Mercy Oceans, Book 10 (239 pages, 13/21)
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w I am going one step closer to death; yes, approaching.
That is the wisdom which holy books speak about, but people are like drunk, never thinking about it or never understanding it.
CONCERNING DIFFICULTIES
Difficulties come to everyone from Allah Almighty. Some of them come in spite of our will and some of them come because of the action of our will.
Sometimes difficulties are - from Allah Almighty's will, to give you high degrees. They come to cover your sins, your wrong steps. Therefore, for the difficulties which come without our wills, by our Lord's will, we must be patient.
Some difficulties come, also, according to the actions of our will. Those difficulties which come to you because of your actions and will, you must take care of them; at that time, don't accuse anyone except yourself. You must take care of your own actions and will; because of them some difficulties and troubles and sufferings have come on you. Then you must correct your steps. It means that there is something wrong with you so that you have left the right way and gone on the wrong way, and you must quickly correct the course, your way.
HOW TO DEAL WITH THE DIFFICULTIES WE MAY ENCOUNTER
(This talk was given during a morning session in response to a question asked earlier by a murid about returning to his home country after finishing his studies or remaining in England.)
Anyone may ask such a question about his life, about his destiny. We must be like running water, a river, a spring, flowing out and running. Water when it runs always follows the easy course, avoiding difficulties and passing through easy ways, not stopping. If it finds a deep place, a hole, it fills it and then runs again; if finding a rock, it does not try to cut through the rock but changes its way and runs, never stopping. If it stops, it fills that place and runs, also.
In our lives we must always see what is the easier way for ourselves. If people know this, they will be in rest and comfort, but they never think about that wisdom: to run as it is easy for them. If this way is going to be easy, you must follow it. There is an Arabic saying, "Alamatu-l-idhn at-taysir115" - the sign that Allah Almighty's will is with this is that it is easy. If you see that something is going to be easy for you, that is the sign that your Lord is
115 Literally, "The sign of permissibility is ease
pleased with it, that His pleasure is with that thing. When you see that there are difficulties, it means that your Lord is not pleased with that; therefore you must change your way to an easy one. Don't stop for a difficult situation, don't pursue difficulties. There are so many ways for the Sons of Adam.
Whichever one is easier, that you must follow.
In our life we may face so many difficulties. Allah Almighty makes difficulties to keep His servants from falling into a bad situation, putting a barrier in front of them so that they can't fall down into a valley, and you must change your course. In the Shari'ah, also, if something is difficult for people - for example, if a person can't pray standing, he may sit and pray; if not able to sit, he may lie down and pray. Or, on a ship, you may intend to face Qiblah; then, however the ship turns, it doesn't matter. As an alternative to every difficult way, there is an easy one. If there is a "No Entry" sign and you can understand that the road goes like this, don't enter it. If you do, you may find something that you are not going to be pleased with.
Therefore, it is an important thing for our lives to always follow the alternative to difficulties because the two ways run side by side. If no way, if a difficulty comes to you, change your way to an easy one; if that one is closed, you may find an open way. Therefore, don't be like a rock, Instead, you must be like water - running, always running when you run, you will reach the ocean. Rocks stand in their places but water runs,
Allah Almighty gives us will power, but you must know that His will covers our wills. Don't be stubborn about your will; His will is over it. You may know something but He knows everything. Therefore, when you ask for something, perhaps from this side it may look good to you but you do not see what is behind it. But He knows what is behind it, also. Therefore, follow your Lord's will.
How do you follow His will? You must know that His will is always going to be for ease for you.
QUESTION: Is there not a time to try to confront difficulties, to take on the challenge, so that you'll meet a difficult way but gain something through it?
SHEIKH: As water does, you may do. If there is a rock not firm in the earth, water carries that rock, also; if such a powerful river comes, it takes it away. But if it is firmly in the earth, the river changes its course. According to whether it is easy to move, you may understand; if not easy, if it is firm, you must understand that it is impossible. Then change and go; otherwise the rock will stay in the middle of the stream because there is no power for the water to carry every stone in its path. Therefore the water leaves and runs.
This is a very good method for everyone's life. Don't be stubborn about difficulties. You must run; don't stay there - no. Don't be rock; instead, you must be like water. Then you will be in peace always, never complaining. The one who runs with events, he is in peace, but the one who runs against events is going to be amidst troubles always. Agreement is the key to peace and satisfaction and happiness in the lives of people, but very few people understand that, and they fight, fight, against the running of events.
You can't stop events; you must run with them. You come like this, and the river runs like this; you can't stop it but you can easily run with the river. I mean to say, the will of Allah runs powerfully; your will can't stop it. You may try to make a way against it but you can't. As much as you may try, it will take you like this.
Sometimes you must jump from one possibility to another. When you change doors and finally you see that every door is locked, then the matter is finished. Yes, finished; in such a case you must go back. It is a very fine line. Most people say that this, my order, must be carried out, insisting. As Pharoah said, "My order must be carried out," our ego says to us, "My order must be carried out." That causes suffering to people; they are not like running water. They become like rocks, saying, "This Nile must run as I say," and the Nile is never going to run as you like, but it runs as its Lord orders it to run. That is the main reason why people suffer: they refuse to be soft.
