TAM ÝLMÝHÂL
SE’ÂDET-Ý EBEDÝYYE
Here is the key to the treasure of
eternity:
Bismi’llâhi’r-rahmâni’r-rahîm.
Saying the A’űzu (A’űzu billâhi
min-ash-shaytân-ir-rajîm) and the Basmala (Bismillâh-ir-Rahmân-ir-Rahîm),
I begin to write the book Se’âdet-i Ebediyye (Endless Bliss). Abdullah ibni
’Abbâs (radî-Allahu ’anh) says, Rasűlullah (Muhammad [sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa
sallam]) declared, “Respecting the Qur’ân is beginning to read it by saying the A’űzu,
and the key to the Qur’ân is the Basmala.” I, therefore, request
my readers to begin our book by saying these two phrases. Thus, you will have
embellished the book with two ornaments and will have attained the blessings
that have been accumulated in these two treasures for the Beloved to get! Those
who want to approach Allahu ta’âlâ must hold tightly to the A’űzu, and those
who fear Him must throw themselves upon the A’űzu. Those with many sins have
trusted themselves to the A’űzu, and fugitives have looked for relief in the
A’űzu. Allahu ta’âlâ commands His Prophet in
the 97th ayat of surat an-Nahl, “Say the A’űzu when you are to read the Qur’ân.” It
means, “Pray for yourself by saying ‘I trust myself to Allahu ta’âlâ, take
refuge in Him, trust myself to, and cry out and wail Him against the devil, who
is far from Allah’s mercy and who, incurring His wrath, was cursed in this and
the next worlds.’ ”
Our Prophet (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa
sallam) has declared, “When the teacher says Basmala to the child and the child repeats
it, Allahu ta’âlâ has a voucher written down lest the child and his parents and
his teacher go to Hell.” Abdullah ibni Mas’űd
(radî-Allâhu ’anh) says, “He who wants to escape from the 19 angels who will
torment him in the next world, should say the Basmala.” The Basmala consists of
19 letters. It is the Basmala
that was written first in the Lawh-i mahfűz[1]. It is the
Basmala that descended to Hadrat Âdam first. Muslims will pass the Sirât[2] with the help of the Basmala. The Basmala
is the signature on the invitation to Paradise.
Here the meaning of the Basmala is “I am
able to write this book with the aid of Allahu ta’âlâ who has done favours to
every being by creating it, by keeping it in existence and by protecting it
against annihilation. The ’ârifs[3]
knew Him as the ilâh. Beings found food through His mercy. Sinners are saved
from Hell through His pitying.” Allahu ta’âlâ has begun the Qur’ân al-Karîm
with these three names of His because man has three states, namely his state in
the world, in the grave, and in the Hereafter. If man worships Allahu ta’âlâ,
He facilitates his works in the world, pities him in the grave, and forgives
his sins in the Hereafter.
Alhamdulillâh! If any person thanks any other person in any manner, for anything, at any place, at any time, all this thanks belongs to Allahu ta’âlâ. For He is the one who always creates, trains and develops everything, who causes every favor to be done, and who sends every goodness. He alone is the owner of strength and power. Unless He gives us thought, nobody can will or desire to do good or evil. After man receives the thought, he can will to do something, but unless Allah wills and gives strength and opportunity to that thought, nobody can do one bit of kindness or evil to anybody. Everything that man wants, happens when He wills and decrees it. Only what He wills happens. He sends us the thoughts of doing good or evil for various reasons. When His born servants (men) whom He pities wish to do evil, He does not will or create it. Goodness always arises from such people. He, too, wills to create the evil wills of His enemies, with whom He is angry. Since these evil people do not wish to do something virtuous, evils always arise from them. In other words,
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[1] In pre-eternity, Allahu ta’âlâ knew
everything that would happen in the world. He explains His knowledge of
eternity and His eternal word to angels at a place called Lawh-i mahfűz. Angels
do what they learn from the Lawh-i mahfűz.
[2] An explanation of the bridge of Sirât
will be given later on.
