Sohbat Sheikh Hassan
26th June 2026, Osmanische Herberge Kall
Does anyone have a question?
Roland. Anas. Welcome! Do you have a question?
Roland: So many that I don’t even know where to start.
Sheikh Hassan: Well, one is enough for now. Perhaps the most important one.
R: Yes, the most important one. It was said that we are loved by Allah. But what about the other way around? Where does that come from? How can I attain it — the love for Him, which is prescribed in the Old Testament?
SH: What about the Old Testament?
R: In the Old Testament, the love of God is prescribed.
SH: It’s already so old, the testament, that we already have a new testament again. Prescribed is a bad word in connection with love. You can already see how old the testament is. Prescribed…
(Sheikh Hassan looks incredulous and puzzled.)
To prescribe love — that already takes all the love out of it for me, forgive me. So if love is not voluntary, then I don’t know what kind of love that is supposed to be.
R: Can it be voluntary?
SH: Of course! It is voluntary. Voluntary — no, not voluntary. It comes from Allah. It comes from Allah.
R: I believe it is like that. The heart…
SH: We do not want a dialogue now. I really would not advise a dialogue now.
R: Yes, fine, as a question… Must the heart be purified, in order to reflect the love of Allah?
SH: Must the heart be purified in order for us to attain this love?
R: Exactly, exactly, so that His love is reflected in us.
SH: He is a reflector, MashaAllah. Yes, that is right, correct.
And we say, „Yes.”
Yes, the heart must be purified so that we can receive this love — His love. First He loves us and then we can love Him. And we should strive for His love.
In the Naqshbandi order, to which we are connnected through our Sheikh, who is a great Naqshbandi Sheikh, it is said that the student — the aspirant or the would-be Sufi, the one who is on the way anyway, who tries to follow the Master — doesn’t need to do anything, actually. You can do nothing, really. And you can also never say: Now I have done this and that and that is why there is now this result. There is no such thing. They compare it to a pumpkin that you plant, which simply lies in the shade of the leaves and ripens and grows big. You can do nothing, and you automatically grow, mature and become complete.
And on the other hand you still have to keep moving forward and to go your own way. You have to do something, you have to be active — nevertheless. That seems like a contradiction, but it is not.
You have the concern — you definitely do, otherwise you would have not asked the question — to love Allah or to receive the love of Allah. And then it will reflect, from the divine name Ya Wadud.
Ya Wadud is The Loving One, Who created love, Who created everything out of love — Who created the whole universe out of love. And we even know more: He created it out of special love, out of love for His Prophet ﷺ, for the last Prophet, Muhammad, who is called Habibullah — the Beloved, My Beloved, Habibi, Habibullah — the Beloved of Allah.
All the prophets, they have a name. Musa is Kalimullah. Isa is Ruhullah. Moses is the Word of God, Jesus is the Spirit of God. Ibrahim Khalilullah — the Friend of God and so on. Muhammad Habibullah ﷺ — highest nearness, highest, closest bond in the universe.
Why? Because Allah himself says in a Hadith Qudsi:
„If it were not for you, I would not have created this creation.“
„Out of love for you. Out of love for my Beloved I create creation. Why? Because I want to praise him more, want to make him happier, want to make him greater.“
Muhammed ﷺ, the Praised One. Mahmud, the Praised One. Ahmad — the one who praises. It is about praise — which strengthens your love.
What do you do when you’re in love with your first girlfriend — what was her name? — Gabi, let’s say.
There is a song (sings:) „For Gabi I would do anything.”
In pop songs you can discover divine wisdom. Among the Arabs, there used to be troubadours in earlier centuries. They were the love singers, and they used to wrap it up in stories of women, of loved ones and so on — mostly that was what it was about. And about sadness, separation and coming together and so on. But in reality it was about Allah — about divine love. It is about divine love. And divine love is like this, if you want to compare it, like Gabi. You only think about Gabi. The boy, he’s completely in love for the first time, with Gabi. And he only thinks about Gabi. You can tell him, whatever you want, he always answers only: „Gabi, Gabi.“
„I only see Gabi everywhere.“
(Imitating various tones, tenderly devoted:)
„Gabi, Gabi, Gabi, Gabi, Gabi.“
He doesn’t say (now in a mechanical tone:)
„Gabi, Gabi, Gabi, Gabi.“
Some people do Dhikr, they say (again in a mechanical tone:)
„Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah!“
And then they count:
„How many have I said already?“ (Raises his dhikr beads) „I have to make 10,000 Allah…“
(With a pained expression:)
„Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah. How much do I have already? 950 … Ah, 50 more … Allah, Allah.“
There’s coming no love. There’s coming no love. Say Allah with love. Allah is the most beautiful name there is.
