Interview

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

The Pakistani Spectator, a very interesting site that covers news, entertainment, politics, and all things Pakistan, has been conducting interviews with various bloggers around the world

And so it has just posted an interview with me about the Darvish blog. Please check it out by clicking HERE.

Ya Haqq!

The Servant’s Call

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

The Prophet (pbuh) said: “By Him in Whose hand is my life, the servant will supplicate God Most High while God is angry with him, and God will turn away from him. Again he will supplicate, and God will turn away, and again he will supplicate, and God will turn away. Then again he will supplicate, and God Most High will say to the angels, ‘My servant refuses to call upon anything other than Me so I have answered him.”

– A hadith from a longer and extremely beautiful post at the Almiskeenah blog.

Ya Haqq!

Touching Faith

you have your doubt
because doubt
is the bars of a cage
you believe in.
you see only
a blurred world of illusion.
still gently as the breath prays
the soul dreams its way
out of every prison people create,
including the fear
that leads to lack of belief.
Lover, it’s your heart we seek
inside our own. you have felt
the breath of Him on your skin
until you named it wind.
how can we know
we dress things in our own
sense of limitation?

if i placed a star in the palm of your hand,
you would feel the way
the earth feels when it becomes
a mother to a forest of seeds.
behold the star now.
if you believe it
is what you view from earth,
balance it in the palm of your hand.
if you can’t, you have touched Truth,
allowing your heart the faith
of the entire universe.

– This beautiful spiritual poem is from Sister Annie’s Kneeling Before the Rose poetry blog, and posted with her permission and my gratitude.

Ya Haqq!

God’s Forgiveness

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

O son of Adam, so long as you call upon Me and ask of Me, I shall forgive you for what you have done, and I shall not mind.  O son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky and were you then to ask forgiveness of Me, I would forgive you.  O son of Adam, were you to come to Me with sins nearly as great as the earth and were you then to face Me, ascribing no partner to Me, I would bring you forgiveness nearly as great as it.

– Hadith Qudsi, reported in the collections of Tirmidhi and Ahmad.

Ya Haqq!

Poetry Contest at the Islamic Writers Alliance

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

April is National Poetry Month is the United States, and the Islamic Writers Alliance is holding its 4th annual poetry contest. The deadline is May 15th, so please click HERE for more details. The theme this year is Iman (faith), and there are categories for all ages.

In your light I learn how to love.
In your beauty, how to make poems.
You dance inside my chest,
where no one sees you,
but sometimes I do,
and that sight becomes this art.

– Rumi

Ya Haqq!

Supplication of the Prophet (pbuh)

”O Lord I supplicate Thee for

firmness in faith, and inclination

towards the straight path, and for

Your aid in being grateful to You

and in adoring You in every good

way; and I supplicate you for an

innocent heart which shall not

incline to wickedness and for a true

tongue. I supplicate You to guide

me to all You know to be

virtuous and to preserve me from

all which You know to be vicious,

I supplicate You to forgive me my

faults for You know them all”

Ameen.

A supplication attributed to Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), taken from the excellent Siraat-e-Mustaqeem blog.

Ya Haqq!

Master of the Jinn Book Review

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

Our dear Sister Annie has written a very good and generous book review of Master of the Jinn: A Sufi Novel on her excellent Divine Remembrance blog. Please check it out HERE :)

Ya Haqq!

Waiting for God II

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

In a previous post, I wrote that to a darvish, Waiting for God is cultivating patience, that is, waiting for God’s sake. As the Prophet (pbuh) said: “…Nobody can be given a blessing better and greater than patience.”

However, there is also another kind of waiting for God: The Sufi way of waiting for divine knowledge, for union with the Beloved. This is the most demanding and difficult of all trials of patience.

Sufi Masters of the past used to sit in the Haram, as did Dhu’l Nun the Egyptian, or in a mosque, like Imam al-Ghazali, or in the desert, like Abu Said Abi’l Khayr, to wait for the answers to be given.

Alhamdulillah! It doesn’t happen because we are worthy of it; no one is worthy of it. It doesn’t happen because we deserve it, or want it, or hope for it, or pray for it, or fast, or give up everything for it. It only happens as God wills.

“Nor shall they compass any of Hu’s knowledge except as Hu might will.” – Qur’an 2:255

Our brother Dara writes: “When I was in Makkah, each night I would see an African man who would circle the Ka’ba until dawn, asking Allah TO BE GIVEN. I was there for one year, and he circled the Ka’ba each night till dawn. He would carry the Qur’an and read slowly. The purpose of practices like Sufi Silence is to learn to wait, like a slave, to be given ‘ilm (knowledge).”

Although Union with the Beloved is never given as a reward for one’s efforts, Strive, O heart, as much as you are able. – Hafez

This is our task then, as human beings of faith: To strive and not to yield.

May Allah bless us with patience and guide us on the straight path of Love. Ameen!

Ya Haqq!

Submission Before the Will of Allah

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

“If you are destined for good fortune you will be blessed; if afflictions have been ordained, no matter where you hide they will seek you out.  Submit therefore before the will of Allah; be grateful in well-being and endure adversity with fortitude, that His light may radiate within your being.”

-Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani (R.A)

Ya Haqq!

“Fitna the Movie” and the Sufi Way

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

A brother in Indonesia wrote me and asked about far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilder’s movie, Fitna. Specifically, he asked what the Sufi way of dealing with it would be.

I have read a couple of articles about the 15 minute film that call it amateurish and boring, but I have not seen it and will not look at it. It is a purposeful attempt to provoke a violent reaction by a political extremist who uses fear of immigrants and Muslims as a power base.

The best answer is to boycott watching the movie, and pray that Allah enlightens the heart of the filmmaker and his followers.

It reminds me of this story in a recent post about Isa ibn Mariyam, Jesus the son of Mary:

Isa ibn Mariyam (AS),
passed by a group of men who shouted evil things at him.
In return Isa (AS) spoke to them with kindness.
His companions asked:
“Why did you reply to these men with kindness when they spoke evil to you?”
Isa (AS) replied: “Everyone spends from the coin he has.”

To answer hate with love is the Sufi way.

Ya Haqq!