MERCY OCEANS, Book 07 (Hidden Treasures, Shaykh Nazim, 220 pages, 6/12)
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hem — you are living in prison voluntarily.”
‘Ali asked them: “What is your method in life?” They answered: “Our way is to live free, to not restrict ourselves within any bounds; we have freewill and exercise it as we wish.” (In our times, there are many people, especially in the Western countries, who say exactly the same things — that they live without any restrictions. I say to them: Out-of-bounds people may live happily in jungles with the wild animals — not with other people.)
Sayyidina ‘Ali replied to them: “Oh my Lord’s servants, I address you as my Lord’s servants, even though you deny being anyone’s servants; because in my view you are all servants of my Lord, and your denial doesn’t alter this fact in the least: in reality you are all His servants. I have listened to all you had to say, but I can’t accept it. I have only one question to ask you, by the answer of which it will, inshaAllah, become clear who is foolish and who is wise.”
During the lifetime of the Prophet, ‘Ali never hastened to self-willed actions; for example, he never grabbed for his sword asking the Prophet for permission to kill misguided and disrespectful people who came to argue with and criticize the Prophet, as Sayyidina ‘Umar had often done when faced with such insolent people. Because he followed the Holy Prophet to the
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extent of becoming his ‘perfect shadow’, ‘Ali was able to incorporate the Prophet’s wisdom and his inimitable patience and forbearance. He had absorbed Sayyidina Muhammad’s, character to such a degree that the Prophet said regarding ‘Ali: “I am the City of Knowledge and ‘Ali is the Gate.” This is why, when his turn came to lead the Nation in place of the Holy Prophet, he was able to deal correctly with such people as these philosophers.
Then those people were waiting for ‘Ali to ask his question, and what he asked them was this: “Will there come a day when we and you shall be equal?’’ They replied, “Yes, there will come such a day; on the day we die, we shall all become equal to one another.” ‘Ali replied: “Yes, the day my question was referring to is the day of our deaths, as everyone is going to taste death one day. When we all have passed away, your bodies lying in their respective graves, our bodies lying in ours, then we shall all be equal: dead bodies in graves. If one person has lived the pleasurable life of a king on his throne, and another lived in squalor and misery, never tasting any enjoyment from this life —- on the day both of them die, they are equal, are they not?” “Equal,” replied the philosophers.
Now, listen to a ‘story within a story’: Once Jesus Christ, Peace be Upon Him, was wandering in a mountainous area when he heard a sound like a voice calling to him, saying: “Oh Jesus Christ, come towards me.” Jesus heard the voice but was not able to see who was calling him, so he followed the voice until he arrived at the entrance of a cave and heard that voice calling him from the inside of that cave. He entered and saw a king’s royal tomb with an engraved golden plate attached to the tombstone.
Jesus Christ had been able to read and write since he was very small, and thus he read what was inscribed
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on that plate: “I am the greatest man of my time, and I conquered the world from East to West. I lived for one thousand years, conquered one thousand citadels in one thousand victorious battles, and I married one thousand beautiful virgin girls. None of life’s enjoyments remain that I have not tasted — and when I tasted, I filled myself to the utmost; but, oh visitor of my tomb, when the day of my death had come and my soul was ready to leave me, then I felt the pangs of death (Sakarat-ul- Mawt), and they made me forget everything — just one pang of agony and all taste for the pleasures of this life left me and never returned, leaving me empty-handed and in pain.”
“Now, oh visitor of my grave, take a warning from me: Don’t be fooled by this life, for it is but an illusion; no one can take this life’s enjoyments with him to the other world — if anyone could have done so, it would have been me — but even I could not take a thing with me, and now I am in this darkness of suffering as a result of those past enjoyments, which have been transformed into something quite unalike the pleasures they used to be.”
Then Sayyidina ‘Ali asked the philosophers: “How are you going to be on that day? Your enjoyment will become nil, and our self-imposed sufferings will disappear also. We are the ones who are really free of suffering, because now, for a brief interval, we put ourselves in prison, but very soon we shall be free, whereas you are free now for a short while but will soon be caught and thrown into the dungeon”.
Once a Saint saw in a dream a certain Great Shaykh running about and exclaiming exuberantly: “All praise and thanks to my Lord! At last I have been freed from my prison!” When he awakened and went out among the people, that Saint heard that the Great Shaykh he
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had seen in his dream had indeed just died that same day — had become free of his prison.
‘Ali continued: “If the matter is as you say — that there is nothing after death — no Hell and no Paradise, no Day of Resurrection, nothing — then you and I are equal; we have lost nothing, and you have not gained — equal; but if, after death, the matter is as we believe it to be, we have indeed gained, but you, you must think what will come to this head (at this point ‘Ali gave the chief philosopher a very sharp rap of the knuckles on his head — bang!).
Then the philosophers put their heads together with the aching head of their chief and tried to think up a suitable reply; but ‘Ali had them cornered so totally that they could think of no way around his logic. They had finally fallen within bounds and were surrounded by a wall of truth in which they couldn’t find a hole even the size of a needle’s eye to escape through. The chief philosopher said: “Oh Imam, you are right, we are stupid, not you. Intelligence and wisdom tell us to follow you, and we do not wish to remain stupid. Tell us about Islam so that we may join you in it.”
The validity of this lesson may be observed up to this day, as even now you cannot find any philosopher who can escape from the net of Imam ‘Ali’s reasoning; they must admit that: “Wisdom orders us to think about life after death, so that we may have a reserve to fall back upon, so that we will have prepared for all contingencies. We are believing so that, if what has been promised is true, we will not be empty-handed.” This is valid for every time and every surroundings, and no one can raise any objection — everybody will have to face death, and all must agree that there is nothing intimately to be lost, but only to be gained. Wisdom orders us to be wise: the unbelievers are foolish, not the believers.
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ATTAINING REAL HUMILITY IN WORSHIP: TO AVOID BEING SELF- SATISFIED WITH THE AMOUNT OF ONE’S DEVOTIONS
Our Grandshaykh is focusing on and bringing into people’s awareness a very fine point so that they might act upon it. No one, not even the Holy Prophet himself, is going to reach any rank in the Divine Presence by means of his acts of worship; and even if the Holy Prophet was to be offered a reward for his devotions, he would not accept it; he would say: “I expect no reward for my acts of devotion.”
