The Struggles of Shah Naqshband
Shaykh Hisham Kabbani
25 October 2018 Feltham, London, UK
Centre for Spirituality and Cultural Advancement (CSCA)
A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytani ‘r-rajeem. Bismillahi ‘r-Rahmani ‘r-Raheem.
Nawaytu ‘l-arba`een, nawaytu ‘l-`itikaaf, nawaytu ‘l-khalwah, nawaytu ‘l-`uzlah,
nawaytu ‘r-riyaada, nawaytu ‘s-salook, lillahi ta’ala al-`Azheem fee hadha ‘l-masjid.
[Suhbah in progress.]
…an example: in half an hour all of you and all of us here will go home, children will go up to sleep, and father and mother will go up to sleep. And both of them, and if you have children, six children, because Pakistanis have a lot of children, for sure there is going to be a fight.
This is the direction, this is how…there is a way to avoid it because it is not going to benefit us, correct? And Prophet (s) said:
الدين نصيحة
Religion is advice.
He summarized the whole religion, the whole dunya world, and the whole Akhirah in two words: ad-deenu naseeha. “Deen” is the religion and religion is the “deen”, there is no other way. So we have to be careful when we go home to remember, “Oh! Allah, today there was a speaker who said, ‘Ad-deenu naseeha.’”
We have to abide by that and follow the way of Ahlu ’s-Sunnah wa ’l-Jama`ah, and we are all in Tariqah an-Naqshbandiyya al-`Aliyya, correct? Who is better than Shah Baha’uddin Naqshband (q)? No one; whatever you try to do, Shah Baha’uddin Naqshband (q) is higher than everyone and he is the one who sends the rahmah that Allah dressed him with and what Awliyaullah dressed him with, on the people who are attending dhikrullah.
Grandshaykh (q) said, “Seventy-thousand majlis soow, bad associations in the area you are sitting in, all their sins will be erased by someone doing dhikrullah.” So be sure, when you go home to say “Allah”, that’s dhikrullah, “laa ilaha illa-Llah”, that’s dhikrullah.
One night Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q), as people today like to go for a drive in the mountains or the prairie, of course their thinking is about dunya, so they say, “Okay, let’s go for a ride.” Sayyidina Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q) in the meaning of that time wanted to go out for a walk, not driving a car, but walking. He was carrying the Ummah after the Prophet (s) dressed him with the Tariqah, so he became responsible to carry the Ummah and he is carrying them one by one. So he said, “I want to do something that makes my shaykh happy with me.”
That night he left his house, because there was a smell of food, that nice smell was going through the alleys, so he followed the noor of it to the door of the shaykh, and they were cooking there: in reality they were cooking their love for him, which gives a smell not found in dunya but in Akhirah, and only a small quantity from it is allowed. This majlis now has a smell that no one understands but the angels, and everyone of us will smell it on the Day of Judgment, and before that, when we are passing away and going to the grave the reality of this smell will appear. If a Houri puts her fingertip out of Paradise, the whole of dunya will go into sajda–and“faint” is the traditional explanation–from the beautiful smell just from her fingernail. This is from Shari`ah, how Allah will reward those who behave well in dunya.
So Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q) was walking and following that smell, and he followed the smell a long way until he reached something important: the house and masjid of Sayyidina Amir al-Kulal (q), his shaykh, which is where the smell came from. He wanted to enter through the door and the shaykh shouted, “Who said to come in here, doing things that are not your business and interfering? Go! I don’t want to see your face!”
This is to show that Awliyaullah have a way and method to test if you are good or not. This was a test for Sayyidina Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q) and a teaching for us. Sayyidina Amir al-Kulal (q) didn’t say, “All of you stand for Sayyidina Shah Naqshband, he is by the door awaiting your salaam.” No, he screamed at him. If our teacher screams at one of us, what will we do? Yes, we will run away. Cry? That is easy, but to see the heart of the shaykh is broken and you are the cause of that, no one can guarantee what will happen.
One time, Grandshaykh `AbdAllah al-Fa’iz ad-Daghestani (q) was shouting at Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) and I was watching. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim’s gaze never changed, always looking at the ground and he never raised his head. Today if your shaykh says one unpleasant word you will run away and never come back! We have to be careful as this is a big teaching in Tariqah. Sayyidina Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q) stood at the door and his shaykh shouted at him to kick him out, but he did not want to go out, so he told his students to carry (physically remove) him outside the masjid.
