THE DIVINE KINGDOM (Shaykh Nazim, 104 pages, 2/6)
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Caucasus, in Iran, in Turkey, in Arab countries - so many illusions, but very few oases. Rather, they are full-up with illusions. The Lord of the heavens! the Lord of the Children of Adam, says, "Do not cut off your hope" (39:53). Therefore whoever seriously asks to find, he must find.
Why is it that He makes wisdom difficult to find? Because everything that the one finds easily is cheap, taken for granted while everything that one finds with difficulty, one looks after more carefully. One may say that it is so difficult to obtain. Yes, that is true. Therefore, if you are asking for an oasis, it is difficult to find and you must face every difficulty to find it.
As long as you are alive, you must walk towards somewhere. There may be one hundred illusions. Then you may find, at the end of one hundred, that oasis. Don't say, "I went there and found that it was an illusion. Then I turned to another one and that also was an illusion. I have run after all ninety-nine and found them all to be illusions. why should I try this one?” Don't say it! To the extent that you can walk, you must go on and try. Ninety-nine may be illusions but one may be a real oasis for you because the Lord says, "Don't cut off hope. Don't despair." When you cut off hope, you are going to die. Finished. No one dies until he cuts of his hope of living, but whoever hopes to live, may live. Whoever hopes to find, must find.
11 THE PURE HEART AFTERNOON, JUNE 1, 1985
"The pure heart (galbun salim), that is perfection which God Almighty wants from His servants to reach that perfection."
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate, the Merciful, the Compassionate, Who created all the universes and all things; the Lord of the heavens, the Lord of the Worlds, the Lord of the sons of Adam. We are his weak servants. Every time we are here in such a gathering, we are asking for our Lord's Divine help for ourselves.
We are in need of His Divine Help at every moment. You can't imagine a unit of time which is so small that You can't count it (you might say one millionth of a second, if you could make a second into a million parts) - you can't say that the whole universe is without need, in even such a small unit of time, of Divine Help. If during that time that Divine Help is cut off, that Divine Help for all the universes in existence, then all will disappear. No one can bring it back except its Creator, its Lord, God Almighty. Therefore you must ask for Divine Help for everything, for every time, for every occasion.
As much as you may be with Him, He will be with you. Yes. But you lose yourself and forget. Then that Divine Help goes from you and you are left in the hands of your ego. Therefore, we must always ask for Divine Help. Oh my Lord, don't leave us in the hands of our egos, because our ego is proud, so proud, saying, "I am not in need of anyone," while it is in need at every moment, never without need for that support. That is why we say, "There is no might and no power except with God, the Most High, the Almighty."
Religion, and particularly Islam, brings belief to people. It asks you, first of all, to believe in your Creator who brings you into existence, because no one is able to bring self into existence or keep self in existence. It is impossible for anyone to claim that he or she can bring self into existence or keep self in existence, so that we must believe that someone brings us into existence and also takes us from existence. We appear and then disappear.
That is the main point of Islamic beliefs, as it was the main point for other religions - to make people believe in their Lord Almighty, who brings them into existence and keeps them in existence and then takes them away from existence.
Secondly, He brings them to His Divine Presence. Therefore, the most important fundamental for every religion, and, particularly in Islam, is to
12 believe in God Almighty, and then to believe that He brings you into the next life, that He returns you to another life. That is the most important thing which every religion makes its followers or believers believe in - that there is God Almighty Who created all things, including the children of Adam, and that He is able to bring them back to life after death, to give them their lives again and to bring them into His Divine Presence. That must be the belief in every religion.
Then we do believe, Oh servants of our Lord, Oh humanity. We have been ordered to do something and to leave something. Every religion teaches people to do something and abstain from something. Without commands, it is not a religion, because we act, we work, we do things. Therefore, the Lord Almighty orders something for action, and all orders that we have been commanded to act upon give us honor (karamah). Every command that we have been ordered to carry out is to make us more honorable in the Divine Presence.
We have also been asked to abstain from something, from such-and-such things. This is protection for ourselves, for safety. Anything for which our Lord says, "Abstain from it” is only for our safety here and for our Protection in the hereafter.
No one can object concerning those actions which are prohibited by Islam, claiming that this was useful and Islam prevented it. If he does he must be foolish. He must be a mad person. He must be an ignorant person. Who knows more about humanity than anyone else? Its Creator must know the most about humanity. Therefore, He knows best what is worst and most harmful and dishonorable for this life and the hereafter.
Every action that you do here takes a shape, takes a form, and reaches you after death. You must see everything that you did in this life in front of you. Nothing is going to be lost. All your deeds are preserved for you. First of all, you are going to meet them when the door of your grave opens. Then you will meet everything that you did parading in front to of you. No one can see that except the owner of that grave, but your neighbors may come and look. So, then, we have been ordered to do something. God Almighty is going to look at everything that you did and to ask His servant about it.
