BismillahirRahmanirRahim

Note: Someone emailed a question about one of the sohbets of Sultan Evliya Mevlana Seyh Muhammad Nazim al-Hakkani al-Kibrisi. Sheykh Mevlana speaks about how the Infinite Mercy of Allah Almighty is to reach to everyone. The sohbet is called "The General Amnesty and the Oceans of Mercy". We read it at the Dergah one night after zikir. It can be found at: http://www.sheiknazim.com/portal-bin/content/view/128/66/ . The person who was asking had some time ago consulted a scholarly murid of Seyh Mevlana about this, because other influences on his accepting Islam had offered a Kuran-only perspective that would have many (or most)people condemned to hell for eternity. He received an unsatisfying answer from that murid and decided to drop the subject until asking again. This sohbet below is Sheykh Abdul Kerim’s response to the question.

BismillahirRahmanirRahim

Sheykh Abdul Kerim al-Hakkani al-Kibrisi

The Infinite Mercy of Allah Almighty

Wednesday 23 Muharram, 1427
February 22, 2006
Osmanli Naks-i’bendi Hakkani Dergah, Siddiki Center, New York.

Medet Ya Seyyidi Ya Sultanul Awliya, Medet.

First I would like to say that after hearing the sohbet from Sheykh Mevlana, I don’t think anybody in this world can talk about something more. Sheykh Mevlana put it openly and simply to the whole world, to all scholars and to all saints. If I see that in that question there is a doubt about the Rahmat of Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) then my answer will be very hard and very harsh to that person and to all people in this world who are thinking negatively about that sohbet or about Sheykh Mevlana. But I am feeling that it’s a sincere question. But again I don’t think that Sheykh Mevlana left any open area for us to say anything. Without Sheykh Mevlana we are nothing and we are no one. And we are not saying that we are something now. We are still nothing. Whatever is coming to us is coming from him.

Auzu billahi min-ash Sheytanir Rajim

BismillahirRahmanirRahim

La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah-il aliyil azim

For me personally, when I look at Sheykh Mevlana, I have never up till now, inshaAllah I will not until I go out from this world, have any doubt about Sheykh Mevlana. And if Sheytan is going to fool me to have any doubt about him then may Allah take my life now. When I am looking at Sheykh Mevlana, he is a complete, living representative of Holy Prophet (sws). When Sheykh Mevlana is speaking, for me, it is Holy Prophet (sws) speaking through the mouth of Sheykh Mevlana. That’s how I am seeing it.

When we read here and there a couple of hadith and when we know a couple of hadith, so many times we become so arrogant and so stubborn. One incident that had happened is also clarifying all these matters that people are going back and forth about kufr, kafir, who is entering to paradise and who is not entering to paradise. The first thing is it’s not for us to judge that and even to think about that. And the second thing is, Holy Prophet (sws) is saying to us, “If you don’t want for others what you want for yourself then you have not reached to complete faith.” So if anyone asks for paradise for themselves, they must ask for the other ones too.

As Grandsheykh is saying that before even creating the mankind Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) has created the paradises and separated one place for everyone in the paradises. Before we came to this earth we had a place in paradise that Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) has parceled for us saying, “This is yours.” We look at the story of Holy prophet (sws). He immigrated from Makkah to Madina and some years later with a strong army he was coming back to Makkah with the intention of cleaning the idols from the Ka’ba. They were not coming back to Makkah looking for their belongings, their houses or what they had left behind. Prophet’s (sws) aim for coming back to Makkah was cleaning the Ka’ba of the idols. So when they were making the journey, as a matter of fact, even when Prophet (sws) made the intention to go back to the Ka’ba, we see that the enemy side had broken their promises. That’s why Prophet (sws) moved with his army to comeback to Makkah to conquer Makkah.

