Sohbet given by Sheykh Abdul Kerim al-Hakkani al-Kibrisi

Friday 19 Rajab, 1428
August 3, 2007
Osmanli Naks-i’bendi Hakkani Dergahi, Siddiki Center, New York.

[After the Juma prayer someone asked Sheykh Abdul Kerim Efendi:
"Sheykh, please pray for the Ummat."]

Sheykh Efendi: Auzu billahi min ash-sheytanir rajim.
BismillahirRahmanirRahim. Medet Ya Seyyidi Sultanul Awliya, Medet.

There are hadiths for Ahir Zaman, for this time. Holy Prophet (sws) is
saying, “You have to know what you are asking and for whom you are
asking, on whose behalf you are asking.” Today’s Muslims, mashaAllah.
No prayer will help them unless they help themselves. Today’s Muslims
left the main safe road and they entered into the jungle road. And
warning is coming day and night but they are still going in the jungle
world. No prayer can reach. Prayer is only going to reach when they
are making a sincere intention to understand what the mistake they did
and turn back. That is the only time the forgiveness is given to this
nation.

Holy Prophet (sws) is saying, “When you reach to those times in Ahir
Zaman, there is going to be curse coming everywhere”, and the signs of
curse we are seeing now. It is not a blessing of course when the
planes are running over countries and dropping bombs, huh? It’s a
curse. Or everywhere when something is blowing up. You can say
whatever you want. It’s happening there. Why is it happening? What is
the reason and purpose, we have to know. Are we living on the road
that the Holy Prophet (sws) left to us or have we deviated from that
road? We have deviated from the road. The first thing, for the help to
reach to us, we have to turn back to that road again. It is easy for
Allah but it is not easy for us. Allah is looking at our sincerity.
Allah is looking at us and saying to us, “When you turn yourself to
me, your way back to me sincerely, I make the long distances very
short. I can turn all this upside down again the other way.”

NO REVENGE IN ISLAM AND NO JIHAD WITHOUT KHALIFAH

So now the Muslim nations first have to know, “What is our mistake?
Where have we fallen?” The problem is that the Muslim nations and the
Muslim Ummat are not looking to understand to say, “Where have we
fallen?” They are only running to get revenge, nothing else. And that
is not accepted in Islam. The Sahaba-e Kiram fought, they pulled the
sword and they fought for the sake of Allah. They didn’t fight to get
revenge. They fought because they were tyrannizing them and they were
not even letting them to continue with that Shahadat. And order came
to them to fight only then. When power reached to the hands of the
Muslims and the Muslims came back to Mekkah with a big army, what did
the Prophet (sws) do? He took revenge from them? Or did he forgive
every one of them?

This is what happened to us. Today’s Muslims, today’s Ummat that we
are talking about, the ones who are taking the gun and fighting
saying, “We are making Jihad”, their mind is not with them. That mind
is not controlling them. They lost their mind. Without a Khalifah you
cannot declare Jihad. Where in Islam are you finding that Jihad is
being declared without a Khalifah? Who are you to declare Jihad? You
are just another individual. Are you heavenly supported? No. Because
you are not heavenly supported, you are under the tyranny of tyrants.
They are also the servants of Allah subahana wa ta’ala. There are good
servants and there are bad servants. It doesn’t matter. Sheytan is a
servant of Allah also. We cannot say in our prayers, “Remove this
Sheytan from this world.” Can we make that prayer? No. He put the
Sheytan. So Sheytan is coming and whispering. Sheytan is not
committing the wrongdoing, the man is the one who is doing it. Sheytan
is doing his duty. Sheytan’s job is to come and whisper wrong things
to man and if man follows that wrong thing, he will become the tool of
Sheytan. And if he does the wrong thing, it is not Sheytan but the man
is doing it. If the man is doing right and he is following the order
of his Lord and his Prophet (sws), he becomes a tool of the Lord Allah
subhana wa ta’ala and Allah does good through his hands.

So there are two kinds of people now. Now leave Ummat. Now, especially
now because Holy Prophet (sws) is saying, “Ahir Zaman is completely
going to be different. You are going to have nations that will declare
that they have faith but when you search them you are not going to
find a drop of faith in them.” And there are going to be nations who
are going to be called unbelievers, kafirs, but so many of them are
going to be faithful ones. This is it now.

So now if a person comes to you as an individual asking for prayers,
for that one’s behalf you may ask saying, “Ya Rabbi, You are the one
who sent this person to me to ask on his behalf.”

[The questioner says: "I am asking your prayer for myself."]

Sheykh Efendi: Ah, for yourself. That we pray. For the Ummat we pray
differently. We pray differently for this Ummat to turn back, to ask
forgiveness and to say, “Ya Rabbi, we did wrong. Now we realize it. We
are turning back to Your door.” Then as Ali (ra) is saying in his
prayer, “If You close your door to me, I have no place to go but come
back to You again because there is no other door.” He said, “I am not
a perfect one.” He was a perfect one, he was a Murshid, he was
perfect. But he said, “I am not a perfect one but I am not the worst
one also from the ones that are doing the wrong things. I am not the
worst one among them. I am a weak servant, I have my weaknesses and I
am asking for Your forgiveness.” Any person today in this world
sincerely taking this prayer, sincerely believing on it and asking,
instantly the message is coming back to them saying, “I accept your
prayer.”

