Technology of the Heart

Wisdom Sayings of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti

2013-05-18T11:19:00.000+06:00

There is only one thing present in the entire universe and that is the NOOR (Divine Effulgence) of the Most Holy, Glorious is He, every thing else is absent.

The basis (for spiritual endeavors) must be A SOUND INTENTION, because while people note what you do, God almighty takes note of what you intend to do. When your intention is fixed on God, then a little amount of work will be greatly rewarded.

To look lovingly towards your parents is also a reason to gain the grace of your Lord.

An 'Aarif (a God realized saint) picks one foot and lands on the 'Arsh (Divine Throne of the Most Glorious) and with the other comes back again.

The saint possesses both walayat and wilayat at the same time. Walayat is that which masters impart to disciples about God, just as they teach them about the etiquette of the Way. Everything such as this which takes place between the Shaykh and other peoples is called walayat. But that which takes place between the Shaykh and God is called wilayat. That is a special kind of love, and when the Shaykh leaves the world, he takes his wilayat with him. His walayat, on the other hand, he can confer on someone else, whomever he wishes, and if he does not confer it, then it is suitable for God Almighty to confer that walayat on someone. But the wilayat is the Shaykh's constant companion; he bears it with him (wherever he goes).

There is only one veil standing between man and his creator and it is called nafs (soul).

Do not be disillusioned by the enormity of the universe.

If love is not an automatic guide then one will never reach ones destination.

Hoarding of wealth and food for profit has become a destructive disease in the body of the nation. To fight and eradicate this disease lies within each citizen.

No nation can ever achieve progress until the men and the women do not go ahead shoulder to shoulder.

Believe in law, unity and discipline and adopt its principles - you will become trustworthy in this world.

Organise your nation according to the economics, political, education and important laws and conditions. Then you will definitely see, you would become such a nation that everybody will accept you and respect you.

Freedom does not mean to be unbridled nor does it mean you can do as you please or choose as you wish or say as you will, for freedom is a great responsibility which should be used with great care and intelligence.

Renouncing worldliness does not mean, for instance, that one becomes naked, wearing only a loin cloth and sitting (in solitude). Renouncing worldliness means, instead, to wear clothes and to take food while at the same time keeping in continuous use whatever comes to hand, feeling no inclination to hoard and no attachment to material objects. That [disposition alone] is tantamount to renouncing worldliness

O! Young people, if you are going to use your strength and power in unnecessary pursuits then later you will regret it.

The waters of the streams and rivers when flowing make a lot of noise but when it meets with the sea then there is no more noise. One must ponder over the different stages of it’s behaviour.

Whatever you do not find agreeable for yourself, do not wish it to happen to others; wish for yourself (only) what you also wish for others.

The traveler is constantly on the way to perfection, that is, so long as he is progressing in the Way, he is in hope of perfection. There is the traveler, the standstill, and the retreater. The traveler is the one who treads the Path; the standstill is the one who stops along the Way. Every time the traveler lapses in his obedience, he becomes stationary. If he quickly resumes his work and repents, then he may again become a traveler. If, God forbid, he remains at a standstill, then he may become a retreater or backslider.

First there is thought, that is, it is the first thing to enter the heart. After that comes resolve, that is, a person fixes his heart on that thought. Finally, there is action, that is, a person implements that resolve. For ordinary people as long as they do nothing, they obtain no result, but for the elect, even to consider doing something is to be held accountable for it. A member of the elect should flee to God every moment of his life: since thought, resolve, and action are all the Creation of God, he should seek refuge in God under all circumstances.

So much of damage caused by sin has never been seen, as much as the damage caused by a brother being disrespectful and despicable towards another brother.

If a person has these 3 qualities then he is Allah’s wali (friend, a saint):

He is generous like the sea, every creation is blessed alike with his favours.

He is affectionate like the sun whose light is spread for everyone.

He is hospitable like the earth, which is hospitable in exactly the same way towards all.

~ Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, may Allah be well pleased with him ~

People of No Fear and No Grief - Who are they?

2013-05-17T17:24:00.001+06:00

The Fearless and Griefless Ones according to God's Promise

There is a phrase in the Final Testament which in Arabic reads as:

La Khawfun Alayhim Wa La Hum Yuhza nun

This translates as: No Fear on Them, Nor Shall They Grieve.

In this verse the Arabic word khawf is used which means fear, to be afraid, and you may find it in a number of places where this is mentioned in various context in the Quran. The word huzn or yahzanun means to grieve, to sorrow.

There are a total of 12 places in the Qur'an where people of certain qualities are mentioned for whom it is mentioned that they shall have no fear upon them, nor shall they grieve. In this article I attempt to explore who are the people of such station and the context within which they are mentioned so as to identify their qualities. These are the fearless and the griefless ones according to God's promise.

Those Who Follow Divine Guidance

The first of their reference comes on the 2nd Chapter, 38th Sign.

We said, "Go down from it, all of you. And when guidance comes to you from Me, whoever follows My guidance - there will be no fear upon them, nor will they grieve. -2:38

The context of this verse is the pre-eternity during the creation of the Human Consciousness symbolized by the First Man Adam. The Creator first teaches Him all knowledge or symbolically prepares the human consciousness to act as the vessel who shall inherit all knowledge in due time.

The context also tells us that Adamic manifestation is greater than that of the angels even though angels are innocent and ever engaged in the glorification of the Lord.

After Adamic consciousness is introduced the entire gamut of possible knowledge accessible to humanity, he is given refuge in the Garden. In the Garden Adam was forewarned which Adam forgot (which symbolizes the fact that human being is prone to forgetfulness) and disobeyed the Creator, hence find himself in the earthly station. Adam repented and out of the Infinite Mercy, God accepted Adam's repentance and first Divine revelation to mankind on the earthly plane was communicated (2:37). And during that first Divine revelation on the earthly plane some truth was conveyed and it is told: "When Guidance comes to you from Me, whoever follows My Guidance (huda) - there will be no fear upon them, nor will they grieve."

Those Who Have Faith and Do Good Deeds

The 2nd reference is in the 62nd Sign of the 2nd Chapter

Surely (the ones) who have faith and the ones who have Judaized and the Nasara (Christians) and the Sabi'in, (Sabaeans) whoever have believed in Allah and the Final Day of Judgment and do righteous good deeds, then they will have their reward in the Providence of their Lord, and no fear will be on them, neither will they grieve. -2:62

The context of this particular Sign is primarily about the Children of Israel, and yet the message is an universal one which convey glad tidings to not only to faithful Muslims but also to Jews and Christians and those who were known as Sabeans in the Seventh Century Arabia. Many say, the term Sabeans also encompass those who do not belong to any formal religion but who are still faithful in God, believe in the Final Judgment. Importantly faith or identity of faith is also coupled here with good deeds, virtuous actions. It is them who are such faithful ones, no matter what religious identity they find themselves with, for them the station of fearlessness and no grief awaits as reward.

Again this is mentioned in the 5th Chapter:

Surely those who have attained faith and those who are Jews and the Sabians and the Christians who believe in God and the Last Day of Judgment and who act wholesomely - no fear on them, nor shall they grieve. -5:69

The universality of Messengers sent by God to humanity across many ages are acknowledged again and again. They had the mission of communicating good news for those who follow truth and guidance and also warned those who gone astray and thus incur the wrath of God. Amidst it all, those who have faith coupled with good deeds are the ones who receive the station of fearlessness and grieflessness.

And We have not sent the messengers except as bringers of good news and warners. So whoever attains to faith and does good deeds, then there will be no fear on them and they will not grieve. -6:48

O children of Adam! if there come to you messengers from among you relating to you My communications, then whoever are mindful of God and act aright-- they shall have no fear nor shall they grieve. -7:35

The Wholly Surrendered Ones

The 3rd reference in in the 112th Sign of the 2nd Chapter

Yes indeed, whoever has surrendered his face (i.e., surrendered his will) to Allah and is a doer of good, then he has his reward in the Providence of his Lord and no fear will be upon them, neither will they grieve. -2:112

During the time of God's Messenger, some Christians and Jews used to say that they have exclusive access to Heaven and everyone else would go to Hell. This attitude still persist among some religiously blind people when they think only they are saved, rest are doomed.

Through Quran God challenges this narrow attitude and says no single religious community has a monopoly over Divine Grace. The 111th verse quotes some of the arrogant saying, "And they say: "None shall enter Paradise unless he be a Jew or a Christian."

Then God goes on to reveal the true criteria for entering the Kingdom, "Rather, whoever surrendered his, her face, essence, will to God, and is a doer of goodness, shall have their reward with God, and neither shall fear be upon him nor shall he grieve.

The Charitable Ones Who are Not Showy

Showiness and hidden agenda corrupts charity. In the same 2nd Chapter, Sign 262 mentions another group of people for whom God promises the station of fearlessness and grieflessness.

Those who spend their wealth in the Cause of Allah, and do not follow up their gifts with reminders of their generosity or with injury, their reward is with their Lord. On them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve. -2:262

The next sign reminds the etiquette of giving and what is better. "Kind speech and forgiveness are better than charity followed by injury. And Allah is Free of need and Forbearing." -2:263

The same station is again promised for charitable ones who spend either secretly or openly.

Those who spend their wealth by night and by day, secretly and openly - for them their reward is with their Lord. No fear shall be upon them, and they shall not grieve. -2:274

The context of the above verse is all about good adab or etiquette of charity that spans from 2:261 to 2:281.

In the same context, the station comes up again.

Surely, those who securely believe and do good and stand for salah (prayer) and give the zakah (poor due), for them their reward is with their Lord. And no fear shall be upon them, and they shall not grieve. -2:277

The above Sign encompasses the life of a Surrendered person who has faith in the Absolute, who perform good out of love of God, who turn himself or herself towards God in prayer because he, she know that it is the highest action to face the Real and who give what is his, her out of love God as an witness to their love. For such people the station of fearlessness and grieflessness is promised.

The Martyrs

And reckon not those who are killed in Allah's way as dead; nay, they are alive (and) are provided sustenance from their Lord; Rejoicing in what Allah has given them out of His grace and they rejoice for the sake of those who, (being left) behind them, have not yet joined them, that they shall have no fear, nor shall they grieve. They rejoice in the Grace and Bounty from Allah, and Allah does not allow the reward of faithfuls to be lost. -3:169,171

The Friends of God

Surely for the friends of Allah (awliyaAllah) there is neither fear nor grief - those who believe and guard themselves - for them good news in the life of the world and in the final world. There is no change in the Words of Allah. This is the supreme triumph. -10:62-64

Those Who Acknowledge the Absolute and Stay on the Right Path

Indeed, those who have said, "Our Lord is Allah ," and then continued on the right path - there will be no fear upon them, nor will they grieve. Such shall be Companions of the Gardens, abiding eternally therein: a reward for their deeds. -46:13,14

So thus above are the various group of people for whom the Promise of Allah remains that they shall not fear and nor will they grieve, specially on a Tremendous Day of Judgment when no soul can in any way help another, neither their intercession be accepted even if they wanted to give the whole world as a ransom. On that Day Authority shall be entirely to the One Who has all Authority, the King, the True Master, the Lord of the multiverse.

Unquestionably, the promise of Allah is truth, but most of them do not know. It is He Who gives life, and causes death, and to Him you shall eventually return. -10:55-56

-- Sadiq M. Alam, Dhaka, Bangladesh

(No Copyright Reserved / All Knowledge is from the One / Free to Copy, Distribute, Publish with or without attribution)

Sun of God / Wisdom of Aethero

2013-05-15T10:04:00.000+06:00

Arise

1.
The sun lights all possible directions, but have you ever wondered what directions mean to the sun itself? Can you even tell if the light is traveling away from its core or towards it?

Does the light makes the sun the sun or the sun make the light the light?

Is that even important to the sun, who is who and who makes who, who gives who and who receives from who?

If I were a sun, I guarantee you, this would all mean nothing to me!

Because the sun is omnipresent in all directions!

It doesn't need to departs itself in order to find itself, it's simply self encirled!

Omnipresent? So what is PRESENT to begin with?

Present = Another meaning for existence that ironically could also mean a gift too.

If you were to choose between existing under conditions of joy and sorrow and not existing at all, what would you choose?

Most people I ask, they respond: EXISTING OF COURSE!

What could this possibly imply?

It can only imply one thing, existence in itself represents an absolute form of goodness that is beyond the relative good and evil of any state falling under existence.

Existence to those states is like awakening to a dream, but our problem is that we know not how to enjoy a dream without forgetting that it is a dream.

We take life too seriously and thus we allow the past and the future to steel away the true meaning of a present.

We know not how to be eyes enjoying the dream, we always need to be limbs suffering inside of it.

So, lets go back to the present or rather be in it !

What is a present?!! What is a gift?!!

A gift is something granted to you with no expectations in return! The only proper way to accept and receive a true gift, is to forget about its source and its price and simply enjoy it. Its actually the only way to say a proper 'thank you' as well.

So, can you bring yourself to enjoy the present even in the least times you think or believe you deserve to?!! Cause if you don't think you deserve it, then you are either living in a past that you regret or a future that you can't get, and no one says you have to but you!

Don't blame God for who you are, because if God changes you into someone else am sure you'll blame him for who he is! I swear not by the blameful soul, neither by the God of punishment and reward!

Most people believe if they laugh now, they are bound to cry soon after; that is cause they're not acquainted with the logic of a present - a gift. Their minds orbit around a give-in-order-to-receive paradigm, where they believe they're being given something which they will have to pay for soon after.

Well, let me tell you something about the code of giving itself.

True giving is as simple as being and seeing, its effortless.

Behold the Sun! Who can ever possibly give what the sun gives to this world?

Does the Sun make an effort to give light or does it simply shine for what it is and the rest comes automatically?.

Your willingness to receive is the only condition of accepting a gift, its the only condition of living and enjoying the present; yet most people simply do not know how to receive, they just don't know how to sit back and enjoy the present without worrying about its cost and its source and and and

and...

Who is Christ and why is he who he is?

You obviously mistake him to be a role-player, an ultimate giver; and the first image that comes to mind when thinking Christ of course is the image of sacrifice, the image of someone paying a price on behalf of humanity...

Well, let me tell you something; Christ before being the Son of God, he is the Sun of God...

Christ is who he is (in the rank that God grants him) cause he is one who is most ready to receive in every moment without asking why, where, what, and when?

This readiness springs from his knowledge and trust of the overflowing nature of the Source he receives from. He is thus ready to give away all what he receives cause he doesn't see giving as loosing something to another, but rather he sees in giving an image of receiving; he doesn't acknowledge the logic of the gold coins (paying to receive).

The present comes to Christ, so why would he seek it in a future?

Why would one trade what he knows for what he doesn't, what he has for what he hasn't?

The world in every moment slips into his past, and he effortlessly saves it back into the present just as the Sun does, by being who he and shining with what he is right here right now.

REBOOT RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW FROM EVERYTHING YOU JUDGE YOURSELF TO BE IN ORDER TO BE.

Don't ever say 'i am this and that', but rather say 'i am not this and not that'.

Don't ever let the situation define you and the equation imprison you.

Remember, you're an eye witnessing above and beyond, before being a hand or a leg entangled down and below... Your true self cannot be arrived at by the cloud of judgments and definitions, it can only shine after all clouds clear the sky; Your true identity partakes from an alive entity called The Spirit, which is like the Sun omnipresent; it knows no future or past, left or right, above or below, progression or regression, but rather only 360 degree presence.

Believe it or not, your true identity is emanated to you momentarily, so don't allow any past impressions of who you are or future aspirations of who you want to be to prevent you from receiving it.

Always remember, in a dream, the dreamer can be anyone he wants to be anytime he want to be, provided that he never forgets hes in a dream.

credit

2.
When you think, you view the thought/image !

There's you (The Viewer), the thought/image (The Viewed) with a separating distance in between; and a light that permeates vision. can you see there's a trinity involved in the process.

In your mind you see a thought/image, but there's light upon that image! where does the light come from, how is the mind illuminated?

Your self is the light! The Sun/Son that breathes life to your view screen/mind's eye.

The Sun and Earth are a physical representation of how the mind operates, with the Sun representing the boundless infinite 'potentially everything' (the viewer) and the Earth, the finite (the viewed).

What better representation of the ineffable self that is only known in linear finite terms than a great bubbling ball of fire giving life to the Earth, an Earth that is defined and linear.

As above so below.

credit

The road to hell is paved with good intentions!

Don't be 'good' be 'real'!

Being 'real' starts with not fooling yourself into assuming 'roles' inside equations!

When you 'give' you're playing a role.

This is called 'The Savior Complex'

If that's how you feel about 'giving' by all means don't give; you'll do the world a favor...

'To Give' is not a role!

And for 'goodness sake' try not to ever say to someone 'I did this for you!' 'I gave you this or that!'

We all do things indirectly for our own selves - if not for a clear intentional motive in mind at least to reinforce being who we are (the reality we choose to be embedded within).

The current paradigm (which inspires most religious and secular institutions) tend to equate G I V I N G with L O O S I N G something to another!

In reality, giving is a model originally inspired by the SUN! Does the sun loose light when it shines a universe around or does it simply shine for what it is: a sun?! It shines with identity!

The paradigm shift (the new world paved by the internet technology which is currently assembling people globally in accord to cognitive standards as opposed to institutional, cultural or geographic ones) will no longer equate giving to loosing, but rather to receiving, giving is becoming less material and more cognitive or aethereal; it's as simple as shining for who you are for better or for worse!

The moment you shine for who you are, you automatically receive your subject- identity-in-space-and-time (your truth-in-finality) in return! You don't give now in the hope of receiving tomorrow - you receive the moment you're giving!

Currency and its language is shifting too presenting new models of giving more cognitively integrated and less meaningless as currently numbers are in bank accounts. You will witness the finality of every expression and action you invest in right here right now !

~ Wisdom of Aethero

Overview Effect and the Experience of Savikalpa Samadhi of the Astronauts

2013-05-10T12:31:00.001+06:00

Overview effect of the astronauts is like gnosis of the self of seekers

Have you heard of the overview effect? When the astronauts first time went into the space and even though their intention was to go beyond the earth, to the moon and to the stars - yet from that outerspace when they looked back at the planet earth itself, there happened an extra ordinary thing to the observers. Looking back at the earth, experiencing this unique place created by the Mysterious Creator, there was a tremendous cognitive shift for the observers, to the astronauts which was equivalent of gnosis of self-awareness of spiritual seekers.

When these astronauts came back to the earth, something in them changed forever. Astronomers and scientists told us about the place of earth in the solar system and how it is positioned in the space, how we are hanging out there in a hostile space, how we are rotating and circling around the sun, yet knowing that and experiencing it by first hand witnessing it is an altogether different thing. One is just knowing with theoretical knowledge, the other is witnessing (shahada). And the effect of that grand witnessing on the mind and hearts of the astronaut was called the overview effect by the very astronauts themselves.

History of this term goes back to the era of Apollo 8 when we human beings were not prepared enough to land on the moon, but in 1968 we achieved going out of the earth's gravitation field and circling the moon. During that period while circling the moon, while it was transmitting images to earth, one of the astronaut turned the camera towards the earth and first time humanity collectively could see through other human beings the earth floating amidst space. It was one of the first time humanity saw the planet earth hanging in space like that against the backdrop of infinity so to speak. Many described it a profound experience for it was a new kind of self-awareness.

The term and concept were coined in 1987 by Frank White, who explored them in his book The Overview Effect - Space Exploration and Human Evolution (Houghton-Mifflin, 1987), (AIAA, 1998).

About the Film: Overview Effect

Astronauts who have seen the Earth from space have often described the ‘overview effect’ as an experience that has transformed their perspective of the planet and mankind’s place upon it, and enabled them to perceive it as our shared home, without boundaries between nations or species.

OVERVIEW is a short film that explores this perspective through interviews with astronauts who have experienced the overview effect. The film also feature insights from commentators and thinkers on the wider implications and importance of this understanding for humanity as a whole, and especially its relevance to how we meet the tremendous challenges facing our planet at this time. It is also a film about eco-spirituality, about our awareness of oneness of the planet, of humanity and the greater reality.

“I was flying cross-country, from the East coast to the West coast in the 1970s, and I was looking out the window. And as I was looking down at the planet, the thought came to me: anyone living in a space settlement, or living on the moon, would always have an overview. They would see things that we know, but we don’t experience. That the Earth is one system, and we’re all part of that system. And that there is a certain unity and coherence to it all. And I immediately called it the ‘Overview Effect’.” ~ Frank White

The film features:
    • EDGAR MITCHELL – Apollo 14 astronaut and founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences
    • RON GARAN – ISS astronaut and founder of humanitarian organisation Fragile Oasis
    • NICOLE STOTT – Shuttle and ISS astronaut and member of Fragile Oasis
    • JEFF HOFFMAN – Shuttle astronaut and senior lecturer at MIT
    • SHANE KIMBROUGH – Shuttle/ISS astronaut and Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army
    • FRANK WHITE – space theorist and author of the book ‘The Overview Effect’
    • DAVID LOY- philosopher and author
    • DAVID BEAVER – philosopher and co-founder of The Overview Institute

Awe is one of those words that you have a better understanding of once you see it too... ~ Nicole Stott, Shuttle/ISS Astronaut

To have that experience of awe is at least for the moment to let go of yourself. To transcend the sense of separation. So it was not just they were experiencing something other than them, but they were at some very deep level integrating, realizing their inteconnectedness with that beautiful pale blue ball.   ~ David Loy, Philosophy

“It really does look like this really beautiful oasis out in the middle of nothingness. And if you have a chance for your eyes to adjust, and you can actually see the stars and the milky way, it’s this oasis against the backdrop of infinity – this enormous universe behind it.” ~ Ron Garan

Apollo 14 Astronaut Edgar Mitchell during one of this trips in the space had a profound experience when the Apollo lunar module was coming back to earth and it was rotating. As a result, every two minute he was seeing a picture of the earth, the moon and sun and 360 panaroma of heaven appeared in the spacecraft window. And that gave him a profound experience of oneness.

After he came back and trying to understand what this experience was all about, he couldnt find anything in science literature or even religious literature that he looked at. Then he was contacted by the local library saying, “Well, in the ancient literature we found a description called ‘savikalpa samadhi’. That means that you see things as you see them with your eyes, but you experience them emotionally and viscerally, as with ecstasy, and a sense of total unity and oneness. I said thats exactly what the experience was.”

What is Samadhi and Savikalpa Samadhi

Savikalpa samadhi, the highest of spiritual states of consciousness, second only to nirvikalpa samadhi (infinite bliss). The sanskrit word Savikalpa samādhi is a state of samādhi in which one's consciousness temporarily dissolves into Brahman.

According to Great Master Paramahansa Yogananda: In this state, one lets go of the ego and becomes aware of Spirit beyond creation. The soul is then able to absorb the fire of Spirit-Wisdom that "roasts" or destroys the seeds of body-bound inclinations. The soul as the meditator, its state of meditation, and the Spirit as the object of meditation all become one. The separate wave of the soul meditating in the ocean of Spirit becomes merged with the Spirit. The soul does not lose its identity, but only expands into Spirit. In savikalpa samadhi the mind is conscious only of the Spirit within; it is not conscious of the exterior world. The body is in a trancelike state, but the consciousness is fully perceptive of its blissful experience within.

Describing Savikalpa Samadhi, Sri Chinmoy a Spiritual Teacher from Bengal wrote:

Samadhi is a spiritual state of consciousness. There are various kinds of samadhi. Among the minor samadhis, savikalpa samadhi happens to be the highest. Beyond savikalpa comes nirvikalpa samadhi, but there is a great gulf between these two: they are two radically different samadhis. Again, there is something even beyond nirvikalpa samadhi called sahaja samadhi.

In savikalpa samadhi, for a short period of time you lose all human consciousness. In this state the conception of time and space is altogether different. For an hour or two hours you are completely in another world. You see there that almost everything is done. Here in this world there are many desires still unfulfilled in yourself and in others. Millions of desires are not fulfilled, and millions of things remain to be done. But when you are in savikalpa samadhi, you see that practically everything is done; you have nothing to do. You are only an instrument. If you are used, well and good; otherwise, things are all done. But from savikalpa samadhi everybody has to return to ordinary consciousness.

In savikalpa samadhi there are thoughts and ideas coming from various places, but they do not affect you. While you are meditating, you remain undisturbed, and your inner being functions in a dynamic and confident manner. But when you are a little higher, when you have become one with the soul in nirvikalpa samadhi, there will be no ideas or thoughts at all.

When you enter into nirvikalpa samadhi, the first thing you feel is that your heart is larger than the universe itself. Ordinarily you see the world around you, and the universe seems infinitely larger than you are. But this is because the world and the universe are perceived by the limited mind. When you are in nirvikalpa samadhi, you see the universe as a tiny dot inside your vast heart.

In nirvikalpa samadhi there is infinite bliss. Bliss is a vague word to most people. They hear that there is something called bliss, and some people say that they have experienced it, but most individuals have no firsthand knowledge of it. When you enter into nirvikalpa samadhi, however, you not only feel bliss, but actually grow into that bliss.

The third thing you feel in nirvikalpa samadhi is power. All the power of all the occultists put together is nothing compared with the power you have in nirvikalpa samadhi. But the power that you can take from samadhi to utilise on earth is infinitesimal compared with the entirety.

Nirvikalpa samadhi is the highest samadhi that most realised spiritual Masters attain. It lasts for a few hours or a few days, and then one has to come down.

Experiencing Unity

Sub Ek - All is One

The great wisdom traditions, spiritual and religious tradition speaks of Unity and Savikalpa Samadhi that Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, experienced upon seeing the earth from space, is also sub-set of that unity experience.

What they named as the overview effect it is the same realizations of this unity, this oneness of all life, of earth, of consciousness and awareness.

