Preface
TAM ILMIHAL Se'adet-i EBEDIYYE
Endless Bliss Fascicle - 1
PREFACE
Here is the key to the treasure of eternity:
Bismi'llahi'rrahmani'rrahim.
Saying the A'udhu (A'udhu billahi min-ash- shaitan-ir-rajim) and the Basmala (Bismillah-ir- Rahman-ir-Rahim), I begin to write the book Se'adet-i Ebediyye (Endless Bliss). Abdullah ibni 'Abbas (radi-Allahu ta'ala 'anh) says, Rasulullah (Muhammad [salla Allahu ta'ala 'alaihi wa sallam]) declared, "Respecting the Qur'an is beginning to read it by saying the A'udhu, and the key to the Qur'an is the Basmala." I, therefore, request my readers to begin our book by saying these two phrases. Thus, you will have embellished the book with two ornaments and will have attained the blessings that have been accumulated in these two treasures for the Beloved to get! Those who want to approach Allahu ta'ala must hold tightly to the A'udhu, and those who fear Him must throw themselves upon the A'udhu. Those with many sins have trusted themselves to the A'udhu, and fugitives have looked for relief in the A'udhu. Allahu ta'ala commands His Prophet in the 97 th ayat of surat an-Nahl, "Say the A'udhu when you are to read the Qur'an." It means, "Pray for yourself by saying 'I trust myself to Allahu ta'ala, take refuge in Him, trust myself to, and cry out and wail Him against the devil, who is far from Allah's mercy and who, incurring His wrath, was cursed in this and the next worlds.' "
Our Prophet (salla Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam) has declared, "When the teacher says Basmala to the child and the child repeats it, Allahu ta'ala has a voucher written down lest the child and his parents and his teacher go to Hell." Abdullah ibni Masud (radi-Allahu 'anh) says, "He who wants to escape from the 19 angels who will torment him in the next world, should say the Basmala." The Basmala consists of 19 letters. It is the Basmala that was written first in the Lawh al-Mahfuz (1). It is the Basmala that descended to Hadrat Adam first. Muslims will pass the Sirat (2) with the help of the Basmala. The Basmala is the signature on the invitation to Paradise. Here the meaning of the Basmala is "I am able to write this book with the aid of Allahu ta'ala who has done favors to every being by creating it, by keeping it in existence and by protecting it against annihilation. The 'arifs (3) knew Him as the ilah. Beings found food through His mercy. Sinners are saved from Hell through His pitying." Allahu ta'ala has begun the Qur'an al-Karim with these three names of His because man has three states, namely his state in the world, in the grave, and in the Hereafter. If man worships Allahu ta'ala, He facilitates his works in the world, pities him in the grave, and forgives his sins in the Hereafter.
Alhamdulillah! If any person thanks any other person in any manner, for anything, at any place, at any time, all this thanks belongs to Allahu ta'ala. For He is the one who always creates, trains and develops everything, who causes every favor to be done, and who sends every goodness. He alone is the owner of strength and power. Unless He gives us thought, nobody can will or desire to do good or evil. After man receives the thought, he can will to do something, but unless Allah wills and gives strength and opportunity to that thought, nobody can do one bit of kindness or evil to anybody. Everything that man wants, happens when He wills and decrees it. Only what He wills happens. He sends us the thoughts of doing good or evil for various reasons. When His born servants (men) whom He pities wish to do evil, He does not will or create it. goodness always arises from such people. He, too, wills to create the evil wills of His enemies, with whom He is angry. Since these evil people do not wish to do something virtuous, evils always arise from them. In other words, all people are a means, a tool. They are like the pen in the writer's hand. Only using their Irada-i juziyya (partial will) that has been bestowed upon them, those who will goodness earn blessings, while those willing evil to be created become sinful. Allahu ta'ala willed in pre-eternity to create the deeds of people through their will power. Creation of these deeds through people's will power means that they are created by the pre-eternal Irada-i ilahi (Divine Will).
May all prayers and blessings be upon Muhammad Mustafa (sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam), who is His Prophet and the most beloved of His born servants, and who is in every respect the most beautiful and the most exalted of all the mankind that ever lived. May prayers and blessings also be upon the highest of people, his Ahl al-bayt, on his Ashab (Ridwanullahi ta'ala 'alaihim ajmain) and on those who love them and follow them.
I received my elementary education at Rashadiya Numuna School in Ayyub Sultan, in my home town of Istanbul. I acquired religious training and religious knowledge in my home and in elementary school. As I was beginning my education in Halijioglu Military Junior and Senior High School, the Qur'an al-Karim and religious lessons were being abrogated from schools. None of our teachers taught religious lessons. I regarded my teachers as great, mature, and I wanted to respect them highly. But I was disappointed to see them attacking my sacred beliefs. I vacillated between belief and disbelief. Pondering with my young brain, I scrutinized all the information which I had learned as religious knowledge. I saw that all of it was useful, good, valuable, and I couldn't sacrifice any of it. I remained between these two influences for six years. My friends, who and I had been fasting and performing ritual prayers of salat a few years earlier, were deceived by the slanders of the teachers and newspapers, and they gave up worshipping. Left alone, I was all the more confused. I wondered if I were wrong, if I were on a wrong path. In 1929, I was eighteen years old and in the last year of high school. It was the Qadr Night, and we had gone to bed. I couldn't sleep. I jumped out of my bed, confused. I was alone in my thoughts, in my iman (belief); I was uneasy; I was utterly exhausted. I went out into the yard. The sky was full of stars. Against the shrine of Hadrat Khalid ibni Zayd Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, the sparkling waves of the Golden Horn sounded as if to tell me. "Don't worry, you are right." I sobbed and cried. I entreated my Allah. "Oh my Allah! I believe in Thee, I love Thee and Thine prophets. I want to learn Islamic knowledge. Protect me from being deceived by the enemies of my religion!" Allah accepted this innocent and sincere supplication of mine. I dreamt of Hadrat Abdulhakim-i Arwasi, the treasure of karamats and marifats (4), an ocean of knowledge, and later I met him in a mosque. He welcomed and invited me. While I was in the Faculty of Pharmacology, I attended his lectures in Bayazid Mosque three times a week. Afterward, I would go to his home. He pitied me. He taught me sarf, nahw (Arabic grammar), logic and fiqh (commands and prohibitions of Islam). He read to me and taught me many books. Also, he had me subscribe to the French newspaper Le Matin. He taught me Arabic and Persian. He had me memorize "The Eulogy of Amali" and The Poems of Khalid-i Baghdadi. His company was so sweet, so useful that many a day I stayed with him from morning till midnight. Today, the moments which I live recollecting those days in his company are the happiest moments of my life. Until 1936, while a tutor in the Military Medical School, I both attended the Masters of Science classes of the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and at the same time gathered knowledge and ultimate benefits from the preachings and from the company of that Islamic scholar. The dirt of disbelief in my heart was cleared off. I realized that Islam was the one and only source of happiness both in this world and the next. I saw that the persons whom I formerly had deemed great were like children when compared to Islamic scholars. I understood that some of the things which they described as knowledge were quite far from knowledge, science, and were nothing but enmity against Islam, full of grossly made-up plans and slanders. After 1936, when I was in charge of Mamak Chemical Laboratory, he told me to learn German and read The Maktubat of Imam-i Rabbani 'quddisa sirruh' continuously. At every opportunity I came to Istanbul and picked pearls and corals in that ocean of marifat. After the setting of that sun of knowledge, I was accepted to the private class of his blessed son, the virtuous Sayyid Ahmad Makki, the Mufti of Scutary and later of Kadikoy. With great mercy and proficiency, he trained me in fiqh, tafsir (interpretation of the Qur'an), hadith, ma'qul (knowledge which can be acquired by means of the intellect, i.e. science), manqul (religious knowledge), usul (methods and basic facts), furu' (a branch of Islamic knowledge) and he graduated me with full authorization on Sunday, 27 th Ramadan 1373 [1953 A.D.].
After 1947, during my teaching career, I strove to pour my knowledge, which was like a drop of water from an ocean, into the souls of the youth, and to instill this knowledge in their fresh brains blooming like buds. From the light of iman (belief) burning inside me, I wished to throw a spark into the pure heart of each of them. Alhamdulillah! Allah gave me the facilities, and in 1956, it fell to my lot to publish the first volume of Se'adet-i Ebediyye, which I had prepared after many years of hard work. It was only a few pages, but it was filled with very useful information as is the sweet and healing honey collected from fragrant flowers.
That little book, prepared according to the Hanafi madhhab, had not been advertised in newspapers or magazines, nor had it notices all over walls. The book had been delivered to the shelves of a small corner bookshop. Noble-souled and faithful youngsters, who would not depart from the luminous and auspicious way of their ancestors, who always yearned to learn their faith, looked for this little book and found it. They rushed on it, and, in a short time, not even one copy was left.
The innocent children of those martyrs and ghazis (fighters for Islam), who many years ago had won the war of independence by fighting like infuriated lions against the enemies who attacked their motherland, today also, are following their fathers' path with the same love and faith. And, likewise, they are striving to protect their iman as well as their independence against every sort of aggression. They run towards right, reality, and truth. They cling to the Qur'an al-Karim.
History reveals to us the cruelties and evil ways of kings and the dictators who attacked Islam in order to conceal their massacres and perfidy, and who wanted to deceive everyone for the sake of their own comfort and pleasure. Cruel enemy commanders and bigoted armies of the crusaders were always thwarted by Muslim Turkish heroes. Being unable to pass over the iman-filled chests of our ancestors, they fled, leaving their weapons and their dead behind.
History shows again that Islam has been the inspiration for developing more intellectual and more courageous people, who in turn develop superior, more up-to-date, and more scientific means of war and other civilized apparatuses. The irreligious have always been left behind in knowledge, in science, in arms and in courage. Every Islamic army succeeded when Shariat (the commands and prohibitions of the religion) was followed in every respect, but a relative decrease in success was witnessed in the soldiers and the commanders of the same army when they deviated from religion. The establishment, the improvement, the decline and fall of every Muslim State has always been closely related to their adherence to the religion.
Irreligious dictators have bloodstained their hands and dominated lands, and by oppressing the people with cruelty and instigation and by employing them like animals, they have established heavy industries of war, tremendous factories, made superior weapons and threatened the world. Yet, in the course of history, they all fell very soon and have always been remembered with curses. Their traps, set quickly like a spider's web, were blown away by even the slightest power, like the fresh morning breeze. They left behind nothing for humanity. And now, however great and powerful the states which are based on irreligiousness might seem, they will certainly fall; cruelty won't endure. Such disbelievers are like a match, which will flare up suddenly and set fire to light things such as straw and sawdust. It may burn the hand and probably destroy houses, yet it will soon go out and perish itself. As for those administrations based on Islam; they are like the radiators of a central heating unit. The radiator does not burn anything. By heating the rooms, it gives comfort to people. Its heat is not excessive or harmful, yet it possesses a source of heat and energy. Likewise, Islam is like a useful source of energy. It nourishes and strengthens individuals, families and societies clinging to it.
The mercy, the favors, and the blessings of Allahu ta'ala are so great that they are actually unlimited. Because He felt pity for His born servants, He revealed through an angel to His Prophets the good deeds to be done and the evil deeds to be avoided. He also revealed the holy books wherein His orders were sent to them so that they could live on the earth brotherly, happily and in comfort, and thereby attain eternal happiness, and the endless blessings of the Hereafter. Only the Qur'an al-karim has remained uncorrupted, but all the other books were changed by malevolent people. The more you observe the fards (obligatory duties) and harams (prohibitions), that is, the principles (ahkam) in the Qur'an al-karim, the happier and the more comfortable a life you can lead, no matter whether you are an atheist or not, a believer or not, aware or not. This is similar to the fact that a good medicine enables everybody to get rid of his pain and problem, if it is used. That is why those who are non-Muslims, or even atheists, and some nations that are the enemies of Islam are successful in many of their businesses, and lead a very happy and comfortable life by working in conformity with the laws in the Qur'an al-karim. On the other hand, many people who claim to be Muslim, and who do their worships as a mere formality, are living in misery and discomfort because they do not follow the divine rules and the high morality written in the Qur'an al-karim. To attain eternal happiness in the Hereafter by following the Qur'an al-karim, it is necessary to believe in it first, and then to follow it consciously and intentionally.
Those who are against Islam because of ignorance, learned from the bloody, dismal experiences they had for centuries that unless their iman was demolished, it would be impossible to demolish the Muslim people. They attempted to misrepresent Islam as hostile towards knowledge, science and bravery, while, in fact, it is the protector of such things, encouraging every kind of progress and improvement. They aimed at depriving the young generations of knowledge and faith, thus shooting them on the moral front. They spent millions for this purpose. Some ignorant people, whose weapons of knowledge and belief had been rusted and who had been seized by their ambitions and sexual desires, were easily destroyed by these attacks of the enemies. A section of them took shelter behind their posts and professions, pretended to be Muslims, disguised themselves as scientific men, authorities and religious scholars, and even, protectors of Muslims, while continuing to steal the belief of innocent youngsters. They misrepresented evil as talent, and irreligiousness as a virtue, a current fashion. Those who had faith, iman, were called fanatics, bigots, retrogressive. Religious knowledge and the valuable books of Islam were said to be reactionary, retrogressive and bigoted. By imputing the immorality and dishonorableness, which they themselves had, to Muslims and to great men of Islam, they strove to slander those noble people and sow discord between children and their fathers. In the meantime, they spoke ill of our history, attempted to blacken its shining and honorable pages, to blemish the accurate writings, to change the events and proofs of it and sever the youth from faith and belief so as to annihilate Islam and Muslims. In order to untie the sacred bonds which placed into young hearts the love of our ancestors, whose fame and honor had spread throughout the world, owing to their knowledge, science, beautiful morals, virtue and bravery, and to leave the youth deprived of and alien to the maturity and greatness of their ancestors, they attacked hearts, souls and conscience. In fact, the corrupted Muslims could not understand that as Islam was becoming weaker and as we got further away from the path of Rasulullah (Muhammad) 'sall-Allahu alaih wa sallam', not only were our morals corrupted, but we also gradually lost our superiority in making every kind of means, and in understanding contemporary knowledge, which this century requires. We could no longer maintain the accomplishments of our ancestors in military defense, in science and arts, instead we got worse. Thus, these masked disbelievers tried, on the one hand, to cause us to remain behind in knowledge and science, and, on the other hand, they said, "Islam caused us to remain behind. In order to catch the Western industries, we have to abolish this black curtain and get rid of the oriental religion, laws of the desert." In this way, they demolished our material and spiritual values, and brought upon our country the harm which the enemies outside had been wishing for but had not been able to do for centuries.
Allah has given all people numerous benefits and blessings. As the greatest, the best of these, He has sent down prophets and messengers and has shown the way to eternal happiness, declaring in sura Ibrahim, ayat 7 (interpreted as follows): "If you appreciate the value of My gifts and if you use them as I command, I will increase them. If you don't appreciate them, if you abhor them, I will take them back and torture you vehemently." The reason why Islam has been in such a deplorable state for a century - especially recently, it has gone quite far away, leaving the world covered with the darkness of disbelief and apostasy - is solely because of Muslims not appreciating the blessings of Islam, and thereby turning away from them.
As Allahu ta'ala employs those whom He loves as intermediaries for auspicious deeds, so He employs at evil places those who bear hostility towards Him. Those who cause loss of Islamic blessings are of two groups:
In the first group are disbelievers who divulge their disbelief and hostility. They strive to demolish Islam by using all their armed forces, their means of propaganda, and political tricks. Muslims know them and struggle to be superior to them.
The second group of disbelievers refer to themselves as Muslims, pretend to be Muslims, introduce themselves as religious men and try to turn Islam into a shape conformable to their opinions, pleasures and sexual desires. They want to make up a new religion under the name of Islam. They try to prove their words correct through tricks and lies, and deceive Muslims with their fluent expressions. Yet, although most Muslims recognize these enemies from some of their statements and activities intended to destroy Islam, because they are very well organized, some of their sayings have become current and widespread among Muslims. The Islamic faith has been gradually degenerating and turning into the shape planned by these disbelievers.
Also, some others say, "In order that we may survive in the present century, we should be westernized ourselves altogether. This statement has two connotations. Firstly, it means learning and adopting what the Europeans have invented in science, art, in the mediums of improvement and progress, and to strive to utilize them, as Islam commands. I explained in some parts of my books with documents that this is fard kifaya to learn. As a matter of fact, a hadith of Rasul-i akram (the Prophet) states: "Hikmat (that is science and art) is the lost property of the Muslims. Let him take it wherever he finds it!" Yet, this is not following the Europeans; it is finding and acquiring knowledge and science even from them and striving to be superior to them. The second type of westernization involves abandoning the righteous and sacred ways of our ancestors; accepting all the traditions, customs, immoralities, and obscenities of the West; and also accepting their irreligiousness and idolatry, and thus convert mosques into churches or museums of ancient art, which is the most dismal stupidity of all. Calling Islam an "oriental religion," a "backward religion" and the Qur'an "laws of the desert" while at the same time referring to idolatry and the mixing of music with worship as "western, modern, and civilized religion" is in fact an act of abandoning Islam, turning to Christianity, and worshipping with musical instruments.
The enemies of Islam should know very well that the noble blood circulating in the veins of these people will not be westernized in this sense, neither today nor in the days to which they look forward to. And our people will not become communists or let the sacred beliefs of their ancestors be trodden underfoot.
Another force trying to demolish Islam is those books and magazines which appear to be written for the purpose of spreading Islam and silencing the enemies of the religion. But when these religiously ignorant people, who know nothing about iman and Islam and who have not comprehended the reality, the inner spirit, the delicacy of tasawwuf (sufism), become authorities in worldly affairs, they assume themselves to be religious scholars; and they write religious books in order to propagate the things which they wrongfully consider to be Islam, or solely to earn money out of it. It is seen with utter grief in these books of theirs that they cannot understand the words of great men of religion, and that, as a result, they write most of the delicate information erroneously. They introduce some la-madhhabi people and religion reformers, who have sprung up in some countries, as Islamic scholars, alims. Their books are translated and presented to youngsters as a source of religious knowledge. But, in fact, these books are destructive and divisive as a result of being written by those who are ignorant and have heretical ideas. They ignorantly and foolishly slander our brothers in order to prevent the publication and distribution of our books, which teach and elucidate how harmful, corrupt, and disgraceful they are. Also, we prevent them from making money, and from exploiting millions of people. We hear that those, the hypocrites, who sell the religion for worldly benefits claim that we have been practicing tariqat, which is an ugly slander against us. They try to make us guilty in front of the law so that our books will be prohibited officially. However, nothing has been written about the tariqat in any of my books. Yes, there is information about the tariqat in my books, but these are translations from the books of some scholars of tasawwuf (sufism), who lived in previous centuries. Or, rather, we too are trying to read and understand them. I have never had any relations with a tariqat or a shaikh.
It is true that I myself saw a real Islamic scholar. I had the honor of learning the essence of Islam and the highest Islamic knowledge from him. He was like an ocean of Islamic, scientific and historical knowledge. Seeing his great moral character, which originated from Islam, I had enormous respect for him. I never heard this noble person say anything to imply that he had to do with being a shaikh or murid. He was constantly warning us that some practitioners of the tariqats, whose names had been being heard of before and after the closing of Darwish convents, were not following Islam or the knowledge of tasawwuf, and that they were dangerous. Today, books of tasawwuf are being written in many languages throughout the world. Under the guise of sufism, it is a crime to derive personal benefits from the false and bad practices that are not tasawwuf. It is not a crime to write tasawwuf books, or to praise the knowledge of tasawwuf. The alims of tasawwuf rejected the owners of this type of tariqat and informed people that they were thieves of religion and that they were ruining Islam itself. I, myself, say in my books and lectures, "A Muslim should not violate the law. It is haram to cause fitna." Would a person advocating this do anything against the law? It is understood, then, that those jealous people, who are my slanderers, mistook me as a munafiq (hypocrite) like themselves. They are absolutely wrong. I do not use the word "munafiq" here to mean kafir, but rather I mean those who are two-faced and whose interiors are not the same as their exteriors. Also, it is written in the book Hadiqa, in the section on the afats (harms) of the tongue, that this type of nifaq (speech), which is done by talking or with the tongue, is not kufr (disbelief), yet it is haram. These poor people butter the bread of the enemies of Islam on purpose or inadvertently and cause more harm to Islam than their oppressors. The unsuspecting Muslims who read their books and booklets, or magazines, especially the innocent youngsters thirsty to learn the sacred faith of their noble and brave ancestors, deem them religious scholars and embrace their aberrant, wrong writings, supposing them to be embodiments of faith and belief. The ignorant people who exploit our holy din as a tool to earn money, position, rank and fame, in short, who try to gain worldly advantages, are called Ulama-i su', that is, yobaz (a seditious person), ill-natured scholars. These ill-natured people and those pseudo-scientists, that is, zindiqs who pose as scholastic scientists, misrepresent true scientific knowledge with their own treacherous ideas. Thus, they try to demolish and pull down Islam. These people hurt this nation a great deal. They instigated enmity between brothers. They caused civil wars. The Islamic religion commands us to be united, to love and help one another, to obey the government and the laws (not to cause fitna, that is, anarchy), to take care of and to protect even the rights of disbelievers, and not to hurt anybody. Our ancestors sacrificed their worldly comforts and advantages, and in order to protect the faith and belief of their descendants, they wrote precious books and left them as an inheritance to us. We should learn our holy faith by reading the sincere and virtuous books written by the blessed hands of our famed and honorable ancestors, whose beautiful morals, justice, diligence, and whose records in art, science, and bravery are written about in shining letters in the world's history. They had also shed their blood for our faith, lest the enemy's hands might touch it, and they left all these precious writings in their original purity as an inheritance to us. We have to be very careful not to be deceived and not to let our sacred iman be seized by reading the poisonous propaganda of irreligiousness veiled in adorned words written by enemy pens! Let me also inform you that Hadith ash-Sharifs and explanations of Islamic 'alims (rahmat-Allahi ta'ala 'alaihim ajmain) strongly prohibit the interference of men of religion in matters of politics. Ahl as-sunnat 'alims observed this prohibition very carefully. Muslims don't exploit the din as a tool for politics. Therefore, I have never entered politics. I haven't defended any type of political state in any of my writings. It has reached my ears that there have been people who, disliking this behavior of mine, try to prevent people from reading and learning my books by calling them corrupt, and who then are bewildered and unable to answer when they are questioned about which part of the books are corrupt. I make a dua (pray) for those who slander me so that they may wake up from their stupor and attain true guidance.
With the encouragement of those who read my book Se'adet-i Ebediyye, which consisted of sixty pages and thirty chapters, I have prepared the second volume in three hundred pages, and I had it printed in 1957. These two volumes aroused so much interest and attraction among the innocent youngsters towards Islam that I experienced a shower of questions. To answer these various questions by translating from current books and by adding seventy new chapters to the original thirty chapters of the first volume, the second edition was formed and printed in four hundred pages. Later by the blessing of Allahu ta'ala, and with exhausting labor, the accomplishment of the third volume was granted by Allah, and it was printed in 1379 [1960 A.D.].
Though I was not authorized, only as a reward for my admiration of the dumbfounding superiority of Islamic scholars, for the love and respect which I had towards them, and as a reward for the prayers which I have sent with the utmost suffering in my heart so that these innocent people, these noble youngsters might escape the traps set by religion brokers and attain worldly happiness and the happiness pertaining to the next world, these three books, which were formed with the guidance of Allahu ta'ala, were put together and printed as a single book in 1963. This book was named Tam ilm-i hal. As new questions were asked, new additions were made in every new edition of our book. In this book there is no knowledge, no idea which belongs to this faqir, myself. Besides translating and gathering, nothing else fell to my lot. I am so grateful to see that those who read this book enjoy it and benefit from it, because it comprises writings of great and blessed people, and that they escape the deceptions of the separatists and the non-madhhabite, who have been attacking and slandering my books. Thus, I am pleased to think I shall benefit from the accepted prayers of the pure-spirited, noble-blooded, and blessed youngsters, and I deem this book and these prayers my one and only stock on the Day of Resurrection.
The fiqh information in my book Se'adet-i Ebediyye, that is, Tam Ilmihal (a perfect book of Ilm-i hal [Endless Bliss]), has been written according to the Hanafi Madhhab and was translated from the book Radd-ul-Mukhtar by Muhammad Amin ibn 'Abidin, which was published in Egypt by the Bulag printing house in 1272/1856 in five volumes, and the quotations' page numbers in my book refer to that edition. The book Radd-ul-mukhtar, the most dependable reference book among the fiqh books in the Hanafi Madhhab, was translated into Turkish by dear Ahmad Davudoglu and published in thirteen volumes by the Shamil Bookstore between the years 1982-1986. There is no translation of Ayat-i karimas (Quranic verses) but only their explanations. When a mujtahid explained concisely what he understood from an ayat, this explanation is called a meal. When an ayat is said word for word in any foreign language, it is called a translation. Ayat-i karimas cannot be translated into concise and proper forms. Islamic 'alims tried to explain Ayat-i karimas by using long tafsirs, not by translating. In my book, I have mostly used explanations from Tafsir-i Husaini. I have placed the sequence of the numbers of the Ayat-i karimas as they appear in the mushaf by Khattat Hafiz 'Uthman (rahmat-Allahi 'alaih).
He who reads this book will accurately learn the faith of his ancestors; he will not be taken in by the slanders of the enemies of the religion; he will escape from the superstitions of the ignorant and from the material and spiritual exploitation of those who poison the names of sufis (the great men of tasawwuf). They will be united on the right path and will become beloved brothers of one another.
A Muslim is the one who is an honest and serious-minded man. A true Muslim always carries out the orders of Allahu ta'ala. It would be a sin if we did not obey even one of the orders of Allahu ta'ala. A Muslim tries to pay the rights a human has on him, and also his debts to the state. He never resists the laws of his state. It would be a crime to violate the laws of one's state. A Muslim commits neither sins nor crimes. He loves his country, nation and his flag. He does favors to everybody. He gives good advice to those who act wrongly. Such Muslims are loved both by Allahu ta'ala and by His born servants. They lead a happy and peaceful life.
The forty-eighth edition of all three volumes of the Turkish version of Se'adet-i Ebediyye and the eighth edition of the English version of its major sections in the five fascicles has now been printed. There are ninety-eight chapters in the first volume, seventy-two chapters in the second volume and seventy in the third volume. Of these two hundred and forty (240) chapters, one hundred and eight (108) chapters have been compiled from Maktubat, Vol. II and III by Imam-i Rabbani mujaddid-i alf-i Thani, Ahmad-i Faruqi, a great Islamic alim, a source of knowledge for tasawwuf and spiritual pleasures, a real spiritual heir of Muhammad (alaihis'-salam), and 132 chapters from the books of authorized Islamic scholars. The complete first volume of Maktubat was translated into Turkish by Mustaqimzada Sulaiman Sadaddin Effendi. I thanked my Allah by seeing to it that the Waqf Ikhlas Co. published it under the name of Mujdeci Mektublar (Letters of Glad-tidings). I have heard As-Sayyid Abdulhakim-i Arwasi, an ocean of Islamic science and an expert of marifats of tasawwuf, say many times, "The highest of the Islamic books after the Holy Qur'an and the books of hadith is the book Maktubat by Imam-i Rabbani." and "No other book as valuable as the Maktubat by Imam-i Rabbani was written in the Islamic world." Actually, the book Mathnawi is the most unique of those books explaining the greatness of wilayat. However, the book Maktubat is superior to it in explaining the greatness of wilayat and nubuwwat. Concerning the greatness of both, wilayat seems to be nothing in comparison to nubuwwat. The nine hundred and ninety-nine names written in the book, with their biographies, have been appended to the original Endless Bliss (Se'adet-i Ebediyye).
This is a book of knowledge. Islamic knowledge has its own terminology like other branches of science. The meanings of those technical words have been explained in the book when needed. You will have learned them after you have read the book completely. The knowledge in this book cannot be understood by an ignorant person who does not strive to learn these words. In that case, he has no right to claim that "this book is incomprehensible" because it is his own fault. "An ignorant person does not like what he cannot comprehend" is a common saying. A rose is appreciated by nightingales only. A jeweler can recognize pure gold. A chemist can discover what minerals are in a stone. We should try to comprehend well the meaning of each of its sentences, repeat each chapter, and fix its outline into memory. We should teach it to our children, to our acquaintances. We should study and improve in this way. Our Prophet (Muhammad [sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam]) said, "He who has remained in the same state for two days, (that is, he who has not improved,) has made a mistake; he is suffering a loss." It is seen that the Islamic religion rejects not only retrogression but also stagnation. It always commands us to make progress, to improve. All the thawab that will be gained as a reward for the preparation and publication of this book and all the benedictions that will be pronounced by Muslims who will read this book I donate as a gift to the blessed soul of Sayyid Abdulhakim Arwasi. I know it as a source of happiness for myself to a slave of his accompanying him on the Day of Judgement.
WAQF IKHLAS
Miladi (1993)
Hijri Shamsi (1372)
Hijri Kamari (1414)
Courtesy of Hizmet Books (1998)
Chapyer 1 - Obeying
ENDLESS BLISS
Obeying Hadrat Muhammad (Salla Allahu alayhi wa Sallam) brings one happiness
FIRST FASCICLE
CHAPTER 1
FIRST FASCICLE
CHAPTER 1
[Adapting oneself to him, or following him, is following the way on which he has guided us. His way is the way shown by the Qur'an al-karim. This way is called Din-i Islam. In order to adapt ourselves to him, we should first have iman (belief); then learn Islam well; then carry out the fard (farz) and abstain from the haram; and then fulfill the sunnat and abstain from the makruh. After all these, we should also try to follow him in what is mubah.]
It is essential for everyone to have iman; iman is necessary for everybody. Those who have iman should carry out the fards and abstain from the harams. Every Mumin (Believer) is obliged to carry out the fards and abstain from the harams, that is, to be a Muslim. Every Mumin loves our Prophet (sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam) more than his own life and property. A symptom of this love is to carry out the sunnat and abstain from the makruh. After following all of these, the more a Muslim adapts himself to him in what is mubah, the more perfect and the more mature will he become. He will become all the closer and more beloved to Allahu ta'ala.
It is called Iman to like and to admit sincerely, that is, to believe, all of what Rasulullah (sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam) said. Those who believe so are called Mumin. It is called Kufr not to believe even one piece of what he said, and to doubt if it is good and correct. People who disbelieve so are called Kafir. Things which Allahu ta'ala clearly commands in the Qur'an al-karim are called Fard. Things which He clearly forbids and prohibits by saying "don't" are called Haram. Things which Allahu ta'ala doesn't clearly command but which are acts our Prophet praised or which he habitually did or which he did not prohibit, though seeing them done, are called Sunnat. It is kufr (disbelief) to dislike the sunnat. It is not a sin not to do them, as long as you like them. Those things which are not liked by him, and which also eradicate the blessings of worships are called Makruh. The things which are neither commanded nor prohibited are called Mubah. All these commands and prohibitions are called Shariat or Afal-i mukallafin or Ahkam-i Islamiyya.
Afal-i mukallafin consists of eight aspects: Fard, wajib, sunnat, mustahab, mubah, haram, makruh, mufsid. Things that are not prohibited, or though prohibited, their prohibition has been abolished through one of the reasons which the Shariat accepts as an excuse, a hindrance or a necessity, are called Halal. All mubahs are halal. For example, it is halal to lie in order to reconcile two Muslims. Everything that is halal may not be mubah. For example, it is not mubah, but it is makruh to go shopping while the adhan is being called. Nevertheless, it is halal. A Muslim crier calls Muslims to pray when it is prayer time; this public announcement is called the adhan. It is fard to learn and know the tenets of iman, and the various fards and harams. Thirty-three fards are well-known. Four of them are basic; to perform namaz, to fast, to give zakat, and to perform hajj (pilgrimage). These four fards together with iman are the basis of Islam. He who has iman and who worships, that is, he who carries out these four fards is called a Muslim or Musliman. He who carries out all four of them and abstains from the haram is a complete Muslim. If one of these is defective or nonexistent, his state of being a Muslim will also be defective. He who does not carry out any of them may be a Mumin (believer), but he is not a true Muslim. Though such an iman protects one in this world only, it is difficult to transmigrate to the Hereafter in possession of this kind of iman. Iman is like a candle. Ahkam-i Islamiyya is like the lantern, the glass globe around the burning candle. The candle and the lantern which contains it represent Islam and Din-i Islam. The candle without the lantern will go out quickly. Islam cannot exist without iman. Therefore, where there is no Islam, there is no iman, either.
Din (religion) means the way prescribed by Allahu ta'ala in order to guide people to endless bliss. The unwholesome ways which people make up under the name of religion are not called religion; they are called irreligiousness and disbelief. Since the time of Hadrat Adam, Allahu ta'ala has sent mankind a religion by means of a prophet every thousand years. These prophets (salawatullahi ta'ala 'alaihim ajmain) are called Rasul. On the other hand, in every century, by making the purest person the prophet, He has strengthened the religion through him. These prophets who followed the Rasuls are called Nabi. All the prophets have communicated the same iman; they have asked their ummat to believe in the same things. Yet, since their Shariats, that is, the things that are to be done and avoided through the heart and body, were different, their being Muslims was different.
He who has iman and adapts himself to she Shariat is a Muslim. Those who want to adapt the Shariat to their desires and pleasures are disbelievers. They don't understand that Allahu ta'ala has sent down the Shariat in order to break the desires and pleasures of the nafs and to prevent their excessive indulgence.
Every subsequent Shariat has abolished or changed the Shariat previous to itself. The last and final Shariat that has changed all the Shariats prior to it, which has assimilated all the previous Shariats within itself, and which will never change until the end of the world is Hadrat Muhammad's Shariat. Today, the religion which Allahu ta'ala likes and loves is the Islamic religion, which is based on this Shariat. To those who perform the fard and abstain from the haram, which this Shariat communicates. Allahu ta'ala will bestow blessings and favors in the next world. That is, they will receive thawab (rewards). For those who do not carry out the fards and do not abstain from the harams, there are punishments and suffering in the next world. That is, such people become sinful. The fard performed by those who have no iman will not be accepted. That is, they will not be given rewards. The sunnat performed by the Muslims who don't carry out the fard, that is, who owe a debt to Allahu ta'ala, will not be accepted, and they will not be given rewards. They are not looked upon as having adapted themselves to our Prophet (sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam). If a person does all the fards and omits one fard without an excuse, none of his nafila (supererogatory) worships and sunnats of this kind will be given rewards, until he pays this debts of his. Hadith ash-Sharifs declare this clearly as quoted in the book Miftah-un-Najat: "O 'Ali! When the people are busy with the fadail (supererogatory) try to complete the fards." Also, it states at the end of the third fasl (part) of the book Durrat-ul-Fakhira by Imam-i Ghazali: "Allahu ta'ala will not accept the nafila salat of the person who has a debt of qada salat." The book Miftah-un-Najat has already been published by Hakikat Kitabevi in Istanbul. When the mubahs are done with good intentions and with beautiful thoughts, one will receive rewards. When they are done for evil purposes, or if doing them prevents one from performing a fard or causes the delaying of a fard, they will be sins. While the fard and sunnat are being done, if evil thoughts are involved, the debt will be paid and punishment will be averted, but no reward will be obtained. It may be a sin instead. The fard and sunnat of those who commit harams will be acceptable. That is, they have paid their debt, yet they won't receive rewards. The book al-Hadiqa in explaining the hadith: "The worships of people of bidat will not be accepted," says, "The worships of those Muslims who do not abstain from sinning are not accepted, even if they are sahih." A haram cannot be mubah (permitted), even if done with goodwill. In other words, a haram will never be rewarded, and he who commits a haram without an excuse is certainly sinful. He who abstains from the haram and gives it up with goodwill, fearing Allah, will receive rewards. If the doesn't commit a haram for other reasons, he won't receive rewards. He will only escape its sin. It is out of place for those who commit harams to say, "You should look at my heart, it is pure. Allahu ta'ala looks at the heart only." It is nonsensical. This is only said to deceive Muslims. It is written in the thirty-ninth letter [of Hadrat Imam-i Rabbani] that the symptom of a heart's purity is in adhering to the Shariat, that is, obeying its commands and prohibitions. The book Hadiqa and Shirat ul-Islam, on its 246 th page, while explaining taqwa says, "Committing the harams with good intentions does not deliver them from being harams. A good intention does not affect either the harams or the makruhs. It does not change them into taat."
It is written on the seventy-third page of the book Mirat-ul-maqasid concerning an intention for an abdast (ritual ablution, wudu) in Ibni Abidin (rahmat-Allahi 'alaih) and on the fifty-fourth page in the translation of Milal-Nihal that there are three kinds of actions: The first is, masiyyat, that is, sinful actions. These are the actions which Allahu ta'ala dislikes. It is masiyyat not to do what Allahu ta'ala has ordered to be done, or to do what He has prohibited. The second one is taat, those actions which Allahu ta'ala likes. These are also called Hasana. He has promised that He will give Ajr, that is, Thawab (blessings) to a Muslim who performs taat. The third group of actions are called Mubah, which have not been declared to be sinful or taat. They are taat or sinful depending on the intention of the person who does them.
Sins are not exempted from being sins if they are committed with or without a good intention. The hadith "Actions are good or bad depending on the intention," declares that the taat and mubah actions will be given rewards in accordance with the intention. If a person, in order to please someone, offends another person, or if he gives alms with someone else's property, or if he builds mosques or schools with haram money, he won't be given rewards. It will be ignorant to expect rewards for these efforts. Cruelty and sins are still sins even if they are committed with a goodwill. It is blessed not to do such actions. If one does them knowing that they are sins, it will become a grave sin. If one does them without knowing, it will be a sin also not to know or not to learn the things that are known by most Muslims. Even in Dar-ul-harb it is not an excuse, but a sin, not to know the Islamic rules which are common. When the taats are done without an intention or intended for Allah's sake, blessings are given.
When one does a taat, it will be accepted whether one knows or not that one is doing it for Allah's sake. If a person does a taat knowing that he does it for Allah's sake, it is called Qurbat. While doing an action which is qurbat, one does not have to intend so that rewards will be given. The taat in which it is necessary to intend for Allah's sake so that rewards are given is called Ibadat (worshipping). The abdast (ritual ablution) that is performed without an intention is not an act of worshipping, but it is qurbat. However, one has cleaned oneself and can perform namaz. It is understood that every worship is qurbat and taat. Reading the Qur'an al-karim, donating property to a religious foundation, emancipating a slave, giving alms, making a wudu' (in the Hanafi Madhhab) and the like, since an intention is not necessary in order to receive blessings, they are taat and qurbat. Yet they are not acts of worship. While doing an action which is taat or qurbat, if one intends for Allah's sake, one has done an act of worship. However, these are not commanded as worships. It is not qurbat, but it is taat to learn such branches of knowledge as physics, chemistry, biology and astronomy, which help men to know Allah. Unbelievers comprehend Allah's existence, not while learning them, but after learning them. It is a sin to perform any taat with a bad intention. Beautiful thoughts increase the reward of a taat. For example, it is a taat to be in a mosque. It will be more rewarding if one intends to visit the House of Allah, thinking that the mosque is the House of Allah. Also, if one intends to wait for the next prayer or stays inside the mosque to prevent the eyes and ears from committing sins or goes into seclusion to think about the next world or to mention Allah's name in a mosque or perform amr-i maruf and nahy-i munkar to teach the people about Allah's commands and prohibitions or to listen to the preaching of others or to strive to feel embarrassment before Allah, one will receive different rewards for each act, depending on one's intention. Every taat has various intentions and rewards. Ibni Abidin (rahmat-Allahi 'alaih) explains these while explaining how to send a proxy to Mecca for pilgrimage.
Every mubah is a taat when done with goodwill. It is a sin when done with ill will. If a person uses perfumes, dresses well and smartly in order to enjoy worldly benefits, to make a show, to boast, to cherish himself or to hunt girls and women, he will be sinful. He won't be tormented for his intention to enjoy worldly advantages, yet it will cause the blessings of the next world to decrease. He will be tormented for his other intentions. If this person dresses smartly and uses perfumes because it is a sunnat, if he intends to pay reverence to a mosque and not to hurt the Muslims who sit by him in the mosque, to be clean, to be healthy, to protect Islam's dignity and honor, he receives different rewards for teach of these intentions of his. Some scholars say that one shouldn't forget to make an intention for every mubah action, even before eating, drinking, sleeping and going to the water-closet. One should be careful about one's intention when beginning a mubah action. If one's intention is good, one should do that act. If the intention is not only for Allahu ta'ala, one shouldn't do it. It is declared in a hadith ash-Sharif, "Allahu ta'ala does not look at your beautiful faces or possessions; He looks at your hearts and deeds." That is, Allahu ta'ala doesn't give anybody rewards or gifts in consideration of his new, clean clothes, good deeds, possessions and rank. He gives him rewards or torments because of his thoughts, or the intention behind his actions.
Then, the thing which is of the highest necessity, which is the most important fard for every Muslim, is learning iman, the fards and the harams. There is no Islam unless these are learned. Iman cannot be maintained, the debts to Allah and to human beings cannot be paid, intentions and morals cannot be corrected and purified unless the basic principles of Islam are learnt. Unless correctly intended, no fard will be accepted. It was declared in a hadith in Durr-ul-Mukhtar: "Learning or teaching knowledge for one hour is more blessed than worshipping until morning." The author of the book Hadarat-ul-quds states on the ninety-ninth page, "I studied the books Bukhari, Mishkat, Hidaya and Sharh-i-mawaqif under Imam-i-Rabbani's supervision. He would encourage young people to acquire knowledge. 'Knowledge first, and tasawwuf next,' he would say. Noticing my shirking from knowledge and taking pleasure from tariqat, he pitied me and advised me, 'Read books! Acquire knowledge! An ignorant sufi will be a plaything in the hands of the devil, [that is, he will fall into disesteem'."
It is called Ibadat (worship) to do the fard and sunnat and to abstain from the haram and makruh, that is, to carry out the rules of Islam in order to attain Allahu ta'ala's love and receive thawab (rewards). There is no worship without an intention. In other words, it is necessary first to have iman and then to learn and carry out the rules of Islam in order to follow Rasulullah (Hadrat Muhammad).
To have iman means to begin following him (Rasulullah) and to enter into the door of happiness. Allahu ta'ala sent him to invite all the people of the world to happiness and declared in the twenty-eighth ayat of Surat-us-Saba': "O my beloved Prophet! (sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam) I send you to humanity so that you should give the good news of the endless bliss to all the people in the world and to guide them toward this way to happiness."
For example, a little midday sleeping of a person who adapts himself to him is much more valuable than spending many nights worshipping without following him. It was his honorable habit to perform Qaylula, that is to sleep for a while before noon. Also, not fasting on the feast day, but eating and drinking because his Shariat commands it, is more valuable than years of fasting that doesn't exist in his Shariat. A small amount given to the poor according to his Shariat, which is called zakat, is better than giving a pile of gold coins as big as a mountain with one's own wish. After performing a morning prayer in congregation, Hadrat 'Umar, the Amir-ul-Muminin, looked at the congregation and, not seeing one of its members, he asked where he was. His companions said, "He prays until morning at nights. Maybe he fell asleep." The Amir-ul-Muminin said, "I wish he had slept all the night and performed the morning prayer in congregation; it would have been better." Those who have deviated from the Shariat blunt their nafs by subjecting themselves to inconveniences and by striving hard. Yet, this is worthless and low because they don't do it compatibly with the Shariat. The benefit for these efforts of theirs, if there is any, consists of a few worldly advantages. Then, in fact, this world is worthless; therefore, of what could be the value of a part of it? These people are like dustmen; dustmen work harder and become more tired than anybody else, but their wages are lower than anybody else's. As for those who adapt themselves to the Shariat, they are like jewellers, who deal with fine jewels and precious diamonds. They do a little work, but their earnings are great. Sometimes an hour's work provides them a hundred thousand years' earning. The reason for this is that an action compatible with the Shariat is accepted and liked by Allahu ta'ala; He loves it.
[He declares in many places in Qur'an al-karim that this is so. For example, He declares in the thirty-first ayat of Surat-u Al-i 'Imran: "O my beloved Prophet 'sall-Allahu alaihi wa sallam'! Tell them, 'If you love Allahu ta'ala and if you want Allahu ta'ala to love you also, adapt yourselves to me! Allahu ta'ala loves those who adapt themselves to me'."]
Allahu ta'ala does not like any of the things that are incompatible with the Shariat. Is it possible that rewards will be given for the things that are disliked? Maybe they will bring about punishment.
Chapters 2 - 12
Chapter-2
To obey Allahu ta'ala, it is necessary to obey His MessengerSalla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam
2 - Allahu ta'ala declares in the Qur'an al-karim, in the eightieth ayat of the Surat-un-Nisa that obedience to Hadrat Muhammad Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam is obedience to Him. Then, unless His Messenger is obeyed, He will not be obeyed. In order to make it known that this is absolutely certain and clear, He declared in an ayat al-Karima: "Of course, it is certainly so." Thus, giving no opportunity for some people who cannot think properly to see these two orders as being different from each other. Again, stating dissatisfaction with those who see these two orders as being different, in the 150 th and 151 st ayats of sura Nisa in Qur'an al-Karim Allahu ta'ala declares: "The disbelievers want to differentiate Allah's commands from His prophets' commands. They say they believe in certain parts, but not in others. They want to establish a new path between belief and disbelief. All of them are kafir. For all of them we have prepared the torments of Hell with very bitter torments."Chapter-3What should be done to be a Muslim. The word "Shahadat"
3 - Attaining endless bliss requires being a Muslim. To be a Muslim, no formality is necessary, such as going to a mufti or imam. It is stated in the twelfth chapter of Maqamat- i-mazhariyya, "It will be enough to say: 'I believe Allahu ta'ala and His Messenger (SAW) and all the messages he (the Prophet) brought from Allahu ta'ala. I love the friends of Allahu ta'ala and His Messenger (SAW), and hate their enemies.' It is scholars' duty to prove every religious teaching with documents and to indicate the ayat al-Karimas and Hadith ash-Shareefs that are its fulcrums. Not every Muslim is encumbered with it." As it is stated in Ibni Abidin's book at the end of the chapter "The disbeliever's marriage": ["It is not a condition for an old man who becomes a Muslim to be circumcised at once. Some 'alims said that it is even permissible not to circumcise him since circumcision does not legitimize the exposing of one's private parts." It is written in the book al-Hadiqa and Bariqa that "Old or unhealthy men who become Muslim will not be circumcised if they can't stand its pain." Doctor Najmuddin Arif bey (1343 [1925 A.D.]) says in his book Amali Jarrahi published in Istanbul, "The Jews circumcise their boys when they are seven days old, but Muslim boys are circumcised at any age. Many Christians in Europe and in the United States have themselves and their boys circumcised thinking that it is good for their health. This is written also in the book Fann-i hitan by doctor Riza Nur bey, who was a deputy of Sinop."Chapter-4
The Ahl as-Sunnat savants
4 - The first thing necessary for all people is to have iman and the creed of the Ahl as- Sunnat scholars as communicated in their books. It is these scholars who have explained the way of our Prophet Hadrat Muhammad 'alaihis-salam', who have comprehended murad-i ilahi (the divine purpose) of the Qur'an al-karim, and who have extracted the Prophet's (SAW) purpose from the Hadith ash-Shareefs. It is the way shown by them that will save us on the Day of Resurrection. It is the Ahl as-Sunnat scholars who have transferred the way of Allah's Prophet (SAW) and his companions (radi-Allahu ta'ala 'anhum ajmain) into books and who have protected them against being changed or defiled.
Chapter-5
The Chief of the Ahl as-Sunnat is Imam al-A'zam Abu Hanifa
5 - Those scholars in the four Madhabs who reached the grade of Ijtihad and the great scholars educated by them are called the Ahl as-Sunnat scholars. The leader and the founder of the Ahl as-Sunnat is (Imam al-A'zam Abu Hanifa Numan bin Thabit (radi-Allahu ta'ala anh). Chapter-6 Imam al-A'zam Abu Hanifa
6 - Sahl bin Abdullah Tusturi 'rahmatullahi alaih', one of the great Awliya who has reached the grade of haqiqat (the highest grade in Sufism), says, "If there had been a person like Imam al-A'zam Abu Hanifa (rahmat-Allahi ta'ala 'alaih) among the ummats of Hadrat Musa and 'Isa, they wouldn't have turned into Jews or Christians." [Awliya are people whom Allah loves.]
