Ṭarīqah Is Īmān and Adab

Bismi Llāhi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm

AlhamduliLlah we are in ṭarīqah which is the heart of sharī’ah. Like anything in our body, it is the same. We cannot say sharī’ah is different and ṭarīqah is different. No. Ṭarīqah is alhamduliLlah the heart. As Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam is saying, Islām, īmān. Īmān means ṭarīqah. Without ṭarīqah, no īmān.

Because ṭarīqah teaches the first thing for human beings, for Muslims. He must be first human being and after that Muslim. They are teaching the first important thing which Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla is praising Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam in: ‘وَإِنَّكَ لَعَلَىٰ خُلُقٍ عَظِيمٍ’, ‘Wa-innaka la-‘alá khuluqin ‘aẓīm’, ‘And indeed, you are of a great moral character.’ (Qur’ān 68:04). To be good behaved. The perfect, perfect one is Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. And what is the first thing? To be good behaved, which we call “Adab”. Adab is very important. It is important for Muslims. And only in ṭarīqah they are teaching adab. In other ways, maybe you can imagine they have adab. But when something happens, this adab, good behavior, flies, disappears and bad manners come. This is what ṭarīqah is striving for, for people to be the whole time in adab. The most important thing for Muslims is adab. There must be somebody to teach them adab.

AlhamduliLlah, who are following ṭarīqah – there are other people who sometimes have adab, and sometimes don’t have. But when like this, they can be caught by those who want people to be away from ṭarīqah. When you are away from ṭarīqah, you are away from sharī’ah because your īmān: you lost your īmān. And it is difficult to be in the way of Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam without īmān. Maybe you can be Muslim.

What they say – the worst thing in these people, the worst bad behavior is to not believe in Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam’s shafa’ah (intercession). They say, “We don’t want it. We are praying, we are…” Many of them know the Qur’an by heart. They know ḥadīth. But they don’t have any belief in their heart. This is what we are trying with people: to make them believe in Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam’s shafa’ah, his ﷺ value in the Divine Presence of Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla.

Al-ḥamdu liLlāh, there are few from Arabs. We have, al-ḥamdu liLlāh, a murīd who is very active. He is giving lectures, giving ṣuḥbah on the internet. More than maybe 500 from those who were against shafa’ah, against Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam, became very hard defenders for this, al-ḥamdu liLlāh. Because when somebody is listening with wisdom, he accepts the truth. There’s no way, no way to deny the shafa’ah of Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. Many times, I cannot believe how these people are saying, “We are Muslim” and are not accepting Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam’s value, not accepting Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam’s shafa’ah.

Without this shafa’ah, how can you enter Paradise? Not 100 years, if you worship a million years, it is nothing; there’s no value for it in the Divine Presence of Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla. This worship – Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla takes what he worshipped, and throws it in his face. “Wait here,” this is a ḥadīth or a [transmitted] saying – the value of any part of your body, one of your eyes’ [deeds] – if you worship the whole 100 years day and night, you cannot compensate only for one eye’s [bad deeds]; what Allāh ﷻ gives you [compared] with your ‘ibadah, with your worshipping.

But with Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam, everything is easy. You do and ask shafa’ah, Allāh ﷻ accepts. Everything you do – because we are now; before they were better than us, (more) better. This time, we don’t – I think [starting] from me and everyone, there’s no value for our worshipping. We worship; in ‘Isha, we pray qunut. I forget to pray qunut and make sajdah sahu. This is our ‘ibadah: nothing. How can we be proud and happy we are making ‘ibadah, and we are as such! No.

But we are happy. AlhamduliLlah, we are loving Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. And he ﷺ said, “اَلْمَرْءُ مَعَ مَنْ أَحَبَّ”, “Al-mar’u ma‘a man aḥabb”, “A man will be with whom he loves.” (Hadith). This is good tidings, very good tidings for all people. Don’t make waswas. Many people ask, “How can I have taqwa?” I don’t know, maybe you can make ḥalwa (sweets). AlhamduliLlah to have taqwa, just love Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. It is enough for you. And do what he ﷺ teaches us; it’s enough. Don’t look for other things. The (most) strong thing you put in your ‘ibadah, which is not rejected, is the love of Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam, as-ṣalātu wa-s-salāmu ʿalayhi. This is the most important thing for us.

