Carl Ernst: Shams-i Tabrizi and the Audacity of Bayazid Bistami

Peace, one and all…

An interesting lecture by Carl Ernst, on Hz Shams-i Tabriz and Bayazid Bistami.  May it be of benefit.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

The Beautiful Names of God: al-Khaliq, al-Bari & al-Musawwir

Peace, one and all…

I recently came across an excellent series of video lectures by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani, of Seekers Hub, exploring the Divine Names of God.  As such, I wanted to share these videos here.  May they be of benefit.

This lecture explores three Divine Names connected with creation: al-Khaliq, al-Bari and al-Musawwir.  One of the principal Quranic passages in which we encounter these Names is this one:

‘He is God, the Creator, the Evolver, the Bestower of Forms (or Colours). To Him belong the Most Beautiful Names: whatever is in the heavens and on earth, doth declare His Praises and Glory: and He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise’ (59:24)

God willing, I also hope to share some of the insights from the wonderful Physicians of the Heart on these Names.  The authors of the book have also produced a very helpful website: Physicians of the Heart.

Ask olsun,
Abdur Rahman

Search The Darkness

Peace, one and all…

Sit with your friends; don’t go back to sleep.
Don’t sink like a fish to the bottom of the sea.

Surge like an ocean,
don’t scatter yourself like a storm.

Life’s waters flow from darkness.
Search the darkness, don’t run from it.

Night travellers are full of light,
and you are too; don’t leave this companionship.

Be a wakeful candle in a golden dish,
don’t slip into the dirt like quicksilver.

The moon appears for night travellers,
be watchful when the moon is full.
Mevlana

This Prison of Answers

Peace, one and all…

Beloved, I don’t have any answers.

All I have are my questions,

all those unknown mysteries

of life and and love and longing.

What a joy it is to be released

from this prison of answers!

What a blessing it is to be freed

from the tyranny of ‘knowledge’.

May our living humanity be sanctified

 that thereby our love might increase.

As long as my questions

lead me always to Your door,

then all is well, Beloved,

all is well.

Become A Full Cup

Peace, one and all…

Beloved, resentment is a poison.
Why waste my life drinking poison?
Why not bless everything
that comes from Your hand,
and let that poison
become a full cup
from Your Ocean of Love?

Beyond All That We Have Done

Peace, one and all…

 

Beyond all that we have done,
beyond all that we think we are,
lies Your loving-kindness,
Your overflowing mercy.

The Rose Stands Alone

Peace, one and all…

The wrecked heart has snared itself in your braided hair…
Slay it with a glance! A heart so trapped deserves it.

If you should give what our heart desires…
pour it into our hands, your gift is its own reward.

Such a rose doesn’t need exotic perfumes
but keeps a stash of fragrance deep in its pocket.

Ah, beloved, in the dark night alone
I burn myself up like a blazing candle.

I warned you songbird, at your first glimpse of love:
watch out! The rose stands alone and won’t be moved.

Forget the cheap lords of this passing world -
the treasure of your soul is a palace of its own.

Scorched to the core, Hafiz continues to flirt and tease
but in keeping the covenant he’s fidelity itself.
Hafiz Shirazi

I Am, If I Am Yours Alone

Peace, one and all…

‘Blanquerna said: ‘It is true, O Lord God, that there is no other god except You alone.  To You alone I offer myself to serve You.  From You alone I hope for forgiveness, for there is no other liberality nor mercy to forgive except Yours.  Humble I am if I humble myself to You.  Lord I am, if I am Yours alone.  I have victory over my enemies if I suffer for You.  With all that I am, a guilty sinner, I give myself to You alone and Yours alone I am.  Of You alone I beg forgiveness, in You I trust, and for You I endure trials.  Whatever may happen to me, let it all be to the one end of Your praise, honour and glory.  I will have no other Lord, for You alone I fear, from You alone comes my strength, for You I weep, for You I burn with love’
Ramon Lull, The Art of Contemplation 4:6

Before A Bright Morning Sun

Peace, one and all…

 

Beloved, when I live from myself
doubt and uncertainty obscure my path,
but when I open myself in You
every shadow dissolves
like mist before a bright morning sun.

My Oceans of Forgiveness

Peace, one and all…

In his Memorials of the Saints (Tadhkirat al-Awliya), Attar includes a profound story of the early Sufi saint Ibrahim ibn Adham.  I was reading it on the train home this evening and wanted to share it here. It is set in Mecca, in the environs of the Ka’ba. May it be of benefit to all who pass by.

