Annual Address of Khwaja Shamsuddin Azeemi 27th Jan 1997

(Arabic Text) (Surah Hashar: 21-24)

Respected Audience, Ladies and gentlemen, Dear friends, Worthy Guests, Brethren, sisters, daughters and sons!

I am grateful to you all that you waited so very patiently and longingly to listen to my humble submissions. You listened to Naats in admiration of the holy Prophet (PBUH) and various discourses, which must have contributed to your knowledge about the spiritual sciences. Since yesterday you have heard so much that there is no more room for listening but, since you love me; a humble servant of Allah and, my voice appears sweet to you because of your love for me, despite all my weaknesses and shortcomings, when you look at me, I don't see anything else in your eyes but love and affection. Man is nothing. This all is because of the One who Blesses. When Allah blesses someone, one becomes a blue-eyed person for all. But, when the same person is not liked by Allah, no matter what he says, no one listens to him. It's all up to the One who blesses a person.

When I got associated with Qalandar Baba Auliya and the blessings started showering upon me. I started wondering because I knew myself and was fully aware of my shortcomings and weaknesses. When this thought grabbed my mind and, it began to worry me that why am I being so blessed? I hadn't done anything special. I hadn't been through any austere and rigorous exercises. It kept recurring in my mind that I am not worthy of all these blessings.

It was the style of Qalandar Baba Auliya, when someone had a thought recurring in him that worried him, he would express his concern. When I started worrying, one day, he made me to sit before him and said, "All that you are thinking of your incapability or that you are not worthy of Allah's blessings, do you want to say, Allah forbid, Allah is wrong in blessing you? Allah doesn't see who is capable of His Blessing or not. When He blesses someone, he automatically becomes capable of His blessings."

This is what Allah has stated in the holy Quran, (Arabic text) (Surah Aly Imran: 26), "Allah blesses him with honor whom He pleases, and brings him low whom He pleases, all good is in His hands and He has Power over all things." No law is applicable to Allah. But Allah does care about the wishes of His particular people. Qalandar Baba Auliya is one of these typical people. He chose a small person like me and made me the apple of his eye; Allah also blessed me with His liking. It doesn't matter whether one does some austere practices and undergoes some rigorous training or not. It's all up to the one who wants to bless you. Since my mentor wanted, so does Allah. And, when Allah wanted, his angels also wanted and thus it is announced in the universe that he is the one who is loved by Qalandar Baba Auliya. Under this inspiration you all love me. And your love is subject to the love of my mentor. He loved me so does Allah love me, when Allah loved me, the angels loved me. And I understand whether there is any benefit to you or not from me, but you still love me. And, since you love, I love you, too.

All that you have heard so far is enough, but you want me to say something and be before you for some more time, so I'll submit a few things before you. And my submission is nothing but a question for your consideration.

Why has man come into this world? And, if man has come here like any other creature, then, what's special about that and, why man is said to be superior to other creatures?

You didn't want to come here on your own and you must leave this world without your will. How strange is this prison. But, once you are in this prison, and the Death Angels asks you to get out of this prison into the free world, you don't want to leave it. If you want to be released then, why are you afraid of death? This all is too odd. Neither you can come here at your will, nor do you want to leave this world, but you still must come into this without any choice, and you must quit this world without wanting to leave it. Then, what is the purpose behind this coming here and going away from here?

Every sensible person does wonder sometimes, what is the purpose of his life? If the purpose of his life is to eat and drink and be a parent, all this is there with other creatures, too. If the purpose of his life is to labor and work hard to earn bread, all this is being done by other creatures, too. If he must go to sleep after a daylong work, other creatures are also doing the same. If the purpose of his life is to enjoy the comforts of life, then, the other creatures are also enjoying their life in their own ways. They have their needs and urges, and their fulfillment gives them comfort. And, if the purpose of life is to recover from sickness, you must have observed the cattle, too, fall sick and get well. Even the trees, plants and flowers, too, fall sick. The birds and insects also get sick, and they recover, too.

