The Divine Kingdom
Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil Al-Haqqani An-Naqshbandi
FOREWORD
SHAYKH MUHAMMAD NAZIM ADIL AL-HAQQANI AN-NAQSHBANDI
Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani is the world leader of the most distinguished Naqshbandi order of Sufis (tariqah an-Naqshbandiyya-t-il-'awliya). Shaykh Nazim is both a scholar of the Divine Law (shari'ah), being the mufti of Turkish Cyprus, as well as the Shaykh of the Way (tariqah).
A resident of Turkish Cyprus, he was born in Larnaca, Cyprus on April 23, 1922 (12th Rabi'ul Awwal, 1341 AH). He is a descendant of the family of the Prophet Muhammad (saws) on both his mother and his father's side, being both a Hasani and Husayni Sayyid. On his father's side, he is a descendant of Sayyid 'Abdul Qadir Gilani, the founder of the Qadiri Sufi order and on his mother's side, his ancestry comes from Jalal al-Din Rumi, the founder of the Mawlawi Sufi order.
Shaykh Nazim finished high school in Cyprus 1940 CE/1359 AH. He then traveled to Istanbul for higher education. He studied at the University of Istanbul, completing an MA in Chemical Engineering. During his years in Istanbul, he also completed the requirements of the Divine Law and Arabic language. He received his "permission" ('ijaza) from Shaykh Jamal al-Lassuni (d. 1955 CE / 1375 AH). Shaykh Nazim then directed his attention to the study of the spiritual path of seven Sufi orders: Naqshbandi, Chishti, Qadiri, Mawlawi, Rifa'i, Shadhili and Badawi. He then increased his study of the Naqshbandi order under his shaykh at that time, Sulayman Arzurumi (d. 1938 CE / 1368 AH). After a few years, Shaykh Sulayman told him, "O my son, the one who is carrying your secrets is not me, but my spiritual teacher who migrated from Daghistan to Turkey and who is now residing in Damascus in the Midan district (sa'ahat il-Midan). He is known as the Master of the Golden Chain of the Naqshbandi order in our time."
Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani then moved to Syria. On the way to Damascus, he first visited Aleppo, Hama and Homs. In Homs, under the direction of his Shaykh, he stayed for one year in seclusion in the mosque and tomb of the famous Companion of the Prophet (saws), Khalid ibn Walid. There he received more intensive instruction in the Divine Law, the Traditions (ahadith), and the Science of the Qur'an (ilm al-Qur'an) under the Shaykhs Muhammad 'Ali 'Uyun as-Su'ud, 'Abdul 'Aziz 'Uyun as-Su'ud, mufti of Homs, Abdul Jalil Murad and Sayyid as-Suba'i, who are all Naqshbandi shaykhs as well as famous scholars of the Traditions (muhaddithun) and religious scholars ('ulama) of the Divine Law (shari'ah).
In 1944 CE / 1364 AH, he moved to Tripoli, Lebanon, where he was the guest of Shaykh Munir al-Malik, the mufti of northern Lebanon and Shaykh of the Qadiri, Rifa'i' and Naqshbandi Sufi orders. In 1945 CE / 1365 AH, he went from Tripoli to Damascus to Ha'i al-Midan where he finally met Shaykh 'Abdullah ad-Daghistani an-Naqshbandi. He stayed with his Grand Shaykh until his Grand Shaykh passed away on October 4, 1973 (4th of Ramadan, 1398 AH). During that period of almost forty years, Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani (may God bless him) continued to receive the heavenly fountain of spiritual knowledge which poured forth from the heart of Shaykh 'Abdullah ad-Daghistani (may God sanctify his soul) into his heart.
Shaykh Nazim continuously traveled to the Middle East and Turkey during these 40 years. Upon the death of his Grand Shaykh and by his spiritual order, he enlarged his scope of travel to include Europe, America and the Far East. He established hundreds of centers all over the world, spreading Islam together with Sufi spiritual knowledge which has brought hundreds of thousands of converts to Islam. It would not be an exaggeration to say that he is the mujaddid of this century as was Sayyid 'Abdul Qadir Gilani, in his time; Shah Bahauddin Naqshband, in his time; Sayyid Ahmad al-Fa'ruqi, in his time; and Jalal al-Din Rumi, in his time.
Shaykh Nazim carries the secret of seven Sufi orders: Naqshbandi, Chishti, Qadiri, Mawlawi, Rifa'i, Shadhili and Badawi, through a chain of authorization from his master, Shaykh 'Abdullah ad-Daghistani, through the chain of 39 Grand Shaykhs linking him to the Prophet l (saws).
He has entered many seclusions during his lifetime ranging in duration from 40 days to one year. These took place in many different places including the Prophet's city, Madinah, Baghdad in the presence of Sayyid 'Abdul Qadir Gilani, Konya in the presence of Jalal al-Din Rumi and Damascus at many holy places. He has written numerous books on spirituality and Divine Knowledge (gnosis, ma'rifah) which have been published throughout the world. He has written many poems on Divine Love ('ishq) in both Arabic and Turkish. He is a source (marja') for many modern juristic matters. He follows a moderate line in approaching people and issues of contemporary life.
Shaykh Nazim has a very charismatic personality which moves people and attracts them to the manifestation of Divine Love which continues to pour forth from his heart. His resplendent smile is ever present. when he speaks, it is as if a Divinely-inspired waterfall had been opened connecting his heart to the hearts of the listeners. It is that nectar of love that draws thousands of new converts to Islam every year.
Shaykh Hisham Muhammad Kabbani, MD
INTRODUCTION
THE HAQQANI TRUST FOR NEW MUSLIMS
Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani an-Naqshbandi four years ago appointed Shaykh Hisham Kabbani the sole designated representative of the most distinguished Naqshbandi order of Sufis in the Western Hemisphere. During this time, the students and disciples (murid) of the Naqshbandi order have flourished and the order has vastly expanded in America.
In order to support the growing needs of these students and disciples to establish Sufi teaching centers, mosques, itinerant study centers (zawiyyah), to publish literature, videos and tapes relevant to the teachings of Sufism and the Naqshbandi order, and to establish contact with similar organizations, an association for managing these matters was established called the Haqqani Islamic Trust for New Muslims. Founded in 1991 as a non-profit organization, it is dedicated to the purpose of spreading Sufism and the spiritual teachings of the Naqshbandi order throughout the Western Hemisphere. For the last four years, the Haqqani Islamic Trust, under the dedicated leadership of its president, Shaykh Hisham Muhammad Kabbani, has established thirteen centers and mosques in the US and Canada including a large convention and camping center in the Midwest (near Detroit, Michigan). Several large conventions have been held under the auspices of the Haqqani Islamic Trust. The Trust also sponsored the visit of the Grand Shaykh of the Naqshbandi order, Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani, to America in 1991 and 1993.
The Haqqani Islamic Trust continues its ongoing mission of spreading the teachings of Sufism (tasawwuf), Divine Love and Divine Gnosis (ma'arifah). One of its goals is to reach the maximum number of readers through its publications such as this one and subsequent works to be published in the near future.
HONORABLE WORKS
MAY 3, 1985
'We must try to give our support to His Kingdom on earth. We must be supporters of His Kingdom. That is the honorable work for the honored Children of Adam."
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Time is running, taking everything away, No one can stop it. No one, up to this day, has tried to stop it. It is our Lord's favor. Time is running and everyone is also running to the speed of time. Everything in time runs by time. We are running, also. If the speed of the running of time were to appear, no one would be able to bear that vision, but God Almighty takes care of that for us, so that we say, "It is all right. " Praise be to God (al-hamd Allah), thanks to our Lord Almighty.
We feel that time is running. Islam says, "Oh people, you must guard against time." How can we guard against time? Time runs, but you must put something into that time so that your activities, your works, guard time for you. And on the Last Day, all that time we guarded by actions and works is going to come to us.
Now, here is a cassette. If it is left alone, it runs without recording anything, but if we speak, record, it will fill up. Time may only be kept by actions, and you, as your Lord's vicegerent on earth, have been ordered to fill your time by actions that your Lord Almighty likes because your whole life's cassette will come into the Divine Presence. He will look. His beloved Prophet Muhammad (saws) and all the prophets are going to look at the record. All believers (mumin) and all the Children of Adam crowding onto that Plain of Mashar1 will look at them. If we do something secretly, it is going to be open one day, that Day which is coming. Everyone must be afraid of that, because all our actions and words are going to appear. Oh believers in holy books, every holy book speaks about the Day of Resurrection. Everyone will come and will show his book, his workbook, on that Day.
Now, we know that time is passing, running, and our lives are running and passing. You must look after it - how are you filling your life. As Children of Adam, you have been honored by the Lord of the heavens to be his vicegerents on earth. No one has been honored as the Children of Adam have been honored. From honored people the Lord expects honorable works.
This is a simple thing to understand and to know and to do. When you have been honored, your works must be honorable. But most, the majority, of the Children of Adam fight against the prophets, fight against the Friends of God (awliya)2, attack them with the intention of killing them. At one time, during a single day, one thousand prophets were killed at the time of the Children of Israel, more than one thousand.
What is the reason that people attacked the prophets? Each one was attacked and Jesus Christ (as) also was attacked or intended to be crucified. Why? Why did the Children of Adam attack the prophets? They attacked the Last Prophet, the Seal of the Prophets, also. Muhammad (saws) was attacked by his nation. They tried to kill him. Nimrod attacked Abraham (as), the father of the Prophets. what was his sin? What was his crime? Why did people rush to attack the prophets? They were pure people. They asked only for the happiness of humanity. Why were they attacked? What is the reason? And those who attack them are among those who have been honored by the Lord, Almighty God. Honored! And then to attack His prophets? And all people who are following the ways of the prophets have been attacked, as well.
Who is making the Children of Adam be enemies to their prophets? Prophets are pure people, the best and the most merciful among the Children of Adam. what was the sin of Noah? What was the crime of Abraham? The crime of Moses? Of Jesus? Of Muhammad, peace be upon them all? Who makes human beings enemies of each other? Have you thought about that point? I don't think so. But it is an important point. You have read histories, full of fighting, crimes, full of cruelties. What is this'? What makes the Children of Adam enemies to each other and enemies to good people'?
There is evil. There must be evil that makes us be enemies to prophets because the importance of all prophets is to remove evil from the face of the earth. That is their importance. They came to fight evil so that no more evil may be on earth. Our first and most dangerous enemy, the most terrible enemy of the Children of Adam, Satan, produces evil. He produces evil and makes a big market for it from the East to West, the evil market now in this world. We have been honored by the Lord, God Almighty, but we see that the whole world is now the market of evil. Is it correct or not? Everyone is looking now. After a little, after a while, there will come so much evil destroying everything on earth. Satan will say, "Oh, I am very happy. The Children of Adam are finished!" Yes, that is so.
And people are also sellers and buyers of evil in this big market, dirt-market, evil-market. From East to West, in every place you put your foot, you can find evil. Everywhere you may spread your hand you can find evil. Everywhere you may send your gaze, you can find evil. We are living in a world that is full up with evil, because the Children of Adam are not supporting the Kingdom of the Lord, God Almighty. Instead, they are supporting the kingdom of Satan on earth.
Now, you must look to yourself. Everyone must look to himself or herself. You may say, "What can we do?" Yes, you can do something. When Nimrod wanted and intended to burn Abraham (as), he made a big fire. Its flames could be seen from Damascus, although it was near Baghdad - so big, so gigantic a fire. Only one stick of wood is enough to burn a human being, but Nimrod made a gigantic fire because he represented Satan and his kingdom. He wanted to burn the Kingdom of Truth,
Reality (Haqq), the Kingdom of the Lord of the heavens and worlds. It was because of that that he made such a big fire. And Traditions coming up to our day say that a little ant was running toward the fire and in its mouth it carried a small drop of water. It was seen and was asked, "Where are you running?" It said, "I am running to put out the fire of Nimrod. I am carrying water to save Abraham, the Friend of the Lord Almighty God."3 God Almighty rewarded that ant. It is mentioned in Holy Books and in the Holy Qur'an. God Almighty made that ant enter into Paradise.
Look, Oh believers! Don't say, "What can I do?" Don't be an evil-seller or buyer. You must open your eyes, your mind, your heart. You can't open your eyes and your mind and your heart without believing. You must believe and you must be able to refuse the kingdom of Satan on earth. That is the most important duty for us now in our time. You can be like a little ant that was rewarded by its Lord Almighty for carrying a drop of water in its mouth to put out that gigantic fire. You, the Children of Adam, can do more than that ant did.
Therefore, this is an important point today. We must understand4 what is happening and what is going to happen in this world by reason of our heedlessness. We are heedless people, not heeding evil, never looking to ourselves - what we are doing, whether we are selling evil or buying it. We must be open-eyed, open-hearted.
What opens hearts? Belief. We must believe in our Lord Almighty. We must try to give support to His Kingdom on earth. We must be supporters of His Kingdom. That is the honorable work for the honored Children of Adam. If you can do this, you will be honored. Otherwise, most people are going to be ashamed on the Day of Resurrection. They will wish that there were a crack in the earth and that it would swallow them up. So many people will wish that on the Last Day, the Day of Resurrection. When they see that, all their works, all their actions, their selling and buying evil, they will wish that this earth would crack open and swallow them up in it.
Oh people, it is not too far away. As I was coming to the congregational prayer (jumah) today, I met a funeral procession. I saw a brown coffin. A man was lying in it. His eyes were closed. He will open them for that Day. It is so near. Don't imagine it to be too far away. No, when you close your eyes, and at the next moment, open them, you will be in that Divine Presence for Judgment Day. We will all be there. That Day is coming for everyone.
Fill your life's cassette with honorable works because you have been honored by your Lord. That is the word of all prophets, from the beginning up to the end. But, Oh Children of Adam, your egos never leave you to do honorable work because egos always want evil, tasting and living in evil. Therefore, do not be with your ego. Rather you must be with your Lord and His representatives. Prophets are the representatives of God Almighty and after the prophets, the saints are the representatives of their Lord on earth because God Almighty created the Children of Adam to be His vicegerents. Some of them have reached the true station of being His vicegerents, but most people are still just candidates. If you are going to do honorable works, then you will be clothed, also, in the true station of vicegerent, given the true vicegerent's crown. That is all. Think about these words.
ILLUSIONS
MORNING, JUNE 1, 1985
"Ninety-nine may be illusions, but one may be a real oasis for you because the Lord Almighty says, 'Don't cut off your hope; don't despair'."
You5 don't have forty hands to go everywhere to take forty Shaykhs' hands. Therefore, if you are traveling on a spiritual journey, when you meet with your guide or with your destination, I think it is enough for you at that time to be in one place. However, if you are doing it as a pleasure for your ego, you may travel from East to West, looking at this or that.
Sometimes I go to the market, looking at one thing or another and then another, from beginning to end. If you are buyers, you must look for what you want. You must know that you want that thing and you must see where it may be. If you find it, you may buy it and go on because no one can take the whole market and carry it, or all the markets. Rather, everyone who goes shopping knows what he is going to buy. Thus your Shaykh sent you here, understanding that you were asking for something. If you can find it with someone, names are not important, but it is important that you are able to find your desire in him. If you can find the thing you want with a young person, it is all right. Anyone you can find it with, it is all right. Your Lord of the Heavens may put our purposes with anyone. You must not be cheated by someone's outward appearance, passing him by, saying, "Who is that person? What thing can be with that one?" While there may be with him that of which you are in need.
