10/19/22, 4:28 AM MAWSIM CAPE TOWN – Hajj Issa – for the Fuqara

Hajj Issa – for the Fuqara

-Talks, writings, khutbahs, etc.-

MAWSIM CAPE TOWN

Mawsim of Shaykh Abdalqadir as-Sufi

may Allah be pleased with him

16th October 2022, Cape Town

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullah

Allah has gathered us all together in this blessed Jumu’ah mosque, in this blessed
city of the mountain, sea and awliya, to honour the blessed life of sayyidina
Shaykh Abdalqadir as-Sufi, may Allah have mercy on him, as was fore-ordained
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before anything came into existence. Each person is here because He, subhanahu
wa ta’ala, decreed that it should happen; it is His will and for His purpose.

Allah, subhanahu wa ta’ala, has made clear to mankind that He wants us to know
Him in His Mercy and Majesty, and to that end He brought forth creation, which
was firstly recorded in a book, from beginning to end. Nothing and no one
outsteps what Allah wants, either in time or place, whether sun, sand particle,
animal, jinn or human being.

The beginning is before time and space, with Allah taking a portion of His Light,
naming it the Nuri Muhammad, subhanahu wa ta’ala, known only to Him. From
that light descends all creation, glorifying and obeying Allah, willingly or
unwillingly. 

The highest and most perfect in fulfilling Allah’s intention are the Messengers
and Prophets, Allah be pleased with all of them. They are the shining suns that
reveal Allah’s creation for what it is, and what it is for. The best of them and the
inspiration for all the others is our Messenger, Muhammad, sallahu alayhi wa
sallim, sent to all mankind, not to be succeeded by another while time continues;
a mercy for all creation and a guide to the pure Presence, by what Allah has made
halal and haram. The Rasulullah, sallahu alayhi wa sallim, is vast in form and
meaning, beyond our intellect, unsurpassed by any before or after, an
impeachable source for all men and women to realise their own gift of existence
and its purpose as decreed by the Decreer.

Since there will never be another Messenger among humanity for as long as the
world exists, He, subhanahu wa ta’ala, has placed guidance and example among
the best of those upon the earth at any time, indeed they are essential and key to
the continuance of life on earth. Some are known, many are not; they are the
pure slaves of Allah, obeying Him in every instant, whatever the changes over
time, for better or worse, Allah protects them for His purpose. 

Man is forgetful and weak, and from great heights can descend to the lowest
depths. So it is, that Allah sends extraordinary men to remind mankind of the
mercy and generosity of His great Messenger, Muhammad, sallahu alayhi wa
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sallim, and call them back from their wandering in loss to obedience to their
merciful Master, subhanahu wa ta’ala.

Those of us here, and others spread around the globe, are fortunate to be the
followers of such a man, Shaykh Abdalqadir as-Sufi, may Allah be pleased with
him, and cover him in mercy, solace and sweetness, in his resting place here,
until the Rising, where we ask Allah to honour him greatly and apportion his
place in the highest Gardens in the company of our Rasul, sallahu alayhi wa
sallim, and those Allah loves best.

Allah guided him to Himself through the great men of Allah, Shaykh
Muhammad ibn Habib and Shaykh Muhammad al-Faytouri, Allah be pleased
with them both. He assumed, as commanded, the responsibility for the Darqawi
Tariqah, and continued to call people to Allah, which was, and always remained,
his first concern. However, through his Marifatullah, his knowledge and
proximity to Allah, he realised that something essential was missing, and when an
essential element is not part of any matter there can be no success, because the
Arif knows that the source of Truth, the Haqiqah, is the Road, the Shari’ah, and
vice versa, because they are from the Master of both. 

In his certainty, as Shaykh of the Tariqah, he abandoned all that he had clung to
of the practices of the Tariqah and placed himself at Allah’s mercy, for guidance
and clarity, and in this state of complete submission, Allah raised him up, and
showed him the reality of Shaykh al-Faytouri’s words uttered after his successful
khalwah and completion of his journey, “Where do you go after Makkah, but
Madinah?”

Allah brought the Shaykh’s attention to the works of Qadi Abu Fadl ‘Iyad al-
Yahsubi, may Allah be pleased with him and protect his place of rest. It was the
missing part he only knew by its absence in his extensive knowledge. These were
not hidden treasures, indeed among the people of Imam Malik, radiallahu an,
they are well known, but in his purview, he realised their real worth in our time,
being pure gold, indeed, the red sulphur that transforms base metal into gold. He
took them off the shelf and applied them to our lives. Through Qadi ‘Iyad,
rahimahu Allah, he discovered men of Allah, whose states and behaviour
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demonstrated their love of Rasulullah, sallahu alayhi wa sallim, their fear of

Allah, subhanahu wa ta’ala, and their wilaya without a mention of Tasawwuf,
because they were actively involved in establishing, protecting and advancing the
Deen of Allah. Here, were men whose inward the Sufis would recognise and
whose outward the people of ‘Ilm had to confirm, by whom the wronged gained
justice, the poor were helped and the powerful were not feared. 

