LIBERATING THE SOUL, Book 5 (Shaykh Nazim, 199 pages, 1/13)
https://www.nvrislam.net/index.php?j=eng&post=6087
LIBERATING THE SOUL, Book 5
A GUIDE FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH, VOLUME 5
By Shaykh Nazim Adil Al-Haqqani
Foreword By Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani
ISLAMIC SUPREME COUNCIL OF AMERICA
© Copyright 2006 Naqshbandi Sufi Order of America.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword vii
Introduction xii
Publisher’s Note xv
Notes xvi
1: Training Ourselves for Servanthood 2
2: Preparing Ourselves to Carry Out Orders and Face Our Destiny 6
3: The Need to Turn to and Follow a Qiblah 11
4: About Being a Sincere Servant to Our Lord 15
5: Concerning the Holy Prophet’s Knowledge of the Future and Sayyidina Mahdi 19
6: Following the Ways of Holy Men 23
7: The Greatness of Divine Mercy in the Face of Our Sins 28
8: The Meaning of Tariqah: Patience 32
9: Doing Everything for the Sake of Allah Almighty 35
1o: Striving for Perfection 39
11: Taking Away the Veils from Our Hearts 42
12: The Importance of Agreeing with Allah’s Will 47
13: Concerning Pride and Divine Love 51
14: About Restraining Our Egos 55
15: About Accepting Muhammad as a Prophet 58
16: Changing Ourselves, the Condition for Receiving Divine Help 60
17: Putting Our Lord’s Will First, Then Making Ourselves Follow His Will 64
18: Concerning Familiarity 68
19: The Common Sickness of Mankind: Love of Dunya 72
20: Making All Our Actions for the Pleasure of Allah 77
21: Guarding Your Eyes 81
22: Finding Light Through the Prophets and Their Inheritors 85
23: Concerning Allah’s Greatest Name, the Night of Power, and Sayyidina Khidr 91
24: About Ihsan and Divine ‘Programming’ 96
25: Limiting Our Ego’s Endless Desires 100
26: Entrusting Ourselves to Our Lord 105
27: Concerning Mankind, the Deputies of Allah, and the Second Coming of Jesus 109
28: Seeking Help Through Patience And Prayer 114
29: The Importance of Bringing Beliefs to People 118
30: Trying to Be a Good One and Benefitting Others 123
31: Concerning Seclusion and Depending on Allah for Our Provision 127
32: The Current Degeneration of Muslim Society 132
33: The Time of Sayyidina Mahdi 136
34: Using Your Heart to Understand 140
35: Concerning Dhikr 144
36: The Importance of the Night of Power 148
37: Trying To Be Good Ones 149
38: Taking Only as Much as You Need from Dunya 154
39: The Prophet’s Intercession on the Day of Judgment 159
40: The Need for Spiritual Support in Our Time 163
41: Working Toward Our Main Goal: To Reach The Station of a Deputy 168
Glossary 173
1: TRAINING OURSELVES FOR SERVANTHOOD
By the name of Allah, All-Mighty, All-Merciful, Most Beneficent and Most Munificent.
We are thanking Allah Almighty that He is giving us another chance to reach Ramadan, the fasting month, the most valuable and most lighted, most radiant month. And we are asking from Allah Almighty to grant us inspirations. We in need, and He has endless knowledge, wisdoms and di- vine Favor Oceans.
If we are asking according to our souls’ desires, He should give to us. Sometimes it is easy to give to us. Sometimes there is present, among the attenders, those who are asking deeply, and we are giving pearls and deep meanings, and some [other] times we are giving only shells. And Allah wants from His servants to ask as much as they are able. When He gives, it is never going to be less for Him.
Sometimes I was in Mecca and Medina and Jerusalem, and I was ask- ing, “When are you going to make Quds, Jerusalem, free?”
When are Muslims going to be free? They are slaves to their egos and as long as they are slaves to their egos, it is delayed for Quds to be freed, the qiblah for all nations,1 and also for Muslims.
For everything there must be some reason; nothing happens without a reason. Muslims are egos’ slaves now and are following their egos’ desires.
1When the command to observe prayers was revealed to the Prophet saw, he and the Muslims prayed facing Jerusalem. It was not until the second year after the Prophet’s emigration to Medina that the qiblah was changed from Jerusalem to Mecca by divine revelation, as com- manded in Qur’an, 2:142-150.
Therefore, Quds, which was for fourteen centuries under the hands of Muslims, now is taken from them. He is making us to think about our freedom!
People may say that earlier Muslims were slaves. And now there are so many Islamic countries but they are all slaves. But when we are going to be slaves to the Lord, Almighty Allah, everything is going to be easy.
Subhanallah, He is making a way to enter [the subject]; I was asking for inspirations. They are making me free to move in any direction, as They like, not bounded; as long as you are giving your attention, it is easy to give us inspirations. “O Nazim Efendi, ask for yourself and for those who are attending with you,” said Grandshaykh. “We are not heedless of you, what you are intending. You are under our eyes. Ask if they are created to be servants or to be kings.”
Everyone must ask himself if he is created to be a servant or to be a king. But now everyone is asking to be a king. The Prophet saw declared in his holy hadith, saying, “The lord of people, the master of people, is the one who is a servant to them, not that one who is asking to be served. The one who gives himself to serve people, he is going to be a master.”
This is for all people, the most famous and most valuable measure of humanity. People now are following ways to establish humanism. But they must use firstly that measure: to teach people to be servants to mankind, to make themselves to be servants. If anyone does not like to be a servant, no humanism.
The Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad saw, gives honor to those who are servants. For everything, the one who is serving is going to be more acceptable in the community and in the Divine Presence. And we must try to teach ourselves to be servants.
Man is created to be a servant, firstly to his Lord. Even kings and queens, heads of communities, have been ordered also to be servants to their Lord.
This country is a kingdom. That is the best system of ruling, the no- blest system, more honored for nations than republics. As the Prophet saw said, after kings will come tyrants and dictators. England is a kingdom, and therefore I am asking Allah to keep that kingdom on this island because that kingdom gives us our freedom, even though we are not Christians— more freedom than our Muslim countries give. Allah may ask me about that on the Day of Judgment.
I am advising every Muslim to thank Allah for Her Majesty the Queen, asking Him to keep her on His right path and to make her happy, here and Hereafter. Her Majesty the Queen is the chief of the Church of England. It means that she is accepting to be the servant of the Lord, Almighty Allah.
Even kings are honored by being servants to Almighty; no higher rank than that, even for kings and queens. And common people also have a chance for the same rank, to be servants to the Lord, Almighty Allah. I am asking to be a humble servant to Him. He honored all mankind by being servants to Him Almighty; we have been given a grant, to be slaves to Him. I don’t think that Her Majesty the Queen is refusing to be a slave to her Lord, Almighty Allah.
But are we looking at that point during our lives or not? Even believ- ers are not thinking about it. If they were, this world would be changed, quickly; from evening up to morning, it would be changed to another view. Very few people are waking up and thinking that they are servants, and washing and worshipping—very few. And Allah, during the nighttimes, when the stars are shining, is looking at His servants, but they are sleeping or dancing. And He likes His servants, during the nights, to be with Him, even for a short while. The King of Kings is making His servants to awaken, but we are turning from one side to the other, not thinking that He is looking at us, to be with Him!
Daytimes we are too busy with something very cheap; we are making ourselves busy with the cheapest things. A person is running after stones, to fill sacks, but on the other side there are diamonds. Who is busy—the one filling them with diamonds and pearls and emeralds, or the one taking stones?
First-standard-minded people may understand me; too clever ones may read other books and go to scholars. So many sacks of stones—and I am asking to take diamonds but we are busy with stones. All Muslims, also, all people, are occupied by business; on their heads is written “Business- man,” to make those stones more and more. And Allah is pouring pearls and diamonds on His servants, saying, “Come and serve yourself and take!”
Days are running to an end; don’t think you are here permanently. Think about that; try to be a servant to Allah first. Don’t be worried about business. We don’t need business, we need servanthood. If people want this world to be Paradise, they can make it Paradise. Serve, firstly, the Lord; secondly, mankind. Then all troubles and miseries will be finished.
When Allah created our souls and gathered all peoples’ souls and then clothed them in their forms,2 He made a show of every kind of job, profes- sion. Everything was there. Then He ordered all people, saying, “Everyone may choose for himself that one which is suitable for himself.”
Then all of them said, “This is for me,” each one taking something.
Only one group of people did not choose anything. And Allah asked, “Why are you not choosing?”
They said, “O our Lord, our choice is You. We choose to be Your servants, O our Lord!”
And Allah answered, swearing by His divinity, saying, “And I am your Lord. If you choose My service, I will make all people servants to you.”
Whoever chooses to be a servant to his Lord first, his ego is going to be a servant to him. Then your ego may carry you from East to West in a moment, with miraculous power. The earth may be gold by your look; every part of creation is going to be a servant to you. Fatehah! ▲
2That is, on the Day of Promises in the spiritual world, mentioned in 7:172.
2: PREPARING OURSELVES TO CARRY OUT ORDERS AND FACE OUR DESTINY
You can find everything in the Holy Qur’an that you may be in need of, individually or collectively, physically or spiritually. But you are in need of practicing.
No one can practice without a person to teach him how to practice. The Shari’ah is all the rules mentioned in the Holy Qur’an, and tariqah teaches people how to practice those rules. As a believer must learn the holy orders of Allah Almighty, so he needs someone to teach him practic- ing. Therefore Allah Almighty sent His beloved servant, Sayyidina Mu- hammad saw to his people to teach them.
When he first met Gabriel saw, then from the heavens there came on earth a golden throne, and angels took Sayyidina Muhammad saw and made him sit on that throne. Then Gabriel touched the edge of his wing on earth. A spring came, and Gabriel made wudu, the Prophet watching. Then Gabriel saw told him to do the same washing, saying, “That is for you and your nation. Whoever does as you are doing, he will get clean from all sins, spiritually and physically clean.”
Wudu is mentioned in the Holy Qur’an, but Gabriel came to show how to make wudu. We are in need to look and to practice. There are five hun- dred orders in the Holy Qur’an, mentioned by the Prophet saw. He is the first explainer of the Holy Qur’an; for twenty-three years the Qur’an came from the heavens, but the meanings he had been given in his heart. All of his speech is an explanation of the Holy Qur’an. When he did something,
that was sunnah,3 or when he said something, or when he looked at the ac- tions of his sahabah and did not object. Throughout the whole of his life, his sayings and actions were the practice of the meanings of the Holy Qur’an. The Qur’an came from Allah, but its meanings were given to his heart.
As the Prophet saw taught his Companions how to practice, we are also in need. The sahabah were the teachers of all nations; everyone was in need of one of them to follow. Without following, it is so difficult to reach to real faith and worship.
Now people are understanding that learning is enough for practicing. But they are wrong, because the first order to the sahabah was to follow the Prophet , making it fard, obligatory, as well as sunnah to follow him.
