Great Examples We Must Follow

A‘ūdhu Billāhi Minash-shayṭāni r-rajīm. Bismillāhi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm.

Mubarak insha’Allah again this month, Mawlid an-Nabi. You must remember Mawlid of Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam and celebrate every day.
Insha’Allah with this also, we celebrate Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. Because the most important thing for us is Allāh’s ﷻ order to praise Prophet ṣallá
Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. In every occasion, we must remember, we must praise Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam.

There’s an order in Qur’an, Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla is saying, Bismi Llāhi r-
Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm:

‘ ُ قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُح ِ بُّونَ اللَّ ه َ فَاتهبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللَّ ه’,

‘If you love Allah, then follow me, [so] Allah will love you.’ (Qur’ān 03:31). “If you love Allāh ﷻ, you must follow me ﷺ for Allāh ﷻ to love you.”

As much you are following Prophet ﷺ, you are becoming higher. You become higher than other people. Allāh ﷻ raises you; makes you higher. People are the same. Allāh ﷻ created all people the same. Only with His ﷻ love and the love of Prophet ﷺ, they are becoming different from others. For this, we see the highest people near the Prophet ﷺ or after Prophet ṣalláLlāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam, are those who are following him ﷺ.

They look at what he is doing and saying, and try to follow 100%. For this, the most close one was Sayyidinā Abū Bakr. He was the whole time with him ﷺ, following him ﷺ. After him comes the other Sahabah, old Sahabah. There’s a difference between them. But who is more of a follower, doing what Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam does, becomes higher in degree. For this, Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam was saying,

“Aṣhābī kā n-nujūm bi ayyihim qtadaytum htadaytum”, “My companions are as the stars. Whichever you follow, you will be in Hidayah (guided).” [Hadith]. “My companions are like stars. Which one of them you follow, you will be in the right way.”

They were very sensitive (meticulous), looking at what Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam was saying, doing, and were quickly doing the same. For this, they were the best companions, the best time for the Ummah, time of Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam and his ﷺ companions.

After them also Awliyā’uLlah and ulamā. They are looking at what Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam is doing. What he ﷺ is doing: we call it Sunnah. What
Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam had done, it means Sunnah. They were seeing. They were with Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam, so they were teaching people after them. Other people, ulamā’ were hearing what Prophet ﷺ was saying and were
writing this Sunnah.

Sunnah is not like Fard. It is not obligatory, but it is very important. Fard is obligatory. You must do it. You cannot run away from this. If you run, you can make it up again later. But the Sunnah, you cannot do it again. And the Fard – when you miss the Fard and you make it up later, you cannot reach the reward that Allāh ﷻ gives if you do it in time. His ﷻ orders, like praying five times, if you don’t make it on time but make it up later, you cannot reach the reward or Allāh’s ﷻ pleasure. If you miss one day [of fasting], you don’t fast one day of Ramaḍān, the obligatory, the Fard – if you fast your whole life, until the end of your life, you cannot reach its reward.

Allāh ﷻ says, A‘ūdhu biLlāhi mina sh-shayṭāni r-rajīm. Bismi Llāhi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm:

‘ و َ تَحْسَبُونَهُ هَيِّنًا و َهُو َ عِندَ اللَّ ه ِ عَظ ِ يم’,

‘Wa Taĥsabūnahu Hayyināan Wa
Huwa Inda AllāhiAžīm’,

‘And you thought it was insignificant while it was, in the
Sight of Allah, tremendous.’ (Qur’ān 24:15).

You think it is nothing, but in the Divinely Presence of Allāh ﷻ, it is a big thing. Because He ﷻ gave you something. He ﷻ is not in need of your fasting or praying; but it is for you. When you are not doing it – He ﷻ gave you this precious thing and you didn’t do it, He ﷻ is not happy with you. So ulamā, Mashayikh and Awliyā’ were following Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi
wa-sallam Sunnah and what he ﷺ shows us. There are many Sunnah that many people forgot about. But still, they have them in books. Of course, we cannot do
them 100% because we are ordinary people. We do as much as we can. Many of them are easy. We can do them. Our intention is to imitate Prophet ﷺ, to follow
Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam; Allāh ﷻ rewards you for this. With this good intention, to love Prophet ﷺ and to follow him ﷺ, most of Tarīqah Mashāyikh are in this way. They are following that and they try to teach their followers also. Sometimes, something happens to them, yet they are happy with what happens for them, even if it is very difficult.

