What Are We Doing With The Jewels Of Our Sheykh?

BismillahirRahmanirRahim

When a man is in ghaflat, when he’s selfish, he’s thinking about himself. I don’t mean selfish like ‘you don’t give food to the needy and you take your children’s toys,’ not that kind. It’s a very subtle kind. Self-importance. And I’m looking too, how you are, how the kids are and everything, what you’re teaching. Especially in certain cultures, they say ‘when you come out, don’t pull back.’ Do you understand? You are in a group and you stand up, don’t pull back, show yourself. Or you are doing something, show yourself. Or you are moving from here to here, show yourself. In some ways it is good, what Sheykh Effendi is saying? Self-esteem, confidence, yes. But anything that you take, even something good, and you are not putting some limitations on it, the ego and sheytan will take control of it.

So, not caring, unaware, you don’t have this sensibility now to see ‘oh, they are looking at me, so I must look at myself, what is it that I want to show? That I’m a jerk? What is it that is taught to me? Should I be proud or should I be humble? Should I not care or should I just be focusing on what I have to do? So many questions, then, you start asking, and you are trying to find an answer. When you stop looking at yourself and questioning, that’s when ghaflat will take over. When you stop questioning. You walk and you don’t question, ‘why is this here? Why is this here? Should this be here?’ When you don’t apply to your surroundings. Where you are unaware, in ghaflat, when you don’t take in, then you will not know how to behave according to the protocol of that situation.

You are not looking for the question, you will never find the answer. So many ways, Tarikat is making all these things to be much, much simpler for us to understand this. Self-awareness? Simple. People pay millions of dollars to go to seminars to learn this, simple, because we have our Sheykh in front of us. He’s teaching how, he’s teaching us how to sit, how to talk, how to look, how to question already. Not thousands of years ago. Not an ideology, not a philosophy there. And he has a successor, that successor has another successor. So what is making you, now, to block them out? Because you’re too full of yourself.

Okay, maybe that’s extreme, because Alhamdulillah, you all have good intentions, you are all doing good things, but there are certain things. I don’t drive too much, but I know there’s this thing called blind side. Yes? Your blind side, that there are certain areas where it is as if you are blinded. But there are mirrors and things that will aid you to see. We are walking in this way, we must first be aware of our blind sides. Those are the areas that needs protection. You don’t just go, keep on protecting the front, protecting the front, because you think enemy is going to come to the front. You look to the weaknesses that you have. You catch your weaknesses, not just to think about it and to understand it and to listen to sohbet, you catch it in your daily life. At least you try to catch it, yes, when you are at the Dergah, you are going to catch a little bit more, because that is the training ground. You are going to hold yourself a little bit more, you are home, so wild, here a little bit more you are going to aware, ‘okay, like this, okay like this, I have to, okay like this,’ whatever, asking all these questions. That’s when the knowledge will come, the Rahmat will also come to you. But when you are ghaflat, doesn’t matter here or there, everywhere, you are not changing so much, you are not watching, you are not considering, you are not observing, leave talking, listen. Listen. Okay? Learn how to listen. What are you listening at? While the Sheykh is talking, our Sheykh, don’t look at me, so many times I’m saying we don’t consider ourselves that. Look at when our Sheykh is talking. What are we listening to? What are we paying attention to? His beard? His water? Or his clothes, or his language, or this, what are you listening to? What do you want to listen to? What is it that you are taking? Or you’re sleeping? If you are sleeping, sleeping is one of those things, it’s not only in sohbet that you miss out. You sleep anywhere, you are going to miss out. There is a physical sleeping and then there is a spiritual sleeping also.

You listen, you take, you think. Our Sheykh has given us jewels. You don’t take jewels and then you put it in your closet. Jewels, you always want to look, you want to see, because the beauty is neverending. So what are we doing with the jewels of our Sheykh? What are you busy with? Are you listening? Forget about the question, ‘oh, how should we speak, should we not speak in front of you, da, da, da,’ you must know the protocol. This is what the edep is. Protocol, meaning what is required for that time. There are some times you don’t speak, there are some times you have to speak. If you are still asking me this question, then you still don’t know where you are. You still don’t know what the situation is. Why you don’t know? This is rocket science we are teaching? Am I complicating things, making it complex and mystical? Then how do you participate? So many of you, you are not participating. You are there, but you are not participating. And you know what your job is, and how you should participate. Listening is also participation, yes.

