The Way of Sabr, Secret is to Destroy Expectations

February 27, 2016 February 8, 2017

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The Way of Sabr

Secret is to Destroy Expectations

From The realities of Mawlana Shaykh Hisham as Taught By Shaykh As Sayed Nurjan Mirahmadi

A’udhu Billahi Minash Shaitanir Rajeem
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

“Ilahi anta maqsudi wa ridaka matlubi.”

My God, You are my aim, and Your satisfaction is what I seek

Muharram al-haram, that no haraam (forbidden) in the month of Muharram, that Allah Azza wa Jal to dress us from the oceans of light and purification. Ash-e-nura, ‘Ashura is a tremendous opening of lights, a tremendous ocean of forgiveness that every nation and every Prophet was forgiven on ‘Ashura and we talked about that last week. It holds a tremendous reality of forgiveness.

The Way of Haq (Truth) is Paved through Sabr (Patience)

For tonight a reminder is tawasawil bil haqqi wa tawasaw bis sabr, from Surat al ‘Asr

وَالْعَصْرِ‌ ﴿١﴾ إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ لَفِي خُسْرٍ‌ ﴿٢﴾ إِلَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالصَّبْرِ‌ ٣
103:1-3 “Wal ’Asr. Innal insaana lafee khusr. Illal ladheena aamano wa ‘amilos saalihaati, wa tawasaw bil haqqi wa tawasaw bis Sabr. ” (Surat al ‘Asr)

“By al ‘Asr (the time)! Verily, Mankind is in loss. Except for those who have believed and done righteous deeds and advised each other to truth and advised each other to patience. “ (The Declining Day, 103:1-3)

That this way of haqq and the way in which to approach the Divinely Presence; haqq being everything divinely true and falsehood by its nature perishing, that which does not perish is the reality of haqq.

17:81 – “Wa qul jaa alhaqqu wa zahaqal baatil, innal batila kana zahooqa.” (Surat Al-Isra)

And say, “Truth has come, and falsehood has perished. Indeed is falsehood, [by its nature], ever perishing (Holy Quran 17:81).”

In our lives, we are taking a path towards that Divine reality, towards the Divine Oceans of Haqq (truth). And Allah Azza wa Jal describes in Surat al ‘Asr that the path of haqq “tawasaw bis sabr”, that this path of haqq is paved with stones of sabr (patience). It means that the haqq is based on sabr. For Muharram we have from Ayaat as Sabr means from the Ahlul Bayt, from Ashaab un Nabi many, many perished, many through horrendous difficulties, that we will speak inshaAllah tomorrow night from Muharram. But our whole life is based on that understanding; that this way towards Allah Azza wa Jal, this way towards the oceans of haqq, they are by the bricks of sabr.

Awliya come into our life and begin to remind us that, “If you want to reach to the haqq Allah Azza wa Jal is reminding us of sabr. And Sifat as Saboor (Attribute of Patience) is the 99^th Name of Allah Azza wa Jal.” Why? because it carries all the realities and dress of all the Names of Allah Azza wa Jal. That if Allah Azza wa Jal dresses the servant with sabr, means they have been dressed by all the 99 Names of Allah Azza wa Jal. And they begin to open the reality of those names only by Sifat as Saboor.

Everyone is Tested in order to Destroy Bad Characteristic

Without sabr not been tested, without sabr someone can claim to be sweet but as soon as you squeeze them they come out to be very sour. Then it’s essential in our understanding that Allah Azza wa Jal is going to test. Because everyone and including myself, I take myself to be the sweetest person, until you are squeezed and then comes some sour fruits maybe you didn’t expect. That is what Allah Azza wa Jal wants us to identify. That: My Haqq does not include any of the false characteristics, any of the bad characteristics and I am going to test you in life.

