Mercy Oceans, Book 10 (239 pages, 15/21)
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ryone. There are only certain people who may be excepted from that, only a few people who are cutting a way, like a rocket going up to the atmosphere - so difficult to cut that distance. But when it is up - finished; no need to expend such power any longer; it goes by itself. Until gravity leaves it, it is in danger and difficulty, but when gravity leaves it, finished.
And for us, also, as much as our nafs' gravity catches us, it is so difficult to be on that level. That is the level of peace and satisfaction, and the level of pleasure, the level of familiarity. Yes, you may find so many Oceans: you may be on the level of love, you may be on the level of beauty, you may be on the level of mercy; they are Oceans. The one who reaches that goes forward from that level but does not come down. But, until reaching that level, this gravity of our egos catches us too strongly. That gives us suffering; that is the suffering of people. When they reach there, there is no more ego with them. But they are only like stars; you can count them - just one, two, three, four, five. Yes.
Not too many people may be able to achieve that but everyone is suitable for reaching toward that, to cut the way. But we have lost only one thing: that is patience; we need more patience. As much as you may acquire patience, it is going to be easier to reach that level.
Allah Almighty is teaching you by every worship how you can be patient. And this is the month of patience, to make people be patient. If you can continue on that way after Ramadan, you may build your way to those levels: to the peace level and satisfaction level, the familiarity level. the love level, the beauty level; endless Beauty Oceans, endless Love Oceans. endless Mercy Oceans, endless Favour Oceans, endless Knowledge Oceans; yes, endless Light Oceans. You may find everything.
CONCERNING CERTAINTY
Certainty gives power to people, while knowledge alone never gives them benefit. A person may be a big scholar but have no certainty. Another may be an ordinary person but if he has certainty about a few matters, he may be able to defeat evil, while that scholar cannot.
Yes, so many learned people can't keep themselves away from evil, while so many common, ordinary people may keep themselves away. Therefore, a little bit, of certainty is more important than being a big scholar without certainty. Anyone can acquire more knowledge, and, as Abu Yazid al- Bistami, may Allah bless him, said, "You acquire your knowledge as if from one dead person to another," signifying no certainty; "but we acquire it from Allah Almighty." When Allah Almighty gives knowledge, He gives it with certainty.
Certainty, yaqin, is the soul of beliefs. You may say; "Amantu bil-Lah, I believe in God, and in the angels, in the holy books, in the prophets, in the Last Day, in Qadar." That is how a little boy begins school, saying, "A, B, C, D...," saying it without certainty, following his teacher. But afterwards, when he understands, he becomes certain that it is really "A" or "B" or "C".
Therefore, it is important for everyone to make himself improve in certainty, not remaining as he is. Everyone knows something, but not everyone has certainty about what he knows. Certainty comes through the heart of the Prophet, p.b.u.h.
The certainty which was with the Prophet came most of all to Abu Baka may Allah bless him. The certainty which came to Abu Bakr was not the same as the certainty coming to the other Sahabah; each one of them had certainty, but not like Abu Bakr's certainty. And you can't take certainty from a person who doesn't have it. Understand? Not everyone can give it to you. If I don't have certainty, I can't give it to you. Only the one who has certainty may give it to you.
Therefore, it is important for a person to listen to lessons from the Shari'ah or from tariqah or from haqqiqah, from Reality. If the teacher has certainty, he will give to you with certainty; if not, he will give you only some plastic forms. There are plastic roses, plastic fruits; he can give you those, but when you bite them, you understand that they are plastic. And even a shapeless fruit is more lovely to you than a house full of plastic apples. What does it mean, to have a house full of plastic apples or grapes or bananas or oranges? Better this, even if it is a shapeless apple or grape or banana, because you can eat
it, you can't eat those others. Therefore, don't be cheated by nice lectures, nice writers, no: ask for someone who may give you certainty. Certainty comes from hearts and enters into hearts.
Therefore, the ranks of certainty are different. The certainty of Abu Bakr was much more than that of the others, but from every Sahabi, the Prophet said, you can acquire certainty. And you must find their inheritors, awliya.
The certainty that the Prophet, p.b.u.h., brought to his ummah is not taken up; still, among the ummah, his inheritors are keeping that. If you are in need of it, you may ask to find it; if not and you say, "Plastic is better for me now," you can have as much as you like and enjoy yourself. Therefore, our lectures may be shapeless by the side of scholars' writings and their lectures, but we have something that most scholars have lost, have never had, and that makes the servants of our Lord who are asking for certainty and sincerity come from East and West. The number of our listeners or readers is not important. Important is that even if there are a lot of people, they may listen and accept and keep such jewels from Reality. So many people come and go from the grocery store, but jewelers are not like grocers. People rarely come to the jeweler, and it is enough for him.
Therefore, don't be cheated, because there are so many famous people claiming that they have spiritual ways, a spiritual relationship to Heaven, or spiritual powers. Don't be cheated. In our time, for the person who crowds around himself thousands of people, you can understand that it is empty inside because people now are looking only at the outward view; they are cheated by the appearance of people. The one who is in need of showing himself makes so much noise, but inside there is nothing, no relationship to Heaven.
QUESTION: Sometimes my certainty is very strong, sometimes not there at all, up and down. How can I get it to be stable, regular, continuous?
SHEIKH: Regular certainty, yaqin, means regular walking in certainty. Sometimes yet, as we are beginners, our ego carries us, and when you walk on its path, your yaqin is going to be weak, reduced.
As much as you keep the relationship with your Lord in your heart, certainty is present and it will improve. But if you see that sometimes you go back, you must know that something is wrong with your actions, affecting your certainty, because our actions are like a mirror for our certainty; you can know everything about every action.
