SECRET GARDEN
introduction
In this book you, our precious readers, will find the aim of our creation, the reason why we live, material-spiritual experiences that we must take heed during our life, death as not being annihilated and decayed in the earth but as a birth and salvation, and a passage to attain to meet with the Almighty Creator, our aim of creation as knowing and becoming aware of the Creator, and seeking and finding Him with endless love throughout our whole life, the significance of love and being union with Him, details of being purified and becoming mature by liberating the self from base desires, contributions of love, understanding and patience to our happiness in a form of sincere discourses given in a plain language through true stories we experienced and legendry stories of great masters.
We intend to share findings of our seeking for many years and show the TRUE FACE OF LIFE to you as much as we are able to see now.
Anyone who reads this book will attain to awareness rather than knowledge and thus reach to the pleasure of living.
Being aware of his unhappiness due to countless unimportant things that he is occupied with in this temporary world, he abandons his fears and attains to peace and happiness with love, understanding and tolerance.
What is life about? What have I done, what am I leaving behind? Where am I going to, why was I born? Is it possible that one is born to die? Given that all that is created and all human beings die, there must be some meaning to creation‟s living...
Ever since we came into this world, we have lived a life that is both bitter and sweet. It is uncertain how much longer and in what way we will live. Let us stop and think at least once in this passing journey of life. Before death stops us, before it ties us up, let us reflect on what we have understood from the life that we have lived so far.
Have we come into this world just to exist? If we have come into this world just to exist, or to acquire possessions, then death will take all our possessions as well as our existence away. It will certainly catch us. We cannot find happiness by forgetting the fact of death. Those who seek happiness by forgetting death suffer greatly when they remember it on the occasion of an illness or of old age. Those who accept the fact of death and don‟t see life as a joke, those who abandon their body for love before death takes it away, reach eternal happiness. Like Rumi, they see death as a blessed day and they yearn for it.
We did not come into this world just to nourish the body. No matter how well we nourish it, in the end it too will become dust. Let us take good care of this body and use it in beneficial ways. First, let us understand why we were created. Then, let us search for our Creator. Let us obey His commands, which He has made known through his messengers. Otherwise, we will live a life that is dissatisfied, discontented, and unhappy, and slowly we will destroy ourselves.
The biggest issue man faces is entering this world and leaving it. Why did we come to this world, from where, and what will our end be? Our goal is to find the purpose of living. We were born; now we are dying. Given that we will die, why are we born?
I had a car accident fifteen years ago; I came to the edge of death and asked myself: “What is life? What have I done; what am I leaving behind? I‟m going all alone. Then why was I born?” All that is created and human beings die. Is it possible that one is born to die? There must be a meaning to man‟s existence.
God was a hidden treasure in eternity. He wanted to be known. For that purpose he loved himself. A light came into existence from that love. He called that light “My Muhammad!” He created all the universes and mankind from that love.
He sent man down to Earth as His deputy. For those whom He loved among them, He became the eye with which they see, the mouth with which they speak, the ear with which they hear, the hand with which they hold. He called them “My friends, My beloveds.” They are the kamil (perfect, mature) people who are the beloveds of God; they are the deputies of God on earth representing Him. They have adopted the beautiful manners of God. God is manifest on their faces with His attributes. They are the heirs of the Prophet. God makes His beautiful attributes known through them. Because God created man to be known. He presented His beautiful attributes to others through His believers.
This is why God created man. The purpose of the creation of man and his life is to know God, to see the beauty of God at least once during this short span.
God first introduced His beautiful attributes and manners to the world of humans through His prophets. Some adopted the manners they saw in the prophets and became their heirs, lovers of God, the places of manifestation of the beautiful attributes of God, and became the means to know God. These people are the beloved servants of God; they are His friends. Through the mirrors of their and the prophets‟ hearts, the beauty of God is seen.
One who doesn‟t think about the Creator throughout his life, one who doesn‟t search and know Him, spends his whole life in vain, eating, drinking, having pleasure or suffering, and one day he passes away. To pass away, to decay and disappear in dust, is not salvation. This is the destiny of the body but man is not just a body of flesh and bones, he is a spiritual being. He doesn‟t cease to exist by death; he is accountable for what he did throughout his life. May God help him; otherwise it is very difficult. Let us be hopeful. God is looking for reasons to forgive more than to punish. Let us just not neglect, for the sake of God, obeying His commands and doing charity.
Death is the soul‟s leaving the body. If you can free yourself from the captivity of the body before death takes life away, then you will reach the secret of “dying before death” and will reach the understanding that death is the greatest pleasure.
What binds you to the body is the attachment to worldly pleasures. Break those bonds. Truth cannot be seen before leaving the prison of the body. Free yourselves from the captivity of feelings like hatred, ambition, and lust, and embark on the path to being human. Most of us are unhappy, constantly complaining of our troubles. Troubles are remedies for man. If you take troubles as your pleasure, they cease to be troubles.
Your life is being spent for this world; you are wearing yourself out for the sake of this world. See how your faces have wrinkled and your hair is turning white. All for this world! Why aren‟t you wearing yourself out for eternity, fulfilling what is expected from life? In the end, we will be called to account for how we spent ourselves.
We have embraced this world as if we will never die! We can‟t take our hands off it. We have forgotten that we will die tomorrow. We have turned this world into a hell for ourselves with fires of ambition, hate, and hatred. We are burning without having to wait for death. The troubles, the distresses that fall upon us, put us in hell while we are still in this world. We don‟t give ourselves a chance to be in heaven. We mind the smallest things for hours and lose sleep over them. If we truly believed everything is from God, we wouldn‟t be so worried about illnesses, we wouldn‟t grieve for hours over a small thing someone has said. We have turned this life into a hell for ourselves even before we die. Why shouldn‟t we live a peaceful life like heaven instead of hell? Let us believe in destiny, let us have faith in God, let us know God. Because God has created us to know Him.
This worldly life is short, you know. Then what is this rush of yours? What are the things you want to do, what are the things you can‟t finish? Don‟t look at what you can‟t do, look at yourselves; everyday you are growing older, everyday you are wearing out. Slowly, slowly you are expiring.
When we worship God, we say we will see its fruits after death; when we do an act of kindness, we say it will be recognized after death; when we do evil, we say nothing happens
in this world anyway and we will account for it afterwards; we will go to the Hajj when we are close to death, start doing our daily prayers, and then all will be forgiven. We have found the easy way!
Do we really have the time to grow old? The younger you are, the closer you are to God. Know this moment as your youth. Don‟t be left behind even by one step; look towards the future with hope. Because the younger you are, the easier it is to turn to the truth. As the proverb says, “A tree will bend while it is young.” Man does not fall in love after seventy. If we are to love the Creator, let us love Him while we are young.
Of the sound waves in the air, we call those we hear “manifest” and those we don‟t “hidden”. In reality, there is no such distinction. The beings of different dimensions are also like that. We call “hidden” what we don‟t see and “manifest” what we do. Those who see the manifest and the hidden as one know all existence as one due to the oneness of the Creator.
