Who Says Democracy is Good for Mankind?

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Hidden near the Himalayas between India and Tibet, the kingdom of Bhutan has long been shrouded in mystery. Sometimes called “the last Shangri-La,” it’s a lushly forested land where people wear traditional robes, where policy is guided by “Gross National Happiness,” and where Tantric Buddhist saints are celebrated with paintings of gigantic penises. But Bhutan is on the verge of change. This year, it will transform itself from an absolute monarchy to a parliamentary democracy — a move that leaves many young Bhutanese puzzled and uneasy. “When His Majesty first informed us he was going to change the government, there were lots of people who couldn’t speak,” says one activist. “They wished it was just a dream.” Current Correspondent Christof Putzel travels to Bhutan to find out how young people are dealing with democracy, westernization, and other challenges to their unique national culture.

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Thanks to www.higherstations.wordpress.com

 

Frustrated With West, Turks Revel in Empire Lost

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ISTANBUL — More than eight decades ago, Ertugrul Osman, an heir to the Ottoman throne, was unceremoniously thrown out of Turkey with his family. He lived to be 97, spending most of his years in a modest Manhattan apartment above a bakery.

But in September, at his funeral in the garden of the majestic Sultanahmet Mosque here, thousands of mourners came to pay their respects, including government officials and celebrities. Some even kissed the hands of surviving dynasty members, who appeared shocked at the adulation.

The show of reverence for the man who might have been sultan, historians said, was a seminal moment in the rehabilitation of the Ottoman Empire, long demonized by some in the modern, secular Turkish Republic created by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923. During Ataturk’s rule, the empire was remembered mainly for its decadence and its humiliating defeat and partition by the Allied armies in World War I.

Mr. Osman’s send-off was just the latest manifestation of what sociologists call “Ottomania,” a harking back to an era marked by conquest and cultural splendor during which sultans ruled an empire stretching from the Balkans to the Indian Ocean and claimed the spiritual leadership of the Muslim world.

The longing for those glory years — by religious Muslims and secularists alike — partly reflects Turks’ frustration with a European Union that seems ill disposed to accept them as members. And in a country where the tension between religion and secularism is never far from the surface, members of the new governing class of religious Muslims have seized upon nostalgia for the Ottoman Empire as a way to challenge the pro-Western elite that emerged during Ataturk’s rule, and to help forge a national identity of Turkey as an aspiring regional leader.

“Turks are attracted to the heroism and the glory of the Ottoman period because it belongs to them,” said the director of Topkapi Palace, Ilber Ortayli, who, as the keeper of the sumptuous residence where Ottoman sultans lived for 400 years, is also a zealous unofficial gatekeeper of the country’s Ottoman legacy. “The sultans hold a place in the popular consciousness like Douglas MacArthur or General Patton have for Americans.”

The current vogue of all things Ottoman, from the proliferation of historical docudramas to the popularity of porcelain ashtrays adorned with half-naked harem women, is sometimes manifesting itself in ways that would surely have made a real sultan blanch.

During Ramadan, Burger King offered a special sultan menu featuring dishes popular in the Ottoman years. In the television commercial promoting the meal, a turbaned Janissary — a member of an elite group of Ottoman soldiers known for their warrior spirit — exhorts viewers not to “leave any burgers standing.”

Ottomania has also infected the nation’s youth; 20-somethings at hip dance clubs here wear T-shirts emblazoned with slogans like “The Empire Strikes Back” or “Terrible Turks” — the latter turning the taunt Europeans once used against their Ottoman invaders into a defiant symbol of self-affirmation.

Kerim Sarc, 42, the owner of Ottoman Empire T-Shirts and the scion of an illustrious Ottoman family, believes that the newfound fondness for a mighty empire that lasted 600 years and once reached the gates of Vienna is linked to the long struggle for membership in the European Union. The bloc has imposed tough conditions on Turkey, including asking it to compromise in its longstanding dispute over Cyprus.

“We Turks are tired of being treated in Europe like poor, backward peasants,” he said.

