3-
THE MYSTERY OF FAITH (FAITH IS A MIRACLE)
BİSMİLLAHİRRAHMANİRRAHİM
In the name of Allah, who is the Most Merciful and The Most
Compassionate
The inspirations from the Existence are descending from the Exalted one by
one.
As it is known, during and before the Prophet’s time, people gathered under
the leadership of some chiefs in Mecca, Medina, and in all the Arabia and they
were called as “tribes”. There were some literate people in the
families of the leaders of tribes in Mecca, Medina and in Arabia, although
they were in small numbers. However, there were only a few literate people
among the ordinary people and slaves. Yet, they were intelligent -they had the
ability of understanding, because the meaning of intelligence in the
dictionaries is to understand something or the ability of understanding
given by Allah. In Arabic, “foolish” does not mean “mad or crazy”.
Mad means “ill in the mind”. People are intelligent in general and they
are not foolish.
There were some Jewess and Christians from the People of the Book during
Prophet’s time. Even some groups of Jews lived in Medina and in Haybar. The
tribe called as “Ben-i Nadir” was also consisted of Jews. They had synagogues,
priests (Rabbis) and religious scholars. There was also Amman in the north of
Mecca, today’s Jordan, Damascus and the Kingdom of the Christian Abyssinia in
the West of Mecca.
These Christians and Jewess tried to make these pagan Arabs a Christian and
Jewish but they would never become a Christian or a Jewish. That is to say,
the scholars of Christianity and Judaism would not succeed this and they did
not succeed it either.
THEN, WHY WERE THEY NOT SUCCESSFUL?
They had the Books of God; the Tawrat (the Torah) and the Bible and there was
divine message at that time even before Islam. The Tawrat and the Bible are
the books of Allah. They are the word (the Speech) of Allah. These two books
were not abolished until our Prophet declared his Prophecy and until
the revelation of the Koran. These two books were abolished by the Koran and
they were also the books- the word of Allah. The Christian and Jewish scholars
would read verses from the Tawrat and Bible. They wanted them to depend on the
Divine Message very much but they could not succeed it. They were not able to
make the Arabs Christian or Jewish, but WHY COLD THEY NOT CHANGE THEM?
Because, whether or not these people were literate and illiterate, they were
not foolish in general. Everybody has a mind- an intellect at different levels
and this is natural. Intellect- mind is not artificial or manmade. It is a
talent given by God. Mind is one of the attributions of the Spirit is breathed
into the body of man. What I have explained so far is the truth. We say
Human beings are not foolish.
Now, these pagan Arabs were informed about the teaching of the Torah and the
Bible in Mecca, Medina and in the other places. They knew them. The scholars
were also making a great effort and they were listening to these teaching too.
However, they could not see the Divine Light and the enlightment of Allah,
Moses, the Tawrat, Jesus Christ, the Bible on the faces of these monks,
bishops, priests, rabbis, the chief rabbis. They could not see the Jewish,
Mosaic and Christian perfection, virtue, honesty and security in these
religious people. For this reason, they did not believe in them and they were
not contented with their teaching although they listened to them, because as I
explained above, people are not foolish in general. All the human beings own a
mind and this is an attribution that the Absolute Existence bestowed on
them. Our people are also not contented if they cannot see the beautiful
qualities of our Prophet when they see those who represent God; it does not
matter if they are called as a hodja, scholar, teacher, religious official,
father, sheikh, perfect man or religious leader. People are not satisfied if
they do not see the divine light on their faces, the honesty, morality in
their behaviors because they are not foolish in general.
NOW, WHAT DO WE MEAN? We mean to say that faith CANNOT BE THROUGH TEACHING.
The teaching must particularly be in accordance with
the person who teaches it. There should be a Christian divine light of Jesus
on the Christian scholars, a divine light of Moses on the face of the Jewish
scholars because all the Perfect Men are divine. Allah reports in the
Koran that the Tawrat, Bible and the Psalms of David (Zabur) and the Koran are
all Divine Light. Allah said about our Prophet in the Koran, in the Sura of
Ahzab, verse 46:
“You invite people to Allah with the permission of Allah and you are the
shining Light, O Muhammad”.