In order to be close to the Creator, we must find the most perfect being of creation. The most perfect creation is the human, and the most perfect being of mankind is Muhammad Mustafa. Let us study his life and manners well and try to imitate him because he is the ultimate station of humanity. He is the most perfect, the ultimate example we can imitate. If we adopt his manners, worship God as he did, live as he did, then we will have intimacy with God as he did, and we will reach God as he did.
When we feel curious about something, we want to learn about it constantly; but we learn in order to tell others. We buy and sell, but we don‟t benefit ourselves. We only take and give. Our job is to take and give. We are like the salesperson at a florist. We don‟t even think of smelling the flowers we sell and reaching their essence.
We have been infected with a disease of knowing and speaking about everything. We only speak but we do not live. Why don‟t we also try to tell by living?
If we don‟t feel the echo of what we say by mouth in our hearts, that is not prayer. If we went in front of a rock and shouted “God!”, even that would echo. Are our hearts harder than that rock that they do not echo? Perhaps it is not the fault of the heart. Perhaps we are unable to convey our voice to the heart. We cannot make our voice heard across this distance of one hand span, from our mouth to the ear. If you cannot hear your own self, how can you expect others to hear you? We don‟t think about hearing something ourselves; instead we always think about making others hear it. We don‟t hear what we say. We cannot make others hear something that we cannot make heard by our own ears. We don‟t sweat and no tears come from our eyes because we don‟t live what we say.
We cannot find the true path if we deceive ourselves. Let us be sincere to our inner selves. Let us listen to the voice coming from our hearts. Let us hear our own selves first. One‟s inner ear opens first to the voice of his own heart. One who does not hear himself, one who does not know himself cannot know his Lord.
It is nice to feel the inspirations that come to the heart; but every inspiration may not be divine. It is hard to distinguish what comes to the heart. Therefore, let us first seek refuge in God about these inspirations, and then check them against our Book and the sunnah (the sayings and practices of Prophet Muhammad).
Do you think sohbat (preaching, companionship) is easy? It is not. It passes through so many curtains and so many sieves before being brought to the benefit of us all. May God
protect all of us from speaking according to our own self-interests. May He make us from those who have hearts that receive inspirations from God for God.
God bestows His sohbat upon the servant He wishes.
Sheikh AbdalQadir Jilani‟s son, who had been educated on tasawwuf for many years, one day said to his mother:
“Tell my father that I would also like to say something to the people in the mosque and let them benefit from the knowledge I have learned.” The mother said to Sheikh Jilani:
“Our son has studied for so many years. Give him a chance,” and asked for permission. Sheikh Jilani agreed:
“Alright then, today I‟ll go shopping and he can talk and preach to people in my place.” His son rejoiced at this decision. He went to the mosque, sat in the chair, and started speaking from the text he had prepared. Even though he spoke on very subtle points which he thought had hardly been heard before, he noticed that nobody was interested. After a while, he saw that everybody in the mosque was sleeping and thought to himself:
“I‟ve put so much effort into this, worked on it for days, and yet nobody is paying any attention.” At that moment, Sheikh Jilani came in. A movement of awakening occurred among the people. His son immediately got down from the chair and said:
“Please father, I was unable to give anything to these people, you talk to them please.” The holy man sat in the chair:
“My children, today I went to the marketplace as my son was talking to you. I bought three eggs. I gave them to his mother. She put the pan on the fire, it became heated. She poured oil into it, „jisss!‟ ” and everybody was awakened.
“Then she hit two eggs against each other and broke them into the pan, „josss!..‟ ” At that moment, according to tradition, seven of those who were listening died.
This incident illustrates beautifully that the real essence of sohbat is not just information but that there is something else being given in those words.
There are books everywhere, filled with information. But there is also another kind of knowledge, another kind of science, which is the very truth itself. We call it the ilm al-ladunni (the divine knowledge, the knowledge from the presence of God). No matter how much we read, no matter how much we learn, we cannot acquire that knowledge. Acquiring that knowledge takes a special education. They don‟t put that knowledge in every container. In order for them to put it in, the container must have been cleansed and silvered.
Let us go to sohbat not just to learn knowledge but also to feel and live. Let your outer vision cease, let your hearts awaken. Let us see what is there in the depths. Give up the heights. Don‟t seek after reaching the heights and acquiring positions. Whatever there is, it is in the depths, in the lowlands, in being small.
If the outer eye closes, the inner eye opens. At the moment our outer vision is lost at a point, a spiritual channel opens. Then the eye no longer sees the point it was looking at. Another eye starts seeing.
Let us calm down a little and grow more still and quiet; let our outer vision be lost at a point, let our hearts awaken, let us see awake dreams.
When listening to the sohbat, let us open the ear of our hearts. Let us take what is in it for us, knowingly or unknowingly. Let us take a breath from that atmosphere.
If you put an uncharged wire next to a wire with a current, the same current becomes induced in the uncharged wire. It has this quality while it is a piece of wire; why shouldn‟t we also have the quality of being affected by the magnetic field around induced by the current passing through one of us? Why shouldn‟t we benefit from the spiritual fields of each other? This is a technique of communication. For this reason, sohbat gives a lot to people who are aware of it, if they know to keep quiet. If they don‟t, there is neither the speaker nor any listeners of the sohbat. That is, sohbat is made by the listener. And those who listen to the listener also benefit.
God created the body of man from earth, water, fire, and air. The body of Adam was made by angels but God made his face with His own hand of power. For that reason, Prophet Muhammad says: “Don‟t hit the face!” This literally means not to slap the face, and allegorically means not to hit anybody‟s face by pointing out their faults.
A student of a wise man to whom he had given great effort reached spiritual maturity and his inner eye opened. When he looked at the Book of Destiny, he saw that his master was destined for hell. Having panicked and thinking “How could have I been the student of such a person?” he went to his master:
“Master, you are destined for hell!” he said. His master responded:
“Son, we have been seeing it there for forty years, but we haven‟t lost hope in God.” Although the master had been seeing that in the Book of Destiny for forty years, he hadn‟t lost hope in God and continued enlightening people. What a perseverance, what a patience! If he had died at that moment, he would have gone to hell.
While the student was thinking, “Can anyone reach perfection with such a rebel? It means I had all the virtue and made all the effort!” his master told him to look at the Book again. When he looked, the student saw that the status of his master had changed and that he had been raised to a greatly exalted status. He asked for forgiveness with great regret and was bound to his master in such a way that they wouldn‟t be separated again.
A few days ago, I ran into a friend of mine whom I hadn‟t seen for many years. He had a daughter in seventh grade. She was a stutterer. Her friends teased her every day. The girl, who became totally unable to mix with people, swallowed a box of pills. So she ended her life for being teased excessively.
Unfortunately, making fun of people with defects and leading them into depression starts at a very early age. Do we ever teach our children that it is wrong to humiliate people by their defects? More importantly, do we tell them, “It is extremely bad to make fun of people with defects!”?
