sacrificing, who don’t for excuses in why they ... - Sufism · to criticize Sufism and Tassawuf and

Shaykh Ahmed Abdur Rashid August 18, 2012 www.circlegroup.org

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Knowing Your Limits: Following the Path with Patience

Is Being Receptive to Guidance

First I would like to thank Allah (swt) for the blessings that He has given us over this

past month, especially to all the people who are so self-sacrificing, who don’t look

for excuses in why they can’t do something, and who have taken this month to seek

out answers to questions, which perhaps I will speak about now. I want to thank

Allah (swt) for the opportunities that we have here (those of us who reside here,

and work here, and those who work with us in the work that we do), for the

opportunities that we have been given over these years to do good work, to feel a

sense of humility and a sense of accomplishment that we have been provided to

have.

We ask for Allah’s blessings on all of you that the rewards for your fasting – if you

are able to fast, and if for reasons that you were not able to fast – that the rewards of

our fast and the fasting of so many Muslims throughout the world would accrue to

you also because of your sincere niyyat/intention to benefit from the month, even

knowing that it is not a month about food. It is about what the fasting allows us to

do, to focus on consciousness.

I have been here at the community, and over Skype to other students (cycling over,

as I do periodically, over the decades that I have been talking) talking about our

practices, about prayer, about meditation, about some of the details about

meditation, which have a lot of profound and deep meaning to them. More and

more has been revealed to me over the years, actually, by what has been offered to

me by our shuyukh, and by this line that I am a part of. Because for so many years

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we focused on the Naqshbandi/Mujaddidi teachings and the Shadhali teachings,

mostly, I wanted to look back at some of the teachings of Gaus Shaykh ‘Abdu’l-Qadir

al-Jilani (ra), because of the unique focus and the uncompromising honesty that he

provides for a seeker – very challenging things that are brought, especially in the

world that we live in.

Many of us are expert at finding ways around things and, shall I say, diluting to our

taste, or maybe I should say sugaring to our taste. Recently in my diet, I gave up a

lot of sugar and I found that things have a taste. Those tastes are good. But as you

know we say in English, acquired taste. I had to re-acquire some taste. The

teachings are like that also. You have to re-acquire your taste for them because you

don’t realize how much you deviate, even by one half a degree over a period of time.

Just because I am Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid and not just Ahmed abdur Rashid,

doesn’t mean that the same forces don’t affect me that affect everyone else. I may

have certain capacities and knowledge and abilities to see those things, but I still

have a large responsibility to act on them.

I was talking about meditation and making some tafsir, thinking about things like, Ya

muqallib al-qulubi wal-absar, (repeats other Arabic phrases). What do these things

mean to the Sufi? What does it mean to the practitioner? These teachings of the

sayr ul suluk by Ghaus Shaykh ‘Abdu’l-Qadir al-Jilani (ra) sort of jumped out at me.

We like to take advantage of these things when they come, because learning how to

seize the moment (waqt versus zaman) in life and in practices is extremely

important. I thought I would like to talk with you some of those insights and

wisdom today, as I see how it applies to focusing our life on the inner reality, and

how specific practices can create a balance and a means of awakening to, what we

refer to as the Divine Presence.


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Certainly, we know that the Divine Presence is Allah, but Allah is the sum total of all

the Names plus more. So if we locate the Divine Presence, it tells us the relationship

of where we are, not necessarily where Allah (swt) is. We need to be focused on the

benefits of this path (or a path) and the practices. Allah (swt) says:

Know that this worldly life is no more than play and games and boasting

among you and hoarding of money and children. It is like abundant rain

that produces plants and pleases the disbelievers, but then the plants

turn into useless hay and are blown away by the wind. In the Hereafter,

there is either severe retribution or forgiveness from Allah and

approval. This worldly life is no more than a temporary illusion.

As I am talking to you, I would like you to participate mentally and spiritually. As

distracted as we can get and as fixated as one can become on form, without

meaning, form, and with practice without humility, questions remain in the minds

and the hearts of seekers of Truth, and indeed, I think of everyone. They may be

articulated in spiritual terminology by people who are seekers, but everyone has

basically many of the same questions.

We segment our lives, placing spirituality, mostly religious duties and forms in one

place in our consciousness—consequently in our intention, in our life, in our outer

actions, in our work, and in our relationships. In another mental and emotional

space, near enough that our spiritual practices and our forms touch each other – in

a sense (if you can visualize it, and I tend to be a visual person), they sort of blend at

some point and then the separate. They are near enough that they touch at times,

but for the most part, they are separate. One of the manifestations of this process

lies in the type of questions that we pose to ourselves.


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Most of us spend a lot of time with these questions: “What shall I do now?” “How

should I do it?” “What is going to happen?” “What am I supposed to do?” You know

that big ‘SUPPOSED TO’. “What can I do about such and such a situation?” “How am

I going to deal with such and such a person?” Eventually, we get to such questions

as, “What am I going to learn from the circumstance,” if we are lucky. That is to say,

for people without a path, where we are not given this guidance to ask that kind of

question. We don’t understand the verity of a question like that. We are living with

the vicissitudes of the day to day life; at the same time, we are asking these

questions, but we are not necessarily really asking them. We are not necessarily

asking with the desire to have an answer, or to have that answer be the answer. [It

is] not the answer that we want it to be. [We might then ask], what benefit am I

going to take from a circumstance or an encounter?

