Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

THE OPPOSITE OF SUBMISSION

Shaykh Abdul Kerim al-Hakkani al-Kibrisi

1425 Thul-Qada 5
3rd week of December 2004

Manhattan, New York City


Selamun aleykum.

Meded Ya Sayiddi, Ya Sultan Evliya, Mevlana Sheykh Nazim al-Hakkani. Meded.

Grandshaykh is saying, "If you are worshipping two lords, you must kill one of them." If there are two lords in your heart, that is shirk al-khafi, hidden shirk inside. Two lords. One is your Creator, and the other one is your ego that goes against the Creator. So many men, so many people especially in this time, are claiming that they love Islam, they love Holy Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam), they love Sahaba-e Ikram and so many say, "We also love the Friends of Allah"; but you find them not following anything and not following anyone. If a man is not following anything, then he is going to follow one thing: his own knowledge. He cannot follow something else. The books that he is reading, the life experiences that he has here and there, that is what he is going to follow. Or he is going to follow someone who he has accepted as a master, a guide. Anyone who is accepting somebody to say, "I have somebody, I am following", even if the individual they are following is not good, they are doing the good action. Because of that they are blessed and in the future according to their intentions Allah is going to remove them from the wrong one and He is going to connect them to the right one. They are going to understand one day, "Well, I am following but this one is wrong. I must find the right one." Then Allah will send the right one to him or He will send him to the right one.

The man who does not want to submit his will and himself to another human, a living one, he is in more trouble than the other one because he is following his ego. Whatever fits to his ego that is what he is going to do. His Islamic understanding is according to his ego. It is not going to be the understanding of the Sahaba-e Ikram or the teachings of Rasulullah (salatu wa salam). It cannot be! Because if anybody is following the teachings of the Holy Prophet (salatu wa salam) they have to look at whom Prophet (saw) was teaching. To one's self or to the Sahaba? What were the Sahaba doing? They were sitting and listening. And they were able and capable to ask direct questions to the Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam). They were getting knowledge from a prophet. And just sitting and being in the presence of the Holy Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam)
was enough for them to say, "I have knowledge." They were sitting and listening all the time. And the more they became wise, the more they were submitting their wills to the Holy Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam).

The more knowledge they knew, the more knowledge they had, the more submission they were giving. As they (pagan unbelievers) came to Abu Bakr Siddiq (radiyallhu ta'ala anh) and told him, "Your friend has gone crazy. He said that he has gone to the skies. Are you still going to believe him?" They thought, "This way we are going to separate them." He (Hazrat Abu Bakr) says, "Is that what he says?" They said to him, "Yes." Abu Bakr ra says, "If he said that, then I believe. I do not even have to hear it." That was submission. Because he said, "If he said that, then I already believe. I do not have to hear what he said,"

So the submission that the Sahaba-e Ikram were giving to Holy Prophet (salatu wa salam), with that we must understand, are we really submitting our will to the orders of the Holy Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam)? If we do, then what are we doing and how are we doing it? Are we putting his hadith into our lives? Are we living according to that hadith? If you do, then you are going to understand a little bit in the future that, "This is so heavy. I cannot do it by myself. I need somebody to give me clearance." Now you are going to understand the seriousness of the matter. And then you are going to say, "Yes I need to hold on tightly to someone who has been given the light to bring me out through this darkness."

So if a man is not accepting to put his ego down in front of some other one, he still has pride in his heart. And if a man has pride in his heart, even if it is the amount of a mustard seed, (a mustard seed is very small), if he has a mustard seed amount of pride in his heart and he dies with it, then the fire is going to burn him. So if a man does not have a master and he is very sincere for what he believes, in a short time he is going to find out and he is going to understand. He is going to come to an ayat or a hadith that he cannot come out of. So he is going to need to go and ask somebody to learn. He cannot just go and stop a man in the street asking, "What is this? Teach me." You have to believe and you have to trust someone. That means you have to build friendship and familiarity with that one. That is what Sahaba-e Ikram did. Sahaba-e Ikram
did not come to Islam to pray five times a day and to do all these things. They loved the manners of the Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam). They came and they sat and they enjoyed that. They built the familiarity and the more they were building, the more Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam) was giving them from different stations. So they saw that they were in lower stations. Now they were going higher and higher and higher and everytime they were going higher they were submitting their will more strongly to the Prophet (saw). But in the beginning they did not pray. They came in and they sat. They did not do anything. That is why up until that time it was not obligation for them to pray. Obligation came later to everyone.

So if the Sahaba were in need of that kind of guidance, today's people are living in the jungle, not in a safe area. We are in a jungle and around us are so many open dangers and so many hidden dangers. Are we not in need of being under guidance? If a man says, "I don't", then not only his physical form but also I am worrying about his intelligence. That means his head is empty. If you don't have a guide in your hand you cannot even find the apartment in this building. Hm? For instance you say to somebody, "We are gathering together on 39th Street and the building number is 353." Let him come here. He is going to come to the door downstairs and he is going to see 353. There are hundreds of bells out there. Where is he going to go? For you it is very easy because you know the road…tak-tak-tak going back and forth up and down. For someone who does not know anything, go down and say to him, "We are up there, come up." Sit here and wait until the morning and if he finds you, you will be lucky. He cannot do that. He cannot go knocking on every door too.

So if a man is not submitting his will to another guide, then what is he following? He is following his ego. He is reading the explanation of the Quran and he is giving meaning to Quran according to his own understanding. That is trouble enough now because Holy Prophet (saw) is saying, "In Ahir Zaman (end of times) everyone is going to give meaning to the Quran according to their own understanding." That will also put you into hidden shirk because you are going to compare what it says there according to your ego. And then when Allah says to you, "Go!" you are going to say, "No, don't go." It is shirk: what Allah says "Do", you say, "Don't do." But you are claiming that you are following the Lord of the Heavens. That is what people do. That is what majority of Muslims do today.

