Audhu billahi min ash-shaytan ir-rajeem
Bismillah ir-rahman ir-raheem

Nawaytu al-arba`een, Nawaytu al-`itikaaf, nawatu al-khalwah, nawaytu al-`uzla, Nawaytu al-salook lillahi ta`ala al-`adheem fee hadhal masjid.

Allah’s Iradat, His Will is to make us to meet each other another time. And for every time there is a meeting then there is separation. People come together, then they separate, then they come together, then they separate… until one time then they separate by Allah’ Iradah to take them to Judgment Day, to their destiny, to their death. Today we are here in Singapore, a country that الحمد لله is very peaceful and in which people are living together in happiness. And we hope that one day that everywhere around this earth and universe people will be living happily in peace and satisfaction.

This is a very important, and very basic concept. Every one of us, whenever he or she goes out of the house and then comes back, might take a shower, or might not. Now one day a man came home and didn’t take a shower, it might be acceptable. If on the seco^nd day he didn’t take a shower, it might still be acceptable, but a third day, if he didn’t take a shower, his wife will throw him out of the room saying, “I gave you permission three days, but now you have to take a shower.”

That man however, being very lazy, goes in to take a shower, and opens one tap, “Oh that is too cold.” He opens the other, “Oh that is too hot.” Then he mixes them, “Oh that is too much work mixing them.” He comes out without taking a shower. What happens then? His wife scolds him to go back and take shower. Finally he goes and takes a shower. Why is he taking a shower? To take away all that dirt that is on him – all the dirt and smell that is on his body.

Not only that, they have produced manufactured oil soap. Not whale soap. Today they have manufactured for you all kinds of shampoo, to rub on your body, to make you smell nice. You cannot cheat by using a cheap imitation, because such soaps are expensive. When you go to buy such soaps, you buy the most expensive one, as if to say, “I want to smell nice.” Perhaps you are going to visit a very important person, or you have an interview today, so you think, “I must smell nice.” And you pay a small fortune to smell nice.

O man! Did you not contemplate that every moment Allah the Mighty and Exalted, is interviewing us? In every second that is passing on this clock – tick tock – Allah the Mighty and Exalted, is interviewing us. So we must ask ourselves: with what kind of smell are we coming into His Presence? Allah said: Wa hua ma`akum ayna ma kuntum. – He is with you wherever you are. [57:4] and He said, Wa hua aqrabu ilaykum min habl al-wareed – We are closer to you than your jugular vein. [50:16] He knows everything that is going on with us; He is monitoring us with His endless Oceans of Power – monitoring us in every moment.

Before they used to monitor people, by normal means, sending someone behind him to check. Now they have these cameras. Now they went one step better, by means of technology. By satellites they monitor you on everything, through the Internet, through credit cards, through the GSM navigation system in your car they monitor you. Wherever you are, Allah gave them knowledge to know. What then do you think of Allah’s Knowledge? There is no longer in our hearts importance for Allah, but we are afraid of people. We are afraid from people but we are not afraid from Allah.

Allah did not give anyone permission to make conspiracy against anyone else on this earth. Your duty is only to yourself: Are you clean or not? Did you reach a level where you have a nice scent coming from you or not? Check? Go run in the morning – you see them jogging to increase their life, jogging. Doctor, do they jog to increase their life? Maa yastakhiroona sa`atan wa la yastaqdimoon - To every people is a term appointed: when their term is reached, not an hour can they cause delay, nor (an hour) can they advance (it in anticipation). [7:34] They cannot change their destined lifespan (ajal) even one second. When their ajal comes they will go.

What did Allah say? Aaqil wa tawakkal, as the Prophet (s) said, “Do not leave your camel in the desert, without tying it.” Make a little effort from your side. At least then you say, “I tied my camel.” Tie the camel of your self from your desires. Every one of us has desires, bad desires or good desires. If they are good desires then you give off a good scent… But if they are bad then you will give off a bad smell…

Sometimes you smell a beautiful scent yet no one is there. Sometimes awliya are passing, Abdal are passing with their nice scent. Because a person is desiring His Love [they are granted to smell them passing.] It is not due to earthly desire – it is due to heavenly desire.