The framework or the infrastructure for answering these questions, in the context of

making spiritual progress, which is what we are here to discuss, or in fulfilling our

purpose in life spiritually, Islamically, is lacking transformative light that allows us

to refine and evolve into our specific role, and into our unique and potential

purpose. That is why I turned again to Shaykh ‘Abu’l-Qadir al-Jilani (ra) because he

is a no-bones-shaykh. That’s it. You get what you see and you see what you get—

like it or not like it.

Shaykh ‘Abu’l-Qadir al-Jilani, and all those who followed him in our Qadiriyya line,

were very astute ‘alims, not unlike in our Shadhili line. They were quite pious and

almost ascetic in their point of view, which, of course, set the stage for many people

to criticize Sufism and Tassawuf and ‘irfan. The answer to the questions like, “What

do I have to do?” and “What do I have to manage?” and “And how should I manage?”

and “How will I manage what I will have to do?” and “How am I going to explain this

to myself?” “What if it gets too complex?” and “What are my boundaries? and


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“Really how am I going to stay within my boundaries, even if I don’t accomplish

what I want to accomplish?” and “What sort of excuses will I give myself?” (if we

even get that profound in our questions) is really not as complex as it seems to be.

In fact it is simple and it is profound.

The answer to all those questions, my dear friends, is sabr. Not necessarily how you

normally think of sabr. Not necessarily just what you think is, “Well, just be patient.

Be patient.” Most of us translate sabr into English as patience, and we forget that it

also means perseverance. They are not the same, as you well know. Stay in your

place and (here is the kicker) don’t step beyond your limits, your own boundaries,

until an opportunity presents itself to you by Allah (swt), Who has ordered you to

stay where you are. If you don’t know your limits, and you don’t know your

boundaries, many of us had to learn the hard way. We concern ourselves about our

children. We concern ourselves about our society. We concern ourselves about our

governments. We concern ourselves about ourselves. Are our boundaries

determined by how I feel today, by my physical state? Are they bound by my

emotional or my psychological state, or how much medication I am taking or not

taking?

If you don’t understand the essential context and the purpose of life (I don’t only

mean in a secular life, but spiritually), [if we don’t have] a point of view of humility,

if you don’t have an understanding of what grace and gracefulness is (there is a

reason why gracefulness comes from grace), if we don’t understand and grasp the

dimension of gratitude, then there will never be clear and definitive answers to any

of these questions. The search for understanding for life, my life, will not be

satisfied, and a lack of clarity and a lack of sureness and even doubt will continue to

grow. We can attenuate, and even eclipse some of that doubt, by form – diving into

form. If you fill your time up with forms, you don’t have time to think through other


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things. That is not bad, because [there is] the Fadl of Allah; He has provided us with

these forms. The nai’ma is there. If our intention is good and we don’t have the

capacity, form means something very important. I don’t want to have you hear me

do this two or three times and think that the Shaykh doesn’t like forms. You saw I

pray. You saw I fast. You see that I study Qur’an. I sit in muraqabah. It is not about

form. It is how you use it, and [knowing] what it is provided for.

We appreciate something that is given to us, often gracefully and in a dignified way,

with sincere gratitude and humility, especially if that which has been given to us has

been given with love, and if it has been provided to us with sincerity. “Oh, for me?

Thank you very much. I did not expect that.” The beautiful figs I got yesterday, the

Turkish Delight, things in the form of the food, [but also] the love, the kind words,

the good news, the glad tidings that are given to us [are all things to appreciate.

There is a Shadhili dhikr (recites in Arabic). The translation is something like, “The

glad tidings are given to you my friends. I bring you glad tidings.”

(Shaykh holds up the Qur’an.) What about all the talk of hell? What about that? Are

those glad tidings? Indeed they are. The Prophet Mohamed (sal) was a warner as

well as a prophet. He was a messenger as well as a prophet. Shaykh Noorudeen

and I, this season inshā’a-Llāh, will be doing a series on the six prophets who were

messengers.

We think, “It is not necessary for you giving me this.” That attitude is the attitude

we should have towards ourselves and our limits, until Allah (swt) presents the

opportunity for us, a moment for us to move from a state of question to the state of

receptivity, from the point of not knowing but questioning, to the point of acquiring

knowledge and being assured of the verity of that knowledge that we are acquiring.

We are advised and advised and advised to persevere and to be patient. What is the


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first thing you say to someone when you hear that someone beloved to them has

died? What do you say? Be patient. Sabr. Persevere with this. You will never not

miss that person. You will never overcome the loss, but if you persevere, the

meaning of their life will become more and more clear to you. Their effect on you

will become more clear to you. Their effect on themselves will become more clear

to you. Their contribution to humanity will become more clear to you. This is

something; these are glad tidings. We all fear death, because we identify with the

body. But we all know where we are headed. If we spend our life with the eternal,

then that moment will just be a transition, a changing of clothes.

Indeed, Allah (swt) tells us that we are to vie in patience and remain steadfast and to

guard what we have and to persevere in what we know. “Seek Allah’s help with

patience and perseverance and prayer.” See, in Qur’an it separates them, even

though the root is the same. “It is indeed hard except for those who are humble.”

