Islam – The Freedom To Serve (Shaykh Nazim, 93 pages, 1/4)
https://www.nvrislam.net/index.php?j=eng&post=6048
Islam – The Freedom To Serve, Sheikh Nazim
2nd edition 2015
© 1997 by Gorski & Spohr Publishers, Salim and Hagar Spohr, Bonndorf im Schwarzwald, Germany.
© 2015 by Spohr Publishers Limited, Lympia/Nikosia, Cyprus. [www.spohr-publishers.com]
All rights reserved.
Printing: FontFront, Roßdorf, Germany.
Contents
Introduction 9
Invitation 13
the path to servanthood
Belief 21
Worship and servanthood 25
p art two
advic e to s e rva n ts
The Inner Journey 31
The Fight Against Our Ego 35
Knowledge of the Lord of the Worlds 39
A Blossom in the Hearts of Mankind 43
The Star of Mukammad 47
Know Thyself 51
Association 55
Ways to the Heavens 59
p art thr ee
words to keep i n our h e arts
a p horisms a n d stori e s
......................................... 65
In the Name of Allah Almighty, Most Beneficent and Most Munificent
if I were to claim that this speech was my own,
they could cast me out. If I said, ‘These are my words’, I would cut myself off from the chain of the Sheikhs of our
way. I would be alone. I would say: ‘I am here.’ And whoever says ‘I am’, must be cast out.
In the Name of Allah Almighty, Most Beneficent and Most Munificent.
difficult in our days to find someone who is
willing to bear the burden of anyone else. We do not like to bear one another. We do not even want to bear
with ourselves. Nearly everyone wants to be someone else, not himself and not herself, but somebody different.
So many people want to be rid of themselves. They pursue whatever helps them to disguise themselves, to forget them- selves. They think that in order to reach that aim, it is not suf- ficient to be somebody else, it is better to be no one at all, a no- one. They think it is better to lose one’s mind, even better not to be human. Millions come to look at them, to imitate them. It is a storm in our time, not just a wind: a mighty storm.
How do you speak to such people? How do you guide them to reality? They have lost their will. They have given up their intelligence. How then are they able to judge themselves? They claim that they have reached the highest degree of civilisation and yet they act worse than those whom they call uncivilised.
is l am : th e f r ee dom to s e rv e
This mindlessness is still on the increase and because of it the world will split up into two camps. One will be populated by those who care about themselves and about reality: those who ask about the reason for their existence and about its meaning. The other will consist of those who never ask such questions, those who know everything already, who believe that life is only there to fulfill their desires. To eat, to drink, to ‘live it up’, as they say. Such people are only apparently human beings, but not in reality. To the degree that this tendency is increasing, humanity is being divided into two groups. One group says, there must be someone, or something, something immense, and we must try to understand it. The other, greater group, is inter- ested in nobody and nothing but themselves. For billions of peo- ple in our time, life is just this relentless running after shadows, after their so-called needs. They know quite well the madness of it all and consent to wear the mask of madness because it allows them to follow their selfish desires even better. Others stand on both sides of the street, watching the parade and cheering. The young ones exhibit themselves and the old ones stare.
The sayings of the prophets mention the signs of the end of time, and we know that Allah Almighty is examining His serv- ants. Now, in our days, He is testing us through the enemy of mankind. However, this enemy is not one who fits so well into the current picture of the time, this enemy is one whom we hard- ly recognise any more. All these masquerades and festivals, all these orgies of disguise are preparing mankind for this enemy. Whoever is attracted by such things will be amongst his first followers. For he attracts his followers through unusual and ex- traordinary things, through everything that shines and glitters. What can you expect from people who have handed their will over to their ego? How can they understand the meaning of life, how can they have even the slightest inkling about the life of the spirit and about spiritual powers? They drink to wash their
i n troductio n
minds and their senses away. They refuse to be human, and they are close to succeeding. They get drunk on words, on the sound of their music, on alcohol, on sexuality. They even get drunk on Feast Days, in the name of their religion, in order to forget about it. Eventually, this madness will pull them into a big war. For such parades influence their personality. They become changed inside and driven to request the limitless satisfaction of their egoistic desires – to get everything out of this life during their lifetime, immediately, here and now. They have no more pa- tience, no more eye for what is of real benefit.
The young people want change. They want to change their own lives and the lives of everybody. They grow up, and their only idea of change is that everybody should be like themselves. Whoever dares to oppose them is their enemy. They will not hesitate to hurt him or to simply shove him out of the picture. We are living in a time where everything is reaching its cli- max. After reaching the top, you cannot continue. There are no
further ways to continue.
invitation
In the Name of Allah Almighty, Most Beneficent and Most Munificent.
hat moves someone to approach Islam and what
makes him run away? – Islam is not the property of a people or a nation of this earth, and it does not belong
to a particular group of people. It was brought to all human be- ings and thus speaks to them all.
We are all born on a particular day and on a particular day we will die. Between that first day and the last, myriads of miseries and difficulties come down upon us, and we want all of them to be removed and ask for their causes to be healed.
Should we be left to our own devices with no one to help us? If anyone came to help us, would we send them away, would we turn the other way?
The Lord of the Heavens, the Lord of the Lands, the Lord of the Worlds, the Lord of all Creatures is not pleased to see His servants suffer, He would rather grant them a happy life. That is why He has sent prophets to mankind at all times, time and again: to bring them the good news.