They are running away from Tarikats, they are running away from the Way. Why? Because they want to be independent and they want to do as they like.

"I am a Muslim."

"Yeah?"

"I go to any mosque I want."

"How do you learn?"

"I already know."

"What do you know? To go up and down like robots?"

If I ask the majority here, not majority but majority-majority, to tell me, "Give me the 32 obligations, the 32 Farz. The principles of Islam are five. Then give me the Farz of those principles." Sincerely how many know? You don't know what the obligations are?

If I ask the men to pray, first they have to make wudu. So what are the obligations of wudu and what are the Sunnats of wudu? Something to think, very simple huh? "I just took a shower." Eh, no good.

So today's man although so openly ignorant but still he is insisting not to follow anything. Not following anything is following their ego. Nothing else. The ego says, "I go as I like, I come as I like. Nobody is going to tell me, `Why do you come at this time and why do you go at that time?'" That is why here it is not a dergah. This place here is not a dergah. It is a gathering place. You come or you don't come. Who cares? You come to a (real) dergah (Upstate) and I will show you when you are going to come and when you are not going to come. "I am going to come at this time as I like." I will show you when you will come then.

Heh! (You think to yourselves) "This is a holiday. Once a week I have nothing else to do. So Fridays I just go and sit over there for a couple of hours and it is okay." Of course it is okay. This kind of tarikat anybody can do. (You think) "I just finished work and I have nothing else to do now. Well, everyday I am watching the television, I am going to the movies, let me go once a week on Fridays over there." Is this Tarikat? Is this following a Shaykh? Heh okay. Think again. Come upstate and I will squeeze you like a wet towel and I wouldn't leave any juice on you. Then you understand. That is why I am watching those people who have the means and the ways and the time to come up but they are not coming. What is stopping you? You are working seven days a week? So what is your gain working seven days a week? How much dollars do you have in your pocket? Zero! You say to me, "I have no money." Then why do you work? If you don't have the money to travel to a dergah then why do you work? To make the boss rich? Haha !

So anybody who is saying here, not there (in the Upstate dergah), but here that "I am following a Tarikat" is lying. Because it is as he likes. He is going to come if he likes to. If he does not want to come one week, then he doesn't. He says he is following Tarikat; then he disappears for a couple of months. A couple of months later something happens to him and he appears. Is this Tarikat? Come up there (to Upstate), I will show you and then you will understand what is Tarikat and then you will understand if you are following Shaykh or not.

Then you understand the value. "Well I have business." What business do you have? I have no business and you have all the business in the world? Hm… Also Americans are very quick to answer, "We have to make a living. We have to pay the rent." Of course you have to pay the rent. You are not going to live for free. Does it mean that it is stopping you? If it is stopping you then it means that you are slave to this Dunya. That means you haven't been ready. You are not ready for Akhirat. Completely Zero!

Submitting your will is not by word. When you are submitting your will to a doctor's hand, if the doctor says to you, "Sit in the hospital." Do you say? "No I have business to take care of. Let me go out." The doctor says to you, "You are sick. If you hang out in the streets so much you are going to die." Do you insist saying, "No, let me out"?

The doctor is not going to tie you down to the bed. He will say, "You are free. Run." But next time when you will come to the hospital door they are going to bring you with the stretcher in an ambulance saying "Emergency." The doctor will come and say, "Put him on that side. Don't mix him up with the other ones because that sickness might drop on the other ones too." So then they will lock you into a room.


THE ONE THING OF CONCENTRATION

This is not a game. People make Islam a game like the people made Christianity and Judaism. Everyone says, "Ah Mashallah!" Mashallah. We saw for the last two thousand years, and now we are seeing what Christianity did. Everyone thinks they reached to Sidratul Muntaha. Mashallah! Lowest of the lowest. Going down and down and down and down. They became lower than the animals. Say otherwise. Go to the streets and look. Look at the billboards. Look at the commercials. Look at the lifestyle, and look at the people - how so many think. Then say to me that it is not lower than the animals. Only thing, from young to old, from men to women, from rich to poor, most are thinking one thing, concentrating on it. What is that? You are ashamed to say it. Let me say. Here (the sexual drive), between the two legs. It is the main thing, the main lifestyle and the pleasure that they do not even know how to do right. Hm.. That's right. Heh! From the poor man in the streets all the way to the White House.

Is this what religion is bringing? Is this what Allah has created the Man for? Just for that? If you do that everyday (you don't have the energy to do it everyday anyway); but if you do it everyday, how long is it going to take you? One hour a day? You are concentrating the whole of your life on that? Allahu Akbar! And say to me that it is not so. Go look at the commercials, look at the televisions, look at the movies, look everywhere. The majority who go to movies go only to see a naked woman.

So are we still going to cheat our own selves? Or are we going to say, "Whatever happened? Oh let me wake up! The angel of death is coming." Eh, the man who is very young and who still does not know anything, you may say to him, "Okay, run a little bit until you get tired. So when you get tired come around." But the man who has understood a couple of things must wake up. He must wake up to himself.


THE ONE HADITH

So as I said last week, the week before and the week before, let us say again. If you take one hadith of Holy Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam) and you make a promise to yourself to say that "I am going to live according to that hadith. Every morning when I wake up, I am going to read that hadith; and I am going to live according to that hadith", then you will find all the doors are shut for wrong areas; and you will find all the doors open for goodness. And then you will find so much time to yourself. So much empty time you will find.

