From the Teachings of Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani
Shaykh Nurjan Mirahmadi
Sufi Meditation Center, Vancouver, BC
Ati ullaha wa ati ur-Rasul wa ulil amri minku. Bismillahi Rahmaani Raheem obedience to Allah (SWT) is supreme and from the Holy Qur'an Allah (SWT) is teaching us that obedience is very difficult, so He gave us a way from 'ati ullaha' to' ati ur-Rasul' (as) and to all the prophets who were trying their best to be in obedience to Allah (SWT). And then Allah (SWT) gives the third connection which is to the ulul am. It means follow the ulul amr they are in obedience to the prophets (as), and the prophets (as) are in obedience to Allah (SWT) thereby giving us a rope to hold on to. And in days of difficulty and trials
Mawlana Shaykh is teaching that many storms are coming and we should be prepared. In dunya we have preparation for storms; you have to keep food supplies, oil and batteries and anything you may need for any kind of danger. And many times before, we talked about this, and we will mention again today; if you really believe with your heart and with your faith that danger and storms are coming, you would not make a camp on the street in that difficulty, and say that you would find safety there. Allah (SWT) says, "No, you would be wiped out in one second. If you believe your shelter is out in the open, the storm is going to take everything. If the winds and the Earth and the Oceans do not take you, then the savage hearts of very cruel people will."
A savageness and wildness is going to be unleashed in which there is no safety except underground in caves. And Allah (SWT) is saying that in times of these difficulties and oppression, "Move into the Cave, move into the shelter." And they begin to teach that Allah (SWT) is giving us a Rahmah: "I am sending you to the schools of tarbiyah," and these schools of tarbiyah are teaching with perfection how to find safety; how to reach inside the Cave and seek a shelter. We begin with saying, "Ya Rabbi as everything is going to be destroyed on the surface, I am only going to find safety within my heart; I am going to go deep into my heart to find the Light of Islam, the Light of Iman and the Light of Ihsan and perfection." And only the Light of Perfection will save us.
So then Awliyaullah are teaching us that if you want to accompany them it is not so easy, by just calling ourselves mureeds and saying, "I am a mureed of Mawlana Shaykh." It's impossible. We are the people of love, the muhibeen. The Ahlul Mureed have been through such difficult, difficult testing and their love, and their dedication, and their commitment is tested. They have been grinded and crushed; they have been taken through poverty, and through sickness, they have been taken through many difficult events and Allah (SWT), the Prophet (s) and the ulul amr are all watching. Allah (SWT) is looking and asking, "Is this in My obedience?" Adabani Rabbi fee ahsana ta'deebi, Prophet (s) is looking and seeing, "Is this one with the perfection of the character? Does he have the best of morals, is he the moral exemplar? Is he the one who sets the example of the Way?" And then from the Prophet (s) the ulul amr are watching every student, every muhibeen, every seeker, and every lover of the Path who are trying to move towards that safety, they are all being watched closely.
And this is a reminder to myself that many people on the Internet in different places consider themselves to be mureeds of the Shaykh and mureeds of the Sultan of all Awliyaullah, yet it is very difficult to do. In the Naqshbandia Way to be a mureed Mawlana Shaykh is describing; the first sign of excellence and for them to grant mureediya, means those mureeds are moving towards the oceans of Guidance; they are the Shaykhs of Guidance;
and their ears have been opened, their eyes have opened and they are not 'blind' anymore.
That level of perfection in the level of being a mureed of the Naqshbandia Way is something that Mawlana Shaykh is reminding us is not that easy to achieve.
The first sign of that opening means that their hearts have to be open. How is it that if they have reached moral perfection, their heart is not open?
And if the heart is not open,
the ears are not yet open,
the eye of the heart is not yet open and lisan ul-Haqq is yet not moving through the tongue.
It means for the heart to be open and moving towards that level of belief, the first sign of that hearing is; they are able to hear inspirations within their consciousness and within their heart that is guiding them towards the goodness. The Shaykh is inspiring within the heart what the Prophet (s) wants, and the Prophet (s) is inspiring within the Shaykh what Allah (SWT) wants; it means it must be complete, Bismillahi Rahmaani Raheem, Ati ullaha wa ati ur-Rasul wa ulil amri minkum.
So the first sign of that level of perfection is that student, that muhib's heart is opening, he isa lover of the Way. If the heart is not opening then we must move that category aside. From the level of the heart that opens, Mawlana Shaykh is describing, "If your heart is opening, then you must be hearing." And the first level of hearing is hearing that deep consciousness of what is right and what is wrong; hearing the inspirations of the Shaykh "Go deeper," and all the marif'aa and knowledge and teachings will be taking place within the Cave, the heart, and not in the external; the association, that is just a means in which the Shaykh begins to open these Lights and these energies.
