Don’t Harm Your Brothers

As-Salāmu ‘Alaykum wa Raḥmatullāhi wa Barakātuh. A‘ūdhu Billāhi Minash-shayṭāni r-rajīm. Bismillāhi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm. Wa ṣ-Salātu wa s-Salāmu ‘alá Rasūlinā Muḥammadin Sayyidi l-Awwalīna wa l-Akhirīn. Madad yā RasūlAllāh, Madad yā Sādāti Aṣḥābi Rasūlillāh, Madad yā Mashāyikhinā, Dastūr Mawlana Sheikh Abdullāh al-Fā’iz ad-Dāghistāni, Sheikh Muḥammad Nāẓim al-Ḥaqqānī. Madad. Ṭarīqatunā aṣ-Suḥbah wa l-Khayru fi l-Jam‘iyyah.

Allah Azza wa Jalla says, A’ūdhu bi-Llāhi mina sh-shayṭāni r-rajīm. Bismi Llāhi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm:

(Qur’ān 49:10). ‘Innama l-mu’minūna ikhwa fa-‘aslihu bayna akhawaykum, wa t-taqu Allah la’allakum turhamun’, ‘The believers are but brothers, so make settlement between your brothers. And fear Allah that you may receive mercy.’ This is an order from Allah ﷻ, and to make it clear that Mu’minin, believers are brothers in Islam not brothers in blood. Brothers in Islam is [more] stronger than brothers in blood. Because sometimes many brothers, each one goes to the other side; this is not so good. But when you are following the Prophet ﷺ and you are a believer, you must know that all Muslims are brothers. Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam used to say every time in many Hadiths, “Al-Muslim Akhu l-Muslim” (Hadith). A Muslim is a brother to a Muslim.

This is common for all Muslims. They must be like this. But for those who are following Tariqah, following Shari’ah and following Madhhab, it is more important for them to follow that. Because if you are coming to a Sheikh, coming to a Murshid and saying, “I am following a Murshid”, the Murshid never tells you to be against a Muslim or to be against a Mu’min. You must be together. Especially in Tariqah, this our way. You must look for your Murshid, Murshid Kamil, who is our Sheikh, Mawlana Sheikh Nazim Al-Haqqani. He never encouraged somebody from Murids to fight another Murid or to make division. They must all be together. That is what Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam and Allah Azza wa Jalla order.

We have enough enemies from followers of shaytan. Shaytan ordered this: to be enemies to each other, to make bad things to others as much as you can. This is from shaytan. Anyone who tells you [things] like this is not following the teaching of Prophet ﷺ and the teaching of Mawlana Sheikh Nazim. Mawlana Sheikh Nazim was all the time, during his whole life, you cannot find one time that he ordered brothers to fight each other. He was only ordering goodness, to be together, to forgive if anybody does some wrong to you. You must forgive him because maybe he’ll later be your friend. This is the teaching of Mashayikh, and this teaching is coming from Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam.

Unfortunately, there was a teaching here coming through people, using the name of Tariqah and using the name of Mawlana, to make division between brothers, between Murids. And they were happy with this. We are not happy at all with this. Because the main reason to come to Tariqah is to get Rida’uLlah, acceptance in Divinely Presence and not to fight with others. To do this, you must train your ego, to make it down, to make it small and not to make bigger and bigger.

This is a very important point. Because for many years, people have been against each other. Maybe you can be in groups, but not fighting each other. Because each person may like to be with some people and not like to be with others. But you must be happy with them. These are from the Murids of Mawlana Sheikh Nazim and they love him, we love them. There’s no problem in not being together, but do not make Fitnah. It [Fitnah] does not get any benefit for you. Allah ﷻ always curses Fitnah and Prophet ﷺ curses Fitnah., “Fitnah is asleep. Allah ﷻ curses whoever awakens it” Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam says. Fitnah is asleep, Allah ﷻ curses whoever awakens it to make Fitnah between people.

You must know this. This is an illness of the ego. The biggest ego is to have jealousy. And when somebody encourages you to do this, you say, “Oh, he is Sheikh, he ordered me to do this and I must do it.” Not anyone is Sheikh. Who claims that he’s Sheikh cannot even think of this. Only for people who are attacking our belief, we can defend ourselves. But for people who are like you and you are like them, you will never get permission to attack them. They say, “This is good. This is not good” and they especially want to harm each other. This is not acceptable at all.

The accepted thing is, we are saying again, follow Mawlana Sheikh and love each other but you can also be each group alone. Mawlana Sheikh said many times, “We are not looking for other Tariqah people to come to our Tariqah. No, but we are saying: Wherever your heart is going and flowing to, you must follow your heart.” This is the same in Tariqah also. You can be: this Wakil, that Wakil, that Wakil, but not fighting each other. Everybody must look at himself.

AlhamduliLlah there are thousands, ten thousand people, millions of people that are looking for the good way to follow. You must take them. No need to look at others to bring and say, “Come to my group. That group is not good, this is good.” Take new people. Each one you bring to the way of Allah ﷻ, Allah ﷻ rewards you as much as He ﷻ rewards him.

Allah ﷻ created millions, so no need to be angry with who’s not with you. Only focus on your ego to make it down. This is the order of Tariqah. This first order of Tariqah is to have good behavior and to make your ego down. The ego all the time likes to be up, over others. We must be humble. Tariqah orders humbleness and to be merciful to others also, not to harm them.

Because if you harm somebody – Allah ﷻ forgives everything but He ﷻ doesn’t forgive what a person does to another. Because He ﷻ is Just, you must ask forgiveness from whom you’ve harmed. Allah Azza wa Jalla said, “What you’ve done for Me, I can forgive. But for others, you must ask forgiveness from them.” For this, it is not easy to harm people thinking that nothing will happen. If this man or whom you’ve harmed doesn’t forgive you, you’ll be questioned for what you’ve done on Judgment Day and Allah ﷻ will take from your good deeds and give to the other person. And it is a very valuable thing. Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam says, “Don’t think that what you’ve done in Dunya will save you when you harm somebody.” A Hadith of Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam says that on Judgement Day they will bring somebody with good deeds like mountains. He comes to be questioned for what he has done. He must go quickly to Jannah but when coming to be questioned, they say, “You’ve done this, take a little bit from his good deeds.” Later on, after saying that he has done this and that, this and that, this and that, the whole mountain of good deeds finishes. Don’t think that if you’re praying, doing Umrah, doing Zakat and other things but you do bad things to people, that these will save you; no. We see many people who claim that they are Hajji, they are Alim, they are this, they are that, but when you see what they’ve done to people, it’s not a good thing. So what you must do besides the good deeds is not to harm anybody and not to have anybody asking something from you on Judgement Day. May Allah ﷻ keep us safe and make our ego down, to listen, to understand and to obey. This is what is said every time in Khutbah:, “Isma‘ū wa‘ū, wa-idha wa-‘aytum fāntafi‘ū”, “Listen and understand. And when you understand, benefit from it.” We are not only here for looking at the Sheikh. No, it must be also to do something. It is not difficult, but it is difficult for our ego. May Allah ﷻ make it easy for us to be together, and to follow the order of Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam and the order of Mashayikh insha’Allah.

Wa min Allah at-Tawfiq. Al-Fatiha.

Mawlana Sheikh Muhammad Adil ar-Rabbani 06 November 2022/ 12 Rabih al-Thani 1444 Naqshbandi ‘Aliyyah Zawiyah – Singapore