LIBERATING THE SOUL, Book 5 (Shaykh Nazim, 199 pages, 9/13)
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benefit and to take away harm. That is their aim.
Other people are asking so many things from this life. Prophets don’t take payment from people; they only give benefit here and for the Eternal Life. But ignorant people are asking to reject them, defeat them, kill them. There is a saying in Arabic, “If the one who is blaming you is ignorant, it is a clear proof that you are on a perfect way.” If an ignorant, imperfect one blames you, good tidings that you are a perfect one.
The lowest-standard people (I don’t mean peasants, servants, workers; the lowest are those who have no control on their egos, who always follow their egos) are always attacking them. They may be the richest or most powerful ones, may even be kings, yet they are on the lowest level of peo- ple. The level of people in the Divine Presence is according to their charac- teristics, not according to temporary titles or golden clothes or crowns.
The lowest people disturbed the prophets—wild people, foolish, but their attacks never made prophets to be fed-up with their messages. They were continuing on their way. Noah, for 950 years, was calling people, never getting fed-up. As long as they were disturbed by people, their ranks were improving and their honor was increasing.
Everyone’s intention must be to reach people with benefit, as some- one who goes to a person to give an injection. That person may kick him but the doctor is never angry with him. He says, “That is a sick person.” Prophets know that people are sick and they use their tolerance. Noah used his tolerance for 950 years.
Once Yunus130 was angry with people, and he left that country and es- caped, and he said, “May Allah send His punishment on you!” Then Allah did not accept him and imprisoned him for forty days in the stomach of a whale. Allah never likes impatience. So many prophets were angry with their nations but they did not run away; therefore Allah imprisoned him in the whale’s stomach. And he was crying, “La ilaha illa anta! I was such an oppressor to my nation!”131 and then Allah let him out.
Our Grandshaykh, who is making me to speak to you from his knowl- edge treasury, is sending something to announce to you. Now, also, he is putting words in my mouth and teaching all of us:
Everyone must try to follow the ways of the prophets. What were their ways? To give benefit to people and to take away harm. That level of people has reached to being civilized. Under that level, no civilization; wild people, not reaching the horizon of being human.
Now people are generally asking for investment; they are living for that interest only. “How can I invest?”—that is their only idea and thought. If not of benefit for themselves, they don’t say “Good morning,” but if you give them a cup of tea, they may even bow!
From East to West now, all are such investment people. Five hundred years ago, an ‘ashiq132 was writing poems, and in a famous one he com- plained about people. He went to a place and said, “As-salamu ‘alaikum,” but people did not say “Wa ‘alaikum as-salam.”133
All people have the same sickness now. Materialistic-minded people have increased in Western countries and now are covering Eastern coun- tries; the sickness of unbelievers now is coming on believers, also. Like kangaroos, we are running after them, but they are on horses, never satis- fied. You may be given the whole world but you may look at the moon, to
130The prophet Jonah saw.
13121:87.
132A lover of Allah.
133That is, they did not return his greeting.
take that. also. People have lost their good characteristics, have become like rocks.
All of you want to be good ones. The first condition is that you must try to make people good ones. To make them good ones, you must try to bring them benefit. To bring benefit, first you must try to bring them be- lief, even if they may defeat you. ▲
30: TRYING TO BE A GOOD ONE AND BENEFITTING OTHERS
What goal should man try to reach? That is an important question: What should be the purpose of a man during his lifetime—to be what?
And that is an important question. For its answer, man must know his position in this universe; he must know about himself so that he may reflect and may fix the price for reaching that goal. Before everything, therefore, we must learn about ourselves, about mankind. Our first meditation must be on that important point.
If anyone asks who you are, you must know the answer. It is not an answer to say your name only. Do you recognize yourself? Not enough to say, “I am a British subject, living in London, working at the Zoo”; that is not an answer.
Who are you? You must answer to me about your position in the entire universe, the seen and unseen worlds, also. You must know who you are among creatures in this world and universe. And when you have learned who you are and for what purpose you are in existence, you can try to make a way to that goal and it should be easy. But if not knowing, it is difficult to reach to your goal.
As a simple answer to the question, “For what purpose are you striv- ing, what do you want to be?” you must give a simple answer: “I am trying to be a good one.”
This is as They are making me to speak. This must be the purpose in this life for everyone, to be a good one. And you can say that everyone claims that he is a good one.
If it is true that everyone is a good one, what about this world’s situa- tion? What about sufferings, difficulties, crises, wars, fighting—for what, if everyone is claiming to be a good one? What about devils and all evils? Must be something wrong. Either we are not good ones or this world is Paradise and we don’t recognize it.
No one will agree that this world is Paradise; no. Then the second possibility is that we are not good ones. No, mostly people are not good ones, even running, like rivers, with evil. We know that now.
[Therefore], now we must try to change our badness into goodness, individually and collectively; we must try to change ourselves. And there is a verse in the Holy Qur’an, Allah declaring that a change is impossible till collectively people change themselves.134
If we know that we are in difficult conditions, it is something from Al- lah Almighty because He arranges our conditions according to our charac- teristics, whether we are good ones or bad ones. If we know that we are not in good conditions, there is a connection. It means that our characteris- tics are bad.
