MERCY OCEANS, Book 02 (Shaykh Nazim, 224 pages, 2/12)
https://www.nvrislam.net/index.php?j=eng&post=5774
ting Satan. Without stairs, there is no climbing to the top, and Satan is the stairway to every level. If you like to reach to a high station in the Divine Presence, fight.
For each person is one special satan who stays with you for your entire life and is under the command of the Big Satan. He is the teacher of your nafs. Just as you have Angels with you so is this satan with you, whi- spering in your heart. When there is no remembering Allah, he is speaking up, especially when you are alone and not doing anything. He says, «What you doing sit- ting here doing nothing? You must get up and go to a
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cafe.» Little by little he takes you by the hand. If you are listening at first, you have lost. The Proptet says if you can win at the first moment it is best. If you sur- render to him he takes you to the slaughterhouse to cut off the head of your faith. For example, at night Allah is waking everyone for a holy time; but Satan is coming, saying, «go back to sleep, there are many hours left til fajr.» Everytime we want to do goodness he is ready for us, «for what make wudû’? It is too cold now.» He makes it easy for us. Everytime you are fighting him, you are improving, reaching ranks in the Divine Presence. Without Satan there would be no ranks for us, we would be as the angels, all equal. But Bani Adam are higher than the Angels. Therefore, Satan is the biggest favour to mankind. Anyone not knowing the wisdom behind Satan can never save himself from Satan’s hegemony.
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‘AQIL WA TAWAKKIL –
TRUST IN GOD BUT TIE YOUR CAMEL FIRST
Our Grandsheikh is saying a good manner in Tariqat, in the Way of Awliyā’, and for every religious person. He quotes ‘Abdul-Qādir ibn ‘Umar as-Safadî, a great saint, who said, «It is not correct to attribute to Allah Almig- lity every action happening in your life.» We must un- derstand this thoroughly.
For example, if a man is not looking after himself and becomes ill and then says: what can I do, it is Allah’s
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will – he is wrong. You can protect yourself. If one is taking care of the body and then becoming ill anyway, then Allah is sending the illness. A man who leaves his cows on the mountain to be eaten by wolves cannot say afterwards: «It was Allah’s will that my cows die.» He must protect them and put them into pens; then if they die it is Allah’s will. You have something to do with your willpower. It is not a general will, but it is enough for you, like the headlights of a car are not lighting up every place but light enough for driving. We have such a will to arrange for our life. Even the wills of presidents and dictators are limited like ours. They try to make their will reach from East to West but it is impossible. You may plow and plant the seeds, but you cannot rain, you cannot make the grains to sprout. Allah completes that plant. How can one who does not plow or plant seeds say: Oh, Allah is not giving wheat this year. For marriage also it is not right to put it entirely on Allah’s Will. You must go and catch. It is a sin to say that you have no responsibility. In order to go to Hejaz one must get his passport in order, preparing, doing the things connected with his going, and then put the responsi- bility on Allah. We have a choice, and when we have choice we have responsibility. One saying that he is not responsible is «out of order», he is a sinner. When com- pleting all the things you can do, then give it over to your Lord. The authority for this is in hadith.
A man once came to the Prophet, peace be upon him, and when asked what he’d done with his camel he re- plied that he left it to the trust of Allah. The Prophet told him, «tie it, then trust in Allah, ‘aqil wa tawakkil.»
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This gives a perfect arrangement for our lives. If you are not tying then it is not true to say: I am trusting in Allah. When you know what you can do, you must do that. If you are neglecting even a little thing from your responsibility, then Allah is not taking on the respon- sibility.
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THE NEED FOR TRAINING AVOID ARGUMENT
The way is the way of good manners. Everyone must learn good manners so he may be a good person. Man may have a good personality or a bad personality. Ori- ginally, everyone without training has bad characteri- stics. The ego is strong at first. To have a good perso- nality you must take the power from the hands of your ego. If you are leaving yourself in it’s hands you will be a bad personality. Therefore, at the same time Al- lah created the first man, He gave to him Prophethood. The first man is the first Prophet, so he might train his children with good manners and character. Man is in need of training; therefore, Allah is giving him parents to teach him as a baby and child. But the training of Prophets is most important. Others teach you to give the ego it’s desires. Prophets teach to save us from our ego’s desires, because they are endless, asking more and more and still more, without limit. Following the ego’s desires, we tire and die tired. Prophets teach to stop
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within a limit, keeping one’s self from endless work and tiring. They teach us the purpose of life, showing us our destinations. Whoever follows this way has good personality; because the Prophets’ training is good manners for everyone. Now the Prophets are gone but their deputies can be found if one is searching for them. They teach people to save themselves from the assaults of their egos.
Now, an important good manner to listen to and act upon: medicine is for taking. A sick man is not putting it on the table and leaving it. Good manners are for acting. It is a good manner to listen to everyo- ne who speaks to you. A bad manner is arguing. If you are hundred per cent in the right, all right in fact; still, don’t argue. This is prohibited. If you see that the per- son is asking to know what is right, you may speak; the- re is a place to enter. But if you see that he only wants to dispute, you should leave him; he is closed. Say to him only: is that so? Never any benefit comes by argu- ment, people only become enemies because of it. This is the meaning of the verse, «You to your belief and me to mine.» Argument extinguishes the light of Imān in our hearts. Perhaps some words will come to you that you never thought about before and cause your faith to go down.The highest degree of good manners is: don’t argue and don’t say, «no, what foolishness.» There is no friendship after arguments. Hearts become cold. Our Grandsheikh said that his Grandsheikh never denied the words of anyone, even in the face of every no-good speaking. Bot later when speaking to a group of people, he would refer to that subject and the person concerned
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would know: ah, this is for me. Then he reconsiders his speaking. Everyone wants to be respected. It means: don’t show your teeth like dogs. Man smiles.
