BismillahirRahmanirRahim

Tarikat is the Way of Intention

Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alamin. Wasalatu wa salamu ala rasulina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajmain nahmadulllahu ta’ala wa nastaghfiruhu wa nashadu an-lailaha ilallahu wahdahu la sharika lah wa nashadu anna sayyidina Muhammadin abduhu wa habibuhu wa rasuluhu salallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa azwajihi wa ashabihi wa atbaihi.

Khulafail Rashidin mahdin min ba’di wuzerail immeti alal tahkik. Khususan minhum alal amidi khulafai rasulillahi ala tahqeeq. Umara il mu’mineen. Hazreti abu bakr wa umar wa uthman wa ali. Wa ala baqiyati wa sahabai wa tabieen, ridwanallahu ta’ala alayhim ajmain.Ya ayyuhal mu’minun al hadirun, ittaqullaha ta’ala wa ati’uh. Inna allaha ma allathina-ttaqaw wal-lathina hum muhsinun. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Wa Salatu wa Salamu ala Ashrafil Ambiya’i wa Imam al-Mursaleen, Sayyidina wa Mawlana Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajmain.

All praises are due to Allah, Lord of the Universes. All praises are due to Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful. All praises are due to Allah, Master of the Day of Judgment. All praises are due to Allah Who has sent His Chosen Messenger, Sayyidina Muhammad (asws), as the Seal of the Prophethood and the Intercessor for his Ummah.

And may all peace and blessings be upon the Pride of Creation, the Imam of the Messengers, the Guide to the Straight Path, the Master of the First and Last, the Grandfather of Hasan and Huseyin, Sayyidina Muhammad (asws). And may peace and blessings be upon his noble family and blessed companions, especially upon the Four Khulafa-e-Rashideen, Hz. Abu Bakr el-Siddiq, Hz. Umar el-Faruq, Hz. Osman el-Ghani, and Hz. Ali el-Murtaza, and all those who follow them until the Last Day.

Ya Ayyuhal Mu’minoon! O Believers. Welcome to you on this Holy Day of Jummah, the First Jummah of the Blessed Month of Zul Qaida. Rasulallah (asws) is saying in his Hadith Sherif about the days we have entered into, ‘The year is twelve months of which four are sacred, the three consecutive months of Dhul Qadah, Dhul-Hijjah and Muharram, and Rajab which comes between Jumadial Awwal and Shaban.’ So we are in the middle of Holy Days as described by the Holy Prophet (asws). We are in the Days of Hajj. Insha’AllahurRahman, let us make intention to be from those who will be counted as the True Hajis this year. Amin.

O Believers! In Holy Days and Nights, we should follow the advice of Hz. Umar el-Faruq who is saying, ‘Judge yourself before you are judged.’ And if we are taking account of ourselves, if we are judging ourselves, then the first thing that we have to look at is our Niyyet, our intention. Because Holy Prophet (asws) is saying in his Hadith Sherif, ‘Verily actions are by intentions, and for every person is what he intended.’ So the one whose ‘hijrah’ (migration) was to Allah and His Messenger, then his ‘hijrah’ was to Allah and His Messenger. And for the one whose ‘hijrah’ was for the world to gain from it, or a woman to marry her, then his ‘hijrah’ was for what he made ‘hijrah’ for.

So everything is depending upon our intention. The second part of this Hadith has a very deep lesson for us. What is one of the greatest action that any human being ever made in history? The greatest action that any human being ever made in history was to make Hijrah with the Holy Prophet (asws) from Mecca to Medina. Yet even in the Hijrah, some people will not be accepted as being for Allah and His Messenger, because the intention behind that good action was dunya. So the warning of the Holy Prophet (asws) coming from this Hadith is that even if we are busy, our whole lives, with good actions and doing good works, those actions cannot be pure until the intention behind them is pure. This warning of the Holy Prophet (asws) must make the one who has belief in his heart to wake up. Because even if someone is saying Shahadat, praying, giving zakat, fasting in Ramazan, going on Hajj, giving charity, and doing every good action, if the intention behind those actions is corrupt, then everything is going to be corrupted.

