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A Sufi Shaykh Describes His Voyage through Seven Cities

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 19:42:00 GMT

My dear children and companions on the path to truth, my beloved on the path of love, may Allah's blessings, peace, love, and compassion be upon you and around you. Neither this faqir nor you have any reason or place in the land of worldly pleasures in the Paris of this world, the city of an-nafs al-ammarah, except to be reminded with distaste and sadness of the time that we all have spent there. Know that if by chance you fall back there it will not accept you, it does not accept you. All grace and thanks are due to Allah the Ultimate Guide Who has led us away from it.

One summer we visited Safer Efendi, rahmatullahi alayh. He was shining with the blessing of the manifestation of al-Hadi and received us with great love, kindness, and friendship. He read us an article that he found in manuscript, by a Naqshbandi shaykh who lived 150 years ago. He had translated the archaic Ottoman Turkish into a language for our understanding, which work I now translate into English for your understanding. Read and reread -- but it is not your mind, but your knowledge of yourself and your sincerity and your faith in Allah's mercy and your fear and love of Him Who is closer to you than your jugular vein and who knows what is manifest and what is hidden that will help you to find where you are and where you wish and hope to go.

In the Name of Allah the Merciful and the Compassionate

All praise and grace is due to Allah the Most Generous, the Most Wise, the Ultimate Guide, the Giver of Faith and Hope.

All peace and blessings and benediction be upon His beloved, the unlettered Prophet, whom He has cleansed of all false knowledge in order to teach him the pure truth, and upon his progeny and companions and helpers, and upon the ones whom he loved and the ones who loved him, and upon the ones whom he loves and who love, obey, and follow him.

The spiritual teachers, the murshids, who are the true fathers, are bound to give to their true sons and daughters, the murids, the greatest gift possible to give in this world, and that is sincere advice.

The first portion of that gift, that spiritual nourishment, is the knowledge of Allah's orders to His creation, the 'ilm al-sharÌ'ah. This knowledge is a reason for one's being. It is an obligation upon all, it is the force of life, the light of intelligence, without which one is dead.

The second portion is the knowledge of the path to truth, the tarÌqah. It is not a path traced on a map, but a road upon which to walk. It is a necessity, for the sign of life is movement, from birth to death, from this life to the Hereafter, from worse to better, from less to more, from many to one, from falsehoods to truth, from anxiety to peace. It is a response to the divine invitation irjÌ, "Come!" "Come here, come to Me."

The third portion of that gift is ma'rifah, which is a means -- the wisdom, the space that contains the divine secrets that one has to discover.

The fourth and the last portion of the gift that the spiritual father bestows upon his spiritual children is the truth, haqÌqah, which is in reality a gift of Allah the Ultimate Truth that comes through the hands of the spiritual teacher.

Knowledge is like water, the source of life. Look around you, it is everywhere: torrents of rain, rivers, lakes, oceans .... Yet all receive in accordance with their destiny, in accordance with their need, in the amount of the size of their cup.

As I was wandering in this temporal world, Allah led me to a straight path. Walking on it in a state between sleep and awakening, as if in a dream, I reached a city that was all in the dark. It was so vast, I could neither see nor conceive of its limits. This city contained everything that was created. There were people from all nations and races. So crowded were the streets that one could hardly walk, so noisy was it that one could hardly hear oneself or others. All the ugly actions of all the creatures, all the sins known and unknown to me, were all around me. In awe and amazement I watched the strange scene.

Far in the distance, in the apparent center of this city, there was yet another city, with high walls, huge in size.

What I observed all around me led me to think that never, since the beginning of time, had a ray of light from the sun of truth fallen upon this city. Not only were the sky and the roads and houses of this city in total darkness, but its citizens, who were like bats, had minds and hearts as dark as night. Their nature and their behavior were like those of wild dogs. Growling and fighting with each other for a mouthful of food, obsessed by lust and anger, they killed and tore each other apart. Their only pleasure was in drinking and in shameless sex, without discrimination of male and female, wives and husbands or others. Lying, cheating, gossiping, slander, stealing was their custom, with total absence of concern for others, conscience, or fear of Allah. Many among them called themselves Muslims. In fact, some were considered by them to be wise men -- shaykhs, teachers, men of knowledge and preachers.

Some among them who became aware of Allah's commandments, of that which is right and lawful in the eyes of Allah and men and of that which Allah forbids, tried to act upon it and liked it and could no longer associate with the people of the city. Neither could the people of the city tolerate them. I heard they took refuge in the walled city I had seen in the center of this realm.

I stayed in this city for awhile. At length I found someone who could hear me and understand what I said. I asked him the name of the place. He told me that it was Ammara, the imperious city, the city of freedom, where everyone did what he pleased. I inquired about their state. He said that it was the city of joy, which derived from carelessness and heedlessness. In the beautiful darkness that surrounded it, each one thought that he was the only one. I asked him the name of their ruler. He informed me that he was called Aqli Ma'ash, His Highness Cleverness, and that he was an astrologer, a sorcerer, an engineer who engineered things, a doctor who gave life to the ones who otherwise would die, an intelligent learned king who had no equal in this world. His advisers and ministers were called Logic, his judges depended on the ancient Law of Common Sense, his stewards were called Imagination and Daydreaming. He said that all the citizens were totally loyal to their ruler, not only respecting and appreciating him and his government, but loving him, for they all felt an affinity in their nature, in their customs, in their behavior.

I, possessing the same intelligence, and with it knowing that indeed the king of this city was the perfect master of all the sciences of this world, wished to learn these sciences in order to be rich and famous. I stayed for awhile in the king's service and learned from him many clever things. I learned commerce, politics, military sciences, manufacturing arms, the law of man, and arts to glorify man. I became world-renowned. As men pointed me out with their fingers and talked about me, my ego rejoiced. Since all the parts of my being were totally under the influence of my worldly intelligence, they all found energy in the rejoicing of my ego and rushed to spend that energy in worldly delights and the pleasures of the flesh, without any consideration of whether all this hurt others, or even myself.

Something inside of me at times saw that all this was wrong, but I had no force nor ability to prevent it. That which saw was pained, and wished to get out of the darkness of this city. One such day, when the pain was most acute, I went to my master the king, His Highness Cleverness, and daringly asked, "How is it that the men of knowledge of your realm never act upon their knowledge and fear Allah? How is it that none in this city fear the punishment of Allah, while they fear your punishment? How is it that there is no light here, nor outside, nor in your people's hearts? How is it that your subjects appear as human beings, yet their nature is like that of wild animals, and worse still?"

He answered, "I -- the one who can figure out how to derive personal benefit from this world, even if my benefit is their loss -- am their ideal. I have an agent in each of them. They are my servants and the servants of my agents in them, but I also have a master who guides me, and that is the Devil. No one here is able to change his way, and all are content and think of themselves as better than others. None will to change, and therefore they will not change."

When I heard that, I wished to leave that city and intended to escape. But knowing the king's strength and control over everything, I asked his permission to leave. "O my absolute ruler," I said, "you have done so much for this humble servant of yours and have given me all I have. What a joyful life I have led under your rule! You clothed me with rich furs, gave me companions for fun and games. Neither drunkenness nor gambling have you forbidden. I have tasted all the pleasures, and I feel that I have had my share. Did you know that I came to this city as a traveler? Permit me now to go to that big castle that I see in the middle of your city."

The king answered me, saying, "I rule over that castle also. That district is called Lawwama, Self-Reproach, but its people are not the same as we are here. In this imperious city of ours, our idol is the Devil. Neither he nor I blame anyone for what they do. Therefore, none regret what they have done, for we live in imagination. In the City of Self-Reproach, imagination does not have total power. They also do what is called sin -- they commit adultery, they satisfy their lust with men and women alike, they drink and gamble, steal and murder, gossip and slander as we do, but often they see what they have done, and regret and repent."

As soon as I finished talking with my master, Cleverness, I rushed to the gates of the City of Self-Reproach. Over the gates was written:

at-tª'ibu min adh-dhanbi ka-man lª adhnaba

"The one who has repented is like the one who has never committed a sin."

I gave the password by repenting for my sins, and entered the city.

I saw that this city was considerably less crowded than the City of Darkness from which I had come. I would say that its population was half that of the city I had left.

When I had stayed there for awhile, I found out, that there was a man of knowledge who knew the Holy Qur'an and expounded upon it. I went to him and saluted him. He returned my salutation and wished Allah's peace and blessings upon me. Although I had been told by the ruler of the City of Darkness that he ruled here also, I checked with my teacher, asking him the name of their ruler. He confirmed that they were under the jurisdiction of His Highness Cleverness, but that they had their own administrators, whose names were Arrogance, Hypocrisy, Bigotry, and Fanaticism.

Among the population were many men of knowledge, many men who appeared to be virtuous, devout, pious, and righteous. I made friends with these men and found them to be afflicted with arrogance, egotism, envy, ambition, bigotry, and, in their friendship, insincerity. They were hostile to each other, setting traps for each other. What I can say for the best of them is that they prayed and tried to follow Allah's commandments because they feared Allah's punishment and Hell, and hoped for an eternal, pleasurable life in Paradise.

I asked one of them about the City of Darkness outside the walls, and complained about the people there. He agreed, and said that the population of that city consisted of corrupt, seditious, murderous nonbelievers. They had no faith, nor did they ever pray. He said they were drunkards, adulterers, pederasts; they were totally unconscious and heedless. But from time to time, by some mysterious guidance, they were led to the City of Self-Reproach. Then they realized what they had done and regretted, repented, and asked for forgiveness. In their city, he said, they did not know what they were doing, so it never occurred to them to regret or to ask forgiveness. Therefore they did not help each other, and no one interceded for them.

When I had first come to the City of Self-Reproach, I had seen that in its center there was yet another castle. I asked the learned inhabitant about it. He said that it was called Mulhima, the City of Love and Inspiration. I asked about its ruler, and was told that he was called Aqli Ma'ad, His Highness Wisdom, Knower of Allah. This king, said my informant, had a prime minister whose name was Love.

"If ever any one of us enters the City of Love and Inspiration," he went on, "we don't accept him back to our city. For anyone who goes there becomes like all the rest of that city's population -- totally attached to that prime minister. He falls in love with him, and is ready to give up anything -- all that he has, his possessions, his family and children, even his life -- for the sake of that prime minister called Love. Our sultan, His Highness Cleverness, finds this attribute absolutely unacceptable. He fears the influence of those who have this quality, for both their loyalty and their actions seem to be illogical and are not understandable by common sense.

"We hear that the people of that city call upon Allah chanting and singing, even with the accompaniment of the reed flute and tambourines and drums, and that doing so they lose their senses and go into ecstasy. Our religious leaders and theologians find this unacceptable according to our orthodox rules. Therefore, none of them even dreams of setting foot in the City of Love and Inspiration."

When I heard that, I felt a terrible distaste for the City of Self-Reproach, and ran to the gates of the blessed City of Love and Inspiration. I read over the door:

bªb ul-jannati maktñb: lª ilªha illª Llªh

I recited aloud the sacred phrase-- lª ilªha illª Llªh --"There is no god but Allah"--prostrated myself, and offered my sincere thankfulness. At this, the gates opened and I entered.

Soon I found a dervish lodge, where I saw the high and the lowly, the rich and the poor together, as if one single being. I saw them loving and respecting each other, serving each other with regard, reverence, and deference, in a continuous state of pure joy. They were talking, singing -- their songs and their talk captivating, beautiful, always about Allah and the Hereafter, spiritual; removed from all anxiety and pain, as if living in Paradise. I did not hear or see anything that resembled dispute or quarrel, anything harmful or damaging. There was no intrigue or malice, envy or gossip. I felt immediately a peace, comfort, and joy among them.

I saw a beautiful old man, consciousness and wisdom shining through him. I was attracted to him and went over and addressed him: "0 my dearest, I am a poor traveler and a sick one at that, seeking a remedy for my sickness of darkness and unconsciousness. Is there a doctor in this City of Love and Inspiration to cure me?"

He stayed silent for awhile. I asked his name. He told me his name was Hidaya -- Guidance. Then he said, "My nickname is Truthfulness. Since time immemorial not a single untruth has passed from these lips. My duty and my charge are to show the road to the ones who sincerely seek union with the Beloved. And to you I say

"And serve thy Lord until there comes to thee that which is certain."
(Surah Hijr, 99)

"And remember the name of thy Lord and devote thyself to Him with complete devotion."
(Surah Muzammil, 8)

"You are also a sincere lover: listen to me with the ear of your heart. There are four districts in this City of Love and Inspiration to which you have come. These four districts are one within the other. "

"The outer one is called Muqallid, the district of the imitators. The skillful doctor you seek to cure your ills is not within that district. Neither is the pharmacy that has medicine for the sickness of heedlessness, darkness of the heart, and hidden polytheism. Although you will find many who advertise themselves as doctors of the heart -- appearing as such, dressing in robes and wearing great turbans; declaring themselves as wise men while trying to hide their ignorance, their depravity, their lack of character; unable to prove what they claim to be; seeking fame, and ambitious for the world -- they themselves are sick with the sickness of themselves. They assign partners to Allah, and are masters only of imitation."

"They hide their intrigue, duplicity, and malice well. They are intelligent, perceptive, jolly and humorous, bon vivant. Although their tongues appear to be pronouncing the prayers and the names of Allah and you find them often in the circles of dervishes, their minds which guide them do not point them to see the influence and benefit of their prayers. Therefore you will not find with them the balm to soothe the pains of unconsciousness and forgetfulness."

"You may as well leave this district of imitators and take refuge in the district of Mujahid, the district of warriors."

I followed his advice and went to the district of the warriors. The people I met there were weak and thin; gentle, thoughtful, thankful; devoted to praying, obeying, fasting, contemplating and meditating. Their strength lay in putting into action that which they knew. I became close to them, and saw that they had left all the failures of character produced by egoism and egotism and the shadow of unconsciousness. They had formed a talent for being servants, pleased with their Lord and content with their state. I stayed in the district of the gentle warriors for many years. I acted as they acted and lived as they lived, seeing how I acted and how I lived, not letting a moment pass in heedlessness. I learned and showed patience and forbearance, and learned to be content and satisfied with my lot, and I was content and satisfied.

I fought hard, day and night, with my ego, but still I was left with the polytheism of many "me"s and "I"s fighting among each other, even though they faced one Allah. This, my sickness of shirk khafÌ setting up many "I"s as partners to Allah -- cast heavy shadows over my heart, hid the truth, and kept me in heedlessness.

I asked the doctors of the district, begged them. I told them of my sickness, the hidden polytheism, the awful heedlessness, the darkness of the heart, and asked for help. They told me, "Even in this place of those who battle their egos there is no cure for your ills, for

"He is with you wherever you are."
(Surah HadÌd, 4)

Then they advised me to travel in the direction of the castle of Mutma'ina, the City of Peace and Tranquility. Near that city lay a district called Munajaat wa Muraqaba -- supplication and meditation. Perchance there, they said, there would be a doctor to cure me.

When I came to the district of meditation I saw its inhabitants, quiet and peaceful, remembering Allah inwardly, reciting His Beautiful Names. To each and every one of them a son of the heart had been born. They stood, heads bowed in the presence of their Lord, silent, melancholy, sad, in deep humility and veneration. Although their exteriors seemed annihilated, ruinous, their hearts shone and flourished.

Their ways were gentle and courteous. They barely spoke with each other for fear of distracting each other's attention from the One in Whose presence they felt themselves to be, preventing each other from deep meditation. Light as feathers they were, yet they feared most to be a burden and a load on others.

I spent many years in the district of meditation and contemplation. I did as they did, and indeed I thought I was finally cured of heedlessness, polytheism, and unconsciousness. But I was not cured of the hidden dualism of "I" and "He" that still cast heavy shadows upon my heart.

My tears ran in torrents. Wretched and wan and in total awe I fell into a strange state where an ocean of sadness surrounded me. I wished to drown in that sea. I found no other solution but to die. But I could not do a thing, I had no will, not even to die.

As I stood there helpless, sad, in ecstasy, there appeared the beautiful teacher whom I had first met in these strange lands, the one who was called Hidaya, the Guide. He looked upon me with compassionate eyes. "0 poor slave of himself, in exile in this foreign land! 0 wanderer away from home! 0 poor wretched one, you cannot find your cure in this state of spirit. Leave this place. Go to that district yonder, just next to the gate of the castle of Mutma'ina. The name of that quarter is Fana' -- self-annihilation. There you will find doctors who have annihilated their selves, who have no being, who know the secret of fa-afnu thumma afnu thumma afnu fa-abku thumma abku thumma abku -- "Be nought, be nought, be nought, so that you will be, so that you will be, so that you will be forever."

Right away I went to the district of annihilation. I saw its population mute, speechless, as if dead, with no strength in them to utter a word. They had left the hope of any benefit from talk and were ready to give up their souls to the angel of death. They were totally unconcerned whether I was there or not.

I saw no action among them except their performing their prayers five times a day. They had lost the concept of separation between this world and the Hereafter, forgotten it. Pain and joy were equal to them. They had no taste for either material or spiritual things. No thought preoccupied them. They did not remember anything, nor did they look forward to anything. All need and desire was strange to them. They had even stopped asking Allah for what they wanted.

I stayed with them for many years. I did what they did. I did not appear other than they, but I did not know their inner state, so I could not do what they did inwardly.

Even in that place, among them, I felt great pain. Yet when I wished to describe the symptoms of my ill, I couldn't find a body or any existence, so as to say "This is my body" or "This is me". Then I knew that that which was 'me," turned into the owner of me. Then I knew that to say "That being is mine" is a lie, and to lie is a sin for everyone. Then I knew that to ask the real owner for what was "mine" was the hidden polytheism of which I had wished to rid myself. What, then, was to be done?

In awe, I saw that I was free of all my wishes. I cried and cried. In my despair, if I were to call upon Him and say, "O Lord," then there would be two -- I and He, me and the one from whom I seek help, the will and the Willed, the desire and the Desired, the lover and the Beloved, oh so many. I knew not the remedy.

The woeful wailing attracted the pity of the angel of inspiration whom his Lord had charged to teach the lovers. With the permission of his Lord, he read to me from the book of divine inspiration: "First, annihilate your actions."

He gave that to me as a gift. As I stretched my hand to receive it, I saw that there was no hand. It was a composition of water and earth and ether and fire. I had no hand to take with. I had no power to act.

There is only one who has power, the All-Powerful. Whatever action occurs through me, it belongs to the Absolute Actor. All power, all acts, I referred to Him, and I left all that happened to me and through me in this world. I knew, as I had been taught by the angel of inspiration, what the annihilation of one's actions is. And all praise is due to Allah.

The proof of the necessity of disowning one's actions in the path to truth is in the verse in the Holy Qur'an:

Qul kullun min 'inda L1ªhi

"Say, all (action) is from Allah."

Surah Annisa (4:78)

I am unlettered and have not been taught, yet Allah Most High in His manifestation of the Ultimate Truth has graced me with the ability and power to teach. As what is related here are occurrences that happened to me, experiences that brought a state of mind and spirit, and as it is said, al-hªlu lª yu'rafu bil-qªl -- "the states cannot be told by words" -- it is not possible to express such states so that others can appreciate or even imagine them.

Then I wished, with the permission of Allah and with the help of the angel of inspiration, to leave my attributes -- those qualities which make one's personality. When I looked, what I saw was not mine. When I talked, what I said was not mine. Neither was the content mine. Totally helpless, I was cut off from all the attributes, visible and invisible, that distinguished me, from all qualities exterior and interior that had made me "me".

With all my being and feeling and spirit I supposed myself a pure essence. Then I sensed that even this was duality. What do I have to do, what relation do I have, with something that does not belong to me? I was helpless again.

Then even my essence was taken away from me. Still I wished and longed for Him. I felt the meaning of wa tªlibu 'aynÌ 'abdÌ --"The one who longs for Me is My true servant." Woe to this me in me, I know not what to do. Helpless, I hope for union.

Wa Llªhu bi kulli shay'in muhÌt -- Allah Who 'encompasses all things," huwal-awwalu wal-akhiru waz-þªhiru wal-bªtinu wa huwa bi kulli shay'in 'alÌm -- Who is "before the before and after the after and all that is evident and all that is hidden, and He is the knower of all things' -- became manifest in the secret of my heart.

Even then I wished that the secret of mñtu qabla an tamñtu, to die before dying, be actualized in me. 0 woe, again this hidden duality of I and the one I long for. This too cannot be the truth.

What ill is this that gives pangs of pain when I move, when I wish, when I long, when I ask for help, when I pray and beg? What strange state have I fallen into, difficult to resolve?

Helpless, I gave all these to their Owner and waited at the gate of acquiescence in agony of death, senseless, without thought or feeling, as if dead, expecting death to take me at every breath. I stayed in that state I know not how long.

Following the advice istafÌd qalbaka -- "Ask your heart," I told my heart to instruct me. It said, "As long as there is a trace of you in you, you cannot hear your Lord's call irji -- "Come to Me!"

If a cat fell into a salt pit and drowned, and in time its body became salt, if a single hair were left, could that salt be used as food? How often and how long do theologians debate and discuss such matters! Some say that in spite of the single hair the salt is clean, that the corpse of the cat is now the salt; and some say that the single hair is as much the cat as was the whole body. Thus the salt is dirty and unlawful to eat.

I felt the truth of it and wished that that trace of me in me would die. I immersed that trace in divine beatitude. An ecstasy came, from me, to me, over that which was mine, covering it all, the taste of which is impossible to describe. Without ear, without words, without letters I heard the invitation:

Irji -- "Come."

I tried to think, "What is this state?" My thought could not think it. I was made to know that thought cannot think about the sacred secret. Even that knowledge was taken away from me as fast as it came to me.

0 seeker, what has been said here is not intended to show that I know. Therefore it will only be made known to you after I am gone from among you. It is for the benefit of the seekers of Truth, for the lovers who long for the Beloved so that it may help them to know themselves, so that they may find in which of the cities I traveled through they themselves are, and which of its citizens they befriend. When and if in sincerity they know their place, they will act accordingly, and know the direction of the gate of Allah's pleasure, and be thankful. Perchance they will remember this faqir, the writer of these words, with a little prayer.

Allah's peace and blessings be upon the original writer of these words.

* Al-Fatihah *
* * *

My dearest children, Hz. Pir Shah Naqshband, to whom the shaykh who wrote these words belonged, says, "A sincere dervish traveling on the path to truth should often compare his ego to that of the Pharoah and see himself a hundred thousand times worse than he. If a dervish does not feel that, he cannot truly be in this path."

It is said that whoever loves himself is afflicted with four disasters -- arrogance, envy, dishonor, and finally to be detestable even in the eye of the populace. Hz. Shaykh Sari al-Saqati says, "The greatest strength and the greatest courage is manifest in the one who has beaten his ego into submission." Hz. Nisapuri (q.s.) says, "Whoever is able to eliminate the shadow cast by his ego upon his life becomes a beneficent protector under whose shade other people take refuge." Hz. Sezai (q.s.) says, "Whoever is under the orders of his ego is in continuous spiritual pain. Whoever gives up his little will in return for the greater will of Allah and waits at the gate of Allah's pleasure, following Allah's ordinances, is in fact in Paradise."

May Allah call and accept you all in His Paradise in this world and in the Hereafter.

Al-Faqir Tosun al-Jerrahi

"If"- by Rudyard Kipling

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 18:35:00 GMT

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

By Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936).

54 Attributes of the Dervish

Sat, 31 May 2014 21:25:00 GMT

A dervish has faith in Allah, loves and prays to the Creator, and is compassionate to the Creation.

A lover believes in the last Prophet, Hd. Muhammad Mustafa (saws). The dervish loves the Prophet more than anything but Allah, and respects his family, companions, followers and the ones who love him.

A lover learns, knows, and joyfully and happily follows God’s ordinances.

A lover knows the fear of Allah and learns, knows, and avoids that which is forbidden by Him.

A dervish should earn his living through right action and according to Allah’s Law; he should eat lawfully, clothe himself lawfully, and stay only in lawful places.

A lover does not lie; he is always truthful, and advises truthfulness.

A lover is generous; he gives what he has lawfully earned for Allah’s sake, and he is also generous with help and advice.

A dervish is patient in his faith, in his religious duties and in cases of hardship. He should advise others in patience.

A lover does his prayers five times daily without fail, whenever possible in congregation; he considers this Allah’s greatest gift.

In addition to his daily prayers, he should perform the voluntary devotions, the most important of which is the Tahajjud prayer, which was obligatory for the Prophet (saws).

In addition to the thirty days fast of Ramadan, a dervish should fast the first, middle and last days of the Arabic months, and is advised to fast nine days in the month of Zul Hijjah, eleven days in the month of Muharram, most of the days of Rajab, and some of the days of Sha’ban, but especially on the day of Barat, which is the 15^th of Sha ’ban.

He must learn and follow as much as he can of the Sunnah (Traditions) of the Prophet (saws).

