"Our donkey is our ego." - Mawlana Shaykh Nazim

Bismillah.

I was delighted to see Shaykh Bahauddin last night. He is Mawlana Shaykh Nazim's son. 

Alhamdulillah wa shukrulillah. His presence made many of us felt closer to Mawlana and ironically it made us miss and long for Mawlana even more.

Below is Shaykh Nazim's sohbet on 27 March 2010 as recorded on Sufilive which has been slightly edited. Bismillah.

The Prophet (s), Habeebullah, what was he saying?

Allahumma laa takilnee ila nafsee tarfata `aynin

O Allah, don't leave me to my ego for the blink of an eye.

Therefore, we are asking for heavenly support against our egos. Our ego is attacking us and asking to take the reins to make us its donkey, to do as it likes. I am using "it" because to say "that" would give it an honor. "It" is for animals and you may use "it" for that which doesn't have any soul or living things on it. Always put Shaytan down. Put it down. Don't give Shaytan any honor. Don't use any honorable word for Shaytan. That is important!

I am saying A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani‘r-rajeem. O our Lord! We are asking humbly for protection against Shaytan and its followers. That is important. Dastoor yaa Sayyidee, yaa Sultaanu 'l-Awliyaa. We are saying, O our Master, O Qutbu 'z-Zamaan, O Qutbu 'l-Mutassarif who has been granted from heavenly stations to look after this world and everything that is happening on it. Don't think that this world is just left as it likes to be through space. Everything is under control very carefully, daqeeq, control must be on everything. Nothing can be in existence without its Creator knowing about it. How can it be? He creates and He knows a dharrah, an atom can't know about itself.

You mankind, do you know about yourself? Are you able to know about yourself? Who knows? People are trying to know something around themselves but not themselves! Our eyes may look around us only but cannot look into our inner beings. If I ask you, “Where is your liver?” Many people don’t know. If we ask, "Where is your heart?" "I do not know." Man is ignorant, fully ignorant about himself. 

We are saying A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani‘r-rajeem because Shaytan is always trying to confuse people and not letting you know. It has been said that a person has 360 organs, small and big, and yet you do not know about yourself! How come you are asking to know around yourself? Don't say that it is knowledge to look into space saying, "That is polestar, that is the sun, that is the moon, that is seven sisters, that is alpha systems." It is nothing, it gives you nothing.

It is not real knowledge around you that you are looking at. How many of you understand yourself? How are your organs working? You are eating and enjoying it. You are drinking and enjoying but where is it going inside? What is its significance? You don't know. You are only drinking and eating. And you man have been granted such an honor and your honor is to know! No other creature on this planet knows about themselves because they don't have a mind or they can't think. And their levels are animals' levels but your level is over the level of angels!

Isn't it so Salafi `ulama? Marhaban! What do you say about the levels of mankind, where are their levels on Earth or Heavens? Say!

Don't worry. We are saying Bismillahi‘r-Rahmaani‘r-Raheem to open something and giving understanding about creatures and Creation! The whole of Holy Qur'an, Qur'an al-Kareem teaches people everything. Yes, does it teach or not, Salafi `ulama, marhaban! Where are you? You must teach us. It is not enough to say, “We are Salafi `ulama,” while keeping under your belt only two or three books, no! SubhaanAllah.

Bismillahi‘r-Rahmaani‘r-Raheem

Allah Almighty is saying:

نَحْنُ نَقُصُّ عَلَيْكَ أَحْسَنَ الْقَصَصِ

Nahnu naqussu `alayka ahsana 'l-qasas

We do relate unto thee the most beautiful of stories (Qur'an: 12:3)

We relate the story to you. You never say qasas. If anyone is asking to say a qissah, you say, "Isra'iliyaat." Why are you not telling stories? There are so many stories from beginning up to the end, perhaps a billion volume and you can't carry them because it is plenty. A person is not able to keep them in his mind. But yes, someone may reach to that point and they may keep in their heart stories beginning from Sayyidina Adam (a) up to today. Ok, Salafi `ulama? What is your vision about that? Now we are coming to you. Don't say, "We are `ulama," but you must be taalibi `ilmin, kun taaliban:

كن عالماً أو متعلماً أو مستمعاً ولا تكن الرابع فتهلك‏

Kun `aliman aw muta`aliman aw mustami`an wa la takun ar-rabi`a fatuhlak

"Be a scholar or a teacher or a student but don't be the fourth, for then you will perish."

It is a hadith! Yes, I also know hadith!

You must be taaliban, ask to know more, don't stop on one level and say "That is enough for us.” No! You must ask for a second step, second level. Do you understand Arabic?

Allah (swt) said:

Huwa yaqool jalla min qa`il

لَتَرْكَبُنَّ طَبَقًا عَن طَبَقٍ

la tarkabanna tabaqan `an tabaq

Certainly, you shall travel from stage to stage. (Qur'an 84:10)

Fee qara`a la-tarkabunna tabaqan `an tabaq

That is Holy Qur'an or not? Why are you stopping on one level and not asking to go up? You may say, "To get up we must have some instruments or wings." Yes, you know too much, that if a person is asking to go up, he must have some machines to take him up, like mighty engines of jet planes. No-mind people all of you. (Mawlana saying to those around him) "Say, jet planes!" Jet planes may go up much higher than others because they have jet engines that are mighty, taking it up!