Our actions affect our certainty. Therefore, when your certainty is weak, you can understand that there must be something wrong with your actions. And
wrong from inside, also, because certainty is related to our hearts, while actions come through our organs. If something wrong is done by any organ, it affects our certainty. When we have certainty, we can keep our organs from every prohibited action. If no certainty, you can't do that.
Therefore, the heart commands our organs. If you can keep your heart, then you can keep your organs. And you can't keep your heart without certainty.
ABOUT DOUBTS AND ILLNESSES, SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL
(At a morning session, a murid says, "I'd like to know how we can remove doubt from our minds." Sheikh Nazim responds:)
Every doubt means a hole in your mind; if you fall into it, it is difficult to get out. Doubts are like holes in a field: if you don't fill them or put something on them, you may fall down. Therefore, it is important to take care of doubts because everyone's mind is suitable for accepting doubts.
A well needs two persons, one digging and the other one up, outside, carrying away the dirt. Don't leave your ego to make a hole in your mind, and Satan taking your ego and digging. If you do not take care, he will make a bottomless hole; if you fall down into it, you will never come up.
Particularly in our day, everything is running to make holes in beliefs, to cast doubts on beliefs, and the greatest thing that all beliefs have in common is the existence of God Almighty. Now in our time, all the powers of evil, all the powers of devils, are running to make people in doubt concerning the Creator, and that is the ultimate of foolishness and mindlessness and nonsense. If you see a person denying the existence of the Creator, you must know that he has to be someone who has escaped from a mental hospital.
QUESTION: Is there a way to fill up the holes if they're already dug?
SHEIKH: Yes! They may be filled quickly because beliefs quickly fill everything. Beliefs fill the holes of doubts; therefore we are in need to believe. If no beliefs, no one can be safe from doubts, and the doubts may continue until a person denies himself or is in doubt of his own existence. That is the opening to the mental hospital, making people crazy.
Such people are going to be in doubt of everything because the one who doubts the existence of the Lord Almighty is going to have doubts about everything, even about himself, saying, "Do I exist or not?" Then he is going
to discuss with his ego, sometimes saying "Yes" and at other times saying, "No! I exist because now I am present with myself; I eat, drink, come, go, do, live. Yes, I exist. But after one hundred years I will not exist. Therefore, how can I say that I exist? It is only imaginary, an illusion, because I am between being and non-being. How can I exist?"
But beliefs fill that hole made by doubts, saying "You were in existence both before and after. You were in existence before coming to this life, in a real existence, and this is only a manifestation by means of which you are now looking at yourself. This life is like a mirror for you so that you can see your existence now, but before you were secret, hidden, in Power Oceans. Now your Lord is giving you a form and you can look at yourself; you yourself are looking at yourself. Then, when you recognize yourself, you will return to your real station. You will have recognized yourself, that you are in existence”.
That is what belief says to you. If no belief, it is impossible to remove doubts, and if anyone does not remove his doubts, he will never remove sufferings. You may be in doubt about yourself, in doubt about your wife; the wife may be in doubt about her husband, her children, her parents; people may be in doubt about each other. You may sink into an endless Doubt Ocean.
Therefore Allah Almighty begins the Holy Qur'an, after al-Fatehah, the opening surah, by saying, "Bişmillahi-r-Rahmani-r-Rahim. Alif lam mim132. Dhalika-i-kitabu la raiba fihi133." Three letters at the beginning; Allah knows who knows the exact meanings, for they are only a cipher, a code, between Allah Almighty and His Prophet, p.b.u.h. But sometimes Allah Almighty lets some of His beloved servants know the secrets of the letters.
Each letter carries secrets, endless secrets; they are keys to the Holy Qur'an. The Holy Qur'an is endless oceans, not only one ocean - endless oceans. When Allah Almighty says "Alif," the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, it signifies for us an endless ocean, and as often as He repeats "alif" and once again "alif," each one of those alifs signifies another ocean and yet another endless ocean; you can't find the same meanings in each alif. Maybe in the Holy Qur'an you can find thousands and thousands of alifs, each one representing an endless ocean of divine knowledge.
132 Alif, lam and mim are the letters of the Arabic alphabet corresponding to A, L and
M. Many surahs of the Qur'an begin with such combinations of letters. Various interpretations exist concerning their significance
133 This verse, II:1, may be understood as, "This is the Book in which there is no doubt, guidance for the God-conscious"; or, "This is the Book; there is no doubt in it
-guidance for the God-conscious"; or, "This is the Book without doubt; in it is guidance for the God-conscious." Each of these understandings is admissible and correct, complementing the other
Yet, according to our capacity, we may know something. As Sultan al- Mufassirin Ibn Abbas (the son of the Prophet's uncle, may Allah bless them; he is the "king" of those who have explained the Holy Qur'an) said, ""Alif' signifies the name of Allah Almighty, alif beginning the word 'Allah'. ‘Lam' signifies Gabriel and ‘Mim' signifies Muhammad, p.b.u.h." O people, that Holy: Book which came from Allah Almighty by means of Gabriel to Muhammad, p.b.u.h., without doubt it has come from Allah Almighty, from His Divine Presence, through Gabriel to Muhammad, p.b.u.h. - without doubt; no one can have any doubt about that Book's being from Allah Almighty. Allah says, "La raiba fihi, no doubt in it," so that it takes away all doubts from everyone, because man is full of doubts and if he wants to fill every doubt by himself, he can't do that without using that Holy Book.
Yes, it covers doubts. For all people, as many different doubts as there may be, they are going to be filled by the Holy Qur'an, the Glorious Qur'an. They are going to be like the holes of ants: when a river floods a place, which holes can remain? It fills them and goes.
