60 - FINAL WORD OF SE'ADET-I EBEDIYYE


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 wag 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 comes the temperature rises and when it deceases it gets cold. We also understand that a magnet attracts iron. We say that it is wrong to say, "I don't believe in the existence of air, heat or electricity because I don't 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 don't believe in Allah. There are no such things as angels or genies. I would see them if they existed. Since I don't see them, I don't 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 "alam" 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 something 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 Allahu ta'ala 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 [Darwin died in 1299 (1882 A.D.)], the British scientist whom Islam's 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 ta'ala created everything in the best form and for the most useful purposes. For example, He created this spherical earth one hundred and fifty million kilometers 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 poor oxygen, 78 poor 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 down 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 centers 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 creatures 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- tabarakallahu ahsunal-khaliqin! Aside from man's 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 ta'ala 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, let's 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 change?
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 never 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 today's beings are the result of a succession of beings coming from those first beings.
The book Sharh-i Mawaqif proves in detail in the first section of its fifth chapter that there is a Creator who creates all classes of beings from nothing, that this Creator 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 Maktubat by Imam-i Rabbani, 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. Allahu ta'ala 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 ta'ala exists and that Hadrat Muhammad is His Prophet. He will eagerly become a Muslim.
It is called having iman and being a Muslim to believe that Allahu ta'ala exists, is one, and that Muhammad ('alaihi's-salam) 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 ('alaihi's-salam) are called Hadith ash-Sharif. The person who does not believe any of those things clearly reported in the Qur'an al-karim and hadith ash-Sharifs is called a Kafir. Those disbelievers who believe a history book written in ancient times by men as the words of Allahu ta'ala are called Ahl-i kitab, 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 Dahri. 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 Ulum-i islamiyya. Islamic knowledge consists of two parts. The first is religious knowledge. This is also called Ulum-i naqliyya. This is the knowledge derived from four sources called Adilla-i Shariyya, and are of two sections. The branches tafsir, kalam, and fiqh of the knowledge of Ulum-i zahiriyya are written in their special books. The second one is Ulum-i batiniyya. There can be no changes in either of them. The second part of ulum-i islamiyya is scientific knowledges or Ulum-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 Hukama. The meanings of some verses in the Qur'an al-karim and also some hadith ash-Sharifs are not clear and cannot be comprehended exactly. These kinds of verses and hadith ash-Sharifs were interpreted with different meanings by different Islamic 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 as-sunnat or Sunni. Those who derived wrong meanings are called Heretics or the ones who have deviated from the right path. Shiites and Wahhabis 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 ta'ala 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 salat? Those who commit sins? No! The enemies of Allahu ta'ala will burn eternally in Hell. The Muslims who committed sins are not Allah's 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 purified of their sins. Heretical people will certainly be burned in the Hell for some time.
Kadi Zada Ahmad Amin Bey, who revised the book Vasiyyetname by Imam-i Muhammad Birghiwi, 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 Sair, People who changed the Torah will burn there [Ibni 'Abidin]. These people do not believe in Hadrat Isa (Jesus), who is Allah's prophet, and they slander this great prophet by saying "the son of an unknown father." They changed the Tawrat, thus defiling Allah's book, and after Hadrat Musa, 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 Isa's 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 Isa is God [Ibni Abidin]. [Some of them say that Jesus is the son of God.] Isawis (real believers of Hadrat 'Isa) were not polytheists before Christianity was subverted and idolatry was mixed with it. Jews are farther away from Islam. [Marifatnama and Tazkira-i Qurtubi]
In the fourth level called "Jahim," 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 Brahmans will be tortured in the sixth level called "Lazy," along with those with no religion, and polytheists.
In the seventh level called "Hawiyah," the very bottom, the most vehement level of Hell, munafiqs and murtads will burn. The order of these seven levels is not the same in the books Tafsir-i Mazhari and Galiyya. One's 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 iman, 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 Islamic 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 Islamic savants and religious knowledge, they make up imaginary meanings for the words which they heard at early ages and suppose that Islam is like that. Thus, they deny Islam. 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 iman 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 din of Islam have been written, and many of these have been translated into other languages and have been spread in all countries. Contrarily, heretical and short-sighted people have always attacked the beneficial, blissful and illuminating principles of Islam; 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 Islamic din. 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 ta'ala 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 Islam through knowledge, medical science, cleanliness or morals, they assault by means of base and cowardly lies and slander.