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ADDRESS THE GOOD SIDE OF PEOPLE
This is our Grandsheikh’s advice to us; for people in Ta- riqat, for anyone claiming to be religious, or for anyone who says: I am from mankind, they must keep one of the best manners of good personality, to think for everyone goodness in your heart. The contrary, thinking badness about people, is the reason for a bad ending for us. Allah Almighty likes that we think for everyone goodness. Good and bad may be with a person, both ready for action. According to your actions towards him comes either good or bad from him. For example, if I respect you, you are pleased and show me your pleasure. We need to address everyone for his good side, then it will appear. When thinking well of a person, it means that your treatment of him will be good. Good treatment is to give respect. The smallest benefit from this is that, at least, you will keep his evil from you. Evil may come from anyone. This is strong advice. We must give eve- ryone respect as everyone has a good side. Allah likes for his servants to be respected, even if they are sinners, as Allah gave to the sons of Adam endless honour in the Divine Presence. You cannot find any father who likes to hear degrading remarks about his son, even if that
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son is one of the worst people. If a father says: my son is bad. I must say: good roots, good branches; don’t be worried, it is only immaturity. Then he will be pleased with me. Every father is like this.
Once Sayyidinā ‘Alî was atop the mimbar in a mos- que and speaking about his son Hassan who had mar- ried and divorced many times. (The Divine Wisdom behind these marriages is that now there are many of the Prophet’s descendants in the world. They are a mercy for the Ummah. One living in a town keeps it from curse.) ‘Alî was saying to the people not to give their daughters to Hassan. Then all people are offering, saying: take my daughter even if only for one day. Then ‘Alî was pleased.
From our badness we are looking to the badness of others. Everyone has good qualities. We must turn our attention to them. In Surat ur-Rahman it says, «Is not goodness rewarded with goodness?»
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IMPORTANCE OF LEAVING FORBIDDEN AND DISLIKED ACTIONS
This is our Grandsheikh’s teaching of what is impor- tant in Islam. It is to keep the law of Allah Almighty and to avoid every prohibited thing. Islam offers two kinds of orders: the first, what we must do, and the se- cond, what we must not do. Most important is leaving off what Allah has ordered us to avoid. To leave one for-
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bidden thing is better in the sight of Allah than going for Hajj 30,000 times. It means, you may be patient for worshipping but not patient for keeping the boundaries of Allah. If you are returning from the fifty-thousandth hajj and look lustfully to the hostess on the airplane then all are crossed-out. If we are patient for worship, the angels write our reward; but if we show restraint concerning forbidden things, Allah is giving countless rewards. Allah orders us to worship, worship as much as we can. Praying five times a day is enough and if you can do more, fine. But for forbidden things, you must keep away from everyone. There are two levels of things we must avoid; they are: harâm, forbidden, and makrûh, disliked. Now muslims are taking courage from Shaitān for doing things makrûh. It is a bad illness among muslims, doing things disliked. Who is disliking these things – Allah and His Prophet. We are ordered to use all our power to refuse all badness that Allah and His Prophet dislike. If one is maintaining the outer wall, the inner treasure will be in safety. Every forbid- den action is acting on our faith, destroying it. There are 300 goodnesses of which we try to do as many as we can. There are 800 forbidden things and characte- ristics of which we must leave them all, whether they are apparent or hidden. It is more ugly if you are hi- ding from people and doing a forbidden thing. You are not hidden from Allah. To keep yourself when you are alone is better because then you are with Allah and we must keep His respect more than the respect of people. Whoever is keeping the bounds of Allah, his Lord will give him authority in the universe. The Prophet says:
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«Who obeys Allah, obedient to him are all things.» This is authority. Once a person walking in the desert saw a man coming towards him riding on a tiger and holding a poisonous snake in his hand like a whip. The man said:
«Oh my brother, how can you do this?» He replied: «I have order from Sultan.» Make yourself obedient to Al- lah and He will make you master of the world. Now we will stop here if we have any mind. If we are no-mind people, we shall speak another.
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OUR TEACHING COMES FROM PROPHETS RESPECT FOR FOOD
I am speaking as I learned from my Grandsheikh about an important good manner. As he taught to me, now I am teaching you. This is our way. The way from the prophet is coming to us like this, one is learning, then teaching others. Goodness spreads this way. Whoever is knowing is bound to teach, not keep it to himself. Al- lah is frightening whoever is trying to keep knowledge to himself. Our way is good manners, the way taught by the Prophets, because the way of the ego is bad man- ners. Everyone is conquered by their ego and we are in need for divine help from the Prophets and saints. We cannot live without food and drink. Therefore we must respect the favours given us by Allah. Excepting pig, blood and carrion, we must respect every kind of food, everything that is clean and permitted. Some peo-
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ple are looking at food saying: «I don’t like this.» So many boys now are only eating fish and chips. «Beans, I don’t like it.» This is a bad manner. Everything clean that is put on the table, we must respect it and eat it. If a man is pleased with everything, Allah increases His favours to that person. Sheikh Muhyid-Dîn Ibn ‘Arabî when speaking of the honour of the sons of Adam in the Divine Presence, said that for each piece of food they are eating, 300 Angels are serving it. For any kind of eating even one spoon of soup, you must know that 300 angels just worked to make it ready. It is a big sin not to like any kind of food because of pride and saying: «I am not eating this piece of bread; it is already eaten on one side.» This makes your gift of provision very narrow. If a man wants bountiful provision, he must keep respect for every kind of food.
