Storms are Coming! Are You Ready?

April 28, 2021 April 28, 2021

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From the Realities of Mawlana (Q) as taught by Shaykh Nurjan Mirahmadi

A’udhu Billahi Minash Shaitanir Rajeem
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the rejected one
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful

Alhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘aalameen, was salaatu was salaamu ‘alaa Ashraful Mursaleen, Sayyidina wa Mawlana Muhammadul Mustafa ﷺ. Madad ya Sayyidi ya Rasulul Kareem, Ya Habibul ‘Azeem, unzur halana wa ishfa’lana, ‘abidona bi madadikum wa nazarekum.

And from Mawlana Shaykh’s (Q) teaching always for myself; first is always a reminder for myself what I’m in need of, and inshaAllah, with their madad (support), wa abidona bi madadikum, that without their madad, nothing is possible. And that with their madad, everything is achievable, inshaAllah. With Allah’s (AJ) rahmah and mercy, with nazar (gaze) of Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ upon us.

We Must Struggle for Peace

Mawlana Shaykh (Q) always reminding that you have to struggle for peace. Peace is not something that just comes to us. That many times when you talk about peace with people, they think that it’s just a state of being and that if you want it, you’re in it. And Sufism tariqah (spiritual path) comes and teaches us that that’s not the case.

That everything around us is constantly agitating and aggravating and disorienting us. And true inner peace is movement towards the Divine Presence. And by nature of how the game in this world is played, if you move towards Divine Presence, it means you move towards the light. Definitely no peace. And from Prophet’s ﷺ hadith, Hadith an-Nabi ﷺ, that, ‘There is no ease for the believer in dunya (material world).’

لا راحة في الدين

“La Rahata fid deen.”
“There is no ease in Religion.”

This means that there is a constant struggle, a constant fight within ourselves to attain peace, “Salaam.” That Islam is a state of peace that Allah (AJ) wants for us and Mawlana Shaykh (Q) reminding that it is a constant struggle.

This World is a Constant Storm of Difficulty

That for us, the analogy and the understanding is that this world is in a storm. And everything around the world is constantly in a storm, a tornado. Everything is so chaotic. And when we go out into it, we find ourselves getting blown around, thrown around, all sorts of difficulties, all sorts of expenses, and bills and jobs, and everything that this dunya is meant as a testing.

Very few people are completely satisfied. No matter what they think they want, they go after it – more aggravation. The bigger the business, the bigger the money, the bigger and faster they fall. It means it never ends and by it’s nature, it’s meant to aggravate. And the seekers of reality, they’re inspired by the Divine Presence that, ‘Get out of the storm. Get out of this difficulty and this storm is blowing you away.’ And many people die within that state. That they are completely lost into the material world bouncing.

Move From the Storm of the Material World Towards Peace

And they always teach by analogy so we can visual picture; they say, ‘The picture is worth a thousand words.’ When they teach by analogy, you pick up the picture. That they’re saying that this life is like a tornado and most people are walking on the street being bounced around from tree to tree. Because this tornado comes it hits and hits you from one place, you have a temporary ease. You’re leaning on something, the wind comes again and knocks you into something else.

The seeker of reality means it’s moving towards that reality, moving towards that blessing. They are inspired within their heart that, ‘I don’t want to be in the storm no more, ya Rabbi. This storm is killing me.’ Most people will perish in that state and very few are inspired not to die in that state. “Wa ufawwidu amreee ilal laah; innallaaha baseerum bil’ibaad.”

﴾وَأُفَوِّضُ أَمْرِي إِلَى اللَّـهِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّـهَ بَصِيرٌ بِالْعِبَادِ ﴿٤٤…

40:44 – “…Wa ufawwidu amreee ilal laah; innallaaha baseerum bil’ibaad.” (Surat Al-Ghafir)

“….I entrust My affair I commit to Allah: for Allah is Seeing/watches over (His) Servants.” (The Forgiver, 40:44)

Seek Refuge Within the Cave

That Allah (AJ) for verily says, ‘I see your state.’ And those souls that are granted that state of salaam and peace as if Allah (AJ) inviting you, ‘Seek refuge. Get out of that storm!’ So the whole concept of “A’uzu Billahi Minash Shaitanir Rajeem, Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem” is that, ‘Ya Rabbi, I’m seeking refuge from this storm and all its confusion and then moving towards Your rahmah, Your mercy; Your mercy in this world and Your infinite, majestic Rahmah and Compassion in the hereafter.’

