Suhba “3”:

“They don’t say “griefwon’t come,

They say grief shouldn’t be kept”

 

Almighty Allah says “Wish from me so that I will give you that” (talebena vecedena). Our wishes shouldn’t deceive us. We should be aware of our goal. We should know what we wish for.

We have a spirit and a body.  Our soul has a wish and our (flesh) body has a desire.

Nefs means body, flesh. Nefs has many desires and all of these are misleading. Our spirit has also a wish but it is not misleading.

If only we could know and ask for our spirit’s wish as we know these doings of ours.

Tariqa is for the soul and Sharia is for the body.

A disciple, follower should be in Sharia with his body, in Tariqa with his soul and should be in Vuslat Holy Union with his secret

Who is a Talib? Disciple, follower 

Almighty Allah says “My servant, wish from me so that I will give you that”

A Talib wants Hakk one of Allah’s beautiful names, Allah

Why? Because we came from Him and He is our wish, in fact. Why do we say “My God, you are my wish and your approval is my goal,” each time after chanting his holy name 100 times in our daily practices?

Since we say “My God, you are my wish and your approval is my goal.”, then we should be truthful and shouldn’t be unfaithful

That’s why a Talib is one who wishes Allah. However, there are some requirements for one who wishes Allah.

What are these requirements?

1.         He should always have an ablution. In Islam Sharia “An ablution is a believer’s armor” A Muslim is always ready for a religious duty when he has an ablution. It means this.

2.         Awareness of what is eaten.

3.         Preservation of bliss

A Talib should maintain all these three requirements. Who is a Talib? He is the one who joined Tariqa. Why? It is because no one can findAllah without a Thariqa.

Our soul came from Allah and He will return to Allah.Body was made from earth and it will return to earth, dust again. However, our soul came from Allah and will go back to Him again.

Look, now.  There is Sharia, Tariqa, Haqiqa (Reality), and Mârifa (Gnosis). It starts with Sharia, but without Tariqa one cannot reach Haqiqa (Reality). If one cannot reach Haqiqa what happens? His soul can’t attain his grace.  Where did a soul come from? It came from Allah. It will go back to Allah. When soul reaches Haqiqa it returns to Allah. Man can find Haqiqa only by means of Tariqa. Therefore, there is preservation of bliss.

One should always have an ablution.  A disciple should be prudent while eating, and should make sure his food is Halal (food that is allowed, acceptable by Islamic dietary regulations, legitimate). We will make our living in rightful ways, we will avoid uncertain things. We will do what we know is right. We will keep away from what we know is wrong. However, there are also those things which are doubtful and we cannot tell whether they are legitimate or forbidden. There are so many such things in our time. There is hardly Halal food in our time. People have only forbidden and doubtful food and other things. We ask Allah to keep us away from illegitimate things. May Allah save us from being those eating illegitimate food. Our time is very difficult. Now protecting oneself and finding legitimate earnings are very difficult. It is necessary to avoid things which are not clear if they are legitimate or not.

Our Master Sheik Nakshbandî ordains; “Worship has 10 parts, nine of which are Halalfood.”

Humans have physical and financial practices, don’t they? No matter if it is a physical or financial practice, every religious practice is based on Halal and righteously earned food.

It’s said that “If a person eats one piece of food which has been unduly obtained it goes to his stomach and from there it passes to his blood and this food can be cleaned from veins and his bone marrows only after a forty-day period. During these forty days his religious practices aren’t accepted because of this forbidden food. That’s why it’s said “Worship has 10 parts nine of which are legitimate food”. This is called awareness of what is eaten.

There is also preservation of bliss. It means you should preserve the divine love submitted to you. Since you joined Tariqa, how did you get this love? You got it from your Sheik. This is because love for Sheik is for Allah.  Almighty Allah says” My servant, love me; love whom I love, and make my other servants love them.” My servant, love me so that you can love whom I love and you can love me only by means of those whom I love. You can make other servants love me this way. That’s why here preservation of bliss means to preserve the love (fondness, muhabbet) given to you through your Sheik.

Of course, love is a light (noor) in the heart. We cannot see it but we feel it and we like it, don’t we?

“However, this feeling has a place in the heart as light (noor). Allah’s light (noor) is a burning candle. In order to keep it burning and not to extinguish it, we should preserve the bliss and we should nourish our love. 

This has two aspects. A person preserves his love through his words, actions, his state and practices. He also improves his/her love by means of his words, actions, his state and practices. That is, as long as one keeps his love, it keeps growing larger. It gets larger and larger and as the love grows larger, the heart grows larger.

People have a stomach, so what does our stomach want? It needs water. Our Beloved Muhammad ordains “Divide the space in your stomach into three. One third is for food, one third is for water, and the last third is reserved for air. Don’t exceed any of these three, favoring one another.

One third is for food, one third is for water and one third is for air. Since this is so, it means that the stomach has a capacity and an ability to digest. Not everybody’s stomach is the same. Some people are small so they have small stomachs and some others have big bodies and they have big stomachs. Some get full after eating 100 grams of food, some others get full eating one kilo of food.  However, there are also people for whom even one kilo is not enough.

