The Divine Feast That Is To Be Tasted In The Quran
O my Lord, we are asking from Your endless favors. Give us from Your endless favours so that we may keep Your way, the path on which Your beloved people, Your beloved servants, are walking, to come to You to be with You.
That is our aim – to find the ways to our Lord and to be with Him.
And all prophets, peace be upon them, came to show the way to Allah Almighty for His servants. They did not come to teach us how to get this life’s pleasures, no; no need to teach everyone knows by birth. No one is ignorant about this life’s pleasures. Children are born and cry to eat and drink; they take pleasure in eating and drinking. And so on. Every one of our physical body’s pleasures is well- known; therefore, no need to teach. Rather they came, all the prophets, to teach the way to Allah Almighty and to show the way to be with Him.
That is the ultimate desire, or the most perfect or excellent thing that we can think of or we can want. And no one can imagine what he is going to find or to see or to feel or what pleasure he will be in when he is with his Lord, Almighty Allah. Therefore, those who know something about that – I mean to say, those who are with their Lord – left this life’s pleasures and also the next life’s pleasures. But we- our level has not yet improved from the level of the zoo. Every kind of animal you can find among people.
I was thinking about all kinds of animals, wild animals and also other animals, and my Grandsheikh explained to me that to the extent that animals are different, every kind of animals is to be found among people, everyone’s ego representing one kind of animal. You know what kind you ego is and must guard yourself from that kind of animal, guarding yourself and guarding people from your ego’s harm.
Those whose interests throughout this life are only with eating, drinking and dancing – and playing (yes, to much!) – Their level is the first level. They never ask for the next life’s pleasures. They can’t control their egos. Therefore they are under their command; what their egos say, they do, and their pleasure is with this life’s pleasures. And the second level is for those who are asking for, who believe, in the next life, believing in Hell, believing in Paradise.
They are keeping themselves from falling into Hell and they are asking for Paradise’s pleasures in the next and eternal life. But the highest level for the Sons of Adam is for those who are asking to be with their Lord forever. They are not interested in this life’s pleasures or in the next life’s pleasures, never asking. That is the level of the prophets and saints and angels, those angels who are always in the Divine Presence. The Divine Presence is going to be for the prophets and awliya and angels; they are asking only for their Lord Almighty.
And the holy books, particularly the last one, the Holy Qur’an show the way for all kinds of the Sons of Adam. Those who are going to take their pleasures from this life may find their ways through the Holy Qur’an, and those who are asking for Paradise and its pleasures can find their ways through the Holy Qur’an. And those who are asking for pleasure, endless pleasures, through being with their Lord, Almighty Allah – they can find their ways through the Holy Qur’ an. Therefore, the Holy Qur’an is a divine feast for all the Sons of Adam. Through it, all of them can attain their desires, their aims, and their goals.
The perfect one asks to be with his Lord. We are humble people, not running after perfection; we are asking for a simple thing, for the simple life and simple pleasures which common people ask. Yet we must ask for more than this, and we are practicing through worshipping because worship opens in our hearts the doors of desire to be with our Lord Almighty. Every prayer, every worship, makes a way, closer, closer to our Lord, so that if you pray only once a year you may find a way to your Lord. If you pray only once a month, you may find a way to your Lord. You may pray once a week, as Christians and Jewish people do and Muslims also hold Friday prayer each week; you may find a way through weekly prayers. But Allah Almighty is calling His servants to daily prayers, by day and by night.
You may pray once a day; that is a way to your Lord. You may pray five times a day, because Allah Almighty is calling you to be with Him five times. And you may also pray more than five times. During the Night of the Ascension, when the Holy Prophet, beloved Muhammad, P.b.u.h., was in the Divine Presence, Allah Almighty ordered prayers fifty times a day. That was an honor for us. And beloved Muhammad, p.b.u.h., accepted those fifty times of prayer with pleasure, with honor, because he was always asking for more honor and more pleasure for his ummah. But when he met with Moses, p.b.u.h., Moses asked, “What did your Lord offer to your nation?” and beloved Muhammad, p.b.u.h., said, “My Lord, Allah Almighty, honored my nation with fifty times of prayer during the twenty-four hours of the day and night.” And Prophet Moses, p.b.u.h., said, “That is the best thing. But your ummah is too weak to carry that. We know that you have been given the highest honor, but we are afraid that they can’t bear that honor, can’t bear such a responsibility. Because they are weak, ask Allah Almighty to make it lighter.” Therefore the Prophet, beloved Muhammad (sal), asked to have it made lighter and yet lighter. Then it became five times a day; otherwise it would have been fifty times. The chance was given, among other nations, to the nation of Muhammad, p.b.u.h., for his ummah to be with their Lord fifty times a day. But we love dunya so much, more than Maula, our Master, our Lord; we engage ourselves with dunya more than with our Lord. For this reason it was made only five times.
Therefore Islam is the perfect religion. No other religion can compare with it. What religion now can order people to be with their Lord five times a day? – and all the prophets came just to make people be with their Lord, Allah Almighty, as much as they can. Yes, we do not understand why Islam is the perfect one. Allah Almighty is asking His servants to be with Him as much as they are able, more than with this world’s troubles. To the extent that we leave Him, we fall into troubles and suffering, and suffering is going to reach the highest point after a little. We do not understand what is the honour that we have been given.
Therefore, prayers after fard (Obligatory - A certain number of rak’ats in each prayer are fard- obligatory and others are sunnah, that is according to the Prophet’s practice and recommendation but not obligatory) are a divine order, Allah Almighty giving permission to beloved Muhammad(sal), to make sunnah for prayers. We have a sunnah for every time: sunnah for the sun’s shining (Ishraq); sunnah for Duha (Mid-morning); sunnah for wudu; sunnah for Awwabin between Maghrib and ‘Isha; and Tahajjud, the night’s sunnah, so that whoever wants to be with his Lord more, that is open.