Hazrat Shaykh Muhammad Mehmet ar-Rabbani — January 23, 2018 / 6 Jumad al-Awwal 1439
Sabah Namaz, Akbaba Dergah
Assalamu Alaykum wa Rahmatullah wa Barakatuh.
Aʿūdhu billāhi min ash-shayṭān ir-rajīm.
Bismillāh ir-Raḥmān ir-Raḥīm.
Wa ṣ-ṣalātu wa s-salāmu ʿalā Rasūlinā Muḥammad, Sayyid al-Awwalīn wa-l-Ākhirīn.
Madad yā Rasūl Allāh, madad yā aṣḥāb Rasūlillāh, madad yā mashāyikhinā, Shaykh ʿAbdullāh Dāghistānī, Shaykh Nāẓim al-Ḥaqqānī.
Dastūr.
Ṭarīqatunā ṣ-ṣuḥbah, wa-l-khayr fī l-jamʿiyyah.
The Ṭarīqah is to train the ego. A person enters the ṭarīqah not to elevate their ego, but to humble it. Some people today enter the ṭarīqah without understanding this and end up inflating their ego. They think the ego is already conquered the moment they step onto the path. No—it attacks even more. The more you walk the straight path, the more fiercely it comes after you.
The ego of a heedless person doesn’t need to attack—it already rules them. It leads them astray freely. As people say, “things are just flowing.” The ego drives them as it pleases, like riding a donkey wherever it wants. But entering the ṭarīqah means you want to be saved—and for that reason, it fights you harder.
Of course, training the ego is not easy. Our Holy Prophet (ﷺ) described the discipline of the ego:
“Treat well those who treat you badly, honor those who disrespect you, give to those who withhold from you, and forgive those who oppress you.”
Every one of these is difficult—but each is essential to ego training.
Nowadays, people don’t even like the shaykh if he says something they dislike. They confront him. Then they still say they’re in ṭarīqah. It would be better to say: “I can’t do it. May Allah forgive me,” rather than directly opposing. That has no place in adab (good manners). And ṭarīqah is adab. Adab is the foundation. Without adab, there’s no discipline. The ego cannot be trained with rudeness or arrogance—it is trained with humility.
As we said, this training takes time. It happens slowly, in shāʾ Allāh, but one must accept the guidance. First, by maintaining adab. May Allah grant us all success in disciplining our egos. The one who does so becomes beloved in the sight of Allah (JJ), and honored among people.
Wa min Allāhi t-tawfīq. Fātiḥah.