If you are not accepting to be a servant to anyone, how can you be a servant to your Lord? By serving someone, we may learn the manners of serving the Lord. There must be someone to destroy our ego, breaking its claims to be Lord and commander, to rule over us, because it never likes anyone to be over itself. The whole of the Qur’an and hadith are to make our ego to be more humble, as much as possible. Put it down as much as you can!
In books there may be written medicines for all diseases, but a physi- cian must learn how to cure from someone. And as a first step, we need to prepare ourselves so that we may be able to carry orders.
I was with my Grandshaykh for forty years and still I am under his or- ders (if They cut off their divine help, we are going to be useless; with their divine support we may stand on our feet). And most of the murids who came to visit him were asking, “Any orders, O my master?”
He used to say, “O my son, you are free to choose. According to your inspirations, you are free.” And he was saying to me, “If I am ordering, up
3In this text, Sunnah refers to the body of the Prophet’s practices, while sunnah refers to an individual practice.
to now I don’t see anyone to carry orders. It is too difficult for them. They can’t carry such commands.”
You are free. If two ways are coming, you may choose as you like. But the shaykh must have some powers. Even though murids may think they are choosing, he makes them to choose. It is freedom, because our ego likes to be free, but still he makes him go to that side.
That is for juniors, not seniors. But we don’t like to be always juniors; we must improve, be able to carry orders. That is the reason that Allah covers our destiny, because if we knew our destiny, we would ask to escape. Therefore, by His mercy He orders us, “Choose this,” so that people think they are free, and so they feel peace and satisfaction in themselves.
Among all people, saints have reached to the point of looking at their destiny and they are not afraid to go on to their destiny—as Sayyidina ‘Ali4
said to his murderer, who was his horse keeper, “Ya qatili, O my mur- derer!”
And his horse keeper said, “O my master, kill me so I may not kill you.”
And ‘Ali said, “Oh, do you think I should do that and be your mur- derer? Without your doing anything to me, how could I kill you?” He knew and was not looking for any defense for himself, such as sending his murderer to another country; no, going on to his destiny.
The Prophet kissed one of his grandsons, Sayyidina Husain , on his mouth, and kissed the other on his neck. One was poisoned, one’s head was cut off; he knew. And when the people of Iraq called Sayyidina Husain
[and promised] to support him,5 other sahabah cried and said, “Ya sayyidi, my master, don’t go!” All of them cried but he said, “I must go,” and he
4The Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law, and the fourth of the rightly-guided caliphs.
5That is, when the Muslims of the Iraqi city of Kufa begged Sayyidina Husain , the Prophet’s grandson, to come to them and promised to support his claim to the caliphate.
went and fell on the beach of the Tigris as a martyr. They6 are on the high- est level of faith, to carry out the Will of Allah Almighty.
We are the lowest-standard believers, but still we are honored. Yet it is not enough to be on the lowest level. You must improve to real iman, faith, till there is clear to you your destiny. Therefore, we need someone, to obey his orders.
That is the way to reach that highest level of iman. If not obeying someone, it is impossible. All of Grandshaykh’s Associations,7 assemblies, during thirty or forty years, were in the same direction, to make attenders and followers to carry orders. And that is the ordinary standard of Islam; below that standard you can’t call it Islam. Islam means to submit. If we not able to carry orders, there is only the name.
Now, as the Prophet said for our time, there are people with only the name but no meaning of Islam. It is an order to follow a person, to be obedient to him, who can teach you to be obedient to all the orders of Al- lah, to prepare you for carrying orders.
Which thing prevents a person from preparinq himself to carry out orders? Ego says, “Don’t be obedient to anyone except me!” And if you are following its commands, you are never going to be obedient to your Lord Almighty.
Tariqah makes you firstly to carry the commands of the Shari’ah,8 the most basic level of Islam. When you are prepared, then comes the second step. The first step is on earth, the second in the Heavens. When you are firm on the first step, the second one takes you to the Heavens, because at the second step, you are going to be almost free from ego; at the second
6“They” refers to such saints and holy people, who, although knowing that a terrible end awaits them, nevertheless go toward it with total trust in the rightness of their Lord’s de- crees.
7Sohbet (from the Arabic suhbah, meaning companionship, friendship or association with someone), a conversation, talk or chat; in this context, the discourse of a shaykh.
8The canonical law of Islam, derived primarily from the Qur’an and the Prophet’s Sunnah
(practice).
step, you are prepared to accept and agree with the Will of Allah, with your destiny. When your nafs, your ego, is finished, you may enter the Heavens. But no one enters the Heavens by his ego; prohibited!
Every Association [of ours] is going to be from the Holy Qur’an or holy Hadith or Grandshaykh‘s sayings, to make you able to carry your des- tiny. You must be able and brave enough to walk towards it. Allah says, “If you are pleased with My Will, I am pleased with you.” When you say, “As You like,” He says, “O My servant, as you like, also.” ▲
3: THE NEED TO TURN TO AND FOLLOW A QIBLAH
May Allah Almighty give us good understanding of His holy verses in His Last Message, the Holy Qur’an.
He created man and He gave to everyone a heart. Our heart, He has made it for Himself; it belongs to the Lord Almighty. That is the most im- portant part of man and the most precious; the spiritual power center is in the heart. The heart commands the body. It commands the mind, also.
And now people are claiming that the heart is under the command of the brain, but in reality control of the whole body comes through the heart. Don’t think it is only a piece of flesh, like a fist. That is its physical shape, but in its place is a spiritual heart that controls the flesh heart and the whole body.
