Çilingir Sofrası 10 / Hızır, İlåhi Aşk, Güzel Ahlåk (with english subtitles)

0:00***translated by Prof.Dr. Nükhet Kardam*** Çilingir Sofrası 10 / Al Hıdr, Divine Love and Beautiful Ethics

0:02The Qur’an teaches us something very important. Maybe that’s the wrong word because all of it is important. Perhaps something very valuable.

0:08That doesn’t seem quite right either. Let’s say that the Qur’an teaches us in the following way.

0:14It teaches us about the nature of human beings

0:18In the Surah Al-Tin (The Fig)

0:27It tells us about the nature of the human being. You can read the entire Surah yourself but

0:31what is important to us here is the end of the surah which says: We have returned him to the lowest of the low. When?

0:35“We have first created the human being of the fairest symmetry.

0:41Moreover, we then returned him to the lowest of the low.” (95:4-95:6)

0:46So the baby is in the womb (heaven) until it is shaped ‘in the fairest of symmetry’

0:52and then it is returned to the lowest of the low.

0:56This means our sensate world is the lowest of the low.

1:00So there is an implication of rejection here.

1:05One surah mentions ‘inzal’ (divine mercy) that the baby is received as divine mercy whereas here,

1:09as in the Torah, the human baby is expelled from the womb.

1:13So how can the human being enter heaven after being returned to the ‘lowest of the low’?

1:15Does that mean we will go back into our mother’s womb?

1:19In fact, a spiritual leader of Christ’s time, Nikodimos, asked him this question.

1:28Rabbi, you are talking about human beings returning to Allah’s ‘melekut’ (place of angels) or heaven.

1:33So does that mean we are going to be conceived again in our mother’s womb?

1:38Is this something like reincarnation?

1:44Jesus answers: no, you misunderstood me. A body is born out of a body,

1:48A spirit is born out of spirit. I talked about spirit born out of spirit.

1:52All right, so we came to this world as a body.

1:59But unless we are born out of spirit, we cannot enter heaven.

2:02I am not talking about returning to the womb and being born as a body.

2:05We came to this world in a body, but I am talking about being born out of spirit as spirit. What does that mean?

2:10So Jesus continues: the highest of prophets born from his mother is Yahya or

2:17John the Baptist

2:24But I was born from my father.

2:28I was born from my father.

2:32The highest of those who are born out of their mother’s womb is Yahya.

2:35As such, he won’t enter Melekut (the place of angels) or heaven.

2:38So one might wonder, how come?

2:41Yahya is a prophet. How come he can’t enter heaven? These questions may come to mind.

2:46It is true, he is a prophet, but what is the name he received? What does he bring to us?

2:52The Qur’an says that we gave Yahya a name that no one else has received before.

2:57We gave him the name, Yahya, son of Zekeriya

3:00And the name Yahya means comes from the

3:06Beautiful Name of God: Hay (Life).

3:08So Yahya represents life.

3:11That is biological life, not spirit. Our body does not go to heaven.

3:18We know that this body came from the earth and will go back to the earth.

3:24Ruh (Spirit) will go to heaven.That’s why the Qur’an calls Christ ‘Ruhullah’.

3:33All right, talking about returning to heaven, what does that mean, to be born out of the father? Aren’t we born from the father as well?

3:40Ultimately, don’t we come from our father, as well as our mother?

3:43The father’s sperm merges with the mother’s egg, and a baby is conceived.

3:49There is always a material counterpart to the meanings we attribute to events.

3:56But this time we are not talking about rejection, to be thrown out of heaven (reddetme),

4:02but instead we are talking about its opposite, which is 'ref etme' (to raise, to exult).

4:06What are we being raised towards? Towards the Word. (Kelam)

4:10As a Greek philosopher said,

4:15'The Word is creative.'

4:19It is creative. How?

4:25The word ‘spermata’ was first used by a philosopher, not by biologists.

4:30It was used to explain the Word. And later it was adapted to biology.

4:33Isn’t that very interesting? Logos Spermata!

4:39Logos means awareness, word, or mind, but spermata means fertilization.

4:43By fertilizing our consciousness, our minds, in such a way that the Word may be born. How is this going to happen?

4:49Words will enter through the ear,

4:53pass through our reasoning,

4:56they will be illumined by intelligence

4:59will be enriched by inspiration

5:02And ultimately, they will be born out of the mouth.