Imam al-Ghazzali is one of the "King-sized" scholars and Imams in Islam who is known throughout the world. God Almighty gives honor to those people who are sincere with their Lord Almighty. We are following their way and accepting them. Imam al-Ghazzali wrote so many books; perhaps one lifetime is not enough to read his books - to read and to understand and to act on them, as well. He has a collection of books called Ihya Ulum al-Din (Revival of Religious Sciences). If all other Islamic books were destroyed and only those books remained, they would be enough to make everything in Islam clear. Yes, they
13 are enough. Such peoples’ hearts are always occupied with the Holy Qur'an and the Traditions (ahadith). God Almighty opens the springs of wisdom to them and gives them understanding of the Holy Qur'an and of Traditions. If a Tradition (hadith) consists of five words, we can read only five words. We can't make it six words. They may give meanings and understanding. They may understand from one Tradition (hadith) as much knowledge as a volume. According to your faith, you may receive meanings, you may receive more lights, from the verses of the Holy Qur'an and from the Traditions.
Then, Imam al-Ghazzali, may God bless him, was saying that when a person dies and is put into a coffin and people carry him to the grave - (before our time, people would carry the dead person on their shoulders to the cemetery. Now there are such gigantic cities that it is impossible to carry the coffin on their shoulders. They put the dead body into a car and quickly bring take it to the cemetery) - when that dead body is taken, the Lord asks that person forty questions; Imam al-Ghazzali says, forty different questions before the body arrives and is buried in the grave, questions which are only between the Lord and the dead person.
He says that the first question that God Almighty asks that person is, "O My servant, you always adorned yourself among people. You were very careful to look after yourself - how you dressed, fixing your hair, having so many things. You were careful to look handsome, beautiful and elegant among people, very careful, because people looked at you. But did you do anything to your heart for Me? You knew that I looked only at your heart, not at your outward appearance, what color your eyes were, or your skin color, whether you were tall or short, black or white - no. I always looked at your heart. Did you ever think to yourself, 'My Lord is looking at my heart, I must keep it pure and adorned with excellent qualities! Did you ever think of that because I was looking, saying, "My Lord is looking at my heart. I must keep it excellent for Him"? "
That is the first question. It contains everything in itself.
Is it enough for believers to be doing their best to illuminate their hearts, purify them - enough for them here and in the hereafter, as well? On the Day of Resurrection, God Almighty is not going to ask you what you brought of money or of sons or of property or of ranks - no. "Where is your heart? With which heart have you come to me? The purified heart, the golden heart (26 :89) - where is it? Give it to Me. That was what I was asking from you during your life." That is the main thing which is asked of everyone: Keep your heart pure and excellent and bring it to Me.
Then, according to your heart, your purified heart, everything will appear to you for the Eternal Life. You will look at your Lord's Eternal Lights and Endless
14 beauties through your heart's mirror. You will see your Lord's beauties, Endless beauties, Endless Lights, through your heart. Therefore there will be ranks in the Divine Presence - first, second, third, fourth.
The first rank is for prophets (anbiya) and saints (awliya), and for those who reached true faith during their lives and then, according to the degree of their faith, they go into the Divine Presence. Whoever would like to in the first rank must first take care of his or her heart.
Now we are fasting. We are keeping our stomachs from eating and drinking, but mostly we are saying to our organs, 'You are free. " We are fasting only by not eating and drinking, but for our organs, as well. We are not commanding them and saying, "You must stop this, you must keep guard on your self. " We do not say this.
Then, there is still another kind of fasting. It is the most important fast, to free our hearts from everything except our Lord Almighty, to be with your Lord with your heart. If anything wrong comes through the hearts of such people, they say that we must wash ourselves as a person who is in a state of prescribed impurity washes. If any kind of thoughts of this world or of paradise and anything in it come to the heart, he must wash himself or herself. It means, "Oh My servant, you are occupying your heart with something other than Me. Your heart is for Me alone. I must always be there and you must be there with Me always. You may be with this world with your body but, Oh My servant, you must be with Me always with your heart."
If you say that this is impossible, your Lord does not speak except the Truth, the Real. If it were impossible, He would not say it, He would not request you to be with Him with your heart. It is possible, so that He asks His servants, "Oh My servants, you may be bodily, physically, in this world, going, coming, doing everything. But you must be with Me with your heart. Don't leave Me.” The reason, He says, is, "Because I don't leave you. If I leave you, you will be nothing. If I am with you, you are all things. Don't leave Me!" For this reason, when people of the first rank think of something other than their Lord Almighty, they have been ordered to wash - to wash their bodies and then their hearts, washing them from every thought except their Lord.
That is perfection which God Almighty wants from His Servants. God wants His servants to reach that perfection. Islam brought the complete ways and methods for reaching that perfection so that Islam is perfection every way. Anyone who wants to reach that perfection must follow Islam and its methods and ways. To the extent that you can follow, you may take benefit, but you must make your goal that perfection. You must not agree to less than perfection. It is not an honor for a servant if his Lord gives him or her a chance to reach that
15 perfection and he or she remains less than that. That is also the honor of Islam which it gives to people and to which it calls them.
We are asking forgiveness from God Almighty because we always want to stay down below, not going up, and saying "I seek forgiveness from God,” (istighfar Allah) for everything that we are doing contrary to the commands of our Lord Almighty. We are also praising Him with the most high praises because He made us candidates for that perfection and asking for His Divine Help by
saying, "Praise belongs to God and thanks be to God" (al-hamd Allah wa shukr Allah).
