The travelers on this path endear their beloved to those they reach through the tongues of disposition and representation, their most powerful arguments. They always inhale the truth and spread it wherever they go. Hence, they attain Divine love, stage by stage. They constantly repeat the statement of the Prophet, the Master of Discourse: “Endear God to His servants, so that God may love you too!” They travel to the farthest corners of the globe, carrying “talk of the Beloved” on their lips. This is a Divine rejoinder, as vast as oceans, that rewards drop-like kindness. The expression “worth the world” fails to state it befittingly.

Being under the tutelage of the Prophet and following his footsteps is one of foremost ways and means that lead a person to endear the Almighty. All who know and accept Him and enter His spiritual atmosphere are saved from inattentiveness as far as they internalize and live according to His light-diffusing scriptures, which are messages coming from His attribute of speech. Hence, they start seeing everything through the lens of insight. While their eyes watch the signs in the temple of the universe, their ears effervesce with zeal when they hear the miraculous word of God reciting the laws of creation in the huge sanctuary of events. They respire by the following lines of the poet:

“You exist, O Lord; You exist once and always,
You are always in my mind, in my heart and in my soul!”

They deeply weave together contemplations starting from faith (iman), knowledge of the Divine (marifa), love of the Divine (muhabba), and love and yearning for a reunion with God. They start murmuring the melodies which are portrayed and voiced by the paragraphs, sentences, and words of existence and events, and they say, “He.” Hence, they mention Him and constantly remember Him in words. See how exquisite a man of love and elation put this experience into words:

“This universe is entirely a colossal book,
Whichever letter you search, it denotes God.”

Hearing this voice, and reading that anthology of messages and understanding the immensely expansive meanings expressed by them, requires a seeing eye, a hearing ear, a rationalizing reason, an unrestrained discernment and understanding, and a vast curiosity and love of knowledge. It is very difficult, rather impossible, for imitators who are entangled by the glaze of imitation and unable to jump over the fences of forms and figures to sense and eventually internalize this. When all neurons in the brain lack such an expansive sense of faith, and hearts lack sincerity and profundity, the light of Divine knowledge does not exist in this spiritual anatomy either. Love does not exist in a heart and soul where there is no light and illumination of Divine knowledge. The breezes of ardent desire for reunion with God do not blow there.

Individuals who dedicate themselves to communicating His message and endearing Him to others enter the atmosphere of being loved in this way. They crown their lives with manifestations of presence in the Divine. They passionately utter His names day and night, without committing any blunder, just as they continuously run the marathon of good deeds. They sigh and say, “sincerity”; quiver as they remember “being under the constant watch of the Almighty”; contemplate resignation to God and hasten from one vista to another for more reflection. Without being delayed by steep hills, deep vales, and seas of pus and blood, they march toward God’s favor and reunion with the All-Truth, without expecting anything corporeal or ethereal. Individuals attaining this horizon watch with deep sorrow those who are entangled by worldly pomp and fame. As they weep and moan inwardly, they avoid the traps the unfortunate ones have tripped over and move forward to rip love and interest for the vanities of life from their hearts!

They say, “We hit the path of love like mad and we seek no honor!” (Sayyid Nigari) and they always mention Him. They consider the most enchanting expressions as a waste of words if they are not about Him and shift to talk about the Beloved. They scan the horizons observed in their dimensions of the soul (ruh) and inner secrets of their heart (sir).

They know their willpower is connected with all of these feelings, thoughts, and privileges, but only as an unnecessary condition; they are fully aware to credit everything to a distinct Divine favor and the exclusive will of God – they never compromise their faith in the Uniqueness of God, for the sake of which they could renounce everything. According to them, the confines of willpower are very narrow: determination and perseverance are not adequate causes; corporeality and bestiality are handicaps blocking the path leading to real humanity. In the face of all these, they deem considering all privileges as their natural right a sort of obscured blasphemy. Hence, notwithstanding all types of achievements and rewards, they murmur the considerations of:

“A slave as I am, I am not worthy of this gift
Why am I being granted this favor?” (M. Lütfî).

Attributing everything to the breadth of Divine compassion, the expansiveness of His favor, and His surprise manifestations, they voice the constant recitation of “Everything is from You, You are the All-Sufficient / O Lord, I turn toward You!” They hurry towards the Paradise of the Sultan of the Sultans, the One Who responds with His infinite favor.

Indeed, this caravan of the holy, which always marches toward Him, has set out on this path by sealing the openings of their inner realms against strangers from the beginning and drawing breath from the Divine attendance. They have constantly remembered Him along the way and been engaged with the consideration of Him. They have not wanted to hear alien songs in the realms of their hearts and emotions. They started speaking by first reasoning that all words should be in reference to Him and each discourse should be rhymed by His mention. They concluded their speech by citing Him. Moreover, by considering all expressions and conversations that do not mention Him as waste of words, they made their discussions and consultations more profound by their talk of the Beloved. Almost always, they made the following considerations the voice of their inner excitement:

“I wish all the creation in the world would love my Beloved,
I wish our talk would always be about the Beloved…”

Saying, “Either speak about the lover or stay silent / If you will, open your arms wide for that!” (the first line is from Fuzuli, the 16th century Turkish poet), they completely seal their doors against strangers.

