Talk of 13 February 2025

Thanks be to Allah. Excellent. Alhamdulillah. Republic Allahu Akbar

May Allah keep you. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alamin.

For the sake of Allah Almighty, Al-Fatiha.

Villager, go on, make its dua. I'm handing you the khatm prayers. Roughly, let one stay with me. On me. There are. I don't know how many there are. There are many. Allah knows their number, my Lord knows their number. Khatm prayers, khatms were given to me. Those too, all of them. The noble Yasins. that were recited, 60 noble Yasins — if we just say "the noble Yasins" without specifying, that's fine, isn't it, Hodja? Of course it is. You'll say "entrusted to me". "Entrusted to me: all the khatms and suras there are, amin, as many khatms as there are, as many noble Yasins as there are, accept the prayers of them all, O Lord; from our forefather Adam to this day, gift them to the souls of the Prophet, and let them reach them, O Lord.

O Lord, gift them to the souls of Your (?) servants and let them reach them. O Lord, O Lord, You love forgiveness, forgive their sins. O Lord, thanks be, and peace be upon the messengers, and praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds." Did you dedicate it to the soul of the Prophet? Yes, sir. You dedicated it. All right. For the sake of Allah Almighty, Al-Fatiha.

Amin. We have made the khatm prayers. Over there

Are we going to have a talk, Hodja? Yes. First, there is a question.

Let's ask this question, and then afterwards. Let's say a sign. Then?

We'll move on to the other thing.

There's a question here. "Hodja, peace be upon you. A few months ago I asked you about the Prophet (peace be upon him) telling Ali a secret, and that when Ali could not bear this secret" — did I say such a thing? That Ali could not bear the secret? No, Hodja. Now, when people misunderstand words, they fall into many misgivings. Now look, what does it say here? "that when Ali could not bear this secret he shouted it into a well" — he shouted, yes, he told it, but not because he could not bear that secret. Not because he could not bear it. I will explain it to you. "that the water overflowed from the well, and the overflowing water, there — who? — made the reeds grow, what was made from those reeds, and that's why the sound of the ney is a secret." He takes the sound of the ney to be a secret, too.

"It has no life and no soul, so how could it hold a secret?" I said the sound of the ney comes across as very mournful. I said, because of that thing, that secret, because its origin is that water, that sound comes across so mournful. "I had asked about a hadith. You said Ali is not given a burden he cannot bear. You said the ney has no soul, so it can hold no secret. But it came to my mind that Khidr, although he told Moses 'it will be too hard for you', told Moses the secret of the events he went through. Could you perhaps explain? May Allah be pleased with you, Hodja," he says. Now, after the Prophet (peace be upon him) returned from the Mi'raj, he entrusted a secret to Ali as well.

What Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) said is this. Not that he couldn't carry it. "I have such secrets that if I breathed them into a well, the water of that well would overflow, and wherever it passed, the plants would come to life and find healing." Yes, as for that secret, "Ali is the gate of knowledge," he says, "I am knowledge, the treasure of knowledge, and Ali is the gate of that knowledge," he says. A burden these two could carry — even if there were people like us raised by Allah Almighty — a burden they could carry, since we could not carry it, He gives us secrets in a certain sense, in a way we can carry. That is the secret of the secret.

And that too is only a very small amount shown. Yes. That is how it is.

Tonight is the Night of Bara'ah. For Allah Almighty to cleanse His servants before they enter Ramadan and to forgive their sins, out of His mercy, the middle of the month of Sha'ban, the night joining the 14th to the 15th, is the Night of Bara'ah. Our Lord sent 1% of His mercy to the world. "I kept 99 for Myself to judge My servants," He says. Such holy nights are days Allah Almighty set apart specially so that His servants turn to Him and He grants them forgiveness.

In these days, those who want to turn to Allah — you know, some people have this trait: "If this matter of mine works out, I'll do that." "Or if I get such a thing, then I'll do this and that." "To turn to Allah Almighty, I'll repent on a holy night," or "I'll repent in Ramadan" — those who say it, and even those who don't, because we are all Allah's servants. Those who repent to our Lord and seek His forgiveness tonight — it is impossible that their sins are not forgiven. But one must pay attention to this. When I say impossible: deeds depend on intention. If you truly intend: "I will never again return to the evil I have done.