If a person is expecting any reward for his devotions, it means that he sees his own actions as being good enough and worthy of a reward from Allah. Whosoever thinks that his actions or worship are suitable for the Divine Presence has no knowledge of Absolute Truth (Haqiqa) and its secret knowledges. Therefore, you may see them worshipping enthusiastically, pushed on to ever more devotions just because they are thinking: “These are good actions and I shall reap my reward for them,” but it never occurs to them that those actions aren’t suitable for the Divine Presence.
Whoever knows that even the Prophet’s devotions are not suitable for the Divine Presence will perform his devotions because Allah has ordered him to perform them, but he will never regard those acts as being worthy of Allah’s reward. Whenever he is performing worship or doing a good deed, he will be ashamed of it, and say to himself: “How shall this ever reach the Divine Presence, it is so pathetic.” But he knows that he has been ordered
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to worship, so he worships without expecting anything in return.
But there is another group of people who are very proud of their devotions and say: “We performed such an amount of devotions, did so-and-so many actions, for which we shall reap rewards corresponding to our efforts; hard workers get paid good wages.”
You must be careful not to misunderstand me, nor to turn the intended meaning upside down; no doubt, as a result of what we are saying here, some people will accuse us of discouraging our followers from worship —far from it, Allah is my witness! We are never discouraging anyone from worship, we are only teaching people the highest good manners (Adab) with their Lord Almighty, and that adab is: not to be contented with the amount of your worship while you effectively destroy its merits with your pride and with your thinking that it will be first-class in the Divine Presence; it is better to present your worship to your Lord, saying: “Oh my Lord, I am ashamed to send this before Your Divine Presence — forgive me my shortcomings and inability to worship or thank You as You deserve to be worshipped and thanked.”
I heard of one great Saint who, every time he came to the mosque to pray with the congregation (Jamaat) would wait until everyone had entered, and only then enter the mosque himself, standing next to the shoe- rack and praying there. Then, as soon as the prayer was finished, he would run out of the mosque, saying: “Praised be the Lord, for He has covered for me the badness of my condition so that no one could detect it. If those people were to know what I am really like inside, they would chase me out of the mosque, throwing their shoes at me and beating me with them.”
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Those who know the true value of their deeds regard them as being totally pathetic and worthless; they are always ashamed of them and seldom raise their heads to the skies out of their great humility. But there are many others who say: “We are Bishops, we are Cardinals, we are more than Cardinals.” Some say: “Oh, I am a renowned Shaykh of Islam, I am extremely learned in the religious sciences, I am a big and important man.” In order to see what may really be their case, we should just leave them after their deaths for three days, and then we should come to see what is beginning to happen to their bodies. Now, we may anoint people with a good perfume and they may smell very nice, but that is not what counts here: leave them for three days after their death and then see if Allah is giving them a good fragrance — if there arises a bad odour, then all their titles are useless.
Every religion teaches people to be humble, but the ego (Nafs) always likes to show itself off as being the best, the most excellent, the most learned and most competent person of all. That is the basic mistake of the ego, and the Prophet was sent to liberate people from the bonds of such foolish thoughts. The most humble person among all the Sons of Adam was our Prophet, Peace be Upon Him, and in order to teach us humility, he said: “I am the greatest noble person of all the Sons of Adam on the Day of Resurrection, and I say this completely without pride.” In this, instruction is to be found for everyone who has been given rank by his Lord: there is no cause for pride, pride is for Allah only; everything that has been given to the Sons of Adam comes from their Lord Almighty, and at any moment He may take it away from them and leave them with nothing. * * *
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ADVICE FOR INSTRUCTORS: UNDERSTAND WISDOM WITH YOUR HEART BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT TO TEACH IT
Our Grandshaykh was speaking about people who instruct the community on the Islamic religion and topics relating to its practice (Wa’izh). According to the command of Allah Almighty, there must be some people among each community who instruct people as to what they may do, as to what has been permitted for them by Allah Almighty (Halal), and to warn them against those things which they must avoid, as they have been forbidden to them by Allah (Haram). Most people think that it is an easy job to address people: take a book and read it — finish. So many people think that it is only sitting and speaking; either reading to the people from books and explaining, or sometimes memorizing so that people think that he really knows a great deal. For one week they prepare to give a half-hour sermon — this kind of teaching is only of the imitative kind.
A really important point for an instructor of the community is to understand the wisdoms that he speaks about. The fountain of wisdom is the heart, not the mind. If you can’t use your heart, you can’t be satisfied. As long as you are giving lessons from your mind, you and the people you are addressing are on the same level, and so you cannot teach them anything; to teach the teachings of Allah and His Prophet, you must have learned to teach with your heart. If you teach from your heart, then the teaching will be like honey. But if you teach from your mind only — i.e. looking up information in a number of books and then reproducing it — then you resemble one who wings from flower to flower, like a bee, gathering the flowers’ nectar, then puts it in a jar
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and calls it honey, but it is not honey. Why not? — He says: “I saw a bee flying hither and thither collecting the nectar of flowers, so I did as he did.” But no honey comes from his jar. For honey to be made, the bee must eat the nectar, then the honey appears of itself.
Therefore, you must not let yourself be fooled by those people who speak for hours and hours on religion, thinking they give honey, because the difference between what they give and real honey is like the difference between heaven and earth. People who claim to be teachers are of two kinds; one kind are like wasps who go from flower to flower like bees, but never produce any honey or beeswax. Even if they have attained the highest level of knowledge that the mind can encompass, if their teaching does not come from the heart, it isn’t honey. The other kind of teachers are like bees, their teaching comes from the heart and is like pure honey. How does one become such a ‘bee’? The Prophet says, if a person can keep sincerity (Ikhlas) with his Lord for forty days, then his Lord will open up fountains of wisdom for that person.
During the time that Sayyidina ‘Ali was Khalifa in Kufa, he travelled to Basra and made his rounds of all the mosques in order to listen to the people who were teaching in those mosques. After visiting each of them and hearing every instructor speaking from his pulpit, he issued a decree ordering all except Hasan Al-Basri and Qadi Shurayh to stop preaching; he forbade all of them to address people in the mosques. He said that all of the ‘instructors’ other than those two were only storytellers who parroted stories without understanding their real significance, even if they were claiming to be teaching people good. Sayyidina ‘Ali gave permission only to those two to do any teaching in the mosques, — for the others, no need.
