Blessed Ashura, Day of the Victory of Love

In Allah’s Overflowing Love and Compassion

Beloved Dervishes,

May you and we and all creation be blessed on this momentous day of Ashura. This is the day of the martyrdom of Imam Huseyn and his family members and community on the field of Karbala. So it is a day of opening our hearts to the immense sacrifice of the people of Karbala, bless them and exalt them, and to the tremendous sacrifice of all the Prophets and their communities who offered their lives to Truth.

May we feel deep gratitude for their sacrifice and in return offer them prayers and salutations of peace to reach them in their exalted stations of nearness to Allah.

This day and every day we feel the suffering of life on earth. We feel the pain of our own trials and feel the pain of others. Some suffering we can see the benefit of and with some suffering we cannot see the benefit. But that does not mean that it is not there. Allah reveals in the sacred Texts that life with its joys and sufferings unfolds according to a profound plan, the full extent of which will only be revealed on a culminating Day for all humanity and all subtle beings.

This does not imply that we should not try to alleviate suffering and remedy the causes of suffering. Every day we connect to all human suffering, whether it is someone in their home who feels terribly alone and abandoned or a group of people who are expelled from their homes and country, or who are conquered and stripped of their rights in their own land. We pray for others and our prayers are a source of remedy and change toward the good. Again, even if we do not immediately see the effects of our prayers it does not mean that they are not powerfully there.

In this context I would like to relay a dream of one of our dervishes in New York. She is gong through a very difficult period of personal and family challenges. On a recent travel to Istanbul she visited the Dergah of Hazreti Pir Nureddin Jerrahi, ra, and remained a long while praying outside the window of Muzaffer Effendi’s tomb. Eventually the keeper of the tombs, at least that is how he appeared, came to her and offered her a cup of water from the well of Hazreti Pir, ra, an opening to which is now located inside the chamber of tombs. Surprised and delighted she gratefully drank the water.

This morning, the day of Ashura, she received this dream:
I was awoken about 15 minutes before Fajr with a start. I had a dream that a text message came to our WhatsApp group, a call/request for water to the Battleground. Next I was opening a greeting card with a poem in it written by you (Sh Fariha) and in the last few lines there is a reference to me, a mother, being a representative delivering water to the battlefield of Karbala as I have drunk deeply from the well of Hazreti Pir Nureddin, ra. Then, still in the dream, I receive a text directly from you, saying that you volunteered me to be the water bearer to the Battlefield. Alhamdulillah!

Masha’allah! What a blessing. What a confirmation of Hazreti Pir’s station. What a confirmation of the station of the dervish of Hazreti Pir. Being close to the Pirs we come close to Allah and the beloveds of Allah, peace be upon them all. What a confirmation that Allah takes account of every drop of our suffering and is grateful for every turn we make in our hearts toward the true. What a reward!

This blessed dervish was brought to drink even more deeply from the water of Pir Nureddin through her own tests and afflictions. She has been praying even more deeply for Allah’s mercy and the intercession of the Pirs. Turning to the Pirs, asking for their help, being grateful for their presence, trusting in the light of love and compassion which abides in them, and bringing this light for others …all of this is drinking deeply from the water of Pir Nureddin and his representatives.
And if we drink deeply we can bring water to the best of humanity, we can alleviate the soul of humanity.
May we all carry this water to the battlefield of Karbala and to the battlefield where humanity struggles to be victorious.

May this day be a day of the Victory of Love.

“Give the good news O beloved to the people of love that this is the Day of the victory of love.

Blessed Day to all.

Fariha Fatima Nur

Please offer Salawats and Wird and La ilahe ilallah Muhammad rasulallah on this day for the sake of the beloveds of Karbala and the great Ummat of humanity.