Monday, June 16, 2008

Mawlid: The joy and love for Prophet s.a.w

Last Saturday's mawlid for "Cukur Rambut" was indeed a significant moment for most of us. I wanted to cancel it because I wanted to send Mamu and Firdaus jr to the airport but someone told me - someone had a dream, we should continue the mawlid as it is a good practice to have a mawlid for those who are going for umrah too. After all, we are seeking the guidance and love from our Beloved Prophet s.a.w as he is the door to Allah. Then I decided to continue, amazingly the attendance was more than what I expected, alhamdulilah. Most Sufi Shaykhs said "Invitation to the Mawlid is sent by the Prophet s.a.w. If you miss it, it means you are not invited". Somehow most of us are fortunate to be able to attend mawlids from time to time. Praise be only to Allah.

I told Shaykh Zakaria about the mawlid as it's an adab as a student to inform him of the majlis. He replied saying he felt like going, so I arranged with Uncle Husin to fetch him. On the day itself, a few people were looking for him to invite him to their place but they can't get him. In the end he still managed to attend the Mawlid .Perhaps Allah had arranged it this way. It was the first time Shaykh Zakaria was leading the mawlid after a few sessions without his presence. We missed his reading and passion while reading the Qasidah. I felt Shaykh Zakaria was very happy throughout the Majlis. We also discovered Uncle Husin can play the drums, with a bit of adjusting and practicing, he will probably be able to play well. He combined excellently with bro Adnan. The best part is the Qasidah with the "Rongeng" rhythm even Shaykh Zakaria was shaking his body enjoying the session.

The mother of the host enjoyed our mawlid and Qasidah session which made her invite us to her son house in the coming months for mawlid. Alhamdulilah, Praise be only to Allah. We are happy and enjoying ourselves in this Majlis together with Allah, Prophet s.a.w and the awliyah. Its the biggest nikmah we ever had and dream of in our daily life. may Allah bless you and forgive me.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Visiting my dad

Yesterday I ziyarah the grave of my late father. As usual with Firdaus Jr. Our routine would be visiting Mami Ruqiyah first followed by his bro then to my dad and last is the Maqam Of Shaykh Umar al Khatib on friday morning. However yesterday was special, we managed to visit the maqam of Shaykh Umar bin Abdullah Bagharib, the father of our beloved Shaykh Zakaria Bagharib. It was like 3 months ago I visited the grave of my dad. I was feeling very down when i visited him. Memories of being with him is still in my mind even though he had left us for nearly 7 years. Somehow, whenever I visited him, I always going through the difficult period. It was the same yesterday, my heart was heavy with many anxiety and sadness. I felt relief after reading fateha and few more surahs for him. Perhaps it was the baraqah of the Quranic verses.

When we arrived, we really thought it was raining because of the few drops of water from the sky. We continue our routine despite worrying about the downfall. Alhamdulilah its stop. When we are on the way to my father's grave, the sun begin to rise and shine. I quickly remembered it was the same condition on weather when the last time I visited the grave with Firdaus jr. And I remembered after our last Maqam which is Shaykh Umar al Khatib, the downfall began, it was the same yesterday. While walking to Shaykh Umar maqam, it began to drizzling. But we said to each other no matter what happened, we will still go to the Maqam of Shaykh Umar. And Alhamdulilah, we did. After finished the routine, the rain started to pour. We walked to the shelter. After half an hour the rain stop, so we walked out of the cemetery area, along the way, someone driving a van picked up and send us to the boon lay mrt station. may Allah bless him. I have always wanting to visit my dad each week but due to transport and time, I wasnt able to do so. But thanks to firdaus jr for his companionship in accompany me to do this ziyarah routine. may Allah bless his kindness and effort.


Friday, June 13, 2008

White Flag

by Dido

I know you think that I shouldn't still love you,
Or tell you that.
But if I didn't say it, well I'd still have felt it
where's the sense in that?

I promise I'm not trying to make your life harder
Or return to where we were

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be

I know I left too much mess and
destruction to come back again
And I caused nothing but trouble
I understand if you can't talk to me again
And if you live by the rules of "it's over"
then I'm sure that that makes sense

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be

And when we meet
Which I'm sure we will
All that was there
Will be there still
I'll let it pass
And hold my tongue
And you will think
That I've moved on....

