© 1999, Masjid al-Farah
- 245 West Broadway, NYC************
21st of Ramadan—3/3/94
Masjid al-Farah
Shaykh Nur: May the prayer come forth from Allah. May we pray through the human heart and mind and may we direct it only to Allah who is the sole Source and Goal of Being.
Most precious Allah You are the Reality, You are the Witness to the Reality, You are the Constituter of prophecy. You are the One who sends the prophets to call Yourself back to Yourself.
Most precious Allah, lead us through the seven levels of the religion, each level more beautiful, more profound. Give us the longing heart that is necessary to ascend from one level to the next. May we cry with longing in the midnight hour. May we spend our days considering more and more deeply the profound principles of Islam. May our very breath become the vehicle for the Divine Names. May we gradually totally purify and totally open our entire being to You and only to You.
Most precious Allah You have beautified this planet with the advent of Prophet Muhammad, Salallahu alayhi wa sallim. You beautified this planet with his community of lovers, may Allah always be pleased with them. They are the representatives of the prophetic teaching which has come from time immemorial—one single essential teaching which is to turn around completely towards your own true Source and make your limited life an offering into the Limitless Life. May we have that taste of the Limitless Life. May it shine through us as the tawhid, as the Divine Unity. May we feel it in our perception, in our thinking. May we touch each other and help each other with this feeling of unity—not with emotions, not with belief systems, not with ideological attitudes of any kind. May we be motivated from the very depth of our being by the Divine Unity. May the only sweetness of our life be the expression of that unity. Amin, Amin, Ya Rabbi-l-‘alamin. Alhamdulillahi Rabbi-l-alamin. Al-Fatiha...
Ya Hazreti Ali, Ya Hazreti Ali, Ya Hazreti Ali... Ya Hazreti Fatima, Hazreti Hassan, Hazreti Hussain, Ya Sultan Abu Bakr Siddiq, Umar, Hazreti Uthman, Ya Bayazid Bistami, Ya Junayd-i-Baghdadi, Ya Hazreti Abdul Qadir Gaylani, Ibrahim Dusuqi, Ya Hazreti Jelaluddin Rumi, Ya Shems-i-Tabrizi, Ya Rabia al-Adawiya, Ya Mansur al-Hallaj, Ya Shah Naqshiband, Ya Muinuddin Chishti, Ya Sultan Muhammad Nureddin Jerrahi, the one who has gathered the tariqas together into the principle of tariqa which is a flame that has infinite facets, infinite phases; Ya Sultan Muzaffer Ashqi al-Jerrahi, the emir of love to Western humanity; Ya Sultan Allah, Hu...
As-salam ‘alaykum.
Our profound gratitude for the beautiful love-infused food prepared by Malika and her husband Farouq. The husband does the dessert and the wife does the main course...
(Pause)
Shaykh Nur: ...Right now an unveiling is going on, and one can see, during the Ramadan, this unveiling process intensifying. Here in this room this evening you can see the beautiful results of the unveiling. Whatever perfection is here in this room is being manifested from inside of our souls.
Visitor: How would you describe the character of our soul?
Shaykh Nur: The soul is that essential part of ourselves that was created before time, so it is not exactly our character. Our character grows out of our soul, but the soul is a pure radiant reality that is really indescribable. It is one of Allah's mysteries because Allah breathed His breath into that soul. He breathed His Essence into that soul. Just as Allah is indescribable, in a certain way the soul is indescribable. Then we have the seven levels of the nafs, of the limited self, which surround that soul.
Forgive me for making pictures of it, because this is not something that ultimately can be pictured. Taking it as a metaphor, the soul is this pure light which came out of the Nur Muhammad, Salallahu alayhi wa sallim. It came out of this original first light from which all of the souls were created. In the center is that original light and surrounding it are these seven more limiting factors. The biological form is connected with the al-nafs al-ammara, the most outward sphere of the self. If we didn’t have that we would stop breathing when we went to sleep at night. This most limited self is what holds us to life and what causes us, if we are drowning, to fight to live.
Visitor: So [the soul] is actually infinite?
Shaykh Nur: The soul itself is actually infinite, and Allah hints at that in many ways in the Hadith. He says in a hadith Qudsi: "I, Allah, who can not fit into the entire creation, can fit into the heart of the believer." That implies the infinite. The word heart is used, but the word soul could have been used too—synonymous here, in a sense. It is a very beautiful point that you are bringing out—the infinite nature of the human soul.
