Bismi Llāhi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm
Maulana Sheikh Nazimق’s Suhbah
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By the name of Allah, All-Mighty, All-Merciful, Most Beneficent and Most Munificent.
We are asking from the Awliya, the saints, that spiritual power which passes from heart to heart.
Grandsheikhق says, that spiritual power and divine help come to an assembly according to their asking. According to our inner desire comes divine help. Therefore, as much as we are ready to take, they will give.
When a person comes with a (small Turkish) coffee cup, he will be given as much as it holds. If he comes with a teacup, he will be given as much as that teacup holds. If he comes with a soup bowl, he will be given more. If he comes with a jug, still more will be poured into it.
As much as you ask for, they may give, never finishing.
Yet no one asks for a litre of oil and then brings only a coffee cup. Even if he pays, you cannot pour a litre into a coffee cup. It fills and stops. You say, “Bring a bigger cup and I will put it all in.”
Therefore, there is too much that they may give us, but with our small cups, it finishes quickly. I am asking for more of the Awliya’s knowledge.
Our hearts, when the light of faith enters them, become wider and wider. Even if you put all the oceans into them, they will hold them. But our present faith is taqlid, imitation, while real faith is something else.
Imitation is like a figure without a soul, while true faith carries life. That real faith has not yet entered our hearts. When it enters, the whole world will change. Our vision will be changed.
Understand? Everything becomes different. When real faith comes into our hearts and lights them, it is like a blind man who suddenly sees.
What he perceives now is something other than what he perceived before. Therefore, do not think that we already have real faith. No, not yet.
Grandsheikh Abdullah al-Faiz ad-Daghestaniق lived through the First World War from beginning to end.
He made jihad in both forms, the lesser jihad on the battlefield and the greater jihad against the four enemies, namely the lower self (nafs), its desires (hawa), shaytan, and the attractions of this world (dunya).
He once said to me:
“O Nazim Effendi, if I were to tell you of all that the people and I suffered during that war, of the terrible events and trials I saw, this place would be filled with books. You could write volumes.
But everything passes. The events of yesterday are buried and finished.
Today new ones come. If all remained and did not pass, no one could bear the burdens of life. But it is our Lord’s will that they pass.”
He continued:
“In our division there was an Armenian sergeant. He once asked a soldier in front of me, ‘What is your name?’
The soldier replied, ‘My name is Ali.’
‘Are you Muslim?’ the sergeant asked.
‘Alhamdulillah, I am Muslim’ the soldier answered.
Then the Armenian sergeant said, ‘If you say you are Muslim, then I may also say I am Muslim. What I believe should be enough. I, too, believe in One God Almighty, in the angels, the Holy books, the Prophets, the Last Day, and Qadar, the Divine Decree. I say what you say.
But is that enough to be a Muslim? And if it is only about prayer, I also pray. Is that not enough?’”
Grandsheikhق replied:
“Look, you are asking for a sign.
It is not enough only to say with the tongue, I am a believer, I am Muslim. You may even recite Qur’an.
But the real sign of a Muslim, of a believer, is that he carries a light from his Lord Almighty.
When such a one looks down, he sees to the end of this world. When he looks up, he sees to the end of the Heavens.
If he looks to the East, he sees to the farthest East. If he looks to the West, he sees to the farthest West.
And when he looks towards the qibla, he sees the Kaaba.”
When he heard this, the Armenian sergeant fell upon Grandsheikhق’s hands and kissed them.
Grandsheikhق explained that the true sign of faith is the light of faith in the heart, which comes from Allah Almighty. Nothing can prevent that light. Distance cannot hold it back. Darkness cannot hide anything from it.
When real faith enters, the heart becomes illuminated. Everything in the universe is unveiled before such a person. That is the degree of true faith.
Therefore, we are always asking for some light, so that we may keep our service firm before our Lord Almighty. The true worth of a person is according to the light in his heart.
When that light comes, the heart becomes wider than the whole universe. You may find your Lord ﷻ in your heart. The Heavens and the earth cannot contain their Lord ﷻ, but the hearts of believers may contain their Lord Almighty.
We must know ourselves, for we do not yet realize what we are, nor do we understand our true value.
There is a famous story from the palace of the Ottoman sultans, where the most precious diamond of the empire is kept. This is how it found its way into the palace.
One day, a man prayed Fajr in the mosque in Istanbul. On his way home, he noticed a stone in a rubbish heap. He picked it up and looked at it from every side. Passing through the market, he showed it to a spoon maker. “What is this? Would you buy it?”
The spoon maker looked and said, “I will give you a spoon for it. Take this spoon and give it to me.”
The man was pleased. A big spoon was useful for a dervish, as they would carry a dagger on one side and a spoon on the other for eating. What was that stone? Allah ﷻ knows, but he, that person, did not know. He took the man’s spoon and went away.
Then that spoon maker looked at the stone. “What if I were to take it to a jeweler or a goldsmith?” he thought. And he took it to one and said, “See what this is. How much is it worth?”
The jeweler took it. He understood what it was and said, “I don’t mind if it costs me a bagful of silver.”
That was as much as the value of the spoon maker’s whole shop; all his spoons would not bring one bag of silver. He was also so pleased and happy, and he went away.
Then the jeweler was the master of this jewel.
He worked on it, cutting it into facets like rays of the sun, and kept it for the grand vizier, the prime-minister of the Ottoman Empire.
The grand vizier paid a large amount of gold, thousands of pieces for it and presented it to the sultan.
Thus the greatest diamond in the Ottoman Empire was once found in a rubbish heap.