Up until then we had experienced the dichotomy between the ‘Ulama and the
Sufis, but here was a record of men who were both; men who were zahid at the
same time pronouncing sharic judgements and caring for the  civic body. Even
before Shaykh Abdalqadir realised he was Muslim, he cared for people and social
justice, and at this point his vision became clear; it was the coalescing of all the
parts Allah had opened his heart and intellect to.

In times of danger to the Ummah, particularly the European invasion of the

Muslim lands, it was the Sufis who left their zawiyyahs and engaged the Kuffar
fee sabilillah, Allah reward them all. They did not leave their tasawwuf in their
zawiyyahs but took it with them to the battle field. 

In our time, our Shaykh realised the perilous circumstances of the Ummah, no
khilafah, no rule by Book and Sunnah, instead all Muslims were being ruled by
western economic and political systems. By Allah, he realised that the only
response was to go back to the original successful implementation of Islam by the
Rasulullah, sallahu alayhi wa sallim,  and his companions, their followers and
their followers, may Allah be pleased with all of them. This had been done
throughout history, most recently by Shaykh ‘Uthman dan Fodio in Nigeria, and
like him, he called us to Madinah and the ‘Aml of its first three generations, as
recorded by Imam Malik, the Imam of the Dar ul-Hijrah.

This was not going from one thing to another, as some mistakenly thought,
leaving Tasawwuf for Fiqh, but rather a unifying, or coalescing of these essential
elements of our Deen, Islam, Iman and Ihsan. 

To move forward we cannot go back to Kufa, Baghdad, Damascus or even

Istanbul, but all the way back prior to Madhhab through Imam Malik to Madinah
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al-Munawwara. 

What the Shaykh took from that in the first place was leadership, Amirate.
Leadership by a man who took on the responsibility for the Deen and welfare of
his community. Not an Imam or Shaykh, but a man who would get things done,
helped, guided and obeyed by shaykhs, imams, ’ulama and the people at large.
When a man places himself below everybody else in serving them, Allah raises
him up with command over them. Without him there is no effective Jumu’ah,
Ramadan, Hajj, Zakat or just trading, and without the solid foundation of the
obligatory how do we approach Allah? It is what He loves most, subhanahu wa
ta’ala. 

Sayyidina Shaykh raised up the example of the Ribat; the Murabitun; those on
the borders with the kuffar, protecting and advancing the Deen against them, but
where are those borders now? We started our journey in a zawiyyah, huddled in
dhikr and study, honouring what we had from Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib,
through the tireless efforts of sayyidina Shaykh. We tried to break free from
there to establish a halal village, but it didn’t work. We could not emigrate to a
land governed by Book and Sunnah, because we could not find one. All this time
over many years there was much interaction with Muslims from all over the
world, Sayyidina Shaykh was tireless in pursuit of knowledge and the
implementation of that knowledge, but nothing came close to what we received
from Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib and the Darqawi Tariqah, until Qadi ‘Iyad
and ‘Root Islamic Education’. 

This was the step that revealed Shaykh Abdalqadir as Mujaddid and Muhyiddin,
even if we did not realise it at the time. 

We understood Shaykh Hasan al-Basri’s words that, ‘Sufism was a reality without
a name, but now it is a name without a reality’. Meaning Madinah al-Munawwara,
the place of the Deen, where everything was in its place. Islam for all, Iman
firmly in the hearts and Ihsan for the dedicated to Allah. 

He, Allah have mercy on him, pointed forward to Madinah, Amirate, establishing
mosques, minting gold and silver, establishing Zakat as a taken governmental
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obligation.

He called us to Madinah as the only place, and reality, that all Muslims will agree
on, as his desire was for the Ummah as a whole, a unifying love for Allah and the
Rasul, only contested by Allah’s enemies and the Rasul’s detractors. 

Now is the time for Islam to call mankind back from the brink, it is what the
world needs and it is the Muslim’s responsibility to share and call others to what
was established in Madinah al-Munawwara, before it was recorded by Imam
Malik. No cultural manifestation of Islam from whatever real source can achieve
this, we cannot call people to the Ummah as it is now; we have to call the Ummah
back to Madinah by practice and to Allah in reality. If we embark, we will arrive.
If we are true to what our Shaykh taught us, the light of the Deen will draw those
of good heart and intellect towards  Allah, subhanahu wa ta’ala. 