In the shortfilm one of the speaker explains:
"As you go into your mind in a contemplative way, the sense of the living reality of the planet becomes obvious. You become more in tune with the natural world. This is very akin to the direct perception of the astronauts have. So its no wonder have many people have likened the overview effect to spiritual or meditation expreience, although its not exactly that. Its a cognitive shift that very often can produce a kind of meditative experience."

"I dont know how you can't have greater appreciation after you have seen it that way. .. collectively everybody has that emblazen on their memory the way the planet looks. You cant take that lightly. You realize that you are blessed by the opportunity to see that. "- Nicole Stott, Shuttle and ISS astronaut

One of the earliest spiritual experience of man was when premitive man gazed at the night sky which must have looked liked infinite vastness to his eyes. The infinite horizon is still a place turning towards which we may become contemplative again. This documentary is another fine example and testimony of that.

Click on the Image Below to Watch this Beautiful Documentary: OVERVIEW

The Most Merciful taught how to read.
Created Man and taught him eloquence.
The sun and the moon (governed) by precious calculation.
The stars and trees submit to the glory of the All Glorious.
And the Lord raised the heaven and imposed harmonious balance.

O assembly of mankind and otherkind, if you are able to pass
beyond the threshold of the heavens and the earth, then pass.
You will not pass except by authority.

So which of the favors of your Lord would you deny?

~ The Quran, 55

* Overview the Movie
* Photo of Overview Effect
* Overview Institute
* Continuum: the Movie
* Cognitive Shift
* The First Photo From Space
* Guide to Samadhi
* How to Attain Savikalpa Samadhi in Meditation

God is the Source of the intelligent universe; it rejoices in our rejoicings, it celebrates in our celebrations, it dances with our dance

2013-05-02T22:54:00.000+06:00

LL Ori and the Orion Nebula

1.

There is a Power, a Power that controls the moon, the stars and the sun. It is a Power that can burn all other powers. It is the Power that pervades each atom, all that is finite, all that is infinite, a Power that no one can see... It has no assistance. It is completely alone. Original.

~ M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen

Brahman is beyond mind and speech, beyond concentration and meditation, beyond the knower, the known and knowledge, beyond even the conception of the real and unreal. In short, It is beyond all relativity.

The human mind trying to fathom the nature of God is like an ant trying to carry away a mountain of sugar.

God alone is the guide and Guru of the cosmos.

Meditate upon the Knowledge and Bliss Eternal, and you will also have bliss. The Bliss indeed is eternal, only it is covered and obscured by ignorance. The less your attachment is towards the senses, the more will be your love towards God.

~ Saying of Sri Ramakrishna

2.

Keshav Chandra (1838-1884) was one of the most intelligent people of his time. He founded a religion just on his intellectual philosophy, brahmasamaj, the society for God. And he had hundreds and thousands of intelligent people, a very intelligent group, as his followers. And he was puzzled that this uneducated Ramakrishna (1836-1886), who had not even completed the primary school – in India the primary school, the lowest school, takes four years; he had done only half.... Why were thousands of people going to this idiot?

That was in Keshav Chandra Sen’s mind. Finally he decided he had to go and defeat this man, because he could not think that the man could not be defeated by argument. That was impossible for him to imagine. This idiot from a small village is collecting thousands of people every day! From far and wide people are coming to see him, and to touch his feet!

Keshav Chandra with his followers informed Ramakrishna: ”I am coming on such and such a day to challenge you on every point in which you believe. Be ready!” Ramakrishna’s followers were very much afraid.

Keshav Chandra Sen

They knew Keshav Chandra was a great logician; poor Ramakrishna would not be able to answer anything. But Ramakrishna was very joyful, he danced. He said, ”I have been waiting all this time. When Keshav Chandra comes that will be a great day of joy!”

His disciples said, ”What are you saying? That will be a day of great sadness, because you cannot argue with him.”

Ramakrishna said, ”Wait. Who is going to argue with him? I don’t need to argue. Let him come.” But his disciples were shaky, very shaky, very much afraid that their master was going to be defeated, completely crushed. They knew Keshav Chandra. In that century there was no parallel to Keshav Chandra’s intelligence in this country.

And Keshav Chandra came with one hundred of his topmost disciples to see the argument, the debate, the challenge. Ramakrishna was standing on the road to receive him, far away from the temple where he used to live. And he hugged Keshav Chandra. And Keshav Chandra felt a little embarrassed, and that embarrassment went on growing.

Ramakrishna took his hand in his hand and took him inside. He said, ”I have been waiting and waiting for years. Why did you not come before?”

Keshav Chandra said, ”He seems to be a strange man, seems not to be afraid at all. Do you understand? I have come here for a discussion!”

Ramakrishna said, ”Of course.”

So they sat near the temple by the side of the Ganges, a beautiful place, under a tree.

And Ramakrishna said, ”Start.”

So Keshav Chandra asked him, ”What do you say about God?”
Ramakrishna said, ”Have I to say anything about God? Can’t you see God in my eyes?”

Keshav Chandra looked a little puzzled – ”What kind of argument is this?”
And Ramakrishna said, ”Can’t you feel God in my hand? Come closer, boy.”

And Keshav Chandra said, ”What kind of argument...?” He had been in many debates, he had defeated many great scholars, and this villager... In Hindi the word for idiot is gamar, but it actually means the villager. gaon means village, and gamar means from the village. But gamar is used as stupid, retarded, idiot.

Ramakrishna said, ”If you can understand the language of my eyes, if you can understand the energy of my hand, you are proof enough that existence is intelligent. Where have you got your intelligence from?”

Sri Ramakrishna

This was a grand argument. He was saying, ”If you have got this great intelligence – and I know you are a highly intelligent person; I have always loved you – tell me from where it comes? If existence is without intelligence you cannot get it. From where? You are the proof that existence is intelligent, and that is what I mean by God.

To me God is not somebody sitting on a cloud. To me God simply means existence is not unintelligent. It is an intelligent universe; we belong and we are needed. It rejoices in our rejoicings, it celebrates in our celebrations, it dances with our dance. Have you seen my dance?” – and he started dancing.

Keshav Chandra said, ”What to do!” But he danced so beautifully. He was a good dancer, because he used to dance in the temple sometimes from morning till evening – no coffee break! He would dance and dance till he would fall on the ground.

So he started dancing with such joy and such grace that suddenly there was a transformation in Keshav Chandra. He forgot all his logic, he saw the beauty of this man, he saw the splendor of this man, he saw a joy which he had never felt.

All that intellect, all those arguments were just superficial, inside there was utter emptiness. This man was so overflowing.

He touched the feet of Ramakrishna and said, ”Forgive me. I was absolutely wrong about you. I know nothing, and I have been just philosophizing. You know everything, and you are not saying a single word.”

~ Osho

3.

He who show, does not know
He who know, does not show.

~ A wisdom saying

Rising Above the World is Fruit of Illumination

2013-04-30T02:00:00.000+06:00

Photograph by Karin Kirsch

Listen: this world is the lunatic's sphere,

Don't always agree it's real,

Even with my feet upon it

And the postman knowing my door

My address is somewhere else.

~ Hafiz, The Gift ~

Dunya or everything of the phantom world which causes one to forget the Real - is a dense veil which prevent one from seeing God, literally and metaphorically.

Literally because the Maker of this world has imbued it with infinite Signs and He is az-Zahir, He is Manifest, and when we are caught up only with the veil we miss the One Who is behind every face. He is the Mover, the Power, the Transformer, and yet when we choose to remain ignorant, that ignorance become our blindness, preventing us to see the Real.

Some one asked the great sage of Bengal Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa: 'Sir, have you seen God?' Without a moment's hesitation the reply was given: 'Yes, I have seen God. I see Him as I see you here, only more clearly. God can be seen. One can talk to him. But who cares for God? People shed torrents of tears for their wives, children, wealth, and property, but who weeps for the vision of God? If one cries sincerely for God, one can surely see Him.'

Metaphorically in this sense that through intelligence, through intuition, through kashf we see through the eyes of our inner heart. But the denseness of the dense world, when it occupy our attention, the faculties of inner perception are too dull to perceive the One Who is Batin, the Hidden, Who is al-Latif, the Most Subtle.

Thus rising above or say it another way, turning back at the world is a fruit of enlightenment or inner illumination. If we look at the example of the world's most enlightened human beings of the past, the great ones (and the fact that their influence and name spans across millennia is a powerful enough testimony that they were human being of tremendous influence even in the domain of time and space), we will come to appreciate this truth.

Prince Gautama was living in great opulence, he was the prince and yet the path of enlightenment was the path of rising above and turning back at the worldliness, primarily wealth accumulation, fame etc. Such beings became what they became when they rose above the world. Christ himself is another great example and many of the ordinary human beings who came into his touch, became his companions, his apostles and hence became extra-ordinary ones - the first act they were commanded to do by Christ was to exercise detachment with wealth, to give away all to the poor and needy.

You will find no attachment with the worldliness in the life of the great ones for they turned back at the world. Turning back upon the world refers to detachment from the world for the sake of attachment to the King of the World. Here lesser is sacrificed for the greater, nay the greatest treasure.

Thus a spiritual law can be discovered here. The degree of one's attachment to the Divine is proportional to one's detachment from the world and its manifestations.

The validity of this spiritual law can be traced back to the saying of the Blessed Christ, “No-one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Money.” (Matthew 6:24)

“As fire and water cannot coexist within the same container; in the same way love of the Eternal Kingdom to come and love of this ever wasting world cannot coexist in the heart of a believer.” ~ Saying of Mother Mary

Or it can be said in a different language, the more the heart is empty of the world, the more it is suited to welcome the King of the World.

“He who loves his dunya (present world) hurts his Akhirah (eternal life), and he who loves his akhirah hurts his dunya. Therefore you should give preference to the one that lasts over the one that is to perish.” ~ Saying of Prophet Muhammad

“Nay (behold), you prefer the life of this world; but the Hereafter is superior and lasting.” [Quran, Sûrah al-A`lâ: 16-17]

“But little is the enjoyment of this life, as compared with the Hereafter.” [Quran, Sûrah al-Taubah: 38]

"Know that the life of this world is merely a game and a diversion and decoration and a cause of boasting among yourselves and trying to outdo one another in wealth and children: like the plant-growth after rain which delights the cultivators, but then it withers and you see it turning yellow, and then it becomes broken stubble. In the Next World there is terrible punishment but also forgiveness from Allah and His good pleasure. The life of this world is nothing but the enjoyment of delusion."

"Describe for them the likeness of the life of this world. It is like water which We send down from the sky and the plants of the earth combine with it but then become dry chaff scattered by the winds. Allah has complete power over everything. Wealth and children are the embellishment of the life of this world. But, in your Lord's sight, right actions which are lasting are better in reward and a better basis for hope." ~ Message of the Qur'an

"Fazhad fid-dunya - warghab fil akhira.”

"Leave the dunya behind you, and seek the next life.”
~ Sacred tradition of Islam

Whether we want or not, we have to leave this world behind. Whether we want or not, we shall come to meet the next life, the Kingdom, the akhirah. So intelligent is one, illuminated in knowledge is one who has understood this reality fully and thus strives to rise above the world, to live in the world yet being above it.

May God illuminated our heart with beneficial knowledge and gnosis and dispel the darkness of ignorance and help us overcome the world and to rise above it. Amen.

Bangladesh Factory Tragedy and Tracing the Root of All Evil

2013-04-28T02:36:00.001+06:00

1.
Bangladesh is mourning.

Imagine a nine-story building collapsing in seconds and reduced to a height of only three story with three to five thousand people inside. Thats what happened here when a nine-story building with mostly garment manufacturers collapsed in Savar, in the outskirts of capital city Dhaka which killed more than 300 people so far (the number is increasing by every hour as new bodies are discovered) and injured more than two thousands. close to five hundreds are believed to be still trapped under the rubble. Six garment manufacturers were operating from the third to the eight floor of the structure in Savar and at least five thousand people were inside the crowded building when it caved in on the morning of April 24, 2013. The building collapsed at around 9am soon after the workers began their work in the factories, a big crack appeared in the building’s structure on the Tuesday, making it extremely unsafe for use.

Bangladesh is the second largest producer of ready-made garments after China. International retailers Walmart, H&M, Sears, GAP, Tommy Hilfiger and many other renowned brands outsource their cloths from Bangladesh, bearing the tag “Made in Bangladesh.” [Source: Global Voice Online]

The background of this tragedy is really infuriating the people of Bangladesh because this tragedy has everything to do with greed and carelessness. This was not an accident, but a death trap created by some people who are so filthy greedy that they forced these labours into work just the next day even after there was a clear sign that the building had massive crack on walls and it was inspected by some officials who recommended that the building be evacuated. The owner of the building as well as the owner of the garments factory housed in that building ignore and forced those poor soul to work in that dangerous building.

It appeared through the investigation of the local news media that the owner of this building is a powerful local politician who grabbed the very land upon which this factory building was erected. He ignored all standard and the building was built with poor material and without following building code standards. There were corruption in the entire process of erecting this building and its use and sign of evading law in every turn.

No only that, after the collapse the owner and local politician, who was also inside the building, escaped with the help of local Minister of Parliament. The police is still searching him, but many doubt the sincerity of the pursuit because of past examples how such political characters get invisible protection by the government and fail to come under the rule of law. As more investigation comes out of this tragedy the more we get to know how the lives of all those people were so carelessly ignored because more profit are to be made through cheap labors.

"Those who died in the Rana building are victims not only of the malfeasance of the sub-contractors, but also of twenty-first century globalisation." ~ Vijay Prashad, The Terror of Capitalism

Among all these news of tragedy one thing that emerged greatly is the fact that almost close to 3,000 people were rescued alive from under the rubble which itself is like a miracle. There were a number of factors that can be attributed to this miracle, but primarily it is the triumph of human spirit. The way common people along with the arm force and fire service personnel joined in hand and very bravely went inside this collapsed structure without fearing their own lives and painstakingly drilled hole to go from one floor to another is quite an impossible feat. May God bless the soul of those which we lost in this tragedy and give speedy recovery to all who survived.

For this particular tragedy We from Porshee Foundation is partnering with Sneha Foundation to help with short term and long term help of the victims and their family. After the recovery phase all the families will need immediate help and Sneha Foundation is working towards that which we hope to also support in our small capacity as well.

2.
Surrounding this tragedy and the fact that it was our excessive greed on part of few individuals, a friend of mine shared the following quotation by Dr. Paul Farmer, who said, "The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world."

This reminded a saying of the Prophet which apparently is also found in slight other variation in Christian tradition, and it says:

Infatuation of the temporal world (hubb-e-dunya) is the root of all evil ~ Sacred Tradition of Islam

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with much suffering. ~ 1 Timothy 6:10

If you look at all the wars, man's exploitation of other human beings, the war for oil, gas and for control over territory - for each of which, if you dig deeply and clear all the lies, the same truth will emerge that it is the excessive greed, the infatuation and blindness of true reality which causes such sufferings. It is when the lower self of human being is allowed to have dominance, then greed and tendency to consider other lives less important can hijack conscience, ethics and morality.

The incident of drone attack, indiscriminate killings of civilians, the wholesale ignoring of safety for the sake of cheap labour are all coming out of the same source of evil which was predicted by the wise souls in the past.

3.
The term that the Prophet used in the above saying, is hubb-e-dunya, which can be translated as Love of the Temporal World. The arabic word Dunya doesnt exactly translate well when said, "World."

Maulana Rumi sums it up in one line, where he poses the question, and then answers it. He says, “What is dunya? It is to be unmindful of Allah.” Anything that makes you forget the Real is Dunya.

According to Islamic scholars all things that appeal to the lower-self (nafs) and at the same time takes one's self way from God and God's reality, His Kingdom is Dunya. In the Christian tradition money is categorically called the source of all evil. Money is one of the subset of Dunya, most people are made blind because of wealth, money. But there are some who are blinded by other things such as pride, power, flesh etc. All of these sources collectively are called Dunya. Dunya is the intentional and voluntary adoption of anything evil which causes one to become forgetful of Allah irrespective of what that thing may be.

The acquisition of wealth and other material means is not evil, but Hubb-e-dunya (love for such material objects) is evil and not only that, it is the source of all evil. Wealth is like the water in the ocean and the heart of man is like the ship sailing in the ocean. Water, while it facilitates the movement of the ship can also bring about its sinking. As long as the water remains outside the ship, it aids its sailing. But entry of the water into the ship causes it to sink. Similar is the case of wealth. Wealth aids man as long as it remains outside his heart. However, of its love enters the heart it will bring about his destruction.

If you look at the political elites, if you look at those who are responsible for wars - you will find that it is money and profit making which is behind all of it. Many first world countries now a days because of economic pressure think that only if they can go to another war they could sell more of their weapons, their industrial complex will keep rolling and they could show that more jobs were added to the economy though they will never say that those news jobs were about manufacturing new bullets and automatic weapens to be used in Civil wars in Africa or to supply to create more deaths in Iraq, Afghanistan or Syria.

The intelligent ones thus say: 'The dunya (or the world) is like a serpent whose skin is colourful and most beautiful. But its poison is fatal. Intelligent people maintain a distance from such danger and are not lured by the externally adorned skin. But a little child unaware of the danger of a snake is attracted by the external beauty and is prepared to grab hold of the snake. We are comparable to the little child. We are attracted to the world by its external beauty and adornment without being aware of its dangers. Men of intelligence and experience do not incline towards the world.

People are generally deceived and overwhelmed by the glitter of the world because they are not aware of its reality. Should the reality of the world be revealed, they would become utterly disillusioned and detest it.'

4.
What is the Remedy against such Evil?

First of all one needs to acknowledge in heart the reason of creation. God the Creator created everything for human beings and He created human beings for Himself. What it means that we were created for Him? It means we are created so that we may understand our divine nature and divine purpose. So that we may come to recognize the divine spark that is within us, that we carry God's breathe within and our highest success in this world is to come to recognize Him through His Signs.

We are created so that we may recognize Him and to work righteously, to do good to others. So that we may adore the Adorable, we may obey the One Who deserves to be Obeyed as Lord and Creator. There is death and it is only awakening to the eternal after life. We come from God, and we return to Him and the Great Reality shall again resurrect us before the Day of Final Accounting. He is the True Judge Who Judges without a single injustice.

In the end all souls must return to the Supreme Soul and will be awakened once again to Awesome Reality where the Authority shall be entirely God's. When His Kingdom comes, it is only Him Who manifest as King with full authority and no worldly identity benefits anyone. All shall stand before him naked with nothing to prove except one's entire life and all the deeds. The Grand Accountability in front of God is real and those who forget this are those who are most deceived by the Arch-Deceiver who makes them think they can do whatever they want, they can profit at any cost, they can kill as many lives as they want and nothing will happen to them. Let them wait till they awaken in the Real Awakening after death.

In truth, man is asleep and he awakes at his death (to real reality). ~ Sacred Tradition of Islam

The Islamic scholars say that the best remedy against infatuation and blinding attachment to the world is to remember the most certain thing in life, that is death. Remembering death abundantly helps understand the temporality of this world. The wise ones say, 'Remember maut (death) in abundance and do not involve yourself in distant and remote hopes. The pursuit of distant schemes and material enterprises should be shunned. In this way the love of the world will be eliminated from the heart.

This elimination is in fact the stage at the end of Sulook (the Path along which the spiritual traveller travels in his spiritual journey). One has, in fact, to become imbued with the spirit and quality spoken of in the following tradition of Islam, "Die before your death."

This tradition means that one has to inculcate the attribute of the dead in one even before death, and that attribute is the lack of worldly love.

5.
Attaining Divine Proximity in the World

There are three ways by which one can attain proximity with Allah Ta'ala, These are explained in detail as follows.

    Atwal (the longest way).
    Ausat (the middle way).
    Aqall wa Aqrab (the shortest and nearest way).

THE ATWAL WAY - The Longest Way

This consists of observing in abundance Sawm (Fasting), Salaat (Prayer), Qiraa’at (Reading of Scripture), Hajj (Pilgrimage), Jihaad (Spiritual struggle for just cause and against lower inclinations), etc. This is the way of a class of Auliyaa (Friends of God, Saints) known as the Akh’yaar.

THE AUSAT WAY - The Middle Way

In addition to the above acts of worship is engagement in Mujaahidah, Riyaadhat, elimination of Akhlaaq-e-Zameemah and the acquisition of Akhlaaq-e-Hameedah. The majority of men traveling along the Path of Sulook become Waasil (attain the goal of Divine Proximity) via this second way.

THE AQAL WA AQRAB WAY - The Shortest and Nearest Way

This is the way of Ishq (Love). Riyaadhat (spiritual exercises) and mingling with people are suffocating to the Saalik (spiritual traveller) along this path. Zikr, Fikr, Shukr and Shauq are the intellectual occupations of the traveller plodding along the Path of Ishq. The traveller along this Road become Waasil by this method. Purification of the nafs and adornment of the heart and soul are realized by the method of Love. They have no interest in kashf (inspirational revelation of the Auliyaa) and karaamat (miracles of the Auliyaa). They are totally immersed in: "Die before your death."

This third way is the way of the class of Auliyaa known as the Shataariyah.

At the time of death, the dying man possesses certain attributes

These attributes which are in the perfect state in the dying man are:

Taubah (repentance), zuhd, (abstention), Qanaa’at (contentment), tawakkul (trust in Allah), Azlat (solitude), Tawajju I’lallaah (attention directed to Allah Ta'ala), sabr (patience), Ridhaa (pleased with Allah), Zikr (remembrance of Allah) and muraaqabah (meditation).

Among the Shataariyah the salient feature is Muraaqabah.

One has to inculcate the above qualities which overtake a dying person to a high degree. Taubah, i.e. repentance to emerge from all evil as is the position at the time of maut; Zuhd, i.e. to shun the world and everything in it as is the case at maut; Tawakkul, i.e. to shun all abnormal worldly agencies as is the case at maut; Azlat, i.e. to sever all ties with creation as is the case at maut; Qanaa'at, i.e. abstention from lowly desires-- to be contented-as is the case at maut; Tawajju I’lallaah, i.e. to rivet one's attention towards only Allah Ta'ala as is the case at maut; Sabr, i.e. to shun pleasures as is the case at maut; Ridhaa, i.e. to abstain from pleasing the nafs, and to be pleased with Allah and to submit in entirety to Allah Ta'ala as is the case at maut. This is the conception of "Die before your death."

One has to transform one's condition so as to be imbued with the conception of "death before death". In this earthly life, the body is on earth, but the rooh should be directed to the Aakhirah, and be in communion with Allah Ta'ala. Possession of even the kingdom of the earth should not affect one's heart. The heart at all times should be empty of the world. The sign of this lofty state having settled over one is total abstention from everything branded as evil by the Shari'ah. The mind, tongue and the whole body have to be sealed from evil. The heart is to be emptied of all things other than Allah Ta'ala. It has to be adorned with Akhlaaq-e-Hameedah.

A man dwelling in this lofty state of purity and communion with Allah Ta'ala is always aloof from gatherings of futility. Whatever diverts the mind of the Seeker of Allah from the remembrance of Allah is futility and nonsensical. The Seeker refrains from association with men of Baatil (falsehood and corruption). One who does not pursue the Path in quest of Allah, is in fact a man of Baatil (falsehood).

The above teachings are adopted from the Tasawwuf Teachings. You may access them in full by following this link: http://www.islaam.org/Tasawwuf/Tas_con.htm

HUBB-E-DUNYA (LOVE OF THE WORLD)

HUBB-E-JAAH (LOVE FOR FAME)

If you want to meditate upon death, here is an excellent commentary by Sufi Master Qushairi and translated by Dara Shayda on Exiting the World, i.e. the moment of leaving this fleeting world to the Kingdom of God for those who longed for God. Read it here: Exiting the World

# Resources:
* Deadly collapse: rescue ongoing (with video)
* Dying for Some New Clothes: Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza Tragedy
* Cheap clothes have helped fuel social revolution in Bangladesh
* Bangladesh factory collapse: Who really pays for our cheap clothes?
* The Terror of Capitalism

Ecstatic Sufi Song of Rumi: Tu Kareemi Man Kamina

2013-04-21T08:45:00.001+06:00

Tu Kareemi Man Kamina Barda Um
Laikin Az Lutf E Shuma Parwarda Um

You are the Gracious One and I am the ignoble,

Now waiting at Your door Oh my Cherisher

Zindagi Aamad Bara'ay Bandagi
Zindagi Be Bandagi Sharmindagi

With devotion life becomes beauteous,

And without, what is life but disgrace

Yaad E Oo Sarmaya E Eeman Bo'ad
Har Gada Az Yaad E Oo Sultan Bo'ad

Remembrance of Him is the foundation of faith,

Beggars transform into kings due to His Remembrance.

Sayyad O Sarwar Mohammad Noor E Jaan
Mehtar O Behtar Shafi E Mujrimaan

Liege lord, Oh Muhammad you are the light of our lives,
The mighty and the best intercessor of the wrong-doers

Choon Muhammad Pak E Shud Az Nar O Dood
Her Kaja Roo Karad Wajhullah Bood

Since Muhammad was purified of worldly things,
Whatever direction He turned is found the Face of Allah

Shahbaaz Lamakani Jaan E Oo
Rehmatal Lil Aalameen Dar Shaan E Oo

The noble soul of his is like a falcon of the highest heavens

Being ‘the mercy of the worlds’ is his eminence

Mehtareen O Behtareen E Ambiyaah
Juz Muhammad Naist Dar Arz O Samaa

The mightiest and the best of all Prophets is he,
Except Muhammad in land or sky there is none worthy

Aan Mohammad Hamid O Mahmoud Shud
Shakal E Abid, Sorat E Ma'bood Shud

He is the praise of God, divinely praised in abundant

He is the reflection of God in the shape of a worshiping servant

Auliyah Allah O Allah Auliyah
Yani Deed E Peer Deed E Kibriyah

The friends of God are like God because God is their friend
And in this way he who has seen his Master, has seen God's Glory

Her Ka Peer O Zaat Haqra Aik Na Deed
Nai Mureed O Nai Mureed O Nai Mureed

If one doesn't see his spiritual Master as reflection of God
He is not a disciple, not a disciple, not a disciple!

