The Inner Source Digest – Unit: 24

July 1960
Issue: 24
EMRE’s Conversations: 24

EMRE’s Conversations 24

(The notes which can be saved in a conversation at 18.6.1954)

            Q – What’s the mystery of azan?

            Emre – The Prophet Mohammed have wanted to declare the basic fundamentals of Islam using the subject of the praying times. First of all they thought to play salpinx in order to declare the praying times. Some of them rejected saying that “this also belongs to Jews and Zoroastrians”. Bell also used by the Christians. At last one of the companions have said to the prophet that he saw himself reciting the azan in his dream. The same dream has been seen by some others. They became so much happy. The first azan is recited in the house of a widow.

Muazzins are closing their ears during the reciting azan. In this case, can the meaning of azan enter through our ears? If we don’t benefit from the knowledge we declare, don’t we look like a teller in a bank? The teller can’t benefit from the money despite of counting hundred thousands of them.

We apply most of the religious duties either not understanding their meaning without thinking nor in order to gain some good deeds. In Arabic language good deed (sevap) has the same root with cloth (sevb). I mean good deed is a cloth. Inside of each cloth there exists someone alive. What is the alive meaning in this cloth which we call as good deed? The aim of good deed is knowledge, science and love.

            Long time ago, while I was travelling with train from İstanbul to Adana, just near to Konya, there was a discussion between the two hodjas and I was listening them. One of them was saying that “our prophet was rich”.  The other said “how do  you know? “ He said “because there is a hadith saying that he wears a different shirt every day.“ The other said another hadith saying that “he proud of being poor “ wearing old clothes. They near go for the throat of each other. The listeners were wondering. The one who is saying that the prophet is rich was weighting.

I said: “May I interfere in your talk? Can’t the cloth which the prophet mentioned be his knowledge and state? He is leaving the knowledge and state by digesting them and wearing a shirt of another knowledge and state. If it’s not so, we are being restricted in a specific knowledge and state. Hazrat Ali have said: “The one who has the same day with yesterday is actually dead.”” Just one of them approved my words; because the other was conservative.

            Q. – I’ve read something in “Legends of Wise men” The story is told by a man who is loved by Rumi (Mevlana): “ Some night we were whirling so much. Our friend was tired. I thought that “can  Rumi work a miracle just like the prophets?” Then he called me with my name. I went to his near at once. He took a stone and gave it to me. I looked at the stone; it  turned to ruby. As soon as I saw this, I’d fainted by crowing. Then I gave this stone to one of the sultan wives. Then they thought that it’s a few hundred thousand dinars worth. They sold and gave the money to the lodge. “

How does this happen?

            Emre – Doesn’t God have all might? But this is a state happened which belongs to him. We can’t generalize this. We are subjected to the laws and conditions of normal life. Look, don’t those dinars change our minds? We even must not to think about them. These must show us the might of God, instead of the doer. But we don’t have to lust for those things. They cause us to stray from our intended path.

            Q. – Indian fakirs are also doing this.

            Emre – This is related with will, abstinence and faith. It’s ok. when you believe. Then comes to manage the things and animals. Is it right to misuse the might of God spending in here and there? The Prophet Mohammed didn’t want those things. When those states had manifested from inside of him, he had been trying to get rid of them and his self.

            Throw those type of things from your mind. The man who is resurrected by me never dies. Is there any use to resurrect a dead one who will die at the end?

            Develioğlu had given up from  working miracles at the last part of his life.

 At those times he had been accumulating word and state inside of us. He was giving those powers to me who is just a poor. But I was aware of that the same might was giving and receiving. When I came to my senses, I worried about the work of miracle power which is given to me who is just a poor. What would I do with this miracle? This wasn’t my intend. For this reason, I didn’t want any of them and begged to him not to give. He said; “Well done my son, I’m so proud of you, we need to be like this.“

            Q. – Was he teaching this knowledge?

            Emre – Yes, he was teaching.

