Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

Friday April 10, 2009 (Rabi Thani 14, 1430)

Sheykh Efendi is saying that the duty of a servant is to hear and obey, to follow the Prophet (saws), and to follow and obey awliya. Don’t complain. ALLAH swt burdens people with no more than they can carry. Shaytan whispers to make you complain about work. Submit to the work. It is from ALLAH. Tyranny is when you go against what ALLAH put on you. Yunus (as) ran away from his work, and then realized it.

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WE ARE SERVANTS AND OUR DUTY IS TO HEAR AND OBEY

Juma Khutba delivered by Sheykh Abdul Kerim al-Hakkani al-Kibrisi

Friday 14 Rabi-ul Akhir, 1430
April 10, 2009
Osmanli Naksibendi Hakkani Dergahi, Siddiki Center, New York.

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

Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah al-azim wa atubu ilaih. The 21st Century people must be twenty-four hours saying astaghfirullah because we became completely disobedient to the Lord of the Heavens, from children to adults to olderly, people calling themselves smart ones, intelligent ones, top ones, low ones, everyone twenty four hours disobedience. The ones who are running to pray and the ones who are not praying, disobedient because everyone’s running to make things the way they want it, the way they like it. Are you a servant or are you a creator? First you have to know. Another sickness that the 21st Century people are falling into, any little job that they do, they say, `I have created this.’ So Sheytan is sitting on your neck right away, `You are a creator.’ They go on Sejdah but twenty-four hours disobedience, tyranny twenty-four hours.

So Allah subhana wa ta’ala and His Prophet (sws) is saying to us, `Have fear from Allah.’ That is the beginning of all knowledge. If a man has fear from Allah and if a man is in an awakening station, and he is knowing, `My Lord is watching me now’, how are you going to go to harm somebody else? How are you going to go doing things saying, `I want this and I want it that way’? Are you a servant? You must ask yourself, `Am I a servant?’

`Yes, I am.’

`What is the duty of a servant?’

`To hear and obey. To hear Allah and to obey Allah.’

Are we hearing Allah? According to our ego. As we like. That’s why Allah sent the Prophet (sws). Allah sent the Prophet (sws) saying, `Follow that Prophet. He is one of your kind. He eats and he sleeps. He is just like you in creation. Follow that one.’ And anyone who followed the Prophet (sws) and who is going to follow the Prophet (sws), they are finding safety. Following the Prophet (sws) is following his orders, trying to follow his lifestyle, trying to run away from the things that he forbid us and you must run to do things that he has ordered to us.

We are too far distant from the Prophet (sws). Prophet (sws) came fourteen hundred years ago. Then we say, we are following the Awliya, the Sheykhs. Are we following them? Are we really obeying what they are saying to us? Or when we are in their front, `Eh, yes you are right’ and as soon as we move away, according to our ego again. Then you are not following. You are just following your ego again. And don’t expect happiness, don’t expect peace because as much submission you have to that one, that must happiness is going to come to you. You can go far or you can go near to him, it doesn’t matter. The Awliya can reach you anywhere. The whole thing now is just like you are thinking, `Allah is watching me. Is it good for me to do this? No. My Sheykh is watching me. Would I do this in front of him?’ Ask yourself. This action that I’m doing right now, if he’s watching me physically, am I going to do it? If you are still finding yourself saying about that wrong action, `I’m going to do it’ then definitely you lost your faith. And if you are finding saying, `I’m not going to do’ then do you think there’s one wall separating you and your Sheykh? Or one mile? Or one thousand miles? You think he’s not watching your actions? You think he’s not watching you?

So, the 21st Century people became very proud with themselves. That is another big problem, the biggest problem. Proudness. That’s what happened to Sheytan. He became very proud in the Divine Presence and all the good things that were given to him, he just took it out. He threw it away through that action. Allah subhana wa ta’ala doesn’t take back what He gives to His servants. But the servant himself takes it out and throws it away through that kind of action just like Sheytan. Allah subhana wa ta’ala didn’t put him out from Paradise. He entered to Paradise, he rose to high stations. When was he kicked out from Paradise? When he became disobedient toward his Lord, when he became proud with himself, he looked down. The servant must know that he is a servant and he must know that, `I have a Creator and I am a servant, and my duty is to hear and obey. Am I hearing from Allah? No. Let me hear from His Prophet (sws). Am I hearing from His Prophet (sws)? No. Let me hear from the Awliya, let me look at them to see what they say to me, to see how they are living, let me try to put it in my life.’