Visitor: Some people use the expression, ‘I didn't ask to be in this world,’ but in scripture it says that we asked to be here.
Shaykh Nur: According to Quran, we definitely asked to be here. Allah was going to create the souls anyway. That is His infinite power and His infinite creativity that we don’t ask questions about. But He gave us the choice, "Do you want to be here like an ant or a bird is here, or do you want to be here as a human being?" We said, "We want to be here as human beings. We want to have freedom and we want to consciously strive to return into our Source." So our freedom, our conscious striving, everything that causes us to be human, we definitely asked for. And we took a huge responsibility. In Quran it says that Allah offered this responsibility to the mountains and they didn’t accept. He finally offered it to humanity, and humanity, although its vehicle was imperfect (the soul was perfect, but the vehicle of the society and [culture] is imperfect), accepted that great responsibility. We have all accepted the most profound responsibility from Allah Most High. We definitely asked for it. When we get here the veiling process begins to occur and we forget about that responsibility and we make absurd statements like, ‘No one ever asked me to come here, why am I here?’ I call that existential angst. People get into the basic anxiety. The most dangerous thing is to follow your own subjective impulses, like doubt, and to turn away from the genuine guidance that has been given to humanity. If someone says, ‘I question why I am here. No one asked me if I wanted to be here,’ that is pure subjective thinking. If they would just simply turn to Quran or any of the other revealed books, there would be ample evidence of why we are here. We are here for the greatest significant reason. We have accepted a vast responsibility from Allah, and we have the strength.
Visitor: What does it mean that the human being was created in the Divine image?
Shaykh Nur: It is obviously not an image like you would see in a mirror. Image in this case, means basic nature. Allah created the human beings as a bearer of His Essence, as a bearer of His True Nature. He didn't create any other being in exactly that way. They are reflections. Even the Archangel Gabriel, ‘alayhi salam, could not go with Rasulallah, upon him be peace, across the Lote Tree of the Far Boundary into the Garden of Essence. He said, "Ya Rasulallah, I have to stay here. Only you can go there because your homeland is the Divine Essence." The human being alone has been created in this Divine Image. By image we do not mean something like a form, because Allah is formless, but we have been created with that essential kinship with Divine Reality. Allah calls His Prophet Habibullah, My beloved one. All of humanity could have that title. All of humanity could be called Habibullah, the beloved of Allah. You don’t love someone that intensely unless they belong to you, are from your very own being—unless they have that inner relationship to you. We have to think about this: the nature of the human being is very, very unique—very, very special.
The beautiful thing is that we have already lived up to that responsibility. From before eternity we said "Yes". We don’t have to have an inferiority complex about being here: ‘Well, I don’t know if I can really be Muslim, I don’t know if I can really be upright.’ We have already made the commitment, and Allah, Inshallah, will accept our intention. Now we have to fight the greater jihad with all the levels of veils which Allah permits us. Allah said to His Prophet Adam, "Enter with your noble wife into the veils of time." This entering into the veils was also part of the Divine Plan. The first ones who entered in were our beloved mother and father of the original human beings, and they became the first light of prophecy. We don’t look upon them as fallen creatures; we look upon Adam and Eve, alayhi salam, as very enlightened prophetic beings. Their descent into the veils was something that Allah had already foreordained. We don’t even complain to Allah about the imperfection of our society and our family, because these are the veils and Allah sent us into the veils in order that we could unveil His love. So even the veils we don't complain about.
That was a beautiful inquiry, thank you. Does anyone else have a question about the basic nature of humanity? It seems like we should start here because one might say, ‘Well, let’s look into the basic nature of Allah,’ but who knows the basic nature of Allah? Here we are as human beings—presumably we should know what humanity is! We should start here and by knowing this we will find Allah. Rasulallah says, "The one who knows himself knows His Lord." If we really know our basic structure then we will understand how it relates intimately to the Being of the Creator.
Visitor ‘H.’: I have a question but it is kind of on a different subject.
Shaykh Nur: That’s okay, we are open.
Visitor H.: I came here a few months ago and you talked to me about fear of God, and told me not to be scared.
Shaykh Nur: I remember you!
Visitor H.: I didn’t really understand it until I started to really think about it. Since then I have been really terrified when I think about the power that is there. Even as I speak the words now I am touching into the fear.