These prophets were mostly sent to one tribe, one people, one nation only. But the last prophet was sent to all people. His message is Islam. If people really want what they claim to ask for, peace and a cure for their sufferings, then they could try Islam. They try out so many new ideas and ideologies, why not move to the core of the real?
Look! If your heart is at rest with Islam and finds truth in it, then stay with it! Look at the way it began. See where it started, under which circumstances, at which time. Look at the Prophet of Islam, how he passed the message which had been given to him on to others. After you have seen all of this and weighed it up, judge for yourself.
Judge what you are trying to understand by looking at its beginning and at its greatness. If you judge something on the grounds of its shortcomings and deficiencies, it means that you do not want to understand it.
All prophets have called people to enjoy a peaceful, quiet and happy life. But each time they have been confronted by the re- sistance of hateful people and by the anger of the devils and their helpers. As soon as someone comes with a message from God Al- mighty with true sincerity and conviction, he is attacked. They attempt to lock him up, to chase him away, or even to kill him. One of the signs of this century is that even those who im- agine themselves to be religious fight against their prophets. The Jews think they would be better off without Moses, because he brought the Torah, and the Torah mentions the Last Proph- et whom God will send. The Christians close their ears to the words of their prophet, Jesus Christ. For he invites his people to follow Mukammad, the last messenger of Allah Almighty. May the blessings and peace of Allah be upon them both and upon all prophets. In our days, whole nations deny the wisdom of the
last messenger.
The world is rolling slowly and irresistibly into a dark tunnel. Nobody knows what will happen in this tunnel. We only know of its existence because Allah Almighty has informed us of it. We know from prophetic utterances that this tunnel will have an end and that of all those who enter it, only a few will reappear.
These are not my own words. It is mentioned in all of the Holy Books which say, when human beings stop listening to
reason, when they throw wisdom out of the window and fol- low only the advice of their egos, they will slide into a narrow, terrible tunnel. This tunnel will wash away all evil and all dirt. Now, day by day, step by step, the world is sinking deeper into it. Darkness is spreading, and outside the air is frozen.
The way through this tunnel is difficult, very difficult, but those who are fortunate enough to leave it again, will find them- selves in a world suffused with light and peace. May the Lord Allah Almighty help us. We beg for help in the battle against our most terrible enemy, our own ego, in the battle against our- selves. Gun-barrels, tanks and bombs are not in the position to call it to a halt. It is only too familiar with such weapons and does not fear them at all. No, the only weapon which can stop its terrible course, the only one which can teach it fear, is some- thing completely different. It is something which hardly any- one thinks about any more when he is looking for help. It is the unity of God. It only submits to that. This, and nothing else, is the message of Islam. All religions agree upon this. They all call people to the unity of Allah Almighty and gather them together into this unity. They all tell us how we can attain to the power of God or how we can be prepared for it to come to us.
When people meet in the unity of Almighty God, then wars will cease between them. This is something which our ego does not want to happen at all. It is not in its interest that it happens. It does not want to come together with anything or anyone. It wants to be alone and to stay alone, always in front, always on top. Nobody may accompany it, nobody may go alongside it, others must be underneath it, at its feet. These are its demands, and so it remains from the beginning of man- kind to the end. However, religions do not accept this. When we say lâ ilâha illâ Llah, there is no God except Allah, then everyone who says this wholeheartedly is called into the One- ness of God Almighty.
These holy words are not the speciality of one prophet or the fabrication of a special religion. All prophets, thousands of prophets have said it. None of them says that there is more than One God. With these words we can tell the difference between a true prophet and a false prophet. Whoever calls us to believe in the unity of God, is calling us to the straight path and is a true messenger of Allah Almighty. Whoever does not do this, whoever calls us to believe in and worship another god or more gods, does not follow God, but his own ego.
One’s feeling of ‘I’ naturally fights against such claims. It says: ‘No, there is no god except me. I am your lord, I, I, I and nobody else. I won’t allow you to serve anybody else.’ It talks in this way, and when it is left alone it will not rest until the whole world is subjected to it. This is its true character. None of us is free from this. If we were offered to be rulers over the whole world and all its treasures we would seize the opportuni- ty without hesitation. The only weapon, the greatest protection against the fortress of the ego, is the sentence which calls us to testifiy to the unity of God Almighty, lâ ilâha illâ Llah.
It is clear that whoever remains under the yoke of his ego keeps clear of Islam. He refuses point blank and finds thou- sands of excuses, discovers the most enlightening explanations, makes the cleverest statements and is still only a slave of his ego. If people only looked with understanding and intelligence, they would realise that Islam only fights against this ego and not against humanity! Would it not be better to turn to it for help?
How is it possible that when the house is on fire and you run to rescue the people, they refuse? They do not want to be saved. They no longer know what is of benefit to them and what is harmful for them. They cannot distinguish between friend and foe, between corruption and salvation: the blindness of their ego is so advanced.
Islam stretches its hand out to save men and women from the claws of their selfishness and to give them their freedom. The freedom to serve their true and only Lord, Allah Almighty.
It is for these servants that the following description of the path to servanthood and the short excerpts of advice for serv- ants are given. They will help them to find their way out of the tunnel because they will help them to learn to distinguish between light and darkness.
