Two Types of Guidance; Material and Heavenly

Two types of Guidance, Material & Heavenly from Sufi Meditation Center on Vimeo.
Two Types of Guidance; Material and Heavenly
 
From the Teachings of Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani
Shaykh Nurjan Mirahmadi
Sufi Meditation Center, Vancouver, BC

http://vimeo.com/37778375

 Always speaking to myself first, as a reminder for me, and if anyone takes
any benefit, then *alhamdulillah*. Mawlana Shaykh is reminding us that
there are two types of guidance in life; there are those who are
spiritually guided, enlightened people.

They inspire within us the desire to achieve realities upon the soul and
the dress upon the soul and to move towards our heavenly destination.

The other type of guidance, which is in the majority, also comes from good
people, we can’t say they are not enlightened, but they are not the same as
spiritual masters. The conquering of the ego and the opening of the faith
allows guidance towards humanity, to move towards your spiritual reality
and towards that which is eternal, leaving that which is perishable. The
focus is always upon the soul and less focus on the body and the bodily
needs because the body perishes and goes to the dirt. All that is achieved
for the body will be wasted; it is used for 70 years or for 80 or 90 years.
And after 70 years there is not much fun left in what you have achieved
anyway. The focus is on the reality of the soul; to achieve all that is
eternal, and the dressings and the blessings of guidance. *The other type
of advice in life leads us away from that which is eternal and that
guidance has to do with the body and the physicality; its physical desires
and physical achievements. *
 
With spiritual advice you have nothing to lose. Spiritual advisors and
guides come and teach and give missal (examples) and they teach you that,
“This material world with its money and its desires and achievements is not
going anywhere; and at any time if you don’t like your spiritual path, -
and you don’t want to achieve that reality upon your soul at some point - *then
the drugs are always there waiting and the night clubs are always open, the
shops or stores for purchases are always available.” It means that the
material world is not going anywhere and you will not miss anything*. So
their spiritual advice has little to know consequences. You follow it and
if you grow from it, *alhamdulillah*, and you find benefit in it, *
alhamdulillah*. If at any time you say, “O maybe I don’t want to be here,
or dress the reality of my soul,” all those desires and vices are open 24
hours and you can run to them and you have lost nothing.

For material people with non-enlightened guidance, it is always towards
material desires saying, “Leave that which is eternal,” because it is not
understood. They use the faculty of the mind instead of the reality of the
heart and they advice, “Why are you moving towards that which we don’t see,
and what we don’t understand. Why don’t you choose what is tangible which
we can feel by touching.” It means that they advice us to leave that which
is eternal and what benefits the soul, and choose the material. *The
consequence of that guidance is that you lose everything.* It’s not the
same. If somebody gives advice and he is not a spiritual advisor and you
hear their advice,

“Why do you have to do that? Why do you have to pray like that?

Why do you have to give like that?

Why do you have to be of service like that?

Why do you have to participate like that?” *And the guidance that they are
giving is to leave all that is eternal, and asking us to choose that which
is perishable; the material world*. *And that is the biggest loss which is
upon the soul. *
 
And if the Divine opens a Grant in which we find ourselves to be a seeker,
it means it’s not so cheap or easy where anybody out there on the street
finds himself to be a seeker of the Divine. It’s what we believe in and is
called *ne’mat*; it means the Divine throws a love within our heart, of His
Divine Presence. If that love is not there within the heart there is no way
you will find yourself seeking to sit in a circle with chanting. If that
love isn’t there, you wouldn’t seek out that reality. So then the Divine
throws that love within the soul,

“Seek Me out, come towards Me, I am providing an opening, an opportunity, a
grant, a lottery; take it and move towards My Reality, towards My Oceans of
Power and that which is eternal and I will Grant you that what you can
never imagine, it’s Eternity, it is *Da’im*; I will Grant you a Light that
will make your light to be eternal and you will eternally benefit from that
Reality.” It shows that there is a huge difference. (Spiritual) Guidance
comes and says, “Choose that and move towards that which is Eternal and
move into the Oceans of Faith,” and everything else says, “Leave that which
is Eternal and choose the material world. “ And every step you move towards
the material world you have moved a step away from your eternal reality.

If you keep stepping away until one day you find that door is shut. *It is
not like the material world where you can leave it and come back anytime*,
but for the spiritual one it is virtually impossible; if you step away and
step away and step away you find that door shut and the heart of certain
people – because we deal with people all the time- that when it shuts, and
they have stepped so far away, the opening has gone. And they no longer
find any interest in moving towards the reality of their soul; they find no
interest in anything to do with faith and it is as if they have walked away
from that opening. And that is a tremendous loss. *They Walked away from
Dhikr, from associations, from Blessings the Divine was Granting them, to
be of service to Pious Associations all closed....*

The Divine is saying, “You have sold yourself for a small price, you chose
that which is temporary and perishing,” [ They Chose Money over Ahkira] and
in the Divine Presence it *looks like garbage.* It means you have chosen to
stay within the prison and the confines of the prison, and its filthiness,
and “The gate that was open for you to escape and move into My Divinely
Presence, you have chosen to walk away from that.” And then one day that
door shuts and the gate is closed and *that servant no longer finds any
desire to move towards the Divine Presence*.
 
And these two oceans are so different, and the one not in the Ocean of
Light understands nothing about that path and tells you,

“Why do you have to do that?

Why do you have to be of service?

Why do you have to take less money or

why do you have to sacrifice and

why do you have to control your desires?”

