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The Lamp Oil

Sultan al-Awliya

Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani

20 February 2013 Lefke, Cyprus

(Translated from Turkish) (1)

As-salaamu `alaykum, O servants of Allah. Marhaban bikum, marhaba, greetings to you!

Madad, madad.

There are holy ones who are the Ahl al-Imdaad, who can give support, and whatever is granted from the holy ones to us is, according to our situation, only a spot. So we sit here and speak of them as they are making us speak. We may say and open the door, the key to every door is Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem. Say it, how beautiful it is! When one says, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem,” there are no troubles, no qaswat, hardness left for that person. There is no hopelessness, no burdens, no ugliness or sufferings left for him. Allah! Let us say, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem, Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem, Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem!”

Whoever remembers the Holy Name of Allah Almighty and does not find comfort, it means that person has a big trouble. Some say that dunya is the land of difficulties and is not something to be sought. No! They call it “the land of difficulties.” Every step you take in dunya makes you to stumble over something, it gives you a trouble. Why? A person who runs after dunya will be humiliated, even if he has as much wealth as Qaroon. Qaroon is a symbol of wealth for Mankind, that a big group of animals will carry the keys of his treasuries, and the largest of the keys was like a finger. So much treasure! What happened? What did these treasures do to him? They humiliated him! He was humiliated. The wealth he had was not given to anyone else and what did this wealth do to him? The Earth swallowed him, he was humiliated! He sank into the Earth along with his treasures, because he didn't enter the service of the Almighty, Al-Bari (swt).

He came to the great Prophet Musa (a) in pride and said, “I have all these treasures. I don't need to listen to you or to keep your orders. I live as I like! My treasures are countless.” He kept saying, “Me, me, me. I have this, I have that!” Even if the whole world belonged to him, what good would it do? If the whole world turned into precious stones and belonged to him, what was going to happen? Here, who is the richest man in the world? Qaroon. When someone is very wealthy, people say, “He is rich like Qaroon.” Did we say the Bismillah, “Bismillahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem?” Say this and have no fear and your doings will be solid.

Look, it is the word of our Prophet (s):

كل أمر ذي بال لا يبدأ فيه ببسم الله الرحمن الرحيم فهو ابتر

Kullu amrin dhi baalin laa yabtada bi Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem fahuwa abtar.

To act on any matter that comes to your mind that does not begin with "Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem" is cut off.

Meaning, when it is cut off it doesn't produce, it doesn't bring any generation, nothing comes after him, nothing! Abtar means “barren,” it won't have anything, no child or no generations. Allah Almighty is warning His servants that 124,000 prophets came, all of them to make people say “Allah.” Shame on those who refused to say “Allah!” They say, “Shaytan shows us the beautiful way, he shows us the entertainment and fun part of the life of dunya; he shows us how we will enjoy and take pleasure in dunya.” Then what happens? He throws you into a filth which no doctors or judges can save you from! There is no one who can answer your cries; they reach to the skies, but there is no one to answer. That is because you didn’t care for your Lord and say, “Bismillahi ‘r-Rahmani ‘r-Raheem” and “I am the servant of Allah, I am created to make servanthood for Allah.”

What have you been created for? He answers, “I have been created for my pleasure, to collect more and more pleasure and wealth.” Here is the example of Qaroon: he collected and it collapsed on his head. The Earth swallowed him with his treasures, but the people in this time are not thinking about such things, they are all in meaningless pursuit.

America says, “I am rich;” Russia says, “I am richer;” and Iran says, “No, I have treasures;” the ones in Hijaz say, “No, we have lamp oil under the ground.” It was the lamp oil before in our times. They say “Me!” when they sell lamp oil. It means I may tell you something and you laugh a bit. In the old times, when we were young--Feridun and my son, Mehmet--there was no electricity. We lit candles and lamps everywhere, in the street and neighborhoods. I remember there was an old Greek man. I still remember his voice calling, “Petroleum, petroleum!” meaning petrol. This poor man sold lamp oil and carried a gallon in a container made of tin and he had a scale to measure it. That old man would call out, “Petroleum, here is lamp oil!” Everyone would use lamp oil. I still remember it.

That old man was a Greek citizen of ours and we Greeks and Muslims got along well. We respected each other and got along well. That man was old, he wore glasses. I still remember him crying, “Petroleum!” He was perhaps 70 or 80 years old. The little old man had lamp oil containers in his hand filled with lamp oil and he made his living by selling it, enough to manage the whole month.

Mashaa-Allah the ones now who are on the same way as that man who sold lamp oil are so proud, thinking, “We have this much petrol, we have this much lamp oil!” May it be poured over their heads!

Now all of Arabia and Iran (is like this) and only poor Turks are left. They cannot sell lamp oil, but they buy it. They also make it run through the pipes and we buy from the pipes from the free side. Iran is proud of all its kingdoms and emirates and so on. In what do they take pride? (Calling like the old man.) “Petroleum, I sell petrol!” Look, what I remember from my childhood is a lesson for the people. That man made his living out of it and at the same time, we had simple lamps and candles in our homes. Our life was simple, but sweet. At that time we needed perhaps five things, now we need 500! Whatever you do, it needs electricity or petrol. May those who are called ‘oil rich’ fall into it! He got rich from oil and what did he do?

