Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani
Suhbah
[Excerpted from Pearls and Coral, a forthcoming Naqshbandi publication]
In the Naqshbandi order one does not have permission to display miraculous powers. Showing all manner of miraculous powers will not bring you to a higher standard. In his youth, Grandshaykh used to do too many but then he was ordered by his Shaykh to "divorce" miraculous powers. His Shaykh said, "As they divorce one spouse from the other, you must divorce miraculous powers; don't come back to it – no need to. People have to follow us because of our 'ilm – our inspired knowledge – not because we can go through the wall, or walk on fire, or fly in the skies."
I know shaykhs who take this [holds his belt to his ear], and they speak through it like a telephone. They then call your parents in their country, just like this. This is not something we like in the Naqshbandi order.
I will tell you a story of Sayyidina Shah Naqshband, the leader of this order. In those days in Bukhara, they used to harvest wheat crops, grind, and make bread to eat. One day, a drought came, and for two or three years there was no rain. So there were no crops, and therefore no flour in the city. Children were dying of hunger.
They knew that Shah Naqshband was a very big saint, so they came to him and they said, please! the whole city is dying. Shah Naqshband was very famous both in external knowledge and internal knowledge, and is still considered one of the big scholars in Islam.
After seeing them starving and starving, feelings of mercy filled his heart and he said, "Whatever wheat is left in the city, bring it to me."
They found a little bit of wheat at the house of the richest person in the city. They brought that precious wheat to him. He went to the flour-mill. At that time they used cows to turn the grinding-stone. So he put that wheat between the two stones, and he put his head in the yoke instead of the cows, and he started going around. As he was turning, flour was coming out. The more he was moving, the more flour was coming out, coming, coming, and he ordered all the city to come and fill bags. All their houses were filled and they had provisions for three or four years ahead, from that small amount of wheat they had brought to him. He displayed that miraculous power – but he had displayed it without permission. Before saints show any miraculous power, they must seek permission from the Prophet (s) through their spiritual connection. If permission is granted, they can display such power without being blamed for it later. If permission is not given, then the saint is obliged to keep himself as an ordinary person and not display any difference from other people.
Shah Naqshband, although he is the greatest leader in that realm, had not taken permission. When he was dying, after the murids had placed him on his bed, they kept seeing him fall down. As he kept falling down from his bed – his long beard reached down – he repeated, "Ya 'Afuww ya 'Afuww... O Forgiver, forgive me, O Forgiver, forgive me..." and kept crying.
Through inspiration he heard a voice asking him, "Why did you show miraculous powers? Do you have more mercy in your heart than I? Didn't I know that they were starving? I am the One who made them starve. Why did you interfere with My will?" Great saints know that if you display miraculous powers, you are interfering with the Will of God. That is why they do not like to show them. They want to keep swimming in that ocean and whatever of His Will God has written to come to pass, they accept it and do not attempt to change it. Saints of a lesser level attempt to change the will of God because they have not yet arrived at that stage of perfection.
That is why Naqshbandi Shaykhs who carry their secrets from the Prophet (s) do not display miraculous powers. Their miraculous power consists only in their knowledge, the inspirations that come to their hearts. They do not try to show physical miracles. I know of a saint in Tripoli, Lebanon. It is a very famous story from my father and my uncles. His name is Shaykh `Ali al 'Omari, a Qadiri saint. When an Italian ship came to the Lebanese sea-shore in 1942 and that ship was full of food packages for the Lebanese people, the Italian commander refused to unload the ship for some reason.
The order was to go back. That saint went to the sea-shore, took a fishing-pole, hooked the ship and held it, just like that, and the ship could not move – finished. He said, "I will not let that ship move until they unload the cargo." After two or three days of negotiations he was still there, without need for him to go to make wudu', eat, or anything. He was praying and holding his fishing-pole. He would not move. When they unloaded, he released the ship. There are saints who interfere, but this does not characterize the highest level of perfection.