I received such advice from my master and I have been or- dered to pass on what I received from him to all those of you who are willing to listen.
p art o ne
th e p ath
to s e rva n thood
b elief
In the Name of Allah Almighty, Most Beneficent and Most Munificent.
ur aim is to be perfect servants. But we cannot be- gin with servanthood because we will not be able to bear its weight from the beginning. Servanthood must be
preceded by worship, which must be true worship. If it is wor- ship of the ego, you will not reach the level of servanthood. Thus, your worship must be based on belief. If your worship is based on belief, if it is not worship of yourself but of your Lord, then you will be with Him. For only servants are with their Lord.
So many people in our days, perhaps even billions, are proud of not believing in anything. There is only one important belief, the belief in God. If you believe in the existence of the Creator, it is easy to believe in everything else. How can the average per- son with an average mind not believe? How can he, if he uses his mind, not know of the existence of the Lord, Almighty?
We only call this knowledge ‘belief’ because our senses can- not reach Him. But our mind may reach Allah Almighty with exact knowledge. We say, ‘you must believe’, because we cannot see, hear, touch, smell, or taste Him. But our mind knows Him very well according to every kind of knowledge. There is no knowledge that does not point to him. The senses of our physi- cal body may not help us to reach Him, but our soul does and all of our physical feelings derive, finally, from our soul. If there was no soul in our physical body, we could neither smell, nor taste,
nor touch. All feelings originate in the soul, and all are limited by our physical being. The physical body cannot bear whatever exceeds these limits. Yet we look at the universe through the tiny holes of our eyes. We may actually imagine the size of this universe, imagine the size of mankind on earth, when already from a distance of five thousand metres above the earth mankind cannot be seen. It is miraculous: such tiny holes in a tiny body seeing beyond millions of light-years. How is this possible?
However, this is a limited vision. If you compare it with the full capacity of your soul, it is nothing. When you look, using the spiritual power of your soul, every galaxy, every sun, every star, can be seen exactly as it is. They are not seen like a small dish or a spot, but as they are, in their full reality. It is through this power of the soul that God Almighty may be reached. No one knows the true essence of the soul. Many times the Seal of the Prophets, Sayyidinā Mukammad, peace be upon him, was asked about it. He answered that the soul is of the Order of the Divine. What is the Order of the Divine? The Prophet’s answer meant that it is impossible to know the reality of the soul, as long as we are bound to our physical existence. Only when we have reached the territory of the soul itself will we be able to un- derstand it. Therefore, we have been ordered to believe in God. In our time there are so many foolish people who think that God does not exist because they cannot reach him with their physical senses. This is utter ignorance. They think that the
Lord Almighty Allah should be the same as His creatures.
However, the Creator must have something that none of his creatures has. The senses are incapable of judging the existence of a Creator: something else is needed, something non-material, which is the mind.
We think our brain is our mind, but that is incorrect. The mind is something else. There is a brain in our head, it is true, but if the power of the soul does not illuminate it, it will not
b el i ef
work. Take those lights away and the brain stops. When you find someone who has drowned and you take him out of the wa- ter, you may find that the material brain does not work although it is not damaged.
The lights of the mind have left it. We mean this non-mate- rial mind when we say to those who deny the existence of God, ‘Use your mind!’ If your mind and your consciousness say ‘No’, tell us. We belong to the same creation, we have the same feel- ings as you. But when we use our mind, we know of the exist- ence of our Lord. If you have doubts, it means that you are not using your mind. If only you used it you could easily believe in the existence of the Lord Almighty Allah. Then you could easily believe in everything which belongs to the Heavens, everything that happens after death, everything about hell and paradise.
Believe in everything pertaining to eternal life! For, after this physical existence, you will reach spiritual existence, that is, the existence of your soul. No one knows about the creation of souls because they have been and will be in existence as long as Allah exists. We are servants of the Lord Almighty Allah as long as He exists. Without servants, the Lord, sul†ân, is not Lord. So there must have been those who have served Him for all eternity. He spoke to them, commanding them. If there was nobody with Him to serve Him, He would have to be Lord over Himself. But He cannot be his own sul†ân.
After death, our souls will reach their full capacity, their full spiritual power. Now, we are using only very little of this power, and that is why it is impossible for us to understand our spiritual existence.
Certainty can only come from our spiritual being. But even if we have not yet reached this being, there is a bridge from our physical to our spiritual existence. Belief is this bridge. It is a bridge joining you to your higher self. Without it, you are with- out connection or relationship within yourself.
If people deny beliefs, they must always remain at the lev- el of their physical being. If they do not want to reach their spiritual being, their disconnectedness throws them into heavy depressions, darkness and miseries. This is the punishment: in this world, depression and darkness, and in their graves, dust. They will be dust. The bridge must stand on two feet. One foot is here, in the physical existence, another foot is there, in the spiritual existence. After death, you do not have any feet to build your bridge on. So, use your mind. Begin here, with belief.
a nd
worship
servanthood
In the Name of Allah Almighty, Most Beneficent and Most Munificent.
he devil is not ignorant. He is extremely learned.
But his knowledge has never given him any benefit, and, thus, after learning so many things, he has re-
turned to the state of ignorance.
The ignorance of a learned person is, however, much more dangerous to himself and to others than the ignorance of an ig- norant person. The latter may harm himself as well as others, but this harm is nothing in comparison with the terrible damage wrought by a learned person’s ignorance.
