Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Reflections From Istanbul 04042017
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AI: Transcript ©
And blessings be upon his servant and messenger,
Sayyidina Muhammad
the one who was sent as a mercy
to
not just the Muslims,
not just to mankind, but to all of
the worlds.
May the peace and blessings of Allah
be upon him and upon his
companions,
the
lamps of guidance
who
exclusively and without exception are the only ones
who hold
the
key to
the path
of
happiness and exception,
and the
blessed and Mubarak family and progeny of the
prophet
and his pure wives were the mothers of
the believers.
I'm speaking to you right now from
the Fati
district
of Istanbul
named after Sultan Mohammed Fatih,
about whom
the messenger of Allah
said
in the hadith narrated by
Imam,
Ahmed Bilhamdul and his
Musnad.
That one day, this Constantinople
will be
opened
for the believers,
and what a wonderful commander will that commander
be, and what a wonderful
army will that army be.
Very rare is that that somebody has the
good fortune to be mentioned after so many
intervening centuries and generations by
the Messenger of Allah sallallahu
alaihi wasallam.
And indeed, there's a very rare type of
barakah and blessing in this neighborhood,
and, you know, you can feel it. It's
very tangible. And I'm saying this after having
come back,
yesterday from Madinah Munawara,
which is, of course, the mamba, the wellspring
of
Barakah, not just in the world, but in
the universe.
And it is
a garden from the gardens of Jannah,
and in its
is the
of the Conan and the
the fasara
of the,
the pride and the joy of
this world and the hereafter of the incident
and the jinn,
and the the pride and joy of existence
itself.
The beloved of Allah
Obviously,
I say this,
you know, I say this
not to try to compare the 2 of
them, but to say that
you can feel
the thicker,
the deep reflection,
the thought processes,
the dhikr,
the remembrance of Allah, the mujahhadat,
the struggling
against the nafs
and the other obstacles and impediments,
in life,
the struggling against,
you know,
complacency,
in order to live a purpose led life,
a life that has some sort of meaning,
a life that has some sort of goal.
You can feel the
the the barakah of
literally generations after generations, entire generations after generations,
taking the deen as far as they could
and then passing the baton to the next
generation who also took the deen as far
as they could.
You feel the the the warmth, the spiritual
warmth of,
of all of that here by Allah to
Allah's Fable. And and so there's a connection
between the 2 of them.
You know, there's not a comparison between the
2 of them, but there's definitely a connection
between the 2 of them.
And I wanted to share some of the
things that
I heard from some of the different olema
that I've met over here and in other
places as well.
So
I met,
the sheikh,
Youssef Khabakji,
who
is
he was actually in America for quite some
time. He was the imam of the Richardson
Masjid
in
in in Dallas in the Greater Dallas area.
And, you know, I'd met him once before,
but I never really got a chance to
sit down and talk with him. He was
in a very open mood and and and
and seemed like to be in a,
in a hollow bust of ex you know,
expansiveness.
And so he told a number of things,
Masha'Allah, about his teachers.
I really I never I had no idea,
Masha'Allah, that he,
Masha'allah, was fluent in Persian.
He studied the Masnavi of Mulan Arumi from
one of the last Masnavi Khans in the
Fatih Masjid itself.
Masnavi Khan was the title given to a
person who was an alum, a scholar of
deen.
They would receive a special training in the
Masnavi Mawlana Rumi, which is just a wellspring
of
of of of of the Sunni tradition,
of the Sunni Muslim tradition. It's really painful
to see
how Mawlana Rumi, who was a Hanafi Fari
and a man of the Sharia, literally, he
made a living by the Sharia,
and he,
you know, his writing so clearly advocate,
the way brought by Sayedham Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. And so painful to see people
kind of misappropriate it and, you know, make
it into kind of a
I don't know. Just some sort of, like,
a play thing that they can use its
chiseled aesthetic style
as
a kind of
a rent an image
type of,
plaything that they can
make it mean whatever they wish they wanted
to mean,
or so it seems.
But he actually read from from one of
the last surviving Mas'navi Khans,
at a really, really difficult time. He said
I was a Muslim in the Masjid
as a kid when
the the the the nationalist
and secularist government
forced,
forced the Adan to be called in Turkish.
