Discourse of Umar Vadillo

DISCOURSE
BY SIDI UMAR VADILLO
24 MAC 2005 PUTRAJAYA (as recorded by sidi kharazi al-juhuri)

Bismillahi rahmanir rahim.
First, we thank the host of gathering in honor for the presence and visit of sidi umar from cape town to kuala Lumpur, muqadim abu zuhri shin tonight who gave a short speech on the important of following the shaykh, his khalifa/muqadims and the amirs with proper adab and acceptance of their instructions. Any fuqara who argue or debate or having contrary actions with them are in danger of falling out and causing conflicts. He related the teaching of Shaykh Ali alJamal which two times reject and fiercely chasing out Sh.darqawi (a faqir then) from his zawiya with the broom just to test him and broke his pride/nafs. He returned the third time, the shaykh accepeted and embraced him as the perfect murid. He then became a great shaykh, a qutb/pole of his time.

The same happened with sh.shadhili , an alim and faqih who went to makkah and madinah but to be told go back to morocco. Your shaykh is waiting for you in the mountain ! He climbed the high mountain, reach the top and meet a guardian of the wali, only to be told : you are still dirty, go down to clean yourself before fit to see the shaykh. The second time he was still rejected. At the third attempt, he wash himself at a spring at the mountain base, ghusul major purification and says: Oh Allah, I washed myself from all my previous knowledge, my reputation as alim and faqih, I have nothing before this wali of Yours, please guide me and take me to my desired goal. He went up again with humility and broken hearted. Sh Ibnu Mashish then accepted him as a murid, entered a cave for khalwa, doing the Ismul Azim and finished his suluk/marifa opening. From this overflowing, we honored our tariqa by his name which spread to the West and East by the idhin of Allah through his Awliya.


What is the lessons for us. Those who come with pride and thinking they possess actions, power, knowledge and reputation before the fuqara are totally missing this knowledge. A faqir thanks Allah for all His gifts- his life, his wealth, his family, his striving, his knowledge, his company with the awliya – all proceed from Allah loves and generosity to his slave. We cannot make any claims that we achieved this through our own actions. We must have patient, patient and to see the unfolding events before us. We come and travel for Allah, we don’t care about our jobs, our buildings, cars or the number of people following us or how successful our outward projects. I had poured out this matters from my heart and now invite sidi umar to guides us further and enlightening us by his blessed company with sidi shaykh.

Alhamdulillah, those desire this knowledge as outlined earlier, shall take notice how we must grasp this knowledge with full concentration and valued it highly as nothing is comparable. It is our pivot of existence. Why, if don’t know we came from Him and this knowledge coming from Him to draw us closer, then don’t expect everybody understand what this path all about. Without this knowledge, the world will collapse. How ? Because all existence come Allah and He sustains it by His qudra and set it up bil-haqq. By the truth, it means with must live within His shariat and a embedded law. This is halal and that is haram does not change with what people says and how they act. Riba is haram whether you discover it or not, whether you use money or not, the finance system engulf us all. We live under the law of Allah, so if we do it correctly it bring knowledge and opening to unexpected things.

Sh Darqawi says amazing things in his letters –Rasail –about the nafs. The faqir look at the world differently from others. He sees people problems as created by their own illusions and limitations. When you greedy to want more, then you busy with the world until you have little time for dhikr and reflection. For being poor before Allah means you want something not of this world. What is it ? We thanks Allah taala when He gave us a man who had gone beyond and wish to impart this precious knowledge to us.

Sh.Muhammad ibn alHabib was very angry when a man said infront of him : ‘ today there is no more awliya or people of marifa’. He answered the man : Don’t dare you said that, if not for these people (awliya), the sustenance or existence of this world will last any longer. But it is not easy to recognize this man of knowledge if we judge ourself or our goal in terms of material things and what our nafs wanted.

Shaykh abdal qadir told us this story. A man come to the zawiya and visited sidi shaykh and asked for real sufic knowledge. I mean the special knowledge, the secrets of the unseen ? The shaykh said : recite and study the wird of SMH. What, this wird I know already and this is not what I want ? The shaykh was angry with this man. Look, do you even understand one word from this wird that will take you to Allah ? Had we understand the secret of La haula wa la quwwata illa biLlahil aliyyil azim ? Had we submitted to the power and qudra of Allah or tasted it like no one before ? For us, this matter of dhikr and desire for nearness to Allah can make us cry like babies for 3 days. This neediness and brokenness is our attribute before Him and then He gave the overflowing so the slave can move forward. He can shrug off all this time and place limitations.