What are the things that can corrupt the intention? Look to what our Sheykh has been speaking to us all his life. Anger will corrupt your intention. Stubbornness will corrupt your intention. Jealousy will corrupt your intention. And arrogance, it will destroy your intention. Rasulallah (asws) is giving the warning about the effects of corrupt intentions in our next life, giving us a glimpse of the scene from the Day of Judgment. He is saying (asws), ‘The first of people against whom judgment will be pronounced on the Day of Judgment will be a man who died a martyr.’ The first one who is going to be judge will be a man who died as a martyr. Now look to this, there are martyrs who passed because they gave their lives in the small Jihad, in the struggle physically for establishing Haqq. But those are also called marytrs when they are giving up their lives to die for the big Jihad, the greater Jihad, and the Jihad against to our Nafs, against to our ego. That one will be brought and Allah will show that man the favors He gave him and the man will recognize them. Allah will say: ‘And what did you do about them?’ He will say, ‘I fought for You until I died a martyr.’

Allah will say: ‘You have lied – you only fought so that it might be said of you: ‘He is courageous.’’ Then he will be ordered to be dragged along on his face until he is cast into Hell-fire. Then a man who has studied religious knowledge and has taught it and who used to recite the Qur’an he will come forward, and Allah will show that man the favors He gave him, and the man will recognize them. Allah will say: ‘And what did you do with the favors that I have given you? What did you do with the knowledge that I have given you.’ He said, ‘I studied religious knowledge and I taught it and I recited the Qur’an for Your sake.’ Allah will say, ‘You have lied. You did but your studying of the knowledge, you studied it so that it might be said of you, ‘He is a learned one.’’ You studied it so that people will praise you to say, ‘ you are religious.’ and you recited the Quran that they may praise you to say that, ‘he is a reciter.’ Then he will be ordered to be dragged along on his face until he is cast into Hell-fire. Another will be a man whom Allah had made rich and to whom He had given all kinds of wealth, and Allah will show that man the favors He gave him, and the man will recognize them. Allah will say: ‘And what did you do about all the wealth that I have given you?’ and that man will say: ‘I left no path unturned in which You like money to be spent without spending in it for Your sake. I spend all the money for your sake.’ Allah will say: ‘You have lied – you did, you die spent money but you did so so that it might be said of you, ‘He is generous.’’ Then he will be ordered to be dragged along on his face until he is cast into Hell-fire.

Look at the warning. The martyr, the scholar, and the generous man. Maybe their actions benefited so many people. Maybe through them the work of Islam was happening. But because the intention in their hearts was not pure, they found disaster waiting for them in the Next Life. So guarding our intentions is not something extra or optional. Looking and judging our intentions is a matter even more important than life and death- it is a matter of safety and disaster. And governing our intentions, it is not easy. To govern your intention, it is one of the most difficult things. One of the greatest Evliyaullah, Hz. Sufyan el-Thawri (ra) is saying, ‘I have not treated anything more difficult than my intention, because it keeps changing.’

But today we find that people are living neither with a good intention or a bad intention, but that they are living in fact without any intention. People are just living according to the current that is pulling them. If they are born Muslim, then they live as Muslims, not out of belief or sincerity or faith, but out of tradition, out of ritual, out of custom. We even find that people who are in the way of fighting the ego, in the Way of Tarikat, they are living without an intention. Their life turns into a ritual without any meaning. They listen to sohbet without any passion. They make zikr but their hearts don’t move. They mix with the Jemaat but without any feeling coming to their spirit. Instead of becoming more awake in the Way of Allah, they fall more into heedlessness. Why is that? Because they are living without an intention, because maybe their intention change, because maybe they are not looking and guarding and governing that intention. They become like the froth on the top of the ocean, which goes in and out with the tide, depending on the direction of the water. There is an ayat for such behavior. Allah (swt) is saying in the Holy Quran: BismillahirRahmanirRahim. They have hearts with which they do not understand, they have eyes with which they do not see, and they have ears with which they do not hear. They are like cows; no, in reality, they are in a worse place. They are the heedless ones. (7:179).

So what is the opposite of being in ghaflat, being in heedlessness? It is constantly being in the remembrance of Allah, in the remembrance of your Prophet, in the remembrance of your guide. And if we find that we are unable to always be in the remembrance of Allah, then we must be around the people who are always remembering Allah. But people has become selfish, and they wish to live isolated, individualistic, alienistic lifestyle. And they believe that they have faith. They believe that their faith is good enough. So we don’t see them in a group, we see them moving far away, but the end is no good, the end has never been good. Because to be with the jemaat with your spirit, with your heart, with your mind, that is the way of purifying the intention, it is the way of fighting the ego, it is the way of the Sheykhs.

