Addressing Sheikh Mehmet Effendi, Mawlana speaks about the relation between, “The Sheikh and the Murid”.
Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim
Sultan ul-Awliya Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Al-Haqqani An-Naqshbandi ق
Sohbat of the 17th of March, 2013
Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim The Basmala sh-Sharifa is the crown on our heads. The one who keeps it as his daily word can never be dishonoured in this world or in the Hereafter. In The Divine Presence also he cannot be dishonoured. Basmala sh-Sharifa. There is an astonishing power within it. That’s why the unbeliever world’s first attack was on the Basmala Al Sharifa. They heard about the secret of Basmala Al Sharifa but they were not able to enter in it. The station of the power & mightiness of Basmala sh-Sharifa, their imagination cannot even come close to it. They said this & that, it is not about that. Their imagination could not even come close to the power and the glory within Basmala Al Sharifa. That is why they first attacked to remove Basmala Al Sharifa.
There are the old cannons & the old bombs, there was a mechanism, there was a hole in the cannons where they use to put the gun powder to launch the bombs, without that hole & without the gun powder they were not able to shoot it. And also the mechanism in the hand grenades if you do not pull that pin, the bomb does not explode. The power was in that mechanism. They pull it, throw it & it explodes. The definition of that mechanism, I forgot it. Our way is through association and goodness is in the gatherings. Grand Sheikh use to say this always, our way… He took these words from Shah Naqshband Our way is through association & goodness is in the gatherings. Our way works through association. Once you do Sohbat – you throw the seeds, for example, if you do not water them & the mercy does not rain on them, the seeds rot & disappear. Our way, the origin of our way to move & to work is through association. Keep this always…on your mouth.
“Our way does not work without association. Meaning a person on his own reciting awrad, he will never reach anywhere. For training the murids & to prepare them and to present them in The Divine Presence and to dress them with their station is through Sohbat.”
— Mawlana Shaykh Nazim ق
“Religion is advice” (Hadith) The Grand Sheikhs took from that ocean. Our religion is based on advice, it is an ocean. There are no limits for that ocean. Sheikh Effendi took from that ocean. Our way is through association, it came from that ocean. Our way does not work without association. Meaning a person on his own reciting awrad, he will never reach anywhere. For training the murids & to prepare them and to present them in The Divine Presence and to dress them with their station is through Sohbat. “Religion is advice.” (Hadith) What is advice? It is to ask somebody’s goodness & benefit. Advice… All the Prophets (as) came down with an advice. All of them were advising. Those who were accepting the advice they accepted, those who did not were rolling down to hell.
What keeps religion on its feet, is advice. That is why when 2 believers meet, they must give an association in the period of milking 2 goats. Believers when they meet they must speak. Leave empty talking. You can speak something but at least within it, there must be some advice in it. To put an advice within the words. Advice.. it gives our words some power. It gives some sweetness to our faith. It gives some power & some strength, therefore “religion is advice.” (Hadith) And our way is through association, from there Shah Naqshband took these words. Our way is the way of association; through giving talk & listening. Who knows how, speaks… And the others must listen.
To give & take. The Sheikh gives & the mureeds take. If not, if there is no Sheikh, there are no mureeds. The mureed does not know anything. The one who reaches the mureeds, is the Sheikh. How to reach them is through association. This is not through the stick. It is not by beating, by stick, but association with the guide is a thousand times more powerful than the stick. Sultan Al Awliya’ used to say like this. Sheikh Abdullah Al Daghestani, our Sheikh, our Master, and the Grand Sheikhs, he is the last link of the Golden Chain of the Naqshibandi Sufi Order. He is the seal of the chain.
Who does not get his seal can never be a Sheikh and cannot be even a mureed, and will not understand anything to speak. Becoming logs of wood. If the wood does not go through the hands of the carpenter it remains a log. The only benefit is in the fireplace. But if it goes through the hands of the carpenter then it is dressed with character. The wood first is taken from the tree & cut into timber. The timber according to the imagination & drawings of carpenter becomes various forms. They call him a carpenter. There are 2 kinds of carpenters. The first makes furniture the other one prepares timber, maybe windows & doors. That one cannot do the work of the carpenter for furniture. And the other one does not interfere in the work of the one who prepares timber.
“In Islam the Tariqa has all the control & arrangement of everything that happens between the saints, the Sheikhs, and those who are following them from among the dervishes & mureeds. To be on the way it is in the Tariqa.”
— Mawlana Shaykh Nazim ق
It is like this. A person/Insan needs carving, otherwise he is like wild wood, if it sits 100 years it remains timber. But once it reaches the hands of the master carpenter that timber is transformed into many kinds of furniture. How many household furniture and even outdoors the carpenter can turn the wood into. But first it goes in the hands of the Master carpenter. Otherwise it sits 40 years as it is. Advice shapens the timber & the wood of our ego and the carpenter used to hold it & look if it is straight or not in the old times. The carpenter, then later if it is not straight he takes the file and smoothes it till it is straight and smooth. It needs a Master carpenter, the furniture. From timber you can make so many things, and the timber comes from the trees. The trees, you can take the timber from it & that timber in the hands of the Master carpenter becomes something and gives some use to mankind at the same time; they like it & ornament it and take pride in it. And that hand craft continues & develops. He becomes a master of this handcraft…
And continues to carve & to file the mureeds & he looks. He looks like this, like that… till he is straight & soft. That is why Allah Almighty said “Fastaqim Kama Umirta” (11:112) Prophet (ﷺ) said “Surat Hud turned me gray.” “Surat Hud turned me gray.” Why? The majesty & glory of that Holy Verse turned the blessed beard of the Prophet (ﷺ) into grey. Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! O our Lord You know best. O our Lord You know best! Two people they may sit, greet each other and give some benefit to their beings. It gives benefit to both sides, no empty talking. No empty work & no nonsense in Islam. In Islam the Tariqa has all the control & arrangement of everything that happens between the saints, the Sheikhs, and those who are following them from among the dervishes & mureeds. To be on the way it is in the Tariqa. Otherwise they remain like wood, timber laying down. It is just timber. They are timber.
There! What can you say… “I am laying there as timber”. “You are timber!” “And the furniture that reached the Palace of the Sultan came from me!” “O no, ask the furniture in the Palace that reached the Sultan how much treatment it went through before it reached the Palace of the Sultan. Otherwise they will carry the timber on their shoulders to the Palace of the Sultan. Ask the furniture in the Palace how much treatment it went through to be trained, to be fit for the honour of being furniture for the King. Therefore mankind is continuosly in need of training.
“Wa Dhakkir” (51:55) “Wa Dhakkir Fa’inna dh-Dhikra Tanfa`u l-Mu’minina”(51:55) They say sharpen, carve…remind. Every remembrance is similar to shaping, to soften & straighten the wood. “And remind for verily, the reminding profits the believers.” (51:55) “And remind for verily, the reminding profits the believers.” (51:55) Wa Min Allahi t Tawfiq, Fatiha.
We spoke about one spot only. The writing that you can take from a small ink bottle is something, the writing of a bigger ink bottle is something else. And then the big barrel can write completely something else. The writing that you can take from a sea is different than the writing that you can take from an ocean. An ocean. A writing from an ocean is completely something else. O our Lord, we thank You. O our Lord thank You.
Sufi Qalam 