Maulvi Hargiz Na Shud Maula E Rum
Ta Ghulaam E Shams Tabraizi Na Shud

Mevlana could never be Mevlana Rumi
Had he not devoted himself to Shams e Tabrizi.

~ Tu Kareemi Man Kamina original lyrics by Jelaluddin Rumi

Translation in English by Sadiq with credit to Qawwal and SFM

* You may watch and listen to this song on Youtube here sung by legendary Qawwali singer, Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Also: Ecstatic Faith of Rumi / On Being by Krista Tippet

Sama: When Music Opens the Heart and Leads to Ecstasy

2013-04-19T22:49:00.002+06:00

Meanings of Sama

The word Sama' in Arabic (Shama in Hebrew and Sema in Turkish) literally means "listening" or "audition".

Bruce Lawrence defines sama' as "hearing chanted verse (with or without accompanying instruments) in the company of others also seeking to participate in the dynamic dialogue between a human lover and Divine Beloved."

One early Sufi described: "Sama' is the comprehension of essences by the ear of the heart, the heart's understanding of realities, becoming aware of God's meditations and the divine speech and will, the opening up of the tongues of conscience to God..."

Sama‘ in the Sufi tradition refers to listening with the “ear of the heart”, an attitude of reverently listening to music and/or the singing of mystical poetry with the intent of increasing awareness and understanding of the divine object described; it is a type of meditation focusing on musical melody, by use of instruments, mystical songs or combining both.

“The most widely known expression of mystical life in Islam,” as Schimmel has called it, Sama‘ is practiced by nearly all the Sufi Orders in Islam with the sole exception of the Naqshbandiyya (especially its Indian branches). Sama' was a standard topic in the Arabic Sufi Manual of the tenth century, and it was widely practiced in Iraq and Iran.

"Sama‘ is the food of lovers"
~ Rumi

Types of Sama: Secret between God and the listener

For the lovers of God he cannot look upon a thing
but he sees in it the Almighty,

for no sound strikes his ear
but he hears it from Him and in Him
~ Imam Ghazzali

Burhan al-Din was a senior disciple of Sufi Master Nizam al-Din Awliya and was famous for his practice of sama'. According to him, Sama is of four types.

One is lawful, in which the listener is totally longing for God and not at all longing for the created.
The second is permitted, in which the listener is mostly longing for God and only a little for the created.
The third is disapproved, in which there is much longing for the created and a little for God.
The fourth is forbidden, in which there is no longing for God and all is for the created…

The listener should know the difference between doing the lawful, the forbidden, the permitted, and the disapproved. And this a secret between God and the listener (for none truly knows the motive of the Heart except God, the Knower of unseen)."

Although cast in a legal form, Burhan al-Din's analysis of the listener's motivation puts the burden of responsibilities on the individual conscience, for the object of one's love is by its nature.

The Highest Goal is Ecstasy

Dhul Nun Misri said, "Sama is God's rapture that agitates (yaz'aju) hearts toward God." Alluding to the difference in perspective between lovers of God and lovers of the world, Dhul Nun also said, "Sama is the messenger of the Real (al-haqq). Whoever listens to God becomes a realiser of truth (muhaqqiq), and whoever listens to the carnal soul becomes a heretic (zindiq)."

Wajd / Ecstasy in the Qur'an

The skins of those who fear their Lord shiver from it (when they recite it or hear it). Then their skin and their heart soften to the remembrance of Allah. That is the guidance of Allah. ~ Surah az-Zumar 39.23

Therefore, whatever one finds (yujadu) as a consequence of audition (Sama‘) by means of audition within the soul is all ecstasy (wajd). Such “serenity”, “shivering of the flesh”, awe and “softening of the heart” (which was referred to in the above passage of Qur'an) is itself wajd.

Ecstasy in Sufism

This word wajd, derived from the Arabic tri-literal root wa-ja-da, means both 1) “ecstasy and ardour”, as well as 2) “finding” and 3) “being”. Thus, the highest state of ecstasy is referred to as wujud or “existence” itself. Hence, the attainment of wujud, “realised ecstasy” (it is the abstract noun) is the supreme realisation of being as well, for, in the words of Abu’l- Husayn al- Darraj, “Ecstasy (wajd) signifies that which is found (yujadu) through Sama' (cited by Ghazali). The fruit of Sama‘ is both mystical and metaphysical, for it is at once both a psychology of rapture and an ontology of ecstasy.

The basic experience of wajd is that of a heightened egoless consciousness: “selflessness” (bikhudi) in the lexicon of the Persian Sufis.

The subject who experiences wajd is temporarily absent from him or herself; it is indeed an extasis, an exit from self-existence and an entrance into egoless consciousness. Thus, Shibli (d. 945), describing wajd, said: “When I suppose that I have lost it, I find it and whenever I imagine that I have found it, I lose it.” Furthermore, he declared, “Ecstasy or ‘finding’ is the manifestation of the Existent One or ‘the Found’ (mawjud)”

Ecstasy is lifting of the veil, contemplation of the All-Observant (mushahida al-Raqib), presence of understanding (huzur al-fahm), study of the Unseen Realm, converse with the soul’s transconscious (muhaditha al-sirr), and association with what one lacks. It consists in the annihilation and termination of “you” in respect to all you are.... Ecstasy is the first stage of the Elect: the fruit vouchsafed one through verified faith in the Unseen Realm (tasdiq al-ghayb). When directly experienced by the mystic through heart-savour (dhawq), its light illumines his heart and all doubt and uncertainty leave him - said Ghazzali.

He also said: Ecstasy is Truth (wajd al-haqq). It springs from the abundance of the love of God Almighty and from sincere devotion and true longing (sidq iradat wa’l-shawq) to encounter Him.

Sama is the recollection of the speech of the Covenant,
and the burning of the fire of longing

Ever since the time of Junayd of Baghdad (d. 910), it has been common for Sufis to link sama' with the Quranic theme of the primordial covenant (mithaq) between God and the unborn souls of humanity, when God demanded, "Am I not your Lord (a-lastu bi-rabbikum)?" (Quran 7.172). This moment, for the Sufis, was not only the perfect statement of the divine unity but also the forging of the link of love between God and the soul. Moreoever, the music of sama' is nothing but the reverberation of that primal word of God. "Sama is the recollection of the speech of the Covenant, and the burning of the fire of longing."

The Sufis describe God as having placed a secret into the human heart that day, which is concealed like a spark in stone, but which blazes forth when struck. Sometime the ecstasy and rapture during sama works as that act of striking.

Junayd is quoted as saying, "When to essence of the children of Adam on the day of covenant there came the words, 'Am I not your Lord,' all the spirits became absorbed by its delight. Thus those who came into this world, whenever they hear a beautiful voice, their spirits tremble and are disturbed by the memory of that speech, because the influence of that speech is in the beautiful voice." In other terms, the source of sama is said to be the "rapture" or "attraction" (jazb) of God, a kind of energy that irresistibly draws one toward God.

For the Chishti Sufis of Sub-Continent who embraced Sama' as a spiritual practice, focused on purified intention and encouraged spiritual novices to participate in musical sessions, and to seek genuine ecstasy (wajd) even if it meant imitating that ecstasy initially. Many early texts mention the imitation of ecstasy by "empathetic ecstasy" (tawajud). Burhan al-Din Gharib on occasion did say that empathetic ecstasy was a defect in sama', since true ecstasy and spiritual estate were the goal; he repeated the advice of Nizam al-Din that if one does not have ecstasy, one should call on the name of God as al-Wajid.

In general, Burhan al-Din and his followers approve of empathetic ecstasy, and they prescribe it first of all as a mode of behaviour during sama'. In the ritual, emphatic ecstasy seeks real ecstasy by conforming to the behaviour of those who have it. "If someone in sama' has no ecstasy or rapture, the rules (adab) are that he go stand with the people of ecstasy and conform with them." One can observe this custom in the performance of sama among Sufis even today, when someone goes into a hal or spiritual state, and the company rises up to conform to that state.

Rukn al-Din Kashani said, "If a dervish rises from his spiritual state and ecstasy, the companions should conform, and all rise. This an approved custom, and a fine tradition, to go against it is to abandon sanctity." If, on the other hand, one has not yet attained ecstasy, but only the intermediate experiences of "rapture" (jazb) and "taste" (zawq), one still must conform with the rest, and sit if they are seated, through movement is permitted.

Empathetic ecstasy is also a mode of engagement with the recited verses, so that it becomes an intellectual approach to mystical experience. Rukn al-Din Kashani emphasises the need for the novice to interpret the verses in terms of the attributes of God. This is a process of deliberate thought (fikr) in listening (istima'), aided by divine visitations (waridat). Or more formally, one proceeds through three journeys: "The first is in voice and verse, the second in active attributes, the third in essential attributes … The root of the matter is thought in sama'." Examples of this kind of interpretation are the qualities of divine beauty and majesty, or grace and wrath, as polar manifestations of the power of God. As long as one can interpret the poetry in this way, it is a sign of divine guidance, according to Rukn al-Din. This is in general a very systematic and intellectualistic approach to sama', but one that he feels will lead to transrational ecstasy.

The ecstasy of one who is consumed by divine love is in proportion to his understanding, and his understanding is in proportion to his power of imagination (spiritual and creative imagination that leads to spiritual visions).

Opening of Hearts and Other Effects of Sama

Nizam al-Din said, "At the time of sama' and recitation, happiness descends on the heat. From the world of emanation to the world of power, then it effects the heart. There are states which are between the kingdom (mulk) and the angelic realm (malakut). When its agitation becomes visible, it is called 'influences' (asar), which have come from the kingdom to the limbs."

Sama' creates a kind of channel between the heart and the spiritual world, and the surging of this energy overflows into the body and releases itself in dance. An older Sufi sources state, "Every limb has a portion and a pleasure in sama.' The portion of the eyes is weeping, the portion of the tongue is crying out, the portion of the hand is striking the garment, the portion of the foot is dancing."

Qushayri famously said, "Sama is an invitation and ecstasy is an intention." By this Qushayri appears to emphasise the psychological dimension of participation in sama. Curiously enough Rukn al-Din added an extra verse, "sama' is an invitation, ecstasy is an intention, and dance is union."

Other effects of sama' include healing and even raising people from dead. The influence of sama' was certainly considered to extend beyond the grave. Khwaja Jala al-Din told of being with Burhan al-Din Gharib on an ecstatic occasion, and mentioned Khwaja Zuhayr Saqqa' and how tears would fall from his eyes as soon as sama' started. Burhan al-Din Gharib suggested that they visit his tomb and perform pilgrimage (ziyarat). They did, and Burhan al-Din Gharib told Jalal that Khwaja Zuhayr Saqq' still had those tears.

There is a story of a Shaykh who heard a lute that was expressing the divine attributes with its strings. "Then he said, Lute if you only knew what you were saying, every one of your strings would break." No sooner were these words spoken than the strings of the lute broke. The disciples asked what the lute was saying? The master said, "one string said O Merciful, the another said O Compassionate."

The ideas (al-ma‘ani) (of the lyrics of Sama') which dominate the heart weigh more heavily upon the understanding than the bare expressions which are heard. Thus, it is related of one of the [Sufi] Shaykhs, passing through a market, heard someone cry: “The good ones-ten for a grain!” and was stricken with ecstasy (al-wajd). When he was asked about that experience, he explained: “When the good are [only] ten for a grain, then what is the value of evil?” And another of them was passing through a market when he heard a hawker cry, “O wild thyme!” (Ya sa’taru barri) and was smitten with ecstasy. When asked from whence had arisen his ecstasy, he replied, “I heard him as though he were saying, ‘Persevere and you'll see my benevolence!’ ” (isa‘ tarra barri).

One of the Sufis upon hearing the verse: “O soul at peace! Return to your Lord, well pleased and well-pleasing,” besought the reciter to repeat it. He then remarked: “How often I incite my soul to 'Return!' yet it does not.” Then constraining himself to ecstasy (tawajjud) he uttered a loud cry and his spirit departed. (Ghazali)

Burhan al-Din said, "Sama has two colours, one yellow and the other red. Everyone on whom distance, wrath and fear descend turns pale, and everyone who has nearness, union, grace and hope, blushes."

Music causes sharpening of the attention, leading to a greater focus of both mind and body and a concentration of the external and inner senses. In fact, as Tusi explains, the remembrance of God (dhikr) during Sama‘ operates like a sort of mystical “music therapy:” "When [by means of music] the various limbs of the body become properly collected, hatred and aversion is removed and concord (hukm al-tawafuq) appears. Discord and dissension (al-tanafur) belong to darkness whereas concord comes from Light-so when darkness is dispersed and light shines forth, one's worldly affairs and the spiritual realities become uncovered with a clarity which a thousand efforts could not have accomplished."

"All Sama‘ further strengthens his yearning (shawq) and love (ishq) of God. Audition also has a deeply cleansing, purifying and guiding effect on the soul, in turn inducing various types of ineffable visionary experiences (mushahidat, mukashifat), which “are the summation of what is sought by the lovers of God Almighty and the ultimate fruit of all pious works” (Ghazali)

Discussing the fruits of Sama‘ within the context of Sufi contemplative states, the Proof of Islam underlines how the mystic “encounters in himself states which he had not encountered before he listened to the music”.

The cause of those states appearing in the heart through listening to music (Sama‘) is a divine mystery (sirr Allah) found within the harmonious relationship of measured tones [of music] to the [human] spirits and in the spirits becoming overcome by these melodies and stirred by them-whether to longing, joy, grief, expansion or contraction. But the knowledge of the cause as to why spirits are affected through sounds is one of the mystical subtleties of the sciences of visionary experience [known to the Sufis].

The Etiquette of Sama

There is saying among the Shadhili Sufis, about being inwardly ecstatic, but outwardly sober.

Thus the ecstasy of Sama' would be incomplete and one sided without an account of disciplines and balance of sobriety which comes from the adab or proper etiquette of listening to sama'. This was to keep open the avenues of divine influence while attempting to exclude the intrusion of human ego and lower inclinations. These adabs were not only derived from classical manuals of Sufism, but also were ideals that followed the concrete examples of early Chishti masters.

There is a lot of such etiquette that came from the circle of Burhan al-Din Gharib and also from the instances of Khawja Nizamuddin. For example every session began and ended with the recitation of the Qur'an. All the participants were expected to perform ablutions as for ritual prayer, and abstain from chewing betel leaf (a particular habit of the region). It was important not to make sama' a mechanical performance, thus it was not held at a fixed time every week or made into a profession or habit. Neither should one be forward or assertive during sama'. It is forbidden to question others who are present about the meaning of a verse, since that is usually only a pretext for the questioner to show off his own knowledge and talk distracts from real meanings. One should not criticize the singer, for this reduces the performance to an aesthetic occasion, it is better to refer the matter to God. In any case, inspiration is of greater importance in a singer than artistic skill, and is more likely to induce ecstasy.

Although the objective is ecstasy, total control of ego is necessary to achieve this. Therefore it is forbidden to disclose or display the nature of one's spiritual sate (hal). Burhan al-Din Gharib has given a whole series of regulations that apply this principle to the physical behaviour of participants in sama. For example he said, "A dervish should be sober and never allow his hands or feet to touch another, if this happen anyway, he should pull back."

One can not drink anything during a musical session or fan oneself, no matter how hot the weather. Once when someone committed this offense, Nizam al-Din Alwliya rebuked him in the metaphor of lovers' suffering, "Dervishes consume their blood, what have I to do with sherbet?" One should also avoid giving greetings to others during sama' to avoid disturbing one's concentration. One sufi mentioned about the importance of solitude in the gathering by saying "If hundred Sufis are in sama', one walks so that one's skirt does not touch the skirt of another."

But since human nature is what it is, mistake will occur and when that happens, it is a serious breach of discipline to point this out publicly. If someone is behaving affectedly or without manners, the proper response is to "remain outwardly silent and help inwardly so that the state becomes balanced again. Burhan al-Din said that one uses this prayer: 'Lord, prevent him from this, and protect me from this!'"

Burhan al-Din Gharib stood firmly in the tradition of classical sufism while at the same time he embodied the particular genius of the Chishti order. He faced the problem of the ambiguity of sama in Islamic law by putting the burden of ethical responsibilities on the individual participant in sama. This emphasis on the contextually of sama' was thoroughly in consonance with the internal orientation of Sufi ethics.

To avoid the problem of insincerity and affectation in sama', Burhan al-Din insisted on the proper spiritual interpretation of the erotic verses recited in Sama', and he determined that the psychological basis of sama' was to be found in the most profound spiritual experiences of Islamic mysticism. To maintain the purity of this ritual form of meditation, Burhan al-Din urged a discipline that was designed to eliminate expression of egotism as well as the habitual attitudes of secular life. The Chishti attitude towards sama' and its importance in Sufism can be summarised in the saying of Shaykh 'Umar al-Suhrawardi: "The deniers of Sama are either ignorant of the example of the Prophet, deluded by their own knowledge, or perverse nature. Some masters of sama can understand a hundred thousand mysteries filled with treasuries of secrets in the voice of singers and the verse."

I'll not say, brother, what is Sama‘
Unless I know who may the listener be:

If from the Spirit's loft his soul-bird soar
The very Angel lags behind in flight;

But if he be a man of sport and play and jest
The demon grows in force within his chest.

The breeze of dawn tears apart the rose with grace
But wood the axe alone can split.

The world is full of passion, drunkenness and music
But in the mirror what can a blind man see?

~ Sadi in Bustan

# References:

* The Theory and Practices ofSama' (Listening to Music) in the Sufi Circle of Burhan al-Din Gharib by Professor Carl W. Ernst of University of North Carolina, USA
* The Sacred Music of Islam: Sama‘ in the Persian Sufi tradition by Dr Leonard Lewisohn

* Listening to Music and the Interplay of Law and Morality in Medieval Sunni Thought by Omar Farahat

* Sama Listening to Music by Shaykh Sharafuddin Maneri
* The Use Made of Music by the Sufis of the Chishti Order
* Moroccan Sufism, Music and Power (particular Tariqah Qadiri-Boutchichi of Sidi Hamza's tariqah) by Dr Tony Langlois
* A Psychology of Early Sufi Samāʻ: Listening and Altered States by Kenneth

# Resources:
* Radio Sama
* Sama’: Music and the Sufi Mystical Experience
* Sama in Sufism by Javad Nubakhsh
* Words of Ecstasy (Book) by Carl W. Ernst

Interview with Asher Quinn (Asha) - Singer, Songwriter and Mystical Balladeer

2013-04-14T11:34:00.000+06:00

Welcome to a new episode of the series: In Quest of My Oasis, a dialogue with seekers & lovers of Sufi path. The Mystic Master Prophet Muhammad said, "at-turuqu ila 'Llahi ka-nufusi bani Adam", 'the ways to God are as numerous as the human souls'. The reason it is titled 'In Quest of My Oasis' because this will be, God willing, about inspiring personal, individual journey towards that unique direction which takes one to the Real Goal.

An oasis is a lush green garden in a desert or wasteland. Here Oasis symbolizes both the Sufi journey and the Path. In the arid desert the oasis carries the water of life, spring gushes up from the heart of the earth that delights the soul. Rumi has hints for us:

Search, no matter what situation you are in.
O thirsty one, search for water constantly.
Finally, the time will come when you will reach
the spring.

In this series we wish to engage with contemporary seekers who are drawn to that Quest, who have tasted the sacred thirst and are searching. We hope to know them, connect with them, share their beautiful journey in the spirit of what sufis call Sohbet. This episode is blessed by the presence of British Musician and Mystic Asher Quinn, may Beloved's graceful glance be upon his heart.

Visionary musician Asher Quinn has been composing and recording albums of vocal, instrumental and piano music since 1987. His themes are invariably around higher love and opening the heart to deeper truths. Asher has a one-world philosophy, and his ballads, love-songs, ethnic folk tunes, fugues and musical vignettes fall into the new age musical genre, as well as the folk-rock, wandering minstrel and even classical traditions. His main inspirations come from spirit and mythology as well as from some of the great troubadours of our age like Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan.

His albums have been described as both tender and uplifting, and sometimes even other-worldly! Asher's music contains a kind of longing or melancholy... a longing for a more conscious connection with creation. Those who listens to his music deeply say that they experience his music as healing, and that it invokes tears of recognition, joy and re-connection... a kind of 'coming home' experience.

Asher is also a Jungian (trans-personal) psychotherapist, with a practice in Putney and St. John's Wood, London.

This sohbet revolves around his personal journey, his coming upon the Sufi Path, sharing of his spiritual insights, his visionary musics and the process through which these musics are conceived for the world.

~ In Quest of the Heart's Attunement ~

Sohbet with Visionary Musician Asher Quinn (Asha)

Sadiq Alam: Please give us a brief introduction about yourself. Where you were born, where did you grow up, and who influenced you most in your life?

Asher Quinn (Asha): I was born in London to a young Russian Jewish mother, Mary, and a British singer, Denis Hale. He was a quite well-known dance band singer at the time, and she was a young fan! Apparently, I was conceived behind the drum kit at London's Lyceum Ballroom. I was illegitimate... my mother's family disowned her, and my biological father was already married with two sons. I was eventually given up for adoption after Mary struggled for two years to raise me. She was just 19. I was given my father's name, Denis... a French corruption of Dionysus, the libertarian God, and prototype of Christ. I took note, in later years, that I was an illegitimate child who's mother's name was Mary, and that my name was synonymous with Jesus! I experienced myself at a very early age as being from what I came to understand, anthroposophically, as the Jesus and Mary ray of being, and I was proud of that and happy and honoured to be called to healing, somehow!

My adoptive family were Jewish, and my mother was a cabaret pianist. My father was an accountant, and many of his clients were musicians, dancers or artists. My adoptive grandfather was also a pianist. I grew up in London, very used to piano and song, and a warm family atmosphere. I began to play the piano intuitively, aged 3. As I grew up, I realised that my inner music was not like the cabaret music I was surrounded with... Gershwin, Cole Porter & Noel Coward! I resonated more with classical music, like Bruckner, Dvorak, Vaughan Williams and Baroque composers like Vivaldi and Albinoni. I played spontaneously from the heart... simple, embellished, melancholy Russian, Jewish and Celtic folk-sounding melodies that seemed to flow from my heart.

Aged 5, I had profound, emotional visions of Jesus. I told my adoptive mother about these, but she said that as Jews we did not worship Jesus! So Jesus went into the closet! Also aged 5 I had visions of being abducted by witches, who took me away and spanked me, and that has been my life path... to square the Jesus in my soul with the witches (the dark mother energy), somehow. If I was of the Jesus ray, the inner witches provided my personal, psychological crucifixion!

My adoptive Godfather was a big influence in my life. He introduced me to football... my passion from 9-19! He also introduced me to a synagogue, and when I asked what that silver thing was behind the gilded cage (the Torah), he replied that it was where God lived. I went cold and shook with excitement. From that day on I wanted to live only where God lived.

Musically, I particularly resonated with the young Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, as a child. It was not until much later that I realised that they were both Jewish prophets and mystics... great story-tellers in song. They helped me to realise my vocation as both a mystic and as a troubador. Similarly, I was particularly taken with the English mystical poet William Blake.

It's perfectly possible that I was somewhere on the autistic spectrum, clinically, as a child and teenager. At school I excelled at the arts but could not fathom the sciences. I could not even understand how to read music... I could understand only the language of my own inner heart, and the narrow but intense field of endeavour that surrounded it. Hence, I liked Dylan, Cohen and Blake, Dvorak, Vivaldi and Vaughan-Williams, but hardly anyone else! Not even Mozart or Beethoven... only those with whom I felt a mystical resonance around simplistic, visionary beauty. Leonard Cohen's melodies for instance, are child-like folk melodies, and Blake's verse is deceptively guileless.

I had two favourite numbers... 7 and 49, and one favourite colour... blue. I was very partisan about these, and very little else! If those were autistic symptoms, I also possessed the corresponding savant gifts... as many autists do... I could play the piano without understanding how, and also football, at a very high level. I was frequently caned at school, and, ironically, by my piano teacher, because they thought I was lazy and dreamy, but I lived in my own world and had my own codes. My piano teacher was a formidable spinsterish woman who would coo and fuss over the beautiful music I conjured up from my soul, and then spank me for failing to learn theory!

I am not autistic now. I have long since arrived on earth!

When did you start to discover the spiritual longing within yourself, and is there anything particular that triggered this longing?

I was profoundly affected by being separated from my birth mother at such a young age. And even whilst I was with her she did not know how to care for me well, so I fell very ill and was hospitalised with malnutrition and sores. I suffered a lot and was undoubtedly traumatised. But all this was pre-verbal... my body retained the memory even if my conscious mind did not. Many years later I was able to recover certain memories through shamanic healing. They were grim, but at last I could piece together what had happened to me, in detail.

All of a sudden, aged 5, these visions of Jesus kicked in. He and his followers felt more like my true family than my biological or adoptive parents. Perhaps I cleverly spiritualised my longing for a good, immaculate mother into a longing for God, and repressed my experience of the bad mother. There may have been a psychological wounding that opened up my soul to greater realities. It is often the way... those with painful wounds can become healers themselves. As they find intuitively how to heal their own wounds, they open up the gates of perception to bigger truths. There is mythology around the archetype of the wounded healer... Chiron in Greek mythology... that I connect to in my inner world.

In my 20's, when I found the Sufi path, I came across the 'stage of the broken heart'... that, in the Sufi way, it is a pre-requisite to have the heart bleeding in order to know the beauty of God. It wouldn't do to close that wound, because that is a portal to the Divine.