Allah describes the Sun in the sky as “the shining Light”. Thus,
according to the Koran, Hz. Muhammad is the Sun who emits “Divine Light”. This
verse includes all the other Prophets and the Perfect Man as well. All the
Saints (the Friends of God) and Prophets are the bright lights and they emit
divine light.
Therefore, these polytheist, pagan Arabs, the people that lived in that area
and those who believed in the Prophet of Muhammad observed the Divine Light of
Allah- the Lord-, the Koran, the Bible, the Tawrat, the Zabur, the Divine
Light of Moses, Jesus, Adam, Noah and of the holy personalities on the sacred
face of the Prophet Muhammad. They personally saw the virtue, compassion,
kindness and justice in Him and they admired Him. They recognized the divinity
on the face of the Holy Prophet and said, “This Hazrat Muhammad is
spiritually perfect, he is in contact with Allah, he is divine, he has divine
light, he is a mature man and he is trustworthy”, and they liked and loved
him. As they loved him, they loved God and they sat at his feet. Because they
loved him, the Absolute God Allah loved them too and He guided them into the
true faith. He bestowed faith on them.
If a person does not love God, he is not given faith. To love a Prophet means
to love directly God. It is different from loving an ordinary person.
Thus, we say: “Allah is one, the Prophet is true (Haq)”. Those who
loved Hazrat Muhammad, Moses, Jesus, David, Abraham and all the Prophets, the
Friends of the Prophet (the first believers), the Disciples of Jesus, the
Family of the Prophet and the distinguished Friends of the Prophet saw
(observed) the Divine Light on the face of Hz. Muhammed, Hz. Moses and Hz.
Jesus. They loved them; they praised them and helped them.
For this reason, Allah called them as “The helpers of Allah”. Helping
the Prophets and pious people mean helping Allah. (Al-Fath, 9 The Imrans, 52)
Those who do not love them have several reasons; some of them envied them and
asked, “Why is he divine? Why am I not divine?” Some of them were very
heedless and they could not notice the beauty in this face. They were the
heedless -very ignorant- and also the chiefs –the influential people of that
time-. They saw that the Prophets, especially Hz. Muhammad had a great ability
of influencing and convincing people and they said: “He is a chief, he is a
leader and he may influence people and attract them”. They likened him to
themselves and got frightened from his influence on the people and their
support for him. They decided to kill the Prophet Muhammad (A.S.) and
all the other Prophets because they were against to their order of cruelty.
They were afraid that their life styles would change, as the Prophets always
wanted social equity. The Prophets were from the poor families and some
people denied them consciously in order not to lose their presidency. They
tyrannized, tortured the prophets and the saints (the friends of God) and
killed some of them.
The old teachings are like a story for people. Whatever you do, they cannot be
contented. Human –beings cannot be a believer through teaching. They must
personally see that Perfect Human. We also cannot be a real Adam just
by reading the poems and the teachings of Yunus (the Perfect Human) if we do
not see Yunus himself. They keep on saying: “Be an Adam, man -human-!”,
but HOW CAN WE BE A HUMAN (ADAM)? “Adam is like that… Adam is like this…
Adam said… Adam was such a good person… Adam was so good… etc.” How shall
they know Adam from a person who did not see Adam in his life? It does not
come true with the teaching. You should see the teacher of the reality. You
cannot be an Adam if you do not see Adam. Teaching is a gerund, an action, a
verb, a teacher who teaches is the pronoun- a subject. The pronoun - the
subject- is a Scholar. Knowledge cannot do anything if there is no
scholar. Knowledge guides (initiates). There cannot be an action without an
actor. If there is no person, there is no attribution. What I mean to
say is: Faith is not by teaching. Faith cannot be learnt by reading and
writing. Faith is an event, a state, a case. Faith is revealed from the
Heavens (above). The other knowledge: Jurisprudence, Physical Sciences, Fine
Arts are learnt by studying and using your mind, but faith is bestowed by
God and it is divine. It is a divine gift revealed from the Heavens. It is
a spiritual guidance. If you ask a scholar of Islam: “Is faith bestowed or
gained?”, he would say: “Faith is bestowed by God.” It is a divine
gift, but it is not something that you earn or gain.