16 TWO FUNDAMENTALS OF ISLAM MORNING, JUNE 2, 1985
"Islam brought respect and mercy. We have lost them both now. "
We are living during a time in which everything has changed and appears in an opposite form. Everything has been changed from its original state to another, a non-original state, you may say.
This holds true for Islam, as well. You can look at Islam and can see that in our time, our scholars or our statesmen are presenting Islam in a form which was not its original one. Everything now is going according to the desires of peoples’ egos. Everyone says about Islam what he likes. Muslim statesmen and scholars are running out of Islam. They are saying what their egos want them to say, because everyone's ego wants Islam to be as he or she likes, so that in our time you can find thousands and thousands of descriptions of Islam.
All of them are wrong because they are changing Islam from its original form and giving some unheard of descriptions of it according to their egos' desires (hawa nafs). They say whatever their egos suggest to them about Islam. They do this in the name of Islam according to their egos' desires.
We reject all of them. There is the war between Iran and Iraq. That is proof of what we are saying now. This is not Islam, not from either side. We do not accept it. And everywhere you may find that people are not trying to follow the original Islam, but making Islam follow them. That is the most dangerous, terrible way that people are going on.
We must follow the sunnah, the practice of the Prophet Muhammad (saws). To what was he calling people and for why was he fighting? He was only fighting with Haqq, Truth, Reality, against falsehood (batil). The claims of your ego are useless. Your ego is useless. Therefore, if peoples’ hearts do not meet on one point, then it is useless, and that one point is one which Islam brought - monotheism, unity (tawhid). Everyone's thoughts must meet on that point of unity. In Islam, there it is not that one person thinks one thing and another person thinks something else with everyone going his or her own way. No. Everyone must meet on the point of monotheism, of unity.
We accept our Lord, Almighty God. We claim that we are His servants. Therefore, we must live in servanthood to Him and nothing else. Abu Yazid Bistami, may God bless him, said that we find Islam built on two fundamental, simple things. One of them is respect, most high respect, towards our Lord. The
17 second is to care for, to be compassionate towards His servants and towards His creatures in general.
In everything that you do there must be respect for your Lord Almighty. That is the first thing that is to be considered in any action that a person may do. One must not do anything without giving respect to one's Lord, Almighty God. Therefore, Prophet Muhammad (saws) said that respect for your Lord is to begin everything by saying, "In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate, the Merciful, the Compassionate." That is the respect that you can give to your Lord at the beginning of every action. You must know that if He does not give permission or success to you, you can't be successful in any action. You can't even move your hands or your feet.
Then, you must care for, you must be Compassionate, to every creature. The Prophet (saws) said, "Even if you need to kill, do that kindly (ihsan), also." When you kill a sheep, a cow, a camel, a chicken, kill it kindly, God so orders, but people have lost that now. Even if you kill some harmful insect or animal, you must use something that doesn't give it too much pain. You must kill it instantly, and, therefore, it is prohibited to burn people or animals or insects. God prohibits it because only He may burn. No one may use fire to burn people - but now people are intending to burn the whole world and everyone in it, all nations. Earlier, weapons were only cold steel, swords and spears, but afterwards every weapon used fire to burn people. Now big bombs are burning everything. Earlier very few people used fire for execution - it is forbidden (haram) in the Divine Law. If you are obliged to kill some harmful thing, don't burn it. Fire is only for cooking and for heat - that is all.
You must be compassionate. You must not even step on an ant without reason, because it also has life and when it sees you approaching to kill it, it runs away. It feels death and its pain. Therefore, it runs. It also glorifies its Lord. Therefore, you can't kill it if it has not harmed you. You can't kill it. If you kill it, you must bear the responsibility. Thus, Islam came with endless compassion for creatures, for everyone. Compassion is the correct word to describe Islam through the statements of the Friends of God (awliya).
When the angel Gabriel (as ) came to the Seal of the Prophets, beloved Muhammad (saws), for the last time, he said, "This is the last time that I will come to you to bring God's commands. Prophethood is finished. I will bring no more message from heaven to prophets." The Prophet (saws) asked, "Will you ever come again to earth?” "I will come," angel Gabriel said, "but I will not bring anything. Rather I will come to take away something from the earth. I will come to take knowledge from the earth so that ignorance covers the whole world and people fall into those oceans of ignorance."
18 They are even claiming that there is no God. Instead of saying, "There is no god but God," they stop at saying, "There is no God." That is the highest point of ignorance. You can't find anything more ignorant than that. If a person knows everything, but does not know the Owner of himself and of the whole of the Universe, he is ignorant.
"I will come to take that away. I will come yet again to take blessings (barakah) from the earth,” angel Gabriel said. You can find everything. People receive a lot of money, fill up their pockets, but still they say, "Not enough, not enough."
I remember there were three pence, three piasters of Queen Victoria, in Cyprus (Shaykh Nazim grew up in Cyprus during the period when it was a part of the British Empire). I can remember it quite well, a little piece of a silver coin, three piasters. It was enough for a person for one day; even for a family it was enough, that little silver coin. Some coins were even less than three piasters. There were some shepherds who for the whole day looked after sheep for one piaster. Their owner gave them a piece of bread and olives to eat and one piaster. Thirty piasters for a month, and they were happy.
