People’s need for living moral leaders has never worn thin. We want the best Presidents, we want the best governors, the best representatives. Yet, scandal after scandal in the political leadership and even the religious leadership of the West fails to awaken society in the absurdity of looking for ‘Saints’ without a system of training the self, a system which is connected to the practices and teachings of Jesus (AS), of Moses (AS), of Muhummad (S).

Every time I see someone enamored with this or that politician, I see a desire in them. That desire is for a person who is sincere, capable… guided.

How misplaced is that affection!

Supposedly ‘religious’ people are also targets, yet they too fall short of moral integrity. How many Priests have been removed due to misconduct? How many protestant preachers have been found compromised?

People have been disappointed time and time again, but they keep coming back for more ‘moral heroes’, whether in a religious or secular guise.

Where does that leave us? Muslims put our faith in people also, in moral heroes… ‘modern Muslims’ simply tend to avoid using a term to describe them. ‘Saints’ or ‘Awliya’ is often a hated word. Really though, for all their proclamations that the Prophet (S) is their sole model, whether its the modern day lecturer, or the local Imam, Muslims end up doing the same thing.

However, these individuals are just ordinary people as well, regular ordinary everyday people who have memorized a bit more than us Or they can speak better than us. Or they can recite better than us.

But is that really our moral hero? Or are we loving an illusion that we have created?

Can we believe that someone can become a moral giant, someone imbued with the source of goodness, a representative on earth of said goodness, without training, without discipline, without connection?

The Awliya, or otherwise translated as “Muslims Saints” are just that. They are representatives of goodness. You feel it in their presence, because truly those one act with a power far beyond that of human kind. They ask nothing from you, in fact, you need everything from them.

“Allah said, ‘I will declare war against him who shows hostility to a pious worshipper (walî) of Mine. And the most beloved things with which My slave comes nearer to Me, is what I have enjoined (frD) upon him; and My slave keeps on coming closer to Me through performing nawâfil (praying or doing extra deeds besides what is obligatory) till I love him, so I become his sense of hearing with which he hears, and his sense of sight with which he sees, and his hand with which he grips, and his leg with which he walks; and if he asks Me, I will give him, and if he asks My protection (Refuge), I will protect him; (i.e. give him My Refuge) and I do not hesitate to do anything as I hesitate to take the soul of the believer, for he hates death, and I hate to disappoint him.”

Narrated by Abu Huraira in Bukhari, vol8, hadith 509

Video is subtitled.

Sahib-ul Saif from Naqshbandi OTTOMAN on Vimeo.

In this clip, Shaykh Maulana is interpreting a dream. Shaykh Abdul Kerim is to his side and the murid is telling the dream to Shaykh Maulana.

Video is subtitled.

Video from http://www.nakshibendi.com/

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0605294103v1

Prenatal exposure to ultrasound waves impacts neuronal migration in mice

Communicated by Dale Purves, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, June 29, 2006 (received for review August 5, 2005)

Neurons of the cerebral neocortex in mammals, including humans, are generated during fetal life in the proliferative zones and then migrate to their final destinations by following an inside-to-outside sequence. The present study examined the effect of ultrasound waves (USW) on neuronal position within the embryonic cerebral cortex in mice. We used a single BrdU injection to label neurons generated at embryonic day 16 and destined for the superficial cortical layers. Our analysis of over 335 animals reveals that, when exposed to USW for a total of 30 min or longer during the period of their migration, a small but statistically significant number of neurons fail to acquire their proper position and remain scattered within inappropriate cortical layers and/or in the subjacent white matter. The magnitude of dispersion of labeled neurons was variable but systematically increased with duration of exposure to USW. These results call for a further investigation in larger and slower-developing brains of non-human primates and continued scrutiny of unnecessarily long prenatal ultrasound exposure.

New Scientist - 2001

“Ultrasound is misused at times,” says Helle Kieler of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. “There are a lot of ultrasound examinations performed which are not needed.”