Therefore we are in need, as believers, to always ask for one who has stronger faith than our faith to carry away every doubt from our hearts. And as much as you are able to believe in a person, he may give you benefit, may make you satisfied. Therefore, when you take part in a grandsheikh's assembly, you feel satisfaction; if you do not feel satisfaction, it means that you are still in doubt and that that grandsheikh can never give you anything. You must know this sign: if you find satisfaction, you must know that he has more spiritual power than you and is able to fill the holes of your doubts.
Otherwise, leave him.
Therefore, faith or belief begins by believing in individual persons. If your patient does not believe in you, you can't cure him; finished. Therefore, first came the prophets, and we have been ordered to believe in the prophets so that it is possible to believe in God Almighty. If you do not give your trust to an individual person, you can't have belief in God Almighty. Therefore Allah Almighty says that you must believe in My prophet, beloved Muhammad, p.b.u.h., that he has been given a Book from his Lord Almighty through Gabriel - this Book, dhalika-l-kitab; without any doubt, you must believe that he brought you that Holy Book, the Glorious Qur'an, from My Divine Presence through Gabriel, and you have trust in his individual existence as a prophet. Then everything is going to be all right; otherwise, it is impossible.
At every time you can find the same illness, doubt illness, occurring among people, coming from their doubting, their mocking, at believers - yes, making them a substitute for entertainment. You can find that illness during every period, and in our day beliefs are the subject of ridicule for all people; they drink, getting drunk and entertaining themselves at the expense of those
who believe. That is the illness that is going to destroy humanity on earth, from both sides - destroying it spiritually and destroying it physically.
QUESTION: Could you please speak about the relationship between disease and the soul? If you become sick or have an operation, does that actually affect your soul or is it a reflection of some illness in the soul? If you have doubt in your soul, could you become physically sick? Or, if you are physically sick, does that show you have doubt in your soul that you weren't aware of?
SHEIKH: When we say "illness," it may be physical or it may be spiritual. Each of them is different.
Spiritual illness is always going to give troubles to the body but bodily illnesses do not give trouble to our spiritual body. When we are ill spiritually, it is going to have effects on our bodily life, but if our souls are healthy, our bodily suffering never affects them.
The proof is Ayyub, p.b.u.h., Prophet Job. He had so much bodily illness but it never affected his soul; his soul was always thankful to his Lord, saying, "Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah." But when the soul is ill, people are going to be ill spiritually; then the body is going to go down, to be destroyed. Therefore, the doubts that we are seeing now among people have reached the utmost, the ultimate point, and they are de stroying them spiritually and physically, from both sides. That is terrible!
QUESTION: If all psychiatric illness comes from disbelief as its root, does all physical illness come from disbelief, also?
SHEIKH: No, it does not necessarily come from disbelief, because prophets sometimes bore illnesses; awliya, saints, also. But that is another thing; there are divine wisdoms in that. Sometimes prophets carried heavy burdens for their nations; that made them ill. For example, sometimes parents may be ill for their children; when they carry so much sorrow within themselves, their physical bodies may become ill. But prophets and awliya are never ill in their souls.
When the soul is ill from doubts and disbelief, that makes the physical body weak and there is no resistance to keep away illnesses: But when the spiritual body is strong and ordinary illnesses come, it may resist them, as in the case of prophets' illnesses and sufferings for the sake of their nations, which their bodies bore and were not destroyed. If they were going to be destroyed, Job's body would finally have been destroyed, but that did not happen; he bore it but was not destroyed.
MAKING MORE TIME FOR ALLAH'S SERVICE
Endless praise and thanks to our Lord Almighty that He is granting us to complete the holy month of Ramadan once again. This is from His endless favours to us; you can't get that with money. It is something from our Lord, given to His servants. We are claiming nothing. We are saying only, "O our Lord, we are Your weakest servants, and we are ashamed to say that we fasted or we prayed. Everything that we did was through your favours, by Your will, by Your power. Grant us from Your endless favours.
"If you leave us in the hands of our egos, only badness and evil will appear from ourselves. Therefore we are asking forgiveness for every bad deed, and we are also ashamed to say that we fasted and prayed during Holy Ramadan because it is not suitable, o our Lord. O our Lord, it is not suitable for Your most high Divine Presence to bring such fasting and prayers, while there are in Your Divine Presence countless of Your servants presenting to your divine Throne excellent and most beautiful praises every day, every night, every hour, every moment, at every time."
In spite of that, Allah Almighty shows His angels the fasting people of the nation of Muhammad. Angels are glorifying Allah Almighty; they are giving the most beautiful praises, excellent praises, to their Lord. But they are free for that; they are free only for that purpose. But the Sons of Adam are surrounded and occupied by their nafs and by dunya, and at the same time attacked by Shaytan and his armies.
We are in a difficult position. Therefore, when we present something, Allah Almighty knows that we are presenting our respects to His Divine Presence under such difficult conditions. Therefore Allah Almighty shows the angels and says, "Look at My servants. My servants are fasting and trying to keep My command, trying to give their respects to Me. And they are totally occupied by their egos, surrounded by their egos' desires, and they are sought after by dunya at every moment. In spite of that, they are trying to fast and to give their respect to My command. Look!" Yes, He gives honour to ummata Muhammad, and we have been honoured to be of His beloved Prophet Muhammad, p.b.u.h.
Allah Almighty is one who gives endlessly. He is one who has endless favours; He is one who has endless Mercy Oceans and endless treasures; He is one who has endless Beauty Oceans; He is one who has endless Pleasure Oceans. And He is not in need of His endless Oceans, but the endless Oceans are all divine grants from Him to His servants.
