The Fruits of Ramazan

 BismillahirRahmanirRahim 

Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alamin. Wasalatu wa salamu ala rasulina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajmain nahmadulllahu ta’ala wa nastaghfiruhu wa nashadu an-lailaha ilallahu wahdahu la sharika lah wa nashadu anna sayyidina Muhammadin abduhu wa habibuhu wa rasuluhu salallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa azwajihi wa ashabihi wa atbaihi.

Khulafail Rashidin mahdin min ba’di wuzerail immeti alal tahkik. Khususan minhum alal amidi khulafai rasulillahi ala tahqeeq. Umara il mu’mineen. Hazreti abu bakr wa umar wa uthman wa ali. Wa ala baqiyati wa sahabai wa tabieen, ridwanallahu ta’ala alayhim ajmain. Ya ayyuhal mu’minun al hadirun, ittaqullaha ta’ala wa ati’uh. Inna allaha ma allathina-ttaqaw wal-lathina hum muhsinun. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Wa Salatu wa Salamu ala Ashrafil Ambiya’i wa Imam al-Mursaleen Sayyidina wa Mawlana Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajmain.

All praises are due to Allah, Lord of the Universes. All praises are due to Allah Who is the First, the Last, the Manifest, the Hidden, the One Who has Knowledge of all things. All praises are due to Allah Who has sent Sayyidina Muhammad (AS) as the Mercy to the Universes and the Seal of the Prophethood. And may all peace and blessings be upon the Sultan of Creation, the Imam of the Messengers, the Master of the First and the Last, the Beloved of the Lord of the two easts and the two wests, the Grandfather of Hasan and Huseyin, Sayyidina Muhammad (AS), and upon his noble family and blessed companions, especially upon the Four Khulafa-e-Rashideen, Hz. Abu Bakr el-Siddiq, Hz. Umar el-Faruq, Hz. Osman el-Ghani, and Hz. Ali el-Murtaza, and all those who follow them until the Last Day.

O Believers! All praises are due to Allah Who gave us life in the days and nights of Rajab Shahrullah, Who let us to experience the Nights of Raghaib and Rajab, the night of Raghaib and the night of Miraj, and Who has given us the breath of life in Shaban Shahru-Nabi, and has let us pass through the Holy Night of Bera’at. Now the month of Shaban is about to finish, and in a few short days, insyaAllah, if Allah gives us life, we will reach to Ramazan, the Month of the Ummet. Elhamdulillah. Our hearts should be jumping at the hope of Ramazan. If we were planting during Rajab, if we were cultivating during Shaban, then we should be hoping and yearning to reach to the blessed fruits of Ramazan.

Our Grandsheykh, Sultan el-Evliya Sheykh Mevlana Muhammad Nazim Adil el-Hakkani (KS) is giving us a taste of that spirit of Ramazan, saying: “In the old times, when it was Ramazan (people would say) “Welcome O Holy Ramazan, the month of Ramazan has arrived. Marhaban, O month of Mercy!” They would welcome like this. Everyone would clean, arrange and make preparations. They would know and keep the blessings and manners of this holy month. The ones who had gone astray would come to repent. Our Masjids would get full. Our markets would refresh. Our young ones would gather. To sum up, places of fasad (corruption) would be closed… O People! Before our time, believers were happy when Ramazan Mubarak arrived and they were so sad when it finished. Because our souls never tasted such sweetness and they were crying when this holy month was leaving us and we are reaching to another ocean. The Ocean of Holy Ramazan is something else. It is not like the honor of other months and the taste and pleasure of other months. Therefore, believers were looking for Holy Ramazan to come and they were so happy. And at the end of this holy month they were crying, because their souls can’t reach more than this after the end of Holy Ramazan.”