So, when Holy Prophet (sws) was coming very close to the land, to Makkah, near the city, the other Sahaba-e Kiram brought a Sahabi in the presence of the Prophet (sws) and they said, “Ya Rasulullah, this Sahabi was escaping. He came from Madina and he was escaping. He was going to Makkah. When we found and forced him to speak he said to us that he wasgoing to Makkah to warn the people in Makkah that the Prophet (sws) is coming with a big army, for them to defend themselves or to escape.” Prophet (sws) said beforehand,”Keep very quiet. They should not know that we are coming to Makkah and we are going to catch them by surprise.” And that’s what was happening. Then that Sahabi said to Holy Prophet (sws) that he has family members in Makkah. He ran to notify them. Allah knows his intention. Maybe he went to tell them, “Escape from Makkah because Prophet (sws) and us are coming with a big army and you may be punished.” Who knows what he was thinking? We cannot think anything about it. But we know one thing, that he was going to Makkah to notify people. Although he (sws) said, “Keep it secret”, he was going to notify people.

I look at it differently now, me, personally. That Sahabi also had a mercy in his heart. He was running to notify his family to run away, to escape and not to fight with Holy Prophet (sws). This way they will not be punished. But he didn’t know the divine secret which Holy Prophet (sws) kept secret for people not to know in Makkah while they were going. Holy Prophet (sws) was more merciful than that one. Holy Prophet (sws) said, “Keep it silent. They should not know. If they know then there are a couple of arrogant ones among them who will make them to uprise against us and with this army we will be crushing them down. So this way I won’t have any bloodshed there. We will surprise them as soon as we enter and they will not have any chance to run to their swords. So we will conquer. This way the mercy will reach to everyone completely.”

 So, that Sahabi didn’t know. He went according to his own understanding only and he ran to notify his family. It’s love there again. It’s because of love he was running to save his family. But in reality, his family would have been in more safety and protection either under the sword of Prophet (sws) or under his protection. If they had gone with the sword of the Prophet (sws), they would have gone to paradise directly too because in another hadith of the Holy Prophet (sws) we are seeing that there was a war once. They captured all from the enemy side. They were in prison and Holy Prophet (sws) was personally going and checking the situation of the prisoners to understand if they are comfortable or if they are under torture. He was watching them and he was smiling to them and greeting them. Most of them were surprised and the leader of that tribe was such an angry one. With that anger inside of him he looked at the Prophet (sws) and he said, “See? He is declaring that he is a prophet but he is happy because he has conquered and made us prisoners. What kind of a prophet is that?” So Prophet (sws) smiled at that one again and said, “Yes, I am very happy. I am very happy to have taken you as prisoners because my prisoners are going to paradise with me.”  So now, looking at this hadith, looking at the situation of the Prophet (sws) in which he was in, how much those people have suffered in Makkah while they were living there and what kind of mercy they were coming back with to the Ka’ba to bring to those people.

When we are understanding and we are comparing, then definitely we understand exactly what Sheykh Mevlana is speaking there too. But we have to have mercy in our hearts to be able to see that. But what is even more surprising to me is when Grandsheykh sent me here and I first came to this country, I was 18 years of age. He said to me, “My son, you have to do one thing. Go there, find work, work, earn your living, do everything, but you have to do one thing. Anybody that you meet, make those people to love you in any way. Give them something. Give them presents or talk to them nicely. Do for them whatever it takes for them to love you.” At first I didn’t understand. I was very young, 18 years of age. But I said, “That’s what Sheykh Mevlana said and that’s what I have to do.” And I was smiling and greeting everybody. People were turning and cursing at me. I think I told you the story before when I first came to the airport and I came down to the street level, I said to a man, “Good morning, sir. How are you?” He looked at me so hard and said, “What the hell is wrong with you? Do you know me?” I thought that I was pronouncing it wrong. I thought I was not saying ‘good morning’ correctly and by mistake I said something wrong to him. Later I asked someone, ”How do you greet people in this country?” He said, “Good morning.” I said, “That’s what I said to the man and he cursed at me.” He said, “Well, wait a minute. Don’t go around now to people to say ‘good morning’ and talk to them. In this country people don’t talk to each other and if they don’t know each other then they don’t greet each other.”