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IMPORTANCE OF WASHING THE BODY
The main thing in every religion is to be clean, out- wardly and in our hearts. Washing the whole body is an order of Allah for all people. It is from the trust that the mountains could not carry, but that man accepted. One of the most important trusts is washing from im- purity. After sleeping with wife or after having a wet dream you must wash, in all religions. It is not chan- ged and cannot be changed. Our Grandsheikh says if a man is washing once every day it gives strength to
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body and soul. By keeping this only, he would reach in ten years a destination that normally would require twenty years. It gives rest to souls and peace to hearts. For every prayer you should make wudû’. It gives spi- ritual power and more light for us. Our Grandsheikh was ordered five years’ retreat, and six times a day he was washing whole body, carrying the buckets of water from the fountain up over his head, not hanging them down. Power is not from the muscles but, from as much as the soul is active and happy.
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WHY SAYYIDINâ ‘ALî WAS RIDING A MULE
It is my duty to teach people goodness. This is the ho- nour of mankind. Goodness is a seed which you may plant in the hearts. It grows up and gives goodness. The planters are firstly Prophets and then their inheritors, Awliyā’. You are in need for them to plant goodness in your heart. This is my Grandsheikh’s plant growing in my heart. I am giving you the fruits.
Once he was speaking of the Prophet’s cousin, ‘Alî, one of the greatest personalities in Islam, having all good manners taken from the Prophet’s endless knowledges. His custom was to ride on a mule. When some compa- nions questioned him, why he did not ride a horse, he replied: «Oh my brothers, I am not in need of a horse to ride on because when I am meeting a knight for a duel, I am not running away, needing a fast mount; and
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if he wishes to escape from me, I am not running after him.» This teaches us knighthood. When meeting with something you don’t like, you must fix yourself firmly. Don’t try to escape from it, but be patient. Everyday we may meet such unliked things in our life. The bene- fit is, it sharpens our faith. Don’t he worried by disliked things and you will find your faith more powerful. If at the first step we can fix ourselves, then every step is easier, our faith is shining, coming lights. Secondly this is teaching: we must not ask for meeting an enemy, un- til Allah is putting us together. Don’t tempt the devil, perhaps fortune will go with him.
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ONE MUST BE HUMBLE
Man is created for a very important position. He is invi- ted to the Most High Divine Presence. If a man is invi- ted to meet with a king, he must know protocol. What about one called to the Divine Presence? Good manners make man more honourable for that meeting. There- fore, everyday we are learning.
Man must be bumble, not proud. Our Grandsheikh says that pride is so bad as to turn back all the favours, Allah is sending. This is very important. The first proud person was Satan, and all the favours were tur- ned back from him. Don’t be proud, but be humble for everything. It is the best character for mankind. No one likes a proud person. Allah is also disliking. A proud
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man will meet and join Satan on the day of resurrec- tion. Allah says: «Pride is for me. I don’t like any part- ner with me. I am wearing it and no one else may.» He gives His favours to the humble. The most humble of all creatures is our Prophet, Muhammadun Rasulallah, peace be upon him. Once Jibrîl came to him, saying:
«Oh Muhammad, my Lord sends you His regards and asks: do you want to be a king and prophet or a ser- vant and prophet?» He chose to be a servant. His hadith says, if anyone has pride in his heart, even as small as an atomic particle, he is prohibited from entering Pa- radise. Therefore we must try to defeat pride. It is a characteristic of ego.
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PROTECT AND RESPECT THE WAYS OF THE PROPHET
The way of the Prophet is a holy and beloved way. Eve- ry believer in the Prophet must have love in bis heart towards him. When one man likes another, he will look to his actions with love. According to a person’s love and respect for the Prophet, he will be interested in kee- ping bis ways, until he cannot leave any sunnah that he has the possibility of doing. The title of this lesson is: protect and respect the ways of the Prophet. In every religion it is important for one to like his Prophet’s cu- stoms. One likes as his Prophet likes, because the Pro- phet is respectable in the Divine Presence. No one can improve without love and respect for the Prophet in
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every way. Following this way, we are improving quik- kly towards the Divine Presence. Imam Shafi‘ said: an- yone leaving a sunnah from laziness or carelessness will go truly to hell. Respect of the Sunnah is fard, and there is danger when not taking care for this. Satan says, «not important, sunnah.» There are two ways, Satan’s and the Prophet’s. Satan’s way only leads to Hell.
Once the Khaliph Harûn Ar-Rashid was attending an assembly. The Imam there spoke that the Prophet liked to eat squash, to which one of the wazirs present replied, that he personally didn’t like it. Then the Ca- liph gave the verdict to kill the wazir, according to the hadith: «Anyone throwing arrows at me, is not of my nation.» The wazir quickly repented, realizing it is dan- gerous to refuse the ways of the Prophet. He was not bringing ways from himself, but from Allah’s orders and guidance. Believers must think about this. The main rule in Sufism is, keeping the way of the Prophets, Sufism is the way to Heavens. The Prophets went to the Heavens. You must find the place they started from and follow in their footsteps. If a Person is giving life to the sunnah, it is easy to give life to the ways and com- mands of the Lord. First Isrâ’ and then Mi‘râj – first, the Prophet journeyed from Mecca to Jerusalem and then ascended to the Heavens. The ways of the Prophet lead to the ways of Allah.
