Here is the key to the treasure of eternity:
Bismi’llâhi’r-rahmâni’r-rahîm.
Mentioning the name of Allahu ta’âlâ, I begin writing the second fascicle of the book Endless Bliss. For writing the correct and useful information in this book, I trust myself to His Name, and expect aid from Him. In this world Allâhu ta’âlâ pities all people. Creating useful things, He sends them to everybody. He, alone, creates every living being, keeps every being in existence every moment and protects all. Thanks be to that exalted being, Allah! Salât and salâm be to His beloved Prophet, hadrat Muhammad! May salutations and benevolent prayers be to all the pure relatives of this exalted Prophet and to all his Sahâba, his
We see that all living and nonliving beings are in a regular order. We learn that there is an unchanging order, a mathematical balance in the structure of every substance, in every event, in every reaction. We name these orders, these connections as laws of physics, chemistry, astronomy and biology. Utilizing this unchanging order, we develop industries, build factories, prepare new medicines, and establish communications with stars and atoms, make radios, televisions, computers. Were it not for this order in all creatures and in beings, had everything been happening by chance and haphazardly, we could not do any of these. Everything would collide, everything would be in utter disorder, and disasters would happen; all would perish.
The fact that beings are dependent upon orders, relations and laws indicates that they did not come into being haphazardly by themselves and that they were created by a knowing, powerful, seeing, hearing supreme Being who acts as He wills: He creates or annihilates as He wishes. He has made certain things causes for His creating or annihilating each thing. If He had not created causes there would not be such an order in beings. Everything would be in complete disorder; neither His existence would be known of, nor would science or civilization exist.
He not only reveals His existence through this order, but also, pitying His slaves, He informed them by sending messages through an angel to those whom He had created as the best and the highest of all in the world. He informed of Himself and His Names, and explained what things are expedient and what others are inapt for attaining comfort and welfare in this world and in the Hereafter. Such superior people are called Prophets ‘alaihimussalawâtu wattaslîmât’. What they communicated is called Dîn (religion). Because people
are apt to forget old teachings and because corrupt people exist in every age, who defile and change Prophets’ ‘alaihimussalawâtu wattaslîmât’ books and utterances, the old religions were forgotten, and the known ones were interpolated. In fact, corrupt people made the religions unbelievable and corrupt.
Having magnanimous compassion for people, Allah, the Supreme Being who created everything, sent the last Prophet and the true religion to His slaves. He gave the good news that He shall protect this religion until the last day and He shall spread it everywhere undefiled; though evil people shall attack, try to change and defile it.
I, Huseyn Hilmi IŞIK, the son of Sa’id Bey, and who prepared this book, Endless Bliss, believed in the one Creator when I was very young. I learned that His name is Allah, that His last Prophet’s name is Muhammad and the name of the religion which he communicated is Islam. I wanted to know this religion of Islam correctly. During the years of education in high school and in university I tried very hard to learn religious knowledge as well. But so various were the books of the deviant people and the lies of the enemies of Islam, and so cunningly did they work, that it was impossible to distinguish and pick out the right way, and I could find no other way than beg my Allah; I wept for years; I prayed very much. Allah, the Supreme Being, pitied me in the hijri year 1347, which coincided with the Christian year 1929. He accepted my prayers. He made me know a righteous, beloved, distingushed and very deeply learned slave of His. His knowledge was so great, his moral quality so beautiful and his words were so sweet. He was an ocean of knowledge,
morals and virtue. He was a descendant of hadrat Muhammad ‘sallallâhu alaihi wa sallam’. His name was Sayyid Abdulhakîm Efendi. During the course of my studies in the faculty of engineering, and later when I was a military officer in
Istanbul, I attended his lectures in his home for seven years. He pitied me, he was kind enough to pay attention to me. For the following seven years which I spent in Mamak, Ankara, I tried to gain from that source of knowledge and ma’rifat by exchanging letters with him and by visiting him. Those that I had met before were enemies of religion. Infinite thanks be to Allah, the Supreme Being, for my having matured to the state of distinguishing good from bad. I was able to realize that my soul had been poisoned and my heart darkened. Had I not seen that great Islamic savant, I could not have escaped the calamity. I, too, would have believed the insidious enemies who introduced ignorance, irreligiousness and immorality as modernism. I would have fallen victim to the traps of those who
called their true and pure Muslim parents retrogressive and fanatical, and I would mock my parents and scoff at the Islamic knowledge which I had learned from them.
In order to make all people hear of this true Islamic religion, which I heard and learned from Abdulhakîm Efendi, and to serve so that everybody may attain comfort and peace in the world and infinite blessings in the Hereafter, I am writing this book, Endless Bliss. A fortunate, lucky person who attains the blessing of reading this book, believes, learns and follows it, and thus attains peace in this world and the next. He becomes useful to his nation and to all people. He will always perform good deeds. Nobody will suffer any harm from him.
Now I am presenting the revised ninth edition of this book, Endless Bliss - second fascicle, to my readers in forty-two chapters, twenty-eight of which are letters translated from Mektûbât (the Letters), by Imâm-i Rabbânî ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’aleyh’.
Infinite gratitude be to my exalted Allah, who guided me to the right way and made me a means for guiding all people to the right way, to the way of salvation. I
pray that all people will reject lies and slanders, and by reading and believing this book, enjoy happiness, cling to the right way, and thus escape perdition.
Mîlâdî Hijrî Shamsî Hijrî Qamarî
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