In this beautiful sohbat addressed to Sheikh Mehmet, Mawlana talks about how to be among the beautiful ones who are accepted in Allah’s Presence. The Lord is giving. Who is there to receive? Love and receive love and light.
Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim
Allahumma Salli ala Muhammadin wa ala ‘aly Muhammadin wa Sallim
Sultan ul-Awliya Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Al-Haqqani An-Naqshbandi (ق )
Sohbat of the 30th of January, 2014 – Rabi ul-Awwal
To be accepted by Allah Almighty, to be accepted in the Presence of the Holy Prophet, that is what we want. It is pointless to be one of the rejected. Grant us permission, Dastur, O Lord, Madad, we ask Your support. Allāhu akbar, Allāhu akbar, Allāhu akbar wa li-llāhi l-hamd.
May our troubles all be taken away, let them go to the rocks and mountains. They can carry them, Shaykh Mehmet Efendi, we cannot bear it. The rocks and mountains can, my son. Therefore, O Lord, O King of Abundant Riches, let us see good days, by the Grace of Your Beneficence. Our sins are many, but there is no end to Your gracious Beneficence. Let us say: Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim. Have no fear, have no fear. O you who you are friends of the Lovers of Shah-i Mardan, our children and our friends, give thanks. Give thanks. May strength come to us from Shah-i Mardan. If Shah-i Mardan kicked this world, the world would be in utter disarray.
As-salamu ‘aleykum, O Friends of Shah-i Mardan, welcome to you. Even if there are only two people, when there is someone to receive there are many givers. There needs to be one who is able to receive. We cannot distinguish between giving and receiving.
O gracious Padishah, for the sake of Your Beloved Prophet, send to us one of Your beloved friends. Send such a blessed one to us, O my Lord. Leave us not among rocks and mountain wilderness. You have not come for the rocks and wild mountain places. Allāhu akbar, Allāhu akbar. In one moment he takes from us all our physical aches and pains.
Merhaban, merhaban! Welcome to you, O you who are the friends of those blessed servants, the Lovers of Shah-i Mardan, welcome to you. Merhaba to you, there is such a holy verse. What a great honour to be favoured with such a greeting as “merhaba”. Haji Mehmet, our son Haji Mehmet. Merhaba, O My servants, merhaba, O beloved nation of My most dearly Beloved. O Lord, may our troubles be taken from us, let them go to the rocks and mountains. Rocks and mountains can carry them, we cannot, Shaykh Mehmet Efendi, our son. wa khuliqa l-insanu da‘ifan (4:28) [and man was created weak]. No? We have neither strength; neither strength, nor power. Let us be of those servants of whom our Lord’s Beloved spoke when he said: my nations! May our troubles be taken away from us. May things open up.
We await Your Grace, We await the Favour of our Lord. That is all we are able to do, my son. ilāhi ‘afwan. O our Lord, we hope for Your forgiveness. We ask for Your forgiveness. That is our honour. We are sinners, O our Lord, forgive us. I wait for Your Favour, we wait for Your Favour.
Covet nothing in this world. Long for none of its commodities. You must long only for Habibullah. O Beloved Prophet, to run after you; to behold his beloved countenance. O our Lord, do not withhold this from us! Let us ask for that. Let us ask, it will be given. Don’t be heedless. wa lā taj‘alnā min al-ghāfilīn, make us not to be among the heedless ones, O Lord. Let us say: Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim. Say: Allah – Jalla wa ‘Ala – call upon His Sacred Name. Remember Him by His Name of Divine Majesty upon which both heavens and earth are built. Find your honour.
For the sake of Allah’s Beloved, may our Lord grant us favour and kindness. Whatever You grant us, O Lord, it is from Your Favour, Your Kindness. We are but weak servants. The ant, what can an ant possibly do, Shaykh Mehmet Efendi? What can the ant do? It runs here, it runs there. Does Allah Almighty seek revenge on an ant? The Creator Allah – Jalla Jalāluhu – Jallat ‘azamatuhu, what revenge does Allah take on an ant, my son? O Lord, we await Your Favour, Your Divine Favour. Grant us strength. Dress upon us dignity, grandeur. In Your presence let us have dignity. Let us be dignified. Let us be lovely. Let us not be unsightly. Shaykh Mehmet Efendi, our son. Do not be ugly, that is all heaven asks of you, nothing else.
