Mirror Mirror On The Wall

Shaykh Nurjan Mirahmadi

From The Teachings Of Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

Sufi Meditation Center - Vancouver, BC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjrtwwyEkl0&feature=youtu.be

The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) is reported to have said, �;The believer is the mirror of the believer.�; [Abu Dawud, and others]

From childhood they raise us with cartoons and one of these cartoons says to look into the mirror and look for the most beautiful one: mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the most beautiful of them all? And the mirror replies back that you are the most beautiful one, you are the best of them all. And many people in history when left to themselves did not see their reality and we don't see our reality but what our ego portrays to us and it makes our desires and our ego to seem fair and good for us. And then one extreme of that was the example of a horrible queen who was killing people and taking the blood and putting it all over herself and when she looked into the mirror she thought she looked beautiful and she thought she was getting younger by what she was doing. And everyone in the palace could see the reality that she was a horrible-looking monster with blood all over her and her skin started to get infected from all the blood she was putting all over herself, but the mirror was showing her that she was the most beautiful one of them all. It's because the mirror is going to reflect the bad ego and the Shaytan can move into that mirror and make an image to seem fair. And anyone who wants to try that go into the bathroom at night in the dark and stare at the mirror, and maybe they open for you a glimpse of the horror of the ego; it is like a big demon staring back at you and you will be scared to death and you will run out. Most people don't like looking at the mirror in the dark; it will reflect something bad or something that is in there which will step in and show its image. But for us this is very deep because Prophet (s) was teaching that the believer is the mirror to his brother and sister who are believers.

And there are two levels; one is at the level of the physicality so that the believer, the muhsin and mu'min and these are darajaats of very polished mirrors, because they have spend all their life in zikrullah and polishing then they are very shinny mirrors from Noor al-Haqq and this Noor al-Haqq begins to shine out. But in life we choose the false mirror, the mirror of illusion about which Allah (SWT) says this life is but an illusion. But what they call "The world of Illusion," has to be destroyed; that mirror has to be destroyed through marifaa. It means if we keep looking at that mirror and are pleased with what we see, the reflection of our own desires, then we are opening the imaginary world where we are always imagining things. And you speak about this to the New Age community and they imagine all sorts of crazy things..."I am doing this," "I am flying like this," "This is coming from here, or there." And many awliyaullah confronted their students who said they have had crazy imaginations. And one was telling that, "When I am doing my practises, I am imagining I am at a table with well-known pious people and we are sitting at the table eating." And that awliya said, "Okay I am giving you permission that next time when you see you are in that kind of haal/state take a knife and go to the front of that table and the one you think is so holy, cut his ear." So next time that student was in his imaginary haal he takes his knife out and cuts the ear and hears the screaming of a pig. He woke up and realizes that he was sleep-walking into a barn with the farm animals, and he was having a majlis with the farm animals. And his imagination of the one at the head of the table turned out to be a pig and he had the ear of the pig in his hand! And so the shaykh was teaching him.

But for us it is a very deep understanding that the pious people come into our life to destroy that mirror (imaginary world). So by keeping their company and by keeping their way, wa koonu ma as-sadiqeen, keeping on the path of the truthful servants of Allah (SWT), their truthfulness is based on their love of Sayyidina Muhammad (s); their hero, their image and their way of perfection is through the love of Prophet (s). If they deny the love of Prophet (s) then they are not on the Haqq that is our understanding. And the Haqq that Prophet (s) represents is what they follow; they do exactly as the Prophet (s) did, they follow his way and they have his love in everything they do. And then from the Oceans of Tawheed Allah's (SWT) Oneness begin to open. From izzatullah wa rasulihi wal mu'mineen, it means it begins to descend from Allah (SWT) and begins to flow and reflect down. Their mirror is from the Light of Haqq. And when that Light is shinning, then as soon as we come into their presence we see from our characteristics; we don't see them, we see our faults. And that is very deep for us, and many times people are coming in and seeing the faults,

"I don't like this shaykh, he is like this and he is like that," eh, but according to hadith of Prophet (s) he is a mirror, you have not seen him (in reality), all you are seeing is a polished reflection of people of zikrullah and they reflect out your identity and what you don't like is what you are seeing of yourself.

 

And then we take ourselves away to that mirror, the mirror on the wall...so who is the fairest one of them all? It says, you are. Why did you go to them (people of Haqq)? sit here and I will tell you about yourself, you are the best one, you are the greatest one. Why do you need to go sit with them? They talk and you feel insulted. Because the mirror of Haqq does not care if you are rich or poor, strong or weak, they don't change their teaching based on those who come, "O there is someone rich here so we are going to be fearful of them. The mirror of Haqq says what it needs to say and what it has been directed to say by what is being reflected into the mirror. It means the energies that are reflected into the mirror and the collective energy begins to shoot back out and starts to teach. And many times we don't like what that mirror has to tell us.