How could Islam ever be defied through knowledge? Islam is the very essence of knowledge. Many parts of Qur'an al-karim command knowledge and praise men of knowledge. For example, it is declared in the ninth ayat of Surat-uz-Zumar: "Is it possible that he who knows and he who does not know be the same? He who knows is certainly valuable!" Rasulullah's 'sall-Allahu 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 Ihya-ul-'ulum and Mawduat-ul-'ulum, the following hadith 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 don't want it; it is invented by disbelievers'." And it is declared in another hadith ash-Sharif: "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 study. 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 hadith ash-Sharif: "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 husband's 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 ta'ala, it is not a sin to go out to learn without permission.
Then how can disbelievers ever attack Islam through knowledge? Does knowledge blame knowledge? Of course not, it likes, praises it. He who attacks Islam 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 Qur'an al-karim. It is fard-i kifaya 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 Rasulullah's very vivid expressions commanding us to study science in one of the initial pages of our book. Then, Islam 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-Allahu 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 hadith ash-Sharif is written on the three hundred and eighty-first page of the book Riyad-un-nasihin, which also writes that it has been quoted from the book Zubda-tul-akhbar. There are also those (savants) who say that these are the words of Imam-i Shafi'i 'rahmatullahi ta'ala alaih'. Every word of this great imam is an explanation of ayat-i karimas and hadith ash-Sharifs. Islam 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. Islam has guaranteed and ensured hygiene, the first task of medical science. In the second part of Mawahib-i ladunniyya, it is proved through ayat al-karimas that Qur'an-al-karim recommends both sections of medical science. Rasulullah 'sall-Allahu 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 Mawahib-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 Sayyid Rasulullah 'sall-Allahu 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 and dishonor one in front of everybody! O our Allah! Your justice is very correct. Those who attack Islam, 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 Rasulullah and said, "Sir, His Excellency sent me to serve you. I will examine your patients free of charge." Rasulullah 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. Day, months passed, but no Muslim visited the doctor. Ashamed, the doctor came to Rasulullah 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, Rasulullah 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 honor 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 Ashab do not become sick! The Islamic religion has shown the way of how not to become sick. My Ashab 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 Islam, 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 one's last will. Allahu ta'ala 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 Islam 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 ta'ala awakens sinful Muslims from unawareness by warning them through disease, paucity and disgrace.
Religiously ignorant people cannot attack Islam through cleanliness, either. When some youngsters among the Tabiin asked the Ashab-i kiram 'ridwanullahi ta'ala alaihim ajmain', "Allahu ta'ala loves you. He praises you in the Qur'an al-karim. 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 ta'ala declares at various part of the Qur'an al-karim: "I like the clean ones." The person who has seen the beautiful and luminous face of Rasulullah 'sall-Allahu alaihi wa sallam' is called a "Sahabi." When there are more than one, they are called "Ashab." Those who did not see the Most Beautiful but who saw a Sahabi are called "Tabiin. 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 don't 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 Islam through morals and virtue, justice or the values of humanity, either. Islamic religion is thoroughly moral and virtue. goodness, justice and generosity, which the Islamic 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 Islam's 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 Alti Parmak. The Jews said, 'The place belongs to us, you shouldn't 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!
Rasulullah 'sall-Allahu alaihi wa sallam' declared: "I was sent to perfect good habits and to spread good morals over the world." It is declared in a hadith ash-Sharif: "Of you, the one with exalted iman is the one with beautiful moral quality!" Even iman is measured with morals! [The beautiful moral qualities in Islam are written in the book Islam Ahlaki (in Turkish).]