If the dervish is well to do, he must go to the Hajj once in his lifetime, but he also should go to Madina to visit our Master the Messenger of Allah (saws), and to Jerusalem, Damascus and Baghdad; and he should visit the shrines of the saints.

If he has means, he should distribute his zakat with joy, and if he is poor, he should help less fortunate ones with his hands, his words, and his time.

The dervish has to be clean and pure, not just in his body and his environment. His heart should be cleansed of arrogance, especially pride of his spiritual state, hypocrisy, envy, grudges, anger, and negativity in general. His speech has to be cleansed of gossip and blame, his sympathies from love of money and possessions, of fame and position.

The dervish cannot drink alcohol or take any other intoxicants which are forbidden by Allah. And he should also avoid all excesses and oppose his desires, and pray for help in educating the flesh.

A dervish should not stay too long in the presence of his shaykh unless he is asked to do so.

When he is in the presence of his shaykh, he should sit on his knees, be extremely careful of unbecoming behavior, and avoid speaking unnecessarily. He should not behave in a familiar way, and should follow proper adab. He should consider his shaykh’s mistakes better than his own best achievements, and should attribute his development and inspirations totally to the shaykh. To act contrary to this will prevent the dervish’s advancement.

A dervish should consider that when he is in the presence of the shaykh, it is as if he were in the presence of Allah, of Allah’s Messenger, of the saints and the saint of his order, and act accordingly. An act which may hurt his teacher not only will prevent his advancement, but, Allah protect him and us, may cause terrible misfortunes and even death.

He should follow his teacher’s orders without fail, and with joy.

He should not try to test his teacher.

He should not criticize or even think critically of the acts of his master, even if they seem categorically opposed to the laws and ways of the religion and the path. He should remember that all actions and words of his teacher are in accordance with the Will of Allah.

A dervish has to know and follow the prayers, the rituals, and manners of his sect as taught by his teacher. He should hold the honor and name of his sect higher than anything else.

He should show respect and obedience to men of knowledge and wisdom, hafizes and men who serve religion and mankind. It is satanic to try to argue with men of knowledge. It should not be forgotten that the wise men are the inheritors of the prophets, and the mystical masters, the shaykhs, are the inheritors of the messengers of Allah (saws). If there exist differences between the theologians and the mystics, it is on surface matters; in essence, they are in agreement. As to the leaders of men, the politicians, they govern with Allah’s permission. Men are governed by those whom they deserve. If a nation is good, its governors are good. Let it not be forgotten that Allah is the curer of hearts. A dervish should not speak against the men of knowledge and the people who govern. He should consider all misfortune as his own doing and be patient and thankful for what he has, as all good and all bad come from Allah.

He should never be tyrannical or hurt people.

He should always be ready to sacrifice everything for Allah and His Messenger (saws), and for his faith.

All existence should be pleased with the dervish.

A dervish should have Allah’s Book in one hand, and in the other the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (saws). He should wear on his head the crown of Faith, and on his back the cloak of Religious Law. His eyes should see lessons, and his tongue should say the dhikr. Around his waist he should wear the belt of service to humanity, in his heart he should have compassion for Allah’s creation and love and fear of Allah. His feet should be in attendance to serve. In his hand he should hold the art of service to others. His ear should hear only the truth. His mind should be occupied with the temporariness of the world and the eternity which is the afterlife. Above all, he should at all times be ready for the trip from this temporal world to the eternal world.

He should have his ablution at all places and at all times.

He should continue to ask for mercy and forgiveness of Allah with every breath, and never forget his sins and wrongdoings. He should ask for redemption, and shed tears for his wrongdoings. Above all he must understand that it is his previous sins that cause new sins to come (as punishment for not asking forgiveness), and he should accept that his sins belong to him while the good that he does belongs to Allah.

If he misses a prayer he should remember that this is a punishment for a wrongdoing.

If an ugly act occurs through him, he should not forget that it is due to his past actions. (He is being used by Allah.)

He should not overeat or sit at the table before he is hungry, and he should leave the table before he is full. He should wash his hands before and after every meal. When he takes his ablutions, he should brush his teeth.

The dervish should practice obedience. Generosity and obedience to one’s mother and father is equal to generosity and obedience to Allah. Obedience to the teacher is even superior to that. He who loves the Prophet (saws) will have his faith completed. He who knows Hd. Abu Bakr (ra) will know trustworthiness and loyalty. He who knows Hd. Omar (ra) will know justice and be just. He who knows Hd. Uthman (ra) will know shame. He who knows Hd. Ali (ra) will know knowledge and wisdom, and will know the value of wisdom and respect of the wise. He who knows Imam Hassan (ra) will not give value to this world. He who knows Imam Husayn (ra) will not lower his head to tyrants.

Know Him and you will be forgiven. He and all His creation will love and show compassion for you. Believe in the Day of Last Judgment so that nobody can fool you. That will make you respectful of the rights of people and the creation. He who knows the Prophet (saws) knows God. He who obeys Him obeys God. He who is faithful to him is faithful to God. He who denies him denies God. He who revolts against him revolts against God.

The one who does not educate his child to love Hd. Abu Bakr (ra) should not hope to receive from that child any obedience, loyalty or trustworthiness. If he does not show him the example of Hd. Omar (ra), he cannot hope for justice. He must teach him love of Hd. Uthman (ra), so that he will have shame and faith, and teach him the love of Hd. Ali (ra) so that he will be generous and knowledgeable, and be a servant to the one who teaches him ‘a letter.’

If you have not taught your child love and fear, he will not obey you, or have love and compassion for you. If you have not taught him about the Day of Last Judgment, he will have no respect for the rights of creation. If you have not taught him the love of the Messenger (saws), how can he love God?

A dervish should not inform people that he has submitted himself to the will of God; people will see that by themselves.

A dervish should be compassionate, generous and helpful to his family, children, in-laws, neighbors, and people whom he knows or does not know.

A dervish should not communicate with bad people, but he should not see himself as better or above them.

A dervish should not like or dislike anybody or anything in an egotistic and selfish way. His likes and dislikes should be for God’s sake.

If a dervish sees any potential for salvation in someone who is known as bad, he should befriend him in order to lead him to the straight path.

He should visit graveyards and remember that this is his final destination.

He should visit the sick and the poor, especially of his Brotherhood. However, he should try to satisfy the needs of everyone, without consideration for religion or sect.

A dervish should never forget his shaykh, should visit him every day, every other day, or at worst, once a week. If he is far he should write.

He should have the power to resist misfortune and show patience. Know that the dervish’s cuff will never be free from dogs or his head free from the stick of Yazid, just as Pharaoh was to Hd. Musa (ra), Nimrod was to Hd. Ibrahim (ra), and as Abu Jahil was to Hd. Muhammad (saws).

As he will know that all is from God, he should accept everything; he should submit his will and should always be pleased with God and seek His pleasure in everything so that He can be pleased with him.

In every act and thought he should remember God, his hands working for this world and his heart yearning for God.

For a good deed, no matter how insignificant, he should go miles; from the danger of a bad thing, no matter how insignificant, he should run for miles. Everything about him should be truthful, discriminating, completely trustworthy, and exemplary.

He should not cut heads or break a living branch. He should not be a burden to anyone. He should have various crafts and professions in addition to degrees so that in any eventuality he will not need to ask for help from others.

He should not waste time, which is his greatest treasure. Time should not be spent without thought of God. Every minute should have material and spiritual value.

The dervish should gain control of his hand, his tongue and that which is below his waistline. He should prevent unfaithfulness by his hand, desires by that below his waist, and gossip by his tongue. He should not say everything which comes to his mind, should know how to keep secrets, and should not blame or hurt people. All creation should be safe from the tongue and hand of the dervish, and should only benefit from his tongue and hand.

A dervish should not play with magic, divination and fortune-telling.

He should know what is lawful and unlawful, what his obligatory and voluntary duties are, and also what is clean and unclean, and all the signs of his religion and sect.

He should take whatever his teacher gives him with great joy and love.

When he takes something from the hand of his teacher he should kiss his hand. When he gives something to his teacher, he should kiss his hand.

When he stands up in front of his teacher he should place the big toe of his right foot on top of the big toe of the left foot. This is a sign of readiness to receive orders.

A Brief History of the Halveti-Jerrahi Order

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 17:38:00 GMT

One of the most important Sufi orders in Turkey today is the Khalwatiyyah-Jarrahiyyah, which has also spread to the West during the past few years. This order branched off from the Khalwatiyyah Order (Helvetiyye in Turkish), established by the Persian Sufi `Umar Khalwati, who died in tabriz in 800/1397. The second master of the order, Yahya Shirwani, continued the work of spreading the order in anatolia, where it became closely associated with the Akhi movement. After Shirwani’s death in Baku in 869/1464, branches of the order such as the Gulshaniyyah and damirdashiyyah spread in Egypt, where the order has been strong ever since. It experienced a remarkable growth in the 13th/19th century, mostly as a result of the teachings of Kamal al-Din al-Bakr, the founder of the Bakriyyah branch of the Khalwatiyyah. Also in the 12th/18th century other branches of the Khalwatiyyah Order, such as the Kamaliyyah, spread in other regions of the Arab East, such as Palestine. The Sammaniyyah-Khalwatiyyah Order spread on the one hand into black africa and on the other hand through Mecca into Southeast Asia. Syria was also one of the important arenas for the activity of the Khalwatiyyah, and such branches as the Jamaliyyah and Bakhshiyyah have been active in that land up to modern times.

The main arena of activity of the Khalwatiyyah Order remained Turkey, where in the 11th/17th century it became an important element even in the political life of the Ottoman world. The peak of its spiritual flowering in the Ottoman world was during the rule of Suleyman the Magnificent and Sultan Selim I. Moreover, the order continued to flourish in Turkey and the provinces of the Ottoman Empire right up to this century. It was strong in Albania until the 1967 cultural revolution and is active in Yugoslavia to this day. It has also continued to survive in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. In Turkey itself the Khalwatiyyah Order was abolished with other Sufi orders in 1925 but has nevertheless continued its existence, especially the Khalwatiyyah-Jarrahiyyah branch, which is very active and continues to have its center in Istanbul.

The Khalwatiyyah consider themselves heirs to the teachings of Junayd and usually have supported and followed the perspective of Ibn `Arabi, especially as concerns the doctrine of wahdat al-wujud. Historically, they have also had a pro-Shi`ite tendency. The order has always emphasized fasting, vigil, ritual cleanliness, silence, and invocation (dhikr). It also insists on the spiritual retreat (khalwah) from three to forty days. There is an elaborate teaching in the order concerning the stages of dhikr of the “Seven Divine Names” (al-asma` al-sab`ah), which correspond to the seven stages in the spiritual development of the human soul. the members of the order also participate regularly in the communal invocation and sacred dance (al-hadrah) and are instructed in reading and chanting Shirwani’s Wird al-sattar (The Covering Litany) on specific occasions and times established by the masters of the order. Each branch, however, also has its own particular litanies, as can be seen in the case of the Khalwatiyyah-Jarrahiyyah.

The members of the Khalwatiyyah-Jarrahiyyah Order point to the fact that Imam Ahmad ibn `Uthman Sharnubi, the khalifah and son-in-law of the qutb Ibrahim Dasuqi, wrote in the Tabaqat al-alwiya` (Ranks of the Saints) some three hundred years before the birth of Nur al-Din Jarrahi:

Sayyid Nur al-din Jarrahi will be from Istanbul and will appear in the year 1115 A.H. He will live forty-four years. One of his miracles will be that he will see his station in heaven while in this world, and will enter paradise directly upon his demise. The prayers of those who visit him and of those who pray in his presence will be accepted by God.

Pir Nur al-din signed the book, which is currently in the Fatih Library in Istanbul (#3286), near this passage.

The founder of the Khalwatiyyah-Jarrahiyyah Order, Pir Nur al-din al-Jarrahi was born in 1089/1678. Through his father Sayyid `Abd Allah ibn Muhammad Husam al-Din, he was a descendent of `Ubayd ibn Jarrah, one of the ten companions whose inclusion in paradise, according to tradition, was announced in this world by the Prophet.

At the age of nineteen he finished his study of law with honors, and the sultan appointed him chief justice (qadi) of Egypt, which was then an Ottoman province. As he traveled through Istanbul on horseback, trailed by an entourage, in order to bid farewell to his family, he visited Hajji Husayn Efendi, his maternal uncle, across from whose house was the dergah of the Jalwatiyyah branch of the Khalwati Order of dervishes. It was on the Togyar hill in Uskudar, and the shaykh was al-Hajj `Ali `Ala al-Din al-Khalwati Kostendili. His uncle took him to meet the shaykh, who knew his name before the introduction. during the dhikr ceremony after prayers, Nur al-din experienced a state of ecstacy and was filled with a fervent desire to become a dervish of this shaykh. Shaykh `Ali `Ala al-Din ordered him to put the world behind him. Nur al-Din, therefore, resigned from his honored post, dispersed his followers, and gave all his possessions to members of his family. He then entered the spiritual retreat (khalwah), spending a period of forty days in seclusion and fasting. for seven years he studied with his shaykh, until the age of twenty-six he himself was declared a shaykh.

During his lifetime Pir Nur al-din had seven khalifahs among his many dervishes. His dergah was an Ottoman structure built for him by the sultan, and it still stands in the Karagumruk area of Istanbul. In the year 1115/1704, when he became shaykh and inaugurated the dergah, he received the Divine Names, recitations, and prayers particular to his order, the wird-i kabir-i sabahiyyah (“the great morning litany”) and the wird-i saghir-i masa`iyyah (“the great evening litany”), the adab (rules of behavior), and the rules of his particular branch of the Khalwati Order, all through divine inspiration.

At one time Pir Nur al-Din Jarrahi had some forty thousand dervishes in many dergahs throughout Turkey. Some of his khalifas remained in Istanbul, and others went to Bursa, Edirne, and even as far away as Morea (Peloponnesus) in Greece, which at that time was part of the Ottoman Empire. Some of these khalifas established branches that flourish to this day, while other branches have been established since then elsewhere. Hadrat Moravi Shaykh Yahya Efendi, Pir Nur al-din Jarrahi’s fourth khalifah, was was one hundred years old when he returned to Istanbul to sit on the post at Karagumruk, after having built forty dergahs in the Moreas peninsula. He was murshid there for twenty-four years and died during a khalwah, that time of spiritual seclusion which is characteristic of the order. The seclusion is not from the world but from the attraction of the world. Pir Nur al-Din encouraged his dervishes to be in the world, but not of the world.

Initially the dergah at Karagumruk attracted the court of the sultan and administrators, just as the Mevlevi at that time attracted intellectuals and artists, the Bektashi drew the military, and the Naqshbandi the clergy. Today people from all walks of life gather there for dhikr. On any given night the minister of protocol or a university professor might be seated next to a shoemaker or a carpenter.

Unique to the Jarrahis is their many-faceted dhikr, which originated as particular gifts given in recognition of Pir Nur al-Din’s station. It is said traditionally that the blue post upon which the shaykh of the principal dergah sits was a gift of Hadrat Huda`i of the Jalwati branch of the Khalwatiyyah. The part of the shaykh’s turban that hangs on the left side of the taj was a gift from `Abd al-Qadir Jilani. Ahmad Rifa`i sent the metal top of the flag and the qiyam dhikr. Jalal (power) came from Ibrahim Dasuqi and Jamil (Beauty) came from Ahmad Bedawi, who also sent a particular dhikr movement known as the bedevi topu. From the Naqshbandis came the recitation of the Qur’an during the dhikr. Shams al-din Siwasi sent the first chant sung in the dhikr and Shaykh Wafa, the repetitions done during the final circumnabulations. from Mawlana Jalal al-din Rumi came the Sultan Walad Walk and from Hadrat Sunbul Sinan the ism, or name, Ya Hayy, which is repeated as part of the dawran or circular movement in the dhikr. Within the Jarrahi tariqah can be found essential elements of many different sufi orders.

The Jarrahi dhikr is jahri (said aloud) and rhythmic, using musical compositions derived from various tariqahs. The Jarrahis are known as “Howling dervishes,” for the ism, Hu, is stretched, coupled with a breathing exercise which creates a controlled sound of the ism. This sound is often likened to the heavy rhythm of a saw as the shaykh indicates that the dhikr should become qalbi, issuing from the heart. Group singers called dhakirs stand outside the circle of dervishes along with musicians playing bendir and kudum (kinds of drums) and cymbals used for rhythm. In the dhikr ceremony the dervishes sit in a circle reciting the formula of tawhid (La ilaha illa’Llah), which is followed by the Supreme Name, Allah, and than the ism Hu. between each cycle there is a Quranic recitation and a du`a. The dervishes then stand and chant the usul, the initial ilahi given by Shams al-din siwasi. They continue with the repetition of Hu, which develops into the Divine Name Hayy. They conclude by repeating Hayy ul-Qayyum Allah, brought the them initially by Shaykh Wafa, and finally Hayy, Hayy, Hayy, Hu.

Each dervish is given certain Names or asma’, according to his station. the number increases to twenty-eight asma’, which is a secret of the tariqah.

Since Pir Nur al-Din Jarrahi, twenty shaykhs have sat on the blue post (dyed sheepskin) at the principal dergah in Karagumruk and followed Islamic principals in order to bind themselves to Allah. Nineteen of these shaykhs, along with Pir Nur al-Din and his family, are buried in the dergah. The nineteenth, al-Hajj Shaykh Muzaffereddin al-Jerrahi al Khalwati, came to America and initiated a branch of the order in the West. Shaykh Muzaffer’s principal goal was to have as many people as possible repeat the phrase of unity: There is no god, but God, and Muhammad is His messenger.” He died in Istanbul on 12 February 1985, with his head lowered in prayer and his lips and heart repeating the phrase of Unity. today, Shaykh Safer Efendi, the twentieth shaykh of the Jarrahi Order’s principal dergah, leads Muslims in prayer at the original Jarrahi dergah in Istanbul, and the order continues to be active in america.

A Talk on the Nature of Justice (1/6/2007)

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 18:43:00 GMT

Some people say that Bahlul-ud-dana was the stepbrother of the caliph Harun al-Rashid. To the people, he appeared to be totally out of his mind. In Islam, there is a state which is called madzub, which comes from jazba, meaning passion or ecstasy in English. Muslims respect such crazy people because they think that Allah’s knowledge and wisdom have poured so heavily on them that they are crushed. There are many stories of Bahlul-ud-dana.

One day, he entered the palace, and was able to get into the throne room undetected. He went and sat on the throne of Harun al-Rashid, and when the guards saw him they immediately grabbed him, and starting beating him, because one does not sit on the throne of the sultan. Bahlul-ud-dana started shouting and crying. The sultan heard, and came to the throne room. He commanded the guards and said, “Stop! Don’t you know that Bahlul is not in his right mind! What did he do? Why are you beating him?”

The guards replied: “My sultan! He sat on your throne!”

Harun-al-Rashid said to Bahlul: “ Excuse them; they do not know who you are.” But he kept screaming and shouting and crying.

The guards exclaimed, “Please Bahlul, forgive us.”

“Stop crying,” said the sultan. “Why are you still crying?”

Bahlul-ud-dana replied: “I am not crying for myself, I am crying for you.”

The sultan was in shock. “You are crying for me? Why are you crying for me?”

“Because for the few seconds I sat on your throne, I got a terrible beating! You have been sitting there for so long. Can you imagine what a beating you will get?”

At that, the sultan started weeping, and said, “Bahlul, give me advice. What should I do?”

And Bahlul-ud-dana answered: “Justice, justice, justice.”

We as Sufis, as Muslims, and as human beings, have to know what justice is, and we have to exercise justice every minute of our lives. In terms of the ordinary meaning of justice, we think that if somebody commits a crime, then justice takes care of it by punishing him for that crime. We think that if somebody takes something that does not belong to him, from somebody who is weaker, that he then should return it to the weaker one. We think that is what justice is. But justice is much more complicated than that.

If we would try to understand justice from what is being done in the name of justice in our society, we would be confused. We are living in a society where there is a certain justice for blacks; a different justice for browns; a different justice for whites; a different justice for the rich, and a different justice for the poor. The sick child, if he is poor, goes to the hospital; he does not have insurance, and he dies. The rich child gets cured. So don’t look for the meaning of justice in our world today.

What is justice? In this universe of ours exists a divine harmony, a divine order. Justice is to abide, and to go along with this divine order, and injustice is to oppose and go against this divine order. Now what do we know? We do not know enough philosophy; we do not know enough anatomy; and we do not know enough biology, or physics or chemistry. How are we going to find out what this divine order is?

Divine order is simply this: Allah has given us a pair of eyes. These eyes are supposed to see reality. These eyes are supposed to seek truth. These eyes are supposed to see the artwork of the Creator and remember the Creator. These eyes are supposed to take lessons from what they see. Although our eyes are open, we look but we do not see. In short, we are heedless; we are unconscious. When we prefer our imagination to reality, then we are being unjust to our eyes.

Allah has given us these two lips, a tongue, and the ability to speak. Speech is meant to tell the truth which we learn through our other senses. When that mouth lies, we are doing injustice to our tongue. Allah has given us two hands; these hands were meant to give; these hands should caress the heads of the orphans. These hands are created to wipe the tears of the ones who are sad. When we use these hands to hurt people, or to take from others that which does not belong to us, then we are doing injustice to our hands.

Allah Hu Ta'ala has given a destined time to live. Divide a lifespan into months, divide it into weeks, divide it into days, into hours, into moments. The greatest injustice that we commit is the injustice to the time which is allotted to us. We spend this time in vain, and do not value that which is the most valuable thing that Allah Hu Ta'ala has given to us. This moment that I have lost, I cannot have back. If I spill the coffee, I can get a new one. If the house burns, I can get a new one. If I lose my wife, I can get a new one. But, the moment I have lost, I can never get back. The greatest crime, the greatest injustice, that we do in our life is the injustice which we do to time.

In addition, we do injustice to our lives. Allah Hu Ta’ala has not created us to dwell in criticism, hatred, and negativity. He has given us the ability, all the tools, to create our paradise in this world, to do good in this world. He says in the Qur’an al-Karim that He taught our father Adam (as) the names of all and everything, including all His divine names. We are in possession of these divine names, but we keep them in the dark, next to our soul, which is put into a dungeon deep, deep inside us. We are the servants of our egos, and we create our own hell. We create our own enemies, and we are our own enemies.

It is time to be just. It is time to teach others to be just, because if we are pure, clean loving and caring, our environment indeed is going to be transformed into a rose garden.

Harun-al-Rashid used to change his royal clothes and put on normal clothes, as it was customary for the sultans to do. He would go out to the streets with his vizier, and see how people were living, how they were doing. One day, he was out in the countryside, and he encountered an old man who was digging the ground and planting things. He asked him: “Old man what are you planting?”

The old man answered, “I am planting a date orchard.”

The sultan asked him: “Old man, how long does a date orchard take to grow and to bear fruit?”

The old man said: “Sometimes twenty or thirty, but usually it takes up to forty years to bear fruit.”

The sultan replied: “But old man, are you going to be alive to pick those dates and to profit from what you are doing?”

“No, I know I will not be alive.”

“Then why are you doing it?”

He said: “Sir, I eat from what the generation before me has planted, I profit from what generations before me have constructed. Why shouldn’t I do the same?”

The sultan liked the idea so much, he put his hand in his pocket, took out a handful of gold and gave it to him.

“You see, you were doubting that my orchard was going to give fruit in the next twenty or thirty years, but it has yielded fruit already.”

And again the sultan liked that answer so much, that he put his hand into his pocket and took out another hand full of gold and gave it to him. The old man said: “You see, already in one season it has given me two harvests!”

The sultan said to his vizier, “Let us leave here, or we will not have a penny in our pocket if this man continues.”

Justice is using your time with consideration, with care. Using your time with love is justice. Allah Hu Ta’ala says in the Qur’an al-Karim that when you do something good, you profit yourselves; when you do something evil, you do it to your own loss. (Surah Israh 17:7) You do create your own rewards, and you do create your own punishment. No one else has to punish you; you create your own punishment when you do an injustice.

In a hadith Rasulallah (saws) says that this world is our farm; the fruits of what we plant here, we will gather in the hereafter. But who thinks about the hereafter? In fact, this life is like that: when we come to this world we are given a little bag with some seeds inside. Some of us do not hold the bag too well, and by the time we are looking for some place to plant, somehow we have already spilled the seeds and the crows have eaten them. Those are the heedless and careless ones. Those are the ones of whom Rasulallah (saws) said: “Men are asleep, they will wake up when they die, and it will be too late.”

Then there are the ones who take the seeds, and immediately look for a place to plant them. They see a wasteland and they throw the seeds; of course the seeds do not germinate. Those are the lazy ones, who do things in a hurry like that, and then nothing happens. Then there are the ones who take the seeds, thinking they need sunshine and water. They see someplace where there is a lot of water, and the sun is shining, so they plant the seeds there, not realizing that underneath is only rock, so the seeds germinate just a little bit, and die. Those are the stupid ones. Then there are the ones who patiently look for a place where the climate is good, and the earth is good, and they work hard to plant the seeds well, covering and watering them, caring for them. They are the chosen ones.

