The Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship

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Benefit to All

Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim: In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

O God, please grant us the wealth of the three worlds, the world of souls, this world, and the next world. Please bestow these three worlds upon us and grant us Your grace. Amen.

May You take away from us everything other than You and everything that has been made in comparison to You, and may You grant us Your grace. Amen.

O the One who has no equal, the One who has no destruction, the One who is undiminishing, O Allah who is the plenitude and who is all pervading, the One who has all the understanding, the One who is the resplendence in the heart, the One who is that light within iman, or absolute faith, the Perfect One who fills our heart with the plenitude of love, please grant us Your qualities, Your actions, Your grace, and Your treasure. Amen.

Remove all the aspects of the world that are within us and fill us with the aspect of the next world. Remove from us the darkness of this physical world, and grant us that light which is the next world. You exist as the light, so please grant us that light by which we can dispel the darkness of the world. Amen.

My Limitless One of Grace, may You grant us all the immeasurable wealth that You have with You. O the One who has no darkness, the One who has no torpor, the One who has no desire, the One who has no attachments, the One who has no connection to the world, the One who has no equal or comparison, that Power who rules everything, may You grant us Your gracious attributes. Amen. Amen. Amen.

My very precious children, my jeweled lights, my own born children who are my rightful ones, my children who are the light within my heart, those who are born with me, who are the light of my eyes, my loving children who are the love of my wisdom, my children who are born with me as six lives but exist as one life, who are a part of my body and my wisdom and my iman, children who are intermingled in my love, my very precious children, may God protect you and me, and may He sustain us. Amen. My love to all of you.

My very precious children, my jeweled lights, there is a resonance known as Allahu. And from within this resonance which is within the innermost heart, or qalb, comes the explanation. And within that explanation is that vibration which vibrates within our lives. And within that vibration is that plenitude of light which exists within us. We should strive to reach that plenitude.

My very precious children, my jeweled lights, look at all the things around us. Each creation benefits us in some way, does it not? Take the grass, for example. It is useful to the cows and the bulls and the goats. Look at a tree; it benefits so many. Some trees bear fruit for you to eat, and those that don't bear fruit give shade, do they not? The fruits, the shrubs, and the flowers are beneficial to others. A flower can give you a sweet fragrance, and the water from a pond can quench your thirst. The sun gives us light, the moon gives coolness, and the stars also give their light. In all God's creation everything benefits some life or other. Each creation helps and provides comfort for other lives.

My very precious children, you must realize this. The shrubs, the trees, the flowers, the grass, the rains, and the clouds all give us comfort. If they can comfort us, then shouldn't we also be able to comfort others? We, too, must come to benefit others. We must become beneficial to all other lives.

If a man sits by the side of a mountain, the shade from the mountain provides coolness and prevents the heat of the sun from falling upon him. Similarly, if you become a good person, then you will be able to comfort other lives that are in danger, and you will be able to provide peace in time of heated difficulties. If we are virtuous and good and selfless, then we will be like the mountain which serves without expecting any reward or praise in return. If we can be in that state and give peace to other lives, then we will be of benefit to others.

A tree shades us from the heat of the sun and protects us from the winds and rain. A tree can be of such great help. It bears fruits for others to eat, but the tree never eats the fruit that it bears, does it? So, like that, even if we live in this world, we shouldn't have the thought that we are enjoying the pleasures of the world. We must be like the tree which bears fruits but never partakes of them.

Similarly, although many lives exist within the water, the water never eats any of those lives. Instead, it gives of itself to others. For example, there are many grasses that are found in the water, but the water doesn't eat that grass. It gives it all to other lives. Like that, my very precious children, if we are to exist as true human beings, then we should be helpers to all other lives. We should not look to satisfy our own comfort and our own hunger. We should not look for praise and honors. We should not look for any of these. We must at least perform the duty of the grass and shrubs.

God does duty without any selfishness or attachment, and He feeds all lives. Is it not so? We should be in the same state as God. My very precious children, my jeweled lights, it is time that we lose ourselves and understand our Leader.

A flower gives its sweet fragrance, does it not? Like the flower that blooms and gives its fragrance, our heart must bloom and that wisdom must come. Only when that wisdom blooms will the flower of the heart blossom. And only when that love blooms within the heart will that fragrance come from within you. Should not our hearts blossom like the flower so that we, too, can give that fragrance? All lives will pay obeisance to that fragrance; all will respect that fragrance.

A flower doesn't need to advertise itself saying, "I am a flower.'' Others will be aware of its fragrance, and they will be attracted and drawn toward it. So if a mere flower can do that, then when we exist with a flowering and blossoming heart, and when we have that fragrance in our heart, those who love God and have faith in God will come near us. Children, jeweled lights of my eyes, just as a flower attracts others, this heart will attract those who have faith in God. We should be in that state.

