The Three Levels of Discipleship

The speaker is addressing an audience and expressing gratitude for being able to gather on this blessed Thursday evening. They emphasize the importance of keeping Thursday nights alive, as it is a night of acceptance for prayers and blessings from Allah. They also mention the significance of Friday as a blessed day. The speaker expresses concern about the loss of connection to the Islamic calendar and the focus on worldly calendars. They discuss the importance of reconnecting with nature and recognizing the sacredness of the environment. The speaker then shares a story about a wrestler who seeks to join a sheikh's tariqa and undergoes a test to prove his sincerity. The wrestler is asked to hit different people in the meat market, and their reactions determine whether he is accepted into the tariqa. Ultimately, the wrestler is accepted and the story highlights the importance of humility and submission to the sheikh. Beloved mureedins, respected elders, brothers and sisters, As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Alhamdulillah, our gratitude is to Allah for having able us to be here on this very blessed Thursday evening, welcoming what is known as the chief of all days, Sayyid al-Ayyam, for it is a great sunnah to be keeping this night alive, the Thursday evening light, and it is a sunnah which is slowly diminishing and we're keeping other nights alive, New Year's Eve, all these other things that we're doing, keeping it alive, but we're not keeping this weekly Thursday evening nights alive because it is a night that Allah accepts all of your hajjat. It is a night that Allah frees us from hellfire. It is a night that Allah raises our daraja. There's so many blessings in this night and that's why our Salaf as-Saleh, they were busy rekindling their hearts on this special evening, Thursday evening. Alhamdulillah, we've been here, been doing this dhikr that has been done for hundreds of years and we are very fortunate to be inheriting this and sharing this with everybody. So it is something that I hope that we can preserve until many years to come, inshallah. We're praying Maghrib together, we're praying Isha' together, we're distributing food. There's so many khair and so many goodness that's happening in one night and then we continue it with Friday when we go for Juma'ah and Friday is a very blessed day. We're actually already in Friday. So this is something we often forget about the hikmah of the Islamic calendar. We're already in Friday. We're not waiting for midnight to be in Friday. Our time starts after Maghrib. So people always message me, are you doing the Urus also and so today or tomorrow, today or tomorrow, it's after Maghrib. Why so difficult? Because we've lost that Islamic calendar. We're living with a calendar that is dead. The calendar that gives us paycheck and takes away the paycheck. We're not living with a calendar that gives us life. What happened on this night, Laylatul Isra wal Mi'raj, Laylatul Raga'ib and Nisfu Sha'ban, Laylatul Qadr, you know, the five nights that if you keep alive, Allah will accept your dua. We're not keeping to that calendar, sadly. Very, very sad and then when we grow up, nobody cares about the Islamic calendar anymore. This is a problem. So let's rekindle back the Islamic calendar and keep back to that because it will set the dead calendar alive. You get what I'm trying to say? The sun calendar, right? You get what I'm trying to say? There is sun, you guys know that, right? It seems to be very sun. So long in the office room, so long at home, work from home, eat from home, everything from home. It's even worse. Allah made the night for the lovers to make it alive. You keep your night alive with prayers. Even if you wake up just to off the alarm clock, there is goodness in that and you go back to sleep before Tahajud, before Fajr, not for Fajr. So before Fajr, let's say you wake up even for a moment and you say, Allah, you go back to sleep, there's rewards, right? But because our body has no more clock, it's just according to timetable, like whose appointment and what are we doing. Our body is working with that. Sadly, one of the reasons why we're always ill is because we lose our communication with nature. The earth, look at the earth. So there's four elements, the earth, fire, wind and water. Earth, it produces beautiful things like the rose, we have flowers. It came from where? Earth. So don't you think there's a lot more beauty that is inside the earth than what it seems? But because we're disconnected from it, we don't see it. We only see it as, we don't even see earth, we only see concrete