How Do We Protect Ourselves?

Bismi Llāhi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm

We say in the Khutbah (sermon), “اسْمَعُوا وَعَوْا وَإِذَا وَعِيتم فَانْتَفعُوا”. I think Sayyidina Omar was saying this. Listen and understand, and when you understand do what you understand not the opposite. For many years, Mawlānā Shaykh Nāẓim was teaching, saying sohbahs. Even now, his sohbahs are also everywhere, on YouTube, television and others.

But some people are only listening; not all of them of course. AlhamduliLlah, this is good. Only some people are doing this. Others AlhamduliLlah even if they’re not understanding they are following Mawlānā’s order, Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam’s order. They are not giving order from themselves.

AlhamduliLlah today we also met here with you, our beloved people, beloved for Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla. This is the most important thing for us, for any human being; the human being must be a real human being not only looks like a human being. AlhamduliLlah we are again here. We are happy to be here. Again, Allāh ﷻ gave us life and AlhamduliLlah we met. In shā’a Llāh we meet many times. And in shā’a Llāh we meet Sayyidina Al-Mahdi alayhi s-salam also, to come here with big jama’ah that time with Sayyidina Al-Mahdi alayhi s-salam.

AlhamduliLlah tonight is a blessed night. This is the first time we have ever been in a special night in this area, the north. Every time we come, we celebrate this special night in London or even in Cyprus or Türkiye. But this year AlhamduliLlah we are here. AlhamduliLlah. In shā’a Llāh, Allāh ﷻ showers us with His ﷻ blessings and makes us accepted people in His ﷻ Divine Presence in shā’a Llāh. This is very important.

All Awliyā’uLlah, all mashāyikh are advising people to know their size; not saying something not good for themselves first, not to harm themselves and harm others also. Mawlānā Shaykh was every time, even with his greatness, saying “I am weak one. I am helpless. I have no power.” But he is teaching us to be humble; to be not more humble but to know who you are. He had said many times, don’t look at the mirror that makes you look huge, big. Look at the mirror that’s maybe making you smaller or a normal mirror. So that if you see yourself in this mirror, you know you are not great.

“مَنْ تَوَاضَعَ لله رَفَعَه”. Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam says, who is humble for Allāh ﷻ, Allāh ﷻ raises him. But if he raised himself, he becomes down. This is very important. For this we are saying, know this, know yourself, listen and understand what you are listening to. For what are you here? For Allāh ﷻ, for Allāh ﷻ to help you, to look at you with His ﷻ pleasure, to be happy with you. This is our aim. Not to make our ego growing and growing and growing.

Many times Mawlānā Shaykh was giving funny examples. He says one mouse fell in a wine barrel and became drunk. It jumped from there and said, “Where is this cat!” This is how we see our greatness. So be careful! Don’t make shayṭān play with you! Don’t make your imagination take you down, down, down! This is Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam’s word, not my word! Who makes himself great, Allāh ﷻ makes him down. This is the saying of Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam.

One saying of our ‎Prophet ﷺ also is, “Who says something I ﷺ didn’t say must prepare himself for Jahannam, for hell.” Many people say, “Prophet ﷺ said that. Prophet ﷺ said this.” Be careful. Even when we say a ḥadīth [we’re not sure of], we say this is maybe a ḥadīth and maybe not. But you say by yourself, “Prophet ﷺ ordered me like this, ordered me like that.” It is a very big danger for you.

The greatness of our Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam is in every time and everywhere. But this night was a special night for our Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. The night of traveling during night time from Makkah to Quds; Makkah Mukarramah to Quds Sharīf. This was the first one. The second one was from Quds after he ﷺ met the prophets, he rode the Burāq and rose to heavens, the seven heavens.

After the seven heavens, he ﷺ was in the Divine Presence of Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla.

Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla is everywhere, but this is to show how high he ﷺ is, to show the greatness of Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam which nobody reached and nobody can reach. His ﷺ ocean, not one can be only one drop of it. Maybe the whole world is a drop. After this, how can people say about themselves, “I am like this, I am like that”! This is not good.

AlhamduliLlah, in this night Allāh ﷻ blessed Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. And He ﷻ spoke to him ﷺ in no place. It cannot be described how it is. Only Allāh ﷻ knows how it is. In this night, Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam saw everything; from Jannah, paradise and hell and all the seven heavens. Each heaven has a Prophet. Each one, Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam met and spoke to.

