Sohbat Sheikh Hassan
Friday 29th May 2026, Osmanische Herberge
(English translation)
Despite our shortcomings and sins, we ask for forgiveness and mercy, that we’re allowed to be present in a sohbat where the friends of Allah — our Sheikhs and Mashayikhina, and specially our Sheikh — transfer to us matters from heart to heart, that are of importance and without limit of time. For eternity, inshallah.
Does anyone have a question? Yes, Cengiz. He always has questions, mashallah.
Cengiz: So, it’s about the word „repeat.“ But if you put it in front of „oneself“, then it means „repeat oneself.“ Does it perhaps have a different meaning? (in German language the word repeat means literally „to get something back“)
Sheikh Hassan: To get oneself back?
C: Get what back? Has something been lost? Does it perhaps have a completely different meaning?
SH: Yes, of course! There’s a gap in the memory, and something has been lost.
C: Exactly. Something is lost.
SH: Yes, it just slipped through, and then we repeat ourselves again.
C: So it doesn’t have a specific meaning?
SH: No. It has the specific meaning of the donkey who doesn’t understand anything — or who understands and then forgets and then makes the same mistakes — and you tell him again. Like the Sheikh tells the murid things a thousand times … and that’s not an exaggeration or anything. A thousand times, two thousand times, as long as one lives, the Sheikh always says …
C: Many things are repeated during the sohbats.
SH: They are repeated. And there’s also a saying, um, what’s it called in German? Repetition is the foundation of learning. For learning, repetition is the foundation. When a child learns vocabulary at school, in English or something, they must repeat it until it’s memorized. It’s repeated again and again. The meaning of the word, or the meaning of the translation, or the translation itself, is repeated over and over again. Until it stays. That’s the foundation of learning.
There’s a saying, but I can’t remember it right now.
C: So that it becomes a second nature?
SH: Yes, exactly. And that’s true for us in every regard, for all the advice from the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, transmitted through whatever means. Either directly through reading hadiths, which one also must learn, and which one then forgets. Or through the daily advice of the Sheikh, which is, of course, closest to us. And even when you look at the sohbats from Sheikh Muhammad, Sheikh Mehmed, there are many repetitions. These aren’t things he said for the first time.
There are many things now. In 2014, Maulana Sheikh Nazim, qaddas Allahu sirra aliya, changed worlds, and we are now in 2026. That’s 12 years in which Maulana Sheikh Muhammad has given us advice — concise, short advice. And of course, there are many repetitions in there. If you look them all up, you’ll find many repetitions. Because we forget them (the advice). We forget them.
And that is our characteristic. The main characteristic of mankind is forgetfulness. That is a weakness. „Truly, We have created man weak,“ it says in the Quran. And then it also says elsewhere, also in the Quran — everything is in the Quran — that he (mankind) is forgetful. And his name, insan, actually comes from the meaning of forgetfulness. What is it called? Nisyan. Nisyan is forgetfulness. And man is called insan. Forgetfulness is already in there. Forgetfulness is already in the term „category human.“ Of course. We’re constantly forgetting: „Oh, I forgot something.“
As they say in Berlin, „Watte nich im Kopp hast, musste in de Beene haben.“
What you don’t have in your head, you have to have in your legs. You forgot it. So you go back into the house and get what you forgot. Or you have to go there, or even further, or sending something on later, and even worse … Unbelievable things. All because of forgetfulness. We are made of forgetfulness, of mistakes. This leads to endless mistakes — because of forgetfulness. If we didn’t forget, if we did one thing at a time, then things would look completely different. But Allah created it this way. He created us this way. So that we don’t become proud and say, „Maybe we’re perfect, and I don’t forget my car keys in the car and leave it unlocked.“ (laughs)
Not that we get the idea of being perfect — only Allah is perfect, and His Prophet ﷺ — but rather, we are weak. That’s for a reason. So that we are humble. And we should know that we are weak. And Maulana Sheikh Nazim said so often, and emphasized, that we should say that we are weak — even to ourselves — and admit it to ourselves and say to Allah: „O Allah, I am weak. Help me!“
Not, „I am strong, I can do everything.“
If you say you’re strong, you can do anything, then Allah, subhana wa ta’ala, says to you: „Okay, go ahead. I’ll let you. You can do it on your own. You’re strong.“
And you can’t do anything on your own. Nothing (laughs). Absolutely nothing. You can’t even breathe on your own. You think you can breathe on your own?