Shaykh Nur: That is the best way. I told him, "Don’t be scared of Allah," [so] he thinks about how beautiful, how amazing Allah is and that one shouldn’t be scared of him. Then he gets true awe, true fear, which is like a sacred fear. It is not like a neurotic type of fear that is imposed by some societal force: ‘You will get a punishment if you do this.’ You are tasting the real thing. I am so glad.
Visitor H.: The fear seems to cut through everything. Everything that is talked about or discussed or the interactions I have with people seem to be noise in a certain way. I guess it is the fear that inspires me and the fear of the trials that I have to face while I am on earth that has kept me from coming back here. I have been scared to come back all this time.
Shaykh Nur: Welcome, H., as-salam alaykum. H. belongs to this community inwardly, but there is a period of testing and staying away and that is all right too. Allah repeatedly calls us. It is not wrong to try to avoid Allah, because then you find out that you can't avoid Him. Otherwise you might think that it is your choice to come here, that it is your choice to be a submitted person. You might think you were doing it for Allah, whereas Quran says that Allah doesn’t need the submission of any being. It is all right to take the approach that H. has been taking because now he knows that he is here by the Divine Power, and he will know that more and more. All of us know that. That is what makes a community like this so beautiful. We don't have a conventional religion; we are not here because anyone is going to see us here. We don't have any reason to be here except that the Divine Power brings us here. Everyone who comes in this door we accept on that basis—the Divine Power brings them.
Dervish Saki (seven years old): What happens when you die? Do you come back to earth?
Shaykh Nur: Saki, when you die, you go into the Divine Heart. You go into the Heart of Allah. No one knows all of the beautiful things that are there. Quran says, "You receive everything that you want or need and there is always more." There is always more. Inside that Divine Heart there is everything: there is earth, there are angels, there is the whole creation, there is your mother... Everything is inside that Divine Heart, so you won't be separated from anything. You won’t necessarily have to come back anyplace—everything will be there in that Heart. When you are there, for instance, you can pray for earth, you can help earth. I hope I meet you there someday, Inshallah.
Dervish Bedriya: Shaykh Nur, when the soul leaves the body, how does it travel?
Shaykh Nur: In a garment of light. In a garment of light. But when it removes that garment then it is in its pure nature. Then it is with Allah in the most intimate manner. Depending on the level of the evolution, that is experienced as beautiful gardens, as streams of peace and beautiful youths and banquet tables. As one matures and one says, ‘O Allah, I only want Your Good Pleasure,’ then that imagery may disappear and something even greater will be shown. As our brother said, Allah leads us from level to level.
(To Visitor H.:) What He showed you was the fear of Him. Alhamdulillah, He brought you back into the straight path. Now He is going to continue to show you things, Inshallah. He is going to show you His Love, He is going to show you His Beauty, His Gifts. He is going to show you His Tenderness, Inshallah, gradually. All of us are like children in school. We are going from grade to grade, from class to class. In first or second grade you have got to threaten the kids [to get them] to do anything. Maybe you have to threaten them all the way through to a certain level, but then at a certain point they love to be in the school and they see the school in an entirely different way. They are not afraid of the teacher anymore as they realize the teacher was just threatening them because they were unruly little children. They realize that the teacher is actually a very wise—infinitely wise being that doesn’t have to threaten anymore. Then an intimate friendship develops. Then the soul begins doing research in the Divine Attributes, in the ‘library’ of the Divine Attributes, you might say. The soul does its own research and discovers unique beauties, Divine Mysteries. That is what we are involved in here. You have been welcomed by Allah into a circle of people who are doing research in the Divine Attributes. We are not afraid of the teacher at all. We have intimate friendship with Allah Most High. Welcome into that kind of an atmosphere. All of us are here because of Allah's good pleasure with us. All of us are very honored to be here in this room in this companionship.
Visitor H.: I am not really concerned at all about where I have been before or where I am going afterwards because I am here now. The more deeply I look at the earth around me and at the city I am living in, the more I feel that there is a very ill wind blowing. I see so much hatred and so much pain.