The Ottoman renaissance is equally prevalent in the nation’s highest political circles, where the Muslim-inspired Justice and Development Party government has been aggressively courting former Ottoman colonies, including Iraq and Syria, in at least a partial reorientation of foreign policy toward the east that Turkish analysts have labeled as “Neo-Ottoman.”

That shift has alarmed officials in Europe and Washington, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to reassure President Obama when he meets him at the White House on Monday that Turkey has not abandoned its Western course.

It is a sign of the Ottoman Empire’s new hold on the popular imagination that in January when Mr. Erdogan publicly rebuked the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, over the war in Gaza, at a debate at Davos, Switzerland, he was greeted enthusiastically by his supporters back in Turkey with the chant, “Our fatih is back!” The allusion was to Fatih — or conqueror — Sultan Mehmet II, the towering sultan who at age 21 conquered Constantinople, now Istanbul, in 1453.

Colleagues said Mr. Erdogan proudly displays an original decree in his office by Sultan Mehmet II granting autonomy to religious minorities within the empire.

“The Ottoman Empire conquered two-thirds of the world but did not force anyone to change their language or religion at a time when minorities elsewhere were being oppressed,” said Egeman Bagis, the minister for European Union affairs. “Turks can be proud of that legacy.”

Pelin Batu, co-host of a popular television history program, argued that the glorification of the Ottoman era by a government with roots in political Islam reflected a revolt against the secular cultural revolution undertaken by Ataturk, who outlawed the wearing of Islamic head scarves in state institutions and abolished the Ottoman-era caliphate, the spiritual head of Sunni Islam.

“Ottomania is a form of Islamic empowerment for a new Muslim religious bourgeoisie who are reacting against Ataturk’s attempt to relegate religion and Islam to the sidelines,” she said.

In a society struggling with its identity, not everyone welcomes the phenomenon.

Some critics accuse its proponents of glossing over the empire’s decline and of glorifying an anachronistic system that, at the very least, was mired in corruption and infighting in its later years. The massacre of Ottoman Armenians between 1915 and 1918 stands as a particular dark spot in the history of the empire.

“The religious Muslims now in power are trying to feed the Turkish people an Ottoman poison,” said Sada Kural, 45, a housewife and staunch supporter of Ataturk’s vision for the country. “The Ottoman era wasn’t a good period; we were the sick man of Europe, rights were suppressed and women only got the vote after Ataturk came to power.”

While some bemoan what they consider the crude commercialization of a nation’s history, others, like Cenan Sarc, 97, who was 10 years old at the time of the empire’s collapse in 1922 and is the descendant of an Ottoman pasha, cautioned against idealizing an era of dictatorship.

Mrs. Sarc recalled her idyllic childhood in an old Ottoman mansion on the Bosporus, a poetic time, she said, when fathers ruled, mothers stayed at home and Islam held sway. But, she insisted, “we can never go back to that time.” Ertugrul Osman, the Ottoman heir who was the grandson of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, had himself accepted obscurity. When he visited Turkey in 1992, for the first time in 53 years, and went to see the 285-room Dolmabahce Palace, which had been his grandfather’s home, he insisted on joining a public tour group.

Asked frequently if he dreamed about restoring the empire, he always emphatically answered no. “Democracy,” he said, “works well in Turkey.”

[from www.joelstrumpet.com/?p=2355]

 

TRT 2 – AMERİKA’DAKİ MÜSLÜMANLAR

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TRT 2 Krılıma Noktası Fragmanı – AMERİKA’DAKİ MÜSLÜMANLAR

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Fragman

 

Muslim 500 – A Joke or an Earnest Attempt

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Claiming to be the first attempt of its kind, The 500 Most Influential Muslims starts off on a wrong foot. Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in Amman and Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding list, lo and behold, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at the top of 1.5-2 billion Muslims. Perhaps coming to the late realization that money cannot buy hearts, it seems that a certain interest group is on an intellectual campaign to win minds.

It is also no surprise that in these End Times of a power vacuum, H.M. King Mohammed IV of Morocco at No. 3 is also a

Contender for the Caliphate
King Mohammad VI’s lineage makes him the only legitimate contender for the Islamic Caliphate, as successor to a 350 year-old dynasty. The Alaouite Dynasty links back to the Prophet Muhammad. He possesses the only authentic claim to an Islamic Caliphate, if one were to be established. Indeed, the Moroccans never recognized the Ottoman Caliphate on the grounds that the Ottomans were not descended from the Prophet Muhammad.