We are most in need of wisdom. Knowledge is one thing, but wisdom is something else. Knowledge you may find everywhere. Wisdom is also written, written in books, but when it is written down, it also becomes a part of knowledge. Wisdom comes directly from the tongue, from hearts. when it is put as writing in books, it becomes knowledge. You may use that, but more important is wisdom. The Lord may place something of His endless wisdom with anyone. It may be a peasant, or a boy, or a woman, or an old man. It may be with a young man, with a black man. It may be with an ignorant one, as you might say. He may not have been educated in schools or universities, but he may have been given wisdom. We have a saying that treasures are mostly under ruins. No one comes and asks for treasures among huge buildings in the center of a city, no. The one who wants to find treasures looks where there are old ruins. From the outside no one could say there may be something there, but underground, among ruins, you may find them. And that person is pleased if he can find broken cups or other broken things. He says even though they are broken, still they are antiques, they are precious, and he takes them, not taking such an unbroken, new thing. If you say, "Do you prefer this or that'?" he may say, "No, this. I prefer it though it is broken. I don't prefer to have this new and whole cup."
Therefore, Divine wisdom makes wisdom to be found with anyone. Don't suppose that it must be with people who look suitable from the outside. No. The doors of Islam are open from the East to the West. We can look anywhere. If we find that wisdom, we may take it from anyone. No need to be a special person, no. Anyone may have it. The Lord may give it to you. However, we must be humble enough to listen to anyone and to look at what his product is, what is he selling. We may take from anyone when we are humble enough.
God Almighty gives His wisdom and He speaks wisdom. You have knowledge. You have so much knowledge. Everyone who comes to me has it - learned people, perhaps scholars, because most Western people are educated. But, as we said, wisdom is something else. We must be humble. We must look among ruins to dig it out.
Yes. You are traveling, seeking wisdom, and you may find it anywhere. It is all right. Knowledge is like a plane and wisdom is its fuel. Without fuel planes can't fly. Thus, there are so many scholars, but they are still waiting for fuel. They are so proud of their wings that sometimes they go around like this, like that, on the plane but not flying. Perhaps they say that the knowledge of Sufis is not knowledge because to them, the only knowledge to be found is what we read in books. We call this products of the mind. These products grow bigger and bigger. It becomes a load, a heavy load for our heads to bear because we have to carry it around with us. Knowledge from the heart differs from this.
Products of the heart carry us. We have to carry mind-products, but heart-products carry us. It was because of this that Abu Yazid Bistami, a famous Grand Shaykh in the most distinguished Naqshbandi order, addressed scholars, saying, "Oh scholars, you carry your knowledge about. You are always looking to see whether that knowledge is becoming less and less, going down. You are always looking because when you put aside the knowledge that you got through books, you then have to carry those books around with you to refresh your minds. You are like horses, putting too heavy a load on yourselves, carrying it around, and you are always tired. But we are not in need of carrying books, to be like a horse bearing so heavy a load. Rather our knowledge carries us. Therefore you are bearing a heavy burden, while our knowledge carries us along."
For this reason, all mind-products are a heavy load for scholars. The Prophet, beloved Muhammad (saws), said, in the original words of a Tradition (hadith), "The calamity of knowledge is forgetfulness." The thing that destroys knowledge is to forget it. Therefore, each scholar is always worried about that point because he or she is growing older. At every moment his or her mind's power grows weaker. Everything it may hold little by little leaves. Scholars are always thinking about this, about forgetting. There are so many things that causes our memory to grow weaker and weaker.
Now people, even if they are scholars, are under the command of their egos. They do as their egos want so that their memories weaken. They do not use their hearts. Hearts are never weak. Hearts are strong, but we do not use them. My Grand Shaykh, Sultan of the Friends of God, Shaykh Abdullah ad-Daghistani, may God Almighty bless him, was about l13 when he died. He used heart memory. when the heart's memory is all right, it never weakens. Such a person may know from the beginning of his life up to its end. He never loses his memory. However, those who leave their heart and use only their mind's memory, are going to find that their knowledge decreases in time.
Therefore that Grand Shaykh, Abu Yazid Bistami, said to scholars, "If you have no books, you are finished. If you forget what is in your memory, you are going to be empty vessels with nothing in them. You bring from outside and put into the minds' memory. When your minds are finished, they are like empty cups. Our knowledge, on the other hand, are springs in our hearts." Therefore, you can see that when they are old people, they lose everything. They lose what they say, what they do. But it is impossible to stop the springs of wisdom of those who have them in their hearts. It is impossible to stop those springs. The springs carry them, as well. Wisdom is a Divine power. It does not have ordinary properties, no. Divine powers come through wisdom and may take that person, by his physical body, from the East to the West in a second, may take them from earth to the heavens.
I am seeing that there are some desires appearing among western people, because I have never seen people who like to read books like western people. Muslims always tried to read the Holy Qur'an. They never tired of reciting the Holy Book. Now, however, most people are occupied with their egos. This is also true of the Islamic world. Therefore, they have put aside reciting the Holy Qur'an and also they do not really want to read other books in the way that western people do. You have a hobby of reading books. But for what? A person may say, "I have read perhaps one thousand books and I still want to read more and more, but - for what? What is the main purpose for which I am reading and reading, and am still hungry to read and read'?"
Then it comes to their hearts. After all that reading there must be something else. Therefore, now a lot of people are asking about Sufi knowledge. Then, also, they are beginning to read more and more and more, reading, reading. But yet they feel that they are still thirsty. They are thirsty, even though they say that it is a spring, still it is not enough to quench their thirst. Now they are asking the Real springs as a person in a desert asks for water and springs. But most people see only illusions, so many illusions. And now in our time, so many western people are running after such illusions. They imagine that there may be a spring there, water. They run toward it, but find that it is only an illusion. It is very rare to find an oasis amidst huge deserts. Very rare, but there are so many illusions, mirages. Now, I am sorry to say, western people are all like a person in a huge desert and thirsty. They are looking everywhere, asking for water that will give them life - looking and running and finding that finally, that they are all illusions. Still they must run after an oasis.
Therefore, our brothers who have come to visit us this morning are among those people who feel that they are in a desert and thirsty, asking to reach an oasis to drink. Otherwise, they will see only illusions everywhere. I am seeing here in England, in France, in Germany, in Holland, in America everywhere, everywhere - so many illusions; in India, in Pakistan, in Tibet, in China, in Russia, in the Caucasus, in Iran, in Turkey, in Arab countries - so many illusions, but very few oases. Rather, they are full-up with illusions. The Lord of the heavens! the Lord of the Children of Adam, says, "Do not cut off your hope" (39:53). Therefore whoever seriously asks to find, he must find.
Why is it that He makes wisdom difficult to find? Because everything that the one finds easily is cheap, taken for granted while everything that one finds with difficulty, one looks after more carefully. One may say that it is so difficult to obtain. Yes, that is true. Therefore, if you are asking for an oasis, it is difficult to find and you must face every difficulty to find it.
As long as you are alive, you must walk towards somewhere. There may be one hundred illusions. Then you may find, at the end of one hundred, that oasis. Don't say, "I went there and found that it was an illusion. Then I turned to another one and that also was an illusion. I have run after all ninety-nine and found them all to be illusions. why should I try this one?" Don't say it! To the extent that you can walk, you must go on and try. Ninety-nine may be illusions but one may be a real oasis for you because the Lord says, "Don't cut off hope. Don't despair." When you cut off hope, you are going to die. Finished. No one dies until he cuts of his hope of living, but whoever hopes to live, may live. Whoever hopes to find, must find.
THE PURE HEART
AFTERNOON, JUNE 1, 1985
"The pure heart (qalbun salim), that is perfection which God Almighty wants from His servants to reach that perfection."
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate, the Merciful, the Compassionate, Who created all the universes and all things; the Lord of the heavens, the Lord of the Worlds, the Lord of the sons of Adam. We are his weak servants. Every time we are here in such a gathering, we are asking for our Lord's Divine help for ourselves.
We are in need of His Divine Help at every moment. You can't imagine a unit of time which is so small that You can't count it (you might say one millionth of a second, if you could make a second into a million parts) - you can't say that the whole universe is without need, in even such a small unit of time, of Divine Help. If during that time that Divine Help is cut off, that Divine Help for all the universes in existence, then all will disappear. No one can bring it back except its Creator, its Lord, God Almighty. Therefore you must ask for Divine Help for everything, for every time, for every occasion.
As much as you may be with Him, He will be with you. Yes. But you lose yourself and forget. Then that Divine Help goes from you and you are left in the hands of your ego. Therefore, we must always ask for Divine Help. Oh my Lord, don't leave us in the hands of our egos, because our ego is proud, so proud, saying, "I am not in need of anyone," while it is in need at every moment, never without need for that support. That is why we say, "There is no might and no power except with God, the Most High, the Almighty."
Religion, and particularly Islam, brings belief to people. It asks you, first of all, to believe in your Creator who brings you into existence, because no one is able to bring self into existence or keep self in existence. It is impossible for anyone to claim that he or she can bring self into existence or keep self in existence, so that we must believe that someone brings us into existence and also takes us from existence. We appear and then disappear.
That is the main point of Islamic beliefs, as it was the main point for other religions - to make people believe in their Lord Almighty, who brings them into existence and keeps them in existence and then takes them away from existence.
Secondly, He brings them to His Divine Presence. Therefore, the most important fundamental for every religion, and, particularly in Islam, is to believe in God Almighty, and then to believe that He brings you into the next life, that He returns you to another life. That is the most important thing which every religion makes its followers or believers believe in - that there is God Almighty Who created all things, including the children of Adam, and that He is able to bring them back to life after death, to give them their lives again and to bring them into His Divine Presence. That must be the belief in every religion.
Then we do believe, Oh servants of our Lord, Oh humanity. We have been ordered to do something and to leave something. Every religion teaches people to do something and abstain from something. Without commands, it is not a religion, because we act, we work, we do things. Therefore, the Lord Almighty orders something for action, and all orders that we have been commanded to act upon give us honor (karamah). Every command that we have been ordered to carry out is to make us more honorable in the Divine Presence.
We have also been asked to abstain from something, from such-and-such things. This is protection for ourselves, for safety. Anything for which our Lord says, "Abstain from it" is only for our safety here and for our Protection in the hereafter.
No one can object concerning those actions which are prohibited by Islam, claiming that this was useful and Islam prevented it. If he does he must be foolish. He must be a mad person. He must be an ignorant person. Who knows more about humanity than anyone else? Its Creator must know the most about humanity. Therefore, He knows best what is worst and most harmful and dishonorable for this life and the hereafter.
Every action that you do here takes a shape, takes a form, and reaches you after death. You must see everything that you did in this life in front of you. Nothing is going to be lost. All your deeds are preserved for you. First of all, you are going to meet them when the door of your grave opens. Then you will meet everything that you did parading in front to of you. No one can see that except the owner of that grave, but your neighbors may come and look. So, then, we have been ordered to do something. God Almighty is going to look at everything that you did and to ask His servant about it.
Imam al-Ghazzali is one of the "King-sized" scholars and Imams in Islam who is known throughout the world. God Almighty gives honor to those people who are sincere with their Lord Almighty. We are following their way and accepting them. Imam al-Ghazzali wrote so many books; perhaps one lifetime is not enough to read his books - to read and to understand and to act on them, as well. He has a collection of books called Ihya Ulum al-Din (Revival of Religious Sciences). If all other Islamic books were destroyed and only those books remained, they would be enough to make everything in Islam clear. Yes, they are enough. Such peoples' hearts are always occupied with the Holy Qur'an and the Traditions (ahadith). God Almighty opens the springs of wisdom to them and gives them understanding of the Holy Qur'an and of Traditions. If a Tradition (hadith) consists of five words, we can read only five words. We can't make it six words. They may give meanings and understanding. They may understand from one Tradition (hadith) as much knowledge as a volume. According to your faith, you may receive meanings, you may receive more lights, from the verses of the Holy Qur'an and from the Traditions.
Then, Imam al-Ghazzali, may God bless him, was saying that when a person dies and is put into a coffin and people carry him to the grave - (before our time, people would carry the dead person on their shoulders to the cemetery. Now there are such gigantic cities that it is impossible to carry the coffin on their shoulders. They put the dead body into a car and quickly bring take it to the cemetery) - when that dead body is taken, the Lord asks that person forty questions; Imam al-Ghazzali says, forty different questions before the body arrives and is buried in the grave, questions which are only between the Lord and the dead person.
He says that the first question that God Almighty asks that person is, "O My servant, you always adorned yourself among people. You were very careful to look after yourself - how you dressed, fixing your hair, having so many things. You were careful to look handsome, beautiful and elegant among people, very careful, because people looked at you. But did you do anything to your heart for Me? You knew that I looked only at your heart, not at your outward appearance, what color your eyes were, or your skin color, whether you were tall or short, black or white - no. I always looked at your heart. Did you ever think to yourself, 'My Lord is looking at my heart, I must keep it pure and adorned with excellent qualities! Did you ever think of that because I was looking, saying, "My Lord is looking at my heart. I must keep it excellent for Him"? "
That is the first question. It contains everything in itself.
Is it enough for believers to be doing their best to illuminate their hearts, purify them - enough for them here and in the hereafter, as well? On the Day of Resurrection, God Almighty is not going to ask you what you brought of money or of sons or of property or of ranks - no. "Where is your heart? With which heart have you come to me? The purified heart, the golden heart (26 :89) - where is it? Give it to Me. That was what I was asking from you during your life." That is the main thing which is asked of everyone: Keep your heart pure and excellent and bring it to Me.
Then, according to your heart, your purified heart, everything will appear to you for the Eternal Life. You will look at your Lord's Eternal Lights and Endless beauties through your heart's mirror. You will see your Lord's beauties, Endless beauties, Endless Lights, through your heart. Therefore there will be ranks in the Divine Presence - first, second, third, fourth.
The first rank is for prophets (anbiya) and saints (awliya), and for those who reached true faith during their lives and then, according to the degree of their faith, they go into the Divine Presence. Whoever would like to in the first rank must first take care of his or her heart.
Now we are fasting. We are keeping our stomachs from eating and drinking, but mostly we are saying to our organs, 'You are free. " We are fasting only by not eating and drinking, but for our organs, as well. We are not commanding them and saying, "You must stop this, you must keep guard on your self. " We do not say this.
Then, there is still another kind of fasting. It is the most important fast, to free our hearts from everything except our Lord Almighty, to be with your Lord with your heart. If anything wrong comes through the hearts of such people, they say that we must wash ourselves as a person who is in a state of prescribed impurity washes. If any kind of thoughts of this world or of paradise and anything in it come to the heart, he must wash himself or herself. It means, "Oh My servant, you are occupying your heart with something other than Me. Your heart is for Me alone. I must always be there and you must be there with Me always. You may be with this world with your body but, Oh My servant, you must be with Me always with your heart."
If you say that this is impossible, your Lord does not speak except the Truth, the Real. If it were impossible, He would not say it, He would not request you to be with Him with your heart. It is possible, so that He asks His servants, "Oh My servants, you may be bodily, physically, in this world, going, coming, doing everything. But you must be with Me with your heart. Don't leave Me." The reason, He says, is, "Because I don't leave you. If I leave you, you will be nothing. If I am with you, you are all things. Don't leave Me!" For this reason, when people of the first rank think of something other than their Lord Almighty, they have been ordered to wash - to wash their bodies and then their hearts, washing them from every thought except their Lord.
