Before we get into what is a Sheykh, what is a Wali? Step by step I am going to go. Allah creates man to represent Him. And Allah says, ‘to represent Me, you must follow the Holy Prophet (asws).’ Prophet (asws) was accepted, and all Prophets submitted to him. He came physically, and he left. Those ones who were his sahaba e-kiram, every single one of them, they were a wali, and every single one of them, they represent one maqam of a Prophet. They are not Prophets, what Allah has given, Allah never takes back. Allah is Kerim, He never takes back what He has given. He has given this world Prophets. The maqam of the Prophet stays and those who are occupying the maqam, they are not Prophets but they occupy the maqam of the Prophets. So the Sahabi e-kiram, they were all wali, they occupy the maqam of a Prophet. After they pass, there are always 124 000 men and women that they are holding on to the maqam of a Prophet and these are the ones that we call Awliya Allah, the wali Allah.

Wali Allah, there are so many different levels, so many categories, we don’t want to talk about that. That’s just too much information and it doesn’t do us any good because we are not in that category anyway. So, we know there’s one representing Holy Prophet (asws) and that is the Sultan of the Saints. Then, under him, there may be 3, 5, 7….it goes on and on, 313, 7007, 124 000. So, these are all the different categories, just very short simple I’m going to say. Every single one of them, they are wali Allah, meaning, they are friends of Allah. These are the ones that Allah has chosen. It’s not people choosing. And they have submitted themselves, they have sacrifice themselves in the way of the Prophet (asws) and Prophet (asws) has accepted them to be his representatives. So these are the inheritors of the Prophet. The Prophet (asws) is saying, ‘the Sheykhs of my nations, they are like Prophets to their communities.

So the Prophets they are to their nations, the Sheykhs belonging to my nation, they are like that to their own communities.’ They are not Prophets, but they have that maqams. So, wali Allah, Awliya Allah, there are open ones and there are hidden ones. Hidden ones, maybe the public they don’t know that that is a wali Allah, Awliya Allah. Sheykh Effendi is saying that’s why it is important for us to be in a Jama’at, because you don’t know maybe there is a hidden Saint there that is a beloved to Allah, that when he says, ‘Amin,’ Allah is going to grant it to him. Then there are some, they are beloved to Allah, they are hidden from the public and they are also hidden from themselves. That they themselves, they don’t know that they are Awliya Allah. There are like that, but once you start claiming that you are a hidden Saint, that means you are completely Sheytanic. Because the whole idea is that you are hidden, you are hidden from yourselves, and the Saint who declares himself a Saint, even the Buddhist, they believe and they are saying, ‘if you meet a Buddha on the way, kill him.’ They are saying that.

So, no Saint will ever declare that he is a Saint. He is going to say, ‘I am a servant of Allah. I am a weak servant of Allah.’ And they fear from Allah. Don’t you see, the mountains, they fear from Allah. Allah is saying, ‘we offer Quran to the mountains, they refuse. They fear from Allah.’ But the ignorant and arrogant man, they say, ‘yeah, let’s take it. I can do it.’ Those mountains, those are the Qutub, those are the pins, those are the Awliya Allah.

So, there are out of these thousands of Saints, some that are chosen to become a Sheykh, to become a leader, to lead the community. Now, they may lead in different ways. Some may lead just to gather them, some may lead just to make a zikir, some may lead just to make a community, some may lead just to make Qasidas, some may lead just to eat and to drink. But a real Sheykh, is a Murshid. Meaning that he is guiding people and he has the skills and the intelligence that the Holy Prophet (asws) has given to him and he has the knowledge that Prophet is giving to him. That one is a Murshid. Now that Murshid is going to guide you.

That Murshid has to be a Sheykh and that Murshid will guide the mureeds, those ones who are following him, who has given beyat to him, who has agreed that, ‘I submit myself to you dunya and ahiret, to guide me in this world and in the next world,’and that one is called the murid and that one understands that even before he understood what a Sheykh is, before he met a Sheykh, his Sheykh has always been there and his Sheykh has always been taking care of him and guiding him ever since he was in his mother’s womb, and in reality, even before that. In the Day of Promises, his Sheykh was there guiding him to give the correct answer to Allah swt. So, that is a Murshid.

There are different kinds of course, and different Tarikats they have different ways. We are just going to concentrate, speaking about the Sarwari Tarikat and following this jama’at. So our Sheykh, Hazrat Syed Sultan Chanwar Ali Hussain Qadri Sarwari. Yes, he is Sarwari.