(Devoutly:) „Allah!“
And everything is He. He is everything.
That is also a good song:
(Sings:) „Everything is He. He is everything. Everything is He. Huuu, Huuu, Huuu.“
With love. Do Dhikr with love. And that is only the tongue. You purify the heart, you said. How do we purify the heart? By Dhikrullah, by the remembrance of Allah. What is the remembrance of Allah? One thing is the Dhikr by tongue. But if it is by tongue only, and the mind gets involved, then there is what I just said.
(He lifts the tasbih and repeats mechanically:)
„Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah.”
(Hammers the index finger rhythmically against the forehead:)
„Tick-tock, tick-tock.”
And if the heart is involved, then it becomes a little different.
(This time with feeling): „Allah, Allah.”
When you see our Sheikh doing Dhikr – Sheikh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani, our Sheikh, who passed away in 2014 — then you can see it. It truly manifests itself in him. This inner love, it becomes outwardly visible. There you can see how it should look, more or less. But we must experience it ourselves. We must experience it ourselves. And Dhikrullah — now comes this regarding the purification of the heart — means, we should always remember Allah. This is the condition for the purification of the heart. And that means, according to our Grand Sheikh — the Sheikh of our Sheikh Nazim —, that you always remember Allah, always remember God, always remember your Creator, always remember your beloved Lord — the One, Who created you, and Who is always with you. He is with all of us now, with everyone here, in every millionth of a second. And even when you get up and go out, and when you sleep, and when you eat, and when you drink — in everything you do: He is always with you.
And you are mostly away. „I’ll just be away for a moment” — writes the shopkeeper, who is just away for a moment.
The laundry of Ahmad: „I’m just away for a moment. Come back again if you feel like it.”
And Allah also says: „Come back, come back, the door is always open.”
The door is always open.
How do you come back when you are gone? If you want to go to the King? Actually, we are standing constantly before the King, before the Absolute King — the King of kings, Malik ul-Mulk, the King of the kingdoms — constantly. It’s not changing:
„It’s just a small change all of a sudden.“(Sheikh Hassan makes a gesture as if someone were suddenly turning a large object around).
No — it is always like that. And we just simply say: „Let’s turn around.“
(After having looked into the camera before, he now demonstratively turns to the side.)
We stand before the king. You are invited to tea with the Queen — the Queen no longer lives — with King Charles. You are invited to the Buckingham Palace, for tea. There you come riding in on your donkey — ah no, you have a noble horse — and then there are these guards at the door and say: „What do you want?”
„I have an invitation, here, to drink tea with King Charles.”
„Ah, okay, come down from your horse and we’ll let you in.”
Then you say: „No, no, no, I only go in there with my horse. I only go in with my mount. He has to come with me.”
Then he cannot enter. If we want to go in with our ego — into love, into the opening of the heart, into endless beauty and then into the never-ending light and into the never-ending divine wonders of Allah, subhanahu wa ta’ala —, then only without ego. The donkey has to stay outside. It has to stay outside. It cannot come in. That is why we have to — as you already said, and it is important — purify ourselves. The greatest means of purification is the Dhikrullah — the remembrance, the remembrance of God. That means, being aware of Him — we would say today —, raising awareness. The remembrance of Him, of the fact that He is constantly present, has to do with awareness. The awareness, that every one of your breaths is a gift from Him, in which you can praise Him.
What were you created for, what does God say then? What does He say then?
R: To love Him?
SH: To serve Him.
R: Yes, but such a lover is a true servant.