[3] Great scholars who comprehended through their hearts the knowledge about Allahu ta’âlâ and his attributes. For one to be an ’ârif, it is necessary to make progress and be promoted in the way of tasawwuf. Tasawwuf will be explained later on.
all people are a
means, a tool. They are like the pen in the writer’s hand. Only using their Ýrâda-i juz’iyya (partial
will) that has been bestowed upon them, those who will goodness earn
blessings, while those willing evil to be created become sinful. Allahu ta’âlâ
willed in pre-eternity to create the deeds of people through their will power.
Creation of these deeds through people’s will power means that they are created
by the pre-eternal Ýrâda-i ilâhî (Divine Will).
May all prayers and blessings be upon
Muhammad Mustafa (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam), who is His Prophet and the
most beloved of His born servants, and who is in every respect the most
beautiful and the most exalted of all the mankind that ever lived. May prayers
and blessings also be upon the highest of people, his Ahl-i Bayt, on
his Ashâb (Ridwanullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaihim ajma’în) and on those who love them and
follow them.
I received my elementary education at
Rashâdiya Numűna School in Ayyűb Sultan, in my home town of Istanbul. I
acquired religious training and religious knowledge in my home and in
elementary school. As I was beginning my education in Halýcýođlu Military
Junior and Senior High School, the Qur’ân al-Karîm and religious lessons were
being abrogated from schools. None of our teachers taught religious lessons. I
regarded my teachers as great, mature, and I wanted to respect them highly. But
I was disappointed to see them attacking my sacred beliefs. I vacillated
between belief and disbelief. Pondering with my young brain, I scrutinized all
the information which I had learned as religious knowledge. I saw that all of
it was useful, good, valuable, and I couldn’t sacrifice any of it. I remained
between these two influences for six years. My friends, who and I had been
fasting and performing ritual prayers of salât a few years earlier, were
deceived by the slanders of the teachers and newspapers, and they gave up
worshipping. Left alone, I was all the more confused. I wondered if I were
wrong, if I were on a wrong path. In 1929, I was eighteen years old and in the
last year of high school. It was the Qadr Night, and we had gone to bed. I
couldn’t sleep. I jumped out of my bed, confused. I was alone in my thoughts,
in my îmân (belief); I was uneasy; I was utterly exhausted. I went out into the
yard. The sky was full of stars. Against the shrine of Hadrat Khâlid ibni Zayd
Abű Ayyűb al-Ansârî, the sparkling waves of the Golden Horn sounded as if to
tell me. “Don’t worry, you are right.” I sobbed and cried. I entreated my
Allah. “Oh my Allah! I believe in Thee, I love Thee and Thine prophets. I want
to learn Islâmic knowledge. Protect me from being deceived by the enemies of my religion!” Allah accepted this innocent and sincere supplication of mine. I dreamt of Hadrat Abdulhakîm-i Arwâsî, the treasure of karâmats and ma’rifats[1], an ocean of knowledge, and later I met him in a mosque. He welcomed and invited me. While I was in the Faculty of Pharmacology, I attended his lectures in Bâyezid Mosque three times a week. Afterward, I would go to his home. He pitied me. He taught me sarf, nahw (Arabic grammar), logic and fiqh (commands and prohibitions of Islam). He read to me and and taught me many books. Also, he had me subscribe to the French newspaper Le Matin. He taught me Arabic and Persian. He had me memorize “The Eulogy of Amâli” and The Poems of Khâlid-i Baghdâdî. His company was so sweet, so useful that many a day I stayed with him from morning till midnight. Today, the moments which I live recollecting those days in his company are the happiest moments of my life. Until 1936, while a tutor in the Military Medical School, I both attended the Masters of Science classes of the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and at the same time gathered knowledge and ultimate benefits from the preachings and from the company of that Islâmic scholar. The dirt of disbelief in my heart was cleared off. I realized that Islâm was the one and only source of happiness both in this world and the next. I saw that the persons whom I formerly had deemed great were like children when compared to Islamic scholars. I understood that some of the things which they described as knowledge were quite far from knowledge, science, and were nothing but enmity against Islâm, full of grossly made-up plans and slanders. After 1936, when I was in charge of Mamak Chemical Laboratory, he told me to learn German and read The Maktűbât of Imâm-i Rabbânî ‘quddisa sirruh’ continuously. At every opportunity I came to Istanbul and picked pearls and corals in that ocean of ma’rifat. After the setting of that sun of knowledge, I was accepted to the private class of his blessed son, the virtuous Sayyed Ahmed Makkî, the Mufti of Scutary and later of Kadýköy. With great mercy and proficiency, he trained me in fiqh, tafsir (interpretation of the Qur’ân), hadîth, ma’qűl (knowledge which can be acquired by means of the intellect, i.e. science), manqűl (religious knowledge), usűl (methods and basic facts), furű’ (a branch of Islamic knowledge) and he graduated me with full authorization
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[1] Knowledge pertaining to Allah’s Person.
