The Sixteenth Flash

In His Name, be He glorified!

And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.(17:44)

Peace be upon you, and God’s mercy and blessings!

My Dear and Loyal Brothers  Hoja Sabri, Hâf›z ‘Ali, Mes’ud, the Mustafa’s, Husrev, Re’fet, Bekir Bey, Rüştü, the Lütfi’s, Hâfız Ahmed, Shaykh Mustafa, and the others! It occurred to my heart to explain to you in concise informative fashion four small matters that have been the subject of curiosity and questions.

THE FIRST

Certain of our brothers like Çaprazzâde Abdullah Efendi had heard related from the  diviners of realities that this last Ramadan a relief from difficulties, a victory, would  occur  for  the  Sunnis,  whereas  it  did  not  occur.  Why  do  such  people  of sainthood and illumination make predictions that are contrary to reality? They asked me, and a summary of the reply I gave them, with which I was inspired, is this:

It says in a Hadith: “Sometimes a calamity is visited on a person, but if it meets with almsgiving, it is repelled.”1  The underlying meaning of this Hadith shows that while appointed events are going to come to pass under certain conditions, they do not occur. That is  to  say, the appointed events of which the people of illumination are

aware are not absolute, but restricted by certain conditions; if the conditions are not fulfilled,  the event does not occur. However the event, like the appointed hour of death, which is suspended, is written and determined in the Tablet of Appearance and

Dissolution,2  which is a sort of notebook of the Pre-Eternal Tablet. It is only extremely rarely that illuminations penetrate as far as the Pre-Eternal Tablet; mostly they cannot rise that far.

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1   al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak, i, 492; al-‘Ajluni, Kashf al-Khafa’, ii, 30; Tirmidhi, Zakat, 28; Tabarani, al-Mu‘jam al-Kabir, viii, 261; al-Bayhaqi, Shu‘ab al-Iman, iii, 245.

2   See, al-Nawawi, Sharh Sahih Muslim, xvi, 114; Ibn Hajar, Fath al-Bari, x, 415-6.