BismillahirRahmanirRahim

Tarikat Is To Make Us To Prepare For Death

No one is planning for their death today, young or old. Eh, young at least we can understand when you are young you are not planning so much because the energy is still so strong, what about the olderly ones?

This is sohbet, Sheykh Effendi is giving time to time. Don’t get upset with me. This is what he is saying all his life. You get upset, you are going to lose but you don’t have to stay. This is a reminder because this is our work to remind you. It is so easy to just make you to sit down, to give you candy and to praise your ego, you are going to be here every night but you are going to come empty and you are going to leave empty. And what you are going to find in your grave, it is empty. Empty of good things. What is it going to be filled with? It’s going to be filled with scorpions and snakes and spiders and all the things that are going to hurt you. This is real.

So nobody is preparing for death today. The believer must prepare. The believer must prepare for death. Listen to sohbet (Sheykh speaks to the jamaat ) this is important. If you want to play with your children, go to that room over there. It’s not every day that you are going to listen to something like this. This is something that is for everyone. I’ve already said, when sohbet is happening, there should not be any interruption. You have children with you, make sure they are okay. Zikr and prayer and namaz and salat, they can scream, they can run around, it’s okay. But sohbet, no. That is not the time to show so much tenderness and love and care to each other and to make a distraction. Do you understand? You know this in dunya, you love your children so much, you understand people love their children but you go to a cinema, you go to a theater to watch something, and you know how to curse inside if somebody brings their children inside, correct? You know how to say, ‘why he brings his children?’ Why? You don’t have heart? I’m going to say, ‘why are you doing like that? Why are you being so mean? Let them.’ We have more respect to the theater, to the cinema than we have to an association, to a Holy association. We must wake up. And I’m speaking to those ones who are not listening.

Who can say today that death is not going to come and visit us? Who can say, ‘hundred percent I’m going to survive through this day’? The one who says this has no faith. The Ottomans they say, when you sleep, to understand that death, Azrail is under your pillow. And when you wake up, to know that Azrail is standing right in front of you. Today, by the end of maghrib time, there may be tens of thousands of people that their lives are going to be taken from this world, just like that. They are like you and me. They have plans, they have dreams, they have intentions, they have children, they have wealth, they have everything but they are gone. Finish. So many did not know that they are going to go. So many are not preparing for that. Tarikat is to make us to prepare. To be a dervish means that you are on the threshold, you are on the threshold. Threshold, right at the final limit of this world and the next world. You are preparing for the next world because this world it is batil, this world it is not haqq, this world is going to pass. The world that is going to come, that is Haqq, that is real, that is permanent. This is temporary. Because you don’t visit cemeteries no more. None of you. You don’t visit cemeteries, you don’t visit maqams. And when you are there, you are just entering into illusion and delusion. You are not understanding the reality of how much of a dangerous situation we are in. The Prophets, they used to cry so much, thinking about death and thinking about the grave. And thinking about the punishment.

Let me tell you something, there is one Khutba of the Prophet (asws), he came up there, he walked up to the Mimbar and he said just five words. He said it over and over and over again and everyone started crying and crying and he started crying. You know what those words are? He says, ‘O people, believe me, hell is real. O People, believe me Hell is real.’ Over and over again, until all the Sahaba e-Kiram they were crying. Now, murids their hearts are not shaking. Their hearts are not shaking. ‘Eh, what real? I have plans today.’ So you are not thinking about death. But death, when you sleep, is under your pillow. You are not thinking and you are not preparing. Right now, angel of death can come to you. To you and to me. Everything that you think was important, it’s not important. So many things that you think that they are not important, they are very important. Are you preparing for that?

‘Oh, please Hoja, don’t speak about death. You are going to make us to feel so bad, so negative, so miserable with our lives.’ Good, you should be miserable. Because our lives are already miserable. Say that your life is filled with happiness. Happiness only comes with Allah, the Creator of happiness. Happiness only comes with the Holy Prophet (asws) who has taken that happiness and giving to us. All other kinds of happiness, it is batil. All other kinds of happiness, it’s going to lead you to more suffering and more misery. So nobody is thinking of death. Nobody is waking up to say ‘today I may die. I have to fix myself today. Today I may die. I may go, and I may not come back. My breath may finish.’ Don’t look you are young, you are not going to. So many they are young and they went before them. So many they are healthy and they go. Eh, today those ones two feet in the grave, they are not even thinking. So what are you sending to your graves today if you know that this is a reality. That time you are going to fix so many things that you broke.

‘First, I broke my relationship with Allah. When I turn my face from Him, I broke it. I must turn it back to him, astaghfirullah, Ya Rabbi, I am here, forgive me.’ What? To say labayk, labayk only in the time of the Haj? Allah swt, Holy Prophet (asws) is saying labayk to us. When we ask Him, they say, ‘I answer.’ Do they ever say, ‘no, I’m not going to answer. I’m only going to answer in these days, these months when I’m free.’ Everytime Allah says, ‘Call on Me and I will answer.’ Allah is calling on us, how are we answering? We only know how to be busy with each other. To eat each other, to fight with each other. We only know how to get upset if someone points us what our mistake is. You make a mistake, someone points to you, you become upset to that one. What kind of an ego is this? What kind of sheytan has taken over?