“If you are not happy with those conditions, change your characteris- tics from bad to good, and then I will change your conditions,” Allah Al- mighty is saying to us. We are asking for a good life, to be good ones. If you are not happy to be good ones and are running to be bad ones, you should be surrounded by difficulties.
You, as a member of mankind’s family, must try to be a good one; you must learn what are the ways that lead people to be good ones. Through- out our lives we are seeing those crossroads. One goes to good people’s ways, the other to bad ones’ ways. And you have been given enough mind to understand good ones and bad ones.
Throughout the history of mankind, good ones and bad ones have been working, have been in action, and at every time there is a handful of good ones but a big majority following bad ones. Particularly in our days,
13413:11.
every place is full of advertising for bad ones; everywhere you can find it. Everywhere they are working to make people follow devils and to support the kingdom of Satan; it is difficult in big cities to find good ones. Every- one, knowingly or unknowingly, is trying to support the kingdom of Satan.
We must look at our actions and, before that, at our intentions. Some- times I am asking young ones, “What are you going to be?” Mostly ac- countants, because man likes money; some engineers, some pilots, some this and some that. Everyone’s intention, in his profession, is to reach an enjoyable life, a high life-standard. Never have I heard anyone say, “I in- tend to be a good one for the community.” How is this community going to rise?
What is this? Don’t think that they are asking to be holy men; it never passes through their minds to be holy. To be able to be each night in the most important dancing place, where the most important people come, not to go to simple pubs (that is the lowest standard for them)—in their imagi- nation they are asking for that standard. They are ready to use every means to reach such a high life-standard.
That is a sickness with all people. How can you think that these diffi- cult conditions of our time are going to be changed? Perhaps there are go- ing to be more complicated and complex difficulties. Everyone’s imagina- tion is to be the first and everyone else his slave or servant.
That is the twentieth century’s sickness. Psychologists, psychiatrists, sociologists—all of them are not able to bring a cure for that illness. They can’t until they can understand about themselves. Even religious people now have no ability because the same illness is with them, also; they are also asking for a high life. As the Prophet saw informed us, there should be a time when religious activity is used as a means to material benefit.
Everyone is like a cell in the body of mankind: if a cell is ill, the whole body must suffer. Most members are ill. We are asking to give you some- thing to think about.
Allah sent His messengers as examples; you must look at them. And you must look at the closest one to mankind, look at his life. He, Sayyidina Muhammad , was the best one, the best example for humanity. As all the
prophets tried to teach people how to be good ones, their lives just passing in teaching people to be good ones, the first example we can take from his life is that he lived his whole life to give benefit to others, putting people first and putting himself last.
He tried to reach people with benefit. When he went to his sahabah, they were first and he came last: “I always support you, I always look after you.” If a person goes in front, he never knows what is behind him. He was looking and walking behind them.
And also on the Day of Resurrection, when all the prophets will fall on their knees—all mankind, even prophets—and they will ask only about themselves, only one person will fall into sajdah. The Honor of Mankind, the Honor of the Universes, of Creation, only he will fall into sajdah and will say, “O my ummah! I am asking for my ummah!” He will not enter Paradise until all his ummah go in. He will say, “Anyone else?” and the angels will say, “No.” Then he will go in.
He said, “O people, you must do like me. Keep me as the best exam- ple for everything.” You must try to reach everyone with benefit so that you should be a good one. The one who reaches people with goodness, that is a good one.
Each night, you may make judgment on yourself. Ask for evidence whether you reached at least one person with goodness that day. If you can say, “At least one,” it is all right. If not, you must be ashamed and say, “I am not a good one.”
New fashions from Europe are now coming to our countries, also. When you pass through a market, they are putting boxes for blind people, for animals, for handicapped people. Do you put something there? It is a sign of mercy in the heart to put even two pennies. You may say at nighttime, “Yes, today I put something there. If not even two pence, I am ashamed!”
We must try to be a good one in this life, not to have something writ- ten on a piece of marble in the graveyard, no. In this life, to be written in the Divine Presence as a good one is important. ▲
31: CONCERNING SECLUSION AND DEPENDING ON ALLAH FOR OUR PROVISION
No one can be Allah except Allah. He is the only One. Those who are making i‘tikaf,135 seclusion, may be here and there for dhikr, also. I was with Grandshaykh in Medina for khalwah,136 and he ordered me five times to be in Medina in Haram ash-Sharif,137 going and coming.
It is important, if a person is asking to reach the horizon of mankind spiritually, to practice as all prophets did, according to their ways. We can follow their ways till we reach to our destination in the Divine Presence.
All prophets did seclusion. After that, they were able to reach to meet the archangel Gabriel. For a standard-level person, it is impossible to get in touch with heavenly beings; they must do seclusion to take spiritual powers, to be in control of their physical bodies. As long as our physical body is in control of our soul, it is difficult to get in touch with heavenly beings.
