I hope you can hear me. Alhamdulillah, we all came from different directions to this place. I came from El Sobrante, yet I made it here. It will be wrong for me to tell everybody, if you want to come here, you have to come to El Sobrante and follow me. Then I will bring you here because I am the only way and the truth. So the same thing that's what we call in Arabic Allah, it's a language, Allah. Some other people they say God, French they say Dieu, but they mean the same thing. So to search for this one is the question that comes within ourself

[01:01]

How did we come to be in this world? From where did we come? And where are we going? And who is responsible for this? And what is our purpose? These questions, they knock all the time inside of ourselves. But we can see, something I see universally is the earth. does not say if you are Muslim or Christian or Jews or Buddhists or atheists or anything. It accepts everybody. It doesn't ask questions. Everybody's welcome to walk on it. I find the water same way. Everybody can drink water. Doesn't matter what they believe. And the rain that came, a lot of it, came on everybody. doesn't matter what belief they have. So there are universal principles that we all share that it should reflect on our behavior to be like that earth, accept everybody and give them the right to be whatever they like.

[02:20]

And the problem we have is when people They say our way is the only way and all the others are below our level. That creates a difference between people and that makes people to hurt each other. And those who propagate this kind of belief makes the people that are nice, the majority of people are nice. To have problem and if you look at the reflection, heavenly reflection on earth, if you took all the prisons that are here, prisons, jails, they represent

[03:24]

something nobody likes to go there. It's the same thing as they say in tradition, hell. Hell is like a jail for people. So it reflects here on Earth. If you take all the jails in America and you put them together, add them to each other, maybe you will fill up Rhode Island. That's it. And the rest, there is no jail. There is more good people than bad people on Earth. But when we come to a place where we divide people by half, half is going to hell and half is going to paradise, they put majority of people in a negative place. But I think 99.9% people are nice. but we magnify the wrong side and make it to be huge.

[04:37]

And coming from a Muslim background, a lot of people with what happened in the news, they come and they say, I hope you're okay. I'm sorry for what they say. I don't feel any fear or anything. I don't have anxiety and fear inside of myself. because I see everybody as the earth sees everybody. As the rain pours on everybody the same way, I'm in that place, in that field, so it doesn't bother me. But people are bothered because the news seeps in and then people start to have fear or they may carry some news that they didn't really investigate and scrutinize and understood. They just take the surface and they think they understand it.

[05:43]

So a lot of these people I sometimes teach and they come with ideas that's not being analyzed. It needs education. At the end of it, there's one thing that is important. is love. Love. And the tradition of the Sufis, they talk about love. But there is many kinds of love. There is the selfish love, that you love something because it gives you something for yourself.

[06:52]

Selfish love is one stage. You can love someone because there is a benefit in loving that. You love a tree because it gives you fruit, but when it's finished, it doesn't give fruit anymore, you may be able to cut it. That love stops there. So many loves, they have limits. And many loves are selfish love. I will love This path, as long as it suits my needs, if something wrong happens there, then that love stops. So there is selfish love that is disguised as universal love. To look for a love that is eternal love, That is the main target.

[07:58]

And they have that aiming at that target. They say, You are my target. And to accept me is what I wish. The target, the universal love, that we call Allah. And they discard all the loves that are selfish love. Although that selfish love is beneficial, it has a limit. So how can you love your dog with universal love, to see your dog as part of the creation, not my dog that belongs to me.

[09:09]

But if the dog turns to bite others, you may take that dog to the place where you got that dog. How can you transfer that selfish love into a universe of love? It's a gradual growth. The farmers, they may love a cow because she gives milk. After she doesn't, that love finishes. And this one, that we call Allah or we say God, where is that one? How can we find? And then Allah doesn't have a form or color or a religion or blood ties, doesn't have a sister and a brother,

[10:21]

And Allah, He is the first without a starting point. He is al-awwal, He is first without a starting point. He is al-akhir, He is at the end without an ending point. And He is inside without being claustrophobic. Like when you are in a Elevator, some people are close to it. He's inside and he's outside, the manifested. So it covers all these areas. He's first without beginning and without ending point, inside and also outside. So some people they say, it's all inside, you have to deal with inside only, in your heart.

