BismillahirRahmanirRahim
THE VALUE OF LIFE
Sohbet given by Sheykh Abdul Kerim el-Hakkani el-Kibrisi
Friday 17 Ramazan, 1426
October 21, 2005
39th Street Dergah, Manhattan, New York.
Medet Ya Syyidi Ya Sultanul Awliya, Medet.
Tariqatuna sohbet wa khayru fil Jamiat. The meaning of all
(heavenly) Books is to teach man to say, “La ilaha illallah.” All
Books and all prophets came to teach man to say, “La ilaha ilallah.
Falam an-lahu la ilaha illallah.” There is no god and nothing to
worship except Allah (subhana wa ta’ala). When man is concentrating,
understanding and living according to that then his Dunya becomes
paradise, his world becomes paradise, his paradise is paradise and
his grave is paradise. Fear goes away. Fear leaves that one and
Sheytan runs away. The evils run away and the evil people run away
because he is with Rahman. He is with Allah. Those who leave Allah,
Sheytan comes near them, all sheytanic creatures come near them, all
human sheytans come near him until they make that one to become one
of the sheytans.
That is in the hand of man. Allah gave that to our hand saying, “It
is protection to you. Say: La ilaha illallah continuously.” Your
heart must remember your Lord. If you want satisfaction to your
heart, if you want peace in your heart then you must say, `Allah.’
This Mankind, the 21st century people of today are all sick. From
the newborns to the ones that are ready to go to the grave, all are
sick. All have problems and they don’t even know what the biggest
problem is. They think it’s the world but it’s not because everyone
has the world. (Sheykh pointing to the heart) The biggest problem is
emptiness here. The life is very sour. Anything they touch, anywhere
they look and any place they go, after a while it becomes a pain to
them. Everything that man is doing becomes very painful. Not
satisfied with anything. Men, women, children, adults and elderly.
All. Some people are exception. They are exception from billions.
What is the cure for that? They are not running to look for the cure. They are
running thinking, “I am going to make more Dunya, more world and I am going to
find peace.” If finding peace is with Dunya, with the world then it will be
easy. If you have a pair of clothes to wear, a shelter on your head and you can
fill your stomach then you should be peaceful. Why then are you worrying? You
don’t know if Azrail is waiting behind the door. You are entering here but you
don’t know if you are going out alive. Who can guarantee that saying, “I am
guaranteed to go out tonight”? Who can dare to say that? They are listening. He
(Allah subhana wa ta’ala) may say, “That one is challenging Me? Take him away.”
Dunya is finished and Akhirat is finished (for that person).
So when man understands the value of this world, if he thinks that this world is
valuable and runs after it for some time then after a while he must understand,
“This world has no value. But the life has a value. What Allah has given, what
Allah has granted to me is very valuable. Let me hold on tightly to that.” When
you are holding onto that life then you would be looking and saying, “Well, this
life is going is going to go away from my hand too after a while. What am I
going to do?” Then you will be able to concentrate on what is waiting for you on
the other side. Otherwise, the majority is running away and they don’t even want
to think about death anymore. They don’t want to be around those who are going
to remind them about death. They run away. They find it easier, they think that
it’s easier saying, “Let me run away from this one and my life is going to
become better and easy because this one is reminding me all the time that I am
going to die. So let me go far away.” They go far away and if they had one
problem then their problems become double. Now that they are not close to
someone who is close to Allah, that little peace in the heart is taken away.
You may give them the whole world but they are not going to be satisfied by it.
If you don’t believe me then go and look at Rockefeller. They have the
Rockefeller Center. The half of Manhattan belonged to him. But he was not in
peace. He was running after more. What are you running after? You have
everything. Anything you need comes to you. What are you running for? Everything
you have is more than enough for you and your children to spend all their lives.
He had to run because there was nothing that could replace that emptiness. It’s
a big emptiness and if man falls into that emptiness then he disappears. He
loses his mind.
So the only way out of that and the only answer is Islam. There is no other
answer. You can go to any place. You can go to any rabbi or
anything. They have no answer to that. It is impossible. The answer is with
those ones who are not walking around with books, (Sheykh pointing at the
heart) whose books are there and who are able and capable to read people there
(in the heart). They have the answer. They say to you, “You have this sickness
and the cure is this. This is what you have to do.” You don’t like it. Who cares
whether you like it or not? You got sick. You are going to get the recipe to get
cured. Otherwise, you are going to die.
Dying in the spirit is not like dying in the world. (Sheykh smiles). If your
spirit is dead then you have lost. You have perished. You are going to be swept
away never coming back to existence again. Even Sheytan doesn’t want that.
Sheytan is saying (to Allah subhana
wa ta’ala), “I would rather stay in the hell-fire forever. Don’t send me to
non-existence. Once You gave me a body and once You made me appear, don’t put me
to disappearing stations.”
Of course, the ignorant men are saying, “So what?” They are ignorant and
complete empty-heads. They are not knowing anything. When they start knowing
something then they start worrying. For instance, you
have one ring and you lose it. It doesn’t have too much value but you go around
looking for it. No? If you think that you left it in the toilet, do you leave it
there? You go to look in the toilet. “I left it there. Let me get it.” What’s
the value? Nothing. You get another one. But it’s yours. So it’s valuable.
Life is also very valuable. How are we spending that life, in which
way are we spending and in what cause are we spending that life, that’s
important. If we are spending it in the way of Allah then we
must do the work of Allah. If we are doing the work of Allah and we are spending
it in the way of Allah then do you think the pain, sorrow and all these worldly
disasters are going to come into your
heart? No, even if you go through so many incidents in your life, ups and downs,
with physical punishments, with materialistic punishments. When Allah removes
material things to test your faith, your faith becomes stronger every time it’s
coming and you say, “Shukr Ya Rabbi. Alhamdulillah. You reminded me something Ya
Rabbi. Thank you. You reminded me that I am a weak servant.” Then faith grows.
When your faith grows, grows and grows then everything starts opening.
Everything is with faith.
We must concentrate on that faith. Ash-hadu an-la ilaha illallah wa ash-hadu
anna muhammadan abduhu wa rasuluhu. If we concentrate on that then our world
becomes paradise and paradise cannot wait for us to go there.
Wa min Allahu taufiq
Bihurmatil Habib
Bihurmatil Fatiha.
Transcribed by “Yeni Osmanli”.