Thus, people’s love for Allah is the same. If you preserve the love in your heart, the heart grows larger.  Unlike the stomach, the heart grows larger. Both the stomach and the heart have a body. However, the body of the stomach cannot grow larger but that of the heart grows bigger. Of course, the heart doesn’t grow bigger in flesh, it has another body which is spiritual, and it has a holy secret of Almighty Allah.  It has a hidden secret, mystery. What is this Holy secret, mystery in it? The Holy secret, mystery in it is this; Allah almighty says in a Hadis Kuds Allah’s direct words through the prophet’s mouth” “I may not be contained in Arsh, Kurs, Levh and Kalam Holy places in the spiritual world, however, I may be contained in the heart of a believer servant of mine.” So it means this heart which is a small piece of flesh has a great magnitude in the spiritual sense.  What is physical? What’s spiritual?  Physical is what’s seen, spiritual is what’s unseen. In the spiritual sense, this heart is so big that it is bigger than earths, heavens, worlds and everything else.

 Almighty Allah, who cannot be contained by anything else, says “I fit in the heart of a faithful servant of mine.” This heart grows larger in its own spiritual body and spiritual secret and mystery. It doesn’t grow in its flesh body or in the physical sense. 

Humans are also great beings. They are very valuable and very beautiful beings.  Nonetheless, humans don’t reveal this beauty, value and magnificence of theirs because their bodies cover and hide all these good qualities.   There are three qualities in humans, 1) Animal quality 2) Human quality 5) Angel quality. All the three qualities have been concealed by the body. Animal quality is hidden under the cover of a human appearance. Human quality is shown in human shape. Angel quality is also covered up in a human appearance. If a person ascends to angel quality, he becomes greater than all other beings. Therefore, Allah says “ we created the human great, precious and the most beautiful of the beautiful” Qur’an Verse  95;4 However, Almighty Allah ordains again “we make him descend to the most contemptible of the contemptible” Qur’an Verse  95;5

Why? It is because a man loses this dignity, preciousness and value of his, if he doesn’t fulfill his responsibilities and duties to Allah.

Also, Allah commands “Humans are sublime, humans are contemptible.” Sublime means humans exceed heavens, angels and they become higher than angels. Where are angels? There are angels in Arsh Ala a place in the spiritual world.  They keep chanting the holy name of Allah. They’re so numerous that Allah knows how many. Arsh Ala is a great station. It is not like these worlds. It is such that one hundred thousand worlds like the earth and eighteen thousand realms are nothing when compared to it. Angels there keep worshipping Allah. Only humans can become sublime, scared when attain angel quality. Angel quality means when he reaches Haqiqa (Reality) the truth. What happens when one reaches Haqiqa? He gets qualified with the sacred attributes of Allah. Eight sacred self attributes of Allah reveal through that human. What does this human turn into then? He becomes higher and greater than all angels in Arsh Ala and even greater than the highest angels. He was said to “have his head in Arsh Azam” Arsh Ala, a high station in the spiritual world.  Who is this? The one with Valayat Allah’s power to govern. Awliyaullah Humans entrusted to use Allah’s power to govern, the perfect human. Allah says “we created man great and the most beautiful.” Which man? That man who has been qualified with those qualities, the man who has reached the truth of Allah. Only then man becomes so great that he becomes the greatest being except for Allah himself. That person becomes the most precious except for Allah.  Why shouldn’t he be so? What does Allah Almighty ordain? “My beloved (Muhammad), if it hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t have made these creatures!”  But how were these beings created? They were created from our prophet’s being. Allah Almighty first created the light of our exalted prophet, and then created all other beings from our prophet’s being. Do people reach annihilation in their sheik, and in the exalted prophet? They do, but they should get annihilated in their sheik first, then in the presence of our exalted prophet.

This is because Allah has three kinds of light; light of his names, light of his attributions and light of his Self. Awliyaullah have the light of his names.  Rasulallah has the light of his attributes. Almighty Allah has the light of his own Self. However, Awliyaullah have attained all these three lights. They have experienced all these lights. These are called Fena fi Allah annihilation in the presence of Allah, baka bi Allah perpetuation in the presence of Allah and Seyr lil Allah procession in the presence of Allah. Man becomes great after passing through all these three lights of Allah. This man becomes the greatest being of Allah’s. But wouldn’t this man waste himself if he didn’t have these graces? Let’s put aside people of infidelity.   Allah already separated them in his eternal knowledge. Allah classified the souls into three groups; worldly people, heavenly people, and people of Allah’s divine presence. In the interpretation of Ruh’ul Beyan, it is explained. What does it write there? When Almighty Allah created all souls, He asked them “Elestu bi rabbikumAm I not your deity??” Some of them answered “BelaYes”. The number of those who did not say so was much bigger. Infidels, non-believers, that is, worldly people did not say “BelaYes”. However, heavenly people, people of faith and people of divine presence said “BelaYes, you are our deity” But where were all those worldly people, heavenly people and people of divine presence? Even in Allah’s eternal knowledge they had been separated from one another. How had they been separated?

