Some very useful information and lessons in the following article/speech by Shaykh Hassan Cisse.
http://home.earthlink.net/~halimcisse/tijaniyya.html
Who Rides Whom?
May Allah Almighty grant us His Divine Guidance so we may continue on the straight path and be successful in fighting devils and our lower selves, our egos. The Holy Prophet, Peace be upon him, used to ask Allah to protect him against his ego: "Oh Allah, don't leave me in the hands of my ego for even a split second (literally, the time it takes to blink an eye or less than that)! In praying thus, the Holy Prophet was setting an example for his Nation, showing us that we should always seek Divine Protection against our own lower selves. This teaching of the Prophet is very important. The ego is a most dangerous enemy of mankind which triumphs by making people fall into Hell, here and hereafter. The ego is at the heart of every trouble in the lives of individuals and society in general, the culprit who has earned the title: "Public Enemy Number One".
Seeing that the ego is so dangerous to mankind, why then did Allah create it: What was the wisdom in building such a dangerous thing into man's nature? This is a valid question that deserves an answer. The answer is to be found in the Prophet's saying: "Your ego is your riding animal, your mount." If not for the ego, you would have to "walk". Therefore, Allah gives us egos to "ride" on that we may move forward. As we know of the Holy Prophet himself, his ego appeared to him as "Burraq", the heavenly winged steed that bore him from Earth to Heaven. Any one of us who strives, his ego may be transformed into a "Burraq" as well. But the desired transformation can only take place once we have taken our mount firmly in rein; only then may it serve us as a heavenly winged horse for taking us to our heavenly stations.
For example, without an airplane we can't carry our physical bodies from Earth into the skies, but once we board an airplane we may fly and reach every destination. And so, an airplane is a very, very useful vehicle, but at the same time it is a very dangerous one. If you don't know how to fly it and if there is no capable pilot operating it, it may become an instrument of destruction and may kill many people. Only a trained pilot knows how to fly an airplane. We, also, are in need of training, if we hope to ever ride our ego with the absolute precision control required for it to become a Burraq that can carry us to our heavenly, spiritual stations.
No one can learn to fly a plane just by reading a pilot's manual. That is insufficient preparation. Rather, a would-be pilot must fly alongside a master pilot so many times before he can hope to make his first solo flight. For a long period of time he will only observe the master pilot fly. After that he will be at the controls but the master will be in the copilot's seat, ready to take over the controls in case of any shakiness on the part of the learner.
So, it becomes clear how such a learning process must be carried out and that learning from books alone is inadequate. For this very reason Allah almighty sent to the Earth not only Heavenly Scriptures but also Prophets to deliver them and to show people how the teachings of those Scriptures may be put into action. If reading Scriptures alone were sufficient, Allah would not have sent Prophets but would have merely made scrolls to fall from Heaven and rain on people, both inwardly and out. In reality, however, only by observing and emulating the ways the Prophets put those Divine Teachings and Commandments into practice may one improve his outward ways and inner state.
In any given time it is impossible for people to attain heavenly positions without following an Inheritor of the Holy Prophet. Such true Inheritors will be found among mankind until the end of time. Accordingly, the Prophet has said: "Never will there cease to be a group from among my Nation living in the best and truest manner, until the Resurrection Day." If you can find even one person from among those people, he may suffice you for learning what you need to know. One person's teaching may suffice the whole world, as did the Prophet's teaching during his lifetime and the leadership of the Rightly-Guided Khaliphas in their time. But Allah Almighty, in His endless Bounty and Generosity, has caused 124,000 Saints to be living in each time, each one representing and embodying the spiritual emanations of one of the 124,000 Prophets. One Saint has been made to represent our Beloved Prophet, Sayyidina Muhammad, who is the Imam and leader of all the Prophets.
Therefore, it is the duty of every Muslim to look for an Inheritor of the Prophets, so he may learn how to deal with his ego effectively and how to put it under his command. For as long as we don't have it under our command, we are under its command, and as long as we are under its command, we are not real servants of our Lord but servants of our egos, Satan and devils. For this reason, it is a most essential point to learn how to be able to take command over our egos.