In the Holy Qur’an, Allah informs us that when Moses ¡ was invited to receive the Torah, he was alone, in seclusion, for forty nights, and then Allah gave him the Torah. Our egos, if we are with people, won’t be able to accept that divine manifestation. Therefore, prophet had to be alone, away from people.
Each year, our Prophet saw, during the holy months of Rajab, Sha’ban and Ramadan, went to that cave. He was alone on Jabal an-Nur138 when
135Spiritual retreat.
136Seclusion.
137The Noble Sanctuary, here referring to the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina.
138The Mount of Light near Mecca. At its summit is Hira’ Cave, in which the Prophet saw was observing seclusion when he received the first revelation of the Qur’an.
Gabriel came, and if a person is alone, it is easy for heavenly beings to ap- proach. Among all grandshaykhs, also, none reached his spiritual station without seclusion, and anyone who is asking for real life must keep that way. All prophets and saints kept that way.
‘Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani, one of our king-sized grandshaykhs, was the khalifah139 of Allah, and he was given that rank by Allah directly. He ordered one of his murids into seclusion to reach his real destination in the Divine Presence, and in his time that period was seven years; for fight- ing against their egos till being able to conquer them, they needed seven years.
When ‘Abdul-Khaliq ordered, that murid prepared himself and went into that small cell. Then the Prophet saw ordered his shaykh, ‘Abdul-Khaliq, “Look after your murid. He is someone who may quickly reach his destina- tion. Show him some important things. Don’t leave him for seven years in seclusion.”
‘Abdul-Khaliq went and said to his murid, “Come with me.” They went to a garden nearby and the shaykh stopped near a river. And a frog jumped out, a green one, and, with its tongue, three times took earth, soil, and went back into the water.
That grandshaykh said, “Did you see what he did? Did you under- stand what he did?”
“No.”
“He comes out each day and takes his provision, three tonguefuls a day. He is afraid to take more, [thinking that] he may die because the soil may finish.”
Then that murid laughed aloud. And the frog came out and laughed,
also.
139Deputy.
With their miraculous powers, grandshaykhs can do anything they like; any miracle that the Prophet showed is for grandshaykhs, also. A frog has no need to eat earth, but that grandshaykh was teaching, because that murid, from that evening up to the morning, had been thinking about his family and his children. When he was ordered into seven years’ seclusion, if they sold all his property, it might be enough for only five or six years. What would their situation be during that last year? All night he had been thinking about that point.
That frog laughed, also. And that murid asked, “For what are you laughing?”
The frog asked him, “For what are you laughing?”
The murid said, “I laughed when I heard you were afraid that the soil would finish if you took only three mouthfuls.”
Then that frog said, “I was laughing at your foolishness. That soil might finish if I took a long time, but Allah Almighty has promised you and your family provision. How could it finish? And you were thinking all night about your family’s provision!” A shaykh can look at his murids’ situations always.
O my pupils! Faith is based on a strong foundation: you must believe in Allah Almighty. It is not enough to say, “I believe.” He may try you, whether your belief is real or not. And Satan is also attacking believers and asking to destroy their faith. And he has a method to destroy our faith.
What is tnat method? He comes to a person, as he came to that murid, to give him a doubt about his provision. When a doubt comes to a person, that doubt destroys belief in Almighty Allah.
He is the Provider, no one else. No doubt about that provision for you! But when doubt comes, no more belief for you, everything coming down.
Grandshaykh said how it must be, our belief in the Provider: If all the skies were covered with steel plates from East to West, and on the whole
earth there was no more grass and only a single piece of rock, if any doubt comes to a person’s heart about where his provision will come from, no more faith for him.
He has promised provision! Don’t think that by working, planting, farm- ing, you are bringing provisions. No! If Allah does not send provisions from the Heavens, no government will be able to give provision.
Here in England seven years ago there was a drought; no rain. I came by plane and saw all England yellow; I was surprised. The government was very upset; they thought about what would happen if everything was going to be dry for one more year and no one could live here any more. And I asked, “How are you alive? You have everything. Allah is the Provider!”
The government asked every religious group to pray for rain; it is an old, good manner of servants to pray for rain. And, alhamdulillah, the holy month approached and we prayed, also, and I think that for the sake of holy Ramadan Allah sent rain and that drought went away.
In Turkey now, big lands of many acres are dry. People came out to ask for rain. Allah gives; when they ask, He gives. But we must be humble servants to ask.
In Moses’ ¡ time there was a drought, also. The Children of Isra’il came to Moses ¡ to pray for rain, and he went out with all the people. When we do that—old people and young ones, cattle and flocks, taking the little lambs away from their mothers to cry, and the people crying—then
Allah sends. And Moses saw was wearing his coat inside-out.
They went to an area on which no sins had been committed, a clean area. And the people cried and asked Moses ¡ to pray.
No answer, no rain! Moses ¡ said, “O my Lord, I am asking from Your endless favors!”
Then Allah Almighty said, “O Moses, among your people there is a slanderer,” someone who comes and talks against people to others. “There
is one in that huge crowd. Because of that person, I am not accepting your
du‘as.”
