Istanbul Fikirtepe Talk – Seyh Muhammed El-Haznevi (k.s)

I see the sign of faith on your faces. I see the sign of Sheikh’s love on your faces. So, I thank Allah very much.

Secondly I thank to Allah that my father leaded to this love and the increasing of faith in your heart.
Surely, faith is one of the biggest blessings that Allah gave people. Love is also the biggest wing for people to get faith. First of all I’m going to mention you about an example. I heard it from my father ‘Sheikh’ (k.s). He was telling this example: “One day a scholar was walking with his students. While they were walking, they came across a man who was afflicted with the biggest illness.

That ill man was very anguished, his whole body was ill. Bees sucked blood from his body. He was so ill that he hadn’t any strength to drive bees away. In spite of those illnesses, he was shouting with a loud voice: ‘Thank to Allah. He protects me from some illnesses that he gave his servants. I’m giving thanks to Allah.’ He was shouting like this. The wise man asked that ill man: “There is every illness in your body. However, you’re shouting that you’re giving thanks to Allah for protecting you from some illness. But I’m wondering if you have any illness which is not absent in your body ” In order to learn this, the wise man was asking the ill man. The ill man was saying: “Thank to Allah. He protected me from impiety. So, I’m not a non-Muslim. The biggest blessing of almighty Allah is the blessing of faith.”

Thank to Allah. All of you are faithful, because faith is a great blessing. What is the meaning of being Muslim It means to believe Allah, Prophet Muhammad, angles, holy books, fate and the end of the world. A Muslim also believes all of the holy books that Allah gave us. He believes the Torah, the Book of Psalms, injil and the holy book Qur’an. But these books the Torah, the Book of Psalms, injil were distorted. Their meanings were changed by people.

Let’s mention about the holy book Qur’an, because the other holy books were distorted. Almighty Allah gave people the holy book Qur’an as being an admonitory for them. There are orders and prohibitions of almighty Allah in the Qur’an. People learn the orders of almighty Allah from this holy book.

I want to be long-winded but I haven’t got much time. However, there are some important subjects about my father’s tariqa. I want to explain them clearly for you:

Sheikh Hadrat’s tariqa is the tariqa of science and study. It is the tariqa of science and knowing Allah. It isn’t the tariqa of ignorance, because if a tariqa was established in ignorance, it wouldn’t have benefits. If a tariqa is established in science, it will be a heavenly light. So, my father Sheikh (k.s) taught people science, opened madrasahs, and spread out science among people, because when a person wants to do anything, he can mess up it, if he doesn’t know anything about it. The person reaches reality with the balance of science.

While Sheikh Abdulqadir Gaylani was going on his animal, he heard a voice:
“O! My servant! I’m willing to you!” Then he said “Thank to Allah that he is willing to me. What a good thing!” He was giving thanks to Allah. He heard a voice again. It was saying: “I took all of the religious duties from you. In other words, from now on you neither pray for Allah, nor worship. I’m willing to you.”
Sheikh Abdulqadir Gaylani was comparing the words he heard with the Shari’a. He knew that those words were contrary to the Shari’a. They were inappropriate for the Shari’a, because a person obliged to do religious duties as long as he lived. He saw that the voice was contrary to the reality and it came from the Devil. Then, when he heard that voice, he said that “O! You damned! Go away! I know that you are the Devil.” (For this reason, I asked your hodja for teaching you something about tenets and fiqh, because if a person doesn’t learn these, he will be an ignorant person.)

Sheikh (k.s) was never interested in two things: One was politics. He was never close to the politics neither in his country nor abroad. The second was that he never gathered people’s properties. Even he didn’t accept any properties, when they were offered to him. He said that a person should neither deal with politics nor gather people’s properties and money in the invitation of almighty Allah’s path. He should perform his invitation only for the blessing of Allah.

And Sheikh (k.s) was explaining the subject:”I’m not dealing with politics because if I was dependent on a political party and dealt with politics, only those people who were dependent on that political party would benefit from me, and those who weren’t from my political party wouldn’t take part in my classes. Therefore, I don’t deal with politics so as to all Muslims benefit from me. I’m saying unfortunately that I see in Europe that everybody works only for their parties, everybody invites people to only their parties. A religious group doesn’t go to the others’ mosque and the others don’t go to their meetings. Everyone works only for their groups and parties. It shouldn’t be so.