There was a Naqshbandi saint by the name of Sa'd ad-Din Jabawi. I saw these events concerning him when I was about eighteen or nineteen years old. I was in Grandshaykh's house in Damascus. A delegation of scholars visited him, saying: "O Mawlana, they want to make a road, and Sidi Sa'd ad-Din Jabawi's maqam (his grave or shrine),is in the way. The government sent bulldozers to raze that grave, but they cannot touch it. Every time the bulldozer comes to that point, it stops. If they try to strike the grave, the bulldozer breaks down." They had come to Grandshaykh with the knowledge that there is connection with Sidi Sa'd ad-Din Jabawi through tariqah, and were asking him: "Please, solve this problem for us."
Mawlana Shaykh `Abdullah replied: "Give me two or three days."
After two days, he said, "Go to the place of the saint tonight; make dhikr, all of you, then open his grave in the morning and remove him for burial elsewhere."
But Sidi Sa'd ad-Din Jabawi had died five hundred years ago! So they said like the Wahhabis say today: "What is left of him?" They said "He's finished; there's just dust there now!" What dust? The Prophet (s) said: "God has forbidden the earth to eat the body of prophets."1
God has said in Qur'an "They are alive in the presence of their Lord, being provided for." (Aali `Imran, 169)
What is true of prophets and shuhada in these two examples is true of saints also, of good people, of sincere people. They are alive. So they were laughing – "He's still there?" Of course he is still there, otherwise why is your bulldozer unable to go through?
That night they went and made dhikr. In the morning, Shaykh `Abdullah's students began to open the grave, block after block, until they came to the main stone. They took that big stone away and the air all around was diffused with a beautiful fragrance. A brilliant light emerged. It was the hour of the dawn prayer (fajr) when all is dark with the day just beginning to break on the horizon. They found him there in his burial shroud, as though he had been buried that very day, perfectly clean, his face looking as if he had just died. It seemed as if his skin would redden if you just pinched it. I was there. When they opened the tomb and removed him I was with my brother. They lifted him from the grave and buried him in another place not far away.
He had been buried there for five-hundred years. What is this that people are saying: `there are no saints' when God says in His Holy Qur'an: "God's saints – there is no fear on them and nor do they grieve." (Yunus,62) and in Hadith Qudsi:
Awliya'i tahta qibaabee`i Ia ya'lamuhum ghayree" (Ghazali, Hujwiri). "My saints are under my domes, no one knows them other than Myself."
Scholars are known by everyone. If He wanted to mention scholars he would say 'ulama`iy. But he said Awliya'i, my saints are under my domes, not "my scholars are under my domes." No one knows them – they are hidden. Saints are hidden. And you do not buy sanctity with a scholar's 'ilm (knowledge). A saint is a grant to people from God. Saints do not become saints by going to universities and receiving degrees. The condition of sainthood is a reward granted from God to person's heart. Even if he knows nothing at all in the way of academic knowledge, God opens up paths in his heart and, at that time, there is nothing of this life that he does not know.
1 Ahmad, Abu Dawud, Ibn Abi Shaybah, Nasa'i, Ibn Majah, Darimi, Ibn Khuzaymah, Haythami, Hakim, Dhahabi, Ţabarani, Bayhaqī, Suyuti,Nawawi.
Miracles in Naqshbandiyyah, part 2
If anyone looks for a saint, he will find one. If anyone looks for an `alim he will find one. If anyone looks for a good person he will find one, and if anyone searches out a bad person, he will find one.
Whatever the intention of your heart is, you will find what is in accord with it. If your intention is to be with a saint, you are going to find a saint.
Who put that intention in your heart? God did. He is telling you: Look for my saintly ones. If your intention is to find an `alim, you will find one, and if your intention is to find a good person, you will find one.
One day when I was a young boy, in the mid 50's, I was with my oldest brother, who was himself about 25 at the time; we were in the grand mosque in Beirut. It was the time for 'Asr - the afternoon prayer, and my uncle, who was the mufti, was leading the prayer.
A person entered, having a very black beard, and sat next to my brother. The afternoon prayer was ending. My brother had been looking for saints since childhood. The person who sat besides him was very handsome with blue eyes, a white complexion, and a turban.
He called my brother by name and said to him, "Are you Salim?" My brother answered, "Yes, how do you know me?" He said, "Don't ask. You are Naqshbandi," and it was not a question, but my brother said, "yes." He continued, "You are in a branch of Naqshbandi, you are not in the main trunk."