Then Moses ¡ said, “O Lord, show us that one, to take him away!”
But Allah said, “O Moses, mind your manners! You are asking Me to show that person. Then I am going to be the slanderer! Don’t even show that one!”
When that person heard that, he asked forgiveness, saying, “O my Lord, I never want to do that again.” Then, when he had repented truly, clouds came and rain came, and the wheat grew taller than Da‘ud’s ¡ height, and thick.
But there was nothing on the stalks, no grain on them. Moses was surprised and very angry. “O my Lord, what happened?”
Then Allah Almighty said (He liked to make jokes with Moses), “O Moses, you asked for rain, not for provision. Now make a place for a fire, an oven. Then make a fire in your oven.”
And Moses ¡ did. “Take a handful of grain and throw it into that fire to see My power!”
Moses ¡ threw a handful of grain into that fire. Instantly he saw that grains were growing in that fire, and big grain stalks grew.
And Allah Almighty said, “O Moses, you must ask for provision from Me. I can make your provision grow even in fire!”
And Shaytan comes to destroy your faith by thinking about provision! Without causes, He can give provision to His servants. We are asking forgiveness for every wrong thought about Allah! ▲
32: THE CURRENT DEGENERATION OF MUSLIM SOCIETY
May Allah bless us for the sake of this holy month! We are asking Al- lah also to grant us the good attributes that we are trying to reach during this holy month. Now it is easy. Then, after the holy month it is more dif- ficult, but, with Allah’s blessings, difficulty is going to be made easier.
First you must believe. Beliefs are the foundation of our faith. We must reach from imitated belief to real faith. Most important is to believe in Allah Almighty. Sometimes it is so easy, but for some complex people it is difficult. To believe in God is easier for simple people. Those who have reached the top level of educated people also may believe strongly.
Simple people’s belief is no doubt strong. And top-level people have real evidence so that they can give satisfaction to themselves through their knowledge. But there is a middle level of people in mosques and churches. They do not really believe or live belief.
That level is dangerous for people. They need advice because they can easily follow good people and they can easily follow devils, also. At that level, people should be asked to follow good ones, to be connected with good ones. That is a dangerous level for common people.
During the Islamic era, from the beginning up to today, many tariqat orders lived within the community, teaching people and saving them from following devils and bad influences. Therefore, charitable people were building, in cities and towns and even in villages, tekkes,140 hundreds of such
140Zawiyahs, khanegahs or dergahs, gathering places for shaykhs with their murids.
buildings for tariqat people, with a masjid, sleeping rooms, halls, schools and dining rooms, all of them free. And with each one was a shaykh, looking after and controlling it.
When people were free from work, everyone needed to meet his brothers, to listen to the Association.141 Anyone can go to a mosque but mosques are only for praying, and people need to meet and be together. And after coming out of the mosque, Shaytan calls them. If no place to meet and to go to, Shaytan can easily catch them.
Now, all those good places, dergahs, worked excellently for centuries, but in our times people came against them, because as long as people could be there and learn something from some honored people, from holy ones, devils were always asking to take them away. And they reached their goal in the last eighty years. Now devils are controlling everything and are not leaving freedom for believers.
Everywhere now there is pressure in the Islamic world. The Christian world has more tolerance than the Muslim wold; we can’t find such a pos- sibility in our country. Everywhere they control you, always follow you everywhere, because we are tariqat people.
From that time, in the Islamic world, they have been against tariqats. When tariqats are forbidden and all dergahs and zawiyahs are locked up, where can people go? To coffee houses, at least. And coffee houses are centers of evil-teaching, primary schools for devils, giving the first diploma; you know the levels after that. But first are the coffee houses, doing every bad- ness.
Learning centers for every evil, coffee houses! You can’t find any good thing there; they are the headquarters of Satan. Therefore, from the beginning of this century, people have been under the complete control of devils. They are looking at newspapers and learning.142 Everything you
141The shaykh’s sohbet (suhbah) or discourse.
142Referring to the use of literacy in Turkey for reading newspapers, the majority of which contain sections of pornographic photos, as well as advertisements for all kinds of Satan- inspired activities.
may see, advertisements for evils; they are even using cats or dogs for ad- vertising.
What are they asking to do; for what are they putting cats? At the least, they are occupying people with something without meaning—such stupid advertisements, people under their control. Everywhere— newspapers, one thousand per cent; one million per cent, broadcasting; one billion per cent in their books and films! And all of them destroying our belief in Allah Almighty, because common people have no defense against that, and top-level people also can’t do anything against it; they are only a handful of people.
And common people are running after the ideas of communism and they are saying, “No God!” They are catching people through two ways, through their stomachs and through sexual freedom, making them unbe- lievers. Unlearned people may quickly deny belief.
When communism came to Russia, teachers came to the schools and asked, “Do you believe in God?” “Yes,” said some of the pupils. Then they cried for sweets but Allah did not give them.143 Then that shaytani teacher said, “Now ask me!” and they asked the teacher and he gave.
