Çilingir Sofrası 32 / Allah, her an bir şendedir. (with English subtitles)

0:00Çilingir Sofrası 32 / Everyday He is on an affair ***Translated by Prof.Dr.Nükhet Kardam***

0:02Where did we stop last time?

0:04Serhan: Oh no, that’s a hard question

0:06Serhan, you had told us where we stopped last time

0:09Serhan: we have such an enjoyable way Of moving from one topic to another

0:13We can’t really talk about cause and effect

0:18We were talking about the individual self

0:22Vahdet means society

0:25Vahdet in the context of Tevhid means we are talking about society

0:29Serhan: Don’t we know it as its opposite that it is about the individual?

0:32No, vahdet means unity, being together

0:37There are three principles

0:39First Ahadiyet (the Absolute One)

0:41Second, Vahdaniyet (Unity, togetherness in society)

0:45Ahadiyet means the only One, the Absolute

0:50Vahit means one, individual. Unity is Vahdet

0:57Ahad is One

1:00Ahad is absolute.

1:02None of us are Ahad but our essence is.

1:04None of us can be ahad.

1:06We are each one, we are individuals (Vahid)

1:07What does that mean?

1:10One among many

1:12We are one, one among many

1:14There is no plural to Ahad So we are not talking about one or individuals when we say Ahad, but the Absolute One.

1:18Do you see?

1:20Vahid is individual people One by one

1:23Vahdet means society

1:25But the kind of society that has come together for a purpose, who are believers

1:30It doesn’t mean separate groups who are standing together

1:33Who are not yet believers in their hearts

1:37You can say that you have submitted (Islam).

1:39What does that mean?

1:40It means let’s live in peace, let’s not fight each other I will not shoot you, and you don’t shoot me. Okay

1:47When there is submission, there is Islam It means let’s have peace

1:50We won’t attack each other, we made an agreement That’s Islam

1:52Iman is certainty of belief That means, I trust you with my essence

1:58We don’t have to make an agreement Suppose you borrowed money from me

2:02I know that you will pay it back no matter what, even if you die Then your children will pay it back

2:06I know this That is certainty

2:10Vahdaniyet is when there is the unity of Iman (Certainty) among believers

2:13That is what we mean by Vahdaniyet

2:17The transcendent (Uluhiyet) manifests itself in Vahdaniyet

2:23The essence of the matter, Sinan, is this

2:29We are talking about spirituality;

2:32If spirituality is not manifested and lived,

2:35then it is not spirituality,

2:37it is fake, it is a lie.

2:40If I say Allah,

2:42I must be seeing Allah’s work

2:44If I see Allah's work, then it's Allah.

2:48If I am not seeing Allah’s work, then I am deluded

2:51Then I still believe in idols

2:53There is no truth there There is no proof

2:59There is no external activity, I have a belief I convince you and others as well

3:04I establish a ‘tarikat’ Or a religion

3:07Serhan: I am believing what I want to believe

3:09These are all fake

3:12Allah manifests Himself through His activities

3:17The Qur’an says (Surah Hadid Verse 3)

3:19Allah is the essence,

3:23is the purpose,

3:24He is what you'll find as purpose.

3:26All external activity belongs To Him

3:32All knowledge derives from the external activity That comes from God

3:39Thus knowledge is derived from witnessing God’s activities

3:42If we don’t witness God’s activities,

3:44we can’t say ‘Eşhedü’ (I witness)

3:46It is not enough to say it

3:53If so, you would be lying, your heart is sealed.

3:57Your heart is not witnessing God’s activities, you may be saying it but there is no proof

4:02unless you witness God’s activities

4:04One has to understand: ‘Everyday He is on an affair’ (Surah Rahman Verse 29)

4:10at all moments.

4:13Therefore ‘I witness God’ means that I am seeing God’s work

4:18Allah is Rahim Okay, Allah is ‘Rahim’ (Merciful)

4:23He is merciful in specific instances

4:27How do we know that? I read that it is so! That’s not enough!

4:31If something happens that is not related to one’s own efforts, but it comes as a gift

4:37and he or she is puzzled I had not calculated any of this or planned it

4:43How did it happen? Where did it come from?

