Visit the graves of Saints, there is benefit in it

Summary of Maulana Shaykh Nazim’s daily Suhbahs

24th April 2010, Saturday

Visit the graves of Saints, there is benefit in it

A’uzubillah himinash shaitan nirrajeem

Bismillah-hir Rahman-nir Raheem

Assalamu’alaikum wrh wbkt

• Mawlana said that as weak servants, we must ask for heavenly support to grant our prayers and needs. The holy power that Allah grants to each living creature on this planet, comes through Bismillah-hir Rahman-nir Raheem, and as such every guide must teach his followers about the honor of Bismillah-hir Rahman-nir Raheem, for there is no limit to the honor contained within Bismillah-hir Rahman-nir Raheem. Every request for heavenly support, you will find that power within Bismillah-hir Rahman-nir Raheem. Every action that you seek to complete will be perfected by the recitation of�Bismillah-hir Rahman-nir Raheem.

• Without Bismillah-hir Rahman-nir Raheem, your actions will be handicapped, imperfect and without Divine support – just like a plant without roots. Any plant without a root system, can survive for only a few days but it will die fairly quickly. The Prophet (saw) said that anyone not saying Bismillah-hir Rahman-nir Raheem�for any action, is like one planting a tree with no roots – it cannot grow to achieve its aim. All goodness that you hope to achieve, and all heavenly honor that you strive for, all heavenly power and support that you seek – is found within Bismillah-hir Rahman-nir Raheem.

• A bus that has run out of petrol needs people to push it, if it is to move. With petrol, it can move with ease and strength, even carrying people and goods, but once it is devoid of petrol, it can no longer move. The bus runs only as long as there is petrol in the tank. Mawlana then linked this concept that we all already know, with the next point.

• Mawlana told a story of a simple desert Arab Bedouin, who had travelled with his camel. At night, he and his camel stopped to sleep. When he awoke the next morning, he was surprised to see his camel no longer breathing. He called out to his camel, “What has happened to you? Just yesterday, you could run like the wind! But now, you lie here, unable to move, see and hear!”� Mawlana said that in such parables are lessons and wisdom for those who think.

• Another Bedouin reached that place, and saw the first Bedouin crying, shouting and speaking to the dead camel. He approached and asked, “Why are you crying?” The first Bedouin replied, “I don’t understand it, just yesterday he was in perfect health, but why is he like this today?” The second Bedouin said, “My brother, your camel has passed away.” The first Bedouin, a simple man, reacted with shock and surprise. “Where has it gone? Perhaps I may chase it and catch it to bring it back.”� The second Bedouin then said, “What has been taken from your camel, is not something that can be touched, seen or heard; it is a secret heavenly power that is granted by Allah to His living creatures.”

• Oh people, you are chasing Earthly riches, day and night. You are collecting money, gold and precious stones – piling up heaps of wealth – yet one day, you will fall down and die. You are living here as a gift of Allah (not of your own will), you are able to see, hear and move (up to the end of your life), as His gift to you – yet you do as you will, and not as He commands!

• Oh people, taking healthy food, supplements and exercising cannot lengthen your life. You will die at the appointed time – not a moment earlier or later – even if you are taking all the best medicine on Earth.

• You must realize that there are two types of powers within yourselves – an Earthly power (for your physical body’s strength) and a heavenly power (for your soul’s spiritual strength). Your entire physical ability comes from the heavenly power bestowed upon you. Your body will have no energy if your spirit is weak. Look at a dead body – once the spiritual power is removed, the body cannot move at all! Since heavenly power is a heavenly gift, Man is in need of Divine help, for every action he wishes to perform (hence Mawlana’s emphasis on Bismillah-hir Rahman-nir Raheem�at the beginning of the Suhbah). You are in need of spiritual strength from heavenly power all your lives, for every second of your existence, right up to your last breath! So never depend on your worldly, physical or material gifts and prowess. Depend only upon spiritual power and support, from the heavens, till your final breath on Earth.