So you take a shower, and your wife will say, “الحمد لله, now it is ok.” Allah gave us five times ablution before every prayer. If there was no wisdom out of it, why would Allah order His servants to do it for every prayer. It means, “O My servant! Remember Me at least five time a day and come to Me clean. I don’t like dirtiness.” Dirtiness is for Shaytan; cleanliness is for Rahman.

It is as if Allah (swt) means to say, “Clean yourself. I know you cannot take a shower every prayer, but take ablution (wudu) and come to Me.”

When Allah called the Prophet (s), on the Night Journey and Ascension (Laylat al-isra’ wa mi`raj), he saw a group of people who have color on part of their body and he said to Jibreel (as), “Who are these?” They were very nice, very sweet, not only [decorated with a] beautiful color but adorned with heavenly dresses. “Ya Jibreel! Who are these peaceful people, dressed from Allah’s Beauty?”

Would you like to be dressed from Allah’s beauty, Shaykh Zakariyya?

From Allah’s Beauty Oceans He created hur al-`ayn. Do you know hur al-`ayn? Who doesn’t know hur al-`ayn raise their hand. Explain to them, (translates in Malay).

Does anyone know what hur al-`ayn are, or how you would know them? Do you want to know them? We [only] heard about them. Allah swt told his Prophet (s) and the Prophet (s) told the Sahaba that if one hur al-`ayn, just one, shows one part of her finger, (and the finger has three parts), the whole دنيا will faint, from the beauty of the smell, men and women will faint from just one finger’s appearance in this world. So do you now know whathur al-`ayn are now? No, because we didn’t faint yet.

So Allah dressed these people, those whom Prophet (s) asked Jibreel (as) about, with heavenly dresses. He said, “Ya Muhammad, those are from your Ummah, those are your people.” He (s) asked, “How did they reach that?” Jibreel (as) said, “Because they never prayed with a previous ablution, even if they had ablution, they make ablution over ablution.”

Even if they have ablution, they go and take new ablution, even if they didn’t go to restroom, open the tap, make ablution and then go and pray. Nur `ala nur – Light upon Light.

Why does Allah love clean people? “Silah al-mu’min wudu” – “The weapon of the believer against Shaytan is his ablution (wudu).” This is 101 today, basic, but it is very important, but many of us are dropping these issues. Allah does not like us to come to him smelling with our bad actions (`amal).

Allah does not care if you are sweating or not, as long as it is in Allah’s Way. Because that sweat is in His way. That sweat only means something to people: when you go for an interview they don’t like your smell.

The Prophet (s) said: Inna Allah la yanthuru ila suwarikum. “Allah does not look at your pictures/forms.” He does not look at our forms, he looks at our `amal, our deeds. Is that true or not? Why don’t we go downtown then? Ah but Singapore is expensive. We are going now to seek out heavenly shampoos, to find where they buy this heavenly shampoo to shower with in order that we will be acceptable in Allah’s Presence. People are buying body shampoo but no one is buying spiritual shampoo. Did you see anyone selling spiritual shampoo? No? No one saw it? I saw it. Our master Mawlana Shaykh Nazim. He is not even selling it; he is giving it free; charity. That shampoo cleans you of the dirtiness of the دنيا.

That is what we need today. Today we don’t need any newspaper. Sometimes you see a newspaper. If you see one, take it, throw it away or tear it up. We are not politicians. Politicians take care of us, leave them to their job. Take care of yourself. Politicians have their duty. Our duty is to be sincere with Allah swt. You cannot change anything today.