            (For a while, by means of the guidance of inquirer, the subject is reverted to the animals and their poisons. Emre said the followings: )

Emre – The scorpion is a very nervous animal. It has no conscience, mercy. Beside, there is no unnecessary creature. They are all necessary for the people. There comes a time animals and insects will more be used in medicine.Because they are better in collecting the medicine from nature.

            There is no conscience in scorpion but it exists in the other animals in different levels. Most of the animals pity for the little babies. Horses don’t run down the babies. Even snakes don’t bite the little children.

            In the Kırıklı village, a woman while working in a field, puts a pot of yogurt for her child who is one years old. Then she leaves in order to work. After a while when she came back, sees a huge snake near the child. It eats yogurt together with the child. The women so scares, even she can’t come closer to the child. The child says (Hı!) just like to say: “don’t eat my yogurt”  because he/she isn’t happy from this condition. But the snake disregards and goes on to eat. At the end child catches the snake from its throat, licks the yogurt on its face and eye. Even first he/she puts the head of snake into the yogurt then licks.

            The human is the whole of everything; I mean there are all of the brutal attributes in human. The animals don’t attack to us, they attack our attributes which belong to them. The snake sees the snake in our character, attacks to this snake which is an enemy of it.

            It was the first year of military mobilization. I was a child 14 years old. I was going to

Çeceli; Karaisalı. I was alone with an animal. There is a fountain after Emelcik which is called as (The water Üçürge), I intended to drink from this water and dismounted. I heard someone saying (ıh! ıh!). I saw a man who caught a snake which is tangled to him and captured his left leg. The man was trying but almost he leaves the head of the snake. When he saw me, he said “my child, catch”. I wanted to cut the snake, he didn’t accept. He said, “hold the tail, detach it”. I detached the snake, its head was in his hand, its tail was in my hand. He said “get my fez, make the snake bite.” I took his fez from his head. The man took the snake with his left hand; as soon as he gave the fez to the snake with his right hand, it bit the fez. When he fetched the fez instantly, the teeth of snake remained on the fez. The man looked the mouth of the snake and said, “there are some more teeth.” He imparted them with his knife and left the snake. The snake ran away but then came back and angled to him again. But the man didn’t afraid of it because it had no tooth. The snake was drinking its blood. Then he was washing the snake’s mouth in fountain and I left them, went on my way.  

There’s another story of snake:

            Just after Abdioğlu, there was a marsh. If one dropped in this rush, he/she would sink till to the bottom. Every animal except buffalo is drown.

            From this village, a girl who is a daughter of landlord was having an affair with a servant.They’ve hided between the marshes. They decided to run away later on. The girl said : “let’s sleep”. They’ve slept. While they were sleeping, a big snake had come. Just after it swallowed up the legs of  girl, she woke up and said to his friend “please, save me!”. When the boy saw that big snake, he ran away. The girl says that “ why are you running away, take this knife and kill the snake”. He says: “I’m afraid it leaves you and swallows me, I can’t come.”

While they were talking, snake have swallowed the girl till to  her arms. The snake couldn’t swallow the whole body of girl, because of her arms. But when the girl understood the cowardice of the boy whom she decided to be his wife, have said: “it’s better being swallowed by this snake instead of being wife of such a vile like you. “ And then she rises her arms and snake swallows the girl completely.

            When we saw that snake is swallowing us, we get out of this cloth of body and run away to a place of salvation. Let the snake swallow this cloth.

            Q. – Oh my sir, let’s snake not swallow, it’s a cold animal.

            Emre – I like its teeth and eyes. It has very nice eyes.                 

            The worldly desires are also snake. Isn’t dealing with them just like counting the fleece? Does it have an end of counting? Here the oldest of us is our elder sister. Do those fleeces have a meaning? Life is something like a dream even it’s being hundred years long…When we turn back to the past, we see that so few path we’ve traversed. 

            The world is blearing the eyes of us in order to hide the spirituality. In fact, our eyes are always blear…Our pupils are always black. If it were green, blue or white we couldn’t see the things. The thing which shows the colours, are the blackness of the pupil. If it were white, it couldn’t stand across the light.  If the light of an eye ends, it turns to gray completely.