If a person who invites people to the path of almighty Allah doesn’t deal with politics and doesn’t gather people’s properties, his words will be valid in every communities. When I was in Europe, I got angry with those people, since I didn’t deal with politics and peoples properties. I was asking them “Why don’t you perform your religion Why don’t you attend to your worships ” If I dealt with those two things, I couldn’t say such. Moreover, I was challenging with them, and I was saying that “I’m challenging with you in that I have never accept your money and I have never taken from you even a napkin.”

If a person lives only for almighty Allah, then Allah will open all doors for him.

I heard from my father. He was telling an example: Some people had gone to a hodja, a ‘sheikh’. They had said to him “Hodja, there are some people, worship for a tree.” When sheikh heard that, he wanted to cut that tree. He was taking a saw and an axe and he said: “In any case I will cut this tree.” While he was walking, he met the devil. The devil was saying “Why will you cut this tree Sit in your house and worship for Allah. What’s that to you ” But Sheikh didn’t agree. He said “No, in any case I will cut this tree.” After he said this, they wrestled. The devil and that Sheikh were fighting. While they were fighting, the sheikh was mounting on the devil. Then the devil said to him: “Get off above me! If you get off, then I will leave some gold under your prayer rug when you get up for Morning Prayer.” Thus, the sheikh agreed to it and went to his home. After he turned to his home, he was looking under his prayer rug every morning. He was finding gold under it in the first day, in the second day and in the third day. The other day he looked under his prayer rug, but he couldn’t see any gold. So, he decided to cut the tree again. While he was going to cut the tree, he came across with the devil. Of course, the devil was in the shape of a person. The devil asked him: “Where are you going ” The sheikh replied: “It’s true that there is a tree. The people are worshipping it. So, I’m going to cut it.” The devil said: “Don’t go!” He said “I will go” They fought again. But, at that time the devil was mounting on the sheikh.

After the devil got off above the sheikh, he asked: “Do you know why I mounted on you The other day you were mounting on me, but now I’m mounting on you. Do you know the reason ” The sheikh replied “No, I don’t know the reason”. The devil said: “At first, you wanted to cut the tree only for the will of Allah and so, you were successful. But in this time as I didn’t put any gold under your prayer rug, you wanted to cut that tree. Thus, in this time I’m the winner.”

We understand from this event that if a person does anything only for Allah, then he will be better. But if he does anything for the benefits of the world, he will be incorrigible.

You need to learn and know the situation and position of the sheikh. The Sheikh is far from these two things. In other words he is far from the politics. If someone slanders us and says we deal with politics and gather properties, don’t believe him.

The Sheikh’s methods serve Hadrat Muhammad’s (aleikhi salatu wa salam) shari’a. Everything which is contrary to the Shari’a is lie and perversion. I’m saying that Sheikh’s method is absolutely appropriate for Hadrat Muhammad’s (aleikhi salatu wa salam) shari’a. What does it mean It means performing Hadrat Muhammad’s (aleikhi salatu wa salam) sunnah and judgments in the best and perfect way.

I will give you an example. According to the evident Shari’a, if a person worships and performs all duties and rules of the ritual worship outwardly, his worship will be accepted. Even his heart is unwary, he will have worshipped outwardly.

Sheikh’s methods are in a very perfect way. If a person from tariqa worships, he should be modest while worshipping. There is a hadith of our beloved Prophet about this subject: “Worship like the person who is saying farewell to the world”. That means he will perform only that prayer then he will die after it. Every time perform your prayer like that in peace. Thus, we can say that Sheikh’s tariqa is a servant of the Shari’a. It is performing the Shari’a in a perfect way.

Let’s turn our main subject, I haven’t got much time. My time is limited. I want to say you a few words. One of the principles of faith is to believe in Qur’an. Almighty Allah commands in the holy book Qur’an: “The promise of almighty Allah is right. Don’t let the world deceive you!”

What is the promise of almighty Allah What does it mean It means there will be a judgment day after death. It means death and giving an explanation in the judgment day. These are all promises of almighty Allah. He promised this. One day all people will be assembled for judgment.

One of the promises of almighty Allah is death. Let’s mention about death. Almighty Allah commands in the holy book Qur’an: “O! Muhammad! Tell people: The death, which you escape from it, will certainly catch you one day.”

