25/05/22: Covid Tour 2022: Stoke On Trent

The Merits of the Shadhili way

Approximately 10 years ago, I worked on a book called, ‘The merits of the Shadhili way.’ I taught
the draft of the book in Chicago [in] 2015 I believe, ]20]14, I taught it in Chicago. I thought of going
through it with you in these remaining sessions, insha Allah, as much as we can. So I have here,
[48] merits. I meant to include 40 [although] I have [48] put together.

The main source is a work of Imam Muhammad Ibn Mas’ud al-Fasi, the grandfather of the
grandfather of my grandfather, spiritually. Imam Muhammad Ibn Mas’ud al-Fasi died 1289 AH.
That’s 155 years ago (since 2022AD). He lived in Makkah, originally from Fes, he lived in Makkah
and died in Makkah and spread the Shadhili way in the Middle East; in Syria, Egypt, Jordan,
Turkey, Iraq, Yemen, and in the Far East; Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, possibly other regions [that]
we are not aware of, and Egpyt and Sudan, together, also.

He left many murids [who] became great awliya. The two of his most famous of his murids are
Shaykh Muhammad al-Tayyib, and Prince Abdul Qadir al-Jaza’iri al-Hasani.

Shaykh Muhammad al-Tayyib, his brother [and] his khalifah [is] Shaykh Muhammad al-Mubarak,
are [both] teachers of my grandfather Sayyid Ismail al-Yaqoubi. Sayyid Ismail al-Yaqoubi took the
tariqa when he was very young [from] Shaykh Muhammad al-Tayyib, student of Imam Muhammad
ibn Mas’ud al-Fasi. And when Shaykh Muhammad al-Tayyib died, he [Sayyid Isma’il al-Yaqoubi]
was 13 years of age, he continued his sulook till he got ijaaza from Shaykh Muhammad al-
Mubarak.

His brother, Shaykh Sharif al-Yaqoubi, was [the] nephew of Shaykh Muhammad al-Mubarak. That
is to say [that] Shaykh Muhammad al-Mubarak and Shaykh Muhammad at-Tayyib [were] both
maternal uncles of Shaykh Sharif al-Yaqoubi; my grandfather brother, my fathers uncle.

So he, [Imam Muhammad Ibn Mas’ud al-Fasi] wrote a book in which he mentioned 25 reasons, he
called it, ‘Khasa’is At-Tariqa Ash-Shadhiliyya’, ‘Characteristics of the Shadhili way.’ I summarised
that book, and added to it, also, almost the size of it. I will mention them now, as a list, and then if
we have time to elaborate on as many [of them] as possible insha Allah, and in the next sessions
we will too.

1. The rst is [the Shadhili way] following al-Quran and al-Sunnah

2. It is the way of Rahmah and Fadl

3. It is the best representation of the way of Imam Al-Junaid

4. It leads [one] directly to Allah ‫ﷻ‬

5. It focuses on the single name of Allah ‫ﷻ‬

6. Realisation of the unity of Allah ‫ﷻ‬

7. Combination of shari’ah and haqiqah. It is tariqah [and] every tariqah has to have two wings:
shari’ah and haqiqah.

8. It follows the four methods of tarbiyah:

i. Al-Aqwaal (words)
ii. Al-Ahwaal (states)
iii. Al-Nadhar (looks)
iv. Al-Himmah (aspiration of the Shaykh)
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9. Al-Mudhakara. Al-Mudhakara is essential in the Shadhili tariqah. Al-Mudhakara is of two types:
Al-Mudhakara like what I’m doing now is reminders from the Shaykh where he speaks and gives
guidelines, guidance, answers questions, brings solutions, sheds light on what the murids are
going through or what they need.

There is another type of mudhakara, which is the student presenting his case to the Shaykh [and]
the Shaykh advising him on that [case], to the Shaykh or to the khalifah of the Shaykh or to the
muqaddam of the Shaykh. So mudhakara is unique in the Shadhili way.

10. Turning away from the world, from al-dunya. It’s the way that focuses on throwing the dunya
out of the heart.

11. No revenge. One of the principles of the Shadhili way is you never take revenge from your
enemies.

12. It is the way for all ranks of people; [whether they are] beginners, intermediate, students,
scholars, laypeople, upper class, wealthy people, government people, people of all types, all
walks of life.

13. The Shadhili way is the last way to vanish from the surface of the earth, the last way to vanish
from the face of the Earth, based on [a] hadith, [said in Arabic, meaning, ‘The hour will not come
whilst there are those on the earth who say ‘Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah’]. The Shadhili’s are the ones
who emphasise on the importance of the dhikr of, “Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah.”

14. It has a huge impact in Islam, and the development of Islam, and the spread of Islam.

15. The greatest saints of this ummah are from the Shadhili way or in the Shadhili silsila like
Sayyiduna Shaykh Abdul Qadir Al-Jaylani, Al-Qutb Abu Madyan Al-Ghawth or Imam Al-Junaid.

16. The Shadhili, in every time, the master of the time will be Shadhili: the master of the scholars
will be Shadhili, the master of the awliya will be Shadhili. So the Shadhili is the master of his time.

17. They do not hide. The Shadhilis declare they are Shadhilis. They don’t hide, it’s not a secretive
tariqah, it’s not based on seclusion away from people. It’s based on da’wah, it’s based on
declaring the nasb, the lineage, to Imam Abu al-Hassan Al-Shadhili.

18. The way of the Sharifs, from Imam Abul Hassan Al-Shadhili onward, the majority of the
masters were Sharifs. There were also great Awliya who were not Sharifs, but especially in our
silsila, it is distinguished for being the silsila of the ashraaf, the Sayyids.

19. Testimonies of the ‘ulema: some of the greatest ‘ulema in the past eight centuries testi ed to
the way of Imam Abul Hassan Al-Shadhili, starting from the sultan of the ‘ulema, the great Sha ’
scholar, ‘Iz Ul-Deen Ibn ‘Abd Al-Salam who was a contemporary of Imam Abul Hassan Al-
Shadhili. He attended the battle of Al-Mansura together with a group of great ‘ulema. Imam Abul
Hassan Al-Shadhili was also there towards the end of his life. Imam Abu Al-Hasan Al-Shadhili was
speaking, someone was reading from Al-Risalah of Imam Qushayri and Imam Abul Hassan Al-
Shadhili was commenting. ‘Iz ul- Deen Ibn ‘Abd Al-Salam got out of the tent calling people,
dancing in ecstasy, “Come, come and listen to these words that are freshly coming from Allah ‫”ﷻ‬.
Imam Al-Suyuti authored a book on the virtues of defence of Imam Abul Hassan Al-Shadhili and
[the] defence of the Shadhili way.

20. His [Imam Abul Hassan Al-Shadhili’s] litanies are masterpieces.

21. Al-Suyuti’s book is one of the greatest merits, no other scholar has ever written any book
similar to Al-Suyuti’s level in supporting or defence of any other tariqah. We have Ibn ‘Abideen Al-
Shami who wrote a great book defending Mawlana Khalid Naqshbandi, also its a great example of
how a great scholar defends a man of Allah, because Mawlana Khalid Naqshbandi was criticised,
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 so Imam Ibn ‘Abideen wrote a book about him, sall al-husam al-hindi li nusrati mawlana khalid al-
naqshbandi.

But Imam Al-Suyuti Al-Jalal Al-Din, who is the most proli c writer; his books are over a 1000
books, he wrote over a 1000 works. He died year 911 AH, 911, easy to remember, may Allah
protect us and protect you here, and protect all the world insha Allah from these khawarij. So he
was born 849AH, and died 911AH in al-Qahirah. He was a great man of Allah ‫ﷻ‬, Imam Suyuti
himself. He was Shadhili himself. He used to meet the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬while awake, he had meetings
with the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬, and lengthy meetings with the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬.

22. The most famous poet who praised the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬after Sayyiduna Hassan Ibn Thabit is
Imam Al-Busiri, right? Who doesn’t know his Burdah? But very few people know that he was a
Shadhili.