But the order that I took from Sheykh Mevlana was completely different. He said to me, “Greet them. Give them something. Talk to them nicely.” Later down the years I slowly started understanding what Sheykh Mevlana said. But I didn’t question Sheykh Mevlana. I said, “This is what he said and this is what I am going to do. Whatever it takes I am going to do it.” And I did it, alhamdulillah, and then so many years later I understood why he said that to me and what was really happening.

So, before we come to that kind of knowledge to understand, so many come to conclusions and they start judging people with everything they are doing. Every one of us must know that we are not judges. We are going to be judged. We are not judges. We cannot judge anybody. That is the first thing. The second thing is that it is a good manner to say if Allah asks you, “How was this one in Dunya?” If you saw that one doing something wrong then it is good manners to say, “It is known to you Ya Rabbi. You know best and I know nothing.” And if He says to you, “Should I punish this one?” What are you going to say? “Punish him”? Then you are punishing your own self. But I am always very surprised with one thing that I always say. So many times I am finding this kind of merciless actions from the people that come to Islam later. I am finding that I am saying all these things to them and they are coming with arrogance and stubbornness again, not to me of course but to Sheykh Mevlana, saying, “Nooo… They are in hell, they are in hell.” I said, “Who are they that you are saying they are in hell? They are your own parents, your own grandparents, your own cousin, your own brothers and your own sisters. They are the ones that you are talking about.”

So, when a man has no mercy in his heart then he cannot look with that mercy to any other people because he has no mercy. Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) looks down upon us and to everyone with that mercy and that mercy is here, everywhere, because we are still breathing the air and we have the chance to ask for forgiveness. That is His mercy. And Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) is giving it to us. So we must wake up. As I said earlier, if we see that there is a fire going on in this building, we should not sit outside and be comfortable. We should run in here and with whatever it takes we should try to save people from here. If there are no people then there are animals. We should move them out. If there are no animals then there are carpets, there are things that are valuable. We should try to move them out before the whole place burns down. We know that it is going to burn down.

This is what happened to the world. Mankind turned the world into a hell. Everything is almost ready to happen and everyone to be burned in it and still people are putting fuel into that fire. The mercy is reaching to you and you are coming to the right road. You must try to reach to the other ones in any way. Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) created us and He put obligation on us to obey Him and we are the most disobedient creatures to Him all the time. Those who say, “We are obedient” are the most disobedient ones. Leave the ones that are not believing in Allah. So, should we say, “Send the punishment right away to us”? If that punishment is coming then I don’t think that any individual is going to escape from that punishment now because someway somehow they are connected to that punishment. We are doing something wrong.

Look at the mercy of the Holy Prophet (aleyhi salatu wa salam). When they came to him and said, “Ya Rasulullah, everything is between your two lips. Pray for curses on this nation that are attacking us.” He said to them, “I have not been sent as a prophet of curse. I have been sent as the Prophet of Mercy.” He said, “Our fighting against them is a mercy to them.” Then Prophet (sws) came back to Makkah and they have conquered Makkah but there was no bloodshed anywhere. Most of the people that were living in Makkah at that time were the ones who did the worst cruelty to the Sahaba-e Kiram and to the Prophet (sws). So Holy Prophet (sws) is saying, “Before they are coming and asking I have forgiven every one of them no matter what they did to us.” If Prophet (sws) is forgiving then every Sahabi must be forgiving. He said, “I am forgiving everyone no matter what they did to us, except three people. If you find them and even if they wrap themselves inside the cloth of the Ka’ba, cut their necks off.” Prophet (sws) didn’t show any mercy to those.