on Sunday, 27th Ramazân
1373 [1953 A.D.].
After 1947, during my teaching career, I
strove to pour my knowledge, which was like a drop of water from an ocean, into
the souls of the youth, and to instill this knowledge in their fresh brains
blooming like buds. From the light of îmân (belief) burning inside me, I wished
to throw a spark into the pure heart of each of them. Alhamdulillah! Allah gave
me the facilities, and in 1956, it fell to my lot to publish the first volume
of Se’âdet-i
Ebediyye, which I had prepared after many years of hard
work. It was only a few pages, but it was filled with very useful information
as is the sweet and healing honey collected from fragrant flowers.
That little book, prepared according to
the Hanafî madhhab, had not been advertised in newspapers or magazines, nor had
it notices all over walls. The book had been delivered to the shelves of a
small corner bookshop. Noble-souled and faithful youngsters, who would not
depart from the luminous and auspicious way of their ancestors, who always
yearned to learn their faith, looked for this little book and found it. They
rushed on it, and, in a short time, not even one copy was left.
The innocent children of those martyrs and
ghâzis (fighters for Islâm), who many years ago had won the war of independence
by fighting like infuriated lions against the enemies who attacked their
motherland, today also, are following their fathers’ path with the same love
and faith. And, likewise, they are striving to protect their îmân as well as
their independence against every sort of aggression. They run towards right,
reality, and truth. They cling to the Qur’ân al-Karîm.
History reveals to us the cruelties and
evil ways of kings and the dictators who attacked Islam in order to conceal
their massacres and perfidy, and who wanted to deceive everyone for the sake of
their own comfort and pleasure. Cruel enemy commanders and bigoted armies of
the crusaders were always thwarted by Muslim Turkish heroes. Being unable to
pass over the îmân-filled chests of our ancestors, they fled, leaving their
weapons and their dead behind.
History shows again that Islam has been
the inspiration for developing more intellectual and more courageous people,
who in turn develop superior, more up-to-date, and more scientific means of war
and other civilized apparatuses. The irreligious have always been left behind
in knowledge, in science, in arms and in courage. Every Islâmic army succeeded
when the Sharî’at (commands and prohibitions of the religion) was followed in
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every respect, but a relative decrease in
success was witnessed in the soldiers and the commanders of the same army when
they deviated from religion. The establishment, the improvement, the decline
and fall of every Muslim State has always been closely related to their
adherence to the religion.
Irreligious dictators have bloodstained
their hands and dominated lands, and by oppressing the people with cruelty and
instigation and by employing them like animals, they have established heavy
industries of war, tremendous factories, made superior weapons and threatened
the world. Yet, in the course of history, they all quickly fell and have always
been remembered with curses. Their traps, hastily set like a spider’s web, were
blown away by even the slightest power, like the fresh morning breeze. They
left behind nothing for humanity. And now, however great and powerful the
states which are based on irreligiousness might seem, they will certainly fall;
cruelty won’t endure. Such disbelievers are like a match, which will flare up
suddenly and set fire to light things such as straw and sawdust. It may burn
the hand and probably destroy houses, yet it will soon go out and perish
itself. As for those administrations based on Islam; they are like the
radiators of a central heating unit. The radiator does not burn anything. By
heating the rooms, it gives comfort to people. Its heat is not excessive or
harmful, yet it possesses a source of heat and energy. Likewise, Islâm is like
a useful source of energy. It nourishes and strengthens individuals, families
and societies clinging to it.