You must be very careful about this point. You must follow Allah Almighty's will, and the sign of His will is to be able to follow events easily. We must run behind events, following them easily through difficulties. If you ask for easy ways, you can find endless easy ways, but if you say "No," everything says "NO" to you, echoing. When you say "No," everything says "No-o-o!" but when you say "Yes, " everything says "Yes-S-S!" and when you say "Happy!" everything around you says "Ha-a-apy!" That is important.
QUESTION: But if you're saying that we should go with the flow, when now this time is like a flood of haram and of bad thoughts and bad things coming on us, how can we at the same time not go with that flood but yet not come right up against it and get washed away? We don't want to go with it, but if we try to go directly against it, we aren't able, we don't have enough power. And it's difficult to know what we should do in our lives if we live, for example, in Western countries - in America, in Europe, in this culture. We don't want to go with it, but if we can't resist it, what should we do? What is our tactic?
SHEIKH: We said that for every difficulty there is an easy way. You are asking protection from your Lord. You know that when the flood of Noah
came it did not come on all the people? Why? Some people took the Ark of Safety; if you were in it, the flood would never touch you.
When you go under the protection of your faith, you may be anywhere; no worry for you - you may run. All people are going, but some people are sinking and some people are swimming up to the end. The ones who sink down are finished, but others have a life preserver. The one who has one does not sink; if not, he will go down, finished, as at the time of Noah..
Now you are taking the life preserver. No worry about your being in London, in Western countries; no. Allah is keeping you from haram, alhamdulillah.
You come here and sit. All of you are young people, and outside there are young ladies, other young people. You are sitting here. Who is protecting you? Your faith in Allah Almighty is keeping you, or you could go to parks, to beaches, to discotheques; you could go to all such places to do as others do, jumping around, dancing. Yes; why are you sitting here?
It is miraculous. It means that Islam, the way of tariqat, is a living power. It is enough evidence that Islam is a living religion and of the power of tariqat that all of you are young people; even one young person proves that power. The power that takes away, even one person from that flood, that is the divine power, the miraculous power, that Allah Almighty gives to real faith.
CONCERNING COMMUNISM
Our side in politics is that we must be with those people who are against communism; that is our politics. We can't accept communism or anyone who allies with communist countries. We go with those who have been given divine books; we do not go with those who refuse and deny holy books, heavenly orders or guidance, because they are against our Lord Almighty and they must be punished, and not far off - soon must be punished.
Therefore, that is our main politics: not to be with communists, with communist ideas. People are one thing, but communist ideas are making people fall into difficulties, fall into troubles," making them suffer. We do not agree with such ideas.
Muslims are followers of the Sunnah of the Prophet, p.b.u.h. The Prophet made alliance with Ahl al-Kitab, with those people who had been given divine books, but he never made alliance with mushrikin, pagans, those who did not believe in God Almighty.
First of all, everyone should know who is his friend and who is his enemy. We know that our chief enemy, our biggest enemy, is Satan, and his followers, all of them, are satans. Whoever comes into Islam, whoever believes in his Lord Almighty, must know who is against his Lord.
Communism is not only against us; it is against our Lord, fighting our Lord. You must know this.
In Western countries value is given to individuals; everyone has value. But in communist countries people are like herds. There is no individual life so that everyone can live his life, and Allah Almighty leaves people to live their lives. Who can prevent it? Only those people who deny that there is a God Almighty in existence. But always people are not thankful to their Lord - in England, in France, in Germany, in the United States, in every free country. They are asking for communism to come to them and make them slaves, like herds. Then finished; no one will be able to speak about anything.
The communist leaders are laughing at people, pretending that these factories are for you, these shops are for you. They put forward one person; for one person the whole world goes and comes, and they do not leave off fighting against Allah Almighty, keeping back the rights that He has given us. Who has given them that authority? Allah Himself gives us those rights!
Alhamdulillah that we are in London; in so many countries you can't speak about such things, you can't do dhikr, you can't do your worshipping freely.
Understand, or not? We must understand! So many people never understand and go with communists. As a punishment, those whose hearts are going with them will never stay on earth; the divine anger is on them. "We've sentenced God to death," they say. You must know that!
Therefore, your desire may be for the world not to be in two parts, but the Prophet, p.b.u.h., said that the world would come to be in two parts, that people would come to be in two camps. Fourteen hundred years ago the Prophet said this. You can prevent it? You never can prevent that! And it is not just that on one side there will be communism and on the other side free countries, but really now we can consider all people to be believers and unbelievers.
All communist people, those who accept communism, are not believers, and in the face of them, against them, are all the believers. We are say ing that they are all believers, whether they are Jews, whether they are Christians, whether they are Muslims; we are saying that all of them are allied against the atheism that communism represents. You can't stop this. This is a time when people are divided into two camps, believers and unbelievers; there may be unbelievers in the United States, there may be believers in
communist territories. We are only attacking unbelievers, wherever they may happen to live.
KEEPING MERCY IN OUR HEARTS
We are in need of Allah Almighty's favours at all times. We are now in the last part of Holy Ramadan, in the last quarter, and we expect Lailat al-Qadr, the most important night in Islam, perhaps in any religion, to be in the last third of Holy Ramadan. And we are asking from our Lord to meet that holiest night.
The Prophet, p.b.u.h., was always in i'tikaf, seclusion, for ten days during the last third of Ramadan, and it is a famous sunnah of our Prophet, p.b.u.h.
Here, perhaps in Central Mosque, some people are observing that, or maybe in other mosques, so that the mercy of Allah which He keeps for every worship may come down on us, also. At least one man, one person, must do that in every town, in every place, where there may be some people from the ummah.
