Green Sufi

BREAK

2012-01-03T12:57:00.000-08:00

I'm taking an indefinite break from blogging/ the net. You may have noticed I wasn't very active anyway. May or may not be back,

As far as the asma e husna offer [the Dhikr] please go to this site where you can calculate the personalized Dhikr of God's Divine Names yourself.

God Bless,

fi aman Allah

Sufi wisdom from Mevlana

2011-12-26T08:26:00.000-08:00

I'm thinking this is a Coleman Barks "version". Still it retains something of Mevlana. I'm not sure of the source. However I've fixed some words which needed capitalization.

People are distracted by objects of desire,
and afterward repent of the lust they've indulged,
because they have indulged with a phantom
and are left even farther from Reality than before.

Giving thanks for abundance
is sweeter than the abundance itself...

Infinite Mercy flows continually
But you're asleep and can't see it.

Some Sema

2011-12-21T11:38:00.000-08:00

At Urs of Hazrat Baba Farid RA, last year

Full speech of Mengal Sahib & Mian Sahib as seen on Samaa TV

2011-12-21T11:37:00.001-08:00

Save Pakistan

2011-12-21T11:12:00.000-08:00

The Pak Army should reign in the agencies and ease the situation in Balochistan, nay even bend over backwards if need be. Otherwise I'm afraid that Shah Naimat RA's prediction of the 6 part-division of the Sub-continent is going to be all out of Pakistan, not India [save perhaps Kashmir]. This is urgent, short term.

Long term, become more inclusive, encourage mass recruits from the other 3 provinces, the COAS has taken some good steps but much more is needed. On the flip side, people from other provinces need to realize that most Punjabis are not chauvanists, but poor hard-working people like themselves.

Another disturbing report has been about growing financial corruption in the forces, land appropriation etc... I always said the Waderas are worse, but Balochistan is too volatile.

Beautiful Mughal painting of Hazrat Khizr

2011-12-13T12:23:00.001-08:00

Stolen from Abdur Rahman's Corner.

Was Allama Iqbal a Sufi?

2011-12-13T10:21:00.000-08:00

This promises to be my most unpopular post since the ideology of Pakistan one, which received like a hundred negative comments. Oh dear. Still one must speak the truth no matter how bitter... even if it means losing followers

*****************

786

Short answer: not really.

The Allama had a complex, love hate relationship with Sufism.

Sorry Zaid Hamid, Dr. Tahirul Qadri and those many thousands of devotees of the Allama who expect to be whizzed into the stratosphere or the Arsh e Mualla with their copies of Armagahan e Hijaz.

Long answer:

Now first remember the Allama was a great mind, so puny brains like mine cannot even conceive the depth and breadth of his intellect.

AND

He was a true passionate Muslim.

A lot of his poetry is genuinely inspired, not just inspiring

He had quite a few AMAZING spiritual experiences.

He often had Kashf.

He used a lot of Sufi terms in his poetry.

He praises 'the Qalander'

He calls himself a mureed of Mevlana Rumi RA

He had a strong emotional attachment to many Sufi saints: Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, Data Ganj Bakhsh, Hazrat Mujaddid Alif Sani etc.

He was a lover of the Ahlul Bayt and the senior companions.

He was probably a Waliullah, a friend of God.

He was certainly an agent of God to shake Muslims into action.

Shucks he probably had more of the above than most Sufis.

BUT

He was not really a Sufi.

Please before you chuck your coffee at my blog, consider the alternative, his own admission:

please read Allama Iqbal's 2 decade long correspondence with Hazrat Khwaja Hassan Nizami of Delhi . Nothing and I repeat nothing will make the Allama's relationship to Sufism more clear than the Allama himself in these letters!

For all his devotion, and the fact that many elements of his philosophy are based on Sufism, he did not accept certain fundamental Sufi doctrines, which no true Sufi can afford to deny. In fact Allama Iqbal considered many elements of Sufism Kufr or disbelief, but he did not go to the extent of calling those Sufis Kafir, as the Allama held that they had made "genuine mistakes" in interpreting the Qur'an.

Allama Iqbal admitted that by heart he was a Sufi but his head could not let him accept Sufism. No wonder a great contemporary Sufi Hazrat Maulana Wahid Bakhsh wryly observed that the verse the Allama applied to Neitzsche could be applied to the Allama himself with regard to Sufism:

دل او مومن و دماغش کافر است

Indeed he despised Sufism at times, and 2 fundamental Sufi doctrines in particular:

Predetermination and Wahdat ul Wujood/the Unity of Being. He was also against the concepts of Fana and the Sufi philosophy of the 6 Descents- but that will expand this piece too much.

Now, everyone who has read the Sufi textbooks such as Gulshan e Raz, or Kalabadhi's Taarruf or the Kashf or the Awarif or the Kitab al Hikm knows that predeterminism is a basic foundational tenet of Faith of Sufi Islam. But to Allama that meant quietism, and he replaced it with the Shi'ite belief in Action, filtered though Neitzsche of course, characterized by Allama Iqbal as the "qalander" the man of Love and Action as opposed to the contemplative Sufi. [Later the Allama would enlist Mevlana Rumi RA for this same purpose- quite against what Hazrat Mevlana himself taught].

As for the Unity of Being, there are plenty of articles by great Sufi masters on this site, so suffice it to add that perhaps the Allama contributed to the current academic misunderstanding that Wahdat al Wujud and Wahdat ash-Shahood are 2 opposite views... never mind Hazrat Mujaddid's own clarifications in the later Maktubaat, or what Shah Waliullah and other Naqshbandi followers of Hazrat Mujaddid clarified: the 2 are one and the same.

To sum up, the Allama Iqbal RA was by nature drawn to Sufism. He was a person of tremendous spiritual as well as intellectual stature anyway. However, despite the many Sufi terms and elements of Sufi philosophy in his thought, one must bear in mind his thought also has elements of Salafist Reformism, Shi'ism, German Romanticism, Pan-Islamism, Aligarh Progressivism, Bergsonianism etc... even Akber Alahabadi-style conservatism on many an occasion...

But we must have heroes, and we are men of emotion rather than discernment.

Me included, by the way. But what can I do, I've read the correspondence between Hazrat Khwaja Hassan Nizami and Hazrat Allama. And being a ghissa pitta mureed, I needs must follow the well-trodden path of the Sufis. I'm with the Khwaja on this.

God bless, and sorry for the offence, respected fans of the Allama who would have loved to prove that the beloved Allama was a Sufi.

And God knows best.

interesting year

2011-12-12T07:45:00.000-08:00

This year has been a slog, spiritually. Battles with the nafs [lower self], sometimes one's higher self wins and sometimes the lower: and all victories are clearly Divine inspiration or help from the positive "forces beyond." One has to take more "credit" for the nafs victories, although the negative forces beyond have their say, they are weaker than the positive forces [and by this I'm referring to Barzakh: the angels and the saints].

Event wise nothing of extra significance close around me: yes there are deaths and births but not in my immediate family, alhamdolillah.

Also completed one year of Kung Fu, alhamdolillah and although I'm learning an old man's style, Wing Chun, it's been physically challenging and a lot of fun and benefit, I would seriously recommend to almost anyone young or old esp. introverts like myself. Martial arts brings a discipline and focus, as does Salat, so the 2 together are useful for combating the aforementioned enemies i.e. one's Nafs and the darker "forces beyond."

Of spiritual "progress" I cannot say, it's just a constant struggle. In any case it's God's Grace at the end of the day.

When I was younger, even 2 years ago, I had grand illusions of Reforming the Faith, yes laugh at that, now I do too, for surely it's a common human failing today.

A couple of years ago that changed mercifully, alhamdolillah, and I realized that the real goal is to Reform oneself, Religion is not in any need of reform, at least not the religion that the Noble Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, brought [faithfully preserved by sufi saints such as Rumi, Hujweri, Attar, Ajmeri, Shadhilli, Suharwardi, Jilani etc].

This year I've realized that even self-reform is an unrealistic goal, at my stage and age, I can best hope for damage control, that those around me are kept safe from my worst impulses and failings.

And the Creator alone gives success.

War Crimes 'World fears US as a war-hungry drunk'

2011-12-04T11:20:00.003-08:00

War Crimes 'World fears US as a war-hungry drunk'

Hadith

2011-11-01T02:47:00.000-07:00

Said the Prophet, upon whom be Blessings & Peace:

The excellence of a person's Islam relies upon leaving that which does not concern them.

[paraphrased]

Reminder to myself: God is not going to ask who should have been the Khalifa, or whether Moinuddeen was superior to Abd al Qadir, how stupid or wise the Ulema were, etc. I have my duties to try fulfill and a mountain of faults to overcome.

Allah help me.

Reminders to myself

2011-11-01T02:13:00.000-07:00

Reminder to myself:

Contrary to popular fashion, the true Sufi is not one who laughs at the Sharia [God-forbid] and those who follow it, but rather the true Sufi is one who weeps at himself.

May God preserve me from falling once more into this trap of 'Mulla-bashing.'

Why Qaddhafi now?

2011-10-31T09:25:00.001-07:00

Interesting debate with ZH

2011-10-30T22:39:00.001-07:00

Sidi Zaid Hamid is a useful if sometimes over-emotional antidote to the Secularist poison.

Kudsi Erguner- Ney, clip from documentary on Mevlana Rumi RA

2011-10-12T10:14:00.000-07:00

Turkish Naat/nasheed, Ya Muhammad sws

2011-10-12T09:46:00.000-07:00

What is Chivalry?

2011-10-12T09:30:00.000-07:00

"The Prophet, upon whom be peace, has declared that "the Chivalrous men of my Community have ten characteristics."

"O Prophet of God," they asked, "what are these ten characteristics?"

He said: "Speaking the truth

Faithfulness to their word,

trustworthiness,

abandonning lying,

being charitable to orphans,

assisting the poor and needy,

giving away one's income,

great benevolence,

hospitality

-but foremost of all these is modesty."

Quoted in the Book of Chivalry of Hazrat Ibn Mi'mar Hanbali Baghdadi

*************************

file under: advice, reminders to myself

From the Book of Sufi Wisdom

2011-10-02T06:51:00.000-07:00

"Only the ignorant man scorns the recitation of litany [al-wird]. Inspiration [al-waarid] is to be found in the Hereafter , while the litany vanishes with the vanishing of this World.

But it is more fitting to be occupied with something for which there is no substitute.

The litany is what He seeks from you, the inspiration is what you seek from Him.

But what comparison is there between what He seeks from you and what you seek from Him?"