He was [a] mureed of Sayyiduna Abu Al-‘Abbas Al-Mursi, the khalifah of Imam Abul Hassan Al-
Shadhili. He even lived during the time of Imam Abul Hassan Al-Shadhili, so when Imam Abu Al-
Hasan Al-Shadhili died, Imam Al-Busiri wrote a poem, ‘In Eulogy of Imam Abul Hassan Al-
Shadhili.’ It is as long as the Burdah. The burdah is 160 lines, his poem on Imam Abu Al-Hasan Al-
Shadhili is 144 lines in which he praises Imam Abu Al-Hasan Al-Shadhiili and praises his lineage
and praises his level of wilayah, he praises his level of knowledge of shariah, of haqiqah, and
states in this poem very clearly there is no Qutb higher than him. Then he praises Imam Abu Al-
‘Abbas al-Mursi, he congratulates him on being the khalifah of Imam Abu Al-Hasan Al-Shadhili
and also praises him. That’s one of the greatest merits of the Shadhili way when you have these
great gures, the top of the ‘ulema ever, Imam Al-Suyuti probably, there is no more proli c writer
than him in the history of Islam, to be a Shadhili. Then the most famous poet who praised the
Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬to be a Shadhili, that’s one of the greatest bounties, ever.

23. Imam Al-Jazuli is Shadhili. It is enough just to praise the Shadhili way by having Imam Al-
Jazuli as a great Shadhili gure. There is no book any human being ever wrote more important, or
more needed, or more widely spread than Dalai’l Al-Khayrat, right? Mushaf is the book of Allah ‫ﷻ‬.
We talk about Sahih Al-Bukhari; no, people don’t bene t as much from Sahih Al-Bukhari in as
much as they bene t from Dala’il Al-Khayrat. Scholars bene t from Sahih Al-Bukhari, but every
muslim bene tted from Dala’il Al-Khayrat, over all these centuries, from year 870[AH] when Imam
Al-Jazuli died till our time. The miracles of Dala’il Al-Khayrat, by itself, could make a book, just the
miracles people witnessed on Dala’il Al-Khayrat.

I have written a book, probably you’ve seen the announcement on my facebook page in Arabic,
I’ve written a book on the isnaads of Dalail Al-Khayrat; scholars who gave ijaaza of Dalail Al-
Khayrat or received ijaaza of Dala’il Al-Khayrat, or narrated from scholars who had ijaaza in Dala’il
Al-Khayrat around the world; from China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Afghanistan, As-Sindh,
Pakistan, to the Arab world, Turkey, Africa, Nigeria, Mali, other African countries like Zanzibar,
Morocco, around the world. When I announced the book, it was I think around 1800 pages, I
announced that in Rabi’. The book now is 4300 pages. It is 6 volumes without the indices and
without the manuscript scans, [in total] it will be 7 volumes, just on the isnaads of Dala’il Al-
Khayrat, scholars who have narrated Dala’il Al-Khayrat and their chains of transmission.

So you can imagine how much impact Dala’il Al-Khayrat had. I wanted to write the book to prove
that without Dala’il Al-Khayrat, without the scholars who narrated Dal’ail Al-Khayrat, you wouldn’t
have our deen. According to some people, some sects, Dala’il Al-Khayrat is shirk and people who
recite Dala’il Al-Khayrat are deviators; not only deviators, they are associators, because they do all
types of shirk according to them. But those who narrated Dala’il Al-Khayrat are all Scholars from
all madhabs. I have deduced isnaads of Dala’il Al-Khayrat with scholars of [the] four madhabs,
even hanbali Su scholars, because tasawwuf spread amongst the four madhabs. In Syria, in
Palestine, in Al-Ahsa, in Najd itself, there were great Hanbali scholars who were Su s, and the
majority of them were Shadhilis, even Hanbali scholars I’m talking. City of Nablus, in Palestine,
was always Hanbali, [known as] the city of the Hanbali, [a] great fortress of the Hanbali school. Al-
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Ahsa and Najd originally used to be Malikites, they were a minority of Hanbalis, but the madhab
there [was] Malikites, the madhab stays now, in Al-Ahsa. There are still great families of scholars
who maintained the Maliki madhab in al-Ahsa in eastern Arabia.

24. The dua of Imam Abul Hassan Al-Shadhili is answered. Imam Abu Al-Hasan Al-Shadhili made
dua that anyone who joins his tariqa, Allah ‫ ﷻ‬resurrects them with him. Allah ‫ ﷻ‬showed him a
book in which the names of his disciples are mentioned, until the day of judgement and he asked
Allah ‫ ﷻ‬that Allah ‫ ﷻ‬gives him intercession for all of them.

25. The Shadhili, Abul Hassan Al-Shadhili is named by Allah ‫ﷻ‬: “Anta Sha dhu-li” you are the one
who left the world and came to me, uniquely, as an individual, “Anta Sha dhu-li”. Although the city
itself was called Shadhila in Tunisia, where he lived for a while and later on migrated to Egypt after
the envy of the ‘ulema of Tunisia, they envied him and made complaints against him. He defeated
them, out-did them, refuted them in a debate, then he travelled to Egypt. He is originally from
Morocco, sharif, Hassani Sayyid.

26. Imam Abu Al-Hassan Al-Shadhili is the heir of Sayyiduna RasulAllah ‫ ﷺ‬in body and soul. So
not only just a mere murshid, he inherited Sayyiduna Rasulullah ‫ ﷺ‬in both, in his body as a
grandson of the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬, and as a Qutb.

27. He is granted intercession.

28. His life is documented.

29. The Qutb of each time is always Shadhili. This is speci cally in the Shadhili way. The Qutb, the
main Qutb, al-Qutb al-Ghawth, Al-Waris Al-Muhammadi, is always Shadhili.

30. [The] Top ranked saints are Shadhilis.

31. Meeting the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬. Every true Shadhili murid who maintains his awraad should not leave
this world before meeting the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬while awake. Every true murid before leaving this world
should meet the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬, that is to say, that the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬would come to his vision before
leaving this world. Sometimes [in] the very last minute, it happens on his death bed.

32. Imam Abu Al-Hassan Al-Shadhili is set free from [the] Fire, as he promised, he and his
followers.

33. Imam Abu Al-Hassan Al-Shadhili was given knowledge of the unseen: he spoke a lot of the
events that are to happen in the future.

34. The Shadhilis’ majdhub always recover and became sober. That is to say, [a] majdhub is a
person who become[s] overwhelmed by [the] state of insanity, actually, by a state of annihilation,
where people judge him as an insane person, but he is not, because they call them madhjub,
attracted to Allah ‫ﷻ‬. Attraction to Allah ‫ ﷻ‬happens suddenly sometimes, some bodies and souls
take it [and] absorb it well, some they don’t. So, the madhjub amongst the Shadhili’s always
become sober and his end will become an ‘arif.

Adhan was then given

Muezzins are known to be, on the day of Judgment, to have the longest necks, after hadith from
the Prophet ‫[ ﷺ‬after reciting the hadith], which means, they survive the torment of the day of
reckoning, because people got drowned in their sweat’ some to their ankles, some to their knees,
some to their waists, some to their necks. So, they have the longest necks. Why did the Prophet
‫ ﷺ‬say so? Because Muezzins, usually, get on the roofs, during the time of the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬, and
they look always, try to look, because they want to see, did the sun rise or not, did the fajr as-
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sadiq appear or not, did the sun set or not. So they always try to get higher to see, so Allah ‫ﷻ‬
rewards them by making their necks long. We always spoke about [that] the rewards are always,
in a way or another, from the same type of act of worship that you make.