4:46That’s God’s work

4:52You are working hard and all of a sudden It is not the result of your work

4:55All of a sudden you receive a phone call You have received a gift from God

5:00Someone asks you to do something Which you had not thought about or planned

5:04You are puzzled and say why? Well, let me try it

5:09You do it, and a gift arrives You didn’t plan it, the person who told you about it didn’t do it

5:15This is a gift from Allah It is a gift, when you understand that it comes from God

5:20that means you witnessed an Activity of God

5:26You can’t see His essence (Zhat) but you see His activity You see His attributes

5:33you understand His knowledge. But you can’t see His Zhat.

5:37Can you see your own zhat?

5:41When you look at a person, can you see his/her zhat?

5:44You can see his/her attributes

5:46You can see how she talks, see her abilities You can see his activities,

5:52but you cannot see his ‘zhat’

5:54A person’s zhat is hidden to him/herself, that’s what ‘Masjid-el Haram means.

6:01even to him/herself.

6:07Sinan: How will we know ourselves?

6:08By knowing God in His activities, His attributes.

6:20I am asking you, Sinan, do you know how to sing? I say, okay then, sing a song!

6:29You sing, so I ask you to sing another song

6:30One song Sing one more!

6:33Our Friend Mustafa Keser memorized 2500 songs It is still only 2500.

6:38You might know 2500 songs but when they are all finished

6:43Where is the zhat now? After 2500 songs have been recited, where is the zhat?

6:47If there is a zhat at work at any moment, there should be a new song past the 2500 songs.

6:50Where is it?

6:53If the zhat is always at work, always on an affair?

6:57That’s why the zhat is unknown.

7:00Each time it is known, something new is being created

7:04That’s what art is like as well

7:07Sinan: An artist was performing a ‘taksim’ (an improvised musical piece) in Egypt,

7:12and the Sultan liked it and said

7:14Let’s get the musical notes for this.

7:17But the artist said, I don’t have the notes

7:19I don’t know how I played it, so I can’t play it again, it can’t be the same. It was an improvisation

7:27All of life is like this Sinan: Eyvallah

7:31’Everyday He is on an Affair’ means that it can’t be repeated in the exact way. You can’t repeat it

7:37You can’t do it, I can’t do it The best artist cannot repeat what he or she created

7:41Exactly the same way

7:44Even if s/he tried.

7:46Where did jazz improvisation come from?

7:49From being unable to repeat it in the exact manner

7:52Sinan: So improvisation is what comes out by mistake

7:54There would be no jazz if everything was repeated exactly the same way

7:58Having one’s own style means what the artists could not do, not what he could do.

8:04What he can do is technocracy.

8:06When he is unable to play something just right, that’s when excitement, passion arises and something new comes into being

8:10Sinan: it brings up excitement and passion in others

8:12That’s not the point

8:15Sinan: Jam session

8:16Don’t jump there yet!

8:18So let’s say you are playing a tune on your instrument

8:22And you ask me to play it on the piano I try but it doesn’t work

8:26It doesn’t work, and I get impatient I try again and again

8:33It doesn’t work

8:36So I find a different way

8:38What happened? Something totally new appeared! Creativity!

8:47When you can’t do something technically and you try and try That’s when you receive help

8:54Why are you insisting? Look what you yourself can create! Check out what you created

8:58What manifested! You say I had no idea! If I said I did it, that’s not true

9:04Someone else asked me to do it, that’s not true either

9:07But I am here, so is the person who asked me to play

9:10If I said, it just appeared, that’s not right either because if that person wasn’t there

9:14The work would not have been created

9:15See, when all of this appear/happen together, we call it ‘Vahdet’

9:21No one can own it.

9:23All of these conditions together lead

9:25to this particular manifestation

9:28Serhan: Ashura

9:30Of course!

9:36So let’s go to India

9:41How do we reach Atman? How does the individual self appear?

