Mercy Oceans, Book 11 (183 pages, 17/17)
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ow. He may marry anyone, but as long as there are the same conditions on earth, it will be the same. Now the whole
world, and particularly Western countries, are under an illness, covering people, and that illness sometimes comes to the husband, sometimes comes to the wife. It is so difficult to keep wife and husband together. It is Allah Almighty's order, when a couple marries, to fix their eyes on each other. Before marriage their eyes go, one like this, one like that, but when they are married their eyes must come only on each other. But after a short while you see that their eyes - sometimes both of them - are going around. Sometimes one looks and escapes, or the other looks and then escapes.
Then begin endless sufferings in the family,
As long as the wife is looking at her husband's eyes and the husband is looking at his wife's eyes, it is a strong building, that family - a strong fortress. But if one goes like this, looking and then escaping, finished. And if anyone, when he is married to halal, runs after haram, he will never be satisfied; it is impossible for a person who leaves halal and runs after haram to be satisfied throughout his life. You can see so many bad people who have wives but yet they are running after dishonored people. And they are suffering and dying and never satisfied. If he can keep his eyes on his wife's eyes, that is satisfaction; otherwise it is im possible,
That is suffering in Western countries; no more normal family relationships in those countries. Yes - as long as you put your eyes on her eyes, you are supporting Allah Almighty, and as soon as you take your eyes away from your wife, you are supporting Satan, the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of devils. Satan takes so many people as supporters for himself, and as long as a person looks at women, he is supporting devils. He is a married person; he must be a supporter of the divine kingdom on earth, not of the satanic kingdom.
Therefore it is good advice for anyone who wants to marry to keep that rule, the husband always looking at his wife's eyes and his wife always looking at her husband's eyes. When you go out, your wife must say to you, "O my darling husband, keep your eyes to yourself when you go out," and he must say, "O darling, keep your eyes on me when you go out." And when they have a good intention, Allah Almighty protects that couple.
'Asr/June 25, 1985
By the name of Allah, All-mighty, All-merciful, Most Beneficent and Most Munificent, the Lord of Jesus Christ, the Lord of Abraham, the Lord of Noah,
the Lord of Moses, the Lord of beloved Muhammad, peace be upon them all, the Lord of the worlds, the Lord of the Heavens, the Lord of the universes.
And we are His slaves and weak servants, not strong servants.
Allah Almighty, Rabbi-l-'alamin, the Lord of the universes, is the Creator. His existence is from pre-etemity to post-etemity. All things that we see are creatures and the Creator is only one. It is impossible for there to be two creators. If there were two creators, one would have to create the second one. Therefore He is one Creator, the Lord of all creatures.
He has, among creatures, endless servants, endless worshippers. The number of worshippers, the number of servants - from mankind, from jinn, from angels - may be like the numbers of particles of atoms. Yes, we may say that the number of our Lord's worshippers and servants is as many as the number of atoms or particles of atoms. Then, if you are only one among that huge number, you may do only as one atom does. What is your worshipping going to be to a Lord who has endless existence, endless glory, endless powers, endless Mercy Oceans, endless territories, endless servants? What are you going to be in that endless number, worshipping and glorifying the Lord, Almighty Allah? He has endless glories in Himself; He gives glories to His servants. No one can give Him glory because He has endless Glory Oceans, and worshipping means glorifying the Lord, Almighty Allah. Then, o believers and worshippers, what do you think of your worshipping? Who is made proud by his worshipping when our worshipping is going to be nothing in an endless Glory Ocean?
Every prophet came from the Heavens. Their message came from the Heavens to earth; divine messages came to people through our Lord Almighty's prophets. All of them warned people against being proud. And a person may be proud because he is a rich one. He may be proud of his power, also; although some animals are more powerful than people, still some people are proud of their physical body's powers. A person may be proud of his beauty, but a day may come when it is gone. May be proud of his knowledge, but a day may come when he forgets what he knows; may be proud of his worshipping, also. And the prophets came to say to people, "O people, you must be humble. Don't be proud of anything because everything that you have been given throughout this life is temporary and will go away.
O believers, you must know about your enemy, who is your enemy. Don't say, "That one is my enemy''; don't say, "That nation is our enemy' - no. The only enemy for mankind is one. That is Satan, and his armies, devils. Don't
go and register yourself with Satan, saying, "I am coming to be a volunteer in your army," and in our time, most people are volunteers for Satan and devils, registering themselves. And Satan gives orders to his armies: "This person is already one of us. Leave him, and look after those people who are escaping from our territory. Catch them," Every day Satan orders his devils to look for those people who are escaping from him. He is our enemy. We must know this.
If mankind do not leam who is their enemy, they are never going to save themselves from troubles and sufferings and fighting during this life, and they can't save themselves from Hell. And they are nearly falling into Hell during this life. Therefore we must know our enemy; when you recognize your enemy, you can protect yourself from him.
What is the first protection for mankind from Hell? It is to believe in their Lord, Allah Almighty, and to try to be supporters for His divine kingdom. Now there are two kingdoms on earth. One is the kingdom of Allah Almighty, the divine kingdom, and against that kingdom there is the kingdom of devils, the kingdom of Satan. And you must look after yourself. There is not a third one; only two kingdoms, and you have been asked to be a supporter of either this one or of that one. Everyone is a supporter either of the divine kingdom or of the Devil's kingdom.
