A beautiful talk by Robert Abdul Hayy Darr.  May it be of benefit.

Ask olsun,
Abdur Rahman

Love is the path and road of our Prophet.
We were born from love and love was our mother.
O you who are our mother, you are hidden within veils,
Concealed from our disbelieving natures.

Mevlana, Quatrain no. 1470

Your regret will not bring back yesterday, which is past.
What wonder if you do not find this moment tomorrow?
Be happy at this moment in which you exist.
Do justice to it, for even this you will not find again.

Ahmad Ghazali, Quatrain

Yesterday I polished my mirror,
Made it bright and placed it before myself.
I saw so many faults of my own in the mirror
That I forgot other people’s faults completely

Ruzbehan Baqli, Quatrain 3 (Source)

A fascinating lecture by William Chittick, at the Temenos Academy in London.  Enjoy and may all you do this day be blessed.

With what work at you occupied,
and for what purpose are you purchased?
What sort of bird are you,
and with what digestive are you eaten?
Pass up this shop of hagglers
and seek the shop of Abundance where God is the purchaser [Quran 9:111].
There Compassion has bought
the shabby goods no one else would look at.
With that Purchaser no base coin is rejected,
for making a profit is not the point.

Masnavi 6.1264 – 1267

As regular visitors might know, I’ve posted this beautiful qawwal by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan here a number of times.  Sadiq, of the ever-beautiful Technology of the Heart, has posted a translation of the words, by Hz. Mevlana.

Enjoy and may all you do this day be blessed…

Tu Kareemi Man Kamina Barda Um
Laikin Az Lutf E Shuma Parwarda Um

Zindagi Aamad Bara’ay Bandagi
Zindagi Be Bandagi Sharmindagi

Yaad E Oo Sarmaya E Eeman Bo’ad
Har Gada Az Yaad E Oo Sultan Bo’ad

Sayyad O Sarwar Mohammad Noor E Jaan
Mehtar O Behtar Shafi E Mujrimaan

Choon Muhammad Pak E Shud Az Nar O Dood
Her Kaja Roo Karad Wajhullah Bood

Shahbaaz Lamakani Jaan E Oo
Rehmatal Lil Aalameen Dar Shaan E Oo

Mehtareen O Behtareen E Ambiyaah
Juz Muhammad Naist Dar Arz O Samaa

Aan Mohammad Hamid O Mahmoud Shud
Shakal E Abid, Sorat E Ma’bood Shud

Auliyah Allah O Allah Auliyah
Yani Deed E Peer Deed E Kibriyah

Her Ka Peer O Zaat Haqra Aik Na Deed
Nai Mureed O Nai Mureed O Nai Mureed

Maulvi Hargiz Na Shud Maula E Rum
Ta Ghulaam E Shams Tabraizi Na Shud

Translation

You are the Gracious One and I am the ignoble,
Now waiting at Your door Oh my Cherisher

With devotion life becomes beauteous,
And without, what is life but disgrace

Remembrance of Him is the foundation of faith,
Beggars transform into kings due to His Remembrance.

Liege lord, Oh Muhammad you are the light of our lives,
The mighty and the best intercessor of the wrong-doers

Since Muhammad was purified of worldly things,
Whatever direction He turned is found the Face of Allah

The noble soul of his is like a falcon of the highest heavens
Being ‘the mercy of the worlds’ is his eminence

The mightiest and the best of all Prophets is he,
Except Muhammad in land or sky there is none worthy

He is the praise of God, divinely praised in abundant
He is the reflection of God in the shape of a worshiping servant

The friends of God are like God because God is their friend
And in this way he who has seen his Master, has seen God’s Glory

If one doesn’t see his spiritual Master as reflection of God
He is not a disciple, not a disciple, not a disciple!

Mevlana could never be Mevlana Rumi
If he had not devoted himself to Shams e Tabrizi.

Source: One; Two

Ask olsun,
Abdur Rahman

A beautiful exploration of movement and worship, as transmitted through sacred Mevlevi tradition.  This wonderful talk also explores some of the symbolism of the whirling ceremony (sema).  May it be of benefit.

Source: SFH Mureed

Ask olsun,
Abdur Rahman

A beautiful reflection on some important verses from the Masnavi serif, by Kabir Dede.

When Jafar advanced against a certain fortress,
to his thirsty throat the fortress became a single gulp.
Riding alone, he charged up to the fortress,
so that they locked the fortress-gate in dread.
No one dared to meet him in battle:
Any more than a sailboat’s crew would attack a leviathan.