According to Adil James of the Muslim Media Network Staff,

In total 72 Americans are among the 500 most influential Muslims, a disproportionately strong showing, but only one among the top 50.  Sheikh Hamza Yusuf Hanson of Zaytuna Institute is listed surprisingly at number 38.  The world leader of the Naqshbandi Haqqani Sufi order, however, Sheikh Nazim al Haqqani, with millions of followers worldwide, spiritual adviser to kings, presidents, doctors, lawyers, professors and others across the spectrum of profession, race, and ethnicity on seven continents, is listed at number 49.  While Sheikh Hamza Yusuf has successfully built the Zaytuna Institute, his influence is confined mostly to American academia, scholars and students.  Surprisingly, Khaled Mashaal, leader of Hamas, (at number 34) is listed before any American Muslim.

Muslim 500 – A Listing of the 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World

The entire book is available at www.rissc.jo/muslim500v-1L.pdf

 

Türkçe Alt Yazılı Jenaze (2) – Emir Seloski

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BE IN ALLAH’S SERVICE THROUGH LOVE

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BE IN ALLAH’S SERVICE THROUGH LOVE

Juma Khutba delivered by Sheykh Abdul Kerim al-Hakkani al-Kibrisi

Friday 28 Ramazan, 1430/September 18, 2009
Osmanli Naksibendi Hakkani Dergahi, Siddiki Center, New York.

Auzu billahi min ash-sheytanir rajim
BismillahirRahmanirRahim
Medet Ya Seyyidi Ya Sultanul Awliya, Medet.

Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah
al-azim wa atubu ilaih. We are asking forgiveness from our Lord Allah subhana wa
ta’ala. He has created us for His service. Nothing but for His service. Only
reason for man’s being in this world is to be under the service of His Lord.
Everything else is becoming malayani. That is for our safety. He has created us,
He sent us here and giving order saying, `If you are doing My order in Dunya
then you are entering to My Paradise. If you are doing otherwise, I will give
you time. I gave you this life. Run around as much as you want. Go to any corner
you want. Do anything that you want. But your rope is in My hand. You cannot
escape. When I pull, you come. You cannot go anywhere. Either you will be in My
service, be My servant, through love or I will make you one. And when I put My
authority on you then you will be counted from the bad servants, not the good
servants. And the bad servants don’t have rewards in the hereafter. They have
another punishment hereafter.’

He is saying, `As you like.’ He is saying to His Prophet (sws), `Don’t worry Ya
Muhammad (sws).’ Prophet (sws) was worrying. For who? For us, for this nation
because he was seeing what is in front of them. He was seeing what was happening
to them, what was going to happen to them. He went to Miraj. He saw everything.
He went to Miraj. He saw paradises and he saw hells. And he said, `The hell is
full with my Ummat, especially the women of this Ummat.’ Hmm.

Eh, what happened today? Today is the worst days. We are living the worst days
on the face of this earth. This world has never seen such a thing like this
before. This world has never seen such disobedience like this. During the time
of Nuh (as) they were disobedient but they were saying to Nuh (as), `We are not
going to listen to you. We are just going to do like the people coming in Ahir
Zaman. Just like them.’ A vision opened to them and saying, `We are just going
to do exactly like them. We are not listening to you. We are living as we like.’
And Nuh (as) was crying for them, saying, `Please, stop this. Come to the ship
for safety.’ They said, `No way!’ Finally order came to Nuh (as) saying, `Leave
them. Leave them. Those who believe, take them to the ship. The rest, leave them
to My hand.’ And they were all punished and perished.

