Salat Al-Azeemiyah, The Idrisi Tahleel

and

Astghfaar Al-Kabeer

Shaykh Ahmad ibn Idris, may Allah be pleased with him, had a meeting in

the waking state, with the Prophet Muhammad, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi

wa sallam, and al-Khadir, alayhi assalam.

The Prophet said to al-Khadir: Ya Khadir: teach him that which joins

together all of the dhikrs, salawat, and prayers for forgiveness of sins, and

is superior in reward, larger in number, more exalted in worth, and greater

in obtaining assistance.

Al-Khadir, alayhi assalam, said: What is that, oh Prophet of Allah?

And so the Prophet, alayhi assalatu wassalam, taught him the Idrisi Tahlil,

the Salaat Azeemiyya, and the Istighfar al-Kabir.

Shaykh Ahmad ibn Idris says: And so I repeated these after them both and

I was clothed in Muhammadan lights and power and was nourished with

the divine springs.

Then the Prophet, salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam, said to me: Oh Ahmad, you

have been given the keys to the heavens and the earth, which are the dhikr,

the salaat, and the istighfar. If you say them once, they are equal to the

world and what is in it many times over.

The Dhikr (The Idrisi Tahlil):

Translation:

Laa ilaaha illa Allah , Muhammad Rasool Allah in every glance and breath ,

as many times as all that is contained in the knowledge of Allah.

Transliteration:

L ilha illallh Muammadun raslullh, f kulli lamatin wa-nafasin,

adada m

wasiah ilmullh

Its Merit:

The Prophet , salla Allahu alayhi wa alihi wa sallam , said to Shaykh

Ahmad ibn Idris:

I have saved it for you, oh Ahmad. No one has received it before you.

Teach it to your companions so that with it they will surpass those who

came before .

/-

; 9 8 7 3

C ;

; J I H

9 7

J I [ Y9 Z 9 Y 9 Y X

]

/

9f

; ;

Ig

J k j9

n

r q j9 q

u t I q

9 9

r w

| {I q

~ ; 7

9 Y ; 9

.

Translation:

Oh Allah, I ask You by the light of the Face of Allah the Great,

Which filled the pillars of the Throne of Allah, the Great,

And by it are upheld the worlds of Allah, the Great,

To send blessings upon our master Muhammad of worth so great,

And upon the family of the Prophet of Allah the Great,

As much as the greatness of the Essence of Allah, the Great,

In every glance and breath, as many times as all that is contained in the

knowledge of Allah, the Great,

A salaat that is perpetual in the perpetuity of Allah, the Great, In

glorification of your worth, oh our master Muhammad, oh you of a nature

most great,

And send peace upon him and his family just as much,

And join him with me, just as You joined the soul with the nafs,

Outwardly and inwardly, in wakefulness and in sleep,

And make him, oh Lord, a soul for my body in every respect,

In the here and now, before the world to come, oh Allah the Great.

Allhumma inn asaluka bi-nri wajhillhil am,

alladh malaa arkni arshillhil am,

wa qmat bih awlimullhil a__________m,

an tuall al mawln Muammadin dhil-qadril am,

wa al li nabiyyillhil am,

bi-qadri aamati dhtillhil am,

f kulli lamatin wa nafasin adada m f ilmillhil am,

altan dimatan bi-dawmillhil am,

taman li-aqqika y mawln y Muammad y dhal-khuluqil am,

wa sallim alayhi wa al lih mithla dhlik,

wajma bayn wa-baynah kam jamata baynarri wannafsi,

hiran wa binan, yaqatan wa manman,

wajalhu y Rabbi ran li-dht min jamil wujhi,

fidduny qablal khirati, y am

Commentary on the Azeemiyya:

And join him with me, just as You joined the soul with the nafs

The sayyid Muhammad ibn Ali as-Sanusi wrote that the Prophet

Muhammad, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam, appeared to him once,

and with him were his two noble Companions, sayyidna Abu Bakr as-Siddiq

and sayyidna Umar al-Farooq, may Allah be pleased with them both. The

Prophet then praised shaykh Ahmad ibn Idris to imam as-Sanusi and said

to him:

And that is why we frequently show you how his self/body is united to my

self/body, and how he is mixed with me, and united. Then the Prophet

turned toward his two Companions and said to them: Do you bear witness

to this?