‘It is related the Ibrahim said: ‘At night I used to be on the lookout for a time when I would find the Ka’ba empty and free of worshippers and could pray for something I needed.  I didn’t find the opportunity until one night when a heavy rain was falling.  I went and seized the chance – it was just Ibrahim and the Ka’ba.  I performed my circumambulations and took hold of the knocker on the Ka’ba’s door and asked for immunity from sin.  I heard a voice call out, ‘You ask Me for immunity from sin?  All the people ask Me for this.  If I grant everyone immunity, what will become of My oceans of forgiveness and pardon, of my mercy and compassion?  What use will they be?’

I then said, ‘O God, forgive me my sins.’  I heard the voice say, ‘Speak to Me on behalf of the world, not on behalf of yourself.  It’s better for others to speak on your behalf’

Ask olsun,
Abdur Rahman

Step In, For Here Is The Fountain of Life

Peace, one and all…

Step in, for here is the Fountain of Life.
As long as that Moon of yours whirls, whirl like the wheeling heavens.
You have a soul. Whirl it around the beloved’s presence.
This soul whirls by the whirling of that soul.
Mevlana, Quatrain 1717

Essentially An Eye

Peace, one and all…

A human being is essentially an eye;
the rest is merely flesh and skin:
whatever the eye had beheld, he is that.
A jar will submerge a mountain with its water
when the eye of the jar is open to the Sea.
When the interior of the jar has a channel to the Sea,
the jar will overwhelm a river as great as the Oxus.
In the same way whatever speech Muhammad uttered,
those words were really uttered by the Sea.
All his words were pearls of the Sea,
for his heart had a passage into that Sea.
Since the bounty of the Sea is poured through our jar,
why should anyone be amazed that the Sea itself
should be contained in a Fish?
Masnavi 6.812-817

Our Exile and Homecoming

Peace, one and all…

You are not really a hunter, seeking Me,
instead you are My slave and lie at My feet.
You devise means to attain to My presence
but you are helpless either to leave or to seek Me.
The search for Me causes you anguish;
last night I heard your heavy sighs.
It is within My power to end your waiting,
to show you the Way and grant access.
So that you may be released from this whirlpool of time,
and may at last set foot on the treasure of union with Me,
but the sweetness and delights of the resting-place
are in proportion to the pain endured on the journey.
Only when you suffer the pangs and tribulations of exile
will you truly enjoy the homecoming.
Masnavi 3.4152-4158

Take Care, O Body of Dust!

Peace, one and all…

Take care, O body of dust: don’t speak a word about dust.
Don’t speak about the story of that pure Mirror.
There is an attribute of the Creator of the heavens within you.
Don’t speak except about the Attributes of the Creator of the heavens.
Mevlana, Quatrain 1743

Death and Spirituality

Peace, one and all…

I found this fascinating discussion of death and spirituality on You Tube recently, and wanted to share it here.

Bernard McGinn: Mystical Language in Meister Eckhart and his Disciples

Peace, one and all…

An interesting lecture by Bernard McGinn on the mystical language of Meister Eckhart and his disciples.

Nothing Remains But The King

Peace, one and all…

‘The Master said: ‘It is good if you are helpless all the time and at every moment, and see yourself as helpless in the state of capacity just as in the state of incapacity.  For above your capacity, there is a greater Capacity, and you are vanquished to God’s will in every state.  You are not divided into two halves, now capable and now helpless.  Pay regard to His Capacity, and know yourself to be helpless always, without hand and foot, poor and utterly incapable.  What indeed is the plight of feeble man, seeing that lions and tigers and crocodiles, all are helpless and tremble before Him?  The heavens and the earths likewise are helpless and subject to His decree.

He is a mighty Emperor.  His Light is not as the light of the moon and the sun, in the presence of which a thing abides in its place.  When His Light shines forth unveiled, neither heaven remains nor earth, nor sun nor moon; nothing remains but the King’
(Mevlana, Fihi ma Fihi 3)

The Extent To Which We Know Peace

Peace, one and all…

‘The extent to which we are in God is the extent to which we know peace, and without God there is no peace.  Only if something is in God does it have peace.  In so far as we are in God, thus far we have peace.  And so we can judge whether we are in God or not, and if so to what extent we in Him, by noting whether we possess peace or not.  For where we are without peace, there we cannot have peace, for the absence of peace comes from the creature and not from God.  There is nothing in God of which we should be afraid, but rather all that is in Him is to be loved.  Nor is there anything in Him which may be the cause of sadness’
Meister Eckhart Talks of Instruction