Eh, Ahir Zaman, about Ahir Zaman the Holy Prophet (sws) is saying, `It will be
the second Jahiliyya that is worse than the first Jahiliyya.’ This is what
happened and that Jahiliyya is entering everywhere and Sheytan is very happy.
Sheytan is very happy with Muslims today saying, `I couldn’t do it better than
them. They are fasting, yes, but they are doing the things that the Kafirs are
not doing.’ He likes it. He’s very happy. And Allah subhana wa ta’ala is saying
to us why we have to fast. He is saying, `I have ordered the nations before you
for fasting and I have ordered you too for fasting. This way you will find
safety. It will be protection to you from the hands and the tricks and traps of
Sheytan.’ And the Holy Prophet (sws) is saying, `The fasting of Ramazan is a
shield between you and Jahannam.’ Are we feeling that shield? Are we feeling,
`Yes, we are protected’? How are you going to be feeling that you are protected
when you are angry twenty-four hours during Ramazan? Not only that you are
angry, you are saying words and cursing that you never did before. Not only
that, you are becoming Firaun destroying everything surrounding you. MashaAllah,
Allahu Akbar. So that person is not counted from the believers then and the Holy
Prophet (sws) is saying, `If you die during that time, you will die in Jahiliyya
time.’ The faith is not in the heart at that time. The faith is up there
circling around until you will ask forgiveness and the faith comes back into the
heart.

Alhamdulillah. Too sad, they should be too sad, those ones who have destroyed
this whole month of Ramazan. They didn’t show the proper respect. They didn’t
take care of it. Who did it, they should be very happy. Who kept the Ramazan
properly, with proper respect, giving their respect to Allah and His Prophet
(sws), they should be happy. They should be happy now and they are going to be
happy in the Judgment Day. Beyond that too.

So Allah subhana wa ta’ala sent us to this world and He is saying to us, `Either
you choose the hard way or you choose the easy way. There are two ways. If you
choose the hard way it’s not for you. You are going to suffer a lot. If you
choose the easy way, the easy way is obedience. Through obedience you are going
to find everything coming easy to you. Through disobedience everything is going
to be hard. The more disobedient, the harder it’s going to come to you. The more
disobedient, the harder it’s going to happen. If you didn’t find, if you didn’t
catch that in Dunya, don’t think that you are going to get it in the grave.
Whatever you prepared in this world now, that’s what you are going to find in
the grave. If you show the proper respect during this month to Ramazan, if you
die during this year, you are going to find the blessing of Ramazan in the grave
for you. If you didn’t, then you are going to find extra punishment for you for
the Ramazan.

InshaAllah ar-Rahman, these words should make some differences in our lives. As
much difference it will make, it doesn’t matter now, the Ramazan is finished.
Those who didn’t take care should’ve thought better. It passed. The Ramazan
passed and it took your good deeds and your bad deeds with it and it sealed it
and it’s going to be there. Ramazan is going to complain about some people on
the Judgment Day. Fasting is going to complain too. Eh, you should check, we
should check ourselves to see where we are, what we did, to regret, to run back,
ask forgiveness, try to catch up. Not too much to catch up but Allah’s mercy may
reach. We don’t know anything. Anyone who is claiming to know something, they
are the most ignorant ones. But Allah subhana wa ta’ala is telling us, `Run. If
you did the mistake, turn around. Turn around and don’t be arrogant and stubborn
like Sheytan.’ That’s what it is. If the person is carrying as we said in the
beginning of Ramazan, `Don’t fast only from eating, drinking and different
activities. Fast from anger, fast from proudness, fast from arrogance, fast from
stubbornness, fast from jealousy and envy. Fast from these things. Get rid of
it.’

During the month of Ramazan it should’ve become easier. To some it didn’t. That
shows that you are supporting your ego. Sheytan is not there. Sheytan is
chained. That shows that you are a slave to your ego. You are not a servant to
Allah subhana wa ta’ala. You are a slave to the ego. And those who are knowing
should ask forgiveness and turn around. Every one of us should ask forgiveness
and not to think that, `Oh, mine is complete.’ No. Nobody in these days is
complete but some people make it open. So, when you do something right, hide it.
If it’s going to help other people, spread it. If you do something wrong,
definitely hide it and keep it hidden. In the Judgment Day Allah subhana wa
ta’ala may not make you the biggest fool.

