HAKKANI – Defender of Truth

Friday Night at the 39th Street Seyh Nazim Osmanli Dergah, Manhattan, NYC

BismillahirRahmanirRahim

Sohbet given by Sheykh Abdul Kerim el-Hakkani el-Kibrisi

Saturday, 18 Safar, 1427 / March 18, 2006
Osmanli Naks-i’bendi Hakkani Dergah, Siddiki Center, New York.

Medet Ya Syyidi Ya Sultanul Awliya, Medet.

Thanks to our Lord Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) that He has chosen us to
be among the believers. Whatever we do we are not going to be able to
give enough thanks for that. When we look at the history and we try to
understand how much value this has and how we are keeping it, then we
should check ourselves again. 91 years ago on this day, the believers,
those who were sincere with their faith, with their Lord, proved and
showed their faith to Allah (subhana wa ta’ala). They passed their
test and because of them today we are still able to walk on the face
of the earth and we are able to say that we are Muslims. But the price
they paid is very heavy. That happened a couple of more times in Islam
but this one was different than all the other ones too. When the
so-called Allied Forces came together, they were coming from every
side to the Empire, trying to bring an end to the Empire and they made
all their calculations and all their planning. Bringing an end to the
Empire means bringing end to Islam. That was their aim. The Khalifah
and the soldiers of the Khalifah surprised them very strongly. When
they made all those planning and they reached all the way to Yemen,
Arabia, Egypt, and from every angle to the lands of Islam with the
help of so many traitors inside Islam, they were aiming for the
Capital of Islam, Istanbul. Once they enter there they will declare
and they will finish it. That was their aim. They collected soldiers
all the way from Australia to Canada, from one end of the world to the
other end. They came and they surrounded the whole land. The Ottoman
soldiers were fighting in 28 frontlines. The world has never seen such
a thing like that before. The world has been at war but it has never
seen a war like that where all nations came together and squeezed only
one nation into the corner and they were ready to hit the last hammer
and bring an end to Islam.

They came with over 525,000 soldiers trying to pass through Canakkale,
Gallipoli. That’s where the soldiers of Islam surprised them all, the
last area for which they made all their calculations and said, “This
is finished now. We came to the end. We will pass from here and
Istanbul will be gone.” The people who were believing in Allah and His
Prophet (sws) and who have submitted themselves, their wills and their
lives to Allah and His Religion stood up and all their planning sank
into those waters and those soldiers drowned them in their own blood,
teaching a lesson to the whole world since that time up till now never
to think that Islam will be taken down so easily. It is impossible. It
looks that it’s down now because heedless Muslims are around. But it’s
not. Still there are others sitting and waiting like those soldiers
who have already sacrificed their lives for Allah and His Prophet (sws).

They didn’t reach to their aim then and they are never going to reach
to their aim. Impossible. As long as there is one believer living on
earth, it is impossible. They are not going to. This is to give us the
understanding of what is Islam and when the time comes for us to be
able to sacrifice our lives. This is not a matter of running,
attacking and trying to take something or steal something from
someone. No. But (it is a matter of) standing up and holding tightly
to the Rope of Allah as the Sahaba did. When a Sahabi-e Ikram was in
the frontline and an arrow came to his eye, entered in it and made him
blind, he took the arrow out. In that war some betrayal happened and
they turned their backs, and they came to greet him, and he said,
“What are you saying? Instead of having two eyes and to look back
(meaning, to run away) it is better to have one eye to look forward
always and to run to give this life for the sake of Allah.”

This is what these solders did in Canakkale. No one can say, or treat
them, or give them the (deserving) title of where they belong, as the
poet is saying, “I cannot give you and I cannot do anything for you
but the Holy Prophet (sws) is waiting in front of you. He has opened
his Jubba to every one of you.” When we are sitting, thinking,
concentrating and trying to understand what had happened and how those
people gave their lives, if we are not finding in our hearts to be
able to say, “If I was in that situation, I would also be able to
sacrifice my life”, check your faith then. With that faith you cannot
reach anywhere. You need that kind of faith to pass Sirat, the bridge,
if you understand what it is to sacrifice your life for Allah, His
Prophet (sws) and for His Religion. If we are not finding that in our
own hearts then we must check ourselves and we must work on ourselves
to be able to understand what is it to sacrifice for Islam. When it
comes to talk, it’s easy talking. We must, think and concentrate to
understand. That will make our faith to grow then.

For your information to understand how great a war that was, how ugly
it became and how close it was, (you should know that) the frontlines
of the soldiers were from this wall to that wall (Sheykh Efendi
pointing to the walls of the dergah). The Ottoman soldiers were at
that wall and the enemy was trying to penetrate through passing from
that wall. They were coming. They came so close that it was only 10
meters between them. I went to those areas and I looked at those
places. When you look, that is the time you understand how much those
people sacrificed. It was impossible for them to have a doubt in their
hearts that they were not going to turn back alive. But they were
continuously coming, non-stop from everywhere. They were holding the
flag of the Holy Prophet (sws) high. They gave their lives and Allah
honored them with that title. It is impossible for us or anyone to
honor them with any titles but Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) did.

One incident that happened was that one captain was looking very
deeply and thinking, “If they pass through from here, what are we
going to do?” They all understood that if they pass through from
Gallipoli then Istanbul is gone. The Sultan and the Khilafat will be
imprisoned in the hands of the enemy. And everyone put something from
themselves into that war, from individual soldiers to the Generals. A
man named Ali Chawsh appeared behind the captain. The captain looked
at him. He was in big pain and he was still smiling and comforting the
captain saying, “Oh captain, don’t worry. We still have a lot behind
to make a mountain of men for these enemies not to pass.” He said,
“But I am just in big pain”, because one big bullet came, hit his
hand, everything was destroyed and only one piece was holding the hand
to the body. He took his knife and said, “Please cut this part. This
way I will be able to fight more freely.” The captain looked, took the
knife and cut his hand. They didn’t have any medicine or anything like
today’s people. Then he turned and he ran to the front (which was ten
meters, as I said) saying, “I must give up this life. Before I die
sitting here I must die in that way.” He entered into the enemy line
and so many bullets came to him. He was on the floor. Other soldiers
also attacked at that time and they took that enemy line. They went to
that one and the captain asked if anybody had a piece of bread for
this soldier who is ready to give out his life. That battalion didn’t
have a piece of bread to eat for one week. One piece of bread appeared
from the other side and it came to their hand. That one was laying
down smiling and saying to the captain, “Oh captain, please save that
piece of bread because I am already counting the minutes to go out
from this life. Save that bread for another one of my brothers so that
it may give energy to them to fight.”

If this is not moving your heart then you are losing your faith. Allah
(subhana wa ta’ala) has given everything to us. They had nothing, not
even a piece of bread to eat. But they stood up for their faith, to
save Islam and to give us ways to live, inshaAllah ar-Rahman. As I
said, if we are sitting and talking about them from now until next
year, it is not enough. If we praise them until next year it is not
enough, if we pray for them until next year it is not enough. It is
not one, it is 253,000 soldiers who died in that way. The enemy came
525,000 soldiers. Comparing with what the enemy had and what these
soldiers had, comparing the technologies that they had, (we find that)
it is impossible to compare. But it was impossible for them to pass.

Also, (to mention) another incident. Seyyid Chaush was the one who put
the last bullet inside the cannon and he stopped one of the big ships
that was passing. He picked up the bullet alone because all his
friends died. So there was nobody to help him to pick up that bullet
and to put it inside the cannon. He used all his power asking support
and medet and he picked up the bullet to put it in the cannon. But
that bullet weighed 300 kilos. 300 kilos is almost 600 pounds. And
that bullet did the last job. It blew up the whole ship and that is
the time that the forces said that it is impossible to pass through
the channel to enter to Istanbul. They stopped and they pulled back.

