Alhamdulillah!

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

Whether harshness comes from God’s Grandeur
or fidelity comes from God’s Beauty,
both of them are “pure goodness” to the soul;
be pleased with His benevolence, be pleased with His severity.

                                      – Yunus Emre

This lovely Turkish couplet is similar to a line of Rumi: “I am a lover of His Benevolence and Severity.”  Many Sufis believe that this is the true meaning of Alhamdulillah! That Allah is to be praised for His goodness toward us as well as His harshness, which is the rough cloth that polishes the mirror of our heart with our tears. On the path of Love, it is the tears of the heart that water the rose of wisdom.

Ya Haqq!

PS  Writeous Sister’s blog has posted the Mawlid Carnival in honor of the Prophet and Messenger of Islam (salalahi alahi wa salaam),  Pay a visit HERE.

Know Thyself and Know Thy Lord

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

The Delphic oracle proclaimed: “Know thyself, and thou shalt know the Cosmos.”

Christianity tells us that: “the Kingdom of Heaven in within you.”

Saint Clement says: “He who knows himself knows God.”

Buddhism says: “Look within. Thou art Buddha.”

In Siddha Yoga: “God dwells within you as you.”

And in Islam: “He who knows himself knows his Lord.”

Alhamdulillah!  All praise is God’s alone, who reveals himself every moment to our eyes, on the horizons and in ourselves.

Ya Haqq!

From the excellent and spiritual Kozi Wolf blog. 

Undaunted

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

“Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”

– The Talmud

Ya Haqq!

With gratitude to the very spiritual Isaiah Knows Nothing blog.

Books of Note

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

Here are notable spiritual books you may find interesting:

Tales of Nasrudin, translated by Ali Jamnia, an old friend and fellow darvish. The outwardly humorous tales also are followed by excellent spiritual explanations, or keys, for each of the selected stories, compiled by commentators Charles Upton, Charles Daniels and Jamnia. A must read for Nasrudin lovers. Available on Amazon.com by clicking HERE.

God Touches: Finding Faith in the Cracks and Spaces of My Life, is an extraordinary account of the spiritual journey of author Dan Gilliam. It is a trip worth taking. The author’s website is HERE. And you can buy the book on Amazon.com HERE.

And also:

Master of the Jinn Ebook: The Sufi novel and mystical adventure is still available as an EBOOK in pdf format for only $5.00. Details can be read by clicking the Sufi Novel and Ebook tab above and scrolling down a bit. You can also read excerpts there. The paperback book is available on Amazon.com for $13.99 by clicking HERE.

Ya Haqq!

Speaking to the Heart

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

“My dear heart, never think you are better than others,

Listen to their sorrows with compassion.

If you want peace, don’t harbor bad thoughts

Do not gossip and don’t teach what you do not know.”

– Rumi

 

Used with gratitude from the insightful On the Path of Truth blog.

Ya Haqq!

The Energies of Love and Fire

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

“The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides, and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, we shall have discovered fire.”  —Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Ya Haqq!

With gratitude to the most enlightening blog, The Wild Things of God.

All is You

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

Narrated by Abu Huraira (RA): I heard Allah’s Messenger (salalahi alahi wa salaam) saying: The first of the people whose case will be decided on the Day of Judgment will be a man who died as a  martyr. He will be brought forth. Allah will make him know about His blessings (which He had bestowed on him in the world). The man will acknowledge them. Then Allah will ask him: What did you do with them? He will say: I fought in Your way until I died as a martyr. Allah will remark: You are lying. You fought so that you may be called a brave warrior. Then orders will be passed against him. So he will be dragged along on his face and cast into Hell.

Second will be a man who studied (religious) knowledge. Then he taught it to others and recited the Qur’an. He will be brought (for Judgment). Allah will remind him on His favors (showered on him in the world). He will admit them (having enjoyed them in his life). Then Allah will ask him: What did you do with them? He will reply: I acquired knowledge and imparted it and also recited the Qur’an for Your sake. Allah will observe: You have told a lie, for you got knowledge to be renowned as a scholar; and you recited the Qur’an to be marked as a Qari (one who recites the Qur’an according to the rules). Then orders will be passed against him. So he will be dragged along on his face and thrown into Hell.

