Mawlana Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani
9 October 2011 Lefke, Cyprus
(Mawlana Shaykh speaks with a guest.)
Pray at least two raka`ats. (I will.) When you come home, take a shower and pray two raka`ats immediately.
(Mawlana, I need to ask you something.... Allah knows everything, the past and the future as well. He [swt] knows if I will kill a man one minute later or not, He knows if I will steal or not, or if I will go to Heaven or Hell. He knows everything. If Allah [swt] knows everything, then why did He create us?)
They said dunya is a testing place. Do you not test your students? Do you not know about their situation, their level? Why do you test them? (To see if they studied or not.) Allah tests us in the same way, to see if we are servants or not. Our souls existed before our physical beings, and our souls promised, “You are our Lord and we are Your servants.” He tests us to see if we keep this promise or not. It is all about this. (But Allah knows if we will keep it or not.) He knows, but it is different. He tests you so that you won’t say, “I did not know.” Allah (swt) does not need to test you, but it is for Him to show you, “Your life has passed like this.” (Okay, I understand this.)
Now, there are two centers or poles in this world: first is Allah Almighty’s good pole; the other is Shaytan’s evil pole. You are in between.
فَمَن شَاء فَلْيُؤْمِن وَمَن شَاء فَلْيَكْفُرْ
Faman sha’a falyu’min wa man sha’a falyakfur.
Then whosoever wills let him believe, and whosoever wills let him disbelieve. (18:29)
(Allah is saying) “I will judge them in the end.” Do you not know goodness? (Yes.) Why do you do bad things? (I follow my bad ego.) Why should you? Does a man follow his donkey when he rides on it, or does the donkey follow its rider? What kind of talk is this, oh professor? (Of course, the donkey follows the rider.) But people let the donkey loose, allowing it to go wherever it wants. They say, “You ass!” to the donkey. Tawbah, astaghfirullah. (laughter) Does the man who rides on a donkey leave the control to the donkey? When you ride on a donkey do you say, “Go wherever you want,” or do you have a stick and direct him to where you want? The donkey goes where its rider wants. Whoever follows his donkey is worse than his donkey!
This is very simple. You have a good understanding of what we say. We don’t want to go into deep subjects, because if I did we could speak until morning, but this is like a shortcut. If you follow the true ones you are on the right path and if you follow the wrong ones you are misguided. This is a simple thing! Do you know how many true ones are there in Nicosia? (Only a handful of them.) And the rest are deviant. Why should you follow deviant ones? Since He gave you the control-wheel, why do you drive to the cliff? Don’t! If you do, it is your fault.
My body can be weak, but the saints who command my mind-reason don’t leave me helpless. Whatsoever people ask, we may speak.
Fatihah.