Tuning to the Message of the Ambiyā Love: Eshq and Mahabbat

Transcription

1 Tuning to the Message of the Ambiyā Love: Eshq and Mahabbat Bismi-Llāhi-r-Rahmāni-r-Rahīm. The ambiyā of Allah Swt are part of the community. If they weren t, difficulty would happen. Each one has a different relationship with the community, obviously. Hazrat Adam (as) is part of the angelic community at the beginning. Then he creates the community he is a part of through his own progeny of twins. I won t go through each one; you know the stories of each of the prophets up to the Prophet Isa (as) where we are now. You, yourself, can understand what it means to be part of the community of believers, and what happens when the people are not believers, or leave the community of believers, as in the case of Nūh s family. What is true in the larger sphere of community is true in the smaller sphere of community. What we have been talking about, through a lot of metaphors of love and nature, flowers and trees, life force, dhikr running through the trees and flowers themselves in the silence, is very interesting in many ways. First, as you ve heard me say many times, if you could hear the noises generated inside your body, it would probably drive you crazy. But Allah created a very high R factor for us, insulation, that is very good. If it wasn t, we would be driven crazy by the pumping of our blood or the electrical impulses in our body. This dhikr that is going on all the time in every living thing, which was represented metaphorically when I talked about the life force in the branches of the trees and flowers last night, is the silent dhikr going on within us that we can attune ourselves to hear. In other words, this dhikr is going on within us also. It s what is keeping us alive, but we are not hearing it. 1

2 What this means is you are not creating the dhikr. When we are sitting and making dhikr, we are not creating it. We are tuning. It is like when Aneesa and the girls are tuning the qanun and instruments to each other. We say in English, we are attuning ourselves. We are becoming attuned to the existing dhikr that is taking place in the universe. That s why the awliya-llāh can hear it in nature, and in the animals, and in the stars, and hear it everywhere because it s happening everywhere. As you attune yourself to it, you begin to hear it everywhere, and see it as light. This dhikr / remembrance of Allah then changes to some degree into the qualities and characteristics of Allah Swt. Like a carrier wave, as in sound and electronics, it carries a message. The message is the message the Prophets received. They received the message of Allah on a carrier wave of sound: Huu. The Hindus say Om. It s a carrier wave of information. If you want to really get amateur radio-ish, it s like packets of information that are condensed and sent on this carrier wave, and then are decoded at the other end. What we are trying to do is decode it. The Prophets were tuned to decode it by Allah Swt. They didn t know they had the secret decoder ring (that used to come in the Wheaties box when I was a kid). They didn t know they had the decoding ability until Allah told them they did. Until some circumstance happened that revealed to them that they could understand what others could not understand. Allah says, There are none to understand this, meaning other than these people who understand. There are certain characteristics and qualities of a person in character that allows that person to begin to hear and see and understand the message. The message is a beautiful one, that s why it is called ihsan. It s a beautiful, uplifting message of mahabbat. We spoke about hiba and hubb and mahabbat. Think about it. Allah places the lovers beside each other. It is said that Allah adorns them with the refinement of mahabbat, Divine love. There is a kind of munificence between 2

