Hu Dost---


Elhamdullillah, it's fajr time one again. It's been an insane, but interesting week. To put it mildly. But, much to be very thankful for. Highlights include a wonderful Oovoo sohbet with Baba, a very good catching-up with my sister,  and the dostness of my dost Selma. 


As many of you know, "Dost" is a Farsi and Turkish word. I don't know all the subtleties of its meaning in Farsi, but in Turkish it conveys the idea of a true heart-friend-- like the English term "best friend" but not comparative.  Like a "soul-mate," but not necessarily romantic. It may even be a person you've met only once-- but your soul recognizes. I've had that feeling with people I met on a Greyhound bus traveling to Georgia. I've had that feeling reading the poems of Kaygusuz Abdal or the letters of Ibn Abbad of Ronda.  Frankly, I have that whenever I listen to  Iron and Wine, The Mountain Goats or even Warren Zevon. Or Bach. Or lately, the music of Gurdjieff (though I'm not so sure about his writings, the music was AMAZING).  It's that finding a soul-within-your-soul in another human being. That is the Dost. Turkish has two words for friend-- "arkadash" is a friend in the usual sense, and then "dost" -- that's what Hazreti Shams and Hazreti Mevlana were to each other... the friendship that is so deep that you are mirrors to one another. It's my favorite word in any language. Well, that and "lugubrious," but that's just because it has a comical ring to it. ;)



May we all become dost to one another, inshallah. 

So while we are on the topic of the dost... here is a clip of one of my favorite bands called HU DOST (named after a traditional Sufi greeting, recognizing the True Dost who manifests in all of us). I suspect that many readers here know this song, but some readers in Turkey and Albania know the song well but have never heard it in English before. Check them out on Itunes... it honestly made me cry to hear some of these songs again! 


Speaking of which, elhamdullillah,  it was wonderful to have a meshk with everyone on Oovoo the other day...

a poem from Sherif Baba

Sherif Baba has sent a poem to post on this site.  I'm posting now in Turkish, but if anyone can please help to translate it, that would be very much appreciated, inshallah. 
_____
Kibirli  olma-tevazzulu   ol
         İnatcı   olma-iteatkar   ol
         Kindar olma-  affedici   ol
         hırslı   olma- azimli  ol
         Tutucu olma- verici ol
         Öfkeli  olma- uysal  ol
         Laf taşıyıcı olma-itibarlı ol
         Geveze  olma- sukut  ol
         Aceleci olma- sakin ol
         Şaşkın olma--akil  ol
         Taklidci olma-asil ol
         Tenkidci olma-tasdikci ol
         Tahrikci olma-sabırlı ol
         Asi olma -razi ol
         Kaba  olma--nazik ol
         Yıkıcı oLma-yapıcı ol
         Zalim olma- adil ol
         İtici  olma- ilgili  ol
        Bilgiç olma-dinleyici ol
        Karamsar  olma- hoş görülü ol
        Dik başlı  olma-halim selim ol
        Ok gibi olma-  yay gibi ol
        Zanlı  olma-  İZANLI OL.........
  


       Aziz dostlarıma, maddi ve manevi evladlarıma ayine hükmündeki  bu levhamız vasiyetim  olsun.Merkezden asla ayrılmayınız,alemi olduğu üzre kabullenip,hakkınıza
      rıza gösteriniz.. Halkın  içinde Hakkı  yaşayarak birbirinize  ayine olunuz.Vesselam..Mehmed şerif çatalkaya(hilkati) 15 ekim 2009 ıst.maltepe
        
        
 

some pictures

With Shaykh Rasheed (Naqshbandi-Mujediddi) and Selma on the Eid a few weeks ago.

With Shaykh Nooruddeen Durkee (Shadhili)  at the I.S.R.A. conference in High Point, NC

One of my favorite pictures of Sherif Baba

 A few new pictures.  I'll try to add a number of new ones over the next week or so, inshallah. 

By the way, I'm finally on Oovoo. I  really have no idea how it works and I'm not on Cem's mailing list, so if you're more "in the know" than I am as to how to catch one of Baba's sohbets on Oovoo please, please, please give me some hints! ;)

Hu....

I'm finally posting again after quite a long while. Inshallah, everyone had a nice Ramadan and Eid (Bayram). Selma and I have had some very nice travels lately, elhamdulillah. We were up at Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rasheed's zawiya in Virginia for the last days of Ramadan, then off to a dhikr with Abdel Haqq and Abdel Hadi in Athens, GA and most recently to West Virginia for a Mevlevi retreat and sema workshops with Jelaleddin Loras.

It was our first time meeting Jelaleddin Effendi, though I've known about him for a good 15 years or so. Mashallah! We loved him and the whole community who gathered for the event. And we were very happy to meet lots of people who know Sherif Baba, too. Many very happy memories of the past were shared and many new ones were created. Eyvallah.

I had a very nice conversation with Jelaleddin Effendi about Baba. I knew that they were friends, but I hadn't realized that he knew Burhan Effendi well. When I asked if they had met, he said "I knew him before Sherif knew him!" with a big smile. He said that he had gone to his house many times, even as a child, because his father (Suleyman Dede)and Burhan Effendi had been good friends and would visit each other a couple of times a year.

Shaykh Ahmed's Naqshbandi-Mujeddidi community was also wonderful as always. Very warm and open-hearted, mashallah. And Abdel-Haqq's dhikr was really refreshing too... I hadn't seen him in about 10 years since I lived in Athens. And finally I seem to have found some decent contacts with the Jerrahi community in Atlanta, elhamdullillah. Inshallah, we may be able to go their dhikrs from time to time.

It's felt like roaming around in a desert for a while, but elhamdullillah, we've had a nice rest in a very pleasant oasis. Inshallah, we will continue to find such places.

I'll try to upload some new pictures in the next day or two, inshallah, so stay tuned. But for now, check out this link to a short film on Soul TV about the Ramadan retreat at Shaykh Rasheed's in Virgina. Selma and I both pop up in it a few times. See if you can figure out which ones we are ;)



It's not letting me post a link, but paste into the browser:

http://soultv.net/index.php

Lots of good things on that site. Click the "Spirituality" tab and then "Ramadan Retreat" under the screen.

Alevi/Bektashi documentary in English

Elhamdullillah, there is finally a documentary about the Alevi/Bektashi viewpoint in English! I believe this comes from an Alevi organization in Germany. Special thanks to AleviArsiv on Youtube for this one. I'm delighted to see this kind of material coming out in English. I would suggest taking some things here with a grain of salt-- they use some ideas that are not exactly traditional to the Alevi/Bektashi worldview (like Kundalini, etc) in order to explain some ideas to people raised in other spiritual traditions. This is perhaps similar to Sherif Baba's use of the Hindu "chakra" concept to explain the 7 levels of the nefs and their relationship to the lataif , etc. I actually think that can sometimes be helpful, but just recognize that words like kundalini are not part of traditional Alevi terminology and probably reflect a lot of the individual film-makers' interest in connecting Alevi and Bektashi traditions in relation to other forms of world spirituality.













_______

and another one about Alevi semah:









Beautiful videos-- I'm so pleased to see things like this coming out in English

Hu... Elhamdullillah, there is now a lovely video clip of Sherif Baba on Youtube...



From what I can tell from pictures, I think this zikr may be at the tomb of Hz. Marufi in Istanbul (Kartal District). Does anyone know?

some interesting videos about Laleh Bakhtiar, Progressive Islam, and Islam in America

As-salaamu aleykum,
Hu Erenler--

First of all, I'm very sorry to hear that people in Turkey cannot get access to Youtube at this time. I am wondering is readers in the other countries are able to see them?


First of all, the following are videos of Laleh Bakhtiar, whose recent translation The Sublime Qur'an set of something of a firestorm by rethinking understandings of Arabic words often taken to imply a justification of domestic violence. Mashallah, I think that she is doing excellent and interesting work. She is an Iranian-American, and a student of Syed Hussein Nasr.







Another clip about Islam in America.


And two more about Islam in America.




I liked these videos... elhamdullillah. Perhaps it's true that the Sun is rising in the West. ;) Allahu 'Alim.

dhikr, sofra, and music...

Hu, Erenler...







I thought originally that the above videos were Balkan Rifa'is, but they turn out to be Halvetis (though I'm still thinking they there is some Rifa'i component here.

This one is definitely Rifa'i:



I think these brothers are Halevet-Rifa'i:


I also found this article
http://rrezja.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html
about dervishes in Kosovo. Like some of the above videos, the article points to some of the interesting connections between tariqas generally seen as Sunni (like the Halveti and Kadiri) and the Bektashi tradition--note the mentions of Sari Saltik, the Bektashi sofra, etc. There is one wonderful mistranslation though-- the Yeni Ceri (the elite soldiers of the Ottoman military, who always had Bektashi chaplains) are often written in English as "Jannisaries". This article humorous mistranslates the word as "Janitors"!

Lastly-- and this is NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH!--- this is incredible documentary footage of Macedonian Rifa'is in 1955. I'll warn you ahead that they use skewers and knives in the film... yikes! Though this is a practice Sherif Baba has outright forbidden, it is certainly a common feature of many branches of the Rifa'i tariqa.



Latif Bolat on Turkish TV


More of Latif:


and mashallah! this video is Latif Bolat is absolutely beautiful:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnFipPL6bmQ

footage from a Bektashi sofra in Turkey:


I believe on the same night.. mashallah


Beautiful music from Iran-- is he Ahl-i Haqq?


This one is definitely Ahl-i Haqq-- they are a mostly Kurdish group in Iran, related to the Alevi (but somewhat different)


And one of the most famous Ahl-i Haqq musicians in Iran, Ali Albar Moradi:



and lastly an absolutely beautiful adhan... mashallah!


Huuu.... Ya Ahmed el-Kebirul -Rifa'i, Ya Hajji Bektashi Veli, Ya Hz. Ali, Ya Hz. Muhammad Mustafa, sallahu aleyhi wa sellim

Hu, Erenler...

As-salaamu aleykum!

and truly, I am wishing that the One Who Is, in fact, the Peace may be with you... I am not merely resorting to a traditional form of Muslim greeting ;)

Eyvallah, my internet-friend in Konya gave me the go-ahead to send these out:



This is Sherif Baba on his current balcony in Istanbul...



and then at the Urs in Konya, with Sirin Ana...







I have a couple more of these, elhamdullillah... but I'll save them for a rainy day.

May we be what we long for, in the deepest levels of the Truth.

Ashk olsun.

Nedim

one more of Sirin Ana...

Some dhikr scenes... and Sherif Baba is in them!

Hu! As-salaamu aleykum...

Selma and I have recently become quite intrigued with someone we know very little about. So much so that, Selma is hoping to go to Istanbul to visit her (and also meet Sherif Baba face-to-face for the first time). Inshallah.

The woman's name is Sirin Ana, though more can be found about her in English on the Web by looking up a nickname-- the Red Sheika. Apparently for the reason that she always wears red. There is something about her that Selma and I both found immediately intense and compelling. And I love that she throws chocolates into the crowd during her dhikr.

I have some wonderful pictures of her and Baba leading dhikr together in Konya that a friend sent me recently. I'll ask him if I might post them, so you can see them too, inshallah. But for now, I'll just show you some things I found on the web about her.



You will note Sherif Baba is on the left in the crowd, and Cem is playing tef in several of these pictures.

************************************************************************************
The the following story comes from
http://asalamiinturkey.blogspot.com/2008/12/last-two-days.html
************************************************************************************

Last night we were supposed to go to a zikr at a hotel hosted by the Red Sheikha. Ibrahim has been talking about her throughout this trip and she has sounded one-of-a-kind. Yet I had no idea what to expect. Our whole group began to walk over and were about halfway there when suddenly, in the middle of the street, we were met with another tremendous group of women (at least 20), with the Red Sheikha, dressed all in red, being transported in her wheelchair to come meet us at the guest house. This wasn't just any group of women; these were an energetic, celebratory group who were absolutely ready to party in the name of Allah. Kisses and hugs were exchanged right there in the middle of the street until we finally decided to turn and go back to her hotel.

It was there that we had the zikr....right in the hotel lobby, with the Red Sheikha smoking cigarettes directly in front of the "No Smoking" sign. The room was filled with women zikring to their hearts' content. And of course we were all there as well. The energy of having so many women in the center was incredible since so far, most zikrs that I have been to have been very male-dominated. For me, it was empowering to watch and be a part of.

The sad part was when the women were eventually moved out of the center and shifted aside as more men arrived. The energy changed then and I felt less involved.

Another unrelated thought went through my mind as I was watching everything. I realized that a zikr is a lot like other spiritual practices that I have been to, like drum circles, shamanic rituals, or even buddhist gatherings, that can often (certainly not always) be products of communities of people who are new to spirituality or seeking something after having been hurt by their previous tradition. Yet having been part of those circles on more than one occasion, I have felt there to be something disingenuous about them. Somehow the practice seemed disconnected from anything real and often it even felt like there was nothing actually spiritual or grounded underlying anything that was being done.

I feared that's what the zikrs might be like, but while sitting there with the Red Sheikha, especially when it was just the women, I realized that what I was experiencing was absolutely real. Finally I was in a practice that was energetic and exciting but also totally genuine.

The Red Sheikha needed to go to bed due to her health, so we headed home and a few of us gathered with Ismael Baba. He spoke to us about how there are certain kinds of practices that suit each person differently. He was likening this to eating yogurt. He said that some people like their yogurt with honey but others like it with vinegar. So he says you should eat it however you like it because either way you're eating your yogurt. Basically, don't do a spiritual practice that goes against your constitution. Maybe quiet prayer is better for some people while zikrs are better for others. This was a highly empowering conversation since growing up, I became used to just "dealing with" the fact that certain types of Catholic prayer felt totally wrong to me, but I did it anyway. Ismael Baba gave me inspiration that I will be able to find a practice that feels right.

We're just so used to struggling that when something comes easy, we don't believe it can be real. When something feels good, we think it must be wrong. I'm learning the opposite right now. Feeling good is actually right and does come easily, we just need to pay attention and let it happen. For instance, I feel really good when I sing. In fact I feel so happy when I sing, but only recently was I able to identify this as spiritual. It felt too good for me to think of it as a spiritual practice. There was no sacrifice involved, no pain, no suffering, just pure joy. But I've changed my thoughts on this now, and it's joy that I am after; it's joy that we all deserve.
************************************************************************************




***************************************************************************************
And from another blog, http://miketarianist.blogspot.com/2008/12/zikhr-with-red-sheika.html

"This chain-smoking spiritual leader and her bevy of middle-aged women followers with bangles on their scarves rocked the Konya Hotel last night and we joined in the action. This is how to alter the mind and spirit without alcohol or other substances except the ever-present tea and cigarettes. These people know how to laugh and cry and pray and celebrate in worship. And they know how to greet each other and how to welcome strangers.

I'm realizing I will miss the call to prayer, especially in the morning. I wonder if I can find an alarm clock that plays a recording. There are other sounds as well I am becoming familiar with, including the musical instruments and the voices. There is a group of music therapy practitioners in and out of the guest house providing another dimension. And the Turkish language itself sounds like music to me."

***********************************************************************************

There are a number of blog entries about her on the web. These seem to be largely from a group that went together on an interfaith Mevlana tour (or something like that... several of the writers seem to be Christian seminarians and at least one is Jewish). Evidently, they went to Istanbul and Konya, not only visiting Mevlana and Shams but also making contact with a scene I was unaware of until recently.

http://dervishbrothers.com/

The Dervish Brothers Center in Konya has a name that makes it sound like a museum of Mevlevi culture. Then you click on the page, and it looks like the website for a rug shop. And, to a certain degree it is indeed a website for a rug shop. It's also becoming quite clear that it is no ordinary rug shop. It's a rug shop in the way that the Silk Road Tea House was a restaurant and cafe. Or Muzaffer Ozak ran a bookstore. ;)

From all I can tell, these are the people who know where the real stuff is happening.

The contact information on their website:

tel (332) 351 54 67, (332) 350 81 88
fax (332) 351 54 67
mobile (0.532) 266 02 70
dervishbrotherscenter@hotmail.com


I lastly, to my delight, there is video of Sirin Ana (with Serif Baba there on the left also) on Youtube.













Mashallah... I love all of this. You can immediately see why she and Baba are friends. Both of them see to carry with them this combination of openness and a love for tradition, an fire that burns so intensely because of the huzur (tranquility) that grounds it, a humor and lightness and sweetness that has been developed by years of difficult challenges. Eyvallah. May Allah preserve them and the work they are doing.

All of this makes me very happy-- elhamdullillah. I'm delighted to have a little window into what Sherif Baba is up to these days and also equally delighted to see others who clearly seem to be on the same page.

Nedim

some pictures....

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Babacast

Hu, everyone.... and as-salaamu alyekum.

Elhamdullillah, this has been a wonderful and interesting time. Though it has been difficult in many ways (particularly because Selma is half-way across the world) it has also been a time of a lot of inward-looking reflection. Coupled with that, amazing sources for the journey have appeared.

Without getting into too many details, I would just like to thank my longtime dost, Fr. Justin again for a box of beautiful inspirations, and also Azim... mashallah, you both helped rekindle a flame that was seriously needing oxygen.

I am also incredibly grateful for the Babacast...
as many of you know, there is a (usually) 24 hour Sufi radio station on the web:

http://www.sherifbaba.com/web_prolog.htm

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't for me. I don't know how it will work for you. But, I finally figured out that the key is just keep trying. Sometimes it's not on. Sometimes you can connect, but with no sound. At least two out of three times you'll click on and find great music... but if you get that, stick around. About every 3 tracks will be a sohbet from Sherif Baba. Elhamdullillah... these are wonderfully soul-nourishing and refreshing. If you have liked anything on this site, I highly recommend tuning in. I know most of you already know about these, but I had such bad luck getting it to work that I had almost given up. An e-email exchange with a friend currently in Konya reminded me, and I've been on a wonderful little retreat (in my own home) with Sherif Baba for the last three days. So if you've never checked it out, but you love Sufism and liberal Islam, this is a welcome voice. If you know about it, but have been having trouble connecting, it seems to be working well now (again, I'm not really sure if the problems were Cem's computer(s) or mine. But mashallah, the arsonists of the heart are spreading the fire of ashk (devine love) at http://www.sherifbaba.com/web_prolog.htm

Hu....
Nedim

Academic article on the Rifa'i Marufi tariqa

Hu...
This is a juicy one for anyone interested in the history of Rifa'i Marufi. It is an article by Turkish professor Atabey Kilic about the order. Unfortunately, it is all in Turkish, except for this abstract:

MA’RİFÎLİK IS A TARİQA WHICH SHOWS ALEVÎ-BEKTAŞÎ-RIFÂ’Î
CHARACTERISTICS IN MANİSA-DEMİRCİ

Ma’rifilik is a tariqa, which was alive between 19-20th centuries, shows Alevî-Bektâşî-Rıfâ’î characteristics and it’s âsitâne takes place in Kartal. Today we can see it’s tradition in Ege Region especially in Manisa-Demirci. There are many mecmuas in Ege University Centural Library about this tariqa. In this paper we aim to give informatin about this tariqa’s tradition, rules and apparel


Here is the article itself (in Turkish)
http://www.turkishstudies.net/sayilar/sayi6/3k%C4%B1l%C4%B1%C3%A7atabey.pdf

Even if you don't know Turkish, it's still a useful thing for any Rifa'i Marufis in America or elsewhere to take a look at. Lots of great pictures from Kartal, and some really interesting pictures from old documents showing the clothing worn in the order 200 years ago. I'm particularly intrigued with the fact that he particularly seems to focus on the Alevi and Bektashi connections. As some of you know, this is one of my major interests as well, and was a major part of my anthropology master's thesis. (which if any curious person would like to read is called "Mending Fences and Setting Fires" and is in the Thomas Cooper Library at the University of South Carolina).

By the way, if any kind person who speaks better Turkish than I do would like to give me a quick summary of his article, I'd be eternally grateful... ;)

As-salaamu aleykum.

Nedim

Hu, Erenler....
As-salaamu aleykum.

This is an incredible BBC documentary, mashallah! I highly recommend watching this. Great footage of Sain Zahour (a Chisti from Pakistan), the Aissawa brotherhood in Morocco (Selma's favorite music), and even Mercan Dede and Mira Hunter (both of whom have Rifa'i Marufi connections), and that's just a fraction of what is on here.


Part One:




Part Two:



Part Three:



Part Four



Part Five

some pictures...

Hu, everyone. I just thought I'd stop in briefly to post a few pictures of Hazreti Ali, Hajji Bektash Veli, and Pir Sultan Abdal. The ones with the tall hat are Hajji Bektash, the one holding the saz is Pir Sultan, and the others are Hz. Ali. The last one is a painting by Murat Yagan, who is a sort of Circassian post-modern Bektashi who now leads a church (at least kind of) in Canada. Not quite sure what I think about all of that, but he's an interesting and thought-provoking character. Eyvallah. I love that painting-- with the image of Sayyidina Ali in the center and the baglama of Pir Sultan. If you look closely at the bottom, you can see an Alevi semah on the left and a Mevlevi sema on the right.

Had a nice phone conversation with Cem (in Turkey) a couple of weeks ago.

Not a lot of news here, other than that I am missing Selma very much (she is in Morocco) and I am absolutely stunned and delighted to receive an incredible package of Sufi books and music from my longtime dost
Fr. Justin.

Okay, I'm off to bed before a week-long Myrtle Beach trip. Inshallah, I'll get to the Meher Baba Center while I'm there. Every now and then I find some Rifa'i Marufi folks around there too, which would be a treat.

Lastly, inshallah, we will see the inauguration of our new president next week. Elhamdullillah! I can't even begin to say how happy I am about this. America needs this... and inshallah, he will make the most of this. I truly believe that this last election gave America a chance to decide whether we want to live up the the great promise that is in the spirit of this country. Elhamdullillah, the voters chose to do this. I am so happy for this. Now, let's just hope we have a leader and a government that are really able to bring out the best. Allahu Alim. But I have a lot of confidence and enthusiasm.

So, a fatiha for our new president. May he guide us with siyaset in this new era, inshallah. Allah Hadi Allah Hu.

As-salaamu aleykum...






Hu...

Wishing salaams for the season...

Hu, Erenler. as-salaamu aleykum!

Sorry it's been quite a while since I have posted. It's been a busy time, and full of transitions. I've been somewhat lost in the scramble, yet it has in many ways been a very productive and enriching time. A lot of papers have been graded, a lot of music has been created, a lot of ideas have been pondered. Another 'Eid (Kurban Bayram) has passed. We just passed the Urs of Hazreti Mevlana. I am preparing for a visit to Myrtle Beach with my family-- I am a Muslim, my sister and her family are Jewish, and our parents are more-or-less nominal Christians. Every year from Thanksgiving until Christmas, I like to listen to the Dar Williams song "The Christians and the Pagans". I highly recommend it to anyone who has a religiously mixed family, particularly one in which the parents have had a difficult time with the religious choices of their sons or daughters.

Selma and I just returned from a lovely day trip to Charleston-- where we had a very refreshing long conversation with Sermet. I am guessing that many readers of this blog know him. It is so nice to speak with Muslims who have challenging and interesting interpretations, who are deeply Muslim yet also have an inclusive spiritual vision. Mashallah! We had a wonderful time. Elhamdullillah.

Well, I'm back to packing for a week long trip and hoping to get at least a little sleep tonight, inshallah.

I pray for all a time of renewal and contemplation, of a reconnection to the deepest parts of our humanity. May we all become beautiful human beings, inshallah.

Huuuu....

Nedim

the places of our pirs

Hu, Erenler.
I hope that everyone is having a wonderful Ramadan. Selma and I recently got back from a very nice retreat at Shaykh Ahmed Abdur Rasheed's community in Virginia, with Shaykh Rasheed (Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi) and Shaykh Nooruddeen Durkee (Shadhili). Elhamdullillah. We could seriously use another one of those! ;)

I found some pictures that may be interesting. I have not been to either of these places yet, so if anyone has please fill me in on any information or corrections. But I was very happy to find these...



The top two are from the tomb of our pir, Hz. Ahmad el-Kabirul Rifa'i in Iraq






The bottom two are masjid and tomb of Hz. Mehmet Fethel Ma'arifi (Muhammad Fethel Marufi), in the Kartal district of Istanbul. He was the "second founder" of the order, who established this particular branch within the larger Rifa'i tariqa.

A nice version of "Bugun Bize Pir Geldi". This is probably the best known Alevi song-- with the chorus "Eyvallah Shahim Eyvallah, Hak la illaha illallah"



Another version of it, that I may have even posted before--



Illahi-- Abdul-Qadir Geylani:



And another illahi by the same 'ud player:


A beautiful video of a nice medley by my aquaintance Latif Bolat. I played a couple of concerts with him when I was part of a group called Turku-- and that was when I first learned a some of the illahis that are common in Turkish tarikats, including Rifa'i Marufi.


Qadiri-Rifa'i Dhikr from Nevshehir:





A nice look at how selpe playing is done-- this is a young student, but he does it slow enough that you can see the technique. Selpe is a fingerpicked tapping style that is common among Alevi baglama players. It was particularly popularized by Arif Sag, and later developed even further by people like Erdal Erzincan and Erol Parlak.




Some beautiful dutar playing by a Uyghur musician-- probably an instrument that influenced the development of the saz--

I hope that everyone is having a blessed Ramadan, inshallah.

I'm currently amazed at how many people stop by here from EVERYWHERE. Elhamdullillah. We've now had visitors from Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Singapore, you name it. A couple of people have left comments but no emails, so I wasn't able to write to you, but I'd like to.

Anyway, on with the show...

Here is a vid from the ISRA Convention. Mashallah! Qari Abdul Qadr is bringing the house down! I love his recitations. The choral refrain from the crowd could use a little direction however ;)




And some Rifa'i music, from where I'm not sure... but it's great:

Look up! It's Ramadan!

As-salaamu aleykum!


Just a quick note for now to say Ramadan Mubarak to everyone! I hope that you all have a blessed month and I thank you for reading this site.

May we all become beautiful human beings...
Hand in hand, and hands in Haqq---

Huuu....

Nedim

ISRA convention

Elhamdullillah!

Selma and I just got back from the ISRA convention in North Carolina. Mashallah! They did a wonderful job putting together a great convention that featured reciters and Sufi shaykhs talking about the Miraj. Shaykhs Haroun Faye, Nooruddeen Durkee, and Abdelhadi Honerkamp were among those who spoke. By far the best parts for me were Shaykh Haroun's dhikr in the hotel room and reading Qur'an with Shaykh Nooruddeen and some of his murids. Mashallah, I really respect him very much and admire the work that he and Hajja Noora are doing. I think that Selma and I both needed that little charge before the new semester begins and this conference provided it. I would highly recommend any of the ISRA conferences, because they have that delicate balance of providing a Sufi perspective within a traditional Islamic framework.
Here is their website:

http://www.israinternational.com

The other best part of the conference was actually eating pizza with some friends ;) Since we live in a city with a fairly small Muslim community, it's refreshing to be with others who share our traditional-yet-progressive approach to Islam. What a nice trip, elhamdullillah.

