Thanks Giving 2009

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

Thanksgiving is almost here in the US, and with Eid al-Adha the next day it will soon be a time of giving thanks, of gratitude to the Creator. Before every meal, Sufis say “Bismillah!” This is their way of saying Grace, of being grateful. Yet every human being who follows a spiritual path has their own way of being gracious, whose origin is Grace; the giving of thanks to God.

Thanksgiving is sweeter than bounty itself.

One who cherishes gratitude does not cling to the gift!

Thanksgiving is the true meat of God’s bounty;

The bounty is its shell,

For thanksgiving carries you to the hearth of the Beloved.

Abundance alone brings heedlessness,

Thanksgiving gives birth to alertness.

The bounty of thanksgiving will satisfy and elevate you,

And you will bestow a hundred bounties in return.

Eat your fill of God’s delicacies,

And you will be freed from hunger and begging.

– Rumi

“With mealtime prayer we offer thanksgiving to the Source of all sustenance. Prayer is a means by which the reins of hunger and the senses are taken by the spirit and intellect. The offering of a mealtime blessing elevates eating from a mechanical activity to conscious participation in the chain of being. It is an acknowledgment of the fact that in eating any organism, we are sharing in the sacrifice it has made to sustain us.”

Gratitude is an eagle, blessings a fine plump partridge
only gratitude wins the reward of blessing.
Give thanks to Him alone who buys
your words in the bazaar of Paradise.

– Nasir-i Khusraw

Excerpt from Serving the Guest – A Sufi Cookbook

Ya Haqq!

 

 

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Being Thought Full of God

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

Thoughts that do not include God are thought less, for all thought arises in response to His world in His universe and in this life He has given you. Saying Bismillah (in the name of God), before eating or performing a task great or small; saying Inshallah (God willing), that His will be done in the future and not your own; saying Alhamdulillah (All praise is God’s alone), that one recognizes that all power and strength and goodness come from Him; all these bring God into our consciousness, into our thoughts and actions. And if these thoughts and actions are done for God’s sake and not our own, it makes of them a true blessing.

This is also the essence of adab, of courtesy and character and true modesty, that it is done for God’s sake, and not out of cultural habit or shame.

Verily, to surrender to God in thought and deed is the beauty and truth of Islam, and the goal of the Sufi path.

Therefore remember Me, I will remember you, and be thankful to Me, and do not be ungrateful to Me. (2:152)

Those are they on whom are blessings and mercy from their Lord, and those are the followers of the right course. (2:157)

 

Ya Haqq!

You

You are my first thought
In morning light

You are my last thought
In the dark of night

With every action
“Bismillah!”

With every goodness
“Alhamdulillah!”

You are the laughter
On my child’s face

You are the moon and stars
Of the upward glance

You are the pain and cure
Of every ailment

No joy but You
No hope but You

And in the end
“La illaha illAllah!”
No I but You.

– Irving Karchmar, © April 2007