dargah (5)

The word ‘Dar…Gah’... 

Gah means a field, or an open place, like Eid-Gah, where you celebrate, you pray the Eid-Bayram prayers. 

‘Dar’ means threshold.  Threshold means you are on the brink, you are almost somewhere else, you are in between places. You are not here, you are not there, you are in between. You’re almost going to the next step. ‘Dar’ means, as in ‘Dar-wish’... 

So the Dargah represents the next step from the dunya. 

Before you venture into where? Your reality. 

Into the Divine Presence. 

Return back to Allah swt.

It is a common sufic axiom... 

that service to others is more sacred than personal worship.

Every work done at the center has to begin with the holy name of our Creator, and must be done with love and sincerity.  Any work done with compulsion or anger is unacceptable. 

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The usual day begins... 

with the dawn worship, and while waiting for the sun to rise, the followers share those few holy moments with the Sheykh, where he may give a discourse, questions may be asked to him, or he may listen and interpret dreams. Dreamwork is an important aspect of a follower’s journey.  

Some chose to rest after sunrise, to meditate, or to start working. The day continues with work around the farm, punctuated with noon and afternoon prayers. All work ceases at sunset. 

The followers join the Sheykh for the evening prayers, dinner is served and a silent remembrance ceremony is held. After that, tea and sweets are served, while the Sheykh continues his discourses.  

Live classical Ottoman music is played on the oud, poetry often recited, and some may choose to whirl. Humor is extremely  important in the center, and often the Sheykh would joke and laugh with us or at us, to increase our self-awareness.

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The year is filled with holy days and nights... 

festivals, and commemorations and they are observed at the center. 

Visitors from all over the world periodically make their visit here... 

while those who do not live in the center visit during the weekends. 

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All desire to associate with the Sheykh...

and other followers, and to disassociate themselves from the world. 

The job and responsibilites of the Sheykh cannot be enumerated or imagined - he heals those with spiritual, psychological, or emotional illnesses, trains others to help him and prepare us all for the coming events of these End of Times.

~bron~

dargah (4)

A Dargah... 

is a place where the murids, the followers, worship, work, and rest together, imitating the lifestyle of the first sufis, the 'Ahli Suffa', People of the Porch. 

They lived an extremely simple lifestyle, and their sole aim was to be in association with and in proximity to the Holy Prophet. That tradition has continued for over 1,400 years. 

Edeb, Ya Hu!...

Have Manners...

is prominent everywhere, reminding all to have and display the best of manners. Good manners is the perfection of faith as it entails wisdom, patience, awareness, and humility. 

Manners here refer to the subtle but vital prophetic tradition of putting others before yourself, and sharing what you have with others, even if it is just a  piece of bread. 

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Simplicity in lifestyle... 

marks the sufi center, a lifestyle close to nature, with very few modern distractions. Followers tend to the usual responsibilites of a farm, besides cooking and cleaning for each other, they also tend sheep,  raise bees, feed the chickens, milk the cows, train the donkey, walk the dogs, clean after the cats, plant seeds, harvest vegetables, etc. etc. etc.  

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Close contact with the natural mountainous surroundings... 

coupled with close contact with the animals... 

help to balance the energies in our bodies, recalibrating our physical selves with nature, and de-stressing our spirits. As it is a farm, work is constant but mostly light, everyone is expected to engage in physical labor especially during the day. 

~bron~

dargah (3)

Al-Ṣuffah (الصُّفّة‎), the veranda... 

was a shelter that was available at the rear side [achterkant] of Al-Masjid an-Nabawi during the Medina period (622-632) of early Islam. It was initially available at the northeastern corner of the mosque, and Muhammad ordered it to be covered by palm leaves in order to provide shade, hence it was called Al-Suffah or Al-Zullah (الظلة), i.e. the canpoy [luifel].

It was moved several decades later into another place in the mosque during an expansion project.

Homeless and unmarried muhajirun (companions of Muhammad who migrated from Mecca) who did not have relatives in Medina, dwelt in al-Suffah where they were mainly learning the Quran and sunnah. 

These people were called "Ashab al-Suffah", which translates to "Suffah Fraternity".

Muhammad used to sit with them... 

chat together, and used to call them to his food, sharing together his drinks, so they were counted as his dependants. 

