| All our praises and glorifications is for Allah, the lord of the worlds. May His peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Mohammad, his family and his companions.
My brothers and sisters, I, this poor servant, wish to meet the followers of our beloved Sheikh, only if I could. However, as you know, my health does not allow me to do so, though I long for it. Doctors forbade me to join in crowded meetings. The insistently emphasize that I need not to get tired. I am grateful to Allah for letting me meet you despite of everything. And I beg Allah, may He strengthen the bonds between us and record this meeting as an act seeking for His mercy. My brothers and sisters, Allah the Almighty, sent the human beings to the earth as His caliphs to construct and improve it with good deeds and ibadah. Undoubtedly, only the ones who put effort to train their nafs and purify it can conduct good deeds and ibadah. Allah the Almighty says in His holy book: ?He has succeeded who purifies it?(91:9). In other words, those who clean their nafs up from sins and faults, and enrich it through ibadah and wisdom and good deeds for Allah reach at the success. Allah the Almighty says ?And he has failed who instills it [with corruption]?(91:10). In other words, those who pollute their nafs through sins and faults and lose their way fail. Our honorable sheikhs put great attention to this point in the past. This is because they knew that nafs needed to be purified and in other words, the maqam of ikhsan is the third greatest maqam in our deen. Indeed, when Messenger of Allah was asked about ikhsan, he answered: ?It is that you should serve Allah as though you could see Him, for though you cannot see Him yet (know that) He sees you.?(Bukhari, Imaan, 37) Undoubtedly, true Islamic Sufism holds your hand and takes you the maqam of ikhsan, which is the essence of the deen. The major purpose of Naqshibendi ? Haznevi sect is purifying the nafs and reaching at the divine love. I heard from my father Sheikh: ?It is not that easy to follow the principles of Naqshibendi ? Haznevi sect. These principles include great benefits and hayr but nafs finds it difficult. Nafs constantly seeks for sins and does not like these principles. It finds them very difficult.? My honorable brothers and sisters, in this situation, a follower has two ways to choose; either he will give into to his nafs and be deprived of these great benefits and hayr, or will go to a war against his nafs and attain great benefits and hayr. In this case, followers need to make an assessment of the situation and decide which option is better for them. Undoubtedly, wise people will choose to oppose to their nafs and go to a war against it. As you can see, it is not easy at all. Undoubtedly, people who do not have a strong will give into their nafs. Those people has very weak will and no religious sensitivities. In other words, they have a character that is deprived of imaan power. On the contrary, a follower opposes to their nafs, and when he or she forces it to good deeds and ibadah, the state of the follower will turn from good to better, and from beautiful to more beautiful. His or her nafs, which was formerly seeking for sins, will become an obedient nafs that feels peace only through ibadah, zikr and divine murakabah. Hence, Bayezid-i Bistami says, ‘My nafs cries when I turn to Allah, but made it laughing with continuous and insistent effort.’ Then, the follower will proceed step by step and finally reach at the divine love. Indeed, the main purpose of entering Naqshibendi ? Haznevi sect is this. However my dear brothers and sisters, I feel sorry saying this, but sometimes we just follow our nafs with a very simple excuse. I believe each of us is aware of his or her situation, knows if he or she is in the right path or not. Then, how can a person who cannot force his or her nafs to fulfill his or her duties expect to benefit from his or her sect? Do they have the right to have such expectations? My brothers and sister, sometimes we may leave even our most basic duties unfulfilled by using a simple excuse. For example, we can claim that we are too busy to say our zikr. However, true and loyal followers do not hide behind something for they do not wish to be deprived of the benefits of their sect. In that case, we need to be aware of our failures about the manners of our sect. There might even be cases that these neglectful people might violate the rules of the sheriah. Therefore, our main duty is to spend the rest of our lives trying to gain the mercy of Allah. By adopting the methods of the followers of the good Muslims and sheikhs of our sect, we need to ease our problems. Note that our sheikhs of past were more knowledgeable, more pious, more sincere, and more loyal. They reached at the purposes they aimed with great efforts and endeavor. Through great experiences, they obtained perfect results, searched, investigated and reached at their purposes. My brothers and sisters, as soon as possible we need to return to our principles and manners and fulfill our duties and avoid from the forbidden. We need to put the love of