Therefore, there is an endless Paradise. In Paradise you are going to find His endless Mercy Oceans and His endless favours, His endless lights; your Lord's endless pleasures, your Lord's endless Happiness Oceans and endless Satisfaction Oceans. And in Paradise you are going to find your Lord's endless Peace Oceans and His endless Power Oceans and endless Beauty Oceans; you are going to find everything that you can desire in Paradise endlessly.
That is endless good tidings for the Sons of Adam. You are not going to be nothing! Inasmuch as He is in existence from pre-eternity to post-eternity, He is going to give you eternal life, to be in existence eternally, and you have been granted to be with Him Almighty.
O mumins and muminahs, you must think, for such endless favours as our Lord Almighty is granting us, what is their value. If you buy only a hut here in London, you will be a slave to a mortgage throughout your life; you will work to pay a mortgage for a hut, in a no-good locality, also. Then what do you think of an eternal Paradise, a territory for yourself forever?
You work hard, you and your wife, from morning to night, from night to daybreak, and you say, "We are paying a mortgage on a hut." But do you ever think of paying a mortgage for your Paradise?
We may say that if people believe, they will be hard workers, more than ourselves; but I see that we are so lazy in working for our mortgage in Akhirah, in the eternal life. Now, we must know what is the value of Paradise and of eternal life, and we must give more time to our Lord's service; otherwise, we must be ashamed in front of our Lord. On the Day of Resurrection, when He gives us from His endless favours, so much shame will come upon people that everyone will ask to disappear from the Divine Presence. O mumins and muminahs, give more time for your Lord's service or for the Paradise mortgage, if just a little more - a little more.
We are thinking about giving it but our egos are not letting us give more. Our ego is saying to us, "You must work for Me, you must serve Me, you must do everything for Me, not for anyone else. I will never accept a partner!" Our ego is terrible! Therefore, don't let your ego command you and carry you as it likes; instead, you must ask divine support to fight, to defeat, your bad ego and to bring it under your Lord's service.
Your nafs has been give to you only for your Lord's service; you must use it for serving your Lord. But people are receiving the horse of the king and are not receiving the king; they are receiving the donkey but are not receiving the guest on the donkey. We are receiving the horse (I mean to say, our nafs) but we are refusing the holy guest that we have been given by our Lord
Almighty, our soul, putting the donkey on the chair and putting the guest in the stable!
It is enough for today, and this, at the end of Holy Ramadan, I think is for everyone, for every believer, without making any difference between Muslims or Christians or Jews. For those who believe in God and His prophets and His holy books, this lecture may give them a power, may give them a pleasure, may give them a support from their Lord Almighty
When They make me sit in this chair to speak, my heart is always in contact with my Grandsheikh's heart, and his heart is in contact with the Prophet's holy heart, and the Prophet's heart is in the Divine Presence. I am not speaking to you with excellent English. They are able, my Lord is able, to make me speak in a way that surprises people, but it is enough for everyone; and we are asking forgiveness for every mistake, for every misunderstanding. Your souls are understanding what I mean to say; doesn't matter if my English goes like this, like that. We have a saying in Turkish, "Wrong ship, right course." It is something like that.
Endless praises be to You, o our Lord, ya Rabb. Our Lord, make us to continue. Falling, standing, we have walked thirty days. Hadha min fadli Rabbana, Jallahu A'ala; that is from the favour of our Lord, may His glory be exalted.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PRIDE AND SPIRITUAL SATISFACTION
When you look at your soul, you must be pleased and in expansion, you must be smiling. But when you look at your nafs, you must be solemn, sad.
Your soul gives expansion, your ego gives contraction. Therefore, as much as you are with your ego, you are in contraction, you can't smile. Yes, that is true: everything relating to our egos is full of sadness and contraction. But everything related to our Lord, from our souls, gives us expansion and pleasure and peace and satisfaction and lights.
QUESTION: You are saying that everything related to the soul gives pleasure. Then is it right for us to feel pleasure in our souls? For example, if you do something for the sake of Allah that you feel good about, and you're pleased with your action or you're pleased with what you feel about it, isn't that pride? How can we tell the difference?
SHEIKH: That is related to Allah; the source of expansion of souls is from our hearts. When we feel this from inside, it is from the side of Allah Almighty and never, never, from our nafs.
There is the verse, "Maraja-l-bahraini yaltaqian; bainahuma barzakhun la yabghian134." These are two different things; pride can never enter in the side of the soul. Pride is always with the ego, and the ego takes its plea sure from outward things. And you can understand when your ego is proud, but from the side of Allah, when you are with your Lord, that expansion comes directly from heavenly rays to you; no pride there.
Ego takes everything from outside, and you can know that it is the pride of your ego. Even if both of them occur in a person, they are never mixed with each other, just as Allah Almighty says that two seas run beside each other but never without a barrier; they are not going to be mixed. What you feel when you do a good action is not pride because that feeling comes to you from Allah Almighty.
Grandsheikh said that every night Sayyidina 'Ali would put his actions in front of him, good actions on the right, bad actions on the left, and then would address his ego: "Look! All goodness is from your Lord, Allah Almighty, and all badness is from you. If your Lord leaves you, you are not going to do any good actions. Therefore these good actions don't belong to you; don't be proud of these. That badness is your work!"