There is the message. I don’t have the arrogance to say that this is the best message

in Qur’an. I can just say, “There it is again.” Seek Allah’s help, mutawajjuh, turn, pay

attention to Allah. Ask for Allah’s help, but [seek] patience, perseverance, and

prayer. It is indeed hard except for those who are humble.” “O you who believe,

seek help with patience, perseverance, and prayer, for Allah is with those who

patiently persevere.” Surah al-Baqarah.

Again, in Surah al-Baqarah: “Be sure We will test you with something of fear and

hunger, some loss and goods, lives and fruits of your toil, but give glad tidings

to those who patiently persevere. Those who say, when afflicted with

calamity, ‘To Allah we belong and to Him is our return.’” Well, there, again, I was

anticipating what I was reciting, “They are those on whom descend blessings

from their Lord. They are the ones who receive guidance.” Ah, now something


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else has been added in the Qur’an within the Qur’an, Surah al-Baqarah. What was

added? That last phrase, “They are the ones who receive guidance.”

You have to be in a certain state of mind and receptivity to receive this guidance.

That is what this is all about. At the same time, as we will talk this afternoon about

the work, it has to come through you and out of you also—almost in a sense that you

make room for more. Because if you are only for getting, then you are forgetting;

you have to also be for-giving. Most religions and most paths and most teachings

are about what you are going to get. You are going to get self-realization. You are

going to attain to nirvana. You are going to come, eventually you will have fana. Of

course, no one is going to achieve baqa, and then what? Then you will be

resurrected with your Lord. You are going to be this. You are going to be that. That

is it. No, that is not it. I am sorry.

What it is, is to be patient and to persevere, to know the boundaries, to practice, to

study, to love Allah, and to offer it all back. Whatever you get from it is by His

Mercy. That is why when we sit in muraqabah, something I did not do this morning

for those of you who sat with me, we offer the rewards of that sitting to our shuyukh,

to the Prophet (sal), and to Allah – in that order. So I am sitting, [but it is] not for

me. Many, many years ago, I belonged to an organization called Self-realization

Fellowship. You may know the book by Paramahansa Yogananda. It was all about

self-realization, self-realization, self-realization. It didn’t sit right with me; hence I

was brought to the path I am on. Self-realization is not the goal; it may be the end,

but it is up to Allah (swt).

The process of refining oneself is different. It is becoming a better person, gaining

greater knowledge, knowing your capacities, dealing with them. There will always

be someone to assist you. Allah will always send assistance to you –always. If you


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are in the right place, at the right time, the right circumstances will occur. How many

times in my life, I have been able to say, “We will call so and so.” In fact, in our

work, which I will tell you about this afternoon, I have things called teams of

excellence. So if I need an engineer, like Ragid, I can call him up and say, “You know

we have this crazy project in Kyrgistan that needs your expertise. Can you give me

two weeks of your time?” He will say, “Sure, Shaykh.” I have the best expert in the

world. Not on my payroll; he will get paid for it. Do you think it is any different

spiritually?

“O you who believe, persevere in patience and constancy.” Ah, something else

has been added. In Surah Imran: “Vie in perseverance, strengthen each other

and be pious that you may prosper.” Walahi! Here we are again. Vie in

perseverance, strengthen each other (now we are talking about suhbat and how my

efforts have an effect on you and yours on me), and be pious that you may prosper.

Now, if I was giving teaching on Qur’an right now, I would say, “Okay, everyone, go

look for the word prosper in Qur’an, and see how many different ways that Allah

(swt) uses the word prosper, or any connotation of the root of the word. Now you

are going to learn what the word prosper means. It does not mean having a big

bank account and be in the upper 1% of the 1%. By the way, there is a 20%

difference in income between the 1% and the 1% of the 1%. That is the difference

between having 40 to 50 million dollars and 1 billion to 5 billion.

Again in Qur’an, “Be steadfast and patient. Verily, Allah (swt) will not suffer the

reward of the righteous to perish.” Once you have achieved anything, it is in your

savings account. You know what it really is? It is an annuity. Do all of you know

what an annuity is? An annuity is an insurance policy on you, on your earnings. If

you want to live off your annuities? It is very interesting, because past 100, you will

probably run out of your annuities. So if you pray for long life, you will probably be


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very poor at the end of your life. Be patient because your patience is with the help

of Allah. So even your striving to be patient is with the help of Allah, “Patiently,

then, persevere for the promise of Allah is true, and ask forgiveness for your

faults, and celebrate the praises of your Lord in the evening and in the

morning.” Now we have a practice to do. These are just some of the ‘āyāt of Qur’an

on this subject. This is not just being lazy, waiting for something good to happen to

you that falls from the sky, like in Restoration theatre where God descends from the

stage, and everything is made all right. In discovering that making decisions [within

your boundaries], and being able to understand that what you can achieve, what you

are capable of, within the knowing of your boundaries and the limits is a key to

personal fulfillment in the dhahir and in the batin.

It does not mean that you have the attitude that you are a limited human being. This

is the handicap of an over-psycho-analyzed society. It does not mean that you have

the attitude that you are a limited being, and that you don’t try your best to be your

best. Of course, you try your best. The journey to Allah (sayr-i-Llah ) is where one

refines their inner and outer being through honest and sincere understanding of

limitations, and actions, and aspirations toward being one’s best, not one’s least.