Since those ignorant people who are against 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 salat without a wudu' 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 Islam 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 Qur'an? In Ramadan, in 1960, the Radio of Moscow attacked Islam insolently through very base and loathsome lies. The enemy's motion pictures misrepresent the lives of the prophets 'alaihis-salatu wattaslimat' and Islamic history as loathsome by fabricating pictures. Muslims watch these corrupt pictures, assume that they are true, and in this way their faith, iman becomes depraved. The enemy's 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 iman 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 Qur'an al-karim and its meaning by heart, to know thousands of hadiths and their meanings by heart, to be specialized in he twenty main branches of Islamic 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 ijtihad in these madhhabs, and to reach the highest grade of tasawwuf called "Wilayat-i Khassa-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. Islamic savants used to be brought up well versed in scientific knowledge. The Tanzimat Kanunu (Reorganization Law), which the freemason Rashid Pasha prepared in cooperation with the British Ambassador and announced on 26 Shaban 1255 [1839 A.D.], during the reign of Sultan 'Abdulmajid, 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 Imam-i Muhammad Ghazali (rahmatullahi 'alaih). His work is a witness to his depth in religious knowledge and his high grade in ijtihad. 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 Islamic savant was Imam-i Rabbani Ahmad-i Faruqi. It has been unanimously stated by religious authorities that his dept in religious knowledge, his high grade in ijtihad, and especially his perfection in tasawwuf were above the mind's 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. Imam-i Rabbani 'rahmatullahi alaih' 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 Maktubat, he writes, "My son Muhammad Mathum has recently completed reading the book Sharh-i Mawaqif. 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 Islamic madrasas. Mawaqif was written by Qadi 'Adud and this, (that is, the book mentioned above by Imam-i-Rabbani), is the revision of it by Sayyid Sharif Ali Jurjani [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 Islamic 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 Sharh-i Mawaqif and Marifatnama. They measured the length of the meridian in the open plain of Sinjar between Musul and Diyar-i Bakr, finding the result as it is found today. Nur-ud-din Batruji, who passed away in 581 [1185 A.D.], was a professor of astronomy at the Islamic University of Andalusia. He wrote today's astronomy in his book Alhayat. When Galileo, Copernicus and Newton said that the earth rotated after learning this fact from Islamic books, they were deemed guilty for their words. Galileo was judged and imprisoned by priests. Until the Tanzimat [reforms of Abdulmajid 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 as-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). Allahu ta'ala, 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 Din. 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 prescribed in the instructions will benefit from it. He who does not follow the instructions will suffer harm. Likewise, a person who lives compatibly with Qur'an al- karim 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. Allahu ta'ala is pleased with those who are true Muslims. A true Muslim is loved by Allahu ta'ala. Being a true Muslim requires you to have the faith communicated by the Ahl-as-Sunnat savants, and to worship correctly and sincerely. Allahu ta'ala has promised that He will love such people, that He will inspire fayds and nurs into their hearts in the world and that in the Here after He will give thawab (blessings) as a reward for the worships performed correctly and sincerely. Worshipping means doing the commands (fards) and taqwa means avoiding the prohibitions (harams). Performing an act of worship correctly requires learning how it is to be done, and performing it by following he things you have learned. Ikhlas means doing every worship for the sake of Allahu ta'ala only. Worshipping Allahu ta'ala is done either by giving away one's property or by worshipping physically. For example, performing pious and charitable deeds, saving Muslims from trouble, remembering Allahu ta'ala, and asking for forgiveness (tawba) are all forms of worship. There is no ikhlas [Doing everything only for Allah's sake.] (sincerity) but riya (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 harams or bidat (heresy), and also in the hearts of those who are the friends or neighbors of disbelievers or la-madhhabi individuals. Imam-i Rabbani (rahmat-Allahu 'alaih) says in the fifty ninth letter of the first volume of his book Maktubat, "When beginning any worship, all Muslims must keep in their minds the intention of performing an action for Allahu ta'ala's sake. Allahu ta'ala has ordered them to do so, and He loves it. Hence, they will perform that action sincerely. However, all good deeds and favors should be done with sincerity (Ikhlas), and this sincerity must come immediately from the heart. A good intention and ikhlas 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 ikhlas are called Mukhlas. Those who have inconstant ikhlas and who strive to obtain ikhlas are called Mukhlis. It is easy and sweet for a mukhlas to worship. This is because three are no desires of the nafs or anxiety from satan in their hearts. This kind of ikhlas can only come into one's heart through the heart of a Wali." While beginning to worship one can obtain inconstant ikhlas by fighting against one's nafs and satan. Doing worships with this ikhlas causes the nafs to become weak in the course of time. This, in turn, brings about permanent ikhlas. However, to attain permanent ikhlas 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 nur and fayd. The heart's sickness is its following the nafs, liking and being fond of the harams. The sun radiates ultraviolet rays. And the source that radiates nur is the heart of a Wali. The hearts of the Awliya are like full moons. The moon reflects the rays which it receives from the sun. And the hearts of the Awliya radiate to the world the nur which they receive from Rasulullah's blessed heart, which radiates energy like the sun. The Awliya 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 nur 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 nur it has received to dark hearts, it causes them to shine. The longer a Believer lives and the better he becomes in worshipping and taqwa, the more nurs will his heart include. However, receiving these nurs and fayds abundantly requires loving a Wali. And if he brings himself into favor 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 person's 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 Maktubat that what attaches the hearts to one another is love. When a person sees a Wali and talks to him or reads his books, he loves him, seeing that he adheres to the Shariat perfectly, that his knowledge is like an ocean, that he has excellent morals, and that he does favors for everyone. Since he loves Rasulullah, 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 Rabita. By always performing rabita 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 Rabita will be like being with him.
