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.