Our sign of need for Him is like day of festivals where gifts were overflowing. We will not survive if the tests face by this people of Allah were similarly placed on us. When we see huge problem and difficulty, they see it as great opportunity and openings. Why, because Allah has placed the wisdom existence in their opposites. Only the Sufis saw through this barriers, veils and illusions set up by people own opinions and limitations. Oh I cant do this and do that. I only do so much, this is what we can act now. So many obstacles outside, this rule, that rule, regulation and that authority and that system had set it that way. Our stance are, forgot about others, how powerful and how dominant they are, we have nothing to lose by acting on the command of Allah who said –this things are halal, therefore do it. We don’t wait for the governments to declare this dinar is valid and practical. Once we done our job and the dinar spread, we withdraw again to the zawiya/ribat for dhikr and tasting.

This knowledge changes our life, the way we deal with the world. SAQ send his murid out, go and go, don’t sit in the zawiya. Get out. He forced them to taste this knowledge in real battlefields. How can I tell people this secret of the nafs so overhelming and nothing of this dunya can satisfy me. We can only get this knowledge face to face. By keeping company with a man of Allah and he get it from another people of Allah, the awliyas. It is not the books or the information in your heads. We cannot pretend to have or faked this knowledge and soon it will exposed when we go into action.

People now make use of islam are marketing products/tools, to gain profit by selling the Islamic labels of dubious transactions, all haram with riba. If a thing does not make you close to Allah, it will make far from Allah. Do you understand ?
So with a dinar, a business, a house or governing a state. There is nothing wrong with the dinar or the house or businees you do, but how is your heart with these things ? How is nafs is cleaned from attachments to material things, reputation or the ibadah you do. Everywhere this sort of man goes, he cause troubles and mess things up. He had not tasted the sweetness of this surrender, giving up of choice and management to Allah taala in the face of impossible tasks. Like bringing down the dollar or super powers. It is not our action counts but our obeying Him and borrowing His attributes to deal with creation or existence that He sets up. So He will give the knowledge of existence to those not veiled by it.

This knowledge is not easy if we have bad adab or opinion of the fuqara. Beware, they are the least of people who want to meddle in your endless private problems. Three men came from faraway Iraq to the desert of Morocco to see a shaykh. They reached the village and entered the zawiyya, they announced : we want to see the shaykh, convey our message to his people. They were given food and lodging at the zawiya. Do dhikr and sit with the fuqara, chanting qasida after qasida, more food and drinks. But they were exasperated, asked : where is the shaykh ? We had wasted our time for 2 days still no news of the shaykh ? This people are useless and had bad adab to us not fulfilling our goal of traveling here. Where are the Sufis ? On the third day, they left the zawiyya. What they don’t know were that man serving them for 3 days was sidi muhammad ibn kursi who were specially instructed by SMH to be hidden in the desert away from the trouble makers. He guarded this knowledge like a candle light blown by strong winds.

We must cling to the shaykh like a desperate exhausted man to be rescued , hoping to taste a drop from his deep being. From the presence of hadratu rabbani. How can we measure this knowledge whereas all other knowledges you can give away but not this. This world will not last if deprive of the people with this high maqam and love of Allah and Rasul sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. All our knowledge come from this source, face to face since the beginning. Some may not be taught openly. Only very few come near to this matter. This is our trademarks wherever we goes, knowledge embedded deep and we express it to the seekers, the right people at the corners of zawiyya.

Like Malaysian government fascinated with technology, progress …wawasan 2020 more technology for better society. All this cannot replace the deen as our core business. We live here by the mercy of Allah a very short time. This dunya will melt away, Akhira is so near. Our homeland is there, not here. Look at the ruh/spirit where it comes from and flying back.

But we have business of Sharia to do, establish the dinar, the market, qirad, education, da’wa and apply the rules of fiqh. Make sure things are halal, not what they say is halal. Islamic banking, this and that. Imam Junayd says that if men know, they will crawling toward this knowledge.

We ask Allah to bless our shaykh abdal qadir as-sufi. To him give all his needs in doing works fisabilillah. We ask Allah to make us worthy of receiving his tremendous knowledge and wisdom and spreading it. We ask Allah to give and open us more to the knowledge of the deen. We ask Allah to enable us to keep company of the Awliyas and give awakening to the muslims.

We ask Allah taala to advance on the path and proctect us from the enemies. We ask Allah to teach us adab toward the shuyukh and awliya and amirs in order to obey and fulfill their instructions. Amin.

Later the gathering of fuqara sang the qasida of
Lakal-Hamd and Salamun ala hima from the Diwan of Shaykh Ibnul al-Habib.

About 30 seekers from all over Malaysia : Penang, Johor,Klang, Shah Alam and Kuala Lumpur were present at the blessed night of Jumaat which include two Kazakstan friends namely Sidi Ghany and his brother Sidi Rustam, Amir Redhuan Oon and Dr.Daud Fattah Batchelor of Australia.