By humiliating people for their faults at the smallest occasion, one can neither live spiritually nor can make others live spiritually. Don‟t shame people; explain things with beauty. Shaming someone doesn‟t make you any wiser. Humiliating someone doesn‟t make you any greater.
God breathed of His spirit into Adam. When Adam‟s head received life, he looked towards the feet of his body of clay. Then life spread through his whole body. God gathered all the angels and told them to bow down to Adam. We don‟t comprehend this event. Let us
begin to open our eyes to the truth from this point. The human is such an exalted being that all angels bow down to him. But an angel named Azazil, teacher of the angels, refused to follow God‟s order, saying “I won‟t bow down to that piece of clay. I was created from fire and I‟m a superior being.” For this reason, God labeled him “satan” and assigned him to be against humankind until the Judgment Day.
Satan deceived Adam and Eve in heaven. He made them eat a fruit although they were ordered to abstain from it. They were then sent from heaven to earth for disobeying the command. The first to disobey was the angel named Azazil, and the second was our father Adam and our mother Eve. But Adam and Eve were forgiven due to their deep regret. The angel Azazil that we call “satan” was a very learned angel. He was the teacher of the angels. Despite the fact that he was so learned, he did not obey the command of God and fell into heedlessness.
O you who rely on your knowledge, you cannot know more than Azazil! If you rely on what you know, you will also join those who disobey. Don‟t rely on your knowledge, but seek refuge in God and obey the command.
O you who deal with sciences! First find your own place in science and see how powerless, how helpless, how small you are. What is it to you how big or small others are? This doesn‟t make you any better. Seeing them as small doesn‟t make you any greater. If you think and act like that, you will be a traveler on the wrong path.
Let us be vigilant against satan, who constantly struggles against us and intercepts us throughout our lives; and let us take care of our eyes, ears, and tongue in order to achieve success on the path to God. Let us free our minds from the captivity of self-interest. Let us seek refuge in God with a pure mind and a pure heart.
We say that we are on the path to God; but we forget that God is all-seeing, we cannot free our minds from self-interest. One cannot make any progress on the path to God before leaving the captivity of money and lust. People are certainly tested on this path with interest and lust. In order to pass these two tests, don‟t ever forget God and seek refuge in Him. Those who can free themselves from these two join those whom God loves. The hidden secrets of the truth are opened to them. Let us struggle with our selves, with our nafs, in order to be freed from these. Let us cleanse ourselves of negative qualities.
One who does not discipline the nafs (the self) cannot reach anywhere, cannot become a mature person. The disciplining of the nafs is an internal training that is done completely on one's own. Our Blessed Prophet, when returning from a battle, told his companions, “Now we are leaving the lesser jihad and going to the greater jihad; and that is our jihad against the
nafs.”
In the struggle with the nafs, what is needed before all is a clean heart. In order to achieve that, we must wash our blood so that the heart functions well. When the fuel of the car is contaminated, the engine cannot work properly.
We must protect our blood from getting contaminated first by eating what is halal (lawful and pure). Then, we must wash it by breathing the Beautiful Names of God. Just as the air we breathe in cleans the blood, if we breathe that air in with the Beautiful Names, we will have cleaned our blood spiritually.
We say “heart”; there is the physical heart that we know, and there is also the spiritual heart which we call gonul.
Purification takes place both physically and spiritually. The purified heart nourishes the organs and won‟t cause them to fall ill and fail.
The struggle with the nafs starts first by knowing it. We must know what it is, what it desires, and what it likes. First, we must know the duality within ourselves. We must be separated into two. We must be able to separate our spiritual side and our side that is full of bodily desires and pleasures.
What the nafs desires are: To be liked, fame, pride, hatred, jealousy, arrogance, and all kinds of bodily pleasures. The nafs that contains these negative attributes is called the nafs
al-ammara (the commanding self). If one starts fighting the nafs al-al-ammara and removes the
negative attributes slowly, he passes to the nafs al-lawwama (the blaming self). The nafs blames itself, realizes its mistakes, condemns itself, and feels regret. If this state continues, mistakes decrease and the nafs starts feeling love. The nafs, as it is freed from the negative attributes and useless desires, starts feeling love towards God and all the beings God has created. This causes an intimacy to occur within him, and some inspirations come to his heart. He feels intimacy from the inspirations and rises to the level of nafs al-mulhimah (the inspired self). After that, one passes to the nafs al-mutmainna (the contented self), whose faith has matured and whose soul has found tranquility and satisfaction in the heart. The nafs finds peace and satisfaction in its inner world, and the heart‟s eye and ear opens. The nafs at that level opens its eyes to the truth and starts seeing the realities. Then that person has joined to those whom we call awliya (friends of God). After the nafs al-mutmainna, there is the
nafs al-radiyah (the well-pleased self). This nafs is pleased with God and all His decisions and
the inflictions from Him. Afterwards, there are the nafs al-mardiyyah (the pleasing self) and the nafs al-safiya (the pure self). Let us find and read these topics from the books of tasawwuf.
We are very fond of learning, we learn as much as we can; but we don‟t apply what we have learned. We increase our responsibility every day. If we hadn‟t learned anything, if we had been a lone shepherd in the mountains, we would realize that all we see around us has an owner, all these events have an administrator, and we would bow in His presence with respect. That shepherd who doesn‟t know anything may have more faith than us. No one has ever read any books nor spoken any words of spirituality to him.
We know so much and what do we do? Can we bow down before God with a heart as pure as that shepherd‟s and with the awareness of what we are doing? This is the least a person of intelligence should feel while living in this world. He will look around, look into the sky, feel the presence of a Creator, and bow down to Him with respect. Sometimes he will feel love towards Him and sometimes awe.
The first condition for being a seeker of God is adab (manners, courtesy, respect). As the elders say, “Be in control of your hands, tongue, and lust.” As you embark on the path to God, you will obey His commands and will also grow beautiful with your adab. God loves the beautiful. The servant whom God regards as beautiful is beautiful with adab. No matter how much you work on your appearance before the mirror, a make-up with adab is needed to appear beautiful to God. How nice it is to enter the presence of God with adab while one is still in the spring of his or her youth and beauty.
God created man to be known. In order to know God, first it is necessary to know man. Do we really know man? We don‟t have to go very far. Let us know ourselves first...
Most people are half-conscious because their intellect works separately from their hearts. They can be called intelligent but not wise. One who has a sound mind and a sound heart is a wise person. The mind that cannot communicate with its heart is a half mind. Most of its decisions are interest oriented; it cannot be oriented towards mercy. It is good at calculating; but it cannot feel, it cannot see far.
