Instructions for readings ahzab · Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid December 27, 2012 Thursday Suhbat 3...

Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid December 27, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat

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The Story of Hazrat Ali (ra) The Subtleties of the Path

Instructions for readings: When you are reading these ahzab, really contemplate the

subtleties of the Path. And how the possibility is that even Western science proves

how the heartbeat and the breathe changes, as I said last night, when one recites

Qur’an. Psychologists and medical researchers have proven this. Many yogis have

been put to the test on these same kinds of things, as you may know. In whatever

profession you are in, there are subtleties, whatever work you are doing. You

teachers always ask you to do something a little different. If you are a chef, you want

to do things in a new way. If you are a trying to figure out a computer problem, you

have to think and think about the thing you are missing. There is a subtlety in

everything.

So Qur’an is really quite subtle, even the message of the obvious stories. You can

extract the story of Nūh, or Ibrahim, or Musa. These are familiar to Christians and

Jews as well. You can take them as stories, or do like we do in talking about this on

the weekends in Charlottesville. When I give my talks on the ambiyā, I try to bring

out some subtle points, don’t I? Listen to what Allah swt says in the Qur’an: “Help

from Allah and victory is near. Give good news to the believers.” In the midst of

this battle, this journey, this life, when we are all trying to accomplish something, to

correct something, to make something better, to fulfill some desire, some need, take

the good news – bushra. Whatever you are working on, victory is near. This is good

news to you from Allah. Do you believe that? I don’t know. Do we believe it? It’s

hard to believe it when you are tested and tried. Try. In that spirit, we should

remember when we read these ahzab. We are reading for a purpose.

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Suhbat: Most of the time we speak about the Mujaddidi teaching. The Naqshbandi-

Mujaddidi line comes through Abu Bakr ni Siddiq. All the other lines come through

Hazrat Ali (ra) who really is known as the father of Tasawwuf. He is also called the

mir mu’minīn. Hazrat Ali (ra) was called by Rasūlu-Llāh (sal) the “Gate” to

knowledge. What is most important to realize is that Tasawwuf was not some

invention, or even bida hasana. It was not some innovation. Many passages of the

Qur’an are deeply mystical and spiritual in nature. The Prophet Mohammed (sal), in

his life and experiences, had these mystical experiences himself. In the cave of Hira

he would go into meditation, fikr/ contemplation. He received two distinctly

different types of revelations: one which was embodied in the Qur’an, and the other

which was embedded in his own heart.

That which was embedded in the Qur’an was meant for everyone, and consequently

was revealed to everyone. What was embedded in his heart was only given to a few

selected people, whose hearts could be illuminated by the Nuri Mohammed. They,

in turn, gave it to others, who gave it to others down to this day. What is coming out

of these durus that we give are words, but what is embedded in those words is that

same light. For some reason, through no real effort on my part, I have been the

recipient of the Light of the Prophet Mohammed (sal), as all those who are given

ijazah are. When anyone sits with the shaykh, there is what is supported by the

Qur’an in Tasawwuf, and made valid by Qur’an Sharif and Hadith, and then there is

what is made valid by what comes from the heart of the Prophet Mohammed (sal).

The knowledge or the wisdom of Rasūlu-Llāh (sal) was knowledge of the Book and

knowledge of the heart. Sayyid Hazrat Ali (ra) received the knowledge of the heart

directly from the Prophet Mohammed (sal). It was said that after the ascension

(Miraj), the Prophet awarded or bestowed upon Hazrat Ali (ra) his mantle,

figuratively and actually. That led to the illumination of his heart. According to


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Hazrat Ali (ra), the foundation of the Dīn is knowledge of Allah Swt. He said the

following:

The height of knowledge is his confirmation. The height of confirmation is

tawhid. The height of tawhid is the acknowledgment of the supremacy of Allah

in all matters, and He is beyond any attributes. No particular attribute can give

an idea of His nature; He has no exact nature. He is not bound by anything; all

things are bound by Him. He is infinite, limitless, boundless, beyond time and

space, beyond imagination. Time does not affect Him. He existed when there

was nothing; He will exist forever. His existence is not subject to the laws of

birth and death. He is manifest in everything; yet He is distinct from everything.