The Saviour, Mahdi (as) is coming. Sayyidina `Isa (Jesus – upon whom be peace) is coming. This is the belief of Muslims, of Christians, this is the belief of Jews, that is the belief of every religion that Sayiddina `Isa (upon whom be peace) is coming and Sayyidina Mahdi (as) is coming. So if they come in our time, did you prepare yourself? And what do you have to do to prepare yourself? To have a nice smell. Nice clothes. Find a heavenly shampoo and spiritual clothes. Don’t involve yourself in any kind of politics, it is not our business it is dangerous and it doesn’t help in anything. If you really love politics and you want to fight, fight your ego, that is the good politics for us.

O Muslims, mumins. Allah swt sent his Messenger Sayyidina Muhammad (s) to prepare us and to guide us to Allah’s Divine Presence, nothing else. Don’t think that Sayyidina  Muhammad (s) came for other than to prepare the Ummah – Muslims and non-Muslims – to be in a good condition for their Lord. The Prophet (s) did not come for politics. Did you see any prophet in politics, making conspiracy or fighting? That is not the duty of a real believer. The duty of a real believer is to look [and say], “Where O my Lord can I make You happy with me?” Pray the five prayers, pay the poor-due, fast the month of Ramadan, make the pilgrimage and build relationships.

Allah said, “Pay charity.” What is the meaning of paying charity? It is to take money you earned and help the poor. It is establishing a relationship. Now they say, “Pay your money and it becomes tax exempt.”

Allah wants you to take your money and go by yourself to that poor person and build a relationship with him – to give to his family. Not to give a movement or organization that zakat money. You don’t know how that organization is making a relationship, or if they even are. Your duty is to build the relationship yourself. In the time of the Prophet (s), they knew where they were spending their money. They see the people around them, in Madina, happy because they are eating and drinking and dressing by means of the charity they received. So charity in Islam came to establish a relationship with your Lord and with the Ummah.

And Allah made you a group, where all that you are thinking of is love of Allah, love of the Prophet (s), love of awliya and love of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim. That is important. That is what will save us in this life and the next. Nothing will save us except love of Allah, love of the Prophet (s) and love of awliya.

Man `ada lee waliyyan adhaantahu bil harb. Allah said, in a قدسي hadith, “Whoever clashes with one of My friends, I will make war on him.”

Remember Shaykh `Umar al-Khatib, you knew him, rahmatullah alayh? He was great scholar (`aalim). Are you witnessing? Yes. Was he a great scholar or not? [Yes.] How many years did he live? [90] Where is he now? He is gone, no? Where is he? What did he take with him: his Islam and his deeds (`أمل)? Look at ourselves. We are not staying, we are going. Shaykh Khatib lived 90 years. Many of us live will 60 years, 70 years, 50 years, 90 years or 100 years but [finally] people are going to die. Are we preparing ourselves for اخيرا or we are preparing ourselves for دنيا?

When I look at you, from my perspective, I see faith (iman) in your faces. You are all on the way of Allah, the love of the Prophet (s) and the love of our Shaykh. Our earnest hope is that by means of our Shaykh’s invocation (du`a) and spiritual support you will be presented to the spiritual Presence of the Prophet (s), and by means of the Prophet’s invocation you will be presented in the Presence of our Lord. That is a good sign. But we need to be like that at all times, day or night.  It might be you are like that because you are here now, but when you go out the door…

When you go to work, dress like people commonly do. But when you are praying at home, be sure to keep the dress of Islam. And come to your Lord with the best of scents, the best heavenly shampoo that is produced in the market. That heavenly shampoo that we are going to produce on the market is going to be very valuable, but it is very easy for anyone to get it. It is not so expensive, like the other (دنيا) shampoo. You pay how much for that shampoo, 20, 30 dollars? More? The value of this one however, might be in the millions, and is accessible to any person. And anyone who carries that shampoo, دنيا أو اخيرا… We leave that for another lecture, after work, after 5 o’clock, because you cannot go above 30 minutes.