AlhamduliLlah, Allāh ﷻ made us be in this way. We are lucky because the will of Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla can be that we can be as – ḥāshā mina l-ḥuḍūr [expression of respect meaning: saving your presence] – another creature. If we are another creature, it is also ok, but not to be a non-believer, kafir, mushrik and not love Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. We can be, alhamduliLlah. For this we are thanking Allāh ﷻ. He ﷻ put us in this place and we are all coming, gathering for the love of Prophet ﷺ, love of Allāh ﷻ, love of Awliyā’ radiya Allahu anhum, love of Ahlu l-Bayt and love of ṣaḥābah.

This is also very important: we must love what Allāh ﷻ loves and what Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam loves. Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam is saying about Ahlu l-Bayt; “I left two things after me: Qur’an and Ahlu l-Bayt.” So, Ahlu l-Bayt, you must love them. And after them also, the ṣaḥābah: “أصحابي كالنّجومِ بأيّهم اِقتديتُم اِهتديتُم”, “Aṣḥābī kā n-nujūm bi ayyihim qtadaytum htadaytum”, “My companions are as the stars. Whichever you follow, you will be in Hidayah (guided).” Also, Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam praises his ﷺ companions. He ﷺ loves them. He ﷺ said, “Who hates my ṣaḥābah, I hate him. Allāh ﷻ doesn’t like him and curses him.” There are many ḥadīths about this.

So alhamduliLlah, we are, all ṭarīqahs are like this. They are following Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. We love what he ﷺ loves, and we don’t love what he ﷺ doesn’t love. This is our way. Who follows this way will not be cheated. Because many shaytan people from this side, from that side, from that side, are trying to put fitnah between Muslims to be against Ahlu l-Bayt and against ṣaḥābah. This is not our way. We don’t want this way. Because Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam was saying about this, but he ﷺ said fitnah will be and come and go, and we are far away from those days. We can only look at ourselves: to be good people, sāliḥ (righteous) people, not to make fitnah between Muslims.

Muslims are kept with Awliyā’uLlah, with ṭarīqah in the right way. 41 ṭarīqahs are all connecting to Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam through Mashāyikh, through Ṣaḥābah, through Ahlu l-Bayt, through Khulafā’u r-Rāshidīn. All ṭarīqah are in a strong, clear, lightened way. Exactly as what Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam is saying: in the end of times, there will be more division between Muslims. It will be 73 parts and only one will be safe. All 72 in fire, hell. And only one in Jannah. And they said, “Who are those?” Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam said, “The (most) biggest crowd which is Ahlu as-Sunnah wa l-Jama’ah and especially ṭarīqah.” Ṭarīqah people are not going out of the way, the way of Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam.

There is light, nūr with this ṭarīqah until Jannah, in shā’a Llāh. And it is not cutting. Al-ḥamdu liLlāh, coming one after one. When the time comes, Allāh ﷻ puts special good people to continue the way of Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. So, when some mashāyikh are going, many people are confused: “What can we do? What will happen?” But this is – My brother, Shaykh Baha’uddin was asking Mawlānā Shaykh who was very ill at that time. He was very sad and asking Mawlānā, “What will happen?”

He said, “Don’t worry. They appointed me until here. From here, the way is still going; not cutting.” One after one after one until Qiyamah, in shā’a Llāh. It will continue. No fear. Not any sadness. Because we are believers, we are not sad if we pass away or if another one passes away. We know they are going to the Divine Presence of Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla and to mashāyikh where they are waiting for them. There isn’t any fear. And people must follow the way of Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla. This is very important.