3 the lovers after the istifah, the choosing and selection that takes place. What do we say in a marriage ceremony, nikah? I choose and I accept. Istifah. The husband usually says, I choose, and the wife usually says, I accept. In the world we live in today, we have to do it both ways. After that choosing, which is symbolic between husband and wife, the blessing is sanctified at some point. How it is sanctified is through love only it s eshq: unrestrained love. As we said earlier, unrestrained love can be very negative or very positive. Mahabbat, Divine love, is saying, I cast the garment of love over thee from me, Allah says in Qur an. Allah says this to Musa (as). It doesn t matter what kind of love and affection exactly; it is all love and all affection that is placed into the hearts of these ambiyā. It means the most pristine and beatific love, and also the love you have for the person who is your enemy, because you have this spectrum of love that is part of your compendium of knowledge and experience. Love sanctifies the soul of the individual, and gives it a kind of light, or adds that light. That happens by the descent of the Sifat of Allah Swt into the human being. The sifat / Divine attributes of Allah Swt, like light beams coming from the sun, the source, from Allah Swt, transmit from the unseen world / ghaib, from the essence of Allah Swt into the realm of the rūh / souls, and from them into the realm of the khalq / the creation. As it passes through these different realms, the heart and soul and the intellects feel and see and reflect this love, and grasp it in some way in the mind, labels it, and then it has an impact. It has an impact on the heart, and on the soul, and on the mind. When that impact of eshq happens, then something happens in the hearts of individuals. The oyster creates a pearl. Let s not let the metaphor get cut off too soon, because the oyster creates a pearl by irritation, by some alien thing entering into them. Well, some alien thing called someone you never knew before enters 3

4 into your life, and stimulates the heart to create a pearl, if it s the positive type of eshq. Or it stimulates anger or disdain, embarrassment and betrayal if it is the passionate, unrestrained love of the lower nature. Let s talk about the pearl. The pearl in a sense is a response of mushahadah. Mushahadah is ihsan. It means that the Divine witnessing, reception for the transcendent unseen Reality / Allah enters into a person. This kind of fierce battle takes place. If it s the negative, it s the battle against all the negative forces. If it s positive, it s a kind of turmoil that comes in the heart of the lover, as the lover meets the beloved. Prophet Mohammed (sal) taught Imam Ali (as), Say, My Lord, cast upon me the love from within the believers hearts. Give me a confidante in love. Give me loyalty, commitment, and undying love. Isn t that what everyone wishes for in human love? But this is what one wishes for in the relationship with Allah Swt also a love from within the believer s heart that gives me confidence, loyalty, commitment, and an undying love. Once the love of the ambiyā is transmitted, it is transmitted to the awliya-llāh, those elevated by Allah Swt. We say, the elect of the elect. In sociological terms, they would be the lords of the manor, or the patricians in Rome the elect of the elect. Because that human love that is manifest through the attributes of mercy, justice, peace, and all the different Divine Attributes, the hearts of the awliya-llāh become irradiated with those attributes. Like anything that radiates, it gives off that radiancy. It provides two realities. One is it gives out these attributes in the form of different aspects of love. But, it also indicates to us a precursor of what is to come in the akhirat. If you experience compassion in a very intense form in this world through the awliya-llāh, or knowledge, or peace, or their example of submission or humility, whatever it may be, it s a precursor of what s to come. What happens then is it is like 4

5 a magnetic rock, lodestone, which attracts the believer s essence, like the lodestone attracts. Or if we say it dynamically, it contains the precious mineral within the matrix of that stone. It attracts from the human being that quality. You have the ambiyā, and then you have the awliya-llāh, our shuyukh. The ambiyā attract the essence of all goodness from the elect of the elect, because Allah placed this goodness in everyone. It brings it out of the matrix, so to speak. The gold is removed from the matrix, and you have the pure gold. So too, the awliya-llāh attract from the murideen or the people, however they may be called, their essence, their gem, their pure metal. It is pulled from the physical realm toward the eternal realm, and from the eternal realm to semper eternity, what preceded eternity, which is Allah. As that happens through islam, iman, ihsan through muhasabat, muraqabah, it is with the eye of mushahadah that you perceive this. This is what you are witnessing: this process. You are witnessing the beauty of the sifat / attributes. You are witnessing perfect knowledge of the marifah / the Divine gnosis. And you are witnessing the glorious magnanimity of Allah (Jelal the Momentous Glory of Allah Swt), and you are witnessing and experiencing the Divine Love / mahabbat. This is the answer to the prayer of the Prophet Mohammed (sal) when Allah sends down this āyat: On those who believe and work deeds of righteousness, will Allah most graciously bestow love. There s this mahabbat within the heart of the believer, and the believer is a person who does righteous deeds. It is bestowed upon, not created by your actions. Your actions get the attention of Allah, and Allah bestows upon you honor for doing what you do well. Why do you do it? You do it because you believe in it. You do it for whatever reason. I was just at the car dealership today. I like this car dealer very 5