We belong to one of these categories. The heedless ones; the one in a hurry; the stupid ones, or the chosen ones. You can figure out which category you belong to. This is how we spend our lives. Because this is what we do, we plant those seeds in this life.

We know all these things. Yet, we go along and do whatever our egos tell us to do, and we do not even realize whose servant we are. Allah addresses the world. He says, “Oh world, if that creature which I have created as the best of My creation, looks at you, and is charmed by you, and falls in love with you, and forgets all about Me, be a terrible master to that creature and make him your servant, and make him work, and whip him day in, day out.

“Oh world,” He says, “if that creature which I have created, as I have created you, looks at you, and he sees everything which is in you as beautiful and he attributes everything to Me, and considers it My art and he remembers Me with affection, and with love, then, be a slave to that creature which I have created, and work for it with all your force.”

The world is not a bad place; it depends on how we relate to it. If we take it as our master and we love it, we become its slave. But, if we see in it the creation of the Creator and it reminds us of the Creator, and of the values of the attributes of the Creator, then the world becomes our slave. Allah says that He has created everything for human kind and human kind for Himself. But it depends on how we act. Indeed not only the world, but the whole universe, belongs to us. Allah has sent the human being as His caliph, as His representative to the universe.

Someone asked Hd. Omar (ra) how a ruler should be with his people, and Hd. Omar (ra) said: A ruler is worthy of that name, if he serves his servants instead of expecting his servants to serve him.

Adaptation from Farid ud-din Attar's The Conference of the Birds (Mantiqu't-Tair)

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 16:48:00 GMT

Oh the one who knows the road, we cannot foresee the end of this voyage, full of dangers and failures and fears. Tell us, how much longer must we strive?

There are only seven valleys through which we must pass; then we will arrive at His House. But, no one knows how the road is, for no one has come back to tell us.

Now we are at the Valley of Wish and Hope. Then we will come to the Valley of Love. The third part of the trip is through the Valley of Knowledge, and the fourth will be the Valley of Seclusion, when we will abandon all needs. The fifth valley we will pass will be so clear and so pure; it is the Valley of Unity and Oneness. The sixth is the most difficult and fearful: the Valley of Awe. And the final station is the Place of Annihilation, where we will no longer be, and there will be no more walking or striving; here, our Lord will take us home with Him, and the drop will become the ocean.

If you really care to know where you are, you must see, in this Valley of Wish and Hope, that every breath incites hundreds of questions, confusions, failures. The giant we thought ourselves becomes a small fly! Alas! We have to walk a long way in this valley, spend years shedding tears and blood, passing from one state to another: one day this, one day that. Is this round thing “a grape” or an “engur” or “uzum?” Instead of touching a thing which we do not know, better to drop it. Better drop everything that we thought we knew and needed. Then when we have nothing left, either in our hands or in our hearts, maybe we will see a tiny light at the end of the road: a light, we hope, from the open door of His Home. Then the wish and hope will multiply a thousandfold; barriers of fire, oceans to cross, become no handicap to the one who has been shown the light. If you say, “I look day and night and do not see the light,” it is not that the light is absent, but that the eyes of wish and hope are closed.

Someone saw Mejnun digging in the dirt. He asked, “Oh Mejnun, what are you looking for in the dirt?”
He answered, “I am looking for Leyla.”
“What would Leyla be doing in the dirt?”
Mejnun said, “Let me look wherever I can, perchance one day, I will find her.”

You, who call yourself a seeker, if you look ahead, straight, up and down, to what is in front of you, you will see that every atom is a Jacob looking for his beloved Joseph. What you need is to persevere and to wait, like you waited sitting in blood for nine months in your mother’s belly. If you need bread, don’t come out; eat the blood. Be patient; your appointed time will come. But when you are brought out, do not wish to return to the safety of the mother’s womb. For whatever you attach yourself to becomes your ideal.

When we will leave the Valley of Wish and Hope, we will enter the Valley of Love. To set foot in that valley, you have to be alive with a thousand lives. This is no place for the walking dead. You have to have a thousand lives, to sacrifice a life at each breath. You have to be brave, you have to be free, you have to be a real human, and you must leave your mind behind. If you look at love with the eyes of your mind, you are blind.

The mind extinguishes the fire of love. If you are given sight from the realms of the unseen, then you will be able to see that all and everything is made of love. When you have the vision of the unseen, there is no longer shade or light, night or day, good or bad, right or wrong, this or that. There is no more doubt, neither yesterday’s memories nor tomorrow’s hope. Someone said “You will see the beloved tomorrow.” Some believed him and waited, but tomorrow never came. The lover’s tomorrow is now, and it is here. That is where he finds his love.

The angel of death came to the prophet Abraham (as), the friend of God. Abraham (as) said to the angel, “I will not give my soul to you. Tell that to your Lord.”
The Lord responded, “If you are truly my friend, give up your life.”
Abraham (as) replied, “Oh my Beloved, you sent your archangel Gabriel as your messenger to help me, when Nimrod threw me into fire; I refused help, and You saved me. Now, how can I give up my soul to Izrail when You gave it to me? If I had a thousand lives they would be my sacrifice to You.” And Abraham (as) went to his Lord in love and happiness.

When there is no longer life, and when you are no longer alive, only then are you with the Beloved. Yearning to know the Beloved, love of the unknown, will lead us to the Valley of Knowledge. It is a vast valley with neither a beginning nor an end. There are so many avenues in that Valley of Knowledge. Each road is meant for someone different, for how could a camel and an ant take the same path? Each will follow his own path. Some will find the mosque; some will be led to a temple of fire. But either in an idol or in the revealed Qur’an, one will find what one yearned for. In that valley, at the end of your appointed path, beneath the idol or the Word, the Truth will shine, though not all who seek will find.

So that one perfect man will obtain all knowable secrets, a million people will be lost in the wilderness seeking knowledge. Oh seeker, do not ever stop or retrace your steps. Do not ever say: “I found it,” even if you reach the throne. Say rather: “I want more.” If you cannot know your Lord and you are kept apart, then mourn. Shed tears of desperation, scream in pain. Perchance someone will hear your laments and come to hold your hand.

There is someone all the way in China who has turned into stone like a sculptured fountain; tears pour from his stone eyes. As the teardrops fall on the ground, they also turn into stone. If a drop of those tears could fall on a rain cloud, from the pain it contains, not a drop of rain would fall upon the earth. That one who has turned into stone had the purest soul and the truest of tongues, and his name was Knowledge. But he turned into stone due to the disregard and the ungratefulness of the heedless and the heartless. If you have it in your heart, go and seek him even in China.

Then we will arrive at the Valley of Seclusion. Seven oceans seem like a lake here. Seven hells are like a spark fallen on frozen land. The eight paradises have no meaning here, for there is neither meaning nor purpose. The ant on the path is given the strength of a giant. To light the candle, to see the way in the hand of Adam, a million angels turn like moths fallen on fire. So that Noah (as) would build his ark, a million lives drown in the flood. To teach Abraham (as) the Truth, a million mosquitoes swarm upon Nimrod’s hoards. To untie the tongue of Moses (as), a generation of babies are killed. Millions have to seek the Lord so that Jesus (as) can find Him. Millions of souls are pillaged so that Muhammad (saws) is raised on his Night Journey. There is neither old nor new, neither past nor future. When a million are here, and the sun rises, only the shadow of a blade of grass is missing. If a million stars fall it is as if a leaf has fallen. If both the unknown universe and the hereafter are lost, a simple piece of sand will be missing.

Oh my companions on the path to Truth, open the eyes of your heart, look at where you are; where is the part, where is the whole? Where are Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus (as) and the beloved of the Lord (saws)? Where have the sons and daughters of Adam gone? Where are the seas, the mountains, the skies of yesteryear? If you take all the suns, the moons and the stars, they are but a dream, a mirage. What difference does it make if you and others live or die? It is not easy to cross this Valley. No one has returned to tell us how far away its end lies. We cannot give up and stop, but to continue to run is also futile. To keep going or to give up is the same. Only if you keep walking, you hear Him calling, “Come!” So keep going.

Keep striving. But do not count on anything. What are we working for? So that perchance we will find what is worthy to work for. What is it that we are striving for? Perhaps we will be shown that which has to be done. Understand that you are alone. Either sing joyful songs or mourn. Everything turns into stone, either into a diamond or into a dry piece of bone. Oh Soul! Open your seven wings and rise over your flesh and bone, and fly over the Valley of Loneliness. Leave yourself, for “you” and “He” creates duality, the unforgivable sin. Enter into the Valley of Oneness.

No matter how numerous and varied, everything is united in the Valley of Oneness. If everyone who entered here would raise their heads, it would be as one single self. There is no multitude anymore. All are counted “one times one is one, ad infinitum”. But do not confuse this oneness with the One and Only God. Here, there is neither before the before, nor after the after. As there is no before nor after, between the two there can be nothing. Someone asked a knowledgeable one: “Tell me, what is all this existence?”
And he said, “It is like Moses’ burning bush; to others it is a bush of many leaves, while to Moses, it is one ball of fire from which the Lord speaks.” The flame burns all into ashes and nothing exists. All is not Him, but from Him and within Him, yet the Lord is none of it and free from it. While you think you exist, there is right and wrong and the path seems unending. When you realize you are nothing, you are where you are bound to be, where there is no duality. He made you and all creation from nothing. Oh! If we could have remained nothing!

As long as you think you exist, there will be choices to make: beautiful and ugly, right and wrong, belief and disbelief. When there is you and Him, and you keep calling yourself “I,” thousands of snakes and scorpions sleep with you in your bed. If you move, they will all wake up and turn your life into hell. So give up your bad habits, all your habits; then become like dust and let the wind blow you away. There will no longer be right and wrong, beautiful and ugly, me and you. All is from Him. All is because of Him. All is in Him. There is nothing but Him.

When we are lost in the Valley of Oneness, in the Valley of Awe, even the cognizance of being lost will be lost. All is pain and yearning; at every breath a thousand blades of sharp swords are falling; from every pore we will be bleeding. We will turn into a frozen flame. We will not know where we are. The love in our hearts will be overwhelming, but who is that one we are loving? What was all a dream becomes reality, a thing we have never seen.

A king who owned the whole world had a most beautiful daughter. She had princely suitors, as many as the hairs on her head. Her beauty blinded the ones who looked upon her face, like people who stare at the sun. One day a slave in the palace saw her by chance. He himself was as beautiful as the princess. His heart stopped; he lost his mind. He fell in love. The princess had seen him too; she too fell in love with the slave. She lost her appetite for life; with the flame of yearning she began melting like a burning candle. How could the beloved only daughter of the Sultan of the world love a lowly slave?

She thought: “If I declare my love to him, he might misunderstand, might think himself a sultan and destroy himself. But if I can attain my wish, and have my love in my arms without his knowing, he will be mine.” She secretly sent a messenger to him, offering him a sweet wine, which he could not resist. It made him pass out; he was brought to her senseless, and was laid down on a throne. When he woke up in the middle of the night, he found himself in a palace, smelling of musk, with sweet music playing. With his beloved lying next to him, his body burnt in flames, his soul flew to his lips but his tongue was tied. In awe, and motionless like the dead, tears of joy poured from his eyes. The princess also was crying tears of blood, shedding them upon the lips she kissed, the cheeks she caressed. All that he could do was watch in amazement through a cloud of tears. Then in shock, he thought he had died. The slave was brought back to his place as senseless as he had left it. When he returned to consciousness, he felt all empty, as if he had lost himself. What he had seen with his eyes open, no one had seen even in dreams. He had no tongue to describe what he had seen. While he had seen everything, he had seen nothing. Everything was evident, yet it was secret. Neither was he able to forget it nor to remember it. He had seen beauty the like of which no one had ever seen, a light compared to which the Sun was but a spark. He felt that he had seen that way before that night, but could not recall when. He felt neither alive nor dead, and nothing mattered any more. Like that slave in love, Oh, the one in the Valley of Awe, do not ask where to go next or what to do. You have done enough for now. Now there is no need. Wait, your wish will come to your feet.

In the Valley of Annihilation, when you will stretch out your hand to hold the Hand offered to you, you will find that you do not have a hand. You are deaf, dumb, and blind, and without any memories. And there is no return. Thus who could ever talk about it? A little fish asked his father, “What is this sea, which everybody is talking about?”
The big fish answered, “Only the fish who leave the sea know it, my son, and they cannot tell.”

One night the moths gathered and started talking about what they wished for most, and decided that one amongst them should fly away and bring them news of the fire. One moth flew away, saw a flame from a distance, and recorded its description, as he saw it, in his notebook. Amongst the moths there was one who could not fly, but who had knowledge, and it said that what they wished for was not what the moth reported. Yet another moth flew out, and found the candle whose flame the former moth had seen. It fluttered around and under the candle, and even felt the heat. It too came back and reported, but the old moth with singed wings said, “No, that isn’t it.” They all came to gaze upon the distant flame. Then the moth who knew chose a moth amongst moths: brave, heedful, who knew what to do and how to submit. It flew directly into the flame, burning and turning into flame itself. And the old moth said “Now it knows.”

Oh lover! Lift the veils of selfishness hiding the Beloved and find the flame of Sacred Light. If you burn and annihilate yourself, the Holy Qur’an’s soul will find in you a body in which to become alive.

Adapted from Hd. Farid ud-din Attar’s Mantiqu't-Tair,

by Shaykh Tosun Bayrak el-Jerrahi

Jumadal-’Ula 1421 August, 2000

Adaptation of Hd. Ibn Arabi's Futuhat Al-Makkiyya

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 18:55:00 GMT

Oh, My Dear Companions on the Path to Truth,

Seek the company of the men of knowledge. Listen to their words of wisdom, for the hearts which are adamant become alive, warmed by the light of wisdom, as the sleeping earth turns green with the spring rain.

Speak less, for it is the way of the wise, although few can do it.

Neither stop hoping for Allah’s compassion and forgiveness, nor think that His punishment is sure. Fear Him, but keep hoping, and love Him.

If you say that you have only one heart which is all filled with the love of this world, know that the faithful one has two hearts, neither of which was created for the love of this world. One fears Allah and the other hopes for His compassion.

Say Estaghfirullah (Oh Lord forgive me) often so that you will catch that time when Allah accepts all prayers.

Many of us carry heavy loads, responsibilities not lighter than the stone which the menial worker carries on his back. But there is no heavier load than a bad neighbor, or the company of someone whose nature is the opposite of one’s own.

Many of us taste pain, but there is no greater pain than poverty.

Neither borrow nor lend, for doing so will keep you awake at night and poison your days.

Know that an action which you wish to take will only succeed if you have strong faith. He whose faith is weak will perform weak action and will fail in the end. When Satan puts doubt in your heart, only your faith in Allah can pull it out.

When laziness overcomes you, you can only conquer it by remembering death and the Day of Last Judgment. The condition of laziness, leaving things for tomorrow, is the way of the ones who think they will never die.

Never delegate anyone who is unintelligent and ignorant to do something for you, or in your name. It is better to do it yourself.

Beware of lying. To lie is like eating radishes, which whet your appetite but burn your stomach.

Choose to participate in funerals rather than wedding feasts, for death reminds you of the hereafter while a feast ties you to this world.

Don’t eat again soon after you have eaten. Even if you are offered the best food, it is better to feed it to a dog than to eat it yourself.

Don’t be too sweet, or people will devour you; don’t be too bitter, or people will throw you down and crush you.

Are you lazier than the rooster which crows at dawn? Then why are you lying asleep when the rooster has awoken?

Don’t delay repentance, for death may come upon you unexpectedly.

Don’t be fooled by the love of the ignorant.

Fear Allah who sees you at all times, and don’t pretend to be what you are not.

Feed the believers.

Consult the ones who know in things you do.

Love your friends. Respect the friends of your parents.

This world is an ocean; so many drown in it. You can only be safe in the boat of the fear, hope and love of Allah, whose sail is faith, whose rudder is trust in Allah. Nothing else will help you.

Wisdom makes the pauper sit on the throne of kings.

Parents who discipline their children are like the gardeners who water their flowers.

There are three tests for three qualities:

Kindness is proven at the time of anger.
Valor is proven at the time of tyranny.
Generosity is proven at the time when one is in need oneself.

If you wish to test a friend, try to make him angry. If he forgives you, keep him. If he gets angry, leave him.

Someone asked another if he could have something sweet. He was brought a beef tongue. The man was annoyed, but the one who offered the tongue explained that it was the sweetest thing in the world. Then the man said, "Then bring me something bitter." He was again brought the same tongue, and he was told that that it was also the most bitter thing in the world.

The Messenger of Allah (saws) said, "Speak softly; better still speak little; that is what the wise do. But the ones who do it are very few."

from a Hadith of advice from Hd. Luqman (as) to his son

Allah Most High created His angels as the manifestation of His attribute Al Qawi, the Possessor of All Strength. And the strongest amongst them are the angels of Hell. The strength of mankind is limited. Knowing this, Allah only offers man things to do which are within the limits of his strength. It is He who orders the obligation to act and gives others the strength to act with His strength.

And the sincere believer who cannot, on his own, gather the strength to do what he is ordered to do, is helped by Allah’s angels in their manifestation of the Possessor of All Strength.

The strongest among Allah’s creation is woman, for she is the most desired. The one who desires is always weaker that the one who is desired.

Allah says in the Holy Qur’an:

"(Oh Aysha and Hafsa) If you are planning to make alliance against your husband, Muhammad, know that Allah and Gabriel and all true believers and angels are his helpers."

In this verse, Allah declares the immense power of women, against which Allah mentions so many material and spiritual forces. Allah has created His most powerful angels from the breath of women. That is why the Messenger of Allah (saws) says:

"Fear the world and fear women."

From the Futuhat al-Makkiyya of Hd. Ibn Arabi (ks)

2/19/99

Advice Following the Passing of Shaykh Safer Efendi (ra) (March 1999)

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 16:46:00 GMT

My dear companions on the path to Truth, Assalam alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.

We thank you for the fine feelings you have expressed on the passing of our shaykh Safer Efendi.

Our Master the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) says, “Allah does not cause pain to the ones He loves, but sometimes tries their patience and love for Him by causing them misfortune.” The ones whose faith is strong bear this misfortune with patience, for they know that there is relief, indeed even good, behind the worst of these trials. They do not blame their Lord as the faithless do. In fact, they are thankful because they know that their Lord is testing their love. The faithful continue to follow what they believe, keeping active in serving their Lord, and that helps them to forget and reduces their pain.

But the ones whose only love is for the world think of only the worldly effects of misfortune, scream in pain, complain and lament for their losses. For the closer one is to the world, the farther away he is from his Lord. They do not hear Him; they do not like the words of His prophet; they do not believe in destiny, and they ignore the ones who do. Yet the only hope they have is the help of the ones who are with Allah. But they choose to be together with the ones like themselves, who think they can act and can satisfy their own needs.

The only cure for them is to realize that the wound is not caused by the knife, nor is the doctor the one who cures them. For these are tools in the hands of their destiny. The knife does not cut if the Lord does not will it, neither can the doctor cure. If they realize this and repent, and are sincere in their repentance, Allah will accept their repentance. Then they will not do it again, and He will forgive them. Then they too will believe in destiny, and they too will accept Allah’s will, even if it is painful. To be better or worse, to be rich or poor, to be well or sick, even alive or dead will be equal. Our Lord is not obliged to account for what He wills for us; what seems bad to us may be good for us. That is how one finds peace.

Listen my friends, accept destiny, be together, keep Unity. Obey your teachers and the rules you were taught, and others will follow you. You will only find teachers whom you deserve. Keep serving and working and you will find help, and you will be rewarded to the extent of your service. Our Lord is Gentle and Generous. He protects His loyal servants and gives infinitely more than we deserve. No one who is good and sincere has ever known otherwise. He who serves is served. The obedient one is cherished and never punished. Many have obeyed and served the fake bosses of this world; what have they obtained? Have they been able to give anything which our Lord did not mean for them to give? What harm has ever come from them? Were they even able to do anything for themselves? Were they able not to die or even delay their death? No one gives, unless one is directed by our Lord to give. No one can do harm but by the will of Allah. No one can bring the end to the beginning, nor make the end a beginning, but our Lord. If we say that we know that, then why do we choose others over our Lord? Woe to us who defile our Hereafter with the dirt of this world, who confuse the dictates of our egos with the words of our Lord, who care more for the praise of the people than the love of our Lord, and are ashamed of their neighbors but not the All-Knowing Lord.

We cry because we have lost someone we love. Let these tears remind us to cry more with the shame of having undeservingly received love and all that we are from our Lord.

May Allah help us all.

Shaykh Tosun Bayrak al-Jerrahi

Words adapted from Hd. Abdul Qadir Gilani (k.s.)

Advice on How to Purify the Heart Through Rightful Behavior

Sat, 31 May 2014 21:23:00 GMT

This path is the path of tazkiyat al-qalb – purification of the heart from the filth of disharmony, excess, the unlawful, immoral sins, and the beautification and the illumination of the heart by harmony, order, good measure, morality and perfect behavior. The ones who know say, “Sufism is leaving bad manners, bad conduct, bad character and immorality, and entering good manners, perfect character and morality.”

Our Master the Beloved of Allah (saws), whom Allah praises in His Qur’an, saying, “Truly you are blessed with the best of conduct,” says, as reported by Abu Hurayra (ra), “I have been sent to help perfect beautiful conduct.”

Again, reported by Abu Hurayra, he said, “Allah does not beautify His servant’s character, and consequently his exterior being, to make him taste the Hellfire.”

The Messenger of Allah (saws), addressed himself to Abu Hurayra (ra), and said, “Oh Abu Hurayra what is enough for you is good conduct.” When Abu Hurayra asked, “What is good conduct, Oh Messenger of Allah?” our Master answered, “Not to abandon the one who has abandoned you, to forgive the one who has tyrannized you, to feed the one who has made you go hungry.”

Anas bin Malik reported that the one blessed with perfect behavior (saws) said, “He who has good character has obtained the best of this world and the hereafter.”

The same authority also reported that our Master (saws) said, “The good servant with beautiful behavior reaches the highest degrees and the highest honor in the hereafter, and the one who has bad manners falls to the lowest pit of Hell.”

Hd. Ma’muna (ra) reported the Prophet (saws) as saying, “Allah considers no sin worse than bad character and behavior, because the one who behaves badly starts one sin before he finishes another.”

Hd. Aysha (ra) reported our Master (saws) as saying, “Every sin has a corresponding repentance. Not so for bad conduct, because the misbehaving one does a worse sin before he repents for the previous one.”

Hd. Ibn Abbas (ra) reports the Messenger of Allah (saws) as saying, “Good behavior dissolves one’s errors as water melts ice, and bad character spoils good deeds as vinegar spoils honey.”

To cleanse your hearts, to revive your dead hearts, is your most important duty in this path, because the heart is the king of the realm of your being. The rest of your being obeys unconditionally the orders of that king. The Prophet (saws) says, “Be aware, there is a piece of flesh in this body that when it is proper and in order, your whole being is proper and in order; when it is spoiled, your whole being is spoiled. Know that it is the heart.”

The first and the most important step for the reviving and healing of the sick heart is adab, righteous behavior. Behavior and character are qualities through which all one’s being becomes manifest. It is possible to educate and change one’s conduct and character. All religious prescriptions, cannons, teachings, rites and devotions are means to that purpose. As with everything else, success is in accordance with one’s given ability, talent and nature. Indeed all is as Allah wills, yet the greatest gift which Allah has bestowed upon humankind is that small will by which we may choose, opting for the right, the truth, thus receiving the blessing of being in harmony with Allah’s will and letting Allah’s will be done, or choosing to revolt and attracting Allah’s curse, anger and punishment.

The source of the education and correction of one’s behavior and one’s character are the forces and energies that Allah has bestowed on each individual in quantities and qualities according to his lot. There are three such energies:

Nutuk – intellectual energy, the force of reasoning which is only capable of dealing with affairs addressing the mind. As the Prophet (saws), said, “There is good in the median.” The median of intellectual energy is Hikmah, that wisdom which is the ability to differentiate between the good and the bad, the right and the wrong, the true and the false. The overindulgence of the intellectual faculty results in discussion, in arguments and philosophy, such as, trying to interpret the Mutashabihat (allegorical and symbolic verses in the Qur’an), to put forward explanations of the secret of Qadr (destiny), or the Dhat (the essence of Allah), subjects which are forbidden to us, and outside of the realm of the intelligence. The extreme misuse of the faculty of reason leads a person to imagination, fantasy and illusion, where there is no separation of the real and the unreal, true and false, right and wrong. The misguided one is led in a diametrically opposite direction from the path that this faculty is meant to take him, leading him to misbehavior, bad character, and immorality.