God created man to be known. In order to know God, first it is necessary to know man. Do we really know man? We don‟t have to go very far. Let us know ourselves first. We must know ourselves not only by looking at our outer appearances in the mirror but by looking at our inner worlds. We will know by our feelings, senses, knowledge. If you see yourself as a being that just eats, sleeps, and reproduces, then unfortunately, you don‟t know man. All these qualities are present in animals as well. The difference between us and animals is our intellect, comprehension, and reason. So we must use our intellect. By using our intellect, we must understand this difference and find out why we have come to this world.
Since he is different from the other creatures on earth, man must live differently. Man of our age uses his mind to make more money and to live a better life. He desires consuming the best, possessing the best, and living in luxurious houses, in order to show off extravagantly. He strives to do the best of what the other creatures do. And he says this is a matter of taste. Through various conditionings, he captivates himself to eating, drinking, sleeping, and reproducing. Out of the fear of not being able to have something someday, he saves money, buys property, and makes investments. Other creatures don‟t have such worries, because they don‟t have a mind and thoughts. They instinctively eat when they find and seek when they cannot.
O man who has wisdom! You have come to this world to be different from other creatures. Your life must be different from theirs, because you are the most honorable, the most dignified of creation. If you notice, all of creation is given to your service and is serving you. But what are you serving? Eating, drinking, and lust?
When one feels that he will die someday, he starts thinking. The person who feels that he will die starts searching for the meaning of why he was born. If man was able to find the answer to this question on his own, there wouldn‟t be a need for God to choose and send His messengers to warn the people. God sent messengers from His own presence in order to inform us why we were born.
Life passes quickly; death catches man fast. God is just; He gives opportunities to people. First, He gives them intellect and makes them search. Then, He sends His messengers and says, “This is the truth you could not find.”
Through his intellect, man appreciates God‟s works of art but cannot find Him. He looks into the sky, at the stars, and says, “This cannot happen by chance.” Just as he would know when he sees a baby that the baby must have a mother and father, he says, when he looks into the skies, “This must have a creator, an owner.” He meditates on how the skies, mountains, and plains came into existence, and reaches the awareness that they were not created by chance. But he cannot reach the creator through his intellect.
Even an unlettered, unlearned man thinks, observes, and finds the existence of the Creator by his intellect. How about people like us who read and learn something new every day? We are responsible for practicing what we know. We compete in learning; but we don‟t put much effort into practicing. Let us not forget that learning more while not practicing what we know increases our responsibility. Let us work hard to apply what we have learned. How aware are we of what we have learned? Someone may be saying beautiful things, but he may not be aware of what he is saying. Maybe he knows, but he is not aware. Maybe he is aware, but he is not living.
One who has never been to Istanbul in his life may read a book on the city or listen to someone who has been there and be able to talk about it as if he traveled there.
A woman brought her child to Sheikh AbdalQadir Jilani once:
“O my master, I cannot keep this boy from eating too much candy. Please pray that he may be cured from this illness.” Sheikh Jilani responded:
“Bring this boy again forty days later; God willing he will be cured.”
Although the woman told him that she had come from far away, Sheikh Jilani told her to come forty days later.
The poor woman left and came back forty days later with the child. Sheikh Jilani told the boy:
“Son, don‟t eat candies any more, alright?” The child said okay. Then the mother couldn‟t help but ask:
“Was this all you were going to do? Why didn‟t you say this forty days ago?” Then Sheikh Jilani told her:
“When you were here forty days ago, I had just eaten honey. Honey has sugar in it. How could I tell this boy not to eat candies then? I haven‟t eaten anything sweet for the last forty days in order to be able to say this.”
Think about it. In order to tell the child not to eat candy, Sheikh Jilani doesn‟t eat anything sweet for forty days. This is why his words were influential. When he forbade something from others, he first forbade it to himself. These people don‟t forbid others what they haven‟t forbidden themselves.
On the path that goes to the divine love, one must first have tolerance. One who is not tolerant cannot love anyone. Neither can he fall into physical love, nor can he reach the divine love. When he attempts to love someone, he starts finding faults with that person. He makes the love of the other person die even before it was born.
Love starts with tolerance. If you don‟t have tolerance, you can neither love nor be loved. Those who have tolerance feel sympathy towards others; sympathy is a feeling of intimacy. But those who don‟t have tolerance feel antipathy. Every person God has created can be loved. If you know how to love, each person certainly has a side to be loved. When sympathy spreads to all sections of the society, everyone starts loving each other, and peace becomes established in society. When those who feel antipathy increase, peace becomes disrupted. If antipathy becomes strong in someone, hatred takes place. Hatred is a repulsive emotion. Just like love gives intimacy, hatred separates. Don‟t hate anyone. If you hate someone, you will start seeing others with hatred too. Don‟t let hatred enter into your world. Don‟t hate even those who have done the utmost evil to you. The cure for hatred and antipathy is mercy. Feel mercy for that person‟s lack of love, his being unable to taste love.
One day, on my way back from the Friday prayer, I experienced a different state. I became almost paralyzed. I started loving everyone on the streets. We were driving slowly in the car. My sense of love and compassion towards people surged, and I started looking at all of them with love. Most of the people passing by also looked at me carefully as if they had felt my love. Later, the same condition continued when I got out of the car and started walking. I was walking loving everyone. Those who felt my love, each one of them, looked into my eyes while they were passing by. While this was going on, people started greeting me. They didn‟t know why they were greeting me. If they did not know, who did know? Who is the one aware, who feels our love? I reached my destination greeting people. If you asked me who I met or who I recognized, I could not recognize anyone except for One!
As love increases, intimacy increases. It increases so much that the lover starts to exist in the beloved. People who love each other very much resemble each other unknowingly. Their attitudes and their behaviors become similar, and they start feeling the same thing at the same time. They become like copies of each other.
The person whose physical love increases greatly starts knowing the divine love if he acquires a little comprehension and knowledge. He loves the flowers, birds, and mountains, and he seeks the one who created them. He looks into the sky in amazement. Stars become his friends and the moon his confidant. The night dances in the full moon. Some fall in love with the sunrise, some with the sunset. Fall in love; fall in love consciously, with whatever it may be.
When your love reaches its climax, don‟t forget one thing! If you are not loving for God, your love will not be lasting. If you love someone for God, God also becomes a partner in your love. But this is not like a third person interfering between two people. God watches Himself from Himself between the two people, admires Himself from Himself, loves Himself from Himself. The greatest admiration of God is for Himself. God wants to know Himself most. God, who wants to know Himself, created man and the universe out of His love. He has been keeping the universe in motion with love, attraction, and rapture.
The soul yearns for its origin. This is the secret of love! God has said “I wanted to be known and created man. I breathed of my spirit into him!” Therefore, there is yearning in man‟s essence. Everything desires to reunite with its origin. Man also desires to unite with his Creator who is his essence.
If you find Haqq1 on a face, you will be seen on a thousand faces. That face will have
given birth to you; it will be a mother to you. Look into that face so that you lose yourself in it; get lost and find your origin. This will be your spiritual birth. Once you have achieved this second birth, you will always be alive. You will see yourself in people and in other things. That is, you will see the reflections of your essence. This is the image of Haqq. Don‟t ever forget the one who gave you that face, who gave birth to you from the heart!