Awliyaulalh are reminding us always that this path is based on testing. And every moment there is a test and every moment Allah Azza wa Jal is observing, Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam is observing, malaaikah are observing. They are observing and they want to see this Paradise that you are asking for is not an easy station. Those who came before you they gave their blood, their sweat and definitely many tears. We turn on the television and we see that now. The Paradises of Allah Azza wa Jal are not cheap and their admission is not free, it is through good characteristics and trials and tribulations, through affliction, through everything and then Allah Azza wa Jal wants us to have sabr (patience).

Destroy Expectations as they Block the ocean of Sabr (Patience)

AwliyaAllah come into our lives and teach that, “If you want to pass the test of sabr, its secret is to destroy all your expectations!” It is the expectations that makes the problem and blocks the ocean of sabr. Means as soon as we have an expectation we set up something false because you are not in Allah’s Will to understand what has been written for you, written for me. It means I want something I put an expectation upon it and my whole being starts to move based on that expectation. That (your expectation) can be this way and Allah’s Will can be this way (Shaykh shows opposing signs) and makes a clash with the submission, the tasleem and everything to do with Allah Azza wa Jal’s Will. That, “I wanted this job, I wanted this work, I wanted this maqaam, I wanted this reality,” I want, I want, I want so many things known and unknown to me, conscious and unconscious to me. There are wills and desires within myself and what I perceive that I should want. That will completely destroy sabr, that is what agitates sabr that you wanted that position it didn’t come, you become agitated, some become angered with the Divine. You say, “O the prayers are not coming, something is not working,”. But it was about Allah’s Will and our will to be nothing. It was about what Allah (‘Azza wa jal) wanted and what I want means nothing.

Ocean of submission is difficult to Enter

Tasleem and the ocean of submission is such a difficult ocean to enter, it is an ocean

that has no beginning and no end. Many times you may see in a dream that you are thrown into water where there is no shore of safety. Means there are oceans that look small and you say, “Hey, I can see land, I can go swim to that,” but these oceans of Allah Azza wa Jal have no beginning and no end and there is no swimming to any safety, there is only drowning. Means you see yourself in that dream drowning. They begin to teach that is the sabr, that is the patience, yes you submit yourself. That you give up all of your thoughts and all your wants and (say) yaa Rabbi what I want is not important, what I thought I needed is not important, You are the best of providers, You know what I am in need of. Just give me yaa Rabbi patience, patience, patience, sabr, yaa Rabbi, yaa Allah, Yaa Haleem.

Want Nothing from Allah (AJ) and You will be Happy

As much as we can, destroy the perception in what we wanted and what we were thinking and what we were hoping for. That is why awliyaullah come into our lives and begin to teach that whatever it is we wanted, if it is a job or maqaam, a station some sort of spiritual opening, take it out of your heart. Don’t ask for it, don’t want it, want nothing from Allah Azza wa Jal and you will be the happiest person on Earth. Because you didn’t want anything, whatever He gives you is such an immense surprise, that is what Allah Azza wa Jal’s rida (satisfied) with.

Means there is nothing worse and if you have a family you will know. If your children expect something from you everyday and they are sitting there expecting, expecting, expecting and you come home with a box of chocolates but they were expecting a car. Do you think they are going to be happy with you? They’d throw the chocolates at you. That is a reminder that, why were you expecting that from Me? This expectation you have is making a problem with Me. Allah Azza wa Jal teaches us by our associations and our family and our relationships because as soon as they have an expectation they are not happy with anything you are doing. In our lives that expectation can destroy that. Yaa Rabbi I am trying my best not to expect anything. I don’t want that yaa Rabbi, I don’t need that, let me to appreciate what You have already given to me and what You have opened for me. It takes the eyes away from wanting something, take away the issue about ‘I want’, if I don’t want anything, I don’t want anything, I don’t want anything, I should be happy with everything and then I can begin to recognize what Allah Azza wa Jal has given to me.

