“A’uzu Billahi Minash Shaitanir Rajeem.
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem.”
“Atiullah atiur Rasul wa Ulil amre minkum.”
And always a reminder for myself ana abdukal 'ajeezu, dayeefu, miskinu, zhalim, wa jahl,
and but for the grace of Allah (AJ) that we are still in existence.
And alhamdulillah, in day of difficulties the tariqah (spiritual path) teachings are
even more applicable.
That to live a life as a drop outside of the ocean, and this world its only intention is
to dry up that drop.
Put every difficulty upon that drop and every heat upon the drop until the drop dries and
fades away.
And people whom isolate themselves from awliya (saints), isolate themselves from zikrullah
(remembrance of Allah), isolate themselves from salawat (praises upon Prophet Muhammad
ﷺ) and the majlis (association) of sali ‘alan Nabi ﷺ, they’re being isolated
by shaitan (satan).
Shaitan comes into their lives and ‘Badness,’ ‘Evilness,’ ‘Bad character,’ - whatever
people want to call it, and isolate the servant so that they literally like a drop outside
of the ocean.
They begin to lose the feel of the ocean, the purpose of the ocean and that’s all
that shaitan wants – is to isolate people and take away their feeling of belonging,
a feeling of purpose, a feeling of unity and community.
And that becomes very sad with all these isolations, all these testings, all these masks and conditioning,
because that’s all they want – is to condition people to have fear, sit at home, order your
food and don’t ever go out, and no community, no…
no purpose in life.
And the tariqah comes to teach that, ‘No, no this is a community, this is a Muhammadan
community.’
This is a community based on the love of Allah (AJ) and the heart and love and the presence
of Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ.
And all of its teachings is to make us to return back to the ocean so that we can feel
the power of the ocean, the beauty, the magnificence of the ocean, and that all that Allah (AJ)
has bestowed upon that ocean.
And that’s why the tariqahs operate the way they do, that’s why they say that, ‘Follow
the shaykh; follow a shaykh, be committed to the shaykh.’
And even if the shaykh is… is understanding of that psychology and that’s why the logo,
that’s why the… the phoenix and that’s why the distinction, is to give ourselves
one – the barakah and the blessings of identifying ourselves as Sufi Meditation Center and we’re
all under the ijazah (authorization) of Naqshbandiya, so that’s our umbrella.
All under Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah (People of Prophetic Tradition and of the Majority)
is our umbrella, all with the love of Allah (AJ) and the obedience to the love of Sayyidina
Muhammad ﷺ.
And then the tariqah’s cleverness is for the shaykh to bring people to the community
that he’s making.
And now mashaAllah it’s a virtual community.
We don’t have to travel you know 20 hours and... even three hour travel is a whole day.
Imagine 20 hour journeys where you take at least two days to fly somewhere and somebody
to accommodate and host you and then go from home to home and…
Alhamdulillah by the comfort of this technology, Allah (AJ) is making us to reach.
And the shaykh’s responsibility to tie people in.
Everybody’s acting like a loose bead just rolling on their own like a rolling stone.
I think there’s a song for that [shaykh laughs].
Where you’re just kind of rolling away and sitting by yourself, isolating, going into
corners where nobody can see you.
They even do it at the center – they go sit somewhere very far away from everybody
else trying to isolate.
Such a psychological profile of that person is very apparent to the shaykh.
That, don’t isolate yourself!
That characteristic is dangerous for you.
And if you had it in your children, you’d be concerned.
So the shaykh looks at his students like children.
That when one of your kids isolates away from the pack and hides themself and wants to pretend
they’re not with them but they’re with them.
Or people whom are virtual and they’re watching from internet and they’re not logging in,
they’re not participating, they’re not commenting.
These are psychologically very important to bring people together because the shaykh knows
that – the winds are coming, the tides of difficulty are everywhere and they see it
with all the people they interact, even with their own family.
They see it, they see that when shaitan triggers you to isolate and make you to be by yourself.
As soon as you’re by yourself what happens?
You understand your insignificance, that you know people become depressed because they
feel like – they have nothing, they are nothing, they have no power, they’re being
manipulated and pushed and herded in different directions.
Psychologically they’re becoming crushed and they feel themselves to be down and anxious.
So, tariqah alhamdulillah is the teacher of psychology, not these crazy people who you
know taught this in school.
They were very creepy people.
Their whole foundation of western psychology is by very creepy, scary people.
But Islamic psychology is from Allah (AJ), from the grace and the beauty of Sayyidina
Muhammad’s ﷺ heart and this is the reality of tariqahs.
They are the real psychologists, they are the real doctors, they are the real guides
of the human race and the human identity.
And Allah (AJ) knows that we have to keep a companionship – a companionship of those
whom are wishing to improve themselves.
And as a result of that keep that companionship, we begin to feel a purpose.
So then when we have the logo, we get the logo; I feel that I am connected with that
group and specifically with that shaykh and I don’t have to keep emailing, ‘Who is
my shaykh?
Who is my shaykh?’