You are Children of Adam. How are you going to be supporters of Satan, when he made your grandfather and grandmother go out of Paradise? You may say, "How could I be a supporter of the enemy, of Satan, of devils?" By your actions you may be a supporter, by your intentions you may be a supporter, and by your ideas you may be a supporter. If Allah Almighty has sent His Message to you through His prophets, then you must put your mind on that Message and you must keep to that Message, to that command - by your ideas, by your intentions, and then by your actions.
Therefore you must look at every action that you are going to do to see whether it is suitable for keeping to the Message of Allah Almighty or not. How can you understand whether it is suitable for keeping with it or it is not? Look at every action. If it is useful for you or for anyone else, then it is all right. If it is something which harms you yourself or harms anyone else, it is forbidden, it is a support for devils. It is so simple.
To be proud of anything is a support for devils, because Satan was proud in the Divine Presence. Then Allah Almighty took away everything that he was
proud of - took it from him and made him such an accursed and ugly and dirty one. And then, humbleness is the characteristic of all the prophets.
You can't find any prophet not being humble, and around all the prophets there came mostly weak people, poor people, and the prophets sat with them. Didn't Jesus Christ, p.b.u.h., sit with them? And he rode on a donkey, while we are asking to ride on a horse. And then the Seal of the Prophets, beloved Muhammad, p.b.u.h., gathered around himself poor people, slaves, weak people and he kept with them. That is from humility.
Be humble as much as you can. Then your degree and rank in the Divine Presence will improve and become higher. To the extent that you may be humble, Allah Almighty will give you more honor. Don't suppose that when you are proud you are going to be given more honor; no. From proud people honor is taken away, and that honor is given to humble people. Humbleness carries the hearts of people; therefore the hearts of prophets gathered people to themselves. And the most important thing that we must look out for is our egoes because egoes are proud, or always claim to be proud, and pride is a common illness now in our time. People are proud or like to be proud of everything, and that pride makes people run away from each other and that harms mankind because we have been ordered to be all together, to meet in the love of the Lord, Allah Almighty. When you are proud, the other person is also going to be proud, and that makes a distance and coldness and enmity between people.
Everyone now claims to be something, to have some title, and in our time you can find everyone running after titles. We have so many universities which give titles and every organization also gives so many titles. If a person doesn't find some title, there are shops selling medals. Very happy when he puts some thing here (on his chest] - looks like some thing!
Yes. This is our egoes' characteristic. We must know about our egoes' characteristics. If you don't know about your ego's characteristics you can't be in safety from harm through your ego, through Satan. That is our characteristic, and Satan and devils make a chance to catch you by means of that title, catching people, saying, "You are something. You are important."
Knowledge or scholarship is one of the reasons to be proud but it is wrong. For this reason our scholars often come to tariqats, to Sufi ways, to take that pride from themselves. Therefore, all people are in need of a trainer for their egoes, training them so that they may take away that pride from their egoes.
Otherwise, through knowledge and through scholarship, everyone looks at himself as if he is something. But you are nothing. Until you know that you are nothing, nothing are you given of divine rewards.
Therefore I am saying that if a person is proud of his knowledge, a day may come to him when he is going to forget everything and to be ignorant. For everything that gives a person pride, Allah Almighty punishes him, taking that reason of pride from him, as Satan was very proud of his knowledge, of his worshipping, of his station in the Divine Presence, and then Allah Almighty took everything from him, yet left in him knowledge although that knowledge is not divine konowledge. Most people are able to learn, but no matter how much they may learn they must be humble. If they are proud, then Allah Almighty punishes them, taking from them those riches or beauty or power or knowledge or ranks, and leaving them to be cast aside in front of people. That is a divine punishment for those who are proud of something that they have been given by their Lord, Allah Almighty.
Therefore all prophets just came to make people humble. If they do not become humble, then they are going to fight with their Lord, Allah Almighty, as Pharoah and Nimrod fought, claiming that they were the Lords of people. If you allow your ego to be proud of itself, of everything, then it is going to claim that it is Lord, and there is no Lord but Allah Almighty.
Be humble, and you may reach happiness here and Hereafter. And as a punishment for proud people on the Last Day, they will be under the feet of people. To the extent that a person was proud during this life, he is going to be under peoples' feet on the Day of Resurrection. And you must know, o people, o believers, that if you are proud, you are supporters for the Devil's kingdom. Be humble and be supporters for the divine kingdom, and you will be under the divine shelter during the Armageddon that is soon coming to people on earth. Before the Day of Resurrection that is coming; it must be, and devils are going to destroy everything on earth of man and of his civilization. If you are asking for a shelter, the divine shelter is for humble people only.
And we are asking forgiveness, saying "Astaghfirullah." And we are thankful to your Lord, Allah Almighty, that He is giving us a feeling of humbleness so that we may worship, we may glorify our Lord, and saying "Alhamdulillan, alhamdulillah, wa shukrulillah."