So many other incidents happened of course. We are talking about
253,000 martyrs. Then we have to talk 253,000 times. Everyone has
different stories. This is in order for it to enter to your heart and
to your brain and never to forget because I am watching that some
people are even hesitating to slaughter Kurban in these days even
though they have everything. That year in the whole nation, in the
whole Turkey, no one slaughtered a Kurban. They took the Kurban and
they gave to the army, supporting the army and the Ulema and the
Awliya say that the whole nation have already sacrificed their Kurban.
Every house had one martyr that they were giving in the way of Allah.
So we must understand where we are and where they were. If we sit,
think and understand deeply for ourselves then no depression, no
problems and no worries can come to our way because we have a bigger
worry then saying, “What did we do? What are we doing for the sake of
Allah and for the sake of Holy Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam)?” We
must understand this. We must think about this from time to time, we
must think about them from time to time and we must read for their
souls from time to time. If you do then you will receive visitations
from them too. Someway somehow they will be happy knowing that there
are still people living on this earth who are trying to live for the
sake of Allah and they are still continuing what they left.

It was not only the men fighting. There were also so many girls who
died in that war. One Anzac soldier was saying, “I was watching in the
frontline this young girl who was shooting so bravely and she was
knocking down everything that she was hitting. She was sitting from
morning to evening and everyone was trying to aim her. But they were
not able to finish her and we thought that there was a big battalion
in that area because so many bullets were coming from everywhere. By
the evening one bullet reached to her and she fell down. When she fell
down we entered to that area and we only found her and another boy and
we have counted sixty-three bullets in her body.” That kind of faith
saved Islam.

So inshaAllah, I have no hesitation to say that they couldn’t pass
then and they are not going to pass this time too because there are
still the children and grandchildren of those people living on this
earth. No matter what the enemies do. They are sitting and waiting
quietly for a go ahead from the Holy Prophet (salatu wa salam). We
have calculated, inshaAllah ar-Rahman, some Fatihas for their spirits
and inshaAllah we will see what we did later and I hope that we have
said at least one Fatiha for each one of those soldiers’ spirits
inshaAllah ar-Rahman. All those are still for us to give us the power
to be able to continue in this life. Things may have changed but the
matter of faith is never going to change. The lifestyle has changed
but the faith is never going to change. This if for us to understand
that we have to be able to stand up for Islam no matter what happens.
One day Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) may test us through that way too. If
we pass then we pass. If we fail then it is very sad.

So, those people believed in Allah, their Prophet (sws) and their
Khalifah, from the soldiers to their mothers and to their fathers. As
you know (I gave you the story before) that one time they put henna on
the head of this soldier and they sent him to Canakkale. His friends
were taking him for a joke because he had henna. His captain asked him
saying to him, “What is that on your head, Mehmet?” Mehmet means the
soldiers of Muhammad. Mehmetci means the soldiers of the Prophet
(alayhi salatu wa salam), taking that name from that time. And he
said, “My mother put it and sent me.” When they were making jokes with
him he wanted to notify his mother. It’s a long story. I am just
trying to give you some ideas of where those people’s faith is. He
told his friends to write a letter. He didn’t know how to read and
write too. They wrote a letter. He was saying and they were copying,
“Mother, you put henna on my head and you sent me here. I believe that
now my brother is getting ready to come to this side because his age
is up. Please don’t put any henna on his head. This way they will not
make any jokes with him.”

When the mother received the letter she sent another letter right away
saying, “My son, in our village, in our side, we put henna only on
three events. One, we put henna to our daughters when we give her away
(in marriage). It means we have sacrificed our daughter for the sake
of Allah and she is never going to come to us. We put henna on the
sheep when we are going to sacrifice them. And we also put henna on
the soldiers when we send them to the war for sake of Allah
sacrificing them because they are not going to come back. Don’t tell
me not to put it on your brother. I have already put it and I have
already sent him. He is coming, he is on the way.” Before that letter
reached in their hands the soldier already got martyred and the letter
reached to the hand of the same captain who was joking with him. Then
he opened, he read and he said, “Yes, these are the soldiers and these
are the martyrs that is going to save Islam. There is no other way.”

So alhamdulillah, 253,000 soldiers gave their lives. Those who didn’t
give their lives ran away. Don’t make any mistake now. The Nation of
Islam left the Khalifah alone. There were no soldiers other than
Turkish soldiers fighting in that war. The Khalifah’s soldiers were
fighting and all other Muslim nations pulled back. This is where we
are concentrating for you to understand that those soldiers were only
from one nation. And they understood and they said, “If we give up too
then all the Muslims in this world is going to be finished. We cannot
give up.” So, today we are getting stronger from every nation. Those
nations that attacked and came to destroy Islam, now their
grandchildren are accepting Islam. It is impossible that they will win
against that in any way. But Sheytan is never sitting comfortable and
he is always running from every angle trying to fool people and bring
them down. We must not give up and we must hold on tightly to our
faith. We must hold on tightly to what Holy Prophet (alayhi salatu wa
salam) brought to us. That’s the only thing we have.

And as have I said earlier, those ones gave their lives and their time
has passed. There are only a handful of people living now from that
time. I met one of the persons a long time ago who was always coming
and visiting my father (rahmatullah aleyh). He was one of the veterans
of Canakkale and I was not able to come close to him (because of his
heybet, majestic appearance). I was always far looking at him and
admiring this man. And alhamdulillah, he left me this (Sheykh pointing
to a decorative pin on his Jubba with the tughra inscribed on it).
This is what was given by the Sultan at that time to the soldiers who
became veterans in that war. When I was looking and thinking from my
childhood, there are two wars that I have always wanted to be in and
to really die in those wars. One is the war of Uhud and the other is
the war of Canakkale. It didn’t happen. But I reached to a war (The
Greek-Cypriot war of 1974). I didn’t die in that war. I became a
veteran. They also gave us these medals. But I didn’t feel like going
and collecting it. I never did up till now. My name is still written
there and they were also supposed to give me some money. But I never
went and I never collected it. I never felt like going. Now I found
out that this is the reason. Allah accepted me inshaAllah as one of
the people (from the Canakkale war).

So, whatever man wants really and sincerely, Allah opens their way. So
inshaAllah this is a lesson for us to make our faith to grow in Islam.
Of course, we don’t want to go to war to kill people. But we should be
able to be strong and stand up for Islam and to give our lives if
necessary because we have only that and the only thing in our life is
faith. Nothing else. Everything is passing. If you give those soldiers
one thousand lives, they will all give that life back one thousand
times to die for the sake of Allah. If Allah gives them life
continuously saying, “I am giving you this life. Go to the world and
live the pleasures.” They say, “No, we will never want to go to that
world. But give us that life to go and to die for You again and again
and again and again, in Your way.” That’s how much pleasure Allah is
giving the believers when they are sacrificing their lives for Allah.

They are trying to remove this faith and remove this feeling away from
the Muslims today. So many Muslims have already lost this feeling.
They say, “It’s okay to give them what they want and I just continue
my life.” If those people were to think the same way as we are
thinking today then today we will not have Islam. So we are not
guaranteeing too much for our future if we continue thinking like
that. We are not guaranteeing that Islam is going to reach to our
children and our grandchildren. The more you give up the more every
generation that is coming is giving up. But we have only a limited
time in this life anyway. If we sacrifice that for Allah’s sake then
inshaAllah we will find endless happiness.

