It was 2007 when I first met with people of hizmet (people of service), although I didn’t know of their common spiritual heritage at that time. I simply attended sohbets hosted by Turkish sisters, which, unfortunately for me, were in Turkish. Still the warmth of their company and hospitality kept me returning and hoping to learn more.

Then with Ramadan of 2008 approaching, one local organization offered a few converts the opportunity to travel to Turkey so that we could experience Ramadan in an Islamic country. There, I had my true introduction to hizmet.

I felt like I had hit gold. In my eight years since taking my shahada, I had been searching for a community that resonated with me, where I felt I could belong. Hizmet blended service with religiosity and spirituality—a continual struggle to improve oneself to draw closer to the Creator. This approach echoed my upbringing in my Catholic family-of-origin. After that life-changing trip, I wanted nothing more than to serve alongside them. It wasn’t easy, as they didn’t quite know what to do with me—an outsider by nationality, language, and gender, but I persisted, and they eventually started giving me various tasks and ways to serve.

In 2015, the decision was made to offer an English version of Hocaefendi’s sermons. I had the privilege to be a small part of that process for the very first videos. I edited the translation and along with a few other converts, we debated how we wanted them to be—namely, voice-over or subtitles. We unanimously settled on subtitles, as we didn’t want to miss the experience of hearing Hocaefendi’s voice, emotions, and pacing. Alone in my office, editing those sermons, I felt myself transported, stepping into a stream of light and goodness.

Although some might describe Hocaefendi as “old-fashioned,” there’s no doubt, but that he was a man of the times in which he lived. He encouraged the community to read their time well. Yet, he was deeply connected to the time of the Prophet Muhammad (saw). And through his speeches, he reached back in time and brought the Prophet and his companions to us today.

I recently reread those sermons from so long ago. He advised those dedicated to service to “Constantly feel like you are newly born. Feel like Allah has just sent down His message to you. Imagine that this revelation descending from the heavens is entirely new and vivid. See the new wisdom that this book unveils to you today as a deeper, more profound insight than you understood yesterday.”

In conveying the stories of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and his companions in a way that made them alive and relevant to our struggles today, he inspired noble volunteers throughout the world towards constant striving. It is through their sincerity, that others, like me, found our humanity. Gülen constantly reminded his followers to strive for Insān-i Kāmil, to strive to become the ideal human.

We need the ideal human today more than ever.

Humanity, this is what Hocaefendi constantly called us to—to be more fully human. We need an understanding of what this means in our world more than ever today. People present sanitized versions of themselves on social media, while AI and algorithms threaten to distort the truth and our understanding of the world. The great powers of the world act more like Empires seeking wealth and domination, rather than serving as beacons of light.

In these trying times, I leave you with this recommendation from our beloved Hocaefendi,

Renew your ship every day when you wake up in the morning. … As if you are renewing your vows, as if you are revising everything once again, say to yourself, “What should I do to feel everything as fresh as the first time when I felt them…like the dew on the rose petals sent from heaven, showering me with gorgeous smiles?”

Sincerity or purity of intention (ikhlas) and perfect goodness or excellence (ihsan) are the two bases and the most important sources of power for journeying and initiation. When the initiates’ heart beats with a feeling of sincerity and the consciousness of perfect goodness, they sometimes utter There is no deity but God, while having in mind several of the Divine Names, and therefore meaning “There is no Creator, no Provider, no Shaper… but God.” At other times they open a window in the heart for each Name of the Bestower of Life, and set out to observe what is beyond the door that has been opened by the consciousness of perfect goodness. On occasion also they travel

through reflection on the harmony of the qualities (color, scent, form, taste, sound, harmony) manifested on things, or on the horizon of Some faces that Day shall be shining and radiant, gazing toward their Lord (75:22-23), and they burn with the zeal of meeting with Him. With a deep, mysterious desire of observation, which is impossible for any mental faculty to make, they try to rise to the heaven of knowledge of God from the launch-pad of belief. Then their love develops into a passion, which is strengthened with zeal. They fly into the depths of eternality on the wings of attraction and, with the feeling of being attracted by Him, rise toward the high towers of the angels, being welcomed by spiritual beings, reaching points that few can reach, seeing amazing things that few can see. But aware that what they seek in no way has any form, they regard every scene that greets their eyes only as a picture, a tableau, and remain devoted to the truth beyond:

He is neither of bodily nor accidental existence, nor a substance, nor composed;
He does not eat, nor drink, nor is contained in time: He is high above all such features.
He is absolutely free from changing, transformation, and also from having colors or a form:
All of these we spell out so that we can clarify what God is not.

Whatever level they reach, they always feel humble in acknowledgment, We have been unable to know You as knowing You requires, O the One known, and stress that the Divine Being cannot be perceived. To whatever extent they fulfil the demands of devotion to God, they admit: We have been unable to worship You as worshipping You requires; and however deeply and sincerely they mention Him, they whisper their inability, saying: We have been unable to mention You as mentioning You requires, O the One mentioned.

These travelers regard respect for God’s commandments as the first and foremost means of approaching God, and piety and righteousness as the most blessed equipment for the journey. They train their souls and purify their spirits in devotion to the rules of Islam. They consider every effort for training and purification that is opposed to the rules of Shari‘a as falling away from the religion, and if anything out of the way occurs at their hands, they see it as a sign that they are going to perdition. In every stage of journeying and initiation, the travelers pay exceptional attention to the safety of the journey and see this safety in their devotion to the essentials of the religion and religious life, and know that their worth in God’s sight lies in piety and righteousness, and that only the pious, righteous ones can find God. “The final destination of the God-revering, pious will be Paradise, and their drink, the drink of Paradise.”

The author of Gulshan-i Tawhid expresses this truth beautifully as follows:

If you seek safety, know that piety and a righteous religious life are the safest stronghold against all fears and danger.

Self-training, or the training of the soul, has been accepted as an extremely important element of all religions. The self or the soul mentioned here is the human soul or self, which is also mentioned as the speaking self, and is dealt with in seven stages according to some Qur’anic allusions to it:

If the speaking self or soul lives only a life of ease in the swamp of carnal appetites, it is the Evil-commanding Soul; if it falters time and again while following the way of religion to attain piety and righteousness, but each time that it falters it criticizes itself and turns to its Lord, then it is the Self-condemning Soul. The soul which always resists evil in devotion to God and is favored with certain Divine gifts in proportion to its purity, is called the Soul Inspired or Receiving Inspiration. When it reach- es the point where it has a relation with its Lord in perfect devotion and sincerity and when its consciousness is at rest, it is the Soul at Rest. If it has reached the station where it abandons all its choices and is a representative of Divine will, it is the Soul Well-Pleased with God. When its greatest aim is acquiring God’s good pleasure and approval and when it is always acting to this end in consideration of, “I am pleased with You, so be pleased with me,” then it is the Soul Pleasing to God. Finally, the soul which has the capacity to be completely adorned with the full manifestations of Divine qualities and Prophetic willpower and resolution is called the Soul Perfected or the Soul Pure.

A believer with an evil-commanding soul is either unaware of the sins he or she commits or lives an uncontrolled life. Even if such believers perform the daily Prayers and sometimes do supererogatory acts of worship, they are neither conscious of what obedience to God entails nor aware of what committing sins signifies. Such persons need to be assisted, aroused to become aware of the balance between fear and expectation, and made to deepen their knowledge, love and awe of God. It is the beginning of the major or greater jihad (striving) that such believers heed advice, engrave their errors in the memory so that they frequently criticize themselves, and are determined to regularly fulfill their religious duties and resist sins. So long as they continue to strive, some changes will begin to occur in their feelings and thoughts. They begin to see that not even their best deeds are sufficient and criticize themselves even for the least of their evil deeds. This is the second step in the soul’s journey, which is called the Self-Condemning Soul.