The more the love, the more light he will receive. Hadrat Ubaidullah-i Ahrar 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 Ashab-i kiram ('alaihimurridwan) was brightened like a mirror by the nur radiated by the blessed heart of Rasulullah (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 nur, 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 Awliya, his same nur purified the hearts attached to these hearts and thereby brightened them like mirrors. That is, the eyes of their hearts were opened. The fortunate persons who were blessed with this lot were called Wali or Awliya (those whom Allah loves.)
Mazhar-i Jan-i Janan, the 'qutb' of his time and a great Wali, 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 'Ali Ramitani 'radi-Allahu ta'ala sirrahul'aziz' 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 ruh. If the heart is strong, it realizes beauty and loves it. Valuable things such as ayats, hadiths, words of the Awliya, prayers, and tasbihs 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 Qur'an al-karim or listens to it being read or makes dhikr, his heart loves Allahu ta'ala. 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 Rasulullah. If person who has released his heart from the paws of his nafs by following Muhammad 'alaihis-salam' observes a Wali, he will realize that he is a beloved born servant of Allah and a (spiritual) 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 ruh loved and they have ended up in disasters.
He who does his best to attain the love of Allahu ta'ala is called a Salih. He who has already attained this love is called an Arif or Wali. He who is a means for others to attain the love of Allahu ta'ala is called a Murshid. These three people are called Sadiq. It is declared in the hundred and twentieth ayat of the Surat-ut-Tawba in the Qur'an: "O Believers! Always, at all times be in company of Sadiqs!" This ayat-i karima commands doing the rabita. It is declared in a hadith: "All the blessings and nur which Allahu ta'ala has poured into my heart, I poured them into Abu Bakr's heart." Because Abu Bakr 'radi- Allahu ta'ala anh' was ahead of all others in taqwa and worshipping and because he realized better than anyone else did how great Rasulullah was so that he himself was a mere nothing when compared with the Messenger of Allah, and because won Rasulullah's love more than anyone else did, more fayds came to him than did to anyone else and he received all he fayds coming. As it is understood from these and the like, our religion asks us to keep company with the Awliya, and to learn Rasulullah's path from them.
Ashab-i kiram (the companions of the Prophet) and Tabiin-i izam (those who conversed with the Ashab-i kiram) are called Salaf-i salihin. The Ahl-as-Sunnat savants of the Salaf-i salihin who lived until the end of the four hundredth year of the Hegira are called Halaf-i sadiqin. Halaf-i sadiqin always followed the Salaf-i salihin in the knowledge of faith, deeds and heart; they never deviated from the way of the Salaf-i salihin. It appeared to be impossible to see murshid-i kamils (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 mujaddids [renovators] (rahmat-Allahu ta'ala 'alaihim ajmain), who will be neither murshid-i kamils, Wali (Awliya) nor mujtahids. These mujaddids will spread the books of the mujtahids all over the world and teach the teachings of the Ahl as-Sunnat 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 zindiqs (the hypocrites), and the exploiters of religion and science. Those who will find and read the books of the mujaddids will attain happiness in this world and in the Hereafter.
Sultan Mahmud Ghaznawi, the founder of the Ghaznawi Empire, which was a great Islamic empire, was born in 357 and died in 421 A.H. in Ghazna. One day, this great emperor of Asia visited Hadrat Abul-Hasan-i Harqani, one of the higher ones of the Awliya. In the course of their conversation, he asked him, "What kind of a person was your leader Bayazid-i Bastami?" Hadrat Shaikh answered him, "Bayazid was such a perfect Wali that those who saw him attained the right way. They became of those whom Allahu ta'ala likes." Sultan Mahmud did not like this answer. He said, "People such as Abu Jahl and Abu Lahab saw Rasulullah, the Sayyid 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 Sayyid, Rasulullah? Do you mean to say that those who saw your shaikh escaped disbelief, while those who saw Hadrat Muhammad, Sayyid of both worlds, the most superior of the superiors, Allah's beloved Prophet, did not escape it?" Hadrat Abul Hasan said, "The idiots Abu Jahl and Abu Lahab did not see Allah's beloved Prophet, our Master Muhammad, who is the highest of mankind. They saw Muhammad, who was the orphan of Abu Talib, and the son of Abdullah. They saw him from that point of view. If they had seen him as Abu Bakr Siddiq did, they would have escaped disbelief, thus attaining perfection like him. Allahu ta'ala, to point out this subtlety, declared in the one hundred and ninety- seventh ayat of Surat-ul-Araf: "You see them look at you. They cannot understand you. They do not see your superiority." Sultan Mahmud Khan (rahmat-Allahi ta'ala 'alaih) liked these answers very much. His respect and love for religious savants increased.