The beauty of it is the humility that comes from that is that you never feel other than

the least of those among you. It is very important to understand this. For a person

who is still looking for excuses not to achieve the best that they can achieve, this is

like the key as an excuse. But if you understand it, it is an inspiration.

If you walk around saying, “I’m stupid, I am ignorant. I can’t do this,” and you are

not really stupid, you are just lazy, then you have a real problem. Or [if you say,] “I

can only do that which I like, as opposed to what I need to do.” Then you are a fool,

because everyone and everything else is going to surpass you in life. I like to tell the

children sometimes, “You might think you are very cool not knowing what you are


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going to do in life. But if you don’t start thinking about that, then everyone else is

going to surpass you, and you will be a very lonely person, left behind. Once you

were at the top of the pile, and you were the most popular, and the most

knowledgeable and people praised you for your insights, then all of a sudden, where

are you? This is not just a statement about striving. This is a statement about really

understanding, if we are talking about limits, if you are talking about boundaries.

The question is [whether you should cross them or not]. You don’t cross them. If

you come near the limit, you know you are coming near a limit. Have you ever

exercised a lot and felt your body tell you that it is all it can take? Have you ever had

a discussion with someone when you realized their limit of understanding, and you

are now talking over their head and their eyes are glazed over? You can sense it,

right? The problem is that we become lazy. We don’t strive. We don’t try to do

more. We don’t really know where our boundaries are. Then there are people who

put their boundaries well before where their boundaries really are. They like to

come up against that wall, and they like to hit their head against it again and again.

They get miserable and tired, complaining and wiped out, saying, “I can’t do that.”

(By the way, ‘wiped out’ are ‘Abdu’l-Qadir al-Jilani’s words, not mine.) They can

push a little more, and they can do a little more, and they can say, “See. There is my

limit. I hit the wall. But look at me. I pushed a little more. See how great I am? I am

a great sacrifice.” But they don’t really know their limit because their limit is not

within the context of their spiritual growth. Their limit is not within the context of

these ‘āyāts that I read to you.

If you really know, then you don’t accept these excuses. People set up this straw

man. Believe it or not, the straw man is dressed up in my clothes or your clothes,

has your face or my face on it at times – even wears our rings, and our jewelry, and

may even have our hairdo. As a result of setting limitations, of saying, “Oh, I can’t


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achieve this.” Or you question, “What am I going to do?” “How am I going to do it?”

But if you really operate from your capabilities and your capacities, beginning now,

you will find that they will expand with you. The more knowledge you have, the

more capacity you develop. The more capacity you have, the more you see

capabilities in building with that capacity. When you hear about our work, this

afternoon, you will see why this is spiritual teaching is relevant in the work we do at

Legacy – building capacity around the world.

‘Abdu’l-Qadir al-Jilani (ra) said, “When you ask those kinds of questions, be patient.

Wait for a moment. Allah (swt) brings to you something for you. Seize that answer or

move to another station.” When we sit in muraqabah, people say, “What do I do,

Shaykh? You give me a niyyat. What do you do? I am thinking about it and counting.

I have five hundred of these to do. When am I going to have time to meditate?”

What did I tell you? You don’t count. You sit and you wait. Be patient. Be patient. I

tell people, “Put your tongue in your fingers.” Remember the ‘yellow pages’ ad, “Let

your fingers do the walking.” Put your tongue in your tasbih; this is where the

durūd sharīf is being done. It starts here in your heart; you say it with your tongue,

and it goes to your fingers on the tasbi. When you go into ghunoogi, you drift off,

your fingers stop moving, but the du’a keeps going. The supplication keeps going.

Be patient. Be patient. That is what ‘Abdu’l-Qadir al-Jilani (ra) is telling us.

When you observe your duty to Allah (swt), he says that He maintains you in

patience, and respects for His limits, and grants you fulfillment for what He has

promised you in His Book, namely, His words, “He who is dutiful to Allah (swt),

He prepares a way out for him and provides for him from sources which he

could never imagine.” How many of us imagine that there are sources which we

can never imagine? Pick up Scientific American. It came in the mail today. What

does it say: what is beyond space? What is beyond outer space? There are sources


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that we cannot imagine. There are sources from which the names came that Hazrat

Adam (as) gave to the malaik, but it is an endless source. This (the Quran) is

endless. The reason why this has a cover on it is because if it didn’t, the pages would

just keep growing and growing and growing.You know what I mean metaphorically?

All the growth is internal here [in the Qur’an]. It goes from here (the mushaf) to

here (the heart). The eyes see; the latā’if open and it starts to speak to you through

the trees and the birds and the fish and the air, itself, and the actions of human

beings. You are not just drawing from known sources. If you are going to take an

exam or go for a job interview, you make a du’ā. “O, Allah, help me with this. Help

me to get this job.” You are trying to draw from Allah’s resources. Isn’t that what is

happening? “O Allah. Help me to do this.” We will leave it to You, Allah, which

resources You draw from. [It may be] the money resource, the person resource.

That is what we are doing when we are making du’ā.

You say, “I don’t know if I have the resources to do this. I am going to draw from

yours.” Someone says to me, “Shaykh, please say du’ā for me. I’m not feeling well.”

