Islam, the true living religion comprises of both Shariat (Laws to follow) and Tariqat (getting to know oneself and our Creator). Sadly, these days people cling obstinately to the Do's and Don'ts but forget everything about the heart and soul of rel...
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Question: Why we become hopeless in Tarikat and how do we get over it?
That is a stage that everybody must go through. That is one of the levels, one of the stages that everyone must go through, the feeling where there is no hope at all. That’s why Tarikat is also not something which is so simple. High school was difficult but college was more difficult. University, post-graduate is more difficult, isn’t it?
Tarikat, Tarikatul Aliyah, this is the most difficult Tarikat. Difficult in terms of what? It’s not difficult in terms of zikr that you have to do, or the ibadat that you have to do, or the riadah, the exercises that you have to do. It is difficult to your ego. That’s what makes it difficult. To the ego. But Allah has made the spirit more powerful than the ego. And when you have given a beyat, Allah has given you then help. Every help is there. Your Sheykh, to all the Saints, to all the Prophets, to all the Angels, Allah is sending in help. Why you enter into a hopelessness? That is a question a person must ask.
When a person enters into a state in Tarikat, question yourself. Don’t enter into that state and drown in it and to be lost. Question yourself: ‘Why am I like this? Why I’m feeling hopeless?’ And to say, ‘oh, I don’t know,’ that’s not good enough. ‘Why I’m feeling hopeless? Why I’m feeling sad? Why?’ In Tarikat, to ask ‘why’, it is forbidden except to ask why to yourself. To question yourself, and be sincere, be honest, be brutal to yourself. Be honest, ‘why I’m feeling sad?’ I don’t know. You know. You are feeling it, then you know. Then say it. Speak it. Find words, find the reasons. When you pull yourself out and you look at it carefully that time, already help is there. Because you are not in it. You are not drowning in it. You are not in the water anymore. You pulled yourself out.
So why a person is feeling hopelessness?
Like I said, this is one of the levels, this is one of the stages. We have to take away everything. You have to understand what it means to have everything taken away from you. You have to understand how weak you are. But you cannot be hopeless. Everything will be taken away from you, except the rope of Allah. That is our Sheykh. So you cannot rely on yourself, you cannot rely on your thinking, you cannot rely on your actions, you cannot rely on anything. You can only rely on Allah, and Allah is represented through His Prophet, and His Prophet is represented through our Sheykh. But so many people they feel hopeless, if they really dig a little bit inside, the reasons are not that complicated. If they are really sincere about it, the reasons are not complicated. For majority of the time, it’s just about dunya. It’s just about the ego. “I’m feeling sad, I’m feeling hopeless,” Why? Why are you feeling sad? Why are you feeling hopeless? What would make you feel not hopeless and not sad? Then you will come to very uncomfortable questions and very uncomfortable answers.
