Discussions with non-Muslims throw up elements of Sheikh's teachings.

Bismi'llah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim...for the sake of Prophet Muhammad saws and Sheikh Nazim may Allah protect his secret.

Once again, in my discussions with non-Muslims and even non-believers, over at www.blogladder.com ("Sex Power and Money." by Grego, look for the heart avatar) elements of the Sheikh's teachings get thrown up in a way which I might never have invented without the stimulus of said discussions. (That's why I wish my readership on Sufistuff were a bit more lively in the comments area..but then I suppose that here I am "preaching to the converted" more than there(?) ) Oh well .. whatever ... This is the complete entry copied and pasted for what it's worth.


Useful answer to a comment (?)

As so often happens, today an answer to a comment turned into something that may be useful to others.Jmc was asking about the curse mentioned in my Sheikh's talk "The Black Cloud over Iran and Iraq." included in the piece "Separating Church and State." from 24th July.This was my reply copied and pasted in full.

Now that I am a bit freer to attend the comments box I don't really think it is very complicated. However, it is as hard for me to put myself in the shoes of a real non-believer as the other way round.I don't know about the Red Sox (who I presume are a football team?) nor the curse of the Bambino. But just imagine for one moment that you really believed that this world and all that is in it was created by God with a wisdom and a reason. Imagine also that this God sent many prophets to try to tell man about the wisdom and purpose of His Creation.Imagine that you believe that the last one of those terminates and includes the line of all the others.Imagine that you believe that this Prophet is the most beloved of Almighty God .. "Habibu'llah" (The Loved One of God) .. his name Muhammad coming from the root word "Hamd" or praise, thus he is known as "The Praised One" (by Allah and all Creation).
Now he and everything nearest and dearest to him are the most beloved human beings in existence for the Muslims .. indeed he said (pbuh) "Until you love me more than yourself you will not be truly Muslim." (or words to that effect). His wives and family are known as "Ahlil Bait" .. people of the house.
Now the main difference between the Shias and the sunni majority is that they have always held to the idea that Ali was the rightful heir to the khalifate immediately after the death of the Prophet because he did not name a successor.This they base on the fact that that he is of the family, or Ahlil Bait, thus going against the majority consensus and raising the family issue to an even higher status.So why then did these same people (going against the advice of the prophet in many well known hadith which they reject in order to maintain their political point of view) kill all the memebers of the House .. Ahlil Bait .. family of the Prophet .. in one night? Do they think that Almighty God Allah Himself does not care about such an act? They killed all the members of the family of The Praised One of Allah, of The Loved One of Allah (while claiming Ali and his family connections as their "raison d'etre".. the hypocrites!) in one night for their own political ends. So is it surprising that our Sheikh should tell us that Allah cursed them for such an act?
I don't know about any Bambino .. but I think you know perfectly well what a curse is .. I'm sure you have heard or read about them in the Bible.The curse of Allah is not a joke!
This is why I am saying that people who are raised in a Republic, where oh-so-clever man has tried to divorce politics from religion, as if Almighty God Himself has no share or intervention in man's social organisation, are lost in a maze of intellectual activity trying to sort out the pros and cons of political actions without ever paying attention to spiritual actions.
The Sheikh is saying that the situation will never be sorted out until Mehdi comes.. who is an eagerly awaited figure who looms especially large in the dogma of the Shias.
This man comes at the end of the world and together with Jesus defeats the anti- Christ (known as the Dajaal in Islam) and ushers in a new and beautiful spiritual age.However that does not happen before a terrible (nuclear) Third World War which will be a cleaning of the earth by fire, just a The Flood was a cleaning by water.
It is not hard to see the preparations for this big "fire festival" being worked out now .. I don't think Bush will be satisfied until the "communist block" as it used to be called .. i.e. Russia and probably China together, react to his incursionary foreign policy and the world splits into two big warring camps which will basically be "believers against non-believers."
Our teaching is that only spirituality and belief will save people in that time.... as destruction will be so complete that no underground bunker will save anyone... and that really spiritual power will open up and take over at that time.
BTW .. one safe place physically will be the area surrounding Damascus, so .. run to there if you get the chance when it all kicks off!

Comments welcome, (even if I sound like a "Mad Mullah" or someone blindly following a cult.)