So, Allah subhana wa ta’ala doesn’t love servants who complain all the time. The duty of the servant is to hear and obey, not to complain. And Allah subhana wa ta’ala is saying, `Your Lord doesn’t give you anything that you cannot carry. If He put something on you, know that you can carry that.’

`But He is giving me too much work and that one is not doing anything!’

It’s not your business. He is giving you according to what you can carry. He is giving to that one according to what that one can carry. You cannot interfere to that. You must interfere to see, `What kind of job my Lord has given to me.’ You have two duties, one is the duty to Allah and the other is the duty to the place that you are living in this world with the people surrounding you and all other creatures that Allah has created. You must look to do the best. You must look to do the best of it.

And Allah subhana a ta’ala is saying, `Yes, I’m not burdening My servant with something that he cannot carry. If I put something on you then definitely you can carry it.’ When are you not able to carry? When Sheytan is circling around you saying, `This is too hard, this is too tiring, this is like that, this is like this, you work so much, that one isn’t working, you run so much, that one is sitting, that one is sleeping, you are not sleeping?’ Then Sheytan is putting the hook on you, circling you around and everything that you do becomes zero. You are not earning anything then. You are burning everything. Every action that we are doing, if it’s good we’ll be rewarded, if it’s bad then we’re going to be questioned. While you are doing something, don’t complain. Run to do it. And as much as you can do, that much you are going to do. You cannot do it more than that. You’re going to expire then.

So the submission, submission to what? To the orders of your Lord. Constantly remembering, `I’m a servant. It doesn’t matter what I do. I’m a servant.’ Allah subhana wa ta’ala didn’t give us the burden that He has given to His prophets. The prophets were carrying everything. What wrong they did? And they have suffered in the world from the hands of the people. What is it that they did? Nothing. All good things they did. You claim that you are loving the prophets and the awliya. You think loving the prophets and the awliya means you’re just going to lie down putting your legs up saying, `I am a good servant’? You have to do work. You have to run after that one. There was a Sahabi who came to the Prophet (sws) saying, `Ya Rasulullah, I’ve started loving you more than anything.’ He said, `Prepare yourself. Prepare yourself for a heavy test that’s coming to you now. For difficulties that are going to come to you, prepare yourself.’ It’s going to come. But if you have sincere love to that Prophet (sws), to the Awliya Allah then it’s going to become easier for you. But if you don’t have sincerity, that is the time the burden is going to sit on your neck and you are going to be crushed under it.

So, Allah subhana wa ta’ala sent 124,000 prophets, He sent books, reminding every nation, saying to us, `Allah has forbidden tyranny to Himself. Don’t be from the tyrants.’ Allah subhana wa ta’ala may let you walk away a little bit but every tyrant is going to be questioned and going to be punished. No tyrant can escape. He says, `If you did tyranny, if it’s not today then tomorrow, if it’s not tomorrow then the next day, I’m going to catch you and you are going to pay a price for that.’ What is tyranny? You are running against what Allah subhana wa ta’ala is putting on you and then you are attacking yourself and everything else surrounding you.

Prophet Yunus (alayhi salam). Allah subhana wa ta’ala sent that prophet to give message to the people. When the people started attacking him, no one was listening to him, he said, `These people are not good for anything. They are not listening to me anymore. I’m going to go away. They are attacking me, they are damaging me.’ He walked away. He was running away from the work that Allah has given to him. Think, think! We must think. Allah subhana wa ta’ala is not giving these stories to us in the Quran-i Kerim just for history’s sake. It is for you and for me. First you must look at what Allah put on you. What is your duty? Are you keeping that? If you are keeping then you are going to be happy. Don’t worry. Even if it’s heavy, you’re going to be happy. But if your body is there and your heart is not there, you are not going to be happy. No man in this world is going to make you happy. No prophet is going to make you happy. Nothing is going to make you happy because you have no submission to that. You have not submitted yourself to the will of Allah to say, `The will of Allah for me is in this.’ Submit yourself. Maybe tomorrow He’s going to change it for you. But if you are not submitting then nothing is going to happen.