Wa min Allahu taufiq

Bihurmatil Habib

BismillahirRahmanirRahim

Khutba given by Sheykh Abdul Kerim el-Hakkani el-Kibrisi

Friday 17 Safar, 1427 / March 17, 2006
Osmanli Naks-i’bendi Hakkani Dergah, Siddiki Center, New York.

Medet Ya Syyidi Ya Sultanul Awliya, Medet.

Alhamdulillah wa shukr Allah. All praising belongs to our Lord Allah
(subhana wa ta’la) and to His Rasul, our Habib Muhammad (alayhi salatu
wa salam), to the Ashab-e Kiram and to all those who came. They stood
in the way of Allah and Islam came to us. Fourteen hundred years has
passed and it has reached to us. They did their part. They did their
job. Now we must think how far we are going to take this. Where it is
going to reach and what we are going to leave behind us. If this world
is going to continue for another thousand years then how far what we
are doing today and what we are leaving is going to reach. Man must
sit, think and calculate to himself to understand whether he is
leaving something behind or not. It’s not like today everyone running
top-speed like head-cut chickens trying to reach somewhere. Hmph!

Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) is saying, “I have created you man and I
have given you intelligence.” The religion spread in the world not
with miracles but with one man. The Habibullah. Yes, he is Allah’s
Prophet (sws) but he was one person. One man. He came to awakening
station and woke up the whole world. Through him it passed to others
and the other ones, the other ones, the other ones and it reached to
us. How are we today? Are we sleeping or are we in awakening station?
You check yourself. Leave what anybody else says to you. Check
yourself. Check your activities. Check yourself how sincere you are
with your Lord and with His orders. Check yourself to find out which
one is priority to you, Allah and His Prophet (sws) or your ego, or
this world. (If it is ego or this world) then your problem never ends.
Don’t worry. If you don’t keep Allah priority then it’s never going to
end. It never ended for anyone and it’s not going to end for you.

Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) has created man for His service. He created
the donkey for your service. He created you for His service and you
have to find your part in that service. “What is it that I have to do
in this service? What is for me in this work? What has Allah (subhana
wa ta’ala) given to me?” You must know, you must find out, you must
work and you must go according to that. You must live according to that.

Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) is saying in another Ayat in Surat-ul Ale
Imran, “You are the Nation that I have created. You are the Nation
that is ordering good things and you are forbidding people from the
bad things and you are believing in Allah.” Check yourself. Are you
fitting into that Ayat? Are you fitting really and sincerely? Not
because Allah is saying, “You are the Nation”. Allah is saying to that
nation. Check yourself. With your activities, what you are doing and
how you are living, are you fitting into that Ayat? If you are fitting
then be happy but if you are not fitting then alarm yourself right
away. Say to yourself, “What am I doing? Sheytan got me from
somewhere. He put me to sleep.” Wake yourself up. Whatever it takes
and whatever you have to do, you have to wake yourself up because
otherwise you will fall out of that Ayat and if you fall out of that
Ayat then in the Judgment Day you will not fall into that category
that Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) said, “You are the nation”. You will
fall with the other nations.

So the believers cannot live a heedless life. The believer is that one
who is in awakening station all the time and forces himself (finding a
tariqat and going into tariqat, of course). Tariqat is to make the
believers reach to higher and higher stations, not to go to lower
stations, not to go to sleep, not to talk nonsense here and there, or
as so many today are saying, “My Sheykh is praying in my place. My
Sheykh is doing this and my Sheykh is doing that.” If your Sheykh is
doing then what Allah has created you for? To be donkey? You are not
even good for a donkey then. What are you doing? What is in it for
you? How are you going to bring that message to others? If that is so
good and you like it then have you brought that message to others?
Anyone who lives in the foreign countries, don’t make any mistake.
Questions will be asked to every one of you. When you come to the
Judgment place it will be questioned to you, “You love Islam and you
lived according to Islam. Who did you bring with you in the Divine
Presence? For whom did you become a reason for that person to enter
into Islam? Did you bring anyone here?” If not then even if you earn
the whole Paradise what is it good for? Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) is
saying that you are a selfish one. You want Islam only for yourself.

If a man is not in awakening station then never mind about reaching to
others, he cannot even reach to himself. He only falls into his own
illusions and delusions. And later some squareheads that saved
themselves from hell are trying to save Sheytan from hell too now.
That’s what happens to man. When a man leaves the main road, the road
of the footsteps of the Holy Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam), Sheytan
is going to find so many ways to fool that man. And so many are
sitting on that road but they are not doing anything, they are not
getting up, they are not moving. They are not getting anything. We
must wake up because the danger is waiting for us. If we are heedless
now then when the big wind is coming then we are not going to have
time, not even a minute to look around. We are not going to have
people to warn us then. You are not going to find anybody to tell you,
“Turn this way or turn that way.” Warning is now. Everyone is going to
fall into their own problems then. They are going to run to find their
way out. Don’t make any mistake to think that, “Oh, everything is so
nice now. America, beautiful country”, or whatever you are in, or to
think that it’s going to continue like this. No. It’s coming to an end.

Of course, there are so many people suffering right now in different
parts of the world. Right this minute they are suffering. They have
woken up and they are screaming. But their prayer is not accepted now.
Holy Prophet (sws) is saying, “If you stop forbidding people from the
wrong ways and asking people to turn their ways to the right way, to
the way of Allah and His Prophet (sws), then Allah (subhana wa ta’ala)
will put punishment on you, on that nation, He will put terror on that
nation and then you will beg and you will cry but your prayers will
not be accepted.” Check it out. Look around the world. Is this how
it’s happening or not? If it’s not like that then ask questions again
later. We will tell you specifically what’s happening where.

But leave that part. We must worry for ourselves now. Man must worry
to save himself first before reaching to others. If you cannot save
yourself then you cannot reach to others. Allah’s order is not a game
as so many people today are taking Islam and they are acting like they
are representing Islam and they are saying, “The more Sheytan is
disobedient to Allah the higher station he gets.” Squarehead! And they
are not feeling shame to say that they are following the Sultan-ul
Awliya. But leave them. We must look at our acts. You must look at
yourself. Don’t get fooled by fools like that. You know by yourself
whether you are in Paradise or you are in Hell in this world. You know
by yourself. Nobody has to say to you anything. If you have reached to
that station and your heart is so open to the whole world then you
wouldn’t live that kind of lifestyle. You wouldn’t have any single
minute in your life that has any problems. You will live in peace.

But that is the time that you will not have any peace. Sultan-ul
Awliya is not having peace because he is looking around the world and
the whole mankind has lost the direction. The whole mankind is running
towards Jahannam and he is screaming. For over eighty years now he is
screaming to mankind saying, “Oh mankind! Turn. Turn your way this
way. You are going in the wrong direction.” Nobody is waking. And some
of his so called deputies, who call themselves deputies, they are
running to bring Sheytan out from Jahannam. Don’t get fooled by that
kind of foolishness. Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) punished and perished
so many nations before this nation. Nothing can stop Allah. Everything
is in His Hands. All authority is in His Hand. He does as He likes.
Don’t make any mistake. Those people must be in drugs anyway. The
drugs that they have been taking are still working in the body. The
body is not clean from the drugs.

You must wake up. Sheytan has so many ways to fool man and Allah
(subhana wa ta’ala) has so many Ayats in the Quran-e Kerim saying to
us, “Wake up.” He is warning us from the confusion of Sheytan and
Dajjal. Holy Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam) is warning us in
hundreds and hundreds of hadith. Where are we going to put these?
Which side should we put these? Should we ignore all these now? Is it
another new style now? Everyone is talking from the spiritual aspect?
Where is your Shariat now? Where is the law that Allah (subhana wa
ta’ala) has given. The Nation lost every Shariat today. Today, the
Nation is living worse than the unbelievers. The majority of the
Muslims are living worse than the unbelievers. And now you are going
to be that tolerant (to Sheytan)? You cannot. That is only Sheytan
fooling the man. But those who do not want to be fooled must check
themselves up. They must watch out, they must look and they must be
worrying. In every higher station that they are going they must be
worrying. They must be watching out because the higher station they
are reaching they are seeing the danger that is waiting.

And Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) has given this job, this duty, to man.
Man must establish the Shariat again in this world. Man must open the
Quran-e Kerim. Man must work to bring the Khalifah and man must open
the flag of the Holy Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam). It’s not going
to come from the sky. It’s going to be from these men that are living
today on earth. We are all responsible. In the Judgment Day we will
all be questioned. Allah will ask us, “What have you done to bring the
Khilafat back and to put My laws back on. What did you do? What did
you do?” Everyone will be questioned according to their level and
according to their station. So is this the time now that you are going
to worry to save Sheytan from hell? Sheytan is not worrying to save
you from hell. Sheytan is running to bring you to hell with all these
kinds of foolishness, with ideas.

You must wake up. We must wake up. “O my nation, wake up. Don’t
sleep”, Holy Prophet (sws) is saying to us. Don’t sleep doesn’t mean
going to sleep in the nighttime. Be in an awakening station! Ahir
Zaman! Holy Prophet (sws) is saying to us, “In the end of time, the
man will walk out from his house early in the morning as a believer
and he will come back to his home at night as an unbeliever.” He will
hear so many things here and there and he will start questioning. He
will start making ideas, thinking and accepting some of those things.
He is going to lose his faith. That’s what it means. If you are
sitting and thinking, “Yes, this is okay, this is okay, this is okay,
everything is okay”, you are losing. Have you become more merciful
than Allah (subhana wa ta’ala)? Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) is the most
Merciful one. That Me’lun will not be forgiven unless he goes and
submits his will saying, “Oh my Lord, I made a mistake. I have been a
fool and I am asking You to forgive me and I am making Sejdah to the
Children of Adam.” Then he will be forgiven, yes.

People want to take some parts for themselves saying, “Well, I have
been forgiven.” What did you do? Did you at least cry for the mistakes
and the wrong things that you did? When you and Allah are together and
every time you are remembering it, are you crying for it? Are you
being sorry for it? This is what we have to remember. Otherwise,
Sheytan is going to fool us. Sheytan has fooled so many ones, so many
people. He has fooled people who reached the level of sainthood in the
time of Musa (alayhi salam). As soon as they gave an inch, he knocked
them down bringing them all the way to Jahannam.

So, if we take the hadith of Holy Prophet (sws), we apply it to our
lives and we try to live according to that then we will find safety.
There is no other safety. And also not every hadith. You have to know
which one is for you. You have to know which one is working for you.
All the hadith Holy Prophet (sws) is addressing is good but maybe it’s
not for you. You have to take one, apply it and you must live
according to that every single day. When you wake up you have to check
and you have to say, “I am living according to this hadith.” Then you
are following the sunnat of Rasulullah (salatu wa sallim) and then
because you are in constant contact with Holy Prophet (alayhi salatu
wa salam) through that hadith, his blessings and his protection will
reach to you and then you will not have any foolishness like that to
think and to say such words, but you will run to clean yourself up.
Every time you think you have cleaned one part you will find that
another part is dirty. You will be continuously running and then you
will see that you are going to have doubt, “Am I going to be able to
clean myself before I leave this world or not?” So you will cry for
yourself and you will run for yourself. Leave crying for Sheytan. Cry
for yourself because Sheytan is not going to cry for you and for me.
Holy Prophet (sws) is crying for us, Awliya Allah are crying for us
and they are saying to us, “Oh nation, turn your face this way. Turn
your face this way. Turn your face to the way of the Prophet (sws) and
not to the way that Sheytan is showing to you.”

So we must say one (as I always say, of course) hadith from our
Grandsheykh. Whatever we learn, we learn from our Grandsheykh.
Grandsheykh is saying what his Grandsheykh Sheykh Abdullah Daghistani
(ks) is saying. He is saying, “My son, the whole mankind today have
entered into a big truck.” Think that there is a big truck and the
whole mankind is behind that truck, sitting inside the trailer in the
back. The driver is driving that truck towards the ocean and everyone
is going to sink. Everyone is going to die. The driver is Sheytan and
all man is sitting in that truck. And Sheykh Abdullah Daghistani (ks)
is saying, “We, the Awliya, are holding that truck from behind for it
not to go into the ocean. But the power that the engine has is
dragging us with it together.” He says, “We must know where to let it
go. If not then the power that the truck has in its engine is going to
pull us into that wrong place.” InshaAllah this will be enough for us
to clarify so many matters that are happening.

Wa min Allahu taufiq

Bihurmatil Habib

Bihurmatil Fatiha.

BismillahirRahmanirRahim

A rare footage of the martyrs of the Battle of Gallipoli- the last warriors of Islam under the banner of the Ottoman Caliphate. Against all odds, they prevented the crusading West from taking over Istanbul, the heart of Islam for centuries. The way of the Holy Prophet is preserved because of their blood sacrifice for the sake of Allah.

al-Fatiha for their souls

[1915]

[source:www.nakshibendi.com]

BismillahirRahmanirRahim

Khutba given by Sheykh Abdul Kerim el-Hakkani el-Kibrisi

Friday 10 Safar, 1427 / March 10, 2006
Osmanli Naks-i’bendi Hakkani Dergah, Siddiki Center, New York.

Medet Ya Syyidi Ya Sultanul Awliya, Medet.

Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) is saying to us, “Oh believers, whatever
that Prophet brought to you, take it and whatever he forbade you from,
stop it.” It is a direct order from Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) to
believers. Not to unbelievers. What that means is that you must follow
the footsteps, you must run after the Sunnats of Rasulullah (salatu wa
sallim). You must take whatever he brought and apply it to your lives.
You must stop whatever he forbade you from. What will happen if you
don’t stop? You are turning your religion into Christianity. Some got
used to it. They say, “Jesus” but none of them are following Jesus.
They are not following the orders of Jesus (alayhi salam). It is
religion according to their ego.

This is what happened to the Muslims too. “Religion according to my
ego. The way that it fits me. The way that I like it.” No! You cannot.
You cannot have religion like that. That is your ego. You will be
worse than the Wahhabis then. At least the Wahhabis are punctual to
their prayer times. If you are not following the Sunnats of Rasulullah
(salatu wa sallim) then why are you waiting for Mahdi (as)? Mahdi (as)
is coming to bring out the forgotten Sunnats of Rasulullah (salatu wa
sallim). He is not coming with a new book to you. He is not coming
with something like a magic religion as so many are thinking. You have
to follow. He is coming with the power to make you follow. If you are
not following then he is going to make you follow by force. He has the
authority and he has the Divine Order in his hand. So it’s about time
for believers to put themselves together and start following the
little that they know. Otherwise the message of Mahdi (as) that is
coming is not going to give too much happiness to you.

Believers must live with the knowledge they know, with the knowledge
that Holy Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam) brought to you. You must
take that and you must apply it to your life. You cannot say, “I am a
believer and I live as I like.” You have in the Holy Quran the orders
of Allah and you have the Sunnats of Rasulullah (salatu wa sallim). In
these days and in these times when everyone is in darkness, you have a
Sheykh. You have somebody to show you what is right and what is wrong.
You are still running after your ego. Are you following the orders of
Allah or are you following the orders of your ego? You are following
the orders of your ego. You must leave it. You must drop it. You must
be sincere with your word to Allah (subhana wa ta’ala). You have
promised in the Day of Creation, “I live only for You and I worship
You.” What kind of promise is that? You cannot even keep five daily
prayers. You cannot keep one holy day in the week. How are you keeping
that promise? Think to yourself and put it to yourself.

