CONVEYING THE MESSAGE OF ISLAM AND GUIDING PEOPLE

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Our beloved Prophet, Muhammad the chosen SAS said: "When two Muslims get together, Almighty Allah has them both benefit from the other."

When two people meet, they are like two hands:  they would wash one another and clean well.  Only one hand alone cannot scrub itself and clean well.  Muslims getting together are like two hands cleaning one another.

(Aljamâ'atu rahmatun) "It is a form of mercy for Muslims to get together, and it is a form of torture for them to remain disunited."  Our religion, Islam, upholds the community and congregation, yet each individual carries his or her responsibilities.  Everybody is accountable for his responsibilities.

Our beloved Prophet and all prophets whom were appointed by Almighty Allah before him (may the peace and blessings of Allah be with them all) had the duty of explaining the divine truth to people.  People must be told about such truth.

(Wa in min ummatin illâ khalâ fîhâ nadhîr.) "There has been no ummah, nation, community or group that did not receive a warner, a messenger." (Qur'an 35:24)  A messenger has been sent to each nation because mankind needs to be warned.  By His grace, Almighty Allah has sent the prophets to each nation throughout the history of mankind.

Prophet Muhammad SAS, our beloved prophet, was the final prophet: (men lâ nebiyye ba'deh)  "whom there is no messenger afterwards."  He was the messenger for the "later times" whose message is valid till the day of Resurrection.  His time period started when he was forty years old, and it will continue until the end of this life on earth.

After the Prophet passed away, his message was conveyed to people by awliyaullah, the perfect guides and practicing scholars.  It has been maintained that way.  The Prophet said:

(Al 'ulemâu warathatul anbiyâ') "The scholars are the inheritors of the prophets."  They convey the message brought by the prophets to people; they shoulder the responsibility of guiding people and warning them.  That is the most important duty as stated in the Qur'an:

(Wa men ahsanu qawlan mimmen de'â ilallah) "And who is better in speech than one who invites to Allah..." (Qur'an 41:33)  Who can do a better job than inviting people to the path of Allah? The highest service is to have people follow the truth.

It is better than this world and everything in it for a person to be instrumental in the salvation of another person from a path leading to the hellfire into a path leading to paradise.  That is the most important duty!  This duty is applicable in both Islamic and non-Islamic societies.   We must convey the message of Islam to non-Muslims to introduce them to Islam.  We must also warn Muslim administrators and people about their responsibilities in Muslim communities.

Almighty Allah appointed this responsibility on scholars.  They would not fear anybody in stating the truth.  That is why in a hadith the Prophet said:

(Afdalul jihâd, kalimatu haqqin 'inda sultânin jâir) "The best of the jihâd is to state the truth before an oppressive ruler and warn him."

It is clear from this hadith that Muslims should not hesitate to tell the truth even if the person they face is an oppressor.  In other words, he has to tell the truth even if it would cost him his life or imprisonment.  That is the most important duty because the oppression and injustice dominate where the truth is not stated.  People would be exploited; religion, neglected; religiosity, downgraded. That leads to the collapse of the society and the occurrence of a state that Almighty Allah would not favor at all.  That is why the most important duty is to warn and guide people to the path of Allah.

Yesterday, I explained to you how great a blessing Islam is and how valuable and important it is for us.  Alhamdu lillâh 'alâ nî'matil islâm-- Praise is to Allah for the blessings of Islam. Alhamdu lillâh 'alâ tawfiqil îmân-- Praise is to Allah for the success of the faith. Alhamdu lillâh 'alâ hidayetir rahman--praise is to Allah for the guidance of His mercy.  Islam is the greatest blessings of all. I also explained what needs to be done to instill Islam in the hearts and in the society, to have people earn the consent of Almighty Allah, to enter Paradise, and to avoid Hellfire.