Those who have reached the stage of self-condemnation intend to set out toward Him in their heart. However, they falter, making errors that stain their good deeds, and beautiful things follow ugly ones in their life. But whenever they stumble and fall, they pull themselves upright in remorse for the evils committed, cleanse themselves of sin by sincerely asking God for forgiveness and by trying to uproot their inclinations toward evil through prayer. Not content with these, they continuously reprove them- selves, and suffer pangs of conscience. A time comes when they express these pangs with sighs from the depth of the heart, and when they put these feelings into invocations and tears in seclusion. Those with a self-condemning soul advance along the intermediate corridor between carnal appetites and sins, and spiritual peace. They show great care in keeping their hearts upright in devotion to God and their thoughts travel between the outer and the inner worlds. They utter “There is no deity but God,” they turn toward Him and display their yearning for Him, saying “There is none to be desired save Him,” and continuously whisper “He is the Truly Desired One” and “the only One deserving worship.”

In the sight of the self-condemning travelers who have deepened in spiritual attainment and reflection, the smallest errors and omissions begin to seem to them the greatest and most perilous lapses. When they rise to this point, they can more easily distinguish dark from light and good from evil, and when they think of the ugly face of sins, they feel repugnance, and when they think of good deeds, they moan with remorse and regret for not having done them. However, they are always hopeful and determined. It is of the souls that have attained this point that God says: “Those who strive for Our sake—surely We will guide them to the ways to lead to Us. Assuredly, God is with those of perfect goodness who act consciously that We always see them (29:69).” God inspires in them all that is good and beautiful, and the things He approves of together with how they can attain them. The soul that has traveled so far in order to reach God and has come to the point of receiving this inspiration is the soul receiving inspiration.

Travelers who have attained this stage are preoccupied with Him and with consideration of Him. They breathe with observations everywhere of the matchless beauty of His making and look on everything as a beautiful scene of wonder, and they overflow with feelings of appreciation. While saying “There is no deity but He” with their voices, their hearts beat with the truth, “There is none deserving worship save He.” Without being able to find the words to express their wonder in Him and His works, they can only utter “He,” and begin to fuel the love and zeal in their hearts with every breath they inhale and exhale. While their spirit burns, their voices petition Him with the words,

O cup-bearer, in the fire of love I have burnt away,
so give me some water!

Since I fell in love with a beautiful one, I have burnt away, give me some water!

In addition to the world losing its attractions, even those aspects of the Hereafter that do not directly look to the Divine Being Himself, become of secondary importance to them. They seek welcome by Him in His Presence, they adorn their speech with yearning for Him and make their words more meaningful by arousing a yearning for Him in the hearts of others. They fill themselves with gifts that come from Him and try to distribute these, pouring the honey in their spirits into the hearts of those who yearn for Him. They frequently say, as Lamakani Huseyin Efendi¹³¹ said,

Clean the fountain of your heart when it is filled,
keep your eyes open when your heart becomes an eye for your heart.
Drive out denial, and put the pitcher of your heart against that fountain;
so that the pitcher may be filled with its exhilarating water.

When they get filled to the extent that they continuously overflow with the gifts coming from God, they pour them into the hearts of those around them, calling them as Muhammed Lutfi Efendi did:

O you who are seeking God’s gifts, come and join this circle (of dervishes)!
O you who are passionately pursuing God’s light, join this circle (of dervishes)!

Travelers who have attained this point eat, drink, and sleep little, and always feel wonder. Their interest in and occupation with worldly affairs is only because they live in the realm where cause and effect have a certain part. Fulfilling the responsibilities that are inherent in their rank and being thankful for the gifts of the Ultimate Truth, they sometimes breathe with the manifestations of the Divine Names and sometimes with those of the Acts. However, if they cannot strictly continue their spiritual journey under the guidance of the Prophetic way or if they do not take refuge in the guidance of those who represent the Book and the Sunna, they may, due to the depth of their devotion, go so far as to make utterances of pride that are incompatible with the rules of Shari‘a; also they may display affectations instead of maintaining humility and self-possession in their relationship with God.

The final point that a soul who receives inspiration can reach is the ultimate point of certainty based on knowledge and the beginning of certainty based on observation. Until travelers reach this point, their belief that everything is from God is only a theoretical assertion. When they reach this point, they confess with all their being that everything is from God. Every time they make this confession, they feel new breezes of contentment and begin to taste every commandment of God and everything pleasing to Him as if it were a dimension of their nature. This means that they are at the threshold of attaining the soul at rest.

How can one keep their motivation and sincerity while doing good works and services—and keep it as fresh as at the beginning? What can be done to inspire new generations to devote their lives to lofty goals?

It is true that people usually start off with utmost sincerity and devotion in their acts of charity, expecting nothing but God’s good pleasure. At least, this was the case a few decades ago in our generation. People that gathered around a certain lofty cause used to have a very strong sense of solidarity and friendship with their colleagues on their shared journey. They used to read a lot and had intense discussions with a sense of curiosity and desire to learn more and explore the truths about human life. They would study different works and analyze them with a scholarly endeavor. I don’t remember ever departing a gathering in the past without reading a book and praying together. We would study a holy verse or a Prophetic saying and contemplate on the truths of faith. People were usually very enthusiastic to learn these truths—first for themselves, and secondly to teach others. Such a process of learning and teaching kept people well-nourished and fresh. Of course, the results out of this nourishment and freshness were abundant and satisfactory.

Sadly, we have lost that desire to read and learn, and this has caused the gap between us and our sources of knowledge to grow wide. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to keep one’s motivation for charitable work as high as it used to be. Some continue to have that desire, but the number of such people has not increased, at least not proportionally to the growth of their community. One reason for this has to do with the fact that in the past, people used to take a deep sense of pleasure from what they were reading; today, the same text does not sound as novel as it did before. There is a need to introduce a new style of reading, but those who are in a position to teach knowledge to others have not transformed their content to be more appealing.

What is more, as individuals have started to assume higher positions and status, their charitable work has become somewhat routine. They might have been deceived by people’s attention on what they had to say. They mistook this attention as if there was no need to change anything in the content they offered, so they went on repeating the same things over and over, which in time resulted in even the best truths seeming stale.

It is very important to find new methods and formats to rekindle the enthusiasm to read, explore, and do research. A mobilization is needed for this; otherwise, our spiritual motivation will not survive.

The firsts

The first followers of God’s messengers and those that came after them had unique qualities. They studied in the circle of such giants and witnessed their qualities firsthand; and this enabled them to reach distant horizons. Take students of Bediuzzaman: not only did they read his works very carefully, but they also asked questions to benefit from him even more. Perhaps, the fact that his students turned to him with full attention and concentrated their efforts in his works might have inspired him to say new things.

This level of excellence cannot be expected from everybody. It really requires an intellectual surgery, so to speak. How to do that is another question, but the main objective should be to analyze the subject matter we are reading with all its nuances, metaphors, and implications as comprehensively as possible. An effort in this direction will reveal the fact that we actually do not know enough of what we thought we already knew. This may ignite a spark in our soul, spurring us to save ourselves from the suffocating atmosphere of familiarity.

Today, we are not reading as seriously as we should. As a result, many lack knowledge even about essential matters. Many do not have a sense of curiosity to learn. It is really surprising to see people who call themselves believers but do not wonder at all about the message God sent for them. It is disturbing when people flip carelessly through scholarly works which normally demand serious contemplative effort. We act like we understand when in fact we do not. Superficial knowledge, shallow convictions do not answer the needs of our time, nor do they convince others and appear appealing.

Stuck with formalities

Along with losing an enthusiasm to read, another problem is that we are taken aback by many formalities. In the past, nobody had any titles, statuses, or ranks. There were no administrative boards, no inspectors, no management roles. Everyone was considered to be in the same rank. Everyone respected and cared about one another. The main concern was always to educate ourselves so that we could convey our message across in the best way possible. All efforts were directed at cultivating the “perfect person” and teaching others about faith. Everything else was just secondary or unimportant.

However, in time, someone has become a representative of a certain organization; others took on the responsibility of a place; while others still became members of a board. Meetings followed meetings. Perhaps, these were unavoidable consequences of growth and institutionalization. Yet, the real problem was when people forgot that these were in fact secondary issues and they made them turn away from the main objective. They even wasted their time and the time of others by engaging themselves with an agenda that did not really matter. They deceived themselves by assuming that they were doing something important, for the sake of which they in fact gave up on reading and prayer.