Those who have the essence and potential of love within them but who don‟t fall in love cannot find peace and tranquility in their lives.
In real love, nothing is expected in return from the beloved. He is loved unconditionally. Should he obey everything you say, should he always praise you, should he always treat you kindly? This is not love!
Your essence is the essence of love; but society has made you uneasy. You have become sensitive to everything. This is not your fault. You have become this way due to close contact with certain kinds of people. Friends of God purify you from these things. A friend of God annihilates your bad habits; he cleanses and purifies you. He awakens your heart with his gaze, which is full of love and compassion. He desires your soul to be purified. He wants to make you a mirror in which he can see himself. A person who does not see himself this way cannot be in the station of irshad (guiding others to the right way). To be called a murshid (spiritual guide), a person must first have received a mission from God, and he must have prepared at least one such mirror and have seen himself in it.
The definition of “beautiful” varies according to time and society. People see as beautiful whatever society defines as beautiful. Everyone paints his own picture of what is beautiful himself. The definition of beauty is changing constantly these days. Beauty has moved from the face to other places. Love has decreased, pleasure has increased. One does not take pleasure from what is seen as beautiful; one falls in love with it. There is no pleasure taking in love. As love increases, pleasure decreases. There is intimacy in love. In the end, the lover becomes so close to the beloved that he becomes only his beloved, he sees himself as the beloved. No pleasure can reach the level of this feeling. Look at the face of the person you want to love. Humans are loved by their faces. Notice that lust is not felt towards the face.
We went to visit a friend of ours. His son was also present in our conversation; but he objected to whatever we said. He depressed us quite a bit. “Both you and my father are talking vainly. You don‟t even look right. You shouldn‟t be talking about religion and spirituality.” He was emitting hatred. I struggled inside myself to love him but I failed. I left the room to make wudu (ritual ablution). When I returned, the same situation continued; I couldn‟t even drink a cup of tea. I started praying in my heart, “O God, please let me love this servant of yours!” At some point, he smiled at me a little. I saw his teeth for the first time; he had extremely beautiful teeth. Then I loved his teeth. At the same moment, his behavior changed and he started acting politely. He walked us to our car when we were leaving. A few days later he came to our office saying, “I missed you; I cannot stand it anymore.” We had a good conversation and agreed on many things; so we became good friends.
Don‟t try to tell anything to someone you don‟t love; it won‟t work! Don‟t bother yourself thinking, “I will speak to him about spirituality; I will teach him the truths.” First know and love him, then tell.
You cannot resent someone you truly love. If his faults and mistakes are disturbing you, then your love has not matured. If your love matures, nothing he does will disturb you. Love that person as you love yourself. Are you disturbed by yourself? Another‟s smell may disturb you, but your own does not. If you love another person as you love yourself, you won‟t be disturbed by him.
God‟s Messenger once said: “One who does not love me more than he loves himself has not attained full faith.”
You may say that you haven‟t had the chance to love God‟s Messenger since you have never seen him. If you cannot see him, then love his heirs. Love the friends of God who have adopted his manners. If you cannot see such people either, then love the people you see for the sake of God.
Most of us feel sorry when we make a mistake; we feel regret in the presence of God and weep. We criticize and condemn our nafs (self). When this condition starts recurring frequently, we are at the station of nafs al-lawwama (the blaming self). We feel ashamed before God and weep. We say, “O my Lord, I cannot keep my promises, I have bad habits, I make mistakes even if I regret them; O God, please help me, please rescue me from this situation!” and feel deeply sad. This condition intensifies to such a degree that it spreads to our whole lives. We regret constantly. This feeling of remorse takes us towards an intimacy with God. We become cleansed of those bad habits unknowingly. Then a deep love starts to flourish inside us towards friends of God, God Himself, and His Messenger. Our quietness increases, our noisy states disappear; we grow more still and tranquil. To grow still is not to become pacified. A stream that runs with noise is usually not deep. It is not strong; one cannot generate power from it. Water must first be accumulated behind a dam and then made into a reservoir. There is power in tranquil water.
People always talk about growing and rising in spirituality, but the path to rising passes through dwindling. We cannot rise without growing small. We will grow so small that we will become like a newborn baby.
Gaws Azam AbdalQadir Jilani once made a decision to fast for forty days and not to
break his fast until someone from God came and put some food or drink in his mouth. This state continued for days. His nafs became such that a voice like a baby inside him started crying “I‟m hungry!” Why was it crying like a baby? We must notice this. This is the state of purity. The nafs in purity was crying. It was saying “O Gaws, you are showing coyness to God, but I cannot stand it anymore!” Those who were passing by heard that cry. They saw a man exhausted from hunger and immediately brought some food. Again, he did not touch the food. Risking death, he said, “I will not eat until someone puts it in my mouth.” What a coyness, what a delight is this? That food dried out; the fast went on. In the end, God assigned Khizr to the task and said,
“Go and put water in the mouth of my servant AbdalQadir, break his fast.” Khizr, the trainer of the awliya (friends of God), came and put water in his mouth.
“Alhamdulillah (praise be to God), my Lord responded to my coyness,” he said. After breaking his fast he asked, “Who are you?” and Khizr replied “I‟m Khizr.”
At times of tranquility and quietness, words drop into our hearts one by one. Meanings come drop by drop to the heart which is still, clear, and purified. We call this intuition or the sixth sense. It would be better to call it an inspiration coming to the heart. A name comes; then we meet that name a couple of days or a couple of months later. Then sentences come. Afterwards, a long sohbat comes. Even an ordinary letter has the sender‟s name on it. These inspirations also come with their identities. When you get an inspiration from an unknown source, don‟t ever implement it without precaution. When we feel uncertain about these inspirations coming to our hearts, let us do the prayer of Gaws Azam AbdalQadir Jilani:
“Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. La hawla wa la quwwata illa billahil aliyyil azim.” (In the name of God, most gracious, most merciful. There is no power or strength except through God, the exalted, the magnificent.)
If that inspiration is demonic, it will stop; if it is divine, it will continue. When we experience a condition or when a vision comes, let us immediately recite this prayer. This will help us distinguish its origin and will also protect us. The nafs that has reached this state is called nafs al-mulhimah (the inspired self). The nafs that has received inspiration corrects itself. It lives uprightly as it was commanded. After that, it becomes nafs al-mutmainna (the contented self). The events at this level are more special. Henceforth that person is called a
wali (a friend of God). His inner eye has been opened. He can see the trans-material.
There are two kinds of seeing and hearing. One is hearing with the ear of the body, the other is hearing with the ear of the soul. Reaching the true meaning directly by the physical ear and eye is called mushahadah (seeing, witnessing), which is something very difficult and heavy. It is to see all the beings in the trans-material realm with a naked eye without any filters. On the other hand, the eye of irfan (deeper knowledge) sees through filters. It filters what it receives and allows in only those that are needed. This is similar to seeing awake dreams. Sometimes, we doze off while sitting and see things as if in a dream. The closer you are to wakefulness, the closer your dream is to the truth. Let your sleep be not very deep, but instead rather light. Let us sleep as if we are awake, then our dreams will more clearly reflect reality.
