Age of Light

Talk given by Shaykh Taner Ansari

All praise belongs to Allah, and to no one else; He has no partners, everything belongs to Him, all power belongs to Him and He has no partner sharing His power. He is all-merciful and graceful so that He shares His knowledge and He sent the Qur'an as a light and Muhammed, peace be upon him, as a prophet to explain the Qur'an to us.

The specialty of human being, what is the peculiarity, what is the characteristic of human being? Why is human being different from the others, other creations. There are several reasons but one aspect of human being is important, that is "`Aql", which means your sensible judgment, your brain in other words, your capacity to know, to know what is right and what is wrong. In order to know what's right and what's wrong you have to see, and in order to see you need light. So one of the things that's very important, the most important thing, is light. "Allah is the light of the heavens and earth." Allah says in 'Surat an-Nur' Chapter 24 in Qur'an Kerim. Light is very important because without light you don't see, when you don't see you cannot make a judgment - which way you are going, which way is right and which way is wrong.

Inner and Outer Light

Light has of course two meanings, one is in the outer, the other is in the inner. And so we mean by light both of these. Now Al-hamdu-lillah we went to Turkey and around the world and saw all the things. When you get out of the country it's just like when you are getting out of yourself. Then you can look back at yourself and you see yourself, you can compare yourself. That way you know where you stand, what's happening, because of Einstein's theory of relativity, :-) so you have a relation to see where you're at. So we went Turkey and talked to a lot of people, or a lot of people talked to us and then we found out, my humble opinion is that, conclusion is that, people are looking for light. And light is very... at this time of the total earth age it is hard to find. Some people got a little bit of light, some people got a little bit dim.

Here I sat in a barber chair and this guy comes, he doesn't know me, I don't know him, he starts asking me questions, I am trying not to be known, I am trying.. you know... <here the shaykh smiles and the implication is that he is trying to remain "unknown">. So he asks me a question, like Turkish word 'TanRa', in other words, the Turkish word for God. Is it okay to use it or is it okay not to use it? Some 'hojas', some imams say that it is a sin, you shouldn't use that. So I said "Well it depends on what you mean, what do you mean by when you say 'tanRa' if you mean Allah, then that's okay. But sometimes other people say Allah, use the word Allah, but they mean money, then there's no okay. Even if you use the word Allah, if you don't mean the power that rules the universe, except you mean the power that rules the economic situation here, then that's not okay. So he asked me another one. So I answered another question. And he said "Who are you?" And I said "Oh man, now don't get into that, I just want to have a haircut!"

Remembering the True Goal

From here and there and some other places people see me on the street and they come over, they ask, and I don't know what's happening, so I saw that in Turkey for example, there is a movement for Islam again. But how? Is it conscious? What's happening? Do you know what you want? Do you know where to go? What is the goal? The goal is not known. What is the goal?

They think the goal is to go to paradise. Now, the goal, which I've been telling you for the last three years, is Allah and Allah and Allah and Allah, there is no other goal. The goal is not paradise, the goal is not the prophet, the goal is not the shaykh, the goal is not the 'tariqa', the goal is not praying, the goal is not fasting, the goal is not this and that. The goal is only Allah. The rest are tools to go to Allah.

What is Love?

So the world is hungry. People's souls are hungry. You know they say "soul food". Well the "soul food" is, Allah says in Qur'an Kerim "Hearts find peace only by the remembrance of Allah." That's all, nothing else. So Zikr is the soul food. So like your outer body needs nourishment, your inner body also needs nourishment. They want to eat, they are hungry, they want to hear about Allah. And the most important thing about Allah is love. And we use this word so freely and so much that it has lost it's value.

Everybody says love, love, love, love, love, but when it comes to the test, well, what is love?
So, al-Hamdulillah, we have a good group here. The sun will shine in the west before the world is over. This is a hard decision. At first I took it literally, which it may also be literally, but at the same time, the sun is light, so this is the last 'morikose', the last continent that Allah's light is going to shine, and I hate to say this, but you're it. You guys are the ones who are going to make it shine. If Allah is willing and Insha`llah, if Allah helps us to do. So take advantage of this and take the path as Allah says in Qur'an Kerim to (?) Allah, and try to love Allah. Allah deserves to be loved. Allah loves His lovers.

