A year of opportunities

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani | Tuesday, Jan 20, 2009 | Lefke CY
A message from Mawlana to you!

Audhu billahi min ash-shaytan ir-rajeem
Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem

Nawaytu’l-arbay`een, nawaytu’l-`itikaf, nawaytu’l-khalwah, nawaytu’l-
riyada, nawaytu’s-saluk, nawaytu’l-`uzlah lillahi ta`ala fi hadha’l-
masjid

Ati` Allahu wa ati`ur-Rasul wa ulu’l-amri minkum.

Meded, ya Sayyidi, ya Sultanu-l Awliya, Sayyidee Shaykh Muhammad Nazim
Adil al-Haqqani.



First of all I would like to say that Mawlana has asked and ordered me
to say to you that he loves you, he is missing you and you are in his
heart. And insha-Allah as soon as the weather changes, he will be as
usual always with you, always with anyone coming and visiting and
always with anyone that he needs an advice.

Sometimes awliyaullah are difficult to understand and wherever you
are, wherever we think that we are, a lot of, many years with them,
but still it is very difficult to understand a drop of the meaning of
a wali.

the Prophet (s)… and as everyone knows that he used to speak with his
Sahaba and give them ahadith, sayings, teaching them, delivering the
message of Allah Swt - through the Holy Quran and through the Sunnah
of the Prophet (s). And as many of you know that not one single
Sahabi, means one single Companion, knew everything. What I means to
say with everything means, was present at every moment with the
Prophet (s), when he was giving advices or teaching. And that s why we
see the compilation of ahadithu Nabi (s) as it is; it was being
compiled: This Sahabi said this, this Companion said that... this
Companion heard this, that Companion heard that from the Prophet
(s)... Some of them they heard ten hadith, some of them heard 20, some
of them 100, 1000, but in reality that not all of them heard
everything at the same time.

That s why Sahaba, sometimes some of them they say: Oh, we didn’t
hear that. They used to have these arguments; I am not going to
explain it in detail, but they used to have these arguments between
themselves, that (one of them said): I didn’t hear that or the other
one said: No, I heard it , and the other one said: No, I didn’t hear
it. And different ahadith. It changes from one to one, not all of
them heard it. - If you heard something, I didn’t hear it, I might
tell you: Oh, I didn’t hear that. You might tell me: No, I didn’t
hear that.

So there will be a situation that after the time of the Prophet (s),
there were the Sahaba, the Companions, and after the Companions there
was the compiling of the ahadith, to bring them together and to
compile them. And Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, if you want to give an
example, small example: He mentioned 24 or 25 ahadith. That s it; he
didn’t mention more than that, although he was the (one) very close to
Prophet, when Allah mentioned in Holy Quran about Sayyidina Abu Bakr
as-Siddiq Radiallahu anhu, where He said:

إِلاَّ تَنصُرُوهُ فَقَدْ نَصَرَهُ اللّهُ إِذْ أَخْرَجَهُ الَّذِينَ
كَفَرُواْ ثَانِيَ اثْنَيْنِ إِذْ هُمَا فِي الْغَارِ إِذْ يَقُولُ
لِصَاحِبِهِ لاَ تَحْزَنْ إِنَّ اللّهَ مَعَنَا فَأَنزَلَ اللّهُ
سَكِينَتَهُ عَلَيْهِ وَأَيَّدَهُ بِجُنُودٍ لَّمْ تَرَوْهَا وَجَعَلَ
كَلِمَةَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ السُّفْلَى وَكَلِمَةُ اللّهِ هِيَ
الْعُلْيَا وَاللّهُ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌ

Illa tansuroohu faqad nasarahu Allahu idh akhrajahu alladheena kafaroo
thaniya ithnayni ith huma fi’l-ghaari idh yaqoolu li-saahibihi la
tahzan inna Allaha ma`ana fa-anzala Allahu sakeenatahu `alayhi wa
ayyadahu bi-junoodin lam tarawha wa ja`ala kalimata alladheena kafaroo
as-sufla wa kalimatullahi hiya al`ulya w’Allahu `azeezun Hakeem.

