BismillahirRahmanirRahim

Sultan ul-Awliya, Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Al-Haqqani An-Naqshibandi (Qs), Sohbat – 22nd of August, 2013

Dastur, ya Shah-i Mardan. Your beloved friends are in awe of you. May our day be a good one. May our work be for the good and may we reach to a good end. Mā shā’ Allahu kāna. Please come to us. O people, you must listen to Shah-i Mardan and try to take your share from it. Let us say: Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim.

What is man expecting, what does he want? Come, O Shah-i Mardan. What is man seeking? Our assembly is the assembly of Shah-i Mardan. Let’s listen to him. What does man expect? This is a question. Let us listen and learn the ways Shah-i Mardan is about to show us. Man, man expects something of this world. So, of whom is he expecting it? He expects it of the One who created him and sent him into this world. A man waiting at the Sultan’s gate, of whom does he expect something? Does he expect it of the Sultan’s doorkeeper? Does he expect it of the Sultan? He expects it of the Sultan. Marhaba. O beloved friends of Shah-i Mardan, be free of care and be at ease. Those standing at the Sultan’s gate are carefree, they are at ease and they are honoured.

What does man want? He wants honour. Allahu akbar. Dastur, ey Shah-i Mardan. That’s how it is. What do we want in this world? A house, some land, gardens. vineyards, gold and money. What good comes to man from these things? Why does he desire them? He wants these things as means for him to gain honour. That’s it. wa-btaghū ilayhi l-wasīla (5:35), seek the means to draw close to Him. The holy verse: wa-btaghū – ibtighā; ibtighā does not signify an ordinary request or desire. There is this, and then Allah Almighty also says: as’alu-llāha min fadlihi, ask of Allah from His Bounty. Shaykh Mehmet Efendi. as’alu-llāha min fadlihi, Ask Allah Almighty for His Bounty. as’alu-llāha min fadlihi. Ask of the gracious Bounty of Allah in whom you have placed your faith. wa-btaghū ilayhi l-wasīla (5:35), seek the means to draw close to Him. There should be in you an endless desire. Do not say, ‘Up to here!’ Wasīla.

Come, O Shah-i Mardan. Allahu Akbar. As Allah is Akbar, the Greatest, His grant also possesses the greatest strength. Ask nothing of anybody else. wa-btaghū ilayhi l-wasīla (5:35) Look to find wasīla. What for? In order to gain even greater closeness to Allah Almighty. When wasīla is mentioned, look for the means to draw near, Allah, Allah, Subhan Allah. If a person plans to pay a visit to the Sultan, he seeks the means to do so. He seeks one who will introduce him into the presence of the Sultan. O heedless person, why don’t you seek the means of gaining access to the Presence of your Creator? wa-btaghū ilayhi l-wasīla. (5:35) O our Lord, grant us strength! For the sake of His Beloved (sallallahu alaihi wa aalihi wa sallam). This is an important point. Seek the means to draw near to Him, the Lord of Might and Glory. Come, O Shah-i Mardan, come and be our means of drawing near. All you who are in attendance, marhaba. And all of you listening, marhaba.

Let there be comfort and ease. inna ardī wāsi‘atun, fa iyyāya fa‘budūn. (29:56) There is no limit to My Dominion. However, inna ardī wāsi‘atun, fa iyyāya fa‘budūn. (29:56) He says: Do not look at My Dominion, look instead at My Kingdom. wa-btaghū ilayhi l-wasīla. (5:35) In order to reach to My Kingdom, you must look for the means to approach. Ya. Seek such means. For us it is Shah-i Mardan, he is our means for drawing close to Him. Because of him (S.Mardan) we have light, and joy, and cheer. He who forgets about Allah, he has neither gladness, nor ease, nor happiness. It is a shame for him. You must seek to draw near to the Lord of Glory. You must seek Nearness to Allahu Dhu l-Jalāl, the Sultan. O our Lord, let us be among those who understand this.