Administrative positions are there to facilitate charitable work and services for faith. They should never be the ultimate goal or given precedence over more important work. Everybody, regardless of their status, should see themselves like a messenger who is expected to deliver a message, a letter, or a greeting to the addressee. His or her duty is to fulfill their role so the system can operate as efficiently as possible. For those who devote themselves to a lofty cause, no worldly status or position can be something to attach our hearts to. These positions are nothing more than mere tools to help us convey the Divine message to those needy souls.

If we take these positions as the main objective, then we mistake instruments as the target. If we turn them into opportunities for fame, then we abuse what has been entrusted to us. If we abuse these positions and statuses for personal benefit, this becomes treason. What is it worth to hold these positions compared to the lofty cause of seeking God’s good pleasure? What is it worth to be famous when we have obtained our true objective in life? Maybe it is even better to be unknown so we can be safe from weaknesses like ostentation and self-conceit.

Reasons for loss of navigation

One major factor that has distanced us from our sources of knowledge has been our engagement with diverse social affairs. Many projects, which we think are necessary, engulf us so deeply that we always speak about them; we are even occupied with them in our dreams. When we get together, we spend time on these projects assuming they are our good work, but we forget what we should in fact devote ourselves to. In time, we lose our enthusiasm to read and understand—even that we need them. “Why do I need to read them?” we start asking with a false sense of self-sufficiency. The outward form, shell, and formalities replace the essence and meaning. As people get further away from truths of faith, many problems and shortcomings ensue.

Many activities that serve as an expansion of good services turn out to produce some unfavorable consequences. Now busy with opening cultural centers, dialogue institutions, schools, being employed in these organizations as a manager or as a teacher, meeting with other community leaders or public officials, even coming together with representatives of other faith groups, we distance ourselves from our own world, from our sphere of thinking. Many of us are now going through such a volatility, a loss of navigation.

To conclude, in order to rekindle our sense of enthusiasm, it is important to open ourselves up to the love of knowledge, research, seeking truth, and reconnect with our sources, as “the firsts” did in the best fashion in their time. We need to develop new methods to attract people’s attention to our works, those sweet wellsprings of treasure. This is how a new generation who can devote their lives to lofty causes can be raised.

Of course, there will be organizations and programs we put together for our mission. But these are secondary matters. Our meetings, organizations, etc. should primarily be about reading and studying, learning, and teaching, improving ourselves and helping others improve, and offering our prayers together in order to seek God’s good pleasure and spread His word.

Sohba (Conversation) means making effective speeches to direct people to the Almighty, enlightening others with words and thoughts, using other’s good opinions of oneself to guide hearts to eternity, and always wishing well for others. The famous Turkish Sufi poet who lived in the 13^th century, Yunus Emre, stresses the vitality of conversation and communion (musahaba) in this sense, saying: “What sets the soul right is the conversation of saints.”

With respect to the relationship between a guide and the initiates on the Sufi way, there are two things which lead initiates to the truth: a guide’s conversation and communion with his disci­ples and their serving in the lodge where the guide teaches. Serving is a means of being favored with the guide’s special attention, and conversation or communion, which has been considered as an important means employed by the guide that is greatly beneficial, is a way to feeling and experiencing truth with all one’s inner and outer senses. Nevertheless, benefiting from the guide so that one is “colored” by him depends on the rank of the guide. Every guide has an influence upon his disci­ples in proportion to the degree of his rank. The most perfect and greatest guide is the Almighty Himself. That is why Prophet Muhammad, the master of creation, upon him be peace and blessings, took on the universal, brightest color due to his being addressed by Him in the Revelation. The verse (2:138), Take on God’s color perfect­ly; whoever can be more beautiful in color than God?, indicates this fact. After him come all the other Prophets and pure, verify­ing scholars and saints, who vary in the colors they have taken on, according to the rank of guides and the capacity of each to take on the color. All the scholars and saints who have and will come after God’s Messenger have been and will be dependent on him and his guidance, both in taking on color and coloring their disciples. However, as mentioned before, both the coloring of others and taking on color varies according to one’s capacity:

Everyone benefits from God’s enlightening gifts
according to his capacity;
A snake receives poison from April rain, and an oyster a pearl.

Service denotes seeking God’s good pleasure and approval with sincerity and purity of intention, and putting oneself in the hands of one with whom God is pleased for teaching and guid­ance. As for communion, this means attending the courses of a friend of God with a heart whose doors are opened to Divine favors and blessings, and sharing his aura of holiness within which the Divine manifestations of grace pour forth. The Com­panions of God’s Messenger were the most advanced of all in serving, and were accordingly favored with the most enlightened communion. This was due to the fact that the one who taught and held communion with them was the greatest of creation, whose single look was enough to cause the souls endowed with the necessary capacity to rise to the high horizons of perfection. We should also point out that his disciples, those heroes of steadfastness, who put their hearts, senses, consciousness, and will power into orbit round that sun, had the necessary capacity and performance.

Every friend of God is favored with coloring those around him or her to a certain extent. The range of this favor is very broad, from a friend of God whose light may be likened to a can­dle in darkness, to those whose light may be likened to the most radiant stars that light up whole galaxies. In addition, as pointed out before, as with every guide or friend of God, those who benefit or receive light from them vary in their capacity. This means that the extent or degree of coloring on the part of guides varies to the number of the capacities. So there are as many ranks or degrees of coloring and being colored as there are Prophets, spiritual guides and initiates who benefit from them, from the greatest of creation, who is the most polished mirror of the Light of Lights, to the one who has just taken his or her first step on the spiritual journey. The communion or conversation of Prophet Muhammad, the one who was universally favored with coloring others, was so influential and so great a blessing for him that no one has ever been, nor will ever be, able to attain it. Consider the fact that those who were honored with the conversation and companionship of him, who said, “The first thing which God created is my light,” [1] were and have been called with the title of Ashab (meaning the friends with whom he communes), not with another title even though they were the fortunate ones who traveled to God most eagerly and sought His good pleasure and approval most of all.

Everyone listening to or sharing the atmosphere of a guide, observes in his every manner his belief in the Unique, Eternally Besought One, his knowledge and love of Him, and the degree of his relationship with Him. Influenced by all these blessings that the initiates observe in the guide, they find themselves in an indescribable mysterious spiritual atmosphere. Those flying toward the “Sun of Suns,” attracted by the centripetal force of a guide, both benefit from his knowledge of God and follow in his footsteps to reach every point that he has already passed.

I think this is also the reason why people gather around spiritual guides who are sources of radiance, and develop as particular spiritual institutions or schools. It is because of this that in the early periods of Islam, the Muslim Sufis who sought to strengthen or consolidate their individual relationships with the All-Radiating One, came together in dervish lodges or similar institutions of enlightenment where the Ultimate Truth could be “observed” beyond all concepts of modality. In those buildings of light, which they saw as being similar to Suffa (the hall adjacent to the Prophet’s Mosque) in Medina, where those of the Companions stayed who had dedicated themselves, during his lifetime, to studying the Qur’an and the Sunna, they sought the way to develop an atom into a sun, a drop into an ocean, and to change the darkness of corporeality into light. As this was the main reason for the appearance of dervish lodges and distinct spiritual orders in later centuries, it is not possible to claim that they are incompatible with the spirit of Islam. Moreover, since everyone has weaknesses or shortcomings of character that they cannot overcome alone, being in the company of others seeking the same goal attracts God’s special help and protection. A member of a community or group thinks with many heads, turns to God with a collective heart, strengthens the entreaties of one voice with the entreaties of many, and turns his or her individual notes into the melody of a chorus. In the words of Bediuzzaman, by participating in the other-worldly deeds of a community, the individual can transcend the normal level of attainment in acts of obedience to God.

Those who have come together around the same feeling, thought and goal have such a depth in their turning to God in unison, such a richness in their consciousness and feelings, and such a profundity in their thoughts and concepts, that individuals of even the greatest capacity and perfection cannot attain the least of the blessings that come their way in their community. In the illuminating atmosphere of communion, benefiting and caus­ing to benefit, enlightening and being enlightened, feeling and causing to feel occur differently and in an abundance peculiar to that atmosphere.