9:48If we can empty out all contents of the self of the individual self

9:53everything that we think is ours

9:55Which we think belongs to us,

9:57Our beliefs

10:00Our beliefs Our desires,

10:01Our beliefs Our desires, Our passions

10:03If we can empty all of that,

10:05how you would actually do that is a different topic,

10:08What is then left is the Divine self,

10:11Atman

10:15No, not Brahman

10:22Brahman does not manifest until we reach Atman Before reaching Atman

10:25Brahman doesn’t manifest itself Brahman manifests in Atman

10:29When God told Prophet Moses

10:33‘I am who I am’

10:35How did Moses

10:39go and say that to the Israelites?

10:42Can: The I that is the I sent me.

10:44Bravo!

10:46‘I AM has sent me to you.’ (Exodus 3:13-15)

10:51There is no one else!

10:53But not the ‘I’ that you see Not the person, the ‘I’ that you see

10:57This seems so hard to understand, but it is easy It is said that we don’t make religion hard for people

10:59To those who don’t know, it seems hard

11:02But it is easy for people who know The Qur’an says we don’t make religion hard for people

11:11So what do we mean? It is simple

11:17Serhan is this person we know, your son, my friend

11:21We know him A person who has an identity

11:29We converse with each other I say I like you, we are friends

11:32He says, I like you too Of course we are friends

11:36You came around the other day But you didn’t look me up

11:40All good There is also Serhan who is the guitarist, the artist

11:47You say, I am a good friend of Serhan, the artist

11:49I don’t understand

11:51Which Serhan are you friends with?

11:53Are you friends with the guitarist Serhan? In other words, are you a guitarist, an artist?

11:57No, I am not

11:58I don’t know that Serhan at all

12:02If he gives me the gift of his music, that’s when I know him

12:05He offers it to me And offers me the gift of his music

12:11That he learned with a lot of effort He succeeded after working very hard,

12:16putting his talent and abilities to work and

12:20is now giving me this gift for free

12:22It doesn’t really matter if he wants money

12:23This is not something that can be measured with money

12:26He is giving me something that is priceless If I am friends with Serhan, the artist, he offers me his guitar

12:32I take it and look at it He is made of wood

12:37I take it Just look at it, I say to him, take it back

12:48I am friends with the other Serhan, but that Serhan cannot give me a gift This is the Serhan who can give me a gift

12:57This Serhan is inspired by Allah, his gift comes from Allah

13:02This is what we are talking about

13:05We are not trying to exalt Him that’s not what it is about

13:09Or let’s give an example from politics

13:12I have friends in politics, someone who is a Minister or a Mayor

13:19You probably have such friends too

13:25So we hang out together, go to theaters, we eat meals together,

13:31and so on.

13:33But when I go to his office

13:35The same person is sitting there

13:37I request something from him related to his work

13:42Now he is asking me to show him the relevant documents

13:45Aren’t we friends?

13:47We just had dinner together the other night? Who is here now is not my friend who I had dinner with

13:51Even the way I address him changes He has a particular title now

13:55Let’s say he became president of the country

13:57Now there is a different title, again, he is not the same person I had dinner with

14:00When we talk about Allah, it is the same thing Allah’s manifestation

14:04At every level is different, Different manifestations.

14:08Yes, a person who doesn’t understand these different levels Cannot claim to be a person of wisdom

14:13Sinan: Speaking of the levels of the nafs, one goes up the levels and then down after the third level

14:17You go up and down, there is a lot of activity

14:21Like that Yes

14:26When the individual self sheds its content And achieves the unity of the limited self

14:33Then meets the Universal Self That is limitless and endless

14:39So we see ‘limitless and endless’ referring to the Universal Self. In the books

14:43It says ‘limitless and endless’ and then says ‘Universal’

14:47What does ‘Universal’ mean?

14:48It means comprehensive

14:50Comprehensive means endless but it is not limitless

14:52It is endless but yet limited,

14:56it is the sphere

14:59You should understand this

15:01There is no such thing as limitless

15:05No such a being

15:08Serhan: We can’t perceive something that is limitless

15:10It can’t be perceived or known nor does it exist

15:14Çilingir Sofrası 32 / Everyday He is on an affair ***Translated by Prof.Dr.Nükhet Kardam***