- Sohbet -

[25 June 2009 – 2 Rajab 1430]

“I want you to engage in contemplation tonight”

Aydın Baba: {to the people trying to squeeze into the meshk room from the meydan after
dhikrullah} You can all sit where you are; we have to squeeze a little tightly. … Come
closer please, come closer… make more room there…

Efendi: Has the room filled up? Okay. Now please close the doors, so I can cool a
bit. This is too hot for me. I have high blood pressure; I cannot stay in such a hot
room for too long. … Close that door as well. Close it please!

Aydın Baba: Gentlemen! Keep it down over there!

Efendi: Our people have not been able to get accustomed to benefiting from air
conditioners properly… When you have a burning stove in your home, you close all
the windows. But when the air conditioner is on, my dear brother thinks to himself,
“hey, let’s open the window here so we’ll have some fresh air!” How smart indeed!
It’s 35 degrees Celsius (95 F) outside! … This is also very good; a hot drink along
with something ice cold… Very good… There is also no ashtray… Very good…
Laylatu’r-Raghāib

Tomorrow, in the papers --I do hope I’ll

be wrong-- they will write: “Laylatu’r-
Raghāib was celebrated last night. It is
the night when Prophet Muhammad fell
into his mother’s womb”. This flawed
thinking has unfortunately persisted for
too long… Neither the person who writes
the news article, nor their copyeditor,
and nor the editor-in-chief knows the
truth of the matter. On the other hand,
the Directorate of Religious Affairs and its personnel, who are paid by the State,
don’t have the courage to growl at these newspapers. While some people
understand spoken word, some others, unfortunately, understand only the
“language of the stick”, much like animals! But, mind you, hitting isn’t done by
slapping or with a stick alone; one must also know how to beat with words. To hit
with a stick does not mean hitting them actually; you must know how to hit with
words.

The Night of Raghāib has nothing to do with Rasūlullah’s honoring his

blessed mother’s womb. Above all, it goes against spiritual courtesy (adab). Talking
about the private life of Rasūlullah’s blessed parents is an incredibly inappropriate
thing to do! It is not in accordance with either Islamic manners or ordinary human
manners. These people do not know how to perform basic arithmetic operations,
either. A human being’s life in their mother’s womb is typically 280 days. As one
month is considered to always last 30 days, people, because of a strong human
inclination to round off numbers, have taken to saying “9 months and 10 days”,
which has become a slogan over time. It is, however, not 9 months and 10 days,
since not every month is 30 days. February sometimes lasts 29 days, sometimes
28 days. Some months are 30 days, some are 31. So, let me reiterate; it is not 9
months and 10 days. That calculation is incorrect. In terms of the number of days,
it is exactly 280 days. And Rasūlullah’s birthday -in the old way of putting it- is
muttafaqun ‘alayh; unanimously agreed on; that is, there is no room for any doubt
or objection: it is Rabī al-Awwal 12.
 So, count the days from Rajab 1 to
Rabī al-Awwal 12. How many days
are there? Have you ever counted?
If you haven’t ever done that, do it
now. One must first be able to count
the lunar months in the correct
order, right? Rajab, and after that
Sha’bân comes, and after that…
comes the Eid! But what about
Ramadān? Well, it is for the Bektāshīs! Not for us! That’s how the Bektāshīs count
the lunar months: … Rajab, Sha’bân, and theeeeen, the Eid!

“But Baba Erenler,” they asked, “where has Ramadân gone?”

“We have no need for it!” he said.

Another Bektāshī came up with another solution; he wrote on a scrap of

paper, “Tomorrow is Ramadān”, and put it inside his shoe; and every day, before
putting it on, he sees his “reminder”, right? So, the Eid came, and he still thinks that
“Tomorrow is Ramadân.”

Anyway; Rajab, Sha’bān, Ramadān, Shawwal, Dhu’l-Qa’adah, Dhu’l-Hijjah,

Muharram, Safar, and Rabī al-Awwal. So, was Rasūlullah born some time at the end
of the eighth month of his mother’s gestation or at the beginning of the ninth month?
We know that he spent exactly 280 days in his mother’s womb. We also know that
Rasūlullah was born a perfectly natural birth. So, this calculation is incorrect.1

“Homo economicus”
{raising his voice} Unfortunately, we don’t
even know what night we’re celebrating!
Or, even though there are people who
know what it is, the media, sadly, which
shapes the public opinion so profoundly,
don’t know. Inshā’Allah I’m proven wrong
and they don’t write it like that tomorrow.
But be sure to check tomorrow’s papers;
I’m not asking you to go and buy them; try
to check them without buying any. If you
happen to find this wrong in any one of