You know that everyone translates his feelings through his heart, not through his mind. And the real heart is always turning; according to the conditions that you are living in, it turns. And when it turns, you are going to appear in different conditions or states. It is impossible for a person to appear in the same state; always he is going to be changed. In Arabic, “qalb,” heart, means “turned, changed.” And when your heart is changed, your condition or your state is going to be changed.
Allah is the Creator and He knows well about our hearts. Like that lamp in mini-cab stations,9 our heart quickly turns. But Allah made our hearts to be fixed in one direction, not to be lost.
9In England, minicab stations are recognizable by their revolving yellow lights.
You can’t speak of a “direction” for Allah. He is in every direction, not in one only; He created directions. Men are in need to turn their faces to one direction. Therefore, when the first man came on earth, he asked to turn his face towards the Divine Presence. Then Allah sent to him a house from Paradise made of a red ruby, shining, lighted, and it landed at the place where the Holy Ka‘bah was [later] built, because we need of turning to some direction to make our hearts fixed in that direction.
Adam was ordered to come to that palace, that Paradise-building of red ruby, and go around it and to pray towards it from four directions. Al- lah made for the first man a qiblah, to be a focus for his body and for his physical heart, to turn towards that direction.
It was the first qiblah for the first man. And we are saying, “If it is an empty building, there is no meaning in turning towards that Ka‘bah.” But we are asking for a qiblah in our real hearts. If you do not find that real Ka‘bah but only that outwardly visible building, your heart will never gets a direction for reaching the Divine Presence. That qiblah, [our heart’s qiblah], is in order to find a way to the Divine Presence.
That outwardly visible Ka‘bah leads to the first level of the Seven Heavens, Bait al-Ma’mur.10 (There is one qiblah in each heaven; then comes Kursi;11 then comes ‘Arsh.12) And the first qiblah was the Ka‘bah.
After the Ka‘bah was built, Allah ordered the second qiblah to be in Quds, Bait al-Maqdis13—not Prophet David’s ¡ building, but, according to traditions, forty years after Abraham’s ¡ building,14 there was the original Bait al-Maqdis. Therefore, for the Children of Isra’il, that Bait al-Maqdis was their qiblah. And for a while the Seal of the Prophets saw was ordered to turn
10The spiritual prototype of the Ka‘bah in the first heaven.
11The Divine Seat.
12The Divine Throne. These terms are to be understood as metaphors denoting Allah’s endless greatness, glory, power, dominion and majesty.
13The Sacred House in Jerusalem, built on the spot where Solomon’s Temple would later stand.
14That is, the K’abah, as mentioned in Bukhari, 4:636.
faces towards Quds ash-Sharif.15 Then Allah made the Prophet to turn towards the Holy Ka‘bah.16
Bodies must turn towards that direction. But more than that qiblah, even, a person must have someone who represents the qiblah spiritually. At the time of the Prophet saw, no one except himself represented the real Ka‘bah; the real qiblah for the sahabah was he. Outwardly, the sahabah’s pray- ing was like our praying, but in reality theirs was quite different from our praying because they turned with their hearts to the Prophet , who repre- sented Haqq, Truth. That is the reason why, even if all awliya, saints, gath- ered together, it would be impossible to reach the level of the worshipping of even one sahabi, Companion of the Prophet saw. Their worshipping was the most precious.
After the Prophet saw, all the sahabah represented him, but the one who represented him best was Abu Bakr .17 Therefore, the sahabah ran, even before burying Rasul-Allah saw, to Abu Bakr to make bayah18 and turn their hearts towards him, because someone must always represent Allah Almighty. There must be one khalifah, caliph, of Allah; everyone must be under that one’s command, everything must move under his will power. And Abu Bakr was the qiblah for all the sahabah, the real one.
Then, over time, the sahabah went everywhere, and from among them, also, there were qiblahs for people. At every time, there must be one to rep- resent the main qiblah. Then, from that one, there may be, in different places, by his spiritual powers, various people as qiblahs.
Allah Almighty orders mankind to turn towards the Holy Ka‘bah physically, and He also asks us to turn towards the real qiblah, Sayyidina Muhammad saw. And as long as they are not doing it, no peace, no agree- ment among nations; impossible.
15Jerusalem the Honored.
16Qur’an 2:142-150.
17The Prophet‘s father-in-law and close friend, who later became the first caliph of Islam.
18Pledge of commitment and loyalty.
So many people are here now. We are turning our faces towards qiblah and our hearts, through Muhammad saw, towards Allah Almighty. That gives us peace and mercy. If you are turning your faces towards Ka‘bah behind the imam,19 mercy comes pouring over people, and then divine love is sent and covers them.
Everyone is in need to find a real qiblah in his life. If not finding, even if he enters the Ka‘bah, he may find nothing. He must find something around it and inside it. It is not empty.
We need to find and follow a qiblah, every time, and it should be a guide for us to heavenly Ka‘bahs, towards the Divine Throne. What does it mean, “Throne,” without Someone there? Without the Lord, what is the meaning of the Throne? And we are asking for that one.
Now, people, if they don’t turn their faces towards the Ka‘bah, their hearts are always turning and giving troubles; if not fixing to a Ka‘bah, no peace and satisfaction. If looking, they may find some ones who represent the Lord, Almighty Allah, and their hearts are pouring blessings and divine love and mercy on you. ▲
19The leader of a congregational prayer.