Through all the people, there are 5 billion people in the world, they all want from Allah. Give me, give me, give me, give me this, give me that, give me this, give me that, do this for me, do that for me, do this, na na na, and they're all fighting and this and that. <Sigh>. But there are very few, very, very few sincere slaves of Allah who want to serve Allah just because he is Allah. And they want to love Allah just because he's Allah. Expecting nothing in return. You have to ask yourself if Allah put you into hell would you still love Him and worship Him? Then you're a Sufi.

What we want to do here is raise these people for Allah. That's it. We make Zikr here, we want to make love to Allah. And its very precious. Allah's love is very precious. That is the chemistry that holds the universe together. And everything in the universe is fighting for this love. Who is going to be closer to Allah? And Allah has granted this to Muhammed, peace be upon him, he is the lover of Allah and we are his followers and we are his particles. We are particles of the prophet, peace be upon him, he is our motherland, he is our homeland. So we have this opportunity. Everything depends on you. How much are you willing to give up? How much are you willing to take on? Nothing is wasted. Everything you do can be a gain. Everything depends on one little thing in your brain - one little switch. Switch this way, to surrender, you're a winner. You switch into your nafs (self), you are a loser. Then you have to go another round.

Where True Power Lies

Switch to Allah. Switch to think to Allah, and Allah will make you a winner. Nobody has any power. You have to work with Allah to get you anyplace. That way you have to surrender. That's why Islam means surrender. Unless you surrender then you can do nothing. Why? Because Allah has all the power and here you are. You are trying to do something. With whose power are you trying to do something? Do you have power against Allah? Then you always fail because you don't have this power! You just think you do. Allah has been letting you do a couple things to make you think that you have this. And then at the end - you fall face down and what do you find out? You find out that you are nothing.

Everything is in this - "die before you die" means surrender. "Fana fillah" means surrender. You get out of the way, let Allah get in and present Himself. Allah said to the angels "I'm going to create a 'khalifah' on Earth." What does He mean? You have to contemplate on these things. You just don't read and pass. You have to think about what was He talking about. Get to the reality of these things. He's going to create a 'khalifah' on Earth. What is 'khalifah'? His representative, His voice on Earth. Who are these people, who is this? He's talking about you. Whether you want it or not, you are representing God on Earth.

When you don't know, you think you're representing yourself. Everything you got is from Allah and it's going back to Allah. If it is not so, hold onto it and don't let go. If it is yours, hold onto it, so it won't go. What happened to yesterday? Can you bring it back? Every second your cells are changing, hold it, don't let it change, if it is yours.

There's a story about Al-Hallaj, when they put him into a jail and then the guards came to take him out, he wasn't there. The next day they went, he is there. They asked "Where were you, we came and looked....?" He said "Allah was with me." Okay. The next day he is not there again. When he is back again, they asked "Where were you?" He said "I was with Allah."

You see, in both cases he is not there. Do you get it? When Allah is with him, he is not there. When he is with Allah, still he is not there. So finally they hanged him, you know. Because he said 'Ana al Haqq' which means "I am God" . And the fundamentalists strung him up, of course with Allah's permission.

So that's the way it's supposed to be. When Allah is there, you aren't there. When you are there, Allah is not there. So get out of the way.

Love of Allah

My final words are today: Love - go for the Love, of Allah, but in order to achieve this love of Allah you have to be in a path and attain good 'adab' so that Allah will love you. Unless Allah loves you, you cannot love Allah. So it's not that easy to love. How do you love? Just by saying "I want to love you, you can't. Allah has to help you. You have to attain the traits, the manners, and characteristics of our prophet, peace be upon him, that's what Allah said. That's an example for you. You have to be like him. - how he was. Then Allah will love you and then you can love Allah. And that is the Great Victory. Otherwise the whole world can be yours, and it means nothing.
Everything is going to go. The universe is going to go. You can own the whole universe, what's going to happen? It's going to end. There is no kingdom for you. You cannot be king or queen. Allah is 'Malik' and Allah is the king, that's it. You can only see and be if you get rid of yourself so you can also enjoy this with Allah. Love Allah, and be with Him. So, like I said, good adab is the key for this love.
Salaam Alaikum