Then your ego will come down, will not be proud. It knows that every goodness is from Allah Almighty, by His taufiq, His divine help, because if your Lord does not make you successful in doing those good actions, your actions would always be such bad ones. "Who did that?" you may ask yourself - "You or Someone Else? How did you do that?" Then pride will never come to you. That is every day's muhasabah, accounting; that prevent
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ryone. There are only certain people who may be excepted from that, only a few people who are cutting a way, like a rocket going up to the atmosphere - so difficult to cut that distance. But when it is up - finished; no need to expend such power any longer; it goes by itself. Until gravity leaves it, it is in danger and difficulty, but when gravity leaves it, finished.
And for us, also, as much as our nafs' gravity catches us, it is so difficult to be on that level. That is the level of peace and satisfaction, and the level of pleasure, the level of familiarity. Yes, you may find so many Oceans: you may be on the level of love, you may be on the level of beauty, you may be on the level of mercy; they are Oceans. The one who reaches that goes forward from that level but does not come down. But, until reaching that level, this gravity of our egos catches us too strongly. That gives us suffering; that is the suffering of people. When they reach there, there is no more ego with them. But they are only like stars; you can count them - just one, two, three, four, five. Yes.
Not too many people may be able to achieve that but everyone is suitable for reaching toward that, to cut the way. But we have lost only one thing: that is patience; we need more patience. As much as you may acquire patience, it is going to be easier to reach that level.
Allah Almighty is teaching you by every worship how you can be patient. And this is the month of patience, to make people be patient. If you can continue on that way after Ramadan, you may build your way to those levels: to the peace level and satisfaction level, the familiarity level. the love level, the beauty level; endless Beauty Oceans, endless Love Oceans. endless Mercy Oceans, endless Favour Oceans, endless Knowledge Oceans; yes, endless Light Oceans. You may find everything.
CONCERNING CERTAINTY
Certainty gives power to people, while knowledge alone never gives them benefit. A person may be a big scholar but have no certainty. Another may be an ordinary person but if he has certainty about a few matters, he may be able to defeat evil, while that scholar cannot.
Yes, so many learned people can't keep themselves away from evil, while so many common, ordinary people may keep themselves away. Therefore, a little bit, of certainty is more important than being a big scholar without certainty. Anyone can acquire more knowledge, and, as Abu Yazid al- Bistami, may Allah bless him, said, "You acquire your knowledge as if from one dead person to another," signifying no certainty; "but we acquire it from Allah Almighty." When Allah Almighty gives knowledge, He gives it with certainty.
Certainty, yaqin, is the soul of beliefs. You may say; "Amantu bil-Lah, I believe in God, and in the angels, in the holy books, in the prophets, in the Last Day, in Qadar." That is how a little boy begins school, saying, "A, B, C, D...," saying it without certainty, following his teacher. But afterwards, when he understands, he becomes certain that it is really "A" or "B" or "C".
Therefore, it is important for everyone to make himself improve in certainty, not remaining as he is. Everyone knows something, but not everyone has certainty about what he knows. Certainty comes through the heart of the Prophet, p.b.u.h.
The certainty which was with the Prophet came most of all to Abu Baka may Allah bless him. The certainty which came to Abu Bakr was not the same as the certainty coming to the other Sahabah; each one of them had certainty, but not like Abu Bakr's certainty. And you can't take certainty from a person who doesn't have it. Understand? Not everyone can give it to you. If I don't have certainty, I can't give it to you. Only the one who has certainty may give it to you.
Therefore, it is important for a person to listen to lessons from the Shari'ah or from tariqah or from haqqiqah, from Reality. If the teacher has certainty, he will give to you with certainty; if not, he will give you only some plastic forms. There are plastic roses, plastic fruits; he can give you those, but when you bite them, you understand that they are plastic. And even a shapeless fruit is more lovely to you than a house full of plastic apples. What does it mean, to have a house full of plastic apples or grapes or bananas or oranges? Better this, even if it is a shapeless apple or grape or banana, because you can eat
it, you can't eat those others. Therefore, don't be cheated by nice lectures, nice writers, no: ask for someone who may give you certainty. Certainty comes from hearts and enters into hearts.
Therefore, the ranks of certainty are different. The certainty of Abu Bakr was much more than that of the others, but from every Sahabi, the Prophet said, you can acquire certainty. And you must find their inheritors, awliya.
The certainty that the Prophet, p.b.u.h., brought to his ummah is not taken up; still, among the ummah, his inheritors are keeping that. If you are in need of it, you may ask to find it; if not and you say, "Plastic is better for me now," you can have as much as you like and enjoy yourself. Therefore, our lectures may be shapeless by the side of scholars' writings and their lectures, but we have something that most scholars have lost, have never had, and that makes the servants of our Lord who are asking for certainty and sincerity come from East and West. The number of our listeners or readers is not important. Important is that even if there are a lot of people, they may listen and accept and keep such jewels from Reality. So many people come and go from the grocery store, but jewelers are not like grocers. People rarely come to the jeweler, and it is enough for him.
Therefore, don't be cheated, because there are so many famous people claiming that they have spiritual ways, a spiritual relationship to Heaven, or spiritual powers. Don't be cheated. In our time, for the person who crowds around himself thousands of people, you can understand that it is empty inside because people now are looking only at the outward view; they are cheated by the appearance of people. The one who is in need of showing himself makes so much noise, but inside there is nothing, no relationship to Heaven.
QUESTION: Sometimes my certainty is very strong, sometimes not there at all, up and down. How can I get it to be stable, regular, continuous?
SHEIKH: Regular certainty, yaqin, means regular walking in certainty. Sometimes yet, as we are beginners, our ego carries us, and when you walk on its path, your yaqin is going to be weak, reduced.
As much as you keep the relationship with your Lord in your heart, certainty is present and it will improve. But if you see that sometimes you go back, you must know that something is wrong with your actions, affecting your certainty, because our actions are like a mirror for our certainty; you can know everything about every action.
