MERCY OCEANS, Book 04 (Rising Sun, Shaykh Nazim, 112 pages, 1/4)
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MISRCY OCEANS, RISING SUN
The Discourses of Our Master Sheikh Nazim Al-Qubrusi
Delivered by the Permission of his Grandsheikh Sheikh Abdullah Ad-Daghistani (May Allah Sanctify his Blessed Soul)
Selected Lectures, Summer 1405 4, H. (1985 C. E.), Winter 1406 A. H. (1986 C. E.) Cyprus
Copyright © 1986, by Sheikh Nazim Adil Al-Qubrusi All Rights Reserved
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The Station of Unity
No one is Refused
Love is Lovely “ % 3 Love is the Mortar of all Prayer.
A Lesson from Ibn Arabi’s Fall off his Donkey.
He who is without Shoes, Look at the one without Feet!..
Our Stand Against All Cruelty.
Golden Coin and Golden Rule: Both Have Turned into Paper.
The Disappearance of Virtue from the Face of the Earth
Is there No Escape?
The Heavenly Homeland
God is our Guarantor
Seek your Sustenance
Can you tell a Diamond
from a Piece of Glass? ; How the Ant with the Broken
Leg got to Mecca :. The Lion is a Harmless euacrert watt The Source of Wisdom is the
Heart, not any Book
In the Name of Allah the All - Merciful, the Ail-Beneficent, the Most -Munificent.
The Station of Unity
“Oh my Lord, Il ask You to grant me understanding, and to enable me, Oh my Lord, to make others understand.”
(A prayer of the Holy Prophet Muhammed, Peace be upon him)
Every time I address people I silently make this supplication, as I know that only he who himself understands can A teach people anything useful. A visitor recently told me about a spiritual teacher anne lectures and writings were so difficult that only trained intellectuals could make sense of what he was saying. It is not a sign of a man’s understanding that his teachings be incomprehen- sible; a man of understanding will always try to make himself well understood by using clear and straightforward speech, adjusting to the level of his audience, and he will try to address as broad an audience as possible, otherwise his words will be scattered with the winds.
Even Allah Almighty, the Lord of all creatures, the Master of existence, in all His Glory and Great- ness condescends to the level of His creatures. This is called “Tanazzulat Subhani” or, as close as it can be translated, “the Condescension of Glory” for ‘the Condescension of the Glorious One”). You may find Him Almighty with His creatures on every level.
If He were not with an ant, and knew not the conditions in which that ant lives and what are its needs, He could not, by definition be the Lord of that ant. He, the Lord of all, in His knowledge, is even with microscopic creatures; so what about mankind, the most distinguished of His creatures, is it saying tco much to say that He is with us? “Does the Creator not know what He created?” asks the Lord, that we may understand His Omni- science, and that being the Lord of all creation does not detract from His being with each individual creature.
The Holy Prophets and their Inheritors in every age have been endowed with knowledge of Divine Realities which is hidden from the rest of human- ity, and it is their main duty to make these real- ities comprehensible to mankind in general, and to individual people in whatever way possible, in ac- cordance with the respective levels and capabilities of those people. As the teachers of humanity they have been granted the ability to communicate in this manner: to speak directly to people’s hearts.
This they have been granted from the Attributes of their Lord. But only Prophets and their true in- heritors may find such flexibility available to them, for others it is very difficult to address anyone other than those who share with them a similar back- ground and manner of perception. But Divine Teachers may be to every people what they need, may say what they need to hear; that is why peop- lo of varying backgrounds and ranks in life may all find peace with the same man and follow him.
A Concorde could never land on the roof of this building, but a helicopter could. Most schol- ars are like Concordes: so proud of their immense wingspans, streamlined form and speed. Only a few statesmen and tycoons —men and woren of distinction and endowed with great wealth — may enter and ride Concordes. So scholars may speak and write for the appreciation of other scholars. Concordes fly at tremendous speeds and require huge runways at international airports to land, but a helicopter can land anywhere, even sometimes at sea, and can always hover in mid-air while lowering a lifeline to people trapped by a fire. So Divine Teachers are accessible to everyone in every situation, whereas Concordes might crash in a - place where only helicopters can reach to rescue the survivors. Therefore, I am not leaving them on the tops of Himalaya mountains, but bringing them to safety.
Seekers of truth must look for those qualities in a teacher who purports to be addressing sub- jects related to the Divine. Otherwise they will be pursuing useless studies, and, according to the Holy Prophet, a sign of a person’s perfection in Islam is his abandonment of useless aciivities (“that which doesn’t concern him”).
Our guest mentioned that this scholar was ad- dressing the topics of ‘'Fana and Baqa”, or “Annihil- ation and Permanence in the Divine’. I think that no one except those who have arrived at these Stations is qualified to speak of them, otherwise his description will be like that of a person who has never tasted honey trying to describe its taste from what he has read about it to others who have been dsprived of honey. Or it will be like asking a little boy about the pleasures of a honeymoon... useless.
These topics are Oceans. When you melt, dis- solving in the Unity Ocean of Allah Almighty, then you may understand the meaning of ‘‘Fani-fillah” (Annihilation in Allah). When you abandon your position as a being in existence, when you become as a drop of rain falling from the sky and are immersed, united in that Ocean of Divine Unity, then no one can ask where that drop has gone: the drop became an Ocean.
As long as the drop is falling, it continues to say: “I am something’, but when it reaches that Ocean, it looks and says: “Where am I? I am fin- ished. | am with Him. Iam here, but not here; only
ee lle is here, but I am now with Him. I am in His Ocean. I feel this, but no more can it be said that | am a drop: this drop has become an Ocean”. That ia only a very simple description of Annihilation in Croc.
“Baga” or Permanence, is to be with Him al- ways. In such a Station your personality does not appear; what appears is only Divine Existence. You have been dressed in Divine Unity. That is the “Station of Unity”, “Maqam at-Tawhid”. What Baqa means is that you will never lose sight, hear- ing, feeling, knowing, understanding - never, but they will be without limits. We must try to attain these Stations, but the Way is difficult and re- quires severe training.
One of the aspects of that training is to try and see everything as proceeding from Him Alone. This is the sixth pillar of faith in Islam: The be- lief that everything that happens in this world, the good and the bad alike, are from God. This is re- ferred to as ‘‘Tawhid al-Af’al” or “The Unity of Actions”. The way to begin to realize this point is to remember the source of all events, Allah Al- mighty, when events occur, and not to occupy one’s self with blaming or lauding those who are not really the causes of events, only the instruments to their occurence, This means that if Ahmed comes and gives you a pound coin and then Fulan comes and slaps you and takes it away, you don’t think of Ahmed as the giver of the money, nor of Fulan
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as a thief. If you think like this you have fallen from that high level of faith. You must perceive the hand of Allah behind both hands — that which giveth and that which taketh away — as He is the creator of the actions of people.