He is not the cause of anything; yet everything is because of Him. He is unique

without a partner. He is the Creator; He creates as well as destroys. All things

are subject to His command. He orders something to be, and it is.

The teaching is to move toward this understanding of tawhid, and hence to sever

from your heart everything but Allah. Another way of saying it is to learn to see

Allah in everything. When he was asked, what is the purest thing you could gain,

Hazrat Ali (sal) said, “It is that which belongs to a heart made rich by Allah.”

Whatever is in the heart of a believer that is made rich by Allah, that is the best thing

you can gain. When Hazrat Ali (ra) was asked about knowledge, he said, “I know

Allah by Allah. And I know that which is not by Allah by the Light of Allah.” When

asked whether he had seen Allah, he said that truly, he had seen Allah, for he could

not worship Him unless he knew Him. What anyone hears, who hears these things,

is not necessarily what is meant when it is said.

The journey then is one of paying attention, subtlety, and remembering. Or in the

parlance of the years I have been speaking to you, it is to take it seriously. When


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Hazrat Ali (ra) used to pray, it is said his hair would stand on end. He would tremble

and say, “The hour has come to fulfill a trust which the heavens and earth were unable

to bear.” That’s how he saw it: a huge responsibility. The great mystic Abu Dharr

(ra) who was a Companion of Rasūlu-Llāh (sal) said, “None in this world has excelled

Ali in prayer.” While praying, so intense was his prayer and his emotions, that he

would faint. It was told that on one occasion, Abu Dharr found him lying catatonic,

rigid, on the prayer carpet. He touched his body and thought he was dead, because

the body was so cold. He went to Hazrati Fatima (ra) and said that Hazrat Ali (ra)

had become unconscious in praying. Abu Dharr was weeping. He sprinkled some

water on Ali’s face, and he regained consciousness. Seeing the tears in his eyes,

Hazrat Ali (rah) said,

Why are you crying? You shed tears when you see me in this state? Imagine

what will happen to me when the angels drag me into the presence of Allah, and

I am forced to render an account of all my deeds! They will blind me with

fetters of iron, and present me before Allah. Those of my friends who happen to

witness this will be powerless to help me. They will lament my unhappy plight,

but none save Allah will be able to help me on that Day.

So, discount it; pay no attention to it. Don’t worry about it. Don’t think about it. Don’t

bring it up in your mind. Don’t fret over it. Say it’s just a story, and go on. Or, start to

take it seriously. Any of us who takes it seriously will be a little nervous, hence the

impetus to love Allah Swt and to rely on Allah. Maybe it’s just a story; maybe you

don’t have to worry about it. After all, people come and they go. They come to the

khanaqah; they live for years, and they go. They come to the church, then leave the

church. They come to the synagogue, and then leave their belief. They come to the

ashram, and then they leave the ashram. They are a monk for a while, and then leave

Buddhism. We know that. People leave; we’ve seen it.


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The sky doesn’t open up. They don’t have terrible accidents. A tornado doesn’t pick

them up and tear them apart, alhamduli-Llāh, because the accounting is not here.

What does this all build toward? It all builds toward understanding that there is a

value in iman / faith. You can’t buy it; you can’t learn it from a book. You can get it

from the light of this dars to some degree. You can get it from the light of the shaykh

upon the shaykh upon the shaykh upon Ali (ra), from Prophet Mohammed (sal)—if

you believe it. Many a time would come when he would call out to Allah, and Allah

would give him a glimpse of the truth through his kashf / inner vision, his basira, his

eye to see.