Our actions affect our certainty. Therefore, when your certainty is weak, you can understand that there must be something wrong with your actions. And
wrong from inside, also, because certainty is related to our hearts, while actions come through our organs. If something wrong is done by any organ, it affects our certainty. When we have certainty, we can keep our organs from every prohibited action. If no certainty, you can't do that.
Therefore, the heart commands our organs. If you can keep your heart, then you can keep your organs. And you can't keep your heart without certainty.
ABOUT DOUBTS AND ILLNESSES, SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL
(At a morning session, a murid says, "I'd like to know how we can remove doubt from our minds." Sheikh Nazim responds:)
Every doubt means a hole in your mind; if you fall into it, it is difficult to get out. Doubts are like holes in a field: if you don't fill them or put something on them, you may fall down. Therefore, it is important to take care of doubts because everyone's mind is suitable for accepting doubts.
A well needs two persons, one digging and the other one up, outside, carrying away the dirt. Don't leave your ego to make a hole in your mind, and Satan taking your ego and digging. If you do not take care, he will make a bottomless hole; if you fall down into it, you will never come up.
Particularly in our day, everything is running to make holes in beliefs, to cast doubts on beliefs, and the greatest thing that all beliefs have in common is the existence of God Almighty. Now in our time, all the powers of evil, all the powers of devils, are running to make people in doubt concerning the Creator, and that is the ultimate of foolishness and mindlessness and nonsense. If you see a person denying the existence of the Creator, you must know that he has to be someone who has escaped from a mental hospital.
QUESTION: Is there a way to fill up the holes if they're already dug?
SHEIKH: Yes! They may be filled quickly because beliefs quickly fill everything. Beliefs fill the holes of doubts; therefore we are in need to believe. If no beliefs, no one can be safe from doubts, and the doubts may continue until a person denies himself or is in doubt of his own existence. That is the opening to the mental hospital, making people crazy.
Such people are going to be in doubt of everything because the one who doubts the existence of the Lord Almighty is going to have doubts about everything, even about himself, saying, "Do I exist or not?" Then he is going
to discuss with his ego, sometimes saying "Yes" and at other times saying, "No! I exist because now I am present with myself; I eat, drink, come, go, do, live. Yes, I exist. But after one hundred years I will not exist. Therefore, how can I say that I exist? It is only imaginary, an illusion, because I am between being and non-being. How can I exist?"
But beliefs fill that hole made by doubts, saying "You were in existence both before and after. You were in existence before coming to this life, in a real existence, and this is only a manifestation by means of which you are now looking at yourself. This life is like a mirror for you so that you can see your existence now, but before you were secret, hidden, in Power Oceans. Now your Lord is giving you a form and you can look at yourself; you yourself are looking at yourself. Then, when you recognize yourself, you will return to your real station. You will have recognized yourself, that you are in existence”.
That is what belief says to you. If no belief, it is impossible to remove doubts, and if anyone does not remove his doubts, he will never remove sufferings. You may be in doubt about yourself, in doubt about your wife; the wife may be in doubt about her husband, her children, her parents; people may be in doubt about each other. You may sink into an endless Doubt Ocean.
Therefore Allah Almighty begins the Holy Qur'an, after al-Fatehah, the opening surah, by saying, "Bişmillahi-r-Rahmani-r-Rahim. Alif lam mim132. Dhalika-i-kitabu la raiba fihi133." Three letters at the beginning; Allah knows who knows the exact meanings, for they are only a cipher, a code, between Allah Almighty and His Prophet, p.b.u.h. But sometimes Allah Almighty lets some of His beloved servants know the secrets of the letters.
Each letter carries secrets, endless secrets; they are keys to the Holy Qur'an. The Holy Qur'an is endless oceans, not only one ocean - endless oceans. When Allah Almighty says "Alif," the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, it signifies for us an endless ocean, and as often as He repeats "alif" and once again "alif," each one of those alifs signifies another ocean and yet another endless ocean; you can't find the same meanings in each alif. Maybe in the Holy Qur'an you can find thousands and thousands of alifs, each one representing an endless ocean of divine knowledge.
132 Alif, lam and mim are the letters of the Arabic alphabet corresponding to A, L and
M. Many surahs of the Qur'an begin with such combinations of letters. Various interpretations exist concerning their significance
133 This verse, II:1, may be understood as, "This is the Book in which there is no doubt, guidance for the God-conscious"; or, "This is the Book; there is no doubt in it
-guidance for the God-conscious"; or, "This is the Book without doubt; in it is guidance for the God-conscious." Each of these understandings is admissible and correct, complementing the other
Yet, according to our capacity, we may know something. As Sultan al- Mufassirin Ibn Abbas (the son of the Prophet's uncle, may Allah bless them; he is the "king" of those who have explained the Holy Qur'an) said, ""Alif' signifies the name of Allah Almighty, alif beginning the word 'Allah'. ‘Lam' signifies Gabriel and ‘Mim' signifies Muhammad, p.b.u.h." O people, that Holy: Book which came from Allah Almighty by means of Gabriel to Muhammad, p.b.u.h., without doubt it has come from Allah Almighty, from His Divine Presence, through Gabriel to Muhammad, p.b.u.h. - without doubt; no one can have any doubt about that Book's being from Allah Almighty. Allah says, "La raiba fihi, no doubt in it," so that it takes away all doubts from everyone, because man is full of doubts and if he wants to fill every doubt by himself, he can't do that without using that Holy Book.
Yes, it covers doubts. For all people, as many different doubts as there may be, they are going to be filled by the Holy Qur'an, the Glorious Qur'an. They are going to be like the holes of ants: when a river floods a place, which holes can remain? It fills them and goes.