The chief and first one of this kind is the devil. He was the teacher of the angels. Allah Almighty gave him the opportunity to be their teacher and master. He knows all the Holy Books. He thinks that he alone knows, and that others do not know. But he is still ignorant, and has never left this state of ignorance. He thinks that he is right and others are wrong. He even thinks that he was right and that his Lord was wrong. That is his idea. If he had not thought so, he would have obeyed the command of his Lord, Almighty Allah. It was not only that he refused to pros- trate in front of Adam. It was his thinking, ‘You are wrong. I am right’, which caused Allah’s anger. The devil said, ‘This comes from you. You make me not obey and not prostrate. You make me do all this.’ He accused his Lord instead of accusing himself. What, then, does all this knowledge benefit him?
All those who trust him and follow him, those millions and billions of people, are in the greatest danger. He tricks and cheats them into their own destruction, saying, ‘Oh, people, follow me. I am on the right path. Don’t follow the way of your Lord. I am the first one who refused to walk this way, because it is wrong. Come after me! Follow me! My way is straight and right.’
Whoever follows him has no control over his ego, his nafs. There are too many traps on this way. If you avoid one, you will fall into the next. Our egos are like little children. They want to have everything, not knowing if it is harmful or not. They just want it; maybe a pistol or a razor. It may kill them or others, it does not matter to them, they want it. These endless desires are like so many hooks in the hands of the devil. All devils, whether they are the small ones which are with every one of us, as well as the big one, all of them have these hooks. These hooks are in everything which your ego enjoys. When your ego, your nafs, likes something, it runs after it. When it runs after it, it falls into a trap.
Therefore, the Prophet of Islam, peace be upon him, says, ‘The fire of hell is surrounded by pleasurable things. The ways leading to hell are full of things which our ego likes, and the ways leading to paradise are full of things our ego dislikes.’ If your ego says ‘I don’t like it’, that is a way to paradise. If it says, ‘Oh, I like it very much’, that way leads to hell. Therefore, the devil must build so many traps, use so many tricks. One could fill books with his deceptions, all of which appear lovely to our ego.
Our soul does not like them. But it is imprisoned. It is held in captivity by our ego. When our ego controls us and our bodies, we fall into the hands of the devil. This is because the ego, the nafs, is of the same kind as the devil. When they come together like man and woman come together, a new being is born. Its name is ‘Evil’. Thus, crimes and sins are born.
worshi p a n d s e rva n thood
Therefore, all prophets have come to clarify our position. If you do not control your ego, you fall into the hands of the most dangerous enemy of mankind, the devil. From then on you will never be happy, not in this life and not in the next life. There- fore, you must learn to control your ego.
This is the teaching and the training brought by all prophets. The Seal of the Prophets, peace be upon him, taught and trained his companions because without training, knowledge is very weak. It is not possible to control one’s ego through knowledge only.
In our times you will find many learned people, so many scholars whose knowledge is extremely vast. But they are not trained according to any spiritual discipline. That is the rea- son why they have no control over themselves. The ¶aªâbas, the companions of the Prophet, were, however, both learned and trained. This kind of education continued until the generation following the ¶aªâbas. Then a separation between learning and training gradually appeared. Some people still kept both togeth- er, but more and more were only interested in learning. The Prophet, peace be upon him, had said: ‘rutbatu l-‘ilmi ‘alâ rutab’, ‘the rank of knowledge marks the highest rank of mankind’, and therefore, many people were only interested in learning more and in deepening their knowledge further and further. For there are endless oceans of knowledge. But we also need training. It is one of the traps of the devil to make people ask for more knowl- edge without training, more knowledge without practice.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, trained his companions through practice. The two commands which are the most diffi- cult and hardest for our ego are firstly, jihâd fi-sabîli llâh, ‘fight- ing for the sake of Allah’, and secondly, hijrah, ‘emigration’. The Prophet trained his companions in both of them, and they prac- tised them perfectly. This continued for some time, until learn- ing was increasingly divorced from training and continued on its
own. Spiritual training became more and more difficult for such learned people. Especially now, during our time, people con- tinue to reject †arîqahs. ‡arîqahs have carried on the combined tradition of learning and training which came from the Prophet, peace be upon him, up to the present day. The Sheikhs of †arî- qahs are, therefore, both teachers and trainers. To follow only one of the two is like flying on one wing, which is not possible.
If I read a book that teaches me how to drive a car and then go to a police officer, saying, ‘I have just finished reading this book, now, give me a driver’s licence’, do you think, he will give it to me? He will ask, ‘Which mental institution do you come from?’ But people think that it is sufficient to read books. They say, ‘No need for sheikhs, no need for †arîqahs.’ They are not only one hundred percent, but one thousand percent foolish. If I am not able to control a car without practice, how will I be able to control myself? How will I be able to control my ego?
That is the trouble in the Islamic world today, the trouble amongst Muslims. Fitnah, sedition, which comes from the dev- il. He gives his fitnah to many scholars, making them say, ‘No
†arîqah. No sheikhs.’ However, we say, ‘No †arîqah, no sheikh, no control.’ Then you will be the slave of the devil. This is the biggest trap for Muslims at present. Be aware! The level of Islam in the Islamic world is begining to sink, and very many Mus- lims are already like non-Muslims. They have no control over themselves. They claim to be worshippers, but they are only worshipping their ego. They are everything but true servants. I am asking Allah Almighty for forgiveness and for His bless-
ings.
p art two
advic e to s e rva n ts
The following short chapters should be read in sequence. Read one chap- ter per day, or read only one sentence from a chapter per day and think about it. It will help you in your fight against your ego.
th e
inne r
journey
In the Name of Allah Almighty, Most Beneficent and Most Munificent.
very morning, we wake up to go on a new journey. Its distance is the distance between morning and night. Then we rest until the next morning. When you awake,
look for whatever helps you to continue on y
Link: https://www.nvrislam.net/index.php?j=eng&post=6048
Islam – The Freedom To Serve, Sheikh Nazim
2nd edition 2015
© 1997 by Gorski & Spohr Publishers, Salim and Hagar Spohr, Bonndorf im Schwarzwald, Germany.