No matter what one's rank or post, it must be understood that he who attacks Islam is ignorant in religion; he knows nothing about the Islamic religion.
A fortunate person who reads and understands the book Se'adet-i Ebediyye both will learn religious knowledge and will get to know Imam-i Rabbani; thus, his heart becoming inclined, he will become attached to him. Receiving the nur which he (Imam-i Rabbani) 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 hals, zawks and sweet dreams. He will begin to dream of Imam-i Rabbani and of the other Awliya, of the Ashab-i kiram and of Rasulullah, 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 salat and to take pleasure from worshipping. He will now hate sins, things that are haram and bad habits. He will form good habits. He will do favors for everybody. He will be useful for society, for people. He will attain, and will also make others attain, eternal felicity. As Hadrat Sayyid Sharif Jurjani, one of the great savants of the Hanafi madhhab, writes at the end of Sharh-i mawaqif and at the beginning of Hashiyatu Sharh-ul-Matali' and in Bariqa, p.270, the figures of the Awliya show themselves to their murids 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 Shariat, and to like and to respect the Awliya. It is written in the book Maraj-ul-bahrayn, "All great men of tasawwuf were of the Ahl as-sunnat. None of the performers of bidat reached the Marifat of Allahu ta'ala. The nur of Wilayat did not enter their hearts. The darkness of the bidat, concerning either worship or belief, prevented the nur of Wilayat 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 as-sunnat belief, the rays of the sun of haqiqat will not enter the heart. Such a heart will not be illuminated by the nur of yaqin." See Makatib-i Sharifa, letter 69.
It is written in Irshad-ut-talibin, "When a Murshid-i kamil dies, he does not cease giving fayd. He even gives more. But, men's 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 fana and baqa 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 Shariat, 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 Awliya, dead or alive, the living Awliya 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 as-sunnat belief and to obey the Shariat, to read books written by real scholars, and to make sohbat with those who read the books of true Islamic 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. Allah's divine way is so. Likewise, the earnings of the soul are acquired first through parents and then through the murshid and then through Rasulullah 'sall-Allahu alaihi wa sallam'.
Question: Since no Murshid-i kamil has been seen after the first half of the fourteenth century of the Hegira, why don't we attach our heart to the heart of Rasulullah, and thereby receive his strong nur, instead of attaching our heart to the hearts of past Walis by reading their words and thus knowing them? Besides, isn't it a principle of iman to be attached to him, that is, to believe and love him?
Answer: No doubt it is better to follow Rasulullah directly (sall-Allahu ta'ala alaihi wa sallam), and after his passing, to follow his holy soul. This is even necessary and wajib. In the 81 th letter of the book (Makatib-i Sharifa), it states: "Thinking of a Wali as an eyeglass, we should look at Rasulullah and Allahu ta'ala through this eyeglass." To find a Wali or his books, to know him, to do rabita with him is actually for the purpose of becoming attached to the sacred soul of Rasulullah (sallallahu ta'ala alaihi 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 rabita is not practiced with Rasulullah. It would be kufr (infidelity) to believe someone else to be Rasulullah. This danger does not occur when practicing rabita with the Awliya. One who performs rabita with a murshid-i kamil will have with the heart looked into his blessed heart. Therein, he will see the holy heart of Rasulullah. Thus, he will have performed rabita with Rasulullah. This is the only way the ignorant, the heedless, like us, do rabita with Rasulullah. Through this kind of rabita, after receiving fayd (spiritual power) from Rasulullah, it will be possible and easy to perform rabita directly with him, and to get fayd from the graves of Awliya and from their souls. One who performs rabita with Rasulullah and receives fayd from him loves him very much. Imam-i Ghazali (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 farmer's efforts to make the plantation on his land strong and improved by cleaning away harmful herbs. Allahu ta'ala sent prophets (alaihimussalam) 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 Hakikat Kitabevi (bookstore). Since a Wali knows better and is strongly tied to Rasulullah (sallallahu ta'ala alaihi wa sallam), he gets fayd from his sacred heart, and these fayds are directed towards the hearts of those tied to that Wali. [Hearts receiving fayd become clean. They attain good morals.] Imam-i Rabbani 'quddisa sirruh', in his 260 th letter says, "Fayd, nur, 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 