Request:
Auzu billah
As Salaamu Alaikum
Dear Shaykh
I would ask forgiveness for any bad adab, please make du’a that I am not overcome by my ego, that my actions are not for show as sometimes I cannot trust myself to be sincere, and that I do not drown in the waters of arrogance and self-aggrandizement. Please make du’a for my family, humility and adab in the tariqa, and respect and love for our Shuyukh to increase.
Jaza kum Ullah
Maddad Ya Sayyidi Maddad Al-Haqq Mawlana Shaykh Nazim (QS)
Response:
a`udhu billah mina ‘sh-shaytani ‘r-rajeem
Bismillahi ‘r-Rahmani ‘r-Raheem
wa `alaykum salam
Shaykh Hisham is praying for you.
The adab in tariqah to remove vanity and self-admiration (`ujb) is to remember one’s sins, remember Allah’s mercy in having guided you and not left you astray, and to remember death often. Shaykh Hisham often asks, “What if Allah had made the ‘kafirs‘ amongst whom we live Muslims, and made us Muslims ‘kafirs‘. Could we say ‘no’ at that time?”
May Allah help us to have humility. Perceive all the good you have as coming from Allah, through the intermediation of the Prophet (s), then through the intermediation of your Shaykh, to you. And see all wrong as coming from your own lower self. Sometimes do what will humiliate you in front of others, as our shaykhs do; for example they often ‘stumble’ on words in order to lower themselves.
Mawlana Shaykh Hisham teaches that to increase love of the Shaykh recite daily 300 x Ya Wadud.
Taher Siddiqui