Chapter-7
Books of Islamic savants
7 - Millions of books written by this great leader and by hundreds of his disciple and by thousands of the great people educated by them, correctly spread and make known our Prophet's way all over the world. Today, there is not a city, a village or a person left in the free world that has not heard about the Islam communicated by our Prophet. Upon hearing about Islam, if someone sincerely wants to learn it correctly, Allahu ta'ala promises that He will grant him true knowledge. Today, there are catalogues giving the names of the books on Islam that fill the world's libraries. For example, there are about fifteen thousand names of books and some ten thousand names of authors in the book Kashf-uz-Zunun by Katib Chalabi. This book, in two volumes, is in Arabic. Ismail Pasha from Baghdad wrote two supplementary volumes to this book. Nearly ten thousand names of books and authors exist in these supplementaries. Kashf-uz-Zunun was first printed in 1250 [1835 A.D.] in Leipzig; the upper portion of its pages are written in Arabic, while the lower portions are in Latin. The book was also translated into French in 1112 [1700 A.D.] At exactly the same time it was printed in Egypt, too. Lastly, together with its two supplementaries, it was printed in Arabic in Istanbul between 1360-1366 (1941-1947). The books are in the order of the Arabic alphabet. Four of them were sold at the libraries of the Ministry of Education in Turkey. The two-volume Arabic book Asma-ul-muallifin by Ismail Pasha was printed in Istanbul in 1370 and 1374 (1951 and 1955). In these two volumes, the authors of the books in Kashf-uz-Zunun and its supplementaries are written in the order of the Arabic alphabet and under each name are the books written by the owner of the name. Today, another very useful and valuable book listing only the Arabic Islamic books existing all over the world and their authors and in which library they can be found and at which call number they exist in each country is Carl Brockelmann's German book Geschichte der Arabischen Literatur, which was printed in Leiden in 1362 (1943). The book Miftah-us-saadah by Tashkopruzada Ahmad Effendi (rahmat-Allahi ta'ala 'alaih), the author of the book Shaqayiq-i Numaniyya, which gives the biographies of the scholars educated in the Ottoman Empire, defines and explains nearly five hundred branches of knowledge and gives information about the books written in every branch of knowledge and their writers. His son, Kamaladdin Muhammad, translated this book from Arabic to Turkish. It lists the Islamic savants and their works, and he gave it the name Mawduat-ul-'ulum. This book was printed at the printing office of the newspaper Iqdam in 1313. It is available in bookstores. After seeing Islam's twenty main branches of knowledge and its eighty - one sub - branches and the scholars of these branches and the books which each of them wrote tirelessly and perseverently, an understanding and reasonable person cannot help admiring the great number of Islamic scholars and their skill at diving into the ocean of knowledge.[In these books of theirs, refuting through documents and argumentation the words of naturalists and materialists and the absurdities which non-Muslims wanted to inject into Islam, they silenced them all, and thus extinguished the fire of instigation and corruption prepared by enemies of the religion. Moreover, exposing the shame of those who tried to give wrong meanings to the Qur'an and who strove to prepare defiled translations with evil intentions, they, on the one hand, clearly wrote all the facts that have to be believed in one by one, and, on the other hand, they very correctly presented to humanity the religious aspect of every event and action that has happened all over the world and that will happen until the end of the world.
The names and biographies of more than eight hundred of Imam al-A'zam Abu Hanifa's 'rahmat-Allahu ta'ala alaih' and those who attended his lectures, are written in books. Five hundred and sixty of these are well known in the knowledge of fiqh, and among these, thirty-six have reached the grade of ijtihad.]
Chapter-8
Writers of made-up interpretations becomes kafir. The Turkish Qur'an!
8 - Every bidat holder has inferred wrong meanings from ayats of Qur'an al-Karim and Hadith ash-Shareefs with covered meanings. Our Prophet 'alaihis-salam' said, "He who gives a false interpretation to the Qur'an according to his own mind, thought and knowledge, and who writes made up interpretations [those opposed to the interpretations which the great men of religion have prepared after learning them from our Prophet (SAW) and from his Ashab] is a kafir." Please read the fiftieth disaster incurred by one's speech, discoursed on in Bariqa. We shouldn't buy or read the false books of interpretations published to make money by those who know nothing of salat and iman; we shouldn't believe their decorated advertisements.
Chapter-9
Which translation of the Qur'an should we depend on?
9 - The valuable and right teachings derived from the Qur'an al-Karim and Hadith ash- Shareefs is only what the [Ahl as-Sunnat] savants understood and explained. Every renegade, every deviant, every man of bidat, and every ignorant person supposes and claims that the way he follows is compatible with the Qur'an al-Karim and hadith ash-Shareefs. For this reason, not every meaning derived from the Qur'an and hadiths is to be accepted and esteemed. Chapter-10Thieves of faith ( Iman)
10 - It is impossible to escape torment in the Hereafter for those who deviate as much as a hair's breadth from the creed and Iman communicated by the Ahl as-Sunnat scholars, the great and pious people. It is understood with the intellect, through the Qur'an al-Karim and hadith ash-Shareefs and with the great religious men's perceptions through the heart that this is so. There cannot be a mistake in this. Words and books of those who deviate as much as a hair's breadth from what these great people communicated in their books are poisons. Those who use the religion as a means in order to earn worldly benefits and who, after introducing themselves as men of religion, write down whatever occurs to their minds are thieves of the religion. They steal the beliefs of those who read their books and magazines. Those who believe them think of themselves as Muslims and perform namaz. However, because their Iman has been stolen and lost, none of their prayers, worships nor good deeds are accepted or will be of value in the next world.Concerning those who sell their religion for the world, Allahu ta'ala revealed the sixteenth Ayat of Surat Al-Baqara: "The ignorant idiots gave away their religion in order to get the pleasures and enjoyment of the world. Selling out their next world, they received the world and what their lusts desired. Abandoning the way to salvation, they ran after perdition. They earned nothing in this act of buying and selling of theirs. They didn't know the way of trading or earning. They lost a great deal."
Chapter-11
The things which cause one to lose the faith
11 - Attaining happiness in both worlds depends only, and only upon following Hadrat Muhammad ('alaihi's-salam), who is the master of this and the next world. In order to follow him, it is necessary to have iman and to learn and to carry out the rules of Islam. The symbol of true iman's existence in the heart is to bear hostility against disbelievers and to annihilate the things that are peculiar to them and that are the symptoms of disbelief. For Islam and kufr are opposites, antonyms of each other. Where one of them exists, the other cannot stay and goes away. These two opposite things cannot stay in the same place together. To esteem one of them means to insult, to blame the other. Allahu ta'ala commands Hadrat Muhammad, His beloved Prophet (sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam), who has the attribute khulk-i azim and who is very merciful, to perform jihad, to wage war against disbelievers and to treat them severely. This means to say that it is khulk-i azim to behave severely towards disbelievers. The dignity and honor of Islam is in insulting disbelief and disbelievers. He who glorifies and respects disbelievers insults and dishonors the Muslims. [Declaring in the Qur'an, in the one hundred and forty-ninth ayat of Surat-u Al-i 'Imran that those who esteem and follow disbelievers are wrong and will repent, Allahu ta'ala says, "O those who believe my beloved Prophet! If you, believing the words of disbelievers, deviate from the way of my Messenger, and if you, taken in by the lurid and mendacious statements of those who pretend to be Muslims, let your faith and iman be stolen, you will be at a loss in this and the next world."]
Allahu ta'ala declares that disbelievers are His and His Prophet's (sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam) enemies. To love the enemies of Allahu ta'ala and to cooperate with them draws one towards being hostile against Allahu ta'ala and His Prophet. A person thinks of himself as a Muslim, expresses the word tawhid, and says, "I believe," and performs namaz and every kind of worship, but, on the other hand, cooperates with disbelievers. Yet he does not know that these loathsome actions of his will extirpate his being a Muslim and his iman.
[Disbelievers are people who dislike the Islamic religion of the Messenger of Allah and who say that it doesn't correspond with our age, the age and science, and renegades who publicly and basely make fun of Muslims and Islam. Because remaining outside Islam befits their pleasures, lusts and inner secret desires, they call it "retrogression" to be a Muslim. They call disbelief and irreligiousness "modernism, civilization and enlightenment." Murtads (renegades) are people who were born from Muslim parents and yet who know nothing of Islam. These people haven't read or understood any books by any Islamic scholar, dislike Islam and, being seized by the present-day current, say that Islam prevents progress, only in order to obtain a favor, some sympathy or something worldly.
Some of them, in order to deceive innocent children, say, "In Islam everything ends in 'said so'. It is always based upon 'said so' by saying, 'It has been said by so and so.' It is not based upon a document or a voucher, whereas other branches of knowledge are proved and are based on documents." These words of theirs manifest how ignorant they are. They have never read an Islamic book at all. Fantasizing in their imaginations something under the name of Islam, they presume that Islam is nothing but these thoughts of theirs. They don't know that the branches of knowledge and science, proofs and documents, which they consider as different and far away from Islam, are each a section, a branch of Islam. For example, all of the scientific knowledge, the books of physics, chemistry and biology that are taught in high schools today say in their initial pages, "The essence of our lesson is observation, examination and experimentation." That is, these three things are the basis of scientific knowledge. In fact, all these three are the things which Islam commands. That is, our religion commands us to learn scientific knowledge. In many places of the Qur'an al- karim, we are commanded to see and observe nature, that is, all creatures, living and lifeless beings. One day his Ashab al-kiram 'alaihim-ur-ridwan' asked our Prophet, "Some of us who have been to Yaman saw that they budded the date trees in a different way and got better dates. Shall we bud our trees in Medina as our fathers have been doing or as we have seen them do in Yaman, thus getting better and more plentiful dates?" Rasulullah could have answered them, "Wait a bit! When Hadrat Jabrail (Gabriel) comes, I will ask him and tell you what I learn," or "I must think for a while; when Allahu ta'ala lets my heart know the truth, I will tell you." He didn't. Instead, he said, "Try it! Bud some of the trees with your father's method, and others with the method you saw being used in Yaman! Then always use the method which gives better dates!" In other words, he commanded us to experiment and to rely on experimentation, which is the basis of science. He could have learned it from the angel or no doubt, it might have materialized in his blessed heart. But he pointed out that all over the world Muslims who will exist until the end of the world should rely on experimentation and science. The event about budding the date trees is written in Kimya-i se'adet and also on the hundred and eighteenth page of Marifatnama. Islam emphatically commands every kind of work, working in all the branches of science, on knowledge and morals. It is written in books that all these efforts are fard-i kifaya (a fard which is no longer an obligation for other Muslims when one Muslim does it. That is, when one Muslim does it, the others don't have to do it any longer). Moreover, if a tool or a means newly discovered by science is not produced in an Islamic country, and if any Muslim suffers harm for his reason, the administrators, the authorities of that country, are held responsible according to Islam. It was declared in a hadith, "Teach your sons how to swim and how to shoot arrows! What a beautiful amusement it is for women to spin threads in their homes." This hadith commands us to procure every kind of knowledge and weaponry necessary for war, never to remain idle, and to find useful amusements. Today, it is for this reason that it is fard for a Muslim nation to make atomic bombs and artificial satellites. By doing so, Islam will be known all over the world. Not striving to make them will be a grave sin.
The knowledge which Muslims have to acquire and learn is called "Ulum-i Islamiyya" (Islamic knowledges). It is fard to learn some of this knowledge. It is sunnat to learn some other branches of it, and it is mubah to learn even more of it. Islamic knowledge is mainly divided into two branches. The first one is Ulum-i naqliyya. This is also called "religious knowledge." This originates from four sources called "Adilla-i Shariyya." Religious knowledge is also divided into two: the Zahiri (external) branches of knowledge and the batini (internal) branches of knowledge. The first ones are called the Knowledge of fiqh or Shariat; the second ones are called the knowledge of tasawwuf (sufism) or Marifat. The Shariat is learned through murshids and through the books of fiqh. Marifat goes into hearts after flowing from murshids' hearts.
The second branch of Islamic knowledge is Ulum-i 'aqliyya (experimental sciences). The branch dealing with living creatures is called Ulum-i tibbiyya (science of medicine), and the branch dealing with non-living creatures is called Ulum-i hikemiyya. The branch dealing with the sky and stars is called Ulum-i falakiyya. The knowledge dealing with the earth is called Ulum-i tabiiyya. The subdivisions of Ulum-i 'aqliyya are mathematics, logic and experimental knowledge. They are acquired by perceiving through the five senses, by observing through the mind, experimentation and calculation. These fields of knowledge help us to understand and better carry out religious knowledge. They are necessary for this reason. They change, increase and improve in the course of time. For this reason, it has been said, "Takmil-i sina'at is fulfilled by talahuk-i afkar," which means that "improvement in arts, science and technology is realized by adding to one another's ideas and experiments."
The knowledge which is acquired through tradition, that is, religious knowledge, is very exalted. It is beyond and above the mind, the power of human brains. It can never be changed by any person at any time, and this is the meaning of the statement, "There can be no reform in the religion." Islam has not prohibited or limited the knowledge which is acquired through the mind; yet it has commanded us to learn it together with religious knowledge and to utilize its results compatibly with the Shariat. It has also commanded us to make it useful for people and not to use it as a medium for cruelty, torture and disasters. Muslims made and used many scientific productions. The compass was invented in 687 [1288 A.D.]. The rifle with a trigger was invented in 1282 [1866 A.D.]. The cannon was invented in 762 and used by Sultan Muhammad, the conqueror. Islam prohibits the teaching and learning of immorality, false history and lies against Islam, which enemies of Islam, enemies of morality, put forward as education and give the name "lessons" or "duties". Islam wants useful and good things to be learned and abstinence from bad and harmful propaganda.
Islam is a religion which encourages every branch of knowledge, every branch of science and every sort of experimentation. Muslims like science and believe in the experiments of the men of science. But, they cannot be deceived by the slanders and lies of false scientists, who introduce themselves as scientists.] Disbelievers destroy and annihilate Muslims when they are able. Or, they mislead Muslims onto a path which they have made up.
As a matter of fact, it is written on the hundred and second page of the minutes of a meeting held by Masons in 1900, "It is not enough to overcome the pious and their temples. Our ultimate purpose is to annihilate religions."
Publicly and shamelessly they reveal their hostility in their books and speeches. Knowing nothing about knowledge and science, they say childish things. For example, they say, "Ancient people were ignorant; being defenseless and weak against natural forces, they believed in imaginary things. They exposed their inferiority by worshipping and begging things which they themselves had made. However, we are in the atomic age today. Dominating nature, we can do whatever we want. There is nothing other than natural powers. Paradise, Hell, genies and angels are things fabled by ancient people. Is there anyone who has gone and seen them? Can anyone believe things that are not seen or experienced?" These words of the irreligious show that they know nothing of history either. In the course of history, ignorant people in each century thought of themselves as wise and learned, and the people coming before them as ignorant. Since Hadrat Adam, they have changed and denied the religions revealed in every century by saying that they are the words of ignorant primitive people. Such assertions made by disbelievers are quoted, and answered in many parts of the Qur'an al-karim. For example, He says after the thirtieth ayat of Surat-ul-Muminun, "They didn't believe Hadrat Nuh (Noah), so We drowned them in water. For the people We had created after them, We sent a Prophet from amongst them and said, 'Worship Allahu ta'ala. There is nobody other than Him to be worshipped. Fear His torment!' Many of those who didn't obey, who didn't believe in the resurrection after death, and yet whom we had given plenty of worldly blessings, said to others, 'This Prophet eats and drinks like you. If you believe someone who needs many things like you, you will be deceived and suffer a loss. The Prophet tells you that after dying and after your bones have rotted and turned into dust and soil you will be resurrected and get up from your graves. Is that ever possible? Whatever exists is in this world. Paradise and Hell are all in this world. This is the way it has been and this is the way it goes. There is no resurrection after death." In communist countries, in order to demolish the faith and morals of the people, teachers in schools and officers in the army say to the boys, girls and soldiers, "If Allah existed, we would see Him. He would hear us and give us what we want. If you ask me for candy, I will immediately hear you and give you what you want. Ask Him, you see He doesn't respond. Then, He doesn't exist. Your parents are ignorant. They are backwards and old-fashioned. They are retrogressive. But, you are open-minded, modern youngsters. Never believe such superstitions! Paradise, Hell, angels and genies are fables." Through such lies, they try to annihilate youngsters' iman, manners and sense of shame, which they have acquired in their fathers' homes. Deceiving these poor children, they sacrifice youngsters for the sake of their base desires, pleasures and evil earnings. By saying, "Who on earth has seen Paradise and Hell? One simply shouldn't believe things that are not seen." They expose the fact that they follow their organs of perception. However, animals too follow their organs of perception. Imam-i Ghazali says, "Human beings follow reason. Human organs of perception are lower than those of animals. Man cannot smell as well as cats or dogs do. Neither can he see in the dark as well as they do. Moreover, how can one rely on one's eyes in everything while many times wisdom proves the eyes to be wrong? For example, the eyes, seeing the sun through the window, may consider it smaller than the window; but reason says it is larger than the earth." I wonder if these disbelievers do not believe reason by saying, "We believe what we see; is it possible that the sun is larger than the earth?" No! Here they also believe reason as Muslims do. It is seen that men differ from animals by conducting worldly affairs not according to their perception, but according to their reason. Instead of saying, "We don't believe in the things of the next world," and thus remaining dependent on the organs of perception, why don't they follow their reason and thus become exalted to the degree of being human here, too? Islam declares that human beings will be recreated in the next world and will live eternally, and animals, after having their accounts settled, will be annihilated. By promising human beings an eternal life, it differentiates them from animals. But these disbelievers want to be deprived of eternal life like animals. Today, thousands of medicines, household appliances, industrial and commercial goods, electronic instruments, and war vehicles are manufactured in factories. The majority of them are manufactured after sophisticated calculations and hundreds of experiences are done. Do they say even about one of them that it is self-created? On the one hand, they say all those above-mentioned things have been manufactured consciously and willingly by a certain manufacturer; on the other hand, they claim that so many millions of substances and phenomena that are seen on living and lifeless beings, and new and subtler ones of which are being explored in each century, so that we do not know the structures of most of them yet, are self-created. How can this hypocrisy be explained except as extreme obstinacy or explicit stupidity?
A communist teacher in Russia told his students during the lesson, "I can see you. You can see me, too. This means to say that we exist. The mountains over there exist because we can see them, too. Something non-existent cannot be seen. What we cannot see is not said to exist. My words come from our scientific knowledge. One who is educated and progressive depends on scientific knowledge. Reactionists claim that there is a creator of all the creatures. It is wrong to believe the existence of a creator. It is not compatible with science. It is reactionary to claim the existence of something which cannot be seen." Asking permission to respond, a Turkoman boy said, "Are you talking with your intellect? Since we cannot see the existence of your intellect, it would be incompatible with science to accept that you have an intellect and that you are talking with it." The teacher was unable to answer these statements and kicked him out of the class after beating him harshly with a hatred arising from defeat. The boy was never seen again.
Today, there are two kinds of disbelievers in the world. First there are disbelievers with a holy book (people of the book). They are Jews and Christians. They believe in Resurrection and in eternal life after death.
Second, there are disbelievers without a holy book, that is, mushriks who do not believe in one Allah, who makes everything. Some of these disbelievers, by using State oppression, cruelty and torture, prohibit worshipping, and the teaching of religion. And some of them, through words that provoke feelings of goodness and humanity, cause others to fall into debauchery. They also cause them to be deprived of moral and religious knowledge. Putting forth false stories and mendacious examples, they deceive millions of people. They train them as religiously ignorant people. In other words, on the one hand, they talk about civilization, science and human rights, and, on the other hand, they animalize human beings.
The people of Europe and America have holy books. Copernicus, the founder of modern astronomy, was a priest in Freienburg. Bacon, the great physicist of England, was a priest belonging to the Franciscan Church. The famous French physicist Pascal was a priest and wrote religious books while exploring the laws of physics and geometry. The famous Richelieu, who was France's greatest prime minister and the one who brought France to the leading position in Europe, was a high ranking clergyman. Also Schiller, the great German doctor and poet, was a priest. Bergson, the French thinker and a world-famous philosopher, in his books defended spirituality against the attacks of materialists. Those who read his books MatlÅre et MÅmomiera, Les deux Sources de la Morale et de la Religion and Essai sur les DonnÄes ImmÄdiates de la Conscience will eagerly believe in religion and the next world.
William James, the great American philosopher, founded the sect of pragmatism; and in his book Religious Experiments and others, he praised being a believer. French doctor Pasteur, who had studied on infectious diseases, bacteria and various vaccinations, willed that his funeral be performed with a religious ceremony. Finally, F.D. Roosevelt, an American President, who administered the world in the Second World War, and the British Prime Minister Churchill were Christian believers. Many scientists and politicians, whose names we cannot remember, were all persons who believed in the Creator, the next world, and angels. Who can ever claim that those who disbelieve are wiser than these people? They would have been good Muslims if they had seen and read Islamic books. But reading, even touching, Islamic books was prohibited and even deemed a grave sin by their priests. Those priests prevented people from attaining happiness both in the world and in the Hereafter. Please see the twenty-sixth chapter, about Social Justice, Socialism, and Capitalism, in the Second Part (of the Turkish version).
Imam-i Ali (radi-Allahu 'anh), said "Muslims believe in the next world. Disbelievers without a holy book deny it. If there weren't a resurrection, disbelievers would not gain anything and Muslims would not suffer any harm. But since what disbelievers believe will not happen, they will suffer eternal torment." Islamic scholars prove their words true and respond to the attacks of disbelievers through reason, knowledge and science. Could Resurrection be denied if Muslims did not prove their words to be true? Even if being under eternal torment were only a probability, whichever wisdom would risk it? Nevertheless, torments in the next world are not only a probability, but an obvious fact. Then, it is unwise not to believe.
And some enemies of Islam, seeing that through reason and knowledge they won't be able to vitiate the sound iman of the people and that they only display their own disgrace, resort to tricks and lies. They pretend to be Muslims, write false articles that seem to like and praise Islam; but in these articles and words of theirs, by disputing the essential and basic principles of Islam, they cast a bad light on them as if they were not a part of Islam. They try to alienate and estrange the readers and audience from them. Thinking of the times for, amounts of, and kinds of worships, which Allahu ta'ala has commanded as inappropriate, they believe it would be better if worships were done in another way. Knowing nothing of the delicacies, uses and values that are hidden in the inner soul of worships, they consider them as a medium for simple and primitive functions; and they act as if they are trying to correct them. It is a defect in men not to know something; it is all the more funny and pathetic to interfere with something that one doesn't understand. And the Muslims who obey and believe such ignorant people, supposing them to be wise are even poorer and more stupid. And some of these insidious and ignorant disbelievers say, "Yes, Islam commands developing good habits, being healthy, working hard, and it prohibits evils and matures people. These are necessary for every nation. Yet there are also social rules, the rights of family and community in Islam. These were established in accordance with the circumstances of ancient times. Today, nations have grown larger, circumstances have changed and needs have increased. New rules and laws are necessary to meet today's technical and social improvements. Rules in the Qur'an cannot meet these needs." Such words are the absurd and out-of-place thoughts of the ignorant who do not know of Islamic laws and Islamic knowledge. Islam has declared clearly what justice and cruelty are, what rights and duties people have towards one another, families and neighbors towards one another, people towards the government, and governments towards one another. Islam states what a crime is, and it has put basic rules upon these unchangeable concepts. It has not limited the practicing of these unchangeable rules on all events and happenings, but has commanded them to be practiced according to common usage. In the book Durar-ul- Hukkam, an explanation of Majalla, from article 36 onward, it is written: "The rules depending upon a Nass (Ayat-i karimas or Hadith ash-Sharifs with clear meanings) or a Dalil (proof) do not change in the course of time; however, the rules depending upon customs and common usage may change with time. The Hukm-i Kulli (general rule) does not change, but its application to events may change in time. In worship, 'common usage' becomes dalil in order to give clarity and to inform people of a rule which is not declared by a Nass. To classify a custom as 'common usage', it must originate from the time of the Sahaba-i Kiram, and it must be known that it has been used by the Mujtahids and that it has continued to be used. In the rules of Muamalat (transactions), the customs prevailing in a region which don't contradict a Nass also become dalil. These can be understood by the 'alims of fiqh. Allahu ta'ala has established the Islamic religion in such a manner that it addresses every new development and invention in every country. Showing toleration and indulgence not only in social life, but also in worships, the Islamic religion has given men freedom and the right of ijtihad when confronted with different conditions and necessities. During the times of Hadrat 'Umar, the Umayyads and in such a big empire as the Ottoman Empire, large communities of various peoples, spread over continents, were administered with these divine rules. Muslim accomplishments and glories have been famous throughout history. And in the future, every nation, big or small, will attain comfort, peace and happiness in proportion to the extent to which it obeys and practices these unchangeable divine rules. Nations and societies which deviate from the social and economic rules declared by Islam will not escape hardships, suffering and calamity. It is written in history that this has been so with nations in the past, and so will it certainly be in the future. History is repetitive.
Muslims should attach great importance to national unity and solidarity; they should be extremely active materially and morally in making their country stronger; they should learn the teachings of the Islamic religion very well; they should abstain from the harams; and they should pay their debts to Allahu ta'ala and His born servants. They should be ornamented with the beautiful morals of Islam and should not cause harm to anybody. They should not be a means of agitation or anarchy, and they should pay their taxes. Our religion, Islam, wants us to behave in such a manner. The first obligation of a Muslim is to abstain from being guilty according to the law and from sinning by not following Satan or one's nafs, and by not believing bad, insidious, disobeying and revolting people. Allahu ta'ala imposed three obligations on His human beings. The first one is a personal obligation. Every Muslim must be well trained, healthy, well mannered, and good tempered. He must perform his ibadats and learn ilm, high-morality, and he must work for halal sustenance. The second obligation is to be carried out within the family. One must observe the rights of his father, mother, children, brothers and sisters. The third obligation concerns those which must be performed within the context of the society. These are the obligations relating to a Muslim's neighbors, teachers, family, the persons employed by him, the government, the state, and the people belonging to different religions and nationalities. It is a must to help everyone, not to insult anybody by saying something evil, not to hurt anyone, to be helpful towards everybody, not to revolt against the state, the government, the laws, to observe everybody's rights, and to pay taxes promptly. Allahu ta'ala did not order us to interfere with governmental and state affairs. Allahu ta'ala ordered us to help the government, not to incite trouble.]
Then, Muslims should feel haya (bashful) towards Allahu ta'ala. Haya is from iman. The bashfulness peculiar to a Muslim is indispensably necessary. It is a must to abhor and believe as wrong and harmful the disbelievers and disbelief and everything outside of Islam, no matter what theory or ideology it is. Allahu ta'ala has commanded us to take jizya from disbelievers; that is, they must pay taxes. The purpose of this is to insult them. This type of insulting is so effective that they cannot wear valuable suits, nor can they adorn themselves out of the fear of having to pay more jizya. They lead a despicable and miserable life. The purpose of jizya is to offend and disgrace disbelievers. The jizya shows the glory and honor of Islam. If the zimmi converted to Islam, he would no longer have to pay jizya. The symptom of iman's existence in a heart is that it dislikes disbelievers. [Disliking is done by the heart. We should live in harmony with disbelievers or any others; we should not cause harm to anybody.]
[Temporary co-operation with disbelievers can be formed only politically and when necessity requires it. Yet this shouldn't go as far as to unite with them, and it should end when the necessity is over.
Question: "We should not distrust or have a bad opinion of anybody; we should not look at his words and actions exposing his disbelief, but those indicating his iman. Iman exists in the heart. Allah knows if there is iman in a heart. No one else knows it. He who says 'disbeliever' about a person with iman in his heart becomes a disbeliever himself. We should regard everybody as a Muslim and love everybody who does not openly speak ill of Islam," is said. Is this point of view correct?
Answer: It is wrong to say we shouldn't distrust anybody. Its correct form is "We shouldn't distrust a Muslim." In other words, when a person, who says that he is Muslim and does not express a word or does not do an action rendering him a disbeliever, says or does something which may mean belief as well as disbelief, we should understand it as belief, and we should not say that he has dissented from the religion. But when a person strives to demolish the religion and to make youngsters kafir, or if he, saying "good" about one of the harams, tries to make it popular so that everybody commits it, or if he says that one of Allahu ta'ala's commands is retrogressive and harmful, he is called "kafir"." Even if he says that he is a Muslim, performs namaz (ritual prayer) and goes on a hajj (pilgrimage), he is still called a Zindiq. It would be stupidity to regard such hypocritical persons, who deceive Muslims, as Muslims.]
Allahu ta'ala in the twenty-eighth ayat of Surat-ut-Tawba of the Qur'an al-karim says, "Najas and rijs," that is, "foul," about disbelievers. Then, disbelief should be foul and base in the eyes of Muslims. Allahu ta'ala declares in the fourteenth ayat of Surat-ur Rad and in the fiftieth ayat of surat-ul Mumin, "The prayers of these enemies are without a result. There is no possibility of them being accepted."
Allahu ta'ala and His Prophet are pleased with Muslims. There cannot be a greater blessing than attaining Allah's consent and love.
As iman and kufr are opposite one another, so are this world and the next. This world and the next world cannot stay together. In order to earn the next world it is necessary to abandon this world, that is, the harams. Abandoning this world can be done in two ways. Firstly, it is to abandon the mubah, that is, many of the activities that are not sins, together with all the things that are haram, and to use as many of the mubahs as is only necessary to live. [In other words, it is to abandon the habits of being lazy or idle and/or diving into pleasures, dissipations and amusements of the world. Instead, we must spend our time worshipping, while making and using the most advanced forms of technology that are necessary for the protection and comfort of Muslims. And we must work so that non- Muslims may come to reason. Working for these purposes must be our hobby in this world. All the Ashab of our Prophet and many of our superiors worked in this way. It is very meritorious and very useful to abandon the world in such a way. We say once more that the purpose of this path is to sacrifice all comforts and pleasures in order to do the things which the Islamic religion commands.]
Secondly, it is to abstain from the things that are haram and dubious in this world without abandoning the mubah. Even this kind of abandoning of the world is of value in light of the present world's condition.
Then, it is positively necessary for each Muslim to abstain from the things which the Islamic religion prohibits.
[He who slights the fact that these are haram, that is, he who does not think it is necessary to abstain from them, or, he who does not pay attention to Allahu ta'ala's prohibitions and instead likes them and says 'How nice,' becomes a disbeliever. They will remain in Hell eternally. Those who admit and respect the prohibitions of Allahu ta'ala yet are overcome and deceived by their nafs and commit them but later come to their senses and repent do not become kafir; they do not lose their iman. Such people are called Asi (disobedient) or Fasiq (sinner). Though perhaps they will go to Hell and will be punished because of their sins, they will not remain in Hell eternally but will get out and enter Paradise.]
There are a lot of things which Allahu ta'ala has made mubah, which He has permitted. The value in these is more than that in the haram. Allahu ta'ala likes those who use the mubah. He dislikes those who use the haram. Does a wise and reasonable person spurn the love of his owner and creator for only a temporary pleasure? Besides, the number of things that are haram is very small. The flavors in the haram, exist in the mubahs, too.
[Dunya (world) is the feminine form of adna, i.e., ism-i tafdil (adjective in the superlative degree). Its masdar (infinitive) is either dunuwwun or danatun. When it is derived from the former, it means 'the nearest'. The word dunya in the ayat, 'We have adorned the lowest (nearest to the Earth) heaven with stars giving lights like lamps' is so. It has been used with the second meaning in some places. For instance, it bears the second meaning in the hadith, "Things that are dani, base, are mal'un." That is, the world is mal'un. Despicable things are the nahy-i iqtiza-i and nahy-i gayr-i-iqtizai of Allahu ta'ala, that is, they are haram and makruh. Property was not spoken ill of because Allahu ta'ala considers property a blessing. The evidence for our position is the property of Hadrat Ibrahim Khalil-ur-Rahman ('alaihi's-salam), who is the second most valuable creation of all creatures and humanity. His livestock included half a million heads of cattle that filled up plains and valleys.]
Chapter-12
A symptom of belief in the heart is to obey the Shariat
12- It is very easy not to commit a haram and to carry out the rules of Islam. It seems difficult to the sick-hearted. Yes, there are many jobs that are easy for healthy people. Yet they are difficult to the sick. The sickness of the heart involves not believing in the Shariat entirely. Even if such people say that they believe, it is not a real confirmation. It is a confirmation through words. A symptom that indicates the existence of a real confirmation, true iman in the heart, is to feel it easy to walk along the path of the Shariat.
12- It is very easy not to commit a haram and to carry out the rules of Islam. It seems difficult to the sick-hearted. Yes, there are many jobs that are easy for healthy people. Yet they are difficult to the sick. The sickness of the heart involves not believing in the Shariat entirely. Even if such people say that they believe, it is not a real confirmation. It is a confirmation through words. A symptom that indicates the existence of a real confirmation, true iman in the heart, is to feel it easy to walk along the path of the Shariat.
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Chapters 13 - 20
Chapter 13
Allah's worldly blessings are for everybody
Allah's worldly blessings are for everybody
13 - Allahu ta'ala gives favors, blessings, gifts that is, His kindness reach everybody every moment, no matter whether he is good or evil. Without discriminating, He sends everybody property, children, food, the right way to Islam, guidance, safety, and every goodness.
The difference is in the way people accept and receive Allah's gifts, or in their not being able to receive them. It is declared in the thirty-third Ayat of Surat-un-Nahl:
"Allahu ta'ala does not torment or do injustice to His born servants (men). They treat themselves cruelly and torment themselves with their own evil thoughts and loathsome deeds that draw them to torments and sufferings."
As a matter of fact, while the sun shines over the laundryman and over the linen in the same manner, it tans the man's face, while whitening the linen.
[By the same token, though it shines over the apple and over the pepper in the same manner, it reddens and sweetens the apple, yet it reddens and makes bitter the pepper. Though the sweetness and the bitterness are caused by the rays of the sun, the difference between them is not from the sun; it is from themselves. Because Allahu ta'ala pities all people very much, more than a mother's mercy upon her child, He has declared in the Qur'an al-Karim how every person, every family, every society and every nation, all over the world, in each century should act in each of their undertakings, in which way they should run their activities, and what they should abstain from in order to be comfortable in this and the next worlds. The Ahl as-Sunnat scholars learnt all these with their keen insight, and, writing millions of books, they communicated them to the whole world. This means to say that Allahu ta'ala has not left people free in their actions. Consequently, there is not a place left on the earth where Islam has not been conveyed. Islam cannot be separated from worldly affairs. Attempting to do so means to strive to destroy Islam and the Muslims from the earth?]
The reason why people will not attain the blessings of the hereafter is because they turn away from Him. He who turns away will certainly get nothing. A container with a covered brim will certainly not get April's rain. Yes, many people who have turned away still seem to live with worldly blessings and so they are considered as not being deprived. But these are given to them as a reward for their struggling for this world. However, things that are regarded as worldly blessings are, in actual fact, the seeds of torment and calamity. They are disasters which Allahu ta'ala deceptively gives their owners by misrepresenting them as blessings. As a matter of fact, it is declared in the fifty-sixth ayat of Surat al-Muminun, "Do disbelievers presume that we are doing them a favor or are helping them by giving them property and many children? Do they say that we are rewarding them because they disbelieve my Prophet and dislike the Islamic religion? No, it is not so. They are wrong. They do not understand that these are not blessings, but disasters." Then, the worldly things that are given to those whose hearts have turned away from Allahu ta'ala are all desolation and calamity. They are like the sweetmeats given to the diabetic.
[The heart is a force existing in the piece of flesh which is (also) called heart (qalb). As for the soul; it occupies the whole body. When a heart wants to follow his nafs and commit disbelief or sins, if Allahu ta'ala pities that person, He does not will him to commit disbelief and sins. So he cannot do them. If He does not pity him, He wills him to commit the sins and creates them, and then punishes him. Therefore, the reason why a man is drawn to torments and disasters is due to his own behavior; that is, he follows his nafs.
Question: If Allahu ta'ala did not create the nafs, then people would have been free from being deceived. Nobody would have committed bad deeds and all would have gone to Paradise. Would it not be better?
Answer: The creation of the nafs is intended for man's living, multiplying and working in the world, and for their earning thawab of Jihad for the Hereafter. Allahu ta'ala created the nafs for many reasons. On the other hand, pitying all men, He created 'aql (reason, wisdom) in them. He also sent down commands and prohibitions so that everyone could stop following his nafs, control it, avoid its harms, and thereby live in comfort. The 'aql is a power which examines and distinguishes the good and bad influences coming from the brain, satan, and the nafs. During this process, if it can choose the good, it is called ''Aql-i salim'. Allahu ta'ala, by means of sending prophets, also informed His born servants of what is good and useful, what is bad and harmful, and that all the desires of the nafs are bad. The aql can discriminate between the desires of the nafs and the things which were determined to be useful by the Prophets, and communicate this realization to the heart. If the heart prefers the thoughts which came from the aql, the desires of nafs are not fulfilled; that is, you will not let your limbs do that action. If one prefers and wishes to do the deeds which are said to be good according to the Shariat, one will attain happiness. The process of preferring and wishing good or evil with the heart is called 'Kasb.' Human limbs of movement depend on the brain, and the brain depends on the heart. They act compatibly with the orders of the heart. The heart is a center wherein all the influences coming from the sense organs, the spirit, the nafs, and Satan are accumulated. Therefore, if the heart follows the 'aql, creation of the nafs will not prevent people from attaining eternal blessings.].
Chapter-14
There is no mercy for kafirs in the next world
14 - Although Allah's mercy and compassion reaches everybody, Muslims and disbelievers alike, in this world and He rewards everybody's good deeds in this world, there will not be a mote of mercy for the disbelievers in the Hereafter. As a matter of fact, it is declared in the Qur'an, in the fifteenth ayat of surat-u Hud, "Those with a short sight and defective mind do every favor in order to obtain worldly comforts and benefits such as fame, rank and reverence. We give the rewards for these efforts of theirs only in this world. Their earnings in the Hereafter will only be fire of Hell. For they have received the recompense for their efforts in this world. They have only one credit left, which is fire of Hell, the punishment for their corrupt intentions. Their efforts in this world, which they have done for their ambitions and lusts and for show, will prove to be to no avail to them, nor will they be able to rescue themselves from Hell."It is declared in the eighteenth ayat of Surat-ul-Isra', "Those with minds and visions which are restricted within the frame of this world give up the Hereafter and run after the transient pleasures of the present life. We easily and abundantly give what We want of these blessings, which they think of day and night and of which they vie for by enduring many hardships, to whomever We want. But by doing this, We are not really doing them a favor. We are preparing the fire of Hell for them. In the next world, they will be kept far away from mercy and will be drawn to Hell in a degrading manner. As for those who, instead of holding to only worldly blessings, each of which is transient and leaves torments and disasters behind, wish for the endless, real and never-changing blessings of the Hereafter, which I point out and like, We like all their efforts because they follow the way which I declare in the Qur'an. Both to the lovers of this world and to those who believe My words and carry out My commands, We shall give what they want in this world. We shall not deprive anybody of what he expects. We scatter our blessings to all. There is nobody whom your Allah's blessings do not reach."
Chapter-15
Signs of love
15 - For adapting oneself to Muhammad 'alaihis-salatu wa-s-salam' completely and flawlessly, one needs to love him completely and without defect. The symptom of complete and perfect love is to bear hostility against his enemies, and to dislike those who dislike him. Love cannot include sloth. Lovers, being crazy about their darlings, cannot do anything against them. They cannot come to a mutual agreement with those who act against them. The love for two opposites cannot settle in the same heart together. To love one of two opposites entails enmity towards the other.
These worldly blessings are transient and deceitful. If they are yours today, they will be somebody else's tomorrow. But those which will be obtained in the Hereafter are endless and will be earned in the world. If a few days' life in this world is spent following Hadrat Sayyiduna Muhammad Salla Allahu alayhi wa Sallam, who is the most valuable man in this and the next worlds, one may hope for endless bliss, eternal salvation. Otherwise, unless one adapts oneself to him, everything turns into nothing. Every good deed and act of kindness done without following him remains here, nothing will be obtained in the Hereafter.
Chapter-16
Beloved Prophet Muhammad (saw) is Allah's darling
16 - Hadrat Muhammad Salla Allahu alayhi wa Sallam is the darling of Allahu ta'ala. The best of everything will be given to the darling.[As-Sayyid Abdulhakim-i Arwasi Effendi said, "Every Prophet is superior to all his people in every respect, in his time, and in his place. Yet Muhammad ('alaihissalam) is the highest of all of the creatures which have come and will come to the world from the day it was created to Doomsday. No one is superior to him in any respect. This fact is not difficult to realize. Allahu ta'ala, who makes what He wills and what He likes, created him so. No person has power enough to praise him. No human being is able to criticize him." It is written in the preface of the book Marifatnama that Allahu ta'ala said, "Were it not for thee, I would not have created the heavens." The same is also written in the sixth and thirteenth pages of the book Mawahib-i Ladunniyya and in the thirteenth and fifteenth pages of the book Anwar-i Muhammadiyya. This fact is also stated in the letters numbered 122 and 124 in the third volume of Maktubat by Imam-i Rabbani, and in the Persian annotation of that volume.
Chapter-17
Miracles of our Beloved Prophet (saw). Superiority of the Qur'an
17 - Allahu ta'ala has gathered in His darling all the visible and invisible advantages, all the superior traits and all that is beautiful and which can exist in a person. For example, his face was the most beautiful among all human beings and was very luminous. His blessed face was white mixed with red and shone like the moon. His words were so sweet that they pleased hearts and attracted souls. His mind was so great that, though coming from among the very violent and obstinate people of the Arabic Peninsula, he handled them very well, endured their torments and thus brought them to tenderness and obedience. Many of them abandoned their religions and converted to Islam; for the cause of Islam, they even fought against their fathers and children. For his (the Prophet's) sake they sacrificed their possessions and homes and shed their own blood. As a matter of fact, they were not used to such things. He was so good-tempered, so tender, so forgiving, so patient, so kind and so benevolent that everybody admired him. Those who saw him or heard about him, became Muslims willingly. No unseemliness or defect was ever noted in any of his actions, in any of his words. Though for his own sake he never became offended with anybody, he was harsh and severe against those who spoke ill of or laid hands on the religion. If he hadn't been tender and affable towards everybody, it would have been beyond anybody's strength to sit beside him or to listen to him owing to his awe-inspiring prophethood and his great manners (sall-Allahu ta'ala 'alaihi wa sallam).Despite the fact that he had not read or learned anything from anybody, that he had never been able to write, and that he had come from people who did not travel and who knew nothing of past history and of those around them, he communicated facts written in the Tawrat (the book which was revealed to Hadrat Musa) and the Injil (the real Bible) and in all other holy books. He conveyed information about the states of ancient people. Giving evidences and proofs, he silenced all the notables of every religion and every profession. As the greatest mujiza (a prophet's miracle), he put forward the Qur'an al-Karim, and though he made the challenge: "You cannot express anything like even one of its six thousand two hundred and thirty-six ayats (verses)," nobody was able to meet his challenge, though all the enemies of Islam all over the world co-operated and poured out their possessions and wealth in order to do this for more than fourteen hundred years. And today, Jews, priests and masonic lodges, however hard they are striving, by spending out millions and using all their forces cannot compete with it. In the early days of Islam, the Arabs were much more advanced in literary arts such as poetry and eloquence than in any other area, so that most of their accomplishments were based on literature. Yet they had to admit that they would fall far short of saying anything to compete with the very powerful expressive style of the Qur'an. Being unable to surpass the Qur'an, many of them came to reason and converted to Islam. And the ones who did not believe had to fight in order to prevent Islam from spreading.
There are innumerable things in the Qur'an al-karim that nobody can do or say. We will explain six of them here:
Firstly: Ijaz, and balaghat. This means to convey many things smoothly and perfectly in few words.
Secondly: Though its letters and words are like Arabic letters and words, the prayers, that is, words and sentences, are quite unlike the words, poems and orations of Arabs. Qur'an al-Karim is not of man: it is Allah's word. The comparison of human words to the Qur'an al-karim is like the resemblance of pieces of glass to diamonds. After understanding this very well, philologists admit it.
Thirdly: A person does not become bored with Qur'an al-Karim, no matter how much he reads it. His desire, zeal, love and pleasure increase. On the other hand, no such desire or taste occurs while reading the translations of the Qur'an al-Karim or other types of its written forms or all other books; instead, boredom sets in. Getting tired is different from getting bored.
Fourthly: Many known and unknown facts, about the states of past people are told in the Qur'an al-Karim.
Fifthly: It foretells the things that will happen in the future, many of which have already happened and are still happening.
Sixthly: Pieces of knowledge which nobody can know at any time. Allahu ta'ala has explained the 'Ulum-i-awwalin the 'Ulum-i-akhirin in Qur'an al-Karim.
The fact that Qur'an al-karim is a mujiza (miracle) is explained very well in the book Herkese Lazim Olan Iman (Iman Which is Necessary for Everybody), published by Hakikat Kitabevi in the Turkish and English languages, and in the sixteenth letter in the third volume of the book Maktubat-i Mathumiyya. The Turkish and English translations of this letter exist at the end of the books Could not answer, and Cevab Veremedi.
This means to say that, for wise and reasonable people, it is a very obvious fact that a person who, while having been born and raised in a big city among its inhabitants and having lived for forty years together with them and having never read books or traveled or recited poems or made speeches, suddenly brought a book which nobody can write and which, with its subtleties --six of which we have explained- is above any word or any book, and who is in every respect, the best of all the people and Prophets (salawatullahi ta'ala 'alaihim ajmain), owing to his beautiful habits and superior manners, is Allah's Beloved Prophet Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam.
Chapter-18
How to follow the Messenger (saw). Children's education.
18 - To following him means to like and do the rules of Islam willingly, to regard and revere his commands and the things which the Shariat cherishes and holds great, such as, his scholars and the pious, and to strive to spread his Shariat and not to love those who do not want to follow the orders of Allahu ta'ala.[Our Prophet 'sall-Allahu alaihi wa sallam' said, "All of you are like shepherds of flocks. As a shepherd protects his flock, so you should protect those under your command from Hell! You should teach them Islam! If you don't, you will be held responsible." And once he said, "Many Muslim children will go to the Hell named Wayl because of their fathers, for their fathers, being seized by the ambition of earning money and making merry and running after worldly affairs only, did not teach their children Islam and the Qur'an al- karim. I am far removed from such fathers. And they are away from me. Those who do not teach their children their religion will go to Hell." And once he said, "Those who teach their children the Qur'an al-karim or who send them to teachers of the Qur'an al-karim for each letter of the Qur'an al-karim they will be given rewards as if they visited the Kaba ten times, and on the Day of Resurrection a crown of sovereignty will be put on their head. All people will see it and admire it." And once he said, "Teach your children how to perform salat (ritual prayer). When they are seven years old, command them to perform salat. When they are ten years old, beat them if they do not perform it and have them perform it." And once he said, "When a Muslim's child worships, his father will receive as much reward as he gets. When a person teaches his child to sin and whenever this child commits sins, his father also will be recorded sinful to the same extent." Ibni Abidin [Sayyid Muhammad Amin bin 'Umar bin Abdulaziz was fiqh savant. He was born in Damascus in 1198 and died there in 1252 A.H. He became mature with the tawajjuh and the presence of Mawlana Halid-i Baghdadi. When this sun of Wilayat set in Damascus, he became the imam and conducted the namaz of janaza performed for him. He wrote many books. His commentary for Durr-ul-Mukhtar consists of five volumes and has been printed several times under the name of Radd-ul-Mukhtar. It is the most dependable fiqh book in the Hanafi Madhhab. The major part of the fiqh information that covers 130 chapters of the Turkish version of our book, Endless Bliss, has been translated from its five volumes that were printed in Egypt in 1272 A.H. He is credited with many fatwas.] says at the end of the section on the makruh actions in namaz, "If a person has his child do the things that are haram for himself to do, he has committed a haram. A person who has his son wear silk clothes or ornaments him with gold or who has his children drink alcohol or lets them urinate in the direction of qibla [The direction a Muslim turns when performing namaz. This direction points to the Kaba.], or causes them to stretch their legs in the direction of qibla will be sinful."
The hadith ash-Sharif in the book Murshidun-nisa states, "The salats and fasts of those who do not observe the rights of their wives and children will not be acceptable."
Imam-i Ghazali says in his book Kimya-i Saadat, "For example, it is haram (forbidden by the religion) for women to go out with naked head, arms and legs. Also, it is haram for them to go out by covering themselves with thin, tight, ornamented and colored garments. Not only will such women be disobedient to Allah and sinful, but also, their father, husband, brother and uncle, who are responsible for them; that is, the one who lets them go out in this manner will be their accomplice in disobedience and sin."
The basis of the Islamic religion is to learn and teach iman, the fard and haram. Allahu ta'ala has sent Prophets ('alaihimussalawatu wattaslimat) for this purpose. When these tenets are not taught to youngsters, Islam will be demolished and annihilated. Allahu ta'ala commands Muslims to do Amr-i maruf. That is, He says, "Communicate and teach my commands." And He commands them to do Nahy-i anil-munkar. That is, He says, "Communicate my prohibitions and do not condone their being done."
Our Prophet said, "Teach Islam to one another! If you give up Amr-i maruf, Allahu ta'ala will send the worst among you upon you and He will not accept your prayers." And he said, "The reward that is given to all worships when compared with the reward given for the ghaza (war in the way of Allah) will be as much as a drop of water compared to an ocean; and the reward given for ghaza, versus the reward given for Amr-i-maruf and Nahy- i-munkar, is like a drop of water versus an ocean." It is for this reason that Ibni Abidin says at the end of the fifth volume, "The thawab for a fiqh savant's helping a Muslims is more than the thawab of jihad."
In short, a child is a deposit in the hands of the parents. The child's pure heart is like a precious gem. Like wax, a child can take any shape. When small, it has not taken any shape. It is like pure soil. You will reap what you sow in pure soil. If children are taught the tenets of iman, the Qur'an and the commandments of Allahu ta'ala and accustomed to doing them, they will attain religious and worldly happiness. Their parents and teachers will share this happiness of theirs. If they are not taught and trained, they will become unhappy. The sin of each evil they will commit will be given to their parents and teachers, too. Allahu ta'ala declares in the sixth ayat of Surat-ut-tahrim, "Protect yourselves and those in your homes and under your command from the fire!" It is more important for a father to protect his children against the fire of Hell than against worldly fire. And protecting them against the fire of Hell is to teach them iman, the fard and haram to accustom them to worshipping, and to protect them against irreligious and immoral friends. The source of all kinds of immoral deeds is an evil friend.