O Shah-i Mardan. Tell people, how mankind is to be! For what are they made human beings? What have they been commanded to do? Has man come in order to engage in fighting? Are men here in order to destroy each other? What is it that man desires? wa-btaghū ilayhi l-wasīla. (5:35) In order to draw near to Him, you should have one who puts in a good word for you in the presence of the Sultan. He must find such an advocate. Look for the wasīla/means, He says, in order to draw near. Don’t be like a stick of dry wood.

A flower, Shaykh Mehmet Efendi, is alive and sprouts afresh. Through its fresh green it wishes to approach Allah Almighty. Even a green blade of grass grows and puts forth flowers. For what? Let me win their hearts, let me draw close to my Lord, it says. How lovely! It springs forth from the ground, the black earth. It turns green and shows its various colours. For whom does it produce such beauty? Whom does it do this for? Ah, if only we could realize this! All the different kinds of flowers, the different types of trees, the different kinds of fruits, for what do they all grow and flower, and shine? wa-btaghū ilayhi l-wasīla. (5:35) In order to gain the Lord’s good pleasure. Eh, we have become sticks of dry wood. Dry wood. Our Lord Almighty says: Draw near to Me! I will grant you a place in My Eternal Kingdom, where you will abide in ever-lasting beauty for all eternity. Do not dry up and perish. Allahu akbar. Subhan Allah, Sultan Allah.

Man stays in this world in order to find perfection to his beauty. A tiny little child wiggles and scrambles about. For what? So that it might grow up and begin to flower. So that its beauty might appear. A small child wishes to grow. This is what a small child wants. If it didn’t want this, would it accept to drink its mother’s milk? It wishes to grow, it wishes to be seen. It wishes to see in itself the Grace of the Lord of Glory that He bestowed upon it, that tiny child. That is why it sucks its mother’s milk. Let me grow, let me shine forth. Let me see the Grace of my Lord. That is its aim and intention. O people. If you do not exert yourself to behold the Grace of the Lord, you are a dead log. The Lord of Might and Glory has not created you to be a dead log. Allahu akbar. Please come, O Shah-i Mardan. How beautifully he says this. He speaks of nature. Allah, who has adorned nature in every way, for what does nature give all these things? So that it might appear beautiful to its Lord, therefore it seeks to have beauty. It looks for a pleasant state. It looks for Divine Favour.

A tiny little seed begins to grow. A tiny sesame seed begins to sprout. It carries a secret within it. Every seed carries a secret. It wishes to show its secret. It falls to the ground. From the earth its secret begins to emerge. As for mankind – can mankind be without a secret? Man also has a secret. He has a Divine secret. In order for this Divine secret to appear, Allah Almighty has sent him down to earth. O Lord, You are Subhan, You are Sultan, O Lord. Allahu akbar. The tiniest grain of seed will struggle to burst through the earth and sprout forth. A flower will appear. It will show its secret. It turns into a flower, or a tree. It turns into a rose, or into a fruit. It has a secret, this tiny little seed. A mustard seed, ya, it begins to grow. The secret within it will become evident. Allah Almighty, the true Sultan of the Universe, for the sake of that tiny seed makes the great, big sun to rise. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar.

O mankind, so that the beauty within you might be exposed, He has made the sun submissive, and the stars in the sky subservient to you. He lets the blessed rain fall from the sky. Because you do not know this, instead of mercy raining upon you, wrath comes down on you from the heavens. Everywhere there are floods. Allah Almighty has not created these people so that they might perish in a flood. May Allah preserve us. Allah Almighty wishes for man’s secret to become evident. Allahu akbar. Come, O Shah-i Mardan. Mankind has become a flock that has lost its way. What kind of flock? wa idha l-wuhūshu hushirat; (81:5) Man is kind. He is created with goodness. But when he no longer appreciates his goodness he will turn into – what? Into wuhūsh/wild beasts. wa idha l-wuhūshu hushirat; (81:5) It is not the wild beasts from the forests who are going to invade our places, man himself will become wild. He will turn wild. They will devour each other, crush one another. Shame on them.

Allahu Dhu l-Jalāl has not created human beings that they might destroy one another. You may not even step upon an ant. An ant is a tiny creature that Allah has created. It says: Don‘t step on me. Mind your way, O son of man. Thus these animals call to him, those tiny animals. What a beautiful system, what a great order! What lovely ways of adab. Come to us, O Shah-i Mardan. We have lost our adab. When you lose your adab, you will have lost everything. You will become dirt. Allahu Dhu l-Jalāl has not sent you here for you to be dirt. He sent you down to earth for you to be gold! Pay heed! wa-btaghu ilayhi l-wasīla. (5:35) He said: You must look for ways to turn yourself into gold. Don’t be dung. Don’t be manure! He sent you here to become gold. From Paradise He sent you here. What are you to do? Become gold.

In Paradise you did not turn into gold. He sent you into the world for that. You move around in this world, running back and forth. You don’t know what it is you really want. Gold is what gets into Paradise, and precious jewels. Dung does not go in, nor manure. O man, so many prophets have come to teach this. Mankind. Come to us. O Shah-i Mardan, We still do not know our own identity. We don’t know who we are. They devour each other. What for? Is the world not enough for you? Why are you falling upon other people? If you are grateful for what you have been given He will give you a hundred, a thousand times as much. Allah Almighty will give you eternity. Speak of this, O Pope! Is this not written in the Injīl? Look, tell your nation. O ‘ulama of alAzhar, O ‘ulama of India and of China, know this, and speak the truth. Be at rest and don’t make war for the sake of this dunya. It is in order to become gold, or to find ways to recover the golden jewels you have been given, that you were sent to this place.

Come, O Shah-i Mardan. khalaqa l-insān, ‘allamahu l-bayān. (55:3,4) He created man. When he says bayān/explanation, you must look for what He taught. O our Lord, it is in order to teach us the ways of adab that Shah-i Mardan has come. Masha’Allah. There is not just one, there are not just a thousand, there are countless Shah Mardans. There are unlimited, untold places that receive their share of that mercy, the mercy that descends from heaven. They receive their share. From below the ground a yellow flower grows up, or a red flower, a purple flower; a large tree, a small tree; one kind of fruit, another kind of fruit, so that man may look and learn from it. O mankind! You are essentially the sacred human being.

Allah Almighty did not call this Creation into being for Himself, no. khallāqu l-‘azīm, the Great Creator. In one instant He creates millions and billions of universes like this one, filled to the brim. wa huwa l-qādiru l-muqtadir. Allah who is powerful and who bestows power. Come, O Shah-i Mardan. Your Lovers are in awe of you. Much thanks to Allah, refreshment comes to our heart, and our face brightens. Let us say: Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim. Rely on this. As long as your tongue utters Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim, you need have no fear. It means you are holding a Divine decree in your hand. Nothing can withstand that. “Ya Sariyya al jabal, jabal.” Sayyidina ‘Umar, no? (From Medina he warned S. Sariyya of an ambush in Egypt) From whatever distance he (S. Umar) spoke with the secret at his disposal. He could be heard at a distance of many months.

Man is full of secrets. Nothing can equal his beauty. Man is beautiful. He is not hideous. He who performs hideous actions is not a human being. May Allah make us to be among those who perform good and pure actions. Come to us, O Shah-i Mardan. al-Fatiha.

Lā ilāha ill-Allah. Lā ilāha ill-Allah. Lā ilāha ill-Allah. Sayyiduna Muhammadun Habībullah. Rasulullah, Habībullah. Do not remove us from beneath your banner, O Rasūlallah. O Shah-i Mardan. Lead us as well beneath the banner of Allah’s Beloved. Let us also have that honour. Let us say: Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim. May all the gates be opened.

al-Fatiha.

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