The Art of War – Know your Enemy: 17th October 2010

Summary of Maulana Shaykh Nazim’s Daily Suhbah

17^th October 2010, Sunday

The Art of War – Know your Enemy

A’uzubillah himinsh shaitan nirrajeem

Bismillahir Rahman-nir Raheem

Assalamu’alaikum wrh wbkt

• Maulana says, despite our weakness, our sole intention in life must be to destroy batil, falsehood. We must plant that intention in our hearts, that we are going to dedicate our lives to uphold truth and justice, and to destroy the evil teachings and the destructive lifestyle brought by shaitan. We must not feel rested, until there exists none on earth who are walking on falsehood; we must have the intention to oppose the evil teachings of shaitan, even if there be just one man left on earth representing and propagating it!

• You must know your life’s mission and you must fulfill it. If you say that you are a Scholar, then well and good, but what is the aim of being a Scholar? If you are a Muhaddith who has memorized thousands of hadees of Rasulullah (saw), again, that is very admirable, but what are you aiming to achieve with that knowledge? Or you may be a Hafeez Quran, one who has committed the Holy Book to memory, Alhamdulillah, but you must have an aim too. Just being known as a Scholar, or a Muhaddith, or a Hafeez Quran is not an aim; it is the means to achieve something, and you must be crystal-clear about that aim. Your intention must be made clear, so that you can keep your eyes focused on it, without being distracted. So many people have never thought about this point deeply.

• Islam is the religion of truth, deenul Haq. Why did Allah send us Prophets? Those who are teaching Islam today, must know why. Why did Allah send Moses (as) with the Torah? What was Moses’ (as) mission? He has been sent to Pharoah, as Pharoah represented the devil, he was preaching evil/falsehood/batil by making his citizens worship him. Hence Allah dispatched Moses (as) to Pharoah, following which the shaitanic flags of falsehood carried by Pharoah, were trampled upon, and the flags of Truth were raised high again. That was Moses’ (as) mission – to remove the wrong ways, and to remove the representatives of shaitan.

• Allah had sent many Prophets against the many ‘Pharoahs’ that emerged from time to time. Each time falsehood reared its ugly head, Allah sent one of His chosen ones to crush that evil teaching, and to remove shaitan’s representatives (also called ‘Phaorahs’) who were propagating such falsehood.

• Are today’s Jews following the ways of Moses (as)? Is the establishment of a State in Palestine the ultimate reason for their existence? Once they have achieved that, have they fulfilled the Divine mission that they were sent on, just as Moses (as) completed his Divine mission before returning to his Lord? Is the re-building of the Temple of Solomon, the most important mission faced by Jews today? Was that the call that Moses (as) brought from the Torah to them? No! So why are they focusing all their energy and efforts, just to establish a state and to rebuild the Temple? They must think deep and hard, if that is why Allah placed them on earth, if that is the real purpose of their brief earthly-existence. They must live to fulfill the Divine aim, not their ego’s petty and meaningless aims. Establishing a state and building a temple, will not bring them lasting happiness in this world, and it will not bring them salvation in the hereafter.

• So everyone must know his real aim in life! The Jews must look deep into the Old Testament, and examine closely, why Allah called Prophet Moses (as) to come to Mount Tursina repeatedly. Allah said, “Come, oh Moses, listen and obey.” Maulana said that the Jews are a very honoured race in the sight of Allah, so they must make an effort to understand why that honour was bestowed upon them. Their honour does not reside in building a state, and erecting a Temple – that is not what is taught to them in their Holy Torah as their means to attain honour. Judaism did not bring the message that the Jews must go to the Holy Land and build a temple! If that was the message, Moses would have gone there, and done that; but He did not! Moses was sent to Pharoah instead. Allah commanded, “Go to Pharoah, and teach him, the real position, personality and mission of My servants.”

• Muslim Scholars are also to blame, they have been misled into spending all their time, energy, and efforts, to strive for Palestine. It is not the aim of any religion, to push its followers into conflict over land or buildings. Muslims have lost their aim, and are now fighting for what is not asked of them, in this life! Muslim Wahhabi fundamentalists preach a dogma of hatred, they are themselves misled, and they are misleading the believers to leave the right way (which is to fulfill their actual Divine mission), and to go astray (to spend time in conflict with fellow humans).

• Maulana says it is a crying shame, as, by misunderstanding their life’s mission, so much suffering that could have been avoided in the Middle East, had occurred. So many lives lost, so many livelihoods destroyed, so much suffering and pain, all in futility! Both sides suffered so much, they live this worldly life with fear, hatred and revenge, and they will finally die and return to Allah, having not fulfilled their earthly missions (having never understood them while they were alive), and they return to more disappointment and despair. Such a pity, says Maulana, they all have their Holy Books, and they have not understood their aim of life, from their respective books. No Holy Book has ever taught their followers to strive for land, buildings or to seek conflict. That is not the aim of religion.

