Istanbul, June 8, 2025
Kabir Dede: We’re here with our greater, wider Mevlevi family. I’m really touched. To see this beautiful family from France, Morocco, England, Pakistan, America, Turkey, Germany.
The life and beauty of this School of Love — this School of Love and Beauty. Beauty is our point of contact with Allah. Beauty is our point of contact with love. And love makes the beauty.
And we thank Shaikha Nur and her whole community for creating such a space. A physical space, and a spiritual space. It’s always like coming home for us.
Shaikha Nur: You know we call today Bayram in Turkish, it’s also called Eid. In reality, if we go beyond the words, Eid is Kabir Dede himself, and people like Kabir Dede.
The friends of Haqq, the lovers of Haqq, themselves are the essence, the truth of Eid. And the Eid that we are experiencing right now, it is just a symbol of the lovers of God like Kabir Dede.
So why were we practicing and experiencing the symbolic Eid? Well, while we were experiencing the symbolic Eid, Kabir Dede honoured us by coming here with his community, and at the moment, our symbolic Eid became the true Eid. If he had not come here, then we would have just gotten stuck at the level of the symbolic Eid.
That’s why I would like to present my heartfelt gratitude to Kabir Dede and to you as well. Kabir Dede is such a precious friend for me, but beyond that, Kabir Dede, being a friend of my Master, Sefik Can Dede, gives him an even more special place in my heart. He was a very true, close friend of my Master.
Kabir Dede is our spiritual elder, and since he’s also a true friend of my Master he has such a special place in my heart. That’s why his coming here, his honoring us here, is so important. Unfortunately, there is no way to express our intimacy with words. So, what do you understand?
Kabir Dede: This is the humility of a true lover.
Shaikha Nur: May Allah raise the size of his community. The number doesn’t mean that much. May Allah increase the number of people who truly understand Kabir Dede.
The point is not to be a student of a master, it’s not that important at all. Because people like Kabir Dede, they have such an open heart. They love everybody. But the real point is – to be understood.
You see a lot of people around Kabir Dede and people like Kabir Dede. There are a lot of people around them. But at the same time, they are the loneliest people on earth. That’s why may God bless you by making you understand your master.
Hazret Mevlana says don’t be a seeker of the visible part of your master, but be a seeker of his invisible dimension. There is a visible part of Kabir Dede, you can see it. But there is something that is beyond visible. There is something that we cannot see. And that invisible thing is the true essence that we should be seeing, which is hard to see. So don’t get stuck in the outer appearance, in the forms. Kabir Dede’s appearance should not fool you.
Spiritual masters, and even mothers and fathers, parents, behave childishly when they are playing with a small child. They become like a child, they behave like a child. Parents behave like a child when they’re playing with a child, but they are not a child, they are not a child at all. Here we should be awake.
Be a seeker of the jelal of your master, not his smiling. Whatever you are going to spiritually gain you will get it through his jelal. Don’t expect that Kabir Dede will always smile, will always approve of you, always tell you, yes, you are the best! That should not be your expectation because only children have such an expectation. It is small children who always want to be petted, always loved, always hugged and approved of.
It’s a very old tradition that spiritual masters always go on a journey, they travel with their students. That’s a way of teaching, it’s a tradition of Sufism. If a Sufi student, a dervish, goes on a travel, on a journey, with his master, no matter what kind, it can be a one hundred percent touristic visit, but still the student should be very awake during that journey.
He or she should not say that okay this is just a tourist visit, no worries, because the dervish learns a lot during that travel. You are so lucky because you have the opportunity to travel with your master. God blessed you with this and you should be very awake. Don’t miss anything.
Don’t always expect your master to talk. Because the real teachings, the true teachings, are transmitted through silence. That’s why they used to say that the Mevlevi path is the path of understanding and communicating without words. It is the path of seeing without looking. It is the path in which you feel things without observing anything. Among all Sufi tariqas, Mevlevi dervishes are the ones who walk the spiritual path without words, without talking, without seeing, without observing.
Of course, I’m talking about true Mevlevis. Because half of the world is Mevlevi right now! We are not talking about that, I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the people who are aware, who are able to feel and sense, that’s the basics of Mevlevis, to be awake, to realise and to feel. To be able to hear the things before they are spoken.
The Holy Prophet says that my companions, my true representatives, are like the stars in the sky. You can find your path by looking at those stars. The critical point here is that the Prophet doesn’t say that you can find your path by talking with them, he says that you find your path by looking at them.
I consider myself as a sister of Kabir Dede. I would be very happy if he accepts me as a sister. So as his sister, as your Aunt, I would like to say that this is advice from your Aunt.
Don’t try to learn things from your master by talking with him or listening to him. Don’t make Kabir Dede talk. You realise it yourself before he says it, hear it. Because he is like the stars in the sky. You will find your path just by looking at him.
But I don’t mean just staring at him. I mean you should see the invisible in him. And when you see it, you don’t need the words anymore. The best dervish is the one who doesn’t make his or her master talk. The master shouldn’t feel the necessity to talk. The dervish should feel it, should sense it already.
That’s my prayer for you. The dervishes who are not a burden on the shoulders of their master. You should not be dervishes who are a burden on the shoulders of their master, but you should be dervishes who take the burden, who carry the burden from the shoulders of the master, and relieve their master’s shoulders from the burden.
Don’t look for a special position, a special treatment from your master. There is a great Sufi saint whom Hazret Mevlana loves, his name is Abu al-Hasan Harakani. Hazret Mevlana dedicated a long chapter in his Mesnevi for Abu al-Hasan Harakani. And Harakani, this great saint, he says that, a true dervish is the one for whom it is the same, whether he’s, you know, at the end of the dergah, you know, in the very far corner of the dergah, or in the, you know, in the best place of the dergah right next to the master. He doesn’t make any differentiation, wherever, whether he’s close to the master or just in a far corner.
Some dervishes always want to be just right next to their master or just in front of their master, always physically close to the master. Of course, that’s normal for a dervish. But the truth is that, for a true dervish, it’s just enough that he breathes the same air as his master, that’s already enough.
That’s the thing that you should feel. . . I’m already close to my master, I’m already breathing the same air, and that’s enough, that’s the attitude of a true dervish.
What I mean is that, as your Aunt, don’t, you know, make my Dede sad, you know? Make his things easier, so that he doesn’t need to spend too much time with you, because he has a lot of other things to do. He has so much things to do, so that he will have time to work on those other things.
Of course, you know, I cannot tell this to everybody, but I’m getting encouragement from the sincerity of Kabir Dede and that’s why I’m able to really tell you these things. And you know, I’m also your Aunt, so that’s why I have the right to talk to you.
I don’t have the keys to this building, this place, but I gave the keys to Kabir Dede. He has the keys. Truly, I don’t have the keys. They’re not with me, I gave them to Kabir Dede. Because this place is his place, this whole place. Sincerely, if I come to this place alone, without anyone, I cannot enter.