The mercy, the favors, and the blessings
of Allâhu ta’âlâ are so great that they are actually unlimited. Because He felt
pity for His born servants, He revealed through an angel to His Prophets the
good deeds to be done and the evil deeds to be avoided. He also revealed the
holy books wherein His orders were sent to them so that they could live on the
earth brotherly, happily and in comfort, and thereby attain eternal happiness,
and the endless blessings of the Hereafter. Only the Qur’ân al-karîm has
remained uncorrupted, but all the other books were changed by malevolent
people. The more you observe the fards (obligatory duties) and harâms
(prohibitions), that is, the principles (ahkâm) in the Qur’ân al-karîm, the
happier and the more comfortable a life you can lead, no matter whether you are
an atheist or not, a believer or not, aware or not. This is similar to the fact
that a good medicine enables everybody to get rid of his pain and problem, if
it is used. That is why those who are non-Muslims, or even
atheists, and some nations that are the
enemies of Islâm are successful in many of their businesses, and lead a very
happy and comfortable life by working in conformity with the laws in the Qur’ân
al-karîm. On the other hand, many people who claim to be Muslim, and who do
their worships as a mere formality, are living in misery and discomfort because
they do not follow the divine rules and the high morality written in the Qur’ân
al-karîm. To attain eternal happiness in the Hereafter by following the Qur’ân
al-karîm, it is necessary to believe in it first, and then to follow it
consciously and intentionally.
Those who are against Islâm because of
ignorance, learned from the bloody, dismal experiences they had had for
centuries that unless their îmân was demolished, it would be impossible to
demolish the Muslim people. They attempted to misrepresent Islâm as hostile
towards knowledge, science and bravery, while, in fact, it is the protector of
such things, encouraging every kind of progress and improvement. They aimed at
depriving the young generations of knowledge and faith, thus shooting them on
the moral front. They spent millions for this purpose. Some ignorant people,
whose weapons of knowledge and belief had been rusted and who had been seized
by their ambitions and sexual desires, were easily destroyed by these attacks
of the enemies. A section of them took shelter behind their posts and
professions, pretended to be Muslims, disguised themselves as scientific men,
authorities and religious scholars, and even, protectors of Muslims, while
continuing to steal the belief of innocent youngsters. They misrepresented evil
as talent, and irreligiousness as a virtue, a current fashion. Those who had
faith, îmân, were called fanatics, bigots, retrogressive. Religious knowledge
and the valuable books of Islâm were said to be reactionary, retrogressive and
bigoted. By imputing the immorality and dishonourableness, which they
themselves had, to Muslims and to great men of Islâm, they strove to slander those
noble people and sow discord between children and their fathers. In the
meantime, they spoke ill of our history, attempted to blacken its shining and
honourable pages, to blemish the accurate writings, to change the events and
proofs of it and sever the youth from faith and belief so as to annihilate
Islâm and Muslims. In order to untie the sacred bonds which placed into young
hearts the love of our ancestors, whose fame and honour had spread throughout
the world, owing to their knowledge, science, beautiful morals, virtue and
bravery, and to leave the youth deprived of and alien to the maturity and
greatness of their ancestors, they
attacked hearts, souls and conscience. In fact, the corrupted Muslims could not
understand that as Islâm was becoming weaker and as we got further away from
the path of Rasulullah (Muhammad) ‘sall-Allâhu alaih wa sallam’, not only were
our morals corrupted, but we also gradually lost our superiority in making
every kind of means, and in understanding contemporary knowledge, which this
century requires. We could no longer maintain the accomplishments of our
ancestors in military defence, in science and arts, instead we got worse. Thus,
these masked disbelievers tried, on the one hand, to cause us to remain behind
in knowledge and science, and, on the other hand, they said, “Islâm caused us
to remain behind. In order to catch the Western industries, we have to abolish
this black curtain and get rid of the oriental religion, laws of the desert.”
In this way, they demolished our material and spiritual values, and brought
upon our country the harm which the enemies outside had been wishing for but
had not been able to do for centuries.
Allah has given all people numerous
benefits and blessings. As the greatest, the best of these, He has sent
prophets and messengers and has shown the way to eternal happiness, declaring
in sűra Ibrâhîm, âyat 7 (interpreted as follows): “If you appreciate the value of My gifts and if you use them
as I command, I will increase them. If you don’t appreciate them, if you abhor
them, I will take them back and torture you vehemently.” The
reason why Islâm has been in such a deplorable state for a century – especially
recently, it has gone quite far away, leaving the world covered with the
darkness of disbelief and apostasy – is solely because of Muslims not
appreciating the blessings of Islâm, and thereby turning away from them.