-Kitab al Hikm Aphosrism no. 112

Hazrat Ibn 'Ata'illah al-Iskandari al-Shadhilli

The other, forgotten anniversary in September

2011-09-21T01:30:00.001-07:00

No minutes of silence for them. 3000 butchered, women men babies. Not one item on any US news media -yahoo or CNN or BBC. And they "wonder why they hate us."

Sufi exegesis: the Tafsir e Tustari

2011-09-19T10:40:00.000-07:00

Must see: new translation of the long lost Tafsir of Sufi Master Hazrat Sahl bin 'Abd-Allah Tustari RA

go here.

9/11 in under 5 minutes

2011-09-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

Ramazan Mubarak

2011-08-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

Wishing you guys a Blessed month of Ramazan/ Ramadan shareef. May ALLAH Almighty shower His blessings upon us and help us change for the better. See you guys at Eid inshallah.

ZH's view on the situation

2011-07-29T11:04:00.000-07:00

Sufi wisdom: From the Kitab al Hikm

2011-07-23T08:07:00.000-07:00

"Bury yourself in the earth of obscurity, for whatever sprouts forth without first having been buried, flowers imperfectly."

-Hazrat Ibn Ata'illah Shadhilli, Kitab al Hikm

Haalat e haazira

2011-07-05T18:24:00.000-07:00

اندھیر نگری ، چوپٹ راج

The so-called "Jihadis"

2011-06-30T19:04:00.000-07:00

It's been often said but bears repeating, that Jihad in Islam means a righteous armed struggle. Islam recognizes that there are legitimate causes where armed resistance is justified.

However there are stringent rules: no women children or even non-combatant men may be hurt. The enemy's trees may not be cut down, their crops may not be burnt.

It is apparent or should be apparent for most muslims that the so-called jihadis have done tremendous damage to Islam with their ugly violence and brutality. But unfortunately we let our emotions and frustrations cloud out judgement. We must not fall to the level of our oppressors and accept something analogous to "collateral damage"... that is pure evil.

Unfortunately it seems our mainstream sect of Traditional Sunni Islam which has always condemned suicide bombings and the like, is in decline and the 2 violent sects are in ascendance. Sufism alone is our hope. Alas the situation is not helped by Sufism being mostly in the hand of traditional hereditary "gaddis" the landlord pirs who are in no way fit to lead it.

Must reading is Shaykh AHM's article here

Ya Hayyu Ya Qayyum, bi-rahmatika astaghiith

Congo: The Unnoticed War: fuelled by our cellphone addiction

2011-05-29T12:01:00.000-07:00

also see

http://youtu.be/JQIsLqkuATY

Eteraz on Sufism

2011-05-25T11:56:00.001-07:00

Here's rebel without a pause Ali Eteraz's take on Sufism. Interesting as it's an honest outsider's look on Sufis.

Shaykh AHM on Diversity & dealing with opposition

2011-05-18T15:32:00.001-07:00

Knowledge and Action

2011-05-18T11:33:00.000-07:00

"You should know that one can achieve great success trough a little religious knowledge. But knowledge should always be followed by practice. For the Prophet, peace be upon him, has condemned knowledge without good deeds..."

-Hazrat Ali Hujweri, may God sanctify his secret.

I know the dominant paradigm of the scholars is that there isn't enough religious knowledge today. (There never was if you ask them). But I would argue that what with printing presses, TV channels, magazines pamphlets CDs DVDs and Radio, there is actually far more knowledge or at least information then there was say in 1800, when there were just 5 copies of the Sahih of Bukhari in Delhi.

Rather as my Pirs have said, there is little putting into practice. In earlier days there was far more practice.

Many houses are full of scores of Sufi classics, when in truth all you need is ONE Sufi classic and a Punjsura to become a Wali.

That and the Grace of God :)

Take on Tradition

2011-05-18T11:07:00.000-07:00

Muslims today have to take on their Tradition themselves.
Yes we need Spiritual Guides and the classical texts such as the Kashf ul Mahjub to navigate our way through the eternal moral problems.

But for many current moral problems, such as Peak Oil, the water crisis, monsanto and agribusiness in general, food miles etc etc., we simply cannot sit around and wait for the fatwa to come from Al Azhar or Qom or Deoband or Bareli or Firangi Mahal.

It's not happening.

We need to be sufficiently educated in our Tradition, in the Seera of the Holy Prophet sws. and take on Tradition ourselves... that is to say neither reject it like the Reformists & Progressives, nor be content to be just blind followers like our Traditional Sunni brethren. We should have the initiative and enough self direction, to see wrong make a judgment and act on our convictions.

Some friends asked a famous dar ul ifta about the menace of plastic bottled water, esp when there are traditions albeit week prohibiting trade and profiteering in water. The Dar ul Ifta found nothing wrong with it.

To understand the magnitude of this problem, and its imperative and categorical nature, see the videos below.

I think this complacency and ignorance cannot be accepted. It must be quietly rejected. Quietly for we don't want fitna.

For as the hippies said, if you ain't part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

Once you watch these films, I'm sure you'll agree that if we don't take Tradition upon ourselves, and realize that these ARE the great moral issues of our time, and leave it to the Ulema, Tradition may well become of limited relevance.

By the Grace of God, some of the Auliya such as Shaykh Nazim & Baba Ashfaq Ahmed have always highlighted such problems and taken a "green" approach, Molana Ilyas Qadri encourages mureeds to drink out of unglazed earthen vessels and virtually all the Murshids and Pirs insist on simplicity & lessening our belongings and cutting our consumption.

We can draw upon this. I'm not advocating a rejection of Traditional Fiqh, but rather saying yes, BUT IT IS NOT ENOUGH. It is now time to be able to abstract moral and ethical principles and apply them oneself regardless of what is the opinion of Al Azhar, Qom, Deoband or Bareli.

This is not a rejection of Tradition itself. All the answers to the current moral problems are there in the Tradition of the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him.

After all this blog also has humbly tried to show for three years how the Sunna as understood by the Sufis gives us all the green solutions to the current ecological crisis, which is ultimately the consequence of Modernity Materialism and Secularism. For when there is a denial of the spirit it means a triumph of matter; spirtual progress can only be replaced by material accumulation.

But I must reiterate that the scholars and the traditional schools have been too slow. 50 years have passed since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring launched the green movement in earnest, but the aforementioned centers of Fiqh are still asleep, rather it is Buddhists who are far more aware of the great moral challenges of our time... only a few such as Seyyed Hossein Nasr address these issues.

God knows best, and His Messenger.

Noam Chomsky: My Reaction to Osama bin Laden’s Death : Information Clearing House: ICH

2011-05-10T11:03:00.000-07:00

Noam Chomsky: My Reaction to Osama bin Laden’s Death : Information Clearing House: ICH

See this

2011-05-05T12:13:00.001-07:00

And this from 3 years ago, where Tarpley predicted exactly what is going down today.

warnings

2011-04-26T13:06:00.000-07:00

The Scale of the Universe

2011-03-21T03:07:00.001-07:00

Subhan Allah

Simply beautiful

2011-03-17T21:51:00.003-07:00

Poem in Praise of the Most Noble Prophet, by Imam AHmed Reza Khan barelvi

2 Rules

2011-03-08T18:15:00.000-08:00

"There are two rules on the spiritual path: Begin and continue."
-Sufi saying

I don't know the source of it but it rings true. Close to the saying of Hazrat Haji sahib:
این راہ ما رفتنی است گفتنی نیست

Amazing discovery: The Blessed Tree!

2011-02-15T23:03:00.000-08:00

Details here

Maulana Jami's beautiful poem in praise of the Beloved Prophet

2011-02-15T09:42:00.000-08:00

Qawwali by the great Haji Mehboob, qawwal of Golra Sharif.

Farsi Qawwali Ustad Murli

2011-02-15T09:38:00.000-08:00

ای بت طناز قربانت شوم

ای سراپا ناز قربانت شوم

بپایت خون عالم ریختی پوشیده پوشیده

قیامت دامنت را بوسه گر ترسیده ترسیده

کجا بودی ودیشب تا که مئ خوردی و می آیی قدم لرزیده لرزِیده نگاهت دزدیده دزدیده

صد هزارانداز داری در کمین

من به هر انداز قربانت شوم

[from youtube]

Eid e Milad mubarak!

2011-02-15T08:53:00.000-08:00

Ustad Nusrat sings Allama Iqbal

2011-02-13T09:06:00.000-08:00

Allah i Allah- Qawwali version of the classic

2011-01-26T09:26:00.001-08:00

Original by Naheed Akhtar.

Excerpt: The Illusion of Democracy by Rene Guenon

2011-01-25T13:30:00.000-08:00

The Illusion of Democracy
Rene Guenon [Abd-al Wahid Yahya al-Shadhilli]

One of the false foundations of the democracy is the vote, that should be ideally a collective judgement of the art of governing. Now, nobody, sincerely, would defend the peculiar idea that the majority would be intellectually qualified and with enough knowledge on what is administration and government to be in conditions of exercising a judgement.

Kept the due proportions, such supposition igualitarist would be equal to affirm to that everybody is qualified, for instance, on a medical ubject. A real situation would illustrate very well such absurd. A person is seriously wounded. Dozens of onlookers observe afflicted the event. Which could be the plausible criterion to determine who can help the wounded? Naturally, the ones that are qualified for such, that is, doctors or nurses. A voting would be entirely irrelevant, because the majority is never qualified for the medical function, as well as it is not for the admistration.
If the reasoning is valid for a wounded person, it is evident that if we take in account the destiny of millions of individuals, that is what happens in the case of elections for the government, we can see that the irresponsibility is the more complete imaginable.
We would have a variety of examples of the nonsense of the "democratic" foundation that affirms the superiority of the majority, in other words, that an opinion of a larger number of individuals is superior to other, defended, for instance, by a qualified minority.…..
The denial of the priestly superiority implicates the denial of the Unique, or God. But, respecting the logic, is it possible to defend such denial?

Great new site

2011-01-18T11:06:00.000-08:00

For all Sufi brothers & sisters [and ONLY Sufi brothers and sisters I should add :) ]:
the Sufi perspective on Pakistan.
Go here

From Counterpunch: Prof. M. Shahid Alam on the assassination of Taseer sahib

2011-01-18T10:10:00.000-08:00

Counterpunch Weekend Edition
January 14, 2011

An Assasination in Pakistan

A Political Murder or War?

By M. SHAHID ALAM

Pakistan’s English print media – faux liberal and elitist – have been in furor over the recent political murder of Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab, by his own bodyguard. Ostensibly, the governor was assassinated for his obstreperous stand against the judgment of a lower court to hang Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman, for blasphemy against the Prophet.