Shariat. They are unaware of the reception of these fayds. They understand that their hearts are purified. Like a watermelon maturing under the light of the sun, they reach maturity. Ashab-i kiram (ridwanullahi ta'ala alaihim ajmain) matured and reached perfection during the sohbats of Rasulullah (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam). The worst obstruction preventing Muslims from receiving fayd is being a bidat holder." In his 61 st letter, he also says, "The most harmful thing that destroys people's willingness to attain of Allahu ta'ala 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 Wali and a counterfeit shaikh is that a real Wali has wara' and taqwa. (Taqwa) means believing in accordance with the Ahl as-sunnat itiqad and abstaining from the harams. Abstaining also from those things which are doubtful is called (wara'). Ahl as-sunnat savants were all owners of wara' and taqwa. In a hadith ash-Sharif, contained in the one hundred and twelfth letter of the book (Maktubat) by Muhammad Mathum (rahmatullahi alaih), it is declared: "It is an act of worship to sit with an owner of wara'." Islamic savants wrote many books in which they explained things that cause kufr, which are haram and which are doubtful. The book (Al-Kabair) by Ibni Nujaym-i Misri is a famous book. It is published with a Turkish translation in 1304 in Istanbul. In the book Kufr ve Kabair (Disbelief and Grave Sins), written by Sayyid Abdulhakim Arwasi, 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 Rasulullah (sallallahu ta'ala alaihi wa sallam) is divided into two categories: knowledge of the body and knowledge of the heart. It was his duty to teach his Ashab 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 Sahabi 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 nur radiated as their capacity allowed. And these nurs they attained, in their turn, hastened the formation of ikhlas 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 Rasulullah 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 Awliya. Those who want to adapt themselves to Rasulullah in the knowledge of the heart and soul, should stay near a Wali and take this knowledge from his heart. A Wali is a means, a path between the heart of a man and the sacred heart of Rasulullah (sallallahu ta'ala alaihi 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 arifs. At the end of the book Samarat-ul-fuad it is also written this way. Each Sahabi had also conveyed the knowledge of the body and of the heart which he had obtained from Rasulullah 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 Rasulullah's sayings, that is, from the hadith ash-Sharifs," have fallen into the traps of the nafs and the devil by understanding the meanings of the hadith ash-Sharifs wrongly. Those who say, "I will receive the knowledge of the heart directly from the heart of Rasulullah," 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 as-sunnat savants, and knowledge of the heart from the hearts of these savants who are alive or from their souls if they are death. The experts of this knowledge, that is, the murshids all expressed the same idea. The hadith ash-Sharifs contained in the book Kunuz-ud-daqaiq, such as, "A savant among his students is like a prophet among his Ashab" 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 taqwa 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. Allahu ta'ala 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 Murshids for the preservation of the knowledge of the heart. The British State, Islam's bitterest enemy, annihilated these two guardians after working for centuries. Allahu ta'ala 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." Rasulullah 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 hadiths. It is stated in the fifty-fourth letter of the second volume: "Hadiths have been forgotten by now. Bidats are widespread. True and false books have been mixed with one another. Murshid-i kamils, being specialists of the heart and the soul, have picked out these hadiths the spiritual medicines which are suitable for the nature of each individual, for his special illness, and for the time's zulmat and fasad. Rasulullah, being the chief doctor, prepared hundreds of thousands of medicines for the world's pharmaceutical store. Awliya 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 hadiths, 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 hadith: "He who interprets the Qur'an in accordance with his own understanding becomes a disbeliever." Since la-madhhabis and the like cannot understand this subtlety, they say, "Everybody should understand his faith by himself by reading the Qur'an and hadiths. He should not read the books of the four madhhabs." By saying this they prevent the books of the Ahl as-sunnat savants from being read. The Persian book Radd-i Wahhabi gives excellent answers to these slanders of the La- madhhabis. Also in the 97 th letter of the second volume of Maktubat, Imam-i Rabbani Ahmad Faruqi answers them, too.