--Nedim

An American couple singing at a Chisti shrine in India!

Request for stories about Baba plus some videos.

Hu, Erenler! Sorry I haven't posted in a little while. It is so nice to see that some people are actually reading this, and to my great happiness, they are all over the world. Alhamdullillah. So thank you so much for your comments. Cok tessekur ederim! Shukran jazilan! Jazakallah khayr.

so, onto the posting for today.


This is the turbe of Ummi Sinan in Turkey:



The Sinani are a branch of the Halveti tarikat, founded by one of Sherif Baba's favorite saints, Ummi Sinan. As many of you know, the current guide of that order is a woman. I have not, so far, been lucky enough to travel to the Ummi Sinan tekke, but I've heard stories of wonderful experiences from people who went there with Baba. I'd love to hear anything like that. So if anyone has nice stories about Baba, please feel free to post them in comments.

Here's a nice video of a Kadiri dhikr-- you can see several different styles in it:



for those of you who have never attended a dhikr before, I would like to just mention that though some of the practices may appear a little odd from the outside, much of the physical action involved has to to with breath control. It is in this way somewhat similar to some techniques in certain styles of yoga. The more important element, however, is certainly the repetition of the Names themselves. Sufis of various orders have many different styles of doing this, individually and collectively. In addition to these kinds of group ritual dhikr, most Sufis also recite the Names silently throughout the day.
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Here is some of a small Rifa'i dhikr somewhere--- you can't really see anyone but the main singer, but these are nice salawats (praises of the Prophet, p.b.u.h).

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Hu...

Mashallah! A Jewish grafitti artist who does Arabic calligraphy to build cultural bridges...

Wow... this one made me happy.

Muslim Comedian Azhar Usman Questions and Answers

Orientalist painting of a Rifa'i dergah in Istanbul

I love this painting-- I think it's my one of my two favorites in the world. (the other is the Lyn Ott painting in the Meeting Place at the Meher Spiritual Center in Myrtle Beach). This is a 19th Century Orientalist painting of a Rifa'i tekke in Istanbul. In the picture, one sees a visiting Mevlevi turning sema. I think it's also interesting that there are Africans, likely slaves brought through Egypt. As a person who's professional interests are in American slavery, this is a useful reminder that the African slave trade was not solely a transatlantic phenomenon-- some left Africa to the North and East, rather than to the Americas. Aziz Nessin describes in his autobiographical work Istanbul Boy about how many people of African descent used to be present in Turkey in the earlier part of the 20th Century. Today, they have become thoroughly mixed with the rest of the population but their descendants are still around. Though they do not really form a distinct community, there are certainly still Turks of partially African descend who retain both oral histories and physical features. Someone really should work on this topic.

Alevi semah and Rifa'i recitations, plus some beautiful selpe baglama songs

Semah from an Alevi Cem












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note that in this one, the dede is wearing the takke like Rifa'i Marufis wear, wrapped in a black turban as Sherif Baba does. It's a little hard to see, but he's in the middle at the beginning of the video.

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lovely selpe playing

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more nice selpe-style playing-- this time with a twist!

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this one cracked me up-- but so good! Yes, he is playing the tune from a Nokia ringtone...


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More Bosnian Rifa'i dhikr:

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Bosnian Rifa'i recitations

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A video from a Qadiri-Rifa'i musican from somewhere in Eastern Europe. You can certainly see very clearly a very intense Ehli-Beyt focus, much stronger than in most tariqas. This particular branch is also apparently very involved in the practices with fire, swords, etc. which can be seen in the related videos from the same source.

Qawwali, etc.

Abida an amazing singer, mashallah. She's a Chisti from India singing Qawwali music. This is the music made popular in the West by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, also a Chisti. A nice thing about this video is that some of the lyrics are translated into English. I love the part at the end-- it reminds me of Alevi idea of human beings as the true Kaaba and that the real pilgrimage we must make is to the human heart.



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Next is an interesting video of a Qawwali group with a very active audience singing a song (well-known to Nusrat fans) about Lal Shahbaz Qalendar, a Chisti saint. There is also an elderly man with one gigantically long dreadlock who is for some reason being showered with large quantities of cash. I have no idea about all of that. But the music is great.


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Another great Qawwali singer-- Aziz Mian.

Wow, this guy clearly eats a lot of betel. Check out those lips!


Before he started chewing paan. And with a wonderful almost Klezmer clarinet.

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and my favorite these days... Sain Zahoor!


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This is nice-- street qawwali


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I love this guy-- Qari Saeed Chisti





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Tala al Badru Alaina--

This is some of the most beautiful selpe-style saz playing I've heard. Selpe (pronounced "shell-pay") is finger-picked and uses tapping techniques similar to those of guitarists like Eddie Van Halen, Tuck Andress, Stanley Jordan, or Michael Hedges. The host on the show is a little goofy, but Erdal Erzincan is sublime.



This guy is really incredible-- more of him:


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Ozlem Ozdil is also very good, and you can see what she is doing quite well.


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This is interesting-- aerial views of semah from the urs in Haci Bektash Koy.


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Musa Eroglu is still my alltime favorite...


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Youtube is also filled with footage a great amateur saz players. You'd be amazed at just how good some of these highschool kids can actually be. This one struck me with his maturity, subtlety and attention to tone.


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This is beautiful.. this time nothing to do with Alevi music



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This is cool too-- disciples of Shaykh Ibra Fall of the Baye Fall Order in Senegal. They are a branch of the Mourides of Ahmadu Bamba. Because of their dreadlocks, they are often confused with Rastas. Even more interestingly, they themselves began to see connections and started using the red, gold, and green colors and started reggae bands! But their main music is drumming



Here is one of their dhikrs... with men and women together.



They are among the few orders left where most the dervishes still wear patched robes all the time.
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The last one for tonight-- I've seen dhikrs that involved sitting, standing, and even dancing. I've seen people slam up against each other. Going into a trance is commonplace. I've even seen people eat broken glass and stick knives in their head.
But for a great Sufi workout routine, I've gotta go with the Mokashfiya brotherhood in Sudan. They run laps in dhikr! ;)

Medet ya Ali

One of my favorite Alevi songs... Medet ya Ali



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This one is kind of interesting-- this is Yildiz Tilbe, who is mostly a pop singer, but she is Alevi. This is her singing a song from that repertoire, and mashallah... she is so good on it, I think.


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This is interesting-- another Alevi song with some intriguing imagery. Note the juxtaposition of Catholic imagery with the Ehli Beyt images. I think that may have resulted from a search for Fatima that landed on pictures related to Our Lady of Fatima! I love the one with Hazreti Ali merged with the image from the Catholic icon of the Divine Mercy, with the red and blue beams of light coming from his heart. It's a really weird world we live in.


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Beautiful Kurdish Alevi singing-- as a tribute to one of the Alevi martyrs of Sivas.


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this one is great-- Rifa'is in former Yugoslavia explaining about different parts of the dhikr. They're Gypsies as well. Notice that the shaykh also uses the 3 part Alevi/Shi'a shahada (with "Ali'un veli Allah"), or as I like to call it, "putting the Shah in SHAHada" ;)



more from the same folks-- I'd hate to be defined as an "insolent dervish" in this dergah! ;)


More from this... and anyone who knows me well knows that I have a total fascination with Gypsy culture and music-- so how much does finding a film about Rifa'i Gypsies make my day?



There is also another film by the same Youtube user of these folks doing the piercings, etc. Not for the squeamish, but interesting.

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Qadiri-Rifa'is in Turkey

It may be illegal to have a dergah in Turkey, but it's really hard to make a law prohibiting a Sufi shaykh from having a living room. ;)

the Helvetis meet the Mevlevis

Another example of how tariqas interact and sometime merge forms-- here is a Helveti-Ussaki dhikr with a visiting Mevlevi semazen and a ney-player. This is not uncommon-- much like you saw in the last video with Rifa'i and Mevlevis joining for a dhikr/sema.

Rifa'i Marufi/Mevlevi video-- Aziz

This is Aziz-- a student of Sherif Baba (Rifa'i Marufi) and Jalaluddin Loras (Mevlevi) in the interview. The dhikr and sema footage if from the Rumi Festival that used to happen every year in Chapel Hill, NC. This was hosted annually by the Rifa'i Marufi Order, but visiting Mevlevis would come and turn also. In the video, the loud rambunctious stuff is from the Rif'ai dhikr, the slow and graceful one is more of the Mevlevi style (though people from both participated in each). Aziz also sometime turns with lit torches-- which perfectly expresses his dual connections with the Mevlevis and the Rifa'is-- Fire being the ultimate symbol of the Rifa'i tariqa (hence the name of this blog) and the Mevlevis being known for whirling.

This could so be one of those nights at Silk Road or the Rumi festival... but isn't.

The spontaneity, the devotion, the chaos, the men and women together, the mix of American and tradition Islamic cultures... a spontaneous free-form chanting of the Shahada accompanied by pots and pans and a water-cooler. for some Muslims, this kind of thing is a nightmare brought to life. For me, it's hope itself.

beautiful salawat with Shaykh Ninowy, Shaykh Durkee, Shaykh Ahmad Abdur-Rasheed and others. Mashallah!

a rather interesting talk by Shaykh Nooruddeen Durkee--this is him a little more fired up than usual, but the message is like Sherif Baba's message in my last post. Those of you who are familiar with Meher Baba may recognize the part about love being self-communicative! I wonder if the shaykh was deliberately quoting Meher Baba or not? He definitely knows about him and has read his works-- we talked about that a few years ago. He gives two sentences that are essentially from Meher Baba, verbatim. I'd love to know if they had just seeped into Shaykh Nooruddeen's consciousness or if he was deliberately quoting from him. Again, this is something of an example of what I wrote about a few posts ago-- here's a shaykh who is quite rigorous in his sharia, knowledgeable in Maliki fiqh, and very definitely a mainstream Sunni, yet even he demonstrates the influence of a teacher who comes from not even the edges of Islam, but actually from just outside of town. Again, it's because he was a seeker-- before finding the Shadhili tariqa of which he is a part, he looked into all kinds of spirituality. In someone like Meher Baba, he didn't find his path, but he did find useful ideas from a person he respects. Elhamdullillah. It's nice to see someone as solidly Islamic as this shaykh quoting from Meher Baba and getting resounding cries of "Allahu Akbar" every two seconds from the crowd.

Something just passed along from a friend of what Baba told him about his blog--

SHERIF BABA SAID: THE ONLY THING YOU NEED TO WRITE ON YOUR WEBSITE IS THIS:

"WHOEVER FOLLOWS THE HUMAN BEING, FINDS THE BEAUTY. OUR PURPOSE IS HUMAN BEING, TO LIVE THE DEPTH OF A HUMAN BEING."

As a quick follow-up to my last post-- I will, at some, point go into the differences between semah, dhikr, hadra, and some of the differences in style of dhikr between the different orders. I do want to make it clear that I am not suggesting that this is all one tradition-- there are certainly very important distinctions to be made. And, in terms of the political climate of Turkey today and in the past, the interests of the Alevi/Bektashi and the Naqshbandi couldn't be more different, so lumping it all together as Sufi doesn't do the situation justice. There's a bit of a difference in a Rifa'i saying, from a certain comparative point of view, that the Naqshibandis are a bunch of Wahhabis vs. actually thinking that the Naqshbandis literally have nothing to do with Sufism at all. It is important to realize that there are some commonalities between tariqas in general and that there has always been considerable dialogue and sometimes even influences between them. More on all of this later, inshallah.

It's a sliding scale. Some Sufis are extremely liberal, some are mid-level conservatives by world standards. Not all Sufis are sweetness and light, Rumi-reading hippies like myself! ;) Some, though admittedly few, can be quite intolerent. On the other hand, it is astonishing to me that there are many in Turkey today who believe that connection to a tarikat or the practice of zikr are actually signs of fundamentalism. When I hear things like that, I tend to think... wow, you should meet some of these dudes at the masjid I used to go to!

Balkan Rifa'i Videos, and the changing meaning of the word "tarikat" in post-1980's Turkey

Here's another one-- notice the hand motions (especially of the guy in the white shirt and jeans) that are similar to those in some of the Alevi semahs. The line here between a devran (a kind of dhikr that is standing, known in most Arabic countries as a hadra) and semah (the Alevi dances) is a little blurred-- though clearly this is dhikr and not semah. In fact, in contemporary times, I think many Alevis would actually be appalled by this. For much of contemporary Turkey, the very word tarikat (tariqa) suggests fundamentalist, an Islamic state, and even outright brutality toward the Alevi (even if the Bektashis are, in fact, a tarikat). Part of the issue here is one of the largest tarikats in Turkey is the Naqshbandi who, at least in Turkey, are hyper-Sunni, very shari'a- oriented, and quite political. The leaders of the so-called "fundamentalist" parties have actually been rather conservative Sufis-- Naqshbandis. By the 1980's in the Turkish media, this led to something of a redefining of the meaning of tarikat into almost any kind of Muslim organization-- especially extremist ones. As but one rather bizarre example demonstrates, a group like Hezbullah is commonly referred to as a tarikat in Turkish. Yet, in any other Muslim country, involvement with a tariqa
might put one one the fringes of even being Muslim in the eyes of a large part of the population (with a few exceptions, in places like Senegal and Morocco where majorities share a Sufi orientation). As the Turkish media developed the association between the word "tariqa" and fundamentalism, an odd association even began to develop in the eyes of the secularist population between fundamentalism and dhikr-- an association that would make no sense in any other part of the country. In the largest masjid in the city where I live, the imam literally fired his muezzin and asked him not to return even for prayers because he attended a mawlid that included dhikr... now that's actual Islamic fundamentalism. It's interesting to me that a friend from Turkey said, in a discussion regarding the Naqshbandi, "They are a tarikat! They do dhikr! What in the world does that have to do with Sufism? Nothing! That's fundamentalism!" That statement, which many in Turkey today would agree with (because to them the Mevlevi are NOT are tariqa, but al-Qaeda is from their point of view) would make no sense in any other country, nor would it have made sense to their great-grandparents. Anywhere else, or 50 years ago in Turkey, people would see a continuum with Bektashis on the far liberal end and, Naqshbandis on the conservative end in terms of Islamic practice, and most orders somewhere in between the two. Rifa'is and Qadiris, depending on the branch, occupying all of the places on that axis too. Then you would also have another axis in which there are orders who do extreme practices like eating glass, swallowing hot coals, piercing with skewers and the like. Again, the Rifa'i and Qadiri are famous for this (but in many branches of these orders those practices are outright forbidden), while in other tariqas, such as Bektashi, Mevlevi, and Jerrahi, those practices have never been a part of the tradition at all.

The Rifa'i are quite often referred to as a Sunni tariqa, and that's true in the sense of typically being followers of Hanifi or Shafi'i fiqh, but as some of the other videos from this source demonstrate, some branches of Rifa'iyya are intensely Ehli Beyt-oriented (Ahl-ul Bayt, the family of the Prophets, s.a.w.s) as to certainly fringe on Shi'ism. I suspect that this is primarily influence from the Alevi and Bektashi traditions in Turkey. Sherif Baba's Rifa'i Marufi Order is very much along those lines, to the point of self-defining as "tarikat Alevi". See my post-- "Interview with Sherif Baba" for more about that. In Rifa'i Marufi, the lines between dhikr and semah are actually clearer, though dhikr is done with men and women in the same circle (which is found in no Sunni dhikr tradition I know of) and apparently has been the practice of this branch since the 18th Century. Nevertheless, as discussed in the interview, semah did occasionally occur in Rifa'i Marufi (though taught by an Alevi/Bektashi).

Anyway, back to Rifa'is in the Balkans-- but do notice the hand-motions that suggest the kirklar semahi. Look at the guy in the white shirt and jeans.

the mazar of Hafiz Shirazi

This is the ceiling of the tomb of Hafiz...

Mevlevi

This is a photograph I took a few years ago of Hasan Dede and one of his dervishes at the Nurman Dede Tekke in the Uskudar section of Istanbul. That was a wonderful experience. That dergah is still very much a working dergah, versus the performances that these same dervishes do at the famous (and much easier to get to)Galata Mevlevihane. The semas are open to the public, and it does have a bit of an odd feel-- the tension between functioning dergah and tourist attraction is intense. Nevertheless, they do what they have to do to keep the Mevlevi tradition going. Mashallah.

Notice the Edep Ya Hu sign in the background-- Edep is a Turkish pronunciation of Adab (literally manners). This is a common phrase in Turkish Sufism, essentially indicating that the best service to God is how we treat people.

a Qadiri-Rifa'i film

Bosnian Rifa'i footage-- illahis and dhikr.

Meher Baba/ Hazrat Babajan

This is a video about the recently published book by Meher Baba entitled "Infinite Intelligence" and some interesting images of Meher Baba's early period.



This is something I was fascinated to see-- footage of the shrine of Hazrat Babajan, the Afghan murshida (Chisti tariqa, it appears) was was Meher Baba's first master. I've always been interested in Baba's Sufi connections.



I really love Meher Baba, even though I see him in a rather different light than most of his followers do. Most view him as a kind of God incarnate, and this is based on a series of statements he made. However, I tend to think many inflect a kind of post-Christian mentality into these statement-- I see him speaking within both a Hindu tradition that accepts such manifestations as normal (seeing God constantly manifesting in the world, since God is the ultimate reality) and also within a Sufi tradition in which certain advanced souls reach a point where they simply cease to have an identity of their own and express only a reflection of the identity of Allah. References to this in Sufi tradition tend to point to people like Mansur al-Hallaj and Beyazid Bistami. Astaghfirullah if I have misinterpreted on this point, but in any case, he was the one who first taught me to love Allah by introducing me to a different way of religion. Secondly, he's the one from whom I first encountered Hafiz Shirazi and Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi, so even if 90% of his community believe some clearly non-Islamic things about him, he was perhaps the most crucial link to Islam for me. As one friend of mine expressed it, "I don't know who he was, but he was definitely SOMEBODY!" and another said "I don't know what to make of some of these statements, but I love him anyway". His effect in my life has always been to remind me to love Allah, to recognize Allah's many revelations to different communities, to serve others, and to remember that none of our concepts and organizations-- even the names of religions-- can ever be bigger than Allah. All religions belong to Him, rather than Allah being the property of those who call themselves Christians or Muslims or whatever. Though Meher Baba (not to be confused with Sherif Baba, about whom I have often posted) was a Zoroastrian by birth and had disciples of all religions (including many Muslims) he has always been a guidepost to Islam in my life, even though he was not himself a Muslim in the usual sense. Baba expressed, from what I have been told, a particular love for Sufism as the path with which he felt closest., and if you read certain passages of him, he writes within a throroughly Sui point of view. So in any case, he was certainly one whoh knew a great deal about Sufism and his clearly brought many to read Sufi writers like Rumi. In particular, he had a special love for Hafiz Shirazi, whose tomb in Iran he had restored (in the 30's, I believe). Because of this particular connection with Hafiz (even to the point that on his deathbed, he asked for a board to be painted with a passage from the saint-- making Meher Baba's final message essential a quotation from a Sufi poet) the two most outstanding translations of Hafiz into English in recent times have both come from followers of Meher Baba. So, however one should correctly view Meher in the light of Islam, there is no question that he had a beautiful impact on the continuation of the message of one of the most beloved Sufi mystics, preserving his memory in Iran and making his words available to seekers in the West. Allah alone knows what to make of one like this-- but I wouldn't be saying that without Meher Baba.

Early footage of Meher Baba

Gnawa music--an Algerian gimbri player

This is one of my favorites-- so bluesy.

a nasheed by the group Shaam, from Brittain

Shaykh Ninowy of Atlanta

Mashallah, quite a nice video. Shaykh Ninowy is a graduate of the al-Alzhar, and has ijazat in the Naqshbandi, Rifa'i, Shadhili, and Qadiri tariqas. This is from an ISRA (Islamic Studies and Research Association) conference.

Very nice Jeffrey Lang video from MeccaCentric

The issue, I think, is that Muslims so often assume that enforcing Islamic rules of behavior will automatically result in a beautiful ahlak (morality), yet for many (including myself) it is actually learning about the potential for developing one's ahlak that makes one wish to go to the trouble of observing shar'ia in the first place. If we see the potential of how the shar'ia can help us to develop these qualities we admire, we are drawn in. Yet we are so often presented with more about the appropriate length for a mustache or the correct foot with which to step into a restroom that we forget the central themes of Islam-- the love of Allah and service to humanity. I love this video-- though surely some would object that he can't possibly speak about Islam without a beard. ;) I think, from my experience with music, that in addition to perfect examples, you also need to see something that's attainable. I've learned a lot about the 'ud from Hamza el-Din-- frankly more than I've learned from Munir Nureddin Beken or Farid al-Atrash. They're both technically better players, no doubt about it. But Hamza el-Din demonstrated to me a level of playing that was possible for me to attain, and he did it with a lot of heart. I think that shaykhs are like this too. Baba made it clear to me that what matters is La Illaha Illallah, the rest is just details. Even things most Muslims (including myself) would see as absolutely essential (like salat) could come later. But those things are between you and Allah. When I finally heard Islam presented in this way, my first question was "How do I start?" and it's because in the Qur'an Allah says that "There is no compulsion in religion". It has to be from the heart. I do not doubt that some people need a shaykh who guides them in rigorous shari'a. Others need one who accepts such practice as a given, but seeks to explain it and make it more meaningful. Others go to a Sufi shaykh for additional practices that will add to the basic Islamic requirements. Some seek simply the baraka from a particular lineage. We all have our various needs, and there are many different shaykhs and tariqas (or other approaches) that can help us to fulfill those purposes. It's not only a question of ending up with the right or wrong shaykh-- it's also one of who gets you to the next step of the journey. What do you need right now to-- at the first stage, become a complete human being-- and then later, become a better Muslim. Someone like Baba is not the kind of shaykh everyone needs. Some need a Nuh Ha Mim Keller, who is incredibly scrupulous about fiqh. Mashallah. That's beautiful, too. Just because we might love a more open approach doesn't mean we write Keller off as a Wahhabi. Hell, I don't even write the Wahhabis off as Wahhabis. Anyway, different shaykhs for different flakes. Allahu 'Alim.

and LA ILLAHA ILLALLAH.
Hu....

If anyone knows the story about the taj that Baba is wearing here, I would really like to know. It is made of four pieces of felt, reminiscent of an old style of Bektashi taj, but has a rainbow band at the bottom. Does anyone know what this is?

This is Baba with Kaygisiz Ashik, who travels the country in his van selling Turkish groceries. The van is covered in passages from the Qur'an, Sufi symbols, images of saints, pictures of the 12 Imams and so on. He is quite a talented baglama player, mashallah, who plays primarily in the Central Anatolian style.

Shaykh Ahmadu Bamba

This is Senegalese Sufi street art of Ahmadu Bamba, one of the most popular Sufi shaykhs of 20th Century West Africa. The image was inspired by a famous photograph of the shaykh, the only one of him in existence. I was in Senegal a few years ago, and it is virtually impossible to find a restaurant, shop, or taxi that does not have his image.

Abdel-Qadir Geylani and Ahmed er-Rifa'i

some videos you may enjoy, insha'allah.

Mashallah! This girl from Iran is so impressive at a Qur'an recitation competition:








The best dhikr video of all time:




More later...

Shaykh Nooruddeen Durkee

All of the prophets who are in possession of the Divine Light of Muhammed, all of the Aziz, the saints, all the evliyas, the friends of Allah, have attained the attribute of Kerim.
Ya Rabb, we ask of you, do not separate us from their footsteps. Make it our nasib, our lot, to walk their beautiful path and let us live among each other with this love. Always increase the ashk, the Divine Love, in our hearts. Ya Rabb, do not separate us from one another. Make it our nasib to have the Nur of Muhammed, the Divine Light of Muhammed, born in our hearts. These come from the attribute of Kerim. With His attribute of Kerim Allah is offering to all things He has created. To work is up to us. To give comes from Allah. However much we work that is how much offering we will get in exchange. Allah says, "Surely, I will give you what you have worked for."
Allah Kerim, Allah Hu
(Sherif Baba)

Sherif Baba discusses Huzur (tranquility)

It doesn’t matter how much of a sinner a person is, Allah says in the Quran: “Do not cut your hope from Me. My rahmet, My compassion, is wide.” It includes everything. That is why we have to believe in His goodness and beauty, and we are going to learn that this goodness and beauty works inside of ourselves. Then wherever we go we will live with huzur, peace and tranquility.

The trouble with people today is that there’s no huzur, but there is comfort. They have villas. They have palaces at the side of the sea. They have yachts to sail on the water. They have their comfort. They sit in a cool air-conditioned room in the summer, and in the winter they sit in their nice heated places. They have money in their pockets. But where is the huzur? If you ask them, they will say that they are at peace. But there’s no huzur; there’s only comfort.

Comfort is one thing; huzur is another. Huzur is a fire burning with the ashk, the Divine love, of Allah. Inside of that fire is the love of human beings. There is service towards human beings. There is humbleness. There is no arrogance. When humbleness, service and love live in the heart, even the name of that heart changes and becomes gönül. That’s when huzur comes. And then with that huzur, if you want, go and sit on top of a fire. Nothing will happen. Now, for example, we sat here with huzur. The ground is wet. It’s not really comfortable. But we sat. We don’t want to get up and leave. You were going and you came back and sat. Maybe you had something to do. Why didn’t you go? Why did you sit here instead? That means that there was huzur here. You abandoned your comfort. You came and sat down here. And so huzur is the love of human beings and the ashk of Allah that sits in the heart…

The matchstick is made of wood, and the head of it is iman. You are not aware of that. What happens? You strike it on its opposite. Then it begins to burn, and when it burns it becomes ashk. It becomes the ashk of Allah. Burning up, there’s no woodness left, only ashes. All people, like the match, have their faith, but because they don’t strike it on the mirror of knowledge, they can’t get that fire. If you strike the earth with the head of that match it won’t burn. You have to strike it on the mirror of knowledge that is its opposite, and when you strike it there, it burns.

Every person has this ashk. It’s inside iman. What suits the human being best is sincerity, seriousness, correctness. As long as we have these, then we will never lose. And to what will we not lose? We won’t lose to the negativities inside of ourselves. You know that negative energy is represented by Shaitan, Satan. Positive energy is represented by Rahman, compassion, and Rahim, beneficence, by the existence of Allah. If you look at this side, Shaitan is giving negative energy. If you look at the other side, Rahman is giving positive energy. Between these two energies the human being is confused, standing between two opposites. The human being is learning the knowledge so that he can bring these opposites together and find the beauty of Allah. In the sohbet a little while ago we quoted a great Sufi saint, Hazreti Juneydi Baghdadi, who said, “I have found Allah in the place where opposites unite.”

