Our dearest friends,

We are celebrating your upcoming new year and humbly ask Allah for every step we take on the paths of both material and spiritual love to take us to the land of love, fondness, tranquility and salvation.

Entering a new year means that one looks back and judges their actions, and this will then light the path and guide them to their dreams for the future.

Failure to learn lessons from the past and to guide one’s future actions with this knowledge only pertains to animals.

Both in ‘zahir’ (physically) and ‘batin’ (inner-self) there is a time for the opening and closing of the book of judgment.

The spiritual time for this occasion is symbolized by Lailatul Baraat where Allah Ta'ala showers His mercy upon the ones who seek forgiveness, and the obvious time for the zahir (physical) is the beginning of a NEW YEAR.

By not judging our actions of the previous year and not endeavoring to compensate for our mistakes and wrongdoings as soon as possible, and therefore entering the new year and continuing to make the same mistakes…please accept my apologies, but this is called “Ahmaq” or foolishness.

Foolishness is such a malady:

Prophet Isa (Jesus, p.b.u.h.) was once seen running away from a man. People were surprised to see him running away. Prophet Isa (Jesus, p.b.u.h.) did not run away from anything or anybody. He was known for his goodness, humbleness and friendliness. They asked him: "Isa, spirit of Allah, why are you running away from that man?" Prophet Isa (Jesus, p.b.u.h.) replied: "I am running away from a fool."

Hazret-i Mevlana described people who do not learn lessons from their past as “One-eyed evils”.

We seek and take refuge in Allah, who is Rahman, and in ashk, which is in His name Ar-Rahim, to keep us from deviating from His path and to help us not to carry the same mistakes and wrongdoings that we made in the previous year and not to carry them into the following year.  And we seek refuge in Him for one day not to be the same as the next day.

We humbly supplicate ourselves before Allah and ask for the new year to help us to draw lessons from our pasts and to then look into our futures with this understanding.  And we wish that this year will bring all of us blessings, benediction, love, fondness, peace and salvation.

May your goodness (khayr) lead to goodness, may your love (ashk) lead to love

With our selam, love and best regards

On behalf of Semazen.net,

H. Nur Art?ran

nurartiran@superonline.com