5:12It is so interesting that in this heavenly process,

5:18The eardrum does not have to be broken like the hymen in the vagina.

5:26During fertilization, the hymen is broken. In order for a baby to be born, a woman’s hymen needs to be broken.

5:31But when it comes to the Word born out of the father,

5:34the ear is forever virgin.

5:39There is fertilization but the eardrum remains intact.

5:44There is Beytullah (House of God)

5:46There is Betul (Virgin)

5:51The Virgin Mary That is the ear.

5:56(Kelam) The Word, or ‘the divine spermata’ enters through the ear

6:03is illumined with Nur (Light), and is born out of the mouth.

6:10That is the Word that inseminates. Such Words have nothing to do with the ‘nafs’, or the ego.

6:15Instead, they are full of divine love.

6:18They don’t come from the nafs, they are divine realities.

6:20That’s why it is said that Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding hall.

6:25Water here means knowledge.

6:28When it becomes wine,

6:30that means the words are uttered with love, with ecstasy.

6:33Logos Spermatikos

6:37As Greeks say, the Word that inseminates.

6:44Logos has different meanings such as consciousness, meaning, and word,

6:48but spermata only means fertilization.

6:50You see it starts with the Word. (Kelam)

6:52So whatever happens in our body, also happens in the world of meaning,

6:58but it is always connected to the body.

7:01In this case, it happens in the Al-Arsh (Throne of God).

7:04We know that the Throne floats on water.

7:07Just like that, the brain also floats in salty water.

7:10The Throne is protected. Isn’t our brain?

7:15The most protected part of our body as well.

7:18Then we talk about the highest throne (Arsh-i Ala).

7:21What goes beyond the brain?

7:24It is Akil (Intellect).

7:27We say get the news from Archangel Gabriel meaning learn from Universal Intellect.

7:33(Gabriel represents Universal Intellect)

7:39Sinan: I am remembering a story.

7:43So when the Prophet Moses is about to go up to Tur Mountain to meet God

7:49and a young woman stops him.

7:51She asks: Could you please ask God whether I will be blessed with a baby?

7:58So when Moses meets God, he passes on this question.

8:03The answer is no, there is no baby in her future.

8:06He comes down the mountain and tells the young woman

8:10No, there is no baby in your future.

8:14That evening when her husband comes home,

8:18She sadly informs him of the news.

8:23He says, don’t worry. I love you whether we have children or not.

8:26Let’s sit down and have our soup.

8:29Right then there is a knock on the door.

8:33An old man is at the door.

8:35Shalom, shalom

8:37They welcome him and give him a spoon

8:43and have dinner together.

8:51At the end of dinner the old man asks: where are your children?

8:54They tell him that they just learned, there will be no children.

9:01Later, they go to bed.

9:06In the morning, the guest has already woken up. And the husband has gone to work.

9:10As the old man leaves, he brings out an apple from his sack, takes a bite,

9:16And gives the rest to the young woman and says: eat.

9:24Nine months later,

9:26as Moses passes by their house, the mother to be spits at him and says:

9:29You liar!

9:32Moses asks: what happened?

9:34He then sees that the young woman is nine months pregnant.

9:37You said we couldn’t have a child and now you see.

9:40He goes back to the mountain and tells God,

9:45you had said that this woman would not have children but she is nine months pregnant.

9:51The answer is: There are those who delve their fingers into our treasure chest.

9:55We can’t really say anything to them.

9:59Right, that is Al-Hidr.

10:01So Hidr says to Moses: You can’t walk with me.

10:07The knowledge given to me was not given to you, and what’s given to you was not given to me.

10:12The knowledge of ‘Velayet’ and ‘Risalet’

10:17Seem like they are opposites, but in fact their essence is the same.

10:22The knowledge of Risalet is geared towards people and their capacity to receive,

10:28But the knowledge of Velayet is hidden.

10:33The hidden is always above the manifest.

10:37Hidr was given the knowledge of ‘Ilmi Ledun’ (Secret knowledge of God).

10:41Actually, he doesn’t have a name.

10:44We say ‘Hidr’ because he gives life.

10:49Yes, he gave life in this story, and remember Eve was also given an apple.

10:59These are all symbolic.

11:01But if we don’t know the language of symbols, then we think that all this is nonsensical.

11:07In reality, this knowledge is hidden from those who are ignorant, who don’t merit it. And who are not ready.