[11:27]

That's what you should work on. But then you have the three other directions missing. You may be selfish inside, say God is inside of me, I deal with inside only, then you forget the outside. There is one Sufi, king size Sufi, Saint. His name is Abiy Yazid Bastami. Famous one. He said, for 23 years I've been speaking with God and people they thought I was speaking with them. Means he understood the outside. He never seen the outside as different people. He saw the outside is also God. Inside, outside. First without beginning, last without ending.

[12:29]

This is the directions that Allah is. Allah formless with no form, no colour, no religion, no blood ties, no attachment. Serves all the time. He's the best at customer service. Whatever you point, he will serve to you. Even if you want to point to atheism, he said, I have books for that. I'll show you. Everything you like. You want to be Muslim? Yeah, I have that. Anything you like, you point to, he takes you there. He's the best customer service. and He likes us to be the same, customer service. And when we serve as Allah serves, when we dress ourselves with His dress, when we mingle with Allah and we dress ourselves to be like Allah, that you remove yourself

[13:49]

And only Allah is there. That's how we can understand Allah. Fruits, fruits when they are there, no fruits will tell you, I am sweet. It doesn't say that. It's sitting. Until you take it, and you put it in your mouth and you taste, then you can say, yes, it's sweet or not sweet. If you don't taste, you don't know. So we have a taste in our tongue. We have a tongue within that tongue that can taste and tell you, yes, it's sweet. Without tasting, we cannot know. We may speak about Allah, but did you taste Allah? Without tasting, you will not know. So people, they speak, [...] but they miss the taste.

[14:52]

A fruit never says to you, I am sweet or I am sour. It doesn't say anything. It leaves that to you. You have to experience. You have to open, and you have to taste. So a lot of people, they may speak about Islam, and they never tasted it, ever. They don't know how it tastes like. Or some people, they have glasses. Sometimes if they want the cow to eat dry yellow grass and she doesn't want to eat it, they put green sunglasses. then everything looks green and the cow will eat everything. So if people have lenses of hatred and prejudice and they offer you Islam with this kind of lenses and they put it on your eyes and they serve it to you, when you taste it, it's sour.

[15:58]

Yes? Because it can go both ways. Islam can be sweet and can be devastating according to the taste of that person, how they tasted that. So it creates both sides. To say all Islam is bad, Yes, who is saying that, maybe have those glasses. Who wants Islam to be like that? That's what they desire. And Allah does customer service. He said, you want it like this? I'll give it to you like that. Here they are. We have suicide bombing, we have subjects in women, we have the Prophet did this and that, we have all that, and he will serve you all that to fit your desire. But the target is Allah himself. When people miss the target, then it creates, we have in our tradition, five groups in Islam.

[17:04]

Five groups. Now in the news you may see that a lot of people they speak about what they call hijab. Hijab is something that covers. Mostly they say hijab is for ladies, but hijab is an Arabic word, means anything that covers two things is called hijab. Even when you put an amulet with a prayer in it, they put it here on their neck, it's called hijab, to protect you against the evil eye, There is a hijab of the five, the hand of Fatima, they say. It has an eye sometimes there. It's said to block the evil eye. It's called hijab also. It's a folk, it's a folk, it's a folklore idea from the people who don't know how to write or read, from the farm people, the Bedouins.

[18:13]

They say there are five verses that protects you from evil. It's in the surah called Al-Falaq. Verse 111, the surah, the chapter 111. In that chapter it said, Say I seek refuge in the one who created in between. Falaq is in between, neither day neither night. من شر ما خلق from the evil that he created because out of love for free will he also created bad things so if you want bad things you say I have it you want it I can give it to you من شر ما خلق ومن شر غاصقني ذا وقب and then save me from the jealous and envious people ومن شر اللفاثات في الوقت And from the one that blows with their negative ideas, they spread also from your body, they can go as ripples.