Our Prophet 'sall-Allahu alaihi wa sallam', by stating, "All children are born fit and suitable for Islam. Later, their parents make them Christians, Jews or irreligious," indicates that both for the settlement and for the annihilation of Islam the most important work on children can be done when they are still young. Then, the first duty of each Muslim is to teach his children Islam and the Qur'an al-karim. The child is a great blessing. If the blessing is not appreciated, it will be lost. Therefore, pedagogy, i.e. the science of teaching children, is a very valuable science in the Islamic religion.
And because the enemies of religion also understand this important point, Masons and communists, the most dangerous sources of irreligiousness in our century, say, "Education of the youth is our main goal. We should train children to be irreligious." In order to annihilate Islam and to hinder the teaching and practicing of Allah's commands, freemasons say, "We should not tire the brains of the youngsters. They will learn the knowledge of the din themselves when they grow up." And they also say, "We all should do our best to spread the idea of freedom of belief all over the world and should establish the decisions we take up in our lodges in every country. We should annihilate the brotherhood in the din and establish the masonic brotherhood instead. Thus we will achieve our holy purpose, which consists of the eradication of religions."
Therefore, Muslims should not fall for the tricks and lies of the enemies of the religion; they should not believe their flattering, deceitful and falsely adorned flatteries. Muslims must do Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar to one another.
In every country today, youngsters are taught physical training and made to do physical exercises in order to strengthen, beautify and harmonize their bones, muscles, hands, feet and, in short, all their limbs. They are made to memorize and do the rules and exercises of arithmetic, geometry and psychology for the improvement and refreshment of their mental efforts and spiritual activities, and they do physical exercises in order to purify their cells by activating their blood. While all these and the information that will be necessary for worldly affairs are organized as lessons and duties to be practiced, it is appropriate to misrepresent it as a crime and an aggression against the conscience to teach and practice iman, Islam, the fard, the wajib, the sunnat and, the halal, which will prepare children for real happiness in this and the next worlds? For everyone's comfort and peace, for improvement and progress, for attaining Allah's love and consent, for understanding the haram and the things that will cause disbelief so that everyone will abstain from them, is teaching Islam a crime? In all Christian countries today, as soon as a child is born they impress on it all the requirements of their corrupt religion. Assiduously, they inoculate people of every age with Judaism and Christianity. In order to steal and annihilate Muslims' belief and faith and to Christianize them, they sent chests full of books, brochures and motion pictures to Muslim countries. For example, Christians, presuming that Hadrat Isa (Jesus) is the son of God (never!), call Allah "Father" or "God, the Father". In their novels and films, they say such things as "God, the father will rescue us." However, person who calls Allahu ta'ala "Father" or "God, the Father" loses his iman and becomes a disbeliever. Muslims should not watch such tricky films, nor should they read such novels. Here, with these and various other approaches, they insidiously steal the belief of youngsters. While they name these efforts of theirs as service to humanity, a right and freedom, gifted by a democratic regime, isn't it an injustice to name it religious propaganda, retrogression, aggression against the freedom of conscience for a Muslim to remind one of his Muslim brothers of Allah's commands?
While it is considered extremely normal for a non-Muslim to put forward theories and ideas against Islam, isn't it retrogression, fanaticism and bigotry to misrepresent it as a crime, murder and perfidy for Muslims to talk about real and correct Islam, which the Ahl as-sunnat savants have communicated and have shown as the bright way of Hadrat Muhammad. By giving Islam such names as reaction, bigotry, retrogression, fanaticism and defeatism against secular principles, they blemish these innocent people? Isn't it a malicious lie to say these men were primitive and abnormal who, in fact, were pure- souled, far-sighted, useful people who ran after knowledge, morals, science, virtue, and to describe those who dislike Islam as modern, enlightened and vigilant men? If they, on the one hand, try to oppose Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar by saying that religion is free, that you cannot interfere between Allah and man, that everybody will recognize and worship his Allah according to the inspiration in his conscience, and thereby extinguish our iman, an inheritance from our ancestors, and, on the other hand, offer youngsters poisonous books and magazines through false advertisements that are prepared by missionaries called Jehova's Witnesses with tricks and plans under the name of Islam in order to annihilate Islam, won't Muslims get hurt?
Disbelievers, who have focused all their energies and efforts on the extermination of Islam from the earth and who would not tolerate younger generations' being curious about Islam, which might lead them to making research and consequently learning Islam despite all the strenuous interceptive measures, get mad with a fire of grudge, malice and revenge from head to toe when they hear about the statements of Ahl as-sunnat savants (rahmat- Allahu ta'ala alaihim ajmain). Drawing pictures of turbans, beads and beards in their TVs, newspapers and magazines, they say, "The black force has risen from its grave: Reaction!" As their bodies and souls will burn eternally in the fire of Hell as a punishment for their disbelief, so their foul souls burn in this world, too. These kinds of radio and television programs are very harmful.
Muslims respect one another, run to help one another. When they see others in trouble in matters of religious or worldly affairs, they rescue them. They love and revere the month of Ramadan (the holy month in which Muslims have to fast), those who fast, mosques, the adhan (call to prayer), those who perform namaz and those who walk on the way of the Shariat. As the Qur'an is being read or recited, they listen to it silently and with reverence. Keeping the Qur'an above any type of book, they don't put anything on it. They do not read it at musical or cocktail parties, while playing, or at places of entertainment. When it is read improperly, they leave the place without listening, if they cannot silence it. When they see the Qur'an or its pages or its lines or its letters or all respectable or blessed names at low, despicable places, they at once raise them, their hearts aching. They observe the rights of all human beings and animals. They don't attack the property, souls, or chastity of disbelievers or tourists. They pay their taxes in time, and they don't violate the laws. They obtain the love and respect of everybody by living in accordance with the high moral principles of Islam. As for disbelievers, they try to cause the Qur'an and the Mawlid and all sacred names to be despised and referred to as foul. They print them in magazines, on pieces of paper, and in newspapers so that they will be used as covers for packages, or on tables of entertainment, so that they be disrespected and placed on the floor. In plays, in comedies, in cartoons, in films, in records and on radios they make fun of Muslims, great religious men, and commandments of Allahu ta'ala. In all these, they represent a loathsome, funny vagabond as a Muslim. That is, by insulting Islam and Muslims, they misrepresent them as unsympathetic and deserving of hatred. They give loathsome names to great Muslims and to the things which the Muslims deem great. Muslims should not go to see and hear shows, nor should they buy or read words, writings and newspapers of this sort. They should be very vigilant so that their iman will not be stolen. If a person who criticizes a religious savant or finds a religious book erroneous and full of mistakes, performs namaz, fasts and abstains from the harams, then oral and written statements made by this person are worth studying and that savant or that book is worth questioning. If the person who speaks ill of a religious book or a religious savant does not worship or abstain from the haram, we should not believe his opinion, realizing that it is only a slander and an expression of enmity towards the religion. Blemishing religious men (rahmat-Allahu ta'ala 'alaihim ajmain) and religious books has been a tool, a weapon for the enemies of religion today. A savant only can appreciate a savant. Only the nightingale appreciates the value of a rose, only the jeweller perceives the carats in gold, and only the chemist understand a genuine pearl.
Muslims do not buy, use, listen to, read or look at the harmful things which Allahu ta'ala prohibits. They do not harm anybody. They do not respond to base behavior with base behavior. They are always patient. They give advice with a sweet tongue and a smiling face. Muslims try to learn, teach and do the things which Allahu ta'ala commands. They search for them even among disbelievers. It has always been so in the course of history; those who could not think of mankind as a superior being have borne hostility against the Islamic religion, have tried to deceive youngsters and, at a time they did not expect at all, have died leaving their worldly pleasures, which they had been clasping so tightly, and have gone to Hell. The names of many of them have been forgotten, with no fame, no sign of them having remained behind them, whereas the Islamic sun has continued to spread its light all over the world.
Disbelievers embrace the comfort and beauty of the world which is sweet outwardly but bitter inwardly, adorned outside but poisonous inside, pleasing in the beginning but vain in the end. Muslims should embrace the commandments of the Qur'an, which is the way of our Prophet (sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam), and should ceaselessly struggle to improve in this way. They should beware from bidats, which have appeared later in the religion and have been made up by enemies of the religion, by religion reformers, and by ignorant, stupid people].
Our prophet (sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam) says, "A person who respects performers of bidat (that is, those who do and teach as worship words, writings, ways, and deeds that did not exist in the time of our Prophet and his four caliphs, but were developed and made up later in the religion), who praises them when they are alive or dead, and who deem them great, in fact, helps the religion to be demolished, to be eradicated from the world."
Every Muslim should try to protect his iman lest it should be seized. He should deem enemies of Allahu ta'ala and His Prophet as enemies and struggle to humiliate and disgrace them.
Every Muslim should endeavor to maintain his iman and should not have it stolen. He should not love disbelievers who do not believe Allahu ta'ala and His Prophet. [But one should not treat harmfully or cruelly those whom one does not like. Disbelievers and bidat holders should be given good advice with a smiling face and with a sweet tongue. We should try to rescue them from disaster so that they may attain happiness.] Hadrat Mazhar- Jan-i Janan (radiallahu anh) declared, "We are commanded not to love disbelievers, men of bidats, and those sinners who commit sins boldly. One should not speak with them, go to their homes and meeting, salute them, or make friends with them. However, these prohibitions are suspended under indispensable conditions within a time of necessity. Although it is permissible to contact them under these conditions, it is a must not to love them in a heartfelt way."
Jihad is done to save people who have been deceived and oppressed by ignorant parents, by priests who work for their worldly advantages, and by commanders who practice torture for their own pleasures, from disbelief and from the way to calamity, and to use force in order to that they be honored with Islam. Jihad means to sacrifice one's life and property for the elimination of the wickedness of dictators and exploiters, who intercept Islam's light from reaching those wretched people who were brought up under oppression and among atrocities and thrown into darknesses. It means to resort to force in order to save them from torment of Hell and to make them attain the boundless blessings of Paradise. Jihad is not done individually, but by the state. Attacking others individually is not called jihad, but barbarism or plunder. It is fard for those who have not joined in a jihad to pray for the mujahids (fighters). Disbelievers are rescued from the tortures of oppressors and honored with iman owing to jihad. We do not touch the religion, life or property of those who, after hearing about and understanding Islam, still persist in disbelief and will not accept iman. They live freely and comfortably under the justice and mercy of Islam. Owing to jihad, no disbeliever will be able to say, "I did not hear about it. I would have believed if I had heard." It is fard for Muslims to work, to become strong in order to perform jihad. If they do not work and perform jihad, they will have done a great disservice to the whole of humanity.
Chapter-19
Hubb-i fillah, bughd-i fillah. Contentment with qada
19 - It is written in the fifth asl (chapter) of the book Kimya-yi saadat: Rasulullah (Hadrat Muhammad [sallallahu alaihi wa sallam]) said, "The basis and the most dependable symptom of iman is to love Muslims and to dislike disbelievers." Allahu ta'ala declared to Hadrat Isa (Jesus ['alaihi's-salam]), "Even if you do acts of worship that equal those done by all creatures on the earth and in heavens, it will be of no value unless you love whom I love and unless you fell hostility towards My enemies." Every Muslim should dislike the enemies of Allahu ta'ala. He should love those who obey the Shariat. He should make it evident in his words and, if possible, in his actions. He should not be friends with those who are disobedient and sinful, and should utterly keep away from those who commit many sins. He should all the more avoid the cruel, and those who persecute muslims. Yet he should forgive those who only torment him and should endure their torments; this is very useful. Some of our superiors used to treat sinners and the cruel very severely. And others used to show them only mercy and respect and used to advise them. That is, thinking that everything happens according to qada and qadar [Their lexical meaning is fate, destiny. But these words will fall far too short of explaining qada and qadar. It is a very deep and important subject. It will be explained in detail on the final pages of our book.] they felt pity for sinners and cruel. Their thought is great and valuable but idiots or those who are ignorant cannot understand it and they may get the wrong idea. Those whose beliefs are weak and who are neglectful in following the Shariat, think that they are contented with Allahu ta'ala's qada and qadar. However, there is evidence and proof for this state of contentment. If they beat a person, snatch away his property and insult him and he still doesn't get angry, forgives them and pities them, it is understood that he is content with qada. But if he, while getting angry during such times, pities those who disobey Allahu ta'ala and says that it is their qadar (fate), he is irresponsible, a munafiq [A person who disbelieves one or more of what the Qur'an and the Prophet declare and who does not let others know of his disbelief.] and religiously ignorant. Thus, it is a symptom of not having strong iman for those who do not know qada and qadar to pity and love sinners and disbelievers. It is fard to dislike and to be hostile towards those who stand against Islam or who are hostile towards Muslims. As well, it is fard to feel hostility towards those who accept the jizya [The tax which disbelievers under Muslim control pay to a Muslim government. Allahu ta'ala commands the jizya in the Qur'an in order to disgrace disbelief.]. Allahu ta'ala declares in the Qur'an, in the last ayat of Surat- ul-Mujadala: "Those who believe in Allahu ta'ala and the Day of Resurrection do not like the enemies of Allahu ta'ala. Even if those disbelievers and munafiqs are the fathers, mothers, sons, brothers and other close relatives of Muslims; they do not like them. I will put such Mumins into Paradise."To appoint disbelievers as presidents for Muslims, by trusting them, is to disgrace Muslims, and this is a great sin. It is necessary to dislike holders of bidat, that is, those who want to defile the Muslims' iman. A Muslim must feel hostility towards them, and even not acknowledge their greetings. He must also inform other Muslims about them. It is necessary not to talk to or make close friendships with those who, though having iman, worship and abstain from sins, hurt Muslims with their behaviors, words and writings by giving false witness, unjust judgments, or by way of lies, slander, and derision. Instead, they must be treated severely. We should mildly advise the sinners who, though having iman, do not worship, and who commit the haram, such as charging and paying interest, drinking alcoholic drinks, and gambling, but who do not hurt the Muslims. However, if they do not come to reason, we should not greet them or talk to them, but when they are sick we should visit them and return their greetings. [Those disbelievers who do not attack Muslims with their words, articles, or brute force must be addressed with kind words and smiling faces. We should not harm anybody.]
Disbelievers destroy and annihilate Muslims when they are able. Or, they mislead Muslims onto a path which they have made up.
As a matter of fact, it is written on the hundred and second page of the minutes of a meeting held by Masons in 1900, "It is not enough to overcome the pious and their temples. Our ultimate purpose is to annihilate religions."
Publicly and shamelessly they reveal their hostility in their books and speeches. Knowing nothing about knowledge and science, they say childish things. For example, they say, "Ancient people were ignorant; being defenseless and weak against natural forces, they believed in imaginary things. They exposed their inferiority by worshipping and begging things which they themselves had made. However, we are in the atomic age today. Dominating nature, we can do whatever we want. There is nothing other than natural powers. Paradise, Hell, genies and angels are things fabled by ancient people. Is there anyone who has gone and seen them? Can anyone believe things that are not seen or experienced?" These words of the irreligious show that they know nothing of history either. In the course of history, ignorant people in each century thought of themselves as wise and learned, and the people coming before them as ignorant. Since Hadrat Adam, they have changed and denied the religions revealed in every century by saying that they are the words of ignorant primitive people. Such assertions made by disbelievers are quoted, and answered in many parts of the Qur'an al-karim. For example, He says after the thirtieth ayat of Surat-ul-Muminun, "They didn't believe Hadrat Nuh (Noah), so We drowned them in water. For the people We had created after them, We sent a Prophet from amongst them and said, 'Worship Allahu ta'ala. There is nobody other than Him to be worshipped. Fear His torment!' Many of those who didn't obey, who didn't believe in the resurrection after death, and yet whom we had given plenty of worldly blessings, said to others, 'This Prophet eats and drinks like you. If you believe someone who needs many things like you, you will be deceived and suffer a loss. The Prophet tells you that after dying and after your bones have rotted and turned into dust and soil you will be resurrected and get up from your graves. Is that ever possible? Whatever exists is in this world. Paradise and Hell are all in this world. This is the way it has been and this is the way it goes. There is no resurrection after death." In communist countries, in order to demolish the faith and morals of the people, teachers in schools and officers in the army say to the boys, girls and soldiers, "If Allah existed, we would see Him. He would hear us and give us what we want. If you ask me for candy, I will immediately hear you and give you what you want. Ask Him, you see He doesn't respond. Then, He doesn't exist. Your parents are ignorant. They are backwards and old-fashioned. They are retrogressive. But, you are open-minded, modern youngsters. Never believe such superstitions! Paradise, Hell, angels and genies are fables." Through such lies, they try to annihilate youngsters' iman, manners and sense of shame, which they have acquired in their fathers' homes. Deceiving these poor children, they sacrifice youngsters for the sake of their base desires, pleasures and evil earnings. By saying, "Who on earth has seen Paradise and Hell? One simply shouldn't believe things that are not seen." They expose the fact that they follow their organs of perception. However, animals too follow their organs of perception. Imam-i Ghazali says, "Human beings follow reason. Human organs of perception are lower than those of animals. Man cannot smell as well as cats or dogs do. Neither can he see in the dark as well as they do. Moreover, how can one rely on one's eyes in everything while many times wisdom proves the eyes to be wrong? For example, the eyes, seeing the sun through the window, may consider it smaller than the window; but reason says it is larger than the earth." I wonder if these disbelievers do not believe reason by saying, "We believe what we see; is it possible that the sun is larger than the earth?" No! Here they also believe reason as Muslims do. It is seen that men differ from animals by conducting worldly affairs not according to their perception, but according to their reason. Instead of saying, "We don't believe in the things of the next world," and thus remaining dependent on the organs of perception, why don't they follow their reason and thus become exalted to the degree of being human here, too? Islam declares that human beings will be recreated in the next world and will live eternally, and animals, after having their accounts settled, will be annihilated. By promising human beings an eternal life, it differentiates them from animals. But these disbelievers want to be deprived of eternal life like animals. Today, thousands of medicines, household appliances, industrial and commercial goods, electronic instruments, and war vehicles are manufactured in factories. The majority of them are manufactured after sophisticated calculations and hundreds of experiences are done. Do they say even about one of them that it is self-created? On the one hand, they say all those above-mentioned things have been manufactured consciously and willingly by a certain manufacturer; on the other hand, they claim that so many millions of substances and phenomena that are seen on living and lifeless beings, and new and subtler ones of which are being explored in each century, so that we do not know the structures of most of them yet, are self-created. How can this hypocrisy be explained except as extreme obstinacy or explicit stupidity?
A communist teacher in Russia told his students during the lesson, "I can see you. You can see me, too. This means to say that we exist. The mountains over there exist because we can see them, too. Something non-existent cannot be seen. What we cannot see is not said to exist. My words come from our scientific knowledge. One who is educated and progressive depends on scientific knowledge. Reactionists claim that there is a creator of all the creatures. It is wrong to believe the existence of a creator. It is not compatible with science. It is reactionary to claim the existence of something which cannot be seen." Asking permission to respond, a Turkoman boy said, "Are you talking with your intellect? Since we cannot see the existence of your intellect, it would be incompatible with science to accept that you have an intellect and that you are talking with it." The teacher was unable to answer these statements and kicked him out of the class after beating him harshly with a hatred arising from defeat. The boy was never seen again.
Today, there are two kinds of disbelievers in the world. First there are disbelievers with a holy book (people of the book). They are Jews and Christians. They believe in Resurrection and in eternal life after death.
Second, there are disbelievers without a holy book, that is, mushriks who do not believe in one Allah, who makes everything. Some of these disbelievers, by using State oppression, cruelty and torture, prohibit worshipping, and the teaching of religion. And some of them, through words that provoke feelings of goodness and humanity, cause others to fall into debauchery. They also cause them to be deprived of moral and religious knowledge. Putting forth false stories and mendacious examples, they deceive millions of people. They train them as religiously ignorant people. In other words, on the one hand, they talk about civilization, science and human rights, and, on the other hand, they animalize human beings.
The people of Europe and America have holy books. Copernicus, the founder of modern astronomy, was a priest in Freienburg. Bacon, the great physicist of England, was a priest belonging to the Franciscan Church. The famous French physicist Pascal was a priest and wrote religious books while exploring the laws of physics and geometry. The famous Richelieu, who was France's greatest prime minister and the one who brought France to the leading position in Europe, was a high ranking clergyman. Also Schiller, the great German doctor and poet, was a priest. Bergson, the French thinker and a world-famous philosopher, in his books defended spirituality against the attacks of materialists. Those who read his books MatlÅre et MÅmomiera, Les deux Sources de la Morale et de la Religion and Essai sur les DonnÄes ImmÄdiates de la Conscience will eagerly believe in religion and the next world.
William James, the great American philosopher, founded the sect of pragmatism; and in his book Religious Experiments and others, he praised being a believer. French doctor Pasteur, who had studied on infectious diseases, bacteria and various vaccinations, willed that his funeral be performed with a religious ceremony. Finally, F.D. Roosevelt, an American President, who administered the world in the Second World War, and the British Prime Minister Churchill were Christian believers. Many scientists and politicians, whose names we cannot remember, were all persons who believed in the Creator, the next world, and angels. Who can ever claim that those who disbelieve are wiser than these people? They would have been good Muslims if they had seen and read Islamic books. But reading, even touching, Islamic books was prohibited and even deemed a grave sin by their priests. Those priests prevented people from attaining happiness both in the world and in the Hereafter. Please see the twenty-sixth chapter, about Social Justice, Socialism, and Capitalism, in the Second Part (of the Turkish version).
Imam-i Ali (radi-Allahu 'anh), said "Muslims believe in the next world. Disbelievers without a holy book deny it. If there weren't a resurrection, disbelievers would not gain anything and Muslims would not suffer any harm. But since what disbelievers believe will not happen, they will suffer eternal torment." Islamic scholars prove their words true and respond to the attacks of disbelievers through reason, knowledge and science. Could Resurrection be denied if Muslims did not prove their words to be true? Even if being under eternal torment were only a probability, whichever wisdom would risk it? Nevertheless, torments in the next world are not only a probability, but an obvious fact. Then, it is unwise not to believe.
And some enemies of Islam, seeing that through reason and knowledge they won't be able to vitiate the sound iman of the people and that they only display their own disgrace, resort to tricks and lies. They pretend to be Muslims, write false articles that seem to like and praise Islam; but in these articles and words of theirs, by disputing the essential and basic principles of Islam, they cast a bad light on them as if they were not a part of Islam. They try to alienate and estrange the readers and audience from them. Thinking of the times for, amounts of, and kinds of worships, which Allahu ta'ala has commanded as inappropriate, they believe it would be better if worships were done in another way. Knowing nothing of the delicacies, uses and values that are hidden in the inner soul of worships, they consider them as a medium for simple and primitive functions; and they act as if they are trying to correct them. It is a defect in men not to know something; it is all the more funny and pathetic to interfere with something that one doesn't understand. And the Muslims who obey and believe such ignorant people, supposing them to be wise are even poorer and more stupid. And some of these insidious and ignorant disbelievers say, "Yes, Islam commands developing good habits, being healthy, working hard, and it prohibits evils and matures people. These are necessary for every nation. Yet there are also social rules, the rights of family and community in Islam. These were established in accordance with the circumstances of ancient times. Today, nations have grown larger, circumstances have changed and needs have increased. New rules and laws are necessary to meet today's technical and social improvements. Rules in the Qur'an cannot meet these needs." Such words are the absurd and out-of-place thoughts of the ignorant who do not know of Islamic laws and Islamic knowledge. Islam has declared clearly what justice and cruelty are, what rights and duties people have towards one another, families and neighbors towards one another, people towards the government, and governments towards one another. Islam states what a crime is, and it has put basic rules upon these unchangeable concepts. It has not limited the practicing of these unchangeable rules on all events and happenings, but has commanded them to be practiced according to common usage. In the book Durar-ul- Hukkam, an explanation of Majalla, from article 36 onward, it is written: "The rules depending upon a Nass (Ayat-i karimas or Hadith ash-Sharifs with clear meanings) or a Dalil (proof) do not change in the course of time; however, the rules depending upon customs and common usage may change with time. The Hukm-i Kulli (general rule) does not change, but its application to events may change in time. In worship, 'common usage' becomes dalil in order to give clarity and to inform people of a rule which is not declared by a Nass. To classify a custom as 'common usage', it must originate from the time of the Sahaba-i Kiram, and it must be known that it has been used by the Mujtahids and that it has continued to be used. In the rules of Muamalat (transactions), the customs prevailing in a region which don't contradict a Nass also become dalil. These can be understood by the 'alims of fiqh. Allahu ta'ala has established the Islamic religion in such a manner that it addresses every new development and invention in every country. Showing toleration and indulgence not only in social life, but also in worships, the Islamic religion has given men freedom and the right of ijtihad when confronted with different conditions and necessities. During the times of Hadrat 'Umar, the Umayyads and in such a big empire as the Ottoman Empire, large communities of various peoples, spread over continents, were administered with these divine rules. Muslim accomplishments and glories have been famous throughout history. And in the future, every nation, big or small, will attain comfort, peace and happiness in proportion to the extent to which it obeys and practices these unchangeable divine rules. Nations and societies which deviate from the social and economic rules declared by Islam will not escape hardships, suffering and calamity. It is written in history that this has been so with nations in the past, and so will it certainly be in the future. History is repetitive.
Muslims should attach great importance to national unity and solidarity; they should be extremely active materially and morally in making their country stronger; they should learn the teachings of the Islamic religion very well; they should abstain from the harams; and they should pay their debts to Allahu ta'ala and His born servants. They should be ornamented with the beautiful morals of Islam and should not cause harm to anybody. They should not be a means of agitation or anarchy, and they should pay their taxes. Our religion, Islam, wants us to behave in such a manner. The first obligation of a Muslim is to abstain from being guilty according to the law and from sinning by not following Satan or one's nafs, and by not believing bad, insidious, disobeying and revolting people. Allahu ta'ala imposed three obligations on His human beings. The first one is a personal obligation. Every Muslim must be well trained, healthy, well mannered, and good tempered. He must perform his ibadats and learn ilm, high-morality, and he must work for halal sustenance. The second obligation is to be carried out within the family. One must observe the rights of his father, mother, children, brothers and sisters. The third obligation concerns those which must be performed within the context of the society. These are the obligations relating to a Muslim's neighbors, teachers, family, the persons employed by him, the government, the state, and the people belonging to different religions and nationalities. It is a must to help everyone, not to insult anybody by saying something evil, not to hurt anyone, to be helpful towards everybody, not to revolt against the state, the government, the laws, to observe everybody's rights, and to pay taxes promptly. Allahu ta'ala did not order us to interfere with governmental and state affairs. Allahu ta'ala ordered us to help the government, not to incite trouble.]
Then, Muslims should feel haya (bashful) towards Allahu ta'ala. Haya is from iman. The bashfulness peculiar to a Muslim is indispensably necessary. It is a must to abhor and believe as wrong and harmful the disbelievers and disbelief and everything outside of Islam, no matter what theory or ideology it is. Allahu ta'ala has commanded us to take jizya from disbelievers; that is, they must pay taxes. The purpose of this is to insult them. This type of insulting is so effective that they cannot wear valuable suits, nor can they adorn themselves out of the fear of having to pay more jizya. They lead a despicable and miserable life. The purpose of jizya is to offend and disgrace disbelievers. The jizya shows the glory and honor of Islam. If the zimmi converted to Islam, he would no longer have to pay jizya. The symptom of iman's existence in a heart is that it dislikes disbelievers. [Disliking is done by the heart. We should live in harmony with disbelievers or any others; we should not cause harm to anybody.]
[Temporary co-operation with disbelievers can be formed only politically and when necessity requires it. Yet this shouldn't go as far as to unite with them, and it should end when the necessity is over.
Question: "We should not distrust or have a bad opinion of anybody; we should not look at his words and actions exposing his disbelief, but those indicating his iman. Iman exists in the heart. Allah knows if there is iman in a heart. No one else knows it. He who says 'disbeliever' about a person with iman in his heart becomes a disbeliever himself. We should regard everybody as a Muslim and love everybody who does not openly speak ill of Islam," is said. Is this point of view correct?
Answer: It is wrong to say we shouldn't distrust anybody. Its correct form is "We shouldn't distrust a Muslim." In other words, when a person, who says that he is Muslim and does not express a word or does not do an action rendering him a disbeliever, says or does something which may mean belief as well as disbelief, we should understand it as belief, and we should not say that he has dissented from the religion. But when a person strives to demolish the religion and to make youngsters kafir, or if he, saying "good" about one of the harams, tries to make it popular so that everybody commits it, or if he says that one of Allahu ta'ala's commands is retrogressive and harmful, he is called "kafir"." Even if he says that he is a Muslim, performs Namaz (ritual prayer) and goes on a Hajj (pilgrimage), he is still called a Zindiq. It would be stupidity to regard such hypocritical persons, who deceive Muslims, as Muslims.]
Allahu ta'ala in the twenty-eighth ayat of Surat-ut-Tawba of the Qur'an al-karim says, "Najas and rijs," that is, "foul," about disbelievers. Then, disbelief should be foul and base in the eyes of Muslims. Allahu ta'ala declares in the fourteenth ayat of Surat-ur Rad and in the fiftieth ayat of surat al-Mumin, "The prayers of these enemies are without a result. There is no possibility of them being accepted."
Allahu ta'ala and His Beloved Prophet Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam are pleased with Muslims. There cannot be a greater blessing than attaining Allah's consent and love.
As iman and kufr are opposite one another, so are this world and the next. This world and the next world cannot stay together. In order to earn the next world it is necessary to abandon this world, that is, the harams. Abandoning this world can be done in two ways. Firstly, it is to abandon the mubah, that is, many of the activities that are not sins, together with all the things that are haram, and to use as many of the mubahs as is only necessary to live. [In other words, it is to abandon the habits of being lazy or idle and/or diving into pleasures, dissipations and amusements of the world. Instead, we must spend our time worshipping, while making and using the most advanced forms of technology that are necessary for the protection and comfort of Muslims. And we must work so that non- Muslims may come to reason. Working for these purposes must be our hobby in this world. All the Ashab of our Prophet and many of our superiors worked in this way. It is very meritorious and very useful to abandon the world in such a way. We say once more that the purpose of this path is to sacrifice all comforts and pleasures in order to do the things which the Islamic religion commands.]
Secondly, it is to abstain from the things that are haram and dubious in this world without abandoning the mubah. Even this kind of abandoning of the world is of value in light of the present world's condition.
Then, it is positively necessary for each Muslim to abstain from the things which the Islamic religion prohibits.
[He who slights the fact that these are haram, that is, he who does not think it is necessary to abstain from them, or, he who does not pay attention to Allahu ta'ala's prohibitions and instead likes them and says 'How nice,' becomes a disbeliever. They will remain in Hell eternally. Those who admit and respect the prohibitions of Allahu ta'ala yet are overcome and deceived by their nafs and commit them but later come to their senses and repent do not become kafir; they do not lose their iman. Such people are called Asi (disobedient) or Fasiq (sinner). Though perhaps they will go to Hell and will be punished because of their sins, they will not remain in Hell eternally but will get out and enter Paradise.]
There are a lot of things which Allahu ta'ala has made mubah, which He has permitted. The value in these is more than that in the haram. Allahu ta'ala likes those who use the mubah. He dislikes those who use the haram. Does a wise and reasonable person spurn the love of his owner and creator for only a temporary pleasure? Besides, the number of things that are haram is very small. The flavors in the haram, exist in the mubahs, too.
[Dunya (world) is the feminine form of adna, i.e., ism-i tafdil (adjective in the superlative degree). Its masdar (infinitive) is either dunuwwun or danatun. When it is derived from the former, it means 'the nearest'. The word dunya in the ayat, 'We have adorned the lowest (nearest to the Earth) heaven with stars giving lights like lamps' is so. It has been used with the second meaning in some places. For instance, it bears the second meaning in the hadith, "Things that are dani, base, are mal'un." That is, the world is mal'un. Despicable things are the nahy-i iqtiza-i and nahy-i gayr-i-iqtizai of Allahu ta'ala, that is, they are haram and makruh. Property was not spoken ill of because Allahu ta'ala considers property a blessing. The evidence for our position is the property of Hadrat Ibrahim Khalil-ur-Rahman ('alaihi's-salam), who is the second most valuable creation of all creatures and humanity. His livestock included half a million heads of cattle that filled up plains and valleys.]
Chapter-20
Disbelievers are of two kinds
20 - Disbelievers have adopted various methods against Islam and parted into branches; yet they are summed up in two groups. Those in the first group do their worldly affairs and their worships and do not attack Muslims. Realizing their inferiority against Islam's strength and greatness, they have accepted to give the jizya, thus accepting asylum in Islam's domination and justice. These disbelievers are called Ahl-i zimmat or Zimmi. It is necessary to dislike disbelievers of this kind and to view them as enemies; yet it is haram to torment them and to hurt their hearts. It is written in the 'Siyar' section of Fatawa-i- Khariyya, "Something which is forbidden for Muslims is forbidden for the zimmis, too. Fornication, eating in public during Ramadan, violating the fast publicly, dancing, music, interest (a percentage of a sum of money loaned to someone or borrowed from someone), going out uncovered are forbidden for them, too. Only alcoholic drinks and pork are not forbidden to them. It is permitted to visit them when they are sick or at other times and to travel together with them." It is written in the subject on 'tazir' [General name for various types of punishment which the Islamic religion inflicts for some crimes. The punishments of tazir is explained in detail in a different chapter in the third fascicle of our book.] in Multaqa and Durr-ul- Mukhtar and in other fiqh [A branch of Islamic knowledge that includes actions commanded, actions prohibited and actions neither commanded nor prohibited.] books, "A Muslim who utters a bad word to disbelievers, such as, "You are an adulterer" or who hurts their hearts by saying 'disbeliever' or who backbites them will be called to tazir, that is, he will be thrashed with a stick, for it is a sin to hurt them. Also, it is a sin to touch their property." It is written in the fifth volume of Durr-ul-Mukhtar: "It is worse to torment the zimmi, who is a non-Muslim compatriot, than it is to torment a Muslim. To mistreat and torture an animal is worse than doing the same thing to a zimmi. It is permitted to greet the zimmi and to shake hands with him in order not to torment him. The case is the same with greeting a sinner who commits sins publicly."The book Bariqa says while explaining the disasters caused by the hand, "It is permissible to kill ants that do harm to man and his food, provided they will not be tormented or thrown into water. It is permissible to burn wood that has ants inside after shaking it by knocking it down on the ground. It is always permissible to kill mice, lice, fleas, scorpions and locusts. It is makruh to throw lice, while they are alive, on the ground or to burn any living creature. It is permissible to slaughter, shoot or poison a harmful cat, a mad dog or wild beasts with a sharp knife. It is not permissible to thrash them. Thrashing is done in order to teach manners. Since an animal doesn't have reason it cannot be taught manners. In case it is necessary to kill a living thing, it is permissible to kill it by burning it when there is no other way."
It is permissible to excise one of a person's limbs in order to cure a disease like gangrene. It is permissible to incise into the bladder [the kidney and the gall] in order to get stones out. It is never permissible to slap a living thing on the face for any reason.As for the second group of disbelievers; they cannot stand the brightness of the Islamic sun. They try to demolish the Islamic religion with all their forces and negative propaganda media. These poor people do not realize that to eradicate Islam from the world means to deprive people of happiness, comfort, safety, and to draw themselves and all the humanity into disasters and troubles. In short, it means to cut the ground from under their own feet. Allahu ta'ala, by declaring: "In order to avoid suffering the attacks and torments of disbelievers and in order to enable them to attain endless bliss, work as ceaselessly as is humanly possible. Make the most perfect media of war," in the sixtieth ayat of Surat-ul- Anfal, commands us to honor these disbelievers by helping them to become Muslims or not to meddle with the workings or the worships of those who yield themselves to Islam's protection by accepting the jizya. We must protect the lives, property, and chastity of such people. Thus, He wants the whole world to unite under Islam's flag; He wants everyone to have iman and to love one another. He commands us to establish a justice that will include all those who persist in disbelief even though they understand Islam. We must endeavor to provide comfort for people, animals, the living, the dead, and everything.
Chapters 21 - 27
Chapter-21
Entering Paradise requires following Rasulullah Salla Allahu alayhi wa Sallam
21 - Escaping Hell in the next world is peculiar only to those who adapt themselves to Sayyiduna Muhammad (Salla Allahu alayhi wa Sallam). All the blessings in this world, all inventions, all degrees, all branches of knowledge will be available in the next world on the condition that one has followed the way of Hadrat Rasulullah (Salla Allahu alayhi wa Sallam). Otherwise, every good deed done by those who do not follow Allah's Prophet (Salla Allahu alayhi wa Sallam) will remain in this world, causing their next world to be destroyed. That is, it will be nothing but an istidraj [Allah's inciting a sinner to perdition by granting him success.] disguised in goodness.Chapter-22
Disbelievers' favours remain in this world
22 - As a matter of fact, of all the useful and auspicious deeds in the world, the one which Allahu ta'ala likes best is building a jami' (Mosque). There are hadiths explaining that building a jami' will bring about countless blessings. Nevertheless, Allahu ta'ala declares in the eighteenth ayat of Surat-ut-Tawba, "It is not permissible for disbelievers to build a jami (Mosque). It is not a reasonable and useful activity. Their building a jami' and all their deeds, which they like, will be useless for them on the Resurrection and, since they do not adapt themselves to The Beloved Hadrat Muhammad Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam, they will go to Hell and will be punished with very bitter torments eternally."He declares in the eighty-fifth ayat of Surat-ul Al-i 'Imran, "Allahu ta'ala does not like or accept the religion of those who wish for a religion other than the Islamic religion, which was brought by Hadrat Muhammad Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam. He who turns his back on the Islamic religion will suffer a great loss and will go to Hell in the next world."
A person who worships for thousands of years, spends his life purifying his self, and becomes useful to those around him with his beautiful manners and the tools he has invented will not attain the endless bliss unless he adapts himself to Hadrat Muhammad Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam.
He declares in the thirteenth ayat of Surat-un- Nisa, "Those who are indifferent to the commandments of Allah ta'ala and His Beloved Prophet, Hadrat Muhammad 'alaihis-salam', those who dislike the commandments and who say that they are not compatible with the present age and science, that they do not suffice for modern needs, will not escape the fire of Hell on the Day of Judgement. There is a very bitter torment for them in Hell."
Chapter-23
This world is a field for the next world
23 - This world is a field for the next world. How unfortunate and stupid are those who, instead of sowing their seeds, eat them, thus depriving themselves of earning much fruit. They do not prepare for that day on which brother will avoid brother, a mother will disavow her children. These people will be wrong in this and the next worlds and will repent at last. He who is reasonable looks on this world only as an opportunity. During this short term, instead of enjoying worldly pleasures, he sows seeds by doing auspicious deeds, the ones which Allahu ta'ala likes, and thus gathers the many blessings communicated in the ayat al-karima. Allahu ta'ala will give infinite blessings for the auspicious deeds and worships done in this short life. And He will eternally torment those who do not follow His Beloved Prophet (saw) and who dislike Islam.[As a matter of fact, He declares in the hundred and seventy-second ayat of Surat-un- Nisa, "For those who, believing in Sayyiduna Hadrat Muhammad (saw), do the deeds useful for the Hereafter, Allahu ta'ala will give what He promises and many other blessings in addition. He will inflict vehement punishment on those who presumed that it is baseness and retrogression to worship Allah ta'ala, that is, to obey Sayyiduna Hadrat Muhammad (saw). Such people pretend to be great by calling themselves modern and enlightened. There will not be a helper or an owner of power besides Allahu ta'ala to rescue these disbelievers from Hell, who assume themselves to be superior to everybody."]
He Himself knows why He will torment them eternally. Men's short brains cannot comprehend it. For example, He commands various punishments for the murders done in the world. No man can understand the reasons, the ultimate divine causes in them. Thus, He will torment unbelievers eternally for such a transient, short period of disbelief.He who attempts to adapt to all the commandments of the Qur'an, all the rules of the Shariat by means of reason has not understood or believed in the highness of the rank of prophethood. We should not read books that try to explain Islam by making it believable through reason and philosophy.
Chapter-24
Knowledge of the next world is beyond the mind.
Mind cannot comprehend it.
24 - The book 'Almunkizu Aniddala'l says: "As the things that are understood through reason are superior to those perceived through sense organs, and as the former may prove the latter wrong, that is, as our sense organs cannot perceive the things comprehended through reason, so reason is incapable of comprehending facts realized at the rank of prophethood. Reason has no other option but to believe. How can reason assess things which it cannot understand? How can it decide if they are right or wrong?Mind cannot comprehend it.
To try to investigate with reason the things that have been understood through convention, in other words, the things which Prophets have explained, is like forcing a loaded cart to go uphill while it can hardly move on a level road. If the horse is whipped uphill, it will either fall down or die from fatigue. Or, in order to get on the level road it is used to, it will turn right or turn left, overturning the cart and spoiling its load. So, if reason is forced to solve the reality of the next world, which it cannot cope with and which it cannot understand, the person will either go out of his mind, or, by attempting to liken it to worldly affairs, which he is accustomed to, he will go astray, become deceived and deceive others. Reason is a gauge, a toll used to measure things that are like those which can be perceived or felt through the senses or things that are relative to them. Reason can compare them with one another and distinguish the good ones from the bad ones. Since it cannot discern things that have no relation with such things, it will be overwhelmed by them. Then, there is no other way to believe the things communicated by Prophets without consulting reason. It is understood that following Prophets is a necessity indicated by reason, and it is a way which is agreeable with reason. It is an action contrary to reason to attempt to consult reason about a Prophet's statements, which are beyond and above reason. It is like walking heedlessly at unfamiliar places in the pitch darkness of the night or the sailing of an inexperienced captain in the open sea without a compass on a dark night; they can at any moment fall into an abyss or whirlpool. As a matter of fact, philosophers and materialists, who attempt to explain facts through their imagination, have gone wrong in most of the things that were beyond their logic. They were bringing many facts into view, whereas, in fact, they were preventing people from attaining endless bliss. Reasonable ones among them have always been able to understand and communicate this pathetic situation. There are many examples. An article by Professor F.Arnold, a famous German chemist, states in his book Tecribee Kimya (Experimental Chemistry), which was published in Istanbul in Turkish: "The reason why improvements in science and knowledge have been at a standstill for almost fifteen hundred years is due to a fault in Aristotelianism."
In Islam there are many things reason cannot comprehend, but there is nothing contrary to reason. If knowledge of the next world, things which Allahu ta'ala likes or dislikes, and forms of worshipping Him were within the mind's ability to understand, and if they could be ascertained through reason, there would be no need for sending thousands of Prophets. People would be able to see and find happiness in this and the next worlds by themselves, and, in this case, Allahu ta'ala would have sent Prophets in vain and unnecessarily (never!). It is because reason cannot find or solve the knowledge pertaining to the next world that Allahu ta'ala sent a Prophet to every part of the world in each century, and lastly, He sent The Beloved Sayyiduna Hadrat Muhammad MustafaSalla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam as a Prophet for the whole world until the end of the world. All Prophets, instead of meddling in worldly affairs that are ascertained through reason, only commanded and encouraged their people to work in order to find them and get use from them, and they explained how each worldly affair can draw people to everlasting happiness or perdition. They also explained clearly the things which Allahu ta'ala liked and disliked. Then, let us be reasonable: An ignorant person who does not know of today's technical information and experiments, which expose to view the subtleties of Allah's infinite power, who, let alone reads and understands the books of Islamic superiors, has not even heard of their names - a fact that can be inferred from his words - and who is an enemy of Islam working under the mask of a philosopher, behind the veil of a newspaper writer; how can an idea put forward by such a person with his ever faulty reason ever be held superior to the words of Allah's Prophet? How can an ignorant person's words ever blemish our Prophet's commands and words, which encompass the knowledge of health, science, morals, justice and all branches of happiness that are written in our books and which are respected and admired by men of knowledge, experience and science that have come from all parts of the world for the last fourteen hundred years, and which no one has ever been able to find any fault or defect? Can there be sadness, a wretchedness more pathetic than this? The perfect wisdom is the wisdom that doesn't go wrong and doesn't make any mistakes. Can an ignoramus who bandies thoughts about claim that he never goes wrong - not only in affairs that mind cannot grasp, but perhaps even in his own daily affairs? Who will ever believe such a claim or consider such a person as a deputy whom the nation (s) must look upon as the most intelligent of today's men? Let alone a single person, today's supposedly most intelligent Christians come together and elect the wisest ones among them, and these people pass laws by using all their brains and knowledge. Then, expecting certain results, these same people grow dissatisfied and have to change their own laws. There is one thing on earth that is never defiled and that cannot be changed the Qur'an al-Karim of Allahu ta'ala and the Hadith ash-Shareefs of Rasulullah (SAW) (that is, his blessed words).
A man of science who has thoroughly comprehended the rules of Islam and who has observed the short history of the scientific branches that form a basis for today's civilization will clearly see that in the course of history no technical achievement, no scientific fact has ever stood against Islam, but all have always been compatible with it. How can they be at odds while it is Islam which commands us to observe nature, to study matter and energy, and to rely on reason in everything? Allahu ta'ala declares in many places in the Qur'an al-Karim, "Take lessons from your predecessors by observing their lives, the path they chose, and what happened to them. Observe the earth, the skies, the living, the lifeless and yourselves! Study the inner part, the essence of what you see. Find and see, understand My greatness, and the dominion which I have over all these!"
Allahu ta'ala has related iman (which is the basis of Islam) to experimentation and the intellect. That is, the building of Islam has been erected upon these two principles. All other worships, blessings, and forms of obedience are the branches and twigs of this tree of iman. Allahu ta'ala in many places of Qur'an al-karim, scolds and disgraces disbelievers because they didn't use their minds; they didn't think by observing the earth, the skies and themselves, and thus attain iman. The book Marifatnama writes, "Sayyad Sharif Jurjani, a great Islamic scholar, says that the knowledge of astronomy helps a wise and reasonable person to realize the existence of Allahu ta'ala. Imam al-Ghazali says that he who does not know astronomy and anatomy cannot realize Allah's existence."
Yes, the righteous religion of Hadrat Isa (Jesus) was changed insidiously in a short time by his enemies. A Jew named Paul claimed that he believed 'Isa, and it appeared as if he was spreading the religion of 'Isa 'alaihissalam'. However, he annihilated the Injil, which descended from heaven. Later four people appeared, and they wrote down what they had heard from the twelve apostles. Thus four books in the name of Bible were compiled, but the lies of Paul were included in them. In addition, although an apostle named Barnabas wrote down correctly what he had heard and seen from hadrat 'Isa, this Bible by Barnabas was also destroyed. In the course of time, number of Injils increased and made-up and different Bibles were read at various places. Constantine the Great, formerly a pagan, accepted Christianity, and after enlarging and improving the city of Istanbul, he gave it the name Constantinople. In the year 325 A.D. he convened three hundred and nineteen priests in Nicea, ordered all the Bibles to be united and a new Bible to be written, having many articles of paganism from his former religion inserted into it. Accepting Christmas Day as the beginning of the year, he established a new Christian religion. It was declared that Allah is one in the Injil (the real Bible) of Hadrat 'Isa and in the Bible written by Barnabas. Yet, because they did not have the original Injil, the idea of the Trinity put forward by Plato, whom they esteemed as a philosopher, was included in these four defiled books. Constantine had this idea of Trinity put into the new Bible together with many fabled writings. A priest named Arius said that this new Bible was wrong, that Allah is one, that Hadrat 'Isa was not His son but His born servant, yet they wouldn't listen to him. They excommunicated him. Arius fled to Egypt and spread the tawhid (unity of Allah) there, but he was killed.
The kings succeeding Constantine veered between Arius's sect and the new Christianity. In Istanbul, the second and the third, in Ephesus, which is between Izmir and Aydin, the fourth, and in Kadikoy the fifth and again in Istanbul the sixth meetings were held, thus giving rise to many new Bibles. Eventually, Martin Luther and Calvin made the final changes in 931 [A.D. 1524] and added lies to the truth heard from the hawaris (the apostles of Hadrat 'Isa); Christians who believed in this new Bible were called Protestants. Thus, a religion contrary to reason and reality came forth in the name of Christianity. How can the attacks that are rightfully made against Christianity in Europe be directed towards Islam?
Escaping torment in the next world is dependent only upon following The Beloved Muhammad 'alaihis-salam'. He who follows the way guided by him will attain the love of Allahu ta'ala. Those who follow in his footsteps will be close to Allahu ta'ala. He who adapts himself to him will get the happiness of being a faithful born servant of Allahu ta'ala. Hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets that came to the world desired to follow him. If Hadrat Musa (Moses) had lived in his time, despite his greatness, he would have preferred to follow him. All Muslims know that Hadrat 'Isa will descend from heaven and follow his way. Muslims who are of his ummat became the most auspicious and best of all people because they adapted themselves to him. Most of those who will enter Paradise are from among them, and they will enter before all other people.