That is perfection which God Almighty wants from His Servants. God wants His servants to reach that perfection. Islam brought the complete ways and methods for reaching that perfection so that Islam is perfection every way. Anyone who wants to reach that perfection must follow Islam and its methods and ways. To the extent that you can follow, you may take benefit, but you must make your goal that perfection. You must not agree to less than perfection. It is not an honor for a servant if his Lord gives him or her a chance to reach that perfection and he or she remains less than that. That is also the honor of Islam which it gives to people and to which it calls them.
We are asking forgiveness from God Almighty because we always want to stay down below, not going up, and saying "I seek forgiveness from God," (istighfar Allah) for everything that we are doing contrary to the commands of our Lord Almighty. We are also praising Him with the most high praises because He made us candidates for that perfection and asking for His Divine Help by saying, "Praise belongs to God and thanks be to God" (al-hamd Allah wa shukr Allah).
TWO FUNDAMENTALS OF ISLAM
MORNING / JUNE 2, 1985
"Islam brought respect and mercy. We have lost them both now. "
We are living during a time in which everything has changed and appears in an opposite form. Everything has been changed from its original state to another, a non-original state, you may say.
This holds true for Islam, as well. You can look at Islam and can see that in our time, our scholars or our statesmen are presenting Islam in a form which was not its original one. Everything now is going according to the desires of peoples' egos. Everyone says about Islam what he likes. Muslim statesmen and scholars are running out of Islam. They are saying what their egos want them to say, because everyone's ego wants Islam to be as he or she likes, so that in our time you can find thousands and thousands of descriptions of Islam.
All of them are wrong because they are changing Islam from its original form and giving some unheard of descriptions of it according to their egos' desires (hawa nafs). They say whatever their egos suggest to them about Islam. They do this in the name of Islam according to their egos' desires.
We reject all of them. There is the war between Iran and Iraq. That is proof of what we are saying now. This is not Islam, not from either side. We do not accept it. And everywhere you may find that people are not trying to follow the original Islam, but making Islam follow them. That is the most dangerous, terrible way that people are going on.
We must follow the sunnah, the practice of the Prophet Muhammad (saws). To what was he calling people and for why was he fighting? He was only fighting with Haqq, Truth, Reality, against falsehood (batil). The claims of your ego are useless. Your ego is useless. Therefore, if peoples' hearts do not meet on one point, then it is useless, and that one point is one which Islam brought - monotheism, unity (tawhid). Everyone's thoughts must meet on that point of unity. In Islam, there it is not that one person thinks one thing and another person thinks something else with everyone going his or her own way. No. Everyone must meet on the point of monotheism, of unity.
We accept our Lord, Almighty God. We claim that we are His servants. Therefore, we must live in servanthood to Him and nothing else. Abu Yazid Bistami, may God bless him, said that we find Islam built on two fundamental, simple things. One of them is respect, most high respect, towards our Lord. The second is to care for, to be compassionate towards His servants and towards His creatures in general.
In everything that you do there must be respect for your Lord Almighty. That is the first thing that is to be considered in any action that a person may do. One must not do anything without giving respect to one's Lord, Almighty God. Therefore, Prophet Muhammad (saws) said that respect for your Lord is to begin everything by saying, "In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate, the Merciful, the Compassionate." That is the respect that you can give to your Lord at the beginning of every action. You must know that if He does not give permission or success to you, you can't be successful in any action. You can't even move your hands or your feet.
Then, you must care for, you must be Compassionate, to every creature. The Prophet (saws) said, "Even if you need to kill, do that kindly (ihsan), also." When you kill a sheep, a cow, a camel, a chicken, kill it kindly, God so orders, but people have lost that now. Even if you kill some harmful insect or animal, you must use something that doesn't give it too much pain. You must kill it instantly, and, therefore, it is prohibited to burn people or animals or insects. God prohibits it because only He may burn. No one may use fire to burn people - but now people are intending to burn the whole world and everyone in it, all nations. Earlier, weapons were only cold steel, swords and spears, but afterwards every weapon used fire to burn people. Now big bombs are burning everything. Earlier very few people used fire for execution - it is forbidden (haram) in the Divine Law. If you are obliged to kill some harmful thing, don't burn it. Fire is only for cooking and for heat - that is all.
You must be compassionate. You must not even step on an ant without reason, because it also has life and when it sees you approaching to kill it, it runs away. It feels death and its pain. Therefore, it runs. It also glorifies its Lord. Therefore, you can't kill it if it has not harmed you. You can't kill it. If you kill it, you must bear the responsibility. Thus, Islam came with endless compassion for creatures, for everyone. Compassion is the correct word to describe Islam through the statements of the Friends of God (awliya).
When the angel Gabriel (as ) came to the Seal of the Prophets, beloved Muhammad (saws), for the last time, he said, "This is the last time that I will come to you to bring God's commands. Prophethood is finished. I will bring no more message from heaven to prophets." The Prophet (saws) asked, "Will you ever come again to earth?" "I will come," angel Gabriel said, "but I will not bring anything. Rather I will come to take away something from the earth. I will come to take knowledge from the earth so that ignorance covers the whole world and people fall into those oceans of ignorance."
They are even claiming that there is no God. Instead of saying, "There is no god but God," they stop at saying, "There is no God." That is the highest point of ignorance. You can't find anything more ignorant than that. If a person knows everything, but does not know the Owner of himself and of the whole of the Universe, he is ignorant.
"I will come to take that away. I will come yet again to take blessings (barakah) from the earth," angel Gabriel said. You can find everything. People receive a lot of money, fill up their pockets, but still they say, "Not enough, not enough."
I remember there were three pence, three piasters of Queen Victoria, in Cyprus (Shaykh Nazim grew up in Cyprus during the period when it was a part of the British Empire). I can remember it quite well, a little piece of a silver coin, three piasters. It was enough for a person for one day; even for a family it was enough, that little silver coin. Some coins were even less than three piasters. There were some shepherds who for the whole day looked after sheep for one piaster. Their owner gave them a piece of bread and olives to eat and one piaster. Thirty piasters for a month, and they were happy.
Now, so many pounds! We were astonished when we were fifteen or sixteen years old, to see that some people went to London from Cyprus and they worked and said they got two pounds, three pounds, each week. Hah, so much money! "Each week or each month?" "No, each week - three pounds, four pounds, even five pounds." In Cyprus a famous officer made five pounds in a month. A policemen, for one-and-a-half pounds a month would go and come, go and come, not sitting down, not like the police in our time, six hours and then finished. No. From early to late or up to night, and sometimes the whole night, sometimes the whole day, they were working. One-and-a-half pounds and they were very pleased that they had a job. "We are policemen with uniforms and a fez." Yes, important people.
Then, angel Gabriel came and took away the blessings. He also came once again to take mercy from the hearts of people. It has been taken away, also. No more mercy. Yesterday I heard about something which shows the mentality of people for sports, for football. They injure so many people and leave them on the ground. Then they come and say, "You must play again. We want to watch." What mercy is in their hearts, those people? What is this? This is an example only, but more and more dangerous things are now going to happen because mercy has gone out of hearts. Every day you may take newspapers and look at what people are becoming - like robots, no more mercy, their hearts becoming rocks, never feeling. Islam fights against such things. Therefore its Prophet (saws) came with mercy and as a mercy.
"Will you come yet again?" the Prophet (saws) asked angel Gabriel.
"I will come once more," Angel Gabriel said, "to take modesty (haya) from the earth." Look outside now and see how men and women are dressing. In earlier times, mothers or grandmothers were ashamed to be in their bedrooms in such a way that people now dress outside. That is humanity, that is honor, this is modesty?
And this is the news from heaven which came to us fifteen centuries ago. What angel Gabriel, announced has come to us now. Yes, it is correct. No more knowledge that leads people to goodness and to honesty and to honor either here or in the hereafter. That is finished. People now are learning - learning for what?
Only to support the kingdom of Satan on earth. They are learning only that one thing, how they can support Satan's kingdom on this earth. That is all the knowledge that you can learn. Even religious schools are bringing something from that satanic knowledge, putting it amidst true knowledge. For what? To make it ineffective, also. Yes, finished. Its power goes away. You can't find even religious schools or colleges giving pure knowledge heavenly knowledge, because Satan does not give permission for pure, heavenly knowledge, saying, "No. It is no good. You must mix up something else with that knowledge."
What is that knowledge? It is a heavenly knowledge, coming from God Almighty. We must accept that, not those - those are for Satan only, and support for his kingdom. Satan is so careful to do everything for himself. And as the Prophet (saws) informed us, it is now appearing. You must look at what you do.
Then, when we said that everyone is describing Islam according to his Satan, everyone has a Satan with himself, also. Therefore the future of this generation, these people, is bleak. You can't see any brightness or light. It is bleak, very bleak. God knows what things will appear amidst those bleak horizons, falling on people. There must be something, and that is a punishment that people will be given from themselves to each other.
Islam brought respect and mercy. We have lost both of them. In the Divine Presence, one life from among the children of Adam is more precious than the whole world, but we are making it less than a fly's. European people are laughing at Iran and Iraq, but they themselves are doing worse than that. Football is an example of what they are doing. It is only a small example, but if they can do that, it means that those people can do more than this. If that door opens to them, mercy is finished.
Therefore, the West can no longer laugh at the East nor the East at the West. When winter comes, the whole world is covered with snow. In such a way, now hearts are covered. No mercy enters into them. Islam says, "Don't kill." We say, "We must kill."
May God forgive us. We are asking forgiveness at every moment. If we give our wills into the hands of our enemies, or if we give our wills into the hands of satans, this is the result. You can't expect any other. Yes, I am looking at Cyprus now, also. The newspaper comes everyday. We are 100,000 or 200,000 people living in the Turkish part. Now there are fifteen parties and all of them quarreling, seriously, fighting with each other, swearing, cursing everything. What is this'? And we claim that we are Muslims! If we can find the chance to kill, we may kill each other there, also, but the Turkish government has put a strong power and holds people by their hands, like this. And they say this is democracy.
That must be, yes. People can kill each other for the sake of democracy. That is the mentality of the twentieth century, because Satan says, "My kingdom can never continue without democracy" (that is, unlimited personal freedom which a democratic society permits becomes, inevitably, a tool of Satan). Therefore he urges people, "Take courage," urging people to have democracy. Everywhere it is written. I say that it means that you must be sufficiently brave to have democracy. They asked me, "Do you accept this?" giving me the ballot, and on it was written "Yes" or "No." I wrote on it "Yes for Islam." And from God is the Divine Help (wa min Allah at-tawfiq). It is time for prayer.
SHAYKH ABDULLAH AD-DAGHISTANI
AND JALAL AL-DIN RUMI
AFTERNOON / JUNE 2, 1985
"May God bless them both, give respect to everyone."
God Almighty teaches His people. Each one of the children of Adam can learn teachings from God Almighty. If we can put their hearts wholly in the Divine Presence, we can always learn teachings from God Almighty in the form of inspiration.
Revelation (wahy) is for prophets, because they put their hearts wholly in the Divine Presence. Their hearts were not occupied by this world or by anything except their Lord. They were not occupied by this world or by anything except their Lord. They were occupied by their Lord only. As God Almighty called them to his Divine Presence for his worship, they said, "Here we are, ready" (labbayk). Therefore, they faced their Lord's Divine Presence wholly through their hearts. The one who faced his Lord's Divine Presence most was the Seal of the Prophets, beloved Muhammad (saws). Then, to each one of God's servants, to the extent that they can put their hearts in the Divine Presence, inspiration is directed from the Divine Presence into their hearts. Sometimes it is easier for my heart for inspiration to come when I am awake and you put your hearts toward my heart. Then it is easy, translating from the Divine Presence to the Prophet (saws) and from the Prophet (saws) to the Grand Shaykh, and from Grand Shaykh's heart to my heart.
Today when I was praying an important point just appeared on the mirror of my heart to speak about. What is the Muslim's position in relation to others? When we say "others," it means toward all people excepting yourself. It is divided into so many parts, also. What is your position toward unbelievers or toward believers in other religions? Then, what is the position of men toward women and of women toward men? What is your position in relation to older people or younger people? What is your position toward rich people, toward poor people? What is your position toward learned people and toward ignorant people, toward peasants, toward every kind of people, and toward animals, toward plants, toward non-living things - toward all things that may be in existence?
We may gather everything into a word, into a saying that the Prophet (saws) spoke advising his nation, his community (ummah). The Prophet (saws) said, "My Lord taught me and gave me the best manners. whoever wants the best manners may take them from me, through me" (addabani rabbi fa ahsana tadibi). He himself informed us that he had been taught or had been given the best manners (adab), that one may have.
Therefore, O believers, we can learn all good manners through our beloved Prophet Muhammad (saws). Now, we are in need of knowing what are the best manners for coming face to face with people, for everyone according to his or her level, because we are all of us the same in creation, but we are different in our forms, in our capabilities or abilities or characteristics. Everyone carries something different. That is from our Lord's Greatness that He can make everyone to be only one of a kind. Everyone carries a different personality. That is a sign to you that you have been honored in the Divine Presence. No one can anticipate the real honors that everyone has been given by His Lord.
Now we have, throughout this life, by Divine Wisdom, different levels. Therefore, you can't consider human beings like a factory product, all in the same mold. No, because you, the children of Adam, have been created to be God Almighty's vicegerents. Each one of the children of Adam, man or woman, has a manifestation of God Almighty's Most Beautiful Names. They are each manifestations (madhahar) of one of the Most Beautiful Names of the Lord Almighty. You can't say that your Name is the same as the next one's. No matter how many individuals you can imagine from humanity, from among the children of Adam, no matter how many millions of human beings may come, each of them is going to manifest one different Most Beautiful Name from among the Names of God Almighty.
That is a general view for you about the children of Adam. Therefore, you may stand up for everyone who comes to you, respecting that person. You must see each one of the children of Adam, all of them, as being a manifestation of a Most Beautiful Name of your Lord Almighty. That is good manners (adab). You must acquire the excellent manners which God Almighty taught His Prophet.
However, we have lost that now. We are going so far from true Islam and the true excellent manners, and we are inventing something. This is innovation (bidah). We must look at every one of humanity with respect. Therefore, if a baby is born and opens its mouth, breathing, one-two-three, and dies, you must give a name to that child. You must wash the body and you must pray over it with respect. Even if the sultan came, he would pray over the child. If there were no one but the sultan, he must pray, must give respect, to the children of Adam. That baby is one of the children of Adam, yes? That is having good manners or the best manners. We must maintain this. We must make a grave for that baby, not just throw stones and dust on that body.
That is true Islam. You can't find this in any other path, in any religion except Islam - the excellent manners which give perfect respect to the children of Adam. One day a funeral procession was going by where the Prophet (saws) was sitting. when it came near, he stood up, teaching people manners. Someone said, "Oh Prophet of God, that person was an idol-worshipper (mushrik)." But still the Prophet (saws) remained standing.
It was not good manners for a person to say this to the prophet, (saws), but at the beginning it didn't matter because the Prophet was teaching his Companions (sahabah) step-by-step. They were reaching perfection. But it was unmannerly. Then that person regretted that be had reminded the Prophet (saws ) saying that this is the body of an idol-worshipper. The Prophet (saws) knew this. How would he have been a prophet if he didn't know'? You know and He doesn't know?
