Suhbat: Difficulties of the grave   ---   By: Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani

Singapore: home of Jibreel A. R. Ibrahim, immediately after arrival from airport (12-09-2004, 1:40 AM)

Suhbat is not so easy. You have to be focusing. Shaykh Zakariyya was making suhbat with Shaykh Mustafa while they were in khalwah in Rajab.

Nawaytu al-arba`een, nawaytu al-`itikaaf, nawaytu al-khalwah, nawaytu al-`uzlah, nawaytu ar-riyaada, nawaytu as-salook lillah ta`ala al-`adheem fee hadha al-masjid.

Ati` Allah wa ati` ar –rasul wa ulil-amri minkum. [4:59]

Allah said in Holy Qur’an to obey Him, obey the Prophet (s) and obey those in authority.

If you disobey Allah and you repent Allah forgives you. If we disobey the Prophet (s), as we are always making sin, and we are not perfect, but if you repent Allah will forgive you. If you don’t obey the Shari`ah, if you make a sin and then you repent, Allah forgives you.

But if you disobey the authorities, there is no repentance.

That is why I always keep in mind what GrandShaykh Abdullah and Mawlana Shaykh Nazim said: “Never disobey the authorities, for with them there is no way out. Authorities will punish.” Only for youngsters, who did not reach the age of maturity, what they do with them? They send them to juvenile homes, because they are less than the required age so they forgive them sometimes.

So it means when you disobey you cannot repent because they don’t accept what you have already harmed or done something against the rules that have been made for governing society.

But where Allah swt is concerned, obedience is a must; yet many people do not obey. Obedience to the Prophet (s) is a must, but people do not do it sometimes.

So what are the requirements that will make us able to obey Allah and His Prophet (s) in the same way that we obey the government, knowing that if we disobey they punish us? Because always our body and mind is open to what is against the law.

For example you are driving and you want to park. So your focus is “Where can I park,” Since there is no space you cannot park, so you get worried, “is there policeman looking to give me a ticket?”

Whatever is related to dunya the mind works. Whatever is related to akhira, what keeps you aware of the rules, is the heart; but the heart is dormant.

Allah said, alaa bi dhikrillahi tatmaina al-quloob, “with dhikrullah satisfaction comes to heart.” To keep the heart awake like the mind, will make you obey Allah and the Prophet (s).

What will keep the heart open, in the same way that the mind is the key for dunya? The mind is key for dunya. Our host the doctor is working early tomorrow, so in his mind he is thinking, “Tomorrow I have to work, in my clinic to see that one, this one.”

But no one is opening his heart to follow the footsteps of the Prophet (s), thinking “I have to make Prophet (s) happy with me and Allah happy with me.” To open the heart requires seclusion. Alaa bi dhikrullah tatmaina al-qulub.

Opening the heart is by dhikrullah. Remembering Allah means focusing your body, your self, your soul, your spirit on Allah swt. How was it done? We take our example from the Prophet (s), before the message came, Allah gave him meditation, the rabitah, the thinking, the thought. For the Prophet (s) said: tafakkaru sa`atin khayran min `ibadati saba`een sannah – “To give Allah a thought will be rewarded like the voluntary worship of 70 years.”

This is a teaching for us, for though the Prophet (s) received the message before he was created on earth, when he was a light in Allah’s presence but Allah sent him the message, when he was sitting in ghaari hira, remembering Allah standing, sitting and laying down and yatafakaroona fee khalq assamawati wal ard rabbana ma khalaqta hadha baatilan subhaanak fa qina `adhaab an-naar - "pondering on the creation of heavens and earth and say, 'O our Lord. You did not create this in vain. Glory be to You and keep
us from the punishment of the Fire.'”

So that meditation is a form of remembrance of Allah and the Prophet (s) used to stay 40 days in seclusion by himself. Sayyida Khadija used to send him food every day and he was there by himself, thinking.

Is the Prophet (s) like us? Thinking about heavens and earth like us? No, wherever his thinking goes, he is there, seeing what cannot be seen. But...we have to imitate.