As a final word, I would like to say that Wali means 'an Ahl as-sunnat scholar who has attained the love and the consent of Allahu ta'ala' and 'The Ahl as-sunnat Madhhab' means 'the way shown by Qur'an-al-karim and hadiths.' The savants of the Ahl as-sunnat learned this way from the Ashab-i kiram. They respected not what they understood, but what they heard from the Ashab-i kiram. "To dissent from the Ahl as-sunnat' means 'to dissent from the right way of the Qur'an and hadiths.' Of these people, even who dissent from the Ahl as- sunnat and who misunderstand occult indications in the Qur'an and in well-known hadiths, do not become kafirs; they become holders of bidat. They start deceiving ignorant people by calling their wrong derivations 'The way of the Qur'an,' 'The way of the Ashab.'
In order to attain the consent and love of Allahu ta'ala, it is necessary for us to have ikhlas and qalb-i salim. Purification of the heart is only possible by believing in Rasulullah (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam), by loving and by being dependent on him. To do this, the shortest and easiest way is to know a Wali and to establish rabita with him, that is, to become attached to him by heart, provided that we learn the Ahl as-sunnat itiqad, Shariat and manners of tasawwuf from his words and books. A Wali is understood to be a Wali 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 Shariat. In times when such a Wali can not be seen, one who does rabita with any Wali will become his Uwaysi. In the 286 th letter of Maktubat, it is stated: "Someone who could not participate in the sohbats of an arif may enjoy the luck of receiving fayd from the souls of the great men (of the din). Allahu ta'ala make these souls a means in order that these people may progress." Arifs and Walis continue to give fayd to those who desire it even after they die, since they attained the good news declared in the hadith al-qudsi, which was written at the end of 46 th item of the first part [of the Turkish original]. Please look at the 54 th item of the second part and the 291 st letter of Maktubat also! It is explained in the 17 th item of the second part how to receive fayd from the soul of a Wali. Muhammad Mathum-i Faruqi (rahmatullahi alaih), in this 142 nd letter in the third volume (of his Maktubat), 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 Sharif (honored grave) of Imam-i Rabbani (quddisa sirruh). You will obtain fayd and blessings here. You will profit from the lights and secrets coming from the source in Madina-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 Awliya] from the source in Madina-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 ta'ala] Wilayat. The lights and secrets coming from the blessed heart of Rasulullah (sallallahu ta'ala alaihi wa sallam) are now springing here. Those who want to attain the consent of Allahu ta'ala 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 something are written in the book (Muzakkin-nufus) by Ashrafzada Abdullah Rumi. 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 la- madhhabis, 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 Wali, or makes (rabita) to Wali, that is, imagines with great respect his figure, face [in front of his heart's 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 Wali will flow into that Muslim's heart. There are a lot of happy and lucky people who have matured in this way, by rabita only, and have become Walis. They have informed us in hundreds of books about the blessings and high degrees they attained by this way. Allahu ta'ala's 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 Rasulullah 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, behavior and morals. Someone is obeyed when he is thoroughly 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 (Fana-i qalb). He will even forget himself. The forgetting of the self is also called (fana-yi nafs). In Makatib-i Sharifa, in the 90 th letter, it is said that "When fana-i qalb is attained, the hatera (thinking of creatures) will not stay in the heart. But they still stay in the mind. When fana-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 fana is attained, that is, when an Arif is loved very much, fayd, lights, and sacred blessings, which are coming to that arif from Rasulullah, (sallallahu ta'ala alaihi wa sallam) flow toward the heart of these lovers and they attain real ikhlas. Hence, they enjoy worshipping, and they obtain the consent of Allahu ta'ala. After this stage, "Fana-fir-Rasul" will be obtained; that is, by deeply loving Rasulullah (sallallahu ta'ala 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 Allahu ta'ala exists and is one, that He sees and knows everything, that He is the maker [creator] of everything, that Muhammad 'alaihis-salam' 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 world's 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 Islam's 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 people's modernism'. They say that theirs is a way of life that a wise person would normally prefer. They boast about their behavior 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.
