SURAH AL-IKHLAS
The previous week we encountered the first verse of the Surah al-Ikhlas, the Surah Qul huwallah. We are convinced that we could never encompass all the meaning of the verses of the Qur’an. There is another verse of the Qur’an which says: “Say, “If the sea were ink for [writing] the words of my Lord, the sea would be exhausted before the words of my Lord were exhausted, even if We brought the like of it as a supplement.” The Qur’an Surah Al-Kahf, verse: 109. This reflects one important element, when scholars speak on the Qur’an each time in the end they say: “God knows better”, they say this for the Qur’an is one living organism, it is not a dead organism; the cells of the Qur’an are in a continuous regeneration and hence to this reason it is universal from the time and spatial dimension.
The universality of the Qur’an is one permanent revival which has its own construct. As a result in each timely period in regards to the Qur’an things can be interpreted in various ways yet consisting and referring to one fundament. Taking for reference the researches which have been conducted it can be said that the Qur’an is one book upon which the most discussions have taken place generally in history and there is no other book upon which it has been written or spoken more than the Qur’an. Precisely to this, no matter how much we encounter to speak on the Qur’an new ideas shall always emerge, it always maintains its revival.
We said that in order to righteously commit ibadah, to Allah Almighty, and in order to commit in deity on Allah Almighty, indubitably we ought to know Him; without knowing a person we cannot establish a relation, we cannot establish a close relation with anyone. Hence we need to profoundly acquaint with Allah Almighty in order to establish a relation and closeness with Allah Almighty, since the purpose of man’s life on this world is the development of propinquity with Allah Almighty. In one verse of the Qur’an Allah Almighty says: “And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.” (The Qur’an Surah Adh-Dhariyat, verse: 56). Which would resemble: “I have created both the jinns and people (jinns and men are creatures which have free will to believe or not believe) with only one mere purpose and that purpose is to acquaint Me, to commit ibadah to Me”.
This verse in the sense of principle, in the shape of a principle, reflects the basic element of faith and this faith is in the oneness of Allah Almighty, or faith in the existence of Allah Almighty. The oneness in the religious language is characterized as tawhid.
Tawhid means to believe that God exists, to believe that God is one and to believe that there is no other God but Allah Almighty. These three elements consist the believe in the oneness of God; the believe of tawhid in Allah Almighty. Allah Almighty through, the various verses of the Noble Qur’an, through the hadiths of the Prophet (PBUH), has decoded these principles by dividing them in a number of religious spheres and of religious knowledge.
Knowing Allah Almighty through the names and His attributes (I think we encountered this last time) and the names itself and the attributes of Allah Almighty have two very crucial dimensions, and this ought we to always keep in mind.
The Qur’an is a book which we ought to comprehend, around which we ought to dwell in thought, yet the Qur’an is one book in principle, with which we ought to pray to God; with which we ought to conduct ibadah to Allah Almighty. Moreover this principle in the last period found under the influence of both the materialistic and positivist conception has been left forgotten among the Muslims. Hence the Qur’an is not merely a book which we ought to only comprehend, but simultaneously is a book which supplements the ibadah on Allah Almighty. Without this we cannot pray namaz, go to hajj, fast and to pray to Allah Almighty.
A similar situation takes place with the names of Allah Almighty and His attributes, they are a portion of our ibadah and our prayers which we say to Allah Almighty. For instance, when we conduct namaz, we begin by a phrase which consists a name and an attribute of Allah Almighty. How do we begin namaz? By All-llah Akbar. All-llah Akbar means God is the greatest.
All-llah is the highest name of Allah Almighty, Akbar is his attribute, this means that He is the greatest in existence, there is no other greater, the attribute has been used in the super relative and not in the comparative form, there is no comparison to or with another. The superlative is the best, the greatest. Hence through this phrase we actually evident that there is no other greater than Allah in the universe, yet simultaneously we pray to Him. The dimension of the prayer and remembrance of Allah Almighty through His names and attributes is represented in the Sufi dimension of the Islamic religion.
