There is no one word in western languages that gives the full meaning
of “Al – Wadud”, and even explanations don’t do it justice, even
though the West claims its knowledge to be superior and looks down
disdainfully on every religious experience. And this Holy Name, the
meaning of which cannot even be adequately expressed in advanced
western languages, is the most suitable “Dhikr”, the most suitable of
all the Divine Names to repeat and meditate upon for people who see
themselves as superior beings and as being above normal standards.
“Love”, it is certainly not a concept that western culture is unfamiliar
with, and undoubtedly most people lay claim to loving and being
loved, to knowing the meaning of love, and to it being an important
aspect of their lives, indeed the most important. But the love we refer
to in connection with the Divine Name “Al-Wadud” is not the
physical transitory love that is rapidly becoming the only meaning of
love applicable to modern man : the love that one may find in the
zoo. If you can’t imagine a love other than what is on the level of
animals, then you belong in the zoo.
There is a real love, never changing, never dying love; and then there
is temporary animal love. Both are in man through the wisdom of the
Creator, but the permanent love is the love given to man through the
Divine Name “Al-Wadud”. To realize that love is the challenge and
fulfillment of human existence – to come in contact with those Love
Oceans, for He has given His Divine Love most abundantly to His
most honored representatives in creation, mankind.
You may love a young lady for her youth, and when that youth
departs you love her no more. That is false love. Sometimes we may
have both kinds of love simultaneously, but usually the physical
overpowers the spiritual, so that it is never allowed to appear. But to
reach the ultimate goal of human life we are in need of permanent
love, and it is only the Lord of the Universe who can grant it.
Therefore, when we say “Ya-Wadud” we are opening ourselves up to
that Divine Love, asking our Lord to awaken that love that knows no
limitation, that is eternal and extends to all creation. I have been
ordered to teach and advise people to call on our Lord, saying: “Ya-
Wadud”, as this will enable the sincere to attain real love of their Lord
Almighty and to love everything around themselves. We must learn
to love everything for the sake of the love the Creator has for all His
creation. And we are in utmost need to pray for such love, as,
although it is the essence of all success in the way of spiritual purification,
it has become almost extinct in our times. Therefore, suffering,
disturbances, struggle, crises and chaos are continually on the rise.
What passes for human love nowadays is indeed a very far cry from
real human love. Mostly, people cling to it for two or three months
then throw it away. You are saying: “Oh my goddess”, and she is
saying: “Oh my god”, but look in again on them two or three months
later and see what is left of that “true devotion” and “deep emotion”.
That is the greatest cause of wretchedness in our times. For this
reason I don’t refer to this century as a civilized one. Rather, the
twentieth century is witnessing the destruction of civilization, and
every minute violence and misery are increasing.
A society may be termed “civilized” when it provides the surrounding
in which people may easily reach to the point of extending their
permanent love to everyone. One shouldn’t be so proud of being a
part of “Twentieth Century Civilization”, for I really don’t consider
such a violent and sick society to be civilized, and when I come here I
feel my hair standing on end from what I see. Such wildness! No
familiarity! Everyone looking so suspiciously to each other!
When I say this, people may be offended and put on the defensive,
and may ask: “If you feel such feelings here then why do you come?
Why do you come if you don’t like the Western World?” Yes, people
may ask.
A physician may visit a hospital or a mental institution, but
he is going there in order to do his job, in order to be of benefit to the
patients interned in those institutions. I have been trained to heal
spiritual ailments from a side and with methods not known in these
countries, and so I have been sent by spiritual centers to look after the
Western countries, and if even one person should benefit, we have
profited.
Every little improvement in the spiritual health of western society is a
relief for the whole world, as throughout the world Nations have
abandoned their cultures and are following the West. Therefore, the
diseases of the West are rapidly becoming our diseases, and so, we
hope, improvement in the spiritual climate of the West will lead to
our improvement as well.
Because of this acute situation in our times we must, first and
foremost, seek to awaken permanent love. Practices, prayers and rules
are of no use in this time without love. For people whose hearts have
not regained contact with such love the ego easily attaches itself to
practices and uses them as a means to pin empty titles onto itself.
Leave every practice that serves your vanity and strive for permanent
love.