Now, so many pounds! We were astonished when we were fifteen or sixteen years old, to see that some people went to London from Cyprus and they worked and said they got two pounds, three pounds, each week. Hah, so much money! "Each week or each month?" "No, each week - three pounds, four pounds, even five pounds." In Cyprus a famous officer made five pounds in a month. A policemen, for one-and-a-half pounds a month would go and come, go and come, not sitting down, not like the police in our time, six hours and then finished. No. From early to late or up to night, and sometimes the whole night, sometimes the whole day, they were working. One-and-a-half pounds and they were very pleased that they had a job. "We are policemen with uniforms and a fez." Yes, important people.
Then, angel Gabriel came and took away the blessings. He also came once again to take mercy from the hearts of people. It has been taken away, also. No more mercy. Yesterday I heard about something which shows the mentality of people for sports, for football. They injure so many people and leave them on the ground. Then they come and say, "You must play again. We want to watch." What mercy is in their hearts, those people? What is this? This is an example only, but more and more dangerous things are now going to happen because mercy has gone out of hearts. Every day you may take newspapers and look at what people are becoming - like robots, no more mercy, their hearts becoming rocks, never feeling. Islam fights against such things. Therefore its Prophet (saws) came with mercy and as a mercy.
"Will you come yet again?” the Prophet (saws) asked angel Gabriel.
19 "I will come once more," Angel Gabriel said, "to take modesty (haya) from the earth." Look outside now and see how men and women are dressing. In earlier times, mothers or grandmothers were ashamed to be in their bedrooms in such a way that people now dress outside. That is humanity, that is honor, this is modesty?
And this is the news from heaven which came to us fifteen centuries ago. What angel Gabriel, announced has come to us now. Yes, it is correct. No more knowledge that leads people to goodness and to honesty and to honor either here or in the hereafter. That is finished. People now are learning - learning for what?
Only to support the kingdom of Satan on earth. They are learning only that one thing, how they can support Satan's kingdom on this earth. That is all the knowledge that you can learn. Even religious schools are bringing something from that satanic knowledge, putting it amidst true knowledge. For what? To make it ineffective, also. Yes, finished. Its power goes away. You can't find even religious schools or colleges giving pure knowledge heavenly knowledge, because Satan does not give permission for pure, heavenly knowledge, saying, "No. It is no good. You must mix up something else with that knowledge."
What is that knowledge? It is a heavenly knowledge, coming from God Almighty. We must accept that, not those - those are for Satan only, and support for his kingdom. Satan is so careful to do everything for himself. And as the Prophet (saws) informed us, it is now appearing. You must look at what you do.
Then, when we said that everyone is describing Islam according to his Satan, everyone has a Satan with himself, also. Therefore the future of this generation, these people, is bleak. You can't see any brightness or light. It is bleak, very bleak. God knows what things will appear amidst those bleak horizons, falling on people. There must be something, and that is a punishment that people will be given from themselves to each other.
Islam brought respect and mercy. We have lost both of them. In the Divine Presence, one life from among the children of Adam is more precious than the whole world, but we are making it less than a fly's. European people are laughing at Iran and Iraq, but they themselves are doing worse than that. Football is an example of what they are doing. It is only a small example, but if they can do that, it means that those people can do more than this. If that door opens to them, mercy is finished.
Therefore, the West can no longer laugh at the East nor the East at the West. When winter comes, the whole world is covered with snow. In such a way, now
20 hearts are covered. No mercy enters into them. Islam says, "Don't kill." We say, "We must kill.”
May God forgive us. We are asking forgiveness at every moment. If we give our wills into the hands of our enemies, or if we give our wills into the hands of satans, this is the result. You can't expect any other. Yes, I am looking at Cyprus now, also. The newspaper comes everyday. We are 100,000 or 200,000 people living in the Turkish part. Now there are fifteen parties and all of them quarreling, seriously, fighting with each other, swearing, cursing everything. What is this’? And we claim that we are Muslims! If we can find the chance to kill, we may kill each other there, also, but the Turkish government has put a strong power and holds people by their hands, like this. And they say this is democracy.
That must be, yes. People can kill each other for the sake of democracy. That is the mentality of the twentieth century, because Satan says, "My kingdom can never continue without democracy" (that is, unlimited personal freedom which a democratic society permits becomes, inevitably, a tool of Satan). Therefore he urges people, "Take courage,” urging people to have democracy. Everywhere it is written. I say that it means that you must be sufficiently brave to have democracy. They asked me, "Do you accept this?" giving me the ballot, and on it was written "Yes" or "No." I wrote on it "Yes for Islam." And from God is the Divine Help (wa min Allah at-tawfiq). It is time for prayer.
21 SHAYKH ABDULLAH AD-DAGHISTANI AND JALAL AL-DIN RUMI
AFTERNOON, JUNE 2, 1985
"May God bless them both, give respect to everyone."
God Almighty teaches His people. Each one of the children of Adam can learn teachings from God Almighty. If we can put their hearts wholly in the Divine Presence, we can always learn teachings from God Almighty in the form of inspiration.
