Question:
AsSalamu alaikom wr wb Sayyidi(q) and Hajjah(q),
My heart is so confused in who I love more, Sultan Shaykh Nazim(q) or Mawlana Shaykh Hisham(q)… Is it okay for me to have more love for you Ya Sayyidi(q)?
Answer:
Alaykum as-Salam,
What you express is natural, since in reality they are one and the same.
Because at the station of unity with the Holy Prophet there is just His
Nur; and we are thankful for whatever ray or sparkle of that Nur we can
see, for it is the nourishment of our souls.
It is also our belief that no one can claim love for and knowledge of
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim the way Shaykh Hisham can because he has literally
the most ancient of all qualified connections to Mawlana on earth today.
Shaykh Abd al-Aziz al-Dabbagh said in “Al-Ibriz” (The Pure Gold) that no
one can look at the Ghawth ,even among the Awliya, but the latter can know
the Qutb, and the Qutb alone looks at the Ghawth and the Ghawth alone
looks at the Prophet (upon him blessings and peace). Allah knows best
but this is one of the meanings of the famous Prophetic hadith in
al-Bukhari and Muslim: “If I were to take an intimate friend other than
my Lord, I would take Abu Bakr… Let no door remain open except the
door of Abu Bakr!”
Even so the station of Shaykh Hisham is not one where love can be
claimed without shaking in one’s boots. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim told the
story of the Murid who proclaimed love for Shah Naqshband then the
latter tested him, to show that such love is not yet a reality but a
fragile, small taste. In “Tawq al-Hamama” it is written:
أوَدُّكَ وُدّاً ليــــــــــس فيه
غَضاضةٌ وبعضُ مَوَدّاتِ
الرِّجـــــال سَرابُ
“I love you with a love that admits no fault / and some of men’s loves
are a mirage!”
Allah Most High is the Nur of the heavens and the earth and He is able
to grant us a flawless love and reunite us with our Beloved the way He
unites the soul and the body or closer.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