And if you want to calculate this, it must be thousand of years. So it was Tayyu z-Zamān, Tayyu l-Makān also. Even time became wider and the distance also became with the miracle, mu’jizah of Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam very fast. In old times, they didn’t have technology, of course. It was difficult, very difficult for them to understand this.

In this time, maybe they can understand a little bit. People are proud, “We have technology. We have nano,” I don’t know mano, something they say. They can imagine something. But normally, the technology of this time is also very backward. So Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam, in that night, Allāh ﷻ blessed him, Allāh ﷻ made him ﷺ happy. And made all this Jannah and heavens with Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam’s barakah. Prophets were happy with Sayyidinā Muhammad ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam.

All of this is for the believer. Who is the believer? The believer is who’s following Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam, loving Ahlu l-Bayt, loving the ṣaḥābah. Because all this is from īmān. Īmān is in the eighth pillar. Who doesn’t believe in one of these pillars is not Mu’min, he is not following Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam.

So they say Ahlu s-Sunnah wal Jamā’ah. Who are Ahlu s-Sunnah wal Jamā’ah? Ahlu s-Sunnah wal Jamā’ah are Ṭarīqah people. Other people are not. Because maybe they are not against ṭarīqah but they can be played in hands of shayṭān and his followers. These people may fall into shayṭān’s tricks and be cheated. For this, Ahlu s-Sunnah wal Jamā’ah are ṭarīqah people.

In ṭarīqah, the first thing is to be believer, īmān. Īmān is very important. Without īmān there is no power for the Muslim. This is what happened after the Ottomans. There was a caliph. He was Ahlu s-Sunnah wal Jamā’ah, and he was in ṭarīqah. He was following ṭarīqah also. After that, all Muslims become like toys for people. Why? Because they have no īmān. And without īmān you cannot do anything. For this, many people ask what’s the benefit of ṭarīqah. Ṭarīqah gives power to your belief, your īmān. So AlhamduliLlah.

Even now, there are many who claim they are Muslims, they appear as Muslims, U’lama, but do not accept Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam’s ‘Isra’ and Mi’rāj. They say, “This was a dream. It wasn’t real.” If it was a dream, why was our Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam saying it. Everybody can see dreams. Sometimes some people tell me, “I will tell you a dream I saw.” Normally, I cannot listen too much to dreams. But I said, “Okay, say please.” The beginning was half an hour. It can be that people remember their dreams. Everybody can see dreams; it’s not a miracle.

“Not only Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. I also saw I was here, I was there.” No it is impossible. There is proof, and Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam was saying, and Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla says in Qur’ān ‘Aẓīmu sh-Sha’n. In Qur’ān it is said, even those who claim so without having īmān, know it’s not true what they say. When they say something like this, they become out of Islām.

This is a trick of shayṭān. He is going everywhere to destroy your building. Maybe sometimes destroy a little bit, but AlhamduliLlah the believer can quickly repair it again. How is it repaired again? With the barakah of Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam, barakah of Awliyā’u Llāh, barakah of believers. Because they are not leaving people to follow their ego and themselves. No, they quickly make them come to the way or they will go away and be losers.

So AlhamduliLlah, of course, sometimes people are going and coming. But in the end, Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla, Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam protect believers. Believers everywhere are protected. The most important weapon for the Muslim is to be a believer; not to have a tank or missile or other things. This is more effective. If you want to protect yourself, protect yourself with īmān. Īmān is the most effective weapon for Muslims, and for the whole world. If the whole world are following Islām, following Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla’s order, they will be protected in shā’a Llāh.

AlhamduliLlah this night, we are praying for Allāh ﷻ to protect Muslims. Everywhere you see Muslims suffering. Suffering of course for not following and making people be away from Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. This is most important thing. So who wants to be safe must ask protection from Allāh ﷻ for the sake of Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. And this night, Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla was giving presents for Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam; many presents.

One of them was the last two verses of Surat Al-Baqarah. In the Divine Presence of Allāh ﷻ, Allāh ﷻ gave Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. And another was also the five prayers. This five prayer times were fifty, fifty times. Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla’s order was to pray fifty times every day. But alhamduliLlah, Sayyidina Musa ‘alayhi s-salām had experience with his people. He said, “They cannot do this. Ask for less.” Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam asked Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla. Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla said, “Forty five.” Again, Sayyidinā Musa said “too much.” “Forty”, he said, “too much.” “Thirty five”, “too much.”