In fact, the most important purpose of communion is that belief should be supported with a knowledge of God, a knowledge of God that is based on any of the degrees of certainty, by making journeys at the levels of life of the heart and spirit under the guid­ance of the Truth of Ahmad [2], and these journeys are accompa­nied by a conscious observation. The most important capital and endowment of the initiates during such journeys and observations is that their inner faculties are aroused with the actions of the heart and voice, for example, the recitation of God’s Names and reflec­tion, and the demonstration of their deserving Divine gifts. Since deserving such gifts can only be acquired by following the Mes­sage of the master of creation and therefore bearing witness to the truth of this Message and the Messengership of him who brought and preached it, this decisively proves that he was absolutely truthful in all his speeches and actions.

Benefiting from the communion or conversation of spiritual guides depends, in one respect, on the initiates’ humility and feel­ings of nothingness, and of their being freed from the influence of their carnal souls. If travelers to truth have not been able to completely free themselves from the influence of their carnal souls and to rise to the point of always preferring God’s com­mandments and obtaining His good pleasure and approval over their own views and desires, they may commit the error of attrib­uting to themselves being favored with some gifts or the develop­ment of some of their faculties. Instead of always being thankful to God, they may become conceited. Furthermore, if they are sometimes and temporarily favored with the feeling of attraction and being attracted (toward God by Himself), they may roll into the valleys of uttering words of pride that are incompatible with the rules of Shari‘a, and therefore suffer loss upon loss, although a spiritual journey should be a means of gain after gain.

In fact, those who do not converse or commune with their disciples in accordance with the rules of the way of God’s Mes­senger, upon him be peace and blessings, cannot always main­tain the balance in the spirit of Islam and may display relaxed attitudes or make utterances that cannot be reconciled with their rank or position. They may even go so far as to prefer sainthood to Prophethood and, favoring the principles and manners estab­lished by the founder of their orders over those of the Prophetic way, commit such great errors that it is as if one chose to be illu­minated by a candle instead of by the sun. Besides, those unfor­tunate ones who prefer sainthood to Prophethood will naturally see their guides or masters as being greater than the Compan­ions, who were the foremost and most distinguished students of Messengership. This will denote that communion has changed places with gossip, that spirituality has become darkened in its own home, that the essentials originating in the Divine sources have been replaced by those of personal choices and desires, and that there no longer remains the sacred power of attraction which the spiritual guides and their aura must have. As Muhammed Lutfi Efendi laments:

Those who were valiant have melted away like butter;
lovable personages have all been reduced to dust.
Thorns have grown in the place of flowers;
honeycombs have shrunk and been emptied of their honey.

The communions and conversations which resemble idle talk in cafes bring nothing in the name of Divine gifts and never assist the disciples to attain the truth. Rather, Satan intervenes in their frequency and sends out sparks. So, every action that is in the guise of a spiritual interaction in these places, which appear to be homes of spirituality, but have long since expelled sincerity and the feeling of being seen by God, is only a deception or even perdition, and expecting God’s special favors is nothing more than mere illusion. Those who attend such places as if they were attending a united congregation are only joining in a spiritless ritual. In addition, if they regard criticizing and quarrelling with others, rumor-mongering and slander, and cherishing ill-opinions about others as religious services, then they are gravely mistaken; the places they attend are only places of hypocrisy and their guides are not Sufis, but rather bigoted highwaymen. Who knows if such attitudes did not cause Destiny to allow the banning of such and the closing of the ways that led to their collapse?

Autumn winds have blown and the vineyards have withered away;
and there no longer exist the gorgeous roses in the gardens.
(Muhammed Lutfi Efendi)

O God! Favor us with a good, happy end in all our affairs, and save us from humiliation in the world and punishment in the Hereafter. And bestow blessings and peace on the master of creation, Muhammad, and on his Family and Companions, the noble, honorable and godly ones.

Notes

1. al-Ajluni, Kashfu’l-Khafa’, 1:265.
2. The Truth of Ahmad is the truth which Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, has as Ahmad or before and after his worldly life. This usually refers to his unparalleled sainthood contained in His Messengership. (Tr.)

Question: Arrogance is a serious character problem we experience throughout our lives. We falsely claim ownership over every good deed we are involved, forgetting that they are blessings from God. How can believers cope with such an arrogance? 

On seeing certain positive results, one might sometimes think they are doing good works, and this consideration might appear very innocuous to that person. However, sin can find a way for itself even in the most innocent feeling and thoughts. When thoughts like “we did this, we did that; we planned this, we planned that…” plague our neurons, we adulterate the good work we did. Being able to keep upright in this respect is very difficult. Even if you make great accomplishments, if you conquer worlds, if you dig out treasures hidden deep under the earth but afterwards sing your own praises in your mind similar to “we also have a part in bringing these works to existence,” you have already lost.

God’s creating does not accept any partners

A person’s will is essential at the outset of anything we do. So, it is important to give their willpower its due in addition to fulfilling all requirements of causality, being committed at the issue with great determination, and doing all we can very seriously. However, the resulting work comes out as a blessing of the Divine Power; we do things because it is our duty to do them – we do not own the work and we cannot lay personal claim onto it. God is the one who creates all beings and everything that happens in the universe, and partnership is impossible at that. Giving consideration to a thought of participation here is a type of associating partners with God.

When people begin to presume themselves as the source of God’s blessings onto them, they lose those blessings. Even if the good work continues to expand a bit more with the centrifugal force of sincerity at the beginning, it is bound to stop after a while on account of a loss of sincerity of intention. After setting about some blessed task with sincerity at the beginning, those who begin to consider themselves as partners in the issue will lose even if they are saints of the greatest kind. They will be doomed to fail sooner or later.

That was why Bediuzzaman Said Nursi counseled his disciples to keep reading the Treatise on Sincerity every second week at least without giving a longer interval. This is very important in terms of a person being able to utterly neutralize their ego, nearing to the port of “we”—which is actually a lesser form of associating partners with God—and afterwards even with a consideration of further sincerity, throwing away “we” as well and being attached to “He” in the end.

The path we walk is that of Divine unity. It is the path of reviving the considerations about God’s existence and being one. The essential dynamics of this issue were damaged for years and were forgotten by many. It should be known that it is not possible to walk on the path of Divine unity with a consideration of associating partners with God. On such a path, if you start ascribing certain issues to things other than God, such as causality or your ego, God will take them away from you after some time. At the moment that you think you built a world, it collapses onto you and you remain under the debris. For this reason, as Divine blessings and favors increase, our heed for, and bond with Him, must also get stronger; everything other than Him must be erased from consideration.

Nursi explains the place of causes in contrast to God’s Unity as follows:

“God’s Dignity and Grandeur require apparent causes to prevent complaints and to hide, from those who reason superficially, the hand of Power’s involvement in certain seemingly insignificant or vile things and affairs. At the same time, God’s Unity and Glory require that these apparent causes have no part in either the creation or disposition of things” (First Treatise, Al-Mathnawi al-Nuri).

As it is seen, causes only serve as a screen in between us and our Creator.  Although humans are endowed with the blessing of reason and honored with the best pattern of creation, their actions are nothing beyond apparent causes. Therefore putting “I” in the place of “He” is a gross act of disrespect towards God.

A person should not allow even the slightest wrong consideration in this regard to pollute the mind because this consideration might gradually grow and make the person into a monument of egoism. Once the issue comes that far, even the person concerned cannot so easily destroy that self-constructed idol.

Sincerity

It is stated in that it is God Who created you and all that you do (Saffat 37:96). One may not feel this all the time. Sometimes one might lay claim to the fruits of the efforts he or she made. However, as soon as realizing this the person must ask for forgiveness from God immediately and stay away from these wrongful considerations. One should not even let the imagination be polluted with these kinds of thoughts. So far, there is no successful person among those who repeatedly says “I.” Even if such people take a task to a certain extent, they give in to a whirlpool at an unexpected point and overturn. God does not like a person who keeps saying “I.” It is for this reason that if we wish to succeed with our services for His sake, we must carry out all of our deeds with sincerity.