Ghadab – emotional energy, which Allah has bestowed upon each human being to reject, to fight, and to free himself of that which is ugly, frightful, repellent and harmful. The median and the lawful use of this faculty is called Shaja’ – valor, bravery, the ability to attack, repel and subdue that which is harmful to his being. The exaggerated use of the same faculty leads the distortion of the goal: anger, quarrelsomeness; the extreme misuse of this faculty leads to cowardliness, which is a sickness and a sin, preventing the seeker from abolishing hindrances and reaching his goal.

Shawa’ – an energy that moves the seeker towards things that are beautiful, pleasing, beneficial. The median and the right use of this force is called ‘Iffah – chastity, uprightness, with which the human being obtains the wishes of his appetite but only through that which is lawful, and in a lawful way. The excess of desires results in an absence of conscience, shamelessness, and wickedness. Further excess leads to Fujur – debauchery, taking what pleases the ego without any discrimination or consideration of others. The extreme leads him to a state which is called Humud – extinction of all desires, whereby nothing gives any pleasure, not in a positive sense, but because he has been spoiled, having tried every pleasure and losing care for himself.

If these three faculties work harmoniously, acting upon conditions only within their realm in the right way, neither less nor in excess, the result will be a human being who is wise, valorous, honest and upright, qualities which signify good character resulting in good conduct, pleasing to Allah.

When there is confusion in the action of these three strengths of the ego: the intellect doing the duty of the emotions, the emotion doing the duty of the intellect, and the emotions doing the duty of the desires, the result is bound to be wrong, false, and unlawful. We are meant to watch the operation of these faculties in us. We will often see these disorderly confrontations of wrong actions and excessive reactions. If we are unable to see it ourselves, that which we see in others should serve us as lessons and we should ask ourselves if we are guilty of the same instead of condemning others. We should listen to the criticism, suggestions and advice of our friends and teachers, silencing our pride, arrogance and egotism. We should consider the accusations of our enemies, and value their insults more than the praise of our friends, as enemies truly seek to expose our faults. After diagnosing our sickness by applying what we have observed with the touchstone of the Shariah, which will show us right and wrong, lawful and unlawful, the sick one should admit his sickness, and the cure is difficult.

The greatest hardship is the admission of our weakness and our wrong, and then the search for causes of the sickness. Causes could be society, friends, even a family, outside influences, or one’s own wrongdoings, ignorance, arrogance, and ambition. Then we should try to eliminate these causes: change place, change life circumstances, change ourselves. To change ourselves is the hardest. We must be ashamed without making any excuses or having self-pity. We must accuse ourselves in private and in public, and impose on ourselves uncomfortable burdens, things which the ego dislikes. If you are stingy, go out and spend all your money, terrorizing your sense of security. If you are a coward, enter into dangerous situations, terrifying your fears, but do not lose the sense of measure. Remember that often sickness is cured by its opposite.

This is called Mujahadah – struggle with oneself. Its principles are to go against the wish and the will of your ego, to go against your habits, to force your will to obey Allah’s will by pushing it to work, not for its benefit but for Allah’s sake, and for the benefit of others. Increase worship and devotion by fasting, extra prayer, meditation and contemplation. This war with your ego can only be successful if it is accompanied by contemplation.

Contemplation in Sufism is described by the answer of Gabriel (as), when the Messenger of Allah (saws) asked him to explain Ihsan – that benevolence of Allah which keeps one clear of sin and impropriety. Gabriel (as) answered, “Ihsan is a gift of Allah which allows you to pray to Him as if you see Him, as, even if you do not see Him, He certainly sees you.”

Contemplation is that state of active awareness of the sight of your Lord upon you. That kind of contemplation becomes the source of all good action and becomes the reason for escaping all bad actions. The good servants of Allah make their accounting before their accounting is made for them. In fact, they do their accounting while the act to be accounted for is happening.

Allah does not send a trial without sending a solution: how to deal with family, marriage and financial crisis

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 20:00:00 GMT

Bismillah ir Rahman ir Rahim

Our brothers and sisters in Singapore, on the other side of the globe, have asked us to speak to them on some of the problems of the modern world and how the Muslims should deal with them.

We are honored indeed and we feel unworthy of that honor, for we are neither a shaykh-al-Islam to pass fatwahs, nor an alim, but we are humbly charged to serve a flock of Muslims in America. Although we feel unworthy to answer these questions ourselves, we were fortunate to have had teachers who were alims, and true shaykhs and we may be able to answer with their words.

When my shaykh charged me to speak publicly, he told me the following story of Behlul ad-Dana. You may not know who Behlul ad-Dana was. He lived in Baghdad when Haroun ar-Rashid was the khalif of the Abbasid Empire. He appeared as crazy person who lived on the streets, but in reality he was a wali-ullah and there are many stories about him in the Sufi tradition.

In the Islamic tradition we have a certain respect for people who behave unconventionally; we call them “majzub.” The word comes from “jezebe,” to attract. “Jazib” is someone attractive; “majzub” is someone who is in a continuous state of ecstasy because Allah hu Ta'ala has suddenly poured His manifestations upon him and he is crushed under their weight.

One day Behlul went to the market place in Baghdad, and on a stand he placed three human skulls, quite similar to each other, next to a huge nail, with price tags on each skull. The first one cost one cent, the second one cost one dollar, and the third was priced at a million dollars. People came and told him, "We know you are not right in the head, but what is that? Selling skulls in the market? They are all the same! And why do you price one at one penny, another at one dollar and another at one million dollars?"
Behlul took the big sharp nail, and hit the skull priced at one cent very hard and repeatedly on the temple. The nail wouldn’t penetrate. Then he hit the temple of the skull worth one dollar. The nail easily went into one side and came out the other side. Then he hit the temple of the third skull, worth one million dollars. The nail easily went in one side but wouldn’t come out from the other.

And my shaykh said, people are like that. When you speak, make sure that the people to whom you are talking hear you, and understand what you say, and agree with it, and are able to act upon what they hear. If one of these conditions is absent, then it is best that you keep silent. I am sure that my audience meets these conditions.

Furthermore, Rasulallah (saws) says “If you are asked for something, you should give it if you can.” And he also said, "Consult so that you will be sure."

Now I will humbly try to answer the questions.

How should a Muslim wife and husband behave towards each other?

On that subject we should also include: How should parents behave towards their children? and, How should people behave towards their parents? Because Rasulallah (saws) says, "Marry and have children so that I will be proud of you on the yawmid-din.” A proper marriage does not only depend on the relationship of the husband and the wife, but also on the relationship of the offspring to their parents and vice versa.

The details on this subject are so vast that even the specialists with PhDs cannot manage to answer them. In reality it is not a subject which relates to religion but to cultures. For instance, what we really want to understand is what a husband’s attitude towards his wife should be in accordance with our religion. I would say that a husband’s tyranny of his wife is not the monopoly of the Muslims alone. It existed two thousand years before the advent of Islam, and in ancient Greece, which the west considers as the cradle of civilization. In Athens, 500 BC, the women barely had rights above those of the slaves, and in England all the way to the 20^th century, women not only could not vote, but they and what they possessed belonged to their husband; they couldn’t divorce, and couldn’t even be decently educated.

But in the 21^st century, we Muslims are still infected by the sickness of tyrannizing our wives, parents and children, and we come up with unfounded arguments, using our religion to "prove" that our actions are ordered by our religion. It is undeniable that religion has an influence on certain cultural and social behavior, but seldom on social behavior that is wrong and blameworthy.

Some husbands think that they are being good Muslims by tyrannizing their wives and children. In modern times, when many of the young newly married women have to work outside the home to make money, they are also obliged to cook and clean and take care of the children, and work hard to have good relations with their in-laws, while they are often restricted from caring for their own parents.They also face other demands too intimate to be mentioned here. All this and more is expected from the wives without any condition or reservation, in the name of Islam. If our religion really has given this right to men, how could they behave otherwise?

So I would like to ask to those men who demand unconditional obedience from their wives and children: which ayat, which hadith, orders women to obey their husbands? I emphasizeunconditionally. Which ayat, which hadith, says that a women has to work around the clock, outside of the home, as well as at home, supporting the family, cooking, cleaning, educating and taking care of all the needs of the children, and satisfying her husband's physical needs as well? Is there no obligation for the husband?

How does one interpret the hadiths: "The best men are those who are best to their wives," and, "The most perfect believer in faith is the one who has the finest character, and the best of them is the one who is kindest to his wife." We know that our Prophet (saws) helped his wives with the household chores, to the point of taking needle, and thread, and sewing the tears in his own clothing. He took time to amuse his wives and tried to make them happy. Are we then only to imitate him in praying and fasting, and do we forget to take him as an example of a husband, a father, a grandfather, a friend, and a true human being? Some men think they are superior to their wife and children because they are physically bigger and stronger; or some men imagine that they are intellectually superior to them, which has been proven wrong by modern science; or even spiritually superior, because some of them go to jamaat prayers in the mosques, where often women are not welcome, or not permitted by their husbands to go. For those who think their size and strength makes them superior, perhaps an elephant or a hippopotamus is superior to them. For those who imagine that they are more clever and spiritually advanced than their wives, I say that, instead of this giving them license to tyrannize and abuse their wives, the example of our Prophet (saws) who was superior to all of us, should be considered, and like him, men should be kind, considerate, protective, generous and together with their wives.

I remember, years ago when I was a young dervish, my shaykh married a young couple. To the groom he said, "This woman is Allah’s gift to you. Allah entrusts her to you to love, to take care of, and to see to all her needs and to make her happy, and to live in peace. Those are your obligations, and if you do not perform your obligations you will be sinning." And to the bride he said, “My daughter, Allah has rewarded this man by entrusting you to him. He is obliged to love you, satisfy all your needs and make you happy and content. The only obligation you have towards him is to protect the sanctity of your home and nothing else."

A short while after, the husband came to complain that his wife did not do any housework, nor do anything for him, she just sat and amused herself. The shaykh asked to talk to her, and told her, “My daughter, when I told you that you had no obligation towards your husband, I failed to mention that for all the obligations he has towards you, he does not get any reward from Allah, and sins if he fails to make them, and is punished, while you are neither sinning nor are going to be punished for not taking care of him and your home. Allah will reward you at least ten times for what you do for him. But if you do not care to please Allah, nor care to receive His rewards, and if you continue not to care about him and your home, our religion permits a man to marry more than one wife. Perhaps he should marry a second wife who will do the household chores and take care of him." No sooner said, the young bride became a perfect wife, and took care of her husband and home thereafter.

Another advice my shaykh used to give to the newly married was that a marriage would be happy and lasting if the husband and wife would be willing to fulfill each others' wishes rather than their own, thereby not being selfish.

Perhaps a man comes home tired, and all he wants is to have his dinner and be with his family a while and go to bed, whereas the wife, who was bored the whole day, wants to go out for dinner, and perhaps go to a concert, a theater or visit friends. If the wife insists on staying home to please her husband, and the husband wants to go out to please his wife, even if they argue with each other, it is a sweet fight, contrary to the usual fight, when they both insist on what they each want for themselves; then that marriage is going to be a good and lasting marriage.

My shaykh also gave this advice in choosing wives and husbands. First, the wife should be more attractive than the husband; second, the wife should be younger than the husband. In fact the formula which my shaykh’s shaykh, Fahreddin Efendi (ra) gave was that the wife should be half her husband's age plus seven years. Third, the husband should be richer or have the potential to be richer than his wife; fourth, they should both be devout believers, and fifth, they should both come from devout families.

PARENTS AND CHILDREN

A Muslim's life does not only continue in the hereafter forever, but also continues in this world as long as the world lasts. Our children and grandchildren and their children’s children are our continuation on the face of this planet. Our books of good deeds and sins are not closed by our demise, but continue with the good deeds and sins of our children, which belong to our accounting long after we are gone. Therefore, the education of our children is of the greatest importance. The Prophet (saws) says, "The best of fathers are those who are teachers to their children." Parents should not only teach by words, but through their behavior and character, which have a greater impact on the child’s future life, which then will affect his children. This duty of being a teacher is perhaps more important for the mother, for by her nature she is more loving, caring and devoted to her children. The education of the child starts already when the fetus is in her belly, not only with what she eats and drinks, and the physical conditions in which she lives, but also through what she hears and sees are important for the development of the child. Then, upon coming to this world, the child is given a name. A good name is extremely important and the ritual in our religion is such a beautiful one.

A newborn child is held in the arms preferably of a wise man, or the father, who chants the adhan into the baby’s right ear and the qamet al-salah into his left ear, followed by pronouncement of the given name of the child, and identified as the son or daughter of the mother. In our religion one does not chant the adhan or qamet al-salah unless it is followed by a prayer, and there is no prayer unless the adhan and qamet al-salah are chanted before it. There is no prayer after the adhan and qamet al-salah are chanted to the child’s ears, and there is only one prayer when there is not an adhan or qamet al-salah before it, which is the funeral prayer. So at birth, the adhan and the qamet al-salah of the baby’s funeral prayer are chanted into his ears, a beautiful reminder of our temporality, and of the importance of the remembrance of death.

When Rasulallah (saws) was about to leave this world, he called his ashab and said, "Soon I will leave you and go to my Lord, but I am leaving you with two great teachers. One is a speaking teacher and the other is a silent teacher."
The Ashab asked, 'Who is the speaking teacher and who is the silent teacher?'
"The speaking teacher is the Qur'an al Karim and the silent teacher is the remembrance of death, he replied.

After the naming of the baby, the child principally stays in the mother’s care until puberty and after puberty the responsibility of the male child falls mostly on the father, who is obliged to teach his son and partly his daughter how to live like a believer and a Muslim.

There was a venerable shaykh named Vefa during the Ottoman Empire. Both he and his wife were very devout and blessed with proper adab. When the wife was pregnant with their son, she went to visit a friend of hers and there was a bowl of fruit, including lemons, in the room, and as it happens sometimes to pregnant women who have a terrible yearning, she desired a sip of lemon juice from the lemons she saw in the bowl. Being too shy to ask her friend for a taste of lemon, when the hostess left the room for a few minutes, she took a lemon, pierced it with her hair pin and sipped some drops of lemon juice, then put the lemon back in the bowl. Years later when the son was six or seven years old, while playing in the street before their house, the child took the habit of piercing with a nail the soft water containers made out of animal skins which the water sellers had at that time. Finally the poor water sellers complained to shaykh Vefa, who was terribly embarrassed. Instead of reprimanding the child he said to his wife, "The mischief that child is doing is certainly caused by something wrong which we must have done. I can’t remember doing anything wrong which resembles what the child is doing. Dear wife, have you ever done anything wrong?" And she remembered the incident in her pregnancy. She asked Allah’s forgiveness, bought a basket of lemons and brought them to her friend whose lemon she had punctured, and asked her forgiveness. The child then stopped doing mischief to the water carriers.

Tawba, istigfar, is perhaps not well understood by some Muslims. Allah in His mercy may forgive any sin we do against Him, with the exception of running partners to him, but the wrong we do to other people, in fact to any of His creation, is not forgiven by Allah unless we obtain the forgiveness of the people we have wronged. In fact, we are told that on the Day of Last Judgment we will be forced to give our good deeds to the person we wronged or whom we owe, and when we run out of good deeds we will be receiving his sins, unless we receive his pardon in this world.

There is a Turkish proverb which says the grandchild’s mouth puckers from the taste of the lemon which his grandfather ate.

PARENTS

As far as our responsibility to our own parents, our Prophet (saws) says: "Paradise is under the feet of the mothers." We can never hope to repay the nine months during which our mother carried us in her belly and fed us with her blood, and afterwards with the sweet milk from her breast, or her care and devotion to her last breath. Allah hu Ta'ala says in the Qur'an al Karim that we are not even supposed to say "oof" to our parents. We care about how we can be happy in our own homes with our own wives and children when we leave the parental home, and seldom think about our thanklessness to our parents. May they and Allah hu Ta'ala forgive us.

EPILOGUE AND FAITH

We humbly touched on some of the questions asked, but I sincerely think that the dilemma is not in the solution of specific problems, and in the way that Muslims should deal with them. The question is: do we really believe, and are we truly Muslims? If we were, would these problems even exist?

I don’t know if you have ever heard or read the farewell sermon of our Prophet (saws). It is quite short, and it mostly deals with specific practical problems of the Muslims, such as the rights of the man and wife in marriage, the rights of children, matters of inheritance, respecting contracts and pledges, lending money, abolishing interest, ending blood feuds and bloodshed among people, etc. like we have been talking about today. The messenger of Allah did not talk much about spiritual matters except he said, "O believers, I leave you a trust which, if you hold fast to it, you will never go astray. That trust is Allah's words, the Qur'an al Karim."

He knew that he was talking to true believers, real Muslims. Because they were believers they understood, agreed and were able to follow his instructions.

Faith in Allah is a prerequisite to practicing Islam and to living like Muslims, which most of us lack today. The sad state in which the Muslims find themselves today is from lack of knowledge, lack of education. The first word Allah hu Ta'ala revealed to his Prophet was IKRA, read, learn. We don’t. The Prophet, (saws) said, "Seek knowledge even if it is in China." You who are in Singapore are quite close to China, but a thousand five hundred years ago it was very far.

Today we don’t have to go to China. Knowledge is at the tip of your fingers; just type it in your computer; both the theory of relativity of Einstein and the interpretations of the Quran al Karim are all available in an instant, but we would rather play video games.

We call the period before Islam jahiliyyah– the period of ignorance. Perhaps we are in a worse period of ignorance today, because there are more distractions which prevent us from seeing reality, more fun and games, more things to have, even more useless knowledge.

Knowledge is not to split the atom and create a horrible explosion to kill tens of thousands of innocent people. Knowledge is to look and learn about the universe, and to see Allah’s hand in it. Allah is invisible, inconceivable, unimaginable, but His manifestations are everywhere. His sifaat, attributes, Hisfiil, actions, are everything that exists and everything that happens.

The one who can truly see that need not even be literate. A Bedouin was making his prayers in the middle of the desert. A cynic came upon him, and said, "You pray five times a day to Him, fast the whole month in Ramadan, and give your hard earned money in zakat and obey everything He orders. You worship a god which you cannot even see. Show Him to me and I will also be a Muslim."

The Bedouin said, “Do you see these round marks which go all the way to that sand dune; what are they??"

The man said, “Why, of course, they are the foot prints of a camel.”

The Bedouin replied, “But you do not see a camel, only the signs which he left, and you know that it exists.”

On that the man became a Muslim.

Hadrati Ali (krwh) said, “I do not worship a God whom I do not see.” Hd. Abu Bakir (ra) said “In all my life, in everything I looked at, I have seen the hand of Allah in it.” It is only when one is in that state that one truly has faith. Although Allah has no place, if one knows that He is everywhere, and everything everywhere is not Him, but from Him, then how can one misbehave, hurt others, lie, cheat, be thankless, be heedless, impatient or complain in His very presence?

How do we reach that state? Years ago a young German woman who wanted to become a Muslim came to my shaykh. My shaykh, at length, explained Islam and finally said that Islam is giving up one’s small will for the sake of the greater will of Allah hu Ta'ala, and submitting to it.

The woman said “I know what I want but I do not know what Allah wills. How do I submit to Him when I don’t know what He wants me to do?"

The shaykh said that in Islam we have two touchstones, which show us what is gold and what is lead, what is right and what is wrong, in the opinion of our Lord. One is the Qur'an al Karim, the other is the Hadith-i Sharif.

The woman said, “I do not know Arabic, and when I read The Qur'an in German I do not understand much of it."

The shaykh agreed and said that half of the Qur'an al Karim is “mutashabbihat,”: symbolic, and allegorical, and very difficult, even impossible, to understand. And the other half loses a lot when translated.

And as for the Hadiths in tens of thousands, the woman said they were difficult to find in German, and too many to remember.

Then the shaykh said, “Read your own Qur'an.”

“What is my own Qur'an?” asked the woman.

“Your conscience,” said the shaykh.

"But there is a barrier between me and my conscience which prevents me from reading it,” she replied.

Then the shaykh said, “I will tell you a simple way; if you follow it, you will be safe. When you think, when you talk, when you are about to do something, consider if that thing which you are thinking or feeling or saying or about to do is good for you and good for others. If it is only good for you, and bad for others, Allah doesn't want you to do it. If it is both good for you and good for others, it pleases your Lord. But what pleases your Lord most is if it is good for many others but not for you. Even if it is painful, you should do it. That is the best thing for you."

Allah knows best.

May Allah hu Ta'ala keep us on the straight path, bless us with the truth of Islam, and beautify us with the Adab-i Qur'an al Karim, and Adab-i Muhammadi, and although separated from each other by thousands of miles, as we were communicating with each other during these brief moments, may Allah hu Ta'ala unite all of Ummati Muhammad, and bring them together and instill in our hearts what the Beloved of Allah, the Prophet (saws) said in his farewell sermon: "A MUSLIM IS A BROTHER TO THE MUSLIM, THEREFORE ALL MUSLIMS ARE BROTHERS."

May Allah hu Ta'ala gather us on yawmid-din under the safe place of the Liwa' al-hamd and close to the one whom he has sent as His mercy upon mankind and intercessor for the sinners such as ourselves, Amiin bi hurmati sayyid al mursalin Taha wa Yasin.

Shaykh Tosun Bayrak al Jerrahi al Halwati

December, 2010.

An Interview with Sheikh Tosun Bayrak (May, 2000)

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 17:24:00 GMT

WIE - What does it mean to be in the world but not of it?

ST - Let me answer that question by telling you a story. Ibn Arabi, who is considered to be the greatest Sheikh in Sufism, was traveling to Mecca, and he passed through Tunisia. In Tunisia he was told that there was a holy man there who he must visit. This holy man was a fisherman who lived in a mud hut on the beach and caught three fish a day, no more, and he gave the bodies of these fish to poor and hungry people. He himself just boiled the heads of the fish, and ate the heads. He did this day after day, year after year. He was living the life of a monastic person, a person who has divorced himself from the world totally and, of course, Ibn Arabi was very impressed with this discipline. So he talked to the fisherman and the fisherman asked, “Where are you going? Are you going to pass through Cairo?” Ibn Arabi nodded and the fisherman said, “My Sheikh lives there. Will you please visit him and ask him for advice because all these years that I have been praying and living humbly like this, I haven’t received any advancement in my spiritual life. Please ask him to give me advice.”

Ibn Arabi promised him that, and so when he arrived to Cairo, he asked the people in the city where this Sheikh lived and they said, “Do you see the huge palace on the top of the hill? He lives there.” So he went to this beautiful palace on the top of the hill, knocked on the door, and was received very well. They brought him into a large, luxurious waiting room, gave him food to eat and made him comfortable. But the Sheikh’s had gone to visit the king. And Sufis don’t normally visit kings or people of high positions. It’s forbidden because they can become an additional curtain between us and God, an additional attachment to the world.

So while he was in this luxurious room waiting for the Sheikh, he looked out the window and saw his procession coming. The Sheikh was riding a beautiful Arabian horse with a big turban, diamond rings, a fur coat, and had a whole honor guard of soldiers at his side, and he arrived with great pomp to the palace. But he was a very nice man, and came and greeted Ibn Arabi warmly, and they sat down and started talking. At some point in the conversation, Ibn Arabi said, “You have a student in Tunisia.” And the Sheikh replied, “Yes, I know,” And Ibn Arabi said, “He asked for your spiritual advice.” “Tell my student,” the Sheikh said, “If he’s so attached to this world, he’s never going to get anywhere.”

So this was confusing to Ibn Arabi, but on his trip back, he stopped in Tunusia. He went to the fisherman there and immediately was asked, “Did you see my Sheikh?” “Yes, I saw your Sheikh,” he replied. “What did he say?” asked the fisherman. And Ibn Arabi, looking uncomfortable said, “Well, your Sheikh, you know, he lives in great pomp and great luxury.” And the fisherman replied “Yes, I know. What did he say?” So Ibn Arabi told him. “He said as long as you’re so attached to this world, you are never going to get anywhere.” And the fisherman cried and cried., “He’s right.” he said. “Each day, when I give those three fish bodies to the people, my heart goes with them. Each day, I wish I could have a whole fish instead of just a head while my Sheikh lives in great luxury, but doesn’t give a damn about it. Whether he has it or not, it doesn’t touch him.”

That’s what it means to be in the world but not to be of the world. It means that, as Sufis, we are supposed to be out in the world participating in the world, but not falling in love with the world. There is a Hadith [a saying of the Prophet Mohammed] that tells us: the world is your friend if it reminds you of God, and it is your enemy if it makes you forget God.

WIE - One Sufi mystic is quoted as saying, “To leave the world is not to abstain from property, wife and children, but to act in obedience to God, and to set the things of God above those of the world.”

ST - Exactly. Another Hadith tells us that when Allah ordered the world, he said, “The one who becomes a servant to the world, treat him as the worst of slaves. Beat him. Make him work hard and when he dies, crush him. But if my servant takes you as a servant, serve him well and when he dies, hug him like a mother would hug her child.” That means if you are the servant of Allah, then the world is going to be your servant and obey you and make you rich and everything else. And when you die, it will hug you gently like a mother caressing you. But if you forget Allah, become the servant of the world, then he’s going to whip you, kick you and make you work like hell. And when you die, he’s going to crush you.