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You may eat some rotten food, and your stomach might become upset and you will induce vomiting, but whoever listens to something no-good cannot get rid of it so easily, and it may stay with him until the end of his life. It is for this reason that our Grandshaykh cautioned his murids against listening to scholars who deny Tariqats and Murshids, for maybe they will poison you. If a person sits with such deniers, he must be prepared to carry a heavy burden of darkness and live with an injured heart for one year.
Our Grandshaykh told the following tale in order to describe people to whom you may, and indeed should listen: Ibrahim bin Adham, who is known as King of the Ascetics (Sultan Az-Zahideen), was a great king who one day heard the call to come to the way of his Lord. He left his kingdom and gave everything to his commanders, generals, princes and royal family. When he was just ready to leave the palace for good, he called one of his slaves, who had been the palace gardener, and told him to come; then he gave his royal cloak to that slave and asked him to give him his gardener’s coat in exchange. The gardener was astonished at this and full of fear; he said: “How may it be possible for the lowest of servants to wear the king’s royal cloak, and for the majestic king to wear these dirty old rags?’’ The king answered: “Oh my son, do you not know that last night your Sultan became a slave of a slave of a slave...? Now I am a slave of seven slaves, the top one of them being a slave of the Almighty.’’ See how quickly he came to the level of humility, how he regarded himself as being nothing, as being level with the earth.
Now our Grandshaykh says: “Oh Nazim Efendi, whoever desires to teach people in mosques and Sufi schools (Zawiya) must be very careful, especially in these times in which we are living. In the time of Ibrahim bin Adham, he counted only seven masters; now, in our
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times, if a person is not regarding himself as being on a lower level than many thousands of people, if he is not regarding himself as the slave of many people whom he deems superior to himself, then he will never be able to carry out his duty effectively: he will never make them believe in their Lord, or, if they are already believing, he will never strengthen them in their faith.
For example, here we are in Damascus: if an instructor of religion can’t look at himself as being a slave to everyone, it means that he has some egoism, and that egoism will spread through his teachings to everyone who comes in contact with him. Grandshaykh was saying that if a man who addresses people doesn’t humble himself and won’t regard himself as being a slave in front of his audience of thousands, then those people whom he is proposing to teach will ‘piss on him’ and his teachings. What I mean to say is that the people will hear so much good advice from that instructor, but they will do exactly the opposite of what they were advised.
To prevent this from happening is no easy matter, because everyone who is studying and learning and learning still more is, in most cases, going to become an egoist; and when people come to him and listen to him, they will go off and do as he does. So many big shaykhs never admit or realize the necessity of fighting their egos, they just continue amassing knowledge which benefits neither themselves nor anybody else. Their knowledge feeds only their egos. They never consider, nor are they able to perceive that an important element is missing from their religious lives. And so, as they won’t accept training at the hands of a Grandshaykh, they find themselves, along with the teachings they have imparted, being disrespected by those very people whom they were thinking to help. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance for a person who wants to teach people to really see himself as their servant — to humble himself
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in front of the people he is hoping to teach.
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ONE BUD IN EACH TREE CONFIRMS THE APPROACH OF SPRING: WESTERNERS ARE BEING GRANTED FAITH AS MUSLIM NATIONS ABANDON IT
We are seeking Divine Help, and that Divine Help comes through Saints, as they are in contact with the Heavens and have heavenly powers: The forty Saints called “Substitutes” (Abdal, Budala) are centred in Damascus. Each one of them has three hundred kinds of powers, any one of which, if put to use, could move the Himalayan Mountains into the Ocean. Anyone seeking Divine Help may gain access to it through being in contact with such a Saint. You may walk with them, sit with them, eat with them or listen to them — all such activities will bring you Divine Help in your efforts to fight your ego, to conquer it.
So many people, especially in Western Europe and America are fascinated by and very interested in miraculous happenings. Thanks to Allah, in our Eastern countries, no one is interested in these things. But you and we are all servants of our Lord, and He may give anything to anyone. At present, the Christian World is in self-imposed exile from the blessings (Baraka) of Islam; for fourteen hundred years, in accordance with the Divine Wisdom which decreed it to be so, they have been kept far away from benefiting from its baraka. But now, little by, little, that wall between us is beginning to crumble.
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Allah Almighty warns the Muslims in the Holy Qur’an: “If you turn away, We will replace you with another people, and those people will not be anything like you (i.e. Will not turn away as you have).’’ The implication of what Allah is saying here is: “If you turn your backs and flee from Me, My Qur’an, My Prophet, I will take from your hearts the guidance which I have given you, and bestow My favours on another people, more worthy than you to wear My Guidance, My Book and Prophet as a crown on their heads.”
That time is now approaching: Allah Almighty is turning the hearts and eyes around so that the Muslims are only looking to this world’s elusive pleasures and the glittering facade of western materialism, whereas many of the Westerners themselves are fed up with it and thus have been granted the light of faith with which to emerge from the darkness of ignorance. We are pleased with what is starting to happen in America and Europe, even if, as of yet, only twenty, fifty or a hundred thousand people may have come to Islam; numbers are of no importance, and we are pleased that, one-by-one, slowly but surely, they are coming to Islam. Just like in the beginning of spring, you may see just one bud or blossom in each tree; and although so many of the branches are still bare, the presence of that one bud is enough to give the good tidings of the approach of spring.
The winter of frozen animosities and misconceptions among Europeans and Americans regarding Islam is just passing away and the spring thaw has commenced; drop by drop the icicles melt, and so we can see in Germany, America, Japan and all other nations a small but ever-growing number of new Muslims. This is proof of Allah’s desire to open the hearts to Islam, and even if all European people were popes, they wouldn’t be able to close what Allah is opening.
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One day I was walking with Grandshaykh in the marketplace, when an old priest came up to him saying: “As-salamu ‘alaykum”, and then shook his hand. Grandshaykh asked me: “Oh Nazim Efendi, do you know who that was?” I replied: “If you tell me who he is, then I may know, otherwise, I would have to say, judging from appearances, that he is a Christian priest.” He said: “That was one of thirty-seven priests who were ordered to accept Islam and accepted.”
Grandshaykh has the power to be the means by which such miraculous conversions may occur, and since the Prophet ordered it, the Grandshaykh must seek to carry out the order. The Prophet ordered Grandshaykh to catch thirty-seven priests of Damascus and bring them to Islam, without asking them to change their outer garb or profession, as such a change would cause untold trouble (Fitna) in these times; they were asked to perform the Muslim prayer only in the absolute privacy of their chambers. Now thirty of them are living and seven have died. In the time of Imam Al-Mahdi, so many Christians will openly come to Islam — quickly; but now you are witnessing the first signs of that spring. Even if I can count your number on my fingers now, it doesn’t matter, for we are looking for the quality, not the quantity.
