Morgenavond na zonsondergang begint de heilige maand ramadan. Alle gezonde moslims vasten dan van de dageraad tot zonsondergang. Het is een maand van bezinning en reflectie op het eigen gedrag. Een kans om je hart te zuiveren. Eigenlijk is elke dag en elke minuut van het jaar een kans. Het leven hier is eindig. Ik ben al een tijdje de boeken Mercy Oceans aan het herlezen, waarin de sohbets (gesproken woorden) van sheikh Nazim ( vrede hebbe zijn nobele ziel) van jaren geleden zijn opgetekend. Ik heb er veel aan deze woorden te lezen en daarmee ook te herbeleven hoe sheikh Nazim telkens tijdens de ramadan via zijn sohbets en zijn aanwezigheid de harten van zijn murids (leerlingen) wist te bereiken.

Hier volgt een stuk uit Mercy Oceans 3 dat ik vandaag las:

“What is going to happen when truth is in someone’s heart? What is the sign that a person has truth and that he has accepted truth in his heart? There must be a sign.
Allah Almighty says in His Glorious Qur’an, “Wa qul, Ja’a-l-haag wa zahaqa-l-bātil” – when truth comes, falsehood goes away; truth defeats falsehood. Therefore, when we proclaim truth with our tongues, it prevents our tongues from uttering any falsehood; then, more than that, when our hearts accept truth and truth is in our hearts, it also takes away every falsehood from our hearts.
The first thing, when truth comes into our hearts, is that it takes away every bad thought and bad intention and bad characteristic. In our books that have come through traditions from every prophet up to the Seal of the Prophets, beloved Muhammad, p.b.u.h., it is stated that there are so many bad characteristics in our hearts, in number sixty false and bad characteristics within our hearts. When truth comes, it takes those away, defeating them.
The first and most dangerous falsehood is kufr, to deny the existence of the Lord, Almighty Allah. When truth comes, a person must believe in the existence of the Lord, Almighty Allah; he must say that there is a Creator who created all the worlds, who created the universe, who created the Heavens, who created Paradise and Hell. Truth makes him proclaim and believe that there is one Lord, creating, giving life, and taking life away. That is the first and most important thing when truth enters into our hearts: to proclaim the existence of the Lord, Almighty Allah.
Then, we proclaim that the Lord, Almighty Allah, has eternal life from pre-eternity up to post-eternity, and we proclaim the truth that there is an eternal life for the Children of Adam; for believers and for unbelievers, also, because those who do not believe in eternal life are not going to die and finish, no. They also have eternal life, and truth in our hearts makes us believe in that eternal life. No need to believe in this life because we are living in it; but, when we are believers, we believe in unseen things, and the way to our Lord passes through unseen territories. We believe in the life unseen. If you want to see, you must first believe in the Unseen; then you may see it, you may reach that point. Therefore we believe in unseen worlds and Heavens, and we believe in the eternal life.
That is the result of accepting truth, taking away, one after the other, the bad characteristics from our hearts. When truth comes, falsehood must go away. Every bad characteristic belongs to falsehood, and if real truth comes and enters into your heart, it must take that away. And one of the biggest falsehoods and worst characteristics of the Children of Adam is that they like this life. The love of dunya, the love of this life – that is the biggest sin, which is the source of evils.
As long as people love this dunya, this life, troubles will never go away; every day they will fall down more and more, sinking into sufferings. Therefore, if truth comes to your heart, it takes away the love of dunya and changes that love into the love of your Lord, the love of Allah Almighty. That is the sign that you love your Lord, Almighty Allah, defeating in your heart the love of this world, the love of this life, because if we give our love to a temporary thing and it goes, our love finishes. But that love is something given to us to put in a suitable place.
Once the Angel Gabriel came to Prophet Muhammad, p.b.u.h., and said to him, “O Muhammad, you may put your love with anyone whom you may select; as you like, you may put your love with that thing. But you must know that everything that you love in this world is going to leave you.” If you put your love with your family, with your wife, with your children, with your business, with your car, with your castle, with your ranks – anything or anyone you may put your love with, you must know that it will go away and leave you, and your love will go with it and finish, so that it is falsehood to put our love there because Allah Almighty gives us that love and it is divine.