Then, you think about your life and compare it with the life of other creatures, you will not see any difference. If you think you are superior to other creatures because of your intellect, pardon me, you don't have intellect, as much as a honeybee has. No matter how much science has advanced, can it make a beehive or produce honey? If the purpose of your life is to construct palaces and you construct the palaces according to needs, other creatures make their homes according to their needs. When you compare yourself to animals, you'll find that in many ways, they have more acute senses than you. Your hearing is too limited for many animals. And then, all the humans are not wise and sensible. There are senseless people, and there are quite sensible people. There are wise people, and there are foolish people. If the purpose of your life is to acquire knowledge and be superior to animals then, there are birds who have such knowledge, which man cannot have. If you think you are superior to other creatures because you can talk and can understand what others say, this also is no reason for superiority. Because, in the story of Solomon, you might have read that a hoopoe; a woodpecker that used to remain present in the court. When one day Solomon noticed its absence. He said, "I am not seeing hoopoe, if it couldn't give a good reason, I'll slay him." Soon after this, Hoopoe came there and, upon inquiring, related a strange story. "You enjoy such an empire, where you rule over the air, the water and the animals, birds, beasts and cattle, insects and jins. In your domain, there is a country that is governed by a queen who is heliolater and has a matchless beauty. Her name is Queen Sheba (Bilquees)”.  

Solomon wrote a letter and, asked the hoopoe to deliver it to the Queen Sheba and fetch her answer then, your absence will be excused. Hoopoe held that letter in its beak and flew towards the palace of the Queen Sheba and entered there. When she come out of her room, hoopoe dropped that letter before her. She picked up that letter and, after reading the letter, she consulted her courtiers and decided to send some gifts to Solomon through her envoy to assess the power of Solomon. Hoopoe returned and related all this to Solomon.

In short, the birds, too, talk, understand things and converse. Allah wants humans to cognize Him, which can only be done when humans will be able to know their true status. Man hasn't been able to determine his status in past millions of years. Everyone is saying that man is the vicegerent of Allah. Vice means to exercise the authority of the One whose vice is one. Verbally, we say many things and, claim that man is the vicegerent of Allah. Angels said this and Iblees didn't prostrate before Adam and was rejected so. Then, Allah taught Adam the Knowledge of the Appellations. What is this Knowledge of the Appellations? They say, this is a goat and that is the sheep, this is a mountain and that is the water, this is a tree and that is the keekar (i.e. acacia tree), guava, cluster fig etc. How merely by learning the few names can make you the vicegerent of Allah?

(Arabic text) (Surah Baqra: 31) "And Adam was taught the Names of everything."

Allah taught all His Names. What Names did He teach? This is the tree of Keekar and that is the cluster fig. How does it relate with vicegerency? How does it serve the purpose of the vicegerency. Purpose of appointing man as His vicegerent is to use and exercise the powers and the authority endowed to him by Allah. Allah has said about Him, "I am the best of all creators." This means the way Allah creates thing, that knowledge of creating things is endowed to man as His vicegerent.  If man wants to create something, Allah has given him the permission and, has given him the authority to create. There exist people who are exercising the bestowed creative powers. The system is there, and it is up to us whether we make any use of the ruling authority or not!  You have been extradited from the ruling class and are living a degraded life. That makes no difference to the Godly System. Allah has made the law that man is His Vicegerent. (Arabic text) (Surah Baqra: 30)

When this law is there, there are people who are working as the vicegerent of Allah even today. Allah's rule is there, and He has made a system that man is to deputize Him and, in this system, the angels are the workers, working under man. You may call them clerks or workers in the system.

The purpose of man's birth is to know Allah, cognize Him, when he will know and cognize Him, he will learn that knowledge automatically, which is required to deputize Allah. When man doesn't pay heed to Allah, doesn't bother to cognize Him and, doesn't want to see Him and, confines himself in limitations and says, how can we see Allah, we can't. We are not capable of beholding Him. Why can't you see Allah, when He is saying, "I have created you so that you cognize Me. If you will not behold Him, how will you cognize Him? Allah is saying that He is not far away from us. "I am in you. I am closer to you than your aorta. Where there you are one, I am the second, and where you are two, I am the third one." Allah forbid, we can't say Allah is saying something meaningless. But it does mean we are not believing, when He is telling us that He is the second where we are one.

When Allah says, (Arabic text) (Surah Zariyat: 21), "I am in you, then why don't you behold me?"

Allah forbid, we cannot say that Allah has told us a story. Allah does not need to tell us stories. But this surely means that we are not ready to believe (Arabic Text) what Allah has said. We do not trust Him and have no faith in Him.