The state between sleep and wakefulness is called yaqaza. Be there and find it, between sleep and wakefulness, between existence and nonexistence, between the beautiful and the ugly, between day and night. Find it in between whatever it may be. Find it together. When you find and catch something there in between, you start seeing awake dreams. What you see then is not a dream but the truth, the reality. But it is your reality. Don‟t ever say that that reality is for everyone. Don‟t attribute what you see to everyone. You will also be tested with what you see.
You already know most of the things we are speaking about. You may even know better than we do. We are giving you what you don‟t know together with what you already know. The package, the knowledge is the same; but within it there is what comes to you from us, which we have sensed and experienced.
I ask you, “Where are you?” You say, “I am here” and show your body. Are you really the body? Are we really the body or what is inside it? If so, then what is the difference between the dead and the alive? Let us do some math:
Living person – Body = What? Then we are not just the body.
I like one master‟s saying very much: “If they cut the body in two from the middle, will what you call „I‟ be also divided into two?” Will what you call “I” be halved and feel itself as a half? Perhaps it may feel the body as a half, but what you call “I” is a whole. It neither decreases nor increases. Hence, what you call “I” is not the body. If it is the body, you are ruined. You won‟t separate from it; you will be buried alive and will be ruined! Let us not be one of those people of the grave. You are thinking of yourself as the body and do not know how to separate from it. You are going with it when they bury it. Separate and save yourself! Why would you go into the grave with the body?
Given that we are on the path of God, let us learn how to separate from the body when the time comes.
Those who are stuck to the body remain in the world of the grave. They are also of two kinds: the people of paradise and the people of hell. The people of paradise wait in pleasure while seeing scenes from the paradise. The people of hell wait while smelling the scents of hell and seeing nightmares.
Flesh and bones are buried, but souls remain among us. They continue to live in another dimension, a different kind of life. And they do it freely, until the Day of Judgment. That world is called the world of barzah (the intermediate realm).
How should we leave this body? May someone pull us out of it with love so that we may be freed. May he take us from us; may he take the soul from the body. May he be our
Azrail (the angel of death). Whoever becomes Azrail before he dies, we hope that Azrail will
come in his appearance when he is dying.
Look so lovingly that he will take you instantly. If you look with a deep love, you will see yourself in the face of the person you are looking at. When you say, “I”, you will say, “You!” Once you are freed from this body, you will start leaving it often. You will go wherever you want and see places that you have never heard of. This is how “dying before death” occurs.
We are the ones who are really dead. We are in these graves of bodies. We are all in graves; one hand is tied to the other hand, arm to the arm, and foot to the foot. We are carrying this bag of flesh and bones on our backs. We cannot go where we think of; we have become captive to these weights.
Rumi saw that the secret of the universe is revolution. He reached the secret meaning of the Earth‟s revolution both around itself and around the Sun. He found the truth of revolution. At that moment he stood up and started whirling around himself...
One who does not make dawran (revolution) in his own world of tasawwuf cannot reach the truth. Man goes to truth through dawran. You should complete your cycle. You only make dawr (a periodic remembrance) for the dead but not for the alive. In fact, it is necessary to do the dawr of the alive.
Recall the first time you went to the door of spirituality with excitement. Over time, excitement decreases and we grow familiar. Familiarity veils. Let us return to the beginning in feeling and excitement; let us refresh ourselves.
You celebrate your birthday and wedding anniversary in order to feel the excitement of the first day you were born and the day you were married. Beginnings are very meaningful. Go back, remember your first feelings, and continue from where you left off. Don‟t lose your first excitement. Refresh yourselves or you will become stale.
You don‟t really desire God but instead the opening of your inner eye. You don‟t desire Him but instead the skills. Let us not lose our first motivation. Let us complete our cycle.
When Yunus Emre, was leaving the dergah (dervish monastery) of Tapduk Emre, he thought to himself, “I have served this place for so many years, and in the end I got beaten. Let me ask the master for permission to leave.” He left, and on the road he met two dervishes. They became friends and decided to continue on the road together. As they walked, they got hungry. One of the dervishes said a prayer and a tray of meals came from God. They ate and resumed their journey. After walking some more, they got hungry again. This time the second dervish said a prayer and again a tray of meals came. After eating and then walking quite a long distance, they turned to Yunus Emre, “Okay, now it‟s your turn.” Yunus thought, “For whoever‟s name these friends asked for, let me ask in the name of the same person.” This time a tray twice as big came. The dervishes asked in astonishment:
“How did this happen?”
“I prayed that may the meal come in the name of the person whomever these dear friends were mentioning in their prayers. Whose name did you give?”
“We gave the name of a man who is of a great spiritual station, Yunus Emre.” That is, one came for Yunus himself, and one for asking for that name. At the time, Yunus did not know who he was. Do you know yourselves? What if you have matured? Then don‟t say that you haven‟t matured; that may be a denial.
We wish that our inner eyes of kashf (discovery) would be opened, but ninety nine percent of us would go insane if that happened. The eye of the heart is the eye of irfan (deeper knowledge). It has filters. What is seen by the eye of irfan is not seen by the eye of discovery. The eye of irfan sees the whole world; the eye of mushahadah (witnessing) sees only where it looks.
No one who wants to become a wali (friend of God) can become one. This is because when you want to become a wali, you want to be something. Being a wali is not the goal. Wali means a beloved, a servant of God. You will be both a beloved, and also a servant. To become a beloved, you must first be a servant and then love God deeply. We don‟t know how to love God. Loving God according to our criteria is very difficult. You have seen His arts; you have believed in the unseen. You should then obey the commands brought by Muhammad Mustafa. You cannot be a servant of God without obeying His commands. You should then love God deeply. From eye to eye, essence to essence, you should love Him.
Having said to love from eye to eye, Veysel (Uwais al) Qarani fell into my heart. His real name was Uwais. He was born in the village of Qarn in Yemen. He never saw our Blessed Prophet. This was a blessed man who attained faith at an early age through inspiration without seeing or knowing.
At the same time, our Prophet, who had never seen nor heard of Uwais said, “I feel the scent of the Rahman from Yemen!” and “The best of those who are following me is a man named Uwais. Pass him my wish that he may pray for you. He has a mother who is ill. There is a white area on his body.” The words of God‟s Messenger describe very well what a blessed man Uwais al-Qarani was. May God make his prayers always with us, and may He forgive us for Uwais‟ sake.
Qarn was a poor village, and the poorest of that village were Uwais and his mother. He had lost his father at a very young age just like the Messenger of God. The people of the village were worshipping idols just like the people of Mecca.