now. But we came from earth and we shall return to earth. That's what the Quran says, that's when you put the first soil back into the janazah, you come from this and you shall return to this. So we only see the earth for the dead people. We don't see it producing. Why? Because we're always looking at the blue screen and all other screens, I don't know what screen we're looking at. So may Allah make us people who relive back, inshallah, the time is arranged by Allah and nature is preserved and done by Allah. That's why there's so much destruction now. We're talking for, we want what? To save the environment. How are you going to save the environment if you don't think it is sacred? What environment you're saving for? You get what I'm trying to say? What are you saving it for? To produce more, to make the infection more things. We're not saving it because it's sacred. And Nabi SAW had a connection with the earth, with the trees. The trees uprooted itself to walk to the Prophet and say shahada and walk back and rooted itself back. The big monitor lizard could just go out to Nabi SAW and say shahada. The stone say shahada to the Prophet. The mountains declared its love for the Prophet SAW. The moon split because of his finger. So this is how connected our Prophet SAW is to the earth. So when we are connected to Nabi SAW, we will be connected to all of this. So I wanted to share with you a story actually about being connected. And this story I think I've shared with some of you before in some of my classes. So there was this sheikh in the Caucasus. You get the area, the Caucasus area, the original Caucasians, right? Anyway, coming back. So the sheikh was a very jelali sheikh, very majestic, mashaAllah. And there came a wrestler that says sheikh put me into your tariqa, I want to take bay'ah. So the wrestler was big and he was very, you know, he had people of the past what do you call that, the moustache that pointed up. So it shows he's a wrestler. So the sheikh says, you will never join my tariqa because your ego is very big, the sheikh says. Then the sheikh looked at him because he came with his dagger and all of this. So he was very ready for battle. The sheikh was not afraid. He told the sheikh, if you don't take me into the tariqa, I will hit you. He really wants to take bay'ah. He says, don't give me bay'ah. Nowadays, I'm not sure, you know, if this is for me. I don't know if maybe I should do rock climbing. Maybe I should do, you know, 3D graphic design instead of taking bay'ah. Versus the people back then, you don't give, I'll hit you. The sheikh said, hit lah. But the sheikh looked at him and said, oh, this man is sincere. So the sheikh says, you want to take bay'ah, you want to be my student, you have to do something for me first. He says, okay. He says, you go to the meat market. Go to the meat market, look out for this person. You go there, you hit him. This is the best sheikh ever. Go there, you hit him behind his neck. Wrestler was thrilled lah. Wrestler was like, I'll hit him many times. No, this one you hit one time. Hit him strongly one time behind his neck. Then come back to me and tell me what he did. Okay, so he was happy. You want to take bay'ah? Before you take bay'ah, what do you do? Go hit someone. But here the sheikh was there, go and read your rati, do your zikr, istikhara, think about it, ask your parents. How far we have travelled. So he went there, he went to the meat market, saw the fellow. From the back, he hit the fellow. Lato macam punya kasi lah. Pow! Big man, you know. They're very big, have you seen them? Really big, like Chechen people, you know. The guy turned, he looked at the wrestler, he stared angrily. He didn't do anything. Wah, wrestler ni macam, hit lah. If you hit me, I can hit you more, you see. Of course, the wrestler's mentality. The meat seller was like, he was just staring with anger. So the wrestler walked away, went back to the sheikh. Sheikh, something happened. Interestingly, I hit him, but he stared at me angrily. The sheikh says, good. When you go to the meat market, there's another person, he's selling the intestines of a sheep. You go there, and this fellow, you can hit him many times. He's older than the first one. Go there and hit him. Oh, he was like, are you sure? Yeah, okay. So he went to the meat market, looked for the fellow. From the back, he hit the fellow many times. By the fellow fall, with all of his meat, he turned and he looked at the wrestler. What did he do? He smiled and he laughed. He smiled and he laughed. And then he carried his things and he walked away. Oh, this wrestler cannot take it anymore. What's going