The carnal soul, the desire within each person that pushes us to do what is reprehensible and forbidden for the sake of worldly gain or pleasure, wishes to see itself as independent from God and wants to boast about the achievements it made. However, as Prophet Joseph (peace be upon him) states in the Qur’an, the human carnal soul forcefully commands evil (Yusuf 12:53), and therefore it cannot be trusted. When we do certain things in the name of the carnal soul and ascribe them to it, we end up devaluing the deeds carried out and eliminate their positive effects. Deeds done for the sake of the carnal soul are doomed to be fruitless in the Afterlife as well. Even if you conquer worlds, if you acted for the sake of your carnal soul, you cannot receive any reward from God Almighty.

Moreover, there is no doubt that such egoistic attitudes will evoke a reaction in sincere servants of God. You may receive their dislike, and that these actions may push your fellow companions onto the path of envy and jealousy. It needs to be remembered that such a person with self-approval for his own person and deeds will disapprove of others in the same degree.

The worship of “playing down”

Good works, however small they may look from the outside, become great when they are done with sincerity of intention. Nothing done for the sake of God is insignificant. The noble Prophet counsels that no good act should be underestimated, even if it is as simple as a smile (Muslim, Birr 144).

While we should not underestimate anything done for the sake of God, on the other hand we should see even the greatest deeds we carried out for ourselves as being little. A believer must have such a perspective of all things he or she attempts to do. No personal deed should be seen as great. They should see both the acts of worship they observed for God and their efforts for the sake of glorifying His name as little. They should not feel content with the time they spared for God and the endeavors they made for guiding others and communicating the message. Actually, such a consideration also counts as worship in a different sense. Let us name this as “worship of playing down.” If there is some greatness concerned, it lies in carrying out our deeds for the good of humanity and doing them for the sake of gaining good pleasure of God because we believe that God may grant great positive results even for efforts of little scale.

For example, consider some good deeds you did with sincere intention, like opening homes for a few students, God can render them a means of great expansion in the future. The seeds you sow can grow into saplings, then become trees, and then begin to flourish everywhere, and then help turn the world into a garden of roses. Even the one who initially sowed the seeds remains in amazement and utmost astonishment before that outcome. This is a given result that the actions that were carried out were done for the sake of gaining God’s approval and the people who did these great deeds did not try to express any kind of greatness or grandeur via their activities.

In conclusion, we can say that, concerning people who are not primarily focused on the benefits of the good deeds that they carried out, who do not put themselves first, who do not pursue worldly concerns, and who genuinely serve God with selfless devotion, God will make them succeed. As it is stated in the first verse of the Qur’an’s chapter “Fath,” God will clear their way, open new roads, and will turn narrow footpaths into highways for them.

As for people who act like spiders and care about weaving a world for themselves instead, and harbor considerations such as “I work, I keep running, I migrate, I forbear great hardships… Where are the returns of all these efforts and sacrifices?” they will fall into the web they personally wove, which is the web of arrogance. Once they fall into that web, they will not be able to get out of it and will become prey to others. May God bless all of us with peace and living a life with a blissful end.

Question: Among things Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, sought refuge from were “knowledge, hearts, prayers, and eyes” according to one specific tradition? Why did he do so? Are there types of knowledge and prayers we need to be cautious of?

It is related that the noble Messenger of God would often repeat the following prayer: “My Lord! I seek refuge in You from knowledge that is of no benefit, a heart that does not tremble in respect, from a carnal soul that is never satisfied, and from prayer that is not answered.” It is also related in another tradition that he sought refuge from calamities, diseases, and “eyes that do not well up with tears.”    

Knowledge that is of no benefit

The Qur’an says, “Is that of a donkey carrying a load of books (it transports what it does not understand)” (Al-Jumu’ah, 62:5). There are some people who wrote books, completed doctorate upon doctorate, and became “wise” men. Yet, in the words of Sadi, this newfound knowledge is largely useless and non-beneficial if they do not incorporate it into their nature and practice what they have learned.      

Nowadays, there are plenty of ignorant people with degrees. Their mouths are filled with tar and darkness from the lies, deceit, slander and misinterpretations that they spew. All of the knowledge they have learned and all of the books they have written (even if they have written about the heart and spirit of Islam) are of no use if this knowledge is not going to bring them closer to God, be their route into Paradise, and allow them to experience Divine grace.

It is important to read abundantly and to look at a wide variety of books in order to broaden our perspectives, however it is even more important to incorporate that knowledge into our daily lives. Sadi says, “If you do not believe with your knowledge, then you are the epitome of ignorance.” Such people are not only ignorant, but also are ignorant of their ignorance. All the while, some among them arrogantly assume that they are aware of everything. This is described as “triple ignorance.”

A heart that does not tremble

Secondly, the noble Prophet says, “I seek refuge from a heart that does not tremble.”

The word used in the original text is “yahsha,” which refers to a sense of reverence or awe that manifests itself in one’s actions. It is a measure that shows the depth of one’s position before God. It is acting with the consciousness of ihsan, the conviction that we are being seen by God all the time.

The Prophet says that the reverence in one’s heart manifests in that person’s outward form. If one is truly reverent to God then, it will pour out through their iris, facial expressions, hand gestures, tone of voice, and even in the ideas they put forth. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (d. 1960) was a scholar who had the utmost reverence to God and His creation. When he used to retreat to his wooden rack on top of a tree for prayers and contemplation, he would say:

Listen to the stars, to their delightful sermon,

Listen to their message of luminous wisdom

And see what is written in their declaration

“Of all His servants, only those who possess true knowledge stand in awe of God” (Al-Fatir 35:28).             

People with deep understanding have a unique perspective. They are the ones who have engraved their knowledge into their neurons, and this tends to be reflected in all of their actions in such a way that anyone who saw them would notice the deep effects of their faith. When an observer saw such people in prostration he or she would see them in full humility for they pray in a state of “being seen by God.” Little, if any, doubt would be left unresolved with such a representation and state of being.

A carnal soul that is never satisfied

The third thing God’s Messenger sought refuge from was “a carnal soul that is never satisfied.” The Qur’an narrates the story of Korah, who serves as a primary example of a person with such a soul:

“We gave him treasures, the keys alone to which were a heavy weight for a party of strong men” (Al-Qasas, 28:76).

Korah had amassed so much wealth that even the keys to his treasure chests required ten strong men to carry them. The Prophet considered such a greedy soul to be so dangerous that he listed it after useless knowledge and a heart that does not tremble in fear.  

Prayers that are not answered

The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, says, “God does not accept the prayer of the heart which does not know what it wants and desires.” We really need to consider how we recite prayers and supplications from memory: are we doing praying with sincerity or without deeply reflecting upon what we are asking? A person could pray for something good such as, “O God, keep us far away from Hellfire, save us, protect us.” In regards to such a prayer, one should spend a few extra minutes pondering about our lives, try to close their eyes and imagine being in the presence of God, consider the consequences of an irresponsible life. One can even imagine themselves walking on the bridge above the fire. The All-Merciful God will not leave such a vivid seeker of protection in vain.

While praying, “Take us to Paradise along with those righteous people” one should imagine the gardens, trees, and flowers of Paradise to the extent that is humanly possible.        

Prayers are best when they come sincerely from the heart, not subconsciously and without meaning. It is as if something is raining into the hands of the people who sincerely turn to God when they pray to Him.

This is a personal experience that can be achieved through deep reflection and sincerity. There are some steps that can be followed in order to reach such a pious state.

First, God Almighty will accept your prayers and supplications when you are standing in the presence of your Lord with deep concentration, knowing that you are being seen by God and aiming to be in a state as if you are seeing God, too.

Secondly, it is important to make supplications over and over. God Almighty wants to hear the supplications of His servants and wants their prayers to be in their book of good deeds. Consequently, God gives whatever His servant desires depending on how insistent they are in their supplications.

In another tradition, the Prophet says that prayers are answered and advises believers to be patient and not say things such as, “I kept offering my supplications and prayers, but they were not accepted” out of desperation and impatience.

Surely believers will be rewarded with mercy should they remain at God’s doorstep in deep loyalty. He does not leave us completely deprived either, even if He does not give us exactly what we want when we want it.

When the Messenger of God takes refuge in God from supplications that are not accepted, he is referring to those who get weary of making prayers and supplicate with little to no sincerity. God knows best.