We were connected to my uncle's side before knowing Grandshaykh `Abdullah ad-Daghestani: in Egypt, Shaykh Muhammad(s) Amin al-Kurdi, and in Damascus, Shaykh Ibrahim Ghalayini. He said, "I have been sent to you by my Shaykh, Shaykh `Abdullaah, from Damascus. It is time for you to go and meet him." That was Shaykh Nazim. I was then ten years old.
When the heart is looking for a saint, you will find him, and your heart will tell you, "this is a saint," but your ego will come and say "NO" and interrupt you. When this happens, know that you are on the right way. Sometimes you will think, "this is a saint," and then, "this is not a saint"; at that time, you must know that there is some reality there.
We were attracted to him. We loved him because there was light coming from him. My brother took him to my uncle and we invited him to the house. He stayed overnight and then said, "Come with me to Damascus."
We went to Damascus the next day. SubhanAllah! When we saw Grandshaykh `Abdullah, we felt a great attraction. We saw that all shaykhs in Syria were coming to him, though Grandshaykh did not know how to read or write. Great scholars with big turbans next to which ours are small, people seventy and eighty years of age, came and sat like children in front of Grandshaykh. And when Grandshaykh opened his advice, their 'ilm, their learning was as nothing. They found something extraordinary. He gave explanations that no one had heard before.
We were so attracted that from that time until now, Alhamdulillah, that early connection is still there.
Saints come to you; but they come once. If you do not catch them, they do not come a second time. You have to be very careful. They are not like scholars. Scholars even go from door to door. Some Muslims are now taking their names out of directories, because people come knocking at their doors!
Ulama al-huroof, scholars of words and letters, like to run after people to bring them to their classes because they don't have anything. But saints have everything and therefore come one time. Then you are connected. That's it. So they leave you. Whenever they want you, they pull that rope back and you will come into their presence. One minute of sitting in their association is enough in order to be taken with them on Judgment Day. But everyone must be aware of this fact: Saints come one time, not twice. They do not like to insist. If you are attached, that's it. If you lose, you lose them in this life but not in the hereafter.
If you have sat with them it is enough for you; but in this life you will not feel happiness and see spiritual progress if you lose that connection.
Do not allow too many doubts to enter into your mind; do not allow your heart to shake and become unsteady. They are not asking anything from anyone. They work only for Allah. If anyone believes, he will benefit. If anyone disbelieves, he is a loser. They are not saying to everyone to come and believe in them.
People ask Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, "Why are you not going after people to make them come?" He says, "What God sends, these are selected people. We don't want the unselected. There are many people outside. You can go to them. I am leaving them for others. I want the selected ones. When the selected ones come, you can depend on them. The unselected ones come and go, come and go, like a sieve. What remains are the selected ones."
Saints need selected people. They do not want the leftovers - by which I do not mean with respect to people's hearts but with respect to their moral character. Saints then, take what comes to them.
What is left over, they discard. Do not lose that opportunity and be like leftovers - discarded. Reality does not visit people many times in this life. In fact, it comes only once. As Qur'an said: "Those who believe in the unseen." (2:3)
You need faith in the unseen. That is why the Sufi teachers of the Naqshbandiyyah order do not like to show miracles. If I pass through this wall to the other side, you are certainly going to believe. But what is the value of that belief – nothing at all.
That is why the first pillar of religion in Islam is faith in the unseen. If you want to see, then there is no faith: you have seen. Your spiritual standing, therefore, will not be high.
Why did the Sahabah (r) become the Companions of the Prophet (s) and achieve that high level? Because they believed in the Unseen. The Prophet (s) came, and everyone was worshipping idols. He said, "Leave idols and worship God!" "But where is God – we are not seeing God, but we see the idols." Therefore they believed in the Unseen. Once they believed, God sent more to their hearts. That is why He said to them in Qur'an "O believers, believe in God and in His Prophet."
"O believers..." He called them believers, because they believed in the Useen. At first, before entering Islam, they were unbelievers; He called them to believe in the Unseen, to believe in God. When they said, "Yes, we believe," He called them "believers"; believers without seeing.
Now, he wants to raise them. He is going to take them from the "unseen" position to the seen position. "O believers, believe!..." If they were called believers to start with, what is left to believe? If he has already called them believers, why is he ordering them again to believe?
