KHATM-I TEHLÎL

Du’â (prayer) means to ask. It is like a hungry man’s asking for food when he has an appetite. It is very useful to do khatm-i tehlîl for a person who has died with îmân, that is, to say the kalima-i tawhîd seventy thousand times and present the thawâb to his soul. But we are in such a time that very few people die with îmân. It is written in Maqâmât-i Mazhâriyya: “A hadîth-i sherîf declares: ‘If a person says the Kalima-i tawhîd seventy thousand times for himself or for someone else, his (and/or the other person’s) sins will be forgiven.’Hadrat Mazhar-i Jân-i Jânân ‘qaddas-Allâhu sirrah ul’azîz’ was sitting near a prostitute’s grave, when he turned his tawajjuh to the grave, [that is, concentrated upon it without thinking of anything else]. He said, ‘There is Hell fire in this grave. I doubt if the woman has îmân. I shall present the thawâb of Khatm-i tehlîl to her soul. She will be forgiven if she has îmân.’ After presenting the thawâb of khatm-i tehlîl, he said: ‘Alhamdulillâh, she has îmân. The Kalima-i tayyiba has taken effect, and she has been forgiven.” It is stated in Manâhij-ul-’ibâd: “The Kalima-i-tawhîd is said seventy thousand times by one person or by a number of people.” It is stated in the hundred and twentieth letter of Makâtib-i-sherîfa: “The Khatm-i-tehlîl is very useful to living people, too.” It is written in a book of fatwâ, which occupies the number 520 of the Ibrâhîm Efendi ‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih’ section in the library of Süleymâniye: “Prayers must be said silently. It is ignorance (for an imâm) to say prayers together with the jamâ’at after the Friday prayer. It is bid’at for a preacher to say prayers aloud (and have all the listeners say âmîn) after his preaching is over. No report has come from the Salaf-i sâlihîn (that such things must be done). Such practices have been assimilated from Jews and Christians.”