bismillah rahman rahim
My Sheykh, Ḥaḍrat Sheykh Lokman Effendi, says that on the Day of Judgment, when mankind will be drowning in fear and hardship, a voice from Allah ﷻ will call out:
“Is there any friend of Allah whom these people love, so that I may join them to that one?”
Ah! How wondrous is the Mercy of Allah—that in every age He leaves among us hidden doors to His nearness. Yet what misfortune we bring upon ourselves, that with our own heedless hands we close those very doors and turn away. In truth, when we turn away from the friends of Allah, we turn away from the Truth itself. We choose to follow our ego instead of sitting in the sohbet of those beloved to Him.
Who are the friends of Allah? They are those who, through their ibādah and riyāḍah, have reached the station of union with the Ḥaqq. They are the true inheritors of the Prophet ﷺ—those who have drunk deeply from the river of ‘Irfān, whose entire beings are consumed by the Ma‘rifah of Allah ‘Azza wa Jall.
What is the first question asked in the grave? It is about Allah—the Creator. But how will we truly know Allah? Some will say, “Through the translation and commentary of the Qur’an and Hadith.” Yet Allah is Endless—without beginning and without end. How can something without limit be fully contained on a page, in a few drops of ink?
Allah is beyond the comprehension of the material mind. The knowledge of Allah rests in the hearts of the Awliyā’ Allah. By sitting in their sohbet, they carry us to a place where nothing flows except the Ma‘rifah of Allah. They help us see our ego, cleanse it, and offer us a taste of the wine that Rūmī, Shiblī, Bahā’uddīn, and every great Walī has sipped—a share from that holiest of wines.
As my Sheykh Effendi says: Allah created us to worship Him—but how can a servant truly serve his Master if he does not know Him?
Now we enter the days of the ‘Urs of Sultān al-‘Ārifīn, Sheykh Hamzah Makhdoomi al-Kashmiri (QS). Sheykh Hamzah was a divine fountain from which all of Kashmir drank, rescued from the affliction of dunya and the grip of the ego. The water of this fountain entered the hearts of the people, illuminating them. He was a wall upheld by the Prophet ﷺ himself—a man of majestic and mystic presence, the Sheykh of Sheykhs. Those who sat in his sohbet emerged as Khākī, Zātī, Ḥaydarī, Ghāzī—all light-bearers of the Ḥaqq.
On the walls of the Astān-e-‘Āliyā, verses from Baba Naseeruddin Ghazi are inscribed. One of his rubā‘iyāt says:
Har kas tura munkar shawad
Bī-shak ba dozukh dar rawad
Gar ‘ābida wa zāhid būd
Yā Sheykh Hamzah, Pīr-e-mā
Translation:
Whoever denies you,
without doubt will enter Hell,
even if he be a devout worshipper or an ascetic—
O Sheykh Hamzah, our master and guide.
The one who looks only with the eyes of dunya may say, “This is wrong—Allah is the Most Merciful, and whoever says the shahādah will be saved, even if he denies some of the Awliyā’.”So on what earth could a zāhid or an ‘ābid be thrown into Hell just for denying the Sheykh?”
But those whose hearts are awake know Baba Naseer Ghazi is speaking the truth. A Sheykh is not an ordinary man—he is an inheritor of the Prophet’s secrets, one whom Allah Himself has befriended. Yes, a zāhid may have worshipped for thousands of years, but that does not give him the right to reject the authority of a Walī. Such rejection only exposes the ego—and worship mixed with ego is destined for ruin.
Was it not so with Azāzīl? When commanded to bow to Adam (AS), he refused, claiming to bow only to Allah. But that refusal revealed pride, and so he became accursed.
In a Hadith Qudsī, Allah ‘Azza wa Jall says: “Whoever is an enemy of My Walī, I declare war upon him.” The Awliyā’ are a means for us to draw nearer to Allah. To dishonor them is to invite divine wrath. In earlier times, there was hardly a man or woman who was not connected to a friend of Allah, knowing that their intercession would benefit them in both dunya and ākhirah.
The verses of Baba Naseerud-Din Ghazi stand as a warning and a truth. History overflows with examples of those who disrespected the Awliyā’ and fell under the wrath of Allah. When will we wake up? When will we return to the road Allah desires for us—walking behind His friends, who know every turn on the path?
Remember my friend who is reading this - Loving and following the friends of Allah is the surest road to Him, while rejecting them is rejecting the Truth itself.