He said, I called for years. I used
to call the Adan in Turkish. He said,
I was just a kid. I had a
very powerful and a very nice voice,
and, I didn't, you know, know any better.
So I went and called the Adan in
Turkish,
from the
from the, minarets,
and he said,
the used to tell me
they used to tell me that this is
not the adhan, what you're doing. So just
remember, it's not the adhan. Don't think of
it as the adhan. Rather, go up, and
when you say the line in Turkish
out loud, say quietly, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar.
And then when you say,
I
when you say
the
bear witness that there's no god except for
Allah in Turkish
and say
softly in Arabic.
That way you still give the adhan.
And imagine, you know, what that would have
meant, you know, to be alive at that
time.
To give you some sort of perspective, Adnan
Mendez, who was the
the prime minister who repealed the
law forcing the Adan to be
called in Turkish
was almost immediately deposed by a military
coup and hung.
I mean, they literally kill he was the
prime minister and they killed him for for
saying the other. So imagine what a time
it was and what the emotion and the
feeling
and the connection with the deen and the
sunnah of say the Nabi sallallahu alaihi wasallam
would have been
for the you're gonna tell this kid that
look, okay, go up there and do whatever,
you know, thing they they tell you to
do.
But don't forget, you know, that this is
not this is not our deen. Don't forget
to say the adhan at least quietly if
you cannot say it out loud.
And,
you know, he gave he gave a number
of just amazing stories because that that time
was so
I mean, it was just so difficult. It
must have been such a
a struggle for people and how these, you
know, people held on held firmly to the
dean.
He said that there were
there were a number of people who later
on went to be, you know, a very
powerful
people in Turkish society.
Amongst them,
Najibuddin Erba Khan, amongst them a number of,
of people who kinda
played a real important role in bringing, the
dean back into
acceptance and and pop in the public sphere,
if not into prominence in the public sphere.
He said, these these,
people, they were
high school boys from Anatolia, from the backwoods,
the backwaters
that came to Istanbul to study in university.
And so he said there was a a
sheikh of the
of the, Nakshbandi Tariqa.
His name was Hasib Afande.
So Hasib Afande was appointed the imam
in the German school.
And so these these, these boys from the
village, he said many of them many of
the people, you know, who studied there obviously
didn't pray. It was a kind of a
westernized place to study. And so he said
that
that that the Imam saw 2 boys from
from Anatolia, from the backwaters,
and they got up and ran off without
praying their sunnah. They prayed their father and
they bounced.
And,
he said he caught up to one of
them and said, what's going on? They said,
well, we have classes. We can't miss them.
And so what happened was one of them,
stopped coming, and so,
he asked the other one, where is that
where where is that your your friend who
was praying?
And, he said,
he said he said he's moving. He's moving
from
Bayezid to Aksaray.
And in those days, you had to move
your furniture, everything. You just pack it up
on your back and go. There's no elevators.
You may be up on the 5th floor.
If you don't know anybody, it's it's kind
of a long slug.
So
he said, take me to him. And so
he went to his old apartment in Bayezid,
and he's he he went up the stairs
and literally
grabbed the the man's bed. He said that
this Hasiba Fundy was like a a big
guy. He was like a like a wrestler,
like you know? But he was an old
man, white beard, but he's tough.
And so he says that he says that
the the the the 2 boys were in
shock and they didn't know what to do,
that this,
Imam and Alem
was
there and he
showed concern for them and he said, you
know,
don't worry. I'll help you move.
And they said, no. No. No. Don't take
anything.
And, he he he just picked up the
heaviest thing, which was the bed. It was
put into pieces and packed up. And, he
just picked it up and said, well, I'm
going with it. Let's go. And he goes
down the stairs, and he's walking through, you
know, from Bayezid to Aksaray,
and the businessmen are all you know, they
see they see this going on and they're
saying that, you know, it's White Beard, old
old,
sheikh,
and they're they're saying, what are you doing?
Let me take it. Let me take it.
He says no. He refuses,
to let them take, anything, and and this
kid is not able to even to pick
up anything that heavy.