Some people are worrying, today’s foolishness, in front of ten people, five
people, fifty people, a hundred people, a thousand people, `Oh, I don’t know how
this one is going to think about me. You know what happened now? This one is
going to think so bad about me, about this situation.’ Huh, you are worrying
about that. You are not worrying about the Judgment Day? You are not worrying
about the Judgment Day that Allah subhana wa ta’ala is going to pull you in His
Presence saying, `Oh my servant, in Dunya you have worry because people say
things. And what about today? Did you think about today?’ `No.’ Then that is a
hidden shirk. If you are only worrying about people and you are not worrying
about what Allah and His Prophet (sws) is thinking about you, that is a hidden
shirk. Then Allah is saying, `Run to those to help you that you were worrying
about. You didn’t worry for Me, you didn’t care for Me that My eyes are on you
twenty-four hours. I am your Creator and I am sending everything to you. You
didn’t care and I sent you that holy month to fix yourself, to become better for
more things to open to you, ways to open to you. You shut every door.’ Hmm.

Eh, now you will fall into the foolishness of the Judgment Day and you are the
worst one then, yes. And there is no way to run. Everyone on the Judgment Day
will watch you. This Nation will watch you. The nations that passed, they will
look at them and say, `How foolish these ones are! These ones have been counted
from the Nation of Muhammad (sws) and they lived life like this.’ The prophets
will look and they will say, `How foolish these servants are that Allah subhana
wa ta’ala granted them to be from the Nation of Muhammad (sws) and so short life
during their time, and they got so fooled by Sheytan and they lost everything?
How fool you are!’ The curse will be coming then. That is worse than Jahannam.

So, inshaAllah ar-Rahman, we must ask forgiveness all the time. We must turn
around and ask forgiveness all the time for the good things and the bad things
that we do for our Lord to forgive us and make us to become better servants to
Him. If we do that then we are going to become winners.

As we always remind, we will remind again. It’s not too far. The angel of death
is not too far distance away. Don’t think that it’s so far away. Don’t think
that these years are going to continue so much. It’s only counted. It’s
finishing. Turning left and right it’s finishing. Akhirat is waiting. Akhirat is
waiting to every one of us. Everyday we are running, moving towards Akhirat.
Everyday the angel of death is taking at least a hundred and fifty thousand
people’s lives on this earth. At least a hundred and fifty thousand. Who says
that you are not one of them today or tomorrow? We might be. So if we think and
we keep that alive in ourselves then we will be able to close our ears for wrong
talks, we will be able not to hear them, we will be able to close our tongues
not to talk wrong talks, we will be able to close our eyes not to look at the
wrong things. When we cannot change anything then we turn back to our Lord
saying, `Ya Rabbi, I cannot change anything but don’t count me from those ones.’

Wa min Allahu tawfiq

Bihurmatil Habib

Bihurmatil Fatiha.

 

Janaza for Amir Celoski

BismillahirRahmanirRahim

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

 

Turnalara Tutunda Gel

BismillahirRahmanirRahim

Uçup gittin buralardan, canımın canı nerdesin?
Uçup gittin buralardan, gözümün nuru nerdesin?

Gittiğin yol çokmu uzak, dönülmeyen yerdemisin?

Gel, yağmur ol gel! Gel, rüzgâr ol gel!
Bulutlar yoldaşın olsun, Allahım seni korusun
Yolun açık aydın olsun, turnalara tutunda gel

Şimdi hangi yaban elde, belki dağda esen yelde
Allah aşkına dön gelde, şu gönlüme bayram olsun

 

Rough Translation

You flew away from here, the life of my soul
Where are you?
You flew away from here, the light of my eyes
Where are you?

Is it far away where you are? Can’t you return?

Come… come as the rain
Come… come as the wind

May the clouds accompany you
May Allah protect you
May your roads be open and clear
Hold on to the cranes, and come

Now in what strange lands
Perhaps in the windy mountains
For God’s sake, come, return
So my heart can celebrate

 

DON’T LOSE YOUR LAWYERS FOR THE JUDGMENT DAY

BismillahirRahmanirRahim

DON’T LOSE YOUR LAWYERS FOR THE JUDGMENT DAY

Juma Khutba delivered by Sheykh Abdul Kerim al-Hakkani al-Kibrisi

Friday 27 Shawwal, 1430/October 16, 2009
Osmanli Naksibendi Hakkani Dergahi, Siddiki Center, New York.