And Elhamdulillah that we have been blessed with one of the Greatest Sheykhs that Allah (swt) ever sent to the Face of the Earth. And he is teaching us through his words, saying to us, ‘You have to learn how to analyze before you do things to understand why you are doing and what is the intention behind. The most important thing, the intention. Before you open your mouth you must think, you must know, you must understand, ‘Where is this word going to reach in the end? What kind of damage is it going to do?’ Before you do any action you must think, you must analyze, you must understand, `Where is the end of this action going to lead me?’ Later, ‘Oh, I have this problem and I have that problem.’ Your problem never ends. It is impossible. It is in your hand to try to do something. When you start correcting yourself, everything around you will be correct. Today’s people are trying to correct the other ones. Don’t! Correct yourself because everyone became Firauns. Namruds and Firauns had some power in their hand, at least worldly power. Today’s people have no power, nothing. And non-stop twenty-four hours a day. So, what’s the job of the prophets? To teach mankind how to control their ego.

The Holy Prophet (asws) is coming from the war. He came to his masjid, he sat and the Sahaba-e Kiram came and they sat. He said to them, ‘Now we are turning from the small Jihad to a greater Jihad, to the bigger Jihad, from a small war to a bigger war.’ They said, `Ya Rasulullah, we are just coming from war, so many of us died, so many are wounded, so much wealth disappeared. Can there be a bigger war than this?’

He said (asws), `Yes. The war that you are going to make against your ego, against your Nafs, that is the biggest Jihad that you are going to make.’ And that Jihad must continue until you enter to the grave. You cannot let it go. You cannot say, ‘Oh, today I fixed myself, my ego is complete, so I’m going to do as I like.’ You cannot do as you like. The more you are completing your ego the more you are going to see Allah’s order more detailed to you. You watch every word that you say, you watch every step that you make. This is the reason of Tarikat. Tarikat is not for you to eat each other, Tarikat is not for people to sit next to each other and hate each other. It’s not that. Tarikat is to teach you, to take you from the lower self and to bring you to the highest station. These are the Words of the Friends of Allah. And through following these words, we will reach to safety.

O Believers! That Jihad of the Nafs, it is never going to finish. Because that ego is always going to try to fool us. But that Jihad, it is the effort that we must dominate our life. Because if we take it seriously, we are understanding that in every moment our ego is trying to fool us and make us fall into the lowest part of hell. And with that understanding, we must be awake. We must not be arrogant. We must not be proud. We must not say, ‘who is that one that is telling me what to do?’ We must not say, ‘we are the same.’ We must put our ego down and in that way we can find safety. The believers, the murids must always be awake. And that time the intention, the intention it will be pure. The intention will be safeguarded, the intention it will be governed, the intention will not be hijacked, the intention will not be corrupted. It is not for us individually just to look and to understand and to judge by ourselves. We have the one that is in front of us. We need the guide and we need the teacher to say. InsyaAllah, that time the intention is going to be pure. And we are going to struggle to make everything we do be for the sake of Allah (swt). In this Way, our Sheykhs are teaching us to make a huge intention. If we make big intentions for Allah’s sake, even if we are not able to see the fruits of those intentions, insha’Allah ar-Rahman we will get the reward, we will get the blessings.

The Master of our Master, Sultan el-Evliya Sheykh Mevlana Muhammad Nazim Adil el-Hakkani (ks) is saying, ‘The Prophet Muhammed (asws), has said that our intentions are better than our actions. This is because our capacity for action is very small. It is like the action of the black ant trying to extinguish the fire of Nimrud. But the intention of that ant it is big and glorious. Like this ant my intentions are very big and therefore my functions are also big and yet so simple. You may imitate my intentions. The most important function for the Muslim World today is to intend the like of what I am intending. We should try not to leave good functions and good actions however difficult they may be. Therefore we must prepare ourselves with our intentions.Everyone must intend that he shall carry away every batil and falsehood from east to west and from north to south, and not to leave anyone on Earth with wrong ideas and wrong intentions so much so that we must try not to leave anyone to be against the orders of the Lord. That is my mission and the mission of everyone.’

May that be our mission. We are making intention to be with our Sheykh. We are making intention to continue his work. We are making intention to be from those who are preparing for Hazreti Mehdi (as), and to be from his followers and helpers. We are making intention to stay in this Way until our last breath, and to pass from this world with that intention and that Shahadat. Amin.

Jumma Khutba by Sheykh Lokman Efendi Hz,
Khalifah of SahibulSaif Shaykh Abdulkerim el Kibrisi (qs),
OSMANLI DERGAHI- New York
2 Zul Qaida 1437
August 5, 2016.