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Everybody Hurts

When the day is long and the night, the night is yours alone,
When youre sure youve had enough of this life, well hang on.
Dont let yourself go, everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes.

Sometimes everything is wrong. now its time to sing along.
When your day is night alone, (hold on, hold on)
If you feel like letting go, (hold on)
When you think youve had too much of this life, well hang on.

Everybody hurts. take comfort in your friends.
Everybody hurts. dont throw your hand. oh, no. dont throw your hand.
If you feel like youre alone, no, no, no, you are not alone

If youre on your own in this life, the days and nights are long,
When you think youve had too much of this life to hang on.

Well, everybody hurts sometimes,
Everybody cries. and everybody hurts sometimes.
And everybody hurts sometimes. so, hold on, hold on.
Hold on, hold on. hold on, hold on. hold on, hold on. (repeat & fade)
(everybody hurts. you are not alone.)

Lyrics REM

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Selawat Nariyah


For those who wants to read Selawat Nariyah (above)

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Tahajud: The moment of Self Realization

Alhamdulilah, we had tahajud this morning. There are few of us but you can feel the presence of tranquility, its nikmah . Its been a very long time since we had tahajud together. The last was with Shaykh Hisham last year. We used to have it few years back once in a few months. This tahajud came at the right time when most of us need to rejuvenate our souls. It reminds me the ramadhan days where I spend the night with few friends, visiting Maqam of Awliyah and then performing the Sunnah Prayers. Its simply amazing for most of us who need such activities and we agreed to have this occasion once a month. It should be great as we inject our spiritual strength to our hearts and souls, Insha'Allah. One of the moment that triggered my heart during the tahajud was the time we did the istigfar together. Astagfirullah Azeem Wa tu bu illay (hope correct transliteration spelling). Somehow, my heart feel the pain of the sins I committed lately and the feeling of regret filled my heart.

After Subuh prayer and the Wirid, Bro Razib gave us few counsel of advice which I was thinking about it. Perhaps its the work of our beloved Murshid, spiritual guide Mawlana Shaykh Nazim. Bro Razib told us the secrets and important of tahajud. Another important note he mentioned was the test given to us by Mawlana. At that point, my heart was in the state of realization to understand the problems and difficulties I am facing lately. It should be the vital sins and mistakes I committed lately. I found the solution today through the congregration of those who wants to attain closeness with Allah swt, Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. and Mawlana. I was finding it difficult to explain to someone what i was going through and today every enquiries found it crucial solution. And Bro Razib continue, mentioning by today, we should write down in a book about our bad characteristic and sinful acts. This is to make us know what are our weaknesses and the Awliyah will support us knowing we are trying our best to eliminate our weaknesses. There are 17 bad characteristic traits, perhaps more for me.

If the Shaykh wrote more than what we can imagine on their bad Characteristic and our Beloved Prophet Muhammad s.a.w always said to Allah, don't leave me in a blink of an eye. How about us who are so weak and arrogance? We always claimed to be perfect, alim and better than everyone. The most dangerous is the bad characteristic hidden within ourselves. I have learn this through Shaykh Zakaria during his tassawuf class based on the kitab Tanwir ul Qulub. He mentioned each of the bad characters. There are so many hidden arrogance. This is what we are afraid of cause we don't realize about it. Even anger is part of it.

The act of anger make you Shirik because you are always saying you are right and the rest are wrong. If we are able to continue for 40 days writing, insha'Allah every bad characteristic in us will be eliminate through the spiritual support of our spiritual guide. It's not easy but this is the biggest jihad we should perform for ourselves as we try to benefit our family, children, friends, and enemy. I have to learn to be patience and endure the difficulties part of life. I know Allah is teaching us to be humble and to discover we are nothing without him. To love someone who is your staunch enemy and those who giving you hard time is not easy but if you can do it then it shows you are following the footstep of our Beloved Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. The Beloved Prophet s.a.w showed us many example of his humanity towards everyone including those who always hurt him. He forgave them.