earth that is as poisonous as fatal venom and recover ourselves. We do not have any other choice. We need to contain our nafs that seek for evil, and the best way to get rid of the love of earth is these manners and principles. It is a strange situation that some of the follwers ask for their virds and zikrs, continue to do that for a while, then they abandon their duty due to laziness and boredom, and because of their ignorance, they claim that they had no benefit out of it. This ignorant people think that fulfilling these duties is necessary for a few days or months or years. However, my dearest brothers and sisters, these manners and principles are obtained from the sheriah of Allah. As we are commanded to practice this sheriah, we need to practice these manners also. My dear brothers and sisters, this is matter of patience; many benefits can be obtained through ikhlas, patience and persistence. Therefore, the duty of followers is to keeps their virds and zikrs though they do not feel to benefit from it for a while, they should keep them even if they have to force themselves. True loyal followers will reach at their purposes eventually inshallah. However, I am sorry to say that most of the people leave their vidr and zikr. They do not wake up for night prayers even on the long winter nights and give into their nafs. Is it possible to reach at their goals in this situation? Note that even though it is a must to practice these manners and principles in order to reach at their purpose, what is more important is doing their good deeds and ibadah with ikhlas for only to please Allah. My brothers and sisters, it is undoubted that zikr has many benefits. However, the outcome of the zikr is much more valuable. Thanks to zikr, a follower reaches at the maqam of divine murakaba. No doubt that the maqam of murakaba is much more valuable than the maqam of zikr. It is a fact that the outcome of a work that is started right is good also. Wrong steps create disappointment. It is a famous saying that what comes around goes around. Therefore, the state of those who cling to these manners and principles with rightness and ikhlas is different from others. Proven by experience, a person who has these beautiful qualifications asks us only to live according to the commands of Allah. My brothers and sisters, Allah the Almighty granted us with cleanest principles that are purified from earthly goals and personal feelings. I request you not to give opportunity to violate, spoil or degenerate these principles to anyone. My brothers and sisters, we are in Turkey for almost four years. We see that some kind of people use the family of our Sheikh and our sect for their personal evil purposes. As you know, there are many people who carry the name of ‘al-Haznavi ‘. Everybody who is in relation with these people exploiting this name have the aim of degenerating Haznavi sect. My dear brothers and sisters, you see me here with you; I utter it myself, you here it directly from me; we have nothing to do with anybody who is trying to benefit from you using our name. It does not matter if these people are servant or student of our Sheikh; even his son. I emphasize it, these all are happening out of my knowledge. For example, these ill-intentioned people might come to you and say that the family of our Sheikh is in a bad position due to known developments in Syria and you need to help them. Please be sure that this is a traitor trying to deceive you. They are trying to abuse you for their evil purposes. Therefore, I ask you to be alerted. These traitors act according to their own will and I request you to inform me in such case so that I can know these traitors too. This is because such things damage the sect and overshadow purity of our Sheikh. My brothers and sisters, thanks to Allah, He is enough for us. We are trying hard like other people. We work in our lawful business. We have enough property and we need not the help of other people. It does not even cross our minds to use our sect for earthly purposes. Alhamdulillah, we can afford to host our visitors in Turkey, in Syria or other places. Allah granted us with the power enough to maintain the sect of our Sheikh. If we need to collect money, there is no need to send anyone else; I personally ask it from you. May Allah protect me, if I do something like that, I would damage the honor of the sect of our Sheikh and breach his trust. My brothers and sisters, please, those who are here and heard everything from me convey this massage to those who are not here. Besides, do not keep me uninformed in such cases. I am aware of the things happening but I am waiting patiently for those traitors to regret what they are doing and correct their mistakes. My brothers and sisters, we heard many advices, heard many things, what we need to do now is to practice what we have learned. I plead to Allah that and wish that He renders us successful, let us fulfill His commands and avoid from what He forbids. May He grant us with ikhlas and good deeds. May he not deprive us from the baralah of our Sheikhs and honorable mentors. Our Lord is capable of anything. |