Turn to Allah, turn to the Prophet, turn to your guide. If you really believe this, you are going to fix every single day of your life. That time you are going to be the most free, the most happy, the most peaceful person. Because you already made your peace with everything. Because you know, today I may die, so I have to finish.

Think. Think. Think sincerely. Think sincerely, today if you know you are going to pass, you are going to die in the time of maghrib, what are you going to do? What are you going to fix? Allah swt is saying, ‘Don’t come to My presence with these two sins. All other sins that you have committed, I am the forgiver. But don’t come to My presence with these two sins.’ The first sin is shirk, to declare that there is another Allah other than Allah. And the second sin, Evliyaullah are saying, Allah swt He is the most forgiving. If He wants to forgive He will forgive. The sin of shirk, if He wants to forgive, He will forgive. We cannot say Allah’s mercy it is limited. But the second sin, Evliyaullah are saying, ‘don’t come to My presence,’ Allah is saying, ‘with the rights of other people.’ Meaning you do something wrong to other people, and you didn’t get their forgiveness, and you come to My presence, even if you ask me for forgiveness, I will not forgive you until the one that you have wronged, he forgives you. And believe me, on the Day of Judgement, majority of the people they are going to fight with each other, asking for each other’s rights. Because they know they are in big trouble. That one, especially the Muslims who cheat and lie and hurt the unbelievers, be careful, all your amals, all your ibadat, all you prayer may be taken away from you. Your iman will be taken away from you, because in that day of Judgment, the unbelievers may ask for their rights back from you. And they are going to ask for the highest one, not the lowest one because they understand, now you need that to enter to safety. So don’t come into the presence, Allah swt is saying, with the rights of other people. If you are thinking this, if you are thinking about death, which Holy Prophet is saying, ‘to think about death forty times a day, just to think about death forty times a day, if you die that day, you will die as a syahid, you will die as a martyr, you will not be questioned.’ Just to think about the death.

Yeah, when you think about death, you start thinking about life. Then you start thinking about the good, the clean and the proper life. Not the life according to sheytan and your ego. Not the life according to this dunya, not the life according to your desires. The life according to the Creator of life. Then you are going to fix so many things. Then that time you don’t need anyone to tell you too many things to do. You don’t need it. You have the intelligence. You don’t need law after law after law. Because you already have the intelligence. Then that time, you don’t need anyone to tell you because you know yourself what to do. You are going to be very detailed in what you are doing. Like the khutba, like Sheykh Effendi is saying, you are going to watch every word that you say. You are going to die today, you are going to be very careful.

‘Oh, what is this? This is part of Islam? This is part of Islam to think about death everyday?’ Huh! Holy Prophet (asws) is saying, ‘think about death at least five times a day. In fact, as many times as you pray think about death. Because what did he say? Pray your prayer as if it is your last prayer.’ Did he say, ‘pray only your farz prayer?’ No. He says, ‘pray your prayer as if it is your last prayer.’

This is important for us to understand, because otherwise, so many nonsense things we are going to pack into our lives. That is just baggage. That is just clutter. That is just stuff that you don’t need. You know, if I go to your house, as I open your storage room I see everything coming out, nothing is arranged. That is our life. Get rid of it. Get rid of them. When you get rid of all that clutter and all that mess, you feel very nice, very clean, very open. Then that time, you are inviting Allah swt to say, ‘Ya Rabbi, I am ready. Here I am.’ But people are very stubborn. Murids are very stubborn. Young and old. Men and women, husbands and wife, and they don’t even understand. All they know is, ‘I’m upset. If I’m upset, nobody can speak to me. Nobody can tell me what to do. Even if I’m hundred percent wrong, doesn’t matter. I’m upset. So I have the right to do whatever I want to do. Not understanding that Allah is forbidding it. Not understanding the Angels are not liking it. Where are you getting this kind of arrogance? You are not waking. You are here, sitting in the sohbets, sitting and listening and making zikr over and over again, you are still not getting rid of it? You are not worried?

You should be worried. Because the death, it is real. And we are not those ones who say, ‘don’t worry. Do whatever you want. Our Sheykh is going to intercede for us. You don’t like to pray, don pray. Do everything with love.’ That’s not love. That’s ego. That’s laziness by the way. ‘Do anything you want, then later your Sheykh is going to save you.’ What kind of foolishness, what kind of spoiled, what kind of idiot behavior is this? You may do that if you believe in it. We are not going to stop you. But that is not the way of SahibulSaif. That is not the way of Sheykh Abdul Kerim al-Kibrisi al-Rabbani. You like, you stay. You don’t like, you may go. Anyone who doesn’t like, you may go. You may go to any jamaat, any Sheykh, any Imam that you like. And if you don’t like it and you are going, it is very good. It’s good for you, it’s good for us too. Because we don’t like people sitting down and there is doubt in their heart, there is weakness.

May Allah removes the doubts in our heart and make us to be sincere. May Allah forigive me and bless you, al-Fatiha.

Sheykh Lokman Efendi Hz,
Khalifah of SahibulSaif Shaykh Abdulkerim el Kibrisi (qs),
OSMANLI DERGAHI- New York
2 Zul Qaida 1437
August 5, 2016.