Let me give an example. Man and woman. Physically they are opposites. But when they become one, what happens? A being comes into existence. The beauty of Allah comes. A child is born and grows and is testament to the existence of Allah in this world as a human being. When the opposites join together in this way, then the beauty of Allah is seen.
Earlier we gave the example of electricity. One wire is negative and the other is positive. If they are not connected together, then they can cross and blow a fuse, start a fire. But when the negative and positive are connected together, then the light burns. In Turkish this is called ishik, in Tasawwuf it is called ashk, in Farsi it is called zia, and in Arabic it is called nur.

You have understood huzur and comfort now, right? Look, you have huzur and that attracts like a magnet. A little while ago we were talking about how the electricity in magnets attracts minerals. It doesn’t attract wood. Sometimes people are like wood and not attracted, but those who are like minerals are attracted. They do not come for me because my eye is beautiful or my brow is beautiful or my face is beautiful. It’s not my words but the Beautiful One who is inside of me. Say that that One gets up and leaves and I just fall down here. What happens then? You’ll pick me up and bury me in the graveyard. You won’t sit at my bedside waiting for me to speak.

What people are looking for today, what they have lost, is humanity. And what is this humanity? Peace. Love. Respect. Serv-ice to one another. People have lost this, and now they are looking for it. Where is the humanity to be found? In the instructions that Allah has sent us by way of the prophets. This first started with the prophet Ibrahim, Abraham. Ibrahim saw this existence of Allah and knew that it worked in the human being. Then he surrendered to the one Allah. And this surrender is Islam. It comes from the Arabic verb salamat. He said, “Oh, my God, I have surrendered myself to you. I am the first of those to submit, the first of the Muslim.” So Allah then named all the people who followed after Ibrahim Muslims. The road that shows the goodness and beauty of humanity, the road that gathers together all of the religions, is Islam. It is the road of Ibrahim. That’s why Allah says in the Quran that Ibrahim was on the path that was cleansed. And He says that he is not of those who live duality.
Because people are looking for this goodness and beauty in the world, they examine the Quran and they look at how humanity has been lost and they discover how they can find it again. That’s why Islam is growing in the world today. Islam is not just the religion of the Muslim. It is a religion that speaks to all people. The Quran is not a book that just connects Muslims. It’s like the sun that speaks to all people. It’s like the sun. People research this and when they find this goodness and beauty, they go onto the road of humanity.

In the same way that people search for bread and water, because they have been created as beautiful, they have to search for this goodness and beauty. By searching they are going to find it, because everything attracts its own kind. I gave the example of the magnet. What is it? It’s metal and it attracts metal. If you put the magnet up to wood it won’t attract it. Because Allah allows His goodness and beauty to live in the human being, this goodness is also searching for goodness. And where do you find this goodness, this beauty? They see that the place to find this is on the road of surrender to Allah. The prophet Ibrahim was the first who surrendered. In the Quran there are many words written about Ibrahim. The religion of humanity is the religion of Islam. People are understanding this and turning in this direction today.

The foundation of Islam is good ahlak, behavior and conduct. The Prophet Muhammed said,”I have come here to complete the good ahlak.” When you find this good ahlak, all religions are going to unite, and only the Existence of the one Allah is going to be left. And that is the love and respect of human beings. That means that Islam is a system of service to humanity. That’s why it’s growing in the world from day to day. Everywhere it is the same. People are thirsty and hungry, and they are looking for this. We have to find this and live it with good ahlak. This is a very wide subject. If you want to learn it well, you’re going to have to do some research. And you have to serve Tasawwuf. It is not some-thing that can be learned with one or two words. It is unlimited knowledge.

Audience: When you say that people are searching for it because of the loss of humanity, what caused this loss of humanity?
Baba: People deviated from the path of the Prophet.
Audience: I find it strange that you call it humanity when it seems that the qualities that you’re talking about in humanity, like peace, are actually those which come from Allah.
Baba: What is it that reflects this divinity? It’s the human being who does this. In the sohbet a little while ago we mentioned that the human being is the halife, the representative, of Allah in this world. Allah said, “Be,” and He created, and left everything in the hands of the human beings. He gave us a mind. He gave us thoughts. Look around you. Everything that you see here was arranged and made by human beings. Allah says, “We have created ships to take you over oceans. We have created palaces for you to live in.” Who made these? Is Allah a carpenter? Did He come down here and build these buildings?

In the Quran, Allah doesn’t say “I.” He doesn’t say, “I did it.” He says, “We did it.” Think of this. Then you’ll understand what the human being is, because He says so Himself: “I am the secret of the human being, and humanity is My secret.” Because people don’t know this, they are confused. Instead of going down this road, they’re going down that road. And because Allah loves these people, He sent recipes through the prophets so that they will walk on the sirat ul mustakim, the straight path. The prophets were human beings, weren’t they? Whose mouths did these laws of Allah come out of? They didn’t fall down from the sky. They came out of the mouths of human beings. That is the manifestation of Allah working through the human being.

Let me explain this to you with a story. The human being is the halife, the shadow of Allah on the world. Tasawwuf compares a human being to a tree. Now think of this tree. The sun has come from behind and the shadow of the tree is on the ground. Now the shadow is looking up and between the branches of the tree he can see the sun. But he is having difficulty seeing it. He says to the tree, “Get out from in between. Get out from in between so I can see the sun with comfort.” And the tree says, “If I move away, you’ll disappear.” So if you kill off people. . . now there’s a knife that can kill people, and bad ahlak can kill people. When humanity is dead, then it is the same as that tree having been torn down. Where’s the shadow? That’s why we have to allow humanity to live. And how do we allow humanity to live? Through human beings. Then the Divine power will be visible, and the Divine beauties and goodnesses will be visible. These cannot be separated from each other.

Sherif Baba asks his students....

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This is a sohbet that I transcribed when I lived in Chapel Hill in 1999.

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Baba: Hoshgeldiniz. We welcome all of you. We wish you a blessed year, and we are now wishing from Allah that this upcoming year will be one that will bring goodness and beauty to all humanity. So all together: Hasbin Allah, Rabbin Allah. Tonight I'm going to be asking certain things. You know, the questions that we ask are all of the systems of life that we need for our lives. Who is a happy person?
Audience: [A happy person] knows who he is and what purpose he came for.
Baba: Very good. This is the 1999 model. The 99 Attributes became the 1999 model.
Audience: I say the happy person is Hu. I guess that feeling of being a real human being, the feeling of being aware of that love. Mercy and Compassion. Thankfulness.
Baba: Alhamdullilah. This is good too. So this year has passed well. 1998 passed very well. You tell me, who is a happy person, according to your understanding.
Audience: The one who is moved by love.
Baba: Eyvallah. This is nice too. These are all words which should be recorded, because every human being is a flower and every flower has a different fragrance, but the smell of all of them together is the scent of jennet, paradise. Each answer that is given is like the scent that come from separate flowers. These are all systems that we need in our lives. The first answer was for a person to know himself. The second answer is for increasing the compassion and mercy and thankfulness in a person, and the third is to be given direction, to be moved by love. Does anyone want to add anything to these? Let us add another scent of another flower among these flowers. Yes?
Audience: The one who is content.
Baba: Alhamdulillah. That's a good one too. These are all the same words that the Prophet spoke. This is what the Prophet said. The one who is the wealthiest is the one who has kanaat, the one who has acceptance and complete contentment with his state. This also gives much happiness to a person. What else?
Audience: A person who is attached to God and is detached from all else.
Baba: Very nice. Alhamdulillah. These are difficult to live, but we're going to try to learn them. Which scissors do we need to cut these attachments? You know the umbilical cord that attached us to our mother? They cut that, and there our connection to our mother ends. But still it doesn't end. Then it starts from up here, in the breast. So that means however much you cut, you're still connected from one place.
Audience: One who is submitted to Allah.
Baba: Eyvallah. That's good too. This is our path, anyway. Everyone has said such beautiful answers. All of them. Everyone's dotted their I's and crossed their T's. There's nothing else to say. There's still one more symbol. There's a question mark. Beauty is endless.
Audience: I'll be very happy today if I can control my sweets intake and can control my digestion.
Baba: That's good too, because with that we remain standing on our feet.
Audience: But that's what brings us down too.
Baba: We have to go down, then we go up. If we stay on top always, then they'll throw rocks at us and bring us down. There are those up there who throw rocks down at our heads.
Audience: One whose heart is open all the time.
Baba: Eyvallah. Beautiful.
Audience: It also feels like with all of this feeling you could extend your hand and allow that to live in another human being.
Baba: That's a beautiful thing as well. It's important; in fact, in this time, in our world, it's one of the things that is most important. These questions are the ones that are going to be opening up this year, 1999, because everyone is expecting happiness, and so this is how we caught the key to 99.
Audience: One who has found huzur, peace and tranquillity, in every circumstance.
Baba: That was the second question, because when this happiness ends we are going to go into huzur. So let's fill up happiness now. Is there anyone left? Do you have anything to say?
Audience: Happiness is within - to be happy within the heart.
Baba: You're writing all of these down, aren't you? We're going to be asking you. Do you have something to add? Audience: I'm the happiest when I have only God in my heart.
Baba: Eyvallah. He doesn't go anywhere anyway, and wherever you go He is with you, like a shadow. Sometimes you chase Him, sometimes He chases you. No separation.
Audience: I'll repeat something I heard a very beautiful dervish once say. Someone gains great happiness when he catches the shirt-tail of his inner murshid, teacher, and then every day is bayram, his holiday.
Baba: We just sang, "I am the holiday. Bayram is the holiday." So happiness happens when you find a murshid.
Audience: Before, I was thinking that so many people were happiest when they could recognize grace. Like in the song, when wake from heedlessness. When we feel that we are in His arms whether we know it or not.
Baba: To wake up from that heedlessness is when you find your murshid and start to listen to him and start to follow his path. That's when a person starts to wake up from the heedlessness. I've given you this as an example always. No matter how much you read, no matter how much you know, no matter how wealthy you may be, if you don't know yourself you will not be able to find happiness. You will always be in stress, and you will always live with "I wonder if," in duality, and always there will be complaints. When a person finds his murshid, his spiritual guide, in his mirror he will begin to recognize himself. Then he will look and see that happiness lives within his own self, and then he will stop searching for happiness outside. Today, people are looking for happiness outside. Some say, "Let me make a lot of money, be wealthy, then I'll find happiness." Some say, "Let me study a lot, and be one of knowledge, a possessor of knowledge, know everything, and I'll find my happiness." That's not how you find happiness. Let me give an example to you. The father of Hazreti Mevlana, Jelaluddin Rumi, was a great scholar, a religious scholar. He had studied every kind of knowledge. When his father died, a murshid of the tarikats, of the spiritual path, Burhaneddin, came, and taught him everything. He learned Tasawwuf, Sufism. He became the greatest scholar of his time, but still he was not able to find that happiness inside himself. He was searching for it. But what did his teacher say to him? He said "Go to Damascus. There is a murshid there. He will show you the parts that I have left lacking," because Shaykh Burhaneddin could understand him. He had a lot of knowledge, but no happiness. He was searching for something. There was no complaint in his outer world, but in his inner world, there was constant complaint. And so his teacher said to him, "Go to Sham, to Damascus and study there awhile. There you'll open up." So Mevlana went to Damascus, and stayed there two or three years. He was looking outside in books. He was the possessor of great knowledge; he was a scholar, and he had money. He had everything. In Konya, he had no problems. He was the top man of the Sultan of the Seljuks. So why was there no happiness? Well, he went to Sham, to Damascus, and studied, but still he was searching. Then Shems came to him, and looked at him. There, Mevlana collapsed. What did Shems say to him? He said, "Look for me. Find me." So what was he to search for? What was he to find? He started to think for himself, and he returned to Konya. Time passed, as you know. They met, Shems and Mevlana, and all of the old stuff that he had studied was reduced to zero, as if he knew nothing. He gave his whole being in submission to Shems, and in his mirror began to see himself. And he saw that everything he had been looking for was in himself. This means that happiness is not to be found outside. Only when we find a murshid, when we listen to him, when we see ourselves in his mirror, can we find happiness. Then everything which is said here is inside of this. There the eye of your heart opens, and the rahmet, the compassion, and the mercy increases, and then you become directed by love. Such a love-a love that never ends. Your mother, father, brother and sisters cannot give you the same love. You grew up with them, you drank the milk of the same breast, but the love that you cannot get from your brother or sister, you can get from your spiritual brothers or sisters. This means that when you find a murshid, you are able to find yourself within yourself. This is how it has come throughout history. I'm not speaking this from myself. It is the experience that is speaking. This is how happiness is. As you say, to find yourself is when you find your murshid. When that happiness comes, then you begin to find yourself within yourself, because when you find this happiness, there your thoughts of duality end. "What am I doing?" "Where am I going? "How am I going to live?" "What's going to happen tomorrow?" "I have a lot of sins." " What if Allah doesn't forgive me?" All of these things just make you tired. All of this is darkness. When you find your murshid, when you come to that happiness, there the dark questions end. Then the questions of joy begin. And to whom do you ask those? You ask those to yourself. And let me tell you the first question. You ask yourself, "What did I do today for Allah?" What? Did I say my prayers? Did I fast? Did I do zikr? What? Musa, Moses, went to the mountain of Sinai, and Allah asked him, "Ya Musa, what did you do for Me?" He said, "I worshipped. I fasted. I did zikr." "So what did you bring Me?" "I brought you what I did," he said. Allah said, "I have no need for that. I have no need of any of that. You need those! What did you do for Me?" This is the first question we are to ask. When we find happiness, this is the first question that we are to ask. Then we'll begin to pull ourselves upward. Of course, this is something that will happen in time. It doesn't happen all at once. Yes, all of you gave beautiful answers. I thank you. Insha'Allah, this year, we and the whole world will find this happiness. We're going to be stirring up the garbage a lot, all the way until we find the jemal of Allah, the beauty of Allah. Of course, we are going to find that within our own palace, but we're always going to be stirring. We are not to be afraid. Do not be hesitant or lazy. Work. If someone says something, we're to look and see, is it beneficial to us or not? If it is beneficial to us, fine. If it's not, it'll go just like it came; it won't make us tired. This is how they worked in the old days, and this is how they brought this path thus far, and this is how we're going to work. We're going to give to humanity, constantly. When you find happiness, then you're going to start to share it. Then you're going to give to everybody of this happiness, to the extent that they want. Say that you've made money and you've become wealthy. You're not going to sit on your money. You're going to distribute it. How are you going to distribute it? You're going to give your zekat, your charity; you're going to give help. Then you will have made people happy. This is how spiritual happiness is to be found. When you save one person from darkness, then your happiness will increase and you will also have given that person happiness. This is the greatest of all worship. The Prophet said to Hazreti Ali, "To save one person from darkness is a greater blessing than to conquer the world." When you find your happiness, then you have to give it to people as well. Don't be afraid. Work. Our path is the path of humanity. It's the path of love. It's the path of service. Now it's the turn of huzur, of tranquillity. So let's start with you. Who is the person who has huzur?
Audience: The one who has found sirat ul-mustakim, the straight path.
Baba: Eyvallah. Now let's ask again? How are we going to find sirat ul-mustakim?
Audience: By serving the human being.
Baba: Beautiful. We're writing all of these down, right? Look, tonight we're planting a flower garden, and then we're going to open a flower shop. What else? Who is the person who has huzur, who has tranquillity?
Audience: One who trusts Allah.
Baba: Very beautiful, write it down. But we're not going to trust anywhere else, even if we take a beating. Saying that the beating is coming from Allah, we're not going to open our mouths. Just like Hazreti Isa, Jesus, said, "For those who slap on one side, we'll turn the other and say 'slap here too.'" That's a very good one. In a little bit, the beating is going to start. So tell me, who is the person who has huzur? I spoke of this before.
Audience: The one who remembers Allah in all things.
Baba: Eyvallah. Beautiful. In every breath. Because in every breath His Name comes up. Hu. Huuu. We take Him in, we let Him out. All transactions are through Him. Yes, who else?
Audience: A person who is completely relying and dependent upon God.
Baba: Eyvallah. The one who lives independently. Audience: Independent from all except God. Baba: Eyvallah. Yes?
Audience: The one who has the most beautiful eye?
Baba: That's good too. A good eye sees beauty. You know that these are the windows of Allah.
Audience: The one who is at peace with him or herself.
Baba: So how are going to find it?
Audience: Everyone said something. It's beautiful. You're going to smell those flowers. So, teacher, what do you say?
Baba: One who actually can say, "Eyvallah!" One who can actually say it, and mean it, and live it. A murshid says one day to his murid, "Son, whatever you see, you must say, 'Eyvallah.'" And he puts the eyvallah hat on his head, and so he lives with this eyvallah always. He's going to find his huzur, his tranquillity. Time passes. He comes to such an event that there's no place left to say "eyvallah." "What am I going to do?" he says. He comes back to his murshid and he says, "Here, take the eyvallah and give me illallah." This is also huzur. So, eyvallah will bring you to one place. When you find yourself, all problems are solved. And then, as we just said, you begin to live independently. Then eyvallah is no longer acceptable, because then it's illallah that's acceptable. Only Allah. Whenever you find yourself, then you will say illallah.
Audience: Does that mean that all of that difficult stuff that you've got to say eyvallah to has finally disappeared? Because there's only illallah?
Baba: Of course. You use eyvallah just to pass all of your tests.
Audience: Then you graduate to illallah? Baba: So you say illallah and pay the entrance to the turnpike and you drive on!
Audience: Alhamdulillah!
Baba: Alhamdulillah. Audience: Oh, no. . . illallah.
Audience: It seems to come to that place. . . you've talked so much about the zoo that we carry within us, and all of these outrageous animals, and true living and taming this menagerie.
Baba: Of course, then the animals do nothing bad to you. Then the animals protect you, and make money for you! Mashallah, alhamdulillah.
Audience: Illallah! Audience: Eyvallah. Audience: Hu. Inside of the events of this life, in these difficult places that we encounter, can we find the huzur to the extent that we can fulfill the correct actions that our murshid expects from us?
Baba: This is truth. Put a period on this one.
Audience: It seems like one would reach a state of huzur when he is satisfied with Allah. I guess it's the same as seeing the beauty of Allah.
Baba: What else? There's one point you haven't come to yet.
Audience: It might sort of join several points. It seems that when you approach a difficult situation, if you can approach it with the intention and the behavior that your murshid has set out for you and then completely let go of the outcome, then whatever the result is will more naturally be able to be seen as beautiful.
Baba: Exactly. These are the beautiful points of huzur.
Audience: You reach huzur when you, insha'Allah, tame your nefs, your ego self.
Baba: Eyvallah, when you come to nefs al-safiye, the seventh level of the nefs.
Audience: Baba, when I think of tranquillity, huzur, like stillness, quietude, maybe a quite listening inside. . . then we'll know huzur.
Baba: Of course, when we go to the graveyard, we're all going to shut up and listen to ourselves. There, there is no fighting, there is no nothing, there is no eyvallah, there is no illallah. This that you are talking about is very important, but we have to find that in this crowd. Inside of all of this noise, we have to find this silence and this will also bring huzur. Beautiful. Yes?
Audience: One like Merkez Efendi, who is down the center and doesn't want to change anything.
Baba: That's good too. That's the crown that we're going to put on at the end. Hazreti Sümbül Efendi was the murshid of Merkez Efendi. Just before he was to die, he had many dervishes, and all of them were looking to establish themselves in his kingdom, but he was going to give it to Merkez Efendi,whose name was Musa Muslahettin. Sümbül Efendi looked at them all. He was not approaching anyone. The title of murshid was approaching Merkez Efendi, and everyone was jealous of him. So Sümbül Efendi saw this and put everyone to the test. I've told this story before. He said to them, "If Allah would give rububiyat, lordness, to you, what would you do for the world?" One says, "I would make everyone do the namaz, the ritual prayers," and another says, "I would close all of the cafes and the places of gambling," and some say, "I'll do this," and others say, "I'll do that." Everyone has something to do. Sümbül Efendi says, "Ya, Musa, what would you do?" He says, "I won't do a thing, because Allah does what's best. I will go neither one hand-span forward, nor slow down one hand-span. I'll leave everything in its merkez, its center, because this is how His center is established." And to that Sümbül Efendi says, "Do you see now, this Musa? He's found the path of dervishness. He's arrived at the center. So he's the one who deserves to be the murshid." So that means the one who finds huzur becomes murshid. We have to find the center. So who else has an answer? We're talking of huzur, of tranquillity. Yes?
Audience: When we find the center, then there is no separation between ourselves or those around us.
Baba: We're all going to go there together. We have to follow the trail. In the same way that the hunter who goes into the forest to hunt follows the trail of his game, and then when he finds it, the tracks end. The trail ends. So from then on, which trail is he going to follow? He's found what he's looking for. Then he's going to follow himself. So if we find the center, then we'll follow ourselves. How are we going to follow ourselves? We know what we do. Are we going to do jelal, or are we going to do jemal? When we act knowingly, then we follow ourselves. The street of huzur. This is good. So what else?
Audience: Shukur. (Thanks)
Baba: That's beautiful too, and that's also from the layers of worship. Now we're ready to go to the center of huzur. It's from the center that we're going to find huzur. Now, where is our center, the center that gives us life? It's our hearts, and what is the heart connected to? It's connected to this center, the brain. You know that when both of these work, we have life, and when both of these stop, we have death. If your heart stops, but your brain continues to work, you're not dead. The two have to work together. That's where life and death start. The actual heart is the brain. This is our physical heart. It's a blood-pump. It keeps our body on its feet. Whereas this heart holds our spirituality on its feet. This also has a circulation. In the same way that this circulates the blood through its pumping, this is also a pump for the circulation of something. This is the center, so we have to come close to the center. It is from there that we will find huzur. All action, all worship -for example, seeing beautifully through our eyes, our acceptance of everything, our being thankful-all of the words that we have said until now come out of this center. If we're not able to do what we say, that means that the center is not able to circulate that blood in a proper fashion. And what is that blood?
Audience: Our thoughts?
Baba: Correct, and that's where we start from. So that pumps the thoughts. That's more important than this, the physical heart. Because this can die, and its work in the world is finished. But when this dies, it goes into deathlessness. Because it lives. Its physical dies, but its spiritual lives. Look, we're speaking of those who left 4,000 and 5,000 years ago. We say Moses, we say Abraham, we say Confucius, we say Buddha. It means that their thoughts have not died. The center pumped it well. Thousands of years pass; there is still that which has been pumped. It's turning around in our brains. It's from here that we are to find huzur, tranquillity.

Divan-i Hilkati

(from the divan of Hilkat)

The ruined slave of ashk’s possessions wails in despair, the great cry. One hundred thousand intelligent ones are running towards that goal; in fact, they’re crushing each other. What can you say? Those who run with their intellects, because they always see faults in the road, get stuck on obstacles. It is in the place where the mild ones who have come to the awareness of their nothingness come together that the Beautiful One is kept secret.

Protect the plant that you have planted in your field from the weeds of separation until you can get its seeds. When the heat of ashk has killed the germs you will be a pure tongue. The purpose is to live this essence. You cannot go to the door of the Beloved with strangers or foes. Come pleasantly, heart. Come empty, heart.
To this gathering come quickly, heart.

I will never be fooled if you come in front of me with hypocrisy. I will take you and wrap you in the decree of authority, in the life force of my life. Oh, one beautiful misfortune is worth a thousand pieces of advice! On your path the fox and lion have become kings next to you and fallen into the the painter’s jar just like a buffoon.

The oppression of the night is lit up in the rose garden of my Beloved. The surroundings of Nur are circled with oppression, because He is ruh ul-kuddus, the Holy Spirit.

On the beaten path, this head of mine has become a throne. The bloody tears of my eyes have turned to dust and smoke in the desert of Kerbela.
When He came neither was I left, or you.

Thanks again to those who originally put these up on the web. When I have time to go back through and find all the sources, I'll post your links. Again, my purpose here is to put into one place various things about Sherif Baba and related paths into one place. I had all of these things put together in a Word Document and printed them for myself, and then a friend suggested that I put them all up here. I'm literally trying to put every sohbet that's online in one place. So thank you, those who did the work for these.


Sherif Baba's Opening Sohbet, Rumi Festival, September 26, 2002

Welcome, everybody.

In order for this beauty to spread throughout the world, for people's hearts to stick to one another with peace and love, there is the attribute of Salaam of Allah. So, insh’allah, let's do first a teffekur, a meditation on the attribute of Salaam.
We're going to repeat it together three times, and then we're going to do a little nifestation of Allah.

Because it is from here that Allah manifests, it is from here that Haq is known, it is here that it is seen, and it is here that it is lived. It is with these values that human beings come to this universe. If we know this value, we will look to each other with the eyes of Haq. And divisions will then dissipate, and we will love one another. As you know, this is the week of Mevlana, and we're going to give place to the views of Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi, wondering what messages Mevlana gave for humanity. By summarizing the messages given by all of the prophets, he held up a light in a way that we would understand. So, because we're going to be celebrating the birthday of Mevlana, we'll be speaking in explanation of some of the views of Mevlana.

As you all know there is this famous saying of his that he used-all of you know this one-he says, "Come, come, no matter what you are, come." So it begins with the call. He's calling out the most beautiful azhan, the most beautiful call to prayer. This is the call to prayer of humanity: "Come, no matter what you may be, come!"

Come where? Don't come under the tent, don't come inside the four walls, don't come to any specific place, but come to yourself. Everything is inside of you. The mystery of this universe is in you. The beauty of the Creator is in you. And in order to make this work, you've been given five senses. And on top of them all, that which he createdin the most magnificent way, the mind.

When people can work these, they will know their own worthiness. That's when you
understand how valuable and worthy all people are. A person who does not know his own
worth will not be able to understand the worth of other people, nor will they be able to understand the preciousness of the environment, the animals, the plants. A life that is lived without value will take you into darkness and will also take the world into darkness. The path of all of the prophets has all been established on one set of rules of ahlak, of morality. All came with the same justice; all showed the same path. They all show one path.
According to the understanding of the people of their days, it has been evaluated with different names. But there is but one way.

And what is that one way? It's the path that Mevlana called us on with "Come, come!" Come to humanity, find the human being, know that it is all in the human being, and be within your human- beingness. It is only a human being that can train another human being. Because we have this kind of value, however much we thank our Creator, it still will not be enough. We will not even be able to become one drop of water within the great ocean.

Just think, in order to nourish us, in order to let us live, everything has been given in the most beautiful way. Such beautiful justice has been created. This has been set on the system of ahlak, of morality. If there is justice that is not established on ahlak, then it is harmful. This is this way in business, this is this way in your personal life-everything has to be just and on ahlak.

And as you know, justice is not equality or equalness. We think that justice means being equal-it is not. Some people are shortened, some are made taller, some are given little, others are given much. But when they all join together, it creates a balance.

I always give this example: this hand. Look, all of the fingers have different lengths. Not one of them is equal to the other in length. If they were, then you wouldn't be able to do anything with them. because they're all different lengths, when they gather together, they become one point. You can hold a pen; you can do your work. But if they were all long, then we would disrupt the balance.


