Questions to Mawlana

Sultanul Awliya as-Sayyid Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim ‘Adil Al-Haqqani An-Naqshbandi ق sohbat, 14 December 1994

GUEST: Mawlana I see that among our brothers, there are some foreign people. There is for sure a wisdom in opening your arms to these people. How come? How do you win a non-Muslim person? How are they honoured with Islam?

MAWLANA: Are they not Allah’s servants? I don’t collect them from the moon and stars. They are the people of the Earth. They are servants of Allah. Not people of the heavens. If you don’t appreciate Islam, Allah makes the Europeans to appreciate it. He takes out the sword and disciplines you. They will teach you Islam. The manifestation is on them now. There is a hadith: “The sun will rise from the West.” Its meaning is authentic. No need to translate it but if we translate it, it is a sign that Islam’s sun will rise from the West again. These are the new seeds of Islam blooming in Europe. They will come here in waves. They will insult people, who insult Islam here. Guidance is from Allah, not from us. We are a means.

GUEST: I asked because in other jamaats, among the brothers, the followers, I had never seen foreigners. Is it that you have an exceptional quality? How is it?

MAWLANA: It doesn’t belong to me, Allah gave me that quality. If I talk with the Pope, he becomes a Muslim. If I talk to a preacher, he becomes a Muslim. If I talk to Jesuit, he becomes a Muslim. If I talk to a Wahhabi, he gets more stubborn. I can’t communicate with arrogant Muslims. I can’t make them leave their arrogance. But these people (non-muslims) are inclined to Haqq (Truth). When you talk about Haqq their conscience immediately runs to accept it. It is not difficult. There is nothing easier than making them Muslim.

People who come to Europe for inviting (to Islam), either from here or other Muslim countries, they are arrogant. So these people don’t listen to them. If you approach these people humbly, respectfully, with love they give their lives for you. They too are Allah’s servants. He isn’t an ordinary man, he is a professor. This man is a German professor, doctor. A gentleman. He has high education. Jamaladdin also. Each one of them is a university graduate. They have professions. They aren’t ordinary people. We can’t deceive them and draw them to religion. No!

GUEST: Mawlana, there are various jamaats in Turkey. What do you advise the followers? What is your view on them?

MAWLANA: I’m tired of this variety. This variety is like partly cloudy. Each cloud is loaded with blessing. Divine order doesn’t let them rain. When they unite, blessing descends. I have no other advice. They should leave these names, unite under the name of the everlasting empire that their ancestors established. Our ancestors the Ottomans united all the Muslim nations under one identity. They succeeded in uniting them. Unfortunately now, there are Arabs, Saudis, Jordanians, Syrians, Iraqis, Yemenis, Egyptians, Sudanese, Tunisians, Algerians, Moroccans. All sorts. Even the Arabs can’t own their identities. They can’t say we are the Muslim Arabs. They are divided under fake names, titles. That’s why they have no value.

GUEST: By the way, Mawlana some people are busy preparing. Very busy preparing, as you may well know.

MAWLANA: Is it yellow fever?

GUEST: New year is coming. They celebrate the birth of ‘Isa ‘alaihi salam. They mark it as the first year and they celebrate the new year. What do you think about New Year?

MAWLANA: There is nothing to think. What can you expect from a community forced in this direction for 70 years? Expect them to approve the integrity of our Prophet’s ﷺ birthday? For 70 years, they say it is brain washing, not brain washing but brain spoiling. Each suggestion made makes people away from Islam, meaning, spoils their brains instead of washing their brains. Unfortunately their brains are spoiled with Christmas for over 70 years.

Let alone being religious, there is no religious tradition left. Now they adopted these Christian traditions. Tradition, new tradition. They intend to continue it. Headache. It is certainly unacceptable. “I celebrate it at home.” Don’t. “I eat chicken instead of turkey.” Don’t eat turkey either. Eat bread and olives that night. At least if we look at it from a religious perspective, when his mother gave birth to ‘Isa ‘alaihi salam she became hungry. With Allah’s order she shook the branch of the date tree and the dates fell down. At least if they put dates on their tables it would be consistent with the Holy Quran. They can calculate it and if it is ‘Isa’s ‘alaihi salam birthday, they can eat dates. I’m not saying that they should do this, but if they did it might be accepted.

We, Muslims don’t believe in the correctness of the day that Christians claim is the birthday of ‘Isa ‘alaihi salam. It is absolutely incorrect. That isn’t the day. But Christians have made this religion fake. It is a religion of showing off. They haven’t left anything related to reality so we can say, do this, do that. No need. Because the Saudis, whom you assume to be practicing sharia, reject the celebration of our Prophet’s ﷺ birthday. It is prohibited by the Saudis. So many ignorant ones, with titles of ‘Doctor’ are educated by Saudis.

They also reject the Mawlid. They prohibit the Mawlid-i Sharif reciting in the month of Mawlid. They say it is prohibited, bid’a (innovation), etc. They are the ones making bid’a. For this reason within this year this yellow fever won’t leave them. But this yellow fever makes them uncomfortable. These people busy with New Year preparations, should be ready for yellow fever within that year, that they call ‘New Year’.