Almighty Allah had created all souls and lined them up to ten groups. Worldly life had been shown to all these souls. They were made to see how the world life was. They were asked “Do you agree to accept this kind of life, do you want it?” Some of them wanted it, some of them did not. Nine tenths of them wanted it. This group was separated from others and they got the World. Nevertheless, one tenth did not want it. They did not accept the offer. Therefore, these were shown the afterlife and the life in Heaven. Of those, nine tenths wanted afterlife and accepted the offer. Remaining one tenth did not want it. They did not accept this offer, either. These are all mesmerizing divine events. Now, 90% of all souls were classified as people of infidelity, people of fire. Ten percent remained. Nine tenths of these accepted the afterlife and the life in Heaven. Now only one percent remained as the last group. Well, as the number grows bigger, it gets larger. One percent is ten thousandths, isn’t it? Thus, Almighty Allah asked this last party of souls “You wanted neither the world nor the heaven, what do you ask for?” They answered “we only ask for your blessing” Allah said “You are asking for my blessing but you will have to go to the world and seek my blessing there.” 

This is because souls are being tested in this world. In the spiritual realm, Souls were in the rule, knowledge and authority of Allah. But if those souls had not been sent to this world, Allah’s presence wouldn’t be known to them. This is because Allah ordains “we created humans and jinn so that they would worship us” Qur’an Verse 51:56. They would obey us. There is a Hadis Kuds in which Allah says “We were a hidden treasure, and we created humans so that we would be known.” 

That is, those are us, humans. Thanks to Allah we are Muslims. We have a faith. However, some people believe, some others don’t. Non-believers deny the existence of Allah and they say all beings come from Nature. However, for believers all these beings are the signs and evidence of Allah’s existence. If we, all these beings and this universe hadn’t been created, Allah Almighty would not be known. Thus, all these creatures first necessitate the existence of Allah, the creator and then make Allah known.

Sharia tells the existence of Allah and Tariqa makes him known. “We were a hidden treasure we created man so that we would be known,” Says Allah; this is Tariqa. If Allah is the hidden treasure in this metaphor, then where is this hidden treasure?

Almighty Allah says “Neither Arsh nor Kurs nor anything can contain my presence.” But we believe in “Amentu Billah,” which is Allah is the One and only, he has no partners and he cannot be associated in any place. Despite this, he also says “I cannot fit in anything but could be found in the heart of a true believer.” It means that Allah surrounds everything not only with his knowledge but also with his excellence.

However, whenever man understand Sharia, Tariqa, and Haqiqa, and truly comprehend Haqiqa, man become Fana fillah annihilation in the presence of Allah. Do you know what it looks like? It likes a river reaches the sea and becomes a part of it. The river had a substance, a power, a sound and a movement before reaching the sea. Does it have all these after pouring into the sea? It does, but it takes all his power from the sea. All his power, sound and substance are from the sea, aren’t they? Likewise, what happens when the human soul that came from Allah returns to Allah?  It becomes a precious being and becomes so precious that it becomes the greatest being except Allah. Such a man is called Vahdat’i Vucud Oneness of Body.. What does it mean for this man? “He became dead before his death”. He has become Cem’ul Cem being one with the ultimate one. He becomes unified with Allah’s magnificence. To this man, everything in the universe disappears.  The divine promise “Kullu sheyin halikun illa vechehu” Qur’an verse 28:88 gets realized through this person.  This divine ordinance gets realized both in Enfas individual and in Afak universe. Enfas means in every individual and Afak means in the universe. How is this?