Companions of the Prophet used to take two or three of the Ashab al-Suffah to feed them at home, and used to select the best dates and hang them in al-Suffah's ceiling for meals.

Due to the scarcity of jobs caused by a combination of trade boycott and military threat, members of Ashab al-Suffah had little income. It is estimated that al-Suffah held up to 300 people at a time, but they were merely increasing and decreasing in numbers.

They could have reached about 400 total members, and it lasted about nine years till they became rich before the death of Muhammad. 

Later, every one of them became a ruler or an emir.

~wikipedia~

 

dargah (2)

Wa law annahum idh zhalamoo anfusahum jaooka fastaghfaro Allaha wastaghfara lahumur Rasolu lawajado Allaha tawwaban raheema... “And if, when they had wronged themselves, they had but come to you and asked forgiveness of Allah, and asked forgiveness of the messenger, they would have found Allah Forgiving, Merciful.” (Surat an-Nisa, The Women, 4:64)

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When you’re an oppressor to yourself... 

Allah (AJ) is ordering you run! 

Run to the presence of Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ. How are you going to find the presence? In the majlis [associations]  of love, because when they love Prophet ﷺ, no doubt ruhaniyat e nabi ﷺ [spirituality of Prophet ﷺ] is with them, and the nazar, the gaze, of Prophet ﷺ is upon  them, and that is “Jaooka.” That you're now in the presence. 

Then Allah (AJ) says... 

‘Ask my forgiveness in that Presence.’ 

When you feel the nazar, you feel like you're going to cry, you feel the presence of Rauza Sharif [Holy Burial chamber] begin to ask Allah (AJ) for forgiveness and after you finish asking Allah (AJ) for forgiveness, ask the forgiveness of Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ. 

Ya Seyyidi Ya Rasulul Kareem [The Most Generous Prophet] Ya Habib al Azim [The Greatest Beloved] ilahi anta maqsoodi wa ridhka matloob... "I'm begging Allah’s (AJ) forgiveness, and your satisfaction your nazar be upon me, where I'm falling short and not doing and not believing correctly, and I ran to the wrong thing, instead of running to you, grant your nazar and your light upon me, and love upon me, and that will be my shifa and my healing."

~bron~

dargah (1)

This is a teaching...

that from whatever difficulty you have...

there must be a salawat - a praising upon Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ to relieve that mushkilat, that difficulty. So if you still have difficulty, then you haven't got there yet.  

Means that there's an inspiration from Allah (AJ) that every time there's a difficulty in our life, Allah (AJ) wants us to reach towards its medicine and towards its relief. And awliyaullah, saints, come into our life and give us the most perfected relief, is to build your relationship with Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ.

And the most beautific way to build that relationship, is the nasheeds, the Songs of Praise. If you're Arab you can recite the Arabic, if you like. You don't know Arabic you can recite the Arabic in English, in  Farsi, in Urdu, Allah (AJ) has as many ways as the breath to reach to Divinely Presence... 

But the main thing is to reach... 

by praising upon Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ... 

in these beautific kalaam, words, of awliya.

When you’re running to an attorney to fix your issue... 

and you think the attorney’s going to fix your issue... 

and then Allah (AJ) enrols you in the schools of tazkiyah, the schools of purification. He wants faith,  not faith in a lawyer or outside person, but faith in your belief. If you had that level of belief, and you ran to the awrads [daily practices] you ran to the zikrs, you ran to the salawats [praises upon Prophet ﷺ] you supported the mawlids, you supported the way and the propagation of the love of Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ - however you think that would be represented, it's your faith. 

And then you realize. Because then Allah (AJ) will raise you in iman, in iman, in iman. At what point in your life you'll know with your iman that your position with Allah (AJ) your proximity your belief you understood at that time real tawheed is that nobody can solve my problem if Allah (AJ) doesn't solve it, there is no attorney I can run to, there's no doctor to give me a relief, there's nothing that will resolve if Allah’s (AJ) not signing.

~bron~

futuwwa

lot -5-

Until you fix yourself... 

you have no right to say anything to anyone. 

Soon as you fix yourself, definitely you are not going to say anything to anyone, 

because you become a better servant.

If Azrail comes to us tonight... 

you have to know how you are going out from this world, according to the lifestyle you are living today, according to deeds and actions you are doing today, everything is written on your book. And you will be accounted for that...