O Believers! That Ramazan is about to enter. The Evliyaullah, they are trying to teach us that spirit of Ramazan so that we will keep it high and keep it holy. Because Ramazan is being honored by Allah and His Prophet- it is the Sultan of the Months. When Ramazan was entering, Holy Prophet (AS) was saying to the people: “O People! You are about to enter the shadow of a great blessed month. One of the nights in it is better than a thousand months. Allah (SWT) made fasting during this month an obligation and encouraged people to perform extra prayers during its nights. Seeking nearness to Allah (SWT) through a good deed would be considered like performing an obligatory act of worship. The same way, doing farz worship during this month would be rewarded seventy times more than during any other month. It is the month of patience, and the reward for patience is Jannah. It is the month of comforting, helping others, and the month during which believers would enjoy plenty. Make sure you frequently do four things, two of which would please your Lord and the other two are necessary for your safety in the Hereafter. As for the two things that would please your Lord, they are: testifying to the oneness of Allah (SWT) and seeking repentance. And the other two are: asking Allah the favor of entering Jannah and seeking refuge in Him from the Hell Fire.” (Ibn Khuzayma). Amin. And the Prophet of Allah speaks the truth.

This Hadith of Holy Prophet (AS), it is giving a big instruction to the believers for how they should spend their Ramazan. First, look at what Holy Prophet (AS) is not saying. He is not saying, Ramazan is all about family. He is not saying, Ramazan is all about eating. He is not saying, Ramazan is about having parties and showing off and wasting- no. He is saying, Ramazan is the month of  patience. Ramazan is the month of helping and comforting others. Ramazan is coming to teach us this good manner- and this good manner is the essence of Islam itself.

Our Sheykh, Sahib el-Sayf Sheykh Abdul Kerim elKibrisi el-Rabbani (KS) is saying: “The month of Ramazan, the month of Fasting. The month of giving Zakat, the month of giving charity, the month of sharing, the month of getting together and to enjoy the prayers, the month of getting together to eat the Riziq of Allah together. Preparing different dishes and to eat together. This is the month. This month in reality is forcing us to live like that, as we should be living our whole lives like that, and to be able to carry the other months also the same way. And then when people become familiar to each other and they start loving and respecting each other you cannot find problems anymore. The problems will go away. And if one has a problem the other one has a solution. If that one does not have the solution then another one has the solution. Otherwise, heh! look what happens. The whole world has turned into a hell. Everyone has everything today. But they are not sharing anything anymore. Nobody is sharing anything. The Sahaba-e-Kiram would not only give their lands, they would give their lives to the Prophet (AS). We have nothing to give. At least we must make it different. At least you must make it a little different and learn how to share. In holy months like this at least. And in holy months like this you must sit down and you must calculate. You must know if it is fit for you to pay Zakat or not. This is the month in which to give Zakat. This is the month that must reach to the hands of the poor people. Maybe they have nothing. Maybe they will be happy buying something that will make their lives easier. Allah gives to everybody but Allah gives to everybody through the hands of others. And maybe Allah (SWT) will make you to hold the Riziq of another fifty people. If you are holding on to it tightly and not giving, then maybe those people’s hearts will not be too happy with Allah although they are praying. And in the Judgment Day you will be responsible. So if you give maybe you make one of them happy and they will pray for you. And the best people whose prayers are accepted are the poor who are not complaining and who are fasting. They are hungry. That is the time that their prayer is accepted.”

Ramazan is the month of sharing, of being generous, of helping others. Yes, we all want the Help of Allah (SWT). We all want Rizq from Allah (SWT). We all want Mercy from Allah (SWT). But how can we have a face to ask from Allah (SWT) when our neighbours are hungry, when we ourselves we are not helping those that we can help that we see all around us. To help  others, that is the foundation of being a Muslim. The first Hadith that they were teaching in the Medrese in the old days, the first hadiths, it is this “Those who are merciful will be shown mercy by the Most Merciful. Be merciful to those on the earth and the One in the heavens will have mercy upon you.” (Tirmizi). And the Prophet of Allah speaks the truth.