Therefore, you cannot acquire faith by studying or trying. If it were by
studying, 90 percent of the Friends of the Prophet were illiterate, then how
did they become an “Adam” without reading and writing? The Prophets did not
open a school. Our Prophet explained and interpreted the Koran to the first
believers with the permission of Allah and they listened to him.
He did not say to any of his faithful brothers/sisters and his friends:
“Bring a pencil and a paper and learn this and I will give you a test!”
Our Master only talked to them even if they do not know how to write and read,
whether they were literate or illiterate. They became a wise person according
to their abilities. Nobody can call the Friends of the Prophets as “ignorant”.
Yet, most of the Friends of the Prophets were illiterate. The religious
schools were opened 60 -70 years after our Prophet, during the Umayyads and
Abbasids. There were such believers that they died before 20 verses were
revealed. Some of them were martyred and some of them were killed or murdered.
Some died before they read 50-100 verses.
The Koran was completed in 23 years. Now, although 6000 verses are in our
hands, the Sayings of the Prophets are in our hands, these religious schools,
Madrasas, opened for 1350 years, are in our hands, we are not satisfied, we
cannot reach the piety, the grace and the faith of the great personalities,
who were grown up in that society, and we cannot be pious believers.
Whereas, there were some people from the friends of the Prophet who listened
only ten verses and became a saint (a Friend of God). You must absolutely see
and meet an Adam - a perfect believer- and perceive the divine virtue and
grace in him.
When some people see some old people; grandmothers and grandfathers, they say:
“How beautiful he or she is! She or he is in his 80-90ies but he/she is
shining like a divine light”. It is just like this event. Faith is based
on observing not studying. A person who did not see a real believer cannot
know what faith is. The person who meets a real believer watches that divine
face, at that moment, he likes him or he does not like him. Such a person
tests himself on the touchstone and his value is learnt then. He either liked
that faithful person and he won or he did not like him and he lost.
It is same as the incident: when you see someone, you like him/her or you do
not like him / her. It is just like this. It is a secret and not easy to
understand why some people like him but the others do not. This is not
in your prerogative. If a person did not love someone and if he tried to love
him and forced himself until morning, if that person met him in the morning,
he would see that he could not like him. If a person liked someone and if he
asked himself why he liked him till morning and if he saw the same person in
the morning, he would see that he liked him again. This is very surprising.
Faith is an amazing event, anyway.
We say that faith is not through teaching or studying; then, what is gained by
studying? Physical Sciences, Jurisprudence, handicraft can be learnt through
teaching or studying. A school is needed for them. They are learnt using
papers and pens and they are exterior knowledge.
Religious knowledge of Islam can be learnt by studying and using pens and
papers. These can be learnt by non-Muslims as well. There are some professors
of the History of Religions among non-Muslims and atheists. Some academicians
know not only the religious knowledge of Islam but also about all the
religions and sects in details, unfortunately they do not believe in the
Koran. If the faith and its principles were learnt through reading, they would
learn faith and the principles of it very well and they would believe in them.
Faith is heavenly and it cannot be acquired by studying. A person cannot have
faith if he does not see a real believer (the perfect human). He does not know
what faith is. Faith is a divine manifestation and it is a gift, and it is
absolutely bestowed by God. Unless God wills, nobody can believe in or have
faith, even if he is a philosopher. Yet, 98 percent of the believers of all
the Prophets and Hz. Muhammad were illiterate. They would not know how to
write and read. 99 percent of all the close Friends of the Prophet were
illiterate. The practice of that time is obvious and nobody can claim the
opposite of this.
The reality of belief does not depend on being literate or illiterate. If it
were through reading and studying, faith would be given to only literate
people, yet, the Prophets and the Friends of the Prophet- the first believers-
are called as “the Wise”, it does not matter they know or they don’t
know how to read and write. The believers are not called as “the ignorant”
in the Koran and in the other holy books. The believers are called as
“those who know (scholars or the knowledgeable)”. The unbelievers are
called as “the ignorant” even if they read thousands of books or they are
philosophers.
