Sufi snakes & ladders...

Dear Friends

One of the most enduring Sufi analogies / metaphors is the cosmic game of snakes and ladders...Thus the salik is expected to pick him or herself after each set back and march resolutely towards his Beloved Lord...

The knocks and ‘’snake bites’’ are actually lessons and top quality manure for the soul...Leading to the flowering of exquisite souls...Consequently the mercy of God is and will always remain superior to his wrath! Inshallah...

‘’Say: O My servants who have transgressed against their own souls, despair not of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Truly, He is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Surah az-Zumar 39:53)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK1yGn9bt34

So my friends be brave and roll that dice...

...even if you make it to the top of Sufi K2 keep climbing...

Ciao

Faisal

Ps ..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XKCNWNAk5E

Divine Peek-a-boo...

Dear Friends

One of my favourite games with my daughter is peek-a-boo which she finds really entertaining. Zahra loves it when my face pops up from behind the cushion and she begins giggling!

This innocent game reminds me of my relationship with God.  He sure knows how to enthral and take my breath away. It’s such a shame he is not around long enough so I can engage in some serious philosophical dialogue. ..

What would I discuss with God? Probably why ...He assures me in the Koran that:

In time We shall make them fully understand. Our signs in the utmost horizons and within themselves, so that it will become clear unto them that this is indeed the truth...(Surah 41:Verse 53)

I am waiting...but am I ready?

Faisal

The Tragedy...

Dear Friends

The tragedy of human existence is lack of freedom...Sometimes I feel that:

The rich are imprisoned by their desires

The poor are trapped by their stomachs

The educated are caged by their dreams

And the folk of God are captive to their separation...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZeijSN6Z4w

Ciao

Faisal

Fun Teacher!

Dear Friends

I have been blessed with many great teachers to date. Currently my baby daughter is also one of them! Such fun lectures! All play! No stress! No home work! Laughter and music! Above all just being present in the moment...

In Sufi philosophy actualising the station of Ibn-al-waqt / Son of the moment is probably second only to fana / annihilation in the Godhead.

In the mean back to playing!

Faisal

'Burning Paradise'...

Dear Friends

We are holding a dinner party today and whilst I was helping with some chores. It occurred to me that the preparation is as important as the actual dinner party. Then I had a wonderful insight that ablutions are as important as the actual canonical 5 daily prayers. The latter has been simmering in my mind for the last couple of hours.

It just dawned on me that this whole life is a preparation ultimately for death...A deeply sobering yet exhilarating thought...Whether I am destined for paradise or hell I do not know but I am reminded of the famous motifs of a burning torch and bucket of water used by Rabia, the almost mythical woman saint of 8^th century Iraq...

Rabia fervently believed that love of God and not the promise of paradise should motivate a Muslim. Thus she wanted to burn paradise and quench the flames of hell...BRAVO!!!

SALAAM

Faisal  

Green Sufi Jamming...

Dear Friends

One of the prizes of the Sufi path is sohbet or gathering...For me this has taken place in some very unorthodox places such as in seedy bars, sheesha lounges and across the web especially with hippies!

The zenith of sohbet is the classroom since during moments of pure teaching the difference been student and teacher evaporates and a ‘green dialogue’ emerges...

The student is yellow and I am blue and intellectually we give birth to green...

Here is some dark green sufi jamming...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj5O1ldO2Bo&feature=related

Yes...There is no God / reality / truth but God / truth / reality....

Faisal

The Lover and the Beloved....

Dear Friends

...a cracking zauq / taste  of the lover and beloved...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qfcEhOeKy0&feature=related

Faisal

Sufi POLITIKS...

Dear Friends

One of the most distressing elements of the Sufi / spiritual enterprise is politics. This is not a new phenomenon as the jealous 13^th century students of Rumi were instrumental in having his beloved Shams ejected permanently from Konya. However this sparked the great body of poetry composed by Mevlana Rumi namely the Mathnawi.

Present day Sufi brotherhoods can be breeding grounds of some of the most vicious games of intrigue, back stabbing and abuse of every kind imaginable. Hereditary orders that allow the enthronement of the Shaykhs son are the worst.

I have observed in disbelief at some of the shenanigans and always been puzzled. Is not the spiritual path the noblest human endeavour? Should it not inspire chivalry, great deeds and words?

YES AND NO....

Perhaps the prize is so great namely walayaa / friendship with Allah and earthly representation of the Prophet that the ends justify the means.

Personally I did not get hooked to the Sufi dream to build an empire on the back of broken and bleeding souls.

The inspiration remains to become a tool for the divine director...To see with his eyes...above all to laugh with him...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KqnWIIifxA

Time to get back on the road...Boots and Sand...Inshallah...For the road is the bread and butter of the salik / spiritual aspirant...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-m5k_nW8mc

Ciao

Faisal

YES, YES, YES, MOST DEFINITELY YES...

Dear Friends

A great way to start the day...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sjSHazjrWg

PEACE TRAIN...YES...IT CAN AND WILL AND DOES HAPPEN...

POWER TO THE HEART...

Faisal

Imperfect Perfection?

Dear Friends

The video is an example of decadent Islam / Sufism that I adore. Deeply sophisticated, flawed yet full of beauty...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPebGVADm2c&feature=related

Reminds me of another couplet by Rumi:

Many prayers are declined because of the rank odour of a corrupt heart rising through the beautiful words. Let the words be wrong, but the meaning right. That flawed utterance is dearer to God.