Be Grateful for Your Breath

Before you complain and before you worry, what if Allah Azza wa Jal takes away your breath? We said from the beginning eight years ago when we came here, go to the hospital and go visit the children who have severe asthma. Children because they are mazloom (innocent), not people who have smoked for fifty years and caused asthma and destroyed their lungs. Children have no gunnah, have done nothing wrong, but they are suffering just to take a breath. Allah Azza wa Jal says, “Look, look at the difficulty, just the nafas, just the breath, they would cherish just one night of clean breath without the fear of suffocation at night and dying. And you have all these wants and you are so upset with Me about you wanting all these different things, how dare you?” Then we take the path of sabr. Yaa Rabbi forgive me, for all these things that I want, all these things that I am wanting is blocking me from seeing Your ni`mat (blessings) and your dress upon me.

Physical Pain Will Make You Believe in Jahannam (Hellfire)

We said before if Allah Azza wa Jal opens the oceans of pain, it will bring you to the yaqeen (certainty) of jahannam (Hellfire). Anyone who doubts jahannam if Allah opened the ocean of pain and gives you a back pain or a nerve pain, a body pain that you can’t breath, you can’t move, nothing but just tears comes to you from the pain and you can’t sleep, you wonder how anyone can sleep like this, there is not even an hour of sleep? You have entered into the ocean of jahannam and understood Allah Azza wa Jal’s jahannam. If this pain is in this world imagine the pain in the Hereafter if Allah Azza wa Jal wants to open the ocean of pain?

Then why do you have so many preconceived notions of what I (Allah) should be giving you? Why do you have so many perceived thoughts of what (Allah) should be doing for you? If I throw you into the ocean of pain you will be there all your existence until you pass from this life and the flavor and fruit of life is gone. You see these people in pain that is unbelievable; you go into a pain clinic and you see the faces of people, their life is gone. You can’t even imagine why they are even living anymore with that type of difficulty. Then we were asking for all these things and being upset with Allah Azza wa Jal for not opening them.

They teach us the key to opening Siffat as Sabr is to not want anything and any type of want that is coming into the heart with all the difficulty to crush it, “I don’t want it yaa Rabbi, I don’t need it, I don’t want it, I don’t need it, I don’t need anything yaa Rabbi,”. That is why the zikr and the first zikr of Tariqa is: ilaahi anta maqsood wa ridaaka matlubi,

إِلَهِيْ أَنْتَ مَقْصُودِيْ وَرِضَاكَ مَطْلُوْبِيْ

“Ilahi anta maqsudi wa ridaka matlubi.”

My God, You are my aim, and Your satisfaction is what I seek.

ilaahi anta maqsudi wa ridaka matlubi, I am begging Your forgiveness and begging Your rida and satisfaction. I am begging Your forgiveness that You be pleased with me and forgive me, be pleased with me and forgive me that I know not what I want, I know nothing yaa Rabbi I don’t need anything. I am seeking only Your satisfaction and Your rida yaa Rabb. Then everything that Allah Azza wa Jal opens becomes so sweet, so satisfying.

Even awliya come into our lives and they will set you up to test what is within your heart. I said many times for somebody who is eager for experiences, Mawlana Shaykh would say, “Tomorrow night is a big spiritual night, lots of spiritual things are going to be happening,”. Then you are all excited. It has to be based on what you want. If the person is somebody who wanted these types of experiences he would set it up really big, “lot of things happening tomorrow night, wow just try to catch that night,” And we would sit there and go through the association and whatever it was, feel absolutely nothing. And you go home so disappointed, so upset, so saddened that the bus left and they forgot to pick you up!

This is the constant training, constant training, that why did you put that into your heart? Why did you expect something within your heart? Don’t let anything to come to you, don’t expect anything, even if we talk about everything, don’t expect anything. So that when you completely annihilate that expectation then Allah Azza wa Jal sends something and you are able to receive it because you are constantly in the state of praising Allah Azza wa Jal waiting for Allah’s bounty to come. With no expectations, even the slightest breeze of emanation and tajjali you are in ecstasy. But if you set up a condition that it is going to be like this, and it is going to happen like that and this has to happen, you’re in direct conflict with Allah Azza wa Jal’s Divinely Will and your life is then going to be difficult, constant breaking.