What did the Prophet (saws) say then? He said one word according to the common level of people, because the Prophet (saws) kept so much knowledge in his heart, and he gave common knowledge to common people and private, special knowledge to special people. Some other knowledge was for himself and some for His Lord Almighty alone. He only said, "I am standing because the angel of Death is going with him. I see that and am standing up." And that is a form of respect, also. He was indicating that he could give respect, even for dead bodies, for everyone. When the funeral procession goes by, we may look, we may stop, because the dead body is not going alone. It is protected by angels, going with it, also. You must look and you must say, "Glory be to the Living One Who never dies" (subhana-l-Hayy al-ladhi la yamut). You must remember death and you must say that God Almighty alone never dies. Those are teachings for everyone from God Almighty to His beloved Prophet (saws) and to ourselves.
What is the measure of respect among people now, when we are claiming we have reached the peak of civilization? Rather, people are coming down. They have reached the lowest point of civilization, not the peak. No, the lowest. Islam comes with most high respect to our Lord, Almighty God, and out of respect for our Lord Almighty we respect His servants. We must respect them because everyone has been honored to be a vicegerent to our Lord Almighty and to be a manifestation of a Most Beautiful Name of our Lord, Almighty God.
Then, every trouble and every problem can be easily solved if we can do this for everyone, because the fruit of respect is respect. when you respect someone, you can find respect from that person to you, but when you are proud, trying to make him low, he will make you low, also. Therefore this world is now like a hell, people falling into it, everyday going down lower, because we have lost respect for the sake of God Almighty.
This is the excellent manners that the Prophet (saws) teaches believers in Islam. Our respect begins from the day of birth, from our birthday. Everyone has a birthday, not just certain people. But you must not think of giving some value to a person only on one day and then throw that away. No. Respect must continue from the birthday on. You must be trained, from the beginning to the end, to give respect. Islam brought respect to humanity, men and women. No faith has given rights to men and women except Islam. Islam bases itself on good manners or the best manners for men and women and the relationship between them, in respect for the sake of God Almighty only.
What makes our Lord pleased with us? Everyone must try to make his or her Lord pleased with him or her. That is the important thing for us throughout our lives. We must make Him pleased with us. If you are asking what thing makes God Almighty pleased with us, you must know it makes our Lord pleased with us to respect His servants. Give respect to everyone for the sake of your Lord and it is enough. He is going to be pleased with you.
I was, by my Lord's favor, with my Grand Shaykh, may God Almighty bless him, for forty years. He taught me and he gave respect to everyone who came to him. "Oh my son, give your respect to everyone because that makes your Lord pleased with you."
If a little child, three years old, four years old, two years old, came to his assembly, and if Grand Shaykh, may God Almighty bless him, was sitting he would get up for him, saying, "Welcome, ahlan wa sahlan." As we said, if that baby is born, taking three breaths and then dying, if no one else is there, the sultan and all statesmen must give their respects to him because he is a candidate for being a deputy of God Almighty.
That is what we have been given by our Grand Shaykh, may God Almighty bless him, and we are trying to give you also those good or best manners. And you must keep them. To the extent that you keep them, you are going to be happy and in peace within yourself. You will find satisfaction. You will be respected among creatures and among heavenly beings, as well. That is an honor for us.
Therefore, don't say that that such-and-such a person is a Christian, that one is Jewish, that is another kind; that is black that is white, that is red, that is yellow; that is rich, that is a peasant, that is a worker, that is a miner; that is a learned one, that is an unlearned one - no. You must look at everyone as a manifestation of one of your Lord's Most Beautiful Names, God Almighty looks at him or her through that Name. He or she is being trained under that Name. Therefore, everyone is perfect in that manifestation. Our Lord, God Almighty, gave to them from His Attributes and you must keep that respect for the sake of your Lord, God Almighty.
Once Jalal al-Din Rumi, a famous mystic among Grand Shaykhs was walking in the market place. A priest was approaching. When that priest saw that Jalal al-Din Rumi was coming, he bowed. Then Jalal al-Din Rumi bowed lower than that priest.
The one who has been given wisdom may understand what the meaning of this is. Knowledge you can find everywhere but wisdom is a grant from God Almighty to certain people, not for everyone. Therefore, God Almighty praises the one who has been given wisdom, saying that he has been given a great favor by his Lord Almighty.
Perhaps someone may object concerning such a Grand Shaykh. "Why, that is a priest and he is a Grand Shaykh. Why did he bow like that, more than that priest? That priest is a humble person in front of such a Grand Shaykh." Who is grand? The one who is more humble than anyone else. He is grand. Grand is not the one who is proud of people. You must understand. That is the point. But the other thing that made Jalal al-Din Rumi bow lower than that priest was because he saw a manifestation of one of the Most Beautiful Names in that priest. Although he was a priest, he manifested one of God Almighty's Most Beautiful Names. Yes.
We are carrying so many sins concerning people and concerning ourselves, as well. We must ask forgiveness every time. May God Almighty bless you and forgive you and forgive us.
FREEDOM
MORNING / JUNE 3, 1985
"So many people in western countries everywhere are asking for more freedom, more freedom. what more freedom?"
Do you think that if you put a big cage, a lion in the will come and enter it, saying, "Shut the door, I will sit inside." Do you think this? It is so now to catch hold of people and to make them be a situation in which everything is in measure, with discipline.
Now it is, as they say, "the Age of Freedom." It began from the year 1789. You know that date? The French Revolution. Heads rolled, feet rose up. The turmoil (fitnah), of the whole world began from that time, the time when they put the noble people under their feet and the lowest level took their place. The door was opened at that time and it is still going on.
It is impossible to close it except by God Almighty's will and power. No one can stop it. Now, each day, from those seeds, is coming terrorism. Finished. All governments are trembling from terrorism everywhere. They can't stop it, because they opened - they opened - the door for the wild nature to come out and to do everything under the title of "democracy." Yes.
There is the zoological garden here, the zoo. Have you seen it? I went eleven years ago. I saw a strong building, stronger than any other. On it was written "Lion House." I went through the passage. On both sides tigers and lions were sitting and looking, like this, very angry at the children of Adam, as if to say, "Why have you put us here? Let us have our freedom." Yes.
Can you think, if they give freedom to those animals, what they would do? I also saw poisonous snakes and lizards inside, well-protected. Why do they not leave them free? They must be free because we have democracy! Is democracy only for people? They must give it to animals, also. Yes. they must.
And I also went to Safari Park where they give more freedom to wild animals. They say, "Lions walk around here as they like," but I saw a wall, perhaps ten meters high, with iron bars all around. Then they say, "We gave them freedom," but it is not true. The animals are very angry, sitting by the walls, looking around. "What is this freedom?" they say. "It is not freedom." As so many people in our time are saying, they also say, "This is not yet freedom. We want more freedom." It means take down all the walls. Leave them. They will destroy anything that may come in front of them. That is their freedom, and they are asking for more. Very angry, because guards are waiting with rifles, and those big doors open by electric commands. If one of them rushes at a guard, a bullet will go through his head, This is freedom? They do not want such freedom!
So many people in western countries, everywhere are looking for more freedom. what "more freedom?" They mean to say, "We must be like lions in the jungle - African jungles or Indian jungles - where we can move everywhere without any hindrance. We may see, we may like a woman and we must ride her. We may like to eat; from anywhere we may take. We may take any car, any jewels, anything - we may do anything we feel like doing." That is their "freedom."
That freedom, that bad freedom - I mean to say, what we have of those wild animals within ourselves - wants more freedom. The first step was from that time, 1789, the French Revolution. They have opened that door and they are unable to shut it now. From there it spread to every place and now they are trembling from terrorism - the French government, the English government, the Turkish government. Only the Russian government is not trembling. Communist governments never tremble. But democratic countries, all of them, are trembling, like this. Yes it is good for them. May they continue with democracy! Then the dragon of terrorism will swallow all of them. That is coming now.
We are giving the Prophet's (saws) information. It is something which has to happen. No one can stop it because democracy is feeding them, and it must be. Therefore, from the time that we gave freedom to everyone - for good ones and for bad ones, and the bad ones have more courage, no shame to rule over others, but good people are ashamed, without courage. Therefore, bad people have covered the whole world. That is why we say that governments are trembling from bad people, from terrorists. They do so many bad things, but governments still say, "There is a law, there is humanity. We must protect them not punish them. They may kill but we can't kill them."
Those who do not give their voice or vote for the execution of killers, they will be killed, also, because it is impossible to stop killers without killing. Everyone must know that whoever kills is going to be killed. Put a guillotine in the Champs Elysees, and every day put one murderer on it and cut of his head, all the people looking. Will they begin to tremble, or not? In the Tower of London there is a big wooden log with an ax. They used it to cut off the heads of kings and queens. Bring killers. Put one there with an ax on his head. Then see who becomes bold to do such things. But you are talking about dragons. "Oh, we must keep those. Democracy - we have democracy. what shall we do? Even if you eat us up, we must keep democracy!" They are swallowing people and yet they are saying, "May you be pleased with us! Eat as many as you like, but we must keep you in the same democracy." You understand?
No intelligence with people now. Finished. This is correct. This is the meaning of democracy - to give the good person and the bad person the same chance. You must know that bad people have courage. They quickly conceal everything, taking matters into their own hands. Then good people become like sheep under a shepherd. What mentality can accept this? If people are bad, you must give no chance for badness, for evil. That is the perfect government, not to give every bad one an opportunity to do as he likes. With democracy, everything is all right for bad people.
Then, how can a person in our time agree to come and say, "I agree to be in a cage?" They say that if they come into Islam, they must be under a discipline. There is a discipline in it, but they want freedom. That is the reason why people are running away from Islam, nothing else. Nothing else. What is wrong with Islam? Nothing. Something is wrong with them.
Who can agree to be in a cage without doing anything that his ego says to him? People want to make everything permissible (ibahiyah, religious libertinism), a kind of thought in which they say that everything is permissible (halal) for them. No harm. They do anything their egos dictate and then they say, "It is all right."
That is an old way of thinking. Now most people practice that school of thought. They say, "We must give our ego everything that we are able to give it. We must make our ego pleased with us by any means, without my hindrance." Men can be women, women can be men. That is the worst thing. They are asking for this, making laws, also. You can understand from this what condition people are in now. This is one of the fruits of democracy, also. In democratic countries people are fighting against nature, changing nature. Therefore, the Prophet (saws) said that the time will come when men will be women and women will be men, and a curse will fall on them.
Once Jesus (as), was walking. He saw a man and a boy. The man was on fire, burning the boy, and the boy was on fire, burning the man. He was astonished. What was that punishment for the two of them? That is the worst action. Those people were making fire come on them. Therefore, God Almighty is punishing, His curse coming on earth by fire. It is impossible to stop World War III - Armageddon. They say this in all books. It must be. Don't suppose that the fire from nuclear weapons is without wisdom. No. It is by the Will of God Almighty, to burn them, to burn every dirtiness on earth. "I seek refuge in God from satan" (istighfar Allah).
Whoever comes to a Muslim teacher to listen and to say, "You are right," then his ego or her ego, like a dragon, catches him by his ear, taking him out. "I do not give you permission to do more than only go and see what is in this Regent's Park Mosque - to see how it is built; what is inside, what they are eating and drinking, what they are saying; to look at it as an exhibit, not to learn Islam from these teachers. I do not give that permission. You can just go and look around. Then it is like an exhibition in Alexander's Palace. Leave. it is enough. Who said you should sit down to learn what religion is, what Islam is, what it orders? What is this? Get out," it says.
Therefore, the one who may be able to put his ego under foot, he or she is a real hero / heroine. Without overcoming your egos, none of you can come to me from Germany, from America, from Sweden, from every part of the world. So many people are coming. You are overcoming your ego so that you can come. Yes. Your names have been written as heroes and heroines on the Guarded Tablet. It is not an easy thing to overcome your ego and almost all of you are young people with egos like spirited horses. All of you, all of you, you may fly - strong ones, your egos. That is the reason that you have been written as heroes and heroines on earth. Wherever you may go, there is light, lighting you as we look at the stars at night and heavenly people are looking on earth and seeing you also with light. Say, "Praise belongs to God, the Lord of the Worlds."
Disciple: You were speaking yesterday about respect, and I would like to understand. How do we respect those people who are like wild animals or people who are oppressors or who are really wicked?
Shaykh Nazim: The Prophet (saws) said, "You must help your brother, whether he is an oppressor or oppressed" (unsur akhaka dhaliman au madluma). You must give your help because all people have been created for the manifestation of the Most Beautiful Names of God Almighty. They are candidates to be God Almighty's viceregents. That is their honor.
Now, we are fighting Satan or against egos. A surgeon performs an operation, but he does not cut a person to kill him. He is not a butcher. Butchers kill, and surgeons do the same kind of thing but they do it to preserve life. Thus, every one of the children of Adam has been honored originally, but our egos take people under their command. Egos are wild animals. We must help them or save them with any means possible. For this reason, the Prophet (saws) said, "Whether oppressor or oppressed, you must help your brother."
Then people asked, "Oh Prophet, how can we help an oppressor?" He said, "You must catch hold of his hand." If you see one person beating another, catch his hand, or if there is a sword in his hand ready to kill, catch his hand. That is help to the oppressor. You can help the oppressed person by taking them from the hands of their oppressor.
Now, all people, even oppressors, like to be respected. Respect is a kind of protection for you. You are weak before an oppressor. You can't keep him away. Therefore, when you give him your respect, you may receive protection from him and by that means - because your respect works on him, also - you may be able to make him give at least something of respect for your life.
Therefore, although oppressors may do bad deeds, they are not bad originally, but by the path of following their egos, they went towards bad ways. The human being is not bad originally. He or she is not dirty originally, but you may make yourself dirty by dirty actions, by following satanic ways and by following your ego. Therefore, we may give respect, particularly to oppressors, to protect ourselves through that respect. That is a wisdom that we may use in our time.
Our Grand Shaykh lived in a time when there were so many oppressors around, so many enemies for shaykhs and spiritual paths during his time. They would often come to visit him. They wanted to do some harm to him, also, but he had heavenly wisdom, keeping respect for them. when he gave respect to an official person, too much respect, too much praise, then his disciples, his students, would sit and look in amazement. They thought that it was alright. But his wife often said, "Oh my sons, when you hear your Grand Shaykh praising someone too much, run away from him. It is only for protection from his evil so that no harm comes to you."
Therefore, respect takes away troubles and harms from you. There is no problem in giving your respect. Originally all people are respectable in the Divine Presence. According to your intention, you are going to apologize to God Almighty for what you did, but it is something God Almighty's tolerance covers. God Almighty never punishes a person because he showed respect towards His servants because respect keeps harm away from you.
Disciple: So even if you meet Hitler or Stalin, for example, the worst of the worst, you should behave respectfully to him?
Shaykh Nazim: What else can you do? You have no power to stand before him, to take his harm. No. Once a Shaykh was sitting at the entrance of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. A new general came by on a horse and all the people stood up to salute him. That Shaykh looked to see who he was. Then everyone stood up, saluting, except him. The Shaykh had a tiger skin in front of him. Then with his stick, he hit the tiger skin. A tiger - grr! - rushed at the people, at the general, also. If you can be such a person, no worry about facing Hitler or Stalin or any other one!