They said: Allah bears witness to it, and His angels and His prophets and

His messengers and the righteous among the believers.

In commenting on this, the sayyid Muhammad bin Ali al-Yamani al-Idrisi,

the great-grandson of the sayyid, writes in Risaalat al-Awraad al-Idrisiyya:

I say: And the meaning of this unity (ittihaad) is the strength of the

connection between them, so let not poor misunderstanding make you

think of the intermixing of their bodies or selves, or any such similar

falsehoods.

Shaykh Saleh al-Jafari, may Allah be pleased with him said:

Bism Allah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem, wa salla Allahu alaa sayyidina

Muhammad wa alaa alihi wa sallam.

The explanation of And join him with me, just as You joined the soul with

the nafs:

And join within myself between his perfect attributes, salla Allahu alayhi

wa alihi wa sallam, and between the deficient attributes of my self, just as

you joined the attributes of the perfect soul with the attributes of the

deficient nafs, and when that joining takes place, erasure happens. Because

his attributes of perfection, salla Allahu alayhi wa alihi wa sallam, are like

the day, and the attributes of the self/nafs are like the night, so the shining

of the sun of the lights of his perfections, salla Allahu alayhi wa alihi wa

sallam, erases the darkness of the attributes of the dark nafs. So the person

is moved from the darkness of the night of his self in which he can see

nothing, to the light of the day of his enlightening lights, salla Allahu alayhi

wa alihi wa sallam.

And so he, salla Allahu alayhi wa alihi wa sallam, engulfs him with these

lights. We have erased the sign of the night, and made the sign of the day to

enlighten.(Q 17:12)

And so he will witness him, salla Allahu alayhi wa alihi wa sallam, with the

eye of baseera (inner vision), and so the joining of witnessing happens. And

after that the real joining happens. For the first joining/meeting is that of

the sleep, and it is the biggest way that leads to the joining of witnessing,

then the joining of witnessing happens, then the real joining. And the

shaykh, may Allah be pleased with him, referred to the first by saying in

sleepand to the second by saying inwardly and to the third by saying

and in the waking.

And the fourth witnessing is the highest of the types of witnessing, to which

referred by saying: And make him, oh a soul for my body in every

respect.

As sayyid Abu al-Abbas al-Mursi may Allah be pleased with him said: If the

Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam, was absent from me for

the blinking of an eye, I would not count myself among the Muslims.

And as sayyidi Umar ibn al-Farid may Allah be pleased with him said:

Grace me with the destruction of my soul in the love of a gazelle

Of most beautiful descriptions, he is mixed with the souls

So the saying of sayyidi Ahmad ibn Idris, may Allah be pleased with him,

And make him, oh Lord, a soul for my body and the saying of sayyidi Ibn

al-Farid, may Allah be pleased with him, he is mixed with the souls are

united in meaning, though different in wording.

As for the saying of the sayyid Ahmad ibn Idris, may Allah be pleased with

him:

I met with the Prophet salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam and with sayyidna al-

Khadir alayhi assalam a corporeal meeting, that means: a real meeting, and

it is the meeting we mentioned earlier.

And in the year 1385 A.H. a man from Upper Egypt came to me and said, I

have something to tell you which, had I not been commanded to tell you by

a higher authority, I would not have told it to you: Know my brother that I

was sitting in your lesson at the Azhar Mosque after the Friday Prayer, and

you were saying in your lesson, Jalaluddin al-Suyuti used to study the

science of hadith with the Prophet, salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam, and al-

Suyuti would ask him about the correctness of the Prophetic hadiths. And

then I saw the Prophet salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam in the waking state,

sitting next to me, and he said, peace be upon him, Tell this son of mine to

strive hard as did al-Suyuti in order to see me as he did. Then a man came

and was about to pass between us and I wanted to stop him but he said,

peace be upon him, Let him for I am Light.

So when he said this to me I was greatly astonished and surprised, so he

said to me, I swear by Allah that had I not been commanded to, I would not

have told you what I just told you. And he said this to me in the courtyard

of the Azhar Mosque, so I saw a man sitting called Ahmad Mahmoud from

the town of Moosha in Asyut so I took him to him and said, Listen oh

shaykh what this man is telling me, so he repeated what he said to him. My

shaykh the muhaddith shaykh Muhammad Habib Allah ash-Shanqiti spoke

of al-Suyutis, may Allah be pleased with him, seeing of the Prophet salla

Allahu alayhi wa alihi wa sallam in the waking and speaking with him, and

I heard it from him many times. And among the things that Allah graced me

with is that I stayed with him for almost 15 years, and I was his reciter in

the lesson of his book Zad al-Muslim, a commentary on the hadiths that are

in both Bukhari and Muslim.