Each and every act of worship gives us renewed power for controlling our egos. But if we embark on the way of devotion by ourselves, our egos can lay so many traps in our way and play endless tricks on us. For example, sometimes our egos may say to us "Pray," or sometimes they may say "Awake at midnight and pray," or "Read Qur'an, read so much of it, I am with you, don't worry. Go to Mecca more than once five, ten, twenty times", or "fast as much as you can." The ego may dictate these actions to you and thus it may have its grimy little paws in every single one of these devotions. Later it will manifest its participation by coming to you and saying: "Oh man, Oh brother, there is no one like you; you are the best and most pious of the human race, the most famous of holy men. No one can worship like you; " When it speaks to you like this, it is just like the butcher who comes to look at the lamb every day, patting it on the back and grabbing the fat of its neck. He says: "How nice and plump, what a beautiful lamb." But he is only waiting until the sheep gets big and fat enough, waiting to slit its throat! Satan comes and says: "There is no one like you. You are of the highest degree. Then the victim answers. "Yes, I am the best; there is no one like me." When Satan obtains this confession of self-worship, he cuts off the victim's head-finished!
That is what we call "self-satisfaction" (I am all right now") and it is why Satan fell down. For he also said to himself: "I am all right; I'm really something. The Angels should prostrate before me, not before Adam, that mudpie! Oh my Lord, You are doing wrong in asking us to bow down before Adam! "From such thoughts as his we seek refuge in Allah. Since our ego plays such tricks on us by hiding itself within our acts of devotion and therein nurturing self-satisfaction and conceit, it is very dangerous and terrible for a person to strive on his own. He must take a guide and follow his path, lest so many devils catch him and cut off his head.
Who of you would dare to carry around a plate full of gold on his head and walk through London at night? Who is so brave and so foolish? (This was during the time of riots in London.)
To perform acts of devotion is riskier even than this. When I am in the streets of London I often see "Security Cars" with chains, security windows and armed guards for carrying large amounts of money from one site to another. Similarly, everyone must have a guardian with him when he wants to take his heart from Satan's vault. Some people, like Sayyidina Omar (RA), were so strong in their faith that, if they were coming down the street and Satan was coming the other way, Satan would quickly turn up a side street so as not to have to meet them face to face. If you are like this, then you are in no need of a guide; otherwise, you must take a guardian. If you sincerely desire to meet one, then you will. In every time Allah has provided for the seeker to find. But if you aren't seeking, giant devils will catch you, chop off your head, cut you up into pieces and devour you! That is the end of your story.
Now we are living in a time when people every where are demonstrating, shouting: "Freedom, Liberation, Rebellion!" And egos are now always in rebellion and shouting: "Freedom-Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray! We are free now! We have broken every chain that bound us; we have broken every chain of religion and now we are free! Hip Hip Hooray! These are words that devils and egos are gleefully sounding about in our times. You must be very careful not to allow your ego to follow in this "mainstream of modern thought". Our battle is not against people but against ego, only because it drags us into the pit of badness and trouble, here and hereafter. Be careful! If you become tolerant with it and give it your finger, it will take your finger and grab your wrist also. From your wrist it will grab your whole arm and then it will catch you and take you as a slave. Once it has made you its slave it will come every day and feel you: "Yet there is only skin and bones here, we must fatten him up a little more." But when it feels that you are good and fat, then it sharpens its knife...
It is a dangerous time we now live in, as egos have reached to the peak of their badness. We shall witness such terrible events in the world as have never been seen before - a result of mankind's egos running free and wild, running amuk. All governments, from East to West, Muslim, Christian, Jewish and all others, have granted absolute freedom to their peoples' egos to go on their dirty ways. Governments have broken every law of religion and, as a result, they will be punished by the very people to whom they gave absolute freedom for seeking ego's pleasure.
I ask Divine Protection for the Nation of Muhammad, for all of us and for every believer. [ Tariqa Tijaniyya]
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