Yesterday I proved that all of these were included in Tasawwuf.  To start with, the nafs needs to be trained; otherwise, man cannot attain salvation.  Tasawwuf handles the training of the nafs.  Another requirement I explained was taqwa; without taqwa, the deeds are not acceptable.  Tasawwuf teaches taqwa.  Next, ihklâs is required.  Hajj, zakat, and all other deeds by a person would be in vain if the person lacks ikhlâs.  Tasawwuf teaches ikhlâs, too.  Next, the person must not be ignorant of Allah;  he has to have ma'rifatullah.  Irfan and marifatullah are important matters in Tasawwuf.  In brief, Tasawwuf is a very important path, the true path of Islam, the path of the Prophet, the path of the companions of the Prophet, the path of taqwa, the path of Paradise, the path of ihsân, the path of ikhlâs, and the path of good manners.  That is why Tasawwuf comes before the air we breath, the water we drink, the food we eat, and the life we live.

A person could be rich or poor; he could be without water or air.  If he dies as a beloved servant of Allah, he enters Paradise in the hereafter.  The greatest disaster is to be a servant whom Allah dislikes and to live a life leading to the Hellfire in the hereafter.

It is not possible to avoid death forever.  Everybody will die at the due time, yet we should die as believers.  We would not know where we would die.  While we are in a calm and quiet place, an airplane could fall on us, or there could be an earthquake or the building may collapse.  That would kill.  It is not possible to run away from death when it is time.  The matter is to depart from this life in a good way and enter paradise in the hereafter.

This kind of work is our most important work!  That is, we must learn Islam and teach others about Islam, for Islam is the path of happiness in this life and in the hereafter.  To learn and practice Islam, we need to learn Tasawwuf because it is the path of taqwa, ikhlâs, training the self, ma'rifatullah, and good manners all of which are the essence of Islam. 

We must learn Islam and teach it to others.  Without such work, other works would be incomplete or in wrong directions.  Without it, people would be led to false beliefs.  You must have read in papers that some leaders take their followers to disasters.  For instance, some villas in Switzerland were burnt with people in them.  They were followers of a false path.  Likewise, in a forest in the United States about 500 people committed suicide.  There are flaws in the beliefs of Hindus, so we cannot follow them in belief.  Neither can we follow the Japanese, European or American beliefs for the same reasons.

We have a great responsibility of learning Islam and conveying its message to others.  This responsibility comes from being a Muslim.  Almighty Allah states in the Qur'an:

(Kuntum khayra ummatin ukhrijat lin nâs) "You are the best nation produced as an example for mankind..."(Qur'an 3:110)  That means we have a responsibility to be a good example for people. As a group we are aware of this responsibility, and we try to carry it out in the best way we can.

In a Muslim country like Turkey, you can talk to individuals, explains things and you could come to an agreement.  You can gather people to mosques and preach them about Islam, the details of the belief and the worship.  They may praise the preacher:  "He put it in a nice way; he is right."  The difficult part of the job is reaching people who do not come to the mosques.  Those who could come to the mosque could barely make one percent of the entire population in the country.  For instance, less than ten percent of Muslims living in Germany have some sort of links with the Islamic establishments; the ninety percent could be considered as lost.

Under such circumstances, one has to turn to mass communication tools such as publishing books, newspapers and magazines.  At a larger scale, we started radio broadcast.  As a deeper rooting work, we established private kindergartens, elementary schools, and secondary and high schools.  We have various boarding schools for girls and boys.  Since educating man is our purpose, we established schools with a desire of providing the students with spiritual knowledge, good code of conduct and a sense of responsibility while they pursue the standard curriculum established by the ministry of education.

We intend to establish a university at the first opportunity--we have all what it takes to establish and run it.  In some countries, the society shifted from the agriculture to the industry.  In some countries, the society has gone beyond the industry and became a society of information.  The knowledge has increased, and a need has arisen to store, classify, process and recall the information.  Tools and machines, like computers, have been developed for this purpose.  People utilize these tools and complete lots of work in a short time.

Our brothers and sisters should utilize such tools and machines to serve Islam.  All means, conditions, vehicles and tools that are available should be used in service of Islam.

