Wa 'abud rabbaka hatta yatiyakal yakin"

“And serve thy Lord until there comes to you that which is certain.”

                             (al‑Hijr 99)

     Some say that the word "yakin" – certainty is that which is the only certain thing which will come upon you, death, and that you are to obey, serve for his sake and do your worship (ibadah) until your last breath.

     The hypocrite and the fool say that yakin – certainty – is intimacy with God and they imagine or they lie saying that they are His intimates, therefore they do not have to serve or pray. Those are the ones who also claimed they would not serve a God whom that have not seen before they claimed that they do not have to serve the God which they have seen. "May Allah sentence us to His worship and to His service," Amin (the repeated prayer of Sefer Efendi).

I have not communicated with you verbally this summer, although I prayed for you at each prayer, to see if you would notice whether I am there or not or whether it would make any difference.

Often I have attracted your attention, and I saw that you agreed to the fact that we owe what little good we have in us, what little peace we have, what little faith we have, to that which we have received from Sheikh Muzaffereddin (Rahmetullahi aleyh). Indeed he was a man of knowledge, a wise man, but if we had not loved him, even if he had been a thousand times more wise, we would not have received as much. If it is a     measure, I and some others I know fell in love with him as a young girl falls in love, who does everything for her beloved to please him, who tries her best to live up to his standards, who would give up everything for him, who would remember him always when he is not there. This is the "path of love." Without it, even if we knew the contents of a thousand volumes and memorized it all, we would be donkeys carrying heavy hooks. May Allah safeguard the love of our sheikh in our hearts and the love of our sheikh for us and the Love of each other, for without this we would be lost.

Both the nourishment and the proof of love is giving: ibadah, service, is giving. One gives without thought of return, to the one whom one loves. Serving is giving: giving is serving. Giving that which one loves, giving without leaving any for oneself, without the hope of receiving anything back, without the fear of a punishment which one might receive if one did not give, without aspiring to a reward for that which one gives. This is what is called "muruwwah" ‑- the blessing of generosity -- wishing to spend freely even though worldly circumstances necessitate the keeping of what one gives. A better state than this is "futuwwah," when one, in addition to giving all that one has, also hides the wrongs of others, forgives the thankless ones and is ready to give even his life to protect the tyrannized from the tyrants.

We have just passed tile celebration of sacrifice in remembrance of the one unique in generosity amongst the creation. Hadrat Ibrahim (aleyhisselam,) who was ready to sacrifice his son whom he loved best in this world for no purpose or reward other than obeying his Lord. The response of the Most Generous One was to replace his ultimate sacrifice with a ram.

If generosity is the highest state of worship in the way of Allah who says:

Those . . . who find in their hearts no need of what they give and prefer (others) before themselves though poverty may afflict them.

                             (al‑Hashr 9)

Stinginess is the worst of sin, as indicated by the continuation of the above verse:

"…and whoever is saved from the niggardliness of his soul, these it is that find deliverance."

                              (al‑Hashr 9)

The Prophet (saws) says:

“The generous one is close to Allah, is close to all men and is close to Paradise, while the miser is removed from Allah and from man and from Paradise, and he is in Hell both in this world and in the other. In Allah's sight, Allah prefers a generous one who is ignorant (of religion) over a miser who prays all the time.”

                              (Tirmidhi – Abu Hurayrah)

Allah says:

"And let not those who are niggardly in spending that which Allah has granted them out of His grace think that it is good for them. Nay. It is evil for them. They shall have a collar    of their niggardliness on their necks on the Resurrection day. And Allah's is the heritage of the heavens and the earth, and Allah is aware of what you do.”

                              (Ali Imran 179)

The Prophet (saws) said:

"Know that the generous one is in Paradise; this is the divine law, and I guarantee it. Be heedful that the niggardly one is in hell. This also is the divine law and I guarantee it."

                              (Isfahani‑Abu Hurayrah)

“Someone cannot be called a believer if he has two traits of character: those of niggardliness and of bad character. "

                              (Tirmidhi‑Abu Sa'id il ‑Khudhri )

"The hypocrite intriguer, the stinger, the ostentatious giver who proclaims his generosity, cannot eater Paradise."

                               (Tirmidhi‑Abu Bakr as Sadiq)

The worst in man is miserliness, which incites ambition and cowardliness which     makes the heart tremble."

                               (Abu Dawud‑Abu Hurayrah)

"The devil claims that those who are tied to their possessions have been tied with three shackles which they will not be able to shed and thereby save themselves from him. He will keep them in pain day and night, in fear of losing their possessions. He will not let them receive their sustenance from lawful sources, nor will he let them spend their money for lawful things. They will be so attached to what they own that he will prevent them from giving its right (zekat, alms, hajj, etc..)"

                               (Tabarani‑Abdurrahman ibn 'Awf)

"The hungry belly of the miser will not be satisfied until his belly is filled with the soil of his grave."

                            (al‑Bukhari, Muslim‑Anas ibn Malik)

Stinginess and cowardice are like the egg and the chicken. One begets the other. And they are a sure sign of faithlessness.

Those who are afflicted with this deadly sickness may save themselves by the mercy of Allah, by the medicine of "zuhd – cutting one’s appetite for the world and for the worldly – and "kana'at" ‑ to be satisfied with little – and "tawakkul" – to trust in Allah ‑‑ and "rida" to be satisfied with whatever He offers –and, above all, by remembering death, that only certain thing the "yakin."

A man came to the Prophet (saws) and asked him who was the most pious amongst men. The Light of Knowledge, the Causal Intelligence (may Allah's peace and blessings he upon him!) said:

"The one who does not forget his grave in which he will rot and turn into dirt, the one who will willfully leave the ornaments of this world, the one who will prefer the eternal over the temporal, the one who will not count tomorrow as one of his days, the one who will count himself amongst the dead.”

Amin bi hurmeti sayyidil mursalin Ta Ha wa Ya Sin, wa aleykum selam wa rahmetullahi wa barakatuhu

                                            August 9, 1987