[19:27]

And if you don't understand that, try to drive at five o'clock and try to merge. And there are ripples from drivers. The ripple, no, you're not gonna go in front of me. Even though they don't speak, they ripple. No, try somebody else. I'm gonna pretend they didn't see you. And you are saying, let me get in, let me get in. You put in the light, you're asking, but they're oh, fast going. Especially if they have big SUVs. You're a little bug. So there are ripples. that throws those ripples. وَمِن شَرِحَ حَسِدٍ إِذَا حَسَدٍ And from the envious, when they envy you. They envy you for your title, for what you're doing. Sometimes I am, the imam giving a talk and some, in my congregation there is one guy who says, I can't say the same thing.

[20:33]

I can't say even better than that. I don't know why he's taking that spot. They don't say it, but they say it. You can feel it. These are five verses. Instead of writing the five verses, they put five fingers, the hand. They said, if you put this, remember it's from this surah. And from there, it became propagated as the hand of Fatima. It's a folk, but it has a meaning. So I don't know what I was saying. I lost the thread. Where was I? Subhanallah. Hijab. Five groups. Hijab. Thank you. So hijab is not this that ladies put on their heads. It's not obligatory. It's not in the Quran. It's cultural. But they do it out of respect. Because if you dream about Mary, the mother of Jesus, even in the pictures or sculptures, you never see her hair is covered.

[21:44]

And Mary, we call Maryam, is the best example in the Quran. The whole Quran doesn't have any woman mentioned by name. All the other ladies like Sarah, her, she said she smiled. They're only mentioned as her. Except Mary, she's mentioned a whole chapter called Maryam, as if that message is saying, if you want an example of highest spiritual and divine presence, if you want to see how it is, Mary is the example. And she used to put a hijab. Now she used to stand up in front of her niche and she will be in a zone. She wouldn't sit down. She forgets herself. Praying. And Zachariah used to take care of her and bring her food. When he comes, he finds food there.

[22:48]

But that food is a summer food in the winter. He said, where did he get this food? She said, Allah. Whenever I desire something, it appears. that's written in the Quran. So they try to imitate the hijab. But Allah has another kind of hijab. So those who don't target to know who is that one, and they like from this world the materialistic side of it. I'm here to own, houses and buildings and everything to do like Trump. Have a lot of buildings and money. That's why, that's the purpose of this life. Then Allah gives them that and makes that a hijab from him. So they can see Allah, they're busy with that. That's one level.

[23:51]

A second level, There are people that Allah gives them hijab because they like from this world only the pleasures that are in here, drugs, sex, food. Any kind of thing that has pleasure is what they are here to do, which is partying all night long and we are here to have fun and pray, dance and rave and all drugs and everything goes in that field. And that's another hijab that makes a hijab from people to not know what's behind the hijab. but people, they can go to that course. So the first one is the material world, second one is the world of pleasures, all kind of pleasures. And the third one is the people that I am having a senior moment.

[24:56]

I'll come back to that further. A fourth one is people that Allah make hijab on themselves because they want from this world to be elevated as great gurus and great teachers, and so they study excessively, and in our Muslim world they study all the hadith, the sayings of the Prophet, all the Qurans, and they make a fatwa telling people what to do, this and that and that, and they are excellent in remembering all the hadith that comes from different books. And they want from that to be elevated and respected as a big haleem. And that's what they want. And Allah put hijab on them. So they can see behind that is Allah. Because that's what they wish. And people, they go through that. And the last group is the people who don't care about all of these things.

[26:02]

Neither material, neither pleasure, neither knowledge. They care only about Allah. And they say, you are my target and I hope you are pleased with me. And they go through their life, this journey, like that. Their whole journey is targeting that place and they never wave their eyes from it. And they dress themselves with Allah's characteristics and Allah's beautiful names. And those beautiful names and characteristics, there are 3,000. They dress themselves with the 3,000 characteristics that Allah has. As if Allah and them are one. They are the same thing. Because in the essence or nutshell of this message of Islam is la ilaha illallah.