Shaykh Nur: I have to inform you about something. You are looking at the surface of the ocean. You have to look at the depths of the ocean too. I am not saying that your perception of the surface is wrong, but there is a depth to the ocean. You said that you are not concerned with where you were before or where you are going, because, as you said, "I am here now." The question is, where are you now? That is a very good question. Where are we now really? In truth, where are we? That is a very profound question. We are, first of all, in the Divine Heart. The negative things we see in history and in ourselves are on the surface of this ocean, and in the depth of it there is peace, there is beauty, there is justice. Yes, if we could realize where we are now we wouldn’t have to be concerned with speculating about the nature of Paradise. We would see where we are now. (We are either in between Paradise or hell, or we are in one or the other, or we are on the borderline. We are on the bridge right now, the narrow bridge.) I would urge you to continue to inquire and observe where you are now. As frightening as the surface of what you see is, the hatred and all of that, Allah is permitting you to see it. As a child, Allah did not permit you to see it, because you weren’t ready to handle it. Although there are some children who do see it and know very early what this life is all about at the surface. But don’t confuse the surface with the depth. The depth is infinitely meaningful, infinitely beautifu
l.Visitor H.: How far do you let yourself get mixed up in the surface? If you see an injustice being done or something bad being done, how far do you go into that?
Shaykh Nur: All the way. All the way. We are completely committed to humanity and to the human struggle. We are not at all wanting to withdraw anyplace. The thing is that you have to allow yourself to completely participate in the depths too. Because if you just get focused on the surface and start fighting for justice, and you may be supporting some ideological point of view that might help the masses or whatever, then you are definitely going to get trapped into the surface and you won't even be much of a help. You will be part of the problem. Our responsibility is to be in the depths, which is the Divine Attributes. Then, of course, we will act spontaneously. A friend of mine who is a Zen master says that if one of your hands is entering fire the other hand automatically reaches over and pulls it out. It is spontaneous. The other hand doesn’t think, ‘Well, should I risk it? Should I go and get this hand out or not?’ That is Tawhid, Unity. When we realize we are one body, one humanity—even closer than one family, we are one body—[then] there is a spontaneous way of standing up for the rights of others, for justice. This real experience of unity comes from research inside of the Divine Attributes, inside of the Divine Heart. We have to plunge in there. How do you get there? Through prayer and through dhikr, through Divine Remembrance. I hope you can stay for the prayers of the Ramadan which we will make fairly soon. They are extended—we pray 33 raqats, 33 prostrations. There is really a chance to plunge into the ocean there and find pearls or gems.
Is that a satisfactory answer? It is a very important answer because people are always saying, ‘Oh you are just interested in religion because you want to escape problems. You are really ignoring the problems of people.’ It is very important to know that particularly Islam, among all of the traditions, is totally committed to the struggles of justice. In fact, all of the prophetic traditions are. Let's not diminish any of them. But the modern humanity wants to avoid its religious responsibilities by becoming existentialists: ‘Oh, isn't the life in the world superficial, isn't it just a jungle of competition?’ And then they come up with some ideal like Marxism [for instance], or some [other] human idea of how to straighten it all out and make it even again, and it becomes even worse. Explore the depths of where you are right now.
Visitor: What is an existentialist?
Shaykh Nur: I am just using it in the popular sense. Existentialists are people who say, ‘I am here now, this is human existence, let’s deal with it,’ but they don’t go to any of the revealed books; they don't really make an investigation of what the great human beings have testified to of what human existence is. They end up having a very superficial understanding, usually a negative understanding, even to the point that [they feel] human existence is ultimately absurd. Then they develop the [idea] that if you accept the absurdity, that is what gives you your dignity. It is a very tortured way of trying to reach the natural human dignity that we have. We have dignity because Allah gave us this dignity, because we are intimately related to the Being of the Creator, and we have taken a big responsibility directly from the Divine to connect this whole planetary realm. We are the khalifatullah, the representatives of Allah on the planet.
That is what I mean by existentialism, this strange modern illness. But it may not be modern. I am sure there were existentialists of a certain kind around Rasulallah, Salallahu alayhi wa sallim. In fact, in Quran it says, "People are going to come to you and say, ‘Are the bones that have turned to dust underneath the desert going to become human form again?’" An existentialist is saying that: ‘I can see what human life is—our body turns to dust under the desert and that is it.’ And Allah informs the Prophet, "Answer this way..." (In Quran there is nothing that Muhammad, Salallahu alayhi wa sallim, himself initiated. [He never said], ‘Well, I will try to give you my answer.’ The Divine always provided the answers. That is what we mean by well-guided.) The Divine answers with a very beautiful analogy: "When you see a green tree and cut the wood, it turns into a golden fire when you kindle it." By looking at the green tree could you ever imagine the golden fire? By looking at this physical body, this green tree, could you ever imagine the golden fire of the soul in Paradise?