We are intending to do that, but it is difficult for everyone to do. Yet we are asking for some part of those Mercy Oceans, and we can reach those favours and Mercy Oceans through our intentions. In Islam intention is more important than our deeds, the Prophet said, because Allah Almighty gave us a short life and it is only to try His servants. And we have been ordered to do our best for everyone on every occasion.
We can intend the best in everything. Our physical bodies’ powers or our financial capability may not reach that point, but our intentions may.
Therefore the Prophet, p.b.u.h., ordered the people of his nation to always be keepers of the best intentions. The place of intentions is our hearts, and Allah Almighty always looks at His servants' hearts and He likes there to be good intentions in them. Therefore, every worship is for the purification of our hearts.
Allah Almighty is not in need of our worship or praise. His Heavens and His worlds and His universes are full-up with worshippers, and our worship is not even one very small drop in an ocean. Even though Allah Almighty has endless respect and endless worship and praise from His servants, He is not in need of their worship, but yet He ordered praise and worship and the whole of the Shari'ah and tariqah for His servants. The main purpose of all of them is purification: because Allah Almighty looks at your heart, the best thing servants can do is to put their hearts in the best possible condition by making them pure for their Lord Almighty.
Therefore, on the Last Day, on Judgment Day, Allah Almighty will reward His people, His servants, not according to their deeds but according to their intentions. Our deeds are only so small, but our intentions are wider and wider. And Allah Almighty wants to give His servants more and more from His endless favours. He does not keep his endless Mercy Oceans and endless Favour Oceans for Himself because He is not in need of such things; but rather everything, every mercy and every favour and every grace, is only for His servants.
In our forms we are very little, but by creation, by our inner forms, we are wider and vaster than all the universes. The universes may be so many - it doesn't matter; man is always more important and bigger than all the universes, and more valuable in the sight of Allah Almighty. Therefore he has endless desires, never getting tired or fed-up with his desires, even during this life, which is a very short one; it is only like lightning, quickly coming and disappearing between pre-eternity and post-eternity. And our souls' desires in the post-eternal life are going to be endless.
Therefore, Allah Almighty created man as His deputy so that, as much as he may ask, his Lord may give. And when He gives He is pleased; when His servants ask more and more. He is more and more pleased. That is a divine attribute.
He likes to give, He likes to give endlessly. Why do you not ask? And He is angry with us when we do not ask, in contrast to His servants; when we are asked for more, we are angry, but Allah Almighty's attribute is to give endlessly. Therefore, honour to you and endless good tidings for you, o Sons of Adam. You have been created for endless mercy; you have been created for mercy!
Therefore we are the most fortunate of all creatures because we have been created for the endless Mercy Oceans of our Lord, Allah Almighty. And Allah Almighty is asking one thing from His servants. What is that? "O My servants, I am merciful to all of you. Be merciful to My servants, be merciful to My creatures. That is what I am asking from you."
The last time Gabriel, p.b.u.h., came to beloved Muhammad, p.b.u.h., the Prophet was about to leave this earth and go to his Lord's Divine Presence, and he was advising his nation, "O my ummah, keep mercy. Be merciful." And the Prophet asked Gabriel, "Will you come after my death? After I leave this life and go to the Divine Presence of my Lord, will you come to earth again?"
And Gabriel answered, "Yes, on some occasions, for some reasons, I will come; I will come several times," and he mentioned some of them, saying. "I
shall come once again to take away mercy from hearts." There are other things that Gabriel, p.b.u.h., mentioned, but I am speaking now only about that point: that he would come and take away mercy from hearts. That has happened now in our time.
Mercy is just finished from hearts. Very few people are keeping mercy because mercy cannot be in a heart in which there are no beliefs. Whoever does not believe in his Lord, you can't find mercy in his heart. Therefore, although Allah Almighty orders us to be merciful to each other, we are living in a time when mercy has gone up, returned to the Mercy Oceans of our Lord, and mercilessness is growing on earth, growing every day, because every day beliefs are decreasing.
And in our time, from every direction, there are attacks on beliefs, even through religions - even through Islam, through Christianity, through Judaism; unbelievers are growing from inside. Reformers are a new fashon among people. They claim that religion must be renewed, must be reformed, and they are completely foolish, no-mind people, engaged by the devil, by Satan, and devils are establishing their sovereignty upon unbelief. Therefore, everywhere, people who do not believe in anything are growing. If they do not believe in a Creator, in what do you want such people to believe?
And then, in proportion to that unbelief, mercy is thrown out of hearts, finished, and now they are preparing themselves to destroy everything, everyone living on earth, so that no one remains on earth. Earlier, people fought with arrows, with stones, with swords, with spears, but now people are trying to invent some bombs of death with which to kill everyone. If a person is a believer, you can say to him, "Kill an ant," and he may think about why he should kill it. He may say, "That creature is also glorifying its Lord. If it does me harm I may kill it; if not, for what?" Then, how, with a bomb, can you kill everyone from innocent people, nothing-knowing people, without making any difference between armies and civilians? You may fight armies with armies, but what about others? It is prohibited to kill anyone who is harmless, who does not do harm!
But now people do not think about that. Both sides are preparing to kill each other. And Allah Almighty just sent all the prophets and ordered them to say to people, "Keep respect for your Lord. Be respectful to your Lord and be merciful to His creatures." These are two pillars.
