Ṭarīqah is to Tolerate Opposites

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.

Our ṭarīqah is the Most Distinguished ṭarīqah, Naqshbandiyyah Aliyyah in shā’a Llāh, the way of Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam., “At- ṭarīqah Kulluha ‘Adaab”, “Ṭarīqah is all good manners.” It is teaching good behavior, to imitate the most perfect one, Sayyidinā Muḥammadun Rasūlu Llāh ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. This is the aim of ṭarīqah: to imitate him ﷺ, to try to do as much we can do from what he ﷺ said for us.

Of course, the (most) good thing for us - we are living in a time, the difficult time which our Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam was saying about, “If you do one percent, you will be safe from hell, from a bad end.” AlhamduliLlah this is enough for us. Because in shā’a Llāh, we can do this one percent. In the time of Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam, they must make a hundred percent. Even not ninety-nine percent, but a hundred percent. “You must do so”, Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam was saying. For us, it is a mercy for us. Because of course, we are living in a time when even when you do 1%, it is also difficult for you.

For this, AlhamduliLlah we are thankful for Allāh ﷻ, thankful for our Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam, for the mercy they gave us. Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam loves us. He ﷺ said about this Ummah, Akhiru l-Ummah, “They are my ﷺ beloved ones.” Because for the companions [he ﷺ said], “You are my companions. They are my beloved ones. Because you saw me, you are living with me.”

Can you imagine how the Sahabah must have been when Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam was among them! Can you imagine this! They make the Adhan, you go to Masjid Al-Nabawi. The Imam is Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wasallam. The Jama’ah: Sayyidina Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, Talha, all these Sahabah, you make Ṣaff (stand in rows of prayer) with them. So it must be 100%.

For this, he ﷺ said, “When the companions see me, you feel how Allāh’s ﷻ blessing is coming on you every second. So this is normal for you, my companions. But for these people who are away from me more than a thousand years and they love me, I love them. They are my beloved ones," he ﷺ said, Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam.

For this, we are living now also, the ṭarīqah is trying to teach people how to behave. The most difficult thing is to accept what is against you. You are not happy with him, or with them, or with it, whatever it is. Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wasallam says, ‘ ’, ‘Tarīqah tahammul l’ad-dād’, ‘Tarīqah is to tolerate the opposites.’ It is to accept and carry what is opposite for you. Everything from the opposites, you must accept it. Even if you don’t accept it, don’t fight.

Now people, they teach them, “If you don’t accept something, go to the streets, and break and shout, burn this.” And this is a theater/act. The first ones going and doing this are not from the real ones who are not happy with this. These are the shayṭān people, they are especially put; somebody put them there to make this. Without this, normal people cannot go and do like this. Normal people, can maybe walk or do something. But to break and to do this, they cannot. This is the teaching of shayṭān, “Go and destroy.” And he especially puts his agents between these people, to make people more bad, more harmful people.

The shayṭān doesn’t want anything good for human beings. Shayṭān is teaching people to be unhappy, to be unsweet people. You must be angry every time. He can use them for bad things. Ṭarīqah is the opposite of this. In Ṭarīqah you must accept what you have, as Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam was saying about anger, about how we can control our anger:,

“Knowledge is only by learning, and forbearance is only by exerting oneself to be forbearing”. Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam said. Which means, to learn something is with studying. Slowly, slowly you get knowledge, you become a knowledgeable one. And to not be angry, also slowly, slowly. Every time anger is coming to you - maybe once you cannot control. But when you say, “Oh sorry, I couldn't control myself.” The next time, you’ll remember more: “What am I doing! Last time I also did this, I was unhappy. I apologize.” Now also, the second, third, fourth time, every time, your anger starts coming down, down, down, [until] you become without anger.

Anger is not a good attribute. Especially anger for yourself; it is not acceptable at all in Ṭarīqah. If you are angry for the sake of Allāh ﷻ, of course it can be. And for Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam, it also can be. Some people are not happy. I am not happy with that. I am also [not happy]. Who does not respect Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam, not giving him ﷺ value, we must also be angry. But not for ourselves. Our ego deserves. If anybody says for yourself, you must say, “Thank you brother. My ego deserves more than this. It is worse than what you said,” you must say so. But for Allah Azza wa Jalla, for anything else, for whom you love, whom you’re happy with, you must be angry. Even if it’s maybe difficult sometimes by tongue, then you must be angry by your heart; don’t accept. For yourself, for your ego: accept. But for Allāh ﷻ, for Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam, for religion: maybe sometimes it is better not to speak, but do not accept it in your heart. You must say, “I am not happy with this. I do not accept.” But “For myself, my ego can be (more) worse”, you must say. “My ego is even worse than what you are saying,” you must say.

But most people argue. Sometimes people say something, you know you are right so you begin to defend yourself. It becomes worse and worse. As Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam - many people know this story, but we will also repeat it. Once Sayyidinā Abū Bakr - Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam was away and somebody was arguing, not Abū Bakr. Somebody was saying a bad thing for Sayyidina Abū Bakr radiya Llāhu ‘anhu, and he was not saying anything. Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam was seeing this and smiling. But when Abū Bakr radiya Llāhu ‘anhu saw Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam he thought, “Maybe I must say something to this man.” And he just said one word. Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam left this area. And the Sahabah know when Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam is not happy - he ﷺ teaches us also - he ﷺ was not saying anything. But they know from what he ﷺ is doing, that he ﷺ is not happy with this; without saying anything. Sayyidina Abū Bakr ran after Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam saying to him ﷺ, “Ya RasulaLlah, ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam, why did you get upset? This man was saying something and I defended myself.” He said to Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. And Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam said, “When he was saying something for you there was angel who was repeating for him what he said. He repeated it for him to defend you. But when you began to defend yourself, that time the shayṭān came there. And when shayṭān is there, I am not there.”

