Summary of Maulana Shaykh Nazim’s Daily Suhbah

2nd March 2010, Tuesday

The Key to unlock the Powers of your Soul

A’uzubillah himinsh shaitan nirrajeem

Bismillahir Rahman-nir Raheem

Assalamu’alaikum wrh wbkt

• Maulana says that we are living in a world of possibilities, a world where everything occurs for a reason and because of a reason, an asbab. That is a characteristic of this worldly life, and it is completely different from the characteristics of the heavenly realms.

• In life, what Allah places before us, are choices. We have to make the right choice in order to benefit. Maulana says that it is like a huge table filled with all kinds of food, and we are free to pick and choose, which ones we want to eat.

• On one side of the table, there is heavenly food, food for the soul, every single nourishment that is needed by our spiritual selves, is found there, nothing is missing. Prophets and True Guides (Saints) beckon and welcome us to this side of the table, so that we may partake of its goodness. However, many reject the heavenly invitations by these guided ones, as the journey to that side of the table, is difficult and arduous, there are many terms and conditions to be met before we can get the food. Maulana reminds us that, if we wish to achieve goodness, we must be prepared to take the difficult route (doing good deeds, rejecting evil, cleansing the heart, denying the ego etc), as it leads us to this heavenly refreshment.

• The other side of the table is filled with fast-food, or take-away instant food, and shaitan calls to this side of the table. The journey to this side is quick and easy, so it is favoured by almost all humans. We all know that fast-food and instant food have low nutritional value and have many harmful additives – so this type of spiritual food that shaitan calls us to, is devoid of heavenly blessings or barokah. Humans are lazy, they want instant results, they want quick gratification, they want the maximum pleasure, from the minimum of effort. They say, “Why go through long spiritual training to cleanse the heart? Why not just read a book of Sufism and become a master overnight! Immediate spiritual elevation!”

• How did Man become so lazy? From the modern technology around us! Technology has made us lazy creatures, we press buttons to execute our commands – from the tv remote, to the flying of an aeroplane. Some may argue, that technology is a great blessing for Mankind. For example, this Suhbah takes just seconds to be transmitted around the globe; it would have taken so much longer the traditional way, without the internet. So why does Maulana say that technology is a tool of shaitan?

• It is because Man has become so dependent on technology, that he has lost faith in spirituality. Maulana says to look at the Companions. They had no technology, yet, because of their high spirituality, they could perform feats in space and time, that far exceed today’s gadgets. They could see the Preserved tablet and execute what was written there. Can we see? No, because we are blind, Maulana says. Does Man possess any technology today that can see the Tablet? Again, the answer is no. So, a human being’s spiritual powers are far greater than any technology today, Maulana says it is a hundred times greater!

• The Prophet (saw) performed the Mikraj, without the help of a rocket or a space shuttle. How did he do it? In fact, Maulana says, if indeed the Prophet had depended on worldly/earthly help to fly there (i.e. in a rocket), he would have taken billions of years to reach the seven heavens. Yet Rasulullah (saw) reached in the blink of an eye. Look at how vastly superior our spiritual power is over any so-called ‘modern’ invention.

• Technology can makes things easy for our physical bodies, but it cannot raise the spirituality of the soul. Look at a dead man, can technology revive him from death? No, so it is clear that Man must develop his spiritual being, in order to rise to the Divine presence. Maulana says that you cannot even rise one foot off the ground, with all the technology on earth, so leave the shaitanic side of the table, and choose to follow the heavenly guides to the spiritual food on their side of the table. If you go to the shaitanic side, you will be one who has no faith in spiritual powers, you depend completely on worldly technology, you are reduced to a person whose identity and personality has been clouded by laziness and weakness. Look at how many couch potatoes just sit watching tv and playing games, snacking and idling precious time away, oblivious to the purpose of their existence. Is that honour, Maulana asks?

• Man is a special being, he carries Allah’s secret, he has one foot on earth and one foot in the heavens, he is both a physical creature needing worldly nourishment and endowed with earthly strengths yet he is also a spiritual being, needing spiritual nourishment and gifted with spiritual powers in his soul, the magnitude of which far exceeds his physical strengths. Everyone of us has that incredible spiritual power, each according to his Station.

• Oh Believers, you are always being invited to the table laden with spiritual food, you are never cut off from it, and daily, your Lord Almighty adds new food to that table, more invigorating and refreshing than previously. The Saints invite us to have faith in the spiritual powers of our souls, and they are never heedless of our needs, they know exactly what to feed us, how much to feed us and when to do so. The Saint assigned to us on the Day of Promises, holds our spiritual key, he will take us from level to level, so that our understanding is developed until we discover the secrets within ourselves.

• Maulana related a beautiful story that he had heard from Grand Shaykh, of a great Saint, Ahmad Al-Badawi, who was able to hear the Divine Speech. He said, “Oh Allah, I would like to look at You, I hear Your sweet speech, please let me see You,” and Allah said to him, “Prepare yourself, and come!” Ahmad was then approached by a humble, unknown person, who said to him, “Ahmad, you are asking for heavenly stations, I hold your spiritual key, come and take it from me,” to which Ahmad replied, “No, I shall not take it from you, I am not in need of your Key, I shall take my key, directly from Allah.” When Ahmad made supplication (doa) to Allah again, Allah said to him, “I had already sent the Key to you through my servant, but you rejected it, that is very bad adab.” Ahmad then went in search of the Key holder and when he found him, his Teacher took away all his knowledge, until he could not even recite the Qur’an anymore. Eventually, after much hardship, he was given his Spiritual Key. If only he had just accepted it humbly when he was first offered it!

• So follow the Saint who holds your Key, follow him to the Divine Table Spread, grow in knowledge and understanding (spiritual food), and you will be given the Key to unlock your secret spiritual powers and reality. If you follow shaitan to the other side of the table, you will deny your spirituality and become a slave to technology. Twenty-first century humans have faith in material wealth and technology, they have no faith in spirituality. Your soul’s strength and power, lies in spirituality, not in material things!

Jesus, son of Mary, said: O Allah, Lord of us! Send down for us a table spread with food from heaven, that it may be a feast for us, for the first of us and for the last of us, and a sign from Thee. Give us sustenance, for Thou art the Best of Sustainers. Allah said: Lo! I send it down for you. And whoso disbelieveth of you afterward, him surely will I punish with a punishment wherewith I have not punished any of (My) creatures. (Quran 5:114,115)

Fatihah.