Sohbet by Shaykh Taner Ansari 11-6-98
Sufi Handbook Introduction

Murid: Can I ask something?

Shaykh: Yes, ma'am.

Murid: You said that you would like to talk about the book. So I'd like you to talk about the first subject...

Shaykh: Go ahead.

Murid: ...which would be the introduction to the book. The question I have for you is, why do we need to have a Sufi handbook?

Shaykh: Allah gives ilm. Allah doesn't give ilm, knowledge, to everybody. Allah sends knowledge to one so He can distribute to the others. And our Prophet, saws, says, " Write the knowledge so it won't be lost." So recording is important, of the knowledge. And it is not easy to find a guide whenever you need one. But it is maybe a lot easier to find his book, which might guide you wherever you are. So we have to, whatever Allah is giving us as knowledge, we have to write it down for our next generation and this generation. So that we won't forget what Allah has said, so we don't have to keep repeating the same thing. That's why we have to write, so the students can read this in the writing form, they can read it again and again and think about it. When we are talking, they can hear it only once. when it is in the written form, you can read it again and again and again. Allah sent Qur'an-i-Kerim a thousand or six hundred years ago or whatever, and then I have studied the Qur'an hundreds of times, and each time it is just like a new book. But if I had heard it only once I could not get more out of Qur'an as I could get it as a book in front of me. I can go back, read it again, again, again, again, again. So that's why we need a book.

Murid: Can you tell me the general subjects? Do you have general subjects to be discussed?

Shaykh: What do you mean by general subjects?

The general subjects are, the outline of the book is, you know, what the people need to know. What Allah has sent as a gift for them to learn. And Allah sends them what they need to guide them in this culture, in the United States, in this culture, how they can live. what they are doing wrong, what they are doing right, and how they should do it. What is Allah pleased with, how is Allah pleased with, and how should we do these actions and what should you believe in and what should you clean yourself from, and what you should gain, all these things are the subject of the book.

So first of all you need the concept of God. It has to be established in the United States because of the polluted concepts of many sects. In Christianity there are maybe, in 1966 there were two hundred fifty two sects, now there are over three thousand Christian churches. And each one of them is saying something else. So to each one of them God is a different concept. We cannot generalize, sometimes, when I first came in the United States I thought everybody believed that Jesus is God. So I went to a church and told them that this is wrong and they said, we don't believe that. There's a whole church, maybe three thousand people in the congregation. I was shocked. What?! I thought all Christians believed that, because that's what they taught us, that Christians believe that Jesus is son of God, Jesus is, Father, Son and the Holy Ghost. So when I attacked this point they said, we don't believe that. And here you think Christians believe this, right? There is a whole church in Kalamazoo, they don't believe it.

Murid: Do they believe he's a prophet, or maybe a saint?

Shaykh: They believe, right, He's a prophet, they don't believe he's God or something like that. So, I cannot generalize all these things. But we have to, first of all, establish a common concept for God. And we call Him Allah because it is not an English word and so it may not mean anything that the Americans are saying here. So Allah is the energy, the power of the whole universe. The description of that is it cannot be born, so Jesus may not be God because he was born, and it cannot be destroyed. He doesn't qualify for this. Or anybody else, for that matter, who is born and dies, he is not God. You cannot call him God. But everybody who has energy has God in him. Some Allah acts more, and others Allah acts less in them.

So first, the concept of God. Then the prophets. Concept of prophets, then the concept of human beings, the make of human beings. What is a human being? What are you? How you are made and then the purpose. What is the purpose of the universe, and in this picture, what is your function and purpose, that is the next one. And once you know your purpose, of the universe and God and your purpose, then how can you achieve this purpose? There comes the tariqa. then they have to know what to do, these are the tariqas, this is how you have to clean your nafs, and then how can you do this? These are the practices, and then the shaykh, comes the factor of this. Shaykh, murid, practices, these are the factors that need to be discussed, and how can you know this is a true shaykh, true murid, true path, and then after that you go into practical knowledge. How can you not be stressed, how can you get into unity, how can you love people, how can you not hate, how can you keep a relationship, how can you keep a good body, how can you maintain the love that you have created between you and Allah and others. Then, you know, Allah's names, how we are connected to the universe, how does Allah operate in the universe, you have to know this. That brings us to sharia, physics, chemistry, biology, and from there, you know, how does the elemental chart of ninety nine names work in this picture, how you can do it. And then, the ways of communicating to the people, music, poetry, talk, zikr, like that, and so far this much. Of course, then that gets into tariqa and what is the purpose, and we have to talk about surrender. I just gave you the basic outlines, why you need a shaykh, why do we surrender, and then what is achieved, what are we looking for, the focus. So, at the end, what is the focus, simplifying things, after all that you need to know the reference point, and what must be the reference point and focus, and here it is. What do you think?

I thought you were going to make the outline, you made me make the outline.

Murid: Well, you said get the tape...