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ABOUT LOOKING
We are learning from the words of our Grandsheikh, I am speaking as I heard from him; he was speaking about looking. Everything in Islam is divided into two parts, permitted and prohibited. Looking is a most important action. From every holy book and Prophet, servants are ordered to keep themselves from every prohibited thing. We have a responsibility, especially in Tariqat, to be very careful, as every trouble for man is coming from his looking to prohibited things. These things are prohibited because there is harm in them. When you look to harām women, that looking is a poison arrow from Satan into your heart. You will find pain. It makes your faith mixed up and going down. For example, a nail in a tire will cause the car to stop or go out of con- trol. Satan’s aim is only to hearts. You must protect your heart. You can’t move on with a flat tire.
Therefore, looking is very important. If a man is not keeping his eyes from unlovely places, the least amount of harm coming to him is that he loses manpower, he becomes useless with his own lady. One keeping his eyes is always strong, therefore, prophets and saints are never losing their power. Our Grandsheikh married af- ter he was 100 years old. Once walking in the street and passing a store window, filled with things leading peo- ple to fornication, he said to me: «Oh Nazim Efendi, if a man is looking to these things without taking wisdom, he is a sinner, and wasting his sight without benefit.» Wisdom means knowing more about one’s Lord. Wa- sting the light of our eyes, prevents light from coming
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on the eyes in our heart. We become blind. When lea- ving the eyes to look for the ego’s pleasure without fear of the Lord, in the eyes gathers the darkness of fornica- tion. To look at young boys is seven times worse than looking at women. Those things keep us from impro- ving and reaching our destinations. Our egos keep us in the darkness of the world, too weighed down to journey to the heavens. We must try for improvement in the Divine Presence. It is not so important to read books or know Qur’ān and Hadith. It is important to keep your eyes. If doing this, you are an important person, not on earth but in the heaven. There you are permitted to look on the Divine Lights of your Lord’s face. Every dir- ty place is a forbidden place. Don’t look on dirty things or you will be denied Heavenly Lights. Also forbidden is looking to the bad actions of others. For example, I was coming from Hejaz with Grandsheikh and saw one man shaving his beard after the pilgrimage. I said: «Oh master, look.» He shouted: «No, don’t look!», because shaving beard is a no-good action. Allah created it for the beauty of man. Can you imagine a lion without his mane? He would look like a monkey. With a beard man is complete. It is the distinction between men and wo- men. Therefore, Allah is inspiring the younger genera- tion to let their beard grow. All the Prophets were ha- ving beards, it is enough for us to look like them. Don’t look to a person doing a bad thing.
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mercy oceans
REMOVE THE TEETH OF YOUR DRAGON
Our Grandsheikh is telling us an important good man- ner that everyone must keep. It is from Hassan al-Basri, an honourable person in the eyes of the ‘ulamâ’ and Ta- riqat sheikhs alike. Each time before beginning his lec- tures, he would say: «Oh my sons, I wish to advise you regarding two things which are like a base for building in Islam. Without a base, you cannot build anything. I am asking you to keep these advices, because if you are not going to keep them, our meeting will be mâ lâ ya‘nî, useless doings. In Islam it is a sin to work without benefit.» The Prophet says: «Whoever is throwing at us arrows is not from our nation.» This obviously means, whoever fights us with arms, but our Grandsheikh exp- lains that it also refers to anything we are doing which is contrary to the way of the Prophet, it will be like we are fighting. This includes useless doings.
«Oh my sons, every day everyone must meet up with one or two things. The first will be an order from Allah or His Prophet; and the second, a thing prohibited. If mee- ting with an order, you must keep it. It may be a simple Sunnah action, but you must keep it firmly and respect- fully. Don’t say, this is but a little thing. We must keep our respect to the Prophet the same as our respect to Al- lah. May be Allah’s pleasure is with that simple Sunnah. Before you it is simple, but before Allah it may be too high and valuable. Your nafs and shaitan makes you want to leave it, but you must not leave it. Also, for meeting a prohibited thing, it may be simple in your sight, but a great sin to Allah. You may fall into a bad condition by
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it, maybe fall into Hell and endless troubles. You must not be brave for sins, even as much as they are simple in your sight. You must keep yourself.»
There are two kinds of Jihad in Islam. One is the little fighting and the other is the big fighting. The most im- portant is the big fighting with the biggest enemy and the biggest enemy is our nafs. It is constantly with us, never leaving us, up to the end of our life. Therefore, every believer is ordered to fight his nafs. The first step for fighting is to say, «La ilâha illâ llâh». (There is no God but Allah.) Every Prophet came to teach people to say this. The nafs never likes it. If you do not capture your nafs, he will capture you, and if you do not kill him, he will kill you. Allah orders us to kill it, not to leave alive. There are methods in our religion for this and all Tariqats have it as their aim. You may capture your nafs as a slave, but you will never be safe from its rebellion. When nafs is saying «La ilâha illâ llâh» and accepting to be a servant of the Lord, it is killed, the teeth have been taken from the dragon.
Tariqats teach how to save oneself from the dragon, although the egos of many learned men won’t allow them to accept Tariqats. Their egos are leading them to deny so many things from Islam. They have enjoy- ment with their ego’s desires and don’t want the diffi- cult conditions of keeping the Shari‘ah strongly. Rukh- sa, lightening, does not mean to take ego’s desires. You must take the strong way for yourself, and for others, especially beginners, the easy way.
If one is keeping these two advices, he is a fighter in the Jihad al-Akbar. This advice from Hassan is for eve-
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ryone and everytime, in every religion. The summary of it is to keep goodness and leave evil. This is for anyo- ne who says «I am from mankind.»