© 2015 by Spohr Publishers Limited, Lympia/Nikosia, Cyprus. [www.spohr-publishers.com]
All rights reserved.
Printing: FontFront, Roßdorf, Germany.
Contents
Introduction 9
Invitation 13
the path to servanthood
Belief 21
Worship and servanthood 25
p art two
advic e to s e rva n ts
The Inner Journey 31
The Fight Against Our Ego 35
Knowledge of the Lord of the Worlds 39
A Blossom in the Hearts of Mankind 43
The Star of Mukammad 47
Know Thyself 51
Association 55
Ways to the Heavens 59
p art thr ee
words to keep i n our h e arts
a p horisms a n d stori e s
......................................... 65
In the Name of Allah Almighty, Most Beneficent and Most Munificent
if I were to claim that this speech was my own,
they could cast me out. If I said, ‘These are my words’, I would cut myself off from the chain of the Sheikhs of our
way. I would be alone. I would say: ‘I am here.’ And whoever says ‘I am’, must be cast out.
In the Name of Allah Almighty, Most Beneficent and Most Munificent.
difficult in our days to find someone who is
willing to bear the burden of anyone else. We do not like to bear one another. We do not even want to bear
with ourselves. Nearly everyone wants to be someone else, not himself and not herself, but somebody different.
So many people want to be rid of themselves. They pursue whatever helps them to disguise themselves, to forget them- selves. They think that in order to reach that aim, it is not suf- ficient to be somebody else, it is better to be no one at all, a no- one. They think it is better to lose one’s mind, even better not to be human. Millions come to look at them, to imitate them. It is a storm in our time, not just a wind: a mighty storm.
How do you speak to such people? How do you guide them to reality? They have lost their will. They have given up their intelligence. How then are they able to judge themselves? They claim that they have reached the highest degree of civilisation and yet they act worse than those whom they call uncivilised.
is l am : th e f r ee dom to s e rv e
This mindlessness is still on the increase and because of it the world will split up into two camps. One will be populated by those who care about themselves and about reality: those who ask about the reason for their existence and about its meaning. The other will consist of those who never ask such questions, those who know everything already, who believe that life is only there to fulfill their desires. To eat, to drink, to ‘live it up’, as they say. Such people are only apparently human beings, but not in reality. To the degree that this tendency is increasing, humanity is being divided into two groups. One group says, there must be someone, or something, something immense, and we must try to understand it. The other, greater group, is inter- ested in nobody and nothing but themselves. For billions of peo- ple in our time, life is just this relentless running after shadows, after their so-called needs. They know quite well the madness of it all and consent to wear the mask of madness because it allows them to follow their selfish desires even better. Others stand on both sides of the street, watching the parade and cheering. The young ones exhibit themselves and the old ones stare.
The sayings of the prophets mention the signs of the end of time, and we know that Allah Almighty is examining His serv- ants. Now, in our days, He is testing us through the enemy of mankind. However, this enemy is not one who fits so well into the current picture of the time, this enemy is one whom we hard- ly recognise any more. All these masquerades and festivals, all these orgies of disguise are preparing mankind for this enemy. Whoever is attracted by such things will be amongst his first followers. For he attracts his followers through unusual and ex- traordinary things, through everything that shines and glitters. What can you expect from people who have handed their will over to their ego? How can they understand the meaning of life, how can they have even the slightest inkling about the life of the spirit and about spiritual powers? They drink to wash their
i n troductio n
minds and their senses away. They refuse to be human, and they are close to succeeding. They get drunk on words, on the sound of their music, on alcohol, on sexuality. They even get drunk on Feast Days, in the name of their religion, in order to forget about it. Eventually, this madness will pull them into a big war. For such parades influence their personality. They become changed inside and driven to request the limitless satisfaction of their egoistic desires – to get everything out of this life during their lifetime, immediately, here and now. They have no more pa- tience, no more eye for what is of real benefit.
The young people want change. They want to change their own lives and the lives of everybody. They grow up, and their only idea of change is that everybody should be like themselves. Whoever dares to oppose them is their enemy. They will not hesitate to hurt him or to simply shove him out of the picture. We are living in a time where everything is reaching its cli- max. After reaching the top, you cannot continue. There are no
further ways to continue.
invitation
In the Name of Allah Almighty, Most Beneficent and Most Munificent.
hat moves someone to approach Islam and what
makes him run away? – Islam is not the property of a people or a nation of this earth, and it does not belong
to a particular group of people. It was brought to all human be- ings and thus speaks to them all.
We are all born on a particular day and on a particular day we will die. Between that first day and the last, myriads of miseries and difficulties come down upon us, and we want all of them to be removed and ask for their causes to be healed.
Should we be left to our own devices with no one to help us? If anyone came to help us, would we send them away, would we turn the other way?
The Lord of the Heavens, the Lord of the Lands, the Lord of the Worlds, the Lord of all Creatures is not pleased to see His servants suffer, He would rather grant them a happy life. That is why He has sent prophets to mankind at all times, time and again: to bring them the good news.