The music I played spontaneously on the piano healed my own heart, and took me on inner journeys to commune with nature spirits and deities. I also sang euphonically, directly from the emotional heart, but quietly, to myself. No-one knew I could sing, and very few knew that I could compose on the piano. I was chronically shy as a child and teen... torn between the upper world of Jesus, and the lower realm of the devouring witches. I saw everyone around me do their thing, go to work, get on, thrive at school, make friends, have fun... but I lived a constant battle between heaven and hell, and all in private. I felt like a partisan in the resistance... a soldier of love. I felt I was not of this world, and I struggled, emotionally and intellectually to come to terms with the material crudeness of this vibration of being. I also had apocalyptic visions, and felt that I was born to bring healing to a wounded world, but found it hard to articulate this safely to anybody for fear of ridicule or of being accused of inflation. Curiously, my beatings grounded me in my body somehow, and helped me land on planet earth... a perverse healing for my condition! A strange mercy!

The world for me now is pretty much as I had imagined it would be then... wounded. These days, my visions, struggles and experiences make more sense. My role through music, and my career as a psychotherapist, is to reach out and help people re-connect with their true God-selves, to heal the wounds of injustice, inequality and soul loss. My spiritual longing is to re-connect to my God-self, to fully awaken as a Being of Light, and to help others to do the same.

How did you first know about the Sufis and come upon this Path?

In my early 20's I suffered a breakdown... perhaps even a schizophrenic split, clinically. It remained undiagnosed, and I just tried to get on with it. I had graduated with a good university degree in English and American Literature, largely because it was a more creative degree than an academic one, but I wanted to write songs and follow in the footsteps of Bob Dylan, and the mystical poets. But, being a middle-class, suburban, Jewish boy, I had very little of note to write about! My melodies were good, but my lyrics were pretentious and unworldly. I received 167 rejections from record and publishing companies, all saying the same thing... good tunes, stupid songs! My parents persuaded me to start a career in advertising, and I reluctantly gave it a go. I experienced it as soul death however, as I feared that I might, and had an emotional breakdown.

In that dark hour I had an intuition... a flash of light… an Elijah moment! Somewhere in the world I just knew that there was a teacher to guide me... I simply had to find him. So, following my heart, I headed west. I sold all my possessions (raising about £95) and bought a one-way stand-by ticket to New York. Within a week of arrival I had found a Sufi teacher in the Catskill mountains of New York state. His name was Adnan el-Sarhan, a Naqshbandi Sufi from Baghdad!

I spent two months at a summer camp with him and about 150 others. We ate pure, vegan food, exercised, lived in nature, and were introduced to traditional Sufi practices... whirling (like the Dervishes), drumming, chanting, zikr, praying... all of which I loved! My soul cried out for this spiritual nourishment. I felt like I had finally come home. My neurotic symptoms vanished overnight and I grew wings... a heart with wings! I began to compose songs from the mythological realms, from the Divine... channeled songs. This source has never dried up, and never will. I have been doing this for over 30 years now.

The 150 of us were from all over the world... young and old; black & white; Europeans, Americans, Asians, Africans; wounded and sane; wealthy and poor; educated and illiterate. Ironically, there I was, a neurotic Jewish orphan with Jesus in his heart, finding God through mystical Islam! But to me Judaism, Christianity and Islam are three brothers.

I followed the Sufi path with Adnan across America and Mexico for two years, working itinerantly along the way... busking and writing songs, too. I fasted and went on long retreats. The prayer La ilaha Ill'Allah became etched in my heart, and still is today. It is my refuge, sanctuary and source... there is no God but God. The wazifa (mantra) I was given was Haq... truth. This is still my mantra after 30 years. I was given Wali (compassion) to soften it, but I ignored the teaching! Consequently, I caught fire (metaphorically) but I survived. Now compassion prevails, naturally... it is an inevitable consequence of truth. Truth begets mercy, and mercy begets love.

Eventually I was deported from the USA as an illegal alien, as my tourist visa had expired 21 months earlier. I was arrested in Kansas, and put in a juvenile detention centre for eight days while they decided what to do with me. I declined to eat, preferring to fast, under the circumstances... was visited by a drunk Irish priest on the sunday who leered, boozily over me and told me that I was a sinner, and was paddled each day for refusing to eat... another set of beatings that put me back into my body from my lofty heights! The world is merciful! I was being guided to stay on earth and not fly away.

Back In London, I found a Sufi centre and carried on my practices through the 1980's, training to be a therapist there as well. On my retreats I was always assessed by my guide as needing to meditate on Jesus. Through the Sufi practices I feel that my heart is constantly opening more and more to the Christ-light... according to my early visions and longings.

I don't regard myself as a Sufi even... I have not developed my practices, but remained faithful to my original ones. I have no interest in mosques or churches or synagogues... except, perhaps, to sing in them... and make no outward concession to any ideology. My teacher is in my heart. The Sufi path is an ecstatic path... an intoxication with the Divine. My inner Jesus is an ecstatic soldier of love. This path suits me very well, and has helped me to release my inner fire. These days I am finding the same experiences through the Kabbalah... that ecstatic branch of Jewish mysticism.

Some of my music reflects this fire... this solar energy... but much of it reflects the deep waters of emotional longing for re-connection with source. My music comes through sun-angels into my heart, and the name I adopted after a dream, Asha, is the name of my sun angel. She revealed that to me in 1988, and gave me the gift of that name... her name. More recently I changed my name from Asha to Asher, partly to protect Asha from this world... I am Asher to the world, and Asha in my inner heart.

Could you please tell a little more about your meeting with the Sufi Teacher Adnan el-Sarhan? We know for people growing up in the west, the idea of accepting a teacher, surrendering one's ego to that teacher and also to open one's own vulnerabilities is hard. Was it easy for you?

It felt entirely natural for me to open myself up to this teacher, Sadiq. But remember, I was in a desperate place spiritually, emotionally and psychologically at that time. Adnan inspired trust. The summer camp where we did the spiritual work was a beat-up former Jewish summer camp in the Catskill Mountains! It was ramshackle. Adnan drove an old, dented white Volkswagen car… not a Rolls Royce like Osho was reputed to have done. We slept in sleeping bags on the floor of wooden huts. The main building was a wooden shack with peeling paint. Adnan walked the walk as well as talked the talk! He had no pretensions, did not ask us to give him our life savings and renounce materialism, and he was always available… without a bodyguard! He was a small, compact man, but incredibly strong. He'd obviously done the practices all his life and was super fit. He demonstrated impossible physical feats to us, day after day… and after two months, some of us were nearer achieving the impossible than we ever might have imagined!

One lady there, Louis Weiler from Kentucky, was 76. She had come to him, originally, crippled with arthritis. When I met her, she was able to do headstands, and all manner of subtle physical things. She was cured! It was not always so… one middle-aged lady came, terribly depressed and suicidal. She loved the work, but her body stayed wracked with torment… with toxins, alcohol and drugs, as she de-toxed. But she didn't make it. A few years later she committed suicide. Adnan did not heal by touch… he didn't close a bleeding wound like Jesus… but he facilitated the purifications that could bring about organic physical and spiritual healing for many, including myself. Ultimately, all psychological neuroses can be cured by spiritual salvation; indeed the symptoms of depression, addiction, phobia and anxiety indicate that our ego is restless for spiritual input. The cure is not psychological but spiritual.

We paid Adnan what we could afford. I had no money, so he let me stay and help out to pay for my place… in the kitchens, cleaning up and so on. The boss of a big cigarette company came, and he paid a big fee, because he could afford to, which he volunteered to do. He was not asked to do that. Somehow the Robin Hood system seemed to work; the rich paid for the poor!

Adnan himself said that it was time to bring this teaching to the west; that his own teachers had instructed him to do that. What had once been the esoteric preserve of only the devoted in the Sufi lineage, now became open to all. Many eastern and African teachers said that kind of thing in the 1980's and afterwards… not only Sufis, but Tibetan Daoists, African shaman and the like… many said that their teachers and ancestors had instructed them to bring spirituality to the west, because now it was 'the time'.

Through anthroposophy, I have come to understand that Jesus travelled the world from the ages of 12-30, often with Joseph of Aramathea, learning about the different spiritual traditions of the world. He was initiated into the Hindu way in India, and into the Daoist way in Tibet. He came to Glastonbury, in the UK, and built a little prayer shack. That is now the site of Glastonbury Abbey, where King Arthur is also buried. Aged 30, he was baptised by John, and was initiated into Christ consciousness. In essence it is clear to me that Jesus was a Sufi dervish and also a shaman!

Adnan-el-Sarhan playing drum as part of his therapy "to find present" (May 29, 30 1975)

Many sannyasins from the Osho camp came to taste Adnan's spiritual cocktail, but Osho built a whole community and a business around his teachings, first in Poona and then in Oregon. He had his fleet of Rolls Royce's, his bodyguards and inner circle, and the implicit recommendation that his followers give all their material possessions to the foundation. My own cousin joined Osho's community, and gave away her inheritance to him.

But Adnan was more in the spirit of the wondering dervish. He lived simply and purely, and was a highly developed teacher… always seeming to be able to attune to the needs of any individual at any moment. He impressed me from the word go, even with his greeting! He smiled, shook my hand, grinned and asked me to destroy my cigarettes! How did he know? Then I was warmly invited into the proceedings and shepherded, sensitively, at all times. Within two days, of good food, physical exercise, meditations, practices, and evening teaching parables… Adnan was a great story-teller… I felt transformed. Gone was my fear and neurosis, my shyness and submissive compliance. There was no ideology to follow, just the practices and an introduction to the culture of the mystic. I felt I was home, for the first time in my life. I understood God to be available to me through my own Self; through my instincts and intuitions. I could make a clear distinction between that experience and the more urgent, demanding style of my ego. I quickly came to feel grateful and humble instead of deprived and anxious. My ego felt nurtured and parented in a way that western conventional parenting and education had never provided.

It was also easy for me to open myself up to a teacher and a teaching because I am as a child in my essential nature… a natural child; trusting and open, not power hungry. In that respect I was unusual in my own formative London culture; my friends were more ambitious, more materially-minded than I was. I realised then that I was a spiritual seeker who had found a teacher, one of the very few like that in my home culture.

The only flaw I detected in Adnan, which I forgive him for, was that he seduced certain women. There is no issue here morally, in the normal man/woman sense, but… as a teacher, carrying huge parental projections, especially from vulnerable females with 'Daddy' issues… he should never have acted upon that impulse. When I learned of this years later, through one of the women involved, I felt betrayed. A teacher should never seduce a disciple. My forgiveness for him came through realising that it is archetypal for the human being to feel betrayed by the 'Great Father'. It is there in Hebrew mythology, even in Jewish humour, and it's there in the story around Jesus on the cross. The betrayal by the father is a precursor to spiritual independence. I took the deconstruction of my first teacher, Adnan, to be a teaching in itself… not by him, this time, but through my understanding of who he was in my psyche. I took the spiritual power I projected onto Adnan back into myself. At first I felt angry and upset… as if my own Dad had been caught with a mistress, somehow… but eventually understanding, compassion and forgiveness replaced that, as I reflected upon it all.

You mentioned in the description of your composition 'Missa Greca' (Greek Mass) that you came to know Vilayat Khan at some point. Was he influential in your Sufi journey?

After I was deported from the USA, I returned to London. I found a Sufi Centre there, run by a British fellow, who himself was an initiate of Vilayat Khan. I began to attend the meetings. The Sufi way here was less fiery than Adnan's 'rapid method'… much more watery and gentle… but I appreciated the differences, and carried on my practices. I also began to do guided retreats… at first four days, then six, then ten, then fourteen and finallytwenty-one. Here, I stayed in a little cabin day and night, eating only rice in the evenings, or fasting, and doing the practices I was prescribed by my retreat guide. These were around the wazifa 'Haq' (truth) and the figure of Jesus.

Adnan Sarhan

With Adnan, up in the Catskills, I had also fasted… fifteen days out of twenty-one; first six, then a break, then three and a break and then another six. I had never done this before. To begin with I had found it very worrying! After the first day I got a terrible headache (de-tox, though I didn't know that at the time), but Adnan grinned and said 'it will pass'! After the second day I got weak knees, but Adnan grinned and said 'it will pass'! After the third day I got incredible food fantasies that tempted me like the devil, but Adnan grinned and said 'it will pass'! After the fourth day I panicked and thought I would get ill and die, but Adnan grinned and said 'it will pass'!

And it did! After that I became as high as a kite, felt fantastically light in my being, and became infinitely more open to higher truths. I began to dis-identify with my body, and identify more with Spirit. It was a fantastic lesson, helping me to realise that I was much more than my body or my ego. It helped my ego know its true place in the scheme of things. When I fasted in the juvenile detention centre in Kansas, two years later, and they assumed I was refusing to eat as a political protest (or that I thought the food was scummy), I was punished each day by being strapped down over a judicial punishment bench, and paddled on the bottom… 10 whacks each day! Recreational sport for bored prison officers! But I barely noticed the pain or humiliation in my high, fasting state! It was just enough to re-connect me with my body, though, and I remembered to love my body and not abandon it for the love of Spirit. So even this served as a spiritual teaching.

In London I decided, eventually, to be initiated into the Sufi order of Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan. I was not one for joining groups, societies or clubs in life, but I felt a calling from my heart to do this. He was a magnificent looking man, leonine, in a white gown, and was a great and graceful teacher. He was very different from Adnan, who was the wandering dervish. Pir Vilayat was noble, with a pedigree… a scientist and a mystic! Adnan was a poet and a mystic!

Pir Vilayat Khan

On the day of my initiation I went into a little room to meet Pir Vilayat, in Regent's College, London. In the corner, there were stacked chairs. Unaccountably, instead of walking straight up to him to receive my initiation, I found myself walking into the chairs! My soul felt humbled in the presence of such a majesty of being. My wife reports the same phenomena when she has met her own important teachers… in the Daoist path. Somehow she walks away from them at first, instead of towards them!

I immersed myself in the culture of Pir Vilayat's lineage, fascinated by all that I found. His father, Hazrat Inayat Khan (they are an Indian lineage of Sufis), wrote many wonderful books, essentially bringing Sufi mysticism to the west and marrying it to western psychology. I have a wonderful quote of Hazrat's on my own music website:

'What science cannot declare, art can suggest.
What art suggests silently, poetry speaks out.
But what poetry fails to express in words,
Is expressed by music.'

~ The Gayan of Hazrat Inayat Khan

Through Pir Vilayat, I came to hear the Slavonic liturgies of the Bulgarian male voice choirs that were used as a musical attunement, sometimes, prior to his meditations. Meditations are, of course, impossible! Everyone knows that! It is barely possible to still the mind… one has to constantly bring the wandering mind back to the focus, gently, as one might do with a distracted child. But sometimes… sometimes… something else takes over. Nowadays I realise that my whole life is a meditation, a spiritual attunement. To be invited to meditate was merely a discipline; a technique… a dress rehearsal for that tipping point where one becomes aware that all of life is a meditation.

Spending the summer of 1988 in northern Greece, around Olympus and Thessalonika, I composed the 'Missa Greca', inspired by the slavonic liturgies. But it was the Sufi way, the ecstatic dervish way, that inspired me to find beauty in the Greek Orthodox mass. I made my composition both sacred and sensual, as if the sacrament is somehow erotic, in a Tantric way.

In my little retreat hut in London, I used to do the practices and enter a holy realm, and then, as an inevitable conter-point, be besieged by sexual fantasies! My struggle veered between the call of Jesus and the call of the carnal body. Those sexual fantasies were both my instinctual way of recalling me from leaving my body altogether, and also a metaphor for the erotic nature of existence… erotic as in Eros, the God of Love. Life is Love, and Love is Eros.

One minute I would be envisioning Jesus, just as I had done aged 5… being part of his legion of children coming over the hill near Jerusalem (Jerusalem means 'gate of peace'), and sobbing with the unifying thrill of it all, and the next I would be abducted by the internal witches again and taken to some sexual place. These witch fantasies were sometimes sadomasochistic… certainly through no conscious intention of mine… but I came to realise that they symbolised the surrender and humility that I craved in my soul; that humiliation, symbolically, is a metaphor for the soul's craving for spiritual humility… of the surrender of the body to Spirit.

Every journey matures with time and take us closer to the destination. In your journey on the Sufi Path do you still have active association with other Sufis? What is your prime nourishment of the soul (eg. regular zikrs, or private contemplation with the Beloved etc.?)

I have no active outer involvement with any Sufi group, or path, any more, but I am a true dervish, living the ecstatic contemplative life with the Beloved. I stopped my formal journey with Sufi teachers in 1991, and also my retreats, when I married my wife. I felt the need to ground myself in this earthly life. We soon had two boys and I needed to ground myself to provide for them. I put my Sufi learning to practical use… head in the clouds; feet on the ground, as they say. I am in the world, but not of it, as they also say. Jesus said 'my Kingdom is not of this world', and I understand that to mean that when we live in God, if we ever find out how to live in God, we fully realise and experience that we are from a higher place, a higher, angelic realm, and that we come down to earth to incarnate and experience this mortal vibration, to complete that gnosis for the Beloved… to play our part in making God conscious of God.

Therefore, each earthly experience has infinite value… each human life becomes a candle of illumination, and adds to the light. In this way, our experience on earth is valuable because it completes God. The Kabbalah sees things in a similar way… we are co-creators; we are God-ing. Human experience adds to God's gnosis of itself… always infinite and yet forever expanding, like the big bang! A paradox.

I trained to be a psychotherapist at this Sufi centre in London, which is also a well-established therapy training centre. The course was entitled 'The Spiritual Dimensions of Psychology', and I gained a high, accredited qualification. I have been a therapist for 25 years, about the same length of time that I've been creating music albums.

My music and my therapy practice take me to the same inner place of communion with the Divine. That's where I go for my inspiration… to channel songs and to help my clients. My wife is also on a spiritual path, and in parallel we have explored various traditions, including shamanic healing. My own analyst and clinical supervisor are both Jungian… Jung was a great mystic and scholar, schooled in shamanic and mythological traditions. The Beloved is also called the Self… one is a poetic description, and the other a scientific one.

As I develop my own self-awareness, through being guided by the meaning of my own dreams and symptoms, and through writing and channeling songs, I have reached the place where many of my old boundaries do not remain… time and space is not at all what I once thought it was, neither is the division between conscious and unconscious, or even that between life and death.

I live each moment as if it might be my last, with as much dark humour as I can muster, and in this I am sustained and fulfilled, and feel relatively grateful and humble… though never passive. I remember hearing Leonard Cohen once say that each day he wakes up, and looks to see if he has attained a state of grace. If not, he goes back to sleep!

A state of grace, I feel, is to be in the 'now'; to feel genuinely humble and grateful; to not be attached to any outcome; to live in 'Thy will' not 'my will' and to be ready to help, serve and be kind whenever possible. In these ways we begin to live as a Being of Light, and something else starts to take over… some spiritual transformation. The dancer Isadora Duncan once said that she spent 30 years preparing her mind and body to dance, and then one day… when she was ready… the 'dance' took over. It is the same with Spirit. If we prepare the mind and body, one day the Spirit takes over. If it doesn't, it's not a design fault, it's that we haven't prepared properly yet! Many fragile souls blame God for their troubles, but what they haven't yet realised is that they haven't found out how to prepare properly yet, to receive Spirit. I'm reading this wonderful book at the moment, that my wife passed onto me; it's called "The Instruction Manual for Receiving God", by Jason Shulman. It's a beautiful slim, white volume from the Kabbalistic tradition. This is great for helping one to prepare to receive Spirit.

Looking back at those times when you sold all that you had, decided that you needed to find a teacher and… now… remembering the state and station of your heart at that time, what would you advise for anyone who might be in similar stage in life in this contemporary world?

Gosh! Now that's a very tricky question to answer, Sadiq. I sent a couple of my wounded clients off to Adnan, once, but it didn't work out for them at all. They either didn't resonate with the culture, or were too afraid to open up in that way. One's path has to be according to one's heart. The Sufi ecstatic way really suits my temperament, and is in accord with the mystical ecstasy of Jesus and the ancient Kabbalists, too. At source, whether through a Sufi, Christian or Hebrew portal, I am an ecstatic soul, and I haven't even begun to investigate the many other traditions in the world, yet. For me, being a Sufi is not the important thing… or a Christian or a Jew… it's seeing and experiencing God in everything, that does the trick… it's the 'participation mystique' that's the thing, however it's achieved. The path is not the same as the destination, although the path IS the destination, in the final analysis!

I have known folks who seem to 'find' themselves by becoming evangelical Christians, or orthodox Muslims, because they are sustained by the moral structure and then feel that they have stumbled upon the one truth… the one true ring! I cringe when I hear an orthodox Christian or Moslem say that their God is the only God, and then squabble over it, as if they were in the playground, saying that their Dad was better than the other fellow's. Blimey! There is no God but God… but let's get beyond getting hung up over what to call God. The orthodox way can lead to a kind of mania… an over-zealous inflation… where one feels alive with the Holy Spirit, but that the newly found way is the only way.

I came across the most beautiful piece by Semnani, a thirteenth century Persian mystic, called the Seven Prophets of the Soul. Here, he write about how the mystic can meet a prophet in each of the major chakras , or spiritual energy centres of the soul. In the lower chakras one might meet Abraham and Moses, for example. In the sixth chakra, the brow or third eye chakra, one meets Jesus, represented by the dark light! He says that meeting Jesus in your soul is particularly perilous, because one can be overtaken with that feeling whereby we feel like proclaiming 'I AM God'. The trick is, he says… to quell this inflation… the trick is to remember, instead of feeling and proclaiming 'I AM God', to say and feel instead that 'I am God's secret'!

I love that! I am God's secret! For me that means radiating your inner light and going about your business humbly and quietly, but also not hiding your light. No proclamations or ideology, and no evangelism. 'Be' it, don't talk about it… live it, don't preach it. It is not a possession, becoming a Being of Light, it is a state of grace available to every soul, according to our Divine birthright.

But sometimes, a sense of belonging or ideological certainty helps a fragile soul even begin to start living a life properly at all… later, perhaps, they can take down the scaffold that helped build the cathedral of their soul.

In answer to this very tricky question, Sadiq, I would tend to say that it all boils down to the old hippy idea… follow your heart; follow your bliss! The trick is, of course, in working out what that truly is, and being able to distinguish it from ambition, the false self, inflation, greed and all the deadly sins that we need to be spanked for!

I have a tip in this regard, that I've learned along the way… the true heart, the Self, the Beloved, speaks softly, quietly, intelligently, gracefully and efficiently. It almost whispers… and only when needed. Any more urgent, conscience-ridden 'ought' or 'should' voice is an imposter.

I like Van Morrison's idea… no Guru, no teacher, no method… just the inarticulate speech of the heart. The teacher is within… not in any ideology or sect, or even in any major faith. The teacher IS the Beloved… found in the heart, not in the book or the law. But then this is the path for the mystic… it may not be appropriate for other souls.

So follow your heart! Even if atheism calls you. Atheism is also a path to the heart, because 'no God' is part of God. I have met kinder atheists, sometimes, who live generously, than fundamentalist Christians or Moslems, with their righteousness. One has to see the wood for the trees.

For me, I love the zikr, and the practices. They are my rosary. But they are ultimately not 'it' but a path to 'It'. All paths that lead to Self-awareness are beautiful, and they all have different terrains, colours, landscapes and weathers. We should not mistake the path for the truth… they are a way, not the being; a living not a being. To 'live' is to have a way, to 'be' is to be at one with God.

Martial arts is another thing that can, and should, take one down a profound spiritual path if the teacher is schooled in spiritual discipline, and not simply in combat. I did Aikido in my 30's with a fierce, piratical-looking Greek Cypriot called Theofanis. From him I learned that Aikido means 'the way to union with God'. He drove us hard, physically and emotionally… the girls just as hard as the boys. We became incredibly fit and supple, and I realised that the combat moves were ultimately a metaphor for spiritual discipline. We have to learn how not to be defeated by our own demons and complexes, let alone the outer assailant. We have to learn how to be a Ninja! He once attacked me for real, as a lesson, and I became so momentarily enraged at the seemingly outrageous injustice of it, that I had the impulse to destroy his dojo and his shrine. Then he smiled, his black, beady eyes beaming! I had been floored by my own anger, not by his wooden staff. A girl once asked him 'what would you do if someone pulled a gun on you?' He replied instantaneously 'not be there'. The ultimate defence is not to engage. I wrote an enduringly popular track called 'Soldier of love' with him in mind, about which I say a little more later.

I feel a certain flippancy arising here, too… follow your heart, I say, and find a good witch to spank you! That's what worked for me… a great combination! Life 'spanks' us… confronts us with lessons, sometimes punitive-seeming. The whole metaphor around the punitive authority figure is actually archaic and Old Testament… the wrathful, zealous Jahweh. Jesus was the libertarian… his way was kindness, not punishment. We are many of us caught in this Old Testament/New Testament dichotomy in our own souls… our conservative, punitive, witch-like (negative mother) sensibilities in conflict with our more enlightened, libertarian, loving sensibilities. The battle rages within us, and within the structures we create in our governments and industries. The enlightened energy is prevailing, because we are becoming more accountable and more just and fair in our legislature, but the old dinosaur of fear-based conservatism doesn't give up without a fight.

Our world is torn not between east and west, or Christian or Moslem, or rich and poor, but between fear and love, conservative and liberal, Old Testament and New Testament. And the battle rages within most of us, individually.

Sometimes, as a therapist, how I interpret what my clients' unconscious is telling them through their dreams, symptoms and fate patterns, appears to them as a confrontation… as a metaphorical 'spanking'.

So… follow your heart, find a good witch to spank you or come to me, and I will spank you, myself (for a suitable fee!). Then you will become a Being of Light!

How would you describe your vision for Music. When you create music, when you capture the lyrics from the deepest recesses of your heart, from the perspective of your inner heart, to your soul, what does it mean to compose a new song or create music?