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THE MOST ACCEPTABLE WORSHIP
Our Gran
Link: https://www.nvrislam.net/index.php?j=eng&post=5774
ting Satan. Without stairs, there is no climbing to the top, and Satan is the stairway to every level. If you like to reach to a high station in the Divine Presence, fight.
For each person is one special satan who stays with you for your entire life and is under the command of the Big Satan. He is the teacher of your nafs. Just as you have Angels with you so is this satan with you, whi- spering in your heart. When there is no remembering Allah, he is speaking up, especially when you are alone and not doing anything. He says, «What you doing sit- ting here doing nothing? You must get up and go to a
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cafe.» Little by little he takes you by the hand. If you are listening at first, you have lost. The Proptet says if you can win at the first moment it is best. If you sur- render to him he takes you to the slaughterhouse to cut off the head of your faith. For example, at night Allah is waking everyone for a holy time; but Satan is coming, saying, «go back to sleep, there are many hours left til fajr.» Everytime we want to do goodness he is ready for us, «for what make wudû’? It is too cold now.» He makes it easy for us. Everytime you are fighting him, you are improving, reaching ranks in the Divine Presence. Without Satan there would be no ranks for us, we would be as the angels, all equal. But Bani Adam are higher than the Angels. Therefore, Satan is the biggest favour to mankind. Anyone not knowing the wisdom behind Satan can never save himself from Satan’s hegemony.
* * *
‘AQIL WA TAWAKKIL –
TRUST IN GOD BUT TIE YOUR CAMEL FIRST
Our Grandsheikh is saying a good manner in Tariqat, in the Way of Awliyā’, and for every religious person. He quotes ‘Abdul-Qādir ibn ‘Umar as-Safadî, a great saint, who said, «It is not correct to attribute to Allah Almig- lity every action happening in your life.» We must un- derstand this thoroughly.
For example, if a man is not looking after himself and becomes ill and then says: what can I do, it is Allah’s
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will – he is wrong. You can protect yourself. If one is taking care of the body and then becoming ill anyway, then Allah is sending the illness. A man who leaves his cows on the mountain to be eaten by wolves cannot say afterwards: «It was Allah’s will that my cows die.» He must protect them and put them into pens; then if they die it is Allah’s will. You have something to do with your willpower. It is not a general will, but it is enough for you, like the headlights of a car are not lighting up every place but light enough for driving. We have such a will to arrange for our life. Even the wills of presidents and dictators are limited like ours. They try to make their will reach from East to West but it is impossible. You may plow and plant the seeds, but you cannot rain, you cannot make the grains to sprout. Allah completes that plant. How can one who does not plow or plant seeds say: Oh, Allah is not giving wheat this year. For marriage also it is not right to put it entirely on Allah’s Will. You must go and catch. It is a sin to say that you have no responsibility. In order to go to Hejaz one must get his passport in order, preparing, doing the things connected with his going, and then put the responsi- bility on Allah. We have a choice, and when we have choice we have responsibility. One saying that he is not responsible is «out of order», he is a sinner. When com- pleting all the things you can do, then give it over to your Lord. The authority for this is in hadith.
A man once came to the Prophet, peace be upon him, and when asked what he’d done with his camel he re- plied that he left it to the trust of Allah. The Prophet told him, «tie it, then trust in Allah, ‘aqil wa tawakkil.»
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This gives a perfect arrangement for our lives. If you are not tying then it is not true to say: I am trusting in Allah. When you know what you can do, you must do that. If you are neglecting even a little thing from your responsibility, then Allah is not taking on the respon- sibility.
* * *
THE NEED FOR TRAINING AVOID ARGUMENT
The way is the way of good manners. Everyone must learn good manners so he may be a good person. Man may have a good personality or a bad personality. Ori- ginally, everyone without training has bad characteri- stics. The ego is strong at first. To have a good perso- nality you must take the power from the hands of your ego. If you are leaving yourself in it’s hands you will be a bad personality. Therefore, at the same time Al- lah created the first man, He gave to him Prophethood. The first man is the first Prophet, so he might train his children with good manners and character. Man is in need of training; therefore, Allah is giving him parents to teach him as a baby and child. But the training of Prophets is most important. Others teach you to give the ego it’s desires. Prophets teach to save us from our ego’s desires, because they are endless, asking more and more and still more, without limit. Following the ego’s desires, we tire and die tired. Prophets teach to stop
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within a limit, keeping one’s self from endless work and tiring. They teach us the purpose of life, showing us our destinations. Whoever follows this way has good personality; because the Prophets’ training is good manners for everyone. Now the Prophets are gone but their deputies can be found if one is searching for them. They teach people to save themselves from the assaults of their egos.
Now, an important good manner to listen to and act upon: medicine is for taking. A sick man is not putting it on the table and leaving it. Good manners are for acting. It is a good manner to listen to everyo- ne who speaks to you. A bad manner is arguing. If you are hundred per cent in the right, all right in fact; still, don’t argue. This is prohibited. If you see that the per- son is asking to know what is right, you may speak; the- re is a place to enter. But if you see that he only wants to dispute, you should leave him; he is closed. Say to him only: is that so? Never any benefit comes by argu- ment, people only become enemies because of it. This is the meaning of the verse, «You to your belief and me to mine.» Argument extinguishes the light of Imān in our hearts. Perhaps some words will come to you that you never thought about before and cause your faith to go down.The highest degree of good manners is: don’t argue and don’t say, «no, what foolishness.» There is no friendship after arguments. Hearts become cold. Our Grandsheikh said that his Grandsheikh never denied the words of anyone, even in the face of every no-good speaking. Bot later when speaking to a group of people, he would refer to that subject and the person concerned
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would know: ah, this is for me. Then he reconsiders his speaking. Everyone wants to be respected. It means: don’t show your teeth like dogs. Man smiles.
