Mercy Oceans, Book 10 (239 pages, 8/21)
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buried, finished. If it is buried, the second day there is no need for a new burial: that took place once and has passed away.
Make your way clear, not returning a second time to the same spot, making trouble: "Why did he put this? Why did he take that?" You passed that, finished. On our way there is always going to be something that we are not accustomed to or we are not going to like, because people are not going to be as we like, since everyone has a private orbit, going on it. And we must keep ourselves, not doing harm to anyone nor having harm come to us from anyone. Otherwise people are always going to suffer.
Look at the skies. Millions, billions of suns, stars, galaxies are going on their orbits, none of them hitting the other, causing an accident. Divine 'traffic" makes a way for them to go. We must look at the divine traffic for everyone in our life, and we must know that everyone is going on his own orbit.
If you keep yourself from doing harm to anyone, no one can harm you. Don't fear others; if you do not do harm to anyone, restraining yourself, no one is permitted to do you harm. You may ask how people did harm to the prophets. They never did harm to the prophets; they harmed themselves.
Grandsheikh said that a mumin, a believer, is like a gigantic mountain. Do winds or storms harm it? Does stormy snowing harm that gigantic mountain? No. And mumins are like oceans. Even if everything from sewers runs into them, they never get dirty.
Therefore, we must bear with people. That is important in our tariqah; the most important thing is to bear with people. To pray, to fast, to say dhikr, to make aurad65- that is easy; but to bear with people when you go among them - that is difficult.
We must train ourselves to bear with others. It doesn't matter if sometimes we are doing it and sometimes we can't; this is training. We have not reached the level where we have passed through that atmosphere and afterwards nothing will affect our egos.
65 Plural of wird, the personal dhikr assigned by a sheikh to his murid for regular practise
THE ELEGANT MANNERS OF A MUSLIM
Allah Almighty says, "You must not forget peoples' personal ranks among themselves; that gives them honour." And the Prophet says, "You must give your respect to a person who has respect among his community," so that if you are in a foreign country and people give respect to one among themselves, keep your respect for that person, also. He may be Christian, he may be Jewish, he may be from another faith: give him respect because those people are giving respect to their respected one. Don't disrespect him. That is Islamic good manners.
Islam is so polite and elegant, so well-mannered. In London there is Big Ben. A person may stand and look at Big Ben from all directions, and from each of the four directions that you may view Big Ben, you see that it is all correct, not one side correct and another side slanted; from each side, from each direction, you see a correct building. And a Muslim must be, in the sight of people, such that from any direction which a person who posesses a natural, correct mind may look at him - looking without being jealous, without being
ill-intentioned, without being his enemy - he must accept him as correct from every direction.
You are not going to be like rocks: a Muslim may be like pure water, in every situation taking its form. No difficulty for a Muslim to live anywhere without giving any harm, any trouble, to anyone. Therefore, his country is from East to West; in every place he may be acceptable. You must be beloved people among the community. That is real Islam.
THE OUTWARD ASPECTS OF ISLAM: A MEANS, NOT AN END IN THEMSELVES
When you are occupied with outward forms, you lose the meanings. Therefore, the one who is occupied by looking at outward things, by externals, is going to lose his inner life.
Religion is not only an external structure, outward forms. Now in our time our scholars are making Islam, making religions, only a form, and speaking on and on about those magnificent forms from the outward aspect. But they can't imagine how magnificent it is inside.
But it is so difficult to enter into it. There are guardians, asking from them an identity card and saying, "To whom do you belong? Which identity card?" If a
person shows an identity card saying, "Servant to his Lord," and signed by the Prophet, p.b.u.h., and by his sheikh, he may enter; if he has a real identity card of being 'abd-Allah, the servant of God Almighty, the doors will open for him to go in. But if his identity card shows, "This is a worker for devils," or "A slave of his ego ," or "A slave of this life or of dunya," they take him away; he can't enter. Whoever is sometimes for his ego, sometimes for Shaytan, sometimes for dunya, sometimes for hawa, a slave to his desires, never gets in.
And it is so difficult for a person to be successful, to make himself free from the hands of his ego and from the hands of dunya or from the hands of Shaytan. Therefore, we must consider what is in Islam; we must look at that magnificent structure, the edifice of Islam, to see what is in it and what it is for. For what is Islam, for what purpose? What is the main goal of Islam, of iman, of praying, of fasting? Are they ends in themselves? Yes, we must know.
Worships are not ends. They are not ends but rather they are the means of taking you to your Lord's Divine Presence by making you His obedient servant. To be an obedient servant takes you into His Divine Presence.
BEING OBEDIENT SERVANTS TO OUR LORD ALMIGHTY
Allah Almighty orders in His Glorious Qur'an, "Yą ayyuha-l-ladhina amanu, ati ū-llaha wa ati'u-r-Rasula wa uli-l-amri minkum66”.
We must believe in our Lord's holy verses and we must practise them. We promised that on the Day of Promises. That was the day when every one of the Sons of Adam, from beginning to end, was in the Divine Presence with our souls; We looked at the Divine Appearance, and we listened and we understood. we were present on that day and we knew what we were saying when our Lord asked all the Sons of Adam, "Am I not your Lord?"
We listened, heard, understood, and gave our answers: "Yes, You are our Lord, You are our Creator, and we, all of us, are your servants. And we will be your servants forever, and you will be our Lord, our Creator, to post- eternity. No one else is going to be Lord, not prophets nor awliya nor angels. All of us are our Lord's servants, obedient servants."