I follow my heart always in writing music. I never sit down and think 'what can I create today?' It always calls me. I feel the need to play the piano to heal my own heart, and sing euphonically… just sounds that need to come from my emotional heart… and then I cry, usually. After that, words come into my consciousness and I simply concentrate and listen, and remain faithful to what is coming through me. Other feelings may follow the melancholy and the longing, like joy or majesty, and that can then also transform the melodies and arrangements.

For instance, last month the name 'Eliador' came into my mind in a dream. I googled it and found very little… it was a knight's name on a computer game with warriors! There were a couple of references to it as a grail knight's name. Three days later I awoke with a melody and a whole verse in my consciousness. Then I sat down with it, and out popped a 15-verse song called 'Maryam and Eliador'. It seems mythic in content, about the liberation of the feminine consciousness, and about how the woman needs sovereignty, and not to be treated like a possession of the patriarchy. The 15 verses came so fluently, in rhyme, that it was like writing an email… I barely paused. Now tell me… where does that come from? That comes from beyond me. It's true that I'm educated in such matters now, but it's really a classic example of the mind and body being ready and the Spirit taking over. This song is now recorded, with a very freeing, uplifting melody, and will be on my next album "State of Grace" (due out in June, 2013). Maryam is a Persian name, so the princess on the Sufi magic carpet meets the grail knight as the heroine and the hero!

The songs desire to speak through me… I am just the vessel. I am the postman; the messenger. I am Mercury or Hermes, here. I channel archetypal truths that wish to be re-told for today's audience. I have a calling… I am a story-teller in song.

For the audience, could you please recommend some tracks and albums of yours which are directly influenced by the Sufi mystical tradition? Or anything which you think is a signature of who you are as musician.

Certainly, and thank you for this opportunity, Sadiq. I sing the zikr on a track called 'O great spirit' from my album of the same name, made in 2011. It's eight minutes long, and has shamanic drumming on it. It swells and is very atmospheric… though not eastern sounding. It accumulates, ecstatically. Near the end I sing euphonically to express my love for the Beloved.

Back in 1989, I wrote a track called 'Allah, Hallelujah, Elohim' on my album "Mystic Heart", where I sing invocations from different traditions, but in the form of a sweet folk song. I learned from Pir Vilayat that the three words come from the same Aramaic root… a heart chakra sound. It attempts to demonstrate that Judaism, Christianity and Islam are brothers.

Some Selected Albums of Asher Quinn | Click here for full Discography

I love the 'Aaaaaaah' sound… the heart chakra sound. I love the word 'Hallelujah'. I once heard an American guru in all seriousness, and in a broad American accent, talk about how the 'Aaaaaah' sound was in so many of the deity names… he went on to illustrate this: 'Krishnaaaaah'; 'Buddhaaaaah'; Allaaaaaaah'; 'Jehovaaaaah' and, of course… 'Gaaaaaaaahd'!!!

In 2006 I wrote 'Tomorrow's God' for my album "East of East". This was a prayer to the Beloved in many different traditions. I started the song with these words;

'I looked into the heart of my Jesus, and I saw an indescribable beauty there,
I looked into the heart of my Mohammad, and I saw a truth beyond compare,
I looked into the heart of my Jewish roots, and I saw my father's Moses and Abraham,
And I looked into the eyes of my Beloved, and I saw myself in each of them…'

I called the album "East of East" because east is the direction to go towards the spiritual life for those of us in the west, (except that I went west to go east, myself!) East of east is even further, then, down this road. I'm hardcore! I was inspired musically for this track by Van Morrison's 'When will I ever learn to live in God?'

My first album, "Open Secret", from 1987, has an instrumental track called 'Soldier of love' on it… western, musically, but expressing that ecstatic Jesus thing, and my respect for my Aikido teacher. All the tracks on this album came out of the Sufi retreats I did. Another track is called 'Journey to a remarkable place' inspired by reading the Sufi scholar Gurdjieff's 'Meetings with Remarkable Men.' The first piece I ever composed for the market-place… the first track on my first album… is called 'Sacred Heart' a baroque, melancholy, instrumental vignette, where the Sufi way opened my heart to my own sorrow and then, in turn, to the sorrow of humanity.

'This love' a track on my compilation album "This Love", written in 1990, came directly from a Sufi retreat… I wrote it in the little hut when I should have been meditating on Jesus! It WAS itself a meditation on Jesus.

Many of my compositions come through the portal of my constant companion La illaha il'allah… but they often express my in-love feeling for Jesus and Mary.

In recent years this combination of Sufi ecstasy, shamanic journeying, Jungian analysis, Daoist and Kaabalistic practices, and Rudolf Steiner philosophy, has gelled into a kind of constant visionary state of being, inseparable from my everyday, apparently more mundane life. Each an every experience is sacred and a teaching… even going to get a morning paper. By the time I have returned from the corner shop I have seen many life incidents and had many reflections on humanity, and upon my place in the scheme of things, and how we are all connected. I find it all immensely moving and emotional. I pay my bills, and shop for food whilst communing with the Beloved. I get irritated by automated phone calls whilst communing with the Beloved. I commune with the Beloved whilst communing with the Beloved. It is all communion. And the music pours from me in a torrent… four albums in three years, and dozens of concerts… all opportunities to practice communion.

A recent song on my new album "State of Grace" is called 'Communion', about how all of life is the blood and the body of the Beloved. There is no separation. Life itself is a ritual that is a mystical union with the Beloved.

One of my most popular songs is called 'Falling through time' (listen via SoundCloud), from "Falling Through Time" in 2010. It is a very tender, intimate, higher love ballad written as if by the Beloved to the Lover… or the Self to the fragile ego. Similarly 'You are loved' from "Sacred Songs" in 2012, is written as if from the Beloved to the Lover.

Back in the 1980's I was inspired by Rumi, who showed me how higher love songs can both express the flow of love between the Lover and the Beloved, and yet appear to be a romantic song between earthly lovers at the same time. Pretty much all my songs are in this style.

I thank you so much for inviting me to express my thoughts and feelings here, Sadiq. It has been a great pleasure and honour to do so. May I now shamelessly promote myself, please?

AsherQuinn.co.uk (full discography, CD and download shop plus mailing list)

Youtube.com/user/asherquinnmusic (many lovely videos!!)

FaceBook.com/Asher.Quinn

https://soundcloud.com/asher-quinn-asha

Lyrics of Asher Quinn songs

Twitter ~ @AsherQuinnmusic

More about Asher Quinn Biography

# Past Episodes from the Series:

* Quest for the Meanings of Existence / Sohbet with Naila Amat-un-Nur

* When Dreams Begin Our Quest / Sohbet with Noor-Malika Chishti

* In Quest of My Oasis / Sohbet with Amatullah J. Armstrong

* Quest in the Province of Ecstatic Exchange / Sohbet with Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore

* In Quest of A Friend Beyond Compare / Sohbet with Carol Sill

* In Quest of a Naked Intent Toward God / Sohbet with Barbara Flaherty

* Sohbet with Hilary Hart / Author of The Unknown She

* Quest of Meeting the Great Artist / Sohbet with Dominique Dubrule

* In Quest of the Truth that will set us free / Sohbet with Sheikha Maryam Kabeer Faye

* Quest of a Dusty Traveler / Sohbet with Brenda Wentworth

* An American Sufi Quest / Sohbet with Mansur Johnson

* Painting with Bawa / Sohbet with Denise Sati

What is Rida / It is the Perfect Contentment out of Love of the Beloved

2013-04-10T21:03:00.000+06:00

1.
Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

It is narrated about Rabia of Basra, the famous sufi saint that she lost both her parents at an early age. A great famine occurred in Basra during which she was separated from her sisters. Rabia fell into the hands of a wicked man who sold her as a cheap slave. Her master made her work days and night inhumanely and subjected her to much humiliation.

One day she fled from all the indignity. On the street suddenly she fell and broke her hand. In that utter helplessness she put her face on the ground and said, 'O my Intimate One, I am a stranger without mother and father. I am enslaved and now my hand is broken. None of this saddens me. All I need is for You to be pleased with me, to know whether You are pleased with me or not.'

She heard a voice say, 'Do not be sad. Tomorrow a grandeur will be yours such that the closes of the heavenly company will take pride in you.'

That incident of the mystic Rabia reminds me of the life story of the Master of Mystics, the Messenger of God Muhammad, peace and blessings of God be with him, in his early day of his mission when people outrightly not only rejected his message but also tortured and humiliated him and the very vulnerable small community consisting of mostly slaves, socially marginalised poor and destitutes who followed him. In those trying days he went to a city called Taif to invite people to Truth, yet they not only rejected him but also chased him out of the city and threw rocks at him to drive him away. The Prophet bled so profusely from the stoning that his feet became clotted to his shoes and he almost collapsed outside the city walls. There at the height of his deep sadness and suffering the supplication prayer that was uttered by the Prophet remains etched in human history forever. These were his words in translation:

Allahumma ilayka
Ashkoo dhu'fa quwwati,
Wa qillata hilaty,
Wa hawany alla nas,

Ya arham-ar rahimin
Anta rabbul mustadaafeen,
Wa anta rabbi,
Ila man takilny,
Ila baeedin yatajahhammuny,
Am ila aduwwin mallaktahu amry,

In lam yakun bika ghadabun alayy,

Falaa ubaali

Wa laakinn aafiyatuka
heeya awsa'uw lee

A'uzu biNoori wajhik
Allazee ashraqtu lahuz- zulumatu

Wa saluha 'alayhi amrud-dunya
wal-akhirah

Min an yanzila bi ghadabuka

Aw yahilla alayya sakhatuka,

Lakal utba

Hatta tardha

Wa la hawla

Wa la quwwata

illa bika

To You, my Lord,
I complain of my weakness,
and my lack of support
and the humiliation I suffer from my fellowmen.

O the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful!
You are the Lord of the weak,
and you are my Lord.
To whom do You leave me?
To a distant person who receives me with hostility?
Or to an enemy You have given power over me?

As long as You are not displeased with me,
I do not care what I face.
Your forgiveness is all
that matters to me

I seek refuge in the light of Your Countenance
By which all darkness is dispelled
and dissolved are all challenges of the world
and the hereafter,
lest Your wrath descends upon me.

I desire Your pleasure and satisfaction
To You is the supplication
Until it reaches Your Rida

Verily there is no power
and might
other than You.

In this beautiful prayer the keywords upon which this article focuses on is "As long as you are not displeased with me, I do not care what I face" and also "To You is this supplication until it reaches Your Rida."

What is Rida

There is a state of being, or you can say a state of the heart when one is in such perfect contentment, in such state of grace that nothing really matters except what God - the Beloved wills and decides. In the Islamic vocabulary this state is called Radiyatan Mardiya (Well-Pleased and Well-Pleasing) both from the word Rida.

Rida is an Arabic word which literally means "contentment", "satisfaction" and "being well pleased." But these apparent meanings in translation do little justice when it comes to the Sufi tradition - the inner tradition of Islam, within which this Quranic term Rida unveils much deeper meanings and stands as a sign-post of spiritual maturity of an aspirant.

The word Rida is mentioned in the Quran in a number of places and within diverse context. The term is used both for God and human being. In the Quranic expression there is a reciprocal relationship between God and His best creation - mankind when it is mentioned, "God has rida with them, and they have rida with God." (radi Allahu anhum wa radu anhu Q 5:119; 9:100; 57:22; 98:8)

The pre-eminent scholar of early Sufism Louis Massignon defined Rida as "Riḍā is the name given in the Qur’ān to the ‘state of grace’ sought by the old Christian monks in their rahbaniyya (monastic life)."

The most concise definition of rida within early Sufism was formulated by Muḥasibi (d. 857) in his Book of Resolution and the Return to God (al-Qaṣd wa al-ruju‘ ila Allah):

I asked, ‘what is the meaning of rida?’ He replied, ‘the joy of the heart with the passing of divine decree.’ I then asked, ‘what is its opposite?’ He replied, ‘sakhaṭ.’ I asked, ‘What is the meaning of sakhaṭ?’ to which he replied, ‘dissatisfaction of the heart, its sakhaṭ, and its dislike for the arrival of the divine decree, as well as the heart’s many wishes for control.

Muhasibi also give example of Rida by mentioning two examples from early communities of Muslim and companions of the Prophet:

It was once said to Abu Bakr, may God be pleased with him (during an illness), ‘shall we call a physician for you?’ to which he replied, ‘He has already seen me.’ It was then said to him, ‘What did He say to you?’ He replied, ‘.... Verily, I do as I please.’

And Uthmān, may God be pleased with him, asked ‘Abd Allāh b. Mas‘ūd in his sickness, ‘What is your complaint?’ He replied, ‘my sins.’ It was then said to him, ‘What do you desire?’ He replied, ‘the mercy of God.’ It was then said to him, ‘Shall we not call a physician for you?’ to which he replied, ‘the Physician is the one who made me sick.’

Junayd (d. 910), Muḥasibi’s most famous student, sometimes identified as the patriarch of Sufism, would himself define rida as the “relinquishing of choice”

Ruwaym (d. 915) defined riḍā as the “anticipation of the decrees (of God) with joy,”

Ibn ‘Ata’ (d. 922) declared that it is “the heart’s regard for what God chose for the servant at the beginning of time, and it is abandoning displeasure (tasakhkhut).”

If the human being meets God with riḍā for His decree, then God will meet the human being with His own riḍā, since a prophetic tradition has God declare, “He who has riḍā encounters My riḍā when he meets Me, and he who has sakhaṭ encounters by sakhaṭ when he meets Me.” that is to say that God declares, the one who with contentment wishes to meet Me, I am well-pleased to meet that person, whereas one who distaste meeting Me, I am also displeased to meet that him.

Elaborating on the nature of the virtue that is demanded by God, one of the early Sufis would state that there are in fact two kinds of riḍā made incumbent on the human being: riḍā with God (riḍā bihi) in so far as He is the Arranger (mudabbir) of affairs, and riḍā with what comes from God (riḍā ‘anhu) by way of His decree.

3.

Being content even at challenging times

Unless a soul matures and have unshakable faith in God as well as the love is strong enough, the station to be well-pleased with whatever the Beloved sends is hard to attain, specially when the person is facing trial and tribulation.

The litmus test lies in being able to exhibit a genuine state of satisfaction in the face of the bitter situations of life, in response to those circumstances of loss that naturally elicit distress, anxiety, suffering and pain. A famous story of Rābi‘a (d. 801), founder of the love tradition in Sufism, succinctly illustrates this point. She once heard the famous jurist and ascetic Sufyān al- Thawrī (d. 778) pray, “O Lord, have riḍā with us,” to which she responded, “Are you not ashamed to ask Him for riḍā when you yourself do not have riḍā with Him.”

When pressed to describe the one who has attained the virtue in question, she explained that it is “when his joy in misfortune is like his joy in blessing.” Her contemporary, the highway bandit-turned-ascetic, Fuḍayl b. ‘Iyād (d. 803), would similarly observe that one can only be characterized by riḍā when both “the deprivation and (the receiving of) the gift (from God) are equal in his eyes.”

Abū ‘Alī al-Daqqāq (d. 1015 or 1021), the teacher of Qushayrī would clarify, “riḍā is not that you do not feel the trial, it is only that you do not object to the divine ruling and the decree.”

In other words, genuine riḍā does not mean that one becomes numb to all pain, or that one finds pleasure in suffering, but that the joy in submitting to the divine will far exceeds the discomfort of any tribulation which may accompany life, so that it is as if the tribulation did not exist, or as if the tribulation were no different from worldly gain. Riḍā, in this light, is the overwhelming peace which ensues from surrendering the heart to God’s pre-eternal decree, from abdicating the impulse to control one’s destiny.

Muḥāsibī explains the reasons for why one must never respond to God’s bitter decrees with either stoic indifference or dejectedness and despair. One must recognize, he argues, that God is just in His decree, that He is not despotic in His will. This should in turn lead one to have a good opinion (husn al-ẓann) of Him. One must also realize that “the choice of God most High is better than your own choice for yourself,” since there are consequences for events which the human being does not anticipate in his short-sightedness. One cannot see the full trajectory of his life, much less his fate in the next world. Riḍā therefore requires not only a relinquishing of one’s own will before the Divine will, but a humbling of the intellect through a recognition that, in His omniscience, God has in mind the best interests of the soul. For Muḥāsibī one must understand that the divine physician surgically inflicts pain for one’s best interests. Even His deprivation is a theodical gift, for in withholding what the soul may desire for its own perceived welfare, He manifests benevolent generosity. As Sufyān al-Thawrī poignantly observed, “God’s withholding is actually a giving, because He withholds without miserliness or loss. His withholding is a choice, and (the consequence) of beautiful discernment (husn al- naẓar).”

Higher stations of Rida

While the semantic field of riḍā includes the notion of contentment, it also signifies much more.

The higher levels of riḍā are reserved for those who become so immersed in their contemplation of God that the world, with its joys and pains, recedes into the background. The affairs of the world become eclipsed for such folk by the overpowering luminosity of the Arranger of Affairs. Through an experience of self-transcendence, they are able to rise beyond earthly experiences of suffering and joy to behold the One in an experience of divine unity. Riḍā, in such a state, is the consequence not of an act of the intellect, where one acknowledges the justice and wisdom of divine decree, nor of the will, where one surrenders it to God, but an experience of being blinded by light of God.

Hujwiri said, “[H]e who is satisfied with the affliction that God sends is satisfied because in the affliction he sees the Author thereof and can endure its pain by contemplating Him who sent it; nay, he does not account it painful, such is his joy in contemplating his Beloved."

Above such a level there is one, continues Hujwīrī, whose being becomes so thoroughly extinguished in the divine origin that his existence itself becomes “an illusion alike in His anger and His satisfaction; whose hearts dwell in the presence of Purity, and in the garden of Intimacy.”

Those who attain such a rank “have no thought of created things and have escaped from the bonds of ‘stations’ and ‘states’ and have devoted themselves to the love of God.”

This station is achieved when one has attain fana with God, one who has reached the station about which Christ could describe in saying, "I and my Father is One."

5.

From being content to being satisfied and well-pleased

The nature of riḍā is such that it is organically interconnected with other virtues – with some more closely than others. Perhaps its closest relationship is with qanā‘a, which connotes the idea of “contentment” in a more restricted sense. While the semantic field of riḍā includes the notion of contentment, it also signifies much more. In Sufi psychology qanā‘a is typically understood to refer to one of the first stages of riḍā. This point was made by Abū Sulaymān al-Dārānī (d. 830), when he observed that “the relation of qanā‘a to riḍā is like the relation of abstinence (wara‘) to renunciation (zuhd): qanā‘a is the first stage of riḍā, and abstinence is the first stage of renunciation.”

Makki would also relegate qanā‘a to the preliminary stages of riḍā when he stated that the “first (level) of riḍā is qanā‘a.”

To the extent that riḍā requires happily relinquishing one’s desire in the face of divine decree, it naturally follows that one cannot attain higher levels of this virtue without first realizing contentment.

Love and Rida

It is love that serves as the foundation of riḍā and ultimately makes it possible to ascend through its various levels. “When a man is truthful in his love (of God),” writes Abū Sa‘īd al-Kharrāz (d. 899) in his Book of Truthfulness, “there emerges between him and God, most High, a partnership of surrender ... he has trust in the excellent choice of the one whom He loves. He abides in his excellent direction, and tastes the food of existence through Him.” As a consequence, “his heart is filled with joy, bliss, and happiness.”

Likewise, Hujwīrī states that riḍā “is the result of love, inasmuch as the lover is satisfied with what is done by the Beloved.”

Dhū al-Nūn al-Miṣrī (d. 860) claimed that “riḍā has three signs: abandoning personal choice before the divine decree has been decided, not experiencing any bitterness after the decree has been decided, and feeling the tumult of love in the very midst of trials.”

Ghazālī (d. 1111) said If His servants bear them (difficulties and trials sent by God) with patience, they are favored, but if they do so with riḍā, they are singled out as His chosen ones.

Love therefore stands out as one of the most closely allied virtues to riḍā. Without an intense
experience of love the higher reaches of riḍā remain closed.

And this the open secret of Rida of the near ones of God. For them Rida is the perfected contentment out of Love of the Beloved where the focus is not on the self but that of the Beloved (which is the quintessential rule of love where the interest of beloved is all that it matters). May Allah grant us His Rida so that He may be well-pleased with us and we with Him.

Allahumma inna nas aluka ridaka wal jannat. Wa nuzubika min shakhatika wan nar.

O Allah, we ask You for Your Rida and the Garden and we seek Your protection from Your displeasure and the Fire.

# References:
* Contentment, Satisfaction and Good-Pleasure (Riḍā) in Early Sufi Moral Psychology - by Atif Khalil
* Concerning Rida from Al-Ghunya li-Talibi Tariq al-Haqq by Shaikh Abdal Qadir Jilani

Photography Credit: Claudia Henzler / Award-winning photo-artist Claudia Henzler has traveled to distant corners of the world to tell pictorial stories of human issues with an extraordinary gift to capture soul-stirring images. Her carefully woven “tapestry in imagery,” skillfully draws diverse elements of all cultures and blends them into one common thread of humanity. Visit her site here.

Two Books on and about Experience of Khalwa or Sufi Retreat

2013-04-07T01:32:00.000+06:00

A new moon teaches gradualness
and deliberation, and how one gives birth
to oneself slowly. Patience with small details
makes perfect a large work, like the universe.

What nine months of attention does for an embryo
forty early mornings alone will do
for your gradually growing wholeness.

~ Rumi, Forty Early Mornings Alone

Don’t surrender your loneliness
So quickly.
Let it cut more deep.

Let it ferment and season you
As few human
Or even divine ingredients can.

Something missing in my heart tonight
Has made my eyes so soft,
My voice
So tender,

My need of God
Absolutely
Clear.

~ Don’t surrender your loneliness by Shams al-Din Hafiz

Khalwa or Spiritual Solitude is an intimate experience that happens between a soul and its Creator Source. In Islam the archetypal khalwa remains to be that of the Last Prophet's series of solitary retreats in the mountain cave outside of Mecca out of which came his powerful experience of Divine Revelations. That experience itself remains shrouded in mystery and very little is actually transmitted about that experience itself.

Sufi seekers when they reach a certain stage of maturity or aspire to walk further, his or her spiritual guide who is a physician of the heart and soul, may prescribe khalwa or special sufi retreat for him or her. Such retreats are rarely documented even though through the heart knowledge this tradition is transmitted from one generation to the next. In the genre of Sufi literature I have come across two books which are exclusively written around the author's experience on Khalwa or Sufi Retreat / Seclusion. Here are two books are presented:

Fifty Days: the Divine Disclosures During a Holy Sufi Seclusion

by Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, Forwarded by Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Haqqani

The writings in this book emerged from the heart of Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani after spending fifty days in a seclusion prescribed by his guiding master in the Sufi Path, Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani. During the course of his time, isolated in a small room in Damascus, Shaykh Hisham underwent incredible experiences, which he then shared in talks given to his students after the pre-dawn prayers each morning in Ramadan, 2005. In assigning the duty of seclusion to Shaykh Hisham, his master, Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani said: "The people have reached their limits of carrying hardship from the overwhelming extent of oppression and darkness. The intensity of the hardship required in order to invoke God to bring about the appearance of the expected Savior has just been reached. "Therefore, every night in the last third before dawn, Shaykh Hisham will be in the station of intimate discourse with his Lord. After completing the special recitations and praise on the Prophet, he has been assigned and with which he will be busy 24 hours, every night, at the most favorable time for the Lord's acceptance of supplication, Shaykh Hisham should request the Lord to send a Saviour-King to mankind, a king who is seeking God's Way.

His supplication in this manner and in this state will be so effective, it will be like 124,000 saints engaged in supplication for forty days without cease. "They are asking the Lord of servants to send them a king. That is why we are sending Shaykh Hisham Effendi, whom we know very well. Other saints we do not know. "For this purpose he must not enter into any other activity. He must be present, spiritually with the Prophet and ask, "Oh Prophet of Mercy! Ask your Lord to send us a Saviour-King on the Way of the Lord." And we are looking to see the results. He must ask this only; it is the summary and distillation of the forty days seclusion and its ultimate purpose is consultation with the Prophet, upon whom be peace and blessings."

Forty Days: The Diary of a Traditional Solitary Sufi Retreat

by Michaela M Ozelsel

This is a woman's firsthand account of a Sufi halvet, a forty-day retreat conducted in complete isolation, along with strict fasting from sunrise to sundown. Voluntarily confined to a sparsely furnished room amid the bustle of Istanbul, Michaela Özelsel will occupy her time with reading the Qur'an and works of Rumi and Ibn 'Arabi, and with praying and practicing the powerful Sufi exercise known as zhikr, the rhythmic repetition of names of God or other sacred formulas, accompanied by movements of the head or body. In intimate detail Dr. Özelsel shares her experiences as she strives to attain true "Islam" in its meaning of surrender or unconditional acceptance of the will of God. Her daily journal ranges over the frustrations of noisy neighbors, power outages, and a poorly heated room; her inner longings, doubts, and memories of the life course that has brought her to this moment; and the most inspirational philosophical insights, dreams and visions, and ecstatic raptures.

The second half of the book is devoted to the author's psychological and cultural commentary on her experiences, including observations about the methods of Sufi schooling, sexuality and spirituality, and the relationship with the spiritual guide. Forty Days is unique in the literature of spiritual education because it is informed by her knowledge of contemporary research from several disciplines, thus creating a bridge between ancient wisdom and scientific investigation.

Other these two books mentioned above there are two other books which are also written around the subject of retreat.