And you are trying to draw from my resources. And I am drawing from His

resources. “Ya Shaykh. Pray that I overcome this disease.” Of course I want you to

overcome this disease. Of course, I do. I make du’ā. I can’t heal that disease, but I

have been placed in a position where I can ask. My asking is in a way a conduit for

your receptivity, even if just because you like me and you are receptive to me, which

takes two things you have to do: one you like me and two be receptive. But you

understand. You know your limit. You turn towards those resources.

You have a job. You come home. You are tired. You are knocked out. “How was

your day?” “I got wiped out in my job today.” Don’t you see? That’s your nafs

ammāra. Okay. So your body is tired. Go to the resource for energy. Your mind is


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tired. Go to the resource for that. You want to do a little yoga. Go do yoga. Go sit in

muraqabah. Sit down quietly. Contemplate. Read Qur’an. Read Hadith. Use the

resource for what you need, because you have reached the limit. I like to give this

example. I close my eyes and walk into this room, which I have never been in before.

Someone helps me sit down in this very comfortable chair imported from China or

Korea, and says, “Run your hand on this surface.” I run my hand on the surface and I

come to the edge. I don’t know what is beyond the edge, but I know that I have come

to a limit. I don’t know what it is, but there is something because I have come to a

boundary.

Allah tells us that He will not give us a burden we cannot carry. So how many of us

remember that when we are burdened? How many of us use that as a reason to turn

back to the Source? You might insert the word ‘opportunity’ too, if you want. It is

not just fulfilling you or me or fulfilling the opportunity or duty; we are fulfilling a

responsibility because that is what we were given. That is what we accepted. Once

I gave a dars and said that we all have accepted the amanat of Allah Swt. Someone

said, “Oh, Shaykh, I didn’t. Maybe my ancestors did, but no one asked me to be

responsible for the world, and the environment, and all that is going on in the

world.” I said, “You don’t know the story. All the souls were gathered before we

were created, and all the souls were asked, “Who will accept the burden of this

creation?” And all the souls ever to be born, ever to have life responded, “We will.”

So, sorry to tell you, that’s the story.

We know our limit, and we wait for Allah to give us something. We don’t go beyond

the boundary, because that’s when we get in trouble. You’re not safe, and you’re

not secure outside your boundaries – any of us. Because Allah Swt has not said to

you, “Now you can step out the door. The tornado has gone by,” or “Turn on the

weather repot to find out if the hurricane is coming.” If you go out during the eye of


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the storm, you may think it is all over. Those of you from Florida know you don’t do

that. If you think, “I’ll be okay, I’m fine,” then boom; it hits you again. Allah says that

when you are in a situation, you know you have boundaries. You should know that

you have limitations, so pray to Allah for sabr. Be patient, and don’t forget.

Don’t bring your limits in by your ego so you keep banging against that wall and

build that straw man. Then you get knocked out again. If you knew where the limits

were all the time, it would be easy. But you don’t. How do you find out? How do you

find out that you need to study Arabic more? You go to a teacher who will tell you

that you need to recite better, or you need to understand what this book is telling

you better, that you need to sit more, or you need to take more time for yourself, or

that you need to exercise more, or you need a better diet. We turn toward expertise.

We turn to those who know. Allah says:

He who is dutiful toward Allah, Allah prepares a way out for him, and

provides for him from sources he never could imagine.

If you are trying to provide a way out for yourself, and you are not finding that way

out, where are you going to turn? I think I’m describing 95% of what happens. Do

we really know what we are going to do in the next moment, other than what the job

tells us to do, or what we think we are supposed to do? ‘A way out’ of what? A way

out of where we are.

I play a game with the young people who come here for the summer programs. I

take a pen out of my pocket and ask, “Does anyone know what this is?” Everyone

says, “It’s a pen.” I say, “I had it made to look like a pen, but what it really is, is a

magic wand.” If I click this three times in a row, aha!—wait, I won’t click it the third

time, because I don’t want you to worry—and I touch you with it, then nothing will


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change.” At the beginning, some of them say, “Oh, that would be great!” Then I

remind them, “Are you married?” “No.” “Do you want to get married? But you never

will.” Do you have all the money you need? No? But you’ll never have any more

than you have right now. I go on like that. What does everyone decide? That they

don’t want to be touched with the magic wand, because we all want things to

change. We all want to be out of the situation we are in, not because it’s negative,

but because there is a spiritual imperative in each one of us to come closer to Allah,

to move toward Allah (sayr-i-Llah), and then to move with Allah (sayr-ma’-Llah).

What does it mean? I don’t know how to explain it; I can only tell you how to get

there.

Once you start to taste it, then the words that I use, or some other shaykh may use,

have more meaning, and it becomes a resource for your own transformation. Allah

promises that what you need will come to you in a sufficient amount. “And if

anyone puts his trust in Allah, surely Allah will be sufficient for him.” That’s

the next ‘āyat. Not only does He provide a way out for you, through resources you

never could imagine, but if you put your trust in Allah (now we are talking about

tawakkul), He will suffice you. There is an insurance policy that goes along with

that. It’s a whole life insurance policy, and that’s it. You are locked in for life, no

limit. You can even draw against it.