HOW CAN WE RESPECT OURSELVES?
AFTERNOON / JUNE 3, 1985
"We bear witness that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is the Servant and Messenger of God" (ash-shadu an la ilaha ill-Allah wa ash-shadu anna Muhammadun abduhu wa rasulahu).
There are so many tape recorders here, but which is the best one? The best one is Japanese, they say, or British, because they have a certain stamp or seal, a trademark. Then, if people see that seal or trademark, they say, "This is a famous one, It must be the best."
What about yourselves, the children of Adam? You have a stamp on your heart, the stamp of the Creator. Do you think about that? Sometimes newspapers put some photographs, saying that the word "Allah" is written here, but it is written so weakly (if there is something useless, photographs fill the whole world and people look at that so much). And on the heart, they say "Allah" is written, as well. It has the Lord's stamp on it, but not too many people are looking for that.
Everyone's heart has been sealed by the Divine Signature. The children of Adam bear the Divine Stamp, the Divine Signature all of us. That is to be honored (tashrif) by the Divine Seal. We have that honor. Now, with the Will of God (insha Allah), as they give to me, as my "Spiritual Headquarters" gives to my heart, I am going to translate to you, according to your spiritual desires.
Now, there are two kinds of people who have knowledge. One group of people claim that they are scholars. They claim that they have knowledge. Another group of people claim that they have wisdom. Scholars may get their knowledge by looking at everything, testing and observing, obtaining knowledge, but wisdom is heavenly knowledge, and it is given to certain people, not given generally.
The vision of those who have been given knowledge is different from the vision of wise people. Scholars may look at you, but wise people look and see you in another shape or form. Wisdom gives honor to everyone, as Allah Almighty honored them, even though they may do bad actions.
What is the proof? When God Almighty, the Creator, the Lord of the children of Adam, the Lord of the universes, the Lord of the angels, the Lord of the heavens, decided to create Adam, or when He decided to make him appear in existence, Adam was our Lord's deputy from the time when there was no time. Time is created by this world. If the sun does not move or the world does not turn, no more time; time would finish. Allah Almighty made Adam and his children to be deputies from eternity to eternity. That is in the sight of Allah Almighty, but it was appointed by His Divine Will that he appear when He declared to all the angels that now is the time when I am going to create, saying, in effect, "The time has now come to appear, O My deputy Adam."
Then the angels said, "O Lord, what are you doing? What are you creating'? Are You going to create creatures who do evil and kill each other, doing every dirty thing, while we are always, from beginning to end, glorifying You?" They meant to say that those creatures whom You are going to create or to cause to appear in existence are creatures of such bad actions, while we are correct, glorifying You, servants to You. If You need to make someone Your vicegerents, then it must be ourselves. We are suitable for that.
Yes, that was the meaning of their statement, but God Almighty said, "I know whom I am making My viceregents because I gave them something I didn't give to you." A ruby or diamond may fall into the dirt, but no one would leave it there and go away. If it fell from someone's hand into the dirt, no one would leave it there. Yes, the person who found it would take it from there and wash it, putting so much soap on it, and also cologne. Then no one would say to him, "Why did you take it out of the dirt and put it here?" No, it is right. Why? It has its value and dirt does not affect it.
Therefore, even if they kill each other, they make so much trouble, suffering, war - every kind of dirtiness, yet they have something from My Divine secrets, My precious Divine thing I have given to everyone. Even though they may do everything, they are still vicegerents because I gave them that Divine secret which I never gave to anyone else. Therefore, the children of Adam are at the top. No one can reach their ranks. "Then all the angels said nothing." They knew.
Those who have been given Divine wisdom, wise people, look at all those people who are corrupting the earth and say, "Oh our Lord, one drop of Your Mercy Oceans will clean them, We respect Your servants. No matter how corrupt and dirty they are from their actions, yet that secret which You gave them is still there and it is well-protected in their hearts, deeply planted, as the most precious treasure is placed in the deepest place of their hearts."
You still do not know about yourself. When you look at yourself, you may understand about yourself step- by-step. But we are occupied by everything around our selves. We are looking outside, not within our selves. As long as you look outside, you are heedless of your "self." If you can look into yourself, you will find something else. You look at your photograph or you look in the mirror and you still see the outward view of yourself, but you must think about yourself that you have been given Divine secrets. The universe that you have been given within yourself is something like a very little drop in an ocean. There are five secret treasures hidden in your heart. The heart is not that piece of flesh in yourself. That is the physical body's heart. You have something else within yourself. That is your personality in the Divine Presence. You have been given five treasures, five universes. Each one is wider than the next and deeper. The deepest one, which has no limits, is the Throne of your Lord. It is the Throne of your Lord because nothing can contain your Lord. It is impossible. Neither the worlds nor the heaven can contain your Lord Almighty, only your heart, the hearts of the children of Adam contain it. This means there is no limit to your heart.
Yet you are running after this temporary life's pleasures and you do not reach any of them because when you reach one, your eyes go to the second one. No time to take pleasure, enough pleasure, from this because the second one appears. When you move to reach the second, then a third one appears, saying, "Come to me. Leave that one and come to me." Then you put this one in your mouth but another says, "No, leave this and take that." And this is our life. You are tiring yourself to catch a pleasure but it is impossible to enjoy anything because so many are calling you, "Leave that one and come to me," and when you reach that, then another calls, "Come to me." No one is going to be in a state of enjoyment throughout his whole life, even if he may live eighty years, ninety years or more, particularly as each time he becomes more tired, and when your age increases your taste goes down, also, little-by-little. In this way you are leaving the true tastes which you can end within yourself, leaving them and running after something which is just an illusion.
Now we are here. Where did all our life's pleasures go up to this day? All of them are finished. Nothing is left with us. Therefore, if we can use wisdom - not knowledge - if we can use wisdom - we must look to ourselves.
When we look within ourselves, then we may look at the whole universe. Then you may look at, you may know about yourself. When you know about yourself, you are going to know about everyone else, also. When you are pleased with yourself, at the same time you are going to be pleased with everyone else. When your true personality appears, you will take care to respect yourself. We have also been commanded to respect ourselves because we have been honored by Divine Honors.
Therefore you must respect yourself. How can you respect yourself? We say, 'We bear witness that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is the Servant and Messenger of God" (ash-shadu an la ilaha ill-Allah. wa ash-shadu anna Muhammadan 'abduhu wa rasulahu). The Prophet (saws) also must bear witness to himself. He also said, "I bear witness that Muhammad is His Servant and His Messenger" (wa ana ashhadu anna Muhammadan abduhu wa rasulahu). He had to proclaim the honor that he had been given by his Lord and say, "The Servant of God and His Messenger" (abd Allah wa rasulihi). Everyone of the children of Adam has to pro-claim that he has been honored by his Lord, Almighty God. That is one meaning that God Almighty commanded by saying, "And proclaim the favor of your Lord" (93:11) (wa ammo bi-ni'mati Rabbika fa-haddith). You must know what God Almighty gave you endless honors and glory. You must know this and you must respect yourself.
There is a good saying among Arabs. when they are angry with someone or someone makes them angry, they say, "Maintain your honor!" (yahtanll nafu). What does that mean? When you are angry then I may do something that is against your honor. When two people are quarreling and insulting each other, the saying goes, "Maintain your honor," because if I begin, your honor goes down. "Maintain your honor." Everyone must keep respect for himself because he has been honored by his Lord, God Almighty.
Then when he respects himself, he is going to keep respect for everyone else. That makes our Lord pleased with us. If you keep respect, everyone must keep respect for you, also. And if everyone keeps respect for you, you will keep respect for them, as well. Then all problems will find a solution among people. Everyone is going to be in satisfaction within himself.
A sister was asking me today, "If we face a tyrannical person, doing so many cruelties, what are we going to do?" Yes, if you face Pharaoh - and you can find a lot of pharaohs in our time, I mean to say tyrants, because our time is the period of tyrants, and tyrants are worse than dictators. Tyrants are like Nero. He gave the order to burn Rome so that he could see the city burn and take pleasure in it. The Prophet (saws) described our time as the time of tyrants - not dictators, but tyrants like Nero saying, "Tyrants and after monarchy will come the tyrants" (Jababirah. Wa mirl ba'd al-muluk al-jababimttm). They have fallen into the dirt and as long as their bad actions remain, they must be in dirtiness. God Almighty created seven hells for purifying every impurity that comes upon the children of Adam. That cleaning, that purification, may be during his life. God Almighty Purifies His servants through every means - every suffering, misery, every trouble - purifies them. Then if that is not enough for them, there will be further purification in the grave. If that is not enough, it will be on the Day of Resurrection. If it is still not enough, they will go into hellfire to be purified. And if it is all right, they may come out. If not yet enough, they may stay more and more and more, up to eternity. And for eternity - He knows about the people of hellfire. When God Almighty orders, purification ends. No one may object.
Hujjaj was a well known tyrant who made hills out of the heads of people. He died, and then he was seen in a dream, saying, "For each one of the people I killed, I have been killed, also, this for this, and for just one Companion, Ibn Zubayr, may God be pleased with him, for that one alone, seventy times."6 Yes. God Almighty will never leave him alone. There must be purification, according to our impure actions.
Now, every night in our countries there are advertisements for washing powders; Every night I look. This one is the best. That one is the best, making dirty clothes very clean, Yes, big machines in hellfire to make you clean, very pure. Therefore, you may do everything. You are free. But you must know that at some time you will be caught. No one can escape. Everyone must come to that door to pass through it. Then, "Come here, come here!" Hujjaj thought it was alright to order, "Cut off his head! cut off that other head!" But then he said, "For each of them, my head has been cut off once, and for that one Companion alone, seventy times." Yes. Therefore you are free to do everything, but He says, "I will give you free will. Do everything, but if you make yourselves dirty, there will be washing."
Now, no one enters paradise except clean people - the pure. They will be bought from hellfire, burned bodies. There are two oceans, springs, at the entrance of paradise. Burned people will come from hellfire and be thrown into one of those springs. They will come out with beauty like that of Prophet Joseph (as). Then they will come and drink from the second spring, and every dirty characteristic of their egos, envy and others, will go away, and the Prophet's (saws ) good attributes will replace them. They will become perfect in beauty and character. Then paradise will open to them and say, "Welcome." Up to that point, too much washing; no one can enter paradise if they have not been purified.
Therefore, the one who has been given wisdom looks at people and respects them and feels pity for them, because they are in need of purification. He feels respect and pity towards everyone, particularly sinners. The eyes of knowledge, however, look at them in a different way. They curse them and if they can they take revenge on them, they do so. Therefore, wisdom cares more about everyone and wants to bring them under Mercy Oceans, while knowledge's eyes sees them as sinners and wants to punish them. Divine punishment is also a mercy for sinners, to clean them, to purify them. Thus Islam, true faith, looks at all people and sees them as respectable and honored creatures and as candidates to be vicegerents of God Almighty. If they are clean, pure human beings, then God Almighty crowns them with His Divine crowns, and no one except the children of Adam have been given that honor.
You must respect yourself and keep respect for everyone. Don't say, "That is a sinner, that is an unbeliever, that is a Christian, that is a Jew, that is a Buddhist, that is anything else." Their actions may be of any kind but they have been honored and their Lord wants to purify them. God Almighty never leaves His servants permanently in the hands of their egos or in the hands of Satan. Haqq, Truth, Reality is going to destroy the kingdom of Satan. It must be destroyed, finished and vanish.
THE DAY OF THE GATHERING
NIGHT, JUNE 3, 1985
"God Almighty will ask His angels to find one person who during his or her life had so much pleasure, who was most pleased with this life, every enjoyment for himself or herself - look for that one..."
The greatest good tidings for the people of faith (ahl al-iman), the people of paradise is that when they enter into paradise, angels come and say, "You are welcome to be in these paradises eternally. Whoever enters never goes out."
That is the greatest good tidings for them, the Divine guarantee that they will never leave. The greatest sorrow, however, is for the people of hellfire. They enter and never leave. If you could count as many as the whole universe has atoms, and also has electrons, for each electron you may be in it for one million years and then you come out. But still they are happy because it is a period of time which is counted and it is going to be finished one day. The hope of that one day gives them peace, even if they are in hellfire. It is such a huge, huge number of years, but they are still going to be happy and say "Praise belongs to God (al-hamd Allah), it is not eternal." There is going to be nothing, nothing, nothing beside eternity. Therefore, the people of hellfire, when they hear that they will stay in it eternally, that is the deepest suffering. And they ask to be taken out of hellfire, even one moment of it is so difficult.
Then, on the Day of the Gathering (yaum al-mashar), the Day of Resurrection, God Almighty will ask his angels to find one person who during his life had so much pleasure, who was most pleased with his life, every enjoyment for himself - "Look for that one." And they will bring a person who lived 1,700 years. He had been king of all the world. He had been given everything of enjoyment. That person will be brought and God Almighty will order, "Take this person into hellfire for one second. Put him in it and then bring him here."
They will put him and then bring him there. Then God Almighty will ask, "Oh My servant, what thing that you tasted throughout your life of more than one thousand years during which time you were given everything - what thing from those pleasures and enjoyments is with you now?" He will say, "Oh my Lord, I swear by Your Name that I have tasted nothing, nothing. That one second I was put into hellfire and taken out just finished everything that I tasted during the thousand-and-so years of this life." Then, what about being in hellfire for thousands, millions of years, billions of years, not finishing, not ending, no hope? That is terrible! Therefore, so many believers' eyes do not sleep from the fear of hellfire, the fear of the anger of their Lord.
Then He will order the angels to find one person among all the people in on that Day of Gathering who suffered so much. God Almighty will command, "Take this person for one second into paradise." The angels will put him in it. Then God Almighty will ask, "What kind of suffering did you have during your life?"
"Oh my Lord, nothing! Nothing for me, finished!" Nothing does he remember because of that paradise. If all the prophets, saints, and religious scholars, were to sit together from the beginning of this world up to the end and speak about paradise, it would be impossible for them to give a description of it. They could speak about only one drop from an ocean.
What would you think if the last person who enters paradise should be given ten-times of this world? In this world, out of four parts, one-fourth is continents and three-fourths is oceans. Of the continents, also, half of them are deserts or forests where no one lives. However, ten-times of this world is filled with every favor of our Lord Almighty. That is just for the last person who is to be given from paradise. Then what about for the others? Yes, this is also our life, counted days or months or years. It is going to finish. Every breath takes us towards the Day of Judgment, toward Eternal Life. Keep your breaths for your Lord, Almighty God, and say, "God! God" (Allah! Allah!). If you do not say it by your will, still your breath each time says, "Huwa. Huwa. Huwa. Huwa. Huwa. Huwa."7 This is going on, "Huwa" with each breath whether you like to say it or not, this "Huwa. Huwa. Huwa. Huwa" must be. May God Almighty call us to His remembrance (dhikr).
THE BEST CHARACTERISTIC
OF HUMANITY
AFTERNOON, JUNE 4, 1985
"Therefore, the most acceptable and lovely characteristic of humanity is..."
Which characteristic places you in a high rank in the Divine Presence? This is an important point. Everyone must ask and must know it, because we are trying to make our Lord, God Almighty, pleased with us.
Which characteristic makes God Almighty pleased With us? It is humility (tawadu) that makes our Lord pleased with us. The first thing that made our Lord Almighty be angry with His creatures is the opposite of humility. What is that? Pride, the first sin appeared from pride.