[27:03]

La ilaha illallah. So la ilaha It's a negation. Everything that has a beginning and ending is not eternal. It's not real. Allah is the real one. So they negate themselves too. They say, I'm not Allah. By negating themselves, they merge with Allah. And Allah and them are one. Then they become like earth. Everybody is from Allah. Everybody I see is Allah's manifestation of beautiful names. They see everything differently. And that's why the Sufis, when they do zikr, they remind each other of that word, la ilaha illallah, la ilaha illallah, is negating and affirming, negate and affirm, negate and affirm, until you negate yourself. So I don't exist, only Allah exists.

[28:05]

At that time when they merge in that place, then they become the best customer service. They become a servant. When you become a servant, there is an electric connection to that one. You can serve without getting tired, and your job, you don't go to work. It's not called work anymore. It's like being. If you work, you will look always at time, ah, the time, I wish I can go now, every time, and the hours go slow, because you're working. But when you serve, time goes quickly, because you're not working. You are being with Allah, who is the best customer service, so you are doing service. As much as you do service, there is a support. And that's the ideal. that is in Islam.

[29:08]

So Islam has these levels. So according to who you're asking and what level they are, they may answer you according to where they are. I myself am still learning. It's not like I know everything. But I'm sharing with you what I experience. But I think the best experience is to taste. So when I teach a class of Islam 101, I teach them how to taste it, not how to know it by theory, how to taste it. It has a discipline. Before you pray, you have to make voodoo, wash your hands. your mouth, your nose, your face, before you stand up and pray. There is the etiquette of entering a place of worship. You enter with your right, you go with your left. There is all this discipline that teaches you how to tame your donkey.

[30:12]

We call the donkey our nafs, our donkey. But this donkey is an unusual donkey. It has four trillion ten thousand ideas. Whenever you do this they'll find the answer somewhere else. May Allah forgive us. May Allah forgive. So sometimes our mind the way it is It can create something that to make us to digest an idea which ISIS people they do with their isolated people, but to make themselves feel what they're doing is right. They take verses from the Quran, verses from Hadith, and make them to be digestible so they can act on whatever they do using these verses. But they don't scrutinize or investigate where does this verse come and why and how.

[31:26]

isolation of this kind of people, which is a cult. Doesn't matter what kind of religion they do, when there is isolation, and you make yourself smaller, and you're not universal anymore. You're not seeing Allah, as Abiyazid said, for 23 years, I'm speaking to Allah, and people are thinking I'm speaking to them. Not that way. They speak with each other, and they do the bad maneuver. Bats, they only fly at night. Means they take everything, dark ideas. For them, everything is a conspiracy. Everything is conspiracy, 100%. We have people like that, but ISIS, they think everybody is planning to destroy them. Conspiracy. And The bats, they only listen to themselves.

[32:33]

They send those sounds, listen only to themselves. They don't listen to us, there's no dialogue. They listen to themselves. And when they rest, they rest upside down. Their head is down, legs are up. And that makes them to be destroyed, isolation. We are here to mix and to understand from other people different ideas. That's how we progress. And there is a lot to say, and I say those ISIS people, there is something that we say in our tradition. There was a man traveling from Casablanca to Oujda, far away in Algeria, and they're sitting on a train, and they have to eat their food. One of them didn't eat anything. After everybody ate, then this man near the window put the table here, and he has bananas and sugar. He start peeling the bananas.

[33:35]

He rolled them on the sugar. He takes the bananas and throws them from the window. And he rolls another one, throws. And another one he throws until he finish everything. They told him, why did you do that? You couldn't give it to us. He said, I hate bananas with sugar. That's why I'm throwing them. So we have a mind that can do that. Some people they take Islam and they roll it in the sugar and everything and they throw it. And they say, I hate these people. But they themselves do it. May Allah forgive us. And sometimes some people want to be nice to others. One guy had one cow, and one cow was crossing the train, and the train hits that cow. The cow died. The man was crying about his cow. He has a friend who wants him to feel better.