I remembered one of the Mawlana Shaykh Nazim lectures, he said during the time of Prophet s.a.w, there is this man who our Beloved Prophet s.a.w said he is a man of Paradise. So out of curiosity, the sahaba r.a went to check on this man. They want to know what is the secret he have been doing since the Prophet s.a.w said hes the man of paradize. So they went early morning hours to see what hes doing. The first day they found him not doing tahajud except for subuh. The same goes on 2nd day. By the 3rd day, the sahaba r.a became too anxious and they confronted him asking him why did the Beloved Prophet s.a.w said hes the man of paradise. He then asnwered, before I go to sleep, I will forgive all those people who have hurt me or causing trouble for me. May Allah bless you and forgive me.

(The Mawlana suhbah was summarized by me, forgive me if there are any mistakes)




Friday, June 6, 2008

To lose your love one

Last week, I lost an old friend after so long he battled against the odds with his cancer, in the end, he left this world with meaningful meaning of friendship for me. This year, I lost 2 friends. At our age, we didn't expect the tragedy. However, my growing up days is about knowing death itself. I had lost almost 10 friends either through accident or illness. Its a painful memories but this is life, the wisdom behind it, we shall know after we experiencing the pain and sorrow. I know there are people around me whom also received the same fate in experiencing the lost of their love ones.

Most of the time, I pray to God to make those who love and care for me to be happy when the day I have to leave them. I don't know when it will be but I pray so hard the people I love wont leave till I close my eyes. I am not perfect to everyone but they are perfect to me. My uncle used to tell me You wont know how to appreciate someone till he or she is no longer around that reminded me of my dad. I was lucky to spend 14 days with him before his last breath. I get to know him better and it repair our damage relationship. The last day of his life when I was with him was the moment I will never forget in my entire life.

Its painful to lose someone in your life. You wont feel until the time the person is no longer with you. The yearn to be together will make you suffer. You will only know love when the moment of broken hearts hurt you so much, it makes you helpless. I experience it many times and yet I am not immune to it. No one wants to be hurt and no one wants to lose their love ones but Allah know what is the best for us. We plan but Allah is the best planner of all. At times, I close my eyes and cried. I am so weak and hopeless. And I hope my love ones will be with me till my last breath. May Allah bless those who had left us in this world and may Allah forgive me.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Perfume of Attraction

Everyone should strive to become a friend of God, for the Lord never rebuffs the seeker of His intimacy. The main reason for attending a center such as this is to prepare yourself to attain that intimacy. No one can become a friend of God without also becoming a friend of His servants. The attainment of that familiarity and sympathy with the souls of His servants is proof of one's approach to sainthood, for it is easy to claim that one is a friend of God, but not so easy to be in harmony with people.

Perhaps now, during your time here at this center, you may feel closeness with your fellow seekers of truth, but when you return to your countries you will certainly find this harder to realize. When you truly attain the station of friend of God, everyone will be your friend. To succeed in attaining this closeness with people is a sign of one's admittance to the Divine Presence. I don't mean that you become physically attractive or attracted to them, this is not a physical attraction we are talking about but an attraction through the hearts.

Our Grandsheikh once told me a tale about a flower of India that grows only in the most inaccessible places and is, furthermore, always surrounded by snakes. That flower has such an overpoweringly beautiful fragrance that whoever wears it will be loved by one and all. I said to my Grandsheikh: "Oh my Master let me go in search of that flower". He replied, "Oh Nazim Efendi, there is no need for you to go there, for as long as you are vigilant with your Lord after midnight even for a short time Allah Almighty will adorn you with an attraction seventy times more powerful than the attraction of that perfume. Even if you just arise during the last watch of the night when every one is asleep, and even if you don't pray, this miracle will occur and you will become as attractive as that perfume.

Whoever arises at that hour will certainly gain the good graces of his Lord, for that is the time when the Lord looks for the repentance of His servants. Therefore, I advise you all to awaken sometime during the last third of the night: even for five minutes. You must, however, be in a state of ritual purity. Then you must address your Lord: "Oh my lord, come to me, as I cannot come to You". That prayer is enough to give you full protection for that day and makes you a friend of God.

People pass their days coming and going, but in the evening everyone returns to his or her darling. The Lord asks you to be with Him Alone, even for just five minutes in an intimate time of the late night. Who turns to his Lord in the night will find Him near, and will be able to rely upon him even in the midst of great and terrible events.

Mawlana Shaykh Nazim Adil Haqqani