O Allah, I lived through an age of ignorance. My Lord, forgive me. From now on I will not go against Your command. And on Your path, as far as my strength allows, in worship of You and to gain Your pleasure, I will strive" — when one says this, it is impossible that Allah Almighty does not forgive him. Impossible. Yes. In this case, because Allah Almighty loves His servants very much — and He loves them very much —

He creates such nights for His servants as an occasion. An occasion. For example, you want to buy something but you have no money. What do you do? You're a civil servant, you wait for the start of the month. At the start of the month you'll get money and buy what you wanted. Just like the money that civil servant gets at the start of the month, with which he attains his wish, his desire, just as our Lord looks after him, these doors of mercy for us are the same, like the start of the month. It comes once a year, but this Night of Bara'ah — for Allah, a day there does not equal the seconds here.

A thousand years here are like one day there. If we live long enough, and within our lifetime on such holy nights we turn to our Lord, when we repent, seek forgiveness and feel regret, it is impossible that our Lord does not forgive us. So my advice to you — not to make this night hard for you with "you must pray this much, with sincerity, a hundred, a hundred rak'ahs of prayer." Allah Almighty says this in His verse. "We do not load onto your backs a burden you cannot bear," He says. A burden we cannot bear. "In My sight the best worship is that which is little but constant," He says. These are verses.

I am not saying it from my own head. Verse. In this case a person repents and seeks forgiveness as far as he can. After the night prayer he does not pray the witr. He prays some voluntary prayer. As much as he can. Or he prays the witr and says, "I'll get up at night." He sets his alarm. He gets up at night. He prays the tahajjud prayer. The most virtuous is for a person to pray as much as he is able.

"Well, my strength is enough for 100 rak'ahs." If you say that, by the time you've prayed them it'll be morning anyway. Dawn breaks, imsak comes in. That too is a mercy for you. Pray as much as you can. But best of all — the human body too is entrusted to him. Best of all: 8 rak'ahs of tahajjud in pairs of 2, and 4 rak'ahs of voluntary prayer in pairs of 2 — if he prays that, it's the middle way. He prays this, makes his dua, asks his Lord, our Lord, for whatever he wants, then sleeps his sleep well again, sleeps and gives his body its rest. Because bodies are entrusted to us. Our Lord says: these bodies I have given you — for the way you used them, I will call you to account, He says. Yes.

That's why such nights are preparation for Ramadan, entering it free of sin, asking Allah Almighty for forgiveness, and everyone making dua as far as he can. Now they say, "Make the dua like this." "This," they say, "is the dua of the Night of Raghaib. This is the dua of the Night of Bara'ah." Gentlemen, there are no such duas.

They are deceiving you. I'll tell you a hadith: "The duas you make," it says, "are as they come from within you." "Pray as it comes from within you; do not look to the dua books people have written." In the hadith: say such duas as they come from within you; do not go beyond seven sentences — seven sentences is in it too — do not go beyond seven sentences. Perhaps we are troubled. Eight, nine sentences, ten sentences — it may be. We are human, sir. To tell of our troubles. Perhaps we can't find the words. We get a little muddled before Allah Almighty. May our Lord accept our worship and our duas according to our intentions in His presence.

Yes. Now, we know about the Night of Bara'ah. Tonight in some places mawlids are being recited. They are dedicated to the spirit of the Prophet. We too made our khatm prayers. If you have questions, we're waiting for your questions. You may ask questions.

But the guest, the guest should listen to us well. And ask the questions accordingly. What does it say? "Ali is not given a burden he cannot bear. You said the ney has no soul, so it holds no secret." That's basically just what I'm saying anyway. "But it came to my mind that Khidr, although he told Moses 'it will be too hard for you', told Moses the secret of the events he brought about." What you say isn't so either. What you say isn't so either. Khidr (peace be upon him) doesn't tell anyone anything of his own accord. But to Khidr (peace be upon him), Allah Almighty made known why this boy was killed, why that ship was holed, why the wall was set straight; He made this known. We call this ilm al-ladunni.

Ilm al-ladunni is when only Allah knows the decree behind a deed and makes it known to His servant. And this is his having ilm al-ladunni. Yes. We can also support this with this verse: "To whom We give knowledge, We give wisdom." Wisdom is, in a small measure, the opening secret of the knowledge in those verses that has several meanings. Many meanings. What meanings does it have? Knowing these, sir.

In this case Khidr (peace be upon him) did not tell Moses of his own accord. By Allah Almighty's command he said, "Now let me tell you. Why did we do this?" Because Allah Almighty tells Khidr too. And Allah Almighty tells Moses. They had already made a deal. What deal was this?

"You will not interfere in what I do. You will not ask me questions."

When Moses could not hold back and asked, he broke the secret. That is, he spoiled the ilm al-ladunni he was to learn. And at the third, after he had explained the meaning of them all, Khidr (peace be upon him) said, "My companionship with you is over."