Some mothers even seek videos of ultrasonic scans just to keep as mementoes, says Francis Duck, chairman of the European Committee for Medical Ultrasound Safety at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, UK.

Kieler’s team studied a group of Swedish men born between 1973 and 1978. Nearly 7000 had received ultrasonic scans in the womb, while 170,000 had not. Kieler found that of the men born between 1976 and 1978 who had ultrasonic scans in the womb, 32 per cent more than expected were left-handed. In an average population, around nine per cent of men are left-handed.

The scientists took account of factors such as premature birth, birth weight and maternal age, but admit that they cannot rule out post-natal environmental influences for the effect they found.

The results suggest that some men who genetically would have been expected to be born right-handed had actually grown up to be left-handed. Kieler says this could be due to a disruption of their brain development in the womb: “It’s commonly known among neuropsychiatrists that right-handed people can become left-handed by slight damage to the brain.”

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/parenting/10/21/fetal.photos/index.html

About the four Imams of Sunni Muslims: they are
beginning and ending at the same place. The Imams begin
at the Prophet, and end at Paradise. They are four
ways to go on, suitable for different people. Four lanes
are better than one for trucks and cars. It depends on
how fast you want to run. It is comfort for everyone.
Mankind is not created all the same as out of a factory.
Tariqat orders one to take the strongest way from
every Madhhab to make oneself strong. Don’t listen to
devils who are denying madhhabs in Islam.

- Shaykh Maulana Nazim [Mercy Oceans Book II]

People are ambitious in life, they seek to be the biggest and best at whatever it is they do. The goal of most peoples lives boils down to making the most money, earning the most fame, or otherwise being the best at whatever it is they do. Seems somewhat reasonable to live life in this manner, doesn’t it? It certainly provides for a comfortable lifestyle, if successful.

This type of lifestyle is in contrast to those who are perfectly happy in positions that provide for their basic necessities. These are the ones who deliberately don’t want to be exceptional at what they do, because they feel it introduces them to greater problems of politics and insecurity.

So there they are: the ambitious and the unambitious.

Of course there are consequences to both approaches, the people ambitious for the world are often deeply unhappy, finding little satisfaction in anything they do. Any level they achieve is a step down in some aspect of their personal life. Often the unambitious are content and live very fulfilling lives, however they may worry occasionally about their basic needs.

There is also a flip-side, an ‘alternative universe’, of ambition.

In this parallel understanding there is different target and goal for the ambitious, and another way to be unconcerned for the unambitious. When examining the results of pursuing and running away from this form of ambition, we find that it has almost opposite consequences to what we might normally think. The more ambitious ones are the ones finding peace, the less ambitious ones are the ones finding concerns. This is the realm of spirituality.

For modern day people of faith, this may be a perplexing idea. Ambition? Spirituality?

Ambition inherently involves ranks and gain. And modern day spirituality has been the great ‘equalizer’, everyone has become the same. For Muslim literalists, this is even more true. They refuse to accept spiritual training in a manner which inherently depends on recognizing the spiritual superiority of ones teacher. For them, the questions become asinine repetitions of “How do you know that teacher is not going to hell fire? No one knows!”

Didn’t Allah order us to be with the Saliheen? Is that not in itself a recognition of levels better than us? If our hearts are closed enough not to recognize the Saliheen when we sit with them, or constantly question whether they are going to hellfire or not, then certainly progress is impossible. We haven’t even applied for the school, so how do we plan to attend the class, much less get an A?

Being spiritually ambitious is about getting that A (or an A+, if we can manage)!

At the same time, in an interesting twist, the goal for getting that high grade of character involves humbling oneself to the point of servitude. The highest title the spiritual aspirant hopes to achieve is, in fact, “Servant of Allah”. Abdullah. The highest rank for the spiritually ambitious is to lose oneself in servanthood.