Don't say only, "Not missiles116. That is correct, but it must be from both sides, or otherwise one side must be totally with its Lord; then there will be
116 Referring to questions asked earlier conceming nuclear disarmament
no effect of that other side's bombs on you. But we are not with our Lord; therefore there is danger for everyone.
Therefore, that lack of mercy among people is carrying people into this world's hell; that mercilessness is carrying people into'a fire-flood. At the time of Noah, p.b.u.h., Allah Almighty sent water, a rain-flood, but now He is sending, by the hands of His servants, a fire-flood. Only the one who has mercy in his heart will never be harmed, here or Hereafter. Therefore we are in need of more mercy.
Take more mercy! How can we take more mercy? This fasting month is teaching us something about mercy because the one who fasts tastes what the pains of hunger are, and mercy grows in his heart for those people, those millions, suffering with hunger. As much as you think about them; more mercy from divine Mercy Oceans comes to your heart and surrounds you. You can't see it, but there are some people who can see that certain people are surrounded by mercy. Even if the whole sky becomes like fire, it will never affect them; they are protected ones. Even if some of our brothers object to saying "protected," yet there is protection, divine protection, for some servants; yes. And as much as you can be more merciful, you will be protected more.
There should be a blood-flood and a fire-flood, and more men will be killed and more women will be protected, so that men will be less. There should be one man for fifty women, so many men will die. What is the reason?
Because men's hearts are like rocks; you can't find any mercy in them, but in women's hearts you can find more and more mercy. That is the reason why women should be protected, but men are like Nimrods, with their rockets, and so much punishment will come on them.
Therefore, make mercy grow in your hearts. You must practise that; you must be merciful to everyone. Don't look at peoples' bad actions; perhaps that will make you hate them. Rather, you can ask from your Lord mercy for everyone. Therefore Allah Almighty says, "Wa-'fu 'anna, wa-ghfirlana, wa- rhamna117”, teaching us to ask forgiveness and mercy and His favours for all, for everyone; and as much as you ask for everyone, mercy will come, covering and surrounding you.
It is impossible for all the armies in the world to keep you or protect you. People are making some underground shelters for atomic war. It is impossible. The only shelter for you is to be merciful to everyone, merciful and compassionate. That will keep you, that is a shelter for you.
117 And pardon us, and forgive us, and have mercy upon us. (II:286)
And we were speaking about intentions. Just as rewards from Allah Almighty comes because of good intentions, all punishments come because of our bad intentions. Don't intend or ask anything bad from your Lord for anyone; don't curse anyone, because that curse will turn and come back on that person, landing on his head first. We are asking our Lord Almighty to put us under the shelter of His mercy, and anyone who is asking for a mercy shelter from his Lord must give his compassion to everyone.
A SUITABLE SPEECH FOR EVERY OCCASION
Bismillahi-r-Rahmani-r-Rahim. When you begin with the name of Allah, All- mighty, All-merciful, you must weigh your words, not saying just anything under the title of "Bismillahi-r-Rahmani-r-Rahim." If you weigh or balance your words, you must know the suitable speech for every meeting, for every occasion or assembly.
People are sitting here. You must know what they are in need of, to give them. But it is difficult. I attend so many peoples' speeches, particularly religious peoples'. The people who are listening may be in the East but they are speaking about the West; people may be in the desert but he is talking about the poles.
For what are you saying that? It must be suitable for your listeners, and it is impossible to reach that point without using your spiritual power. You can't say everything to everyone. It is like a chemist: the one who comes to him asking about his sufferings will take any medicine he may give. But a chemist isn't able to do this; only a physician can prescribe which of them is for him. Although he may be a chemist, the keeper of all medicines and drugs, he never knows which of them is for whom.
And now scholars, the doctors of Shari'ah, are keepers of so many Qur'anic verses and hadiths. But it is not enough to make a speech or to give people what we know of verses, what we know of hadiths, giving whatever we know. No; for everyone there is a suitable speech which may be given. Therefore the scholars of olden times, when they had finished learning hadiths and verses and other knowledge of the Shari'ah, would go to some knowledgeable people to practise how they might use those verses and hadiths on others, as now a physician may finish taking his diploma but afterwards he is going to be assistant to an experienced doctor. It is not enough to learn: he must get his experience by working with another doctor, a specialist, an experienced one; then you can trust him. Why not for Shari'ah?
Therefore, many times - not sometimes! - what they destroy is more than what they build, and our new scholars' interest is to destroy the old structure but they can't build a new one.
That is a catastrophe. Our time is a time of unbelief and everyone is destroyed, particularly religious people, in every kind of religion; even in the three monotheistic religions, newly-emerging scholars are trying to destroy everything that was built by the people of old times. New scholars and doctors of Shari'ah are going to destroy the old faith, the old beliefs, totally; their interest is only to make people not believe in anything. They want to destroy all old things, what people believed in old times, those beliefs coming to the present, so that they cannot be seen. But they can't build new ones, no; the old ones are going and no new one is coming, and people are becoming lost. Therefore the disease of atheism is covering everything, people do not believe in anything.
Therefore no one takes any spiritual joy from our scholars, as if you are wood or straw. But you are not an animal. What are scholars giving to people except paper? There is a kind of Syrian feast with rice, meat and pine nuts. The doctors says, "Don't eat this - it makes you fat. Better to eat this straw. Then you are not going to be fat." Yes, something like this. Therefore we say always: Make people believe in something. Don't destroy their beliefs; make them believe.