Each time becoming five times lesser. “Thirty”, “too much.” “Twenty five”, “too much.” “Twenty” “too much.” “Fifteen” “too much.” “Ten”, “too much.” “Five”, “too much.” Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam said, “Okay you are bargaining too much. Your people are traders Masha’Allah so I cannot do this. Five times is okay for us.” AlhamduliLlah Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam was saying this. And Allāh ﷻ gives reward of fifty times in five times. AlhamduliLlah.

And it is not too difficult AlhamduliLlah; not too difficult. Why are we saying that it’s not too difficult? Because people say, “It’s too difficult for us to pray five times a day.” Okay five times, how many minutes is it taking? Each prayer time maybe takes ten minutes. So the whole day takes fifty minutes, or let’s say one hour.

When you go to the gym how many hours are you going? At least two hours. This is the least. Some people are going for maybe five hours, four hours; I don’t know, I don’t follow, but I guess this. So it is very easy and very making you to be active and everything in your body gets blessed and gets moving. Everything, every good thing, khayr comes to you in this five prayer times. You are washing yourself, making wudu, making tasbih, praying. So it is a present from Allāh ﷻ in this night.

AlhamduliLlah we reached this night. But shayṭān, ‘alayhi ma yastahiq (upon him is what he deserves), is a real cheater. He is cheating people a lot, to be away from the good thing. Only if there is a bad thing, they are quickly running. “وَزَيَّنَ لَهُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ أَعْمَالَهُمْ”, “Wa Zayyana Lahumu Ash-Shayţānu ‘A`mālahum”, “And Satan has made their deeds pleasing to them.” (Qur’ān 27:24). Zayyana means he made decoration on it, showing that it is good so people are running there.

They are running to the cinema, to other things. Now cinema people also are very sad they say. Why? Because there is a bigger shayṭān than cinema. So these who are following cinemas are saying nobody is coming now to cinemas. As they say, nobody is coming to mosques, they are saying, nobody is coming to the cinema now. Why? Because they have a bigger shayṭān in their houses and their hands. All the time, every minute they are there. So they left this. “Why will we do?” Don’t worry shayṭān is happy. Maybe cinema people are not happy but shayṭān is happy because he found what’s worse than the cinema.

May Allāh ﷻ keep us safe. And we are also saying this from here, be careful not to give children telephones. I see now they are even giving babies this telephone. And after that, they say the baby is not speaking, he is not walking, not doing this, not doing that. Because I know surely that there is something in it that’s harming people and intentionally, knowingly. Not only from screen light or other but there is something they put there to harm people. So be careful for children especially. Don’t let them play too much.

If they maybe want to, okay give them half an hour a day, or half an hour a week; not from morning to midnight. Some of them are not sleeping. And when they are not sleeping, there are shayṭān people coming through this phone and destroying their minds. They finish, burn their minds. So be careful. Be careful. We are living in a time of real fitnah. As Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam described it, as black nights. Everywhere fitnah. You look right, fitnah. Left, fitnah. Up, fitnah. Down, fitnah. Behind, fitnah. Front, fitnah; everywhere. So we must be careful for this in shā’a Llāh.

They are the most precious. They are more precious than jewels for us; these small children, babies, youngsters. So may Allāh ﷻ keep them safe. We are [addressing] here for the youngsters also. Don’t look too much at it [spending too much time]. Okay you are attracted to this but you must take your ego under your control. Control your ego and maybe spend one hour, half an hour, ten minutes a day; it’s enough.

May Allāh ﷻ save us. Keep us safe from our egos, from fitnah of our ego and shayṭān. May Allāh ﷻ bless all of us in this night, Night of Mi’rāj. May our du’ā’s be accepted. May Allāh ﷻ keep us in good position and good health and good knowledge. May we be with good people, you and your families and your children and babies. May Allāh ﷻ send Sayyidina Al-Mahdi ‘alayhi s-salām to save us from this bad position.

In shā’a Llāh, for this darkness to become light, nūr inshaAllah. Āmīn. May Allāh ﷻ give everyone what he wants from good things in shā’a Llāh. May He ﷻ grant you good thinking to find the good thing in shā’a Llāh. May Allāh ﷻ accept our du’ā’s in this blessed night. Āmīn. As we said, everybody, in shā’a Llāh, make his du’ā’ tonight, Allāh ﷻ accepts it. Āmīn, Āmīn, wa LhamduliLlahi Rabbi l-Ā’lamīn.

Al-Fatiha.

•⁠ ⁠Mawlana Sheikh Muhammad Adil ar-Rabbaniق

15 January 2025/ 26 Rajab 1447

Noor ul Islam Mosque; Bury, UK

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