Now you do not have empty time because Shaytan is occupying, holding you hostage. So you have no time. You squeeze the time into something and say, "Let me go there [to zikir] on Friday nights because this man is unusual. If I don't go for two weeks, on the third week he may wash me up in front of others. So let me just go." Some are coming because of that. But you are very lucky that I am screaming at you. If I don't then you are going to run topspeed anyway. But you are going to feel something somewhere and say, "Let me hold myself a little bit
more tightly."

So if a man does not submit his will to the will of Allah, then in his heart one way or the other, someway or somehow, he has hidden shirk. Somewhere he has it; but he does not know where it is. That is why Holy Prophet (saw) is saying, "In Ahir Zaman (end times), that is the worst thing that I am fearful for my nation: hidden shirk." So if you are submitting your will to the will of Allah… Heh! Can anybody say, "I am submitting my will to the will of Allah."? Say through the tongue and put a seal on the heart. Say, let me see it. Put a Naksh, Nakshibendi, put a Naksh to the word that you have said. "I have just submitted my will to the will of the Lord of the Heavens." As soon as you say that, instantly I am going to show you not one, but maybe hundreds of shirk right away right there. So many are saying that all the time. Mashallah!

Shaytan is coming from all angles to fool people. Not from one side. He has hundreds of thousands of tricks for you. Which side would you come out of to escape? Do you think it is so easy? It is not. So you need a guide to show you to come out from this door. (You say) "Well that other door is more wide and more open." (Your Shaykh says) "Come out from here because there are traps beyond that door and you are going to fall. This door looks difficult but it is easy out." You did not know that. You cannot see that.


WHO IS YOUR LORD?

So if man is submitting his will to the will of Allah, then he must hear the word that is continuing, "Alastu birabbikum" (Who is your Lord?). Allah is addressing. He has addressed you on the day of creation. His addressing did not stop. It is continuing. "Alastu birabbikum!" Who is your Lord? When you are finding that you do not know where your Lord is, then you are in trouble. You are disconnected already. If you do not even remember, if you have not rewound your tape back to that day where your spirit was physically present with everyone together and Allah had addressed it. If you do not know that day, then how are you going to know what is coming down now? How are you going to know what the Lord of the Heavens is addressing now? But those who came to clearance know that this is what the Lord of the Heavens is saying now. It does not matter in which part of the world they are, they are all hearing the same words. They are speaking from the same source, taking and speaking. Otherwise, there are so many theories.

"Let me look into that book."

"That book is past. It is in the past. What is the present? What is being prepared for tomorrow?"

How are you going to know all this if you do not have a guide? By yourself? By yourself you cannot even find what is in the past. You do not know which area to enter and to see. You can be a geek and an expert on computers but you cannot find the truth there. You do not have the rights to enter to the general computer up there [heavenly]. You can break the codes for every computer in the world but you cannot break that code to enter. It has to be given to you. They do not accept any thieves there. They have to say, "This is the code number. Put it and get in."

One hadith. You take one hadith of the Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam) and you put it to your life. Then slowly you will find that your life is changing. The more your life is changing, the more you are going to understand, "Hm.. I cannot do this alone. Oh! That means that is why Allah has ordered us to become Jemat". Jemat (community)- not once a week, five times a day. Not coming and following the Imam going up and down like robots and then going back. Your general purpose, your reason of creation is not to run away (after prayers) saying, "I have to go." Where are you going? What is waiting there? That is why the mosques are empty everywhere. East and West. Where are you going to find a more peaceful place than a mosque? It is empty. Because people do not know what peace is. They cannot sit in the mosque anymore, meditating alone or listening to sohbet. They have to be in the crowd to talk nonsense. If they sit in the mosque they have to understand a little bit, "Oh I don't know anything!" So that is why Shaytan says to them, "Don't sit there, go out."

It does not matter if you are in America or in Turkey. It does not matter if you are in Saudi Arabia or in China. The addressing is being given to us, "Alastu birabbikum!" Who is your Lord? He did not say that if you are in China, it is different; or if you are in America, it is different; or if you are in Saudi Arabia, it is different. (You say), "Difficult situations." Heh, make it easy for yourselves. You are running to make your lives easy in worldly matters; but you do not even know if you are going to live in this life after you have finished your debts. But so many, they are worrying about their children and their grandchildren, not to mention their own selves. Mashallah.


THE MAN AT THE KABA

I will never forget the man that I met once when I went to Hajj. I saw him thinking in front of the Kaba. So I am hoping and praying and I said to myself, "Mashallah, he is thinking so deeply and so nicely." So I thought to speak to him later on to see what he was thinking. I could not break through. I thought since he was meditating so deeply, let me see what he was thinking. So he says to me, "I am thinking that I made it up to this age alhamdulillah. But now I am worrying and I am thinking."

"What are you worrying about?"

"Well I could not fulfill my promise yet. I have 300,000 dollars for each of my children; but I aimed to leave them half a million each before I die."

How's that? The man is sitting and looking at the Kaba and meditating that he has only $300,000 saved aside for the three children he has. He did not reach up to $500,000. What is the level of that faith? Mashallah. Put whatever you want to put. Put whichever level you want to put. I am not going to interfere into that. Haha!

Man's faith today is according to the money he has under the pillow. The more he has maybe that much heavier faith he has. If it is getting a little bit loose and it is disappearing… Ahha! Look what happens then. He has $900,000 for his children. He must have something like that for his wife too. He went to the Kaba and he is worrying. He is sitting on a million dollars and he is still worrying in front of the Kaba.