According to Ali (ra), the highest purpose of knowledge is the awakening of the

latent spiritual faculties, through which a person is able to discover his own true

inner self. It’s to this inner self that Allah reveals Himself, when the self disappears

in the vision of that all-absorbent Reality; when the lower self is transcended. It’s

through this inner self that Allah reveals. Hazrat Ali (ra) often would say that the

human being can have the joys and wonders of communion with Allah, if they only

abandoned their pride, and [with] discipline overcame their lust, and submitted to

the Will of Allah. That’s all they had to do. He told people, and encouraged people,

and exhorted people, and cajoled people through various dars. “Don’t indulge in

things that are gross.” In other words, pay attention to what is subtle, which is

where I began with Hizbul Fath.

Don’t forget, he was living at the time of the Jahaliya, during the days of ignorance.

You don’t have to go far to see what he is saying: licentiousness and fornication on

the streets, stealing, lying, worshiping idols, and all kinds of things, [even] when

loved ones say, “Okay, fine. Pray. Sure, it won’t hurt you to read Qur’an, but….”

When you read Hizb ul Fath, you have to get uncomfortable when you read it in


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English. It’s telling God to do all these terrible things to people. Do you think there

is no evil in this world? Do you think you can know good without knowing evil?

Should evil go unpunished because it’s not de rigeur to say nasty things about

people, that you shouldn’t say an unbeliever is an unbeliever, or that a distorted

person is a distorted person, that a person is a disbeliever by their words and

actions? “It’s not done. We don’t say those kinds of things. [Things like] they lock up

their minds and bury themselves in the holes they dig for themselves. “That’s

thinking negatively! You shouldn’t say those things.” Is it [thinking negatively]? Or

is it calling a “spade a spade” (if you forgive the expression, meaning digging a hole

with a spade)? Do you think it’s really wrong?

If you say to someone, “I miss you,” and they say, “Don’t be negative,” is that being

negative? It’s positive. Do you understand? When you react to that, you should ask

yourself, what is it you are reacting to? Will you protect the evildoer, because the

words shouldn’t be said? How are you going to ask Allah to help you against those

who are plotting against you? Will you say, “O Allah, help those poor sweet, loving

people who don’t really see the truth, who are plotting against me, and give them

kindness and goodness in their lives”? That’s fine, but are you not going to say,

“Stop their plotting against me,” or “protect me,” or “put a wall around me,” or

“freeze them in their places”? Or will you say, “Let them keep assailing me with all

kinds of terrible things, O Allah, and give me the strength to bear their assailing”?

Fine, but we don’t say, “Let them keep coming at me.” Nobody really says that or

thinks that. You really think, “Stop it.” Do you really not want those little words to

pass your lips? It’s because they pass your lips that Allah hears them, because they

come from a sincere heart that is pleading.

Hazrat Ali (ra) observed that a person can have joy and communion with Allah if

they abandon these things. He said, instead of being caught up in the worldly stuff,


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try to live a life of piety and simplicity like it is enjoined in Qur’an. Well, what is

simple for one person may be complex for someone else. If you bring someone out

of the Amazonian rain forest who has never gone more than two miles outside of

their village, and never seen a white person or anything from the rest of the world,

an electric blanket is complex for them. The boat you are taking them on is beyond

imagination. The airplane is wings of a god that is taking you on an Isra Miraj. And

the throne is what? Wells Fargo bank, or the ATM machine that you put a little card

in and it gives you money? He says,

Man is a wave in the boundless sea of Allah. As long as man’s vision is clouded by

ignorance and sensuality, he will consider himself to be a separate entity,

different than Allah. But when the veil between him and Allah is lifted, he will

then know what he really is. The wave will then merge with the ocean.