6 much. He received an award in Richmond; he was in the top 33 customerrecognized award winners for customer service in all the Honda salesmen all over the US. Imagine how many of them there are. Not for selling more cars, but for his relationship with his customers. This is like that. You do what you do, for whatever reason you do it, because it s your character and personality. No matter how hard a person tries to act nice to you in a car dealership, you know when they are not. You know they are just wheeling and dealing. But he s a very nice man. I was in there once before, and he had a very bad toothache. He said, I don t know what to do for this. I ve been taking Tylenol and it doesn t help. I was going to meet Joe at a coffee shop, and right next door was a natural foods store. So I went in there and bought him a ten dollar bottle of ginger tablets. I took it to him and gave them to him. He mentioned it today to Mitra. I don t know what to do with him; I really love him. He goes out and buys me ginger pills. That s my nature. His nature is to be very kind and good. My rewards come in one way, and his rewards come in another way. But those rewards are really not so dissimilar. Allah bestows these on you. You earn them by your character and sincerity. Did I think he was going to knock down the price of the car if I gave him a $10 gift of ginger? Forget about it. Understand? This is very important. I m trying to show you that the most gross and the most sublime example is all the same. At the most subtle level, and the most materialistic level, it is all the same. The person who you can t trust is the one who is not consistent as it becomes more subtle from the material. They are putting it on. What happens when you remove the gold, the silver, the platinum or the gemstone from the matrix? For the most part, it gains value because it is polished and cut. People like it and are attracted to it. What is inherent in that stone? Value. You 6

7 could say wealth. You had nothing. You go and open up a rock and find a diamond in it. What have you gained? A diamond. What else? Wealth. If that s correct, and as above/ so below is still applying, what do you gain in the effulgence of Divine Love? You gain wealth and value also. What is it? It is the wealth of love itself, mahabbat. It has value. Where is it hidden? Allah placed it in every soul. It s in every body. But some people are incapable of extracting it. Some of it is so deep or so far into the mountain that you can t extract it, try as one may. A person who has that beauty, just like a person who has rubies or sapphires, adorns themselves. Why? They add to your beauty in the world. Oh, that necklace is just perfect for you. What a beautiful dress that is It brings out something in you. So does this effulgent love. We are told that a person who adorns themselves with love shall find the hearth within the heart of those who are near Al Haqq, the warmth of the hearth. The person who is beautified as such and desired by the hearts the one who is adorned, and because they are so beautiful, they are desired. The bewitching eyes, the mole on the cheek, the lips like cherries, the poets say is desired by the hearts. That person is called murad. The murīd becomes murad. The one who is calling to Allah becomes the one Allah calls to him. The one who is seeking Allah is the sought after. Murad is the one who is sought after by Allah. Where? In this world. Allah seeks you in this world. How? Allah calls this person, The beloved of Allah amongst the people. What do we say in Naqshbandi Order? Solitude amidst the crowd. The one who is in the world and not of the world. The Prophet (sal) said, Do you want me to inform you about the most loved by Allah? People replied, Yes. He said, The most loved by Allah amongst the people are Do you know the hadith? What did he say? The ones the people love the best; the best among the people. Think about that. Think about a few of those people you might know from modern history: 7