            Isn’t the sleep a paint? We sleep when the red colour of blood painted the brain. While we are awake, the brain is white. When the brain is colored with red, it loses its management, neurons get rest. When we sleep, we relax and get rid of being tired.

            For body the sleep is a necessity. But the sleep of mind is a trouble for human. A sleeping mind is asleep; neither knows itself, nor the world. Those type of minds are in laziness and ignorance colour.

            The colour of God is very beautiful. We also are trying to color our moral with the colour of God. Is the present colour of our mind and moral similar to the previous one? This must be in Koran also.

-There exist in Koran my sir, it’s called as “the colour of God”.

Q. – They couldn’t translate Koran in sufic understanding.

            Emre – They can’t. This understanding isn’t general. It’s general but in order to arrive this understanding, it’s needed to give up the childhood and progress. Tahini halva is a general food but not suitable for the babies. But as time passes, they also can eat.

            We also don’t talk these words in everywhere. Even if we talk, it’s not heard by the ears who doesn’t demand this state. Here, the might who is talking and listening is the same.

If we give up ourselves, I mean withdraw from the scene, the one who is saying and listening is the same being. One of the names of God is Kelim (the one who is talking), the other is Semi (the one who is listening) .  When we get out of this ego, Kelim talks, Semi listens. This can only be realized by means of love.

            Without love, it’s so hard to endure the load of the world. It’s either necessary to have love (divine state) or unawareness for toleration. The surah of “Al Hashr”, is mentioning about this difficulty during the revelation of verses. This divine state is so hard.

            Q. – Did Prophet Mohammed fear during the revelation?

            Emre – No. Does the one who is a holy friend of God, fear? The saints are the holy friends of God. They neither fear nor feel sad.

It’s such an unawareness to claim ownership this being despite of everything belongs to God. So, for this reason, we don’t aware of the divine state. We are just like a keeper waiting at the door of a factory. If it were said to the keeper “you have this factory”, would he wait at the door? Soon he would go to the office. But from now on, his load of job would be increased.

            The keeper is unaware of the work of factory, profit during his keeping. The owner knows everything but he/she informs only the lovers. 

            If we listened those words with our old mind, we would say that “how can we compare us with our prophet, how does He inform us?” Doesn’t each mouth belong to God? Can’t the owner inform from any of them? Before that, we weren’t aware of the prophet, prophecy because of our restricted mind. Doesn’t the prophet mean messenger? The prophet Mohammed changed his world; did the prophecy, the state of Mohammed change? Did the humanity remain as lack of information? Didn’t The Prophet Mohammed inform us continuously from the mouths of many saints? Despite of that, there are some people who are unaware of that state. Isn’t there some people who are unaware of his state of Mohammed even during his time?   

            Now, the condition is changed. The Might of God is fully regnant. If you are a lover, awake and look! Can a human who is sleeping, see our face?

            The human can only awake from the unawareness by means of contemplation. If we clean the sleep of unawareness in our eye by clarifying, we can see His face.  

            Q. – Doesn’t he say from our mouth? Didn’t the same might say from the mouth of Mansur al-Hallaj?

            Emre – How Mansur gave up his ego? If you give up like this, I say from your mouth also. I’m saying that if you understand that your blood is worthless like a water, and turn to  a state to sacrifice it at any time, I say from your mouth. The might who will say is God. Let’s not deal with that. He says from the one He chose. Is this sound getting out from our mouth belong us?

            Q. – What if blasphemy gets out of the mouth?

            Emre – The one who is saying blasphemy have not understood the truth. Everything doesn’t come from God. The blasphemy doesn’t belong to God, but us. We say this because we intend to load our guilts to God in order to escape. However do we have enough capacity to load our guilt to God? If we meet, stand before Him, we would lose our will.

            Let’s prick the pin to the one who says “everything is from God” and look if he/she can evaluate this from God? He/she wrings your neck instantly.

            Q. – Did Develioğlu use to say “everything is from God”?

            Emre – He used to say while he was united with God. In order to say everything is from God, it’s needed to be like Develioğlu. The ones who say “everything is from God”, imitating his words under the effect of misunderstanding, are the ones who are unaware of his state of being absent in God. They’re saying this word by means of language and desire of their self.