Because nothing from that ocean of faith makes any sense to them. They
don’t see the miracle, nor do they feel it, or understand with the
foresight, to (later) witness that miracle. And everything that they think
of is a choice from the material world.

The people of guidance see with their heart, they see the Promised Land. If
you take a look at the words of Martin Luther King, “I have a dream and I
might not get there with you.... but I have seen it.” It means enlightened
individuals they have their heart opened; they see that Paradise; they see
that reality and every step of guidance they give us is teaching us, “Get
closer…. you are moving towards your reality, you are moving towards
miraculous oceans,” where you put your focus on the *Divine in your life
and He will turn His Divine Focus onto you.*

 The Divine is saying, “If you put your focus on Me, worship Me, serve me,
pray to Me and give everything of your being to Me, I will put everything
onto you, of My *Nazar*, My Gaze of My Divine Majestic Energies and
Realities. If you focus on Me, I will focus on you.” And that becomes the
miraculous ocean. Our lives and the lives of Sufi teachers live that
reality; their whole life is being trained to focus on the Divine; if you
have work, work for the Divine and the Divine will pay you from ways you
cannot imagine! “*Eat My food and I will nourish you; work for Me and I
will pay you; serve Me and I will grant you, raise you, dress you, and
bless you, and lift you towards your reality.” *

And then material people come and their guidance is,

“Why do you have to do that?

Who is going to provide for you?

Go out and provide for yourself.

Go out and struggle and take care of yourself,” and thus the whole weight
of this world will fall upon you. And as you struggle to provide for
yourself with your housing, your food, and every other expense, and the
Divine says, “If you focus upon yourself, there is no *need for Me to focus
upon you, you are taking care of it yourself, lets step back and see what
you can do.”* These are completely different oceans; one is challenging the
Divine Presence. Whereas the enlightened masters teach us, “*Don’t
challenge the Divine Presence.* Don’t try to hold this *dunya* with your
hands it’s so heavy that it crushes everybody who moves towards it.”
Everyone thinks they can master this material world, and they will handle
it and they will find the balance, and they begin to lift it not realizing
that its entire creation is (made) to destroy us, because it is not going
to be in competition with the Divine, it was made to challenge us. The
Divine says, “I created this life like a dazzling allurement, if you choose
it, it begins to crush you.” And you find that it teaches you, “You work
hard, come and work for me and work hard, struggle and strive to make
money. And work harder and then with that money pay all these expenses,
receive all these bills, put it all on these credit cards and at the end,
one day when you are beaten and worn and completely dissolved, *you can
retire somewhere and enjoy your time doing .....” *

And spiritual masters come and teach, “Why do you have to do all that? Why
don’t you just focus on the Divine and the Divine wants nothing more than
your *ibaadat*, ‘Worship Me, pray to Me, chant to Me, praise Me and I will
provide for you from ways you never imagined,’ and your sustenance begins
to come towards you; your *rizq*, your house, your food, everything will be
provided, the more you can go into that reality.” Look at their lives and
they are the example of that reality. The more you can focus on the Divine,
the Divine focuses on you. The more we focus upon ourselves, the more we
find ourselves distant from the Divine. And this *dunya* is becoming much
heavier and much more difficult and the distance between the guidance’s is
so huge and distinct that it is unimaginable. The guidance from Divinely
guided, enlightened souls tells us, *“Drop your material desires, make your
life to have a purpose and that purpose should only be to be of service to
the Divine Presence.”* If you can move into that ocean, give everything
else up other than that service. And then all the material desires and the
material guidance come and teach,

“No, that is what is making you sick and tired and poor.

Because you helped them, now you are poor, without energy and feeling sick;
you don’t have time for yourself.” Every type of attack is going to come
from the ego to stop that process.
 
 We pray that we are clever enough to understand that as much of our life
that we spend on focusing on the Divine, the Divine is going to open and
the opening is going to require us to jump through loops, and jump over
obstacles, and move steadily towards that Divine Reality. And then to seek
refuge from all guidance which is other than the Divinely Enlightened
guidance towards Light. And if that person is not from that reality, and
not dressed with that reality to give guidance, then know that everything
that they are going to talk about is from a material perspective. And then
the material perspective is going to be extremely opposite of your divine
reality because there is no faith, *if they can’t see the miracle, why
would they ask you to be walking in it? *
 

When Sayyidina Isa/ Jesus Crist (as) came out to his companions, they were
on a ship on a stormy ocean and he came out to them and said, *“Take my
hand and walk on water with me,”* and if they were walking on water, they
were walking with Divine Grace and everything they do is based on God’s
miracles. And God works in miraculous ways! It means that as soon as we
take that path and take those steps, then we must know that our lives are
going to be miraculous. And for those who are not “walking on water,” then
everything for them and their way of thinking is, “What you are doing is
crazy; your effort, your commitment, and your participation are a waste of
time.”

If you spend twenty hours a day working in a law office and never see
anyone they think, *“This is fantastic you are making so much money.” *That
is wonderful, you are committed.

If you work twenty hours a day to be of service for God, serving in a soup
kitchen, or serving in a *zawiya* or serving in a mosque, they think you’ve
lost your mind, “Why would you do that? Why would you give up this material
world in the pursuit of what they deem to be nothing, – nothingness; you
are facing a bucket that is empty because they don’t see the gold. We pray
that we understand and that our hearts open and move deeper into that
reality as this *dunya* becomes heavier and heavier and more and more
difficult. *Subhaana Rabbika Rabbil izzati amma yasifoon wa Salaamun alal
mursaleen wal Hamdulillahi Rabbil ‘Alameen. *