The first one who raised his head and was rebellious to his Lord Almighty was Satan. The reason was that he claimed to be proud towards one of his Lord's creatures. God Almighty created Adam. Then Satan claimed to be above Adam, not to be beneath his rank, saying, "I am more important than this creature. How can You order me to make to prostate (sajdah) myself before him? I see that my station is higher than anyone else's, particularly the station of the one who has just been created. I fill every square foot on earth and in the heavens with prostration. I give You the highest respect while that one, the new one, has not even made one prostration to You. Yet You are saying that I must prostrate myself, I must give my highest respect to that one? I am the one who will never accept to prostrate to anyone except You," Satan said to God Almighty, seeing himself as being above every creature, and particularly over Adam. That was pride from him, so that the Divine anger or the Divine curse fell upon him.
Therefore, every prophet came to advise people that they should put aside pride. They should be humble, because pride makes your Lord angry with you and humility makes Him pleased with you. That wisdom is enough for everyone throughout his life. But it is not so easy to make your ego accept that, particularly as our ego always votes for Iblis, Satan, never voting for God Almighty. Isn't it so? Everyone knows it. Always for God? No! For everything that Satan does our ego says, "Alright. Yes this is correct, that is wrong." "We seek refuge in God from satan" (istighfar Allah).
Therefore, each prophet came with a Book and with commands (manffiuma), a law including other laws, as prophets came from the Lord. The last, the Seal of the Prophets (saws) also came with so many commands, bringing them to people in his time and up to the Last Day, so that if this world were to continue, his Message would cover every nation, even up to eternity. The summary or soul of all the commands that the Seal of the Prophets (saws) brought to the children of Adam is for what? To teach people how they can be humble servants.
In the Holy Qur'an and in the Divine Law (shariah), commands have been given to keep - 500 kinds of commands and good deeds that you may do out of respect to your Lord and as charity to His servants, because all commands consist either of respect to God Almighty or charities to His servants, which are at the same time most high respects to your Lord. Therefore, Islam is perfect because it brought people the highest respect to give to their Lord and, at the same time, it brought the children of Adam every kind of charity, good actions, and at the same time as you are doing or giving your charities, you are giving your highest respect to your Lord Almighty. If you look at Islam from this direction, you will find it perfect because it covers every charitable work and includes every respect, the highest respect, to your Lord. Yes, You can find in Islam every charity that you can think of and every kind of highest respect for your Lord can be found in Islam, as well.
Then there are also 800 prohibitions, prohibited actions, so from that direction, also, Islam is perfect because you can't find any evil, any wrongdoing or anything that harms people, without its being prohibited in Islam. Any harmful thing, no matter how simple or unknown or unthought of, Islam brings before people to see that this evil, even such a thing that you can't imagine but which harms you, either in your faith or in your health or in your thoughts, because our ego always allies with Satan when it comes to following prohibitions. The ego, the "I" likes the taste of bad things. Therefore, it generally conceals them and tries to show you that they are excellent. "What is wrong if you go to the pub? What is wrong with drinking wine and whiskey and spirits? Why are they prohibited when they give you so much enjoyment?"
That is the animal soul's defense, wanting to make things seem good, to present them as good to your ego. The Prophet (saws) said that when the Last Days approach, people will drink wine, but will give different names. They do not say "Wine," they say "whiskey," "champagne." They say, "This is vodka, this brandy," doing so much advertising, making so many beautiful looking bottles, saying, "This is Johnny Walker. You must be like this when you drink," doing so many things to cheat, to deceive people. Therefore, your ego always comes with Satan and conceals prohibited things, saying, "This may be good. Particularly in our community, in our time, you must use it. You must also put a bar in your house. It must be there, and every kind of bottle." I see some houses which are like a hotel. Yes, up to here with bottles of wine and whiskey. One thousand Satans are in them, sitting - sitting quietly, but when drinking, all of them appear.
Thus 800 things which are harmful physically or spiritually have all been prevented in Islam, so that no one can object concerning any of them that it gave benefit and was useful to people, but Islam prevented that. Therefore, Islam is perfect through its commands, and it is perfect through keeping people from harmful things. God Almighty honors us with each of the commands He gives. We said that there are 500 respects, highest respects, to God Almighty and also charity. Each one that you do, that you keep, gives you more honor. That is honor (karamah) and the prohibited things are for safety (himayah) - for the safety of humanity physically and spiritually. That is perfection. For this reason God Almighty said, "Oh My Prophet, beloved Muhammad, I have just completed your faith, your religion, your Islam, and I am pleased with whomever comes to Me with Islam" (see 5:4).
It is complete now. No one can imagine a religion more perfect than Islam even for the 20th century. Islam is perfect even up until the 121st century and beyond, Islam is perfect since God Almighty created the human being as a human being,8 not creating people as monkeys or apes. No. He created the human being as the human being from the beginning. Apes were created as apes. Monkeys were created as monkeys, but the human being was created as the human being. He gave the human being His form. Even if one hundred centuries more may pass, no one can think of a more perfect form either for men or for women.
Therefore, when God Almighty says that it is now complete, perfect, it is perfect. What is after the full moon? Islam has become the full moon. If you ask for something else after the full moon, you are going to find it waning. Therefore, people now are running. They are not looking at the full moon of Islam and they are running to find something, particularly old religions. Christianity or Judaism are trying to make themselves like the full moon, but it is impossible because they were before Islam and Islam came as a full moon. If anyone wants something after the full moon, he will find only deficiency. For this reason, God Almighty says, 'Who is the one who can bring something more perfect than what I brought to you, Oh Muhammad? Tell them that anyone who can do that may do it, may try. But no one can." And we are saying, as our Lord commands, "Then proclaim" (93: II) (fa-haddith), issuing a challenge.
Yes, come - Christians, come. Jews, come. Islam is the full moon. From any direction you may look, you can find it perfect. Don't look at its followers. No. Look at the full moon itself. Why are you accusing Islam because of the actions of its followers? Islam is perfect, but its followers are not perfect.
Now we shall come to the important point, humility. In summary, what is the main goal of all these commands and prohibitions? Why does God Almighty order all these commands and prohibitions? To make people humble servants, nothing else, because they are under His command.
God Almighty created Gabriel (as) the angel of prophethood,9 the messenger, as the most beautiful angel. Among angels you can't find anyone more beautiful than angel Gabriel (ordinarily you can't look at any of the angels; from their beauty you may fall down dead). He created Gabriel and Gabriel looked into the mirror of his Lord's Power (qudrah), looking at himself. Because of his beauty he has been called "peacock of the angels," (tawus al-malaikah), after the most beautiful and ornamented bird.
When Gabriel (as) saw that God Almighty had created him with such beauty and ornaments, he made two cycles10 of thanks to his Lord.
Each cycle lasted 20,000 years, two cycles or 40,000 years, praising his Lord. When he had finished, God Almighty said, "Oh My angel Gabriel, this is good praise from you to Me, yet its value is not as much as the value of two cycles from My beloved Muhammad's nation. Even if they pray two cycles very quickly, those two cycles from those servants are more valuable in My Divine Presence than the two cycles that you prayed during 40,000 years. Why? Because you prayed without My ordering you to do so. Without My command you prayed those two cycles, but those servants from the nation of My beloved Muhammad (saws) are praying from My command. They are keeping My order and praying, making themselves humble servants. That humility of theirs, their keeping My command, makes them humble servants to Me. They say, 'Our Lord is commanding us. We are His humble servants. We are praying the prescribed prayers.' That humbleness gives their prayer value. Their two cycles, because they are doing it out of humbleness, are more valuable in My Divine Presence."
Therefore, you can understand the reason why we have been given commands. Every command of God Almighty that we keep is to make us humble servants to Him. And for every prohibition, also, we say, "Our Lord has prohibited this. We must obey, we must be obedient servants to our Lord, keeping His order." This gives value to the children of Adam and all the Divine Laws, all Books, and all prophets, including the Seal of the Prophets, peace be upon them all, just came to teach people to be humble servants.
That is all. Any time your ego calls you to be rebellious to your Lord, that is disbelief, denial, ingratitude (kufr). It is a dishonor for you if you know that action makes you proud in the Divine Presence. The one who is proud in the Divine Presence, the one who is proud must be cast out of the Divine Presence just as Satan was cast out.
Therefore, the most acceptable and lovely characteristic of humanity is to be humble. All the prophets, peace be upon them all, just came to teach us how we can be humble servants. We are asking forgiveness for everything in which we are following our egos and leaving the Holy commands of our Lord, saying "I seek forgiveness" (istighfar Allah). We are pleased with our Lord's endless favors. We continuously say, "Praise belongs to God. Praise belongs to God and thanks" (al-hamd Allah; al-hamd Allah wa shukr Allah ).
ETERNAL LIFE
NIGHT, JUNE 4, 1985
"If you cannot be here without working, how can you say He will give you Eternal Life without working for it?"
May God Almighty give us more faith and make it stronger every day and every night. The Prophet (saws) advised his nation, his community (ummah) that because we are living in this world, we must work for this life to acquire our lawful provision (rizq halal). We must work, because the most tasteful food for people is when they work and buy and eat. That is most lovely to our Lord, God Almighty. It is also the reason of physical health, so that anyone who has the power to work must work. Don't say, "There is no work for me." Those are not true words. As long as this world is in existence and life goes on, you can always find some work for yourself to do.
The prophet Solomon (as) was at the same time a king and a prophet. He had been given all the treasures under the earth. He commanded and ruled human beings and jinn. They were also under his command. Jinn are guardians of the treasures under the earth. If Solomon had commanded them, they would have brought up all those treasures. He was such a magnificent king, and, O believers, he ate by the work of his hands, never taking from those things. But we - we are waiting for the government to give us unemployment - unemployed people, every week going and taking.
You may cheat the government, but you can't cheat God. You may take money from it, but if you can work and yet you take it, there is no blessing (barakah) in it. Illness will come to your body, and troubles. Therefore, it is healthy if you can work and eat from the work of your hands.
Sultan Abdul Hamid, one of the last caliphs of the Ottoman Empire, held the whole Empire by himself, one person. The sermons (khutubat) were given in his name throughout the whole Muslim world. He kept the trust (amanah) of the Prophet (saws). He also worked with his hands. Yes. He sold his work and ate from its earnings. He found time for that amidst the work of a huge empire. He never sat upon his throne for judgment until he had made the Naqshbandi remembrance (dhikr) of God,11 recited from the Qur'an, recited from the book of daily devotions (salail al-khayrat), prayed a supererogatory prayer of two cycles observed shortly after sunrise (ishraq) and another supererogatory prayer of between two and eight cycles which is observed around mid-morning (duha). Then he would come. He was such a person. There were blessings (barakah) during his rule, more mercy. For thirty three years he held the whole Ottoman Empire, that is, the Islamic Empire, because he was the caliph, keeping the flag of the Prophet (saws). The whole Christian world was afraid of him and Queen Victoria was a friend of his.
What are we saying? We are saying that in this world, as long as it is in existence, you can find so much work to do. Don't be unemployed, no. If you can take this from here and put it there, you can earn money in this huge country.
Yes. You must work for your lawful provision (rizq halal) not for saving. Saving, saving in banks. Your lawful provision is a grant from your Lord to you to give benefit to yourself and to the servants of God Almighty. What is the benefit of saving in banks? The Prophet (saws) says, "You must work for your lawful provision, and you must work as if you are going to be on earth forever," because when the hope of life is cut off from a person, he is going to die. Hope must be with him and must continue. Hope of life makes him stronger for everything, for every job or duty or responsibility.
At the same time, you must think about your afterlife, your Eternal Life. You must consider that perhaps tomorrow you may die. You may transfer to the Eternal Home. Even a one square foot place in paradise is of more value than the whole world and all the treasures in it. Why? Because the whole world and its treasures are going to be nothing but one square foot in paradise. That is eternal. This world may be bigger than that one square foot, but it is going to be finished and vanish. It is temporary, but that place in paradise where you can put foot, that is permanent, eternal. Therefore, you must be careful also about that point, to work for your Eternal Life.
The Prophet (saws) said, "Oh people, you must think about how long you are going to stay during this life and work for it for as long as you are intending to stay here. Then, for the Eternal life, you must think how long you are going to be in Eternal life and you must work for it, also. You must make a balance. But if you make that balance, you will not be able to find any time for this world. The whole of our time we must spend working for Eternal Life, not for this world because it is so short a time. To the contrary, we give all our power to this temporary life and its needs and for the Eternal Life, we say, "Nevermind. It does not matter. The One who gives to you here in this life is going to give to you in the next life, as well."
If you cannot be here without working, how can you say that He will give you for the Eternal Life without working for it? And that is important. We must look after, we must be more careful about the Eternal Life. We must give more time. Now during Ramadan we are giving a little bit more, praise belongs to God, but after Ramadan, also, we must make a balance - for prayers, for everything that makes our Eternal Life more enjoyable for us and more honorable so that we may be honored in the Divine Presence.
LOVE OF GOD ALMIGHTY
AFTERNOON, JUNE 5.1985
"Try to acquire more love of God Almighty because love covers, love includes everything."
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Don't suppose that Shaykh Nazim is giving a lecture. Shaykh Nazim is nothing. If my Grand Shaykh does not send his heavenly spiritual support, it is impossible for me to say even one word. Grand Shaykh is nothing if the Prophet (saws) does not give him support him by his prophethood's spiritual, heavenly support. And he also, beloved Muhammad (saws) is nothing if God Almighty does not support him by his Divine Power. That is the way. You must give value to these communications that come in such a manner. I don't know what I am going to say to you. I am only waiting for what They open to my heart to say to you, and through your asking, I am also hearing and listening. I am asking from my Lord, Almighty God, to make us among those who are listening and keeping and acting.
Now, it is a new day, a new meeting here. We are always asking for a new thing. Every new thing is tasteful (kullu jadidun ladhidh). Our egos are always interested in new things. That is their hobby. We are asking from our Lord, Almighty God, new and tasteful favors. Everything in the Divine Presence is new. Everything from the Prophet (saws) is new. Everything from Grand Shaykh is new, as well.
Now today there comes a sign for an important point. We are looking for what that is. What is the most important thing for servants? Which thing is most important and most acceptable in the Divine Presence? Which thing is also most precious to the Lord of the heavens, and even most precious among the children of Adam? That is a very important thing we must know and we must try to obtain.
If you do every action that you do with love, that is acceptable in the Divine Presence. Therefore, those actions which you do with love are tasteful to that worker or worshipper, and also to his Lord. If you love your work, it is easy for you to work. If you don't like it, it is a burden on you. Almighty God invites His servants to worship with love. "Otherwise," He says, "I am not in need of your worship. I am only looking, amidst your worshipping or amidst your actions, whether they are coming with love."
Oh believers, you must give so much attention to this point. In earlier times, in vessels using oars, there were slaves. They rowed, but not one of those people did it because of love. Don't be like a slave, no. God Almighty does not want that. If you do something, you must do it with love, love of God Almighty, every action. You can pray, but you must pray with love, love not by force, beating you with a whip and then you pray. "No need," says God Almighty. "I don't like such worship."
