The Role of an Ego

Maulana Shaykh Nazim Al-Haqqani gave a deep and powerful Suhbah on the 3rd of May 2011, concerning Osama bin Laden's death.

Here is the Synopsis:

Osama bin Laden has been a controversial figure in the Muslim world. Some view him as a true Islamic warrior, others, as a murderer and terrorist. Is his death that of a martyr or otherwise? Maulana skillfully dissects Osama's actions and motives, explaining to his mureeds a very important lesson as to why Tariqah is so vital, for it is the only means of subduing our marauding Egos. Maulana says, we are all servants – either to our Egos, or to our Lord. One who returns to Allah as a slave to his Ego, has lost his honour, forever. 


Osama followed his Ego and damaged the whole notion of a religion. 

This is perhaps one of the most important Suhbahs ever, it is for anyone who seeks to understand what religion is really all about. The aim of religion is so simple, so fundamental, yet shaitan has cleverly distracted us from our true destination – it is like a Grade-A student who enrolls in the best University, who goes to campus everyday, and participates in so many campus activities (like Sports, Social work, running the Campus newsletter, standing for elections on the Student Council etc) – he does everything -except study - and in the end, he fails his examinations.

Today's believers are doing just that - they are aimlessly going through the motion of performing the religious rituals, but they are not tasting or feeling anything real, for they have left out the most important ingredient of the meal. Food without salt is tasteless, just as drinks without sugar is. Each time we whip up a gourmet meal, shaitan ensures that we forget the salt and sugar. Because religion is so tasteless today, people are seeking to taste from the enjoyment of dunia instead.

Read this Suhbah slowly and with a real desire to understand what has gone wrong in our lives. Maulana has clearly laid out our most important struggle in religion in this Suhbah, "Oh our Lord, do not leave us in the hands of our Egos, even for the blink of an eye." (Hadees).

May Allah bestow us all with understanding and wisdom, ameen!

The full Summary is available at:

http://sufihub.com/?p=5047

The Grinding of the Ego

THE GRINDING OF THE EGO  Allah A is Innaka Hamidun Majeed. He does not need to be Glorified by His servants on Earth or by the Angels in the Heavens, the Arsh or the Kursh. He does not need to be Glorified by any of His servants as He has dressed Himself with Absolute Glory from pre-eternity to eternity. We cannot dress Him in Glory as He is Glorious and has kept Absolute Glory and Absolute Greatness to Himself. Our respect and worship do not contribute to His Greatness, as He has already dressed Himself with Absolute Greatness from pre-eternity to eternity. No one can give Him anything as He is Innaka Hameedun Majeed, Subhanallahu wa tha ala. We think that we are doing something for Him but there is no measure between Allah Almighty and us. In fact all of creation cannot even come close to being a very small spot even, through one of His endless Oceans. Yes, His are endless Power Oceans. Who can be a partner to Allah Almighty? If you were the size of all the Universes put together even a small creature the size of an ant may be able to give you something, but if all the Angels and everything in existence were to Glorify Allah Almighty they would still be able to give nothing to Him. We cannot give anything to Allah Almighty and we must know this. Some people pray very long salat, so long that they sometimes forget if they had prayed the Fathiha even. They are very proud of their long Salat and want to know why I pray my salat so quickly. I do not take pride in my prayer and because of this I do not want to imitate the Wahabi?s and perform lengthy prayers. I know that my Salat is not good enough and I ask forgiveness for this. Some of you take pride in your long Salat and my heart sees it. That is why I am talking on this subject. You must be trained. This is why you need a Tariqa. This is because you need to be trained at the hands of a Sheik. Yes, you cannot give anything to Allah Almighty. People may think that their long Salats give something to Allah Almighty and take pride in it. Shaitan was proud of his prayers and said ?I am first, I have done the most so I must be first and not Muhammed (on whom be peace).? When Allah Almighty ordered Shaitan to do Sajda to Adam (alai),Shaitan knew that he could not keep his position. Shaitan was proud of his prayers and his worship. Allah Almighty did not order us to worship and glorify Him so as to make us proud. On the contrary it is to bring our egos down and to make us clean. It is to make the ego valueless. Your Nafs has no price. Worship and glorification is the declaration and reminder to you from you that you are not great, that you do not have greatness and that greatness is for Allah Almighty only. This is because He claims to be the greatest. He ordered the five times a day Prayer so that we will able to escape the evil promptings of our ego. Most people do not pray five times a day because their egos do not want to bow down or prostrate to Allah Almighty. Of those who pray the prescribed five times, many of them submit to their ego?s desire in limiting their prayers to the obligatory prayers only and neglecting the Nafl (optional) prayers like Ishraq, Luha, Awwabin, Tahajjad and Tasbih. Salat ul Tasbih is very heavy on the Nafs as it grinds it. Someone told me that he is unable to pray it at the usual time of Tahajjad and my advice to him was that if he missed it at that time, he should do it during the day. His Nafswould say to him that the time for it has now passed when he misses it. But then the best way to grind the ego would be to do it at least during the day. It would revolt at the thought of praying Tasbih every day and would say that once a week would do. Grind the ego and do it daily at Tahajjad time. All the five hundred kinds of worship to Allah Almighty only helps you to grind your ego and deprive it of pride. This is so whether you are a Sheik or an Alim or a person of better status. I come here to grind your ego and to save you from the ego, and that is Tariqa. Whoever thinks otherwise is wrong. They have misunderstood. I come here to help people conquer their egos and not for the sake of my Nafs. Reciting Bismillah ir Rahman ir Raheem before eating and drinking is good to train the ego. The ego wants you to eat and drink for its glory and not for the sake of Allah Almighty. My main purpose of staying here with you for these few days was to try to grind your ego even if it were only for a little while. We fight it when you come to pray your night prayers with your Sheik and stay on to pray Fajr, then do Zikr, recite Yaseen shareef, listen to Bayanand Nasiha. Your ego then would prompt you to look at yourself as an important person, a great person, and a person demanding respect. We pray to make our egos to be zero and valueless.  All respects are due to Allah Almighty but you cannot give anything to Allah Almighty. May Allah Almighty give you and give us from His endless blessings to be together here and in the Divine Presence and to do Sajda to Him. This is a grant from Allah Almighty to us or else your ego would have prevented you from coming here to worship and to be a servant of Allah Almighty. May Allah Almighty forgive us and save us from our egos. What Allah Almighty says is true, what Rasulullah (on whom be peace), says is true and what your Sheik says is true. Therefore we are asking to follow them. May Allah Almighty keep us on the way of His beloved servant Sayyidina Muhammed (on whom be peace). You and I and everyone are asking to be servants of the Lord Allah Almighty. May Allah Almighty bless us.