Kent/June 29, 1985
(At an afternoon tea in a private house, Sheikh Nazim addresses a gathering of English men and women who are interested in spiritual matters. Present is an Anglican clergyman, Mr. Dent, to whom the initial and closing remarks are addressed: - )
You can't find anyone who does not have holiness, although we are only saying "holiness" for Mr. Dent; "His Holiness." But "holiness" may be said of everyone because every person bears holiness in himself, in herself. Our holiness comes through Heaven. For 340 days we are in our mother's womb, and then that holy soul comes from Heaven, not coming from earth. Therefore we are half-and-half: from the physical body's side we are earthly creatures and according to our souls, heavenly creatures.
When you die that partnership is going to be finished. Our soul says to our physical body, "Bye-bye. Now I am going. Up to this day our partnership was going on but now it is finished. I am going to my Homeland."
All of us come from a homeland. People say, "My homeland, England. My homeland, Turkey. My homeland, Arabia. My homeland, Cyprus." Those are temporary homelands. Therefore the soul says, "I am leaving and going to my permanent Homeland," and it says to our body, "You go to your homeland."
Where is that person? Where did he go? This physical body belongs to earth; earth accepts that body but there is no soul there. The soul has returned to its Homeland. And everyone's soul likes to be in or to return to its Homeland but our physical body never wants that because it knows where it is going; when the soul goes, the body finishes.
This light has an on/off switch. When it is "Off" in your body. finished. Everyone has a switch in Heaven, and the Angel of Death looks. And according to traditions among religions, in the last Heaven there is a Tree; its roots go up and its branches down. It has as many leaves as the number of the Children of Adam, and on every leaf is written a name that be longs to a person. When that person is soon to leave this life, that leaf falls down - falls down in front of the Angel of Death and he looks at that name. Forty days earlier that leaf falls, and he knows that that person should die after forty days. And when that leaf comes down, it may touch so many other leaves; perhaps your leaf may be touched. Then you may hear some sound in your ears, a ringing. That is the reason why it has been mentioned; such things
science can't know. But we are believers; we have some knowledge through the prophets and it is correct. And when we hear that ringing we say, "Inna lil-Lani wa inna ilayhi raji'un172." We know that someone of the Children of
Adam is just returning to his Homeland, and the Angel of Death has switched off the owner of that name, switching "On" to "Off." And when he switches it off, he falls down. No need to be in his bed; he may be walking in the street but when that happens he falls down - finished.
What has happened to that person? A physician comes to see. “What has happened? What has happened?" He died, finished. It is going to be “off," "off" from this life. And the soul is happy but the body is crying because their partnership is finished.
We hope that our ends may be good because no one knows how the end ing of his life is going to be. But, according to traditions, we know that a believer - one who believes in Paradise and Hell, who believes in responsibility, who thinks about Judgment Day, the Day of Resurrection - runs to do charities and to worship, runs to be an obedient servant or at least to be thankful to his Lord, Almighty Allah, and one who is as much as possible an obedient servant to his Lord and charitable toward creatures must meet with a good end. It is so difficult, or impossible, for an evil-doing, bad-actioned person to end with a good end, but a good end is normal for an obedient person, because all religions and all faiths just teach people two things only, two points: one, to be obedient and thankful to their Lord, and second, to be compassionate and charitable toward creatures, nothing else. No one can say that religions have brought anything else, no; only two pillars for every religion which every prophet brought from his Lord, Allah Almighty, calling people to be obedient servants to their Lord and to be compassionate and charitable toward creatures, and nothing else.
And that is enough. That is the toppoint of humanity. Yet, I am sorry to say it, but it is an actual fact that in our time people have lost those characteristics, to be obedient servants to their Lord and to be compassionate toward creatures, because most people in our time are running after material things. They are fully interested in material aspects, day and night, the whole day running after material things; then they come to rest a little bit, then awaken and run again. And I ask some people, “O my friend, I see that every
172 Indeed, we belong to God and to Him do we return" (II:156). These words are said by Muslims at the news of a death or any calamity
morning you open your door and run. After what thing are you running? And at sunset, nighttime, you return tired. Did you reach what you were running after?"
If he says, "Yes," I say, "Then tomorrow don't run. Today you got what you were running after. It was enough. But I see that tomorrow you will run, also. After what thing are you running? What is that thing which, no matter how much you run, it runs faster than you?"
For this reason visiting cemeteries is good for people. Cemeteries give us a breath from the Etemal Life, give us teachings. Therefore it is important for people from time to time to go and visit cemeteries. For myself, I find rest and satisfaction among them, particularly if I am alone among those people. Sometimes they speak, addressing me; sometimes they address by their souls but sometimes they address by words. They can understand by the outward appearance of a person because sometimes a person may tell his condition without speaking; when you look at him you can understand. And our hearts have eyes, have ears; may see, may listen, may speak. Because we are excellent creatures. We are not animals; we are human beings.
Therefore the manner of our creation is different from others. Most creatures put down their mouths to eat but we put food into our mouth. Have you ever thought about that? Yes. And we are the most perfect creatures of the Creator. He gave us from His Holy Attributes, and we have such extraordinary attributes through our hearts.