Every action that you can do with love - that is more lovely to your Lord, Almighty God. However, we have lost that now. We are trying to do everything out of habit, but without asking for that love, like robots, doing everything but they are not tasting. You are Muslims, You are believers. You must believe in your Lord and you must love Him. Everything that you are presenting to His Divine Presence must be with love. That is important. Therefore, God Almighty offers His servants so many ways to remember Him, so many forms of worship and so many charitable deeds to give Him the highest praise. Then, what do those actions, those forms of worship, bring? What is their fruit? All worship, if it does not bring love for our Lord, is refused. Not acceptable. If our worship makes love for God Almighty grow in our hearts, then it is alright. Keep it. Follow that way. You may follow anyone. If you can see from those meetings that some love is awakening in your heart for God Almighty, then you must keep with those meetings.
The love of God Almighty is not so easy, because you can't imagine Him. He is beyond our imagination. Therefore God Almighty has put His Divine representation into His prophets. Finally, He gave that Divine representation to His beloved Muhammad (saws). He was beloved by his Lord, Almighty God. Therefore, the hearts of his Companions were filled with God Almighty's love. The Prophet represented Truth, Reality, Haqq. He represented his Lord Almighty, so that whoever looked at him saw that he was God Almighty's representative. 'Whoever looks at me sees truth, reality in me" (man raani fagad raa al-haqq). All the Companions' hearts were caught and were filled with that Divine love.
For that reason, when the idol-worshippers (mushrik) came and saw the relationship of the Companions with the Prophet (saws) they would say to each other, "We have seen so many kings, but not one of them is given as much love and respect by his Companions as the respect, the highest respect and the highest love, which Muhammad (saws) is given by his Companions." They were astonished. How is it that so many majestic kings have so many companions but not one of them is given such respect and love? Yet they never understood what the secret was because their egos denied that he could be a prophet.
Therefore, the Prophet, beloved Muhammad (saws) represented his Lord, Almighty God and his Companions were attracted by that love. They did everything and with their physical bodies with love, with an endless love, for their Prophet (saws). Spiritually, as well. They gave everything for the sake of Muhammad (saws) because they knew well that he was the vicegerent of God Almighty, His representative. Each one, when they wanted to address the Prophet (saws) would say, "May the most beloved beings to me, my mother and father, be sacrificed for you, O God's Messenger" (fadaka ummi wa abi, ya rasul Allah). They sacrificed their lives for their Prophet, who represented the Lord of the heavens.
Then, we are also in need of someone who may represent the Prophet and may represent his Divine love within himself so that we can find a way to be in connection with the Divine love of the Lord of the heavens. The Prophet (saws) gave a sign, an indication, of such people. It is a simple sign but it is right: "They are those people who, when you see them, cause you to remember the Lord, Almighty God" (idha ru'u dhikr Allah). when you look at those people who have Divine love in their hearts, there quickly comes to your heart the remembrance of your Lord Almighty, through the Prophet's heart falling on your heart.
Therefore, if we are asking to acquire love toward our Lord Almighty, we must look for such people. Now in our time most of them are hidden, because in our time Islam is only a form, some actions, and most people say, "It is a gymnastics exercise" - yes. If it is a gymnastics exercise, how can you taste love? Tasteless things! And most people are trying to make all Muslims only act like robots, doing actions, doing exercises, and no more. For this reason, in our time people are fighting against the spiritual way (tariqat). That is the reason, because spiritual ways make people taste love. However, scholars can't taste. They are such hard people, such difficult people. They can't give any love for Islam and for its actions to people. It is impossible. They can't do that.
Other religions, as well. They are trying to give love but they can't. For this reason, at the time of the Prophet (saws) most of the Jews of Madinah were against Islam and its Prophet (saws). Why? Islam gives love; they can't give it. People find love and taste in Islam and run into it, but they can't give it. Even though they do not taste it, yet they are stubborn, quite stubborn people. Still they are trying, but it is impossible for Christians to give a person Divine love. Prohibited. Finished. That door is closed. We may give, we can give, that is our authority. Scholars can't give it, but we may give. These are not my words because we are speaking as the words come. And that is our meeting.
We are asking for more love, every day to increase in the love of our Lord Almighty, through His saints (awliya). For this reason, at every He makes His saints represent His love and to transfer Divine love from their hearts to your hearts. But stubborn people and envious people reject that. They do not want to come to our meetings, and we are not in need of them. We are asking for love. If anyone is asking to approach His Lord with Divine love and increase in love, it is alright.
As we have been given we are speaking. They have for me a scale (mizan) and they are looking at your love pressure every day (not blood pressure), whether it is increasing or coming down. I hope it is increasing. We are trying to give that love to our sisters, brothers, my sons, my daughters. That is the aim. The Prophet (saws) said, "If two days are the same, equal for you, no improvement, it means that you are losing; no sale" (man istawa yawahu, fa-hua maghbun).
It is not the object of that Tradition (hadith) that you are going to increase in bodily actions. For example, if you pray forty cycles today, tomorrow you will pray forty-one and after tomorrow, forty-two. No, that is impossible. But every day you must put more love with your actions and send it to your Lord's Divine Presence, and He looks and sees that today My servant is sending Me more love than yesterday. That is the meaning, so that we must increase in love for our Lord every day. Therefore, one of the Grand Shaykhs said, "A little bit of love is more important, more lovely to Me than praying for seventy years without love" (muhabbah) (dharra min al-muhabbah ahabbu ilaiya min 'ibadati saba'in sanah bila muhabbah). Try to acquire more love of God Almighty because love covers, love includes, everything. Oh believers, Satan and his workers are putting enmity among you and also making coldness (burudat) between yourselves and your Lord. Therefore, beware. Don't come near the works of satans because that extinguishes the love of God in our heart. We are asking forgiveness for every action that makes that coldness between ourselves and our Lord, and saying, "I seek forgiveness from God" (istighfar Allah). "And we are thankful that God Almighty gave us from His Divine love and increases it; we are thankful. Praise belongs to God. Praise belongs to God and thanks be to God" (al-hamd Allah, al-hamd Allah wa shukr Allah ).
GOD ALMIGHTY SAYS...
NIGHT, JUNE 5, 1985
"God Almighty says, 'fikum rasul Allah"."
We are in need of our Lord's mercy. Without His mercy no one can save himself. The Prophet (saws) says, "God Almighty is asking me to worship Him according to His glory and greatness. But I can't. It is impossible. If God Almighty makes an accounting of my worshipping, it is nothing beside His glory and greatness."
Where is your praising Me according to My greatness? Two cycles of the Prophet (saws) if balanced against the whole worshipping of the children of Adam and jinn, and angels, also, is more valuable than all of them in the Divine Presence. Why? Because the value of our worshipping is according to our respect for our Lord. Our respect is going to be according to our knowledge of the Lord Almighty. The greater the respect you can give to God Almighty - and no one can reach the Divine knowledge of the Prophet, beloved Muhammad (saws). When he prayed two cycles, he gave such respect that no one can reach that point. Therefore, two cycles of prescribed prayer from him are more valuable than all the worship of humanity and of jinn and angels, even though he says, "All my worshipping is only a drop from an endless ocean. God Almighty has been respected from pre-eternity to post-eternity and my respect and worship is only a little drop from the endless ocean of respect and worship."
What about ourselves? Don't we have any right to raise our heads and say that we are worshippers? You must look at the whole universe. How many atoms are there? If you could count the atoms in a little drop, all the people in this huge city would not be able to count that number, counting, "One, two, three, four..." like this, in one year. Then what about the whole universe? No one can know the number of atoms in it. You may consider that there may be a like number of servants of our Lord, worshipping, and you are only one of them. Then what is your position? What is the position of one atom in a huge number of atoms? We are so proud of fasting, of praying, and saying, "Those people not praying or not fasting. We are praying and fasting," and we become proud people.
Each time we must ask forgiveness for every action that we do. Rabi'ah al-Adawiyah was a saint (wali). She was only one lady among millions of women, but she has been well-known in the Islamic world for centuries. Everyone knows Rabi'ah Sultan, Rabi'at al-Adawiyah. what made her so well known? She was so simple, so sincere, so humble a person. She was only for her Lord Almighty, not for anyone else. All scholars came to her to solve difficult questions for which they couldn't find any answer. They came to visit her because she was always in the Prophet's presence; the Prophet (saws) was never veiled from her eyes.
The Prophet (saws) is living as God says, "Among you is the Messenger of God" (49:7) (fikum rasul Allah). He was not only for the Companions. God Almighty is addressing the whole world throughout the centuries, but if we deny it and we do not see him, what is the benefit of denying? If night denies the sun, it is nothing. If all blind people deny it, saying that there is no sun, their denials never change reality; the sun is shining. The Prophet, beloved Muhammad (saws) is living, hearing, seeing (hayun, sami'un, basirun). This our belief. We believe that he is with us. If you can't breathe his Holy scent, still you can't deny that Rabi'ah was always with her Prophet. If anyone asked a question, she would take her answer from the Prophet. She said openly among the people - not ordinary people, but scholars, saints who came to visit her, "Oh my brothers! our saying, 'I seek God's forgiveness,' needs another 'I seek God's forgiveness.' We are not sincere when we say, 'I seek God's forgiveness.' Our tongues say it but our organs never listen to obey." And that is the peak of humility. If our saying, "I seek God's forgiveness," needs another "I seek God's forgiveness," what about for other actions or other prayers? Therefore, the Prophet (saws) advises us that after praying we must say, "I seek God's forgiveness," "may God forgive me," "may God forgive me."
WHAT IS THE WORST THING IN RELIGION?
AFTERNOON, JUNE 6, 1985
What is the worst thing in any religion? Kufr. That is the worst. What does this mean? To cover, to conceal Reality so that no one sees it. In other words, the worst thing in any religion is to tell lies. Every religion declares that God Almighty has cursed liars, "That curse is for liars. This is from beginning up to end, and this is right" (la'nat-llahi 'ala-I-kad-hhibin).
The second rightly-guided caliph, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, may God bless him, said, "Even during the time before I became a Muslim I never told a lie. Then how could I tell a lie after I accepted Islam? I would think, 'What is the value of a lie?' Nothing. No value for a lie. When a person tells a lie, his value, when it is known he is lying, becomes nothing. Therefore I never told a lie before coming into Islam, and it is correct that whoever lies, his value becomes nothing."
Islam says that faith never goes together with lying; one of the two must go. If a person has faith, you can't find him lying. If he lies, he has not faith. Therefore, lying is cursed by every religion and God curses liars. I am asking Divine protection from being liars in our faith and in our actions, our deeds and our dealings, from all the troubles which appear from lying. Lying is the source of troubles among people. If everyone keeps to truth, not lying, there will be no more problems among people and among nations and among religions.
Then, on the same level, kufr means to cover, to conceal reality, to cover truth. If anyone covers truth and realities, we must say that he lies and, therefore, he will be cursed by God Almighty. Now, all religions in our time, what do they say about the Prophet (saws) of Islam? What are their ideas?
When they deny the prophethood of Muhammad (saws) they are lying and curses are landing on them, from beginning to end. They also say that Muhammad (saws) was a wise man. Yes. They accept that he was a wise man, and that is true. Therefore, when they say that he was not a prophet, they are lying. When they say that he was a wise man, they are being truthful. They can't deny that he was a wise man, because any wise person must accept that he had wisdom, that he brought wisdom. If a person brings only one bit of wisdom, he is considered to be a wise person. What about beloved Muhammad (saws) who brought millions of pieces of wisdom?
They claim that Muhammad (saws) dictated the Qur'an from himself. Leave aside millions of Traditions, each Tradition bringing so much wisdom just about the Qur'an, the Glorious Qur'an. Yet, they must say that he was a wise person. If they say that he brought the Qur'an from himself, even that is enough to say that he was a wise person because no one who is not wise can bring such a book.
When a verse would come to him, he would recite it at the walls of the Kabah, the House of the Lord, the House of the Lord of Abraham. This is well-known in other religions. The Jewish people know it and Christian bishops know it. Even if common people do not know it, still bishops and rabbis know that it is the House of the Lord of Abraham, although they write in their books, "The House of the Lord of Jacob." Before Jacob, He was the Lord of Abraham. but they want to change it. If they said "The House of the Lord of Abraham," then it would be well-known, but they are covering it up.
That is kufr. It is not a lie, but covering truth and showing it in another way. Jacob was the grandson of Abraham, peace be upon them both, and Abraham built the House of the Lord of Makkah. The descendants of Abraham from Ishmael came to that House. They were poets, well-known poets. They would hang up the most famous poems by the most famous poets. For so many years one of their poems hung on the Kabah. No one could bring anything like that poem. But when the Qur'an began to come and the Prophet (saws) recited the first verse when it came, then they took down that poem, saying, "This new one is like the sun of writing and this is like a candle." Beside God Almighty's words, it was no more than a candle by the side of an endless, shining sun. Therefore, they quickly took it down. The Qur'an is such a glorious Book that no one can produce even one verse, one sentence, like it. It says, addressing all people, all the children of Adam, "I am the word of your Lord. You must believe in me because no one can produce anything like me. If you are unable to do that, you must believe that I have been sent by your Lord, from your Lord's Divine Presence." Therefore every wise person must believe that it has been sent by the Lord of the heavens because people can't produce even one verse of it, and it is filled with wisdom.
Now in Europe, in museums, so many precious books are kept. Here also, in the British Museum and other famous European museums, they have manuscripts of the Holy Qur'an and writings about the Holy Qur'an's meanings. See what was the situation before the coming of the Qur'an and what happened after it came, so that no one can deny that Muhammad (saws) was a wise man. If they accept that he was a wise person, it is part of wisdom not to be a liar because wisdom keeps a person from lying.
This must be well known. If you are a wise person you can't tell a lie. Then what about that person, Muhammad (saws)? His sayings and actions generated millions of Traditions, sayings, all of which contain perfect wisdom. He brought a Book filled with wisdom and endless knowledge. As a sign of the endless wisdom and knowledge in the Qur'an, in libraries in the Islamic world, you can now find millions of books (and millions more were also destroyed for various reasons) whose base is the Qur'an. We have now millions of precious books, precious wisdom and knowledge, and the main source is Umm al-Kitab, the Mother of Books, which means the Mother of All Knowledge, the Mother of Wisdom, as a source. that is the Qur'an. Then how can you say about that person who brought it from his Lord that he may be a liar?
They are saying it. Muhammad (saws) said, "I am the prophet of your Lord." How can you say about him, "You are liar," when that person has spoken millions of pieces of wisdom? If a person brings only one piece of wisdom you can't say that he is a liar.
Then what about these people, Christians and Jews, who deny his prophethood? They must be wrong-minded people or they must be envious people, as mentioned in the Qur'an. Yes. They are envious people. Therefore, a curse has come upon them, and the result of that curse is that the Devil's kingdom has been established on earth because they are supporting satans by saying about Muhammad (saws) that he is not a prophet. If they say that he is a prophet, they must follow him.
Therefore, all troubles that have appeared on earth and are continuing will go on to now become a fire-festival, a fire-celebration, over the whole world. As Nero burned Rome to enjoy himself, now all the satans who have established their kingdom throughout the East and West will burn the whole world with fire that can't be extinguished by water or anything else. For this reason, a Grand Shaykh, who is well-known in western countries, Muhiyuddin ibn al-Arabi, a giant-sized saint, a worldwide personality, was saying in his books, books which are full of wisdom (I am taking from his oceans, from Muhammad's oceans (saws). I am taking wisdom that still western scholars can't understand, never finding a solution for that wisdom - he was saying that at the end of this world, when the Last Days are approaching, there will be a fire, a fire burning on earth. If all the oceans could fall upon that fire, it would be impossible to extinguish it. Only the swords of a Divinely-appointed Sultan, ruler, can extinguish that fire.