            Look, we are unable even to complete the missing parts of the revelations which that Might have said through this mouth of such a poor. We even can’t understand the meaning of them unless being united with that Might. Sometimes when the teacher requests to complete the missing part of a revelation, it’s not possible to do it unless The Might come and say. Sometimes He says but the words of the last case aren’t similar to the previous one. But the meaning is the same. This shows his Highness. Each creation of Him is different than the other. There is a verse “He is the owner of a new creation at each second”.

            Q. – But there must be good and evil.

            Emre – We don’t deal with evil. Look you are commander, do you accept that a captain rules you? Do you tolerate this as coming from God?

            Q. – There must be evil to show good. The one who makes evil also is serving God.

            Emre – The evildoer receives the response as an evil. May you be a benefactor and receive the response as goodness.

            Q. – You mean it’s necessary to differentiate the attributes?

            Emre – Yes. We will take the good ones. God is unique but He has 1001 attributes. Why it’s been served out to those 1001 attributes? In order to differentiate and choose the good ones among them. God has an “halim-mild”attribute. There are also some people who are mild. They’ve chosen this attribute of God. There are also some people who are convicted to the evil attributes. These are all God’s attributes. “Ar-Razzaq” means who is supplying food, “Kelîm” means who is talking, “Alîm” means all-knowing. So, what’s the meaning of Allah? It has no meaning. We are unable to understand its meaning. If so, let’s withdraw from the scene, God knows Himself.

            It’s such an easy way of freeloading to ascribe goodness and evil to God in order to be freed by the punishment and response of the evil. All of the prophets and books are saying that “don’t make evil”. Why don’t we hear this? Isn’t it necessary to punish the thieves by the government?

            When you go to the barber, you cut your hair willingly. But if barber cuts your eyebrow or eyelash, you even want to put his eye out. So, everything is in right state. 

            The devil has made Adam and Eve fire from the Eden. But they have understood their guilt and cried. At the end they’ve met at Mina mountain and became happy. When devil heard that they’ve met, ran over there and saw that they are in much pleasure. He asked God “why don’t you forgive me despite of you’ve forgiven them?” He says ”I don’t forgive you, because you are claiming the guilt to me. They’ve accepted their guilt and apologized.”

            If we claim our guilt to God, we turn to devil.

            (We are offering a revelation to our readers which is said 20 days ago before this meeting. This revelation is just like the poetic version of this conversation. It’s so interesting the similarity of this revelation with this conversation in which the subject and questions were indefinite. If it were happened after the conversation, it could be thought that it’s a poetic version of this conversation.)

Revelation

EMRE’s Epigrams, Aphorisms:

*Emre – God sees all the dirt of our face when we come close to Him either by imitating or by investigation. Sometimes He also shows His resentment in order to clean them. For this reason it’s been said that: “Everything will be perished except the face (excellency) of thy Lord of Kindness and Glory.” Kindness comes after the resentment.

*Emre – This body isn’t other than a carrion. After a few weeks of our death, if God says, “let’s come, enter this carrion and live”, do we accept to enter this body which is bad, decayed.

*Emre – We need to tolerate everyone. We don’t evaluate anyone as bad. What if we stay alone as a human among the animals if we say someone “similar to pig”, the other “similar to dog”? To whom we will talk, converse with? So, we must not have bad sight. If we see the bad ones as good, both we will be in peace and we salve them. 

*Emre – The one who thinks that sufism is remission of world, can’t understand sufism. Sufism also have progressed just like the other sciences. Learn everything including this.

*Emre – The only way to reach God is love and charity. There is no other way. Love is just like suck. Just like the children who aren’t breastfed and for this reason become weak, sick maybe dead, the ones who walk without love, can’t attain God. The ones who walk with knowledge and prayer beads, remain on the way.

*Emre – The human body works reverse of the matter. Mines decay by the friction. Whereas skin thickens by working. I mean to work is so much good.

*Q – What’s the illicit?

*Emre – It’s about not to do the thing to anyone which you don’t deem proper to yourself.