That is the faith today's people have. They are not really depending on Allah. No. It is the money they have (that they are depending on). The more money they have the more freedom they have; and they say it is more security. The more security they have, the more faith they have. With that faith you cannot pass the Sirat (the bridge over hell). It is not possible, because it is not faith that you will have a guaranteed lifestyle for tomorrow. The more man is submitting his will to his Lord, the more he is getting rid of the worldly attachments. Then he puts aside more saying, "This ring is bothering me. It is too valuable and I don't want to lose it." So then he says to someone, "Here, take it." He is taking it from himself and putting it aside because he does not want to connect with the world so much because he is experiencing and tasting real faith.

HIDDEN PLEASURE HIDDEN ANGER

Holy Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam) is saying to us in one hadith ... (If we take the hadith that I am going to say now and apply it to our lives, then it is another safety for us). It says, "Allah subhana wa ta'ala has hidden His liking and His pleasure in the good deeds that you are doing." Meaning, He is hiding the good deed that will earn His pleasure among the good deeds that you are doing. Is Allah going to be pleased because you pray five times a day or is He going to be pleased because as you are walking in the street you see a stone and you move it aside so that no one is going to fall on it? You don't know. You don't know which action you are going to do that is going to please Allah and Allah is going to be happy with you.

That is why Holy Prophet (saw) is saying that Allah is hiding it. So whatever comes in front of you, if it is a good action then a believer is going to run to do it. "Maybe in this action Allah is going to be pleased with me." Never is there going to be an end to it because it is hidden and you are not going to know. So until the Angel of Death comes you are going to run, moving and doing things for the sake of Allah. And the more things you do for the sake of Allah, the more pleasure you are going to get in your heart. More satisfaction is going to come and your faith is going to grow stronger. Laziness is going to run away from you; weakness is going to run away from you; foolishness is going to run away from you. The bottom point is: shaytan is going to pull himself and his army away from you because now you are getting closer to Rahman (The Merciful). Every deed that you are doing is bringing you closer to Allah; and as you are coming closer to Allah, shaytan is running away from you. So Holy Prophet (saw) is saying, "Allah has hidden his favor in your deeds." That one is hiding and you do not know which one it is. So you have to run after it.

He is also saying (alayhi salatu wa salam), "He is hiding His anger inside the sins that you are committing." The anger is also hiding inside the wrong things that you are committing. You do not know which sin you are going to commit and you are going to get the anger of Allah. Now this is a very important point. You may say to yourself, "I committed all these wrong sins and I did not get the anger of Allah." Just then maybe you are going to turn your head to look at something forbidden to you and you may get the anger. So now you have to control yourself. You have to turn back to your self. You have to try not to do anything then because getting the anger of Allah is not like getting the anger of your friend or your buddy. If you get your Lord angry with you then you finish yourself. So that is also hidden. An intelligent man cannot say, "Oh let me do
this and I am going to say Astaghfirullah later." You may not have the chance to say Astaghfirullah. You may not be given the chance.


HIDDEN FRIENDS

And he (saw) is saying, "He has hidden His waliullah, His friends, among the people." They may appear to you like one of you but they are not. They may not speak. They do not have to speak. They do not have to be a Shaykh or Imam. No. They do not have to be a Muezzin. When they are sitting you may think that they may not even have tongues. But they might be the friends of Allah. So you have to be careful there more than anything else. If you get that one's anger, then you finish yourself. If you get that one's pleasure, you raise yourself. Because everything works according to what is between his two jaws (tongue). What comes out is accepted.

A man has no value until he reaches to that station and his faith is growing. If you have no faith in the heart you have no value. Allah is saying that. He is saying, "What are you? Your value is only as much faith you have in Me. As much as you believe in Me, that much value you have. If you are not believing in Me and if you are not accepting what I am sending to you, then you have no value." But the worldly people may put you on top of the list. Heh.. if the whole world puts you on top of the list and Allah puts you on the bottom of the list, what are you going to do?

Who is the most valuable one in the Divine Presence? - the Habibullah Muhammad (alayhi salatu wa salam), the most valuable one. But when he came, only a handful of people followed him; and the majority, the foolish ones, were insulting him. Until today, the foolish ones try to insult that one. But his name is on the top of the list; and Allah has put a condition there. "You want to become beloved to Me, you must love this one. If you do not love this one you cannot come near Me and I am not accepting anything that you are doing." So your value comes according to that Prophet (saw)- to believers and to Muslims. The unbelievers and the non-muslims still have a (long) way to go in that road, and then that road may bring them to the Siratul Mustakim - the main road; and in that main road, they have to understand who is the most valuable in the divine
presence. We are not talking about those yet. They still have a way to go. We are talking about those who are accepting and who are saying (that they accept). Not who are not accepting. No. You are only going to find what you accept and what you do not accept.

So if we just take this hadith that we have heard and we apply it to our lives everyday; and when you wake up, if you try to live according to this hadith then tell me, are you going to find yourself entering wrong areas? You are going to be in the awakening station. Waking up then you would have to observe properly and look at everything around you properly. You are not going to just say, "To hell with you" and walk. That is what so many are doing.

"Well I did not like it."
"You don't like it? Too bad, get out of here."
"Okay. Good day to you."

Ohh! Look what happens to that man later. You are looking down on somebody. Especially in this country they are looking down on everybody. (Allah says), "I am writing it in your book. Don't worry. You are looking down? Look what happens to your life until you die."