1
On one of the Raghāib nights some years before that, Efendi, during the sohbet, carefully calculated each and
every scenario with the ikhwān present in the meshk room with him (if the first day of Rajab falls on a friday,
or its second day, or its third day, so on) to refute the claims of those people who bring up this non-sense every
year.
them, then buy it. No newspaper in Turkey is worth buying, with the exception of a
few magazines; they occasionally run truly worthy opinion pieces. All the others rest
on “I”, “Me” and “I know it all!” Pieces of writing that are firmly centered on “I-ness”!
And because they “know it all”, everything keeps getting worse and worse. Except
for economy, that is. They are numbing our minds with economy! The desire to have
better clothes, better food, and better homes is present in animals as well.
Economy, essentially, serves only these three purposes. It helps you to obtain
higher-quality food; and whatever kind of food, by the way, it is, it is bound for the
toilet. Every banquet ends up in the toilet, materially speaking! If the intention of the
person eating is to obtain more strength for worshiping Allah better, then that food
becomes real nourishment. If this is not the case, all of it goes to waste eventually.
This is the story with seeking to have better food.

As for wearing better clothes; even if you have 50 pairs of shoes, you can
wear only one pair at a time. Okay. Have one pair for the winter, durable ones with
sturdy soles; and a pair for summer; something that breathes, something easy to
put on and take off. What are the remaining 48 pairs for? They are for turning your
house into a warehouse. If you want a bigger house, the place you will sleep or sit
is as large as your hind quarters! What will happen to you when you have a larger
house? So, they manipulate us to run after only these material things, thereby
further and further distancing us from true humanness. Are you aware of this? I am
not saying these to you alone. My words go to all the places they’re meant to reach.
Now that you’re sitting here with me, I’m telling them to you. Friends! I’m speaking
to you; but other friends! You understand these as well!

A human’s life is not only made up of the effort to find ways to achieve greater
economic growth. What makes a human being a human being are not economic
benefits. Those quests -going after better food, a better home- are present in
animals as well.

Sūra al-Zumar, 39:9 "Are those who know and those who do not know equal?"

The way to get rid of this ignorance is to not settle for the things that the
system offers us. One must shuffle through a few books and go and ask a few
people one believes are knowledgeable and trustworthy; and learn the facts.
 There are, on the other hand, deniers who claim that such blessed nights do
not exist. If tonight were not such a blessed one, I would swear at them. So please
consider them sworn at.

“Does Islam allow swearing?”

“But my kind sir, does Islam allow swearing?” Yes, it does! But there are
some preconditions for it. 1. You must have ablution. {some people silently laughing} …
I am serious. {Ikhwān go “astaghfirullah”} 2. It must not be done to satisfy your nafs. 3.
You must pinpoint the target; that is, you must know for sure whom you are
swearing at and why. If you meet these preconditions, your words will reach their
target; don’t you worry about that. They certainly will. So, won’t we swear at Abū
Jahl, for example?? Of course, we will...

“…mithlukum”

Our Beloved Master Rasûlullah, with the āyah ana basharun mithlukum,2
declared that he is of our kind, that he is not an angel, not a jinn, not a god --
though the āyah has many other meanings, a foremost one of them being, “I equal
all of you”. And to emphasize this, the āyah is repeated a couple times in the Qur’ān.
But one thing this āyah does not mean is that he is just like a normal human being
like the rest of us. The lexical meaning of mithil is ‘equivalent’ or ‘equal’. However,
its idiomatic meaning is, “He equals all of you human beings combined”. From
Hazreti Ādam to the latest baby that will be born before the end of the world, put
all human beings in one of the scales, and put Muhammad Mustafā in the other, he
weighs heavier. “Ana basharun mithlukum.” That’s the true meaning of it. But to
highlight his not being like us and to avoid what people did to Hazreti ‘Isā alaihi’s-
salâm and similar unwanted situations in which Rasūlullah could be perceived as a
God, and also so that it is declared that he is under this special protection from
being perceived as God, Allah sent down this āyah.

All in all, Rasūlullah sallallāhu ‘alaihi wa sallam is a father, a husband, a

grandfather, a diplomat, a soldier, a merchant, and a prophet. He combines all
these attributes in himself. And it is only natural that there were times he got angry.
In his daily life, when he encountered situations in which people acted tactlessly
and unwisely, as everyone knows, the vein between his eyebrows visibly bulged.
This is an indication of an increase in his blood pressure. As you know, when blood
pressure increases, it causes the face and ears to turn red, and that particular vein
to bulge. Apparently, our Beloved Master underwent such a shift in his blood
pressure level due to anger. He did get angry at times.