When someone is generous or kind to you, you must remember that it was your Lord who sent him with that favour, and you must thank your Lord. But at the same time you are going to say: “Thank you” to that person, as without giv- ing thanks to the carrier of that blessing your thanks to its origin is not going to be complete. Therefore the Holy Prophet said: ‘“Who thanks not people thanks not Allah”. Our Prophet, upon whom be peace, is advising us strongly that we should not allow our vision of unity to distract us from perfecting our politeness with our fellow men. But you know that it is your Lord who sent him, and you are not forgetting that under any circum- stances. And when you see that Ahmed has filled your hands with gold, you must say to him: “Oh Sheikh Ahmed, thank you so much! And firstly thanks to your Lord, who sent you with favours for me, and thank you for faithfully delivering what was entrusted to you”.
And when that robber Fulan comes, hits you and takes all the money, don’t be angry with him! Yes, the Divine Law, the Shariah, permits you to retrieve that money if you can, and prescribes a punishment to be meted out by the society as well,
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but if you are on the way of Unity, then you must regard that action as coming to you from Allah Almighty too. He Alone sent that man to rob you, because the Creator of every action is only One: Allah Almighty,
Because it is not possible for all people to as- pire to this high level of faith in which God's Hand is seen behind every event, Allah Almighty in one verse of the Holy Qur’an, condones “a life for a life’ in the case of murder, and goes on to call those who are capable of it to “turning the other cheek”, These are the levels, respectively, of Shariah, the Law, and Tarigah, the Path. Based on this verse, therefore, the Islamic Law concern- ing murder is balanced, making concession for the normal human feelings for vengeance in the face of such an abominable crime. Islam allows for the execution of the duly convicted murderer, and in this way assuages the feelings of the close rela- tives, thus preventing extended blood - feuds. The law also allows for the payment of blood money in lieu of execution, to be paid to the victim’s close relatives. Lastly the verse calls those who are seek- ing the highest level of faith and unity of vision to forgiveness, saying: “And whoso forgives and pro- motes understanding, his reward is incumbent on his Lord”.
What Allah is saying to seekers of absolute truth is: “Now forgive him, because I sent him to do that action”. Then you realize that, in reality,
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there is no question of guilt nor need for revenge. But that is not the common level. That is the level to be striven for, and it is beyond us to forgive in such a manner because our egos are like volcanoes. Now people may be very polite in their every- day dealings, as long as everyone behaves in ac- cordance with their expectations and everything falls into place according to plan; but should, God forbid, the smallest thing go wrong —for example a small.error in driving, even one that causes no accident — for such a small reason one may hear the ugliest obscenities pour from their mouths like a lava eruption, That ego makes people danger- ously ill, and now that people are totally under their egos’ command, where can you find the tol- erance described in that Holy Verse of the Qur'an? So much hate and frustration is pent up in «people —I see it in their looks— and so often a scapegoat is sought upon whom to release that tor- rent, and the best, the tried and true scapegoat throughout the world is always the “foreigners”; so | am quick to assure people here in the West: “We are just here as your guests. This is your homeland.” But is it? You can’t stay here either ex- cept in your graves. Your homeland is the grave, not above ground. Thank God, no one is begrudg- ing us cemetery plots, no one is trying to prevent our being buried. The gravedigger wipes the dirt off his hands and goes away, and the Earth accepts us indiscriminately; but people on the Earth are
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busy making distinctions, and therefore, that high lovel of acceptance of actions as coming from God in rarely found. But He teaches us the lesson nonetheless, saying: “You must understand who [ am: | am the Creator of people and their works: understand this, that you may attain peace and {inally leave behind your quarrelsomeness.”
Once [ was in Mecca with our Grandsheikh making Tawaf (circumambulating) the House of Allah, the Kaaba. Grandsheikh said to me: “Look up!” When I looked I saw above the heads of the people another group of worshippers performing their Tawaft; but these people were of a different class: calm, peaceful and graceful. They too were of mankind, not Angels, but they were the ones who had reached the level of seeing every action as issuing from Allah Almighty, therefore they left the level of earthly struggle.
But, meanwhile, back on the ground, amidst the throng, with those who lack such certainty, we were being pushed, shoved and trampled upon. Some groups locked arms and shoved straight through the crowd, full-speed ahead, sending all who were unfortunate enough to fall in their path flying through the air, like discarded banana peels. Elbows in my ribs, heels on my toes... but above us, the ones who concur with God's Will have no need for earth under their feet. Now, per- haps, you are thinking that such a thing is im- possible, that I am telling a “tall tale”, but yet,
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when you are told that airplanes fly you think nothing of it. If man can make metal fly, cannot God make man fly? They are at peace with their Lord and with everything in creation, therefore, everything carries them.
And so, we have been shown a higher way, the vision of Unity, and we have been asked to be patient with those events that are not to our liking, remembering their source. This is the best training for our egos. Undergo this training or you will struggle fruitlessly —-up to the grave. We are being trained by our Lord to recognize the Unity of Actions, so that we can come to understand the Unity of His Holy Names, which leads us to the knowledge of the Unity of His Holy Attributes; that knowledge will prepare us for that ultimate dive into the Unity Ocean of Allah Almighty’s exist- ence - essence. That is the final goal: that raindrop falls, and it will not emerge again ever— and it is content because it has just gained everything eternally, forever.
Therefore, Allah Almighty addresses mankind, saying: ‘Oh man, verily you are striving towards your Lord, and you will meet Him”. He Almighty is teaching us that all our striving on Earth, our running from East to West, here and there, night and day, is, unwittingly, nothing else than our race towards our Lord’s endless Unity Ocean, but we can’t now understand. Our souls long for our Lord, therefore we move, and there is nowhere to move save towards the One.
No One is Refused
Today, as I was praying, an important point appeared in the mirror of my heart, a subject that needs to be addressed. What is the position of every single person toward the rest of humanity und the rest of creation in general? Each person, ouch being, is by nature self-centered, though constantly interacting with others in his sur- roundings. Everybody divides his fellow beings into distinct categories: those having more in common With himself and others more in opposition — and ihe less in common the more critical the question becomes. So as a follower of a certain religion, you must ask yourself, what your attitude towards mem- bers of other religions will be. As a man, what kind of attitude do you have towards women, or as a woman towards men? As an elderly person towards the young, or asa youth, towards the elderly? As a wealthy person towards the poor, or as a poor man towards the wealthy? As a literate person towards the illiterate? What is your attitude, as a human being, towards animals, plants, inanimate objects, overything in existence?
