“No one is indispensable in the way of ALLAH” (part I)

BismillahirRahmanirRahim

“No one is Indispensable in the way of ALLAH”

Alhamdulillahi Rabul ‘alamin, with the support of our Sheykh, Allah (swt) has granted us another week, another Thursday, another Jummah, another zikr another chance for us to remember Him to remember Allah (swt).

Don’t think that the zikr that we have just done is something. It is nothing.

It is not worth to be presented to the presence of Allah (swt), it is not worth to be presented to the Divine presence of our holy Prophet (asws), but with the blessings of our Sheykh, insyaAllah it will be accepted.

We are not those ones who are proud and arrogant and depending on our worship.

Worship is an obligation, worship gives so much blessings, but we are not depending on the worship. We are depending on Allah, we are depending on holy Prophet (asws), his shafat, his intercession, and we are hoping for the intercession of our Sheykh. That is the most important thing.

Man falls into this heedless and headless station because he is only depending on himself. Whereas, in reality he is only a prisoner between two breaths. If Allah does not give permission, he cannot take a breath in. If Allah does not give the permission, he cannot take the breath out.

If Allah does not give him the permission, he cannot even enter into the bathroom and finish whatever it is that he has put into his body. The most beautiful things that he has put into his body, that takes hours, months, sometimes years to prepare, but it comes out from his body in the most dirty, smelly, poisonous way that no one can bare to look at or to smell.

Understand what Man, if he is still stuck in the animal station and he has not reached to the level of perfection (the Insan-e-Kamil) station, if he has not reached to the station where he came from (which is a Paradise station), that is what is going to happen.

May Allah make us to become Ahli Jannat here on Earth before we pass, inshaAllah, with the shafa’at of our Prophet and with the blessings of our Seyh.

Auzu billahi min ash-sheytanir rajim

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

Destur! Medet ya Sahib al-Saif, Seyh Abdul Kerim al-Rabbani, Medet.

Tarikatuna sohbet, fil khayri min jami’at

The pir of our tarikat, our way – Shah Naksibendi is saying, “Our way continues with association, and goodness comes from being in jamat.”

So many may say, “We want to break away from jamat.”

It’s okay, you are free to do that for a certain time. As you like. We are not an authority on you, but Shah Naksibendi is saying goodness comes from  the jamat, he did not say goodness comes from breaking away and being alone or independent or being rebellious. And he is saying that because holy Prophet (asws) is saying, “Din-i Nasihat.,”

“Our religion is advice.”

Shah Naksibendi is saying, “We are not prophets, we don’t give advice, we give sohbet, we form an association where one speaks and the rest listen.”

One speaks who has been given an authority, one speaks who has given the knowledge. The knowledge does not come from him too, he has been granted that knowledge. That one, for today he may speak.  Tomorrow may be someone else.  The next day may be someone else.

   

Nobody in this way of Allah is indispensable. we cannot claim that this way depends on us and if we stop this, if I stop this, or you, or whoever it is who thinks that they are indispensable, irreplaceable, unique, and special in their role because they say, “If I don’t do this everything is going to fall!”

If I say, “If I don’t do this everything is going to fall,” my faith is in a big question mark, because I am saying I am something, everything is depending on me. Then where is the faith in Allah?

Isn’t this way Allah’s way?

Isn’t this way the holy Prophet’s way?

Isn’t our Seyh controlling us?  Controlling everything that is happening here?  Making things to continue with his blessings.

So what right do I, or you, or anyone have to say, “Well, I have to do this because I am the only one who can do this – nobody else can do this! All you are idiots!  You don’t know what you’re doing!  Only I know what I’m doing and if I don’t do, everything is going to fail!”

No.  You have to learn faith that time

Listen to me, you have to understand.  Start from scratch again, Faith. Don’t look at yourself as something, we are trying  to be nothing.

Yes, responsibility is given to us. Yes, we have to do, but never we are going to say, “If I don’t do this, then this way, this world, everything is going to fall”

That time you are discounting Allah, you are discounting the Prophet, you are discounting Awliyaullah and our Sheykhs – the friends of Allah! The saints of Allah, you are discounting them.

You are saying, “It’s me!”  Ego is saying, “It’s me! I am important!”

No.

Billions came before you and me, billions may come after you or me, and Allah swt is saying, “If you cannot carry what I have given you, I will raise a people that maybe you are going to be enemies and look down to them, but they are going to be better than you and they are going to carry that better than you.”

So we must not thing that we are something, because this way is going to continue with me or without me, with you or without you. Don’t think we are the only ones, don’t think we are doing something. We are not. If you say, “Yes we are, if I don’t do this everything is going to fall, we are going to get into this trouble,” Then you completely don’t understand how the tariqat is going to work.

You think tariqat came out only last century in America?

Tarikat has seen so many Americas, so many empires, so many Sultans. So whatever is in our hands, that responsibility, we have to carry it, we have to do as much as we can. But doing that, we have to follow our role model, we have to follow our guide. We are here following our guide, isn’t it?

Who is our guide?