You stay with the patience and the trust. You stay in the suhbat of people who do

good, not people who are questionable, not bad people, not the people who try to

win you over. I will speak this week here on how do you know those people? How

do you identify who those people really are, because sometimes your preferences

get in the way? You may think, “That guy is not really that bad. I’ll be okay.” Then

Allah finishes it with, “And thus We reward those who do good.” If you are in the

company of the good, the provisions, fadl, nai’mah is coming to those people too, and


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you, in suhbat. Blessings are coming to all of those who are sitting. All of us who are

sitting here are getting blessings for just being here.

You make du’ā for one another. There are ample amounts of provisions, and what is

the reward? The reward is that way out: the next doorway, opening/fath. Your

reward in this case is now you have an answer. What shall I do? How will I manage?

How will success come? You see a’faq: beyond the horizon. The horizon is not

receding from you as you move towards it, as it does in the physical world. You are

coming off the horizon yourself, per ser a’faq. “Allah loves those who do good.”

What is that goodness? How do you get that safety? What is this root of our

islam/taslim? It is security. We have a dīn that is not named after a person, a river, a

place. It’s not named after a tribe. It’s named after a process. It’s named after an

essential element of our creation.

[Islam is] not just, as most people say, “submission,” but what comes with it: that

safety and security. Who do you know who doesn’t want to be safe and secure? Do

you know what this place was like after 9/11? For the first time in our lives, we

didn’t feel safe and secure, and I’ve been a minority within a minority within a

minority my whole life. These people who are sitting here, every night for one year,

were at the gate, all night long, taking turns. We don’t have any weapons. We have

no way of protecting ourselves, other than a walkie-talkie that would say if anyone

was coming, to be prepared. Alhamduli-Llāh. Can I say my Islam saved me? Yeah,

linguistically we can say that. Our safety and security was given to us.

What is that goodness and safety? You have to be secure. It’s the source of that

safety and security and well being in this world and the next world, in the akhirat. Is

this not the promise that we are given by the name? This is real sabr, not

constructed sabr. A person who is a Muslim, who becomes mu’min, a sincere salik


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on this path makes progress to the state where you are happy to accept and you are

content to comply with the guidance, the teachings, the words, and the examples of

the Qur’an and Rasūlu-Llāh (sal), and the noble awliya-Llāh and our shuyukh, until

one transcends the limitations of this world. So, my friends, don’t give up. Don’t

settle for less. Beware of giving up. The answer, even in English, which is not the

most subtle language in the world, is in the word “beware.” Be aware. Don’t give up.

If you give up and you become lazy or don’t strive to your limit, then you will be

disappointed in this world and in the Hereafter. Allah Swt is telling us this. We need

the blessings of both this world and the Hereafter. With that, we seek refuge in

Allah from the accursed Shaytan.

What is that accursed Shaytan? Who is that? It’s the one who is holding you back. It

may have your face. It may have your name, your passport. It may even have your

voter ID which allows you to vote, unless you are a minority. (Sorry, I get political

this time of year.) Step over that boundary, and you will find where you are. One of

the young ladies on our staff this summer who has started studying with us told me

a story. On her first trip to Indonesia, she took a taxi to a hotel. Everything was fine.

She had been traveling 30 hours. She got in the taxi, and gave the hotel address. She

wasn’t paying much attention, when the driver pulled into an alley and stopped

midway down it. Before she knew it, he got out and started getting her luggage out

of the car. She said, “Where’s the hotel?” He pointed down the alley. She said, “Why

are you not driving me there?” And he got in the taxi and drove off.

Now, at the end of the alley, under a street lamp, were 3 or 4 intoxicated men. She’s

a young girl, first time in that country, with all of her baggage, and the driver is gone.

She thought to herself, “They have already seen me. They know I’m here.” So she

picked up her bags, and walked to the end of the alley. Now we talk about the

protection and safety of Allah. This girl is not a Muslim (yet). She is not a murīda.


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She is someone who has been on a spiritual search for many years, but she doesn’t

necessarily know her qadr. Is Allah only going to protect you after you say “ash-

hadu ilāha illa-Llāh wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan Rasūlu-Llāh”? Is He only going

to protect you if you call yourself a Muslim, but you are a really believing Christian,

Jew, or person? He didn’t say, “only if…” Or are you going to evolve to higher and

higher states of identity and religious understanding, as I hope my life is an example

of? The men started to jeer at here and approach her. At that point, an old man

came out of his door and admonished those men to stop harassing her. She asked

him where the hotel was, and he pointed: right across the street. And everything

was fine.

How many chances like that do you want to take in your life? Allah Swt saved her.

Does that give everyone an excuse to go anywhere and be in any dangerous

situation? If you know who you are, and you know your journey, and sincerely what

you want, and you speak whatever language you speak to Allah, you can be assured

of the safety and the security, if it’s sincere. That’s it; that’s the message. How would

you know your limitations and boundaries unless you had some ethical and moral

background, unless you knew what was really right, and you were mature enough,

humble enough, and confident enough to know what’s right? People who don’t do

what is right and don’t do what is good are people whose egos are inflated. Or they

feel so insecure that they have to go beyond their boundaries to prove themselves.