Qaroon saved (all his wealth) and went deep under Earth. Our people don’t draw any lessons from the past, they don't teach the history, they are only occupying themselves with all kinds of things in this Shaytan box from morning to night and from night until morning. It shows their lives, this what they call TV! Laa hawla wa laa quwatta! Sayyidina Ibrahim ibn Adham, may Allah make his abode Paradise, had twelve-thousand dogs to watch his herds, Hashakum. He was very rich. Most of the old kings and sultans had an interest in hunting as it is halaal, permitted. Ibrahim ibn Adham (q), the Sultan, is it not so, O Ruqiyya? (Hajjah Ruqiyya, “Yes.”) One day he went hunting with his entourage, as it was a custom for the sultans and he, too, is a sultan. He was hunting like the wind with his entourage in the deserts and in the forests, but his time had come.

When he was riding full force at top speed, from one side a voice came to his ears, “O Sultan, are you created for this?” The words on this side finished. Then a voice came to his second ear, Aw bi hadha ‘l-umirt? Aali hadha khuliqt, aw bi hadha ‘l-umirt? “Are you created or ordered for this?” It is said that he stopped his horse and returned to the palace, as this was enough for him. Ibrahim ibn Adham (q), Sultan Ibrahim. His tomb is in Latakia, is it not so, O Ruqiyya? (Hajjah Ruqiyya, “Yes.”) He has a majestic mosque in that place. Alhamdulillah, I visited Sultan Ibrahim (a), the Holy One. He left everything, saying, “I don't need them, this word is enough for me.”

Indeed, people do not know why they are created; they do not search as they do not want to learn that this is for all people. O People! Are you created for these fights and wars? Allah Almighty has said:

وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ مَا أُرِيدُ مِنْهُم مِّن رِّزْقٍ وَمَا أُرِيدُ أَن يُطْعِمُونِ

Wa maa khalaqtu ‘l-jinna wa ’l-insa illa li-y`abudoon maa ureedoo minhum min rizqin wa maa ureedoo an yut`imoon.

I have only created jinn and men so that they may worship Me. No sustenance do I require of them, nor do I require that they should feed Me. (Surat adh-Dhariyat, 51:56-57)

Where are you, O People? You are killing, burning and destroying each other and yet, you claim to be human. The animals in the jungles are better than you! They don't take pride in their wealth or power, they just wander in the jungle. This is the civilization of today’s people, this is what they follow. Where did it take you in the end? This is the way of Shaytan and Shaytan brought them to this in the end and made them fall into this deadlock. Now there is such a blind knot that it cannot be untied. How can you untie it? Where can you untie it? Laa hawla wa laa quwatta! Laa hawla wa laa quwatta!

May Allah grant us His servanthood! May we be servants to our Lord. The honored life is this servanthood for Allah. O People! Stand for the worship of Allah! Allah grants you the sweetest life. Your dunya and Akhirah will be prosperous. Yaa Rabbee! Tubnaa wa raja`anaa ilayk. Tawbah yaa Rabbee, tawbah astaghfirullah!

Our Egyptians don’t understand, our Westerners don’t understand, the ones in Hijaz and in Sham don’t understand. There is no one who understands in Turkey, Iran, India or China. Shaytan made people to fall into a fight, asking, “With which weapon will we finish each other? With the chemical weapons! We can't handle them, so we will poison the air from above and all of them will be poisoned!” Is it you who granted them life? Who gave you the authority to kill these people? You shameless ones, you who don’t fear from Allah! I will discipline you with such a discipline that whoever sees it and hears it will know and remember it! I will show them the result of

being animals of Shaytan!

All the world has turned into a slaughterhouse and has fallen into total madness when they all cut, break, crush and kill each other! They have gone completely crazy. Someone asked how many kinds of craziness are there? There are three kinds. What are they? They are crazy, totally crazy and totally and utterly crazy! Previously there were crazy ones and very few totally crazy ones, but people now passed over these stages to the third one and have became totally and utterly crazy. They say, “We are kings, we are presidents!” Say this when you go to your graves!

O our Lord! May You grant us repentance. May You send us a sultan who will be our master, for the honor of Your Beloved. For the honor of Your Beloved, O Lord, may You send us a sultan! What can we do? Our word doesn’t reach from here to the door! O Allah, O Allah, tawbah yaa Rabbee, tawbah yaa Rabbee, tawbah yaa Rabbee! Whichever home you go to, everyone has all kinds of troubles because they are without the Bismillah. Some of them have a remedy and some of them do not.

The least of their troubles is, “What is your son doing?”

“My son and daughter went to college, but they can’t find a job.”

This is it. There is no one who says, “We are studying for Allah, let us be in the service of Allah.” They try to be employed by the government and get paid without doing much.

May Allah grant us a share from this advice and may we know ourselves. Tawbah yaa Rabbee, tawbah yaa Rabbee, tawbah astaghfirullah! Shukr, yaa Rabbee.

Fatihah.

Aman, yaa Rabbee. This is a strange suhbah. Alright, go on. May Allah give you safety. (A mureed leaves.) May our day be good. May we live in the Way of Allah. May we leave dunya in the Way of Allah, yaa Rabbee. Read for me, Mehmet. May our only worry be Your servanthood, O Lord! May we not be crushed in troubles! Let us be busy with Your servanthood. How beautiful! O Lord, forgive us for the honor of Your Beloved. We ask for your intercession, O Rasoolullah (s)!

Fatihah.

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