And, he's just following and and not able
to keep up with him. And literally, the
sheikh, Yusuf, he got up. I mean, he
was so emotion he was so mood with
emotion
remembering. He's remember he's over 80 he's, you
know, 80 years old or so. And he
was so moved with emotion. He stood up.
He literally stood up and looked me in
the eye. He said, tell me who's a
sheikh like this sheikh?
Who's a sheikh like this sheikh? And
I just, you know,
I don't know, man. It was it was
very overwhelming because,
yeah, there's a there's a lot
there's a lot in our tradition to live
up to.
I guess all of us all of us,
you know, myself and
and, you know, starting from
the person who's a simple Musali in the
Masjid, you know, going all the way through
other people who, you know, spend a significant
amount of time
seeking knowledge or doing service for,
the dean. And, you know,
we we may complain about a lot of
things, but, like,
you know, to
literally go and move,
you know, do something like that in your
old age and to humble yourself
just in order that a person should, you
know, come back to the masjid and just
start praying again.
He looked at me. He says, who's a
sheikh like that sheikh? Who's gonna be, you
know, who's gonna be a man of the
tarik? I said, these people were men.
He said, these people were men. He repeated
it again and again. Who's gonna be a
man like that?
And I I was I was just really
overwhelmed. And the thing is when you see
these snapshots, you know, these little pictures, it's
not like
this these are not like stories from the
distant past. They're from the near past. And
then you realize that this Deen, in order
for it to come forth overwhelm, you know,
all of this kind of nafs and hawa
and kufr and, you know, greed and
selfishness and envy and
and and, you know, materialism and all this
other stuff that the dean is is competing
against,
you know, with
mediocre means and mediocre,
things at their disposal.
It comes from, like, just these these people
who are these, like, really,
like, mountain like people.
And the amount of effort they they put
and the amount of effort they they they
consider to be worthwhile,
you know,
just for something that, you know, people people
people regular people think is not really a
big deal, like, just to bring this kid
to come back to the master and
pray. It's amazing. And look at the barakat.
I mean, these are people literally that they
they for lack of a better way of
saying it, they grew up and they brought
the deen back to back to this land
after its darkest and most, like,
just like fanatically
secularist days. And when I say secularist, I'm
not talking about, oh, we don't want religion
in the public sphere. I'm talking about people
who literally wanted to annihilate and eradicate religion,
period.
Some people whose religion is like anti religiosity
and who pair like have a paradoxical paradoxically
fanatical
worldview,
for people who claim that they don't like
religion.
So he told he told a number of
stories like that. He told a story about
how he was
looked down upon by an Alem from, some
part of the Arab world.
And and and,
he said
that he said that this Alem, you know,
he he he kind of, you know,
ignored me, overlooked me. And so I I
thought to myself,
I'm, you know, I'm nothing
but my teachers, they were something.
And I owe it to them you know
that that that we should represent this ilm.
So he said when that that that sheikh
was giving a speech and he quoted
an ayah wrong, I corrected him.
And he said that later in his speech
when he made certain grammar grammatical mistakes in
his in his speech, I corrected him. And
then at that point he said, okay.
This is a person who has knowledge.
That in and of itself, I mean, those
are day to day type things. Maybe a
person who's not a student of knowledge won't
understand.
Masha'Allah,
knowledge is a type of kingship, in and
of itself.
And, the people who,
are obsessed with it,
these things, they kinda take on a life
of their own, maybe in a way that
maybe almost off putting to a person who
doesn't understand. But,
that's not really the point of bringing it
up. The thing that I that I thought
was that that I felt was really deep
was he said this. He said that, you
know, I'm nothing, but my teachers were something.
He said, I'm nothing compared to my teachers.
They were they were like lions,
but I'm also like a baby lion.
So there's a hub for me to fulfill.
And I think, you know, maybe some people
might hear someone say something like that and
think, oh, well, that sounds kinda arrogant or
whatever. But it really it isn't.
What it is is the idea that there
are people who study from teachers,
and that study was
so personal and so deep.
Not just deep as in, like, profound in,
like, knowledge,
but deep as in, like,
it wasn't just information. It was something that
that reached through the mind, you know, and
and touched the heart,
and and changed lives and and altered people's
outlook that it was it was so deep
that he felt a responsibility
to
he felt a responsibility
to his teachers,
that that that his knowledge shouldn't go to
waste and that their knowledge shouldn't go to
waste as well, that it should be respected.