Chapter-25
What is the Qur'an? Translations of the Qur'an
25 - Qur'an al-Karim is Nazm-i ilahi (the divine verse). The lexical meaning of nazm is to string pearls. It has been called nazm also because words are arranged side by side like pearls. Each poem is a nazm. The Qur'an's words are in Arabic. However, Allahu ta'ala arranged these words side by side. These words were not arranged by any human being. When the words inspired into his blessed heart by Allahu ta'ala were spoken by him in Arabic, they were not included in the Qur'an al-Karim. These words are called hadith al- qudsi. Words in Qur'an al-Karim, having been arranged by Allahu ta'ala, descended in ayats. An angel named Jabrail (Gabriel) recited the ayats with these words and letters, and Sayyiduna Hadrat Muhammad Salla Allahu A;ayhi wa Sallam, hearing them through his blessed ears, memorizing them and immediately recited them to his companions. Allahu ta'ala sent the Qur'an in the language of the Quraish tribe. The book Radd-ul-Mukhtar says on the subject of 'oath' in its third volume, "As it is said in the book Fath al-Qadir, Allahu ta'ala sent the Qur'an in words and letters. These letters are creatures. The meaning of these words and letters carries the divine word. These words and letters are called the Qur'an. Also, the meanings indicating the divine word are the Qur'an. The Qur'an, which is the divine word, is not a creature. It is eternal in the beginning and eternal in the end, as the other attributes of Allahu ta'ala are." The Qur'an began to descend on the Qadr Night, and it continued to descend for twenty- three years. As for the Tawrat (the book that descended to Hadrat Musa [Moses]), the Injil (the Bible), and all other books and holy pages, each of them had descended as a whole, all at once. All of them resembled human words, and they were not miracles. For that reason, they were defiled, and soon changed. But the Qur'an is one of the greatest miracles of Sayyiduna Hadrat Muhammad (saw), and it is unlike human words. These details are written in detail in the hundredth letter of the third volume of Maktubat by Imam-i Rabbani and in the books Hujjatullahi 'alal 'alamin and Sharh-i Mawahib, Vol. V, by Zarqani.)Hadrat Jabrail used to come once every year to recite the Qur'an that had descended up to that moment according to its order in the Lawh al-Mahfuz [see Preface]. And our master, the Beloved Prophet (saw), used to listen to it and repeat it. In the year when he (the Prophet -saw) would honor the Hereafter, Jabrail came twice, reciting the whole of it. Sayyiduna Hadrat Muhammad (saw) and the majority of his Ashab memorized the whole Qur'an. Some of the Ashab memorized some sections of it and wrote down most of its other sections. In the year when The Beloved Hadrat Muhammad 'alaihis-salam' honored the next world with his presence, Hadrat Sideeq Abu Bakr (as), the caliph, gathering those who knew it by heart and, uniting the written parts together, formed a committee to write down the whole of the Qur'an on paper. Thus, a book (a manuscript) called a Mushaf was formed. Thirty-three thousand Ashab of the Beloved Prophet (saw) decided unanimously that each letter of the mushaf was precisely in its correct place. The suras (chapters) were not separated. Hadrat Uthman (as), the third caliph, separated the suras from one another in 25 A.H. He put them in their order. After having six more mushafs written, he sent them to Bahrain, Damascus, Egypt, Baghdad [Kufa], Yaman, Mecca and Madinah. The mushafs all over the world today have been multiplied by copying these seven. There is not even a point's difference amongst them.
There are one hundred and fourteen suras and six thousand two hundred and thirty-six ayats in Qur'an-al Karim. It is also reported that the number of ayats were sometimes more or less than 6236, but these differences originate from the fact that one long ayat was considered several short ayats, or that a couple of short ayats were considered one long ayat, or that the Basmalas before the suras were considered to be within the suras (by some scholars) and to be independent ayats (by others). Detailed information exists in the book Bostan al-'arifin.
Each poet has a different method for developing nazm. For example, if we take a poem which Mehmed Akif wrote towards the end of his life to an expert literary man who knows Mehmed Akif's and Nabi's poems well, and tell him that this is a poem of Nabi's, though he has never heard about this poem, won't he say upon reading it, "You are wrong! I know Mehmed Akif's poetic style and that of Nabi well. This poem is not Nabi's; it is Mehmed Akif's"? Of course, he will. As the nazm, the arrangements of the words of the two Turkish poets are quite different from each other, so is the Qur'an unlike any human word. It has been proved through experiments that the Qur'an is not human words, and it can be proved any time. Let's take an example from the past. An Arabic poet wrote something displaying the delicacies of his literary art on a sheet of paper, among which he put a few lines of hadith and at some other place an ayat dealing with the same things. Someone who knew nothing of Islam or the Qur'an but who had a strong knowledge of Arabic was told that the writings belonged to a certain person and was asked to read them all. While reading, he stopped upon the hadith, and said, "This part is unlike those above. There is a higher art here." When the turn came for the ayat, he said in a bewildered fashion, "This is unlike any word. There are meanings within meanings. It is impossible to understand them all."
The Qur'an al-Karim cannot be translated into any language, even into Arabic. It is impossible to translate any poem into its own language precisely. It can only be explained, interpreted. We should not read the Qur'an's translation in order to understand it. To understand the meaning of an ayat means to understand what Allahu ta'ala means through this ayat. A person who reads a translation of this ayat cannot learn murad-i ilahi (the divine purpose). He learns what the translator has understood according to his level of knowledge. And he who reads the translation written by someone ignorant or by an irreligious translator, learns not what Allahu ta'ala says, but what the translator, who assumes that he understands it, is expressing from his own thoughts.
The government does not send a law concerning villagers directly to villagers because villagers cannot understand this law even if they can read it. This law is sent to governors of cities first. These governors, understanding it well and adding their explanations, send it to the mayors of towns, who, explaining it more clearly, send it to directors of districts. Directors of districts can understand the law with the help of these explanations and can explain them to headmen of villages. Headman of a village cannot understand it by reading it. The headman explains it to the villagers in village dialect. By the same token, the Qur'an al-Karim is divine rules. It is divine law. Allahu ta'ala has shown the way of happiness to His born servants through the Qur'an al-karim and has sent His own word to the highest of mankind. Only Sayyiduna Hadrat Muhammad Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam can understand the meaning of the Qur'an al-Karim. No other person can understand it completely. Though the Ashab-i Kiram 'alaihim-ur-ridwan' [A person who saw Hadrat Muhammad (SAW) at least once when he was alive, is called a 'Sahabi'. Of course, it goes without saying that a Sahabi is a Muslim. Ashab is the plural form of Sahabi. All the Sahabis are called 'Ashab-i Kiram'.] knew Arabic as their native language and were literary and eloquent, they couldn't understand some ayats and asked Rasulullah (SAW) to explain them.
One day, 'Umar 'radi-Allahu anh' saw Rasulullah (sall-Allahu ta'ala 'alaihi wa sallam) saying something to Hadrat Abu Bakr (AS) as he passed by them. He went near them and listened. Others also saw them, yet they hesitated to go and listen. The next day, when they saw Hadrat 'Umar (AS) they said to him, "O 'Umar, Rasulullah (sall-Allahu ta'ala 'alaihi wa sallam) was telling you something yesterday. Tell us, so that we can know." He (the Prophet) always used to say, "Tell your brothers-in-Islam what you hear from me! Let one another know!" Hadrat 'Umar (AS) said, "Yesterday Abu Bakr (radi Allahu 'anh) had asked him about the meaning of an ayat which he couldn't understand, and Rasulullah was explaining it to him. I listened for an hour, but I couldn't understand anything." He was explaining everything according to the high grade of Hadrat Abu Bakr (as). Hadrat 'Umar (as) was so great that Rasulullah (saw) said, "I am the Last Prophet. No Prophet will succeed me. If there were a prophet to succeed me, 'Umar would be that prophet." Though he was so great and knew Arabic very well, he was not able to understand even the explanation of the Qur'an. Rasulullah (SAW) used to explain it according to the degree of the person. The degree of Hadrat Abu Bakr (AS) was much higher than Hadrat 'Umar's. But he, too, and even Hadrat Jabrail used to ask Rasulullah (SAW) about the meaning, about the mysteries in the Qur'an. [The book al-Hadiqa, while explaining the disasters incurred by the tongue, communicates that Imam-i Suyuti wrote that Rasulullah (SAW) explained the interpretation of the whole Qur'an to the Ashab-i Kiram.]
In short, only Sayyiduna Hadrat Muhammad Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam understood the meaning of the Qur'an and explained it through his hadiths. It is he who interpreted the Qur'an. The correct book of interpretation is his hadiths. By not sleeping or resting, by sacrificing their repose, our religious scholars gathered these hadiths and wrote books of interpretation. The book of interpretation entitled Baidawi is one of the strongest among them. To understand even these books of interpretation, it is necessary to learn the twenty main branches of knowledge well by working ceaselessly for thirty years. There are eighty subdivisions that are the branches of these twenty main branches of knowledge. One of the main branches is the knowledge of tafsir (interpretation). These branches of knowledge had different savants and many books. Various Arabic words that are used today have different meanings in the knowledge of fiqh than from the meanings which they have in the knowledge of interpretation. Even the same word conveys different meanings according to its place in the Qur'an and the particles it takes. The Qur'an's translations by those who do not know these vast branches of knowledge or made according to today's Arabic convey meanings far from the meanings in the Qur'an-al Karim. Everybody understands the hints, the meanings from the symbols in the Qur'an in proportion to the strength of his iman. Tafsir is not something done simply by writing or by expressing in words. Tafsir is a halo (nur) that occurs to the heart of great religious men. The books of Tafsir (interpretation) are the keys to this halo. As the jewels are revealed when you unlock the drawer with the key, in similar way does a halo occurs to the heart by reading those interpretations. Those who knew the eighty branches of knowledge well understood the Tafsirs and, in order to explain them to religiously ignorant people as we are, they wrote thousands of books suitable for people of various categories. Valuable Turkish Tafsirs such as Mawakib, Tibyan, Abul-Lays are among them. Tibyan is an interpretation that was prepared in 1110 A.H. The interpretation by Vahbi Effendi of Konya is a book of preaching. Since there are parts containing personal views in all those newly written books, which are considered to be the most valuable, their harm is greater than their good to those who read them. Especially those tafsirs and translations by enemies of Islam and by holders of bidat, which have been written to defile meaning of Qur'an-al Karim, are fully harmful. These are all poisonous.
A number of doubts and objections arise within the young people who read them. Besides, it is unsuitable for those who, like us, have little religious knowledge, to read tafsirs and hadiths to learn Islam. It causes one to lose one's iman if an ayat or hadith is misunderstood or doubted. A tafsir or hadith cannot be understood only by knowing Arabic. He who considers those who know Arabic as savants is wrong. In Beirut and in other places there are many priests whose native language is Arabic and who know Arabic literature well. Yet none of them understands Islam. In a dictionary they published in 1956 and entitled Al- Munjid, they wrote Islamic names incorrectly, even the name of the Jannat al-Baqi cemetery in Madinah, and even the death-date of our Beloved Sayyiduna Rasulullah (saw).
A person who wants to understand, to learn the real meaning of the Qur'an must read religious savants' books on kalam [Its lexical meaning is word, speech.], fiqh and morals. All these books have been derived and written from the Qur'an and hadiths. Books written as translations of the Qur'an do not convey a correct understanding. They enslave the readers to the ideas and purposes of their authors and cause them to dissent from the religion.
It is impossible to write the Qur'an in the Latin alphabet. For this reason, the meaning becomes defiled. The transliterations thus read, become a meaningless crowd of noises rather than the Qur'an. This fact is written in the magazine al-Muallim, printed in 1986. For example, salat will be fasid (unacceptable), if one reads the word 'ehat' instead of 'ehad.'
Today, it is seen that many people offer such defiled translations and books under the name of The Turkish Qur'an. These books of dubious origin are given to youngsters and distributed in villages. They say, "The Arabic Qur'an is in a foreign language. Don't read it! Read this one, which is in our native language." When observed carefully, it is understood that many of those who say do not perform namaz or fast, that they have dived into the harams and even into irreligiousness, and that they are bonded to Islam only in words. Why do these people sing and listen to Beethoven's 9 th Symphonies, Mozart's Figaro and Moliere's poems in German, Italian and French on radios and in bars? Why don't they say, "They are in foreign languages. We should sing them in pure Turkish?" They do Turkish versions by not translating these symphonies and comedies into Turkish. They won't enjoy them in Turkish. Their Turkish version cannot be said to be Beethoven's or Chopin's work. By the same token, Muslims cannot enjoy these books as they enjoy the Qur'an; they cannot nourish their souls.
The facts which we have reported above are written in a splendid style in the preface of "The Turkish Ma'al of Qur'an-al-Karim," prepared and published in 1381 [A.D. 1961] by the Directory of Religious Affairs in Turkey. The Director of Religious Affairs, H.Husni Erdem, the author of this preface says, "A book such as the Qur'an-al-Karim, which has he balaghat-i ilahi (Divine Eloquence) and Ijazi ilahi (Divine Conciseness), cannot be translated, either into Turkish or any other language properly. The explanations made under the light of former tafsirs may be more suitably called ma'al. It is not permissible to consider the words used to contain the meaning of the Qur'an-al-Karim as equal to the Qur'an itself or to recite these words in namaz (salat) or to use them to deduce hukm (Judgements) without having first grasped the original properly. No translation of the Qur'an is possible. There are expressions (words) in the Qur'an-al Karim which have various meanings. In the process of translation all the various meanings are reduced to one meaning and it cannot be known if this meaning is the meaning Allahu ta'ala is expressing (Murad-i Ilahi). Therefore, one should not dare to call 'the translation of the Qur'an.' There are two different thoughts here: to translate the Qur'an into the form of a ma'al, and to attempt to replace the Qur'an-al-Karim with its translation." It is written in the explanation after the preface (of the book we have named in the previous paragraph) that it is not possible to translate this divine book (Qur'an), which is above mankind and a mujiz, into Turkish (or any other language) properly. Therefore, the most correct way is perhaps to express in Turkish the meanings and ma'al, which is understood from the Arabic originals, instead of translating ayats word by word. In fact, it is not possible to translate the Nazm-i Jalil of the Qur'an while preserving its original Ijaz and Balaghat, but to translate it in the form of a ma'al is possible. It is not possible to indicate the features of both languages in a translation from one language into another. The first translation of the Qur'an in Europe was rendered into Latin in 537 (1141 A.D.). It was translated into Italian in 919 (1513 A.D.), into German in 1025 (1616 A.D.), into French in 1056 (1647 A.D.), and into English in 1057 (1648 A.D.). Today there are about thirty translations in all these languages, but in these translations made by individuals with certain tendencies, there are many wrong interpretations and even purposeful errors. It is permissible to translate the Qur'an into other languages, Yet one cannot learn all the rules of the din of Islam from a translation. There are also some other rules which are in Hadith ash-Shareefs, Ijma and Qiyas. These are learned in detail from books of fiqh.
Allahu ta'ala declares in the Qur'an al-Karim, "My book is in Arabic." He declares, "I sent the Qur'an down to Hadrat Muhammad (SAW) in the Arabic language." Then, the total of the words, letters and meanings which Allahu ta'ala sent down through an angel is the Qur'an. The books that are not so cannot be called "the Qur'an." He who calls these books "the Qur'an" will lose his iman. He will become a disbeliever. If it is translated into another language or even into Arabic it is called an explanation of the Qur'an. Also, if one of its letters is changed even without the meaning being defiled, it is not the Qur'an anymore. Moreover, if any change is made in reading it without any letter being changed, it is not called the Qur'an.
This is written in Riyad-un-nasihin. The Qur'an which follows the rules of Arabic grammar and which doesn't change the meaning, but which is unlike the one which was collected together by Hadrat 'Uthman (as), is called "Qiraat-i Shazza." It is not permissible to read it during namaz or at any other place; it is a sin. A few of the Ashab-i kiram (radi Allahu ta'ala 'anhum ajmain) have recited the Qiraat-i Shazza, but there was no unanimity. It is not called "Qiraat-i Shazza" to recite in a fashion in which none of the Ashab-i kiram is said to have recited. It is necessary to imprison or to thrash a person who recites so. It is an act of disbelief to recite in a fashion in which none of the religious savants have recited, even if it does not defile the meaning or the words."
Translations of the Qur'an in other languages are not called the Qur'an. They are called ma'al or explanations of the Qur'an. If they have been prepared by devout Muslims who are experts and who have good intentions towards the subject, they can be read in order to understand the meaning of the Qur'an. There is nothing wrong in this. They cannot be read as the Qur'an itself. It is not reward-deserving to read them as the Qur'an. It is a sin, instead. Muslims should read the Qur'an as Allahu ta'ala revealed it. It is reward-deserving also to read it without understanding the meaning. Certainly it is all the more reward- deserving and better to read it and to understand the meaning.
The Arabic spoken in Egypt, Iraq, Hijaz and Morocco is not the same in each of these countries. In which of these dialects of Arabic will the Qur'an be explained? For understanding the Qur'an, it is necessary to know Quraish Arabic, not today's Arabic. For understanding the Qur'an, it is necessary to wear out the elbows with studying for years. We should understand it by reading the interpretations, the explanations written by Islamic savants who have understood it by studying so.
Youngsters who read the jerry-made translations will consider the Qur'an as a book consisting of mythological stories, unnecessary and useless thoughts, or only ordinary words. Taking a dislike to the Qur'an, to Islam, they will become disbelievers. That seems to be a new tactic, a new trick of Islam's enemies who want Muslim children, martyrs' children, to be trained irreligiously by offering the Qur'an's translations to them by saying, "Read the Qur'an in pure Turkish. Do not read the Arabic Qur'an, which is in a foreign language."
Hadrat Ibn-i Hajar-i Makki writes on the thirty-seventh page of his book Fatawa-i Fiqhiyya: "It is haram according to the unanimity (of savants) to write the Qur'an in any letters other than Arabic or to translate in into any other language and then read it instead of Qur'an al-karim. Hadrat Salman-i Farisi (radi Allahu 'anh) did not write the Surat al-Fatiha in Persian for the Iranians. He did not write its translation, either. He wrote the Persian explanation of the Surat al-Fatiha. It is haram to write it in letters other than Arabic or to read the Qur'an which is written so. It is haram according to the unanimity even to change the Qur'an by writing it in Arabic letters as it is read. To write so would mean to dislike what the Salaf-i salihin, that is, the early Muslims did, and to regard them as ignorant. For example, in the Qur'an the word ribu is pronounced and read as riba, but it is not permissible to write it as it is pronounced. When the Qur'an is translated into other languages, the ijaz of Allah's word is defiled, and the divine poem changes. It is haram to change the places of the ayats in each sura, for the order of the ayats is certainly correct. But the correctness of the order of the suras is established through supposition. For this reason, it is makruh to read and write it by changing the order of the suras. It is incorrect to say that writing the Qur'an in other letters or writing or reading its translation will facilitate learning it. Even if it were correct, that would not cause it to be permissible."
It is written in Mawduat-ul-'Ulum: "Teachings in the Qur'an are of three categories. The first category comprises facts which He has not imparted to anybody. Nobody besides Allah Himself knows Him, His Names and Attributes. The second type of knowledge He has intimated only to The Beloved Hadrat Muhammad (saw). No one besides this exalted Beloved Prophet(saw) and the superior savants, who are his inheritors, can explain this type of knowledge. Examples of this are the ayats called 'mutashabih'." The third category embodies teachings which He has communicated to His Prophet (SAW) and has commanded him to teach them to his Ummat (Muslims). This knowledge also is of two parts. The first part contains Qisas (histories), which describe the states of the past people, and the Akhbar (news), which explains the things that He has created and will create in this and the next worlds. These can be understood only after being explained by Rasulullah Salla Allahu 'alaihi wa Sallam. They cannot be understood through the mind or experimentation. The second type can be understood through the mind, experimentation and by learning Arabic. Such is the case with deriving rules from the Qur'an and understanding scientific knowledge. Imam-i Nasafi 'rahmatullahi ta'ala alaih' writes in Aqaid, "Meanings are to be given according to the Arabic teachings. It will be ilhad [To go out of the religion by misunderstanding one or more parts of the Qur'an. He who does so is called a Mulhid.] and disbelief to give other meanings as the aberrant Ismailis (one of the groups of Shiites) did."
Those who make corrupt interpretations according to their own minds and opinions are of five types:
1 - The ignorant who do not know the prerequisites that are necessary for interpretation.
2 - Those who interpret ayats that are mutashabih [see above].
3 - Those in the aberrant groups and religion reformers who interpret according to their corrupt thoughts and wishes.
4 - Those who interpret without understanding well enough through proofs and documents.
5 - Those who interpret incorrectly by following their nafs and the devil.
Chapter-26
Errors in Ijtihad; Greatness of Imam al-A'zam
26 - All the rules of Islam are derived from the Qur'an. The Qur'an incorporates within itself all the rules contained in the books sent to all Prophets (salawatullahi 'alaihim) and even more. Those with blind eyes, little knowledge and short brains cannot see this fact. These rules in the Qur'an are of three types.Men of reason and knowledge can easily understand the first type of rules through a verse, through a signal, through denotation, through inclusion, through necessitation and through the conclusion of the Nass. That is, every ayat has various meanings and edicts with respect to its sentence, signal, denotation, inclusion, necessitation and conclusion [To understand this point more clearly an example must be given: An Ayat of the Qur'an declares, "Do not say, 'Ugh!' to your parents!" What this Ayat points out through these words is: 1- The verse: Do not use this word "ugh!" towards your parents. 2- Signal: Do not use the words hat will hurt your parents' hearts. This is what this ayat points out through these words. 3- Denotation: Do not do anything that may hurt your parents' hearts. 4- Inclusion: Do not beat or kill your parents. 5- Necessitation: Do favors for your parents. 6- Conclusion: Offending your parents causes disasters; pleasing parents causes happiness. Six types of meanings, as exemplified above, have been derived from each ayat that communicates rules.]. (Nass) means ayats and hadiths with clear and obvious meanings.
The second type of rules in the Qur'an cannot be understood clearly. They can be derived through ijtihad [Ability to understand the meaning of symbolic ayats in the Qur'an.] and istinbat [It means to extract the essence of something.].
In the ahkam-i ijtihadiyya (rules of the second type that can be understood through ijtihad), any one of the Ashab-i Kiram might disagree with the Beloved Prophet (SAW). Yet these rules could not have been defective or doubtful during the time of our Beloved Prophet (SAW) because if a wrong ijtihad was formulated, Hadrat Jabrail would descend and the wrong ijtihad would immediately be corrected by Allahu ta'ala. In this way, right and wrong were immediately differentiated from each other on the spot. However, rules that were derived after our Prophet Salla Allahu 'alaihi wa Sallam honored the next world were not so, and the correct and incorrect ijtihads remained mixed. It is for this reason that it is necessary both to do and to believe in the rules that were derived during the time of wahy [Allah's commands that come to prophets directly or through an angel. The entire Qur'an is wahy that has come through the angel Jabrail.]. It is necessary to do the rules that were derived after our Prophet also. Yet it does not spoil one's iman to doubt about an ijtihad on which there has been no ijma [Unanimity of the Ashab al-Kiram on a religious matter that has not been explained clearly in the Qur'an or Hadiths.].
The third group of rules in the Qur'an are so profound, so well hidden that human power falls short of understanding and deriving them. They cannot be comprehended unless they are explained by Allahu ta'ala. And this fact has been shown and explained only to our Beloved Prophet Salla Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam. It has not been explained to anybody else. These rules also are derived from the Qur'an, yet since they have been explained by the Beloved Prophet Salla Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam, they are called Sunnat. Concerning the rules of the first and third types, nobody can disagree with the Beloved Prophet (saw). All Muslims have to believe and follow them. But on the ahkam-i ijtihadiyya, every mujtahid [He who understands the hidden, symbolic meanings in the Qur'an.] has to follow the rule that he has derived. He cannot follow the rules of other mujtahids. A mujtahid cannot say that another mujtahid has gone wrong, or that he has dissented from the righteous way on account of his ijtihad. For each mujtahid, his own ijtihad is correct and right. Our Beloved Prophet (saw) used to command his Sahabis whom he sent to distant places to act according to the rules of the Qur'an on matters they would be confronted with, but if unable to find them in the Qur'an, to look them up in hadiths, and if unable to find them there, to act according to their own opinions and ijtihads. He used to forbid them from following others' opinions and ijtihads, even if they were more learned and greater than themselves. No mujtahid, none of the Ashab-i Kiram (radi Allahu ta'ala anhum ajmain) has ever discounted as wrong another's ijtihads. They have not uttered such evil terms as 'sinner' or 'aberrant' to those who disagreed with them.
The greatest of the mujtahids succeeding the Ashab-i Kiram (radi Allahu ta'ala anhum ajmain) is Imam al-A'zam Abu Hanifa (radi Allahu 'anh). This great leader had wara' and taqwa in his every action. In everything he did he followed our Beloved Prophet (saw) in the fullest sense of the word. He reached such a high grade in ijtihad and istinbat that no one else could be compared with him.
[There had been people before him who were more learned and greater than he. Yet during their lifetimes aberrations had not spread; therefore, they had not prepared gauges to differentiate what was correct from what was incorrect. Instead they had dealt with more valuable matters].
Hadrat Imam-i Shafi'i [The leader of the Shafi'i madhhab, which is one of the four righteous madhhabs in Islam.] said, "All mujtahids are Imam al-A'zam Abu Hanifa's children." He said this because he understood something of the genius of this great leader of ijtihad. Hadrat 'Isa (Jesus), after descending from heaven in a time close to the end of the world, will act according to Hadrat Muhammad's Shariat and will derive rules from the Qur'an. Hadrat Muhammad Parisa, one of the great Islamic savants, says, "All the rules which such a great Prophet as Hadrat 'Isa will derive through ijtihad will be in agreement with the rules in the Hanafi madhhab; that is, they will conform with the great leader's ijtihad." This shows how accurate and how correct the great leader's ijtihad is. The awliya [ Person or persons whom Allah loves.] said that they saw through the heart's eye that the Hanafi madhhab was like an ocean, while the other madhhabs were like small rills and brooks. Hadrat Imam-i azam Abu Hanifa surpassed everybody also in following the sunnat in his ijtihad, and he took even Mursal [ Kinds of hadiths are explained in the second fascicle of Endless Bliss.] hadiths as well as Musnad [ Kinds of hadiths are explained in the second fascicle of Endless Bliss.] hadiths as documents. He also held the words of the Ashab-i Kiram superior to his own opinions and findings. He understood better than anybody else the greatness of the grades which the Ashab-i Kiram (radi Allahu ta'ala anhum ajmain) had attained by having the honor of being together with our Beloved Prophet Salla Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam. No other mujtahid was able to do so. Those who say that Imam-i azam derived rules from his own mind, that he was not dependent upon the Qur'an and hadiths are disparaging millions of Muslims, who have been worshipping for centuries on the earth, with having been on a wrong and fabricated path and even with having been outside of Islam. Only block-headed and ignorant people who are unaware of their own ignorance or the enemies of Islam, who want to demolish, to spoil Islam, will say something of this sort. A few ignorant people, a few zindiqs, memorizing a few hadiths and presuming that Islam is no more than that, deny the rules of which they have not heard and of which they have no knowledge. Yes, an insect that has remained in the cavity of a rock will consider the earth and the sky as consisting of only that hole.
The chief of the Ahl as-sunnat and the founder of fiqh is Hadrat Imam al-A'zam Abu Hanifa (rahmatullahu ta'ala 'alaih). Three-fourths of the rules of Islam that are carried out all over the world belong to him. He also has a share in the remaining one-fourth. He is the host, the chief of the family in the Islamic Shariat. All the other mujtahids are his children.
[All the rules which a mujtahid has derived are called a Madhhab. Out of hundreds of Ahl as-Sunnat madhhabs, today, only four Imams' madhhabs have been transferred into books, and the others have been partly forgotten. The names and the dates of the deaths of the four Imams are: Hadrat Abu Hanifa 150, Hadrat Malik bin Anas Asbahi 179, Hadrat Muhammad Shafi'i 274, and Hadrat Ahmad bin Hanbal 241.
Non-mujtahids have to follow one of these four madhhabs in all their actions and worships. This means to say that our Prophet's Salla Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam way is the way shown by the Qur'an, and the hadiths, in other words, by the sunnat and by the ijtihad of the mujtahids. Besides these three documents, there is Ijma'-i ummat, which is, as it is written under the subject of 'Imprisonment' in Ibni Abidin, the words of the Ashab-i Kiram (rahmat Allahu ta'ala 'alaihim ajmain) and those of the Tabiin [A person who saw the Beloved Prophet (saw) at least once when he was alive is called a Sahabi. It goes without saying that a disbeliever could not be a Sahabi or Ashab. Ashab means Muslims who saw the Prophet at least once. All of the Ashab are called Ashab al-kiram. When we say Ashab al-kiram, we mean all the Muslims who were with him, spoke to him, listened to him, or, at least, saw him. If a person did not see the Beloved Prophet (saw), but if he saw one of the Ashab al-Kiram, he is called a Tabi'. The plural form of Tabi' is Tabiin. When we say the Tabiin, we mean all the Muslims each of whom saw one Sahabi at least once. A person who saw one of the Tabiin is called Taba'-i-Tabiin. When we say Salaf-i-salihin, we mean the Ashab al-Kiram, the Tabiin and the Taba'-i-Tabiin. ]. That is, they are the things which none of them refuted or denied upon seeing them. The Shiites' claim in the book Minhaj-us-salihin is not correct. They say it is not permissible to adapt ourselves to a dead person.]
Islamic religion has come to us through these four documents. These four documents are called "Adilla-i Shariyya." Everything outside these are bidat, irreligiousness, and false. The inspirations and the kashfs that occur to the hearts of great men of tasawwuf [see articles 35 and 40, respectively] cannot be proofs or documents for the rules of the Shariat. [Kashf will be explained in the following pages.] Correctness of kashfs and inspirations is judged by their compatibility with the Shariat. An Awliya who is in high grade of the tariqat or wilayat has to follow a mujtahid, like Muslims in lower grades. The Awliya such as Bastami, Junaid, Jalaladdin-i Rumi and Muhyiddin-i Arabi were raised in rank by adapting themselves to a madhhab as everybody did. Sticking to the rules of the Shariat is like planting a tree. The knowledge, the marifat, the kashfs and tajallis, the divine love and muhabbat-i zatiyya [Love for only Allah without including His attributes. Divine love is love for Allah together with His attributes.] that occur to the Awliya are like the fruits of this tree. Yes, the purpose in planting the tree is to get the fruit. But, it is necessary to first plant the tree for obtaining the fruit. That is, unless there is iman and the rules of the Shariat are carried out, there can be no tasawwuf, tariqat or awliya. Those who claim so are zindiqs [A person who endeavors to defend and spread his own thoughts under the name of Islam, though they are, in fact, incompatible with Islam.] and irreligious. We should be aware of such people more than we would be of a lion. A lion will only take away our life. But such people will take away our faith and iman. [It is written in the book Maraj al-Bahrayn, which quotes Ahmad Zarruq as saying that Imam-i Malik (rahmat Allahu ta'ala 'alaih) said: "Anybody who dives into tasawwuf without learning fiqh becomes a zindiq (renegade); and anybody who learns fiqh and yet is not aware of tasawwuf, goes astray; but those who obtain knowledge of both fiqh and tasawwuf attain the truth. Anybody who learns fiqh correctly and who tastes the sweetness of tasawwuf becomes a 'perfect kamil'." All the early men of tasawwuf were in the madhhab of a scholar of fiqh before they attained perfection. The statement, "People of tasawwuf don't have a madhhab" does not mean that they left their madhhabs, but rather it means that they knew all the madhhabs and that they always took into consideration all of them. They performed their duties according to what was best and what was on the safe side. Junaid al-Baghdadi was in the madhhab of Sufyan-i Sawri; As-Sayyad Shaykh Ghawth al-A'zam Abd al-Qadir al-Geilani (Jilani) was a Hanbali; Abu Bakr Shibli was a Maliki; Imam-i Rabbani and Jariri were in the madhhab of Hanafi; Haris-i Muhasibi was a Shafi'i (Qaddas-Allahu ta'ala Asrarahum/may Allahu ta'ala make their secrets very sacred.)]
Chapter-27
What does Ijtihad mean? Who is called Mujtahid?
27 - Sayyad Abdulhakim Arwasi (rahmatullahi 'alaih) [He was a great and profound religious savant. His name was mentioned in the preface of our book. His letter to a university student radiates knowledge. It was translated into English and published as a brochure. Our book includes that letter. He died in 1362 A.H. (1943).] says in his book Ashab-i Kiram, "Ijtihad means to work with all one's might, to strive and to take pains. In other words, it is to strive to derive the rules to solve problems that have not been explained clearly and openly in the Qur'an or in the Hadiths by likening them to matters that have been explained clearly and in detail. This can be done only by our Beloved Prophet Salla Allahu 'Alaihi wa Sallam, by all his Ashab and, from among other Muslims, by those who have been promoted to the grade of ijtihad; these exalted people are called Mujtahid. Allahu ta'ala commands us to perform ijtihad in many places of the Qur'an. Then, it is a binding rule for mujtahids to perform ijtihad. These are the great people who can understand the rules of the Shariat and religious matters lying in the depths of the ayats and hadiths that do not have clearly understandable meanings by using their understanding of the text and the meaning that can be inferred from the text. To be a mujtahid it is necessary to know the high branches of Arabic thoroughly, to know the Qur'an by heart, to know what each ayat means, the meanings that it indicates, the meanings lying hidden in it, the meanings that must be given according to the subject, to know when ayats descended, why they descended, about what they descended, if they are general or particular, if they are nasih or mansuh, [Some ayats were changed by some other ayats that descended later. The former are called mansuh, which means 'changed.' The latter are called nasih, which means 'the one that has changed the other.' The ayat about wine is an example.] if they are conditioned [Some ayats depend on some conditions, e.g. the ayat "O believers, perform Namaz," is conditioned, because to perform namaz one has to be sane and pubert, and has to have a ritual ablution, etc. But the ayat "O people, have iman," is unconditional because everybody has to have iman.] or unconditional, how they have been derived from Qiraat-i Saba and Qiraat-i Shazza [Some ayats in the Qur'an are read in seven different ways. Each reading has a different meaning. Qiraat-i Shazza means the word which a few of the Beloved Prophet's (saw) companions used to recite in an uncommon manner.], to know by heart the hundreds of thousands of hadiths that are in Qutub-i sitta [The six hadith books which all Islamic savants have confirmed to be correct.] and other hadith books, to know when and why each hadith was said and how comprehensive its meaning is, which hadith is before or after the other, the events that have to do with it and upon which events and happenings it was said, by whom they were communicated or narrated and the state of the morality of the persons who communicate it, to know the methods and rules of the knowledge of fiqh, to comprehend the twelve branches of knowledge and the indications and symbols of the Qur'an and Hadiths and their clear and hidden meanings while having these meanings fixed in the heart, and to have strong iman and a bright, pure heart and a conscience possessing superior qualities and tranquility."All these superior qualities could exist only in the Ashab-i kiram and, later, in some of the great awliya who lived within two hundred years of the period after them. Later, opinions and preferences became wide spread and bidats started to appear. Day by day such auspicious people decreased in number and by 400 A.H. there was no one left satisfying all these conditions, that is, who was a mutlaq (absolute) mujtahid.
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Chapters 28 - 34
Chapter-28
28 - Sunnat-i Muakkada, Sunnat-i-Zawaid
28 - The actions that The Beloved Rasulullah Salla Allahu 'alaihi wa Sallam did or abstained from are of two types. The first type of actions is the ones which he did or did not do as forms of worship. Every Muslim has to adapt himself to these performances and avoidances. Actions which do not conform with them are bidats. The second ones are the actions done as customs by the people of the cities and the countries in which he lived. He who dislikes them and says that they are unpleasant becomes a disbeliever. But it is not obligatory to do them. An action not conforming with them is not a bidat. Doing or not doing them depends on the customs of one's country and nation. They are categorized as mubah. They do not have anything to do with the religion. Each country has different customs. In fact, customs of a country may change in the course of time.Ibni Abidin (rahmat Allahi ta'ala 'alaih), while explaining the sunnats of ablution, writes: "Mashru'at, namely 'ibadat, i.e. things which Muslims were commanded to do, are of four categories: fard, wajib, sunnat and nafila. Plain commandments by Allahu ta'ala are called fard. Allahu ta'ala's commandments that are not as clear as a fard, but are inferred through deduction are called wajib. Those worships which are neither fard nor wajib but which Rasulullah himself advised or practiced, or if the did not say anything to those who omitted them, are called Sunnat-i Huda or Sunnat-i Muakkada. They are the shi'ar (symptoms) of the Islamic religion. [That is, they are peculiar to this religion; they don't exist in other religions.] When he saw someone omit a wajib, he used to prevent him from omitting it. If he himself omitted it from time to time, it is called Sunnat-i ghayr-i Muakkada. I is makruh to omit a Sunnat-i Muakkada. It is a venial sin. Allahu ta'ala promised to give thawabs for all worships. But, it is necessary to intend for a worship in order to be rewarded for it. To intend is to obey the commandments and to remember the fact that the worship is being done to attain the rida (consent) of Allahu ta'ala. To perform these three categories of worships in their due times is called ada. (Not to perform them in their due times, but to perform them after their due times are over is called qada. To perform them again upon one's own wish after ada or qada is called nafila worship.) It is more blessed to perform fards and wajibs as nafila than performing Sunnat-i Muakkadas. Things which Sayyiduna Rasulullah Salla allahu 'alaihi wa Sallamhas done continuously not as 'ibadat (worship) but as 'adat (habit) are called Sunnat-i Zawaid. His style of attirement, his sitting and standing and his beginning from the right hand side while doing good things are in this category. Those who do them are also rewarded. It is not necessary to intend to get a reward for them. It they are intended, then they become acts of worship. Their blessing increases. It is not makruh to omit the Sunnat-i Zawaid and the nafila worships." Nevertheless, following The Beloved RasulullahSalla Allahu 'alaihi wa Sallam also in things pertaining to customs supplies one with many advantages and causes much happiness in this and the next worlds.
Chapter-29
The things which disbelievers use are of two types
29 - Ibni 'Abidin 'rahmatullahi alaih' in discussing the makruhs of namaz says: "Things which disbelievers do and use are of two types: The first ones are things which they do as customs, that is, things which each nation, each country does as its customs. Out of these, doing or using things that are not haram and that are useful is never a sin. [Using trousers, fez, different types of shoes, spoons and forks, eating meals at a table, putting each person's meal in a dish in front of him, cutting the bread in slices with a knife, and using various tools and gadgets are all behaviors concerning customs and are mubah. It is not a bidat or a sin to use them.] Sayyiduna Rasulullah (saw) put on shoes especially made for priests." Among them, doing or using the ones that are unpleasant and loathsome and which are not useful is haram. But, after two Muslims use them, they become (Islamic customs) and are not haram for the third Muslim who uses them. The first and second Muslim become sinful, but not the others. In the book Qamus al-Alam, in the passage giving information about Timurtas Pasha, it is written: "Timurtas Pasha is the person who designed the color of the Ottoman Banner. [Also, the shape of today's Turkish flag with its crescent and star.] He also colored the faz red, which had been white up until that time." The color of the Abbaside State's flag was black. It was changed to white during the time of khalifa Mamun. As it can be seen, the fez was not taken from the Hungarian people, but rather, it was developed by the Turks.It is written in Birghiwi Vasiyyetnamesi Sharhi [Muhammad Birghiwi Bey's father is Ali. He was born in Balikesir in 928 and died of the plague in 981 A.H. His works, Vasiyyetname, Tariqat, Awamil and Izhar and others, are very valuable.], "The second type of things which disbelievers use are the things which are symptoms of disbelief, symptoms of denying and disbelieving the Shariat and Islam, and it is wajib for us to debase them. One who does or uses them becomes a disbeliever. They cannot be used unless one is threatened with death or with the cutting off of one's limbs or some other reasons causing these results such as severe thrashing or imprisonment or the taking away of all one's property. Also, he who does or uses one of them, which is commonly known, without knowing or as a joke in order to make people laugh, becomes a disbeliever. For example, it is kufr to wear (or use) things specially worn or used by priests during their worships. This is called Kufr-i Hukmi." It is written in the basic books of fiqh by Islamic 'alims that to wear the 'things that are peculiar to disbelievers is kufr. (See Ibn-i 'Abidin, Vol. V, page 481). The enemies of Islam, in order to deceive Muslims, try to hide the fact that it is kufr to adopt the customs of the disbelievers and to celebrate their festivals. They call these customs 'Islamic customs' and these days 'sacred days'. They represent the Noel (Christmas), which was introduced into Christianity by the Great Constantine, and Nawruz, which was invented by Jamshid as a national celebration; and they want Muslims to accept the same things. Young and innocent Muslims should not fall for these things. They should learn the truth by asking those sincere Muslims they trust, their relatives who perform namaz, and those family friends who know their religion. Today, no matter where in the world, not to know what is iman and what is kufr or how to perform 'ibadats correctly is inexcusable. He who is deceived because he does not know his din will not be saved from Hell. Today, Allahu ta'ala has made His din known everywhere in the world, and He has made learning iman, the fards, the harams and the halals, beautiful morals very easy. Everybody should learn as much as necessary and this is a fard. One who does not learn them is deemed to have disobeyed the fard. But a person who says there is no need to learn them or who gives no importance to them becomes a disbeliever.
Chapter-30
There are seven grades concerning obedience to Rasulullah (saw).
30 - There are seven grades in following Sayyiduna Rasulullah Salla Allahu 'Alaihi wa Sallam. The first one is to learn, believe and do the rules of Islam. All Muslims, savants, zahids [Those who do not set people their hearts on worldly possessions.] and, abids [People who try to perform all kinds of worships. ] following Rasulullah Salla Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam are in this grade. Their nafs [A malignant power in man that forces him to do what Allah prohibits and not to do what Allah commands.] haven't fully believed or surrendered to Allah. Allahu ta'ala, with His great pity, accepts only the belief in their hearts.The second grade, together with doing the commands, is to follow all the instructions and habits of Sayyiduna Rasulullah Salla Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam and to purify the heart from evil inclinations. Those who walk on the path of tasawwuf are in this grade.
The third grade involves conforming oneself to all the states, spiritual pleasures, and things that come to the heart which occurred to Sayyiduna Rasulullah Salla Allahu 'alaihi wa Sallam. This grade is obtained in the rank which tasawwuf calls wilayat-i hassa. Here, the nafs, too, believes and obeys and all worships become real and perfect.
The fourth level consists of being real and faultless in all auspicious deeds as well as in all acts of worship. This is peculiar to the great ones who are called 'Ulama-i Rasikhin. These savants with perfect knowledge understand the deep meanings and denotations in the Qur'an and hadiths. Such were the Ashab (radi Allahu ta'ala anhum ajmain) of all the Prophets. The nafs of all of them believed and became obedient. Blessings of this sort falls to the lot of either those who advance in the way of tasawwuf and wilayat or those who obey all the sunnats and abstain from all the bidats. Today, bidats have invaded the whole world, and sunnats have been lost; so much so that it is beyond possibility to recover the sunnats and adhere to them and to save oneself from this ocean of bidats. However, customs cannot build up the religion or the Shariat, no matter how widely they have settled and spread or how beautiful they look. Things that are haram or cause disbelief can never be halal or jaiz (permitted), even if they are customarily done or used. [This means that to reach this grade it is obligatory today to advance on the way of tasawwuf. In the early centuries of Islam it was easy to follow all the sunnat. There was no specific need for tasawwuf then.]
The fifth grade is to adapt oneself to the perfect, high qualities peculiar to RasulullahSalla Allahu 'alaihi wa Sallam. These qualities cannot be obtained through knowledge or worshipping. They come only through Allah's blessing. In this grade are great Prophets (salawatullahi ta'ala 'alaihim ajmain) and very few great ones of the ummat of The Beloved Rasulullah Salla Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam.
The sixth grade is to adapt oneself to the perfect qualities of mahbubiyyat [To receive the hidden blessings that are given to the darling himself, Rasulullah.] and ma'shuqiyyat [To receive the hidden blessings that are given to the darling himself, Rasulullah.] in Rasulullah Salla Allahu 'alaihi wa Sallam. This is peculiar to those whom Allahu ta'ala loves very much; it cannot be obtained through blessings, muhabbat (love) is necessary.
The seventh grade involves all the motes of a man's body adapting themselves to him. The follower is so similar to the one followed that a state of imitation no longer exists. He, too, as if like Sayyiduna Rasulullah (SAW), takes everything from the same source.
Chapter-31
31 - FIRST VOLUME, 42 nd LETTER
The best medicine for purifying the heart is to adhere to the Shariat
This letter, written to Shaykh Darwish, explains that the best medicine for clearing away the rust of loving others from the heart is to hold on to the Sunnat-i saniyya (the Shariat).May Allahu ta'ala give you salvation! As long as a man remains attached to various things his heart cannot be purified. As long as it remains foul it will remain deprived of and far from happiness. Loving things other than Allahu ta'ala blackens, stains the heart, which is called Haqiqat-i-Jamia [That which has accumulated everything within itself.]. This stain should be cleared away. The best cleaner is to follow, to obey, the Sunnat-i saniyya-i Mustafawiyya ('ala masdariha-ssalatu was- salami wattahiyya). Following the Sunnat-i saniyya does away with the habits and the desires of the nafs that cause the heart to darken.
How lucky for those who are honored with receiving this blessing! Shame upon those who are deprived of this high luck! May Allahu ta'ala give salvation to you and to those who follow the righteous way!
[The word "Sunnat" has three meanings in our religion. When "the Book and Sunnat" is said together, "the Book" means "the Qur'an" and "Sunnat" means "hadiths." When referred to as "fard and Sunnat" fard means "Allah's commands" and "Sunnat" means our "Beloved Prophet's (saw) Sunnat, that is, his commands". When the word "sunnat" is used alone, it means "the Shariat, that is, all the rules of Islam". Fiqh books say that this is so. For instance, it is written in the book Mukhtasar al-Quduri, "He who knows the sunnat the best becomes the Imam [When Muslims perform Namaz in congregation (Jama'at), one of them leads, conducts Namaz. He is called the Imam.]." In explaining this point, the book Jawhara says, "Here, 'Sunnat' means Islam'."
It is understood that it is necessary to obey the Islam for purifying the heart. Obeying the Shariat means doing the commandments and abstaining from prohibitions and bidats.
Bidat means something that was invented afterwards. They are things that had not existed during the time of our Beloved Prophet (saw) and his Four Caliphs 'radi-Allahu anhum' which were fabricated and done in the name of worships. For example, since it is necessary to recite the (ayat called) Ayat-al-Kursi [Verses in the Qur'an are called ayats. There are 6236 ayats in the Qur'an. "Ayat-ul- kursi" is one of them. It explains the greatness of Allah and that His power is infinite.] immediately after the (five daily prayers called) Namaz, it is bidat to recite the (prayer termed) 'Salatan Tunjina' [The word Salat means both Namaz and prayer. Muslims send their prayers to Allah so that the Prophet's grade will go up and he will be given more blessings. Such prayers are called salat, too. Allah loves those who pray so. He rescues them from trouble. Salatan Tunjina means to ask a blessing on the Beloved Prophet (saw) in order to get rid of problems.] or to say other prayers. These must be recited after Ayat-ul-Kursi and telling the tasbihs [After Namaz, it was the Beloved Prophet's (saw) habit, so it is Sunnat, to recite "Ayat-ul-kursi", once, to say "subhanallah" thirty-three times, which means, 'there is no defect in Allah,' "Alhamdulillah" thirty-three times, which means, 'hamd, thanks done to everybody will have been done to Him, for He is the only One who sends every favor,' "Allahu akbar" thirty-three times, which means, 'Allah's greatness cannot be comprehended through the mind, through knowledge or through thoughts.' This procedure is called "telling one's tasbihs," or counting beads on a rosary of 3x33=99 beads.]. It is bidat to prostrate and then get up after finishing Namaz and saying dua (personal, individual prayer.) It is bidat to call the adhan [At prescribed prayer times, (morning, noon, afternoon, evening and night), a Muslim goes up the minaret and calls all Muslims to pray. This is called the "adhan."] through loudspeakers. Every kind of change and reform in the religion is bidat. On the other hand, it is not bidat to use forks and spoons, to wear ties, to drink coffee or tea, or to smoke cigarettes, for they are not worships, but habits, and they are mubah. They are not haram. Statements made by Islamic scholars about smoking are quoted and explained in detail in the (Turkish) book Se'adet-i ebediyye. There are three types of bidat:
1 - It is the worst bidat to use things which Islam says are symbols of disbelief.
2 - Kinds of belief not conforming with what the Ahl as-Sunnat scholars communicate are also bad bidats.
3 - Renovations and reforms done as worships are bidats and are grave sins.]
Couplet:
Faithfulness is what becomes a man, even when wronged;
If a person is true, Allah will him uphold.