11:13What does being ready mean? Let’s talk about ethics (Ahlak)

11:18They ask Jesus: why did you come to earth? What is your purpose? Moses already brought us the shariat.

11:26Other prophets arrived too.

11:29Why did you come?

11:33Did you come to cancel the Shariat by any chance?

11:38No, I didn’t come to cancel the shariat, but to complete it.

11:44Does that mean that it was incomplete?

11:47It wasn’t incomplete in terms of the rules but it was incomplete because the rules weren’t implemented.

11:53We think there are only 10 commandments. There are, in fact, 613 commandments.

12:03And the last one says: Love your neighbor like yourself.

12:06Neighbor means the other, someone who you don’t know, who is a foreigner.

12:11Shariat was not implemented because we did not love the other as we love ourselves.

12:17What we mean by love here is Divine Love.

12:25Jesus is the prophet of Divine Love. That’s why we call Jesus ‘Ruhullah’.

12:32Then Prophet Muhammed arrived.

12:35He was also asked: Why did you arrive?

12:46Shariat already arrived, so did Divine Love.

12:51What do you bring?

12:55Prophet Muhammad says: I came to bring beautiful ethics (güzel ahlak)

12:59Ethics here does not mean good behavior like we normally understand it.

13:05‘Ahlak’ is an Arabic word.

13:10The single form of Ahlak is ‘hulq’ which means habit.

13:13The plural is called Ahlak.

13:19To turn a good deed into a habit means, we no longer think about it as we do it.

13:24It becomes natural, habitual.

13:27Once it becomes a habit, we don’t do it to earn points.

13:31We do it without thinking, it becomes a natural part of our behavior.

13:35How do we do this?

13:41How do we acquire beautiful ethics?

13:47How will we learn and practice this ‘beautiful ethics’?

13:54Let's now move on to Ibn Arabi.

13:56Ibn Arabi says that

13:59Allah’s names are called ‘Beautiful Names of God’ (esma-ul-hüsna)

14:07We are not talking about earthly beauty here

14:10but divine beauty.

14:15Allah is ‘Cemil’ (beautiful) and loves beauty.

14:21Beauty is a divine attribute that each of us has in our essence.

14:28Each one of us are like books that descended from God.

14:34The divine Word is hidden in us,

14:39but when it manifests and becomes a habit in servanthood and in service,

14:44then we can claim to have beautiful ethics. (Ahlak)

14:47And that’s what God loves.

14:53When our abilities, talents are still hidden.

14:59They are hidden but have the potential to become manifest

15:05through servanthood and service.

15:14What are they called?

15:15They are called Essential Ideas (A’yan-al-Thabita).

15:19"Ayan" means eye(s); "Thabita" means structured or fixed.

15:29"Fixed Eyes", but we don’t mean here the human biological eye

15:36But the eye that is capable of seeing spiritual realities,

15:41The eye that is within the triangle, meaning the Intellect.

15:49Triangle means the First Intellect.

15:54Geometry is born out of the intellect.

15:57It is conceptual.

16:03You can’t see geometry in nature

16:08but you can apply geometrical concepts to nature.

16:13The eyes of the intellect is called ‘Ideas’ as Plato wrote,

16:20This is the same as Essential Ideas (Ayan-al-Thabita)

16:24These are human capabilities.

16:27What servanthood, or service means is to put out the effort needed so that our capabilities can become manifest.

16:34Every human being has those capabilities,

16:39for example artistic capabilities,

16:41but we need to work hard to bring them out into the open.

16:48Look at Serhan, who has spent a long time and effort to learn how to play his instrument

16:54and now he can enjoy the fruits of his labor and he looks so young even though he is past forty years because of his art.

17:02Now we are enjoying these fruits together.

17:07This is not a restaurant, friends, where food is brought to us, ready made.

17:18Everyone must contribute

17:22Something and then we eat together. That’s what ‘Irfan Sofrasi’ (The Table of Wisdom) is about.

17:27Everyone brings something.

17:31You can’t ask me why I didn’t bring my saz.

17:37I brought the Word, dear Serhan,

17:42I know that your contribution is sweeter, but that’s how it is.

17:47And here is our friend Sinan, who brings his knowledge, as well as his art to the table.

17:51And he just contributed a story about Moses.

17:55So, this is a picnic table.

17:59It is also like a Temple.

18:04***translated by Prof.Dr. Nükhet Kardam*** Çilingir Sofrası 10 / Al Hıdr, Divine Love and Beautiful Ethics