• Every holy word that you recite provides strength for you to attain what you seek. Without spiritual strength, you are just a corpse; your body cannot perform any act without spiritual help from the Divine. So recite BBismillah-hir Rahman-nir Raheem, it contains endless Power Oceans within it.

• Mawlana then moved onto the matter of deviant and breakaway sects within Islam. It is not his intention to run them down, instead he is trying to reason with them, to invite them back into the main fold, for their own benefit. Mawlana asked teachers within such groups, a question he has asked them earlier (see suhbah on 22/04/10), as to where they were leading their followers? Were they claiming to bring a new Shari’ah to Islam? Why were they stubbornly insisting on their way or ideology and beliefs being right, when the evidence against them was so convincing? No one who listens to his conscience will ever follow deviant sects.

• Mawlana quoted this oft-mentioned Ayah from the Qur’an, “Be with the�Sadiqeen�(the true ones).”� (See suhbah on 27/03/10). It is a Divine Command that we seek out such ones, and be with them – to study from them and to follow them. Every sect member must ask himself, “Which of the Sadiqeen�am I following?”� You must ensure that you are studying from and being guided by one of the Sadiqeen.

• Mawlana quoted an example of a sect that brought a deviant Shari’ah, claiming to correct a long-standing error in the Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jama’ah’s understanding – a sect that desecrated and destroyed the graves at Makkah Al-Mukarramah (i.e. the Ma’ala graveyard) and Madinah Al-Munawwarah (i.e. the Baqi’ graveyard). What was the benefit, gain and honor to the Muslim Nation, by doing such a thing?

• The Prophet (saw) had said, “Remember death, and remember those who have died.”� That will remind you of death and life after death. In another Hadeeth, when the Prophet (saw) was asked by the Companions on how one may recognize a Wali (Saint) of Allah, Rasululla�h (saw) replied, “When you look at a real Saint who is beloved in the Divine presence, the sign is that – your hair will stand on end and you will suddenly remember the Lord of the Heavens, and your heart will tremble in awe of Him.”� That is the sign of Sainthood.

• That is why the Prophet (saw) said, “Visit the graves of the believers.”� When we visit the graves of Saints, we will remember Allah, and our hearts will tremble in awe! But when a visitor visits the graves in Ma’ala and Baqi’ today, does he feel like he is standing in a cemetery? No! It feels like he is standing in a sandy desert plain. Does it remind you of death? No! Both these graveyards today look like empty desert plains upon which plowing and planting of crops may be done – no one remembers death there!

• If you could just stand before the actual grave of Sayyidatina� Khadijah Al-Kubra, you will tremble with awe from her spirituality that descends upon you, you will remember the days when she walked the Earth with our Holy Prophet (saw), and you will remember death! You will remember that they once roamed the Earth, but were now buried under it, and our turn will follow soon. It is a reminder that the Lord of Heavens created everything.

• It is inconceivable why the graves were destroyed. The fanatics and extremists who did so said that it was an abomination, an evil thing that these graves existed. Mawlana said that the graves had existed for thousands of years prior to their destruction (recently in 1925). Why is it that the pious Muslims who lived from the time of the Prophet (saw) till then, never found these graves a sinful act of defiance to Allah? No one touched these graves, they were respected and left intact for all these years, till the coming of these shallow-minded extremists and ill-taught fanatics destroyed one of Islam’s most precious heritages – the tombs of millions of Saints, whom we could have visited and remembered Death in all earnestness, as forgetting Death is disease of our generation (see Suhbah dated 23/04/10).

• Mawlana called out to all such deviants, to come to their senses, to stop their obstinate rebellion, and to accept the truth and to repent. If not, they are in danger of Allah’s retribution/revenge upon them.

• Preachers must teach Muslims the true aqidah�(tenets of faith and belief). Mawlana prayed for forgiveness for all, and he prayed for followers who had been cheated by deviant guides, to be given guidance to return to the right path.

• Mawlana concluded by reciting some rhythmic dhikr and said that those who died as true ones would be able to hear the music and singing from the angelic realms as they were moved from this Earthly realm to their eternal life in��Akhirah.

Fatihah.