One columnist in the Express Tribune, with high melodrama, proclaimed that the governor’s murder was the ‘death of reason’ in Pakistan. What reason and whose reason, Pakistanis might well ask, since Pakistan’s faux liberal elites have been strangulating the raison d’être of Pakistan’s creation for some sixty four years. More likely, the Tribune columnist feared the death of a different kind of reason: Pakistan’s wealthy and faux liberal elites, by carrying their treachery to extremes, by agreeing to rain death on Pakistanis from the skies, are losing the argument in Pakistan.

Going off on a limb, the governor began attacking Pakistan’s blasphemy law, which has been abused by some Pakistanis to settle personal scores. Is it a fault in the law or its execution? Or is the cause a generally lawless society, where abuses of law starting at the highest levels of society are rampant; and Pakistan’s Christians are not their only unfortunate victims. Nevertheless, the governor erratically took up the cause of Aasia Bibi, and began railing against the blasphemy law, although every previous death sentence under this law has been reversed by the higher courts of the country.

In the midst of a war against ‘extremists,’ it was unwise of the governor to call the law against blasphemy a ‘black law.’ Did he wish the law amended or repealed? If he believed it was ‘black law,’ perhaps he wanted it to be repealed. Pakistanis worried that this was only the start of a campaign to repeal the law – and open the floodgates for Salman Rushdi-style smearing of the Prophet. Another law maker from the ruling pro-Western Pakistan People’s Party had announced her intentions to introduce a bill in the parliament to amend the law. Was this an initiative inspired by foreign embassies, some Pakistanis speculated, not unjustifiably in a country where Western embassies routinely poke their nose in the country’s domestic affairs.

There are causes galore to champion in Pakistan. The disappearing of thousands of Pakistanis over the past decade – some renditioned to the USA under General Musharraf, the previous dictator – has been crying out for redress. Before the national elections of 2008, the governor’s ruling party had pledged to look into the cases of the disappeared Pakistanis. Once in office, that promise was forgotten. Indeed, the disappearances - especially in Baluchistan – have escalated. Legitimately, Pakistanis may ask, Why didn’t this crying shame provoke the governor’s ire – as well as a thousand other instances of victimization of the poor and disenfranchised?

This murder is unfortunate: no reasonable person could disagree with that. Any death outside the law – and not a few inside the law – is unfortunate and a shame. Yet, should we see this murder only as the expression of growing religious fanaticism in Pakistan? One discordant fact to consider is that the slain governor had faced the ire of the Barelvi ‘ulama (religious scholars), who support the popular Sufism of shrine-worship, have worked with the government against hard-line Islamists, and, themselves have been repeated targets of terrorist attacks.

It betrays extreme naiveté by Pakistan’s English columnists to examine the governor’s murder in isolation, abstracted from the context and the history of betrayals and conflicts that have bedeviled Pakistan especially over the last decade. To say this is not to excuse the governor’s murder but that is the only path to understanding why it happened, and why the assassin is being lauded by wide swathes of Pakistanis as a hero.

Scan issues of the New York Times or any US newspaper for a story on Pakistan in the years immediately preceding September 2001 and – luckily for Pakistanis then – your pickings will be slim. Those were ‘normal times,’ in a manner of speaking. On January 4 and 5, however, Salman Taseer’s murder was splashed as a banner head by the web edition of the NYT. US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, described his murder as a “great loss.” The US ambassador in Pakistan, Cameron Munter, echoing his boss, lauded Taseer as "a champion of tolerance." Now, the NYT has published an op-ed by the slain governor’s daughter. In another ill-advised move, Pope Benedict called on Pakistan to repeal its anti-blasphemy law. It would appear that the slain governor was in the good graces of the Empire.

The times are not ‘normal’ when the murder of an appointed and figurehead provincial governor in Pakistan resonates so loudly in American media and draws attention from the US Secretary of State and the Pope. Pakistan’s plunge into abnormal times began shortly after September 11, 2001, when the country’s military rulers backed by its elites decided to join America’s war against the Taliban.

At first, Pakistan’s military government offered air bases and land and air passage to the US military; this was only the thin end of the wedge. A country that had so wantonly surrenders such vital portions of its sovereignty would scarcely hesitate to barter the rest of it – at the right price. And so more deals were made, inflicting horrible wounds on the people of Pakistan that cry out for justice.

Pakistan’s elites have never been too greedy when dealing with the Empire. At the rate of a billion US dollars a year, they were quickly cajoled into fighting the Afghan resistance operating out of Pakistan; they opened Pakistan and its institutions to infiltration by the CIA and American mercenaries; and many venal vendors of opinion were mobilized to demonize the Afghan resistance and their sympathizers inside Pakistan.

Under US prodding, Pakistan’s rulers have divided the country’s population into ‘moderates’ and ‘extremists,’ – America’s ‘good’ and ‘bad’ guys – depending on whether they supported or opposed the US occupation of Afghanistan. As the Afghan and Pakistani resistance – inside Pakistan – have come under savage attacks from the US and Pakistan military, they too have responded with fury targeting the country’s security infrastructure but also – unfortunately – many civilians.

Sadly, Pakistan’s decision to join America’s war was predictable. Soon after its creation, the Pakistani state fell into the lap of lumpen elites – landlords, military officers and bureaucrats – picked by the British and trained for several generations in traditions of subservience to their white masters. Instead of building on indigenous strength, these denatured elites bought their survival by cultivating economic, military and cultural dependence on the United States. Like many former European colonies, Pakistan is not yet free. Only the forms of foreign control, always working through domestic tyrannies, have changed: and the foreign hand that wields the whip now is in American rather than British hands.

The struggle of Pakistanis for their country has just barely begun. It is part of a larger Islamicate struggle nearly all of whose constituent parts face the same problem: they labor under elites who have tied their systems of knavery to foreign exploiters and to one great power in particular.

For most of its more than sixty years, Pakistan has been ruled by predatory elites who, in order to ingratiate their masters, have tried to mimic their manners, to hate what they hate, and to pretend to love what they love. So permeated are these elites with self-inflicted degradation, their multitudinous factions wrangle among themselves to undersell their country, and to place a lower value on the lives and honor of their own people.

Wikileaks has now offers a peek into how Pakistan’s rulers pander to their masters. In August 2008, commenting on the subject of US drone attacks against Pakistanis, the current prime minister assured his American interlocutors, “I don’t care if they [the Americans] do it as long as they get the right people [the resistance]. We’ll protest in the National Assembly and then ignore it.” The military dictator who preceded him had boasted in his autobiography that his government had garnered US dollars 50 million by capturing and selling Pakistanis to secret US agencies.

Pakistan’s suborned English media pretend that the murder of the Punjab governor is an isolated act. Their myopia blinds them to the war into which Pakistan’s elites have dragged the country, as they batten their foreign bank accounts, their jets warming their engines to fly them off to foreign destinations should Pakistan become too hot for them to carry on their game of deceit and treachery.

Still, the murder of the Punjab governor was unnecessary: it was also contrary to the best traditions of Muslim history. The governor had acted unwisely in denouncing the blasphemy law, but that did not make him guilty of blasphemy. If his intent was to start a campaign to have the law repealed, the public protests had sent out a clear signal to the government that such a move would be unacceptable, even dangerous. It was certain to plunge the country into further chaos. Also, the President could have acted more wisely and settled the matter by reprimanding Salman Taseer or, better, retiring him from the office of governor.

In better times, Muslim judges in Spain often forgave Christians who blasphemed the Prophet by declaring that they were insane or drunk when they blasphemed. They were awarded the death punishment only when they blasphemed repeatedly, demonstrating both sanity and intent to use blasphemy to challenge Muslim rule. Pakistan’s Supreme Court should urge the lower courts to look more carefully into cases of blasphemy to rule out malicious intent by those who bring such charges. It would not dishonor the Prophet to forgive a poor Christian woman of blasphemy – if that is what she had done in a fit of anger. It is what the Prophet would have done himself.

M. Shahid Alam is professor of economics at Northeastern University, Boston. He is author of Israeli Exceptionalism: The Destabilizing Logic of Zionism (Palgrave, 2009) and Challenging Orientalism (IPI, 2007). Visit his website at http://qreason.com. Write to him at alqalam02760@yahoo.com.

Some sema

2011-01-18T05:06:00.000-08:00

Orya Maqbool Jan's column on the Blasphemy Law debate

2011-01-09T13:04:00.000-08:00

Shaykh Tahirul Qadri on the Blasphemy Law

2011-01-09T12:26:00.000-08:00

Barq e Kalisa, repost

2011-01-09T10:25:00.000-08:00

Read this prophetic poem- The Lightening of the Church- written in 1907 & I think you'll agree that Hazrat Akbar Alahabdi RA was no less than Hazrat Allama Iqbal.

مثنوی برق کلیسا --- اکبر الہآبادی

رات اس مس سے ہوا میں جو دو چار
ہاۓ وہ حسن وہ شوخی وہ نزاکت وہ ابھار

زلف پیچاں میں وہ سج دھج کہ بلایں بھی مرید
قد رعنا میں وہ چم خم کہ قیامت بھی شہید

آنکھیں وہ فتنہ دوران کہ گنہگار کریں
گال وہ صبح درخشاں کہ ملک پیار کریں

گرم تقریر جسے سننے کو شعلہ لپکے
دل کش آواز کہ سنکر جسے بلبل جھپکے

دلکشی چال میں ایسی کہ ستارے رک جایں
سرکشی ناز میں ایسی کہ گورنر جھک جایں

آتش حسن سے تقوے کو جلانے والی
بجلیاں لطف تبسّم سے گرانے والی

پہلو حسن بیان شوخی تقریر میں غرق
ترکی و مصر و فلسطین کے حالات میں برق

پس گیا لوٹ گیا دل میں سکت ہی نہ رہی
سر تھے تمکین کے جس گت میں وہ گت ہی نہ رہی

ضبط کے عزم کا اس وقت اثر کچھ نہ ہوا
یا حفیظ کا کیا ورد مگر کچھ نہ ہوا

عرض کی میں نےکہ " اے گلشن فطرت کی بہار
دولت و عزت و ایمان تیرے قدموں پہ نثار

تو اگر عہد وفا باندھ کے میری ہو جائے
ساری دنیا سے مرے قلب کو سیری ہو جائے "

شوق کے جوش میں میں نے جو زبان یوں کھولی
ناز و انداز سے تیوری کو چڑھا کر بولی

"غیر ممکن ہے مجھے انس مسلمانوں سے
بوۓ خون آتی ہے اس قوم کے فسانوں سے

لن ترانی کی یہ لیتے ہیں نمازی بن کر
حملے سرحدوں پہ کیا کرتے ہیں غازی بن کر

کوئی بنتا ہے جو مہدی تو بگڑ جاتے ہیں
آگ میں کودتے ہیں توپ سے لڑ جاتے ہیں

گل کھلاۓ کوئی میدان میں تو اترا جایں
پا َین سامان اقامت تو قیامت ڈھا ین

مطمئن ہو کوئی کیوں کر کہ یہ ہیں نیک نہاد
ہے ہنوز ان کی رگوں میں اثر حکم جھاد"