If ye help not (your leader), (it is no matter): for Allah did indeed
help him, when the Unbelievers drove him out: he had no more than one
companion; they two were in the cave, and he said to his companion,
"Have no fear, for Allah is with us": then Allah sent down His peace
upon him, and strengthened him with forces which ye saw not, and
humbled to the depths the word of the Unbelievers. But the word of
Allah is exalted to the heights: for Allah is Exalted in might, Wise.
[Tawbah, 9:40]



The Prophet (s) is saying to Sayyidina Abu Bakr, “Don’t be sad, Allah
is with us.” And what he said? 24 or 25 ahadith he related! Where are
the other ahadith?

So what I want to say and come to the conclusion is that awliyaullah,
it is very difficult to understand them. You might hear something; I
might hear something. It depends what time and at that time, at that
moment, where he was, in which level of ascension with the Prophet (s)
he was and he said that advice.

If you look at the ahadith of the Prophet (s), you see (that) one
hadith says something, the other hadith comes in more detail that it
was not mentioned in the first time. Why? Because first time the
Prophet (s) for example was speaking from this level - lets say level
X. Next time, when he was ascending more and more, he was speaking
from level Z. So from this level to this level the hadith will
increase or might change. It depends on the time and the situation.

And this is where it is very important to understand awliyaullah
because they are inheritors of the Prophet (s). How to understand
them, when they say something and then, in another time, they say the
same thing, but in more detail or they might change it? And then you
become thinking “Oh, what he meant?” You say, “What he meant?” The
other one heard it differently, he says, “Oh no, it is what he meant
this way.” That is why not everyone can understand a wali! We cannot
understand from awliyaullah even a drop of their knowledge.

I was coming and he said to me, “Send my love and support. Tell them
about I love them and I support them.” So what does that mean? It is
an ocean, when he is saying, “I love them and I support them.”

Allah said in Holy Quran to the People of the Cave:

وَإِذِ اعْتَزَلْتُمُوهُمْ وَمَا يَعْبُدُونَ إِلَّا اللَّهَ فَأْوُوا
إِلَى الْكَهْفِ يَنشُرْ لَكُمْ رَبُّكُم مِّن رَّحمته ويُهَيِّئْ لَكُم
مِّنْ أَمْرِكُم مِّرْفَقًا

Wa idhi i`tazaltumoohum wa ma ya`budoona illa Allaha fa’u ila-l kahfi,
yanshur lakum Rabbukum min rahmatihi wa yuhay lakum min amrikum
mirfaqa.

When ye turn away from them and the things they worship other than
Allah, betake yourselves to the Cave: Your Lord will shower His
mercies on you and disposes of your affair towards comfort and ease."
Al-Kahf [18:16]

They were debating:, "Where we have to run?" and the advice came, "Run
to that cave! Run to that cave!" Allah swt, in that cave Allah sws is
going to manifest His Mercy on you. Regardless of what you are doing,
Allah will send His Mercy on you and He will adjust and show you his
guidance, the way. So when Mawlana said, “Say to them I love them, I
support them,” it means, we are in his cave! He is that cave that we
run to.

For us that cave is like today you want to look at GoogleMaps for
skies or you want to go to Google to see any building on earth - what
you do? You check: you give the address and then shows you an area,
but it is so huge, so you want to zoom in, in order to see more
closer, to where you want, what you want to see. Awliyaullah, when you
zoom in, when they speak and you enter their cave, if you are entering
with complete belief, you can zoom in, because they will zoom you into
the presence of the Prophet (s). As much as they show you that zooming
in, as much as you are reaching and approaching the presence of the
Prophet (s).

Is not so easy to zoom in - it is very difficult. A wali has to carry
the responsibility of his students in order to zoom him into the
presence of the Prophet (s). And the Prophet (s) has to carry the
responsibility and the difficulty of the Ummah, in order to zoom them
in into the Divine Presence.

When he said, “Send my love to them,” it means: If someone loves
someone it means he will take care of him or her. If you love your
child, you take care of your child. You cannot say: O, I love my
child, and when he is sick you say, “I don t care.” No, you keep up
all night to take care of your child. We are children in the eyes of
awliya. Even we have big long beard, we have a black beard, we have a
white beard, we have a red beard... still we are children in the eyes
of awliyaullah; they have to carry our problems and our difficulties.

