A short Association, because now our egoes are pleased that we just had a delicious dinner with every kind of Allah Almighty’s favors, so many n’imat [favors] granted us through the doctor’s generosity. And we are first thanking Dr. Akmal Khan; we must first say “Thank you” to you, to your family, and as you are giving your generosity to me and to my followers, Allah Almighty should reward you and your ancestors, blessing them and giving hidayat [guidance] for your descendants. May Allah bless everyone that is coming here, from far distances or near ones, and Allah Almighty rewards everyone according to their intentions. Allah Almighty is always looking at our hearts, what are our intentions.

And we are saying, “‘Audhu bil-Lah min ash-Shaytani-r-Rajeem, bismillahi-r-Rahmani-r-Raheem.”1 We are escaping from Shaytan to Allah, to hide us. We are asking His divine shelter and His divine protection because it is so difficult for us to defeat Shaytan, because our egoes are also always going with Shaytan. If our egoes were not going with Shaytan, it would be easy, but our egoes and Shaytan are from the same characteristic.

Shaytan was the first rebellious one toward Allah; in the Divine Presence, the first one who was rebellious was Shaytan, not anyone else before him. And he did his worst for his Lord, while it was right to do his best for his Lord, Allah Almighty, and Shaytan was cursed and kicked out of Heaven to earth.

And our egoes are also never accepting to be servants. Our nafs — that means ego — is never happy to be a servant to Allah Almighty. Therefore, the same characteristic in Shaytan is with our egoes. And when our egoes are with Shaytan, it is like a man and woman coming together and bringing forth a baby; nafs, our ego and Shaytan, when coming together, must give a birth to an evil, there must be an evil born.

Therefore, Allah Almighty, through His first Message to mankind, through the first man and first prophet, Sayyidina Adam, was advising His servants, “Don’t give a chance that Shaytan approaches you.” If you are giving that chance to him, sharr, evil, must come; a sin must must be there. A sin is born; when Shaytan and our ego go together, a sin quickly comes. Therefore, Allah Almighty is teaching, from the first prophet up today, that you must ask a shelter from Him from Shaytan. Therefore we have been ordered to say “Audhu bil-Lahi min ash-Shaytani-r- Rajeem.”

“Audhu bil-Lahi min ash-Shaytani-r-Rajeem” — that means we are weak ones. We aren’t able, by ourselves, to defeat him, to throw him away. Therefore we must ask divine help: “O our Lord, give us a shelter from Shaytan.” And Shaytan is everywhere and with everyone. No one is going to be without Shaytan; not any place, even holy places, where Shaytan is not there — everywhere. Only one place that no Shaytan is in; the only place that Shaytan is forbidden to be there, that is in K’abah. Shaytan can’t enter inside it — no. He can’t be there, or quickly he will be burned. Instantly he will be turned to be ashes; he can’t come inside it — prohibited. And also at the grave of the Prophet, turbatu-Rasool,2 (SAWS), inside it, he can’t be there, instantly burning and turning to ashes. But in every other place you can find so many shaytans, and also with you, coming with you, even sleeping with you, eating with you, walking with you. 2

When you are sleeping, he is sitting, not sleeping. Not sleeping and he is waiting for you, so that he may see you when you are waking up. If he sleeps, you may make wudhu and pray, but he is looking at you, if you are waking up and says, “Sleep, sleep. It is still dark. Don’t get up. You must sleep. Still a long time to morning.” Every time you are begin to wake up he says, “There is still a long time before adhan.3 Sleep, sleep well.” Yes? Is it not so?

Therefore, every time a person is waking up, Shaytan is saying to him, “Don’t get up. Sleep. It is so beautiful to sleep. Rest. Even now you are not resting; you are working too much and not resting, taking no pity on your own self. Sleep!”

Therefore, Shaytan is everywhere and with everyone. Never leaving you, always coming, saying to you, “I am your bodyguard; trust in me. I am guiding you to an excellent situation. Come with me, follow me.” “Follow me”; writing on his back and saying to everyone, “Follow me, follow me.” Just as it is written on some cars in an airport, “Follow me,” similarly Shaytan is going in front of everyone, man and women, writing and saying, “Follow me” — and not only writing “Follow me” but also with a microphone in his hand saying, “Please follow me! Follow me! Don’t look right and left but just follow me. I am with you always,” and people are running after him, day and night.

Therefore we must say, “‘Audhu bil-Lah min ash-Shaytani-r-Rajeem. O our Lord, we can’t do anything with Shaytan if You do not help us.” When you are saying “‘Audhu bil-Lah min ash-Shaytani-r-Rajeem,” he is jumping from here to a distance, but then, slowly, slowly, slowly running, approaching you.

When you are saying “‘Audhu bil-Lah min ash-Shaytani-r-Rajeem,” it is like kicking a football, kicking him, “‘Audhu bil-Lah min ash-Shaytani-r-Rajeem” and throwing him away.

Therefore, any time that you are feeling yourself in a bad situation and not able to take control of yourself, you must say “‘Audhu bil-Lah min ash-Shaytani-r-Rajeem, ‘audhu bil-Lah. . . . ” At least seven times you can say it, and he is going to be tired, running away.