Is it valid to say, as-hadu [with a ‫ س‬rather than a ‫ ]ش‬instead of ash-hadu in the adhan? Shaykh
Yaseen, can we say as-hadu instead of ash-hadu? [Shaykh Yaseen said] If you are Sayyiduna
Bilal. [Sayyiduna Shaykh continues] Very good masha Allah. So that this is for you not to object
when you see a non-arab making adhan, and sometimes they don’t get the ‘Ha’ properly, hayya
‘alalfalaah, for example, hayya alalfalaa, a non-arab doing adhan don’t say his adman is invalid, his
adhan is valid, because Sayyiduna Belal, used to say ‘as hadu alaa ilaa ha illallah’, and some
sahabah complained to the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬, and he answered, ‘the ‫ س‬of Belal is ‫ ش‬before Allah ‫ﷻ‬.’

35. One of the merits of the Shadhilis is that loving the Shadhiliis, others loving the Shadhilis, is a
means of survival for the others.

36. Imam Abu Al-Hassan al-Shadhili reached the highest level of sainthood, wilayah.

37. The Shadhili way is the culmination of the Qadiri way. Some people ask what’s the relationship
between the Shadhili way and the Qadiri way. Of course, Sayyiduna Shaykh Abd Al-Qadir Al-Jilani
is in our chain, one of our forefathers, and of course he’s [a] great sultan of the awliya, and Al-Baz
Al-Ashab, and one of the main gures in Islam.

The Shadhili way is a development of the teachings of Sayyiduna Shaykh Abd Al-Qadir Al-Jilani.
Imam Abu Al-Hassan Al-Shadhili took it and started from there, and went further and further in the
real baqa and fana especially, fana and baqa, and real tawheed, realisation of tawheed.

38. One of the unique merits of the Shadhili way is the habit of visiting the shrines of the awliya.
We spoke about that before.

39. The Shadhilis are very much concerned about puri cation, actual puri cation, in terms of
cleaning yourself before wudu, in terms of wudu, ghusl etcetera.

40. The Shadhilis, they follow the actual route of seeking rizq. So, it is the best way that
represents the sunnah of the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬. The Shadhilis may, sometimes, retreat, but their ultimate
goal is not seclusion from the society. The sunnah of the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬is represented by his
sahabah; work in the dunya and journey to Allah ‫ ﷻ‬while you are seeking your sustenance.
Sometimes tajrid is needed. Tajrid is seclusion, retreat, is needed, and it is practiced by
instructions of the Shaykh in as much as it is needed. People used to travel to the Shaykh in the
past to stay in his zawiya, stay there for a year, two, three years sometimes, but the ultimate goal
is not to retreat for the rest of your life.

41. The Shadhili way is the way of the sunnah where we don’t have innovations. Everything we
practice in the Shadhilli way is following the sunnah of the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬.

42. The Shadhili way is majestic. It brings awe in its outward form, but beauty or entertainment in
its inward form.

43. One of the main characteristics of the Shadhilis is that they take care of their hearts, they
guard their hearts.

44. Acting against your desires.

45. The Shadhilis are known for extra care of following the character of Rasulullah ‫ﷺ‬, for
searching for the subtleties of the adab and akhlaaq and the behaviour and the sulook, whether in
dress code, whether in behaviour, words, whether it is in socialisation with people. They were
uniquely known for their code of etiquette, in another way.
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 46. The majority of Muslims, if you considered in the past up till now, the percentage of people
who have tariqa, the majority are Shadhilis. And in the past, majority of [the] people in the past
used to be Shadhilis

47. One of the characteristics of the Shadhilis is that they don’t get lured by the amount of
knowledge they have. That is to say, we become scholars, but no matter how big a scholar you
are, when you start your journey to Allah ‫ ﷻ‬you go to point zero.

An example of that is Prince Abdal Qadir. I explained about him; he was a great political leader. He
was one of the world leaders at the time, highly respected, and a great su master also, who took
the Qadiri way through his family chain and he took also directly from Mawlana Khalid
Naqhsbandi in the Naqshbandi way when he travelled for Hajj in his youth with his father.

He was a great scholar, of the top level of scholarship in hadith, in qh, in tawheed, in all these
sciences, yet he humbled himself and took tariqa, took the Shadhili way, from Imam Muhammad
Ibn Mas’ud al-Fasi, who was one year older than him. They were peers of the same time and with
all of the high rank of Prince Abdal Qadir, who had 500 bodyguards, or a squad of 500 people to
guard him when he lived Damascus. He had salaries from the Ottoman empire to sponsor all of
his entourage, and he was himself sponsoring dozens of scholars in Damascus. He received gifts
from world leaders; in Britain, King George, from Queen Katarina in Russia, from world leaders,
because he protected the consults and protected the Christian community in Damascus when
there was a riot and the Druze, there was a sect called Druze, there was a sect in Lebanon and
south of Syria. There was a con ict in Lebanon between the Druze and the Christians which
moved to Damascus. The Druze south of Syria came and invaded the city of Damascus and
burned the Christian quarter. So, Prince Abdal Qadir got his squad, they were all Moroccans, and
they went to the Christian quarters and they protected what remained there, and they brought
thousands of Christians and they pushed away the also the invaders and the looters. Also, he
hosted in his home the consuls of the foreign powers of the time, great European powers.

And the other scholar who played [a] very important role in that riot, two scholars, one of them is
very famous to you Hana s, is the author of Al-Lubab, Shaykh Abd Al-Ghani al-Ghunymi al-
Maydaani. He lived in the southern quarter of Damascus called ‘maydaan’. Maydaan had a few
lanes of Christians, minority, living there. Shaykh Abd Al-Ghani al-Ghunaymi delivered a Friday
speech and he said to the people of Maydaan, the Christians are under our protection, no-one
touches the them. The Maydaani people are well known to be strong people and people ready to
ght, so they didn’t let any looters or invaders [get] into Al-Maydaan, and no Christian was
harmed in the quarter of Al-Maydaan.

The third scholar is Mahmud Hamza, Mahmud al-Hamzawi, who later became the Mufti of Syria,
and also a great scholar. He wrote [a] tafsir of Al-Quran Al-Karim using only 13 letters of the Arabic
alphabet that do not have dots. One huge volume, full tafsir of with words without dots, 13 letters
only. If you go back to my poetry, trace my poetry, I have 2 poems that I wrote using only 13
letters of the Arabic alphabet without dots in praise of Sayyiduna Rasul Allah ‫ ﷺ‬because his
name is without dots, Muhammad, meem ha meem dal, no dots. The same with the name Allah.
This is something, this is a feature to re ect upon. Allah, alif laam laam ha, no dots, at all. Audio
8:59, Qasim 2 One poem is 40 lines, from Al-Bahr Al-Tawil, and one poem is 70 lines, ‘Sa’d Al-
Sa’ud’. You can seek them, they are available, they have been published. So this is Shaykh
Mahmud Al-Hamzawi.

Upon that, upon this great work, both Prince Abd Al-Qadir and Shaykh Abd Al-Ghani Al-
Ghunaymi were amongst the world leaders. We are talking about the Hana faqih who was zaahid,
Shaykh Abd Al-Ghani Al-Ghunaymi. Prince Abd Al-Qadir was already a great leader; he fought
France in Algeria, and won many battles against France, he established a state, he even made
factories to make canons. He even coined his own currency in Algeria.
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 So we were talking about Shaykh Abd al-Ghani Al-Ghunaymi and Shaykh Mahmud Hamza, and
Prince Abdul Qadir and how much they contributed to the establishment of justice in Damascus,
against the unbelievers, the Christian community in Damascus, because they were ahlul dhimma.

This is well documented in history, although the Christians exaggerate a lot; they claim 10,000
Christians were killed. At that time the whole population of Damascus was 60,000. They
exaggerate a lot and the West made a lot of fuss about it. But the bottom line of it, as people say,
is that Muslims all rose together to protect the Christians, and [including] the greatest Muslim
gures. As a result of their contribution both Prince Abd Al-Qadir and Shaykh Abd Al-Ghani al-
Ghunaymi, the great zaahid, the great faqih, they were invited by world leaders to attend the
inauguration of the Suez canal by Khedive Ismail, the king of Egypt at that time, the ruler of Egypt,
Khedive Ismail.