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WHEN PEOPLE SAY: “I DON’T CARE...”
Real happiness for people, here and hereafter, lies in their meeting with Saints — exiled persons cannot reach that meeting.
Once Grandshaykh said: “Oh! To where shall I escape? I wish to escape, but to where? Oh Allah, to
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where?” Then my Grandshaykh answered himself: “Oh Nazim Efendi, I wish I could escape to a land where there is no God. I am saying to myself, ‘If I can find such a land, I will quickly run and hide myself there, and stay there until my death’.” I asked him why, and he replied: “You ask me why I want to escape, oh my son? —Because I would like to be like you, with no divine responsibility (Takleef) upon me.” What Grandshaykh is saying is that most of us are not really in a position to carry responsibility, not even for ourselves. Saints (Awliya) are responsible for their whole Nations (Ummah). When Grandshaykh says, “I would like to be like you, free of responsibility,” he is describing and teaching us about a quality of most people — that of being irresponsible.
When I was in London, I heard so many people saying, “I don’t care!” How can anyone who claims to be of humankind say such a thing as, “I don’t care?” It is a sure sign that he is an irresponsible person. In the days of the Ottoman Empire, the greatest of the learned men of the time was asked by some of the people: “Oh our master, can you tell us what the first sign of the arrival of the Last Day will be?” He replied: “I don’t care.” The people were aghast, and said: “If you don’t care, then who does?” But he just repeated the same answer until, exasperated by their incomprehension, he said: “Don’t you understand what I am saying? You asked me what the first sign of the Resurrection Day (Yaum ul- Qiyamah) will be, and I replied, ‘I don’t care’. Everyone on that day will come with thoughts only for himself and not caring in the least for others — imprisoned within himself, alone. He may sit in the same chair as another, but he is at the same time worlds away from him.”
Already we can see people not caring for anyone other than themselves, and only coming together with one another if there is something to be gained. They will
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carry the burden of each other’s presence only if there is potential profit in it. Because they deny the realities of the Day of Resurrection and Judgement, it does not occur to them to feel responsibility.
Grandshaykh was saying that if he could find a land where there was no God, then he would go there and be like you; but it is impossible, as Allah is everywhere; only with His Presence anything can exist at all; if not for His Being, not one atom would be in existence, nothing at all. Some learned people have expressed it as follows: “He is All-in-All.” Grandshaykh went on to say: “If a person loses his Lord and can’t distinguish clearly between what his Lord wants of him and what Satan calls him to, then he has no more responsibility — he has lost Allah. Responsibility is upon those who affirm the Existence of God, but since most people have lost Allah, they do whatever they do without responsibility. They know no limits to the excesses of evil they commit, as they categorically deny the existence of Allah. They have regard only for the teaching they receive from their egos, their vain desires, from their love of the world and from Satan, the accursed devil who instructs the ego to be ever more rapacious in its love for the world and ever more determined to follow its vain desires. These are their gods, and they obey them alone and are their most humble servants.
Grandshaykh is showing us, as if in an X-ray, what our inner lives really look like, that perhaps we might take heed and beware.
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THE WORST BLASPHEMIES ARE NO BURDEN ON ALLAH, BUT HE WILL REWARD THE FAITHFUL BY DRAWING THEM CLOSE TO HIS PRESENCE
Our Grandshaykh was saying that we are living in a time when the majority of people have expelled the mention of Allah Almighty from among their midst, so that whole nations are declaring officially that there is no God in their countries. They are saying this and committing Allah to ‘exile’ — so many Nations and individuals are foolishly saying this, and thereby bringing upon themselves endless problems. This worldwide catastrophe is made even worse by that fact that this illness of denial is also spreading throughout the Islamic World, so that there are now many people who contend that Allah doesn’t exist. They can be called ‘Muslim-Kafirs’; in our times the word ‘Muslim’ itself is beginning to mean ‘Unbeliever, Kafir’. Those ‘Muslim- Kafirs’ or ‘Kafir-Muslims’ are even worse in their unbelief than ordinary unbelievers.
Then Grandshaykh was saying: “Allah Almighty is looking to all His people: He sees them, hears them and knows about them with absolute knowledge. Whoever says that there is no God, or that there are three gods, or three gods-in-One or one hundred gods, they may speak as they please, their blasphemies are not going to affect Allah in the least; neither will their denials of reality change that eternal reality a single bit. Don’t think of your Lord in the same manner that you think of one of His creatures. Let us say, for example, that you are a king, and people are cursing you; if you hear about it, you will be angry or saddened. But Allah is not like His servants — He is All-Encompassing (Wasi’), and nothing can touch Him.”
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An instance which further illustrates my Grandshaykh’s point is that of how some ignorant people among the Arabs, when a little child is just beginning to learn how to speak, teach him some good words, but also some very bad words; so that when the child talks to them, he is cursing them without understanding what he is saying. The parents think this cute and laugh about the child, but if an adult were to say those same things to them, they would certainly want to kill him. However, as the child is small, they say, “Never mind, how cute, he is so young.”
Oh people, Allah Almighty isso Great— He is absolute in Greatness, and we are absolutely insignificant. He hears the talk of men; He knows they are saying, “Three gods, no God, blue-and-green gods…”; He is not affected by the talk of people. We must understand that by His decree people are divided into two classes: one party working for goodness, the other for badness. He knows what burden each person is carrying in his life, each party is working in accordance with His decree, and no one can depart from it.
When people disobeyed their Prophets, those Prophets sometimes complained to their Lord and said: “Our people are not listening to us, nor heeding our words, but, on the contrary, are attacking us with curses and stones, and are making us suffer.” Allah Almighty replied: “As I order you, so you must do; if they listen or not is none of your concern, for your duty is only to deliver My commands. Don’t look after them in order to see who is pious, or who is sinning, your duty is in relaying the message (Tabligh), and it is Mine to take account (Muhasaba) — on the Last Day I will draw that account, not before.” Therefore, how Allah Almighty will deal with His people in the end is a secret belonging to Him.