دشمن صبر کی نظروں میں لگاوٹ پائی
کامیابی کی دل زار نے آہٹ پائی

عرض کی میں نے کہ "ا ے لذّت جان راحت روح
اب زمانے پہ نہیں ہے اثر آدم و نوح

شجر طورکا اس باغ میں پودا ہی نہیں
گیسو ۓ حور کا اس دور میں سودا ہی نہیں

اب کہاں ذہن میں باقی ہیں برّاق و رفرف ؟
ٹکٹکی بندہ گئی ہے قوم کی انجن کی طرف

ہم میں باقی نہیں خالد جانباز کا رنگ
دل پہ غالب ہے فقط حافظ شیراز کا رنگ

یاں نہ وہ نعرہ تکبیر نہ وہ جوش سپاہ
سب کے سب آپ ہی پہ پڑھتے ہیں سبحان الله

جوہر تیغ مجاہد تیرے ابرو پہ نثار
نور ایمان کا تیرے قدموں پہ نثار

اٹھ گئی صفحہ ہستی سے بحث بد و نیک
دو دلے ہو رہیں ہیں کہتے ہیں خدا کو ایک

موج کوثر کی کہاں اب میرے باغ کے گرد
میں تو ہوں تہذیب میں پیرمغاں کا شاگرد

مجھ پہ کچھ وجہ عتاب آپ کو اے جان نہیں
نام ہی نام ہے ورنہ میں مسلمان نہیں"

جب کہا صاف یہ میں نے کہ "جو ہو صاحب فہم
تو نکالو دل نازک سے یہ شبہ یہ وہم

میرے اسلام کو ایک قصّہ ماضی سمجھو "
ہنس کے بولی "تو پھر مجھ کو بھی رازی سمجھو

Transcending the Deobandi Barelvi dispute, by Pir Naseeruddin Naseer

2010-12-20T10:43:00.001-08:00

With a hattip for Chaiwala bhai

Excellent, significant fatwa by Hazrat Pir Naseeruddin

2010-12-20T09:56:00.000-08:00

Especially regarding Hazrat Pir Mehr Ali Shah's oft misquoted fatwa.

For married mureeds

2010-12-20T07:54:00.000-08:00

It is forbidden [for a spiritual seeker] to have sexual relations on these nights & these places:
Under a tree
At the time of azaan or iqamat [when one can hear it]
The 15th night of Shaban [mid Shaban or shab barat]
The Night before both Eids [for these are Nights of worship].

Source: al-Awraad, Hazrat Ghous Bahuddin Zakariya may God sanctify his secret.

Note: It is also a Sunna of our Master the Blessed Prophet, upon whom be peace, to avoid sexual relations the last ten nights of Ramadan, especially the odd nights.

My favorite Qawwali

2010-12-20T07:52:00.000-08:00

enjoy :) Someone graciously sent me this. God bless.

Rene Guenon on the Modern World

2010-12-12T12:17:00.000-08:00

Offer

2010-11-08T09:12:00.000-08:00

A lot of people ask me about choosing a Divine Name for Zikr or Dhikr.... based on the system given by Imam Jafar Sadiq, may God sanctify his secret [see sidebar].

If you have difficulties you may please write you name in the comments section & I'd be happy to help you in working out your name's numerological value & hence the appropriate Divine Name.

And God alone gives success.

PS please don't send me your email, as it can be misused, but just check back on the blog where you posted your comment in a week.

This World is like a Coffin

2010-10-14T13:00:00.003-07:00

In the dead night, a Sufi began to weep. He said, "This world is like a closed coffin, in which we are shut and in which, through our ignorance, we spend our lives in folly and desolation. When death comes to open the lid of the coffin, each one who has the wings will fly off to eternity. But those without, will remain locked in the coffin. So my friends, before the lid of this coffin is taken off, do all you can to become a bird of the way to God; do all you can to develop your wings and your feathers."

-Hazrat Fariduddin Attar, may God sanctify his secret. Translated by A. Harvey

An Animal's Place

2010-10-14T12:31:00.002-07:00

An Animal's Place
Brilliant, MUST reading. Answers the vegans & radical vegetarians.... and provides gudielines to the Faithful as to what sort of meat they CAN eat.

Quick green update

2010-10-11T16:41:00.000-07:00

2 green alternatives I've been trying for over 2 months, so I thought I'd share my experience with you:

1. Soapnuts or soap berries [locally known as Reetha]
GREAT for washing colored clothes.... not so good for whites. They get the dirt out of the whites but not stains, though I'm making quite a concentrated mix, boiling 20 berries for an hour till water reduces by half. This is a minor problem, so I'm back to using peela sabun as well on the whites.
Makes good shampoo also.

2. Baking soda
SUPERB! Best dishwashing aid. Helps us recycle our kitchen water or greywater is its now known. You can brush your teeth with it too! Gets the tea stains out of your favorite mugs as easy as pie.. can't stop raving about it.
Great for cleaning taps too, as well as silver jewelry.

*************************************
Some other green alternatives I've been using for years:

3. Miswak or Siwak
Good for the gums, will help them heal the onslaught of brushing, but after ten years of using mostly miswak I'd recommend you brush once a day also, as miswak's not so good for the backs and tops of your teeth [if that makes sense]

4. Alum
Quite simply the best deoderant in all ways: health, cost & environment & efficacy. Often sold as "Chinese Deodorant Stone" or some such name in organic stores.

5. Surma
Get Hashmi's special, the only make up you'll ever need, boy or girl, man or woman. Excellent for curing & preventing eye infections. As a cyclist, commuting on the dusty smoky streets of Karachi, I wouldn't go without it. God Bless Hashmi's!
WARNING: don't get their Kohl though, it's been found to contain lead.

6. Rosewater
Get the twice or thrice distilled version. Multiple uses, as perfume, mixed with water it's an invigorating refreshing facewash. Eyedrops take away red-eye and eye-strain.

7. Vinegar
Again many uses... as conditioner it'll strengthen your hair & fight dandruff [as will lemon juice] just add tablespoon to mug of water and use as rinse. Also wipe floors and tabletops, clean tiles etc.

& 7 is a good place to pause. More later, inshallah

The Night of Power

2010-09-01T11:39:00.000-07:00

Laylatul Qadr, Shab e Qadr

97. al-qadr: The Majesty
1 Lo! We revealed it on the Night of Predestination.

2 Ah, what will convey unto thee what the Night of Power is!

3 The Night of Power is better than a thousand months.

4 The angels and the Spirit descend therein, by the permission of their Lord, with all decrees.

5 (The night is) Peace until the rising of the dawn.

the Holy Qur'an, sura 97, Translated by Muhammad Pickthall.
*****************************

There are different views about when it is, some Sufi Masters have said it's the first night of Ramadan, some the 17th, 19th 24th, 27th or 30th.

One is reminded of Shaykh Saadi's observation that any night is Qadr if one has Qadr for it... a play on the word, meaning that if one values any night by worshiping God in it, it becomes the night of value.

The Holy Qur'an has a sura or short chapter about this Night [above]. It is also widely believed that this was the blessed Night on which the Revelation of the Holy Qur'an commenced to our Noble Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace.

However most Sufis agree that Shab e Qadr falls on one of the odd nights in the last ten days of Ramadan/Ramzan, and the specific night is hidden so that believers may seek this night, which is worth a thousand months.

That works out to over eighty years, so you can imagine how valuable is worship in this night to the Sufis... it is really an imperative if one wishes to travel the Sufi Path.

One famous saint, Hazrat Abul Hasan Kharqani, may God sanctify his station, observed a pattern often found in the Night of power, I am reproducing this for the benefit of my fellow travelers. If this is of help, i.e. the Night does actually fall on that day, then please make a prayer for me.

So here is Hazrat Abul Hasan Kharqani's chart:

If the first fast of Ramzan is on a Sunday or a Wednesday, then the Night is likely [but not certain] to fall on the 29th
if the 1st fast is on Friday or Monday, the Night is likely to be 27th
if the 1st fast is on Thursday, the Night is likely to be 25th
if the 1st fast is on Saturday, the Night is likely to be 23rd
if the 1st fast is on Tuesday, the Night is likely to be 21st

and God knows best.

* please remember that the 21st night for example, will be the night between the 20th fast and the 21st fast.

Shaykh Ibrahim Mevlevi's explains Maulana Rumi's famed "evolution/reincarnation" verses

2010-08-14T22:53:00.000-07:00

Dar-al-Masnavi

Shaykh Ibrahim Gamard is an ordained Shaykh of the Mevlevi Order, and a Rumi scholar. He converted to Islam in 1984 and was appointed a Shaykh by the Head of the Mevlevi order in 2007. In other words this is as authentic as it gets.

Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim
As salam alaikum

Surely this topic was discussed before but I am unable to find it. Can someone provide some classical interpretation provided for the verses "I died as a mineral ...". Obviously they do not refer neither to reincarnation nor to evolution as some people like to present it, but I was wondering if there was some specific classic interpretation given to those lines.

Salams
Nureddin

Dear Nureddin,
Wa `alaykuma 's-salâm,

Have a translation with brief commentary, done some years ago:
http://dar-al-masnavi.org/n-III-3901.html

Here is Nicholson's translation (1930):

"I died to the inorganic state and became endowed with growth and (then) I died to (vegetable) growth and attained to the animal.
I died from animality and became Adam (man): why, then, should I fear?
When have I become less by dying? At the next remove I shall die to man,that I may soar and lift up my head amongst the angels;
And I must escape even from (the state of) the angel: 'everything is perishing except His Face.' Once more I shall be sacrificed and die to the angel: I shall become that which enters not into the imagination.
Then I shall become non-existence: non-existence saith to me, (in tones
loud) as an organ, 'Verily, unto Him shall we return.'"

There is classical commentary on this, summarized by Nicholson (see below). In the Mevlevi tradition, the classical authority is the Commentary by Anqaravi (died 1631 http://dar-al-masnavi.org/about_anqaravi.html), studied in all Mevlevi centers throughout the Ottoman Empire.