And justice is the same way. Some are strong and powerful, some are weak; some are poor, some are wealthy. But for all of them to join together in one place, we need the system of ahlak. All religions have been established on the system of ahlak, of morality that is in Tassawuf, in Sufism. And the prophets, according to the times they lived in, explained this, and connected them to rules, to laws. Here we gather, and here we see, and here we try to know what these rules and laws are, and to live them, so we can come to humanity, and become human beings. Allah said, "I have created the human being in the most perfect way, in the most holy way."

But people are left in gaflet, in unawareness, and forgot justice, and have been no longer able to live their ahlak, so that same human being says, "They are animals, in fact maybe even lower than animals." Now, who is this being said to? It's being said to us-people. There's no color here; there's no religion. All in unity, this address was made to all of humanity as one being. What fools us are labels. "I'm a Muslim, the other's a Christian, the other is Jewish, the other is Buddhist, the other is a Hindu..."

No matter what people are, it's these labels of names that fool us. We have all been sent here with the same value as human beings. Allah filtered us through this cave, this cellar, and brought us into this world. We all come from the same water, and we didn't come here with labels. We came here naked. It is here that we clothe ourselves. But as we leave, we also leave naked.

The meaning of this is to show the beauty and purity of Allah. Adam is safiyullah; Adam is the pure one of Allah. So it is because Adam manifested this attribute to humanity that this name was given to him. What brings us to gaflet, to unawareness, is duality, labels. "That one is red, this one is black, that one is Jewish, this one is Muslim, Christian"-these don't exist. Mevlana was raised as a Muslim, but when he said, "Come, come," he wasn't calling people to Islam. He was calling out to humanity.

Today, you see that from east to west, everywhere, the Masnawi is being read, and it is giving the light of peace to the whole world. Where this came out of was a source of Islam-but he didn't say Christian, he didn't say Jewish. But he brought a transaction among people inside of peace, and this expanded that culture in such a way that it's spreading its light everywhere in the world now. And you have this, I have this; it's in the east, it's in the west. Allah sent us with this worthiness into the world, with these values.

If we do not work, it darkens. And then let's complain to Allah: "It's dark! Ya Rabb, Lord, make it light again!" So is Allah an electrician that he's going to turn on a switch? We are the electricians. Allah taught us everything, how is it going to turn on, how it is going to turn off, and we have to learn this. All of the great ones-all of the saints, all of the prophets-all showed us the path of humanity.

It doesn't matter how you pray. Allah doesn't just know one language. So we have to recite everything in Arabic, we have to pray in Arabic, or do we have to pray in Turkish? No. Whatever language you have, it is with that that you get yourself close to Allah, because that language inside of you is the language of the Creator. Don't make it into one mold; don't limit it into one thing. Allah is capable of all things. Allah is Kabir and Basir, Allah knows of and sees all things, and Allah will manifest into everybody's hearts. It doesn't matter how you approach it, but just look to be close to Allah.

It is when we people can approach each other and become unified, and Allah, who is
watching us with his attribute of Raqib, becoming happy with this union of ours, will give us this beauty. We have to work, and find it, and become it. How? By looking at each other. What's lacking in me, when I look at you I will complete this in myself. Say I'm a very impatient person, and you're very patient. I'm going to look at you, and from you, learn patience. When you do your work in patience, and in time, attain this beauty, and I'm doing my work with impatience, and I'm being harmed-what's going to happen? In my mirror, you see this harm, and in your mirror, I see this benefit.

So how are we going to evaluate this? That means that when you work with Sabur- with
patience-beauty happens, peace happens, Ashk is lived, and unity is established. And when work is done with impatience-harm. Now I was giving an example from Sabur, from
patience, but everything is this way when people are working together. When people can become mirrors to each other this way-now you can tell me what the result will be, because I don't know it. Look around you and see what the results are. In order to become, we all have to become mirrors for each other, and look at each other with the eyes of Haq.

Hajji Bektashi Veli had this saying: "As you look, so you will see." However you look, that's how you get. So, for example, someone will come here, will look, and say "Oh, this is beautiful-trees. Such beautiful greenery, beautiful air! Everything is so beautiful," they will say.

This is the same nature that we're talking about. Someone else comes to look, says, "Look at these dry trees. There's poison ivy all over the place." They look in this different way, and however much criticism there is, they lay it on. So, in other words, turn their tongue into an axe, and bring down all these trees.

The same nature is given its value through how you look. And this look establishes in you an understanding, and that's when you try to become mature. Life is this way. However you look at it, that's the energy that you're going to get from it. When you look with the eyes of criticism, then you're going to be harmed by this energy. When you look with eyes of goodness, and work in a constructive manner, you'll get the energy of Ashk.

Don't wait for this to come from Allah. Allah's given it to you. This Internet is working in you, and you're the one who has to run it. Whatever you write, whatever kind of messages you send out, that's the kind of answers you're going to get back. Transaction with Allah is transaction with human beings.

I don't know if I've been able to explain myself. It's easy to talk about it, but to live it is hard, because I asked first of all myself: "You're talking about this stuff, but are you living it?" And so I criticize myself. We're all trying at every moment to do the muhassabeh of the nafs, the self-analysis. A person cannot live on his or her own, cannot work on his or her own. But if it is in unity, people can help each other, so when you fall, they can reach out to you and pick you back up. The only one that does not fall and get back up again is Allah.

A child, in order to learn how to walk, has to fall and get back up. It doesn't come out of the womb walking. Look, you see that child there, it's crawling. Tries to set a balance, falls back down, the mother picks him or her back up, helps him a little bit. But every time they get back up, their knees get stronger. They get this energy, they learn how to fall and get back up again. The brain is able to give its commands to those knees, and tells them, "You're going to fall, but you're going to get back up and you're going to learn how to walk.

And the same way that this happens on the Zahir, the outer, on the path of humanity the same thing happens. So when we become unified, we can fall. They will pick us up by the hand and raise us up again. But when we're alone-if a child would fall all by itself, get lost in the mud, maybe die. But when there's someone near them, they will lift them back up, and this is how humanity is. We cannot look at people's colors or sizes. We're not to look at whatever religion or sect they belong to. All of us have to give this message to each other: "Come, come!" Not "Come to us," but "Come to the enlightened heart."

There is this gönül, this enlightened heart, and that is what creates that beauty inside of a person's heart. All of us have to enter into this gönül, into this enlightened heart. That's the house of Allah. Allah has no address. The address of Allah is Lam Ikyan (?), the unnamed, nonexistent place. But his abode, the place where Allah manifests, is the human being.

I told you once a story. If you give me permission, let me tell the story again. It's a story that's giving evidence to our words. This happened about 50 years ago in Istanbul. One of the dervishes, a very poor man, couldn't find any money, couldn't find any work, so he started rebelling. He says, "I'm going to write Allah a letter."

His friend says, "how can you write Allah a letter? What address are you going to send it to? Where's the money going to come from-is it going to fall out of the sky?"

He says, "I know the address." This dervish was just so pure; he was in a state of rebellion, but within that rebellion, he's living the beauty of Allah, without even knowing it. So he wrote a letter.

It said, "Dear Allah, I can't find any work. My family's hungry." But he's writing it with such sincerity-not in a ridiculing manner, but he's writing it with faithfulness and sincerity. "I'm hungry, my family is hungry." In those days, 50 lira was a lot of money. He says, "Send me 50 lira."

So he wrote this letter, put it in an envelope, stuck a stamp on it, and then wrote this address: "Dear Allah, the City of Lam Ikyam, the nonexistent city"-and threw it in the post box.

So now it's going to be mailed to Allah. Which way is it going to go? It goes to the post office, it's going through the distribution system, and it's all being sorted out according to addresses. They all sort them out, according to all these different ways. So one of the postmen looks, and it says "Dear Allah, the City of Lam Ikyam, the nonexistent city." So he
takes it to the postmaster, and he says, "We got this letter; what are we going to do?" And they're afraid to open it up.

The postmaster looks at it, and he opens it, and he reads it. And as he's reading it, he cries. Because that letter was written with so much compassion, the compassion of the person reading it becomes inflamed. So he took the address of the man who sent it, and put 50 lira in the envelope, and wrote this man's address on the envelope, and then on the back he says, "Sent by Allah," or "the servant of Allah," whatever-he wrote something, and he sent it.

So the man gets this envelope, and he gets so happy! He says, "You see-I knew Allah's
address. You see how He sent it?" So you see where Allah works from. With sincerity, with compassion-when people can live with these, then people go into action, and that Ashk manifests. If that man had not written this letter with sincerity, and if the other man had not read it with compassion, there would be no Ashk, and they would have said, "This man is crazy!"and thrown it away. But that sincerity that brought Ashk into action, when it's joined together with compassion-the man read it and he cried. And he put the 50 lira in there and he sent it.

So that means it doesn't come from the sky! This is a story that actually happened, but here it is telling us something. When people connect to each other with sincerity and faithfulness, you see how Allah works from heart to heart. The Prophet said that "From heart to heart, there is the path of Allah." Now whatever kind of path or road that is-maybe it's like the paths of the Internet, or maybe like train rails-some kind of road, but it works from person to person. That means that if we want to gain the Nur of Allah, we have to connect to each other with love, and be sincere.

No matter where you are-place is not important-what is important is your time. However you evaluate that time, that's where Allah is, along with you. Because the Creator is asking us, in every breath, "Every moment, every instant, I was with you. Who were you with?"

Now answer this. Who are we with? This is how we have to take hold of each other, how we have to love each other. When we love each other, then we can give Allah the answer through our states. To be one and together with the dosts, the true friends of Allah, is to live Allah in your heart. If you remember Allah whenever you see me, and forget Him when you don't, then you're forgotten Allah. All of us are like this. When we see one another as if we are seeing Allah-we have to look with the eyes of Haq. Everything is in our hands. Allah has given us this. There is this ayet that I recited at the beginning of the sohbet: Allah is giving a message. "Because people live in a state of gaflet, of unawareness, for surely they are in a state of darkness and sadness." Then he explains to us the characteristics of those who have
been able to save themselves from this darkness. They have iman-they have faith-and they connect to one another, and they do good works. These are those who have been saved from darkness." Then he opens up two of their attributes. These are what they do and it is this that brings light to the darkness.

And what are those two attributes? They advise each other in Haq, they speak beautiful things to each other, and they are patient with each other, they have Sabur with each other. Now, mashallah, we have such beautiful Sabur, such beautiful patience. May Allah increase it for us! Because if we keep on like this, always complaining and complaining, instead of this rain coming down on our heads, it'll be mud coming down on our heads. We have to have Sabur and try to see the beauty in everything.

One day, when the Prophet was walking through the desert with his companions, they saw the carcass of a dog. In that heat, it was crawling with maggots, and smelled very bad. All the companions grabbed their noses and made a big "U" around it. The Prophet looked at the dog, and went and squatted down right in front of his head. He looked at this dog and went into teffekur, into meditation. The he called his companions. "Come," he said. Of course, everyone had to let go of their noses when they came up to the Prophet. "A few minutes ago, you were holding your nose because of the stench-now,did the smell change, that you let go?"

But they came. He said, "Sit down. Look this dog; what do you see?"

And they all said, "We don't know, Rasulullah. You know. You see better than we do."

He says, "Look at those teeth! They're so beautiful, so white." That's it. Then they get up and leave.

Now you understand whatever you can get from that, because there are so many messages
being with that, all with just one sentence... to see one beauty. You didn't see this beauty here-you saw the maggots, you saw the stench, and you ran from it. But look, because inside it, surely, there is some beauty. So yeah, there are places in life where you have the stench of the carcass. But inside it, there's still a beauty. It is our responsibility to see this beauty.

"Oh, this happened, or that happened..." With these kinds of complaints, and with this kind of criticism, you're not going to get light-only increase the darkness. All of us have to do the responsibility that befalls us. We have to advise each other to beauty, and we have to advise each other to patience. We have to enlighten ourselves, and we have to enlighten our world. If we can possess this beauty, immediately the sun will come, and the hurricane will change its path and go. All of this depends on your beauty, because we're the ones who reflect it. We are the ones who give direction. We have to ask, we have to advise each other in beauty, and we have to live this beauty. We came here beautiful, we have to leave beautiful, and we have to live this eternal life beautifully. Our purpose is to become beautiful human beings,
to help one another.

May Allah make us beautiful human beings. I have only one prayer, and it's this. Every language understands this prayer. The meaning of the four books is all in that one statement.

Ya Rabb, make us beautiful human beings. All the laws have been put in order to explain this phrase. Thank you.

Transcribed by Rafi' Wright
Sohbet / Poem
Sherif Baba…Sunday, June 30, 2002, Vancouver, BC,
Beginning of Sohbet - First Draft

The Creative Power became in Ashq, in love, with Its own Being
And created all these beautiful ones from Its own being
And hid within it Its own Being.

Those songs were all hidden.
It applied Its art and said Sebel Mesani.
This art is being worked into the world.

The beauties chase each other.
The sun chases the moon.
The stars chasing each other.
The opposites were created.
The opposites were joined.

And It showed It’s own Being.
Its hidden treasures were opened with these songs.
The harmonies of these melodies wrapped around the universe.
Wrapped around…
Wrapped around…
Going in and out,
It applied Its art

Every moment applied Its art…
Everything open to be seen…
Hidden in the ones who hide it.
But those who are open will see.

Allah is inside this beauty.
Its presence is known and It is seen through us.
It is Its own being that is seen.

So don’t wear yourself out.
Don’t run for nothing.
Don’t run for nothing.
Follow the beautiful ones.

Walk in and out
Embrace with Ashq
It is in that Beauty that Allah is.

If you find Allah, you will be intoxicated at every moment.
This is how the Kalender were.

This divine mystery is the Sebel Mesani that is inside of the Fatiha.
They embrace each other.

Allah is always seen in the joining of the opposites.
We are to embrace,
not to become tired
and chase each other.

To search for Allah is to search for your own being.
It is not in a place,
Not in the street,
Not in the sky,
but in your heart.

The enlightened heart is Allah’s home.
That place is the Beyt ul-Rahman.
That place is where you go around,
not some stone building.

That beauty is from the Nur of Allah.
That beauty has reflected from your heart as Jamal.

This we have to see.
Allah works from here.
and is seen from here.

We have to run.
We have to turn.
We have to turn inside our hearts.

We have to expand the movement of the muslimin*
through the turning inside our hearts.

We have to stick to one another,
not become detached.

Everything is chasing each other.

Why are you sitting?

O you, wake up.
Open your clothing.
Disrobe from this clothing of sin and
become enlightened with the purity of Muhammediyeh.
This caravan is the caravan of the ehli-beyt.
Run to this caravan, follow it, don’t be left behind.
It is Allah’s Being that works through you.
It applies Its art…
Every moment It applies it.

Try to see this.
Wipe your eyes.
Look inside yourself.
Look around you and you will see
And you will find what you are looking for.
You will know and you will be.
The beauty in the well will be pulled
out of your mind with a rope.

Drop that rope into the well
And pull that beauty out of it.
It lives within you.
It works within you.
It is the Sebel Mesani.
It has been given to us as a present.

The door of Miraj was opened to us.
Divinity is the garden at Its gate.
It is made up of the angels.
The angels are made up of your thoughts.
They all bow before you.
The universe bows before you.

The bowing is not to a rock.
it is not to a wall…
it is to the Didar, the face of Allah.**
We have to bow and see It in one another.

The Prophet says “Whoever sees me sees Haq”.

That most beautiful of the beautiful
did not leave Allah as an illusion,
but brought It down into the human being
and showed Haq in his own being.
And you are like him.

Don’t be lazy…work.
This is the secret of An al-Haq…I am.
And it is screaming out of you.
Don’t be deaf.
Listen to it.

Mevlana, for this reason said, “Listen.”
We have to listen.
We have to hear that sound in ourselves.

There is only one sound in the universe
and that is the Seda*** of Allah

It is only the Seda of Allah
that will remain Baqi, eternal.

Try to hear this.

Run after humanity.
Don’t see separation.

Don’t walk on the sand
so that your footprints are left behind.

Run into the ocean.
Lose your footprints.
Flow like the rivers.
Flow with joy.

Split your head open on the rocks as you come.
Say Haq.

Until you enter into the ocean,
Say Haq.
Run.
Run.
Join.
Join together.

The presence of Allah is the joining of the opposites inside of you.

Make this vuslat, this union,
a miraj, an ascension in your heart.

As this beauty is chased,
chase that beauty inside of yourself.

Don’t sit there…run…search…find…be…


This is what the Creator wants.
It doesn’t look to your name.
It doesn’t look to your body.
It doesn’t look to your color.

What does it look to?
It is watching Its own Beauty in us.
And you have to watch Its Beauty in yourself.

Sebel Mesani is to be mirrors two by two.
We have to look into this mirror
and we will see that being.

We are to chase the beautiful ones.

Ashk
Ashk
On the path of Ashk we have to give our lives
as the prize for Haq.

Like the Budala,
Like the Kalender,
We have to be mestane.
We have to join the opposites together.
We are not to say good or ugly.
We are not to say old or new.

But…love…embrace…run together.

Say…Ashk…Ashk

With Love
let us turn around
in our Gönül,
our enlightened hearts
*muslimin... the submitted ones.
**Didar...The Only Face, the Beloved's face,
the face of humanity.
*** Seda...the voice of Allah
****mestane...intoxication, ecstacy, drunk with Ashq

Sherif Baba discusses the Miraj

Miraj was the night on which it was announced that Hazret-i-Muhammad was raised to the level of Allah, and spoke to It. In the Sura of Esra, the 15th sura, this was written in the Koran. In Sura Al-Najm, the 53rd sura of the Koran, this is explained. Miraj means to ascend, to rise up. It is the opening of the esma of Mu'izz in the human being. As a person gains their dignity, as they serve people beautifully, as they are exalted on the road of Haqq, of truth, of correctness, Allah will allow them as their allotment the Miraj, the ascension.
Hazret-i- Muhammad, one night, when he was at the age of 53, was sent a buraq by Gabriel, and mounting this buraq he was taken to the Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, and from there he ascended to the level of Allah. Together with Jibreel, with Gabriel, they made this journey, until they came to sidrat-ul-Muntaha (that means the Last Boundary), and when they came to that spot, Jibreel stopped, and Hazret-i-Rasul Allah went on in. He said to Jibreel, Come too, but he said, I cannot. I have no permission. If I come inside I will burn. I will wait for you here. And the Prophet entered through that door, and had his words with Allah. According to one tradition he took 90,000 words, and everything from the beginning of the world to the Day of Resurrection was shown to him, and he was allowed to know everything. And one of the requirements of Islam, the salat, the namaz, the ritual prayer, was given on that night. Many things were shown on this Miraj, and he asked and learned about everything that was shown. When he came back from Miraj, he explained this to his umma, to his people.
Within the 90,000 words that he spoke with Allah, there were three kinds of words. These were spoken without sound, without breath, without hearing. One part of this was opened up to people in an outer way, a zahir way, The second part was given to Ehli Beyt, to the family of the Prophet, and this is called ilmi ledün. And the third part he kept within himslf as a divine mystery. Within this are the zat ul-ilm, the essential knowledge, and that belongs to him. He allowed us to know these. so that when we work with this beauty and goodness, and hold onto the commands of Allah, and follow the paths of the prophets, that Allah will also allow it to be our nasib to have this Miraj as well. Because this is what Hazret-i-Peygamber, the Prophet, said. He said, my Miraj has been given to my umma, to my people, through the namaz. This all happens within one night, and it all passes in one instant, in one moment, in a way that the mind cannot comprehend, with great hikmet, wisdom, in great mystery.
They asked about this, when the Prophet came back from Miraj. they asked, Where was he? His wife said that he was sleeping in the bed next to her. He went on Miraj and came back. The place he was lying was still warm, she said, when he came back. So this is how short a time he was physically gone. A person's mind stops here. What is this? What does he go with? What does he come back with? What was Jibreel? What was Muhammad? What was the Miraj?
I tell you of this in every sohbet that we have, and I'm saying it again now, that if we follow these paths, that Allah will allow us as our nasib, this greatness. Because Allah is Wahhab; He gives, He bestows. Allah is Karim; He will give it to you through His generosity. Allah is Latif; He gives, and you can gain everything. That looks to our work. However much it is that we work, He will give us the latoof in the same ratio. In Tassawuf, Miraj is to live the beautiful ahlak, and you know we are always speaking of the systems for doing this. That which elevates a person's character, that which gives a person honor, are the systems of ahlak. Then Allah will allow us to have our Miraj.
So what's going to happen if we have our Miraj? We 're going to gain the joy of the days in which we live, and we will get also the joy of the days we are going to live, now. And within this beauty and goodness that Allah gives we are going to live in a beautiful way, and we will give beauty and goodness to the people. The testimony of this was seen within Hazret-i- Muhammad. After he came back from Miraj, he spoke of this beauty and goodness. He lived it, and allowed it to be lived. And Allah called him Rahmet ul-alemin, the mercy of the worlds. We have sent you to the worlds as mercy and compassion, He said. This was addressed to him, and through him to the deserving human beings. So we also have to be deserving of this, and try to live these paths.
Even if it is a little, even if it is slow, if we get out on this road with beautiful intentions, Allah will allow us to live it. Allah says, To those who will take one step towards Me, I will advance to them in ten steps. What does this mean? For the goodness that you do, He will give you ten beauties, and you will grow very quickly in beauty and goodness. Then you will find your peace and tranquility, and you will give peace and tranquility, huzur, to those around you. It is for this that we have come to this world. The Nur that brings light to this world is people. Allah is the Nur of the heavens and the earth, and people, human beings, are the reflectors of it. So let us know each other's value and live with belief so that we can enter into the attribute of Mu'min, believer, of Allah. And by finding our rahmet, our beneficience, let us also be rahmet ul-alemin, the mercy and compassion of the world. This was the attribute of the Prophet, and this was the present that he gave to us. Let us do our worship, as much as is possible for us; let us not shirk our duties; let not the negativity that is outside enter into our ears. Even if these negative words come into our ears, let us change it into beauty and goodness. And let us speak beautifully to one another, and not carry bad words. To the degree that we can serve beautifully, that is how quickly the doors of the Miraj will open for us.
After the Prophet did his Miraj, he unfurled the flag of "a may ul hamid" for people. To the degree that we can give praise, hamd, for Allah has allowed us to come together in such beautiul places, with such beautiful people, then we will also enter under the banner of hamd, of praise, and we will be enlightened with the Nur of all of the prophets. We came as beautiful from Allah. We will go to Allah as beautiful. We have come from Allah, we are going back to Allah. We were seen as one drop, and we have turned into huge oceans. A person might be seen as a small thing, but he is the mystery of all of creation, of all of the universes. So you're carrying a huge world. If we know our own worth, we will gain our character, and exalt.
May Allah make us beautiful human beings.
This is our one point. When we step on this point of beauty and goodness, then the beauty and goodness of all of our lives will come, and all existence is hidden within there. Even if you suffer difficulties it will be beautiful. If you cry it will be beautiful. Even if you receive punishment it will be beautiful. If you cry it will be beautiful, if you laugh it will be beautiful. If you are poor, it will be beautiful. If you are rich, it will be beautiful. But if it is not goodness and beauty, then everything that comes to you will bring you harm. Look at all of history; all beauty has been lived. How? Always with its opposites. Allah might seem to be giving punishment, but follows it with beauty and goodness. The scenarios of the prophets were always in this way. Look at Yusef, look at Eyyub, at Job, look at Yunus. It is always with opposites that they have found this beauty and goodness. So we have to give praise, hamd, to every state we are in. Be thankful, and always say this: Ya Rabb, make us beautiful human beings, and allow us the nasib to walk on this beautiful path.

A Sufi shaykh discusses coffee...

The prophet says “There are such mistakes that it will be steps in the evolution of my people.” Now this doesn't mean go out and make mistakes, but it means to come to awareness there. If a person can't cry, they can't really feel the joy of laughing. The events of our lives are training us, are cooking us. Now coffee is a fruit which represents ashk, because it totally represents the realm of the heart. In Tassawuf we have this state called seyri suluk. This journey, from the beginning to the end, is described with the words seyri suluk. And so the seyri suluk of the coffee is completely ashk.



Now, coffee, when it grows in a tree, is a fruit covered by a shell. And then it goes through so many steps. First they take it, break open the shell, then they roast it, and keep turning it as it's roasting, the poor seed is screaming out there the whole time. As it's being roasted, the filthy scents are being burned out of it. And then what do they do with it? They take it, put it into a grinder, and just grind it. Just like a mureed in the hands of a murshid gets ground and ground… And turns into, like, flour. Its color has changed. Its name has changed. We call it coffee now. But if you just ask that poor coffee up to that point, how much pain it had to go through – and then you take it from there, it is not over yet, you put it in water, and then put it under the fire again. So there the second fire is burning it. Then it starts to dance, foaming on top, and then the Beloved drinks it.


And that's how ashk is. First it develops in the heart. Just like coffee. But it's got this shell around it, so in other words there is gaflet, unawareness enveloping it. So first you have to break that shell open, and then it's got to darken first in the sun. It's the nazr of the murshid, when you are seen by a murshid, the look... But still, it is hard, if you try to bite it, it will break your tooth. Then you put it into the fire. There, he's put into the love of people. When you enter into the love of people, you go in with the ego. There you plant your plum tree. But in the end, you are going to eat the grape. There, after that, you are put into the grinder. The lessons that the murshid gives, the systems of living in our lives, so all of these encounters, events, crush you. There you learn humility, patience, you learn how to be halim and salim, soft and gentle, you learn sukud, silence. You learn not to be hasty, and to do everything in its time. Now all of this is to be crushed with the events in our lives. It's easy to say, but to live it is really tough, just like that coffee that's being ground between those two rocks, the heart gets ground there. Then that hard coffee becomes soft. Then they take you and they put you in the water. But you still haven't reached kemal yet, you haven't reached full evolution yet. Underneath you that fire of ashk has to burn. That's when that true ashk has to begin. And such a compassion develops that it envelops the whole world, all people. If you hit that person, he'll take out the morsel in his mouth and give it to you. Ashk brings you to such a state, the state of the Prophet, of being rahmet alemin, the compassion of the world, is the makam, the station, of ashk. Every person who lives this ashk will take people under his wings. That's why the emblem of the Sufi Order is the winged heart, because they take you underneath your wings. This is coffee. That's why you all love coffee so much. We always drink coffee after we eat, in small cups.