Learn the verses well, too. And understand well what I say. Let me say this to the guest, the guest. But the guest, the one who wrote this, is not someone who misunderstood what I said in this way. Many people misunderstand what I say. Because I am not esoteric (batini). He judges it by his own mind. When he judges it by his own mind, he resorts to error. Because there is no root. Yes. That's why I always tell you. I say: ask about the parts you can't understand. Look how nicely he asks here now. "You said this." And right after that he says it too. "In the ney, sir, there's no soul, no this and that.

So where does the secret come from here?" But they understand it as Ali speaking into the well, and with that secret that water overflowing from there, spreading all around. Yet look what he says: "If I told this secret to a well," he says. "If I told it to a well. If its water overflowed," he says, "it would give life to people wherever it passed." But what was it, he says? What? Ali has a well in Medina. Much water has passed from that well too. The water overflows and goes. (?) from that water — it is also part of the Zamzam. The water of the well that came up at this house of mine, the house in Istanbul, in Medina I had it, you know, done; I had it drained.

It is just like the water of Ali's well. It resembles Zamzam, it is like Zamzam.

If you understand the words well, if you grasp them well, you will solve the matter. (?) Water has no life, no soul of its own to give life to the places it passes. But water — since Allah Almighty created every living thing from water — to the places it passes, to plants too, it gives life. If we say this water that Ali breathed into the well and that overflowed from there passed through here — let me tell you — and brought the reeds there to life, there are (?) in every part of the whole world. What is made from them? Then that water would have spread everywhere (?).

There is no such thing. What does he say? "If I loaded this question, this thing, this secret into a well," he says. That is, if I told it to a well. "The water of that well," he says, "would overflow. It would give life, in its own way, to the plants where it passes," he says. And that's what we said about the sound of the ney. The sound of the ney? It comes to a person as an echo. You know, a breath. He does have such a well anyway. Since water is drawn from that well, from his breath it passes through there. Sir, there's no life in water. But at its bottom, in it too there is, in its own way, a state of contentment. Plants are living.

How do we know they have died? When they dry up, we know they have dried up and died. So, the ney? It's hollow. The kaval too sounds echoing in the same way. That's why in our religion there is no harm in instruments blown with the breath. But stringed instruments are forbidden, it says. Stringed instruments. The reason stringed instruments are forbidden is that they appeal to lustful feelings; that's why they are forbidden. However, it says, however, if a stringed instrument reminds you of your Lord, and from that stringed instrument being played you remember your Lord and mention Him, then there's nothing wrong in it, it says.

That exists too. Yes.

Do you have any other questions?

Tonight we talked about the holy night. Going on at length about the holy night leads people into idle talk; the essence of the matter is that Allah Almighty, on the Night of Bara'ah, so that His servants are forgiven and enter Ramadan free of sin, because He loves His servants so much — this evening, to forgive His servants' sins, is a special evening. So if on this evening we turn to Allah Almighty and implore Him, for the acceptance of the worship we do, or for the sins we committed in our time of ignorance, if we ask our Lord for forgiveness, Allah Almighty will make us recipients of His forgiveness.

Yes. Do you have a question? Razım Hodja, do you have a question? That's all on the Night of Bara'ah.

That's the essence of it anyway.

You know, with their far-fetched words some people promise people paradise. They say, "Tonight, if you say this much, say this, then stay within it for a while, you'll be bound for paradise." Or "If you stay within it for a year, you'll be bound for paradise." So whatever you do for a year — commit adultery, drink alcohol, gamble — as long as you say that tonight, then go on that way for a year. When (?) comes that year, say it again, and go on that way another year. All this is people not using their judgment and, with the words of others, of non-Muslims, to words that deceive people, people mortgaging their own thinking.

So use your minds. Pray as it comes from within you. Whatever you need, tell it to our Lord. The Prophet says so too. "The best dua is the one that comes from within," he says. Yes.

We close our lesson here. Stay well. May Allah keep you. Here we'll pray some voluntary prayer until the night prayer. It's probably time for the night prayer already. There are 5-10 minutes. There we'll pray a few rak'ahs. When the adhan is called, or even before it is called, we tell our Lord our dua, our wish. If we're going to pray at night, if we'll sit up a while, we won't pray the witr wajib. We won't pray the witr wajib. The witr wajib closes the prayers. Sir, if we pray it, we get up at night and worship. But it is not a must. Allah has not made it obligatory. For nothing He has not made obligatory does He give a person sin.

If you'll get up early tomorrow morning to go to work, if you must get your sleep at night, sleeping your sleep is better for you. Yes. Because the provision of your wife and children is on you. You'll go to your work to secure their provision. But if you miss your obligatory prayers, you fall into sin. The obligatory ones. You fall into debt to Allah. Yes. Those are obligatory upon us. For the sake of Allah Almighty, Al-Fatiha.