بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

 

Friday Sermon

 

HAZRAT AMIR’UL MOMENEEN MUHYI-UD-DIN

AL KHALIFATULLAH

 

Munir Ahmad Azim

 

 

30 October 2009

 

 

(Summary of Friday Sermon)

 

 

After having greeted everybody with the Salutations of Peace, the Khalifatullah read the Tashahhud, Taouz and Surah Al Fatiha and afterwards he said:

 

We consider man from two points of view; if we analyse ourselves, there are two points of view from which we consider the life of man:

 

Firstly, there is his physical body and secondly there is his spiritual body. Physical appearance is almost the same when looking at it (for it is the exterior appearance). Thus, through this aspect, man can give humanity the most general laws, for example, in a certain country a man can consider the general laws established, but inwardly, within himself, within his spiritual body which is hidden behind his physical appearance, each man is different.

 

Thus there are specific and private laws which applies for him. When man follows to the letter the general laws established, he then can go back to his origin. To be able to undertake this path, he needs religious laws as a guide. When he will follow it, he will make progress in this path. When his status will go on increasing (step by step) he will succeed in reaching the peak of this spiritual path, whereby he acquires wisdom. This status is a really high one. The Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has praised that state: There is a state in which all things will be reunited, and this (state) is the Divine Wisdom. To reach this state, man must aim to reach three goals. These three goals are in reality three paradises. The first is called “Mawa” – A paradise which represents security which you feel in your home. This paradise is a mundane one. The second paradise is called “Na’im”; the garden of delights (paradise) which depicts the grace of Allah upon His creatures. This specific paradise holds an angelic side. The third one is “Firdaws”, the paradise found in the Next World. This specific paradise includes:

 

1) Unity of Spirit

2) The Home of souls and divine attributes.

 

These are rewards, and beauties from Allah which man on earth shall taste after death, according to the efforts made to achieve this specific status after having gone through the three stages of knowledge. What are these three stages?

 

1) Making the necessary efforts to follow religious laws (the commandments of Allah), that is, the Shariah;

2) Making the necessary efforts to eliminate defects which he may have; to overcome his own ego so that he may reach the stage of unity by starting with himself, and where this will enable him to come closer to His Creator – We call this stage “tariqa”.

3) Making the necessary efforts to reach the stage of divine wisdom, that is the “Marifa”. When he reaches this state, he comes to know his Creator, his Lord, Allah (Exalted above creation).

 

Thus our beloved Holy Prophet has said: “There is a state in which all things will be reunited, and this (state) is the Divine Wisdom.” Then he continues to say: “In this state, man learns the truth; that truth which is found within him encompasses all good causes and deeds. Thus man must act according to this truth. Someone must know what are lies so that he can abandon them.” The Holy Prophet continued to talk by making this prayer: “Our Lord, show us the truth and make it a duty for us to act upon it (the truth), and teach us how to recognise a lie and render it easy for us to stay far from it.” The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) also said: “Someone who knows himself and who fights against his own desires, then, he comes to know his Lord, his Creator and follows his commandments.”

 

What I have put before you today are the general rules which are applied on the physical body of man. There is another type of person which is called the spiritual state of man, or the spiritual man, or even the pure man. The latter’s goal is to get come completely close to Allah. There is a sole way to attain this goal. It is when man acquires this knowledge – truth (“haqiqa”). This knowledge calls for unity.

 

Someone can hope to reach the end of this path, in this very materialistic world. In this state, there is no difference between when he is in an awakening state or when he is asleep, for in his sleep, his soul find the opportunity to escape and goes back to its real home, as we may put it, in the world of souls, and then it comes back and brings news (either good or bad). This is called true dreams. This happening can be partial in the realm of dreams, and it can also be whole, in the case of the ascension of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Allah confirms this point in the Chapter 39 Verse 42:

 

“Allah puts the souls to death when the end of their life comes, and also at the time of sleep. Thus, He takes some back during their sleep, while others are allowed to continue living until the end of their predetermined interim. This should provide lessons for people who reflect.”

 

Thus, the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) explains this state: “The sleep of the wise one is more valuable than the prayers of the ignorant one.” The wise one is a person who acquires knowledge of truth, which is without letters or sound. Man obtains this knowledge when he continues to repeat “Laa-Ilaaha Illallah – There is no God but Allah” in secret. The wise one is the one who has changed his inside and let in the divine light, and he reaches such a state through the light of the unity of Allah.

 

Allah talks through His Prophet (peace be upon him) and says:

 

Man is my secret and I am his secret. The interior knowledge of this spiritual essence “ilm al-baatin” is a secret of My secrets. I (Allah) am the sole one to put it into the heart of My good servant, and nobody knows his state except Me.

 

I am as My servant thinks I am. I am with him when he makes mention of Me. If he makes mention of Me to himself, I make mention of him to Myself; and if he makes mention of Me in an assembly, I make mention of him in an assembly better than it.

 

On a nutshell, the only means to satisfy the desire for knowledge is through meditation (Remembrance of Allah) – where the person in question makes use of this knowledge frequently, where he spreads this knowledge and teaches it to others. That is, when he enters a state of meditation, Allah teaches him and unveils to him a lot of secrets which he in turn transmit to others.

 

The value of each action is hidden in the essence of truth. The action of sitting for a moment to practice meditation, here seems to have three different values. What are these three values?