And that responsibility,
really, it's a burden that all of us
carry. And it's a secret of why, you
know, the the Saath and Salam and prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam is so important
because his sacrifices enabled the Sahaba radiAllahu ta'ala
on whom to be who they were.
Their sacrifices enabled the Tabireen to be who
they were. Their sacrifices enabled the Salaf Salih,
the Tabah Tabireen to be who they were.
That first set of generations collectively, they lived
Islam.
They their lives were Islam.
For them, Islam wasn't a book. It wasn't
Sahih Bukhari Sahih Muslim, the Muwata of Imam
Malik. It wasn't,
you know, even though Imam Malik was from
amongst them, but the book was
what you know, it was like the cart
that goes after the horse. Right? The they
they
they lived the deen. They were they were
the deen
of Islam,
incarnate
that that that walked through the streets
and that that lit up the earth like
lamps of guidance.
And and and, you know, we owe it
to them.
We owe the a lot to them. We
owe it to them because of their mujahada,
their sacrifices. They're praying for the entire night,
their abstinence from sin. You know, if someone
like myself or like you commit some sort
of sin, it's not I mean, we make
and we ask Allah for forgiveness. Those people,
if there are people who are as lax
and and and laxed as badly as we
did and as often as we did,
you know,
there wouldn't have been a deen.
And we owe it we we owe it
to them. We owe a lot to them.
We owe them so much that there's no
way we can ever repay, what they gave
us. We owe them so much that there's
no way they can ever repay what they
gave us.
And,
you know, it's something that that that that
deepens that realization deepens one's relationship with Allah
because
then you ask Allah from the depth of
your heart. You Allah, this person did something.
You know, you say that,
that the reward is, you know, should be
commensurate or of the same type as the
the deed was.
What do you how do you reward somebody
who gave you something that's literally not from
this world?
And the answer is that the reward is
also not from this world.
And it's it's only to be found in
the akhirah.
There's no reward in the dunya that that
can that can
compensate,
for somebody who who literally bought you life
itself,
who
gave your spirit life
and gave it a way of escaping,
you know,
a, you know, jail forever
and the hereafter
and a a a dark existence in this
world.
So that was that was really profound, you
know, to see that. And that's, like, such
a universal experience. I don't know that much
about,
you know, I I don't know that much
about the Ottoman scholarly history.
It's, you know, it's suffice to say it's,
you know, it's
a long time ago and it's a land
far away from anywhere that I studied,
regularly.
But, you know, to feel that kind of
common moment as as a young pup
and,
you know, and and with, you know, with
one of our elders
who is from, you know,
from such a different tradition ostensibly
and from so far away to have that
kind of common moment and just, you know,
kinda, like, totally get where where he was
coming from.
That was that was really powerful. It was
really moving
that that he had this this bond with
his.
And I don't know. Like, people, they take
it like a joke nowadays. You know? They
think like, oh, look. These are
mullahs are just, you know,
fanatical people are just tooting their own horn
and telling
hey, geographical stories,
you know, the tall tales about God knows
what and God knows when. And it's not
I mean, these are people who are telling
their own
genuine feelings and their own history of what
they went through and what they did.
And,
they they they inherited this feeling, this responsibility
of,
you know, of this responsibility toward Islam itself
that they that they got and they learned
from their masha'if.
And it's a responsibility that we hold,
or that we are you know, I wouldn't
say burden with. It's really it's not a
burden. It's it's an honor. It's a responsibility
that we're honored with. You know, burden is
like what? Go take out the trash. That's
a burden.
If somebody says to you, here's the keys
of the Kaaba,
you keep them safe. That's a responsibility, but
it's an honor.
This is an honor greater this you know,
just the fact that you and I read
Fatiha. It's an honor greater than than if
Allah had entrusted us with the keys to
the Kaaba. In as much as
the Fatiha is,
part of revelation,
the keys if you lose them, they can
be made
again. The Kaaba itself, the whole thing, Allah
protect
it and increase it in its honor
and increase, you know, the people and their
love for it.
But if Hudanah Hasdah,
God forbid anything were ever to happen to
it, we just get stone bricks and lay
them down again.