Bediuzzaman said the following about the severe pains he felt in his body: “I have supplicated for thirty years to be healed; my prayers have not been accepted externally, yet it has never occurred to me to abandon my prayers. Because illness is the occasion or time for prayer; to be cured is not the result of the prayer.”

Persecuted by oppressive regime, Bediuzzaman was poisoned twenty-one times when he was behind bars. It has not been recorded, or known, that Bediuzzaman ever once made prayers of revenge in his life despite all of the hardship that he endured. He was an emblem of forgiveness and grace, and this character fits monumental personages like him.

This is what we must strive to do as well. Prepare yourself to forgive those who are persecuting you. This is surely a heroic thing to do that takes much strength. Do not respond to evil with evil.

“If you have to respond to any wrong, respond (only) to the measure of the wrong done to you,             

but if you endure patiently, it is indeed better for the patient” (An-Nahl 16:126).

Jesus, peace be upon him, said that excellence in faith is not acting in kindness to those who act kindly to you; excellence in faith is to respond with kindness to those who treat you with evil.             

Be kind to the person who harms you. At least give the alms of a smile, if just a smile. Others may act like monsters, as would be expected from monsters. God has created us as humans, what befits us is to act with humanity. It is impermissible for a true believer to abandon this demeanor.

Eyes that don’t water with tears of sincerity

May God bless us with eyes filled with tears. If there is one antidote to put out the flames of Hell, it would be tears. If there is one thing to take our prayers straight to God, it is the tears we pour for God’s sake.

God’s Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Don’t laugh too much.      It kills the heart.”

Your prayer mats should be soaked so much so that your mats speak back in their tongue of disposition, “That is enough! I have become fully soaked, that is enough.”          In the dark night, when you try to turn on the lights to the Intermediate Realm, your tears, in a way, should be like oxygen or energy. Your tears will provide light and illumination. May God make us like those who have such eyes.

Question: How can we purely seek God’s good pleasure in our deeds and become conscious and attentive about this endeavor?

Answer: Real believers who truly love God, may His glory be exalted, need to seek God’s good pleasure in all of their attitudes and behaviors; they should take no notice of themselves, even for a moment; they should not say “I spoke, I did, I achieved…” and they should erase what they achieved even from their memories. If believers are to speak for the sake of expressing the truth, their words must definitely echo the voice of their hearts. When something is achieved in the end, they must not lay the slightest claim to it.

Lifeless words without a visa from the heart

A consciousness as mentioned above is not something that can be attained in just a moment, of course. A person must constantly train to efface oneself to the degree of saying, “I wonder whether I exist or not,” and attain a state of being oblivious of oneself in the long run. Otherwise, the effect of the good deeds realized will be restricted to a very narrow sphere, and will not become fruitful. Even if at first there is some activity, it will be temporary and the services carried out will not likely be lasting.

Today, preachers constantly make speeches in places of worship and on TV shows; they keep preaching on and on. In Muslim countries, call to prayer resonate all over the land. Recitations and supplications in mosques are performed in a way that was never as ceremonial, even in the time of the Prophet. However, these speeches and recitations do not affect the hearts. People are not guided to God as they were during that blessed era of the Prophet, because the words emitting from the mouth do not take a visa from the heart. If a person even merely implies his own greatness, even while saying “God is great,” and tries to put emphasis on his person with certain sounds and tones, and while talking about God and the blessed Prophet if he tries to prove how well he tells about them, then such a person is tacitly lying.

Depth of faith

The situation described above is a very serious risk for people who have attached their hearts to serving faith. One should never take this issue lightly. The first thing that needs to be done is to deal with their inner world and work hard to eepen their faith. When the Companions of the Prophet met one another, they would say, “Come on, let us have faith in God for an hour.”[2] To paraphrase that, “Our faith had meaning so far. But we do not know whether this will mean anything tomorrow. Therefore, let us revise it one more time.” If you look carefully, the Companions did not say, “Let us have faith anew,” but “Let us have faith in God for an hour.” So this means, just like the noble opening to a new voyage every passing day.

Once, the Prophet advised one of his friends, “Maintain and renew your ship once more, for the sea is so deep. Prepare your provisions perfectly, for the journey is truly long. Keep your load light, for the slope before you is truly steep. Be sincere in your deeds and only care about Him; for God, who scrutinizes everything, is aware of what you do.” [3]

Bediuzzaman expresses this fact in “The Third Gleam” as follows: “Do whatever you should do for God’s sake, meet with others for God’s sake, and work for God’s sake. Act within the sphere of, ‘for God, for God’s sake, and on account of God.’”[4] God Almighty critically evaluates your behaviors and takes a record of your good and bad deeds; He sees you all the time. None of your behaviors is secret to Him. He is aware of everything you do.

Prayer

In this regard, while explaining a certain matter, the speaker’s prayer, such as, “May God Almighty make us speak correctly, express ourselves effectively; may He grant influence to our words and make them welcome in hearts,” is just one aspect of the issue. Another aspect is freeing the matter from egotism and fulfilling it with sincerity. One must never neglect praying, “My God, let all of my words be uttered in compliance with Your good pleasure.” In other words, as the Qur’an teaches through the supplication of Prophet Moses, peace be upon him: “My Lord! Expand for me my breast. Make my task easy for me. Loose any knot from my tongue (to make my speech more fluent). So that they may understand my speech clearly” (Ta-Ha 20:25–27), we must adopt this as our habitual prayer. However, we should not neglect also saying, “My Lord, together with your good pleasure.”

A person must always pray, “Deepen my words with Your good pleasure, crown them with Your approval! Make them gain infinite depths with Your favor, attention, and grace! Otherwise, I am a simple mortal, everything will be over when I pass to the realm of Hereafter. If You are not present in what I do and carry out, then it bears no meaning.”

The late Nurettin Topcu would refer to those who try to prove themselves with showy recitations as “throat performers,” for he was so open to sincerity and constantly emphasized its importance.

The underlying reason of true achievements is having a dizzying sincerity of the deepest kind. What humanity needs today is not outward forms, formality, populism, appreciation, applauses or big claims, but the practical representation of true faith and its indication through personal state.

References

• Daraqutni, Sunan, 1/51; Bayhaqi, Shuabu’l-Iman, 5/33.
• Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 3/265; Ibn Hajar, Al-Isaba, 4/83.
• Daylami, Musnad, 5/339.
• Nursi, Bediüzzaman Said, The Gleams, New Jersey: Tughra, 2013, p. 27.

Worship is essentially categorized into two sections: worship through financial/material means and physical/bodily worship. This categorization does not mean they are totally unrelated; in many ways, they are interconnected. For example, the daily prayers that we perform with our bodies certainly have material aspects, like time and place. As a matter of fact, the inner and outer conditions that are required for a proper prayer (like cleanliness, washing, dressing, etc.) are also related to the material world, too.

Alms is a kind of fiscal worship, but it also requires one to labor in a job or be physically present in the marketplace, so as to achieve a certain degree of wealth from which to give charity. The Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to the holy lands of Mecca and Medina, is a financial worship, in one aspect, and a physical form of worship, in another: a Muslim has to be financially able to afford the travel to the holy lands, where he or she has to endure physical difficulties, like the long trip and certain rituals, like circumambulation around the Ka’ba, standing vigil all day, etc. Fasting, too, may be considered within this frame. Four of the five essential principles of Islam have a considerable association with the material world as well as the spiritual one.

In today’s world, it is important to contribute to good religious services by alms, charity, and donations. But such financial contributions do not absolve one from other forms of worship and good work that need to be performed physically. For example, Abu Bakr had been among the well-to-do of Mecca when he met the Prophet. Bu he spent all his wealth for the sake of Islam and he had nothing to leave behind when he died. He also physically participated in the emigration to Medina and he also fought in many battles.

Financial worship may be more important at certain times. But, this is not an absolute truth. It varies depending on time, place, and the respective conditions of people.