For this, this is also a big lesson for people who, day and night - now there’s a new fashion. AlhamduliLlah maybe sometimes people are sending a message, so I write okay or no. It takes me five minutes only for one word. And many people get angry, “You are not answering.” If I want to answer [it will take me a lot of time]. So, day and night they are speaking on this machine: takur tukur, takur tukur [imitating typing].

So many of them, 99% is of no benefit., “Jawabu l-jahil s-sukut.” Which means the answer for the ignorant one is not saying [anything], to keep silent. “Brother, you can continue. You speak as much as you like. When you are tired, you can go.” If you answer him, repeating for him [what he’s telling you], you will be arguing for maybe ten hours, and in the end, nothing happens, no benefit. You only become more angry, you lose your time, you lose your temper, you lose your health. Of course, these are all bad things affecting everything. They say, ‘bad energy’ is coming that time. Bad energy is coming from shayṭān and shayṭān is there.

For this, the best thing: as much as you control yourself or not defend yourself it is good. But for those who have time, we cannot say anything. Many people are not listening for Nasīḥah (advice). For this, many times they say, “O Shaykh, they are saying this about you. They are saying that about that.” I say, “Don’t tell me, don’t listen to this, don’t look at this.” Mawlānā Shaykh, ‘a’la Allahu darajātuhu (May Allāh ﷻ raise his ranks), at the end of his time there was this internet. But before, before 20 years, there was television at that time. People watched television. Now they are neither listening nor watching this [TV]. Some people coming on television and saying this and that and that about religion, about other things. Mawlānā Shaykh said, “Don’t listen to these people.” Especially, there were people giving Fatwa against Ahlu s-Sunnah wal-Jama’ah and people were confused, “O Mawlānā what do you say about this?” He said, “Don’t look at this. They give you heaviness.” Not giving happiness, they give you heaviness. If you look at them, you will have no benefit, it will become harm for you. And now we are living in a time worse than 20 years ago. What Mawlānā Shaykh was saying, it is even worse and worse than that.

For this we are saying, accept what Allāh ﷻ gives us and be happy with this. Do not listen for what people who want to push you out of way are saying. Shayṭān is now very happy, and this time is his kingdom. In the whole world, he is controlling everything with new Nimrud, new Pharaoh, new ones who are claiming they are God. They thought they are controlling the world, controlling everything.

But they are dreaming. And they are with no mind, we say. Because you think you are controlling the world with this machine, with this something you think you created. But it is the time for all of these to appear from the knowledge of Allāh ﷻ. They are given for people to be more arrogant, to be more proud, to be claiming more that they are God. He ﷻ gives them. “But we are God, there is no death for us. So we will make this planet like this, we will make this like that.” But they have no mind, because they will know they are not living forever. After maybe one hour [they might die]. They cannot control themselves. They don’t know, there’s no guarantee for them that they will live one hour more. And they are claiming all this.

We are living in a time that we must be really carrying (tolerating) this, ‘ ’, ‘Tahammul l’ad-dād’, ‘To tolerate the opposites.’ Everything is against good people now. Everything against them; nothing with them. You even see and think it is good for us. But in reality, you see after that it is not good. What happened 2-3 years ago, they poisoned all people and all people were running to take this poison and were happy. This is one example from what people think is good for them but in reality it is not good.

For this, we must be careful not to listen to what is against the teaching of Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam, the teaching of Islam, of course. You must be Tahammul (toleraling) carrying. ‘ ’, ‘Tahammul l’ad-dād’, ‘To tolerate the opposites.’ Carrying the opposite things, not listening, “This man is saying this. That is saying this. We must do.” No. We are like this. We are accepting what Allāh ﷻ gave us, we are not looking for another thing. And with carrying this, we will carry our belief strongly in shā’a Llāh.

In shā’a Llāh Allāh ﷻ sends Sahib uz-Zamān Sayyidinā Al-Mahdī a’n qareeb (soon) to save the whole world. It is very near but Allāh ﷻ knows how many days, how many months, how many years. Mawlānā Shaykh used to say, “I have been waiting for Sayyidinā Al-Mahdī for sixty years.” You must look as an example to Mawlānā Shaykh Nāẓim. “I wait night and morning. When I wake up, I’m waiting for him to come at night, this night. If not, then the second day in the morning he will come. I am waiting for this.” He is not fed up, not saying, “Oh I waited for many years and he is not coming. I will not wait today.” No, he said, “I wait until the night. If not this night, then in the morning he will come. If not this morning, then this night he will come.” But that time, Mawlānā Shaykh’s time, every day, as he said, was worse than the other. Every day worse than the other. So that time was even very good compared to now. But compared to 10 years before Mawlānā, it was in that time worse than before 10 years.

So for this, now it is really - the whole world don't have any hope. For this in shā’a Llāh, he is appearing in shā’a Llāh, soon in shā'a Llāh. May Allāh ﷻ make us to be with him, to reach these good days, blessed days, days of light, of nūr in shā’a Llāh. To make us happy in shā’a Llāh.

Wa min Allah at-Tawfiq. Al-Fatiha.

Mawlana Sheikh Muhammad Adil ar-Rabbani 23 February 2024/ 14 Sha’ban 1445 The Wren School – Reading, UK