And ranks and levels have been a part of creation forever , whether it be ranking of angels or mankind. There are so many practical examples of the levels of spirituality. For example, when presented with the opportunity to give wealth for the sake of their Lord, it was Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (R) who gave all of his wealth away, this story is recounted by Umar (R):

From Abu Daud: Umar ibn Al-Khattab said: The Prophet (sas) ordered us to give sadaqa. It happened to coincide with some wealth I had just acquired and I said to myself: If I will ever surpass Abu Bakr, this is the day I will surpass him. And so I came to the Prophet (sas) with half of my wealth and he (sas) said to me: “What have you left for your family?” I said: The same amount. Then Abu Bakr came with all of his wealth. The Prophet (sas) said to him: “What have you left for your family?” He said: I have left them Allah and His Messenger.” I said: I will never surpass you in anything.”

So, indeed, the Sahabi were knowing the rank of each other in spiritual endeavors.

Yet, this should not be mistaken for a competition for a crude worldly recognition. In fact, in this flip-side world of the ambition of the spiritually elite, the goal is less recognition! The less you want to be known, the more Allah may cause you to be known. The less highly you think of yourself, the higher Allah makes you.

Again, the case of Abu Bakr (R) and how he was given the authority as the Khaliph of Islam, yet witness the humility of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (R):

“I have been given the authority over you, and I am not the best of you. If I do well, help me; and if I do wrong, set me right. Sincere regard for truth is loyalty and disregard for truth is treachery. The weak amongst you shall be strong with me until I have secured his rights, if God will; and the strong amongst you shall be weak with me until I have wrested from him the rights of others, if God will. Obey me so long as I obey God and His Messenger (Muhammad, pbuh). But if I disobey God and His Messenger, ye owe me no obedience. Arise for your prayer, God have mercy upon you.”

These are not mere words to be read and passed by, they are witness to the spiritual struggle that Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (R) underwent. From the very first line Abu Bakr (R) is acknowledging the authority has been given to him. This is specifically contrary to how modern day people like to believe, we like to think we ‘earn’ things.

If we look further, we find the next gem: “I am not the best of you”.

This is not the pretentious and pretending humility that fills our world today, rather this is the reflection of the true belief that he was indeed lower than others. With that acknowledgment, we see that Allah opened the door for complete authority of all Muslims to him. But not only did Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (R) not desire this position and not seek it, he also didn’t even desire the salary from it, and continued for some time his clothing trade while ruling the Muslim empire until he was forced to stop by the people.

How can we achieve levels such as this? Achieving clarity of purpose and a state of mind which produced such character is purely an imaginary fantasy for us when being raised in a society filled with such deviancy. Can we hope to do so in the same exact manner as the Sahabi? I am quite certain there are acts, positions and parts of the human body, violences that they have never imagined much less witnessed, that you have both imagined and witnessed. Is that not a scar on your soul? Do you feel it?

In a world where even writing this article seems doomed to spiritual failure, not only due to the faults of the author, but due to the spiritual bankruptcy of the very language we communicate with, how are we hoping to make it ‘on our own’?

Without being spiritually ambitious how can we hope to escape from this? Certainly realizing our weakness is one of the first steps. Then comes understanding that in these days we must follow a path which has been adapted to take us from this disastrous situation to one of progress.

It is the spiritually ambitious who make the struggle against the ego, the greater struggle, one of the highest priority in their lives in order to progress. Removing that drive for worldly gains and turning it into one of spiritual gains is a reality which leads them to the path of spiritual training, now called ’sufism’. In this way, certainly, we might be expected to be doing real things which others would deem ‘extreme’ for Allah’s sake (just as Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (R) did with his wealth, just as Ibrahim (AS) did with his son), since without struggle and sacrifice, progress is an illusion.