How many years have we given this example over and over again? Why does every

mystical tradition give that example? When the ocean rises up upon its own self, it

gets another name. Is it still the ocean? Yes. But you don’t call it the ocean; you call

it wave. When it goes back into the ocean, the wave disappears into the ocean. Was

the wave something different than the ocean? It never was—that’s exactly the

truth—nor were we. Tawhid, there is only Allah, illa-Llāh. If the wave had a

consciousness when it rose above the ocean, it would think it was better than what

the ocean was, because it is above it. It thinks it’s separated. It doesn’t know it is

getting its nutrition and dynamic from the ocean. It is, of itself, the ocean.

Hazrat Ali (ra) put forward that enlightenment is needed so a person can get to

know themselves, and then he would get to know Allah: “Know yourself and you

will know your Lord.” He said, to this end, you have to do things. It’s like, you get

somewhere by a camel instead of your feet. You learn things, because you are taught


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them through exercises and mnemonic means. You need exercises and spiritual

practices. What he stood for is what we call Tasawwuf today. I found the best and

complete translation of the statement I’ve made over the years. “In the time of the

Prophet, Tasawwuf was a reality without a name. Today, Tasawwuf is a name, but few

know its reality.” That may not be the exact one, but I like that translation. One

needs to have spiritual practices. He received his strength and power from the

Shar’īah, as it was being revealed. He preached, taught and valued people in a way

that any form of knowledge that failed to direct you toward the infinite truth /

reality was useless.

In everyone’s soul, there is a desire for fulfillment. Unless the path you are on has

the potential to fulfill you, then it wasn’t worth being, doing, or acting. He wanted

human beings to practice values, virtues, at-tazkiya/to purify the soul. He said it was

only a purified soul that can be the recipient of the effulgent light/fayd, to such a

degree that the person becomes enlightened, or insānu-l-kāmil. This is the principle

of the philosophy or way of inner light that was the core of his teaching, and which

became the core of Tasawwuf. He also spoke of the doctrine of preference. He stood

for, as one author said, and preferred claims of others over his own claims. He

demonstrated the principles and doctrine that he was taught or were transmitted to

him by the Prophet (sal), whether he was a wake or asleep. Sometimes he slept on

the Prophet’s (sal) bed.

He was left in the Prophet’s bed as you know when the Prophet made the hijra from

Mekka to Median. When people were trying to kill the Prophet (sal), Hazrat Ali

risked his life for the sake of Rasūlu-Llāh (sal). He would prefer to give his life for

the Prophet, compared to his own life. After the death of Rasūlu-Llāh (sal), as you

know, and as it is said among the Shia, there are those who believe he was the one

most capable of being the successor, but he was a young person. When he was sent


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away to make arrangements, they met and Abu Bakr was chosen. When his claims

were put aside, and other people were elected one after the other—Abu Bakr, and

Umar, and then Uthman—what did he do? He gave ba’īat to them. He offered his

allegiance to them. That’s why it’s called “the allegiance of preference.” It was in this

spirit of love and humility that he dove into the thick of the battles to meet any

enemy without regard to his own safety. I’ve seen his sword in Topkapi, which is

quite a big sword. After Rasūlu-Llāh (sal) gave him his mantle, he asked him how he

would use it. He said he would use it to cover the faults of others.

Does this sound like Sufism to you? Does it sound like the way a Sufi should be, the

way a shaykh should be? The true way lies in covering the faults of others, as much

as you can. Sometimes you can’t. Sometimes you have to expose the faults of others,

mostly to themselves. According to him, there were certain things one needed to do

in the spiritual journey. Not just because they were mandated, but because they

were necessary for the spiritual experience to bear fruit. One of which is sawm /

fasting. Fasting wasn’t just this formal thing you did in Ramadan or on special days.

It was for at-tazakiya, to purify the soul. He fasted so much, they called him “one

who fasts all the day.” He said that fasting clarifies your mind (not the first two days

maybe), but you get very sharp. You know that. And it improves your health.