• It is a pity, that Muslims are also equally ignorant about the mission of Sayyidina Muhammad (saw) in his life. Some Muslims have dedicated their lives to expanding the compounds of the Haramain (the two Holy Mosques, Mesjidil Haram and Mesjidil Nabawi). Is that the reason we have been sent? Maulana showed a drawing, depicting the Holy Ka’aba, surrounded by desert, with no buildings in sight. The Ka’aba was clearly visible, Zam2 water would have been easily accessible and it would have been easy for all pilgrims to perform their Umrah and Haj. Unlike today, they didn’t have to pay money to travel agents, acquire visas, or prepare passports. No one questioned them as to what they were doing, and they all knew how to behave there, they showed immense respect as it was the House of the Lord.

• Maulana says that, it is an excuse to say that times have changed, so all the construction done to the Holy Mosques are justified. Does the Lord of Heavens need our help to tend to His guests in His House? Allah is the All-Powerful Lord, if He intends for all of Mankind to fit into a tiny room, He will do it, He needs no help from us. How is the condition of your faith if you believe that Allah needs our help to tend to His Guests? Year in and year out, the Holy Mosques are expanded and widened more and more! MasyaAllah, how the beliefs of some Muslims towards Allah, have been corrupted.

• Maulana called out to all Muslim, Christian and Jewish brothers! He said, we have all lost our ways, we have all forgotten our missions, we have fallen into shaitan’s traps, and our lives in this world have become Jahannam (Hell). Maulana spells out the mission of every Prophet for all to understand clearly: Allah sent all Prophets, against shaitan! All humans are to seek out shaitanic beliefs and ideas – and destroy them! There has never been any Holy Command, for us to fight one another! What are we doing to ourselves today? Why have believers left the Siratal Mustaqeem?

• We are now back in the era of Jahiliyyah, ignorance, after being in the era of Knowledge before this. The Prophet (saw) was sent to guide Mankind out of ignorance.

قَرۡنَ فِى بُيُوتِكُنَّ وَلَا تَبَرَّجۡنَ تَبَرُّجَ ٱلۡجَـٰهِلِيَّةِ ٱلۡأُولَىٰۖ

And stay in your houses. Display not yourselves with the display of the (first) Time of Ignorance (Quran 33:33)

• Since it was mentioned that there was a first Age of Ignorance, surely there would be a second period of ignorance, and we are smack in the middle of it now. It is the age where Man will discard the honoured dress of Islam, and strut in the nakedness of ignorance all over again. Oh believers, you must learn, don’t be too proud to learn, for Hell is filled with proud people. Seek knowledge, and fight shaitan!

Fatihah.

An aerial view of Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, in Palestine.

Commentary

• We are asked to put aside our respective agendas and focus on the main agenda. So many religious leaders from the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) have led their followers down a path of inflamed passions, fighting over petty and unimportant matters. Shaitan likes to dramatize trivial matters, as that creates conflict and tension, and once Man’s ego is aroused, he will fight to the death (literally) over trivial and completely irrelevant matters. When Man’s anger has been awakened or his emotions have been stirred, he becomes completely distracted from his real mission, and he focuses on fighting his fellow Man, whom he now views as his adversary, instead of uniting to eliminate shaitan (and his cursed teachings), who is the real enemy of all Mankind – shaitan is Man’s sworn enemy!

• The main aim of religion is to destroy and prohibit evil. Shaitan wishes to distract us from our main aim, by creating dissension and division between different group of people. Such friction directs people’s aims away from opposing shaitanic ideas, and pits them against each other. So not only do we stop battling shaitan, we start to hate and plot against each other; we back-bite, slander, accuse one another falsely, and if this goes on unabated, it leads to deep divisions that may lead to war, murder and destruction – ironically, it leads to the very situations that we should have been trying to prevent, by battling the evil whisperings of shaitan.

• Oh Muslims, Christians and Jews, your Prophets and Holy Books did not teach you to fight over a plot of land or a building. There is no honour in that. Conquering a small strip of land or demolishing someone else’s place of worship to build yours, is not the aim of the teachings that you have each inherited from your Prophet and your Holy Books. Heavenly teachings are not one that will teach Man to shed blood over trivial worldly matters; heavenly teachings are not shallow! They are to show you a way to fight against the spread of evil teachings within your heart, within your family, within your community and within Mankind.

