Speech 4



Mahmut Efendi Hazretleri   Yavuz Selim Mosque 1997

Thank to Allah you all know that Allah created all mankind and geenies (the unseen creatures of Allah) to worship Him only. To worship Allah also means to know Him since it is not possible to worship Allah without knowing Him. He does not want sustenace from us. He is the one who gives it. He is Ar-Razzak (The Sustainer). Allah tells men that there are things which they can do and things which they cannot do. What they can do is to know him and worship him. And what he will do is to provide sustenance for men. Of course this does not mean that man will not trade, cultivate or be craftsmen. Men obviously will have to work but whatever they do will not be successful if Allah does not send rain down, for example.

It is impossible for a man to get to know Allah by himself. He needs a guide. When a man is born he knows nothing. Then, step by step, he starts learning. Over the period of the first seven years of a child’s life he should be taught things about emaan (faith) and many other things about Islam such as ablution, and prayer, etc.

Firstly, a child should be taught the principles of Islam there are six of them all together:

1- To believe in Allah by knowledge; If you believe in Him without knowing Him it will be like the faith of the Jews and Christans. They also say they believe, but wrongly, since they consider Jesus the son of Allah. Those who say that are definitely kafir (disbeliever). It is haram (unlawful) for them to enter Paradise. We must first learn properly about Islam from the righteous scholars of Ahla Sunnah (the people who are following our Prophet’s lifestyle). We can only be believers if we have the right faith in Allah. We must forbid the evil and command the good from whoever we meet. It is of vital importance. Our new generation is completely ignorant about Islam. No one is teaching them Islam. Neither their parents nor the schools they attend to give them a proper Islamic education. If you tell them to believe in Allah they ask: ‘How can we believe in something which we can not see?’ Allah hides Himself, it is up to Him. He can do what He wishes and nobody has the right to question him about His reasons.

Moses chose seventy men to be taken along with him when he was going to see Allah. Those men said they would not believe unless they saw Allah with their own eyes. Suddenly a thunder struck them, and they all got burnt. They were dead it was a warning for them for having exceeded the limits by Allah. Later Allah brought them back to life. Moses also asked Allah to be shown His face, but He did it whith extreme politeness. Allah told him to watch a mountain which was at a certain distance from him, and reflected His light there. Moses was so much dazzled that he fell down unconscious. When he came back to his senses he begged to be forgiven for having such demands. Allah told him that he had been chosen a prophet over all mankind, and orded him to take what he was given and not to go after what he was not given.

Allah can not be seen in this world but He will be seen in the Hereafter just as you see now the moon.

Stick to your prayers and carry them out in their time. Whoever prays five times a day will be able to see Allah in Paradise. Praying is a great thing. It is the mirajj (ascenscion) of muslims to Allah. Our prophet had been raised to Allah in a mirajj. He felt so much pleasure when he saw Him that he did not want to go back to the earth. Allah ordered him to go back to the mankind and invite them to reach the level of seeing Him then he returned.

Death is a bridge which brings together two close friends. If you follow the Messenger of Allah, Allah will love you and cover up all your sins, forgive them. How do you follow him? By learning the principles of eman (faith) and by practising the principles if Islam.

The first teachers of a child are his parents. If they are not able to teach them, then they should send their children to proper teachers of Islam.

Allah has eight attributes to describe Himself:
1. Life; He is alive forever; all kinds of life spring out of Him.

2. Knowledge; He knows everything nothing escape from his knowledge.

3. Hearing; He hears everything without any means.

4. Seeing; His sight is unlimited.

5. Will; He has the will power. He does what He wills.

6. Power; He is omnipotent; He has the power of making whatever he wills.

7. Speech; He is uttering words in His revelations.

8. Creating; He creates out of nothing.

He created man with the attributes similar to His own attributes. Man is alive, man hears, sees, etc. He created man after His own image. However, Allah has no image; what it means is that He had given man out of His own attributes.

2- To believe in His angels; We have come to this world not just to eat, drink, get married, but to know Allah and to worship Him.

3- To believe in His Books and Sheets given to His Messengers; There are four Books: Torah (given to Moses), Psalms (given to David), Gospel (to Jesus), Qur’an (to Muhammad p.b.u.h).

Allah created Eve out of the rib of Adam while he was asleep. When he woke up the angels asked him who she was. He answered she was his family. Allah told Adam to go and settle down in Paradise together with his wife. They were allowed to eat anything they liked except the fruit from one particular tree. But the satan(devil) approached them and told them that if they ate out of that tree, they would never be removed from the Paradise. He lied and they believed. The moment they ate the fruit they became aware of their nakedness. Allah said:

“ I told you the devil was your ennemy”.

They begged to be forgiven whoever believes and learns Qur’an and lives by it, need not to fear.

4- To believe in His Prophets; We are bound to believe in all the Books before Qur’an since they are all from Allah. But they had been abolished by the practice of the Qur’an.

5-  To believe in the Resurrection after death; We have been made of  two things: soul and body. The soul can be removed from the body in two cases: in the case of sleep and in the case of death. When the soul goes away but life stays -it is called sleep; when both the soul and life go- then it means death. All the five senses (seeing, hearing, touching etc.) which belong to the soul disappear when it goes away, although their mean (i.e. eyes, ears etc.) remain in the body.

6- To believe in the destiny and that anything good or bad comes from Allah.