There is another verse of the Qur’an which says that Allah Almighty has beautiful names and through them we can pray to Him. “And to Allah belong the best names, so invoke Him by them. And leave [the company of] those who practice deviation concerning His names. They will be recompensed for what they have been doing.” (The Qur’an Surah Al-A’raf, verse: 180). These beautiful names of Allah Almighty in the Sufi Tariqah are forms of ibadah, remembrances of God. For instance, from the names of Allah Almighty Maik (The Absolute Ruler), there is Al-Hafidh (The Protector / The Guardian), Al-Quddus (The Most Pure), Ar-Rahim (Most Merciful), Ar- Rahman (The Beneficent), Al-Karim (The bountiful), are names of Allah Almighty, through which by their remembrance we conduct ibadah.
The initial element which approaches us with our acquaintance with Allah Almighty is the fathom of the names and His attributes, I used the word acquaintance as a translation of the word gnosis, or as it is in Arabic the word used for it ma’rifah or irfan. The philosophy of ma’rifah, irfan of gnosis is a philosophy in itself. The philosophy of irfan is one particular philosophy for Muslims; hence the way for the acquaintance with Allah Almighty is a field in itself. Why do I say this? Since oftentimes we strive to know God through the speculative ways of the mind, the logical formations the methods which actually serve for the acquaintance of shallow matter on the life of man, this is simply improbable for the acquaintance of God.
The path hither God, hither acquaintance of God is the path which inevitably in itself contains deity. Nobody is able to develop a kinship with God, without having manifested deity on God. Thus I am not sure if I did encounter this before, that faith in God, this qul huwwalllah ahad is one process, hence it is not a matter obtained within night. Oftentimes we share the thought that we can start to believe within seconds; until now I have not believed and now after hearing this lecture I became a Muslims or a believer, no this is not the way. Allah Almighty says to the Prophet (PBUH): “So remain on a right course as you have been commanded, [you] and those who have turned back with you [to Allah ], and do not transgress. Indeed, He is Seeing of what you do.” (Surah Hud, vere: 112). They have asked the Prophet (PBUH) “Dear messenger of Allah Almighty, are you not on the path of Allah Almighty?” “Yes” – but he says: “It is sought to remain in the right path in a process of continuum.” The universality of Islam and the permanence in religion, it has to do both with the time and spatial aspect. In regards to the time dimension, for instance Islam could be my father’s religion, my grandfathers and so forth as it will also be my son’s religion my grandson’s and so forth, yet in addition it has to do with the spatial dimension as well what does this mean? It refers to the notion that we cannot become Muslims just by attending the mosque, we cannot be a Muslim only within a teaching institution, we cannot be Muslims only when we will meet an imam and when we have a problem, one cannot become a Muslims under these scenarios. There is one Qur’anic verse which states: “And when they board a ship, they supplicate Allah , sincere to Him in religion. But when He delivers them to the land, at once they associate others with Him.” (Surah Al-‘Ankabut, verse: 65). This reflects that when ones goes into the ship and the ship is undertaken by the waves of the sea, then the passengers begin to pray to God, as soon as the wind stops, they forget God. Hence if you are not with Him when you are in content, He shall not come to you when you are in distress, when you are in content, when you think you are not in need even though then it is the most time when you need Him; when one is in content one needs God the most since man has more possibilities to bent on those times, whereas when you are in distress, then you fear little the physical dimension, your life. This reflects that acquaint hither God is obtained through deity and this is important on the entire spheres of life.
Oftentimes there is a question imposed among our community “ yes, he prays namaz, but I do good to people.” See now here, this one who prays namaz if he doesn’t commit to good deeds, if he does not have a good maneuver in society, this namaz remains unfulfilled; it does not reach for the sky, yet even the one who commits to good deeds for what does he do it? Where is the satisfaction? The good in order to be good in ethics, in action-logy it ought to be conducted without any personal interest gain or any counter value. If one does good in order for another to return the good; for me now to do some good to you in order to later benefit from you, this is not simply good. To this reason Sufis have never conducted ibadah for the sake of Jannah.
One female Sufi, one very proclaimed woman in the history of Islam, Rabia Al adaviya, one day turned to Allah Almighty with these words: “God, if I pray to you because I fear your fire take me to it and forever in it, if I pray to you because I have hope for your Jannah, then do not ever show me that place, but if I pray to you for You being the mere reason, enable Thyself to me” or another Sufi poet, Yunus Emre, in one ilahi which is greatly sang among us here, it says:
““Cennet cennet dedikleri, bir kaç köşkle bir kaç hüri, isteyene ver sen anı, bana seni gerek seni”- “
“Jannah, Jannah people say, what is Jannah, a couple of temples and some goddesses, those who wish to have these give it to them, whereas to me only Thyself and You only are needed”.
This is the feeling for which we conduct ibadah and the one which enables us to approach Allah Almighty. The good in this world is not attached to the essence of existence, it has no meaning. For instance in our recent times we have a world where the philosophy of consumption reigns, we are preoccupied with the economy as you know better than I, but I am speaking to you as a well read person not as an expert, as I might be wrong sometimes, but it is true that presently speaking the philosophy which reigns with the world is the philosophy of consumption; people have turned into dangerous consumers and to this reason when one speaks to a person there are slight chances the conversation will be upon ideals, since the person will instead seek the counter vale of the ideals “yes I will run after the ideal, but you will make a prime minister”, one immediately thinks of this.
I shall strive to elaborate on a matter which reflects that these are not utopian issues, they are realistic. Do you know why God has sent messengers? He has sent them in order to demonstrate that religion can be personated and the messengers of God are the prototypes of the various ways of man’s life. Read on the life of the prophets in the Qur’an and you will notice that they are prototypes on the manner of how people will lead and shape their lives.
The prophets, the society of the prophet, good people throughout the history are the ones who portray that life along religion is not utopia, meaning that it can be personated. I will encounter one example; Halid Ibn Vali, is one of the close companions and friend of the Prophet (PBUH) he is one of the most merit regarded on the spread of the Islamic State and Muslims in the other parts of the world aside from Mecca and Medinah, aside from Hejaz (Mecca and Medinah are altogether known as Hejaz, you will hear this word often, when they say Hejaz is one domain of Mecca and Medinah) and Halid Ibn Valid has been on one of the wars in Jermuk against the Byzantine. The Byzantine was one immense empire, as if Macedonia would go on war against the United States. On the other hand the Arabs were a number of collected tribes which have gone to war against one global super power. At that time there had been two world super powers, it was the Sasanian (Iranian) Empire and the Byzantine Empire.
When they had gone into battle one of the Byzantine commandments named George had said: “I wish to meet with Halid, who has become a myth of Muslims, he has not been defeated in any war, in the entire battles which he has been he has won the war, I seek to meet this myth who has been named the sword of God (Sayfullah)”. When the two meet, he latter saw a man wearing chopped clothes which did not have the iron shields those which the commandments of the Byzantine had and the latter had said:” let me ask you a question. Why have you come to fight? Have you come for territorial invasion? If you have come for invasion then we can offer a protectorate for you to become a country under us (as were the Jews at that time). If you have come for wealth let us give you as much as you wish. If you have come for women (it was the mentality of that time since war was conducted even for robbery, for gaining women of the other party), then let us give you this also and you return to where you have come from, we shall give you the slaves you want in number. Halid Ibn Vali had said: “No, we have not come for any of this. Let me explain. We were in darkness as you are now, a light from above descended upon us in order to enlighten, yet the descended light said that it was great sin to deposit this light only within us, not to share it with others, we have come to bring you this light, our Prophet has decreed for us to bring you this light and we shall win this war”. “How are you so sure that you will win this war?” “Since you have come for these tree things that you mentioned, whereas we have come not to go back, you have come to take these three things and return back, whereas we have come to stay, not to go back”.
Unfortunately the contemporary man has lost the sense of sacrifice and this is very dangerous. At the moment when I will give you a call and tell you I need to have a drink and sit and speak with you, and in return for you to tell me” no, because I do not have the time” Even this half an hour of yours is one sacrifice, let us not even encounter other more serious things. The loss of the understanding of sacrifice has left us where we are now.
Lately one Serbian device has been greatly used: “Only the mad ones die for ideals”. It is not at all like this. “Without ideals the mad are born”, this one is true. The ideal feeds the human, it remains viral the humane within man.
Hence when one shall commit to do good without any ideal in the background, then he commits it for the benefit of counter materialistic value and for nothing else; God and the good deed enable for man’s good to become perpetual, it enables eternity to that goodness and this is the concept of Jannah, do not think that Jannah is the counter value of our deeds.
Know that the more to nourishment you commit to, the more it is doubled and when Allah Almighty says: “Whoever comes [on the Day of Judgement] with a good deed will have ten times the like thereof [to his credit], and whoever comes with an evil deed will not be recompensed except the like thereof; and they will not be wronged.” (Surah Al-An’Am, verse: 160).
Which means that when you commit to goodness, I shall count it as ten times, this reflects how goodness is multiplied and that Jannah is merely the multiply of our good deeds which we have conducted on this world; it is not a counter value of our deeds, it is merely an increase along with the energy of God, with the sacred energy of our works which we have conducted upon this world.
It often happens that these who do not have an immense work of good deeds, and instead they have either one or two deeds they take to a high rank aside Allah Almighty. This does not mean that ibadah is not important, since this is how it has been understood by the mass population.
I shall encounter two examples. There is one renewed Sufi scholar, Bishr Al-Hafi, Bisr Al- Hafi means the Bisr which has walked barefoot. One day Bishr passed by one street and saw a piece of paper covered in mud which people had stepped upon, he took the piece of paper from the ground and saw that in that piece of paper the name of Allah Almighty was written. He took the letter, cleaned it and placed it in a high rank place. In a dream to one proclaimed spiritual scholar it is said to go and announce to Bishr on the following: “Bishr, you cleaned my name, I cleaned your heart.” This shows that one deed which does not have any counter value for this world by a prudent feeling oftentimes brings forth the mercy of Allah Almighty.
Here I shall encounter another important example which shall remain in your head. There has been one man in the village which has been a very evil man and had died (he possessed all the wicked characteristics). The villagers had asked the imams, the head of the villagers, his wife and had said that they had decided not to berry this man since even the soil cannot take / cope with him. Let us just throw him where the garbage is and they have decided to do so. That night in the dream of the imam, the leader of villager as well as his wife appeared that the person was nearby to the Prophet (PBUH) in Jannah, or in the highest grade. The rule of Islam is that for one dream to be from God it ought to be repeated 3 times, if the same dream is repeated 3 times then you can come and consult Faqir, for those who are not here they can consult with someone they trust in order to comment on their dream. If they see the same dream or at least with similar symptoms for 3 times, and as long as the dream does not repeat for 3 times it can come from the devil. This dream was repeated to them 3 times.
The dreams are divided under two domains (perhaps the day shall come when we shall speak on dreams) the dream rahman and the dream shaytan, meaning that there are dreams which come from the devil and there are dreams which come from the mercy of God, to this reason they need to be repeated 3 times. Each time you shall see a dream which shall distress you, you read the Surah Al-Falaq and Surah An-Nas 3 times, and if you have been laying down on the left side turn to the right side, if you see this dream 3 times then you need to consult with Faqir.
So the persons undertake this for a brief investigation. They go to the place where they had thrown him and see that the man is not there, they see instead a shepherd with his sheep as they were eating there. They approach him and ask him: “we had left one dead body here two-three days ago, have you seen it? The man replies: “yes I did” They say: “What happened?” The man replies: “I saw it and I said who have been these wicked people which have not buried him. I am not an imam nor religious, I don’t know anything about religion but I know that a man needs to be buried, thus I opened a hole and I don’t know if I have opened it facing Qibla (you know that the buried body has its own Qibla, have in mind that the right side of the body ought to face the Qibla which we pray to, as death can happen to anyone) but I just made a hole and put it inside. Each day when I sit to dine a passenger comes by and I call for him to eat with me, I say come you are a guest of God and we eat together and once we eat he leaves. That day nobody passed by and I ate alone and when I buried this man I didn’t know what I was supposed to pray, I took my hands up and said:” Oh God each day you have sent me a guest, today I send you a guest” and Allah Almighty for the sake of this sincere prayer of this man which did not know a single matter on religion and forgave him.
Which means that the religious profuse non spiritual element is one important element, hence when we shall commit to good deed making on this world, if we wish and seek to be good with those who do not wish to be good on those with whom they have a matter to discuss, we are talking here about people who wish to be good, in order for the good to be good in eternity it ought to attach itself to God. The good becomes eternal and attachess itself to God through ibadah, the worship and ways of worship to us have been delineated by God in the Qur’an, thus the ideal man is the person who conducts ibadah and ibadah orients him hither the good in society.
There is no greater value than to be in dignity, dignity shapes man the cautiousness on Allah Almighty. Faqir speaks to you from experience, believe me all these words are hollow, conscience, if are not found attached to Allah Almighty, if in itself do not feel the presence of the control of God they do not succeed in the life of man. For instance, how will you justify one person who has made an oath on the Hippocratic and when you will go to him to have a surgery; If you do not have money he will not conduct the surgery. Let us not speak on the common people, but those who are educated, who have avowed to serve the people or for instance those who win elections, those who lead with the people, as soon as they take their positions in power they forget on the people. As long as there is no attachment with Allah Almighty have in mind that the good remains in a shallow position. Hence even Allah Almighty has institutionalized this matter and has brought it forth through ibadah. He has institutionalized it through namaz, through fasting, through hajj. Do we become Muslims only by these deities? No, we cannot become genuine Muslims merely through this portray, yet these are one of the elements which shape as eternal the goodness in life, and bring it forth to us when we are in most need of it.
There is one professor here which most of you know him he is now aged; for a long time when I was young like you here now we had been in a debate regarding religion, he had been an atheist. Twenty three years prior I met him in the street and I greeted him by: “Professor how are you? Are you well?” He replied: “I am well.” He had come back from the United States he has a brother I the United States. He told me that we should continuously pray to God in order to remain within a society which has a religion. I told him: “Why?” “Since my brother was a man of no worth, nobody turned eyes on him” (this does not take place with everyone in the United States, I am bringing forth an example of a society which is mainly focused in the worldly element and one who has a family there which everyone would feel flattered to join his life) and I regarded the comment he made. I said: “Not in a society which contains religion, but rather in a family where there is religion, this is important”. He had inevitably sought against religion within his family, and one thing is very clear when we shall no longer be in need of a parent, still do good to the parent; this leads to God. The philosophy on houses for elderly people, is the philosophy excluding religion, when you shall not be in need of it, then you remove it completely and this is one significant event which conveys that to the good, regardless of the nature of good, only God can attach its eternity to its scope. Allah Almighty seeks from us to have Him present in all our affairs throughout our lives. For instance the initial verse which descended to the Prophet (PBUH) says: Ikra bismi Rabbikkal-ladhi hala – read in the name of God who has created each matter. The act of reading excluding God is not simply fruitful since then what is the purpose of reading or studying? To serve the ego of man? No. To integrate man to benefit in life? But there is no need, perhaps one can gain more without the need to attend school. The mere purpose of reading and studying, of that intellectual integration is for man to be integrated, to generate light for others. Hence if this integration is not followed by the name of God it cannot generate light to the others, this is the essential element of science. Without God there is no actual integration neither in the dimension of science, have this one in mind. You might say “okay, and what about the West, how have they progressed? We ought to encounter the progression of the West, we are desperately behind the West, yet the acknowledgment of their progression lies in the field of technology, the core of science they have destroyed. For instance in the West you no longer have philosophy, among the contemporary man there is no longer any art. Those have interest on art do not abide any new artistic platforms on idea and hence they seek these in the East and not in the West. This occurs since there is not a philosophical platform and this is identical as when one would want to drive a car without the alternator but merely with its accumulator; the accumulator may be consumed within one day as it needs something to charge the accumulator with electricity, and the accumulator is charged by the alternator. Philosophy, religion are the alternators of society; the alternators of the society producing electricity, producing positive energy, yet at this current step the world is merely consuming energy. To this reason observe how a great number of renewed musical groups are turning to the East. For instance, actors primarily turn to East, on one of the previous lectures I encountered the event when Richard Gere kisses the hand of Dalai Lama. Why would Richard Gere kiss the hand of Dalai Lama? Or for instance Tom Cruise makes a movie on the Last Samurai (have you seen this movie? It is good to watch it, if you have not seen it) he makes a movie which speak on the courageous Japanese values, of the Samurai, see this movie and you shall comprehend on which values he refers to, for those of generating positive energy which the West has lost.
Allah Almighty and ibadah in general give this energy to us. Thank you.