8 Mother Teresa. Would you like Mother Teresa? Was she the best among the people she was with? Was she loved by the people she was with? How about Desmond Tutu? How about Mandela? How about Gandhi? Were they not also loved by the people? Does it have to be multitudes of people? No, it can be a small group of people. Big groups of people are comprised of small groups of people. Tutu wasn t born loved by the whole world. Mother Teresa, when she was born, did everyone in Albania love her? There is a kind of measuring. The way you measure Divine Love seems to be due to the effect of the beauty upon the soul s receptivity and perception of the Beloved. That is to say that such love, such sacrifice, such piety, if you see how it is received and perceived among the people, you can pretty well judge the value of that individual. Think about it. Think about just in a family. Children who love their parents place a high value on them, because they are responding to the Divine Attributes of Allah Swt. Why do they love their parents? Not out of fear, but because the parent is thoughtful, compassionate, kind, receptive, patient with them, endeavors to assist them and fulfill their needs, and acts fulfilled by their presence. These are all attributes of Allah. But here we are in this world, and human beings love human beings and material things; and the love for Allah it over here somewhere out of balance. To the degree you bring this love for humanity and for Allah into balance is to the degree you are succeeding in this path. When you come to this equilibrium between the love for the world and human beings and the Divine Love / mahabbat, it is as if it is on a balance scale. The weight of the mahabbat for Allah is balanced against the people s love for other people. It is out of balance, so it becomes necessary that Allah Swt sends to us these awliya-llāh in order to bring the world back into 8

9 balance. How? By good deeds and righteousness, by piety, by self-reflection (in this case, muraqabah), and by self-evaluation / muhasabat. Haqiqah is not the same as marifah. It is being aware and conscious that you are existing, subsisting, by facing Allah, by attending to, by turning your attention to Allah Swt as the truth, the absolute, unifying reality. Junayd said that haqiqah despises that there is something that remains between the heart that is subject to explanation or interpretation. The truth of haqiqah is such a reality that it is undeniable. There is no need for anything between seeing, and understanding it. What is that like? Did you see the moon tonight? Did you need anything to stand between you and your understanding of the moon? You see the sun rise in the morning? As you gaze upon the sun or the moon, there is no ambiguity. There is no way of misinterpreting what it is. That s the sun; that s the moon. Doesn t matter what you call it: call it a tree. I don t care. It doesn t matter. What matters is there is no ambiguity. It is what it is; there is no gray area. The moon is the moon; the sun is the sun, the stars are the stars. There is no ambiguity at all, and no way to misinterpret it. What happens when there is no ambiguity? Have any of you ever sat on the beach and gazed at the sea? No ambiguity. Have you sat on the beach and watched the moon come up over the sea or the sun? What happens? You become totally absorbed in that; it s a meditation. There is no thinking necessary. It s like Surya Namaskar. Namaskar is bowing in the name: I bow. I make obesience to the name, the sun. It is what we call sun worshipping, but not like the sun is a god; rather, you become absorbed in the non-ambiguous, absolute reality that there is no way of being distracted from it, because there is no question about what it is you are looking at. Could it be this? Could it be that? It didn t look like that 9

10 yesterday No, it looks like this every day and every night. The sea looks like that every day. The waves may sound different, but you know what they are. There is no ambiguity; they are waves. That s haqiqah. When the Absolute Reality / Haqiqah (no ambiguity, Allah) is being perceived by the instrumentation Allah gave us (our perceptions), and what are we perceiving? We are seeing the relationship between the creation and the Creator. We are looking at the sun, the moon, the nonambiguous things, things you don t question anything about them. That s the sun. That s the moon. That s the sea. Non-ambiguous. There is what s called sabab. Sabab you get a hint of what it is, because you have the word bab in it. Sabab is the instrument and the cause between Allah and His human creation. There is nothing greater; nothing more beloved than the human love and the mahabbat, because the relationship between these loves has two aspects. It is both khas (personal and specific), and aam (broad and general). It is like seeing a long train. Look at how long that train is! That is aam. Look at that one train car, I ve never seen anything like it. That s khas. In that example, a passenger car carries only the people in the car to a very specific place. The train in general may be going to many places, but you are going to Manassas; and you are going to Lynchburg; and you are going to Blacksburg (if the train went to Blacksburg). There is a very personalized and specific aspect of love, and a very generalized aspect of Divine Love. What the seeker experiences is both. Human and Divine Love are khas, because they carry each individual to a special niche and a special kind of relationship with the Beloved. Everyone has a unique and special relationship with Allah. Allah sends with each one of us provisions for that journey that takes us to that unique place where we have that meeting. People like to say, My soul mate. There may be many more potential soul mates than one soul mate, but there are provisions given for you to go so far on your 10