If we pluck a flower and remove it from the tree, it will shrivel up and lose its fragrance. The flower can give its fragrance only as long as it is on the tree. Similarly, if we leave our correct state, that flower within the innermost heart will fade. We must remain connected to the tree which is the heart. If we leave the heart behind, then the flower in our heart will perish. This is what will happen if we go in search of praise and honors and positions for the sake of our pride. Then we will be like the flower that was plucked from the tree; all the good that we have will dry up within us. Is it not so?

Every one of my children, please think about this, God always exists in the same place, and He does His duty without praise, without honors, and without the ego of the I. Such is His duty. This is how we should try to perform our duty, our prayers, our devotions, and our worship. There is no God worthy of worship other than the Almighty God, Allahu ta'lla.

My precious children, you must think. You must reflect. You must realize. You must know. And you must understand. What must we understand? That Allah exists everywhere. That Allah exists in all lives and understands all lives. The One who exists everywhere, does He not exist within us? Do we have to go in search of Him? Do we have to recite a mantra to draw Him within us? Do we have to perform some tantra or trick? Do we have to display a miracle to see Him? Do we have to fly to the skies to see Him? Do we have to close our eyes and wait to see Him?

My precious children, my jeweled lights, see how the water falls when it rains. It goes to all places and gives benefit to each. When it rains, you will see the trees and the grass and all things become bright; everything has that coolness within it. The ponds become filled, and the excess water drains into the ocean. How beautiful it is when that water runs to the ocean. When the rain falls to the earth and the pond, it is of benefit to all living creatures, is it not?

Similarly, with every breath our heart should glorify God. At all times, we must allow the rain of God's grace to fall. Every minute, every second, with every breath, we must glorify Him. In every second we must have the intention of worshiping Him. Every word that we speak must be His word. Every thought must be His thought. This must be our state. In our thoughts, in our breath, in our speech, and in our intentions, we should be communicating with God. We should live in His intention. Whatever duty we may do, He must always be in our intention.

This is not a very big thing, my precious children. We think it is a very big weight to carry. But look at the breath: whatever work we may be doing, that breath goes on working automatically, does it not? When we are working, does the breath stop working? When we work, do our eyes stop functioning? They still function, do they not? Whatever work we may do, doesn't the blood keep on circulating? Does it stop circulating because we are busy working? No, it does not. Whenever we do anything, our breath always flows continuously. Our chest moves in and out, every piece of flesh twitches, every hair follicle rises up, and all the pores of the skin remain open all the time. If these things can always perform their functions, then can we not always have our intention on God?

Our intention and our faith in God must always be with us, just as our breath moves continuously. Our iman must be constant. Those thoughts, that intention of God, that breath, that speech, that look, and that sound should operate continuously as do the automatic functions of the body. That is what is called Dhikr, the remembrance of God. If you always intend God just as the functions always work inside your body, then that is what is called worship or prayer.

This is not a very heavy burden to carry. Everything else works automatically; if this too can work automatically, then it is called grace, God's rahmat. It is that grace that we must spread to all. Like the rain which gives so much comfort and coolness, we should quench the thirst of others. We should satisfy the hunger of others and try to comfort their tiredness. These are the duties that we must perform.

My children, we should never say, "This is difficult, that is difficult," or "This is impossible." It is what we carry within us that is really heavy. When it rains and there are floods, you can see trees and boats floating away in the water. But when you try to lift a tree from the earth, it is very heavy. If we try to carry a tree ourselves, it is very heavy. Similarly, if you try to carry a ship, it is very heavy. But when the ship is on the water, is it heavy then? No, it is not heavy for the water. Once we put the ship in the water, what happens? We can load it with seventy times its own weight and still it is not too much weight for the water.

My very precious children, all the weights and heavy things that we have collected during our life are like this. We try to carry them with us. We try to carry the earth, we try to carry the air, we carry our desires, and we carry our attachments and our love for our relations. These things are heavy because we are carrying them against the gravity of the earth.

But if you can let each breath carry the vibration of La ilaha, ill-Allahu — There is no God but God, and only God exists; if you can take all this weight and hand it over to that Hu, ill-Allahu, it is like handing over all those weights to the ship. Then you will have no weight. You will have no burdens to carry. Just as the water was able to support the ship, Allah will carry all your burdens. They are not heavy to Him, just as the ship and its cargo are not heavy to the water. If you surrender to God in that state, there is no weight or burden for you at all; Allahu will carry all those burdens. But if you just give half to the water and you attempt to carry the other half, how can you bear that? How can you carry that?

My precious children please reflect on this. Only when you give the boat entirely to the water can the water carry it. Then no matter what you may load on it, the water can still carry it. Like that, we must give our burdens entirely to God, and say, "La ilaha, There is no God but God, ill-Allahu, Only You exist, O God." And that One who is the benevolence of all the universes, the Rahmatul-'alamin, will carry all our burdens and all our weight. The more weight you give Him, the more He will carry.