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ADDRESS THE GOOD SIDE OF PEOPLE
This is our Grandsheikh’s advice to us; for people in Ta- riqat, for anyone claiming to be religious, or for anyone who says: I am from mankind, they must keep one of the best manners of good personality, to think for everyone goodness in your heart. The contrary, thinking badness about people, is the reason for a bad ending for us. Allah Almighty likes that we think for everyone goodness. Good and bad may be with a person, both ready for action. According to your actions towards him comes either good or bad from him. For example, if I respect you, you are pleased and show me your pleasure. We need to address everyone for his good side, then it will appear. When thinking well of a person, it means that your treatment of him will be good. Good treatment is to give respect. The smallest benefit from this is that, at least, you will keep his evil from you. Evil may come from anyone. This is strong advice. We must give eve- ryone respect as everyone has a good side. Allah likes for his servants to be respected, even if they are sinners, as Allah gave to the sons of Adam endless honour in the Divine Presence. You cannot find any father who likes to hear degrading remarks about his son, even if that
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son is one of the worst people. If a father says: my son is bad. I must say: good roots, good branches; don’t be worried, it is only immaturity. Then he will be pleased with me. Every father is like this.
Once Sayyidinā ‘Alî was atop the mimbar in a mos- que and speaking about his son Hassan who had mar- ried and divorced many times. (The Divine Wisdom behind these marriages is that now there are many of the Prophet’s descendants in the world. They are a mercy for the Ummah. One living in a town keeps it from curse.) ‘Alî was saying to the people not to give their daughters to Hassan. Then all people are offering, saying: take my daughter even if only for one day. Then ‘Alî was pleased.
From our badness we are looking to the badness of others. Everyone has good qualities. We must turn our attention to them. In Surat ur-Rahman it says, «Is not goodness rewarded with goodness?»
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IMPORTANCE OF LEAVING FORBIDDEN AND DISLIKED ACTIONS
This is our Grandsheikh’s teaching of what is impor- tant in Islam. It is to keep the law of Allah Almighty and to avoid every prohibited thing. Islam offers two kinds of orders: the first, what we must do, and the se- cond, what we must not do. Most important is leaving off what Allah has ordered us to avoid. To leave one for-
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bidden thing is better in the sight of Allah than going for Hajj 30,000 times. It means, you may be patient for worshipping but not patient for keeping the boundaries of Allah. If you are returning from the fifty-thousandth hajj and look lustfully to the hostess on the airplane then all are crossed-out. If we are patient for worship, the angels write our reward; but if we show restraint concerning forbidden things, Allah is giving countless rewards. Allah orders us to worship, worship as much as we can. Praying five times a day is enough and if you can do more, fine. But for forbidden things, you must keep away from everyone. There are two levels of things we must avoid; they are: harâm, forbidden, and makrûh, disliked. Now muslims are taking courage from Shaitān for doing things makrûh. It is a bad illness among muslims, doing things disliked. Who is disliking these things – Allah and His Prophet. We are ordered to use all our power to refuse all badness that Allah and His Prophet dislike. If one is maintaining the outer wall, the inner treasure will be in safety. Every forbid- den action is acting on our faith, destroying it. There are 300 goodnesses of which we try to do as many as we can. There are 800 forbidden things and characte- ristics of which we must leave them all, whether they are apparent or hidden. It is more ugly if you are hi- ding from people and doing a forbidden thing. You are not hidden from Allah. To keep yourself when you are alone is better because then you are with Allah and we must keep His respect more than the respect of people. Whoever is keeping the bounds of Allah, his Lord will give him authority in the universe. The Prophet says:
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«Who obeys Allah, obedient to him are all things.» This is authority. Once a person walking in the desert saw a man coming towards him riding on a tiger and holding a poisonous snake in his hand like a whip. The man said:
«Oh my brother, how can you do this?» He replied: «I have order from Sultan.» Make yourself obedient to Al- lah and He will make you master of the world. Now we will stop here if we have any mind. If we are no-mind people, we shall speak another.
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OUR TEACHING COMES FROM PROPHETS RESPECT FOR FOOD
I am speaking as I learned from my Grandsheikh about an important good manner. As he taught to me, now I am teaching you. This is our way. The way from the prophet is coming to us like this, one is learning, then teaching others. Goodness spreads this way. Whoever is knowing is bound to teach, not keep it to himself. Al- lah is frightening whoever is trying to keep knowledge to himself. Our way is good manners, the way taught by the Prophets, because the way of the ego is bad man- ners. Everyone is conquered by their ego and we are in need for divine help from the Prophets and saints. We cannot live without food and drink. Therefore we must respect the favours given us by Allah. Excepting pig, blood and carrion, we must respect every kind of food, everything that is clean and permitted. Some peo-
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ple are looking at food saying: «I don’t like this.» So many boys now are only eating fish and chips. «Beans, I don’t like it.» This is a bad manner. Everything clean that is put on the table, we must respect it and eat it. If a man is pleased with everything, Allah increases His favours to that person. Sheikh Muhyid-Dîn Ibn ‘Arabî when speaking of the honour of the sons of Adam in the Divine Presence, said that for each piece of food they are eating, 300 Angels are serving it. For any kind of eating even one spoon of soup, you must know that 300 angels just worked to make it ready. It is a big sin not to like any kind of food because of pride and saying: «I am not eating this piece of bread; it is already eaten on one side.» This makes your gift of provision very narrow. If a man wants bountiful provision, he must keep respect for every kind of food.