In the Koran, Allah likens the Scholars and the learned men of the People of
the Book to a stupid animal laden with books. (Juma, 5) This also
includes our faithless, unbeliever, impious scholars who have been grown up in
the world of Islam for 1340 years. This is what is understood from the meaning
and concept of this verse. We should not accuse only the scholars of the
People of the book as such scholars exist numerously in the Muslim World too.
The good ones are exceptional for us.
The principle is:
You cannot study faith
but you can study the religious sciences such as the articles of Islam,
Jurisprudence, Muslim Law and prohibited and permitted acts, they can be
learnt by studying. They teach us the knowledge of religion but they do not
teach us faith because the realities of faith can only be known by those that
acquired the knowledge of “Ledunni.” They are called as the Wise
and you need not read and write for this because Ledunni means the
knowledge directly given by Allah. The example of it is Hazrat Hıdır.
Hazrat Hıdır is not a Prophet but Allah says He bestowed knowledge on him from
His presence. (Al-Kahf, 65, Ta Ha 99, Al-Nisa, 67) They are the Gnostics-the
Wise people.
When we search for the historical period, we see that a person may be an
atheist or a materialist and he may not believe in Allah although he is a
great philosopher. Another person may be a shepherd, illiterate or a primary
school graduate but he may believe in Allah, the Prophet and metaphysics. On
the other hand, a person may be well educated, intellectual, he may be a
philosopher or an academician but he believes in Allah, the Prophets and
metaphysics. Another person may not be well educated, he may be a primary
school graduate but he does not have faith. We all see this around us.
It does not matter if we consider history or today, this historical reality
continues. We can see it in practice. Faith is not related to studying. We
cannot be a Yunus, if we do not see Yunusses or just by reading their poems
and teachings. How happy are those who found Yunusses! Greetings to those who
found them!
They are not ordinary people. To love Yunusses means to love Allah; to dislike
them, means to dislike Allah. The virtue and grace in them are the
attributions of Allah. Yes, Yunusses are true. THOSE WHO DO NOT LIKE LITTLE
LIGHT DO NOT LIKE MUCH LIGHT. They are the people who did not see the Sun in
their lives but saw these stars, yet they did not love and respect them.
THE LAST WORD: The real faith cannot become true if you do not particularly
see Adam-Yunusses and if you do not perceive the loftiness and perfection in
them because nobody can have a real faith without meeting and loving a real
human. The essence of this is, “TO SEE THE TRUTH (HAQ) IS TO LOVE THE TRUTH”.
For this reason, we said, “IT CANNOT BE UNLESS YOU LOVE”. The name of the
real-true human is, “YA SIN- O THE PERFECT MAN-EXALTED HUMAN”. Let us say
HUUUUU here.
Allah has very clearly informed with His Holy speech that nobody can object
that He sent His last Prophet (Hz. Muhammad) (A.S.W.) as a messenger of good
news and as an admonisher to all His servants and to all mankind, but not to a
certain group of people, to a certain class (whether or not they are literate
or illiterate, rich or poor, a philosopher -educated or uneducated), shortly
not to the Ulama class (Ulama: Doctors of Muslim Theology). This exalted and
holy verse says: “Vema ersenake illa kaffeten linnasi beşiran ve nezira-I
have sent you forth to all mankind so that you may give them good news and
forewarn them.” (Al-Saba, 28)
We can obviously see this in the practice of the Prophet (S.A.W.) too. Our
Prophet had not opened a school or a Madrasa but he only talked to people and
believers. There were literate people, monks and rabbis among the people whom
the Prophet (a.s.v.) had addressed. He did not tell anybody to bring notebooks
and pens and he did not ask them to study hard, as he would give them an exam
to check whether they learnt them or not. The Holy Prophet (S.A.W) only had
conversations with them.
Madrasas were opened after the Prophet during Umayyad and Abbasid times and
they were innovation. There were not any schools and Madrasas in the Sunnat of
the Prophet (A.S.W.). Our Prophet had the Koran written in order not to cause
discussions after him.
The only people who follow this teaching of truth and reality in
conversational method after the Prophet are Sufis. All the great personalities
of Tekke (dervish lodges, place of repose, refuge,) continue this
conversational way of teaching of our Prophet. Tekkes were made public
afterwards. All the places where the Perfect Man sits and talks are considered
as tekkes.
