Archive for April, 2008
April 30, 2008
Peace, one and all…
I’ve just returned from the excellent two day ‘Spiritual Guidance in Our Multi-faith Society’ Conference, run by the Christian-Muslim Forum. There were some very interesting papers, discussions and projects on offer. I also had the good fortune to meet with some very interesting people, from all sorts of backgrounds.
Once I have collected my thoughts, I will offer some of them here, insha Allah. At any rate, some of the more interesting discussions centred around notions of Spiritual Friendship and what spirituality means within and beyond Islam and Christianity.
I also had the good fortune of visiting my Bosnian brother-in-law who works in Bradford. We had a fine evening together on Sunday at a local Indian restaurant, and on Monday evening we went to a coffee shop in Leeds for a spot of mint tea! So, if you stop by, Ibn Sifet, my thanks and salaams to you.
Please do visit the Forum’s website: see also Day One and Day Two for further inter-faith goodness!
Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman
Posted in Interfaith Dialogue, Kindred Spirituality, Learning to Talk, Learning to Listen, Moments from My Life, Muslim Chaplaincy, Our Spiritual Heritage, Reflections | 4 Comments »
April 25, 2008
Peace, one and all…
‘He who truly remembers Allah is the one who obeys Him: whoever forgets is disobedient. Obedience is the mark of guidance, disobedience the sign of misguidance. The root of both states lies in remembrance (dhikr) and forgetfulness. Make your heart the focal point of your tongue, which should not move unless the heart indicates, the intellect agrees and your tongue accords with belief. Almighty Allah knows what you conceal and what you reveal.
Be like someone who has shed his soul from his body, or like someone who is attending the great parade on the Day of Reckoning, not distracting yourself from the obligations which your Lord has laid on you in His commands and prohibitions, His promise and His threat. Do not be occupied with yourself rather than with the duties laid down for you by your Lord. Wash your heart clean with the water of sorrow and fear; make remembrance of Allah part of His most glorious remembrance of you. He remembers you, but He does not need you. His remembrance of you is more glorious, more desirable, more praiseworthy, a more complete and more ancient than your remembrance of Him.
The knowledge you obtain by His remembrance of you will beget you humility, modesty and contrition, which will in turn be the cause of your witnessing His nobility and previous, overflowing favour. The latter will then belittle your obedience in your own eyes, however copious it may be as a result of His favours; and you will be sincerely devoted to Him. But your consciousness and esteem of your own remembrance of Him will lead to showing off, pride, foolishness and coarseness in your character, for it means attaching too much importance to your obedience while forgetting His overflowing favour and generosity. It will only make you more distant from Him, and all that you will acquire with the passing of the days is alienation.
There are two sorts of remembrance: sincere remembrance with which the heart is in harmony, and remembrance which arises through banishing any remembrance of other than Allah. As the Messenger of Allah said, ‘I cannot do justice in properly praising You as You praise Yourself.’ The Messenger of Allah did not set any limit on remembering Allah, since he knew the truth that Allah’s remembrance of His bondsman was greater than the bondsman’s remembrance of Him. Thus it is even more fitting that whoever comes after the Holy Prophet should not set any limits, and whoever wants to remember Allah should know that as long as Allah does not remember the bondsman by granting him success in remembering Him, that bondsman will not be able to remember Him’.
(Imam Ja`far al-Sadiq, Lanterns of the Path)
Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman
Posted in Ali ibn Abi Talib, Chivalry, In Search of God's Forgiveness, Learning to Talk, Learning to Listen, Muslim Chaplaincy, Our Spiritual Heritage, Shia Islam, The Sayings of the Imams | 7 Comments »
April 24, 2008
Peace, one and all…
The Table of the Heart
Cultivate the gentleness of a gardener,
who each day caresses what she has planted
with clean water
and open sunlight.
Do not be afraid
to uproot the weeds of your soul,
for a garden needs work
if it is to become a place of beauty.
Ibn al-Sabil, care is needed
in this planting and harvesting of life:
only the flower of honest work
can be set upon the Beloved’s table of the heart.
Abdur Rahman, 18th April 2008
Posted in Abdur Rahman's Poetry | 2 Comments »
April 23, 2008
Peace, one and all…
We all have our own contributions to make. We can all make a positive difference, in our own unique ways. We all have our own special calling. We all have a field in which we can sow and reap, plant and harvest.