SHERIF BABA

The 99 Names of God

Ya Allah
Ya Hu
Ya Rahman the All Merciful
Ya Rahim the All Compassionate
Ya Malik the Absolute Ruler
Ya Quddus the Pure One
Ya Salam the Savior
Ya Mu’min the Inspirer of Faith
Ya Muhaymin the Guardian
Ya Aziz the Victorious
Ya Jabbar the Compeller
Ya Mutakabbir the Greatest One
Ya Khaliq the Creator
Ya Bari the Maker of Order
Ya Musawwir the Shaper of Beauty
Ya Ghaffar the Forgiving
Ya Qahhar the Crusher
Ya Wahhab the Giver of All
Ya Razzaq the Sustainer
Ya Fettah the Opener
Ya Alim the Knower of All
Ya Qabid the Constrictor
Ya Basit the Reliever
Ya Khafid the Abaser
Ya Rafi the Exalter
Ya Mu’izz the Bestower of Honors
Ya Mudhill the Humiliator
Ya Sami the Hearer of All
Ya Basir the Seer of All
Ya Hakam the Judge
Ya Adl the Just
Ya Latif the Subtle One
Ya Khabir the All-Aware
Ya Halim the Forbearing
Ya Azim the Magnificent
Ya Ghafur the Forgiver and Hider of Faults
Ya Shakur the Rewarder of Thankfulness
Ya Ali the Highest
Ya Kabir the Greatest
Ya Hafiz the Preserver
Ya Muqit the Nourisher
Ya Hasib the Accounter
Ya Jalil the Mighty
Ya Karim the Generous
Ya Raqib the Watchful One
Ya Mujib the Responder to Prayer
Ya Wasi the All-Comprehending
Ya Hakim the Perfectly Wise
Ya Wadud the Loving One
Ya Majid the Majestic One
Ya Ba’ith the Resurrector
Ya Shahid the Witness
Ya Haqq the Truth
Ya Wakil the Trustee
Ya Qawi the Possessor of All Strength
Ya Matin the Forceful One
Ya Veli the Finder and Protector
Ya Hamid the Praised One
Ya Muhsi the Appraiser
Ya Mubdi the Originator
Ya Mu’id the Restorer
Ya Muhyi the Giver of Life
Ya Mumit the Taker of Life
Ya Hayy the Everlasting One
Ya Qayyum the Self-Existing One
Ya Wajid the Finder
Ya Majid the Glorious
Ya Wahid the Only One
Ya Ahad the One
Ya Samad the Satisfier of All Needs
Ya Qadir the All-Powerful
Ya Muqtadir the Creator of All Power
Ya Muqaddim the Expediter
Ya Mu’akhkhir the Delayer
Ya Awwal the First
Ya Akhir the Last
Ya Zahir the Manifest One
Ya Batin the Hidden One
Ya Wali the Governor
Ya Muta’ali the Supreme One
Ya Barr the Doer of Good
Ya Tawwab the Guide to Repentence
Ya Muntaqim the Avenger
Ya Afu the Forgiver
Ya Ra’uf the Clement
Ya Malik al-Mulk the Owner of All
Ya Dhul Jalali wal-Ikram the Lord of Majesty and Bounty
Ya Muqsit the Equitable One
Ya Jami the Gatherer
Ya Ghani the Rich One
Ya Mughni the Enricher
Ya Mani the Preventer of Harm
Ya Darr the Creator of the Harmful
Ya Nafi the Creator of Good
Ya Nur the Light
Ya Hadi the Guide
Ya Badi the Originator
Ya Baqi the Everlasting One
Ya Warith the Inheritor of All
Ya Rashid the Righteous Teacher
Ya Sabur the Patient One


Ya Hannan The creative power in ashk by which we gain our eternality.
Ya Mennan All of the bounty created in the 18,000 worlds.
Ya Deyyan The only Beloved worthy of worship is Allah.
Ya Burhan The most beautiful evidence of the Divine being, the human being.
Ya Subhan Everything created calls upon Allah.

Sherif Baba: Sohbets on the Esma el-Husna (99 Names)

Jemil
Allah Jemil Allah Hu.
The esma, attribute, of Jemil reflects the beauty of Allah. The esma of Jemil is manifest in people as Jemal. We are going to try to do tefekkur of this beautiful Name of Allah.
"Allah is beautiful and loves the beautiful." Allah created the universe with beauty. He created all beauties for humanity. The sun, the moon, everything that we see He created for people to live beautifully, and He is giving good energy through all of it. If people know how to use this well, then they will find this beauty, and they will beautify their lives. If they are not able to find this beauty, then this beauty in them will become negative, and this example of paradise, this life, will turn into fire.
Allah did not create anything bad. He created everything as good and beautiful. He has given everything to the service of humanity. There is not one thing that will serve else as humanity. Everything that is done, everything that we see, is serving humanity. If we see these truths, these realities, then we will walk towards the Reality, and we will find beauty.
We are all dependent upon this beauty. Allah created the universe with His ashk, Divine love, and through the esmas of Jemil and Jelil this is reflected onto humanity. People are living with this ashk. Everything of beauty comes with this ashk. That's why the greatest key is ashk. It opens the hearts of people, who opens the door of Paradise.
How can this be lived? There is a discipline involved. There is a system involved. To learn this system comes with learning good ahlak, behavior or conduct. Everything that Allah has created is tied to this system. If something is missing in our ahlak, then we will find the beauty with difficulty. We are always inside of this beauty, but we are not able to find it.
Let's say that this room became dark, and there's no light. There's only one key that you have lost, but you can't find it. Whenever you turn on the light, you will find the key. This beauty has been created, and we are living inside of it, but we can't find it because it's dark. Living with good ahlak enlightens this darkness.
Humbleness, sincerity and service to humankind come in the beginning of good ahlak. When these are lived with correctness, as a present from Allah, the ashk will come into our hearts. When this ashk comes, then we are in possession of all beauty. That's why in the hadith that we read at the beginning, Allah says "I am beautiful and love the beautiful." This beauty is not physical. The ones who ties themselves to and are walking on the spiritual path in possession of good ahlak--they are the beauty. If we people can tie to each other with our hearts, and if there's no badness in our thoughts, then Allah will show us this beauty. Let us keep our thoughts clean and let our love live. Let us never be prideful, let us not feel bigger, greater. Greatness belongs to Allah. The One who created everything is Allah. Beauty belongs to Allah. Allah is beautiful. We are going to try to find this beauty, and when we find it, then we ourselves will become more beautiful, and our surroundings will become more beautiful. Our world will become more beautiful.
How is this going to happen? We are not alone. There are millions of angels around us. Their duty is to spread the beauty that we cause to live around the world. You will think something good here, and with this gathering will come to a good and beautiful decision. Some time later, from somewhere else, the beautiful thing that you thought will be brought about.
There is no nearness or distance. Everyplace is in the possession of Allah. And the Nur, the Divine light of Allah, is everywhere, and will show this beauty, this goodness. So, let us be three here, let us be five, let us live the goodness and beauty. Let us speak beautifully, let us serve beautifully, and the beautiful energy that will come from this work that we have done will be reflected all over the world. There will be peace in the world, there will be love in the world, and humanity will be lived. Where this is tied together is with the system of good ahlak. We have to learn this.
Our path is this path. We have no other path. All of our service is towards goodness and beauty, and to live this good and beautiful ahlak. If people live in this way, then they will be good and beautiful mirrors to each other. Let us leave the badness of the nefs in a corner. This badness will bring us loss. If we put the ashk of Allah in our hearts, all of this badness will turn into goodness.
The examples of this have been seen all over the world. A person who knows nothing, a person who is living with negativity, meets someone who is beautiful and good, and has been connected to that person with his heart, and has tried to live that goodness and beauty. By turning into goodness, all of his negativity has given positive energy to the surroundings. For centuries this has been seen. The examples are out in the open.
So let us live with beautiful people, listen to beautiful sohbets, discourses, and let us advise each other in beauty, and let us be patient in the face of the events of this life. To become angry and to be stressed will come to us in an instant, but we will not let that live in our hearts. Why? Because if we let that live in our hearts, it will pour negative energy into our bodies. If our intentions are good, what we wish for from Allah is good, and so this goodness and beauty does not allow negativity to live inside or us. For example, an ugly smell that goes into a beautiful place will disappear immediately, and the beautiful smell will rule. If there's a beautiful smell inside of a person, then the negative scent that will come from outside will quickly go away.
To find this goodness, this beauty, let us put out thoughts out openly into the meydan, the circle. Let us not live in darkness. Let Allah bring us out into the light. Let Him increase the love in our hearts. Let us be connected to one another. Let us serve each other. As long as there are beautiful thoughts, then Allah will always grace us with beauty and goodness. These beautiful meclis, gatherings, are everywhere in the world, If you are searching for this goodness and beauty, then Allah will show it to you everywhere.
Service is from us; the reward is from Allah. If we serve Him, He will help us. However much we work, that is how much we will gain. May the rahmet, the compassion, of Allah be on all of us. We are dependent upon the rahmet of Allah. When we find this goodness and beauty then we will all be brothers and sisters, and Shaitan will not live between us. The being of Shaitan is negative energy, bad thoughts. Otherwise, there is not a being, a person, as such.
To not let this negative energy live, let us think well and beautifully. Let us not gossip. Let us not speak behind people's backs. Let us not think badly of anyone. And let us help all people in the way of goodness. If you have money you can help with your money. If you have no money, you can help with beautiful words. To give the gönül, the heart, is the greatest of help.
May Allah make us beautiful human beings. We are always saying this, because we are dependent on this beauty. Allah created us beautifully. Let us go there with beauty; let us not go badly. If we go badly, there is no return. We will be stuck as we go. Then, however much goodness that is done in our names will have no benefit to us, because whatever we do, that is what we gain. That's what we took with us when we left.
Where are we going to go? We are going to the new world that we are going to create. This world is created here. If we want to live well in that world, then we have to find this goodness and beauty here, and we must take it from here.
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Al-Malik: the Absolute Ruler

Allah Malik, Allah Hu.
The esma of Malik is one of the 99 attributes. This esma shows that the Creator Allah is the owner of all things that are created. Allah is the only owner of all things. All ruling belongs to Him. The absolute ruler is He. It has created this rule Itself, created it from nothing, and with this ruling, by allowing the beauty to live, It has established His kingdom over all that lives. The real owner of the kingdom is Allah, and the wisdom, the hikmet, of this kingdom is for the beauty of the things that are created. When we say, kingdom, let us not compare it to the kingdoms that people establish here on earth. The kingdom of the creator is different, and the kingdom of the created human being is different. In the kingdom of Allah, there is the goodness and the beauty of everything that He has created, and they all have their responsibilities, and on all of them is the ruling of Allah. And these rulings, with the justice of Allah, with the compassion of Allah, with the generosity of Allah, with the Nur, the divine light, of Allah, is working for the benefit and the goodness of all things created. But in the kingdoms, the sultanates, of people, there are differences. So let's not mix up the kingdom of Allah with the kingdoms of worldly kings.
The compassion of Allah has become victorious over all things, and the beauty in His kingdom has created life for human beings. And inside of this light, by listening to his ruling, we are trying to do our servitude to Allah. And so the beauty that befalls us from this esma, this attribute of Malik, is to be owner, ruler, over our own nafs, our soul. In Tassawuf, this is called malik-i-nafs. And how can you be Malik over your nafs? To take possession of your nafs happens with checking yourself. You have to know your actions, you have to know what you speak, you have to know your thoughts, and when you are in possession of yourself, then you can establish the kingdom of your own being, and you will be in possession of your own nafs. Then the ruling that you give will come from your maturity, and will create goodness for everyone, and you will be getting along well with everyone. You will have justice, you will have compassion, you will be generous, you will serve human beings, and you will have then shown that you are in possession of your own nafs, your soul, your ego-self.
And so Allah, with His esma of Malik, is letting us know these things. We have to check our nafs, we have to know what we speak, we have to try not to hurt people, and believe me the most difficult thing is to speak with people, because it can be misunderstood, and be misdirected, and then people will go towards their detriment. If a person doesn't check themselves, without being in possession of their nafs, they cannot give other people advice. The advice that they give will bring about their own detriment, and will also be detrimental to the person that they are giving it to. That's why we have to check our nafs, we have to know our surroundings, and be sincere with people.
Allah Malik, Allah Hu.
Let us know our nafs. If we do not forget that Allah is Malik, then we will be Malik over our own nafs. Now for example, here we are a small gathering, and our Malik, our owner, is Allah, and the owner of this gathering is all of us. We have to be respectful to one another, show love to one another, and not misunderstand what is said to us. If we are saying something to you, if there is something you don't understand, then come and ask us again, because our circle is open, it is not a mistake to bring forth the correctness and truth - we are going to put our thoughts into the middle. In Tassawuf this is called mushareret. Allah says when you are in difficulty, speak with one another, converse, and come to an understanding. So when you hear something, if you want to know if these words have come from me, then come and ask me. Everyone can say something.... but if you wish to believe in Haqiqat, in reality, then come, and ask me. We are always here. And so the esma of Malik of Allah shows ownership, and we, to you, by taking refuge in this characteristic of Allah, by asking in this name of Allah, we wish to be in ownership of our nafs, so we are your owners, and we don't wish for you to fall into a bad state. And however Allah wishes for the goodness of His servants, we wish also for your goodness and beauty. And your goodness and beauty, is our goodness and beauty. Your happiness, is our happiness. If we live in such a way, your sadness is our sadness. Then our hands will be one. Our hearts will be one. Our thoughts will be one. And then we will have proven testimony of one Allah. And where will we have proven this one Allah? In our own understanding, in our own nafs, in our own actions. Everything that we are doing is proving the oneness. So let us try to connect to one another, and live beautifully, with goodness. Let us not let go of love. Our capital is love - we can spend it everywhere, both in this world, and also in the world we are going to. So let us be Malik to one another, let us be in possession of one another, let us protect one another from badness. Amin.
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Al-Quddus: the Pure One

Allah Quddus, Allah Hu.
The esma of Quddus, one of the esmas of the 99, is a divine attribute which shows the holiness of Allah. It is one of the creative attributes of Allah. Its holiness has come from Its own creative attribute. Allah is far from shortcomings, mistakes, and blemishes. He is not lacking anything. He is far from heedlessness, and is able to do everything, and is pure and clean. This attribute of His, comes from his ulvyet, His exaltedness, His creativeness. This attribute of Quddus shows that everything is holy. Allah is holy, and created everything as mukaddes, holy. The most holy of what Allah has created are the prophets that He has sent, and the four great books that He has sent. These are all a reflection from the attribute of Quddus, and if people follow these, they will find this esma of Quddus in their own bodies, and they will make themselves, mukaddes, holy.
How does a person become mukaddes? First of all, comes the cleanliness, ihdikat, the love of Allah, the belief in Allah, the fear of Allah, and to remove the duality in your thinking, and to believe without doubt in one being. If a person is in possession of this ihdikat cleaning, then comes the cleaning of the heart. And how does the heart become cleansed? It is only with the zikr of Allah that the hearts can be cleansed. And after this cleaning comes the cleaning of ibadet, of worship. What is the cleaning of worship? Every endeavor that is done with sincerity, every action that is performed with seriousness, every service that you do as if you see Allah, is the cleaning of worship. Otherwise, to do just the ritual worship as a form of habit, the worship that is performed just because your mother and father did it, and you have seen it, and are doing it just for form - is meaningless. A person has to do this, being in possession of these three forms of cleanliness, thereby benefitting from the esma of Quddus, they will bring their own nafs to perfection. When Allah with His beauty brings perfection to one of His servants, then He will have Himself done the remembrance, the zikr, within that servant, and so when Allah does His zikr from within your being, then you would have praise for the perfection that He has given, and you would have done the tesbih of this, and tesbih means to remember to praise the great attribute of Allah, and then the person will have cleansed his nafs, his soul, and so the attribute will work on the human being.
Allah has created everything that He has created with value. We have said this before. Because it is Quddus, it is holy, it is mukaddes, everything that He creates He creates as precious, and gives them his mukaddes-ness, His holiness. And everything that is created does the tesbih - the grass, the trees, the flowers that you see, the animals - they all do the tesbih of the remembrance of Allah. But how do they do this tesbih? Because they have all been created with a value in their creation, and they have all been created to do a most valuable duty, so, performing these duties brings them to perfection. And so everything does the tesbih of Allah. Allah says that everything in the skies and everything in the earth is in the process of doing tesbih of Allah. So something that you see as valueless, is the most valuable thing! But because you cannot see this, you will step on it, crush it, and see it as being without value. But Allah has created nothing without value. If there is cleanliness in your ihdikat, if there is cleanliness in your belief, if you know the attribute of Quddus of Allah, then you are going to see that everything is mukaddes, holy. You cannot see anything as being beneath you, or bad. The holiness of everything is in the being of Allah. Allah has created nothing without value. There is value in everything. I am going to tell a story that is testimony to this.
A dervish goes to a bath one day, and as he is washing in the bath, a cockroach falls into the water. The dervish gets angry and throws it away, "Ya Rabb, O Lord, why did you create this dirty thing?" Time passes, and this dervish becomes ill, doctors, remedies, medications - nothing helps. He is about to die. His lungs have begun to dry out. Then one day this crone came, one with great experience, and made him a remedy. "I'm going to give you a remedy," she said, "If you do this, then your lungs will find life and you will be saved." Now the man is about to die, so whatever they say, he'll do. And she says to the man, "You're going to take cockroaches, and you're going to dry them, you're going to powder them up, and every morning you're going to eat one spoon of this with a glass of water. Will you do this?" The man is about to die! Whatever you say, he will agree to. And so he does it, and his eyes open. He finds life, and he becomes strong.
Now why did I tell this story? This cockroach that he saw as having no value, see what kind of value it brought about! So Allah, with his attribute of Quddus, has created everything as mukaddes, as holy. Don't see anything as beneath you. Don't see anything as bad. In everything there is a goodness. For example, these roses, here, when they are on their bush, what condition are they in, and when they are brought here, what condition are they in? When it is on its bush, it is quite alive and giving a beautiful smell, and beautifying its life from day to day. When it is on its branch it is doing the tesbih of Allah. Now we put it here, to allow this beauty to be lived, we are putting water in the glass, so that it may find life, because we give it value. And everything is like this. Let us see everything as precious, and give it value. And as we said, at the head of all of these precious creations come the prophets, and the holy books, and the pirs, the evliyas, the friends of Allah, the murshids, that allow this holy path to continue. And so that brings the taktes, the perfection, through this esma of Quddus, of holiness. And how do they bring this Quddus to you? After you have done the accounting of your nafs, of your soul, when you are in possession of good ahlak, they will see this goodness and beauty in you, and with the esma of Quddus of Allah, they will do taktes of you, and every breath, every action, will be tesbih of Allah.
So this esma of Quddus, you can recite every morning, 100 of them, for the beauty of your own nafs, your soul, for their holiness, and to be close to Allah. The esma of Quddus of Allah brings us to perfection with this beauty, brings us to places like this, and to one another in this holy way, we are doing taktes. How are we doing this? With love. With respect. And we know that Allah has created the human being as a most precious creature, and is working these 99 attributes inside the human being, and at the top of this comes the attribute of Quddus. When a person completes his good ahlak, then that person is a mukaddes person, a holy person, and this is what we are working for, for the cleaning of the heart, the cleaning of worship, good ahlak, and we are trying to do our beauty to Allah, so that with the Quddus esma of Allah, we will come to a holy state. Because we came to this world as mukaddes, and we have to go back to Allah in the same way. So all of our endeavors are from our own being to our own beings, because the owner of this being, the creator Allah, is showing all His being through you. However holy, mukaddes, you can become, that is how much you will be testimony to the beauty and goodness of Allah, and you will spread the Nur, the divine light of Allah, onto this world. And with this goodness and beauty that you do, with this service that you perform, you will have brought people from darkness into light. So let us not forget....
Let us altogether say His tesbih of Quddus:
Subuhun quddusun rabbinah ver rabul malaiketi ver ruh.
Allah has created the spirit and the angels thru the esma of Quddus, and with this esma of Quddus they do the tesbih of Allah, and this prayer we have just recited says this. It means that all of the mukaddes, the holy things that Allah has created are praising the goodness and beauty of Allah, and this place is tesbih.
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Ar-Rezzak: The Sustainer

Allah Rezzak Allah Hu.
The honored Name of Rezzak is one of the giving attributes of Allah. Everything that Allah has created He has provided with this attribute. As this attribute works, all the needs of His creatures are met, and the name of the energy that comes is rizk, sustenance. Rizk has been allotted. Allah says in the Quran, "We have allotted and given the sustenance for each person." If a person believes that his rizk is going to come, then he will never fall into fear and suspicion and he will not get caught up in his ambitions and chase after his rizk. It is, in fact, the rizk that will chase you because Allah is going to give that. Allah, with this attribute of Rezzak, the Provider, works with the esma of Gayyur, the Encourager. He will encourage us because He needs to provide the sustenance for His creations.
Now this rizk is in two forms. One rizk is physical and one is spiritual. The physical sustenance - what you eat and drink, the air that you breathe - keeps your physical body on its feet. This is called the material or the physical rizk. As long as you are given this you will live and when this is cut, you die. That is why it is Allah who gives the rizk, the sustenance, and a person should never have fear or doubt about his sustenance. No matter where you go, rizk will find you. If you go up to the top of a mountain, if you live there, then still your rizk will come to your feet there because Allah has promised this in the Quran. He does not turn from His word; He does what He says, and so your sustenance will find you wherever you go. This physical sustenance will chase you and will let you live.
Then there is the spiritual rizk. Allah has created this as well and gives this to you and with this your spirituality lives. For example, to come to spiritual gatherings, to listen to beautiful words, is your spiritual rizk. This will make your iman, your faith, stronger and bring you closer to Allah. For example, the Divine Books, the great books that have come from Allah, so that they can take people on the correct path, commanding the beauty and goodness of Allah, are also your spiritual rizk. You get your physical rizk by working. When you get this sustenance you choose between that which is good and bad. You say, "Let me find that which is good, let me eat that which is good, so that I can live well." You think about this for your wordly life, so you have to think about it for your eternal life. The rizk of the eternal life is also given here and this is revealed by the Divine Books that are sent by Allah. The coming of the Prophets to us is spiritual rizk. They were all the same. None of them have brought a different rizk. They have all spoken to prepare humanity for Allah. Let us gather this spiritual rizk together so that we will go to the eternal life in a healthy way.
Now, we give an example. You open a store and you are making money; your rizk is coming to you and you are using this and you buy good things and you look for things that will give you benefit. To live comfortably you use this rizk. So to gain the spiritual life, you have to follow these spiritual roads and learn this ilm, this knowledge, and grow with this rizk. Allah created this rizk to be of benefit to people. Allah has created everything for the benefit of human beings. For example, the animal has its rizk. The animal eats, the animal breeds, and all of its physical sustenance is provided. And Allah also allows it, through his esma of Rezzak, to grow and to live, and by gathering its physical rizk it is trying to find its spiritual rizk. And how is it going to find its spiritual sustenance? For us to find it, we read the Divine Books, we follow the roads of the Prophets and by giving ourselves to this specialness we gather spiritual sustenance. And for them, these animals, to gather their spiritual sustenance, they serve human beings with their meat, with their milk, with their skin, with the medication that they are going to give. There are some animals that are very valuable in medicine; they give benefit to human beings. Medicine is made, tests are made, and their service is in this way for humanity. They gather their spiritual rizk in this way and when they enter into a human being with a Divine metamorphosis they are elevated to a higher state.
If we know this esma of Rezzak, then our submission to Allah will increase, we will not fall into fear, and we will not fall into suspicion or doubt. Before Allah created us, He created this and wrote this into our notebooks. This is called lehva mahfuz. There our rizk is known. Every breath that you take is a rizk. The number of these are written in this lehva mahfuz. Because their numbers are known, definite, before this sustenance ends let us use them well. When the rizk of the breath is finished, then the journey of death begins and so this breath is also a rizk and this mind that Allah has given is also a rizk. However well we can use these provisions, then our physical and spiritual lives will increase to that extent. Allah Rezzak, Allah Hu.
This is our spiritual rizk. We come here every week and we take rizk from here and this spiritual rizk is worship. This brings us close to Allah, this gives ashk, endless love, to the hearts of people, and with this people can live in peace. If we cannot get this rizk, then everything will change and then instead of love, enmity will start. So however much of this spiritual sustenance we can get, that is how much our beauty will increase and we will be dost with each other. This is the allotment of the esma of Rezzak.
Allah Rezzak, Allah Hu.

More explanations from Sherif Baba on the Esma el-Husna

Al-Fettah: The Opener

Allah Fettah Allah Hu.
The esma, the Name or attribute of Fettah means to open. In both the spiritual and the material world of a person Allah will surely open everything. We are going to do the tefekkur, the contemplative meditation, of this and insh'Allah, with Allah's permission, I am going to open on the subject of this esma.
The honored Name of Fettah, the Opening, in the Dictionary of the Quran, comes from the root fetih and Fettah is its attribute. It comes from opening and it means the Opener. Opening implies many different meanings. For example, there is opening a box, there is opening a closed door, opening anything that is closed. But the meaning of opening in the Quran is the opening of the heart, the opening of the thoughts and the opening of spiritual goodness and beauty. So the esma of Fettah is announcing this opening. And the meaning in Tasawwuf, in Sufism, is the opening of ilmi ledun, the mystical knowledge in the heart, and to bring it out into the open and to reflect this into daily life. This is the opening of the esma of Fettah amoung people.
This attribute of Allah is working on all of the people of this world. If you know this or you do not know it, this attribute is working inside of you. If we look around us, Allah has opened everything and from every place that he has opened He is showing this beauty and goodness to us. He has hidden nothing from us. He has opened it for us; we have hidden it. And how did we hide it? With the negativity of our thoughts we have hidden this. So if we continue on this esma of Fettah of Allah, if we do the zikr, the remembrance, and the tefekkur, the meditation, of this, then these beauties that Allah has opened for us will open inside of us and we will see this, too.
Now, for example, we are born, we grow up, we have come until these days. Allah has opened countless doors for us. He has opened our rizk, our sustenance, put all of the goodness out into the open and we are living inside of this, that which He has opened for us. If we think of it, we are going to live this whether we are aware of it or not. The only difference is in seeing how these esmas are working and to work with this in mind so we can be close to Allah with these attributes. If Allah had not opened these beautiful doors for us, we would not have been able to come to these beautiful places today. We did not come to these beautiful places with our minds. Allah has opened these beautiful doors for us through the doors of knowledge in our hearts; He has given us Nur, Divine Light, and keeping this in mind we have lived it in our lives and we have come to these places.
So this is the opening of the esma of Fettah. I am giving these examples so that you can realize that the esma of Fettah is working in us every minute of our lives. If we come to the awareness of this, there is a moment inside of this esma when we can catch that moment, and then we have come to the most holiest of moments of Allah. Allah will create with beauty everything that we wish and give it to us. Another meaning of fetih is to give victory to the people. And where is this victory given to us? When we do the accounting of our nefs, our soul or ego self, when we come out of the badness of our nefs, when we start working towards beauty and goodness, with the help of this esma of Fettah more beautiful doors are opened for us and we become victorious over our nefs.
The Sura al-Fatiha in the Quran has manifested from this esma of Fettah. It has opened. And what has opened? The Sura al-Fatiha has seven ayets, seven verses; it shows the seven makams, seven levels. The Sura al-Fatiha shows the opening of the seven makams of the human being and because this is from the esma of Fettah they have called this Fatiha. It is the sura of salvation. If we recite it often, we will attain the beauty of our nefs. For example, every day we should recite it seven times. We should recite it for ourselves; we should recite it for the spirits of the great ones who came before us. As we recite for their spirits, for their ruhs, beautiful energy will come to us and with the hlpe of this energy our nefs will start to rise from day to day. That is why Sura al-Fatiha comes at the beginning of the Quran. It is not inside of the Quran; it is at the beginning of the Quran, because the Sura al-Fatiha was sent as a present to the Prophet. As we recite this often, then the grudges in us will start to leave, the badness will leave, and peace will begin amound people, love will begin. Then both will the person himself be saved and so will humanity be saved. Then victory will come for humanity. This is how the esma of Fettah is working in the world.
Know, learn this, memorize this esma of Fettah very well and when stress comes to your heart recite the esma of Fettah. Say Allah Fettah, Allah Hu so that with the offering of Allah, with the kudret, power, of Allah, doors will open. The only One Who is saving us from this difficulty, the One Who opens these beautiful doors, is Allah. If we take refuge in Him with this esma of Fettah, He will save us in the most difficult of days and will allow us ease in our lives.
Allah Fettah Allah Hu.


