BismillahirRahmanirRahim

Question: How can we worship not just for our selves to feel good but instead for Allah’s sake? What intentions should we make?

Don’t worry, you are going to worship and some day, someway, somehow, that high that you get, it may be gone from you. You pray and you get so emotional, you get so close to Allah, so you think, and you feel good, and you want to worship more, and you want to worship more, for what? To increase the good feeling that you have, to increase your high, that’s very low level. What are you going to do then? You may say, ‘I worship for the sake of Allah,’ but, no, you are worshiping for your sake, because you feel good doing it. ‘Oh, you’re trying to tell me we shouldn’t feel good?’ I’m not saying that at all. But I’m saying what if that feeling is taken away from you? So many people they say, ‘I feel fake. I feel bad, I don’t feel sincere,’ so, so many going according to that understanding, they’re going to say, ‘now I’m going to stop praying.’ Why are you worshiping Allah swt, to make ourselves to feel good? Why is that? Because Allah deserves to be worshiped, and, in reality, He has created man to worship Him, because in order to worship Him properly, we need to know Him. When we know Allah then we can worship Allah properly.

So, now, what are you going to do now? You need to know Allah swt. How are you going to know Allah swt? Look to the Prophet, look to the lifestyle, look to the inheritors, look to see what is the purpose and what is the mission that you have in your life right now, for the sake of Allah, for the sake of Islam. Because Allah swt, when He asked, ‘what have you done for Me, ya Musa?’ Musa (as) saying, ‘I’m praying, ya Rabbi,’ He says, ‘no. Prayer is for you, ya Musa. What have you done for Me?’ he says, ‘I’m fasting.’ ‘Fasting, it is protection for you from the Hellfire.’ Give Zakat, do the Hajj, every action, Allah is saying, ‘this is all for you, ya Musa. What have you done for Me?’ Musa (as) was caught. Meaning that now, all the laws of Allah swt, all the Shariat, in reality it is for us, it is not for Allah. Don’t think you are obeying Allah for Allah’s sake, you are obeying Allah for your sake, for your safety, for our safety, Dunya and Ahirat. So, the laws and the Shariat, it is for our sake. Now, when we enter into Tarikat, it is for the sake of Allah. Do you understand? And what is that? Musa (as) asked, ‘what can I do, ya Rabbi, for Your sake?’ Allah swt is saying what? ‘Love those whom I love, and leave the ones that I leave.’ So, yes, it is two. You cannot just say, now, ‘to know Allah, to do something for His sake, I just have to have love of Allah,’ do you understand? ‘Just to feel in love, just to love Allah, Sufism is love, love is love, love, love, love, love, love,’ it’s not enough. Allah swt is saying, ‘you have to leave what I leave.’ Haa, now you enter into nafs, hawa, Sheytan and Dunya. Now you look at the four enemies of man that Allah swt is telling us to leave. If you are not concentrating on those that Allah leaves, you will never attain to that love. Never. You’re not going to.

So, now you need to leave, to hate the ones that Allah hates. And in this way, the way of SahibulSaif, we are learning that first. To leave, to say, ‘go away,’ to say, ‘La,’ too. Then that time, when we start understanding that, we are clearing, clearing and opening what Allah has put that is from His Divine breath that is inside of us, freeing that, and when that is free, it can return to Allah, do you understand? If it’s not free it cannot return. So we’re here to do that. So the intention again, coming back to servanthood, serve the ones, love the ones that Allah loves. ‘Love the ones that I love.’ And to love, it is to be a servant. Once you start doing that, then, you just enter into the Tarikat. That time, you’re doing something for the sake of Allah. You’re doing something for Allah. The law is only going to get you to a certain station, to prepare you, but it is just for us. May Allah forgive me. Fatiha. Selam Aleykum.

- Sheykh Lokman Efendi Hz
Khalifah of SahibulSaif Shaykh Abdulkerim el Kibrisi (qs),
OSMANLI DERGAHI- New York
30 Zul Qaida 1437, September 2, 2016.