One of them was the son of Abu Jahil. He did so much damage to Islam that Prophet (sws) said, “If you catch that one then cut his neck off.” Look at the mercy now. Prophet (sws) is not forgiving that one. I think his name is Ikrima if I am not mistaken. That one also knew that he did the biggest cruelties to everyone. So he said, “There is no space for me here. I must escape.” And he escaped. He took the boat and he started going, leaving that country. The sea was very calm. As soon as he took the boat and the boat started moving, instantly big waves started coming and it was ready to take the whole ship inside. That one understood. He thought to himself, “Oh! The Lord of Muhammad!” He said, ”Oh Allah of Muhammad! I may escape from his hands but I cannot escape from You. I understood now. All those cruelties that I did, I understood, and I am asking forgiveness from You. I am asking You to forgive me just once. Allow this ship to turn back to the port and I will go to that Prophet (sws), I will accept the Shahadat and I will save my life.” There was nobody there. It was him and Allah. And with divine order, when the ship started to be moved by the waves, right away the captain turned the ship back towards the port from where they were coming. And Ikrima prayed for everything to settle down so that he can just go there and he said, “Now I understand that he is the Prophet which you have sent to us and we must accept that one.”

As soon as Ikrima reached to the port he didn’t look anywhere for a horse or anything. He kept running and coming towards the Prophet alayhi salatu wa salam), to Madina. And the people who were on the watchout saw that Ikrima is running top speed and coming. They said to the Prophet (sws), “Ya Rasulullah, this is what’s happening.” He said to them, “Then leave him. Don’t touch him. Let him come.” And he came to the presence of Holy Prophet (sws). He said to the Prophet (sws), ”Ya Muhammad, I am not saying to you this because I am afraid of dying. But I am going to tell you the story of what had happened.” And he said, “This is what happened to me. I was escaping from you and now I understand that I can escape from your hand but I cannot escape from your Lord. Please, I am asking forgiveness. I am begging for you to forgive me.” Then the Prophet (sws) said to him, “Allah has already forgiven you. That’s why you are here.” He said, “Ya Rasulullah, I did so much damage to you and to other Sahabis and I am asking your forgiveness. Please forgive me.” And the Holy Prophet (sws) forgave him. And he said, “Now, take my sword Ya Rasulullah. Now you can cut my head off. Give permission to them to cut my neck off. You will not find me disobedient to you.” Holy Prophet (sws) said, “Allah has forgiven you, I am forgiving you and everyone has forgiven you. Live your life.” Later, that person did a lot of good things for Islam.

Of course, we didn’t live in the time of the Holy Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salam). We are a group of people that are the luckiest ones because we know Sheykh Mevlana. Someway somehow we all know Sheykh Mevlana. I am looking and watching the mercy that is coming from him, comparing it with our own selves, comparing it with the wrong things that we are doing and the mercy is still reaching to us non-stop. We have to find in our hearts to forgive others. Holy Prophet (sws) is saying, “If you are not forgiving then you are not going to be forgiven.” We must find it.

Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) has even warned His own prophets. Prophet Nuh (alayhi salam) was sent to his nation to call them to Allah and every time he was going, speaking to those people and calling them to Allah, they were throwing stones at him, they had sticks, and they were beating him up with the sticks until he would faint. Thinking that he is dead they would leave him there and go away. That holy prophet was coming back to his house, crippled, recovering from those wounds, going back out saying, “O my nation, the mercy of Allah is with you. Turn yourselves to Allah.” They would say, “You came back again?” They would start throwing stones at him again and they would start punishing him again. That continued for over six hundred years. Not one day, not six days, it’s not sixty days, not six years. Six hundred years! The Holy Qur’an is addressing saying to us that Nuh (as) was prophet for 950 years. That prophet is going out to his nation, asking, begging and crying for them to turn and this is what they were doing to him. He was not giving up. He was going back, going back and going back.