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“MY MERCY OUTDOES MY ANGER”
Grandshaykh, speaking about the final results of our actions (Aqiba) and Allah’s manner of judg
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hem — you are living in prison voluntarily.”
‘Ali asked them: “What is your method in life?” They answered: “Our way is to live free, to not restrict ourselves within any bounds; we have freewill and exercise it as we wish.” (In our times, there are many people, especially in the Western countries, who say exactly the same things — that they live without any restrictions. I say to them: Out-of-bounds people may live happily in jungles with the wild animals — not with other people.)
Sayyidina ‘Ali replied to them: “Oh my Lord’s servants, I address you as my Lord’s servants, even though you deny being anyone’s servants; because in my view you are all servants of my Lord, and your denial doesn’t alter this fact in the least: in reality you are all His servants. I have listened to all you had to say, but I can’t accept it. I have only one question to ask you, by the answer of which it will, inshaAllah, become clear who is foolish and who is wise.”
During the lifetime of the Prophet, ‘Ali never hastened to self-willed actions; for example, he never grabbed for his sword asking the Prophet for permission to kill misguided and disrespectful people who came to argue with and criticize the Prophet, as Sayyidina ‘Umar had often done when faced with such insolent people. Because he followed the Holy Prophet to the
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extent of becoming his ‘perfect shadow’, ‘Ali was able to incorporate the Prophet’s wisdom and his inimitable patience and forbearance. He had absorbed Sayyidina Muhammad’s, character to such a degree that the Prophet said regarding ‘Ali: “I am the City of Knowledge and ‘Ali is the Gate.” This is why, when his turn came to lead the Nation in place of the Holy Prophet, he was able to deal correctly with such people as these philosophers.
Then those people were waiting for ‘Ali to ask his question, and what he asked them was this: “Will there come a day when we and you shall be equal?’’ They replied, “Yes, there will come such a day; on the day we die, we shall all become equal to one another.” ‘Ali replied: “Yes, the day my question was referring to is the day of our deaths, as everyone is going to taste death one day. When we all have passed away, your bodies lying in their respective graves, our bodies lying in ours, then we shall all be equal: dead bodies in graves. If one person has lived the pleasurable life of a king on his throne, and another lived in squalor and misery, never tasting any enjoyment from this life —- on the day both of them die, they are equal, are they not?” “Equal,” replied the philosophers.
Now, listen to a ‘story within a story’: Once Jesus Christ, Peace be Upon Him, was wandering in a mountainous area when he heard a sound like a voice calling to him, saying: “Oh Jesus Christ, come towards me.” Jesus heard the voice but was not able to see who was calling him, so he followed the voice until he arrived at the entrance of a cave and heard that voice calling him from the inside of that cave. He entered and saw a king’s royal tomb with an engraved golden plate attached to the tombstone.
Jesus Christ had been able to read and write since he was very small, and thus he read what was inscribed
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on that plate: “I am the greatest man of my time, and I conquered the world from East to West. I lived for one thousand years, conquered one thousand citadels in one thousand victorious battles, and I married one thousand beautiful virgin girls. None of life’s enjoyments remain that I have not tasted — and when I tasted, I filled myself to the utmost; but, oh visitor of my tomb, when the day of my death had come and my soul was ready to leave me, then I felt the pangs of death (Sakarat-ul- Mawt), and they made me forget everything — just one pang of agony and all taste for the pleasures of this life left me and never returned, leaving me empty-handed and in pain.”
“Now, oh visitor of my grave, take a warning from me: Don’t be fooled by this life, for it is but an illusion; no one can take this life’s enjoyments with him to the other world — if anyone could have done so, it would have been me — but even I could not take a thing with me, and now I am in this darkness of suffering as a result of those past enjoyments, which have been transformed into something quite unalike the pleasures they used to be.”
Then Sayyidina ‘Ali asked the philosophers: “How are you going to be on that day? Your enjoyment will become nil, and our self-imposed sufferings will disappear also. We are the ones who are really free of suffering, because now, for a brief interval, we put ourselves in prison, but very soon we shall be free, whereas you are free now for a short while but will soon be caught and thrown into the dungeon”.
Once a Saint saw in a dream a certain Great Shaykh running about and exclaiming exuberantly: “All praise and thanks to my Lord! At last I have been freed from my prison!” When he awakened and went out among the people, that Saint heard that the Great Shaykh he
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had seen in his dream had indeed just died that same day — had become free of his prison.
‘Ali continued: “If the matter is as you say — that there is nothing after death — no Hell and no Paradise, no Day of Resurrection, nothing — then you and I are equal; we have lost nothing, and you have not gained — equal; but if, after death, the matter is as we believe it to be, we have indeed gained, but you, you must think what will come to this head (at this point ‘Ali gave the chief philosopher a very sharp rap of the knuckles on his head — bang!).
Then the philosophers put their heads together with the aching head of their chief and tried to think up a suitable reply; but ‘Ali had them cornered so totally that they could think of no way around his logic. They had finally fallen within bounds and were surrounded by a wall of truth in which they couldn’t find a hole even the size of a needle’s eye to escape through. The chief philosopher said: “Oh Imam, you are right, we are stupid, not you. Intelligence and wisdom tell us to follow you, and we do not wish to remain stupid. Tell us about Islam so that we may join you in it.”
The validity of this lesson may be observed up to this day, as even now you cannot find any philosopher who can escape from the net of Imam ‘Ali’s reasoning; they must admit that: “Wisdom orders us to think about life after death, so that we may have a reserve to fall back upon, so that we will have prepared for all contingencies. We are believing so that, if what has been promised is true, we will not be empty-handed.” This is valid for every time and every surroundings, and no one can raise any objection — everybody will have to face death, and all must agree that there is nothing intimately to be lost, but only to be gained. Wisdom orders us to be wise: the unbelievers are foolish, not the believers.
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ATTAINING REAL HUMILITY IN WORSHIP: TO AVOID BEING SELF- SATISFIED WITH THE AMOUNT OF ONE’S DEVOTIONS
Our Grandshaykh is focusing on and bringing into people’s awareness a very fine point so that they might act upon it. No one, not even the Holy Prophet himself, is going to reach any rank in the Divine Presence by means of his acts of worship; and even if the Holy Prophet was to be offered a reward for his devotions, he would not accept it; he would say: “I expect no reward for my acts of devotion.”