(Shaykh Nur sings the ilahi "World has passed away, Allah Allah Lost in Your Embrace…" Dervishes join in.)
…We have something from our Shaykh Muzaffer which our brother Wali recommended that we read. (Nur asks Dervish Jamal to read.) Read nice and slowly so we can take this in. It is just a couple of pages but it is a very rich and very deep reflection on the tarawih prayer of the Ramadan. It just shows a drop of the vast knowledge of our shaykh, which is pouring into us at all times. We don’t have to feel bereft of knowledge even though we are not book-learned, even though we are unweathered in a scholarly sense. There is knowledge pouring into us.
Dervish Jamal (Reading from Irshad, p. 230-232):
Enlivening the Nights of Ramadan by Performing the Special Tarawih Prayer
Look at the wages of those who perform these prayers! According to Ali ibn Abi Talib, when our Master was asked about the virtue of the tarawih and the reward for doing them, he said:
"He who does the tarawih on the eve of the first night, becomes as spotlessly clean as when his mother bore him. No trace of sin remains. Except only where the rights of man or beast are concerned! What is due to them must absolutely be discharged.
If you do the tarawih on the second night, Allah will forgive your parents if they died in faith.
If a person does the tarawih on the third night, an angel proclaims from beneath the Throne: ‘Your deed was pure!’ That is to say, he gives the good news that it has been accepted by Allah, and that your past sins have been pardoned.
He who does the tarawih on the fourth night obtains a reward like that for having read the Holy Quran, the Gospel, the Torah, the Psalms and the enlightening books.
To him who does the tarawih on the fifth night is given the reward for one who prays at the Sanctuary of the Kaaba, the Prophetic Mosque and the Mosque called Al-Aqsa.
For one who does the tarawih on the sixth night, the reward is that of having circumambulated the Prosperous House, and rocks and trees seek forgiveness on his behalf.
If you do the tarawih prayers on the seventh night, you are rewarded as if you had aided Moses, on him be peace, in his dispute with Pharaoh and Haman.
The reward for doing the tarawih on the eighth night is that given to Abraham, the special friend of Allah, that is being crowned with the crown of Intimate Friendship.
He who performs the tarawih on the ninth night becomes the beloved of Allah. Allah loves that servant.
He who does the tarawih on the tenth night is endowed with the goodly provisions of this world and the Hereafter.
He who performs the tarawih on the eleventh night will reach his Lord on the day he dies as spotlessly clean as when his mother bore him.
He who does the tarawih on the twelfth night will come to the Place of Resurrection a happy and fortunate person, as radiant as the moon on the fourteenth night.
He who does the tarawih on the thirteenth night will stand secure from fear on the Plain of Arasat.
All the angels witness the prayer of one who does the tarawih on the fourteenth night. That person will escape the reckoning on the Day of Resurrection.
The angels who carry the Throne and Footstool pronounce benedictions on one who performs the tarawih on the fifteenth night.
The fortunate believer who does the tarawih on the sixteenth night receives a document, granting him immunity to the Fire and entitling him to enter Paradise.
One who is present at the tarawih on the seventeenth night receives the reward given to the Prophets, on them be peace.
This reward has been promised to one who performs the tarawih prayers on the eighteenth night: to him an angel will give these good tidings: ‘O Abdullah! O beloved servant of Allah! Allah is satisfied with you, your mother and your father!’
To one who performs the tarawih on the nineteenth night, the highest degree of Paradise will be granted.
He who performs the tarawih on the twentieth night will be awarded the rank of the martyrs and the righteous.
A pavilion of light will be made ready in Paradise and presented to him who performs the tarawih on the twenty-first night."
Shaykh Nur: Stop there. That's where we are. Read that one again. We don't want to be abstract. We are talking about the blessings that have been received, so we want to really soak it in. As far as the blessings of the future nights, Inshallah, we will consult those night by night. Tonight's blessing...
Jamal: "A pavilion of light will be made ready in Paradise and presented to him who performs the tarawih on the twenty-first night."
Shaykh Nur: Al-Fatiha...
