Tuesday, August 28, 2007

The Post Andalucian Notes


Discourse at Granada Moussem, Spain




From the beginning men (sages) has spoken
about this difficult matter (of Tao/Dharma/Way)
in term of being :

Blown out like a flame,
being pulverized like a mountain,
or being blown away like a cloud..

and all have agreed that this recognition
is based on your Non-Existence !

People say, " Ah, when I listen to Mozart "
And some very exalted people say that when they
listen to Bach - " I feel this Oneness that
the mystics talk about".

But if you experience anything then there are two, so where
then is Unity , where is the Oneness of Allah (Tawhid or Fana) ?
Ibnu Arabi has written much about this phrase :

"Everything perish except the Face of Allah".
And He is the Going-On (al-Baqiu)
Oh Lord of Majesty and Generous Gifts

In America , people often wolud say to me,
" I know what you are talking about.
I am mountain climber and I climb up the great
heights in the Rockies and I look at the horizon
and I am ANNIHILATED.

I feel I am NOTHING before this
greatness of the DIVINE."

They never leave the realm of the SENSORY and so they
do not enter into the realm of MEANINGS.

The modern men say, " I want spiritual knowledge". In other words, I am not interested in this outwardness, I want inward knowledge but I am not interested in all these religions. These all are forms, and I want the essence". And because they have not got a Path of Teaching, these people (psedo-sufis/modernists) end up in terrible disaster. Modern man is in the marshes! What a mess.

Someone said to one of the great shaykhs of the Darqawi tariqa,

" Tell me the greatest Name of Allah". And he said,
" Show me the least thing in the whole universe,
and i will show you the Greatest Name of Allah".

(Note : to practice the calling of Ismul Azim in khalwa
the seekers need special idhin, guidance and protection
in secluded place. Its experience may shatters one unprepared self.
Re-entering the sensory realms from the homeland of meanings
of the spirit is beyond this discourse. Get it from the arifun )

Monday, August 20, 2007

Always To Be In Change


The Fuqara Must Ask Always To Be In Change- By Shaykh Abdal Qadir as-Sufi

The du'a of the Muslim is, "O Allah, keep me in change." Keep mealways changing because everything is changing and every day Allah ison a new creation.You must be renewing and renewing yourself. You have to always be inchange. You must remember that the company of the fuqara is thehighest company. You must keep each other company.

You must travel toother places where there are fuqara. You must sit with the fuqara inevery place. You must be an example to them and take example fromthem when you meet people of quality. Seek the people of knowledge,seek the people of love of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, and the peopleof love of Rasul, sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam. To take the adab ofthe great ones you have to sit with them, you have to sit with thepeople of knowledge. It is by your company that you are purified.

Tasawwuf is keeping company, then tasawwuf is listening, thentasawwuf is acting upon what you hear. There is only one enemy andthat is your self. The nafs has nothing good in it. The worst of allthings to the Sufis is the recognition of their own good qualitiesover and against that of other people – it is what sets them back andsmashes them on the rocks of destiny. You must not look at your goodqualities. You must consider them something that in themselves havebeen spoiled even by your being conscious of them. You do not look atyour self.You do not find fault with others, you find fault with your self.You must look at your self and say, "What is wrong with it?" Harithal-Muhasibi went over his day, then went over his hours and then wentover his minutes, then went over his breath until he had verifiedthat it was pleasing to Allah, that it was acceptable to Allah.

Two great `ulama met in Baghdad and they argued and fought with eachother. At the end one of them said, "Let us meet tomorrow and discussthis matter further and the other one said, "No, let us meet tomorrowand make peace and forget all about it."

This is the way of the Sufis – to begin again.You must not be limited in your forgiveness of the faults of othersbut you must not have any measurement of any attention to yourself.Any consciousness of your self you must turn from. You must turn awayfrom the nafs and the method of turning away from the nafs is not apsychological method, it is dhikrullah. (Surat ar-Ra'd, 28 ) "Only inthe dhikr of Allah can the heart find peace."