11 journey, until you get to the point where you can get more provisions. In relationships, it s the same way. Allah gives us certain qualities and characteristics for relationships. Only one? No. If it was that, how could you have people like Mandela or Tutu or Mother Teresa or any of these saints? They have provision for many people. They spread the Divine Love to many people, and many people respond to it in many different ways. People are fulfilled by working beside them. People are fulfilled by being distant and hearing about them. People are fulfilled like Gandhi s wife by being married to him, but lived a very sacrificing life. There are many different ways in which this specific aspect manifests itself, but is no less specific. Allah sends the provisions for everyone, just like food comes. We all eat and we all drink. We all have a place to sleep, and we all live our lives, and have joys and miseries. We all have happiness and suffering. Allah provides us company / suhbat when we need it; a place to recover from illness; people of compassion when we are hurt or feeling loss, if we ourselves come toward Allah with love. Even though specific provisions are provided, those provisions are provided for everyone, and no one is without provisions from Allah. Blessings are being showered on all of humanity. What is that? Aam. When the abd becomes a lover of Allah, and is carried alone toward a personal rendezvous with Allah Swt or the Beloved, that s khas. That is that special moment, place where those blessings that have showered upon you very specifically. That carries you to an an/moment within the aam/ the generalized love. The characteristic that is most identified with this process is jamal / beauty and jalal/ the magnificent: the beauty of a flower, the beauty of a fruit, the beauty of the sunrise, the beauty of the sea, the beauty of the birds. Today I was sitting in my office, and a cat came by, and the birds went phew! and scattered. One flew into my 11

12 window. I decided to go out and feed the birds, and there he was, sitting there. It was a goldfinch, a little knocked out, sitting on one of my bins. I petted his head. He looked at me. I talked to him, and petted his beak, and told him how happy I was he wasn t hurt. I gave him a little food, but he was too dazed to eat it. I stroked his neck, and he was so soft, so sweet. I picked him up, thinking he would fly, but he didn t so I put him back down again. He was just sort of sitting there, looking around. The breeze was blowing. So I made a friend with the birdie. I told him I was very happy, and glad that he and his friends were eating a 40 pound bag of seed a week they are. They go through the yellow bird feeder of mine in a day. They adorn the weeping cherry tree outside my office, like it s a Christmas tree and they are moving ornaments on it. Then, I waited around and watched him through the window, and came outside a couple of times. I moved him aside and told him I would fill the feeders. He was still dazed, a little concussed. Then I walked out and walked over to him and said, How are you, birdie? And he went zoom, and flew off. He moved from khas to aam. Do you understand? He was a bird and got scared by me. He wasn t scared by me when he was in the other state. We were together. We had a very specific relationship for a very brief period of time. This bird thing is a very important thing. Allah told the sun to shine upon the realm of azaal, of semper eternity. And the Sirmugh from Parliament of the Birds, nesting in the orchards of Abad / Eternity. Allah said to Prophet Mohammed (sal), Say, if you do love Allah, follow me. Allah will love you. To find the Sirmugh, to find the hidden truth is the reason the birds all go on this journey in Parliament of the Birds. The most beautiful, splendid, splendiferous, most glorious, and most exemplary beauty is found within the beauty, goodness, and sincerity of Prophet Mohammed (sal). Not because we say it, but because it s true. He lived it. It is said: 12

