Bismi Llāhi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm
Maulana Sheikh Nazimق’s Suhbah
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[This sohbah was given to two young men who came from another sheikh to visit Sheikh Nazimق, intending to continue their search for a guide after leaving.]
By the name of Allah, All-Mighty, All-Merciful, Most Beneficent and Most Munificent.
You do not have forty hands to go everywhere and take forty sheikhs’ hands. Therefore, if you are traveling on a spiritual journey, when you meet your guide or reach your destination, it is enough to remain in one place.
If you are doing it for the pleasure of your ego, then you may travel from East to West, looking at this and that.
Sometimes I go to the market, looking at one thing and then another, from the beginning up to the end. If you are a buyer, you must know what you are seeking and see where it may be found.
If you find it, you may buy it and go on, because no one can take the whole market and carry it away. Everyone who goes shopping knows what he is going to buy.
Your sheikh sent you here, understanding that you are asking for something. If you can find it with someone, names are not important. What matters is that you are able to realize your desire in him.
The Lord ﷻ of the heavens may place our purposes with anyone. Do not be deceived by appearances, passing someone by and saying, “Who is that person? What can be with that one?” while he may in truth have what you are most in need of.
We are in need of wisdom. Knowledge is one thing, but wisdom is something else. Knowledge you may find everywhere, and wisdom may also be written in books, but once written, they too become knowledge. Real wisdom comes directly from the tongue, from hearts.
The Lord ﷻ may place some of His endless wisdoms with anyone. It may be with a peasant, a boy, a woman, an old man, a young man, someone uneducated, someone poor, even with those whom others might not expect. Allah Almighty places wisdom where He ﷻ wills.
There is a saying that treasures are mostly under ruins. No one seeks treasure among great buildings in the center of a city. The one who truly searches looks where there are old ruins.
From the outside, no one would imagine that anything could be there, but beneath the ruins, treasures may be found. That person is pleased even in finding broken cups or fragments, because he says, “Though they are broken, they are antiques, they are precious.”
Divine wisdom is like that. Do not suppose that it must be with people who look impressive from the outside. The doors of Islam are open from East to West; we may look anywhere. If we can find wisdom, we may take it from anyone. It does not have to come from a famous or special person. The Lord ﷻ may give it through anyone.
Therefore, we must be humble enough to listen to everyone and to look at what each person offers. We may take from anyone when we are humble enough.
Allah Almighty gives His wisdoms and He speaks wisdoms. Everyone who comes to me has knowledge, most are learned people, because Western people are generally educated.
Yet as we said, wisdoms are more important than knowledge. Knowledge may be obtained, but wisdoms are gifts. We must be humble and look among ruins to uncover them.
You are traveling, seeking wisdoms, and anywhere you can find them, it is all right. Knowledge is like a plane, and wisdom is its fuel. Without fuel, planes never fly. There are many scholars, but they are still on the ground, waiting for fuel. They are proud of their wings, yet they are not flying.
Mind-products are heavy. As much as they are growing and growing, they weigh us down. Mind products we must carry, but heart products carry us.
Sultan al-‘Arifin Abu Yazid al-Bistamiق, a great Grandsheikh of the Naqshbandi Order, addressed the scholars saying,
“O scholars, you are carrying your knowledge around, and you are always looking at whether that knowledge is becoming less and less, going down.
You are always looking because, when you leave it, your knowledge that you got through your books, you are always carrying around those books within your minds and trying not to forget.
You are like horses, putting too heavy a load on yourselves, carrying it around, and you are always tired. We are not in need of carrying books, to be like horses, carrying such a load. Instead, our knowledge carries us.
Therefore, you are under a heavy load, while our knowledge is carrying us.”
All mind products are a heavy burden for scholars. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The calamity of knowledge is forgetfulness.” This is what destroys knowledge. Each scholar worries about it, for as he grows older, his mental power weakens and his memory fades.
But the heart’s memory never fades. The heart is strong, yet people do not use it.
My Grandsheikhق lived to one hundred and thirteen years and never lost his heart memory. Those whose knowledge is written only in the mind, when it fades they are like empty vessels. But the hearts of the awliya are springs, and springs never run dry.
