The Turkish Sufi

5

Jerusalem, Isreal

Burak Asker had donned on the Ihram. His past was now another life. The small Turkish village of Durak in Adana was far away now. Burak had wandered. He had lived outside the cities for 20 years now. He would just stand up and walk or sit down and meditate. He would eat outside the mosques.

When he was young, he just left Durak, his family and his life there. He had been in a spiritual quest since early age, but he needed answers. Did these answers lie in the world? If so, where did they lay? He asked his village maulwi. He told him that the answers were in the Koran. He read the Koran – his eyes stopped at Al-Ankaboot:

Say: "travel through the earth and see how Allah did originate creation; so will Allah produce a later creation: for Allah has power over all things.

He walked west to Diyabakir. He stayed for 6 months near Kozan. He would pray five times a day and read the Koran. Slowly, people started coming to him, though cautiously. He would avoid talking to most of them, except an old man. Some would come to him carrying their requests so that he could endorse the god to mediate. He wouldn’t say anything. Just keep reading the Koran again and again. Some people sought on constructing a small house near the place where he stayed. The government agreed and a small home was constructed. He never entered the home. People came to him. They might have felt some peace. One day he just went off. Some people followed him for some distance, but he never turned back.

He stopped at Karahan on the banks of Van Golu. Here he stayed for three years. Thereafter, he traveled on. He stayed at Tsovinar near Sevan Lake in Armenia, near Khanbulan reservoir in Azerbaijan, Bandar Anzali on the Caspian sea, Sulemaniyah in Kurdistan. From Iraq, he went on to Latakia and into the Mediterranean Sea into Cyprus and then to Jerusalem. He stayed near the temple mount for 3 years and prayed at al Asqa five times a day. When at Jerusalem, he had a dream one night.In the dream, he traveled south into the Arabian Peninsula to Medina and was now at the hajj in Mecca.   

He walked unto the Masjid-al-haram towards the holy kabaa doing the talbiyah and repeating the verses aloud:

    

Here we come,
O Allah, here we come !
Here we come.
No partners have you.
Here we come!
Praise indeed, and blessings, is yours---
the Kingdom too!
No partners have you!

As he entered through Bab-as-Salam, he prayed to the Allah and put his right feet forward into the mosque. In front of him lay the holy Ka’abah . With his feet firm on the ground and eyes fixed at the Baitullah, he started reciting:

Allahu Akbar –God is great

There is no god except one God.

He repeated it and then paid his respects to the prophet. He moved on towards Hajar-e-Aswad and as he kissed it, he felt a vibration overtake his heart and a cooing sound dominated his mind. All other sounds dimmed off. As he started Tawaf, he felt getting farther and farther from the world, going into a wormhole.

He started repeating aloud, the Arabic chants:

"Subhan-Allah wal-hamdu-lillahi wa la ilaha ill-Allah wa-Allahu Akbar wa la haula wa la quwwata illa-billah."

He suddenly found himself somewhere else. He was among the mountains. There was sweet smelling air all around and trees and birds. There were streams of clear water and soft grass beneath his feet. He saw himself entering the dome of the rock and as he entered it, it melted away into thin air. He heard Arabic chants. A group of people passed by him led by an extraordinarily gracious man – all chanting the holy Arabic chants. Suddenly the chants drowned into the din of some other chants. At Jerusalem he had heard these chants near the church of the holy Sepulcher. These could be Christian. The chants changed to Hebrew and then into completely unknown languages as people passed him by on his sides. Soon all the chants mixed and there was just one single sound – an echo. At last seven graciously grey haired men of amazing grace passed by him. He saw that all of them entered a light in front of him, and soon as he entered the light, he suddenly found himself at Masjid –al-Haram once again – performing Tawaf. He completed the Qudum. Burak went ahead to perform Sa’ey by running between Safa and Marwah on the footsteps of Hagar in search of water. The Hajj was to start tomorrow.

As if it were a reality, the dream continued next night too.

Mount Arafat, Arabia

9^th of Dhu’l-Hijjah

Burak reached Arafat in the first batch from Mina. His fellow countrymen at the tent were all excited. He was thankful. At Arafat, he took a place high up on the mount. From the brown mountain, he saw around at the vast expanse of the Arabian Desert.

He raised his hands and slowly began praying to the almighty. Slowly, his life played on the curtain of his mind, slowly as he was in the prayer. He recollected his childhood, his travels, his stays – everything. He visualized the agony that his parents and those who loved him might have felt when he left them alone. His heart cried. There was water in his eyes. His sobs in time turned into loud cries in agony of those he had agonized – those whom he remembered got blessed while he himself got cleansed of his sins. His mind felt peace.

 He felt a cool moist wind on his face. He opened his eyes. He saw the desert underneath change into green pastures. Where had all the people gone? They were no longer there. He saw a flock of grazing sheep. A shepherd was controlling the herd. Suddenly, it was dark – a huge cloud descended down on the pastures. There was an excitement in the herd. It went dark. There were voices of howling of wolves and the distress cry of the lambs. It continued. Then there was silence. Sharp rain belated against the earth. Suddenly there was a cry:

"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani?"

There was a thunderous thud and a lightening. Burak closed his eyes tight and shut his ears with his hands. He kept his eyes and ears closed for sometime. He felt warmth. His nose felt a fragrance of wet soil. He slowly lifted the hands off his ears. There was a sound of water, of tinkling of bells. He opened his eyes and found himself in a beautiful garden where streams flowed and there were fruit laden trees, flowers and butterflies.

There was a herd of cows and a beautiful cowherd boy. The dark colored boy was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen on the earth. He was playing flute while the calves were grazing near him on green grass. There was a call from far away. “Come on O child! We need to thank the rain god.”

The guy turned around and answered. “Why thank someone else when the true god is the one who has given us everything? From today we would just thank him and no one else.”

Suddenly there was a huge storm, and then it rained – like he had never seen before, the streams started flooding. The cows ran haywire to seek shelter. People cried – help me help me! The child ran toward the mountain and called out to all – “Come, the god would provide you shelter.”

With one hand he lifted the mountain – just like umbrella and people gathered from all around under it. The rain did not affect them anymore. The rain intensified and then stopped. There was sunshine once again.

Burak looked beside him. He was on the Jabal-an-noor. He looked toward the cave of Hira. There was a gentleman in meditation with his hands open toward the sky. Suddenly a man in white linen appeared before him. He had beautiful white wings on his back. He asked him to recite. He repeated and the third time when he said the gentleman opened his lips:

Proclaim! (or read!) in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created-

Slowly, the spiritual being approached Burak. There was a chanting of the Holy Quran in the background. He approached him and stood in front of him.

“I am Gabriel – the Archangel. Go east to the mountains where the holy men live. The father needs you.”

He heard the sound of azan in the background. He has just woken up. It was dawn.