SURAH AL’IKHLAS
One of the most significant elements of religion is acquaintance with Allah Almighty. We can acquaint Allah Almighty through His names and attributes conveyed in the Qur’an. Oftentimes philosophy has discussed the matter of acquaintance; I do not intent to deliver that philosophical discourse regarding acquaintance and knowledge, but I would like to give you two examples from the Qur’an where knowledge differs from acquaintance. We cannot know Allah Almighty, but we can acquaint Him, we cannot set Him in a laboratory, we cannot approach Him through our senses, but we can acquaint Him. Acquaintance is a platform above knowledge. One time one philosopher Suhreverdi, he was a Muslim illuminist philosopher (the illuminist philosophy has mainly developed in the Muslim scopes, especially those Persian), had met with Ibn Sina (one rational philosopher who approached the world through reason, faith and God) and Ibn Sina had told Suhreverd “I know the thing you see, whereas Suhreverd had replied: “I can see what you know”. Another philosopher, Ibn Tufayl who had lived in Andalusia (I have spoken to you about this work) speaks on two manners on approaching God: one is the rational manner, through thinking and arguments; the other is experiencing God through His presence in three ways: one is the cosmos, second is the revelation, The Qur’an and third is man himself. At times we even experience Allah Almighty in our innerness as well. In Tasawwuf this is known as the three stations of absolute certitude in the existence of God, we call it: ilme’l-yakin, ayne’l-yakin dhe hakka’l-yakin. Ilme’l – yakin is the intellectual certitude for Allah Almighty. The intellectual certitude is not real faith, it is faith of imagination since knowledge can increasingly change, however acquaintance cannot change. Regardless if its religious knowledge or knowledge which does not involve elements from the revelation it is still subject to change, as you might have noticed how these young imam oftentimes are accused from the older generations that they are changing religion. In reality religion is not changed, the religious experience does not change, but knowledge on religion depending from the various places and times can be subject to change, inasmuch this is ilme’l-yakin. How does the Qur’an convey this? I am not sure if any of you recall the instance with Abraham (PBUH); we must read about Abraham (PBUH) with great devotion in the Qur’an. He was one young man who did not abide the same way of belief as his companions, of his father’s, mother’s (in the work “Shifa’ul-esrar by Sayyid Yahya Shirvan which a big number of you here have it) the book speaks about a number of imaginary cities which Allah Almighty gave to Abraham (PBUH) and in a very beautiful way the history of Abraham (PBUH) is told in that work. One night after all the difficulties he faced in society he rebelled and became an avant-garde; the prophets are first avant-gardes, since the prophet goes on the other side of the garden; inasmuch he brings something new with which people are not acquainted. They disintegrate the decayed mentality which exists, and mainly the opposition of the people to the prophets has been with these words: “we found how our first generations had moved through these traces and why do you intent to remove us from these traces which our kin has abided”. So one night Abraham (PBUH) a night after he destroyed all the idolatries after all the misunderstandings he had with his father, with his family he went out one night and began to watch over the universe, across the sky and there he saw one star which was more lightened than the rest and said: “This is my God”. Alright now can prophets be wrong according to Islam regarding faith? Can one prophet even before becoming a prophet say that the star is his God? It cannot be. Meaning that this representation of Abraham (PBUH) is merely a model reflecting the path on how to reach faith (I do not intent to be long, it is better perhaps for you to read this alone, time will come we shall altogether discuss these verses of the Surah Al-’An’Am). In the surah Al-’An’Am it has been said: “And thus did We show Abraham the realm of the heavens and the earth that he would be among the certain [in faith]. So when the night covered him [with darkness], he saw a star. He said, “This is my lord.” But when it set, he said, “I like not those that disappear.” And when he saw the moon rising, he said, “This is my lord.” But when it set, he said, “Unless my Lord guides me, I will surely be among the people gone astray.” And when he saw the sun rising, he said, “This is my lord; this is greater.” But when it set, he said, “O my people, indeed I am free from what you associate with Allah. Indeed, I have turned my face toward He who created the heavens and the earth, inclining toward truth, and I am not of those who associate others with Allah .”( Surah Al-‘An’Am). He said that the star was his God and the star disappeared so he said: “I don’t want those who vanish”. Then he saw the moon as it was bigger and had more light and said: “This is my God”, but when the moon also disappeared he said: “I still don’t want those who vanish”. After this he saw the sunset, the night passed, the sun began to rise; imagine the view which the sunrise can give you in the early morning and then he said: “No, my God does not have a sun setting” and in the end he said: “I only direct myself to the God who is the creator, the creator of the skies and the earth”. Inasmuch this God of Abraham (PBUH) is God of knowing, is not God of knowledge. He had the gods of knowledge before him, but all of them disappeared; he is not speaking here for something which he sees, but instead is referring to something which he does not see through eyes, but percepts it as the essence of the creation of the universe. To this reason we acquaint God through His attributes, and this is the intellectual certitude of Abraham (PBUH). The intellectual certitude takes each person to be fascinated with the existence of Allah Almighty, and this is what we call Ilme’l-yakin. Even one darwish, one Sufi, one Sheihk, and one imam and even one Muslim must contain in himself the dimension of intellectual certitude. The person who is intellectually and knowledgably unprepared cannot show the right path to others. One of the greatest handicaps of Tasawwuf in the Albanian territories is that those who commit to irshad (those who show the path to others) are not religious scholars, you can come across this in the book “Shifa’ul-Asrar” by Sayyid Yahya Shirvan.