66 O you who believe, obey God and obey His Messenger and the people of authority among yourselves." (IV:59)
We promised Him to be His obedient servants; that was our promise. But we forgot it because it happened in the spiritual world, and then we came to our mothers' womb and then to this world, to this life. If I ask one of you, "Do you remember the time when you came from your mother's womb to this life?" you can't remember. Even if I ask, "Do you remember anything from the time when you were one year old?" no one is able to say, "I remember," even for the age of two years; he must be a keen, clever person to whom Allah gives more light to remember when he was even three years old. Or if I ask, "What is the first thing you can remember of your life in this world?" a person would be perplexed about which event he can remember; no certainty for him to say what is the first event that he clearly knew when he was three years old. We come to this life and we forget. What about the fact that our souls were in that Divine Presence? Who can remember?
Therefore Allah Almighty sent prophets, one after the other. The first man was also the first prophet, Sayyidina Adam, peace be upon him and upon all of them up to the last one, Sayyidina Muhammad, p.b.u.h., the Seal of the Prophets. One hundred twenty-four thousand prophets just came to make us remember: "O Sons of Adam, you gave your promise to your Lord to be His obedient servants, and you must practice that," because we are not angels; if We were angels, no trouble for us to be obedient servants. But Allah Almighty is trying us, testing His servants, to see who is correct, who is right and who is sincere, who is keeping his promises.
Now, the Sons of Adam have been given an ego, nafs, which no angels nor anyone else has been given. Nafs has been given to the Sons of Adam because they are deputies of the Lord; they have been created to be deputies for our Creator, Allah Almighty. Therefore we have been created differently from angels. We have been given an ego to be like a horse for us to ride on and to return to our Lord's Divine Presence, because all the Sons of Adam are invited by their Lord to come and look and be in His Divine Presence. Therefore, we have been given honour above the honours of all creation, and we are carrying more responsibilities than anyone. Allah Almighty offered our responsibility to the earth and to the Heavens, offering it to the gigantic mountains. They said, "O our Lord, forgive us. We can't carry it." , But you, Sons of Adam, you are carrying it; you said that you could carry it67.
Therefore, we must think about ourselves. We are living in a time, the twentieth century, when everything makes man not to think; that is the illness of the twentieth century, soon to be the twenty-first century. This illness is that there is no time for the Sons of Adam to sit down and think about anything. But we must think about ourselves more than we think about this life because we are passing through this life; we are not staying, remaining,
67 See XXXIII:72
for this life. Like a river, coming from one side and going from the other side, man, like rivers, runs away. You must think about yourself; you must keep a time every day, even for a few minutes, to think about yourself and about your future after this life, after death.
It is impossible for different people in different times to agree on one opinion. You must think about that point, also, because from the first prophet who lived when the Sons of Adam were beginning to live on this earth up to the end, up to the Seal of the Prophets, it is impossible for 124,000 people to agree on the same point, all saying, "O people, take your care. We are warning you. Caution! There is death, there is after-death. There is a life after this life. It is going to be eternal." If they were liars - hasha, never! - liars cannot agree, all liars, every time. But they are all agreeing on the same points: "Amantu bil-Lahi wa malaikatihi wa rusulihi wa Yaumi-l-Akhir68."' concerning eternal life, all prophets said the same. How can it be?
Therefore, we must think about this, we must know that this life is. Every day we look at people running away, dying. We see some person today; tomorrow we do not see him. We must think about the fact that death is coming for us - a trip, a journey from here; we take them underground.
Therefore, to think is one of the most important worships in Islam because you can correct your steps by thinking. And in our time, devils have established their sovereignty from East to West, and they do not leave people to think about themselves, making them drunk, saying, "Don't think about anything!" And we must think about ourselves, we must think about our egos.
All prophets came from the Divine Presence. They brought us something from the Heavens, and they said, "We are inviters. We are inviting you to your Lord. O people, take your care. You have been invited to return to your Lord's Divine Presence."
As you were formerly in the Divine Presence, now you are going to return to your Lord's Presence. And you must think, "How am I going to return? I gave my promise to my Lord to be an obedient servant to Him, but I was really an obedient servant to my ego, to my nafs. How am I going to meet my Lord Almighty if I am the servant of devils or I am the servant of my nafs or I am the slave of dunya? How am I going to meet Him?" You must think about that.
68 I believe in God and His angels and His Bocks and His messengers and the Last Day," the summary of faith in Islam
BEING PRESENT WITH OUR LORD
Every day Allah sends a new provision for His servants, and something new also comes for our souls every day. When Grandsheikh finishes, I finish; when there is nothing more with the Prophet, p.b.u.h., then Grandsheikh stops; and if what is with Allah Almighty is finished then the Prophet stops and Grandsheikh also stops. But Allah Almighty never stops, never ends; therefore, every day new words come. Only we must deserve more to be worthy of new ones; we must be careful and respectful and believing so that divine favours may come upon us.
Allah Almighty asks His servants to be good-builders, muslihin; He never likes evil-builders, mufsidin. That is the first order from God Al mighty to His servants. And when Adam, p.b.u.h., was sent down on earth, he was sent as a messenger, as a prophet of his Lord, and his first advice to his sons was, "O my sons, be good-builders, goodness-builders. You must not be evil- builders. Take your teachings from me. I tasted my Lord's punishment. Don't you taste that punishment!"
One hundred twenty-four thousand prophets, peace be upon them all, just came to repeat the advice of Grandfather Adam, p.b.u.h. That is the main problem for the Sons of Adam, and also the source of troubles and sufferings. If anyone builds evil, he must be punished, here or Hereafter. All suffering is to cover our badness, our sins.
