1 - Endless Bliss - Hüseyin Hilmi Işık

smartly.] All actions, work, words, reading and listening,
[sending one’s son to school] should always be for Allah’s sake.
One should try so that these will be compatible with His
Sharî’at. Then each of one’s limbs and one’s heart will turn
towards Allahu ta’âlâ. One’s heart will mention Him [that is, it
will remember Him]. For example, sleep, which is altogether a
state of unawareness, will thoroughly be an act of worship
when done with the intention of doing religious service with
strength and soundness. For one has slept with the intention of
woshipping. Our Prophet declared: “A savant’s sleep is
worship.” Yes, I know, it will be difficult for you to do these
today. For you are surrounded by various obstacles. You have
been seized by customs and by fashion. You have been struck
with such illusions as to feel shame because your self-respect
will be injured. All these prevent you from carrying out the
Sharî’at’s commands. But, Allahu ta’âlâ sent the Sharî’at in
order to abolish corrupt customs, loathsome fashions, and to
tranquilize the madnesses of the nafs-i-ammâra, such as
egoism and self-respect. Yet, if it falls to your lot to remember
Allahu ta’âlâ’s name continuously through the heart, if you
perform namâz five times each day without being slack by
observing its conditions, and if you are careful about the halâl
and the harâm as much as you can be, it may be hoped that
you will get rid of these obstacles and will be allured towards
doing everything for Allah’s sake. The second reason why I
have written down this advice is that it will be useful for you to
realize your own defects and faults, even if you do not fulfill
them, and this is a great blessing, too. We trust ourselves to
Allahu ta’âlâ against the complacency of missing a blessing and
yet being unaware of what we have missed, against not
knowing of our fault, and against not being ashamed of not
having done our duty. Such persons are the stubborn and
ignorant persons who do not know the Sharî’at and who do not
do their duties as worshippers.
[In the one hundred and fortieth letter of the second volume,
Muhammad Ma’thûm Serhendî (rahmat-Allahi ’alaih) says, “In a
hadîth-i qudsî it was stated: ‘He who opposes any of my born
servants who are Awliyâ will be at war with Me. Among the
things [deeds] which get my born servant closer to Me, I
like the fards best. I like very much my born servant who
comes closer to Me by making nâfila ’ibâdat. I will be the
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