BismillahirRahmanirRahim

The ayat of Amanah Rasul, we are saying it five times a day, the ayat that Allah swt gave directly to the Holy Prophet (asws) on the night of Miraj without the intermediary of Jibril (as), directly Allah gave it. There must be some secret there, there must be some great secret and wisdom there. Now, we are trying to be believers, that everyone has been created to be a servant. Servant, he doesn’t argue with his Master. Servant, he doesn’t negotiate, barter, make business, talking back and forth. The servant, as the greatest servants of Allah, who are they? Prophets. And in the ayat of Amanah Rasul is explaining that, what did the Prophets and the Believers, what are their believes, do you understand, and what are the signs, and what do they say and what do they live by. And they all say, ‘we hear and we obey, forgive us, ya Rabbi, and to You is our return.’ So they don’t argue.

To come to that level of acceptance, to come to that level where you accept that you are a servant, it is a very high level. Some people, they never find it, because, not some, most, they never find it, because most do not accept that they are a servant. ‘What, me, a servant? I’m a master!’ Do you understand? But they are servants to their nafs, to their ego, servant to their desires, servant to this world, servant to Sheytan. Not servant, slave. Yeah. Most are not going to accept that we have been created as a servant. If you don’t accept that you have been created as a servant, you become a slave. So many will take so long for them to just accept, ‘I have been created as a servant.’

Now, just understanding that and accepting it is just the first step. It’s not the last step. After you realize what you are, then you started being, being what you have been created for. Once you start being what you’ve been created for then that time, it is an ocean without any shore. That time, with every understanding, you are going to gain knowledge. You are going to know. Because you are running to know what you have been created for and you’ve been running to fulfill the reason of your creation. And you are going to become a knower. And Allah swt says, ‘there is a knower above every knower.’

There is no end to knowledge. This knowledge, knowing yourself, then knowing Allah, people jumping, to say, ‘I want to unite with Allah.’ What do you think you are? You’re not even understanding what it is inside of you that is coming from Allah, and what is inside of you that is coming from your nafs and Sheytan, you’re not knowing that. So, how now you’re going to be able to return back to Allah? Do you understand? So, now, this is what we are in Tarikat for. The way to Allah, it is the way to Allah. But it is not your way. It is not my way. It is not anyone’s way. The way to Allah, it is the way of Rasulullah (asws), the Holy Prophet (asws) there is no other way.

This is what is Tasawwuf, this is what is Sufism and the way to return back to Allah swt, this is what people of Tasawwuf they are running to. They’re not running for this Dunya, they’re not running, doing the things that Allah orders and Allah likes and Allah loves just to get rewarded so that later they can relax and be rewarded with the blessings and the rewards of Ahirat, no. They are running to return to Allah. Rabbana wa-ilaykal masir. Our return is You. You have created us in Ahsani Taqweem, we must return to You in Ahsani Taqweem.

This is what Tarikat is teaching us, do you understand? It teaches us how to be a servant. It teaches us that servant hood, it is the highest honour. Of all the names of the Holy Prophet (asws) and all the praises that he has, the one that he loves the most is the servant of Allah. Abdullah. And the Holy Prophet (asws) is showing us the way. He’s not saying, ‘this way of Abdullah, it is only to my family, my Holy family,’ no. he didn’t say it is only to the Companions. He says, ‘this is open.’ He didn’t even say this is only to the Muslims. ‘This is open to the whole of mankind.’ That if you look to the example of the Prophet (asws), you will find everything that you need, everything that is familiar to you, everything that makes sense. But to reach to that way of the Prophet (asws), he has left us inheritors, because, now, even if you want to return to that way according to the Holy Prophet (asws), you’re not going through his inheritor, his waris, you’re going to make your own way. That time, very easy for you to deviate.

So, we hear and we obey. Learning how to hear, to listen carefully, that is a lost knowledge, lost treasure. Because nobody listens, anymore. Obeying, when they obey, it is only because they want something. When they obey, it is only because they’re looking for something. But if they obey, they say, ‘now, I obey, give me my reward. I obey, so give me my reward. So, their treatment of Allah swt is not as a servant, abd to Rab, it is a business partner. You’re making business with Allah. But the believer, he obeys. He’s not looking to what good he has done. This is what Sheykh Effendi’s teaching us, all these that I’m talking, this is what Sheykh Effendi’s teaching us. The believer is not looking, we must not look to what good we have done.

If you’re here for me, if you’re here and you are waiting for me to praise you, for the good that you have done, don’t expect that. Your Lord may praise you. His Prophet may praise you, because it is their work. My work is different I’m not here to praise you. I’m here for you to know what it is that you are doing, what it is that you can be doing better. And we can only do better if we understand that what we are doing, it is not perfect. And you are going to say, as a believer, Astarghfirullah. Astarghfirullah. In the Naksibendi way, which is the Sunnat way of the Holy Prophet (asws), you pray, you make your Salat, your Namaz, you give Salams, Asalamualaikum, Asalamualaikum, first thing you say is Astarghfirullah.