If you do not reach there, why are you then denying one who is reaching up and saying something about it? And you say, “It is not true, we do not find this in our books." You can't say this! You Salafi us-Saalihen `ulamas never reached that mighty place with jet planes. Take it now because Allah Almighty is granting - `utlubu al-`ilm, ask for more and more knowledge. That is the Holy Prophet's (s) holy order: `utlubu al-`ilma - ask for knowledge. That is a heavenly order to the Seal of Prophets (s) to say, "O People, you must ask more and more." Our physical being's limits are very short but beyond our minds, there is another level that belongs to our souls!

You may learn alif, baa through jet planes but what does it mean?

Bismillahi‘r-Rahmaani‘r-Raheem. Alif, Laam, Meem.

Your level can't reach the meaning of those three letters and Allah Almighty mentions it after Suratu'l-Fatihah. Ta`jeezan bil-khalaa'iq. Say! What does it mean, Alif, Laam, Meem? Do you know? You don't know? How can you say, “We are `ulama." What did Salafi `ulama say about Alif, Laam, Meem? You know? Alif is an Ocean, Laam is another Ocean, Meem is another Ocean. I can't open those oceans to you, because you can't carry!

Your ancestors were riding on donkeys, jahash. Kaan yuqaal al-li yarkab jahash, kaan biquloo abu jahshin ma tadarakna hatta l-jahsh

They used to say that the one that rides the donkey was called the father of the donkey, and we do not even own a donkey. Yet we are not working towards owning a donkey and to make that donkey under our commands. "O Shaykh, what are you saying about jahash and donkey? We now have Mercedes cars, we have BMW." BMW may fall on their heads! "They are new ones and famous ones. We are not using jahash, donkeys, we are now using BMW." WC? Ah! BMW, not WC, it is better to use WC!

O people! Use your mind when someone is speaking and addressing to you! Yes, everyone is abu jahshin, father of donkey. Ayna jahshin, you may ask, “Where is my donkey?” Look in the mirror and see where it is. Yes, that is your donkey! Donkey, that they are saying, kulluna abu jahshin, all of us are the father of donkey, our donkey is our ego!

Do you know Arabic or do you not know? What was the Seal of Prophets, (Mawlana stands and sits) Sayyidina Muhammad (s) saying? He said:

Man yasal an ashiya' matiyyah
Someone was asking about his "ride." What was the answer given by the Seal of Prophets (s)?

Nafsuka mateeyatuka

Your self is your ride.

Say what you understand from the two words the Seal of Prophets (s) said to you, to me, to that one, to that one. What is our ride? Nafsuka mateeyatuka! And nafs is jabbaara, powerful! If you are able to keep the reins of your ego, it can carry you as Buraq did! It may do this for everyone if they are able to ride on their egos. It can take you, mashaa-Allah, Rabbuna j`alaa wa ala yureed, up to that point that our Lord is asking us to reach. You can't reach that heavenly station that Holy Qur’an says, latarkabunna tabaqan `an tabaq. How are they riding, tarkabunna, with their bodies, or they have a ride to take them up? Nafsuka mateeyatuka. Whoever is asking to reach heavenly stations, he must use some other creatures and holy command comes to that one, "Obey your Owner's command!" Why are you not speaking about such things for people to take themselves from the Earth up to `Arsh? Why are you not saying?  Does anyone understand what you are saying? Even you yourself do not understand!

O People! O People! `Utlubu al-`ilm, ask for real knowledge from those who have been granted qudsi, heavenly knowledge. Ask them. They are coming.

فَاسْأَلْ بِهِ خَبِيرًا

Fas`al bihi khabeera

Ask them about Him, [the] One who is [truly] aware. (Qur'an 25:59)

There must be those who know that way.

You are saying, "Salafu's-Saalih" Are they living with us? Only Salafu's-Saalih know and no one else knows. Why? That is the reason why not everyone can stand up on the minbar or on the kursi and speak to people. No! No! They carry a heavy responsibility because they do not understand the real meaning that belongs to our levels, what higher levels. They know from the beginning up to the end what has happened and what will happen. Because those people are looking in the mirror of the Seal of Prophets (s) and looking there but `aama (the blind) can't look at anything here. Open your eyes. Go to some doctors. Who are they? Allah Almighty is saying:

كُونُواْ مَعَ الصَّادِقِينَ

koonoo ma`a s-saadiqeen

And be with trustworthy people. (Qur'an 9:119)

They could cure your blindness. "Oh, it is another kind of sight, another level, we have never been here, what is that?" You must try to know; it is not enough what you are saying. Islam is for whole nations, for the whole of mankind! And you must be able to give everyone what they may be able to digest. We have so many millions of kutub, books. But you may go into an operation and there are 100-200 instruments but surgeons do not use all of the instruments on an ill person. No, they only use what is necessary.

The Holy Qur'an is an endless ocean! Not the whole but even one holy letter from the Holy Qur'an is an endless ocean! Who are you, saying, “We are `ulama.” What do you know? You must come to the level of kun taaliban, ask and learn! Don’t say, “We are followers of Salafu's-Saalih.” Allah Almighty just put everyone in their real positions, awda`u 'l-ashyaa fee mawaadi`ihi, place things in their proper places. Malik huwa malik, the king is the king; you are `ulama, they are `ulama! That one is a doctor, that one is a lawyer, yes. Put everything in its real position then you can see a good vision of the secret world through Creation.

May Allah (swt) forgive me.

As-salaamu `alaykum. Come and kun taaliban.

وَفَوْقَ كُلِّ ذِي عِلْمٍ عَلِيمٌ

Wa fawqa kulli dhi `ilmin `aleem

Above every knower, there is another knower. (Qur'an 12:76)

May Allah (swt) forgive me, forgive you, forgive all of us for the honor of the Seal of Prophets, Sayyidina Muhammad (s).

Al-Fatihah.