 

1. Someone who meditates, for example, when he meditates on “There is no God except Allah”, if he continues to do so, and concentrates thoroughly with closed eyes (but without reciting the remembrance of Allah like a parrot), then slowly but surely when he will utter these words and come to feel them in him, and get to analyse its purport, and moreover, he gets to feel the causes are in fact a part of his inner self, and at the same time the causes are a part of other things, then he loses himself in the love of Allah his Creator, and gets to become closer to Allah, and becoming a beloved of Allah.

 

2. Someone who meditates on his devotion and searches for its cause and afterwards got the knowledge of it, that is, after meditation and devotion, and after searching for the causes, finally he gets to know who he is himself, which means he discovers that he is nobody – all that is on earth and his body’s functions, it is Allah’s doing.

 

3. Someone who meditate on divine wisdom with a strong desire to know Allah the Almighty – this indeed is true knowledge, where the person meditates on this divine wisdom with a goal in mind to know Allah. He is someone who meditates completely on Allah and comes to get to know Allah all the more, and comes to be rewarded by Allah. When he is in difficulties, problems; it is Allah who resolves his problems and save him from all kinds of dangers which may befall him.

 

Thus, true knowledge is that state of unity. For example, a wise person who is completely in love with Allah will meet his Beloved Allah. Someone who achieves a stage where he is satisfied with his good deeds which are his passport to paradise is not alike to the one who is completely in love with his Beloved – Allah, where he only wants to fly back to his Lord.

 

This flight happens in the interior world of the wise one. These types of people obtain the honour of being real men, and whereby the obtain the titles of beloveds of Allah, and are made to come closer to Allah, like newly married coupled want to stay close. These wise servants of Allah become the intimate friends of Allah, and are beautified though they resemble ordinary people outwardly. These people’s actions are beautiful, their worship of Allah is beautiful, and Allah loves them. This beauty is reflected in all corners of their own selves, but they lead a simple and humble life (much like ordinary men), hiding this precious relation which they share with their Creator.

 

The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) has related that Allah has said: “Where are those who love one another through My glory? Today I shall give them shade in My shade, it being a day when there is no shade but My shade.” Only Allah recognises His close servants, and He only who protects them. The protection given out by Allah is through the simplicity of the lives of those close to Him. When someone looks at a bride, he only finds her veiled and cannot see anything beyond the veil. Likewise a prophet of Allah, servants of Allah, the wise ones, and those who are ever turned towards Allah, Allah veils them with His shadow, and nobody knows them really except their Lord, Allah. Likewise, like mentioned in the Holy Quran, when a Messenger, a Prophet of Allah comes, when he proclaims himself as such, and when spreading the message of the oneness of Allah, the people say: “He is indeed a mad man!” There are even some who say: “Is this man we are supposed to follow? This kind of man who says that Allah is talking to him, that he is getting revelation?” There are lot of places in the Quran where Allah describes their talks when a Messenger of Allah comes to them.

 

We are the beloved ones of Allah; the beloved people of Allah are the divine perfume in this temporal world, but only the pure and sincere are made to sniff this perfume and therefore recognise it as of divine origin. When they recognise this perfume as being from Allah, they want to follow this perfume till it leads them to their Goal. This perfume creates in them a need to have their Creator, their Lord Allah in their heart.

 

The one who is close to Allah, is ever ready to become an insignificant person, and wished he was just dust. When he tastes this state, only then he will see the existence of truth. He then accepts all decrees of Allah; he takes all of them as a favour from Allah. Whatever happens, he takes it as a decree of Allah. Only the existence of Allah – The Truth – matters for him, nothing else! Allah manifests all sorts of miracles on His good servants, and this proves the existence of Allah, about which His chosen ones do not have any doubt. Who are those who recognise these true miracles of Allah? There are billions of people on earth. There are millions who read the Quran, prays, fast etc. But who are those who can recognise these divine miracles? Like the Quran states only those gifted with knowledge are able to recognise those miracles; those who make use of their intelligence, who are deep in the love of Allah, and whose actions are made only for the pleasure of Allah and to obtain His love. Thus Allah loves those people and teaches them His secrets, and those who do not turn towards Allah do not understand this secret of divinity, that is, divine revelations. Thus the one who does not turn towards Allah in submission and does not take into consideration the commandments of Allah, then definitely he will not come to know of the secret which only those close to Allah benefit (that is, divine revelations through the Holy Spirit).

 

When Allah manifests His miracles through His servants and especially with the arrival of a Messenger of Allah on earth, those who do not have faith in Allah do not perceive these divine miracles despite the great number of signs which Allah may manifests. They take these divine signs as ordinary happenings, while the wise ones, the god-fearing people, those who are close to Allah they recognise these signs and submit. They are those who worship Allah alone, and whenever they witness a sign coming from Allah, this makes them come closer to Allah through all the more devotion, for they view this sign as an invitation to come closer to Him. They are ever grateful towards Allah for these favours and do not deny these divine miracles. These people are those who ponder a lot over the creations of Allah, the masterpiece of Allah and they accept the decree of Allah without ever complaining, without ever objecting to the will of Allah. And even though they may have difficulties, problems, these do not affect them for they feel the love of Allah upon them. This state is the state of complete submission to Allah and resembles as if they have sold themselves to Allah, and come what may, they feel no regret, no fear, for Allah comes first in their heart!

 

May Allah the Almighty give us this sincere faith in Him, and may we nurture this love and faith in our inner self and Insha-Allah, we plunge in the love of Allah and come what may we never object to the will of Allah. Ameen.