THE DARK
Link: https://www.nvrislam.net/index.php?j=eng&post=6147
w I am going one step closer to death; yes, approaching.
That is the wisdom which holy books speak about, but people are like drunk, never thinking about it or never understanding it.
CONCERNING DIFFICULTIES
Difficulties come to everyone from Allah Almighty. Some of them come in spite of our will and some of them come because of the action of our will.
Sometimes difficulties are - from Allah Almighty's will, to give you high degrees. They come to cover your sins, your wrong steps. Therefore, for the difficulties which come without our wills, by our Lord's will, we must be patient.
Some difficulties come, also, according to the actions of our will. Those difficulties which come to you because of your actions and will, you must take care of them; at that time, don't accuse anyone except yourself. You must take care of your own actions and will; because of them some difficulties and troubles and sufferings have come on you. Then you must correct your steps. It means that there is something wrong with you so that you have left the right way and gone on the wrong way, and you must quickly correct the course, your way.
HOW TO DEAL WITH THE DIFFICULTIES WE MAY ENCOUNTER
(This talk was given during a morning session in response to a question asked earlier by a murid about returning to his home country after finishing his studies or remaining in England.)
Anyone may ask such a question about his life, about his destiny. We must be like running water, a river, a spring, flowing out and running. Water when it runs always follows the easy course, avoiding difficulties and passing through easy ways, not stopping. If it finds a deep place, a hole, it fills it and then runs again; if finding a rock, it does not try to cut through the rock but changes its way and runs, never stopping. If it stops, it fills that place and runs, also.
In our lives we must always see what is the easier way for ourselves. If people know this, they will be in rest and comfort, but they never think about that wisdom: to run as it is easy for them. If this way is going to be easy, you must follow it. There is an Arabic saying, "Alamatu-l-idhn at-taysir115" - the sign that Allah Almighty's will is with this is that it is easy. If you see that something is going to be easy for you, that is the sign that your Lord is
115 Literally, "The sign of permissibility is ease
pleased with it, that His pleasure is with that thing. When you see that there are difficulties, it means that your Lord is not pleased with that; therefore you must change your way to an easy one. Don't stop for a difficult situation, don't pursue difficulties. There are so many ways for the Sons of Adam.
Whichever one is easier, that you must follow.
In our life we may face so many difficulties. Allah Almighty makes difficulties to keep His servants from falling into a bad situation, putting a barrier in front of them so that they can't fall down into a valley, and you must change your course. In the Shari'ah, also, if something is difficult for people - for example, if a person can't pray standing, he may sit and pray; if not able to sit, he may lie down and pray. Or, on a ship, you may intend to face Qiblah; then, however the ship turns, it doesn't matter. As an alternative to every difficult way, there is an easy one. If there is a "No Entry" sign and you can understand that the road goes like this, don't enter it. If you do, you may find something that you are not going to be pleased with.
Therefore, it is an important thing for our lives to always follow the alternative to difficulties because the two ways run side by side. If no way, if a difficulty comes to you, change your way to an easy one; if that one is closed, you may find an open way. Therefore, don't be like a rock, Instead, you must be like water - running, always running when you run, you will reach the ocean. Rocks stand in their places but water runs,
Allah Almighty gives us will power, but you must know that His will covers our wills. Don't be stubborn about your will; His will is over it. You may know something but He knows everything. Therefore, when you ask for something, perhaps from this side it may look good to you but you do not see what is behind it. But He knows what is behind it, also. Therefore, follow your Lord's will.
How do you follow His will? You must know that His will is always going to be for ease for you.
QUESTION: Is there not a time to try to confront difficulties, to take on the challenge, so that you'll meet a difficult way but gain something through it?
SHEIKH: As water does, you may do. If there is a rock not firm in the earth, water carries that rock, also; if such a powerful river comes, it takes it away. But if it is firmly in the earth, the river changes its course. According to whether it is easy to move, you may understand; if not easy, if it is firm, you must understand that it is impossible. Then change and go; otherwise the rock will stay in the middle of the stream because there is no power for the water to carry every stone in its path. Therefore the water leaves and runs.
This is a very good method for everyone's life. Don't be stubborn about difficulties. You must run; don't stay there - no. Don't be rock; instead, you must be like water. Then you will be in peace always, never complaining. The one who runs with events, he is in peace, but the one who runs against events is going to be amidst troubles always. Agreement is the key to peace and satisfaction and happiness in the lives of people, but very few people understand that, and they fight, fight, against the running of events.
You can't stop events; you must run with them. You come like this, and the river runs like this; you can't stop it but you can easily run with the river. I mean to say, the will of Allah runs powerfully; your will can't stop it. You may try to make a way against it but you can't. As much as you may try, it will take you like this.
Sometimes you must jump from one possibility to another. When you change doors and finally you see that every door is locked, then the matter is finished. Yes, finished; in such a case you must go back. It is a very fine line. Most people say that this, my order, must be carried out, insisting. As Pharoah said, "My order must be carried out," our ego says to us, "My order must be carried out." That causes suffering to people; they are not like running water. They become like rocks, saying, "This Nile must run as I say," and the Nile is never going to run as you like, but it runs as its Lord orders it to run. That is the main reason why people suffer: they refuse to be soft.