The Holy Prophet, Muhammad, upon whom be peace, gave guidance to mankind in this matter when he said: “My Lord has taught me to show respect to all, to maintain a high level of good manners, and my Lord has perfected His teach- ing”. Now we need to know what those best manners are, and how they help us to show re- spect to all creatures in accordance with their re- spective levels, for, while Allah Almighty has made ali creatures worthy of respect, He has especially honoured mankind. We are invited to realize the full potential of that honour by perfecting our re- lations with all that surrounds us.
This perfection calls for a balance in our re- lations, along with the perception of the differences between beings and an ability to adjust our he- haviour according to those distinctions. This is be- cause Allah’s creatures, most especially men, are not factory productions, mass - produced and cut out- of the same mould. Each person has his own unique form, characteristics and capabilities— you can’t find two exactly identical people, even identical twins may differ drastically in character. Every- one carries something distinct, and we must observe these varying and distinguishing marks, that thereby we may receive Divine Wisdom, and marvel at the Power of our Lord, for who else could create such diversity? Whether you look around you at your fellow men, or at the stars in the sky, you will know, by their infinite variations that only God can have created the universe.
Human beings, the''Crown of Creation”, are candi- dates for the honourable rank of “Deputy of Allah on l‘arth". We are beings who have been endowed with the potential for uncovering a great secret Within ourselves. If in heedlessness we do not virive for it, it will remain deeply hidden within ourselves. What is the great secret within man that lio must discover to attain this rank? It is to under- stund that you are a manifestation of one of our Lord's endless Divine Attributes. Each person mani- foots a distinct attribute, no matter how many billions of people appear and disappear from this Earth, each one manifests a unique aspect of the Divine Reality. iach Divine Attribute is distinct, and, when fully unveiled, equally Divine. Therefore, our Lord is oblivious te our outward forms but is always mind- ful of the states of our hearts, as the heart of each inan is a throne from among the endless thrones of Allah Almighty. That heart is not the organ in our chests, it is only represented by it as a figure of speech. In your real heart, your “heart of hearts’, there is a throne and He Almighty appears on that throne through a distinct attribute that inanifests in you, and nowhere else in creation.
Therefore, you must respect everyone in exist- once, as, in reality, that respect is the respect for your Lord within him. That is the way our Prophet treated people, the way taught by real Islam: a deviance from this “Way of best manners” is a dangerous innovation (bid’a) of high degree. The
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respect that we must show towards our fellow hu- man beings is such that, should a baby be born, take three breaths and die, we must name him, wash his body and pray over him the funeral pray- er: and if there is no one else to perform those rites, even the Sultan himself is required to do so, and be that baby born to the lowest class of his sub- jects.
And what if the living or the dead be of another religion or without religion, do we show them. less respect? One day the Holy Prophet was sitting with his companions when a funeral procession passed by. The Holy Prophet stcod up in a sign of respect to that departed soul. One of the compan- ions said: “Oh Messenger of God, that is the body of one of the heathens. Are you showing respect to such people?” It was a sign of bad manners for that companion to say this, and he immediately regretted it. Does the Prophet not know whether that dead person and those of the procession are Muslims or idol- worshippers? If not, how can he be a Prophet? But as the companions were at dif- ferent levels of understanding and manners, build- ing gradually towards perfection, the Prophet was always patient with those who showed such a chal- lenging attitude; he explained his actions to that companion according to the level of his under- standing —- which was the common level. And how difficult for the common believer, whose human feelings are caught in the ebb and flow of daily
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events to understand how the Prophet gave this respect for people who were actively engaged in oppressing the Muslims— killing and boycotting thom, and generally showing abominable qualities! llow difficult for the common people to make a distinction between people’s bad actions and the Divine Realities hidden and veiled, yet present and untouched, in their heart of hearts, and in this way to understand why you must not hate your enem- ios! Such understanding makes a person eligible io receive Divine Secrets, and a category of knowl- edge the Holy Prophet was instructed to reveal only to initiates.
Therefore, to guide that companion in the gen- eral direction of this reality while not revealing to him that which he could not comprehend, the Holy Prophet told him; “Yes, these are unbelievers, but you must know that each one has Angels accom- panying him, recording his good and bad deeds, and the Angel of Death, Azrail, is accompanying the dead man as well: I am standing out of respect for those Angels”. In this way the Holy Prophet instructed all Muslims to show respect to all people living and dead, no matter how terrible their ac- jlons might be.
Mevlana Jalaluddin Bumi, an Islamic Saint known throughout East and West (and the author of the epic Sufi poem, the Mathnawi) was once crossing a marketplace when a priest passed by and bowed his head in respect. Mevlana returned
this gesture, bowing even lower, from the waist. The people asked him: “How is it that you bowed in front of that priest (who represents a religion that failed to recognize the Holy Prophet of Islam)?” In Islam, bowing is a gesture generally reserved for the worship of God, other signs of respect being used more commonly.
Then Mevlana answered them, on a level that ac- corded with their understanding: “That priest was humbling himself in front of us. He is Christian, we are Muslim; and Islam represents the completion of every goodness found in Christianity. There- fore, if he is humble we must strive to be even more humble”.
This explanation is frue, but on a deeper level, this reciprocation may be understood as respect to the real personality, the Divine Personality of that priest - and it is only He Almighty who dresses His servants in differing outward forms and pre- disposes them for different kinds of actions. Meviana recognized that it was his Lord who dressed him as a Sheikh and dressed that man as a priest; and if He wills, He can cause them to change roles, for each of their hearts to cling to the other’s religion in the blink of an eye; and who can say what Allah will do? What is beneath all these clothes but the throne of Allah, in a unique personality manifestation?
In the Holy Qur'an it is related that, when Allah Almighty created Adam, He ordered all the Angels to prostrate in front of him. Do you think Allah Almighty was ordering them to worship olher than Himself? All of the Angels were able to perceive that Divine Manifestation in Adam, and bowed dewn to their Lord by prostrating in front of Adam. But also in attendance was Satan, who was veiled by envy, and said: “What is he (hat I should worship him: I worship God alone”, But Satan could not see what was inside of Adam: all the Holy Names of Allah that were to be mani- fosted by all of his descendants. Were those veils of envy to be lifted, he would have been the first to obey. Envy blinds us to this vision, and, unhap- pily, it prevented many of those who represented earlier revealed religions from recognizing the Prophet Muhammad when he came, the veritable brother of the Prophets they venerate.
If we can remember that the presence of this Divine secret is in people’s hearts, and lock past their outward forms and actions, we may learn from everything and everyone and increase in wisdom. Only with this vision can we aspire to a magnanimity that will cause good actions to appear from people, for a ray of their Divine Essence to shine through and encourage the veils of ego to be lifted. Respect of the Divine Nature in man ieads to familiarity between people, and familiarity opens the way to love, and all love belongs to our Lord.