If a person is expecting any reward for his devotions, it means that he sees his own actions as being good enough and worthy of a reward from Allah. Whosoever thinks that his actions or worship are suitable for the Divine Presence has no knowledge of Absolute Truth (Haqiqa) and its secret knowledges. Therefore, you may see them worshipping enthusiastically, pushed on to ever more devotions just because they are thinking: “These are good actions and I shall reap my reward for them,” but it never occurs to them that those actions aren’t suitable for the Divine Presence.
Whoever knows that even the Prophet’s devotions are not suitable for the Divine Presence will perform his devotions because Allah has ordered him to perform them, but he will never regard those acts as being worthy of Allah’s reward. Whenever he is performing worship or doing a good deed, he will be ashamed of it, and say to himself: “How shall this ever reach the Divine Presence, it is so pathetic.” But he knows that he has been ordered
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to worship, so he worships without expecting anything in return.
But there is another group of people who are very proud of their devotions and say: “We performed such an amount of devotions, did so-and-so many actions, for which we shall reap rewards corresponding to our efforts; hard workers get paid good wages.”
You must be careful not to misunderstand me, nor to turn the intended meaning upside down; no doubt, as a result of what we are saying here, some people will accuse us of discouraging our followers from worship —far from it, Allah is my witness! We are never discouraging anyone from worship, we are only teaching people the highest good manners (Adab) with their Lord Almighty, and that adab is: not to be contented with the amount of your worship while you effectively destroy its merits with your pride and with your thinking that it will be first-class in the Divine Presence; it is better to present your worship to your Lord, saying: “Oh my Lord, I am ashamed to send this before Your Divine Presence — forgive me my shortcomings and inability to worship or thank You as You deserve to be worshipped and thanked.”
I heard of one great Saint who, every time he came to the mosque to pray with the congregation (Jamaat) would wait until everyone had entered, and only then enter the mosque himself, standing next to the shoe- rack and praying there. Then, as soon as the prayer was finished, he would run out of the mosque, saying: “Praised be the Lord, for He has covered for me the badness of my condition so that no one could detect it. If those people were to know what I am really like inside, they would chase me out of the mosque, throwing their shoes at me and beating me with them.”
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Those who know the true value of their deeds regard them as being totally pathetic and worthless; they are always ashamed of them and seldom raise their heads to the skies out of their great humility. But there are many others who say: “We are Bishops, we are Cardinals, we are more than Cardinals.” Some say: “Oh, I am a renowned Shaykh of Islam, I am extremely learned in the religious sciences, I am a big and important man.” In order to see what may really be their case, we should just leave them after their deaths for three days, and then we should come to see what is beginning to happen to their bodies. Now, we may anoint people with a good perfume and they may smell very nice, but that is not what counts here: leave them for three days after their death and then see if Allah is giving them a good fragrance — if there arises a bad odour, then all their titles are useless.
Every religion teaches people to be humble, but the ego (Nafs) always likes to show itself off as being the best, the most excellent, the most learned and most competent person of all. That is the basic mistake of the ego, and the Prophet was sent to liberate people from the bonds of such foolish thoughts. The most humble person among all the Sons of Adam was our Prophet, Peace be Upon Him, and in order to teach us humility, he said: “I am the greatest noble person of all the Sons of Adam on the Day of Resurrection, and I say this completely without pride.” In this, instruction is to be found for everyone who has been given rank by his Lord: there is no cause for pride, pride is for Allah only; everything that has been given to the Sons of Adam comes from their Lord Almighty, and at any moment He may take it away from them and leave them with nothing. * * *
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ADVICE FOR INSTRUCTORS: UNDERSTAND WISDOM WITH YOUR HEART BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT TO TEACH IT
Our Grandshaykh was speaking about people who instruct the community on the Islamic religion and topics relating to its practice (Wa’izh). According to the command of Allah Almighty, there must be some people among each community who instruct people as to what they may do, as to what has been permitted for them by Allah Almighty (Halal), and to warn them against those things which they must avoid, as they have been forbidden to them by Allah (Haram). Most people think that it is an easy job to address people: take a book and read it — finish. So many people think that it is only sitting and speaking; either reading to the people from books and explaining, or sometimes memorizing so that people think that he really knows a great deal. For one week they prepare to give a half-hour sermon — this kind of teaching is only of the imitative kind.
A really important point for an instructor of the community is to understand the wisdoms that he speaks about. The fountain of wisdom is the heart, not the mind. If you can’t use your heart, you can’t be satisfied. As long as you are giving lessons from your mind, you and the people you are addressing are on the same level, and so you cannot teach them anything; to teach the teachings of Allah and His Prophet, you must have learned to teach with your heart. If you teach from your heart, then the teaching will be like honey. But if you teach from your mind only — i.e. looking up information in a number of books and then reproducing it — then you resemble one who wings from flower to flower, like a bee, gathering the flowers’ nectar, then puts it in a jar
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and calls it honey, but it is not honey. Why not? — He says: “I saw a bee flying hither and thither collecting the nectar of flowers, so I did as he did.” But no honey comes from his jar. For honey to be made, the bee must eat the nectar, then the honey appears of itself.
Therefore, you must not let yourself be fooled by those people who speak for hours and hours on religion, thinking they give honey, because the difference between what they give and real honey is like the difference between heaven and earth. People who claim to be teachers are of two kinds; one kind are like wasps who go from flower to flower like bees, but never produce any honey or beeswax. Even if they have attained the highest level of knowledge that the mind can encompass, if their teaching does not come from the heart, it isn’t honey. The other kind of teachers are like bees, their teaching comes from the heart and is like pure honey. How does one become such a ‘bee’? The Prophet says, if a person can keep sincerity (Ikhlas) with his Lord for forty days, then his Lord will open up fountains of wisdom for that person.
During the time that Sayyidina ‘Ali was Khalifa in Kufa, he travelled to Basra and made his rounds of all the mosques in order to listen to the people who were teaching in those mosques. After visiting each of them and hearing every instructor speaking from his pulpit, he issued a decree ordering all except Hasan Al-Basri and Qadi Shurayh to stop preaching; he forbade all of them to address people in the mosques. He said that all of the ‘instructors’ other than those two were only storytellers who parroted stories without understanding their real significance, even if they were claiming to be teaching people good. Sayyidina ‘Ali gave permission only to those two to do any teaching in the mosques, — for the others, no need.