In contrast to those souls devoted to God, who constantly inhale these considerations on the path of prophets, there are others who are deprived of a lofty goal in their lives, who are egotistic, victims of avarice, power-addicted, rotten human beings with dark souls and feelings are the aides of the devil. This latter group has never quit maligning the devotees on the path to Him. These dark souls have used various methods of oppression and domination to annihilate the devoted souls – yet, they have been the ones annihilated. They have waged war against the light, which the Divine has endowed to the devoted souls who endeavored to represent it. They have lied and defamed, trying their best to block the path of the travelers of light. However, they themselves have been defamed by means of their own wickedness and meanness, for the travelers of love and munificence have been following the footsteps of the prophets and they are under the protection of God. Nobody will be able to eradicate those who have been scattered by God on the plain of service and have grown like ears of grain. Nobody will put out the torch lit by God. Because behind that illuminating torch is the mercy of God, the will of the All-Glorified, and the decree of the Beneficent Bestower of Bounties. How nicely Ziya Paşa puts it:

“God’s Decree is not moved by muscle strength,
A candle lit by the Lord cannot be blown out!”

Therefore, it may be said that the wrongdoers have revived the practice of the hypocrite Ibn Salul, yet in vain was their endeavor! Because behind the travelers of Truth is the help of God;

“God, the beauty of whose glory is apparent in all corners,
In hearts is a shadow of that manifestation;
Sensing this, one wanders and seeks Him everywhere,
And the sweetest memories loom before his eyes.
Each color, voice and pattern is an expression of His existence…”

May God speed you, O the valiant souls of Hizmet and the people of the Qur’an!

Even if work done is for the sake of good, if it does not occasionally add color to life, then one can experience boredom beyond monotony. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, prevented those who gave themselves to worship from worshiping in a way that would bring boredom.

One of the heroines of this situation was Zaynab binti Jahsh, a sultan of the women’s world. She was a woman famous for her devotion to worship and her generosity. She took the Prophet as a role model and behaved like him as best as she could. A member of a noble family, our mother Zaynab was one of the honorable of the Quraysh tribe. Perhaps due to a spiritual state derived from her heritage, she experienced inner turmoil when she married Zayd. However, she was to be the wife of the Blessed Prophet. God made their marriage in the heavens with the verse: We united you with her in marriage (Qur’an 33:37).

Our mother Zaynab was so devoted to worship that she stretched a rope between two poles in the masjid so she could lean on it when she got tired. Seeing this rope, the Messenger of God said as a warning:

“Untie the rope. When you get tired, rest, and after you rest, perform worship. If you do not show weariness, in a similar way, God will not show it towards you and will give you what you want.” At another time he stated, “When you are sleepy while you pray, it is probable that the favorable prayer you would make will turn into an unfavorable one,” thus recommending the performance of worship after rest.

Similarly, it is certain that constantly doing work along the same lines will bring on boredom. In order not to allow this to happen, there is benefit in visiting a different place within your means and to becoming busy with other things. Also, in order to increase your love and enthusiasm and to increase your motivations for good service, it is helpful to see people who share the same ideas and feelings that you do.

In fact, you can stay in such a place as a guest. Also, you can visit places of historical heritage and institutions established for good service to others. In this way, you both relax and maintain your liveliness. To the contrary, your body might relax in places where heedlessness and excitement are promoted, but your spirit cannot. Actually the body’s full relaxation depends on the spirit’s being lively and alert. If the hope is that the spirit relaxes as well as the body, then you should visit people who show devotion to worship and good virtues and who are good examples with the way they live. I can comfortably say that money used for gasoline and other expenses in these visits will be considered charity. In this way, we will have given the best charity for our families, and we will have taken them out for pleasure as well. Even if vacations made for purposes other than these relax the body, they also allow for the prolongation of heedlessness and some subtle faculties of human spirit may be destroyed.

In summary, those with believing hearts should not neglect to go on vacation on certain days of the month or year, within means, for the purpose of their own and their family’s relaxation. It is very important for the sake of continued vitality.

There have always been people who have sought, in their own way, to actually become Gods equal. Today, this usually does not take the crude form of actually being worshipped as deities, devising specific rituals, and promulgating new doctrines and paths of salvation. This desire has become far more subtle, for it sometimes assumes the form of trying to help people. In this issue, we mention two groups of people who are tempted by this path: scientists and self-help experts.

For many, science has made life far easier and more comfortable than it was for our grandparents. We are healthier, better fed, better educated, and now take for granted many things that our grandparents grew up without. But some scientists continue to dream of actually creating new life. All of us know about the debates raging over such issues as cloning animals and humans, genetic engineering of food and animals, choosing a babys sex, and so on.

But what many of us do not know about, unless we are familiar with science fiction books and movies, is the relatively new field of nanotechnology. This involves the development of microscopic robots that can be inserted into your body to heal it by repairing its diseased parts, or maybe even those that are simply aging in accord with nature, so that life will continue perhaps indefinitely.

In the self-help field, many self-proclaimed experts repackage common sense and ideas from various Far Eastern non-monotheistic religious and philosophical systems and present them as breakthroughs that will enable you to realize your deepest desires. Underlying all of these, however, is the assumption that the individual is in control of his or her life. But is this really the case? Can we control every situation in our lives that has a role in our achievements?

We might be able to control some aspects, such as acquiring the necessary knowledge, skills, and contacts. But what about the other factors: the air and food necessary for life, the proper functioning of our brains and bodies, not to mention the continued beating of our hearts? Do we control these factors? The self-help experts never mention such facts, thereby encouraging us to take them for granted and deny any role in them to our Creator. And so we drift farther and farther away from our Creator and toward our own ego, thereby, perhaps unconsciously, joining the Pharaohs in their mistaken belief that they controlled everything.

For those of us who try to follow the path of Prophethood, as exemplified by Prophet Muhammad, such subtle attitudes must be recognized for what they are. While scientists and self-help experts have achieved remarkable things, we must not forget who made their achievements possible. Could it have been anyone other than God, Who gave them life, a brain with which to think, a desire to acquire knowledge and skills in order to benefit others, and everything else that enabled them to live long enough to be of service to others? We may appreciate their accomplishments, but our devotion and gratitude should be directed only to God, for without God they would not have accomplished anything.