Our brothers and sisters in Turkey [i.e., the members of our tariqa] form an elite group:  Professors, engineers, doctors, and other educated people.  It is a truly high-quality major group in Turkey.  Yet I see the need that we have to be united and cooperate with the brothers and sisters in Europe and America.  It is different to follow the knowledge and matters of Europe in Europe from following them from Turkey.  A person who is raised and educated in Europe comprehends Europe different from a person who is raised and educated in Turkey.  The work has to be carried out where it is needed and when it is needed.

That is why we spread our activities outside of Turkey, too.  To succeed in service to Islam, in conveying the message of Islam and guiding people, our work has to be extended to Europe, England, United States, Canada, Malaysia, Japan and other parts of the world.  We have started such an expansion with our radio broadcast AKRA via satellite.  Various brothers from different parts of the world comment on the local events and inform the audience.

Yet we are aware that we have to have deeper rooting establishments.  We have qualified brothers in Sweden and in Denmark.  We have brothers who are born and educated in Germany who could understand the Europe and European mentality well.  Likewise we have brothers living in England.  We have brothers who are college professors in the United States.  With all of these resources, we believe that we should be better organized for the advancement of Islam, defense of Islam, and the protection of the rights of Muslims.  We should carry out work to elevate the status of Muslims in such countries.
 

We think it is necessary to expand abroad the Islamic work that we carry out in Turkey. That is why we broadcast our radio (http://www.akradyo.net) via satellite to be heard from Europe to Middle Asia.  The news you heard a short while ago was from Akra. Its difference from other radios is in its quality programs.  One of the political leaders, a party president [Hasan Celal Güzel], described our radio as "a television channel without the picture."  It is as effective as a television channel, yet it does not have a picture yet.  We cannot broadcast television for the time being, yet the information our radio provides is extremely valuable.

Now, for the sake of Allah, I would like to make one thing clear:  Our main duty in this life is to earn the consent of Allah.  There are no doubts about that.  We all want to be beloved servants of Allah.  We all want to earn the consent of Allah.  That will take us to Paradise and save us from the Hellfire.  We would not want to in a state of guilt because of the negligence of duties in life.

To deserve Paradise, to be a beloved servant of Allah, we are willing to do all kinds of work and service with all our heart.  There are brothers, for instance, who are anxious to give their lives for the sake of Allah.  Some are already gone to the battlefront in Bosnia, in Chechnya, and other parts of the world.  We would not hesitate to give our lives when necessary.

Dear Brothers and Sisters!  The places you live are the proper places to serve Islam.  You could easily carry out some services here that would be impossible to do in Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt.  There is trouble in Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.  [Similar problems are experienced in other Muslim countries.]

You must have heard what they say in Turkey--they have no shame whatsoever: "If the Muslims get the majority in the elections, we will not let them rule the country."  Why not?  What is the meaning of the election then?  Is it a game?  People would vote for what they would want!  Why don't you accept the outcome?

"We will not accept such an outcome!"

Who are you not to accept the result of an election?  What power do you have?  What is your count?  "If you were fire, you could not burn more than your volume!"  Are you an American or European agent?  Who are you to threat a nation?   Amazing courage!

We have accepted the results of the elections for the last four, five, twenty, and fifty years!  Why cannot you accept the result when we are elected?

I am stating these to indicate that there are problems [in carrying out Islamic services] in Turkey.

There may be some problems in here [Germany] and in the United States.  For instance, we visited a brother in the United States who is an imam in the prison system.  He said, "We expect some help from Turkey [in carrying out the message of Islam]."  I was perplexed by what I heard.  I asked myself: "How are we going to help those who live in the United States?"  He was plainly asking for our help:  "You can help us and support us.  Muslims in the United States have problems, too.  The American administration must have some sort of pressure on them; that is why he felt they needed help:  "Only the Turks could help us."

Here is another field to work in!  You had Chechnya, Bosnia, Kashmir, Algeria, and other places to deal with before; now you have to help Muslims in America.  That means we have to work hard!  We have to work efficiently with the proper techniques.

