The Wheat Field Lesson

There was a farmer who grew excellent quality wheat and every season he won the award for the best grown in his county. One year a reporter from the local newspaper interviewed the farmer and learned that each Spring the man shared his seed with his neighbors so that they too could plant it in their fields…
“How can you afford to share your best wheat seed with your neighbors when they are entering their crops in the competition with yours?” the reporter asked….
“Why that’s very simple,” the farmer explained… “The wind picks up pollen from the developing wheat and carries it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior wheat, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of all the wheat, including mine. If I am to grow good wheat, I must help my neighbors grow good wheat”…
The reporter realized how the farmer’s explanation also applied to peoples’ lives in the most fundamental way… Those who want to live meaningfully and well must help enrich the lives of others, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all…

Ya Haqq!

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Patience

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

“Patience is the most difficult of things on the soul, and the most detested and bitterest (of them) for human nature (ṭab‘) … In it there is pain, silence in lowliness, and forbearance. From it there emerges humility and restraint of the tongue (hilm wa katm). In it there is propriety (adab) and beautiful character. Through it one restrains oneself from harming others while at the same time enduring their harm, and these are all from among the most magnificent forms of human conduct. Know that the most excellent of deeds is that which is most detested by the lower soul (nafs).”

–– Abu Talib al-Makki, Nourishment of Hearts.

Ya Haqq!

Give Master of the Jinn for the Holidays :)

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

Christmas and Kwanza will soon be here, so give the gift of great literature to your family, friends and loved ones – Master of the Jinn: A Sufi Novel

In the Name of the Merciful, 10% of all royalties go to charity!

Master of the Jinn has also been translated into eight languages: Indonesia (Sang Raja Jin), Turkey (Cinlerin Efendisi), Russia (Povelitel dzhinnov), Germany (Meister der Jinn), Croatia (Gospodar demona), Spanish (El Maestro de los Jinn), Malayalam, the language of the Kerala state of India (Jinnukalude Nadhan), and Urdu (Aaqa-e-jinnat – آقائے جنات )

To Order the various editions, click the links below:

English – Master of the Jinn: A Sufi Novel

India in English – Master of the Jinn: A Sufi Novel

India in English Ebook – Master of the Jinn: A Sufi Novel

India, in Malayalam – Jinnukalude Nadham – Paperback

Spanish –  El Maestro de los Jinn – Paperbook

Spanish – El Maestro de los Jinn – Ebook

Indonesian – Sang Raja Jin -Ebook

German – Meister der Jinn  – Paperback

German –  Meister der Jinn – Ebook

Croatian – Gospodar demona – Paperback

Croatian – Gospodar demona – Ebook

Russian – Повелитель джиннов  (Povelitel dzhinnov) – Paperback

Russian – Повелитель джиннов (Povelitel dzhinnov) – Ebook

Turkish – Cinlerin Efendisi – Ebook

Urdu –       Urdu (Aaqa-e-jinnat – آقائے جنات ) – Ebook

Master of the Jinn EBOOKS

Master of the Jinn is also available as an Ebook in the English language from Two Sources:

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2. The Google EBookstore. Master of the Jinn is being sold by Google Ebooks in all eight language editions for only $3.82. Click HERE to order.

Ya Haqq!

“For His Sake Alone…”

I kept the company
of a brother in Deen in the wilderness,
until we broke off from people
and started living in a cave,
hoping that Allah
would open for us the spiritual blessings
which He opens for His friends (awliya’).

We stayed there in the cave
saying to each other
that perhaps this Friday
Allah will make us among His special friends,
or perhaps this month.
But, Allah did not open
any spiritual doors for us.

We were in this state
when an old man showed up
at the door of the cave,
asking us permission to enter.
We granted him permission
and he entered
giving his greeting of salam.

We asked him, ‘Who are you?’
And he replied,
‘I am a slave of the King.’
And with this we knew that he was among
the special close friends of Allah
and we asked him, ‘How is your state?’
And he instead asked us repeatedly, as if blaming us,
‘How is your state?’

And then he said,
‘How is the state of him who says to himself
that perhaps this Friday
I will become a special friend of Allah
or perhaps this month?