Our main responsibility in life is this; to clean
A hae off the bad characteristics that cover our Divine Personalities, and once we have accomplished this to help others free themselves of that heavy burden. We must always remember the sacrosanct nature of souls. Look, Sayyidina Umar, who was to become the second Khalifa of Islam, came to the Holy Prophet with the intention of killing him, but left that meeting with a heart full of love and good- ness, He was the same man, the essence of his being never changed, only his attitude did. So, we must always beware of saying: “So-and-so is a bad person”. You can’t say that of his real essence, no.
Although we regard the essences of people, we don’t accept their bad actions, but “fire upon” them the same way that a surgeon removes a tu- mour from a patient and leaves healthy tissue in- side of him: he knows to distinguish healthy tissue from cancerous tissue and removes only what is dangerous...
That is the method practiced by all the Prophets of all revealed religions from the beginning to the end. To help people purify themselves of destructive characteristics was the mission of Moses, of Jesus and also of the Seal of Prophets Muhammed, who was ordered by his Lord: “Purify them’. They all worked to this end and never despaired of success, as they had certainty that a treasure remained buried in people’s hearts. Look, if you have a precious diamond and then it falls into the toilet, are you going to flush it down with the dirties?
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Would anyone suggest such a thing? Perhaps some proud cr weak-stomached people might call for a servant to do it, but no one in his right mind would flush it away. Then, when you retrieve that diamond you are going to wash it with soap and water thoroughly, perhaps dip it in rose oil, and then return it to your finger. No one is then thinking that the diamond is dirty. Diamonds do not absorb the qualities of what they fall into — souls are the same.
In our time many people are searching for common ground upon which followers of all relig- ions may stand, a school of thought which may trace its thread through all true inspiration. This is that common ground: aspire to a deeper under- standing through your religion, an understanding that will open your eyes to the presence of the One in all things, that will reveal to you the respect- ability of all creatures, especially human beings, and enable you to desist from hating evildoers even while opposing their plots. This view will distance us from such a strong identity with labels that evoke fervor or enmity, as: American, Russian, German, Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, etc... and draw us closer to the realization that our Lord has honoured us all equally through the universal presence of His Div- ine Essence in our hearts. From that vantage point we will see that our Lord has given us through that Essence wonderful and unique characteristics, made
— 27 each and every one of us a manifestation of His Divine Attributes, of Himself,
Then it will be clear to us as well, that the veils of ego that cover our essence are as varied and subtle as the differences in the manifestation of the Essence; every one has unique “‘ego traps” design- ed to catch his own unique soul — and to avoid or escape these traps is at the heart of the knowl- edge of the Way. Only the one who approaches his Lord with sincere piety may discover that way, and that sincerity is what our Lord desires of us, what is-of real value, as He says in His Holy Book: “The best (or most honourable) of you is the most sin- cerely pious and God-fearing”. In other words, our Lord has honoured us all, but reserves His high- est honours for those who strive towards Him.
The Prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace, was endowed with the widest understanding of the significance of the Holy Verse: “We have honoured all of the Children cf Adam”, the under- standing of the presence of the One in the many. Meviana Jalaluddin Rumi was given the distinction of declaring these realities most openly to all Na- tions, inviting all people unconditionally through an open door, saying:
Come, come, whoever you may he, come again.
And be you non - believer, Magian or idolator, come again.
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Ours is not a Dergah of despair! Though you may have broken your repentance a hundred times, come again.
As Allah Alnighty opens His doors to all His servants, so do we accept our Lord’s servants. Wo are not fanatics who spend their lives interrog- ating those who seek to quench their thirst at the fountain. This is the way of our Grandsheikh, who declared: “I am an advocate for all the Children of Adam on the Last Day”. When someone arrives at our doorstep, we know who sent him, so we can’t refuse.
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Love is Lovely
Love is lovely to the Lord and to His ser- vants. If you do anything with love it should be accepted by your Lord, and He should make it tasteful for you. If you love your work it will be easy for you to do, if not, it will only bea burden. The Lord says: “I am not in need of your worship, I am only seeking the love with which it is offered.’’ Oh ser- vants of the Lord, Oh believers, you must not over- look this point. Don’t be like slaves rowing in the galley of a ship - if you pray, you must pray with love not by force, as if a slavedriver were standing over you with a whip! Allah never appreciates such forced devotions. Now we are trying to perform all the practices but forgetting to ask for Divine Love, so we are becoming like mechanical robots, or like people performing gymnastics.
Allah has asked us to engage our bodies in His worship and in service to His creation through charity and good deeds, but what musi be the fruit of those actions? If the fruit is not love it is a bitter fruit and is rejected. If our worship causes Love of God to grow in our hearts, then we must keep to that practice and continue on our way; and if we are keeping the company of a spiritual teacher, and find that through keeping his company love
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of God is awakening in our hearts, then we must follow him closely.
The Love of God is not easy to attain, for we cunnot imagine Him; therefore, He Almighty has tiade the Prophets apostles of His Love. Allah’s Loloved, the Seal of Prophets, Muhammad, upon whom be peace, was such a pure medium for the iransmission of that love that the hearts of his com- punions were overwhelmed with his love, and were (ransported to the love of God. He was the rep- rosentative of Allah, who is the Absolute Truth; therefore, the Prophet declared: “Who has seen me has seen the Absolute Truth”.
When a delegation of non-Muslims came to visit Medina, they were amazed at the love and rospect shown to the Prophet by his companions. When they returned home they said to their leader: “We have met many emperors, kings and tribal chiefs, but mever have we seen one whose subjects or courtiers treated him with such sincere love and devotion. How can this be?” They were not able lo comprehend the secret of this love, as their egos caused them to deny Muhammed’s prophethood. The love of the companions towards the Prophet was such that they used to say to him: “I am ready to sacrifice for you even my mother and father”, which, for the Arabs, is much stronger than saying: “I would sacrifice myself for you”. And in reality many of them underwent nearly unbearable hardships for the sake of their belief in the mission of the Holy Prophet: exile, disinheritance, boy- cott, torture and death.
Who represented the Holy Prophet after his life on Earth? Those who evoked such love. The Prophet himself described them: “Those who see them are reminded of God”. He who thirsts for Div- ine Love must seek out such people, but in our time they are mostly hidden, and Islam has come to mean for many people only a set of rules of con- duct and forms of worship - an empty shell. Who can derive taste from such a thing? Shall mosques be only gymnasiums? And now the “gym teachers” are opposing Sufi Paths, which are the ways of the heart, ways that lead to the Love of God,
Our Lord has given us an instrument that measures not your blood pressure but our “love pressure” and our goal is to make it high! Yes, seek to improve with every new day, for the Holy Prophet said: “Whoever does not improve with each day is losing ground.” What does this mean? It doesn’t mean that if we pray forty rakats of prayer today, we should pray forty-one tomorrow and forty-two the next day. No, that is not required, what is intended is that you fill your worship with ever more love of your Lord, so that He will observe: “My servant has sent Me more love today than yesterday. “One of our Grandsheikhs summarized perfectly what I a
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MISRCY OCEANS, RISING SUN
The Discourses of Our Master Sheikh Nazim Al-Qubrusi
Delivered by the Permission of his Grandsheikh Sheikh Abdullah Ad-Daghistani (May Allah Sanctify his Blessed Soul)
Selected Lectures, Summer 1405 4, H. (1985 C. E.), Winter 1406 A. H. (1986 C. E.) Cyprus
Copyright © 1986, by Sheikh Nazim Adil Al-Qubrusi All Rights Reserved
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The Station of Unity
No one is Refused
Love is Lovely “ % 3 Love is the Mortar of all Prayer.