It includes some kind of hardship with your body, but it brightens the heart and

purifies the soul, and directs your spirit toward Allah, toward awareness of the

presence of Allah. The person who is cultivating their spiritual qualities [is one]

who is trying to move away from the nafs ammāra and nafs lawwama. A student

wrote to me recently about something they were upset about. It wasn’t anything –

actually something good – but they felt ashamed of something. The message to that

person is you are in the stage of nafs lawwama. You are reproaching yourself for

things that are good. You are seeing another facet.


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This whole idea of fasting was for a person to turn entirely toward Allah and detach

themselves from the world. That certainly is much better than a person who

cultivates their body just by means of eating and then going to the gym. “I’m going

to eat; then I’m going to work off the calories.” On top of it all, he follows the advice

of Rasūlu-Llāh (sal) who said, “Fast so that perchance your hearts may seek Allah

in this world.” This is a means. If you say durūd sharīf (“praises on the Prophet

Mohammed who is my means to Allah”) what are the means of the means? They

are muraqabah, prayer, fasting, putting preference of others over yourself,

practicing humility. Some of the fasting of course is for spiritual development, not

just because you are told to fast in Qur’an.

When Hazrat Ali (ra) heard what the Messenger (sal) enjoined, he said, “When you

fast, let your ear, your eye, your tongue, your hand, and every limb fast.” The fasting

from food is just a doorway to watching what your hands do and your tongue

speaks. We know it intellectually. We wait for Ramadan to come around, and we are

going to do this really intense effort. But there are other days of fasting. We should

consider them. Then there is zakat, and hajj, and all the rest. He takes these five

pillars of Islam and makes them into something more subtle. He repeats that the

most pleasing to Allah is to give charity, because among the acts of worship, this is

most pleasing to Allah. And he said, “O people! Send part of your wealth to Allah so it

may stand you in good stead in the next world. Do you think there is riba on that?

You deposit your good deeds here, and it is made greater there? “Don’t leave your

entire wealth here so it becomes a source of annoyance for you in the next world.”

There is a relationship between this world and the next world.

Then of course, there is the hajj. He obviously had a strong attachment to Mekka and

the Ka’ba. It’s not like he’s coming from Central Asia or southern Africa. He sees that

this cube of stone is standing in this wasteland, among rocks, mountains, and


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wilderness. There was no water available. Allah tells Muslims, “Inna m’al ‘usri

yusrā. With hardship goeth ease.” Bear the hardships in this journey to this very

inhospitable place, and do it with happiness, so that what you are deprived of

becomes part of your salvation in the next world. It’s a symbolic journey, and still is,

of hardship where there are a lot of trials. You strive to fulfill the will of Allah and

acquire goodness/ thawab, and righteousness. But the darkest thing in this world is

the Beloved’s house without the Beloved in it, the Beloved’s heart without the

beloved in it. What’s really important for all of us is the Beloved, and not the place

where the Beloved lives.

According to Ali (ra), the spirit of the hajj did not lie in just visiting the Ka’ba. It was

in developing a kind of inner relationship, an insight, whereby [through] these

privations and fasting and the inhospitability of the place, and the commitment to do

it, you would come near and see Allah, Who is the Lord of the Ka’ba, not the Ka’ba. It

is the same thing with jihad. He said, “Allah has opened the gate for His friends. It is

the mantle of piety. It is the shield of faith. He who avoids it, Allah has subjected them

to disgrace.” He’s not talking about taking up arms and fighting a battle. He’s talking

about the jihad al akbar, the struggle against injustice, lies, falsehood, lack of mercy

and compassion. He’s talking about everywhere you go in the world and in life, to

take up arms against everything that doesn’t lead you to Allah, that is not good and

positive, that is destructive.