You must be very careful about this point. You must follow Allah Almighty's will, and the sign of His will is to be able to follow events easily. We must run behind events, following them easily through difficulties. If you ask for easy ways, you can find endless easy ways, but if you say "No," everything says "NO" to you, echoing. When you say "No," everything says "No-o-o!" but when you say "Yes, " everything says "Yes-S-S!" and when you say "Happy!" everything around you says "Ha-a-apy!" That is important.
QUESTION: But if you're saying that we should go with the flow, when now this time is like a flood of haram and of bad thoughts and bad things coming on us, how can we at the same time not go with that flood but yet not come right up against it and get washed away? We don't want to go with it, but if we try to go directly against it, we aren't able, we don't have enough power. And it's difficult to know what we should do in our lives if we live, for example, in Western countries - in America, in Europe, in this culture. We don't want to go with it, but if we can't resist it, what should we do? What is our tactic?
SHEIKH: We said that for every difficulty there is an easy way. You are asking protection from your Lord. You know that when the flood of Noah
came it did not come on all the people? Why? Some people took the Ark of Safety; if you were in it, the flood would never touch you.
When you go under the protection of your faith, you may be anywhere; no worry for you - you may run. All people are going, but some people are sinking and some people are swimming up to the end. The ones who sink down are finished, but others have a life preserver. The one who has one does not sink; if not, he will go down, finished, as at the time of Noah..
Now you are taking the life preserver. No worry about your being in London, in Western countries; no. Allah is keeping you from haram, alhamdulillah.
You come here and sit. All of you are young people, and outside there are young ladies, other young people. You are sitting here. Who is protecting you? Your faith in Allah Almighty is keeping you, or you could go to parks, to beaches, to discotheques; you could go to all such places to do as others do, jumping around, dancing. Yes; why are you sitting here?
It is miraculous. It means that Islam, the way of tariqat, is a living power. It is enough evidence that Islam is a living religion and of the power of tariqat that all of you are young people; even one young person proves that power. The power that takes away, even one person from that flood, that is the divine power, the miraculous power, that Allah Almighty gives to real faith.
CONCERNING COMMUNISM
Our side in politics is that we must be with those people who are against communism; that is our politics. We can't accept communism or anyone who allies with communist countries. We go with those who have been given divine books; we do not go with those who refuse and deny holy books, heavenly orders or guidance, because they are against our Lord Almighty and they must be punished, and not far off - soon must be punished.
Therefore, that is our main politics: not to be with communists, with communist ideas. People are one thing, but communist ideas are making people fall into difficulties, fall into troubles," making them suffer. We do not agree with such ideas.
Muslims are followers of the Sunnah of the Prophet, p.b.u.h. The Prophet made alliance with Ahl al-Kitab, with those people who had been given divine books, but he never made alliance with mushrikin, pagans, those who did not believe in God Almighty.
First of all, everyone should know who is his friend and who is his enemy. We know that our chief enemy, our biggest enemy, is Satan, and his followers, all of them, are satans. Whoever comes into Islam, whoever believes in his Lord Almighty, must know who is against his Lord.
Communism is not only against us; it is against our Lord, fighting our Lord. You must know this.
In Western countries value is given to individuals; everyone has value. But in communist countries people are like herds. There is no individual life so that everyone can live his life, and Allah Almighty leaves people to live their lives. Who can prevent it? Only those people who deny that there is a God Almighty in existence. But always people are not thankful to their Lord - in England, in France, in Germany, in the United States, in every free country. They are asking for communism to come to them and make them slaves, like herds. Then finished; no one will be able to speak about anything.
The communist leaders are laughing at people, pretending that these factories are for you, these shops are for you. They put forward one person; for one person the whole world goes and comes, and they do not leave off fighting against Allah Almighty, keeping back the rights that He has given us. Who has given them that authority? Allah Himself gives us those rights!
Alhamdulillah that we are in London; in so many countries you can't speak about such things, you can't do dhikr, you can't do your worshipping freely.
Understand, or not? We must understand! So many people never understand and go with communists. As a punishment, those whose hearts are going with them will never stay on earth; the divine anger is on them. "We've sentenced God to death," they say. You must know that!
Therefore, your desire may be for the world not to be in two parts, but the Prophet, p.b.u.h., said that the world would come to be in two parts, that people would come to be in two camps. Fourteen hundred years ago the Prophet said this. You can prevent it? You never can prevent that! And it is not just that on one side there will be communism and on the other side free countries, but really now we can consider all people to be believers and unbelievers.
All communist people, those who accept communism, are not believers, and in the face of them, against them, are all the believers. We are say ing that they are all believers, whether they are Jews, whether they are Christians, whether they are Muslims; we are saying that all of them are allied against the atheism that communism represents. You can't stop this. This is a time when people are divided into two camps, believers and unbelievers; there may be unbelievers in the United States, there may be believers in
communist territories. We are only attacking unbelievers, wherever they may happen to live.
KEEPING MERCY IN OUR HEARTS
We are in need of Allah Almighty's favours at all times. We are now in the last part of Holy Ramadan, in the last quarter, and we expect Lailat al-Qadr, the most important night in Islam, perhaps in any religion, to be in the last third of Holy Ramadan. And we are asking from our Lord to meet that holiest night.
The Prophet, p.b.u.h., was always in i'tikaf, seclusion, for ten days during the last third of Ramadan, and it is a famous sunnah of our Prophet, p.b.u.h.
Here, perhaps in Central Mosque, some people are observing that, or maybe in other mosques, so that the mercy of Allah which He keeps for every worship may come down on us, also. At least one man, one person, must do that in every town, in every place, where there may be some people from the ummah.