But we are occupied with our outward life and are uninterested in our inner life. Here is a gigantic city, London; there may be eighteen million people in it. How many people can you think of who may be interested in their inner lives? Could you say one million? But one million is too big a number, and it is impossible to find even one hundred thousand, even to find ten thousand. Perhaps there may be one thousand who are interested in their inner lives. I am not speaking of worshippers because in our time worshippers are worshipping as a custom, as a tradition, not tasting or feeling; going to church, going to synagogue, going to mosque - going there with their physical bodies but making their hearts guardians over their business.
In our time most people have materialistic ideas, wanting everything of material things, and therefore, as long as they are running after material things, they are losing the good attributes of their souls, becoming more blind, more deaf, more nonsensical people, like robots throughout their lives. That is not a real life, it is a tasteless life. Your life must be full of color; your
Lord wants for you a life of color, not always the same - no. But for that reason you can't find people who can feel with their hearts, who can see with their hearts, who can hear with their hearts, and who can move, also, by their hearts. Yes - all the prophets could see what we can't see, they could hear what we can't hear, they could know what We can't know, they could move from earth to Heaven in less than a minute's time. They could be at the same time in the East and in the West, in the North and in the South, and in as many places as they might want to be.
Because man is the most perfect creature. He was created for the Lord Almighty, and the whole universe was created for mankind and all creatures are servants to mankind.
Allah Almighty, the Creator, the Lord of the Heavens, the Lord of Jesus Christ, the Lord of Abraham, the Lord of Moses, the Lord of beloved Muhammad, peace be upon them all, created man for Himself, and He created everything for man. Therefore every prophet had extraordinary powers, and each one of mankind also has an extraordinary structure through his or her soul, because souls represent the Lord in mankind. You can find every divine attribute within yourself, within your soul, but we are imprisoning our souls in our physical bodies, never giving them what they are asking for. They should be the kings in our physical bodies' territory, but we are imprisoning them and making our egoes king.
Therefore we are in prison. For this reason we see, in our time, a kind of punishment for mankind. They call it depression. That depression is common among people, and in Westem countries you can find it among all people.
Their Lord gave them everything but yet they are not happy, they are not in peace, they are not in satisfaction - depressed people. And that is the reason: because we give our ego its desires, and its desires are unlimited.
If a person has no car, for example, he may want a car. Then his Lord grants him a car, and for the first few months he may be happy. But after three months, four months or six months he says, "What is this second hand car? It must be a new car. Yes, then try to find a new one." He may get a new one. After a while he may say, "This new car is not a good model. I must look for another one - a German car." Then he runs after a strong car, a good-brand car, a Mercedes. Then, when his Lord grants that to him, after a while he is ingrateful and asks for another, another. Then he makes it his goal to have a Rolls Royce.
O mankind, it is not your goal to have a Rolls Royce; that is the playing of little children. When you are older you must be more perfect than your nafs, your ego. If you follow your soul, you may keep your ego thankful for everything, but if you do not control it, it is not going to be satisfied throughout your life. That is the reason for depression in our time - because everyone has unlimited desires. If you have no money, you ask for money, asking for it to be £ 100. If you have that £ 100, what do you ask for? It must be £ 1,000 - better. If it is £1,000, then you ask, "Why only 1,000? Must be 10,000, at least. I must try, because there is an opening for me to reach 10,000. Yes, I must run after 10,000." And he runs and gets 10,000 and then looks. Not seeing that I have 10,000; I must be thankful, I must rest. Saying, "Why? There is 100,000, and I must run after that 100,000."
But do you think that if anyone reaches 100,000 he says, "Enough"? No. "Why? Must be half-a-million," and he runs after half-a-million. If reaching that, he says, "Why a half? A whole million." Then he runs after one million. Does he stop and say, "Oh, alhamdulillah, thanks to Allah was I now have one million"? He never says that. Therefore I am saying that our egoes' desires are endless, and you run, run, run to reach something, and you get tired and you die tired.
(Sheikh Nazim then tells the story of Alexander the Great's order to his courtiers to put his hands outside his coffin when he died so that everyone must see that Alexander the Great never took anything with him of his treasures; they must know. Yes. He was given all treasures, and he fought people - all believers, particularly - that even if you have been given all the treasures on earth, you can't take anything with you.) He was wise person to show that; otherwise he would have taken so many treasures, like the pharoahs. They took so many treasures under those huge hills, the pyramids, but finally, as a punishment for them, people came and looked for the doors of those huge pyramids. Mostly English people and French people are so interested in that, coming and doing like this, like that; where must the entrance be? And finally finding it and taking out all those treasures and taking out the pharoah, also, and bringing him to the British Museum. You can't find Alexander the Great coming to be for exhibit in British museums or in the Louvre Museum or in any other museum; no - finished. But pharaoahs were such foolish people; they thougt that huge pyramids would protect them, guarding their treasures. Everything was taken from them and now they are like this, sleeping in British museums - so many.
Therefore, be simple and humble. When you are simple and humble you will reach, here and Hereafter, peace and satisfaction and love and endless Beauty Oceans in the Divine Presence.
I think that Mr. Dent's time is over. Therefore we may say thanks to everyone for listening. We are happy with everyone. And I am asking him not to forget me when he is called, invited, to enter Paradise, looking after me, saying that I met a sheikh in Kent once upon a time; looks at me, takes my hand and enters. (Mr. Dent: and you to me.) I promise. Thank you very much.