Anyone who has come to this world, doesn't want to die but still must die. He is so helpless that he has no control over his breathing. If you say you breathe on your own then, try to stop it willfully. If you are inhaling and exhaling at will then, you must be able to hold it as well. If you say you take food at your will then you must also be able to refrain from eating and having food. If you consider that you have control over your life, can you survive till dooms day? Where is your control? You have no control over your birth, over the innocent period of childhood, over your youth, over getting old nor over death. Where is the control? But, when you become the ruler of the universe, you get control over everything in your life. Don't argue that prophets of Allah, too, passed away. They also left this world to go to the hereafter. They left the world of their own will.

Once Qalandar Baba Auliya related the incident of Bahaudin Zikariya Multani to me. He fell ill and was bedridden. Family members were quite worried. There was a knock on the door. Elder son answered the door and, saw an old man standing there, who handed over an envelope to him and, asked him to deliver that letter to his father. And tell him what he says about that. Elder son took the letter to his father. After reading the letter, he told his son to thank the visitor and asked him to come after half an hour. He placed that letter under the pillow and started giving instructions about his will and the loans to be paid off. Advised his children how to handle things etc. Then, he breathed his last.

After the burial, the elder son thought of that old man whom his father had asked to come after half an hour, and he didn't turnout. Why didn’t he come? Anyway, the letter was searched and found. It was written in the letter.

"Greetings to Bahaudin Zikiriya Multani! I am here from Allah. Allah has sent me to bring you along to Him. What's thy command for me?" Letter was signed as Azraeal; the Death Angel. He came after half an hour and took Zikirya Multani along.

Qalandar Baba Auliya says, whether man understands it or not, Allah has declared him superior to others and, he is the one before whom angels had prostrated, that is, they accepted his superiority and subjugated them before him. Azraeal cannot dare to draw out anyone's soul unless one is not ready to quit the world. There are circumstances when, man himself wants to quit the world. He had said, "If Azrael could draw one's soul against his will, man's superiority will come to end. And Azrael will become superior to man. Man will no longer be superior to other creatures.

Despite man's ignorance, lack of knowledge of his real status and his ruling authority, angels do not disobey him. They don't carry him along without his consent. Allah has created man in this world so that he could perform his role as His vicegerent and deputy and, exercise His powers on His behalf, to rule the universe. When he has the powers of a vicegerent of Allah, he will be able to cognize Him better.

Study the teachings and the paradigms of thinking of people of all the spiritual Silasil and the prophets of Allah and their follower Auliya Allah. Every one of them invited man towards his real status in the universe. Allah has blessed man with the honor of His vicegerent. Man enjoys the powers of the deputy of Allah. This is an honor for man. If man doesn't search for this honor and dies without achieving his true position, there is no difference between the death of an animal and him.

To achieve and be blessed with this honor and to know his role as the ruler of the universe, it is necessary that he must know himself. When we talk of the material body that is there both in man and animals. When we talk of the urges of the physical body, they are also present both in humans and animals. When we talk of life and death, these, too, are common in humans and animals. When we think of sleep and awakening, these, too, are there in humans and animals.

The main difference between humans and animals is that humans can be acquainted with their real self after rising above the physical body. Animals have not been given this knowledge of knowing their real self. And what is the real self of man?

Soul is the real self of man. Who doesn't know, if the soul resides in this physical body, it moves around and, when the soul dissociates itself from the physical body, all its movements come to an end. This physical body becomes a dead body or a corpse. I keep on repeating this thing, time and again because it can only be understood, when it is repeated fifty times. Have you ever seen a dead body drinking water? Have you ever seen a carcass having food? Has a dead body ever married? Have you ever seen a soulless body giving birth to a child? Have you ever seen a corpse weeping, crying or laughing or worrying about something? Why? Because movements of the physical body are subject to the soul. If there is no soul in a body, it cannot move.

Despite having this routine experience that the physical body is governed by the soul and, when the soul dissociates itself from the body, all its movements come to an end, we still consider this physical body everything. Have you ever seen a dead child going to school? Has this ever happened that you prepared sumptuous food, and a dead body could consume it?