These prophets were mostly sent to one tribe, one people, one nation only. But the last prophet was sent to all people. His message is Islam. If people really want what they claim to ask for, peace and a cure for their sufferings, then they could try Islam. They try out so many new ideas and ideologies, why not move to the core of the real?
Look! If your heart is at rest with Islam and finds truth in it, then stay with it! Look at the way it began. See where it started, under which circumstances, at which time. Look at the Prophet of Islam, how he passed the message which had been given to him on to others. After you have seen all of this and weighed it up, judge for yourself.
Judge what you are trying to understand by looking at its beginning and at its greatness. If you judge something on the grounds of its shortcomings and deficiencies, it means that you do not want to understand it.
All prophets have called people to enjoy a peaceful, quiet and happy life. But each time they have been confronted by the re- sistance of hateful people and by the anger of the devils and their helpers. As soon as someone comes with a message from God Al- mighty with true sincerity and conviction, he is attacked. They attempt to lock him up, to chase him away, or even to kill him. One of the signs of this century is that even those who im- agine themselves to be religious fight against their prophets. The Jews think they would be better off without Moses, because he brought the Torah, and the Torah mentions the Last Proph- et whom God will send. The Christians close their ears to the words of their prophet, Jesus Christ. For he invites his people to follow Mukammad, the last messenger of Allah Almighty. May the blessings and peace of Allah be upon them both and upon all prophets. In our days, whole nations deny the wisdom of the
last messenger.
The world is rolling slowly and irresistibly into a dark tunnel. Nobody knows what will happen in this tunnel. We only know of its existence because Allah Almighty has informed us of it. We know from prophetic utterances that this tunnel will have an end and that of all those who enter it, only a few will reappear.
These are not my own words. It is mentioned in all of the Holy Books which say, when human beings stop listening to
reason, when they throw wisdom out of the window and fol- low only the advice of their egos, they will slide into a narrow, terrible tunnel. This tunnel will wash away all evil and all dirt. Now, day by day, step by step, the world is sinking deeper into it. Darkness is spreading, and outside the air is frozen.
The way through this tunnel is difficult, very difficult, but those who are fortunate enough to leave it again, will find them- selves in a world suffused with light and peace. May the Lord Allah Almighty help us. We beg for help in the battle against our most terrible enemy, our own ego, in the battle against our- selves. Gun-barrels, tanks and bombs are not in the position to call it to a halt. It is only too familiar with such weapons and does not fear them at all. No, the only weapon which can stop its terrible course, the only one which can teach it fear, is some- thing completely different. It is something which hardly any- one thinks about any more when he is looking for help. It is the unity of God. It only submits to that. This, and nothing else, is the message of Islam. All religions agree upon this. They all call people to the unity of Allah Almighty and gather them together into this unity. They all tell us how we can attain to the power of God or how we can be prepared for it to come to us.
When people meet in the unity of Almighty God, then wars will cease between them. This is something which our ego does not want to happen at all. It is not in its interest that it happens. It does not want to come together with anything or anyone. It wants to be alone and to stay alone, always in front, always on top. Nobody may accompany it, nobody may go alongside it, others must be underneath it, at its feet. These are its demands, and so it remains from the beginning of man- kind to the end. However, religions do not accept this. When we say lâ ilâha illâ Llah, there is no God except Allah, then everyone who says this wholeheartedly is called into the One- ness of God Almighty.
These holy words are not the speciality of one prophet or the fabrication of a special religion. All prophets, thousands of prophets have said it. None of them says that there is more than One God. With these words we can tell the difference between a true prophet and a false prophet. Whoever calls us to believe in the unity of God, is calling us to the straight path and is a true messenger of Allah Almighty. Whoever does not do this, whoever calls us to believe in and worship another god or more gods, does not follow God, but his own ego.
One’s feeling of ‘I’ naturally fights against such claims. It says: ‘No, there is no god except me. I am your lord, I, I, I and nobody else. I won’t allow you to serve anybody else.’ It talks in this way, and when it is left alone it will not rest until the whole world is subjected to it. This is its true character. None of us is free from this. If we were offered to be rulers over the whole world and all its treasures we would seize the opportuni- ty without hesitation. The only weapon, the greatest protection against the fortress of the ego, is the sentence which calls us to testifiy to the unity of God Almighty, lâ ilâha illâ Llah.
It is clear that whoever remains under the yoke of his ego keeps clear of Islam. He refuses point blank and finds thou- sands of excuses, discovers the most enlightening explanations, makes the cleverest statements and is still only a slave of his ego. If people only looked with understanding and intelligence, they would realise that Islam only fights against this ego and not against humanity! Would it not be better to turn to it for help?
How is it possible that when the house is on fire and you run to rescue the people, they refuse? They do not want to be saved. They no longer know what is of benefit to them and what is harmful for them. They cannot distinguish between friend and foe, between corruption and salvation: the blindness of their ego is so advanced.
Islam stretches its hand out to save men and women from the claws of their selfishness and to give them their freedom. The freedom to serve their true and only Lord, Allah Almighty.
It is for these servants that the following description of the path to servanthood and the short excerpts of advice for serv- ants are given. They will help them to find their way out of the tunnel because they will help them to learn to distinguish between light and darkness.
I received such advice from my master and I have been or- dered to pass on what I received from him to all those of you who are willing to listen.
p art o ne
th e p ath
to s e rva n thood
b elief
In the Name of Allah Almighty, Most Beneficent and Most Munificent.
ur aim is to be perfect servants. But we cannot be- gin with servanthood because we will not be able to bear its weight from the beginning. Servanthood must be
preceded by worship, which must be true worship. If it is wor- ship of the ego, you will not reach the level of servanthood. Thus, your worship must be based on belief. If your worship is based on belief, if it is not worship of yourself but of your Lord, then you will be with Him. For only servants are with their Lord.