Going to Juma is not by force like the sheep that everyone is running
in and everyone is running out. On Juma believers must get up early in
the morning. Believers must do their errands here and there. They must
clean themselves up. They must go to the masjids one hour before the
Azan is calling and not running here and there when Azan is calling
like prisoners whose prison doors have just been opened. What kind of
belief is this? What kind of happiness is that, when you are running
to happiness? You are running to Allah for that Holy Day, for that
Juma. You are running because Allah is saying to you, “Come to My
Presence in Juma time”. Know that everything you are doing in that
Juma time other than Allah is forbidden to you. It is haram to you.
Whatever you are eating, whatever you are earning and whatever you are
doing is haram to you! When Juma time is entering if you are busy with
something else, it is haram to you! When are believers going to wake
up? It’s open Ayat. It’s not closed. When are you going to wake up?
You must wake up before the Angel of Death appears to you.

If you are not taking seriously what Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) has put
on you and the Holy Prophet (sws) has put on you then you have already
turned this religion into a kind of Christianity religion. That’s why
everyone leaves you alone then. They don’t run after you. They are not
upset with you. They say, “These ones are just going in like robots
and coming out like robots. They are not applying Islam to their
lives. They are living according to Western ideas. They are going
inside the masjids like robots and they are coming out like robots.
Don’t bother them. It is good for us.” Believers must take and must
apply to their lives and when you are applying to your life your life
must change. You must get rid of the wrong habits that you picked up
here and there. You must progress and you must go forward. If you
don’t then sit and wait. Sit and wait. Continue the same way that your
ego likes. But in the end neither your ego nor you are going to like
it. You are going to lose.

Believers must make it different because Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) is
saying, “Your Ahir must be better than today. Your Ahirat must be
better than today.” I am watching. It’s not becoming better for
Muslims. Everyday it’s becoming worse and worse and worse. There is no
doubt with the orders of Allah. There is no doubt with His words.
Something is wrong with the Muslims, those people who call themselves
Muslims. You are not taking Islam priority to your life. You are not
taking Islam to say, “This is what I am living for.” You are not
living for Islam then. You are living for something else, whatever the
priority is for you. Then in the Judgment Day that’s what you are
going to find.

“Say to them Ya Rasulullah: They have accepted Islam but faith has not
entered into their hearts yet.” Allah is saying this. Accepting Islam
is something and faith entering into the heart is something else. When
faith is entering into your heart, you must change. So many of the
Sahaba-e Kiram were worse than animals. They were destroying
everything around them They were killing their own children. As soon
as faith entered their hearts they became the most delicate
individuals in the world. They have changed. They left all those wrong
attitudes, wrong ways and wrong styles. It’s one century now that
Muslims have picked up wrong styles. It’s about one century now that
the role model of the Muslims everywhere in the world is western
ideas, western ideologies and western lifestyle. You must get rid of
it. You must apply Islam to your life, to your daily life, to your
house life, morning to evening, to work, to outside, to friendship and
to everywhere you must apply it. Otherwise, don’t expect changes. You
must make the changes. You must make the changes to yourself. If you
are not making it then no magic is going to happen to you. Then
waiting for Mahdi (as) or waiting for anything else will be just
words. That means that you are not really believing in Mahdi (as)
because the biggest reason of Mahdi’s (as) coming back is to remove
Muslims, the people who have faith, away from that low station that
they put themselves, to carry Islam back up, to stand up again. That’s
why he is coming. And the only way to do that is to turn back to the
traditions, back to the lifestyle of the Holy Prophet (alayhi salatu
wa salam).

For one hundred years now, every time this nation dropped something
from the Holy Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam), every time they
dropped one sunnat, they replaced it with something else. And what
they replaced it with is these western ideologies, with these western
ideas. Check your life daily and you are going to find how many wrong
things you are doing and check your intention. When you are getting up
early in the morning check yourself, are you saying, “Oh my Lord, I
just woke up. You gave me this life back and I am intending and I am
promising to live for You.” Are you doing it? Check yourself every
single day. That time you understand if you are living for Islam or
you are living for your ego. Anyone who lives for Islam, their Ahir
must be better than today.

Tomorrow must be better than today for anyone who is living Islam from
east to west and north to south. Anyone who is leaving Islam, their
tomorrow is going to be worse than today. Every single day that is
coming is going to be worse. If you want peace, safety and the door of
Paradise then turn your face that way. Your face should be turned to
the Qibla not in the prayer times only. Every time, twenty-four hours
a day your heart must be there. Your physical form must be running
here and there but your heart must be with
Allah and with His Prophet (sws). If you do this then you will win for
yourself. If you don’t do this then you will lose for your own self.

Wa min Allahu taufiq

Bihurmatil Habib

Bihurmatil Fatiha.

BismillahirRahmanirRahim

In the Sohbet of Sheykh Abdul Kerim about the Infinite
Mercy of Allah Almighty, he keeps referring to a Sohbet
of Sheykh Mevlana. Below is the sohbet:

(Extracted from the Lectures of Sheikh Nazim)

Faith granted to everyone

My Grandsheikh was saying that the gates of Paradise are
open for all to enter; and according to the hadith of the
Holy Prophet, Allah Almighty has parceled out Paradise,
assigning to everyone his portion, and not allowing anyone
to occupy the portion that has been assigned to another.
What this means is that Allah Almighty has given to His

servants before they ever ask for anything, has given with
a generosity that is absolute, as He doesn’t wait for us to
ask that then He may give us according to our requests, He
gives unbesought.

Our Grandsheikh went on to say that Allah Almighty treats
His people in this life with the absolute Mercy emanating
from His Divine Name Ar-Rahman (The All-Beneficent). No
one can fall outside of the bounds of a mercy and a
beneficence that is boundless, as is the mercy implicit in
the Holy Name Ar-Rahman. Don’t ever think that the mercy
oceans belonging to this Divine Name has any shore – no –
they are boundless and endlessly deep, and so they ever will
remain. You must know that Allah is never going to take
back anything which He has granted to His servants, and that
even to think such a thing is unbelief (Kufr) and the worst
thought that we can think about our Lord. Yes, our Lord
gave to us all a grant never ending, and that grant is
faith.

What we are listening to now of Grandsheikh’s words is not
knowledge of the sort that we may be accustomed to hearing
– it may seem new and strange to our ears, but nonetheless
it is the truth from the secrets which are opened up day by
day to the Saints (Awliya). Allah Almighty granted faith to
the Sons of Adam on the Day of Promises, the day when the
souls of all the descendants of Adam were brought forth from
his backbone and asked by their Lord: “Am I not your Lord?”
We were all present on that day – looking to our Lord,
talking to Him, knowing Him – and we replied: “Yea, verily.
We testify that You are our lord.”
(Surat-ul-Araf : 172).

That faith was granted to everyone, but Divine Wisdom
decreed that in this life some people’s faith would remain
covered while that of others would appear. The Holy Prophet
said in regards to this: “The hearts of the Sons of Adam
contain treasures, and the keys to the hearts are in the Hand
of our Lord.” Therefore, if He is not going to open the
hearts, no one can- not even His Beloved Muhammad, for whose
sake the whole creation was created.