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You may eat some rotten food, and your stomach might become upset and you will induce vomiting, but whoever listens to something no-good cannot get rid of it so easily, and it may stay with him until the end of his life. It is for this reason that our Grandshaykh cautioned his murids against listening to scholars who deny Tariqats and Murshids, for maybe they will poison you. If a person sits with such deniers, he must be prepared to carry a heavy burden of darkness and live with an injured heart for one year.
Our Grandshaykh told the following tale in order to describe people to whom you may, and indeed should listen: Ibrahim bin Adham, who is known as King of the Ascetics (Sultan Az-Zahideen), was a great king who one day heard the call to come to the way of his Lord. He left his kingdom and gave everything to his commanders, generals, princes and royal family. When he was just ready to leave the palace for good, he called one of his slaves, who had been the palace gardener, and told him to come; then he gave his royal cloak to that slave and asked him to give him his gardener’s coat in exchange. The gardener was astonished at this and full of fear; he said: “How may it be possible for the lowest of servants to wear the king’s royal cloak, and for the majestic king to wear these dirty old rags?’’ The king answered: “Oh my son, do you not know that last night your Sultan became a slave of a slave of a slave...? Now I am a slave of seven slaves, the top one of them being a slave of the Almighty.’’ See how quickly he came to the level of humility, how he regarded himself as being nothing, as being level with the earth.
Now our Grandshaykh says: “Oh Nazim Efendi, whoever desires to teach people in mosques and Sufi schools (Zawiya) must be very careful, especially in these times in which we are living. In the time of Ibrahim bin Adham, he counted only seven masters; now, in our
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times, if a person is not regarding himself as being on a lower level than many thousands of people, if he is not regarding himself as the slave of many people whom he deems superior to himself, then he will never be able to carry out his duty effectively: he will never make them believe in their Lord, or, if they are already believing, he will never strengthen them in their faith.
For example, here we are in Damascus: if an instructor of religion can’t look at himself as being a slave to everyone, it means that he has some egoism, and that egoism will spread through his teachings to everyone who comes in contact with him. Grandshaykh was saying that if a man who addresses people doesn’t humble himself and won’t regard himself as being a slave in front of his audience of thousands, then those people whom he is proposing to teach will ‘piss on him’ and his teachings. What I mean to say is that the people will hear so much good advice from that instructor, but they will do exactly the opposite of what they were advised.
To prevent this from happening is no easy matter, because everyone who is studying and learning and learning still more is, in most cases, going to become an egoist; and when people come to him and listen to him, they will go off and do as he does. So many big shaykhs never admit or realize the necessity of fighting their egos, they just continue amassing knowledge which benefits neither themselves nor anybody else. Their knowledge feeds only their egos. They never consider, nor are they able to perceive that an important element is missing from their religious lives. And so, as they won’t accept training at the hands of a Grandshaykh, they find themselves, along with the teachings they have imparted, being disrespected by those very people whom they were thinking to help. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance for a person who wants to teach people to really see himself as their servant — to humble himself
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in front of the people he is hoping to teach.
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ONE BUD IN EACH TREE CONFIRMS THE APPROACH OF SPRING: WESTERNERS ARE BEING GRANTED FAITH AS MUSLIM NATIONS ABANDON IT
We are seeking Divine Help, and that Divine Help comes through Saints, as they are in contact with the Heavens and have heavenly powers: The forty Saints called “Substitutes” (Abdal, Budala) are centred in Damascus. Each one of them has three hundred kinds of powers, any one of which, if put to use, could move the Himalayan Mountains into the Ocean. Anyone seeking Divine Help may gain access to it through being in contact with such a Saint. You may walk with them, sit with them, eat with them or listen to them — all such activities will bring you Divine Help in your efforts to fight your ego, to conquer it.
So many people, especially in Western Europe and America are fascinated by and very interested in miraculous happenings. Thanks to Allah, in our Eastern countries, no one is interested in these things. But you and we are all servants of our Lord, and He may give anything to anyone. At present, the Christian World is in self-imposed exile from the blessings (Baraka) of Islam; for fourteen hundred years, in accordance with the Divine Wisdom which decreed it to be so, they have been kept far away from benefiting from its baraka. But now, little by, little, that wall between us is beginning to crumble.
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Allah Almighty warns the Muslims in the Holy Qur’an: “If you turn away, We will replace you with another people, and those people will not be anything like you (i.e. Will not turn away as you have).’’ The implication of what Allah is saying here is: “If you turn your backs and flee from Me, My Qur’an, My Prophet, I will take from your hearts the guidance which I have given you, and bestow My favours on another people, more worthy than you to wear My Guidance, My Book and Prophet as a crown on their heads.”
That time is now approaching: Allah Almighty is turning the hearts and eyes around so that the Muslims are only looking to this world’s elusive pleasures and the glittering facade of western materialism, whereas many of the Westerners themselves are fed up with it and thus have been granted the light of faith with which to emerge from the darkness of ignorance. We are pleased with what is starting to happen in America and Europe, even if, as of yet, only twenty, fifty or a hundred thousand people may have come to Islam; numbers are of no importance, and we are pleased that, one-by-one, slowly but surely, they are coming to Islam. Just like in the beginning of spring, you may see just one bud or blossom in each tree; and although so many of the branches are still bare, the presence of that one bud is enough to give the good tidings of the approach of spring.
The winter of frozen animosities and misconceptions among Europeans and Americans regarding Islam is just passing away and the spring thaw has commenced; drop by drop the icicles melt, and so we can see in Germany, America, Japan and all other nations a small but ever-growing number of new Muslims. This is proof of Allah’s desire to open the hearts to Islam, and even if all European people were popes, they wouldn’t be able to close what Allah is opening.
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One day I was walking with Grandshaykh in the marketplace, when an old priest came up to him saying: “As-salamu ‘alaykum”, and then shook his hand. Grandshaykh asked me: “Oh Nazim Efendi, do you know who that was?” I replied: “If you tell me who he is, then I may know, otherwise, I would have to say, judging from appearances, that he is a Christian priest.” He said: “That was one of thirty-seven priests who were ordered to accept Islam and accepted.”
Grandshaykh has the power to be the means by which such miraculous conversions may occur, and since the Prophet ordered it, the Grandshaykh must seek to carry out the order. The Prophet ordered Grandshaykh to catch thirty-seven priests of Damascus and bring them to Islam, without asking them to change their outer garb or profession, as such a change would cause untold trouble (Fitna) in these times; they were asked to perform the Muslim prayer only in the absolute privacy of their chambers. Now thirty of them are living and seven have died. In the time of Imam Al-Mahdi, so many Christians will openly come to Islam — quickly; but now you are witnessing the first signs of that spring. Even if I can count your number on my fingers now, it doesn’t matter, for we are looking for the quality, not the quantity.