Astarghfirullah. You renew your Shahadat, and then you say Astarghfirullah. Why you are going to say Astarghfirullah? We just finished praying. Isn’t the Holy Prophet (asws) saying, ‘when you pray, all your sins will fall off from you like the leaves of a tree?’ so why do we need to say Astarghfirullah? Because we are believers, because the Prophet did, because our prayer, if you are sincere, and the believer must always be sincere, he knows that his prayer it is not complete, it is not hundred percent. It is crooked, someway, somehow.

The attitude of a believer it is not to praise himself when he does something good. Anything good that happens, he praises Allah, not himself. He says, ‘Alhamdulilah, Allah allowed this to happen.’ And if anything bad happens, he is not going to blame Allah or people, he is going to blame himself. Do you understand? And this, you need to take a whole lifetime, maybe, to understand and to practice.

So, when you say, ‘Ghufranaka,’ you hear and you obey and you ask Allah for forgiveness. This is the attitude of a believer. You don’t say, ‘we hear and we obey, now give us our blessing give us our rewards,’ you say, ‘Ghufranaka.’ Because the believer knows that there is a knower above every knower and at ever level of knowledge, he is looking forward to the higher one, and he’s looking at where he is and he’s saying ‘Astarghfirullah’ Let’s not enter into Bayazid al-Bastami, what he went through, and the difference between him and the Holy Prophet (asws). We say, ‘Astarghfirullah’. So, why are we saying Astarghfirullah, too? We know it’s not perfect. And where are we going to return to, it is to Allah. And Allah He is the Creator of Perfection.

So, the return to Allah, it is very long. It is hard, it is a very perilous journey. If it is dangerous, don’t do it yourself. If it is dangerous, make sure you are prepared. If it is dangerous, make sure you have a guide. If it is so dangerous, you’re just going to tell your guide, ‘don’t tell me what to do. I’m just going to follow whatever that you do. I’m going to learn how to submit to you.’ So, Allah swt, he has created us as servants. And we wish to go back to his presence when he calls us, ‘come, My servant,’ instead of saying, ‘come, servant,’ because to be a servant of Allah, you are a Sultan. When He says, ‘come, servant,’ that means you are not His servant. You are a servant of your Sheytan and your own ego, that time you are going to be with the one that you love, you love you ego, you go to Jahannam. Fire. You love Sheytan, you’re going to be in the fire.

If you want to know a man’s religion, if you want to know a man’s Lord, look to see who he loves, the ones that he loves, that is his Lord. Simple. Simple to understand, but to put it in our lives and to be awake to it, it is something that every believer says, ‘I have to do because I want to be sincere to my faith. I don’t want to just say La Illaha il Allah, but I don’t know what is the illah, and I’m not saying La to the illahs that I have.’ Because to the believer, sincerity it is very, very important. The Believer cannot lie. The believer cannot lie to himself especially. He cannot lie. Sheykh Effendi used to tell this Hadiths, so many times. Man came to the Prophet (asws) saying, ‘Ya Rasulullah, can a believer,’ I’m paraphrasing it for your understanding, ‘can a believer steal?’ He says, ‘yes. Believer can steal.’ ‘Can a believer make wrong actions?’ He says, ‘yes, a believer can do that,’ then he asked, ‘can a believer lie?’ He says, ‘no. Believer cannot lie.’

So now, we need to look at our Shahadat and we need to be sincere, because in the grave, when they ask you, ‘who is your Lord?’ this is what they mean. Not they say, ‘who is your Lord,’ but because we hear, someway, somehow, this question asked, and we’re in the grave and we’re going to say, ‘our Lord is Allah,’ no. Whoever that you were serving all your life, your heart is going to speak then, it’s not your tongue. You are putting others into your heart that is your Lord, it’s going to say that. They say, ‘what is your millet, what is the ummat,’ you’re going to say who you like to hang out with, who you want to be, what kind of a group you want to belong to. Do you understand? So, insya’Allah ar Rahman, may we enter into the presence of our Lord, Allah swt, as His servants. We’re learning how to do that by being a servant to the Prophet, and a servant to those whom He loves. To our Sheykh, insya’Allah, may Allah forgive me and bless all of you. Al-Fatiha. Selam Aleykum.

Sheykh Lokman Efendi Hz
Khalifah of SahibulSaif Shaykh Abdulkerim el Kibrisi (qs),
OSMANLI DERGAHI- New York
29 Zul Qaida 1437, September 1, 2016.