In kuntum tuhiboonAllah fa tabi`ooneee, yuhbibkumullah. If you want to love Allah then follow me, Allah will love you.

So seclusion is the way that keeps the heart open for obeying Allah, obeying the Prophet (s) and obeying the mashaykh.  That is why tariqat Shaykhs order their followers to go in seclusions at least one time in their life.

In our tariqah, they say if the `abd did not do seclusion in this life, then in the grave seclusion must be done for forty days. And there is no comparison between seclusion in the grave to seclusion in dunya. The
seclusion in the grave is so difficult. What will the `abd will see in the grave, especially we are speaking of the Naqshbandi tariqat?

The Shaykh is responsible for the mureed, to make him undergo seclusion. Don’t think the Shaykh does not have power to reach the mureed in the grave. They can reach him in the grave, and on Judgment Day.  Allah gave them the power of intercession, inheriting that from the Prophet (s), so they can intercede for their followers in every situation. So awliyaullah they intercede, even in the grave.

So Mawlana Shaykh Abdullah said that the `abd will be in so much regret and grief if he did not do forty days seclusion in dunya. In akhira it will be... let me make it simple for your mind: all kinds of wild animals might come to attack you; there might be dragons, snakes, lions and so on, because the ego is a wild animal. All kinds of these animalities of the self will appear to you in seclusion. So in dunya seclusion the Shaykh will try to stop that aspect. That is why they didn’t let you [who were in seclusion recently] see that. They saw nice dreams and they smelled nice smells, even though theywere talking too much from one seclusion room to another.

But in the past the Shaykh, through his spiritual power, may make his mureed experience the horrors of the animality of the ego in seclusion. One time Shaykh Abdullah was in seclusion and a huge snake was coming and wrapping itself around him, coiling, and the head was facing him, ready to attack. He was in a khalwah of five years in the icebound mountains. Any movement and that snake would attack him. Mawlana said, “My eyes never blinked.” He was not afraid from snake, he was afraid from his Lord thinking, “I am not caring for your bite, you bite.”

Rijaalun sadaqoo ma `ahad-Allaha alayh. "Men who kept their covenant which they made with Allah." Those who kept their covenant they are not afraid of such appearance's from the ego.  But us, even before the snake coils itself around us, we would run away.

Those mureeds who went in seclusion this Rajab were worried: "What do they want to do, after 15 days in seclusion." How many days after you entered seclusion did you want to come out after your various personal problems. [Pointing to one of the mureeds who underwent the seclusion] He was worried. In seclusion, all kinds of difficulties and problems that you are not seeing in your daily life, will come to you in your seclusions to make you run away.

The wild animality of the ego, does not appear to them in this time. In previous times the mashaykh did not cover them. Nowadays seclusion is like playing.

In real seclusion they make you dig your grave - maybe 3 meters down. You do your seclusion like a dead person. You are not allowed to come out for 40 days. Might be one Dracula comes, another vampire, these other things that come from graves, snakes, wild animals, dragons. They leave you to fear it, better than to end in hell in the end. They try to make that seclusion a way to truly understand fear. That is what fear taqwa of Allah means. That is important.

Look we are sitting in ni`mat, in air conditioning. Not feeling hot. Not fearing anything. We are free in doing our prayers, our fasting our hajj, our zakat. Is anyone stopping you? No one stopping you. That is why governments get upset, therefore the Prophet (s) said, never come against the authority, the sultan, as long as they are giving you your freedom. Even if they are not giving you freedom, don’t come against the government; it will be fitna. The Prophet (s) prohibited it.

So that wild animality of the ego they make you to see it in the grave before, but not now, but in time of GrandShaykh Sharafuddin and GrandShaykh Abdullah. Not now, people will run away.

When Mawlana Shaykh ordered in my last seclusion they prepared coffins for us, and they prepared at that time a well to go down 30 or 40 feet to do seclusion. And I did not know where I am going. Either in a coffin or in a well. I have no choice. Then Mawlana Shaykh when I arrived, he said, “Cancel this, go in here.”