Revelation (wahy) is for prophets, because they put their hearts wholly in the Divine Presence. Their hearts were not occupied by this world or by anything except their Lord. They were not occupied by this world or by anything except their Lord. They were occupied by their Lord only. As God Almighty called them to his Divine Presence
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Caucasus, in Iran, in Turkey, in Arab countries - so many illusions, but very few oases. Rather, they are full-up with illusions. The Lord of the heavens! the Lord of the Children of Adam, says, "Do not cut off your hope" (39:53). Therefore whoever seriously asks to find, he must find.
Why is it that He makes wisdom difficult to find? Because everything that the one finds easily is cheap, taken for granted while everything that one finds with difficulty, one looks after more carefully. One may say that it is so difficult to obtain. Yes, that is true. Therefore, if you are asking for an oasis, it is difficult to find and you must face every difficulty to find it.
As long as you are alive, you must walk towards somewhere. There may be one hundred illusions. Then you may find, at the end of one hundred, that oasis. Don't say, "I went there and found that it was an illusion. Then I turned to another one and that also was an illusion. I have run after all ninety-nine and found them all to be illusions. why should I try this one?” Don't say it! To the extent that you can walk, you must go on and try. Ninety-nine may be illusions but one may be a real oasis for you because the Lord says, "Don't cut off hope. Don't despair." When you cut off hope, you are going to die. Finished. No one dies until he cuts of his hope of living, but whoever hopes to live, may live. Whoever hopes to find, must find.
11 THE PURE HEART AFTERNOON, JUNE 1, 1985
"The pure heart (galbun salim), that is perfection which God Almighty wants from His servants to reach that perfection."
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate, the Merciful, the Compassionate, Who created all the universes and all things; the Lord of the heavens, the Lord of the Worlds, the Lord of the sons of Adam. We are his weak servants. Every time we are here in such a gathering, we are asking for our Lord's Divine help for ourselves.
We are in need of His Divine Help at every moment. You can't imagine a unit of time which is so small that You can't count it (you might say one millionth of a second, if you could make a second into a million parts) - you can't say that the whole universe is without need, in even such a small unit of time, of Divine Help. If during that time that Divine Help is cut off, that Divine Help for all the universes in existence, then all will disappear. No one can bring it back except its Creator, its Lord, God Almighty. Therefore you must ask for Divine Help for everything, for every time, for every occasion.
As much as you may be with Him, He will be with you. Yes. But you lose yourself and forget. Then that Divine Help goes from you and you are left in the hands of your ego. Therefore, we must always ask for Divine Help. Oh my Lord, don't leave us in the hands of our egos, because our ego is proud, so proud, saying, "I am not in need of anyone," while it is in need at every moment, never without need for that support. That is why we say, "There is no might and no power except with God, the Most High, the Almighty."
Religion, and particularly Islam, brings belief to people. It asks you, first of all, to believe in your Creator who brings you into existence, because no one is able to bring self into existence or keep self in existence. It is impossible for anyone to claim that he or she can bring self into existence or keep self in existence, so that we must believe that someone brings us into existence and also takes us from existence. We appear and then disappear.
That is the main point of Islamic beliefs, as it was the main point for other religions - to make people believe in their Lord Almighty, who brings them into existence and keeps them in existence and then takes them away from existence.
Secondly, He brings them to His Divine Presence. Therefore, the most important fundamental for every religion, and, particularly in Islam, is to
12 believe in God Almighty, and then to believe that He brings you into the next life, that He returns you to another life. That is the most important thing which every religion makes its followers or believers believe in - that there is God Almighty Who created all things, including the children of Adam, and that He is able to bring them back to life after death, to give them their lives again and to bring them into His Divine Presence. That must be the belief in every religion.
Then we do believe, Oh servants of our Lord, Oh humanity. We have been ordered to do something and to leave something. Every religion teaches people to do something and abstain from something. Without commands, it is not a religion, because we act, we work, we do things. Therefore, the Lord Almighty orders something for action, and all orders that we have been commanded to act upon give us honor (karamah). Every command that we have been ordered to carry out is to make us more honorable in the Divine Presence.
We have also been asked to abstain from something, from such-and-such things. This is protection for ourselves, for safety. Anything for which our Lord says, "Abstain from it” is only for our safety here and for our Protection in the hereafter.
No one can object concerning those actions which are prohibited by Islam, claiming that this was useful and Islam prevented it. If he does he must be foolish. He must be a mad person. He must be an ignorant person. Who knows more about humanity than anyone else? Its Creator must know the most about humanity. Therefore, He knows best what is worst and most harmful and dishonorable for this life and the hereafter.
Every action that you do here takes a shape, takes a form, and reaches you after death. You must see everything that you did in this life in front of you. Nothing is going to be lost. All your deeds are preserved for you. First of all, you are going to meet them when the door of your grave opens. Then you will meet everything that you did parading in front to of you. No one can see that except the owner of that grave, but your neighbors may come and look. So, then, we have been ordered to do something. God Almighty is going to look at everything that you did and to ask His servant about it.
