In His Name, be He glorified!

And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.

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

My Dear and Loyal Brothers Hoja Sabri, Hâfiz Ali, Mes’ud, the Mustafa’s, Husrev, Re’fet, Bekir Bey, Rü_tü, the Lütfi’s, Hâfiz Ahmed, Shaykh Mustafa, and the others! It occurred to my heart to explain to you in concise informative fashion four small Matters which have been the subject of curiosity and questions.

THE FIRST

Certain of our brothers like Çaprazzâde Abdullah Efendi had heard related from those who divine the realities that this last Ramadan a relief from difficulties, a victory, would occur for the Sunnis, whereas it did not occur. Why do people of sainthood and illumination such as that 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 is said in a Hadith: “Sometimes a calamity is visited on a person, but it is confronted with alms-giving, and is repelled.”¹ The underlying meaning of this Hadith shows that while appointed events are going to come to pass through 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; on the conditions not being present, 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, 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.

As a consequence of this, predictions made as a result of interpretations or illuminations this last Ramadan and Feast of Sacrifices or at other times that do not occur because the conditions on which they were dependent were not fulfilled, do not give the lie to those who told of them. For they were determined, but did not come about because the conditions were not fulfilled.

Yes, the sincere prayers of the majority of the Sunnis for the abrogating of innovations in the month of Ramadan formed a condition and important reason. But since innovations had entered the mosques in Ramadan, they formed an obstacle to the acceptance of the supplications, and the relief did not arrive. Just as in accordance with the above Hadith, alms-giving repels calamities, the sincere supplications of the majority attract a general release from troubles. Since the power of attraction did not come into being, the victory also was not given.