As the man of our time, his view was global, his concern was for everyone, those
close to him will overwhelm you with anecdotes of his constant caring
interaction with all he met in whatever mundane activity he engaged in. They
will tell you of his extraordinary generosity and how things came into one hand
and out of the other. This doesn’t mean he was a nice man; he was a beautifully
majestic man, he gave everyone their due, whether a smile or a reprimand, but
all for the sake of Allah.

When he encountered a man he considered capable, he handed over his

authority of the sublime Darqawi Tariqah, saying he was putting it back where it
belonged, may Allah help him who guides to Allah. He was always looking for a
man of outward authority to take on the responsibility for the Muslims, and met
leaders whenever there was a Muslim upheaval around the world, searching the
traces of previous Islamic leadership for some sign of the revival for Allah’s
Deen. 

As our leader, he pointed us to the Qawa’id of Islam, upon which all else is built,
and showed us that its fundamental pillar Zakat was lying in the dust, a pillar that
once compromised, weakens Salah and its effectiveness, and thereby the Deen as
a whole. Remember, Islam is a social reality not a private one. He instructed his
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Amirs to put this right, to mint the necessary coin for its successful
implementation, which led to the understanding of the mu’amalat and its
examples, aided by the tremendous work of Shaykh Umar.

We have no power, wealth or authority in this world, other than knowing that it
all belongs to Allah, but it does not stop us from working with what we have
relying on Allah to help us. Get up in the night, put your faces on the ground,
weep and implore Allah, for the purification of your heart, that you may serve
Him, following in the steps of His beloved, putting back into place what he,
sallahu alayhi wa sallim, and his companions fought for with their lives to
establish for all mankind until the end of time.

Emulating the Rasulullah, sallahu alayhi wa sallim, our beloved Shaykh made
men and women who received his light and knowledge; communities, of what
Ibn Khaldun termed, Asabiyyah, made up of individual lights that when brought
together illuminate all around them. It is a light that shines in the modern
darkness, and catches the glimpses of bright things within that murk. The light of
Asabiyyah is from the very core of our Deen; it is the ‘Amal of Madinah wherever
it is found; it is the mark of Shaykh Abdalqadir’s people. This is our inheritance,
nurtured by Sayyidina Shaykh over fifty years, travelling through the deserts of a
humanity without trust in the Divine, with our eyes and hearts looking towards
Madinah al-Munawwara. 

Its proof is evident when one of those people return to Allah, as we have
witnessed in Norwich and Cape Town over these years. It is a year since our
Shaykh completed his journey in this world, and most recently with the passing
of our Amir Hakim and his mother-in-law Rahima, dear Abdallatif, and others,
may Allah cover them in His mercy and grant them the best of His rewards.
Marching through the busy streets of Norwich, declaring the Name and Majesty
of Allah, from the mosque to the graveside, overwhelming all who encounter that
awesome procession, with respect and even tears. It is the coalescing of these
lights in action fee sabilillah, like tonight and on every occasion we come
together for Allah, His Rasul and our Deen, that something happens in the
universe, as is Allah’s will. It is something we receive individually that we could
not achieve individually; it is like a Night of Power, better than a thousand
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months of individual effort. It is the light of this tremendous gathering that will
be taken among the people of our time, within our daily mundane activities. It is
transformative and will protect us from the shayateen, inspire the good of heart
and change what we encounter for the better. Whether you are driver, lawyer,
cook, man or woman, you are Muslim and this is your real occupation, the one
Allah created you for.

The world of the Kuffar is crumbling, it is over, as our Shaykh told us many times
over the years. Now we are seeing it for ourselves; anyone with investment in it is
going to lose. It is the time of al-Asr; only those who trust Allah and act according
to the Deen of the Rasul will flourish, as the world darkens they will become
brighter. Islam is a wealth that looks like poverty, whereas Kufr, that is the
modern world is a poverty that looks like wealth.

We left the zawiyyah for the ribat and left that for the mosque and we don’t want
to go back; we want to take the light of Salah backed up by Zakah infused with
dhikrullah into the everyday; we want to penetrate the darkness of Riba, the root
cause of all that is wrong, with the ‘amal that are salih. Our Shaykh has shown us
the way, he has given us the tools and arms, now it is up to us to use them, fee
sabilillah. 

Let us recite Suratul ‘Asr together, ba’d a’udhu billahi minash shaytanir rajim,

hajjissa / October 17, 2022 / Talks

Hajj Issa – for the Fuqara /

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