Broad Outlines.

Thursday. 24th Feb.2005. Orgiva.

Bismi'llah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, In the name of Allah,Almighty All-Merciful.For the sake of Muhammad,salallahu alayhi wa salem and for the sake of Sheikh Muhammad Nazim al Qubrusi al Haqqani,may Allah preserve his secret...and all the Naqshbandi Sheikhs and all other real sufi sheikhs especially including Sheikh al Akbar,Sheikh Muhammad ibn al Arabi originally from the blessed region of Murcia here in Spain and Imam al Ghazali, that intellectual and spiritual giant, straddling the exoteric and esoteric worlds of Islam, and also Jalaludin Rumi the famous and inspiring ecstatic poet who lived and died in Konya (may Allah bless and sanctify his holy tomb) ... For all their sakes bless us and keep us in the safety of Islam.
I pray that I may write something of some use to a general and non-muslim public,and perhaps to some (especially non-sufi) muslims.

These are the last times,there is no doubt about that in my,and many people's,minds.Everywhere one looks there are signs...on a human and on a geological, climatic and planetary level.
Society has never been more upside down than at this time.It is the fulfilment of the famous hadith which indicated this when the Prophet SAWS,said "There will come a time when the sons of the barefoot shepherds will compete with each other in the construction of tall buildings." (Or words to that effect.)
We can see the manifestation of that all around us especially noticeable here in Andalucia in southern Spain.What does it mean? It means that the social order has been so turned upside down that that in one generation a family may go from being uneducated ignorant and poor to being wealthy and economically powerful.This is a result of the emphasis of political systems and especially the more left wing,socialist and democratic ones,on trying to solve man's dilemma and existencial problems and sufferings by material means and through material well-being.
It is an ignorant and short sighted view of the human being moving away from the traditional view of man as an eternal soul in a temporary body with meaning and happiness provided by good and moral actions and family values upheld from the top to the bottom of an ordered and heirarchical society where those with more power had more responsibility to those with less not only in this life but before their Lord,towards a view of him as a highly intelligent animal(descended from apes!) who should do his best to get as much enjoyment and comfort out of his short seventy to eighty year life span as possible and whose governments are only responsible for this and whose institutions permit all kinds of immorality as long as the participating parties are getting as much enjoyment and comfort as possible out of their actions with complete disregard to traditional moral values and responsibilities. For example,contraception and abortion as well as all kinds of sexual behaviours including fornication and homosexuality.
Other signs around us are the climatic changes,(right now Spain is in the grip of a terrible bout of snow and ice covering the whole country in a way rarely seen before) seen all around the globe ... especially alarming being the melting of the polar ice caps and the destruction of the ozone layer and the greenhouse effect.
Basically man seems to be destroying himself socially,morally and physically as well as environmentally but unable to stop this mad vertiginous flight towards the edge of self destruction and all in the name of progress!
It would seem that the very earth itself is complaining .. or Allah is showing signs of his displeasure ... because there are now .. added to the death and destruction caused by terrorism and the Bush administration's reaction to it .. many geological disasters as witness the terrible Tsunami and various earth tremors earth quakes landslips floods and torrential downpours destroying lives and buildings .. whole towns and economies on a vast scale.
What can be an answer?.. It also seems inevitable now that a third world war of a nuclear nature can not be too far off. Already we are seeing a cooling off of relations between The United States and Russia while China is quickly gearing up economically and either has or soon will have nuclear capabilities.
What does Sheikh Nazim (my teacher and the only one I know who has been addressing these problems for years) say about all this?
Basically two or three general things. One,that a nuclear war is inevitable,that the world splits into two parts corresponding in general to the believers and the non-believers.Two that the nuclear holocaust will affect the whole world and that there is no escape except spiritually,apart from the land of 'Shams'(the area surrounding Damascus as far as the eye can see.) and three that there is a spiritually immensely powerful figure that appears at the end of time known as al Mahdi (who the Prophet SAWS said is from his family) that Isa, alayhi salam, (Jesus) comes back to earth and together with al Mahdi fights the dajaal (anti-christ) and after defeating him ushers in a new age of spirituality and peace until eventually at a later date (often said to be eighty years) man forgets God again and so the universe is "folded up".
Some of you reading this may think it sounds crazy .. but I believe it.

Fears? Death and destruction on a global level,punishment in the after-life for misbehaviour in this one. Hopes? Forgiveness of Allah,belief worship and good behaviour ,saviours Mahdi and Jesus, shelter in the area of Sham.
More later insha'llah.