4: ABOUT BEING A SINCERE SERVANT TO OUR LORD
We are asking blessings from Allah Alm
Link: https://www.nvrislam.net/index.php?j=eng&post=6087
LIBERATING THE SOUL, Book 5
A GUIDE FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH, VOLUME 5
By Shaykh Nazim Adil Al-Haqqani
Foreword By Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani
ISLAMIC SUPREME COUNCIL OF AMERICA
© Copyright 2006 Naqshbandi Sufi Order of America.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword vii
Introduction xii
Publisher’s Note xv
Notes xvi
1: Training Ourselves for Servanthood 2
2: Preparing Ourselves to Carry Out Orders and Face Our Destiny 6
3: The Need to Turn to and Follow a Qiblah 11
4: About Being a Sincere Servant to Our Lord 15
5: Concerning the Holy Prophet’s Knowledge of the Future and Sayyidina Mahdi 19
6: Following the Ways of Holy Men 23
7: The Greatness of Divine Mercy in the Face of Our Sins 28
8: The Meaning of Tariqah: Patience 32
9: Doing Everything for the Sake of Allah Almighty 35
1o: Striving for Perfection 39
11: Taking Away the Veils from Our Hearts 42
12: The Importance of Agreeing with Allah’s Will 47
13: Concerning Pride and Divine Love 51
14: About Restraining Our Egos 55
15: About Accepting Muhammad as a Prophet 58
16: Changing Ourselves, the Condition for Receiving Divine Help 60
17: Putting Our Lord’s Will First, Then Making Ourselves Follow His Will 64
18: Concerning Familiarity 68
19: The Common Sickness of Mankind: Love of Dunya 72
20: Making All Our Actions for the Pleasure of Allah 77
21: Guarding Your Eyes 81
22: Finding Light Through the Prophets and Their Inheritors 85
23: Concerning Allah’s Greatest Name, the Night of Power, and Sayyidina Khidr 91
24: About Ihsan and Divine ‘Programming’ 96
25: Limiting Our Ego’s Endless Desires 100
26: Entrusting Ourselves to Our Lord 105
27: Concerning Mankind, the Deputies of Allah, and the Second Coming of Jesus 109
28: Seeking Help Through Patience And Prayer 114
29: The Importance of Bringing Beliefs to People 118
30: Trying to Be a Good One and Benefitting Others 123
31: Concerning Seclusion and Depending on Allah for Our Provision 127
32: The Current Degeneration of Muslim Society 132
33: The Time of Sayyidina Mahdi 136
34: Using Your Heart to Understand 140
35: Concerning Dhikr 144
36: The Importance of the Night of Power 148
37: Trying To Be Good Ones 149
38: Taking Only as Much as You Need from Dunya 154
39: The Prophet’s Intercession on the Day of Judgment 159
40: The Need for Spiritual Support in Our Time 163
41: Working Toward Our Main Goal: To Reach The Station of a Deputy 168
Glossary 173
1: TRAINING OURSELVES FOR SERVANTHOOD
By the name of Allah, All-Mighty, All-Merciful, Most Beneficent and Most Munificent.
We are thanking Allah Almighty that He is giving us another chance to reach Ramadan, the fasting month, the most valuable and most lighted, most radiant month. And we are asking from Allah Almighty to grant us inspirations. We in need, and He has endless knowledge, wisdoms and di- vine Favor Oceans.
If we are asking according to our souls’ desires, He should give to us. Sometimes it is easy to give to us. Sometimes there is present, among the attenders, those who are asking deeply, and we are giving pearls and deep meanings, and some [other] times we are giving only shells. And Allah wants from His servants to ask as much as they are able. When He gives, it is never going to be less for Him.
Sometimes I was in Mecca and Medina and Jerusalem, and I was ask- ing, “When are you going to make Quds, Jerusalem, free?”
When are Muslims going to be free? They are slaves to their egos and as long as they are slaves to their egos, it is delayed for Quds to be freed, the qiblah for all nations,1 and also for Muslims.
For everything there must be some reason; nothing happens without a reason. Muslims are egos’ slaves now and are following their egos’ desires.
1When the command to observe prayers was revealed to the Prophet saw, he and the Muslims prayed facing Jerusalem. It was not until the second year after the Prophet’s emigration to Medina that the qiblah was changed from Jerusalem to Mecca by divine revelation, as com- manded in Qur’an, 2:142-150.
Therefore, Quds, which was for fourteen centuries under the hands of Muslims, now is taken from them. He is making us to think about our freedom!
People may say that earlier Muslims were slaves. And now there are so many Islamic countries but they are all slaves. But when we are going to be slaves to the Lord, Almighty Allah, everything is going to be easy.
Subhanallah, He is making a way to enter [the subject]; I was asking for inspirations. They are making me free to move in any direction, as They like, not bounded; as long as you are giving your attention, it is easy to give us inspirations. “O Nazim Efendi, ask for yourself and for those who are attending with you,” said Grandshaykh. “We are not heedless of you, what you are intending. You are under our eyes. Ask if they are created to be servants or to be kings.”
Everyone must ask himself if he is created to be a servant or to be a king. But now everyone is asking to be a king. The Prophet saw declared in his holy hadith, saying, “The lord of people, the master of people, is the one who is a servant to them, not that one who is asking to be served. The one who gives himself to serve people, he is going to be a master.”
This is for all people, the most famous and most valuable measure of humanity. People now are following ways to establish humanism. But they must use firstly that measure: to teach people to be servants to mankind, to make themselves to be servants. If anyone does not like to be a servant, no humanism.
The Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad saw, gives honor to those who are servants. For everything, the one who is serving is going to be more acceptable in the community and in the Divine Presence. And we must try to teach ourselves to be servants.
Man is created to be a servant, firstly to his Lord. Even kings and queens, heads of communities, have been ordered also to be servants to their Lord.
This country is a kingdom. That is the best system of ruling, the no- blest system, more honored for nations than republics. As the Prophet saw said, after kings will come tyrants and dictators. England is a kingdom, and therefore I am asking Allah to keep that kingdom on this island because that kingdom gives us our freedom, even though we are not Christians— more freedom than our Muslim countries give. Allah may ask me about that on the Day of Judgment.
I am advising every Muslim to thank Allah for Her Majesty the Queen, asking Him to keep her on His right path and to make her happy, here and Hereafter. Her Majesty the Queen is the chief of the Church of England. It means that she is accepting to be the servant of the Lord, Almighty Allah.
Even kings are honored by being servants to Almighty; no higher rank than that, even for kings and queens. And common people also have a chance for the same rank, to be servants to the Lord, Almighty Allah. I am asking to be a humble servant to Him. He honored all mankind by being servants to Him Almighty; we have been given a grant, to be slaves to Him. I don’t think that Her Majesty the Queen is refusing to be a slave to her Lord, Almighty Allah.
But are we looking at that point during our lives or not? Even believ- ers are not thinking about it. If they were, this world would be changed, quickly; from evening up to morning, it would be changed to another view. Very few people are waking up and thinking that they are servants, and washing and worshipping—very few. And Allah, during the nighttimes, when the stars are shining, is looking at His servants, but they are sleeping or dancing. And He likes His servants, during the nights, to be with Him, even for a short while. The King of Kings is making His servants to awaken, but we are turning from one side to the other, not thinking that He is looking at us, to be with Him!
Daytimes we are too busy with something very cheap; we are making ourselves busy with the cheapest things. A person is running after stones, to fill sacks, but on the other side there are diamonds. Who is busy—the one filling them with diamonds and pearls and emeralds, or the one taking stones?
First-standard-minded people may understand me; too clever ones may read other books and go to scholars. So many sacks of stones—and I am asking to take diamonds but we are busy with stones. All Muslims, also, all people, are occupied by business; on their heads is written “Business- man,” to make those stones more and more. And Allah is pouring pearls and diamonds on His servants, saying, “Come and serve yourself and take!”
Days are running to an end; don’t think you are here permanently. Think about that; try to be a servant to Allah first. Don’t be worried about business. We don’t need business, we need servanthood. If people want this world to be Paradise, they can make it Paradise. Serve, firstly, the Lord; secondly, mankind. Then all troubles and miseries will be finished.
When Allah created our souls and gathered all peoples’ souls and then clothed them in their forms,2 He made a show of every kind of job, profes- sion. Everything was there. Then He ordered all people, saying, “Everyone may choose for himself that one which is suitable for himself.”
Then all of them said, “This is for me,” each one taking something.
Only one group of people did not choose anything. And Allah asked, “Why are you not choosing?”
They said, “O our Lord, our choice is You. We choose to be Your servants, O our Lord!”
And Allah answered, swearing by His divinity, saying, “And I am your Lord. If you choose My service, I will make all people servants to you.”
Whoever chooses to be a servant to his Lord first, his ego is going to be a servant to him. Then your ego may carry you from East to West in a moment, with miraculous power. The earth may be gold by your look; every part of creation is going to be a servant to you. Fatehah! ▲
2That is, on the Day of Promises in the spiritual world, mentioned in 7:172.
2: PREPARING OURSELVES TO CARRY OUT ORDERS AND FACE OUR DESTINY
You can find everything in the Holy Qur’an that you may be in need of, individually or collectively, physically or spiritually. But you are in need of practicing.
No one can practice without a person to teach him how to practice. The Shari’ah is all the rules mentioned in the Holy Qur’an, and tariqah teaches people how to practice those rules. As a believer must learn the holy orders of Allah Almighty, so he needs someone to teach him practic- ing. Therefore Allah Almighty sent His beloved servant, Sayyidina Mu- hammad saw to his people to teach them.
When he first met Gabriel saw, then from the heavens there came on earth a golden throne, and angels took Sayyidina Muhammad saw and made him sit on that throne. Then Gabriel touched the edge of his wing on earth. A spring came, and Gabriel made wudu, the Prophet watching. Then Gabriel saw told him to do the same washing, saying, “That is for you and your nation. Whoever does as you are doing, he will get clean from all sins, spiritually and physically clean.”
Wudu is mentioned in the Holy Qur’an, but Gabriel came to show how to make wudu. We are in need to look and to practice. There are five hun- dred orders in the Holy Qur’an, mentioned by the Prophet saw. He is the first explainer of the Holy Qur’an; for twenty-three years the Qur’an came from the heavens, but the meanings he had been given in his heart. All of his speech is an explanation of the Holy Qur’an. When he did something,
that was sunnah,3 or when he said something, or when he looked at the ac- tions of his sahabah and did not object. Throughout the whole of his life, his sayings and actions were the practice of the meanings of the Holy Qur’an. The Qur’an came from Allah, but its meanings were given to his heart.
As the Prophet saw taught his Companions how to practice, we are also in need. The sahabah were the teachers of all nations; everyone was in need of one of them to follow. Without following, it is so difficult to reach to real faith and worship.
Now people are understanding that learning is enough for practicing. But they are wrong, because the first order to the sahabah was to follow the Prophet , making it fard, obligatory, as well as sunnah to follow him.