Uwais‟ mother was given the good news in a dream while she was pregnant with Uwais. In that dream she saw a big star and several smaller stars rotating around it. His father also had a dream in which a rose tree was rooted on his chest and on each branch there were many red roses that people were coming one by one to smell.
When Uwais was just a little child, his mother‟s legs were paralyzed. Uwais was taking care of his mother and, at the same time, working hard to support the family. He had felt by inspiration that the idols his fellow villagers worshipped were useless and he objected to them. For that reason, his relationship with the villagers was tense. He had to endure heavy insults at times. The villagers who wanted to get rid of him gave him the job of shepherding the camels. It was during these hard times that Uwais gave his allegiance to the Prophet and was honored with faith. Over time, having acquired a deep knowledge of all the obligations of Islam, he became a mature person, and a beloved of God and His Messenger.
We always walk with our heads at the top. When we make sajdah (bowing down, prostration), the heart is elevated and the head lowered to the floor. This is the secret of
sajdah. The source of knowledge is in the heart. We get blood from the heart to nourish our
brains; why can‟t we nourish our minds with the meanings from the heart? We are fed through the eyes and ears. That is, we are fed from people and not from God. For this reason, if you are seeking the truth, don‟t believe everything you see and hear; believe your heart and what you receive from it.
Life is revolution. Without revolution, there is no life. Time is revolution. Without revolution, there is no time.
One revolution of the Earth around its axis makes one Earth day. One revolution of the Sun around its axis makes one Sun day. Time has various sorts. Day has various sorts. Which one should we follow: Earth day, Uranus day, Jupiter day, or electron day? One revolution of the electron around itself is one electron day.
Outwardly, time is relative. There is no absolute unit of time. In truth, there is only one time: the time of God, the Creator. And that time is the moment. The moment is not dependent on revolution. The truth is in the moment. The truth is in death. One who does not understand death cannot understand the truth. Death is the point where life ceases. The mystery is in this. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary that one must die before death. And, in order to die before death, one must abandon himself.
If we notice, time is of two sorts: One is the time formed by the revolution of an entity around itself and the other is the time formed by an entity‟s revolution around a main axis. The time formed by an entity‟s revolution around itself is the lesser time; the one formed by its revolution around another axis is the greater time. An entity that cannot revolve around itself cannot revolve around another axis. First, we need to revolve around ourselves and find the axis within ourselves. One who cannot find his own axis cannot find the main axis.
The force that makes the electron revolve around the nucleus is the same force that makes the electron revolve around itself. The force that makes the Earth revolve around itself is the same force that makes it revolve around the Sun. The gravitational attraction of the Sun makes the Earth travel on its orbit. What draws the Earth‟s path is the attraction of the Sun. That force draws the orbit as an ellipse. If it had drawn the orbit as an exact circle, there would be no climates. The orbit is drawn as an ellipse so that climates exist.
We have said that one who doesn‟t have his lesser time cannot have his greater time. This is what they call “time within time”. Some events happen in atomic time. That is, all is settled in one revolution of the electron. Would you like your matter to be done in an electron day, in an Earth day, or in a galaxy day? In which time will this job be done? The Divine Will chooses the time it wishes, or completes everything in a moment if it chooses to do so. In a dream, I was told that a job would be completed tomorrow; it was done two and a half years later. According to which type of day was that tomorrow?
If you cannot make sajdah in yourself, you cannot make sajdah in truth. The truth of
sajdah is the union of who makes it and to whom it is made. If you can reach the truth of sajdah, you will know who the One you are making sajdah to is. In fact, sajdah is to fill the
vessel of the brain from the well of the heart. When the blood moves to the brain, an expansion in the brain takes place. Stay for a while in sajdah so that your container may expand, both physically and innerly.
Nothing has its manifest and hidden sides different. The manifest is the shadow of the hidden. We ourselves are in shadows, so we think of the truth as a shadow. We see the shadowy side; shadows are not seen within a shadow. One cannot see his own shadow when he is sitting in the shadow of a tree. You need to go out of the shadow into the sun so that you can see your own shadow.
Mawlana Jalaladdin Rumi saw that the secret of the universe is revolution. He reached the secret meaning of the Earth‟s revolution both around itself and around the Sun. He found the truth of revolution. At that moment he stood up and started whirling around himself.
What he received through one hand, he gave through the other. When he started whirling, he found his own axis. After that, he found the main axis, and he turned around the main axis. That is the truth of the universe:
“One point, one revolution, one time!”
The secret of universe is a point; the secret of time is revolution. Without point, there is no revolution; without revolution there is no time. Hazrat Ali once said:
“The secret of the Qur'an is in the Fatiha; the secret of the Fatiha is in Bismillah; the secret of Bismillah is in the letter „B‟ at its beginning; and the secret of the letter „B‟ is at the dot under it. And that dot is me!”
There is time within time. There is being within being. Within an apple, there is an apple tree. And there is so much more. Everyone knows this but cannot reach the awareness of it.
We are people of the Earth. When the Earth turns its back to the Sun, it is nighttime. We should say, “The day has risen; the day has set.” Why do we say “The Sun has set”?
Some people speak, but do not know what they say. God speaks to people in three ways: In the first one, the speaker is aware, but the listener is not. In the second, the listener is aware, but the speaker is not. In the third, neither the speaker nor the listener is aware. Let me give an example: One day we were driving in the car and the time for zuhr (noon) prayer was almost finished; it was almost the time for the asr (late afternoon) prayer. One of the children playing on the street ran towards us and called, “The time for prayer is running out!” The child was unaware of what he did. He ran back and continued playing with his friends.
There is the channel of people, and there is the channel of God. Whichever one you tune to, you hear that one. It is not necessarily told directly to you; two friends may tell something to each other and then you will get the message.
God says, “For my servant I love, I become his eye with which he sees, his ear with which he hears, his hand with which he holds.” Those are the people whom He calls “my friends, my beloved.” To seek and find the beloved servants of God and to be present in their sohbat is the greatest blessing, the greatest wisdom we will experience in this passing life.
Those who believe that even a dust particle does not fly randomly and that where it will settle is calculated find the truth. However, this must not be merely an accepting of a statement but a belief from the heart. Chance must be eliminated. We didn‟t meet by chance.
We once met at a certain time, and today we are meeting again. The plans were made earlier for those who met in the past and are meeting again today.
In the descriptions by some spiritual masters, the sea is talked about as God, and in others it is the sun. Those who talk about the sea as God have reached the unity of God in the cycle of water, but they have not given any news on the sun.
What is the cycle of water? When the sun‟s rays hit the sea, the water heats and evaporates, and it starts rising. It rises into the sky and is then called a cloud. Some of these clouds, which rose from the same sea, are charged with positive electricity and some with negative. Then the positively and the negatively charged clouds start traveling in the sky, and at every occasion the negatives push each other and so do the positives. As the clouds with the same charge separate, the negatives find the positives and the positives find the negatives. They attract each other at their first encounter as soon as they approach one another and what we call lightning occurs. The lightning is absorbed by the earth; otherwise both clouds would be destroyed by the electric charge. To avoid this, the lightning formed between the clouds is attracted downwards. Then the clouds separate and resume their journeys.