If you understand that faith is present in all of mankind,
you must be very respectful towards each one of them and you
must understand that only with Allah Almighty’s permission
are you believing and showing your faith, while someone else
is not showing faith only because his Lord has not opened it
up for him. You must understand the matter like this, and
never say about anyone, “He is an unbeliever’, – who can know
what will be the state of any person at the end of his life?
The key to the hearts is in the Hand of the Almighty, and what
will become of each person in the end is a secret known in
its entirety only to Allah Himself; even the Prophet can only
know something about this matter within defined limits. On
the Day of Promises, Allah Almighty granted faith to His
servants, and He is not going to take it away from them –
perhaps they will declare their faith upon breathing
their last breath – such is Allah’s mercy. Allah Almighty
is keeping and hiding so many mercy oceans which are destined
for His servants.

(A question was asked) : “Mevlana, it is easy enough for me to
understand how someone who dies a slow death from a long and
torturous disease may have time to reflect on his life, and
realizing his helplessness, believe and turn to Allah in
repentance (Taubah) even though he was the most stubborn
unbeliever and evildoer up until that time; but what I can’t
comprehend is how someone who is, for example, shot and
killed while in the act of committing a heinous crime, may
attain repentance despite the suddenness of his death.”

(Sheikh Nazim replied) : Allah may create time within time.
The time that it takes that bullet to kill him may seem very
short to us, but for that person Allah may make it a very
long instant indeed, long enough for him to reflect upon his
whole life and repent unto his Lord. Isn’t Allah Almighty
capable of extracting a confession from His slave? – He most
certainly is.

(Question) : “But, Mevlana, how shall we understand all the
verses of Qur’an which speak about eternal Hell with no exit?’

(Answer) : Allah Almighty says in one verse of the Qur’an :
“And we don’t send our verses (Ayat) except to frighten
(Takhweefeh).” In other words, `To scare the hell out of
people.’ For example, you may say to your son, “If you don’t
stop doing that I will kill you!” In reality, you are never
going to do any such thing, but that warning may just be
sufficient to make him listen to what you are saying and
to desist from that disliked action.

(Question) ” “Mevlana, why is it that the meanings we derive
when we read the Qura’n seem to contradict the hidden meanings
which you are uncovering?”

(Answer) : Here I have some salt; it is a white powder that we
use in most of our foods. Who could guess that it consists of
two poisons that would kill whoever consumed them? Also, here
we have some water – who could guess that it consists of two
gases – two hydrogen atoms and one of oxygen? He who knows,
knows, and he who doesn’t know sees only the obvious and
apparent. The latter may deny, but his denial won’t make
him right.

“My Mercy outdoes My Anger”,

Similarly, people read the Holy Quran and understand it on
their respective levels; they may deny anything beyond their
level of understanding, but their denial doesn’t decrease in
the least the validity of the deeper truth, truth which cannot
be gained merely through outward study, but is given as a
grant from the Divine Presence.

Grandsheikh, speaking about the final results of our actions
(Aqiba) and Allah’s manner of judging them, pointed to Allah’s
word: “My Mercy outdoes My Anger”, and he said: “For me, these
are the greatest good tidings, as it gives me hope of my safety
from Hell to know that Allah Almighty’s Mercy will come and
cover everything on the Last Day”

That Divine Forgiveness will cover so many people on that day;
and the Prophet said that even Satan will be seeking
forgiveness, and hoping that it may come to him also, but more
than this the Prophet didn’t say.

Grandsheikh said that nothing from the actions of Allah
Almighty’s servants will be a burden on Allah; don’t ever
think that it could be. Now, listen carefully to the
following description which is recorded in the Holy Books:
on the Day of Judgment, Allah Almighty will order a person
to Hell, and the Angels will grab him and start dragging him
to the fire. When he realizes that this is really happening
he will turn to his Lord and say: “Oh my Lord, I never
thought that You would really put me in the fire of Hell.”
Allah then orders: “Bring him back.” He was such an evil
person, did so many dark deeds and listened always to the
dictates of his lower self, but he never lost hope in his
Lord’s Mercy for him and His reprieving him from Hell. We
can be proud of being our Lord’s servants, even if we are
not obedient ones – proud that He is such a merciful Lord
who will reprieve so many of us from the jaws of Hell, and
admit them to Paradise.

My Grandsheikh was saying that there are different stations
for each person in Paradise that Allah gave without their
ever having been asked for; that is His favour and His grant
unto His servants which he has communicated to them through
His Prophets. When our Grandsheikh was saying that even
disobedient servants will also finally attain Allah
Almighty’s Mercy, he quickly drew our attention to the
following important point: “Oh my son, I am saying that with
Allah’s Endless Mercy everyone should finally enter Paradise.
Such considerations, however, are for the common people, and
we are not seeking to stay at that level. We are asking for
the highest station, the greatest pleasure, the highest
degree for His servants: the stations of Ridwan-Allah-ul-Akbar.
With those servants our Lord will be absolutely pleased, and
they, in turn, will be absolutely pleased with their Lord.

Here is the answer to a question that anyone who is striving
hard in the way of his Lord and obeying his commandments may
ask: “Why should we make a great effort to please Allah if
there is a good chance that he will forgive us anyway?” The
answer is: The degrees in the Divine Presence of those who
have made efforts must differ from the degrees of those who
were complacent in this life.

The Two Paradises

Grandsheikh was saying, quoting the Holy Qur’an, that there
are two Paradises: one of them is the real Paradise and the
other is but a shadow or copy of it. Allah Almighty is going
to give to His servants according to what were their wishes
and desires in this life. Whoever was satisfied with this
life’s pleasures, and preferred them to the love of his Lord,
asking for ever more pleasures in everything of this world,
and giving the love of Allah the second place in his heart,
Allah will give him what he loves most: a Paradise full of
pleasures: splendid gardens, luxurious castles and lovely
virgin girls – all these gifts will be of a beauty
unimaginable, incomparable to any beauty on Earth.

The original Paradise in the Divine Presence and the highest
station (Maq’adu Sidq) is entirely different from the shadow
Paradise. The Prophet said that in that Paradise there are
no palaces, no gardens and no girls. In their place one
will find the Lord’s smiling, radiant Countenance. In the
first Paradise, the shadow Paradise, the people will regard
their Lord’s Divine Countenance once a week at the time that
we now pray the weekly congregational prayer (Salat ul-Jum’a).
When they take a look at His Face they will forget all else;
the Divine lights from His Divine Face will make them
forgetful of everything else, this will occupy them until the
veils of Majestic Grandeur are lowered; then they will return
to their selves. When they are gazing at their Lord’s
Countenance, they are taken from themselves and are no more
there, but when the Veil of Grandeur is lowered, the
inhabitants of that Paradise come to themselves and proceed
to enjoy their paradisiacal pleasures more than ever –
everything will appear new and full of more light than before.
But for those who worked in this life for His pleasure, Allah
is taking them to His Divine Presence and not letting them out.
That is the real Paradise. Our Grandsheikh was saying that to
be in the Divine Presence for only one second, he would give
all the eight Paradises – it is so valuable an experience.

In general, the people now living in this life like it more
than they like the worship of their Lord, for which they are
making only minimal efforts. In their hearts, this life
takes the first place and Allah takes the second; in the
afterlife, they will find everything according to what was
their liking here on Earth. The inhabitants of both Paradises
will be perfectly pleased with their Lord: those who are in
the Divine Presence will be pleased, and the inhabitants of
the Gardens will also be pleased – everyone will be content.
Now, you are all free to chose: If you prefer physical
enjoyments, you will find what you are accustomed to, but
if, in this life, you cultivate love for your Lord in your
hearts, then, in that life, you will find His Presence.