Visionaries of Silence: The Reformist Sufi Order of the Demirdashiya al-Khalwatiya in Cairo

by Earle H. Waugh

Founded in the sixteenth century, the Demirdashiya Sufi order in Cairo has played an influential role in Egypt's public life, and through a line of family sheikhs has channeled the impulses of its Sufi origins into different types of reform. Practicing a visionary form of piety, the Demirdashiya - once legendary for its wealth and secrecy - continues to influence a small but important segment of contemporary Cairo's inhabitants. In this fascinating study, scholar Earle S. Waugh highlights the Demirdashiya's sophisticated and complex relationship with both politics and Islamic culture.

As part of his research, Waugh attended the order's liturgies - the dhikrs (remembrance) and khalwa (retreat) - normally closed to outsiders. During an annual khalwa, the adept silently meditates for three days in his own cell. More than giving up human discourse, the mandated silence is a re-ordering of sensitivities to the divine, and a path to insight into the many ways that God conveys Himself to humans.

Examining the role of the Demirdashiya in Egypt's history as well as its visionary piety, Visionaries of Silence explores the dialectic between reform and vision in a stable Sufi order. It also probes how these competing ideals were incorporated into the physical world of the zawiya, mosque, and living quarters, and the extension of its influence in Europe through its most famous daughter, Qut al-Qulub, noted visionary author and mother of the order's current sheikh.

Dawn in Medina

by Muzaffar Iqbal

Dawn in Madinah: A Pilgrim's Passage is a vivid account of a month long retreat in the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah. The luminous details of this sojourn in Islam's second-most sacred mosque are superimposed upon the historical events that shaped the life of the early Muslim community during its formative period. Numerous episodes from the life of the Prophet form an ever-present backdrop to its narrative which moves across time to weave together the desires, hopes, fears, and spiritual struggles of so many pilgrims present during the month of Ramadan in the Mosque, fourteen hundred and eighteen years after it was built by Prophet Muhammad and his Companions soon after their arrival in Madinah. This juxtaposition of contemporary lives with those lived fourteen centuries ago creates a tapestry in which one can find common threads of a journey toward God.

Surrendering in a Sublime Chess Game with God

2013-04-05T23:42:00.000+06:00

What is the difference
Between your experience
of Existence
And that of a saint?

The saint knows
That the spiritual path
Is a sublime chess game with God

And that the Beloved
Has just made such a
Fantastic move

That the saint is now continually
Tripping over joy
And bursting out in laughter

And saying, “I Surrender!”

Whereas, my dear,
I’m afraid you still think

You have a thousand serious moves.

~ Hafiz, Daniel Ladinsky

The poem in English is from the Book titled: I Heard God Laughing: Poems of Hope and Joy

Striving for His Munificence and HimSelf | Meditative Quranic Verses

2013-04-04T09:43:00.001+06:00

wa'lladhina jahadu feena

but those who strive for Us.

~ The Chapter of Spider, The Final Testament 29:69

Imam Jafar as Sadiq, may God hallow his spirit, said: The spiritual struggle (jihad) is sincere neediness (to God) and that is the detachment (infisal) of the servant from his soul, and his attachment (ittisal) to his Lord.

[Detachment (infisal) and attachment (ittisal). Thus the nafi and ithbat respectively, of the shahadah constitute mujahadah.]

The spiritual struggle frees the slave from all that he is attached to. The spiritual struggle is the generous expending of one's spirit (Badhl ar-Ruh) for the the satisfaction of (God) the Truth.

[Badhl al-Ruh. Since spirit (ruh) is the divine breath of life breathed into man at his creation, badhl al-ruh means to expend the whole of life appropriately, at all levels, in satisfying the One who breathes through and in all creatures. Safa too has its service to God, its khidmah.]

He also said: Whoever strives with his soul for his soul attains the munificence of his Lord; while he who strives with his soul for his Lord attains to his Lord.

[Fearing hell or hoping for paradise; to such a person, God's generosity shall grant avoidance of hell or entry into paradise. The striving of the soul for God is the khidmah or muruwah of Marwah.]

- The text is from Imam Jafar as-Sadiq's Commentary on Qur'an and in translation, the text in braces are notes from the translator.

Exegesis from Spiritual Gems by Farhana Mayer based on the text of Paul Nwyia

Imam Jafar as-Sadiq is known to have said: "My words are the words of my father, and the words of my father are the words of my grandfather, and the words of my grandfather are the words of my great-grandfathers - Hasan and Husayn; and their words are the words of Ali, and the words of Ali are the words of the Prophet of Allah; and the words of the Prophet are the words of Allah" ~ Muhammad Kulayni, Usūl al-Kāfī - The Book of Intellect and Ignorance. Ch.17

The 69th verse of 29th Chapter of the Quran reads in full:
Wa'lladhina jahadu feena lanahdi yannahum subulana. wa-inna Allaha lamaAAa al-muhsineen

And those who strive for Us - We will surely guide them to Our ways. And indeed, Allah is with the doers of good.

+ Learn its Morphology (word by word syntax) via Quran Corpus

Experience and Advice on Sufi Retreat or Khalwa

2013-03-30T14:18:00.000+06:00

1.
Shadhiliyya Sufi Center located in Pope Valley, organizes Khalwas for the beloveds (members of the community, students of our Master), specially in the blessed month of Ramadan. During 2007 December I had the grateful opportunity to join such a Khalwa under the guidance of Shaykh Sidi Muhammad al Jamal ash-Shadhili, may Allah preserve him and bless his spirit. The beloves who joined that khalwa emanated such a beautiful energy that it felt heavenly to be there. It was not a traditional 40 day long retreat, but encompassing few days of fasting followed by all night vigils with the Shaykh. The Shaykh led a zikr during one of the nights and it brought an experience unlike anything else.

I tried to capture this experience in the following poem titled:

Reminiscence from a khalwa night

The khalwa has begun.

In the most secluded part of night,
far removed from ordinary sight
from the house of worship,
permeating its dome
vibrations of zikr rise
towards the Throne.

The dimly lit outer room of our mosque
creates a quality of unknowingness.

I look outside the window facing the gardens
there to my surprise is our master's presence!

The master sits alone on the porch
in quietude of the night
leading his holy children
in recalling of Light.

Upon his heart, upon his lips,
between Lord and him, goes on
ceaseless remembrance,
the sacred communion of grace.

On this blessed night
if you listened to the sound
of the caravan of khalwa,
you'd have listened only this: Allah! Allah!

Jan 7, 2008

Khalwa Experience of Fire in the Chambers of the Heart

In the Baitun-Noor Khanqah (gathering place of the Sufis), one of the participant shared this experience of Khalwa that was available in public domain. The author remains anonymous. I am sharing it below:

This Ramadan I was very submerged in my pottery studio trying to prepare two art shows in north Georgia and Savannah as I was struggling to stay on top on my Qiraat (Holy Quran recitation) and dhikr (ritual remembrance of Allah), I had not planned to make I’tikaaf on the last tens days as I had last year...

Truly, the spiritual impact of last year’s Khalwa and I’tikaaf at the Baitun Noor Holy Shrine was still fresh in my heart and soul. When I received a call from one of our seniors saying that I should be there, I covered twenty bowls and vases and headed for the Khanqah (a place where Sufis worship) in Holy Islamville South Carolina. A place where Allah’s blesses name and Holy Muhammad, Peace be upon Him had been seen in Rainbow colors by people of all backgrounds Muslims, Christians and others.

As with the year before the people at the Khalwa were in dhikr twenty hour a day. There was no one there who did not have Tasbeeh in the hands, or reciting Holy Quran, and Dalaael ul Khairat. We were instructed by our Pir Shah Jilani to stay absorbed in the remembrance of Allah. We avoided long conversation and worldly discourse. Each morning we received instructed from our Pir via video on Tafseer of Sura Baqarah. There were talim (lessons) from the books Manners in Islam and Uswati-e-Rasul, (Peace Be Upon Him), written by the Hadrat Imam Isa Tirmidhi (Ra), which gave details on the physical beauty of The Holy Last Messenger (peace be upon him).

On the Night of Power, our Pir had instructed us to perform 100 rakat Nafl and Salatun Tasbeeh. The moment I entered the Shrine my heart started burning as if there was a warming fire in each chamber of my heart. When I closed my eyes I could see our Shaykh moving about from one place to the other. I saw other faces but could not see them clearly. I saw a tablet of maybe stone on it were words in a relief form written in what appeared to be flaming red. I could not make out the words. At one point I begin to get tired. As I sat, one of the brothers tapped me on the shoulder to tell me it was time for sahoor. I stood to go to Abu Hakims house where the brothers go to eat. (may Allah bless him and his family his doors are always open). But when I reach the middle of the road, my heart summons me back to the holy shrine, I made few rakats and just sat contemplating on Allah’s Holy Name. The beautiful fire that was burning in my heart was all that mattered to me. I couldn’t think about eating. At one point, my heart felt a flutter, and vibrated like a cell phone. I fell asleep sitting to be awaken by the sound of the Adhan. I headed to the masjid to make Salaat in jamaat.

The burning sensation had subsided, yet the blissfulness and serenity of the night equal to 80 years of Ibadat resting on my chest.

I was again filled with a saturated feeling of gratitude to Allah for sending Our Pir Shah Jilani for unveiling the master piece of Love of Allah Ta’ala and Love of his Holy Last Messenger Muhammad (Peace be Upon Him). I too had become so drunk/ absorbed with love for all the people in Holy Islamville the I was afraid to speak. The presence of Allah’s love was everywhere. Everyone clothes were stained with the wine of divine love from being in this Tavern. I felt these intoxication days after the Eid. We sat at Abu Hakims home talking s about our Shaykh and how much Allah Ta’ala has manifested His beauty through his Nisbah. When I returned to my home in Madinah Valley Georgia, the burning sensation started again. I was trying to sleep but as I lay I kept seeing the Allah’s name on a rose petal, as on the Ism Allah card. I rose to make tahajjud and dhikr. These fires in chambers of my heart continued for two days.

Photo via Flickr

3.
On the website EShaykh, various questions by people are answered from the authorized scholars of Shaykh Nazim's community. In this website someone asked an interesting question regarding intending to make khalwa. The answer covers few useful areas which makes it worthy sharing here.

The Question:

InshAllah with your blessings i have made intention for the 10 day khalwa to discipline and control myself, i was wondering if any member of the Eshaykh staff could advise us on how we should eat and drink during these 10 days, for example can we fast the 10 days, and if we can what food is suitable and how much can we eat. Also is it permissable to leave the room to attend Jumma Salaah.

Answer:

Wa `alaykum salam,

Advice concerning the difference between wanting to be in khalwa and being told to go into khalwa

In the Burdah, it says:

The ego is like an infant, if you neglect it
It will grow up attached to the love of being nursed
And be fearful of the schemes of hunger and satiation
For truly eating food will only strengthen the desire for consumption

There is a big difference between asking to enter seclusion and being ordered into it. Indeed, in all such things, there is a difference between asking to do something and being told to do it. When you ask for something, even something difficult, it is as if you are asking for dessert, for your enjoyment. This is because the ego has a share in that which you asked for. If you ask to enter seclusion and are granted permission to do so, it will be easy to endure because the ego is getting what it wanted. On the other hand, if the ego is suddenly confronted with an order from the shaykh to enter seclusion, it will be extremely difficult to endure because this requires subordinating the ego to the will of the shaykh. The ego will never submit to this willingly. It will attack you with all its armies and satanic methods. It will try to make the reality of the shaykh’s order impossible to implement or accept.

This is the reality of the seclusion which I did not seek out. I was ordered to enter this seclusion without notice by Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Haqqani. His name means “one who is just and true.” I hope that with the Justice and Truthfulness of my Lord, Allah will grant me success in completing this seclusion, for my Lord has full and absolute control over my evil-commanding ego and the ability to purify it from its desires, cut its attachment to the material world, protect it from the tricks of the devil and to cure it from all its ailments.

The ego is a coward, because it comes to defeat you with its countless wild battalions of vile, worldly thoughts and devils marching under its banner. In this way, it is able to defeat you—unless the perfect master is educating, directing and training you. He will be like a roaring lion protecting his cubs from any harm. We hope that, with the blessings of our master Shaykh Muħammad Nazim Adil al-Haqqani, we will enjoy peace and calm from the attacks of the ego, which is scheming against us incessantly .

[excerpts from book, Fifty Days: the Divine Disclosures During a Holy Sufi Seclusion by Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani]

Advice Concerning Food in Khalwa

…Soup is the food of awliyaullah. In Sayyidina Muhyiddeen ibn Arabi’s mosque in Sham every day there are 100s of poor people. Everyday they bring 1, 2 or 3 huge pots of soup, mainly daal and zuchinni mixed and give it to people with bread. Anyone who says, “O I want chicken, O I want meat, O I want this…” they kick them out. If they are coming for Allah, eat what is there. They are coming for ego, so they must make all kinds of food. People who go to restaurants, every day they are egoistic (not those who open the restaurant, that is only rizq for them), but those who come there are not satisfied with bread or rice, where in all countries (mostly if you want to call it third world countries), where the baraka is….

Alhamdulillah Allah blessing all of us with His baraka and blessing but the baraka you find those countries you don’t find here. There you see people eating rice in the mountains they live to 100, 110 years old and their only food is rice in a leaf of banana and they are very happy with only eating this handful. They get more energy than the one eating every different kinds. So when it comes to food, that is only something when you host someone you need to be generous with your food. If you were not generous and that is ok, as your income is not so much, then you only made soup, then the guest must say alhamdulillah…

…The Prophet (s) his morning food was warm water with honey, and noontime is 7 dates and water, and evening dry bread with olive oil & vinegar. Putting the bread in the oil and vinegar. That is the food they were eating and look at the food we are eating today. And people today don’t say alhamdulillah or shukran lillah by thanking Allah Allah will continue to send blessings and rizq. we forget to say Bismillahi ‘r-Rahmani ‘r-Raheem at begin and to say alhamdulillah at the end. So at Muhyiddeen ibn Arabi they are poor people and rich people. they come to take baraka. They drink that soup and it is baraka…

…Here is baraka in soup. Awliyaullah in their seclusion don’t eat except soup. Prophets used to be shepherds as it teaches patience and their food is lentil soup, daal. and the Prophet (s) was eating less. If the Prophet (s) put stones on his stomach from hunger, what about us? We have to say day and night shukran lillah that we have all kinds of different food...

[exerpts taken from the SufiLive chat log, 15 October 2011, Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani suhbat]

Advice Concerning Behaviour in Khalwa

The following is from the transcript of the suhbat, Who is The Guide by Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani:

Grandshaykh (q) said Sayyidina Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani (q) put a mureed in seclusion for forty days, and told him, “If something strange happens with you, tell me.” Everyday they sent him his food, one small bowl of lentils in twenty-four hours. That is the food; training. When you eat less you’ll be awake, cannot sleep. They don’t want you to sleep; they want you to be awake. When you eat too much, you go and sleep without feeling. You eat too much food? [Mawlana asks someone]. Somali people are very famous in eating big lambs stuffed with rice and meat. That’s why they are eating each other in Somalia! (laughter) One day, the mureed in seclusion told Shaykh Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani (q), “Oh my Shaykh! Today I had something strange happening to me.” Sayyidina Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani said, “What has happened to you?”

“A rat was speaking to me in perfect Arabic language”, said the mureed. It’s nice for a rat to speak Arabic. It’s good, because in khalwah (seclusion) everything is possible; don’t think it’s too much. Shaykh Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani (q) said, “What happened?” “Ya Sayyidi,” said the mureed, “When you sent me the food, I started eating, but the prayer time came. This rat came from the hole in the room and went to the food and started eating. I was praying, and I was seeing. I wanted to finish quickly because this rat was eating the food. As soon as I said as-salamu `alaykum, I ran to the rat and it went away to the hole. Then I put a paper to close the hole and continued my prayer. The rat pushed the paper and came another time to eat; then ran away another time. I said as-salamu `alaykum, quickly finished my prayer, and kicked the rat out. The rat went to the hole and extended its head saying in perfect Arabic, ‘Oh idiot! Do you think if my name was not written on that food, I would be able to touch it?’ Oh my shaykh, this is the strangest thing that happened to me.”

Sayyidina Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani (q) said, “Oh my son, you have failed your test, because your Trust was going to be given to you, your Amanaat, your secrets, but you blocked them.” “Oh, I didn’t do anything”, said the mureed. His shaykh said, “Oh my son, do you think the rat can speak Arabic? You must not see the rat. You must see the one behind the rat. It was me speaking to you, telling you that you did something wrong. You must let that rat eat because it is written the name of that food for that rat. You lost your Trust. I was ready to give you your Trust, but awliyaullah prohibited me. They stopped me saying, ‘No, he’s not ready yet,’ because you didn’t see me in that rat.”

That’s big. He’s showing him even to that small detail awliyaullah are (with) opened eyes on their followers, their mureeds. They know what’s happening. Every detail they know, but sometimes they don’t talk. You think Mawlana doesn’t know about this air conditioner here, and that they don’t open it? Awliyaullah keep quiet. But we have permission to not keep quiet, to criticize. If there is no permission to criticize, we keep our tongue and mouth zipped. So, to this extent awliyaullah are looking at their followers. Even in their twenty-four hours, of every moment of their lives. Grandshaykh (q) used to say, “When you move in the bed at night right or left, when you are sleeping; I can hear your movement stronger than thunder. When thunder comes, I can hear that movement of my mureed, even if he is in the East and I am in the West, I can hear it.”

So, they put in your heart this knowledge of knowing these forbiddens one by one. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, may Allah give him long life (ameen), told me Grandshaykh (q) ordered him into seclusion for six months in Madina tul-Munawwara. He was ordered to do the five prayers in Masjid an-Nabawi (s) in the Rawdah Shareef, so, he has to go early for every prayer. That was a long time ago. Not like now, it’s crowded. And going to the Masjid he had to look at his step, where he is putting his feet. He cannot look further. Going, praying, and coming back; continue this seclusion.

May Allah forgive our shortcomings and increase our ability to follow His Will in our life and to bring justice, mercy, truth, freedom and peace in our circle of influence and in the world. Indeed Allah is Ever Responsive to His servants who Call upon His Guidance and Help.

The Khalwati Path / Seclusion and Withdrawal for Spiritual Communion

2013-03-29T02:08:00.000+06:00

… take refuge in the cave: God will spread His grace over you, and will endow you - whatever your outward condition be - with all that your soul may need. ~ The Qur'an 18:16

Travel beyond the confines of this life and see the vastness of His kingdom beyond space. Let your ear listen to what it has not heard before, and your eye see what it has not seen, until it leads you to where you see the One of the world and all the worlds. Express your passion for the One from your heart and soul until you see the Reality with the eye of certainty. There is only One and nothing but Him, He is Alone and there is no God but Him. ~ Sidi Mohammed ibn Ali al-Baqir

Spiritual retreat even though observed invariably by all Sufi Orders, there is a particular one order which place special emphasis on this practice and not surprisingly the order is also called Khalwati or Khalwatiya (Retreater). The Khalwati order (also known as Halveti, as it is known in Turkey), along with the Naqshbandi, Qadiri and Shadhili orders, it is among the most famous Sufi orders. The order takes its name from the Arabic word khalwa, meaning “method of withdrawal or isolation from the world for mystical purposes.”

The Khalwati order is known for its strict ritual training of its dervishes and its emphasis of individualism. Prime characteristic of the order is individual asceticism (zuhd) and retreat (khalwa).

Spiritual retreat is the backdrop for the Khalwatiya order. “Khalwa” basically refers to a solitary retreat in places like caves; “And your Lord revealed to the bee saying: Make hives in the mountains” (Quran 16:68), or in other places like zawiyas (“In houses that Allah allowed to be raised and in which His name is mentioned. He is exalted therein morning and afternoon by men who are not distracted by business and selling from the remembrance of Allah” (Quran 31:36-37).

The khalwa is held either for 7 or 40 days during which a disciple does extensive spiritual exercises under the direction of a master. A khalwa is traditionally for 40 days. The primary model for Khalwati accounts of retreat was the Prophet’s (peace and blessing be upon him) prayer and fasting in the cave of ‘Hira for 40 days.

The number 40 is very significant. It describes a different reality to different sciences. In mathematics 40 is an octagonal number, and the sum of the first four pentagonal numbers, it is a pentagonal pyramidal number, and a semiperfect number. 40 is also a repdigit in base 3 (1111). In Sufi terms, number 1111 is the multiplication of the 11 letters of the Greatest Concealed Name. According to Sufi literature, the Greatest Name contains 11 letters and it is read 11/111/1111 times. “I did see eleven stars." [Quran 12:4]. Number 111 stands also for the digit of Mohammedian Sciences.”

In science 40 is the atomic number of zirconium. In Islam 40 is repeated a number of times.

• The Holy Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) said through so many chains from the Companions Sidna Ali, Sidna Ibn Abbas, and others, “Whoever wholly dedicates to Allah 40 days, the wellsprings of wisdom shall appear from his heart to his tongue."

• Forty is the age of Prophethood (nubuwa). The Holy Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) was 40 years old when he first received the revelation delivered by the archangel Gabriel. “Mohammed was not the father of any man among you. He was a messenger of God and the final prophet. God is fully aware of all things.” (Quran 33:40)

• Forty is the age of the “Absolute Poleship" (al-Qutbaniya al-'Udhma). “We enjoined the human being to honor his parents. His mother bore him arduously, gave birth to him arduously, and took intimate care of him for thirty months. When he reaches maturity, and reaches the age of forty, he should say, "My Lord, direct me to appreciate the blessings You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents, and to do the righteous works that please You. Let my children be righteous as well. I have repented to You; I am a submitter." (Quran 46:15)

• The Holy Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) was praying and fasting in the cave for 40 days,

• Prophet Sidna Musa (peace be upon him) spent 40 days on Mount Sinai where he received the 10 commandments. "And when We appointed (a period of) forty nights with Moses."(Quran 2:51), “We summoned Moses for thirty nights, and completed them by adding ten. Thus, the audience with his Lord lasted forty nights” (Quran 7:142)

• Forty was the number of days that Prophet Ilyas spent in the wilderness before God appeared to him in a cave on Mount Sinai (also known as Mount Horeb)

• Sayyida Khadija was 40 years old when she married the Holy Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him)

• Allah Most High revealed to the Holy Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) to keep away 40 days from Sayyida Khadija. During these days, he fasted and engaged only in worship and prayer. At the end of 40 days, the Holy Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) ate a heavenly apple, then Lady Khadija became pregnant of Sayyida Fatimah, chieftain of womankind. Shaykh Abil Abbas Tijani said as reported in Jawahir al-Maani: “As for the fact that Fatima did not menstruate, it was due to the formation of her genital fluid, which originated from the Prophet eating one of the apples of the Garden of Paradise. That is why the Prophet said about her "She is a human houri".

• When Allah Most High commanded the Holy Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him), to call his close relatives (Ahl al-Bayt) for Islam - "And warn your nearest relatives" (Quran 26:214), the Prophet told Sidna Ali ibn Abi Talib to prepare a meal and invite their relatives, who numbered 40.

• Qudsi Hadiths are 40 in number

• Guided Viceregency (Khilafa Rashida) lasted for 40 years after the death of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him)

• Imam Sidna Ali ibn Abi Talib died at the year 40 after Hijra.

• Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him) spent 40 days in a fire. "We said: O fire! Be cool and a means of safety for Ibrahim” (Quran 21:69)

• Prophet Sidna Musa (peace be upon him) traveled 40 years in the desert,

• People of Israel wandered 40 years in the desert. “Allah said: ‘Therefore will the land be out of their reach for forty years; in distraction will they wander through the land: but sorrow thou not over these rebellious people.’" (Quran 5:26),

• Prophet Sidna Yunus (Jonah) was in a whales mouth for 40 days. “Then the big Fish did swallow him, and he had done acts worthy of blame. Had it not been that he (repented and) glorified Allah, He would certainly have remained inside the Fish till the Day of Resurrection.” (Quran 37:144)

• Prophets Sidna Dawud (David) and Sidna Suleiman (Solomon) each ruled for forty years

• Forty was the number of days that the Messiah Sidna Isa (Jesus) was tempted in the desert by Satan

• Prophet Sidna Isa walked the desert and fasted in the wilderness for 40 days,

• The Dajjal roams around the Earth in 40 days, 40 days that can be as many as 40 months, 40 years, Allah knows the best

• The Holy Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) said that one who takes to heart and preserves forty hadith relating to their religious needs shall be raised by Allah as a learned scholar on the Day of Resurrection.

There are a number of conditions of khalwa, according to the Khalwatiya Order:

• Entering the place of khalwa the way a mosque is entered, performing ablution before entering it, seeking help from the spirit of the Sufi master. “For each one of them we provide; we provide for those and these from your Lord's bounties. Your Lord's bounties are inexhaustible.” (Quran 17:20) “There is a mosque whose foundation was laid from the first day on piety; it is more worthy of thy standing forth (for prayer) therein. In it are men who love to be purified; and Allah love those who make themselves pure.” (Quran 9:108) “When Moses came to the place ( Mount Tur ) appointed by Us, and his Lord addressed him, he said: "O my Lord! Show (Thyself) to me, that I may look upon Thee." (Quran 7:143)

• The khalwa place should be clean, peaceful, dark, and the retreater should surrender all worldly and exterior religious affairs, as the first step toward surrendering his own existence. “Indeed Allah does not change His favour upon any nation until they change their own condition.” (Quran 13:11) “In houses that Allah allowed to be raised and in which His Name is mentioned. He is exalted therein morning and afternoon by men who are not distracted by business and selling from the remembrance of Allah” (Quran: 31:36-37) “Which none shall touch but those who are clean” (Quran 56:79) “Truly did Allah fulfill the vision for His Messenger: You shall enter the Sacred mosque, if Allah wills, with minds secure, heads, shaved, hair cut short, and without fear. For He knew what ye knew not and He granted besides this a speedy victory.” (Quran 48:27) “We see the turning of thy face to the heavens: now shall We turn thee to a Qibla that shall please you.” (Quran 2:144)

• Assiduity in dhikr must be maintained in order that the Remembered One may, at the final stage, make Himself manifest to the retreater. The heart of the retreater must be perpetually attached to the Holy Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) or his master, who has been appointed by Allah to guide him, so Sufis allege. He is to keep each retreater's company constantly, spiritually as well as physically. “I am looking at you all the time” “Tell the believing men that they shall subdue their eyes” (Quran 24:30) “And those who believe in Allah and His messengers― they are the Sincere (Lovers of Truth) and the witnesses (who testify), in the eyes of their Lord” (Quran 57:19). "There has already been for you a Sign in the two armies that met: one was fighting in the cause of Allah the other resisting Allah; these saw with their own eyes twice their number. But Allah doth support with His aid whom He please In this is a warning for such as have eyes to see." (Quran 3:13) “Take warning then, O ye with eyes (to see).” (Quran 59:2)

• "The retreater should also visualize the meanings of the words of the invocation, if he is capable of understanding them. If not, he should listen to what he is remembering with his tongue, in order to keep his mind from drifting away from his purpose." (Jawahir al-Ma’ani)

• The retreater must keep silent throughout the forty days of his khalwa even if he goes out for some reason. “(Zakariya) said ‘O my Lord! Give me a Sign." "The Sign", was the answer "shall be that you shall speak to no man for three nights, although thou art not dumb.’” (Quran 98:10)

Khalwat Mein Khudi Hai Khudgeer, Walekin
Khalwat Nahin Ab Dair-o-Haram Mein Bhi Muyassar

Retreat is blessed state ʹBout self gives knowledge great:
Alas! this state divine, Isnʹt found in fane or shrine.