SH: Right, exactly. How do you serve Him? The best way is if you love Him. And how do you love Him? You must know Him, right? What do you want to love then? You have to somehow know Him, right? That is why the Prophet ﷺ says:
„Man ‘arafa nafsahu qad ‘arafa Rabbahu.“
„Whoever knows himself knows his Lord.“ If you know Him, then you will love Him. Whichever attribute you recognize — or reflect, as you just said earlier so correctly —, you then reflect love, you reflect mercy, you reflect generosity, you reflect all 99 Beautiful Names and beyond that thousands of names and ultimately endless names. They settle in your heart, they are reflected there.
That is why the human being is a special creature — the only creature in all of creation, that was created in such a way by Allah that it is capable of doing that. Allah Himself says, subhanahu wa ta’ala:
„Nothing can contain Me, I am too great for creation, for every part of creation. No matter what it is, it cannot contain Me. Except for one single thing, that I have created: It can contain Me. I created it so that it can contain Me.“
What is that? The heart of the Mu’min, the heart of the believer.
„The heart of the believer can contain Me“, He says. And it reflects the divine attributes. And that goes step by step.
It goes step by step. The first proof of love is that, that you follow the Prophet ﷺ. How do we know that? From the statement in the holy Qur’an, What does it say there, Baba?
Abdul Malik: „If you love Allah, you should follow me.“
SH: Yes: „If you love Allah — or want to love Him, — then follow me.“
AM: „And then Allah loves you.“
SH: „And if you follow me, then Allah loves you.“
Very clear. There is nothing unclear in the holy Qur’an. Nothing. There you find every answer. Every one.
„If you follow me, then Allah loves you.“
It is that simple. That is the answer to your question. Follow the Prophet ﷺ. How do you follow him? How do you follow the Prophet?
You follow: You do what he did and what he commanded. There is, first of all, the revelation of the divine, holy, eternal word of the Holy Qur’an. In it everything is revealed, and then also in his ﷺ life. And his life is in full agreement, one hundred percent and one thousand percent, with the Holy Qur’an. You will not find any millimeter or milligram — or the very smallest unit — that does not correspond to the divine revelation of the Holy Qur’an. His life. His utterances, his sleep, his wakefulness, every word, his silence, his smile — his everything. That is why the Companions observed all of this very closely. They saw that he is the Holy Prophet ﷺ and they felt it. They loved him first. They loved him and followed him — in everything. They loved him so much that they were annihilated in him — annihilated.
Before you love Allah, you love the Prophet ﷺ. You cannot attain Allah’s love (directly). That is a mistake. One will see it at the latest when one has died. It is a misconeception that one can attain Allah’s love directly. You cannot attain Allah’s love and say:
„Your beloved Prophet? No, I have no interest in that. Only you. Me and You.“
(First points to the sky and then to his own chest.)
(In Berlin dialect:) „All of Berlin was one cloud, and only I could be seen.“
(He points to his own chest with both hands.)
No, no. The path goes through Habibullah ﷺ.
„I love You, and I do not love that, which You love most?“
— Is that possible? Is that possible? (Smiles in disbelief.)
„I love Allah, but I do not love that, which Allah loves the most.“
— Is that possible? That is not possible.
O you who reject this. There are indeed such people, who disturb this love. They want to disturb the love. There are many among the Muslims — who call themselves Muslims —, and they say:
„No. You must go directly to Allah. That is shirk. You must not love the Prophet so much. Don’t love him too much.“
(Furrows the eyebrows and creases the forehead.)
There are people who say that. And the Muslims also listen to them, because:
„They are Arabs. This group belongs to the Arabs, and they can speak Arabic, and I can only speak Bosnian — ah no, what can I speak? — German. So, that is really bad. I have to listen to them. They can speak Arabic.“
No, no. They have a false concept. An egoistic stupid concept of stupidity. A concept of not understanding. It is about the Prophet ﷺ. And even the Prophet has such a greatness, as we cannot imagine. You cannot imagine that. Let me give you an example. You take a pencil and draw a circle — such an ellipse, like a sea — on a sheet of paper. Then you take the pencil and make a dot inside. Now you compare the knowledge of the whole, entire humanity with the knowledge of the Prophet. The knowledge of the Prophet is this circle or this ellipse — this sea. And the point — in this point is the knowledge of all creatures, of all people. That is the picture, more or less. So who are you, that you go directly to Allah…
(Chuckles.)