You must do dhikr ofAllah. You must remember Allah standing, sitting and reclining onyour side. You must call upon Allah.You cannot afford to be out of the company of the people who loveAllah for any amount of time in this age that we live in. You must bewith the people who love Allah, you need them. You need the people ofAllah because they will remind you of Allah. You need the people ofknowledge because you have to be strong in your Deen and you have tobe correct in your Deen in an age where every mosque has a differentway of going into sajda, let alone the higher things of the Deen.

You must speak well of people and have a good opinion of people. You mustbecome people of futuwwa, you must become these people who are spokenof because of the high aspiration, the high himma you have which ison a universal scale that when you go to the Ka'ba, with all thetroubles that are there, you must look for the people of Allah thereand sit with them. Beware of the people of dunya. Beware of thepeople of dunya until you are safe, and when you are safe it does notmatter where you go. If you are not safe then you must be careful.

You must have taqwa and you must have wara'. You must take care, takecare, watch, until you are on Sirat al-Mustaqim because when thingsgo wrong you have to remember that all you have got is then to turnto Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala.Remember, even tawba is nothing to do with you – it is because Allahhas decreed for you tawba because He wants you, so even that is notyours, it is not your good achievement.Your asking forgiveness is not your good achievement, it is simplyAllah claiming you and you recognising that He has claimed you.

Youbelong to Allah. You have come from Allah and you are going to Allah.This is what you have to tell yourself. You must not be hypnotised bydunya.Remember that Rasul, sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam, indicated that thesmall coin of the poor person is as dangerous as the gold of therich, so you must be generous. To be generous is to follow the way ofRasul, sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam. You must be generous, you musthave a good opinion of other people, you must not say bad thingsabout other people and if you do say them you must go back and cleanit out and you must ask their forgiveness.

If someone is totally against you and totally in the wrong then you have to forgive themand you have to forget it and you have to go back and put thingsright. This is how the Deen has always been. This is how these greatmen have lived in the past.Just finally to remind you – look what has become of futuwwa – theelders of the organisation of people calling themselves al- Fatah aretying dynamite to youngsters' bellies and shoving them out to blowthemselves up, when the people who fought with Rasul, sallallahu`alayhi wa sallam, pushed the young people aside in order that theycould go and fight fisabilillah, fight in the service of Rasul,sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam.

So the whole Deen has to start all overagain.You are the people who must start it and in this continent is whereit will begin. It is from your people and from your children, but youmust have an adab to them, you must treat them with courtesy. Youmust treat your children with courtesy, you must treat the young withcourtesy just as you must treat the old with courtesy. You mustbecome the people of adab and if you become the people of adab youwill be safe.

If you become people of adab you will be Sufis. At-Tariqa kulluha-adab. The Tariqa is nothing but adab, that is all itis – adab.You must also have some respect for yourself. That respect foryourself is only manifest by the fact that all the people around youare at ease and in harmony with you and pleased that you are there.This is how you must be.

You must be a blessing on the earth. Youmust be a baraka for everybody. You must be ones that when you entera room it all lights up because of your love of Rasul, sallallahu`alayhi wa sallam, your love of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, andbecause your tongue is supple with the name of Allah and not thematters of dunya.Dunya will not fail to happen. All its strategems and spoils will notfail to crash about your ears, they have always done it and they willcontinue to do it.

When the People of the Cave came out, there again faced with the world and all its problems and all its difficulties, but Allah loves the people of tawhid and loves thepeople who love Him
and this is the company, the company of the Sufis.

We ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, that we prefer to go
to the company of people who only want to go to Allah
in preference to anyone who may do anything to help
give us advantage in this world.

We ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, to make us ready for the tests
come so that we can respond to Him and remember to praise Him
in every situation. Alhamdulillahi `ala kulli hal.

We ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, to bless this mosque
and its imams and its guardians and that it continues
to be a witness for Islam as it has been
in the troubled times of the past.

Amin.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Remembering Sidi Idris Kamaruddin 24 May 2003


Discourse by Sidi Umar Vadillo , 24 May 2003, Ribat of Kuala Lumpur

Bismillahir rahmanir rahim.