The second matter of knowledge through attributes in order to acquaint God is again with Abraham (PBUH), ayne’l yakin. Abraham (PBUH) one day, after this he turned to God (he was a prophet): “And [mention] when Abraham said, “My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead.” [ Allah ] said, “Have you not believed?” He said, “Yes, but [I ask] only that my heart may be satisfied.” [ Allah ] said, “Take four birds and commit them to yourself. Then [after slaughtering them] put on each hill a portion of them; then call them – they will come [flying] to you in haste. And know that Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise.”(Surah Al-Baqarah, verse: 260). Meaning that he was seeking visually, he sought to find the visual certitude, to see God, but this visual certitude was anew a dimension of the heart, since he could not see God through his eyes but he sought to activate in him the force of God within his mind, which can even resurrect a man from death, to this reason in the Qur’an Allah Almighty says: “[He] who created death and life to test you [as to] which of you is best in deed – and He is the Exalted in Might, the Forgiving –“ (Surah Al-Mulk, verse: 2). Allah Almighty showed him: He said take four birds, divide them in four pieces, throw them in four corners, they will still come back to you. Abraham (PBUH) did this, he divided the birds in four pieces, he threw them in four distinct hills and called on them and the birds came back to Abraham (PBUH). This is a moment of acquaintance, and one is unable to see through the intellectual certitude, one cannot experience yet visually one can experience. How? I was in one symposium in Tirana and I had two darwishs with me there and in one conversation with a number of acknowledged professors, we were encountering the matter of the perception of religion, of God of revelation and whether this perception should be by the hearts or the mind. The Qur’an speaks on the perception of God, of the revelation, of religion and as a taker on these impulses from the outer it presents the heart. To this reason, people can be very intelligent and yet they might not be believers, since if it was the opposite all the intelligent people ought to have shown deity on God, but this is not the instance. Inasmuch deity on God is conducted through the heart, to this reason in religion the heart is put at a greater emphasize and the Qur’an does encounter this frequently, for instance it can infer “Do you not meditate (not experience, don’t motion profoundly) the Qur’an or do you have locked hearts”, it does not say you have your minds locked, but the hearts. Meaning that this visual certitude is experienced through the heart. Okay but how is this experienced? Some lectures ago Faqir mentioned the instance with Hazrat Ali when he was told: “I was in the vineyards to steal some grape and there I saw God, and He told me not to steal the grape” and all the people there opposed him by saying that how could the latter speak like that, we cannot see God, he is doing a blasphemy, as today the easiest thing which Muslims do is to accuse others for blasphemy. Blasphemy means to offend God, not to accept Him. God does not allow this. The Prophet (PBUH) says: “if you accuse one with blasphemy, this blasphemy does not take place in that person, but know that it shall come back for you”, to this reason we have no such right of accusation. When the party stood up to oppose the young man, Hazrat Ali said: “wait a moment, let us hear what he has to say” and the young man said: “I was about to steal grape and there I heard a voice, God told me not to steal the grape”. See this is it. Meaning that the moment when you will be in all the perfect conditions to commit to a wrongdoing, you will not do it, this is visual certitude; this is the real experience of Allah Almighty.