Shaykh Ibrahim: Actually, there was something Stephanie had started when you were talking earlier. It refers to, well we don't have to go into this right now, I'm still going on the thing that you said about the Day of Judgment, we talked about that and Qur'an. And I haven't gotten a clear feeling about that except from the things that you've told me. You know, I see it as a personal thing, you die, that's your Day of Judgment. Well you can look at it that way, the way we've talked about it is a reconstruction. I don't have a clue.

Shaykh Taner: You have to watch this channel 43, the Discovery Channel. Get the videos. You can get the Discover videos, go to the video store, go to the library, get them and watch them. Look for science. I'll tell you what there will be. First of all there is a path, this is a path, there is no escape there. Sooner or later the sun is going to get into a big gas, expand, swallow the solar system which it gave life for many thousands of billions of years, it's going to go.

Shaykh Ibrahim: In about 3 to 5 million years.

Shaykh Taner: Whatever. Not million, billion years, we don't know. That's what we think. So this is going to happen, there's no doubt. This is what Qur'an is talking about. This is the Judgment Day. Then what happens? Nobody knows, right? And then there is the reconstruction. Well, Allah had already created you in the spiritual form, then you came into this material form. So, what is Allah's, one of the most important names? Is Adil, which is Just. If He's just, He's going to show, exercise His justice system. One of His names is Hakim, which means the Judge. Well, when is this going to happen? So far, Allah is saying, what do you want? We are pushing Allah's Jelal or Jamal, okay, so at the end what's going to happen, you're going to get what you wanted. You wanted Allah's Jelal, so come here, you deserve my Jelal, why, because you did this, you did this, you did this. Now get it.

Shaykh Ibrahim: Payoff, yes.

Shaykh Taner: And you! You were patient, you were kind, merciful, generous and these attract my jemal, and here you are. Now, the question may be, or the questions, is this: Well, we are being patient here and we get nothing, you know. Well, Allah is delaying your reward or punishment to the hereafter, after this Judgment Day, where everything's going to go anyway, and then be set up. Then it's going to be everlasting. If He gives you now, it is going to be temporary. So there is a reward system and a punishment system for the hereafter.

Shaykh Ibrahim: Okay, so here's what I've got. That everybody that's been dying up to this time, it's kind of like, everything's on hold, 'till the whole thing blows, and then Allah's Hakim and Adil, will be exercised. And that's when the whole next step, the Day of Judgment is.

Shaykh Taner: Yes. I mean, we are earning this state, getting ready for this Day. Allah didn't create all this for nothing, and then, uh, whatever we do is being printed. Even the forensic scientists, whatever we do is leaving a trace behind us. We are always leaving traces. They caught somebody, yesterday we were watching from this woman killed her baby daughter, because of some reasons, anyway, they caught her from the garbage bags she used.

Shaykh Ibrahim: It's all in the material.

Shaykh Taner: That's why it's the proof!

Shaykh Ibrahim: But if it all goes, if it all blows up...

Shaykh Taner: But this is all being printed, copied, and so everybody, you are being stamped, all your cells are being stamped, in every cell it has what you have done encoded there. And this is also transferred to your spirit. That's why it is important. Your spirit is there...

SI: Transferred from the body into the spirit...okay...

ST: That's why your nafs is important, that's why you have to clean your nafs, so your spirit body will get back into the other body, so then the resurrection, how you get in the first place you're going to get put back in again, there's no problem.

SI: So in the same way that we materialized here, is going to be the same way that we materialize in the next world.

ST: That's right.

SI: always, we will have all the stuff that we did in this world encoded into that body.

ST: Alhamdulillah.

SI: And won't that be a fun place.

ST: That's why purification is important. Now you understand why, you understand more how very important this is. You better get to work and come to a real human being, just like my Shaykh says, like a Turkish delight, you've got to taste like a Turkish delight. Palatable, soft, nice, you know, this situation. Otherwise, may God help you. See, your soul is getting from your material body, things. That's why when you die you take the shape of your body because you have gotten things from your material body.

SI: This is another reason why the body has to go.

ST: Body can go, but the same thing is in there. In your spirit body. Uploaded. All this is because we don't have enough influence and we just look at the body, but it also has some energy that can be transferred to this, this knowledge we don't have. How this is transferred to there and there and made back to the material again. Yes? You were going to say something?

Murid: What about illnesses and things like that. If you get back into the material do you lose all your illnesses?

ST: Your action, illnesses mean nothing, this is for this blood and this that which you are not carrying, you know. Illness is in this body. Spirit body, I don't know how much it is affected by illnesses, depending on what you are talking about. It doesn't have the nerves in the spirit body, so it can't be...

SI: But can illnesses in the spirit body affect...?

ST: Yes, it might affect, I don't know the subject so I cannot talk about it, I haven't thought about it.

Murid: The reason I ask is because you were saying that we materialize the same way that we were here. Well, I mean what kind of fun is that for people who had all kinds of problems? You know, they might be good people, But they might have some illness.

