Sohbet by Sheykh Abdul Kerim al-Hakkani al-Kibrisi
Friday, 5 Safar, 1425
Manhattan Dergah, New York City
Selamun aleykum. Meded Ya Sayiddi, Ya Sultan Evliya,
Mevlana Sheykh Nazim al-Hakkani. Meded.
Tariqatuna sohbet wa khayru fil jamiat. Our way is association.
Association is voluntary. Anyone who comes, comes voluntarily and
they listen voluntarily. They either like it or they don’t like it.
It is still voluntary. They take it and then either they apply it to
their lives or not. Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) sent the prophets and
He said to them, “Your job is only to say to them. When they come to
argue with you, say, `Lakum dinukum.’ ‘Your religion is for you and
my religion is for me.’ Don’t argue with them. Say to them. If they
accept, they accept. If they don’t accept, leave them.”
Tariqats and the tariqat sheykhs are following the footsteps of Holy
Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam) and they must be given ijazat,
permission from the Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam). If there is no
permission they cannot speak and whom Prophet (saw) gives permission
to speak, those who call themselves Muslims and who claim that they
love and obey Prophet (saw) must obey that one. Disobedience to that
one is disobedience to Holy Prophet (saw) and it is disobedience to
Allah subhana wa ta’ala.
Sheytan was the first disobedient. The first one. He was disobedient
to Allah subhana wa ta’ala. Because he was disobedient he lost
everything. He was a very high one. He was worshipping a lot and
doing everything for Allah. One disobedience. He was obedient to his
Lord Allah (subahana wa ta’ala), to our Lord, all that time and for
one thing he became disobedient. One! That one (act of disobedience)
made him to be cursed, to be thrown away from the divine presence,
to be sent down to earth and to wait until Judgment Day and after
Judgment Day to be severely punished. One action. Disobedience.
Don’t think that running around, reading so many books, having so
many friends, this and that is going to give you safety. No! If you
become disobedient to that one that you accepted (as a Sheykh) then
you will fall into the same category as Sheytan.
(Many say) “I live alone, I pray as I like, I know how to pray.” You
are still disobedient. And all those actions are going to become
good for zero because Allah is ordering to you and to me to follow
those, to hold onto them, to be with the true ones, to follow the
true ones, to sit with them, to associate with them, to spend time
with them, to learn from them and to make progress in your life. If
you are not with them, if you are not learning from them, if you are
not sitting with them and if you are not associating with them then
your problem is with Truth. It’s nothing else. So if you have a
problem with Truth then you are following your sheytan. Your sheytan
is holding you prisoner. Sheytan is holding the Christians
saying, “Stop here! Don’t go one more step ahead to accept Holy
Prophet (saw) who is the Seal of the Prophets. Stop here.” He is
holding the Jews saying, “Stay behind. Don’t accept Jesus and
Muhammad.” He is holding the Muslims saying, “Accept only Allah.
What else do you need? There is nothing between Allah and you. Do as
you like.”
So disobedience is coming from Sheytan. Anyone who is disobedient
inherited that from Sheytan. You must get rid of it. You must find
somewhere that you are obedient. Not to sit to enter in your own
dream world and to enter into illusion world saying to yourself, “I
am following that one.” Who? “Shah Naqshband”. Hmm. Mashallah.
Or “Abdul Qadir Geylani” or such and such. You need someone to sit
in his presence to take orders. That means your ego doesn’t want
that. It is easy for your ego to say, “I follow that one” because
that one is not physically there to tell you even if you are turning
to the wrong direction. Your ego doesn’t want anybody to tell him
something. That’s why you’re running away from that (living)
one.
Run away. But if you want safety then you must find another true
one. You must be taking orders from someone, unless you have reached
to that station where you might be taking from the Sultanul Awliya
of what he is giving to you. What he is giving to you, if you are
taking it from him, then it shows. It will put you in light and it
will give light everywhere you go. It will put you in peace and it
will make peace everywhere you go. It will cut off and it will
destroy the worldly desires and it will open a door to you from
Paradise. You will find peace. Anytime you want to be working or
doing something worldly you will find difficulty to yourself. If
they want to pay that man 500 dollars and they want to pay you 5000
dollars for the same job you will still find difficulty
saying, “This is a difficult job. I am in the service of my Lord.
How am I going to change this for that?”
Then you will call people to Allah. You will call people from Dunya
to Mawla if you are that one. Not calling people saying, “Let’s make
better business to become better.” Better what? Have you not
reached, have you not yet become better when you are saying, “Ash-
hadu an-La ilaha illallah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan abduhu wa
rasuluhu”? Are you not better? Are you holding that one (Holy
Prophet) valuable? Do you hold that one with value? Are you holding
him high? If you are holding that one high then that should be
enough for you. Especially these days because Prophet (saw) is
ordering you for these days saying, “Escape. Escape from the
governments. Escape from the government jobs. Escape from those jobs
that are holding you so tight that you cannot worship your Lord.