As Allahu ta’âlâ employs those whom He
loves as intermediaries for auspicious deeds, so He employs at evil places
those who bear hostility towards Him. Those who cause loss of Islamic blessings
are of two groups:
In the first group are disbelievers who
divulge their disbelief and hostility. They strive to demolish Islam by using
all their armed forces, their means of propaganda, and political tricks.
Muslims know them and struggle to be superior to them.
The second group of disbelievers refer to
themselves as Muslims, pretend to be Muslims, introduce themselves as religious
men and try to turn Islam into a shape conformable to their opinions, pleasures
and sexual desires. They want to make
up a new religion under the name of Islâm.
They try to prove their words correct through tricks and lies, and deceive
Muslims with their fluent expressions. Yet, although most Muslims recognize
these enemies from some of their statements and activities intended to destroy
Islam, because they are very well organized, some of their sayings have become
current and widespread among Muslims. The Islamic faith has been gradually
degenerating and turning into the shape planned by these disbelievers.
Also, some others say, “In order that we
may survive in the present century, we should be westernized ourselves
altogether. This statement has two connotations. Firstly, it means learning and
adopting what the Europeans have invented in science, art, in the mediums of
improvement and progress, and to strive to utilize them, as Islâm commands. I
explained in some parts of my books with documents that this is fard kifâya to
learn. As a matter of fact, a hadith of Rasűl-i akram (the Prophet) states: “Hikmat (that
is science and art) is the lost property of the Muslims. Let him take it wherever he
finds it!” Yet, this is not following the Europeans; it is
finding and acquiring knowledge and science even from them and striving to be
superior to them. The second type of westernization involves abandoning the
righteous and sacred ways of our ancestors; accepting all the traditions,
customs, immoralities, and obscenities of the West; and also accepting their
irreligiousness and idolatry, and thus convert mosques into churches or museums
of ancient art, which is the most dismal stupidity of all. Calling Islam an
“oriental religion,” a “backward religion” and the Qur’ân “laws of the desert”
while at the same time referring to idolatry and the mixing of music with
worship as “western, modern, and civilized religion” is in fact an act of
abandoning Islâm, turning to Christianity, and worshipping with musical
instruments.
The enemies of Islâm should know very well
that the noble blood circulating in the veins of these people will not be
westernized in this sense, neither today nor in the days to which they look
forward to. And our people will not become communists or let the sacred beliefs
of their ancestors be trodden underfoot.
Another force trying to demolish Islâm is
those books and magazines which appear to be written for the purpose of
spreading Islam and silencing the enemies of the religion. But when these
religiously ignorant people, who know nothing about
îmân and Islâm and who have not
comprehended the reality, the inner spirit, the delicacy of tasawwuf (sufism),
become authorities in worldly affairs, they assume themselves to be religious
scholars; and they write religious books in order to propagate the things which
they wrongfully consider to be Islâm, or solely to earn money out of it. It is
seen with utter grief in these books of theirs that they cannot understand the
words of great men of religion, and that, as a result, they write most of the
delicate information erroneously. They introduce some lâ-madhhabî people and
religion reformers, who have sprung up in some countries, as Islâmic scholars,
âlims. Their books are translated and presented to youngsters as a source of
religious knowledge. But, in fact, these books are destructive and divisive as
a result of being written by those who are ignorant and have heretical ideas.
They ignorantly and foolishly slander our brothers in order to prevent the
publication and distribution of our books, which teach and elucidate how
harmful, corrupt, and disgraceful they are. Also, we prevent them from making
money, and from exploiting millions of people. We hear that those, the
hypocrites, who sell the religion for worldly benefits claim that we have been
practicing tarîqat, which is an ugly slander againsts us. They try to make us
guilty in front of the law so that our books will be prohibited officially.