2
Sūra al-Kahf, 18:110

A charcoal drawing of Miskinler Tekkesi in Üsküdar by Ali
Rıza Bey, 1914.
he was surely a dervish; without exception. And in rare cases, if this individual
himself was not a dervish, his teachers were.
We must not think of him as someone
who sits idly and silently in a corner just
like that. That is the image of Rasūlullah
that has been tried to be imposed on
us! Don’t they try to portray tekkes and
dervishes like that as well? As in the
example of “Miskinler Tekkesi.”3 Can
you show me a single idle, sluggish,
good-for-nothing dervish? Or a single
Pīr with these qualities? Whatever
individual in our history has given
society the right shape and direction,

So, this is to say that Rasūlullah sallallāhu ‘alaihi wa sallam was not a person who
stood idly by events as they were happening, and he did get angry at times.

“Who will rescue Muhammad from the tyranny of Ibn al-Ashraf?”

What about the times when he got really really angry? For example, Ka’b ibn
al-Ahsraf, who never stopped deriding the Prophet with his acerbic poems,
although Rasūlullah sallallāhu ‘alaihi wa sallam repeatedly sent him messengers, asking
him to stop doing so. He lived close to Medina, was very wealthy, and had many
armed men. Our Beloved Master sent him a number of messengers, saying, “Keep
your mouth shut, don’t you continue doing that” etc. This was after the Hijrah. Out
of his stubbornness, he didn’t stop saying poems against Rasūlullah. And in the
end, Rasūlullah sallallāhu ‘alaihi wa sallam said “Is there no one among you who will
rescue Muhammad from the tyranny of Ibn al-Ashraf?” A relative of Ka’b ibn al-
Ashraf came forward and said, “Yā Rasūlallah, I can do that. But I need some time.”
“Okay. What do you need to have some time for?” Rasūlullah asked him. “In the
days ahead, his son is getting married, and he will surely invite me, because I am
one of his relatives.” Ibn al-Ashraf’s house was near Medina, but was fortress-like

3
It was a place for lepers; a leprosarium. Because they had to be isolated from the community, they were
provided with a dargah-like place in Üsküdar, and in order not to hurt their feelings, they place was called
“Miskinler Tekkesi,” miskin meaning an idler, a layabout, a sloth-like person, when used as a pejorative term,
but in this context, it meant people who were too sick and weak that they barely had any strength to move
around. But after 1925, those hostile to everything Ottoman began to portray a whole new, and untrue, picture
of the past, first and foremost imputing to noble, hard-working, cultured, knowledgeable members of tekkes all
sorts of negative qualities. But of all those accusations and lies, one that particularly stands out and has since
been fervently used is that, “Members of tekkes were all idlers (miskin); they sat in their dargahs all day, did
not work, did not serve in the army, and they lived off of the charities people gave them.” Needless to say, these
are all are outrageous lies.
and otherwise impenetrable. It was located in the west of Medina. “I’ll enter his
house by that opportunity and will take care of him,” said the companion.4 {a brother
lighting Efendi’s cigarette at this point; Efendi continues talking, his mouth half-open} Indeed, he
did what he said he would do.

The point of “illallah!”

This is an example of Rasūlullah’s

determination, and an example of
exhibiting anger that did not derive
from his nafs, or personal choice,
because our Beloved Master sallallāhu
‘alaihi wa sallam never got angry with
someone for his own nafs. But because
his duty, his attributes and his value in
the sight of Allah were among the
things entrusted to him, he was obliged
to protect those trusts as well. And as
for us; because of our attributes of
“mu’min” and “muslim”, which we did
Sūra al-Qalam, 68:4
“And truly thou art of an exalted character.” not deserve, but Allah has bestowed
upon us, we, too, CANNOT accept it
when people taunt us, call us backward, and reactionaries and retrogressive in the
guise of calling us “conservative”. We do not have the right to agree to this. This is
not something we could pass off by saying “eyvallah”. Saying “eyvallah” in the face
of such degrading attitudes and pejorative names has nothing to do with
dervishness. That is the point of “illallah!”. NOBODY may call a mu’min or a Muslim
a puritanical retrograde! Even if they might have backward thoughts, that
backwardness stems from ignorance, which can be eliminated by knowledge, and
that backwardness disappears. But a mu’min is never retrogressive. So, because
of his duty, Rasūlullah sallallāhu ‘alaihi wa sallam could not say “eyvallah” to his blessed