Yes. And we are saying “Bismillahi-r-Rahmani-r-Raheem.” If Allah Almighty does not help us, we can’t do anything. “Bismillahi-r-Rahmani-r-Raheem” means, “O my Lord, I am helpless, I am weak, and I am asking Your support, divine support. I am in need of Your blessings, I am in need of Your mercy, I am in need of Your favors. O my Lord, please grant me, please support me, to be able to do something, something for You.” Not something for anyone else. If you are doing something for anyone else, it is going to finish and vanish, but everything that you are doing for Allah, it is for you forever. It is impossible for it to be taken away, Allah Almighty keeping it in His treasures. When you are in need, at that time of most need for ourselves on the Day of Resurrection, we should ask help and He should give it to us.

Therefore, you must try to be with Allah, and whoever is with Allah, Allah Almighty, in every second, every minute, every hour, every day, every week, every month, every year, He will be supporting, and no one will come to Sheikh Nazim to say, “O sheikh, pray for me because my business is getting bad, getting no more profit. Please pray to Allah for me.”

Yahu, I am saying, “Allah is closer to you than I am. Why are you not saying it to Him?” Allah is closer to His servants than themselves. “Wa ‘alamu anna Llahu yahulu baina-l-marri wa qalbihi”4 — this holy verse is saying that Allah Almighty is coming in yourself and coming in your heart. And you can’t reach your heart; Allah is closer than you to your heart. No one can imagine how close He is to you. It must be so, because He is the Creator.

He is the Creator, and He creates what you are thinking and for what you are thinking and for what you are working and what is your purpose and what is your aim; He knows before you know it. I am saying, “Why are you not asking from Allah, coming to me and saying to me that ‘Pray for me,’ while between you and Allah Almighty there is nothing.” You can say, “O my Lord”; you can say, “Ya Rabb, ya Rabb, ya Rabbi,” and He is just reaching to you or He is just with you, because you can’t stand up without Allah’s Power; if His power does not go through your whole body, even through cells then you cannot function, cannot be alive. Cells must be alive with Allah Almighty’s power or even the smallest cell can’t be alive in your blood, in your brain, in your skin, in your flesh, in your organs. Every cell must be with its Lord and must glorify its Lord.

Therefore, we must try to reach a state that by praying we are able to reach Allah Almighty’s Will — that means, what He is asking for me, for you, for anyone else, and if you understanwhat is His will for you, then not to object to it, not to reject or object to Allah Almighty’s Will, and then you should be happy.

Try to be with Allah Almight’s Will. Don’t put your will in the place of your Lord’s Will, or don’t put your will against the Will of your Lord. Whoever puts his will in opposition to the Will of Allah, he is going to fall into an endless depression. Mostly depression is coming from that point, because you want something and Allah Almighty wants something else. And even if all mankind is going to insist on one purpose, they can’t change it, they can’t make their will to precede or subjugate Allah’s Will. If Allah Almighty says “No,” no one can make it “Yes.” If He says “Yes” for something, even if all nations say “No,” it must transpire as He wills.

Therefore, that is the most keen knowledge, keen treatment for depressed people. Depressed people must know that what they are saying “Yes” to is not going to be or what they are saying “No” to is not going to be. They must learn that only Allah Almighty can say “Yes;” in spite of all mankind saying “No!” If He says “Yes,” that must be. If all mankind says “Yes” and Allah Almighty says “No,” it is going not to be. That must be taught to everyone, because depression is increasing day-by-day, and it is a kind of punishment from Allah Almighty that His servants are not using their will and their minds for their actions; they are acting without using their minds and wills, and every time they are making mistakes.

Even a simple mistake harms people. What if you make an mistake, every time, every moment, every hour, every day coming against the Will of Allah, and your will makes mistakes? But now it is the time of atheist people; they are saying “No God.” Astaghfirullah5 — no God but Allah! Allah is God. And they are not teaching about God in schools — it is forbidden in schools to be taught about Allah, and they are saying, “If anyone wants to know something about their Lord, there is the church. Go in and learn there.”

They are so proud of not putting it into the curriculum of students; they are saying, “If you want to ask about God, go. There is a church. This is something that you can believe or not believe — it doesn’t matter.” Put a symbol there — in the midst of universities, as a symbol, a symbol of mystery. I saw in Cambridge and Oxford, in universities, huge cathedrals, but they are not putting at the beginning of every knowledge the knowledge that leads us to Allah, to God. Therefore, their teachings are harmful and with no result, making people depressed, because if a person says “There is No Allah, no God,” that means he is in a situation where there is no any support from any direction and then he can fall down. Therefore, governments must change their educational policies, to put knowledge about Allah as the first lesson for little children all the way up to academic studies. They must say first, “In the name of Allah, All-mighty, All-Merciful, who created us, who granted us to be His servants.” As long as they do not put this, they are going to be in suffering, with no peace, and fighting continuing.

May Allah forgive us. Therefore, O people, listen and try to act, try to believe, try to act according to your beliefs. Don’t let Shaytan come to you so you can follow him. Shaytan is in Hell, and anyone following Shaytan is just going to fall into Hell. And the Prophet is in Paradise; whoever wants to follow him, he should reach the Prophet in Paradise. May Allah cause us to be in Paradise with His prophets, with His awliya (saints) and anbiya (prophets) and with pure ones, and may He change this world to take away devils and to make us among His sincere servants so that we should reach happiness and contentment and pleasure from Allah Almighty.

Footnotes

(1) I seek refuge with Allah from Satan, the Rejected.

(2) The grave of the Prophet, SAWS.

(3) The call to prayer.

(4) 8:24.

(5) I ask Allah’s forgiveness.