Anyone who is asking for his Lord's pleasure with him must keep that advice to be goodness-builders as much as he is able. Don't say, "What can I do? - I am only one drop." Yes, that is right, but drops gather in the sky and join each other, and then they become rivers, and rivers become seas and oceans. Therefore you must know that if everyone gives one drop of that goodness-building, goodness rivers are going to run on earth. And also evil; if everyone gives one drop from himself, it is going to run on earth like rivers. We must think about this.
Yes, Allah Almighty wants to build His sovereignty on earth, divine sovereignty, and He calls people to help with His divine building so that everyone may take his share in that divine sovereignty. But He also warns His servants and says, "O My servants, from the beginning, Satan is your enemy, the first one. The most dangerous and terrible enemy to you is Satan, so you must take your care for that terrible and dangerous enemy. Beware! He has so many tricks and traps, thousands, for hunting you”.
Satan is a man-hunter, a hunter of the Sons of Adam. He does not sleep. Daytimes, nighttimes, he runs after the Sons of Adam to hunt them, to take them as slaves of his sovereignty. And there are so many millions of employees of Satan's sovereignty now in our time, among every kind of people, not only among ignorant people. He is not humble enough to hunt ordinary, standard people. No, he runs after very learned people, to catch them, such high-ranking people, such rich people, such important personalities; no need for common people. If he can hunt down one top person, he can bring millions - ten million, one hundred million - into his territory, under his sovereignty, because he employs people.
We must give thought to everything. For every action, you must be present with your Lord Almighty. This action that I am going to do, is it for the advantage of Satan or for the advantage of my Lord? Is it for my Lord, or for my enemy? Am I working for my Lord, or am I working for my enemy, Satan? You must think about that; then Allah Almighty will correct your steps, correct your actions. If a person, before doing anything, is able to think about his action, he is never going to be wrong, to be mistaken. And that is our error: we do something but do not think.
There are two powers now on earth, the power of Allah Almighty, who is asking His servants to be with Him, and the other, Shaytan, who has been given permission and who has so many traps and tricks. Be careful about everything.
Now, this is something well-known. Everyone can understand it, but we are asking for practise; we are in need of practising what we know. That is important. You may learn so much, but if not practicing it means nothing.
Therefore, once when the Prophet, p.b.u.h., was asked, "What is the best of works?" he replied, "Al-'ilmu bil-Lah," the knowledge of Allah.
This is an ocean; this is the true answer of every religion, it is a true answer of every prophet. No one may be able to suggest, following that reply, any more important or better work. That is an ocean for the Sons of Adam to know and to practise: "Al-'ilmu bil-Lah, the knowledge of Allah."
What is this? They asked him about works, about deeds, but he replied, "Knowledge; the most important work is the knowledge of Allah." He means to say, "O doers! O workers!" - an important meaning - "O workers, when you are working, be with your Lord, Allah Almighty." That is the meaning.
For every action that you do, for every work that you work - every work - you must know that Allah Almighty is with you that is your knowledge. You must know that I am working with my Lord. I am not alone; I am with my Lord. And I am nothing, only something with my Lord. I am weak only with my Lord. I
look with my Lord, I speak with my Lord, I hear with my Lord, I think with my Lord, I take with my Lord, I do with my Lord, I walk with my Lord, I am with my Lord.
That is al-'ilmu bil-Lah. You must consider, you must reflect, that with every action, you are with your Lord. Then your action is going to be excellent, your action is going to be the best. Yes - in front of your director you do everything well; when he looks at you, you try to do it the best. And when you see that Allah Almighty is with you, you must do it the best.
You must know that in everything, your Lord, Allah Almighty, is with you; you are not alone. "Inna Rabbaka labi-l-mirsad69" - Allah Almighty is looking at you. "Fa-innaka bi-a'yunina70" - what does it mean? At any time, if if He cuts off His watching you, you will be finished, disappear; the whole universe will disappear. If in the smallest unit of time Allah Almighty is not watching over it, the whole universe will disappear; yes.
Therefore, this is an important hadith. What is the best work? It is to know Allah: that He is with you when you are looking, when you are speaking, when you are listening, when you are thinking your thoughts; throughout your heart, throughout your body, throughout every cell, looking at the cells, making them work.
If you leave this, another enemy will come upon you. Yes, if you do not take care for your Lord, then punishment will come upon you. Therefore muraqabah, meditation, is necessary. We are in need in our time of a new method of working. We are always looking around making our hearts to be absent. We must try to be with our Lord; we must practise that. That is the "best work." Therefore, Shaytan fights for those people who ponder meditate upon their Lord in their hearts.
You may practise with your heart, not by looking around at whatever you can see - no. When you take back every power that you have sent around yourself71, gathering them all into your heart and saying, "Allah bus - only Allah and nothing else," at that time you can find the way for the best works.
You may remember, you may think about this, and it will give you power to be with your Lord Almighty. We must do this; everyone must do this because it is the way to salvation for the Sons of Adam. I wonder about this word ‘salvation’. There is the Salvation Army. Yes, we must be from the Salvation Army against devils. They are very weak people, a very weak army in front
69 Assuredly, thy Lord is on the watch (LXXXIX:14)
70 Then surely thou art under our eyes (LII:48)
71 Our scattered attention, energies, will-power and being able to be present with Allah
of those satanic armies, so weak, the Salvation Army, but we must support the Salvation Army against Shaytan and his armies. As much as we support this Salvation Army, our Lord will support us.
Don't be worried; it doesn't matter that we are only one or two hundred people or less. When we intend to support goodness on earth, our Supporter is our Lord Almighty. We are not worried about armies; all armies are nothing. If there is no support for them, they can't do anything.
You must remember your Lord's power, your Lord's endless power. Allah Almighty destroyed Nimrod's armies by mosquitoes, and Abraham was only one person. There were no armies with him, and the whole area was under Nimrod's power72. Allah Almighty destroyed the sovereignty of Nimrod and He can destroy the sovereignty of Satan now, also. You must be with your Lord always.