4 ‫ ﻣﺤّﻤﺪ ﺑﻦ ﻣﺴﻠﻤﺔ‬Abū Abdirrahmān Muhammad ibn Maslama ibn Salamah al-Awsī el-Ansārī (d. 43/663)
(radiyallahu ‘anhu). He was born in Medina 35 years before the Hijrah. He was one of the first to embrace
Islam in Medina through the efforts of Mus’ab ibn ‘Umayr (r.a.). After the Hijrah, Muhammad ibn Maslama
was made brothers with Abū ‘Ubaydah ibn al-Jerrâh (r.a.). He was always with Rasūl al-Akram and participated
in all the battles, with the exception of Tabuk, because when Rasūlullah was going out for the Tabuk campaign,
he left him in Medina as his deputy. At Uhud, in the most difficult moments, Muhammad ibn Maslama shielded
Rasūlullah with the help of his sons. In almost all the battles, he was of service in their planning and their
implementation on the ground. Because of the great valor he exhibited in the battles, he was given the epithet
Fārisu Nabiyyillah (The Horseman of the Prophet of Allah). On 14 R. Awwal 3 (4 Sept. 624), Muhammad ibn
Maslama led a team of five companions (himself included) and killed Ka’b Ibn al-Ashraf and Sallâm ibn Abî
al-Huqayq, both wealthy poets as well as fierce enemies of Islam who never stopped attacking the Prophet and
the believers in whatever way they could.
attributes being ridiculed and insulted through biting lines of poetry making rounds
in Medina. Therefore, his anger was not personal.

“What if their forefathers didn’t know?”

The Arabs had the custom of boasting of their ancestors.

Unfortunately, that custom is still very much alive in most corners
of the world. But it is a very ingrained and institutional one amongst
the Arabs. In fact, that’s what the European aristocracy is all about.
For example, the king of Sweden is not Swedish. Marshall Jean
something5, on whom Napoleon’s mistress Désirée was fobbed off
… Well, I don’t mean to get along with them, so their names evade
me now… Anyway, that marshal was a childhood friend Napoleon
lived in the same neighborhood with in Corsica. When Napoleon
conquered Sweden, there was no king there, so he said to his
friend, “I’ve made you King of Sweden, and given you Désirée as
your queen!” thereby getting rid of her. So, off they went, one of
them becoming a king, the other a queen. Jean did not speak a
word of Swedish. This marshal had a grandson; he was a madman.
But he became king later on just because he was the grandson of
the marshal.

You can’t find anything like this in Ottoman history, by

the way. With the exception of Mustafa I Hazretleri…
I refer to him as a “hazret” because he was not a
madman; he was a majdhūb. He was under the
protection of Hazreti [Pīr ‘Azīz Mahmūd] Hüdâyî
Efendimiz. Also… Sultan Ibrahim Khan, too. He was
not crazy, or anything, either. It’s all a slander against
him. Sultan Mustafa I did not sit on the Ottoman
throne for a full year. That was a period like that and it
ended very quickly. Besides Mustafa I, no other
Ottoman sultan was a madman or something.
Including Murad V. He had a temper issue, but was
Sultan Mustafa I
(1591 Manisa - 20.01.1639 Istanbul)
definitely not a madman.

So, going back to the topic, the Arabs boasted about their forefathers.6
Among these were diehard idol worshippers. People as evil as the pharaoh. And

5
Jean Bernadotte
6
Efendi literally says, “seven generations up the lineage,” which is the customary expression in Turkish to refer
to one’s ancestry.
these boasters were so quick to blurt out, “I’m the son of so-and-so!” “I’m the
descendant of so-and-so!” Rasūlullah sallallāhu ‘alaihi wa sallam said, “Do not boast
about your pagan ancestors”. Of course, obedience is one of the most difficult
things in this world. So, even among the Blessed Companions (Ashâb al-Kirâm),
there were those who heeded Rasūlullah’s words not as quickly as they probably
should have… Well, I could never bring myself to say, “some amongst them did not
heed his words”; I don’t want to risk having my face contorted! I would truly fear
saying such a thing, because one must show the uttermost care and
meticulousness when it comes to talking about those blessed human beings who
drank the milk of Islam, as it were, directly from the chest of Muhammad Mustafā!7

“La'anallahu man sabba ashābī”