Escape. Get your provisions just a little bit here and there and be
in the service of your Lord.”
So check yourself. Association is to remind you to check yourself
whether you are there yet or not. Are you obedient to that (order of
Holy Prophet) or not? Are you following that or not? That’s why
associations are free to do as you like (afterwards). You accept or
you don’t accept. It’s not a university or lecture which forces you
to study to pass the class. No. You don’t have to pass. So many
other nominees want to pass. You don’t have to. Some people have to
enter to the fire. There is no other way. Either Nar or Noor. If you
don’t want to enter into Noor you are entering to Nar. If you don’t
want to enter to the light, then there must be light from your
burning to give light to others.
But Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) did not create you and your material
for that job. He has created you for His service. And if you are
leaving His service and running to Dunya that is the biggest
foolishness that you may do to yourself. Not to anybody else. To
your own self. Especially if you are not twenty years old anymore.
The twenty-years old ones say, “I want to get this car, I have to
have a house, I have to have this and that.” But if you pass beyond
that, especially if you pass beyond thirty years of age you should
not go too crazy about this world. Your provision is going to come
to you. If you are suspicious about Allah, then check your faith.
There’s something wrong with your faith. Something is wrong. If you
are thinking your provision is coming to you because you work – that
faith is not going to save you. That faith cannot save you.
Provision comes to you from your Lord. Before He created you He had
already chosen and separated your own provision. It’s going to come
to you even if you run away. What I am saying fits to this story
(that I am going to tell you now). Take it to yourself or leave it.
This is sohbet and association is free. You take it or you don’t
take it. We say.
There was a time when there was a man who was a good shepherd in the
whole village and everyone was trusting him and they were giving
their sheep to him to look after. And he was running after the sheep
all day and all night long looking after the sheep for other people
in that village. One day he comes along and his manager was counting
the sheep finding that one baby is missing. He said, “One baby is
missing. What happened?” He says, “Really I don’t know. I didn’t see
it. I don’t know what happened. Let me go back to the mountain.” He
looked but he didn’t find it. The manager went to the owner and
said, “Look, one of your sheep is missing but we trust the shepherd.
He is a good one. We know he didn’t steal it. He doesn’t know what
happened.” They say, “Okay. Keep him still as a shepherd.”
He continued like that and sometime later another sheep got lost.
The manager says, “What happened?” He is looking everywhere but he
is not finding it. So the other ones are thinking that he is
stealing. So he says to himself, “I must find it. I am the shepherd.
I must know what’s happening.” So he goes back to the mountain
watching very carefully every sheep and which corner they go to.
Then he found one sheep going right next to a cave and one blind
wolf there whose mouth was open grabbed it, finished it and started
eating it. “Allahu Akbar!” He says. “Now I see. I learned a lesson.”
He goes back to the village and he says, “I won’t do this job
anymore. I am giving up. I will pay you the debt of those two sheep
but I won’t look after your sheep anymore.” They say, “Why? Why will
you not look after them?” (Sheykh smiles). He says, “Allah taught me
a lesson. That One is giving provision to that blind wolf, and that
blind wolf is sitting over there not running around and his mouth is
open and it is finding that a sheep is coming and as soon as it
comes he closes his mouth and he eats it.” He says, “My Lord who
gives provision for that blind wolf, do you think He is not going to
give it to me when I am trying to be a servant to Him and a good
one? He says, “No. I don’t want any more money from you and I won’t
look after your sheep. I am going to spend my time for Allah in my
house.”
He is sitting over there. Some days later his wife says, “My
husband, are you crazy? Go out and get some food. We have no bread.
We have nothing to eat anymore.” He says, “Look, I promised Allah I
am not going out. I am going to be in His service and that One who
gives provision to that blind wolf is going to give it to me.” So
the woman is seeing that nothing is happening. They had a land and
she said, “Let me go at least to dig that land and plant something.
This way we will have something to eat.” She went there and as she
was digging the land she struck something. She looked at it and she
opened it. It was one big clay jar full of gold inside. She is
running and saying to the man, “Come! Allah gave us the provision!
At least help me to bring it inside.” He says, “No. The One that
gives the wolf by sending the sheep to his mouth will send it to me
too.” She says, “The gold is there. He gave us the provision. Let’s
go!” He says, “I promised Him that I am not going to go. Go and take
it. Who cares?” So the woman is saying, “Let me wait until the next
night and then I will go and take it.”