ST: No, I don't think it like that. It is like if you are a stubborn and this and that person, that's how much you're going to... how much have you developed a body for yourself?

SI: I think we're talking about awareness, yeah, awareness.

Murid: You're talking about the spiritual qualities that we've developed and how they become materialized.

SI: Right.

ST: Anything else?

Murid: You were saying that, we've heard that, uh, when you're on the path to Allah and you die, you continue to work on the path. Is this just for people who have, um, is this for any Muslim who has surrendered to Allah? Or is this just for people in tariqa? How does that work?

ST: Anybody who wants, uh, who has taken a path to Allah and has not completed his venture, Allah, the work will continue after the death because he didn't have time. Most likely, I'll give you a direct answer, my thing that all the tariqa people who wanted to go further. You can be in the tariqa and you didn't want to go more than the third level, then that's it. You're not going to go any further. But you're progressing, your intention is to go on and you die, and then you continue.

Murid: Now, does that mean you take your nafs with you?

ST: Yes, honey, your nafs is with you.

Murid: That's what I don't understand, the relationship between the nafs and the physical body and the spiritual.

ST: Your jismani ruh is the nafs. And the body is the nafs. Desires.

Murid: So jismani ruh has the same desires, they're not just tied to your physical nafs?

ST: That's right, it's coming from the air. Nafs is nefes. Nefes is air, that's why I gave you that book. Look for it: nefereth, in the chest, which is air, desire, air, you have an air body. Lungs, in your body, air, oxygen. You have water body, water, blood, and then fire. There is fire, explosions, you need to have this heat, right? 98.6 or whatever. When it is 86, bye. When it is 126, bye. You know, you need to have this. And you need the body as if earth, you need bread.

Murid: So then that would explain these spirits who keep coming back with their desires...

SI: The attachments...

ST: They are still there, I hear from them and... with these things you'll have to experience and learn yourself, see? I am saying this because I see it, but you don't see it. You have to see it yourself, then you'll understand what I'm talking about. What we can give you in the book is just an idea of what they are going to experience. The real learning has to be with the experience of the person himself, or herself.

SI: Do you want to add exercises to the book?

ST: Yes, why not. Exercises, diet, you know.

SI: So here's possible things you could do: some exercises, keeping a journal, looking at Allah's names, you know, that kind of stuff.

Murid: What are you talking about?

SI: In the book, having an addendum or a part where...

ST: Exercises that you can do.

SI: Yes, practical things.

Murid: You say the important thing to deal with is the ruhani ruh. And the other ones don't match, so...

ST: We need them because, seyrani ruh is the mediator between this ruh and the other one. And the other one is a lower level for the other one.

Murid: So there's nothing wrong with exploring these worlds to understand them, right?

ST: No.

Murid: Even though you keep saying focus on Allah, which all of this is...

Consciousness

ST: Yes, this is the focus. You can focus on Allah in the material form or, this is the step for the other part, but when you are investigating you have to know that you are investigating Allah, not the rose. They take all these animals and this and that and, in the lab, and everybody's investigating and thinking that I"m investigating this. For me they're all investigating Allah's power, how else He can give life, they are investigating life. Life is Hayy. They are investigating Allah Hayy. See how Hayy manifests in each cell in many different forms. Sometimes Hayy is coupled with Kabir, Kabir means consciousness, knowing. Seeing, Basir, Sami, hearing, Basir, seeing. What is the level of life is, depends on the consciousness of the life. Donkey has a little less consciousness, horse has a little bit more consciousness, human being has more consciousness which means they are more aware of themselves, what's happening, and they can think and control. The more close to Allah, the more you are aware, the more you are closer to Allah. That's why we are the closest thing to Allah in the chain.

Murid: Well, it seems like there are two ways to go, maybe not just two, maybe two billion, but, I mean in terms of really being with Allah, should we just focus on Allah? Muhammad, peace be upon him, did, when he was on miraj, he didn't even look right or left, he wasn't even interested in other...I don't even know how much he saw, all I know is he didn't look. You know?

ST: He saw, but he didn't pay attention, he didn't say, okay, that's good, I like this rose, let me stay in this rose garden.

Murid: Okay, so he was aware of it all.

ST: He just wanted to go to the essence.

Murid: Right. But he didn't ignore them. He just didn't pay attention and get stuck there. Is that what you mean?

ST: Yes, they couldn't take his attention away from Allah. So he didn't pay too much attention to the manifestation. So that's what I'm saying is, pass the manifestation, yes, it's good, but, Allah says in Qur'an-i-Kerim, how many times? Look at the sun, but adore Allah who created the sun, don't adore the sun. Don't adore the rose, adore Allah who created the rose. That's what Allah's saying. Can you smell? O, Allah, you are so good.

ST: So Hajji Hamza, Allahes merin, Ali Baba's shaykh says, "It is not seeing, brother!," he says, "It is not seeing, it is not being, it is dying before you die. Brothers." Amin. (short zikr...)