We are intending to do that, but it is difficult for everyone to do. Yet we are asking for some part of those Mercy Oceans, and we can reach those favours and Mercy Oceans through our intentions. In Islam intention is more important than our deeds, the Prophet said, because Allah Almighty gave us a short life and it is only to try His servants. And we have been ordered to do our best for everyone on every occasion.
We can intend the best in everything. Our physical bodies’ powers or our financial capability may not reach that point, but our intentions may.
Therefore the Prophet, p.b.u.h., ordered the people of his nation to always be keepers of the best intentions. The place of intentions is our hearts, and Allah Almighty always looks at His servants' hearts and He likes there to be good intentions in them. Therefore, every worship is for the purification of our hearts.
Allah Almighty is not in need of our worship or praise. His Heavens and His worlds and His universes are full-up with worshippers, and our worship is not even one very small drop in an ocean. Even though Allah Almighty has endless respect and endless worship and praise from His servants, He is not in need of their worship, but yet He ordered praise and worship and the whole of the Shari'ah and tariqah for His servants. The main purpose of all of them is purification: because Allah Almighty looks at your heart, the best thing servants can do is to put their hearts in the best possible condition by making them pure for their Lord Almighty.
Therefore, on the Last Day, on Judgment Day, Allah Almighty will reward His people, His servants, not according to their deeds but according to their intentions. Our deeds are only so small, but our intentions are wider and wider. And Allah Almighty wants to give His servants more and more from His endless favours. He does not keep his endless Mercy Oceans and endless Favour Oceans for Himself because He is not in need of such things; but rather everything, every mercy and every favour and every grace, is only for His servants.
In our forms we are very little, but by creation, by our inner forms, we are wider and vaster than all the universes. The universes may be so many - it doesn't matter; man is always more important and bigger than all the universes, and more valuable in the sight of Allah Almighty. Therefore he has endless desires, never getting tired or fed-up with his desires, even during this life, which is a very short one; it is only like lightning, quickly coming and disappearing between pre-eternity and post-eternity. And our souls' desires in the post-eternal life are going to be endless.
Therefore, Allah Almighty created man as His deputy so that, as much as he may ask, his Lord may give. And when He gives He is pleased; when His servants ask more and more. He is more and more pleased. That is a divine attribute.
He likes to give, He likes to give endlessly. Why do you not ask? And He is angry with us when we do not ask, in contrast to His servants; when we are asked for more, we are angry, but Allah Almighty's attribute is to give endlessly. Therefore, honour to you and endless good tidings for you, o Sons of Adam. You have been created for endless mercy; you have been created for mercy!
Therefore we are the most fortunate of all creatures because we have been created for the endless Mercy Oceans of our Lord, Allah Almighty. And Allah Almighty is asking one thing from His servants. What is that? "O My servants, I am merciful to all of you. Be merciful to My servants, be merciful to My creatures. That is what I am asking from you."
The last time Gabriel, p.b.u.h., came to beloved Muhammad, p.b.u.h., the Prophet was about to leave this earth and go to his Lord's Divine Presence, and he was advising his nation, "O my ummah, keep mercy. Be merciful." And the Prophet asked Gabriel, "Will you come after my death? After I leave this life and go to the Divine Presence of my Lord, will you come to earth again?"
And Gabriel answered, "Yes, on some occasions, for some reasons, I will come; I will come several times," and he mentioned some of them, saying. "I
shall come once again to take away mercy from hearts." There are other things that Gabriel, p.b.u.h., mentioned, but I am speaking now only about that point: that he would come and take away mercy from hearts. That has happened now in our time.
Mercy is just finished from hearts. Very few people are keeping mercy because mercy cannot be in a heart in which there are no beliefs. Whoever does not believe in his Lord, you can't find mercy in his heart. Therefore, although Allah Almighty orders us to be merciful to each other, we are living in a time when mercy has gone up, returned to the Mercy Oceans of our Lord, and mercilessness is growing on earth, growing every day, because every day beliefs are decreasing.
And in our time, from every direction, there are attacks on beliefs, even through religions - even through Islam, through Christianity, through Judaism; unbelievers are growing from inside. Reformers are a new fashon among people. They claim that religion must be renewed, must be reformed, and they are completely foolish, no-mind people, engaged by the devil, by Satan, and devils are establishing their sovereignty upon unbelief. Therefore, everywhere, people who do not believe in anything are growing. If they do not believe in a Creator, in what do you want such people to believe?
And then, in proportion to that unbelief, mercy is thrown out of hearts, finished, and now they are preparing themselves to destroy everything, everyone living on earth, so that no one remains on earth. Earlier, people fought with arrows, with stones, with swords, with spears, but now people are trying to invent some bombs of death with which to kill everyone. If a person is a believer, you can say to him, "Kill an ant," and he may think about why he should kill it. He may say, "That creature is also glorifying its Lord. If it does me harm I may kill it; if not, for what?" Then, how, with a bomb, can you kill everyone from innocent people, nothing-knowing people, without making any difference between armies and civilians? You may fight armies with armies, but what about others? It is prohibited to kill anyone who is harmless, who does not do harm!
But now people do not think about that. Both sides are preparing to kill each other. And Allah Almighty just sent all the prophets and ordered them to say to people, "Keep respect for your Lord. Be respectful to your Lord and be merciful to His creatures." These are two pillars.