BECOMING THE FRIEND OF ALLAH ALMIGHTY
We are now going to speak on some wisdoms that have been granted to the awliya, and through the awliya we know and speak. And we are asking our Lord to make us walk on those paths that wisdoms show to us.
Allah Dost. Dost is Persian; it means The Friend. The Friend is Allah Almighty. If you are asking for a friend, you must take your Lord, Allah Almighty, as a friend73.
Allah Almighty sent, from the beginning up to the end, 124,000 prophets. All of them were friends of Allah Almighty; He sent His friends. For what?
The purpose of prophethood: we are speaking now about that wisdom. To make people friends to Allah; all the prophets came to make the Sons of Adan friends to their Lord. That is the main purpose: that He might become a friend to us. And the Seal of the Prophets, p.b.u.h., became His friend also the beloved; even more than friend, our Prophet Muhammad, p.b.u.h., is our Lord's Habib, beloved one.
When we know this, we must try to be Allah Almighty's friends. That is the most important, the highest honour, for anyone - to be the friend of Allah
72 See II:258; XXI:51-71; XXVI: 70–77; XXIX:16-18; and XXXVII:83-99
73 See, for example, VII:127 and many other Qur'anic verses in which the word Wali (Friend) or its derivatives is used regarding Allah Almighty's relationship with sincere believers
Almighty. Now, you may say that to be a friend to Allah Almighty would be very easy if you had no ego; if no nafs, it would be so easy, but our enemies are cutting the way74, so that it is so difficult to be the friend of Allah Almighty.
Therefore, firstly, you are going to be a friend to everyone, beginning with the Sons of Adam. Allah Almighty will never accept you as a friend of His if you are not going to be the friend of His servants. And that is a difficult thing.
It is not easy to be a friend to everyone. Yes, it might be easy to be a friend if you had no ego. Your ego claims not to be your friend but claims to be your Lord or your king or your governor or your boss or your patron; it does not accept you as its friend but demands to be over you and you to be a servant to it.
The clearest characteristic of our ego is to be proud. No one can be on the same level with it; no, it does not accept that, saying, "I am the first. No one is going to be first except Me." Therefore we need training so that we may take away that pride from ourselves. If you do not take away pride from yourself, you can't be a friend to everyone.
Therefore, Allah Almighty orders His servants, when they meet each other, to give salutation, saying, "As-salamu 'alaikum75," and the Prophet, p.b.u.h., says also that whoever begins the greeting is the better of the two. Why?
Because when you say "As-salamu'alaikum" to a person, you take away pride from yourself; you are sufficiently humble to greet him, to give him honour, while your ego is asking to have honour for itself only. That is the divine teaching to take away pride from us so that we may look at the person whom we greet as more than ourselves. And you reply, "Wa'alaikum as- salam"; even if you are a king, even if you are a sultan, even if you are a learned person, a sheikh, you also come down from your high position and say "Wa'alaikum as-salam."
Allah teaches His people to be humble. If you do not know how to be humble, you can't be a worshipper. You must know that you are a servant. Even though you may be a sultan, you may be a king, you may be an emperor, you may be a prophet, you may be a wali, originally you are a servant.
74 Again, Satan, nafs, dunya and hawa
75 The Islamic greeting common to Muslims of all nationalities, meaning "Peace be upon you." The response to it is "Wa'alaikum as-salam" - And on you be peace.
Offering this greeting to others is a very important element of Islamic adab, manners.
Don't be cheated by the various ranks that you may be given during this life or if you are sitting on a throne or a high place; no. Originally we are servants of our Lord Almighty. I heard from our Grandsheikh, just as if I were hearing it now, that on the Day of Promises, when Allah Almighty called all the souls of mankind to a general meeting of the Sons of Adam in the Divine Presence and asked, "Am I not your Lord?" Allah Almighty named everyone with seven names. In the Divine Presence everyone has seven names, and the first one is 'abd-Allah, 'Abdullah, the servant of God Almighty. You can't take that away.
You are originally a servant to your Lord; yes. All the prophets came to teach people, to make them remember that they are servants to Allah Almighty.
Then Allah Almighty gives us the honour to be His friends, also; the way is open for all servants to be friends to their Lord. And the most important teaching to take away pride from our egos, to make us humble, is to know that you are a servant. If anyone comes to the Divine Presence with pride, he and Satan are going to be at the same level; no intercession for that person because he is the inheritor of Satan. Satan was thrown out because of his pride, and whoever has pride is at the same level, in the same station, as Satan.
That is the teaching of Islam, and it is the teaching of all the prophets and finally of the Seal of the Prophets, beloved Muhammad, p.b.u.h. Every religion teaches people how they may be humble servants to their Lord Almighty. But in our time there is a wrong understanding among people, particularly among Muslims and especially those Muslims who live in Western countries. They are more proud than other Muslims, and pride is forbidden to everyone, particularly to Muslims.
Satan is always running after Muslims, or after believers. He has left the unbelievers, has nothing to do with them, because they are already following him as he commands; no worry concerning them for Satan. But he is always running after believers to take them away from faith, from beliefs, from their Lord, and running after worshippers to make them leave worship and be his servants, not our Lord's servants. And when he runs after Muslims and they do not listen to him, then he comes at them from another way.
Look! - these are important wisdoms; we must know. He comes from another way. When he comes from the left side, no one gives him any importance or face. Then he comes from the right side, comes and says, "Oh, you are Sheikh 'Umar, an important person!" "Oh, Kamal! You are a very good Muslim person." "Oh, Faiz, you are a sheikh, an important pe
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buried, finished. If it is buried, the second day there is no need for a new burial: that took place once and has passed away.