One time Grandshaykh, may Allah bless his soul, said, that the wali is
in need for his students. If there are no students, there is no
wali. He is saying that to show how much the wali carries
responsibility. He said: Why a wali to be a wali, if he doesn’t have
students, disciples? The disciples make the wali to... Allah to open
on his heart, whatever they need to hear and whatever they need, in
order to improve and move on, forward. That is why it is very
important that a wali, when he speaks, he is reaching the hearts of
his students And we have to be very attentive, because he is carrying
us; because he is opening. If we don t open our heart to receive from
him, we are in problems. He is not in problems, we will be in
problems.

One day Sayyidina Abdul Qadir Jilani, may Allah bless his soul, has a
khalifa and that khalifa was an old person and he was not really
`alim; he was, how we say? Self-learned. And he was learning from
Sayyidina Abdul Qadir Jilani humbleness . Because in tariqah the most
important issue is humbleness If we don t have humbleness, we must
look for it and try to learn it and try to practice it. Humbleness is
necessary. Humbleness means: you don t give an excuse to your ego for
pride, you don t let (your) ego to get proud of itself. The Prophet
(s) was the most humble. What Allah said about him in Holy Quran?
Because Prophet was looking at these Oceans of Knowledge that Allah
opened to him in his night of Isra wa-l Miraj:

قُل لَّوْ كَانَ الْبَحْرُ مِدَادًا لِّكَلِمَاتِ رَبِّي لَنَفِدَ
الْبَحْرُ قَبْلَ أَن تَنفَدَ كَلِمَاتُ رَبِّي وَلَوْ جِئْنَا
بِمِثْلِهِ مَدَدًا

Qul law kaana al-bahru midadan li-kalimaati rabbee la-nafida al-bahru
qabla an tanfada kalimaatu rabbee wa law ji’na bi-mithlihi madada

Say: "If the ocean were ink (wherewith to write out) the words of my
Lord, sooner would the ocean be exhausted than would the words of my
Lord, even if we added another ocean like it, for its aid." [Kahf,
18:109]

When he saw those Oceans of Knowledge he said:

قُلْ إِنَّمَا أَنَا بَشَرٌ مِّثْلُكُمْ يُوحَى إِلَيَّ

Qul: Innama ana basharun mithlukum yuhaa ilaya. Say: "I am but a man
like yourselves, (but) the inspiration has come to me….." [Kahf,
18:110]

The Prophet (s) says about himself: “I am only a human being like the
rest.” He is different!

Like Imam Busairi (said). What did he say? “Bal huwa yakutatun wa
naasu ka-l hajari - He is a gem, a diamond, and human beings are like
pebbles, rocks!” He is completely different, but he was humbling
himself. He went into Isra wa’l-Mir`aj, he made himself more humble.
So our duty is to show humbleness to each other. It s not only to show
humbleness to the shaykh, it is easy to show humbleness to the shaykh,
but it is difficult to show humbleness to each other.

So that khalifa of Sayyidina Abdul Qadir Jilani, whenever Sayyidina
Abdul Qadir Jilani sent him to speak in different villages or in
different associations, he sat and spoke (and) everyone, as soon as he
opened his mouth to speak, people were listening, they were very...
their eyes were open. Not like me and some other people when Mawlana
speaks - we sleep! People divert their minds different ways... But
everyone was listening, even you throw a pin, you can hear it.

That Shaykh had a son, but his son was very educated in Islamic
Shariah. Explanation of Holy Quran, explanation of Holy hadith,
memorizing the Holy Quran, memorizing the hadith, knows every details
in Shariah. He was looking to himself. Every time his shaykh, who was
his father, sat and spoke, people are listening and he, in his heart,
was saying, “O, what about me if I speak? Of course, I am more
educated than my father, then everyone will be not only opening his
eyes, but opening his eyes and his heart to what I will say and people
will appreciate what I say!”

So his father knew that this is the sickness of his son, so what he
did? He said, “O my son!” next week that came - “I am sick this
week. You go and speak! Go and give the people a suhbat.” He was so
happy, he didn’t believe that he is going to give a suhba to people.
He went and sat on the chair of his father and the father was in the
other room, hiding himself, looking what’s going to happen. As soon as
that son was beginning to speak - he is `alim, very big `alim in his
time - like when we go to conferences - I go a lot and I see that -
the professor or the presenter is giving a presentation and most of
the audience is sleeping. No one is listening, they get bored. So why
do they get bored? There is a secret here.