Don't say only, "Not missiles116. That is correct, but it must be from both sides, or otherwise one side must be totally with its Lord; then there will be
116 Referring to questions asked earlier conceming nuclear disarmament
no effect of that other side's bombs on you. But we are not with our Lord; therefore there is danger for everyone.
Therefore, that lack of mercy among people is carrying people into this world's hell; that mercilessness is carrying people into'a fire-flood. At the time of Noah, p.b.u.h., Allah Almighty sent water, a rain-flood, but now He is sending, by the hands of His servants, a fire-flood. Only the one who has mercy in his heart will never be harmed, here or Hereafter. Therefore we are in need of more mercy.
Take more mercy! How can we take more mercy? This fasting month is teaching us something about mercy because the one who fasts tastes what the pains of hunger are, and mercy grows in his heart for those people, those millions, suffering with hunger. As much as you think about them; more mercy from divine Mercy Oceans comes to your heart and surrounds you. You can't see it, but there are some people who can see that certain people are surrounded by mercy. Even if the whole sky becomes like fire, it will never affect them; they are protected ones. Even if some of our brothers object to saying "protected," yet there is protection, divine protection, for some servants; yes. And as much as you can be more merciful, you will be protected more.
There should be a blood-flood and a fire-flood, and more men will be killed and more women will be protected, so that men will be less. There should be one man for fifty women, so many men will die. What is the reason?
Because men's hearts are like rocks; you can't find any mercy in them, but in women's hearts you can find more and more mercy. That is the reason why women should be protected, but men are like Nimrods, with their rockets, and so much punishment will come on them.
Therefore, make mercy grow in your hearts. You must practise that; you must be merciful to everyone. Don't look at peoples' bad actions; perhaps that will make you hate them. Rather, you can ask from your Lord mercy for everyone. Therefore Allah Almighty says, "Wa-'fu 'anna, wa-ghfirlana, wa- rhamna117”, teaching us to ask forgiveness and mercy and His favours for all, for everyone; and as much as you ask for everyone, mercy will come, covering and surrounding you.
It is impossible for all the armies in the world to keep you or protect you. People are making some underground shelters for atomic war. It is impossible. The only shelter for you is to be merciful to everyone, merciful and compassionate. That will keep you, that is a shelter for you.
117 And pardon us, and forgive us, and have mercy upon us. (II:286)
And we were speaking about intentions. Just as rewards from Allah Almighty comes because of good intentions, all punishments come because of our bad intentions. Don't intend or ask anything bad from your Lord for anyone; don't curse anyone, because that curse will turn and come back on that person, landing on his head first. We are asking our Lord Almighty to put us under the shelter of His mercy, and anyone who is asking for a mercy shelter from his Lord must give his compassion to everyone.
A SUITABLE SPEECH FOR EVERY OCCASION
Bismillahi-r-Rahmani-r-Rahim. When you begin with the name of Allah, All- mighty, All-merciful, you must weigh your words, not saying just anything under the title of "Bismillahi-r-Rahmani-r-Rahim." If you weigh or balance your words, you must know the suitable speech for every meeting, for every occasion or assembly.
People are sitting here. You must know what they are in need of, to give them. But it is difficult. I attend so many peoples' speeches, particularly religious peoples'. The people who are listening may be in the East but they are speaking about the West; people may be in the desert but he is talking about the poles.
For what are you saying that? It must be suitable for your listeners, and it is impossible to reach that point without using your spiritual power. You can't say everything to everyone. It is like a chemist: the one who comes to him asking about his sufferings will take any medicine he may give. But a chemist isn't able to do this; only a physician can prescribe which of them is for him. Although he may be a chemist, the keeper of all medicines and drugs, he never knows which of them is for whom.
And now scholars, the doctors of Shari'ah, are keepers of so many Qur'anic verses and hadiths. But it is not enough to make a speech or to give people what we know of verses, what we know of hadiths, giving whatever we know. No; for everyone there is a suitable speech which may be given. Therefore the scholars of olden times, when they had finished learning hadiths and verses and other knowledge of the Shari'ah, would go to some knowledgeable people to practise how they might use those verses and hadiths on others, as now a physician may finish taking his diploma but afterwards he is going to be assistant to an experienced doctor. It is not enough to learn: he must get his experience by working with another doctor, a specialist, an experienced one; then you can trust him. Why not for Shari'ah?
Therefore, many times - not sometimes! - what they destroy is more than what they build, and our new scholars' interest is to destroy the old structure but they can't build a new one.
That is a catastrophe. Our time is a time of unbelief and everyone is destroyed, particularly religious people, in every kind of religion; even in the three monotheistic religions, newly-emerging scholars are trying to destroy everything that was built by the people of old times. New scholars and doctors of Shari'ah are going to destroy the old faith, the old beliefs, totally; their interest is only to make people not believe in anything. They want to destroy all old things, what people believed in old times, those beliefs coming to the present, so that they cannot be seen. But they can't build new ones, no; the old ones are going and no new one is coming, and people are becoming lost. Therefore the disease of atheism is covering everything, people do not believe in anything.
Therefore no one takes any spiritual joy from our scholars, as if you are wood or straw. But you are not an animal. What are scholars giving to people except paper? There is a kind of Syrian feast with rice, meat and pine nuts. The doctors says, "Don't eat this - it makes you fat. Better to eat this straw. Then you are not going to be fat." Yes, something like this. Therefore we say always: Make people believe in something. Don't destroy their beliefs; make them believe.
THE DARK
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