Real Submission.

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

Thanks to Osmanli Traveller for this;


Sohbets

BismillahirRahmanirRahimSHEYKH ABDUL QADIR GEYLANI’S KINGLY LIFESTYLE
Tuesday 15 Jumad al-Ahir, 1427July 11, 2006
Sheykh Abdul-Kerim EffendiOsmanli Naks-i’bendi Hakkani Dergah, Siddiki Center, New York.
(After reading from the sohbet of Sheykh Mevlana Nazim, a murid asked:“Great saints like Abdul Qadir Geylani didn’t have so much. Then aftera certain point they were living like kings. What’s the secret behindthat?”)
BismillahirrahmanirrahimMedet Ya Seyyidi Ya Sultanul Awliya, Medet.
It was just said in the sohbet. The world is given in their hand andunder their authority. But they don’t have it for themselves. Theyhave it for others. He wasn’t sitting and eating like that too. He waseating only to show people that he was eating. But Allah is sayingthat those who reached to that station, their eating is counted asworship, their sleeping is counted as worship and their talking iscounted as worship. There was a Sheykh who was always giving advice tohis murids about these three things, saying, “Don’t do these threethings. Don’t eat too much, don’t sleep too much and don’t talk toomuch. One day some person came from somewhere and the murids heardthat this man is a Sheykh. In the dergah he was talking with them. Hewas talking non-stop. The murids were listening to him. When he wasgoing to sleep he wouldn’t get up. As soon as he gets up he startseating non-stop. The murids were thinking, “This man talks like aSheykh but our Sheykh taught us that a man shouldn’t drink too much,eat too much, sleep too much and talk too much. This one is a Sheykhand he is doing the opposite.” They went to their Sheykh and told himwhat happened. He said to them, “There must be something wrong. Butlet me just go and look at it.” That one was a hidden one. When theSheykh came to him he looked and said, “Don’t you know Allah says thatthose who reached to that station their eating is worship, theirsleeping is worship and their talking is worship?” He said, “Yes.Please, you must speak to every one of us from now on.”
There is a test that Allah puts people through with their lives.Today, everyone is playing games saying, “Ah, I am under the test.”There are a couple of questions, whether you give answer to them ornot, you pass. The (real) test is not like that. Allah put thosepeople through that test with their lives. If they passed that testthen everything was given to them because they were not for Dunya,they were for Akhirat. Everything was under their authority.
Abdul Qadir Geylani (qaddasallau sirruh) was living alone in themountain. He wasn’t running to find food or other things. He waskeeping himself busy with Allah. He wasn’t worrying and running to payrent or work saying, “I need this and I need that.” No. He said,“Allah is going to provide me with what I need. If it’s necessary forme then He is going to.” That was the submission that he had. He wasworshipping. And whenever it was necessary and he really needed to eatsomething, he would find some grass, which I remember from mychildhood that we were doing that on the mountain. We were findingsome kind of mountain grass [greens] that doesn’t need to be cookedand we were eating it. And it fills you up. What do you need? Thewater is there too. What else do you need? What is the need of man?Man has to know first what his need is. But today’s people’s need isnever ending. There is no end to their needs. They are pilingeverywhere and before you know it they are scared to use it too.
They were not like that. They were going through tests which Allah wasputting. He (Abdul Qadir Geylani Hazretleri) passed the test. He waseating grass, water and keeping himself busy with Allah only. Hewasn’t running around to teach people too. He didn’t care if he wasgoing to be a Sheykh or he was going to have these many peoplefollowing him. No. He was not running for that. So Allah was lookingat his sincerity. Then Allah inspired him, saying to him, “Go down toBaghdad and live like a king from now on. Eat like a king, live like aking and give the secrets to people.” He got the command. He didn’tworry to think, “How am I going to live like a king.” He said, “Allahis moving me.” While Allah was moving that one and when he wasentering to Baghdad, Allah was inspiring the richest man in Baghdadsaying, “Go to the entrance of the city and you are going to find Myservant coming. From now on you will be his servant. Serve him and youwill find safety in Dunya and Akhirat.” The man had faith. He had themoney too. He had the wealth. He built everything and he realized,“Oh, this is what I built it for. So I must go to see the owner who iscoming.” So he went, he saw Abdul Qadir Geylani (qs) coming and hesaid, “Please, come to be my guest. Allah is ordering me to serveyou.” He had a place like a palace. He (Abdul Qadir Hazratleri) didn’trun to build it. Allah built it for him through other people. And hewasn’t using it for himself. He was using it for other people again.
So alhamdulillah, it is easy for Allah. It is not easy for man. Whenhe gives a little bit he starts shaking, he starts worrying, he startscounting, he starts thinking and he starts planning. But Allah hasendless treasures. It (submission) is not by words. Sheykh says tothat one, “Give this to that poor one.” These days they don’t give itto the Sheykhs also. If Sheykh says, “Bring the treasure and put itthere”, what do people say? What are they going to say? “He is tryingto fool me. He is trying to steal from me.” Sheykh doesn’t need that.He is not for Dunya. He is in Dunya but he is not for Dunya. He is inDunya for people, for their safety. Nothing else. If it’s necessary totake things away from you then he has to take things away from youbecause of your love and attachment to that. So many people say, “I amso generous” but they are so much in love with those things. They makeshow that they are generous but they are not really. So Sheykh touchesfrom this angle, that angle, moves it a little bit. As soon as hetouches the button then `grrrr…’. Now he says, “Huh, that is in yourheart. Dunya is in your heart.” As long as dunya is in your heart nolove of Akhirat is going to open. Impossible. You are not going tosmell Paradise when the Dunya is in your heart. But when the Dunya isin your hand then yes. (Sheykh Efendi picks up a saucer with his indexfinger and thumb). This is how he was holding the Dunya. He had to,because he was living in Dunya.