A Lesson from Ibn Arabi’s Fall off his Donkey.
He who is without Shoes, Look at the one without Feet!..
Our Stand Against All Cruelty.
Golden Coin and Golden Rule: Both Have Turned into Paper.
The Disappearance of Virtue from the Face of the Earth
Is there No Escape?
The Heavenly Homeland
God is our Guarantor
Seek your Sustenance
Can you tell a Diamond
from a Piece of Glass? ; How the Ant with the Broken
Leg got to Mecca :. The Lion is a Harmless euacrert watt The Source of Wisdom is the
Heart, not any Book
In the Name of Allah the All - Merciful, the Ail-Beneficent, the Most -Munificent.
The Station of Unity
“Oh my Lord, Il ask You to grant me understanding, and to enable me, Oh my Lord, to make others understand.”
(A prayer of the Holy Prophet Muhammed, Peace be upon him)
Every time I address people I silently make this supplication, as I know that only he who himself understands can A teach people anything useful. A visitor recently told me about a spiritual teacher anne lectures and writings were so difficult that only trained intellectuals could make sense of what he was saying. It is not a sign of a man’s understanding that his teachings be incomprehen- sible; a man of understanding will always try to make himself well understood by using clear and straightforward speech, adjusting to the level of his audience, and he will try to address as broad an audience as possible, otherwise his words will be scattered with the winds.
Even Allah Almighty, the Lord of all creatures, the Master of existence, in all His Glory and Great- ness condescends to the level of His creatures. This is called “Tanazzulat Subhani” or, as close as it can be translated, “the Condescension of Glory” for ‘the Condescension of the Glorious One”). You may find Him Almighty with His creatures on every level.
If He were not with an ant, and knew not the conditions in which that ant lives and what are its needs, He could not, by definition be the Lord of that ant. He, the Lord of all, in His knowledge, is even with microscopic creatures; so what about mankind, the most distinguished of His creatures, is it saying tco much to say that He is with us? “Does the Creator not know what He created?” asks the Lord, that we may understand His Omni- science, and that being the Lord of all creation does not detract from His being with each individual creature.
The Holy Prophets and their Inheritors in every age have been endowed with knowledge of Divine Realities which is hidden from the rest of human- ity, and it is their main duty to make these real- ities comprehensible to mankind in general, and to individual people in whatever way possible, in ac- cordance with the respective levels and capabilities of those people. As the teachers of humanity they have been granted the ability to communicate in this manner: to speak directly to people’s hearts.
This they have been granted from the Attributes of their Lord. But only Prophets and their true in- heritors may find such flexibility available to them, for others it is very difficult to address anyone other than those who share with them a similar back- ground and manner of perception. But Divine Teachers may be to every people what they need, may say what they need to hear; that is why peop- lo of varying backgrounds and ranks in life may all find peace with the same man and follow him.
A Concorde could never land on the roof of this building, but a helicopter could. Most schol- ars are like Concordes: so proud of their immense wingspans, streamlined form and speed. Only a few statesmen and tycoons —men and woren of distinction and endowed with great wealth — may enter and ride Concordes. So scholars may speak and write for the appreciation of other scholars. Concordes fly at tremendous speeds and require huge runways at international airports to land, but a helicopter can land anywhere, even sometimes at sea, and can always hover in mid-air while lowering a lifeline to people trapped by a fire. So Divine Teachers are accessible to everyone in every situation, whereas Concordes might crash in a - place where only helicopters can reach to rescue the survivors. Therefore, I am not leaving them on the tops of Himalaya mountains, but bringing them to safety.
Seekers of truth must look for those qualities in a teacher who purports to be addressing sub- jects related to the Divine. Otherwise they will be pursuing useless studies, and, according to the Holy Prophet, a sign of a person’s perfection in Islam is his abandonment of useless aciivities (“that which doesn’t concern him”).
Our guest mentioned that this scholar was ad- dressing the topics of ‘'Fana and Baqa”, or “Annihil- ation and Permanence in the Divine’. I think that no one except those who have arrived at these Stations is qualified to speak of them, otherwise his description will be like that of a person who has never tasted honey trying to describe its taste from what he has read about it to others who have been dsprived of honey. Or it will be like asking a little boy about the pleasures of a honeymoon... useless.
These topics are Oceans. When you melt, dis- solving in the Unity Ocean of Allah Almighty, then you may understand the meaning of ‘‘Fani-fillah” (Annihilation in Allah). When you abandon your position as a being in existence, when you become as a drop of rain falling from the sky and are immersed, united in that Ocean of Divine Unity, then no one can ask where that drop has gone: the drop became an Ocean.
As long as the drop is falling, it continues to say: “I am something’, but when it reaches that Ocean, it looks and says: “Where am I? I am fin- ished. | am with Him. Iam here, but not here; only
ee lle is here, but I am now with Him. I am in His Ocean. I feel this, but no more can it be said that | am a drop: this drop has become an Ocean”. That ia only a very simple description of Annihilation in Croc.
“Baga” or Permanence, is to be with Him al- ways. In such a Station your personality does not appear; what appears is only Divine Existence. You have been dressed in Divine Unity. That is the “Station of Unity”, “Maqam at-Tawhid”. What Baqa means is that you will never lose sight, hear- ing, feeling, knowing, understanding - never, but they will be without limits. We must try to attain these Stations, but the Way is difficult and re- quires severe training.
One of the aspects of that training is to try and see everything as proceeding from Him Alone. This is the sixth pillar of faith in Islam: The be- lief that everything that happens in this world, the good and the bad alike, are from God. This is re- ferred to as ‘‘Tawhid al-Af’al” or “The Unity of Actions”. The way to begin to realize this point is to remember the source of all events, Allah Al- mighty, when events occur, and not to occupy one’s self with blaming or lauding those who are not really the causes of events, only the instruments to their occurence, This means that if Ahmed comes and gives you a pound coin and then Fulan comes and slaps you and takes it away, you don’t think of Ahmed as the giver of the money, nor of Fulan
cis FE paws
as a thief. If you think like this you have fallen from that high level of faith. You must perceive the hand of Allah behind both hands — that which giveth and that which taketh away — as He is the creator of the actions of people.