When you sit at home, you don’t ask you know who’s your family.
You know where you’re sitting, you know who you’re in front of, you know who you’re
emailing, you know who you’re dealing with.
You have to stop that question – that, that means your mind some… is in the wrong place.
Just make your connection and begin to feel the presence.
Feel the presence of the shaykh – the one whom is talking to you.
Feel that when you close your eyes, you’re in his association at all times.
And that you’re asking for your heart to be filled with that light, his light to enter
into your heart.
As a result of that, you feel that, ‘I’m with them.
Look I have this logo on me, I’m in their YouTubes, I’m participating on their sites.
He knows my name on every platform he sees it.’
You feel that you’re connected and that’s what psychologically is very important before
you even understand the spiritual significance, you feel that you are connected to a family
and a community, and this Naqshbandi family specific to Sufi Meditation Center.
If you don’t see our logo and you don’t see my face – that’s something else, that’s
something else.
So you know there can be many different flavours of Naqshbandiya.
You even have Naqshbandiya Mujaddidi which’s completely different.
So that’s not the only understanding where you bounce channel to channel, channel to
channel.
But this is very specific to join this family.
To see its logo, to see that shaykh and say, ‘That’s the one that I’m participating
with.’
And that’s important in these days – is to feel that I’m a part of something.
I email and I have a communication with this shaykh.
I’m active on all these platforms.
I’m on their YouTube.
I’m on all of these different things.
And then we feel that we have a belonging and that has to counter what shaitan is doing.
Shaitan is isolating, isolating, isolating because people are weaker by themselves and
stronger in a herd.
Right?
So if you have something like this [shaykh clenches a fist] is much stronger than something
like this [shaykh separates his fingers] because anyone of these [fingers] you can quickly
break.
So they don’t have a hand but to have a fist – means to be united, to be together,
to be strong.
Shaitan’s only purpose is to open it [fist] up and make everybody to be by themselves
and begin to isolate.
And you see it everywhere and you see that psychologically he wants to break people down.
As a part of breaking people down, he makes them to become depressed, makes them to become
anxious – and that’s all he needs.
And then he begin to induce them with, ‘Take this, take this, take this, take this’ and
before you know it they are just a walking zombie.
So more than ever these things that the shaykhs are putting together – they are very important.
Any piece of them you leave out, it has a significant purpose; it’s not something
random.
The shaykh is trying to make people to feel like this is a virtual community and that
they’re like a family, they’re all connected.
They have a common theme, common interest.
And the propagation of the love of Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ – it gives everybody a purpose,
everybody a sense of responsibility, everybody a sense of, ‘I can participate in something
and not just look at it.
I can share the feeds.
I can share the books, I can go to the articles.’
There’s about ten-thousand articles on ‘nurmuhammad.com’.
Any article or any subject that you like; on abjad, on meditation, on all of these things
and people begin to share.
And mashaAllah we have a lot of people sharing on different platforms and WhatsApp groups,
Telegram groups, Facebook and all of these different social media.
These are important, these are important not only for the shaykh’s teachings to disseminate
so we get the nazar (gaze) of Prophet ﷺ that we’re spreading the Muhammadan reality.
But one – is to counter shaitan on what he’s doing and how he’s trying to isolate
and break down individual people.
And once he breaks them down then very easy to conquer them and to make them to feel immensely
depressed and immensely anxious.
We pray that Allah (AJ) give us more and more strength and understanding and all we have
to do is just follow, follow the example and participate, feel the love, feel the community
and that, ‘I’m a part of this Sufi Meditation Center, Naqshbandi teachings.’
And alhamdulillah and we feel that love, we feel that community, we feel Allah’s (AJ)
grace and light and dressings inshaAllah to be upon us and to bless us and protect us
from the difficulties that continuously opening upon this earth.
And the same we would teach for our families.
It’s no difference.
Whatever the shaykh is teaching, he’s teaching in something that everyone takes back to their
own home - is to feel themselves a unit, to feel themselves participating and to participate
with their family, make the family to feel that they’re united together, that they
have a connection with each other and this is important in life.
So alhamdulillah inshaAllah Allah (AJ) protect us against these difficulties and unite us
with the love of Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ and grant us a himmah and a zeal in which to do
many things.
You know with this love and this support many things are possible.
All barriers can be brought down with just a handful of a few good people.
MashaAllah Allah (AJ) dress and bless everybody who made the Mawlids (celebrations of the
birthday of Prophet ﷺ) to be possible, the events to be possible, the filming and television
productions to be possible, to book production mashaAllah to be possible and the families
that are involved with the production, the editing and endless hours of putting things
together, alhamdulillah.
It’s an immense project of many, many people participating and having the love of Sayyidina
Muhammad ﷺ.
Subhana rabbika rabbal ‘izzati ‘amma yasifoon, wa salaamun ‘alal mursaleen, walhamdulillahi
rabbil ‘aalameen.
Bi hurmati Muhammad al-Mustafa bi siri Surat al-Fatiha.