أعوذ باللهمن الشيطان الرجيم
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ

A’uzu Billahi Minash Shaitanir Rajeem
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the rejected one
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful

Then they began to teach us that, ‘Go within the cave. Seek refuge in the cave. Seek a shelter away from this storm.’ So, then tariqah (spiritual path) comes and reminds us that every step of the way is going to be a struggle. Every step in that cave is not going to be an easy way. Because if you’re in a cave and there’s a storm coming, the door is constantly being agitated.

Seek the Divine Presence Within Your Heart to Find Peace

This means many different difficulties are constantly hitting through that cave to push us out or aggravate us, to test us because we’re trying to lock ourselves within that reality. And they begin to teach us that as this cave or this storm is all about and all around us, you have to go within your heart. The concept of tafakkur and meditation and contemplation and salah and praying and zikr (Divine remembrance) – everything is meant for us to go inside.

That you’re not going to find any peace above ground. Everything in war above ground is bombed. Go down. Go deep into the cave. That’s why you’re seeing them do that in the physical world. Above ground, they’re slaughtering each other. Go deep into the cave! This means go within yourself, your only sense of peace. You will find Me – the Divine Presence, Prophetic Teaching; you will find the Divine Presence when you go within the heart.

قَلْبَ الْمُؤْمِنْ بَيْتُ الرَّبْ

“Qalb al mu’min baytur rabb.”

“The heart of the believer is the House of the Lord.” (Hadith Qudsi)

Achieve a Sense of Peace By Meditating During Difficulties

So, then they remind us that as we are seekers going within the heart, then they’re going to train us. The Divine is going to train and say that, ‘Everything around you is going to be an aggravation.’ That’s what we call testing. That if in a state of ease, you’re able to meditate and connect your heart. That’s nice, but that’s not real life. Real life doesn’t play itself out nice and peaceful because Divine is saying, ‘It’s a storm. It’s tribulations and trials. If you don’t meditate and understand in that state, you will never achieve a sense of peace. Peace is something you have to fight and struggle for; like everything blowing away and you’re just trying to tie yourself into the house. You’re trying to tie the door so that the wind doesn’t blow it out.

Intense Testing Teaches Us to Go Deeper Within Our Reality

Then the storm hits the window and the glass goes flying and still you’re struggling to keep your peace, your sanity. And then they remind that everything is an agitation because the Divine is training us that, ‘As soon as you feel a sense of peace, I’m going to send a stronger wind because I want you to go deeper.’

If you find a sense of contentment that, ‘Oh, look I found a nice place. I’m standing by this tree.’ Divine says, ‘No, you haven’t reached what I want you to reach. Let’s blow a little bit harder.’ Then the intensity of the wind comes and say, ‘This tree is not enough. I have to go deeper within my reality.’ It means it’s the Divine Love that’s teaching, ‘Come deeper, deeper. Come deeper into that ma’rifah (gnosticism) so that you can find your safety.’

Don’t Seek Peace in a World of Illusion

Then they teach us that everything around us is meant to aggravate us because our dunya (material world) understanding is, ‘It aggravates me. I’m therefore leaving!’ OK, but then you didn’t achieve anything. You’re always trying to find the peace in the material world. You try to leave the testing. You’re trying to leave that which aggravates you. You try to find a sense of ease and peace in this material world. And Allah (AJ) says, ‘It is all but an illusion.’

﴾وَمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا إِلَّا مَتَاعُ الْغُرُورِ ﴿١٨٥…

3:185 – “…wa mal hayaatud dunyaaa illaa mataa’ul ghuroor” (Surat Ali-Imran)

“…And what is the life of this world except the enjoyment of delusion.” (The Family of Imran, 3:185)

If shaitan (satan) plays with you and gives you a sense of peace and says, ‘Come to Las Vegas. You’ll be happy,’ that’s a very limited time and then you will be obliterated under those conditions because people who moved there, they lost their entire life to gambling. It means that which seems peaceful to us, if we only moved in that direction, we would find peace. Divine says, ‘No, no! Nothing on this material world will give you that peace. The peace that you’re looking for, we are looking for, go deep. And I’m going to keep agitating everything around you because yet you are not going deep enough.’

Everything Around You is Meant to Aggravate You

And they begin to teach that when we come on a tariq, and come on a path, then everything is meant to agitate. Everything is meant to aggravate. The association is meant to bother. The noise and disruption – all of that is a manipulation from the Divine teaching that, ‘If you’re not able to meditate and contemplate and isolate in this condition, what you going to do when the world flips up and down?’ You going to lose yourself and run down streets screaming and crying? Then you didn’t achieve any safety. You didn’t unlock any of these realities. Then you see awliyaullah (saints) in their training, that they put themselves on unbelievable conditions.