Al-Mu'izz: The Bestower of Honor


Allah Mu'izz Allah Hu.
The esma of Mu'izz is an attribute that comes from the root word "IZ". "IZ" has the meaning of exaltedness and dignity. It is the attribute of Allah that gives pride and dignity to all of His creations. When Allah created His servants, He created them with this beauty and goodness, and in order that they did not lose the beauty and goodness he sent them knowledge, and through these attributes he has allowed this beauty and goodness to be known. And one of these attributes is His attribute of Mu'izz. If we live our life beautifully, if we pass our days in the way Allah wishes us to, every day he will honor us anew.

Every thing that Allah has created, he has created as service to us. He has not denied us any joy or pleasure. With every joy, with every pleasure, we will gain our dignification, our honor. But there are ways in which to do this. There are rules. When we follow these rules we will gain our dignity. Then , our honor will increase in the eyes of Allah. We will find beauty and goodness. When we find this beauty and goodness, we will serve the people through goodness and beauty. If we live the opposite of this... the opposite of this is arrogance. People sometimes compare arrogance with pride. The dignity and pride that Allah gives, is the dignity and pride that you find in the beauty and goodness that you attain through living the way that Allah wishes you to live. Then you will know your nafs, your soul, you will know and recognize people. You will know and recognize life, and you will always go after that which is good and beautiful. If you live the opposite of this, then you have arrogance. You think that you know yourself, look down on people, and think that you do everything yourself. Because this comes completely from the ego nafs, this is not dignity. This is arrogance. Then the doors of jahannem, of hell, are opened. What is hell? Your own loss of inner peace, loss of huzur, it's your own fire inside yourself. So we have to distinguish between dignity and pride.

The esma of Mu'izz is the esma that is given to you within the beauty and goodness. Inside of it there is sincerity, there is humbleness. There is service to people. Then your character will be exalted, and you will find the izet, the dignity, and they will call you arif, one who knows. You will be a possessor of irfan, of enlightenment from experiential knowledge. You will live with hikmet, with wisdom. And you will speak with hikmet, and so many great doors will open for you. If we live the opposite of this, if we come in front of Allah and his prophets in the opposite way, then our nafs will rage. We will become zalim, tyrants, and we will become arrogant, and we will think this to be exaltedness, dignity; like, for example, what the Pharoah did to Musa, Moses. Musa had izet, he had dignity. He was in service with the beauty of Allah. He was testimony to his own character's exaltedness. The Pharoah said, I have this too. With his ego he made arrogance, and proved the opposite of it. That arrogance made him one of the zalim, of the tyrants. It was the same between Ebu Jehil and Hazret-i-Muhammad . In Muhammad, there was izet, there was dignity, and with his own honor he was bestowing honor on those around him. He was bringing people to service, and he was connecting people to one another with sincerity and faithfulness. Whereas Ebu Jehil was doing the opposite. He was a man of knowledge. He saw himself as better and in arrogance said, I know better. He said, I can rule over people in a better way. Just like the Pharoah he became one of the oppressors.

Allah has given us these examples in the Koran, so that we, people, can find the correct path, and live with that great dignity. And not become arrogant. This is from the attribute of Mu'izz. As this opens within people, the people can come to a great many secrets.

Allah Mu'izz Allah Hu
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Al-Mudhill: The Humiliator
Allah Mudhill Allah Hu.
The esma of Mudhill is the esma that shows that Allah is the degrader of those It has created.
The esma of Mudhill is the esma that will degrade and humiliate those who Allah has created when Allah wishes it. Last week we explained the esma of Mu'izz. These are esmas that are opposites of each other. Mu'izz was the esma that gave honor and elevated the servant, the esma that allowed one to attain an elevation in their character, and the esma of Mudhill is the opposite. We have studied the esma of Khafid, the Abaser, before; this one resembles that one. These are esmas that are used by Allah to train Its servants. Through using Its ability the Creator brings people to balance with this esma, with this name. If we live this beauty and goodness, if we are in beautiful service to people, if we are correct and faithful, if we are sincere and serious, then It will exalt us, and It will make us honored ones. If you are not able to do this, if you think badly of people, if you work badly, if you are always trying to fool people with lies, then It will degrade you, and leave you as a characterless abased one. If we live the rules the that the Creator has brought us in a beautiful way - and you know that which comes at the head of these: justice, compassion, generosity, service, submission, and ashk, through respect for human beings - when you live with this beauty, then you will be one who is honored, and find your exaltedness. But if you are not able to live with justice, if you have no compassion, if you are one who harbors bad thoughts about people, if you do not help people and are stingy, if instead of humbleness you display arrogance - in other words, if you have all these bad, or ugly, attributes - then It will abase you. Because there is the ayat, the verse, the words of Allah in the Koran, "We have created the human being with beautiful ahlak, morality, but he has fallen to the lowest of the low, of his own accord." Now, what does this mean, "of his own accord, through his own desires"? Instead of living according to the rules and wishes of the Creator, when he lives in a corrupt manner amoung people, then he brings his nafs, his soul, into the lowest level, and fools himself into [ed. deceives himself with] the finite pleasures of this finite world, lives forgetting the beauty and goodness of the Creator, then he will encounter the esma of Mudhill, and fall into abasement.
May Allah make us beautiful human beings.
May It allow us to live this beauty always, so that we can be like the beautiful people, honored ones. ________________________________________________________________________
Al-Hafiz: The Preserver

Allah Hafiz Allah Hu.
Insha’Allah, we are going to say “Allah Hafiz Allah Hu,” and curl the tongue against the roof of the mouth, bend the head over the heart and then go into tefekkür, contemplative meditation. Then afterwards I will try to open up the meaning of this esma, this attribute. Allah Hafiz Allah Hu.

The esma of Hafiz is one of the Creator Allah’s attributes of preserving, keeping and protecting His creation. He is the One who knows to the most delicate, finest point everything that He has created, and He keeps it and protects it. I am going to try to open this up to you with examples. What is it to preserve? What is it to protect? They are all inside this honored name of Hafiz.

Look at the sky that Allah has created. How many things are turning within that emptiness of space? None of them crash with each other; all of them turn within their own boundaries. None of them cross over their own boundaries and into the boundaries of the others. These are preserved with the Hafiz attribute of Allah, and then He protects them. And how is He protecting them? By making them do the duty that He has given them. If He does not protect, then they will not be able to do their duty, and they will be lost.

We look at people. They memorize a book. For example, they memorize the Quran, and we call those people hafiz. Such a person can keep in his memory the 6,666 ayets, and because he keeps it with the esma of Hafiz, this person is called a hafiz.

A second meaning of Hafiz is to protect. So a person preserves this in his memory; how does he protect it? His protection is to know the knowledge that is inside of this and to live it. Then he will have both preserved it and, by living this knowledge, protected it. It is then that that person can be given the name of hafiz. This is the Hafiz that Allah is asking for; meaning to protect the commands that Allah has sent, to live them and allow them to be lived. If this does not happen, then he will just be a person who memorizes dryly.
Harun al-Rashid, one of the Abbasid halifes who lived a thousand years ago, had a parrot. It was a very smart parrot. He made the parrot memorize Ya Sin-i Sherif, which is six pages, and this parrot could recite it. This is also preservation. He memorized, but he was not able to be a hafiz. Why? Because he is an animal in his creation. He does not know what he recites, does not know what he’s living. So this means that to be a hafiz is not just through preservation, but by living the meaning as well.

Now, insha’Allah, we have understood the difference between preservation and protection. For example, you gather fruit and you make a preserve, a jelly. So that the goodness is not lost, you preserve it. With what? You put elements into it to preserve it so that its taste does not become corrupted, and it maintains its life there. But you have to protect it. How are you going to protect it? You put it in a jar and close its lid so that air does not come in and there you have put it under protection.

Look, Allah created us, and He has taken us under His protection with such a use of the Hafiz attribute. He has put the most valuable part of you, your brain, into a box that is strong and does not break. Look under what protection He is putting it. He has given you a heart and lungs, and put these in such a box that when something bumps up against it, or when you fall, an elastic cage that does not break protects it. These are all the characteristics of the esma of Hafiz. The most valuable artery that comes from your heart doesn’t go in an open and surface place. It is stuck to your bones so that it does not become damaged in an accident. It is kept protected. How is it protected? The muscles which surround it protect it completely, so that it doesn’t get damaged in a trauma or accident.
This is the kind of Hafiz that Allah is. He is protecting us better than we protect ourselves. So how are we to protect ourselves? There are prescriptions that He has sent to us. Which ones are beneficial to us? Which things are harmful to us? We have to know these, and we have to protect ourselves with them. For example, Allah created bread and made it halal, lawful, for us to consume. We eat it, we take our nourishment, we take our vitamins from it. Now you can toast this bread, but if it burns and turns to coal then all of its vitamins are lost. This bread that was halal becomes haram, unlawful, to us. Then He says, “Don’t eat it.” Why? Because there is no nourishment in this. It will poison you. And He allows you to know this through your instincts. It is in such a way that you can protect yourself.

This is an example from the material world, and if we give an example from the spiritual, He has given you a ruh, spirit. He has given you a trust. How are you going to protect this? With worship. With zikrs. With sincerity. With service to human beings. You are then going to place yourself under material and spiritual protection. In Tasawwuf, Sufism, the actual Hafiz is the title given to someone who puts his iman, faith, and his behavior under protection. You are to take no suspicion and you are to carry no duality so that you can put yourself under protection. If you carry duality, then your protection will be corrupted, and this negative energy that we call Shaitan, Satan, will come into you. That is why we should do our worship with sincerity, not as a show. Let the zikrs that we perform carry meaning. Let them give joy to your heart. Let them give you huzur, peace and tranquillity. Let them increase the ashk, the endless love, that you have for Allah. Then through the angels that Allah has created you will be put under protection. And what are those angels that take you into protection? I spoke of this the other night. They are the goodness and beauty that is in your thoughts. These thoughts will rule the molecules that are in your body. Then these molecules do the job that it is their duty to do, and protect you in your life.
Allah created everything with the order “Be.” He sent you to this universe with love, and He is allowing you to live through His love. And so that you do not lose His love, He has opened some doors of examination, of tests for you, and for you to pass one test He has sent you prescriptions through the prophets. What are they? They are the Divine Books. The Torah, the Gospel, the Quran, the Psalms of David. And through the prophets these were allowed to be known, and this trail is continuing still today. If we lose this trail, then we will come out of protection, in the same way that if you eat the things that are unlawful to you, you will poison yourself, and you will be out of protection. Then what will you do? You’ll send yourself to your grave. In the same way that you are protecting your body through your instincts, you also have to keep the spiritual trust that Allah has given you under protection.

You know that this one of the 99 esmas, the esma of Hafiz, is working in this way in people. Every esma works in the human being. Allah has given these 99 esmas to the human being. In the Quran this is verified with ayets. It says, “We have given all of the esma to Adem, son of man.” That’s why every week we try to explain one of them. Let us know these; let us learn these and try to live. Let us come to awareness. May Allah help us, and not separate us from the goodness and beauty.
Allah Hafiz Allah Hu.

Al-Mukit: The Nourisher

Allah Mukit, Allah Hu. The esma of Mukit is one of the ninety-nine attributes of Allah. It is the esma that shows that Allah gives everything that It has created their rizk, their sustenance, and nourishes them. Insha’Allah, now we're going to do the teffekür, the contemplative meditation, of this esma, and after the teffekür we'll try to expand it. Say it again; Allah Mukit, Allah Hu.
The esma of Mukit is the attribute of Allah giving nourishment to all that It has created, and sustaining it. It comes from the root ikata. Ikata means one who dispenses food. I will give an example from the world. There were the ashanes, soup kitchens, to help people, and from there, food and rizk, sustenance would be dispersed, and the person who was doing the dispersing would be called the mukit.
Allah, who is the Creator, sustains with nourishment all that It has created. This comes from inside the attribute of Rezzak, the Sustainer. They resemble each other, Rezzak and Mukit; it is a division that comes forth from Rezzak. Before we spoke of the esma of Rezzak. Rezzak has a very wide, encompassing meaning, whereas Mukit means the one that sustains through nourishment. And this has been determined according to the length of one's life.
Nobody can take from another’s nourishment. And nobody can leave without having completed their nourishment. Everyone will get, and when they finish it, they will die. That's why nourishment is determined. Rizk, having a wide encompassing meaning, covers everything. For example, the breath that you take is connected to rizk. That also nourishes you, but not physically; it nourishes you in a spiritual way. The knowledge that you gain from what you see and what you learn is also your rizk, it is also your nourishment, but it is not Mukit, it is rizk. For example, we go and travel around, this going and traveling is also from Allah's rizk. Because rizk and Mukit resemble each other, I'm giving you these examples so that we can understand the differences.
The Creator Allah is nourishing everything that It has created, be it plants or animals. For example, the child that is in its mother's womb is being nourished through the umbilical cord that is connecting it to the nourishment that its mother is taking in. The seed that you plant in the earth is being nourished through the minerals and the vitamins that are in the earth. This nourishing is Mukit.
Because the evliyas, the Friends of Allah, know this attribute of Mukit very well, they look at the being of a person and then they give the spiritual nourishment, the spiritual rizk, accordingly. Some people, for example, have short lives, and they need to take nourishment quickly. Some have long lives, and they need to take their nourishment in time. With the attribute of Mukit, Allah sets this firmly, and It allows the servants, the evliyas, to know this.
I'll give you an example. One of the arifs, a gnostic individual, had a son. He would go to the bars all the time, to the taverns, and drink, secret from his father. His father found out about this, but didn't say anything to him. He went and found the tavern keeper and told him secretly, “However much my son is going to drink here, give him more. However much he wants, give him even more, and don't tell him that I came.” Time passed, and if the child asked for one, he got two, if he asked for two, he got four, and in this way, he completed the nourishment that he was going to get there. This is an appearance of the attribute of Mukit.
In other words, maybe he was going to go there for four years, and drink four thousand glasses, but because that arif knew of his Mukit esma, he had him given this nourishment in much more quantity so that four years became shortened. When his nourishment there was finished, the boy did not go back to the tavern, and did not fall back into those bad ways, and repenting, went and followed his father's path. I gave you this example so that the attribute of Mukit could be better understood.
All of our rizk, our nourishment and sustenance, is predetermined. No matter where we are, we will find it. We cannot chase it, it will chase us. No matter how much extra action you perform, no matter how much more you work, your nourishment is known. If it is two grams, it is two grams. With your working extra hard it won't become four. So what is the duty that befalls us here? To show acceptance and satisfaction for what is given by Allah, and to have tevekkül, trust, in Allah. And here we have to allow our surrender, our submission, to be known.
We know that these ninety-nine attributes are all working in us. Why? For our maturity. Allah created people with love. Then, in a mature way, with mature nourishment, It is sustaining us, and making us then in possession of kemalat, of maturity, of perfection, It is going to take us back. So we came to this world being loved, and we are going to leave again being loved. Allah Mukit, Allah Hu. Let us know the esma of Mukit in this way, learn it as so, and not confuse it with the esma of Rezzak.
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Al-Kerim: The Generous One

Allah Kerim Allah Hu.
The esma of Kerim is one of the 99 names or attributes of Allah. It is the esma that shows the generosity of Allah.
The esma of Kerim is the attribute of generosity of Allah Who has created everything. Allah is able and capable of all things, it is He Who has created all things and everything that He has created is in the state of offering and the attribute that shows the generosity in the state of offering is the attribute of Kerim. This attribute of Kerim is one of the greatest attributes that comes after Rahman, the Merciful, and Rahim, the Beneficent. It is with this that He is offering to all things that are created and it is through this offering that we find life. When the attribute of Kerim is opened inside of people, then those people also begin to become generous and this generosity is giving, not just giving money, but also giving love, giving a sweet word, showing a smile, being patient when angry, not doing bad things and showing goodness as a response to badness. All things like this fall under giving.
People have two important characteristics and it is these characteristics that will bring you closer to Allah. The first characteristic is giving and the second is loving. and this giving and loving are twins. When people live with these, they become perfect. Loving and giving, both of these characteristics make a person beautiful and bring a person closer to Allah.
We have to look at generosity. At least, whatever we are eating we should also feed the people we are with. What does this mean? This means that people have to help one another. However much we can be an offering to one another, Allah will also be that much an offering to us. Because the true place of those who are Kerim is Allah.
The path of dervishness is the road that goes to the attribute of Kerim. A dervish is giving, he is not one who holds. He will give all of the love in his heart to people and he will give it to animals. He will give this love to everything that lives in nature and in exchange for this he will get the love of Allah.
All of the prophets who are in possession of the Divine Light of Muhammed, all of the Aziz, the saints, all the evliyas, the friends of Allah, have attained the attribute of Kerim.
Ya Rabb, we ask of you, do not separate us from their footsteps. Make it our nasib, our lot, to walk their beautiful path and let us live among each other with this love. Always increase the ashk, the Divine Love, in our hearts. Ya Rabb, do not separate us from one another. Make it our nasib to have the Nur of Muhammed, the Divine Light of Muhammed, born in our hearts. These come from the attribute of Kerim. With His attribute of Kerim Allah is offering to all things He has created. To work is up to us. To give comes from Allah. However much we work that is how much offering we will get in exchange. Allah says, "Surely, I will give you what you have worked for."
Allah Kerim, Allah Hu.
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Al-Hayy: The Everlasting One

Allah Hayy Allah Hu.
The esma of Hayy shows the life and aliveness that Ya Allah the Creator has given to all Its creation. The One that is in possession of perfect life is Allah. All aliveness is in Allah.
Allahu la illaha illa Hu al Hayy al Qayyum.
Allah is Hayy, and Allah is Qayyum.
Allah is alive and living. The eternal life is Allah's. Everything is to return to Him, and the actual life is to be found there. Allah is Hayy, and the servant will see this as being in its place, and will take their precaution. Allah has created everything in its place and beautiful., and given this life, and this life passes. Inside of this life, to make people work, It has given them knowledge, and with this people are acting. The minerals, the plants, the animals - everything that is created - inside of this attribute of life, with the knowledge that Allah has given - are living in a beneficial way. They are living in a way that is beneficial for human kind. Everything that is created is created for service to humankind, and everything has a life. For example, you see that tree? It has life. How do you know this? When it has shed its leaves and is dried up as if it was dead... but when the time comes, the leaves come out green. And It shows Its aliveness. And everything is like this. Look at this moment, at nature everywhere in the world - places that are dead have all come alive, and have become green. And that is why the color of the esma of Hayy is green.
It is with this that Allah has given life. If we know the value of this life, and we live well in the existence of this life, we will gain the eternal life of Allah. Allah has given us eyes, and It sees with this Nur, the divine light of life. Allah has given us breath, it is with this that our life continues. This is existence in the human being, and also in the animal, and also in the minerals that It has created and in the vegetation that It has created. It sees everything; everything feels, and everything lives in the best way for their own life.
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Al-Qayyum: The Self-Existing One
Allah Qayyum Allah Hu.
The esma of Qayyum is the esma, the self-existing one, that keeps everything in its place and animated and on its feet. The esma of Qayyum that comes from the root of qayim, is the esma that brings everything to life.
Earlier we had spoken of the esma of Hayy, and now we are going to speak on the attribute of Qayyum. These two attributes are one whole that is not divisible. This week I'm going to speak on the attribute of Qayyum. This is an attribute of the most important ones of the creator Allah. The one that holds everything that It has created in its place, and makes them live, and animates them, is the attribute of Qayyum. If we look around us, we will see how this attribute works. It is a very lively attribute. Look at the universes that Allah has created. There are many planets in space, many stars. There is the planet that is called earth. Everything is working in its place, correctly. None of them become confused about their place, and they are all standing, and this shows the attribute of Qayyum. When we do it, we will see this attribute. When we look at ourselves, Allah created us, gave us a spirit (in today's terminology we call this 'energy'); this made us alive, and the attribute of Qayyum is keeping this standing. For example, in the human body there are thousands of cells that are dying and coming to life, and their dying and being resurrected again is the attribute of Qayyum. He brings them to life with the attribute of Qayyum, with the attribute of Hayy gives them life, and because the two work together, the attributes of Hayy and Qayyum are known as the ismi-azam, the great names, in the Koran. It is a very important name, and when people are in problems, if they do the tesbih, the repetition of the Hayy and Qayyum esmas, then they will come to the opening of this ismi-azam, this great name. They will find life, and they will find aliveness.
One of the beauties of the attribute of Qayyum, without changing anything, is holding everything in its own attribute. It seems to be changing, but its essence doesn't, it is only the views of the attributes that are changing. Let me give an example. There are coins, and let us say this one coin is worth $1000. You remove this money, and you put paper money in its stead. Its essence is still there, but its appearance has changed. That paper money has become qayim, standing in the place of, that coin; it is holding it in its place, without changing its essence. And we, people, are also like this. Without corrupting our essence, we will live in different dimensions, and this is the manifestation of the esma of Qayyum. We are standing in our own essence; what changes are the appearances. And this world is the same. The planets are the same. Everything that works in the universe, works with the manifestation of the attributes of Hayy and Qayyum.
There are more expanding explanations, and these cannot be opened up in a short period. We would need much time and much experience, for a person to be able to understand these attributes with their own feelings. Whenever you can feel these existences, then a person will be able to understand these attributes better, because these attributes that show the existence of Allah, can only be explained so far through ilim, through knowledge. Only through living and gaining experience, and seeing this within your own inner being - then you will be able to understand this better. And these 99 attributes are like this. If you listen to the tapes of these esmas of Hayy and Qayyum you will understand better. One of the meanings of the esma of Qayyum is to stand: You will be sleeping, they will wake you up - and one of the meanings of waking up is to stand. And one of the meanings of the attribute of Qayyum, is coming from the same word, qiyamet, resurrection. What is qiyamet? Is is the people lighting up, and this is also from the attribute of Qayyum. This lighting up amoung people can happen with beauty and goodness and it can happen with badness, and this is called qiyamet, the resurrection. Again, this is inside of the attribute of Qayyum.
The essence doesn't change; the essence is the human being. It is the appearance of the characters that can change. That's why we have to understand the attributes of Hayy and Qayyum very well, so a person can know how and where to live. This world is finite; what is infinite is Allah. He is always Hayy and Qayyum. He is self-existent. His own being is always living, and as long as He is, humanity also will be. The attributes that change here are the characters, the attribute of Allah doesn't change: He will let those 99 attributes work; these attributes will change the characteristics that you have. That is why we are emphasizing these 99 attributes so much; they are necessary for all of us. All of us have to look into this mirror and straighten our characters accordingly. The most beautiful mirror is the mirror of these 99 esmas, and these have been taught to us by the prophet and the saints, the evliya. As we follow their path our experience will increase, and with our own feelings we will be able to understand these esmas. Hayyum-Qayyum is ismi-azam, a great name, so let us not forget this. Whenever you are stressed, whenever you are under pressure, let us recite this a lot, and we will push the stress off of us, and then we will be with the Being within His Being.
Allah Qayyum, Allah Hu
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Az-Zahir: The Manifest One- The attribute of Zahir is the attribute that is most evident in the world. As long as all of the world, all of the human beings in this world, don't correct their Zahir, the goodness and beauty of Allah will not manifest. If we take our steps properly, then we will encounter the beauty of Allah. What is our Zahir? It is our actions. We have to correct these, and then we can find goodness and beauty.

Allah Zahir Allah Hu.
The esma of Zahir is one of the 99 attributes of Allah. Its meaning shows the manifest face, the evident face, of Allah the Creator in everything that He has created. It is the reflection of the outward face of Allah on the surface of this world.
Everywhere our eyes are seeing His being. It is with this attribute of Zahir that He is manifest, and by seeing this everywhere we bear witness to it. Everywhere His being exists. The attribute of Zahir, the External, is the outer appearance. Everything that Allah has created has two appearances. One is the external. This is the one that is necessary for us in this world; it is reality. Then there is the inner appearance, and this is Batin. When Allah is manifest in this world, it is both with His attribute of Zahir and with the attribute of Batin. Everything is fixed accordingly.
Allah checks the actions of the human beings that He has created with the Zahir. This is what He says in the Qurani Kerim: "It is by looking at the Zahir, the Outward, that We pass judgment." However the human being lives in the Zahir, however he acts, determines what he encounters. Allah's judgment is dependent on your actions, because this is what He offers in the Quran: "Whatever your Zahir is like is what My judgment will be." That is why we are always saying that our actions that come into the Zahir have to reflect Allah's oneness so that when Allah gives His judgment, it will be for our own beauty and goodness. If corrupt actions come into our Zahir, then the judgment that Allah gives will cause us to suffer difficulties. We have to live with good ahlak, behavior and conduct, so that our actions can become beautiful, and then Allah's judgment will come to us with goodness and beauty.
Allah created everything, and created it beautifully and well, but because we can't correct our Zahir, prophets have been sent down to this world from the Zahir face of Allah. All of the prophets that have come, all of the evliya, the saints, the friends of Allah, by showing the Zahir attribute of Allah, have given direction to humanity towards this Oneness. The attribute of Zahir is always evident, at every moment. Every breath that we take is reflecting His Zahir attribute. We have to use all of ourselves in a beautiful and good way. We have to correct our Zahir because Allah has given us the mind to do so. He will correct our Batin, our inner side, Himself. That is dependent upon His internal strength. We have to occupy ourselves with the Zahir, and when we correct this Zahir, then Allah is going to send to us the beauty and goodness of the Batin as a present.
The actions that we perform are all the attribute of Zahir of Allah. As we let this good ahlak live, we are showing its reflection of the world on ourselves. Allah gives His judgment by looking at our Zahir. Let us not forget this. To become beautiful, we have to make our Zahir beautiful. Then we are going to turn to our inner face.
Allah Zahir Allah Hu.

Meher Baba's hands

These are the hands of Meher Baba during one of his seclusions. He was silent for 40 years, and for a period communicated on the alphabet board seen here. More about him later, but suffice it to say that even though I disagree with many of his disciples about exactly who and what he was (or, rather, what that means) I still find him to be one of the most amazing figures in world spirituality.