But this knowledge is is is such an
honor. It's such a responsibility. Allah described it
as, you know, that
that it's it's it's something that can rent
the mountains asunder.
But he gave it to us. And once
we have it in our hands, you know,
if we have any sort of rational rational
faculty, we'll say, like, oh my goodness. How
am I gonna discharge this responsibility? And the
fact and the answer to that is what?
The the same Allah who gave you the
responsibility,
he's the one who can he he can
give you the courage and give you the
strength and the patience and the resolve, the
der determination,
the the capacity to just bear struggle. He
can give you all those things
in order to in order to,
in order to fulfill
that responsibility as well.
So that was,
you know, these are just kind kinda some
glimpses of
of of what was a long
sitting with all sorts of stories of the
past,
peppered with
witty anecdotes and,
eloquent,
bits of Persian poetry
and references to,
different books of knowledge and and reading those
different books of knowledge
that that that happened today. And I feel
very enriched and I feel very
happy.
And,
I feel like
a lot
of camaraderie or,
I wouldn't say camaraderie. These are our elders,
but at least I feel some sort of
link, you know, that transcends
time and place.
And actually, it's interesting. Sheikh, he said this
a couple of times, and I felt very
honored by it. Allah
Allah give him long life. He said, look,
you and me are mullahs,
so we think differently. There's some other people
in the majlis. He pointed at them. He
said, we think differently than them. We behave
differently than them.
Although I feel myself very unworthy,
but, it was it was it was it
was nice to have that that that that
that that that bridge, you know, from one
place to the other. Allah
give the best the best jazah and the
best reward,
of goodness in this world and the hereafter
to all those people who carry deen to
us. We should also sit for 5 minutes
and think about who carried Deen to us.
Whether it's, you know, our Maktab teacher who
taught us Alif Batatha
or the person who taught us wudu
or the person who taught us, you know,
how to pray or fast
or any of those things you should think
about or, you know, for those of us
who have, you know, some more training, you
know, who are who are who who the
ulama were, who taught us those things that
they taught us and just, you know, make
dua for them.
Even if, you know, you don't have to
make a YouTube video about it or whatever,
just make du'a for them when you get
a chance. They're really they're like your parents,
You know, they're like your spiritual parents. Your
parents
your, you know, biological parents gave you life
in this world, and your spiritual parents gave
you the life of the hereafter.
So when you make du'a for your parents,
which everyone should do
all the time, then also make du'a for
your mashaikh as well. And, you know, those
of you who have students,
when you make du'a for your children, may
du'a for your students as well that Allah
give give us the,
the the the himmah and the the courage
and the stamina and the resolve,
to whatever happens come what may,
you know, but keep carrying this
this amana and this trust forward
and, not not drop it. You know, he
said this. He said that, you know, it's
you take the baton, you go as far
as you can, and then you hand it
to somebody else.
These projects,
they they spent centuries sometimes.
Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, give us the ability
to
transmit the knowledge of this this this sacred
tradition
of this of this blessed Mubotic revelation
and and reward all those people from our
teachers, those we know, those we don't know,
those we appreciate properly, those we don't appreciate
properly, those who are, you know, just all
all of them and and those, you know,
that chain that binds us to the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, those generations that intervene
in the middle. Maybe those people, we don't
know their names and we don't know who
they are, but they're definitely receiving any good
from any, any reward from any good deed
that we that we any good deed that
we that we do. And,
You Muqdiama, Allah Ta'ala, you know, by his
Fadl and by his grace,
forgive us our sins and enter us into
Jannah. I would really love to see those
people.
I would love to see them more than
I would love to see Disneyland or go
on vacation in Hawaii or,
you know, you know, stay a night in
the whatever, Burj Al Arab, in Dubai or
any of those things. I would I would
I would love to to meet those people.
I would love to embrace them. I would
love to kiss them. I would love to
I I I would love to, just just
just, you know, it would be an honor
just for my eyes to see who are
these people,
you know, who who who so faithfully
and selflessly,
you know, carried this package for us.
The thing that they didn't really need to
do, but out of love,
you know, for the sake of Allah, just
like Rasoolullah salallahu alayhi wa sallam went to
the graveyard and and addressed
his
brothers, and and,
the pro the Sahaba radiallahu an whom asked
him, are we not your brothers?