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IMPORTANCE OF WASHING THE BODY
The main thing in every religion is to be clean, out- wardly and in our hearts. Washing the whole body is an order of Allah for all people. It is from the trust that the mountains could not carry, but that man accepted. One of the most important trusts is washing from im- purity. After sleeping with wife or after having a wet dream you must wash, in all religions. It is not chan- ged and cannot be changed. Our Grandsheikh says if a man is washing once every day it gives strength to
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body and soul. By keeping this only, he would reach in ten years a destination that normally would require twenty years. It gives rest to souls and peace to hearts. For every prayer you should make wudû’. It gives spi- ritual power and more light for us. Our Grandsheikh was ordered five years’ retreat, and six times a day he was washing whole body, carrying the buckets of water from the fountain up over his head, not hanging them down. Power is not from the muscles but, from as much as the soul is active and happy.
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WHY SAYYIDINâ ‘ALî WAS RIDING A MULE
It is my duty to teach people goodness. This is the ho- nour of mankind. Goodness is a seed which you may plant in the hearts. It grows up and gives goodness. The planters are firstly Prophets and then their inheritors, Awliyā’. You are in need for them to plant goodness in your heart. This is my Grandsheikh’s plant growing in my heart. I am giving you the fruits.
Once he was speaking of the Prophet’s cousin, ‘Alî, one of the greatest personalities in Islam, having all good manners taken from the Prophet’s endless knowledges. His custom was to ride on a mule. When some compa- nions questioned him, why he did not ride a horse, he replied: «Oh my brothers, I am not in need of a horse to ride on because when I am meeting a knight for a duel, I am not running away, needing a fast mount; and
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if he wishes to escape from me, I am not running after him.» This teaches us knighthood. When meeting with something you don’t like, you must fix yourself firmly. Don’t try to escape from it, but be patient. Everyday we may meet such unliked things in our life. The bene- fit is, it sharpens our faith. Don’t he worried by disliked things and you will find your faith more powerful. If at the first step we can fix ourselves, then every step is easier, our faith is shining, coming lights. Secondly this is teaching: we must not ask for meeting an enemy, un- til Allah is putting us together. Don’t tempt the devil, perhaps fortune will go with him.
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ONE MUST BE HUMBLE
Man is created for a very important position. He is invi- ted to the Most High Divine Presence. If a man is invi- ted to meet with a king, he must know protocol. What about one called to the Divine Presence? Good manners make man more honourable for that meeting. There- fore, everyday we are learning.
Man must be bumble, not proud. Our Grandsheikh says that pride is so bad as to turn back all the favours, Allah is sending. This is very important. The first proud person was Satan, and all the favours were tur- ned back from him. Don’t be proud, but be humble for everything. It is the best character for mankind. No one likes a proud person. Allah is also disliking. A proud
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man will meet and join Satan on the day of resurrec- tion. Allah says: «Pride is for me. I don’t like any part- ner with me. I am wearing it and no one else may.» He gives His favours to the humble. The most humble of all creatures is our Prophet, Muhammadun Rasulallah, peace be upon him. Once Jibrîl came to him, saying:
«Oh Muhammad, my Lord sends you His regards and asks: do you want to be a king and prophet or a ser- vant and prophet?» He chose to be a servant. His hadith says, if anyone has pride in his heart, even as small as an atomic particle, he is prohibited from entering Pa- radise. Therefore we must try to defeat pride. It is a characteristic of ego.
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PROTECT AND RESPECT THE WAYS OF THE PROPHET
The way of the Prophet is a holy and beloved way. Eve- ry believer in the Prophet must have love in bis heart towards him. When one man likes another, he will look to his actions with love. According to a person’s love and respect for the Prophet, he will be interested in kee- ping bis ways, until he cannot leave any sunnah that he has the possibility of doing. The title of this lesson is: protect and respect the ways of the Prophet. In every religion it is important for one to like his Prophet’s cu- stoms. One likes as his Prophet likes, because the Pro- phet is respectable in the Divine Presence. No one can improve without love and respect for the Prophet in
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every way. Following this way, we are improving quik- kly towards the Divine Presence. Imam Shafi‘ said: an- yone leaving a sunnah from laziness or carelessness will go truly to hell. Respect of the Sunnah is fard, and there is danger when not taking care for this. Satan says, «not important, sunnah.» There are two ways, Satan’s and the Prophet’s. Satan’s way only leads to Hell.
Once the Khaliph Harûn Ar-Rashid was attending an assembly. The Imam there spoke that the Prophet liked to eat squash, to which one of the wazirs present replied, that he personally didn’t like it. Then the Ca- liph gave the verdict to kill the wazir, according to the hadith: «Anyone throwing arrows at me, is not of my nation.» The wazir quickly repented, realizing it is dan- gerous to refuse the ways of the Prophet. He was not bringing ways from himself, but from Allah’s orders and guidance. Believers must think about this. The main rule in Sufism is, keeping the way of the Prophets, Sufism is the way to Heavens. The Prophets went to the Heavens. You must find the place they started from and follow in their footsteps. If a Person is giving life to the sunnah, it is easy to give life to the ways and com- mands of the Lord. First Isrâ’ and then Mi‘râj – first, the Prophet journeyed from Mecca to Jerusalem and then ascended to the Heavens. The ways of the Prophet lead to the ways of Allah.
