Advice for the Muslim

inspired (ilhâm) to the heart. Imaginative kashfs should not be
trusted in. Wahm and imagination (hayâl) help in understanding
the information coming to the heart. Fifty thousand years’ distance
between the Creator and the created is passed in a short time with
the help of wahm. And the imagination is beneficial to understand
ladunnî knowledge easily. Both help much on the way of
tasawwuf. It has been reported that some prayers are helpful in
worldly affairs. Saying Allâhu ta’âlâ’s names are much more
helpful.
“It is very good not to remember one’s own body while
performing salât. Things that occur while performing salât are
more valuable than those occurring outside salât. The importance
of salât should be understood well. We should perform salâts in
their mustahab times and with attention to their conditions and to
ta’dîl al-arkân. [It is condition that one, while beginning a salât,
knows that it is the time for that salât.] It is stated in a hadîth ashshrarîf
that the curtains between the one who performs salât and
Allâhu ta’âlâ are removed.
“You write that you see awliyâ’s copies or figures in ’âlam almithâl
and talk with them. These are good things, but they are not
our aim. Since they do not harm our aim, they are not regrettable
things, either.
“You ask whether it is necessary to believe that Khidir (’alaihi
’s-salâm) is alive. Our ’ulamâ’ have not reported it in unanimity.
Though some awliyâ’ have said that they saw and spoke to him,
such reports does not show that he is alive; his soul might have
been seen in human figure, and his soul might have done things
that are done by human beings. If he were alive during that time,
this does not mean he is alive now. Many of the things done by
Khidir (’alaihi ’s-salâm) are written in the book Al-isâba fî
ma’rifati ’s-Sahâba. Most ’ulamâ’ reported that he had passed
away. If he had been alive, he would have gone to our master, the
Prophet, performed the prayer of Jum’a together and attended his
suhba and jihâds.
“The souls of the awliyâ’ who have died are sometimes seen in
their [human figures or] copies in ’âlam al-mithâl. Because,
everything in the world has a copy in ’âlam al-mithâl. Even more,
spiritual, non-material things, too, have copies there. ’Âlam almithâl
does not consist of imaginary things. It is an ’âlam that exists
as this visible, material ’âlam does. The souls of awliyâ’ sometimes
are seen in the figures of their own bodies and sometimes, without
bodies or figures, meet and talk with people’s souls.
– 335 –