So there are so many beloved ones to Allah and to His Prophet (saw). If you look down on those, you are in trouble. Never mind about those unbelievers. (I am talking about) those who pray five times a day. (Shaykh pointing at `X') He can tell you the story of what happened in 96th Street mosque. Insisting; the man is insisting to be cursed. Running, coming and touching fire to be burned. It is fire and he is running to touch the fire. So Allah has hidden. Those Muslims know that but they are not accepting Waliullah. They say, "We are all Wali." Hm.. Of course. You are going to sink in the dirtiness of the world and all the garbage that you are going to do and later because you make two rakat of prayer you are going to claim, "I am Wali". Mashallah. Heh.. Not fives times a day but if you pray fifty times a day, what is your prayer worth?


IF NOT FOR HIM

It is not the prayers. Don't you understand? Allah is saying, "If the worship of all the angels, all believers and all prophets from the beginning to the end of times were collected together and were put on one side of the scale, and two rakat of prayer of the Holy Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam) addressing to the Lord of the Heavens Allah subhana wa ta'ala were put on the other side of the scale, those two rakat are more beloved to Allah than the prayers of all prophets, all saints and all angels nonstop." Those two rakat are more beloved to Allah than everything combined together. It will become more heavier. Say it is otherwise. It cannot be. Impossible. Because Allah is saying, "That one is My favored. If that one stands in front of Me, even if you all come together, I am not looking at any one of you. If I am looking, I am looking because of that one. If that one is not there then I am not looking. You are worth nothing in my presence without him." Allahu Akbar! You are worth nothing if not for that Prophet (saw).

Our value has no value. You may say to the world in the world, "Oh I am such a valuable one." That is what Firaun was saying. "I am so valuable." That is what Abu Jahil said. Holy Prophet (saw) was sitting alone in one corner of the Kaba in Mekkah. When Abu Jahil came with all his foolish friends he said, "Look at this one". He said to Holy Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam), "Are you a prophet?" Prophet (saw) looked at him and said to him, "yes." He (Abu Jahil) says, "Look at him. He is a prophet and he does not have a single person around him. What kind of a prophet are you? Look at me. Look at all my buddies around. If there was a prophethood given it should be given to me." Prophet (saw) was hurt by it. He was sad. Allah addressed him that day with the angels, "Oh My Prophet! Is that bothering you?" Right away He sent Jibreel (as) saying, "Take that one to Miraj. Bring him up to Me. Let him to see." It was not that he did not believe; but looking at their ignorance and arrogance, his heart was crying saying, "How are they addressing, how foolish the things they are doing."


STEPPING ON THE EGO

But if you do not see your ego worse than Abu Jahil's ego then you are in bigger trouble than Abu Jahil. Yeah. Compare and say. If you cannot say, "If I was at the time of the Holy Prophet (saw) and if Allah did not hold me, I would become worse than Abu Jahil to the Prophet (saw)", then you still have pride in your heart. Because the characteristics of the ego are the same on everyone. If Allah is not holding it, if Allah's favor has not reached to you, this time or that time, you are Abu Jahil. We are Abu Jahils.

So the only way to bring it (pride) down is to step on the ego. Stepping on the ego is not to say, "I am stepping on my ego." Huh! It has to be in action. If you want to step on your ego then sit in the presence of someone and say, "I am submitting myself and my will to you. As you like." That is the step that slowly brings you to the higher stations because now you are giving yourself up to some other human like you. You are giving control to that one and you are promising to do what that one says. That is the first step of stepping on the ego. If you are not stepping on the ego in that first step, whatever you know is not more than what shaytan knew. And the more shaytan knew, the more he made himself to become disobedient directly to his Creator. It is because that one did not accept any Shaykh or any guide. Allah said to him, "Submit yourself. Make Sajdah to Adam." Sajdah is not only to make prostration. (Allah said) "From now on you are under the control of this one. Whatever you want to know you may ask that one. Do not come to Me." He did not like it. He says, "I have direct connection with you."

[Allah says] "I cut that line. Now you have connection with that one. You are not coming to Me."

So the ego did not like it. It did not accept it. Think and understand the worship that he was doing up until that time. If the whole life was given to us, sixty years or seventy years, nonstop twenty-four hours of worship, we cannot cover even one split area that shaytan was worshipping. No, impossible. He worshipped forty thousand years in each paradise, in each level of the paradises. Understand how much he was worshipping; and he reached to the level where he became teacher to the angels. When something was unknown to the angels, they used to come to him to ask. How many angels up until now came and asked you, "What should I do? Which level should I go? Which level should I come?" So that is enough measurement for us to know where we are and where shaytan was.


SHAYTAN'S WRONG INTENTION

The bigger problem is another one that is hiding now under the carpet. Why did shaytan fall into that problem knowing all that knowledge, all those secrets and reaching to stations of teaching the angels? He was giving sohbet to angels from time to time. He was sitting and giving sohbet to them. They were listening. Because when he had seen Maqam-e Mahmud that Allah subhana wa ta'ala created, the highest station, he aimed for that. (He said) "This must be mine. I must reach to that." So all the worship, all that running and all that killing himself was not really for the sake of Allah. It was to reach there. So there was wrong intention somewhere. That little wrong intention made him to become disobedient. He became disobedient because as soon as Allah created Adam (as) he looked at that one and he looked at that station and he understood, "This station is for that one. For the children of Adam. It is not for me. I am worshipping all these years and he is giving it to this one that he has just created." That is what made him go crazy.