Sherif Baba on some of the 99 Names (asma al-husna)

Al-Batin: The Hidden One

Allah Batin Allah Hu.
The esma of Batin is one of the 99 attributes of Allah. It is the inner face of Allah. It is an attribute which shows the inner face of everything He has created. Last week we spoke of Zahir, the outer face, and this week we are going to speak, insha’Allah, of the inner face. I am going to try to explain this by joining the two together.
The attribute of Batin lets us know the hiddenness that Allah the Creator has put into everything that He has created. In the inner face of everything, the being of Allah is hidden. The esma of Zahir is the visible, reflecting outer face. It is the form of everything that Allah has created. It has a name, it has a body and it has a form. But the esma of Batin lets us know His hiddenness completely, and can only be felt with His being.
I am going to give an example. It is like this body and the ruh, the spirit. The Zahir is the body. It is seen, visible. It is known. It moves. But Batin is the inner side of this. This is not seen through the eyes. Existence is felt. And how is it felt? With the actions that it performs. With the art that is brought forth.
Now let’s think of a painting. You look at this painting; it’s quite beautiful. There is a beauty in its Zahir, its outer side. But this doesn’t happen by itself. When you look, you think, “There is someone who created this.” The person who painted it is not visible, but he has hidden himself inside of the art that he has created. That is the Batin.

I will give another example: a block of ice. Its name is “ice.” Its form is this block. This is Zahir. Its Batin is water. How are you going to understand that it’s water? When it melts, it softens and lets its water flow. Then we understand that its Batin is water, but its outside, set in a form, is ice. Zahir and Batin are like this.
Everything that Allah has created has two sides. If we are human beings, if we are living well and beautifully, then we have to see these two sides of Allah. For example, there are the events that we encounter every day. They are Zahir events, but there is also a Batin face to these, and we are not able to see it. How are we going to see this, then? In order to understand the hikmet, the wisdom, in it, we need sabur, patience, and we must not make an instant decision. Think well and beautifully. If we use these keys, we will open the door of Batin, and we will see inside of the mysteries.
The human being is like this. What you see is Zahir. Its inner face, its Batin existence, is the essential characteristic of Allah. We call this the latif vujud, the subtle body. This is hidden inside of people, and this is the Batin face. In order to bring this into being we have to work well with our Zahir. With this body we are going to serve everybody well, and make our thoughts beautiful and good. The more beautiful our Zahir gets, the more beauty Allah will manifest in the Batin. Do not forget these attributes of Zahir and Batin. See everything in these two ways.
For example, a letter comes. What is its Zahir? It’s the writing that is written on it. What is its Batin? When you read it, it’s the meaning, what you have understood. This means that in every outer form, every Zahir, what’s working inside and giving meaning is the Batin.

The Divine books have to be seen in this way. There is the Zahir writing, the outer writing. This is the Zahir judgment. But there’s also a Batin meaning, and to find this, we have to work towards good ahlak, behavior and conduct. Otherwise we can read and read the Zahir, and understand nothing.
Let me give an example. You have a child in another land, very far away, who has missed you very much. You wrote a letter from here: “I am well. This happened. That happened. We had some difficulties. We got better. Everything is beautiful.” You wrote your life as it passed, and you sent that to your child. He got it and read it. “Oh, it came from my mother and father,” he said. Even while he looked at its Zahir, he saw its Batin. What is that Batin that he saw? He saw the being of his mother and father there. He read the Zahir, and understood the meaning there, and his sense of longing became more intense, and he started to cry. He cried the tears of longing. A friend of his was sitting next to him. He took the letter and read it. He said, “Why are you crying? It’s a normal letter. Your mother’s well; your father’s well. This happened, that happened. Look, everything’s fine. Why are you crying?” And the child says, “The Batin that I have seen is here. If you had seen it as well, and felt this meaning, then you would cry too.”
All of the Divine books are like this. When we read these books, without reading like the child’s friend read the letter, in the Zahir, let us read in the way that the child saw his mother and father in the Zahir and understood the Batin face. When we read these Divine books, let us not be stuck in their Zahir. What is their Batin, their meaning, trying to tell us? This is what we have to understand.
Everything in life is like this. Everything has a Zahir face and a Batin face. Money has a Zahir face and a Batin face. What is its Zahir face? It’s the transactions that we perform to live our daily lives, and the services that we perform with money. This shows the Zahir side of the money that we use. So what’s the Batin face of money? If you are using this money on the road of Allah, if you are using it to serve humanity well, and if you are creating happiness among the people that you are using this money for, then this is the Batin face of money.
If we understand the Zahir and Batin like this, then we won’t make any hasty decisions. We will wait with time. If we have not been able to understand anything from the Zahir, we will try to see the hikmet in the Batin face. As we are always saying, to become aware of this meaning, as we live with good ahlak, gathering with beautiful people, and performing good service, we will clean the Zahir of this vessel and the Creator Allah will make its Batin beautiful.
Allah sent us to the world with this Batin. Even before our Zahir was seen, when our Batin was known, happiness and joy began. We came to this world with beauty and goodness; now we are looking for it. And when we return to Allah, we will return by bringing out this Batin, this goodness and beauty. Let us not forget the Zahir and Batin. These are twins. One face is Zahir; the other face is Batin. Let us see everything in this way.
Allah Batin, Allah Hu.

Ya Rabb, we are trying to beautify our Zahir, our outer side. Please help us, and let us try to make our Batin, our inner face, beautiful and good. If You do not send us Your rahmet, Your compassion, if You do not help us, then no one will help us. There is no Allah other than You. All goodness and beauty is inside You. You are both Zahir and Batin. Make us beautiful human beings. Amin.
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Al-Vâli: the Governor

Allah Vâli, Allah Hu.
The esma of Vâli is one of the 99 attributes of the Creator Allah. The esma of Vâli allows us to know that Allah the Creator is the governor and ruler of all He has created. Now, insha’Allah, we are going to do the tefekkür, the contemplative meditation, of this esma. Let me remind you again of how tefekkür works. We roll our tongue and put it against the roof of our mouth and laying our head over our heart, thinking of nothing, we allow the esma to establish itself into our thoughts and into our mind. We sit in this way, quietly, for a short period, literally as if we were listening to our own selves inside, and of its own accord the esma establishes its dominance. Thoughts should not enter into tefekkür so that the tefekkür is not disrupted. So, without thinking of anything, as if we were listening to ourselves, let us be inside ourselves. Let’s say it again:
Allah Vâli, Allah Hu.
The Creator Allah, with Its attribute of Vâli, is showing that It manages and administrates all of Its creation. This comes about from Its creative power. It is not like the governors that we know here in the world. The existence within works with the unity of the 99 Attributes. Allah Who knows all is Alim, Allah Who has news of all things is Habir, Allah Who hears all is Sami, Allah Who sees all is Basir, Allah Who creates everything is Khaliq, the One Who gives the rizk, the allotment for everything, is Rezzak, and along with His other esmas this attribute of Vâli is an attribute that gathers in all the other attributes. The attribute of Vâli of Allah is ready and watching for every judgment. When He gives His judgment, nothing changes. When our governors here in the world see something, receive news of something, they act accordingly and to see if they are right or wrong they take it to court. Many witnesses will be brought and listened to and this news, correct or incorrect, will be examined and filtered through the minds of people, and then judgment will be given; but Allah is not in this way, in the attribute of Vâli, the Creator Allah.
Before anything was created everything existed within His being. And because everything exists within His own being, Allah knows everything. He knows the existence of every thought that passes through you and He manages it. In His judgment He gives us management and because of our submission, our surrender to Him, this management will find beauty and goodness. So when we do not show submission this judgment will turn to its opposite and will harm us. So in the attribute of Vâli there is also submission because within this is also written the goodness and beauty that we have that can be brought forth. That means the attribute that is called kader, fate, is also within this. We do not know this, even the Prophets do not know this, even the angels do not know this, only because He created it can He know it Himself. In Tasawwuf, in Sufism, this is called mukadarat. In colloquial Turkish it is called the writing on your forehead. They say, “This is written on my forehead,” this is what was written for me. Because we do not know what this is, the only thing that we can do is to show submission. Then the writing will play upon us with beauty and goodness. The share that we get from this attribute of Vâli is to be the vâli, governor, of our own nafs, our own souls.
Inside of us there are such cities, there are such crowds, we need to administrate and manage them. But because we do not know them, submission will help. We are going to wait for help from the attribute of Vâli and then perform our administrative management in a beautiful way. Don’t forget that we are always responsible. Allah did not create anything coincidentally and a human being is not one who wanders around blind, deaf and dumb. Allah created everything with reason and order so there are no coincidences. Everything that happens to you, everything that you see, has all been created with a hikmet, a wisdom, and it has all come about through the arrangement of a manager. And in this life that we are living, by knowing the attribute of Vâli, by thinking about it, we should live correctly so we can make everyone happy with our administrating and so that we can, ourselves, with this happiness, gain our victory. If the opposite of this happens, then we will see harm and we will suffer.
I am going to tell a story, something that actually happened a thousand years ago. One of the Abbasid rulers, a famous Sultan whose name is known in history, had a brother called Behluldanah, a very beautiful dervish, one full of hikmet; in every action he would create an image of Allah. But because people did not understand him, they would look at him as one who was Mejnun, or crazy. One day Behluldanah came to the palace. He went to the Sultan’s throne room, and when he saw that there was no one there, he sat on the throne and put on the clothing of the Sultan, dressed himself up to be the sultan. Sitting there, he started to pass judgment, to rule; as a governor he started to give out rulings. The vizirs, the counsellors who work in the palace, came to him and saw that it was not the Sultan who was in the room but Behluldanah, who was sitting there giving rulings to himself as if he were putting on a play of the Sultan. So they grabbed him and beating him they threw him out of the gates of the palace, and Behluldanah sat there and began to cry. He waited until the Sultan himself came and saw him there. He cried.
The Sultan came and looked at him and he said, “Ya Behlul, why are you crying? But should a person cry?” He said, “I am not crying for me, I am crying for you.” And the Sultan said, “Why?” At that moment the vizir came. The Sultan said, “What did you do to him that he is crying?” The vizir said, “He sat on your throne and was pretending to be the Sultan and he was giving rulings and passing judgment all by himself and so we beat him and threw him out. That’s why he is crying.” Behlul said, “No.” He said, “I am not crying for the beating that I received; I am crying for you.” The Sultan said, “What does this mean?” And he said, “I sat there for ten minutes and I got such a beating, and you have been sitting there for years governing, passing rulings, and I wonder how much of a beating you are going to get, and this is what I am crying about.”
So we have to know the attribute of Vâli of Allah very well. We have to be our own vâlis, our own governors, and we have to live in peace with our nefs, our souls, and also live among people in peace. If we play the role of the governor and the attribute of Vâli well, then we will serve each other beautifully and pass ruling.
Allah Vâli, Allah Hu.

Al-Muksit: The Equitable One

The esma of Muksit is one of the 99 Names or attributes of Allah. It is an attribute that shows that the Creator Allah has created everything in a proper and fitting way and dispenses everything with fairness and equity. Now we are going to do the teffekür, the contemplative meditation, of this esma, and insha’Allah after the teffekür we will try to explain it.
You know that the 99 esmas are the attributes of Allah, but they work on the human being, and one of these is the attribute of Muksit. Allah the Creator has created the endeavors and the actions of everything that He has created in balance and in harmony. He has created it in such a harmony, that He has dispensed to everything that He has created according to its Hak, its allotment or share. This is one of the greatest attributes that shows His compassion and His mercy, because this dispensing is done through His justice and His compassion. He has met everybody's needs according to their share. And He doesn't lose anybody's work. Whatever anyone needs, He will give his share, his allotment in a beautiful way. Nobody's share passes to another. Everyone gets their rizk, their allotment, according to this dispensation.
I will give an example. Allah created the eye, and He's given it such conformity that He has made it able to see everything of goodness and beauty. He has given the ear, and He has dispensed the ability to hear to it. And they have established such a harmony with conforming to the outside that they do not disrupt one another; they all complete each other, and they live within balance.
No one can come up against the other. Whatever falls to you in the disbursing, you have to live with that. The duty that befalls us here is not to disrupt this balance, and in order to let this goodness and beauty live, in the same way that Allah dispenses, we also have to dispense among each other. We are not to take each others' rights away, and the words that we speak have to be in balance and in harmony with the actions that we perform. For example, if our words are one, and our action is another, then the balance is disrupted. Allah didn't create in this way. And He is allowing us to make this attribute work in us in this way so that we can do the disbursing among people with our justice, mercy and compassion.
Whatever comes, as much as is possible, we have to work correctly. We're not to infringe on each other's rights, and we should try to protect each other in a spiritual and material way. Because within this dispensing of Allah, there is also protection--His watchfulness. He has created everything in such a harmony that when we look at it, we see that everything serves one, everything is within one balance, and everything is showing the existence of one goodness and beauty. There is nothing that is separate.
Every dispensation has been established within this harmony, meaning that everything is doing its duty in its place and in its time. He created your hand, and He has dispensed the energy to your hand in such a way that the goodness and beauty that your hand can give, for example, the foot cannot. And the energy that has been dispensed to your foot has not been given to another part of you. But the unity within this dispensing is in such a balance that all of their service is to one place, and in one way. They all come out into the open in a beautiful harmony.
Let me give an example. There is an instrument which we call the saz or lute; it has five or six strings on it, and it has frets, all different ones. Each fret, according to its dispensation, gives a different energy, and we call these notes. When we start to play, they give a sound in harmony--all of their notes are different, the energy that was dispensed to them is different, but the one song that comes out shows one service. All those notes don't give different sounds; they all serve the one song. Now this is a very simple example, but everything that Allah created is in this way. Everything in one harmony, with the same balance, all serving one place. And the duty we have is not to disrupt this balance, and to use everything that is created in its time and place.
In the same way that when you are going to be building a building, you use all of the material in its time and place; for example, you don't put gravel in the lime, or you don't put wood into the cement. Everything that is needed in the building, you dispense in such a way: you do it with justice, and you figure their balance, and you don't mix them with one another, so that the harmony in the dispensing which you are going to be doing is beautiful. But if you are not able to establish this balance, if its harmony is not beautiful, then that building will collapse. And it is here that you have to show your justice and your compassion, and the dispensing which you do has to be done accordingly.
Do not separate from the correctness. Live thinking of all goodness and beauty. Allah is Muksit in this way.
Allah Muksit, Allah Hu.


Al-Ghani: The Rich
Allah Ghani Allah Hu.
The esma of Ghani is one of the attributes that shows the richness of Allah. This attribute of richness is completely and certainly of Allah. The power inside of this attribute is the attribute that creates richness. It has no need of anything; everything that is created has need of Him. In one of His ayats in the Qu'ran, Allah says, I am the richness of the worlds I have created. Everything that is created is dependent on me, He says. And in another ayat He says, I am the rich one; everything that I have created is fakir, is poor.
Here the poorness means the one who has need, and our need is completely for Allah's richness. The richness of a person is in passing. No matter how rich they are, they are still dependent, they are still wishing, and nothing stays in their hands. It is only if he asks the help of Allah that he can keep this richness in his hands. And to let this richness be lived, the responsibility, the duty, that Allah has given to people, is generosity. To give your zakat, to give your sadakha, your charity, to help people, and to spend your money on the road of Allah; and as you are doing that you would have been thankful, shukr, of Allah, and the richness that Allah has given you will increase. And one of the spiritual pillars are the ones who are rich, are the ones who do shukr, who are thankful. This is the spiritual pillar of the world. In Tassawuf, in Sufism, these are called the rich ones who are thankful to Allah. To "do shukr" means not just to say it with your tongue, it's to let your thankfulness towards Allah be known through your actions. Here there is sacrifice, there is giving; you have to give love, and get love. You have to give respect, and get respect. As you give this goodness and beauty, then you will get the goodness and beauty, and then you will be as Allah wishes, one of those rich ones who gives thanks.
The esma of Ghani is not like the richness that we know. Inside of this richness there is a creative power. At all times, this power, with the order of "Kun", "Be", is being created. Allah has a treasury that knows no limit, and that is between the Kaf and the Nun. And from this place is always coming the order "Be", and passes this richness on. This is a richness that is so endless! We are all in need of this. We have to know our own poverty, and we have to plead to Allah, that Allah makes us one of those beautiful, rich servants. Richness is not just the richness of money; there is also the richness of goodness and beauty. There is the richness of respectability and character. If Allah has given you this kind of richness, don't become proud. Don't think yourself big. Be aware at all times that you are creat4ed, and understand that you are the one in need, and say to Allah, I am fakir, I am poor. All of the prophets came with this richness. They have shown us the beauty of Allah, and let us know the being of Allah, and they have passed this richness on to us. Even though they were so rich, they didn't say, We are rich. They said, Ya Rabb, you are Ghani, rich, and I am fakir, poor. These were the rich evliyas, these saints, these prophets. They weren't rich in money, they were rich in character, rich in knowledge, they were the rich that were in possession of the endless treasury of Allah. Even though they were in such a state, they said that they were fakir, poor. Hazret-i-Muhammed says in one of his hadiths, I take pride in my poverty. They have always been together with the poor, they ate with the poor, they slept with them, and they never showed themselves to be big in front of them; they always lived with humbleness, and they proved the wealth of Allah.
And we should be so, that Allah who is the wealthy one can be known and seen. That means, I am rich, I am wealthy, I have lots of money, I have a mind, I have my beauty... All of this looks at one spark, at one pimple!
You can be very beautiful, and so in this beauty you're rich, and you say, there is no one more beautiful than me, and you will forget your need of Allah. Allah will give you a sore, or a wound, or you will have an operation, and you will become ugly, and so there, they wealth of beauty ends. You can have the wealth of property, you can have the wealth of money; in one night He can make you poor, in one fire everything can disappear.
So don't forget the wealth of Allah. No matter what kind of wealthy you may be, always feel your need of Allah. And be thankful, have shukr, for your own poverty. We are poor; the one that is wealthy is Allah. As we know our poverty, we will pray, and we will ask for this goodness and beauty from Him, and He will look at how we are living, and then He will offer us this goodness and beauty. The one that is wealthy is Allah. Allah is Ghani, and we are fakir, we are poor, and our poverty is need. We all have need of Him. We are all waiting for His rahmet, compassion. We are waiting for His beauty, and we have need of His ashk, His divine love. Annd when we live with His ashk, we will understand all of our responsibilities, and we will be qul, servants to Allah, and this beauty in our responsibility will bring us closer to Allah.
Allah Ghani Allah Hu

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Al-Mani: The Preventer of Harm

Allah Mani, Allah Hu.
The esma of Mani is one of the 99 Attributes of Allah. It is the esma that shows that Allah the Creator, in order to prevent His servants from falling to harm, will prevent them from things. Now we are going to do the tefekkür, the contemplative meditation. of this esma, Insha’Allah. And Insha’Allah after the tefekkür we are going to try to explain this esma with some symbols. Let us say it again:
Allah Mani, Allah Hu.
You know that tefekkür is one of the most valuable parts of the Islamic worship. Tefekkür is not thinking. You leave the esma that you have just received in the depths of your mind in a state of submission to Allah, trusting in Allah. With the energy that it creates there, the manifestation of that esma spreads throughout your whole body. If you try to do the tefekkür of an esma by thinking about it, other ideas and thoughts will come into that thought and some mistakes will be born through the influence of your nefs, your ego self. So thinking of absolutely nothing, you have to just establish that esma there and establish your rabita, your connection with Allah. Then the true energy, the Nur, the Divine Light, will come into being.
The esma of Mani of Allah is an esma that is born from Allah’s watchful and protective attributes so that His servant will not fall into harm and is prevented from doing so. Allah has created His servants with love and sent them to this world, but because people have forgotten Him, He is bringing the people back to the Path through these esmas, through these Names. Now, who is it who explained these esmas? All of the Prophets have opened up the existence of the esmas. But these esmas are working in every human being and they bring people toward goodness and beauty. If a person follows his nefs, his self, his soul, Allah will see that and will see that he is going to do harm with his nefs; immediately Allah’s esma of Mani will come into play and will distance him from that, because Allah has given us the nefs and with this nefs Allah is having His own work performed by us here in the world. But because He wishes this nefs to be worked in a beautiful manner, He has made these esmas as a gown to be worn on top of this nefs. But because people are not aware of this, because they live in heedlessness, they have certain desires and wishes, but not knowing if those desires and wishes are going to be a good blessing for them or not, they hurry so that it happens. And there Allah, through His esma of Mani, puts up obstacles so that it doesn’t happen. Because if it does come through as they wish it could be for their harm and so in order that that does not happen Allah creates such causes that prevent it from happening. If you think of it in this way, we are going to see how this Mani esma works in our day-to-day lives very much. For example, we read in the newspaper or hear in the news and sometimes we are also witness to the events ourselves.
I’ll give an example. A man is ready to get on a ship and go to wherever he is going to go. But he does not know what is going to happen with this ship. On his way to the ship an obstacle comes and he is late and he misses the boat. Time passes and he hears that in a storm this ship was turned over, capsized by a large wave and sunk. And so that Allah could protect this one there, He put into the workings the esma of Mani, the Preventor. You are going down the road, for example, and you are hurrying somewhere in your car, the traffic jams up, and you do not know why it is jammed. Maybe if you had passed by there ten minutes earlier something very bad was going to happen to you. Your going ten minutes later became the manifestation of the esma of Mani. So you went there ten minutes late but you did not see anything bad happen and you got there in a good way. We are giving these examples so we can all understand how the esma of Mani works, because Allah created the human being as beautiful and whatever He has written into his kader, his fate, only Allah can know. Even the angels do not know and He did not even allow the Prophets to know. So for the beauty and goodness of that servant, He creates always His own beautiful wishes.
Let me give another example. We are poor and dependent; we are like small children, so like a small child we go and we ask for a hundred thousand dollars from our father. Now, will our father give us this? What is a ten year-old child going to do with a hundred thousand dollars? He can do bad things and he can harm many things with this. And Allah’s servants are the same way. Allah knows the servants that He has created and because He knows what He is going to use where, He is not hasty in His judgment. He knows when to give and He creates the goodness and beauty of His servants. The esma of Mani of Allah is always working within us and with this esma He is making us more beautiful.
So what should we do in the face of this esma of Mani? We should not be hasty but we should take our precautions. Let us not live as stupid, let us make our plans but let us not ask insistently from Allah. We have to wait and when Allah wishes, it will manifest and maybe that time will be the most blessed for us. Maybe if it had manifested earlier, it would have been harmful for us. The sole duty that we are to perform here is to trust Allah and to be surrendered, submitted to Allah.
Now we all have nefs, but we do not know how to use this nefs and the things that this nefs creates as bad have taken command of our mind, have taken our mind as prisoner. And because our mind is working within that system, it is keeping us distant from what is good and beautiful. Allah created us lovingly and because He gave us all that is good and beautiful, with this esma of Mani He is keeping us back from those bad desires and He is holding us back from bad actions. In order for us to understand this well, we will see this in our day-to-day lives and we should see this in our day-to-day lives. That is why we should always be thankful for every state that we are in.
Say for example an illness comes to you. You do not know why it came; maybe if it did not you were going to be a very harmful and bad person. Your nefs was going to be raging and you were going to be a murderer or you were going to be a monster that put people against each other, but because Allah loves you, He gave you an illness and with this esma of Mani, the Preventor, He prevented you from being that thing.
I will give you an example on this subject. You know that Yezid, who gave the command for the massacre and murder of Hazreti Huseyin in Kerbela, sent news to his greatest commander calling him to go to the front of his army, the command of his army. Now let me tell you what was happening with the commander at the time. This was a commander with great belief, very strong. One day he went up on the roof of his house, having no idea of anything, and he was changing the tiles on his roof. But as he was doing it, he was getting closer to the edge of the roof without being aware and his wife from below shouted out, “Efendi, you have come to the edge of the roof; watch out or you are going to fall and break something now. Leave that alone and go work somewhere else; that place is dangerous for you.” But the man continued his work and he said, “What Allah says will happen,” and as he was repairing that place in fact he did fall and break his leg. His wife shouted at him, “You didn’t listen to what I said; look, you fell and you broke your leg. What are you going to do now? You are not even going to be able to go to your work.” And so that woman got angry with her husband. And they laid him in his house and he did his healing, and when the remedies and treatments that were used in those days was done, for a month he could not stand up.
At that point, Yezid sent word to him, “Let him come to the head of the army, he is to cut off the heads of Hazreti Huseyin and all of his family in Kerbela.” And the man said to the soldiers who came for him, “Tell Yezid my leg is broken, I am lying in bed for months. I have no strength, no power.” And the soldiers saw what state he was in and they went and told Yezid that the commander was in a weak position with his leg broken, he could not get up, there was no possibility for him to come. And the commander said, “Ya Rabb, Alhamdu sena, the greatest praises to You, thank You very much. It is a good thing that I fell from that roof and You broke my leg. You prevented me, you were Mani for my doing something so terrible as that. This is the esma of Mani.
Allah will give you an illness maybe to prevent you from doing things that are bad or if you are going to be doing whatever work, with His Muta’ahir, with His Ahir esma He will postpone your doing it. Why? For your goodness and beauty. If that man’s leg was not broken, then he would have been forced to follow Yezid’s commands and he was going to go there and he was going to spill the blood of evla de Rasul, the children of the Prophet. What happened with the esma of Mani, the Preventor, was that his leg was broken, he became ill, his body became discomforted, but his heart was in huzur, in peace and tranquillity, and he entered into Paradise.
So what do we understand from this? It means that the esma of Mani is an esma that protects us from every kind of badness. We are not aware of this, but we have to be thankful of every state that we are in and be submitted, and strengthen our trust in Allah. All of the esmas are working in the human being and with these esmas people can have such a rabita, a connection, with Allah, but they are not completely aware of this. It is working all the time, at every instant, but people are not able to think of it. That is why all of the Prophets, all the velis, all the evliyas, the saints and Friends of Allah, all of the murshidi kamils, the mature spiritual teachers, all studied in the schools of the esmas, of the Beautiful Names. And through the events and the experiences of life they saw the existence of these Names within themselves and first of all they enlightened their own being and then they held that light to people.
May Allah make us beautiful human beings. May Allah protect us from what is bad. May He increase our submission. May He increase the ashk, the endless love, in our hearts. And may He offer beauty and goodness to our world. The systems in which the esma of Mani is working in the world are always working through hikmet, wisdom. One part is torn down, another part is built up. Some are made to cry and some are made to laugh. These are the games of the esma of Mani. Allah does this so people become beautiful and He gives lessons so that we know ourselves. That is why we are to trust in Allah and be submitted and give duas, prayers, and serve one another as much as possible.
May Allah make us beautiful human beings.

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Al-Baki: the Everlasting One

Allah Baki, Allah Hu.