Imam al-Ghazzali is one of the "King-sized" scholars and Imams in Islam who is known throughout the world. God Almighty gives honor to those people who are sincere with their Lord Almighty. We are following their way and accepting them. Imam al-Ghazzali wrote so many books; perhaps one lifetime is not enough to read his books - to read and to understand and to act on them, as well. He has a collection of books called Ihya Ulum al-Din (Revival of Religious Sciences). If all other Islamic books were destroyed and only those books remained, they would be enough to make everything in Islam clear. Yes, they
13 are enough. Such peoples’ hearts are always occupied with the Holy Qur'an and the Traditions (ahadith). God Almighty opens the springs of wisdom to them and gives them understanding of the Holy Qur'an and of Traditions. If a Tradition (hadith) consists of five words, we can read only five words. We can't make it six words. They may give meanings and understanding. They may understand from one Tradition (hadith) as much knowledge as a volume. According to your faith, you may receive meanings, you may receive more lights, from the verses of the Holy Qur'an and from the Traditions.
Then, Imam al-Ghazzali, may God bless him, was saying that when a person dies and is put into a coffin and people carry him to the grave - (before our time, people would carry the dead person on their shoulders to the cemetery. Now there are such gigantic cities that it is impossible to carry the coffin on their shoulders. They put the dead body into a car and quickly bring take it to the cemetery) - when that dead body is taken, the Lord asks that person forty questions; Imam al-Ghazzali says, forty different questions before the body arrives and is buried in the grave, questions which are only between the Lord and the dead person.
He says that the first question that God Almighty asks that person is, "O My servant, you always adorned yourself among people. You were very careful to look after yourself - how you dressed, fixing your hair, having so many things. You were careful to look handsome, beautiful and elegant among people, very careful, because people looked at you. But did you do anything to your heart for Me? You knew that I looked only at your heart, not at your outward appearance, what color your eyes were, or your skin color, whether you were tall or short, black or white - no. I always looked at your heart. Did you ever think to yourself, 'My Lord is looking at my heart, I must keep it pure and adorned with excellent qualities! Did you ever think of that because I was looking, saying, "My Lord is looking at my heart. I must keep it excellent for Him"? "
That is the first question. It contains everything in itself.
Is it enough for believers to be doing their best to illuminate their hearts, purify them - enough for them here and in the hereafter, as well? On the Day of Resurrection, God Almighty is not going to ask you what you brought of money or of sons or of property or of ranks - no. "Where is your heart? With which heart have you come to me? The purified heart, the golden heart (26 :89) - where is it? Give it to Me. That was what I was asking from you during your life." That is the main thing which is asked of everyone: Keep your heart pure and excellent and bring it to Me.
Then, according to your heart, your purified heart, everything will appear to you for the Eternal Life. You will look at your Lord's Eternal Lights and Endless
14 beauties through your heart's mirror. You will see your Lord's beauties, Endless beauties, Endless Lights, through your heart. Therefore there will be ranks in the Divine Presence - first, second, third, fourth.
The first rank is for prophets (anbiya) and saints (awliya), and for those who reached true faith during their lives and then, according to the degree of their faith, they go into the Divine Presence. Whoever would like to in the first rank must first take care of his or her heart.
Now we are fasting. We are keeping our stomachs from eating and drinking, but mostly we are saying to our organs, 'You are free. " We are fasting only by not eating and drinking, but for our organs, as well. We are not commanding them and saying, "You must stop this, you must keep guard on your self. " We do not say this.
Then, there is still another kind of fasting. It is the most important fast, to free our hearts from everything except our Lord Almighty, to be with your Lord with your heart. If anything wrong comes through the hearts of such people, they say that we must wash ourselves as a person who is in a state of prescribed impurity washes. If any kind of thoughts of this world or of paradise and anything in it come to the heart, he must wash himself or herself. It means, "Oh My servant, you are occupying your heart with something other than Me. Your heart is for Me alone. I must always be there and you must be there with Me always. You may be with this world with your body but, Oh My servant, you must be with Me always with your heart."
If you say that this is impossible, your Lord does not speak except the Truth, the Real. If it were impossible, He would not say it, He would not request you to be with Him with your heart. It is possible, so that He asks His servants, "Oh My servants, you may be bodily, physically, in this world, going, coming, doing everything. But you must be with Me with your heart. Don't leave Me.” The reason, He says, is, "Because I don't leave you. If I leave you, you will be nothing. If I am with you, you are all things. Don't leave Me!" For this reason, when people of the first rank think of something other than their Lord Almighty, they have been ordered to wash - to wash their bodies and then their hearts, washing them from every thought except their Lord.
That is perfection which God Almighty wants from His Servants. God wants His servants to reach that perfection. Islam brought the complete ways and methods for reaching that perfection so that Islam is perfection every way. Anyone who wants to reach that perfection must follow Islam and its methods and ways. To the extent that you can follow, you may take benefit, but you must make your goal that perfection. You must not agree to less than perfection. It is not an honor for a servant if his Lord gives him or her a chance to reach that
15 perfection and he or she remains less than that. That is also the honor of Islam which it gives to people and to which it calls them.
We are asking forgiveness from God Almighty because we always want to stay down below, not going up, and saying "I seek forgiveness from God,” (istighfar Allah) for everything that we are doing contrary to the commands of our Lord Almighty. We are also praising Him with the most high praises because He made us candidates for that perfection and asking for His Divine Help by
saying, "Praise belongs to God and thanks be to God" (al-hamd Allah wa shukr Allah).