This is what so many people are doing to the Shaykhs. They say, "I am serving you so much, I love you so much, I give you everything and that one just came and you love that one more than me?" Heh… Yeah. This is the characteristic that shaytan is putting into every one of us. That is how he is playing with us. We must wake up. We must understand which station we are in and how are we going to come out of that wrong heedless station to the awakening station. If you are in the awakening station, then it does not matter if you are sitting in the first floor or if you are sitting on the top floor. (Then you say), "Allah has accepted me as a servant. Alhamdulillah. Ya Rabbi. Shukr Ya Rabbi." Then you look at the other one and say, "Ah Mashallah!" Nicely, neatly and with more love you look at that one saying, "This one must be in higher station. He must be better since Allah put him there." Then you will not have any envy, any jealousy or any wrong thinking.


HAZRAT ABU BAKR AND UMAR (RA)

Do you think the Sahaba-e Ikram were fighting like this? When Prophet (salatu wa salam) asked to give for the sake of Allah, Abu Bakr Siddik (ra) came. He said, "What did you give Ya Abu Bakr and what did you leave for your family?"

He said, "Ya Rasulullah, I left my family Allah and His Prophet (saw). Nothing else. I gave everything I have."

So then Umar (ra) came. He (salatu wa salam) said to him, "What did you leave Ya Umar?"

He said, "I left half for my family and I gave half for the sake of Allah."

He (salatu wa salam) said to him in front of the other Sahabis, "Ya Umar, your faith is half of Abu Bakr's faith."

He [Umar ra] did not get upset to say, "What are you saying?" Ha ha! Hasha astaghfirullah. Isn't it what is going to happen today? If he (a mureed) does not say it openly, he is going to go out there (outside the dergah) to say it. So then Umar (ra) looked at Abu Bakr (ra) and bowed down more in front of him. He was always trying to compete with him, and after that he stopped. (He realized that) It is impossible to reach Abu Bakr.

UWAYS AL-QARANI

To be a Sahabi you must [have seen] the Prophet (saw). That is why no one has been given that title and no one is going to be given that title if they have not seen the Prophet's (alayhi salatu wa salam) physical form. The highest Awliya (Friend of Allah) in any time may be lower than any Sahabi. This does not apply to that person who has only seen the Prophet (saw) with the eyes, but who did not see the Prophet (saw) through the heart. Abu Jahil also saw Prophet (saw) through the eyes but he did not become a Sahabi. He became ignorant, the "father of the ignorant". And so many Abu Jahils saw the Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam). But Uwaysil Qarani did not see Prophet (saw) through the eyes. So he did not become a Sahabi. But is there anyone who is going to say that his level is comparable to Abu Jahil? Abu Jahil saw the Prophet (saw). Uwaysil Qarani did not. That is a different station.

So the more love a man has for his Prophet, the closer that love is bringing his road to Allah. The more you love the Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam) the more you come close to Allah. But if you are not Uwaysil Qarani, then you need to sit in front of someone [who represents and reminds you of Prophet], and give your love to that one. Because that love of yours for Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam) is going to be fake otherwise. Somewhere, somehow Shaytan is going to fool you, saying that it is the love of the Prophet (saw); but if you are doing something and you are forgetting about Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam), then that is not real love.

Uwaysil Qarani reached with that love to the Prophet (saw). He reached with that love to Allah, through the love of the Prophet (saw). He loved the Prophet (saw) and he reached to the Divine Presence. So that love made him to reach the Divine Presence. That love is what we need to bring us to the Divine Presence. But it is easy to claim to love the Prophet (saw). And if we (really) love the Prophet (saw) then we must submit to someone that the Prophet (saw) has left to us.


THE HAND THAT GAVE TO JIBREEL (AS)

Even Prophet (saw) has shown to us the protocol of how it works. Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam) never said to the Sahaba-e Ikram, "I know this" or "This came to me from my Lord." He was addressing by saying, "Jibreel just came to me and he brought this ayat to me from Allah". This was showing his teacher. Where is Jibreel (alayhi salam), and where is the Holy Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam)? Firstly, it is not for us to speak. So do not make any mistake to say later, "Oh who is Jibreel?" Hasha astaghfirullah! But it is to understand the level where the Prophet (salatu wa salam) is and where Jibreel (alayhi salam) is.

When Allah sent Jibreel (alayhi salam) to the Holy Prophet (saw) with the beginning of Surat al-Maryam, he (Jibreel as) came and said, "Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim. Kaf Ha Ya Ayn Sad." Five alphabets.

He said, "Kaf".

Prophet (saw) said, "I know."

He said, "Ha Ya Ayn Sad."

Prophet (saw) said, "I know, I know, I know, I know."

Jibreel (alayhi salam) was surprised and shocked. He looked at Holy Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam) and said, "Ya Muhammad. I just brought this to you but I really do not know the meaning. I am only bringing; but I do not know the meaning of it. How do you know?" He did not address him saying, "Oh you don't know" and start arguing. He said, "I am bringing this to you, Ya Rasulullah, and I am not understanding how you know."

So the Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam) said to him, "Ya Jibreel, from where do you take the ayats to bring them to me?" He said, "This (particular) station in the Paradise. There is a hand that comes out from behind a curtain and gives it to me." He did not say, "I am taking it from Allah and bringing it to you."

Look and understand! The Prophet (saw) was saying, "Jibreel came to me from my Lord and he said this ayat to me." And the Prophet is asking Jibreel (alayhi salam), "Where are you taking the ayats from?". He is replying, "From this station." He (Prophet sws) said, "Next time when the hand is giving to you, do not bring the ayats to me until you have opened the curtain and looked behind it."