Make your way clear, not returning a second time to the same spot, making trouble: "Why did he put this? Why did he take that?" You passed that, finished. On our way there is always going to be something that we are not accustomed to or we are not going to like, because people are not going to be as we like, since everyone has a private orbit, going on it. And we must keep ourselves, not doing harm to anyone nor having harm come to us from anyone. Otherwise people are always going to suffer.
Look at the skies. Millions, billions of suns, stars, galaxies are going on their orbits, none of them hitting the other, causing an accident. Divine 'traffic" makes a way for them to go. We must look at the divine traffic for everyone in our life, and we must know that everyone is going on his own orbit.
If you keep yourself from doing harm to anyone, no one can harm you. Don't fear others; if you do not do harm to anyone, restraining yourself, no one is permitted to do you harm. You may ask how people did harm to the prophets. They never did harm to the prophets; they harmed themselves.
Grandsheikh said that a mumin, a believer, is like a gigantic mountain. Do winds or storms harm it? Does stormy snowing harm that gigantic mountain? No. And mumins are like oceans. Even if everything from sewers runs into them, they never get dirty.
Therefore, we must bear with people. That is important in our tariqah; the most important thing is to bear with people. To pray, to fast, to say dhikr, to make aurad65- that is easy; but to bear with people when you go among them - that is difficult.
We must train ourselves to bear with others. It doesn't matter if sometimes we are doing it and sometimes we can't; this is training. We have not reached the level where we have passed through that atmosphere and afterwards nothing will affect our egos.
65 Plural of wird, the personal dhikr assigned by a sheikh to his murid for regular practise
THE ELEGANT MANNERS OF A MUSLIM
Allah Almighty says, "You must not forget peoples' personal ranks among themselves; that gives them honour." And the Prophet says, "You must give your respect to a person who has respect among his community," so that if you are in a foreign country and people give respect to one among themselves, keep your respect for that person, also. He may be Christian, he may be Jewish, he may be from another faith: give him respect because those people are giving respect to their respected one. Don't disrespect him. That is Islamic good manners.
Islam is so polite and elegant, so well-mannered. In London there is Big Ben. A person may stand and look at Big Ben from all directions, and from each of the four directions that you may view Big Ben, you see that it is all correct, not one side correct and another side slanted; from each side, from each direction, you see a correct building. And a Muslim must be, in the sight of people, such that from any direction which a person who posesses a natural, correct mind may look at him - looking without being jealous, without being
ill-intentioned, without being his enemy - he must accept him as correct from every direction.
You are not going to be like rocks: a Muslim may be like pure water, in every situation taking its form. No difficulty for a Muslim to live anywhere without giving any harm, any trouble, to anyone. Therefore, his country is from East to West; in every place he may be acceptable. You must be beloved people among the community. That is real Islam.
THE OUTWARD ASPECTS OF ISLAM: A MEANS, NOT AN END IN THEMSELVES
When you are occupied with outward forms, you lose the meanings. Therefore, the one who is occupied by looking at outward things, by externals, is going to lose his inner life.
Religion is not only an external structure, outward forms. Now in our time our scholars are making Islam, making religions, only a form, and speaking on and on about those magnificent forms from the outward aspect. But they can't imagine how magnificent it is inside.
But it is so difficult to enter into it. There are guardians, asking from them an identity card and saying, "To whom do you belong? Which identity card?" If a
person shows an identity card saying, "Servant to his Lord," and signed by the Prophet, p.b.u.h., and by his sheikh, he may enter; if he has a real identity card of being 'abd-Allah, the servant of God Almighty, the doors will open for him to go in. But if his identity card shows, "This is a worker for devils," or "A slave of his ego ," or "A slave of this life or of dunya," they take him away; he can't enter. Whoever is sometimes for his ego, sometimes for Shaytan, sometimes for dunya, sometimes for hawa, a slave to his desires, never gets in.
And it is so difficult for a person to be successful, to make himself free from the hands of his ego and from the hands of dunya or from the hands of Shaytan. Therefore, we must consider what is in Islam; we must look at that magnificent structure, the edifice of Islam, to see what is in it and what it is for. For what is Islam, for what purpose? What is the main goal of Islam, of iman, of praying, of fasting? Are they ends in themselves? Yes, we must know.
Worships are not ends. They are not ends but rather they are the means of taking you to your Lord's Divine Presence by making you His obedient servant. To be an obedient servant takes you into His Divine Presence.
BEING OBEDIENT SERVANTS TO OUR LORD ALMIGHTY
Allah Almighty orders in His Glorious Qur'an, "Yą ayyuha-l-ladhina amanu, ati ū-llaha wa ati'u-r-Rasula wa uli-l-amri minkum66”.
We must believe in our Lord's holy verses and we must practise them. We promised that on the Day of Promises. That was the day when every one of the Sons of Adam, from beginning to end, was in the Divine Presence with our souls; We looked at the Divine Appearance, and we listened and we understood. we were present on that day and we knew what we were saying when our Lord asked all the Sons of Adam, "Am I not your Lord?"
We listened, heard, understood, and gave our answers: "Yes, You are our Lord, You are our Creator, and we, all of us, are your servants. And we will be your servants forever, and you will be our Lord, our Creator, to post- eternity. No one else is going to be Lord, not prophets nor awliya nor angels. All of us are our Lord's servants, obedient servants."