Finally one day, it touched his heart so hard that he opened his hand saying, “O my Lord, these ones are never going to change. Punish them.” What the prophets ask, Allah gives them right away. So divine order came to him saying, “Ya Nuh, build the ship. I am going to punish them with a flood.” He started building the ship and he started worrying more now because this nation didn’t believe him for 650 years. They are not going to believe him and they are going to be punished. He was very sorry for what he asked but he did it already. While he was building the ship he was going out to them again calling them, “Come to Allah”, “Come to Allah”, “Come to Allah”. Finally, you all know the story. He built the ship and he addressed people, whoever was believing, to enter into the ship, he took one pair of every animal and the flood came. Even one of his own sons didn’t accept him and he drowned in those waters.

Maybe we should put this inside also for you to understand Sheykh Mevlana’s sohbet that Allah has time inside time and place inside place. There was an old lady believing in Nuh (as) and accepting what he said. She had a cow. She was taking fresh milk and she was coming to that prophet with fresh milk. She said to Nuh (as), “Ya Nuh, I am living behind this mountain and sometimes I cannot come. When the flood is going to come please send somebody for me. This way I can come here and I can be in the ship.” Nuh (as) said to her, “Yes, I will send somebody to you.” So, with all that excitement of what was happening, with his worrying about his son and such, he forgot about that lady and the flood happened. After the flood ended and the world was dry again, the ship settled on the mountain and everyone came out from the ship. As soon as they came out from the ship, Allah’s order reached to Nuh (as). This is a good lesson for you, for me and for those people to understand the mercy of Allah (subhana wa ta’ala). Of course, I am saying again, after what Sheykh Mevlana spoke we have nothing else to speak but maybe it will clarify the minds of other people a little bit more.

As soon as Nuh (as) put his feet on the ground Allah ordered him saying, “Ya Nuh, now build Me forty clay jars.” In the Middle-Eastern countries they have big round clay jars and you put water in it. It keeps the water very fresh and cool, like a well made out of clay. He (subhana wa ta’ala) said, “Now build Me forty clay jars from the mud.” Nuh (as) right away started building without questioning anything. He was building them very nicely showing so much love and care because it’s the order of Allah (subhana wa ta’ala). As soon as he finished, order came to him saying, “Take that stick and break every one of them. Take the stick and break all of the forty clay jars.” The Awliya Allah are saying that Nuh (as) took that stick but just for an instant it passed through his heart saying, “How beautifully I made them, how much care I showed to this and now my Lord is ordering me to break them.” They are saying that he showed his dislikeness just for a split second. He was not question but he was saying, “How much care and how much love I put into this and how He is ordering me to break them.”

As soon as that passed through his heart, Divine order reached to him again saying, “Ya Nuh, as much value those jars have next to you, do you think those disobedient creatures whom I had created and whom I made with My Divine hands, whom I gave shape and whom I gave the spirit, do you think those creatures, those servants, those disobedient ones didn’t have that much value next to me?” Awliya Allah are saying that then Nuh (as) said, “Oh my Lord, what have I done!” And then he started crying going, ”Hooh, hooh” from deep inside. That’s where his name Nuh is coming from. The deep cry was coming from the regret that he asked for that nation to be punished, after all that he went through with them.

Divine order reached to him again and that lady appeared. He said to himself, “Look, this was an obedient one and I forgot to send message to that lady to enter to the ship.” So divine order reached to him again saying, “Oh Nuh, you may have forgotten her too because it’s not your creature. It’s my creature. But I didn’t forget that one. The whole world entered into the flood but I have saved that one from that flood.” So that woman came saying, “Ya Nuh, the flood didn’t happen yet?” Nuh (as) said, “Where were you? Nothing happened to you? You didn’t see any extraordinary events?” She said, “Ya Nuh, there’s only one day that I stopped coming to you because the cow stopped giving milk.” From time to time the cows stop giving milk and they start fresh again sometime later. “Now that the cow started giving milk I came back to you. But up till this time there’s only one incident that was extraordinary. One day everywhere it turned very dark. It’s like the whole world turned into darkness and my cow disappeared. The next day I found my cow. I went to sleep. When I woke up it was nice sunshine again and I saw that my cow came. Everywhere was dry but I saw that it was completely muddy up to the udders of my cow.” He said to her, “Ohh, yes I forgot about you but Allah didn’t forget about you. The flood already came and passed.”