This is a strong saying. O My servant, O nations of My Beloved, do not make yourselves ugly. Make yourselves beautiful, to be lovable. That is what we ask, O our Lord. We are Your weak servants, O Lord. Let us say: Let us begin with the Name of Allah, O Lord. Amān, ya Rabbi. What revenge can He exact on an ant? We are even less than an ant, my son, Shaykh Mehmet Efendi. I await the gift of grace of the Holy Prophet of Allah. How lovely that is, to be beloved by the Beloved of Allah. How lovely it is to be beloved, Shaykh Mehmet Efendi. To be despised, what a terrible quality that is.
O our Lord, O our Lord, I ask for Your Mercy. Our sins want to take Your Mercy away from us, but as long as Your Mercy exists, Your Mercy will not be far away from us. Ask for Mercy. rahmatullahi ‘aleyk. rahmatan wāsi‘a, (an expansive mercy) Allāhu akbar.
To be accepted is one thing, and to be rejected is another thing, Shaykh Mehmet. Accustom the nation to becoming acceptable. Let us be accepted, in the Presence of our Creator. That is what we are asking for, my son, Mehmet Efendi. Let us be acceptable. Let us not be loathsome. Let us be beloved so that our Lord may say, “My servant”; so He may say to His Beloved – “Behold that servant of Mine how much love he has for Us, how he loves Us, how he serves Us in everything. Behold this loyal subject, what a beautiful servant. Let Our Mercy be upon them. Eh, rahmatullahi ‘aleyh.” Ask for mercy, ask for mercy. O our Lord, O our Lord, I ask for Your Mercy. Our sins want to take Your Mercy away from us, but as long as Your Mercy exists, Your Mercy will not be far away from us. Ask for Mercy. rahmatullahi ‘aleyk. rahmatan wāsi‘a, (an expansive mercy) Allāhu akbar.
O our Lord, Your Mercy is for the likes of us sinful servants. And You do not withdraw Your gracious, giving hand from anyone. A‘ta, i‘ta – Allah Almighty does not hold His hand like this, He gives, so ask of Him. If we ask, He will give to us. Even if we do not ask, He gives us, Allah Almighty, our Lord, al-Bārī, (the Fashioner) subhānuhu wa ta‘āla. Let us become beautiful, let us be sweet, Shaykh Mehmet Efendi, our son. Let us not be ugly. It is the heavenly command: wa ahsinū (2:195) [and do good] Be lovely, don’t be ugly, He says. Allah Almighty does not love what is ugly. So be beautiful, He says.
Ask of My Bounty – whoever receives My Beneficence, he is beautiful. That is the quality of My Beloved. I will dress you in power. There is no end to My Bounty. Ask for it, love, love, O my Beloved, love. Love that which I love. I will give to you ‘ali ul-‘ala, the highest of high ranks and stations. Don’t make yourselves ugly! I do not want ugly ones, says Allah Almighty. Allāhu Allāh, Allāhu Rabbī, mā li siwāhu, illa Hū. Try to be of the beautiful ones, He says. Do not be ugly, Mehmet. Allāh, Allāh, our Subhān.
What are the conditions of beauty? He is beautiful who makes himself to be beloved. He who is higher even than heavenly light, he is beautiful. Take of the light, hold and treasure that light. Your beauty comes from that. You must come to Me, O My servant.
The beauty of mankind comes from his faith. Whoever is dressed with the light of faith is beautiful.
O Lord, You are Subhān. What can we do, O Lord, we are helpless and weak. O our Lord, You who own all heaven and earth, for the sake of the Beloved of Allah, You have created us to be beautiful. He made us beautiful. Let us always be beautiful in His Presence. In His Presence the ugly one is not accepted. Don’t be ugly! What is ugliness? It is to be without faith. A person who has faith will not be ugly. The beauty of mankind comes from his faith. Whoever is dressed with the light of faith is beautiful. Whoever is not dressed in the light of faith is ugly.
Who is ugly? Shaytān. Give us strength, O Lord. O Lovers of Shah-i Mardan, O blessed ones. We ask for strength, we ask for power. We want to rise from earth into the heavens. We do not wish to remain as vile creatures on earth, Haji Mehmet. Vileness, baseness will take away the beauty of man. Do not make yourself vile. Look, how very lovely. A vile, inferior man is the man who is driven away. Who is base and vile? Shaytān. Make yourself lovable, may all gates open wide. Ey Shah-i Mardan, O Lovers of Shah-i Mardan, you are the close friends of Shah-i Mardan. Increase your beauty. zidni nura, zidni nura, zidni nura [increase me in light] Increase our light, O Lord, leave us not to be ugly. In our Lord’s Presence, who is ugly? Shaytān.
Those who will be accepted have the qualities of the malā’ika-i kirām, the noble angels.
al-hamdu li-llāh, we aspire to be lovely. Who is beautiful? He who is accepted. The Prophet Adam, and our mother Hawwa, they were beautiful, they were acceptable. Shaytān was not accepted, he was driven away. If You, O Lord, were to give us only a single drop of the light of Your most generous Beloved, how lovely that would be, Shaykh Mehmet Efendi. May Allah give beauty to you. May He take ugliness away from us. O Lovers of Shah-i Mardan, O blessed ones. O Allah’s servants who attend the gathering of the blessed, O Friends of Shah-i Mardan, strive to be lovely. Try to become acceptable by striving after beauty. Those who will be accepted have the qualities of the malā’ika-i kirām, the noble angels. Were it not for that, that man would be shaytān. May Allah make us far from being devils.
For the sake of the Beyt-i mu‘azzam, (the Ka’ba) for the sake of all the beauty that was given to the Holy Prophet of Allah, grant us faith, grant us power, grant us grandeur! Give us the strength to venerate You, O our Lord. Amīn. Ey Ummuhan, our Sultan, how lovely is your maqām! For the sake of the divine emanations of that maqām dress us in Beauty. Let us not be ugly, let us not be ugly. Who are they who were kicked by the angels of the seven heavens?
The ugly ones, they say, those who have shaytanic qualities. Who are the ugly ones? Those who represent shaytān; those from whom friendliness has been taken away. O our Lord, however much we may have sinned, You made the Holy House for Your Beloved Prophet, so that those who look upon it will find contentment, so that he who gazes on it will become beautiful, so he who looks to it may love His Lord, and hold to the path of Your Beloved, and love it. al-Fātiha.
Allāhu Allāh, Allāhu Rabbī. Mā shā’ Allāh. O our Lord, what to do, what can we do? Thanks be to Allah. May health and goodness come over us, for the sake of the Holy Prophet of Allah, may health and goodness come. May grief and sorrow depart from us, and all ugliness go away from us. O Lord of all heavens and earths, our Lord Allah Almighty created us in “ahsani taqwim”, He gave man “ahsani taqwim”, the most lovely shape. That shape gave us honour, the very greatest of honours. O our Lord, even if our sins be many, for the sake of Your gracious, munificent Beloved Prophet, everything is beautiful. al-Fātiha.
Come, Haji Mehmet, pray on me. For the sake of Haji Mehmet’s blessings they let me speak a few words. They do not belong to me. Shah-i Mardan, Friends of Shah-i Mardan, mā shā’ Allāh, how lovely they are. Pray on me, Shaykh Mehmet Efendi. Poor boy, may he turn into a lion. May you be acceptable in the Presence of Allah and His Prophet, and also to you. Health to all those present.
Sufi Qalam 