The king turned to his vizier, saying,
“What is to be done in this crisis, Counselor?”
He replied, “You should say goodbye to your pride and cunning,
and present to him your sword and shroud.”
“Why,” said the king, “isn’t he just a single man alone?”
He replied, “Don’t underestimate this man’s singleness.
Open your eye: look well at the fortress:
it is already trembling before him like quicksilver.
He sits in the saddle, his nerve unshaken,
as if all the East and West were at his side.

Several men rushed forward, like Fida’is,
and flung themselves into combat with him.
He struck each of them with just a blow of his mace
and they fell headlong at the feet of his steed.
God’s action had bestowed on him such collectedness
that he was confronting a whole people single-handedly.
When my eye beheld the face of that emperor,
quantity became nothing in my sight.”

The stars are many; though the sun is one,
When it appears, their foundation is demolished.
If a thousand mice put forth their heads,
the cat feels no fear or apprehension of danger.
How should a throng of mice advance
if they have no collectedness in their souls?
The collectedness in outward forms is a vain thing:
listen, beg from the Creator collectedness of spirit.

Collectedness is not the result of material quantity:
know that body, like reputation, is built on air.
If there were any collectedness in the heart of the mouse,
a number of mice would arise in indignation,
And, rushing up like assassins,
would without hesitation throw themselves upon the cat!
One would tear out her eyes,
while another would rip her ears with its teeth,
And another tear at her side:
there would be no escape from their unified alliance.

But the soul of the mouse has no collectedness:
at the cry of a cat its wits fly out of its soul.
The mice are paralyzed by the wily cat,
even if the mice are a hundred thousand.
Does the butcher care how big the flock is?
Can your daytime thoughts hold off slumber forever?

He is the Lord of the kingdom: He gives collectedness to the lion,
so that he springs on the herd of wild asses.
A hundred thousand savage and courageous wild asses
are as naught before the onset of the lion.
He is the Lord of the kingdom:
He gives to a Joseph the kingdom of Beauty,
so that he is like rainfall from white cumulus clouds.

He bestows upon one face the radiance of a star,
so that a king becomes the slave of a girl.
He bestows upon another face His own Light,
so that even in the darkest night
it can discern the good from the bad in everything.
Joseph and Moses brought the light of God
into their cheeks and countenances, and into their inmost centers.
A flashing beam shot forth from the face of Moses:
and he wore a veil to cover his face.

The radiance of his face would have overwhelmed all eyes
just as the emerald dazzles the eyes of the deaf python.
He asked God to make that veil
a covering for that powerful Light.
And God said, “Listen, make a veil of your felt cloak,
for the garment of gnosis can be trusted,
because that cloak has absorbed the Light:
the Light of the Spirit shines through its warp and woof.

Nothing will be a repository except a mantle like this:
nothing else can endure Our Light.
If Mt Qáf should arise as a barrier,
the Light would shatter it like Mt Sinai.”
Divine omnipotence has given the bodies of men
the ability to support the unconditioned Light.
His power makes a glass vessel the dwelling-place of that Light
of which Sinai cannot bear in the least.
A lamp-niche and a lamp-glass have become
the dwelling-place of the Light
by which Mt Qáf and Mt Sinai are blown to pieces.
Know that their bodies are the lamp-niche and their hearts the glass:
this lamp illumines the empyrean and the heavens.
Their light is dazzled by this Light
and vanishes like the stars in this radiance of morning.

Hence the Seal of the Prophets has related
the saying of the everlasting and eternal Lord—
“I am not contained in the heavens or in the void
or in the exalted intelligences and souls;
I am contained, as a guest, in a faithful heart,
without qualification or definition or description,
so that through the medium of that heart everything,
above and below, may win from Me sovereignties and fortune.
Without such a mirror neither Earth nor Time
could bear the vision of My beauty.

I caused the steed of mercy
to gallop over the two worlds:
I fashioned an expansive mirror.
In which fifty wedding-feasts appear in a flash:
face the mirror; don’t ask me to describe it.”

The gist is this: Moses made a veil of his cloak,
he knew the penetrating nature of that Moon.
Had the veil been of anything except his raiment,
it would have been torn to shreds,
even if it had been a solid mountain.
That Moon would penetrate iron:
how could the veil withstand the Light of God?
That veil was, itself, aglow:
it had covered a mystic in moments of bliss.
The fire is latent in the fuel
because the fuel was meant to burn.
Masnavi 6.3029-3082

‘We sought poverty and were met by wealth.  Others sought wealth and were met by poverty’
Ibrahim ibn Adham, Attar Memorials of the Saints