A toast to shades of grey and the imperfectly perfect....

Faisal

Justice...

Dear Friends

Muslims sincerely argue that the cornerstone of Islam is justice. However what is the definition of justice? As ever Rumi has something to say:

What is justice? Giving water to trees.
What is injustice? To give water to thorns.
Justice consists in bestowing bounty in its proper place,
not on every root that will absorb water.

 -- Mathnawi [V, 1089-1090]

This is a profound image that is applicable to many contexts…

One of the attributes of Allah is justice…Al Adl

Yaa Haq / Truth!

Faisal

Love / Ishk..

Dear Friends

When you imbibe this you will disappear…Drink slowly and let your soul dance…Over to Mevlana Ji…

Love endures hardships at the hands of the Beloved.
Through love bitter things seem sweet,
Through love bits of copper are made gold.
Through love dregs taste like pure wine,
Through love pains are as healing balms.
Through love thorns become roses,
And through love vinegar becomes sweet wine.
Through love the stake becomes a throne,
Through love reverse of fortune seems good fortune.
Through love a prison seems a rose bower,
Without love a grate full of ashes seems a garden.
Through love burning fire is pleasing light,
Through love the Devil becomes a Houri.
Through love hard stones become soft as butter,
Without love soft wax becomes hard iron.
Through love grief is as joy,
Through love Ghouls turn into angels.
Through love stings are as honey,
Through love lions are harmless as mice.
Through love sickness is health,
Through love wrath is as mercy.
Through love the dead rise to life,
Through love the king becomes a slave.
Even when an evil befalls you, have due regard;
Regard well him who does you this ill turn.
The sight which regards the ebb and flow of good and ill
Opens a passage for you from misfortune to happiness.
Thence you see the one state moves you into the other,
One opposite state generating its opposite in exchange.
So long as you experience not fears after joys,
How can you look for pleasures after disgusts?
While ye fear the doom of the angel on the left hand,
Men hope for the bliss of the angel on the right.
May you gain two wings!  A fowl with only one wing
Is impotent to fly, O well-intentioned one!
Now either permit me to hold my peace altogether,
Or give me leave to explain the whole matter.
And if you dislike this and forbid that,
Who can tell what your desire is?
You must have the soul of Abraham in order with light
To see the mansions of Paradise in the fire.
Step by step he ascended above sun and moon,
And so lagged not below, as a ring that fastens a door.
Since the "Friend of God" ascended above the heavens,
And said, "I love not Gods that set;"
So this world of the body is a breeder of misconceptions
In all who have not fled from lust.


...Hmmmmm

Faisal

'Led astray by the Quran'...

Dear Friends

The last couplet in this Rumi poem is very important as it is a reflection of the current state of Muslims today. We forget orthopraxy / right conduct is and will always be superior to orthodoxy / right thought…

For lovers, the only lecturer is the beauty of the Beloved;
their only book and lecture and lesson is the Face.
They are silent outwardly,
but their penetrating remembrance rises
to the high throne of their Friend.
Their only lesson is enthusiasm, whirling, and trembling,
not the fine points of jurisprudence.
[III, 3847-9]

That which God said to the rose,
and caused it to laugh in full-blown beauty,
He said to my heart,
and made it a hundred times more beautiful.
[III, 4129]

Many have been led astray by the Qur'an:
by clinging to that rope many have fallen into the well.
There is no fault in the rope, O perverse man,
for it was you who had no desire to reach the top.
[III, 4210-11]

Salaam

Faisal

Rumi's Invocation...

Praise be to Thee, the One and Only God,
The Creator and Sustainer of our lives.
Thee do we praise, and Thee we give thanks.
Thou art the First Cause and the Last Effect,
And Thou art the Owner of the Most Beautiful Names.
The Most Compassionate, the only Guide,
And it is Thou Who grants forgiveness
For our mistakes and our ignorance.
Within Thee is the Matrix of Life,
And the Beauty of Thy Names.
We pray that the Beauty of Thy Names in the Heavenly spheres
May sound the same beauty here on earth,
And lighten our hearths with Thy Wisdom,
Thy Power, Thy Glory and Thy Peace.
For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory
Forever and ever.
Amen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiQ-uSN8Bs8

...yes just one moment...

Faisal

Non-existence, Zikr, and Freedom

Dear Friends

Rumi explains why we should persevere with zikr / remembrance / meditation…

The light of the senses and spirit of our fathers
is not totally perishable like the grass,
but, like the stars and moonbeams,
they vanish in the radiance of the Sun.

It's like the naked man who jumped into the water,
so that he might escape from the hornets' stings:
the hornets circled above him, and whenever
he put out his head they would not spare him.

The water is recollection of God,
and the hornet is the thought, during this time,
of such-and-such a woman or man.

Hold your breath in the water of remembrance and show strength,
so you may be freed from old thoughts and temptations.

After that, you yourself will assume
the nature of that pure water, entirely from head to foot.

As the noxious hornet flees from the water,
so will it be afraid of approaching you.

After that be far from the water, if you wish;
for in your inmost soul you are of the same nature as the water,

Those persons then, who have passed from the world
are not non-existent, but they are absorbed in the attributes of God,
even as the star disappears in the presence of the sun.
[IV, 432-3;435-43]

…This is an exquisite piece of imagery and continues to linger in my soul…

Faisal