That leads us to something that follows it, which is what we call reciprocal

maintenance or reciprocal responsibility. Allah says in the Holy Qur’an:

Hold fast to the rope of Allah all together, and do not be divided. And

remember the favor of Allah upon you. How you were enemies and He

brought your hearts together, so that through His blessing you became

brothers. And you were on the brink of an abyss of fire and He saved


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you from it. Thus does Allah make clear His signs to you that you may be

guided.” Who is He referring to? And the believing men and the believing

women are protectors of each other. They enjoin the right and forbid

the evil, and stand for salat and pay the zakat and they obey Allah and

his messenger. For these, Allah will have mercy on them. Truly Allah is

mighty and wise.

This concept of reciprocal and mutual responsibility is so important for us. It’s so

important for us in the world we live in today, and in our community here, where

there is obvious need in a positive way for an interdependency: economically,

socially, morally, ethically—notwithstanding the world financial markets today. If

the Greek government goes under, it could cause a domino effect all over Europe.

And of course, Barak Obama will be responsible for all of that. You know why he’s

responsible, don’t you? Not because he’s not intelligent, and not just because he’s a

democrat. It’s because he’s black, because racism has raised its ugly head again.

Why am I bringing that up? Who’s holding fast to the rope? Only white people? I’m

seeing a variation of colors here in this room, many shades. Who’s holding fast to the

rope, O you Muslims? Do you care if you are standing next to a Somali, an Indo-

Pakistani, an Egyptian, or a Persian, a former Jew, a former Christian, or a former

nothing, someone who is half-Japanese, or completely Japanese Muslim, or a Kyrgyz,

or a half-Jew/half Druze? Does it matter to you if you are holding onto the same

rope? Our community, our life, whether we define it as this community, or the

community you are a part of, or your cultural community, as Muslims… and I don’t

define that just as people who put their heads down on the ground 5 times a day.

There are plenty of those people who I don’t want to be standing next to holding the

rope with. It’s people who are born in that submission, born with the yearning for


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that safety and submission, born with the attraction to Allah. That’s where we have

this incredible, I can almost say, mystical process called reciprocal maintenance.

Something happens in suhbat. Something happens when we work together, when

we speak together. It is transformative. You may not know it right away, but it

grows on you and in you. You can turn it on and turn it off by the company you

keep. “Oh, this is my friend, that’s my friend. This is my co-worker. Oh, I don’t drink,

but I don’t mind going to bar and sitting with you while you have a drink. I don’t eat

pork, but if you want to have a pulled pork sandwich, you go right ahead.” It’s not

that you should raise alarms and say, “I’m not going to go with you if you do that!”

Ask yourself what is the company you keep? If you find yourself in a situation, as we

do often, at a reception somewhere for some thing, you go with the right people and

‘hang’ with the right people, as they say. And Allah makes it different for you, until

finally, they are coming here, or to our office.

Someone says, “This is an event we are having, and because there will be Muslims,

we are not having any wine.” And you can say, “Oh, that’s a good idea.” It’s

happened to me at the State Department. Do you get it – reciprocal maintenance.

Something transformative happens. This isn’t the 60’s, and you are not going to get a

contact high [like one did] by breathing the air in San Francisco, but the

environment is very important. It’s in the air, and in the breath, and in the heart of

the believer. And you do get it in many ways: by a poem of Hafez, or by reading the

Mathnawi. You get it from Shabastari (and please not the Coleman Barks edition. Get

some Persian who translated it, please. He’s not a translator.) You get it from

contact. It’s a different kind of contact high, but it transforms you.

I will tell you that I believe that human science will show at some point the

transformative effect on a cellular level of being in suhbat, however you want to


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define it. Some of you know the story: many years ago I had a conversation with

Jonas Salk. Who doesn’t know who Jonas Salk is? I was hoping to have fewer hands

raised! He was the man who discovered and synthesized the polio vaccine. He was

also a philosopher. Part of this community was modeled after his center in San

Diego, where he brought people of all backgrounds together: poets, humanitarians,

philanthropists, microbiologists, astrophysicists, chemist, philosophers, all brought

together to look at medical issues and their implications. He died while working on

an HIV vaccine. I asked him, “I’m an ignorant person, not a scientist. But is it not

possible that on a chromosomal level changes can come from just environmental

and spiritual inputs, such as meditation and contemplation?” He said, “There is no

doubt in my mind that when you are in contact with such things, you begin to

change on a chromosomal level.”

This means there is hope for everyone. You don’t have to wait for generations for

change to take place, but it also works in the opposite direction. Here we are, on a

spiritual path. The fact is there could be more inter-dependency, more reciprocity,

more responsibility throughout the communities, even our community, especially in

the years when one is doing their work. I hope we hear what I have said and what

Ghaus Shaykh has said, supported by al-Qur’an, that not only do we know our

capacities and limits, but we know the way to increase our capacities. We follow the

way that has been given to increase capacity. We make the effort; do the study. We

push ourselves in good ways. We do favors, help others, serve others, and seize

every opportunity to help others without hesitation, without complaint.

We say in the Naqshbandi Khwaja Khwajagan line: “Doubts and uncertainties are to

be expected. These I will overcome when I know why they exist.” You are not going to

know why they exist until you have them, and you try to find out. Then things begin

to make sense that scare people about Sufism, scares people about shaykhs, and


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about the path. Like, “I will be like a corpse in the hand of the bodywasher, glad to be

so, because I know it is the right way.” Oho! Not me! I’m an individual! I’m not

going to be a corpse in the hands of a bodywasher! What is the bodywasher doing?