However, nothing has been written about the tarîqat in any of my books. Yes,
there is information about the tarîqat in my books, but these are translations
from the books of some scholars of tasawwuf (sufism), who lived in previous
centuries. Or, rather, we too are trying to read and understand them. I have
never had any relations with a tarîqat or a shaikh.
It is true that I myself saw a real
Islâmic scholar. I had the honor of learning the essence of Islâm and the
highest Islâmic knowledge from him. He was like an ocean of Islamic, scientific
and historical knowledge. Seeing his great moral character, which originated from
Islâm, I had enormous respect for him. I never heard this noble person say
anything to imply that he had to do with being a shaikh or murîd. He was
constantly warning us that some practitioners of the tarîqats, whose names had
been being heard of before and after the closing of dervish convents, were not
following Islâm or the knowledge of tasawwuf, and that they were dangerous.
Today, books of tasawwuf are being written in many languages throughout the
world. Under the guise of sufism, it is a crime to derive personal benefits
from the false and bad practices that are not tasawwuf. It is not a crime to
write tasawwuf books, or to praise the
knowledge of tasawwuf. The âlims of tasawwuf rejected the owners of this type
of tarîqat and informed people that they were thieves of religion and that they
were ruining Islâm itself. I, myself, say in my books and lectures, “A Muslim
should not violate the law. It is haram to cause fitna.” Would a person
advocating this do anything against the law? It is understood, then, that those
jealous people, who are my slanderers, mistook me as a munâfiq (hypocrite) like
themselves. They are absolutely wrong. I do not use the word “munâfiq” here to
mean kâfir, but rather I mean those who are two-faced and whose interiors are
not the same as their exteriors. Also, it is written in the book Hadîqa, in
the section on the âfats (harms) of the tongue, that this type of nifâq
(speech), which is done by talking or with the tongue, is not kufr (disbelief),
yet it is haram. These poor people butter the bread of the enemies of Islâm on
purpose or inadvertently and cause more harm to Islâm than their oppressors.
The unsuspecting Muslims who read their books and booklets, or magazines,
especially the innocent youngsters thirsty to learn the sacred faith of their
noble and brave ancestors, deem them religious scholars and embrace their
aberrant, wrong writings, supposing them to be embodiments of faith and belief.
The ignorant people who exploit our holy dîn as a tool to earn money, position,
rank and fame, in short, who try to gain worldly advantages, are called Ulamâ-i sű’, that
is, yobaz (a seditious person), ill-natured scholars. These ill-natured people
and those pseudo-scientists, that is, zindîqs who pose as scholastic scientists,
misrepresent true scientific knowledge with their own treacherous ideas. Thus,
they try to demolish and pull down Islâm. These people hurt this nation a great
deal. They instigated enmity between brothers. They caused civil wars. The
Islâmic religion commands us to be united, to love and help one another, to
obey the government and the laws (not to cause fitna, that is, anarchy), to
take care of and to protect even the rights of disbelievers, and not to hurt
anybody. Our ancestors sacrificed their worldly comforts and advantages, and in
order to protect the faith and belief of their descendants, they wrote precious
books and left them as an inheritance to us. We should learn our holy faith by
reading the sincere and virtuous books written by the blessed hands of our
famed and honourable ancestors, whose beautiful morals, justice, diligence, and
whose records in art, science, and bravery are written about in shining letters
in the world’s history. They had also shed their blood for our faith, lest
the enemy’s hands might touch it, and they
left all these precious writtings in their original purity as an inheritance to
us. We have to be very careful not to be deceived and not to let our sacred
îmân be seized by reading the poisonous propaganda of irreligiousness veiled in
adorned words written by enemy pens! Let me also inform you that Hadîh-i
Sharîfs and explanations of Islâmic ’âlims (rahmat-Allâhi ta’âlâ ’alaihim
ajma’în) strongly prohibit the interference of men of religion in matters of
politics. Ahl-i sunnat ’âlims observed this prohibition very carefully. Muslims
don’t exploit the dîn as a tool for politics. Therefore, I have never entered
politics. I haven’t defended any type of political state in any of my writings.
It has reached my ears that there have been people who, disliking this behavior
of mine, try to prevent people from reading and learning my books by calling
them corrupt, and who then are bewildered and unable to answer when they are
questioned about which part of the books are corrupt. I make a dua (pray) for
those who slander me so that they may wake up from their stupor and attain true
guidance.
With the encouragement of those who read
my book Se’âdet-i
Ebediyye, which consisted of sixty pages and thirty
chapters, I have prepared the second volume in three hundred pages, and I had
it printed in 1957. These two volumes aroused so much interest and attraction
among the innocent youngsters towards Islâm that I experienced a shower of
questions. To answer these various questions by translating from current books
and by adding seventy new chapters to the original thirty chapters of the first
volume, the second edition was formed and printed in four hundred pages. Later
by the blessing of Allahu ta’âlâ, and with exhausting labour, the accomplishment
of the third volume was granted by Allah, and it was printed in 1379 [1960
A.D.].
Though I was not authorized, only as a
reward for my admiration of the dumbfounding superiority of Islâmic scholars,
for the love and respect which I had towards them, and as a reward for the
prayers which I have sent with the utmost suffering in my heart so that these
innocent people, these noble youngsters might escape the traps set by religion
brokers and attain worldly happiness and the happiness pertaining to the next
world, these three books, which were formed with the guidance of Allahu ta’âlâ,
were put together and printed as a single book in 1963. This book was named Tâm ilm-i hâl. As
new questions were asked, new additions were made in every new edition of our
book. In this book there is no knowledge, no idea which belongs
to this faqîr, myself. Besides translating
and gathering, nothing else fell to my lot. I am so grateful to see that those
who read this book enjoy it and benefit from it, because it comprises writings
of great and blessed people, and that they escape the deceptions of the
separatists and the non-madhhabite, who have been attacking and slandering my
books. Thus, I am pleased to think I shall benefit from the accepted prayers of
the pure-sprited, noble-blooded, and blessed youngsters, and I deem this book
and these prayers my one and only stock on the Day of Resurrection.
The fiqh information in my book Se’âdet-i Ebediyye,
that is, Tam Ýlmihâl (a perfect book of Ilm-i hâl [Endless Bliss]),
has been written according to the Hanafî Madhhab and was translated from the
book Radd-ul-Mukhtâr
by Muhammad Âmin ibn ’Âbidin, which was published
in Egypt by the Bulag printing house in 1272/1856 in five volumes, and the
quotations’ page numbers in my book refer to that edition. The book Radd-ul-mukhtâr, the
most dependable reference book among the fiqh books in the Hanafî Madhhab, was
translated into Turkish by dear Ahmad Davudođlu and published in thirteen
volumes by the Shamil Bookstore between the years 1982-1986. There is no
translation of Ayât-i karîmas (Quranic verses) but only their explanations.
When a mujtahîd explained concisely what he understood from an âyat, this
explanation is called a meâl. When an ayat is said word for word in any foreign
language, it is called a translation. Ayât-i karîmas cannot be translated into
concise and proper forms. Islâmic ’âlims tried to explain Ayât-i karîmas by
using long tafsîrs, not by translating. In my book, I have mostly used
explanations from Tafsîr-i Husaynî. I have placed the sequence of
the numbers of the Ayât-i karîmas as they appear in the mushaf by Khattât Hâfýz
’Uthmân (rahmat-Allâhi ’alaih).
He who reads this book will accurately
learn the faith of his ancestors; he will not be taken in by the slanders of
the enemies of the religion; he will escape from the superstitions of the
ignorant and from the material and spiritual exploitation of those who poison
the names of sufis (the great men of tasawwuf). They will be united on the
right path and will become beloved brothers of one another.
A Muslim is the one who is an honest and
serious-minded man. A true Muslim always carries out the orders of Allâhu
ta’âlâ. It would be a sin if we did not obey even one of the orders of Allâhu
ta’âlâ. A Muslim tries to pay the rights a human has on him, and also his debts
to the state. He never resists the laws of his state. It would be a crime to
violate the laws of one’s state. A Muslim
commits neither sins nor crimes. He loves
his country, nation and his flag. He does favours to everybody. He gives good
advice to those who act wrongly. Such Muslims are loved both by Allâhu ta’âlâ
and by His born servants. They lead a happy and peaceful life.