Then he also speaks of this path we are on. What does this path begin with? It

begins with the affirmation of lā ilāha illa-Llāh, a negation and an affirmation. But

you quickly come to tawbah. This repentance is described as the awakening of the

soul from the sleep of heedlessness, so that the sinner becomes aware of his sins and

feels contrition for past disobedience. When Hazrat Ali (ra) prayed for Allah’s

forgiveness, his typical prayer was this:


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O Allah, forgive me my sins of which you are more aware of than me. And if I

commit these sins again, even then forgive me. And whatever promises I have

made with myself to follow your commands that I have not fulfilled, I seek Your

forbearance. If I have sought Your nearness with my tongue, and my heart has

not kept pace with my tongue, then overlook my lapse, O Allah. Forgive me for

my futile talk, vain desire, and lapse of the tongue.

That is pretty well cleaning the slate. Even though I’m going to forget, I’ll persevere,

and You forgive me. He told people, you are living in the world. You don’t renounce

the world, but you don’t have an inappropriate attachment to it. Detachment from

the world is a way of attaining to Allah Swt. Someone begged him to give them some

way to remember that, and Ali (ra) said, “Do not let your wives and children be a

cause of concern for you, for if they be the friends of Allah, He will look after His

friends. And if they are the enemies of Allah, why should you care for God’s enemies?

How’s that! Swallow that one, and see if you don’t throw it up. How easy is that?

Pretty powerful stuff, I think. Certainly, it is not easy to practice.

And then there is [the need for] patience, because we will meet many trials and

tribulations in our lives. Having come as many decades as I have come, another

cycle, I will tell you: they don’t end. I used to think, “I’m going to be so chilled out by

the time I’m 60. Nothing is going to bother me. No one will suspect me. I won’t be

the cult leader anymore. I will be a respected elder.” Forget about it (as they say in

New Jersey). It never stops. Maybe it stops when you become so perfect that YOU

stop. But Allah subjects those He loves to a lot of tests. The only one who passes

those tests is a person who is patient. Hazrat Ali (ra) was the most patient person.

They called him “the second Job.”


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In the Battle of Uhud, he received 61 wounds. His whole body looked like it was one

big wound, blood pouring out of the different wounds. Those who were trying to

dress those wounds were not able to do it. He was in real, terrible agony. He said,

O Allah! Grant me the patience to bear this suffering. Is it not a favor of Allah

that He gives me the courage to stand and fight, and to not leave the field?

Didn’t you create in me the capacity and enthusiasm to fight in the field? Now, all I

am asking You, Allah, is to give me a furlough. Even when Ali was elected finally as

khalif, the enemies of Islam woke up and rebelled against him, as you may know. He

bore all of those afflictions and strikes and accusations with patience and with

perseverance and with love, thanking Allah that he had, through his own actions,

acquitted himself in the trial. He acquired the capacity to pass the tests and trials as

if they were just suits of clothing made to his measurements. We would all be happy

if when the tests and tribulations, the vicissitudes of life came to us, we were able to

just pass them, as if we were just putting on a personally tailored suit of clothing or

dress, made just for us. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

That’s a very, very generalized discussion about Hazrat Ali (ra). The Prophet (sal)

did say he was the gate; and he did elevate him. But it’s much more than what

people portray Tasawwuf to be, and what they portray Shi’a thought to be. Forget

about the political aspect. Forget about the declaration of the ruler that all of a

sudden, “By tomorrow, everybody has to become a Muslim.” I think it was 251

people had to immediately go through conversion. For some, it was painful; for

some, it was lemony and made you pucker up; and for some, it was pleasant and

made you smile. We go through those cycles every day, don’t we? Where did this

begin? It began with me pointing out to you qualities, victory.


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Look at the kind of things this man did, and see if the objectives of those things he

did [are] the objectives of what you know is Sufism, what you know is the step by

step process of refining yourself by doing the practices, by doing the meditation, by

moving through each latifa, and doing those meditations and practices in such a way

that you are patient with them, and they bear fruit. You don’t worry, and you don’t

rush. At the same time, you live in a world where there is instantaneous

communication. If we say, “Well, I’m going to talk to Allah,” and Allah doesn’t give

you an instantaneous broadband response, you think, “What’s wrong with Allah?