What are today’s people living for? Leave the unbelievers. What arethe believers living for? Dunya. Millions, for Dunya. That’s why theyare not running to tariqats and to Sheykhs to give submission becausesubmission comes with everything that you have. Not only by wordsaying, “I am submitting myself to you.”
“Are you submitting?”
“Yes.”
Then Sheykh has the right to say to you, “Take out your clothes andput it there too.” Do you think that the one who has authority on yourspirit doesn’t have authority on your wealth and your health? He cantake it away from your hand so fast. And it is a blessing if theSheykh says to you, “Go bring me this, bring me that and give methat.” It’s a big blessing to you. But this mentality is gone today.People lost this faith. People lost faith these days. Murids lostfaith, people who call themselves murids, not murids-murids (realmurids). Murids will never lose faith, the ones who are murid. But theones who call themselves murids, some of them lost this faith. As soonas you touch they start bargaining with you. What is the bargain? Cana slave bargain with his owner? That is his owner. If the owner saysto his slave, “O my slave, what would you like to eat and drink?” Hesays, “As you like. Whatever you give to me.”
He asks, “What would you like to wear?”
“Whatever you give to me.”
“Where do you want to sleep?”
“Any place that you show to me.”
He tries him like this and then he says to him, “Because you have somuch submission like this I am giving you your freedom. You are not aslave anymore.” And he asks, “How come you are like that?” He says,“Because I know that I am a slave. And if I am a slave and I amaccepting it then how can I rise and say to you, `I want this and Iwant that?’ You are my owner. You know what my need is and you aregoing to give me that.” Hmm. Murids have no trust in their Sheykh.That is Ahir Zaman, the end of times. Trust? You don’t know whatSheykh has? You don’t know. He is not showing. If he says, “Don’tbreathe the air”, then breathe it. Go ahead. “Who cares?” he says tothem. “You are not in that book as murids anyway. Say anything youlike.” Huh, to be a murid, you need to have Adab, you need to havemanners. Everything starts opening to a man who has manners. The moreopens to him the more obedient he becomes to his Sheykh then. He cansee the paradises, he can enter and come back, but he will never leavehis Sheykh then because what he is looking for is not even inParadise. It is in his Sheykh’s hand and nobody else carries that.
So today Sufism, tariqat became people’s running to have someentertainment. Some are running to have some comfort. Some are alreadyfed up with the outside world and they are getting old. They cannot doanything. They are tired of sitting home and so they are running totariqat. This is the mentality of today’s tariqat. But did tariqatschange and did Sheykhs lose that power? No. They still have it. Butthis Dunya is garbage. So they are not looking for it. They arecircling around this world and they are just checking people. You maybe sitting next to him for twenty years and you may get nothing. He iscircling in the world, he is looking and he says, “This one has goodbehavior.” He gives it to that one and walks away. He never finishes.The more he gives the more comes. But can you give diamond to the handof an ignorant person? Can you take a diamond and throw it in front ofa pig? What is he going to do with it?
So first you have to know what the treasure is. You have to know whatyou are looking for. And to get that you have to know what you have tosacrifice. You have to sacrifice something. Everyone has to sacrificesomething. If you are not sacrificing it means that you are not reallyready and prepared to get what is there. You just want it for your ownego. You are never going to get that for your ego because then ego isgoing to cut your neck off. Sheytan is going to take that treasure,that secret and he is going to go away. And you will be in big troublethen. So yes, in tariqat sometimes Sheykhs show the people the mostluxurious life and sometimes they show them the worst lifestyle thatpeople are going through. You have to go through it to understand. Youmay be with the Sheykh one week and you will be living like a king andthe next week you will be living like a beggar in the street. Sheykhhas the right to tell you, “Let’s go, we are going outside now tostart begging from people.” Heh, what will you do then? If you have nosubmission, what are you going to do? You are going to say, “He is athief. Is he trying to teach me how to steal or to ask from people?”
So submission comes with everything you have. You no longer have yourown ideas of thinking and understanding. If you cannot think the waythat the Sheykh is directing you then it is forbidden for you to thinkand to try to analyze things by your own self because you are going tocome to the wrong understanding. Sheytan is going to be there. So yourSheykh is not there. Sheytan is going to be your Sheykh. And you arestill going to say, “He is my Sheykh.” But no. Sheytan is your Sheykh.Sheytan is giving you directions then.
Wa min Allahu taufiq.
This much is enough for you and for me inshaAllah.
El-Fatiha.