No matter how much you storm your brain, you will conclude that every movement of our body is subject to our soul. Is any movement like moving one's finger, blinking eyes, running, sitting, walking, sleeping and awakening, marrying, having kids, earning bread, doing job or business possible without soul? Then how can you say that this is the life of the physical body? Give me a single example. Many a times, mother passes away during childbirth. Mother's breasts normally remain filled with milk but, the moment soul breaks away it's relation with the body, the milk dries up. Child cannot suckle the milk from mother's breasts. How many more examples do you need to understand that the physical body does not have any movement of its own. At no stage of life or in any phase of life, it cannot be proved that the physical body has any movement of its own.

The physical body can only move when there is soul in it. Thus, what is your real self? Is this physical body being your base or the soul? In the life of eighty or ninety years, you never spent even ten minutes looking for your real self. What is your real self? And what is the fake one? We consider physical body everything. We wash it, wear perfumes, keep it neat and clean and decorate it with the best of dresses but never give any thought to our soul. Never think that our soul also needs purging. That also needs a dress and a diet. The physical body is everything to us. Whereas our experience and observations are that it is nothing. The physical body is always under the soul.

It's a question for everyone and everyone must have the answer to it. Is the material body real? Are the movements of your material body real? Does your physical body eat, drink, sleep, awake, urinate or excrete? Has anyone ever seen or felt blood circulation in a dead body? Prick a pin in the toe of a person whose body is being supported by his soul, his mind will feel the pain. But you will not hear even a whisper from a dead body, if it is cut into many pieces. During a postmortem of a dead person, doctors dissect his body and not a single sigh or cry is heard, nor does that body ever raise any objection, why are you dissecting me?

Then, this material body is not your real body. And, when this physical body is not your real self then, what are you in actual effect? What are you? You are the soul. What is your reality? Your soul is reality. Who transfers movements into your body? It's your soul. When you are having a meal, your body eats, or your soul is causing your body to have food? If the soul isn't causing you to eat, why your body cannot have food when the soul leaves you? Your body drinks or your soul is causing it to drink water? If soul is not the one that causes us to drink then, why a dead body cannot have water, when the soul is not there in it? No matter how much you escape, or revolt or deny the blessings of Allah, you are forced to admit that this material body is not our real base, it is not...it is not at all. Soul is the real self.

How very ignorant, what an irony and what a great injustice it is that man eats, drinks, sleeps, awakes and remains a prey to lust and greed the whole life and, never bothers to think that when he is dead, why there is no movement in him? When you over-looked your real self and took the fake one as real, when you took the decreasing thing as the increasing one, how can you have any position in the Godly system? Considering the material body as everything and real is a revolt against the Godly laws. It is revolt because the material body is subject to the soul, soul cannot be under the physical body. A man who tends to revolt, is continuously revolting, continuously escaping from reality and deceiving himself, is complaining of a lack of peace, worries and pains in life, and that his life is devoid of delight and pleasures. When man is deceiving himself, is revolting against himself and is revolting against Allah, how can he be at peace, how he can befriend Allah. How can he be at peace. Peace will be there where Allah is. Who will have peace? Peace will be in those who befriend Allah. Who will be the friends of Allah? Those who will know their reality, will be able to know their Lord.

It is the statement of the holy Prophet (PBUH), "One who cognizes one's true self, that is, one who knows one's soul can cognize one's Lord." And the one who cognizes one's Lord can befriend Allah.

(Arabic text) (Surah: Younas: 62) "There is no fear nor any grief for the friends of Allah." This means, those who are not the friends of Allah have nothing in their lives but fears and grief. This is to be understood. Friends of Allah have no fears, nor do they grieve. That is, those who are not the friends of Allah cannot have peace and delight.

Please consider Paradise to be the place of peace and delight. Who will enter Paradise, enemies or friends of Allah? Yes?

Audience...Friends of Allah.

What's the identity of a friend?

Audience... They have no fear or grief.

Now, all that we are sitting here, take a break and look into ourselves and check how much fear and grief is there in us? Close your eyes and peep within. I'll also be doing that.

(All the audience did a Muraqba for a while)            

"Would those who are free from fear and grief please raise their hands?"