66 O you who believe, obey God and obey His Messenger and the people of authority among yourselves." (IV:59)
We promised Him to be His obedient servants; that was our promise. But we forgot it because it happened in the spiritual world, and then we came to our mothers' womb and then to this world, to this life. If I ask one of you, "Do you remember the time when you came from your mother's womb to this life?" you can't remember. Even if I ask, "Do you remember anything from the time when you were one year old?" no one is able to say, "I remember," even for the age of two years; he must be a keen, clever person to whom Allah gives more light to remember when he was even three years old. Or if I ask, "What is the first thing you can remember of your life in this world?" a person would be perplexed about which event he can remember; no certainty for him to say what is the first event that he clearly knew when he was three years old. We come to this life and we forget. What about the fact that our souls were in that Divine Presence? Who can remember?
Therefore Allah Almighty sent prophets, one after the other. The first man was also the first prophet, Sayyidina Adam, peace be upon him and upon all of them up to the last one, Sayyidina Muhammad, p.b.u.h., the Seal of the Prophets. One hundred twenty-four thousand prophets just came to make us remember: "O Sons of Adam, you gave your promise to your Lord to be His obedient servants, and you must practice that," because we are not angels; if We were angels, no trouble for us to be obedient servants. But Allah Almighty is trying us, testing His servants, to see who is correct, who is right and who is sincere, who is keeping his promises.
Now, the Sons of Adam have been given an ego, nafs, which no angels nor anyone else has been given. Nafs has been given to the Sons of Adam because they are deputies of the Lord; they have been created to be deputies for our Creator, Allah Almighty. Therefore we have been created differently from angels. We have been given an ego to be like a horse for us to ride on and to return to our Lord's Divine Presence, because all the Sons of Adam are invited by their Lord to come and look and be in His Divine Presence. Therefore, we have been given honour above the honours of all creation, and we are carrying more responsibilities than anyone. Allah Almighty offered our responsibility to the earth and to the Heavens, offering it to the gigantic mountains. They said, "O our Lord, forgive us. We can't carry it." , But you, Sons of Adam, you are carrying it; you said that you could carry it67.
Therefore, we must think about ourselves. We are living in a time, the twentieth century, when everything makes man not to think; that is the illness of the twentieth century, soon to be the twenty-first century. This illness is that there is no time for the Sons of Adam to sit down and think about anything. But we must think about ourselves more than we think about this life because we are passing through this life; we are not staying, remaining,
67 See XXXIII:72
for this life. Like a river, coming from one side and going from the other side, man, like rivers, runs away. You must think about yourself; you must keep a time every day, even for a few minutes, to think about yourself and about your future after this life, after death.
It is impossible for different people in different times to agree on one opinion. You must think about that point, also, because from the first prophet who lived when the Sons of Adam were beginning to live on this earth up to the end, up to the Seal of the Prophets, it is impossible for 124,000 people to agree on the same point, all saying, "O people, take your care. We are warning you. Caution! There is death, there is after-death. There is a life after this life. It is going to be eternal." If they were liars - hasha, never! - liars cannot agree, all liars, every time. But they are all agreeing on the same points: "Amantu bil-Lahi wa malaikatihi wa rusulihi wa Yaumi-l-Akhir68."' concerning eternal life, all prophets said the same. How can it be?
Therefore, we must think about this, we must know that this life is. Every day we look at people running away, dying. We see some person today; tomorrow we do not see him. We must think about the fact that death is coming for us - a trip, a journey from here; we take them underground.
Therefore, to think is one of the most important worships in Islam because you can correct your steps by thinking. And in our time, devils have established their sovereignty from East to West, and they do not leave people to think about themselves, making them drunk, saying, "Don't think about anything!" And we must think about ourselves, we must think about our egos.
All prophets came from the Divine Presence. They brought us something from the Heavens, and they said, "We are inviters. We are inviting you to your Lord. O people, take your care. You have been invited to return to your Lord's Divine Presence."
As you were formerly in the Divine Presence, now you are going to return to your Lord's Presence. And you must think, "How am I going to return? I gave my promise to my Lord to be an obedient servant to Him, but I was really an obedient servant to my ego, to my nafs. How am I going to meet my Lord Almighty if I am the servant of devils or I am the servant of my nafs or I am the slave of dunya? How am I going to meet Him?" You must think about that.
68 I believe in God and His angels and His Bocks and His messengers and the Last Day," the summary of faith in Islam
BEING PRESENT WITH OUR LORD
Every day Allah sends a new provision for His servants, and something new also comes for our souls every day. When Grandsheikh finishes, I finish; when there is nothing more with the Prophet, p.b.u.h., then Grandsheikh stops; and if what is with Allah Almighty is finished then the Prophet stops and Grandsheikh also stops. But Allah Almighty never stops, never ends; therefore, every day new words come. Only we must deserve more to be worthy of new ones; we must be careful and respectful and believing so that divine favours may come upon us.
Allah Almighty asks His servants to be good-builders, muslihin; He never likes evil-builders, mufsidin. That is the first order from God Al mighty to His servants. And when Adam, p.b.u.h., was sent down on earth, he was sent as a messenger, as a prophet of his Lord, and his first advice to his sons was, "O my sons, be good-builders, goodness-builders. You must not be evil- builders. Take your teachings from me. I tasted my Lord's punishment. Don't you taste that punishment!"
One hundred twenty-four thousand prophets, peace be upon them all, just came to repeat the advice of Grandfather Adam, p.b.u.h. That is the main problem for the Sons of Adam, and also the source of troubles and sufferings. If anyone builds evil, he must be punished, here or Hereafter. All suffering is to cover our badness, our sins.
Anyone who is asking for his Lord's pleasure with him must keep that advice to be goodness-builders as much as he is able. Don't say, "What can I do? - I am only one drop." Yes, that is right, but drops gather in the sky and join each other, and then they become rivers, and rivers become seas and oceans. Therefore you must know that if everyone gives one drop of that goodness-building, goodness rivers are going to run on earth. And also evil; if everyone gives one drop from himself, it is going to run on earth like rivers. We must think about this.