We can assess the issue from two perspectives: 1) Giving less or more charity depending on wealth; 2) giving within certain parameters. There exists a distorted and incorrect understanding among some believers. They say: “My financial situation is not high enough, I do not own a fortune; so, I am not obliged to observe any financial worship.” No; this thought is absolutely wrong. Every single person is obliged to observe his or her responsibilities within the capacity bestowed upon him or her by God Almighty. However much or little one earns, believers should always seek God’s good pleasure by giving in charity as much as they can, for God considers sincerity, rather than the amount given. In the words of Bediuzzaman, “An ounce of sincere worship may sometimes be superior to the one that weighs pounds but is not practiced in sincerity.” As a consequence, every single person is obliged to mobilize on the divine path to God’s contentment.

It is very difficult for a person to both give away in charity and maintain his or her sincerity. Those who can manage this will surely be rewarded beyond measure. If one can overcome the welfare and comfort that come with wealth, can avoid ostentation, and can keep their sincerity and connection with God strong, their rewards will surely be abundant in proportion to the difficulties they face.

The second aspect of the matter relates to the parameters and guidelines for such donations. There are certain minimum degrees for financial obligations in charity. In the case of Islam, for instance, it is compulsory for wealthy Muslims to give a minimum of 2.5 per cent of their annual wealth in charity. There are other rules for wealth in gold, silver, commercial goods, crops, etc.

But we have to remember that these are minimum figures and many lofty goals and good services cannot be attained through merely giving these minimums. Therefore, every single individual should work hard to donate beyond the minimum amount of obligatory alms. We wholeheartedly believe that whatever is given today in the name of God will be multiplied by the thousands in the next life. Yes, everybody is obliged to serve on the way to God with his or her self and goods. But there are no limiting criteria; everything is relative.

Even if we gave away all we own on the path to God, we should still see it as a very minor sacrifice when compared to the ideal we have been wishing to construct.

Ikhlas requires that one pursue nothing worldly while worshipping and obeying God, that one fulfills the duty of servanthood only because God orders it, and that one remains silent concerning any personal experiences of God’s special treatment and special gifts and seek only His approval and pleasure.

Sincerity is one of the most significant qualities of those most faithful or loyal to God; loyalty is regarded as a source, and sincerity as a sweet water originating from it. The most eloquent of humanity, Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, declared that one who drinks uninterruptedly from this water for forty days will find channels of wisdom opened from his or her heart to his or her tongue, and that such a person will always speak wisdom.

Loyalty or faithfulness is the primary attribute of Prophethood, and sincerity is its most lustrous dimension. Sincerity is innate in the Prophets; all other people try to obtain it during their lifetime. Among them, for example, the Qur’an describes the Prophet Moses as one made sincere (19:51).

Faithfulness and sincerity were as intrinsic and essential to the Prophets as air and water are to the lives of those who communicate the Prophets’ message to others in every age. In addition, they were the Prophets’ most important sources of power. The Prophets were convinced that they could not take one step forward without sincerity, and the representatives of the cause of Prophethood must believe that they will be able to achieve nothing without it. Faithfulness and sincerity are two wings or two deep oceans extending from Divine Favor and Grace to an individual’s heart. One who can sail in these oceans or fly with these wings will reach the destination, for they are under God’s protection. God values that which is done to please Him, regardless of its apparent size or importance, not the quantity of deeds. Therefore, He values a small deed done with sincerity over many deeds done without sincerity.

Sincerity is an attitude of the heart, and God views an individual according to his or her heart’s inclination. The Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings, declares: “Assuredly, God does not consider your bodies, nor your appearances. Rather, He considers your hearts.” Sincerity is a mysterious Divine credit granted to those who are purehearted in order to increase what is little and to deepen what is shallow, and to give finite (limited) worship infinite reward. One can use it to purchase the most valuable things in the markets of this world and the next, for it is esteemed, welcomed, and respected where others suffer great misery. This mysterious power of sincerity caused God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, to declare: “Be sincere in your religion; little work (with sincerity) is enough for you,” and: “Be sincere in your deeds, for God only accepts what is done with sincerity.”

If we consider a deed to be a body, sincerity is its soul. If a deed represents one wing of pair of wings, sincerity is the other. A body without soul is of no worth, and nothing can fly with only one wing. How fine are Mawlana Jalal al-Din al-Rumi’s words:

You should be sincere in all your deeds,
So that the Majestic Lord may accept them.
Sincerity is the wing of the bird of the acts of obedience.
Without a wing, how can you fly to the abode of prosperity?

The following words of Bayazid al-Bistami are also very apt:

I worshipped my Lord for thirty years with all my strength. Then I heard a voice saying: “O Bayazid! The treasures of God Almighty are full of acts of worship. If you intend to reach Him, see yourself as small at the door of God and be sincere in your deeds.”

For some, sincerity involves hiding from others when performing supererogatory deeds and avoiding all show and ostentation. For others, it means that whether one is or is not seen while performing religious deeds is not important. Still for others, it means being so involved in worship or religious deeds in consideration of God’s pleasure that one does not even remember whether one should be sincere or not.

Self-supervision is an essential dimension of sincerity, and a truly sincere person does not consider any possible spiritual pleasure that may be derived, or speculate upon whether it will ensure entrance to Paradise. Sincerity is a mystery between God and a servant, and God puts it in the hearts of those He loves. One whose heart is awakened to sincerity does not worry about being praised or accused, exalted or debased, aware or unaware of deeds, or being rewarded. Such a person does not change, and behaves in the same way in public and in private.

Notes

1. Muslim, Birr, 33; Ibn Maja, Zuhd, 9.
2. ‘Abd al-Ra’uf Munawi, Fayd al-Qadir, 6 vols. (Beirut 1093 ah / 1682 ce) 1:216.
3. Ibid., 1:217.

Intention and sincerity

Excluding childhood and the time spent in sleep, an average person has about thirty years in total for everything else during his or her lifetime. Out of these thirty years, we spend most of our time on eating, school, work, family commitments, and other essential, but non-religious activities. As a matter of fact, in today’s world where everybody is busy, even a person who deems himself or herself “religious” might be considered lucky if he or she can spend an hour a day on traditional religious activities such as reading religious books, praying, and so on. Assuming an hour a day for thirty years, we would spend about fifteen months in total on traditional religious activities, and this is perhaps the upper limit for most people. So, the finite-to-infinite dilemma becomes even more interesting: keeping in mind that even one trillion years is nothing compared to eternity, how can one earn eternal paradise in all its beauty that is far beyond human imagination by spending not more than fifteen months to earn it? The answer is what Bediüzzaman Said Nursi describes as one of the four culminations of his life: intention.

The intention of an action can simply be defined as the true motive behind that action. A “sincere and pure” intention, in a religious context, can perhaps be defined as the true motive of drawing closer to God, and drawing closer to God only. Nursi states that “Intention changes ordinary acts and customs into acts of worship. It is a penetrating and pervading spirit through which inanimate states and deeds acquire life and become ‘living’ acts of worship. It is also through a special quality of intention that evil changes into virtue or good deeds. Intention is a ‘spirit’ that causes ordinary deeds and customs to become ‘living’ acts of worship.” Our intentions are indeed the soul of our actions and, provided that we believe in God, what makes our actions worthy of earning eternal paradise solely lies in the sincerity of our intentions. In a sense, our actions are a sequence of zeros and a sincere intention is a positive 1 in front of those zeros, whereas an insincere intention is a negative 1. That being said, we must pay particular attention not to act against well-established principles of the religion and claim that our actions still carry a good intention. For instance, under no circumstances is one allowed to harm an innocent civilian, even during war, and therefore there can be no good intention behind this crime.

