by: Yasar KANDEMIR | Altinoluk Journal

You are the light of our eyes. Without you we are like orphans, somehow scared and heartbroken. Now we seek condolence in roses; we see you in their beauty and feel your smell in their sweet scent.

We are so honored to be a part of your nation. We love you dearly. We admire and envy those who love you even more. You know how one waits and longs for meeting with the beloved. That's how we are longing for our meeting with you in Paradise. We get encouraged and hopeful with your saying you are with those whom you love and eagerly wait for our meeting by the River of Kauthar.

Our Lord the Exalted who created you and made you His Beloved and asked the believers to love you and follow your example has taught us the prayers of invoking Allah's blessings on you-to help ease our pain of missing you until the day we meet in Paradise.

Allah and His Angels send blessings on the Prophet. O you who believe! Send your blessings on him, and salute him with all respect (Ahzab, 33:56). Every time we ask Allah to send His Peace and Blessings on you we also feel the blessings of Allah on us. We almost visualize the pigeons of prayers that we set free in the destination of Madinah reaching to your blessed garden of rest and you holding and pitting them gently.

The World Has Defeated Us

The world is a place of travel and we are the passers by. In this foreign land we often trip over and fall into traps. Our Lord, the Exalted, Who sent us to this world has made you our guide. He told us to follow your example. We constantly remember your guidance not to make a wrong step; striving to be like you we contemplate on every issue and think how you would have acted if you were among us now; how you would have remembered and worshipped Allah or deal with people or eat and sleep. We consider you as more important than our own lives and love those who love and follow you.

O the best of all the Prophets

Even though we consider it the highest honor to sacrifice our lives in the cause of Islam, we have a difficulty in breaking the idol of our own ego. You reminded us that the World with its sweetness and attractions may deceive us (Muslim, Dhikr 99). You warned us of the danger of attaching our hearts to the World (Bukhari, Zakat 14). You told us that the world and all that is in it is of no real value (Tirmidhi, Zuhd 14). You warned us against collecting worldly properties (Tirmidhi, Zuhd 26). You told us that we will be tested with material gains and that the real life we should strive for is the Hereafter (Bukhari, Rikak 1). You advised us to be like a traveller passing by (Bukhari, Rikak 3). You did exactly what you told us to do. There were time you did not find a few pieces of date to eat (Muslim, Zuhd 36). From the time you honored Madinah until the day you passed away you did not find to eat wheat bread consecutively for three days (Muslim, Zuhd 20). O Rasulallah, the world has defeated us. The world has become a giant and we became like the dwarfs.

The Abolishment of Oppression

O Rasulallah ! Our main goal is to strive against our ego, to revive ourselves with the guidance your brought, to live like a Muslim and to stay as a Muslim. The World is playing tricks on us coming up in different costumes, telling us how to live our lives and what to do and how to dress. They do not give us the right to live like a Muslim and like a dignified human being. You have abolished oppression with the religion you brought and saved the victims' fragile necks from the bloody hands of oppressors. The way you saved humanity fourteen thousand years ago from oppression and injustice was described in the verses of our late poet Mehmed Akif:

The victims, all their rights were to be oppressed, revived.
The oppressors, never thought of failure, died
Through the religion you brought, the oppression has collapsed. You were the answer for the hopeless. You have brought the value that the human being deserves. Now the oppression awakened and wit the strength it gained, it is pressing down on our throats. Every time we are faced with oppression we find the condolence in you. We think of the oppression you had gone through, and can not help but think as if you came to this world to endure hardship. Remembering that you were an orphan and all the other hardships you were tested with is like an ointment on our own injuries. We think of the times that you were seeking guidance in the mountain of Nur, tired of the disorder in the World. We know that the bats who were scared of the light that you brought from the mountains were disturbing you. Yet, you were steadfast and patient despite all this hardship. Just as we are about to sink in the swamp of irrational oppression, we reach out to the Rope of Allah that you brought for us. Once again we realize why Allah Had Made you our guide and example. With the pleasure of realizing that you are a mercy to the World we shed tears.

From Humiliation to Exaltation

O Rasulallah! We learned how to be a dignified human being from you. With the religion you brought, Allah Exalted us from humiliation to sovereignty, from a hole to the citadel. When we embraced Islam Allah Made us the best of nations. We became the superpower that others bent down on their knees and opened their hands seeking help. In those magnificent times that we ruled, we followed your example in forbidding evil and oppression and giving the rights of the victims. Unfortunately, as we shifted away from the beauty of Islam we dried up, we got oppressed, we bent down on our knees and open our hands begging. Since then no one takes us seriously nor treat us with a worthy treatment. We want to wake up and revive and come back to our senses and raise from humiliation to sovereignty and live as Muslims.

O beloved of the World! We want our children to live like Muslims, to follow your footsteps, and to be saved from the Hellfire, whose fuel will be people and stones. We want those who try to prevent us from our way to have mercy on us, and to recognize us and to know that we want nothing but the pleasure of Allah. We ask Allah to Give them guidance and to grant us patience and success in our struggle.

O Rasulallah! We truly want to be better servants of Allah and better believers again. We want to become a nation you deserve and be proud of. We want to be those successful believers who humble themselves in their prayers; who avoid vain talk; who are active in giving Zakat; who guard their modesty; who faithfully observe their trust and their covenants; and who guard their prayers (Mu'minun, 23:1-11). These days, one of the sayings that give us hope and keep us going is that you gave the glad tidings to those servants of Allah who are oppressed and are patient in enduring it will be exalted by Allah (Tirmidhi, Zuhd 17). We have been oppressed and humiliated and look down on. However, we believed the sovereignty belongs to Allah and His Prophet and the believers (Munafiqun, 63:8). We pray to Allah to be among those who are patient and thus will receive sovereignty and honor that they deserve. We also pray to be among those who will be subjected to your intercession on the day of judgment.