Due to the divine promise “Kullu sheyin halikun illa vechehu” Everything will perish but his face; Israfil one of the four great angels was created for two tasks. In his first blow of the horn, everything will disappear, vanish. In his second blowing of the horn everything will come into being again but this is going to be for all the created in the universe. Allah’s creatures are divided into three; jamadat, nabatat, and mahlukat. Jamadat means earth and inanimate beings, nabatat means plants, vegetation and mahlukat means all animate beings ranging from insects, wild animals, humans, jinn to angels, that is, all these, starting from the tiniest insect to the largest one are mahlukat.   Is man also a creature? Yes, however, man is the most superior of these creatures. If a man is to experience revelations of Allah through the created, where does this experience of witnessing Allah’s light of quality start from? It starts from the earth. Allah’s light of quality is first manifested through mines underground. There are many kinds of mines in different colors. What is the peak of things getting out of earth? It is pearl, because it comes out as a pure substance. There is also gold but gold isn’t found in its purity in the nature and it has to be purified, refined from other substances. No matter which precious stone or substance, it has to be purified, or refined except for pearl. However, pearl is found in its pure form in the nature. Genuine pearl is more precious than gold. From pearl Revelation of Allah’s light of quality passes on to plants, only the blessed ones who has an understanding of Tasavvuf purity attained through Tariqa, İslam sufism. Such people witness Allah’s light of attributes in all plants. Which one is the peak among the plants? It is a date palm tree. That is, date palm trees are the last point where Allah’s light of quality is revealed. From there, Allah’s light of quality passes on to animate beings. In animate beings Allah’s light of quality passes from one to another and it reaches horse, the most precious one among animals is horse. Allah’s light passes on to man from horse. This is Allah’s classification of the created beings. When Allah’s light of quality reveals through a man, and when a man experiences this revelation then he might get into conceit, pride. May Allah save us from this; if he can get through this state then he gets redeemed. If he cannot, there is the possibility of destruction.  This is a place where one may fail. But what happens here? If one move from this step on then he will progress to Allah’s light of self from Allah’s light of attributes. This is one way. There is also another way, which is Allah’s revelation of his light through the created in the physical world, revelation through the spiritual realm and revelation through his own self. These are all for a Talip one who wants to attain Allah’s light via Tariqa .As one can see Allah’s revelation of his light through the created in the physical world is very risky. If one passes this step, he reaches the revelation through the spiritual realm. That revelation is Lafz’ı Jalal The name Allah. Lafz’ı Jalal becomes visible through all things. Lafz’ı Jalal becomes animated and apparent in all things in the form of light. This is Tecelli Manavi revelation through the spiritual realm.  As for Allah’s revelation through his own self, it is witnessed without any shapes or words. Only those who have witnessed Allah’s revelation through Allah’s own self will become Cem ül Cem Getting one with the Ultimate One and they join the sea just like a river which pours into a sea and gets lost in it. It is not a river because it is in the sea. It is not the sea, either. However, it is not outside of the sea, either.  It gets lost in the sea but it may get power from the sea as well. How did our Suhba Conversation, discourse begin? There are three conditions for a Talip one who joins Tariqa and wants to reach Allah to attain his wish. He should always have an ablution. He should be aware of what is eaten. He should preserve the bliss. Now, a Talip one who joins Tariqa and wants to reach Allah will protect his blessing. What is he going to protect this against? There is some love entrusted to him.  He will preserve this. He will preserve it so that it grows larger. There are two aspects to the preservation of this; first, he needs to watch his state, practices and acts. There should be no shortcomings in his practices. The most contrary thing to this in a person is rage. If a man cannot overcome his rage, this love dies out.  That is, if a man gets outraged, frustrated and if he hurts, insults someone then what happens? His blessing of divine love goes away. Just like a candle it dies out when it is blown out. However, it will keep growing larger even it is like a candle light. How is he going to achieve this? Of course, it is through his practices.  His practices and actions are in his own hands but his state of mood is not in his own will. We cannot know and understand why it is so. All we know is that there are two moods; mood of distress,   despondency and mood of relief. These moods come to him from his Rabita His Master, Sheik. What comes to a murid’s disciple heart is a state. What he witnesses is a state. Whatever he witnesses, no matter he’s asleep or awake, is just a state. It comes from his Rabıta, Sheikh. But whatever he practices and does, it is all in his own will.   What’s his practice? His practice is what Tariqa requires him to do. He is supposed to fulfill all these and he won’t have any shortcomings. What are his actions? They are his lifestyle, behaviors and words. He will judge all these within the framework of Sharia. If his words are in line with the Holy Book, and the Prophet’s actions, then he can utter those, if not, he won’t.  All his words and sayings will be in accordance with the holy book and practices of our holy prophet. All his doings, behaviors, the ways he is eating and drinking, and the way he is dressed should be in compliance with Sharia. This is how his practices should be. When we say “one’s state”, we mean what comes into his heart without his own will.   A Murid has times of difficulty. He repines, feels depressed. Everything crosses his mind.  He forebodes things. He wants to dismiss them, but he cannot. This is Jihad struggle. He should try to get rid of these, this is his Jihad struggle. While he is in times of relief, he has so much love, affection and enthusiasm in his heart that he never minds anything, and gets stressed as if he owned everything in the world.

In times of depression, he loses so much that he criticizes people, looks for their faults saying this is false, that is false … etc.

However, in times of relief, he tolerates people; he likes the behaviors and words of people no matter what.  This is for people of dhikr, remembrance. Who are people of remembrance?  They are those who always remember Allah. These are all states. He gets through all these states.  Consequently, humans reach the truth of things. As stated in the sayings of the exalted;

Unknown is the secret of the universe

Under the rule of four sultans this world turns

To the man of Wisdom a different face it shows

Everything has been a sign to the exalted

Notice that it says man of wisdom, who is he?

“Unknown is the secret of the universe” That is, Almighty Allah’s secrets, reasons and his ways cannot be realized.

Are there just things we know?

There are more than what we know.

There are more than what we see.

There are things we don’t know even in those we see. That is, he created a group of people whom he blessed with a gift.  It is such a gift that university graduates cannot do or understand what they can, isn’t it?

Unknown is the secret of the universe

Under the rule of four sultans this world turns

What is this world? What are these four sultans?

World is your body. If you have transformed the opposition of your elements, what have you become? If you have been released from your being, and have reached the real being, what have you become?

Then you have become the big universe. While you were a little being, you have become a great being.