Yes, Allah Almighty wants to build His sovereignty on earth, divine sovereignty, and He calls people to help with His divine building so that everyone may take his share in that divine sovereignty. But He also warns His servants and says, "O My servants, from the beginning, Satan is your enemy, the first one. The most dangerous and terrible enemy to you is Satan, so you must take your care for that terrible and dangerous enemy. Beware! He has so many tricks and traps, thousands, for hunting you”.
Satan is a man-hunter, a hunter of the Sons of Adam. He does not sleep. Daytimes, nighttimes, he runs after the Sons of Adam to hunt them, to take them as slaves of his sovereignty. And there are so many millions of employees of Satan's sovereignty now in our time, among every kind of people, not only among ignorant people. He is not humble enough to hunt ordinary, standard people. No, he runs after very learned people, to catch them, such high-ranking people, such rich people, such important personalities; no need for common people. If he can hunt down one top person, he can bring millions - ten million, one hundred million - into his territory, under his sovereignty, because he employs people.
We must give thought to everything. For every action, you must be present with your Lord Almighty. This action that I am going to do, is it for the advantage of Satan or for the advantage of my Lord? Is it for my Lord, or for my enemy? Am I working for my Lord, or am I working for my enemy, Satan? You must think about that; then Allah Almighty will correct your steps, correct your actions. If a person, before doing anything, is able to think about his action, he is never going to be wrong, to be mistaken. And that is our error: we do something but do not think.
There are two powers now on earth, the power of Allah Almighty, who is asking His servants to be with Him, and the other, Shaytan, who has been given permission and who has so many traps and tricks. Be careful about everything.
Now, this is something well-known. Everyone can understand it, but we are asking for practise; we are in need of practising what we know. That is important. You may learn so much, but if not practicing it means nothing.
Therefore, once when the Prophet, p.b.u.h., was asked, "What is the best of works?" he replied, "Al-'ilmu bil-Lah," the knowledge of Allah.
This is an ocean; this is the true answer of every religion, it is a true answer of every prophet. No one may be able to suggest, following that reply, any more important or better work. That is an ocean for the Sons of Adam to know and to practise: "Al-'ilmu bil-Lah, the knowledge of Allah."
What is this? They asked him about works, about deeds, but he replied, "Knowledge; the most important work is the knowledge of Allah." He means to say, "O doers! O workers!" - an important meaning - "O workers, when you are working, be with your Lord, Allah Almighty." That is the meaning.
For every action that you do, for every work that you work - every work - you must know that Allah Almighty is with you that is your knowledge. You must know that I am working with my Lord. I am not alone; I am with my Lord. And I am nothing, only something with my Lord. I am weak only with my Lord. I
look with my Lord, I speak with my Lord, I hear with my Lord, I think with my Lord, I take with my Lord, I do with my Lord, I walk with my Lord, I am with my Lord.
That is al-'ilmu bil-Lah. You must consider, you must reflect, that with every action, you are with your Lord. Then your action is going to be excellent, your action is going to be the best. Yes - in front of your director you do everything well; when he looks at you, you try to do it the best. And when you see that Allah Almighty is with you, you must do it the best.
You must know that in everything, your Lord, Allah Almighty, is with you; you are not alone. "Inna Rabbaka labi-l-mirsad69" - Allah Almighty is looking at you. "Fa-innaka bi-a'yunina70" - what does it mean? At any time, if if He cuts off His watching you, you will be finished, disappear; the whole universe will disappear. If in the smallest unit of time Allah Almighty is not watching over it, the whole universe will disappear; yes.
Therefore, this is an important hadith. What is the best work? It is to know Allah: that He is with you when you are looking, when you are speaking, when you are listening, when you are thinking your thoughts; throughout your heart, throughout your body, throughout every cell, looking at the cells, making them work.
If you leave this, another enemy will come upon you. Yes, if you do not take care for your Lord, then punishment will come upon you. Therefore muraqabah, meditation, is necessary. We are in need in our time of a new method of working. We are always looking around making our hearts to be absent. We must try to be with our Lord; we must practise that. That is the "best work." Therefore, Shaytan fights for those people who ponder meditate upon their Lord in their hearts.
You may practise with your heart, not by looking around at whatever you can see - no. When you take back every power that you have sent around yourself71, gathering them all into your heart and saying, "Allah bus - only Allah and nothing else," at that time you can find the way for the best works.
You may remember, you may think about this, and it will give you power to be with your Lord Almighty. We must do this; everyone must do this because it is the way to salvation for the Sons of Adam. I wonder about this word ‘salvation’. There is the Salvation Army. Yes, we must be from the Salvation Army against devils. They are very weak people, a very weak army in front
69 Assuredly, thy Lord is on the watch (LXXXIX:14)
70 Then surely thou art under our eyes (LII:48)
71 Our scattered attention, energies, will-power and being able to be present with Allah
of those satanic armies, so weak, the Salvation Army, but we must support the Salvation Army against Shaytan and his armies. As much as we support this Salvation Army, our Lord will support us.
Don't be worried; it doesn't matter that we are only one or two hundred people or less. When we intend to support goodness on earth, our Supporter is our Lord Almighty. We are not worried about armies; all armies are nothing. If there is no support for them, they can't do anything.
You must remember your Lord's power, your Lord's endless power. Allah Almighty destroyed Nimrod's armies by mosquitoes, and Abraham was only one person. There were no armies with him, and the whole area was under Nimrod's power72. Allah Almighty destroyed the sovereignty of Nimrod and He can destroy the sovereignty of Satan now, also. You must be with your Lord always.