If you reflect on this, you will realize that if we can live in this state of surrender to God, then we will have no fear or difficulties whatsoever. Then it becomes very easy to worship God. The difficulty lies in trying to carry things away from the earth and in trying to surrender these burdens to Allah. There are always the blood attachments, races, and religions that pull us. We carry them with us, and that is what gives us this weight. But if we can take this weight and surrender it to God, then worship becomes very easy, to reach God becomes easy, to speak to Him becomes easy, to receive His benevolence is easy, to merge with Him is easy, and to reach His kingdom is easy. We must think about this. My very precious children, each one of you must think this over. We must reflect on each and every thing.

Look at all the things that are surrounding us. Study them. Try to reflect and understand. Let us look around and see. God created each one of His creations, and He gave them the appropriate levels of wisdom and understanding. These creations are like books to us; within each one there is an explanation. If we can understand that explanation, then we can understand the truth — can we not?

Everything that we see is visible. Everything has a history. Everything moves and grows. Everything has a sound. Everything speaks. Everything has a smell. Everything has actions and qualities. Everything has a benefit and a use. Let us reflect on this. These are lessons for us to learn, are they not? And we can try to digest these lessons, can we not?

It is the same within our body. Within this body, we have a huge universe. What we are seeing outside is just a small world. It is just a tiny point, a dot. But there is a universe within us, and within that are the 18,000 universes, and within those are millions and millions of creations. We must see all of these. We must look after them. We must bring them into some state of usefulness, and we must teach them. We must teach them justice. We must judge them. We must preach to them. We must teach them wisdom. We must give them the light of the soul. We need to instruct them in so many things. This is the court of judgment and justice. As we become realized beings or Insan-Kamil, we will become the chief justice in that court of justice.

We are the ones who have analytic wisdom. All the creatures that are within us have only the first three levels of consciousness. They have feeling, awareness, and intellect. Beyond these three levels, we have evaluation, subtle wisdom, divine analytic wisdom (the wisdom of the qutbiyat or the wisdom which explains), and divine luminous wisdom (the wisdom of the Nur, the resplendence of God). Using these faculties of wisdom, we must become true human beings so we can rule and guide these creatures that are within us.

There have been 124,000 prophets, qutbs, saints, and lights of God who have come to this world. Of these, 25 prophets were selected. They were shepherds; they looked after cattle, goats, camels, and horses. Why did the prophets have to become shepherds to animals like cows and goats, horses and camels, donkeys and asses? We must think about this.

We are those camels and goats and bulls and horses. Within us there are so many animals, and it was to shepherd those animals that the prophets came. We were the cows and goats and camels to the prophets. They came to shepherd us and to make us into men.

We must understand that it is we whom they shepherded. Did they really shepherd the camels or the goats or the cows? Whom did they shepherd really? We were in that animal state, and we are the ones who were shepherded. The prophets performed the work of a shepherd as an example to demonstrate what they were really doing. They were trying to shepherd us and make us true men.

Once we become true human beings, then we, too, must shepherd these goats and cows — not the cows and goats which exist outside, but the ones within us. We have a huge world within us, and those creatures exist there in the form of shadows. They exist in the form of demons and ghosts; they exist as foxes and dogs, rats and cats. Each of them attacks and destroys the other. One kills and tortures the other; one drinks the blood of the other. The viruses and germs, the thoughts, demons, and satans, all devour each other. All the tigers and bears and dogs and cats and snakes and scorpions and all the things that exist in hell are within us. Just as the prophets shepherded us, we have to shepherd those things which exist in our inner world. We have to shepherd everything that exists in that huge universe within us.

In order to do this, we have the whip iman and the staff of faith, certitude, and determination. In order to cross this dense jungle, we have to hold onto that staff, have that whip in our hand, and carry the torch of wisdom. With the light of wisdom, the whip of iman, and the staff of faith, certitude, and determination, we must try to shepherd those animals within us. Once we can herd those animals, then we must give judgment according to their merit.

When we recognize what we are bringing up, we will realize the justice of 'Umar 'ibnul-Khattab, companion of the Prophet and second caliph of Islam, may Allah be pleased with him. Look at his judgment and his sense of justice. Read about his justice and the judgments that he delivered during his time. That is the kind of justice and judgment that we must perform in this world of ours. If we have that justice within us, and if we can give judgment to each of those lives within us, then we, too, can become such a leader.

If we act according to that state of justice and judgment, and if we have that state of truthfulness, we will find that even the mongoose and the cobra will be able to live together. We will find that tigers and goats will live together. The lion and the bull will live together. The small and the large fish will live together. They will all be able to live in the same place. Things that are inimical to each other will live in a perfect state of harmony in the kingdom of justice.