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ABOUT LOOKING
We are learning from the words of our Grandsheikh, I am speaking as I heard from him; he was speaking about looking. Everything in Islam is divided into two parts, permitted and prohibited. Looking is a most important action. From every holy book and Prophet, servants are ordered to keep themselves from every prohibited thing. We have a responsibility, especially in Tariqat, to be very careful, as every trouble for man is coming from his looking to prohibited things. These things are prohibited because there is harm in them. When you look to harām women, that looking is a poison arrow from Satan into your heart. You will find pain. It makes your faith mixed up and going down. For example, a nail in a tire will cause the car to stop or go out of con- trol. Satan’s aim is only to hearts. You must protect your heart. You can’t move on with a flat tire.
Therefore, looking is very important. If a man is not keeping his eyes from unlovely places, the least amount of harm coming to him is that he loses manpower, he becomes useless with his own lady. One keeping his eyes is always strong, therefore, prophets and saints are never losing their power. Our Grandsheikh married af- ter he was 100 years old. Once walking in the street and passing a store window, filled with things leading peo- ple to fornication, he said to me: «Oh Nazim Efendi, if a man is looking to these things without taking wisdom, he is a sinner, and wasting his sight without benefit.» Wisdom means knowing more about one’s Lord. Wa- sting the light of our eyes, prevents light from coming
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on the eyes in our heart. We become blind. When lea- ving the eyes to look for the ego’s pleasure without fear of the Lord, in the eyes gathers the darkness of fornica- tion. To look at young boys is seven times worse than looking at women. Those things keep us from impro- ving and reaching our destinations. Our egos keep us in the darkness of the world, too weighed down to journey to the heavens. We must try for improvement in the Divine Presence. It is not so important to read books or know Qur’ān and Hadith. It is important to keep your eyes. If doing this, you are an important person, not on earth but in the heaven. There you are permitted to look on the Divine Lights of your Lord’s face. Every dir- ty place is a forbidden place. Don’t look on dirty things or you will be denied Heavenly Lights. Also forbidden is looking to the bad actions of others. For example, I was coming from Hejaz with Grandsheikh and saw one man shaving his beard after the pilgrimage. I said: «Oh master, look.» He shouted: «No, don’t look!», because shaving beard is a no-good action. Allah created it for the beauty of man. Can you imagine a lion without his mane? He would look like a monkey. With a beard man is complete. It is the distinction between men and wo- men. Therefore, Allah is inspiring the younger genera- tion to let their beard grow. All the Prophets were ha- ving beards, it is enough for us to look like them. Don’t look to a person doing a bad thing.
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mercy oceans
REMOVE THE TEETH OF YOUR DRAGON
Our Grandsheikh is telling us an important good man- ner that everyone must keep. It is from Hassan al-Basri, an honourable person in the eyes of the ‘ulamâ’ and Ta- riqat sheikhs alike. Each time before beginning his lec- tures, he would say: «Oh my sons, I wish to advise you regarding two things which are like a base for building in Islam. Without a base, you cannot build anything. I am asking you to keep these advices, because if you are not going to keep them, our meeting will be mâ lâ ya‘nî, useless doings. In Islam it is a sin to work without benefit.» The Prophet says: «Whoever is throwing at us arrows is not from our nation.» This obviously means, whoever fights us with arms, but our Grandsheikh exp- lains that it also refers to anything we are doing which is contrary to the way of the Prophet, it will be like we are fighting. This includes useless doings.
«Oh my sons, every day everyone must meet up with one or two things. The first will be an order from Allah or His Prophet; and the second, a thing prohibited. If mee- ting with an order, you must keep it. It may be a simple Sunnah action, but you must keep it firmly and respect- fully. Don’t say, this is but a little thing. We must keep our respect to the Prophet the same as our respect to Al- lah. May be Allah’s pleasure is with that simple Sunnah. Before you it is simple, but before Allah it may be too high and valuable. Your nafs and shaitan makes you want to leave it, but you must not leave it. Also, for meeting a prohibited thing, it may be simple in your sight, but a great sin to Allah. You may fall into a bad condition by
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it, maybe fall into Hell and endless troubles. You must not be brave for sins, even as much as they are simple in your sight. You must keep yourself.»
There are two kinds of Jihad in Islam. One is the little fighting and the other is the big fighting. The most im- portant is the big fighting with the biggest enemy and the biggest enemy is our nafs. It is constantly with us, never leaving us, up to the end of our life. Therefore, every believer is ordered to fight his nafs. The first step for fighting is to say, «La ilâha illâ llâh». (There is no God but Allah.) Every Prophet came to teach people to say this. The nafs never likes it. If you do not capture your nafs, he will capture you, and if you do not kill him, he will kill you. Allah orders us to kill it, not to leave alive. There are methods in our religion for this and all Tariqats have it as their aim. You may capture your nafs as a slave, but you will never be safe from its rebellion. When nafs is saying «La ilâha illâ llâh» and accepting to be a servant of the Lord, it is killed, the teeth have been taken from the dragon.
Tariqats teach how to save oneself from the dragon, although the egos of many learned men won’t allow them to accept Tariqats. Their egos are leading them to deny so many things from Islam. They have enjoy- ment with their ego’s desires and don’t want the diffi- cult conditions of keeping the Shari‘ah strongly. Rukh- sa, lightening, does not mean to take ego’s desires. You must take the strong way for yourself, and for others, especially beginners, the easy way.
If one is keeping these two advices, he is a fighter in the Jihad al-Akbar. This advice from Hassan is for eve-
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ryone and everytime, in every religion. The summary of it is to keep goodness and leave evil. This is for anyo- ne who says «I am from mankind.»
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THE MOST ACCEPTABLE WORSHIP
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