~ Iqbal

In his book, Journey to the Lord of Power, Sidi Muhyiddin b. Arabi (d. 636/1221) discusses the stages through which the Sufi passes in his khalwah,

"The Sufi should shut his door against the world for 40 days and occupy himself with remembrance of Allah, that is to keep repeating, "Allah, Allah..." Then, "Almighty God will spread before him the degrees of the kingdom as a test. First, He will discover the secrets of the mineral world. If he occupies himself with dhikr, He (God) will unveil to the secrets of the vegetable world, then the secrets of the animal world, then the infusion of the world of life-force into lives, then the "surface sign" (the light of the Divine Names, according to Abdul-Karim al-Jili), then the degrees of speculative sciences, then the world of formation and adornment and beauty, then the degrees of the qutb. Then he will be given the divine wisdom and the power of symbols and authority over the veil and the unveiling. The degree of the Divine Presence is made clear to him, the Garden and Hell are revealed to him, then the original forms of the son of Adam, the Throne of Mercy. If it is appropriate, he will know his destination. Then he will reveal to him the Pen, the First Intellect, then the Mover of the Pen, the right hand of the Truth. (The "Truth" as defined by al-Jili is that by which everything is created, none other than God most High.)

May Allah the All Knowing One and Source of All Knowledge increase us in useful knowledge and spare us from useless knowledge and empty information. Rabbi zidni ilman, Rabbi zidni hiqmah, Rabbi zidni marefah. O Allah increase our knowledge, our wisdom and our gnosis.

Credit: The Khalwatiya: One Path, Various Branches at Dar-Sirr

The Practice of Solitude in Islamic Tradition

2013-03-28T01:27:00.000+06:00

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

In Islam the Prophetic tradition or Sunnah which can also be called as Tao of Islam, literally meaning Way to Divine Submission, includes abundance of solitude, contemplation and adoration of the Divine. While regular prayer remains as a well established principal in living Islam, the place of solitude and contemplation is often overlooked and hence neglected due to over ritualized way of looking at things when it comes to religious practices devoid of spiritual knowledge and understanding.

Spiritual foundation consists of the practice of solitude, contemplation and adoration. While this is true for every single religious tradition, but often we see from reality that this foundation gets ignored and undernourished. As a result, ritual focused religion erected upon no solid spiritual foundation, with time, crumbles and the entire religion become irrelevant, void of meaning and apparently dead.

Within the Islamic tradition, the practice of solitude goes back to the earliest period of the life of the Prophet, may Divine peace and blessings descend upon his noble soul and upon every occasion of remembering his blessed memory.

When the time drew near before finally the revelation broke to him, as we learn from his life, he started to take to solitude more and more. I quote here from the Martin Ling's biography:

.. he began to experience powerful inward signs, in addition to those of which he had already been conscious. When asked about these he spoke of "true visions" which came to him in his sleep and he said that they were "like the breaking of the light of dawn."

The immediate result of these visions was that solitude became dear to him, and he would go for spiritual retreats to a cave in Mount Hira' not far from the outskirts of Mecca. There was nothing in this that would have struck Quraysh as particularly strange, for retreat had been a traditional practice amongst the descendants of Ishmael, and in each generation there had been one or two who would withdraw to a solitary place from time to time so that they might have a period that was uncontaminated by the world of men. In accordance with this age-old practice, Muhammad would take with him provisions and consecrate a certain number of nights to the worship of God. Then he would return to his family, and sometimes on his return he took more provisions and went again to the mountain. During these few years it often happened that after he had left the town and was approaching his hermitage he would hear clearly the words "Peace be on thee, 0 Messenger of God",' and he would turn and look for the speaker but no one was in sight, and it was as if the words had come from a tree or a stone.

Ramadan was the traditional month of retreat, and it was one night towards the end of Ramadan, in his fortieth year, when he was alone in the cave, that there came to him an Angel in the form of a man..."

~ from Martin Ling's Muhammad, his life based on earliest sources (download as PDF)

Cave Hira, the location where Prophet used to spend many solitary hours and days

The aforementioned glimpse at his blessed life inform us that it was solitude which characteristically marked the special period when his heart became ready to receive the direct revelations. By extension this also indicates that when sadhana (spiritual quest and devotion) matures for a seeker of God, solitude is a natural phenomena where the soul seek shelter in.

Taking the incidents of Prophet's taking refuge in the cave for solitude and contemplation by moving away from a busy city life (Mecca was at that time a major cosmopolitan city and a bustling trade hub of the region) some scholars of Islam also say that this is a forgotten Sunnah to get away from busy city or town life to deepen one's spiritual experience as well as deepen one's relationship with the Lord. With the right intention when one embraces solitude, that is the intention of getting close to one's Lord, to remember none but Him, just as revelation broke upon the heart of the habib-Allah, inward illumination breaks as dawn upon the horizon of the heart of lovers.

Solitude is for "ma fi qalbi ghayrullah" - to aspire towards having nothing within this heart except Allah - it is seeking forgiveness for those negligent moments of occupying the Heart with other than Allah and to cleanse the very heart from everything other than Allah (gharullah). Someone once said, "Prayer is not asking, it is the longing of the soul," practice of solitude is to increase that longing of the soul the Union, to beheld the Countenance, to be lost in the Presence.

I'tikaf: Spiritual Retreat and Solitude Practice for those who are drawn to the Presence

The experience of Divine Revelation of the Qur'an began in the month of Ramadan while in solitude at the cave Hira outside the city of Mecca. As a continuation of this grand experience, the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam established the practice for the common people to observe solitude in the mosque during the last ten days of Ramadan every month. This practice in Islam is known as i'tikaf.

The arabic word means to stay in some place, to confine one's self to a particular space. In the context of Islam it means to stay in a mosque or even in house for a particular time period in the worship of Allah while maintaining certain conditions to give undivided attention in the remembrance and worship. Itikaf remains to be one of the great spiritual opportunities in the blessed month of Ramadan. During the month of Ramadan, for the last ten days, the Prophet exemplified and practiced solitary retreat at the mosque to guide and show a Path that can be practiced by all, not only an elite group of people or ascetics or monks alone. This is the spiritual democratization of the practice of solitude for common people to give them the taste of solitude.

On I'tikaf, or Spiritual Retreat Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah said:

"Since the hearts' rectitude and firmness upon the path towards Allah the Most High, rests upon directing it solely upon Allah and causing it to turn and give all its attention to Allah the Most High. Since the disorder of the heart cannot be rectified except by turning to Allah the Most High, and its disorder will be increased by eating and drinking too much, mixing with the people excessively, speaking profusely and sleeping too much. These will cause it to wander into every valley, and cut it off from its path to Allah, weaken it, divert it or put a halt to it.

From the Mercy of the Mighty and Most Merciful is that He has prescribed for them fasting, which will cut off the excesses of eating and drinking, and empties the hear of its desires which divert it on its journey to Allah the Most High. He prescribed it in due proportion as will be appropriate and will benefit the servant, with regard to this world and the Hereafter, and does not harm him, nor damage what is beneficial for him.

He also prescribed i'tikaf for them, by which is intended that the heart is fully occupied with Allah, the Most High, concentrated upon Him alone, and cut off from preoccupation with the creation. Rather it is engrossed with Him alone, the One free of all defects, such that remembering Him, loving Him and turning to Him takes the place of all anxieties of the heart and its suggestions, such that he is able to overcome them. Thus all his concerns are for Him. His thoughts are all of remembrance of Him, and thinking of how to attain His Pleasure and what will cause nearness to Him. This leads him to feel contented with Allah instead of the people, so that prepares him for being at peace with Him alone on the day of loneliness in the grave, when there is no one else to give comfort, nor anyone to grant solace except Him. So this is the greater goal of I'tikaf" (from Zaad al Ma'aad fi hadyi khairi al 'ibaab)

The practice of voluntary prayers at the dark watches of the night (Tahajjud) are also there so that solitude can be practiced within an established framework. The practice of experiencing solitude and contemplation is known as Qiyam al-Layl or standing at Night to worship the Lord is a well known tradition within Islamic Spirituality. This has root in the Qur'an: ""O you who is wrapped [in garments of God awareness], arise [to pray] the night, except for a little – half of it – or subtract from it a littleor add to it, and recite the Recitation with measured recitation." ~ Quran 73: 1-4

They are all means to strengthen sadhana or seeking of God. The Prophet said, "The closest one can be to Allah The Almighty, is during the last third of the night. If one can remember Allah at this time let him do so." [At-Tirmithi, An-Nasaa'i and Al-Haaqim]

The Prophet sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) also said: “You should pray Qiyaam al-Layl, for it is the habit of the righteous people who came before you, and it will bring you closer to your Lord, expiate for bad deeds, prevent sin, and expel disease from the body.”[At-Tirmithi and Ahmad]

“The best of prayer after those prescribed (i.e. obligatory prayer) is that in the depth of night.” [Muslim]

"Indeed, the righteous will be among gardens and springs,accepting what their Lord has given them. Indeed, they were before that doers of good.They used to sleep but little of the night,and in the hours before dawn they would ask forgiveness." [Quran 51: 15-18]

"Is one who is devoutly obedient during periods of the night, prostrating and standing [in prayer], fearing the Hereafter and hoping for the mercy of his Lord, [like one who does not]? Say, "Are those who know equal to those who do not know?" Only they will remember [who are] people of understanding.''[Quran 39: 9]

The Prophet himself had the habit of getting up regularly at night and used to spend almost the entire night, sometime half of it, sometime one third of it in solitary and long prayer. There are many reports in the traditions on the authority that the Prophet was often found in deep prayer at night.

Even the Intention is rewarded

The Master of Mystics said, may Allah exalt him in the assembly of the illuminated souls in the Divine Court, "Whoever goes to his bed with the intention of getting up and praying during the night, and sleep overcomes him until the morning comes, he will have recorded for him what he had intended, and his sleep will be a charity for him from his Lord." [An-Nasaa'i and Ibn Maajah]

In the Language of the Sufis

Khalwat and Ozlat: The Two Kinds of Solitude

Khalwat and Ozlat both are Arabic words meaning solitude. However the Sufis use these words in different context:

Khalwat (Empty Solitude) is Solitude when there is nothing in the Sufi’s heart and mind except the Beloved Creator.

Ozlat (Detached Solitude) is Solitude when the Sufi detaches himself from the people to protect them from his Self’s evil and does not protect himself against people. He does not embark upon Solitude to avoid people’s hurt and be at peace from them, in Sufism it is the other way around: To save people from his Self.

Neither of these two means to sit in a cave meditating for years. This is not to confuse the spiritual solitude with physical one. (credit)

Imam Qoshair said, “Khalwat (Empty Solitude) is the characteristic of the people of Safwat (Sufis or pure folk) and Ozlat (Detached Solitude) is the characteristic of people of Waslat (Seekers of reunion with Beloved). The beginner Morid (Avid Seeker) has no choice but to practice Ozlat (Detached Solitude) and travel towards the end, which is the Khalwat (Empty Solitude). When a servant of God willfully embarks upon the Ozlat (Detached Solitude) believes that people should be saved and at peace from his Self’s evil however seeks not his own safety from the evil of the people. First, one needs to humiliate the Self (by not defending against the people) and do not prefer himself or consider himself superior (avoiding the harm to people) to belittle his Self to avoid pomp and arrogance, instead be humble”.

Indeed Ozlat (Detached Solitude) is to tear apart from the Self’s shameful characteristics and Ozlat is the transformation of these into praiseworthy characteristics, not to forsake one’s home and daily life in some remote area. Some said Aref (Divine Cognoscenti) is with the people, on the surface of things, and afar within his depth.

I heard Abu Ali saying, “Wear that which people wear and eat that which people eat but within your hidden depth be afar from them”.

Again I head from Abu Ali, “Someone came to me saying I have traveled far to reach you and I told him this matter has nothing to do with the distance and travel, step beyond your Nafs (Self) and you have reached the desired destination (in a single step in a single moment)”. (That which you love and has been lost a woman a child… step out of your Self and you will find them eternal with Beloved)

Abu Yazid has been quoted, “I saw Allah in my dream and asked the Royal Highness how to reach It, The Majesty responded: Forsake your Self and come”.

Abu Othmaan Maqrebi (Moroccan) said, “Khalwat (Empty Solitude) is the state wherein all memories have been emptied except the remembrance of the Lord, all élan is emptied except the Divine Elan. If this is not the case, then the solitude is nothing but suffering and destruction”.

Yahyaa Mo-Oz said, “Make sure within your Khalwat (Empty Solitude) you have Ons (Divine Intimacy and Affability) with It. Since if in your Khalwat (Empty Solitude) you are affable and intimate with your Self, when you come out of this solitude you shall find your Self again (defeating the purpose). But if your affability was with It then within this Khalwat (Empty Solitude) all places become the same—desert, mountains, cities…

A man came to visit Abu Bakr Warraq asking for advice and he said, “I found the goodness of this world and the world after within scantiness of Khalwat (Empty Solitude) and I found the evil of this world and the world after in opulence and socialization”.

It has been said dignity, honor and greatness befalls the one embarking upon Ozlat (Detached Solitude).

It has been said that Khalwat (Empty Solitude) becomes easy if one eats Halal (Provision obtained through lawful means) and Halal eating does not come about unless by obedience and politeness towards the Lord.

Zan-noon said, “I have seen nothing to bring about sincerity and purity of intentions better than Khalwat (Empty Solitude)”.

Abu Abdallah Ramly said, “May your friend be Khalwat (Empty Solitude), your food the hunger and your conversations the soliloquies, either you die or shall reach the Lord”.

Zan-noon said, “There is no embarking upon Khalwat (Empty Solitude) away from the people unless one has been veiled against the people by Allah”. (Beloved is his veil against the people)

Jonaid said, “The hardship of Ozlat (Detached Solitude) is far less than suffering caused by mixing with people”.

Yahyaa Bin Mo-Oz said, “Solitude is the abode of the truthful”.

I heard Abu Ali quoting Shebly, “Warning People! (Impending) Poverty! Poverty!” People asked what is the sign for upcoming poverty? And he responded, “Sign for poverty is intimacy and affability with people”.

Yahyaa Bin Abi Kathir said, “Whomsoever mixes with people must compromise and whomsoever compromises is guilty of Ria (Arabic word for doing good for people’s eyes to admire)”.

Sa’ad came close by Malek Bin Ma’wal’s house and saw him all alone in there and he asked, “Are you not scared all alone?” and Malek replied, “Have never heard anyone scared aloof by their Lord”.

Jonaid said, “Whomsoever wishes his religion to be healthy and at peace, and his heart and body at comfort tell him embark upon Ozlat (Detached Solitude) since these are horrific times and the wise are aloof”.

Bu Ya’Qoob Soosy said, “Solitude is easy for the one with strong Din (religion) but for folk like us it is best to be in the society facing people and conducting affairs”. (Solitude is not for everyone; a person must have strong spiritual standing to embark upon it)

Abul-Abbas DaamQaany said Shebly advised him, “Embark upon Solitude and delete your name from people’s archives, turn your face to a wall and await your death”.

Someone came to Shoaib Bin Harb and he asked, “Why are you here?” the man responded, “To be close with you”. Bin Harb said, “Worship does not mix with Shirk (Associating equals to Almighty) since whomsoever has no Ons (Divine Intimacy and Affability) with the Lord has no Ons with anything else!” (Wow! And hundred times Wow! If you are not in love with Beloved you are not in love anyone else. If you are not close to your Lord you are not affable and close to anyone else)

Someone asked Zan-noon about the soundness of one’s Ozlat (Detached Solitude) and he replied, “True Solitude is Solitude from one’s own Self”.

Ibn Al-Mobarak was asked, “What is the medicine for the heart?” he replied, “Not seeing the people”.

Sufis have said, “Whenever Allah wishes to elevate someone from the humiliation of sins to greatness of acquiescence and worship, makes the Solitude easy for him enriching him with contentment and give him vision to see his own faults. And whomsoever has these attributes he is given the best of this world and the world after”.

~ from Untired with Loving: Qoshairi Manifest, translated by Dara O. Shayda

Within the impenetrable solitude of the unobservable unseen

Within the impenetrable solitude of Ghayb (Unobservable Unseen), Allah as a Shāhid (Observing Witness) willed a Huwiya (Who-ness, That-ness, IT-ness) and thus manifested ITself to ITself: Manifested with the Divine Attribute of Wahdat (Verbal Oneness) and thus the first primordial Ta’ayyun (Ocular Contrast) i.e. contrast between being absent and being present, caused the Huwiya (Who-ness, That-ness) to emerge (i.e. Hu). ~ Geometrization of Tauhid via Untired with Loving

May God, the Lord of Majesty and Generosity bestow upon us the taste of true solitude, help us to be truly alone with the Real Alone, even while within crowd or in a busy super market and may the Glorious One steal away from us that which steal our hearts away from Him. Indeed Allah has power over all.

Hasbi Rabbi JallaAllah

Ma fi qalbi ghayrullah

Nur Muhammad sallallah

La ilaha illaAllah

Enough is my Lord, glory be to Allah.

None in my heart except Allah.

O brilliant light bearing Muhammad, upon you be peace.

There is no deity except Allah.

Desert Spirituality: From Meditations on the Sand by Alessandro Pronzato

2013-03-23T22:27:00.000+06:00

Courage to Surrender

The dialectic of searching and finding has a strange structure in the desert. The search has a surprising ending. I could not in all honesty say whether I have found what I was looking for. All I know is that I have been overtaken. Overtaken by a Voice. Surrounded by a Presence. It is difficult to define what I have found. But I know for certain that I have been seized by Someone.

The immense spaces of the desert give you at first the feeling that you are free to go where you like. But you know intuitively that someone else is going to lead you by the hand.

The desert constitutes a most paradoxical challenge. You are given a vast territory with boundless possibilities of escape. Your courage is on trial. Are you courageous enough to be captured? Are you heroic enough to offer an unconditional surrender?

Prayer, it seems to me, is an extraordinary gift of space. No one has more space at his disposal than the man who prays. But that space does not help him to flee: it makes all flight impossible. And the man of prayer knows that he has been rendered incapable of fleeing. Which, you will agree, is the happiest solution. For we never enjoy greater freedom than when we are seized by God.

Not to have an escape route. This is the quintessence of the risk we take when we pray. And how beautiful it is to fall into the hands of the living God.

~ from Meditations on the Sand by Alessandro Pronzato, Chapter 32 - Courage to Surrender

To Pray is to be Eccentric

These days there is a great deal of talk about the 'rediscovery of one's identity.' But they seem to be talking about an identity which is imposed on the individual by society. It is predetermined and unalterable. You have found your identity if if you 'resemble' the model which has already been decided for you. The search for one's identity then ends in slavery, not freedom. for you do not become what you are called to be, but what society wants you to be.

In the context of the search for identity, prayer is a subversive factor rather than a consolidating element. The individual passes from a concentric mode of living to an eccentric one. Eccentric not in the bizarre sense of the word, but meaning that the individual in question has the centre of his being outside himself. For he allows himself to be acted upon by God's grace.

People who pray are eccentric because they go outside the circles of brainwashing and conformism. They transcend the circles of plans and possibilities and enter the sphere of God's influence. All this, however, can only happen through the painful process of an exodus. It is their desert, fascinating and frightening at the same time, with its dark nights and its Promised Land."

~ from Meditations on the Sand by Alessandro Pronzato, Chapter 30- To Pray is to be Eccentric

Paradoxes of the Hermit

Hermits are said to be men [or women] of renunciation: instead, they are men of great possessions. They forgo many things but receive God in return. They abandon the transient and gain the eternal.

They are known to be men of detachment: yet they are men of the most tenacious attachment. They detach themselves from things and people only to cling all the more fiercely to the absolute.

They are considered deserters, but they are in fact trailblazers for mankind. They are believed to be living in obscurity while their caves are luminous with God's light.

We think they are useless: however, in reality, without them the world would crumble. They are called the men who fast: nevertheless, they are the most convivial of men.

Are hermits austere then? The term austere in its Greek origin means something harsh, rough, gnarled. Austerity implies limitations that are imposed on oneself. In this sense hermits are austere, inexorably rejecting all secondary things and limiting themselves to the absolute essential.

~ from Meditations on the Sand by Alessandro Pronzato, Chapter 28- Paradoxes of the Hermit

Solitude As Participation

Solitude may be a legitimate need; isolation, on the other hand, is a selfish delight. In solitude one is in communion with others; but isolation is a negation of communion. Hermits go to the desert not because they want to get away from men, but because they desire union with God. We may still consider valid the ancient dictum that in solitude there is solidarity.

Men in solitude have discovered that the only way to be truly present to the world is to live in the presence of God.

In that sense monks and hermits are the heart and eyes of the Church. 'It is possible to think that monks who live apart from the world are also apart of the Church. But in fact they are at the centre of the Church' (Paul VI).

The man who lives in solitude does not set himself apart. He is, on the contrary, part and parcel of the world. Evagrius has left us this definition: 'A monk is someone who is separated from everything and united to everybody.'

The same thought is underlined by a nun of our own times. In her book, Ligne de force Bethlehem, Seour Marie says, 'You must put down your roots in silence. And this silence, more than any spoken word, will unite you to your fellow beings.'

Thomas Merton used to warn against the danger of choosing solitude solely for the purpose of being alone. And, speaking of Charles de Foucauld, M. Carrouge said that his solitude was a barrier against the world, not against love.

If human suffering does not evoke compassion in the eyes of a monk, then it is obvious that those eyes do not contemplate God. If the heart of a monk is not large enough to receive the blood and tears of the world, then that heart has no place for God either.

A monk's cell, no matter how small, should be a place for encounter and universal concelebration. The strictest cell is the one most vulnerably open to the sufferings of others. Solitude is genuine only when it is inhabited. And the best way to not have people in your way is to let them into your heart.

~ from Meditations on the Sand by Alessandro Pronzato, Chapter 6 - Solitude As Participation

The Art of Being Uninformed

In Islam there is a tradition whereby people go to the desert to regain their memory. They are known as the 'men of memory.' The mass media leaves you with a short memory, geared to the latest news. It is not unlike your shopping list. In the desert your memory, freed from daily news bulletins and sensational news flashes, returns to the source of primordial events and fundamental values.

The man in the market place may be well informed, but he suffers from amnesia. He may be abreast of current events, but if he tries to recall what happened yesterday his memory breaks down. He may know where he is, but he has no idea of where he comes from and where he is going.

Is the man in the desert then out of touch? Hardly. He has simply chosen to be elsewhere. He is in the right place. He is the man of verity, not novelty. In the market place you may be able to remember the things you have to do. But it is only in the desert that you can recall what what you ought to be. In the market place you are a number, and the computer can count you. In the desert you discover your true name, and God calls you by that name.

~ from Meditations on the Sand by Alessandro Pronzato, Chapter 33 - The Art of Being Uninformed

Credit: Facebook Page of Society of St. Antony of Egypt

Trailing Winds of the Beloved by Naomi Stone

2013-03-20T19:00:00.000+06:00

Beauty blesses our eyes
softens our hearts
to open to the vision rising within us
and the Beloved slips in
expanding the soul
beyond our comprehension

O mesmerizing Presence
breath of our breath
our eager vigil is constant
forever watching for glimpses of thee
as surrendering lovers

O dear one
the Beloved has swept the vision
into divine arms and hands
touching hearts and souls with creative freedom
and one can only behold such results
with humility and bewildering awe
to feel the empowering energy
that penetrates those who are attracted
to the sacred path
and footprints of such a Beloved

When Pure Love
enchants and penetrates the hearts
of mortal men and women
infusing them with the Light
of the divine source
conception occurs
and the magnification of Life itself
begins to stir and divide
and generate cells
to create new offspring
of the divine

Spirit is brimming and running over
the chalice of the heart
and scattering orbs of light
from the sensual dew of lips
kissed by the Beloved

Super strings of Light
dancing in quivering whiteness
a milky way of ecstasy
whirling with spinning stars
and golden nectar
mingling with the essence of roses
and night bird songs
soaring on wings of transparency
like membranes
of embryos
shimmering with the emerging
beginnings of life
creating a new world

Drawn into the fertile valley
of many moons
and suns
a divine plan begins
to unfold
and grant us the right
to be born again
cradled in the arms
and gaze of eternal eyes
flaming with vision

~ Naomi Stone ~

Special Dua / Supplication recommended by Taher Subhan

2013-03-14T00:58:00.001+06:00

Following are few selection of special Du'a / supplications, powerful Signs which also have talismanic qualities, as mentioned from the Book of Guidance - al-Quran by Teacher of the Path, Taher Subhan of Chandanpura, Chittagong, Bangladesh.