Where shall we start? Every person has a circle of friends, relations,
acquaintances. Starting from those closest to us: wives and husbands,
parents and children, brothers and sisters, we must be generous in
giving of our permanent love. How can we consider a person who
cannot make peace with those nearest to ‘him as civilized? If we could
approach the level of permanent love that befits us the world’s courts
would have to be closed down from a lack of suits : no complaining,
no divorce, no wretchedness, no struggle.
Giving of our permanent love is the most important practice for our
time. No one can say: “I am not in need of practicing it,” neither the
speaker nor the listeners. Don’t tell me that so-and-so is on such-andsuch
a level when he is tightfisted with permanent love, withholding
it even from those with whom he is most intimate.
The lower self of man, the selfish ego, never wants to give permanent
love except to himself. I don’t believe that such petty self-love is all we
have been created for, I believe that we have been created to love all
creation. Man represents his Lord on Earth and has the greatest
reservoir of Divine Love within him; he can be a great means of
expression for that Divine Love in this world, indeed a fountain of
love that every creature may drink from.
I have not spoken to you from a prepared text, but have opened up
just a little from these Oceans in accordance with your spiritual
thirst.
General Zikr – Rabi’Awwal 1430 – March 2009 from Yursil on Vimeo.
Shaykh Effendi is saying people are learning about Islam through the internet in Firawnic rooms. They discuss fatwas but they don’t know the basics of the religion. Muslims have left the way of the Prophets. Those that say that Allah is enough for them or the Quran is enough for them have cut the Shahadat. The nightmare of Shaitan is to see a man with a turban and beard, with Prophet’s (صلي الله عليه و سلم) sunnat. This nightmare is the same of most of todays Islamic leaders. We must follow those who are following the Prophet’s (صلي الله عليه و سلم) lifestyle.
You may have heard that the Islamic Day ends at Maghrib (sunset) time. Imagine a society which actually lived this rather than it being an interesting fact.
The Ottoman Turks commence their reckoning of time from sunset. This is with them the twelfth hour, an hour later it is one o’clock, and so on till the twelfth hour in the morning (6 a. m.), when they begin again. This is called alatourqa (Turkish), to distinguish it from European time, which is called alafranqa (French, European).
ref:
Ottoman-Turkish Conversation-grammar: A Practical Method of Learning the Ottoman-Turkish Language
By V. H. Hagopian
Published by Groos, 1907
Speaking about Ottoman Time, below is an excerpt of an interesting article about Ottoman timepieces:
One, by the Arab scientist al-Jazari, called the “Book of Knowledge of Mechanical Contrivances,” also known as the “Treatise on Automata,” furnished detailed drawings of over 50 mechanical devices, including clocks. The other, by the astronomer Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma’ruf, published in Istanbul, described the mechanics of astrolabes and observational telescopes as well as weight-driven clocks. These indicated hours and minutes and could determine the time of prayer “without having to observe the heavenly bodies,” that is, when indoors or on overcast days.
The detail provided by al-Jazari and Taqi al-Din amounted to a “how-to-do-it” manual for the Ottoman clockmakers, who seem to have been the first among Muslims to actually go ahead and construct an elaborate mechanical timepiece.
As in medieval Europe, where the first geared clocks are believed to have appeared in monasteries to help regulate the daily prayer services, so in Istanbul the first Turkish clocks were made in the tekkes, or monasteries, of the so-called “Turkish monks,” the Mevlevi Dervishes, better known to Westerners as the “Whirling Dervishes.” The Mevlevis were considered the most intellectual of the Dervish orders and were well known for their interest in music and the arts. They acquired an interest in making mechanical clocks, their elders now suggest, to help initiates of the order observe fixed prayer times during long periods of meditation. More reliable than sundials and not requiring as much attention as a waterclock, the clocks also provided a focus for the communal life of the monastery.
As artisans, the Mevlevis prided themselves on producing flutes, embossed swords and other objets d’art. Clock-making required a combination of talents. The purely mechanical aspect drew upon the genius of scholars like Taqi al-Din, who had studied Arabic and Persian scientific writings, while making the outer encasement required the coordinated skills of metalworkers, cabinet makers and jewelers. Available manuscripts say very little about the actual method of manufacture, but it is apparent that the Mevlevis spent several years on each timepiece, with only the most basic of hand tools. Occasionally, the same artist would make the entire apparatus, from the inner gearwork to the intricately embellished case.
The outer design frequently took the shape of the Mevlevi headdress. This consisted of a felt hat like a tall, overturned plant pot, encircled at the base with a turban; it served as a symbol of the order and usually appeared as a sign on top of the tekke or on the Dervishes’ gravestones.