If you are not accepting to be a servant to anyone, how can you be a servant to your Lord? By serving someone, we may learn the manners of serving the Lord. There must be someone to destroy our ego, breaking its claims to be Lord and commander, to rule over us, because it never likes anyone to be over itself. The whole of the Qur’an and hadith are to make our ego to be more humble, as much as possible. Put it down as much as you can!
In books there may be written medicines for all diseases, but a physi- cian must learn how to cure from someone. And as a first step, we need to prepare ourselves so that we may be able to carry orders.
I was with my Grandshaykh for forty years and still I am under his or- ders (if They cut off their divine help, we are going to be useless; with their divine support we may stand on our feet). And most of the murids who came to visit him were asking, “Any orders, O my master?”
He used to say, “O my son, you are free to choose. According to your inspirations, you are free.” And he was saying to me, “If I am ordering, up
3In this text, Sunnah refers to the body of the Prophet’s practices, while sunnah refers to an individual practice.
to now I don’t see anyone to carry orders. It is too difficult for them. They can’t carry such commands.”
You are free. If two ways are coming, you may choose as you like. But the shaykh must have some powers. Even though murids may think they are choosing, he makes them to choose. It is freedom, because our ego likes to be free, but still he makes him go to that side.
That is for juniors, not seniors. But we don’t like to be always juniors; we must improve, be able to carry orders. That is the reason that Allah covers our destiny, because if we knew our destiny, we would ask to escape. Therefore, by His mercy He orders us, “Choose this,” so that people think they are free, and so they feel peace and satisfaction in themselves.
Among all people, saints have reached to the point of looking at their destiny and they are not afraid to go on to their destiny—as Sayyidina ‘Ali4
said to his murderer, who was his horse keeper, “Ya qatili, O my mur- derer!”
And his horse keeper said, “O my master, kill me so I may not kill you.”
And ‘Ali said, “Oh, do you think I should do that and be your mur- derer? Without your doing anything to me, how could I kill you?” He knew and was not looking for any defense for himself, such as sending his murderer to another country; no, going on to his destiny.
The Prophet kissed one of his grandsons, Sayyidina Husain , on his mouth, and kissed the other on his neck. One was poisoned, one’s head was cut off; he knew. And when the people of Iraq called Sayyidina Husain
[and promised] to support him,5 other sahabah cried and said, “Ya sayyidi, my master, don’t go!” All of them cried but he said, “I must go,” and he
4The Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law, and the fourth of the rightly-guided caliphs.
5That is, when the Muslims of the Iraqi city of Kufa begged Sayyidina Husain , the Prophet’s grandson, to come to them and promised to support his claim to the caliphate.
went and fell on the beach of the Tigris as a martyr. They6 are on the high- est level of faith, to carry out the Will of Allah Almighty.
We are the lowest-standard believers, but still we are honored. Yet it is not enough to be on the lowest level. You must improve to real iman, faith, till there is clear to you your destiny. Therefore, we need someone, to obey his orders.
That is the way to reach that highest level of iman. If not obeying someone, it is impossible. All of Grandshaykh’s Associations,7 assemblies, during thirty or forty years, were in the same direction, to make attenders and followers to carry orders. And that is the ordinary standard of Islam; below that standard you can’t call it Islam. Islam means to submit. If we not able to carry orders, there is only the name.
Now, as the Prophet said for our time, there are people with only the name but no meaning of Islam. It is an order to follow a person, to be obedient to him, who can teach you to be obedient to all the orders of Al- lah, to prepare you for carrying orders.
Which thing prevents a person from preparinq himself to carry out orders? Ego says, “Don’t be obedient to anyone except me!” And if you are following its commands, you are never going to be obedient to your Lord Almighty.
Tariqah makes you firstly to carry the commands of the Shari’ah,8 the most basic level of Islam. When you are prepared, then comes the second step. The first step is on earth, the second in the Heavens. When you are firm on the first step, the second one takes you to the Heavens, because at the second step, you are going to be almost free from ego; at the second
6“They” refers to such saints and holy people, who, although knowing that a terrible end awaits them, nevertheless go toward it with total trust in the rightness of their Lord’s de- crees.
7Sohbet (from the Arabic suhbah, meaning companionship, friendship or association with someone), a conversation, talk or chat; in this context, the discourse of a shaykh.
8The canonical law of Islam, derived primarily from the Qur’an and the Prophet’s Sunnah
(practice).
step, you are prepared to accept and agree with the Will of Allah, with your destiny. When your nafs, your ego, is finished, you may enter the Heavens. But no one enters the Heavens by his ego; prohibited!
Every Association [of ours] is going to be from the Holy Qur’an or holy Hadith or Grandshaykh‘s sayings, to make you able to carry your des- tiny. You must be able and brave enough to walk towards it. Allah says, “If you are pleased with My Will, I am pleased with you.” When you say, “As You like,” He says, “O My servant, as you like, also.” ▲
3: THE NEED TO TURN TO AND FOLLOW A QIBLAH
May Allah Almighty give us good understanding of His holy verses in His Last Message, the Holy Qur’an.
He created man and He gave to everyone a heart. Our heart, He has made it for Himself; it belongs to the Lord Almighty. That is the most im- portant part of man and the most precious; the spiritual power center is in the heart. The heart commands the body. It commands the mind, also.
And now people are claiming that the heart is under the command of the brain, but in reality control of the whole body comes through the heart. Don’t think it is only a piece of flesh, like a fist. That is its physical shape, but in its place is a spiritual heart that controls the flesh heart and the whole body.
