Çilingir Sofrası 29 / Muhittin İhya Efendi Anısı ve Şeş Cihet İnsan (with English subtitles)

0:00Çilingir Sofrası 29 / Remembering Muhyiddin İhya Efendi and the ‘six faced’ human being ***Translated by Prof.Dr.Nükhet Kardam***

0:02I want to tell you a very interesting story

0:05A friend of God, at least in my view,

0:09Because friends of God are usually hidden,

0:11but my heart told me that this particular person was one of Allah’s friends

0:15One day I was listening to his sohbet and admiring him inwardly

0:18I was thinking how impressive he is

0:25There came a moment when I felt like asking a question,

0:29I said to myself, I found a door and I should open it

0:33I asked him: according to Vahdeti Vücud (Unity of Existence)

0:37God manifests His name in all existence

0:42Yes

0:44So from the perspective of ‘zhat’, nobody is sinful or accountable

0:50But from the perspective of God’s ‘sifat’ (attributes), and the conflict between those attributes,

0:55There is accountability

1:01So, regarding Hazreti Ali, who is God’s friend,

1:08One would expect him to show compassion and mercy to people

1:15But instead, he was on horseback, killing people with his sword (zülfikar)

1:20He killed many people who were idolaters

1:29I had my doubts, but of course I didn’t say that outloud

1:33So I asked: are we supposed to respect such a person,

1:37shouldn’t a person we respect be a person of peace and love?

1:41But no, here is a person on his horse with a sword

1:46And over and over again he uses his sword to kill

1:51He is like a lion

1:56He returns back on his horse and kills again

2:02How can I feel love towards such a person? I would be afraid.

2:06Don’t you think he is someone to be afraid of?

2:10When you think about it, it sounds right.

2:15Sinan: That seems to be the picture.

2:17How do you suppose he responded? Sinan probably already knows, he will remember,

2:21so let me tell you, Serhan.

2:25He responded and said that if he lived in that time period, he would have also submitted to his sword as well

2:30I was really puzzled.

2:33Excuse me, I am not sure if I understood you

2:37He is saying, I wish I lived then and submitted to his sword.

2:43Just a minute.

2:46I am saying he is killing people

2:48Doing it over and over again, how can he be a good person?

2:52He is saying, I wish I was there and had submitted to him too.

2:55I said I did not understand.

3:02Look my son, he said, whatever we do, because of we are human

3:09We are sinful because in the Qur’an, even Prophet Muhammed has been declared sinful

3:16In other words, he is in need of God. We are all in need of God

3:21How do we save ourselves from sin?

3:25By tawaba (repentance)

3:27To repent is not about saying, I did it, I am sorry and I repent it

3:36It is about transformation, and for that you need to pay a price

3:42To change, to transform is to pay the price

3:47If you really want to pay the price

3:50It is your life that is the price,

3:54So submit to the sword

3:57He said that those who submitted to Ali’s sword,

4:04They were all saved.

4:07I had not understood that

4:09It turns out Ali was saving these people Whereas I thought they were being punished,

4:17Hazreti Ali was coming back again and again to save more people

4:21He was breaking bottles to free what is inside

4:27That’s what spirituality is about

4:29Serhan: very interesting

4:34This is the world of people of wisdom, of gnostics, that we don’t understand

4:40Allright, I said, so what we see is that

4:42he has his sword in hand

4:50And he is saving the idolaters.

4:54What about the believers?

4:56Why isn’t he saving the believers?

4:59He is sitting cross legged in front of the believers with his sword (zulfikar) on his lap

5:06And is in sohbet. He doesn’t save them but he saves the others.

5:13How come?

5:15See, if you don’t ask a question, you would not know the answer

5:20If you don’t ask, how would you know the answer?

5:23Some might say, it is rude to ask a question

5:25That he would already know what I am thinking

5:28Don’t just murmur in your house, go and ask

5:31When I asked this question, I did get an answer, elhamdulillah!

5:35He said: the other was manifest (zahir), this is now hidden (batin)

5:38What do you mean?

5:42The sword is right there on his lap, visible

5:47Yes, he said, sword (zulfikar) also means two eyes, right?

5:54It means the glance of the two eyes.

5:58He can just glance at you

6:01And save you from your nafs, while he saved the idolater from his/her body

6:09If a ‘veli’, a God’s friend, glances at you, you will be saved!

6:14What is he saying?

6:18Is this a joke?

6:20Sinan: Didn’t you have a similar experience?

6:22Sinan: You were barely breathing, your heart rate had gone down to almost nothing

6:27Right, they even started praying for me, reciting the surah Ya Sin of the Qur’an.

6:31He just threw one glance at me

6:36Serhan: Did this happen to you?

6:37Yes, we were listening to my murshid’s sohbet

6:40I was young in those days, we were in Atakoy (in Istanbul)

6:45We had a lawyer friend, and we were at his house

6:48Muhyiddin İhya Efendi,

6:51Who carries Ibn Arabi’s spiritual and genetic legacy

6:58and from his mother’s side the biological grandson of Shaikh Hasan Gülsheni,

7:03but the point is not a biological connection

7:06He received spiritual education directly from Ibn Arabi

7:14Serhan: Is this Lütfi Filiz?

7:15No, Muhyiddin İhya Efendi,

7:20my murshid

7:23My parents are there, so are my friends

7:27A lawyer friend had invited us to his home

7:30We were about 30-40 people and

7:32Muhyiddin İhya Efendi was talking with us (in sohbet)

7:35And we were listening.

7:37He was talking about mythology

7:39not logic,

7:42but about myths

7:43He was telling us stories

7:46I thought we are educated people, we have university education.