on? Went back to the sheikh. Sheikh, this is even worse. He smiled and he laughed at me. Sheikh said, one more person, if you complete this, I'll give you bayat. Okay, who? He said, now you go to the farm. This person is a very old man, he's 80 years old. I want you to take a stick, hit him until the stick breaks. So, the wrestler, now the wrestler, he hit the first two already, he knows something is wrong. This one, if I hit with the stick until the stick breaks, you know, his heart wasn't settled. You want me to hit an old man, an 80 year old man? Even the wrestler had compassion. But the sheikh was like, no, you want bayat or not? Now the ball is in the sheikh's court, you think? What do you have to do? So, he went there. He saw the man was ploughing with the cow or bull. He wanted to hit the man and he was like, couldn't do it, but he says, okay, see the sheikh said it, it's on his name. So, he went there. He hit. When he hit the old man, the old man hit the bull fast and he went even faster in his work. Then the wrestler hit him again. He went faster. He ploughed and this time the bull, you know, went fast, so fast that he dragged the man on the, into the ground. So, he hit, he came third time, he hit the man, 80 year old man. Hit, stick broke. Then the man stopped ploughing and went to the wrestler and hold his hands. He says, did my, is your hand aching because you have to hit me? My apologies. My apologies because it took you three times to hit me so that the stick break. And then he kissed the hand of the wrestler who hit him. He says, this is the hand of my sheikh that hits me. So, I know I did something wrong. He's here to take away the sins from me, to teach me about kaphara. Please, please hit me more. Then he, he cannot take it anymore. He sees the man, okay, thank you. He went back, went to meet the sheikh. Went to meet the sheikh. The sheikh says, how? So, the wrestler was like, okay, I know now something is up. What is the lesson you want to tell me? So, he says, the first one is a beginner in the path. You hit him, he still has ego and anger. So, dia macam, simi tai chi lah. Which gang, where one? Or block lah, dia keluar, dia tunjuk. Tak kisahlah siapa dia nak marah. You know, whoever marah. He's a beginner in the path. So, he must be doing zikir, but he's still like that. The second one is, he is ready. He is one who is in between, in the middle of the path. But he's still smiling because he's suppressing it. That he accepted it. He's smiling and laughing because he's suppressing the anger, the ego. He says, the last one, that's a murid. The last one, he says, that is a murid. Because he he's already surrendered to the will of Allah. He has no problems at all. Everything is good. So, the sheikh says, no, I have one more lesson. You want bai'ah, right? So, by this time, this wrestler has become somewhat like a dancer already. Because his ego is, he saw three different levels. It's a mirror of himself. So, he says, his ego is probably worse than the first one. He knows that. The sheikh is pointing that out to him. That your ego is worse than the beginner of the path. My murid, who is in the beginning, you're worse than that. So, he went to the apple tree and he threw, he says, now take a stone, go and throw at the apple tree. And he says, okay. I mean, by now he threw, the whole branch fell off. And down came about ten apples as well. So, the sheikh says, you see, you threw at the apple tree, but it gave you sweet apples to eat. This is the path. And even if you were to take the apple and you throw the seeds, right, it grows trees that produces more fruits, apple fruits. So, the seed, he says, lost its identity into Allah and it became a tree. So, when you do dhikr, قَسَّجَرَةٍ فَيبَتٍ أَثْلُهَا ثَابِتُ وَفَرْوَهَا فِي السَّمَاءِ like what we have read, the seed became a tree. So, where's the seed now? It's not there. It's no longer. Do you find the seed in the tree? No. The seed has become a tree. It evolved into a tree because Allah gave it. Because it makes dhikr to Allah, the ground harnesses that dhikr, it became a tree. This is what it means to be a murid. Kalau sikit-sikit je melatak, sikit-sikit je. Betul, correct? Always fighting. Then, how to become true murid? All of you are murid. Alhamdulillah, in this day of privilege, right? Or inclusive. Murshid can I be murid? Can. Can I be murid? Can. Last time really, we have to go and beat people first. Last time, the one sheikh, he waited 12 years outside the house of his sheikh to become a murid. 