So the Prophet Yunus (as) was walking away from the job that Allah has given to him. All those people that he is going back and forth to, reminding them the order of Allah, they were attacking him, damaging him and finally he said, `Not even a single one is listening. So I’m going to another place. Maybe I’ll find other people.’ He’s not running away from the job. He’s running away from the job place to another place. He took the ship and was going. The sea was very calm. All of a sudden waves started and the ship was moving up and down. The wave was going to swallow the ship. Everyone was praying, everyone was running.

There was a wise man in the ship. People ran to him for prayers. He was looking, meditating a little bit and said, `I cannot pray for you. There is a guilty one in this ship. If that guilty one is not throwing himself into the sea, this sea is going to swallow this ship and every one of us in it and he is going to get up on the Judgment Day with our burden altogether on this neck and he is going to be heavily punished. And Yunus (as) was thinking. That one was saying, `That one is running away from the work of Allah, what He has given to him.’ And now he knows, `It’s me.’ And he jumped into the sea, meaning he submit himself a hundred percent to his Lord. As soon as he jumped the fish came and swallowed him.

Allah’s mercy had reached to him there. It doesn’t look like mercy there but it was mercy. He didn’t leave him in the sea for other wild animal in the sea to come to destroy him instantly. That fish came and swallow him. And he stayed inside that fish for sometime. He realized it. He didn’t die. He said, `La ilaha illa anta subhanaka inni kuntu min az-zalimeen. Oh my Lord, you are the Subhan and I have become from those ones who became tyrants to themselves and I’m asking forgiveness from You.’ Through this Zikir he found safety. Allah’s mercy reached to him and sometime later the fish came and threw him out of its stomach.

He lived inside the stomach of the fish for so many days. As soon as he came out his skin was not good, facing the sun it started burning. He put himself into the corner, he found cure to himself, when he was able to walk he went back to that nation. He said, `I understand now. I’m running away from this work and this is the punishment I got. Thank you Ya Rabbi. You reminded me. You reminded me this way’ and he went back to that nation. If he didn’t then Allah subhana wa ta’ala is saying, `I’ll take away the prophethood and I will punish you severely on the Judgment in Jahannam.’

These are prophets that Allah is giving us example of. Who do we think we are? Who do you think you are oh 21st Century people? In all your lifetime, in all our lifetime if you are making two Sejdah to Allah subhana wa ta’ala that are correct everything opens to you. You are not even able to make that. And so proud everyone with everything that they are doing. So proud. MashaAllah. Astaghfirullah al-azim wa atubu ilaih.

So we must say astaghfirullah non-stop as another Awliya is saying, `O my children, our astaghfirullah is in need of another astaghfirullah because you are saying astaghfirullah in a heedless station.’ Know that Allah is watching you and know that you are asking forgiveness from Allah sincerely. Then the mercy is coming to you right then, right that minute. But if you are just like, `Eh, I’m saying astaghfirullah and it’s not working. I am doing this and it’s not working.’ You’re not doing it right. Your intention is not right. Correct your intention first. Submit yourself to the will of Allah and everything is going to work then.

These words are for you and for me. Allah subhana wa ta’ala is giving us examples through the holy books, through His holy people, through His prophets, reminding us what is waiting ahead for us, reminding us who we are and what we have to do, what is it that we have to do in this life. Don’t look here, don’t look there. Look at yourself. Everyone must look at themselves. Everyone must be busy with themselves. It is not your business what this one is doing and what that one is doing. If you are interfering to other people’s businesses, if you are sticking your nose thinking that you are correcting someone and you have no authority, you are just causing confusion and fitnah and you are going to be crushed under that fitnah. You are not going to be able to wake up from it. You are not going to be able to get up to carry that. You cannot carry what is for you. How are you going to carry what is for other people?

So we must wake up to understand why we are living in this world and it’s especially not for us to think, `Oh, we are living in the dergah. We are doing Allah’s work’. Do Allah’s work sincerely. Submit yourself to that sincerely to know that, `Yes, I’m doing Allah’s work and I’m submitting my will to that.’ And look around you. Look outside. Look how much people are suffering. You will have enough to say then, `Thank you Ya Rabbi. Thank you for what you have given to me.’ You will be able to find happiness in that.

Wa min Allahu tawfiq

Bihurmatil Habib

Bihurmatil Fatiha