The last sohbet of Mahmud Baba

Bismillah…

Some people are on Prophet Muhammad (swas)’s row; others will be two rows behind, or 10 rows behind, or a bit forward. The important thing is to be. It doesn’t matter where. But to the body, the nafs, it does matter. We must separate our soul from our body. It’s difficult to keep within the soul, and not to think with our bodies. But we have to try.

In a recent post on Facebook, there was a video where a zikr was being held at a mosque, and it was commanded by Muzafer Baba. Everybody was there, all together. Kadirs, Jerrahis, Naqshbandis, etc. Even people who don’t want to or can’t be at the tekke, they were there. In that mosque, all the souls were together. It didn’t matter what they were doing. Zikr perhaps wasn’t as we know it, because they were staying still, but nevertheless they were all together. How far are we from that…

We have to learn how to handle differences. We have to do what we must do. If the other person commits a foul, I can’t be close to that person because I intend to carry some order in my life, to be coherent. It’s not personal. One thing is to have differences, and a whole different thing is the person committing fouls.

Differences don’t matter. In Istanbul, they handle this in a different way. Here, we take it personal.

We have here three different places. Who’s wrong?

When we followed Efendi’s instructions, we’ve found with someone who said: “I’m the Sheikh and all dreams come to me.”

And if we perform zikr, they don’t come, and if they do, we don’t go.

When you want to connect with them there’s a different vibe, even though they say “Allah”. You are from here, or from there. It’s not personal. We just don’t get together.

They are where they are, they have their Sheikh and that’s fine. Same with the others. But we don’t belong there, we don’t have their teachings. We are where we belong.

Some people think they are somebody, and that’s fine. Some others use photoshop and triple their number, and fight over who has more followers, and that’s fine for them. Everyone is fine. Life teaches that, and what we have is a small group. We are all close because of that. Right and wrong is more notorius. If there were 50 of us, there would be 10 closer than the rest. And that’s not bad. We just don’t have to make it personal.

A turkish man wrote recently: “I ask for forgiveness for my little rebellion.” Because I’m the little one, for the silliness of being a rebel.  

The function of awareness is amazing. We have to notice and be aware of those things. Everything else doesn’t matter that much.  We must have clear concepts like that one of “little rebellion”. Otherwise, the ego will deviate. To be in this group has its cost. Whoever wants to pay it, will do, and the one who doesn’t, won’t be in it. We are not an exclusive group; we don’t care about pictures either. But we must have attitudes in coherence. If we don’t care, it’s both ways. Nor afar, nor close. That’s a gif.

Ibrahim Baba told me: “Be nothing”. His message is so different… If we say “Allah”, there is no problem. But for certain things you can’t be in.

We have to accept more; whatever there is. Watch out with those little rebellions. InshaAllah we have the inner peace to see what we are doing, otherwise we will end up fighting each other.

Everything starts with lack of consciousness. You see the other as “bad”. What about your own self? Your own nafs? The shadow of your ego?

A Sheikh got together two different parts that were criticizing each other, and he told them: “I’m not someone to catalogue and say that I will take and lead only the good ones, because half way they might change.”

With the bad people you have to be more careful, and with the good ones, we already know each other, and we have different precautions.

The path is to lead towards God. Good and bad equally, because you never know.

Who can we not take? The one who thinks can’t be taken. The one who doesn’t want to be taken, he can walk with his feet in any direction he wants. But it must not be taken personal.