This is what we have lost. Individuals, families, nations lost this. Presidents and Prime Ministers lost this. Communities and families lost this. Individuals have completely lost this. Everybody is living alone looking out only for themselves, to help themselves, to make themselves to be satisfied and to be happy. That is not a human way to live- even the animals don’t live like that. That kind of living it will kill your heart. That kind of living will make you to become friends with your ego and dunya and sheytan, and they will drag you into the hellfire. This Way, this Way of Sohbet, it is to teach us to live together and help each other. Allah (SWT) has designed us, and He knows that our satisfaction and our happiness in this world comes in living together for the Sake of Allah and helping each other for the sake of Allah. If we have everything and we are not living together, we are not helping each other, our hearts will never be satisfied. The sourness will enter into us and this world will become bitter.

Our Sheykh, Sahib el-Sayf is explaining this, saying: “This classroom is a good classroom. It just takes some discipline. Nothing else. And obedience. By yourself. Not by force. There are ways to do those things too. But we say, ‘Do it by yourself, if you think that you are from the human kind, if you think that you have been created to this world to understand, to know Allah, to love Allah and to worship Allah.’ It’s because Allah is asking you for worship through obedience and through love. Not through anger, not through ways saying, ‘Ohh! I didn’t want to do this but I have no choice’. Yes. So many are doing that. If there’s no love then nothing’s going to move. Through love you can move mountains. The love is missing. Look at yourself. Allah is not disconnecting. Allah is not cutting. You are cutting yourself from that love because you are turning your direction to other things. You started loving other things. That’s what happened to you. That is the problem. And when you are feeling, ‘Yes, when I’m not around this community, this Sheykh, I feel lonely. I feel that I’m away. I feel that I’m disconnected from my family’, that is the time that inside you are really building something.”

 

So living together, living in a community, living in a community doesn’t matter if it is just a few, a handful, but it is founded upon the Love of Allah and His Prophet that is following a Guide, that is where peace is going to come into your heart. And the greatest peace and satisfaction is going to enter our hearts when we run to help other people, especially other people who are serving Allah and His Prophet. Helping others, helping the ummat, it was the Passion of Holy Prophet (AS). From the time he woke up until he rested, he did not stop helping others. He is saying in his Hadith Sherif: “The most beloved people to Allah are those who are most helpful to the people. The most beloved deed to Allah is to make a Muslim happy, or to remove one of his troubles, or to forgive his debt, or to feed his hunger. That I walk with a brother to help his need is more beloved to me than that I seclude myself in this Masjid in Medina for a month. Whoever swallows his anger, then Allah will hide his faults. Whoever puts down his heavy anger, even though he could fulfill his anger if he wished, then Allah will secure his heart on the Day of Resurrection. Whoever walks with his brother to help him with his need until he helps him, then Allah the Exalted will make his feet firm across the Sirat on the day when the feet are shaken.” (Mu’jam al-Aswat)

This Hadith is giving the Spirit of Islam, the Work of the Prophets, the Inheritance of the Evliya, and the soul of Ramazan. We must be part of that work. To be part of that work in this Holy month, we are going to get all the Divine help, because the sheytan they are going to get locked up. And if we have been training our ego in the dunya and our desires, before Ramazan, then it is going to be very easy for us to be able to work for the sake of Allah in this month. We can be part of that work. We can be part of that work of bringing relief and help to the Servants of Allah. We must be part of that Hizmet of doing the Work of Allah (SWT) in the world. O Believers! We make intention to spend our Ramazan in this way. We must the make intention, insyaAllah arRahman, in this Ramazan, to be sincere and to help others. We should live this Ramazan not for ourselves, but to help others. That time, Allah’s Love is going to reach to us. Holy Prophet’s Love is going to reach to us. Our Sheykh’s Love is going to reach to us. That time, yes, we will taste the Fruits of Ramazan. And the Fruits of Ramazan, it is a taste of Paradise. Amin. 

Sheykh Lokman Efendi Hz  
Khalifah of SahibulSaif Shaykh Abdulkerim el Kibrisi (qs),
Osmanli Dergahi, Florida
25 Shaban 1439
May 11, 2018