BECOMING THE FRIEND OF ALLAH ALMIGHTY
We are now going to speak on some wisdoms that have been granted to the awliya, and through the awliya we know and speak. And we are asking our Lord to make us walk on those paths that wisdoms show to us.
Allah Dost. Dost is Persian; it means The Friend. The Friend is Allah Almighty. If you are asking for a friend, you must take your Lord, Allah Almighty, as a friend73.
Allah Almighty sent, from the beginning up to the end, 124,000 prophets. All of them were friends of Allah Almighty; He sent His friends. For what?
The purpose of prophethood: we are speaking now about that wisdom. To make people friends to Allah; all the prophets came to make the Sons of Adan friends to their Lord. That is the main purpose: that He might become a friend to us. And the Seal of the Prophets, p.b.u.h., became His friend also the beloved; even more than friend, our Prophet Muhammad, p.b.u.h., is our Lord's Habib, beloved one.
When we know this, we must try to be Allah Almighty's friends. That is the most important, the highest honour, for anyone - to be the friend of Allah
72 See II:258; XXI:51-71; XXVI: 70–77; XXIX:16-18; and XXXVII:83-99
73 See, for example, VII:127 and many other Qur'anic verses in which the word Wali (Friend) or its derivatives is used regarding Allah Almighty's relationship with sincere believers
Almighty. Now, you may say that to be a friend to Allah Almighty would be very easy if you had no ego; if no nafs, it would be so easy, but our enemies are cutting the way74, so that it is so difficult to be the friend of Allah Almighty.
Therefore, firstly, you are going to be a friend to everyone, beginning with the Sons of Adam. Allah Almighty will never accept you as a friend of His if you are not going to be the friend of His servants. And that is a difficult thing.
It is not easy to be a friend to everyone. Yes, it might be easy to be a friend if you had no ego. Your ego claims not to be your friend but claims to be your Lord or your king or your governor or your boss or your patron; it does not accept you as its friend but demands to be over you and you to be a servant to it.
The clearest characteristic of our ego is to be proud. No one can be on the same level with it; no, it does not accept that, saying, "I am the first. No one is going to be first except Me." Therefore we need training so that we may take away that pride from ourselves. If you do not take away pride from yourself, you can't be a friend to everyone.
Therefore, Allah Almighty orders His servants, when they meet each other, to give salutation, saying, "As-salamu 'alaikum75," and the Prophet, p.b.u.h., says also that whoever begins the greeting is the better of the two. Why?
Because when you say "As-salamu'alaikum" to a person, you take away pride from yourself; you are sufficiently humble to greet him, to give him honour, while your ego is asking to have honour for itself only. That is the divine teaching to take away pride from us so that we may look at the person whom we greet as more than ourselves. And you reply, "Wa'alaikum as- salam"; even if you are a king, even if you are a sultan, even if you are a learned person, a sheikh, you also come down from your high position and say "Wa'alaikum as-salam."
Allah teaches His people to be humble. If you do not know how to be humble, you can't be a worshipper. You must know that you are a servant. Even though you may be a sultan, you may be a king, you may be an emperor, you may be a prophet, you may be a wali, originally you are a servant.
74 Again, Satan, nafs, dunya and hawa
75 The Islamic greeting common to Muslims of all nationalities, meaning "Peace be upon you." The response to it is "Wa'alaikum as-salam" - And on you be peace.
Offering this greeting to others is a very important element of Islamic adab, manners.
Don't be cheated by the various ranks that you may be given during this life or if you are sitting on a throne or a high place; no. Originally we are servants of our Lord Almighty. I heard from our Grandsheikh, just as if I were hearing it now, that on the Day of Promises, when Allah Almighty called all the souls of mankind to a general meeting of the Sons of Adam in the Divine Presence and asked, "Am I not your Lord?" Allah Almighty named everyone with seven names. In the Divine Presence everyone has seven names, and the first one is 'abd-Allah, 'Abdullah, the servant of God Almighty. You can't take that away.
You are originally a servant to your Lord; yes. All the prophets came to teach people, to make them remember that they are servants to Allah Almighty.
Then Allah Almighty gives us the honour to be His friends, also; the way is open for all servants to be friends to their Lord. And the most important teaching to take away pride from our egos, to make us humble, is to know that you are a servant. If anyone comes to the Divine Presence with pride, he and Satan are going to be at the same level; no intercession for that person because he is the inheritor of Satan. Satan was thrown out because of his pride, and whoever has pride is at the same level, in the same station, as Satan.
That is the teaching of Islam, and it is the teaching of all the prophets and finally of the Seal of the Prophets, beloved Muhammad, p.b.u.h. Every religion teaches people how they may be humble servants to their Lord Almighty. But in our time there is a wrong understanding among people, particularly among Muslims and especially those Muslims who live in Western countries. They are more proud than other Muslims, and pride is forbidden to everyone, particularly to Muslims.
Satan is always running after Muslims, or after believers. He has left the unbelievers, has nothing to do with them, because they are already following him as he commands; no worry concerning them for Satan. But he is always running after believers to take them away from faith, from beliefs, from their Lord, and running after worshippers to make them leave worship and be his servants, not our Lord's servants. And when he runs after Muslims and they do not listen to him, then he comes at them from another way.
Look! - these are important wisdoms; we must know. He comes from another way. When he comes from the left side, no one gives him any importance or face. Then he comes from the right side, comes and says, "Oh, you are Sheikh 'Umar, an important person!" "Oh, Kamal! You are a very good Muslim person." "Oh, Faiz, you are a sheikh, an important pe
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