Wisdom is a divine power. It does not have ordinary properties. Divine power comes through wisdom and may carry a person, even with his body, from East to West in a single moment, from the earth to the heavens.
In our times, people read many books. Muslims of earlier times never tired of reciting the Qur’an, but now people have become occupied by their egos. Yet there remains this hunger for reading, this search. A person may say, “I have read one thousand books, and I still want to read more.”
But for what? What is the purpose? After all that reading, they still feel thirst. Then they begin to read about Sufism, and still they remain thirsty. Why? Because they are asking for real springs, as a person in a desert asks for water.
However, most people see only illusions. This world is full of illusions. Many people are running after them, imagining there may be a spring there, water, and they run toward it, only to find it is a mirage. It is rare to find a true oasis amid the vast deserts of this world, very rare!
Now people are like travelers in a huge desert, thirsty, looking everywhere, seeking water that gives life, running and running, only to find illusions. Yet they must still continue seeking the real oasis.
Our brothers who came this morning are among those who feel that thirst and are asking to reach the oasis of truth. Otherwise, they will see only illusions.
I see in England, in France, in Germany, in Holland, in America, in India, in Pakistan, in Tibet, in China, in Russia, in Turkey, in the Arab countries, everywhere, so many illusions, and very few oases.
Yet the Lord ﷻ, the Lord of the children of Adam (AS), says, “La taqnatu min rahmatillah,” do not despair of the mercy of Allah ﷻ. Whoever sincerely asks to find will surely find.
What is the wisdom that He ﷻ makes it difficult to find? Because everything that man finds easily becomes cheap to him, while everything that you find with difficulty is cared for and valued. You may say, “It was so hard to obtain,” yes?
Therefore, if you are asking for an oasis, you must face every difficulty to find it.
As long as you are alive, you must walk towards somewhere. There may be one hundred illusions. Then you may find, at the end of one hundred, that real oasis.
Do not say, “I went there and found that it was an illusion. Then I turned to another one and that was also an illusion. I have run after all ninety-nine and found them all illusions. For what should I try this one?” Do not say it!
As long as you can walk, keep going. Ninety-nine may be illusions, but one may be your real oasis. The Lord ﷻ says, “Do not cut off your hope!”
When you cut off hope, you die. No one dies until he has cut off hope of living. Whoever hopes to live, lives. Whoever hopes to find, finds.
This is the way of seekers. Whoever is sincere, their Lord ﷻ will lead them to a true oasis. Whoever is patient and hopeful, the Lord ﷻ will surely grant it to them.
May Allah ﷻ make us among those who seek with sincerity until they reach the true oasis.
May He ﷻ grant us wisdom that leads to Him, not illusions that leave us lost in the deserts of dunya.
Al-Fatiha.
• Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Haqqaniق
More sohbahs from the Liberating the Soul Series can be found here.
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This series was initiated by the SufiHub Team in honour of the 2nd Urs of our beloved Sheikh, the late Sheikh Muhammad Abdul Sattar Khan, who lovingly dedicated himself to transcribing and summarising the daily sohbahs of Mawlana Sheikh Nazimق.
It was through this blessed service that he began his journey on this beautiful Way in 2008, remaining steadfast upon it until his final breath in 2023. Today, his legacy continues at our Zawiyah at A’Posh Bizhub Singapore through his representatives Sidi Shalihin, Ismail, and Syed Muhammad, who humbly carry forward the path he sincerely paved.
We pray that our dear Sheikh Abdul Sattar has been reunited with his beloved Mawlana Sheikh Nazimق and all our Grandshaykhs, and that their light continues to guide us always on the way of Haqq.
The text was originally taken from Liberating the Soul – A Guide for Spiritual Growth by Shaykh Nazim Adil al-Haqqaniق. With love and sincere intention, parts of this sohbah have been gently revised by the SufiHub Team for clarity and contextual relevance.
If you wish to share it on your platforms, kindly post it in full and ensure that proper credit is given to all its sources. For this is adab, the very core of our beautiful religion and way.
Should you have any queries or concerns, you are always welcome to reach us at thesufihubteam@gmail.com.
Wassalam.
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