They both travelled, Prince Abdul Qadir and Shaykh Abd Al-Ghani Al-Ghunaymi. When you are
studying Al-Lubab now you will remember more about, when you teach Al-Lubab, you know more
about Shaykh Abd Al-Ghani Al-Ghunaymi.

I narrate from two scholars from him, two means, from one of his main students in Damascus,
who was Shaykh Amin Suwayd, the great ‘allaamah. I met many of his students of the students of
Shaykh Amin Suwayd. My father attended with Shaykh Amin Suwayd, but [as he] was little, [he]
didn’t get ijaaza from Shaykh Amin Suwayd. But Shaykh Makki al Kittani got ijaaza from Shaykh
Amin Suwayd, Shaykh Salih Farfur got ijaaza from Shaykh Amin Suwayd, Shaykh Yusuf Fa’raar
got ijaaza from Shaykh Amin Suwayd, and Shaykh Abu Al-Yusr Al-‘abidin got ijaaza from Shaykh
Amin Suwayd. So through them I narrate through from Shaykh Amin Suwayd from Shaykh Abd al-
Ghani al-Ghunaymi, Al-Lubab, also.

One of his students is also Sayyid Ali Al-Dhahir Al-Witli, in Madina Al-Munawwarah. I narrate from
Sayyid Makki Al-Kittani from Sayyid Ali Al-Dhaahir Al-Witli from Shaykh Abd Al-Ghani Al-
Ghunaymi. Shaykh Abd al-Ghani al-Ghunaymi narrates from ibn ‘Abidin, he was a student of ibn
‘Abiden in Hana qh.

48. The Shadhili Way is the way of annihilation. It is well known ‘Al-Tariq Al-Fanaai wa baqaai,’ the
way of annihilation and remaining. It's the culmination of all Su ways that represent al-fanaa as
talked about, as described, as elaborated on, as experienced by the great Su masters from the
time of Imam Junaid, Imam Qushairi, his teachers, his students, later on until the Shadhili way
culminated the practice of al-fanaa and al-baqaa

So those, those are the merits. I will start with the rst one which is following the Book of Allah ‫ﷻ‬
and the sunnah of RasulAllah ‫ﷺ‬

The Shadhili way is supported by the Book of Allah ‫ ﷻ‬and the sunnah of the Messenger of Allah,
‫ﷺ‬, and is bound for them, and there is no deviation in the Shadhili way and in its practices from
Al-Quran and al-sunnah of the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬, and the consensus of the Muslim jurists.

Here you will notice that we always, when we say, that we follow Al-Kitaab and al-sunnah, we
must add to it ‘ijmaa Al-Ummah, the consensus of the Ummah. This is what distinguishes us from
those who claim to follow the Book of Allah and the sunnah of Rasulullah ‫ ﷺ‬and deviate from the
consensus of the Muslim ummah. This is stated by great scholars like Imam Tahawi, in the famous
epistle on aqidah, Al-Aqidah Al-Tahawiyyah, Imam al Harith ibn Asad al Muhasibi, in his famous
risalah, al-Mustarshideen. They always say that we follow Al-Quran, al-Sunnah, and ijma’ Al-
Ummah. These are our sources.

So those who say in our time that they follow al-Quran and al-sunnah, they can't claim that they
follow ijma’ Al-Ummah, those deviators, because they follow one scholar, Imam – for example, we
follow Imam Abu Hanifa and Imam Al-Sha and Imam Malik and Imam Ahmad. I will clarify this
following later on, but they follow Ibn Taymiyyah.
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 So, they blindly follow Ibn Taymiyyah while we never blindly follow Abu Hanifa. When Abu Hanifa
made mistakes, or his students thought that his opinions were wrong, they changed their opinions
and did not follow him. The same also, students of Imam Malik, when they thought that Imam
Malik's opinion was wrong, they adopted di erent opinions. This is what I said before, that ‘1/3 of
the Hana school does not belong to Abu Hanifa,’ which shows you that there is no taqleed a’ama
in the madhab.

This is very important to understand about why we follow a madhab and what we follow when we
follow a madhab. When we follow a madhab, and we follow 12 centur[ies] of scholars who looked
at the opinions of the founders, his fatwas, his proofs, weighed them, saw his arguments, counter
argumented his opinions, and often they would change and they wouldn't mind bringing di erent
opinions if they saw that the proof is not with the Imam, but with a di erent opinion.

So every madhab is not the opinion of Abu Hanifa. If you say that you want to follow Abu Hanifa
and you’re [a] Hana , you can't follow Abu Hanifa while you are a Hana because the fatwa
opinion on many issues will not be the opinion of Abu Hanifa. This is a huge di erence between
madhab Abi Hanifa and al-madhab al-Hana . The opinions of al-saahibian, Abu Yusuf al-Qadhi
and Muhammad ibn Hasan al-Shaybani are almost 1/3 of the madhab. And Zufur of course on 17
issues or so, to be taken for fatwa[s] as [a] reliable opinion. So we're not blind followers. In every
generation, after the generation of ibn ‘abidn and even his son Ala’ ibn abidin, who contributed to
the writing of Majallah, even in Majallah there have been ikhtiyaraat; there have been opinions
given priority to one opinion over the other.

Even I mentioned, also, yesterday, Imam Ahmad Raza Khan, who also tackled the Hashiyah of Ibn
‘Abidin , looked at it, taught it, read it and also re ected on some of the, let's say, tarjihaat of ibn
‘abidin, and he would make his ijtihad.

So that's when we say we’re Hana ; we’re proud to be Hana s, because we don't blindly follow
one person. We follow the fruit, the result of the thinking of the minds that have been [the] most
intelligent of their times. The same in the Maliki school, the same in the Sha ’ school, the same
the Hanbali school. To follow Imam Ahmad is di erent from to follow the Hanbali school. To follow
Imam Malik is di erent from to follow the Maliki school. The same also with the Sha ’ school,
which is quite obvious also because Imam Al-Sha ’ had two madhabs, Qadim and Jadid. In most
of the Qadim he was in conformity with Imam Maliks opinions because he used to give fatwa,
‘Qalul Ustaadh,’ whenever he is asked he would say, ‘Qalul Ustaadh, qalul Ustaadh’ referring to
Imam Malik. Then when he came into Egypt, there was this sort of rivalry with the top students of
Imam Malik in Egypt at the time. Cairo was not established in Egypt, [instead it was known as] al-
fustat. Imam Al-Sha ’ gave his own opinions, started sort of di ering from the opinions of his
teacher, Imam Malik.

So, this is what makes our madhabs exible. In every time there must be scholars in every
madhab who are able to give fatwa, who are able to give tarjeeh, who are able to do takhreej of
new ahkam following the rules of their Imam, and who are able to do ijtihaad within the madhab.
These are the main four categories, there are elaborately, there are more categories, but these are
the main categories deduced from the writings of Imam Ibn Kamal Pasha.

So [why do] the New Age Sala s, who claim to follow the Book of Allah and the sunnah of
Rasulullah ‫ ﷺ‬, [instead] they strictly, blindly follow ibn Taymiyya? The school of ibn Taymiyya has
never developed because they take his opinions blindly, and they follow them and practice them,
and they have never developed. Even Ibn Taymiyya’s opinion in the Hanbali school itself, as a
faqih, Ibn Taymiyyah was a faqih, a Hanbali faqih, in the hanbali school itself. You go to the
Hanbali books, sometimes they adopt his opinion, sometimes his opinions are not adopted,
because they were weak.

The Hanbali school developed after ibn Taymiyyah, with ibn Taymiyyah or without ibn Taymiyah.
But the sala s, or New Age Sala s, we’re the true sala s, the New Age Sala s, they follow ibn
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 Taymiyya blindly exactly as his students followed him blindly. This is the di erence between
following a madhab and following a man. You see how the issue is.

This is why we say we follow the Book of Allah, the sunnah of Rasulullah ‫ ﷺ‬and ijma’ Al-Ummah,
the consensus of the Ummah. The consensus of the Ummah guarantees for us not to deviate
from the Ummah of Sayyiduna Rasulullah ‫ﷺ‬.