(No one raised hand)

It is a small gathering of seven to eight hundred people, if you ask this question from six billion people, you won't find even a single person, who will be free from fears and grievances. What does this mean? He is not a friend of Allah. And one who is not a friend of Allah, how will he be allowed to enter Paradise? Presently, man is fearing Allah the most and, Allah is saying that My friends don’t fear, nor do they grieve. We are told to fear Allah and fear Him the most. No! Don't be afraid of Allah but feel His Greatness and Grandeur and be respectful to Him. Love Him with regards and respect. If you say Allah is to be afraid of then, what will you say of this verse of the holy Quran (Arabic text) (Surah Younas:62)?

There is no fear or grief in the friends of Allah. If there is fear or grief in a person, he cannot be a friend of Allah. But how can we befriend Allah? We can befriend Allah only when we know what is in us. Allah has said, (Arabic text) (Surah Hajar: 28) "We created an effigy of Adam with kneaded clay."

(Arabic text) (Surah Hajar: 29) Then, I breathed into it out of My soul. What that effigy is? What is an effigy? It is the material body. What soul is there in this effigy? It's the soul of Allah. What does this mean? It means, the reality of every human is Allah. This doesn't mean that it makes anyone to be Allah. Allah forbid, it doesn't mean that it makes anyone Allah. If you take a drop of water, in a dropper, from the ocean, that drop of water cannot be the ocean. It is a drop of the sea, not the sea. Similarly, when a tiny part of Allah's soul is put in man, you can say that life of Allah is there in man and that is responsible for all his acts, deeds and movements. But this won't make him Allah.

What is a man? Man is the soul. Soul is displaying itself in different forms. Isn't there soul in all the variety of colorful things that we are witnessing upon the earth? All have the soul in them. However, man is the creation, which is versed with the knowledge about the soul. Allah has blessed man with the knowledge of the soul. Not only that, He blessed him with this knowledge but also clarified it in the holy Quran.

One hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets of Allah, all told us that man is the creation of Allah. When Allah uttered “kun”, the universe came into being, which contains angels, jinns, man and all other creatures. Since man was to be appointed His vicegerent and deputy, Allah addressed all the souls and asked them, "Am I not your Lord?" In response, the souls acknowledged His Lordship saying, "Yes, indeed, Thou are our Lord."

Give it a thought. (Arabic Text) "Am I not your Lord?" Choice was given to the creatures. The souls responded, "Yes Indeed Thou are." When did the souls acknowledge Him? When they heard the voice of Allah and saw Him. After beholding Him, they acknowledged His Lordship. Summary is that the soul has listened and acknowledged His Lordship after witnessing Him. Or to say, our soul has heard the voice of Allah, our soul has witnessed Allah. Our soul after listening to Allah, witnessing Him, after cognizing Him, have acknowledged and accepted His Lordship.

What is the soul? Soul is our reality. Our material body is not real. If we will know our real self; the soul, which has listened to the voice of Allah and has acknowledged His lordship after witnessing Him but, if we will keep on considering this material body as real, which cannot be established by any reasoning. No matter how many arguments you have, you cannot prove the reality of the material body. One can be an infidel by giving importance to the material body, can deny Allah but cannot prove that this material body is the real self because, our observations and experiences are clearly telling us that this material body is not the real thing. Material body is hypothetical and fictional. One that is running this hypothetical fiction temporarily, is the real thing. When we know of our soul, we get to the real thing.

And what do we get after knowing our soul? We come to know that our soul has witnessed Allah. Therefore, the way we had witnessed Allah in eternity, we shall, automatically, start witnessing Allah, now and here. When we shall be knowing our real self, we will start hearing the voice of Allah, the way we had heard Him there. When we shall be knowing our real self, we will be acknowledging His Lordship, remaining in this material body, exactly the way, we had acknowledged His Lordship in Eternity. And, if we shall keep on considering this material body everything then, obviously this material body hasn't heard nor seen or acknowledged His Lordship, so it won't be able to do that.

Who acknowledged His Lordship? The souls! This material body wasn't there in the realm of the souls. It is only here. Who heard the voice of Allah? Whose soul heard His Voice? Souls of every one of us; your soul, my soul, his soul, her soul; every soul of humans heard, saw and acknowledged Allah's Lordship. So, when we come to know of our real self, what shall we see in the first place? Obviously, Allah! Our ears will hear His Voice. After witnessing Him, will acknowledge His Lordship. Now, one who hears Allah, witnesses Him and acknowledges His Lordship, will one not be a friend of Allah?

