Thursday, July 8, 2010

Sufism is simple

The Sufi Path is really exceedingly simple*:-

1. Repent from wrongdoing against the Creator and His Creation. Make amends if possible.

2. Avoid sinning in the future. Remove the sources of temptation and situations where one may slip, or be under pressure to do the wrong thing. [eg. TV, certain types of social gatherings etc. It's important to realize that what everyone has a different ethical challenge. For instance TV may be not as bad for some people, but for others like myself it's an oft catastrophic hindrance on the Path]

3. Add some extra worship to the prescribed 5 prayers. Read the Quran daily if only a little bit. Send blessings [durood] on the Prophet, peace be upon him, and find your personal Zikr.

4. Try and do good work and be a positive force in the world. Be kind to all, to use the hippie maxim, "Be the Change you want to see."


Or as the Prophet Peace be upon him, said, if you cannot think of anything good to say, stay silent. There is profound wisdom in this. Why should we remember or do Zikr of evil? It is better to do Zikr of God. Criticism wastes time and makes us dispirited. It contributes nothing to the world and inhibits our personal growth.

Build a better world, with your own two hands [forgive me for paraphrasing I think Ben Harper here, but as one grows older one realizes all cliches are true... I think Peter Ustinov said that.]


5. Pray Tahajjud... the Night prayer. All Sufis agree that this prayer is obligatory for the Sufis as it was for the Holy Prophet peace be upon him.



May God give success.




* simple in theory- hard in practice!

3 comments:

Ms Rianne C. ten Veen said...

Mash'Allah, interesting blog. May Allah SWT help you on your path. If you don't mind I've added your blog to an IFEES blog of green & Muslim resources (http://ifees.wordpress.com/ ). Do feel free to add your own resources through the comments. In peace, Rianne

Mushtaq said...

Thanks Brother for this excellent blog.The information is highly useful in our personel spritual growth. Kindly add articles about simple living, home remedies, kabad se jugaad so that we get rid of toxic consumption characteristics pervading everywhere.

Mushtaq

cyclewala said...

Rianne, salam alaykum & thanks. dded your blog to list.


Mushtaq bhai, salam alaykum, jazakallah for the advice, will do inshallah.