28 November 2011 Lefke, Cyprus
(Translated from Arabic)
A story was told about a king, a sultan whose minister rushed to him one day, saying, “O Your Highness! Today a ship arrived, whose owner brought with him all sorts of astonishing things! I gave him a hundred-thousand dirhams on your behalf and bought those items, and I also gave him another hundred-thousand dirhams.”
The sultan said, "I thought you had a sound mind, but you turned out to be mindless. O my minister! Are we here to be a sultan, or are we merchants?"
This story is the key for all the problems in the world: “Are we here as a sultan or as a merchant?” Truly, all the problems in the world are for this reason. Leaders leave management of the nation’s affairs and all its responsibilities to run after money! Why were there all the curses on Gadhafi, Hosni Mubarak, Bashar al-Assad and Abdullah al-Salih, in Hijaaz, then Bahrain, Baghdad, the Turks; what is all of this for? Greeks, the French, the aim of leaders of all countries is only money!
The sultan gave them a lesson and after a month he punished them. Kings of the ancient times spoke what was appropriate to the situation. “O my minister! Are we sitting here for trade or for the sultanate? Answer! We are here as the sultan, not as a merchant!”
Ask the whole world to tell you which president doesn't have great wealth? They are greedy for this world and it brought the worst curses on their heads. Na`oodhu billah! Is it not true? Tell them..
(Shaykh Hisham Effendi: Yes, Sayyidee.)
The love of this world; these are the sultan’s words.
(Shaykh Hisham Effendi: He warned them.)
Yes. “Am I here to be a sultan or a merchant? Answer!” They are greedy for this world, all the presidents and all the people. Tawbah yaa Rabbee, tawba astaghfirullah! Allah, Allah. “Am I going to be a sultan, or busy myself with trade? Am I a merchant?” Allah! What good manners that sultan had. Now all the presidents became like people of the lowest levels.
(Shaykh Hisham Effendi: They plant grass, Sayyidee!)
Amaan, yaa Rabbee! Tawbah, yaa Rabbee! O our Lord! Don't leave us to our egos for the blink of an eye.
hey collect treasures of the Earth, for what? Everything they collected is finished now! Ask the Pharaohs what happened to all their heaps of gold! They became mummies and you cannot even look at them. They collected the gold of the world, for what benefit? May Allah never give us such a test with dunya, O Shaykh! Tawbah, yaa Rabbee. Tawbah, yaa Rabbee! Tawbah, astaghfirullah. Ya Mawlana! Amman, yaa Rabbee! Tawbah, yaa Rabbee! Tawbah, astaghfirullah. (du`a) For the sake of the Prophet (s), his Family and Companions (r), and our shaykhs (q), and the believers.
Fatihah.
“Are we here as a sultan or as a merchant?” If they were not greedy for all the things of this world, these troubles would not have happened. Amaan yaa Rabbee, grant us safety, and do not leave us to our egos for a blink of an eye, O Lord! Amaan yaa Rabbee, tawbah!