And he used to start with the hadith, then dive into the ocean of the

biographies, and the commentary of the hadith, and then bring in the

tafseer of Quranic ayas and matters of fiqh and creed, and other things. And

he used to memorize the Quran in its different recitations, and he had an

ijaza in that from his homeland, and he wrote a book called: Tayseer al-

Aseer (The Easing of What is Difficult in the Sciences of Tafseer), and he

has a poem on the seven recitations that solved some of the difficult words

of shaykh ash-Shatibi may Allah have mercy on him, and he has a poem on

the proofs of Tawassul, and he used to say to me: Read my commentary

Zad al-Muslim for I did not leave anything out of it, big or small. And And I

used to give a lesson to the brothers who were present before his arrival at

the usaynid Mosque, and if anyone objected to me or gave me a hard time,

he would whisper in my ear after coming and sitting on his chair: They

give you a hard time but you are better than them as if he was with me!

And then in his lesson he would correct everything that I had erred in or

missed in my lesson, as if he had been sitting with me listening to what I

was saying, and this happened from him many times. And he used to have a

great love for mawlana the sayyid Ahmad ibn Idris may Allah be pleased

with him, and for his descendants.

I say: I also heard the story of al-Suyuti from my shaykh, shaykh Yusef Nasr

ad-Dijwi may Allah be pleased with him, And he was also one of the

scholars who were knowers of Allah, and I regularly attended his lesson

after the Fajr prayer at the noble Azhar Mosque in the Abbasid Hall for

seven years. And whenever sayyid Hasan al-Idrisi would come from Sudan,

he would meet me at his lesson, and after the lesson would greet the

shaykh, which would make the shaykh most happy and he would say: The

sayyid Ahmad ibn Idris is a Qutb unlike other Qutbs!

And shaykh ad-Dijwi had taken the Idrisi tariqa from my shaykh sayyid

Muhammad ash-Sharif, may Allah be pleased with him, and shaykh ad-

Dijwi was from the Council of the (great) Scholars of the Azhar, and he had

many greatly beneficial writings, and most valuable articles in the al-Azhar

magazine. And I attended his lessons of Quranic commentary from the Sura

of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) until the end of Surat an-

Nas, after which he began commenting on Sahih al-Bukhari. And he used to

memorize the Quran with the proper tajweed and all its recitations, and

mention the sayings of the Quranic commentators, and explain the

grammar of each aya of the Quran very precisely and clarify its

terminology, and would, while doing so, present the different

jurisprudential rulings of the four schools of Law, and would recite the

hadith with its complete chain, and give a short biography for each of the

men in the chain. And he would mention many great and valuable proofs of

tawassul by the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, most of which

he mentioned in the Azhar magazine, which was then known as Nur al-

Islam. So you must read this magazine because of the sayings of this

shaykh, for they are most beneficial.

A story:

He was once, may Allah have mercy on him, reading the hadith of the

questioning of the grave in Sahih al-Bukhari. And I had studied the

commentary of al-Kirmani on al-Bukhari, and saw in it that the Prophet,

peace and blessings be upon him and his family, appears to the one being

questioned when the angel says to him: What do you say about this

man?And after the lesson I kissed his hand and said to him: Shaykh al-

Kirmani says that, he peace and blessings be upon him, appears to the one

being questioned. So he poked me in my chest and said to me: I studied the

commentary of al-Kirmani and read that matter in it, so why did you not

remind me of it in the lesson so that the people would hear it from me?

And he was once speaking about the vision of the Prophet, peace and

blessings be upon him and his family, in the sleep. He said: The Shaytan

does not take his form, peace and blessings be upon him, if he came in his

original form. And the correct opinion is that he also does not take his form

in other than his original form. So I said to him: Our shaykh the sayyid

Ahmad ibn Idris may Allah be pleased with him narrated in his book Ruh

as-Sunna that he, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, said: He

who has seen me has truly seen me, for I appear in every form. So he

rejoiced greatly at this and said to me: This hadith is the evidence that the

Shaytan does not take his form, even if he were to come in other than his

original form! You are blessed oh shaykh Saleh! May Allah benefit the

Muslims by you!

