Dream:
Asalam Aleykum,
I had a dream in which I was in a desert, suddenly I saw a white horse and then I saw a picture of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim in the sand.
What does it mean?
Interpretation:
wa `alaykum salam,
It means that the power of spirituality of the Ghawth al-`Azham of our time is to be found in the desert, as Sayyidina `Abdul-Qadir Jilani found his way to reality in the desert.
Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani relates, in suhbat on 26th August 2011:
Listen! If you want to be in the presence of the Prophet (s), then look at what this shaykh has done: he was one of the biggest awliyaullah of his time, to whom Allah gave Maqaam al-Ghawthiya. Why? It is not cheap; you cannot go and buy it from the market. It is not (something you will get) because you are rich and donating a lot to Islam. There are many shaykhs who have reached the reality of shaykhhood but look at what they are doing.
He was a very well-known shaykh. Hassal `alaa `uloom ul-qur’an, he memorized all zhaahiri outward knowledge of Qur’an. He could read on the fourteen qira`at, different readings and explain every verse according to these different qira`at. He studied al-usool, the method of `uloom al-qur’an, the Science and Study of the Holy Qur’an, and he studied `ilmu ’t-tasawwuf, the Science of treating and purifying the self. When he was able to approach his shaykh with all this, his shaykh dressed him with the jubbah of irshad (cloak of guidance). When he put that on him, he didn’t sit on the chair and begin giving suhbahs. We cannot say lectures, because lectures only teach the mind, it doesn’t open the heart. So he knew that this way is not through richness of dunya, by hubb ad-dunya, and so he had to drop it. Some people say, “I dropped hubb ad-dunya from my heart: I am not watching TV and not going to the movie theatres,” which is good but it is not enough.
So what did he do? He left and went into the desert of Iraq – he left dunya, and to leave dunya where does he have to go? To the desert where there is nothing except the sun, where it is very hot at daytime and very cold at night. And he was wearing the jubbah given to him by his shaykh. Although it is woolen, it was protecting him in the day from the heat and at night from the cold. Barakah!
You know that is wool, made from a sheep and it was protecting him from the sun. How? because when you submit, just as the sheep is submitting, you will be protected from the sun. Just as the sheep has no ego, and is submitting to his shepherd with no desires, no irada, so he was in hubb of Allah running into the desert, mulazama al-khalwat wa ‘l-mujahada – keeping continuously in seclusion and in the struggle against his self.
Does the self like to be in the desert? No way! So all these people [who live] in the desert they have to survive. It is not easy. Someone who is living in an advanced civilized area like Baghdad of Iraq, Sayyidina `Abdul-Qadir Jilani (q), who lived in the best civilization of that time, he was carrying the burden of coming against his self. Whatever his self asked he was not giving and the self will ask lot of things.
Grandshaykh ‘Abdullah al-Fa’iz ad-Daghestani (q) said, “If someone whenever he feels sleepy he makes wudu and prays 2 raka`ats, and he does that mujahada constantly for 40 days, he will not need sleep (at all).”
So when he sleeps, because you see awliyaullah sleep, but for them they have that mujahada they went through that experience of once in their life for 40 days, when they feel sleepy they take wudu and pray 2 raka`ats or they take a shower. So they sleep, but why do they still sleep? It is because when an order comes to them from the Prophet (s), they need to go into seclusion. They go and lie down and you see their eyes closed but the eyes of heart are open. In reality that is their sleep.
So how do people claim they reached the level of shaykhhood? It is not easy. So a rich person like him, who came from a good family and learned everything about Shari`ah, he left everything and went to the desert to build and polish his ego; to tell his ego “this is your home.”
In the desert you submit to Allah swt, you don’t know east, west, north or south, correct?
وَلِلّهِ الْمَشْرِقُ وَالْمَغْرِبُ فَأَيْنَمَا تُوَلُّواْ فَثَمَّ وَجْهُ اللّهِ إِنَّ اللّهَ وَاسِعٌ عَلِي
To Allah belong the east and the West: Whithersoever ye turn, there is the presence of Allah. For Allah is all-Pervading, all-Knowing. (al-Baqara, 2:115)
It means “whereever you direct your face you see Allah’s signs.”
And he was fighting his desires. Do you fight your desire? It is difficult; it is not easy. (A mureed) was in middle of qasida yesterday and we were holding the hair of the Prophet (s) and something happened; he left everything behind and ran to the one he loves. He lost one of the biggest trusts that might be given to him that night, he lost it. How do you leave the holy hair of the Prophet (s) and run? That was a test. But we are heedless. That is why don’t be heedless in certain moments.
Taher Siddiqui