16 TWO FUNDAMENTALS OF ISLAM MORNING, JUNE 2, 1985
"Islam brought respect and mercy. We have lost them both now. "
We are living during a time in which everything has changed and appears in an opposite form. Everything has been changed from its original state to another, a non-original state, you may say.
This holds true for Islam, as well. You can look at Islam and can see that in our time, our scholars or our statesmen are presenting Islam in a form which was not its original one. Everything now is going according to the desires of peoples’ egos. Everyone says about Islam what he likes. Muslim statesmen and scholars are running out of Islam. They are saying what their egos want them to say, because everyone's ego wants Islam to be as he or she likes, so that in our time you can find thousands and thousands of descriptions of Islam.
All of them are wrong because they are changing Islam from its original form and giving some unheard of descriptions of it according to their egos' desires (hawa nafs). They say whatever their egos suggest to them about Islam. They do this in the name of Islam according to their egos' desires.
We reject all of them. There is the war between Iran and Iraq. That is proof of what we are saying now. This is not Islam, not from either side. We do not accept it. And everywhere you may find that people are not trying to follow the original Islam, but making Islam follow them. That is the most dangerous, terrible way that people are going on.
We must follow the sunnah, the practice of the Prophet Muhammad (saws). To what was he calling people and for why was he fighting? He was only fighting with Haqq, Truth, Reality, against falsehood (batil). The claims of your ego are useless. Your ego is useless. Therefore, if peoples’ hearts do not meet on one point, then it is useless, and that one point is one which Islam brought - monotheism, unity (tawhid). Everyone's thoughts must meet on that point of unity. In Islam, there it is not that one person thinks one thing and another person thinks something else with everyone going his or her own way. No. Everyone must meet on the point of monotheism, of unity.
We accept our Lord, Almighty God. We claim that we are His servants. Therefore, we must live in servanthood to Him and nothing else. Abu Yazid Bistami, may God bless him, said that we find Islam built on two fundamental, simple things. One of them is respect, most high respect, towards our Lord. The
17 second is to care for, to be compassionate towards His servants and towards His creatures in general.
In everything that you do there must be respect for your Lord Almighty. That is the first thing that is to be considered in any action that a person may do. One must not do anything without giving respect to one's Lord, Almighty God. Therefore, Prophet Muhammad (saws) said that respect for your Lord is to begin everything by saying, "In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate, the Merciful, the Compassionate." That is the respect that you can give to your Lord at the beginning of every action. You must know that if He does not give permission or success to you, you can't be successful in any action. You can't even move your hands or your feet.
Then, you must care for, you must be Compassionate, to every creature. The Prophet (saws) said, "Even if you need to kill, do that kindly (ihsan), also." When you kill a sheep, a cow, a camel, a chicken, kill it kindly, God so orders, but people have lost that now. Even if you kill some harmful insect or animal, you must use something that doesn't give it too much pain. You must kill it instantly, and, therefore, it is prohibited to burn people or animals or insects. God prohibits it because only He may burn. No one may use fire to burn people - but now people are intending to burn the whole world and everyone in it, all nations. Earlier, weapons were only cold steel, swords and spears, but afterwards every weapon used fire to burn people. Now big bombs are burning everything. Earlier very few people used fire for execution - it is forbidden (haram) in the Divine Law. If you are obliged to kill some harmful thing, don't burn it. Fire is only for cooking and for heat - that is all.
You must be compassionate. You must not even step on an ant without reason, because it also has life and when it sees you approaching to kill it, it runs away. It feels death and its pain. Therefore, it runs. It also glorifies its Lord. Therefore, you can't kill it if it has not harmed you. You can't kill it. If you kill it, you must bear the responsibility. Thus, Islam came with endless compassion for creatures, for everyone. Compassion is the correct word to describe Islam through the statements of the Friends of God (awliya).
When the angel Gabriel (as ) came to the Seal of the Prophets, beloved Muhammad (saws), for the last time, he said, "This is the last time that I will come to you to bring God's commands. Prophethood is finished. I will bring no more message from heaven to prophets." The Prophet (saws) asked, "Will you ever come again to earth?” "I will come," angel Gabriel said, "but I will not bring anything. Rather I will come to take away something from the earth. I will come to take knowledge from the earth so that ignorance covers the whole world and people fall into those oceans of ignorance."
18 They are even claiming that there is no God. Instead of saying, "There is no god but God," they stop at saying, "There is no God." That is the highest point of ignorance. You can't find anything more ignorant than that. If a person knows everything, but does not know the Owner of himself and of the whole of the Universe, he is ignorant.
"I will come to take that away. I will come yet again to take blessings (barakah) from the earth,” angel Gabriel said. You can find everything. People receive a lot of money, fill up their pockets, but still they say, "Not enough, not enough."
I remember there were three pence, three piasters of Queen Victoria, in Cyprus (Shaykh Nazim grew up in Cyprus during the period when it was a part of the British Empire). I can remember it quite well, a little piece of a silver coin, three piasters. It was enough for a person for one day; even for a family it was enough, that little silver coin. Some coins were even less than three piasters. There were some shepherds who for the whole day looked after sheep for one piaster. Their owner gave them a piece of bread and olives to eat and one piaster. Thirty piasters for a month, and they were happy.