Though a few thousand communist statesmen who are fond of worldly pleasures, heedless, oppressive, attack others property and chastity, tyrannize over millions of people and prevent them learning Islam, such people who have never heard of Islam 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 ad should select the Islamic 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 Allahu ta'ala. Being close to Allahu ta'ala means to attain His love. One's spiritual closeness to Allahu ta'ala means to attain His love. He who has attained this happiness is called Wali or Arif. It is necessary to carry out the fards to become a Wali. The fards entail having faith compatible with the faith communicated by the Ahl as-Sunnat savants, abstaining from the harams, performing the worships that are fard to do, and having love for the Muslims who are salih (one who is on the right path). It will not be useful, that is, there will be no rewards (thawabs) for the worships performed without ikhlas (sincerity). Ikhlas means to act only for the sake of Allahu ta'ala, that is, in such a way that you will forget everything. Ikhlas is obtained automatically by having love for nothing but Allahu ta'ala. The case of having love only for Him in one's heart is called tasfiya (purification in the heart), itminan (ease of heart), or Fana-fillah. The twenty-eighth ayat of Sura Rad declares that it is possible for the heart to have itminan (ease of heart) only by dhikr (remembering Allahu ta'ala) and by pondering over His greatness and blessings. Performing dhikr is done by repeating the name of Allahu ta'ala or by seeing someone who is a Wali. If you cannot find a Wali, you can make rabita to a Wali whom you have heard of before. It is communicated through a hadith ash-Sharif, "When they are seen, Allahu ta'ala will be remembered." In other words, seeing a Wali is dhikr of Allahu ta'ala. This is one of the hadith ash-Sharifs communicated by Irshad-ut-talibin, Ibni Maja, Azkar, Rabita-i Sharifa of Abdulhakim Effendi, and in the eleventh letter of Dost Muhammad Kendihari. It is not a condition to make rabita to the exact figure of a Wali.
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 Rasulullah will flow into his heart, too. It is stated in the seventy-fourth page of Maqamat-i-Mazhariyya: "As Mukarram Khan was dying, they put Ubaidullah-i- Ahrar's skullcap on his head. 'Take it off! Fetch my murshid's headgear, instead. For he is the person who caused me to attain happinesses,' he said." The figure with which Rabita is made does not necessarily have to be exactly the murshid himself. If a person closes his eyes and makes rabita to the same image for five to ten minutes in the morning and in the evening every day, after a while the Wali's soul will appear in the same image and will begin to talk like in a dream, and will do him favors. As it is understood from the hadith-i- qudsi we have quoted in the seventeenth chapter of the second part (of the Turkish version), if a Muslim mentions the name of a Wali whom he knows and loves upon attending his sohbats or reading his books and calls on him imploringly, Allahu ta'ala will make that Wali hear him, even if the Wali is absent or dead. The Wali will come and help him. If a Wali wishes to know about something that has happened before or which will happen later, Allahu ta'ala will make him know about it. Such favors and gifts which Allahu ta'ala bestows upon Walis are called karamat. Badr-ad-din Sarhandi writes in his book Hadarat-ul-quds that he has seen and heard of thousands of Imam-i-Rabbani's karamats and relates more than a hundred of them. When the heart becomes fani, 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 fani, 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 favors with the intention of obtaining the consent of Allahu ta'ala. Whatever he does becomes dhikr. See the last part of the 46 th article in the first part (of the Turkish version)! It fulfills all its human tasks and favors with the intention of obtaining the consent of Allahu ta'ala. Whatever it does becomes dhikr. See the last part of the 46 th article in the first fascicle!
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A LETTER TO WAQF IKHLAS
Politeknik Unibraw Malang
J1. Yogyakarta P.O. BOX. 4
Malang Jawa Timur
INDONESIA
Malang June 29, 1983
ASSOCIATION IKHLAS
Darussefaka Cad. No: 57/A
P.K. 35 FATIH
ISTANBUL -TURKEY
Dear Sir,
Referring to the information I read from a book edited by the Association Ikhlas and spread in Indonesia, I herewith inform you that I am so much interested in reading those books. I congratulate you for your struggle to spread the Islam religion all over the world, in all languages, of course, I do hope Allah always blesses you for this purpose.
Sir, in accordance with the above-mentioned, I would like to get some books from the Association Ikhlas. And by reading these, I hope I can enlarge and deepen my knowledge of Islam, so that I can gain a vast view of Islam, to be a very good Muslim and, of course, I want to apply my knowledge of Islam in my society. For the sake of the above purpose, I am very curious to read: 1. The Religion Reformers in Islam. 2. Belief and Islam. 3. Answer to an Enemy of Islam. 4. Advice for the Wahhabi. 5. Islam and How to be True Muslim. I am very grateful, for all your kind attention, and I am looking forward to having your delivery. Sincerely yours, Shamsaddin Djam