When someone is generous or kind to you, you must remember that it was your Lord who sent him with that favour, and you must thank your Lord. But at the same time you are going to say: “Thank you” to that person, as without giv- ing thanks to the carrier of that blessing your thanks to its origin is not going to be complete. Therefore the Holy Prophet said: ‘“Who thanks not people thanks not Allah”. Our Prophet, upon whom be peace, is advising us strongly that we should not allow our vision of unity to distract us from perfecting our politeness with our fellow men. But you know that it is your Lord who sent him, and you are not forgetting that under any circum- stances. And when you see that Ahmed has filled your hands with gold, you must say to him: “Oh Sheikh Ahmed, thank you so much! And firstly thanks to your Lord, who sent you with favours for me, and thank you for faithfully delivering what was entrusted to you”.
And when that robber Fulan comes, hits you and takes all the money, don’t be angry with him! Yes, the Divine Law, the Shariah, permits you to retrieve that money if you can, and prescribes a punishment to be meted out by the society as well,
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but if you are on the way of Unity, then you must regard that action as coming to you from Allah Almighty too. He Alone sent that man to rob you, because the Creator of every action is only One: Allah Almighty,
Because it is not possible for all people to as- pire to this high level of faith in which God's Hand is seen behind every event, Allah Almighty in one verse of the Holy Qur’an, condones “a life for a life’ in the case of murder, and goes on to call those who are capable of it to “turning the other cheek”, These are the levels, respectively, of Shariah, the Law, and Tarigah, the Path. Based on this verse, therefore, the Islamic Law concern- ing murder is balanced, making concession for the normal human feelings for vengeance in the face of such an abominable crime. Islam allows for the execution of the duly convicted murderer, and in this way assuages the feelings of the close rela- tives, thus preventing extended blood - feuds. The law also allows for the payment of blood money in lieu of execution, to be paid to the victim’s close relatives. Lastly the verse calls those who are seek- ing the highest level of faith and unity of vision to forgiveness, saying: “And whoso forgives and pro- motes understanding, his reward is incumbent on his Lord”.
What Allah is saying to seekers of absolute truth is: “Now forgive him, because I sent him to do that action”. Then you realize that, in reality,
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there is no question of guilt nor need for revenge. But that is not the common level. That is the level to be striven for, and it is beyond us to forgive in such a manner because our egos are like volcanoes. Now people may be very polite in their every- day dealings, as long as everyone behaves in ac- cordance with their expectations and everything falls into place according to plan; but should, God forbid, the smallest thing go wrong —for example a small.error in driving, even one that causes no accident — for such a small reason one may hear the ugliest obscenities pour from their mouths like a lava eruption, That ego makes people danger- ously ill, and now that people are totally under their egos’ command, where can you find the tol- erance described in that Holy Verse of the Qur'an? So much hate and frustration is pent up in «people —I see it in their looks— and so often a scapegoat is sought upon whom to release that tor- rent, and the best, the tried and true scapegoat throughout the world is always the “foreigners”; so | am quick to assure people here in the West: “We are just here as your guests. This is your homeland.” But is it? You can’t stay here either ex- cept in your graves. Your homeland is the grave, not above ground. Thank God, no one is begrudg- ing us cemetery plots, no one is trying to prevent our being buried. The gravedigger wipes the dirt off his hands and goes away, and the Earth accepts us indiscriminately; but people on the Earth are
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busy making distinctions, and therefore, that high lovel of acceptance of actions as coming from God in rarely found. But He teaches us the lesson nonetheless, saying: “You must understand who [ am: | am the Creator of people and their works: understand this, that you may attain peace and {inally leave behind your quarrelsomeness.”
Once [ was in Mecca with our Grandsheikh making Tawaf (circumambulating) the House of Allah, the Kaaba. Grandsheikh said to me: “Look up!” When I looked I saw above the heads of the people another group of worshippers performing their Tawaft; but these people were of a different class: calm, peaceful and graceful. They too were of mankind, not Angels, but they were the ones who had reached the level of seeing every action as issuing from Allah Almighty, therefore they left the level of earthly struggle.
But, meanwhile, back on the ground, amidst the throng, with those who lack such certainty, we were being pushed, shoved and trampled upon. Some groups locked arms and shoved straight through the crowd, full-speed ahead, sending all who were unfortunate enough to fall in their path flying through the air, like discarded banana peels. Elbows in my ribs, heels on my toes... but above us, the ones who concur with God's Will have no need for earth under their feet. Now, per- haps, you are thinking that such a thing is im- possible, that I am telling a “tall tale”, but yet,
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when you are told that airplanes fly you think nothing of it. If man can make metal fly, cannot God make man fly? They are at peace with their Lord and with everything in creation, therefore, everything carries them.
And so, we have been shown a higher way, the vision of Unity, and we have been asked to be patient with those events that are not to our liking, remembering their source. This is the best training for our egos. Undergo this training or you will struggle fruitlessly —-up to the grave. We are being trained by our Lord to recognize the Unity of Actions, so that we can come to understand the Unity of His Holy Names, which leads us to the knowledge of the Unity of His Holy Attributes; that knowledge will prepare us for that ultimate dive into the Unity Ocean of Allah Almighty’s exist- ence - essence. That is the final goal: that raindrop falls, and it will not emerge again ever— and it is content because it has just gained everything eternally, forever.
Therefore, Allah Almighty addresses mankind, saying: ‘Oh man, verily you are striving towards your Lord, and you will meet Him”. He Almighty is teaching us that all our striving on Earth, our running from East to West, here and there, night and day, is, unwittingly, nothing else than our race towards our Lord’s endless Unity Ocean, but we can’t now understand. Our souls long for our Lord, therefore we move, and there is nowhere to move save towards the One.
No One is Refused
Today, as I was praying, an important point appeared in the mirror of my heart, a subject that needs to be addressed. What is the position of every single person toward the rest of humanity und the rest of creation in general? Each person, ouch being, is by nature self-centered, though constantly interacting with others in his sur- roundings. Everybody divides his fellow beings into distinct categories: those having more in common With himself and others more in opposition — and ihe less in common the more critical the question becomes. So as a follower of a certain religion, you must ask yourself, what your attitude towards mem- bers of other religions will be. As a man, what kind of attitude do you have towards women, or as a woman towards men? As an elderly person towards the young, or asa youth, towards the elderly? As a wealthy person towards the poor, or as a poor man towards the wealthy? As a literate person towards the illiterate? What is your attitude, as a human being, towards animals, plants, inanimate objects, overything in existence?
The Holy Prophet, Muhammad, upon whom be peace, gave guidance to mankind in this matter when he said: “My Lord has taught me to show respect to all, to maintain a high level of good manners, and my Lord has perfected His teach- ing”. Now we need to know what those best manners are, and how they help us to show re- spect to all creatures in accordance with their re- spective levels, for, while Allah Almighty has made ali creatures worthy of respect, He has especially honoured mankind. We are invited to realize the full potential of that honour by perfecting our re- lations with all that surrounds us.