Chapter-32
32 - FIRST VOLUME, 65 th LETTER
Muslims have become Gharib recently
This letter, written to Khan-i A'zam, expresses regret over the situation Islam is in today and over the persecution which the Muslims suffer.May Allahu ta'ala increase your strength! May He help you in your struggles against the enemies of religion in order to exalt His Shariat. Mukhbir-i sadiq [He who always tells the truth.] (Muhammad, 'alaihi wa ala alihi minassalawati afdaluha wa minattaslimati akmaluha) said, "Islam commenced in a Gharib and lonely state. During the latter times, it will relapse into its state of Gharib (lonely, forsaken, left alone) as it was when it began. How lucky for the Muslims who are Gharib and lonely!" During the time of the previous government (the time of Akbar Shah) Muslims were so Gharib that disbelievers used to slander Islam openly and make fun of Muslims. They used to express their irreligiousness and praise disbelievers and disbelief in bazars and markets. It was forbidden for the Muslims to do [to say and write about] most of Allah's commandments. Those who performed worships and obeyed the Shariat were being censured and slandered.
Beauties hide away their cheeks, Satan is feigning reluctance;
So astonished I am, that almost verging on craziness.
Subhanallah! ["I know Allah to be far from a defect or deficiency." ] O my Allah, thanks be to Thee! It has been said, "Islam is protected under the shadow of the sword." The brightness of the exalted Shariat has been delegated to leaders of governments. However, the situation became quite different; the state and the government were trying to demolish the Shariat. Shame upon that situation; we must regret and feel penitence over it! We deem your blessed existence as a great blessing from Allah. We do not know of any hero besides you who will protect Believers, who have been scattered under the attacks of the enemies of religion, under this wings that have been scattered by the attacks of the enemies of religion. May Allahu ta'ala, for the sake of his Beloved Prophet (saw) and his Ahl al-bayt (as) [Immediate relatives of the Messenger of Allah: Hadrat Ali (his cousin and son-in- law), Hadrat Fatima (his daughter), Hadrat Hasan and Husain (his grandsons).] ('alaihi wa alaihimusalawatu wattaslimat wattahiyyat walbarakat), increase your strength! May He help you! It was declared in a hadith, "Unless a person is said to be mad, his iman will not be complete!" At the present time, Junun (madness), which is the symbol of love for Islam and Islamic zeal, appears in your pure soul. Thanks to Allahu ta'ala, who has given this blessing! Today is such a day that a few actions [words or writings] will be immediately accepted and many rewards will be given for them. The reason why the Ashab-i kahf 'rahmatullahi ta'ala alaihim' [The seven persons who were in the cave of Tarsus. They attained high grades by doing one beautiful deed. This deed was that when the enemies of the religion invaded their land they migrated to another place lest they would lose the iman in their heart.] gained so much value and fame was only because they migrated. When the enemy attacks, a few actions by the cavalrymen become very valuable. In peacetime, very delicate or hard drills cannot receive as much value. The jihad which you perform through words today is the greatest jihad. Appreciate the value of this blessing which falls to your lot. Do your best to disgrace the enemies of religion [so that it be realized that the harams are ugly and harmful and thus they must be abstained from] and tell the truth. Believe that the Jihad done with a preaching [and with the pen] is more profitable than the jihad done with a sword [and cannon]. We people with hands not writing and tongues not speaking are deprived of this blessing.
Enjoy blessings, who has attained it,
poor Lover! With few drops, be sated.
I showed you, to treasury this is the short cut,
You may reach it, even though we have not.
Khwaja-i Ahrar [Ubaidullah-i Tashkandi] 'quddisa sirruh' said, "If I became a Shaykh, no other Shaykh would find a murid (disciple) at any place. But I was assigned to do another task. This task is to spread the Shariat and strengthen Islam." For this reason, he used to visit sultans [presidents, members of parliment] and give them advice. Through his persuasive words, he brought all of them around to the right course. Through them he used to spread the Shariat. Allahu ta'ala, for the sake of your love and respect towards our superiors, has blessed your words with effectiveness and has represented your affection for the religion as majestic. Then, at least, I request that you strive for the abolition of disbelievers' customs [feasts, Christmas Eves, dances, balls, men and women's coming and being together] that have spread among the Muslims and that have become their customs. I also request that you protect Muslim children against loathsome things of this sort that are peculiar to disbelievers. May Allahu ta'ala give you plenty of rewards through us and through all Muslims. During the time of the previous government there was an unrestrained enmity against Islam. There is no such visible enmity, grudge or obstinacy now. There are some mistakes. Yet they are not because of obstinacy, but because they are not known. Today, Muslims, like disbelievers, can talk freely and have the freedom which disbelievers have. Let us pray and wake up lest disbelievers will win, lest the chronic grudge and enmity will bring harm upon us, and lest Muslims relapse into persecution and torment.
Shaking like a leaf for they attacked my Iman.
May Allahu ta'ala not let you and us deviate from the way of the Sayyad of Prophets (Muhammad) 'alaihi wa 'ala alihi-s-salawat'! Faqir [this poor person-I myself] came here on an unexpected trip. I did not want to leave here without letting you know, without writing and leaving a few souvenirs, and without letting you know of the love I have for you. Our Prophet 'Salla-Allahu alaihi wa sallam' declared, "If a person loves his Muslim brother, he should let him know!" I send my salams to you and to all of those on the right path!
One look of an alim is a treasure hardly attainable;
One sohbat with him a library for years inexhaustible.
Chapter-33
33 - FIRST VOLUME, 79 th LETTER
Sayyiduna Muhammad's (saw) Shariat is the essence of all Shariats
This letter, written to Jabbari Khan, says that this brilliant Din has brought all the past Din together and that to obey this Din means to obey all the previous Din.May Allahu ta'ala bless us with the lot of obeying the brilliant Shariat brought by Sayyiduna Hadrat Muhammad Salla Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam, making of progress on this righteous way, thus attaining His consent and love! Allahu ta'ala has accumulated all of the most mature and superior (shadows) of His Names and Attributes in Hadrat Muhammad Salla Allahu 'alaihi wa Sallam, who is His most beloved born servant and His Messenger (SAW). All these superior traits appear in him in such a manner as to suit a born servant. The book revealed to him, the Qur'an, is the essence of all the books that were sent down to all other Prophets. What was declared in all of them exist in it too. The Shariat that was given to this great Prophet (SAW) is like the cream extracted from all the past Shariats. Every action declared by this true and righteous Shariat has been selected and derived from the actions and deeds that were declared in the previous Shariats. Moreover, there are deeds selected or derived from angels' behaviors. For example, a group of angels were commanded to do ruku' [Bowing during the prayer of namaz.]. Many of them were commanded to prostrate, and some others were commanded to perform qiyam, that is, to worship by standing. Likewise, some of the past Ummats were commanded only to perform the morning prayer. Others were commanded to do the prayers of other times. What was filtered and selected out of the worships and deeds of the past Ummats and of the angels closer to Allahu ta'ala was incorporated into this Din. For this reason, to confirm, to believe in this Din and to obey the commands of this Din will mean to confirm and obey all the past Din. This means to say that those who conform to this Din will be the most beneficent and the best of Ummats. And he who disbelieves and dislikes this Din and who is reluctant to obey it will have believed in and obeyed none of the previous Dins. By the same token, a person who disbelieves Hadrat MuhammadSalla Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam and who speaks ill of that great Prophet (SAW), who is the highest of all people and the elect of the good, will have disbelieved the perfectness and the superiority of Allahu ta'ala's Names and Attributes. To believe Rasulullah 'alaihi-s-salatu wa-s- salam', to realize his superiority will mean to realize and to believe in all the superior traits. This means to say that a person who disbelieves this exalted Beloved Prophet (saw) and who dislike the Din, which he brought, is the worst, the basest of ummats and people. It was declared in the ninety-eighth ayat of Surat-ul-Tawba: "The disbelief and irreligiousness of the illiterate is more vehement than that of others."
The meaning of two Persian couplets:
Muhammad ('alaihi's-salam), born in Arabia,
He is the dearest here and the Hereafter!
Let them be underground, crushed, ruined
If not wish being the dust and soil of his door!
Thanks be to Allahu ta'ala, who sends all blessings and favors, for it is seen that you like and thoroughly believe in this Shariat and its Beloved Messenger (Hadrat Muhammad)Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam, and that you repent for your unsuitable behavior. May Allahu ta'ala increase this awareness of yours! Amin.
Thanks be to Allahu ta'ala that a very good belief and thought for Islam and for its owner (alaihissalatu wassalamu wattahiyya) is seen on you very easily, and a continuous repentance for your unsuitable deeds falls into your lot. May Allahu ta'ala grant you more.
Secondly, I would like to add that Shaykh Mustafa, who has brought this letter to you, comes from the family of Qadi Sharih. The children of that pure family have been endeared and respected in this country. Materially, they have led an easy life. Shaykh Mustafa, the above-mentioned, has not a salary. For this reason, he is on his way towards being a soldier. He has the necessary official papers with him. It is hoped that he will get rid of this problem with your help and obtain inner peace. Let me not give you a headache by writing more. Tell the Grand Vizier his problem exactly and request him to solve it so that he will get rid of this discordance and have inner peace. Wassalam wal Iqram.
Chapter-34
34 - THIRD VOLUME, 22 nd LETTER
What is foul in disbelievers is their creed.
This letter, written to Molla Maqsud Ali Tabrizi, says that the uncleanliness of the disbelievers refers to the unclean moral state of their souls, of their creed. Their bodies, their limbs may not be unclean.Every kind of thanks belongs to Allahu ta'ala by right. I send my salams to the pure people whom He has chosen. My merciful Sir! We can not understand why you sent us Tafsir-i-Husaini. This interpretation, in explaining the twenty-ninth ayat of Surat-ut-Tawba, says, "Since disbelievers' souls and beliefs are filthy, they are certainly filthy." Also, savants of the Hanafi Madhhab explained it in this manner. That is, they said that the reason why Allahu ta'ala declared "Disbelievers are filthy" is because their hearts, their creeds are filthy. It is written in Tafsir-i Husaini that some savants said, "Since disbelievers do not perform a ghusl (ritual washing) or abstain from najasat [Every kind of dirt. In this context, it means the dirt that prevents one from performing namaz. It will be explained in the third fascicle of Endless Bliss.], they are foul." Yet it is not suitable to interpret it in this manner, for the majority of the Muslims in India today do not avoid najasat. Some ignorant Muslims, too, like disbelievers, slight cleanliness. If not avoiding najasat caused one to be foul, the life would become very difficult for Muslims. But, it was declared: "There is no hardship in Islam." Though it is written in Tafsir-i Husaini "Abdullah Ibni Abbas 'radi-Allahu anhuma' said that disbelievers' bodies are foul like dogs" great men of religion have received much information such as this which does not conform with what the majority of the other savants think, and which is no like what everybody understands. Such expressions should be somehow adapted to what is generally accepted. How can the skin and the bodies of disbelievers be foul in light of the fact that our Beloved Prophet Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam ate a meal in a Jew's home? He cleaned himself with a disbeliever's water container. Also, Hadrat 'Umar (radiAllahu anh) cleaned himself with a Christian woman's container. If one claims that these might have been done before the ayat was revealed, one will have based this statement on sheer supposition; it should be proven that the ayat came afterwards. If it can be proven, it still does not prove that they are foul, dirty or that the things which they touch will be foul and haram. At most, it shows that their creed is foul. A prophet never does something that was haram or that would be haram in his own Shariat or in other Shariats. That is, he does not use something that will be haram later though it is currently halal (permitted). For example, formerly it had been halal to drink wine. Later it became haram. No Prophet drank wine at any time. If it were to be declared afterwards that disbelievers' bodies were foul like dogs, Sayyiduna Hadrat Muhammad Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam, who is the darling of Allahu ta'ala, would have never touched their containers. Then in this case, would it ever be possible for him to drink their water or eat their food? Moreover, when something is foul, it is always foul. It cannot be thought of as foul one time and clean at some other time. If disbelievers' bodies were foul, they would always be foul, and Sayyiduna Hadrat Muhammad (saw) would have never touched them. Nonetheless for drinking their water and eating their food. Moreover, when something itself is foul, it will always be foul. I will never be permissible, neither beforehand, nor afterwards. If disbelievers themselves were foul, they would have been so formerly, too, and Sayyiduna Rasulullah 'Salla-Allahu alaihi wa sallam' would have acted upon this principle. Since this major premise does not exist, how can the minor premise exist? Furthermore, it imposes great difficulty on Muslims to think of their bodies as foul. May Allahu ta'ala give infinite goodness to the savants of Hanafi madhhab because they made the life of a Muslim easier. They rescued them from committing the haram. How could it ever be a righteous act to speak ill of these great savants and to censure the accurate interpretations they wrote, instead of thanking them? Can anything be said against the mujtahids? They will also be given rewards for their wrong deductions. Muslims who act according to the wrong findings [of a mujtahid] will be rescued from torment. If disbelievers are foul, the things which they touch and do will be foul and haram. Those who describe disbelievers as foul will have said haram about the meals and sherbets which they make. In such a case, people cannot protect themselves against this haram. It is next to impossible, especially for Muslims in India, to protect themselves. Because Muslims are in contact with disbelievers everywhere, it is better to give the fatwa [Answers which a religious savant gives to people's questions.] which is the easiest. Even if it is not compatible with one's own madhhab, the easy fatwa in another madhhab should be given to him. The hundred and eighty-sixth ayat of Surat al-Baqara declares: "Allahu ta'ala wants to have you do the things that are easy. He does not want what is difficult." It is declared in the twenty-eighth ayat of Surat-un-Nisa: "Allahu ta'ala wants your worships to be light, easy. Man was created weak, frail." It is haram to oppress or hurt Muslims, and it is something which Allahu ta'ala dislikes. Shafi'i savants submitted a fatwa that gave permission for the things that were difficult in their madhhab to be done according to Hanafi madhhab. Thus, they facilitated the life of a Muslim. For example, according to Shafi'i Madhhab, zakat [A certain amount of one's property give yearly to those whom one prefers of the eight classes of people prescribed in the Qur'an.] should be given to each of the eight classes of people declared in the sixtieth ayat of Surat-ut-tawba. Out of these eight classes, the classes of disbelievers whom one must please [and the class of officials who collect the zakat and the class of debtors that must be rescued from slavery] do not exist today. Since it has become impossible to find them, Shafi'i savants (rahmatullahi ta'ala 'alaihim ajmain) issued a fatwa sanctioning giving zakat according to Hanafi madhhab; in Hanafi madhhab it is permissible to give to any one of these classes.
[Likewise, in performing a ghusl (ritual bathing), it is fard in the Hanafi madhhab to rinse the mouth, to wash between the teeth and the tooth sockets. Since water cannot penetrate into crowning and fillings, the ghusl of those who have them is not accepted, and they remain in a state of impurity. But in the Shafi'i madhhab it is not fard to rinse the mouth. If a person in the Hanafi madhhab has his teeth crowned or filled for some necessity, he says through his heart when performing a ghusl, "O my Allah! I am performing a ghusl ablution according to the Shafi'i madhhab," then his ghusl ablution will be accepted, and he can perform namaz in a clean state. It is written on the seven hundred and ninth page of the book Hadiqa, "It is permissible to imitate another madhhab in abdast (ritual ablution) or in ghusl. For doing this, the principles of the madhhab imitated must be observed. If all its principles are not observed, it will not be permissible to imitate it. It is permissible to imitate another madhhab even after having done the action that does not conform with one's own madhhab. For instance, Hadrat Abu Yusuf, after having performed a Friday prayer, was told that a dead mouse was seen in the well where he had performed his ablution. He said, 'Our ghusl is acceptable according to the Shafi'i madhhab. It was declared in a hadith that when something foul gets mixed with water that amounts to a qullatayn, it is not foul unless one of its three peculiarities is changed.' A qullatayn is two hundred and twenty kilograms of water. The book al-Bariqa, explaining this point, says that it is permissible to imitate another madhhab when necessity for it arises. The book Durr-ul Mukhtar says at the end of its chapter on 'Prayer Times,' "When there is darurat (compulsion, strict necessity), another madhhab is imitated." While explaining this, the book Ibni Abidin says, "One of the two inferences (qaul) is written here. According to the second inference (qaul), when there is haraj, hardship, one of the other three madhhabs is imitated, no matter whether there is darurat or not. This is the preferable inference. When there is difficulty in doing something, if your own madhhab shows a way of making it easy, or if it is excused, there will be no need to imitate any other madhhab. Quoting from the book Husn-ut-tanabbuh Fit-tashabbuh, it is written in the two hundred and eleventh page of the book Hadiqa: "When someone's nafs does not want to do what is easy, then it is useful for him to act according to a rukhsat by leaving the azimats (difficulties). But this should not lead one to search for rukhsats because collecting the easier parts of madhhabs, which is called Talfiq, is haram and an act of obeying the nafs and shaitan (satan)."]
If disbelievers themselves were foul, necessarily they wouldn't be clean after accepting iman. Then, calling them foul is intended to declare that their hearts are foul. When they accept iman, this foulness disappears and they become clean. That their beliefs and their hearts are foul does not mean that their bodies are foul. These ayats declare that disbelievers are foul. These facts do not change. Changes can be made in commands and prohibitions. Changes cannot be made in the fact of how something is. [The book Hadiqa, in explaining the disasters incurred by the tongues says, "Allahu ta'ala has made alternations, changes in twenty ayats that communicate His commandments and prohibitions." He has not made any alterations in qisas (facts about ancient people) and facts.] Since facts do not change, disbelievers must be always foul. This is the foulness of disbelief and of creed. Thus, the interpretation made will be compatible with the original information. Thus teachings will not contradict each other. It will not be haram to touch disbelievers and their possessions. One day, while explaining this, I recited part of the fifth ayat of Surat-ul-Maida: "It is halal [permitted] for you to eat what the men with holy books, that is, Jews and Christians, cook and slaughter"; and you said that it was wheat, chick-pea and lentil which was permitted. Today, if one of the Muslims under these conditions likes this word of yours, I cannot say anything against it. But, to be reasonable, the right word is obvious. Then, pitying Muslims, we should not look upon disbelievers as foul, nor should we deem dirty the Muslims who have relations and trade with disbelievers. We should not abstain from the food and drinks of such Muslims by assuming that they have become dirty; we should not deviate into the way of abstaining or parting from Muslims. This state is not a precaution. It is a precaution to get rid of this state. Let me not cause your head to ache any longer. My salams be upon you.
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Chapters 35- 41
Chapter-35
Go out of the area of the Omnipotence of Allahu ta'ala with all your strength, if you can! But you cannot. Outside this universe is the place of nonexistence. And this place of nonexistence is also under His Omnipotence!
On an occasion, somebody asked [the great wali] Ibrahim ibn Adham (quddisa sirruh) for advice. He said:
If you accept six things, nothing you do will harm you. These six things are:
1) When you intend to commit a sin, do not eat the food He gives! Does it befit you to eat His food and to disobey Him?
2) When you want to rebel against Him, go out of His Domain! Does it befit you to be in His Domain and to be in rebellion against Him?
3) When you want to disobey Him, do not sin where He sees you! Sin where He does not see you! It simply is unbecoming to he in His Domain, to eat His food and then to sin where He sees you!
4) When the Angel of Death comes to take away your soul, ask him to wait till you repent! You cannot turn that angel back! Repent before he comes, while you have the chance at this very hour, for the Angel of Death comes unexpectedly!
5) When the two angels Munkar and Nakir come to question you in the grave, turn them back! Do not let them test you! "
It is impossible," said the person who asked for his advice.
Shaykh Ibrahim said, "Then prepare your answers now!"
6) On the Day of Resurrection, when Allahu ta'ala declares: "Sinners, go to Hell!" say that you will not!
The person said, "Nobody will listen to me," and then repented; he did not disavow his sense of penitence up until death. There is a Divine Effect in the words of Awliya.
Ibrahim ibn Adham (quddisa sirruh) was asked, "Allahu ta'ala declares: 'O My human creatures! Ask Me! I will accept, I will give! Nonetheless, we ask but He does not give?" Hadrat Ibrahim said:
"You entreat Allahu ta'ala, but you do not obey Him. You know His Beloved Prophet (Salla Allahu Alaihi wa Sallam), but you do not follow him. You read the Qur'an al-Karim, but you do not follow the way it prescribes. You utilize Allahu ta'ala's blessings, but you do not thank Him. You know that Paradise is for those who worship, but you do not make preparations for it. You know that He has created Hell for the disobedient, but you do not fear it. You see what happened to your fathers and grandfathers, but you do not take a warning. You do not see your own defects, and you search for defects in others. Such people must be thankful, since it does not rain stones on them, since they do not sink into the earth, and since it does not rain fire from the sky! What else could they want?" Would not this suffice as a recompense for their prayers?"
[Allahu ta'ala declares in the sixtieth ayat of Mumin Sura, "Make dua to Me, I accept (ask for, I give)". There are five conditions for the dua being acceptable. The one who makes dua, must be Muslim; should have Ahl as-Sunnat belief; should not commit haram; particularly abstaining from eating and drinking haram things; should make fards; should perform five times of namaz; should fast during Ramadan; should give zakat; should know and adhere himself to the causes of what he wants from Allahu ta'ala. Allahu ta'ala creates everything through a certain means. When asked for a certain thing, He sends the cause of that thing and makes that thing effective. Man adheres himself to this cause and obtains that thing. For the sake of His Awliya, apart from His usual means, when they make dua or when dua is made for sake of Awliya, the things wished are given directly to those as (Karamat) without adhering to any cause.]
As you have not come from nonexistence to this world of existence by yourself, so you cannot go there by yourself. The eyes with which you see, the ears with which you hear, the organs with which you perceive, the intellect with which you think, the hands and feet you use, all the roads you will pass, all the places you will go, in short, all the members and systems connected with your body and soul, all of them, are Allahu ta'ala's possessions and creatures. You cannot misappropriate anything from Him! He is Hayy and Qayyum, that is, He sees, knows and hears, and He for every moment keeps in existence everything that exists. Even for a moment, He is not unaware of the state of all and controlling all. He does not let anybody steal His property. He is never incapable of punishing those who disobey His commands. It would not make any difference, if, for instance, He had not created any human beings on this globe, as He had not on the moon, on Mars or on other planets; His greatness would not have diminished for this reason.
A Hadith qudsi states: "If [every one of] your ancestors and descendants, the young and the old, the alive and the dead, human beings and genies, were like My Most Devoted, Most Obedient Human Creature ('alaihi 's-salam), My Greatness would not be increased. Conversely, if you all were like My enemy, who opposes Me and despises My Prophets, My Greatness would never decrease. Allahu ta'ala is free from needing you; He needs none of you. As for you, in order that you might exist and keep on existing and in everything you do, you always need Him."
He sends light and heat by means of the sun. He makes waves of light reflect from the moon. Out of black soil, He creates many vivid-colored, sweet-scented flowers and beautiful appearances. From a breeze, He pours out the breath which gives relief to hearts. From the stars that are a distance of many years, He makes it rain haloes on the earth, out of which you came about and under which you will be buried in the end. Through many a vibration, He creates effectivity in particles. [On the one hand, by turning dirt, which you dislike and are disgusted with, into soil by means of His smallest, most trifling creatures (germs), He turns this soil, which you tread on, into a white-of-egg-like substance, protein, the constructive matter of your body, from the factory of plants. On the other hand, by combining the water in the earth with a suffocating gas in air, again in the factory of plants and by stocking in them the energy which He sends from the sky, He creates starchy and sugary substances and oils, the sources of energy that will operate the machine of your body.] Thus, in plants, which He causes to grow in fields and deserts, on mountains and in rills and in animals that He enables to live on the earth and under the seas, He prepares food which will go into your stomach and nourish you. By placing chemistry laboratories in your lungs. He isolates the poison from your blood and puts useful oxygen in its place. By implanting physics laboratories in your brain, the information coming from your organs of perception through your nerves are taken there and, as He has placed a magnetic power into the stone of iron, so with the effect of intelligence, which He has placed into your brain with other immaterial powers, He can put into your heart various plans, commands and actions that are prepared simultaneously. By making your heart work through very complex mechanisms, which you consider very extraordinary, He makes rivers of blood flow in your blood vessels. He weaves many a dumbfounded net of roads through your nerves. He conceals stocks in your muscles. With many, many other phenomena. He equips and completes your body. He establishes and fits all of these in an order and harmony to which you give such names as laws of physics, chemical reactions or biological events. He places centers of power inside you. He projects the necessary precautions into your soul and consciousness. He also, gifts a treasure called the intellect, a gauge named reason, a means named thought, and a key which you call will. In order that you might use each of these correctly, He gives you sweet and bitter warnings, hints, inclinations and ambitions. And as a greater blessing, He openly sends instructions through faithful and dependable Prophets ('alaihimu 's-salam). In conclusion, operating the machine of your body and instructing you with its experiments, He hands it over to you so that you may use and utilize it in objective affairs. He does all of these not because He needs you, your will or help, but to make you happy by giving you a distinguished position and authority among, His creatures. If, instead of leaving it to your hands, your feet and all of your limbs that you can use as you wish, He used them without you knowing it, like the beating of your heart, the expansion of your lungs and the circulation of your blood, if He rolled you by force, with reflex actions, with paralyzed hands and feet, if each of your actions was a vibration and every movement was a twitch, could you claim to possess yourself and the things He has lent you? If He made you move under the influence of external and internal powers, like the lifeless, or unreasonable and unconscious powers of animals, and if He put in your mouth, like pack animals, a morsel of the blessings -which you take in large amounts to your houses now- could you take and eat that morsel?
Do you think of your state before and when you were born? Where were you, in what were you, during the creation of this globe on which you live, eat and drink, go about, amuse and divert yourself, discover the means that are remedies for your diseases, and the means to protect yourself from the attacks of wild and poisonous animals and enemies? Where were you while the stones and soil of this globe were being baked on fires in the ovens of creation and while its water and air were being distilled in the chemistry laboratories of the Omnipotence? Have you ever thought? Where were you while the lands, which you claim to be yours today, were gliding away from the seas, while mountains, rivers, plateaus and hills were being laid down? Where and how were you while, by means of Allahu ta'ala's Omnipotence, the salty waters of seas evaporated and formed clouds in the sky, and while rains, falling from those clouds, took substances [for nourishment prepared by lightning and waves of power and energy in the sky] into the motes of burnt, dried soil, and while these substances, stirred [by the influence from rays of height and heat], vibrated and nourished the cells of life?
Today, they say that you are of monkey descent, and you believe it. When they say that Allahu ta'ala has created you, enables you to live, causes you to die and that He alone makes everything, you don't want to believe.
O man! What are you? What were you in the veins of your father? At one time, in the veins of your father, whom you insult with such terms as imbecile, old-fashioned and retrogressive, you used to make him feel uncomfortable. Who made you move then, and why did you disturb him? If he had wished, he could have thrown you into a rubbish-heap, but he did not. He hid you like a deposit. While he was so kind as to have entrusted you to a chaste woman, where you would be nourished unsparingly and struggled to protect you for a long time, why do you insult your father by holding him responsible for your inconveniences, instead of expressing thanks to him and your Creator for the blessings you have been given? Moreover, why do you throw your deposit into rubbish-heaps dirtied by everybody?
When people around you follow your wishes and desires, you believe that you are doing everything by creating with your intellect, knowledge, science, power, strength and by inventing all accomplishments. You forget about the task which Allahu ta'ala has assigned to you; you have resigned from that high official duty and have attempted to claim ownership of the deposit. You want to regard and introduce yourself as an owner and ruler.
On the other hand, when those around you do not follow your desires, when external forces seem to overcome you, you can see within yourself nothing but regret and frustration, incapacity and despair. Then you claim that you own no will or option, that you are under the slavery of everything, that you are like a machine, automatic but with a broken spring. You understand qadar not as al-'ilm al-mutaqaddim (eternal knowledge) but as al-jabr al-mutahakkim (despotic compulsion). While saying this, you are not unaware of the fact that your mouth is not like a record-player.
When your favorite meals do not come to your table, you hold out your hand and tongue and eat the dry bread you can reach, though you are free to eat or not and die of hunger; the dry morsels are not crammed into your mouth by force! You eat, but also think that you are deprived of doing under your control, and it has not been due to involuntary movements. But, though you possess your self- control even at such times as this when you have to, you deem yourself compelled, enslaved, in short, a nothing against exterior forces.
O man! Which of these are you? You claim to be 'all' when you thrive and when success and victory are with you, and 'nothing' under the forces of fate when affairs turn out bad or contrary to your wishes. Are you 'all' or are you 'nothing'?
O mankind! O man who is floating on deficiency and eccentricity! You are neither 'all' nor 'nothing'! At any rate, you are something in between these two. Yes, you are far from being inventive, dominant and victorious over everything. But, you have an irrefutable freedom and option and a wish and choice rendering you authoritative. Each of you is an official, undertaking individual and collective duties under the command of Allahu ta'ala, who is the Unequalled Authority, Absolute and Unconditional Owner without a partner! You can do your duties under the rules and regulations established by Him, within the limits of your ranks assigned by Him, within the responsibilities and means which He has created and entrusted to you as deposits. He alone is the Sole Commander, the Unique Ruler and the Single Owner. There is no other commander besides Him, nor a ruler resembling Him, nor an owner-partner with Him. Unless the aims and purposes which you lay claim to and rush upon so zealously, the struggles which you set about, the glories which you take pride in and your accomplishments are for Him, they are all false, vain. Then, why do you accept lies within your hearts and turn off into polytheism? Why don't you obey the commands of Allahu ta'ala, the Unequalled Ruler, and know Him as the Creator? Instead you run after thousands of imaginary idols and get drowned in distress? Whatever you run towards, isn't it an ideal, an option or a belief that drags you on? Why do you look for that ideal in someone other than Allahu ta'ala? Why don't you direct that belief to Allahu ta'ala and spend your alternatives in this belief and in the deeds which are the results of this belief?
When you know Allahu ta'ala as the Absolute Ruler and work without violating His regulations and laws, how much better you will love one another and be attached brothers! What won't the Mercy of Allahu ta'ala create from this brotherhood? Every favor you gain is the result of this brotherhood produced by a belief in Allahu ta'ala, His Mercy and Benevolence. Every problem or calamity you experience is the result of the fury, resentment and hostility which you are filled with as a retribution for not paying attention to Allahu ta'ala, for cruelty and injustice. And this is also the result of attempting to make laws by yourselves and by following others who want to compete with Allahu ta'ala, in short, of not believing only in Allahu ta'ala with a real belief in His Unity.
In short, the chief cause of the problems among humanity is the crime of polytheism committed against Allahu ta'ala. The obscurity of corruption that has surrounded the horizons of humanity, despite the improvements in knowledge and science, is the result of polytheism, disbelief, lack of belief in Allahu ta'ala's Unity and lack of mutual love. However hard human beings will try, they will not escape sufferings and disasters unless they love one another. And, unless they know Allahu ta'ala, unless they love Him, unless they regard Him as the Absolute Ruler and worship Him, men cannot love one another. Whatever might be thought of besides Allahu ta'ala and the way of Allahu ta'ala, all of them are ways leading to disunity and wretchedness. Don't you see that those who attend the mosque love one another and those who haunt the tavern fight?
Whatever you give your heart to, or to whomever you worship besides Allahu ta'ala, each of them can be opposed and equated. And all of them are under the Omnipotence and Will of Allahu ta'ala. He is the Single Ruler who does not have a partner, match, like, opposite or equivalent, and He alone is the one whose equivalent is non-valid and false, a nonexistent equivalent, the existence of which is impossible.
Whatever you follow, worship, love or regard as the absolute ruler besides Allahu ta'ala, be it known that it will burn together with you.
Markaz-i da'ira-i iflas wa bi nawai
Sar shar-i sahhay-i khodgami wa na ashinai
As-Sayyad Abdulhakim Arwasi
Chapter-36
May Allahu ta'ala protect you against every kind of problem! For the sake of the Master of this and the next worlds ('alaihi wa ala alihissalawatu wattaslimat) may He let you attain the blessings of this and the next worlds!
Worldly pleasures and pains are of two sorts: those of the body and those of the soul. Everything that gives pleasure to the body, gives pain to the soul. Everything that hurts the body, tastes sweet to the soul. It is understood that the soul and the body are opposites of each other. In this world, however, the soul has fallen down to the grade of the body, united with the body and given itself up to the body. The soul, taking the shape of the body, has begun to take pleasure from the things that give pleasure to the body, and to feel pain at the things that are painful to the body. Common people are in this state. The ayat "We then demoted it (the soul) to the lowest grade" in Surat-u-Wat-teen indicates their state. If a person's soul does not get rid of this slavery, this dependence, if it does not go back up to its own grade and reach its own native land, shame upon him thousands of times!
Of all creatures, man is in the highest rank
But he also remains deprived of it, to be frank;
If he doesn't turn back and follow the road hinted.
Who else could ever be more disappointed?
Thus one of the illnesses of the soul is that it supposes the things that harm it to be a blessing and the things that aid it to be a disadvantage. This state of the soul is similar to that of a person with a sick stomach; this person tastes what is sweet as bitter because his bile is unhealthy. At is it necessary to cure this person, so it is necessary to save the soul from this disease. The soul, being cured, should take pleasure from the inconveniences and pain given to the body.
To attain this pleasure and delight
Until you die, work hard day and night.
By thinking and observing well, it can be understood that were it not for the cares and disasters in the world, the world would have no value. Tragic events and misfortunes do away with the darkness and dullness of the world. The bitterness of cares and sorrows is like the bitterness of useful medicine that will cure a disease. I, this poor person, understand that at some banquets given with wicked intentions or for ostentation or for some advantages, the offense given to the host by finding fault with the food or through some other annoyance, does away with the obscurity and the sin in the food that originates from an evil intention, thereby causing it to be accepted. If it were not for the guests' complaints and insults that offended the host, the food would be unprofitable and not blessed, and so it would not be accepted. The hurt in the heart causes acceptance. Then, we, who always think of our physical comfort and pleasures, and who always run toward this purpose, are in a very difficult situation. Allahu ta'ala declares in the fifty-sixth ayat al- karima of Surat-u-Wa-z-ariyat: "I created human beings and genies only so that they will worship Me." Worships are designed to break the heart and to enable it to understand its lowness. Man's creation is intended so that he will despise and humble himself. This world is like a dungeon when compared to the Muslims' life after death, the blessings of Paradise. It is unreasonable for Muslims to seek pleasure and dissipation in this dungeon. Then, it is necessary to get used to sufferings, torments and trouble in this world. There is no other way than putting up with the afflictions here (in this world). May Allahu ta'ala, for the sake of your blessed ancestor (Rasulullah), bless us, His weak born servants, with walking in this way!
Amin.
[In the book Rashahat, Hadrat Ubaidullah-i ahrar 'rahmatullahi ta'ala alaih' says, "Man is created to worship Allah. The point and the essence of 'ibadat (worship) is to make the qalb (heart) become aware of Allahu ta'ala at all times."]
Chapter-37
We were honored with reading your precious letter. Some of the great ones of this way informed us that they were aware of Allahu ta'ala every moment, and that they remembered Him every moment even while asleep. You ask how this is so. Respected Sir! For explaining this, it is necessary to write down a few things first; I will write briefly. Read carefully!
Man's soul used to be incapable of making progress before uniting with this body. It was fastened, imprisoned in its private grade. But, after descending into this body, it was given the ability and strength to get promoted. This quality made it superior to and more honored than an angel. Through His mercy and blessing, Allahu ta'ala united the soul with this insensible, unmoving, good-for-nothing, dark body. Allahu ta'ala, who has united the light of the soul with a dark body and who keeps the soul, which is unsubstantial and without time and place, with the body, which is made of matter, is very great. All greatness, all superiorities are peculiar to Him only. No defect can exist in Him. The meaning of this word should be comprehended well. Because the soul and the body are quite opposite to each other, Allahu ta'ala made the soul fall in love with the body so that they might stay together. This love caused them to remain at the same place together. The Qur'an al-Karim informs us with this fact by declaring: "We created man's soul in a beautiful shape, and then later demoted it to the lowest grade," in Surat-u-Wat-teen. The soul's demotion to this grade and its falling in love is an act of promotion in the guise of demotion. Thus, because of its interest in and its love for the nafs [see article 30.], the soul threw itself down into the world of the nafs and became a follower, a slave of the nafs. In fact, it got beside itself, it forgot about itself. It took the shape of the nafs-i ammara, as if it became the nafs-i ammara. Because the soul is finer than everything [because it is lighter than hydrogen, which is the lightest form of matter, and even lighter than an electron], because it is not even matter, it takes the state, shape and color of whatever it unites with. Because it forgot about itself, it forgot its knowledge of Allahu ta'ala, which it had had formerly when it was in its own world, in its own grade. It became ignorant and unaware. Like the nafs, it darkened with the darkness of ignorance. Since Allahu ta'ala is very merciful, He sent prophets 'alaihi-s-salatu wattaslimat', and through these great people, He called the soul to Himself and commanded it not to follow, not to obey the nafs, which is its sweetheart and darling. If the soul, obeying this command, disobeys the nafs and turns its face away from it, it will be saved from perdition. Otherwise, if it does not raise its head and if it prefers to stay with the nafs and not leave the world, it will lose its way and it happiness. It is understood from these words of ours that the soul has united with the nafs, and, even, that it has become the nafs, forgetting itself. Therefore, as long as the soul remains in this state, the unawareness and the ignorance of the nafs will be the unawareness and ignorance of the soul. But, if the soul turns away from the nafs, ceases to care for it and loves Allahu ta'ala instead of it, and if it, getting rid of the love for a creature like itself, falls in love with the Real Eternal, who exists endlessly, and becomes beside itself with this love, the unawareness and ignorance of the outside, that is the nafs, will not infect the inside, that is, the soul. It will not forget Allahu ta'ala for even a moment. How can the unawareness of the nafs ever influence it, while it has parted from the nafs completely? Nothing has penetrated the inside from the outside; in this case, while the outside is in heedlessness, the inside is aware, awake. It is always aware of its Rabb. For example, as long as almond oil is in the pip of the almond, they are like one and the same thing. But when the oil parts from the sediment, they become two different things in every respect, each having different qualities. Thus, a happy, fortunate person who has been promoted to this position is sometimes made to descend back into this world. While he knows Allahu ta'ala, he is made to return to this world, and, through his honored and blessed being, the world is rescued from the darkness and ignorance of the nafs. Such a blessed person lives among the people. Outwardly, he is like everybody. But his soul is not dependent upon anything; its sole companion is his knowledge of and love for Allahu ta'ala. He has been returned to this world despite his reluctance. By looking at his appearance, such a high person, who has attained haqiqat, may be thought of as having forgotten Allahu ta'ala and having ben seized by the love of creatures, like others. But, in actual fact, he is quite unlike them. There is quite a difference between falling in love with something and turning away from it by ceasing to care for it. Let us also say that such a high person's interest in and fondness for creatures are not within his own will. He does not value the world. In fact, Allahu ta'ala wants and likes this state. But others' fondness and interest concern themselves; they embrace the world. Allahu ta'ala does not consent to this fondness of theirs; He does not like it. Another difference is that others can turn away from this world and can attain knowledge and love of Allahu ta'ala. But it is impossible for this high person to turn away from people. It is his duty to be together with people. It is only when his duty is over that he will be transferred from this transient world to the eternal world. Only then will he attain his real position.
Great men of Tasawwuf [see articles 35 and 40] explained the grade of guidance differently. Most of hem said, "It is being together with Allah, while being among people." This difference among their remarks is because the states and the grades of those who have a say in this matter are different from one another. Each of them spoke in accordance with his own grade. Allahu ta'ala knows the truth of everything. Sayyad-ul-taifa Junaid-i Baghdadi's 'quddisa sirruh' word: "Reaching the end is a return to the beginning," is an explanation suitable with the grade of guidance, which we have described above, for in the beginning only creatures are seen and loved. As a matter of fact, the hadith "My two eyes sleep, but my heart does not sleep" does not communicate a continuous attachment and awareness concerning Allahu ta'ala. Perhaps it reveals his awareness of his own states and the states of his Ummat, and that he is not asleep. It is for this reason that our Beloved Prophet's (saw) sleeping would not break his abdast (ablution). Since the Prophet is like the shepherd of a flock in protecting his Ummat, it is not suitable for his rank of prophethood for him to forget about his Ummat for even a moment. Likewise, the hadith "I have such private times with Allahu ta'ala that no superior angel or prophet can come between us at these times" does not refer to 'always' but to 'sometimes.' Even at such times as these he does not necessarily turn away from creatures, for Allahu ta'ala manifests Himself to him. He does not forget about creatures and looks for manifestations. It is like the darling's manifestations to the lover; the lover is not after the darling.
On the mirror of shapes there's no motion, not a bit;
Because, something not glorious cannot appear on it.
Briefly, when returning to creatures, the veils that have been lifted before do not return. Without the veils in between, he has been sent to go among creatures and to be a means for saving and awakening creatures. This person is like a government official who is very close to a great emperor. However, he is given also the task of looking into the affairs and solving the problems of the people. This is another difference between those who have reached the end and then come back and those who are still at the beginning, for those who are at the beginning are behind the veils. As for those who have come back, the veils have been lifted up from in front of them. May Allahu ta'ala give salvation to you and to those on the righteous way! Amin.
Chapter-38
Fana means to forget everything except Allahu ta'ala. Each of the five latifas in alam-i amr has a picture, a likeness in man. These five latifas have been given the names of heart, soul, sir, khafi and akhfa. The majority of Awliya, being unable to differentiate between them, called all of them "the soul." When referred to as "the soul," these five things are understood. [We are made of matter, and live among material beings. Beings that are made of matter consist of the seven skies and the kursi and arsh. These nine classes of beings are one within the other, like the layers of an onion. The outermost one is the arsh. Each layer is very much larger than the one within it. It is like the greatness of the ocean in comparison to a drop of water. There is no matter outside the ninth layer, which is the arsh. These beings which are not material are called "alam-i amr" (beings of command) because they were created with the single command "Be!" Classes of material beings that consist of the nine layers are called "alam-i khalq." 'Khalq' means 'dimension,' that is, matter. Alam-i khalq was created in seven days. The building stone of alam-i khalq is matter. The building stone of alam-i amr is called "latifa." Alam-i amr is made of various latifas. Out of these, samples of five of them were given to men. Profound Islamic savants were able to understand these latifas and even their originals in the alam-i amr. Today there is no such profound savant left on the earth. These five latifas existing in men were given the names of heart, sir, soul, khafi, and akhfa. Even the great savants such as Imam-i Ghazali were unable to differentiate them from one another and called all of them "the soul." Very few savants, such as Imam-i Rabbani, were able to recognize them one by one.] The soul, that is, the latifas, used to know Allahu ta'ala before it united with this body. It used to have a little inclination, knowledge and love towards Allahu ta'ala. It had been given the strength and potential to become exalted and promoted. But it could not improve before uniting with this body; to improve it had to unite with the body. For this reason, first the soul was given an affection towards this body. Then, it was allowed to go towards the body. It threw itself upon the body. Being very fine and very expansive, it sank and penetrated all parts of the body. It became unrecognizable, unknown in the body. It forgot about itself. It came to think of itself as the body. It lost itself in the body. Thus, most people consider themselves only as bodies. Being unaware of the existence of the soul, they disbelieve it.
Allahu ta'ala, being very merciful, sent messages to men, that is, to souls, through prophets ('alaihimussalawatu wattaslimat). He invited them to Himself. He prohibited them from being dependent upon this dark body. He who was predestinated to be good in eternity obeys Allahu ta'ala's commandments and puts an end to his dependence upon the body. He bids farewell to it and goes back up to his former heights. His love towards his asl (origin), which he used to feel before uniting with the body, increases gradually. His love towards a transient being decreases. When he thoroughly forgets about this dark and obscure darling of his, that is, when there is no love left, he will have attained the Fana of the body. Thus he will have passed beyond one of the two basic steps on the way of tasawwuf. From then on, if Allahu ta'ala favors and blesses him, he will make progress and henceforth will begin to forget about himself, too. As this oblivion increases, he will forget himself thoroughly. No longer will he know of any being besides Allahu ta'ala. Thus, he will also attain the Fana of the soul. He will thus pass beyond the second step. The soul's coming to this world is intended to attain this second fana. It could not attain this without coming to this world.
If the latifa of the heart, which is called "Haqiqat-i Jamia," [see article 31] passes beyond these two steps together with the soul, it will attain its own fana together with the soul. If the nafs accompanies the heart in this way, it will be purified too. That is, it will attain its own fana. But, when the nafs reaches the heart's grade, if it remains there instead of getting exalted and passing beyond these two steps, it will not attain oblivion. It will not become mutmainna.
A person who has attained the fana of the soul may not attain the heart's fana. The soul is like a father to the heart. And the nafs is like a mother to the heart. If the heart has an inclination towards the soul, who stands for its father, and turns away from the nafs who stands for its mother, and if this inclination increases and draws the heart towards its father, it will reach its grade. That is, it will pass beyond these two steps. When the heart and the soul attain fana, the nafs does not necessarily attain fana. If the nafs has an affection, an inclination towards her son, and if this inclination increases and makes her reach near her son, who has reached his father's grade, she will be like them. The case is the same with attaining fana for the latifas of sir, khafi, and akhfa. The memories and thoughts being rubbed out and removed from the heart signify the fact that it has forgotten the things other than Allahu ta'ala. Not to be able to remember anything means that knowledge and everything else is gone. In fana, knowledge has to be wiped out.
Chapter-39
Praise be to Allahu ta'ala, who is the creator and owner of all classes of beings, and salams to Sayyiduna Hadrat Muhammad Mustufa Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam, who is the highest of His Prophets, and to all his absolutely pure relatives and Ashab! We were honored with reading your precious letter, a work of your good thoughts and beautiful moral character. May Allahu ta'ala protect you against all faults and defects! You ask about Shaykh Muhyiddin-i Arabi's 'quddisa sirruh' quoting a hadith in his book Futuhat-i Makkiyya. Our Beloved Prophet (sall Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam) says in this hadith, "Allahu ta'ala created a hundred thousand Adams." Muhyiddin-i Arabi 'rahmatullahi alaih' writes a few things which he has seen in alam-i mithal and says, "As I was making a tawaf around the Kaba, there were some persons by my side. I did not know them at all. While performing tawaf they recited two Arabic couplets. The meaning of the couplet was:
As you do now, we for years
All visited this residence.
Upon hearing the couplet, it occurred to me that those persons might be from alam-i mithal. While thinking so, one of them looked at me and said, 'I am one of your grandfathers.' I said, "How long has it been since you died?' 'More than forty thousand years,' he answered. Being astonished at these words of his, I said, 'Historians say that not even seven thousand years have passed since Adam, the first father of human beings'. He said, 'Which Adam 'alaihis-salam' are you talking about? I am one of the sons of Adam, who lived at a time long before than seven thousand years ago'. When hearing this, I remembered the hadith ash-Sharif mentioned above."
[Warning: Ancient astronomers said that the age of the globe, that is, the duration of time from its creation until its end, was equal to the number of planets around the sun in terms of thousands, that is, the earth was seven thousand years old; for they thought that the number of planets was seven. The seven thousand years that is written in many history books and that has been transferred into some religious books originates from this. Some of them said that the earth's age was equal to the number of constellations, twelve thousand years, and some others said it equalled three hundred and sixty (360, the number of meridians) thousand years; these three numbers are no more than suppositions and theories.
Hadrat Idris (a prophet) said, "We did not know the world's age though we were prophets."
The earth's age is written as (360000x360000), that is, a hundred and twenty-nine billion and six hundred million years, in the book entitled Mukhtasar, which Abd al-Wahhab-i Sharani (Quddisa sirruh) has outlined from Tazkira by Abu Abdullah-i Qurtubi, an Andalusian (old Muslim Spain) savant.
Today's scientists estimate that the age of the earth is not less than four billion and five hundred million years, through a method called "radioactivity dating." For example, by finding out the ratios of lead and uranium minerals existing in the ore of pitch-blends in strata now and estimating the time which is necessary for the formation of so much lead out of the amount of uranium that has decayed into lead and the existing amount of uranium, by means of the decay constant of uranium I scientists can make such estimations.]
My dear son! The information which Allahu ta'ala has bestowed upon the lot of this poor person [Imam-i Rabbani refers to himself] is as follows: The Adams who lived before Hadrat Adam, who is the first man and the first prophet, were all in alam-i-mithal. They were not in alam-i shahadat. There was only one Adam in alam-i shahadat, that is, in this world of matter which we see, and he was a prophet. Angles prostrated in front of him. Allahu ta'ala had made a man's statue from sticky mud and had changed it into flesh and bones.
[As we know today, Allahu ta'ala changes earthen substances, nitrates and phosphates, into proteins in the factory of plants, and changes these vegetable proteins into flesh and bones and limbs in an animal's body. Not only science can realize this today, but also with the help of substances which we call catalysts, we can conduct chemical reactions quickly, in a second, that normally takes years. While men can do thousands of years of work in a moment, and as we know that Allahu ta'ala changes earthen substances into substances of flesh and bones in a few years, it is easy to realize through science that He can do it in a moment as well. Just as Allahu ta'ala changed earthen substances into organs in a moment, attached the soul to the body and created Adam, the first man, so on the Day of Resurrection He will re-gather these elements in a moment, will make men's bodies, and will give these bodies the souls that existed. A person's dying means that the soul leaves the body. The soul does not die. On the Day of Resurrection, together with everything else, the souls will be annihilated and then they will be recreated. Today, an intelligent person who can realize Allah's power well through the branches of sciences, such as physics, chemistry, physiology and astronomy, can also realize easily as a scientific fact that Hadrat Adam and all men and animals will be brought out of the soil on the Day of Resurrection. A century ago, Muslims believed this without any understanding. But today, we see it as a simple scientific fact and believe it without needing further proof.