Tekke is but a room where people get together and listen to a conversation,
speech or chat. Our Master held conversations, if necessary, wherever he was
present. Then, the conversational method of teaching of our Prophet is
continued by only the mystics of tekkes. That is to say, tekkes remained
faithful to the teaching method of Our Prophet. Illiterate people, scholars
would also attend these conversations. All the servants of Allah, all the
human beings who have an ability of reasoning (except those who are mentally
retarded) whether they were literate or illiterate, educated or less educated
could attend them. Each person who had a capacity of understanding was able to
learn the realities -most of which were related to metaphysics- which were
told at that conversation.
This was the method of our Prophet’s teaching. Islam Religion has not come to
the Ulama Class but it has come to all people. Realities concerning
metaphysics cannot be learnt at Madrasas or at schools through reading and
writing. As we mentioned above, Physical Sciences and the Sciences related
to Islamic Law, Jurisprudence and Sharia can be learnt by studying. The
sciences concerning the realities of the Articles of Faith -they are the
sciences of abstract, metaphysical realities- can not be learnt by reading and
writing but they can be learnt only by attending the conversations of the
personalities like Yunus who are the real inheritors of the Prophet (A.S.W).
There is no other way of it. It is not possible to learn them by reading the
works of the Messengers and mystics either. They can, by all means, be learnt
at the conversations done by their own pure breath at the presence of the
Perfect Men (who are either a Messenger or a Friend of God).
We say that nobody can be a Yunus by just reading his poems. There is an
obligation of meeting with a Yunus. Sufism is suggesting this! Sufism has not
developed from the Madrasas and schools. Sufism came into being from Tekkes.
This is a historical truth. If there is anybody that objects to this, should
prove it. The literature of Sufism of Tekke is a definite -concrete- witness
of it. Our latest word is that the sciences of Canonical Law, Jurisprudence,
the science of Catechism can be learnt by studying and by non-Muslims as well
but they cannot become a Muslim when they read them. The sciences that are
related to the realities of faith can especially BE LEARNT FROM THE PURE
BREATH OF THE PERFECT MAN. To believe in the articles of faith and to know
the realities of faith are different things. For example, everybody believes
in the Sun; yet, how many people know the reality of the Sun in details? What
we mean to say is there should be a Messenger or a Friend of God who is in
dialogue with Allah and who bears the Holy Spirit of Allah. There is no other
way of learning the metaphysical realities. The name of Messengers and the
Friends of God is the PERFECT MAN, who reached God and who met Allah.
They are also human beings like us but they are the people who started a
dialogue with Allah. A shining electric bulb and a dark bulb are not the same.
Both of them are made of glass but one of them emits divine light or light.
The surrounding of a bulb, which is not shining, is dark. Which philosopher
has consisted a gathering, society, community? Yet, the Prophets were able to
gather big communities around them. The Prophets had assembled big communities
around them and consisted big nations. The Prophets had made the greatest
revolutions.
Here is the Nation of Moses! Here is the nation of Jesus! Here is the NATION
OF THE LAST PROPHET, GRACIOUS MUHAMMAD! If you add them, it makes about three
and a half billion of people. Which of the philosophers has that big
community? Therefore, the people who influenced humanity are the Prophets and
the Friends of Allah because they are the representatives of Allah in the
world. For this reason, Allah has made the Angels prostrate before Adam, who
was a Perfect Man, who was His first messenger and who was His deputy
(Caliph). ALL THE PERFECT MEN - Messengers and the Friends of God - have been
included in this prostration in the person of Adam. Ulama are the people who
know Allah perfectly. They know Allah with His Attributes and with His Person.
They are the ones who are cognizant of reality-Unity. They are the people who
know metaphysical world- the realities of Angels, Spirit, Jinnee, Paradise and
Hell perfectly. They are the wise personalities who know the articles of
faith, realities of faith, shortly the TRUTH. In the Koran, they are mentioned
as sabık -those who exceeded others- and Allah calls them as mukarrabun -the
ones who approached Allah-.
