The Cure of Power

Shaykh Abdalqadir as-Sufi

Moussem 1992, Granada

A'udhu billahi min-ash-shaytan ir-rajim

Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim

The dhikr of Qur'an that we have heard speaks of the mumin and the kafir, of two ways of understanding existence. The kafir with his garden and all its wealth, exultant in his achievement and his possessions and his riches and saying that he will have it forever. And the mumin understanding something else and then when disaster comes, then when everything is laid in ruins the meaning and the wisdom of the mumin emerges. The mumin has said,

"Why did you not say, 'Masha'allah. La quwwata illa billah. Masha'allah. La quwwata illa billah"?

This was on the seal of Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib, rahimahu'llah. Why? Because as the Qutb of his time, this was the maqam of the highest knowledge, beyond which there is no knowledge in this world.

"Masha'allah. La quwwata illa billah."

This is the will of Allah, and there is no power except form Allah. This word quwwa in Arabic has no other meaning. It has no root but itself. Quwwa is only quwwa. It does not mean anything. It does not go anywhere. It does not change in Arabic. Quwwa is absolute because quwwa is

what belongs to the secret of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, because he was Rahmat al-'Alamin, said to his Sahaba:

"I will give you a treasure of the treasures of the Garden if you say, 'La hawla wala quwwata illa billahi'l-'Aliyyi'l-Adhim.'"

Now this was a gift of Rasulullah, peace and blessing be upon him, to be step to the knowledge of the ayat because he added,

"La hawla wala quwwata."

If we see that hawl in Arabic is not just strength, but the root of hawl is change, which is tahwil. La hawla wala quwwata. Allah is the One who makes change so there is no change but of form. Sidi 'Ali al-Jamal, rahimahu'llah, said that the du'a' of the 'arifin, the gnostics, was:

"Allah, keep me in change!"

Let me always be changing because this is the Sabil of Allah, the tahwil, the change. In other words, in the things everything is changing. In the beginning the garden was rich and providing wealth, and the man thought it was from him. It means that it is from the mashi'ah of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala'l-'Aliyyi'l-Adhim. Now this means that you cannot change your position about your place in existence. The muminun and the 'arifun are in the degrees of understanding.

"La hawla wala quwwata illa billahi'l-'Aliyyi'l-Adhim,"

The great,

"Masha'allah. La quwwata illa billah."

It is like they have surrendered any idea that they have any action that is other than what is the action of Allah, without shirk, because Allah is the Actor. Allah is One in His acts, in His attributes, and in His essence. Everything goes back to Him.

The difference between the kafir and the mumin was not the difference of the gardens – it was the difference of their knowledge, of their understanding. When you understand that Allah is the Mover, Allah is the Doer, then you can do two things. You can become mad, majnun, because it is terrible. Or you can take this path that is Sirat al-Mustaqim. This path is that you remember, and when you forget, you remember:

"Masha'allah. La quwwata illa billahi'l-'Aliyyi'l-Adhim."

Sayyiduna Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said that of dhikr of

"La hawla wala quwwata illa billahi'l-'Aliyyi'l-Adhim."

would purify you of power, it would cure you of power. In other words, the idea that you have got power is to be sick. It is a sickness. It is not in your hand. When you know it is in His hands, when you know the matter returns to Allah, the affair returns to Allah.

This is the mashi'atu'llah. The mashi'atu'llah means that then when you act, you act the way He wants. This is the meaning of the order to:

"Love with the love of Allah and hate with the hatred of Allah."

This is the meaning of the adab of Rasulullah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, when Sayyida 'A'isha, radiya'llahu 'anha, said:

"He loved what Allah loved and hated what Allah hated in the Qur'an."

This was his permission to act.

Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib, rahimahu'llah, says something very, very strange in his Diwan. He says:

The 'arifin are just like engines, motors moved by divine power."

They do not move until it is on the sabil of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This is the moment in Badr when the Rasulullah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, took the sand and threw it at the enemy. In this he was on the sabil of Allah because Allah said to him in His Book:

"When you threw, you did not throw, but Allah threw."

The basis of Islam is that there is no shirk. So what was this? It was that the Rasulullah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was in fana' of the moment of the waqt so he was not present in that instant: it was directed from Allah. This is the foundation of knowledge. This was the centre of the victory of Badr. At Uhud they had soldiers, they had weapons, they had strength, and they lost. In Badr they were a few and they went on the Sabil of Allah and this moment was the truth of it and they had the victory of Badr.

This is the moment of the 'arifin. This is why Hasan al-Basri, radiya'llahu 'anhu, said, "I saw forty of the men of Badr and they all wore wool. (They all wore the 'suf')."