Allahu ta'ala created Paradise and Hell and declared that He will fill both of them with people. For this reason, since Hadrat Adam, who was the first man, the earth has always had on itself Believers and disbelievers, who have quarreled with each other. The irreligious have worshipped the things which they have invented, but the Believers have adapted themselves to the Prophets and books sent by Allahu ta'ala. Contrary to what some historians suppose and what is seen in the motion pictures made up by the enemies of Islam, our ancient predecessors were not unclothe, wild and naked people lacking knowledge and science. Yes, among the ancient peoples there were those who lived ignorantly and simply, as they do today in the deserts of Asia and Africa. Even in the forests of America savage people live like those of the Bronze Age. But neither all of today's people nor all of the earlier people can be said to be savages just for this reason. Hadrat Adam ('alaihis-salam) and those who followed him lived in cities. They knew how to read and write. They had such crafts as blacksmithing, making threads, weaving clothes, farming and making bread. Hadrat Adam, whose age and height could not be known exactly, lived for a thousand years and became a prophet when he was five hundred years old according to a report. Allahu ta'ala sent him ten books. Hadrat Jabrail ('alaihis-salam) came to him twelve times. In these books, the things to be believed in, dictionaries in different languages, performing salat one time a day. (A book by Ibni Abidin says this salat was the morning salat); to make a ghusl abdast; to fast; not to eat a carcass, blood, pork; many branches of crafts; knowledge of medicine, medicinal substances, arithmetics and geometry were included. They even minted gold money, operated mines and made tools. The Qur'an al-karim communicates clearly that Hadrat Noah's ship moved with the force of the steam from its boiler that was heated by means of fire. Not based on any document or observation but for the sheer purpose of denying religions and belittling prophets, some historians say that the people of ancient civilizations were savages and that they did not know anything. In this way, they want to represent each of the Prophets, such as Adam, Shist [Sheet] and Idris ('alaihimussalam) as if they were from a silly tale or a superstition, and thereby train Muslim children to be irreligious and devoid of iman.
Another group of the enemies of religion pretend to be scientists, and broadcast their corrupt thoughts in the disguise of science. For example, they say such things as, "The cell, which is the building stone of all living things, happened incidentally by itself, and then in the process of time there came into being small plants and animals in the sea, then those on the land, and finally it evolved into man." Thus, they mean to say that Hadrat Adam was not created from the soil, that the Qur'an al-karim and other holy books are fairy tales [Allah forbid!] , and that it would be contrary to science to believe in the existence of the Supreme Power, who created the first living thing. These kinds of disbelievers are called Dahri. Those Dahris who present themselves as Muslims are called Zindiqs and Science fanatics.
How wretched these sham scientists are! Yes, the physiologist Haldene suggested the probability that "Millions of years ago, in hot seas, affected by the ultraviolet rays coming from the sun, inorganic gases turned into organic compounds and, at the same time, the first molecule with an equiproductive quality, that is, the cellular molecule that changes food substances into living form like itself, was constructed incidentally by itself." But, this is a hypothesis, not an experiment, not even a theory. Today there is no information or even a theory showing how a molecule with an equiproductive quality is constructed. Scientific knowledge is the knowledge of observation and examination. A scientific fact is first observed with organs of perception or with the tools which strengthen them, and the causes of this fact are conjectured. Then, this fact is experimented on again, and the effects and roles of these causes are confirmed. If the cause of an event and the way it has happened are known, we believe it. But there are also events the causes of which cannot be understood through experimentation. Many ideas are put forth as their cause. These ideas are not certain. Also, different people may interpret a single event differently.
A general idea which can explain all of the various events that are explained through the same cause is called a hypothesis. By explaining many events through one or more hypotheses, by concluding new events and by testing these events and by experimenting and observing these events, among these hypotheses the ones that are decided to be correct are called theories. The perfection of a theory is gauged by how few hypotheses it relies on and at the same time how many events it can explain. Haldene's idea is a hypothesis after all, and is very far from being a theory. If people do not remain in this grade, but acquire correct knowledge about how the first living creatures were created, it will be useful for Islam, not harmful. Everything, living or lifeless, was nonexistent and was created later. Allahu ta'ala declares: "Research how I created everything and see the order, the delicacy in My work! Thus believe in Me and in the fact that My power and knowledge are infinite!" Yes, the enemies of religion not only say that the first living things came into existence by themselves, but they also proclaim that the solar system, stars, and various physical, chemical and biological events all came into existence by themselves. Ahl as-Sunnat savants gave them the necessary answers in thousands of their books, thus silencing them all. They proved with documents that they are wrong. We have explained in the first and third chapters of the Second Fascicle how these fake scientists, who look upon themselves as scientists, are wrong. Our religion declares that Hadrat Adam was created from sticky mud. It does not explain in what manner other animals and plants were created. How can Haldene's hypothesis harm the religion them? Whether he says it or Darwin or Ibni Sina (Avicenna) says it, Allahu ta'ala, alone, moves, makes and creates everything. All forms of energy are the manifestations of His power.
What undermines the iman is to hold the belief that events happened by themselves and to say that animals evolved from one another initially from a one-celled organisms into higher structures and finally to man; science does not prove it true, nor do scientists say so.
A passage from the book Tahafut al-Falasife by Imam al-Ghazzali has been translated from Arabic into Turkish and has been written on the forty-fifth page of the book Marifatnama. There, he says, "Scientists' words are of three types. Their words of the first type explain the facts which scientific experiments have discovered. Though these words of theirs agree with Islam, their wording is wrong. For instance, they say, 'Nothing can move by itself. There is a power which makes everything move. This power is a natural force. Everything is made by nature.' On the other hand, Islam says, 'Nothing can move by itself. There is a power that makes every object move. This power is Allah's power. Everything is made by Allahu ta'ala.' It can be understood that Islam and science agree on the same thing; there is only one difference; appellations. We do not object to these words of theirs. Only, we admit them only after altering the names. Their words of the second type are about things which Islam does not explain, but commands, 'Research and find out!' Whether we believe their words of this type or not, it does not cause the iman to be lost. For example, they say that a lunar eclipse is a result of our earth coming between the sun and the moon, and they can predict its time, for the moon looks very bright when it is facing the sun. When the earth's shadow is cast on the moon, it becomes obscure and indistinct, being unable to receive any light from the sun. And a solar eclipse is caused by the moon coming in between the earth and the sun, and thereby obstructing the sun from being seen from the earth. They say that a lunar eclipse takes place in the middle of the Arabic months, and a solar eclipse happens on the first or the last night of a month." [The sun, earth and moon are spherical-shaped, like a water melon, and they all move in the first heaven. Ancient physicists said that each of the seven planets was in one heaven. On the other hand, it is declared in Surat al-Mulk that all the stars are in the first heaven, which also consists of the earth].
"We do not object to either of these views of scientists, which are of the second type. A person who objects to them by saying that Muslims should not believe such words as these will have striven to harm the religion and to demolish Islam. If one says that they do not agree with the Shariat, while the rules and experiments of arithmetics, physics and chemistry prove that these words are correct, scientists will doubt the correctness of the Shariat, thinking that Islam disagrees with science, instead of doubting such a person's words. It has been experienced that the harm done by an ignorant person who wants to help Islam by using illogical methods is greater than the harm done by those who attack Islam systematically." [Also, Muhammad 'Uthman Effendi of Medina, in his book Basirat-us- salikin, printed in 1341 (1923 A.D.) in Istanbul, rejected the rotation of the earth by saying mawdu' about sahih hadiths. He mislead the youth. In contrast, in many books, Islamic scholars, for instance Abu Bakr Razi in his books Kuriyat-ul-Ard (Kuriyet-ul-Erd) and Sharh-i Mawaqif, has proven that the earth is a rotating spherical globe. Fiqh 'ulama' have written cases on this fact. The sacred meaning of the 22 nd ayat of Sura Baqara is, 'Your Rabb has made the earth just like a bed for you.' Tafsir-i Azizi says, ' He made it calm and motionless for you to sit and to sleep on.' The sacred meaning of the fifteenth ayat of Sura Nahl is: 'I put the mountains on the earth lest it would shake you.' Tafsir Sawi explains this as, 'He created the mountains lest the earth could move and cause you trouble.' And the book Baidawi says, 'Before the creation of the mountains, the earth was a globe without any rocky areas on its face. While rotating or during any other movement it would shake. When the mountains were created, they prevented it from moving, suffering and shaking.' 64 th ayat of sura Mumin is, 'Allah is He who made the earth a resting-place for you.'
Shaykhzada says, 'Abdullah ibni Abbas said that a resting-place means the place of destination, and station.' It is seen that the ayats of Qur'an al-karim and the tafsir books inform us that the surface of the earth is like a saddle, a mattress, motionless and comfortable. It will not be true to deduct that the earth is motionless, and, therefore, it does not rotate on its axis and that does not move around the sun. Today, these two movements of the earth are known for certain and the prayer times are thereby calculated. Please see the sixty-fourth chapter of the third Part of the Turkish original of Endless Bliss (Se'adet-i ebediyye)]. Imam al-Ghazali goes on and says. "When met with events that are understood to be certain and true through calculation and experimentation, it is necessary to interpret ayats and hadiths, that is, to adapt their meanings according to them. Many interpretations have been done in this way." Let us mention also that is not a job for the ignorant, such as ourselves, to give meanings to ayats and hadiths. To be a religious savant, that is, to have a say in the religion, it is necessary to go up to the degree of ijtihad [see article 26]. There is no such exalted savant in the world today. Now the non-savants write religious books for various purposes, and by giving ayats and hadiths meanings at random, they say that Allahu ta'ala says so, or that the Beloved Prophet 'sall-Allahu alaihi wa sallam' commands so and so. They change Islam into a game. We should not buy or read religious books of this sort. We should find and read books that contain the unchanged words of religious savants. But, it is a pity, such religious books are almost nonexistent today. On the other hand, it is deplorably seen that most of the books that carry the names of great Islamic savants and which are sold as translations from them contain harmful additions, deletions and changes. What is even more pathetic to realize about these existing books, some of which are quite well-known, is that a number of ignorant people have been carrying on this business of writing books for centuries, adapting some ayats and hadiths to the wrong scientific teachings of their times and thereby giving them wrong and funny meanings. What pleases the enemies of the religion most is to see Muslims deny (because of some ignorant do-gooders) facts that are proven through science and which are evident. For this will help them mislead younger generations. If scientists say that matter, the cell, the living and the lifeless came to being later while they had been nonexistent, it does not harm Islam whether they came to existence incidentally in the sea or through some other way; for it is Allahu ta'ala who makes everything.
"Their ideas of the third type are those which disagree with what is declared clearly in the Shariat. All of these things are hypotheses, that is, suppositions or fabrications under the curtain of science, fruits of sheer bigotry and ignorance. That everything was created out of nothing, that Hadrat Adam's body, which was made from sticky mud, came to life by changing into flesh and bones, that Allahu ta'ala exists with His Attributes, the things that will happen at the end of the world, and the Resurrection are all within the principles of iman. One should not believe in thoughts that disagree with these or that will ruin the belief in these realities. A real scientist will not utter words disagreeing with these beliefs because they are not things which disagree with science. It is necessary to persuade everybody to believe in them and to refute those who oppose them."
Hadrat Adam's children multiplied and spread over Arabia, Egypt, Anatolia and India. During the time of Hadrat Noah (Nuh) 'alaihis-salam', they were all drowned in the Flood; only those on board the ship were saved. People multiplied from these survivors. As a result of their numbers increasing in the course of time, they spread over Asia, Africa, Europe, America and Oceania, that is all over the world. This migration was both by land and by sea on large ships. Perhaps there were roads from Asia to America and to the Oceanic Islands in those times.
As science makes progress, facts which Muslims used to believe in without seeing or comprehending are being understood one by one through science. Today, for example, the following theories are being taught in schools in Europe and in America: "It has been admitted that there were roads between the southern continents during ancient geological ages. The famous meteorologist Alfred Wegener established the theory of "Kontinentenverschiebung' (the sliding of continents) and said that the five [six today] continents had been attached to one another formerly, and later they parted. By relying on zoogeographic experiments, another professor claimed that there used to be pieces of land between continents like bridges. According to Wegener, continents were adjacent to one another in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic ages. Until the end of the Paleozoicum, animals traveled by land between south America and Africa, between Asia (directly from India) and Australia; animals that lived in Africa after the Eocene passed over to south America by land."
It can be understood scientifically as well that Hadrat Adam 'alaihis-salam' was created from soil, and that people migrated over the earth from Syria, Iraq and central Asia. While some historians, who write not about facts but about propaganda, and who run not towards the truth but towards political advantages, are still obstinate in slandering Islam and Islamic superiors blindly, scientists and scientific knowledge can see and understand the greatness, the correctness of Islam more closely every day.]
Allahu ta'ala created a sample of everything in Hadrat Adam 'alaihis-salam'. He has many latifas, forces. Long before creating him, Allahu ta'ala created one of his latifas, attributes, in his shape for a long time in alam-i mithal and revealed all his deeds and all his descendants that will come until the end of the world together with their names. They all lived when their time came. When their end came, they were called to account, and they went either into Paradise or into hell. After a very long time, as Allahu ta'ala wished, another one of Hadrat Adam's attributes was created in alam-i mithal like before, and when its time was over, there began the term of the third one. And when its time was over, the fourth attribute was put in alam-i mithal. When all his attributes and latifas were finished, finally, Hadrat Adam, who had accumulated all the attributes and latifas within himself, was created in alam-i shahadat, that is, in the world of matter. Allahu ta'ala made him valuable. The hundreds of Adams that had come before were all archetypes of Hadrat Adam. [It can be compared with the rays of the sun coming before the actual sunrise. Its rays, attributes, gradually become visible.].
Muhyiddin'i Arabi's 'quddisa sirruh' grandfather, who died forty thousand years ago, existence in alam-i mithal as one of the latifas, attributes, of his grandfather in alam-i shahadat. He visited the Kaba al-muazzama in alam-i mithal, for the Kaba al-muazzama has a copy, a likeness in alam-i mithal, as everything has. Though this poor person [Imam-i Rabbani refers to himself] thinks and analyses very much, I cannot see more than one Adam in Alam-i shahadat. I can see nothing but the shadows in alam-i mithal. The person who said that he lived forty thousand years before and that "I am one of your grandfathers" was indicating that the Adams existing before Adam 'alaihis-salam' were the shadows (archetypes) of Adam's 'alaihis-salam' latifas and attributes. They are not beings other than Adam 'alaihis-salam' himself. For another of Adam's 'alaihis-salam' sons cannot be the grandfather of this son of Adam 'alaihis-salam'.
Upon hearing of this event and the like, people with sick hearts and little knowledge suppose that it is metempsychosis. Thus, they say that beings were eternal in the past, that they were not created later, and they reject the fact that they will be annihilated again and the end of the world will come. Some irreligious people, who count themselves as Shaykhs and Murshids, believe in metempsychosis. They say that when a soul leaves its body before reaching perfection it transmigrates into another body. They believe that souls will not pass through another body any further after reaching perfection, that they reach perfection through transmigration, and they fable many stories about metempsychosis. However, it is an act of disbelief to believe in metempsychosis, which means that a dead man's soul passes into another child and comes to life again. He who says that there is metempsychosis disbelieves in the Islamic religion. That is, he will cease to be a Muslim. They never understand; if souls reach perfection through metempsychosis, for whom is Hell, who will be tormented? To believe it means to deny Hell, and even, to reject the resurrection after death. For according to their belief the soul will no more need its body, which has already been a means for its maturing. Why should it be resurrected together with the body, then? These false Shaykhs' words are identical with the words of ancient philosophers [and of today's spiritualists and mediums]. Ancient philosophers did not believe that the dead would resurrect. They said that blessings in Paradise and torments in Hell will happen only to souls. They are even worse than philosophers. For, on the pretext of metempsychosis, they deny the torment in the next world and say that it is taking place only in the world in order to perfect souls. [It has been witnessed that genies enter statues, sick people and children and talk. They suppose that those who talk in that manner are double-souled. This supposition also indicates belief in metempsychosis.]
Question: According to some reports coming from the Amir (Hadrat Ali) 'karram-Allahu wajhah' and from some Awliya 'qaddas-Allahu asrarahum-ul-'aziz', they had done astonishing work years before coming to the world. If we state that metempsychosis is not true, how can we believe these events?
Answer: The work that was done by these great men of religion, was done only by their souls. Allahu ta'ala put their souls into men's shapes and these shapes did work like men. Their blessed souls did not enter other bodies. But, metempsychosis means that a man's soul has had a connection with another body before it entered his own body. It is not a matter of metempsychosis for a soul to take the shape of a body. Also, angels and genies do many things by disguising themselves as men, which is not transmigration at all. It is not reincarnation. It is not a matter of transmigrating into another body.
As Allahu ta'ala gives angels and genies the strength to take various shapes, He also gives this strength to the souls of His born servants whom He loves very much. There is no need for another body. [Air always contains an amount of invisible moisture. The white steam coming out of boiling water or out of the pipe of a cauldron is not moisture. It is only tiny drops of water. Colorless gases are not visible. As colorless atmospheric moisture condenses into drops in cold weather, which we call dew, in a similar way souls can take various shapes]. According to what we hear and read, most Awliya have been seen at various places at the same time and have participated in different activities. Here also, their souls and other latifas disguise themselves as men and take the shapes of different bodies. Likewise, for instance, some hajjis said that they had seen a Wali at the Kaba and had talked with him, others said that they had seen him in Baghdad on the same day, and some other people said that they had met the same Wali in Istanbul on the same day. But that particular Wali lived, let us say, in India and never left his hometown. It was that Wali's latifas that took various shapes. Sometimes that Wali does not know of these events. When they tell him that they have seen him, he answers them, "You are wrong; I was at home at that time; I did not go to those countries; I do not know those cities, and I do not know who you are, either." Likewise, some people asked for help from a few Awliya so that they might escape trouble and danger. They would see that those great people were there immediately and had come to rescue them. Sometimes these Awliya 'qaddas-Allahu asrarahum-ul-'aziz' know of the aid they have given, and sometimes they do not know of it. [This fact has been witnessed especially in battles.] It is the souls and latifas of those great men of the religion that did these useful deeds. Their latifas take shapes sometimes in alam- i shahadat, and sometimes in alam-i mithal. As a matter of fact, thousands of people at the same time every night dream of our Beloved Prophet (saw) and get something of value from him. All of what they see are his latifas and attributes taking shapes in alam-i mithal. Likewise, in the past, devotees received help from their murshid's appearances in alam-i mithal; with their help they got rid of their problems.
Ahizada Abdulhalim Effendi, in his book Riyadussadat fi ithbat-il-karamat lil-Awliya-i hal-al-hayat wa ba'dal-mamat, has proven that the Awliya have karamats (miracles) even after their deaths.
It is not metempsychosis for a Wali to do kumun and buruz [The lexical meaning of kumun is to hide somewhere, and that of buruz is to reappear from a hiding place.]. For in metempsychosis the soul connects with another body to enliven it, to make it sensitive and active. But in buruz a soul's connecting with another body is not intended to do this, but it is to perfect that body and exalt its grade. As a matter of fact, a genie can also connect with a man's body and appear in him. But this type of connection is not intended to enliven that person, for that person is alive and is able to hear and move before the genie connects with him. After the connection, some of that person's actions and words are the appearances of the attributes and actions of that genie. By saying nothing about kumun and buruz, great Shaykhs avoided causing those ignorant to be dragged into wrong beliefs.
To this humble person, kumun and buruz are unnecessary. For treating and training those who are ignorant, a Murshid-i Kamil [The fortunate person who has reached the grade explained in article 37 First volume, 99 th letter.] can make his own high qualities be reflected on that person with the strength given to him by Allahu ta'ala, without superimposing his will on him (buruz). Through tawajjuh and iltifat, he can place those high qualities in him. Thus, that low-grade person will become exalted and will reach perfection. Getting rid of base attributes, he will attain good attributes. Doing this does not require kumun and buruz at all. This is such a great blessing which Allahu ta'ala endows upon people whom He chooses. His blessings and gifts are so many.
Some people say that souls transmigrate. They say that when a soul reaches perfection, it can leave its own body and pass into another body. They give the following story as an example: A young man died who was the neighbor of a person who had reached perfection and who had acquired this power. That person's soul left its own body, which was old, and passed into the young man's dead body. The old man's body died and the young man came back to life. These words are untrue. They are stories about metempsychosis. A soul entering a dead body in order to enliven it is metempsychosis. The difference between transmigration and metempsychosis is that those who believe in metempsychosis suppose that the soul is defective and it reaches perfection through metempsychosis, while the former considers the soul perfect and says that it can transmigrate into another body after reaching perfection. According to this poor person, belief in the transmigration of a soul is worse than believing in metempsychosis. This is so because they say that metempsychosis is for perfecting the soul. These words of theirs are wrong. Moreover, why should the soul pass into another body after reaching perfection? Why should the person who has reached perfection pass into young bodies for watching and enjoying the world? The soul that has reached perfection would not want to enter a body; on the contrary, such a soul would avoid another incarnation: the purpose of a soul entering a body has been achieved and perfection has been attained. Moreover, in the soul's transmigration the first body dies and the second body comes to life. However, the first body has to be rewarded or tormented in the grave. If the second body comes back to life it means that for that body the end of the world has come while in the world and it has been judged in the world. I do not know if those who believe in transmigration believe in the torment of the grave and the day of the Last Judgment? It is a pity, these disbelievers have counted themselves among religious men and have attempted to teach Islam to people through their books and magazines. They are trying to make youngsters irreligious like themselves. O our Allah, protect us from believing such writings and from going wrong! Do not separate us from our dear religion, from our valuable iman! Only Thou can protect one from disbelief and aberration! Appendix: By the way, let me give some information about alam-i mithal. Alam-i mithal is the largest of all the classes of beings. Each of all the things in all the classes of beings has a copy, an appearance, in alam-i mithal. Also, each of the things, meanings, and thoughts that occur to mind and imagination has a copy in that alam. Our savants said that Allahu ta'ala does not have an equivalent, a likeness, but He has an example. To his poor person, as I have written in my letters, as He does not have a mithl in the grade of perfect tanzih, the Divine Person (Allah Himself) does not have an example, either. The ayat al- karima which purports, "Do not give examples concerning Allahu ta'ala," in Nahl sura, implies this grade. Man is called "Alam-i saghir." Everything in alam-i kabir has a copy in man. And the copy of alam-i mithal in alam-i saghir is man's imagination. For everything has a copy in our imagination. Also, each of the states or grades of the devotees making progress in the way of tasawwuf has a copy in the imagination. It is the imagination which informs the devotees about their states. If it weren't for the imagination, or if the imagination did not do its duty, sufis would not know of their own states. It is for this reason that those who reach the grades beyond the zils [Shades.] and appearances, become ignorant and bewildered about their own states, for man's imagination can represent a copy of the zils. The imagination cannot go beyond the zils. We have said that the Divine Person does not have a copy in alam-i mithal. Can there be a divine copy in the imagination which is a copy of alam-i mithal? For this reason, what falls to man's lot from the Divine Person is only ignorance and unawareness. Nothing can be said about something which is not known. Therefore, it has been said, "Those who know Allahu ta'ala are incapable of talking." Something which is known can be explained. Therefore, many things are said when in the world of zils. Those who go beyond zils become speechless. So are the states of those who go up to the zils and origins (asls) of Allah's Deeds, Attributes and Names. So it is understood that all the things that can exist in the imagination originate from the zil. But, since they are the signs, the symptoms of the matlub (the Divine Person), they make up a branch of knowledge called "Ilm-ul-yaqin." But the knowledge called "Ayn-ul- yaqin" and the knowledge called "Haq-qul-yaqin" occurs above the zils, beyond the imagination. To escape the knowledge of the imagination, it is necessary to pass beyond the way and grades which tasawwuf calls "Sayr-i anfusi" [ 'Sayr' means 'to go, to make progress', 'Anfus' means 'inside man', 'Sayr-i anfusi' means 'man's progress inside himself'.] as well as the way called "Sayr-i afaqi" [ 'Afaq' means 'outside man'. 'Sayr-i afaqi means 'man's making progress outside himself'.], and to make progress beyond afaq and anfus. Most Awliya reach there only after death. It is impossible for them to get rid of the fancy in this world. A very few selected ones from among the great ones of the awliya were bestowed upon this blessing when they are alive in this world. Their knowledge is not mixed with fantasy, though they are in the world. They attain the matlub without the fantasy, coming in between. Manifestations of the Divine Person, which flash like lightning for others, are permanent for these great people. They attain Wasl-i uryani.
May it be to the good health of those who get the blessing, Let the poor lovers be content with a few morsels!
Question: Some people dream of the copies of alam-i mithal and fantasy, while asleep, and dream that they become very rich or that they occupy a high-ranking position. Or they dream that they become a great religious savant and all people gather around them in order to learn knowledge. On the other hand, none of these happens in alam-i shahadat, that is when awake. Are such dreams true, or are they without a foundation?
Answer: Such dreams are not vain or without a foundation. It means that the person who dreams so has the tendency and talents to become a rank owner or a savant. But, this tendency is not so strong as to become a fact in alam-i shahadat. If this tendency become strong in the course of time, with Allahu ta'ala's blessings, it will take place in alam-i shahadat, too. If it does not become strong enough to happen in alam-i shahadat, it remains as it has appeared in alam-i mithal. It appears there as long as it is strong enough. The case is the same with the dreams of the devotees on the way of Tasawwuf. They dream that they are in high grades, the grades of Awliya. If this state falls to their lot in alam-i shahadat, it is a very great blessing. Otherwise, it remains as it was seen in alam-i mithal; it is worth nothing. Dustmen and porters dream of themselves as judges or generals. But they get nothing when they wake up. Their dreams are of no avail, except that they cause sorrow and repentance. Then, we should not trust in dreams, but we should be pleased with that we obtain while awake.
I love the sun, it is my favorite subject;
No business with night, what should I do with a dream.
1. For this reason, our superiors did not attach any importance to dreams, and they considered it unnecessary to interpret the dreams of their disciples. They valued what was obtained while awake. Therefore, they respected permanent appearances and deemed the state of feeling Allah's presence that never fades as an advantage. It was quite common for them to forget everything except Allahu ta'ala and not to remember anything else. Attaining this spiritual maturity is not too difficult, or it is not too far away from those who, in the beginning, have tasted the things which can be attained in the end.
Chapter-40
Some people suppose that Tasawwuf means to care for one's own business, not to interfere with others and not to deal with anybody. This is not true. This kind of thinking causes the religion to be wounded. I wonder whom he remembers, when he talks like this about men of tasawwuf and sufis? If he means the great men who were attached to Hadrat Abu Bakr Siddiq 'Radi-Allahu anho', (we would give the answer that) it is written in their books that the way of these great people was to cling to the Sunnat-i saniyya [the Shariat] and to abstain from bidats. But, Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar and Bughd-i fillah and Jihad-i fisabilillah are the sunnats of our Prophet; that is, they are of the fards and wajibs of the Shariat. ['Bughd-i fillah' means 'to feel hostility (towards disbelievers) for Allah's sake,' and 'Jihad-i fisabilillah' means 'to struggle for Allah's sake.' We have explained Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar before]. Then, to abandon Amr-i maruf means to abandon the way of those great people. As a matter of fact, Imam-i Muhammad Bahaaddin-i Bukhari 'quddisa sirruh', who was one of them, said, "Our way is to cling to the Urwa-i wusqa, that is, to follow the way of Rasulullah and of his Ashab." For this reason, an insignificant deed on this way gives birth to a great profit. He who abandons this way falls into great dangers. If tasawwuf meant that you abandon Amr-i maruf, Muhammad Bahaaddin-i Bukhari 'quddisa sirruh' who was one of the chiefs of tasawwuf, would not have performed Amr-i maruf to his own master, Sayyad Amir Kulal. While it was incompatible with manners to warn his master, he still did Amr-i maruf. Gathering the savants of Bukhara, he proved in the presence of them all that it was not acceptable in the Shariat to repeat Allahu ta'ala's name loudly, thus explaining to his master the importance of stopping it. Being very pious and in love with a true word, his master admitted it and stopped doing it. Men of tasawwuf wrote thousands of books in order to communicate the things that will cause men to attain salvation and those things which will draw them to annihilation. What are these works of theirs, if not Amr-i maruf ? Sultan al-Hind Hadrat Khawaja Abul Hasan Muiniddin-i Chishti Ajmeri RadiAllaho Anho, one of the great men of tasawwuf, was told by his master, "The darling's way is very subtle and dangerous. Advise everybody and inform them of the danger!" Why did Shaykh-i-Akbar Muhyiddin-i Arabi 'quddisa sirruh' prohibit the sufis in his time from playing music and dancing, while it was he who spread Wahdat-i wujud [Not to know that creatures also exist. To know that only the Creator exists, who is one, and that creatures are His various reflections.] all over the world? Some of them obeyed him and stopped doing so. And others did not obey him and did not stop it. But eventually they confessed their fault. [It is written in the book Hadiqa and also Akhi Chalabi writes in this book Hadiyya, "It is fard to do Amr-i maruf. But it is necessary not to do Amr-i maruf if it will result in instigation or events disliked by the religion."]
Ghawth al-A'zam As-Sayyad Shaykh Abd'al-Qadir al-Jilani (Geilani) Radi Allaho Anhoperforms Amr-i maruf in detail in his book Gunyat-ut-talibin. He says, "It is permissible for a person to prevent a sinner from sinning when it is probable that he will be harmed. Yes, it is, as far as we are concerned. In fact, it is very valuable. He will be rewarded as if he warred against disbelievers for Allah's sake. Especially if it is intended to rescue the victims from the oppression of cruel authorities or to spread iman when disbelief invades one's country. Savants advise to perform Amr-i maruf at such times." If great ones among the Awliya and the leaders of Sufis had neglected Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar, would they have written these in heir books or paid that much attention to them? Hadrat Ghawth al-A'zam Shaykh Abd'al-Qadir al-Jilani (Geilani) says: "Things that are compatible with the Qur'an, hadiths and reason are called 'Maruf', and things that are incompatible with them are called 'Munkar.' [The book Hadiqa, while explaining the disasters incurred by the tongue, says, "Things that are prohibited by the Qur'an and hadiths and by the unanimity of Mujtahids are called 'Munkar'."] Each of them is of two types. The marufs and munkars of the first type are obvious; savants and those who are not savants know them. It is Maruf, that is fard to perform namaz five times each day, to fast in the month of Ramadan, to give zakat, to go on a pilgrimage (Hajj) and things of this type; and it is Munkar, that is haram to commit adultery, to drink alcohol, to steal, to pick somebody's pocket, to charge or pay interest when lending or borrowing money, to snatch away others' property and things of this type. Every Muslim has to command or prohibit these things. The second type is known only by savants, such as kinds of facts to be believed in concerning Allahu ta'ala and how to believe them. Muslim savants command and prohibit things of this type. If a savant has communicated them, those who are not savants may communicate them, too, if they can. The munkars of the second type comprise mostly aberrations pertaining to iman and creed. Every Muslim should cling to the Ahl as-sunnat creed, and abstain from aberrant belief, that is, from deviation and from bidat in creed. One who is not learned in religious knowledge should not dispute with performers of bidat, but the should keep away from them and should not greet them. He should not visit them on religious feasts, at times of happiness, should not perform namaz in their funerals, and nor should he pity them. Since their creed is corrupt, he should deem it as an act of worship not to like them. Rasulullah 'Salla-Allahu alaihi wa Sallam' declared in a hadith, "If a person looks at another person harshly for Allah's sake because there is bidat or aberration in his iman or worship, Allahu ta'ala will fill his heart with iman and will protect him against fear."
[It is written in the book Kanz-i mahfi, "It is prohibited to live in places where ignorance and immorality, that is bidat and sinful activities have increased. Those who migrate in order to maintain their din (religion) will be rewarded with Paradise. It is wajib to migrate from one quarter where there are no pious and wise people and where bidat and intrigues are on the increase, to another quarter, or from such a city to another city. If Muslims in all cities are attacked, they should migrate to another Islamic country. If there are no Islamic countries, you should migrate to a kafir country where human rights are respected and worshipping is free and live there. Please see the thirty-eighth chapter in the second part of (Turkish) Se'adet-i ebediyye! This is because those who live among them will be subjected to the same catastrophe which is expected to befall them. The twenty-fifth ayat of Sura Anfal declares: "And fear an affliction which may not only smite those of you who do what is wrong."]
Fudayl bin Iyad, one of the great men of tasawwuf says, "Allahu ta'ala does not accept the worships of those who love the people who commit bidat in their words and deeds, and He takes their iman away from their hearts. Even if he who dislikes the performer of bidat prays a little, I hope that Allahu ta'ala will forgive him. If you meet a performer of bidat on your way, change your way." Again, he says, "I have heard Sufyan bin Uyayna say that Allahu ta'ala becomes angry with the person who attends the funeral of a performer of bidat until he leaves the funeral." Our Beloved Prophet Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallamdeclared, "If a person makes up a bidat or commits a bidat, may Allahu ta'ala and angels and all people curse him! Neither the fard nor the supererogatory worships he performs will be accepted." As Sayyad Shaykh Abd'al-Qadir al-Jilani's (Geilani) words are concluded here.
If the way of the Great Sufis were to not interfere with anybody, one of them would not have said, "When the Niqar, that is, performing Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar, among the Sufis stops, they are no longer of any use." Shaikh-ul-Islam-i Hirawi Abdullah Ansari said that Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar were called Niqar among the Sufis. [It is written in Nafahat, while telling about the life of Abu Said-i Kharraz, that the one who said, "when the niqar stops," was Abul-Hasan Ali bin Muhammad Muzayyan.] Those who slander the Great Sufis by saying that they did not interfere with anybody, do they not think why the Qur'an and hadiths are full of descriptions describing the rewards and torments in the next world? Will not the person who believes in the vehement torments that are said to be prepared for the sinners want to save his Muslim brother from this danger? If there is a well or a fire in front of a blind man, or if a person is about to fall into another worldly danger, they will certainly let him know of it and show him the way to safety. They will not leave him alone. Then, why shouldn't they let him know of the torment in the next world, which is more dismal and more impetuous and endless, and show him the way to salvation? It means that he who does not let others know or show them their mistakes does not admit or believe in the torment in the next world, and does not have iman in the day of the Last Judgement.
If Allahu ta'ala did not want to interfere with anybody, He would not have sent prophets, He would not have declared the Shariats, He would not have invited people to the Islamic religion, and He would not have let us know that the other religions were wrong and aberrant, nor would He have annihilated those who disbelieved the earlier prophets by tormenting them. He could have left everybody free and alone; He could have not commanded anybody to do anything, nor would He have tormented those who disbelieved Him. Why did Allahu ta'ala order Muslims [that is, the Islamic state] to perform jihad against disbelievers [those who prevent people from hearing about Islam and becoming Muslims]. Whereas, in jihad there is torment and death not only for disbelievers, but also for Muslims. For what reason were the virtues and blessings of jihad for those who perform jihad and for martyrs declared in the Qur'an and hadiths? Why was it commanded to attack evil people, to harass them, and to destroy those creatures of Allah's? As a matter of fact, He also commands man to feel hostility towards his own nafs, and explains that the nafs is at odds with Allahu ta'ala [see article 30]. To perform jihad against the nafs was called the Jihad-i Akbar (the greatest jihad). Why did Allahu ta'ala associate his approval and appreciation to this jihad? Why didn't Allahu ta'ala leave the nafs alone? It means that it is Allah's enemy. Allahu ta'ala wants His enemies to be punished. Owing to His infinite mercy, Allahu ta'ala first sent prophets 'alaihim-us-salatu wattaslimat' as messengers, and then later He sent the Awliya and the savants in their place. By declaring His rewards and torments through their tongues, He did not give an occasion for an excuse or pretext. No one can change Allah's decree and laws. The world's order cannot be rearranged in accordance with the opinions of those who do not know or see what is right. If Allahu ta'ala wished, He could guide everybody to the righteous way and could put everybody into Paradise. But He wanted in eternity to fill Hell with people and genies. A person who realizes the greatness of Allahu ta'ala cannot ask Him the reason why.
Who can say anything against Him, save fear;
What should be done, except giving oneself up.
He who follows the Beloved Prophet (Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam) will also follow him in inviting people and in performing Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar. He who does not do these has not adapted himself to him. If disbelievers were not Allah's enemies, it would not be fard to feel hostility towards them. It would not be the first of the things to bring a man closer to Allahu ta'ala. It would not be an important part of or an additive to iman. It would not cause the Wilayat (the grade of Awliya) to be attained and Allah's consent and love to be gained. Our Beloved Prophet (Salla Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam) declared, "The best of worships is to love Muslims because they are Muslims and to dislike disbelievers because they are disbelievers." When Allahu ta'ala asked Hadrat Musa (as), "What did you do for Me?" he answered, "O my Allah, for you I performed Namaaz, Fasted, gave Zakaat, and mentioned your name very much." Upon this, Allahu ta'ala declared, "O Musa! Your prayers (namaz) are documents for you. Your fastings are a shield against Hell. The zakat is a shade that protects you against the heat of the day of the Last Judgement. Your mentioning my name very much is a light that will illuminate you in the darkness of the grave and the Resurrection. That is, all these are useful for you. What did you do for Me?" Hadrat Musa (as) entreated, "O my Allah! Tell me the worship which is for Thee!" Allahu ta'ala declared in an ayat al-karima, "O Musa! Did you love those who loved Me for My sake, and did you feel hostility towards My enemies for My sake?" So, Hadrat Musa (as) realized that the good deed done for Allah was to love for His sake and to be hostile for His sake.
Love necessitates that you love the friends of your darling and be at odds with the enemies of the darling. This love and this enmity are not within the power of faithful lovers; they cannot help themselves. This happens by itself without striving, without taking pains. The friend's friends seem beautiful, and His enemies seem ugly and evil. Also, the love that occurs within those who are seized by the pretty appearance of the world requires this same process. Unless the person who says that he loves keeps away from the enemies of his darling, he is not regarded as a man of his word. He is called a hypocrite, that is, a liar. Shaykh-ul-Islam Abdullah Ansari 'quddisa sirruh' says, "One day Abul Husain bin Sam'un offended my teacher Husri. Since that day my heart has been feeling unfriendly towards him." It will be appropriate here to mention a famous saying of the great, "If you are not offended by the one who offends your master, a dog is better than you are." These two principles of love are declared in the Qur'an and hadiths. [Those who wish may refer to the Persian original or the Arabic or Turkish versions of the twenty-ninth letter]. As it is understood from these ayat al-karimas, it causes a man to be away from Allahu ta'ala if he loves he enemies of Allahu ta'ala. Unless there is enmity, there will be no love. But this enmity should not cause one to deviate into the way of disliking the Ashab-i kiram, as some people do. Enmity is to be felt towards the enemies. Hostility felt towards friends, as in the example of Rafidis and Shiites, is rejected. Because all of the Ashab-i kiram were honored with attaining our Prophet's presence and company and his blessed looks, which were nourishment for the heart and soul, they loved one another and felt hostility towards disbelievers. They all were darlings of the Messenger of Allah. Can it ever be a principle of love for Sayyiduna Rasulullah Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam to feel hostile even towards one of them! Don't those who say so show their enmity instead of their love?
Question: Of the great Awliya 'qaddas-Allahu ta'ala asrarahum-ul-'aziz', those who believed in Wahdat-i wujud said that everything in this world is a mirror reflecting Allahu ta'ala. In everything, nothing besides the perfect Attributes of Allahu ta'ala can be seen. Then, isn't it necessary to deem everything good, to love everything, and not to deem anything bad? There is a saying: No absolute evil exists in the world! [The pantheism philosophy of Spinoza, a philosopher from Holland, is a copy taken from Muslims' books on Wahdat-i wujud.].
Answer: It is commanded clearly in al-Qur'an Majid to dislike disbelievers, to feel hostility towards them through the heart, and to treat the harbis severely. [Harbis are a class of disbelievers explained at the end of the twentieth chapter.] It is out of the question to doubt this. No matter what disbelievers' essence is, it is fard and necessary for us to adapt ourselves to the Qur'an. Our business is with nass, not with fuss. [That is, our task is with the Qur'an al-karim and hadith ash-Sharifs, not with the books of the Awliya. For example, Hadrat Muhyiddin-i Arabi's kashfs [Manifestation, appearance of Allah's Attributes.] that are contrary to the Qur'an and hadiths, which he communicates in his book Fusus, cannot be documents for us.] In the Last Judgement, being saved from Hell and attaining salvation will depend on the Qur'an and hadiths, not on the books of the Awliya. Fancies, dreams, kashfs and inspirations that occur to the hearts of the Awliya cannot take the place of the Qur'an and hadiths. Those with erroneous kashf or inspiration have to adapt themselves to the Qur'an and hadiths and act in accordance with the Qur'an and hadiths, though they may not conform with their conscience and kashf. They must entreat Allahu ta'ala ceaselessly so that correct inspirations will occur to them and their hearts' eyes will be salved with the dust of Prophets' feet. Also, let us mention the fact that those Awliya who recognize Wahdat-i wujud divide beings into grades. They say that the state and the importance of each grade are different. They do not ignore the rule of Kathrat-i wujud, ['Kathrat-i-wujud' means 'to know of the existence of creatures as well; to know both the Creator and His creatures.' The rules that are put forth by recognizing the existence of all beings are called "the rules of Kathrat-i-wujud (plurality)."] which is the basis of the Shariat. They know that to relinquish it is to be a renegade, that is, to abandon Islam. Since performing Amr-i maruf and knowing the sinners and disbelievers as evil are rules of Kathrat-i wujud, as the other rules of the Shariat are, they deem those who ignore them as mulhids The person who does ilhad [To go out of religion by misunderstanding one or more parts of al-Qur'an Majid. He who does so is called a Mulhid.] and zindiqs [A person who endeavors to defend and spread his own thoughts under the name of Islam, though they are, in fact, incompatible with Islam.]. Also those who say that there is no certain evil have to say that there is evil [in one respect]. Since we have to know disbelievers as evil and keep away from them, this evil in one respect is enough for them.
Those who recognize Wahdat-i wujud do not eat poison. They do not let others eat it, either. They kill the scorpion and the snake and tell others to be mindful of them. They love those who obey them and dislike those who disobey them. Hadrat Jalaladdin Rumi, one of the notables of the men of Wahdat-i wujud, says in his Mathnawi:
"He who will not believe this word;
Now I see him headlong in Hell."
These great people prefer sweet foods, delicious sherbets, exquisite textures, touching voices, fragrant odors, fine sceneries, beautiful appearances to the tasteless, ugly ones, and like them much more. They protect and take care of those who approach them, and they protect them and themselves against dangers. They pick out useful things and avoid harmful ones. They try to obtain what they need. They educate their children. They consult one another about their important affairs, and they do not let their daughters and wives go out without covering themselves and do not let others approach them. They keep their children away from bad friends. They punish the cruel and their enemies, and warn their patients against harmful food. Are these acts of Wahdat-i wujud or Kathrat-i wujud? Then, is it worthy, is it reasonable to try to escape one's duties as a born servant (of Allah) through the rules of Wahdat-i wujud and to cease from obeying the rules of Kathrat in affairs pertaining to the next world, while it is fard to obey them? Is it reasonable to make Wahdat-i wujud a pretext for avoiding the responsibilities we have in this base worldly life? The reason for it is not to believe the divine rules, to disbelieve the Prophets and not to have iman in the Resurrection and in the torments and blessings of the next world. Of those who recognized Wahdat-i wujud, the ones with correct hals [Continuous variation of the kashfs and manifestations that come to the heart.] very strongly adhered to their faith and their actions were compatible with the Shariat. This fact is written at length in books. My father, who was my master, the cause of my coming to life and my happiness, was very careful while making an abdast (ablution), in taharat [cleaning oneself from najasat which is explained in article 34], in namaz, and in observing the adabs [There is a special adab in doing everything. The adab of doing something means to follow the conditions necessary for doing it in the best manner.], and he used to say, "I learned these by seeing them from my father. It is not easy to learn from books how to observe the adab together with all its subtle particulars." His father, the grandfather of this poor person, was a man of Wahdat-i wujud and was an unequalled 'arif [see preface] in the marifats [see article 38] in the book Fusus. At the same time, he was perfect in observing the Shariat. My father used to say that he had learned this behavior from his master Hadrat Ruknaddin-i Chashti by seeing his actions. He was one of the great Awliya of Wahdat-i wujud and he was always overcome by his hals and kashfs; yet it was known by everybody that he was a perfect person in adhering to the Shariat. Hadrat Ubaidullah-i Ahrar was inclined to Wahdat-i wujud. Yet he was matchless in adhering to the Shariat and in spreading the Din, the Shariat. He often said, "If I were a Shaykh, no other shaikh would find a disciple for himself. But I was commanded to spread the Shariat, not to become a Shaykh." Shaykh-i Akbar Muhyiddin ibn Arabi 'quddisa sirruh' was a Sahib-i ithnad [What he said was taken as a document. His words were used as documents.] in the knowledge of hadith and was in the grade of ijtihad in the knowledge of fiqh. He used to say, "With our Prophet's command, 'Call yourself to account (for your conduct) before you are called to account,' some Shaykhs call themselves to account every day and every night for what they have done. I have surpassed them in this accounting; I call myself to account for what I have thought as well as for what have done." Sultan al-Arifin Bayazid-i Bastami and Sayyad-ut-taifa Junaid al-Baghdadi 'quddisa sirruhuma', who may be said to be the founders and the leaders of Wahdat-i wujud, adapted themselves to the Shariat from head to toe. When Bayazid performed Namaaz, the rattling of the bones in his chest would be heard. Everybody should have heard about the words of Hallaj-i Mansur. Nevertheless, he used to perform a thousand rakats of Namaaz every day and every night, and he performed five hundred rakats the night before he was executed.
It is surprising that some of those who say that we shouldn't interfere with anybody and that we shouldn't attack [others'] consciences make intimate friends with the disbelievers, such as Jews, Jukis, Brahmans, Mulhids, Zindiqs, Armenians, Masons and Renegades, who have deviated into different ways. At the same time they say "retrogressive, reactionary, fanatical" about the Ahl as-Sunnat wal Jama'at, who adhere to the Sunnat, to the way of Sayyiduna Rasulullah (saw); and they feel hostility towards these real Muslims, who were given the good news of "It is only these who will be saved from Hell," and who were praised, "It is only these who follow my and my Ashab's way." While they make friends with disbelievers, they take pleasure in hurting, insulting and annihilating these true Muslims. What kind of Wahdat-i wujud, what kind of unity is it to feel hostility towards those who follow the way of Sayyiduna Hadrat Muhammad Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam, who is Allah's compassion upon all classes of beings, while being friendly with disbelievers, towards whom the Qur'an commands us to feel hostility? Isn't this sheer disbelief and enmity towards Islam?
All the Prophets, the Ashab-i Kiram, the Tabiin and the Salaf-i salihin 'radi-Allahu anhum ajmain' [See article 26 for the Ashab-i kiram, the Tabiin and Taba'-i Tabiin.] strove very much to perform Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar. They suffered much torment and torture for this cause. If it were good in our religion not to interfere with anybody, it would not have been said that it was a symptom of iman for the heart to refuse a sin. Indeed, it is declared in the hadith: "Prevent the sinner from sinning with your hand. If you are unable to do it, prevent him through words. If you cannot do it either, dislike it [the sin] through the heart! And this is the lowest grade of iman." If it were good not to perform Amr-i maruf, the worshipper who would not do Amr-i maruf to a sinning tribe would not be destroyed together with them. As a matter of fact, it is declared in a hadith: "Allahu ta'ala commanded Hadrat Jabrail (AS) to sink a city into the earth. Jabrail said, 'O Allah! A born servant of Thine in that city has not disobeyed Thee even for a moment. He has always obeyed and worshipped Thee; 'Sink him, too! His face never changed when he saw sinners'."
Question: The hundred and eighth ayat of Surat al-Maida declares: "O My born servants who have Iman! Take care of yourselves! If you find the right way, others' going astray will not harm you." That is, Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar are not permitted to be done, are they?
Answer: To find the right way mentioned here, it is also necessary to do Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar. That is, Allahu ta'ala declares: "My believing born servants! If you do what I have commanded and worship and perform Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar, others' going astray will not harm you." It is written in books when and why this ayat was revealed, and that many ayats and hadiths about Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar were commanded after it.
Question: It is the Prophets' way to perform Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar and jihad against disbelievers. Isn't it the way of the Awliya not to touch consciences, not to interfere with anybody?
