Rifat TANDOGAN

(Translated from Anilarla Mehmed Zahid Kotku (RhA) Hazretleri, Dr. Metin Erkaya, Istanbul, Seha:1996, pp. 153-4, http://meckitap.8m.com/anmzk/ilkders.html)

It was days after [Abdul] Aziz [Bekkine] Effendi RhA passed away. We were already missing the discourses that we used have with Aziz Effendi--sometimes every day, sometimes day and night, sometimes until dawn. We were all wondering when the discourses [with our new Shaikh Mehmed Zahid Kotku Effendi] would begin. Then we young students received the good news: "Today after Isha, there will be a discourse in the house of brother Vedat Özman."

It was not crowded at all; there were five or six of us in a small room. After a long period of silence, Mehmed Zahid Kotku Khawaja Effendi pulled out a small red notebook from his bosom-pocket and said: "Let me read some lines from my notes that I took when I was a student."

We listened to him attentively. His first words: "Objection to the shaikh is haram. The dervish in the hands of his master has to be like a dead body in the hands of the ghassâl (one who washes the body of the deceased person).”

That was the alphabet of the school of submission, an inscription at the gate to the land of education and training.

The discourse continued. Since we were used to putting questions to Aziz Effendi, one of our friends attempted to ask a question: "Effendi, regarding the Wahdet-i Wujud theory of Hadrat Muhyiddîn-i Arabî..." He was interrupted by Khawaja Effendi: "Son, I would not know these theories; you should ask those who know them."

Until then, I had been living in a world of egoism which was full of know-it-alls. Hearing these words of humbleness, I felt so small and insignificant while Khawaja Effendi rose like the Himalayas before me. He was so great that he could tell his students that he did not know.

Islam, November 1986