By striving to achieve purity and sincerity in our intentions (known as ikhlas), we can expect the Most Compassionate and Most Merciful God to treat our activities as if we spend our entire life worshipping Him while still leading a regular, balanced life-provided that we respect the basic principles of the religion and avoid committing major sins. Throughout the Risale-i Nur collection, Nursi places tremendous emphasis on sincerity of intention. Nursi describes the fundamental characteristics of ikhlas in the Twenty-first Gleam: “[I]n this world, and particularly in the services done for the afterlife, a most important foundation, and a greatest power, and a most acceptable intercessor, and a firmest point of reliance, and a shortest way to the truth, and a most answerable prayer, and a most blessed and marvelous means of achieving one’s goal, and a most sublime virtue, and a purest form of worship is sincerity, or doing something good or any religious deed purely for God’s sake.” Nursi points out the relationship between actions, intentions, sincerity, and salvation as follows: “[Intention’s] ‘soul’ is sincerity or acting solely for God’s sake. Salvation is found only in sincere actions done in His way. Sincerity multiplies an action’s worth, and through it one can reach Paradise with a little action and in a short life.” Obviously, we can do only a finite number of good deeds during a finite lifetime. Thus, at least from a technical point of view, we cannot earn eternal paradise unless infinite reward is given to our finite actions. God is so merciful that He promises Heaven to believers with the good deeds of a short lifetime, and in order for this to happen, He demands purity and sincerity in the intentions of those good deeds. In other words, the secret component in this finite to infinite transformation is nothing but sincerity of intention.

So it turns out that ikhlas, that is, sincerity of intention, is not optional: it is mandatory, and it is of the utmost importance. So, how do we achieve ikhlas? Nursi defines the first rule for gaining and preserving ikhlas as follows: “You should pursue God’s good pleasure in your actions. If He is pleased with you, even if the whole world is displeased, it is of no consequence. If He approves, it has no effect even if all others reject your ideas and actions. When He is pleased and approves, even if you do not seek the approval of others, should He will it to be so and His Wisdom requires it, He will make others accept it and be pleased with you.” In our daily lives, we might be performing daily prayers, reading religious books, and performing other traditional worship activities. During these activities, it is critical that we make sure that our intention is to draw closer to God and nothing else. A prayer performed to make others think one is pious, a fast observed for health benefits, a Pilgrimage made to enjoy the journey, or wealth distributed to obtain good reputation will not only dishonor the owner of these deeds in the hereafter, but also be rejected as the intentions behind these actions are impure, insincere, and have no ikhlas in them.

There are numerous other activities in our daily lives that are essential to our well-being and social lives, but nonreligious in nature. We go to school or work every day, we eat, we sleep, we love our parents, spouses, and children, we spend time with our families and friends, we brush our teeth, and so forth. God the Most Merciful tells us that he will treat these activities as worship, but only if they are done with good, sincere intention (again, conditioned upon respecting the basic principles of the religion and avoiding major sins).

The key to being rewarded for simple, regular activities such as those above and achieving ikhlas in our daily lives is to ensure that our sole intention in every one of our activities is to draw closer to God and to draw closer to God only. Every individual can achieve ikhlas in different ways in different situations, but the ultimate goal is always the same: to have good intention and be sincere about it. For example, a man might work late every day so that he earns halal money to provide for his family and still has enough money to make donations for just causes. Another person might go to school to study, thus recognizing the names of God, the All-Knower and All-Wise. One might eat in order to be grateful for the food and be healthy enough to perform the daily prayers. Another person might sleep to rest and be more productive at work so as to really earn his or her wages honestly. A person might brush his or her teeth because he or she knows the body is a gift from God and he or she is responsible for taking good care of it. Another way to achieve ikhlas in our lives, as Nursi suggests, is to make sure that love for worldly things, such as delicious foods and fruits, parents, spouses, children, and friends, is for the sake of God and that all this love is given to God Almighty’s essence, attributes and names. Again, from an ikhlas perspective, perhaps we should reconsider plans to buy a huge flat-screen TV, or a luxury SUV, or a house by the lake with ten bedrooms and start asking ourselves how things such as these that we intend to do in the future will help us draw closer to God, if they ever will.

As argued above, good intention is able to convert daily activities into worship through sincerity and therefore earn its owner eternal paradise by the mercy of God. A second critical dimension of sincerity in intention is its continuity. That is to say, if a sincere believer lived not sixty or seventy years, but a thousand years, he or she would still be doing what he or she was doing all along: trying to respect the basic principles of the religion, avoid major sins, and do as many good deeds as possible with pure and sincere intention. This would not change if he or she lived five thousand years, or even fifty thousand years, and thus, he or she would still be seeking ways to draw closer to God even he or she did live in this world forever. This is why it makes sense that eternal paradise can be earned within a short lifetime.

If God is pleased with our intentions in our activities and if He wishes to do so, He might bestow upon us worldly rewards as well, such as success in career, health, or blessed offspring. A potential pitfall here is that the person might start expecting these rewards to continue and see his or her actions as a prerequisite for them, losing the purity in his or her intention as well as those worldly rewards. Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said, “If anyone’s intention is to seek the hereafter, God will place his sufficiency in his heart and order his affairs, and the world will come to him submissively; but if anyone’s intention is to seek worldly good, God will place poverty before him and disorder his affairs, and only so much of it as has been ordained for him will come to him.”

Nursi warns that believers should avoid things which would harm sincerity the same as they would avoid snakes and scorpions. One should, however, keep in mind that achieving sincerity in each and every one of our actions is a process and might not happen right away. Yet we also should keep in mind that nothing done for His sake shall go unrewarded.

Denying or recognizing Infinite Attributes of God

All the attributes of Almighty God are infinite, although what we see in this world is a finite projection of those infinite attributes, as the world itself is a finite domain in all respects. For example, God is the All-Knower, but what we know about God’s knowledge is very limited. God is the All-Wise, but we do not know the reason behind many things. God is the Absolute Ruler, but the universe that God rules is finite. God is the All-Powerful Creator, but there are only a finite number of creatures in this world. All these examples illustrate that what we experience in this three-dimensional world is a vague shadow of God’s true attributes.

A nonbeliever who claims that there is no Creator and that things just happen by themselves therefore ignores God’s attribute of being the All-Powerful Creator. Someone who claims that there is no God and that there is nobody who rules this universe thus ignores the Absolute Ruler attribute of God, and so on. Denying God’s existence and ignoring God’s infinite attributes is the biggest sin that can ever be committed and it deserves infinite punishment-the fact that this sin is committed in only a short lifetime is irrelevant. (This is the case in worldly affairs too: punishment is determined according to the nature of the crime, not on how long it takes to commit the crime. For instance, a person can commit a murder in one minute, but the murderer may spend the rest of his or her life in prison.) Similarly, consider someone who believes in God, recognizes His infinite attributes, and tries to do good deeds with pure and sincere intention. It makes sense for this person to be rewarded with eternal paradise. From a similar point of view, it can be argued that even one hour of adult life spent with the firm belief in God and in His attributes is sufficient for paradise, and even one hour spent denying God’s existence and his infinite attributes suffices for eternal hellfire.

The intentions argument can also be used to explain how a nonbeliever deserves eternal punishment. As in the case with a sincere believer, a nonbeliever has the intention to continue to commit the sin he or she has been committing: if a nonbeliever lived not sixty or seventy years, but a thousand or five thousand years, or even infinitely many years, he or she would still be doing what he or she was doing all along: denying God’s existence and ignoring God’s infinite attributes, and this is why it makes sense for a nonbeliever to deserve eternal punishment.

A word of caution

It should be noted that this article does not claim to provide a complete logical explanation of why there is an afterlife, why the afterlife is eternal, or why some people will go to Heaven and some people will not. This article simply attempts to illustrate that all these concepts are reasonable and they make sense. Lastly, these are issues of faith and the author believes that matters related to faith and religion cannot be confined within the boundaries of logical, physical, or mathematical principles. After all, it was God who created the universe and everything in it, including the rules of logic, physics, and mathematics. Matters of faith are just that, and it is by our free will that we choose what to believe in. That being the case, one should still keep in mind that if there is indeed eternal life after death, paradise, and hellfire (which we believe there is), disbelief in them will not make them just disappear (just like closing our eyes will not make the sun disappear).

Vedat Akyuz has a PhD in applied mathematics and statistics.

Notes

1. Nursi, Bediüzzaman Said. Al-Mathnawi Al-Nuri, NJ: Tughra Books, 2007, p. 113.
2. Ibid.
3. Nursi. The Gleams, NJ: Tughra Books, 2008, p. 225.
4. Nursi, 2007, p. 113.
5. Nursi, 2008, p. 226.
6. Nursi. The Words, NJ: Tughra Books, 2005, pp. 649–650.
7. Tirmidhi 5320.
8. Holy Qur’an, Al-Zalzalah 99:7.