Sadness and Difficulty are Opportunities to Meditate Deeper

From now, they’re talking about Cyprus – how Grandshaykh (Q) allows affliction and suffering and torment upon his physicality because these are the masters of khalwat dar anjuman (seclusion amongst the crowd). It means they’re always in a khalwah and they’re always in the presence of people. It means you see their face and they’ve trained themselves to go within themselves. They’re able to lock off every form of agitation and always move towards Divine Presence. And every sadness that comes, it’s a moment for them to go deeper into the meditation.

Many people, if sadness and difficulty comes, they can’t pray anymore. They can’t go for zikr (Divine remembrance) anymore. They can’t do anything. They’re completely upset which means they’re lost to the storm. They’re just blowing around from tree to tree thinking that, ‘If I do like this, God’s going to listen to me.’ And says, ‘No, you’re just going to get pounded on every tree that that wind blows you on.’

To Submit to God is to Go Deep Within Your Heart

God doesn’t submit to us. We have to submit to Him. So He’s teaching, ‘The first step – seek refuge. Go in your heart. Go in your reality. Begin your contemplation and that know that everything going to be an agitation. And every agitation, stay with it. If it aggravates you, keep doing and keep accompanying. Keep that understanding because it’s a test for you to go deeper within the heart.’

Every time the noise aggravates you, then it means that you have to go deeper. You have to go deeper within yourself so you don’t hear them yelling. That you don’t hear the complaints. You don’t hear the sounds. You don’t feel the aggravation. They’re reminding me for myself.

Sultanul Awliya Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (Q) Showed Unbelievable Submission

That even through physical sickness and physical torment, through all sorts of different things that may be coming. That the master of our way is the imam (religious leader) of the way. He’s leading us and teaching us, ‘My physical being is being tormented right now.’

They say that Mawlana Shaykh (Q), when they were giving him a system of oxygen was so old and so horrific that he was struggling to breathe. And they were arguing that let’s bring more modern equipment on this island. Let’s do all these things and the Sultanul Awliya (King of saints) just, submit. That if he’s going to suffer, then astaghfirullah (seek forgiveness of Allah (AJ)), how you can even think like that? But unbelievable level of submission, unbelievable allowing of difficulty upon their physicalities of torment. That people who bothered them and agitate them, every circumstance around them agitates their being so that they can go deeper into their reality.

Submit to the Condition Allah (AJ) Has Given to Build Your Relationship With Him

And as much as you give to the hawa, to the desire, as much as you give to the physicality, then the spirituality is lost. They’re teaching that as much as you allow circumstances, as much as you submit to that which aggravates you, submit to the condition in which your Lord has put you in. Go deep into your heart because Allah (AJ) wants that relationship.

That, ‘I created this aggravation so that you would come and see Me inside your heart; not that I give you a relief to the aggravation and again, you go running out into the garden.’ This means every aggravation, every difficulty, everything that is bothering us is meant for us to go deep into our hearts. And there, we find our Lord waiting for us. And like a father, mother, a loved one saying, ‘Where have you been? I’m waiting for you and have so many lights and gifts to bless you with. Move and run towards Me and I will support you.’

Strive for the Rose and Find Peace Through Every Thorn

Only at that time, when that energy, that light and that blessing begins to dress us, then they say that difficulties will be lifted. But in reality, if Allah (AJ) opens that Divinely light, you don’t need the difficulties to be lifted. You find your peace in whatever condition your Lord puts you in. But when we don’t have that love and we don’t have that relationship, all we have is the thorn. It means the rose is symbolic of our path. That we are all trying to get to the flower and the flower is the essence of all fragrance.

The rose is the essence, is the sultan (king) of all flowers. The essence of the rose is the king, the sultan of all essences. So Divine saying that, ‘If you are in that essence and moving in that light, you won’t care if We chop you up. If anything happened, you’re in My ecstasy.’ But as long as you’re outside of that, all you feel are the thorns because life is just aggravating. It’s agitating. It’s constantly disrupting my plan. So, reminder always for myself that they’re training us, they’re teaching that every agitation, be at peace with it. That there’s something Divine is calling, ‘Come, come to My Divinely Presence. Close your eyes. Contemplate. Meditate. Cry onto your carpet and draw close to Me.’