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ow. He may marry anyone, but as long as there are the same conditions on earth, it will be the same. Now the whole
world, and particularly Western countries, are under an illness, covering people, and that illness sometimes comes to the husband, sometimes comes to the wife. It is so difficult to keep wife and husband together. It is Allah Almighty's order, when a couple marries, to fix their eyes on each other. Before marriage their eyes go, one like this, one like that, but when they are married their eyes must come only on each other. But after a short while you see that their eyes - sometimes both of them - are going around. Sometimes one looks and escapes, or the other looks and then escapes.
Then begin endless sufferings in the family,
As long as the wife is looking at her husband's eyes and the husband is looking at his wife's eyes, it is a strong building, that family - a strong fortress. But if one goes like this, looking and then escaping, finished. And if anyone, when he is married to halal, runs after haram, he will never be satisfied; it is impossible for a person who leaves halal and runs after haram to be satisfied throughout his life. You can see so many bad people who have wives but yet they are running after dishonored people. And they are suffering and dying and never satisfied. If he can keep his eyes on his wife's eyes, that is satisfaction; otherwise it is im possible,
That is suffering in Western countries; no more normal family relationships in those countries. Yes - as long as you put your eyes on her eyes, you are supporting Allah Almighty, and as soon as you take your eyes away from your wife, you are supporting Satan, the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of devils. Satan takes so many people as supporters for himself, and as long as a person looks at women, he is supporting devils. He is a married person; he must be a supporter of the divine kingdom on earth, not of the satanic kingdom.
Therefore it is good advice for anyone who wants to marry to keep that rule, the husband always looking at his wife's eyes and his wife always looking at her husband's eyes. When you go out, your wife must say to you, "O my darling husband, keep your eyes to yourself when you go out," and he must say, "O darling, keep your eyes on me when you go out." And when they have a good intention, Allah Almighty protects that couple.
'Asr/June 25, 1985
By the name of Allah, All-mighty, All-merciful, Most Beneficent and Most Munificent, the Lord of Jesus Christ, the Lord of Abraham, the Lord of Noah,
the Lord of Moses, the Lord of beloved Muhammad, peace be upon them all, the Lord of the worlds, the Lord of the Heavens, the Lord of the universes.
And we are His slaves and weak servants, not strong servants.
Allah Almighty, Rabbi-l-'alamin, the Lord of the universes, is the Creator. His existence is from pre-etemity to post-etemity. All things that we see are creatures and the Creator is only one. It is impossible for there to be two creators. If there were two creators, one would have to create the second one. Therefore He is one Creator, the Lord of all creatures.
He has, among creatures, endless servants, endless worshippers. The number of worshippers, the number of servants - from mankind, from jinn, from angels - may be like the numbers of particles of atoms. Yes, we may say that the number of our Lord's worshippers and servants is as many as the number of atoms or particles of atoms. Then, if you are only one among that huge number, you may do only as one atom does. What is your worshipping going to be to a Lord who has endless existence, endless glory, endless powers, endless Mercy Oceans, endless territories, endless servants? What are you going to be in that endless number, worshipping and glorifying the Lord, Almighty Allah? He has endless glories in Himself; He gives glories to His servants. No one can give Him glory because He has endless Glory Oceans, and worshipping means glorifying the Lord, Almighty Allah. Then, o believers and worshippers, what do you think of your worshipping? Who is made proud by his worshipping when our worshipping is going to be nothing in an endless Glory Ocean?
Every prophet came from the Heavens. Their message came from the Heavens to earth; divine messages came to people through our Lord Almighty's prophets. All of them warned people against being proud. And a person may be proud because he is a rich one. He may be proud of his power, also; although some animals are more powerful than people, still some people are proud of their physical body's powers. A person may be proud of his beauty, but a day may come when it is gone. May be proud of his knowledge, but a day may come when he forgets what he knows; may be proud of his worshipping, also. And the prophets came to say to people, "O people, you must be humble. Don't be proud of anything because everything that you have been given throughout this life is temporary and will go away.
O believers, you must know about your enemy, who is your enemy. Don't say, "That one is my enemy''; don't say, "That nation is our enemy' - no. The only enemy for mankind is one. That is Satan, and his armies, devils. Don't
go and register yourself with Satan, saying, "I am coming to be a volunteer in your army," and in our time, most people are volunteers for Satan and devils, registering themselves. And Satan gives orders to his armies: "This person is already one of us. Leave him, and look after those people who are escaping from our territory. Catch them," Every day Satan orders his devils to look for those people who are escaping from him. He is our enemy. We must know this.
If mankind do not leam who is their enemy, they are never going to save themselves from troubles and sufferings and fighting during this life, and they can't save themselves from Hell. And they are nearly falling into Hell during this life. Therefore we must know our enemy; when you recognize your enemy, you can protect yourself from him.
What is the first protection for mankind from Hell? It is to believe in their Lord, Allah Almighty, and to try to be supporters for His divine kingdom. Now there are two kingdoms on earth. One is the kingdom of Allah Almighty, the divine kingdom, and against that kingdom there is the kingdom of devils, the kingdom of Satan. And you must look after yourself. There is not a third one; only two kingdoms, and you have been asked to be a supporter of either this one or of that one. Everyone is a supporter either of the divine kingdom or of the Devil's kingdom.