The meanings of And join him with me are:

1) The joining of islaah (correcting, fixing, making right), as the soul

corrected the nafs after their union. He said Most High: The one

who purifies it succeeds.(91:9)

Among its meanings, and Allah knows best, is: He who purifies his

nafs by his soul succeeds, if he lets the lights and wishes of his soul

overpower the darknesses and desires of the nafs.

2) The joining of the warding off of punishment. He said Most High:

But Allah would not send them punishment while you [o Prophet]

are amongst them.(8:33). Among its meanings, and Allah knows

best, is: while you are with them, like His saying Most High: And

His Messenger is among you (3:101) which means: and the

Messenger of Allah is with you. And all the types of joining that

have been mentioned before are included in the state of being with

the Prophet, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam.

3) The joining of learning and wisdom. As He said Most High: And he

teaches them the Book and the wisdom (62:2). And that might

happen by way of the Muhammadan Light. Shaykh ash-Shanqiti

may Allah have mercy on him said:

Whenever a bedouin used to come from the desert, if he saw the

light of the face of the Prophet salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam, he

would speak with wisdom. And then he quoted this line of poetry

of the scholars of Shanqit (Mauritania) that praises the

Companions of the Prophet, salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam:

Because of the light of the Prophet, they did not need to learn to

spell, And horses are not like limping mules.

The Sufis say: And an example of this is the question that a bedouin

asked the Prophet salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam about his camel:

should he leave it untied and rely on Allah, or should he tie it and

rely on Allah? So it is by way of the Muhammadan Light that he

learned how to ask, and that it is not against reliance on Allah to

use the means that bring something about.

4) The joining of purification. He said Most High: And he purifies

them (62:2). Among its meanings, and Allah knows best: is the

purification of the soul by his soul in the worlds of the

aforementioned joining.

5) The joining of the deep concern of the Prophet for the soul of the

believer [as in His saying Most High: He is deeply concerned for

you (9:128)], and this is general and specific, and what is meant

here is the specific kind, especially for those who take the

Ahmadiyya [Muhammadiyya] Tariqa, because their shaykh asked

the Prophet salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam to be their guarantor: to

take care of their spiritual upbringing and to guide them, to watch

over them and protect them. And perhaps that is among the special

merits of this path about which its shaykh used to say, may Allah

be pleased with him:

This path of ours is the Muhammadan Path, this path of ours is the

Book and the Sunna.

6) The joining of what is best. And it all happens because of the

joining with him who is the best, for he is the most complete, and

the most beautiful, and the greatest, and the most knowledgeable,

and the most generous, and the most noble, and the most elevated,

and the bravest, and the most beneficial, and the most

compassionate, and the most fearful of doing what is wrong, and

the most righteous, and the most pure, and the most refined, and

the first and the last. And that is all part of the meaning of His

saying Most High: There came to you a Messenger, from the best

of you(9:128), as per the reading that says anfasikum [and not

anfusikum, and it is the reading of Abdallah bin Qusait al-Makki]

7) And the joining of izza, and it is the meaning of His saying Most

High: There came to you a Messenger from among yourselves [or

from the best of you], aziz.... (9:128), and among the meanings of

aziz: The one who has no equal, and the one who cannot be

defeated by anyone. And so the one who has this joining might

surpass all his peers in his age and overcome his enemies, by the

permission of Allah.

8) The joining of the Muhammadan compassion that is in His saying

Most High: To the believers he is compassionate (9:128). And so

he is surrounded by the Muhammadan Compassion which cannot

be equalled by the compassion of any of the creation in this world.