[Sayyidi recited Quran 4:115] According to a story narrated from Imam Sha ’, he recited Al-Quran
Al-Karim 50 times looking for a proof for al-ijma’ till he came across this verse. ‘Anyone who
deviates from the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger, after guidance has been made clear to him,
and follow other than the way of the believers, the way of the believers.’ What is the way of the
believers? [It is] the way the scholars of the believers agreed upon, ijma’ Al-Ummah.

It's very important to highlight the combination of the three together. Now, do you have, as an
individual, to follow Al-Quran and al-sunnah and al-ijma’? No. Following Al-Quran or al-sunnah or
al-ijma’ is for the mujtahid. You follow the faqih, the mufti, the Imam of your quarter, your teacher
you learn from, because you can't deduce ahkam directly from Al-Quran and al-sunnah. You
follow someone who follows Al-Quran and al-sunnah and al-ijma’ until you become a great
scholar where you can go to Al-Quran and al-sunnah and deduce your own ahkam. We're not
saying it's impossible, but it's rare and di cult because it involves a lot of studies. You follow the
guidance of the Quran of course, we follow the guidance of the sunnah of the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬. But
when we come to the legislative matters, deducing ahkam from Al-Quran and al-sunnah, no, we
follow the scholars who follows Al-Quran and al-sunnah. So they tell us what's haram, what’s halal
after having re ected on the proofs in both Al-Quran and the al-sunnah and looked at al-ijma’.

Al-Qiyas is one of the sources of the, of legislation in Islam, but it refers to Al-Quran and al-
sunnah, because the hukum that is used to make [an] analogy for has to be established by Al-
Quran or al-sunnah. There is a ruling that happened, and there is no text, there's no ruling for it,
[for] an event that happened. We found a precedent in qh that matches this in it's ‘illah, the ‘illah
is the same, the cause for, the cause not the wisdom, the cause, it has been established as haram
or as halal or as makruh or as mandub. Then the job of the mujtahid, after a lot of work, a lot of
work to be done, is to give [a] ruling. This is qiyas, analogy, it's called.

So anyway, Imam al-Junaid says, ‘Our discipline, this tasawwuf, is bound by the Book of Allah
and the sunnah of Rasulullah ‫ﷺ‬. Anyone who has not studied the Quran, and narrated the
sunnah, shall not be followed in the Su way, in the Su tradition.’ Anyone who has not studied
the Quran and the sunnah, not practiced them. Again, I go back here to what I said in some of the
early talks in the South, that the Su murshid does not have to be a scholar. He has to have
studied fardul ‘ayn. We need to de ne; does a grammarian have to be a faqih? No. Does the faqih
have to be a grammarian? He has to get of grammar what he needs in qh, in teaching qh, the
necessary amount which is quite quite a lot. It's not just simple, so that he doesn't make
mistakes, serious mistakes in qh, but it doesn't harm Abu Hanifa that he was not Sibawayh. It
does not also harm Sibawayh that he was not Abu Hanifa. Everyone has his own specialty. So
the science of the tasawwuf has its own also specialty, its own rules.

A Su master, a murshid, does not have to be a grammarian or a scholar of ‘usul, or a deep

scholar in qh, or a scholar of seerah. All he needs to do in order to be able, to qualify for irshaad
is to do his to sulook throughout the journey with a Su master, receive ijaazah from him, after
having studied fardul ‘ayn, fardul ‘ayn which is necessary for every believer. So he should know
the ‘ibadaat, he should know the mu’amilaat, he should know the al-kabaair, he should know the
basics here of the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬, he should know the basic, what we call it, al-ma’loom mi nad-
deeni wa durura, such things, adaab and akhlaaq, also, basics, of-course tasawwuf is all akhlaaq,
tasawwuf is adab. This is quite the area of irshaad and tarbiyyah. So that’s it, but it doesn't harm a
murshid if he makes grammatical mistakes. Because here you see, ‘uluma al-dhaahir, scholars of
qh, scholars, public speakers, you know, these gures, they see a murshid who doesn't speak
Arabic well, they tell you, ‘Oh, this is not a scholar. How come he is doing irshaad?.’ Well, he
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 doesn't have to have grammar. And many of the great murshids did not have base in grammar or
base in these disciplines. We know the famous ones of course, Shaykh Abdul Qadir Al-Jilani and
Imam Junaid or Sayyiduna Abu Al-Hasan Al-Shadhili, or Sayyiduna Ahmad Al-Rafa’i; these were
great scholars of both sharia and haqiqah, but many others did not [have as a strong base in
shariah]. Ali Al-Khawas, teacher of Imam Sha’rani, one of the teachers, one of the many, many
teachers of Imam Sha’rani, ‘Ali Al-Khawas was ummi, unlettered, illiterate. Imam Sha’rani wrote
books of his words in irshaad. And Abdul Aziz Dabbagh Al-Qutb, also one example. ‘Ali Al-Jamal,
we were discussing his texts also, the teacher and master of Imam Al-Arabi Al-Darqawi is another
example, a lay person, produced masterpieces in tarbiyyah, in tasawwuf, in ma’rifah, in tawhid.

So, this point is quite important because you might come across, well, alhamdulillah, Allah ‫ ﷻ‬has
given me the opportunity to study the sciences of shariah and excel in many areas of the sciences
of the shariah. But not all Su masters have to be at the same level, here you need to understand.

So when you see someone criticising a Su master, a murshid, who's quali ed and has his lineage
in a tariqa as not being a scholar, or not being a being a great faqih, his job is not to give fatwas.
[If you] want a fatwa you go to a faqih. His job is not to teach you as-sanusiyyah or
Al-Fiqh Al-Akbar, [if] you want to study these books you go to a teacher of aqidah. His job is not
to teach you grammar, or you see, so don't be lured by, when you see that you know, well, this
shadhili shaykh now in front of us is a scholar but this man is not a scholar, so he's not a murshid,
he's not a wali, he's not – no. Every one of you can be a wali of Allah ‫ﷻ‬. I said this and I repeat
this again, every one of you could be a man or a woman of Allah ‫ﷻ‬. The road for wilyah is not
bound by memorisation, is not bound by eloquence; [it] is bound by you perfect[ing] your niyyahs,
you purify[ing] your heart, you observe[ing] your actions, you disclaim[ing] everything before Allah
‫ ﷻ‬,you come[ing] to Him in need, in poverty, in ignorance, in weakness, to claim, to receive His
bounties of knowledge, of strength, of wealth, of everything He gives, to disclaim everything, to
annihilate from yourself, especially from your ego, ‘ana’, the ego destroys.

So this process is what makes you a better believer, step by step, till you reach, when you have
tawakkul on Allah ‫ﷻ‬. Just work on one maqaam, work on one maqaam and see how much your
imaan will improve, your relationship with Allah ‫ﷻ‬, your understanding of what Allah ‫ ﷻ‬does to
you or to others will improve just by understanding tawakkul, which is one of a 100 maqaam[s].

Al-Shaykh Al-Akbar radiAllahu ta’ala ‘anh established a chess board ,10 squares by 10 squares,
he called it ‘the chessboard of the gnostics’. In every square he put one maqaam, and then
show[s] how you move from one maqaam to another. It's not a chess game, it[’s] just a chess
board designed by a Al-Shaykh Al-Akbar ibn Arabi radiAllahu ta’ala anh. Shaykhu Shayukhna , the
great Shaykh of of Damascus, the great ‘arif, the great ‘allamah, Shaykh Muhammad Al-Hashimy,
author the commentary on Sharh Shatjanj al-`Ari n, beautiful text, beautiful book also on that.