As you know, a person who utilizes all the techniques outperforms thousand of simple workers.  The person who lacks the proper techniques produces very small amount of work locally.  I read at some workplace the following:  "A person who works with the strength of his arm only is called a worker."  He uses his physical power only--he pounds the hammer, carries the load.  That is a worker.  "If a person uses the strength of his arm and his mind, he will be a master workman."  He would be a smart person to supervise while he works: "If you turn too much, it will break.  Do not tighten it that much.  Hold the clamp right here.  Hold the file like this..."  He uses his mind: "Do not cut it there, but here.  We have to clamp it and file it later.  Before you glue it, do this."  He also teaches the workers.

"One who works with his physical strength, his mind and his heart is an artisan."  If he observes the esthetics of the work, he is an artisan.  He displays an art in his work.  You look at his work and see it as a "poem."  You appreciate and praise his work.

We are not plain brute force only--we are not simple workers.  We are qualified people like a master workman.  Yet we are beyond the master workman:  We have a spiritual aspect; we practice Tasawwuf.  We are like Yunus Emre and Mawlânâ Jalal-ud Din Rumî. Our heart has a saying in what we do.  That dimension is missing in America, in Europe and in other parts of the world.

The dimensions of faith and Tasawwuf elevate us above others and make us merciful and unselfish.  We love doing good things; we wish well for all, and we are after all good things.

Dear Brothers and Sisters!  With those thoughts in mind, we have initiated a structuring work in Europe.  We would like to get organized in Europe, England, and America.  Our work has been undertaken for several years now.  We get together and took decisions to implement.  This is such a meeting that was planned ahead.  Our purpose in such gatherings is not to collect money.  We would not exploit the money earned by the workers.  That is one of the major differences between us and other groups.  We are not going to get pledges of money.  We do not need money!

We have a large company (Server Holding), twenty some companies, and two holdings are planned.  Almighty Allah has granted us enough money so we do not have to beg for money.  We have seen that asking for money is a humiliating experience and does not take an organization far.  We work and make money through our companies and spend it on service to Muslims.

Do you think it is easy to broadcast radio from a satellite?  Have you ever thought or asked about the cost of such a transmission?  Do you know how much money we pay every month for that?  Do you ever think of the satellite broadcast bill while you listen to excellent programs on Akra?  Do we ask for any money from you?  We do not.

Do you think our magazines make money?  I notice a sign asking you to subscribe to them.  We want you to subscribe to them, so you read them.  Do you think the magazines make money?  Not at all!  We have only one company that loses money:  It is the publishing company.  The benefit from the magazines is spiritual; it is the direction it points.

One young woman wrote me once:  "My Dear Khawaja!  I have read your magazines, liked them very much, started wearing hijab in public and started to pray regularly."  That is our profit from the magazines!  That is why we keep publishing despite the loss in money.  Another child wrote me:  "I do not have money to buy your magazine, yet I like it very much.  I look forward to the beginning of the month to read it."

We send our magazines to people because we expect spiritual rewards for it.  If one person is guided with the help of our magazines, that would be our gain.

Dear brothers and Sisters! We want you to serve Islam.  In fact Almighty Allah asks for it.  We are aware that it is rewarding to organize people in the service of Islam, so we organize activities.  We assume a leadership position; we take the initiative to serve Islam and Muslims.

The first thing that must be done is to establish a center here.  When our beloved Prophet emigrated from Mecca to Madina, he established a masjid first.  It was the center of activities.  He stayed at  Abû Eyyub al- Ansarî's house for a while, and then moved to the Masjid after it was completed.  We need a place, an address, and people.  The activities are carried out afterwards. 

We shall establish businesses, and perhaps, you will be partners.  However, we do not want donations.  You will be partners and get your share of the earnings.  If a business is not promising, we would not establish it anyway.  Why should we carry the burden on our shoulders? We don't mind doing that if it is spiritually rewarding, though.

What has the spiritual rewards?  The monthly periodical could be named for that.  We can shoulder the losses in a publishing business because publishing is an important way of communication in the service of Islam.  We have Sav Market where we sell hunting and camping supplies.  We also sell electronic equipment such as telephone exchanges for small businesses.  We produce blue plastic tubing and sell it.  That is how we support the printing business.