7:49We need some methodology

7:52We need logic, deductions

7:57We are expecting such a talk, expecting him to tell us, this is how it is, this is the method etc.

8:02But this man is telling us stories!

8:10I said to myself, I am coming here for so many years

8:15Is this the man who is going to save us? He is telling us stories

8:20He is not speaking to my mind, what is he talking about?

8:25Sinan: So you said, you are going to save us?

8:29I was puzzled, Allah Allah

8:35I have accepted him as my murshid, but I was not a believer

8:42I am doubting, I thought he is a villager

8:47In fact, he was an electrician, he didn’t have college education

8:52He just had a high school degree

8:56I am thinking I have university education, I know philosophy If I mentioned Kant to him

9:01He would ask, who is that? Hot water with lemon is called ‘kant’

9:07If I said ‘Kant said this’

9:11They would go bring me hot water with lemon

9:16I am saying, how can he save me, what is he going to tell me?

9:22Right at that moment, he glanced at me briefly and said

9:25But he is talking to everyone

9:30And said: if this was a matter of science, they would have offered it at universities

9:38this is about dying and returning to life again

9:43To come back to life after death This is about experience

9:47What can I tell someone who has not had this experience?

9:55Right at that moment, I understood that he was talking about something else

10:01I thought he was supposed to give me a method and with that method I would able to achieve a state and witness something

10:08I am supposed to die? In other words, I have to consent to die

10:13And if I come back to life…

10:18I asked myself, am I ready for this?

10:22Am I ready?

10:24I am newly married, I have children

10:26I looked at my parents, my friends who were present

10:34I turned to him internally and said "you know best."

10:40And stared at his face

10:44Sinan

10:46He just lifted his head slightly and glanced at me

10:51That’s it.

10:54I apparently turned white

10:55They tell me later on since I couldn't remember what was happening.

10:57I apparently turned white

11:01And started to tremble

11:05And then I dropped to the floor.

11:07There were two doctors there

11:09Who immediately ran over to me, and checked my pulse and said we must call an ambulance

11:15All he (Muhyiddin Ihya Efendi) said to everyone is, just relax

11:19Relax, don’t worry.

11:24But doctors can’t just stop

11:26Even if it was the prophet, they feel responsible

11:33So they can’t decide whether to go against the murshid or to violate their oath (Hippocratic Oath) as doctors

11:41They are so stressed that they go outside and light cigarettes

11:43Serhan: they are being tested too

11:50The people there are so worried, thinking I am dying

11:57He says, take him to a room inside

12:00They carry me to a different room

12:04I can hear all of this conversation but I don’t see anything

12:10They carry me inside and lay me down on a bed

12:13Doctors are trying to convince him

12:15That an intervention is necessary, he may be dying

12:23But he says

12:24Do not worry. He had a soft voice

12:29In other words, he is implying that he is responsible

12:33But the doctors still felt responsible and brought a mirror

12:40They checked my pulse, they couldn’t feel anything

12:45But they saw that the mirror was steaming so they knew that I was still breathing

12:53So when all this is happening, what is my state?

12:56I have been carried to a back room

13:01The sohbet is taking place in the living room behind closed doors so there is no way that I could hear anything

13:08But I can hear him speak inside me!

13:10His voice is coming from inside me very loudly, not from outside but inside me.

13:12As if I am in a airplane hangar, and I am hearing a very loud voice

13:18And it is the voice of my murshid

13:26I feel awake and feel good,

13:33but I can’t speak

13:35I want to move my finger but I can’t lift it

13:40I try to lift my hand but I can’t even see it

13:45I don’t feel my hands, my feet It is as if there is nothing, nobody there

13:50They told me later that I was just lying there, but I am not seeing anything

13:55I am in absolute darkness

13:59But I hear a voice,

14:03I can hear his voice from all directions,

14:08believe me

14:10His voice is normally quite soft

14:12Normally you hear a voice from one direction,

14:16but his voice is coming from all directions

14:22When you hear a bell,

14:24if you are outside you hear the bell from outside,

14:26but I hear the bell as if I am inside the bell itself

14:31Now do we understand that a human being has six directions?

14:34Whatever form a person is in, he or she still has six directions,

14:41like dice

14:43That’s why people like to play with dice

14:48We are ourselves dice! That means we play with ourselves

14:54There are six faces to a dice, right? One, two, three, four..

15:02But number one is absolute and

15:05is the base of the Kaaba

15:08And it is covered, it is absolute,

15:13we can’t know it

15:15The number facing the heavens is number six

15:22It encompasses all directions

15:25It symbolizes Tevhid

15:31Prophet Muhammed is number six

15:38So we are the only creatures who stand inside a form and have six faces, six directions.

15:49Just a minute, Metin, you might say, doesn’t a glass have six faces?

15:52No, it is not like that

15:55A glass is made for someone else, not for itself

16:01But we are made for ourselves, and if our consciousness is in the center

16:06And what is being offered is offered to that consciousness,

16:12that is the secret of godliness

16:15At the place where you abandon yourself, the self you call ‘I’, ‘me’

16:22As long as you stay inside and face the six directions

16:26You are still the self you think you are

16:30But once you leave the ‘I’ facing the six directions, abandon it to become timeless and placeless

16:37That’s when you find your ‘Rab’ Inside the form facing in six directions, you are still there

16:43Only when you transcend yourself

16:49That’s when

16:53You meet your ‘Rab’

16:57Die before you die (Mutu kable ente mutu) to be returned to yourself, to be resurrected (vel basü badel mevt)

17:04Serhan: He took you from you and gave you back to yourself

17:08Çilingir Sofrası 29 / Remembering Muhyiddin İhya Efendi and the ‘six faced’ human being ***Translated by Prof.Dr.Nükhet Kardam***