Once Shaykh Bahauddin Bukhārī, Sayyidunā Imam Naqshbandī, our imām, was in Hajj. Something happened and he said, “My son, Allāh ﷻ will take him.”
When he came back to Bukhara, they told him, “Your eldest son passed away.”

What did he do when he heard this? Normally, people cry and feel very sorry if such a thing happened. The most difficult is to lose a son. It is the most difficult in
life. But what happened? He was extremely happy. Why was he happy?

He said, “AlhamduliLlah Prophet ﷺ also lost his ﷺ son. His ﷺ son passed away, my son also
passed away. I follow Prophet ﷺ a 100%.” This is the love of Awliyā’, the Mashāyikh whom we follow. And he said, “I didn’t leave any Sunnah of Prophet sallaLlāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam without doing. I do every Sunnah of Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam.”

AlhamduliLlah all Mashāyikh are like this; Mashāyikh and Sulṭāns also. And especially the Ottoman Sulṭāns, alhamduliLlah. Sulṭān Murad maybe built the biggest mosque in Bursa. He said, “We must find an Imam to pray here.” But he said, “I have one condition for that.” He said, “I want one who has not missed any Sunnah of Asr.” Because the Asr Sunnah is not a Sunnah Mu’akkadah. Many people are not doing it. In that time, everybody was doing, but still, maybe sometimes not doing it. Nobody appeared. He said, “I will pray. I have never missed any Sunnah.”

All these Salāṭin said, “We are servants for Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. We are not Sulṭān, we are just servant for him ﷺ, for his ﷺ nation, for Ummat Muḥammad.” For this, these Sulṭāns are the most oppressed ones from shayṭān’s people. They are jealous of them because they are showing people the good
way, the good thing, justice and every good thing. This is not good for the shayṭān people. They are doing – they have done the most sacrificing of their life. They’ve
done every good thing for serving the Ummah, for the sake of Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. And they are accused of things that did not happen at all. But
Allāh ﷻ is the Witness. Justice will appear inshā’Allāh. The most important thing is that they did this for the sake of Prophet ﷺ and for the sake of Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla. If they were following their ego, it would’ve been different.

For this we must take these great people as an example for us; how they were serving, how very great they were in everything. People now think themselves
that they are clever, and they have more intelligence than that. But these people were a hundred thousand times more intelligent than them.

For this, Allāh ﷻ gave them this power to save the way of Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. They were defenders of Prophet ﷺ and Islam. They brought justice for Muslims and non-Muslims; no difference. This is an order of Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam.

Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam says, “If anyone harms non-Muslims in a Muslim country when following the ruling of the country, his punishment must be double of the Muslim.”

And all these Sulṭāns were following this order very sensitively. For this, there was a long sultanate, ruling of Islam, Khilafat of Islam with them.

So we are thanking Allāh ﷻ for this Ni’mah of being in this way, the way of these great people, of Sulṭān: Zāhiri Sulṭān and Mā’nawī Sulṭān (apparent Sultan and spiritual Sultan). Each Sultan of the Ottomans has a Shaykh. He is under the command of a Shaykh. He is following a Shaykh. With this spiritual power, the power
of Sultan, they would rule AlhamduliLlah. When they took this [away], they [sultanate] were finished.

May Allāh ﷻ insha’Allah send us the Sultan to spread justice in the whole world insha’Allah.
Wa min Allah at-Tawfiq. Al-Fatiha.

Mawlana Sheikh Muhammad Adil ar-Rabbani
26 September 2024/ 23 Rabih al-Awwal 1446
Isha Prayer – Fatih Mosque; Falkensteinstr, Berlin