Belief Gives Strong Hope

As-Salāmu ‘Alaykum wa Raḥmatullāhi wa Barakātuh. A‘ūdhu Billāhi Minash-shayṭāni r-rajīm. Bismillāhi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm. Wa ṣ-Salātu wa s-Salāmu ‘alá Rasūlinā Muḥammadin Sayyidi l-Awwalīna wa l-Akhirīn. Madad yā RasūlAllāh, Madad yā Sādāti Aṣḥābi Rasūlillāh, Madad yā Mashāyikhinā, Dastūr Mawlana Sheikh Abdullāh al-Fā’iz ad-Dāghistāni, Sheikh Muḥammad Nāẓim al-Ḥaqqānī. Madad. Ṭarīqatunā aṣ-Suḥbah wa l-Khayru fi l-Jam‘iyyah.

There are a lot of foreigners here, so I am not going to speak in Turkish. I will make the Sohbah in English, and they will translate to German insha’Allah.

A‘ūdhu biLlāhi mina sh-shayṭāni r-rajīm. Bismi Llāhi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm: , ‘Lā Taqnatū Min Raĥmati Allāhi, 'Inna Allāha Yaghfiru dh-Dhunūba Jamī’āan’, ‘Do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins.’ (Qur’ān 39:53)., ‘Wa man Yaqnatū Min Raĥmati Rabbihi illa d-daaloon’, ‘And who despairs of the mercy of his Lord except for those astray?’ (Qur’ān 15:56). Sadaqa Llāhu l-‘Aẓīm.

These Ayat from Holy Qur’an. There are many verses like this telling not to be hopeless. Because Allāh ﷻ created us, He ﷻ knows everything and He ﷻ has managed everything: what will happen. So for this, He ﷻ gave good tidings for believers to not be hopeless.

Many people these days lost their hope thinking there is no hope for them and Allāh ﷻ will not forgive them if they want to come back because they have done very bad things. But Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla says, “Don’t be hopeless. I am the Most Forgiving One,” Allah Azza wa Jalla.

Of course, human beings are thinking - and this is a wrong thought - they are thinking that Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla would be like them. No, Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla doesn’t take revenge if you ask for forgiveness. But human beings want revenge. If you do anything wrong, maybe you run away later. But when they catch you, they will punish you. Even if you say, “Forgive me. I will not do this again. I promise. I’ve done this a long time ago. I ask for forgiveness. Forgive me and we can continue our lives.” They say, “No, you must be punished.” But Allāh ‘Azza waJalla forgives. The second time - of course, human beings have ego, they have shaytan, they cannot be the whole time following what they promised. Again, they

make this sin, make this bad thing, and they ask for forgiveness, and Allāh ﷻ forgives them. Our Holy Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam said this. And he ﷺ said, every time you ask forgiveness, Allāh ﷻ forgives you. He ﷻ doesn’t say, ”You promised and you did it again, I will not forgive you.” No, He ﷻ forgives. A Sahabi was asking Prophet ﷺ, “Even if a hundred times?” He ﷺ said, “Even more than this also. As much they are asking for forgiveness, He ﷻ forgives them.”

For this, Mawlana Jalāluddīn Rūmī was saying, “Come! Everybody, come to this door. Even if you are a non-believer, if you are worshipping fire, worshipping idol. Come to this door. Even if you make sin a hundred times, also come to the door of forgiveness.” Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla says in Hadith Qudsi, “I am happy with people who ask for forgiveness. No matter how much sin they do, I will forgive them.” And He ﷻ also says, “If you are not doing sin, if you are all in the right way, I will create people to make sin, so I forgive them.” This is the Mercy of Allāh ﷻ for us, for human beings.

The door of forgiveness is open until the last day, until before Qiyamah. Before Qiyamah, there is some big things that will happen in this world. One of them is that the door of forgiveness will close. Until that time, it is open; no worry. If you ask, “How can we know this?” It will happen after Mahdi ‘alayhi s-salām, after Isa ‘alayhi s-salām, after this big sign. So don’t be afraid that this door will close and you will not know. You will know, everybody will know.

This is for all human beings. When they are hopeless, they will be only like a body going without anything, without a soul, like a dead body. And these days, because many things are happening, all human beings look like hopeless ones. Why are they hopeless? Because they have no belief. Belief gives you strong hope, good energy. You see everybody like the dead, but you are fresh. Why are you fresh? Because you know you are with your Lord. Once the time comes for you to be taken to akhirah, nobody can prevent that whether you are hopeless or with hope. So being with hope will be good for you. Because you know that what is written for you will happen. And you are with your Lord, you know that your Lord promised you: if you are patient and asking for forgiveness, you will be happy in the end. And if you are happy in the end, in the beginning you will be happy also.

For this, the real men of Allāh ﷻ were not caring at all for any benefit from dunya, any treasure of dunya; they are not looking at all for this. Even though they gave them full treasures to care for dunya, to care for high ranks, to help Sultan, they didn’t notice that. There was in the time of Sultan, one of the ʿAbbāsid Sultan,

I can’t remember exactly if it was Al-Ma’moun or Hārūn ar-Rashīd. There were the biggest Awliyā’uLlah in Baghdad. One of them was Hassan Al-Basri, and one was - I don’t remember them all, but they are the biggest Awliyā’uLlah. One is called Bishr al-Ḥāfī. They were four. Somebody saw them running away from Baghdad. Why were they running away? Because their Sultan wants to assign one of them as Chief Judge for Baghdad. Two of them managed to ride a boat in the river of Dijlah. They ran away. The other one, they were about to catch him, he pretended as he is crazy. Only the fourth one, they caught him.

Sayyidina Abu Hanifah is 70 years old or more. They caught him, and wanted to put him as chief judge by force, he refused. He is the greatest Imam. We follow until now, the Hanafi Madhhab. Abu Hanifah is the biggest Imam. He is Imam and Awliyā’uLlah. For 40 years, he said that he prayed Fajr with the Wudu’ (ablution) of ‘Isha. He was a trader. He was selling silk. He was a very rich one. So they wanted to put him as cheif judge by force, but he refused and said, “I don’t take this responsibility. It is too heavy to be judged in front of Allāh ﷻ on the Day of Resurrection.” They put him in jail and he still refused. After that, they whipped him until they thought he will die. And he refused until he was martyred like this. Why did he do this? Is he not clever? What he wrote maybe fills this hall. Because when he is with Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla, he is happy. Even with what they’ve done, what they did for him, he didn’t care.

These are the believers who are happy with their Lord. They are not losing hope. People now, for very small things, lose their hope. And then they go to find something to help them carry this. And what they find is only poison. You must be patient. You must be solid, not melt like water. You must be like iron. Iron - as much they put it in fire, it becomes better. As much you be patient with what you are suffering, it will be better for you in dunya and akhirah. Allāh ﷻ will reward you. When you see what He ﷻ gave you from rewards, you will wish, “O if I suffered more than this.” May Allāh ﷻ help us to not follow our ego, not follow shaytan who takes away from us all these good things that Allāh ﷻ gave us, but may we keep them for akhirah insha’Allah.

Wa min Allah at-Tawfiq. Al-Fatiha.

Mawlana Sheikh Muhammad Adil ar-Rabbani 01 June 2024/ 23 Dhul Qa’dah 1445 Isha Prayer - Royal Ottoman Society, Ludwigshafen, Germany