Answer: They are fard [commanded] in the Qur'an and hadiths. The commandments are for everybody. They are not only for some people. Prophets, Awliya, savants and the ignorant are equal in carrying out the commandments. Let us repeat that it depends on following the Prophets to be saved from Hell and to attain endless bliss. Whatsoever the Awliya obtain from Wilayat [see later explanations in this article], from love, from marifat [see article 38] and from qurb-i ilahi [Its lexical meaning is 'to the approach, to get close to Allah'. In Islam, it is used in the sense 'to earn the love of Allah, to be loved by Allah.'] they obtain it as a reward for following the Prophets. What is other than this way is the way of deviation, of the devil. Abdullah Ibni Masud 'radi-Allahu anhuma' says, "One day, the Beloved Prophet Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam drew a straight line for us and said, 'This is the right way which makes man attain Allah's consent.' " Then, drawing some slanting lines like fish-bones on both sides of that line, he said, 'And these are the ways which the devil makes one deviate into." Therefore, if a person wants to walk on the right way without adapting himself to the Prophets, certainly he will deviate into slanting ways. If the obtains something, it is istidraj. That is, it ends in loss and harm. Hadrat Ubaidullah-i Ahrar 'quddisa sirruh' said, "If they gave me all the kashfs and hals that occur to the heart, and yet if they didn't ornament my heart with the Ahl as-Sunnat creed, I would deem myself destroyed, ruined. If they piled up all the disasters and desolations upon me, yet if they honored my heart with the creed of the Ahl as-sunnat wa jamaat, I would never worry." If the hals and kashfs that occur to the Awliya are in accordance with following our Prophet, they make light upon light and the subtle mysteries of the Shariat begin to show up. All of the Ashab-i Kiram 'radi-Allahu ta'ala anhum ajmain', the Salaf-i salihin, and the Mashaykh- i Mustaqim-ul-ahwal [The great men of tasawwuf whose hals, kashfs are correct and whose kashfs conform with the Shariat.] were in this state. In tasawwuf, the two ways which are the way of Nubuwwat and the way of Wilayat are in haqiqat [The information which Allahu ta'ala sent to prophets through an angel is called the Shariat. Each Muslim learns the Shariat from masters. When a Muslim's heart has been purified from sins, information on the Shariat comes to his heart by itself. That Muslim has reached the haqiqat. To reach the haqiqat, it is necessary to strive and make progress in the way called tasawwuf. The spiritual training that is done and the things that are required to enter this way until reaching the haqiqat are called the tariqat. ] a single way shown by the Shariat, for both of them make man attain [to perfection] on condition that he will adapt himself to the Prophet. Likewise, the saying that the ways that will guide man to Allah's consent and marifat are as many as the breaths of creatures is correct, for there is a way that guides every fancy to its origin, and there is a different ayn-i sabita, that is, a mabda-i tayyun, for each creature. In other words, a different divine name causes each creature to be created and to stay in existence. To attain through any of these ways depends on observing the rules of the Shariat. He who deviates from the Shariat will either break down on the way, or will go off the rails. Then, all ways begin with the Shariat. That is, the Shariat is like the trunk of a tree. All the tariqats, that is, ways, are like the branches, veins, buds, leaves and flowers of that tree.
[Emr-i maruf can be carried out in two ways. One is through speaking, writing and every means of communication. However, with this method, fitna may occur if one has an insufficient amount of knowledge, or if disrespect is shown to the people being addressed, or to their traditions or laws. The other approach is to be an exemplary person in your behavior by adopting the superior morality of Islam. Presently a smiling face, a friendly manner, obeying the laws, paying your taxes and debts, and not despising anyone or violating anyone's property rights or chastity is a most efficient and beneficial method of teaching Islam to others. For this reason, it is said that "lisan-ul-hal antaqu min lisan-il- qal" which means the language of the body and behavior, without making use of words, is superior to language itself. Therefore, to live in accordance with the superior morality of Islam is the best way to perform Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i-munkar. It is to carry out an important fard; it is to perform an ibadat. Tasawwuf is the way which enables man to develop the ikhlas needed in worshipping his Creator, and in enhancing the good morals necessary in his dealings with human beings. This way is taught by a Murshid-i kamil. Every science has its own specialists. Man learns a specific branch of science from its specialist. The specialist of the knowledge of tasawwuf is the one who is a Murshid-i kamil. Anyone who is a specialist in any branch of science is not called a Murshid-i kamil.]
Chapter-41
My dear son! Today, you are in a situation that will permit you to do easily whatever you want. You are at an age when youth, health, power, strength, wealth and comfort are found together in the same place. Why do you put it off until tomorrow to hold on to the means that will cause you to attain sadat-i ebediyya (endless bliss) and to perform useful deeds? In the days of youth the best time of man's life, man should try to do the commands of his Owner, of his Creator, and to worship Him, which is the best and the most useful of deeds. He should abstain from the harams, which Islam prohibits, and from what is dubious. [By dubious we mean the actions which we do not know for sure are permitted or forbidden]. He should do his best not to lose the opportunity of performing the five daily prayers of namaz in jamaat [One person performs Namaaz in the front; the others, behind him, perform it like him by adapting themselves to him. The person who performs it in the front is called the Imam. Those who perform it behind him are called the Jama'at.]. It is commanded that those Muslims who have the amount of property to reach the nisab [It means border. It is the amount of property distinguishing being rich from being poor. He who has property less than this amount is called poor. He whose property is more than this amount is called rich.] must give Zakaat. It is certainly necessary for them to give Zakaat. Then, one should give the zakat willingly and, even, by imploring the poor to take it. Because Allahu ta'ala is very merciful and He pities His born servants very much, He decreed only five prayers for worship in twenty-four hours and commanded giving the poor, exactly or approximately, only one-fortieth of the commercial goods and that much of the quadruped livestock that graze in fields. He prohibited a few things and gave permission to do many things.
Then it is an act of headlong obstinacy and unreasonableness not to reserve an amount of time that will not take even one hour out of twenty-four hours to do Allah's commandments or not to give one-fortieth of one's property, though one is rich, to the poor Muslims, and instead strive to do what is haram and dubious, leaving aside the innumerable permissible things.
Youth is a time when the nafs boils, the sensual desires jump about and fiendish people and satanic genies attack. A little goodness done at such an age will be given much thawab. When old, when worldly pleasures are on the decline, when power and strength are gone, and when there is no longer any possibility or hope of getting what is desired, nothing can be done except to sigh. Many people do not have a share even from that time of regret. That regret means repentance and is still a great blessing. Many cannot reach those days.
The eternal torments and various sufferings, which our Beloved Prophet Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam communicated, will certainly take place, and everybody will get his deserts. Today, wicked people and devilish genies deceive us by putting forth Allah's forgiveness and compassion and prevent us from worshipping and drag us towards sinning. However, one should know well that this world is a place of examination. Therefore, the darlings and the enemies are put together here, and all of them are pitied. Indeed, He declares in the hundred and fifty-fifth ayat of Surat al-Araf: "My mercy includes everything." But on the Day of Resurrection the enemies will be separated from the darlings. The ayat, "O kafirs! Today separate from those whom I love!" in Surat al-Yasin, communicates this fact. On that day, only the darlings will be pitied; there won't be any mercy for the enemies, who will certainly be cursed. As a matter of fact, the ayat, "On that day, My mercy will be peculiar only to those who, fearing Me, abstained from being kafirs and from sinning, gave Zakaat, and believed in the Qur'an and My Beloved ProphetSalla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam," in Surat-ul-Araf, conveys that this will be so. Then, on that day, the mercy of Allahu ta'ala will be given to the abrar, that is, to those Muslims with a good temper and useful deeds. Yes, all Muslims, all those with iman as even much as a mote, will attain mercy in the end, even after staying in Hell for a long time. But, for attaining mercy, it is necessary to die with iman. Nevertheless, when the heart darkens from sinning, when the commands and prohibitions of Allahu ta'ala are slighted, how can the light of iman be protected from going out during the final breath? Great men of the religion say, "Continuing venial sins causes grave sins. And continuing grave sins drifts one into becoming a disbeliever." May Allahu ta'ala protect us against being so!
Translation of a Persian couplet:
I talked very little and feared hurting your heart
Knowing your short temper, I refrained from what I'd impart.
May Allahu ta'ala bless us with doing the things which He likes! For the sake of His Beloved Prophet, Sayyiduna Hadrat Muhammad Mustufa Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam, and his dear Ahl al-bayt, may He accept our prayer! The carrier of this letter, Mawlana Ishaq, is an acquaintance and mukhlis of this faqir. We have shared the rights of neighbors for a long time. If he asks for any sort of assistance, I hope that you will not disappoint him, inshallah. He has the talent of elegance of style in handwriting. Wassalam.
No, no! You are never treated unjustly by your Allah!
What you suffer from is an atonement for your deeds!
ANSWER TO A UNIVERSITY STUDENT
The following is the simplified translation of a letter written as an answer to a university student by 'Abdulhakim-i Arwasi (quddisa sirruh) when he was the senior professor of Tasawwuf at the Madrasat al-mutahassisin, the Faculty of Theology, which was located in the Sultan Salim Mosque in Istanbul during the declining years of the Ottoman Empire.Go out of the area of the Omnipotence of Allahu ta'ala with all your strength, if you can! But you cannot. Outside this universe is the place of nonexistence. And this place of nonexistence is also under His Omnipotence!
On an occasion, somebody asked [the great wali] Ibrahim ibn Adham (quddisa sirruh) for advice. He said:
If you accept six things, nothing you do will harm you. These six things are:
1) When you intend to commit a sin, do not eat the food He gives! Does it befit you to eat His food and to disobey Him?
2) When you want to rebel against Him, go out of His Domain! Does it befit you to be in His Domain and to be in rebellion against Him?
3) When you want to disobey Him, do not sin where He sees you! Sin where He does not see you! It simply is unbecoming to he in His Domain, to eat His food and then to sin where He sees you!
4) When the Angel of Death comes to take away your soul, ask him to wait till you repent! You cannot turn that angel back! Repent before he comes, while you have the chance at this very hour, for the Angel of Death comes unexpectedly!
5) When the two angels Munkar and Nakir come to question you in the grave, turn them back! Do not let them test you! "
It is impossible," said the person who asked for his advice.
Shaykh Ibrahim said, "Then prepare your answers now!"
6) On the Day of Resurrection, when Allahu ta'ala declares: "Sinners, go to Hell!" say that you will not!
The person said, "Nobody will listen to me," and then repented; he did not disavow his sense of penitence up until death. There is a Divine Effect in the words of Awliya.
Ibrahim ibn Adham (quddisa sirruh) was asked, "Allahu ta'ala declares: 'O My human creatures! Ask Me! I will accept, I will give! Nonetheless, we ask but He does not give?" Hadrat Ibrahim said:
"You entreat Allahu ta'ala, but you do not obey Him. You know His Beloved Prophet (Salla Allahu Alaihi wa Sallam), but you do not follow him. You read the Qur'an al-Karim, but you do not follow the way it prescribes. You utilize Allahu ta'ala's blessings, but you do not thank Him. You know that Paradise is for those who worship, but you do not make preparations for it. You know that He has created Hell for the disobedient, but you do not fear it. You see what happened to your fathers and grandfathers, but you do not take a warning. You do not see your own defects, and you search for defects in others. Such people must be thankful, since it does not rain stones on them, since they do not sink into the earth, and since it does not rain fire from the sky! What else could they want?" Would not this suffice as a recompense for their prayers?"
[Allahu ta'ala declares in the sixtieth ayat of Mumin Sura, "Make dua to Me, I accept (ask for, I give)". There are five conditions for the dua being acceptable. The one who makes dua, must be Muslim; should have Ahl as-Sunnat belief; should not commit haram; particularly abstaining from eating and drinking haram things; should make fards; should perform five times of namaz; should fast during Ramadan; should give zakat; should know and adhere himself to the causes of what he wants from Allahu ta'ala. Allahu ta'ala creates everything through a certain means. When asked for a certain thing, He sends the cause of that thing and makes that thing effective. Man adheres himself to this cause and obtains that thing. For the sake of His Awliya, apart from His usual means, when they make dua or when dua is made for sake of Awliya, the things wished are given directly to those as (Karamat) without adhering to any cause.]
As you have not come from nonexistence to this world of existence by yourself, so you cannot go there by yourself. The eyes with which you see, the ears with which you hear, the organs with which you perceive, the intellect with which you think, the hands and feet you use, all the roads you will pass, all the places you will go, in short, all the members and systems connected with your body and soul, all of them, are Allahu ta'ala's possessions and creatures. You cannot misappropriate anything from Him! He is Hayy and Qayyum, that is, He sees, knows and hears, and He for every moment keeps in existence everything that exists. Even for a moment, He is not unaware of the state of all and controlling all. He does not let anybody steal His property. He is never incapable of punishing those who disobey His commands. It would not make any difference, if, for instance, He had not created any human beings on this globe, as He had not on the moon, on Mars or on other planets; His greatness would not have diminished for this reason.
A Hadith qudsi states: "If [every one of] your ancestors and descendants, the young and the old, the alive and the dead, human beings and genies, were like My Most Devoted, Most Obedient Human Creature ('alaihi 's-salam), My Greatness would not be increased. Conversely, if you all were like My enemy, who opposes Me and despises My Prophets, My Greatness would never decrease. Allahu ta'ala is free from needing you; He needs none of you. As for you, in order that you might exist and keep on existing and in everything you do, you always need Him."
He sends light and heat by means of the sun. He makes waves of light reflect from the moon. Out of black soil, He creates many vivid-colored, sweet-scented flowers and beautiful appearances. From a breeze, He pours out the breath which gives relief to hearts. From the stars that are a distance of many years, He makes it rain haloes on the earth, out of which you came about and under which you will be buried in the end. Through many a vibration, He creates effectivity in particles. [On the one hand, by turning dirt, which you dislike and are disgusted with, into soil by means of His smallest, most trifling creatures (germs), He turns this soil, which you tread on, into a white-of-egg-like substance, protein, the constructive matter of your body, from the factory of plants. On the other hand, by combining the water in the earth with a suffocating gas in air, again in the factory of plants and by stocking in them the energy which He sends from the sky, He creates starchy and sugary substances and oils, the sources of energy that will operate the machine of your body.] Thus, in plants, which He causes to grow in fields and deserts, on mountains and in rills and in animals that He enables to live on the earth and under the seas, He prepares food which will go into your stomach and nourish you. By placing chemistry laboratories in your lungs. He isolates the poison from your blood and puts useful oxygen in its place. By implanting physics laboratories in your brain, the information coming from your organs of perception through your nerves are taken there and, as He has placed a magnetic power into the stone of iron, so with the effect of intelligence, which He has placed into your brain with other immaterial powers, He can put into your heart various plans, commands and actions that are prepared simultaneously. By making your heart work through very complex mechanisms, which you consider very extraordinary, He makes rivers of blood flow in your blood vessels. He weaves many a dumbfounded net of roads through your nerves. He conceals stocks in your muscles. With many, many other phenomena. He equips and completes your body. He establishes and fits all of these in an order and harmony to which you give such names as laws of physics, chemical reactions or biological events. He places centers of power inside you. He projects the necessary precautions into your soul and consciousness. He also, gifts a treasure called the intellect, a gauge named reason, a means named thought, and a key which you call will. In order that you might use each of these correctly, He gives you sweet and bitter warnings, hints, inclinations and ambitions. And as a greater blessing, He openly sends instructions through faithful and dependable Prophets ('alaihimu 's-salam). In conclusion, operating the machine of your body and instructing you with its experiments, He hands it over to you so that you may use and utilize it in objective affairs. He does all of these not because He needs you, your will or help, but to make you happy by giving you a distinguished position and authority among, His creatures. If, instead of leaving it to your hands, your feet and all of your limbs that you can use as you wish, He used them without you knowing it, like the beating of your heart, the expansion of your lungs and the circulation of your blood, if He rolled you by force, with reflex actions, with paralyzed hands and feet, if each of your actions was a vibration and every movement was a twitch, could you claim to possess yourself and the things He has lent you? If He made you move under the influence of external and internal powers, like the lifeless, or unreasonable and unconscious powers of animals, and if He put in your mouth, like pack animals, a morsel of the blessings -which you take in large amounts to your houses now- could you take and eat that morsel?
Do you think of your state before and when you were born? Where were you, in what were you, during the creation of this globe on which you live, eat and drink, go about, amuse and divert yourself, discover the means that are remedies for your diseases, and the means to protect yourself from the attacks of wild and poisonous animals and enemies? Where were you while the stones and soil of this globe were being baked on fires in the ovens of creation and while its water and air were being distilled in the chemistry laboratories of the Omnipotence? Have you ever thought? Where were you while the lands, which you claim to be yours today, were gliding away from the seas, while mountains, rivers, plateaus and hills were being laid down? Where and how were you while, by means of Allahu ta'ala's Omnipotence, the salty waters of seas evaporated and formed clouds in the sky, and while rains, falling from those clouds, took substances [for nourishment prepared by lightning and waves of power and energy in the sky] into the motes of burnt, dried soil, and while these substances, stirred [by the influence from rays of height and heat], vibrated and nourished the cells of life?
Today, they say that you are of monkey descent, and you believe it. When they say that Allahu ta'ala has created you, enables you to live, causes you to die and that He alone makes everything, you don't want to believe.
O man! What are you? What were you in the veins of your father? At one time, in the veins of your father, whom you insult with such terms as imbecile, old-fashioned and retrogressive, you used to make him feel uncomfortable. Who made you move then, and why did you disturb him? If he had wished, he could have thrown you into a rubbish-heap, but he did not. He hid you like a deposit. While he was so kind as to have entrusted you to a chaste woman, where you would be nourished unsparingly and struggled to protect you for a long time, why do you insult your father by holding him responsible for your inconveniences, instead of expressing thanks to him and your Creator for the blessings you have been given? Moreover, why do you throw your deposit into rubbish-heaps dirtied by everybody?
When people around you follow your wishes and desires, you believe that you are doing everything by creating with your intellect, knowledge, science, power, strength and by inventing all accomplishments. You forget about the task which Allahu ta'ala has assigned to you; you have resigned from that high official duty and have attempted to claim ownership of the deposit. You want to regard and introduce yourself as an owner and ruler.
On the other hand, when those around you do not follow your desires, when external forces seem to overcome you, you can see within yourself nothing but regret and frustration, incapacity and despair. Then you claim that you own no will or option, that you are under the slavery of everything, that you are like a machine, automatic but with a broken spring. You understand qadar not as al-'ilm al-mutaqaddim (eternal knowledge) but as al-jabr al-mutahakkim (despotic compulsion). While saying this, you are not unaware of the fact that your mouth is not like a record-player.
When your favorite meals do not come to your table, you hold out your hand and tongue and eat the dry bread you can reach, though you are free to eat or not and die of hunger; the dry morsels are not crammed into your mouth by force! You eat, but also think that you are deprived of doing under your control, and it has not been due to involuntary movements. But, though you possess your self- control even at such times as this when you have to, you deem yourself compelled, enslaved, in short, a nothing against exterior forces.
O man! Which of these are you? You claim to be 'all' when you thrive and when success and victory are with you, and 'nothing' under the forces of fate when affairs turn out bad or contrary to your wishes. Are you 'all' or are you 'nothing'?
O mankind! O man who is floating on deficiency and eccentricity! You are neither 'all' nor 'nothing'! At any rate, you are something in between these two. Yes, you are far from being inventive, dominant and victorious over everything. But, you have an irrefutable freedom and option and a wish and choice rendering you authoritative. Each of you is an official, undertaking individual and collective duties under the command of Allahu ta'ala, who is the Unequalled Authority, Absolute and Unconditional Owner without a partner! You can do your duties under the rules and regulations established by Him, within the limits of your ranks assigned by Him, within the responsibilities and means which He has created and entrusted to you as deposits. He alone is the Sole Commander, the Unique Ruler and the Single Owner. There is no other commander besides Him, nor a ruler resembling Him, nor an owner-partner with Him. Unless the aims and purposes which you lay claim to and rush upon so zealously, the struggles which you set about, the glories which you take pride in and your accomplishments are for Him, they are all false, vain. Then, why do you accept lies within your hearts and turn off into polytheism? Why don't you obey the commands of Allahu ta'ala, the Unequalled Ruler, and know Him as the Creator? Instead you run after thousands of imaginary idols and get drowned in distress? Whatever you run towards, isn't it an ideal, an option or a belief that drags you on? Why do you look for that ideal in someone other than Allahu ta'ala? Why don't you direct that belief to Allahu ta'ala and spend your alternatives in this belief and in the deeds which are the results of this belief?
When you know Allahu ta'ala as the Absolute Ruler and work without violating His regulations and laws, how much better you will love one another and be attached brothers! What won't the Mercy of Allahu ta'ala create from this brotherhood? Every favor you gain is the result of this brotherhood produced by a belief in Allahu ta'ala, His Mercy and Benevolence. Every problem or calamity you experience is the result of the fury, resentment and hostility which you are filled with as a retribution for not paying attention to Allahu ta'ala, for cruelty and injustice. And this is also the result of attempting to make laws by yourselves and by following others who want to compete with Allahu ta'ala, in short, of not believing only in Allahu ta'ala with a real belief in His Unity.
In short, the chief cause of the problems among humanity is the crime of polytheism committed against Allahu ta'ala. The obscurity of corruption that has surrounded the horizons of humanity, despite the improvements in knowledge and science, is the result of polytheism, disbelief, lack of belief in Allahu ta'ala's Unity and lack of mutual love. However hard human beings will try, they will not escape sufferings and disasters unless they love one another. And, unless they know Allahu ta'ala, unless they love Him, unless they regard Him as the Absolute Ruler and worship Him, men cannot love one another. Whatever might be thought of besides Allahu ta'ala and the way of Allahu ta'ala, all of them are ways leading to disunity and wretchedness. Don't you see that those who attend the mosque love one another and those who haunt the tavern fight?
Whatever you give your heart to, or to whomever you worship besides Allahu ta'ala, each of them can be opposed and equated. And all of them are under the Omnipotence and Will of Allahu ta'ala. He is the Single Ruler who does not have a partner, match, like, opposite or equivalent, and He alone is the one whose equivalent is non-valid and false, a nonexistent equivalent, the existence of which is impossible.
Whatever you follow, worship, love or regard as the absolute ruler besides Allahu ta'ala, be it known that it will burn together with you.
Markaz-i da'ira-i iflas wa bi nawai
Sar shar-i sahhay-i khodgami wa na ashinai
As-Sayyad Abdulhakim Arwasi
Chapter-36
36 - FIRST VOLUME, 64 th LETTER
The soul and the body are the opposite of each other
This letter, written to Naqib and As-Sayyad Shaykh Farid 'quddisa sirruh', explains the advantages and disadvantages of the body and soul, and recommends enduring the nuisances and pains inflicted on the body.May Allahu ta'ala protect you against every kind of problem! For the sake of the Master of this and the next worlds ('alaihi wa ala alihissalawatu wattaslimat) may He let you attain the blessings of this and the next worlds!
Worldly pleasures and pains are of two sorts: those of the body and those of the soul. Everything that gives pleasure to the body, gives pain to the soul. Everything that hurts the body, tastes sweet to the soul. It is understood that the soul and the body are opposites of each other. In this world, however, the soul has fallen down to the grade of the body, united with the body and given itself up to the body. The soul, taking the shape of the body, has begun to take pleasure from the things that give pleasure to the body, and to feel pain at the things that are painful to the body. Common people are in this state. The ayat "We then demoted it (the soul) to the lowest grade" in Surat-u-Wat-teen indicates their state. If a person's soul does not get rid of this slavery, this dependence, if it does not go back up to its own grade and reach its own native land, shame upon him thousands of times!
Of all creatures, man is in the highest rank
But he also remains deprived of it, to be frank;
If he doesn't turn back and follow the road hinted.
Who else could ever be more disappointed?
Thus one of the illnesses of the soul is that it supposes the things that harm it to be a blessing and the things that aid it to be a disadvantage. This state of the soul is similar to that of a person with a sick stomach; this person tastes what is sweet as bitter because his bile is unhealthy. At is it necessary to cure this person, so it is necessary to save the soul from this disease. The soul, being cured, should take pleasure from the inconveniences and pain given to the body.
To attain this pleasure and delight
Until you die, work hard day and night.
By thinking and observing well, it can be understood that were it not for the cares and disasters in the world, the world would have no value. Tragic events and misfortunes do away with the darkness and dullness of the world. The bitterness of cares and sorrows is like the bitterness of useful medicine that will cure a disease. I, this poor person, understand that at some banquets given with wicked intentions or for ostentation or for some advantages, the offense given to the host by finding fault with the food or through some other annoyance, does away with the obscurity and the sin in the food that originates from an evil intention, thereby causing it to be accepted. If it were not for the guests' complaints and insults that offended the host, the food would be unprofitable and not blessed, and so it would not be accepted. The hurt in the heart causes acceptance. Then, we, who always think of our physical comfort and pleasures, and who always run toward this purpose, are in a very difficult situation. Allahu ta'ala declares in the fifty-sixth ayat al- karima of Surat-u-Wa-z-ariyat: "I created human beings and genies only so that they will worship Me." Worships are designed to break the heart and to enable it to understand its lowness. Man's creation is intended so that he will despise and humble himself. This world is like a dungeon when compared to the Muslims' life after death, the blessings of Paradise. It is unreasonable for Muslims to seek pleasure and dissipation in this dungeon. Then, it is necessary to get used to sufferings, torments and trouble in this world. There is no other way than putting up with the afflictions here (in this world). May Allahu ta'ala, for the sake of your blessed ancestor (Rasulullah), bless us, His weak born servants, with walking in this way!
Amin.
[In the book Rashahat, Hadrat Ubaidullah-i ahrar 'rahmatullahi ta'ala alaih' says, "Man is created to worship Allah. The point and the essence of 'ibadat (worship) is to make the qalb (heart) become aware of Allahu ta'ala at all times."]
Chapter-37
37 - FIRST VOLUME, 99 th LETTER
Nafs - How not to forget Allahu ta'ala even for a moment?
This letter, written as a response to Molla Hasan Kishmiri, explains how not to forget Allahu ta'ala for a moment and that He will not be forgotten even while one is asleep, or when one is unconscious.We were honored with reading your precious letter. Some of the great ones of this way informed us that they were aware of Allahu ta'ala every moment, and that they remembered Him every moment even while asleep. You ask how this is so. Respected Sir! For explaining this, it is necessary to write down a few things first; I will write briefly. Read carefully!
Man's soul used to be incapable of making progress before uniting with this body. It was fastened, imprisoned in its private grade. But, after descending into this body, it was given the ability and strength to get promoted. This quality made it superior to and more honored than an angel. Through His mercy and blessing, Allahu ta'ala united the soul with this insensible, unmoving, good-for-nothing, dark body. Allahu ta'ala, who has united the light of the soul with a dark body and who keeps the soul, which is unsubstantial and without time and place, with the body, which is made of matter, is very great. All greatness, all superiorities are peculiar to Him only. No defect can exist in Him. The meaning of this word should be comprehended well. Because the soul and the body are quite opposite to each other, Allahu ta'ala made the soul fall in love with the body so that they might stay together. This love caused them to remain at the same place together. The Qur'an al-Karim informs us with this fact by declaring: "We created man's soul in a beautiful shape, and then later demoted it to the lowest grade," in Surat-u-Wat-teen. The soul's demotion to this grade and its falling in love is an act of promotion in the guise of demotion. Thus, because of its interest in and its love for the nafs [see article 30.], the soul threw itself down into the world of the nafs and became a follower, a slave of the nafs. In fact, it got beside itself, it forgot about itself. It took the shape of the nafs-i ammara, as if it became the nafs-i ammara. Because the soul is finer than everything [because it is lighter than hydrogen, which is the lightest form of matter, and even lighter than an electron], because it is not even matter, it takes the state, shape and color of whatever it unites with. Because it forgot about itself, it forgot its knowledge of Allahu ta'ala, which it had had formerly when it was in its own world, in its own grade. It became ignorant and unaware. Like the nafs, it darkened with the darkness of ignorance. Since Allahu ta'ala is very merciful, He sent prophets 'alaihi-s-salatu wattaslimat', and through these great people, He called the soul to Himself and commanded it not to follow, not to obey the nafs, which is its sweetheart and darling. If the soul, obeying this command, disobeys the nafs and turns its face away from it, it will be saved from perdition. Otherwise, if it does not raise its head and if it prefers to stay with the nafs and not leave the world, it will lose its way and it happiness. It is understood from these words of ours that the soul has united with the nafs, and, even, that it has become the nafs, forgetting itself. Therefore, as long as the soul remains in this state, the unawareness and the ignorance of the nafs will be the unawareness and ignorance of the soul. But, if the soul turns away from the nafs, ceases to care for it and loves Allahu ta'ala instead of it, and if it, getting rid of the love for a creature like itself, falls in love with the Real Eternal, who exists endlessly, and becomes beside itself with this love, the unawareness and ignorance of the outside, that is the nafs, will not infect the inside, that is, the soul. It will not forget Allahu ta'ala for even a moment. How can the unawareness of the nafs ever influence it, while it has parted from the nafs completely? Nothing has penetrated the inside from the outside; in this case, while the outside is in heedlessness, the inside is aware, awake. It is always aware of its Rabb. For example, as long as almond oil is in the pip of the almond, they are like one and the same thing. But when the oil parts from the sediment, they become two different things in every respect, each having different qualities. Thus, a happy, fortunate person who has been promoted to this position is sometimes made to descend back into this world. While he knows Allahu ta'ala, he is made to return to this world, and, through his honored and blessed being, the world is rescued from the darkness and ignorance of the nafs. Such a blessed person lives among the people. Outwardly, he is like everybody. But his soul is not dependent upon anything; its sole companion is his knowledge of and love for Allahu ta'ala. He has been returned to this world despite his reluctance. By looking at his appearance, such a high person, who has attained haqiqat, may be thought of as having forgotten Allahu ta'ala and having ben seized by the love of creatures, like others. But, in actual fact, he is quite unlike them. There is quite a difference between falling in love with something and turning away from it by ceasing to care for it. Let us also say that such a high person's interest in and fondness for creatures are not within his own will. He does not value the world. In fact, Allahu ta'ala wants and likes this state. But others' fondness and interest concern themselves; they embrace the world. Allahu ta'ala does not consent to this fondness of theirs; He does not like it. Another difference is that others can turn away from this world and can attain knowledge and love of Allahu ta'ala. But it is impossible for this high person to turn away from people. It is his duty to be together with people. It is only when his duty is over that he will be transferred from this transient world to the eternal world. Only then will he attain his real position.
Great men of Tasawwuf [see articles 35 and 40] explained the grade of guidance differently. Most of hem said, "It is being together with Allah, while being among people." This difference among their remarks is because the states and the grades of those who have a say in this matter are different from one another. Each of them spoke in accordance with his own grade. Allahu ta'ala knows the truth of everything. Sayyad-ul-taifa Junaid-i Baghdadi's 'quddisa sirruh' word: "Reaching the end is a return to the beginning," is an explanation suitable with the grade of guidance, which we have described above, for in the beginning only creatures are seen and loved. As a matter of fact, the hadith "My two eyes sleep, but my heart does not sleep" does not communicate a continuous attachment and awareness concerning Allahu ta'ala. Perhaps it reveals his awareness of his own states and the states of his Ummat, and that he is not asleep. It is for this reason that our Beloved Prophet's (saw) sleeping would not break his abdast (ablution). Since the Prophet is like the shepherd of a flock in protecting his Ummat, it is not suitable for his rank of prophethood for him to forget about his Ummat for even a moment. Likewise, the hadith "I have such private times with Allahu ta'ala that no superior angel or prophet can come between us at these times" does not refer to 'always' but to 'sometimes.' Even at such times as these he does not necessarily turn away from creatures, for Allahu ta'ala manifests Himself to him. He does not forget about creatures and looks for manifestations. It is like the darling's manifestations to the lover; the lover is not after the darling.
On the mirror of shapes there's no motion, not a bit;
Because, something not glorious cannot appear on it.
Briefly, when returning to creatures, the veils that have been lifted before do not return. Without the veils in between, he has been sent to go among creatures and to be a means for saving and awakening creatures. This person is like a government official who is very close to a great emperor. However, he is given also the task of looking into the affairs and solving the problems of the people. This is another difference between those who have reached the end and then come back and those who are still at the beginning, for those who are at the beginning are behind the veils. As for those who have come back, the veils have been lifted up from in front of them. May Allahu ta'ala give salvation to you and to those on the righteous way! Amin.
Chapter-38
Imam al-Rabbani's
Fana and baqa, and the five Latifas
Imam-i Rabbani (rahmat-Allahu 'alaih) in his book Ma'arif-i Ladunniyya, in the Twenty- sixth Marifat [Religious knowledge that cannot be comprehended through the five senses or through the intellect can be learned from the Prophet's words. Within religious information there is such knowledge which cannot be written down in books or which cannot be explained through words. No words can be found to explain them. They are called marifats. The owner of these marifats is called "Murshid." They can be obtained only as a result of flowing from the murshid's heart or from the dead ones' souls into the hearts of those who desire them. There are some conditions to be fulfilled for attaining this.], explains 'fana' as follows:Fana means to forget everything except Allahu ta'ala. Each of the five latifas in alam-i amr has a picture, a likeness in man. These five latifas have been given the names of heart, soul, sir, khafi and akhfa. The majority of Awliya, being unable to differentiate between them, called all of them "the soul." When referred to as "the soul," these five things are understood. [We are made of matter, and live among material beings. Beings that are made of matter consist of the seven skies and the kursi and arsh. These nine classes of beings are one within the other, like the layers of an onion. The outermost one is the arsh. Each layer is very much larger than the one within it. It is like the greatness of the ocean in comparison to a drop of water. There is no matter outside the ninth layer, which is the arsh. These beings which are not material are called "alam-i amr" (beings of command) because they were created with the single command "Be!" Classes of material beings that consist of the nine layers are called "alam-i khalq." 'Khalq' means 'dimension,' that is, matter. Alam-i khalq was created in seven days. The building stone of alam-i khalq is matter. The building stone of alam-i amr is called "latifa." Alam-i amr is made of various latifas. Out of these, samples of five of them were given to men. Profound Islamic savants were able to understand these latifas and even their originals in the alam-i amr. Today there is no such profound savant left on the earth. These five latifas existing in men were given the names of heart, sir, soul, khafi, and akhfa. Even the great savants such as Imam-i Ghazali were unable to differentiate them from one another and called all of them "the soul." Very few savants, such as Imam-i Rabbani, were able to recognize them one by one.] The soul, that is, the latifas, used to know Allahu ta'ala before it united with this body. It used to have a little inclination, knowledge and love towards Allahu ta'ala. It had been given the strength and potential to become exalted and promoted. But it could not improve before uniting with this body; to improve it had to unite with the body. For this reason, first the soul was given an affection towards this body. Then, it was allowed to go towards the body. It threw itself upon the body. Being very fine and very expansive, it sank and penetrated all parts of the body. It became unrecognizable, unknown in the body. It forgot about itself. It came to think of itself as the body. It lost itself in the body. Thus, most people consider themselves only as bodies. Being unaware of the existence of the soul, they disbelieve it.
Allahu ta'ala, being very merciful, sent messages to men, that is, to souls, through prophets ('alaihimussalawatu wattaslimat). He invited them to Himself. He prohibited them from being dependent upon this dark body. He who was predestinated to be good in eternity obeys Allahu ta'ala's commandments and puts an end to his dependence upon the body. He bids farewell to it and goes back up to his former heights. His love towards his asl (origin), which he used to feel before uniting with the body, increases gradually. His love towards a transient being decreases. When he thoroughly forgets about this dark and obscure darling of his, that is, when there is no love left, he will have attained the Fana of the body. Thus he will have passed beyond one of the two basic steps on the way of tasawwuf. From then on, if Allahu ta'ala favors and blesses him, he will make progress and henceforth will begin to forget about himself, too. As this oblivion increases, he will forget himself thoroughly. No longer will he know of any being besides Allahu ta'ala. Thus, he will also attain the Fana of the soul. He will thus pass beyond the second step. The soul's coming to this world is intended to attain this second fana. It could not attain this without coming to this world.
If the latifa of the heart, which is called "Haqiqat-i Jamia," [see article 31] passes beyond these two steps together with the soul, it will attain its own fana together with the soul. If the nafs accompanies the heart in this way, it will be purified too. That is, it will attain its own fana. But, when the nafs reaches the heart's grade, if it remains there instead of getting exalted and passing beyond these two steps, it will not attain oblivion. It will not become mutmainna.
A person who has attained the fana of the soul may not attain the heart's fana. The soul is like a father to the heart. And the nafs is like a mother to the heart. If the heart has an inclination towards the soul, who stands for its father, and turns away from the nafs who stands for its mother, and if this inclination increases and draws the heart towards its father, it will reach its grade. That is, it will pass beyond these two steps. When the heart and the soul attain fana, the nafs does not necessarily attain fana. If the nafs has an affection, an inclination towards her son, and if this inclination increases and makes her reach near her son, who has reached his father's grade, she will be like them. The case is the same with attaining fana for the latifas of sir, khafi, and akhfa. The memories and thoughts being rubbed out and removed from the heart signify the fact that it has forgotten the things other than Allahu ta'ala. Not to be able to remember anything means that knowledge and everything else is gone. In fana, knowledge has to be wiped out.
Chapter-39
39 - SECOND VOLUME, 58 th LETTER
Imam al-Rabbani
Imam al-Rabbani
Metempsychosis does not exist. Alam-i misal
This letter, written as a response to Muhammad Taqiy, gives information about alam-i mithal and states that metempsychosis is not true and that human souls do not transmigrate; it also explains what kumun and buruz mean.Praise be to Allahu ta'ala, who is the creator and owner of all classes of beings, and salams to Sayyiduna Hadrat Muhammad Mustufa Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam, who is the highest of His Prophets, and to all his absolutely pure relatives and Ashab! We were honored with reading your precious letter, a work of your good thoughts and beautiful moral character. May Allahu ta'ala protect you against all faults and defects! You ask about Shaykh Muhyiddin-i Arabi's 'quddisa sirruh' quoting a hadith in his book Futuhat-i Makkiyya. Our Beloved Prophet (sall Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam) says in this hadith, "Allahu ta'ala created a hundred thousand Adams." Muhyiddin-i Arabi 'rahmatullahi alaih' writes a few things which he has seen in alam-i mithal and says, "As I was making a tawaf around the Kaba, there were some persons by my side. I did not know them at all. While performing tawaf they recited two Arabic couplets. The meaning of the couplet was:
As you do now, we for years
All visited this residence.
Upon hearing the couplet, it occurred to me that those persons might be from alam-i mithal. While thinking so, one of them looked at me and said, 'I am one of your grandfathers.' I said, "How long has it been since you died?' 'More than forty thousand years,' he answered. Being astonished at these words of his, I said, 'Historians say that not even seven thousand years have passed since Adam, the first father of human beings'. He said, 'Which Adam 'alaihis-salam' are you talking about? I am one of the sons of Adam, who lived at a time long before than seven thousand years ago'. When hearing this, I remembered the hadith ash-Sharif mentioned above."
[Warning: Ancient astronomers said that the age of the globe, that is, the duration of time from its creation until its end, was equal to the number of planets around the sun in terms of thousands, that is, the earth was seven thousand years old; for they thought that the number of planets was seven. The seven thousand years that is written in many history books and that has been transferred into some religious books originates from this. Some of them said that the earth's age was equal to the number of constellations, twelve thousand years, and some others said it equalled three hundred and sixty (360, the number of meridians) thousand years; these three numbers are no more than suppositions and theories.
Hadrat Idris (a prophet) said, "We did not know the world's age though we were prophets."
The earth's age is written as (360000x360000), that is, a hundred and twenty-nine billion and six hundred million years, in the book entitled Mukhtasar, which Abd al-Wahhab-i Sharani (Quddisa sirruh) has outlined from Tazkira by Abu Abdullah-i Qurtubi, an Andalusian (old Muslim Spain) savant.
Today's scientists estimate that the age of the earth is not less than four billion and five hundred million years, through a method called "radioactivity dating." For example, by finding out the ratios of lead and uranium minerals existing in the ore of pitch-blends in strata now and estimating the time which is necessary for the formation of so much lead out of the amount of uranium that has decayed into lead and the existing amount of uranium, by means of the decay constant of uranium I scientists can make such estimations.]
My dear son! The information which Allahu ta'ala has bestowed upon the lot of this poor person [Imam-i Rabbani refers to himself] is as follows: The Adams who lived before Hadrat Adam, who is the first man and the first prophet, were all in alam-i-mithal. They were not in alam-i shahadat. There was only one Adam in alam-i shahadat, that is, in this world of matter which we see, and he was a prophet. Angles prostrated in front of him. Allahu ta'ala had made a man's statue from sticky mud and had changed it into flesh and bones.
[As we know today, Allahu ta'ala changes earthen substances, nitrates and phosphates, into proteins in the factory of plants, and changes these vegetable proteins into flesh and bones and limbs in an animal's body. Not only science can realize this today, but also with the help of substances which we call catalysts, we can conduct chemical reactions quickly, in a second, that normally takes years. While men can do thousands of years of work in a moment, and as we know that Allahu ta'ala changes earthen substances into substances of flesh and bones in a few years, it is easy to realize through science that He can do it in a moment as well. Just as Allahu ta'ala changed earthen substances into organs in a moment, attached the soul to the body and created Adam, the first man, so on the Day of Resurrection He will re-gather these elements in a moment, will make men's bodies, and will give these bodies the souls that existed. A person's dying means that the soul leaves the body. The soul does not die. On the Day of Resurrection, together with everything else, the souls will be annihilated and then they will be recreated. Today, an intelligent person who can realize Allah's power well through the branches of sciences, such as physics, chemistry, physiology and astronomy, can also realize easily as a scientific fact that Hadrat Adam and all men and animals will be brought out of the soil on the Day of Resurrection. A century ago, Muslims believed this without any understanding. But today, we see it as a simple scientific fact and believe it without needing further proof.
Allahu ta'ala created Paradise and Hell and declared that He will fill both of them with people. For this reason, since Hadrat Adam, who was the first man, the earth has always had on itself Believers and disbelievers, who have quarreled with each other. The irreligious have worshipped the things which they have invented, but the Believers have adapted themselves to the Prophets and books sent by Allahu ta'ala. Contrary to what some historians suppose and what is seen in the motion pictures made up by the enemies of Islam, our ancient predecessors were not unclothe, wild and naked people lacking knowledge and science. Yes, among the ancient peoples there were those who lived ignorantly and simply, as they do today in the deserts of Asia and Africa. Even in the forests of America savage people live like those of the Bronze Age. But neither all of today's people nor all of the earlier people can be said to be savages just for this reason. Hadrat Adam ('alaihis-salam) and those who followed him lived in cities. They knew how to read and write. They had such crafts as blacksmithing, making threads, weaving clothes, farming and making bread. Hadrat Adam, whose age and height could not be known exactly, lived for a thousand years and became a prophet when he was five hundred years old according to a report. Allahu ta'ala sent him ten books. Hadrat Jabrail ('alaihis-salam) came to him twelve times. In these books, the things to be believed in, dictionaries in different languages, performing salat one time a day. (A book by Ibni Abidin says this salat was the morning salat); to make a ghusl abdast; to fast; not to eat a carcass, blood, pork; many branches of crafts; knowledge of medicine, medicinal substances, arithmetics and geometry were included. They even minted gold money, operated mines and made tools. The Qur'an al-karim communicates clearly that Hadrat Noah's ship moved with the force of the steam from its boiler that was heated by means of fire. Not based on any document or observation but for the sheer purpose of denying religions and belittling prophets, some historians say that the people of ancient civilizations were savages and that they did not know anything. In this way, they want to represent each of the Prophets, such as Adam, Shist [Sheet] and Idris ('alaihimussalam) as if they were from a silly tale or a superstition, and thereby train Muslim children to be irreligious and devoid of iman.
Another group of the enemies of religion pretend to be scientists, and broadcast their corrupt thoughts in the disguise of science. For example, they say such things as, "The cell, which is the building stone of all living things, happened incidentally by itself, and then in the process of time there came into being small plants and animals in the sea, then those on the land, and finally it evolved into man." Thus, they mean to say that Hadrat Adam was not created from the soil, that the Qur'an al-karim and other holy books are fairy tales [Allah forbid!] , and that it would be contrary to science to believe in the existence of the Supreme Power, who created the first living thing. These kinds of disbelievers are called Dahri. Those Dahris who present themselves as Muslims are called Zindiqs and Science fanatics.
How wretched these sham scientists are! Yes, the physiologist Haldene suggested the probability that "Millions of years ago, in hot seas, affected by the ultraviolet rays coming from the sun, inorganic gases turned into organic compounds and, at the same time, the first molecule with an equiproductive quality, that is, the cellular molecule that changes food substances into living form like itself, was constructed incidentally by itself." But, this is a hypothesis, not an experiment, not even a theory. Today there is no information or even a theory showing how a molecule with an equiproductive quality is constructed. Scientific knowledge is the knowledge of observation and examination. A scientific fact is first observed with organs of perception or with the tools which strengthen them, and the causes of this fact are conjectured. Then, this fact is experimented on again, and the effects and roles of these causes are confirmed. If the cause of an event and the way it has happened are known, we believe it. But there are also events the causes of which cannot be understood through experimentation. Many ideas are put forth as their cause. These ideas are not certain. Also, different people may interpret a single event differently.
A general idea which can explain all of the various events that are explained through the same cause is called a hypothesis. By explaining many events through one or more hypotheses, by concluding new events and by testing these events and by experimenting and observing these events, among these hypotheses the ones that are decided to be correct are called theories. The perfection of a theory is gauged by how few hypotheses it relies on and at the same time how many events it can explain. Haldene's idea is a hypothesis after all, and is very far from being a theory. If people do not remain in this grade, but acquire correct knowledge about how the first living creatures were created, it will be useful for Islam, not harmful. Everything, living or lifeless, was nonexistent and was created later. Allahu ta'ala declares: "Research how I created everything and see the order, the delicacy in My work! Thus believe in Me and in the fact that My power and knowledge are infinite!" Yes, the enemies of religion not only say that the first living things came into existence by themselves, but they also proclaim that the solar system, stars, and various physical, chemical and biological events all came into existence by themselves. Ahl as-Sunnat savants gave them the necessary answers in thousands of their books, thus silencing them all. They proved with documents that they are wrong. We have explained in the first and third chapters of the Second Fascicle how these fake scientists, who look upon themselves as scientists, are wrong. Our religion declares that Hadrat Adam was created from sticky mud. It does not explain in what manner other animals and plants were created. How can Haldene's hypothesis harm the religion them? Whether he says it or Darwin or Ibni Sina (Avicenna) says it, Allahu ta'ala, alone, moves, makes and creates everything. All forms of energy are the manifestations of His power.
What undermines the iman is to hold the belief that events happened by themselves and to say that animals evolved from one another initially from a one-celled organisms into higher structures and finally to man; science does not prove it true, nor do scientists say so.
A passage from the book Tahafut al-Falasife by Imam al-Ghazzali has been translated from Arabic into Turkish and has been written on the forty-fifth page of the book Marifatnama. There, he says, "Scientists' words are of three types. Their words of the first type explain the facts which scientific experiments have discovered. Though these words of theirs agree with Islam, their wording is wrong. For instance, they say, 'Nothing can move by itself. There is a power which makes everything move. This power is a natural force. Everything is made by nature.' On the other hand, Islam says, 'Nothing can move by itself. There is a power that makes every object move. This power is Allah's power. Everything is made by Allahu ta'ala.' It can be understood that Islam and science agree on the same thing; there is only one difference; appellations. We do not object to these words of theirs. Only, we admit them only after altering the names. Their words of the second type are about things which Islam does not explain, but commands, 'Research and find out!' Whether we believe their words of this type or not, it does not cause the iman to be lost. For example, they say that a lunar eclipse is a result of our earth coming between the sun and the moon, and they can predict its time, for the moon looks very bright when it is facing the sun. When the earth's shadow is cast on the moon, it becomes obscure and indistinct, being unable to receive any light from the sun. And a solar eclipse is caused by the moon coming in between the earth and the sun, and thereby obstructing the sun from being seen from the earth. They say that a lunar eclipse takes place in the middle of the Arabic months, and a solar eclipse happens on the first or the last night of a month." [The sun, earth and moon are spherical-shaped, like a water melon, and they all move in the first heaven. Ancient physicists said that each of the seven planets was in one heaven. On the other hand, it is declared in Surat al-Mulk that all the stars are in the first heaven, which also consists of the earth].
"We do not object to either of these views of scientists, which are of the second type. A person who objects to them by saying that Muslims should not believe such words as these will have striven to harm the religion and to demolish Islam. If one says that they do not agree with the Shariat, while the rules and experiments of arithmetics, physics and chemistry prove that these words are correct, scientists will doubt the correctness of the Shariat, thinking that Islam disagrees with science, instead of doubting such a person's words. It has been experienced that the harm done by an ignorant person who wants to help Islam by using illogical methods is greater than the harm done by those who attack Islam systematically." [Also, Muhammad 'Uthman Effendi of Medina, in his book Basirat-us- salikin, printed in 1341 (1923 A.D.) in Istanbul, rejected the rotation of the earth by saying mawdu' about sahih hadiths. He mislead the youth. In contrast, in many books, Islamic scholars, for instance Abu Bakr Razi in his books Kuriyat-ul-Ard (Kuriyet-ul-Erd) and Sharh-i Mawaqif, has proven that the earth is a rotating spherical globe. Fiqh 'ulama' have written cases on this fact. The sacred meaning of the 22 nd ayat of Sura Baqara is, 'Your Rabb has made the earth just like a bed for you.' Tafsir-i Azizi says, ' He made it calm and motionless for you to sit and to sleep on.' The sacred meaning of the fifteenth ayat of Sura Nahl is: 'I put the mountains on the earth lest it would shake you.' Tafsir Sawi explains this as, 'He created the mountains lest the earth could move and cause you trouble.' And the book Baidawi says, 'Before the creation of the mountains, the earth was a globe without any rocky areas on its face. While rotating or during any other movement it would shake. When the mountains were created, they prevented it from moving, suffering and shaking.' 64 th ayat of sura Mumin is, 'Allah is He who made the earth a resting-place for you.'