So one of 100 maqaam, Shaykh Al-Islam Al-Harawi, Abu Abdillah authored the book Manazil as-
Sa’iereen, which is a great work also and embraced by Su s. But Al-Harawis opinions on ‘aqidah
are not to be adopted, you have to be quite careful. Not every scholars opinions in one issue or in
one discipline are accepted in another discipline. Like Mullah Al-Qari is a great Hana scholar, but
we don't take his opinion on the parents of the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬for example. So the same also, there
are modern scholars now who teach, for example, but they have di erent opinions of Shaykh Al-
Akbar. So you need to be careful, we don't take their opinions, we bene t from their knowledge.
It's not a reason to reject them and to be enemies of them just because they believe that well, this
Shaykh Al-Akbar is a controversial gure. No, they are ‘asharis, they are ahlus sunnah, so we
bene t from them. But we take notice of that opinion and put it aside. It's not going to change us
or sway us.

So we have several examples of the past of scholars who bene ted the Muslim Ummah a lot, but
had weird positions or opinions on some issues. And on top of that, it start[ed] at the time of the
sahabah radiallahu ta’ala wa anhum. Sayyidah ‘Aisha radiAllahi ta’ala ‘anha had her opinion on
giving milk to elders, and making the elders your son if a woman gives milk to a man above two
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years, to a boy above the age of two years. The opinion was neglected by all the sahabah
radiallahu ta’ala anhum. It didn't change their position towards Sayyidah ‘Aisha being a great
scholar, the greatest female scholar, the greatest amongst the sahabah female scholars, radiallahu
ta’ala anha. The same in in our time, also.

Then Imam Al-Junayd says also, ‘All ways, to Allah ‫ﷻ‬, are blocked except for those who follow
the footsteps of the Messenger of Allah ‫ﷺ‬.’ Also Imam Al-Junayd says, the text reads - actually
this statement is by Imam Abu Al-Hasan Al-Shadhili, not by Imam Al-Junayd, Imam Abu Al-Hasan
Al-Shadhili says so, ‘If the knowledge you receive when the veil is removed, kashf, the removal of
the veil, so Allah ‫ ﷻ‬removed the veil from your eyes, so you witness with your heart some facts,
some things happening or through ilham, through inspiration, Allah is putting in your mind directly
some knowledge. If the knowledge you receive through kashf or through inspiration, ilham, goes
against the Book and the sunnah, hold fast the Book and the sunnah, and leave the kashf behind
you. You should remind yourself,’ Imam Abu Al-Hasan continues, ‘Allah ‫ ﷻ‬guaranteed your
protection from misguidance with following the Book and the sunnah.’ There's a guarantee from
Allah ‫ ﷻ‬when you follow the Book and the sunnah you will never be under misguidance. But if
you follow your kashf, or your inspiration, before comparing it to the Book of Allah ‫ ﷻ‬and the
sunnah of Rasulullah ‫ﷺ‬, you might be deviating from the Book of Allah ‫ ﷻ‬and the sunnah of
Rasullullah ‫ﷺ‬.

This is why Imam Imatin az-Zubad of the Sha ’ qh, [said to] weigh every thought that occurs in
your mind according to the shariah, in the scale of the shariah. If it is commanded, then rush to do
it. This is about a thought that occurs in your mind. Can you see how much we need to weigh
every thought that occurs in our mind and see whether it is really recommended by the shariah or
not? The thoughts, not the actions, the thoughts, every thought that occurs in your mind.
Although you're not held accountable for your thoughts out of the Mercy of Allah ‫ ﷻ‬if they are
bad, but you need to weigh them against the shariah to see if they are compatible or not.

Now, if this is about the thoughts, what about the inspiration which is weaker than thoughts
apparently, apparently, but for people who receive ilham of course it's stronger, but from an
outsider point of view, they are weaker. What about about kashf, which is also from an outsider
point of view is weaker, but for the people of kahsf, of course kashf is the strongest method of
information. The strongest method of information is kashf. Kashf is like, what I say when I teach
aqidah usually, people know Allah ‫ ﷻ‬because others told them Allah is in existence or they found
the proofs themselves. I usually give the example of if we are in this in this room and there are no
windows, and we are here for [a] long time and we lose track of time. We need to know whether it
is outside day or night, whether the sun is shining or not. Then someone tells you [what time it is],
but according to your own calculation [it is not that time]. He tells you it is midday, you say no, it
can't be midday, it must be midnight. Well, there is room for doubt. He might be wrong, you might
be right. When another person comes to tell you that he didn't hear from the rst one but he
witnessed with his own eyes, he tells you, ‘I saw it is midday.’ Then denying two people, it's like
really serious, you have to think. But when three people come together to tell you every one of
them is sane, everyone of them [has] eyesight, and there's no problem with their eyesight, and
every one of them tells you that they saw the sun, it's midday, and you tell them, ‘no, you're
wrong, I'm right,’ you're insane, you’re majnoon [for denying the truth others have told you about].
And that’s the state of those who deny al-muttawatir. Al-muttawatir, according to some scholars,
is [at] least narrated by 3 sahabah; some put tougher conditions, but the least is narrated by three
sahabah. This is why it is qati with dalaala, narrated by three of the sahabah, hadith, a piece of
tradition. This is the state, the case of and the state of Al-Quran al-Karim, narrated by the majority
of all the sahabah radiallahu ta’ala anhum, it is mutawattir.

So, this is a di erence. Your knowledge of the midday was based on three people who told you,
or even on one trustworthy person, because if the rst person was trustworthy, you have to act
upon him [what he said]. This is a proof of why we have to follow the news brought to us by one
narrator, like one of the sahabah [who] went from the Masjid of Rasulullah ‫ﷺ‬, to the Masjid of
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 Quba, telling them that I witnessed Rasullullah ‫ ﷺ‬pray to Al-Ka’bah. They were praying to the
direction of Al-Quds Al-Sharif, Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa, so they were praying south. The narrator says,
while in the prayer, they turned instead of South, they turned north to Makkah in the prayer itself
based on the news of one sahabi. We have to act upon the news of one trustworthy narrator.

But when you go out and see the sun shining with your own eyes, is this level of knowledge
similar to the news given to you? It's never similar, it's much stronger because you saw the truth.
And this is the knowledge achieved through kashf, to the awliya, when the veil is removed from
your eyes and you witness with your heart the truth.

So this is very important here that as we are describing the Shadhili way as being bound by the
Book of Allah and the sunnah of Rasulullah ‫ﷺ‬, it goes further to lay these rules that whenever you
think you've received an inspiration in your mind from Allah ‫ﷻ‬, whenever you think that the veil
has been removed and you saw something, anything occurs in your mind, anything that is shown
to you or given to you as a piece of knowledge directly from Allah ‫ﷻ‬, you should weigh it against
Al-Quran and the al-sunnah, against the shariah, or together. If it is in conformity with them, then
you follow it. If it is forbidden or disliked or warned against in the shariah, then you throw your
own kashf and your own inspiration, because Allah ‫ ﷻ‬will never give you an inspiration directly
from Him or through angels that is against what the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬brought. So it's not real kashf, it’s
[the] Shaytaan that is whispering in your eyes, in your ears now, not kashf from Allah ‫ﷻ‬, not
angels.

This is why the Shadhili way is well established in this regard. There is one point which I would like
to elaborate on because it's quite often discussed. What if you see the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬ordering you
to do something in your dream? This is a very common case, I have received this question many
times. This is one of the issues that are raised also by anti-Su s, and they make a lot of fuss
about it. When you see the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬, asking you in your dream to do something, you have to
wake up. After waking up you have to go to the shariah, and weigh that command according to
the shariah. If it is fard, or waajib, or sunnah, strongly recommended, or mandub or mubah, then
we agree that this is a true command from the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬. We’ll tackle a bit later what to do with
it.

If you nd after weighing this command you received from the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬in your dream or from
someone you thought he was the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬in your dream, if you weigh it against the shariah,
altogether; Al-Quran, al-sunnah, al-ijmaa’, al- qh, and you nd that it's either haram or makruh
tahrim, strongly disliked, or disliked, makruh, then de nitely you throw it away, there is no way to
act upon it. Even if you think that it was the Prophet in your dreams, ‫ﷺ‬, you doubt your own self,
because the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬will never come to you in your dream, to order, to command you to do
something against what he already said, or all the sahabah radiallahu ta’ala anhum, or what is
already established in the four madhabs. The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬is alive now, and the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬is
aware of all of the commands now established in the four madhabs.

