In the name of Allah, the most merciful and the most compassionate,
The progressing of humanity education is a process which started with Hadrat Adam and will go on until the end of the world. The first training was given by Allah to Adam and his pure wife Eve. Allah wanted to show them by this training how devil was a big enemy of humanity and what they could lose when they ate from the forbidden fruit.
The attention and mission of Messengers had been started with coming to earth and starting process of being tested. Attractiveness of life and pleasures of nafs are forwarding the humanity to have long desire and stay behind him from some great virtues. The person who obeys his anger and nafs is getting connect to world life and he works much more for satisfying his desire which increases day by day. This is the reason of why humanity is so cruel. One uses his power, mind and other abilities for getting his own desires and he doesn’t avoid of cheating, lie and killing in the way of getting those desires, as if his mind and conscience had been covered with a curtain.
Messengers were being sent by Allah so as to rescue the people from this situation and guide them for goodness. They are the greatest guides for us in the world. The history had told the life of those messengers to next generations in each century. The goodness and prosperity came from those messengers in all time.
In this way of effort and struggle, they weren’t alone during their mission. In each era there were some people who assisted them for helping when they told their thoughts. Even if our master and great messenger Muhammad (a.s) was died, the process of training people will go on until the end of the world. Muslim Scholars were charged with this duty as being heir of messengers. Humanity will need to be trained by someone else until doomsday.
It is impossible to become skilled in major art or science without any trainer or hodja. It is too hard and needless to get some skills without taking any trainer or hodja’s experiences, methods and olds’ heritage. It is impossible that one gets skills in medicine science and makes an operation by himself. It is not being thought that one can solve the most difficult problems about spice sciences or calculating about engineering without help of any professor or teacher. In this field, he needs a master. Just as this example, people need a teacher or master of moral for smoothing their morals and make their heart filled with virtues. It is not possible for one to do it on his own, when he decides to be great person.
The nafs is a sly, cruel and hidden enemy which no one can guess when and how it attacks to humanity. Devil and life is deceptive enemy. One can avoid from them only with an honest heart. If a person hasn’t got such a heart, he has to obey people who are masters or sadats as they know all things about human. Those people can understand one’s state and give him a recipe of life as soon as contact his eyes. Sheikh Izzeddin says in a conversation: “O! You! Engineers! You can build some buildings or bridges with your knowledge. Anyway, can you take grudge or hate apart someone’s heart? Can you take the love of world from him? As you see, it is our duty.”
There is a story told about the first years of Niyazi Misri in tasawwuf. Misri who was a very rich man spent all his properties for his purpose and got into dept as much again after he had entered the path of tasawwuf. However, he didn’t pay any attention to those and went on performing his duties. One day, his Sheikh called all followers in dargah and wanted them not to greet and respect Niyaz-i Misri. While all of them were carrying out that order, only his Sheikh was treating him in a better way and continuing the relationship with him. After a while, his Sheikh called him and drove him away. Moreover, he said that there was no work to do with him and wanted him to leave dargah. Misri left dargah by sobbing as if his world was destroyed. He took shelter in a cave. He started to pray Allah by crying; “O! My Lord! Everything is lie except You! Only You are with me! Everything is worthless apart from You. I take refuge only behind You and turn towards You.” He turned towards Allah so unfeignedly that a heavenly light descended upon him. He got a great position. Almighty Allah looked at him mercifully and exalted him. So, his heart was filled with perfect faith. He saw that he reached to a different position which he hadn’t got before. At that time, he turned back and saw that his Sheikh and followers were watching him. They had followed him, when he left. After all, his sheikh said to him; “Whatever we did was for you to reach this great position.”
Those lofty people are doctors of heart and soul. They are guides for training people and making them filled with lofty moral values. It is the biggest profit to be with them and enter their path. It is impossible for one to overcome his nafs and get rid of devil’s tricks on his own. If one enters this path, his faith will gain strength. If his worships are imperfect, they will become perfect. If he worships perfectly, he will reach genuine ikhlas. If he has ikhlas, he will get yaqin. If he has yaqin, he will reach great positions. At the end, he will reach Allah with his peace of heart. The most important point is that, he opposes to his nafs, doesn’t leave it free and gives it to a murshid for being a perfect servant of Allah. Thus, he disciplines his nafs in this path.