What I mean to say is, only a knowledgeable person can recognise the value of what lies before him. To someone without knowledge, all stones appear the same.
The true value of human beings is completely known by Allah Almighty, who created them and gave them their value. Then, the most knowledgeable person concerning the value of man is the Seal of the Prophets, our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
The other Prophets (AS) take their knowledge of mankind’s value from him ﷺ. The Awliya, his inheritors, also know mankind’s worth.
The Awliya polish people like jewels, arranging them so that their true beauty may be revealed, and then presenting them in the Divine Presence.
Without Prophets and Awliya, people remain like rough stones. Even a diamond, if not cut and polished, will never be placed upon a crown.
Therefore, the most important work of the Prophets and the Awliya is to bring out the true value of human beings, arranging them according to the promise they made on the Day of Promises.
Whoever seeks to be in the Divine Presence, in the first ranks, must follow the Prophets and the Awliya. Whoever does not follow has no value. They remain like stones.
They may be trained after death in Barzakh and in the next life, but they will not reach the first rank of those with the Prophets and the Awliya.
No value for a person who stays by himself and never follows the Prophets and their inheritors! Even in this life, if a person does not follow a college or university course, he never gains any value in his community, people saying, “A simple or ordinary-standard person.”
But the one who follows a course in a university, college or academy, and it is proved by a certificate or diploma, he has value.
As much as you may know by yourself, if you do not follow one of them, you will not be granted any status. You cannot be a doctor, an engineer, or a lawyer, because you are not following any school.
So it is in the spiritual life. One who seeks improvement by himself may gain something, but it has little value. He must follow a Prophet or an inheritor of the Prophets. Philosophers who try to reach truth on their own, without following the Prophets, have no value. We must follow.
The more you follow, the more you reach your true worth, a worth recognised both on earth and in the Heavens. No one can reach that, particularly Heavenly stations, without following someone who belongs to the Heavens.
Without that connection, no one can be a Prophet, nor can he be a wali. It is impossible. Therefore, you must follow someone who is linked to the Heavens. Otherwise, one walking only upon the earth cannot be your guide.
One may find many things upon the earth, but without a guide one cannot find the way to the Heavens. It is so difficult, far, and full of danger.
Therefore, there must be a guide for you. Even for a rocket which is sent into space, it is so difficult and so dangerous to be in it or to have the control of it; you cannot send a rocket into space just through anyone.
He must be a person specially trained for that purpose, knowing best how he can send it. To send a person to the Heavens, it is more difficult than sending a rocket into space. Not everyone can do that.
The one who can, is a servant who was taken to the Heavens through the Prophet ﷺ and returned. He knows the way, and through him, others may be taken.
He comes through the Prophet ﷺ, then through his own Grandsheikhق, never making a mistake.
Do not say, “Why are you not sending us now?” Go and tell that engineer or scientist who is preparing that rocket, “Send it into space now.” Will he listen to you? He is working on it!
Grandsheikhق said that a person may be declared ready for such an ascent if forty scholars of Shari‘ah watch him day and night for forty days.
If they report, “This person is all right from every direction. We, forty scholars, have been looking at him day and night for forty days. In every action and behavior, that person is perfect. According to our knowledge, there is nothing wrong with him.” Then he may be sent.
We are trying now, but then our egos are coming, destroying this path and damaging us. Every bad action damages the inner structure. We are trying to build it, but it is so difficult. But, as we are beginners, it does not matter.
We are practicing, we are building, we are learning, we are preparing ourselves. It is enough to be here humbly and listening; that gives us divine help and readiness.
InsyaAllah, we shall be complete and ascend to the Heavens, seeing the doors open before us.
Many people, when they leave this world and seek to rise to the Heavens, find doors closed because they are not ready. They are sent back to be prepared.
But those who are coming and listening, accepting and believing, they will be ready. Even at the last moment before leaving this life, they will be prepared to reach their Heavenly stations and stand in the Divine Presence.
May Allah ﷻ grant us true faith, real light in our hearts, and the company of His Prophets and Awliya.
May He ﷻ make us polished jewels in His Divine Presence, and never leave us as unshaped stones.
Al-Fatiha.
• Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Haqqaniق
More sohbahs from the Liberating the Soul Series can be found here.
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This series was initiated by the SufiHub Team in honour of the 2nd Urs of our beloved Sheikh, the late Sheikh Muhammad Abdul Sattar Khan, who lovingly dedicated himself to transcribing and summarising the daily sohbahs of Mawlana Sheikh Nazimق.
It was through this blessed service that he began his journey on this beautiful Way in 2008, remaining steadfast upon it until his final breath in 2023. Today, his legacy continues at our Zawiyah at A’Posh Bizhub Singapore through his representatives Sidi Shalihin, Ismail, and Syed Muhammad, who humbly carry forward the path he sincerely paved.
We pray that our dear Sheikh Abdul Sattar has been reunited with his beloved Mawlana Sheikh Nazimق and all our Grandshaykhs, and that their light continues to guide us always on the way of Haqq.
The text was originally taken from Liberating the Soul – A Guide for Spiritual Growth by Shaykh Nazim Adil al-Haqqaniق. With love and sincere intention, parts of this sohbah have been gently revised by the SufiHub Team for clarity and contextual relevance.
If you wish to share it on your platforms, kindly post it in full and ensure that proper credit is given to all its sources. For this is adab, the very core of our beautiful religion and way.
Should you have any queries or concerns, you are always welcome to reach us at thesufihubteam@gmail.com.
Wassalam.
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