For each group there will be eternal improvement – everyone
will be improving within their stations. Allah Almighty will
bestow on them ever increasing bounties, always corresponding
to their levels. For example, an immature child is not going
to enjoy the company of adults – he will rather seek the
company of other children – just as an adult will not be
content among children; and so, in the afterlife, each
will blossom on his own branch and will never look to his
position as being in the least deficient: there will be no
envy on the part of the inhabitants of the lower Paradise
in regards to those of the higher realms, for their
satisfaction with their Lord’s favour will be complete.

The effigy

A QUESTION WAS ASKED AT THIS POINT: “Mevlana, in the light
of these good tidings from the secrets of the Holy Qur’an,
namely: that Allah’s Mercy encompasses all, that the mere
assumption of Allah’s Mercy is sufficient for attaining it,
and that neither body nor soul will shoulder the blame for
bad actions and will thus escape punishment – in the light
of these teachings the element of fear seems to be negated.
So many of us came to Islam because of the fear of Hell that
we feel when we read about it in the Holy Qur’an; won’t this
news of Allah’s All-Embracing Mercy eliminate the fear of
Hell as a deterrent of bad actions?”

The Sheikh answered:

We can understand that punishment is Allah’s way of purifying
the servant for his entry into bliss. Many people will suffer
in their graves, on the Day of Resurrection and in the fires
of Hell. Absolute Justice will reprieve both body and soul
from punishment, and forgiveness will be granted; but from
those dirty actions which have come out of the interaction of
body and soul, Allah will create shapes in the exact likeness
of the sinners to represent them in Hell. This likeness or
effigy will be just as dirty as those actions were, and it
will stay in Hell until it is cleaned. In the face of this
punishment, one will suffer intensely – his shame will be so
great, and at that time so difficult to bear, that he will
wish for the Earth to swallow him.

There is a famous tradition (Hadith) from the Holy Prophet
which will shed more light upon the point in question. He
said that once a man died and was laid in his grave where
two Angels came to question him, saying: “Who is your Lord?
What is your religion? Who is your Prophet? And what is the
Book that he brought?” He withstood this interrogation and
gave all the correct answers, so that, when the angels left,
an opening formed in his grave and through this entered a
person of such beauty, elegance and delightful fragrance
that he couldn’t turn his eyes away from him. He had never
seen such a magnificent person, and his happiness at
beholding him was so great that, if it could have been
divided among the whole World, no one would have remained
sad. He asked that radiant person: “Oh my Lord’s servant,
who might you, be?” That person replied with the sweetest
voice: “I am your good actions. My Lord created me from the
good actions performed throughout your life, and now I am
your friend and companion forever.”

Then the Prophet went on to say that if, however, a person
has spent his life committing evil deeds and then, in his
grave, is not able to answer the questions of the Angels
correctly, there will come to him a person so ugly, so
vile and so wile impossible to imagine. How do you feel
when a scorpion or a cobra is creeping up upon you? The
disgust and repulsion he will feel at the sight of his
horrible shape will be far in excess of that, and he will
be thinking only of how he could escape from that grave,
but it is impossible and every way he turns he will be
facing that hideous apparition. You cannot imagine the
distress he will find himself in. Finally, that horrid
shape will take him in its arms and embrace him, exuding
such a stench, that if you were to smell it now, you would
not be able to eat for the next forty days.

Then the person in the grave will say: “I seek refuge in
Allah from you! Who are you?” The vile creature will
answer: “Don’t you recognize me? You were with me all
your life and you were very proud of me; I accompanied
you to so many bars, casinos and houses of ill repute, and
now you will not know me? I am your bad actions; I carried
you all your life, and now you must carry me – I shall be
with you until Judgement Day.” Then, he and his bad actions
will lie in that grave, and for that reason the grave is
called `the box of works’.

On the Day of Resurrection, Allah orders for the effigy of
those bad actions to be thrown into Hell, while the person
stands on the heights between paradise and Hell (Al-A’raf)
to observe, in a state of shame and contrition, the
punishment being dealt out to him, unto the form of his
bad actions. Then, finally, when he has been cleansed of
those dirty actions, he is freed of them and passes on to
the gates of Paradise. There he finds two springs, two
pools of water big enough for the whole Nation of Mankind
(Ummah) to bathe in. In the first spring, all those who
enter it will be transformed physically, so that they emerge
in a form befitting the inhabitants of Paradise: if they be
male, they will come out as handsome as the Prophet Yusuf
and if they be women, they will be transformed into
equivalent beauties.

From the second spring they will drink, and this drink
will eliminate all of the ego’s bad characteristics.
Both physically and spiritually clean, handsome and
excellent, they will pass through a gate so wide that one
billion people may pass at one time; but immediately on
entering Paradise, each one will find his own private way
to his own private Paradise, where he will be with his
loved ones.

That is the final destination, but along the way one will
encounter many troubles, as the results of bad actions are
sufferings. The Prophet said that his Nation (Umma) would
often find punishment in this life rather than in the next
and that each of those sufferings in this World would amount
to forgiveness there. This applies to all people after the
time of Muhammed, Peace be upon him, for now all people
belong to his Nation, whether they like it or not. There now
remains no Nation belonging to any of the former Prophets,
as their time has passed and gone. This is the time of the
Last Prophet, and, at the end of time, Isa (alai) will
return and announce that he and all Prophets before him
are followers of Muhammed, on whom be Peace.

The General Amnesty

Allah Almighty has created Hell for the purpose of cleaning
and purifying, as He does not like to make people suffer
without wisdom. This is Grandsheikh’s understanding and it
was also Sheikh Muhiyuddin Ibn al Arabi’s understanding of
the Holy Tradition (Hadith Qudsi): “My Mercy surpasses My
Anger.” Therefore, we may hope for the final outcome to be
a `General Amnesty’ for everyone, and we are pleased by that
prospect. For example, you may be in a palace full of every
comfort, but the fact that there are suffering people outside
your palace prevents you from being truly happy; when,
however, you learn that all those people have attained mercy
according to their levels, you will feel relieved and say:
“Now Allah has expanded His encompassing Mercy to everyone”.

It is a good manner to always think about our own egos as
being worthy of eternal punishment in Hell. We can hope for
reprieve only through Allah’s All-encompassing Mercy, and we
ought never to assume that we will be the first to enter
Paradise; instead, we should always think to ourselves: “I am
the worst and my ego is the dirtiest; were it not for Allah’s
Mercy, I would surely be destined for Hell. My only hope is His
Forgiveness”.

In a famous hadith the Prophet, peace be upon him, is related
to have said: “To him who knows no mercy, no mercy will be
shown.” The merciless person in whose heart there is no wish
for mercy for anyone, he will himself not taste of mercy.
Mercy attracts more mercy, cruelty attracts cruelty, badness
draws badness and goodness draws goodness. But mercy dwells
in the hearts of all true believers and therefore, in the
face of the punishment, so many saints will run forward
offering to take the punishment of so many others upon
themselves – this is the degree of mercy and self sacrifice
their hearts have attained – however, it is not Allah’s way
to lay any burden or punishment on his saints in the
afterlife, nor to punish any individual for sins he has not
committed.

Sultan Al-Arifin, Abu Yazid Al-Bistami, once said: “Oh my
Lord, You have Power over all things and You have absolute
Power to do anything You wish to do; therefore, I am asking
You now to make my body so big as to fill the seven Hells,
so that no place remains for other people. Every punishment
You would give to Your people, pour it on me instead.”
Then came the Divine reply: “Oh My servant, are you trying
to compete with Me in generosity and mercy whereas I am the
Most Merciful of the Merciful (Arham-ur-Rahimeen), the Most
Generous of the Generous (Akram-ul-Akrameen)? All your
generosity and mercy is only like a drop in an endless
ocean compared to My Mercy and Generosity that I am giving
out to My servants every minute, and I demand of you no
blood sacrifice.”