This means that if a person is not aware of his real self, he will keep on living a life of suffering. Sense of insecurity will kill him and, no one will be able to rescue him. It is the duty of every human being in general and, for Muslims in particular, that while in this fiction life, he should acquaint himself with his real self. And, the method, the course and the school to know oneself is the one that is established by the Auliya Allah and, that is, to have a focused concentration. First and foremost, thing is to have the practice of having the realization of the fact that this material body is not real. You can prove it by various examples.        

All those who are sitting here must have seen someone from their relations like grandparents, father, mother, brother or sister passing away. And we believe that we will also die. Then, how the thing that must pass away, grow old and decrease, can be real? When you are acquainted with your soul, you will get to know Allah. And the Silasil like Suharwardiya, Naqshbandiya, Chishtiya and Azeemiya established by Auliya Allah are the ways of acquainting you with your soul. This is altogether a different story that man's conscious grows with its focusing in the material body. If man's consciousness had not grown it would not have been able to take interest in material life. Conscious focusing on the material realm helped it to become mature and it started comprehending those things easily, which were difficult to understand. This material focusing enlarged it's vista. Therefore, on the behest of the holy Prophet (PBUH), Silsila Azeemiya was established so that man could learn those things, which could help him to be easily familiar with his real-self and get closer to his soul, according to his enhanced material conscious.

The primary condition for learning anything is to have focused concentration, and interest. If a child is not having interest in learning, he will lack in focusing his attention, he will not be able to pass the class. But, if he is keenly interested in and fulfilling the demands of learning a subject, there is a 99% chance of his success, and he will not fail. Same is the case with the learning of spiritual sciences. If your attention is focused upon searching your real self while remaining in this physical body, we shall succeed in finding our real self. In Sufism, this focused concentration is termed as Muraqba. Muraqba means brainstorming and descending deeper and fishing out something, which is not possible for the material body.

Muraqba is a technique. It is not a word to depict something very odd. It means to search for your real self, keeping the physical body, its increase and decrease and its annihilation before you. The search for the real self is Muraqba. Silsila Azeemiya is a great blessing of Allah. Where it is attempted, theoretically and practically, to gather mankind on the platform so they can learn to search for their real self and should not consider this material fiction body as real. May Allah bless us with the ability to search for our real self.

Please remember if you didn't search for your real self, you will not have peace of mind and heart. You may have piles of wealth; you will not get inner peace and calm. If you may have piles of wealth and riches and you are familiar with your real self, wealth will not disturb you. You don't have wealth but are familiar with your real self, you will not feel disturbed. Delight is always within. It is not without. Peace is within not without. Peace is in the soul not in the material body.

If peace and inner calm is wanted and life is not to be made the bed of thrones, mankind must pay heed to the fact that material body is not real, inner-self is real, soul is the real-self.

Listen carefully and don't just listen, let it sink deeper in you. All those who are sitting here before me and, especially my Azeemi children, whenever I have a chance to speak to them, I try to give arguments, so the things are made clear to you. I try to use a bit of Conductive Influence, the way my Mentor taught me using his Conductive Influence, so the thing could take shape in your mind and settle down deeper. That's the reason that I repeat things and explain it in many ways so that things could be clear in your mind and settle easily. I think, it has become clear for all those who are sitting here that Physical Body is not real, our soul is real. Those who have understood it clearly that soul is the real and the physical body is not, please raise their hand.

Most of the audience raised their hands.

Alhamdulillah, today's session proved to be a great success. Allah blessed me with the ability to express before you all that I had learned from my mentor Qalandar Baba Auliya through the intercession of the holy Prophet (PBUH), according to my mental abilities and your capabilities. I may keep on teaching you and we both be acting upon them as well. Amen

As is the custom, when one is happy to express one's delight one says words to express one's gratitude. You all came here in this cold weather, leaving your businesses, homes and company of your loved ones, wives and children and blessed me with the honor of hosting you. I am grateful to you. When I look at you, I feel that I have grown old and, when you think of old age, it does occur to you that shorter is the remaining journey of life. But, when your cute, innocent, delightful and laughing faces appear before me and your love and affection for one another and for me fill me with a delight that carries me away from the thought of my old age. You may say, upon seeing you happy collectively, adds days into my life. May Allah bless you with happiness and delights. And may you devote your time to the center and keep on strengthening it. Without a center, no organization can succeed. No program can be completed without a center.