GUEST: Mawlana, I would like to ask this lastly, we get some criticism about music, can you explain the relation between Islam and music?

MAWLANA: Your Sultan here talked about music. “These tunes bring to our ears the sound of the gates of Paradise opening, we rejoice, we are raised to the heavens,” said the holy Sultan. An unripe person said, “the same with us.” “No, it is not the same with you.” That was the only time the Sultan said ‘No’. “No, you hear the sound of the gates of Paradise closing to you.” Understood? We hear the sound of the gates of Paradise opening but you hear them closing. Your egos go wild. Our spirituality benefits from it.

Music isn’t forbidden in Islam. Zayyinu avatikum bi l-Qur’an. There is a hadith sharif. Embellish your voices with Quran Kareem. A beautiful voice is a grant from Allah Almighty to His servants. Not everybody has it. Some attract. Some make people run away with their ugly voices. They say so. French ambassador, when the French high commissary was appointed to Damascus there was a muezzin, who recited the call to prayer (adhan) beautifully. He found so much spiritual joy, that he woke up at night, opened the window and listened to him.

One day he called him and tipped him, he gave a bag of gold. After a while, that person was either dead or lost, they appointed someone else. And he had a terrible voice. When he heard him, he called his servant, gave him 2 bags of gold. His servant asked him, “How come, sir? You gave one bag for that one, with such a beautiful voice and 2 bags for this one.” He said “That one was about to make me Muslim, this one has moved me away from Islam. I gave him 2 bags, so I keep my religion.”

Hear the Wahhabis’’ call to prayer. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. Put someone with a good voice. Let everyone listen. There was Master Zekai from Konya. May he rest in peace. When I was a kid.

KM: In Haci Bayram Veli.

MAWLANA: He went there later. First he came to Cyprus, the year you were born. Hafiz Zekai came there because he wasn’t happy with the hat revolution. His voice was mashaAllah. I find that quality in Mustafa Efendi, Haji Efendi’s son. Allah bless him. Mustafa Efendi is sitting there, he was a muezzin. He read Ashri Sharif. Davudi, strong voice.

I was ten, eleven years old at that time. When Hafiz Zekai Efendi came the whole country stood up and the muftiate appointed him as muezzin to Sarayönü mosque. Today this mosque is unfortunately used as a marriage office because of the troubled management of North Cyprus. Allah gave us this huge country. All that Greek property was handed to us. Palaces were handed to us. They couldn’t assign a room. Cypriots couldn’t assign a hall. They spoiled the mosque for marriage.

To whom shall I complain? Erbakan comes and leaves, without meeting me. Kavaki comes and leaves without meeting me. Pasha comes, leaves without meeting me. This comes, leaves without meeting me. Kabakçi comes, leaves without meeting me. Asiltürk comes, leaves without meeting me. I may complain, because they won’t let me, but I complain all to Allah. I won’t leave them. That mosque is a marriage office. Unclean ones go in there, drunk ones also. The government makes us insult our religion. That’s why nobody will recognize them as a country. Mr. Denktas may run wherever he wants.

Then he was appointed as a muezzin to that mosque. When the call to prayer is recited on its minaret, that is Sarayönü, there is also an obelisk. You could see all around. There wasn’t this trouble called Saray Hotel. When the call to prayer started, all the Greeks, the clerks, lawyers, employees in the Greek offices, everyone went out to hear his call to prayer (adhan). He recited that good. It was so enticing. It is in Islam. It exists in real Islam, it isn’t forbidden.

When you say discotheque music, piss-cotheque music! You want us to throw a stone at Mevlevi music? I won’t. I throw that stone on them. Not stone, I throw a cannon ball. You can’t take it. Whoever messes with me can’t survive because now my spirituality is getting stronger. Rumi’s spirituality is on me. If I touch, I burn. This is his expression. That’s why Mr. Halis, beautiful voice in Islam because it is a grant from Allah – inviting people to Islam with such a beautiful voice is something praised, desired, intended. It isn’t prohibited. Allah knows better.

GUEST: Rumi has a eulogy. Shall we read it?

MAWLANA: You should, he completes this. You may put it like cream on top. Go on.

GUEST: Mawlana you talked about Denktas, we know him as a patriotic person, fighting for Cyprus.

MAWLANA: He may, who told him not to? He says that he is going to leave us. He isn’t going to rule us. “Take the presidency. Do as you like. Carry this burden,” he said. It is on the news. What kind of journalist are you? You haven’t seen?

GUEST: Your views about Denktas?

MAWLANA: What shall I say? MashaAllah he is tall and fat. He has a big value. The worms in the grave will be happy. He is that much burdened. What is his value? A person’s value is measured in the way of Allah. Our value is unknown among people.

GUEST: Thank you very much Mawlana, for all the information you gave us.

Video Link: http://saltanat.org/videopage.php?id=14776&name=1994-12­14_tr_SeyhEfendiyeSorular_SN.mp4