The Special Practices of Our Beloved Prophet (s.)
Our beloved Prophet (s.a.v) had obtained special promises from some of his Companions. For instance, one day, he had obtained a promise from a few Companions about not wanting anything from anyone throughout their life. They had promised the Messenger in that subject. They didn’t want even a little thing from anyone. They provided their necessities on their own. Furthermore, there were such companions among them, that even one of them dropped his napkin while being on horse he didn’t want it from anyone. He dismounted from his horse, took his napkin and mounted on his horse. They never went back on their promise and they showed respect for the subjects that they promised until they would die.
The dependence via tasawwuf is also like that kind of promise. In tasawwuf, it is made an agreement in the point of showing consideration for certain principles. Thus, the Sunnah of our beloved Prophet (s.) is revived. One, who enters this path, holds his Sheikh’s hands in order to ask Allah for forgiveness, adheres to Sunnah and carries out the manners of this path. He clings to ikhlas, love and submission, then leaves himself to the teaching program of his Murshid. Thus, he enters the way of breaking desires of his nafs and being a perfectly matured person.
It is for being to be dependent on a murshid or have a moral hodja for himself and get instruction from him. This dependence doesn’t resemble being bound to a tree with rope, because such dependence restricts one’s own field.
Entering the path of knowledge and adhering to the leaders of morale is like diving into an ocean and being together with it by ignoring one’s own existence. As you know, water drop accepts melting in order to be steam and then cloud. It ignores its nafs. One, who esteems himself highly and trusts in his knowledge, is captured by arrogance. He can be saved from it by being dependent on the people of modesty, knowledge and comprehension path. One day, Ibn-i Sina threw an object whose one side was triangle and the other side was cube to one of scholars and wanted him to calculate its volume. His purpose was to show his knowledge and make the scholar get in a difficult position. On the other hand, that wise and mutasawwif scholar threw a book of morals to him and said: “First of all, straighten your morals. Then, I will calculate the volume of this object.” As you see, having knowledge is not the most important point. Performing knowledge and having good manners are the most important points. There were so great Islamic Scholars that even they became old and wrote large complete works, they took education from the scholars of tasawwuf and strived for purifying their nafs with their guidance in order to solve problems in their heart.
Occurrence of Schools
The period of disorder coming after Asr-i Saadat (time of happiness) and Rashid caliphs dealt a blow to the Muslim world. Different parties, ahl-i bidat, tumults, wars, worldly properties and murders caused great destructions. The patriotic Muslim scholars started to work in earnest and tried to save Islamic values against that bad situation. Each of them laid hands on different fields and brought forth different schools. The schools of hadith for gathering hadiths and separating invented ones from genuine ones, the school of Islamic Theology for solving problems of belief and the school of fiqh for answering the problems of fiqh occurred. On the other hand, the historians who wrote the life of our beloved Prophet laid the establishment of Islamic History and Knowledge of Siret. The knowledge of methods about commentary of Qur’an, hadith and fiqh were improved at the same time.
In our Prophet’s time, none of those schools occurred. But, they were gathered in the personality of our Prophet as an essence and core. He was the unique person authorized to deal with problems. After him, the Companions who were advanced in knowledge had got most of that knowledge we said before. After them, the imams of big madhaps undertake this duty and developed their own schools. The sciences belonging to tasawwuf and knowledge dimension of Islam began to be taught in schools in that period, because of the same reasons. Like the other branches of science, specific terms and concepts were formed in the science of irphan and morals. The science of tasawwuf was born as a branch of science in this way. This school of thought which develops continuously is still protecting its liveliness and serving for Islam being spread out. It is directly interested in heart which is the centre of people’s soul and deals with the values of faith, morals and knowledge.
There are great contributions of people depending on tasawwuf about spreading Islam in Anatolia, Balkans, Rumelia, Far Eastern and Africa. Dervishs who went to those areas affected people with their moral superiority and spiritual life. They made people come to like Islam. Thus, the Islamic Religion had spread there. On the other hand, in Islamic community, they became a shelter for those who long for Asr-i Saadat and a trench against degenerations of Muslims. This path has been continuing in the holy dargah of Haznavi Murshids and strewing divine light, faith and morale to human beings.