But the neighbor already saw it that when she was digging there was
a clay jar which she couldn’t take. So that night the woman
said, “Let me go over there, take all the gold and this way they
will get only air tomorrow.” She went over there and she tried to
get the jar. She looked and inside the jar there were so many
snakes. She said, “These stupid ones. They took all the gold and
they put the snakes for me. They knew that I have seen the gold.
Wait, wait. I will fix them.” She took that jar, she came to the
chimney and she started throwing the snakes down the chimney and
tik, tik, tik, tik, gold is falling down. The woman was still
saying, “Let’s go take it out.” He says, “You stupid woman! Don’t
you see? Allah is sending it from the chimney down to us, to my
mouth. Don’t you see? I have submitted myself to Him like that
wolf.”
Hmm. You cannot submit yourself like that shepherd but at least
submit yourself to say, “The provision that I am earning is not
because I am working. He is sending it to me. Otherwise, possibility
is that you may not save your faith when the Angel of Death
comes.”
Faith is important. The most important thing for a believer is
faith, to save the faith. Not to become rich in America or to have a
green card to have a better life. This is foolishness. Get rid of
that! This country sucked millions of people like that and put them
under the ground and it finished them. The next is you. If you don’t
wake up then the next is you because the Angel of Death is waiting.
As soon as he hits you, you are out. Nothing can save you. No
American government and no Chinese government. You have to do this
because you are a believer. You are calling yourself a believer. You
cannot run for Dunya. You must run to Allah subhana wa ta’ala. You
must run to the footsteps of Holy Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam).
Get rid of that sickness. Everyone since 1923 invented a new
religion saying, “Yeah you have to work too brother. Working is
worship and this and that.” No! Allah gave you worship. Allah is
saying, “You must worship five times a day, you must keep Allah and
His orders high.” Then Allah will keep you high. Then Allah will
make your work to work. You are running non-stop to work. You don’t
have a chance to sleep anymore. America is supposed to give you a
luxury life. You became a slave to America. You became a slave to
the American system! You don’t have the chance even to sit and relax
anymore. Wake up to yourself! Wake up because the Angel is waiting.
Angel (of death) is waiting for you and for me. He is waiting for
all those Firauns. If their time is up, he is taking them down. You
don’t know when your time is up. And Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) hid
it. It’s hidden. You don’t know when the Angel of Death is going to
come to you.
And the most dangerous part that you must make sure is that when the
Angel of Death comes to you he must find you in an awakening
station. Not to say, “Let me go fix whatever I didn’t do and come
back again.” You are not coming back. He is coming and taking. You
don’t know if it is today or tomorrow. You don’t know if it’s a
hundred years from now. So Umar (radiyallahu anh) is saying to
you, “With regards to the hereafter, the believer must live as if
the Angel of Death is going to come to him the next minute. But when
he is doing the work of Dunya he must think that a hundred years
later he has to come back and find those things.” You have to have
your faith between these two. When you have your faith between them
then you know that the whole control is in the hands of your Lord
and not in your hands. You are just a tool. Allah is using you like
this and like that. Moving you left and right. Then you will not
become a Firaun. Then you will not praise your own self. Then you
will not become proud with the things and with the deeds that you do
in the world because you know that everything comes to you from your
Lord.
If He does not permit you, you cannot move your finger. If He
doesn’t permit then the air doesn’t come inside and you die. If He
doesn’t permit then the air doesn’t come out and you die. You are a
prisoner between two breaths. Prisoner! You are running around with
these American foolishness and American ideology saying, “We are
free!” Free what? You are free between those two breaths. You are
imprisoned in that. If He is not permitting it is not coming out. If
He is not permitting it’s not going in. That is your freedom. Don’t
let this Sheytanic system to fool you. This system fooled millions
of people. This system sucked the faith of so many people. The
Generals of Sheytan are running around to get you by the ear, to put
the reins around your neck and to pull you. Don’t give up (your
faith) for that. If you want to then go ahead. If you want only
Dunya then you have no place here. If you want Dunya then don’t go
to these places. Work twenty-four hours a day and not twelve hours a
day. Work, eat, sleep and fill the toilet. Work, eat, sleep and fill
the toilet and then look what happens later. The Angel of Death
doesn’t come to you because you are young or you are old. He comes
because your time is up. The breath of life that has been given to
you, you used it wrongly and your time is up!