Unknown is the secret of the universe

Under the rule of four sultans this world turns

What is meant by four sultans? Sources of Sharia rules. “Universe” means both the outer world and the body of a man. People should better, correct themselves. How will they do it? Through Sharia; the holy book, the prophet’s exemplary practices, Consensus of the believers, Deduction. If a man corrects himself what becomes of his body? He improves his body.  What is this? He progresses from the animal state to the human state.

Also, there is Sharia, Tariqa, Khakiqa, and Marifa.

In addition, there is love, purity, courtesy, submission. What’s meant by four sultans is all these. Sharia is for your physical being, that is, we shall follow the holy book, the prophet’s (exemplary) practices, Consensus of the believers, the method of Deduction from rules already present. If one obeys all the rules derived from these, then he proceeds to human state from animal state. Since we have joined, these are also four pillars of Tariqa; love, purity, courtesy, submission.  What do these do? They make one proceed to angel state from human state. When one attains angel state, he becomes a great being. Then he becomes blessed with Allah’s gift of “mutu kable entemutu die before death comes to you”, he gets cem’ul cem unified with the unity of Allah’s. Allah’s attributes are revealed through him.  Allah’s ways of conduct become those of his. Isn’t he so? This is how people of Khakiqa are. Khakiqa is reached through Tariqa. Tariqa is based on four foundations; love, purity, courtesy, submission. Love means to love your sheik a lot. Why not love him? One (murid, talip a disciple, follower) loves his sheik because it is Allah’s command. Allah ordains “love me, love the ones who love me”.  A disciple shall love his Sheik his master in Tariqa very much.  This is love.

Purity means; he shall view his sheik as great as he can. The greater he views his sheik, the better he can love his sheik. Why shouldn’t he do so? The saying of the exalted goes “You are somewhere, you are everywhere”. That is, if you have joined the unity of Allah, then you are everywhere.  You have been released from the boundaries of time and place as well. Almighty Allah has set his Awliya chosen and entrusted servants of his free from the limits of Time and Place. Therefore, there is a verse in the anthology. You have been reading the anthology of Salih Baba; maybe some of his poems confuse you, or you can’t understand them. What is this? Or they might look opposing to you. You might think why he said so. Look at what he says:

He wishes nothing in the Heavens or in the World.

Whom is he talking about? About his Sheik, an Awliya. It is really like that. If Allah’s attributes are revealed through an Awliya, then he has Allah’s attribute “Settar’ul Uyub” Hiding the faults. ***

Look, a saying of the exalted goes “It doesn’t befit a Murshid Kamil to distinguish between the good and the bad.” So it says, there is another saying; Awliyaullah cover all the faults which you see. Since Awliyaullah are the successors to the prophet; wouldn’t our prophet overlook these? Among his Ashab companions, disciples, there were some who appeared to be believers but in their hearts they were enemies of our prophet. They didn’t like him. They hated him. If they had had the opportunity, they would have insulted or even killed him. However, Our prophet didn’t give them away although he knew their real intentions. Yes, that’s why it is said;

 He wishes nothing in the Heavens or in the World.

That is, Awliyaullah has no wish to distinguish between things as good or bad. Why? It is because the tiniest thing and the biggest thing have become the same to him. Yes he is in Divan the court of Allah.

He wishes nothing in the Heavens or in the World

Allah’s great attributes have become his nature

He has reached the essence, person of Allah. Allah’s glorious light has been manifested through his person.The person of Allah, who cannot be accommodated in any place, has dwelled in his heart.  

He wishes nothing in the Heavens or in the World

Allah’s great attributes have become his nature

His body has attained the truth, his aim is to be

He revealed his person through each attribute

(While reading this quadrant they say “gun” instead of “kun”. The correct one is “kun be”.)Since Allah has set his Awliya free from the boundaries of Time and Place; things happen when his Awliya say “be” to them as Allah does. In other words, there are neither time limitations nor place limitations for Allah’s Awliya. There aren’t any procedural limitations as well.

Therefore, he’s ever present everywhere “you are somewhere you are everywhere”. He might appear everywhere at a time, he can be seen in a body in each place. Such people, also, have the ability to travel in time and place. Allah has set them free from the boundaries of Time and Place. There aren’t any procedural rules for them, either. Someone who has his will has to do things by means of his tools and skills no matter however strong he is. For instance, there’s a machine called bulldozer. It does the work of one thousand people. However, there are some procedures to follow for a bulldozer to do something. On the other hand, as for Allah’s Awliya there are no procedures to be followed. Why? It is because he has been blessed with Allah’s attributes. Isn’t it Allah who says in a Hadis Kudsi Allah’s own words through his prophet

“We have concealed our Awliya under our green dome, nobody knows them except us.”  ? In another Hadis Kudsi Allah’s own words through his prophet Allah says “we become the seeing eyes, the hearing ears, the speaking tongue and the moving hands of our Awliya servant.” If his speaking tongue is Allah’s then it means since everything comes into being when Allah says “Kun” be then  an Awliyaullah has the same, that is, Allah’s  “Kun” be is manifested through the person of an Awliya. No matter what, when he says “be”, it comes into being. He is not to work. He can realize things which will normally take tens of centuries within a second. Can’t he? Yes He can. All are possible. How?  You are reading those tasavvuf Tariqa books, what was written in them is not false, Allah save us from denying them. The things in those books are things only Awliyaullah can do. This is a gift and privilege to them from Almighty Allah.