The time has come when change must emerge from everyone, from each human being on the face of the planet. The work is hard, certainly, but what are the alternatives?
Are we to overcome our differences or are we going to let sorrow and destruction take the glad hearts of our children into darkness? Are we willing to turn things around or are we sentence those who come after us to lifetimes of darkness and violence?
I, for one, do not want such a sad fate for my children – nor do I want it for anyone else’s.
May God have mercy upon us all.
Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman
Posted in Chivalry, Flashes, In Search of God's Forgiveness, Learning to Talk, Learning to Listen, Moments from My Life, Reflections | 4 Comments »
April 23, 2008
Peace, one and all…
Direct the Bounty of God
‘You have scattered your awareness in all directions,
and your vanities are not worth a bit of cabbage.
The root of every thorn
draws the water of your attention toward itself.
How will the water of your attention reach the fruit?
Cut through the evil roots, cut them away.
Direct the bounty of God to spirit and to insight,
not to the knotted and broken world outside’
(Mevlana Rumi, Masnavi V.1084-1086)
Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman
Posted in Chivalry, Learning to Talk, Learning to Listen, Muslim & Sufi Poetry, Muslim Chaplaincy, Our Spiritual Heritage, Shaykh Kabir Helminski, Sufism/Tasawwuf, The Wisdom of Mevlana | 5 Comments »
April 23, 2008
Peace, one and all…
Imam Ja`far al-Sadiq (may God ennoble his countenance) is reported to have said:
‘Surely a little action with piety is better than many deeds with no virtue’
(al-Kafi, vol. 2, p.76)
Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman
Posted in Ali ibn Abi Talib, Chivalry, In Search of God's Forgiveness, Learning to Talk, Learning to Listen, Muslim Chaplaincy, Our Spiritual Heritage, Shia Islam, The Sayings of the Imams | Leave a Comment »
April 22, 2008
Peace, one and all…
The teacher is a guide, one who shares his own thoughts on the journey and its potential pitfalls. The teacher is the one who says to his students:
‘Here is the terrain you wish to travel. Here are its mountainous regions and here are its swamps and thick forests. Explore this land in whatever way you think best, for the choice of travel is yours, but consider the lie of the lands before you and consider the inhabitants of each place. And, my friend, most of all be happy in your journeyings, that you might know the secret joy of travel’
Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman
Posted in Miscellaneous | 7 Comments »
April 21, 2008
Peace, one and all…
A Lover’s Heart
If you would be a lover,
ibn al-Sabil,
then bravery must become your guide
and compassion your ever-present companion.
Strength of purpose must become
your food, your drink, your air
and tenderness must always
be as your better half.
A lover’s heart must follow love,
wherever it may lead,
even into danger,
even into darkness.
Abdur Rahman, 13th April 2008
Posted in Abdur Rahman's Poetry | 2 Comments »
April 21, 2008
Peace, one and all…
That Comes Forth To Bless You
Turn your eyes towards nature and observe
her overflowing abundance,
how it manifests itself
beyond every limitation.
Even so must you become, ibn al-Sabil.
Beyond every limitation
of form and conception,
you must bear witness to love’s fertility.
You are a traveller, ibn al-Sabil,
and if you would become the ’son of the way’,
you must be ready to learn
from every master that comes forth to bless you.
Abdur Rahman, 21st April 2008
Posted in Miscellaneous | Leave a Comment »
April 21, 2008
Peace, one and all…
The Ties of Religion
Unless the heart listens
and unless the heart speaks,
of what use
are all the claims of religion?
Unless the heart sees the light
that lived before sun and moon,
of what use
are these eyes of narrow flesh?
The ties of religion bind us
and these eyes of flesh guide our way,
that we might all find love’s truth
opening within our breasts.
Abdur Rahman, 21st April 2008
Posted in Abdur Rahman's Poetry | 4 Comments »
April 21, 2008
Peace, one and all…
A Flame of Mutual Burning
How the flame sways
in honour of the one
it consumes
with love’s burning.
How the candle burns
in the eager hope
that it might find
the waiting moth.
Love yearns for us,
as we yearn for love,
that we might all become
a flame of mutual burning.
Abdur Rahman, 19th April 2008
Posted in Abdur Rahman's Poetry | Leave a Comment »
April 18, 2008
Peace, one and all…
Words No Longer Heard
Speak with your heart, my friend,
for you need have no fear
in this inward temple
of the heart.