„Breathing isn’t that difficult, I would say. It happens by itself, somehow. Do I need someone for that?“ — Yes, even for breathing you need Allah, the One who gives you your breath, grants you your breath. You can’t do anything on your own. And that’s what we should know. That’s what we should know, that’s what we should realize, and that’s what we should understand — our situation. Our situation in front of Allah ﷻ, says the Sheikh, is to be nothing. You can’t make any claims and say, „Yes, but I did that now.“
When the Sheikh comes, and something has been done in the dergah, or in the mosque or something, he says, „Oh, mashallah! Who did this?“
Then the one who did it says, „I did! (Sheikh Hassan raises his right hand with exaggerated eagerness like a student.) I did it, Sheikh.“
No, you didn’t. What shall the Sheikh say? The Sheikh says (Sheikh Hassan puts on an ironic expression and imitates a fatherly tone), „Well done, boy. Keep it up.“
And it’s told to the Prophet ﷺ, at the Battle of Uhud, when he shoots the arrow (or throws the spear),
„And you threw not, but Allah threw.“
(Quran 8:17)
C: Can we also say, „Allah has granted it to me“?
SH: Of course, you can say that. Of course. Allah granted it to him. Allah has granted him that it happens through his hand. He grants you that it happens through your hand. In the same way, He grants you rizq, your livelihood. You toil and you work, you have shifts and I don’t know what. And it’s difficult, and exhausting and ardous and so on, and not easy.
And then, of course, you say something like, „But I do all that, don’t I.“
And that’s not true. In truth, your rizq — your money, let’s say specifically now — the money that you receive each month is written. Your rizq is written by Ar-Razzaq. And He grants you, and gives you honour, by making it happen through your hands. Through the work of your hands — by going to work, struggling hard and doing your best. It is an honour that Allah grants to you, that your rizq is earned through your work.
But in reality, the rizq is already fixed … how much, and what kind, and so on. And if you don’t work, then you get unemployment benefit — or I don’t know what. Or someone begs in India — or I don’t know where, even here in Germany these days — and is given what Allah has granted for him.
We should know this so that we don’t become proud. That serves the purpose that we don’t become proud. Because a (little bit of) pride… And even if it’s only a millimeter, a milligram, or a thousandth of a milligram, or less, you have a little bit of pride, whatever kind, where you say: „Somehow I did… I have to say, I did it somehow… Yes, It’s Allah and all that, sure. But actually, I also have — at least some participation.”
What comes in that moment? Partnership. Sharik. Shirk. Shirk al-khafi, hidden shirk — which most people have it, because they have ego. If we have ego, we are mushrik, in that moment. Mushrik. You say, „Yes, Allah, that’s okay…”
Even if you are a Muslim, and you have tariqat and a sheikh and everything, and you say, „Yes, all right. I’ll go to dhikr and juma and everything. But right now I have to follow my bad habits again (laughs). I’ll get back to you, inshallah.”
Logging out, logging in.
„Thumma amanu, thumma kafaru”
(Quran 4:137)
„Sometimes believing, sometimes not believing.” If we don’t believe, then we indulge our nafs. Then we are with our nafs, not with Allah. Then you are not with Allah. This is a catastrophe, in reality.
It’s a catastrophe we’re living with. And we try to eradicate, to eliminate this catastrophe, by always being with Allah. That’s why the Prophet ﷺ says, „Always be with Allah.“
And the Sheikh says, „Always be with Allah and never complain.“
Never complain. Know that everything comes from Allah. The good and the bad. Put everything in relation to Allah. Don’t worry about what people say, what people do, what politics they pursue, what the news says, this, that … They only drive you crazy. They want to drive you crazy.
Just be with Allah — Who is always with you. Who is always with you and waits — He’s awaiting with longing for you to turn to Him. He has a great longing for His beloved creation to become a beloved servant and turn to Him. A longing we don’t even know. When we have longing in our hearts, we say, „Oh, I have a great longing, a great longing for Him. Oh, He has a great longing. Mashallah.“
That is not from you. That is also not from you — the himma, and the longing. It is from Allah. „And Allah’s longing is so great,“ says Al-Ghazali, „it is so great…“ If you knew how great it is, the longing with which Allah ﷻ draws you to Himself, that you may come to Him — a longing, a power, I don’t know how to describe it, longing is a good word, yearning — if the degree of longing would be revealed to us, for a moment — Allah says now, „I will now show you very briefly what My longing is truly like,“ and removes the veil, for a short moment — then you are gone. Forever. Forever. That is how great His longing is.
This is just to illustrate that to us … That is Al-Ghazali. If such person is saying this to us, it’s muhaqqaq, it’s Haqq.
May Allah help us, inshallah, to follow in our humble ways, what is possible for us weak persons, weak human beings, to have the niyat, and to follow what is our duties, at least. As much as we can. And to be grateful for this beautiful way, because it’s a beauty. It’s an immense beauty that not everyone has. Not everyone has that. And even Muslims they have but so many people they don’t have tariqat, they don’t have the Sheikh, which leads to the real opening of the heart, to the real beauty, to the taste of the beauty.
And we should be grateful, inshallah, for it and busy with it — with nothing else. May Allah keep us!