If we have that state of justice within us, and if we can perform that true judgment, then Allah is within us all the time. That judgment is within us. All lives are within us. The love for all lives is within our body. Unity and peace are within us, and we will know the hunger and the happiness of all the lives within us. We can reach that state where all lives exist together in one place.

If you read the life history of 'Umar 'ibnul-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, and if you read of his justice and his judgments, you will find it was very exalted. It was the kind of judgment that man and even God can praise. That is how he ruled the kingdom in his time. If any of us can reach that state of justice and perform that judgment, then we will be in the state of Islam or spotless purity. Anyone who does not have this state of justice is not in Islam. If we had this state of justice, we would see no separation. We would not find fault in anyone. We would not find differences in anyone. We would not harm any life. We would not kill any life. We would never sin. We would treat all lives as our own life. We would judge ourselves first, and then, if someone asked for help, we would give him justice. As soon as we thought of hurting someone, we would pass judgment against ourselves.

If we can have this state of justice and judgment and if we can perform this within ourselves, that is what we call the station iman and Islam. That is the station of the true believer [mu'min]. Those who do not have this sense of justice are the people who murder and kill and commit sins. They attack and hurt others. They laugh at the difficulties of others. They laugh at others being murdered. They take pride in others being murdered. They see torture as a pleasure. Such a person is not in a state of Islam.

If a person recognizes the difficulties of others as his own difficulties, that is Islam. One who has that awareness becomes Islam. To see the suffering of others as one's own suffering and to see the happiness of others as one's own happiness is Islam. To see the hunger of others as his own hunger is Islam. To see the life of others as his own life is Islam. To see the sweetness in the life of others and the happiness in the life of others as his own happiness is Islam.

If we could understand this sense of justice, there would not be any difficulties or murder in all three worlds (the world of the soul, this world, or the next world). Every second we would say, " 'Al-hamdulillah. All praise is to God!" And we would have shukur, or contentment. Once this understanding comes within us and once we practice this perfect justice within ourselves, then we become true believers. We become the messengers of God, we become the lights of God, and we become the leaders of the kingdom of God. We must reflect on this, my very precious children.

Each one of us must pass judgment upon ourselves. Judging from within our own heart, we must realize our own faults. We must realize that we are the ones who have committed so many faults. We must realize that our eyes have committed many faults, our nose has committed many faults, our ears have committed many faults, our tongue has spoken so many faults, and the desires of our body are faults. We have to realize the faults of our hands and legs, such as when our legs kicked others. Realizing all this, we must pass judgment for our own faults.

Before we try to destroy someone else, we should first pass judgment on ourselves. Before finding fault with others, we must first pass judgment upon ourselves. Before we backbite others, we must first pass judgment upon our selves. Before we lie about others, we must first judge ourselves. Before we hurt the heart of another, we must first pass judgment on ourselves. Like that, we have to pass judgment on our thoughts and on all actions done by our eyes, ears, nose, hands, and mouth. The guilty ones are within our own body and mind. These are our qualities which exist in our actions. All these qualities exist within us, do they not? So we have to pass judgment on them. That is the state of Iman-Islam. That is what is called Islam.

To first see the fault in yourself and then to pass judgment and correct yourself is true justice. Those who perform that justice are in the religion of truth. They are the leaders of the religion of truth. They are in the state of Iman-Islam. They are the true believers.

If we fail to judge ourselves and instead attack others, then our actions will not be acceptable within the true sense of justice. Neither God nor man will accept such behavior. We must think about this. If we think about this and act accordingly, if we perform judgment and justice correctly, and if we stop attacking other lives, that will bring splendor to our lives.

We need a pure place in which to worship, is it not so? If we do not have such a place, how can we worship God? The one who worships God must be pure; his heart must be pure. If our hearts are pure, we can worship God in the state of purity. If we have no sense of justice in us, how can we pray to Him? These are the qualities one needs for prayer and worship. We must try to realize and understand this.

My very precious children, my jeweled lights, you must try to establish this state. My loving children, each one of us must try to reduce the weights and loads we carry with us. We must get rid of our burdens; we must try. The way we conduct ourselves now is the cause of all this trouble.

All my children, we must think about our own lives. We must think about the duty and actions of God. We must try to understand them and try to live in that state. Let our prayer be in that state, and let us try to reach the throne of God. That will be the splendor in our lives. That is the exaltedness of man and the clarity of our wisdom.

That is the advancement of our soul and the wealth of the three worlds. May we reach that. Amen. Amen.

My very precious children, my jeweled lights, may each one of you please think about this. Try to walk along the right path, and let us try to judge ourselves. To worship God is easy, but to understand the qualities and to go along this path is difficult. So let us strive to reach that station. Amen. Amen.

As-salamu 'alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu Kullahu. May the peace of God and His beneficence be upon all of you. Amen.

M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen