SURAH AL-‘IKHLAS
For a certain period we have elaborated the surah Al-‘Ikhlas (Surah Qul Huwallah) in which Allah Almighty acquaints us with Himself. He speaks to us of His attributes and also manner which we ought to believe in Allah Almighty. So for instance in the first verse of the Surah Al-‘Ikhlas Allah Almighty encounters His attributes. The first verse speaks more of the spiritual platform, the platform regarding the relationship between the individual and God, whereas the rest of the verses speak on the frame of understanding God in society; these are the two elements which are distinguished in society. I believe that in previous lectures I spoke about the pure reasoning and the practical reason of Kant. This reflects that the first verse speaks about God in pure reason which does not have the social experience, since the reasoning of man is entangled in social experience, with culture and various social influences. Oftentimes when people speak of God and wish to approach Him in logical frame, they believe they are unbiased, but this is not so in reality. The logic of man, the logic of Mentin, the logic of Mawludin, the logic of Mawlan, the logic of Marwa and Nermin are not logics and reasons which are unbiased, since they are within the scope of history, they are either within time, or as it is encountered in philosophy they are immanent, and within this period, several times in various conscience frames and other times unconsciously they are influenced by the circumstances outside themselves, which are cultures, society, family, history; all of these have an influence in shaping the reason and logic of man, hence when one says “I cannot accept the metaphysical reality, since it does not affirm with my logic” is not an unbiased claim, since his logic contains all these elements which in the language of psychology we know it as paradigms. In most cases people are led by various paradigms and these paradigms are oftentimes very dangerous and they direct logic and the reason of man.
To this reason in the first part of the verse Allah Almighty has three attributes and three important names, the initial one is Huwe- He. Take notice how before the name All-llah is mentioned, which is the most specific name and notion for God, and moreover which according to the historians of the Islamic thought, the name All-llah, the term All-llah has not been used in the history of human thought for any other God, meaning that people have believed various gods throughout history, but never has the term All-llah been used for anything else. The term All-llah is unique, it is specially used only for All-llah Almighty, in the manner of belief which Muslims believe. Whereas before All-llah says this, He says: Huwe-He. When it is said He, we foremost understand that it is dhat, it is person meaning that it is not a principle, it is not a utopia, it is part of imagination however still realistic. The personal pronoun confesses the personal noun, whereas He is the personal pronoun and in order to use the personal pronoun one person hence God tells us that I am not a production/ product of imagination but I am the reality which influences your imagination, which shapes your imagination, your life and your society, to this reason the verse begins which Huwe-He. Moreover He also has another significant element, it is the third personal pronoun, meaning that it is not in our presence; God is the third personal pronoun until we have not brought Him close to our presence, to the one who is not an adherent God remains in the third personal pronoun; the moment man believes, He is established in the second pronoun and man can establish a dialogue with Him. There is one occasion (Hazrat Mawlana delineates this in the “Masnawi”) one person had gone to a scholar / shayhk and had knocked on his door, from within came the voice “who is it?”, the person who had knocked on the door had said “it is me”. The door did not open. Two-three days passed and the person again went and knocked on the door, again the voice from within asked who is it?”, the person replied: “it is me”. Again the door did not open. When the person went for the third time and when the voice from within asked who it was, the person replied: “it is you”, then the door opened. As long as the existence of God is not understood as an absolute reality of existence, God shall not open the door; as long as man does not say to God “I am nothing without you, it is You”, then faith is established, then religion is understood. He is He, He has real ultimate existence. In order for us to attain the reality of existence it is indubitable that we should approach our being to God through the revelation. Inasmuch, this is attained through the acquaintance with God and after this Allah Almighty says: Huwallahu ahad – He is Allah Almighty. Now we are speaking on the attributes of Allah Almighty, how we acquaint ourselves to Him; we shall continue with this in our lectures, but I wish to encounter two-three other important elements which I wanted to share with you. In the end of the verse the term Ahad is used; the word Ahad is a number, it is a concept (numbers are names! Meaning that names belong to the category of names, in the category of concepts), however this is one number which is not encompassed in the general rules of numbers, inasmuch a number which is solo, it does not have neither another number before or after (nor zero or a pair) inasmuch it is merely one, ahadiyat, (on this I spoke to you one of the previous night, those of you who attended know). Ahadiyat is oneness, oneness is an existential platform, it is one existential platform where nothing else but God is found. To give an example, for instance it was my birthday yesterday; 43 years ago I was not born, I was not found here, I was not in this platform, I was in another platform, however the platform exists continuously, as a platform it is the platform of the oneness of God and there, in that platform differences do not exist. Man, animals, the universe; everything arises from this platform of oneness. Why am I saying this to you? Since oftentimes people think that they are very important. I wanted to share with you one personal experience of Faqir; when we think that the ego of man is very important, then we cannot approach God, since then we automatically commit to dualism. Only God beholds importance, and those who give importance to the second pronoun (against them, to give value to Him, since this is then transmitted throughout life as well) those are important people. Individuals who are egocentric, people who think that the world surrounds around them, “if it wasn’t about them, history would be torn?”, those people end up alone. Their social status is not whatsoever important, neither their wealth nor their social entitlements which they share in this world, their end is dangerous since they do not understand the other person, they do not understand the person front them. One of the primary characteristics of an adherent, of a Muslim is no never put themselves first, and in order to become complete this identity seeks to comprehend the You of God, hence ahadiyat is such a platform. For instance, imagine the platform where nothing existence, and merely God existed, and precisely this platform is the platform of reality. One time one great shayh of Tasawwuf, Abu Yazid Al Bistami had been asked. “There was God and there was nothing else with Him”, but, “how is the situation now?”, meaning that now there is us, has anything changed?, he had been asked. The answer of Abu Yazid Al Bistami had been: “El án kema kán/ even now it is as it has always been”, meaning that anew ultimate real existence only Allah Almighty possesses. This is not nihilism. Do you know what nihilism is? Nihilism is the philosophy of nothingness; and this is precisely the opposite of it. The latter is the positivist strive on existence, despite positivism being greatly wrong, oftentimes when referring to natural sciences the term positive sciences is used. Positive sciences are natural sciences, where sociology, the English language and literature do not share a stay. Why? Are these negative? The mentality of the XIX century was shaped in such paradigm and biasness (this is the period when the term positive sciences was invented) that the sciences, aside from those which are conducted in laboratories, have not been considered positive. They could not call them positive thereof they have called them social or human sciences. Thus if realistically the existence of God is comprehended, then only we can exist, as long as we cannot comprehend this we cannot exist, in each domain of time this is the situation. For instance (earlier today I was drinking tea with some of you and I said this) imagine a person who all his life had it very easy (here I give a simple example) imagine an old man who is not an adherent, all his life he has been very wealthy, his children grew up, he had sent them in the best schools, they have become presidents of countries and when this person got old he was left alone; the entire first period of his life was thus wasted. (it’s the same as if eating a good dinner and in the end to be given poison; whatever you ate prior doesn’t count). It is the same thing with people who think their life is blissful without faith. On the other hand, another example, take a look at an old man who perhaps had had physical pain throughout his life, but in the end he receives a pleasure which cannot be described by words and this person feels this contentment since he understands existence; in most cases this person cannot be encountered for a philosophers but he feels connected to the real ultimate existence of Allah Almighty. The moment when this person will pass away, when his breath with cease, his faith is complete and it has reached and enjoined with the reality of the ultimate real existence. To this reason when ahad is said, it infers to rejoice in the absolute reality of existence and for one’s life not to be limited by birth and death, but the life of a man to be before birth and after death, since before birth in the platform of oneness the person was together with God, when God has created the spirits the person has been there. Hence in this manner when the question was asked and the entitlement of the spirits has been made before God, it has been said: “Do you accept me for your God?” our answer has been: “Kalu Bala” – “yes, surely we accept you for our God”. Precisely to this it has been said that man has four dimensions of life. The first dimension is the life of the spirit before birth, the second life is life within the stomach of a mother which is one particular life, the third life is life of this world, and the fourth life is the life of grave and the hereafter. All of these four dimensions are like one circle which carries existence from one shape onto another and we have eternity. The dearest desire of man (even though he does not express this) is to attach himself to eternity, never to die and this has made Adam (PBUH), the father of mankind to commit to the sin. When the devil had deceived him, he had said: “if you eat from this fruit you will become eternal, you shall never die” and in most cases man commits to sin when he does not realize that the material life has its ending. The Prophet (PBUH) has one transmission, one hadith, and I ask you not to forget this, since the sincere Muslim, the sincere adherent, a true man is the one who comprehends the message of this hadith: “work for this life as if you will live forever, work for the hereafter as if you will die tomorrow” meaning that this parallel walk enables man to understand his existential reality. By comprehending God, we come to understand our reality. One of the thubutiya attributes (the secondary attributes, the general ones) of God which elaborate on the existence of God in the universe and which have their reflections even among creatures is the attribute hayat. Hayat means life, viral, which reflects that God is alive, and Allah Almighty says this Himself in one the verses of the Qur’an which is highly important for all of us both from the domain of ibadah and from the domain of essence. We call this verse Ayatul Qursiy or among the people it is known as Allah la ilaha hu wal hayyul kayyum, it is one single ayat, not a very long one from the Surah Al-Baqarah. In times of most difficulties adherents should read this verse; it is one of the best prayers which delineates the attributes of God. To pray to God in His names and in the beginning of this verse it is said Allah la ilaha illa hu- All-llah is He who there is no other God but Him, He is, al hay – meaning that he is alive. God is not dead. Why? Since in various traditions of belief beginning with Greek mythology, from ancient Egypt, God is found away from the universe, He is not involved in the universe; in Islam God is present in the universe. Never forget this. Look now, throughout centuries the division of religion from society took place. The periods prior to the XIX century, specifically this has been done due to the church among the Muslims this has not taken place, it only began to take place after the XIX century when science and Islamic knowledge began to lack advancement, in order for it not to motion parallel with the human sciences, let me not say that Western sciences. Don’t believe that all this western technological advancement is from itself, it has a portion from ancient Egypt, ancient China, ancient Persia, Cartgen, Babylon, whereas Islam / Muslims are the best transmitters of ancient tradition in the West. What do you think that humanism and renaissance arose from the darkness of the church? And you think that Copernicus, Boccaccio, Franic Bacon just by sitting around came to the thought that the world motions around, and it is not as if they have seen this in their dreams? These are theories which have already been discussed among Muslims. One day in the lecture of Cuma in the mosque I said this (for instance you which are engrossed in the English language may perhaps know better than I) have you ever thought about the meaning of the word Shakespeare in English? Even in Wikipedia you can see that his name was not William, but later he was called this. His real name was Gulahom. The word Shakespeare does not behold meaning in English. I will give you one thought which might sound as a conspiracy, but it gives me such pleasure and even if you observe this what I shall elaborate in historical context you could understand it could be real. The period when Ferdinand and Isabel of the XV century invaded Spain (these are Portuguese-Spanish kings which entered Spain when Muslims were there) and began to kill whomever was before them, one great number of scholars there ran away from Andalusia. One portion of them ran away in the East, inasmuch one of them who ran away in the East was Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi (one of the dayaans of Islamic mysticism, of Islamic philosophy) which today in the West is read I great fascination, Ghete is moreover directly influenced by Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi. But in this period when these identities ran away in the East, could it be that nobody went to the West? Can you believe that nobody actually went that way? Hence some scholars claim that Shakespeare was one of them who went to the West or to North. If you take a look at England at that time, England did not have capacity to produce a mindset such as Shakespeare. The name Shakespeare arises from two Arabic words which mean Shayhk and Pir. Shayhk, as you know, refers to a great scholar, it means the first of a Tariqah, whereas Pir refers to the founder of one Tariqah. For instance observe the occasion with King Lear (if you have not read this it is good to read it) there is one character in the drama, Lolo (in English known as the fool) this Fool (this is a precise good translation of the world abdall, even in Turkish the word abdall is used, abdall is one of the highest categories in Tasawwuf, which refers to a man who has given himself, and instead of himself has inserted God) from what this character says in the drama “King Lear” reflects as the wisest character, since the King takes this personality with him wherever he goes, and the Fool is observant of the King when nobody else ventures to correct him.
My point is to delineate that the scientific and cultural inheritance has been transmitted throughout the edges of the world and now we are enabled to observe the reciprocal influence in each sphere of life as well as part of the world.
Hayat means viral. The moment when your existence attaches itself to this ardency, success enjoins the story; the moment where this ardency is lacking, success lacks consequently. Is the rose more beautiful in the garden or in one vase? Its beauty is in the garden, since in the garden it receives ardent from God. With those of you with whom I have met more often I have told you to watch the movie Avatar, this movie truly speaks of this reality with nature, the organisms which are present there have truly a connection with nature as they receive their viral from nature. Have you seen this movie? Have you seen how when the creatures are attached to the ground they receive energy? And in reality people are the ones in the tanks, mainly destroyers of nature. Inasmuch the ardency of nature arises from the viral of God. The rose asset in the garden is beautiful since it embraces its ardency from God; the moment we take it away, it withers. As long as man has its spirit, his breath, man he can create, the moment when his breath departs him he is even unable to eat nor can he move his hand (he cannot conduct fundamental moves); it is the same man, he has his hands, legs, his mind, his tongue, eyes but cannot move any of these organs. Inasmuch when the link with God is broken, this moment the viral connection is broken. Have this one also in mind, the same manner in which from the biological aspect with the prevention of breath life also ceases, also from the aspect of social interaction with the cutting of the link with God the social ardency is also stopped. From the social domain religion transmits this breath, it is the word of God. Inasmuch there is no difference between this breath which arises from God and the revelation which comes from Him, both are from the same source and both contain the identical essence and only those who know how to transmit this ardency in their lives can experience this viral. If we seek and wish to be viral for eternity we ought to attach ourselves to the absolute ardency. Oftentimes this may be perceived as something incredible and hard to achieve. People who are not evidently involved in religion perceive this as impossible. I am not telling you to affix your head in sayda and to leave all matters of this world. Our conversation is not about that, but it infers that the link and connection with God ought to be established in all affairs; both when we sleep and study for instance. It is indubitable that God seeks from us a number of obligations which we ought to practice in life, like fasting, namaz, zakkah, hajj and so forth; these ought to disintegrate us from wicked deeds. God in the Qur’an says: “Recite, [O Muhammad], what has been revealed to you of the Book and establish prayer. Indeed, prayer prohibits immorality and wrongdoing, and the remembrance of Allah is greater. And Allah knows that which you do” (Surah Al-‘Ankabut, verse: 45). Which infers that this is what is suggested, the opposite of this states that if a person does not detach himself from wrongdoing, his prayer cannot be considered namaz. The characteristic of namaz is to detach one from wrongdoing and involve him in good deed making. The moment when namaz does not serve as such, it is not namaz. However in namaz the most crucial matter is “remembrance of God”. the moment one remembers God he renews his connection with Him and this remembrance of God is not only pursued in namaz, but this remembrance of God is embraced even when one prepares for an exam and one might claim “I cannot study today”, whereas in return God replies “It is your duty to pass the exam”. Then this one person might come to me and say how a great Muslim he is when he cannot even pass an exam for the 10th time, this person is not a good Muslim. Or another instance, if one goes to work and everybody else works 10 hours whereas this one person says “ I will only work 5 hours, I do not need this world”. It is true that for us adherents ( I am referring to us, since that is how I consider the atmosphere, as an environment of faith) wealth and social status is not important, however it is important to us not to live our lives only for ourselves; we are not egoistic. Whatever we behold we like to share with others, as the best man of us is the one who serves the others. One time there was a bedouin (bedouins are called people from the desert, but it may also refer to people who are not civilized, I don’t want to use the term primitive since there is no person which is primitive, even the term primitive itself was invented like that other term positivist from Ogist Cont; Ogist Cont caused the greatest harm ever done to science) in the place where the Prophet (PBUH) and his companions were seated, the place where they were making conversation /sohbet and this bedouin entered and said “Who is Muhammad between your gather?” (it was common for bedouins to speak that way). The Prophet (PBUH) at that precise moment had ibrik and one glass in his hands and poured water to one of the as’habs (one of the as’habs wanted to drink water and the Prophet (PBUH) had stood up to give him water) and then the Prophet (PBUH) said: “the best man is the one who serves the others” or “the best man is the one who is most useful among people”, automatically he answered the bedouin’s question. Simultaneously he delineated to the as’habs that indubitably man has values and is a man when is able to share what is his with others; to serve the others. All other manners of behavior in life only bring harm. If today we think we are wealthy and we believe we are the owners of that wealth, we will only be lying to ourselves, because we are not the owners of the wealth. I recall one dramatic occasion in Turkey, in 1999 there was a terrible earthquake and one wealthy man (coming from the town where the earthquake took place Gölcűk/Adapazarı) had one safe and he had all his wealth in that place (2.500.000 €) and this wealth together will all the people the night of the earthquake sunk in the bottom of the sea and was never found. When this man went to sleep the day before, he had 2.500.00 €, he might have even been the richest in town (the earthquake took place early in the morning) and when he had woken up in the morning he was left with nothing, not only that but together with his wealth his house and children had been found dead; he had been left alone. Meaning that his wealth was not his. The wealth, the social status and children are not ours, this is the possession of someone else. What are we then? Allah Almighty had told the angels: “I will create one halifa in the surface of Earth”; halifa refers to a person who uses the nimats / the nourishments of God and halifa of God on Earth it is us, humans. We are merely but users of the goodness nourishments of Allah Almighty. We are not in possession of this world and if we understand this as such, even if we lose our wealth in life it shall not create problems to us, otherwise we would commit suicide; in order not to commit suicide when we lose something, indubitably that we would be in need of the direct link with Allah Almighty and we will be able to understand this only when we will understand the ardency of Allah Almighty. Thank you.