AlhamduliLlah, we are happy with you, masha’Allah, all of you, praising. I am ashamed to be here. I never want to be in this position, but it is obligatory for us to be here. Insha’Allah, Allāh ﷻ bless you. Allāh ﷻ give you more light, more īmān, more love for Allāh ﷻ and for Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. This is our wish. We wish for goodness. Ṭarīqah people don’t have envy, they don’t have ḥasad, they don’t enmity for anybody. We are seeing all creatures, all people as creatures of Allāh ﷻ and in shā’a Llāh we ask for hidayah for them and goodness for people, for all creatures. The best wish for human beings, what we wish is to have īmān. The best and biggest treasure is this. Nothing is bigger than the treasure of īmān. Allāh Azza wa Jalla is saying, they wish on the Day of Resurrection that if all of this world is for them, they will give it all. Not only Manchester or England or London. They can give the whole world without a blink of an eye, just to be safe; but it’s finished. They cannot be.

For this, we say īmān is the most precious thing Allāh ﷻ has given us. We wish for others also to have this īmān. Because in our heart, we know Allāh ﷻ is Generous and His ﷻ Jannah is enough for a hundred thousand times of these people to be inside, and still there is a place for more people. Maybe those who don’t believe in shafa’ah are afraid if more people come to Jannah, there will be no place for them. Jannah not like this. Jannah is different. But every time we speak about this place. They say, “It was empty. It was not a place; it was a field. Now it is full of houses, no field, nothing. There is no place. People are coming and finishing the river, the jungle, the wood. They will finish them all. There will be no place for us.” Every time, people are not happy with this. But in Jannah, there’s no problem as this. Allāh ﷻ made the Jannah big. You cannot imagine how big it is.

For this, we are not envious, not afraid. “If the whole world became Muslim, there will be no place for you.” No, there will be a place. As we said, there will be a place maybe a million times like this dunyā. Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla’s Mightiness: no one can imagine anything about it. There is no comparison but today, I was saying one ḥadīth that we cannot remember very well. When we say some ḥadīth, we cannot remember. But there are people who are studying ḥadīth. A ḥadīth like: “إِنَّمَا الأَعْمَالُ بِالنِّيَّاتِ”, “Innama l-‘aa’malu bin-niyyat”, “Actions are but by intentions”. They say: coming from this to that, to that…; counting. This is ḥadīth musnad. Reaching to Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam, [mentioning] who transmitted it. They mention them until Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. This is one ḥadīth. But there are ʻulamā’ who mention [the transmitters of] not only one ḥadīth, but maybe a thousand, maybe two thousand, five thousand, six thousand ḥadīths. They know them and can say the names one by one, name after name after name after name until Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. So, this is what we think of. Even this, you cannot imagine. So how can you compare what Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla’s mightiness is in all of this universe, beyond the universe, here, hereafter, everywhere!

So, we are happy to be in way of Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla. Not like the crazy people. They are worshipping idol, worshipping wood. I don’t know what they are worshipping and they think themselves that they are clever. It is impossible to think about something like this being your Creator, your Lord. Ḥāshā (far from it). May Allāh ﷻ give hidāyah for them also, in shā’a Llāh. May Allāh ﷻ fill our hearts with His ﷻ love, love of Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam, and wisdom from His ﷻ wisdom, in shā’a Llāh.

We are thanking you. We are coming here. In shā’a Llāh this is from the barakāt of Mawlānā Shaykh Nāẓim, barakāt of our mashāyikh. There was in Damascus – we were small when I went to madrasah. But there were huge ulamā’, awliyā’ whom we took lessons from. And Mawlānā Shaykh was saying, they are very taqwa people, ulamā’ taqwa in Damascus. And they were real taqwa ulamā’. And they were not taking money. Now everywhere, when you go to school, they take money. That time, they were not taking money. They were even giving salary also every month for us. But they said, what we only want from you: we don’t want anything just spread this. This is an ‘amanah (trust) for you. Spread it for people. Al-ḥamdu liLlāh. In shā’a Llāh, we make a little bit of their wasiyyah (will). May Allāh ﷻ bless them. May Allāh ﷻ bless you. In shā’a Llāh we will be with them in Jannah, in shā’a Llāh. Wa min Allah at-Tawfiq.

Al-Fatiha.

• Mawlana Sheikh Muhammad Adil ar-Rabbani 

8 February 2025/ 9 Sha’ban 1446

Manchester Central Mosque – Manchester, UK