Grandsheikh says” “Whenever I speak on this subject, I am
always asking Divine Permission to bring out more and more
good tidings of Allah’s endless Mercy and Generosity Now we
are giving these good tidings, and if you are not receiving
them with welcome, then you are only making yourselves suffer.
If there is anyone objecting and saying that there must be
eternal Hell, then he may go there. We are trying to pull
them into our Lord’s Mercy Oceans – but they intend to put
everyone in Hell, and they never think that they themselves
will enter it; therefore they are agonized and outraged by
our good tidings to the servants of our Lord.”

El-Fatiha.

BismillahirRahmanirRahim

Sohbet given by Sheykh Abdul Kerim el-Hakkani el-Kibrisi

Tuesday, 22nd Muharram, 1427 / February 21st, 2006
Osmanli Naks-i’bendi Hakkani Dergah, Siddiki Center, New York.

Medet Ya Syyidi Ya Sultanul Awliya, Medet.

When Sheykh Mevlana came to this country, we were circling around
everywhere with him. I was standing next to him all the time. Anywhere
we went, I have never heard Sheykh Mevlana saying one curse word or
cursing those people someway somehow. He is always putting blessings
and he is always asking Allah on their behalf. For instance, one time
we were passing through a bridge. In Michigan there is the Michigan
Lake and there is a long bridge. We were passing through that. We were
passing through, I was driving and Sheykh Mevlana was sitting next to
me. And there were other people behind in the car. He opened his hands
and he started praying. He prayed and prayed, he finished and he
started talking about the history of the bridge. (Later we checked and
confirmed the history of that bridge). He said to us that this bridge
was build at such and such a time and this many people worked for this
bridge. And he said that the building of the bridge started in the
1900’s. And he said, “When the people were building the bridge, a
hundred people fell down from this bridge, they drowned and they died
in that sea.” He said, “Allah made all those people to work and today
we are passing through that bridge and I am praying on their behalf so
that they may be safe and they may reach to Paradise.” The next
morning he came and said, “The prayers are accepted. All those people
who worked on that bridge are in safety.” Hmm. This is a saint, an
Awliya Allah speaking.

Also, one morning there at that time, we were living in the hotel and
where we brought Sheykh Mevlana for a week was like a retreat,
escaping from everyone’s hands, making him to rest there and the
island that we were in, no car can enter to that island. It’s only the
carriage and the horse. It’s only UPS entering, nobody else. UPS is
coming with a ship, entering the island, dropping things and then the
carriages are carrying things in the whole island.

So, one morning I was coming to Sheykh Mevlana’s door because we had a
very special place in the hotel. As soon as they saw Sheykh Mevlana
and we said to them that we want to pray in the morning time, they
opened a special place for us free of charge saying, “You can pray
here, everyone together.” Why did people have to do that? It’s money
that we were supposed to pay. They didn’t take it. We didn’t pay. They
loved Sheykh Mevlana.because he went in there, he smiled at them, he
greeted them and he joked with them and everyone was saying, “Who is
this man?” To some of them I said, “Jesus.” They said, “Well, he
doesn’t look so much like him but he acts like him. I am accepting him
as Jesus.” So many people said like that, “We accept him as Jesus. We
accept him as the savior.” I said, “You are saved already.”

So, one morning I came to the door, waiting and waiting for Sheykh
Mevlana. I know that he gets up early to go to prayer. I know that
everyone is up there waiting. We have to walk a little bit too and I
was not hearing any sound from the inside so I said to myself, “Let me
just knock on the door.” I knocked on the door for the first time.
Never did I knock on the door of Sheykh Mevlana. So many times that I
spent time with him, early in the morning waiting in front of the
door, he is always opening the door exactly on time or before and
coming out. No one ever bothered him. He always got up, preparing,
making wudu, praying inside, later coming outside and going to the
prayers. In a short time I saw Sheykh Mevlana opening the door. He was
wearing his white pajamas and white tekkes, his eyes completely red
and he said, “What happened, my son?” I said, “Sheykh Mevlana, it’s
Fajr, it’s morning.” He said, “Morning? Quickly I am coming!” He
quickly went inside and in two minutes time he prepared and said, “We
quickly go to the prayer now and I will tell you what happened on the
way back.”

We went to the prayer and we finished. On the way back I was bringing
him back and he said to me, “Last night after you left me to the room
at night, your Hajje Anna was sitting, I sat to make a little tesbih
and Grandsheykh came to me. He said to me, `Open the television.'”
Grandsheykh appeared to him spiritually and said, “Open the
television.” He said, “I opened the television and he said to me, `Now
watch this program and pray for these people.'” He said, “The program
on it was about the ship called Titanic.” They made a documentary
about that ship at that time. It was a whole two hours program about
what had happened. They went all the way down, they were also taking
pictures with cameras and they were taking pictures of the skeletons
of the people still left in certain areas. Sheykh Mevlana said to me,
“The mercy of Grandsheykh reached to them, my son. That’s why he said
to me, `Sit until morning, watch and pray for them.”

He said to me, “For eighty years, those people that were cruel, they
did this cruelty, they rose their heads and pointed against Allah
because they called it Titanic.” Titanic is coming from a Greek word
meaning one jaw is sweeping the air, one jaw is sweeping the ground so
that there is no boundary in front of it. They said, “We don’t accept
that anything is going to stop this ship.” Then he said, “That one who
built this ship, when the ship was going to take off, he broke the
champagne (because it’s their tradition), he broke the champagne on
the ship, he rose his hand up to the sky like this and he said, `Even
You cannot stop this ship now.'” He said, “They received the anger of
Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) because of that.” For that split second the
light of Allah was down there and instantly they received the anger of
Allah. That’s why he said, “With that word, all the other ones sank
and so many people died in there.”

He said that so many were against the Captain because the Captain knew
what they were doing. Grandsheykh is saying that the Captain said,
“No, we cannot break it. We have to go straight and hit this mountain.
The way this ship is built, it will go, it will break through or it
will stop. But if we go sideways then we are in danger.” He said,
“Those squareheads didn’t accept the Captain and at the last minute
they turned the rudder of the ship to the other side. Right underneath
on the bottom part the ice became like a sharp object and it cut the
whole side of the ship at the bottom and then the water started rising.

When the water started coming in, they were still arrogant up there.
They were playing, dancing, gambling and when the word reached to them
they said, `Shut down the first floor with the people in it. Let them
drown because those are the third class people there that we have.’
They closed all the doors and they let all those people suffer in
there.” He said, “Allah’s anger was with them. The water was rising
and rising and it sank everything in it. Most of the arrogant ones
there at that time died or they died with different incidents. After
their lifetime and up till now, for eighty-five years the anger of
Allah was with them.” He said to me, “Grandsheykh is saying that every
night up till tonight they were going through the same punishment.
Same thing was happening to them every night for eighty-five years.
Grandsheykh’s blessings reached to them, he made me to stay up all
night long to pray for them and that lifted it away from them.”

Hmm. Believe it or not. Of course we believe it. We believe the word
of a saint. And we accept. Of course we accept. Paradise is for
everybody. The door is open for everybody. Mankind today turned the
world into hell. They made the whole world into hell and we ask, “What
is the sense of it? What is the difference between us and the
animals?” At least the animals kill each other if they are hungry. If
the lion is sitting and if he is not hungry and if you pass by in
front of him, he is not going to attack you. He is just going to watch
if you are coming to bother him. He is not going to attack you. If he
is hungry then he may get some meat from your body.

Wa min Allahu taufiq.

El-Fatiha.