So many people in our days, perhaps even billions, are proud of not believing in anything. There is only one important belief, the belief in God. If you believe in the existence of the Creator, it is easy to believe in everything else. How can the average per- son with an average mind not believe? How can he, if he uses his mind, not know of the existence of the Lord, Almighty?
We only call this knowledge ‘belief’ because our senses can- not reach Him. But our mind may reach Allah Almighty with exact knowledge. We say, ‘you must believe’, because we cannot see, hear, touch, smell, or taste Him. But our mind knows Him very well according to every kind of knowledge. There is no knowledge that does not point to him. The senses of our physi- cal body may not help us to reach Him, but our soul does and all of our physical feelings derive, finally, from our soul. If there was no soul in our physical body, we could neither smell, nor taste,
nor touch. All feelings originate in the soul, and all are limited by our physical being. The physical body cannot bear whatever exceeds these limits. Yet we look at the universe through the tiny holes of our eyes. We may actually imagine the size of this universe, imagine the size of mankind on earth, when already from a distance of five thousand metres above the earth mankind cannot be seen. It is miraculous: such tiny holes in a tiny body seeing beyond millions of light-years. How is this possible?
However, this is a limited vision. If you compare it with the full capacity of your soul, it is nothing. When you look, using the spiritual power of your soul, every galaxy, every sun, every star, can be seen exactly as it is. They are not seen like a small dish or a spot, but as they are, in their full reality. It is through this power of the soul that God Almighty may be reached. No one knows the true essence of the soul. Many times the Seal of the Prophets, Sayyidinā Mukammad, peace be upon him, was asked about it. He answered that the soul is of the Order of the Divine. What is the Order of the Divine? The Prophet’s answer meant that it is impossible to know the reality of the soul, as long as we are bound to our physical existence. Only when we have reached the territory of the soul itself will we be able to un- derstand it. Therefore, we have been ordered to believe in God. In our time there are so many foolish people who think that God does not exist because they cannot reach him with their physical senses. This is utter ignorance. They think that the
Lord Almighty Allah should be the same as His creatures.
However, the Creator must have something that none of his creatures has. The senses are incapable of judging the existence of a Creator: something else is needed, something non-material, which is the mind.
We think our brain is our mind, but that is incorrect. The mind is something else. There is a brain in our head, it is true, but if the power of the soul does not illuminate it, it will not
b el i ef
work. Take those lights away and the brain stops. When you find someone who has drowned and you take him out of the wa- ter, you may find that the material brain does not work although it is not damaged.
The lights of the mind have left it. We mean this non-mate- rial mind when we say to those who deny the existence of God, ‘Use your mind!’ If your mind and your consciousness say ‘No’, tell us. We belong to the same creation, we have the same feel- ings as you. But when we use our mind, we know of the exist- ence of our Lord. If you have doubts, it means that you are not using your mind. If only you used it you could easily believe in the existence of the Lord Almighty Allah. Then you could easily believe in everything which belongs to the Heavens, everything that happens after death, everything about hell and paradise.
Believe in everything pertaining to eternal life! For, after this physical existence, you will reach spiritual existence, that is, the existence of your soul. No one knows about the creation of souls because they have been and will be in existence as long as Allah exists. We are servants of the Lord Almighty Allah as long as He exists. Without servants, the Lord, sul†ân, is not Lord. So there must have been those who have served Him for all eternity. He spoke to them, commanding them. If there was nobody with Him to serve Him, He would have to be Lord over Himself. But He cannot be his own sul†ân.
After death, our souls will reach their full capacity, their full spiritual power. Now, we are using only very little of this power, and that is why it is impossible for us to understand our spiritual existence.
Certainty can only come from our spiritual being. But even if we have not yet reached this being, there is a bridge from our physical to our spiritual existence. Belief is this bridge. It is a bridge joining you to your higher self. Without it, you are with- out connection or relationship within yourself.
If people deny beliefs, they must always remain at the lev- el of their physical being. If they do not want to reach their spiritual being, their disconnectedness throws them into heavy depressions, darkness and miseries. This is the punishment: in this world, depression and darkness, and in their graves, dust. They will be dust. The bridge must stand on two feet. One foot is here, in the physical existence, another foot is there, in the spiritual existence. After death, you do not have any feet to build your bridge on. So, use your mind. Begin here, with belief.
a nd
worship
servanthood
In the Name of Allah Almighty, Most Beneficent and Most Munificent.
he devil is not ignorant. He is extremely learned.
But his knowledge has never given him any benefit, and, thus, after learning so many things, he has re-
turned to the state of ignorance.
The ignorance of a learned person is, however, much more dangerous to himself and to others than the ignorance of an ig- norant person. The latter may harm himself as well as others, but this harm is nothing in comparison with the terrible damage wrought by a learned person’s ignorance.
The chief and first one of this kind is the devil. He was the teacher of the angels. Allah Almighty gave him the opportunity to be their teacher and master. He knows all the Holy Books. He thinks that he alone knows, and that others do not know. But he is still ignorant, and has never left this state of ignorance. He thinks that he is right and others are wrong. He even thinks that he was right and that his Lord was wrong. That is his idea. If he had not thought so, he would have obeyed the command of his Lord, Almighty Allah. It was not only that he refused to pros- trate in front of Adam. It was his thinking, ‘You are wrong. I am right’, which caused Allah’s anger. The devil said, ‘This comes from you. You make me not obey and not prostrate. You make me do all this.’ He accused his Lord instead of accusing himself. What, then, does all this knowledge benefit him?
