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| On Will Shaykh Tosun Bayrak al-Jerrahi al-Halveti Man, in fact all and everything, has
three aspects: essence, attributes, and actions. If we wish to describe a person (or a
thing) we might start with its shape and form and physical
characteristics, describing a man as tall, thin, blond, blue-eyed, etc.
Next we might describe him by his actions or capabilities: strong,
intelligent, farsighted, kind, generous, etc. These are his actions, or
possibilities of actualizing things. Both the attributes and the actions
and functions of a person may change. The tall may get taller, the young
become old, the thin become fat, and blondes go gray. Actions also change.
The strong may become weak; the generous may become poor and be unable to
give. When the shape and character and
actions of men or things change, if there is something constant left, that
is the essence of that person or that thing. Allah Most High blew from His own
soul into this body of flesh and bone of a hundred or two hundred pounds.
The body is weighable, measurable, changeable, temporal, subject to decay,
while the soul is immeasurable, invisible, immortal, coming from another
realm. When the soul enters the body, it is
as if an act of marriage takes place. The flesh- the mother, world-bound,
joins with the soul, the father- heaven-bound. From this marriage two
children are born. One is called the heart, resembling the father,
yearning for the fatherland, attached to and under the guidance of the
father. The other child is called the ego, having the character of
the mother, attached to the motherland and loving this world. In this family of your being, your
actions, your character, your behavior, your beauty or your ugliness are
either from the heart or from the ego. They are changeable. When they are
from the heart, they correspond and are in harmony with your father, the
eternal soul. When they are from the ego they relate to your mother the
flesh and her country, the world. Your shape, your form, your physical
appearance, your behavior your actions are first manifested in your wants
and wishes. The ego wants what the flesh wants. The heart wants what Allah
wants. These wants are manifest in one’s will. Will is wanting to have something or
to do something, and to think that you, yourself, are able to get what you
wish to have and to think that you are able to do what you wish to do.
Will is a unique gift that Allah Most High has given only to man. It
enables man to choose the right from the wrong, that which is good for one
from that which is bad for one. Yet man does not know what is good
for him. Therefore Allah has given to His chosen servants a perfected
religion in which He has completed all His blessings upon them and is
pleased. That is Islam. When man listens to his heart and is in accordance
with its wishes and chooses to submit that most valuable gift of Allah,
his will, to Allah’s greater will—that is Islam. Then the divine
light, an-nûr al-Muhammadi, the beauty of the beloved of Allah, will be
his physical appearance and he will receive ihsân and will be in the
presence of his Lord forever. There was once a shaykh of great
wisdom who had been given ‘marifatullah’. The sultan of his nation was
surrounded by advisors whose knowledge was the sciences of this world, the
knowledge of the ego. They misguided the sultan and the world suffered. The true wise man wished to warn the
sultan, but the advisors prevented him. So he thought of a scheme. He
declared publicly that there was no such thing as man’s will. Such a declaration is heresy (just as
it is also heretical to say man is the creator of his own actions). The
advisors of the sultan saw this as an occasion to condemn the wise man and
reported him to the sultan. The sultan asked that the wise man be
brought to his presence in order that he judge him. He asked, "Is it
true that you claim that man has no will, while Allah says that it is His
gift to mankind?" The wise man said, "Yes, I claim
that man has no will. I also confirm that he does have will. But what do
you say, my sultan? For instance, do you believe that I have will? " "Certainly," said the
sultan. "Do you also believe that of
have the ability to actualize what I will?" "Of course," said the
sultan. The wise man said, "In that
case, I will that all that you have in your treasuries be distributed
among the people!" The sultan turned to his advisors and
said, "Answer him." They could only mumble, protesting,
"He is doing this for the sake of intellectual argument. It is not
serious!" "Then destroy his argument with
your knowledge," the sultan insisted. The advisors fell silent. The wise man said, "Let me
explain my own argument, my sultan. "In your presence, in your
palace, the only will is yours, and I have none. When I return home,
however, I can tell my wife, my children, and my servants what I wish, and
they will do it. There I have a will. "But even here there is a Sultan
above all sultans, the Owner and the Lord of all and everything,
All-powerful, Ever-living, known by His attributes, seen by His actions,
ever-present, all and everywhere. The ones who know Him and know that they
are in His presence at all times—for those people of the heart and of
the essence there is only one will, the divine will of Allah. They say
nothing but from Him, they see nothing but of Him, they do nothing but by
Him. "Then there are those who are
heedless of Him and of what is His, who feel that they are at home in this
world, which is theirs~ These are the ones who have will and think they
can do. "Perchance they will think that
their freedom extends to where others’ freedom begins. Society as men
know it, depends on that sense of responsibility. That is why man’s will
is a gift to humanity. "But these heedless ones know
that what they will seldom happens, while they see that the ones who have
given up their will for the greater will of Allah are satisfied, at peace,
and pleased, for whatever happens to them is for the best. They are
envious and critical of those who have given up will, and are aggressive
toward them. Yet they are bound to fail. "All praise is due to Allah." |