Urging the importance of "purification and education."

The Shaykh : And so, we have a word that serves as a concise title: "Purification and education" are necessary for establishing the Muslim state. Without purification, this Islam is free from what is not in it. I was just thinking a moment ago when Professor 'Aid 'Abassi was speaking; he mentioned among the reasons that caused Muslims to become atheists or to distance themselves from their religion that their understanding of Islam is inverted or reversed, or whatever that means. This is a bitter and painful reality. When you go to the lands of the disbelievers, unfortunately, you do not see a car with an old sandal hanging on its front or back, but in the Muslim lands, this thing exists. What does this indicate, people? It indicates the corruption of the mind. So, what corrects the mind? The correct religion, or scientific empirical culture. But scientific empirical culture is limited and very limited. However, the Islam that the Wise, the All-Knowing sent down is what corrects concepts and awakens minds. If Muslims have fallen into a state of ignorance (jahiliyyah) more ignorant than the disbelievers, that is the greatest proof that they did not benefit from their religion. What is the reason for not benefiting? Among them is what was previously mentioned: their understanding of Islam is inverted and reversed. And we are not going far from you; you now have a grave that is visited called "Qadi al-Hajaat" (The Judge of Needs). Do you know it?

Another questioner : It disappeared, it disappeared long ago.

The Shaykh : Long ago, did it vanish?

Another questioner : It disappeared.

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah.

Another questioner : They removed it.

The Shaykh : They removed it, yes, good. This also indicates awareness and progress. This is "Qadi al-Hajaat."

Another questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: Was it?

Another questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Its miracles and karamahs (miracles granted to a righteous person)... The barren woman rides on its saddle, she rubs against it, and she becomes pregnant, if Allah wills!! No... absolutely not, your "Qadi al-Hajaat"!!

Another questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Yes, indeed, there are many examples of this in these Muslim lands, unfortunately. And why go far? Who among you does not know of Muslims who pray and come to fulfill the needs of the awliya (close friends of Allah) and the righteous? You denied Qadi al-Hajaat, and praise be to Allah. Can you deny this reality? The going of tens and hundreds of good, righteous people to the awliya and the righteous, seeking nearness to Allah through a means (tawassul) with them, calling upon them other than Allah to fulfill needs, and circumambulating their graves. Do you know them or not? Do you know this? Have you seen such a thing? Are these French or Muslims?!

The questioner : Muslims!

The Shaykh : Muslims. What led them to this? Misunderstanding Islam in an inverted way. They call this an intermediary; they call it tawassul (seeking nearness to Allah through a means). And we are often asked: What is your opinion on tawassul? We answer: Tawassul, like visiting graves, is of two types: prescribed (mashru') and not prescribed. And we enter into the details. This is from the heart of what? The facts; that a Muslim comes seeking healing by a way that Allah has not legislated, nor medicine, nor science. All of medicine does not believe in the awliya or the righteous. It knows only what? Something empirical. But we Muslims believe in the awliya and the righteous. But these Muslims are two groups. One group believes in the awliya and the righteous as He (Mighty and Majestic) said: . Who are they? The answer is: . ... One group, and we are among them, and if Allah wills, you will all be among them.

The questioner: Amen.

The Shaykh : A second group believes in these awliya as if they are operating in the universe!! ... And poles (aqtub) and substitutes (abdal) and deputies (nuqaba) and... and a state, a state!! And these, these, our brothers, our young people today, those who understand Islam and those who do not understand it, have no knowledge of these delusions. And this is as it is said: "And among safety is that you do not find [such things]." But sit with some of these people who are called "on the blessing" (ala al-barakah), even if he is walking on the gravel in the road; because this one is taken, attracted, meaning, this one is attracted. So you will hear from them about wilayah (sainthood) in the other sense. And I am now going to tell you a story, not knowledge; because you have tired your minds, just as I have almost tired my throat. I will tell a story:
I once visited the village of "Dayr 'Atiyyah." Perhaps some of you who go to Syria used to pass through it previously. Now there is a new road that passes by its side. I stayed there as a guest for one night. The room was on the road, like this entrance but wider, and it had a door here and low windows. And when the window was knocked on, the owner of the house came out. We were gathered, about ten people, I was one of them. He came out of the room to welcome the one knocking. We heard nothing but a very strange welcome: "Welcome, Abu So-and-So." I do not know Abu what now. The man entered, and we all had our eyes toward the inside to see who the noble guest was. And it was a shocking surprise for me. And there he was, the hashish smoker who breaks his fast in Ramadan, who leaves off the prayer, who is attached to... the mosque, my neighbor from outside the mosque, not from inside. I never saw him in the mosque at all. And his eyes were bulging and yellow from how much he is smoking hashish. And he, too, was surprised by me. So the first thing he did when he sat was to act... he started bowing and prostrating and speaking words like what the grammarians say: "An incomplete sentence"; meaning, for example, "tomatoes, eggplant," yes, what is wrong with them? And the complete sentence, do not say only from these crazy ones, no, you have in the dhikr (remembrance of Allah), Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, what is wrong with Allah? Allah knows best! [Everyone laughs!] It is an incomplete sentence. So this man sat pretending that he was absent and did not know what he was saying. I knew that this man was among the great awliya of the house owner. So I was struck with a terrible blow. Then I started to speak about the previous verse: . I spoke as much as I wished to speak, and we have no concern in this regard.
The concern, the owner of the house said to me, he said to me: By Allah, Professor, we used to believe like this, exactly as you are saying, until a shaykh named such-and-such came to us. In accordance with the order of the previous brother, so that we do not backbite the individuals, we will not name the shaykh. He came from al-Azhar and had studied and stayed in al-Azhar for twenty years. He started giving lessons in the mosques, the village mosque, the village mosques are in the houses. So among the instructions he gave us was what to say? "His secret is in his weakest creation."