Ultimately, our guide is holy Prophet  (asws). We are shy and shamed to say our guide is Allah – we are not prophets to say our guide is Allah. We are not wahabbis to say our guide is Allah. We are not Shaytan to say our guide is Allah, “I only make sajdah to Allah, not to Adam (a.s), although I know that the secret is in Adam (a.s) I refuse to because then I’m going to be under his authority.”

Shaytan understands.  He has more knowledge that you or me or everyone put together. So our role model is our Seyh, and to do things the way that he taught us. To do things, to think, to walk, to sit, to stand, to take care of our children, to pray, to worship, to wash clothes, to cook, to do everything according to his way. Zahir and Batin, according to his way.

We are saying that we are trying to be like Sahabi Kiram in the presence of the Holy Prophet (asws).

Did you ever hear any Sahabi Kiram after they met the Holy Prophet (asws), and they say, “Well, I still love this one, this guide, teacher, or prophet that I had before.”?

Did you ever hear?

In dunya people understand that very good, very well, when it comes to nafs and the dunya they say, “Now you love me right? You cannot love anyone!”

“Even if you spent your whole life with that one, but that one just passed – you cannot love that one, now you have to love me!  I must be the only one”

Isn’t it?

So how can it be when we’re following that one who is teaching us life and love, our guide, our role model, we say, “Well, some things I follow him, some things I don’t. “I love him but I love so many other teachers too”

Hazrati Salman al-Farisi (q.s) is saying that he followed so many teachers, so many holy people from different religions that he was following and they were following the Hanafi way, meaning the purified way (hanifs). But when he found Holy Prophet (asws), did you ever  see that he is still going back to the teachings of those ones?

No.

Because he found someone who is completing everything and in reality, he is the master of the beginning and the end (Sayyidul awwalin wa’al akhireen).

What about us now?

We know so much Islamic knowledge, mashAllah. We know so much seerah. We know so much history. We know to say we love Prophet,  we know to say we love the Companions, but when it comes to their lifestyle, the way that they live, we say that we don’t want that.

There is one word for that, it is called being a hypocrite.

That word is not a small word in the presence of Allah. That word is the heaviest word.

Holy Prophet (asws) is saying the hypocrite is going to be in the Hell that is lower than the unbelievers. So we need to check that hypocrisy that is in our hearts. That’s why we have a Sheykh, a guide, a teacher. To pull out the hypocrisy we have in our hearts, to teach us, “You think you had faith?  It is not faith.  You think you had this?  It is not that.  You think you have eman?  It is not eman.”

Understand that is hypocrisy. Understand that it’s just an excuse.  Understand that is arrogance. Understand that is anger.  Understand that you are just being ungrateful. Understand you are just complaining.  Understand that you are just being a dragon. Understand that you are saying and claiming that you are following a Sheykh for decades, but still when something touches you a little bit, you are ready to blow up the whole world then later to say, “Oh, i’m sorry.  I’m just venting, after that i’m okay now.”

It’s like someone coming when he is upset and shooting, killing people.  Then when his anger cools down because he shot people, because he’s done damage to say, “Now I’m cool, okay I’m sorry.  Why is everyone so upset?”

“Why are you so upset with me? What did I do?  I already said I’m sorry, right?”

That is how they teach America to be, isn’t it?

Do as much damage as you want to yourself and to the whole world, then later say, “I’m sorry.” Then get upset if people don’t hug you after that. Don’t clean up your mess.

No, there is always a price to pay and the price to pay, to find out and to discover yourself, is your ego.  That is the price you have to pay because the ego is the one that is standing in front of us, preventing us from discovering who we are and preventing us from discovering and understanding our relationship to our Lord and from knowing our Lord and worshipping Him.

Allah!  You can never discover Allah. But the drop that you may know of Him, you may worship Him that time.

All that, the key is from you too.  It is from inside of you, but you cannot do it by yourself.  Yes, you have to have a guide and that guide definitely is going to teach you something that you don’t know. Definitely in this way, because this way is concentrating on the ego, is going to concentrate on your ego.

He is not going to pet you on the back and say, “Mashallah, such nur coming out from your face!”

“Mashallah, yesterday I see such high stations that you are coming from”

“Mashallah, I see in a dream that you’re here, you’re there…”

He’s not going to praise you.  That is not the way.  That is not this tarikat.  That is not the way that is the Tarikat al-aliyya. That is not the way. The way is to concentrate on the ego and for you to understand what kind of creature the ego is that Allah swt has given power to the ego, and the ego is rebelling against Allah.

Shaytan disobeyed Allah once, but the ego is continuous from the day that it was created, until the day that either you are going to control it – either you are going to step on it and it is going to give you that power, either you are going to ride on it in this world – or that ego is going to pull you to Jahannam.

That time it’s going to be completely under control by the other ones. You have no part to play in it, but because you did not control it when you had the chance, you are going to pay a heavy price for it too because you identified yourself with the ego, you did not identify yourself with the spirit. So you are going to go where the ego is, and the ego is to the Fire.

