Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim

Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Al-Haqqani An-Naqshibandi (Qs), Sohbat of the 2nd of November, 2013.

Allah Almighty, for the sake of Shah-i Mardan let the roses bloom, and the nightingales sing. May our heart be gladdened. Come to us, O Shah-i Mardan. We wish for beauty. May Allah relieve us of what is tiresome to us. O Shah-i Mardan, you are in possession of all beauty. Let our hearts be joyful. Ask for joy, try to find gladness. Welcome to you, O Lovers of Shah-i Mardan. Allah, You are Subhan, You are Sultan. In You lies all Beauty. Welcome to you, you have come with gladness. O our Lord, let us be joyful and glad. Our Lord, let us find gladness with our Lord. Let us be joyful. O Lovers of Shah-i Mardan. O cheerfulness of your beloved friends, O lovely assembly of those who love you and of those who are beloved. Come, O Lovers of Shah-i Mardan. Let us ask and aspire to the lovely assemblies that are never boring or annoying, that make us cheerful and happy. Let us not have a life full of struggles. Let ours be a life that is happy and cheerful.

O our Lord, our Subhān, our Sultān, may our hearts open up. May our hearts be happy and beloved. Come to us, O Lovers, O beloved friends, Lovers of Shah-i Mardan. Let us ask for, let us ask for beautiful things, let us ask to be in places that bring happiness and contentment. Let us be happy and contented. Let us fill up with light. Ask, and you will be given. O Lovers of Shah-i Mardan, let us be among the servants of Allah who do not grow weary, who do not get fed up or bored. mā shā’ Allāhu kān, wa mā lam yashā’ lam yakūn. mā shā’ Allāhu kān. Whatever Allah decrees comes to be, Doctor. Let our hearts open up, let us seek the happiness of which we don’t grow tired, and beauty which does not satiate, and ardent love that causes no surfeit. Let us not grow tired, do not weary of it! Perhaps our love will increase, and our physical being will fill with love. The greatest virtue is to be filled with Divine Love. May Allah grant us love and teach us and give us of His joyfulness.

You ask for happiness, Allah Almighty grants it to you, He gives you joy. O our Lord, grace us with happiness. Let us not fall into darkness. O beloved friends, through ardent love let us be filled with wonder and eager in our striving. Let us persevere in our efforts. People who are other than that are worthless. Therefore you must know what it is that you desire. Let us be filled with Divine Love, with Divine Fervour. Ask for love, he says. Seek love and ardour. Don’t stay in darkness, that is forbidden. Don’t stay in darkness, he says, come into the light. Come into the light, don’t remain in darkness. A life spent in darkness, what meaning has it got? Its meaning is nil, zero, it is darkness. Come out of the darkness, and run towards the light. O our Lord, our Subhān, our Sultān, don’t leave us in darkness, O Lord. Let us come into the light of ardent love.

O our Lord, grant to us paradise gardens where roses and nightingales sing for us. Grant us beauty and happiness. May our heart be cheered, may our heart be the Sultan. Let us search for beauty, beauty is what leads to love and ardour. Search for love and ardour, he says. O our Lord, You are Subhān, You are Sultān. You are Sultān. You are the One who grants ardent love, O Lord. We ask for love. I seek ardent love and beauty. In Your Presence I find everything. Come, O Shah-i Mardan, your Lovers are in awe of you. Ask for love and ardour that never fills you up. May Allah grant us such love and ardour as will never fill us. A heart not possessing this, is a dried up thing, bone-dry. There is no use in what is dried up. We are asking for the joy of love, the love which is granted to the believing servants of the Lord. We ask for love and ardour.

O our Lord, You are Subhān, You are Sultān. You are Subhān, You are Sultān. O man, run towards Him! Run towards your Lord, let us run towards our Lord. O our Lord, O Beauty of Beauties, that is our God. Whom are you looking for? Whom do you seek? What is it you are looking for? Love and ardour. Ask for Divine Love and Affection. Whoever looks for that will be revived with ardent love, he will come alive. A person without love or ardour is not even human. He is like a dry stick of wood, a dead stump. No. Be vibrant, be alive. How lovely it is to be alive, how lovely that is! What is it that gives us life? It is love and ardour. Ask for love, and act accordingly. With love you will come to know the meaning of life. You will be surrounded and engulfed by beauty. Swimming among the beauties of your Lord. Let us move among them, let us ask for that.

O our Lord, our Subhān, don’t drive us from Your gate! Therefore let us say: Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim. Say this; it is what opens the door to all that is beautiful, it opens the door to all beauty for the Lovers. Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim. What opens all doors, the doors to all beauty, is Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim. O Allah, don’t let us be like dry sticks of wood, O Lord. Fill us with love and ardour, O my Lord. Allah, our God, our Subhān, our Sultān. Grant us also from Your Love. Therefore you must say, O you Lovers, O you beloved ones – Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim. A person without love is as a dry stick of wood. Love – what inspires people, what lets them feel the freshness of love and enthusiasm, is ardent love. O our Lord, may our hearts and minds be stirred and inspired. Let us say: Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim. How lovely it is to say: Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim. This is the service that wakes people up, and gives them love and enthusiasm and firm determination – to say Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim. That is what we want, O my Lord.

We want some of Your fervent Love and Your Affection, O Lord. Don’t be a dry stick of wood. No. Be alive! Don’t be a lifeless stick. Be a fresh and lively twig. O Lord, grant us some love and ardour that will wake us and inspire us. Let us wake up. Let us taste the taste of love and ardour. Let us know what we are living for. Allāhu Allāh, Allāau Rabbī, mā lī siwāhu illa Hū. O our Lord, Your Lovers stand in awe of You. Your Lovers, Your beloved friends are in awe of You. You are in the midst of that feeling of awe. A person who has no sense of awe is totally dry and useless. Let us open up, O our Lord. May our hearts and inward feelings open up. Let us come to life, O our Lord, through Your Love. Let us not remain as dry sticks. Let us be filled with love and ardour, O our Lord. Amīn, O Lord, Amīn, O Lord. O Lovers of Shah-i Mardan, ask of that Divine Love, seek the ardour of love.

Let us try to serve according to our means and station. This is what is addressed to us, O Lovers of Shah-i Mardan. Come to us, O Shah-i Mardan. Whoever asks for Divine Love, whoever wishes Divine Ardour, let him come to the Divine Table, to the Divine Table laid out for us. May he find welcome there. Don’t sit there doing nothing. Come and take your place at the Divine Table of Love and Ardour, he says. How lovely. Come, O beloved friends of Shah-i Mardan. come together and step forth. Don’t remain dry as sticks, but fill yourselves with love and longing, because it is being given. It is the gift of Allah Almighty, His present, this Love and Ardour. Ask Him for that.

O you who are in love, O Lovers of Shah-i Mardan, don’t sleep, wake up! Or ask and say: O my Lord, wake us up! The sweetest thing for man is love. It is love and affection. Ask for love, so that you might enjoy the taste of life in this world and in the hereafter. Don’t be a dry stick. Fill up with love and fervour. O our Lord, grant this to us. Let us be among those who are in love with You. Let us load up with love. What did you load while in this world? Say, I loaded up on love. O Lovers of Shah-i Mardan, load us up with love. When you loaded up with love, what was it that you loaded? Faith and favour, ardent love and joyfulness – that you must seek. It will be given. It will not be withheld, it will be given. Since it is given, you must ask for it and take. Look for nothing else. Look for this ardent love so it may restore you to life.

O our Lord, our Subhān, our Sultān. O Lovers of Shah-i Mardan. O, search for the assembly of love and fervour frequented by those who love Allah, of the Lovers who adorn the assemblies of the blessed saints. O Allah, make it easy for us to stick to Your lovely way. O our Lord, allow us to walk in the way of those who are in love with You, O Lord. Leave us not as dried up sticks. Let us ask, let us ask Allah Almighty for love and ardour, let us be inspired. Let them inspire us with love and enthusiasm. O our Lord, there is none who turns away from Your door empty-handed. It is laden with faith and with Islam. They load them up with love and fervour. What is the load being loaded? It is love and fervour. What is his load? It is dung, manure. What is this going on here? Manure, he says. Eh, that is this guy’s load, that is his burden. What has he collected? He has collected manure, dung. Is he a man, that guy, is that a man? Can one who collects dung be called a man? Collect instead love and fervour.

Allah, You are beautiful and You have created Your Beloved (sallAllahu alayhi wassalam) to be beautiful. You have laden him with ardent love. May we be given even the slightest speck of that. O Shah-i Mardan, teach us. Let us enter, so we may see this ardent love. Let us experience its taste. A person unable to taste love and ardour is a dry piece of wood. He is a dry stick. A loveless person is a dry piece of wood. Burden yourself with love, burden yourself with the love of your Lord. O Lovers of Shah-i Mardan, the beloved friends are calling: O Lovers of Shah-i Mardan! O Allah, no one is greater than You. O our Lord, no one is more lovely than You. O our Lord, there is no one who has more gifts to give than You. O Lovers of Shah-i Mardan, Let us say Allah, let us ask of Him, He has everything. Who does not know to say Allah is deprived of everything. Seek Allah, and you will have found everything. If you do not seek Him, you will remain in a pile of dung – na‘ūdhu bi-llāh/ we seek refuge with Allah.

What beauty Allah Almighty has created! Know this and seek it. Say: O our Lord. Say: O our Lord and Master who has created all Beauty, You are what man desires. You who are the Absolute Master of all Beauty, it is You, O our Lord. Do not leave us among the deprived, O our Lord. Let us be such people who can be of use; that are given a share. Those who get nothing are the luckless ones. Love and respect. Savour the taste. Find flavour. Know the honour of servitude to Allah, know it, find it and search for it. Look for it. O our Lord, may our love unfold. Let your hearts open up, may our hearts open up. O Lovers of Shah-i Mardan, ask for this. Ask for it, so you will find it. Who doesn’t ask for it will not find it. That is our hope: that it may unfold for us as well. Let us be cheerful. Let us be among those who are alive. Let us not be among those who are dead.

O our Lord, You are Subhān, You are Sultān. Let us chase after Your Beauty. Let us run with the people who love You, O Lord. Yearning love, intense respect is for the beloved ones of the Lovers. O beloved friends, seek beauty. O beloved friends, seek love. Let us be filled with ardent love. For the sake of the Beloved(sallAllahu alayhi wassalam) of the Lord, and for the sake of al-Fātiha. Allāhu Allāh, Allāhu Rabbī, mā lī siwāhu illa Hū.

Marhaba. Welcome to you, O beloved friends. How lovely that you have come. What a lovely meal you have come to attend. Expand, you will unfold. Allāhu Allāh, Allāhu Rabbī, mā lī siwāhu illa Hū. Do not remain in darkness. Come into the light. Come to the seas of ardent love, plunge into them and be immersed. Don’t stay in darkness. Fervent love provides light. Whoever has no fervent love, will remain in darkness. May Allah grant us light. May He deliver us from darkness. O our Lord, Our Subhān, our Sultān. All of you, in shā’ Allāh, will become Sultān. Our Lord who has all Power and empowers all will grant this. Since He will give you, ask and take from Him. Seek precious stones, seek jewels.

Allāh, Allāh. Allāh Allāh, Subhān Allāh. Let us fill up with love and ardour, let ardent love fill us. Let us go hunting for bargains in that market. Let us shop for beauty, and not for rubbish.

al-Fātiha.

Video link: The Taste of Life