Nicholson followed Anqaravi's commentary more than any other. I have it in Persian translation, 15 volumes. but for this passage, Anqaravi translates and paraphrases, but adds little except references to “passing away” [fanaa] and subsistence [baqaa] in God. And there is a reference to Qur’an 3:169: “Do not think of those who are slain in God’s way as dead. No, they live in the presence of their Lord,
finding their sustenance.” And in the second passage (Masnavi 3: 3637), he explains that the human spirit became separated from the Eternal Source and passed through the stages. Masnavi 1:3 is quoted, where the reed flute (= the soul) complains: “Ever since I was severed from the reed marsh...” The rest is paraphrasing about how the human spirit forgets the earlier stages. Anqaravi, like Rumi, accepts this
view of the journey of the human spirit based on traditional cosmology--so he has no need to explain or justify it.

Here it can be said that Islamic culture absorbed much of Greek science, since many classical Greek texts were translated early on into Arabic. On book that influenced Islamic cosmology was known as the “Theology of Aristotle.” However, this actually was a translation of some chapters of the “Enneads” by Plotinus (died 270), the first Neoplatonist.

Prof. William Chittick, who does not use the term “Neoplatonic” (probably because he is a “Traditionalist”), has an outstanding explanation (Sufi Path of Love, 1983, pp. 72-82):
"Rumi subscribed to the traditional Islamic cosmology, since it was an adequate representation of his own physical observations and mystical experience, and it provided an excellent symbolical vehicle for expressing his metaphysical knowledge.... Some of Rumi's teachings cannot be put into context without reference to this hierarchical structure of reality. If certain authors had meditated a little more thoroughly upon Rumi's picture of the cosmos, which is referred to
throughout his works, they never would have claimed that his ideas prefigure the theory of biological evolution. The spirit can only ascend to heaven because it has come down from heaven in the first place.... It must be emphasized that this scheme does not describe some sort of physical descent and re-ascent of the spirit. In the
higher stages this is self-evident, for in itself the spirit transcends the material world. But even when Rumi says that the spirit ‘enters into’ the world of the elements. This is only a manner of speaking. The spirit is always transcendent, dwelling in its original home.… If I have entered into great detail explaining this dimension of Rumi's teachings, it is because of the misunderstandings alluded to
above, which seem to have gained widespread acceptance. But in fact, this discussion of the spirit's descent and reascent does not play a very important role in Rumi's teachings. For it is not his aim to explain a cosmological scheme to his readers."
...
[ Full text here ]

*************************

Sufi Shaykh Ibrahim Gamard Mevlevi, convert to Islam

2010-08-14T01:46:00.001-07:00

Interview: 'Many Americans Love Rumi...But They Prefer He Not Be Muslim'
Source: RFE/RL

Two whirling dervishes perform during a spectacle in Istanbul in 2007 to mark the 800th anniversary of Rumi's birth.

Ibrahim Gamard is a California-based sheikh of the Sufi Mevlevi order and has spent his life translating the poetry of the 13th-century Sufi mystic, Rumi. Murtazali Dugrichilov of RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service spoke to Gamard about why Rumi is so popular in the West and the problems of modern-day Sufism.

RFE/RL: Is it possible to say that Mevlana Rumi's poetry is more popular today in the West than in Muslim countries?

Ibrahim Gamard: Yes, this is possible. I'm told that in Turkey, the language has been changing so rapidly that people read very little of Rumi's poetry, especially the younger generations, because they cannot understand enough of the vocabulary of most Turkish translations, which contain many Persian and Arabic words that are no longer used in Turkish. Fewer people in Afghanistan read his poetry because of the decades of war there and the disruption of the educational system. The teaching of classical Persian language in India and Pakistan has probably declined.

However, Rumi's poetry remains highly read and appreciated in Iran. I don't know about other Persian-speaking countries, such as Tajikistan, and cities such as Bukhara and Samarqand, but I hope that they are still appreciating his poetry. There has been little interest in his poetry in Arabic-speaking countries over the centuries, in spite of translations of Rumi's "Masnavi" into Arabic. Rumi also composed many poems in Arabic, but these are little known in Arab countries.

RFE/RL: How do you explain the huge popularity of Rumi's poetry and that of other Muslim poets at a time when anti-Islamic sentiment in the West is on the rise? Does it make sense for people in the West to study Islamic culture as a phenomenon totally separate from political Islam?

Gamard: In spite of anti-Islamic sentiments, Islam continues to be the fastest-growing religion in the United States. At the same time, there continues to be a strong interest in Sufism, but this is because it is presented as a type of mysticism that is not dependent upon Islam and which transcends particular religions.

As you may know, Islam spread throughout such regions as Central Asia, Africa, and Indonesia by means of popularized forms of Sufism that were mildly Islamic until more traditional forms of Islam and Islamic Sufism were established later on. Similarly, there are popular Sufi movements in the U.S. that are attractive to Americans because they are only mildly Islamic. And this is a major reason why Rumi's poetry is so popular, because it is presented in popularized versions, not faithful translations, in which Rumi is depicted as a mystic who is only slightly Islamic.

And this is also why my book, "Rumi and Islam," which contains selected translations of Rumi's praises of the virtues of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, has sold so poorly. Many Americans love Rumi for his ecstatic spirituality about divine love, but they prefer that he not be a Muslim, or at least no more than minimally. Therefore, most Rumi books are marketed to satisfy the wish for maximum mysticism and minimal Islam. Americans have little interest or sympathy for political Islam, but by reading even the most popularized Rumi books, Americans are learning about many traditional Muslim values and wisdom teachings.

RFE/RL: For the past few years, we've been observing a very disturbing tendency in Chechnya and Daghestan. Local governments there promote popular Islam that selectively borrows -- and sometimes grotesquely distorts -- the symbols and rituals of Sufism, even as it ignores its essence. Sufism is turning into state religion. Sufi sheikhs and prayer leaders are close to governments. Can Sufism be used in service of political authorities?

Ibrahim Gamard

Gamard: This is something about which I know little. It seems to me that governments in Muslim countries that are working against traditional Islam, especially secular governments that are following the wishes of powerful non-Muslim countries, have been ruling Muslims for centuries by dividing them into so-called "good Muslims" and "bad Muslims" -- such as rich against poor, city dwellers against country dwellers, Westernized against traditional, non-Sufi against Sufi, Sunni against Shi'ite, PLO [Palestine Liberation Organization] against Hamas, and so on.

I have read that, in America, some university scholars of Middle Eastern studies once advised the U.S. government to arrange for the Sufis of Afghanistan to rule that country, based on the belief that Sufis are the opposite of "Islamists." But this is naive, because Sufis are Muslims, so, like other kinds of Muslims, they range from liberal to conservative.

We Muslims should not allow ourselves to be divided against each other by these manipulations. And Sufis should not allow themselves to be manipulated by such governments. Instead, they should focus on the essentials of Islamic Sufism, such as cultivating virtues, or akhlaaq, and engaging in the remembrance of God, Zikru'llaah. They should avoid flamboyant displays and extravagant claims.

RFE/RL: You converted to Islam in 1984. How did that happen? When did you realize that you wanted to become Muslim?

Gamard: I was raised a Christian and my strongest belief was expressed by a quote from the Bible, where Jesus -- peace be upon him -- said, "O God, not my will be done, but Your will be done." So I was already a Muslim, but I didn't know it. Then in college, I studied mysticism, which is about spiritual states of consciousness that are beyond the ordinary mind and intellect. A few years later, I realized that I was more attracted to Sufism than any other kind of mysticism I had studied. At the time, however, I didn't understand that Sufism is the mystical dimension of Islam.

More than 10 years later, after I had studied more about Islam, I finally accepted that real Sufis had always been devout Muslims and that if I was sincere about wanting to become a Sufi, I should convert to Islam. I did and soon fell in love with the namaz prayers. And because I had been learning Persian for some years by then, I found it easy to learn enough Arabic to read the holy Koran.

RFE/RL: You are well known not only as the author of many books but also as a sheikh in the Mevlevi order. Could you please explain your spiritual practice?

Gamard: This is something about which I feel rather private. But I will say that my basic practice every day is to do the five namaz prayers and to repeat the name of God in my heart as much as I am able throughout the day -- as the Koran says, "Remember God with much remembrance." Then, as I have the time, I make improvements to my Rumi/Mevlevi website, read verses from Mevlana Rumi in Persian, and read or listen to verses from the Koran in Arabic.

RFE/RL: In 2007, you became a Mevlevi sheikh. Could you please describe the rite of initiation?

Gamard: It occurred in stages. First, I was in Istanbul at a Mevlevi gathering at a historic Mevlevi center when there was a cell phone call from the leader of our order, who is the 22nd generation direct descendent of Mevlana Rumi. I was told that he had just given me authorization to be a Mevlevi sheikh.

By the time of my next visit to Istanbul, a calligraphy of the authorization -- or ijaazat -- to me had been written in Ottoman Turkish script and signed by our leader, which was given to me. Then there was a simple ceremony in the upstairs room of a mosque in which an elder Mevlevi initiated me as a sheikh, on the order of our leader. I wore the Mevlevi black mantle and we sat on our knees on the carpet, facing each other. Then he recited verses from the Koran in Arabic and the sheikh's initiation prayer in Turkish, and then he put the sheikh's turban on my head. Thus, we sat as equals, unlike the traditional Mevlevi disciple's initiation ceremony, in which the disciple sits lower on the floor and places his head on the sheikh's knee. Then photographs were taken and there was a short celebration.

During my next trip to Turkey, I spent most of Ramadan in Konya because it is a tradition for new sheikhs to go to there for a spiritual retreat of 18 days. During that time, my sheikh's turban was placed under the covering of Mevlana Rumi's tomb for 10 days for a blessing, or barakat, and I also did some acts of humble service, or khidmat, such as sweeping the outside courtyard and mopping part of the floor in front of Mevlana's tomb.

RFE/RL: Is the internal hierarchy and structure of the Mevlevi order still the same today as it was centuries ago? If not, what are the main differences?

Gamard: The main differences are too many to describe here. The traditional hierarchy and structure had the full support of the Ottoman Empire for centuries. However, in 1925 the Turkish republic that replaced the Ottoman Turkish government declared that all Sufi orders, professions, and titles were illegal. All Mevlevi buildings, properties, and endowments were confiscated. The famous Mevlevi Whirling Prayer Ceremony was allowed, starting in 1953, but as a performance on stage in order to celebrate Turkish culture and promote tourism. Because the ceremony must be led by a Mevlevi sheikh, wearing traditional garments, the Turkish government has allowed it.

Other than participating in the ceremony, and training people to do it, the activities of Mevlevi sheikhs are done privately and discreetly, and their meeting places -- like those of other Sufi groups in Turkey -- are called "educational" and "cultural" centers. The traditional central authority has been very weakened, discipline has been lax, many traditions are not maintained as they should, and groups both inside and outside Turkey generally are too independent and unsupervised in regard to maintenance of standards of high quality. The Mevlevi tradition has become seriously weakened and Sufi organizations are still illegal in Turkey.