This means that the initial belief referred to at the beginning of the verse was a lower stage of belief, an imitative belief. He wants to raise them: "Believe now in God and His Apostle." It means, "I am going to show you that light in your hearts. I am raising you from the level of imitation, which is the common level for everyone, up to the seeing level, the heart level that is higher – belief
in God and in the Prophet (s)."
Have they not believed already? But He wants to show them. Now, our belief is mere imitation. Our ego is fighting us – "No, he is not right, yes, he is right... Don't accept this, accept that..." When we accept, they will take you to the other shore.
What do you need in order to cross that ocean from this shore to that? You need two means: Either a bridge, or a vessel to take you, such as a ship or an airplane. If you do not find either of these means, you will never reach the farther shore. This is why God gave this order in Qur'an. They were believers in the Unseen on this shore, having been accepted by Him; but He wants to take them to the second shore, and he told them "Believe" a second time in God and the Prophet (s)," so they can cross to the shore of safety.
There are three levels in the Naqshbandi order:
`Ilmul Yaqin, the knowledge of certainty, `Aynul Yaqin, the eye of certainty,
and Haqqul Yaqin, the truth of certainty.
But before reaching this level of understanding, you must have reached three prior levels:
Mahabbatullaah, love for Allah; Mahabbatu`l-Habib, love for the Prophet (s);
Mahabbatul-mashaayikh, love for saints.
When a man loves a woman, she is always present in his heart. You are always seeing her. When you love someone, you are always remembering her either through the phone or buying her roses or taking her on a picnic. Look what happened to Romeo and Juliet, how Romeo spent all nights either with his guitar or his poetry, while she was up on the balcony, he was sending poems up to her - remembering her.
The first level in Sufism – and in Shari`ah also, it is the same in both – is love of God. If you do not have love for Allah, how are you going to find true pleasure? Everyone in this life now has love for dunya (the world), not for Allah. We have love for the material world. Everyone wants to get everything from this dunya. Don't they know that Allah, who created this dunya, has everything?
They say in Arabic, "ma siw'alLah," "whatever other than God." There is God, and there is what God created. They are after the created, they are not after the Creator. Whatever is other than God, people are running after it – the material world.
But who created that material world? Is not Allah its Creator? And if His name is "the Creator," it means every second He is creating something. He is not stopping creation. Do you want to run after such a Creator who has everything and keeps creating, or do you want to run after some superficial inventions?
Now, anyone who runs after religion or is seeking reality is called raj'i in our countries – a "backward" person. In all Arab countries and all Muslim countries without exception, anyone who seeks reality, who seeks Allah, who seeks love, is called 'backward'.
Is someone who seeks His Lord a 'backward' person? This is the attitude now in those regions. They look at you wondering, "what kind of people are these?" They are ashamed of you in their society. That is what many tryants did when they came. We are seeking only to be good people, people with good manners in society, loving Allah, loving the Prophet (s), loving saints, loving humble people.
What is the shame in this? Everyone is running after the pleasures of this life. No one is running after the Creator of pleasures, the One who has everything. I remember when Grandshaykh was once sitting and speaking about Mahdi (as) He said: "Men are running after women, and women after men. And all the focus of human mentality is this – sexuality; there is nothing else! Everyone is running after that, they have that intention in mind. Yet that intention is coming from God's Ocean of Beauty. God has created that beauty inside men and women."
We are not saying that this is forbidden. God has permitted human beings to love that beauty within the confines of marriage. And Grandshaykh said that in Mahdi and Jesus' (as) time, when Allah is going to open the light of that Ocean to every man and every woman, when they look at that Ocean of Beauty God will be sending to them, the thought of sexual pleasure will be as spit – as nothing, because at that time you will have the whole ocean.
This is what God mentioned in the Qur'an and the Prophet (s) said in Hadith: in Paradise, you are always in never-ending, continuous pleasure.
Now, you take your pleasure for one hour – then it is over. There, it is continuous, for men and women.
In the Last Days, when Mahdi and Jesus appear (as) and Allah opens that Ocean, everyone is going to be running after that light coming from there: the light of complete love.