HOW DID THE UMMAT SEPARATE INTO NATIONS?

Muslims don’t do prayer. Muslims don’t do worship anymore. They don’t
pray. Pray means they don’t make Salat. But Salat is a worship that
you are doing. Asking prayers, asking du’a on your behalf and for the
nations, Muslims don’t do that anymore. They know how to scream and
cry going to doctors, going here, going there and I say, “How many
times a day do you sit somewhere, you open your hand and you ask your
Lord saying, “I am a weak servant. You are giving this to me but I
cannot carry it. Please help me.” How many minutes a day the Muslims
are doing this? If they do it sincerely then we are going to see that
the help is going to reach because Allah is nearer to you than your
own self. But man is not asking today. They only know how to ask from
doctors. The doctor needs a doctor. The doctor needs another doctor.

So we have fallen because our faith has fallen. So we have to turn
back to that faith again, to strong faith. We have to make our faith
to grow first. And the only way to do that is, we have to take the
examples of our role-models the Sahaba-e Kiram. We have to look at
them, we have to see how they lived, what was their behavior and how
did they act in every situation. Then we may turn back to our own origin.

Once upon a time, it’s not centuries ago, it’s not even a century ago.
Up till 1923, hmm? The Muslim nations, the Muslim Ummat was under one
ruling. Now how many rulings? How many nations of Muslims? We say,
“Muslim Ummat.” How many nations this Ummat became? Who put them in
separation like that? Who made that separation? Islam or the Christian
world? They say, “We are following the footsteps of the Christian
world.” Then we turn around and instead of running to the masjids of
Allah to ask forgiveness, we run in front of the United Nations or the
embassies saying, “Help us! Our rights are taken away!” Or going to
Europe, to European countries complaining saying, “We want our
rights!” Your rights? You are running to a wolf saying, “We want our
rights”? (Sheykh Efendi smiles). They are prepared to finish these
nations. That’s what their aim is. You are running to ask help from
them? How heedless these Muslims are becoming. They became real
heedless because they left the way, the traditions of the prophets.

NO GENERAL PRAYER ON BEHALF OF NATIONS

Holy Prophet (sws) is saying, “When those nations leave the ways of
the prophets and they leave according to their ego again, don’t ask
general prayer for their behalf. Ask for yourself and for those who
are running to become obedient to their Lord. Ask for their behalf.
Otherwise, you will be responsible for interfering in the work of
Allah then.” These are dangerous times. When we check all traditions
and Islam, we are seeing that we are coming almost to the end. Still
these nations are sleeping. They are finding some heedless ways and
running. Supermarkets and markets are full, keeping people busy that
way. That’s not the way that the Muslims should do. Muslims are under
this curse because they left their faith. Islam is a lifestyle. Islam
is not only a couple of words. Islam teaches man how to live, how to
eat, how to sleep, how to work, where to work, when to work, where is
woman’s right, where is mAn’s right, where is children’s right, where
is adult’s right, where is olderly’s right, Islam is teaching all this
to us. We lost all this and because we lost, warnings are coming back
and forth to us. We are still not waking up. We are picking up this
wrong lifestyle and continuing to go on that lifestyle. We say,
“Enough! It’s enough! Are you waiting until you are going to fall down
from the cliff? Stop! At least stop on that road. Sit and think a
little bit. When you sit and think you are going to come back to your
own senses saying, `Oh, I am doing wrong.”

WE HAVE SEPARATED AND WE HAVE FALLEN

So when the Muslims and Muslims nations sit and think what they are
doing wrong, they are going to see and they are going to understand,
“Where have we fallen?” That we have to understand first. Now we are
weak. One and a half billions Muslims are weak. But they have
everything. They have all the money in the world and they can get
anything they want too. But they are weak again because we have been
separated. (Sheykh Efendi holds up the palm of his right hand with his
fingers spread out). It is easy to break this finger now. When you are
separated into small nations then it’s easy. They are attacking one,
they are finishing that one. They are attacking the other one and they
are finishing that one, slowly. When they come together, it becomes
strong. (Sheykh Efendi puts his fingers together into a fist). A fist
is not that easy to bring down.

Muslims left Islam. The name of Islam (only remains). Holy Prophet
(sws) is saying, “In Ahir Zaman, their masjids are going to be very
beautifully designed but you are not going to find believers among
them inside the masjids.” The name of Islam is going to stay (only).
People they are going to recite the Quran but the Quran that they are
reciting is not going to enter into their hearts. The masjids that are
going to be so beautiful are going to be empty.” Is that the time we
are in? Tell me. Tell me. Of course we are. Go everywhere and look.
They are building, they are running saying, “Help the masjid brother,
help the masjid.” At every Juma, “Help the masjid. Money, money,
money, help the masjid.” They are building masjids. What are you using
the masjids for? Not even a social gathering anymore. At least if it
was a social gathering and some activities happened, people would at
least be praying there too. They say, “No, you cannot do this, you
cannot do that.” No social gathering too and so the masjids turned
into empty places. No life inside. In the masjids there aren’t any
people with authority to speak to people because people are now
saying, “You cannot tell me this. I paid this much money for the
masjid.” (Sheykh Efendi smiles).