Copyright (c) 2010 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org

... Payvand News - 08/10/10 ... --

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Cyclewala adds:
The venerable Shaykh runs the excellent Dar al Masnavi website, link in sidebar.
We have previously posted some articles by the shaykh.

also Ramzan Mubarak to you all, as well as happy Independence Day to my fellow Pakistanis. But what with the flood havoc, it's a somber season. It's time to hold on stronger to our Faith.

A Sufi's tears

2010-07-26T00:28:00.000-07:00

Once in old age, Hazrat Shah Suleman Taunsvi, Pir e Pathan, received a gift of assorted & expensive dry fruit from a Khorasani trader. He immediately distributed all of it amongst his disciples and other ordinary people.
One of his disciples was close by, and asked him "Hazrat, why did you not keep a few for yourself?"

Hazrat Suleman stayed silent but tears started flowing down his face. Eventually his beard was wet with them.

The disciple asked, "Hazrat, what is the matter?!"

Hazrat Suleman replied, "Son, all my life I've eaten bread & water and I find myself unable to thank my Lord & Sustainer. How could I ever hope to thank Him if I ate luxurious food?"

**********
Do not think the friends of God are ordinary men like me & you! Rubies are stones too, but what a difference there is between an ordinary stone and a precious one.

More on the Pir e Pathan here & here

Beautiful website

2010-07-18T21:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a lovely artistic site I'm sure readers of this blog will enjoy: Gulab Mahal.

especially this section: Shrines in Pakistan

Sufism is simple

2010-07-08T19:45:00.000-07:00

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!

Teachings of Hazrat Gharib Nawaz

2010-06-18T19:48:00.000-07:00

The true friend of Allah is one who has these three qualities:

1. A Friend of God must have affection like the Sun. When the sun rises, it is beneficial to all. All derive warmth & light from it irrespective of their Faith.

2. A Friend of God must be generous like the river. The River quenches everyone's thirst. It does not discriminate whether we are good or bad, a relation or a stranger.

3. A Friend of God has hospitality like the Earth. We are cradled in its lap, it is always spread below our feet.

The noblest of characters is possessed by one who is:
1. Bountiful in poverty.
2. Content in hunger.
3. Cheerful in grief.
4. Friendly in hostility.

The surest way to ward off the eternal punishment of hell is:
1. feed the hungry.
2. Redress the aggrieved.
3. help the distressed.

Sayings of Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti, r.a.
Without performing Namaz (prayer), none can approach God, because Namaz is the is one climax (mi'raj) of the process of such an approach for the pious.

If the rules of Namaz are not followed properly, it is struck back on the face of him who offers such a Namaz.

The heart of a true Lover constantly burns with the fire of love, so much so that whatever intrudes upon its sanctity is burnt to ashes.

Of all the worship that pleases Almighty Allah, the most is the granting of relief to the humble and the oppressed.

Performance of charity is the key of attaining the state of philanthropy.

The one who does not perform devotion to Allah earns his living sinfully.

There are four cardinal virtues of the individual: (i) refraining from begging if poor (ii) showing the attitude of being well-fed when hungry; (iii) maintaining cheerfulness in the time of sorrow; and (iv) befriending those hostile.

That man is a true devotee of Almighty Allah, who resigns with pleasure to the misfortune that comes from his beloved (Almighty Allah).

The path of Love of God is such a path that whosoever steps into it, loses himself.

For a follower of the path of Truth, it is worse than sin to disdain or look down upon anyone.

Those who are true Lovers of God give away both of the worlds for the sake of their Beloved and even then feel that they have done nothing worthy.

Perfection in faith is evident by three things: (i) Fear, (ii) Hope, and (iii) Love

Urs of Hazrat Khwaja Buzurg

2010-06-18T18:41:00.000-07:00

Today is the Urs or death anniversary of one of the greatest saints of Islam, Hazrat Moinudeen Chishti Ajmeri, also known as Gharib Nawaz [friend of the poor]. Some of his other honorifics are Sultan ul Hind [the King of India] and Khwaja Buzurg [the venerable Master] and Naaib e Rasul[ deputy of the Prophet, peace be upon him].

Sufis take these honorifics seriously by the way: they are not arbitrary but rather given by God & His Prophet.

It would be hard to overestimate the love & veneration that the majority of ordinary Muslims of India Pakistan & Bangladesh feel for this great Wali. Ajmer, site of Hazrat's shrine, is quite simply the spiritual heart of India.

The photo above is from a beautiful photoset by Haji Saeed Chisthi here

There is an excellent biography of the Master here.

Conscience

2010-06-08T18:38:00.000-07:00

Said the Prophet, peace be upon him: Speak the truth, even if it be against yourselves.

Ektara on the Underground

2010-06-07T21:53:00.000-07:00

Too cool !

Hazrat Ibn Arabi on Zikr/Dhikr- Remembrance of God

2010-06-07T21:46:00.000-07:00

"You must practice dhikr (remembering God) and asking His Forgiveness. For (asking His forgiveness) after you've sinned effaces and removes the sin, while doing so after you've been willingly obedient and have done good (ihsān) brings ‘light upon light’ and joy upon
joy. As for dhikr, that unifies the (scattered) heart and purifies your inner thoughts and
intentions. But if you should tire (of performing dhikr), then turn to reciting the book of God, reciting it deliberately and reflectively, glorifying and exalting God. (Recite the Qur'an) while asking and imploring (God), if it is a verse of imploring; or with awe and humility, if it is a verse (suggesting) fear and a threat and a warning and lesson. As for the Qur'an, the one who recites it never tires of it, because of the (constantly changing) diversity of meanings within it."

-from the adab al Murid

Respected journalist Alan Hart on Israel & Zionism

2010-05-31T19:54:00.000-07:00

Listen here: http://www.radiodujour.com/mp3/20100525-kevin-barrett-alan-hart.mp3

Alan Hart was the former Middle East Chief Correspondent for Independent Television News, as well as the former BBC Panorama presenter specializing in the Middle East. [wikipedia]

His website is http://www.alanhart.net/

Hazrat Shaqiq Balkhi's story

2010-05-13T18:41:00.001-07:00

From Hazrat Attar's Stories of the Saints: [translation is Arberry's]

... Later there was a great famine in Balkh, so that men were devouring one another. In the market Shaqiq saw a young slave laughing happily.
“Slave, what occasion for merriment is this?” Shaqiq demanded. “Do you not see how the people are suffering from hunger?”

“Why should I be worried?” the slave answered. “My master owns a whole village and has plenty of grain. He will never let me go hungry.”

Shaqiq lost all self-control on hearing this reply.

“O God,” he cried, “this slave is so happy in having a master who owns a stack of corn. Thou art the King of Kings, and hast undertaken to give us our daily bread. Why then should we be anxious?”

He thereupon abandoned all worldly occupation and made sincere repentance. He set forth on the path to God, in whom he put perfect trust. He used to say, “I am the pupil of a slave.”

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AJ Jacobs: My year of living biblically

2010-04-20T20:12:00.000-07:00

AN agnostic attempts to follow Sacred Law.

Very interesting for a Believer, because of the interesting & unexpected insights. Seems well worth reading.

excerpt from his website:

"THE RULES

At the beginning of the year, I wrote down every rule, every guideline, every suggestion, every nugget of advice I could find in the Bible. It's a very long list. It runs 72 pages. More than 700 rules.

Some rules were wise, some completely baffling. Some were baffling at first, then wise. Some were wise first then baffling. Here, some of the highlights, broken down by category.

MOST UNEXPECTEDLY WISE AND LIFE-ENHANCING RULES

* Keep the sabbath. As a workaholic (I check my emails in the middle of movies), I learned the beauty of an enforced pause in the week. No cell phones, no messages, no thinking about deadlines. It was a bizarre and glorious feeling. As one famous rabbi called it, the sabbath is a "sanctuary in time."

* "Let your garments be always white" Ecclesiastes 9:8. I chose to follow this literally - I wore white pants, a white shirt and a white jacket. This was one of the best things I did all year. I felt lighter, happier, purer. Clothes make the man: You can't be in a bad mood when you're dressed like you're about to play the semi-finals at Wimbledon.

* No gossip. When you try to go on a gossip diet, you realize just how much of our conversations involve negative speech about others. But holding your tongue is like the verbal equivalent of wearing white. I felt cleaner and untainted.

* No images. If you interpret the second commandment literally, then it tells you not to make a likeness of anything in heaven, on earth, or underwater. Which pretty much covers it. So I tried to eliminate photos, TV, movies, doodling. It made me realize we're too visual in this culture. It made me fall in love once again with words, with text.

* Give thanks. The Bible says to thank the Lord after meals. I did that. Perhaps too much. I got carried away. I gave thanks for everything - for the subway coming on time, for the comfortableness of my couch, etc. It was strange but great. Never have I been so aware of the thousands of little things that go right in our lives."

Great film on the curse of "Development"

2010-04-17T19:52:00.000-07:00

Dates!

2010-03-31T10:38:00.000-07:00

Follow the Noble Prophet - make dates a basic staple of your diet!

It's amazing that we think eating meat distinguishes us! Really most Muslims, especially the ones in warmer climes, should eat more dates, as dates were part of the Prophet's staple diet, peace be upon him. As our Mother Ayesha may God be pleased with her, narrates [they] "would survive on the 2 black ones- dates & water."

In better times they would also have barley and goat's milk, other fruit such as quinces, pomegranates etc. Meat is permitted, but was rarely eaten by the Prophet peace be upon him. He advised "He who eats meat for 40 days, hardens his heart, and he who does not eat meat for 40 days, weakens it."

At least those who can should eat more dates, as well as other nutritious fruit for food.
One easy way is to replace one cooked meal with a "raw food" meal... i.e. basically fruit [esp. at breakfast] or salad & nuts/seeds [esp. for lunch].

This is easier on one's digestive system as well as the environment, and not to mention in the long term on one's health and wallet.

God bless.

Alhabib Mohammad Alsaqqaf- ringing mobiles in Mosque

2010-03-22T21:33:00.000-07:00

amazing! mashaallah

All the Wars of the Prophet, peace be upon him

2010-03-16T01:05:00.000-07:00

BATTLE/ENEMY/CASUALTIES/MUSLIMS/CASUALTIES
Badr 950 ... 70 ... 313 ... 14
Uhud 3000 ... 22 ... 700 ...70
Khandaq 12000 ...8 ... 3000 ... 6
Khaibar 20000 ... 93 ... 1500 ... 15
Muta 100000 ... unrecorded ...3000 ... 13
Hunain unrecorded ...70 ... 12000 ...70
Taif unrecorded ...unrecorded...12000 ...12

All together, less than 500 people killed.