12 years he camped outside. Bukan datang when the sheikh is coming. No, he camped outside the house of the sheikh for 12 years. This is in Risalah Tughshayriya and all his other old books. Talks about their dedication is what we're learning from. Their dedication to overcome the the vices in the heart. So, like I was sharing in the asar class just now, there are many vices in the heart. So, the first part of the path is mimicking. Following, doing the sunnah, doing the sharia, doing this prayer, that prayer, until you don't know which calendar, what prayer you sunnah prayer. This one what, 4000? I don't know how many rakat you do already. Good. If that is in your head already, right, then it's good. That means it's turning to the Prophet. Once we have that, if there's no ibadah, how are you, how are we going to take out these bad characteristics? Not going to be possible. People want to take out bad characteristics without ibadah. There are people who do ibadah but don't want to take out bad characteristics. Itu pun tak boleh. So, we need to take out these bad characteristics. If we refuse to take it out, then Allah will send that wrestler. Trust me. In many other forms now, of course, there won't be a guy like that. Eh, look man. It's from murshid. For not wearing proper attire to majlis. Eh, Nasrud. It's for coming late. Can or cannot? No answer, so don't know yet. Salimah, how? Eh, Salimah. Boo! Salimah. This is for laughing too loud in the majlis. No, I'm just kidding. It won't come in the form of a wrestler. It will come in the challenges in life. Right? The difficulties in relationship and all that kind of thing. That's the wrestler that will come. Unless you all really want Hart Hogan to come, then I cannot do anything. That one is up to you. For those who know Hart Hogan, Undertaker, Undertaker, you will come. You get what I'm trying to say? So, zikr is this. You do zikr, you want good. But you need to take out the evil traits, these bad characteristics. So, next week, Inshallah, we'll talk about anger. That's the first one that we need to address. Ang? Anger. There's good anger, there's bad anger. So, go back this week, think about the story. Think about how we're using our calendar and think about the ibadah. Think about what are your... We all have good traits and we all have bad traits. Correct? In this world of privilege, they only concentrate on the good parts. It's okay. It's okay. But you know, you know I did something, it's okay to make mistakes. This is my 100th time. It's okay. Imagine if it's the 100th murder. It's okay. Imagine if it is the 100th person you smack under the head. Kabo blok you duduk. People going in and out of the lift. Why you do this? Because it's okay. Then there is the ego is being, what? It's growing. It's growing. Because no one tells you off. No one tells you it's not okay. Under this day and age, it's not okay, right? Later, we'll have to complain quickly and get into the story. So, Alhamdulillah, be happy and go and find the apple tree. Ada jual apple tree kat Singapore? Takde, we find the apples, right? So here, we don't throw stones at the apple tree. We throw money at the supermarket. And you get sweet apples. You throw this and you get sweet this. That's why we don't understand nature. We don't understand hardship. Tak boleh ambil kesusahan. You cannot take difficulties. Because it's that. But if you want to be treading on the path, then it is about that handling difficulties. It is about going through this. It is about being like that 80-year-old man. He wasn't being passive. Passive is when, oh you want to do, do lah. Apa you nak buat, you buat lah. Takde. He wasn't being like that. He was actively connected to God. So even when it came harder, he pushed harder. So a true murid is that. When things get tough, they go even what? Stronger. There's no time to pick a fight or be angry or whatever because of course this comes with age is 80. But you see, it's still something that is needed to be done. If we can start earlier, it will be good. I think Inshallah. So may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us Tawfiq. Protect our community. Make us always under the banner of Sayyidina Muhammad. To be following his ways. To be people who can withstand all of the challenges of Akhir Zaman. To be, to holding on to our Iman and Taqwa and the Nur of Sayyidina Muhammad and to keep our hearts always in the state of Zikr. To keep our minds in a state of purity. To keep our life pure Inshallah and to keep all of our family members under the Tajalli of Mahabba of Sayyidina Muhammad. We're protecting our community Inshallah, wherever they may be Inshallah and be spreading the light of Sayyidina Muhammad and spreading the light of Tariqa to all Inshallah.