Sohbat Sheikh Hassan
(translation from german)
10th March 2025, Osmanische Herberge Kall
We want to revisit yesterday’s topic: The brother who wrote to us that he wants to follow and love all religions. We already said a lot yesterday, but I don’t think anything got through, because today he is writing the same thing again:
„It is so deeply ingrained in me that all paths lead to the same destination, that infinite love is the reason, the goal, and the essence of everything.“
That is, of course, correct. Love is the only reason. Allah ﷻ created everything out of love, out of love for His beloved, for Habibullah ﷺ. And he feels it:
„Since yesterday, I feel it even more strongly.“
So, since our Sohbat, alhamdulillah, this feeling has become stronger – mashallah, alhamdulillah, that’s good. But he says:
„I can’t follow words and rituals that I don’t feel; I even think it would be dangerous.“
He means it is dangerous to follow words and rituals without feeling them. You must always feel… feel. Then he adds:
„For me, there is no religion, only love.“
Mashallah! For Allah ﷻ, there is religion, but for him, there isn’t – interesting. „And I try to love.“ – You try, yes. You are not always able to love, not at all, not even close. Sometimes you have the feeling and you think ‚Yes!‘ – but no, not yet.
„It feels right to me, whether I am Sufi, Yogi, Christian; for me, it all seems the same.“
It is not the same. Is gold the same as silver? And bronze? Is it all the same? Has Allah ﷻ created anything without meaning?
„I don’t know,” he then says, “I don’t know, I can only try my best.“
Well, that’s good. But the most important sentence in your message here is: „I don’t know.“ And yesterday, there was another sentence that I didn’t mention, where he said: „I have no idea.“ These two sentences are very important: „I have no idea“ and „I don’t know.“ Because that’s how it is. But there are people who do know, for example Allah subhana wa ta’ala knows. That doesn’t belong to the people, but He sent the prophets, who truly know. They really know. If you want to learn something, you go to someone who knows. If you want to buy Brussels sprouts – yes, they are good cabbage – you don’t go to the butcher. If you want jewels, you don’t go to a straw seller who sells straw for donkeys. You go to someone who has knowledge. That’s what you are actually doing, but it seems you are not accepting anything.
The Sufi path is one where you give yourself to the Sheikh and agree with everything he says. And if you don’t agree with something, then you are the one who is wrong. The student is wrong, not the Sheikh.
You say you can’t follow words and rituals:
„I can’t manage to follow words and rituals.“
That’s not true. You follow rituals and words all the time. Don’t you say ‚Good day‘ when greeting someone? Or ‚Buon giorno … Buona sera‘? You can speak Italian, inshallah. These are all rituals. When I greet someone, I honor and respect them. And the best greeting of all is ‚Salam alaykum.‘ It may just be words, but it is the best way to greet a person. Salam alaykum – I wish you peace. What peace? The peace of Allah ﷻ, the best and only true peace. He is Salam.
Allah ﷻ has names. You say you don’t want words or names. But Allah ﷻ manifests in the universe through His names. In the Quran, He says He taught Adam all the names – ALL the names.
„No, no, no words, no, I can’t follow words and rites that I don’t feel“
You don’t have to always feel them. If I say Ya Wadud which means ‚The Loving‘, you don’t have to immediately feel something deep. Say Ya Wadud 100 times, 1,000 times – maybe then you will feel something. 10,000 times is even better. Love. We exist in form. One day, we will be without form, but for now, we are in form. You have a body, and I recognize you by your form and your name. Your name is important. The name you bear in this world has meaning; it reveals or strengthens your secret. These are forms. You are not formless, and Allah ﷻ is within all. Allah ﷻ huwa Zahir wa Batin. Two of His names are Zahir and Batin.Allah ﷻ is outward and inward. And the great Sheikhs are the same inside and outside. We, however, are different on the inside, because we have egoism and self-centered traits. The Sheikhs are always the same.
Through form, you greet someone, you love someone – it all happens within form. We are here in human form. Rejecting religion is quite… well, I would consider this: Did Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ reject religion? Or Rumi? You all admire Rumi so much… „The lovers, the lovers, I don’t want to be Muslim, no, but Rumi – yes, I want to spin like him, always on the earth!“ In former timest hey used to spin in heaven. Now they spin on the ground, like a spinning top – ZING. But look at Rumi’s life. Before he received spiritual enlightenment through his Sheikh, Shams-i Tabriz, he studied for decades. He first studied to the end, for years, for decades, he was the greatest knower, Alim, of his time, in his time. He knew the laws without end, all the forms, he knew everything. Everything. What to say, what to do on every occasion, what prayers – he knew it all, Rumi, do you understand? And who is a greater lover, are you a greater lover than Rumi? Mashallah, did Rumi understand anything about love or did we understand anything about love? Did Sheikh Nazim understand about love or did we understand about love? Did Sheikh Nazim perhaps not pray? Rejected Islam?