The Holy Books also mention the Messenger Muhammad (saws). Every Holy Book before the Qur'an also mentions him. People may be liars, but even they can't change the realities in Holy Books. They can't hide the realities in Holy Books. It is impossible. There is a saying in our language that if there is a spear in a sack, you can't keep it there. It must cut its way out. Therefore, they may want to hide it, but it is well-known that a Sultan will come at that time to extinguish that fire from earth because it is going to burn our planet. And that is the reason why they are lying about Prophet Muhammad, (saws) and that is the punishment for them - fire.
Therefore, God Almighty fights against liars. All the prophets, peace be upon them all, fought against liars. All believers have fought against liars. A curse falls upon liars. The Prophet (saws) said, "The one who deceives or cheats us is not from our nation" (man rashana fa laisa minna). If the Prophet (saws) says he is not from his nation, he is not going to be from the nation of any prophet, and thus he is going to be from the nation of the satans.
Therefore, the biggest sin on earth in the Divine Presence is to lie, to conceal realities, to cover truth, and to change the direction of people. The Kabah is on this side, but you show it to be on the opposite side. People are asking to reach their Lord's Divine Presence but you say, "This is not the right way." Then what is? Such people are not from the nation of any prophet but they are from the nation of satans and that is all.
Western people must look once again at the personality of beloved Muhammad (saws), particularly now in our time. They must think about it. At every time they want a new way of thinking, looking for so many ways to take the whole of mankind out of miseries, but each time they are unsuccessful, just as God Almighty mentioned in His Book, the Glorious Qur'an, that when the children of Israel were rebellious to their Lord, their Lord imprisoned them in the desert of Sinai. And they said, "What kind of a prison is this? There are no walls surrounding us, no guards (like in Berlin, watching people, nor barbed wires ). We are free. We can go anywhere. We can escape. Who says we are not in prison? Let us move from this place and get out." Then, they walked from morning up to night time, walking, walking, walking. In the evening they came tired, sweating. Then the sun set and they saw that they were sitting at the same place from which they had started.
What has happened? The whole day we have been walking, walking, to escape, and now we have come back to the same place where we started. Tomorrow we must change our direction. Today we started from this. Tomorrow morning we must go from that side. We must escape. Then going, going, walking hard up to sunset. At sunset they sat down, waiting, so tired, at the same station where they started. What is this - going, turning, coming back to the first station? For forty years they were imprisoned, every day starting but never getting out and always coming back to the first station.
People now claim that they are wise, but they are not such wise people because every time they move they do not search for the true path to go on it. They try every way, try every idea, except that which Muhammad (saws) brought. They do not try that way. Yes, try, up to the end of this world, To where will you come? You will come back to the same troubles, falling into the same pit, falling into the same hell, always falling; yes, trying to climb out and then falling down. As the Prophet (saws) said, "As long as nations go against my way, there will be only degradation (dhillat) and dispiritedness (maskanat) for them." The beloved Muhammad (saws) is true in his every word, every saying. That is all. I am asking forgiveness for me, for you, for them, and saying, "I seek God's forgiveness" (istighfar Allah). We are giving our endless praises, highest praises, to our Lord Almighty and saying, "Praise belongs to God, praise belongs to God and thanks be to God" (al-hamd Allah, al-Hamd Allah wa shukr Allah).
EGOS FEIGN SLEEP...
AFTERNOON, JUNE 7, 1985
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate, the Lord of the heavens, the Creator of all existence. Everything in existence He created. Anytime He wants to take it all away, He can. Therefore, He is the Mighty (al-Aziz), the Glorious. No one can stand in front of Him. No one can be victorious against Him. Yes? No power can stop Him. All power originates with Him, Don't suppose that something He gave to you works for you. No. All works for Him. He is absolutely victorious.
When is religion alive? This must be an important point for everyone to know. We are living in a time of different ways of thinking. There are so many different ideas and schools of thought, because our egos make themselves out to be a prophet or to be a most important person, or to be the first of those who may be pointed out by people, "This is the one."
This is a great, heavy thing that is put upon a person. It is sufficient as a test or an examination from God Almighty for a person to be pointed out by people that is such-and-such a person.
But our ego, our animal soul (nafs) now wants to be pointed to by hands, by fingers, that that is that person. This is the hobby of our egos. But our ego, our animal soul is still sleeping. If it can find a chance, it wants to be the first. Truly, each an ego is waiting to find a chance to be Pharaoh or a Nimrod or a Nero or any tyrant from among tyrants. Don't imagine that our egos are now very quiet, sitting. No! They may deceive you; that is the characteristic, the well-known characteristic, of egos.
God Almighty says, "Truly the animal soul (nafs) impels toward evil" (13:53) (inna-n-nafsa la-ammaratun bis-sou). When he says, "ammaratun," it is exaggeration - so much! You can never imagine what your ego may command, may order you to do - such bad, such bad, such bad things! Everyone's ego!
That is how, from the time of Prophet Joseph (as) from his mouth, through his sayings, God Almighty speaks and teaches. God Almighty, in His Divine way, is still teaching people, speaking of the past and instructing future people, listening people. Joseph (as) was a prophet and he had an ego. All the prophets, peace be upon them all, have an ego, but they can command it. They are kings of their egos and their egos are slaves to them. That is the difference between ourselves and prophets and saints. We are slaves to our egos. The king's Throne, our hearts, we leave to our ego, saying to it, "You should be here. You can command us," and we say to it, "I am your slave." God Almighty is warning people, because if you put your ego on the throne of your territory, your body, no doubt its orders will be the worst. What is it going to say to you? If it can find the chance to sit on the throne of Pharaoh, then it is going to order you the worst things, saying, "Oh people, you are my slaves, you are My servants, and I am your Lord!" Yes? Anything incorrect in this? It is correct. God Almighty says that our egos order us to do the worst things.
Therefore, in our time, in this 20th century whose end we are reaching (the last quarter is passing away and we are going through to the 21st century), now people have found such freedom that before no one could dream of such a thing, of such freedom. If your ancestors, O Londoners, were to awaken, coming from cemeteries, they would first cut off your heads. They would say, "What is this?" People with no shame, living in this country? Who are these people? Where have they come from?" Yes - they would fight the people living in our time, in London, and also everywhere else, not only in London. Because we are in London now we are saying this, but even in Turkey, if the Ottomans came, they would fight the people living in Turkey now; in Arabia they would fight them, also. In every kind of a country, from East to West, if the previous inhabitants of those territories came, they would fight the people who are now living on earth because they would say, "What is this? What is this ignorance among people, what is this immodesty?"
We are so proud that civilization has reached the peak of freedom. Still people are asking for more freedom. What is that freedom? To make a throne for everyone and to put him on it, making him sit and say, "I am your Lord. Come to me," everyone declaring that he is the Lord of this world and of the worlds. That is what people now want of freedom, so that no one can command them - the Lord of the heavens cannot command them. They can order anything, they can do anything.
Yet if I say that now everyone claims to be like a prophet, it is still a lower position. But our egos never want to be lower; they want to be higher. Someone told me a story which shows our time's characteristics, how our egos go on. A person went to look around a mental hospital. One patient said, "I am a prophet. I am unknown but still I am a prophet." Then, when he began shouting so much, there was another one sitting in a high place, with a long beard, calling, "What's the matter? What are you quarreling about?" The person who was visiting said, "This one claims that he is a prophet." "One minute" - a big book in front of him; turning pages, turning, and then he said, "He is a liar because I never sent such a prophet."
That is the characteristic of our egos. Don't imagine that now they are calm. When they find the chance, they are going to do everything. Therefore, throughout his life the Prophet (saws) proclaimed or warned by saying, "Oh my Lord, don't leave me in the hands of my ego." And all the Companions, all the saints, were afraid of their egos. The Prophet (saws) had Divine protection. His animal soul or ego (nafs) was never commander over him, never, but he taught us. "Oh people, you must be very careful. I am warning you about your egos. Too dangerous, too powerful wrestlers, yes? You don't know at what time they may throw you down. You must be very careful." He was asking, "Oh my Lord, don't leave me in the hands of my ego." We put it on the throne of our territories, of our bodies, and say, "Enjoy yourself. As you like. This is London."
This is faith. This is a religion. It is not a game. We must be serious about our faith and our religion. Now we will say something important on that point. In our time, there are so many thoughts because everyone claims to be something. No one agrees to be nothing, and the highest honor in the Divine Presence is to declare that I am nothing, O my Lord. But our ego is never going to agree to be nothing. No. How can it be? I had printed, also, a card, writing on it that I am such and such a person, with letters after my name (a visiting card). Yes, I am registering my personality. Then you are telling me to be nothing!!!
That is important, because when God Almighty created the ego, He ordered it, "Come forward," but it went back. Ordering, "Go back," and it came forward, doing the opposite. He asked it, "Who am I and who are you." It claimed to be something, saying, "I am myself and You are You. You are You and I am myself in front of You, I am something." It means to say, "I seek God's forgiveness," that if You are something, then I am something, also. If You are in existence, I am in existence, also. I am something. I must prove my existence, it claimed. Never saying that You created me; You are everything, I am nothing, not saying that.
That is a battle, going on from the beginning up to the end. Therefore, how is your ego, your nafs, going to agree with you without making a visiting card? You have one, also. Everyone must make a visiting, writing on it, "I am something!" The ego never wants to be something, never agrees to be something. Rather, it can find a chance, it says, "I am everything!"
"Beware!" is written in certain places - "Beware of the dog." It is written within ourselves, also. What kind? A mad dog may bite you, but this is a dragon - a dragon with 70,000 heads, poisoned heads. If the real form of their egos were to appear to people, everyone would fall down and die. Therefore, we must be very careful of our ego, of our nafs. How can we be careful? How can we be able to protect ourselves, if we have such a terrible companion? It is the companion, the partner, with us, with our personality. Then how may we be able to be victorious over our ego (nafs)?
Yes, we are living in a time in which that useless but harmful freedom gives more power, more authority, to our egos, and everyone says, "I am a prophet," or "I could be a prophet," or "I can speak as a prophet speaks," or "I can think as they thought," and want people to follow his way, each one more than the other. For this reason, religions are now only something looked at from outside. People look at that church, that synagogue, that mosque, and pass through it to the pub. Yes! No need for us. What was this church? What is that mosque? What is that synagogue? We must go to bars, pubs.
Who is commanding those people? What thing commands them except their egos? Their egos are saying this because the ego never finds enjoyment in a mosque or in a synagogue or in a church. For this reason, now in our time religions are simply forms, even though God Almighty never leaves His servants without shelter against their egos, against satans. There must always be a shelter for those who are asking a protection from devils in every time. That is Divine Justice. Divine Justice makes that shelter for everyone, so that if anyone is running away from satans, he may be under protection.
Now, we may say that there are three heavenly religions on earth: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Then, whoever feels fear of satans may run into one of these three shelters. Yes, I may say to people who are asking for a shelter that they can run into any one of these three shelters. If one of them keeps them or protects them, it is all right. If anyone finds a shelter in Christianity, asking for a shelter and finding a shelter from the hands of satans and from the hands of his ego, that is alright. No discussion, no argument with him. I am saying: Stay in that shelter. However, you must be very careful. If you can find a strong entrance, you may go in and you may lock it, but be careful about the back. There may be holes in the back. Satans may enter. You must look all around to see if it is all right. Don't be like a heedless person, escaping from the enemy and entering a fortress. It has only a strong door, but the back is all destroyed. Yes, because we look and we see that every religion except Islam is like a show. It is all right outwardly, as people claim in their writings, but the back is full of so many holes, so many destroyed walls, so that a thief may easily enter it, Therefore, we are advising any person who is asking for a shelter from satans to take care, inspecting everywhere. If it is all right, then he can stay. Otherwise he must look for a strong and safe shelter.
Then, we should speak about Islam and about two others, both of them claiming to be partners in shelters for people in our time. If you can find two things in any religions, it is alright. It means that it has a living power, that it is alive and can protect you, One thing is if a religion gives you fear of God, it is young, it is powerful. If it can give you love of God, then that is also a sign that it is alright.
If you can find both of them anywhere except in Islam, continue. Go, no need for a new shelter. However, you must not lie about it, because liars are accursed. If that power was with that shelter, God Almighty would never have sent Jesus Christ (as), the Messiah, after Moses (as), and if that shelter, also, was sufficient and strong, He would not have sent the Seal of the Prophets (saws) six centuries after Jesus Christ (as). You must think about it. Now you can find only in Islam the fear in God Almighty and the love of God Almighty. I met a famous scholar who lived in western countries, in England. He was saying, "I visited the tomb of a saint in Damascus. When I first stood before the grave, I was trembling and I couldn't stop trembling. That was Muhiyuddin, Muhiyuddin ibn al-Arabi's tomb. A fear came on me and I was trembling. I couldn't stop. Then after that, a deep love fell on my heart," he was saying.12
A saint represents the life of a religion. No one can now take me to a Christian saint's tomb, although they have so many saints, and make me feel fear or feel hope or make me feel love. However, I can bring anyone to such a place, making him tremble and feel fear, and at the same time love, deep love, for his Lord Almighty.
Thus, we have people, people alive now, who in no other religion except Islam represent such Divine Attributes, making people fear, making people love, through himself or herself; this is specific to the living religion of Islam. You may find in the presence of such a saintly fear, and at the same time love, for your Lord Almighty. These are important signs that we are speaking of, "Praise belongs to God," (al-hamd Allah), we are in a strong shelter.
NOTES
1. The Sacred Place (mashar) of the Gathering for the Last Judgment near Damascus, Syria.
2. Awliya, pl. of wali, the Friends of God, by which Muslim saints and mystics are designated - those who have overcome their egos and surrendered totally to God.
3. See 14:125. The fire is mentioned in 31:68-69.
4. See 28:18-19, the Chapter of the Ant.
5. During this session, Shaykh Nazim was addressing two young brothers who had come from another Shaykh and who planned to continue their travels after leaving him.
6. Hujjaj, who governed Iraq during the early Umayyad times, was an extremely harsh and tyrannical ruler. 'Abdullah ibn Zubayr was a great Companion of the Prophet who stood up against his tyranny and was executed cruelly by Hujjaj.
7.He means Divine Presence.
8. That is, the human being's nature and form has been the same from the beginning of his or her creation and will remain the same up to the end. Thus, Islam came for the guidance of the human being as human being (not as a creature "evolving" from another species) and hence is perfect.
9. Gabriel was the bringer of Divine revelation (wahy) to all the prophets including the Messenger Muhammad (saws)
10. A rak'at or cycle is one complete unit in the prescribed prayer or salat.
11. Dhikr and dala'il al-khairat refer to the litany said daily by the followers of the Naqshbandi order. Ishraq is an optional prayer of two cycles observed shortly after sunrise while duha is also an optional prayer of between two and eight cycles, which is observed around mid-morning.
12. This refers to the well-known writer, J. G. Bennett. For his own report on the above incident and his meeting with Grand Shaykh Abdullah ad-Daghistani, see his book Subud and his recently published Autobiography.
Copyright 2001, Islamic Supreme Council of America & Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi Order, all rights reserved.
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