WIE - What exactly do you mean by “the world,”?

ST - Your wife, your children, your home, your work, your money in the bank, your position in the company, your political aspirations or affiliations, your bed at night, your shower in the morning, your breakfast—everything!

WIE - There’s a word in Arabic, dunya, which also means the world, or worldly life. It seems that it’s often spoken about as something negative or as something which tempts us from the path.

ST - You’re right. Many people think in those terms, but let me make a correction and it’s important to understand this distinction. If dunya makes you forget your Lord, if it makes you forget where you came from, what your function is and where you are going, if it makes you a fool, then it is your enemy. But if it reminds you that this is just a passage, this is just a place for tests, this is just a place to prove that what you were created for, you are doing right, then it is a good place, a good thing and a wonderful friend.

WIE - Would it be accurate to say that for most of us the world tends to be the former, tends to be that which draws us away from God?

ST - It is not the world’s fault. It is your fault. It’s not the devil’s fault. It is your attachment to the world. The world is beautiful. Allah has made it beautiful. Every spot of it is a reflection of Him. He has never created anything ugly.

You see, the Sufis believe that creation is simply a mirror. When there is nothing in front of the mirror, it reflects nothing. But Allah is in front of it, so all of creation is a reflection of him. We see his attributes, the attributes of God, reflected in the mirror of creation. And that’s what we are. Everything in creation is Allah’s attributes. It’s not Allah, but it is from Allah. So there is nothing wrong with the world. It is your fault that you make a God of it. It’s not the world’s fault.

WIE - Many Sufi Sheiks have had wives and families, owned businesses, and some are even said to have been great sultans. So what is it that enables a Sheikh or a dervish or any spiritual seeker to live amidst all the complexities and the temptations of the world and still do the right thing? How can we act in the world in a way that expresses non-attachment to the world?

ST - The answer to that question is very simple. A German young lady asked that question to my Sheik, Sheikh Muzaffer Efendi, and he said, “My daughter, we are very fortunate, because we have got a book in our hands, the Qu’ran, which we believe is from Allah, from the Lord.” The Bible is equivalent to a Hadith. In other words, it tells us what Jesus did and what Jesus said. But we believe that the Qu’ran was revealed by Allah and brought word by word, letter by letter, dot by dot, to the prophet Mohammed. Through his blessed lips it came out, and not a dot of it has changed for the last one thousand five hundred years.

So we actually have three touchstones to find out whether our actions are right or wrong. But you must act! You cannot sit on your behind, because then you’re dead. Now if the action corresponds to what Allah tells you to do in the Qu’ran, it’s definitely the right action. It is said that in the Qu’ran there are a thousand things to do and a thousand things not to do. I certainly don’t know all of them. I know perhaps a hundred things, and even those often depend on interpretation. So this touchstone, this test to see whether your action is real gold or fake, is difficult.

The next touchstone is the imitation of the prophet Mohammed. Although he lived a thousand five hundred years ago, the prophet Mohammed was never alone, and everything which he did and said was recorded. None of it inconsequential—the way he drank his water, the way he made love to his wives, the way he went to the bathroom. There are hundreds of thousands of Hadiths of things which he said and did, and these are easier to understand, because there are no interpretations.

The third touchstone is your conscience. You have to ask your conscience, “This action that I’m about to do, is the result going to be beneficial for the world—for him, for her, for me, for the grass, for the cat, for the turtle. Or is it going to be the opposite, is it going to cause pain and hurt?” If it is beneficial, it’s right, if it is not beneficial, it’s wrong.

What all of this boils down to is that we are here to ceaselessly do right action. I just returned from Iraq to help with some of the suffering there. I visited orphanages and hospitals and was able to donate money to help a great many people who are suffering, especially children. And while I almost never talk about my personal experiences, my experience there still lingers with me, because a strange thing happened. During my few days in Iraq, I was not there. Action was there, things were happening, but it was as if I was not there. And I felt that that was my great, great reward which I received. And for me that suffices.

WIE - Maybe that’s the best kind of action in the world.

ST - I hope so. Action without being there. We have a saying in Turkish. It is __. It means nothing. And that’s the goal.

WIE - Is it ever necessary to retreat or to step back away from our involvement with the world in order to deepen our own spiritual contemplation?

ST - There are beautiful stories about the prophet Mohammed where he would be so lost and immersed in these intense spiritual states that he wouldn’t even recognize his own wife Aisha. He would say, “Who are you?,” and she would say, “Aisha” and he would reply “Who is Aisha?” You see, he wasn’t there. He was so far away that he didn’t even know his own wife. But then there were other times when he would rest his blessed head on the thigh of his wife and say, “Aisha, Caress my head.” So even he needed a little comfort. You have to come back to the world. We are in this body, you see, and it needs things. You have to come back.

WIE - In your own life, you were a very successful artist but you gave up your career, gave up fame and fortune to devote yourself to the spiritual life. What was it that compelled you to leave your own life behind and take that step?

ST - Actually, both my wife and I were artists, and we felt very strongly that it was feeding our egos. Art, art exhibitions, and the consequences of being accepted and successful is incredible food for your ego, which is the Sufi’s enemy. But the final straw was when we went to Rome to visit our friend, another artist, a sculptor and there was a very pretty young girl there whom my friend introduced me to. And she was so adoring to me. She said, “Ohhh, I know you. I love your art,” and she was completely praising me, and I saw the ego suddenly raise up and say, “Aha! This beautiful, spiritual girl is telling you that you are great artist,” So I said, “Oh, my God! That’s it. It’s over.” I hit the ego on the head and decided I was finished with it all.

WIE - In the Sufi tradition, what is the ideal relationship to the world for those who have gone to the highest spiritual states, for those who have gone very deep into the spiritual life?

ST - I’ll just say that what I myself do and what I ask my students to do is to find their place in the world, or I should say their duty, their function in this world. And when they find it, they should do it as best they can. And they should ask for Allah’s help in finding it and doing it. For example, when a person wants to go to college and study certain things, they often take aptitude tests. So in a much larger and more complete sense, we have to pass ourselves through aptitude tests and find out what have we been brought into this world to do, and then we must do it as best we can. I think that’s how one’s relationship should be to the world.

Thirty years ago, if somebody would have told me that I was going to be a Sufi and a Sheik, I would have laughed and said, “What are they talking about?” Therefore, you cannot say that I did it. Finally, Allah has to do it for you. That is why when we pray, we open our hands. If your hands our open and something drops into them, you can catch it. But if they’re not open, you can’t. It falls away. So you have to be open, and that’s all that you can do. I don’t even say open your heart. You have to open yourself, everything—your body, your mind, your potential. You have to keep everything open and somehow hope to receive direction and indication as to what your function is. And once you find your function, I think then you will also find yourself through your function.

WIE - I’d like to ask you a couple of questions about other ways of looking at our relationship to the world. The first is about renunciation. In the Sufi tradition what role, if any, should renunciation play in the quest for spiritual union? I’ve read many stories in Sufi books and by Sufi mystics that detail the dangers of the “deceiving” world with its “limitless tricks” and encouraging the seeker to fly away from it on the “wings of prayer.” That seems to suggest that renunciation or removal from the world offers the surest and safest path to the realization of spiritual freedom and communion with God.

ST - In our discipline, we don’t agree with this. On the contrary, I would go as far as saying that renunciation is a sin. Renunciation means that I am thirsty and he, Allah, is offering me a glass of water and I say, “No thank you.” That’s a sin! For instance, Allah offers to reduce our prayers when we are traveling. And some idiots say, “No. I will continue making my prayers as if I’m not traveling.” That’s an insult. It’s a sin. Because Allah offers you a gift and you say, “No, keep your gift.” It’s arrogance in the extreme, this renunciation business. This isn’t just my opinion, this is the opinion of the Sufis. You should take whatever it is you receive, and you should put it to good use. If you don’t want it, give it to somebody who needs it! I have, praise to Allah, enough money. But if he gave me a million dollars today, I’m not going to refuse it. I’m going to take it and I’m going to give it to the ones who need it and keep some for myself too. I’ll buy myself a new car instead of an old one, and maybe a $150 pair of shoes. That would be the day!

So there is no going to the monasteries, no climbing up the Himalayas, no pouring ashes on your head and sitting cross-legged on nails. You have to go out into the world and participate. For example, my own teacher, Sheikh Muzaffer, loved to eat, loved good food. And he had a young wife, whom he loved very much (Boy, did he). He used to say, “Money—there should be a lot in your pocket, but none in your heart.”

WIE - How about the example of Jesus? He is considered to be a Sufi Prophet and yet he was encouraging people to leave the world behind and follow him.

ST - In Arabic, we call Jesus (Arabic) the spirit of God, or the right thing is [Arabic] not the spirit of Allah, but the spirit from Allah. Jesus was pure spirit, you see, and human being cannot be pure spirit. His method of teaching was not by example. In fact, whoever tried to imitate him got eaten by the lions, or lost in the dark chambers of monasteries or convents which were not good for anybody. His message was not through imitation, but through what he said. So I don’t agree with you that the teaching of Christ was to abandon the world. It is just that some people tried to follow his example, which is absolutely impossible to follow. But his teaching is possible to follow.

WIE - Today there is also a growing spiritual movement in America that has been very critical of traditional spiritual paths and teachings, specifically those that emphasize a separation between the world and a transcendent God. This new philosophy claims that even the most mundane aspects of our worldly lives are inherently sacred and can potentially become the vehicles for spiritual awakening. Books on such things as sacred sexuality, sacred sports, spirituality in the workplace, are becoming more and more popular blurring the lines between what is considered to be spiritual and what is considered to be secular. In her recent book, The New American Spirituality Elizabeth Lesser writes, ‘The bliss of the world is no less spiritual than the bliss of transcendence,” and goes on to imply that there’s not necessarily any difference between reading a holy text and running the marathon. So my question is, are the proponents of this new spirituality on the right track? In the end, what exactly is the difference between a holy life and a worldly life? Is there any difference at all?”

ST - What they say is, in a sense, true. If, in running the marathon, you feel that the force in you which permits you to run is from God, the ground which you are running upon is from God, and the breath which you inhale and exhale is from God, then this experience is indeed more important than reading the Bible in vain. But they’re not teaching this, you see. What they say is taken from the scriptures, it’s true. But their intention, by saying that a marathon is equal to the Qu’ran, is to abolish the Qu’ran. Their premise is right, but their actions and their intentions are wrong.

You see, there is nothing new in the world. But they think that because we’re living in the 20^th century, things have changed. Nothing has changed. The same thing is valid now as was for the caveman, except, of course, that life was simpler. Life became more complicated, but we still have the same size brain. And we have the same good and bad, right and wrong, sweet and bitter, dark and light—everything has existed for a long time. The camel became the airplane, but everything is the same. At the time of Jesus, all these problems that we have today existed. Read the Bible. The villains were there. The thieves were there. The murderers were there. The politicians were there. Everybody was there, doing the same thing! So what makes people think that new solutions have to be found? What makes them think that they know better than Jesus. Their arrogant and that’s the problem.

WIE - Would you say that in the Islamic teachings our daily lives in the world are sanctified through our on-going voluntary submission and surrender to the will of God?

ST - It’s not as simple as that. Submission, yes, but cognizant submission. Not blind submission. That’s the difference between the Orthodox and the mystic. The Orthodox blindly submits, and blindly submitting, imagination may intervene. While the Sufi, the mystic, tries to understand and submit, and therefore taste what he is eating. The Orthodox eats at McDonalds and then goes to a French restaurant and eats beef bourguignon. To him, it’s the same thing. He doesn’t taste it, he just submits, he eats. But the Sufi chooses. The hamburger tastes bad ands he recognizes that, and so he goes and eats the beef bourguignon. He tastes his religion and he understands what he’s doing. He submits willingly and knows that one thing doesn’t taste good and the other does. That’s the difference.

WIE - But in the new American spirituality instead of that kind of cognizant submission to a higher authority, many people are speaking about self-authority where it is up to us to pick and choose as we see fit from among the world’s wisdom traditions to find our own methods and spiritual practices that suit our lives in the world.

ST - There you go kaputski. There you go crazy. There you go arrogant. You’re saying: I know better than God. I know better than Jesus. I know better than Moses. I know better than the Sheiks. You see, we are forbidden to say my. We are forbidden to say me. This is my idea. This is my concept. This is my right. This is my wrong. Forget it, it’s just anti-discipline. This is self-glorification, making your own self your God. And that’s deadly. And those people, they die. They’re living zombies. They live this life with imagination, with no concept of truth, no concept of reality. They live in their imagination and they die in their imagination and they will wake up when they die and say, “Oh, my God, what have I done to myself?”

For 6,000 years in Judaism, for 2,000 years in Christianity, for 1,500 years in Islam, hundreds of thousands of saints and spiritual teachers have devoted themselves to this and they have found and refined the relationship of the human being to the world, to life, to the hereafter. And here comes this man or this woman who studies a little psychology, a little philosophy, and rejects the whole thing. Millions of people, intelligent people, devout people, have made this their specialty. We are living in a period of specialty, but those people were super specialists. And their documents are here, their words are here, their principles are here—it’s not even worth discussing. May Allah help them. That’s all that I can say. And may Allah forgive them.

WIE - One last question. At what point on our spiritual path are we ready to be of service to the world?

ST - At the beginning, in the middle, and at the end. This is in the Koran, Allah said that I have created man so that he can make ibadat to me. Ibadat means service. But it also means worship. So the true worship is in service. Allah said that I have created man so that he serves me. God doesn’t need service. On the contrary, he is our servant. Every minute of our lives, we are being served. I inhale—he makes me inhale. I exhale—he makes me exhale. He brings me coffee—he makes me drink the coffee. Twenty-four hours a day, to all of us—from the microbe to the highest specimen of this creation—he’s in continuous service. So what does he mean that he has created the human being so that they would serve him. In short, he means to serve his creation. If we are the supreme creation, then we have to serve those in creation who are like us, who are in need or who are under us. That’s the purpose of our creation.

So as I said, service should be from the moment you are born till the moment you give your last breath, but you have to find out in what way. That’s what’s most important. We have to find out in what manner we are supposed to serve.

WIE - Would you say then that the ultimate expression of our spiritual lives is found in the world? I ask you this because in some of the great traditions East and West they say that what we are looking for is found in the afterlife or in some future birth.

ST - No. Hell is here. Paradise is here. Everything is here.

Aspects of Remembrance of Allah (Dhikr)

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 18:51:00 GMT

Allah Most High has said in the Holy Qur’an:

“Remember Me so that I will remember you, be thankful to Me so that you are not led to faithlessness.” (Surah al-Baqarah 2:30)

“They (people of intelligence) remember and praise Allah always while they stand or sit or lie on their sides.” (Surah Ali ‘Imran 3:191)

“Remember Allah often and praise Him day and night.” (Surah al-Anbiya 21:20)

“Remember Allah within yourself, day and night, openly and silently, with awe and fear. Beware, do not be of the heedless ones.” (Surah al-Araf 7:205)

“The wish of the hearts of the faithful can only be fulfilled with the remembrance of Allah, for hearts are only satisfied by remembering Allah.” (Surah ar-Ra’d 13:28)

“I (Allah) lessen the sustenance of those who forget Me. On the Day of Judgment I will raise them blind.” (Surah TaHa 20:124)

“Worship! For certainly worship protects man from harm, and from being led to unfaithfulness. Remembrance of Allah is the greatest of all worship.” (Surah al Ankabut 29:45)

“Those who prostrate in the late hours of night, fearing the punishment of the Hereafter, hoping for the compassion of their Lord, who stand in prayer in obedience and in the service (of Allah), will receive Allah’s mercy and beneficence.” (Surah az-Zumar 39:9)

From the lips of His Beloved Prophet (saws), Allah addresses us:

“Oh children of Adam, forget all else but Me and praise and remember Me so that I also forget the others and remember you.”

“Oh children of Adam, declare your remembrance of Me so that I remember you with My appreciation. Remember Me in your heart so that I remember you by showing Myself to you. Remember Me while lowering and humbling yourself so that I remember you by raising you above others.”

“Oh children of Adam, if you remember Me, you are thanking Me. If you forget Me, you are cursing Me.”

“Oh children of Adam, you receive abundant gifts in remembering Me. You will receive joy and comfort from Me.”

“Oh children of Adam, the one who wishes Me, seeks Me; the one who seeks Me, finds Me; the one who finds Me, serves Me. Only the one who serves Me truly remembers Me and praises Me. Then I remember him too and I become his Beloved.”

The Prophet (saws) said:

“When a congregation is gathered, praising and remembering Allah, angels come and join them. Allah praises and remembers them through the spirits of these angels, and they find peace and love and compassion in their hearts. Continue remembering Allah and reading His Qur’an, for these will bring you the light of wisdom in this world and the Divine Beauty’s attention in the heavens.”

“The one who likes to remember Allah is liked by Allah. The one who says la ilaha illa llah has the veils hiding the divine in his heart lifted.”

“The Devil escapes from the heart of the one who remembers Allah and enters into the heart of the one who forgets Allah.”

“There is no more generous almsgiving than remembering Allah.”

“The one who performs his morning prayer in congregation, remembers Allah until sunrise, and makes two cycles of prayer, receives the reward of a Pilgrimage.”

“What a great joy is given to the one who sits praising and remembering Allah following the afternoon prayer!”

“As the walls of a castle protect one from the enemy, the remembrance of Allah protects one from the Devil.”

The ones who know, say:

“The way to divine knowledge is in remembering Allah. It is the straight force which brings one close to Allah. It is the sign of faith and the consciousness of worship and the key to the door of wisdom. When you repeat inwardly the divine phrase la ilaha illa llah, it enlightens your heart and brings peace to your soul. It polishes your mind and makes it shine. It is what keeps your heart alive. It is the means to finding the Beloved.

“If you wake and remember Allah in the middle of the night, it is a sign that you are loved by the One Whom you remember.”

“When you see someone with beautiful character, whose manners are gentle, whose heart is at peace, whose eyes are shining, know that he has received this through continuous remembrance.”

“Continuous remembrance gives direction to the spirit, cures all ills, and awakens our soul. It cleanses the heart from all else but Allah and increases His love in our heart. As this remembrance descends from the tongue to the heart, and penetrates from the heart to the soul, we rise closer and closer to our Maker. In continuing repeating the phrase la ilaha illa llah, the heart joins the tongue, the mind is cleansed of imagination, the rust upon the heart is burnt, darkness turns into day, and the candle of the mind is put out by the sun of the divine light.”

At first it is like a flash of light, like lightning. That is jadhbah, momentary ecstasy. Later the light lasts longer, but again is put out. And if we continue, finally the light is permanent. Then such inner wisdom and delight occur that we are immersed in it, forgetting all else. We hear from all of our members the sound of Allah’s praise. The body shivers and waves like a willow tree in the wind, as if a bird flutters within our chest. We become forever awakened from heedlessness and are led to the Presence. That is eternal happiness.

The ones who know say that there are three degrees of Allah’s remembrance:

The verbal declaration of remembrance.
Descent of the remembrance from the tongue to the heart.
The penetration of the remembrance to the soul, silent remembrance, when the essence of it spreads to the whole being. The physical manifestation of this is a violent shaking of the body, the words Allah and Hu come out in screams without our control, and finally, we lose consciousness.

If we wish for divine acquaintance, we must lengthen our remembrance until the declaration by the tongue sinks to the heart and then penetrates into our essence. If we continue to keep the remembrance of Allah in our heart day and night, the human soul, strengthened, overcomes the animal soul. Then we know and reach perfection.

Woe to those of us who start this path and then change our way, for the pain will be as intense as the joy would have been if we had continued. That is why what is necessary in this path is continuity. If we walked this path a thousand years, and turn our back for one moment, our loss would be greater than our gain.

The ones who know say that continuity in remembrance is the key to the angelic realm, the world of the souls. It is the vehicle that will bring us close to our Creator. The unseen will become visible; the unknown will become known; the joy received will make the utmost joy of this world seem like pain. We will be submerged in divine love.

The ones who know say that there are ten conditions in preparing ourselves for the remembrance of Allah.

To take a total ablution followed by a ritual ablution.
To perform two cycles of prayer.
To be in a perfectly clean place.
To erase all worldly worries from our heart.
To sit on a sheepskin facing the qiblah, on our knees or cross-legged.
Lightly closing our eyes, to bring our attention to the region of the heart.
To keep the image of our shaykh in our mind.
To be in a state of awareness.
To have eaten a medium amount of food with a good amount of butter, and to be neither too full nor hungry.
To expel all thought and feeling of physical comforts and pleasures.

At the end of the remembrance, we should stay awhile silent, relaxed, and at peace.

If during the ritual we feel confusion, in that the taste of the pleasure and excitement is reminiscent of worldly pleasures, this is an indication that we are under the influence of the flesh and lust. If we repeat inwardly la ma‘buda illa llah as we declare aloud la ilaha illa llah, it is expected that our worldliness will be weakened and lust extinguished, and spiritual pleasures will have their own identity.

Even when such a state is achieved during the ritual, one should then switch to inwardly repeating la mawjuda illa llah as one repeats aloud la ilaha illa llah, and direct the words illa llah towards the heart, so that the heart awakens and the eyes of the heart open. Then it is to be hoped we will see many secrets, and our heart will fill with divine knowledge.

Sixteen theologians came to Hd. Junayd al-Baghdadi (qs) and asked him to teach them what they did not know. He put each one in a room and asked them to remember Allah continuously.

After a week he summoned them all and asked them, “What have you found in your hearts?” All answered that they had found the love of this world in their hearts. He asked them to continue the remembrance of Allah in seclusion for another week.

When he summoned them after the second week, they said that they now found the love and wish for Paradise in their hearts. He sent them back as told them to rid their hearts of that love also.

At the end of the third week, when he asked them what they found in their hearts, each answered, “The love of myself.” He asked them to abandon the thought of their own existence and to continue for yet another week.

At the end of the fourth week they said that they had nothing left in their hearts but the love of Allah. Hadrat Junayd (qs) said, “Now you have everything. Continue remembering Allah, and you will be able to retain Allah’s love.”

La ilaha illa llah is the word of Allah. The sound of it is the whole material creation; the meaning of it is the soul of all the creation. The ones who can absorb this divine praise with its sound and with its meaning are protected from all evil and safe in this world and in the Hereafter. If you can place it in your heart and keep it there, no fear enters your heart; you do not need to take refuge in anyone, nor seek help elsewhere. If it has penetrated your heart, you are truly a believer. If it has entered your soul, you are truly a lover.

When you say la ilaha (There is no god) inhaling, that wind of the breath will blow away the dust upon your heart and cleanse it of all unworthy worldly things that have infested it, for you are saying that there is none worthy of worship. When, forcefully directing the words illa Llah (but Allah) toward your heart, you exhale into your heart the belief in Allah, and the love of Allah will enter it. You will be planting the seed of the tree of divine knowledge, a tree whose fruit is the knowledge of Allah.

There are three stations on the way of divine knowledge. The first is the station of cleansing: emptying your being of the accumulation of me and mine, of false knowledge, of false personality, false fears and false hopes, false property, things you think you own. The second stage is also emptying: emptying your own self, losing and ridding yourself of the many “I’s.” The first stage is to say that, “There is nothing here”; the second stage indicates, “not even I.” The third stage is to be able to hold onto that state.

La ilaha illa llah brings one to the first station, which is the station of the heart. The second station is the station of the soul, which is reached by the name Allah. The third is called the secret, where all the secrets are divulged, which is reached by the vehicle of the name Hu. La ilaha illa llah is the magnet of the heart, which pulls you there. Allah is the magnet of the soul. Hu is the magnet of the secret essence.

They are within each other, like a beautiful bird within a cage, within a room. La ilaha illa llah is the key to the room of the heart. Allah is the door to the cage of the soul. Hu is the beautiful bird of essence in the cage. The door of the room is adjacent to the house of this world of trouble, pain, and fear. The more you penetrate into the soul and into the secret, the further you will move away from this world and into the realms of comfort, joy, knowledge, and safety.

On the staircase of Sufism you will stand on the step of the ego and imagination, the step on which the heedless stand. Then you will climb onto the step of worldly things, where sinners stand. Then you will climb onto the step of what we call nature and the natural, what we call reality, and what we call human, as an excuse for our misgivings. This is where the hypocrite stands. When you climb to the level of the heart, you will submit, and stand with the servants of Allah. Above that, on the step of the soul, you will be with the lovers. When you ascend to the step of the secret, you will know the truth. You will stand close to Allah with the ones who know Him. Allah knows best.

Peace and blessings be upon the Beloved of Allah, and upon his pure family and companions, the guides to the path of truth, and upon Hadrat Pir Nureddin al-Jerrahi (may his secret soul be sanctified), and upon Hadrat Ibrahim Hakki Erzerumi (may Allah’s pleasure be upon him), from whose wisdom these words were derived.