Yes. So, then it is a murid’s follower inner state, practices and deeds which make him to progress. His practices are his service for Allah according to Sharia, the holy book and the prophet’s legacy. Also what he has been told to do in Tariqa is his service for Allah.  His deeds are his doings in daily life. He shall be careful about them. What about the state? This is not under his control. That is, things which you don’t like come to your mind although you don’t want to have them. This is the state. It is not in your hands it just happens. That’s why they didn’t say “grief won’t come” but they said “grief shouldn’t be kept”.

notice that if a man doesn’t want anything which is contrary to the book and our prophet’s practices to come to his mind, but it keeps coming, then it is the devil, his nefs which does it. He tries to push this bad idea away, it goes away but there comes another bad one. If he drives it off again this is his jihad. If he can repel these bad wishes and ideas coming, he will make a progress. If he can push away such negative things he will have a great progress, a progress which is beyond conception.  What is it like? There is a river flowing. There are some rivers running through cities. Is there any dirtiness in those cities with rivers running through them? They pour all their garbage from houses and offices and that river takes it away, and keeps the city very clean. Okay then, think of a lake, what happens is that whatever people throw away into this lake remains in it and never goes away.  All this garbage rots, and gets mossy consequently, it pollutes the lake. So, a heart struggling against evil is like a river. It never holds dirt in it. On the other hand, a heart not struggling against evil is like a lake, pond.  Therefore there’s a struggle of the heart or mind against evil trying to invade them. In fact, this is the biggest jihad.  Therefore, in times of challenges what should you do with the undesired ideas making their way into your heart? You should dismiss them.

 If you drive them off. You heart won’t be polluted, like a flowing river.  If you don’t they will get mossy and make your heart dirty. This is how the period of depression is, when it happens, one gets relieved if he pushes away those negative ideas, wishes. Also, there is a period of relief at times, when one has it in his heart; he never thinks anything else from Allah, the prophet and his sheik. Nothing else could enter his heart. He is so relieved and so easy that he never minds anything. He cares about neither hunger nor poverty nor diseases. He likes all people, he never feels offended or hurt by the words or behaviors of others. This is how the time of relief is.  What should he do in such a time? How has he gained such a state? He has either Allah or the Prophet in his heart. When people have their sheik in their hearts there is no doubt that Allah and the holy prophet are with their sheik in their hearts. This is because they love their sheik for the sake of Allah and his prophet.

So, when one is in a state of relief he’s relaxed, peaceful and easy going. However, they should keep this state. If any distraction comes to him, he should not let it happen. He should keep thinking about his sheik feeling him in his heart. This is called rabita attachment. This is mostly in the form of a spiritual link or attachment in our Tariqa. Now, we’re practicing this here. We have Suhba conversations of preaching, teveccuh getting directed to Allah. In other times when you are not here or when you are under pressure, think of this practice and imagine you are here again. Certainly then you will get relived from that distracting situation or mood. You will overcome that state of distraction. Keep this state as long as possible when you have it. Keep it in your mind and hearth while walking around, shopping, or eating and drinking as long as possible. This will help you to decrease your distraction and get relieved.

These two are the opposites of each other, when one has stress his calmness fades away. It is like the contrast between darkness and light; or night and day. The heart of a person under distraction is like a dark night. However, the heart of a murid in the state of relief is like weather which is bright, clear and sunny.

There is also gratitude, contemplation and citation. Gratitude, thankfulness increases our blessings. Isn’t this how Allah ordains? If my servant appreciates thy gift, blessing upon him, then I increase them and make them more. If he doesn’t, then I take them back. Qur’an verse 14:7. The greatest bliss upon us here is that Allah created us as Muslims. We aren’t worldly materialistic people. We are people of afterlife faith. This is our blessing. We believe in Allah, we believe in afterlife. If we live our lives in line with our belief, we will become people of Allah’s presence. Therefore Allah ordains “My servant give in your self take back the real self. Return the life I have given to you so that you can have me.”

“One who happens to have Allah’s essence is Allah” But what does this mean? Allah says “We gave you a soul, to take back that soul to us Allah, reach Allah you need to leave materialistic things behind.” Without leaving worldly things behind you cannot reach Canan source of all life, Allah. As it goes in the saying of the exalted:

Sacrifice your self leave worldly things behind and enter the arena of oneness

Wage the greatest war against your self and leave your  nefs worldly desires behind

Realize, how those who love Allah make sacrifices for him

That’s the way leaving worldly things behind you can reach Allah That means, mankind cannot reach Allah without leaving worldly things behind.

Those who leave worldly things behind earn the afterlife.

Those who leave the afterlife behind earns the presence of Allah Allah’s Jamal (Beauty)

There is leaving behind the physical life.