There are so many that they are there physically, they are not participating. Either Sheykh says this, they say ‘what? Why he says this?’ but outside looks as if you are listening. Or some, just drawing a blank. Some, they are listening and then their mind goes somewhere. All this is happening inside. You know this. You know this better than I know. Then how are you fighting this? What is it that you want? Sheykh Effendi used to say ‘the sofra, it is the surgeons table of the Sheykh.’ That’s the time when he will operate and he knows, what is this, what is that. Everything will be revealed. We used to think, ‘oh, subhanallah, what does that mean?’ So many things he is saying, it’s becoming a reality, coming true, and in front of our eyes, and it’s no longer a mystery. We are seeing, these things will be revealed if you pay attention. Not to yourself. You are watching others, you are watching yourself, you are watching yourself watching yourself. Yes? When you don’t care, which is what this culture is, you don’t care, which in a way, teaches you confidence, because you don’t care what people think, there is no shame, but like I said, that can rot very easily. We need that confidence, we need a certain aspect of we don’t care. So many people attack us, we don’t care. We don’t care, we move. Yes, but not to this extreme. When you don’t care, as the Holy Prophet (AS) said, if you have no shame, then do whatever you want.

Does that mean that he is giving permission for people to do whatever they want? No, he is saying, those ones who have no shame, and shame, hayaa, it is part of faith, then there is no shariat to them. They will do whatever their ego says that they want. Coming back now, ghaflat, it is something that you keep, it is something that you practice, it is something that you use all the time, if you don’t use, if you don’t put it in this situation, in this situation, this situation, when you train yourself, ‘I’m going to be super aware when I’m working for the dunya, I don’t want to get into trouble, I don’t want to lose my job, I don’t want to lose money, because my boss is looking at me,’ and you only very very particular, everything you are watching, about the dunya, after work, ‘this time I want to relax.’ And you don’t put the same principles into your life, into your interactions, into your Dergah, into your understanding of yourself, watching yourself. Then you will lose. Then all of that intelligence you are only putting it into that. You are not putting it in the Way of Allah.

If you put the same level of ‘okay, should I say these words, should I act like this?’ people will read and see the wrong things in there. The ego is saying ‘who cares what people think, they are wrong. Who cares what he thinks? This one is lower than me. Who cares what they think?’ You start doing that, you are retarding yourself, sheytan will kick in. Then you start becoming more and more confident about yourself, arrogance. Arrogant, and then arrogant people are very stupid. Then stupidity will set in, but you still think you know something. So there is a danger there. All this is trying to say what? If you don’t practice the sohbets, put it in your life, few times you are here, few times you are there, you are in the Dergah, you say, now you are entering into, what? Sacred territory, I must watch myself a little bit more like this, I must do this. If you don’t do that, then the doors will close on you for the Barakat and the Rahmat that is happening. The dunya might open, but be very careful when the dunya is opening. It’s a test too. Do you understand? Then you must ask yourself, if the dunya is open, they open it, what am I doing for my Ahiret, for this way, for the deen that I can match it, or even go higher? A lot of people, when the dunya goes like that, they say, ‘well, I don’t have too much time,’ they don’t try to, everyone is asking about balance, balance, balance, but when it comes to simple things like that, they don’t. Then you fail. Are we understanding?

So you must participate, you listen, put it in, try, put it in your life. Watch, observe. Ask. You are interested, you ask. You are looking, you ask. If you are interested, you look and you say. You are interested about your job, you keep talking about it. You are interested about something, you keep talking. When do you stop talking about something? When you are not really interested in it. That’s a problem. You are interested in the Dergah? You can’t stop talking about it? So we should watch ourselves, because these things, it creeps up on us. When there is no reminder, you think, ‘well, I’m wearing a turban, I’m doing this, I’m doing zikr, I’m doing this, it must be everyone else is wrong, I’m right. Something is wrong with this.’ Do we understand each other now? Because this is a disease that creeps up. It is enough with here, that I’m pointing out very simple examples, that you know you’ve failed.

So Allah is seeing us very clearly. Make yourself beautiful. That is ihsan, isn’t it? They are watching, ‘should I have been doing this? They are watching.’ Our aim is to be a mirror to them, so that when they watch us, we say they are watching, they watch us, we’re like a mirror. We’re reflecting them. Nice words. How are we reflecting them? May Allah forgive me and bless you. Al Fatiha.

Sheykh Lokman Efendi Hz
Khalifah of SahibulSaif Shaykh Abdulkerim el Kibrisi (qs),
Osmanli Dergah, New York
24 Rabiul Awwal 1444
20 October 2022