Therefore we are in need, as believers, to always ask for one who has stronger faith than our faith to carry away every doubt from our hearts. And as much as you are able to believe in a person, he may give you benefit, may make you satisfied. Therefore, when you take part in a grandsheikh's assembly, you feel satisfaction; if you do not feel satisfaction, it means that you are still in doubt and that that grandsheikh can never give you anything. You must know this sign: if you find satisfaction, you must know that he has more spiritual power than you and is able to fill the holes of your doubts.
Otherwise, leave him.
Therefore, faith or belief begins by believing in individual persons. If your patient does not believe in you, you can't cure him; finished. Therefore, first came the prophets, and we have been ordered to believe in the prophets so that it is possible to believe in God Almighty. If you do not give your trust to an individual person, you can't have belief in God Almighty. Therefore Allah Almighty says that you must believe in My prophet, beloved Muhammad, p.b.u.h., that he has been given a Book from his Lord Almighty through Gabriel - this Book, dhalika-l-kitab; without any doubt, you must believe that he brought you that Holy Book, the Glorious Qur'an, from My Divine Presence through Gabriel, and you have trust in his individual existence as a prophet. Then everything is going to be all right; otherwise, it is impossible.
At every time you can find the same illness, doubt illness, occurring among people, coming from their doubting, their mocking, at believers - yes, making them a substitute for entertainment. You can find that illness during every period, and in our day beliefs are the subject of ridicule for all people; they drink, getting drunk and entertaining themselves at the expense of those
who believe. That is the illness that is going to destroy humanity on earth, from both sides - destroying it spiritually and destroying it physically.
QUESTION: Could you please speak about the relationship between disease and the soul? If you become sick or have an operation, does that actually affect your soul or is it a reflection of some illness in the soul? If you have doubt in your soul, could you become physically sick? Or, if you are physically sick, does that show you have doubt in your soul that you weren't aware of?
SHEIKH: When we say "illness," it may be physical or it may be spiritual. Each of them is different.
Spiritual illness is always going to give troubles to the body but bodily illnesses do not give trouble to our spiritual body. When we are ill spiritually, it is going to have effects on our bodily life, but if our souls are healthy, our bodily suffering never affects them.
The proof is Ayyub, p.b.u.h., Prophet Job. He had so much bodily illness but it never affected his soul; his soul was always thankful to his Lord, saying, "Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah." But when the soul is ill, people are going to be ill spiritually; then the body is going to go down, to be destroyed. Therefore, the doubts that we are seeing now among people have reached the utmost, the ultimate point, and they are de stroying them spiritually and physically, from both sides. That is terrible!
QUESTION: If all psychiatric illness comes from disbelief as its root, does all physical illness come from disbelief, also?
SHEIKH: No, it does not necessarily come from disbelief, because prophets sometimes bore illnesses; awliya, saints, also. But that is another thing; there are divine wisdoms in that. Sometimes prophets carried heavy burdens for their nations; that made them ill. For example, sometimes parents may be ill for their children; when they carry so much sorrow within themselves, their physical bodies may become ill. But prophets and awliya are never ill in their souls.
When the soul is ill from doubts and disbelief, that makes the physical body weak and there is no resistance to keep away illnesses: But when the spiritual body is strong and ordinary illnesses come, it may resist them, as in the case of prophets' illnesses and sufferings for the sake of their nations, which their bodies bore and were not destroyed. If they were going to be destroyed, Job's body would finally have been destroyed, but that did not happen; he bore it but was not destroyed.
MAKING MORE TIME FOR ALLAH'S SERVICE
Endless praise and thanks to our Lord Almighty that He is granting us to complete the holy month of Ramadan once again. This is from His endless favours to us; you can't get that with money. It is something from our Lord, given to His servants. We are claiming nothing. We are saying only, "O our Lord, we are Your weakest servants, and we are ashamed to say that we fasted or we prayed. Everything that we did was through your favours, by Your will, by Your power. Grant us from Your endless favours.
"If you leave us in the hands of our egos, only badness and evil will appear from ourselves. Therefore we are asking forgiveness for every bad deed, and we are also ashamed to say that we fasted and prayed during Holy Ramadan because it is not suitable, o our Lord. O our Lord, it is not suitable for Your most high Divine Presence to bring such fasting and prayers, while there are in Your Divine Presence countless of Your servants presenting to your divine Throne excellent and most beautiful praises every day, every night, every hour, every moment, at every time."
In spite of that, Allah Almighty shows His angels the fasting people of the nation of Muhammad. Angels are glorifying Allah Almighty; they are giving the most beautiful praises, excellent praises, to their Lord. But they are free for that; they are free only for that purpose. But the Sons of Adam are surrounded and occupied by their nafs and by dunya, and at the same time attacked by Shaytan and his armies.
We are in a difficult position. Therefore, when we present something, Allah Almighty knows that we are presenting our respects to His Divine Presence under such difficult conditions. Therefore Allah Almighty shows the angels and says, "Look at My servants. My servants are fasting and trying to keep My command, trying to give their respects to Me. And they are totally occupied by their egos, surrounded by their egos' desires, and they are sought after by dunya at every moment. In spite of that, they are trying to fast and to give their respect to My command. Look!" Yes, He gives honour to ummata Muhammad, and we have been honoured to be of His beloved Prophet Muhammad, p.b.u.h.
Allah Almighty is one who gives endlessly. He is one who has endless favours; He is one who has endless Mercy Oceans and endless treasures; He is one who has endless Beauty Oceans; He is one who has endless Pleasure Oceans. And He is not in need of His endless Oceans, but the endless Oceans are all divine grants from Him to His servants.