There is leaving behind the afterlife. Those who leave behind both physical life and afterlife find reach Allah

Then what happens: Those who leave everything behind virtually dies as Allah ordained “Die before your death comes to you.” One gets released from physical and worldly desires, and leaves everything behind.

As for assets, one’s belongings, wealth, nobility, deeds, knowledge, beauty, power and art are his assets; or he has strived and Allah has bestowed him with the ability to work miracles.  This is also an asset. Maturity is the fruit of assuming existence, self identity, but that of knowing truly your nonexistence. That’s why whoever has realized his nonexistence through the truth of being has reached maturity, fullness. Whoever realized his nonexistence has discovered the true existence. Such a person attains maturity and fullness. That’s why Allah says “Give me yourself, get the real self in return. Give the life I have given to you leave behind and back to me so that you can have me”

Sacrifice your self leave worldly things behind and enter the arena of       oneness

Wage the greatest war against your self and leave your  nefs worldly desires behind

Realize, how those who love Allah make sacrifices for him

That’s the way leaving worldly things behind you can reach Allah

Love…what is love?

It means loving Allah, his prophet and love for our Sheik spiritual master.

When these loves full fill a person and that person nourishes and increases such love, you know what happens? He leaves everything behind, his being disappears, and nothing occupies his heart but love of Allah

However, these worldly things, our worldly assets… such as knowledge, deeds, wealth, they occupy a place in our hearts as they exist in the outer world. Since we love them they also have their existence in our hearts. Therefore, as long as we keep their existences in our hearts, we can’t reach our ultimate goal, love of Allah.  That’s why it is ordained “Whatever you love, it is your idol, deity.

In the fire of the pot of his love, he burned away the engraving of the love for the world in my heart idolatry like a butterfly burning

What does this mean? My heart was idolatry, there were many desires, wishes and they had been keeping the heart busy as they occupied it. But what is the pot of love? Love for Allah, we have a true deity, if we have found our true God; the love for our true deity will burn others and perish them. But how are we going to know our true love or how can we find it? Almighty Allah has created means by which every goal is achieved. For people who came from Allah, Almighty Allah created a means by which to return to him.  We already came through a means, not without a means. We didn’t pop out of an underground hole, a cave; we didn’t spring from the earth like a weed.  There is a means in between. Our parents were the means. They brought us from that spiritual realm to this world. In the Holy Qur’an, Almighty Allah says “ileyhil vesilete”a means by which to reach Allah. The holy place where our prophet was buried. Literally, it means Garden of the cleanly. This is the heart of an Awliya Muslim Saint

Take our ego, let our will disappear

Bless us with your Jamal, have us achieve our wish

It is you who is our means here

Make us reach the sublime destination

This is the means. These are words of wisdom of the exalted. Those are in line with the Qur’an verses and the honorary words of our prophet; and interpret them. 

Take our ego, let our will disappear

Bless us with your Jamal, have us achieve our wish

What does that mean?

Awliyaullah relieve people from their will worldly desires. This is the power of Awliyaullah. The spiritual power of Awliyaullah is nothing but relieving people or helping people to relive from their worldly desires.

The true power of Awliyaullah is nothing but helping you to go through the journey of leaving worldly things and reaching Allah oneness, this is the true power.

What that power does to you, revives you.

His life is death, his death is life

He reveals one hundredthousand   of colors despite his one source

His words are never the same.

This is one way of expressing; it’s also said:

I have witnessed his Jamal beauty revealed through eight attributes

There are thousand excellences in each attribute

All these have been told to Sheiks, Awliyaullah. Almighty Allah has bestowed Awliya with this authority. He has been given this power by Allah. 

So, what is he doing? He will have you die virtually first.

What that means? He will not kill with a sword. He will not behead you, this is not killing. What does it mean?

My glorious sheik is my guide and my Lord Abraham,

The palace of his heart is my Garden of Kaaba

It is my contemptible person is what I have given to him

I have submitted myself to his knife like Samuel

Some of these are understandable, some of them are not.

As you know, my glorious sheik is my guide and my Lord Abraham, is understandable. You should submit yourself to your sheik just as Samuel yielded to his father Abraham. This is clear.

It is my contemptible person is what I have given to him. This also is clear.

I have submitted myself to his knife like Samuel. This is plain as well.

The palace of his heart is my Garden of Kaaba, what is this? If a man gets into the heart of an Awliya, he enters Ravza’ u Mutahhara is also Allah’s home, Kaaba. In Hadis Kudsi a saying by Allah through the prophet’s mouth, Allah says “I cannot be found anywhere but the heart of my faithful servant,” this is what it means. Whoever enters the heart of an Awliya reaches his goal, attains his wish. What is being looked for cannot be found in the outer world, it is found in the hearts. It is necessary to win a heart.

Therefore Yunus Emre said;

Yunus says “hey hodja!

Even if you participate in the pilgrimage for thousand times

Winning a heart is better

Than anything else

Did he say this in vain?

