shabdul Qadr.
The discourses of Shadr had a magnetic effect
which is still discernible in them.
He is at his best in his
in describing the love and unity of the
divine being, he appears to be inspired by
higher sources.
The reader can still find the spirit of
sincerity and enthusiasm running through these sermons.
Following in the footsteps of the messenger of
Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, his successors,
and the illuminated saints of old, Abdelkader touched
on the current problems of his day,
analyzed the reasons for the miseries and maladies
of the people, and provided answers to their
doubts and deficiencies.
Along with this, the tremendous sincerity and earnest
zeal for the welfare of the people fired
his haranguing with a frenzy of enthusiasm
and magnetic effect capable of pulling the strings
of the heart.
The forces of worldliness had become so strong
during Shab al Qadr's time that the entire
social and economic life of the community appeared
to be woven into the context of political
situation than obtaining.
People had developed a tendency of depending upon
kings and noble nobles for the realization of
their worldly ends and had begun to treat
began to treat them as,
ultimate dispensers of benefit and harm. In order
to counteract this mistaken tendency of the people,
he says in one of his sermons, quote,
the entire creation is like a man who
has been imprisoned and chained by a king
whose,
whose dominions are vast and countenance is awesome.
The prisoner
has been hanged from a pine tree
beneath which flow flows a river wide and
deep. The king is seated on an elevated
chair having arrows and bows, javelins, and spears
by his side.
He hits the captive with whatever weapon he
desires.
Now would it be prudent for anyone witnessing
this scene to divert his attention from the
king and expect harm or favor from the
captive instead of the king?
Would not such a man be deemed a
fool or even mad? Oh Allah, I seek
refuge from blindness after having been given eyes,
from being cast off after having gotten near,
to you, from regression after having been promoted
to your favor and from being misled after
obtaining your guidance and from apostasy after having
granted faith.
In another sermon, he asked to instill the
love of god to the exclusion of everything
beside him.
He says, keep your eyes fixed on him.
Who is looking at you? Keep yourself before
one who keeps himself before you. Love him
who loves you.
Heark unto him, and the him here being
with a capital h, heark unto him who
calls you.
Seek help from him who can save you.
Take you out of the darkness,
of ignorance. Cleanse you of the impurity of
your soul and redeem you from the baser
self and misleading temptations, despair, and timidity.
Your earthly desires are like your foolish friends
who keep you off the righteous path and
deprive you from
those things pleasing and desirable.
How long would you remain slaves of your
desires, temptations, greed, pride? In short, all of
this transitory world.
How long would you remain forgetful of the
hereafter and of your creator and fashioner of
everything,
the first and the last, the manifest and
the hitting hidden?
Everything is couched within his grasp from which
emanates the love within your heart,
the peace and solace and blessings and favors.
Again, he throws light on the same topic
in another lecture.
Quote, the entire creation is helpless. Nothing can
do good or harm to you. It is
only God who lets a thing be done
by you. Or in other words, the will
of God finds expression through you or someone
else.
God has already destined whatever is to happen
to you whether it be beneficial or harmful
and destiny cannot be changed.
Those who are faithful and virtuous set an
example unto other creations.
There are a few amongst those who have
so purified their heart that their interior and
exterior selves have become 1.
Even if they have riches, their desires never
seethed with the worldly attachment.
Verily only those are courageous, valiant, and powerful
who have purified their hearts and attained the
stage of illumination.
Unto these alone belong the kingdom of heaven
and earth for they have cleansed their heart
of everything save Allah.
They are like a soldier who guards the
door of his heart with the saber of
tawhid, unity,
and the the sharia in his hand
to bar the entry of all creation and
to place,
to a place reserved for the creator.
Since they have attuned their hearts to the
ultimate source of power, the Sharia
beautifies their exterior while Tawhid and the wisdom
of God's knowledge decorate their interior.
Explaining what is meant by the false objects
of worship, he explains,
you put your trust in your own self
in others,
in your wealth, in your rights and customs,
in your trade and business, or in your
rulers.
But whatever object you place your reliance upon,
it becomes, to say the truth,
your object of worship.
If you fear someone or expect harm or
favor from him or deem him as an
intercessor with God, then he is the object
of worship for you.
On another occasion, Shabd al Qadr vividly
describes the jealousy and pride of God and
His abhorrence of all associates.
And also the wisdom lying behind the loss
of things, so adored by man. Quote,
you often complain as you would ever do
that you have to suffer the loss of
whatever you set your affections on.
The object of your fancy, if it is
a human being, either separates or dies. If
it is wealth
that you care for,
you incur losses and are deprived of it.
Then should I tell you that God is
in love with you and that he is
jealous too? He has created you for himself,
but you want to be enraptured by others.
Have you not heard what God has said?
He holds them dear, who love him. And
also he says I created the jinn and
mankind
only that they may worship me.
And are you not aware of what the
prophet Sallallahu Alaihi wa Salam once said?
When God loves anyone, he places him in
trouble. But if he puts up with it
with endurance and forbearance, God sets him apart
for himself.
Requested to elucidate what he meant by setting
apart
a man, the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
replied, God deprives him of his possessions and
progeny.
This is so because it is natural for
a man to love his offspring and possessions
and thus his love which should have been
for God alone is divided between the creator
and the created between the eternal and the
finite.
God, however, is extremely proud and mighty and
therefore, he destroys whatever threatens to become an
associate and, the love for him.
It is only then that the heart of
the man whom he loves gets attuned to
him. And then this man can claim to
enjoy the distinction of what has been described
by God as he holds them dear who
love him.
It is the stage when the heart of
the man is cleansed of all idols and
associates,
with God such as offspring, riches, pleasures, and
desires.
It has now no yearning,
no longing left, worldly or otherwise.
Not even those relating to piety and miraculous
powers, stations, and states, nearness and remoteness,
the heart becomes a bottomless vessel in which
nothing can be kept. God Almighty being extremely
proud and jealous makes the heart of his
beloved incapable of nourishing any other desire.
He shrouds the heart of his devotee with
his awe and a grasp of a a
gasp of admiration
and guards it with his glory and might
so that nothing can get inside this heart
nor can possessions and riches, family and progeny,
friends and relations, piety and miraculous powers do
any harm to it.
None of these find a place in the
heart of such a man
nor then, a god remains jealous of them.
Whatever is granted thereafter to this man is
a gift or reward from his god so
that he may be of help to those
who are around him or visit him.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give us the love
of such a noble state and such a
lofty state.
So many people when they hear it
because of their weak imam, they shudder.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala forgive us.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala give us the himna
to see something greater than the things that
we chase after.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, indeed has come
to you a righteous exhortation
from your Lord
and,
a
cure for the sickness of the hearts
and a guidance
and a mercy for the believers.
Say, Muhammad Alaykhi Salatu Salaam
for the fadhu of Allah,
for the
grace of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, for that
gift that, he gave
that we did nothing to earn and that
gift that he gave that we can do
nothing to ever repay. Say
because of the father of Allah and because
of his mercy, let them rejoice for it.
It
is better than the things that that that
they spend their time gathering.
Allah
emancipate us from the shackles of these worldly
desires
and give us,
give us the desire for
him. And may Allah emancipate us from the
shackles of these worldly loves
and give us the one true love, that
love that never dies, that love that never
fails, that love which is happiness and honor
in this world and,
eternal bliss in the hereafter.
Allah
Allah make us amongst those from his creation
that he reserves for him or at least
give us the himma to acknowledge that such
a dua would be a good one if
we had the courage to make it.