You go through the Prophet ﷺ. And even the Prophet is too great. Who are you, that you want to go directly to the Prophet? There is the Sheikh — now the Sheikh comes in — the Master, the Murshid, who helps you, who puts you on the path and leads you to your destiny and helps you to purify your heart, and thereby brings you to the Prophet — to the love of the Prophet ﷺ. That is what the Murshid does. This is how the Murshid helps. This is how the master to whom we have attached ourselves helps.
Our Master is Sheikh Muhammad, the son of Mawlana Sheikh Nazim, qaddas Allahu sirrahu aliya, and he also speaks of nothing else, but the love of the Prophet. And he says how to do it. You do it by first following the commands.
Habibullah. He went up and made the ascension — I don’t know whether you are familiar with that or whether you have ever heard of it —, he made the ascension to Allah. And He negotiated it down from fifty prayers to five prayers. We are now at five prayers, and they count as fifty. We are at five prayers — you first have to keep them.
„I love Allah, but I do not do what You say.”
(Looking up to the sky, then around at the audience in disbelief, questioningly.)
„I want Your love, but I insist on haram.”
Is that possible? — It does not work. It’s not fitting. That is not fitting.
No: „I strive, as much as I can, to do what You have granted us. I am weak. And if I manage to pray five times — Alhamdulillah! My intention is to pray five times. my intention is to fast in Ramadan. my intention is to give zakat — the five basic duties of Islam. My intention is to go to Hajj, to visit the Kaaba. My intention: If I have strength, am healthy and if I have the opportunity to do so in my life, I will make the pilgrimage. I will perform the basic obligations.“
And then there are the rules. There are 800 bad things in humanity — Allah created it that way, 800, exactly 800 —, and He forbids them to us. He designates them as haram. They are haram for you. Do not do them, because if you do them, you will suffer harm. You will harm yourself, if you give in to that — yourselves first and foremost, and then also others, as you can see. Then, as a weak human being, there are 500 recommendations called halal. 500 recommendations, some of which I try to put into practice, InshaAllah, But I would say, for me, it is first of all important, to avoid haram, honestly. I still have a lot to do in refraining from haram, before I concern myself with halal.
Thinking badly of another believer is haram. If you learn something bad about a Muslim — about a Muslim or about a believer — and remain angry about it for more than three days, is haram. I know brothers who are still angry at me and at other brothers — because of things that happened 30 years ago. They have sworn, never to speak to him again, until Yawm al-Qiyamah, until the Day of Judgment. And not even then.
R: That’s their own fault.
SH: I would also say, that’s their own fault.
These are only examples, some examples, but they are practical things — that is why I am bringing this up. These are practical things that we can do. What can we do to purify our heart? What can we do? First of all, keep the rules and do so many other things — and that is worship, to praise God. And that is where you put your love. That is where you place your love. That is where you seek love.
You do not simply go and pray because you have to pray.
(In a bored tone:) „Now I have to pray again.”
Yesterday someone told me — he ended up in the mental house, because he had done something completely crazy, and then he calls me (Sheikh Hassan holds an invisible telephone receiver to his ear:)
„And what am I supposed to do? And why did this happen to me?“
— Yes, I don’t know either.
But you must know: It happens by Allah’s will. And sicknesses are things, with which Allah draws His servants to Himself. In principle, one should know this and accept it.
Then after a while — about 20 minutes —, I gave the advice:
„Don’t worry about it. Say: ‘Allah knows.’ Perform your prayers.“
Then came out — the person says then: „I don’t pray.“
And then it was as if scales fell from my hair — I mean my eyes, and I say: „Now I know, why this happened to you. Now I know it. Allah wants you to pray.“
He wants to draw you near. He wants to draw you to Himself. That is so obvious. First, your prayers, your first fundamental duty.
Far away.
(He points into the distance with his right hand.)
(In an exaggerated, drawn-out tone:)
„Why is this happening to me?“
It just happens to you. Every trial is a gift from God, a gift from Allah, with which He wishes to draw His servants to Himself — to this love, to the purification.
To the purification. Through the purification you will find the love. May Allah protect us, InshaAllah, and help us, to go on the path — in every way, InshaAllah —, to be grateful for it, and remain steadfast, InshaAllah, until we die and then, InshaAllah, to find happiness and bliss in Akhira.
Wa min-Allahi at-taufiq. Bi hurmati al-Fatiha.
Amin.