You die; your soul leaves the body It’s even measureable. The body is taken; we

wash it. We clean it, put the misk and camphor on it, and we wrap it in a shroud.

Then the body is put into the grave, and then what happens? The soul returns to the

body. We don’t see it then, but Munkar and Nakar talk to that body. They are not

talking to a dead piece of flesh; they are talking to something that has life in it. Only

the soul comes in another dimension, and they ask the questions. Is that not what

happens? Correct me if I’m wrong. Subhāna-Llāh.

How we live our lives, this is the way of the Sufi, of islam – not all that other stuff

people think and say, not all the mental machinations and exercises. Of course, we

have interests and follow them. We have questions. The more we follow a certain

interest, the more questions arise. But those questions are not going to be answered

just in the academe. We can’t answer them in that way. What’s going to happen is,

“I don’t know if that’s the answer. Is that the answer? Well, you didn’t think of it in

this way, or in that way. Maybe let’s pull it apart and look at in this way. So and so

thinks this and so and so thinks that.” It’s not that is useless; it has its place. But the

questions are going to be answered here [in the Qur’an,] by Rasūlu-Llāh (sal), by the

shuyukh, in muraqabah, in study, and with the guide. That’s what I know. I can’t tell

you what I don’t know. I can only tell you what I do know. Don’t hesitate. Seek the

support.

You can always start by helping others. You don’t have to be on a path. You don’t

have to give ba’īat; you don’t have to have a shaykh. You can always start by helping

and serving others. Don’t stop because of your ego, or because of cultural overlay.

Everybody who comes to this country, especially those who are first generation or


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second generation Americans, you know. My mother was a first generation.

Everyone comes with cultural baggage. Shaykh Noorudeen says that everybody

comes with three bags, and two of them they can throw away. Don’t let that stop

you. This is your journey; this is your life. No one knows how long it is. I really

believe that if we are given 120 years as a starting point, and you deal with your life

well, except for instances we do not understand and cannot understand [that come]

from Allah’s will, you will be given more time and more time, the more time you

spend in the search. That’s what life is for. That’s what the system is built for. If it’s

cut short, there must be a reason we don’t quite grasp. It doesn’t mean that applies

to you or to me in the same way.

QUESTIONS.

I hope I’m not asking you to repeat your dars. You’ve talked about understanding our

boundaries. I understand what you are saying. You gave the example of the runner

who shouldn’t kill himself running too hard and too long. By the same token, I was

always told and I tell people they are limitless. You strive for the best and always want

to be the best.

Shaykh: First of all, they are not mutually exclusive statements. I know where you

are going, so may I? We are not limitless. Allah is limitless. Each one of us has

certain capacities which we can tune to that limitless Reality. It’s not bad psychology

to tell someone, “You can do anything,” and all that. But I’m not giving a dars on the

dhahir. Secondly, understand what is meant by boundaries. I gave this example a

year or so ago. Who is the best Arabic scholar here? Tell me the root of the word

“shahr,” for shar’īah. What does it mean? (It means a made path). It’s called a path.

Tariqah is usually called a path, right? Tariqah is the internalization of the external.

It is the batini of Shar’īah. We might say, in an esoteric way, a well-trodden path. It


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also means, if you look it up, a broad boulevard. The example I give is the Beltway

around Washington, DC. Most of you are familiar with that. That’s your boundary.

I was once in Cleveland, Ohio in the winter time – and I don’t recommend that – and

driving on a major highway. I found myself in the middle of a field, because of the

snow. So there is a boundary on 495, especially since they are always building. If

you stay on it, it’s the fastest way to get somewhere. If there are two of you

traveling the path, you and your shaykh, or you and others in the car, you get to take

the HOV lane, which theoretically gets you there faster. But it really only gets you

down to the 14th street bridge faster. Then you still have the same problem, but you

get the metaphor. If you don’t have boundaries, where are you? You know those

boundaries, because they are defined for you. Not only that, there are /āyāt along

the way. “Route 50: CONGESTION.” “DETOUR Route 7.”

Sure, it’s fine to tell people, “There’s nothing you can’t do in your life.” That’s true if

you know how to do that. Look at these amputees from the miserable war in Iraq

and Afghanistan, which I won’t get into. Look at the men running with these new

prosthetics, in the Olympics, with the spring legs. Subhāna-Llāh! Is the war worth

the new technology? How many people died for that technology? Could we have

another mentality that would have invented it, but not because of war? Absolutely!

But we don’t. Why? My uncle, who was an orthopedic surgeon, was up for the Nobel

prize in the 1950’s, because he invented an operation for the replacement of the

thumb for soldiers whose thumbs were blown off by rifles that would recoil and

knock their thumbs off. Again, war caused that. Am I just talking about the

thousands of Americans who died? What about the hundreds of thousands, perhaps

millions, of Iraqis who died? We don’t officially count them. (I’m getting into this!)


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If we understand the path we are on, there is no end to our creativity. There is no

end to our innovative capacity. That’s the world we are living in now, social

innovation. That’s the work we are doing. Bring that out in people. Bring it out in

yourself. Then you can say, “There is no limit to what you can do, it’s only limited by

what Allah ‘s plan is for you.” You will never feel that limit, probably, because you

will stop or something will happen long before that. You will be humble and grateful

for what you have. Asalaamu aleikum.

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