It is not common to establish organized large businesses in Turkey.  Many attempts have failed and gone bankrupt.  I am familiar with such businesses;  I have heard of them for the last 25 to 30 years.  I know some political or religious groups that experienced those things.  I can name each of them.  We have been studying why these companies have failed and searching for the remedies for such failures to protect our companies from the same end.

In Turkey, so many religious magazines have been established, yet they did not survive for long.  The average life span for such publications has been two years.  Here is the reason:  Some idealist people get together and put up some money to start with.  Some idealist writers provide the material to be published.  The first issue of the magazine is printed and distributed through some distribution network.  Yet, the sellers of the magazine fail to pay the publishers.  The second issue is published and distributed, too.  Again, there would be hardly any money returned.  That is followed by the third and fourth issues.  This pattern continues.  The publishers put up a struggle to collect the money.  They use up all of their capitals in about two years and stop publishing.

Necip Fazil [Kisakurek] had this experience, so did Kadir Misiroglu with his magazine Sebil.  There were others such as Islam'in Nuru (The Light of Islam). We can name many more that shared the same destiny.  I am not discrediting these efforts but giving you examples.  They served for Islam, yet the publications could not be maintained.

Our magazines have been in print for the last 13 years.  We know that continuity is very important.  We try to take precautions and do what is necessary to be done to maintain the publications.

Now it is an obligation for us to establish a center, here.  We shall establish a center here.  Regardless of whether you help us or not, we are determined to establish the center.  It will not depend on you.  We are going to carry out Islamic work in this center.

You may question us: "Sir, there are so many establishments to serve Islam here.  Why do you want to establish another one?"

We want to establish one, too, because our method is different from the rest.  There is no comparison to our approach.  We want to carry out the Islamic work in the best way.  That is why we want to establish a center here.

Our friends are brothers in the Tariqa.  We want this brotherhood to be vivid and strong.  We would not want our brothers to go to other places that have a different atmosphere. The atmosphere of a mosque whose imam is appointed by the Turkish Government Religious Affairs Office is definitely different from one that is managed by individuals.  There are some mosques here [in Germany] that you are not allowed to do dhikr.  I am sure they all carry out good Islamic work, and I am not trying to discredit anybody.  I am just stating the facts.

We have a right to establish a center, too.  If five Muslim families live in a neighborhood, if five of our brothers live in a locality, they must establish a place to do their prayers in congregation.  That is how it is stated in a Hadith.  Our brothers who live in a locality as a group should establish their mosques.

Sometimes I tell my brothers in the Tariqa: "You are going to establish a Mosque in this town and name it after our master [Mehmed Zahid] Kotku."  I encourage them in this type of activities.

It is a must for us to establish our mosques in order to carry out our worship in compliance with the consent of Allah.  The administrators of some of the present mosques [in Germany] are our brothers, friends or people we love.  We can work with them, yet some administrators are impossible to work together.  They do not approve our work or our dhikr.  Some administrators tolerate offensive or haram activities that we do not have a stomach for them.

In a nutshell, I would like to have my brothers here get organized.  I do not want individual "lambs" prone to the attack of the wolf!  I want them together for strength and impact.

We are Muslims first, and we follow the path of taqwa, dhikr, and Tasawwuf.  We want this aspect dominate.  All our work and guidance is in that direction.  We are aware that it would be difficult to find the path leading to Paradise without taqwa.  That is why we follow this path.

I name the mosque Kotku because our late master Mehmed Zahid Kotku was the spiritual pole of his time--Allah knows best--elevated to the stage of Khilâfat-i Ulyâ, the highest of the spiritual stage.  We would like to have his service emphasized.

The second reason to name the mosque Kotku is the following:  There are so many brothers in Europe who were initiated to the tariqa by Mehmed Zahid Kotku rahmatullahi aleyh.  There are also hundreds of thousands of Muslims who accepted me as their spiritual guide within the last fifteen years.  If we name the mosque Kotku Mosque, they would understand who we are and come to the center to participate in the activities.  You should let people know that you belong to Iskenderpasha Dergâh.  Search for brothers who are in the same tariqa and establish connections with them and develop love and affection towards one another.