Let every veil
fall from between us,
till we no longer need
even these mouths of ours
Let spirit speak to spirit
in the ever-living tongue of wordless joy,
where ‘I’ and ‘you’
are words no longer heard.
Abdur Rahman, 18th April 2008
Posted in Abdur Rahman's Poetry | 6 Comments »
April 18, 2008
Peace, one and all…
The Blessed Medina of My Dreams
Beloved, let me walk again
in the blessed Medina of my dreams,
where the stars of heaven
walk the streets as earth-bound pearls.
Let each moment be as
my own private laylat al-qadr,
in which the voice of Your love
speaks as revelation’s ongoing mystery.
Let me walk with You
in the beautiful rose-gardens of forever,
where each breath is a temple of peace
and each footstep the path to joy.
Abdur Rahman, 18th April 2008
Posted in Abdur Rahman's Poetry | Leave a Comment »
April 17, 2008
Peace, one and all…
Love Made Manifest
Beloved, empty me
of all need for me-ness,
that I may become that reed-flute,
that nightingale of love and longing.
May my soul become
an ever-opening cherry blossom,
opening outwards
into the heart’s blessed springtime.
Beyond this narrow field
lies a wide meadow of grace and beauty,
which is itself merely part of a greater whole:
Beloved, let me slowly become love made manifest.
(Abdur Rahman, 17th April 2008)
Posted in Abdur Rahman's Poetry | 6 Comments »
April 17, 2008
Peace, one and all…
To be a poet is to be an explorer of the uncharted realms of imagination’s infinity; it is to become a wanderer amidst the heavens and a seeker after pearls. To be a poet is to be a shaker of mountains, that the hidden jewels of the earth might be brought forth into the light of day. It is to see the signified within the sign and the reality within the symbol.
But, most of all, to be a poet is simply to be in love.
Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman
Posted in Abdur Rahman's Poetry, Writing | 2 Comments »
April 17, 2008
Peace, one and all…
Love’s Great Kiln
Come Beloved and see
what has befallen me.
Come Beloved and see
what You have wrought.
But, since You are both pain and cure,
what can I do but surrender myself
to the sword of love
that lies hidden within Your cloak of mercy?
I am plain wheat
and You are the Miller of Life,
and thus I am made to become bread
fit for Your bright table.
I am this body of clay and water,
and You are the Owner of love’s great kiln.
So do what you will, my Beloved,
but let me surrender myself always.
(Abdur Rahman, 16th April 2008)
Posted in Abdur Rahman's Poetry | Leave a Comment »
April 15, 2008
Peace, one and all…
O God! Forgive me for my pride. Forgive me for every arrogant thought and for every boastful word. Beyond all my selfish desires I seek the light of Your face and the wide grace of Your presence, so guide me aright my Beloved.
I let go of every negative thought and deed, as I relinquish every claim to power and might and independence. I acknowledge my utter dependence upon You, in each breath and in each movement. So it is that I seek Your forgiveness for what is past and Your aid for what is yet to come. Help me Beloved to fulfill every burden that I have shouldered in this life and to fulfill every promise that I have made.
Helpe me to do what I must at the right moment and in the best manner. Let my heart become pure and let my words be pure that my deeds may shine with the power of Your love.
And at the end of all my prayers, may Your choicest blessings fall upon my beloved master Muhammad and upon his family and companions, and all those who follow him in thought, word and deed, till the Day of Judgement.
Amin Ya Rabbi!
Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman
Posted in In Search of God's Forgiveness, Learning to Talk, Learning to Listen, Moments from My Life, Our Spiritual Heritage, Reflections | 13 Comments »
April 14, 2008
Peace, one and all…
Learn a Trade that Will Earn You Forgiveness
‘In this world you have become clothed and rich,
but when you come out of this world, how will you be?
Learn a trade that will earn you forgiveness.
In the world beyond there’s also traffic and trade.
Besides those earnings, this world is just play.
As children embrace in fantasy intercourse,
or set up a candy shop, this world is a game.
Night falls, and the child
comes home hungry and without his friends’
(Mevlana, Mathnawi II.2593-9, trans Shaykh Kabir Helminski)
Posted in Learning to Talk, Learning to Listen, Our Spiritual Heritage, Shaykh Kabir Helminski, Sufism/Tasawwuf, The Wisdom of Mevlana | 2 Comments »
