Bismillah.
Alhamdulillah, woke up this Sunday morning with one intention, to spend the day sharing my experience from yesterday's event - Mawlidur Rasul & Haul of Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jailani at Masjid Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin in Putrajaya, Malaysia.
Was greeted by these lovebirds who were rather early for a Sunday date. But we know the saying: the early bird catches the worm.
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Love makes the world go round, we often hear people say. We can only imagine how much love Allah has for His Beloved to have his name inscribed next to His. We cannot fathom how devoted and attached the batin of the Beloved of Allah, Habibullah, Prophet Muhammad salallah alaihi wasalam was to Allah. But we know how committed and loving the Beloved of Allah was and will be towards his ummah on the Day of Reckoning. We are grateful that we are his people, his ummah and not the ummah of any other. He, if we may speak in modern slang, is an uber-Prophet, he is most/very/extremely ideal for us. And we should seriously rejoice that he considered us ahbabun Nabi - lovers of the Prophet, people who live after his time, who did not see him, yet love and long for him. And for the ahbabun Nabi, there is nothing better than going around attending Mawlidur Rasul celebrating the absent Prophet, who is so present in our hearts and minds.
This is a post-Mawlid story.
Masjid Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin was the chosen venue. It is located in Putrajaya, a relatively new urban chic area about 40 minutes drive from KL. The event was hosted by the Al-Wariseen Trust under the tutelage of Shaykh Afeefuddin al-Jailani, the 19th direct descendant of Sultan Awliya Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jailani. It was only fitting that Shaykh Afeefuddin coupled the Mawlidur Rasul event with haul of Sultan Awliya. For those who are unfamiliar with the term haul, it is sometimes spelled hol, it is basically an event commemorating the passing of a prominent religious person.
Yesterday's majlis was the 10th such event hosted by Shaykh Afeefuddin who has made Malaysia his home for about a decade now. And we can be proud that the 20th direct descendant of Al-Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jailani was born in this country. Shaykh Afeefudin mentioned a little bit about his son who is named Abdul Rahman al-Malaysi and that yesterday was his birthday.
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| Entrance to Masjid Tuanku Mizan |
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| Knowledge seekers/Ahbabun Nabi gathering in the masjid's courtyard |
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| A gift from the organizer |
The majlis began immediately after Asar prayers with Qur'an recital by a qari from Bangladesh - Shaykh Ahmad bin Yusuf al-Azhari and followed by qasidah by Shaykh Radwan Jumaa al-Azhari of Mesir.
Habib Muhammad Rizieq Syihab from Indonesia was the first to give a tausiyah followed by the Mufti of Australia, Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Salem.
Prof. Dr. Ibrahim said, as interpreted by Habib Ahmad bin Yunus al-Mahdar:
"Praise be to Allah and salutations be upon the Messenger of Allah and may our salawat be perpetual until the Day of Resurrection. We ask from Allah, there is no greater essence than the essence of Allah, that He makes our salawat ceaseless until the day of our meeting with the Prophet. That He makes our intention in coming here to this majlis sincere for the sake of Him. Should there be any other intentions other than for Allah's sake, forgive us and hide our shortcomings."
"I wish to stress the difference between two types of remembrance. One is remembering someone who is not known so we learn the person's biography or remembering someone who is relatively known but is forgotten. The other type of remembrance is an act of remembrance where we are overcome by its maknawi [understanding/lessons]. This mawlid gathering and haul of Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jailani belongs to this type of remembrance where we are engrossed in the maknawi."
"We are remembering the haul of Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jailani, one who was close to Allah. He was an honorable person in the eyes of Allah. May we too become honorable like him. This hol is coupled with a mawlid thus we benefit from two blessed relations. From the Prophet's blessings, we have iman and Islam. May, by his barakah, we will occupy a good position before Allah and receive His pardon."
"By having this haul, we remember the akhlak, the teachings and advice of Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jailani. We remember his vast contributions to the society. And celebrating mawlid makes our heart and iman alive. A dead heart will become alive again. A new refreshed spirit will sprout."
"They are close to Allah. Allah introduced them to us. Allah made them special. Remembering them would make us stay connected to Allah. The wisdom behind mawlid is celebrating the birth of a Rasul and thereby the birth of an ummat. The birth of Rasulullah gives birth to our iman. We are given the Qur'an as our guide and to which we must abide. We will be asked about our attitude towards the Qur'an."
"This majlis revives our spirit. It is a result of contributions from various parties, both ulama (scholars) and umara (leaders). It strengthens our niyyat to be istiqamah in our ibadah. And our niyyat to be istiqamah in organizing a majlis like this. May it free anyone who is shackled by lowly desires. May our iman heighten than it was before. This majlis serves to improve people's morals and lives, so that a person remains close to Allah and so that we migrate from a life that is below par to a better one."
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The third guest speaker was Shaykh Sayyid Ibraheemul Khaleel al-Bukhari, founder and chairman of the Ma'din Academy, India. The shaykh spoke in Urdu. Unfortunately, we could not benefit from his poetic sounding and melodious speech because there was no capable interpreter around. [I've just discovered his FB page and the online magazine published by the Ma'din Academy http://www.readwhere.com/read/94847/Timeline/January-March#page/2/3]
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Next to give tausiyah was Shaykh Abdul Aziz Fredericks of Scotland. He spoke about dakwah being the highest priority for people living in a non-Muslim country. The fundamental approach to take is to connect with non-Muslims on basic human level such as smiling to them, engaging in small talk in the right manner, not with a judging or condescending attitude and to have the consciousness of wanting to guide people to Jannah. That is from the akhlak of Rasulullah. According to Shaykh Abdul Aziz, sunnah is not how one dons a turban or how long his jubah is. The real sunnah is raufun rahim - it is about being compassionate in inviting people to the deen.
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The audience then was entertained by qasidah recitals by Sofyan bin Mohd Yadi of Singapore, Shaykh Radwan Jumaa al-Azhari of Egypt and Shaykh Ahmad Tijani bin Omar of the USA.
Shaykh Dr. Rafe al-Ani, Iraq's Mufti gave the following tausiyah, interpreted by Ustaz Najmuddin al-Khirid.
Habib Hassan bin Mohd Salim al-Attas of Singapore then led the audience to Mawlid ad-Diba'ie recital before Habib Umar bin Hamid al-Jailani of Makkah gave the final tausiyah for the evening. Habib Ali Zaenal Abidin al-Hamid of Darul Murtadza Malaysia acted as his interpreter. Notes from this lecture will be posted separately insha Allah.
The majlis ended with Shaykh Afeefudin al-Jailani giving closing remarks and meaningful du'a recitations.
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Alhamdulillah wa shukrulillah. We are grateful for the tremendous efforts made by the organizer, Al-Wariseen Trust and the volunteers. We have been blessed with another significant and impressive mawlid event here in Malaysia.
Verily, the Prophet's love, makes the world go round.
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