Now we are trading with Allah because we do not see. If we live to see the time of Mahdi and Jesus (as), there will be no more trading. Traders are trading now – those that are trying to hold themselves in order not to fall into the pleasures of this life.
Anyone that falls into the pleasures of this life now will not find himself in a high position in the time of Mahdi and Jesus (as) time. Anyone that tries to hold himself now, as the Prophet (s) said, keeping his religion patiently as if he is holding fire; if you hold now, you are going to get everything later. But if you allow your body to take everything from this life now, you are not going to find happiness and pleasure there.
The first stage, as we said, is love of Allah, love of the Prophet (s), love of saints. When you have that love, they are always present in your heart. Then you will reach:
Hudurullah, presence of Allah;
Hudurullaah Habib, presence of the Prophet (s);
Hudurullaah mashaayikh, presence of the saints.
When you have Presence, you don't feel anything there except Allah at that time. Then you have:
Fanaa'un fi-lLaah,
fanaa'un fir-Rasaal,
fanaa'un fil-mashaayikh.
At that time you vanish into the stage of non-existence. You are non - existent, and God is existing, the Prophet (s) is there, your Shaykh is there. Through your Shaykh you go to the Prophet (s), and then your Shaykh is finished. For then the Prophet (s) hands you over to God.
When you have accomplished those three levels, only then you go to:
`Ilmu`l-Yaqin;
`Aynu`l-Yaqin;
Haqqu`l-Yaqin,
the three levels of certainty that we began mentioning above. Right now you may have certainty, you may know it, only you hear it and understand about it, but you cannot feel it or see it or live it.
As we were discussing now what Allah is going to open from the Oceans of Beauty in the time of Mahdi and Jesus (as), you are hearing, taking knowledge from that; some of you are feeling; some, only taking knowledge. The second level, 'Aynul Yaqin, the eye of certainty, is when you can see.
When Mawlana Shaykh Nazim speaks, you can see that light; but you cannot feel it, you cannot take the pleasure.
Haqqu`l-Yaqin, the truth of certainty: at that level you hear it, you see it, and you feel it. The first level of knowledge is through hearing. That is why in all verses in the Qur'an where God wants to begin describing, He says "hearing" – everything begins with hearing. At the second level you can both see and hear without feeling, like television: you can see and hear the speaker, but you cannot feel as if you were sitting with him. The third level is as if you are sitting with them in the studio, feeling everything, present, past, and future events. When you are with saints at that level, you will see all three realms.
This is what the Prophet (s) told the Sahabah (r) when he ordered, "Come to me and come to Allah." That is why Allah told them this verse in Qur'an: "O believers, believe..."
His taking them from the position of "belief – unseen" to the position of "belief – seen" hinges on the command "Believe!" That kind of higher belief we do not have, but we have what can be called imitative belief – the position of belief in the unseen. "I want you now to see and to feel what you used only to
hear" –that is the second and third levels: knowledge of certainty, eye of certainty, truth of certainty.
The Prophet (s) took the believers from this shore of the ocean to that other shore with Allah's command "Believe." He showed them complete feelings of happiness and perfect pleasure. If all of us direct ourselves to God and the Prophet (s) and put the love of God and His Prophet (s) in our hearts, at that time they will take us from that level of believing in the Unseen which is mere imitation, to a level of real believing because it is belief in the "Seen."
This is what Naqshbandi teachings are trying to show – to take you from the Unseen, to feel and to See.
In this time people worship five times a day, according to Divine Law, beginning with the words "Allahu Akbar..." and praying. But your heart is preoccupied with materialism and busy with the world of material things. You are standing in the "unseen" position. If you go higher, these teachings will take from the unseen to the "seen," and when you say ALLAHU AKBAR, you will find yourself in front of Ka'bah, seeing and feeling yourself praying there.
That is Shari`ah; this is Tariqah. Shari`ah is the ocean, Tariqah is the ship, the means that allows you to swim in or to cross that ocean. It will protect you from sinking. It will make you see, because it polishes you, scrubbing away the rust from your heart.
Insha`Allah all of us will be following the truth and not accepting what our ego is telling us. We are not telling you not to take your share from this life. Take your share from this life, but put one foot here in this world and one foot there in the hereafter.
Wa mina-llaahit-tawfiq bi hurmati`l-Fatihah.