But arbitrary self sacrifice (as perceived by us) is no guarantee to progress. Rather this first involves enrolling in a ’school’ which seeks to train you in this specific regard. Let it be known that not all of these schools are equal either, there are kindergarten levels, high schools, and colleges. The Naksibendi order of Sufism traces its lineage back to Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (R), and in this same manner the Tarikat aims to bring its initiates to the highest levels of spirituality and character following Abu Bakr as-Siddiq’s (R) example.

Yes, at a fundamental level all of this involves following the Sunnah of the Prophet (S) which any person believes they can read up on and understand. But there is something more to Abu Bakr’s (R) approach, something which all of the other Sahabi recognized. This somewhat amorphous quality of spiritual insight is what the spiritually ambitious are after.

Of course, there are also those who are content to ‘pass’, to do the basics and move on when it comes to spirituality. Alhamdulillah, the Prophet (S) met many who questioned him to know exactly that. What is the bare minimum in order to pass this examination of life? He delivered the instructions that we all know. However, we know our states and how much we waver. When we are at the pass fail mark its much easier to fall into the negative.

So, just like there were those who are content to simply pass, there are those of us who seek a bit more, and the benefits of living a lifestyle such as that bring a serenity and peace and success in both lives.

So, in our own weak way, we are trying to be a little spiritually ambitious. Of course, we hope to do so without building even an ounce of pride, for that in itself would be contrary to our ambition!

From sohbet of Shaykh Maulana:

“Look, a king may have thousands of subjects in his employ. Each of the king’s servants has a distinct rank and a distinct duty to perform. The King will be pleased with the servant who performs the duty that has been assigned him well, as pleased with the common infantryman as with a Field Marshall. That Field Marshall has an awesome responsibility towards his king, and he will have attained that rank, presumably, because he is qualified for it, and will be expected to live up to his immense responsibilities. But the foot soldier is not expected to perform the duties of a Field Marshall; his duties are simpler, but they are also important, and doing them will earn the good pleasure of the king.

And so, Allah Almighty has called all mankind to His service, everyone according to his rank. According to her circumstance that elderly woman was given a light load, and if she carried it well, she will be rewarded. If you are carrying more than that you must persevere in carrying your appointed burden and not throw it off halfway towards your goal — then you may attain your Lord’s pleasure.

And you should know also that a Field Marshall should not be proud because of his position, glorying in the edge that he has over those who have been assigned lower ranks. He must be thankful to his king who has honored him with such responsibilities, and must strive to fulfill that trust. It is not seemly for him to boast and gloat, saying ‘I am a Field Marshall.’”

Whoever acts without thinking never reaches this
real life. Everyone must try to reach real life in this life.
It is an important responsibility. We promised to our
Lord on the day of spirits that we would try. This is
our aim in all actions and all worshippings. Allah is not
needing worship. He ordered it to help us. Who reaches
this real life has completed his responsibility. We must
think for every action, it is a way to reach real life.

What is the highest teaching of the Naqshbandi Tariqat?
It is to teach everyone how he can carry disliked
things, how to face difficulties. We cannot face them
without thinking; thinking that it is the will of our
Lord. We are weak and cannot endure difficulties by
our own power, but that thinking and surrendering allows
His will to carry us. With His Will, we are powerful
to face all difficulties. This point is reached only by
thinking about everything.

The plane of thinking is as wide as you can imagine.
Thinking is the key to reality. Everything we have now,
is the fruit of thinking. Of all religions, the one giving the
most value to thinking is Islam. This is by the hadith:
«One hour of thinking is worth 70 years of worship.»
The perfection of man is hidden in his words. This hadith
is enough for thinking people to know that the one
who said it is perfect, of high personality. Our Prophet’s
words are worth writing in gold letters everywhere.

Our Grandsheikh is asking: who can understand?
Everyone? In an assembly of 1000 people, how many
are understanding the speaker? Who is listening is understanding.
You may say: «Oh we are listening». Man
has two kinds of ears, on the head and on the heart. One
only listening with his head, is not listening, Understanding
is in the heart. If your heart is in action, you
can listen.

-Mercy Oceans