9) The joining of the mercy that is in His saying Most High: To the

believers he is compassionate, merciful (9:128) and in His saying

Most High: It is by a mercy from Allah that you are gentle with

them (3:159). And this is the mercy that is specific [to the

believers]. As for the general mercy, it is in His saying Most High:

We did not send you but as a mercy to the worlds (21:107). And

so he joins to you in this joining two mercies: the general and the

specific, which surround you like the two wings of a bird, and with

them you fly in the wonders of the gardens of the blessings of the

Muhammadan Mercy. And our shaykh of the most precious

knowledge, sayyid Ahmad ibn Idris may Allah be pleased with him,

alluded to this [in his wird] in his saying: And so that he becomes

the tongue of my mercy from all my directions, reciting in all the

directions of the creation the aya of Absolute Divine Mercy: And

my Mercy encompasses all things.(7:156)

10) The joining of the witness, so that he salla Allahu alayhi wa alihi wa

salam becomes a witness for you on the Day of Rising for your

obedience and good deeds, and it is the greatest testimony for you.

11) The joining of bushra (glad tidings) that happen to you from him,

salla Allahu alayhi wa alihi wa sallam, in every joining, whether in

the waking or in sleep. And this bushra is specific, only for those

about whom Allah Most High said: For them there is bushra in this

life and the next (10:64). As for the general bushra, it is in His

saying: Give the believers the glad tidings that great bounty awaits

them from Allah(33:47) and in His saying Most High: So give glad

tidings to My servants who listen to what is said and follow what is

best(39:18). So you will have the general and specific types of

bushra, and they will cause you to rise toward your goal like the

rising of the thirsty toward a fresh spring of water.

12) The joining of the warning that is in His saying Most High: And a

warner (33:45 and elsewhere). So the light of his majesty will

warn you about disobeying his sayings, and he salla Allahu alayhi

wa sallam is the possessor of the beauty that is surrounded by

majesty. As sayyidi Umar ibn al-Farid may Allah be pleased with

him said:

For a beauty that You veiled with majesty

He fell in love, and found the torture there most sweet

13) The joining of illumination, which illuminates your heart and lights

its lantern, and that is in His saying Most High: And a shining

torch/lantern (33:46), meaning:

The one who lights with his lights the unlit lanterns of the

hearts. And by him the Earth of your body is lit by the light of

its Lord, as sayyidi Ahmad ibn Idris may Allah be pleased

with him said [in his wird]: And the Earth of my body will

shine with the light of its Lord, and the Book will be placed,

the book from which none of the Effusions (tajalliyyaat) of

His Self are missing. [In reference to aya 39:69 And the

Earth will shine with the lights of its Lord and the Book will

be placed]. And this Book is not recited except by way of the

Muhammadan Light, and what is meant by it here is the Ilm

Ladunni (the knowledge that comes from Allah), which

comes through the Muhammadan medium.

14) The joining of the great character that is in His saying Most High:

And you are upon a great (most noble) character (68:4), so some

of his great character, salla Allahu alayhi wa alihi wa sallam, flows

from him to the person of the joining, so that he is given a beautiful

character. And this flowing is like the flowing of water in the

branches of the trees, and because of it he will have the

Muhammadan character traits.

15) The joining of the Pledge to Allah that is in His saying Most High:

Those who pledge loyalty to you are actually pledging loyalty to

Allah- the hand of Allah is placed on theirs(48: 10). And so you

will get the virtue of the Pledge when you shake his hand with your

hand, in any of these types of joining. And here is an experiential

witnessing for the people of the hearts, it cannot be understood

except by the hearts, and cannot be written on paper, but only

descends from Allah upon the hearts of those that He chose for this

guarded secret and hidden treasure, and it is the secret of His

saying Most High: Those who pledge loyalty to you are actually

pledging loyalty to Allahand the meaning is: It is as if they are

pledging loyalty to Allah.

16) The joining of the istiqama (staying on the right course) that is in

His saying Most High: So keep to the right course as you have been

commanded, together with those who have turned to Allah with

you, and do not overstep the limits (11:112).

And so the secret of uprightness upon the Muhammadan Path will

happen to you, without deviating or overstepping the bounds, and

it is what is meant by the saying of our shaykh the precious Qutb

the sayyid Ahmad ibn Idris may Allah be pleased with him [in his

wird]: So that I am upon the sure footing that is not shaken by any

obscurity (or doubt) in any way.

17) And the joining of the appearance (tajalli) of the [Divine] actions

happens to him also, which is in His saying Most High: And you

did not throw when you threw, but Allah threw(8:17). And it is

the meaning of the saying of our precious shaykh, the sayyid

Ahmad ibn Idris may Allah be pleased with him [in his wird]: So

that I do not see in myself and in everything and in nothing except

You!