It is a little hard to take in what our brother just read on a very serious level or plane, because, quite frankly, we are really not used to such an exalted level of thinking. Our tendency from our habitual, rational day-to-day level would be to think, ‘Well, that is beautiful poetry.’ But that would be a mistake. It would be unfortunate to think of it that way. This way of speaking is much more adequate to reality than the way we ordinarily speak. It is as if we are in front of a spring and we are thirsty and our family is thirsty, but we only have little tiny thimbles to dip the water out with. The bigger the vessel we have the more water we can dip out, and there is an infinite amount of water here just in these tarawih prayers, for example. The tarawih prayers are like a beautiful spring of healing and life-giving water. Not only for us but for all humanity.
We should feel that whatever Allah gives to our hearts flows into the hearts that are joined with ours. It is like an underground cave. If one cave fills up they all fill up to that level, because they are joined underneath. This automatically includes our mother and father, other members of our family, and those of our friends and colleagues who we have been able to make a real heart connection with. It has to be a real connection, obviously. The real dervish lovers attempt to make a heart-connection with all humanity. It is almost an inconceivable feat to even think of trying to do something like this. But they do it because they want every blessing that Allah pours in them to go to all humanity. They become real lovers of humanity. It is not just a pious notion: ‘O Allah, please benefit all humanity.’ Although, even a pious notion may be accepted by Allah. I am not diminishing anyone's prayer. But the real lovers make a true heart-connection with all humanity. Then they extend it to all of the creations of Allah. A lover of this level is lifting up the whole creation. Let’s say that Allah is lifting the whole creation through that person’s heart. We aspire in this direction. We know that we have a long way to go, but this is our aspiration. We can certainly begin with our parents. We begin with our mothers. She is the most important person to our soul, according to the Rasulallah himself, Salallahu alayhi wa sallim. Then we extend out. Someone might say, ‘Well, my mother is a very impossible person. My mother abandoned me when I was a child,’ or whatever. All the more reason that one should pray for her and should connect one’s heart to her...
Visitor: I am not exactly sure how to explain Islam to my friends who tell me what they read in the papers and are skeptical about it.
Shaykh Nur: I get your point. The point is, Islam can not be explained. You can’t get a sheet of paper with five different points that you can explain to someone that has problems [with their perception of Islam]. You have to manifest it out of your being. Also the person has to be ready. [If he or she says], ‘Tell me a little bit about it. I don’t like the religion, but maybe you’ll tell me something I like,’ we don't enter into that kind of discussion. The fact is that in the modern world everything can be explained. You can ask for an answer to everything and we have become obsessed with that. But the depth of something like Islam can only be tasted, can only be experienced directly. You can say one or two things about it, but you say it with the attitude of Allahu-l-Alim, Allah is the best Knower. You start that way. If someone asks you something about Islam, you say, ‘I really don't know, Allah alone really knows these things.’ The moment you say that the fragrance of Islam comes into the conversation and immediately the person realizes that they are in a different world than they thought they were in. You are not coming with a doctrine, you are coming with an experience.
To be able to in any way enlighten someone about Islam has to be a gift from Allah. We [may feel], ‘Well, I am Muslim from birth, I have read Quran, I have done this or that, I should be able to explain it.’ But that is not possible. Much less ever convert anybody. It is unthinkable to feel that through a series of conversations with someone we can logically move them in a certain direction, and they will eventually embrace Islam. That is an unthinkable type of agenda. Only Allah unveils Muslims in His own unique way and in His own unique time. As you deepen yourself, as you deepen and become a dervish and go deeper and deeper into the spirit of Islam, you will be more and more inspired of things to say. You might speak less, but what you say will have more effect. Thank you for asking the question because I have never really been so clear about the nature of Islam. It is inexpressible. It is not a doctrine. Of course you can always say some clear things, make some clear points about it, but it depends on how you say them. Are you saying them with your lips, with your mind, or are coming from the depth of your being? Then they will have the desired effect.
Anyone have dreams? Any questions on your mind? (To a dervish) Look at his face. You look beautiful, surrounded by light and joy and contentment. Alhamdulillah. And all of you do. This is the holy month, let's not forget that. We are sitting in a Divine Sanctuary. Anyone have dreams or questions or experiences?