The final matter is hakka’l-yakin, absolute certitude. The man on this position can understand reality. Understanding reality means to understand that in reality that person does not exist, that existence is only contained from the existence of Allah Almighty and each matter returns to Him. Professor Ismail Bardhi has a good way of presenting Islam, with very eloquent examples and in one occasion he says: “we have transferred religion to religion of the dead”, since mainly then we infer religion when we speak of the dead. There is one verse which is used for the dead however it does not refer to the dead, for instance Allah Almighty says: “And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient,” and He says to the Prophet (PBUH) “ Bring good news to those who will be patient”. “Who, when disaster strikes them, Musibs have mainly translated this as unfortunates but musibs does not refer to unfortunates, it also means the good which comes from God. then it is said:” Indeed we belong to Allah , and indeed to Him we will return.” (“And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient, Who, when disaster strikes them, say, “Indeed we belong to Allah , and indeed to Him we will return.”) Surah Al-Baqarah, verse:155-156. The last part “Indeed we belong to Allah , and indeed to Him we will return.” / Inna lil-lahi we inna ileyhi rajiun” among us is used merely in the instance of death, that’s why I said we have turned religion into a religion of the dead, albeit this having to do with life. This goes for the Qur’an as well, especially in the Sufi circles, which is a great weakness; Tasawwuf is not a passive element, it is rather an active element. There are two verses from Mehmet Akif Ersoy (inshallah these days the publication of “Safahat” in Albanian will be unabled, we believe it is a better version) where the author says: ““Inmemiştir hele Kur’an bunu hakkıyla bilin, ne mezarlıkta okumak, ne fal bakmak için / “The Qur’an did not descend, have this in mind with reality, nor to read in the graveyards nor to assume one’s destiny with it. The element of the Qur’an is for the people who are alive, those who live however this does not astray the prayer to be dedicated for the ones who have passed away and the reading of the Qur’an in the graveyard; this is not refuted, I am trying to say that the purpose of the Qur’an is not this. For instance there are verses which infer that the Qur’an is healing/ shifa and mainly a number of people have opened an entity to heal with the Qur’an; they are convinced this refers to healing of dieses, depressions. This is not what the Qur’an does, you can try and fan with a compressor but this will not heal a man; the Qur’an does not have this connotation, it is not for this type of healing. The Qur’an is a healer of hearts. One who attached himself to the chain of existence, can then this man overcome depressions and all the stresses in the world? Now, here yes I agree. Hakka’l-yakin is what this means. It infers for us to experience that we are part of the eternal existence and in this occasion have in mind that nothing can disturb us on this world, then one word of Yunus Emre becomes clear to us: “You can continue and consume the honey, but I have already eaten the honey of all honeys (the construct, essence of the honey); in this case honey is the ibadah surely, however the construct and basic foundation is the contentment which is received from ibadah. As long as we do not experience hakka’l-yakin God as we should, we cannot experience the contentment from ibadah, to this reason we have people who appear to be religious, but they are not. This is the crucial issue of this aim and through the experience of the attributes of Allah Almighty we can attain the hakka’l-yakin – absolute certitude.
We spoke about being viral / hayat, ilmi / knowledge about God and attributes thubutiye, the third one is Sem’ the fourth is Besar (I will speak on both attributes simultaneously). Sem means Allah Almighty hears and is hearing everything, Besar means Allah Almighty sees everything. Mainly even Nietzsche developed one theory (a theory which is present in the philosophy of the XIX century, both with Freud and Jung little bit later) which is a matter of self control, the control of oneness, for instance self-control is one term which is widely used in philosophy / psychology of the XIX century, or for instance recently is mainly used with people who are not very close to religion, I am not saying they are not Muslims, since I do not like to use that approach, but ones who do not have great relationship with religion, with ibadah. When one is under depression, stress one does not have a great will for life, then people tell him that the person is question has lost his confidence. In religion there is neither self-control nor confidence, there is teo-control (control of God) and there is faith-in God, inasmuch this is the crucial distinction. In antics, even in medieval times the world was teo-centric, in the center it had God. the period of Humanism and Reissuance 9XV-XVI century) there was one Universe / Cosmos created which in center put man, hence in the universe one mentality of anthropocentric I was created; in center of attention man was brought. In all the spheres of life, even in economics is the same thing and Protestantism as a religion has greatly advocated this development. Man has established himself in the center and everything motions around him. Everything which is within the universe is relative and if it is relative, then one strives that everything in the Universe to orbit around himself. Hence man after the XIX century has experienced two great world wars (in the XX century) because he had established himself in the center and when it had not been convenient for him, the one who was stronger had destroyed everything around him. It had never happened like this in history, but the moment when philosophy is anthropocentric, man destroys everything which is in contradiction with what he thinks that is good, albeit this does not mean that truly that is good. For instance even the appearance of these new diseases regardless if they are sociological, or biological, ecological for their center have anthropocentrism. Here let me give you one ecological example, this Faqir for the matter of ecology wrote one paper in 1985/1986 and at that time it was emphasized that anthropocentrism was the fundamental problem of the pollution of the environment; for instance you establish one manufacturing company so you can profit from it, as the instance in Albanian/ Fier where mainly the entire soil in Fier was polluted, there were canterogenious materials found in tomatoes, peppers, potatoes because the manufacturing facility had deposited their left over on the water tunnels and through those tunnels the soil for agricultural production was polluted and all the products ended up carcinogen. Meaning that here one man profits by putting himself in the center and destroys the entire environment around him where he himself lives. Even from the aspect of psychology is the same thing. For instance we speak from the psychological aspect about self control and confidence; who will this person trust, when he himself has crises. How can he return his confidence? The self of him cannot bring him back confidence, since he is in crises with himself, he doesn’t have an issue with others but with himself. In order to return the confidence to him something which is more absolute than him is needed, something not relative, not to be like him, but something else; another energy and so forth. To this reason we call this God belief / teo-control. In the Qur’an Allah Almighty says: “It is Allah Almighty who always and forever more keeps you under control” (“O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and women. And fear Allah , through whom you ask one another, and the wombs. Indeed Allah is ever, over you, an Observer.” – Surah An-Nisa’, verse: 1).
Understand here that this control is not slavery, because oftentimes it is understood as “we are not free in religion”. Do you know how this control is? This is the kind of control the shepherd has on his sheep, imagine if there are wolves around them. The shepherd does not prevent the sheep from obtaining the nourishments in the fields, because he wants to have good healthy sheep, this goes for God as well (this comparison cannot actually be made, but I am giving it in order for all of us to understand better), his sheep eat the nourishments and the shepherd doesn’t stop them from eating but prevents the wolves to come there. This Murakkabe, this control of God on the people has to do with this understanding. Inasmuch it refers to the issue of preventing unfortunates with which man can face in his life and these unfortunates are not all exclusively religious. Inasmuch He protects them from jahannam, alright, but He does not only protect them from jahannam, simultaneously He protects them from the unfortunates which man can face if he leads a profuse life… where does this start? We can speak for days here, but Faqir intends to mention several issues which you might not be able to hear elsewhere. In one Qur’anic verse Allah Almighty says: “O you who have believed, respond to Allah and to the Messenger when he calls you to that which gives you life. And know that Allah intervenes between a man and his heart and that to Him you will be gathered.” (Surah Al-‘Anfal, verse:24). See how we have not even bothered to analyze the Qur’an as it should be, and it really needs a profound analyze. The verse leaves the heart outside the person, meaning that Allah Almighty is amid the person/man (which in Arabic it is known as mer’) and the heart. Inasmuch the person and the heart are one entity, the moment when you take the heart away, then only the body is left and this is destruction for man. Under this occasion what takes the essential energy and where Allah Almighty is actually established (another Kudsi hadith elaborates “The universe cannot behold Me, but the heart of the adherent can”) it is the hearth and through the heart Allah Almighty in a metaphor, surely through the revelation, the prophets, the good individuals, awliyas, the righteous and good scholars (not all scholars, the Muslim scholars, a good scholar is not one who commits to wrongdoing, he cannot know the entire world, that person is soulless, briber; he cannot be a scholar, do not believe such people, he doesn’t have knowledge. Inasmuch one which does not have a well constructed character he is not a scholar according to Islam) he educates the person and then he can become a good man. I shall recall to you one acknowledged hadith of the Prophet (PBUH) when he was seated with his companions and one man had arrived from the desert. The hadith says: “one man who we had not seen before arrived, an a’rab which we had not seen in our surrounding (a’rab are people from the desert) but he didn’t have any sign that he was coming from the desert, he didn’t seem like he was coming from far. This man arrived and approached the Prophet (PBUH). The Prophet (PBUH) took him next to himself, he put his knees across the man’s and his hands on the hands of the man (you of which are darwish here this recalls you something, it is the bayat/the faith in Tasawwuf which is done in this way) and in this instance this man which nobody from us knew him asked the Prophet (PBUH) several questions, the man said: “what is faith”? The Prophet (PBUH) read amentu bilahin / the conditions of faith, to believe in God, in the angels, in the book which is reveled, in the prophets, in the day of Judgments, in the destiny by God. “Saddekte” – “You spoke correctly, it is so indeed” the man replied. Hazrat Omer said: “we were astonished, this man both asked questions and said it was so indeed as if he knew the answer”. Then he asked another question: “what is Islam?” (islam meaning that our religion beholds the same name Islam, but simultaneously it is referring to what does Islam actually consist, with iman we refer to faith, whereas with Islam we refer to religious ortopractice, inasmuch namaz, fasting, hajj, zakkah) and the Prophet (PBUH) said: “to witness that there is no other God but God, that the praying of namaz, the giving of zakkah, the fasting of Ramadan and the going to Hajj:, and the man said “Saddekte” – “you spoke correctly, it is so indeed. The third question was: (this is what I intent to elaborate, this one refers to us tonight) “what is Ihsan?” Faqir has one paper which I wrote 5-6 years ago, you can read it now if you like (it is somewhere in the internet) “Logos” will now publish it as a separate, it infers the perennial traditional and the ihsan intellectualism. Ihsan intellectualism refers to the goodwill intellectualism, the good work and ihsan, at that time I had looked it up in one of the best dictionaries of the old Arabic language, “Lisanu-l arab” of Ibn Mudhhir, it has approximately 80 pages for explaining the word ihsan, to this reason when we undertake to elaborate it takes us so much time, but the Prophet (PBUH) explained so well by saying: “to show deity on Allah Almighty as if you can see Him, even though you cannot see Him, have in mind that He sees you”. Meaning that there is no other better definition of good deed doing, to show deity on Allah Almighty as if you see Him, even though you yourself cannot see Him, be assured that He sees you”. “Saddekte” said the man, “you spoke correctly, it is so indeed”. Then the man asked other questions regarding the last day of Judgment (when time shall come I shall explain this as well). In the end the Prophet (PBUH) asked the as’habs (one advice to you as darwish as well, as asiks, in order to know what is the manner of Islamic behavior) “do you know who this man is?” what did they reply? The most knew, he understood but their answer was: “Allah Almighty and His Prophet know better”. To this reason murids of the tsawwuf, the ashiks who are in love with God do not haste in each majlis to speak, but every time they have their turn, methodology and usulin. What did the as’habs say? The as’habs are the best example right? Allah Almighty and His Prophet know better”. Then what did the Prophet (PBUH) say? “Hádhá xhibril” – “Gebrail (PBUH) God has sent him to acquaint you with Him, with your religion”. Look here, there is one dialogue which is between the sky and the earth. And here it says to us that God sees you, here this is the control of Allah Almighty which I encountered in two of His attributes sem / listens to everything besar / sees everything. I will encounter one important element with sem’i and with this I will finish. Sem means listening, but even the traditional Islamic religious knowledge, it is said sem’iyyat, knowledge which is transmitted generation to generation. From where? From Allah Almighty, because He is the First and has taught knowledge to us. Even in science for instance (not just among us but amid others as well) the term creation is it used for scientists? Have you heard it? No. it is mainly used for artists and poets, literature creation, they say. Do you know why? Since literature creation is not done with knowledge, but with the soul. And the artistic creation is also not done with knowledge, with knowledge only plagiarism can be done. Whereas for scientific matters we say discover. Why discover? Because something had already been there, covered and is then discovered, not that it does not exist. When Allah Almighty teaches conceptions to man, it reaches through the ear and have in mind that the person is left pregnant with the knowledge of God through the ear, and not through the mind. There is no pregnancy through the mind. Persons which don’t have their ears under developed cannot make “children by meaning, essence” meaning that they won’t succeed in religious life. To this reason sem’iyyat is one element which comes to us from God. Moreover Allah Almighty Himself says “I also follow you through hearing and seeing”. Thank you.