There are scholars who studied Sahih al-Bukhari with the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬in their dreams. There are
scholars who read dalail al-khayrat with the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬in their dreams, and several other books. I
made actually a chapter in my book, on the isnaads of dalail al-khayrat, the narration of dalail-
khayrat from the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬. In that chapter, there is an introduction on scholars who narrated
books, who read books to the Prophet of Allah ‫ ﷻ‬in their dreams; top of that is Sahih al-Bukhari.

The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬is following up on what the scholars after him and the mujtahids are doing. It's
impossible the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬would order you in your dream, to ask you to do something, command
to do something, that already he forbade, or told his sahabah it is disliked or so. We agree on this
rule. The dream in this case should be disregarded.
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 Now, if the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬ordered you in your dream is fard, then this is a stronger reason for you to
do it. If it is waajib, then the command of the Prophets ‫ ﷺ‬is a stronger reason for you to do it. If it
is sunnah, then of course it is a stronger reason for you to do it when you receive direct command
from the Prophets ‫ﷺ‬. If it is muabh, allowed, permitted, for you it becomes waajib, just for you.
Don't go and tell people around you to do it because you saw the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬, they didn't see the
Prophet ‫ﷺ‬. Otherwise, I can come to you and tell you I saw the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬in my dream that you
should give me half a million pounds.

There is no sense in making this obligatory on others, because this is not a method to be
established or approved or veri ed. Dreams are not to be veri ed. You yourself saw [what
occurred in your dream], you are sure of what you saw, but others can never be sure because
there's no way to prove that I saw the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬in my dream and he told me so and so, ‫ﷺ‬. So
it becomes obligatory on you to follow what the Prophets ‫ ﷺ‬told you in the dream. If it is mubah,
permitted, because it becomes waajib upon you. This is the case when you see the Prophets ‫ﷺ‬
in your dream, asking you to do something. I hope I made it very clear with all of these sort of
surrounding circumstances.

So I repeat this sentence here of Imam Abu Al-Hasan Al-Shadhili radiAllahu ta’ala ‘anh, Imam Abu
Al-Hasan Al-Shadhili says, ‘if the knowledge you receive when the veil is removed, that is to say
kashf, goes against the Book and the sunnah, hold fast to the Book and the sunnah and leave the
kashf, you should remind yourself, Allah ‫ ﷻ‬guaranteed your protection from misguidance with
when following the Book and the sunnah, not when following kashf or inspiration or insight,
baseera.’

There is a consensus among Su s, it is not permitted to act upon what you receive through kashf
for inspiration until after you compare it to the Book and the sunnah. So anything you receive
through your kashf is subject to the rules, to the criteria, of the shariah together.

Imam Abu Al-Hasan Al-Shadhili also says, ‘If the faqir, disciple, does not maintain the ve daily
prayers with the jamaa’, do not give him any attention, do not bother about him. He’s not a true
faqir, he’s not a true journeyer to Allah ‫ﷻ‬.’ As much as possible, [maintain the] ve daily prayers in
the jamaa’. When the mosque is in your neighbourhood, [you] should never miss the jamaa’. If the
mosque is away from your neighbourhood, you have your family members, as much as you can
put them together, then you pray jamaa’ at home, together.

Imam Al-Arabi Al-Dirqawi, rahimullahu ta’ala, who died in the year 1239 of Al-Hijrah, that's 205
years ago, one of the central gures in the Shadhili way, says in his will to his disciples, wasiyah,
[reads Arabic] a translation of that goes as follow[s]; ‘If you want the journey to Allah ‫ ﷻ‬to be
made short for you and want to get to the level of realisation in one hour, in the shortest period of
period of time, you want to realise tawheed, you want to understand and witness tawheed of Allah
‫ﷻ‬, you have to establish the religious obligations, al-wajibaat.’

The basic thing is to start from al-wajibaat. You cannot miss al-wajibaat and then start doing you
awraad. This is why we emphasise when taking the wird that you should train yourself to pray 40
days, ve daily prayers on time, without delay. If you can do it for 40 days, you can do it for the
rest of your lives. And then it is yourself to blame [if you do not pray on time due to] just laziness
or preoccupation. Those are the two most important reasons for people to delay prayer or to
neglect prayer; either laziness, they are lazy to wake up in the morning to pray fajr, or lazy to wake
up from something they are doing. Or negligence, they are indi erent, they just neglect the prayer
and don't see why it is important or some thing like that. So you need to understand that you
can't reach Allah ‫ ﷻ‬by missing your fard. Al-Wajibaat are the foundation of the tariqah. Not only
al-wajibaat, furthermore, following the sunnah of the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬, doing al-mandubaat is the
foundation of the tariq, of the road to Allah ‫ﷻ‬.
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 If you want the journey to be made short for you and you want to get to the level of realisation in
one hour, you have to establish the religious obligations and the recommended supererogatory
act of worship and nawaa l.

Please those who are coughing, hold a napkin, hold the handkerchief in your in your hand and
cough in it, please. Okay, because it's, although you don't have COVID, but to be honest, u itself
a ects my health very badly, and probably others in the gathering. So if you [are] coughing or if
you have some sort of that [illness], hold [a] handkerchief in your hand. In old[en] days everyone
used to carry [a] handkerchief. It has so many bene ts [of its] use. You can do your wudu, dry your
body with it, you can put it in front of you in the carpet. The handkerchiefs in the past used to be
bigger than this so [when] people didn't have sacks, they would buy vegetables and then put
them in the handkerchief and and fold it like this, like a sack. It has many bene ts like al-‘asa, like
the stick also it has many bene ts, [Quran 20:18 was then recited], ‘I have also other uses for
it.’ [The latter part of the verse about other uses for a stick] made some scholars write books on
al-‘asaa, like Usama bin Munqidh, the Prince, Al-Amir Usama bin Munqidh, the great poet, a great
scholar of literature, who lived 90 years and was [the] governor of Hama, the city of Hama. He
authored the book, huge volumes, Al-‘Asa, in which he mentioned the bene ts of al-‘asa and all
quotes that mention whether it's sunnah, or in poetry, about al-‘asa. So the same also with the
handkerchief, it has a lot of uses. I’m not paid by the companies who made handkerchiefs.

Allah ‫ ﷻ‬bless you, but this is one of the bene ts, just, you know, taking care of the health of our
brothers in a gathering is our obligation. The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬received the delegation of Thaqif after
year 8 of Al-Hijrah, and in the delegation there was a man of leprosy, and you know this is [an]
infectious disease. The Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬sent a message to him with someone, stay where you are,
we've accepted your bay’ah [and] don’t come to the masjid, stay where you are. That's [why] we
[say] people who are ill should not attend the gatherings. We're following the sunnah of the
Prophet ‫ﷺ‬. I wrote an article about [a] few things, like the taraweeh prayer not being obligatory or
being waived during the COVID epidemic. I wrote also about a few other things. They were
published in Arabic in Morocco. Because some people think that well, we're missing the
congregational prayer, or why [are] you not letting me in the masjid. Well, you're coughing, you're
going to cause harm to others. Even simple coughing, sometimes I su er, subhanAllah, I
recovered wallahi because of your barakah, because of the barakah of these programmes I
recovered. I took the last tablet of antibiotics [on the] second day when I arrived in in the UK.

Since I came back from Morocco, from Jordan, I was in Jordan in the middle of Ramadan,
probably some of you followed. I delivered the Friday khutbah and a lecture, and a few meetings
also. When I came back from Jordan, I did in Jordan two [lateral ow] tests for COVID. Both were
negative, one before meeting the cousin of the King, the chief adviser of the King, and one for the
ight to Morocco, it was a requirement. But when I came [to the] last day [of]
travelling, I had a runny nose and u and [was] sneezing. When I came [to] Morocco, I suspected
it might be COVID, maybe the test wasn't right [the] day or something [as covid may only show
positive after a few days of being infected on the tests]. So I made [an arrangement for] another
test in Morocco, and it came also negative. So obviously it was a u. But the u a ects me very
badly because I have a chest condition, I have asthma. When I get u or something, it easily
develops into bronchitis or it a ects me quite badly. I took the rst course of antibiotics
recommended by a doctor, it didn’t work, azithromycin, it didn’t work. [I] waited also a couple of
weeks then I took another [course of antibiotics], and I didn't I didn't recover. So I took another,
strong, also, course of antibiotics, klacid, [clarithryomycin], which helped alhamdulilah. I took the
last two tablets just when I arrived here in the UK.