The most famous sheikh who said that „my religion is love“ was also like that. In his state, he said: „I don’t follow any religion, I only follow love. My religion is love.“ The most famous person who said this was Sheikh Muhiyiddin Ibn Arabi – Sheikh ul Akbar. This is a famous saying of his. Now look at his life. Didn’t he study sharia law for decades, spend decades mortifying himself and devoting himself to endless prayers at night and during the day? He went to the sheikhs, to all the knowledgeable sheikhs, until the opening came. Then such sayings come out, of course, yes okay. But are we there yet? Without taking the first step, have we skipped all the steps and are already there?
Yes, that’s why I advise us all to walk the path like Maulana Sheikh Mehmed – that’s our Sheikh. And he knows it, we don’t know it, that’s right, you don’t know anything, I don’t know anything either, but they know, there are those who know, there are those who know, those who know God, they exist. And we have to follow them, they will tell us something… You have to trust them. And the path is not easy… is not. Some may think it’s ‚just Sufi, yes‘ – no, no, no. May Allah ﷻ protect us inshallah. You don’t have to feel anything. Because you don’t feel every time you say ‚Salam alaykum‘: „Oh giant Salam, a cloud of Salam is coming down on me, I’m trembling, now the cloud is going over to the one I’m greeting. Salam! And he also has the full feeling of the state. I feel it“ – Nope! It’s not always like that, we’re not in this state all the time. Sometimes the state comes as a gift from God, from Allah ﷻ. But still you say Salam alaykum. Your niyyat is important, your intention. You say ‚Salam alaykum‘ – ‚Alaykum Salam‘, that is the most beautiful greeting, that is a ritual, a word that you don’t want to follow?
All the forms. Kissing the sheikh’s hand, kissing your father’s hand, kissing your mother’s hand… That’s also a form, an act of honour, an expression of love, it has forms as long as we are in this form. And words are the greatest, they are the most beautiful, words. Koran – aren’t they words? Koran, every word has at least 24,000 meanings, the Grand Sheikh said. They are saints, they know what we don’t know. And you say: „Words are not important, words…“ That is very important, accept it, you have to accept it. You’d better say… We’d rather say we’re nothing and we’re also difficult and we can’t accept it because our ego is in between. The feeling is ok, that’s great, love for everything, that’s alhamdulillah. May Allah ﷻ increase this feeling in you inshallah, without end, that’s great. But one does not exclude the other, on the contrary, you will get even more of this feeling.
You see, yes, you can love all religions. I also love everything that Allah ﷻ has sent, we love all prophets equally, so we accept (them) equally. Nevertheless, if you say, now I want to follow Christianity for a while, then you will see that Christians are enemies of Muslims, some of whom say „that’s not true, Islam is not true, it’s not.“ Have a look at the different religions and see what they think. I don’t know if you still think that’s so great. Of course, the origin is always Allah ﷻ. God has allowed religion. He allowed them, all of them, and He sent the prophets with the religions and He also sent the last one, the last of the prophets ﷺ. And He said „That’s enough, now I’ve made it perfect, now you don’t need to ask any more, it’s perfect now – PERFECT.“
Let’s remember that, inshallah may Allah ﷻ protect us and let us be on the way, inshallah, in every way. May He guide you oh brother and guide us, all of us, we are all the same. Because we are nothing. And that’s a beautiful ritual, I think, when we pray here, it’s just a very beautiful ritual when all the brothers here bow down, press their faces to the ground. Because then everyone is nothing, not one is more, everyone is nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, a row of nothing. They say ‚Allahu Akbar‘ and prostrate themselves. This is an expression of collective devotion… how beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful. Alone too, of course. You surrender, it has a form, you prostrate yourself. Goethe wrote about it, about this wonderful form, as he said, of ‘prostrating oneself’ before the Lord. Of course it is a form, but it is filled with the love of your heart. And how beautiful when a whole mosque full of people prostrate themselves with the intention of surrendering – no matter what happens in their hearts, in their thoughts, just seeing the form is beautiful, and that means that all are nothing before Allah ﷻ, indeed they are nothing, have no existence of their own, are all nothing, all only through Allah ﷻ – from Allah, through Allah and to Allah ﷻ.
May Allah ﷻ protect us, inshallah.
Wa min Allahi taufiq al-Fatiha