Ayaz and the Sultan’s Dilemma

Sat, 18 Jun 2016 18:25:00 GMT

Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna went hunting one day. He picked up the tracks of a deer. For many hours he rode in pursuit. At length they reached a riverbed, where the deer turned round and looked at Sultan Mahmud as if to say: "Did you come into this world for the purpose of shooting game?'' Hearing this, the ruler gave up chasing the deer. He was sweating blood as he entered a nearby village. The first person he met was a ten-year old boy, to whom he called: "Get me a glass of water, son!" The boy said: "Uncle, my father has gone to fetch water. He will be back soon. Stop and rest here a while." The ruler dismounted. The boy made him sit in a spot sheltered from the wind, then took his horse and walked it up and down a few times. The ruler and his horse were both sweating profusely, but when their weariness had worn off a little, the boy went indoors and brought out a jug of water. "Hey!" said the Sultan, "I thought you told me there was no water here. Didn't you say your father had gone to fetch some?"

"I told you the truth," the boy replied. "My father did go to fetch water. He'll be along any moment now. If I had given you water as soon as you asked for it, however, when you were in such a state of perspiration, you might have made yourself sick. You were too hot to think of that at the time. But now you have cooled off, so I brought you some water. See, my father is coming from the fountain. You may have all the water you desire.'' At that moment, the Sultan's ministers and hunting companions reached the village and found their master there. The Sultan was amazed at the wisdom of this village lad. He asked him his name and learned that he was called Ayaz. This shabbily dressed child was like a ruin containing buried. treasure. The Sultan had stumbled upon this hidden treasure. Then Ayaz's father arrived, carrying a water container, and the Sultan revealed his identity to them both, saying: "I am your Sultan." Turning to the father, he said: "You shall give this boy to me. I intend to educate him and make him my intimate companion." Ayaz's father responded by saying: "My Lord, this is your Kingdom and we are your servants. For your sake I am ready to sacrifice my own life, my children and all that I possess.''

The Sultan then turned to Ayaz and said: "Come, ride with me. There is no need for you to bring anything with you." He mounted his horse and seated Ayaz behind him, but just as they were about to ride off, the boy cried: "Your pardon, sire! Please allow me to take a few things that are very precious to me." "Very well," said the Sultan. "Go and fetch them quickly!" Ayaz popped into the shack, emerged with a bundle in his hand and got back on the horse. Then they rode off together to the Sultan's palace.

In the palace, Ayaz had to devote part of each day to his studies. He also spent time in the company of the Sultan, whose favor he continued to earn. Each day that passed left the Sultan more impressed by the development of Ayaz's intelligence and wisdom. He came to be appreciated more and more by his royal master. This did not escape the notice of certain envious people, who began to plot against Ayaz. The Sultan had even entrusted to Ayaz the key to his inner treasury, and this new appointment really made them mad with envy. Wondering how they might cause Ayaz to fall from favor in the Sultan's eyes, they decided to bring some trumped up charge against him. Eventually, they started to spread the word that Ayaz had stolen from the inner treasury. The Sultan was very distressed when these rumors reached his ears. How could this possibly be? Realizing that these slanderous accusations, if allowed to circulate unchecked, could do more damage to Ayaz's honor than the real thing, the Sultan summoned the envious courtiers and asked them what proof they had to show that Ayaz was a thief. "But sire," they said, "Ayaz is the only one in the palace to keep his door locked. Not once since he first came here has he taken anybody into his room. He has never left his door open. It is obvious he must be hiding something wrong.'' They then revealed their true colors when they went on to say: "Now you have entrusted him with the key to the inner treasury, which contains innumerable precious stones and other valuables. He must be stealing jewels from there and hiding them in his room. Why else would he always keep his door locked and never let anybody in?"

Sultan Mahmud was on the horns of a dilemma. If he did not speak out, bad things would continue to be said about someone very dear to him. This he could not tolerate. But Ayaz would be offended if he ordered a search of his room. In the end, however, the second course seemed the lesser of two evils. He therefore decided to put a stop to the envious rumors by having Ayaz's room searched. He would make it up with him later. In any case, Ayaz loved him enough to tolerate his injustice. One day when Ayaz was away from the palace, the Sultan summoned the envious courtiers, saying: "Go ahead and search his room! You can keep anything you find belonging to the treasury!" They broke open the door to Ayaz's room and the envious courtiers trampled one another in a rush to get inside. They found an old mat and a sheepskin rug on the floor, while on the wall there hung a shepherd's crook, a cape and a pair of sandals. "He must have buried it!" they exclaimed, pulling up the floor boards; but they failed to find a single thing belonging to the treasury. Out they came, flushed with shame and disgrace. At least their blushes betrayed a touch of humility, a trace of humanity within them. There are some who would not be at all dismayed under such circumstances.

When Ayaz returned to the palace, he was surprised to see that his door had been forced open and the contents of his room turned upside down. But he declared himself satisfied as soon as they told him this had been done on the Sultan's orders. Mahmud received Ayaz into his presence and apologized to him. ''Ayaz,'' he said, "by breaking down your door, I put a stop to their malicious envy of you. If I had not forced your door, they would never have held their wagging tongues." Ayaz responded to this by saying: "Sire, it is right and proper for Allah to test His servants, the sultan his slave, the Sheikh his disciple and the teacher his pupil. It is insolent impertinence for the servant to presume to test Allah, the slave his sultan, the pupil his teacher or the disciple his Sheikh. Break down the door, not of my room, but of my heart and search inside; you will fail to find anything but affection for you, leaving no space to stow jewels or worldly goods."

"Ayaz," said the Sultan, "let me ask you something. It seems you kept a shepherd's crook, sandals and a cape, hanging on your wall. What is the significance of these?" Ayaz explained: "Sire, you know about them already. Before I came to serve in the palace, I used to be a shepherd in cape and sandals. Then my self-importance grew as you conferred more and more authority on me. I tried to correct this tendency by saying to myself each night: "Beware of becoming arrogant! You are a shepherd, the son of a shepherd! Do not forget this just because you have found favor with the Sultan! Look, there you see your sandals, cape and crook!"

From the Irsahd by Shaykh Muzzafer Ozak al Jerrahi

Ceremonies for Birth and School

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 17:34:00 GMT

The greatest gift of the Creator to the created is his offspring, a gift of Allah’s beautiful name Al Haliq (The Creator), Al Hayy (The Ever-living) and Al Wadud (The All-Loving). Indeed, what better education in human scale can teach the creative process than the change, the weight, the selflessness, the patience and the birth-pains which a mother experiences? What better illustration is there of the continuity of life than one’s inherited name, character and even the physical resemblance that one sees in one’s child? What worldly love equals the love one feels for one’s daughter or son? Islam celebrates this trust of Allah in human beings to whom He entrusts His most valued creation, a new human being, whom he places in the hands of a mother and father.

The tradition of the celebration of the birth of a Muslim baby, known at one time even to the illiterate, may need to be recalled.

During pregnancy the mother, in addition to her five times a day obligatory prayer, is encouraged to read and to listen to the recitation of the Qur’an, to listen to the beautifully chanted Edhan, to look at beautiful things in nature, to eat the best of things in a measured amount and to show all care that her sustenance and her behavior be religiously lawful. Even the color scheme of her bedroom should be considered. Soft pastel colors are favored. Some colors like yellow (the color of bile suggesting jaundice) are excluded. Above her bed, over her head, a Qur’an, in an attractive case should be hung.

When the midwife delivers the baby, before anything is fed to the child, the midwife should touch a page of the Qur’an and let the baby suck on that finger. Thus the word of Allah becomes the baby's first taste of the world and is a catalyst for all that the child will eat during his life. Then someone with a beautiful voice should chant softly the adhan to the ear of the baby three times. Without this initiation into the world, no food should be given to the baby.

Then, as soon as possible, but certainly during the first week after the child's birth, a venerable elder, or the father should take the baby in his arms, standing and facing the direction of the Qaaba, and recite the “adhan” softly in the right ear of the child and the “kaadikamat” to the left ear. Then to his right ear he should call him by his given name three times thus: “Oh, So and So, the son or daughter of So and So.’ (Mentioning only the name of the mother). This custom shows the beauty of Islam. An “adhan,” a call to prayer, is never chanted unless it is followed by a prayer, nor is there a prayer without an “adhan” preceding it.. There are only two exceptions: the call to prayer at the birth of a child is not followed by a prayer and the funeral prayer does not have an “adhan” prior to it Thus the “Adhan chanted at birth is the call to prayer of one’s funeral. When a Muslim is placed in his eternal resting place, the “imam” calls upon him in the same manner: “Oh So and So, the son or daughter of So and So.” (Mentioning only the mother’s name)

After this, in the presence of the family and friends he should recite a private prayer, similar to the following: “Elhamdulillahi Rabbil Alemin, wesselatu, weselamu, ala Seyyedina Muhammedin wa’ala Jemil Enbiyai wal mursalin, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ejmain. Oh, Lord bless this child with a healthy body, a bright mind and a pure soul. Sustain him and us with the bounty of Your material and spiritual sustenance. Give him faith and Islam and awareness and love of You at all times, make him your loyal servant and a follower of Your Beloved. Make him love and respect and obey his parents on the right way. Place in him the secret of your Beloved’s words that the best of men is he who is beneficent to others. Make him serve You, Your religion, Your creation, man, animals vegetation and earth and water and air alike without discrimination. Give him a long and peaceful and fruitful life. Amin.”

Our guide and Master, the Beloved of Allah, Muhammed, Allahs peace and blessings be upon him, says, “Give beautiful names.” Our sheikh says, “To be given a beautiful name to one’s child, one with a beneficent meaning, is one of the rights of a child over the parents.”

During one of the military campaigns it was necessary to milk a she camel. The Messenger of Allah asked who knew how to milk a camel. Some one said “I” and he asked his name. The man said,”Murra”, which means bitter. He said no, he did not want him to do it and asked for someone else. When he asked the next man’s name he said, “Harb”, which means war and he refused him also. Finally he permitted another man to do the work. His name was, “Yaish”, meaning alive.

Hz. Burayda reports that the Messenger of Allah never believed anything to bring bad luck, but he believed that names, both in their sound and in their meaning, influence people and create a reaction. Therefor, when he would send an emmisary somewhere he would ask his name and if he liked it he would be happy, if he didn’t, he would worry. Even if he were to go somewhere, he would ask the name of the place. If he liked it he would go happily, if he didn’t he would be reticent. He changed the names of many of the people who had been given the names of things and animals in the time of idolatry. He instead gave them beautiful names. Not that he believed that names would change one’s destiny or would bring bad luck. But he thought that if someone was called “Hasar”, which means destruction, and if somehow something would be destroyed while he was present, that people might blame him. But if he were called Hasan, no one would imagine such a thing.

A good name will present to others the best in your child and perhaps the child will make an effort to grow into his name.

Another custom amongst Muslims is called “Aqiyya”, the ceremony of cutting the hair of a new born on the sixth day. On that occasion the hair is weighed and it’s equivalent in gold or silver is distributed to the needy. In addition to this expression of thankfulness, a ram is sacrificed on the day of “Aqiyya” and the meat is given to the poor. The sacrifice is an offering, a substitute for the troubles in the life of the child which one hopes to eliminate. It is also believed that this offering will help in the formation of the child’s character. In fact, if one wishes ones son to be strong, valorous, and aggressive, while butchering the sheep one cuts the meat from the joints taking care not to break any bones. If one wishes the child to be gently, agreeable and humble, one cuts the meat breaking the bones.

On the fortieth day of the baby’s life a feast is prepared during which is recited a poem depicting the birth of the Prophet and offering praises to him. This is called the “Mevlud”. Also the Qur’an is chanted and gifts are brought for the child. In the past this was also the first time the child went out as he was kept at home for the first forty days.

Another custom is the singing of lullabys by the mother. In the Islamic tradition, in addition to the singing of hymns which were usually prayers of the mother for her child, the mother herself improvised her own music and words as lullabys, believing that her sincere wishes were like fountains watering the orchard of life in her baby and a cure for any pain or discomfort which makes the baby cry.

All of these traditions of the expression of love, care, hope and faith in Allah are more necessary to follow now than ever. May we pray, calling to our children: “Oh my beloved, you came to the light of this world crying, while we were laughing with joy. We pray that you have such a life that when you leave this world to go to your Lord, you laugh and the world cries.” Amin.

ON BEGINNING SCHOOL IN THE ISLAMIC TRADITION

The days prior to this celebration, the house, especially the children’s rooms, are cleaned, made orderly, and some decoration which will please the child are added to the room and kept that way. A special day is chosen when the child, members of the family, and some of the family’s close friends and a few of the child’s good friends are taken to shop for some clothing, shoes, school materials etc. As much as possible, the child’s wishes should be rewarded. Food, ice cream, whatever would please the child should be offered. But the child should be made to understand that this is part of the celebration of his beginning school.

The day before the celebration, a special bath, in some ways fancier than the usual washing, should be given, new clothes and shoes readied; the only obligatory thing is white socks. The whole family wakes up early, has a special breakfast together with friends and other children who will participate in the “AMIN PROCESSION”.

Someone is the captain of the procession, someone with a good voice. Behind him in the first row are the children who are beginning school, behind them two by two in an orderly fashion in rows are the other children, behind the children in rows are the parents and other adults. The captain holds a baton in his hand, and chants loudly:

BISMILLAH IR-RAHMAN IR-RAHIM

and then chants loud a poem like this:

Joy to the child Grow and be strong

Your heart made mild. Try to do no wrong.

May Allah lead Show love to everyone

You will soon read. To God all belong

When you learn things Your mother loving

Allah loves you. Your father strong

You know God’s doing Your friends together

in all and everything. Sing life’s happy song.

You are God’s baby Be a good Muslim

Good and loving be. Allah will help you.

He gives all to you He does what you do

O! Allah thank you When you serve Him.

Between each verse, the captain raises his baton as a sign and everyone shouts AAAAAMIIIIIIn!

At the end the captain chants the following dua, while everyone recites ismi jelal: Allah...Allah...Allah continuously.

Allah Allah Illallah - jelilul jabbar, Muinusettar, Halik-ul leyli wan-nehar ...

Layezal, zul jalal...Awwali Qur’an, ahiri Qur’an, Tabarekellezi nezzelel Furkan...

Then when he says:

Azameti Hudara Tekbir

everyone recites aloud:

Allahu Akbar, Allahu akbar

la ilaha illallahu wallahuakbar, Allahu akbar wa lillahil hamd

Essalatu wasselamu aleyke ya Resulallah

Essalatu wassalamualeyke ya HabibAllah

Essalatu assalamu aleyke ya Seyyid al awwalina wal ahirin

Wasswlamun alel murselin

Walhamdu llillahi Rabbil Alemin

AL FATIHA

And everyone recites aloud:

Allahumma salli ala seyyidina Muhammed and the Surah Fatiha

Then the children kiss the hand of (their teacher) and the hands of their parents and elders. This is very shortened version of the original ceremony.

Conditions for Being a Dervish

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 17:39:00 GMT

There was a man who had a friend who was a dervish, and this man very much wanted to take hand with his friend’s shaykh. One day, he asked his friend to talk to the shaykh on his behalf. The shaykh didn’t say anything about initiation, but told his dervish he could bring his friend to the dergah to watch and listen. He came, and watched and listened, and after a while became impatient, and again begged his friend to intercede with the shaykh on his behalf. The shaykh said that he could now clean the bathrooms, and wash the floors, but could not yet participate. The man very eagerly performed his new duties, but soon he begged again for his friend to approach the shaykh, to ask when he could become a dervish. The shaykh said that there was going to be a gathering in two nights, and that his friend could bring him a glass of water when he asked for it. The dervish taught his friend how to serve the shaykh water: how to hold it properly in his right hand, with the left over it; how to approach and bow; crossing the right toe over the left; how to go down on the right knee, and hold the water out for the shaykh to take. Anxiously awaiting this honor and opportunity, the man practiced at home until he felt comfortable, and was sure that he could give the shaykh a glass of water without spilling any.

The night came, and the dergah was crowded. All the shaykh’s dervishes were there, as well as other shaykhs and some of their dervishes. The shaykh was speaking very emotionally, and at one point asked if he might have a glass of water. The man hurriedly filled a glass, held it the way he was taught, and carried it out to the shaykh. While the shaykh was talking, the man got down on one knee and held out the glass. Just at that moment the shaykh, caught up in the emotion of what he was saying, gestured with his arm, and hit the man’s arm. The glass went flying and the water rose out of the glass into the air. With horror, shock and embarrassment, the man shut his eyes.

When he opened them, he was alone on the top of a cliff overlooking a vast plain. He didn’t understand what happened, but realized that just lying there on the ground would not help. He got up, faced away from the cliff, and in the distance saw the lights of a town. A while later, upon entering the town, he realized how hungry he was. Passing a restaurant, he couldn’t resist. He felt in his pocket, but had no wallet with him. Well, the worst that could happen would be that they would beat him; maybe they would let him work off the meal, but in either case, he’d be better off. So he went in, sat down and ordered a huge feast. After coffee and dessert, when he could no longer eat, he started to pat his pockets and make a commotion. The waiter came and asked what was wrong, and the man had to admit that he seemed to have lost his wallet, and had no money to pay for his meal.

“Money? What’s that?” the waiter asked.

“But what do you mean? Don’t I have to pay for this meal?

“No. But if you feel you must absolutely do something, please say a Fatihah for my grandmother, who died a short while age.”

The man thanked him, said a Fatihah for the waiter’s grandmother, and left.

Walking down the street, he soon came to a clothing store, and noticed all the beautiful clothes on display. He stood looking in the window, occasionally looking down at his own old and dirty clothing, wondering how he could possibly get some new clothes. After a few minutes the owner of the store came out and invited the man in.

“You look like you’ve been travelling a long way and have just come to our town. Would you like a new suit of clothes?”

“Yes I would, but I don’t seem to have any money with me!”

“Money? You are new here. We don’t use any money. No one pays for anything in our town; everything is free.”

“Do you mean you’d make me a suit of clothes, and I wouldn’t have to pay a thing?”

“That’s right, but if you are uncomfortable, then say a Fatihah for my parents, and that will be more than enough.”

After he was fitted for his new clothes, the tailor asked him if he had a place to live, since he seemed to have just arrived. On hearing that he did not, the tailor said that he could stay in the apartment upstairs since it was now empty, as he had recently gotten married.

“That would be wonderful,” said the man, “but how could I pay you?”

“I could not think of asking you to pay anything. It would be sufficient, if you remember, once in a while to say a Fatihah for my parents.”

He was settled in and resting that evening in his new apartment, when all of a sudden he heard noises, and laughter, and a general commotion outside. He went to the window and it seemed to him that the street was filled with woman and girls and no men were in sight! He spotted the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen. As he watched, she walked under his window, and continued down the street. He followed after her with his eyes until he could see her no more, and then just stood staring off into the night. Eventually he got tired of standing, and went to bed, but sleep never came.

The next morning when he came down, the tailor had already opened up the shop. When the tailor saw him, with big bags under his eyes and a depressed look on his face, he became very concerned.

“What’s the matter? Are you sick? Was the bed uncomfortable?”

“No, no, not at all. There is nothing wrong.”

“There must be! Oh, I know! Last night was women’s night. Did you see someone you liked? That’s wonderful; why are you so sad?”

“But I don’t know who she is...”

“It doesn’t matter. Here’s what you must do. Tonight they will come out again. Take a candle and have it ready. Wait by the window, and if you see her, go quickly downstairs, light the candle and offer it to her. If she accepts it, she likes you, and all will be well.”

“But how will I know who she is?”

“Don’t worry. If she accepts you, just wait. Someone will come to you soon.”

That night, he anxiously waited by the window. Slowly, the women started to come out and wander the streets. There, across the street, he saw her. Quickly, he rushed downstairs, lit the candle, made his way through the crowded street, and walked up to the unknown woman he had fallen in love with. He stood in front of her. When she stopped, without saying a word, he held out the lit candle to her. She looked at him intently, and after a few moments gave a little smile, took the candle from his hand, turned around and walked away without a word.

The next day he came down to the shop in even worse shape than the day before. “What happened? Did she reject you?’ asked the tailor.

“No, she took it, but she just left. How will I find out who she is?”

“Didn’t I tell you not to worry? Just be patient. Someone will come to you soon enough.”

That night, at about midnight, there was a loud pounding on his door. He jumped out of bed, and opened the door to find two huge policemen there.

“Come,” said one of them. “The mayor wants to see you.”

“Now? What did I do?”

“Don’t ask us. We were told to bring you. That’s all we need to know.”

So he quickly got dressed, and went with the men to the mayor’s palace. He was shown into the reception room where a very dignified man stood up at his approach. “So you’re the young man whom my daughter has accepted. Would you like to marry my daughter?”

“Oh yes sir, very much.”

“I understand that your are new to town, and I would like to explain our rules. Your own house, food and clothing will be provided for you. In a little while, after you get used to being married, we will arrange for some job for you to do. All you need do is promise to love, care and protect my daughter, as well as follow three simple rules.”

“Yes, anything.”

“It’s really very simple. You must watch your tongue, you hand, and what is below your waist.”

“Is that all? I can do that, no problem.”

They were married, and moved into the house that had been prepared for the daughter of the mayor. Things were wonderful. And then one day several months after they were married, in the early evening, someone knocked at the door. The man asked his wife, “Dear, could you get that please. I’m really tired. If it’s for me, please just say that I’m out.”

“Excuse me? What did you say?”

“I said, ‘If it’s for me, tell them I’m out.’”

“That’s what I thought you said.” And she put on her scarf, and a jacket and left the house. She didn’t return that night, and the next morning he was rather angry. He thought that if she was out the entire night, she must have gone to her father’s house, so he went there. When he was shown into the mayor’s office by the huge policeman he had met earlier, he said, “Excuse me for bothering you, but is my wife here?”

“Where else would you expect my daughter to come after you have broken you promise and our rules?”

“What?! What promise? What rule?”

“You promised to watch your tongue. And now you have not only lied, but you wished my daughter to lie as well!”

“What? Just because I said that I wasn’t home. I’d hardly call that lying.”

“Nevertheless, you were home, and you lied.”

“Well I am sorry. I never dreamed you were so exacting. It will never happen again, now that I know you are so strict.”

So the man and his wife returned home, and as before their life was one of peace and joy. One fine spring day several months later they were out walking in the countryside. They had walked for an hour or so, and he told his wife that if she wanted to rest, she should lie down in the shade of a tree, and he would just wander a little further and then come back. So she lay down, and he walked through an apple orchard that was nearby. Soon, he found on the ground the biggest, reddest, most perfect apple he had ever seen. Thinking that it would be nice to surprise his wife, for she might be hungry after her nap, he picked it up and returned to where she lay peacefully sleeping. When she awoke, the first thing she saw was this beautiful apple. Sitting up quickly, she looked at her husband and said, “What is this?”

“An apple.”

“I know that, but where did you get it?”

“In an orchard about half a mile away.”

“Whom did you get it from?”

“What do you mean? It doesn’t belong to anyone. It was just lying on the ground, and I picked it up.”

Without a further word, she got up, put her scarf back on, and walked away. Knowing that she would go directly to her father’s, house, he slowly gathered the things they had brought, and slowly followed her. This time, the mayor did not even wait for the man to speak. As soon as he entered his office, the mayor said, “So now you break the second rule and are a thief.”

“A thief?” He was quite annoyed. “A thief? And what was it I am supposed to have stolen?”

“An apple.”

“I stole no apple. I merely picked it up. It belonged to no one.”

“But that is not true. Did you plant the tree from which it fell?”

“No.”

“Do you own the orchard where it was found?”

“No.”

“Did you look for the owner and ask for him to make the apple a gift to you?”

“No.”

“So you stole it. You took something that neither belonged to you, nor was put there with your hand. That’s stealing!”

“Father-in-law, the rules here are so strict. I didn’t realize how careful one had to be. Please, I am sorry, and it won’t happen again.”

“Well, all right, but this is your last chance. You have broken two of the rules, and if you do it again, you will have to go back to where you came from.”

As before, they returned home together, and the man was very good. Once on his daily walk, he discovered a certain spot by a river on the outskirts of the town where the women would go to do their washing. They would take their scarves off, roll up their sleeves, pull up their long skirts over their knees, and wade into the water to do the wash. Our friend began to go there, and would watch them while hiding behind a thick bush. One day, as he watched, he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder. It was the huge policeman who had first brought him to the mayor. “Come with me.”

Silently he went along to his father-in-law’s house. There his father-in-law, looking more sad than angry, said, “You have broken all three of our laws. You have failed to control your tongue, you hand and your sex, so now you must leave our land.” And nodding to the two policeman he said, “Take him back to where he came from.” They escorted him to the cliff, and grabbing hold of his arms and legs, swung him three times and cast him into space. As he fell he tightly closed his eyes in fear.