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

Bali-Llahu Mawlakum wa Huwal Khairun Naseerin ~ Quran 3:150

Rather, Allah is Your Real Guardian and He is the best Helper

Benefit: One who recites this Sign 3 to 5 times daily, by the Will of Allah - his, her honor is to increase, he, she to receive special grace.

WaAllahu 'alamu bi'ada ayikum, wa kafa bi'Llahi waliyyan, wa kafa bi'Llahi Naseera ~ 4:45

And Allah knows your enemies; and Allah is enough as Guardian, and Allah is enough as Helper.

Benefit: In the morning and in the evening if one recites this Sign (4:45) 11 times after reciting the Durood (benediction to Messenger) - by the Will of Allah, protection shall be granted against harm from both identified and unidentified enemies or those who wish or device wrongdoing.

Wama tashaoona illa anyashaa Allahu Rabbu alAAalameen ~ 81:29

And you do not will except that Allah wills - Lord of the multiverse.

Benefit: After Asr (afternoon) and Maghrib (sunset) if ones perform this amal (recite the Signs) 3 times, then difficult works will be made easy. Either recited solitary or in group, this Sign is, by Will of Allah, a protection against enemies.

kammin fiyatin qalitin ghalabat fiyatan kaseeratam bi izni'Llah ~ 2:249

How many a small group has overcome a large group by permission of Allah. And Allah is with the patient.

Benefit: Before and after reciting Durood, if one recites this Sign, at any time, one shall be saved even miraculously against harm of large and powerful group of enemies.

Fa subhana allazee biyadihi malakootu kulli shay-in wa-ilayhi turja'aoon ~ 36:83

Therefore, Glorious is He in whose hand is the realm of all things, and to Him you shall be returned.

Benefit: With the hope to attract the grace of Allah if one reads this Sign 7 times in the morning, and before and after reads Durood 3 times, Allah shall grant such special grace that one can not even fathom. Only by the Will of Allah.

Wa ilahukum ilahun wahid. La ilaha illa Hu ar-Rahmanir Rahim ~ 2:163

And your god is one God. There is no deity except Him, the Universally Merciful, the Exclusively Compassionate.

Benefit: Reciting 11 times will reinvigorate faith and will also bestow good health. Any supplications made shall be granted also by the person who reads this regularly. Can be performed either specially in the morning and evening as well as at any time.

Am abramoo amran fa-inna mubrimoon ~ 43:79

Or have they plotted some plan? Then surely the Divine Being is the (real) planner.

Benefit: To be preserved and safe from committing mistakes and wrong doings, its recommended to recite this Sign in odd numbers.

Qala innamaa ashkoo baththee wa huznee ila Allahi wa 'alamu mina Allahi ma la ta'alamoon ~ 12:86

He said: "I only complain of my grief and sorrow to Allah, and I know from Allah that which you know not."

Benefit: Before every supplication recite 3 times and by Allah's Will your absent dua will also become presented to the Divine Assembly.

Qul in kuntum tuhibboona Allaha fattabiAAoonee yuhbibkumu Allahu wa yaghfir lakum zunoobakum wa Llahu ghafoorun raheem ~ 3:31

Say (O perfected and praised one): If you love Allah, then follow me, Allah will love you and forgive you your faults, and Allah is Ever Forgiving, the Most Merciful.

Benefit: One who recite this in odd numbers whenever possible and ask in supplication, by Divine Will, the door of realizing Divine Grace shall be opened for the supplicant.

Subhana Rabbika Rabbil 'izzati 'amma yasifoon
Wa salamun 'ala-l mursaleen
Walhamdu lillahirabbi alAAalameen ~ 37:180-182

Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of Honor, above what they describe.
And peace be on the Messengers,
And all perfect praise and thanksgiving is to Allah, the Lord and Cherisher of the worlds.

Benefit: This Sign when recited before finishing the supplication, that supplication is guaranteed to be accepted. InshaAllah, by the Will of Allah.

~ ~ ~

The above Ayats of the Qur'an as supplications are quoted from a booklet by Taher Subhan, titled "Special Du'a and Munajat."

Brief Biography of Taher Subhan

Alhaj Taher Subhan was born 21st March, early 1930s in Chittagong, Bangladesh. . His ancestral lineage from his father's side goes back to Ghawth al-Azam Sheikh MuhiyuddinAbd' al-Qadir Jilaini (radiallahuanhu), and Shah Qutub of Medina (ra.) now resting in Dharmapur, Fatikchari of Chittagong.

He received education in Pakistan, UK, Switzerland on Electrical Engineering, Business Management as well as on Law. He has been a pioneering and successful businessman of then East Pakistan and later Bangladesh.

On 23 July 1976, he placed Bayt with Hazrat Sheikh Mawlana Muhammad Abdul Jabbar (ra.), Shah Qutub of Baitus Sharaf, the khilafay-e-Azam of Hazrat Sheikh Mir Muhammad Akhtor (ra.), who are the descendants of Ghawth al-Azam (RA.) belonging to the Qadiriya Order.

Some of the teaching from his Murshid that he continues to receive guidance from are: "most important feeling is humanism and important faculty is keeping a low profile while spiritual advancement/keramat (taming the egoistic pursuits). You can be socially of high stature but spiritually keep a low profile. It is a favor of Allah. My Murshid always highlighted the verse that says, ‘be thankful for what you got, if you don't, punishment is promised’.

Spiritual matter is not for demonstration and never to publicly expose your spiritual capability. If it leaks out by means of happening, event or anybody else than you, then that's a different thing. Neither you take pride nor preach spiritualism. Most importantly, you should not feel your spiritual advancement, that is a proprietary right of Allah alone."

He is the guardian of many sacred relics (tabarrukkat) including the holy coverings (gilafs) of some early Prophet shrines - Jarzish, Daniel, Yusha, Ayyub, Shish (alaihimus salam), also coverings of ten famous companions who received the good news of Paradise, Ghawth al-Azam, Khwaja Baba along with varieties of holy relics. Until today, he receives relics from various sources in the most unexpected ways which he uses for supplication (wasila) and protect them from misuse.

At present he lives at 9, Chandanpura, East Lane, Chittagong, Bangladesh. May Allah bless him, preserve his health and give him blessed life both in this world and the next.

When Allah desires to befriend a servant of His

2013-03-10T02:38:00.000+06:00

What follows is a Sufi Wisdom Meditation. If you can, please follow carefully the doors that lead one after another, perhaps Allah, the Lord of Majesty and Generosity, may open some of these doors to us; for He is the Ever Generous Giver Who Gives without measure to whomsoever He chooses and His Richness (Huwa al-Ghaniy, Huwa al-Mughniy) is such that freely giving to all of creation diminishes nothing from His Infinite Kingdom.

Abu Sa'id al-Kharraz said: "When Allah desires to befriend (yuwâli) a servant of His, He opens the door of dhikr, that is the door of remembrance and recollection for that servant.

After the latter (the servant) takes pleasure (istaladhdha) in remembrance and recollection, Allah opens the door of proximity (al-qurb) for him.

After that, He raises him to the meetings of intimacy (majâlis al-uns) and after that He makes him sit on a throne of Oneness (kursi min al-tawHîd).

Then He removes the veils (al-Hujub) from him and He makes him enter the abode of Singleness (dâr al-fardâniyya) and unveils Divine Majesty (al-jalâl) and Sublimity (al-'aZama) to him.

When the servant beholds Majesty and Sublimity, he remains without 'he' (baqiya bila hu). He becomes extinguished (fâni), immune (bâri') to the claims and pretensions of his phantom self or ego (da`âwa nafsihi), and protected for the sake of Allah (maHfûZan lillâh), all Glory and Majesty is His."

To summarize the various way-stations of the reality map of Allah's befriending His servant:

* Remembrance of God

* Tasting pleasure in Remembrance

* Opening the Door of Divine Proximity

* Raising to the Assembly of Intimacy

* Station of Throne of Oneness

* Removal of Veils between servant and His Lord

* Entering the Abode of Singleness

* Unveiling of Divine Majesty and Sublimity

* Subsisting without separation and annihilation of the phantom self

* Fana (annihilation) and Baqa (subsisting) takes the soul to the Indescribable Reality of Allah, by Allah, for the sake of Allah.

A Sufi Infographic on the reality map of Allah befriending His servant (click to view large, once image loads in next window, click on the image again to zoom further and scroll horizontally)

In the Beginning and at the End is Allah, He is Alpha, He is Omega, Huwa al-Awwal, Huwa al-Akhir. Free from, and above any associations or comparions, Peerless is Hu.

The Mystical Quran Commentary Ascribed to Jafar al-Sadiq: Spiritual Gems

2013-03-08T12:36:00.002+06:00

BOOK REVIEW

Spiritual Gems: The Mystical Qur'an Commentary Ascribed by the Sufis to Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq

Translated and Annotated by Farhana Mayer

Published by Fons Vitae

Islamic history suffers from no dearth of luminaries, be they mystics, philosophers, theologians, physicians or grammarians. A star among these is Jafar al-Sadiq (born 702, died 765, Medina) who was the fifth generation grandson of the Prophet of Islam.

Jafar al-Sadiq is a meeting point for diverse Muslims. Through his parentage Jafar brought together in his person, the Prophet's familial line and that of the paramount Sunni Companion, Abu Bakr, from whom his mother, Umm Farwah bin Qasim was descended. Within the Shi'a world, he is the last imam common to both the Twelvers, and the Seveners. Among the Sufis he is venerated as a spiritual 'pole' (qutb) and is to be found in the lineage (silsilah) of most Sufi orders (turuq). The Sunnis have a deep reverence for him, holding him next only to his forefather Ali b. Abi Talib for his combination of holiness and knowledge.

By all accounts, Jafar's profoundly God-aware ethics of truthfulness, justice, tolerance, and peaceability, were exemplary indeed. Reports reveal his ontological role towards God and creature: when he faced creation he was a divine ambassador, manifesting God's constant and patient availability, transmitting the divine qualities, guiding to that wise proximity to God that comes through living in a godly manner, in harmony with the divine; when he faced God, he was an intercessor for the creation.

For his community directly, he was their imam, their religious and spiritual guide. Shia jurisprudence received its definitive form at the hands of Jafar al-Sadiq, who was responsible for codification of Shi'l religious law- called the Jafariyya madhhab. The majority of the Shi'a hadiths and traditions are reported on the authority of the Imam Jafar al-Sadiq and his father, Muhammad al-Baqir, Allah's peace be upon them both.

He was a plenary teacher and had among his students more than one early 'father' of the Islamic sciences. For instance, eminent Sunni theologians and foundational traditionalists such as Abu Hanifah, Malik b. Anas and Sufyan al-Thawri studied with al-Sadiq. His study circles are said to have produced some four thousand scholars in hadith studies and other fields of learning. The alchemist Jabir b. Hayyan - one of the first people to be known as Sufi and to whom the esoteric science of jafr is also ascribed - was taught by Jafar al-Sadiq. Imam Sadiq himself was an astronomer, an alchemist, an Islamic scholar and theologian, a writer, a philosopher, a physician, and a physicist.

In the Shi'i doctrine of the imam's knowledge, the imam is the 'speaking Quran (Quran natiq) while the Quran itself is the 'silent imam' (imam samit). That is, the imam is considered the true interpreter of the Book.

A Sufi Collection of Jafar exegetical comments can be found in the compendium of Quranic commentary compiled by Muhammad al-Sulami (d. 1021). The Book Spiritual Gems is actually based on Sulami's Haqaiq al-Tafsir, from the text of Paul Nwyia.

~ From Translator's Note

A BRILLIANT SUFI COMMENTARY OF THE QURAN

The Sufi recension of Jafar al-Sadiq's exegesis of the Quran profounds a spiritual and mystical interpretation - the commentary is fully permeated with the profoundest wisdom. Certain comments are particularly saturated, containing a depth of, and intimacy with, spiritual and mystical experience (dhawq) that is breathtaking; indeed it is transporting. The wisdom is revelatory with the pure scent of authentic ilm laduni.

In the exegesis, we find central tenets of spiritual and mystical doctrines such as the sole reality of God; His absolute and total oneness and uniqueness (ahadiyah, wahidiyah); the vision of God (ru'yat Allah); the assembly of the witnessing (mashad al-mushahadah); effacement and continuity (fana and baqa); the remembrance and invocation of God (dhikr Allah); the divine secret (sirr) embedded in humankind; mankind's absolute neediness unto God (iftiqar); and the love and knowledge of God (mahabbat Allah, marifat Allah).

The source of this translation, the Haqaiq al-tafsir is a compendium of early Sufi Comments on the Qur'an(thought to have been completed by 980) and contains a collection of interpretative comments on Quranic phrases by a number of early Muslim mystics such as Abu Yazid al-Bistami, Sahl al-Tustari and Abu Bakr al-Wasiti among other. It is also the source for the Sufi recension of Jafar al-Sadiq's Quran commentary, which contains 309 comments by the imam, making him one of the most frequently quoted authorities in the compendium.

Unlike later Quran commentaries that systematically address the whole of the book, in the tafsir by Jafar only select Quranic verses, words or phrases are discussed. This selectivity is typical of mystical commentaries universally and reflects the multifaceted nature of heavenly communication.

LEVEL AND METHODS OF INTERPRETATION

In the opening citation of the tafsir, the following is related from Jafar al-Sadiq: 'The Book of God has four things: literal expression (ibarah), allusion (isharah), subtleties (lataif), and the deepest realities (haqaiq).

The literal expression is for the commonality (awamm), the allusion is for the special (khawass), the subtleties are for the friends (of God, awliya), and the deepest realities are for the prophets (anbiya). Allusion, subtlety and reality define the different levels of interpretive comments contained in the tafsir Jafar, and place the reading of this commentary on the spiritual register.

SOME BRIEF GLIMPSE OF THE SPIRITUAL GEMS

hal ata alal insani hinun minal dahri lam yakun shayan madhkuran

has there come upon man any time (in which) he was not a thing remembered?
~ 76:1

Imam Jafar, the gnostic of highest order said, Allah bless his soul and our salutation of peace to him, interpreted this as:

Has there ever come upon you, O Man (ever) an instant in which God did not remember you?

wa saqahum Rabbbuhum sharaban tahuran

and their Lord gives them a purifying drink to drink.
~ 76:21

He, the Glorious Lord, gives them the divine unity to drink in the inmost self, and they are totally lost to all other than Him. They do not regain their senses except at the eye-to-eye seeing and the veil on that which is between them and Him is raised. The drink is taken in what is taken from him (ie from the drinker); and no remnant of him remains in him (ie in what is taken from him). And He draws him forth into the arena of blissful joy and divine Presence, and the divine clasp (of God's embrace).

About His words, a purifying drink: He purifies them, through the drink, of everything other than Him, since he is not pure who is contaminated by anything pertaining to beings.

kunu rabbaniyin

be godly.
~ 3:79

Imam Jafar said: Those who listen with the hearing of the heart and who see with the eyes of the unseen (ie. with spiritual vision).

lan tanlul birra hatta tunfiqu mimma tuhibbuna

you shall not attain (to true) beneficence until you spend of that which you love.
~ 3:92

Imam Jafar said: Through expending his life the slave (of God) arrives at his Beloved's beneficence and his Lord's proximity. Jafar (also) said: They shall not attain unto the Truth until they detach themselves from what is other than Him.

wa man ya'tasim bi'llah fi-qad hudiya ila siratin mustaqim

and whoever holds fast to God has indeed been guided to a harmonious way.
~ 3: 101

Concerning this verse, Jafar said: Whoever knows Him is, through Him, independent of all mankind.

(ya ayyuhanlladhina) amanu ittaqullaha haqqa tuqathihi

(O you who believe) be God-aware with the awareness due to Him
~ 3:102

Imam Jafar said: God-awareness is that you see nothing in your heart other than Him.

(Imam Jafar used the word rad for 'see', which also means to discern; in other words, to discern and understand that there is nothing other than God in one's heart. In the spiritual realm, the 'seeing' is literal but it is subtle, not in the dense physical manner; so one literally see with spiritual eyes that there is only God in one's spiritual heart. This seeing of God in the heart may be in form of the letters of the divine name, in other words, the living inscription of the haqiqah in the spiritual heart, or it might be the divine lights that are seen, or it may be the divine face that is seen - The Infinite God may manifest Himself as He chooses to His creatures.)

bali'llahu mawlakum

rather God is your protecting patron.
~ 3:150

Jafar said: (He is) in charge of all your affairs, from the beginning to the end.

(i)sbiru wa sabiru wa rabitu wattaqullaha la allakum tuflihun

restrain yourselves and persever stoutly and station yourselves; and be aware of God that you may succeed.
~ 3:200

Imam Jafar said: Restrain yourselves from disobedience (to God), persevere in acts of obedience (to Him), and station (your) soul in the witnessing; and be aware of God, that is, avoid being presumptuous with the truth, that you may succeed, that you attain the way station of the people of sincerity, for that is the locus of success.

narullahil muqadah. Allati tattaliu alal afidah

the kindled fire of God. Which rises up, overwhelming hearts.
~ 104:6-7

Concerning the above words: The fires are diverse, varied. Among them is the fire of love and gnosis burning in the hearts of the monotheists; while the fire of hell burn in the hearts of the disbelievers. When the fire of love ignite in the heart of the believer, they burn up every eagerness for (what is) other than God, and every remembrance other than His remembrance.

Translators Note: The blissful obliteration that is the impact of the blazing presence of the divine qualities. The fires of love/care are to be understood as light, in keeping with the comment at 28:29, where it is said of Moses that he saw a fire, when the conquering King comes in, the own is destroyed of its native (read fallen) nature; and as the unveiled vision of God would consume Moses, even so the fires of divine love burn all other than the divine Subject/ Object/ Content Love.

Yaa Siin
~ 36:1

Imam Jafar al-Sadiq said about His words Yaa Siin: They mean, Ya Sayyid; O lord (and are) addressed to His Prophet, may God's peace and blessings be upon him. That is why the Prophet said, "Ana sayyidukum: I am your lord.' In that he was not praising himself, rather he was relating the meaning of the Truth's addressing him with His words Yaa Siin.

la khawfan 'alaykumul yawma wa la antum tahzanum

no fear is on you this day nor do you grieve.
~ 43:68

No fear is upon those obeyed Me (the Divine Lord) in (My) commands and religious obligations and who followed the custom established by the Messenger.

In the hereafter, no fear is upon the one who feared Me in the world. No fear is upon the one who loved Me and eliminated the love of others from his heart. No fear is upon the one who safe guarded what I placed with him, namely faith and spiritual knowledge. No fear is upon the one who brought good of Me - I shall give him that which he hoped for.

Fear (befalls) the limbs while grief (befalls )the heart for fear of being cut off (from God).

wa fihi ma tashtahil anfusu wa taladhdhul ayun

and therein is that which the souls desire and enraptures the eye.
~ 43:71

What a difference between what the souls desire and that which enraptures the eye. For all the blessings, desirable things and delights of paradise are, in comparison with the rapture of the eyes, as a finger dipped in the ocean - because the desirable things of paradise have a limit and an end, for they are created. But in the ever-abiding abode the eye is enraptured only in gazing upon the Ever-Abiding (Himself), Glorious is He! And that has no limit, nor description, nor end.

A BOOK TO HELP YOU ACCESS MYSTERIES

This book is so far one of the best English translation of any Quranic trafsir. As mentioned earlier, this book has every verse interpreted, but only very selected. But what is remarkable is to the light which is shed and the very deep recesses of mysteries which is unveiled here. The book can be picked at any verses and you will be surprised to see inner beauty revealing from diverse gems. At reading some of the explanation your heart may want to stand up and dance.

May Allah help us understand His Beauteous Beauty, His Infinite Mysteries and His never slacking Grace. May we be worthy of receiving what He wishes to Give to Us emptying Him of Himself in every instance. Allah! Allah! Allah!

Patta Bola Vriksh Sey | Sant Kabir's Hindi Bhajan

2013-02-26T10:55:00.002+06:00

Patta bola Vriksh sey:
'Suno Vriksh vana raeh.
ab ka pat jadah na miley,
dur pad de jaaye.'

Vriksh bola Patta sey:
'Suno Patte meri bhai,
yeh hi jagat ki reet hai
Ik aaye ik jaaye.'

Saas saas mey Naam ley,
bache saas na koyeh,
kyaa jaane phir saas ka,
Aawan hoi na hoye!

Aisa baani boliye 
man ka paak hoye
apna tan sheetal kare 
auron ko sukh dey.

Dukh me sumiran sab kare,  
Sukh me kare na koi.

Jo sukh me sumiran kare 
Dukh kaahe ko howay!

A leaf says to a tree:
'Listen O tree of the forest,
when your leaves wither away
you will be done in and forgotten.'

The tree says to the leaf:
'heed my words, dear brother o' mine,
It is forever the way of this world -
one comes while another goes.

In every breath remember the Divine Name,
lest any breath escape wasted,
who knows whether
another breath will arrive or not!

Always say such words, 
that will sanctify your heart,
tranquil your entire being
and emanate peace and joy to others.

Everyone dwells on grief and unhappiness, 
But none meditates on joy and blessedness.

Those who meditate on beatitude,
For them goes away any pain or grief!'

~ Patta Bola Vriksh Say (Thus Spoke a Leaf to a Tree), original Vani by Sant Kabir,

translated from Hindi to English by Uma Subbaranam and Sadiq M. Alam ~

painting credit

'Patta Bola Vriksh Se' is a Hindi Bhajan or Devotional song by medieval mystic poet Kabir. Kabir, may Allah be pleased with him, was a mystical poet and an ecstatic God realized being, who according to tradition was a weaver in profession and lived a very simple life, yet his words and poetry were full of divine beauty, awe and grace - so much so that his words are part of sacred scripture of Shikh religion as well as Sufi songs. Kabir is a living testimony of the truth that in order to receive God's grace and to be carrier in the hearts of humanity for generations after generations, one doesn't need material wealth or temporal fame but needs immense faith and devotion to God through which God ennoble His faithful servants and adorn them with clothes of immortality in the hearts of humanity, for Immortality or Ever Livingness (al-Hayy) is a quality of God alone.

The song is featured in the album titled Unforgettable Sufis by soulful artist Ustad Shujaat Husain Khan. Some of the tracks from this album is available on Youtube. You may listen to them here.

I'm grateful to Uma Subbaraman for helping with the transliteration from original Hindi and translation to English. God bless for her contribution.

Be Aware of All Excess: Sufi Wisdom

2013-02-25T19:19:00.000+06:00

Sufi Master al-Muhasibi wrote: I’ve found that every affliction which comes over the heart is due to excess. This is fundamentally due to approaching this lowly life in a state of ignorance and forgetting about your true place of return after having known it. Savior from this is through leaving off everything unknown by piety and taking nothing except through certainty.

... I’ve found that the basis’ for excess that move the heart appear to manifest themselves through the listening, sight, speech, food, clothes, and housing.

- Excess in listening leading to heedlessness and forgetfulness

- Excess in sight leading to recklessness and confusion

- Excess in speech leading to unneeded articulacy and unnecessary addition (bi'da)

- Excess in food leading to gluttony and overindulgence

- Excess in clothes leading to pride and pompousness

- Excess in housing leading to wastefulness and conceit

So remember that preserving your limbs is an obligation and leaving off excess is a virtue.

~ Al-Muhasibi, Al-Harith ibn Asad. Risalat al-Mustarshidin. Maktab al-Matbu’at al-Islamiyyah, Beirut. Pp.164-170

al-Muhasibi (781–857) was the founder of the Baghdad School of Islamic philosophy, and a teacher of the Sufi masters Junayd al-Baghdadi and Sari al-Saqti. His full name is Abu Abdullah Harith bin Asad al-Basri. He was born in Basra in 781. Muhasibi means self-inspection/audit. It was his characteristic property. He was a founder of Sufi doctrine, and influenced many subsequent theologians, such as al-Ghazali.

* Abu Abdallah al-Harith al-Muhasibi

Academic Papers on Sufism via Academia.Edu

2013-02-23T22:01:00.004+06:00

Academia.edu is a platform for academics to share research papers. The company's mission is to accelerate the world's research. Academics use Academia.edu to share their research, monitor deep analytics around the impact of their research, and track the research of academics they follow.

A recent search on the site on Sufism revealed a good amount of academic papers which can be read free and even without signup.

+ Click here to view Search Results of Tariqa Sufism on Academia

+ Click here to view Search Results of Sufism

Here are a collection of notable papers:

// The origins and development of Sufi orders (tarekat) in Southeast Asia by Martin van Bruinessen
// Translation of "Principles" by Shah Ni'matullah Wali
// 'Muslim labtse': contemporary forms of Hui Sufism in Tibetan surroundings by Martin Slobodnik
// Sufism: Reconsodering Terms, Definitions and Processes in the Formative Period of Islamic Mysticism by Sara Sviri
// KUN THE EXISTENCE BESTOWING WORD IN ISLAMIC MYSTICISM: A SURVEY OF TEXTS ON THE CREATIVE POWER OF LANGUAGE by Sara Sviri
// THE EARLY MYSTICAL SCHOOLS OF BAGHDAD AND NISHAPUR: IN SEARCH OF IBN MUNAZIL' by Sara Sviri
// Dreaming Analyzed and Recorded: Dreams in the World of Medieval Islam by Sara Sviri
// Combatting the soul in al-Muhasibi and Isaac of Nineveh by John D'Alton
// The Conceptual Development of Deviance among Islamic Mystics: The Malāmatiyya by John D. Martin III
// The Tariqa Khalwatiyya in South Celebes by Martin van Bruinessen