• Knowledge is a light, that takes away the darkness of ignorance. Man is surrounded by the tricks and traps of shaitan, both the obvious and the subtle. A person stuck in a dark room, with broken glass on the floor around him, will not be able to see any of these dangerous shards. If he is given light, he can identify where the danger lies, and he can, not only avoid it, he can also remove it to prevent others from endangering themselves. That is why the Prophet (saw) said, “To remove broken glass from a public place is also an act of faith.” Hence, the pursuit of knowledge (light) will help us identify the falsehood (broken glass), and we must nip it in the bud and prevent it from spreading, by acting against it. The Prophet (saw) mentioned the three levels of faith of one who sees an evil act – to stop it with his hand, his tongue, or to hate it in his heart. For example, if we know of a dog that chases us each time we pass by a certain bend, we would certainly want to inform our friends and relatives to beware – that is why Allah says, remind each other, for there is benefit in it.

• If each human being is seeking light to identify the broken shards of glass and removing them, everyone would be safe from the deadly danger. We would be united against a common enemy – shaitan. Its us versus shaitan. But shaitan keeps us busy fighting each other, so we remain in darkness, stumbling on the piercing glass shards, suffering in intense pain as each glass splinter pierces us, while we fight each other in ignorance. Don’t fight each other – that teaching (to fight one another) is from shaitan. Instead, fight shaitan – that teaching is from your Lord!

قَرۡنَ فِى بُيُوتِكُنَّ وَلَا تَبَرَّجۡنَ تَبَرُّجَ ٱلۡجَـٰهِلِيَّةِ ٱلۡأُولَىٰۖ

For he (shaitan) is to you an avowed enemy. (Quran 2:208)

• Nine times in the Holy Quran, Allah refers to shaitan as aduwun mubeen, the avowed enemy. We have forgotten, who our enemy is. But our enemy has never forgotten, who his enemy is.

• The period of ignorance, was symbolised by nakedness, both physical and spiritual nakedness. When guidance reached the Companions through Rasulullah (saw), the women covered themselves and kept themselves chaste, symbolising the dressings of honour Muslim Ummah was dressed in by Allah, for they had left shaitan’s ways. But as we move towards the second period of ignorance today, nakedness has returned, as foretold by Rasulullah (saw) in a hadees, “One of the Signs of Qiyamat, is that women would wear clothes, but would still be naked.” True enough, ladies’ fashion is no longer about modesty and covering their beauty, it is about dressing to flaunt their assets, and show their beauty, just like in the times of ignorance. Sayyidina Adam’s (as) clothing of honour was removed when he sinned, and the Muslims of today have also lost their dressings of honour, because they are no longer following the aim that the Prophet (saw) laid down for them: to fight falsehood, shaitan and his representatives! Man has taken shaitan as a friend, whereas shaitan has always regarded Man as his enemy. Instead of fighting shaitan, we have befriended him and followed his advice (just like Sayyidina Adam did). Have we not learnt from what happened to Sayyidna Adam (as)? Oh believers! Fight shaitan and the falsehood that he brings.

يَـٰبَنِىٓ ءَادَمَ لَا يَفۡتِنَنَّڪُمُ ٱلشَّيۡطَـٰنُ كَمَآ أَخۡرَجَ أَبَوَيۡكُم مِّنَ ٱلۡجَنَّةِ يَنزِعُ عَنۡہُمَا لِبَاسَہُمَا لِيُرِيَهُمَا سَوۡءَٲتِہِمَآ‌ۗ إِنَّهُ ۥ يَرَٮٰكُمۡ هُوَ وَقَبِيلُهُ ۥ مِنۡ حَيۡثُ لَا تَرَوۡنَہُمۡ‌ۗ إِنَّا جَعَلۡنَا ٱلشَّيَـٰطِينَ أَوۡلِيَآءَ لِلَّذِينَ لَا يُؤۡمِنُونَ

O Children of Adam! Let not Shaitân deceive you, as he got your parents [Adam and Hawwa (Eve)] out of Paradise, stripping them of their clothing, to show them their private parts. Verily, he and Qabîluhu (his soldiers from the jinn or his tribe) see you from where you cannot see them. Verily, We made the Shayâtin (devils) protectors and helpers for those who believe not. (Quran 7:27)

If you would like to listen to the actual Suhbah by Maulana Shaykh Nazim when it was recorded, please click here. Once at the site, please click on the Sohbat 17 Oct 2010.

Maulana Shaykh Nazim teaches daily, at 1720 hours GMT, please go to www.Saltanat.org to attend these illuminating lessons. There are no charges to attend these lessons, they are completely free-of-charge. These transcripts and Study materials are found at the Singapore Naqshbandi portal, recent.sufihub.com, these are also completely free-of-charge.