That lady had mercy in her heart. She accepted it and Allah saved that one. Nuh (as) regretted what he did and the Awliya Allah are saying that in the Judgment Day people are going to come for Shafa’at to Adam (as) saying, “You are our father. Give intercession for us. We were disobedient ones.” And Adam (as) is going to say to them, “No, I cannot do anything to you today. Today I am worrying about my problems because Allah said to me, ‘Don’t do it’ and I did it. Go to Nuh. Nuh is the second father of people.” When they are going to come to Nuh (as) he is going to say, “Oh, how are you coming and asking me this. I asked Allah to punish you and you have been punished and I feel so much shame. How am I going to go to the Divine Presence since I asked Allah for you to be punished. I cannot speak on your behalf. From crying I cannot speak for anything. Go to this one.” “Go to Ibrahim (as)”, “Go to Musa (as)”, and one by one prophets are going to be sending their nations. They will say, “Go to Isa (as)” and they will come to Isa (as). Isa (as) will say to them, ”How are you going to ask me to ask Shafa’at for you? You attacked my rights. You put my rights on the floor saying I was the Lord and I was the son of God. That’s what I am worrying now. Go to Muhammad (alayhi salatu wa salam). He is the one who is going to give Shafa’at to every one of you.”

And inshaAllah ar-Rahman, we are asking for his Shafa’at, for the Shafa’at of the Awliya Allah and for Allah to give us power to reach to other people so they may also get Shafa’at. Shafa’at is in Dunya and in Akhirat.

Wa min Allahu taufiq.

InshaAllah ar-Rahman, this should be enough for you, for me and as I said, if you say that Sheykh Mevlana’s sohbet is not enough for you then I don’t think anything is going to be enough for you. Those who call themselves scholars should put the books aside today, they should completely turn their hearts to Sheykh Mevlana, completely submit their wills to Sheykh Mevlana and go and ask to renew their initiation again. No one has any power or any authority to doubt, especially the murids of Sheykh Mevlana, to doubt Sheykh Mevlana and to say, “I am in the same level with the understanding of Haqq.” What do you or me understand about Haqq? Hasha astaghfirullah wa atubu ilaih. And that is very wrong also, what is written there by that person, whoever is that one that is saying, ”There are certain things of Sheykh Mevlana that I am not understanding but in the Haqq level…” what is that? What is it saying there?

(A murid reads from a paper) It says, “On the level of Haqq I am aligned with Sheykh Mevlana.”

On the level of Haqq he is in line with Sheykh Mevlana. Mashallah. Astaghfirullah wa atubu ilaih. We, each one of us, cannot even be the dust under the feet of Sheykh Mevlana. Sheykh Mevlana is serving this mankind for over eighty years. I was a little child and I was watching with my own eyes, in spite of the cruelties that they did to him, he forgave everyone and he kept on crying for them for over eighty years. Those ones just came to Islam yesterday and they haven’t found the mercy in their hearts to forgive even their own families. How are they going to be in line with Sheykh Mevlana? Hasha astaghfirullah. Astaghfirullah wa atubu ilaih.

May Allah forgive me and always give higher stations to our Grandsheykh Sheykh Mevlana Muhammad Nazim al-Hakkani, to all the other ones who passed before and those ones who are sincerely trying to understand Sheykh Mevlana, may Allah open ways to them to reach to other people. Those ones who are going arrogantly and stubbornly with the egoistic way, may Allah close their ways and make them become slaves of Sheykh Mevlana. Amin.

Wa min Allahu taufiq

Bihurmatil Habib

Bihurmatil Fatiha.