There were people who knew how to read and write and who did not know them
among the pious and God-fearing believers from the Exalted Companions of the
Holy Prophet.
Our Lord also calls them as God-fearing, pious, devout and submissive
people. (Al-Anbiyah, 49 / Al-Nur, / 52 Al-Zumar, 33) Allah reports that
pious believers are the Friends of God. It is a historical truth that most of
the Companions of the Prophet were illiterate. More than 90 percent of the
Prophet’s Companions were illiterate. This is a reality. Ulemaibillah who know
the sciences concerning Sharia, Jurisprudence and Islamic Law -the sciences
that can be learnt by studying- are not the scholars who know Allah - the
reality - and the realities of faith. Non-Muslims and atheists can also learn
the Canonical Knowledge. There are some among them that know the sciences of
Sharia better than our theologians do. The Arabic grammar is not an
ilm-science or divine knowledge-. It is the knowledge of language. The
polytheists would also know Arabic. Anna Marie Schimmel is a professor of
History of Religions, who wears the cross necklace on her breast. She taught
most of our religious academicians Islamic Law, the Science of Jurisprudence.
She is the instructor -TEACHER- of most of them. Nevertheless, she is a
Christian who wears a cross necklace around her neck. Anne Marie Schimmel
knows eleven languages with their literature including Arabic, Persian and
Turkish.
After explaining the above realities, we say: The verse: “The scholar fears
Allah” (Al-Fatir, 28) does not include the theologians that know the
exterior knowledge, the knowledge of Sharia, Canonical Law, Jurisprudence and
Islamic Law. For, if you could be an ulama -the scholar- just by knowing the
knowledge of Sharia, Canonical Law, Jurisprudence then those among non-Muslims
and atheists who know Islamic Canonical Law in details would be an ulama and
they would fear Allah. They would be God-fearing scholars. Real Ulama are the
Wise Saints or Gnostics who know divine-spiritual knowledge. This knowledge
means knowing yourself -the reality of human and it is Ledunni-Divine
Knowledge. It is such knowledge that comes from Allah by Spirit to Spirit.
“Men arafe nefse hu, Kad arafe rebbehu - He who knows himself knows his Lord.”
(Sayyid Abdülkadir Geylani, Sırrül Esrar, p.31 Binbir Hadis, Şemseddin Yeşil,
p.212 İst.1983)
The way of knowing the Lord is through the knowledge of reality-the
truth of man (human being) because the biggest work of Allah is human-man. He
who does not know himself and his Lord perfectly is not a scholar-a scientist.
That is to say, those who do not acquire the knowledge of reality cannot be a
scholar by just knowing the science of Sharia. Note: I am presenting to you
the following two glorious verses in Chapter Yunus about that the faith is a
gift of Allah and it is His guidance, in order to enable you to come to a
certain opinion:
“Had your Lord pleased, all the people of the earth would have
believed in Him, one and all.” (Yunus, 99)
“None can have faith except by the will of God. Allah gives His
scourge (mess, impurity) upon the senseless (the irrational).” (Yunus,
100) See: Hasan Basri Çantay, Hamidullah, Süleyman Ateş and all the
interpretations of the Koran. The definition of “Akıl (reason, mind,
intellect)” in all the dictionaries is “to understand, understanding. In other
word: “having the ability to understand”. The Turkish definition of “akil” is
“the one who understands, sensible or rational”. “Yakilun” and “Layakilun”
written in many places of the Koran, mean “those that are rational or
sensible” and “those that are irrational or senseless”. According to the
Koran, when you call someone “irrational”, it does not mean that he is
“mad”. It means that he is “senseless”. We call such a person “foolish”. The
name of mad in the Koran is “insane (mecnun)”. The Koran uses the
word “insane” for “the mad”. Allah uses the word “insane” for “the mad”. In
Arabic “Mecnun (insane)” means “mad”.
The Inspirations from the Existence are being strained to reach
you and we are continuing to present them to you step by step…
GREETINGS TO ALL MANKIND!
Kazim Yardımcı (from
Adıyaman)
13th
October, 2004
varliktanveriler@hotmail.com
bilgi@varliktanveriler.com
www.varliktanveriler.com