Auzu billahi min ash-sheytanir rajim
BismillahirRahmanirRahim
Medet Ya Seyyidi, Ya Sultanul Awliya, Medet.

Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, alhamdulilahi rabbil alameen. Astaghfirullah,
astaghfirullah, astaghfirullahil azim wa atubu ilaih. The Holy Prophet (sws) is
saying to us, `Don’t interfere to the work that doesn’t concern you. Don’t
interfere to the knowledge that doesn’t concern you. If you are interfering to
the knowledge that doesn’t concern you, that is enough sign showing to you that
Allah doesn’t love you.’ This place here, not this place, the Khutba place, for
fourteen hundred years, from the day that the Holy Prophet (sws) immigrated from
Mecca to Medina, the first Khutba, the first Juma he gave outside of Medina and
from that day until today there is Juma going on in every Juma. Juma is
obligation. It’s Farz to believers to attend to Juma, in the Juma time to tell
the believers, `Have fear from Allah.’

For fourteen hundred years it’s going on. It started from one masjid in Medina
and it spread everywhere in the world. For over fourteen hundred years in every
Juma every Imam is standing on that point, reminding themselves and their
Jama’at, `Have fear from Allah.’ Allah subhana wa ta’ala is showing to us
saying, `I am reminding you. You are My servants. I have sent you to this world
and you are going to do as I say, not as your ego says.’ And for fourteen
hundred years the unbelievers are running and attacking Islam, trying to bring
Islam down. But the worst is that the believers from the inside are running and
they are thinking that they are going to bring Islam down or they are going to
invent some kind of Islam that fits to their ego. It’s not going to happen. It
didn’t happen when the Holy Prophet (sws) was one man, one individual. Do you
think that it will happen now? But the ignorant man who is blind twenty-four
hours a day is thinking that way.

So today, yes for almost one hundred years now, right after our Sultan, our
Khalifah, Ulul Hakan Sultan Abdul Hamid Khan, right after that one, Allah
subhana wa ta’ala has hidden, putting the Khalifah aside and this mankind became
very wild, running very wild, males and females. Everyone is interfering into
everything. Don’t! It is not good for you. It is not going to do good for you.
Not in Dunya and not in Akhirat. Especially, interfering in the matters of
religion, don’t. Dunya? Eh, if you are talking in Dunya, when the man with that
knowledge confronts you, you finish, your knowledge finishes anyway. You make a
fool out of yourself. What about the Akhirat knowledge? So many fools are
interfering today of course. So many fools whose minds are not with them,
running after them.

Eh, Allah subhana wa ta’ala is saying to us, `I have created Jannat and
Jahannam. I have created Jahannam also and I mean to fill Jahannam with people.’
Whichever side you want. Don’t think that Allah subhana wa ta’ala has no mercy
and He is going to take little creatures that He created and throw them inside
the fire. No. But He is giving enough chance to that little creature in Dunya
saying to him, `I did send you to this world and I am taking you also. If you
would’ve come to this world by yourself then you have the right to do whatever
you want. But you didn’t. I sent you. So I put two roads for you in this world.
Sirat-ul Mustaqim, the right road and the road that leads behinds the sheytans
to Jahannam. In Sirat-ul Mustaqim, on the right road, I put leaders who are
leading that road. Follow them.

Your duty is to follow. You don’t. Your ego is saying no. Eh, Sheytan is more
clever than you and me. He has so much knowledge that he even fooled Adam
(alayhi salam). Adam (as) has no partner in his creation. Allah subhana wa
ta’ala created only him in that way. No other creature Allah subhana wa ta’ala
has created like Adam (as). He didn’t create you and I like that. He didn’t
create our Holy Prophet (sws) like that. He did not create any prophet like
that. He spent time, He put design to him. And He gave warning to Adam (as),
saying to him, `This Sheytan is your enemy. Be careful.’ And Adam (as) just got
weak in one point and Sheytan managed to fool him. That’s why Allah subhana wa
ta’ala is saying to us, `No matter what happens, don’t get weak in religion.
Hold on tightly if you are believers because in the end you are going to win.’