Learn the Ability to Break Away From People Even When Amongst Them

And a reminder for myself always is that every condition they put us in, they’re testing us. Even if they put us in a busy place, they’re testing with the test that you have to be able to break away from people. You can’t give an excuse that, ‘I’m always amongst people. I have to talk to people.’ Everything is a training. The Divine is saying, ‘I will even put you amongst people and you have to be willing and have the strength to break away from them and come and sit and meditate.’

And very difficult because as soon as you sit to meditate, you feel you’re missing something. You could be saying something. Somebody just came in, ‘Who’s here? What’s going on?’ All of that is a test. That level of testing is so difficult and so complicated that always reminder for myself is that these shaykhs are amazing. They put you in a place and you think that you’re supposed to be always amongst the people but then they teach you, no. If you be put in a place like this, you actually have to have the ability to pull away from people and go back into your cave. Meditate and contemplate and don’t worry about who’s coming and what’s being said. It’s not important. You make your connection.

Don’t Change Your Surroundings, Submit to Them

It means for every condition, they must have a secret based on that condition and there’s never an excuse that I don’t have the time to meditate and contemplate. Incorrect! Divine is saying, ‘That’s exactly the test that you needed. You need to be able to pull yourself away from people. You need to be able to be aggravated and be patient and sit and meditate, not change the condition of your surroundings and tell everybody, ‘Be quiet. I’m now trying to contemplate.’

Divine teaching is, ‘Submit!’ If you’re in a busy environment, pull yourself away. See if you have the ability to pull yourself away and not be lost, ‘Oh, I have to talk to other people. I never have the time to meditate anymore.’ Divine says, ‘No, no, you have to be able to pull away.’

Imam Ali’s (as) Deep Meditation

If you’re agitated and aggravated, just submit into the ocean and don’t change the circumstances and the condition around you and learn to taslim, submit. Until they eventually teach us the meditation of Sayyidina Ali (as). Said that, ‘I have a toothache and you have to take this tooth out. As soon as I make my namaz (prayer) and I go into my attahiyat (sitting on knees during prayer), you pull the rope on my tooth and pull it.’ Say, ‘Are you sure?’ As there’s no dentist. He (as) says, ‘Yes. As soon as I say attahiyat.’

Sayyidina Ali (as) would go into deep meditation. He doesn’t leave like us when we say, ‘Asaalamu alaykum, asaalamu alaykum,’ and then leave the prayer. As soon as they say salaams (last part of prayer), that’s the time for their soul to move into Divine Presence. And he was teaching, ‘As soon as I give salaams, pull my teeth. Pull the tooth that’s infected.’ He gave his salaams, pulled the tooth, and blood was gushing out. Moments later, deep into his contemplation, came out, ‘You guys do it?’ ‘Oh, long time ago…your everything was bleeding. It was everywhere.’

And they’re teaching us that that level of tafakkur, that level of contemplation is then to move deep into the heart and almost lose their physicality. The physicality becomes something stuck there and your soul is moving out. Reminder always for myself, inshaAllah, ya Rabbi, give us a strength and understanding and give us the ability to lose the allurement of everything around us, to be patient with everything around us and to move deeply into Your Divinely Presence and presence of Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ in the presence of awliyaullah.

Subhana rabbika rabbal ‘izzati ‘amma yasifoon, wa salaamun ‘alal mursaleen, walhamdulillahi rabbil ‘aalameen.

What is Your Level of Sincerity?

Reminding me always in my heart, we can see our level of sincerity is if they told you that they had a million dollars, what you would do to go after that million dollars? Nobody in this room would say that, ‘My work. I can’t get the million bucks, Shaykh. Oh, I’m not feeling well. I’m tired, I’m busy, I don’t have a bus pass. I’m this. I’m that.’ If they said that there’s a million dollars hidden behind this wall, come and dig through there. Everybody would be lined up, dying, sick, broken leg – they don’t care. Then they take it.

But if Allah (AJ) says, ‘There a million dollars of golden light.’ So, then you find nobody comes. And everybody has excuses and everybody has reasons and that they’re teaching us is that, ‘If you’re going to be lured by that false, that falsehood is going very fast. And you may collect all that and all of a sudden destruction comes and you’re stuck holding bunch of garbage. Now watch the news. You can hold a bunch of garbage in homes that mean nothing and being bombed and killed everywhere. But that which is eternal – the light, that’s not easy to achieve.

Subhana rabbika rabbal ‘izzati ‘amma yasifoon, wa salaamun ‘alal mursaleen, walhamdulillahi rabbil ‘aalameen. Bi hurmati Muhammad al-Mustafa wa bi siri Surat al-Fatiha.

Special thanks to our transcribers for their help with transcribing this suhbah.

Original Date of Suhbah: October 2012

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