Alaikas salatul salam? And he said, no, you're
my companions, but my brothers are those who
will come afterward
and they'll believe in me. And they they
even though they've never seen me, and they
would give anything that they had to to
be able to see me.
And there's a story mentioned of 1 of
the Oliyaba in the Kashel Mahjub
of,
the Sheikh Ali Hajwayi
that he said that there was one of
the one of the oliya, the way he
received his wilayah, he was a an extremely
rich merchant, I think in Ray,
or in in Nishapur not sorry. Not in
Nishapur and Ray,
in Iran, I believe.
And he
he heard of a person,
he heard a person who was in possession
of a hair of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam.
And,
he just captured his
fascination so much
that he
he he he asked he went and found
that man and he asked them, you know,
because he's a rich merchant. He asked him,
how much how much will he sell it
for?
And he says, I'll sell it for for
for everything you have.
And he just said, yeah. He just said,
you know, it just that's he just said
he just went for it. He said, yes.
And that night, he saw
the messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in
a dream,
who told him that you you got, you
know, what you what you got, you got
it as a bargain. It was a steal.
You got something very valuable at a very
cheap price. And because of your love,
Allah
will crown you with with his wilayah.
And,
I mean,
I
I I thought about that story when I
read it. I thought, you know what? I
wonder if the hair was real and, like,
if it was even relevant. Because one thing
is, like, physical stuff.
Obviously, the the jasid Mubarak of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam is something sacred,
something sacred to to us.
But, you know, what's more profound than the
physical is the state of the heart that
that person must have had to just be
like, yeah. I'm gonna do this.
And although I'd you know, I don't
recommend that you
you know, part of the sun has moderation
as well. Sometimes, you know, for that person,
maybe he was spiritually and he was,
you know, in his heart, in in such
a state that that he that level of
sacrifice, he could take it.
But for other people, you know, just moderation.
Don't just jump into the deep end of
the pool before knowing whether you can swim
or not. But, the idea is like, you
know, that that
that love and that attraction, you know, for
the people who brought us Din,
that's literally the stuff of wilayah,
and that's the stuff that changes people's lives
for the better, and that's the stuff that
takes people out of despondency.
It's the stuff that takes people out of
hopelessness.
It's the stuff that takes people, you know,
to a better place,
inside,
no matter what's happening around.
You know, the Hasib offended the story about
it. Imagine these people saw, they went through
this rigorous system of preserving knowledge only to
see
the the the state collapse
in front of their eyes and and to
be despised for the thing that they should
have been praised for, But, like, still not
giving up, still still,
you know,
doing something,
you know, out of love for for those
who will come tomorrow,
You know,
just like those who came yesterday did for
them and that that they did they did
for us.
Like Rasulullah SAWSAW, the salaf did for us,
like all of these intervening
generations they did for us. So may Allah
reward
reward our masha'if. May Allah forgive me for
not,
for not living up to this high, high
standard that they set. May Allah
reward them
immensely
in this world and reward them infinitely in
the hereafter
And may Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala,
you know,
forgive us if nothing else because we were,
you know, we we're the ones who,
you know, their their their knowledge transmits through.
May Allah rectify our haal. If not for
our own sakes, then for their sakes. Just
so that we can
continue to transmit this deen and that their
reward can continue to be more and more
and more until the yomukriyama because they are
the ones who deserved it. They're the ones
who do deserve it. They're the ones who
will deserve it on the day of judgment.
And and people people
who come afterward,
really
anyone who is reasonable, not not even
not even, like, superintelligent, just reasonable
would,
would would feel that that would feel love
for them and would feel
awe and respect for them. Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala not let let us pass from this
world before we do
something for the for his Deen and for
those who come afterward.
Whether it be,
you know, whether it be, you know, something
that is,
you know, related to teaching, learning and teaching
knowledge or or, you know, helping the institutions
that do those things or at least remembering
those people and those institutions and one's du'as
everyday.
Or or just passing on their memory and
keeping their memory. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect
us
subhanahu wa ta'ala,
you know,
bless the Darul Islam. If not for anything
else, then for the sake of those people
who work to make it great.