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Tasawwuf Refines your Shahadat (part 2)

Now, we have Iman, Islam, Ihsan. And Ihsan, when the question was asked, what is Ihsan? The Prophet (asws) answered, 'Ihsan it is to worship Allah as if you see Him.' You worship Allah as if you see Him. When you are standing there worshipping, it's not you are seeing the carpet. And now, worshiping is not just standing five times a day, rushing through, your heart is circling everywhere, giving salams, that is worship. No. Worship, now is more than that. Worship is what you go through every single day, in every moment, remembering your Lord. Worship is zikr. This is the spirit, this is the essence of everything that you are doing. You are giving Shahadat because you remember Allah. What is the purpose of praying? To remember Allah, isn't it? What is the purpose of fasting? It is to remember Allah in a different way, understanding how weak you are and how strong Allah swt is, and everything is a Rahmat. You give your Zakat to remember Allah that the money that you have did not come from you, it doesn't come from you, it's from Allah and it doesn't belong to you, it is an emanet, it is a trust. You make the money, it is halal, it is not from you to you. You understand? Going to the Hajj, it is completely to remember Allah and to forget about everything in this dunya. To remember Allah and the ahirat. So if you don't make zikr, you don't have any soul, you don't have any spirit of any of the worship that you are doing. Nothing. It becomes empty now. So Ihsan teaches us to have a zikr to remember Allah and to worship Allah as if you see Him. Who ask this question? This is the Hadiths of Jibreel (as).

Jibreel (as) came in the human form, sat in front of the Holy Prophet (asws). The Sahaba e-Kiram related that they saw this unusual man with so much light coming from him and so much heybet and there's not even a speck of dirt on his white cloth and he is asking Prophet (asws), but not asking as a person who doesn't know the answer, asking as a person who knows the answers. And he asked, and the Prophet now has to give the answers. So Ihsan, the beauty, the beauty now of Islam. So 'La ilaha ilallah,' how are you going to say 'La' if you don't know what is your Ilah that you are trying to say 'La' to. Do you understand? Otherwise, your whole life you are going to say, 'La ilaha ilallah, La ilaha ilallah, La ilaha ilallah....' but you don't know what you are saying 'La', what is your Ilah? what are these 'Gods' that you are trying to say 'La' to? This is when Tasawwuf enters. This is when the Naksibendi Order enters, because the ilahs, the object of worship, the enemies to man: Nafis, Sheytan, Hawa and Dunya.

Nafis, you nafs, that so many people they are worshipping to their nafs. They are muslims, they are doing everything correctly, everything perfectly but they are worshiping to their nafs. Whatever their nafs say, 'do,' they do. They don't question. And the nafs, it is controlled by your anger, your jealousy, your arrogance, and your stubbornness. This is what the nafs is being controlled by. So the man who doesn't understand hundreds of thousands of tricks and traps of the anger, and the jealousy and the stubbornness, and the envy and the arrogance, he's not understanding his nafs, and his nafs is sitting on his shoulder, he worships to his nafs. He can pray five times, he can pray fifty times a day, he is still being controlled by his nafs, he is worshiping to his nafs. And the one who is worshiping to his nafs, it is so easy now for sheytan to penetrate and to take him hostage too. To understand, the nafs is different, and sheytan is different. Nafis, the nafs, it is the enemy that is inside of you. Sheytan is outside. But the enemy that is inside opens the door for the sheytan to enter. If you don't understand your enemy from inside, and you are only fighting the enemy from outside, you are the most foolish and unintelligent one.

In all of Islamic history, Muslim civilisations and strong Kingdoms and Saltanate, they always fall, not because of the enemy from outside. But because there is betrayal from the inside. Always. Same thing happens individually, same thing happens universally. So, if you understand the inside now, ok this is my nafs, sheytan, hawa, your desires, dunya, you're praying, you are worshiping, but you love the dunya, you cannot be without the dunya, you think you are going to live forever, you don't want to die, you fall in love with the dunya, you still have not gotten rid of that ilah. You understand? It's very dangerous.

So now, Tasawwuf, it is nothing but to refine your Shahadat. It is to make your Shahadat to be clean, to be pure. It makes your Shahadat not as a word that you say or just your emotion, but it is for you to understand through your mind, through your heart, to understand these are the things that takes me away from my Lord, Allah swt. Then that time when you understand that, the way now to Allah swt, you cannot go any other way except the way of the Holy Prophet (asws). Because man, without any religion or faith can also make this realization that you have to get over your fear, that all these qualities are also not good qualities, you can take religion out of the equation too, you can take spirituality, you can just say it is, now you are trying to make yourself to become better, but if you are not following the way of Muhammadur Rasulullah (asws), it becomes again you are worshipping to yourself. It becomes again, coming back to yourself. Because you are not pointing to any other person, any other thing, any other knower, when you are saying if you believe in a Creator, you are going to say it's just me and my Lord. Nothing else, no one else in between. In reality, if you are saying there's nothing but me and my Lord, you have already make a shirk. Because the Prophet (asws) never says, 'it's me and my Lord.' He never says that. He says, there's only Allah. Or if he includes himself, he says what? 'Muhammadur Rasulullah.' He never says, 'me.' Who says, 'Me'? The ego says, 'Me.'

Sheytan says, 'La ilaha ilallah.' Sheytan is not making a shirk. Sheytan never makes a shirk. Up till today, sheytan is only saying, ' there's only One Allah. And I am His creature.' But, sheytan disobeyed Allah. Because sheytan was jealous of mankind. Because sheytan was jealous, in reality not of Adam (as), in reality he was jealous of the Prophet (asws). Because when he saw the Maqam el-Mahmud that Allah swt has created, Allah swt has created everything, everything in creation, then He showed mankind, Adam (as). I said showed. I didn't say create. Because in reality, mankind who has been created to be what? Khalifatullah, is the oldest, is the first thing that Allah swt created. Everything else Allah swt created after Khalifatullah. Because Khalifatullah, 'walaqad Qaramna Bani Adam – And we have honored the children of Adam.' Khalifatullah, where are we coming from? Where do we come from? What was the first that Allah swt created? The light of the Holy Prophet (asws). And from His light, the light of all the other Prophets came. From the Prophets their ummat came. From the light too, everything else that is in existence came from that light. Do you understand? That's why we are saying, 'La ilaha ilallah Muhammadur Rasulullah,' we are not putting anything else to exist. But the existence of Allah is as an Allah, the existence of the Prophet (asws) is as His Rasul, as His Habib. There's nothing else really in existence.