“To win a heart”. Whose heart is this? This is an Awliya’s heart. It is because his heart has been opened. If his heart has been opened, Allah ordains in Qur’an “we will show the truth of our verses to them both in their persons and in their surroundings.” Qur’an Verse 41: 53. What was this verse sent for? What was its purpose? It’s about the greatness and glory of the hearts of Awliyaullah. Therefore, if a man wins, enters such a heart, he finds there what he’s looking for. That’s why it’s said in a saying of the exalted;

If you want the pretty, pretty

Make the pretty pretty

You will find the pretty

Very important mystery for dervishes

What is this important mystery for dervishes?

It says if you want to become beautiful, find the beautiful. You can’t become beautiful unless you find the beautiful one. If you find the beautiful one, then he can make you beautiful as well. “Pretty” means “beautiful”. Once you get beautiful everything gets beautiful. Why does everything become beautiful? It is because you get to see Allah’s quality light through everything: Everything turns into a mirror to you. It reflects Allah’s light, that’s why you become beautiful.

This is the goal of Tariqa. What is there for one who realizes and lives it and reaches Haqiqa Truth. For a person who reaches Haqiqa Truth, everything turns into a mirror reflecting Allah, all things including himself turns into a mirror.

Yes, we also need gratitude, contemplation, and remembrance.

Gratitude will increase our blessing. What is our blessing? Our house, our factories are also graces bestowed upon us, but these are worldly ones. They can turn into fire or light for us. Our gold, pearl, real estates, that is, our wealth, assets all are gifts to us. But these are blessings if you appreciate them. This world is potentially is either fire or light, if a person earns  these worldly assets for Allah in order to spend them in good ways keeping in mind that he is only the caretaker not the owner, then they will become financial services  for Allah. They are considered as everlasting charities. On the other hand, if he spends these on forbidden things in banned ways, then these assets will become fire for him. So worldly wealth can lead you either to fire or become light for you. Fire means hell, light means heaven. Well, these also require gratitude.

What does gratitude mean here? What is the gratitude for assets and wealth? How will we thank for it? By knowing that they really belong to Allah.

You shall spend these in the way of Allah. Only doing so can you become thankful for these graces. You have knowledge, you shall be thankful for that, you have your religious practices, you shall be thankful for that. You are in good health, you should be thankful for that as well. You can be thankful for all these if you are Muslim. If you appreciate Islam and you are grateful for being a Muslim. We should be very grateful as we are Muslims. We should prostrate be humble day and night in gratitude for our being Muslims. We will prostrate in our heart. We will put our heads under the feet of all people (another expression of being humble). Why are we going to do this? We don’t know what’s in the hearts of people, only Allah knows it. Our exalted prophet says Almighty Allah looks at the hearts of people He doesn’t look at their physical glamour, wealth, beauty or anything else. Someone you think is poor or ignorant might be a true believer.

What is ignorance?

It is rebellion. Why? 

Even though he has so much knowledge

He, the devil, couldn’t have your knowledge

Ignorance means rebellion, one who is a believer and lives his faith isn’t ignorant. He can be illiterate but not ignorant.

Then you should be thankful for being a Muslim. If you are grateful for being a Muslim it means you are thankful for all graces given to you. If you are grateful for being a Muslim, then you will find Allah you know. If you are grateful then Allah will increase your gifts.

-      Be thankful for being a Muslim

-      Be thankful for being a follower of our prophet

-      Be thankful for joining Tariqa

-      Be thankful for having a Sheik for finding a Sheik of excellence and submitting to him as his disciple.

Almighty Allah will make your blessings more if you are grateful. This is his promise; “I shall increase, enlarge, make more sublime,” he says. What is the upper limit of this? Therefore, it is stated in the anthology of Salih Baba;

They said “Salih why are you lying down, get up!”

They said “depend on Allah in faith”

They said “Haq Allah isn’t hidden, but obvious”

There are so many graces through this blessing

This is Allah’s wisdom, his way;

 First he gives humans the knowledge of his existence.

Then he ordains “my servant, call my name, I will call your name.

A believer’s calling Allah’s name, his thankfulness to Allah, his contemplation of Allah, what do these do to a servant? These enable him reach Allah whose existence has been declared. Through his gratefulness Allah will increase his graces. If one was created as a Muslim, he should be grateful for this so that he could achieve to reach Allah’s essence of person, gain Allah’s Jamal Beauty

He should think that there is a way leading to Allah’s essence. This is hid goal and he should never leave this path. Why are people praying?   Pious people pray to Allah to be on the right path, and not to be strayed from this right path. What is the right path?

When the Qur’an Verse Shura 42:15 “be on the right path as you are required to be” got revealed to our prophet he had some grey hair in his beard even though he hadn’t had it before. Why? This verse was very heavy powerful on him, and he felt huge responsibility put on his shoulder. Who was he afraid of this for? He’s already Allah’s most beloved. He has been sent as Allah’s Mercy to eighteen thousand worlds Commandment given to him is given to us. What is it? “My beloved don’t deviate from righteousness and your direction. He was worried for us thinking “Alas! My community, followers cannot be in the right direction as commanded or they cannot keep being on the right path”

 There is also Dhikr Chanting, remembrance of Allah’s name

As for meditation, it is a means of yours to progress on this path. You will progress on this path by means of meditation.