So the Holy Prophet (sws) is saying to us, `If you are living with the knowledge
that you know, if you are applying the knowledge that you know to yourself,’
because too many people are coming today to me saying, `How are we going to know
this, Sheykh? And how are we going to know that? How are we going to know if
this Sheykh is right? How are we going to know if this Sheykh is wrong?’ It’s
another confusion and fitna coming from Sheytan. It’s so easy. So simple. But of
course, the ego is declaring something, saying, `I am so good. So I have to look
to find the good ones.’ And the Holy Prophet (sws) is saying to us, `If you live
with the knowledge that you know sincerely, the knowledge that you know, if you
apply it to your life, Allah subhana wa ta’ala will teach you the knowledge you
don’t know.’ So then any simple knowledge that you know, if you are not a
hypocrite and if you are living according to that knowledge, every other
knowledge that is concerning you, Allah subhana wa ta’ala will teach you. Don’t
worry.

So the Holy Prophet (sws) is saying to us, `If the knowledge is in China, go and
seek that knowledge.’ So many squarehead Imams today and sheykhs are saying,
`You see, the Prophet (sws) is saying to us to read. Go to the universities even
if it is in China.’ And I say, `Hey squarehead Imam or Sheykh! Calling yourself
Sheykh! The universities are everywhere today. It’s not only in America. Cyprus
is a small island like this, go and count to see how many universities are
there. But our brothers are finishing this university and still saying, `I have
to go to America or London.’ Why? `Because I have to get a bigger diploma from a
bigger Yahudi place.’ That’s what happened.

So, that is not the knowledge that the Holy Prophet (sws) is talking about. And
he is not talking to you about the knowledge itself. To learn the knowledge you
need a teacher, you need a master. He is saying, if the knowledge is in China,
go and seek that knowledge. Go there and seek that knowledge. This knowledge.
The knowledge of Akhirat. How many are left in this world now? Go and look to
those nations. Today, over 100,000 masjids in Turkey. Over 100,000! In over a
hundred thousand mosques and masjids they are giving Khutba. But the Khutba is
prepared by a couple of soldiers and is given to their hands and is said, `Read
to the nation.’ If it’s otherwise, tell them to come and speak to me. Same thing
is happening in Egypt, same thing is happening in Saudi Arabia, same this is
happening everywhere. Exceptions are countries like this that they don’t come to
interfere to me to say to you, `Read this.’ That’s why they are going crazy left
and right saying, `We cannot control this religion. Somewhere somehow somebody
is standing up and speaking again the ayats that we are hiding, the hadith that
we are hiding.’

And as I said, there are so many hypocrites, Munafiqs who are in the religion,
who are coming to the dergahs, to the sheykhs not to fix their ego to become
better but they are thinking, `We are going to go to get some power.’ What power
are you looking for? What power you think that the Sheykh has to give to you? If
he has the power definitely he is not going to give to you. If Allah gave to him
then he is saying, `If Allah wants He is going to give to you too. If it is
given to me, I am not even going to show to you what is that.’ But so many
squareheads are fooling the other ones. They are thinking, talking so big,
entering into so many matters that don’t concern them, entering into the
knowledge that they get dizzy and later Sheytan is coming to them saying, `This
is what you are looking for. Don’t worry. I will give you something.’ They
become black magic people. That’s what they think this religion is. It’s not.
Allah subhana wa ta’ala is in control. He has the control of this world and
everything is in His hand.

He is saying to us, `I let your rope a little bit loose. Run around. But your
rope is in My hand. When I pull, you are going to come. Run as you like if you
think you are going to run. But this world is so small. In the end, you are
going out from one door.’ You entered through one door and you are going out
from another door. One door entrance, two doors exit. You entered clean. We are
not Christians to say, `You were born to this world dirty.’ No. You enter clean.
You are clean up to the maturity age. After the maturity age you are dirtying
yourself with your dirty mind, with your dirty thinking. And turn around and ask
forgiveness and clean yourself again in this journey. While you entered through
that door you are continuing that journey. You are going to go out from the
other door. Two doors are waiting for you. Either you go out from the right side
which is Selamat, Safety, or you go out from the left door. The troubles begin
that time. You are complaining now that you have trouble? Hmm, hmm. You are
complaining now that you have problems? At that time you will see what problem
is.