  So then they teach us that is the way to shatter the illusion. Because when we face the mirror of Haqq we realize that we are coming short, "I should be praying. I should be fasting. I should be giving. I should be building my faith." But every time I go with them, I am realizing that and I better go off by myself and do what I thinking I was doing right and be happy in my illusion.  

So then the breaking of that illusion is keeping the company and that is why Allah (SWT) has mentioned in the Holy Qur'an ati ullah, ati ur-rasul, wa `ulil amri minkum, it means to obey and follow the `ulul amr, they are the mirror. And this is why the Prophet (s) is teaching us that the believer is a mirror, ya ayyuhaladina amanu, amanu. It means they are the more powerful mirrors. If the believer is a mirror and Allah (SWT) is saying, "O you who believe, believe." It means there are darajaats of belief and as their belief becomes more powerful and becomes stronger then their mirror is reflecting more. And that is why many people can sit in their association and they all hear different things. And they come up and say that they heard something uniquely for them. Because the energy that they are going to be teaching is coming into the heart and soul and getting the information that it needs to grow. And this is just on the level of purification and that is why it is so difficult to accompany. The process of accompanying pious people is difficult means then we have to be willing to work on our faults. But most people love to live a life of ignorance and they run away from the mirror and chose to live with ignorance and deny everything.

They tell you in the reflection of the mirror to watch the news and see the destruction everywhere. "No, Shaykh, I don't like to watch news, I don't own a TV." If you don't own a TV it is like living in a closet, you don't know what is happening all around you. Everything is in destruction and falling and you are not panicking and rushing to build your faith. Everything about them has a hikmah, a wisdom, and they begin to teach us from these understandings, this is a mirror between the physicality. Then to understand them they begin to teach that these reflections are from the schools of tarbiyah and in the oceans of understanding tarbiyya there is big reality. The reality of their mirror is that they reflect to your physicality from their physicality. But the Ahlul Basirah, the people of insight, when their heart is opened what mirror are they looking at? They are not looking at you to get a reflection from you. The reason why they are teachers and guides is because they have been trained to remove themselves from dunya and when they concentrate they go into their hearts and they see who is reflecting to them. It means they see their shaykhs and they see the Light of Prophet (s) and they are constantly looking at that mirror. And that mirror of that Light and Reality is beginning to dress them.

So this is now teaching a big understanding of science. You know that all the satellites work from mirrors, they send a signal and it hits a mirror and that signal is reflected and hits another mir

ror and a series of mirrors is reflecting this light back to us.  

This is the reality and the understanding of Huwa Hu. In the reality from the highest level of understanding, Laa ilaha il-Allah can only be seen by Muhammadun Rasulullah. There is no way to get in between these two mirrors, this is Qaaba qawsayni aw adna, it means the Light of Allah (SWT), the Essence of Allah (SWT) that is reflecting out to Creation, it is the mirror for our understanding because we don't have anything tangible for that understanding. And also we are not tasting and witnessing that Reality. For us to understand that Light, it comes like a mirror and hits the soul of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) and nothing can come between that. There is no way to reach Qaaba qawsayni aw adna for Creation. The Only One who can reach that is Sayyidina Muhammad (s). From the Light of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) like a mirror it shines out. So then these are now all the purified souls, (whom it is reflecting on) they purify themselves and they look into that mirror and that is what purity is. It means that in the schools of tarbiyya they teach us good manners and for what? It's because you are in the presence and reflection of the Light of Sayyidina Muhammad (s). What ever you are doing, he is witnessing. Where are they holy from? Do they pull out from the light bulb? It's the Light of Tawheed, everything is at the level of One, where the shaykh would teach you everything from the Ocean of Tawheed, he is always moving in that reality. Everything comes from Laa ilaha il-Allah Muhammad Rasulullah and then out towards Creation. So anyone whom you feel a Light and holiness from them where is that Light coming from? These are the schools of tarbiyya and training. The training that they are connecting with their inner eyes, they are witnessing their master and awliyaullah. You sit with a grandmother and she says, "I had a dream and I saw this," well they are at a higher level than a grandmother. They have trained their bad character to be down and when they look into their heart they see the awliyaullah. Assalaamu alayka ayyuhan nabi wa rahmatuallahi wa barakaatuh, aslaamu alayna wa ala ibadillahi saliheen. Allah is making you say that in every salah, say asalaamu alayka ayyuhanabi in the present tense. So in each salah you should be seeing Sayyidina Muhammad and saying salaam in your present tense. And Allah is making you say "asalaamu alayka" not "asalaamu alaykum." And asalaamu alayka means that he must be facing you as well because you can't be saying salaam to Prophet's (s) head. Why is Allah (SWT) making you say that? Wa ibadillahi saliheen, means if you are praying then the ibadillahi saliheen are there too, how come you are not seeing them?

