Peace, one and all…

Praise be to God in every condition and state.  With the conclusion of this morning’s examinations board, all of our student marks have been confirmed.  I wanted to take this opportunity to offer my congratulations to all those completing their degrees this year.  In particular, I wanted to thank my own students for making this year such an enjoyable and profitable experience for me.  I ask God (and them) to forgive me for my mistakes and I wish them all well in their future endeavours.  May Allah bless them all, now and always.

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Peace, one and all…

Here are some beautiful qawwals.  Enjoy and may Allah bless all who pass by…

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: Yad-e Nabi

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: Ganj-e-Shakar (Parts 1 & 2)

Sabri Brothers: Allah hi Allah Tan Mein Tar

Sabri Brothers: Kali Kamaliya Wale

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Peace, one and all…

‘A man said to al-Junayd: ‘Brothers are scarce in these times.  Where am I to find a brother in God?’  Al-Junayd made him repeat this thrice before saying: ‘If you want a brother to provide for you and to bear your burden, such – by my life – are few and far between.  But if you want a brother in God whose burden you will carry and whose pain you will bear, then I have a whole troop I can introduce you to’.  The man was silent’
(taken from Imam al-Ghazali’s Ihya Ulum al-Din)

Peace, one and all…

Of late I’ve come to see the truth of an English proverb: ‘the devil is in the detail’.  That is, the devil (whether that devil be the metaphysical entity or own selfish desires) hides amongst all my unhelpful routines, all of those structures I have built which keep me from God.  I am beginning to understand that the path to God necessitates a radical re-evaluation of habits, of thought-forms, and of systems.  The challenge facing me is to attempt to shape the whole of my life for God, and not just those fleeting moments of supposed closeness.  The devil lurks in patterns of behaviour and thought, as much as in shadow.  As I am beginning to realise, these patterns of behaviour are far more serious than I had thought because I carry them with me all of the time.  On a deeper level, then, I am responsible for the state of my heart and that responsibility extends into the kind of life I build around me.  This leads me to another reflection: the truth of my own soul will remain hidden for as long as I fail to realise the importance of the patterns I imprint upon my spirit and the world around me.

But, al hamdu lillah, that is not the end of the matter.  As Shaykh Kabir pointed out during last weekend’s retreat, Allah is also there, amidst the details, manifesting the necessary transformative energy in each new moment.  That is, whether I realise it or not, God is slowly transforming me, slowly and with great patience.  I know I have work to do, but ultimately there is no power or movement except in God (la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah). 

I am merely a piece of dust, swirling in the midst of life’s purifying river; the Ocean holds me in its watery hands and will reclaim me utterly in its own time, and in its own way.

Wa akhiru da’wana an il hamdu lillahi rabbil alameen.

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Peace, one and all…

‘O my God, our intoxicated eyes have blurred our vision.
Our burdens have been made heavy, forgive us.
You are hidden, and yet from East to West You have filled the world with Your radiance.
Your Light is more magnificent than sunrise or sunset,
and You are the inmost ground of consciousness,
revealing the secrets we hold.
You are an explosive force causing our damned up rivers to burst forth.
You whose essence is hidden while Your gifts are manifest,
You are like water and we are like millstones.
You are like wind and we are like dust.
The wind is hidden while the dust is plainly seen.
You are the invisible spring and we are Your lush garden.

You are the Spirit of life and we are like hand and foot.
Spirit causes the hand to close and open.
You are intelligence; we are Your voice.
Your intelligence causes this tongue to speak.
You are joy and we are laughter,
for we are the result of the blessing of Your joy.
All our movement is really a continual profession of faith,
bearing witness to Your eternal power,
just as the powerful turning of the millstone professes faith in the river’s existence.
Dust settles upon my head and upon my metaphors,
for You are beyond anything we can ever think or say.
And yet, this servant cannot stop trying to express Your beauty,
in every moment, let my soul be Your carpet’
(Masnavi V.3307-3319, trans. Shaykh Kabir Helminski)

Peace, one and all…

Though you be drowning, stretch out your hand that another might swim!

Peace, one and all…

‘So long as you are outside, you see clothes;
take off your clothes, come in, my dear
companion.
For there is no way in with clothes.  The body
obscures the soul as clothes obscure the body’
(Masnavi I.2783-2784)

Peace, one and all…

Sahl ibn Abdullah (God sanctify his secret) described patience in the following manner:

‘Patience means maintaining patience within patience, that is to say, not being conscious of one’s own patience; not wailing in affliction; and being aware that this power of patience is from God, Who has conferred it upon one, thereby enabling one to maintain it, as where He enjoins: ‘Have patience, for your patience is only through the help of God’ [Quran 16:127]

Peace, one and all…

‘We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope’
(Martin Luther King)

Peace, one and all…

Here are some musings inspired, in part, by my online retreat…

Each new breath brings forth a new moment from God.  Each new breath brings forth a new opportunity for communion with that moment, and with the One Who wrought it.  Life is thus a series of moments, an always unfolding story of relationship and interaction.  To make the most of this ongoing flow, I must be patient.  I must wait at the Beloved’s bright door.

Patience is thus the acceptance and integration of life’s ever-breaking waves.  These lines of Hafez speak powerfully to me here:

‘If your patience is like that of Noah
in the sadness of the storm,
affliction will leave you and the hopes
of a thousand years will be fulfilled’

Unheplful deeds separate us from the seas of life, as though we turned from the ocean to face a dry and barren land.  To sin, therefore, is to see oneself as separated, as divorced, from the whole.  To sin is to ignore the revelation of each new moment, to deny this flow as it manifests itself in ourselves and in others.

Repentance is the deep, inward acceptance of all our unhelpful interruptions.  Repentance is therefore re-connection, where that which is time-bound is joined once more to that which is time-less.  To repent is to realise that our actions have eternal significance; that the things we do here, in this small world, reverberate throughout the cosmos.  Mevlana (God sanctify his noble soul) says it this way:

‘The undisciplined man doesn’t wrong himself alone -
he sets fire to the whole world’
(Masnavi I.79)

Life is not a series of random, discrete pieces but an integrated, united whole.  Repentance is thus the sound of the drop falling back into the ocean once more.  And God says in His glorious Book:

‘We have made every living thing out of water’ (21:30)

To truly live I must realise that I am a part of that Ocean; indeed, I am sustained and nourished by it in each living moment, as Mevlana says so beautifully here:

‘Though your life has almost passed,
this present moment is its root:
if it lacks moisture, water it with repentance.
Give the Living Water to the root of your life,
so that the tree of your life may flourish.
By this Water past mistakes are redeemed.
By this Water last year’s poison is made sweet’
(Rumi, Masnavi V.2222-2224)

May Allah al-Tawwab turn me back to Him once more, and may Hu bless all who pass by. 

And my last prayer is in praise of God, Sustainer of All Being. 

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman