We
come to know our surroundings through our five senses. If it were not for our
sense organs, we would not know of anything. We would not even know of
ourselves. We would not walk, find out anything, do anything, eat, drink, or
live. We would not have parents nor would we exist. If we thank our Allah
ceaselessly only for our sense organs, still we will not have adequately
expressed adequate gratitude.
We
call anything which affects our sense organs being or existence.
Sand, water, the sun are all beings, for we see them. Sound is a
being, too, for we hear it. Air is a being because we feel the air strike when
we open our hand and wave it like a fan. Also, the wind strikes our face.
Likewise, cold and hot are beings, for we feel them through our skin. Moreover,
we believe in the existence of energies [powers], such as, electricity, heat,
and magnetism. We perceive and comprehend that electric currents cause heat,
electromagnetism or chemical reaction; when heat occurs the temperature rises
and when it decreases it gets cold. We also understand that a magnet attracts
iron. We say that it is wrong to say, I dont believe in the existence of air,
heat or electricity because I dont see them. Although they are not seen, we
perceive them or their effects through our sense organs. Therefore, we believe
in many beings that cannot be seen. We say that things are not necessarily
nonexistent because they are not seen. By the same token, it is wrong to say.
I dont believe in Allah. There are no such things as angels or genies. I
would see them if they existed. Since I dont see them, I dont believe
them. It is a statement contrary to mind and science.
As
shown by science, beings that have weight and volume are called substances. Accordingly, air, water, stone and
wood are substances. Light and electric currents are beings, yet they are not
substances. Substances with shapes are called objects. A nail, a shovel, pincers and a pin
are objects. They are all made of the same matter, iron. The cause that makes a
stationary object move or that makes a moving object stop or that changes its
movement is called force. Unless
a force acts on a stationary object, it remains stationary; it cannot move.
Unless a force acts on a moving object, its movement does not change; it never
stops.
Substances,
objects, and energies existing in substances, altogether, are called ālam or nature.
Every object in nature continuously moves, changes. This means
that every object is affected by various forces every moment, thus a change
takes
place.
The change that takes place in substances is called an event.
We
see that some things cease to exist while other things come into being. Our
ancestors, ancient people, as well as their buildings and cities, ceased to
exist. And after us, others will come into being. According to scientific
knowledge, there are forces affecting these tremendous changes. Those who
disbelieve Allāhu taālā say, These are all done by Nature. Everything is
created by the forces of Nature. If we ask them, Have the parts of an
automobile been brought together by the forces of nature? Have they been heaped
together like a pile of rubbish which has been brought together by flowing
water with the effects of waves striking from this and that direction? Does a
car move with the exertion of the forces of nature? Will they not smile and
say, Of course, it is impossible. A car is a work of art which a number of
people have built by working together strenuously and by using all their mental
abilities to design it. A car is operated by a driver who drives it carefully,
using his mind while obeying the traffic laws? Likewise, every being in nature
is also a work of art. A leaf is an astounding factory. A grain of sand or a
living cell is an exhibition of fine art, which science has explored to only a
small extent today. What we boast about as a scientific finding and
accomplishment today is the result of being able to see and copy a few of these
fine arts in nature. Even Darwin[1],
the British scientist whom Islāms adversaries present as their leader, had to
admit: Whenever I think of the structure of the eye, I feel as if I will go
mad. Could a person who would not admit that a car is made by chance, by the
forces of nature, say that nature has created this universe, which is entirely
a work of art? Of course, he could not. Should he not believe that it has been
made by a creator, who has calculation, design, knowledge, and infinite power?
Is it not ignorance and idiocy to say: Nature has created it or it has come
into being by chance?
Allahu
taālā created everything in the best form and for the most useful purposes.
For example, He created this spherical earth one hundred and fifty million
kilometres away from the sun. If He had created it at a distance longer than
this, there would have been no warm seasons and we would have died from the
cold. If He had created it at a distance shorter than this, it would have been
very hot; hence, no living creatures would have been able to exist. The air
around us is a mixture of 21 % oxygen, 78 %
------------------------------------
[1] Darwin died in 1299 [1882
A.D.]
nitrogen,
and 0.0003 carbon dioxide. Oxygen comes into our cells, burns the food there so
that power and strength are provided for us. If the amount of oxygen in the air
had been more than this, our cells would have been burned by the oxygen, too;
therefore, we would have become ashes. If its percentage had been less than 21,
it would not have been adequate enough to burn the food in our cells, and again
there would have been no living creatures. During rainy and thunderous days,
oxygen mixes with nitrogen and nitrogenous salts are formed in the sky; they
fall to the earth with the rain. They feed the plants. Plants are food for
animals, and animals are food for human beings. Therefore, it is understood
that our sustenance is produced in the sky and rains down from there. The
carbon dioxide in the air stimulates the centres of the heart and breathing in
the cerebellum; that is, it makes them work. When the amount of carbon dioxide
in the air becomes less, our hearts will stop, and we will not be able to
breathe. On the other hand, if its percentage increases, we will choke. The
amount of carbon dioxide in the air should never be changed. In order to keep
it in the same consistency, He created the seas. When the amount of carbon
dioxide in the air increases, its pressure increases, too, and the excessive
amounts are dissolved in the seas. After uniting with the carbonate in the
water, it is converted into bi-carbonate. This goes down under the sea and forms
a layer of mud there. When the amount of carbon dioxide decreases in the air,
it leaves the mud, passes in the water, and then passes from water into the
air. No living creature can live without air. That is why air is given to every
living creature everywhere, free of charge, without any effort, and sent into
their lungs. We cannot live without water either. He created water everywhere
too. But, since it is possible to live without water for some time, it has been
created in a way that forces people to look for it, and then to carry it away.
Fa-tabārakallahu ahsunal-khāliqīn! Aside from mans ability to utilize those
facts above, how fortunate for them to be able to see and to understand them.
Statements
and claims of those who say chance existences about these countless beings
created by Allahu taālā with explicit order and harmony are ignorant and
contrary to positive science. For example: Let us put ten pebbles numbered from
one to ten in a bag. Let us then take them out of the bag one by one with our
hand, trying to take them out
successively, that is, number one first, number two second, and
eventually number ten last. If any pebble
taken
out does not follow this numerical order, all the pebbles taken out so far will
be put back into the bag and we shall have to try again beginning with number
one first. The probability of taking out ten pebbles successively in numerical
order is one in ten billion. Therefore, since the probability of drawing ten
pebbles in numerical order is extremely weak, it is surely impossible that
innumerable kinds of orders in the universe came into existence only by chance.
If
a person who does not know how to type presses on the keys of a typewriter,
lets say, five times at random, to what extent would it be possible for the
resulting five-letter word to express some meaning in English or any other
language? If he wanted to type a sentence by pressing on the keys heedlessly,
could he type a meaningful sentence? Now, if a page or a book were to be formed
by pressing on the keys arbitrarily, could a person be called intelligent who
expects the book or the page to have a certain topic by chance?
Things
cease to exist all the time, while other things come into being as a result of
them. But, according to the latest knowledge
in chemistry, one hundred and five elements do not cease to exist; changes only
take place in their electronic structure. Radio-active events have also shown
that elements, and even their atoms, cease to exist, and that matter turns into
energy. The German physicist Einstein even calculated the mathematical formula
for this conversion.
The
fact that things and substances have been changing and issuing from one another
continuously does not mean that existence itself comes from past eternity. That
is, one cannot say, So it has been, and so it will be. These changes do have
a beginning. To say that the changes have a beginning means that the substances
coming into being have a beginning, which in turn means that all of them have
been created from nothing while nothing existed. If the substances were not
first created out of nothing and if their issuing from one another went far
back into eternity, this universe would necessarily be nonexistent now. The
existence of the universe in the eternal past would require the pre-existence
of other beings to bring it about, and those beings, in turn, would require
others to pre-exist so that they could come into being. The existence of the
latter is dependent upon the existence of the former. If the former does not
exist, the latter will not exist, either. Eternity in the past means without a
beginning. To say that something existed in the eternal past means that the
first being, that is, the beginning did not exist. If the first being did not
exist the latter beings could not exist, and consequently nothing could exist.
In other words, there could not be a series of
beings
each of which requires the pre-existence of another for their own existence.
Therefore, all of them would necessarily be nonexistent.
Hence,
it has been understood that the present existence of the universe indicates
that it has not existed since past eternity, and that there existed an original
being, which had been created out of nothing. In other words, we have to accept
the fact that beings have been created out of nothing and that todays beings
are the result of a succession of beings coming from those first beings.
The
book Sharh-i Mawāqif proves
in deatil in the first section of its fifth chapter that there is a Creator who
creates all classes of beings from nothing, that this Cerator should be
eternal, that is, should always exist, and that He should exist eternally
without changing. Briefly, to change means to become something else. When the
Creator changes He becomes something else. His creativeness gets deranged. As
explained in the third letter of the third volume of the book Mektūbāt by Imām-i Rabbānī, it is necessary that the
Creator will never change and that He will always remain the same. Reasoning
from what we have explained, the various classes of beings could not be
eternal, and the unchanging Creator must be eternal, He must exist
everlastingly. Therefore, there is a Creator who never changes and who is
eternal. The name of this never changing creator is Allah. Allāhu taālā sent Prophets to men in order to make Himself
known. A reasonable, understanding person who reads about the life, the
superior qualities of Hadrat Muhammad, who is His last and highest Prophet, will at once realize that Allahu taālā
exists and that Hadrat Muhammad is His Prophet.
He will eagerly become a Muslim.
It
is called having īmān and
being a Muslim to
believe that Allahu taālā exists, is one, and that Muhammad (alaihis-salām)
is His Prophet and the most superior
among His Prophets, and his every word is true and
beneficial. The person who believes these facts is called a Mumin and Muslim.
The words of Muhammad (alaihis-salām) are called Hadīth-i sharīf. The
person who does not believe any of those things clearly reported in the Qurān al-karīm and Hadīth-i
sharīfs is called a Kāfir. Those
disbelievers who believe a history book written in ancient times by men as the
words of Allāhu taālā are called Ahl-i
kitāb, that is, disbelievers with a book. Jews and Christians are
disbelievers with a book. Those who prostrate in front of a statue or grave of
a man who is known by them as great and believe that he is able to do
everything
are called Mushriks or
idolaters. Brahmins,
Buddhists, and Zoroastrians are of this group. Those who believe in none of the
religions are called Atheist and
Dahrī. Communists and
Freemasons and those who have fallen into their traps because they are ignorant
of religion are of this group.
The
knowledge which Muslims have to learn is called Ulūm-i islāmiyya. Islāmic knowledge
consists of two parts. The first is religious
knowledge. This is also called Ulūm-i naqliyya. This is the knowledge
derived from four sources called Adilla-i
shariyya, and are of two sections. The branches
tafsīr, kalām, and
fiqh of the knowledge of Ulūm-ż zāhiriyya are written in their special books.
The second one is Ulūm-ż bātiniyya. There can be no changes in either of
them. The second part of ulūm-i islāmiyya is scientific knowledges or Ulūm-i aqliyya. This deals with the
structures of matter and substances, and the alterations in them. These are
discovered through experiments and calculations. Alterations in this aspect of
knowledge is possible in the course of time. See the eleventh article! Those
disbelievers who changed religious knowledge to make it compatible with
scientific knowledge are called Philosophers
and Reformers of religion. These
people believe in their minds, not the words transmitted. Those muslims who try
to corroborate religious knowledge with scientific knowledge are called Hukamā. The meanings of some verses in the Qurān al-karīm and also some Hadīth-i sharīfs are not clear and cannot be
comprehended exactly. These kinds of verses and Hadīth-i
sharīfs were interpreted with different meanings by different Islāmic
scholars. Thus, seventy-three groups who believe differently some of the facts
which are to be believed emerged. Among them, one group whose belief is true is
called the Ahl-i sunnat or
Sunnī. Those who derived wrong
meanings are called Heretics or
the ones who have deviated from the right path. Shiītes and Wahhābīs are of
this group. One who tries to corrupt the beliefs of a Muslim by giving wrong
meanings to scientific discoveries is called a zindiq or scientific
yobaz.
Allahu
taālā created Paradise and Hell. He declared that He will fill both of them
up. A great many human beings and genies will go to Hell. But he will put most
of the creatures into Paradise, thus His mercy will exceed His wrath. Genies
are more than ten times in number greater than human beings, and angels are
more than ten times as many as genies. Since all of the angels will be in
Paradise, those in Paradise will be more numerous.
Who
will remain in Hell eternally? Those who do not perform salāt? Those who commit
sins? No! The enemies of Allahu taālā
will
burn eternally in Hell. The Muslims who committed sins are not Allahs enemies.
They are guilty human beings. They are like a naughty, guilty child. Will
parents become an enemy towards their naughty child? Of course, they will not.
They will just fondle it a little.
Hell
consists of seven levels. The first level is the least vehement. But it is
seventy times as vehement as worldly fire. Its name is Jahannam. Here, a part of the Muslims will be
purfied of their sins. Heretical people will certainly be burned in the Hell
for some time.
Kādī
Zāde Ahmed Emīn Bey, who revised the book Vasiyyetnāme by Imām-i Muhammed Birgivī, says,
The Muslim who will get out of Hell last will have burned for seven thousand
years of the next world. One year of the next world is as long as a thousand
mundane years.
The
second level of Hell is more vehement. Its name is Saīr, People who changed the Torah will burn there
[Ibni Ābidīn]. These
people do not believe in Hadrat Īsā (Jesus), who is Allahs Prophet, and they slander this great Prophet by saying the son of an unknown father.
They changed the Tawrāt, thus
defiling Allahs book, and after Hadrat Mūsā, they martyred one thousand Prophets who were sent to advise them.
People
who changed the Bible will burn in the third level of Hell called Seqar which is more vehement. For they did not
follow Hadrat Īsās commands and disbelieved in him by changing the Injil (Bible). In addition, they have become worse
than Jews they have even become polytheists by saying that there are three
gods and that Īsā is God [Ibni Ābidīn]. [Some
of them say that Jesus is the son of God.] Īsāwīs (real believers of Hadrat
Īsā) were not polytheists before Christianity was subverted and idolatry was
mixed with it. Jews are farther away from Islam. [Marifatnāme and Tazkira-i Qurtubī]
In
the fourth level called Jahīm, those
who worship the sun or the stars will be hurled. In the fifth level called Hutamah, those who worship fire or the ox
will go. Buddhists and Brahmens will be tortured in the sixth level called Lazy, along with those with no religion, and
polytheists.
In
the seventh level called Hāwiyah, the
very bottom, the most vehement level of Hell, munāfiqs and murtads will burn.
The order of these seven levels is not the same in the books Tafsir-i Mazharī and Gāliyya. Ones going to Hell, that is, his being a
disbeliever, becomes evident at his last breath when he dies. If a disbeliever,
that is, a man without īmān, becomes a
Muslim,
or if a Muslim with many sins and crimes, or who is the practitioner of a
bidat, repents, they all become pure Muslims. They will not go to Hell.
Murtads
are irreligious people who are either ignorant or educated or who assume to be
scholars or scientists after receiving a diploma, though they have been brought
up with an Islāmic education by Muslim parents. Since these poor people, who
suppose that they have swallowed the ocean by tasting one drop from the sea of
knowledge and science, know nothing of Islāmic savants and religious knowledge,
they make up imaginary meanings for the words which they heard at early ages
and suppose that Islām is like that. Thus, they deny Islām. They say that their
mothers and grand fathers heads are full or cobwebs, that Muslims are
retrogressive, and that those who only run after what is worldly and those
who have dived into dissipation are enlightened and modern. They say
fanatical idiots about those who think of the next world along with the world
and those who observe others rights. They say, This is the way of the world
and so it goes. Paradise and Hell are empty words; who on earth has seen them?
Whatever you can do here is to your benefit. No matter what happens to others,
they only think of their own advantages, nafs and lusts. But they never cease
talking about goodness and humanism in order to deceive and to get along well
with everybody. As the most tragic and the basest of crimes, they strive to
steal the īmān of youngsters, of Muslim children by deceiving them, thus
driving them along with themselves towards disasters.
Thousands
of valuable books communicating the beliefs, orders and prohibitions of the dīn
of Islām have been written, and many of these have been translated into other
languages and have been spread in all countries. Contrarily, heretical and
short short-sighted people have always attacked the beneficial, blissful and
illuminating principles of Islām; they have striven to blemish and change them
and to deceive Muslims. I used to pity such people of the wrong path when I was
yet a child. I was surprised as to why they could not see the truth and
understand the greatness of the Islāmic dīn. I wanted everybody to find the
right way, and to be saved from the corruption and calamities of both worlds,
here and the Hereafter. I strove to serve people in this way. I requested
Allahu taālā imploringly to protect youngsters, the innocent and pure
children, the sons of martyrs, from the corrupt books and words, to grant
everyone success in learning exactly and correctly Islam as it is written in
its main original sources.
Because
the ignorant of the religion cannot attack Islām through knowledge, medical
science, cleanliness or morals, they assault by means of base and cowardly lies
and slander.
How
could Islām ever be defied through knowledge? Islām is the very essence of
knowledge. Many parts of Qurān al-kerīm command knowledge and praise men of
knowledge. For example, it is declared in the ninth
āyat of Sūrat-uz-Zumār: Is it possible that he who knows and he who does not know be the
same? He who knows is certainly valuable! Rasūlullahs sall-Allāhu alaihi wa salam
words praising and recommending knowledge are so numerous and so famous that
even our enemies know about them. For example, in the books Ihyā-ul-ulūm and Mawdūāt-ul-ulūm, the following hadīth is written in a section describing the
value of knowledge, Acquire knowledge even
if it is in China! That is, Go and learn knowledge, even if it
is at the farthest place in the world and in the possession of disbelievers! Do
not say, I dont want it; it is invented by disbelievers. And it is declared
in another hadīth-i-sherīf: Study and learn knowledge from the cradle to the grave! That
is, an old man of eighty, one of whose feet is already in the grave, should
sudy. It is an act of worship for him to learn. And once he declared: Work for the next world as if you were to die tomorrow, and work
for the world as if you would never die. He declared in a
hadīh-i-sherīf: Little worship done with
knowledge is better than much worship done without understanding. Once
he said, The Devil is more afraid
of a savant than of thousands of ignorant worshippers. Muslim
woman cannot go on supererogatory hajj without taking her husbands leave; she
cannot set out on a journey or pay a visit, either. However, she can go out for
the purpose of learning without his permission, if he does not teach her or
allow her to learn. As it is seen, though it is a sin for her to go on hajj
without permission, which is a great worship liked by Allahu taālā, it is not
a sin to go out to learn without permission.
Then
how can disbelievers ever attack Islām through knowledge? Does knowledge blame
knowledge? Of course not, it likes, praises it. He who attacks Islām through
knowledge will suffer a defeat.
They
cannot attack through science, either. Science means to see creatures and
events, to observe and understand them, and to experiment and make the like.
These three are commanded by Qurān
al-kerīm. It
is fard-i kifāya to study scientific knowledge, arts, and to try to make the
most up-to-date arms of war. Our religion commands us to work more than our
enemies do. We
have
communicated one of Rasūlullahs very vivid expressions commanding us to study
science in one of the initial pages of our book. Then, Islām is a dynamic
religion commanding us to study science, experiment and to do positive work.
The
enemies cannot attack through medical science, either. Our Prophet sall-Allāhu alaihi wa sallam has praised
medical science in various ways. For example, he declared: Knowledge is of two kinds: physical knowledge and religious
knowledge. That is, by saying that the most necessary
kinds of knowledge are religious knowledge, which will protect the soul, and
knowledge of health, which will protect the body, he declared that first of all
it is necessary to try to keep the soul and the body healthy. This hadīth-i-sherīf is written on the three hundred and
eighty-first page of the book Riyād-un-nāsihīn,
which also writes that it has been quoted from the book Zubda-tul-akhbār. There are also those
(savants) who say that these are the words of Imām-i Shāfiī rahmatullāhi
taālā aleyh. Every word of this great imām is an explanation of āyat-i
karīmas and Hadīth-i sharīfs.
Islām commands us to learn physical knowledge before religious knowledge. For
all kinds of virtuous deeds can be done with a healthy body.
As
it is taught in all universities today, medical science is of two sections: the
first one is hygiene, that is, the preservation of health; the second one is
therapeutics, the treatment of diseases. The first one is of primary
importance. It is the first task of medical science to protect people against
diseases, to preserve their health. For the most part, a diseased person
remains damaged and unhealthy, even if he is cured. Islām has guaranteed and
ensured hygiene, the first task of medical science. In the second part of Mawāhib-i ladunniyya, it is proved through
āyat-i-kerīmas that Qurān-al-kerīm
recommends both sections of medical science. Rasūlullah sall-Allāhu alaihi wa
sallam used to correspond with Heraclius, the Greek Byzantine emperor. They
used to exchange messages. We can read the words and the letters of both
parties in books. The originals of the letters exist in the two hundred and
thirty-eighth page of the Turkish translation of Mawāhib-i ladunniyya. As the names of the
ambassadors, together with their biographies and many events are obvious, who
on earth, both learned and considerate, will say that these are lies, thirteen
hundred years later? Their hostility towards the religion, their grudge against
our Sayyed Rasūlullah sall-Allāhu alaihi wa sallam must have covered their
minds and ravaged their discernment to the extent that they cannot see the
events, proofs
or
documents; hence, unhesitatingly, they openly lie in order to deceive
youngsters. Lying and slandering will disgrace, dishonour one in front of
everybody! O our Allah! Your justice is very correct. Those who attack Islām,
and thereby attack the comfort and ease of others, deserve eternal torment!
Once,
Heraclius sent a few presents. One of these presents was a doctor. The doctor
came to Rasūlullah and said, Sir, His Excellency sent me to serve you. I will
examine your patients free of charge. Rasūlullah accepted him. He ordered the
Muslims to give him a home, and it was carried out. Every day they brought him
delicious food and drinks. Days, months passed, but no Muslim visited the
doctor. Ashamed, the doctor came to Rasūlullah and said, Sir, I came here to
serve you. Up to now, no patient has visited me. I have just sat idly, eating
and drinking. Let me go back now. Upon his request, Rasūlullah smiled and
said, It is up to you! If you would like to stay
longer, it is the first duty of a Muslim to serve a guest, to show honour to
him. If you would like to go, good luck! Only, let it be known that nobody will
visit you if you stay here for years, since my Ashāb do not become sick! The
Islāmic religion has shown the way of how not to become sick. My Ashāb are
extra careful about being clean. They do not eat anything before getting
hungry, and they leave the meal table before becoming satiated with food. It
is seen that a Muslim, that is, he who obeys the commandments of Islām, does
not suffer from illness. Those Muslims who suffer from illnesses are those who
do not learn and carry out the commandments. Yes, the illness of death will
come to everybody. This illness is a blessing upon Muslims. It is the herald of
the voyage to the next world. It is an alarm for getting ready, repenting and
saying ones last will. Allahu taālā has rendered various diseases the causes
of death. Everybody will catch
a disease when the appointed time of death comes:
Since there is death in the world,
A headache is no more than a pretext.
The
life of the person who follows the path shown by Islām and who does not commit
human faults or spiritual faults does not pass with a disease! But, everybody,
except Prophets, may follow his nafs and thereby
commit sins. Allahu taālā awakens sinful Muslims from unawareness by warning
them through disease, paucity and disgrace.
Religiously
ignorant people cannot attack Islām through cleanliness, either. When some
youngsters among the Tābiīn asked the Ashāb-i kirām ridwānullāhi taālā
alaihim ajmaīn,
Allahu
taālā loves you. He praises you in the Qurān
al-kerīm. What
is the reason for this love? Tell us, and we will be like you, so that He will
love us, too, they answered, He loves us because we were extra careful about
being clean. Allahu taālā declares at various parts of the Qurān al-kerīm: I like the clean ones. The
person who has seen the beautiful and luminous face of Rasūlullah sall-Allāhu
alaihi wa sallam is called a Sahābī.
When there are more than one, they are called Ashāb. Those who did not see the Most Beautiful but
who saw a Sahābī are called Tābiīn. Muslims
do not enter mosques or houses with their shoes on. Therefore, the floors and
carpets are clean and dustless. Every Muslim has a bath in his home. His body,
his underwears, and his food are always clean. Therefore, they dont have
microbes or diseases. There is no bath in the palace of Versaille, which the
French boast about to the world. Disbelievers are dirty.
They
can never attack Islām through morals and virtue, justice or the values of
humanity, either. Islāmic religion is thoroughly moral and virtue. Goodness,
justice and generosity, which the Islāmic religion commands towards friends and
enemies, are so high that they bewilder the mind. The events of the past
fourteen centuries have well demonstrated this fact to Islāms enemies as well.
Of the innumerable documents let us cite the one which we remember:
In
the archives of the Museum of Bursa, it is written in the records of a lawcourt
belonging to a period of two hundred years ago: Muslims built a mosque on an
area near the Jewish quarter of a town in Altż
Parmak. The Jews said, The place belongs
to us, you shouldnt have built it here. So it became a case to be judged in a
court. After it was understood that the area belonged to the Jews, the court
decreed the mosque to be demolished and the land to be given back to the Jews;
the decree was carried out. What justice!
Rasūlullah
sall-Allāhu alaihi wa sallam declared: I
was sent to perfect good habits and to spread good morals over the world. It
is declared in a hadīth-i-sherīf:
Of you, the one with exalted īmān is the one
with beautiful moral quality! Even īmān is measured
with morals! [The beautiful moral qualities in Islām are written in the book Islām Ahlākż
(in Turkish).]
Since
those ignorant people who are aganist Islam can never attack through morals,
they produce base ideas to deceive Muslim children through lies and slanders,
thus stealing the belief of these innocent youngsters. Most of the time, they
disguise themselves as
Muslims
and pretend to be Muslims by performing salāt without a wudū or ghusl or by
financially supporting mosque-building societies. They strive to make them believe
their lies, tricks and fables.
Our Prophet tells us what to do in order not to fall
into the traps of disbelievers. He declares: There is Islām where there is knowledge. There is disbelief where
there is no knowledge! Here, too, he commands knowledge.
Then,
in order not to be deceived by disbelievers, there is no other way than
learning our religion.
From
where shall we learn our religion? From the articles, radio broadcasts, movies
or newspapers which the enemies of religion have prepared with lies and
slanders in order to deceive youngsters or which they have translated from
books written by priests or Masons? Or shall we learn it from those ignorant
people who, with the purpose of earning money, edit incorrect books and
translations of the Qurān? In Ramadān, in 1960, the Radio of Moscow
attacked Islām insolently through very base and loathsome lies. The enemys
motion pictures misrepresent the lives of the Prophets
alaihis-salātu wa-t-taslīmāt and Islāmic history as loathsome by fabricating
pictures. Muslims watch these corrupt pictures, assume that they are true, and
in this way their faith, imān becomes depraved. The enemys radio, motion
pictures and magazines continue
to proliferate. From where shall we learn our religion so that we can defend
ourselves from these attacks?
Whom
does a person who has trouble with his eyes resort to? To a dustman, a porter,
a lawyer, a teacher of mathematics or to a doctor who is an eye specialist? Of
course, he goes to the specialist and learns its remedy. And he who is seeking
ways to save his faith and īmān should approach a religion specialist, instead
of resorting to a lawyer, a mathematician, a newspaper or movies. Where and who
are the religion specialists? Are they the translators who learn Arabic in
Beirut, Syria, Iraq or Egypt? No. Religion specialists are now under the
ground! It is very hard to find them on the earth today!
To
be a religious savant, it is necessary to know contemporary knowledge of
science and art to the extent of a graduate level at the faculties of science
and letters, to receive a doctorate degree in these branches, to know the Qurān al-kerīm and
its meaning by heart, to know thousands of hadīths
and their meanings by heart, to be specialized in the twenty main branches of
Islāmic knowledge, to know well the eighty sections of these branches, to
have
efficiency in the delicate points of the four madhhabs, to reach the grade of
ijtihād in these madhhabs, and to reach the highest grade of tasawwuf called Wilāyat-i Khāssa-i Muhammadiyya. Where
is such a savant now? I wonder if those who are known as religious men and who
know Arabic perfectly could read and understand the books of those great
people? If there were such a savant today, no one could attack the religion,
and the false heroes who bluster shameless slanders would look for a place to
take shelter. Formerly, in madrasas and mosques, also contemporary scientific
knowledge was taught. Islāmic savants used to be brought up well versed in
scientific knowledge. The Tanzīmat Kanunu (Reorganization
Law), which the freemason Rashid Pasha prepared in cooperation with the British
Ambassador and announced on 26 Shabān 1255 [1839 A.D.], during the reign of
Sultan Abdulmajīd, prohibited the instruction of scientific subjects in
madrasas. This was the first step taken towards the stratagem of educating
ignorant men of religion.
Once
there were many such savants. One of them was Imām-i Muhammad Ghazālī
(rahmatullahi alaih). His work is a witness to his depth in religious knowledge
and his high grade in ijtihād. He who reads and understands these writings of
his will
know him. He who does not know him will attempt to impute his own defects to
him. In order to understand a savant, one has to be a savant. He was
specialized in all the branches of the scientific knowledge of his time, too.
He was the Rector of Baghdad University. After learning Greek, the second
language of that time, in two years, he examined Roman and Greek philosophy and
science, and proclaimed their errors, their disgrace in his books. He wrote
about the rotation of the earth, the structure of matter, the calculations of
solar and lunar eclipses and many other technical and social facts.
Another
Islāmic savant was Imām-i Rabbānī Ahmad-i Fārūqī. It has been unanimously
stated by religious authorities that his depth in religious knowledge, his high
grade in ijtihād, and especially his perfection in tasawwuf were above the
minds ability to comprehend. The books that have appeared recently in the
United States have begun to be illuminated by the rays of this sun of
happiness. Imām-i Rabbānī rahmatullāhi aleyh was specialized in the
scientific knowledge of his time, too. In the two hundred and sixty-sixth
letter of the first volume of his book Maktūbat,
he writes, My son Muhammad Mathūm has recently completed
reading the book Sharh-i Mawāqif. During
his lessons, he has well understood the errors and the defects of the Greek
philosophers.
He has learned many facts. This is a scientific book and has been taught until
recently in the high (university) division of Islāmic madrasas. Mawāqif was written by Qādī Adūd and this, (that
is, the book mentioned above by Imām-i-Rabbānī), is the revision of it by
Sayyed Sharif Alī Jurjānī [740-816 A.H. (1336-1413 A.D.)]. A great Arabic work
of about a thousand pages, it explains all the scientific knowledge of that
time. The book is divided into six parts, each of which contains different
sections. In the second paragraph of the third chapter of the first section of
the fourth part, it proves that the earth is spherical, and in the sixth
paragraph, it proves that it rotates from west to east. It also gives valuable
information about atoms, various states of matter, forces and psychological
events.
Europeans
have derived most of their scientific knowledge and its basis from Islāmic
books. While Europeans assumed that the earth was flat like a tray surrounded
by a wall, Muslims had known that the earth was spherical and was rotating.
This fact is written in detail in the books Shārh-i Mawāqif and
Marifatnāma. They measured the length of the
meridian in the open plain of Sinjar between Mūsul and Diyār-i Bekr, finding
the result as it is found today. Nūr-ud-dīn Batrūjī, who passed away in 581
[1185 A.D.], was a professor of astronomy at the Islāmic University of
Andalusia. He wrote todays astronomy in his book Alhayāt. When Galileo, Copernicus and Newton said
that the earth rotated after learning this fact from Islāmic books, they were
deemed guilty for their words. Galileo was judged and imprisoned by priests.
Until the Tanzīmāt [reforms of Abdulmajīd in 1839], scientific lessons had been
taught in madrasas. Enlightened men of religion had been educated. They had
been leading the world. When scientific lessons were abrogated, explorations
and inventions stopped. The West began to gain on the East.
Today,
we will learn our religion from the books of those great savants. Religious
knowledge can be learned from the Ahl-i Sunnat savants or from their books. It
cannot be acquired through kashf or inspiration. He who reads their books will
both learn knowledge, and his heart will be purified.
Useful
things providing men with a healthy, salutary, comfortable and cheerful life
(in this world) and endless happiness in the Hereafter are called Nimat (blessing). Allāhu taālā, being very
compassionate, created all the blessings His born servants would need. And
through His heavenly books, which He revealed to His Prophets, He instructed us on how we
should
use and utilize them. These instructions are called Dīn. If any person, Muslim and disbeliever alike,
leads a life in conformity with these books, he will enjoy comfort and peace in
the world. A drugstore carries hundreds of medicines. And each of these
medicines has a set of instructions packed with it. A person who uses the
medicine as it is presecribed in the instructions will benefit from it. He who
does not follow the instructions will suffer harm. Likewise, a person who lives
compatibly with Qurān al-kerīm
will benefit from the blessings.
It
is necessary to be a Muslim so that you can attain happiness in this world and
in the Hereafter, while living peacefully and joyfully. One who has faith and
does his worships is called a Muslim. Having faith means to believe in six certain
principles and all of the commandments and prohibitions. Allāhu taālā is
pleased with those who are true Muslims. A true Muslim is loved by Allāhu
taālā. Being a true
Muslim
requires you to have the faith communicated by the Ahl-as-Sunna savants, and to
worship correctly and sincerely. Allāhu taālā has promised that He will love
such people, that He will inspire fayds and nūrs into their hearts in the world
and that in the Here after He will give thawāb
(blessings) as a reward for the worships performed correctly and
sincerely. Worshipping means doing the commands (fards) and taqwā means
avoiding the prohibitions (harāms). Performing an act of worship correctly
requires learning how it is to be done, and performing it by following the
things you have learned. Ikhlās means doing every worship for the sake of
Allāhu taālā only. Worshipping Allahu taālā is done either by giving away
ones property or by worshipping physically. For example, performing pious and
charitable deeds, saving Muslims from trouble, remembering Allahu taālā, and
asking for forgiveness (tawba) are all forms of worship. There is no ikhlās
(sincerity) but riyā (hypocrisy) in the worship which is done to obtain
property, rank, respect or fame. Such worship is not rewarded with blessings.
It will be a sin and a cause for being tormented. Dark stains develop in the
hearts of those who commit harāms or bida (heresy), and also in the hearts of
those who are the friends or neighbours of disbelievers or lā-madhhabī
individuals. Imām-i Rabbānī (rahmat-Allāhu alaih) says in the fifty ninth
letter of the first volume of his book Maktūbāt,
When beginning any worship, all Muslims must keep in their minds the intention
of performing an action for Allahu taālās sake. Allahu taālā has ordered
them to do so, and He loves it. Hence, they will perform that action sincerely.
However,
all
good deeds and favours should be done with sincerity (Ikhlās), and this
sincerity must come immediately from the heart. A good intention and ikhlās are
obtained with difficulty and by disciplining oneself, and the results are never
permanent. Gradually the desires of nafs settle upon the heart. Owners of
permanent ikhlās are called Mukhlās. Those
who have inconstant ikhlās and who strive to obtain ikhlās are called Mukhlis. It is easy and sweet for a mukhlās to
worship. This is because there are no desires of the nafs or anxiety from satan
in their hearts. This kind of ikhlās can only come into ones heart through the
heart of a Walī. While beginning to worship one can obtain inconstant ikhlās
by fighting against ones nafs and satan. Doing worships with this ikhlās
causes the nafs to become weak in the course of time. This, in turn, brings
about permanent ikhlās. However, to attain permanent ikhlās takes years.
As
we now know, ultraviolet rays kill microbes. Tuberculous patients have their
lungs cleaned through radio therapy in sanitariums. As ultraviolet rays clean
the lungs, likewise, there are rays that clean the heart. These rays are called
nūr and fayz. The hearts sickness is its following the nafs, liking and being
fond of the harāms. The sun radiates ultraviolet rays. And the source that
radiates nūr is the heart of a Walī. The hearts of the Awliyā are like full
moons. The moon reflects the rays which it receives from the sun. And the
hearts of the Awliyā radiate to the world the nūr which they receive from
Rasūlullahs blessed heart, which radiates energy like the sun. The Awliyā are
dead. And the ones living today are not known. But, when man dies, his heart
and soul do not die with him. In fact, they get stronger because they have
gotten rid of the cage of the body. Today, there are electro-magnetic waves
everywhere, in every room. But we do not perceive them. A receiver, e.g. a
radio, is necessary to receive them. Also, there are rays of nūr everywhere.
But we do not perceive them either. Some force or some means is necessary to
receive them and to make use of them. Again this receiver is the heart. The
heart is like a substance with phosphorescent properties. Dispensing nūr it has
received to dark hearts, it causes them to shine. The longer a Believer lives
and the better he becomes in worshipping and taqwā, the more nūrs will his
heart include. However, receiving these nūrs and fayds abundantly requires
loving a Walī. And if he brings himself into favour with him by attending his
sohbat and keeping him company, he will receive even more fayd.
By
the heart, we do not mean the piece of flesh on the left
hand
side of our chest, which is also called heart, and which animals have, too.
The heart proper to man is different. The heart is an invisible force. It is
noticed through its effects. An electric current is not seen, either. But,
because it causes the resistance wire to radiate light by heating it up when it
passes through the bulb, we understand that it exists in the bulb. However,
electricity is not matter. It does not occupy a place. And the force which we
call the heart is not matter, either. It does not occupy a place. Since its effects
are seen in a piece of flesh, which is also called the heart, we say that its
place is in the heart.
[If
the defects of a persons heart or of its lids cannot be corrected through a
surgical operation, the healthy heart of another person who is about to die is
transplanted to him. As we often hear, persons with transplanted hearts die
within a few days. Supposing that they should go on living, their insubstantial
properties, which we also call the heart, do not change; no change occurs in
their hearts or souls. A person with a transplanted heart or any other organ
does not get any younger. He keeps on getting old.]
Electricity
is conducted through copper wires. The sender and the receiving set of a radio
are attached to each other through electromagnetic waves. It is written in the
twentieth letter of the fourth volume of the book Maktūbāt that what attaches the hearts to one another
is love. When a person sees a Walī and talks to him or reads his books, he
loves him, seeing that he adheres to the Sharīat perfectly, that his knowledge
is like an ocean, that he has excellent morals, and that he does favours for
everyone. Since he loves Rasūlullah, he also loves the person who is in His
way. But, loving these good characteristics of his is not sufficient. He has to
know very well and love the owner of these good characteristics. For,
hypocrites, disbelievers, and freemasons can have the same good qualities, too.
So, it is necessary to know that he is a murshid, to recognize his face, figure
and physiognomy. It must be a pleasure for one to see and dream of him by
heart. This is called performing Rābita.
By always performing rābita towards him, it will be as if he were
seeing him. Everything that has an effect on sense organs has an effect on the
heart, too. As seeing something beautiful has an effect on the heart, so
thinking of it will have an effect of the heart and the heart will enjoy it.
That is, performing rābīta will
be like being with him.
The
more the love, the more light he will receive. Hadrat Ubeydullah-i Ahrār said,
While attaching the heart to property, to goods and to every kind of worldly
affairs is not considered a
crime,
why should it be a crime to attach the heart to a Mumin (Muslim)?
Suppose
we put a mirror against the sun, a second mirror against this, a third one
against the second one, and a fourth one against it..., the sun will be seen in
each of the thirty mirrors put
in such an order. For each mirror reflects the sun to the other. By the same
token, the heart of each of the Ashāb-i kirām (alaihimurridwān) was brightened
like a mirror by the nūr radiated by the blessed heart of Rasūlullah
(sall-Allahu alaihi wa sallam). Seeing his beautiful moral qualities, hearing
his sweet words, witnessing his mujizas, and watching his luminous face, they
loved him a great deal. They tried to be like him in everything they did. Each
of them would have sacrificed his life upon one signal of his. By spreading
abundant nūr, which they thus received to the young hearts attached to them,
they purified these hearts. This nur was passed from these hearts to those of
other youngsters who were attached to them. Thus, for thirteen hundred years,
being radiated by the hearts of the Awliyā, his same nūr purified the hearts
attached to these hearts and thereby brightened them like mirros. That is, the
eyes of their hearts were opened. The fortunate persons who were blessed with
this lot were called Walī or
Awliyā (those whom Allah
loves.)
Mazhar-i
Jān-i Jānān, the qutb of his time and a great Walī, says, I attained all of
what I gained by loving my murshids (religious teachers) very much. The key to
all kinds of happiness is to love those whom Allah loves. And Hadrat Alī
Rāmitanī radiy-Allāhu taālā sirrahulazīz says, The hearts of people who
devoted themselves to Allah is the place where He looks. To people who entered
such hearts, there will be a share in that look.
The
heart is dependent both upon the nafs and upon the sense organs and is attached
to those things which the sense organs are preoccupied with. When man sees
something lovely, hears a beautiful voice, or tastes something sweet, the heart
becomes attached to them. Man cannot help this love. Also, when man reads
something beautiful, the heart becomes attached to the writer and its meaning.
By beautiful and sweet, what comes beautiful and sweet to the heart is
meant. Most of the time, man cannot realize real beauty. He confuses what
appears beautiful to the nafs with what appears beautiful to the rūh. If the
heart is strong, it realizes beauty and loves it. Valuable things such as
āyats, hadīths, words of the Awliyā, prayers, and
tesbīhs are originally beautiful. They are very sweet. The heart, after its
attachment
to the nafs decreases and it is released from the bondage of the nafs, it will
love them too. When a man reads or hears them, his heart becomes attached to
them without his awareness of it. When this person reads Qurān al-kerīm or listens to it being read or
makes dhikr, his heart loves Allāhu taālā. To release the heart from the
bondage, from the oppression of the nafs, it is necessary to oppress the nafs
and strengthen the heart. This is possible only by obeying Rasūlullah. If a
person who has released his heart from the paws of his nafs by following Muhammad
alaihis-salām observes a Walī, he will realize that he is a beloved born
servant of Allah and a (spritual) heir to the Messenger of Allah. Since he
loves Allah very much, he will also love very much whomever Allah loves. But
loving is not easy. There have been many people who were mistaken by thinking
of what their nafs loved to be real beauties which the rūh loved and they have
ended up in disasters.
He
who does his best to attain the love of Allāhu taālā is called a Sālih. He who has already attained this love is
called an Ārif or
Walī. He who is a means for
others to attain the love of Allāhu taālā is called a Murshid. These three people are called Sādiq. It is declared in the hundred and twentieth āyat of the Sūrat-ut-Tawba
in the Qurān: O Believers! Always, at
all times be in company of Sādiqs! This
āyat-i karīma commands doing the rābita. It is declared in a hadīth: All
the blessings and nūr which Allahu taālā has poured into my heart, I poured
them into Abū Bakrs heart. Because Abū Bekr
radiy-Allāhu taālā anh was ahead of all others in taqwā and worshipping and
because he realized better than anyone else did how great Rasūlullah was so
that he himself was a mere nothing when compared with the Messenger of Allah,
and because he won Rasūlullahs love more than anyone else did, more fayds came
to him than did to anyone else and he received all the fayds coming. As it is
understood from these and the like, our religion asks us to keep company with
the Awliyā, and to learn Rasūlullahs path from them.
Ashāb-i
kirām (the companions of the Prophet)
and Tābiīn-i izām (those who conversed with the Ashāb-i kiram) are called Salaf-i sālihīn. The Ahl-as-Sunna savants
of the Salaf-i sālihīn who lived until the end of the four hundredth year of the
Hegira are called Halaf-i sādiqīn. Halaf-i
sādiqīn always followed the Salaf-i sālihīn in the knowledge of faith, deeds
and heart; they never deviated from the way of the Salaf-i sālihīn. It appeared
to be impossible to see murshid-i kāmils (perfect murshids) after the year
fourteen hundred, just as was the fact that there had been no
mutlaq
mujtahids (absolute mujtahids) left after the year four hundred. In the world,
until the Day of Resurrection, there will be mujaddīds [renovators] (rahmat-Allāhu
taālā alaihim ajmaīn), who will be neither murshid-i kāmils, Walī (Awliyā)
nor mujtahīds. These mujaddīds will spread the books of the mujtahīds all over
the world and teach the teachings of the Ahl as-Sunna and the right way, which
will have been forgotten by people. They will answer the slanders and lies of
the people of bidat (heretics), who will have spread all over the world, the
sham mystics, the zindīqs (the hypocrites), and the exploiters of religion and
science. Those who will find and read the books of the mujaddīds will attain
happiness in this world and in the Hereafter.
Sultan
Mahmūd Ghaznawī, the founder of the Ghaznawī Empire, which was a great Islāmic
empire, was born in 357 and died in 421 A.H. in Ghazne. One day, this great
emperor of Asia visited Hadrat Abul-Hasan-i Harqānī, one of the higher ones of
the Awliyā. In the course of their conversation, he asked him, What kind of a
person was your leader Bāyazīd-i Bistāmī? Hadrat Shaikh answered him, Bāyazīd
was such a perfect Walī that those who saw him attained the right way. They
became of those whom Allahu taālā likes. Sultan Mahmūd did not like this
answer. He said, People such as Abū Jahl and Abū Lahab saw Rasūlullah, the
Sayyed of the universe, many times. Despite this fact, they did not come round
to the right course. How can you say that those who saw your shaikh came round
to the right course? He meant to say, Was your shaikh higher than our Sayyed,
Rasūlullah? Do you mean to say that those who saw your shaikh escaped disbelief,
while those who saw Hadrat Muhammad, Sayyed of both worlds, the most superior
of the superiors, Allahs beloved Prophet,
did not escape it? Hadrat Abul Hasan said, The idiots Abū Jahl and Abū Lahab
did not see Allahs beloved Prophet,
our Master Muhammad, who is the highest of mankind. They saw Muhammad, who was
the orphan of Abū Tālib, and the son of Abdullah. They saw him from that point
of view. If they had seen him as Abū Bakr Siddīq did, they would have escaped
disbelief, thus attaining perfection like him. Allahu taālā, to point out this
subtlety, declared in the one hundred and ninety-seventh āyat of
Sūrat-ul-Arāf: You see them look at you.
They cannot understand you. They do not see your superiority. Sultan Mahmūd Khān (rahmat-Allāhi taālā
alaih) liked these answers very much. His respect and love for religious
savants increased.
No
matter what ones rank or post, it must be understood that he who attacks Islam
is ignorant in religion; he knows nothing about the Islāmic religion.
A
fortunate person who reads and understands the book Seādet-i Ebediyye both will learn
religious knowledge and will get to know Imam-i Rabbānī; thus, his heart
becoming inclined, he will become attached to him. Receiving the nūr which he
(Imām-i Rabbānī) radiates over the world, he will, unknown to himself, begin to
approach perfection. As an unripe watermelon ripens and sweetens under the rays
of the sun, so will he mature, thus becoming a perfect person. He will note the
changes in his views of the world and
life. He will begin to experience some hāls, zawks and sweet dreams. He will
begin to dream of Imam-i Rabbānī and of the other Awliyā, of the Ashāb-i kirām
and of Rasūlullah, to see their faces when awake and even to talk with them.
His nafs being freed from unawareness, he will begin to experience the taste of
salāt and to take pleasure from worshipping. He will now hate sins, things that
are harām and bad habits. He will form good habits. He will do favours for
everybody. He will be useful for society, for people. He will attain, and will
also make others attain, eternal felicity. As Hadrat Sayyed Sharīf Jurjānī, one
of the great savants of the Hanafī madhhab, writes at the end of Sharh-i mawāqif and at the beginning of Hāshiyatu Sharh-ul-matālī and in Berīqa, p.270, the figures of the Awliyā show
themselves to their murīds even after their death and give them fayd. To see
them and receive fayd is not easy; it is necessary to hold the belief of Ahl
as-sunnat by learning it from books, to obey the Sharīat, and to like and to
respect the Awliyā. It is written in the book Maraj-ul-bahrayn, All great men of
tasawwuf were of the Ahl-i sunnat. None of the performers of bidat reached the
Marifat of Allahu taālā. The nūr of Wilāyat did not enter their hearts. The
darkness of the bidat, concerning either worship or belief, prevented the nūr
of Wilāyat from entering their hearts. If the dirt of bidat is not removed
from the heart, and if the heart is not ornamented with the Ahl-i sunnat
belief, the rays of the sun of haqīqat will not enter the heart. Such a heart
will not be illuminated by the nūr of yaqīn. See Makātīb-i sharīfa, letter 69.
It
is written in Irshād-ut-tālibīn, When
a Murshid-i kāmil dies, he does not cease giving fayd. He even gives more. But,
mens contact with the dead is unlike their contact with the living. For this
reason, little fayd is received from the soul of a dead one. Those who have
reached fanā and baqā have extensive relations
with
a dead one, almost as much as when he was alive. Therefore, they get much fayd;
yet still they get more when the latter is alive. Murshids facilitate those in
their company to adhere to the Sharīat, and inspire them with love and respect
through all their manners and words, thus causing them to receive more fayd.
As it is seen, it is necessary to look for a murshid. Though a faithful and
pure Muslim can receive fayd from an Awliyā, dead or alive, the living Awliyā
will instruct him on the tasks that he has to do. He will correct his faults,
thus it will become easy to receive much more fayd. On the contrary, the dead
cannot say anything. They cannot show the way. They cannot correct his faults.
His receiving fayd comes to an end. He cannot be taught through inspiration or
dreams by the dead either. Delusion, fancy or the Devil might get involved in
inspirations and dreams. And the inspirations and dreams that are not involved
with them, may be connotative and in need of an explanation; the correct ones
cannot be distinguished from the false ones. The gain would be very valuable,
but the loss is much more dangerous. Nevertheless, in case one cannot find a
real murshid, one should not fall into the traps of false and ignorant
murshids. Rather, he should try to receive fayd from the souls of the dead
ones. For attaining this, it is necessary to have the Ahl-i sunnat belief and
to obey the Sharīat, to read books written by real scholars, and to make sohbat with those who read the books of true
Islāmic savants. A little child likes its mother best and trusts in her. When
it becomes wise enough, it trusts its father more, relies on him and gets use
from him. When it begins going to school or to work, it adheres to its teacher
or master and gets use from him. Allahs divine way is so. Likewise, the
earnings of the soul are acquired first through parents and then through the
murshid and then through Rasūlullah sall-Allāhu alaihi wa sallam.
Question: Since no Murshid-i kāmil has been
seen after the first half of the fourteenth century of the Hegira, why dont we attach
our heart to the heart of Rasūlullah, and thereby receive his strong nūr,
instead of attaching our heart to the hearts of past Walīs by reading their
words and thus knowing them? Besides, isnt it a principle of īmān to be attached
to him, that is, to believe and love him?
Answer: No doubt it is better to follow Rasūlullāh
directly (sall-Allāhu taālā alaihi wa sallam), and after his passing, to
follow his holy soul. This is even necessary and wājib. In the 81st letter of
the book (Makātīb-i sharīfa), it
states: Thinking of a Walī as an eyeglass, we should look at Rasūlullah and
Allahu taālā
through
this eyeglass. To find a Walī or his books, to know him, to do rābita with him
is actually for the purpose of becoming attached to the sacred soul of
Rasūlullah (sallallahu taālā alayhi wa sallam). By merely reading or hearing
about him, it is difficult for one to dream of the figure, the physiognomy, of
someone whom he has never seen before. Not the desired one, but someone else
may be seen in this case. That is why rābita is not practiced with Rasūlullah.
It would be kufr (infidelity) to believe someone else to be Rasūlullah. This
danger does not occur when practicing rābita with the Awliyā. One who performs
rābita with a murshid-i kāmil will have with the heart looked into his blessed
heart. Therein, he will see the holy heart of Rasūlullah. Thus, he will have
performed rābita with Rasūlullah. This is the only way the ignorant, the
heedless, like us, do rābita with Rasūlullah. Through this kind of rābita,
after receiving fayd (spiritual power) from Rasūlullah, it will be possible and
easy to perform rābita directly with him, and to get fayd from the graves of
Awliya and from their souls. One who performs rābita with Rasūlullah and
receives fayd from him loves him very much. Imām-i Gazālī (rahmatullahi alaih),
at the end of his book (Ayyuhal Walad), says,
Every Muslim is in need of an education from a murshid. A murshid, by training
him, saves him from bad habits. He supplants good habits in the place of bad
ones. Education is similar to a farmers efforts to make the plantation on his
land strong and improved by cleaning away harmful weeds. Allahu taālā sent Prophets (alaihimussalām) to show his
creatures the correct path. He created murshids to represent the Prophets after their death. The signs of a
murshid is as follows... . The Arabic original of this book and its Turkish
and French translations are published by Hakīkat Kitābevi (bookstore). Since a
Walī knows better and is strongly tied to Rasūlullah (sallallahu taālā alayhi
wa sallam), he gets fayd from his sacred heart, and these fayds are directed
towards the hearts of those tied to that Walī. [Hearts receiving fayd become
clean. They attain good morals.] Imām-i Rabbānī quddisa sirruh, in his 260th
letter says, Fayd, nūr, which are in the heart of a murshid, like sunlight,
shine on everybody. They flow towards the hearts of those Muslims who love him
and who adapt themselves to the Sharīat. They are unaware of the reception of
these fayds. They dont understand that their hearts are purified. Like a
watermelon maturing under the light of the sun, they reach maturity. Ashab-i
kirām (ridwānullāhi taālā alaihim ajmaīn) matured and reached perfection
during the sohbats of Rasūlullah (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam). The worst
obstruction
preventing Muslims from receiving fayd is being a bidāt holder. In his 61st
letter, he also says, The most harmful thing that destroys peoples
willingness to attain Marifat of Allahu taālā is religious leaders who are
ignorant and full of lies. Their books and words blacken the heart. Those who
fall into their traps are similar to sick people going to a sham and ignorant
doctor. Most apparent distinction between a real Walī and a counterfeit shaikh
is that a real Walī has wara and taqwā. (Taqwā)
means believing in accordance with the Ahl-i sunnat itiqād and
abstaining from the harāms. Abstaining also from those things which are
doubtful is called (wara). Ahl-i
sunnat savants were all owners of wara and taqwā. In a Hadīth-i sharīf, contained in the one hundred and
twelfth letter of the book (Maktūbāt) by
Muhammad Mathūm (rahmatullahi alayh), it is declared: It is an act of worship to sit with an owner of wara. Islāmic
savants wrote many books in which they explained things that cause kufr, which
are harām and which are doubtful. The book (Al-Kabāir) by Ibni Nujaym-i Misrī is a famous
book. It is published with a Turkish translation in 1304 in Istanbul. In the
book Küfr ve Kebāir (Disbelief
and Grave Sins), written by Sayyed Abdulhakīm Arvasī, it points out about three
hundred and three things which are grave sins, and one hundred and eleven
things that cause kufr.
The
religious knowledge conveyed by Rasūlullah (sallallahu taālā alaihi wa sallam)
is divided into two categories: knowledge of the body and knowledge of the
heart. It was his duty to teach his Ashāb the knowledge of the body, that is,
the knowledge
of the things to be believed in with the heart and the knowledge of the belief
and the worship to be performed or abstained from with the body. He informed
all of them personally and directly. The spiritual teachings that pertain to
the heart and which are termed Marifat and Tasawwuf, like the rays of the sun,
emanated continuously from his blessed heart and spread out in all directions.
Each Sahabī attained a certain portion of fayd coming [flowing] to his heart in
proportion to his ability and talent. Because they had very strong affection
for the Messenger of Allah, in no time they attained as much of the nūr
radiated as their capacity allowed. And these nūrs they attained, in their
turn, hastened the formation of ikhlās in them and enhanced the already
existing lot. Please recheck the final part of the forty-sixth chapter.
Knowledge of the body has been learned from the four sources and has reached us
through fiqh books. Those who want to obey Rasūlullah must worship according to
fiqh books. The knowledge of the heart, which purifies the heart, soul and the
nafs
has
come to us by means of the hearts of the Awliyā. Those who want to adapt
themselves to Rasūlullah in the knowledge of the heart and soul, should stay
near a Walī and take this knowledge from his heart. A Walī is a means, a path
between the heart of a man and the sacred heart of Rasūlullah (sallallahu
taālā alayhi wa sallam). The knowledge of the heart is not obtained quickly by
reading books of tasawwuf. The fountain and source of this knowledge is the
hearts of ārifs. At the end of the book Samarāt-ul-fuād
it is also written this way. Each Sahābī had also conveyed the
knowledge of the body and of the heart which he had obtained from Rasūlullah to
those requesting it. Muslims coming afterwards took the knowledge of the body
from books of fiqh and the knowledge of the heart from the hearts of murshids.
Those who say, I will learn the knowledge of the body directly from
Rasūlullahs sayings, that is, from the Hadīth-i
sharīfs, have fallen into the traps of the nafs and the devil by
understanding the meanings of the Hadīth-i
sharīfs wrongly. Those who say, I will receive the knowledge of the
heart directly from the heart of Rasūlullah, have also fallen into the traps
of the nafs and the devil. It is necessary to obtain knowledge of the body from
the words or books of the Ahl-i sunnat savants, and knowledge of the heart from
the hearts of these savants who are alive or from their souls if they are dead.
The
experts of this knowledge, that is, the murshids all expressed the same idea.
The Hadīth-i sharīfs contained in the book Kunuz-ud-daqāiq, such as, A savant among his students is like a Prophet among his Ashāb
and The superiority of a
savant to his students is like the superiority of a Prophet to his ummat and
Everything has a source. The source of taqwā
is the hearts of arifs and To obtain a fiqh session is better than worshipping for a year and
Looking at the faces of savants is
worshipping are proofs for the things we have written
above. Allāhu taālā promised that the Islamic religion will survive till the
end of the world. He created the Ottoman Empire for the protection of the
knowledge of the body and the Mursihds for the preservation of the knowledge of
the heart. The British State, Islams bitterest enemy, annihilated these two guardians
after working for centuries. Allāhu taālā is creating new guardians and Islam
is going on in its way.
Let
us mention also the fact that as each person has a different illness in his
heart and soul, so everybody has a different property, a different tendency
called idiosyncracy: Uberempfindlickheit gegen bestimmte Reize. Rasūlullah
has not only communicated the diseases of the heart and its treatment, but he
has also given
hundreds
of thousands of different kinds of facts regarding individuals, families,
societies, wars, and problems of inheritance, that is, all kinds of affairs
pertaining to this and the next worlds. It is next to impossible for us,
ignorant people, who do not know our own disease or its medicine, to pick out
the one which is suitable for us of these hadīths.
It is stated in the fifty-fourth letter of the second volume: Hadīths have been forgotten by now. Bidats are
widespread. True and false books have been mixed with one another. Murshid-i
kāmils, being specialists of the heart and the soul, have picked out these hadīths the spiritual medicines which are suitable
for the nature of each individual, for his special illness, and for the times
zulmat and fesād. Rasūlullah, being the chief doctor, prepared hundreds of
thousands of medicines for the worlds pharmaceutical store. Awliyā are like
his assistant doctors who distribute these ready-made medicines in accordance
with the diseases of the patients. Since we do not know our own disease or
understand its appropriate cure, if we attempt to look for a medicine for
ourselves among hundreds of thousands of hadīths,
we may, having an allergy, suffer harm instead of getting better, thus getting
our desert for being ignorant. It is for this reason that it was declared in a hadīth: He
who interprets the Qurān in accordance with his own understanding becomes a disbeliever. Since
lā-madhhabīs and the like cannot understand this subtlety, they say, Everybody
should understand his faith by himself by reading the Qurān and
hadīths. He should not read the books of
the four madhhabs. By saying this they prevent the books of the Ahl-i sunnat
savants from being read. The Persian book Radd-i Wahhābī gives excellent answers to these
slanders of the Lā-madhhabīs. Also in the 97th letter of the second volume of
Maktūbāt, Imām-i Rabbānī Ahmad Fāruqī answers them, too.
As
a final word, I would like to say that Walī means
an ahl-i sunnat scholar who has attained the love and the consent of Allāhu
taālā and The Ahl-i sunnat
Madhhab means the way shown by Qurān-al-karīm and
hadīths. The savants of the Ahl-i sunnat
learned this way from the Ashāb-i kirām. They respected not what they
understood, but what they heard from the Ashāb-i kirām. To dissent from the
Ahl-i sunnat means to dissent from the right way of the Qurān and
hadīths. Of these people, even who
dissent from the Ahl-i sunnat and who misunderstand occult indications in the Qurān and in well-known hadīths, do not become kāfirs; they become holders
of bidat. They start deceiving ignorant people by calling their wrong
derivations The way of the Qurān,
The way of the Ashāb.
In
order to attain the consent and love of Allahu taālā, it is necessary for us
to have ikhlās and qalb-i salīm. Purification of the heart is only possible by
believing in Rasūlullah (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam), by loving and by being
dependent on him. To do this, the shortest and easiest way is to know a Walī
and to establish rābita with him, that is, to become attached to him by heart,
provided that we learn the Ahl-i sunnat itiqād, Sharīat and manners of
tasawwuf from his words and books. A Walī is understood to be a Walī from the
document given to him by his master in a written form, and from the suitability
of all of his words and actions to Sharīat. In times when such a Walī can not
be seen, one who does rābita with any Walī will become his Uwaysī. In the 286th letter of Maktūbat, it is
stated: Someone who could not participate in the sohbats of an ārif may enjoy
the luck of receiving fayd from the souls of the great men (of the dīn). Allahu
taālā makes these souls a means in order that these people may progress.
Ārifs and Walīs continue to give fayd to those who desire it even after they
die, since they attained the good news declared in the hadīth-i qudsī, which was written at the end of the 46th
item of the first part [of the Turkish original]. Please look at the 54th item
of the second part and the 291st letter of Maktūbāt also! It is explained in
the 17th item of the second part how to receive fayd from the soul of a Walī.
Muhammad Mathūm-i Fārūqī (rahmatullahi alaih), in this 142nd letter in the
third volume (of his Maktūbāt), writes, It is very good for you to come to the
city of Sarhand with the intention of making a visit to the qabr-i sharīf
(honoured grave) of Imām-i Rabbānī (quddisa sirruh). You will obtain fayd and
blessings here. You will profit from the lights and secrets coming from the
source in Madīna-i Munawwara. Even though the darkness of kufr and wickedness
in India blacken hearts and make souls sick; just as water in the darkness of
the forest gives life to souls and cleans hearts, the city of Sarhand today is
a place where fayds and lights, coming [through the blessed hearts of Awliyā]
from the source in Madīna-i munawwara, are emanating. You should not deem that
place like the ones in India where there is kufr (disbelief) and oppression.
This place is the door of [the way which leads someone to attain the consent of
Allahu taālā] Wilāyat. The lights and secrets coming from the blessed heart of
Rasūlullah (sallallahu taālā alaihi wa sallam) are now springing here. Those
who want to attain the consent of Allahu taālā will receive, at the rate of
their love for him, fayd and blessings by believing and visiting his grave.
Most of those living close to this blessed place are deprived
of
this blessing because they do not believe in and underestimate its value.
People who enter a room where there is musk will smell a nice perfume. Even if
you put musk inside the nose of a man who has a cold, he will not sense its
smell. The book (Tuhfat-ul-Ushshaq) informs
us that some things are written in the book (Muzakkīn-nufūs) by Ashrafzāda Abdullah
Rūmī. While fayds and blessings flow abundantly in sohbats, the second method
will give them only in drops. But, only a single drop of it is more valuable
and delicious than all earthly earnings. Visiting his grave will cause an
increase in the number of drops, but falling into the traps of lā-madhhabīs,
corrupt ones, impostors, and lying shaikhs causes a full stoppage of the drops.
Connection between hearts and souls results from believing, loving and
desiring.
If
a Muslim attends the sohbat of a Walī, or makes (rābita)to Walī, that is, imagines with great
respect his figure, face [in front of his hearts eye], or if he learns his
life and words and loves him and thinks of him weeping, fayd and marifas in
the heart of the Walī will flow into that Muslims heart. There are a lot of
happy and lucky people who have matured in this way, by rābita only, and have
become Walīs. They have informed us in hundreds of books about the blessings
and high degrees they attained by this way. Allahu taālās mercy and blessings
in this respect will continue until doomsday.
When
we say that we love someone, it is understood that we have a figurative
affection for him. The ignorant, bidat practitioners, and pure and faithful
Muslims all love Rasūlullah in this way. For being a Muslim this affection is
adequate. To attain a love that will facilitate the reception of fayd, they
must learn about and love his words, actions, behaviour and morals. Someone is
obeyed when he is throughly loved; he will be followed in every matter.
Someone
will forget everything else if the love he has is enormous. This type of
forgetting is called (Fanā-i qalb). He
will even forget himself. The forgetting of the self is also called (fanā-yi nafs). In Makātīb-i Sharīfa, in the 90th letter, it
is said that When fanā-i qalb is attained, the hatera (thinking of creatures)
will not stay in the heart. But they still stay in the mind. When fanā-yi nafs
is attained, they leave the mind, too. Only the ahl-i tasawwuf can understand
this writing of ours. It is not learned by being educated being in high schools
or universities. Thus, when fanā is
attained, that is, when an Ārif is loved very much, fayd, lights, and sacred
blessings, which are coming to that ārif from Rasūlullah, (sallallahu taālā
alaihi wa sallam) flow toward the
heart
of these lovers and they attain real ikhlās. Hence, they enjoy worshipping, and
they obtain the consent of Allahu taālā. After this stage, Fanā-fir-Rasūl will be obtained; that
is, by deeply loving Rasūlullah (sallallahu taālā alaihi wa sallam), a person
receives fayd directly from his sacred heart. In this case, he no longer needs
a murshid (a spiritual guide).
The
only way to attain happiness here and in the Hereafter is to become a Muslim.
And being a Muslim requires believing in the facts such as that Allāhu taālā
exists and is one, that He sees and knows everything, that He is the maker
[creator] of everything, that Muhammad alaihis-salām is the Prophet, that after death there will be everlasting
blessings and a sweet life in a place called Jannat (Paradise) and an
everlasting burning in a place called Jahannam (Hell), that Muslims will go to
Jannat and non-Muslims, i.e. those who deny Islam after hearing about it, will
burn eternally in Jahannam. More than ninety-per-cent of the worlds
population, that is all Christians, all Jews, all politicians and statesmen in
Europe and America, all scientists, commanders, brahmins, buddhists,
fire-worshippers and idolaters believe that we will rise after death and that
there is everlasting torment in Hell.
We
hear about some ignorant and idiotic people who are quite unaware of Islams
beautiful ethical principles and human rights. They are wasting their lives at
sports fields, beaches during the days and at places of amusement, indulging in
luxuries, debaucheries and indecencies with girls and boys, or in music,
gambling and alcohol, at nights. They are obtaining the money they need for
their pleasures, completely disignoring the legitimacy of their earnings. With
this eccentric, fraudulent and outrageous conduct of theirs, they harm not only
themselves but also society, people, their lives and chastities. In their
terminology irreligiousness and atheism are progressive attitudes and young
peoples modernism. They say that theirs is a way of life that a wise person
would normally prefer. They boast about their behaviour and suppose that they
are imitating Europeans and Americans by doing so. They stigmatize true and
honest Muslims, who possess faith, belief and pure morals and who observe
others rights, as bigots and fanatics. Thus they lull themselves into a false
sense of self-complacency. Are all those Europeans and Americans unwise to be
devoted to their religious beliefs and being wise is a characteristic peculiar
to these people alone? They do not realize that they are heading for damnation
and inuring themselves to a habitude that will eventually offer them
everlasting torment in return for a few years dissipation. Nor do
they
seem to take a lesson from history. Those who fall into their traps are only
pitiable.
Such people who have never heard
of Islām will not enter the Hell. Since they are not Muslims, they will not go
to Paradise, either. They will cease to exist after the Day of Judgement, as
will the case be with animals. A sound person, after learning science, biology
and astronomy, should study the religions and should select the Islāmic
religion, which corresponds with logic and science. Someone who fails in this
should still immediately become a Muslim as a result of fearing and trembling
from the danger of being eternally burned in hell, which is believed everywhere
on the earth. If he still disbelieves, then he does not follow logic.
In short, the source and even the
best of pleasures here and in the Hereafter is to attain the love and the
consent of Allāhu taālā. Being close to Allāhu taālā means to attain His
love. Ones spiritual closeness to Allahu taālā means to attain His love. He
who has attained this happiness is called Walī or Ārif.
It is necessary to carry out the fards to become a Walī. The
fards entail having faith compatible with the faith communicated by the Ahl
as-Sunna savants, abstaining from the harāms, performing the worships that are
fard to do, and having love for the Muslims who are sālih (one who is on the
right path). It will not be useful, that is, there will be no rewards (thawābs)
for the worships performed without ikhlās (sincerity). Ikhlās means to act only
for the sake of Allāhu taālā, that is, in such a way that you will forget
everything. Ikhlās is obtained automatically by having love for nothing but
Allāhu taālā. The case of having love only for Him in ones heart is called tasfiya (purification in the heart), itminān (ease of heart), or Fanā-fillāh. The twenty-eighth āyat of Sūra Rad
declares that it is possible for the heart to have itminān (ease of heart) only
by dhikr (remembering Allāhu taālā) and by pondering over His greatness and
blessings. Performing dhikr is done by repeating the name of Allahu taālā or
by seeing someone who is a Walī. If you cannot find a Walī, you can make rābita
to a Walī whom you have heard of before. It is communicated through a Hadīth-i sharīf, When they are seen, Allāhu taālā will be remembered. In
other words, seeing a Walī is dhikr of Allāhu taālā. This is one of the Hadīth-i sharīfs communicated by Irshād-ut-tālibīn, Ibni Māja, Ezkār, Rābita-i sharīfa of
Abdulhākīm Efendi, and in the eleventh letter of Dost Muhammad Kendihārż.
It is not a condition to make rābita to the exact figure of a Walī.
When
a person sees a murshid or reads his books, he will love
him as he loves himself for the murshid is the person who has taught him Islam correctly, who has saved him from worldly disasters and perdition in the Hereafter, and who has guided him to everlasting felicity. When he sees him or, if he cannot see him, thinks of him lovingly, the fayds coming to the murshid from Rasūlullah will flow into his heart, too. It is stated in the seventy-fourth page of Maqāmāt-i-Mazhāriyya: As Mukarram Khān was dying, they put Ubaydullāh-i-Ahrārs skullcap on his head. Take it off! Fetch my murshids headgear, instead. For he is the person who caused me to attain happinesses, he said. The figure with which Rābita is made does not necessarily have to be exactly the murshid himself. If a person closes his eyes and makes rābita to the same image for five to ten minutes in the morning and in the evening every day, after a while the Walīs soul will appear in the same image and will begin to talk like in a dream, and will do him favours. As it is understood from the hadīdh-i-qudsī we have quoted in the seventeenth chapter of the second part (of the Turkish version), if a Muslim mentions the name of a Walī whom he knows and loves upon attending his sohbats or reading his books and calls on him imploringly, Allāhu taālā will make that Walī hear him, even if the Walī is absent or dead. The Walī will come and help him. If a Walī wishes to know about something that has happened before or which will happen later, Allāhu taālā will make him know about it. Such favours and gifts which Allāhu taālā bestows upon Walīs are called karāmat. Bedr-ad-dīn Serhendī writes in his book Hadarat-ul-quds that he has seen and heard of thousands of Imām-i-Rabbānīs karāmats and relates more than a hundred of them. When the heart becomes fānī, that is, when (it attains a grade where) it remembers nothing, the brain, mind and memory, does not necessarily become oblivious of worldly matters. The heart, when it becomes fānī, still lets all the limbs, including the brain, mind and memory, carry on all sorts of worldly activities, and a person in this state, like other people, goes on working for his worldly needs. He does all his human tasks and favours with the intention of obtaining the consent of Allāhu taālā. Whatever he does becomes dhikr. See the last part of the 46th article in the first part (of the Turkish version)! It fulfills all its human tasks and favours with the intention of obtaining the consent of Allāhu taālā. Whatever it does becomes dhikr. See the last part of the 46th article on page 188 in this the first fascicle!
1 - Our Prophet 'sall-Allāhu 'alaihi wa sallam' stated: "A person whom Allāhu ta'ālā loves very much is one who learns his religion and teaches it to others. Learn your religion from the mouths of Islamic scholars!"
A person who cannot find a true scholar must learn by reading books written by the scholars of Ahl as-sunna, and try hard to spread these books. A Müslim who has 'ilm (knowledge), 'amal (practising what one knows; obeying Islam's commandments and prohibitions), and ikhlās (doing everything only to please Allāhu ta'ālā) is called an Islamic scholar. A person who represents himself as an Islamic scholar though he lacks any one of these qualifications is called an 'evil religious scholar', or an 'impostor'. The Islamic scholar will guide you to causes which in turn will open the gates to happiness; he is the protector of faith. The impostor will mislead you into such causes as will make you end up in perdition; he is the Satan's accomplice.[1] (There is a certain) prayer (called) Istighfār (which), whenever you say, (recite or read) it, will make you attain causes which will shield you against afflictions and troubles.
2 - The
Nejāt-ul-musallī
was written in Turkish in the year 1217 (A.H.) by Ahmed Ževki Efendi, and was printed
in Żstanbul in 1305. Żt consists of a hundred and ninety-seven (197) pages. Żt is stated as follows on its final
page: Ibni Jezerī, (751 [1350 A.D.], Damascus - 833 [1429], Shīrāz,) states as follows in his
book Hisn ul-hasīn:
A hadīth-i-sherīf reads as follows:
"If an invalid person says Lā ilāha illā anta
subhānaka innī kuntu min-az-zālimīn,' forty times, he will die as a martyr
(if his predetermined
life-span is over). If he recovers, all his sins
will be pardoned."
This prayer is the eighty-seventh āyat-i- kerīma of Anbiyā sūra. Please see the final
parts of the thirteenth and the fifteenth chapters of the current book!
------------------------------------
[1] Knowledge that is acquired not for the purpose of practising it with ikhlās, will not be beneficial. Please see the 366 and 367 pages of the first volume of Hadīqa, and also the 36 and th ththe 40 and the 59 letters in the first volume of Maktūbāt. (The English versions of these letters exist in the 16 and the 25 and the 28 chapters, respectively, of the second fascicle of Endless Bliss).