Allah doesn’t have broadband! I put out this question and didn’t get an answer.”

That’s one kind of communication; but it’s not what we are talking about.

In meditation, we are talking about the essential communication, out of which

patience grows, tolerance grows, relationships become stronger, love grows. If you

look at the Names of Allah Swt, you will definitely every day find one that fits your

day. If you just start repeating it over and over again, it will not have hardly any

effect on you. But if you go to the shaykh and say, “I am having this difficulty and I

thought of reciting this, what do you think?” Shaykh will say, “Yes, you should do

700 times of this name, because this is what I see with my kashf that fits your need.”

When someone says, “O Shaykh, pray for my business,” I’m not doing a money du’ā. I

look behind it and say, why is this person’s business failing? Maybe it is the

personality. There is no light that is there. So I pray for light in that person’s life, so

that the light draws like-minded people. Do you understand?

It’s a process. If you practice it and practice it like I did, and failed a thousand times,

sometimes it just clicks in. All that I’m telling you tonight, you don’t have to know in

words. But if you do, you’ll label them and recognize them for what they are. When

you have to access on the pantry shelf this spice versus that spice, because you are

making the same dish but you want it to taste differently, you have access to those


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different flavors. Everything has a purpose, and being consistent is important. You

shouldn’t do things and not archive them or save them or remember them. You

should think about them, and watch what is happening.

That’s it. That’s the basic story of Imam Ali. There is much more to say about that,

and about the practices of other Orders, and why we say what we say and all that.

But at the rate I’m going, I’ll have to live to be 150 to be able to write that up. The

chances of that are not quite 50-50. More like 99.999% to .0001 percent. Why is it

not a hundred percent guarantee? Because when you die, your cells go into the

earth, and your power goes into it. When we go to saints, we do certain things. I sent

you Durūd Ghausia. It’s one of the things you say three times when you go to the

tomb of a saint. You recite that three times. If you go to a tomb of a saint, let me

know.

Question: Rabia When the Prophet (sal) and Abu Bakr were in the cave, a

transmission occurred there…

Shaykh: That was a transmission in the cave to Abu Bakr to have him be confident

and strong. This was the first instruction in muraqabah, meditation, and dhikr.

That’s what that was. But don’t forget they elected the khalifas, and people were told

that Imam Ali was the gate. That’s where the issue comes with the Shi’a. There are

valid hadith that show all those. But Allah doesn’t make mistakes, either; so

purposes were fulfilled. And there shouldn’t be antipathy. Most Sufism comes from

Ali. Every order except Naqshbandi comes from him.

Question: Why was it those two? And I’m trying to understand the strife that was

around that.


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Shaykh: You have to realize that all the Sahabah were really khalifas. They were all

walis, awliyā. You can trace their lineage and see who these saints were. As you get

closer and closer to our time, you are talking about people like … virtually all of the

Sahabah. Maybe I’m not understanding your question.

Question: I think it has something to do with these two personages (Abu Bakr and

Hazrat Ali) being given the transmissions…

Shaykh: Just being with the Prophet, everybody got the transmissions. You are

talking about a questionable political process. We don’t think it was all political; we

think Abu Bakr was older and more experienced in certain ways, more

knowledgeable about certain types of things. It made sense. He was of the same

family. Hazrat Ali was married to the Prophet’s daughter. There was no antipathy,

and the point I was trying to make tonight is that Ali gave ba’īat to them, and swore

allegiance to them. He preferred that everything go well, as opposed to what

happened to him. That was the point I was trying to make, not whether he was the

true successor. It’s a moot point. We are talking about mysticism. We are talking

about teachings that come from the heart and soul of a certain believer who

becomes the khalifa, but they were all khalifas. Think it’s confusing? Wait until

tomorrow… Asalaam aleikum.

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Instructions for readings ahzab · Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid December 27, 2012 Thursday Suhbat 3...

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