This perfection calls for a balance in our re- lations, along with the perception of the differences between beings and an ability to adjust our he- haviour according to those distinctions. This is be- cause Allah’s creatures, most especially men, are not factory productions, mass - produced and cut out- of the same mould. Each person has his own unique form, characteristics and capabilities— you can’t find two exactly identical people, even identical twins may differ drastically in character. Every- one carries something distinct, and we must observe these varying and distinguishing marks, that thereby we may receive Divine Wisdom, and marvel at the Power of our Lord, for who else could create such diversity? Whether you look around you at your fellow men, or at the stars in the sky, you will know, by their infinite variations that only God can have created the universe.
Human beings, the''Crown of Creation”, are candi- dates for the honourable rank of “Deputy of Allah on l‘arth". We are beings who have been endowed with the potential for uncovering a great secret Within ourselves. If in heedlessness we do not virive for it, it will remain deeply hidden within ourselves. What is the great secret within man that lio must discover to attain this rank? It is to under- stund that you are a manifestation of one of our Lord's endless Divine Attributes. Each person mani- foots a distinct attribute, no matter how many billions of people appear and disappear from this Earth, each one manifests a unique aspect of the Divine Reality. iach Divine Attribute is distinct, and, when fully unveiled, equally Divine. Therefore, our Lord is oblivious te our outward forms but is always mind- ful of the states of our hearts, as the heart of each inan is a throne from among the endless thrones of Allah Almighty. That heart is not the organ in our chests, it is only represented by it as a figure of speech. In your real heart, your “heart of hearts’, there is a throne and He Almighty appears on that throne through a distinct attribute that inanifests in you, and nowhere else in creation.
Therefore, you must respect everyone in exist- once, as, in reality, that respect is the respect for your Lord within him. That is the way our Prophet treated people, the way taught by real Islam: a deviance from this “Way of best manners” is a dangerous innovation (bid’a) of high degree. The
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respect that we must show towards our fellow hu- man beings is such that, should a baby be born, take three breaths and die, we must name him, wash his body and pray over him the funeral pray- er: and if there is no one else to perform those rites, even the Sultan himself is required to do so, and be that baby born to the lowest class of his sub- jects.
And what if the living or the dead be of another religion or without religion, do we show them. less respect? One day the Holy Prophet was sitting with his companions when a funeral procession passed by. The Holy Prophet stcod up in a sign of respect to that departed soul. One of the compan- ions said: “Oh Messenger of God, that is the body of one of the heathens. Are you showing respect to such people?” It was a sign of bad manners for that companion to say this, and he immediately regretted it. Does the Prophet not know whether that dead person and those of the procession are Muslims or idol- worshippers? If not, how can he be a Prophet? But as the companions were at dif- ferent levels of understanding and manners, build- ing gradually towards perfection, the Prophet was always patient with those who showed such a chal- lenging attitude; he explained his actions to that companion according to the level of his under- standing —- which was the common level. And how difficult for the common believer, whose human feelings are caught in the ebb and flow of daily
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events to understand how the Prophet gave this respect for people who were actively engaged in oppressing the Muslims— killing and boycotting thom, and generally showing abominable qualities! llow difficult for the common people to make a distinction between people’s bad actions and the Divine Realities hidden and veiled, yet present and untouched, in their heart of hearts, and in this way to understand why you must not hate your enem- ios! Such understanding makes a person eligible io receive Divine Secrets, and a category of knowl- edge the Holy Prophet was instructed to reveal only to initiates.
Therefore, to guide that companion in the gen- eral direction of this reality while not revealing to him that which he could not comprehend, the Holy Prophet told him; “Yes, these are unbelievers, but you must know that each one has Angels accom- panying him, recording his good and bad deeds, and the Angel of Death, Azrail, is accompanying the dead man as well: I am standing out of respect for those Angels”. In this way the Holy Prophet instructed all Muslims to show respect to all people living and dead, no matter how terrible their ac- jlons might be.
Mevlana Jalaluddin Bumi, an Islamic Saint known throughout East and West (and the author of the epic Sufi poem, the Mathnawi) was once crossing a marketplace when a priest passed by and bowed his head in respect. Mevlana returned
this gesture, bowing even lower, from the waist. The people asked him: “How is it that you bowed in front of that priest (who represents a religion that failed to recognize the Holy Prophet of Islam)?” In Islam, bowing is a gesture generally reserved for the worship of God, other signs of respect being used more commonly.
Then Mevlana answered them, on a level that ac- corded with their understanding: “That priest was humbling himself in front of us. He is Christian, we are Muslim; and Islam represents the completion of every goodness found in Christianity. There- fore, if he is humble we must strive to be even more humble”.
This explanation is frue, but on a deeper level, this reciprocation may be understood as respect to the real personality, the Divine Personality of that priest - and it is only He Almighty who dresses His servants in differing outward forms and pre- disposes them for different kinds of actions. Meviana recognized that it was his Lord who dressed him as a Sheikh and dressed that man as a priest; and if He wills, He can cause them to change roles, for each of their hearts to cling to the other’s religion in the blink of an eye; and who can say what Allah will do? What is beneath all these clothes but the throne of Allah, in a unique personality manifestation?
In the Holy Qur'an it is related that, when Allah Almighty created Adam, He ordered all the Angels to prostrate in front of him. Do you think Allah Almighty was ordering them to worship olher than Himself? All of the Angels were able to perceive that Divine Manifestation in Adam, and bowed dewn to their Lord by prostrating in front of Adam. But also in attendance was Satan, who was veiled by envy, and said: “What is he (hat I should worship him: I worship God alone”, But Satan could not see what was inside of Adam: all the Holy Names of Allah that were to be mani- fosted by all of his descendants. Were those veils of envy to be lifted, he would have been the first to obey. Envy blinds us to this vision, and, unhap- pily, it prevented many of those who represented earlier revealed religions from recognizing the Prophet Muhammad when he came, the veritable brother of the Prophets they venerate.
If we can remember that the presence of this Divine secret is in people’s hearts, and lock past their outward forms and actions, we may learn from everything and everyone and increase in wisdom. Only with this vision can we aspire to a magnanimity that will cause good actions to appear from people, for a ray of their Divine Essence to shine through and encourage the veils of ego to be lifted. Respect of the Divine Nature in man ieads to familiarity between people, and familiarity opens the way to love, and all love belongs to our Lord.