Path of Jamali Vs. Nafsani

Door of Jamali – We have the path of nafsani (coming from the ego – Physical) and jamali (Allah’s Beauty). That the people of the haqq they are on tawasaw of the haqq, then they understood that when they teach you to break down these things, and these wants that you have. If you break them down and want nothing; then enter into the Oceans of Beauty (Jamali) in which you’re praising Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) and asking, “I don’t need anything,” and whatever emanation comes you are feeling it and being dressed by it.

Door of Nafsani – If we don’t understand, they open the second door. The second door is nafsani where then every difficulty comes to that servant and begins to crush them. And from every direction a crushing because Allah’s Will is going to happen. What Allah Azza wa Jal wants, what Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) wants is going to happen.

If the servant has to reach to the destination, if they understand the way this tawasaw bil haqq wa tawasaw bis sabr,

103:3 “…Illal ladheena aamano wa ‘amilos saalihaati, wa tawaasaw bil haqi wa tawaasaw bis sabr. ” (Surat al ‘Asr)
“… Except for those who have believed and done righteous deeds and advised each other to truth and advised each other to patience. “ (The Declining Day, 103:3)

If they understand the path they can reach it with beautific oceans, by fighting and struggling against themselves, and humbling and humiliating themselves into the ocean of nothingness, and be happy with everything Allah Azza wa Jal sends. If not door two opens and that servant has to go through a very broken path, a path filled with extreme difficulty and crushing so that (achieves) the same result. Every difficult test and every crushing test crushes the desire even more, crushes the desire even more until again the two reach and the food has no flavour means the ‘food of life’ the running of the ‘material world has no flavor’ because it’s been brought down and destroyed. We pray Allah Azza wa Jal grant us from Siffat as Sabr.

Importance of the Sun & Nur Muhammadi (saws) Shamsul Arefeen

We enter the month of Muharram. This is ‘the Sun of Reality’ (Shaykh indicates the pictogram of Shamsul Arefeen). We always encourage people to google the importance of the Sun. Everything is Allah Azza wa Jal no mistake, but your breath is from the Sun and photosynthesis, your vision is from the sunlight, your food and your eating and everything you have and we have is from the Sun. That Sun is an imitated sun, the Sun of Reality is Nur Muhammadi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

All of that is by example, Ayat al Akbar which Sayyidina Ibrahim alayhis salaam was describing, “I came across the stars, I came across the moon, and I came across Ayat al Akbar, Allah’s Greatest Sign,”

6:78 – “Falamma raa ash Shamsa bazighatan qala hadha Rabbi hadha Akbaru,…” (Surat al A`raf)

“And when he saw the sun rising, he said,”This is my Lord; this is the greatest (of all)… (Holy Quran 6:78)

It means that Nur ul Muhammadi (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) is the ‘Sun of our existence’ and we are traversing in the oceans and the love of Sayyidina Muhammad (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) and the haqaaiq of the light of Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. All this universe and all this world they say all of them, all our planets you like it you don’t like it, the planet is making a circumambulation around the Sun. Somebody says, “This is shirk,” they say, “You’re crazy, the planet is doing it now, you are making circumambulation around the Sun.” Our galaxy is circumambulating a star that all the universes are circumambulating, what they call a ‘pistol star’. That all the galaxy is moving, means all of it is a circle. Each galaxy has a sun in it and all of this universe has one (sun) that is billions of times larger than our existing Sun. Means that is the reality of traversing the oceans and the haqaaiq of Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

For the ocean of nine, and the reality of Muharram to open, we ask that we enter into the oceans of sabr. That Allah Azza wa Jal grant us an understanding that this path of haqq and the way of haqq is based on sabr. And the secret of sabr is to annihilate and destroy all my wants and my desires so that I expect nothing and be happy with everything.

Subhaana rabbika rabbil izzati `amma yasifoon wa salaamun `alal mursaleen wa ‘l-hamdu lillahi rabbil `aalameen. Bi hurmati al-Fatiha.

[Special thanks to Sister Saira and Sister Hafsa for their help with subscribing.]

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