Common people are like children, like sheep. If coming to a river, sheep never enter it; the shepherd pushes one into the water and when one goes in, the others
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benefit and to take away harm. That is their aim.
Other people are asking so many things from this life. Prophets don’t take payment from people; they only give benefit here and for the Eternal Life. But ignorant people are asking to reject them, defeat them, kill them. There is a saying in Arabic, “If the one who is blaming you is ignorant, it is a clear proof that you are on a perfect way.” If an ignorant, imperfect one blames you, good tidings that you are a perfect one.
The lowest-standard people (I don’t mean peasants, servants, workers; the lowest are those who have no control on their egos, who always follow their egos) are always attacking them. They may be the richest or most powerful ones, may even be kings, yet they are on the lowest level of peo- ple. The level of people in the Divine Presence is according to their charac- teristics, not according to temporary titles or golden clothes or crowns.
The lowest people disturbed the prophets—wild people, foolish, but their attacks never made prophets to be fed-up with their messages. They were continuing on their way. Noah, for 950 years, was calling people, never getting fed-up. As long as they were disturbed by people, their ranks were improving and their honor was increasing.
Everyone’s intention must be to reach people with benefit, as some- one who goes to a person to give an injection. That person may kick him but the doctor is never angry with him. He says, “That is a sick person.” Prophets know that people are sick and they use their tolerance. Noah used his tolerance for 950 years.
Once Yunus130 was angry with people, and he left that country and es- caped, and he said, “May Allah send His punishment on you!” Then Allah did not accept him and imprisoned him for forty days in the stomach of a whale. Allah never likes impatience. So many prophets were angry with their nations but they did not run away; therefore Allah imprisoned him in the whale’s stomach. And he was crying, “La ilaha illa anta! I was such an oppressor to my nation!”131 and then Allah let him out.
Our Grandshaykh, who is making me to speak to you from his knowl- edge treasury, is sending something to announce to you. Now, also, he is putting words in my mouth and teaching all of us:
Everyone must try to follow the ways of the prophets. What were their ways? To give benefit to people and to take away harm. That level of people has reached to being civilized. Under that level, no civilization; wild people, not reaching the horizon of being human.
Now people are generally asking for investment; they are living for that interest only. “How can I invest?”—that is their only idea and thought. If not of benefit for themselves, they don’t say “Good morning,” but if you give them a cup of tea, they may even bow!
From East to West now, all are such investment people. Five hundred years ago, an ‘ashiq132 was writing poems, and in a famous one he com- plained about people. He went to a place and said, “As-salamu ‘alaikum,” but people did not say “Wa ‘alaikum as-salam.”133
All people have the same sickness now. Materialistic-minded people have increased in Western countries and now are covering Eastern coun- tries; the sickness of unbelievers now is coming on believers, also. Like kangaroos, we are running after them, but they are on horses, never satis- fied. You may be given the whole world but you may look at the moon, to
130The prophet Jonah saw.
13121:87.
132A lover of Allah.
133That is, they did not return his greeting.
take that. also. People have lost their good characteristics, have become like rocks.
All of you want to be good ones. The first condition is that you must try to make people good ones. To make them good ones, you must try to bring them benefit. To bring benefit, first you must try to bring them be- lief, even if they may defeat you. ▲
30: TRYING TO BE A GOOD ONE AND BENEFITTING OTHERS
What goal should man try to reach? That is an important question: What should be the purpose of a man during his lifetime—to be what?
And that is an important question. For its answer, man must know his position in this universe; he must know about himself so that he may reflect and may fix the price for reaching that goal. Before everything, therefore, we must learn about ourselves, about mankind. Our first meditation must be on that important point.
If anyone asks who you are, you must know the answer. It is not an answer to say your name only. Do you recognize yourself? Not enough to say, “I am a British subject, living in London, working at the Zoo”; that is not an answer.
Who are you? You must answer to me about your position in the entire universe, the seen and unseen worlds, also. You must know who you are among creatures in this world and universe. And when you have learned who you are and for what purpose you are in existence, you can try to make a way to that goal and it should be easy. But if not knowing, it is difficult to reach to your goal.
As a simple answer to the question, “For what purpose are you striv- ing, what do you want to be?” you must give a simple answer: “I am trying to be a good one.”
This is as They are making me to speak. This must be the purpose in this life for everyone, to be a good one. And you can say that everyone claims that he is a good one.
If it is true that everyone is a good one, what about this world’s situa- tion? What about sufferings, difficulties, crises, wars, fighting—for what, if everyone is claiming to be a good one? What about devils and all evils? Must be something wrong. Either we are not good ones or this world is Paradise and we don’t recognize it.
No one will agree that this world is Paradise; no. Then the second possibility is that we are not good ones. No, mostly people are not good ones, even running, like rivers, with evil. We know that now.
[Therefore], now we must try to change our badness into goodness, individually and collectively; we must try to change ourselves. And there is a verse in the Holy Qur’an, Allah declaring that a change is impossible till collectively people change themselves.134
If we know that we are in difficult conditions, it is something from Al- lah Almighty because He arranges our conditions according to our charac- teristics, whether we are good ones or bad ones. If we know that we are not in good conditions, there is a connection. It means that our characteris- tics are bad.