From the excellent Pir of Italy website:

"the word Sufi means Al-Hikma al-ilāhīya, in other words the Divine Wisdom. Divine Wisdom is certainly not involved with paramilitary militancy by definition. The Divine Wisdom is the same that has guided the Holy Prophet, SAWS, who in all his military expeditions has limited the number of causalities as it can be seen from the ... table.

"Muslim and theirs Opponents casualties all together occurred in nine years of military operations, the total amount of losses from the two opposing sites are equivalent to more than 463 while in three years of “freedom war” the casualties in Iraq from both sides are well above ten times. This is due to the fact that the Muslims Rules of Engagements were dictated by Allah SWT while the rules of engagement of modern wars are decided by men. Of course objection can be made on the fact that in the VI and VII century DC there were not depleted Uranium bombs or Daisy-cutter bombs, just to mention two weapon systems of the anti-terror forces used at present. But in Khyber Muslims used war-machines capable of provide a certain destruction force to the fortress. One can compare the death toll occurred between Muslims and Arabs to regain Spain to Christianity since was methods and weaponry in the XIV century were not dissimilar.

All the above not to show any military or paramilitary interest but to demonstrate that men of Divine Wisdom (i.e. Sufi and the Holy Prophet, SAWS, is the Emperor and Chief of all the Sufi, these where present in this earth now, those who have come and these to come) do not like killing because they are afraid of Allah SWT even when He Himself gives the order to fight."

Superb Sufi poem in Praise of the Prophet PBUH

2010-03-12T22:47:00.000-08:00

http://sufipoetry.wordpress.com/2009/12/06/kithe-meher-ali-kithe-teri-sana-pir-meher-ali-shah/
Great effort posting this classic.

Status quo

2010-03-08T21:36:00.000-08:00

From No Impact Man website :)

Pakistan's Zoroastrian Ambassador: some interesting revelations

2010-03-08T21:04:00.000-08:00

Source [interview by Anjum Niaz]

Cyclewala: interesting how Mr. Marker's assessment is the same as that of Hazrat Qudratullah Shahab regarding key figures.
************************************
Paris was like a femme fatale. Ambassador Jamsheed Marker loved being in the company of artists, writers, fashion designers and intellectuals. He counts conductor Zubin Mehta and actor Omar Sharif among his good friends. But one sad incident clearly stays in his memory of those bucolic days; the untimely death of Shahnawaz Bhutto. Marker sketches the details of the tragedy as though it happened yesterday.

Begum Nusrat Bhutto lived in Cannes, in the French Riviera. The lodgings were loaned to her by the then French minister of justice. The minister was a good friend of the Bhuttos as was President Gaddafi of Libya. Gaddafi had given large sums of money to the Bhuttos. One evening during dinner in a restaurant, the two boys — Murtaza and Shahnawaz — entered into an argument over the division of the money.

“Benazir tried to calm them down but she didn’t succeed,” remembers Marker. In the end she took her mother and sister back to their home, while Murtaza followed Shahnawaz to his flat. The fight turned ugly. At some point the French police came to arrest the inmates. By that time Shahnawaz was unconscious. He had taken an overdose of drugs. The police could not arrest Murtaza because he had a Syrian diplomatic passport. Later that night the younger brother passed away. The police arrested his Afghan wife for “not coming to the aid of a dying man.” She hired a lawyer but the case was quashed by the bereaved family when she threatened to spill the beans.

“The whole affair was so sordid; so grim; so grisly,” says Marker who was given all the details by the head of the French intelligence police. But General Naseerullah Babar, who was later Benazir’s interior minister, claims that General Zia had a hand in the murder. He had sent a death squad to eliminate the younger son. Babar says Shahnawaz was poisoned, I ask Marker: “No, that’s not true at all. Zia had nothing to do with it.”

Ambassador Marker, 88, sits in his airy study at his Bath Island home, surrounded by photos of world leaders he has met. It’s like an interview with history ...

“Sycophancy is the single factor in our failure to progress,” he says. He remembers how one day he and his wife went to have lunch with Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan and Begum Raana. The host was missing. After a while he came in seething with rage. “Normally Liaquat didn’t lose his cool. But that day he fumed,” says Marker. “How dare these evacuee fellows present me with a number of properties saying that I can have them in lieu of my properties I have left behind in India?” the prime minister told Marker. “I threw back the folder at them saying that they should never raise this subject again until they had provided shelter to each and every refugee living out in the open air all over Karachi.”

Marker says Liaquat Ali Khan was an honest man. “When he died he did not own a single house and had just Rs4,000 in his bank account. Look at our leaders today… they are corrupt and surrounded by sycophants whose only job is flattery. It’s been the death of our value system. Few have the guts to speak the truth before the rulers.”

How come Marker is meant to be in the Guinness Book of Records as having been Ambassador to more countries than any other person if he was not a sycophant? “Well, I’m not sure if I’m in the Guinness Book, but all I can say is that I never jockeyed for a job. I really didn’t care and in fact each time the government changed I resigned.”

....

The rot according to Marker began with Ghulam Mohammad. The bureaucrats became very powerful and in collusion with Punjabi politicians like Gurmani and others ruined the system of governance. “People are like sheep led by wolves,” Marker quotes a friend. “Pakistan after Liaquat has never been ruled by a genuinely elected leader.” says Marker. “Those who ruled were never true representatives of the people.”

He wanted to resign when Benazir Bhutto became the PM the second time. “She came to Washington on a state visit. In our private meetings where we discussed Pakistan’s national interests, she always had her lobbyist Mark Segal and friend Peter Galbraith sit in. I was most unhappy about it. They had no business to be there.”

Man is both Body & Soul: Hazrat Maulana Wahid Bakhsh RA

2010-03-08T04:07:00.000-08:00

"...In plainer language man is the combination of the body and soul. The body belongs to the earth and has the tendency to pull us down to its inferior origin while the soul is of Divine origin and has a tendency to pull us up to the regions of Divine proximity. The body’s food is material. The soul’s food is celestial e.g. love of God and remembrance of God, nearness of God and union with Him. When food is denied to the body it gets restless.

The same is the case with the soul. It gets equally, or more, restless when it is starved. Consequently, the present unrest, frustration and loss of peace of mind in the world is due to the fact that while everything is being done to feed the beast in man, pretty little is being done to feed the angel. In other words while the horse is feasting, enjoying itself and getting fat, the rider is fasting and getting too feeble to control the beast. The result cannot be different from what is before us. All the leaders of the warring nations are trying their best to restore peace and order in the world but to no avail. They are unsuccessful because they are trying to treat the symptoms rather than the causes of the disease. The cure lies in restoring the balance between the horse and the rider, by catering for the needs and requirements of both the body and the soul."

***********************
From Hazrat's commentary on the Kashful Mahjub:

"...Thus the Khanqahi Nizam, or creation of a network of monastaries by the Sufi shaikhs in the length & breadth of the world of Islam, mentioned in the Kashful Mahjub which has become the butt of criticism by the shortsighted "progressives" was meant to turn beasts into men and men into angels- to behave as peaceful & honest citizens, quite contrary to modern civilization which tends to turn the angels into men and men into devils, and thrives at the expense of weaker peoples.

No amount of legislation, police & courts, of justice are able to eradicate crimes, injustice & cruelty because the very civilization based on the spirit of national superiority and national aggrandizement at the expense of weaker nations is a civilization
based on the principle of injustice & cruelty that cuts across all the pious notions of universal brotherhood & equality of mankind."

********************************

"... Human intellect [aql] is considered to be a veil because it is through this power of reasoning that he finds himself bound in the shackles of time & space and cannot break free from them. It is after extreme purification [tazkiah] that he is able to finally eradicate himself and soar unto the realms of Divinity."

Discourses of Hazrat Shahidullah Faridi- The Purpose of Sufism

2010-02-08T18:35:00.000-08:00

From the Discourses of Hazrat Shahidullah Faridi, may God sanctify his secret.
The Purpose of Sufism.

Every individual can reach the stage where he can converse, hold a dialogue with Allah. Initially it lasts a short time but as you keep up the practice gradually it may become perpetual, continual.

In the Qur'an, Allah has said that there are people who have effulgence. A light, this is bestowed as guidance from Allah. These effulgent persons move amongst people and they have achieved such Noor [light] on account of their rapport with Allah. Their hearts are enlightened on account of their spiritual rapport with Allah. It is as if they are continually being guided by Allah.

Achieving this is the purpose of Taswwaf and Islam. The practices of Islam, all issue from this foundation and are the reason for its success. People do not realize that this world is different from the world of the hereafter.

One can see in the life, conduct and teachings of the Messenger of God, his persona was reflected in the personality of his companions and people close to him. Our way too is based on Remembrance of God, contemplation and keeping company with the spiritual Master.

The Zikr [Remembrance of God] that's been prescribed is the 12 tasbih [one hundred bead rosary] in which there is first La ilaha illalah, where you strike your heart with the word Allah. Then illallah and finally Allaho Allah. If one does not find that possible to do then 500 times repeating Allah, or a third: saying Allaho while breathing in and Allah! breathing out completes this Zikr. This is done silently, in the heart [Zikr e Qalbi] no word is articulated.

All these Zikr have been there since the time of the Prophet. peace be upon him. Some modes of practice may have been altered but these alterations are not by persons of common intellect, but by persons who are ever tuned towards the Prophet Muhammad’s heart, and are given guidance when an alteration is required.

There are shorter Zikr too, saying SubhanAllah, Alhamdolillah, Allah o Akbar, La ilaha iLLallah may also be said 10 times each. If you do 100 times it is very good.

Zikr must be done in complete absorption in Allah, you must be unaware of your body, of your surroundings of anything else around you. This is best practiced in solitude, in darkness and silence. Those who can do so are rewarded with a gift from Allah: the gift of a Light of guidance and success whatever they do they will be successful and if the success is not evident they will definitely have inner success. If you are not rewarded in this world, you will surely receive it in the Hereafter.

... I mentioned the last time that it is obvious that Sufism expects action: performance & practice. It is not theoretical. The initial requirement that comes before us is Namaz [ritual prayer see sidebar]. Tariqat and Shariat are same: Tariqat is the essence of Shariat. It is the performance of worship with spiritual and sincere devotion.

The first command that comes before us is Namaz. Reflect on the fact that Allah has asked us to perform prayer repeatedly through the day and night. No other form of worship has this frequent and regular observance daily. The Namaz/Prayer is a collective practice of reciting Allah’s revelation, of bowing to Him seeing yourself in utter humility, going into prostration: all with absolute absorption in Him, and feeling the sentiment of awe and His greatness from the depths of your heart.

