THE SHAYKH (SPIRITUAL GUIDE) AND MURID (DISCIPLE)
in the Naqshbandi Tariqah-The Way of Awliya Allah (Friends of Allah).
Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem.
Allahumma Swalli Ala Sayyidina Muhammadin Wa Ala Aali Sayyidina Muhammadin Wa Sallim.
Our way is through association and goodness is in the gatherings. Grand Sheikh use to say this always, our way… He took these words from Shah Naqshband Our way is through association & goodness is in the gatherings. Our way works through association. Once you do Sohbat – you throw the seeds, for example, if you do not water them & the mercy does not rain on them, the seeds rot & disappear.
Our way, the origin of our way to move & to work is through association. Keep this always…on your mouth.
“Religion is advice” (Hadith) The Grand Sheikhs took from that ocean. Our religion is based on advice, it is an ocean. There are no limits for that ocean. Sheikh Effendi took from that ocean.
Our way is through association, it came from that ocean. Our way does not work without association. Meaning a person on his own reciting awrad, he will never reach anywhere. For training the murids & to prepare them and to present them in The Divine Presence and to dress them with their station is through Sohbat. “Religion is advice.” (Hadith) What is advice? It is to ask somebody’s goodness & benefit. Advice… All the Prophets (as) came down with an advice. All of them were advising. Those who were accepting the advice they accepted, those who did not were rolling down to hell.
What keeps religion on its feet, is advice. That is why when two believers meet, they must give an association in the period of milking two goats. Believers when they meet they must speak. Leave empty talking. You can speak something but at least within it, there must be some advice in it.
To put an advice within the words. Advice.. it gives our words some power. It gives some sweetness to our faith. It gives some power & some strength, therefore “religion is advice.” (Hadith) And our way is through association, from there Shah Naqshband took these words. Our way is the way of association; through giving talk & listening. Who knows how, speaks… And the others must listen.
To give & take. The Sheikh gives & the mureeds take. If not, if there is no Sheikh, there are no mureeds. The mureed does not know anything. The one who reaches the mureeds, is the Sheikh. How to reach them is through association. This is not through the stick. It is not by beating, by stick, but association with the guide is a thousand times more powerful than the stick. Sultan Al Awliya’ used to say like this. Sheikh Abdullah Al Daghestani, our Sheikh, our Master, and the Grand Sheikhs, he is the last link of the Golden Chain of the Naqshibandi Sufi Order. He is the seal of the chain.
FROM TIMBER TO BE THE THRONE OF THE MESSENGER OF ALLAH (PEACE AND BLESSINGS OF ALLAH BE UPON HIM)

SEEKER IS LIKE A TIMBER:
Who does not get his seal can never be a Sheikh and cannot be even a mureed, and will not understand anything to speak. Becoming logs of wood. If the wood does not go through the hands of the carpenter it remains a log. The only benefit is in the fireplace. But if it goes through the hands of the carpenter then it is dressed with character. The wood first is taken from the tree & cut into timber. The timber according to the imagination & drawings of carpenter becomes various forms. They call him a carpenter. There are 2 kinds of carpenters. The first makes furniture the other one prepares timber, maybe windows & doors. That one cannot do the work of the carpenter for furniture. And the other one does not interfere in the work of the one who prepares timber.
It is like this. A person/Insan needs carving, otherwise he is like wild wood, if it sits 100 years it remains timber. But once it reaches the hands of the master carpenter that timber is transformed into many kinds of furniture. How many household furniture and even outdoors the carpenter can turn the wood into. But first it goes in the hands of the Master carpenter. Otherwise it sits 40 years as it is. Advice shapens the timber & the wood of our ego and the carpenter used to hold it & look if it is straight or not in the old times. The carpenter, then later if it is not straight he takes the file and smoothes it till it is straight and smooth. It needs a Master carpenter, the furniture.
From timber you can make so many things, and the timber comes from the trees. The trees, you can take the timber from it & that timber in the hands of the Master carpenter becomes something and gives some use to mankind at the same time; they like it & ornament it and take pride in it. And that hand craft continues & develops. He becomes a master of this handcraft…
And continues to carve & to file the mureeds & he looks. He looks like this, like that… till he is straight & soft. That is why Allah Almighty said “Fastaqim Kama Umirta” (Be straight as you are commanded, 11:112). Prophet (saws) said “Surat Hud turned me gray.” “Surat Hud turned me gray.” Why? The majesty & glory of that Holy Verse turned the blessed beard of the Prophet (saws) into grey. Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! O our Lord You know best. O our Lord You know best! Two people they may sit, greet each other and give some benefit to their beings. It gives benefit to both sides, no empty talking.
No empty work & no nonsense in Islam. In Islam the Tariqa has all the control & arrangement of everything that happens between the saints, the Sheikhs, and those who are following them from among the dervishes & mureeds. To be on the way it is in the Tariqa. Otherwise they remain like wood, timber laying down. It is just timber. They are timber.
There! What can you say… “I am laying there as timber”. “You are timber!” “And the furniture that reached the Palace of the Sultan came from me!” “O no, ask the furniture in the Palace that reached the Sultan how much treatment it went through before it reached the Palace of the Sultan. Otherwise they will carry the timber on their shoulders to the Palace of the Sultan. Ask the furniture in the Palace how much treatment it went through to be trained, to be fit for the honour of being furniture for the King. Therefore mankind is continuously in need of training.