“If you are not happy with those conditions, change your characteris- tics from bad to good, and then I will change your conditions,” Allah Al- mighty is saying to us. We are asking for a good life, to be good ones. If you are not happy to be good ones and are running to be bad ones, you should be surrounded by difficulties.
You, as a member of mankind’s family, must try to be a good one; you must learn what are the ways that lead people to be good ones. Through- out our lives we are seeing those crossroads. One goes to good people’s ways, the other to bad ones’ ways. And you have been given enough mind to understand good ones and bad ones.
Throughout the history of mankind, good ones and bad ones have been working, have been in action, and at every time there is a handful of good ones but a big majority following bad ones. Particularly in our days,
13413:11.
every place is full of advertising for bad ones; everywhere you can find it. Everywhere they are working to make people follow devils and to support the kingdom of Satan; it is difficult in big cities to find good ones. Every- one, knowingly or unknowingly, is trying to support the kingdom of Satan.
We must look at our actions and, before that, at our intentions. Some- times I am asking young ones, “What are you going to be?” Mostly ac- countants, because man likes money; some engineers, some pilots, some this and some that. Everyone’s intention, in his profession, is to reach an enjoyable life, a high life-standard. Never have I heard anyone say, “I in- tend to be a good one for the community.” How is this community going to rise?
What is this? Don’t think that they are asking to be holy men; it never passes through their minds to be holy. To be able to be each night in the most important dancing place, where the most important people come, not to go to simple pubs (that is the lowest standard for them)—in their imagi- nation they are asking for that standard. They are ready to use every means to reach such a high life-standard.
That is a sickness with all people. How can you think that these diffi- cult conditions of our time are going to be changed? Perhaps there are go- ing to be more complicated and complex difficulties. Everyone’s imagina- tion is to be the first and everyone else his slave or servant.
That is the twentieth century’s sickness. Psychologists, psychiatrists, sociologists—all of them are not able to bring a cure for that illness. They can’t until they can understand about themselves. Even religious people now have no ability because the same illness is with them, also; they are also asking for a high life. As the Prophet saw informed us, there should be a time when religious activity is used as a means to material benefit.
Everyone is like a cell in the body of mankind: if a cell is ill, the whole body must suffer. Most members are ill. We are asking to give you some- thing to think about.
Allah sent His messengers as examples; you must look at them. And you must look at the closest one to mankind, look at his life. He, Sayyidina Muhammad , was the best one, the best example for humanity. As all the
prophets tried to teach people how to be good ones, their lives just passing in teaching people to be good ones, the first example we can take from his life is that he lived his whole life to give benefit to others, putting people first and putting himself last.
He tried to reach people with benefit. When he went to his sahabah, they were first and he came last: “I always support you, I always look after you.” If a person goes in front, he never knows what is behind him. He was looking and walking behind them.
And also on the Day of Resurrection, when all the prophets will fall on their knees—all mankind, even prophets—and they will ask only about themselves, only one person will fall into sajdah. The Honor of Mankind, the Honor of the Universes, of Creation, only he will fall into sajdah and will say, “O my ummah! I am asking for my ummah!” He will not enter Paradise until all his ummah go in. He will say, “Anyone else?” and the angels will say, “No.” Then he will go in.
He said, “O people, you must do like me. Keep me as the best exam- ple for everything.” You must try to reach everyone with benefit so that you should be a good one. The one who reaches people with goodness, that is a good one.
Each night, you may make judgment on yourself. Ask for evidence whether you reached at least one person with goodness that day. If you can say, “At least one,” it is all right. If not, you must be ashamed and say, “I am not a good one.”
New fashions from Europe are now coming to our countries, also. When you pass through a market, they are putting boxes for blind people, for animals, for handicapped people. Do you put something there? It is a sign of mercy in the heart to put even two pennies. You may say at nighttime, “Yes, today I put something there. If not even two pence, I am ashamed!”
We must try to be a good one in this life, not to have something writ- ten on a piece of marble in the graveyard, no. In this life, to be written in the Divine Presence as a good one is important. ▲
31: CONCERNING SECLUSION AND DEPENDING ON ALLAH FOR OUR PROVISION
No one can be Allah except Allah. He is the only One. Those who are making i‘tikaf,135 seclusion, may be here and there for dhikr, also. I was with Grandshaykh in Medina for khalwah,136 and he ordered me five times to be in Medina in Haram ash-Sharif,137 going and coming.
It is important, if a person is asking to reach the horizon of mankind spiritually, to practice as all prophets did, according to their ways. We can follow their ways till we reach to our destination in the Divine Presence.
All prophets did seclusion. After that, they were able to reach to meet the archangel Gabriel. For a standard-level person, it is impossible to get in touch with heavenly beings; they must do seclusion to take spiritual powers, to be in control of their physical bodies. As long as our physical body is in control of our soul, it is difficult to get in touch with heavenly beings.