What to do? This is big. His heart was feeling different, sadness at the thought, “I have been with the shaykh 35 years and he kicked me out because I did something wrong, but I don’t know what.”
Then Shaytan said him in his ear, “I told you from day one, from the day you were born they are going to eat your rights and step on your sadness, so go and live your life like others!”
Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q) never had a bad thought, and he said aloud, “Fa wallahee lawramanee shaykhee fi ‘l-hawwiya man adhamtoo feehaa. Even If my shaykh throws me in a valley, I will still love him and follow him!”
Sayyidina Amir al-Kulal (q) left and Shah Baha’uddin Naqshband (q) was thrown out, but what happened? He put his head in sajda on the threshold of the masjid, and said, “I will not raise my head until my shaykh forgives me.” Snow started to fall, covering him, but he didn’t raise his head. “I will not raise my head until my shaykh forgives me.” Until Fajr time the snow covered him.
Sayyidina Amir Kulal (q) went to the masjid, and knowing it was Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q) at the threshold, he pressed his foot heavier and heavier on his head until Shah Naqshband felt a lot of pain. He did not raise his head or complain although the pain was strong, and Sayyid Amir al-Kulal was happy with him and said, “Come, let us go home.”
He took Shah Naqshband to his home, where he took a shower. Laa hawla wa laa quwatta illa billahi ‘l-`Aliyya ‘l-Azheem. No one can do like he did. At the threshold, the shaykh said, “Stand up, did I not come? Why are you crying and screaming and feeling pain? Had you stood up and come to me and asked forgiveness, I would have forgiven you.”
So he took him home and they ate and he took him to the masjid and Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q) was forgiven, although he hadn’t done anything wrong. This is lesson we must learn. When the shaykh shouts, run away, don’t stay there and say, “I want to see what’s going on.” When he shouts, for sure he is shouting at Shaytan, he is not listening to anyone, so when we interfere it is difficult for all of us from the touching of shayateen to our clothes when they are fighting.
This is a story of Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (q) that Grandshaykh dictated to us and explained. Be careful. You will receive a Manifestation of Heavenly Power, don’t think you are going to stay where you are (in the same spiritual level). Each dhikr, each khatm will raise you 700 times more, that is for sure. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (q) will take the power and dress us one by one on every occasion, and each time we will be dressed with heavenly dresses from Bahr al-Qudrah, the Ocean of Power. They receive from that ocean and dress their followers from it, so don’t let Shaytan take it from you, keep it.
Khatm occupies you for only half an hour and then how much will Awliyaullah be happy? All the way to the Prophet (s) they are happy! As we mentioned yesterday, the Prophet (s) passed through the alleys of Medina and saw the Sahaabah (r) standing around, and he wanted to address them so they will be able to distinguish what is important from what is not important.
May Allah (swt) dress us from that Noor and from Kun fa yakoon, “To say to a thing, ‘Be!’ And it will be.” That is a power, and even if you don’t feel it that is the way, Kun fa yakoon. There are two “Noons” in it: “kun” has the first “Noon” and “yakoon” is the second. What did Allah mean by this? Inshaa-Allah next week we will explain it.
Go rest now and may Allah (swt) dress us more and give us the power of the Ocean of Qudrah in which, we heard Grandshaykh say, when Allah decided in His Knowledge, He immersed the Prophet (s) in Bahr al-Qudrah and made him turn and turn and turn, generating heat and light, and from that Light created all prophets, and that light is Sayyidina Muhammad (s).
That means everything is created from the Light of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) is fakhr, an honor for us that Allah made us from Ummat an-Nabi (s). How many prophets came on Earth and begged to be from Ummati Muhammad? Especially Sayyidina Musa (a). But Allah refused his petition, saying, “That honor is only for Ummat an-Nabi (s).” So we are lucky and honored to be granted that level. Honor is the way for Ahlu ’s-Sunnah wa ’l-Jama`ah: whatever they do honor follows them because of Prophet (s).
O Intercessor of Sinners (s)! We come to you from East and West, and from North and South, so don’t refuse us from your Door. We have come to your Presence!
Fatihah.
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