(May Allah curse whoever vituperates my companions)

But, there may have been amongst them those who obeyed him late or those
who upset or disappointed him. But we still do pray to be the recipients of their
intercession as well. So, one of them, although he had been warned several times
previously not to do so, continued to intersperse his speech with laudatory words
about his idol-worshipping ancestors, and somebody informed Rasūlullah sallallāhu
‘alaihi wa sallam of this. When our Beloved Master received this news, he sent word
to that companion, using an expression which very well amounts to a swearword in
today’s terms. This is to say that, Rasūlullah did use such words when he thought
it was necessary. But of course, not obscene words like those we sometimes utter;
he used even such words perfectly in line with the graceful manners that
characterized his blessed self.

Likewise, Abū Bakr Efendimiz Hazretleri, the most truthful one8, al-siddīq al-
akbar, swore on the Day of Uhud. At the end of the battle, Abū Sufyān rode very
close to the point where Rasūlullah sallallāhu ‘alaihi wa sallam had withdrawn to on
the mountain, where he had actually been commanding the Muslim army, and
shouted, “Is Muhammed alive? Answer me!” repeatedly. Upon this, Hz. Abū Bakr
radiyallahu ‘anhu, even though Rasūlallah sallallāhu ‘alaihi wa sallam was right next to

7
In Turkish, this does not bring to mind the image of a woman suckling her baby. Not as strongly evocative as
it is English, because the word in Turkish, “meme”, does not denote a gender and translates both “breast” and
“chest.”
8
Efendi very often reminds us that Rasūlullah is not the “first”, “highest”, or “most” in anything. He is one and
only in his own category, which is far above all conceivable human categories with regard to any quality.
him, could not contain himself and swore very badly at Abū Sufyān9. Hearing this,
Rasūlullah smiled and said “Abū Bakr seems to be angry!”

So, they say “Is it suitable for a dervish to swear at someone?” Yes! If anyone
says that a Muslim is a retrogressive reactionary, I will not hesitate to use the
heaviest language against them! I do swear! If I could find that person, I would beat
them! But I can’t, so, instead, I swear!

Vicious cycles of sinning & Prayers without thinking

“But do you have to bring this up on a night like this?” Yes! What else, aside
from asking for forgiveness, have hodjas taught us so far? They keep telling us, “On
those nights, say, ‘O Lord, forgive our sins!’” Alright! Is our book of deeds a scratch
book? We sin, and Allah will blot out our sins, we sin and Allah will delete our sins!
But what about making the effort to not sin? Why doesn’t any of these hodjas
suggest that in order not to sin again, we also need to mention that intention in our
prayers, and say, “O Lord, please help us not to sin again!”?

I was watching TV in my room some hours ago. One of the channels was
broadcasting live from Eyüp Sultan, and the eminent mufti of Fatih was speaking.
He was saying the exact same thing! “Let us all ask Allah to forgive our sins.” It is
always the same generic sentence! Even such a high-ranking religious official as a
mufti says that. They’ve got a fixation on having our sins forgiven! But one must
have the face to ask for forgiveness in the first place! So how about making an effort
not to commit sins in the first place? Why don’t we ask our Lord for that? And why
are we not raising our voice against those who insult Islam, and Muslims, in whose
personality Islam is represented? If you think this is submission (taslimiyyah), it is
clear that we have not grasped what submission really is. And if you think this is
resignation, putting your trust in Allah (tawakkul), then we have not understood
tawakkul either. Therefore, we must be careful not to do wrong things that can be
used against Islam and Muslims by their enemies. And also, for the ones that
slander Islam, we must respond in ways to make them understand that they are
wrong and to reduce them to silence. But we must, without fail, be equipped with
the required knowledge and the right conduct needed to respond to them.

“So, Efendi, what should we do when we go home tonight?” “Pray, make

salāt, and recite the divine names with your tasbih…” Everybody says this. I’m not
going to advise you to do these. When you go home tonight, engage in deep
contemplation (tafakkur)! And do that on the subject of “What do I have to do to
prevent people from saying bad things about Muslims and Islam?” Think about that.

9
Tārikh Ibn Asīr records this incident in detail and what particular swearword Hz. Abū Bakr actually uttered.
It is heavy indeed!
And then translate whatever thought you come up with into action and behavior as
soon as possible. This is what I want from you tonight. Do not make salāt to make
up for your missed prayers. You can do it any time of the year! Tonight is a period
of time when Allah’s blessings and mercy overflow.