“Wa Dhakkir” (51:55) “Wa Dhakkir Fa’inna dh-Dhikra Tanfa`u l-Mu’minina”(51:55) They say sharpen, carve…remind. Every remembrance is similar to shaping, to soften & straighten the wood. “And remind for verily, the reminding profits the believers.” (51:55) “And remind for verily, the reminding profits the believers.” (51:55) Wa Min Allahi t Tawfiq, Fatiha.
We spoke about one spot only The writing that you can take from a small ink bottle is something,the writing of a bigger ink bottle is something else. And then the big barrel can write completely something else. The writing that you can take from a sea is different than the writing that you can take from an ocean. An ocean. A writing from an ocean is completely something else. O our Lord, we thank You. O our Lord thank You.
WHERE WE ARE:
“We are on a ship and it is going to sink down, and coming from above is a hook for linking. Who is reaching there [to the link/hook] is being saved and is going up, not sinking down. Therefore, our material being one day must also sink down. Ṭūbā [good tidings / blessedness]! Never-ending good tidings are for those who are asking and reaching through that link, and that link smoothly, smoothly taking him up, leaving physical being to sink, but sending our souls up.
Give daily for your Lord a most honored servant-hood. It is not important to collect the treasures of this world, or to reach highest degrees for this life’s honor. When your ship sinks down, honor of this world will finish. It will only be written on a stone, ‘That was majestic king, a majestic queen, His Highness, His Excellence, President (so-and-so), most high pope, chief, rabbi’. Only that stone and nothing else will be with you.”
– Sultan ul Awliyah Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (Alayhi Rahma), Cyprus,Lefke.
~~~Excerpts from the discourses of Sultanul Awliya Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil Al Haqqani An=Naqshbandi Al-Hassani Ar-Rabbani Q.S), Grand Shaykh of the Osmani Naqshbandi Tariqah (Tariqati-Naqshbandiyyathil Aliyya)
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NOTES BY JOUHAR ALI NAQSHBANDI AL-HASSANI
TO FOLLOW THE IMAMS AND SHAYKHS OF THE SIILSILA (CHAIN/ISNAD)
Allah says in Quran: Sura Nisa (4:59): O you who have believed, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you. And if you disagree over anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger, if you should believe in Allah and the Last Day. That is the best [way] and best in result.
FOLLOWING THE EGO (MAKING TAQLEED OF THE SELF) LEAD A PERSON TO ASTRAY:
Quran 25:43 Have you seen the one whose god is his own ego? Will you be his advocate?
Quran 45:23 Have you noted the one whose god is his ego? Consequently, God sends him astray, despite his knowledge, seals his hearing and his mind, and places a veil on his eyes. Who then can guide him, after such a decision by God? Would you not take heed?
36:21 Follow those who ask of you no fee, and who are rightly guided.
WHO ARE THEY?, THEY ARE THOSE UPON WHOM CHARITY (ZAKAT) IS FORBIDDEN:
They ask of you no fee (36:21) by Allah’s Command, not by their own desires.
Yazid b. Hayyan reported, I went along with Husain b. Sabra and ‘Umar b. Muslim to Zaid b. Arqam and, as we sat by his side, Husain said to him: Zaid. you have been able to acquire a great virtue that you saw Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) listened to his talk, fought by his side in (different) battles,offered prayer behind me. Zaid, you have in fact earned a great virtue. Zaid, narrate to us what you heard from Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him). He said: I have grown old and have almost spent my age and I have forgotten some of the things which I remembered in connection with Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him), so accept whatever I narrate to you, and which I do not narrate do not compel me to do that. He then said: One day Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) stood up to deliver sermon at a watering place known as Khumm situated between Mecca and Medina. He praised Allah, extolled Him and delivered the sermon and. exhorted (us) and said: Now to our purpose. O people, I am a human being. I am about to receive a messenger (the angel of death) from my Lord and I, in response to Allah’s call, (would bid good-bye to you), but I am leaving among you two weighty things: the one being the Book of Allah in which there is right guidance and light, so hold fast to the Book of Allah and adhere to it. He exhorted (us) (to hold fast) to the Book of Allah and then said: The second are the members of my household I remind you (ofyour duties) to the members of my family. He (Husain) said to Zaid: Who are the members of his household? aren’t his wives the members of his family? Thereupon he said: His wives are the members ofhis family (but here) the members of his family are those for whom acceptance of Zakat is forbidden. And he said: Who are they? Thereupon he said: ‘Ali and the offspring of ‘Ali, ‘Aqil and the offspring of ‘Aqil and the offspring of Ja’far and the offspring of ‘Abbas. Husain said: These are those for whom the acceptance ofZakat is forbidden. Zaid said: Yes. (Sahih Muslim,Book 031, Hadith 5920)
Hadith jami at-Tirmidi ,Darussalam Publications (Salafi publications)
Hadith Number 3788: The Messenger of Allah (alaihiswalathu wa salam) said: “Indeed, I am leaving among you, that which if you hold fast to them, you shall not be misguided after me, one of them is greater than the other:The Book of Allah is a rope extended from the sky to the earth, and my family -the people of my house-and they shall not split until they meet me at Hawd, so look at how you deal with them after me” (Sahih)
And anyone authorized by them:
On the authority of Tameem ibn Aus ad-Daree (ra): The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “The deen (religion) is naseehah (advice, sincerity).” We said, “To whom?” He (ﷺ) said, “To Allah, His Book, His Messenger, and to the leaders of the Muslims and their common folk.” [Sahih Muslim/40 Hadith Imam Nawawi]
Wa salamun alal Mursaleen walhamdulillahi Rabbil Aalameen