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WHEN PEOPLE SAY: “I DON’T CARE...”
Real happiness for people, here and hereafter, lies in their meeting with Saints — exiled persons cannot reach that meeting.
Once Grandshaykh said: “Oh! To where shall I escape? I wish to escape, but to where? Oh Allah, to
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where?” Then my Grandshaykh answered himself: “Oh Nazim Efendi, I wish I could escape to a land where there is no God. I am saying to myself, ‘If I can find such a land, I will quickly run and hide myself there, and stay there until my death’.” I asked him why, and he replied: “You ask me why I want to escape, oh my son? —Because I would like to be like you, with no divine responsibility (Takleef) upon me.” What Grandshaykh is saying is that most of us are not really in a position to carry responsibility, not even for ourselves. Saints (Awliya) are responsible for their whole Nations (Ummah). When Grandshaykh says, “I would like to be like you, free of responsibility,” he is describing and teaching us about a quality of most people — that of being irresponsible.
When I was in London, I heard so many people saying, “I don’t care!” How can anyone who claims to be of humankind say such a thing as, “I don’t care?” It is a sure sign that he is an irresponsible person. In the days of the Ottoman Empire, the greatest of the learned men of the time was asked by some of the people: “Oh our master, can you tell us what the first sign of the arrival of the Last Day will be?” He replied: “I don’t care.” The people were aghast, and said: “If you don’t care, then who does?” But he just repeated the same answer until, exasperated by their incomprehension, he said: “Don’t you understand what I am saying? You asked me what the first sign of the Resurrection Day (Yaum ul- Qiyamah) will be, and I replied, ‘I don’t care’. Everyone on that day will come with thoughts only for himself and not caring in the least for others — imprisoned within himself, alone. He may sit in the same chair as another, but he is at the same time worlds away from him.”
Already we can see people not caring for anyone other than themselves, and only coming together with one another if there is something to be gained. They will
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carry the burden of each other’s presence only if there is potential profit in it. Because they deny the realities of the Day of Resurrection and Judgement, it does not occur to them to feel responsibility.
Grandshaykh was saying that if he could find a land where there was no God, then he would go there and be like you; but it is impossible, as Allah is everywhere; only with His Presence anything can exist at all; if not for His Being, not one atom would be in existence, nothing at all. Some learned people have expressed it as follows: “He is All-in-All.” Grandshaykh went on to say: “If a person loses his Lord and can’t distinguish clearly between what his Lord wants of him and what Satan calls him to, then he has no more responsibility — he has lost Allah. Responsibility is upon those who affirm the Existence of God, but since most people have lost Allah, they do whatever they do without responsibility. They know no limits to the excesses of evil they commit, as they categorically deny the existence of Allah. They have regard only for the teaching they receive from their egos, their vain desires, from their love of the world and from Satan, the accursed devil who instructs the ego to be ever more rapacious in its love for the world and ever more determined to follow its vain desires. These are their gods, and they obey them alone and are their most humble servants.
Grandshaykh is showing us, as if in an X-ray, what our inner lives really look like, that perhaps we might take heed and beware.
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THE WORST BLASPHEMIES ARE NO BURDEN ON ALLAH, BUT HE WILL REWARD THE FAITHFUL BY DRAWING THEM CLOSE TO HIS PRESENCE
Our Grandshaykh was saying that we are living in a time when the majority of people have expelled the mention of Allah Almighty from among their midst, so that whole nations are declaring officially that there is no God in their countries. They are saying this and committing Allah to ‘exile’ — so many Nations and individuals are foolishly saying this, and thereby bringing upon themselves endless problems. This worldwide catastrophe is made even worse by that fact that this illness of denial is also spreading throughout the Islamic World, so that there are now many people who contend that Allah doesn’t exist. They can be called ‘Muslim-Kafirs’; in our times the word ‘Muslim’ itself is beginning to mean ‘Unbeliever, Kafir’. Those ‘Muslim- Kafirs’ or ‘Kafir-Muslims’ are even worse in their unbelief than ordinary unbelievers.
Then Grandshaykh was saying: “Allah Almighty is looking to all His people: He sees them, hears them and knows about them with absolute knowledge. Whoever says that there is no God, or that there are three gods, or three gods-in-One or one hundred gods, they may speak as they please, their blasphemies are not going to affect Allah in the least; neither will their denials of reality change that eternal reality a single bit. Don’t think of your Lord in the same manner that you think of one of His creatures. Let us say, for example, that you are a king, and people are cursing you; if you hear about it, you will be angry or saddened. But Allah is not like His servants — He is All-Encompassing (Wasi’), and nothing can touch Him.”
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An instance which further illustrates my Grandshaykh’s point is that of how some ignorant people among the Arabs, when a little child is just beginning to learn how to speak, teach him some good words, but also some very bad words; so that when the child talks to them, he is cursing them without understanding what he is saying. The parents think this cute and laugh about the child, but if an adult were to say those same things to them, they would certainly want to kill him. However, as the child is small, they say, “Never mind, how cute, he is so young.”
Oh people, Allah Almighty isso Great— He is absolute in Greatness, and we are absolutely insignificant. He hears the talk of men; He knows they are saying, “Three gods, no God, blue-and-green gods…”; He is not affected by the talk of people. We must understand that by His decree people are divided into two classes: one party working for goodness, the other for badness. He knows what burden each person is carrying in his life, each party is working in accordance with His decree, and no one can depart from it.
When people disobeyed their Prophets, those Prophets sometimes complained to their Lord and said: “Our people are not listening to us, nor heeding our words, but, on the contrary, are attacking us with curses and stones, and are making us suffer.” Allah Almighty replied: “As I order you, so you must do; if they listen or not is none of your concern, for your duty is only to deliver My commands. Don’t look after them in order to see who is pious, or who is sinning, your duty is in relaying the message (Tabligh), and it is Mine to take account (Muhasaba) — on the Last Day I will draw that account, not before.” Therefore, how Allah Almighty will deal with His people in the end is a secret belonging to Him.
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“MY MERCY OUTDOES MY ANGER”
Grandshaykh, speaking about the final results of our actions (Aqiba) and Allah’s manner of judg
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