Now, so many pounds! We were astonished when we were fifteen or sixteen years old, to see that some people went to London from Cyprus and they worked and said they got two pounds, three pounds, each week. Hah, so much money! "Each week or each month?" "No, each week - three pounds, four pounds, even five pounds." In Cyprus a famous officer made five pounds in a month. A policemen, for one-and-a-half pounds a month would go and come, go and come, not sitting down, not like the police in our time, six hours and then finished. No. From early to late or up to night, and sometimes the whole night, sometimes the whole day, they were working. One-and-a-half pounds and they were very pleased that they had a job. "We are policemen with uniforms and a fez." Yes, important people.
Then, angel Gabriel came and took away the blessings. He also came once again to take mercy from the hearts of people. It has been taken away, also. No more mercy. Yesterday I heard about something which shows the mentality of people for sports, for football. They injure so many people and leave them on the ground. Then they come and say, "You must play again. We want to watch." What mercy is in their hearts, those people? What is this? This is an example only, but more and more dangerous things are now going to happen because mercy has gone out of hearts. Every day you may take newspapers and look at what people are becoming - like robots, no more mercy, their hearts becoming rocks, never feeling. Islam fights against such things. Therefore its Prophet (saws) came with mercy and as a mercy.
"Will you come yet again?” the Prophet (saws) asked angel Gabriel.
19 "I will come once more," Angel Gabriel said, "to take modesty (haya) from the earth." Look outside now and see how men and women are dressing. In earlier times, mothers or grandmothers were ashamed to be in their bedrooms in such a way that people now dress outside. That is humanity, that is honor, this is modesty?
And this is the news from heaven which came to us fifteen centuries ago. What angel Gabriel, announced has come to us now. Yes, it is correct. No more knowledge that leads people to goodness and to honesty and to honor either here or in the hereafter. That is finished. People now are learning - learning for what?
Only to support the kingdom of Satan on earth. They are learning only that one thing, how they can support Satan's kingdom on this earth. That is all the knowledge that you can learn. Even religious schools are bringing something from that satanic knowledge, putting it amidst true knowledge. For what? To make it ineffective, also. Yes, finished. Its power goes away. You can't find even religious schools or colleges giving pure knowledge heavenly knowledge, because Satan does not give permission for pure, heavenly knowledge, saying, "No. It is no good. You must mix up something else with that knowledge."
What is that knowledge? It is a heavenly knowledge, coming from God Almighty. We must accept that, not those - those are for Satan only, and support for his kingdom. Satan is so careful to do everything for himself. And as the Prophet (saws) informed us, it is now appearing. You must look at what you do.
Then, when we said that everyone is describing Islam according to his Satan, everyone has a Satan with himself, also. Therefore the future of this generation, these people, is bleak. You can't see any brightness or light. It is bleak, very bleak. God knows what things will appear amidst those bleak horizons, falling on people. There must be something, and that is a punishment that people will be given from themselves to each other.
Islam brought respect and mercy. We have lost both of them. In the Divine Presence, one life from among the children of Adam is more precious than the whole world, but we are making it less than a fly's. European people are laughing at Iran and Iraq, but they themselves are doing worse than that. Football is an example of what they are doing. It is only a small example, but if they can do that, it means that those people can do more than this. If that door opens to them, mercy is finished.
Therefore, the West can no longer laugh at the East nor the East at the West. When winter comes, the whole world is covered with snow. In such a way, now
20 hearts are covered. No mercy enters into them. Islam says, "Don't kill." We say, "We must kill.”
May God forgive us. We are asking forgiveness at every moment. If we give our wills into the hands of our enemies, or if we give our wills into the hands of satans, this is the result. You can't expect any other. Yes, I am looking at Cyprus now, also. The newspaper comes everyday. We are 100,000 or 200,000 people living in the Turkish part. Now there are fifteen parties and all of them quarreling, seriously, fighting with each other, swearing, cursing everything. What is this’? And we claim that we are Muslims! If we can find the chance to kill, we may kill each other there, also, but the Turkish government has put a strong power and holds people by their hands, like this. And they say this is democracy.
That must be, yes. People can kill each other for the sake of democracy. That is the mentality of the twentieth century, because Satan says, "My kingdom can never continue without democracy" (that is, unlimited personal freedom which a democratic society permits becomes, inevitably, a tool of Satan). Therefore he urges people, "Take courage,” urging people to have democracy. Everywhere it is written. I say that it means that you must be sufficiently brave to have democracy. They asked me, "Do you accept this?" giving me the ballot, and on it was written "Yes" or "No." I wrote on it "Yes for Islam." And from God is the Divine Help (wa min Allah at-tawfiq). It is time for prayer.
21 SHAYKH ABDULLAH AD-DAGHISTANI AND JALAL AL-DIN RUMI
AFTERNOON, JUNE 2, 1985
"May God bless them both, give respect to everyone."
God Almighty teaches His people. Each one of the children of Adam can learn teachings from God Almighty. If we can put their hearts wholly in the Divine Presence, we can always learn teachings from God Almighty in the form of inspiration.
Revelation (wahy) is for prophets, because they put their hearts wholly in the Divine Presence. Their hearts were not occupied by this world or by anything except their Lord. They were not occupied by this world or by anything except their Lord. They were occupied by their Lord only. As God Almighty called them to his Divine Presence
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