So you don’t know before. They used to put people in graves or in wells in order to make seclusion and see the wilderness. There you learn how much your ego is tough. There you will understand this is no game. And you cannot run away even, they tie your feet. It might be one dragon will come from top of grave to eat you. So what you do? You go back where you are. That is how they purify the heat.

The heart is the key for obedience. The mind is for ego. It tells you don’t obey. There is time. But in reality time is running you. He became sixty. You? Sixty. Me eighty. Shaykh Hasan: 95. It might be I live to be 125 and a young one that is 25 dies tomorrow or I die tomorrow and he lives 125 years.

La yastaakhiroona sa`atin wa laa yastaqdimoon – “they are not able to move [the appointed time of death] one hour more or one hour less.”

The key to obedience to Allah and Prophet (s) is seclusion. So that is what regulates the heart to make obedience. Don’t regret one day that you did not do seclusion. Every one of us should intend to make seclusion either 40 days of Rajab or 40 days from the beginning of Dhil-Qi`dah. That can only come from the order of the Shaykh. And it must be as soon as possible because you don’t now when death comes.

Like Hajj. There are many people who say, “O we are still young.” They say, “when I get older I will do it.” As if when they are older they won’t do any more sins.

With seclusion you are saved from the seclusion of grave. Alhamdulillah he is saved. Those who did not will do it in the grave. Those who did it by order of Mawlana Shaykh, in the grave wild animals will not come to them.

There is one gravedigger, he was mureed of Mawlana Shaykh. There is one cemetery where he would hear nice voices at night. And he would hear dhikrullah, there are many saints buried there. Other people regular people don’t hear those sounds.

He came and told Mawlana, “when I open one grave, they wanted to put another body in [because of little space]. Sometimes I open a grave and see that the bodies are burned. Some I see snakes eating the bodies, some I see them bitten. Some have a very bad smell, this kind of wild animals comes to people who die.”

And the grave is the last house or country of human being. Every human being is going to go in that grave. You will be lucky if your grave is a Paradise. You will be unlucky, miserable and you cannot even define as miserable, what you will see as a dead person in the grave. O people may Allah save us from the punishment of the grave!

The punishment of the grave, though punishment of the hell is worse, but the punishment of the grave is so tough, you will be punished for what you have done. Unless in your life you were making salawat on the Prophet (s) daily in which case he will intercede for you in your last seven breaths. If you were a lover of the Prophet (s) still he will be there for you interceding. But still you have to go for seclusion but you will be saved from punishment of the grave.

And those who did not do seclusion, let them make intention to make it once in their life. And whenever they are free let them make it as soon as possible.

He [points to Shaykh Zakariyya] is lucky. It might be some young people will not do it and pass before him.

May Allah forgive us and support us. This is a time when people are sleeping and not remembering Allah. And yet Allah made us to remember Him and to bring up that issue of seclusions and punishment.

When GrandShaykh was ordered for guidance by his teacher, he said, “if I am ordered to make guidance, then I accept on one condition. If that condition is not accepted then I don’t accept to give guidance [to mureeds].” He asked what is your condition? He said, “Whatever I speak about, I want it to be as if my mureed has done it.”

Shaykh Sharafuddin said, I must ask permission [through istikharah] and await inspiration or a dream from the Prophet (s) and I will ask and answer you tomorrow.” The next morning Shaykh Sharafuddin told Shaykh Abdullah, “Your request has been accepted, the Prophet (s) appeared to me in a vision and he was very pleased with your condition.”

That secret is inherited from Mawlana Shaykh Nazim. Mawlana is giving us good tidings that because of that suhbat about the difficulty of grave and its terrors, and seclusion, because of that secret granted to GrandShaykh which was inherited by Mawlana Shaykh Nazim and because we spoke about it tonight, and since everyone here is wanting to do seclusion and wanting to do it as soon as possible. And because of that it is as if you did it and if you still do it it is baraka but if you did not do it, it is done.