Sayings of Shaikh Muhammad al-Muhammad al-Kasnazan
Sayings of Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazan
Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān has delivered thousands of lectures to countless people. These are a few quotations:
- The Prophet (PBUH) is light from Allah. He is the door to Allah. He is the city of the divine knowledge, and the door to the city is Imam ʿAlī.
- Ṭarīqa is the way of the Prophet (PBUH). It is the bayʿa (pledge) and covenant that connects us to it.
- The Shaikhs have Ṭarīqa so that you can overcome the existing veils. There are seventy veils, one after another, which surround you. You have to penetrate those veils to reach out to Allah, but how do you do that? This is what the verse says: وَمَن يَتَّقِ اللَّـهَ يَجْعَل لَّهُ مَخْرَجًا “and whoever fears Allah, He will make for him a way out” (65.2). You have to go through the veils to get to the light. How do you overcome the veils? You do that with the light of dhikr. When the dhikr of Allah enters the person’s mind and spirit, he penetrates the veils. You will be able to connect with the greatest light, the Prophet (PBUH). We believe the Prophet (PBUH) is the light of Allah. The light of dhikr is the second light. We acquire from both lights to attain to sainthood.
- The walīs (saints) attained to the position of sainthood by faith. Faith is planted in the heart: كَتَبَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمُ الْإِيمَانَ “He wrote faith in their hearts” (58.22). Faith means acceptance and submission. When you arrive to this station, neither your wife, brother, father, people or any force on earth can affect you. Nothing can uproot that plant from your heart.
- The preacher is great in the sight of Allah and the Messenger; why? Because he guides people, give direction to them. He is a guide, one that guides to the straight path.
- In Ṭarīqa we do not differentiate between man and woman. Whether male or female, the dervish has the same duties, dhikrs, and requirements. In some cases, women have more duties than men because are responsible for bringing up the children according to the words and deeds of the Prophet (PBUH).
- The dervish should not visit any Shaikh, sayyid, or saint other than his Shaikh, because his spiritual connection is with his Shaikh, who is connected to his Shaikh, and so on to the Prophet (PBUH).