The men of Badr were the sufis, the mutasawwifun, the people who put on the wool. So the sufi is someone who has annihilated his knowledge in the understanding, in the vision of his non-existence and Allah's truth. Therefore they are the people who change everything. They are in this change, this tahwil of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Hawla also means in Arabic "to surround", and Allah surrounds everything. There is no form but that He encompasses it. He encompasses it by His existence and its non-existence. Therefore this is another kind of person. This is the one who can change the world.

Allah makes times when the 'arifin withdraw. He makes times when the people of knowledge go into the desert, into the Sahara, and disappear. Shaykh Moulay al-'Arabi ad-Darqawi said to Shaykh al-Huwari to go into the desert and plant sweet dates. He hid him in the desert. Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib, rahimahu'llah, hid Sidi Muhammad ibn al-Qurshi in the desert, out of the way.

There is another time when the man of Allah rises up to fight. Then he must fight fi sabili'llah, not the jihad of this or that organisation, or this group or that group, but with this banner of Allah and the Rasul, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. This is the jihad with victory. All the jihads and all the struggles of the Arabs in this age have been disaster because they did not raise the banner of the Prophet, salla'llahu 'alayhi wa sallam. The day the Muslims move fi sabili'llah with this knowledge:

"Masha'allah. La quwwata illa billah."

Then they will have victory.

This will be the victory because it will be what is written all around this city by the Murabitun:

"La ghaliba illa'allah."

There is no victor except Allah, This is in your hands. Now you must do it. But this jihad is not first with the sword. The jihad is first to clean everything. There are times in tasawwuf when the tarbiyah of the Sufis is 'ilm an-nafs, nafs, hawa, shaytan, to clean the heart. The purification of this age is not interior. The purification of this age to make everything exterior clean. To make the behaviour clean, to make the street clean, to make the adab clean. To separate the enemy from the friend. This is the tarbiyah of this age. This is the jihad an-nafs of this age. It is that the market is not haram, that the money is halal. That the exchange is halal. That all the dunya exchange is halal. How can we make the hadrah if we are in a dirty place? Everything is clean. Everything about Islam is water. Before salat there must be wudu'. Before Hadra ar-Rabbaniyya there must be the Shari'ah of Islam, but the people who today say Shari'ah of Islam do not want this cleanness too.

Why is it not clean? Because they are not doing it with the knowledge of Masha'allah. When they know it is Masha'allah, it is not they who are doing it. Then they will not say:

"Islam! Islam! Islam!"

They will say:

"Allah! Allah! Allah!"

This is the truth of this age. The people who say:

"Islam! Islam! Islam!"

cut the throats of the young men. When we say 'Allah!' and fight in the Way of Allah, we will have victory fi sabili'llah, insha'allah.

So you must understand for the purification of your character you need the Ņilm an-nafs, suluk. Suluk is today himma. Suluk was himma in the time of Shaykh Ibn al-Mashish. It has always been himma. Now sometimes it is one way and sometimes it is another. Shaykh Moulay al-'Arabi ad-Darqawi said, "Everybody is in muraqaba."

The power was physical and wealthy, and he said, "No, you are masakin." To purify the time.

When Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib, rahimahu'llah, came, this great man said, "Muraqaba. The best jallaba."

Why? Because they wanted to kill this knowledge. So he hid the faqir in the beautiful jallaba. So only the men of Allah said, "No, no, this is not a beautiful jallaba. This is a rajulu'llah."

The enemies said, "Where are the fuqara'? Where are the masakin?" in order to kill them. There were all these people in jallabas saying, "As-salamu 'alaykum."

This is the thing. Now in this age you have to take on the deen of Islam. You have to protect it by Qadi 'Iyad, by Imam Malik, by the knowledge of the fiqh. You must protect your heart by taking on Masha'allah, la quwwata illa billah. This is dhikr of the great and you must make it yours. Not lightly on your tongue, but with weight and with awe and with majesty and awareness of the power of Allah.

You see in the language of the people of tasawwuf the Sufi moves between qabd and bast, between contraction and expansion. He is between fear and hope. If you move between fear and hope, you will not be a strategist. You will not look for strategy. You will say:

"Masha'allah. La quwwata illa billah."

If you become people of this knowledge, you can change the whole world. If you follow this, you can make the whole world for your sons and daughters completely clear, completely clean. This is the way of Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib, rahimahu'llah. The way has not changed. Shaykh al-Fayturi, rahimahu'llah, said:

"Tariqa is not wird or wazifa or baya or silsila,

    but tariqa is ma'rifatu'llah, ma'rifatu'llah."

Ma'rifatu'llah is embedded in the jewel.

Other Works by Shaykh Abdalqadir