Prophet (salatu wa salam) is addressing Jibreel (alayhi salam). Jibreel (as) had also been given an order by Allah, a different angelic order, about what he had to do. He did not say to him (Prophet sws), "Who are you? I am taking from Allah." Hasha astaghfirullah. [He said] "As you like Ya Rasulullah." The next time when an ayat was coming he (Jibreel as) opened the curtain to look and he was surprised. He came back down.

He (Prophet sws) said, "From where are you taking, Ya Jibreel?" [He said], "Ya Rasulullah, I am bringing it from Muhammad to Muhammad." Allahu Akbar! [It as if Jibreel is saying] "It is your reality that is giving me the ayats from there; and I am bringing them to you."


TWO BOW'S LENGTH AND NEARER

Who gave to Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam)? That is why Allah is saying to us that, in the Presence of Allah he, (Prophet sws) came closer and closer, as close as two bows' ends reaching to each other. He (Allah swt) did not stop there. He is saying, "He came closer than that!" What are you going to understand? Stop there. You cannot understand how Prophet (saw) came closer to Allah because you are not understanding what Allah is. Is he creature? He is the Creator. So we cannot understand that. Through intelligence or through Sohbet you cannot understand. You may make a journey to (go to) Miraj. (Shaykh laughingly imitating mureeds) "Oh!! We have to go to Miraj?" Hmph… So why is Allah addressing us?

The King is speaking something with His Grand Wazir. Do you think that when a King is addressing his Grand Wazir he (the King) comes out and says to the whole nation, "This is what we are speaking about. This is (the reason) why I brought my Wazir here to speak to me"? Or are there others going around saying, "This is what they spoke"? He (Allah swt) is showing us, "The door of Miraj is open to you. But if you are carrying that ego and if you are not submitting the ego, if you are not putting your ego down and if you are not sitting in someone's presence, if you are not bowing down to someone; when your ego says, "Don't do it [something good]", if you are not doing it ...

(For instance) X's ego is saying, "Why are you kissing that man's hand? Let him kiss your hand." If his ego is saying, "Why are you kissing that hand?" He must say to his ego, "No I am going to kiss his feet this time." Then you are fighting your ego. Not to say, "Eh, I don't." (That way) you are not going to get the Burak to go to Miraj. You do not know which Burak to sit on. Do you know? How do you know? You are going to stay stuck because of what you know. The more you know the more trouble you are going to get into then. Because you are not going to have a guide to show you.

SECULAR TURKEY AND THE EUROPEAN UNION

So we must sit and we must understand why we have fallen. Once we were rising.Once Allah was raising us. He was putting us high. Now we are falling, falling and falling. Falling under the feet of the unbelievers. The Nation (Ummat) was putting the flag of Islam up and they were rising. Today they are begging and they are crying to the Europeans saying, "Please accept us inside." (Shaykh is indicating Turkey's application for acceptance in the European Union). Right now, this minute that you and I are sitting here talking, they are begging over there saying, "Please accept us into Europe." So Europe is saying to them, "I will accept you only if you accept Christianity." Hahaha! They are not saying it to them openly because they will have the nation (Turkish people) uprising.

So they (EU) are saying to them, "If you are not opening Aya Sophia"… Do not think that they are saying to them, "Cyprus (or such matters as a conditional issue)." No. They are saying to them, "If you are not opening Aya Sophia back to a church and if secular Turkey is not accepting Christianity, then we are never going to accept you into this." Go and ask Erdogan (current Prime Minister of Turkey). He will tell you. If he does not tell you, then tell him, "Let me sit over there and see (for myself) if this is not what they are asking." Hahaha!

Now Erdogan does not know what to do. He is thinking, "If I accept this then not only (will I lose) my nation, but I will also lose my faith." Because he is a man with faith. "If I do not accept this, then the army is ready to knock me down." He does not know what to do. Hmph… there is only one thing you have to do, not two. Open the doors to the Friends of Allah.

They say, "Well we have problems." Of course. Yesterday I heard, Allah is putting everything in such an orderly fashion in perfect arrangement and perfect timing, that three days ago the man who made the movie "Midnight Express" that got the hate of all Turks, landed down to (the airport named after) Ataturk. The (head) imam and everybody greeted him saying, "Oh! Welcome." Highway policemen were escorting him and they gave him a private plane saying, "Welcome to our country." So now the (secular Turkish govt.) is going to say, "We must accept all of it, not just that. We must also accept that we killed all the Armenians back then." If they accept one, another is coming and another and so on. Then look where it is going.


TAUBA YA KHALIFATULLAH

So where have we fallen? Heh.. Sit and think. We have fallen when we raised our heads against the Khalifa. That is what the Nation said. "Who is this one? Why are we going to bend down to this one? Get down from that chair. You are the same like us. We are for democracy. We are going to elect who is going to sit on that chair because that one is going to say to us what we like." This is what they did. And it is falling and falling and falling. Not only that but the whole nation (ummat) of Islam, one and a half billion is falling. They became heedless and headless. Seventy, eighty, ninety million Egyptians are in the hands of three million Israelis, saying to them, "Sit" and they sit. (Israel says) "Stand up" and they stand up. Say otherwise. Haha! The whole nation of Islam is like that.

We must wake up if we are really looking for Truth. We must wake up, we must sit and we must beg to our Lord to send that one (Hazrat Mahdi alayhi salam) in a very short time. Otherwise, so many are not going to be able to save their faith. If that one is delaying more, the more they are going down, the more they are bending down in front of the other ones.