You are Children of Adam. How are you going to be supporters of Satan, when he made your grandfather and grandmother go out of Paradise? You may say, "How could I be a supporter of the enemy, of Satan, of devils?" By your actions you may be a supporter, by your intentions you may be a supporter, and by your ideas you may be a supporter. If Allah Almighty has sent His Message to you through His prophets, then you must put your mind on that Message and you must keep to that Message, to that command - by your ideas, by your intentions, and then by your actions.
Therefore you must look at every action that you are going to do to see whether it is suitable for keeping to the Message of Allah Almighty or not. How can you understand whether it is suitable for keeping with it or it is not? Look at every action. If it is useful for you or for anyone else, then it is all right. If it is something which harms you yourself or harms anyone else, it is forbidden, it is a support for devils. It is so simple.
To be proud of anything is a support for devils, because Satan was proud in the Divine Presence. Then Allah Almighty took away everything that he was
proud of - took it from him and made him such an accursed and ugly and dirty one. And then, humbleness is the characteristic of all the prophets.
You can't find any prophet not being humble, and around all the prophets there came mostly weak people, poor people, and the prophets sat with them. Didn't Jesus Christ, p.b.u.h., sit with them? And he rode on a donkey, while we are asking to ride on a horse. And then the Seal of the Prophets, beloved Muhammad, p.b.u.h., gathered around himself poor people, slaves, weak people and he kept with them. That is from humility.
Be humble as much as you can. Then your degree and rank in the Divine Presence will improve and become higher. To the extent that you may be humble, Allah Almighty will give you more honor. Don't suppose that when you are proud you are going to be given more honor; no. From proud people honor is taken away, and that honor is given to humble people. Humbleness carries the hearts of people; therefore the hearts of prophets gathered people to themselves. And the most important thing that we must look out for is our egoes because egoes are proud, or always claim to be proud, and pride is a common illness now in our time. People are proud or like to be proud of everything, and that pride makes people run away from each other and that harms mankind because we have been ordered to be all together, to meet in the love of the Lord, Allah Almighty. When you are proud, the other person is also going to be proud, and that makes a distance and coldness and enmity between people.
Everyone now claims to be something, to have some title, and in our time you can find everyone running after titles. We have so many universities which give titles and every organization also gives so many titles. If a person doesn't find some title, there are shops selling medals. Very happy when he puts some thing here (on his chest] - looks like some thing!
Yes. This is our egoes' characteristic. We must know about our egoes' characteristics. If you don't know about your ego's characteristics you can't be in safety from harm through your ego, through Satan. That is our characteristic, and Satan and devils make a chance to catch you by means of that title, catching people, saying, "You are something. You are important."
Knowledge or scholarship is one of the reasons to be proud but it is wrong. For this reason our scholars often come to tariqats, to Sufi ways, to take that pride from themselves. Therefore, all people are in need of a trainer for their egoes, training them so that they may take away that pride from their egoes.
Otherwise, through knowledge and through scholarship, everyone looks at himself as if he is something. But you are nothing. Until you know that you are nothing, nothing are you given of divine rewards.
Therefore I am saying that if a person is proud of his knowledge, a day may come to him when he is going to forget everything and to be ignorant. For everything that gives a person pride, Allah Almighty punishes him, taking that reason of pride from him, as Satan was very proud of his knowledge, of his worshipping, of his station in the Divine Presence, and then Allah Almighty took everything from him, yet left in him knowledge although that knowledge is not divine konowledge. Most people are able to learn, but no matter how much they may learn they must be humble. If they are proud, then Allah Almighty punishes them, taking from them those riches or beauty or power or knowledge or ranks, and leaving them to be cast aside in front of people. That is a divine punishment for those who are proud of something that they have been given by their Lord, Allah Almighty.
Therefore all prophets just came to make people humble. If they do not become humble, then they are going to fight with their Lord, Allah Almighty, as Pharoah and Nimrod fought, claiming that they were the Lords of people. If you allow your ego to be proud of itself, of everything, then it is going to claim that it is Lord, and there is no Lord but Allah Almighty.
Be humble, and you may reach happiness here and Hereafter. And as a punishment for proud people on the Last Day, they will be under the feet of people. To the extent that a person was proud during this life, he is going to be under peoples' feet on the Day of Resurrection. And you must know, o people, o believers, that if you are proud, you are supporters for the Devil's kingdom. Be humble and be supporters for the divine kingdom, and you will be under the divine shelter during the Armageddon that is soon coming to people on earth. Before the Day of Resurrection that is coming; it must be, and devils are going to destroy everything on earth of man and of his civilization. If you are asking for a shelter, the divine shelter is for humble people only.
And we are asking forgiveness, saying "Astaghfirullah." And we are thankful to your Lord, Allah Almighty, that He is giving us a feeling of humbleness so that we may worship, we may glorify our Lord, and saying "Alhamdulillan, alhamdulillah, wa shukrulillah."