So wake up to yourselves. These words are for you, for me and for the whole
mankind who is hearing this. If anybody is saying, `I am exception from this’
that one should not be a human. Maybe it’s an angel or maybe it’s lower than the
animals that Allah subhana wa ta’ala is saying because Allah subhana wa ta’ala
is putting ego and is saying to us, `Your ego is your worst enemy.’ And the Holy
Prophet (sws) is saying this to us. You cannot take care of your ego. You need a
master. You need somebody to fix it for you, to show you what is right and what
is wrong. If you don’t then your guide is going to be Sheytan. Sheytan is going
to lead you. And you are still going to think that you are in the Sirat-ul
Mustaqim but you are already going to be in the wrong road. When the angel of
death is coming to you, you are going to go out from this world through the
wrong door and all the problems begin then.

Intelligence is showing to the man, saying to know what he wants, to understand
who is his enemy and to try to fix himself before the angel of death is reaching
to him. When is this angel of death going to come you think? It may come one
minute later, it may come tonight, it may come tomorrow. Keep this alive. Don’t
make it so long. Don’t think it’s so far distant as everyone is making so many
plans, `I am doing this and I am doing that. I am going here and I am going
to…’. A Sahabi one day came to the Holy Prophet (sws), a young Sahabi, and said,
`Ya Rasulullah, I have borrowed some money. I made a deal with this person that
I am going to pay in one month’s time. Please pray for me that I will be able to
make it.’ And the Holy Prophet (sws) looked at him and said, `Oh, what a long
term plan you made. How did you do this?’ To a young Sahabi he is saying, `How
did you make this long plan? One month? Who says to you that Azrail is not
coming to you five minutes later?’

That word was to the Sahabi and to every believer who is coming after, to you
and to me. Not to think that, `Oh, it’s going to be long term’ or so many are
saying, `I am doing wrong today but one day I am going to change. Okay, I am
making intention that by next year I am going to change.’ Just like the Yahudi
and the Christians, saying, `This year, this new year I am going to do this and
then I am going to start changing.’ New Year. Their new year is Christmas of
course. These kinds of Muslims are celebrating Christmas and New Year.

Wake up to yourselves. The Holy Prophet (sws) is Mubashshiran wa Naziran. He
gives warning and he is giving the good news to mankind. And all his inheritors
are doing the same. And Allah subhana wa ta’ala is saying to us, `You and the
people that you speak, don’t forget the Judgment Day. Oh, those ones that are
speaking!’ He is talking about the Imams and Sheykhs and everyone, saying, `Oh,
those ones who are reminding their people but they are forgetting about
themselves. You wait to see what happens to you.’ That is for me and to all
those people who are standing up and speaking to their Jama’at.

These words, as I said earlier, are for you and for me. If you want, take it,
you will win. If you don’t want it, there are two doors. Either you are going
out from the right side or the left side. America is not going to save you.
Whoever is promising, giving promises is not going to save you. Your good deeds
and the intention in the good deeds are going to save you. Nothing else. Maybe
then you will find some good lawyers. Because you have good deeds and you have
good intentions, then you may find good lawyers who will speak for your behalf
in the Judgment Day.

So many people today are losing their lawyers too. They go against their
Sheykhs. They do so many secrets behind their Sheykhs. They think that the
sheykhs don’t know. Oh, what kind of Sheykh do you think that is going to be? If
it’s just like your thinking and if one wall is separating him from the wrong
thing that you are doing, definitely that one is not a Sheykh. Know that. But if
that Sheykh is going to use some technology to know, definitely that one is not
a Sheykh too.

So wake up to yourself, inshaAllah ar-Rahman. We are meaning to enter to
Paradise. And Paradise is our place. We are lonely in this world. No matter who
is around you, you are always lonely. You are longing for your original house
and you are bound towards that. But so many times, so many people are entering
to the road that Sheytan is guiding. You are longing for your house and you are
running into Jahannam?

Wa min Allahu tawfiq

Bihurmatil Habib

Bihurmatil Fatiha.