There will be no special divine friendship
for such a person, nor any prosperity,
nor good things in this world,
and nor good things in the next world.
Will you two not just worship Allah
in sincerity for His sake
as He has ordered you?
He has said:
‘I have not created the jinn nor man
except to worship Me.
[{al-Qur’an 51:56}].’

He then left us
and we recognized our mistake
and realized that Allah
sent him to us as mercy.
I then returned to my self in blame
and said to it,
‘O my self, who are you,
what is your great action,
and what is your worth?
You amount to nothing.
Then, we made repentance
and asked for forgiveness
from Allah Most High.

Afterwards,
Allah opened for us the door

which we were seeking,
due to His generosity and bounty.

– Abul Hasan al-Shadhili

Ya Haqq!

Prostitutes and Wine

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

Sultan Murad IV, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1623-1640, would often anonymously go into the midst of the people and see their state. One evening, he felt an uneasiness in himself and the urge to go out. He called for his head of security and out they went. They came to a busy vicinity, and found a man lying on the ground. The Sultan prodded him but he was dead and the people were going about their own business. Nobody seemed to care about the dead man lying on the ground.

The Sultan called upon the people. They didn’t recognize him and asked him what he wanted. He said, “Why is this man lying dead on the ground and why does no one seem to care? Where is his family? ”

They replied, “He is so and so, the drunkard and fornicator!”

The Sultan said, “Is he not from the Ummah of Muhammad (Sallallahu Ta’ala Alayhi Wa’Aalihi Wasallam)? Now help me carry him to his house” The people carried the dead man with the Sultan to his house and once they reached, they all left. The Sultan and his assistant remained.

When the man’s wife saw his dead body, she began weeping. She said to his dead body, “Allah have mercy on you! O friend of Allah! I bear witness that you are from the pious ones.
“The Sultan was bewildered. He said, “How is he from the pious ones when the people say such and such things about him. So much so that no one even cared he was dead?”

She replied, “I was expecting that. My husband would go to the tavern every night and buy as much wine as he could. He would then bring it home and pour it all down the drain. He would then say, “I saved the Muslims a little today.”
He would then go to a prostitute, give her some money and tell her to close her door till the morning. He would then return home for a second time and say, “Today I saved a young woman and the youth of the believers from vice.”

The people would see him buy wine and they would see him go to the prostitutes and they would consequently talk about him. One day I said to him, “When you die, there will be no one to bathe you, there will be no one to pray over you and there will be no one to bury you!”He laughed and replied, “Don’t fear, the Sultan of the believers, along with the pious ones shall pray over my body.”

The Sultan began crying. He said, “By Allah! He has said the truth, for I am Sultan Murad. Tomorrow we shall bathe him, pray over him and bury him.” And it so happened that the Sultan, the scholars, the pious people and the masses prayed over him.

We judge people by what we see and what we hear from others.
If only we were able to see what was concealed in their hearts,
a secret between themselves and their Lord.

– from Forty Rules of Love: A Novel of Rumi by Elif Shafak

Ya Haqq!

In Memory of Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

October 10^th is the ten year anniversary of the death of Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh, for over 50 years the Master of the Nimatullahi Sufi  Order, and for 17 years, my Master (may God bless his soul and raise him to the highest rank of His beloveds). To commemorate the occasion, his own poem is a fitting tribute to his life and station:

My heart holds Your home,

my head desiring You;

Night and day have all passed,

while I am pledged to You.

I have suffered at the hand

of the people of the time;

In the world I’ve only seen

fidelity from You.

I’ve been drunk with Your wine

Since pre-eternity;

I surrendered to Your will

till post-eternity.

I’ve no hope for heaven

or for the Resurrection;

I have never wanted

anyone but You.

Once I realized that in reality

the Path cannot be traveled

Except on Your feet,

I lost both my head and feet.

With every breath I take

I am conscious of You;

I gave up heart and soul

for contentment from You.

If, like Nurbakhsh, you have pledged

yourself wholeheartedly to God;

The creation then will be ready

to pledge itself to you.

– from the Divan of Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh

Ya Haqq!

This Place is a Dream