An extraordinary example of encrusted jewel work and embellishment is the round wall clock signed by Shahiz, made about 1650. Covered with filigree work with inlaid rubies, emeralds and diamonds, the face is in the form of a wreath in blue enamel with white numbers, and the back—which, of course, was rarely seen—is also richly engraved with leaves and fleurons. A pocket watch, made by Meshur Sheyh Dede in 1702, shows, as well as hours and minutes, Gregorian and Arabic calendars and the signs of the Zodiac.
A clock made by Mehmet Sükrü in 1853, thought to be the only one of its kind, has a double escapement mechanism which permits it to operate unaffected by extremes in temperature. Another, made by Ahmed Dede about 1865, has a combination escapement and pendulum mechanism which is also insensitive to variations in temperature and is accurate to less than one second per 24 hours.
Many of these timepieces, now on display at the Topkapı Palace, were presented to the Sultan by the Mevlevis as a sign of their loyalty. A 16th-century illuminated manuscript shows a procession of different artisans before Sultan Murad III, and an account of their visit in a royal diary mentions among those who presented themselves to the Sultan the “magic” Mevlevi clockmakers. As the assembled audience watched in amazement, the diary tells us, they entered the hall with an oversize model of a clock gearwork mounted on a wagon. A hammer automatically struck the gearwheel, turning a second wheel which, the chronicler observes, “could perform the work of a dozen persons.” The Sultan and his audience burst into applause and cheered the clockmakers as they pulled their display away.
….
The small number of Turkish clocks in the Topkapı Palace collection doesn’t indicate, as might be assumed, that European competition eventually forced the Turkish clockmakers out of business. In fact the Turkish clocks were, from the beginning, a labor of love by scholar-craftsmen motivated by religion, their interest in art and devotion to the Sultan. They were never concerned with profits or large-scale production. In fact, before the Republican regime banned all Dervish orders in 1923, the Mevlevis probably actually made few more than the some 30 timepieces known to have survived in the Sultan’s palaces and in the houses of their order, a uniquely Turkish contribution to Muslim craftsmanship.
ref: “Saudi Aramco World: Topkapi’s Turkish Timepieces – James Horgen
Another pattern where one sees the conic style headgear, (besides Hadith, and scholarly descriptions of the Qalansuwa and, of course, the Prophet’s (S) own conic turban), is in the various helmets used by Muslims in battle.
Helmets like this one date back to the Hijri Year 11 and can be seen at the Citadel of Egypt.
Late 15th Century
This helmet bears the name of the Mamluk sultan Ibn Qala’un, who ruled from Cairo a century before Barquq. 13th Century
Some Muslims have a mistaken understanding of the Prophet’s (S) dress, especially with the built in Arabization of many muslim communities. We tend to forget how far modern Saudi dress actually was from the Prophet’s (S) clothing.
His dress generally consisted of a shirt, tamad (trousers), a sheet thrown round the shoulders and a turban. On rare occasions, he would put on costly robes presented to him by foreign emissaries in the later part of his life. [Ahmed, Musnad, Hafiz Bin Qayyim]
(ref: “The Message of Mohammad,” by Athar Husain)
Narrated Abu Huraira: A man stood up and asked the Prophet about praying in a single garment. The Prophet said, “Has every one of you two garments?” A man put a similar question to ‘Umar on which he replied, “When Allah makes you wealthier then you should clothe yourself properly during prayers. Otherwise one can pray with an Izar and a Rida’ (a sheet covering the upper part of the body.) Izar and a shirt, Izar and a Qaba’, trousers and a Rida, trousers and a shirt or trousers and a Qaba’, Tubban and a Qaba’ or Tubban and a shirt.” (The narrator added, “I think that he also said a Tubban and a Rida. “)
ref: Sahih Bukhari
“This, my son, is not the dress of one who desires martyrdom. Take it off. That will make your movements lighter and quicker. Wear instead the sirwal (shalwar) so that if you are killed your awrah will not be exposed.”
-Asmaa bint Abu Bakr (R) (Daughter of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (R), speaking to son Abdullah (R))
ref: “Companions of The Prophet”, Vol.1, By: Abdul Wahid Hamid.
the truth on 
m.a.kidwai,CME/IND.RLY.(retd.) on 