So everyone is thinking. It became like Christian ways now. Christians
go to churches once every Sunday now. Other than that it’s empty.
Muslims, eh, so many are not even going to Juma now. No Juma. Allah is
saying, “This is a holy day for you. The holiest day! Leave
everything. It will become haram to you.” They say, “I am busy. I am
working.” So now I don’t think that at that time we can pray. We can
pray for the Savior, for those who are going to change the way, to
come quickly inshaAllah. Otherwise, the way that it is going, the
patent that the Western countries put into our countries, the way that
they are doing it in Pakistan now, twenty years from now, the way that
it’s going, you will be finding Pakistan like another European
country. Shutting down so many places, this is what Musharraf is doing
too, running and shutting down the Quran recitations and everything
because Western countries are ordering, western countries are saying,
“Don’t teach them Quran now. No need for them to learn.” So they are
going and they are burning the masjids, those squarehead Imams are
fighting with the government, the masjids are burned, people are
burned and everything is burned. This is not Islam. Who are you
fighting for? (Sheykh Efendi smiles).

WE HAVE LOST THE GUIDES, NOT THE QURAN

So, all this happened because we left, not the Quran, they claim that
they have the Quran but they don’t have a guide to show them the
Quran. People they lost the guide and they think that they are going
to find ways. It’s impossible. Allah is giving us to understand saying
to us, “Read and understand.” But reading and understanding is not for
everybody. There are fifty people here for instance. If you read
something, from that fifty people maybe three of them are going to put
it together to summarize. The rest are going to forget the beginning,
middle and they cannot put it together. So reading is something else,
reading and understanding is something else, reading, understanding
and living according to that understanding is something else. So Allah
subhana wa ta’ala is putting guides to us saying, “Those ones read,
they understand and they live according to that, they apply it to
their lives. So they turn around and they bring it down for you, for
you to easily understand.

Opening the Quran is the Surah Fatiha. You make the opening. Right
after the opening, “BismillahirRahmanirRahim. Alif, Lam, Mim.” How
many Muslims are sitting to think, “As soon as we are opening, Allah
locked us with these alphabets. Why is He putting these alphabets to
us? What is the meaning of these alphabets now?” They are not
considering that and they are diving inside thinking they are going to
take something. You are going to take something according to your ego,
according to your ego means according to your level of understanding.
Your level of understanding! You cannot give explanation of the Quran
according to your level of understanding. Quran is speaking the past,
the present and the future. Now what is for you there you may take it
to yourself. But there are so many ayats there that are not applying
to you. It’s applying to these nations, it’s applying to these leaders
and it’s applying to these people that are saying they are the nation,
the Ummat. So then when you take that according to your understanding
and you have power in your hand, like some figures in Islam, they have
money-power and they have gun-power in their hand, they read the Quran
and they say, “Oh, this is the meaning.” That is your meaning, for
you. You cannot take that meaning and apply to whole nations to say,
“Follow me, we are making Jihad.” Huh? This is what happened today.

DON’T ASK PRAYERS FOR THE TYRANTS

Now Holy Prophet (sws) is saying, “If the Nation, Muslims nations,
this Ummat, stays without a Khalifah for three days, Islam is no
longer ruling.” These nations are without a Khalifah for almost a
century now. And never mind about them even to think, “How we can fix
this?” They are standing in front of it. They are standing and saying,
“What you are doing doesn’t fit to Western ideas. We must get rid of
it.” And this is what’s happening in Muslim nations. And if we pray
for the Ummat then we will be praying for all wrongdoers too. Then we
will be sharing their wrongdoings too. We are asking safety from that.
Ask for yourself and for your family members. If they are tyrants then
don’t ask. Check it out. If they are tyrants then don’t ask because if
you are asking safety on behalf of a tyrant then the fire of that
tyrant is going to reach to you too. And tyrants come in so many
different categories.

InshaAllah this Nation will wake up before it’s too late. But we are
reaching to those last days that the Holy Prophet (sws) promised us
and we have very heavy, loaded, painful and difficult days waiting in
front of us. We did not finish it yet, we are just entering into that
era, the time of Dajjal, when the confusion is everywhere. Nobody is
listening to anybody anymore. Everyone is very happy with their mind,
with what they know only, but with what they know they cannot even
move from here to short places. Kids know, adults know, men know,
males know, females know, everyone is knowing. If you say something
saying, “This is from the Prophet (sws)”, they say, “It doesn’t fit
for this time.” (Sheykh Efendi laughs). It doesn’t fit?

Wa min Allahu tawfiq

Bihurmatil Habib

Bihurmatil Fatiha.