The Ahlul Marif'aa, the people of realities, take this opening and they begin to dive into the connection within the heart and from the heart they begin to go deep within the oceans of what the Shaykh is conveying. That is why Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (Q) is always saying, "Pearls and coral." Pearls and coral are the treasures of the ocean, and there are vast and endless Oceans of Allah (SWT)'s Mercy which has no beginning and no end. And Mawlana Shaykh is describing, "If you want realities Allah (SWT) will throw you into that Ocean, go for the treasures!" Those treasures are that example of pearls and corals. It means you have to be a diver in that ocean.
Most of our lives we do not do any diving, we do not do any contemplation, meditation or tafakkur, or accounting, muhasaba and we are picking up the shells on the side of the ocean and saying, "We have something." But the shells by the Oceanside have already come out. Mawlana Shaykh is reminding that the Ahlul Marif'aa, the people of Gnosticism, the people of depth and those who go deep within the reality are constantly diving, and they know that these afflictions and difficulties are a reminder to them, "If you look out the window and you still see a tornado, its still not safe for you; this is not your abode, don't make this your Paradise. Go deep within your heart and seek these treasures within the heart."
And then Mawlana Shaykh is always reminding us of a story that a time of difficulty came to Sayyidina Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani (Q); he was sitting in an association and a mayor came and said, "We are going into a battle, a tremendous difficulty is coming and I need to make a call for people to come and prepare for it, but all the men of the town are your students. What am I going to do Sayyidi? They are telling us we need some men." And Sayyidina Abdul Qadir Jilani (Q) said, "Not my students, they are the lovers of the Way. But not all of them are like that so I will prepare a test and show you which one of my students you can not touch, the rest you can take where ever you want." And then he called his helper and said,
"Prepare a tent for me at the top of that hill over there, and bring some lamb meat filled with blood and hide it in the tent and then sit and wait." And the servant went up and prepared the tent, and brought the lamb meat which had a lot of mushy blood, and then he sat there waiting for his master. And Sayyidina Abdul Qadir Jilani (Q) called all the students saying, "O come, come all my students," and as they always teach by example, thousands of his followers came and he gave a suhbah that the mayor needed men to go into service for a battle. And he said, "I am going to leave behind some people, but I want to know your level of dedication to me; who is willing to sacrifice themselves for me?"
Immediately all the students began to shake.
And he said, "I am going to go into the tent and wait for one of you to come and then we will begin our testing." And that servant who had dedicated himself to his service his whole life was called, "O Abd'Allah come into the tent you will be the first one to sacrifice yourself for me, then I will call everyone from these mureeds and see who is going to be of service to me." So he called him into the tent and said to him, "Come in and start screaming, and then we will cut the meat and let the blood flow down the hill." The tent was over a steep hill and he started screaming and Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani (Q) kept screaming back something and the blood was flowing down the hill.
The mureeds saw that and they ran; all of them ran except two. And he looked out of the tent and saw that everybody had gone except those two. He said, "Okay, you come in," and he brought one into the tent and said, "Sit here and begin to scream." And that mureed began to scream and he released more blood from the animal that was already there, and more blood started flowing down the hill, and the other one was shaking and shaking but still his heart was not moving and Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani (Q) looked out of the tent and saw him and asked, "You are still here?" "Naam Sayyidi." He said, "Come with me," and he called the mayor and said, "These two are my students, the rest are yours, you can have them."
It means that tariqah is not an easy path. We are lost in the ishq, the love; we are muhibeen, the lovers of the Way. And a reminder always for myself that when we begin to think we are mureeds but still we don't understand the difficulty and the testing of tariqah; these storms that are coming are all a practise for us; that one Shaykh is saying one thing, another Shaykh is saying another thing, and another Shaykh on top of that is saying another thing. And Mawlana Shaykh is always reminding that you have no business in what they are doing;
their job is to make everything confusing and to make this dunya a place with no tranquility for you.
If your life is based on the surface and you ask, "Why is it that Shaykh not so loving towards the other Shaykh? Why doesn't this Shaykh praise that one? Why don't we all hold hands and sing nice songs together?" Allah (SWT) is saying, "Test them." It is not a kindergarten where you hold hands and kiss each other. Test them to see who is really with you; see if they are just taking up space and holding hands, what is it for?" These Awliyaullah are traveling the world and collecting followers in the millions and their rope is huge and heavy. And Awliyaullah are teaching, and
Mawlana Shaykh is teaching that Allah (SWT) is saying, "Shake the rope, it's got too many things on it; shake it and let's see who is really going to be with you." And you see mashaAllah the Qutb al-Mutasarrif, our love and head is always at the feet of Mawlana Shaykh Hisham, his rope is huge and the followers are in the millions all over the world. And every test comes and they shake and shake the rope to see who is going to stay with the Shaykh. And every other one comes to judge, to think and use their mind, and then they remind us, "Look, you came to sacrifice yourself; you are going to be tested in that sacrifice," Qul, in as-salaati wa nusooki wa 'l-mahya wa mamati, lilahi Rabbil 'Alameen and that we are asking, "Ya Rabbi make us to be halaal for Sayyidina Mahdi (as) and let us lay our head upon that Way."