Tonight I am saying something special about Sidi Idris. His death/passing away and the events surrounding it were a great opening to all of us. We ask Allah Taala to shower His bounty and mercy upon him. He has gone ahead of us.

He is a man of wisdom-hikmah and certainty. Things become clear to him and looks settled while for others it is wobbly. He went through life with everything (riches and status etc) and also everything was taken away from him (become poor and stripped away).
In tasawwuf, this process is called annihilation-fana of the slave attributes. He purifies the nafs until it becomes free and pure for the worship of Allah with knowledge.

Sidi Shaykh has conferred highest honor on him by appointing him as his khalifa-representative in the tariqa of Shadhili-Darqawiyya in the region of Nusantara-malay world ( after he had made a difficult trip to England and Spain to meet SAQ in Granada in the month of Ramadhan in the early 1980s. He was well versed in the teaching of malay classical texts-kitab and graduated with an economic degree from Belfast Queen University).

We confirmed him as the wali of Allah. Nobody knows the secrets of the wali as he is buried/ hidden among the community of murids. He takes away this gift with him to the presence of Allah Taala. We witness his great love for Allah and His Rasul sallallahu alaihi wasallam although he try to hide his tears and states in the dhikr session.

The Sufis rejoice whe a mumin dies because he had doine his job and pleased with Allah.
When a baby is born, they-sufis are grieved bcos he is going to face a test of his life. Those who remembers Allah is alive and those who forgot Him are already dead although outwardly they are alive.

Sayyidina Umar r.a. said : Die before you die. It means you must have the knowledge of death which is about the power, decree and secret of Allah’s action while we are alive before facing the real death and ready for Akhirah. Each person build a prison around him while living. The dunya can be a prison if we don’t see its power that masters over the self-nafs. By that we are veiled from the knowledge of Allah.

Tasawwuf is freeing the nafs from this prison which we build by our attachment, fears, love..etc. The awliya has no fear bcos they already went through this matter in the Path. (As instructed by SAQ, the fuqara in kuala Lumpur had recited the Wird, Suratul Yassin and three qasidah from the Diwan of Sh. Muhammad Ibn alHabib (SMH), for the last three days in his illness.
One day before he passed away, we recited the Lakal-Hamd, Counsel of Death and Asma ul-Husna for him in a special gathering. May Allah gave us the mercy, secrets and blessings
of that zikr only to remember His gifts to us in this short life sojourns.

The kafirun hides the news of death. They feel at loss. They don’t know what to do. They fear it and attributed it to worldly causality..this and that events. For the muslims, it is entirely a matter of the Decree of Allah, the Giver of Life and Taker of Death. It does not matter how things are going our way before we die if we accepted our destiny. To live, worship, obey and love Allah Taala. We are all journeying toward our own death and meeting with Him.

Sidi Idris will be remembred by us in the dhikr, dua’ and the knowledges or advice he given to us and his blessed company with us .

We ask Allah taala to give him a high place in the Garden
among the company of the Salihun.
We ask Allah Taala to protect and strengthen his family members
and make great openings for them.

We ask You, Oh Allah, by the rank of our compassionate guide
Sayyidina Muhammad, grant us sciences that will benefit us
in the Day of Rising, strengthen us with lights at every instant
and make us firm at the time of sealing,
the agony of death and in the grave.


Dua’ from the end of Asmaul-Husna Qasida of SMH :

Oh Allah, we beg You by Your Most Beautiful Names
seeking Your approval and lutf in this life and the grave.

And on the Day of Rising and Gathering at the Stopping Place
where creation will taken into account , Oh Knower of secrets !

When the book of actions are taken, and at the Arrival-Masyar
and when we pass over the Sirat.

Oh Vast Goodness-ya Wasial Birri
Give us health in our life transaction, and this world and mercy
in the Two Abodes by Your Overflowing Generosity.

We ask for a seal of goodness (husnul khatimah) at death, and
to be near the Prophet, the praise worthy station of gathering.

May the blessings of Allah be upon him and His peace without end
and on his family and glorious Companions.

Ribat of Sidi al-Banna Retreat
Bukit Keramat Hujung
Kuala Lumpur