Kent/June 29, 1985
(At an afternoon tea in a private house, Sheikh Nazim addresses a gathering of English men and women who are interested in spiritual matters. Present is an Anglican clergyman, Mr. Dent, to whom the initial and closing remarks are addressed: - )
You can't find anyone who does not have holiness, although we are only saying "holiness" for Mr. Dent; "His Holiness." But "holiness" may be said of everyone because every person bears holiness in himself, in herself. Our holiness comes through Heaven. For 340 days we are in our mother's womb, and then that holy soul comes from Heaven, not coming from earth. Therefore we are half-and-half: from the physical body's side we are earthly creatures and according to our souls, heavenly creatures.
When you die that partnership is going to be finished. Our soul says to our physical body, "Bye-bye. Now I am going. Up to this day our partnership was going on but now it is finished. I am going to my Homeland."
All of us come from a homeland. People say, "My homeland, England. My homeland, Turkey. My homeland, Arabia. My homeland, Cyprus." Those are temporary homelands. Therefore the soul says, "I am leaving and going to my permanent Homeland," and it says to our body, "You go to your homeland."
Where is that person? Where did he go? This physical body belongs to earth; earth accepts that body but there is no soul there. The soul has returned to its Homeland. And everyone's soul likes to be in or to return to its Homeland but our physical body never wants that because it knows where it is going; when the soul goes, the body finishes.
This light has an on/off switch. When it is "Off" in your body. finished. Everyone has a switch in Heaven, and the Angel of Death looks. And according to traditions among religions, in the last Heaven there is a Tree; its roots go up and its branches down. It has as many leaves as the number of the Children of Adam, and on every leaf is written a name that be longs to a person. When that person is soon to leave this life, that leaf falls down - falls down in front of the Angel of Death and he looks at that name. Forty days earlier that leaf falls, and he knows that that person should die after forty days. And when that leaf comes down, it may touch so many other leaves; perhaps your leaf may be touched. Then you may hear some sound in your ears, a ringing. That is the reason why it has been mentioned; such things
science can't know. But we are believers; we have some knowledge through the prophets and it is correct. And when we hear that ringing we say, "Inna lil-Lani wa inna ilayhi raji'un172." We know that someone of the Children of
Adam is just returning to his Homeland, and the Angel of Death has switched off the owner of that name, switching "On" to "Off." And when he switches it off, he falls down. No need to be in his bed; he may be walking in the street but when that happens he falls down - finished.
What has happened to that person? A physician comes to see. “What has happened? What has happened?" He died, finished. It is going to be “off," "off" from this life. And the soul is happy but the body is crying because their partnership is finished.
We hope that our ends may be good because no one knows how the end ing of his life is going to be. But, according to traditions, we know that a believer - one who believes in Paradise and Hell, who believes in responsibility, who thinks about Judgment Day, the Day of Resurrection - runs to do charities and to worship, runs to be an obedient servant or at least to be thankful to his Lord, Almighty Allah, and one who is as much as possible an obedient servant to his Lord and charitable toward creatures must meet with a good end. It is so difficult, or impossible, for an evil-doing, bad-actioned person to end with a good end, but a good end is normal for an obedient person, because all religions and all faiths just teach people two things only, two points: one, to be obedient and thankful to their Lord, and second, to be compassionate and charitable toward creatures, nothing else. No one can say that religions have brought anything else, no; only two pillars for every religion which every prophet brought from his Lord, Allah Almighty, calling people to be obedient servants to their Lord and to be compassionate and charitable toward creatures, and nothing else.
And that is enough. That is the toppoint of humanity. Yet, I am sorry to say it, but it is an actual fact that in our time people have lost those characteristics, to be obedient servants to their Lord and to be compassionate toward creatures, because most people in our time are running after material things. They are fully interested in material aspects, day and night, the whole day running after material things; then they come to rest a little bit, then awaken and run again. And I ask some people, “O my friend, I see that every
172 Indeed, we belong to God and to Him do we return" (II:156). These words are said by Muslims at the news of a death or any calamity
morning you open your door and run. After what thing are you running? And at sunset, nighttime, you return tired. Did you reach what you were running after?"
If he says, "Yes," I say, "Then tomorrow don't run. Today you got what you were running after. It was enough. But I see that tomorrow you will run, also. After what thing are you running? What is that thing which, no matter how much you run, it runs faster than you?"
For this reason visiting cemeteries is good for people. Cemeteries give us a breath from the Etemal Life, give us teachings. Therefore it is important for people from time to time to go and visit cemeteries. For myself, I find rest and satisfaction among them, particularly if I am alone among those people. Sometimes they speak, addressing me; sometimes they address by their souls but sometimes they address by words. They can understand by the outward appearance of a person because sometimes a person may tell his condition without speaking; when you look at him you can understand. And our hearts have eyes, have ears; may see, may listen, may speak. Because we are excellent creatures. We are not animals; we are human beings.
Therefore the manner of our creation is different from others. Most creatures put down their mouths to eat but we put food into our mouth. Have you ever thought about that? Yes. And we are the most perfect creatures of the Creator. He gave us from His Holy Attributes, and we have such extraordinary attributes through our hearts.
