Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

Sohbet by Shaykh Abdul Kerim al-Kibrisi

Wednesday, 13 Safar 1426

March 23, 2005

Osmanliyiz

BismillahirRahmanirRahim
Meded ya seyidi ya Shaykh Mevlana

"We have to try to spread the knowledge that we know to others even if it's
little -- because we are living in a continent where there are over 300 million
people who are lost in darkness, and they are waiting for a hand to come to
reach to them to pull them out from that darkness. Whatever knowledge you know,
you have to try your best with sincere intention to try to reach others...
Especially in our Yahoo Group site in these days, people have started arguing
with each other. One matter which has been continuing for years: who is a deputy
of the Shaykh and who is not. And without people
knowing each other, through the internet, in their small rooms in front of their
computers, some people are attacking to the whole world, many not even knowing
where their word is reaching to or who is listening to them -- and that is wrong
for murids to do...

Holy Prophet is saying in hadis-i serif, 'Either speak something that benefits
you and others, or keep silent.' Because everyone is responsible for whatever is
coming out from their mouths... At the same time, no one has the right also to
judge others who are saying they are deputies. You don’t know if he is or not.
If he is lying, that is his problem. What about if he is not lying and Shaykh
Maulana gave him that title and he is a deputy – then what? Maybe Shaykh Maulana
appointed that person for different reasons, for different purposes, we don’t
know. And especially in a country like this when people are not even following
Christianity anymore, where everyone is running after their own ego and small
daily pleasures, then we must give way to those people who know a little bit to
try to reach to others with their knowledge, inshallah Rahman Alhamdulillah.

So, it is wrong for those people who are trying to
attack each other, saying 'you are deputy, you are not.' Allah put inside the
man that secret, saying, 'You are my Khalifa on earth.' If someone is trying to
claim these days he is a deputy and he is doing a good job, we must help him,
even if he is not, to reach to become a deputy, inshallah. To spread the
knowledge that is given to him...

"I am also watching that some people are unjustly attacking the Ottomans. No one
has any right to attack the Ottomans. The Ottomans proved themselves, ruling for
700 years -- and justly. If people don’t know how they ruled they just have to
look from the end, 1923, until today, whatever happened between these dates.
Then they will understand how many wrong things happened in this world today.
There was only one nation. The westerners entered and they destroyed it and made
it 45 different nations. That should be enough
for us to understand how they have destroyed us.

When the Ottoman Empire was standing, it was impossible for them to enter and to
separate us. The history is there even if we like it or not. They didn’t live
for their egos, they lived for the Nation of Muhammad (asws), to make them to
become better servants to Allah; and they lived to be pleasing Allah and His
Prophet... So it is wrong for people to be attacking the Ottomans -- the Ottoman
Sultans especially, who were all in the different levels of sainthood. Not a
single Ottoman Sultan came who was not a saint. They were all Beloved to Allah
and they tried to do what Allah and His Prophet wanted them to do.

We believe they did what is for them -- but we didn’t do what is for us; and we
are finding it too easy today to attack those who stood very strongly against
the unbelievers. Islam has reached to us because of them, because they stood
strongly. Otherwise we wouldn’t even be Muslim today. That’s one thing. Also
people must understand that attacking or saying anything bad against those who
tried their best for the safety of Islam, for the safety of other people, is not
going to give them anything. It is just going to bring them
down to lower stations, it is not going to bring anybody to give them high
titles.

"These kinds of things should not happen among believers, especially among
Osmanli Naks'i-Bendis. We are the ones that Grandshaykh has ordered to try to
wake up the Ottoman way of living again. So many are not understanding that when
you say “Ottoman,” it doesn’t mean Turk or Arab. If you are an Arab – you are
Ottoman. If you are a Pakistani – you are Ottoman. If you are a Turk, you are
Ottoman. If you are Boshnak, you are Ottoman. If you are British, you are
Ottoman. If you are American, you are Ottoman. If you are
from any other nation and you are accepting Islam, then you have to come under
one flag, the Ottoman flag. What is so hard about that? Everyone is accepting to
be American, but not accepting to be Ottoman. When you go to a Greek, he says “I
am Greek-American.” Turks, “I am Turkish-American.” Italian, “Italian-American.”
But no one is saying “I am Arab-Ottoman,” or “I am Turk-Ottoman,” or “I am this
Ottoman.”

So that is another problem. People are showing to me that they have not
understood how the Ottomans were ruling. The Ottoman Dynasty was ruled by the
Turkish people -- as the Abbasyids were Arabs and the Amawis were Arabs, the
ruling system of the Ottomans was Turk. They were ruling justly, and no one
should make any mistake. Anyone who is attacking, of course, we can say only
"don’t" -- but if they are still going to attack, then they will be damaging
themselves -- and there is a possibility that they may even lose their faith,
because they are attacking to the Beloveds of Allah. Those of that family have
been praised and protected by Holy Prophet (asws) when the Prophet said, 'That
one who is going to conquer Istanbul is the greatest of generals and his army is
the best of the armies.' So when people search and they understand who are
those, then they will stop attacking, inshallah.

It was wrong to attack that time, it is still wrong today; but we have not
learned from the mistakes that our grandfathers made, who stood against the
rulers of Islam and helped unbelievers to bring down Islam. Today their
grandchildren are trying continuously to make the same mistake. We should not --
we should just wake up to understand what they did, how they uprised against the
Sultan, against the Khalifa, and then how everything came down, and what kind of
situation that the world is in today. You don’t need to ask anybody, you can
see. Everyone is seeing -- anywhere you go, you can see what kind of a situation
that the world is in today. They turned it into a hell. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil
Alamin.

Inshallah this much should be enough for those who want to learn something.
Otherwise, people are always going to find something they want to argue with
each other about, but I am not allowing those people who are accepting Shaykh
Maluana as their Grandshaykh and us as the Deputy -- they are not going to
argue. There is no argument in our Way, it is not accepted and we are very
strict with discipline and manners. If there are three people somewhere, one
must be the leader, one must be. The other ones must be listening to that one
because this is the order of the Holy Prophet asws -- the other ones must listen
to the one who has the best knowledge.

Wa min allahu tafiq, bi hurmati habib, bi hurmati fatiha.
Amin. Selam alaykum."