So then the people of inner reality whose hearts are opened see them and then they are reflecting that Light and it is from that mirror not from ourselves, it is from their company. It means at-tariqatuna suhbah Khair fil jamiyyah, the jamaa and association that Mawlana Shah Naqshband was teaching was not from gathering of the thirty people here but from the awliyaullah who are coming to be present and who are sending us their madad and support. And these souls who sit in authority are polished mirrors. Whoever they talk about they go in that presence and that one in the reality merely stand in front of them and begins to reflect out that Light. So then from the teaching of tarbiyya and adab is that Light is witnessing everything we do. Prophet (s) witnesses; this association is witnessed by Prophet's (s) Light. The Shaytan is witnessing who has more power and everyone believes that Shaytan is everywhere; the one who was in Paradise and brought down Adam (as) from Paradise by making waswas and made him to eat something. So it means Sayyidina Muhammad's (s) Light is everywhere. And if their mirror is polished and they are taking that energy, where are they taking that energy from? It's from the inner eye which is looking through the soul and seeing and saying asalaamu alayka ayyuhan nabi wa ibadilahi saliheen and that makes the association to be very holy. The lights that are reflecting out from the souls are from those Lights. And it is from the holy hadith that if you approach Allah (SWT) from your voluntary worship, He becomes the hearing with which you hear, not the ears from which you hear, means He takes over the attributes of that servant. It means Allah (SWT) will dress you from Divinely Attributes; your hearing will be from there, your seeing will be from there, your breathing will be from there, your hands and feet will be from that reality. And that is teaching us they are like a mobile phone for the heavenly associations. Whatever you do in their presence, they are witnessing; whatever character you have they are witnessing; whatever belief you have they are witnessing. And that is what makes the majlis and associations holy and makes the believers in that association to be lifted so quickly in their darajaat.

It is like an example of you praying at home or you praying in Mecca. Why did Allah (SWT) say that if we pray in Mecca it is 100,000 times the reward of your salah at home? Allah (SWT) is not only in Mecca but He is saying that place is holy, the Haramain is holy and Allah is dressing His Tajalli there and if you pray there it is 100,000 times more reward. If you pray in Madina Munawarrah from the presence of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) maybe ten million times more blessings that praying at home. And if we pray in masjid Aqsa shareef, again it is 10,000 times more reward than praying at home. It means these are the realities of Light. These Lights are there and can quickly lift us towards that reality and they begin to teach us from the inner mirror and the outer mirror. The outer mirror perfects to us through each other and we see our faults and see our shortcomings and feel inspired to either go and fix them or run away from the mirror.

But the inner adab of how to treat the association and how to understand the shaykhs, they are working from their inner mirror and reflecting the reality of the One whom they love. If you are a lover of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) then how you treat them is witnessed by Prophet (s); he is hearing through their ears, he is seeing through their eyes and he speaks through their tongues immediately like a mobile phone. Why, does your mobile phone have more power than Sayyidina Muhammad (s)? They give you a phone and you talk to your relatives from here to India. And, can't the Prophet (s) talk to us or hear us through this (heart)? It means the servants who submit themselves and Allah says, I become your hearing, why, does Allah (SWT) want to hear through your ears? It means He is giving this power to Prophet (s) that you will hear through their ears, you will see through their eyes, you will speak through their tongues and this is the reality of awliyaullah. They are dressed from the Light of Prophet (s). Prophet (s) is witnessing what they hear and what they see and inspiring them with what they speak, Lisaan al-Haqq then lisan as-siddiq, and its on the truthful tongue inspiring in the heart what to say and what to speak and they are living and breathing Islam, the reality of Prophet (s).

It means they are in al-Hayy al-Qayyum, the Ever-Living, the real garden of Paradise. Why did Prophet (s) describe that the Ahlul Zikr are the people of Paradise? He did not describe anywhere in the masjid to be like that? He said go to the circles of zikr, they are the circles of Paradise. It means there is a secret in that circle, the malaaika are circumambulating that circle all the way to Arsh al-Rahmaan and they don't leave. It means all these realities of Light and souls and begins to teach us that these souls are very pious and very powerful and they are witnessing every character and every action that we are doing. And on the physical level they are reflecting out all our imperfections. We have to be strong enough to lock our feet with them and say, "I am not going until I am dead (my ego dies). I am going to clean myself until I am dead." And they keep reflecting, the more power that keeps hitting the mirror, the more is going in and burning just like a magnifying glass. When you are a kid and you experiment with the sun and the magnifying glass and you see it can pull that sunlight like a beam and for a few seconds its okay but when the beam starts to burn most people run because the light which is emanating from their soul begins to burn away all the filth and all the imperfection and then they go deep where we didn't know there was something wrong and they are going to bring out all of the sicknesses. It is like when you cook the brain, there are middle eastern dishes where they have animal parts and as soon as you put it in boiling water all the junk comes bubbling out. InshaAllah we pray for more and more openings in this holy month in this important and very heavy year. And we pray that Mawlana Shaykh's Light dresses us and blesses us and keeps us all towards that reality and our hearts open more and more inshaAllah. Subhaana Rabbika Rabbil izzati amma yasifoon wa Salaamun alal mursaleen wal hamdulillahi Rabbil aalameen.