But we are occupied with our outward life and are uninterested in our inner life. Here is a gigantic city, London; there may be eighteen million people in it. How many people can you think of who may be interested in their inner lives? Could you say one million? But one million is too big a number, and it is impossible to find even one hundred thousand, even to find ten thousand. Perhaps there may be one thousand who are interested in their inner lives. I am not speaking of worshippers because in our time worshippers are worshipping as a custom, as a tradition, not tasting or feeling; going to church, going to synagogue, going to mosque - going there with their physical bodies but making their hearts guardians over their business.
In our time most people have materialistic ideas, wanting everything of material things, and therefore, as long as they are running after material things, they are losing the good attributes of their souls, becoming more blind, more deaf, more nonsensical people, like robots throughout their lives. That is not a real life, it is a tasteless life. Your life must be full of color; your
Lord wants for you a life of color, not always the same - no. But for that reason you can't find people who can feel with their hearts, who can see with their hearts, who can hear with their hearts, and who can move, also, by their hearts. Yes - all the prophets could see what we can't see, they could hear what we can't hear, they could know what We can't know, they could move from earth to Heaven in less than a minute's time. They could be at the same time in the East and in the West, in the North and in the South, and in as many places as they might want to be.
Because man is the most perfect creature. He was created for the Lord Almighty, and the whole universe was created for mankind and all creatures are servants to mankind.
Allah Almighty, the Creator, the Lord of the Heavens, the Lord of Jesus Christ, the Lord of Abraham, the Lord of Moses, the Lord of beloved Muhammad, peace be upon them all, created man for Himself, and He created everything for man. Therefore every prophet had extraordinary powers, and each one of mankind also has an extraordinary structure through his or her soul, because souls represent the Lord in mankind. You can find every divine attribute within yourself, within your soul, but we are imprisoning our souls in our physical bodies, never giving them what they are asking for. They should be the kings in our physical bodies' territory, but we are imprisoning them and making our egoes king.
Therefore we are in prison. For this reason we see, in our time, a kind of punishment for mankind. They call it depression. That depression is common among people, and in Westem countries you can find it among all people.
Their Lord gave them everything but yet they are not happy, they are not in peace, they are not in satisfaction - depressed people. And that is the reason: because we give our ego its desires, and its desires are unlimited.
If a person has no car, for example, he may want a car. Then his Lord grants him a car, and for the first few months he may be happy. But after three months, four months or six months he says, "What is this second hand car? It must be a new car. Yes, then try to find a new one." He may get a new one. After a while he may say, "This new car is not a good model. I must look for another one - a German car." Then he runs after a strong car, a good-brand car, a Mercedes. Then, when his Lord grants that to him, after a while he is ingrateful and asks for another, another. Then he makes it his goal to have a Rolls Royce.
O mankind, it is not your goal to have a Rolls Royce; that is the playing of little children. When you are older you must be more perfect than your nafs, your ego. If you follow your soul, you may keep your ego thankful for everything, but if you do not control it, it is not going to be satisfied throughout your life. That is the reason for depression in our time - because everyone has unlimited desires. If you have no money, you ask for money, asking for it to be £ 100. If you have that £ 100, what do you ask for? It must be £ 1,000 - better. If it is £1,000, then you ask, "Why only 1,000? Must be 10,000, at least. I must try, because there is an opening for me to reach 10,000. Yes, I must run after 10,000." And he runs and gets 10,000 and then looks. Not seeing that I have 10,000; I must be thankful, I must rest. Saying, "Why? There is 100,000, and I must run after that 100,000."
But do you think that if anyone reaches 100,000 he says, "Enough"? No. "Why? Must be half-a-million," and he runs after half-a-million. If reaching that, he says, "Why a half? A whole million." Then he runs after one million. Does he stop and say, "Oh, alhamdulillah, thanks to Allah was I now have one million"? He never says that. Therefore I am saying that our egoes' desires are endless, and you run, run, run to reach something, and you get tired and you die tired.
(Sheikh Nazim then tells the story of Alexander the Great's order to his courtiers to put his hands outside his coffin when he died so that everyone must see that Alexander the Great never took anything with him of his treasures; they must know. Yes. He was given all treasures, and he fought people - all believers, particularly - that even if you have been given all the treasures on earth, you can't take anything with you.) He was wise person to show that; otherwise he would have taken so many treasures, like the pharoahs. They took so many treasures under those huge hills, the pyramids, but finally, as a punishment for them, people came and looked for the doors of those huge pyramids. Mostly English people and French people are so interested in that, coming and doing like this, like that; where must the entrance be? And finally finding it and taking out all those treasures and taking out the pharoah, also, and bringing him to the British Museum. You can't find Alexander the Great coming to be for exhibit in British museums or in the Louvre Museum or in any other museum; no - finished. But pharaoahs were such foolish people; they thougt that huge pyramids would protect them, guarding their treasures. Everything was taken from them and now they are like this, sleeping in British museums - so many.
Therefore, be simple and humble. When you are simple and humble you will reach, here and Hereafter, peace and satisfaction and love and endless Beauty Oceans in the Divine Presence.
I think that Mr. Dent's time is over. Therefore we may say thanks to everyone for listening. We are happy with everyone. And I am asking him not to forget me when he is called, invited, to enter Paradise, looking after me, saying that I met a sheikh in Kent once upon a time; looks at me, takes my hand and enters. (Mr. Dent: and you to me.) I promise. Thank you very much.
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