As he was falling, he suddenly opened his eyes to see the shaykh in front of him gently, compassionately smiling. The water from the glass was still traveling through the air.

“You see,” said the shaykh. “You are not ready yet.”

Divine Breath

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 17:45:00 GMT

The attributes with which Allah identifies Himself are seven. He is Living, Knowing, Willing, Doing, Seeing, Hearing, and Speaking. The Creator of Reality has placed in His creations the secrets of these seven divine qualities. Thus every existence, from a grain of sand to the human being, is “living.” Each knows in its own way that it is alive, and that it is the Ever-Living who gave it life. Thus also, each existence is given an ability of “knowing,” minute in comparison to the All-Knowing, as is said in the Qur’an: “And of knowledge you are given but a little. (Surah Bani Isra`il 17: 85)

All existences have “will.” There is none which is not at least “willing” to praise its Lord. And each created being is capable of “doing” something—the least being, doing what it was created for.

Every existence must have been given the ability of “hearing,” for nothing could exist if it had not heard Allah’s order Kun – “Be”– and it became. Also each being is capable of “seeing” reality, as much as it is meant to see. And everything is “speaking” in its own tongue, saying “there is none but Allah.” Some hear them and some do not. Some understand their language, and some do not.

“Speaking” is a sign of the “living.” But “hearing” is conditional. One hears the sound of the one who is close. The one who is close to His beloved, hears the voice of the beloved. The one who seeks the truth and comes close to it, hears the truth. The word of Allah is in His Book. Whoever believes in it and lives according to it comes close to Allah, and like Moses, hears His Voice.

The Messenger of Allah has no self. His essence is with the Essence of his Lord. He has no attributes. The attributes of his Lord are manifest in him. He does not do by himself. His Lord does through him. Whoever loves Him and does as he did, hears His voice in what he said in the hadiths.

“Speaking,” for us human beings, is the breath which is exhaled through our throats, producing certain sounds from our lips which communicate our thoughts in words to the ones who wish and can hear and understand. But the Divine Speech is a manifestation of the Divine Knowledge from the Sacred Tablet in the realms of the unknown, upon the Holy Breath of Mercy and Beneficence. This Breath, from which Allah has blown our souls unto us, is the cause of all and everything. It is that Divine Breath which said Kun, “Be,” and everything became.

If the blown breath of Man did not touch the throat and was not shaped into words by our lips, there would not be names for things and verbs for actions. If the Divine Breath did not touch the forms and shapes of things, nothing would exist. Thus as things exist in our minds because the human breath has given them names, the true existence of things, the Real Reality, depends on Allah’s words produced by the Divine Breath of Mercy. If that Breath did not touch them, all would die.

The dead neither breathe nor speak. All things exist and are kept alive thanks to the Divine Breath, and because they are “living,” they speak. The mountains, the skies, the seas, and the trees, these are the “covered” living things, like the dumb and the deaf, so we cannot hear them. Maybe the animals whose speech we can hear, hear the voices of the mountains and the trees. But they cannot tell us what they hear.

So you too take a lesson: do not speak of the things you have heard to the ones who are not ready to hear.

Elements Given to All Human Beings

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 19:44:00 GMT

This is a time of reflection, also to remind ourselves that we should reflect every day, without being reminded by losing someone we loved. Do we have to have such pain to be reminded that there is a destiny which effects us each moment of our lives from the moment we are born till our last breath?

Our destiny precedes us. We are born with a clear purpose, not in vain! We are born to fulfill a function and are equipped with all the faculties necessary to fulfill this function. We can not know our destiny, but we can find out our potential, our talent, and through this knowledge, perhaps we can find out what is the purpose of our lives and try to do it. Our teachers told us so often, "Know, seek, find and be!" Knowing is active, ignorance is passive. Activity is a sign of being alive. Passivity, immobility is death. Allah says, "Amongst His servants, only those who possess knowledge serve (obey and work for) Allah." What is this knowledge which is an obligation for each man and woman in Islam? It is to know the truth of oneself and to know the right and wrong which one learns from Allah's words, His prophet's life and listening to one's conscience; and then to live and act in reverence of one's Lord for His pleasure, for His sake, in His Name.

How does one work towards knowing the truth about oneself which is essential to know the purpose of this life, and to be as one's Lord meant one to be? Allah says, "Man can not have anything except that which he has worked for." He also says, "Allah will repay each soul what he has earned."

When we think of ourselves and say "I", we only think of our physical bodies. In reality, there are five parts to this "I." The ones who know say that man is made up of five divine elements called Hazarati Hamsa. These are ism, the name, sifat, the attributes, ruh, the soul, beden, the body, and ‘ilm, the knowledge.

Name is identity. A nameless thing does not exist. When Allah created our father Adam (as), He asked him his name. Adam said that he had none. As a reward for his selflessness, He named him Adam. In Arabic, Adam is written with alif, dal and mim indicating in the shapes of the letters the three positions in salat, ritual prayer: standing, bowing and prostration.

Indeed, Adam was created for worship. Then Allah taught Adam His beautiful Names, His attributes which became the sifat, attributes of Adam. Then He blew into him the Ruh from His own Soul. Allah had made the body of Adam from the four material elements; earth, water, air and fire; the same elements with which He made all and everything in the 18,000 universes. So although temporal, Adam was the physical microcosm of the macrocosm and the connection of the universes with Allah Most High. That is why Allah made him the Khalifa, His governor, His representative to the worlds and said to him, "I have created all and everything for you, and you for Myself."

The four divine elements, their names, their attributes, their souls and their bodies are put by Allah in all men as a birth right. The last divine element ‘ilm, knowledge, is created separately. But men is given a mind and a free will, to will to learn and acquire this knowledge or not. This is the test. This knowledge is called irfan, the knowledge of Truth; first to know the truth of oneself, then as in RasulAllah's (saws) promise "He who knows himself, knows his Lord," to know one's Lord. To know oneself means to know one's "name," one's real identity, one's "attributes", one's character, one's "body" and its temporality, and one's "soul." Then the five elements unite. One is whole. Then one sees that neither the name, the attributes, the body, the soul nor the knowledge with which one knows these are one's own. There is none but Allah, La ilaha illaAllah. This nonexistence is the state of "dying before dying" as our Master tells us to do. Then there is no death, but a rebirth when you physically disappear from the eyes of the world. As Allah says, "On that day, Earth will be changed into a different Earth and the Heavens will be changed into different Heavens, and you will come to Allah, the only One, ya Qahhar, the Enforcer."

Allah knows best.

Baba

Eulogy for Safer Efendi (ra) (3/1/1999)

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 16:43:00 GMT

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

My dear companions on the Path to Truth, Selamun Alaykum,

Allah’s constant lover and loyal servant, loving son of the Beloved of Allah, beloved of our Pir Hazreti Nureddin, our loving father, brother, teacher, guide and benefactor Sayyid Sheikh Safer Dal Efendi met his Lord on Sunday, February 21, late in the afternoon. He is buried in the Derghah in Istanbul, close to Hazreti Pir. As you see in the photograph, thousands of people came to pay their last respects, showing their sympathy and attachment to our Efendi and our path.

We all know his gentle yet strong character, his humility, his ability to forgive our worst faults, the love and care which he showed to us, his tireless and selfless service to the Path, which increased our numbers ten fold and helped build the largest, most beautiful Derghah in Turkey until the days that he could no longer move nor breathe, until the very last minute is a proof that he was endowed with the beautiful character which Allah most high bestowed upon his beloved prophet Muhammed.

May his soul find joy in Allah, may he find compassion and love. May his tomb be a garden from the gardens of Paradise, enlightened by the light of his good deeds. May his profound faith be his companion, and his continuous worship, obedience, submission and his actions for Allah’s sake be his aids in the Hereafter. May he receive the compassionate intercession of Allah’s Mercy upon the Universe. May his final destination be the highest levels of paradise. And may we who are left behind find patience to bare his loss, and comfort in living the way he taught us, and strength to continue his work.

Neither did we ask to be brought to this world, nor will we be asked if we wish to return to our Lord. When it is destined, death comes neither a moment before or a moment after we are called. Sickness and accident, not even suicide are causes of death- they are but the means. The cause of death is having been born. Who ever is alive will die, and what ever is built will be destroyed. Only Allah is Everlasting.

In the words of our master who is no long present in body but will always be present in spirit,”know that man lives three lives. The first he loses when he breathes his last breath. That is his individual, material life. With its passing, man loses his body and the things which it enjoyed and possessed. Look, it is packed in seven yards of cloth and that is all the body will take with it- the rest is lost. That is why Allah says : Do not hold on to the dead world, you will find your hands empty when you leave.

The second life is the communal life that man lives as a good mother or father, wife or husband, neighbor or citizen. If he is loving, caring, helping for Allah’s sake, giving not taking, giving joy not causing pain, building not destroying, then many will love him and follow him. His name, his work, his memory will live after he is gone.

The third life is in accordance with man’s faith and inner wisdom, and has to do with actions in submission to Allah’s will. If one keeps the orchard of this world with care, one certainly will receive its fruits in the Hereafter and be Allah’s friend and know no death. Such a one passes from the temporal space to an eternal space without pain and with joy.”

May Allah in his mercy accord us a passage such as this, a voyage as our Efendi took. And enable us to say:

WA ENNEKE RADIYTE BILLAHI RABBEN; WA BIL ISLAMI DINEN; WA BI MUHAMMEDIN SALLALLAHU ALEYHI WA SELLEM NEBIYYEN; WA BIL KUR’ANI IMAMEN; WA BIL KA’BETI KIBLETEN; WA BIL MU’MININE IHVANEN.

SHEHADETEN EN LA ILAHE ILLALLAH MUHAMMEDUN RESULULLAH.

WA ENNALLAHE YEB’ASU MEN FI-L KUBUR, MINHA HALAKNAKUM WA MINHA NU’IDUKUM WA MINHA NUHRIKJUKUM TARATEN UHRA.

RABBI LA TEZERNI FERDEN WA ENTE HAYRU-N NASIRIN. Amin.

Tosun Baba, 3/1/99

Everyday Islam

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 18:16:00 GMT

BISMILLAH IR‑RAHMAN IR‑RAHIM

Preface

These pages were written in response to the question of a friend: What is it like to live as a Muslim? There was nothing to read on the topic, she said—only history, or “academese,” or pious manuals from foreign countries. Which is all well and good, she said, but what is it like? How does it feel? What is it about?

This is a small attempt at answering that simple and important question. It is written by a Westerner for Westerners, and touches briefly on those fundamental practices most central to this way of life: the Five Pillars of Islam.

Wherever these five practices are followed, Islam is alive, and whoever embraces them and reflects upon them is a serious Muslim, engaged in a great spiritual endeavor.

Spiritual greatness? A tall order for ordinary people like ourselves. But according to the teaching, such is the true heritage of even the humblest of us. Even Americans!

Islam is for humanity. It is not the possession of Arabs or Iranians or any ethnic group. Though its language may appear to be unfamiliar, it speaks to the core. Surface unfamiliarity can alienate or mislead at first, making one uninterested in the conversation. Yet if you are moved to learn this language, you will find you knew it all along. Don’t be fooled ‑‑ we are all being addressed, and what we are being told is beyond price.

If there are errors in these few pages, please forgive them. May they cause no harm. But there is reason for hope, for this document begins, as all Muslim documents do:

IN THE NAME OF GOD, MOST BENEFICENT. MOST MERCIFUL.

THE FIRST PILLAR

SHAHADAH

Ash‑hadu al la ilaha illa Llah, wa ash‑hadu anna Muhammadan rasulu Llah

“I bear witness that there is no god but God,

and I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of God.”

Say it in front of two Muslim witnesses, and you are a Muslim. That’s all there is to it. Really. The whole business is in those two unadorned statements. But if you make this declaration, un-coerced, there is no going back. You are in, you are committed, and you are responsible. This way of life is not for dilettantes.

Say it once with a whole heart and your destiny changes. Say it more, and see what will happen to you: The more sincerely you can say it, the wholer your heart can become. People can spend their lives repeating it and never get tired of it, because the more you say it, the better it feels. Many of us are hoping that, when this life closes, we will get to use it as an exit line.

La ilaha illa Llah. “There is no god but God.”

This declaration is called tawhid, or affirming Unity. It’s the core of the matter – the very center of Islam, and its key. You have to feel its importance in order to participate, and if you do, your own heart will provide the best commentary on it. Still, some starting points may prove useful.

Traditionally, the tawhid is understood to comprise two parts: a negation first (la ilaha/there is no god) and then an affirmation (illa Llah/except God).

In the first part, one looks around and refutes a lot of claims. So much of the world pretends to godhood – that is it lays claim to our service, to our devotion, to our souls, ultimately. It tells us that we, as human individuals, are subordinate to it and dependent on it, that we can derive our only meaning and fulfillment from it. Ambition, money, power, society, politics, work, relationships, distractions, traits of personality, group identifications, personal history – each of these things, and more, claims final authority over us.

The beginning of tawhid rejects this completely. “No god!” The impulse to Islam begins with a realization of human dignity: that simple human wholeness outweighs any partial force. Once this is truly understood, the consciously human person cannot subjugate himself or herself to any idol, whether an idol of stone or an idol of thought. Such submission is untenable because it is a distortion of the order of things. Not one of these is realer than we are, not one of them owns us.

But something is realer than we are, and something owns us.

There is no arguing about this; either one senses it or not. The testimony is simply inside one to find: it cannot be analyzed, justified, defended, attacked, proved or disproved. It is there. When we recognize it, if we have the grace, the courage, we can state it: but God. In fact, we must state it, or the fullest dimensions of our humanity remain unknown. Without the affirmation we are largely lost to ourselves—whether in habit, in delusions, or in despair. With it, our lives assume their true context and meaning. In this all religion agrees.

Many people in educated circles in the West flinch at the mention of God. If we examine this reaction we are likely to discover that there is a good deal of ego in it. Part of this is, perhaps, the bridling of the intellect in the presence of the ungraspable. Intellectuals like mastery, and God is not to be mastered. Another motive, usually more to the point, is embarrassment—for not to believe in God is widely taken for superior insight! To confess to believing is to confess oneself a gullible fool. It takes a certain cheerful contempt for social discomfort to be a fool for truth. But that is the definition of Islam: “submission”—to the truth. It is to stop raising tedious objections, to stop protesting too much. It is to admit that (like it or not) you hear what, inside, you are continuously being told—for it is only when you have submitted to truth that truth becomes available to you.

There may be another reason for the refusal of belief, and that is historical: the name of God has always been used to excuse a wide variety of horrors. In rejecting these horrors, we reject what is cited to condone them. There is excellent reason for this. The thing we are rejecting though, is not God. It is human passion or self‑interest hiding behind a false image of God. Until we overthrow these images, God is not truly affirmed, and that is the challenge of tawhid: to say la ilaha with all our force, in order to open the way for illa Llah.

Muhammadun rasulu Llah. “Muhammad is the messenger of God.”

The Muslim is required to affirm, together with the existence of Unity, that Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullah, an Arab of seventh‑century Mecca, (peace and blessings be upon him)[1] is the servant and messenger of the Unity.

Such a statement gives the modern Westerner some pause. First of all, who was Muhammad {sl}? How many of us, even if we have received a so‑called “higher education,” have the slightest idea? Our culture, which has transmitted to us a general sense of the stories and flavors of Moses and Jesus—and these days, even of the Buddha—still carries no information whatsoever about the prophet of Islam. Yet his is a living and distinctive presence, inspiring the love of millions of our contemporaries.

Curiously, as a civilization we find that love disquieting and somehow suspect. From the time of the Crusades it has characterized “Them”—the others, the bad guys. As the planet shrinks though, exiling any human experience from the realm of “Us” becomes more and more obviously a losing strategy. And the love of the Prophet is a major human experience. Those of us who were not born heirs to it may yet have the adventure of reclaiming it, for the appeal of his character is no parochial thing. Prior to such a discovery, though, comes the simple recognition of his function. This is the recognition that is required of us.

And so the second difficulty: What on earth does it mean to call anybody the messenger of God’?

What we are asked to accept here is that the ordinary human condition is relevant to ultimate reality, and that from the latter to the former information has proceeded. Our situation is not isolated. Communications have been received.

We are asked to accept that this is not a fantasy, a legend, or a fraud. This is really the case.

We are then asked to accept that this communication has been carried by a particular person. (In Islam, it is held to have been carried by a whole series of persons.) That person has news for us: We are meant to be functional. We are important to the way things are. We have a job to do, and whether or not we do it has consequences. The message says, “Wake up!” And then, “Here is the real job description for your essential nature. Here is what you were born for....”

The messenger does not simply deliver the message. He demonstrates it. In his own person, he authenticates it. Since the message is about human being, it must be in human being. To receive the message, we must recognize and embrace that human being.

And so our relation to reality finds its crisis in our relation to this other particular person. For the crux is that though the messengers are before us, we may or may not recognize them. The further we are from our own essential reality, the stranger the messengers appear.

The nature of the messenger is the criterion. It separates coherence from incoherence and enlightenment from self‑deception. To embrace the messenger is to know that there is a human character that is the touchstone of truth, and that to choose it is to choose the truth.

Islamic tradition holds that, always and everywhere, many individuals have received the transmission of the character of truth. This is called technically, wilayah, the friendship with God. Of the uncountable friends of God, a certain elect number have, in the past, been entrusted with broadcasting the transmission: their state is called nubuwwah, prophethood. And of the prophets (by some accounts 144,000 strong), the seven greatest were chosen to bear the major perspectives upon this message of human destiny. Their names are familiar: they are Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, and Muhammad (peace be upon them all). These are the rasuls, the Messengers proper. With the fulfillment of their number, the transmission, in all its dimensions, was complete.

According to Muhammad {sl}, the content of the testimony of all these thousands of prophets has always been precisely the same. He insisted that the greatest of them was to be granted no priority over the least of them in that respect.

He also told us that he was the last transmitter.

To bear witness to his messengership means to notice that the compass in us that points toward spiritual north, points consequently in his direction. (We should check our compass first against the whole line of prophets—if they seem to be diverging, our compass needs correction!)

Then, having recognized the character of truth in him, we need to listen very carefully to what he has been directed to tell us.

“Say: If you love God, follow me, so that God will love you....”

THE SECOND PILLAR

SALAT

The second foundation of the life of a Muslim is a particular kind of prayer known as salat (or namaz, in some parts of the old Muslim world). When Muslims talk about “making prayers,” it is salat they usually mean.

Islam knows several forms of prayer—du’a, petition (the prayer of asking) and munaja, intimate conversation, as well as salat, the formal presence with God. The first two are free acts of the heart, about which not laws, but perhaps rules of courtesy apply. The third though, is a divinely appointed responsibility.

We are asked to put aside a regular schedule of times in order to wait upon God, and to approach Him at those times with His means, rather than our own, and for His ends, rather than our own.

Salat is a mystery.

What it comes down to in practice, though, is straightforward enough. It is an act of presenting ourselves. The Prophet has passed on to us precisely what we are expected to do.

First, salat requires cleanliness. Before making prayers we must make an ablution.

Cleanliness is the physical analogue of inner purity; the practice of cleanliness resonates with the condition of purity. Active Muslims come to be automatically aware of whether they are “in” or “out of” a state of ablution. To be “in ablution” means that we may approach prayer in that moment; to be “out of ablution” means that we may not. It is impossible to be “in ablution” all the time, since ablution is “broken” by, and must be renewed after, sleep, excretion, sexual activity, the flow of blood, and excessive outbursts of anger or hysteria. To one degree or another, everyone cycles through these phenomena in the course of a day or a month or a lifetime. The requirement of ablution brings this fact into focus. Sometimes our forces are concentrated—other times, dispersed. It is only when our forces are (relatively) concentrated and our attention (relatively) disengaged from the biological world that an exclusively spiritual activity becomes feasible.

Interestingly, though, this activity is not a distant goal. There are repeated opportunities for it, and they are pressing. In fact, they are obligatory.

So we wash our hands, rinse our mouths and noses, pass our hands over our faces and heads, wet our ears and necks, forearms and feet, and then hurry off to the prayer. (You’re not advised to hurry to prayer, actually, but to approach it in an orderly way. That’s often not what happens, however. As the Qur’an comments, ‘Man was created of haste!’)

When we get to our prayer‑place, whether it is a mosque or a corner of the office—anywhere clean will do, except a graveyard or a bathroom—we need to find the qiblah, the shortest path to Mecca, and turn toward it. For the second requirement for salat is correct orientation. Valid prayer needs our best estimation that we are facing in the right direction.

Why Mecca? Mecca has the dignity of the Center. In the physical exercise of prayer, it becomes the point of focus for all who pray. If we were to look at the planet as a spiritual whole, we would find vast concentric circles of people ordered about that point. The membership in the circles shifts continuously as individuals move in and out of the prayer. Arcs of those circles shrink and swell as the canonical prayer‑times move over the face of the earth, organizing congregations as they pass—now many people are praying in some one place, now fewer. The circles themselves, though, are always latent, even if some arcs at some moments are entirely missing. For the whole of each circle is implicit in their common center.

To the individual at prayer there is rarely any direct sense of the whole circle (although the unison of congregational prayer, with its rows of participants, provides repeated small tastes of it), but there is always available a lively sense of the center. The center is the direction we must face. The center is dead straight ahead.

“Guide us in the straight path,”

says the Fatiha, the one recitation that must be made in every salat.

“The path of those with whom You are pleased, not the recipients of wrath, nor those astray.”

It is not that God is only to be found at the center, for according to the Qur’anic verse,

“Withersoever you turn, there is the Face of God.”

It is that, if we are to fulfill our responsibilities here, the center alone can be the object of our aspirations.

On the edge of prayer, and facing in, we need to check our deportment.

“Deportment” seems an old‑fashioned sort of idea, but it is very important to the salat, which clues us in that it is very important in general. There is nothing random about the salat.

Because there is nothing random about the salat, there can be nothing random in the salat, either. If every element carries meaning, then changing any element involves loss of meaning. In a divine form, what one might ordinarily take for “spontaneity” in fact amounts to static.

(What passes for spontaneity in most cases is rarely truly spontaneous anyway – the “natural” thing is usually simply a habit, acquired unconsciously almost anywhere, with which we have unwittingly identified ourselves! In the salat, on the contrary, we are consciously acquiring a habit from God—a habit with which it is very difficult to identify oneself.)

So on the threshold of salat, we put aside our ordinary behavior. Like Moses on Sinai, we take off our shoes, for we are about to enter holy ground.

We check that we have muffled the signals of our biological selves, restraining such stimuli from distracting ourselves or others. If male, we check that we have covered ourselves at least from navel to knee; if female, from neck to wrist to ankle. We cover our heads. And ideally, we have already made sure that we are under no urgent physiological pressures.

We are about to enter a moment of time that is more deeply coded than the dance of honeybees, more precise than a surgical operation; that will pass in a flash, and that we almost certainly will not understand.

To get any benefit whatsoever from that moment, we must consciously intend to enter into it. We have to open ourselves to it, whatever it is, for better or worse, without preconceptions of what we are supposed to receive. Whether we catch any trace of that or not, we have to be there. And to be there, we have to mean to be there. The intention to make salat is the ultimate condition for salat.

The details of this form of prayer, the standings, bowings, prostrations, recitations, can be found in the appendix, where they stand naked, simple directions, tracings in the sand. And this simplicity, the bare performance, is all that is required of us. It is a great consolation, on the thousand and one occasions when we find ourselves, suddenly, offering the closing benedictions, having somehow completely lost the prayer—maybe our minds took us to the grocery store, or the factory, or to what we should have said yesterday or are hoping to do tomorrow—to know that our bodies, at least, kept the tryst and that later our hearts might join them. It is a great consolation that in the bad day, the day of care and confusion, there still remain five tiny points, five pinpricks in the fabric of the world, through which that day might still be threaded by spirit. Because of salat, no day, even the most futile, is wasted.

But the standings, bowings, prostrations, recitations are also like a curled leaf within which, on the good day, we find something suspended from silken threads, cradled, that cannot subsist outside; something that might someday be a butterfly. The salat protects that vulnerable thing.

And there’s more. There’s a kind of food in it, or a kind of light in it, something that could be referred to any of the senses as we grope for expression. It may not be the same for you and for me. It may not be the same today and tomorrow. We might notice it or we might not. But it is there.

A great mystic said that God speaks to everyone in the salat. He did not qualify that. Saint or sinner, attentive or inattentive, whole or broken—everyone is addressed. And, he added, if you do not hear, it is simply that you are not listening hard enough.

THE THIRD PILLAR

ZAKAT

Zakat is tithing. It is a plain enough business (though there are slight variation, among the different schools of law as to how precisely to calculate it). Basically, we take two and a half percent of our liquid assets and give it to needy Muslims, every year. That’s that.

What, shouldn’t we give to everyone’? Of course; but that is not the bare essential. The bare essential is to give to those who are close at hand. The responsibility of a Muslim expands in concentric circles—ourselves; our families; our neighbors; our society; our world. (To reverse this process often means to substitute talking for doing.)