Shaykhzada says, 'Abdullah ibni Abbas said that a resting-place means the place of destination, and station.' It is seen that the ayats of Qur'an al-karim and the tafsir books inform us that the surface of the earth is like a saddle, a mattress, motionless and comfortable. It will not be true to deduct that the earth is motionless, and, therefore, it does not rotate on its axis and that does not move around the sun. Today, these two movements of the earth are known for certain and the prayer times are thereby calculated. Please see the sixty-fourth chapter of the third Part of the Turkish original of Endless Bliss (Se'adet-i ebediyye)]. Imam al-Ghazali goes on and says. "When met with events that are understood to be certain and true through calculation and experimentation, it is necessary to interpret ayats and hadiths, that is, to adapt their meanings according to them. Many interpretations have been done in this way." Let us mention also that is not a job for the ignorant, such as ourselves, to give meanings to ayats and hadiths. To be a religious savant, that is, to have a say in the religion, it is necessary to go up to the degree of ijtihad [see article 26]. There is no such exalted savant in the world today. Now the non-savants write religious books for various purposes, and by giving ayats and hadiths meanings at random, they say that Allahu ta'ala says so, or that the Beloved Prophet 'sall-Allahu alaihi wa sallam' commands so and so. They change Islam into a game. We should not buy or read religious books of this sort. We should find and read books that contain the unchanged words of religious savants. But, it is a pity, such religious books are almost nonexistent today. On the other hand, it is deplorably seen that most of the books that carry the names of great Islamic savants and which are sold as translations from them contain harmful additions, deletions and changes. What is even more pathetic to realize about these existing books, some of which are quite well-known, is that a number of ignorant people have been carrying on this business of writing books for centuries, adapting some ayats and hadiths to the wrong scientific teachings of their times and thereby giving them wrong and funny meanings. What pleases the enemies of the religion most is to see Muslims deny (because of some ignorant do-gooders) facts that are proven through science and which are evident. For this will help them mislead younger generations. If scientists say that matter, the cell, the living and the lifeless came to being later while they had been nonexistent, it does not harm Islam whether they came to existence incidentally in the sea or through some other way; for it is Allahu ta'ala who makes everything.
"Their ideas of the third type are those which disagree with what is declared clearly in the Shariat. All of these things are hypotheses, that is, suppositions or fabrications under the curtain of science, fruits of sheer bigotry and ignorance. That everything was created out of nothing, that Hadrat Adam's body, which was made from sticky mud, came to life by changing into flesh and bones, that Allahu ta'ala exists with His Attributes, the things that will happen at the end of the world, and the Resurrection are all within the principles of iman. One should not believe in thoughts that disagree with these or that will ruin the belief in these realities. A real scientist will not utter words disagreeing with these beliefs because they are not things which disagree with science. It is necessary to persuade everybody to believe in them and to refute those who oppose them."
Hadrat Adam's children multiplied and spread over Arabia, Egypt, Anatolia and India. During the time of Hadrat Noah (Nuh) 'alaihis-salam', they were all drowned in the Flood; only those on board the ship were saved. People multiplied from these survivors. As a result of their numbers increasing in the course of time, they spread over Asia, Africa, Europe, America and Oceania, that is all over the world. This migration was both by land and by sea on large ships. Perhaps there were roads from Asia to America and to the Oceanic Islands in those times.
As science makes progress, facts which Muslims used to believe in without seeing or comprehending are being understood one by one through science. Today, for example, the following theories are being taught in schools in Europe and in America: "It has been admitted that there were roads between the southern continents during ancient geological ages. The famous meteorologist Alfred Wegener established the theory of "Kontinentenverschiebung' (the sliding of continents) and said that the five [six today] continents had been attached to one another formerly, and later they parted. By relying on zoogeographic experiments, another professor claimed that there used to be pieces of land between continents like bridges. According to Wegener, continents were adjacent to one another in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic ages. Until the end of the Paleozoicum, animals traveled by land between south America and Africa, between Asia (directly from India) and Australia; animals that lived in Africa after the Eocene passed over to south America by land."
It can be understood scientifically as well that Hadrat Adam 'alaihis-salam' was created from soil, and that people migrated over the earth from Syria, Iraq and central Asia. While some historians, who write not about facts but about propaganda, and who run not towards the truth but towards political advantages, are still obstinate in slandering Islam and Islamic superiors blindly, scientists and scientific knowledge can see and understand the greatness, the correctness of Islam more closely every day.]
Allahu ta'ala created a sample of everything in Hadrat Adam 'alaihis-salam'. He has many latifas, forces. Long before creating him, Allahu ta'ala created one of his latifas, attributes, in his shape for a long time in alam-i mithal and revealed all his deeds and all his descendants that will come until the end of the world together with their names. They all lived when their time came. When their end came, they were called to account, and they went either into Paradise or into hell. After a very long time, as Allahu ta'ala wished, another one of Hadrat Adam's attributes was created in alam-i mithal like before, and when its time was over, there began the term of the third one. And when its time was over, the fourth attribute was put in alam-i mithal. When all his attributes and latifas were finished, finally, Hadrat Adam, who had accumulated all the attributes and latifas within himself, was created in alam-i shahadat, that is, in the world of matter. Allahu ta'ala made him valuable. The hundreds of Adams that had come before were all archetypes of Hadrat Adam. [It can be compared with the rays of the sun coming before the actual sunrise. Its rays, attributes, gradually become visible.].
Muhyiddin'i Arabi's 'quddisa sirruh' grandfather, who died forty thousand years ago, existence in alam-i mithal as one of the latifas, attributes, of his grandfather in alam-i shahadat. He visited the Kaba al-muazzama in alam-i mithal, for the Kaba al-muazzama has a copy, a likeness in alam-i mithal, as everything has. Though this poor person [Imam-i Rabbani refers to himself] thinks and analyses very much, I cannot see more than one Adam in Alam-i shahadat. I can see nothing but the shadows in alam-i mithal. The person who said that he lived forty thousand years before and that "I am one of your grandfathers" was indicating that the Adams existing before Adam 'alaihis-salam' were the shadows (archetypes) of Adam's 'alaihis-salam' latifas and attributes. They are not beings other than Adam 'alaihis-salam' himself. For another of Adam's 'alaihis-salam' sons cannot be the grandfather of this son of Adam 'alaihis-salam'.
Upon hearing of this event and the like, people with sick hearts and little knowledge suppose that it is metempsychosis. Thus, they say that beings were eternal in the past, that they were not created later, and they reject the fact that they will be annihilated again and the end of the world will come. Some irreligious people, who count themselves as Shaykhs and Murshids, believe in metempsychosis. They say that when a soul leaves its body before reaching perfection it transmigrates into another body. They believe that souls will not pass through another body any further after reaching perfection, that they reach perfection through transmigration, and they fable many stories about metempsychosis. However, it is an act of disbelief to believe in metempsychosis, which means that a dead man's soul passes into another child and comes to life again. He who says that there is metempsychosis disbelieves in the Islamic religion. That is, he will cease to be a Muslim. They never understand; if souls reach perfection through metempsychosis, for whom is Hell, who will be tormented? To believe it means to deny Hell, and even, to reject the resurrection after death. For according to their belief the soul will no more need its body, which has already been a means for its maturing. Why should it be resurrected together with the body, then? These false Shaykhs' words are identical with the words of ancient philosophers [and of today's spiritualists and mediums]. Ancient philosophers did not believe that the dead would resurrect. They said that blessings in Paradise and torments in Hell will happen only to souls. They are even worse than philosophers. For, on the pretext of metempsychosis, they deny the torment in the next world and say that it is taking place only in the world in order to perfect souls. [It has been witnessed that genies enter statues, sick people and children and talk. They suppose that those who talk in that manner are double-souled. This supposition also indicates belief in metempsychosis.]
Question: According to some reports coming from the Amir (Hadrat Ali) 'karram-Allahu wajhah' and from some Awliya 'qaddas-Allahu asrarahum-ul-'aziz', they had done astonishing work years before coming to the world. If we state that metempsychosis is not true, how can we believe these events?
Answer: The work that was done by these great men of religion, was done only by their souls. Allahu ta'ala put their souls into men's shapes and these shapes did work like men. Their blessed souls did not enter other bodies. But, metempsychosis means that a man's soul has had a connection with another body before it entered his own body. It is not a matter of metempsychosis for a soul to take the shape of a body. Also, angels and genies do many things by disguising themselves as men, which is not transmigration at all. It is not reincarnation. It is not a matter of transmigrating into another body.
As Allahu ta'ala gives angels and genies the strength to take various shapes, He also gives this strength to the souls of His born servants whom He loves very much. There is no need for another body. [Air always contains an amount of invisible moisture. The white steam coming out of boiling water or out of the pipe of a cauldron is not moisture. It is only tiny drops of water. Colorless gases are not visible. As colorless atmospheric moisture condenses into drops in cold weather, which we call dew, in a similar way souls can take various shapes]. According to what we hear and read, most Awliya have been seen at various places at the same time and have participated in different activities. Here also, their souls and other latifas disguise themselves as men and take the shapes of different bodies. Likewise, for instance, some hajjis said that they had seen a Wali at the Kaba and had talked with him, others said that they had seen him in Baghdad on the same day, and some other people said that they had met the same Wali in Istanbul on the same day. But that particular Wali lived, let us say, in India and never left his hometown. It was that Wali's latifas that took various shapes. Sometimes that Wali does not know of these events. When they tell him that they have seen him, he answers them, "You are wrong; I was at home at that time; I did not go to those countries; I do not know those cities, and I do not know who you are, either." Likewise, some people asked for help from a few Awliya so that they might escape trouble and danger. They would see that those great people were there immediately and had come to rescue them. Sometimes these Awliya 'qaddas-Allahu asrarahum-ul-'aziz' know of the aid they have given, and sometimes they do not know of it. [This fact has been witnessed especially in battles.] It is the souls and latifas of those great men of the religion that did these useful deeds. Their latifas take shapes sometimes in alam- i shahadat, and sometimes in alam-i mithal. As a matter of fact, thousands of people at the same time every night dream of our Beloved Prophet (saw) and get something of value from him. All of what they see are his latifas and attributes taking shapes in alam-i mithal. Likewise, in the past, devotees received help from their murshid's appearances in alam-i mithal; with their help they got rid of their problems.
Ahizada Abdulhalim Effendi, in his book Riyadussadat fi ithbat-il-karamat lil-Awliya-i hal-al-hayat wa ba'dal-mamat, has proven that the Awliya have karamats (miracles) even after their deaths.
It is not metempsychosis for a Wali to do kumun and buruz [The lexical meaning of kumun is to hide somewhere, and that of buruz is to reappear from a hiding place.]. For in metempsychosis the soul connects with another body to enliven it, to make it sensitive and active. But in buruz a soul's connecting with another body is not intended to do this, but it is to perfect that body and exalt its grade. As a matter of fact, a genie can also connect with a man's body and appear in him. But this type of connection is not intended to enliven that person, for that person is alive and is able to hear and move before the genie connects with him. After the connection, some of that person's actions and words are the appearances of the attributes and actions of that genie. By saying nothing about kumun and buruz, great Shaykhs avoided causing those ignorant to be dragged into wrong beliefs.
To this humble person, kumun and buruz are unnecessary. For treating and training those who are ignorant, a Murshid-i Kamil [The fortunate person who has reached the grade explained in article 37 First volume, 99 th letter.] can make his own high qualities be reflected on that person with the strength given to him by Allahu ta'ala, without superimposing his will on him (buruz). Through tawajjuh and iltifat, he can place those high qualities in him. Thus, that low-grade person will become exalted and will reach perfection. Getting rid of base attributes, he will attain good attributes. Doing this does not require kumun and buruz at all. This is such a great blessing which Allahu ta'ala endows upon people whom He chooses. His blessings and gifts are so many.
Some people say that souls transmigrate. They say that when a soul reaches perfection, it can leave its own body and pass into another body. They give the following story as an example: A young man died who was the neighbor of a person who had reached perfection and who had acquired this power. That person's soul left its own body, which was old, and passed into the young man's dead body. The old man's body died and the young man came back to life. These words are untrue. They are stories about metempsychosis. A soul entering a dead body in order to enliven it is metempsychosis. The difference between transmigration and metempsychosis is that those who believe in metempsychosis suppose that the soul is defective and it reaches perfection through metempsychosis, while the former considers the soul perfect and says that it can transmigrate into another body after reaching perfection. According to this poor person, belief in the transmigration of a soul is worse than believing in metempsychosis. This is so because they say that metempsychosis is for perfecting the soul. These words of theirs are wrong. Moreover, why should the soul pass into another body after reaching perfection? Why should the person who has reached perfection pass into young bodies for watching and enjoying the world? The soul that has reached perfection would not want to enter a body; on the contrary, such a soul would avoid another incarnation: the purpose of a soul entering a body has been achieved and perfection has been attained. Moreover, in the soul's transmigration the first body dies and the second body comes to life. However, the first body has to be rewarded or tormented in the grave. If the second body comes back to life it means that for that body the end of the world has come while in the world and it has been judged in the world. I do not know if those who believe in transmigration believe in the torment of the grave and the day of the Last Judgment? It is a pity, these disbelievers have counted themselves among religious men and have attempted to teach Islam to people through their books and magazines. They are trying to make youngsters irreligious like themselves. O our Allah, protect us from believing such writings and from going wrong! Do not separate us from our dear religion, from our valuable iman! Only Thou can protect one from disbelief and aberration! Appendix: By the way, let me give some information about alam-i mithal. Alam-i mithal is the largest of all the classes of beings. Each of all the things in all the classes of beings has a copy, an appearance, in alam-i mithal. Also, each of the things, meanings, and thoughts that occur to mind and imagination has a copy in that alam. Our savants said that Allahu ta'ala does not have an equivalent, a likeness, but He has an example. To his poor person, as I have written in my letters, as He does not have a mithl in the grade of perfect tanzih, the Divine Person (Allah Himself) does not have an example, either. The ayat al- karima which purports, "Do not give examples concerning Allahu ta'ala," in Nahl sura, implies this grade. Man is called "Alam-i saghir." Everything in alam-i kabir has a copy in man. And the copy of alam-i mithal in alam-i saghir is man's imagination. For everything has a copy in our imagination. Also, each of the states or grades of the devotees making progress in the way of tasawwuf has a copy in the imagination. It is the imagination which informs the devotees about their states. If it weren't for the imagination, or if the imagination did not do its duty, sufis would not know of their own states. It is for this reason that those who reach the grades beyond the zils [Shades.] and appearances, become ignorant and bewildered about their own states, for man's imagination can represent a copy of the zils. The imagination cannot go beyond the zils. We have said that the Divine Person does not have a copy in alam-i mithal. Can there be a divine copy in the imagination which is a copy of alam-i mithal? For this reason, what falls to man's lot from the Divine Person is only ignorance and unawareness. Nothing can be said about something which is not known. Therefore, it has been said, "Those who know Allahu ta'ala are incapable of talking." Something which is known can be explained. Therefore, many things are said when in the world of zils. Those who go beyond zils become speechless. So are the states of those who go up to the zils and origins (asls) of Allah's Deeds, Attributes and Names. So it is understood that all the things that can exist in the imagination originate from the zil. But, since they are the signs, the symptoms of the matlub (the Divine Person), they make up a branch of knowledge called "Ilm-ul-yaqin." But the knowledge called "Ayn-ul- yaqin" and the knowledge called "Haq-qul-yaqin" occurs above the zils, beyond the imagination. To escape the knowledge of the imagination, it is necessary to pass beyond the way and grades which tasawwuf calls "Sayr-i anfusi" [ 'Sayr' means 'to go, to make progress', 'Anfus' means 'inside man', 'Sayr-i anfusi' means 'man's progress inside himself'.] as well as the way called "Sayr-i afaqi" [ 'Afaq' means 'outside man'. 'Sayr-i afaqi means 'man's making progress outside himself'.], and to make progress beyond afaq and anfus. Most Awliya reach there only after death. It is impossible for them to get rid of the fancy in this world. A very few selected ones from among the great ones of the awliya were bestowed upon this blessing when they are alive in this world. Their knowledge is not mixed with fantasy, though they are in the world. They attain the matlub without the fantasy, coming in between. Manifestations of the Divine Person, which flash like lightning for others, are permanent for these great people. They attain Wasl-i uryani.
May it be to the good health of those who get the blessing, Let the poor lovers be content with a few morsels!
Question: Some people dream of the copies of alam-i mithal and fantasy, while asleep, and dream that they become very rich or that they occupy a high-ranking position. Or they dream that they become a great religious savant and all people gather around them in order to learn knowledge. On the other hand, none of these happens in alam-i shahadat, that is when awake. Are such dreams true, or are they without a foundation?
Answer: Such dreams are not vain or without a foundation. It means that the person who dreams so has the tendency and talents to become a rank owner or a savant. But, this tendency is not so strong as to become a fact in alam-i shahadat. If this tendency become strong in the course of time, with Allahu ta'ala's blessings, it will take place in alam-i shahadat, too. If it does not become strong enough to happen in alam-i shahadat, it remains as it has appeared in alam-i mithal. It appears there as long as it is strong enough. The case is the same with the dreams of the devotees on the way of Tasawwuf. They dream that they are in high grades, the grades of Awliya. If this state falls to their lot in alam-i shahadat, it is a very great blessing. Otherwise, it remains as it was seen in alam-i mithal; it is worth nothing. Dustmen and porters dream of themselves as judges or generals. But they get nothing when they wake up. Their dreams are of no avail, except that they cause sorrow and repentance. Then, we should not trust in dreams, but we should be pleased with that we obtain while awake.
I love the sun, it is my favorite subject;
No business with night, what should I do with a dream.
1. For this reason, our superiors did not attach any importance to dreams, and they considered it unnecessary to interpret the dreams of their disciples. They valued what was obtained while awake. Therefore, they respected permanent appearances and deemed the state of feeling Allah's presence that never fades as an advantage. It was quite common for them to forget everything except Allahu ta'ala and not to remember anything else. Attaining this spiritual maturity is not too difficult, or it is not too far away from those who, in the beginning, have tasted the things which can be attained in the end.
Chapter-40
40 - FOURTH VOLUME, 29 th LETTER
Jihad
Jihad
The blessings of Amr-i maruf, Nahy-i- anil-munkar and jihad
This letter was written to Mirza Ubaidullah by Muhammad Mathum. It notes down the necessity of advice and the importance of jihad.Some people suppose that Tasawwuf means to care for one's own business, not to interfere with others and not to deal with anybody. This is not true. This kind of thinking causes the religion to be wounded. I wonder whom he remembers, when he talks like this about men of tasawwuf and sufis? If he means the great men who were attached to Hadrat Abu Bakr Siddiq 'Radi-Allahu anho', (we would give the answer that) it is written in their books that the way of these great people was to cling to the Sunnat-i saniyya [the Shariat] and to abstain from bidats. But, Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar and Bughd-i fillah and Jihad-i fisabilillah are the sunnats of our Prophet; that is, they are of the fards and wajibs of the Shariat. ['Bughd-i fillah' means 'to feel hostility (towards disbelievers) for Allah's sake,' and 'Jihad-i fisabilillah' means 'to struggle for Allah's sake.' We have explained Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar before]. Then, to abandon Amr-i maruf means to abandon the way of those great people. As a matter of fact, Imam-i Muhammad Bahaaddin-i Bukhari 'quddisa sirruh', who was one of them, said, "Our way is to cling to the Urwa-i wusqa, that is, to follow the way of Rasulullah and of his Ashab." For this reason, an insignificant deed on this way gives birth to a great profit. He who abandons this way falls into great dangers. If tasawwuf meant that you abandon Amr-i maruf, Muhammad Bahaaddin-i Bukhari 'quddisa sirruh' who was one of the chiefs of tasawwuf, would not have performed Amr-i maruf to his own master, Sayyad Amir Kulal. While it was incompatible with manners to warn his master, he still did Amr-i maruf. Gathering the savants of Bukhara, he proved in the presence of them all that it was not acceptable in the Shariat to repeat Allahu ta'ala's name loudly, thus explaining to his master the importance of stopping it. Being very pious and in love with a true word, his master admitted it and stopped doing it. Men of tasawwuf wrote thousands of books in order to communicate the things that will cause men to attain salvation and those things which will draw them to annihilation. What are these works of theirs, if not Amr-i maruf ? Sultan al-Hind Hadrat Khawaja Abul Hasan Muiniddin-i Chishti Ajmeri RadiAllaho Anho, one of the great men of tasawwuf, was told by his master, "The darling's way is very subtle and dangerous. Advise everybody and inform them of the danger!" Why did Shaykh-i-Akbar Muhyiddin-i Arabi 'quddisa sirruh' prohibit the sufis in his time from playing music and dancing, while it was he who spread Wahdat-i wujud [Not to know that creatures also exist. To know that only the Creator exists, who is one, and that creatures are His various reflections.] all over the world? Some of them obeyed him and stopped doing so. And others did not obey him and did not stop it. But eventually they confessed their fault. [It is written in the book Hadiqa and also Akhi Chalabi writes in this book Hadiyya, "It is fard to do Amr-i maruf. But it is necessary not to do Amr-i maruf if it will result in instigation or events disliked by the religion."]
Ghawth al-A'zam As-Sayyad Shaykh Abd'al-Qadir al-Jilani (Geilani) Radi Allaho Anhoperforms Amr-i maruf in detail in his book Gunyat-ut-talibin. He says, "It is permissible for a person to prevent a sinner from sinning when it is probable that he will be harmed. Yes, it is, as far as we are concerned. In fact, it is very valuable. He will be rewarded as if he warred against disbelievers for Allah's sake. Especially if it is intended to rescue the victims from the oppression of cruel authorities or to spread iman when disbelief invades one's country. Savants advise to perform Amr-i maruf at such times." If great ones among the Awliya and the leaders of Sufis had neglected Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar, would they have written these in heir books or paid that much attention to them? Hadrat Ghawth al-A'zam Shaykh Abd'al-Qadir al-Jilani (Geilani) says: "Things that are compatible with the Qur'an, hadiths and reason are called 'Maruf', and things that are incompatible with them are called 'Munkar.' [The book Hadiqa, while explaining the disasters incurred by the tongue, says, "Things that are prohibited by the Qur'an and hadiths and by the unanimity of Mujtahids are called 'Munkar'."] Each of them is of two types. The marufs and munkars of the first type are obvious; savants and those who are not savants know them. It is Maruf, that is fard to perform namaz five times each day, to fast in the month of Ramadan, to give zakat, to go on a pilgrimage (Hajj) and things of this type; and it is Munkar, that is haram to commit adultery, to drink alcohol, to steal, to pick somebody's pocket, to charge or pay interest when lending or borrowing money, to snatch away others' property and things of this type. Every Muslim has to command or prohibit these things. The second type is known only by savants, such as kinds of facts to be believed in concerning Allahu ta'ala and how to believe them. Muslim savants command and prohibit things of this type. If a savant has communicated them, those who are not savants may communicate them, too, if they can. The munkars of the second type comprise mostly aberrations pertaining to iman and creed. Every Muslim should cling to the Ahl as-sunnat creed, and abstain from aberrant belief, that is, from deviation and from bidat in creed. One who is not learned in religious knowledge should not dispute with performers of bidat, but the should keep away from them and should not greet them. He should not visit them on religious feasts, at times of happiness, should not perform namaz in their funerals, and nor should he pity them. Since their creed is corrupt, he should deem it as an act of worship not to like them. Rasulullah 'Salla-Allahu alaihi wa Sallam' declared in a hadith, "If a person looks at another person harshly for Allah's sake because there is bidat or aberration in his iman or worship, Allahu ta'ala will fill his heart with iman and will protect him against fear."
[It is written in the book Kanz-i mahfi, "It is prohibited to live in places where ignorance and immorality, that is bidat and sinful activities have increased. Those who migrate in order to maintain their din (religion) will be rewarded with Paradise. It is wajib to migrate from one quarter where there are no pious and wise people and where bidat and intrigues are on the increase, to another quarter, or from such a city to another city. If Muslims in all cities are attacked, they should migrate to another Islamic country. If there are no Islamic countries, you should migrate to a kafir country where human rights are respected and worshipping is free and live there. Please see the thirty-eighth chapter in the second part of (Turkish) Se'adet-i ebediyye! This is because those who live among them will be subjected to the same catastrophe which is expected to befall them. The twenty-fifth ayat of Sura Anfal declares: "And fear an affliction which may not only smite those of you who do what is wrong."]
Fudayl bin Iyad, one of the great men of tasawwuf says, "Allahu ta'ala does not accept the worships of those who love the people who commit bidat in their words and deeds, and He takes their iman away from their hearts. Even if he who dislikes the performer of bidat prays a little, I hope that Allahu ta'ala will forgive him. If you meet a performer of bidat on your way, change your way." Again, he says, "I have heard Sufyan bin Uyayna say that Allahu ta'ala becomes angry with the person who attends the funeral of a performer of bidat until he leaves the funeral." Our Beloved Prophet Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallamdeclared, "If a person makes up a bidat or commits a bidat, may Allahu ta'ala and angels and all people curse him! Neither the fard nor the supererogatory worships he performs will be accepted." As Sayyad Shaykh Abd'al-Qadir al-Jilani's (Geilani) words are concluded here.
If the way of the Great Sufis were to not interfere with anybody, one of them would not have said, "When the Niqar, that is, performing Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar, among the Sufis stops, they are no longer of any use." Shaikh-ul-Islam-i Hirawi Abdullah Ansari said that Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar were called Niqar among the Sufis. [It is written in Nafahat, while telling about the life of Abu Said-i Kharraz, that the one who said, "when the niqar stops," was Abul-Hasan Ali bin Muhammad Muzayyan.] Those who slander the Great Sufis by saying that they did not interfere with anybody, do they not think why the Qur'an and hadiths are full of descriptions describing the rewards and torments in the next world? Will not the person who believes in the vehement torments that are said to be prepared for the sinners want to save his Muslim brother from this danger? If there is a well or a fire in front of a blind man, or if a person is about to fall into another worldly danger, they will certainly let him know of it and show him the way to safety. They will not leave him alone. Then, why shouldn't they let him know of the torment in the next world, which is more dismal and more impetuous and endless, and show him the way to salvation? It means that he who does not let others know or show them their mistakes does not admit or believe in the torment in the next world, and does not have iman in the day of the Last Judgement.
If Allahu ta'ala did not want to interfere with anybody, He would not have sent prophets, He would not have declared the Shariats, He would not have invited people to the Islamic religion, and He would not have let us know that the other religions were wrong and aberrant, nor would He have annihilated those who disbelieved the earlier prophets by tormenting them. He could have left everybody free and alone; He could have not commanded anybody to do anything, nor would He have tormented those who disbelieved Him. Why did Allahu ta'ala order Muslims [that is, the Islamic state] to perform jihad against disbelievers [those who prevent people from hearing about Islam and becoming Muslims]. Whereas, in jihad there is torment and death not only for disbelievers, but also for Muslims. For what reason were the virtues and blessings of jihad for those who perform jihad and for martyrs declared in the Qur'an and hadiths? Why was it commanded to attack evil people, to harass them, and to destroy those creatures of Allah's? As a matter of fact, He also commands man to feel hostility towards his own nafs, and explains that the nafs is at odds with Allahu ta'ala [see article 30]. To perform jihad against the nafs was called the Jihad-i Akbar (the greatest jihad). Why did Allahu ta'ala associate his approval and appreciation to this jihad? Why didn't Allahu ta'ala leave the nafs alone? It means that it is Allah's enemy. Allahu ta'ala wants His enemies to be punished. Owing to His infinite mercy, Allahu ta'ala first sent prophets 'alaihim-us-salatu wattaslimat' as messengers, and then later He sent the Awliya and the savants in their place. By declaring His rewards and torments through their tongues, He did not give an occasion for an excuse or pretext. No one can change Allah's decree and laws. The world's order cannot be rearranged in accordance with the opinions of those who do not know or see what is right. If Allahu ta'ala wished, He could guide everybody to the righteous way and could put everybody into Paradise. But He wanted in eternity to fill Hell with people and genies. A person who realizes the greatness of Allahu ta'ala cannot ask Him the reason why.
Who can say anything against Him, save fear;
What should be done, except giving oneself up.
He who follows the Beloved Prophet (Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam) will also follow him in inviting people and in performing Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar. He who does not do these has not adapted himself to him. If disbelievers were not Allah's enemies, it would not be fard to feel hostility towards them. It would not be the first of the things to bring a man closer to Allahu ta'ala. It would not be an important part of or an additive to iman. It would not cause the Wilayat (the grade of Awliya) to be attained and Allah's consent and love to be gained. Our Beloved Prophet (Salla Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam) declared, "The best of worships is to love Muslims because they are Muslims and to dislike disbelievers because they are disbelievers." When Allahu ta'ala asked Hadrat Musa (as), "What did you do for Me?" he answered, "O my Allah, for you I performed Namaaz, Fasted, gave Zakaat, and mentioned your name very much." Upon this, Allahu ta'ala declared, "O Musa! Your prayers (namaz) are documents for you. Your fastings are a shield against Hell. The zakat is a shade that protects you against the heat of the day of the Last Judgement. Your mentioning my name very much is a light that will illuminate you in the darkness of the grave and the Resurrection. That is, all these are useful for you. What did you do for Me?" Hadrat Musa (as) entreated, "O my Allah! Tell me the worship which is for Thee!" Allahu ta'ala declared in an ayat al-karima, "O Musa! Did you love those who loved Me for My sake, and did you feel hostility towards My enemies for My sake?" So, Hadrat Musa (as) realized that the good deed done for Allah was to love for His sake and to be hostile for His sake.
Love necessitates that you love the friends of your darling and be at odds with the enemies of the darling. This love and this enmity are not within the power of faithful lovers; they cannot help themselves. This happens by itself without striving, without taking pains. The friend's friends seem beautiful, and His enemies seem ugly and evil. Also, the love that occurs within those who are seized by the pretty appearance of the world requires this same process. Unless the person who says that he loves keeps away from the enemies of his darling, he is not regarded as a man of his word. He is called a hypocrite, that is, a liar. Shaykh-ul-Islam Abdullah Ansari 'quddisa sirruh' says, "One day Abul Husain bin Sam'un offended my teacher Husri. Since that day my heart has been feeling unfriendly towards him." It will be appropriate here to mention a famous saying of the great, "If you are not offended by the one who offends your master, a dog is better than you are." These two principles of love are declared in the Qur'an and hadiths. [Those who wish may refer to the Persian original or the Arabic or Turkish versions of the twenty-ninth letter]. As it is understood from these ayat al-karimas, it causes a man to be away from Allahu ta'ala if he loves he enemies of Allahu ta'ala. Unless there is enmity, there will be no love. But this enmity should not cause one to deviate into the way of disliking the Ashab-i kiram, as some people do. Enmity is to be felt towards the enemies. Hostility felt towards friends, as in the example of Rafidis and Shiites, is rejected. Because all of the Ashab-i kiram were honored with attaining our Prophet's presence and company and his blessed looks, which were nourishment for the heart and soul, they loved one another and felt hostility towards disbelievers. They all were darlings of the Messenger of Allah. Can it ever be a principle of love for Sayyiduna Rasulullah Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam to feel hostile even towards one of them! Don't those who say so show their enmity instead of their love?
Question: Of the great Awliya 'qaddas-Allahu ta'ala asrarahum-ul-'aziz', those who believed in Wahdat-i wujud said that everything in this world is a mirror reflecting Allahu ta'ala. In everything, nothing besides the perfect Attributes of Allahu ta'ala can be seen. Then, isn't it necessary to deem everything good, to love everything, and not to deem anything bad? There is a saying: No absolute evil exists in the world! [The pantheism philosophy of Spinoza, a philosopher from Holland, is a copy taken from Muslims' books on Wahdat-i wujud.].
Answer: It is commanded clearly in al-Qur'an Majid to dislike disbelievers, to feel hostility towards them through the heart, and to treat the harbis severely. [Harbis are a class of disbelievers explained at the end of the twentieth chapter.] It is out of the question to doubt this. No matter what disbelievers' essence is, it is fard and necessary for us to adapt ourselves to the Qur'an. Our business is with nass, not with fuss. [That is, our task is with the Qur'an al-karim and hadith ash-Sharifs, not with the books of the Awliya. For example, Hadrat Muhyiddin-i Arabi's kashfs [Manifestation, appearance of Allah's Attributes.] that are contrary to the Qur'an and hadiths, which he communicates in his book Fusus, cannot be documents for us.] In the Last Judgement, being saved from Hell and attaining salvation will depend on the Qur'an and hadiths, not on the books of the Awliya. Fancies, dreams, kashfs and inspirations that occur to the hearts of the Awliya cannot take the place of the Qur'an and hadiths. Those with erroneous kashf or inspiration have to adapt themselves to the Qur'an and hadiths and act in accordance with the Qur'an and hadiths, though they may not conform with their conscience and kashf. They must entreat Allahu ta'ala ceaselessly so that correct inspirations will occur to them and their hearts' eyes will be salved with the dust of Prophets' feet. Also, let us mention the fact that those Awliya who recognize Wahdat-i wujud divide beings into grades. They say that the state and the importance of each grade are different. They do not ignore the rule of Kathrat-i wujud, ['Kathrat-i-wujud' means 'to know of the existence of creatures as well; to know both the Creator and His creatures.' The rules that are put forth by recognizing the existence of all beings are called "the rules of Kathrat-i-wujud (plurality)."] which is the basis of the Shariat. They know that to relinquish it is to be a renegade, that is, to abandon Islam. Since performing Amr-i maruf and knowing the sinners and disbelievers as evil are rules of Kathrat-i wujud, as the other rules of the Shariat are, they deem those who ignore them as mulhids The person who does ilhad [To go out of religion by misunderstanding one or more parts of al-Qur'an Majid. He who does so is called a Mulhid.] and zindiqs [A person who endeavors to defend and spread his own thoughts under the name of Islam, though they are, in fact, incompatible with Islam.]. Also those who say that there is no certain evil have to say that there is evil [in one respect]. Since we have to know disbelievers as evil and keep away from them, this evil in one respect is enough for them.
Those who recognize Wahdat-i wujud do not eat poison. They do not let others eat it, either. They kill the scorpion and the snake and tell others to be mindful of them. They love those who obey them and dislike those who disobey them. Hadrat Jalaladdin Rumi, one of the notables of the men of Wahdat-i wujud, says in his Mathnawi:
"He who will not believe this word;
Now I see him headlong in Hell."
These great people prefer sweet foods, delicious sherbets, exquisite textures, touching voices, fragrant odors, fine sceneries, beautiful appearances to the tasteless, ugly ones, and like them much more. They protect and take care of those who approach them, and they protect them and themselves against dangers. They pick out useful things and avoid harmful ones. They try to obtain what they need. They educate their children. They consult one another about their important affairs, and they do not let their daughters and wives go out without covering themselves and do not let others approach them. They keep their children away from bad friends. They punish the cruel and their enemies, and warn their patients against harmful food. Are these acts of Wahdat-i wujud or Kathrat-i wujud? Then, is it worthy, is it reasonable to try to escape one's duties as a born servant (of Allah) through the rules of Wahdat-i wujud and to cease from obeying the rules of Kathrat in affairs pertaining to the next world, while it is fard to obey them? Is it reasonable to make Wahdat-i wujud a pretext for avoiding the responsibilities we have in this base worldly life? The reason for it is not to believe the divine rules, to disbelieve the Prophets and not to have iman in the Resurrection and in the torments and blessings of the next world. Of those who recognized Wahdat-i wujud, the ones with correct hals [Continuous variation of the kashfs and manifestations that come to the heart.] very strongly adhered to their faith and their actions were compatible with the Shariat. This fact is written at length in books. My father, who was my master, the cause of my coming to life and my happiness, was very careful while making an abdast (ablution), in taharat [cleaning oneself from najasat which is explained in article 34], in namaz, and in observing the adabs [There is a special adab in doing everything. The adab of doing something means to follow the conditions necessary for doing it in the best manner.], and he used to say, "I learned these by seeing them from my father. It is not easy to learn from books how to observe the adab together with all its subtle particulars." His father, the grandfather of this poor person, was a man of Wahdat-i wujud and was an unequalled 'arif [see preface] in the marifats [see article 38] in the book Fusus. At the same time, he was perfect in observing the Shariat. My father used to say that he had learned this behavior from his master Hadrat Ruknaddin-i Chashti by seeing his actions. He was one of the great Awliya of Wahdat-i wujud and he was always overcome by his hals and kashfs; yet it was known by everybody that he was a perfect person in adhering to the Shariat. Hadrat Ubaidullah-i Ahrar was inclined to Wahdat-i wujud. Yet he was matchless in adhering to the Shariat and in spreading the Din, the Shariat. He often said, "If I were a Shaykh, no other shaikh would find a disciple for himself. But I was commanded to spread the Shariat, not to become a Shaykh." Shaykh-i Akbar Muhyiddin ibn Arabi 'quddisa sirruh' was a Sahib-i ithnad [What he said was taken as a document. His words were used as documents.] in the knowledge of hadith and was in the grade of ijtihad in the knowledge of fiqh. He used to say, "With our Prophet's command, 'Call yourself to account (for your conduct) before you are called to account,' some Shaykhs call themselves to account every day and every night for what they have done. I have surpassed them in this accounting; I call myself to account for what I have thought as well as for what have done." Sultan al-Arifin Bayazid-i Bastami and Sayyad-ut-taifa Junaid al-Baghdadi 'quddisa sirruhuma', who may be said to be the founders and the leaders of Wahdat-i wujud, adapted themselves to the Shariat from head to toe. When Bayazid performed Namaaz, the rattling of the bones in his chest would be heard. Everybody should have heard about the words of Hallaj-i Mansur. Nevertheless, he used to perform a thousand rakats of Namaaz every day and every night, and he performed five hundred rakats the night before he was executed.
It is surprising that some of those who say that we shouldn't interfere with anybody and that we shouldn't attack [others'] consciences make intimate friends with the disbelievers, such as Jews, Jukis, Brahmans, Mulhids, Zindiqs, Armenians, Masons and Renegades, who have deviated into different ways. At the same time they say "retrogressive, reactionary, fanatical" about the Ahl as-Sunnat wal Jama'at, who adhere to the Sunnat, to the way of Sayyiduna Rasulullah (saw); and they feel hostility towards these real Muslims, who were given the good news of "It is only these who will be saved from Hell," and who were praised, "It is only these who follow my and my Ashab's way." While they make friends with disbelievers, they take pleasure in hurting, insulting and annihilating these true Muslims. What kind of Wahdat-i wujud, what kind of unity is it to feel hostility towards those who follow the way of Sayyiduna Hadrat Muhammad Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam, who is Allah's compassion upon all classes of beings, while being friendly with disbelievers, towards whom the Qur'an commands us to feel hostility? Isn't this sheer disbelief and enmity towards Islam?
All the Prophets, the Ashab-i Kiram, the Tabiin and the Salaf-i salihin 'radi-Allahu anhum ajmain' [See article 26 for the Ashab-i kiram, the Tabiin and Taba'-i Tabiin.] strove very much to perform Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar. They suffered much torment and torture for this cause. If it were good in our religion not to interfere with anybody, it would not have been said that it was a symptom of iman for the heart to refuse a sin. Indeed, it is declared in the hadith: "Prevent the sinner from sinning with your hand. If you are unable to do it, prevent him through words. If you cannot do it either, dislike it [the sin] through the heart! And this is the lowest grade of iman." If it were good not to perform Amr-i maruf, the worshipper who would not do Amr-i maruf to a sinning tribe would not be destroyed together with them. As a matter of fact, it is declared in a hadith: "Allahu ta'ala commanded Hadrat Jabrail (AS) to sink a city into the earth. Jabrail said, 'O Allah! A born servant of Thine in that city has not disobeyed Thee even for a moment. He has always obeyed and worshipped Thee; 'Sink him, too! His face never changed when he saw sinners'."
Question: The hundred and eighth ayat of Surat al-Maida declares: "O My born servants who have Iman! Take care of yourselves! If you find the right way, others' going astray will not harm you." That is, Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar are not permitted to be done, are they?
Answer: To find the right way mentioned here, it is also necessary to do Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar. That is, Allahu ta'ala declares: "My believing born servants! If you do what I have commanded and worship and perform Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar, others' going astray will not harm you." It is written in books when and why this ayat was revealed, and that many ayats and hadiths about Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar were commanded after it.
Question: It is the Prophets' way to perform Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar and jihad against disbelievers. Isn't it the way of the Awliya not to touch consciences, not to interfere with anybody?
Answer: They are fard [commanded] in the Qur'an and hadiths. The commandments are for everybody. They are not only for some people. Prophets, Awliya, savants and the ignorant are equal in carrying out the commandments. Let us repeat that it depends on following the Prophets to be saved from Hell and to attain endless bliss. Whatsoever the Awliya obtain from Wilayat [see later explanations in this article], from love, from marifat [see article 38] and from qurb-i ilahi [Its lexical meaning is 'to the approach, to get close to Allah'. In Islam, it is used in the sense 'to earn the love of Allah, to be loved by Allah.'] they obtain it as a reward for following the Prophets. What is other than this way is the way of deviation, of the devil. Abdullah Ibni Masud 'radi-Allahu anhuma' says, "One day, the Beloved Prophet Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam drew a straight line for us and said, 'This is the right way which makes man attain Allah's consent.' " Then, drawing some slanting lines like fish-bones on both sides of that line, he said, 'And these are the ways which the devil makes one deviate into." Therefore, if a person wants to walk on the right way without adapting himself to the Prophets, certainly he will deviate into slanting ways. If the obtains something, it is istidraj. That is, it ends in loss and harm. Hadrat Ubaidullah-i Ahrar 'quddisa sirruh' said, "If they gave me all the kashfs and hals that occur to the heart, and yet if they didn't ornament my heart with the Ahl as-Sunnat creed, I would deem myself destroyed, ruined. If they piled up all the disasters and desolations upon me, yet if they honored my heart with the creed of the Ahl as-sunnat wa jamaat, I would never worry." If the hals and kashfs that occur to the Awliya are in accordance with following our Prophet, they make light upon light and the subtle mysteries of the Shariat begin to show up. All of the Ashab-i Kiram 'radi-Allahu ta'ala anhum ajmain', the Salaf-i salihin, and the Mashaykh- i Mustaqim-ul-ahwal [The great men of tasawwuf whose hals, kashfs are correct and whose kashfs conform with the Shariat.] were in this state. In tasawwuf, the two ways which are the way of Nubuwwat and the way of Wilayat are in haqiqat [The information which Allahu ta'ala sent to prophets through an angel is called the Shariat. Each Muslim learns the Shariat from masters. When a Muslim's heart has been purified from sins, information on the Shariat comes to his heart by itself. That Muslim has reached the haqiqat. To reach the haqiqat, it is necessary to strive and make progress in the way called tasawwuf. The spiritual training that is done and the things that are required to enter this way until reaching the haqiqat are called the tariqat. ] a single way shown by the Shariat, for both of them make man attain [to perfection] on condition that he will adapt himself to the Prophet. Likewise, the saying that the ways that will guide man to Allah's consent and marifat are as many as the breaths of creatures is correct, for there is a way that guides every fancy to its origin, and there is a different ayn-i sabita, that is, a mabda-i tayyun, for each creature. In other words, a different divine name causes each creature to be created and to stay in existence. To attain through any of these ways depends on observing the rules of the Shariat. He who deviates from the Shariat will either break down on the way, or will go off the rails. Then, all ways begin with the Shariat. That is, the Shariat is like the trunk of a tree. All the tariqats, that is, ways, are like the branches, veins, buds, leaves and flowers of that tree.
[Emr-i maruf can be carried out in two ways. One is through speaking, writing and every means of communication. However, with this method, fitna may occur if one has an insufficient amount of knowledge, or if disrespect is shown to the people being addressed, or to their traditions or laws. The other approach is to be an exemplary person in your behavior by adopting the superior morality of Islam. Presently a smiling face, a friendly manner, obeying the laws, paying your taxes and debts, and not despising anyone or violating anyone's property rights or chastity is a most efficient and beneficial method of teaching Islam to others. For this reason, it is said that "lisan-ul-hal antaqu min lisan-il- qal" which means the language of the body and behavior, without making use of words, is superior to language itself. Therefore, to live in accordance with the superior morality of Islam is the best way to perform Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i-munkar. It is to carry out an important fard; it is to perform an ibadat. Tasawwuf is the way which enables man to develop the ikhlas needed in worshipping his Creator, and in enhancing the good morals necessary in his dealings with human beings. This way is taught by a Murshid-i kamil. Every science has its own specialists. Man learns a specific branch of science from its specialist. The specialist of the knowledge of tasawwuf is the one who is a Murshid-i kamil. Anyone who is a specialist in any branch of science is not called a Murshid-i kamil.]
Chapter-41
FIRST VOLUME, 96 th LETTER
Those who do not perform their worships at their due times
This letter, written to Muhammad Sharif, explains that those who do not perform the worships and good deeds in time and who say, "I will do them tomorrow," or "I will do them later," are wrong; and that it is necessary to adhere to the way, to Sayyiduna Hadrat Muhammad Mustufa's Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam Islam.My dear son! Today, you are in a situation that will permit you to do easily whatever you want. You are at an age when youth, health, power, strength, wealth and comfort are found together in the same place. Why do you put it off until tomorrow to hold on to the means that will cause you to attain sadat-i ebediyya (endless bliss) and to perform useful deeds? In the days of youth the best time of man's life, man should try to do the commands of his Owner, of his Creator, and to worship Him, which is the best and the most useful of deeds. He should abstain from the harams, which Islam prohibits, and from what is dubious. [By dubious we mean the actions which we do not know for sure are permitted or forbidden]. He should do his best not to lose the opportunity of performing the five daily prayers of namaz in jamaat [One person performs Namaaz in the front; the others, behind him, perform it like him by adapting themselves to him. The person who performs it in the front is called the Imam. Those who perform it behind him are called the Jama'at.]. It is commanded that those Muslims who have the amount of property to reach the nisab [It means border. It is the amount of property distinguishing being rich from being poor. He who has property less than this amount is called poor. He whose property is more than this amount is called rich.] must give Zakaat. It is certainly necessary for them to give Zakaat. Then, one should give the zakat willingly and, even, by imploring the poor to take it. Because Allahu ta'ala is very merciful and He pities His born servants very much, He decreed only five prayers for worship in twenty-four hours and commanded giving the poor, exactly or approximately, only one-fortieth of the commercial goods and that much of the quadruped livestock that graze in fields. He prohibited a few things and gave permission to do many things.
Then it is an act of headlong obstinacy and unreasonableness not to reserve an amount of time that will not take even one hour out of twenty-four hours to do Allah's commandments or not to give one-fortieth of one's property, though one is rich, to the poor Muslims, and instead strive to do what is haram and dubious, leaving aside the innumerable permissible things.
Youth is a time when the nafs boils, the sensual desires jump about and fiendish people and satanic genies attack. A little goodness done at such an age will be given much thawab. When old, when worldly pleasures are on the decline, when power and strength are gone, and when there is no longer any possibility or hope of getting what is desired, nothing can be done except to sigh. Many people do not have a share even from that time of regret. That regret means repentance and is still a great blessing. Many cannot reach those days.
The eternal torments and various sufferings, which our Beloved Prophet Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam communicated, will certainly take place, and everybody will get his deserts. Today, wicked people and devilish genies deceive us by putting forth Allah's forgiveness and compassion and prevent us from worshipping and drag us towards sinning. However, one should know well that this world is a place of examination. Therefore, the darlings and the enemies are put together here, and all of them are pitied. Indeed, He declares in the hundred and fifty-fifth ayat of Surat al-Araf: "My mercy includes everything." But on the Day of Resurrection the enemies will be separated from the darlings. The ayat, "O kafirs! Today separate from those whom I love!" in Surat al-Yasin, communicates this fact. On that day, only the darlings will be pitied; there won't be any mercy for the enemies, who will certainly be cursed. As a matter of fact, the ayat, "On that day, My mercy will be peculiar only to those who, fearing Me, abstained from being kafirs and from sinning, gave Zakaat, and believed in the Qur'an and My Beloved ProphetSalla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam," in Surat-ul-Araf, conveys that this will be so. Then, on that day, the mercy of Allahu ta'ala will be given to the abrar, that is, to those Muslims with a good temper and useful deeds. Yes, all Muslims, all those with iman as even much as a mote, will attain mercy in the end, even after staying in Hell for a long time. But, for attaining mercy, it is necessary to die with iman. Nevertheless, when the heart darkens from sinning, when the commands and prohibitions of Allahu ta'ala are slighted, how can the light of iman be protected from going out during the final breath? Great men of the religion say, "Continuing venial sins causes grave sins. And continuing grave sins drifts one into becoming a disbeliever." May Allahu ta'ala protect us against being so!
Translation of a Persian couplet:
I talked very little and feared hurting your heart
Knowing your short temper, I refrained from what I'd impart.
May Allahu ta'ala bless us with doing the things which He likes! For the sake of His Beloved Prophet, Sayyiduna Hadrat Muhammad Mustufa Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam, and his dear Ahl al-bayt, may He accept our prayer! The carrier of this letter, Mawlana Ishaq, is an acquaintance and mukhlis of this faqir. We have shared the rights of neighbors for a long time. If he asks for any sort of assistance, I hope that you will not disappoint him, inshallah. He has the talent of elegance of style in handwriting. Wassalam.
No, no! You are never treated unjustly by your Allah!
What you suffer from is an atonement for your deeds!
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