And the secret in this story is that the son, big `alim, big professor
- there is no professor at that time, but he is an `alim - and as soon
as he began to speak, everyone was sleeping. So he was speaking and
speaking and speaking and looking and saw: most of the people were
sleeping. He was so surprised. He finished as soon as possible quickly
and went to his father. He said: O my father, what s going on? I am
more educated than you, I know more than you. When I spoke, everyone
slept. When you speak, everyone is open eyes and open heart. What s
going on? He said, “O my son! That is the problem of today’s scholars
at that time - they are proud of themselves, they are arrogant of
themselves. When I sit to speak, the message that I am delivering to
everyone, is coming from the heart of Sayyidina Muhammad (s). So when
I am speaking, I have to be the first listener to what I am saying. I
am the first student sitting there; I don t see myself as the
representative and I don’t see myself as the `alim; I see myself the
least among everyone, the lower between everyone. That is the
humbleness that it should be experienced, when you are going to give
your speech or you will make everyone bored.”

So when we zoom in with Mawlana Shaykh Nazim s speech, when he is
speaking to us, we have to make sure, that our eyes and ears and heart
are open, because we are not sitting in their presence only. At that
moment their presence is the presence of the Prophet (s). How we have
to be sitting? How Sahaba were sitting in the presence of the Prophet
(s), student has to sit, to imitate that way. Although no one can
reach the level of Sahaba and the wali cannot reach the level of the
Prophet (s). But we have to imitate their ways, in order that we will
be able to reach, what they want us to reach.

And that s why I said one time before here that: Anyone entered the
cave, is safe. When you enter the presence of Mawlana Shaykh s cave,
we are safe. That s why I said last time about Grandshaykh. When he
was asked to carry the guidance, irshad . He said to Shaykh
Sharafuddin - I am cutting it short - he said to his shaykh, “What is
the benefit of I take the khilafa from you and I know my students are
not going to do anything? They are going to be lazy; they are not
going to do, except their prayers and that s it! So if you give me the
authority that anyone sitting in my presence I will raise him to my
level, then I will accept irshad!”

That is a good tiding for all of us: that this secret is with Mawlana
Sultanu’l-Awliya Sayyidee Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al Haqqani - may
Allah swt give him long life.

When we are sitting in his presence, he is lifting us is like a lift.
They are lifting their students up to their levels. Don’t think the
shaykh will accept someone will be in the hand of Shaytan chained.
Like a general in the army cannot let one of his soldiers to be
prisoner in the hand of the enemies, awliyaullah will not allow their
students to be prisoners in the hands of Shaytan. The Prophet (s) will
not allow his Ummah to be prisoners in the hands of Shaytan. Allah swt
will not allow one of His servants to be prisoner in the hands of
Shaytan. That is why Ummatun-Nabi (s) ummatu marhouma, will be sent to
Paradise!

So he said, “I sent them my love,” which means, “I take care of them.
Tell them not to worry. And I give them my support.” It means we are
supported. There are many people they say that Mawlana is sick, we
don’t need to come. No, come, if your heart says to you, “Come!” It
is enough to come to the maqam. The maqam is... his presence is here,
it cannot be away. Allah swt honored us to be from Mawlana’s followers
and from Ummatun-Nabi (s).

He said also, “Tell them that this is a year of opportunities.” What
does it mean “year of opportunities”? A year of opportunities means
“Don’t let any opportunity to pass without taking advantage of it.”
That is why they use that word too much in the financial world,
brokers, stock-market – opportunities. It means, “Don’t let a stock
that you can see there is a benefit from it, it is an opportunity,
grab it!”

“This year is the year of trading” he said, “with Allah swt, because
it is a year full with problems, full of revenge and punishment.” So
it is a year of opportunities for those who are humbling themselves;
those who are doing their awraad; those who are praying their prayers;
those who are trying to elevate themselves against the desire of their
egos! Those are these opportunities! Don’t let these opportunities to
be lost, especially this year! And he said, “This year is going to be
a very heavy year on evil powers and easy year on believers!”

May Allah swt keep us and make us believers with the baraka of our
shaykh, Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani, and with the blessings of
Sayyidina Muhammad `alayhi afdala as-salaat was-salaam.