THE LORD OR THE UNITED NATIONS

Who can claim here or anywhere in this world, those who came before, (those who are here) at present and who is going to come, who can claim to say, "I know more than Shaytan." Who can say that? Did Shaytan go to Miraj? Haha! He entered into Paradise not Miraj. He had been created and he was living in Dunya. There was gravity for them too. But for the excessive worship that he was doing he worked against that gravity and he started rising, (thus) reaching and entering into Paradise. You are still in Dunya. With all this worship you cannot even become like a mosquito.

With all this Quran and everything, what is that for? Do you think that the Quran came down just for the beautiful voiced Hafiz to recite it nicely and that is it? If you had the secret of the Quran then how is it that you are not going anywhere? The Nation of Muhammad (saw) is everywhere, one and a half billion, (they are) believing in the Quran, holding onto it so tightly and the unbelievers are crushing them down nonstop? And (they are) screaming and begging to the unbelievers saying, "Please stop"? (Shaykh mimicking cry) "World, look what the Europeans are doing." Allahu Akbar! "Look what they are doing to Palestinian brothers." Hmm… "To Iraqis, to Somalians". Who are you addressing? Who are you screaming to? Who are you asking help from? From the Lord of the Heavens or from the United Nations?

I am living in this city for almost thirty years now. When I first came there were only a handful of Muslims around. Now there are millions everywhere. But in these thirty years time I have never heard from any organization (that asked the Muslims) to come together only once to say, "We are all going to get together in the nearest mosques that everybody is in, they must all run to their mosques all together, their leaders must say to their people, `come this day', they must come together on that day and altogether in all different areas we may pray to our Lord and ask for forgiveness and to remove this humiliation away from us." I have never heard that from any imam, any shaykh, from any organization or from anyone.

But so many times I have heard the imams addressing in the mosques saying, "Brothers, it is obligation to you. You must come in front of the United Nations. We must give demonstrations. You must come to White House. We must show them demonstrations." And I am watching from faraway that millions are getting together there, in front of United Nations and in front of the White house. Everywhere millions come from different states with buses and everything. But I have never heard them saying, "Come together for the sake of Allah." Or "If you want to come, do not come to White House for demonstrations. All Muslims come together. We will rent the park in front of the White House". As those people are doing. Who are they?

(X replied from the audience) "Prayer Vigil."

Huh! People who believe in moon and goon are coming together to pray. They are not addressing any political matters. No. They are just praying there, (those) that are believing in the Moon. They believe in donkeys. They believe in idols. They come together and pray once a year. They are making it a habit now. And now they are calling us saying, "You come too. Maybe your prayers are more accepted." So we are going. Muslims are looking at us and saying, "What are you doing brother among the kafirs?" But they are playing football over there. Hah! Those are the ones that are addressing us saying, "What are you doing brother, with these kafirs?" They were just playing football and the ball ran to the other side, so he has empty time to say, "Brother what are you doing with that kafir over there?" I say, "What are you doing here?" (He says) "Playing football." (I say) "Look the ball came, run over there now" and he was running after the ball. Muslims!

DIVINE RETRIBUTION

This is what we are experiencing (alhamdulillah) for the last thirty years. Later everyone is crying out for everyone. Mashallah! (I said) "Don't cry out for everyone, cry for yourself. As long as you are keeping your ego so high, Allah is going to crush you down." He (Allah swt) is saying, "You are not bowing down in front of the ones that I love?"

"No."

(Allah says) "I am going to crush you down in the hands of the unbelievers. They are not just going to crush you down but they are going to rape you, they are going to destroy you, they are going to cut you into pieces."

How is that? Say otherwise. I am addressing this here and I am addressing this in any other mosques that I go (when I am invited to address). Let the Nation (the Ummat) rise up and try to kill me too. I have no fear. This is what's happening. Because mankind, (especially) the Muslims are so proud with themselves just to bow down in front of a believer, in front of Awliya ul-Allah, in front of a scholar or in front of somebody who knows a little bit better. Now they are not only bowing down but they are kissing the feet saying, "Please, please." Ah! Once Allah puts that unbeliever on your head he is going to crush you because that one has no mercy.

(Shaykh recited some couplets in Turkish and X translated them for the audience)

This should be enough for us to understand. Allah is taking revenge from those who are claiming that they are worshipping Allah but they

are worshipping other than Allah. He is taking revenge from the hands of the tyrants. He is not taking revenge from the hands of the believers.

SUBMIT YOURSELF AND BE CLEAN FROM PRIDE

This much is enough for you and for me until Judgment Day. If you do not want to take it, then say as you like. You can talk now or you can talk later. It does not bother me at all. It is an address to you and to myself. If you take it you do. I do not want you to cheer, nor do I want you to say, "Oh you are this." No. This is the real word. If you do not like it, in Turkish they say, "Gargle and spit it out."

This is what it is. If you are not submitting your will to someone who is the Friend of Allah and who is following the footsteps of the Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam), then you have pride in your heart. Your ego is proud. If you have a mustard-seed amount of pride in your heart and you do not get rid of it, then the fire is going to burn you. If there is any shaykh or any imam who is going to say otherwise I am challenging them. I am just a weak servant and I cannot challenge anyone; but I am saying these words and I am challenging them in that way and I am asking support from that one whom I have submitted my will to (Grandshaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Hakkani). I am not only kissing his feet, but I will kiss under his feet. I will kiss the places that he is stepping on.That is an honor to me. I can clean his toilet and that will be an honor to me.
Do not think that I am calling you to hold on to me. No. Hold on to that one. That way you will reach somewhere. We will all reach somewhere. Otherwise, we are not reaching anywhere.

Elhamdulillah. Wa min Allahu taufiq. Bihurmatil Habib. Bihurmatil

Fatiha.

Transcribed by Nakshobondi@yahoo.com