Don’t be afraid of committing sins, but…

“Ask for forgiveness in mere words…” Well, the first requirement to ask for
forgiveness is not to make that mistake again. I say that we must not be afraid of
committing a sin, but rather we must be afraid of insisting on committing that sin
again. And let me be clearer: Don’t be afraid of committing sins! But, be very much
afraid of committing that sin again! And when I say this, some get angry with me.
Let them keep getting angry with me. I am of those who are of this opinion.

If a sin is committed once and then

if you do tawba (which in reality is to
ask Allah’s help for not committing
that sin again and to return from that
sin), as our Beloved Master put it:
“At-tâibu min al-dhanbi ka man lā
dhanba lahū” (One who repents for
a sin is like one who has never
committed it). So, committing a sin
is not something to be extremely
scared of. But what matters most is
not to slip back into it again! I tell you
“Ilāhī, khāliqī warham bukāī, taqabbal tawbatī waghfir khatāī”
about things that are more
(O my deity! My Creator! Have mercy on [me on account of my] important, and I don’t want from you
weeping, accept my repentance, forgive my mistakes)
what others want, but I want from
you what I want! And what I want from you is to be actively engaged in tafakkur. I
want you to think, reflect… “What can I do more, what can I do better??”

When you make salât, you don’t do it for me, nor for Allah; you do it for
yourselves. Your salât doesn’t benefit the community directly. If your salât is holding
you back from vices and evil deeds, as Rasūlullah sallallāhu ‘alaihi wa sallam described
it, then it is real salât. Otherwise, it is nothing but physical exercise. These are not
new words. They have been said for centuries. Hazreti Mawlānā, for example, says
this in his Mathnawī al-sharīf. “Making salât is not imitating what chickens do by
putting your head down on the ground and getting your rear side up,” he says. “That
is the form of the prayer.” Our Beloved Master sallallāhu ‘alaihi wa sallam says that salât
keeps you from doing evil things. If our salât cannot hold us back and if we’re still
able to engage in evil deeds and behaviors, our salât is not salât. As simple as that!
Think BIG & act BIG

Therefore, I do not want you to pray more. I want tafakkur from you. I want
you to do things that benefit the public! I want you to make a meaningful
contribution to the current condition of Muslims; mind you, not Islam. Your praying
does not make this contribution directly. It surely is beneficial to you; no doubt
about that, but your personal benefit is of no concern to me; what concerns me is
the public benefit. And this benefit must not be limited to the Karagümrük quarter,
or the district of Fatih, or the city of
Istanbul, or Turkey, or the Islamic
world. Not limited even to this
world! Is the Realm of Existence
limited to our world alone? There
are angels, there are jinn, etc. There
is a whole separate section of the
Qur’an about the jinn.

“Khayrun nās man yanfa’u’n-nās”

(The best of mankind is one who benefits them)

I want you to think BIG so that even the angels and the jinn are affected
positively! And I want you to act BIG. How big? Everybody must do as much as
their individual capacity. Naturally, everybody has a predestined capacity. But
incumbent on everybody to fill up their individual container in this regard. So, what
is salât good for? It is a great helper when it comes to contemplation. If you pray
more tonight so your contemplation becomes sharper and deeper, I have no
objection to that! {half smiling}. But I’m very averse to thinking, “I will pay off some of
my debt, so it drops off my balance sheet at the end of the year!”, “Let me read
more Qur’ān so I can do more khatms of the Qur’ān, so I receive greater rewards!”
Let me tell you: overall, this does not impact you in lasting ways. There are
recordings, there are CD’s… and they recite the Qur’ān much better than we do. If
you do not act on what you read in the Qur’ān, and if you do not equip yourselves
with the injunctions of the Qur’ān, then your reading is no better than that of a
parrot.

Understand my words well! I’m trying to draw your attention to the hearts of
all these subjects! I’m not saying reading the Qur’ān has no benefits. There surely
are benefits in repeating the words of Allah. Āmannā. But I’m not pleased with this
much spiritual poverty! This is being poor. In no worldly affair are we satisfied with
poverty and bare minimums. We always want better and more in anything we chase
in this world. So, in spiritual matters, I want you to have the higher, the better, the
bigger, the larger, and more inclusive and comprehensive of everything!
- I have spoken too much!
- Astaghfirullah!
- Okay, off I go now. May Allah honor us with the advent of many more
Raghāib nights, and may He not make us of those who let such precious
nights come and go unattended! As-Salāmu ‘alaykum.
- Wa ‘alaykum salām wa rahmatullahi wa barakātuhū!