Another questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Yes, and he said that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has righteous servants who worship Him in the unseen. You see them, you mock them, rather you declare them disbelievers. So beware of them, wake up and start with one of them and deny them!! Then you fall down and you are afflicted, and so on. And he said—and the point is here—my host was telling about thatThe Shaykh : one who told him the following story, so listen, O you who have insight!

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Yes, he studied twenty years in al-Azhar, yes, yes, meaning the old al-Azhar, circles, not circles... not today's al-Azhar. Oh, if only the old al-Azhar had remained!!
The summary: Allah, Allah, "Even if it were one arrow, I would have feared it." What is the story the shaykh told them? He struck them with a single blow, and stripped them with a single stripping, and made them believe in this crazy, attracted one that he is among the great awliya and the righteous. He told them the following story, he said:
In the past, there was a learned and virtuous man who would enjoin good and forbid evil, seeking reward from Allah. Whenever he saw something wrong in the market, he would change it. He said: One day, he went out as usual, surrounded by his companions and followers, his students. He stopped at a drug dealer or a perfumer and saw him selling narcotic hashish to a person. So he rebuked him and condemned him, saying, "Have you no shame? Do you not fear the Lord of the Worlds?" and so on. Before he finished his speech, the man was stripped of his faculties and became like a beast. The learned, virtuous preacher—his companions who were with him were shocked. They led him by the hand, as one leads a beast, to his house. Then they began to ask: What is the story of this learned man? What happened to him? They kept asking, they kept asking, until Allah sent them a person who said to them: The Shaykh is from the group who are called "the one with two wings." "The one with two wings" means he knows the apparent and the hidden; he combined the reality (haqiqah) with the Shari'ah, because the reality is not the Shari'ah, and the Shari'ah is not the reality. So Islam is two kinds: an apparent Islam and a hidden Islam. What a thing! What a thing, O Subtle One, a planned and treacherous scheme against Islam, a terrible one!
The summary: They went to the man, "the one with two wings," and told him the story: the scholar was enjoining good and forbidding evil, and he became like a beast.

The questioner: The one with two wings, did he...?

The Shaykh: Two wings, he said to them: Ah, I know the story. This drug dealer, the hashish seller, is one of the great awliya (close friends of Allah) and the righteous. So take your Shaykh to him and apologize to him, and please the heart of the hashish seller. The wali (close friend of Allah), the hashish seller, please his heart regarding the learned Shaykh, and I guarantee that the scholar's condition will return to what it was before!

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Yes?

Another questioner: The one with two wings.

Another questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: The one with two wings.

Another questioner: The one telling the story, the scholar...

The Shaykh: This is the whole story.
The summary: They went to the wali (close friend of Allah), the hashish seller, and they were gentle with him in speech and apologized to him, saying, "You know that our Shaykh, our scholar, is virtuous, and his sincerity and his religion, and so on. He did not want anything but to forbid evil; he did not know your status or your rank, and so on, until the heart of the wali (close friend of Allah), the hashish seller, was cleared. So the scholar recovered, and all his previously stripped faculties returned to him!

The questioner: The man was sent forth anew.

The Shaykh: And the wali (close friend of Allah), the hashish seller, began to preach to the scholar. He said to him: "O honorable Shaykh, do you really think that I am selling narcotic hashish? May Allah forgive you! I sell hashish from which the hashish smoker takes a small piece to stop smoking hashish. So this is against hashish. You are seeing it as hashish."
This Azhari, who spent twenty years in al-Azhar, told him this story. The owner of the house was saying to me: "We used to believe as you are saying, that the wali (close friend of Allah) is the one who fears Allah; the more he prays and worships, the closer he is to Allah, and so on. Until this learned man told us that these awliya (close friends of Allah) have a state with Allah that is different, different! You see them on the surface as open sinners, violent, they do not pray, but they pray in Mecca. They close their eyes and pray there."
So the summary: This is the most terrible corruption of Islam. You find that the calamity among Muslims now is double... Some of them think that they are doing well, but they are not on the religion. Is this religion, O our brothers, that the more a person draws near to Allah, the more he moves away from Him? What is this combining of contradictions! A hashish smoker who does not pray in congregation, does not fast in Ramadan, the cigarette with the hashish in it, "ashkarah" (a type of hashish) is... in front of people, unfortunately, and no one forbids it! This is a wali (close friend of Allah)! A wali (close friend of Allah) who is careful to pray at its times, is this not a wali (close friend of Allah)? This is dangerous in the place of inverting the truths. This is a type of Muslims.
The second type says to you: Is this Islam? The Islam of a hashish smoker, a narcotic user, and so on, and he is considered one of the great awliya (close friends of Allah) and the righteous? And illogical talk. You see him here in the house, but he is praying in Mecca! The one studying modern studies today says to you: If this is Islam, then I have disbelieved in it. I believe in Islam, in the Qur'an, and in the Sunnah, there are matters that one must believe in. Whether he is cultured or not! One must believe in them and submit. Therefore, I believe in the Book and the Sunnah, there are matters sufficient to test people: do they believe in the unseen or not? The unseen matters present in the Qur'an are not enough for us, so we bring them nonsense and myths and dress them in the clothing of Islam and clothe them in the garment of Islam, and we say to them: O people, come to this Islam. It means you are saying to them in the language of reality: Go away. This is your Islam; it will delay you, it will not advance you. Truly.