[34:36]

He said, don't feel bad about one cow, because you should be happy that the train was going like that. If the train was going like this, He will take the whole village and all the cows that are there. So the mind can create a lot of stuff. May Allah bless you. Thank you very much for listening and I hope to see you. My former acquaintance with you, you used to direct lap swimming, the various very crowded and chaotic swimming pools in Berkeley. I always felt completely supported by you. In fact, I felt like you were directing a symphony of people trying to act harmoniously and wanting to get their exercise.

[35:46]

And it was just such a pleasure to go swimming when you were there. And I felt like everyone, I felt anyway personally, like we were all unified by your kind attention. You're welcome. It's just servitude. If you serve, the time goes fast and you don't look at your watch. But if you're working, you're working. I don't like to work. I like to serve. Yes, ladies. So, I'm wondering in this very beautiful teachings, thank you, what you might consider an appropriate or a wise response from that perspective of seeing love in equanimity

[36:48]

to those who are harming others? People who are acting in the world in very difficult, harmful ways. We have to answer fire with water. We can't do fire with fire. There will be more fire. Still, we have to act like that and then pray that our ripples of goodness may overcome their ripple of badness. Usually if they are anxious or they had a bad experience, or they are educated in bad manners, or they've been harmed themselves, that's all they know, it takes time. And it's a good exercise for us. I mean, when you go to a place where they have those metals like that, it's hard to do that, but it's beneficial for this. So if you say, I am loving and kind, you get a test. Allah will say, oh, you said you're loving, let me see this.

[37:49]

He throws this to you to see how you're going to respond. Is in the response where the ball game is played. We can say what we say, but there's a test, how you respond to those people. I hope we respond with beauty, but truth needs wisdom. If it doesn't have wisdom, it doesn't work. One lady was very truthful and honest and sincere and straightforward. And she went with her husband to take a walk. He has a trench coat. And he took his rifle with him. He said, that I will not accept. Don't work with that rifle. He opened the rifle. Empty. There's no bullet. I just like it. OK, it's empty. I'll take it. They were walking, and then some robbers came. Their knife said, give us your watch and your everything.

[38:52]

He took his rifle. He said, anybody moves, I'll shoot them. And then the guy said, oh, we are just joking. And then she couldn't help herself. She said, he's also joking. He doesn't have any bullet there. That's serving the truth to the people who don't deserve it. See, you need to have wisdom. So truth with no wisdom doesn't work. You have to have two. Sometimes we are truthful, but without rhythm. I practiced some years ago with a Sufi in North Carolina and I wonder if you could describe a little bit about the Zikr, the remembering, the state of being that comes up I think we share that a great deal in what we call our zazen, our open awareness.

[39:54]

Are you familiar with that? Can you discuss and make comparisons? Zikr is how to melt in God, how you and God become one. Then that's real zikr. You have to disappear, only God exists. And the highest zikr is la ilaha illallah, la ilaha illallah. That's the best zikr they do, is to merge with that one. who's formless, doesn't have the religion, doesn't have any colors, doesn't have any place, but there is a room that he built for himself. It's called the heart. That's the place. And there's one little dot where the kingdom of God exists right there. And then we try to get to that place where Allah is. That's the ideal of the zikr. After you get to that place, then there is no more need for dhikr. You become, if you do dhikr, you take your attention away.

[40:55]

You enter silence. That's the highest dhikr is in the silence. And humility. Without losing the الامر بالمعروف والنهي المنكر means if you see something bad, you should say it's bad. And if you see something good, say this is good. You cannot say nothing when something bad is happening. You have to speak about it. You can't be silent and let it be. Then there is no more responsibility. And the responsibility with freedom, because we love freedom, is like some people, they found a boat by chance. The people that are enlightened are on top of the boat. They can see where the boat is going. They have light. Other people, they don't want to be on top. They like to be under. The people that are under the boats, they say, why should we go up and ask the people to give us water to drink when the water is right under our feet?

[42:08]

All we have to do is dig a hole here and there is water there. If the people on top allow them to do that, everybody will sink. If the people on top educate them, will save themselves and save the others. MashaAllah. May Allah bless you. Thank you so much for having me.

[42:33]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