These nasheeds and these salawaat that we are reciting, we are asking, "Ya Rabbi let us die on the tariqah of love of Sayyidina Muhammad (s)." Then the Awliyaullah are saying, "You are going to be tested with your life, with your wealth, your possessions, with your family and with everything that you believe in, and they are going to shake the rope," because they are not trying to collect stones; any body can go to the beach and take a bucket and collect a whole bunch of stones. But Awliyaullah collect the stones and then Allah (SWT) says, "Let Us see amongst the stones which ones are precious, which are semi-precious, which of them are gold?"
It means they begin to shake the rope and our lives begin to shake.
And Allah (SWT) is saying to us this is a very dangerous time because this dunya is shaking now. So when they say storms are coming, it means physically people are in danger with what is coming and for the people of marif'aa, Gnosticism and those who love the Prophet (s), Allah (SWT) is shaking their hearts. If you found that Qutb, and your love is for that Qutb, then if you dedicate yourself to serve that Qutb you tie your entire being to his feet and don't bother with anything that you hear. In the midst of any storm that comes, if you decide that you will take your rope off and run down the street, you will be blown away because the Prophet (s) is testing you; they are testing to see how loyal and dedicated you are and if you are willing to serve with your entire existence, and to be in service to them. You have no business between the Kings, they know what they are doing, and we are ghulams. And if you bring ghulams into your house and they say, "O who owns this?" What does it have to do with you to ask who owns this? "Who is the boss here and who is the next one in charge here?" What does it have to do with you who the next one in charge is? We are ghulams, and a ghulam has nothing to do with that and he is not at that level of asking who the next one is, or who this one is or that one? Allah (SWT) says, "You serve that Qutb and with your life and death, always be in service to him." And we tied our hands and feet and our entire being to the service of Qutb al-Mutasarrif. This is a training facility for the love of Qutb al-Mutasarrif.
And everyone who watches these videos and looks at the websites, they are in the thousands, they are training to be of service to Qutb al-Mutasarrif to serve those who are serving the Sultan al-Awliya (Q); there is no way you can be of service to the Sultan (Q). They teach us from the beginning of every reality that 'Audhu billahi min-ash Shaytani rajeem is to open the reality of Bismillahi Rahmaani Raheem. Where is 'Audhu billah? Allah (SWT) is teaching, "Seek refuge in those who are already in My refuge." Why are you going to make it so hard to find where Allah's refuge is; seek refuge in those already serving Allah (SWT).
So we came to the love of Sayyidina Muhammad (s), and we know that the shade and the dome of protection for the Prophet (s) is already with Allah (SWT). And then the same reality keeps dressing down. Why do you have to make your plans and your thoughts so big? Allah (SWT) says, "I have made you and inspired within your heart to be ghulam." So then whose ghulam are we? We ask, "Ya Rabbi put it in my heart to be ghulam of the True One," and Sultan al-Awliya Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (Q) said this is Qutb al-Mutasarrif Mawlana Shaykh Hisham (Q). And alhamdulillah Allah (SWT) destined for us to have a love that is never ending and Allah (SWT) is saying, "You serve the one who is serving the Sultan and the Sultan is serving Sayyidina Muhammad (s), and Sayyidina Muhammad (s) is serving Me, and you will be tested with that love."
If every five minutes you want to bounce between different people and then take your rope directly to the head authority, you will eventually cut that too saying, "I am going to cut the head authority I am going directly to Prophet (s)." And then when you get to that thought in your mind you will say, "O why I need the Prophet (s)? I will go directly to Allah (SWT)." So then you are being shareeq with Shaytan because Shaytan had that same philosophy, "Why do I have to make sajda ihtiraam to Sayyidina Adam (as)? Why do I have to bow down to Adam; I worship the Wahid, the Oneness of Allah, and I go directly to Allah (SWT)."
And tariqah comes and teaches us ihtiraam and tashreef, "respect" and "adab" is to be nothing; you are nothing. "Ya Rabbi if I am nothing then I am a ghulam and I am in need of someone to serve," so then you serve the shaykhs and they begin to teach us that the service to the Shaykh is with your entire being; you will be tested with that. As soon as they come to get something from you, O everybody runs! And when they go they say, "Ah, he wasn't a real Shaykh."
Why did you hear from another Shaykh who said this Shaykh is not a Shaykh or is it that when we fail tests we begin to determine what level the Shaykh is at?
And that becomes a big difficulty upon our selves and upon our lives. We pray that Allah (SWT) inspires within our hearts to be secure and we are here to be of service to Qutb al-Mutasarrif waiting for the arrival of Sayyidina Mahdi (as). Whatever storm is going to blow, we go down and hide. Keep out of the politics, and keep out of the way, and keep out of the information, and we keep ourselves tied to Qutb al-Mutasarrif and inshaAllah he blesses us and takes over us, and washes us, and presents us to the Holy face of Sultan al-Awliya Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (Q), and that Sultan al-Awliya will be happy with our love and dedication and present us to the presence of Sayyidina Muhammad (s). Subhaanaka Rabbil izzati amma yasifoon wa Salaamun 'alal mursaleen wal Hamdulillahi Rabbil 'Aalameen.