Today’s people are using the breath of life wrongly also. They don’t
know how to breathe. They are running top-speed jogging, bogging,
running and (I am) saying, what are you doing? “I have to make my
body look good.” To whom? Look good to whom? To make show? (Sheykh
imitates the panting of a jogger). Continue like that. If Allah gave
you permission to take the air 100,000 times a day and you are
taking 200,000, then you are living two days in one day’s life and
you are finishing your life quickly! Wake up to yourself. Come back
to your self. We are believers. We are not only ignorant and
arrogant believers. We are not Wahhabi believers. We are not
saying, “Okay, Allah created us. We take the book and we pray five
times a day.” No! We have to pray five times a day and we have to
follow the footsteps of the Holy Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam).
We have to take that (way of Holy Prophet) high, we have to treat
that high and we have to apply that to our own lives. We have to
live not for Dunya. While we are living in Dunya we have to prepare
ourselves for the hereafter life. This way no America and no world
can take you hostage. Otherwise, you will become a hostage. If you
are not a hostage today it is because you don’t have the
opportunities. One day Sheytan may open one door to you
saying, “Look, all these valuable treasures.” Then you will run in
there and you will leave everything too.
My duty is to advise myself and to those people who listen. Tariqat
is voluntary for people to come to listen and to take or not to
take. Tariqat is not by force. Allah is ordering His prophet
saying, “Say to them. You are not a tyrant or a ruler or an
oppressor on them. Say to them. If they accept, they accept, if they
don’t accept, leave them.” If you accept you will find safety to
your own self. If you don’t’ accept you are going to find what is
there for you. But then you will not find somebody else sharing that
for you.
Wa min Allahu tawfiq
Bihurmatil Habib
Bihurmatil Fatiha.
Auzu billahi minash sheytanir rajim
BismillahirRahmanirRahim
Nawaitul arbain, nawaitul itikaf
Nawaitul khalwa, nawaitul uzla,
Nawaitu riada, nawaitu suluk,
Fi masjid lillahi ta’ala, Ya Rahmatan lil Alamin
La hawla wa la quwwata illa billahil aliyyil azim
Hasbinallah wa ni’mal wakeel.
Prophet’s (alayhi salatu wa salam) every hadith brings safety to
mankind. Every hadith. If you hold on to one hadith, one saying of
the Holy Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam) it is going to bring you
safety and all the other ones are going to come along. So the Holy
Prophet (saw) is saying, “Oh my nation! Renew your faith because
your faith will be like your clothes. It gets old and it finishes.
Renew your faith.” In these days, in these times, in this country
and in this city it is not enough for us to renew our faith one time
a day. We need to renew our faith a hundred times a day because Holy
Prophet (saw) is saying, “In Ahir Zaman, when you are going to come
out from your houses you are going to come out as believers. By the
evening when you are coming back to your house you are going to
become unbelievers. You are going to loose your faith. Oh my nation!
Renew your faith.”
Renewing faith is saying the shahadat. Not saying, “Let’s go to
Sheykh.” New ideas. They are making new Islam saying, “Go to Sheykh
to take tawba.” Hmm. Make a ceremony. Everyone watches it. Make
tawba to your own self and say shahadat to renew your faith and go
to Sheykh to ask for advice on how you are going to keep that
shahadat. Sheykh is not a priest to whom you say, “Forgive me” and
he is going to forgive you. You are going to ask advice and he is
going to tell you, “Do this and don’t do this. Get rid of this and
concentrate of this area.” That time you will know, you will find in
your own self, in your own conscience that you are growing. Even if
the whole world goes against you, you will know by yourself that you
are growing spiritually. You are growing the way that Holy Prophet
(saw) has said. In these days if you find the whole world praising
you and cheering you then something is wrong with you. Something is
wrong with that mureed and something is wrong with that Sheykh, if
the whole world is saying to him that he is a good one. (Sheykh
smiles). So we must wake up.
The signs of the Last Days (are here). But we are not going to
concentrate on the signs of the Last Days. We should concentrate on
the last breaths of air of our lives. Everyone is concentrating on
that (signs of the Last Days) saying, “Sheykh, when is Mehdi
coming?” I say, “Maybe tomorrow morning. Are you ready for Mehdi? If
he declares himself tomorrow morning saying `Allahu Akbar’, are you
going to be able to say, `Allahu Akbar! BismillahirRahmanirRahim’
and be with him? Are you?” Sit! Don’t make illusions. Don’t go into
that illusory world. Sit and think. Meditate. Sit and say to
yourself, “If this happens right now am I able to do it? If my
Sheykh calls me now, am I able to go to him (just by)
saying `BismillahirRahmanirRahim’?” If you cannot do that now then
you are not going to be able to do it for Mehdi too. How’s that? But
if you are holding tightly then they may bring you.
Wa min Allahu tawfiq.
Fatiha.