The attribute of Baki is one of the 99 esmas of Allah. The attribute of Baki lets us know the endless strength and the eternal nature of the Creator Allah. The being of Allah is a power that has no beginning. His being is eternal and endless. Everything that is created will pass. Everything is finite. Everything will find nothingness. It is only Allah who will remain Baki. In Surah ir-Rahman in the Qurani Kerim, in the 26th and 27th ayets, Allah says: “All that is on earth Will perish: But will abide (forever) The Face of thy Lord-- Full of Majesty, Bounty and Honour.” According to the commands of this ayet, everything will come to nothing. What will remain eternal is this endless energy that is within Allah, which is working in this life.
The most valuable being of this energy is the human being. Human beings come and go. They show that they are finite. But if there is a being that does not go and remains Baki, which is the being of Allah; it is the essential body that the human being has gained. The place of gaining it is within this finite life that will pass and go away. Here we are going to learn and here we are going to work, and it is here that we are going to find this beka, this eternal world.
For example, the doctor practices his profession. He dies and goes, and his profession also ends. What part of this remains Baki? It is the service that he has performed for people through his work. If he has gotten the seal of Baki in the work that he has done, then it will not disappear and will live with the attribute of Baki of Allah. For example, one of the poets of Islam, Hazreti Baki, said it in this way: “What remains eternal is the goodness and beauty that you leave behind. You are finite; everything is finite, will come and go, but the work that you leave behind, the beauty that you leave behind for people, will make you continuous and eternal.”
We look at history. So many beautiful people have come and gone, prophets and saints. With the beauty they have left behind they are showing the attribute of Baki of Allah. In the ayet that we have just recited this is what is said. Everything is going to end; what will stay Baki is the face of Allah. This face is the essence of everything that has been created. Do you know where the essence can be seen from? It can be seen from the face, but this face will pass. It is physical. It will disappear and go, but the essence will not disappear. The essence within that being will find the attribute of beka, the eternal, and in Tasawwuf, Sufism, this is called beka billah, to be beka in Allah.
Everything that Allah has created is meant to end, and this attribute of Baki of Allah is not recorded in any kind of time. Time has been created for human beings, and is also a creation. It too will disappear and go. Time is a unit to measure life with. It shows the flow of life. It is with time that people can know themselves, and know what they have done. But in Allah there is no time. His being continuous is not in a way that we understand. We are recorded within a specific time, but for Allah there is no record. When there was no time He existed. He existed when there was no world. When nothing was known He existed. Neither is His beginning nor His end known. For this to be known He created from His own being this universe and these people, and He created time. He created these as finite, which means that they will pass. But this eternal life, this Baki life, can be found inside of the finite life. We have to be careful of what we do. Do not forget that we will all disappear, and do not forget that the goodness and beauty that we do will stay eternally. This is the being of Allah.
It is here that we are going to find it, here that we are going to gain it, and from here that we are going to take it. This is our responsibility. This is an emanet, a trust that has been given to us. Life is the most valuable creation. We are always saying that people should know the value of this. They should not let their time go to waste. They should not occupy themselves with empty and wasteful words. They should constantly be creating goodness and beauty in their thoughts so that the work they do, the duties they perform, will be beautiful and good. Then the attribute of Baki of Allah can be found.
It is in this way that the attribute of Baki works in the body. You know that these 99 attributes have been stamped on the human being. They are always working in the human being, but because we are not aware of this, it is opened up and explained to us so that we can come to awareness. By finding the beauty and goodness of these esmas we can go to the new life with this beauty and goodness. Everything passes but nothing is lost because in the esma of Baki of Allah, everything is. If we look back, millions of years ago people came and went. Everything changed, but their energy has not disappeared. This is existence. This is the attribute of Baki.
Allah Baki Allah Hu.

Bektashi Principles

This is a commonly cited set of ideas from one of my favorite Sufi saints, Hajji Bektash Veli. Though I am not myself a Bektashi, he is in many ways the Sufi saint I feel most connected with. I think this list is one of the most beautiful encapsulations of the Sufi path.


Principles of the Bektashi Path

• Seek and find.

• Whatever you do, do it for the Truth.

• There exists in you a “there is” to replace every “there isn't.”

• He who walks the Path never tires.

• There is no rank or station higher than the Friend's heart.

• The one who is wise but doesn't share his wisdom is ignorant.

• To the ignorant, abandoning what is no longer needed is death;
to the wise it is birth.

• There is no repentance of repentance.

• Let your heart, your hand, and your table be open to others.

• Look for the key to all within your deepest being.

• Whatever you seek, look within.

• Do not forget your enemy is also a human being.

• The beauty of human beings is the beauty of their words.

• If the path appears dark, know that the veil is in your own eyes.

• All blessings upon the one who overlooks another's shortcomings.

• All blessings upon the one who makes a secret of secrets.

• The Word is Truth.

• Do not hurt others, even if you are hurt.

• Hand-in-hand, hand in Truth.

• One hour of meditation is better than seventy years of piety.

Other sayings attributed to Haji Bektash Veli include:
- “The best book of all is the human being,” and
- “Educate your women, a nation that doesn't educate its women cannot progress.”

Prayer for the Murshid, adapted from Hazrat Inayat Khan

Inspirer of my mind, consoler of my heart, healer of my spirit, your presence lifts me from earth to heavern. Your words flow like a sacred river, your thoughts rise like a divine spring, your kind feelings awaken sympathy in my heart. Beloved teacher, your very being is forgiveness. The clouds of doubt and fear are scattered by your piercing glance. All ignorance vanishes in your illuminating presence. A hope is born in my heart by breathing your peaceful atmosphere. Inspiring guide through life’s puzzling ways, I feel from you the abundance of baraka.

Abridged Mevlevi Wird
Connect your heart to the heart of Mevlana
Fatiha
• 99 Asaghfirullah
• 99 La Illaha Ilalla
• 99 x 3 Allah
• 11 HU
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Bektashi table blessing:

Bismishah eyvallah diyelim kadim Allah diyelim geldi Ali sofrasi. Destur, ya Shah, diyelim, Shah versin biz yiyelim Shah demine keremine HUUU….
Bismishah. At the beginning, let us say Allah. Let us say Eternal God.
The table of Ali has come. Let us say, Destur, ya Shah! Let the Shah give. Let us eat, for his reign, for his kindness, HUUU…

A prayer of Hazreti Nurredin al-Jerrahi
Ya Allah, cause the sun of your knowledge to rise in the night of our worldly existence, illuminate our horizons with the light of your wisdom, adorn the sky of our world with the stars of your love. Annihilate our actions in your actions, drown our shortcomings in your might, and obliterate our will in your will. Oh, Allah make us servants to you in every state, surrendered to your divinity, ever conscious of your Lordship, not fearing your blame nor incurring your penalty. Oh, Allah! Make us pleased with what pleases you. Be kind to us in what is destined for us. Make us content with the mercy that descends from you heaven and annihilate us wholly in your love.

I looked everywhere in vain to find the True God:
I searched around and did not know that I had him in my own heart.
Na’im Frasheri (Bektashi)

Nur Ali Elahi

Inspirations from Ostad Elahi

Above is an image of Nur Ali Elahi (also known as Ostad Elahi) as a young dervish. He was a beautiful soul, and excellent writer and a fantastic musician from the Ahl-ul Haqq community of Iran. They are a group who are in some ways similar to Turkish Alevis. I highly endorse the site http://www.ostadelahi.com as a resource. His son Bahram Elahi is also quite interesting. Anyone interested in the Ahl-ul Haqq should also certain try listening to the Razbar Ensemble as well-- very interesting.



Prayer is not limited to a particular time and place… whenever you are with God, God is with you…
Ya Allah, only your mercy is greater than my sins.
Absolve my sins and those of all believers. Illuminate our hearts with the light of faith. Bring joy to our souls with the Light of Ali.
Whatever leads to orfer and peace for people comes from the Source of Truth. Practice it for yourself and for others, and stay away from what is counter to it.
Beyond that, you may embrace any religion not opposed to these principles, provided you practice its commandments in good faith.
I pray for Your mercy, goodness, and blessing for the souls of my parents and all believers and, indeed, all creatures.
Bless me with the happiness of knowing you.
--Ostad Elahi.

When you are suffering, think of me.
Just for us to remember each other is enough.
--Sherif Baba

Important Prayers and Qura'nic Passages in our tradition.

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Evrad-i Rifa’i

I am including here translations of some Qur'anic passages that are part of the Rifa'i Evrad. I originally had most of the evrad up-- assuming that probably anyone who was reading this probably already had a copy and might be able to help me with the translation/standardized Arabic transliteration project I was embarking on, but a visitor wisely suggested that I probably shouldn't post it without direct permission from Baba. In the meantime however, here are translations of some basic Qur'an passages that are included in it, conveniently in one place to assist people who are already reading it. I am also including the translations of the 99 Names, as they appear on Baba's website. I have left in the descriptions of the Prophets, since these are also standard Islamic invocations.

Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim

Surah Ihlas.

Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem
Qul Huw-Allahu Ahad
Allah-us-Samad
Lam yalid wl lam yulad
Wa lam yakul lahu kufuwan ahad
Say: He is Allah, Absolute Oneness,
Allah, the Everlasting Sustainer of all.
He has not given birth and was not born.
And no one is comparable to Him.


Surah Falaq
Bismi-Llahi-r-Rahmani-r-Rahim
In the name of Allah, the Tenderly Compassionate, the Infinitely Merciful
Qul a‘udhu bi-Rabbi-l-falaq
Affirm with your whole being, “I seek true refuge with the Lord of perpetually dawning Wisdom
Min sharri ma khalaq
Perfect refuge from all the negativity generated by limited conscious beings,
Wa min sharri ghasiqin idha waqab
With which they darken their consciousness,
Wa min sharri-n-naffathati fi-l-‘uqad
Total refuge from the confusion, magic
Wa min sharri hasidin idha hasad
And obsession they project.”

Surah Nas.
Bismi-Llahi-r-Rahmani-r-Rahim
In the name of Allah, the Tenderly Compassionate, the Infinitely Merciful
Qul a‘udhu bi-Rabbi-n-nas
Affirm with your whole being, “I seek true refuge with the Lord and Lover of humankind,
Maliki-n-nas Ilahi-n-nas
The Sovereign of humankind, the Divine Guide of humankind
Min sharri-l-waswasi-l-khannas
Sure refuge from all the negativity that whispers divisively
Alladhi yuwaswisu fi suduri-n-nas, mina-l-jinnati wa-n-nas
Into the pure heart of humanity and into the hearts of conscious beings on the subtle planes of being.”

Surah Al-Fatiha.
(this is, I believe, the rather floral translation used by Imam Bilal Hyde-- I'll repost soon with the version by Shaykh Noorrudeen Durkee or Laleh Bakhtiar)

Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem
Al-hamdu lillahi Rabb il-'alamin
Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem
Maliki yawmi-d-Din
Iyya-ka na'budu wa iyya-ka nasta'in
Ihdina-sirat al-mustaqim
Sirat al-ladhina an'amta 'alai-him
Ghair il-Maghdubi 'alai -him wa la-d-dallin

We begin in the Name of God,
Everlasting Mercy, Infinite Compassion.
Praise be to God, Loving Lord of all the worlds.
Everlasting Mercy, Infinite Compassion.
Eternal Strength of every living being,
Whose Majestic Power embraces us on the day of the great return.
Only You do we adore, and to You alone do we cry for help.
Guide us, O God, on the path of Perfect Harmony,
the path of those whom You have blessed with the gifts of Peace, Joy, Serenity and Delight,
the path of those who are not brought down by anger,
the path of those who are not lost along the way.
Amin

Surah al-Baqara (1-5)
Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim

Alif Lam Mim
Zalik el-kitabu larayhe fihi huden lil muttekin.
Ellezin yuminune bil gaybi ve yukimunes salare ve mimma rzekna hum yunfikun. Vellezine yuminune bima unzile min kablike ve bil ahiratu hum yukinun ulaike humul muflihun.

Alif-Lam Mim . That high ranked Book (Quran) whereof there is no place of doubt, in it there is guidance to the God-fearing.
Who believe without seeing, and establish prayer and spend in Our path, out of Our provided subsistence.
And who believe in what has been sent down towards you, O beloved prophet! And what has been sent down before you and are convinced of the Last Day. They alone are on the guidance from their Lord and they shall surely triumph.

(Baqara 163)

Ilahikum Ilahun wahidun. La illaha illahu ver Rahman ir Rahim
Your God is one God. There is no god but He, the Compassionate, the Merciful.

Ayat l-Kursi

Allahu La ilaha illa Hu
Allah alone. There is no reality or divinity apart from Him,
Al-Hayyu-l-Qayyum
The Living One, absolutely Self-Manifesting and All-Encompassing.
La ta’khudhuhu sinatu-w-wa la nawm
His Divine Awareness never lapses nor sleeps.
Lahu ma fi-s-samawati wa ma fi-l-ard
All heavenly and earthly planes of being belong solely to Him.
Man dhalladhi yashfa‘u ‘indahu illa bi-idhnih
Who is there who could intercede in His presence, except through His own permission?
Ya‘lamu ma bayna aydihim wa ma khalfahum
He alone knows what causes precede and what results follow from each event.
Wa la yuhituna bi shay’in min ‘ilmihi illa bima sha’a
And human beings can grasp nothing of His Encompassing Divine Knowledge except As He wills.
Wasi‘a kursiyuhu-s-samawati wa-l-ard
The mysterious Throne of His Presence permeates every heavenly and earthly dimension,
Wa la ya’uduhu hifzuhuma
As He effortlessly creates, protects and preserves all manifestation,
Wa Huwa-l-‘Aliyu-l-‘Azim
For He is the Most High, the Supremely Glorious.
Allahuma Salli Ala Saydina Muhammadin Abdike Wa Habibike Wa Resuliken-Nebiyil Ummihi Wa Ala Alihi Wa Sabahi Wa Sellim. (x 2)

La illaha ilalla Adam Safiullah (friend)
La illaha ilalla Sit Nabiullah (prophet)
La illaha ilalla Nuh Najiullah (confidant)
La illaha ilalla Ibrahim Khalilullah (intimate friend)
La illaha ilalla Ismail Zebiullah (sacrifice)
La illaha ilalla Musa Kelimullah (conversed with)
La illaha ilalla Isa MinRuhallah (spirit of)
La illaha ilalla Muhammadun Rasulallah
(sallallahu aleyhi wa selam)

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Ya Allah
Ya Hu
Ya Rahman the All Merciful
Ya Rahim the All Compassionate
Ya Malik the Absolute Ruler
Ya Quddus the Pure One
Ya Salam the Savior
Ya Mu’min the Inspirer of Faith
Ya Muhaymin the Guardian
Ya Aziz the Victorious
Ya Jabbar the Compeller
Ya Mutakabbir the Greatest One
Ya Khaliq the Creator
Ya Bari the Maker of Order
Ya Musawwir the Shaper of Beauty
Ya Ghaffar the Forgiving
Ya Qahhar the Crusher
Ya Wahhab the Giver of All
Ya Razzaq the Sustainer
Ya Fettah the Opener
Ya Alim the Knower of All
Ya Qabid the Constrictor
Ya Basit the Reliever
Ya Khafid the Abaser
Ya Rafi the Exalter
Ya Mu’izz the Bestower of Honors
Ya Mudhill the Humiliator
Ya Sami the Hearer of All
Ya Basir the Seer of All
Ya Hakam the Judge
Ya Adl the Just
Ya Latif the Subtle One
Ya Khabir the All-Aware
Ya Halim the Forbearing
Ya Azim the Magnificent
Ya Ghafur the Forgiver and Hider of Faults
Ya Shakur the Rewarder of Thankfulness
Ya Ali the Highest
Ya Kabir the Greatest
Ya Hafiz the Preserver
Ya Muqit the Nourisher
Ya Hasib the Accounter
Ya Jalil the Mighty
Ya Karim the Generous
Ya Raqib the Watchful One
Ya Mujib the Responder to Prayer
Ya Wasi the All-Comprehending
Ya Hakim the Perfectly Wise
Ya Wadud the Loving One
Ya Majid the Majestic One
Ya Ba’ith the Resurrector
Ya Shahid the Witness
Ya Haqq the Truth
Ya Wakil the Trustee
Ya Qawi the Possessor of All Strength
Ya Matin the Forceful One
Ya Veli the Finder and Protector
Ya Hamid the Praised One
Ya Muhsi the Appraiser
Ya Mubdi the Originator
Ya Mu’id the Restorer
Ya Muhyi the Giver of Life
Ya Mumit the Taker of Life
Ya Hayy the Everlasting One
Ya Qayyum the Self-Existing One
Ya Wajid the Finder
Ya Majid the Glorious
Ya Wahid the Only One
Ya Ahad the One
Ya Samad the Satisfier of All Needs
Ya Qadir the All-Powerful
Ya Muqtadir the Creator of All Power
Ya Muqaddim the Expediter
Ya Mu’akhkhir the Delayer
Ya Awwal the First
Ya Akhir the Last
Ya Zahir the Manifest One
Ya Batin the Hidden One
Ya Wali the Governor
Ya Muta’ali the Supreme One
Ya Barr the Doer of Good
Ya Tawwab the Guide to Repentence
Ya Muntaqim the Avenger
Ya Afu the Forgiver
Ya Ra’uf the Clement
Ya Malik al-Mulk the Owner of All
Ya Dhul Jalali wal-Ikram the Lord of Majesty and Bounty
Ya Muqsit the Equitable One
Ya Jami the Gatherer
Ya Ghani the Rich One
Ya Mughni the Enricher
Ya Mani the Preventer of Harm
Ya Darr the Creator of the Harmful
Ya Nafi the Creator of Good
Ya Nur the Light
Ya Hadi the Guide
Ya Badi the Originator
Ya Baqi the Everlasting One
Ya Warith the Inheritor of All
Ya Rashid the Righteous Teacher
Ya Sabur the Patient One


Ya Hannan The creative power in ashk by which we gain our eternality.
Ya Mennan All of the bounty created in the 18,000 worlds.
Ya Deyyan The only Beloved worthy of worship is Allah.
Ya Burhan The most beautiful evidence of the Divine being, the human being.
Ya Subhan Everything created calls upon Allah.


Tekbir
Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, La illaha illalla. Hu Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Velillahil Hamd.

Allahu Ekber Kebira.
Truly Allah is the Greatest of All
Wa-lhamdulillahi Kesira.
And to Allah be abundant praise.
Wa Subhanullahi bukraten wa asila
And glory be to God, morning and evening
Vema erselnake illa rameten lil lalemin
We sent you not but as a mercy for all the worlds
Kul innema yuha ileyye enema ilahukum ilahun wahid.
Fehel entum muslimun?
Say, it is only inspired in me that your god is one God.
Will you then surrender to Him?

Rabbena la tuzig kulubena badr iz hedeytena
Wa hablena min ledunke rahmeten inneke entel wahhab.
Rabbena inneke jamiun nasi li yawmin la raybe fihi.
Innellahe la yuhliful miad.


Our Lord! Let not our hearts to deviate after You have guided us rightly, and grant us mercy from You; surely You are the most liberal Giver. Our Lord! Surely You are the Gatherer of men on a day about which there is no doubt; surely Allah will not fail to keep His promise. (3:08-09)
La illaha illahu vela nabudu illa iyyahu, muhlisine lehuddine velev kerihel kafirun.
There is no god but God, and we worship none but him. We are sincere to his religion, even if the unbelievers dislike it.
Allahuma salli ala sayyidina Muhammad, wa ala ahli sayyidina Muhammad, wa ala as’habi sayyidina Muhammad, wa ala ansari sayyidina Muhammad, wa ala ezvaji sayyidina Muhammad, wa ala zurriyeti sayyidina Muhammad wa selim tesliman kesira.
Dearest Allah, bless our Master Muhammad, and bless the companions, and the helpers, and bless the wives, and bless the descendants of our Master Muhammad and may you bestow upon them abundant peace. HU…

Some poetry from the Alevi/Bektashi tradition:



The drink sent down from Truth,
we drank it, glory be to God.
And we sailed over the Ocean of Power,
glory be to God.

Beyond those hills and oak woods,
beyond those vineyards and gardens,
we passed in health and joy, glory be to God.

We were dry, but we moistened.
We grew wings and became birds,
we married one another and flew,
glory be to God.

To whatever lands we came,
in whatever hearts, in all humanity,
we planted the meanings Taptuk taught us,
glory be to God.

Come here, let's make peace,
let's not be strangers to one another.
We have saddled the horse
and trained it, glory be to God.

We became a trickle that grew into a river.
We took flight and drove into the sea,
and then we overflowed, glory be to God.

We became servants at Taptuk's door.
Poor Yunus, raw and tasteless,
finally got cooked, glory be to God.
--Yunus Emre

We encountered the house of realization,
we witnessed the body.

The whirling skies, the many-layered earth,
the seventy-thousand veils,
we found in the body.

The night and the day, the planets,
the words inscribed on the Holy Tablets,
the hill that Moses climbed, the Temple,
and Israfil's trumpet, we observed in the body.

Torah, Psalms, Gospel, Quran --
what these books have to say,
we found in the body.

Everybody says these words of Yunus
are true. Truth is wherever you want it.
We found it all within the body.
--Yunus Emre

Knowledge should mean a full grasp of knowledge:
Knowledge means to know yourself, heart and soul.
If you have failed to understand yourself,
Then all of your reading has missed its call.

What is the purpose of reading those books?
So that Man can know the All-Powerful.
If you have read, but failed to understand,
Then your efforts are just a barren toil.

Don't boast of reading, mastering science
Or of all your prayers and obeisance.
If you don't identify Man as God,
All your learning is of no use at all.

The true meaning of the four holy books
Is found in the alphabet's first letter.
You talk about that first letter, preacher;
What is the meaning of that-could you tell?

Yunus Emre says to you, pharisee,
Make the holy pilgrimage if need be
A hundred times-but if you ask me,
The visit to a heart is best of all.
--Yunus Emre
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Kaygusuz Abdal (14th–15th c.)

The Hidden Treasure Is In Me
The ocean, the endless sky,
the quarry and the gems are in me.

Open your eyes, look carefully:

both worlds are in me.

The spirit and the body,
the proof and the evidence,

both profit and loss—

the whole marketplace is in me.

I am the purpose of mankind,
the whirling movement of the earth;

I am the school and the knowledge—

the seal of completion is in me.

I am the Muslim. I am the Christian.
I am the place they both consider holy.

I am the crucified savior, the good and the evil—

whatever is—is in me.

I am the Infinite, the Eternal;
I am the wealthy and the poor;

I am the rememberer and what is remembered—

Faith and faithlessness are in me.
I am the idol that is worshipped,
the Kaaba* and the sacred relic—

the purpose of human beings
and all that comes with them

is in me.

I am the light particle and the sun itself,
the hidden and the seen;

I am everything existing under its rays—

Lover and Beloved are in me.

I am Kaygusuz Abdal, the soul in everyone.

I am the infinite and the eternal.

The hidden treasure is in me.





Ashık Veysel (20th c.)

There You Are
I hide Your beauty in my eye;
Whatever I look at,
There You are.

I hide Your presence in my heart;
How could a stranger live there?
There You are.

You are my foundation and my all;
My intimate one and the word on my tongue;
You bring the greeting from my darling one;
Within that greeting,
There You are.

All the blossoms and tender leaves
They hide their beauty in reds and greens;
In night’s darkness and the dawn’s first beams.
As each one awakens,
There You are.

You are the one who made creation,
who gave life and strength to every being.
There is no ending except for You
I believe and accept what I am seeing:
There You are.

The flute moans “Huuu” in ecstacy
The waves are roaring, the seas are rushing,
The sun appears to veil the stars
In its rays’ vast shining,
There You are.
You are the one who makes Veysel speak;
You are the tree and I am your leaf.
The unconscious fly right by what they seek.
In both the fruit and seed,
There You are.

Yunus Emre (13th c.)
Who Can Know My Mysteries?
I am the infinite, the eternal.
I am the one who gives life to the soul.
For those bewildered I am a cure.
The rescuer and remedy—it is me.

I am the one who stands solid as a tree
Who can know my mysteries?
How can those without soul-eyes see?
The one who enters souls— is me.

At the creation of the earth I appeared
With just one glance I brought perfect order.
I built an inn of welcome from His power
and laid the foundation for love. It was me.

I made the flatness of the plains
and pressed the earthen mountains into forms.
Like a tent flap I stretched the skies
and the whole earth became beauty. It was me.

It is I who created harmony among men.
It is I who wrote the scriptures with my pen.
Black letters on white paper and then
even the Book which He wrote—it is me, me.

It is I who reached union with the Friend.
It is I who followed His orders to the end.
I am the gardener who sculpts the land
and puts the world in perfect order—I.

It is I who comes when the Light arrives
Illuminating the earth and the soul’s eye.
When the sea is rough and surf is high
It is I who guides the ships to safety, I.
It is not Yunus saying all this.
The One is speaking with my lips.
For the faithless, ignorance is bliss.
Where time begins and ends—I.

Interview with Sherif Baba

LOOKING INTO THE MIRROR WITH SHERIF BABA

This is a slightly edited version of a chapter in my MA thesis in anthropology.


I primarily intend to let the Sherif Baba speak for himself in this chapter, but I would like to mention a few things first. In the previous chapter, many of his students gave vivid descriptions of him and of his style of teaching. During my fieldwork, his students consistently described him as playful, humorous, patient, gradual in his method of teaching. Many described how his teachings usually come in the form of stories. In the sohbets and gatherings I attended, almost every question was answered by a story of one of the Prophets (particularly Moses) or of some of the Sufi saints (erenler). He, like many Sufis, draws heavily on analogies to make his points clear.
Sufis, including Sherif Baba, often use the analogy of the mirror. The mirror is a symbol of one who has removed all traces of rust (negativity, selfishness, and disunity) so that he or she can only reflect the qualities beauty and goodness, in essence, the qualities of God. The Sheyh aims to reflect these qualities, and the disciple’s mirror is to reflect that of the Sheyh.
The following interview provides some example of Sherif Baba’s ways of teaching. Though this out of his usual teaching context, he seems to have approached the interview as being more-or-less like a sohbet.
The interview below took place on a return visit (April 27th, 2000) after my intensive fieldwork period. Cem and I rode together to Sherif Baba’s small but charming apartment located in a complex where several of the dervishes live. Not surprisingly, the walls in his study are covered with images of Hz. Ali.
The texture of the interview below is interesting because it reveals the complexity of our connection. At times, I am explaining the nature of anthropology and of my research. At times, the interview is relatively detached; I am an outsider asking questions of the ultimate insider. At other times, however, the connection is far more intimate; more of a relationship between student and teacher. These roles shifted consistently during our interactions, and are similar to the “between two worlds” feeling shared by many anthropologists as a result of very positive and intense experiences with the groups they study.
The following is an interview from April 27, 2000. Following a concert at Silk Road, Cem took me over to Baba’s house and translated for us. In addition to information about Serif Baba and his perspectives, this interview also reveals something of our respective roles in the dialogue of fieldwork. At times, I am an outside investigator interviewing the ultimate insider. I am explaining to him the natur