If there is sufficient number of you in a locality, rent a place and turn it into a masjid.  Lead the prayer yourself in congregation.  If you have sufficient income, hire an imam.  We ought to have a center where we can do our prayers, dhikr, Khatme-i Khawajagan, hold our meetings, and have our children get to know one another through various activities.  Try to accomplish these.
 

We have been doing the feasibility work for a large center in Germany.  Also, brothers in the Netherlands have submitted me a feasibility report folder with a map.  Brother Ibrahim Balçok have suggested a center in the neighborhood of Essen, Dusseldorf which is a town of exhibitions and fairs. If we have a place there, we could provide accommodation for our brothers who attend the exhibitions.  There is also a large number of Muslims living in the area.  A center there would meet the needs.

Of course, in addition to a large center, we need other centers in other localities.  We have had significant number of brothers and sisters who participated in our gatherings from Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.  We have not succeeded gathering a large number of attendants from Switzerland, France and Austria.  We have brothers living in these countries, too, yet we have not established good contacts with them. To improve the efficiency of our work, we must establish centers in those countries, too.

In our work, we consider all Muslims as our brothers and sisters and embrace them all. You can clearly see that in the broadcast of Akra; the guests and experts who are interviewed clearly prove this unifying and embracing work.

Our late master Mehmed Zahid Kotku--may his abode be Paradise--instructed our brothers to be involved in politics, he told them to proceed with the Tasawwuf principles.  Any work becomes unifying and embracing when it is carried out with the principles of Tasawwuf.  It instills peace and friendship among participants and people.

For instance, the conservative party [in Turkey] should be united with the closest party so that they form a stronger party with more support.  When they refuse to work together, the political power of Muslims diminishes.  Nothing would be accomplished then.  One comes with unreasonable requests while the other one claims to get the majority of the seats in the assembly in the next election.  That is the approach of egoism and nafs.  Each one wants the leadership position.

In Tasawwuf, it is not like that at all.  There is brotherhood in Tasawwuf.  In Tasawwuf, one prefers his brother to himself.  There are courtesy, self-sacrifice, devotion, generosity, and smiling face in Tasawwuf.  If a work is carried out with the principles of Tasawwuf, the doors that are "locked" will open.  Imagine Yunus Emre and  Mawlânâ Jalal-uddin Rûmî as  party leaders today. By the will of Allah, they would get the support of even non-Muslims.  That is how Islam spread in the Asia Minor.  That is how people's hearts have been won.

Dear Brothers and Sisters!  That is our path, too.  That is what we have been trying to do.  That is how Islam would expand to the hearts of people.

Last night we listened to Prof. Dr. Ömer Dinçer's comments.  In brief, he said: "We have to present Islam as a religion of love and brotherhood.  It would sabotage all of our work if it is presented as radical Islam, quarrelsome Islam, blood-shedding Islam.  That is how some Europeans present Islam.  We should not do that at all."  Well, that is what we say.  That is, we have to approach people with a bouquet of flowers, a smiling face, brotherly feelings, generosity, good treatment, goodness and esthetics.  That is why our path is important.  We are familiar with other paths, too, and we make this statement with that fact.  We invite all of you to carry out this work, to the service of Islam, to the brotherhood and solidarity.

The purpose of these meetings is to carry out the work that is pleasing to Allah, in unity and brotherhood, and attain the consent of Allah.

May Almighty Allah grant us opportunities to do our servitude in the best way, to lead a life that is pleasing to Allah, to do the deeds that are the most favorable to Allah, to do activities that are the most useful and effective for the Muslims.  May He make us pure and high-quality Muslims.  May He open our hearts and our spiritual vision.

May He grant us a life in compliance with His consent.  May He receive us as His beloved servants on the Day of Judgment.

December 3, 1995 -- Essen / GERMANY