Besides the doomsday and assembling for judgment, the death is inevitable. It is in front of our eyes. Is it possible to be saved and escape from the death Do we have any strength for widening our grave after we have entered in it Can we refuse angles when they come to question us No, we can’t. So, we should get ourselves ready for all of these situations. We should get us ready for death. Isn’t it necessary to get us ready for the judgment of almighty Allah  Almighty Allah commands in the holy book Qur’an: “O! People and genies! One day I will judge you.” For instance when a person wants to threaten someone, he says to him “we will meet soon.” Like this, almighty Allah says to us “One day I’ll judge you.” If that is so, why don’t we get ready for death We all know that we will die one day. Even we know, we don’t get ready for it. It means we haven’t got any conscious, we don’t feel and we don’t live.

There are many differences between science and conscious. I want to explain you the difference between knowledge and conscious. For instance, there is a person making smuggling. If someone says him “Look! Smuggling is dangerous.” This is only knowledge. He knows that smuggling is dangerous. But, let’s take into consideration the smuggler. When a police tries to catch him, he fears. As you see, this is the conscious.

I had heard from my father: If animals had known what people knew, their situation would have changed. Moreover, I had heard from my father that: one day Hadrat Jesus was going in front of a camel herd. There was a camel in the herd and it was very furious. It was kicking the others. Hadrat Jesus was calling the shepherd. He asked him: “Why is this camel so furious ” The shepherd replied: “It has a habit. In this month of year and in this day, every time he does this.”

After the shepherd said to Hadrat Jesus this, Hadrat Jesus was keeping the camel and whispering something to its ear. After a year passed, Hadrat Jesus was again passing by there. He saw the herd. He saw that there was a camel which lost weight and became ill. Hadrat Jesus was calling the shepherd again. He asked him “Why is your camel so ill ” The shepherd didn’t know that he was Hadrat Jesus. He said “Last year a man was passing by here like you and he asked this camel’s situation. This camel was so furious last year. He held this camel and whispered something to its ear. Since that day, it has lost weight.” Hadrat Jesus said “That man who was passing by here last year was me. I’m the messenger of Allah. I’m Jesus. I said to its ear that there was death. After it learnt death, it lost weight and became ill.”
Dear brothers and sisters why don’t we get ready for death We see that everyday our brothers and sisters die. Our mothers pass away. Our fathers pass away. Although we see that, we don’t learn a lesson from it. It means we are not conscious.

Consequently, people have three enemies. These enemies are very strong, violent and wild. These three enemies look like snakes. if someone hasn’t got any weapon, these snakes attack and defeat him. One of these three enemies is love of Dunya (the world). People tell an example about love of Dunya like that: A hunter put a wheat in the hunt which is set for catching a bird. This bird leans head against the hunt because it loves wheat and it sacrifices itself for this grain of wheat. As you see, that is love of dunya. Whereas almighty Allah commands: “Don’t let the world deceive you!”
Secondly the other enemy is the devil. Almighty Allah commands in the holy book Qur’an: The devil is surely your enemy. Call it as an enemy. Threat it as an enemy. It is such an enemy that calling its friends, companions and community to the hell. Is there such a friend How odd it is that someone gets a friend who fires him in the hell. It needs not to obey the devil. Moreover, the friendship of the devil is useless. In doomsday in the hell some people hope for help from the Devil. The devil says:” My sins are bigger than yours. I can’t save myself. How can I save you from the hell ”

The other enemy is Nafs. Nafs always wants badness. Whoever obeys his nafs, his ends will go bad. It needs to fight against nafs. It needs to stop it. Nafs looks like a little child. If you always give a child milk and don’t wean him, he always sucks milk. Nafs is like that, too. If a person doesn’t cure his nafs, it always gives him harm. Nafs is like a baby. If a person doesn’t wean a baby, that baby will suck milk even when he grows up. But if he weans the baby, the baby is weaned. People look like that baby. If a person gets into the habit of obedience worship and taqwa, these features will continue on people. How a person spends his life, he becomes an old in this way.

(May Allah make you pure and trustworthy. I’m very happy with you. When I meet you, I’m getting very happy. I ask Allah for giving benefits to me because of you. Please perform what you heard from me. May Allah make you successful.)