You must be very careful where you put that precious thing, whether losing it or protecting it. If you give your love during your life to anyone – to your wife or your children or your castle or your business – then it is lost, finished, because when you leave this life, that love will not be with you. Those people or those things will stay here and you will go without love; your love will stay behind.
That is falsehood. But when truth comes to your heart, truth says to you,
“Don’t give your love except to the eternal existence of your Lord, Allah Almighty. Give Him your love because that love comes from Him; give it back to Him, also. When you are here, that love is with you; if you go, it goes with you. You are with your Lord here, and when you go from this life, He does not leave you. He is with you forever; in the eternal life, also, He is with you, and you are not going to lose your love. You will gain it because you have put it with the correct and suitable one.
Therefore, truth, when it comes to the heart of a person – he may be a Christian, he may be Jewish, he may be Buddhist, he may be Muslim; no difference – that love of the Lord with truth must be in that person’s heart; otherwise he is a liar. A real Muslim, a real Christian, a real Jew, a real Buddhist, a real Zoroastrian, must have truth with himself. If falsehood is in his heart, he will run to this life’s enjoyments and he will represent falsehood. The one who represents truth, his heart must be with his Lord; he must give his love only to his Lord, Almighty Allah.
Therefore we are asking for that truth. Don’t cheat yourself and don’t cheat others. Everyone must look into his heart, at who is there. His love is with whom – with very temporary things or with the Eternal Lord, Allah Almighty? We must think about it, because our breaths are limited. Each day 24,000 breaths are finishing, and we have a limited number, millions or billions. Their number is written, and every moment, every second, we are taking and finishing them. Then, before our breaths finish, we must look after ourselves, at where we are putting our love. We still have an opportunity to change that love from temporary things to the eternal and permanent existence. That is important.
Every prophet just came to make it firm for everyone, so that they may give their love only to their Lord. “O people, your Lord gave you that love, and He is asking it back from you to Himself.” That is important.
We are not playing; we have not come into this life to play with families, with wives, with children – no. There are some places in our bodies which belong to children, to wives, to animals, to farms, to flowers, but love is for Allah Almighty only. And the main sign comes: when truth enters into your heart, when that love goes to Allah, it takes falsehood away. And that is falsehood, to put your love with temporary things; that is falsehood. You must change it, you must give your love to the eternal existence of Allah Almighty, the Lord. We must try; we must try to do it.
Titles are not important – Muslim, Christian, Jewish, to be a sheikh, to be a priest, to be a rabbi, to put a big thing on your head; no.
Important is this: to whom you are giving that love. The one who gave you that love, you must give it to Him. No one else is suitable for that love; only your Lord, and He will ask on the Day of Resurrection: “What did you bring, O My servant? What did you bring to Me?”
Fasting; praying, giving charities, going on pilgrimage: all of them – for what? For the sake of that love; you are giving your love to your Lord. Present Him with fasting, with worshipping; every kind of worshipping makes you present your love to His Divine Presence. Yes; the real aim of every kind of leave you, and your love will go with it and finish, so that it is falsehood to put our love there because Allah Almighty gives us that love and it is divine.
You must be very careful where you put that precious thing, whether losing it or protecting it. If you give your love during your life to anyone – to your wife or your children or your castle or your business – then it is lost, finished, because when you leave this life, that love will not be with you. Those people or those things will stay here and you will go without love; your love will stay behind.

Allah Almighty says, “O My servant, My face is toward your face, but your face is toward where? O My servant, put your face in front of My Divine Face.” But your face is mostly not in front of His Divine Face, and we are asking forgiveness.
All prophets and all shari’ahs came to teach people that they must put their faces in front of their Lord’s Divine Face. People are running after finding peace and happiness and satisfaction through this world, but it is impossible; if you look and your face is not toward your Lord’s Divine Face, no one can find peace and satisfaction and happiness in your heart. And every day Allah Almighty looks and tries His servants, to see whether His servant is with Him or is with someone else.”