~SahibulSaif Sheykh Abd Kerim Effendi Hz~

lot -4-

We are here to learn... 

how to become better servants, and to reach to higher station everyday before we go out from this world. 

If you go out from this world before reaching to your station that is designated to you, you will be in really big trouble, you will be really suffering until you reach to that station. 

And in this dunya, it is easy to reach. If you go out from this world without reaching to that station, the grave is very difficult, and if you fall into the difficulty of the grave, beyond that is disaster.

So we have life with us right now. 

And we must try to do better for our own selves. If we do, we will win for our own selves. More higher station we will reach, more powerful that we get, more better servant that we are. 

That time we will be able to say, “Ya Rabbi, I love this one too.” 

And who knows maybe the permission will be given to you... 

for you to save that one from the fire.

~SahibulSaif Sheykh Abd Kerim Effendi Hz~

lot -3-

So we are here to learn those things. 

We are not here just to hear, we are here to hear, to take, and to apply to our lives, and to become better servants in this dunya. And to go out from this world as a better servant. Otherwise you are just spending your time for nothing, going up and down too...

Every single day that you are getting older...

you have to become wiser... 

you have to become more smarter more intelligent.

If a little kid screams at you and curses at you, you think the adults  will turn back and start doing the same thing to the kid? That’s not intelligent. So those people that are doing such a thing like that, and if you are giving answer, you are not any better than that one who is doing that to you. So you have to grow.

Tarikat, tarikat, now you didn’t enter to tarikat yet. Tarikat is to accept and try to live with things that are disliked by you. You don’t like them, but to be able to swallow and to live with it and to digest it. Not only to swallow it, but to learn how to digest it. Not to throw it outside, keep it inside. That’s why we are here for.

~SahibulSaif Sheykh Abd Kerim Effendi Hz~

lot -2-

There is a secret there. 

That spirit is blown into you. 

What kind of message you think you are getting when the Angel is blowing? Are you going to live as a believer, and die as a believer? Or you are going to live as an unbeliever, and die as an unbeliever? Or you are going to live as believer, and die as an unbeliever? Or you are going to live as an unbeliever, and die as a believer? Which one is it?

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Of course, we are wishing and hoping that yes we are a believer now, like this and like that, and hoping that we are going out from this world with that faith. We are hoping. But no one has that guarantee, no one has that luxury to take that and to think that, “Ah, I just found safety, and I am this one and I am that one.”

The highest station you are going to reach in this world, is being a servant. That’s the only station you should look for, you should be busy for. Don’t think that I am this one, I am that one. You are just another creature that Allah swt has created. Because of His mercy, because of His blessings, the mercy has reach you somewhere, somehow.

You are a believer now, but watch your action, watch your behavior. Because your actions, your behaviors, your intention may change in the end if you don’t keep it correctly, if you don’t run every single day to grow your faith better, to become a better servant. 

You may lose it!

So many people they have came, and they have looked at the Holy Prophet (asws), but they went out of this world as an unbeliever. Some they came and they accepted the Prophet as a Prophet (asws), they became Sahabi, but they lost in the end, they became disobedient. 

They didn’t like certain things that Holy Prophet (asws) said to them to do. It didn’t fit to their ego. And they became rebellious to the Holy Prophet (asws), either in his lifetime, or as soon as he passed from this world. They became rebellious, and they went out from this world as an unbeliever.

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So I don’t think that you or I, none of us here, have the luxury to think that we have reached somewhere. We didn’t reach anywhere yet. We didn’t even become correct believer yet. We didn’t become good believer yet. 

Because good believers, they will be busy with themselves only. 

They are not being busy with others.

~SahibulSaif Sheykh Abd Kerim Effendi Hz~

lot -1-

When the Angel comes to you... 

to your mother’s stomach, when you reach to 4 month old... 

they are bringing the spirit to blow into that baby that is inside that mother. It’s not a baby yet, it’s only the shape. But the spirit is not there. So the Angel is asking: 

“Ya Rabbi, is this servant going to live as a believer? Is he going to continue as a believer? And is he going to die as a believer? Or is he going to live as an unbeliever, continue as an unbeliever, and die as an unbeliever? Or is he going to be a believer now that we are blowing the spirit into him, is going to live as a believer, but before he dies, is going to become an unbeliever?”

There is a secret there. 

~SahibulSaif Sheykh Abd Kerim Effendi Hz~