It’s [a] great bounty from Allah ‫ﷻ‬, that I'm t and if I catch this, it will be very di cult for me to sit
and speak, you won’t see my voice the same, my concentration won't be the same, I would have
headache, I would have, you know, all of that gland infection, etcetera. The majority of you are
young and alhamdulillah, you have [a] strong immune system. You might not be a ected by just [a]
simple u, but others might be a ected by [a] simple u. We practice the sunnah, when we are
healthy, and we practice the sunnah when one is ill also. You get thawab for that, you get rewards,
when you stay at home, you get extra rewards, and more than the rewards you get when you
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 attend the gathering. Because you sacri ced your time you sacri ced the dars, you sacri ce all of
these treasures for the sake of your brothers to protect them so that they don't get ill.

I didn't discuss that issue in any of my articles when I wrote about COVID, but in qh, especially
the Hana qh, there are references in the Hana qh, that if someone with [an] infectious disease
goes deliberately to infect others, cause [an] infection to others, you might have to pay diyya,
ransom. I didn't publish this because it would cause a lot of unrest, and we don't want to tell
people this. But in the Hana qh, there is this ruling up to that level. See how Muslims were
reading ahead of this time even! But this is a weapon, I wouldn't put it in the hands of modern law
now when they abuse it. Just, I'm telling you how qh really is so precise.

So you can't have an infectious disease and go deliberately to cause someone to be infected and
then die. You can imagine now, how these people who have, wa al-‘iyadhu billah, have what's
called HIV, they marry and they cause death. They have to pay blood money when they do that,
because this is an infectious disease that leads to death. So when they are aware of it and they
get married to someone, they're causing [the] death of someone else. We have a lot of wealth of
qh to study, to re ect upon. And this is the case in the Maliki and the Hana qh.

We continue reading here; if you want, out of adab by the way, even if you're not sick, why you
need this handkerchief. You want to scratch your nose, you want to scratch your forehead, you
never scratch it with your hand. Always wipe it with with the handkerchief you have in your hand.
It's not part of the cordial social adab that you sit there and you play with your nose or- Imam Al-
Hasan saw someone who played with his nose and he looked at him with detest-fulness. He said,
‘how are you going to shake hands with the people afterwards?’ Su s have the top level of adab,
the top level of code of behaviour, code of etiquette[s]. Imam Sha’rani describes this elaborately in
his books, especially Adaab Al-Suhba, where he says [that a] Su has to cover all parts of his
body as much as possible.

I am sure, I mean, have you ever seen me, look at all my pictures you've seen of me, have you
ever seen a picture of me with a shirt open like this? I wear sometimes a shirt under the djellaba.
This is farajiyya, this is a traditional Moroccan, under [the] djellaba, called farajiyya. So sometimes
I wear a shirt. You will never see me, any picture of me, I never given a dars or give a lecture
unless I am fully covered. I don't meet my guests at home unless I put on my socks. I dress
properly. If I have to see someone and I’m in a pyjama, I wear ghab de shamble, overcoat.

It's part of the etiquettes you should never get out of your bedroom, even amongst your children,
you should never get out of your bedroom in your vest. Always dress well in front of your children
to earn their respect, always, although it is your home. I told you once before also, I never saw my
father extending his leg in front of us. And he's the father who has authority to sit as he wish[es].
When he was ill, he would cover his feet, if he’s ill. Tasawwuf is about adab, tasawwuf is about
akhlaaq, the more adab you have, the more people love you. And when people love you, they
don't love you for your sake, except your wife probably. But they love you because you're a
Muslim. And they love you extra because you're [a] Su , right? This is what we need people to
see [in] us. A lot of Muslims are running away from Islam because of the behaviour of some
Muslims who are harsh or don't have adab. Imam Al-Sha’rani says, ‘the adab of the Su s is
actually the adab of the royalties.’

You have to seek the necessary amount of the outward knowledge of shariah, this is ‘ilm al-
dhaahir. Fardul ‘ayn is obligatory upon every one of you. You don't have to memorise the Al-Quran
al-Karim. Something that this masjid [is] doing, may Allah ‫ ﷻ‬reward them, is teaching young girls
the Al-Quran Al-Karim. In your country, [your] country’s original country; if you're from India, or
you're from Turkey, or you're from somewhere, kids used to learn reading Al-Quran Al-Karim from
beginning to end, even if they didn't speak Arabic, always. And they used to do great khatms,
parties for the kids when they are at seven, the age of seven or eight or so because they nish
[the] recitation of Al-Quran Al-Karim. I met many people people who are ‘ajam, non Arabs, you
open the Quran for them, they read perfectly. They learned when they were kids, Indonesians,
Indians, but when you speak to them in Arabic, they don't know, they can't answer in Arabic.
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 You don't have to read the Al-Quran Al-Karim altogether. But this is something you should
guarantee for your children. Recitation of the Al-Quran Al-Karim, education, read it from beginning
to end, they should read it from the mushaf from beginning to end. Now, memorisation of short
surahs [should be done] as much as possible. All you need is [a] few surahs just to pray. If you
know two surahs your prayer will be valid. Of course, a little bit more is always recommend. Fard
al-‘ayn is not a lot. Fard al-‘ayn is [when] you need to [do] some business, you're conducting
business you need to know what's haram [and] what's halal , how to conduct business as much
as business develops, especially now [with] a lot of these new contracts, so you need to know the
halal and haram in business. You need to know the kabaair, the major sins, you need to know the
shamaa’il of the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬, so that that you can follow his sunnah. Basic knowledge is not
di cult to attain in a few courses. This is fard al-‘ayn, because our Lord cannot be worshipped
but through knowledge, you cannot worship Allah ‫ ﷻ‬through ignorance.

We gave the example of taharah for example, you might pray for 40 years, not realising that you're
missing an important method of how to clean yourself before wudu. Al-Istinjaa and al-istibra are
essential, and these things you should have been taught when you were small kids I believe, as
alhamdulilah is the habit in the Muslim world. However, you should not get deep into it and not
follow its course. Now do[es] every Su have to become a scholar? We're talking here about
about some of the great murshids in the past, they had millions of murids. So does every murid
have to become a scholar? No, this is why he says here, you don't have to get deep in the
sciences of shariah. Only [a] few people, [for a] few people Allah ‫ ﷻ‬eases the way for them. The
Muslim Ummah has to have scholars always, but there will be a few people who can get in the
sacred knowledge, without being deviated from their journey to Allah ‫ﷻ‬, who won't be lured by
fame or by the amount of knowledge they have, or by the eloquence they have, or by also how
they appeal to people.

As you are not asked to get deep in knowledge of the al-dhaahir, but you are asked to get deep in
the knowledge of the haqiqah. That is to say you need to get deep into the realities of tawakkul,
the realities of yaqin, the realities of husnul dhanibillah, the realities of al-khashya of Allah ‫ﷻ‬, the
subtleties of khushu’, you need to know amradul qulub, the disease of the hearts, their subtleties,
their cures, how to diagnose them. You need to get deep into this knowledge when you will
journey to Allah ‫ﷻ‬, this is for every individual

Any one of you, or others, wants to turn his re into the garden, let him not move away from the
sunnah. You want your re to become a garden, then follow the sunnah of Rasulullah ‫ ﷺ‬for it is
the ship for survival and the spring of secrets and all good. That is to say every good is in
following Rasulullah ‫ﷺ‬. Wal hamdu lilahi rabbil ‘alameen.
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