All those who trust him and follow him, those millions and billions of people, are in the greatest danger. He tricks and cheats them into their own destruction, saying, ‘Oh, people, follow me. I am on the right path. Don’t follow the way of your Lord. I am the first one who refused to walk this way, because it is wrong. Come after me! Follow me! My way is straight and right.’
Whoever follows him has no control over his ego, his nafs. There are too many traps on this way. If you avoid one, you will fall into the next. Our egos are like little children. They want to have everything, not knowing if it is harmful or not. They just want it; maybe a pistol or a razor. It may kill them or others, it does not matter to them, they want it. These endless desires are like so many hooks in the hands of the devil. All devils, whether they are the small ones which are with every one of us, as well as the big one, all of them have these hooks. These hooks are in everything which your ego enjoys. When your ego, your nafs, likes something, it runs after it. When it runs after it, it falls into a trap.
Therefore, the Prophet of Islam, peace be upon him, says, ‘The fire of hell is surrounded by pleasurable things. The ways leading to hell are full of things which our ego likes, and the ways leading to paradise are full of things our ego dislikes.’ If your ego says ‘I don’t like it’, that is a way to paradise. If it says, ‘Oh, I like it very much’, that way leads to hell. Therefore, the devil must build so many traps, use so many tricks. One could fill books with his deceptions, all of which appear lovely to our ego.
Our soul does not like them. But it is imprisoned. It is held in captivity by our ego. When our ego controls us and our bodies, we fall into the hands of the devil. This is because the ego, the nafs, is of the same kind as the devil. When they come together like man and woman come together, a new being is born. Its name is ‘Evil’. Thus, crimes and sins are born.
worshi p a n d s e rva n thood
Therefore, all prophets have come to clarify our position. If you do not control your ego, you fall into the hands of the most dangerous enemy of mankind, the devil. From then on you will never be happy, not in this life and not in the next life. There- fore, you must learn to control your ego.
This is the teaching and the training brought by all prophets. The Seal of the Prophets, peace be upon him, taught and trained his companions because without training, knowledge is very weak. It is not possible to control one’s ego through knowledge only.
In our times you will find many learned people, so many scholars whose knowledge is extremely vast. But they are not trained according to any spiritual discipline. That is the rea- son why they have no control over themselves. The ¶aªâbas, the companions of the Prophet, were, however, both learned and trained. This kind of education continued until the generation following the ¶aªâbas. Then a separation between learning and training gradually appeared. Some people still kept both togeth- er, but more and more were only interested in learning. The Prophet, peace be upon him, had said: ‘rutbatu l-‘ilmi ‘alâ rutab’, ‘the rank of knowledge marks the highest rank of mankind’, and therefore, many people were only interested in learning more and in deepening their knowledge further and further. For there are endless oceans of knowledge. But we also need training. It is one of the traps of the devil to make people ask for more knowl- edge without training, more knowledge without practice.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, trained his companions through practice. The two commands which are the most diffi- cult and hardest for our ego are firstly, jihâd fi-sabîli llâh, ‘fight- ing for the sake of Allah’, and secondly, hijrah, ‘emigration’. The Prophet trained his companions in both of them, and they prac- tised them perfectly. This continued for some time, until learn- ing was increasingly divorced from training and continued on its
own. Spiritual training became more and more difficult for such learned people. Especially now, during our time, people con- tinue to reject †arîqahs. ‡arîqahs have carried on the combined tradition of learning and training which came from the Prophet, peace be upon him, up to the present day. The Sheikhs of †arî- qahs are, therefore, both teachers and trainers. To follow only one of the two is like flying on one wing, which is not possible.
If I read a book that teaches me how to drive a car and then go to a police officer, saying, ‘I have just finished reading this book, now, give me a driver’s licence’, do you think, he will give it to me? He will ask, ‘Which mental institution do you come from?’ But people think that it is sufficient to read books. They say, ‘No need for sheikhs, no need for †arîqahs.’ They are not only one hundred percent, but one thousand percent foolish. If I am not able to control a car without practice, how will I be able to control myself? How will I be able to control my ego?
That is the trouble in the Islamic world today, the trouble amongst Muslims. Fitnah, sedition, which comes from the dev- il. He gives his fitnah to many scholars, making them say, ‘No
†arîqah. No sheikhs.’ However, we say, ‘No †arîqah, no sheikh, no control.’ Then you will be the slave of the devil. This is the biggest trap for Muslims at present. Be aware! The level of Islam in the Islamic world is begining to sink, and very many Mus- lims are already like non-Muslims. They have no control over themselves. They claim to be worshippers, but they are only worshipping their ego. They are everything but true servants. I am asking Allah Almighty for forgiveness and for His bless-
ings.
p art two
advic e to s e rva n ts
The following short chapters should be read in sequence. Read one chap- ter per day, or read only one sentence from a chapter per day and think about it. It will help you in your fight against your ego.
th e
inne r
journey
In the Name of Allah Almighty, Most Beneficent and Most Munificent.
very morning, we wake up to go on a new journey. Its distance is the distance between morning and night. Then we rest until the next morning. When you awake,
look for whatever helps you to continue on y
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