The greatest center for Islam is Makah and Medina. Islam spread from its center and even today is established with its center. Relation of Creator and creatures is also based upon monotheism. Allah is the center of monotheism. The Holy Prophet (PBUH) devised a system and on the behest of holy Prophet (PBUH) Qalandar Baba Auliya, established the Silsila. Since it is a new Silsila, all its present members are the pillars of the Silsila. Future building of Silsila will be upon these pillars. We are required to be strong enough to take the load of the future building for coming millions of years and they may not crack. There is only one method to have this strength and that is to sacrifice and consecration for one another and serve each other. Every human being and especially an Azeemi must not have any expectation from others but must remain ready to be at service for others.

Nobody should expect others to work for him, but he should be ready to render his services to others. These are the teaching of our Silsila and, if we acted upon these teachings, we shall certainly succeed here and the hereafter and, there will be a time, when we will get familiar with our real-self and we will be acknowledged in the court of the holy Prophet (PBUH) as well. Allah willing, we shall be blessed with the honor of the friendship of Allah and there will be a time when the grip of fear and grief upon us will be over, and we shall live a life of peace and calm.

Simply to say, if you can do something for others, do it and don't have expectations from others. When everyone would think, what he can do for his brethren, the chain of expectation will automatically abolish and, you will need not to expect from others.

This year, we have made arrangements to the best of our ability to ensure your comfortable stay here in Markazi Muraqba Hall. You will be pleased to know that the members of Markazi Muraqaba Hall start their preparation in March for the upcoming Urs in January for the guests of Qalandar Baba Auliya, coming from various cities world over. This year you must have noticed more flowers than the previous year. There is greater cleanness this year compared to previous years. This time the food service and catering has further been developed. You must have felt more delight and comfort.

It is our endeavor that we could serve the guests of Qalandar Baba Auliya better and better to give you more comfort and delight. This time, it rained. You must have faced some difficulties. But the experience that me and the members of Markazi Muraqaba Hall had was very pleasant. Seven eight hundred people didn't consider it a calamity but faced it cheerfully and lifted their bags and beds. Your feet were stuck in mud, too, and you had to lay upon the cold floor of the mosque. But, Alhamdulillah, you didn't come here for worldly gains, but the delight and blessings of your mentor and Qalandar Baba Auliya was the sole purpose in your minds, so you didn't pay heed to any discomfort. We didn't hear any complaints from any of our guests, be they old and weak, young or sick.

This attitude gave us courage and we experienced the certitude that the organization which we had started is taking roots. Forbearance and confidence are there in the members of the organization. They have tolerance and, without any exaggeration, it is quite pleasing for you, me and for the elders of the Silsila. Had this rain not been there, we would not have had this experience and, also had not have this delight.

It occurred to me that when it started raining and we all were disbursing here and there. Then, the clouds scattered, and the sky became clear. That means Allah wanted to shower His Mercy upon our organization and, indeed you all young and old, ladies and children demonstrated it well. We are all happy and grateful to you.

Another thing, we just presented before you Mr. Noor Alam about the flower arrangements and Shoukat Bhai for electricity arrangements. This was an additional delight for us. The flowers and electricity came before us in the form of an exhibition that gave us delight. But that does not mean that our other workers lagged by any chance. People of the Bed Committee, members of dish washing committee, members of cleaning committee etc. After the rain the floors were turned so cold as they were made of ice slabs. Members of the cleaning committee removed the rainwater from the roads and from Muraqba Hall, five six times and, didn't allow the rainwater to turn into mud and mire. They exerted their full potential. Similarly, the members of the dishwashing committee did their best. I don't have the numbers for this year but last year they washed over 18000 utensils during the event. They spend sleepless nights washing the dishes, plates and bowls and other pots in the cold weather.

This is indeed very delightful for all of us. Your brethren tried to do their duty in hosting their valued guests. If there have been any lapses, we regret that and any of the inconvenience caused to you. May Allah continue and increase this Silsila, we continue to serve you and you keep on coming here to see us.

Stay blessed. Assalam o Alykum.