In the Holy Qur’an, Allah informs us that when Moses ¡ was invited to receive the Torah, he was alone, in seclusion, for forty nights, and then Allah gave him the Torah. Our egos, if we are with people, won’t be able to accept that divine manifestation. Therefore, prophet had to be alone, away from people.
Each year, our Prophet saw, during the holy months of Rajab, Sha’ban and Ramadan, went to that cave. He was alone on Jabal an-Nur138 when
135Spiritual retreat.
136Seclusion.
137The Noble Sanctuary, here referring to the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina.
138The Mount of Light near Mecca. At its summit is Hira’ Cave, in which the Prophet saw was observing seclusion when he received the first revelation of the Qur’an.
Gabriel came, and if a person is alone, it is easy for heavenly beings to ap- proach. Among all grandshaykhs, also, none reached his spiritual station without seclusion, and anyone who is asking for real life must keep that way. All prophets and saints kept that way.
‘Abdul-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani, one of our king-sized grandshaykhs, was the khalifah139 of Allah, and he was given that rank by Allah directly. He ordered one of his murids into seclusion to reach his real destination in the Divine Presence, and in his time that period was seven years; for fight- ing against their egos till being able to conquer them, they needed seven years.
When ‘Abdul-Khaliq ordered, that murid prepared himself and went into that small cell. Then the Prophet saw ordered his shaykh, ‘Abdul-Khaliq, “Look after your murid. He is someone who may quickly reach his destina- tion. Show him some important things. Don’t leave him for seven years in seclusion.”
‘Abdul-Khaliq went and said to his murid, “Come with me.” They went to a garden nearby and the shaykh stopped near a river. And a frog jumped out, a green one, and, with its tongue, three times took earth, soil, and went back into the water.
That grandshaykh said, “Did you see what he did? Did you under- stand what he did?”
“No.”
“He comes out each day and takes his provision, three tonguefuls a day. He is afraid to take more, [thinking that] he may die because the soil may finish.”
Then that murid laughed aloud. And the frog came out and laughed,
also.
139Deputy.
With their miraculous powers, grandshaykhs can do anything they like; any miracle that the Prophet showed is for grandshaykhs, also. A frog has no need to eat earth, but that grandshaykh was teaching, because that murid, from that evening up to the morning, had been thinking about his family and his children. When he was ordered into seven years’ seclusion, if they sold all his property, it might be enough for only five or six years. What would their situation be during that last year? All night he had been thinking about that point.
That frog laughed, also. And that murid asked, “For what are you laughing?”
The frog asked him, “For what are you laughing?”
The murid said, “I laughed when I heard you were afraid that the soil would finish if you took only three mouthfuls.”
Then that frog said, “I was laughing at your foolishness. That soil might finish if I took a long time, but Allah Almighty has promised you and your family provision. How could it finish? And you were thinking all night about your family’s provision!” A shaykh can look at his murids’ situations always.
O my pupils! Faith is based on a strong foundation: you must believe in Allah Almighty. It is not enough to say, “I believe.” He may try you, whether your belief is real or not. And Satan is also attacking believers and asking to destroy their faith. And he has a method to destroy our faith.
What is tnat method? He comes to a person, as he came to that murid, to give him a doubt about his provision. When a doubt comes to a person, that doubt destroys belief in Almighty Allah.
He is the Provider, no one else. No doubt about that provision for you! But when doubt comes, no more belief for you, everything coming down.
Grandshaykh said how it must be, our belief in the Provider: If all the skies were covered with steel plates from East to West, and on the whole
earth there was no more grass and only a single piece of rock, if any doubt comes to a person’s heart about where his provision will come from, no more faith for him.
He has promised provision! Don’t think that by working, planting, farm- ing, you are bringing provisions. No! If Allah does not send provisions from the Heavens, no government will be able to give provision.
Here in England seven years ago there was a drought; no rain. I came by plane and saw all England yellow; I was surprised. The government was very upset; they thought about what would happen if everything was going to be dry for one more year and no one could live here any more. And I asked, “How are you alive? You have everything. Allah is the Provider!”
The government asked every religious group to pray for rain; it is an old, good manner of servants to pray for rain. And, alhamdulillah, the holy month approached and we prayed, also, and I think that for the sake of holy Ramadan Allah sent rain and that drought went away.
In Turkey now, big lands of many acres are dry. People came out to ask for rain. Allah gives; when they ask, He gives. But we must be humble servants to ask.
In Moses’ ¡ time there was a drought, also. The Children of Isra’il came to Moses ¡ to pray for rain, and he went out with all the people. When we do that—old people and young ones, cattle and flocks, taking the little lambs away from their mothers to cry, and the people crying—then
Allah sends. And Moses saw was wearing his coat inside-out.
They went to an area on which no sins had been committed, a clean area. And the people cried and asked Moses ¡ to pray.
No answer, no rain! Moses ¡ said, “O my Lord, I am asking from Your endless favors!”
Then Allah Almighty said, “O Moses, among your people there is a slanderer,” someone who comes and talks against people to others. “There
is one in that huge crowd. Because of that person, I am not accepting your
du‘as.”
Then Moses ¡ said, “O Lord, show us that one, to take him away!”