Third will be a man whom Allah had made abundantly rich and granted him every kind of wealth. He will be brought for Judgment. Allah will let him know about His gifts conferred upon him in the world. He will recognize them. Then Allah will inquire: What did you with them? He will say: I left no way in which you like money to be spent without spending in it for your sake. Allah will say: You are lying. You did so to be described as generous (in the society); (It means you got your reward in the world according to your intention. Now you deserve nothing in the Hereafter except Hell). So orders will be passed against him and he will be dragged along on his face until he will be hurled into Hell.

Reported by Muslim and Nasa’i. From 110 Ahadith Qudsi by Darussalam Publications.

With thanks to the excellent Writeous Sister Speaks blog for first posting it.

It is indeed the sincerity of intention that Allah takes into consideration. On the Sufi path, sincerity is spiritual humility, and true humility is divesting your self of any worldly intention. We are tiny specks on a mote of dust floating in an endless universe, and we are here to serve its Creator.

In the introduction to the Kashf al Mahjub, the Unveiling of the Veiled, Hujwiri writes: “I have asked God’s blessing, and have cleared my heart of motives related to self…Now I pray God to aid and prosper me in its completion, and I divest myself of my own strength and ability in word and deed. It is God that gives success.”

Alhamdulillah! Surely no blessings come from any deed in which selfish motives played a part. 

Allah, Allah, Allah!  By Your will was I born, for Your sake I live, by Your will I die. You are my birth, my life, my death. All is You! 

Ya Haqq!

The Upward Glance and the Lowest Bow

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

Try this. Look up at the star filled night sky and say “Allah!”

Don’t ask for anything. It is not a prayer in the usual sense. It is simply invoking the name of God with reverence, out of the quiet blessing of being allowed this miracle of life. So what happens? To me, a calmness comes over my mind and body, as if peaceful endorphins are suffusing my being. And it is not only the uttering of the Name that does it. If you look at a ground when saying it, the effect is not the same.

It is the upward glance, the raising of our eyes to the starry heavens that gives one a sense of the vastness and eternity that is God. This upward glance is perhaps a selfish one, a wanting to know God is watching over you, and that you can call to him as the Friend, though He does not answer in voice.  Yet, it never fails to fill me with hope, and is part of what I had in mind when writing the Intention post.

Now consider the prostration of prayer. How low do you bow your forehead to the ground?

You may think that everyone bows equally low, as all foreheads touch the ground. But do you bow as low as the Prophet (pbuh)? Or Moses, or Jesus (the peace and blessings of God be upon them)

Lately I have been considering the Prophetic Bow.  What causes them to be worthy of God speaking to them and allowing them to actually see Him?  And all I can see as the difference between them and you and me is the quality of their intention through their character. Mercy, kindness, compassion, honesty, generosity, fairness, and love, and the greatest of these is love, which encompasses all the other qualities. Out of love, we are merciful, kind, compassionate, honest, generous, and fair. The more one has these noble traits of character, the closer one is to God-awareness. Perhaps that is the difference in our prostration and theirs. The more we are ruled by our self-absorbed nafs, the harder it is to prostrate completely in submission.

There is a story of the great Hasidic Rabbi, Yisroel ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov. Somebody asked him, “Why does nobody seem to see God anymore?” To which he replied, “Because there is nobody left who can bow that low…”

Allah knows the Truth.

Ya Haqq!

Little Girls, Like Butterflies

Brightly colored wings

Of silk and ribbons

Floating softly

Secret giggles like

A song of life

Touching the heart

Little girls, like butterflies

Need no excuse

– Irving Karchmar, © 1977 (for Rebecca)

Alhamdulillah! Today I became a grandfather. My lovely step-daughter gave birth this morning to a beautiful baby girl. This is my wife’s first grandchild also, and she is overjoyed. The parents haven’t picked a name yet, but I offer the above poem out of love, originally written at my own daughter’s birth.

Ya Haqq!

The Oneness of God – Tawheed

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

He is One but not as number, and He is Manifest but not by way of associating; He is Evident but not by way of being visible. He is intrinsic but not by separation, and He is apart but not by distance. And He is near but not by proximity.

– Imam Al-Ridha, attributed in Al-Amali, ch. 13, #4

Alhamdulillah!  Indeed, Allah is beyond all classification, and He is beyond the fives senses and the six directions. Infinity and eternity are in His hands, and He is beyond them also. He is all Being and all Non-Being, and His signs are on the horizons and in ourselves. And He is Love.

Ya Haqq!

Gratefully taken from the most excellent Al Musawwir blog.