Those who are closest at hand (besides those who wake up in the same room with us or walk out of the next door) are those with whom we pray. Often, those with whom we pray are even closer, in the real sense. To stand shoulder to shoulder with others who are facing the same direction and responding to the same call generates community—that is the common unity of purpose that makes isolated individuals into partners in a single enterprise. It is scarcely surprising that shared purpose joins people together more deeply than proximity or superficial preferences. What might be surprising is that this joining together needs fostering—it does not maintain itself without our effort—and that fostering it materially is a spiritual responsibility.

The sense of community is a joint identity that is the most powerful form of moral support. The forces of disintegration—those forces to which we say, “No god!”—are ubiquitous. Anyone who aims to testify for Unity needs all the support he or she can get. The Messengers have always built communities to provide that support, and such community was a special concern of the last of them. Community, like human life in general, has an outside and an inside. Salat and zakat, which produce and sustain Muslim community, illuminate the importance of this.

Zakat is the most specific obligation in charity, as salat is the most specific obligation in prayer. Thus the one is the door to exterior life, as the other is the door to interior life. The Qur’an advises us,

“Enter houses by their doors.”

Salat opens on the divine; zakat opens on the human world.

Both these involvements are absolutely required of us.

Zakat no more exhausts the realm of action than salat exhausts the realm of contemplation. Rather, the form of each pillar suggests to us the form of our best participation in its realm. How should we contemplate? Make your salat and find out. HOW should we act in the world? Pay zakat and observe.

Observe, first, that the fundamental of social action is giving. It is certainly not acquisition; neither is it the exercise of force in the name of any principle, even such minimal force as moral exhortation. All of that, even where it is appropriate and correct, comes much later—and its possible correctness might well be measured against this august Pillar. The primary human duty of a Muslim is not to be a preacher, a judge, or a missionary (zakat tells us), but to be a seeker of need and a channeler of abundance.

And even if we do not apply the Pillar of zakat widely, even if we restrict it to its narrowest application, if we pay attention to it, it teaches us things. It teaches us, first, some hard facts about ourselves.

How small an amount is the canonical zakat ‑‑ only a tiny fraction of what we take for our wealth, and even that derived after we have (theoretically) paid off our debts. But how hard it is, sometimes, to give up that little bit freely. What miserliness, what resentment are to be found there—or, alternatively, what grand righteousness and self-satisfaction! Surrendering zakat is an education in the lower end of human nature.

Zakat serves as the beginning of self‑knowledge from another perspective as well, for we don’t just stick our hands in our pockets and pull out a couple of bills. We are supposed to calculate what we owe, and calculate it precisely. Nor is this for the Internal Revenue—it is for God’s sake, and, we must recognize, it is from God’s beneficence. How often do we actually count our blessings? With zakat we are obliged to, periodically, in the most concrete possible way.

Furthermore, the high status of zakat hints to us that we ought to have enough to be able to give. Worldly work is needed to bring in enough sustenance to distribute to the incapable. To refuse to engage the world sufficiently to accomplish this is to lose a fifth of religion. It is like willfully cutting off a limb.

Far worse is the case of someone who has engaged the world but refuses to give of that sustenance. For the Prophet has warned us that salat is not accepted from those who purposely withhold zakat. Such people cut off two limbs.

So observe, second, that social action requires self‑knowledge. To avoid the damage inflicted by false self‑interest, we need to know what our interest really is. To give to others is in fact to give to ourselves. Life is flow. Pass it along or strangle in it.

The law of zakat shows us that getting must generate giving, and that inner and outer are mutually dependent. We separate these pairs only at our peril.

THE FOURTH PILLAR

SAWM

Sawm is fasting, and specifically the fasting of the month of Ramadan. Aha! The hard part at last! Except for women having their periods (who must defer it), and pregnant and nursing women, invalids and travelers (who may defer it), all practicing Muslims fast from dawn to sunset all the thirty-odd days of the same wandering lunar month.

Fasting means to do without food and water, sex and cigarettes, from the time the first thin ghost of light enters the sky till the time the horizon swallows the sun. As with salat, you need to make a formal intention to do this rather than just blunder into it. And making the intention anew daily is held wiser than making it for the entire month, since a day’s worth is an easier promise to fulfill—and the promise of sawm is serious. To break the intention for a Ramadan fast (for any reason other than sudden illness or injury) incurs the penalty of two extra months of continuous fasting...just in case you were inclined to take this business lightly!

(Now here’s a very interesting point: If you forget that you are fasting, and eat or drink something inadvertently, momentarily unaware of your intention, and then remember—your fast is still valid! A brief special salat of two cycles, and you are back in the game. For our states are not actively under our control, while our intentions are.)

Fasting is available to Muslims as a private spiritual practice at any time (except immediately before or after Ramadan). There are also a number of days in the year when fasting is recommended, or has special merit, but is not prescribed. There is no two months’ penalty for breaking optional or suggested fasts, however. The month of Ramadan is very special.

The Muslim religious calendar is strictly lunar, calculated from new moon to new moon. The lunar year, made of twelve moon orbits about the earth, comes in eleven days shorter than the solar year, made of one earth orbit about the sun. Since it is the solar year that provides the ordinary seasons, the upshot of this difference is that religious events are cut free of the most striking terrestrial cycles; they follow a different schedule than that determined by day length, by bud and flower and fruit. That old, old story is not the story with which Islam is most directly concerned.

Ramadan moves backwards in time. We find it in summer, in spring, in winter, in fall, and after thirty-three years, in summer again. No season is without its grace. And if we recall that we are living on a globe, and that if on a blazing day we dug a VERY long tunnel through the center of it, we might come out in the snow... it is easy to appreciate that this disengagement is of universal benefit. For no people anywhere is stuck with endless years of interminable midsummer fasting, or of the odd abruptness of the miniscule midwinter clays. The eases and difficulties of the fasting season are distributed everywhere with the evenest of hands.

Thus the floating lunar months have no outward, obvious signs. They have inward, subtle associations instead. They have been correlated with spiritual phenomena and events, and with the states that resonate with those events. To observe the season of two of these spiritual events is demanded of us. The first of these is Ramadan, and the event is revelation.

It was in one of the last ten nights of Ramadan—known as the Night of Power—that the whole of the Qur’an descended into the soul of Muhammad {sl} , and that the angel Gabriel transmitted to him the first bit of it that was to become manifest—the divine command to read from that text, and recite it. (Qur’an means simultaneously “Reading” and “Recital.”)

“Read!

In the Name of thy Lord who created,

Created Man of a blood‑clot....”

The text then manifested out of him in pieces, in specific moments, according to the symbolic appropriateness of those moments, over a period of twenty‑three years. The force of these launchings of the divine word into the exterior world was such that, if the Prophet were mounted when they arrived the animal’s legs would frequently buckle. The Prophet himself {sl} would break into a sweat. He reported that sometimes the words to be manifest were recited to him by the angel’s voice, and other tunes they were like the ringing of a tremendous bell. This form of activation, he said, was the hardest to bear.

As the verses were thrust into the world, people would run to catch them, write them down, commit them to memory; afterwards the Prophet would indicate in which chapters they fell and how the chapters were to be ordered. So all this dynamism turned into text—114 chapters, from long to short, making up (in one edition here) 1,222 printed pages: let us say maybe a quarter of that with the commentary and English translation extracted, perhaps three hundred pages (generously laid out); a book among books on a shelf. And yet....

The Qur’an is dead to the dead, and living to the living. It plays hide and seek with its readers, and

“...none but the purified may touch it.”

It defeats our narrative expectations entirely, rising and falling more like waves in the sea, and like the sea, containing hidden currents, some warm, some cool, some leading in to the shore, and some leading out to the vastness. A third of it, we are told, is accessible to anyone; a third to its own elect; a third only the Prophet knew. The words of God are endless, inexhaustible—yet you can find them here, nonetheless; and, we are told, you could find them all, the infinite discourse, if you were permitted to drown in this sea. One hundred fourteen chapters, three hundred pages (more or less); a book among books on a shelf.

The Qur’an is read in Ramadan, the month of its arrival, read as much as possible. But it is the spirit of it, the sheer fact of it, which is most alive during the month: the shattering gift of it—God speaks, heaven and earth enfold. All scripture, we are taught, descended in Ramadan.

For the believers celebrating the fast, the echo of this descent is present, not as nostalgia, but as an immediate mercy. We look for it, hope for it—at least one encounter, God willing, recognizable and direct. But whether or not we receive that longed‑for taste in any particular year, there is around the month—despite short tempers, growling stomachs, and all the minor inconveniences of observance—there is around the month the unmistakable aura of compassion.

It would be nice to say that we spend the month of Ramadan actively contemplating revelation. In fact, we spend the greater part of it actively contemplating dinner. Though chastening, this is not all bad, for it shows us in the most palpable way just what our position is, just how dependent we are. Fasting is much less a discipline for the body (which generally has plenty of supplies to get through a day) than it is for the ego. The ego is used to its habits, and to getting what it wants when it wants it. Ramadan throws all that up in the air.

So we put up with the interior screaming and yelling and begin, after a couple of days, to develop a sense of humor. Our demands become so transparently preposterous, the personal strengths we boasted of so ridiculously vulnerable, our terribly competent actions so unfocused, that the whole thing becomes funny. Ramadan afternoons, after about 3 o’clock or so, can be very silly. There is not necessarily anything grim about humility.

The dinners, though they can be hard alone, are wonderful if you can spend them with other Muslims. After the hungry day of solitary effort, the communal celebration is full of delight. How fine the food tastes! How good it is to see you!

And in an organized community, after the meal and the regular night prayer comes the special salat of Ramadan, called tarawih—the prayer of Rests. Up to twenty cycles long (depending on the school of practice), it is not an obligatory prayer, but an optional one available to those members of the congregation who would like to engage in an even fuller month of devotion. Though some devotees make a tarawih last all night, most people flag long before that, and it is a principle passed onto us from the Prophet that worship should not be a burden. A moderate tarawih, with the required breaks between cycles, might take perhaps an hour. That is enough time for most of us to feel what it could be to live for God.

Tea; sleep. An hour before first light, rise for the pre‑dawn meal. Try and figure out what on earth is worth eating; eat it. Make intention for the day’s fast; make dawn prayer; back to sleep—if you are working, only for an hour or two. Get up; go about your business; live another day of Ramadan.

The name Ramadan means “a great heat.” In it are all the facilities for a true spiritual retreat within the life of this world. It is a sort of alchemical furnace, and its heat has gradual levels. The baseline is the physical fast, required of all. If this becomes easy for you, there is the inner fast—the fast from anger, pride, and desire. There are even rumors of people who fast from what is not God.

But all of this emptying is for the sake of being filled. And it comes, at last, to an end. Whatever work has been done, is done. The dawn of the great festival of ‘Id al‑Fitr’ breaks. Ramadan is over.

THE FIFTH PILLAR

HAJJ

“O soul at peace, return to your Lord, well‑pleasing, well pleased.

Enter among My servants. Enter My Paradise.”

We are hoping for this call. We are working, in one sense, to qualify for it, to be able to hear it and respond. But whether we are successful or not, whether we are even working or not, independent of any circumstance whatsoever, all of us must return. Our lives are inevitably measured against this iron fact. It imposes the zero point that no relativism can obscure. The silent teacher, as the Prophet called it, is death.

Hajj, pilgrimage to Mecca, is the ultimate formal obligation in Islam. Once in a lifetime a capable Muslim is supposed to put all of his or her affairs in order—provide for the family, settle debts, close whatever issues are open—leave it all behind, and begin the journey to the Center. And this is the cry of the pilgrims:

labbayka Allahumma labbayk

labbayka la sharika laka labbayk

Innal‑hamda

wan‑ni `mata laka wal‑mulk

la sharika lak!

“I am here, my God, at Your service!

Here, Incomparable One, here!

Praise, blessing, sovereignty are Yours.

Nothing compares to You!”

Hajj is return. It is a rehearsal for the final return. In it we practice hearing the great Call, and we practice responding to it. How excellent it would be to recognize it properly when it comes!

Travel to Mecca is all yearning and striving for heedfulness. The tale of it can be told indefinitely. But once the pilgrims finally reach the sacred precincts, a dramatic teaching begins.

At the boundary, we put aside our ordinary clothing. Men dress in two white sheets. Women are allowed more range, but nearly everyone wears white. No jewelry or any sign of rank is permitted—men may not cover their heads; and though women continue to cover theirs, if they come from a tradition of facial veiling, they may veil no longer. At this door, everyone’s condition is the same. The state of ihram, consecration, is entered. There is no hunting, no fighting, no frivolity, and no flirtation. There is no perfume or combing. We may not pull a hair, swat a fly, or step on a green leaf. Much charity is given now, but apart from that, it is over. For these few days, the distractions are gone; fact alone remains. The enormous crowd. Physicality. Concentration. Presence.

Instead of the world we knew, space around us contains a story, into which we step, as one might step from sleep into a vast and hidden dream. The space is both feverish and preternaturally clear. The story is of the rediscovery of the Center.

This is a story whose characters many people know, though the account the Muslims possess contains far more than the version given in the Bible. Here it is:

At God’s command the prophet Abraham left his young wife, Hagar, and their infant son, the prophet Ishmael, in the wilds of Arabia—a cruel forbidding desert where, beneath the sand lay hidden the ruins of the first house of divine worship ever built, the house raised by Adam himself. Hagar, alone desperate for water for her child, ran seven times between two small hills which she climbed looking for signs. At the seventh circuit, the child struck his heel upon the ground—and a spring bubbled up, the holy spring Zamzam that comforts the pilgrims to this day. By this spring the lady Hagar camped and raised her son, and gradually a small settlement formed. And years later, when Abraham returned, by this spring he and Ishmael rebuilt the immemorial temple of the Ka’bah, and re-instituted its ancient rites.

The story continues with Abraham’s famous promise to sacrifice his son, and God’s redemption of this promise with a ram. This son (unnamed in the Qur’an) is generally held by Muslims to have been Isma’el, and the place of this sacrifice Mina, outside Mecca.

Following Abraham. Hagar, and Isma’el, finders of the House of God and exemplars of submission to the divine, the pilgrims enact these rites: With Hagar we run searching from hill to hill; with Isma’el we drink from the astounding spring; with Abraham we pray before the Holy House ascended from the sand. Later, with all of them, we fight the temptations of cowardice, stoning the devils that would stand in our way. And finally, at the end, when the sacrifice is reached, we accept as they did the necessity of death—to find, with astonishment and gratitude, that what must die is not, truly, our most beloved. For it is not souls, but bodies; not human beings, but animals that die.

And interwoven with this great teaching is the other rite, even older, the rite the prophets came here to find: to circle seven times about the Holy House; and to stand as summoned on the ninth of Dhul-Hijja, on the vast plain of ‘Arafat—no other time, no other place—with all the enormous company of pilgrims, and dressed in a shroud, to wait.

Hajj as an experience is something that no pilgrim can transmit very well to someone who hasn’t made the trip. It is difficult, troublesome, radically uncomfortable, and sometimes dangerous. That is part of it. It is leveling, unifying, bringing uncountable people from every place and every condition to a single place and a single condition. That is part of it. It is exalting, abasing, overwhelming. That is part of it too.

It is a point of absolute purity in an ocean of absolute lowliness. That is closer to the core.

When you have made the hajj, your slate is clean. There’s the chance to start over again. Has your life enabled you to take advantage of this?

Many hajjis go back for another taste, another chance, more practice. Others cannot find the means for more than the single trip, so they wait until late in life—to accumulate the money and the leisure, sometimes, or to be able to commit themselves fully to the change they are hoping to find.

Some fraction of pilgrims, surely, must retain the deepening insight that Pilgrimage provides, bring it back to families and towns, put it to use. In Turkish villages returning hajjis come home to find their front doors painted green, the color of life, the color of the Prophet’s Way.

The annual flux of pilgrims—in to the Center, then out again—is the breath of life of the Muslim world.

Even if you are not a hajji yourself, even if your town has no pilgrims to send out and take back, simply as a Muslim you share in the conclusion of the hajj, for the tenth of Dhul‑Hijja is everywhere and for everyone the great Feast of Sacrifice. Congregational prayers are said, Abraham’s vow recalled, and from each person of any means, a sacrifice is due. Lamb’s flesh is eaten—but for our children and our souls (which are, God willing, alive) ...there are gifts.

“Who has a better religion than he who submits himself entirely to God, is a doer of good, and follows the faith of Abraham the upright’?”

…

“O believers, say: We believe in God, in the revelation given to us, and in the revelation given to Abraham, Isma’el, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and in that given to Moses and Jesus and that given to all prophets from their Lord. And say: We are Muslims.”

…

“Believing men and women who add faith to their faith will be admitted by God to gardens beneath which rivers flow, to abide therein forever.”

…

“We set forth these parables to men that they may reflect.”

…

“Whose word can possibly be truer than God’s’?”

Postscript

The proper name of God, as taught in Islam, is Allah

That to which the name refers does not vary. You can just say, “God” if you like.

It is a splendid name, nonetheless, because the sound of it comes from the heart.

ALLAH!

The resonances are surprising.

Everyone will taste death: Kullu Nafsin Dhaiqatul Mawt

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 17:06:00 GMT

Rasulullah says: “Men are asleep, they will wake up when they are dead.” He also says:

“The faithful do not die, they simply move from this world to the hereafter.” At the end of this life one will be born in the hereafter. But we must be careful. “One dies the way one lives and one is resurrected the way one dies.” When the Messenger of Allah was about to leave this world, to console his companions, he told them that when he will leave, he will leave them with two great teachers: one a talking teacher, one a silent teacher. When they asked him who they were, he told them that the talking teacher, who will take his place, is the Holy Quran and the silent teacher, who will guide them in this life, is death.

Therefore we must remember death and we must not be afraid of it, for Allah says: “For the friends of Allah, there is no fear nor sadness (in death).”

When a faithful is about to leave this world, those who are close to him should be present, quietly in a dignified manner, make their presence felt by gentle words, touches and caresses. They should gently repeat the tevhid while the Surah Ya Sin is chanted in a soft and beautiful way. Zem Zem water could be given to him, if he is able to drink, or his lips could be wetted. Hopefully this will remind him to remember and pronounce the tevhid and the name of Allah before he leaves this world.

The following is the farewell celebration of a dervish who is leaving to meet his Lord. When he breaths his last breath, the dervish is laid on his back either his feet facing the Qiblah or his head in the direction of the Qiblah. He is undressed. If his eyes are open, they are closed. His chin is tied with a knot above his head. His private parts are cleaned. His arms are placed at his sides. His legs are straightened, the two big toes tied together. Then he is totally covered with a clean white cloth and something metal is placed on his belly.

Later the body is removed to the place where he will be given his last ablution, while, at the home of the deceased, his family and friends read the whole Quran. This could be done by dividing the sections to be read amongst as many people as are available. It is customary to prepare special deserts and drinks to be offered to the guests.

The final ablution is done in the following manner: The persons washing the body are in a state of ablution themselves. The body is placed on a table covered with a water-repellent material. The body is uncovered except for the section between his navel and his knees. One of the washers takes a cloth in his left hand and wipes the private parts of the deceased, and disposes of the cloth, washes his hands and with his index finger cleans the navel. After that, with the hollow of his right hand he gives water to the mouth of the deceased three times and three times gives water to the nose and three times wets his face, then washes his right arm then the left until the elbow, wets his head, washes his right foot then the left as is done in ordinary ablution. Then with luke warm water, the hair of the deceased is soaped, then his right side and his left side and his front and back, the whole body is soaped and rinsed.

While the body is being washed the face is perfumed with incense. After drying the body, the points of the body touching the ground during prostration, the palms, the elbows, the knees and the top of the feet are perfumed with rose perfume or camphor.

There are three layers of shroud, which should be preferably of cotton and perfumed. The first is put upon the body like a shirt covering from the neck to the feet. The second wraps the body from the right and the left, the third goes over the two layers and is knotted at the top of the head and under the feet. Then the body is placed in a simple wooden coffin which is covered with green cloth over which a black or green cover, embroidered with verses of the Quran is laid.

In the case of women, who are washed by women, the same procedure is done with the exception that if they have long hair it is braided and placed over their chest. In their case, there are five pieces of shroud. One is a head covering which is put on first, then the first layer of shroud is put then an extra shroud covers their chest tightly then they are wrapped in the two other shrouds. After the coffin is covered with the same material, to distinguish them, at the level of the face an ornate headcover is laid. This is an obligatory procedure for every Muslim.

In the case of dervishes, the procedure of the last ablution is done twice. During the second washing a group of dervishes sings ilahis which are presented with this writing in sequence. The first is a reminder of the living addresses to the dead and the second is from the lips of the dead addressed to the living. When the total ablution is finished, if the deceased had been given a “dalli arakia” it is put on his or her head. In the middle of his forehead the tevhid is written, on his eyes the earth of Kerbala is sprinkled. If he or she is a khalifa, his ijaza is placed in his right hand. This procedure in the sufi terminology is called to be dressed for the wedding.

Unless there is a compelling reason, the deceased should be buried within 24 hours. Women are not recommended to participate neither in the funeral prayers nor at the grave site, but it is permissible.

The funeral prayer preferably takes place after the afternoon prayer following the death. According to our tradition the coffin does not enter the mosque, but is placed on a platform outside. The congregation stands in three lines in front, facing the coffin in the direction of the “qiblah.”

The intention is to make the funeral prayer for the man, the woman or the child who has passed away. The imam stands on the other side of the coffin, facing the Qiblah. When the imam makes “tekbir” aloud the congregation raises their hands and ties them in front, then everyone silently recites the “subhanakah.” At the second “tekbir” the congregation does not raise their hands and recites the “salli wa barak” salawat. After the third tekbir~ without raising the hands, a prayer for the soul of the dead is recited. The usual prayer is the following: “Allahumma agfirli wa lil mayyiti wa li sagiril muminina wal muminat.” (Oh God, forgive me and this deceased and the rest of the believing men and women.) Then after the fourth tekbir, in the same manner, one gives salams to the right and to the left and the prayer is finished. After that the imam makes a prayer for the hereafter of the deceased then he addresses the congregation and asks them if they vouch that the deceased was a good person. The congregation responds audibly, “Indeed.” Then the imam says, “If he has wronged you in any way or if he owes you anything do you willingly forgive him?” The congregation responds positively. Then a “Fatiha” is recited for the soul of the deceased and the coffin is transported to the grave site.

While the coffin is being transported various “ilahis” are sung which are included at the end marked three, four, five and six. The dervishes would also be chanting the “Huseyni Tevhid” and the hafizes would be chanting the funeral salah. (attached at the end as seven and eight).

At the grave site, the coffin is lowered into the grave from the side of the “‘qibla”” and the coffin is slanted so that the right side of the deceased is towards the ““qibla””. Then, either Surah Mulk or Surah Waqiah is recited, and/or a short “hatim” is recited by everyone, consisting of Surah Ihlas, Surah Falaq, Surah Nas, Surah Fatiha and the first five verses of the Surah Baqara, and offered to the soul of the deceased,

After the grave is covered, the imam gives the inculcation. With these words the imam coaches the deceased how to respond to the questioning angels. He addresses the grave saying thrice: “Qul ya [name of the deceased] ibn (the son of [mother’s name] )“ or “binti (the daughter of [mothers name] )“ Wa annaka radhiyta billahi rabban; wa bil islami dinan; wa bi Muhammadin salallahu alayhi wa sallam nabiyyan; wa bil Qurani imaman; wa bil Qaabati qiblatan; wa bil mu’minina ihwanan. Shahadatan an Ia ilaha illallah Muhammadun rasulullah. wa annallaha yeb’asu man fil qubur, minha halaqnakum wa minha nu’idukum wa minha nuhrijukum taratan uhra. Rabbi la tazarni fardan wa anta hayrun nasirin.”

After this the dervishes form a circle around the tomb and make a short “zikrullah” and leave their brother or sister at the mercy of Allah, the Merciful and the Compassionate.

When Hazrati Rabia, r.a., went to her Lord, the angels came to her in her grave to question her as to who was her Lord, what was her religion, who was her Prophet, which was her book and where did she turn to pray. At their first question, Hazrati Rabia, herself, asked the angels, “Where did you come from?” The angels said, “From the realm of angels.” Hazreti Rabia said, “That is another realm, another dimension far away from this temporal, material world and you haven’t forgotten who your Lord is. How do you expect that I would forget Allahu taala when I am a few feet under this world and a few hours from when I was alive?” And the Lord said to the angels, “Withdraw from in between us and leave us alone.”

May Allah accord my ihvan such ease. Amin. And may they recognize that the real tomb is this body within which we live and may they live the secret of “dying before dying.” So when death comes to this mortal body, may they find the true life and may they, during this life, be able to turn the tomb of this body into a paradise by living in it in accordance with Allah’s pleasure so that they enter directly to Paradise when they enter their tomb. Amin, bihurmati sayyid al mursalin.