Therefore, there is an endless Paradise. In Paradise you are going to find His endless Mercy Oceans and His endless favours, His endless lights; your Lord's endless pleasures, your Lord's endless Happiness Oceans and endless Satisfaction Oceans. And in Paradise you are going to find your Lord's endless Peace Oceans and His endless Power Oceans and endless Beauty Oceans; you are going to find everything that you can desire in Paradise endlessly.
That is endless good tidings for the Sons of Adam. You are not going to be nothing! Inasmuch as He is in existence from pre-eternity to post-eternity, He is going to give you eternal life, to be in existence eternally, and you have been granted to be with Him Almighty.
O mumins and muminahs, you must think, for such endless favours as our Lord Almighty is granting us, what is their value. If you buy only a hut here in London, you will be a slave to a mortgage throughout your life; you will work to pay a mortgage for a hut, in a no-good locality, also. Then what do you think of an eternal Paradise, a territory for yourself forever?
You work hard, you and your wife, from morning to night, from night to daybreak, and you say, "We are paying a mortgage on a hut." But do you ever think of paying a mortgage for your Paradise?
We may say that if people believe, they will be hard workers, more than ourselves; but I see that we are so lazy in working for our mortgage in Akhirah, in the eternal life. Now, we must know what is the value of Paradise and of eternal life, and we must give more time to our Lord's service; otherwise, we must be ashamed in front of our Lord. On the Day of Resurrection, when He gives us from His endless favours, so much shame will come upon people that everyone will ask to disappear from the Divine Presence. O mumins and muminahs, give more time for your Lord's service or for the Paradise mortgage, if just a little more - a little more.
We are thinking about giving it but our egos are not letting us give more. Our ego is saying to us, "You must work for Me, you must serve Me, you must do everything for Me, not for anyone else. I will never accept a partner!" Our ego is terrible! Therefore, don't let your ego command you and carry you as it likes; instead, you must ask divine support to fight, to defeat, your bad ego and to bring it under your Lord's service.
Your nafs has been give to you only for your Lord's service; you must use it for serving your Lord. But people are receiving the horse of the king and are not receiving the king; they are receiving the donkey but are not receiving the guest on the donkey. We are receiving the horse (I mean to say, our nafs) but we are refusing the holy guest that we have been given by our Lord
Almighty, our soul, putting the donkey on the chair and putting the guest in the stable!
It is enough for today, and this, at the end of Holy Ramadan, I think is for everyone, for every believer, without making any difference between Muslims or Christians or Jews. For those who believe in God and His prophets and His holy books, this lecture may give them a power, may give them a pleasure, may give them a support from their Lord Almighty
When They make me sit in this chair to speak, my heart is always in contact with my Grandsheikh's heart, and his heart is in contact with the Prophet's holy heart, and the Prophet's heart is in the Divine Presence. I am not speaking to you with excellent English. They are able, my Lord is able, to make me speak in a way that surprises people, but it is enough for everyone; and we are asking forgiveness for every mistake, for every misunderstanding. Your souls are understanding what I mean to say; doesn't matter if my English goes like this, like that. We have a saying in Turkish, "Wrong ship, right course." It is something like that.
Endless praises be to You, o our Lord, ya Rabb. Our Lord, make us to continue. Falling, standing, we have walked thirty days. Hadha min fadli Rabbana, Jallahu A'ala; that is from the favour of our Lord, may His glory be exalted.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PRIDE AND SPIRITUAL SATISFACTION
When you look at your soul, you must be pleased and in expansion, you must be smiling. But when you look at your nafs, you must be solemn, sad.
Your soul gives expansion, your ego gives contraction. Therefore, as much as you are with your ego, you are in contraction, you can't smile. Yes, that is true: everything relating to our egos is full of sadness and contraction. But everything related to our Lord, from our souls, gives us expansion and pleasure and peace and satisfaction and lights.
QUESTION: You are saying that everything related to the soul gives pleasure. Then is it right for us to feel pleasure in our souls? For example, if you do something for the sake of Allah that you feel good about, and you're pleased with your action or you're pleased with what you feel about it, isn't that pride? How can we tell the difference?
SHEIKH: That is related to Allah; the source of expansion of souls is from our hearts. When we feel this from inside, it is from the side of Allah Almighty and never, never, from our nafs.
There is the verse, "Maraja-l-bahraini yaltaqian; bainahuma barzakhun la yabghian134." These are two different things; pride can never enter in the side of the soul. Pride is always with the ego, and the ego takes its plea sure from outward things. And you can understand when your ego is proud, but from the side of Allah, when you are with your Lord, that expansion comes directly from heavenly rays to you; no pride there.
Ego takes everything from outside, and you can know that it is the pride of your ego. Even if both of them occur in a person, they are never mixed with each other, just as Allah Almighty says that two seas run beside each other but never without a barrier; they are not going to be mixed. What you feel when you do a good action is not pride because that feeling comes to you from Allah Almighty.
Grandsheikh said that every night Sayyidina 'Ali would put his actions in front of him, good actions on the right, bad actions on the left, and then would address his ego: "Look! All goodness is from your Lord, Allah Almighty, and all badness is from you. If your Lord leaves you, you are not going to do any good actions. Therefore these good actions don't belong to you; don't be proud of these. That badness is your work!"
Then your ego will come down, will not be proud. It knows that every goodness is from Allah Almighty, by His taufiq, His divine help, because if your Lord does not make you successful in doing those good actions, your actions would always be such bad ones. "Who did that?" you may ask yourself - "You or Someone Else? How did you do that?" Then pride will never come to you. That is every day's muhasabah, accounting; that prevent
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