Water, earth, sun, and air; these are the four poles. Air is the desires. What makes people move is their desires. Sun heats the water, and the water turns into vapor. Water rises above the air, above the desires. Water rises into the heavens by air.
Why does the positive and the negative electricity occur? Let the answer to this question be our motion, our desire, and let it raise us.
Then the clouds, by the blowing of the air, that is, by the wind, wander in the sky. Which way they will go was planned in advance. The clouds thunder with the joy and excitement of uniting. Lightnings occurs; the earth attracts the lightning. Then a tranquility, a quietness comes and the clouds weep. Tears from these clouds of love become a mercy for the earth and the earth absorbs that mercy. Plants emerge from the earth; earth gives birth to its children. Earth is satisfied with mercy; some drops of mercy unite on the surface and say, “Let‟s go to the sea!” Drops come together and form a stream. Streams turn into rivers and unite with the sea. Water completes its cycle.
The cause of all this movement of nature is the sun. What heats the water, burns the water, increases the desire, is the sun. The sun, which is everywhere, but which is not seen. The sun, which is the cause of all that happens.
Without the sun, there wouldn‟t be the cycle of water, nor the circulation of air, nor the winds. There would be neither life, nor night, nor day. There would be no change; without change, there would be no life.
Do beings have colors? Where do all the colors really belong to? Why are there no colors in the dark? Where there is no sun, there are no colors either. All the colors belong to the sun. The sunlight hits all beings, and it appears differently from each of them. What is manifest everywhere are, in fact, the colors of the sunlight. Your black eyebrow, white hair, green eye, are all from the sun. This is unity in multiplicity. Those colors are formed by separation; but if you unite them all, light occurs.
If you can free yourself from the differences of the matter, you will see everyone‟s face without colors. That is, sometimes you look at someone‟s face and it gets blurry; it is that appearance... You should unite all colors at one point and you will get rid of the colors.
If we take the spirit as the essence, we are dead. If we take the body as the essence, we are alive. When we were born into this world, our bodies obtained their freedom but our souls became imprisoned in the grave of the body. In regard to the spirit, we are currently in the grave, dead; we have entered into the grave and are waiting for the moment when the spirit will leave the body and be free. Would the spirit ever wish to come back once it leaves the body and is born?
You have been born from the womb of your mother, but you cannot manage to be born from yourself. Every birth needs a midwife. For the birth of the spirit, a midwife without hands and feet is needed. A midwife with attraction. One who takes you from yourself with his attraction.
We must look at the spiritual masters with a receiving eye. A receiving eye is an eye which gets what it looks at. To look with a receiving eye is to see the person one is looking at as himself; it is to look by losing oneself. To lose oneself means to tune to the channel of God. What attracts the spirit is in fact the attraction of God. And this is found with the friends of God.
Before the time comes, birth cannot happen, the spirit cannot leave the body. Every birth has its time; if the birth starts before it is due, a miscarriage occurs.
To be able to feel the inspirations coming to the heart, it is necessary to obey the commands. Vision does not open before the hearing opens. If a visitor of ours comes calling from the door, we first hear him and then we see him.
One who does not listen to his heart, one who does not tie his ear to his heart, cannot hear what comes to his heart. One who is unable to descend the distance of one hand span between the ear and the heart cannot reach heaven. And we are trying to rise to the seven layers of heaven! Here are your seven layers, a road of one hand span. To pass those seven layers, you need to be freed from the five senses and the six directions.
As you descend, you rise. Our heart is below and our mind is one span above it. This mind always thinks of rising. It doesn‟t think of going down even once. If it had gone down... It doesn‟t know that one can rise to the highest heaven by the heart.
Listen to your heart; fix your eyes at a point and look into your heart. One cannot see and hear through the heart until the eyes are lost at a point. And one who does not see by his heart does not have his truth. A clean blood is needed to see by one‟s heart. The heart which has unclean blood works like an engine which has contaminated fuel. It malfunctions. Blood gets contaminated by eating haram (impure, unlawful) food, looking at what is forbidden, and seeking wealth through unlawful means. Let us wash our blood by eating what is halal (lawful and pure) and breathing in the Beautiful Names of the Creator.
When our Prophet was raised to the heavens (miraj), Gabriel had to leave him at a certain point; he couldn‟t continue farther.
The believer lives the miraj in his prayer, if he can abandon the world. And the mind of the believer is his Gabriel. When one has left the mind, there are no memories. Those who see Haqq2, those who reach Haqq, have no memories.
They ask how they will feel the pleasure of the Divine Beauty they will see. There can be no mention of pleasure once one sees the Divine Beauty.
Everything can be learned but not Haqq; only the road that goes to Him can be learned. At the end of the road, He can be heard and seen, but He cannot be learned. Haqq cannot be described; He can only be distinguished. Distinction does not take place in shape; that is, the shape does not change, but a transformation takes place.
In fact, what changes is your looking and perception. You are the one who changes. He is manifest openly, but we cannot see. If a bottle is shaken, one can distinguish the bottle and the water in it.
God says, “For my servant I love, I become his eye with which he sees, his ear with which he hears, his hand with which he holds.” Those are the people whom He calls “my friends, my beloved.”
To seek and find the beloved servants of God and to be present in their sohbat (companionship, lecture) is the greatest blessing, the greatest wisdom we will experience in this passing life. If we seek sincerely, if we wish with good intentions, if we look with yearning from the bottom of our hearts, we see a distinction which has no shape, no colors, and no description. Our hearts know, our hearts recognize it. We shouldn‟t wait for death. If all were to be known after death, why would God say, “I created human in order to be known”; let us think on it a little.
We have talked for quite a while now on why we came to this world, why we were created. God who wanted to be known created the human. If there is being known, then there is also knowing. And in between knowing and being known, there is God. Both are within the human being. Both the known and the knower are in human... Human is the place of manifestation of God.
Spiritual pleasures occur as a result of practice. Salah (prayer) first feels difficult and gives distress. If we continue praying with insistence, we get rewarded with a spiritual pleasure from God. But after a while that pleasure also ceases; we perform the salah because it is our duty, and we become happy by being in the presence of God.
Do you have pride and conceit? Do you enjoy being praised? Do you lie when you feel in a difficult situation? Do you enjoy gossip? Do you eat things that are haram (unlawful to eat, or obtained through unlawful means)? Do you think, “let me pocket this” where no one can see you? Do you like causing rifts among people? Are you lazy? Do you believe and have faith in God? Do you love God? Do you do what he wishes? We must ask these questions to ourselves, and according to the answers given and the diseases identified, we must struggle against our nafs (self) and discipline it. We need to become mature humans.
There is no such thing as the dead. They wander around in the cemetery and in the intermediate realm (barzah). Can someone who wanders around be called dead? They are more alive than you and me; we are the dead! They are free; they can be anywhere they