Our main responsibility in life is this; to clean
A hae off the bad characteristics that cover our Divine Personalities, and once we have accomplished this to help others free themselves of that heavy burden. We must always remember the sacrosanct nature of souls. Look, Sayyidina Umar, who was to become the second Khalifa of Islam, came to the Holy Prophet with the intention of killing him, but left that meeting with a heart full of love and good- ness, He was the same man, the essence of his being never changed, only his attitude did. So, we must always beware of saying: “So-and-so is a bad person”. You can’t say that of his real essence, no.
Although we regard the essences of people, we don’t accept their bad actions, but “fire upon” them the same way that a surgeon removes a tu- mour from a patient and leaves healthy tissue in- side of him: he knows to distinguish healthy tissue from cancerous tissue and removes only what is dangerous...
That is the method practiced by all the Prophets of all revealed religions from the beginning to the end. To help people purify themselves of destructive characteristics was the mission of Moses, of Jesus and also of the Seal of Prophets Muhammed, who was ordered by his Lord: “Purify them’. They all worked to this end and never despaired of success, as they had certainty that a treasure remained buried in people’s hearts. Look, if you have a precious diamond and then it falls into the toilet, are you going to flush it down with the dirties?
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Would anyone suggest such a thing? Perhaps some proud cr weak-stomached people might call for a servant to do it, but no one in his right mind would flush it away. Then, when you retrieve that diamond you are going to wash it with soap and water thoroughly, perhaps dip it in rose oil, and then return it to your finger. No one is then thinking that the diamond is dirty. Diamonds do not absorb the qualities of what they fall into — souls are the same.
In our time many people are searching for common ground upon which followers of all relig- ions may stand, a school of thought which may trace its thread through all true inspiration. This is that common ground: aspire to a deeper under- standing through your religion, an understanding that will open your eyes to the presence of the One in all things, that will reveal to you the respect- ability of all creatures, especially human beings, and enable you to desist from hating evildoers even while opposing their plots. This view will distance us from such a strong identity with labels that evoke fervor or enmity, as: American, Russian, German, Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, etc... and draw us closer to the realization that our Lord has honoured us all equally through the universal presence of His Div- ine Essence in our hearts. From that vantage point we will see that our Lord has given us through that Essence wonderful and unique characteristics, made
— 27 each and every one of us a manifestation of His Divine Attributes, of Himself,
Then it will be clear to us as well, that the veils of ego that cover our essence are as varied and subtle as the differences in the manifestation of the Essence; every one has unique “‘ego traps” design- ed to catch his own unique soul — and to avoid or escape these traps is at the heart of the knowl- edge of the Way. Only the one who approaches his Lord with sincere piety may discover that way, and that sincerity is what our Lord desires of us, what is-of real value, as He says in His Holy Book: “The best (or most honourable) of you is the most sin- cerely pious and God-fearing”. In other words, our Lord has honoured us all, but reserves His high- est honours for those who strive towards Him.
The Prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace, was endowed with the widest understanding of the significance of the Holy Verse: “We have honoured all of the Children cf Adam”, the under- standing of the presence of the One in the many. Meviana Jalaluddin Rumi was given the distinction of declaring these realities most openly to all Na- tions, inviting all people unconditionally through an open door, saying:
Come, come, whoever you may he, come again.
And be you non - believer, Magian or idolator, come again.
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Ours is not a Dergah of despair! Though you may have broken your repentance a hundred times, come again.
As Allah Alnighty opens His doors to all His servants, so do we accept our Lord’s servants. Wo are not fanatics who spend their lives interrog- ating those who seek to quench their thirst at the fountain. This is the way of our Grandsheikh, who declared: “I am an advocate for all the Children of Adam on the Last Day”. When someone arrives at our doorstep, we know who sent him, so we can’t refuse.
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Love is Lovely
Love is lovely to the Lord and to His ser- vants. If you do anything with love it should be accepted by your Lord, and He should make it tasteful for you. If you love your work it will be easy for you to do, if not, it will only bea burden. The Lord says: “I am not in need of your worship, I am only seeking the love with which it is offered.’’ Oh ser- vants of the Lord, Oh believers, you must not over- look this point. Don’t be like slaves rowing in the galley of a ship - if you pray, you must pray with love not by force, as if a slavedriver were standing over you with a whip! Allah never appreciates such forced devotions. Now we are trying to perform all the practices but forgetting to ask for Divine Love, so we are becoming like mechanical robots, or like people performing gymnastics.
Allah has asked us to engage our bodies in His worship and in service to His creation through charity and good deeds, but what musi be the fruit of those actions? If the fruit is not love it is a bitter fruit and is rejected. If our worship causes Love of God to grow in our hearts, then we must keep to that practice and continue on our way; and if we are keeping the company of a spiritual teacher, and find that through keeping his company love
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of God is awakening in our hearts, then we must follow him closely.
The Love of God is not easy to attain, for we cunnot imagine Him; therefore, He Almighty has tiade the Prophets apostles of His Love. Allah’s Loloved, the Seal of Prophets, Muhammad, upon whom be peace, was such a pure medium for the iransmission of that love that the hearts of his com- punions were overwhelmed with his love, and were (ransported to the love of God. He was the rep- rosentative of Allah, who is the Absolute Truth; therefore, the Prophet declared: “Who has seen me has seen the Absolute Truth”.
When a delegation of non-Muslims came to visit Medina, they were amazed at the love and rospect shown to the Prophet by his companions. When they returned home they said to their leader: “We have met many emperors, kings and tribal chiefs, but mever have we seen one whose subjects or courtiers treated him with such sincere love and devotion. How can this be?” They were not able lo comprehend the secret of this love, as their egos caused them to deny Muhammed’s prophethood. The love of the companions towards the Prophet was such that they used to say to him: “I am ready to sacrifice for you even my mother and father”, which, for the Arabs, is much stronger than saying: “I would sacrifice myself for you”. And in reality many of them underwent nearly unbearable hardships for the sake of their belief in the mission of the Holy Prophet: exile, disinheritance, boy- cott, torture and death.
Who represented the Holy Prophet after his life on Earth? Those who evoked such love. The Prophet himself described them: “Those who see them are reminded of God”. He who thirsts for Div- ine Love must seek out such people, but in our time they are mostly hidden, and Islam has come to mean for many people only a set of rules of con- duct and forms of worship - an empty shell. Who can derive taste from such a thing? Shall mosques be only gymnasiums? And now the “gym teachers” are opposing Sufi Paths, which are the ways of the heart, ways that lead to the Love of God,
Our Lord has given us an instrument that measures not your blood pressure but our “love pressure” and our goal is to make it high! Yes, seek to improve with every new day, for the Holy Prophet said: “Whoever does not improve with each day is losing ground.” What does this mean? It doesn’t mean that if we pray forty rakats of prayer today, we should pray forty-one tomorrow and forty-two the next day. No, that is not required, what is intended is that you fill your worship with ever more love of your Lord, so that He will observe: “My servant has sent Me more love today than yesterday. “One of our Grandsheikhs summarized perfectly what I a
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