So we are watching these days, Alhamdulilahi Rabbul alameen, we are watching these days how different people are behaving.  How different people are thinking, walking, living, acting, in these days that our Sheykh has passed.

We are watching, we are not saying anything.  We are observing, we are taking lesson. We take lesson. Either take lesson, or Allah is going to make you to become a lesson to others, and we are noticing so many things, and it is an obligation to us to speak a couple things for those of us, myself included, I’m not saying it’s just you, that may find some benefit in it. That will take it, inshAllah.

We are here to continue our Sheykh Effendi’s way.  Not to change it.  We are here because we believe in him, because we took beyat with him. We are not saying that we are 100% very very good, best mureeds.  No. We know we don’t qualify for that. But we don’t, inshAllah, may Allah not put us through that test, we don’t doubt that he is our Sheykh.We are not taking from anyone else.

Sultan al Awliya is Sultan al Awliya.

We have manners, we are not saying that we are mureeds of Sultan al Awliya. Our Seyh is his mureed. Just as everyone may belong to the King in a kingdom, but nobody can say, “Yes, I’m directly under the King and the King is giving me special attention because I am in his kingdom.”

The King has viziers, ministers, and it goes down from the ministers and top people all the way down. That is how the protocol is working.

People understand that in dunya, elections coming up, that is democracy, correct?

Democracy hypocrisy. But you don’t find that equality in your workplace – between you and your manager, or your boss, you cannot say now to your boss, “Well, we are living in a democracy and we are all supposed to be equal!  Why you have to sit at that desk and I have to work?  Let me sit over there!”

“You sit over here! We are free!  You speak?  I speak!  You give orders?  Let me give orders too!”

No.  People understand that it does not work in dunya. Why do you think it’s working in the way of Allah? Why do you think it’s working in religion and spirituality?

Hmmm, wrong understanding.

We have to turn our way back. We’ve taken a detour. We have to bring ourselves back to the main highway and the highway of our Sheykh, Sahibul Saif. The main highway, not any other highways.

Of course so many now, don’t be surprised, you may hear people who have been with Sheykh Effendi saying, “No, I did not give beyat to him, I gave beyat to Sheykh Mawlana”

You may.  Well hear it from me – I didn’t give beyat to Sheykh Mawlana. Did anyone of you give Beyat to Sheykh Mawlana?

We gave our beyat to Sheykh Effendi.

People may also say, “Well, it’s not Sheykh Mawlana, it’s Sheykh Sharafuddin, or Sheykh Abdullah, or Salman al-Farisi, or Hazrati Abu Bakr, or…”

Why you don’t say you gave beyat to Holy Prophet directly?

“Oh, because Sheykh Effendi is connecting us to Sheykh Mawlana,  so Sheykh Mawlana is my real Sheykh”

They are also connecting you, they are connecting you so Sheykh Abdullah, isn’t it?  Why you don’t say?  Maybe some are saying, ‘I don’t know.’ Then Sheykh Abdullah is connecting to Sheykh Sharafuddin, Sheykh Sharafuddin is connecting to 38 others all the way to the Holy Prophet (asws). Why you don’t say, “He is just connecting me.  All these ones – they are connecting ME!”

‘Me’, meaning, “I am important!  They are working for ME! They are connecting ME to the top ones!”

Why you don’t say you are connected directly to the holy Prophet? Simple, that is the logic, isn’t it? or to Allah?  Isn’t that what Shaytan is saying?

“I’m connected only to you! I refuse to bow down to Adam (a.s).  To the authority that you have put on me. What is he?  Who is that one?  He just came. Who is that one?  He is made from inferior material.  Who is that one?”

Same understanding, same logic. May Allah not put us in that situation, in that position.

These are very strange times, and as much as we are holding on to the rope of Allah we will find safety and the rope is our Sheykh, no one else.

You are free, you may say you follow Sheykh Mawlana. There, you are free.  You may go. You may say you are following Sheykh Abdullah, you may say Holy Prophet asws, you may go. Then this association, we are happy to be here, maybe you are not happy to be here. You are such a high level person, then ‘welcome to those that come, farewell to those that leave.’ We welcome everyone, we never kick anyone out.  We don’t say ‘go!’

But so many people don’t feel uncomfortable and they leave. Definitely, because this is a Holy association.  This is an association that is supported by the Holy Prophet asws.You are not going to find comfort here, impossible you are going to find comfort anywhere else in this world. Run! Run anywhere you want to go!

People have forgotten, there are those who left too. There are those who have forgotten how they left before and how Shaytan was circling around them and they could not even find peace to sleep at night and they are begging and crying for Seyh Effendi to welcome them back. And Seyh Effendi went out on a limb to pull them back again, and now they left.

That is a sign of hypocrisy. They feel uncomfortable. They don’t like a jamaat.  You see them coming here and they always put their head down. They don’t want to see anything.  They don’t want to hear anything.  They are just being here because they are scared. They don’t want to form relationships or friendships.

To be continued, insyaAllah….

Sohbet given by Hoja Lokman Effendi, Khalifah of Sheykh Abd Kerim el-Kibrisi el-Rabbani

November 1, 2012