Last night we had a very, very amazing tarawih prayer. I am always asking other people if they have experiences. I should share some of my experiences, the very few that I have. At the end of the twenty raqats we sang the hymn that the people of Medina sang to welcome Rasulallah, Salallahu alayhi wa sallim, when he came. So we welcomed and welcomed him. Then we made the three raqats of the witr prayer, and in the third Allahu Akbar—the standing Allahu Akbar, our imam (he told us later) began to silently intercede for all of humanity. Then he began [inwardly] saying, "O Allah show me Your Night of Power, show me Your Night of Power!" At that moment a vast, vast peace opened for him. He said that he never experienced a peace like this before. We all noticed it. We were standing there a little longer than usual, but we didn’t feel any anxiety, [as if we should alert him by saying] ‘Subhanallah’ or something like that. We were very happy that it was extending. At that time he received a visitation from the Night of Power. The Night of Power, Inshallah, will manifest in its fullness on the 27th night according to the richest tradition, but in all of the last ten nights there are visitations from the Night of Power. So he received a real visitation from the Night of Power.
Then we knelt and when I was simply saying, As-salamu alayka Ayyuhan Nabiyyu, peace be upon you, O Noble Prophet, which we always say while kneeling in the prayers, I realized that I was giving my salams to him directly and he was facing me. You don't give your salams to someone's back. You can only give your salams face to face. But it wasn't like a hologram or sort of a psychedelic experience. I didn’t see someone in front of me; I just knew he was there and I was giving my salams to him. It was a tremendously powerful experience and I began weeping. Ahmed Halil was next to me and he knew exactly what I was experiencing, because tears are the primary sign of seeing Rasulallah, Salallahu alayhi wa sallim, and having an immediate contact with him. There is no way that you won’t shed tears either outwardly or inwardly at that time. In fact, it is an important sign that it is not imagination. We tend to think, ‘Well, maybe I imagined that.’
After the prayers, one of our sisters, Batul, said that at that very same time, during those last three raqats, she felt this vast mist descending over the entire congregation. It was like a cloud, a radiant cloud, and she was saying inside of herself, "It is Rasulallah, it is Rasulallah." This happened just last night on the twentieth night of our prayers. We have been having wonderful prayers all the way along but we never reached this level. This was the inauguration of the last ten days of Ramadan, which is an entirely different, new level in the Ramadan. I am praying and hoping and I feel that tonight, on the twenty-first, which is the first odd numbered night in the last ten days, (a very, very powerful and important night, the night of the passing away of Hazreti Ali, may his countenance be ennobled and enlightened), Inshallah, we will have these kind of experiences. I want you all to be extremely alert to this. Not that we should force anything or project anything. I had no idea, I was just doing the prayer in the most simple manner …As-salam alayka Ayyuhan Nabiyyu… exactly the same thing I have said hundreds of times, and he was there, I knew it. Wait for that kind of thing, and if you don’t have that type of experience don't feel that you have missed out, either.
In the Efendi’s meditation on the tarawih prayers, it says that for the people who make the prayers tonight, a pavilion of Light is being prepared for them in Paradise, and that pavilion of Light can be experienced here. It is not something that is on the other side of a wall or something. Paradise is not in space, not in time. He doesn’t say, ‘For the people who see a pavilion of Light, then a pavilion of Light is being prepared.’ It is for everyone who prays on the twenty-first night. Please feel that this is the night of the pavilion of Light for all of us. We should have the inner spiritual confidence and certainty about that, whatever that ultimately might mean. We are not trying to define it or limit it. A pavilion of Light: it is an opening. A pavilion is something that does not have walls. It is a pavilion, yet it is open to the landscape, it is open to infinity. This is the promise for all of us tonight. Simply having that confidence we don’t feel we have to say, ‘O Allah, show me a flash of light,’ or something like that. This is possibly a petty way of thinking. If Allah shows us something we say, Alhamdulillah. We accept it and we are moved by it, but we are not pestering, saying, ‘O Lord, show me this, show me that.’ He did show us—we read from the Efendi’s book tonight. We have been shown what this night is, so with all sincerity let’s go and make our prayer in that totally open spirit.
Everyone here can be confirmed that they are part of a full participation of this night. We don’t make any borders and boundaries between initiates and non-initiates here. The people here are human beings and as such are khalifatullah, the representative of Allah on this planet. I welcome you all here, I congratulate you on reaching the twenty-first night, and I wish you great realization in the prayers of this night together. Al-Fatiha... Amin. Ya Allah Hu.