You know that everyone translates his feelings through his heart, not through his mind. And the real heart is always turning; according to the conditions that you are living in, it turns. And when it turns, you are going to appear in different conditions or states. It is impossible for a person to appear in the same state; always he is going to be changed. In Arabic, “qalb,” heart, means “turned, changed.” And when your heart is changed, your condition or your state is going to be changed.
Allah is the Creator and He knows well about our hearts. Like that lamp in mini-cab stations,9 our heart quickly turns. But Allah made our hearts to be fixed in one direction, not to be lost.
9In England, minicab stations are recognizable by their revolving yellow lights.
You can’t speak of a “direction” for Allah. He is in every direction, not in one only; He created directions. Men are in need to turn their faces to one direction. Therefore, when the first man came on earth, he asked to turn his face towards the Divine Presence. Then Allah sent to him a house from Paradise made of a red ruby, shining, lighted, and it landed at the place where the Holy Ka‘bah was [later] built, because we need of turning to some direction to make our hearts fixed in that direction.
Adam was ordered to come to that palace, that Paradise-building of red ruby, and go around it and to pray towards it from four directions. Al- lah made for the first man a qiblah, to be a focus for his body and for his physical heart, to turn towards that direction.
It was the first qiblah for the first man. And we are saying, “If it is an empty building, there is no meaning in turning towards that Ka‘bah.” But we are asking for a qiblah in our real hearts. If you do not find that real Ka‘bah but only that outwardly visible building, your heart will never gets a direction for reaching the Divine Presence. That qiblah, [our heart’s qiblah], is in order to find a way to the Divine Presence.
That outwardly visible Ka‘bah leads to the first level of the Seven Heavens, Bait al-Ma’mur.10 (There is one qiblah in each heaven; then comes Kursi;11 then comes ‘Arsh.12) And the first qiblah was the Ka‘bah.
After the Ka‘bah was built, Allah ordered the second qiblah to be in Quds, Bait al-Maqdis13—not Prophet David’s ¡ building, but, according to traditions, forty years after Abraham’s ¡ building,14 there was the original Bait al-Maqdis. Therefore, for the Children of Isra’il, that Bait al-Maqdis was their qiblah. And for a while the Seal of the Prophets saw was ordered to turn
10The spiritual prototype of the Ka‘bah in the first heaven.
11The Divine Seat.
12The Divine Throne. These terms are to be understood as metaphors denoting Allah’s endless greatness, glory, power, dominion and majesty.
13The Sacred House in Jerusalem, built on the spot where Solomon’s Temple would later stand.
14That is, the K’abah, as mentioned in Bukhari, 4:636.
faces towards Quds ash-Sharif.15 Then Allah made the Prophet to turn towards the Holy Ka‘bah.16
Bodies must turn towards that direction. But more than that qiblah, even, a person must have someone who represents the qiblah spiritually. At the time of the Prophet saw, no one except himself represented the real Ka‘bah; the real qiblah for the sahabah was he. Outwardly, the sahabah’s pray- ing was like our praying, but in reality theirs was quite different from our praying because they turned with their hearts to the Prophet , who repre- sented Haqq, Truth. That is the reason why, even if all awliya, saints, gath- ered together, it would be impossible to reach the level of the worshipping of even one sahabi, Companion of the Prophet saw. Their worshipping was the most precious.
After the Prophet saw, all the sahabah represented him, but the one who represented him best was Abu Bakr .17 Therefore, the sahabah ran, even before burying Rasul-Allah saw, to Abu Bakr to make bayah18 and turn their hearts towards him, because someone must always represent Allah Almighty. There must be one khalifah, caliph, of Allah; everyone must be under that one’s command, everything must move under his will power. And Abu Bakr was the qiblah for all the sahabah, the real one.
Then, over time, the sahabah went everywhere, and from among them, also, there were qiblahs for people. At every time, there must be one to rep- resent the main qiblah. Then, from that one, there may be, in different places, by his spiritual powers, various people as qiblahs.
Allah Almighty orders mankind to turn towards the Holy Ka‘bah physically, and He also asks us to turn towards the real qiblah, Sayyidina Muhammad saw. And as long as they are not doing it, no peace, no agree- ment among nations; impossible.
15Jerusalem the Honored.
16Qur’an 2:142-150.
17The Prophet‘s father-in-law and close friend, who later became the first caliph of Islam.
18Pledge of commitment and loyalty.
So many people are here now. We are turning our faces towards qiblah and our hearts, through Muhammad saw, towards Allah Almighty. That gives us peace and mercy. If you are turning your faces towards Ka‘bah behind the imam,19 mercy comes pouring over people, and then divine love is sent and covers them.
Everyone is in need to find a real qiblah in his life. If not finding, even if he enters the Ka‘bah, he may find nothing. He must find something around it and inside it. It is not empty.
We need to find and follow a qiblah, every time, and it should be a guide for us to heavenly Ka‘bahs, towards the Divine Throne. What does it mean, “Throne,” without Someone there? Without the Lord, what is the meaning of the Throne? And we are asking for that one.
Now, people, if they don’t turn their faces towards the Ka‘bah, their hearts are always turning and giving troubles; if not fixing to a Ka‘bah, no peace and satisfaction. If looking, they may find some ones who represent the Lord, Almighty Allah, and their hearts are pouring blessings and divine love and mercy on you. ▲
19The leader of a congregational prayer.
4: ABOUT BEING A SINCERE SERVANT TO OUR LORD
We are asking blessings from Allah Alm
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