But Allah said, “O Moses, mind your manners! You are asking Me to show that person. Then I am going to be the slanderer! Don’t even show that one!”
When that person heard that, he asked forgiveness, saying, “O my Lord, I never want to do that again.” Then, when he had repented truly, clouds came and rain came, and the wheat grew taller than Da‘ud’s ¡ height, and thick.
But there was nothing on the stalks, no grain on them. Moses was surprised and very angry. “O my Lord, what happened?”
Then Allah Almighty said (He liked to make jokes with Moses), “O Moses, you asked for rain, not for provision. Now make a place for a fire, an oven. Then make a fire in your oven.”
And Moses ¡ did. “Take a handful of grain and throw it into that fire to see My power!”
Moses ¡ threw a handful of grain into that fire. Instantly he saw that grains were growing in that fire, and big grain stalks grew.
And Allah Almighty said, “O Moses, you must ask for provision from Me. I can make your provision grow even in fire!”
And Shaytan comes to destroy your faith by thinking about provision! Without causes, He can give provision to His servants. We are asking forgiveness for every wrong thought about Allah! ▲
32: THE CURRENT DEGENERATION OF MUSLIM SOCIETY
May Allah bless us for the sake of this holy month! We are asking Al- lah also to grant us the good attributes that we are trying to reach during this holy month. Now it is easy. Then, after the holy month it is more dif- ficult, but, with Allah’s blessings, difficulty is going to be made easier.
First you must believe. Beliefs are the foundation of our faith. We must reach from imitated belief to real faith. Most important is to believe in Allah Almighty. Sometimes it is so easy, but for some complex people it is difficult. To believe in God is easier for simple people. Those who have reached the top level of educated people also may believe strongly.
Simple people’s belief is no doubt strong. And top-level people have real evidence so that they can give satisfaction to themselves through their knowledge. But there is a middle level of people in mosques and churches. They do not really believe or live belief.
That level is dangerous for people. They need advice because they can easily follow good people and they can easily follow devils, also. At that level, people should be asked to follow good ones, to be connected with good ones. That is a dangerous level for common people.
During the Islamic era, from the beginning up to today, many tariqat orders lived within the community, teaching people and saving them from following devils and bad influences. Therefore, charitable people were building, in cities and towns and even in villages, tekkes,140 hundreds of such
140Zawiyahs, khanegahs or dergahs, gathering places for shaykhs with their murids.
buildings for tariqat people, with a masjid, sleeping rooms, halls, schools and dining rooms, all of them free. And with each one was a shaykh, looking after and controlling it.
When people were free from work, everyone needed to meet his brothers, to listen to the Association.141 Anyone can go to a mosque but mosques are only for praying, and people need to meet and be together. And after coming out of the mosque, Shaytan calls them. If no place to meet and to go to, Shaytan can easily catch them.
Now, all those good places, dergahs, worked excellently for centuries, but in our times people came against them, because as long as people could be there and learn something from some honored people, from holy ones, devils were always asking to take them away. And they reached their goal in the last eighty years. Now devils are controlling everything and are not leaving freedom for believers.
Everywhere now there is pressure in the Islamic world. The Christian world has more tolerance than the Muslim wold; we can’t find such a pos- sibility in our country. Everywhere they control you, always follow you everywhere, because we are tariqat people.
From that time, in the Islamic world, they have been against tariqats. When tariqats are forbidden and all dergahs and zawiyahs are locked up, where can people go? To coffee houses, at least. And coffee houses are centers of evil-teaching, primary schools for devils, giving the first diploma; you know the levels after that. But first are the coffee houses, doing every bad- ness.
Learning centers for every evil, coffee houses! You can’t find any good thing there; they are the headquarters of Satan. Therefore, from the beginning of this century, people have been under the complete control of devils. They are looking at newspapers and learning.142 Everything you
141The shaykh’s sohbet (suhbah) or discourse.
142Referring to the use of literacy in Turkey for reading newspapers, the majority of which contain sections of pornographic photos, as well as advertisements for all kinds of Satan- inspired activities.
may see, advertisements for evils; they are even using cats or dogs for ad- vertising.
What are they asking to do; for what are they putting cats? At the least, they are occupying people with something without meaning—such stupid advertisements, people under their control. Everywhere— newspapers, one thousand per cent; one million per cent, broadcasting; one billion per cent in their books and films! And all of them destroying our belief in Allah Almighty, because common people have no defense against that, and top-level people also can’t do anything against it; they are only a handful of people.
And common people are running after the ideas of communism and they are saying, “No God!” They are catching people through two ways, through their stomachs and through sexual freedom, making them unbe- lievers. Unlearned people may quickly deny belief.
When communism came to Russia, teachers came to the schools and asked, “Do you believe in God?” “Yes,” said some of the pupils. Then they cried for sweets but Allah did not give them.143 Then that shaytani teacher said, “Now ask me!” and they asked the teacher and he gave.
Common people are like children, like sheep. If coming to a river, sheep never enter it; the shepherd pushes one into the water and when one goes in, the others
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