So, when a man understands and he is answering to Allah’s invitation, because it is Allah that is inviting us back to Himself. When Allah said in the day of Promises, ‘Alastu Birrabbikum, am I not your Lord?’ and we answered, ‘Qalu Bala, Yes You are.’ When we say, ‘Ihdina assirata almustaqeem,’ and that reply to Allah, we understand that that reply, it must be continuous. It’s not only one time in the Day of Promises or that day that we took the shahadat, or only when we are praying that we are recognising Allah and asking help from Him.

But the man will understand one day that Allah is never away from us and Allah is always looking at us and saying, ‘am I not your Lord?’ That is what is called Taqwa; when you know that Allah is always asking you and looking at you and you are being active, answering to reply to this question, ‘Qalu Bala. Yes You are. Ya Rabbi, You are. You are my Lord. Not me. Not my ego, not my wife, not my husband, not my children, not my work, not my car. Nothing. You are my Lord.’ So once a person is replying to that, then he understands that now is the time that he needs the Prophet more. Because it is the Prophet that is showing us the way to Allah. Allah did not show us the way to Himself directly. Never, never. Allah always shows the way back to Him through His Prophets. And we have been blessed to belong to that nations of the Prophet of Prophets. So once we understand, we have to go back now to the Prophet (asws) but because Prophet (asws) is not here physically and he says, ‘now, I have left inheritors for you to teach you spirituality.’ Because now, we are answering it through our spirit and we are going to concentrate on our spirit, so we have to find the Tabib-ul Qulub, the doctor of the heart. Because this is the way of the heart, now that is the time we start looking for your Sheykh.

There are 41 major Tarikats and out of this 41 tarikats, maybe hundreds of branches of this 41 major Tarikat. The highest Tarikat is the Tarikat that Holy Prophet (asws) told Bahu Sarkar to open, and that is the way of the Sarwari. There may be different branches of the Naqshbandi order, but branches all come from a main trunk and the trunk is definitely stronger than the branches, and the main trunk of this Sarwari way that leads to Sultan Bahu Sarkar, that leads to the Holy Prophet (asws), is the Sarwari way. So we are belonging to that, following Sultan-ul Awliya. Now once man understands that he needs a guide who is representing that Prophet, then he is going to take beyat, initiation, to say, ‘I promise and I accept you as my guide.’ And that Sheykh will now start to open up his secrets and reveal to him his reason of creation.

We have been created to serve Allah. Yes, we have been created to know Allah, and to serve Him and to worship Him. But to serve Him, there must be a way, there must be a station to serve it from. And everyone’s way and everyone’s station, it is completely different. So that station, where Allah is saying, ‘I’ve created that station for you to serve Me. Only for you.’ Special, your jewel, your secret. That is your Murad. So, when the mureed is ready, then that trust will be given, it will be revealed that time for you to fulfill your destiny, destiny that Allah swt has created for you. This is deepening your faith, this is definitely taqwa because now you are living your life, not pushing Allah aside. You are living your life now, when you accept the Sheykh and how much you are going to be together with your Sheykh, physically or spiritually, then that’s the time when you feel that your Sheykh is always there with you. Your Sheykh is representing Prophet, representing Allah. Then that is the time when you start to live and experience taqwa, not just an idea that Allah is always watching you. Then you understand and started to practise Ihsan. Ihsan is cleanliness also.

To clean yourself, to make it beautiful and when Hz Jibreel (a.s), in that hadiths of Jibreel, came in the shape of a man wearing a turban, having a beard, carrying a cane, wearing a jubbah. Hz Jibreel appears in a form of a man with that. This is what the ahle Sunnat, especially the Sarwari Order that we are wearing. He did not come wearing that ugly white cloth on his head, with a camel rope around his head, with a goatee. Sheytan wore that when he came in the appearances of a man to the Holy Prophet (asws).

But Jibreel came in that form, in that beautiful form and came to the Prophet (asws), who is in the presence of his sahaba e-kiram, and began quizzing Prophet (asws), questioning him, ‘explain to me Ya Rasulullah (asws), what is Iman, what is Islam and what is Ihsan?’ and there’s a long hadiths, hadiths of Jibreel. Prophet (asws) then started answering. That is a practise rehearsal for us.

What is Iman?

What is Islam?

And what is Ihsan?

The five pillars of Islam; Shahadat, prayer five times a day, zakat, hajj, and fasting.

What is Iman? What is your believe? What are they?