It is the remembrance and understanding. Understanding the wisdom - the discernment of a performance is essential. In the Qur'an Allah has explained the reason behind his directives too. If we can comprehend the wisdom of actions one can feel and pray Namaz sincerely and with feeling.

Man has been bestowed two powers a lower and a higher [sifli & ulvi] one displays your conduct with others and one your conduct with God. The powers that are lower and self-oriented are also essential and used in balance and correctly are necessary to our lives. Allah has bestowed us with it so we may perform our worldly chores and fulfill worldly requirements. Allah has invested this force with attraction and necessity so we can adequately live our lives while in this world. Man wishes to live a good life, protect his family, fulfill his physical needs and requirements... so for this success the Sifli power is required too... which Allah has provided human beings with.

There are some people who get ensnared and spend their lives indulging and absorbed only in this aspect. Such people believe their achievements are self-acquired... but there is the Higher, Ulvi force which is spiritual, ethical and moral... which has great strength and it can over-power the inferior one.

As much as the inferior power in charge of self preservation and selfish desires is essential so he may be able to live his physical life... man should move his attraction from the worldly and remember his Creator but we need to be reminded constantly, therefore the regular repeated prayers [namaz] in the day. To remind us of Allah and of the existence of another life, the one towards which we must work.

The details of the Namaz is not given in the Qur'an though: but to pronounce ‘God is Great’...to bow & prostrate before Him, to Remember Him are all mentioned in the Qur'an. It's God's blessing that the manner of Prayer has been displayed to us by the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him.

The Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, is our link, our rapport to Allah. He is the Mediate that allows us to form a relationship with God.

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Sufis feeding the poor

2010-02-07T11:03:00.000-08:00

Hazrat Babajan Ubaidullah Durrani[may God sanctify his secret]'s followers have taken it upon themselves to feed the needy in different parts of Karachi once a month. [Details in video]

They're doing so in the Blessed name of the Holy Prophet [upon whom be peace] for the sake of our countries future.

Those interested in contributing to this noble cause may contact the Durrani Shifakhana [free clinic] at Shah Faisal no. 3, on Sundays.

American right-wingers on Haiti

2010-01-30T01:21:00.001-08:00

You can be spied upon thru your cellphone even when it's off!

2010-01-26T01:24:00.000-08:00

Most reliable hadith collection

2010-01-24T11:52:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to the Muwatta of Imam Malik, [b. 93 AH] possibly the earliest and argubly the most reliable collection of Traditions attributed to the Messenger of God, upon whom be peace!

Bear in mind though that Hadith were not normally written down in the time of the Prophet peace be upon him or the 4 Caliphs, and are preserved henceforth through human effort, which retains the possibility of error.

The translation is from sister Aisha Bewley.

Here's an excerpt:-

50.4 Seeking Refuge and Using Talismans in Illness

9 Yahya related to me from Malik from Yazid ibn Khusayfa that 'Amr ibn 'Abdullah ibn Ka'b as-Salami told him that Nafi' ibn Jubayr came to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. 'Uthman ibn Abi al-'As also came to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. 'Uthman said that he had a pain which was enough to kill him. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, "Rub it with your right hand seven times and say, 'I take refuge with the might of Allah and His power from the evil of what I feel.' "

'Uthman added, "I said that and Allah removed what I had. I still command my family and others to say it."

[also in Abu Dawud and at-Tirmidhi]

10 Yahya related to me from Malik from Ibn Shihab from 'Urwa ibn az-Zubayr from 'A'isha that when the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had a complaint, he would recite the last three suras of the Qur'an over himself and blow. She said, "When his pain was great, I would recite it over him and wipe him with his right hand hoping for its blessing."

[also Bukhari and Muslim]

11 Yahya related to me from Malik from Yahya ibn Sa'id from 'Amra bint 'Abd ar-Rahman that Abu Bakr as-Siddiq visited 'A'isha at a time when she had a complaint and a Jewish woman was writing a talisman for her. Abu Bakr said, "Write it for her from the Book of Allah."

The Prophet's Last Sermon, peace be upon him!

2010-01-24T11:41:00.000-08:00

"O men, listen well to my words, for I do not know whether I shall meet you again on such an occasion in the future.
O Men, your lives and your property shall be inviolate until you meet your Lord. the safety of your lives and of your property shall be as inviolate as this holy day and holy month. Remember that you will indeed meet your Lord, and that He will indeed reckon your deeds. Thus do I warn you. Whoever of you is keeping a trust of someone else shall return that trust to its rightful owner. All interest obligation shall henceforth be waived. Your capital, however, is yours to keep. You will neither inflict nor suffer inequity. God has judged that there shall be no interest and that all the interest due to `abbas ibn `Abd al Muttalib shall henceforth be waived.
Every right arising out of homicide in pre-Islamic days is henceforth waived. And the first such right that I waive is that arising from the murder of Rabi`ah ibn al Harith ibn `Abd al Muttalib.
O Men, the devil has lost all hope of ever being worshiped in this land of yours. Nevertheless, he still is anxious to determine the lesser of your deeds. Beware of him, therefore, for the safety of your religion.
O Men, intercalation or tampering with the calendar is evidence of great unbelief and confirms the unbeliever in their misguidance. they indulge in it one year and forbid it the next in order to make permissible that which God forbade, and to forbid that which God has made permissible. The pattern according to which the time is reckoned is always the same. With God, the months are twelve in number. Four of them are holy. Three of these are successive and ones occurs singly between the months of Jumada and sha`ban.
O Men, to you a right belongs with respect to your women and to your women a right with respect to you. It is your right that they not fraternize with any one of whom you do not approve, as well as never to commit adultery. but if they do, then God has permitted you to isolate them within their homes and to chastise them without cruelty. but if they abide by your right, then to them belongs the right to be fed and clothed in kindness. Do treat your women well and be kind to them, for they are your partners and committed helpers. Remember that you have taken them as your wives and enjoyed their flesh only under God’s trust and with His permission. Reason well, therefore, O Men, and ponder my words which I now convey to you.
I am leaving you with the Book of God and the Sunnah of His Prophet. If you follow them, you will never go astray.
O Men, harken well to my words. Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood. Nothing shall be legitimate to a Muslim which belongs to a fellow Muslim unless it was given freely and willingly. Do not, therefore, do injustice to you own selves.
O God, have I conveyed Your message?

Rasulullah, saws, then imparted the new revelation which he had just received:
This day the disbelievers despair of prevailing against your religion, so fear them not, but fear Me! This day have I perfected your religion and fulfilled My favor unto you, and it hath been My good pleasure to choose Islam for you as your religion. (5:3)

O People, have I faithfully delivered unto you my message?

The congragation replied:
“Allahumma na`m” (Oh God, yes!)

The Prophet said:
“Oh God, bear witness.”

**************************************
From the Jerrahi Website

Jesus's brother & other family held Islamic views about Jesus, peace be upon him!

2010-01-24T10:24:00.000-08:00

Found on brother Yursil Naqshbandi's "Mind Body Soul" blog.

The truth is becoming more visible... more and more people are coming to realize that the Prophet Jesus is a man and a messenger of God, like our own Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon them.

The Real Quaid was not Secular

2010-01-14T22:51:00.000-08:00

Quotable quotes

2010-01-05T23:08:00.000-08:00

The nation that will insist upon drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking by cowards.
~ William Francis Butler

He who is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.
~ Ben Jonson

The weakest of all weak things is a virtue that has not been tested in the fire.
~ Mark Twain

Seek not to follow in the footsteps of men of old; seek what they sought.
~ Matsu Basho

That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.
~ Henry David Thoreau

I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.
~ Bruce Lee

Should you desire the great tranquility, prepare to sweat.
~ Hakuin

Cry in the dojo. Laugh on the battlefield.
~ Author unknown

There are two rules for being successful in martial arts. Rule 1: Never tell others everything you know.
~ Author unspecified

source

Interesting TV show on the Jinn, with Pir Naseeruddin Naseer, may God sanctify his secret

2010-01-05T22:13:00.000-08:00

33 Conspiracy 'Theories' that turned out true: by Jonathan Elinoff

2010-01-03T23:08:00.000-08:00

Read it here. Well worth reading, especially considering the naive idealism invested in Liberal Humanism as saviour-of-the-world by the Secular crowd.

Poem in praise of our Imam Husayn, peace be upon him

2009-12-26T23:19:00.001-08:00

Baba Ashfaque Ahmed on his friend, the Dervish Wasif Ali Wasif

2009-12-23T12:59:00.000-08:00

for our brother Chaiwala, and the anonymous friend asking about hazrat Wasif. May God sanctify their secrets.

poetry Hazrat Mian Muhammad Bakhsh

2009-12-12T20:41:00.000-08:00

Ya Nabi [peace be upon him] new rendition by Aziz Mian's son

2009-12-12T20:36:00.000-08:00

Imran Khan on the neccessity for Justice

2009-12-06T22:19:00.000-08:00

Discourses of Hazrat Shahidullah Faridi: on healing

2009-12-06T22:10:00.001-08:00

Writing down Allah’s verses and wearing for various purpose of health etc. has been there since the days when Islam existed from North to South from Marrakesh to Indonesia. This has been the way.
....

Hazrat Saheb told a person who had been recommended an eye operation: he should go ahead and get it done if he had chosen the doctor and had not heard anyone say that this surgery causes is any disadvantage or it does not help. If the doctor’s references were good too then he should not hesitate.

Cure too rests with Allah. It is Allah Who inspires the skills and treatments. There are hundreds of medicinal herbs growing on earth. How could research alone have found the myriad cures in these herbs .It is an inspiration from Allah, who reveals certain facts to those in search of finding cures.

One must remember that the physician too is a blessing from Allah. The true healer is Allah. Allah’s ninety-nine names have their own effects. There are two one is al-Nafe and the other al-Darr. Nafe gives profit, success, healing, curing, and Darr will cause hardship, but a Muslim knows that if hardship has appeared then Allah has a good reason for burdening you with it and there may be something that leads to good in the end. We have always heard that so and so doctor is gifted with success, so you must rest assured that the true healer is Allah. A Muslim of excellence sees only Allah’s hand in everything. This is Islam, this is Tauheed [unitarianism, monotheism].

Israel Waging Internet Battle after Gaza Criticism

2009-12-06T22:04:00.000-08:00

Read it here. Cyber war.

Great Qawwali

2009-11-28T22:06:00.000-08:00

by Murli Firangi Mahalli Qawwal.
The poetry is alternating lines of Maulana Hasrat Mohani[Urdu] & Hafiz Shirazi [Persian]

Thanks to Obaid bhai for sending this our way!

Saying of the Prophet, peace be upon him

2009-11-18T09:08:00.001-08:00

Said our Master, the Mercy to Creation in a famous hadith:

"People are asleep, when they die they will wake up."