The forty-eighth edition of all three
volumes of the Turkish version of Se’âdet-i Ebediyye and the eighth edition of the English
version of its major sections in the five fascicles has now been printed. There
are ninety-eight chapters in the first volume, seventy-two chapters in the
second volume and seventy in the third volume. Of these two hundred and forty
(240) chapters, one hundred and eight (108) chapters have been compiled from Maktűbât, Vol.
II and III by Imâm-i Rabbânî mujaddid-i alf-i thânî, Ahmad-i Fâruqî, a great
Islâmic ’âlim, a source of knowledge for tasawwuf and spiritual pleasures, a
real spiritual heir of Muhammad (alaihis’-salâm), and 132 chapters from the
books of authorized Islâmic scholars. The complete first volume of Maktűbât was
translated into Turkish by Mustekîmzâde Suleyman Sa’deddîn Efendi. I thanked my
Allah by seeing to it that the Waqf Ikhlâs Co. published it under the name of
Mujdeci
Mektűplar (Letters of Glad-tidings). I have heard Assayyed
Abdulhakîm-i Arwâsî, an ocean of Islâmic science and an expert of ma’rifats of
tasawwuf, say many times, “The highest of the Islâmic books after the Holy Qur’ân
and the books of hadîth is the book Maktűbât by Imâm-i Rabbânî.” and “No
other book as valuable as the Maktűbât by Imâm-ý Rabbânî was written
in the Islamic world.” Actually, the book Mathnawî is the most unique of those
books explaining the greatness of wilâyat. However, the book Maktűbât is
superior to it in explaining the greatness of wilâyat and nubuwwat. Concerning
the greatness of both, wilâyât seems to be nothing in comparison to nubuwwat.
The nine hundred and ninety-nine names written in the book, with their
biographies, have been appended to the original Endless Bliss (Se’âdet-i Ebediyye).
This is a book of knowledge. Islâmic
knowledge has its own terminology like other branches of science. The meanings
of those technical words have been explained in the book when needed. You will
have learned them after you have read the book completely. The knowledge in
this book cannot be understood by
an ignorant person who does not strive to
learn these words. In that case, he has no right to claim that “this book is
incomprehensible” because it is his own fault. “An ignorant person does not
like what he cannot comprehend” is a common saying. A rose is appreciated by
nightingales only. A jeweler can recognize pure gold. A chemist can discover
what minerals are in a stone. We should try to comprehend well the meaning of
each of its sentences, repeat each chapter, and fix its outline into memory. We
should teach it to our children, to our acquaintances. We should study and
improve in this way. Our Prophet (Muhammad [sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam])
said, “He who has
remained in the same state for two days, (that is, he who has
not improved,) has made a mistake; he is suffering a loss.” It
is seen that the Islâmic religion rejects not only retrogression but also
stagnation. It always commands us to make progress, to improve. All the thawâb
that will be gained as a reward for the preparation and publication of this
book and all the benedictions that will be pronounced by Muslims who will read
this book I donate as a gift to the blessed soul of Sayyed Abdulhakîm Arwâsî. I
know it as a source of happiness for myself to be a slave of his accompanying
him on the Day of Judgement.
Mîlâdî Hijrî
Shamsî Hijrî Kamarî
2001 1379 1419
The things
necessary for everybody, and especially for the youth, are three:
The first thing is
to correct the faith, so as from the Hell fire to be set free.
For that purpose you must gain the exact knowledge of faith and
îmân.
Knowledge is
required to believe and then to act upon the Divine Firmân.
You should learn the aqaîd, and fiqh as much as needed in your
case.
The second thing is
to obey the sharî’at and follow Muhammad (alaihissalâm) pace by pace.
The third thing is to acquire ikhlâs in every deed discarding
vanity and show.
In obtaining all
these essentials of Islâm, you should be like an arrow in a bow,
The acceptance and reward for a deed with no ikhlâs is impossible
to find.
The source of
ikhlâs is tasawwuf, keep that always in mind.
This poem has been translated from the
thirty-sixth, fortieth, fifty-ninth, and one hundred and seventy-seventh
letters in the book Müjdeci Mektűblar by Hadrat Imâm-i Rabbânî.
Because of its utmost importance, it has been placed at the beginning of
Se’âdet-i Ebediyye with the intention of obtaining blessings through it.