13 Enchained in each strand of his hair were 100 Yusufs in dungeons of unrestrained love / eshq, and one hundred thousand suns and moons shine and glitter within a ray of his soul. His beauty was a lucent shaft of manifestation emanating from the Divine dhat. Since he was the mirror reflecting the Sifat of Allah, these reflections through him in this world were the traces of another world. (You got a view into the other world through his world.) He was the waves of the deep ocean of time immemorial, which reversed the realm of Adam (in this case, Adam being the non-being) into this world. The unrestrained love of his reached and benefitted people first by those who followed him, and second by those who are influenced to see and talk and behave in accordance with his character, his disposition. Since Allah called his behavior exalted and grand, his disposition is based on the Divine disposition. This is the Prophet Muhammed (sal). This is the mahabbat of Rasūlu-Llāh (sal). And it was based on this love, this mahabbat, this objectification of the love of Allah. Allah determined that it was needed to create an object of His love, and so He created the Muhammedan reality, the Nūr. It is from that He creates Adam (as) in His own likeness, His own manner. I ll end with that this hadith, Allah created Adam upon his own likness and manner. Although many people take it literally, Christians as well as Muslims, the best way of understanding it, the Sufic way, is that Adam s likeness is in the characteristics and attributes of Allah Swt. Allah is the Most Merciful, so He placed mercy in him. Allah is the Most Forgiving, so He placed forgiveness in him. Allah is the Most Tolerant, so He placed tolerance in him. He is the Most Patient, so He placed patience in him. He is the Most Loving, so He placed love in him. By placing it in him, He places it in him chromosomally, genetically, so you can trace it all the way back to him. All mercy, all peace, all love, all patience, all tolerance, kindness, fulfillment, forgiveness. You can check the DNA of it, and it all goes back to Adam (as), if you don t mind that metaphor. 13

14 Human beings were made charitable and good, and with a yearning to know the truth, which is called our fitrah. Why? Because that s what Adam was created with. From what? From the Nuri Muhammed. From the person Muhammad? No, from the light of Muhammed (sal). Allah gives us enough knowledge to pursue that truth. He gives us enough good qualities so we can choose not to deviate. Allah provides and sustains us with the things of this world, which give opportunity for the things of this world also to serve, whether it is the deer who serves when it s eaten, or the vegetables in our garden vegetable, animal, whatever. We ve talked about the minerals, and how they adorn you and draw out the beauty in you. Every world has its role in our life, and in our understanding. Once we are born, Allah has loved us for an eternity, because he loved the light from which we came. Each one of us carries within ourselves, by our life, the Prophet Muhammed s (sal) illumination. And you can see it. One would expect that one would see a great deal of love between people who understand this, and sacrifice, and not so much self-indulgence, and more trust in Allah. Not feeling that you are losing something or missing something, or Allah hasn t provided something for you. One would think that, wouldn t they? Question: Neelam. You mentioned provisions would be given to get so far on the journey. Shaykh: When you book the ticket, Allah gives you provisions, knowing how far you are going. You may need a breakfast, a lunch, and a dinner, and a breakfast and a lunch. But you don t need [another] dinner, because you are going to arrive. (I was trying to understand what you meant by provisions?) I mean food, in the metaphor. 14

15 You mean does it mean metaphorically? You are provided all you need to complete your journey. That s not what you are trying to understand. What you are trying to understand is, if you are provided with all that you need to complete your journey, how come so many people don t complete their journey? Anybody have an answer for that? (Would it be, you can lead a horse to water but you can t make it drink?) Yes, that s one way of saying it. But the point is this: if you don t partake of the provisions, what will happen? You will become sick and die. If your stop is stop #22, and you get sick at stop #10, there is going to be an ambulance waiting for you. They will take you off the train, even though you have all the provisions, if you are not using them, or you don t know how to. Say, you have a 25 day journey, and you need to divide up your provisions into 25 packets. If you miss one or two, no big problem. But if you stop eating, then you have to get off. What s the other part of it? What happens if you eat it all, greedily, instead of being prudent in how you use it? You use all that power. Maybe you trade or whatever with it. What happens to you? You have nothing. You cannot arrive. Enough of the metaphor. Have you got it now? Asalaam aleikum. 15