• Science's take on free-will… are you a meat machine? – http://bit.ly/1a329a #

• Flu Burka – http://bit.ly/anJYW #

This message of Abdul-Hamid Khan, the last Sultan having real power over the Ottoman Empire, was written in the times when the Sufi knowledge was so authoritative that each Islamic Ruler/Sultan/Governor and most of his subjects had their own Murshid (Spiritual Teacher). Unfortunately today not only the rulers, but also a great part of the Muslims, do not even know that it is the duty of every Muslim to follow the Sufi Sheikhs, according to the words of the great Imam Al-Ghazali.

In the name of Allah the Compassionate, the Merciful! Let Allah, the God of the Worlds, be praised. Let there be peace and blessings upon the Prophet Mohammad, Messenger of Allah , Lord of All the Worlds.

I address the respected Sheikh of the Shazali Tariqat Mohammad Efendi Abu Shamat, the healer of the souls and the flasher of the hearts, the outstanding man of his times. After the greetings I want to say that I got your message of this May 22 and I thank Allah that you are in good health

My lord, God being my helper, I devote days and nights to reciting wirds and I ask to always remember me in Your prayers. Let me share with You, and with lucid-minded people, my worries in respect of one very important question:

I left the post of the ruler of Caliphate only because of the obstacles and threats on the side of people who call them “Young Turks”. “The Committee of Unity and Progress” (Ataturk was one of its leaders, the comment of the translator) obsessively insist on my agreement to form a national Jewish state in the sacred land of Palestine. But in spite of their obstinacy I strongly refused them. In the end they offered me 150 mln English pounds in gold, but again I refused and said the following to them.

” If you offer me all the gold of the world adding it to your 150 man, I won’t agree to give you the land. I have served the Islam and the ummah of Mohammad, peace and blessings be upon him, for more than 30 years, and I won´t cloud the Islamic history, the history of my fathers and grand fathers Ottoman sultans and caliphs”.

After my definite refusal they decided to remove me from power, and after that they told me that they would transport me to Salonika and I had to resign. I praise my benefactor who didn´t let me bring shame on the Ottoman state and the Islamic world. I want to stop at this. I praise the Almighty once again and finish my letter.

I kiss your noble hands (my Sheikh) and hope that you won´t refuse my respect for you. Greet all our brothers and friends, oh, my Excellent Teacher.

Forgive me for such a long letter but I wanted you to be informed.
Peace, blessings and mercy of Allah upon You.

Chief of the Believers,
Abdul-Hamid ibn Abdul-Majid.
29 Ramadan 1329.
September 22 1911.

• Do not run after the world, let the world run after you. – Hazrat Ali (R) #fb #
• does twitter force you to have 140 character length thoughts? #
• Anger is a fire kindled, he who restrains anger extinguishes the fire; he who gives vent to it is the first to be consumed by such fire. #fb #
• A man's behavior is the index of his mind. – Hazrat Ali (R) #fb #

• you know you hit a new level in traffic when family arrives in canada before you get home… #

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7651105.stm

What is probably the oldest known Bible is being digitised, reuniting its scattered parts for the first time since its discovery 160 years ago. It is markedly different from its modern equivalent. What’s left out?

For 1,500 years, the Codex Sinaiticus lay undisturbed in a Sinai monastery, until it was found – or stolen, as the monks say – in 1844 and split between Egypt, Russia, Germany and Britain.

Now these different parts are to be united online and, from next July, anyone, anywhere in the world with internet access will be able to view the complete text and read a translation.
For those who believe the Bible is the inerrant, unaltered word of God, there will be some very uncomfortable questions to answer. It shows there have been thousands of alterations to today’s bible.

The Codex, probably the oldest Bible we have, also has books which are missing from the Authorised Version that most Christians are familiar with today – and it does not have crucial verses relating to the Resurrection.

…

Not surprisingly, it is now a World Heritage Site and has been called a veritable Ark, bringing spiritual treasures safely through the turbulent centuries. In many people’s eyes the greatest treasure is the Codex, written around the time of the first Christian Emperor Constantine.

When the different parts are digitally united next year in a £1m project, anyone will be able to compare and contrast the Codex and the modern Bible.

Firstly, the Codex contains two extra books in the New Testament.

One is the little-known Shepherd of Hermas, written in Rome in the 2nd Century – the other, the Epistle of Barnabas.

…

The Codex – and other early manuscripts – omit some mentions of ascension of Jesus into heaven, and key references to the Resurrection, which the Archbishop of Canterbury has said is essential for Christian belief.

Other differences concern how Jesus behaved. In one passage of the Codex, Jesus is said to be “angry” as he healed a leper, whereas the modern text records him as healing with “compassion”.

Also missing is the story of the woman taken in adultery and about to be stoned – until Jesus rebuked the Pharisees (a Jewish sect), inviting anyone without sin to cast the first stone.

Nor are there words of forgiveness from the cross. Jesus does not say “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”.

Fundamentalists, who believe every word in the Bible is true, may find these differences unsettling.

=========

Islam accepts Jesus (AS) as a Prophet, these new findings coincide dramatically with the Islamic understanding of  the life of Jesus (AS).

For Rabid NPR Fans -

The still-growing NPR “torture” controversy

There are several noteworthy developments since I wrote on Tuesday about the refusal of NPR’s Ombdusman, Alica Shepard, to be interviewed by me about NPR’s ban on using the word “torture” to describe the Bush administration’s interrogation tactics. Given the utter vapidity of her rationale (”there are two sides to the issue. And I’m not sure, why is it so important to call something torture?”)..

…

Also, along with her On the Media appearance this weekend, Shepard went on another NPR-affiliated show — Patt Morrison’s KPCC Southern California Public Radio program — in a quality segment that included several good questions from Morrison (and even better ones from callers); a very well-compiled, illustrative and cringe-inducing montage of NPR’s repeatedly going out of its way to avoid calling Bush interrogation tactics “torture,” juxtaposed with an excerpt where NPR explicitly accused Iraqis in Sadr City of “using torture” against detainees; and, finally, the inclusion in the discussion of a Berkeley Professor of Linguistics explaining why it matters so much what the media does in this regard and how virtually all media around the world — other than what he called the “spineless U.S. media” — call these tactics “torture” (the KPCC program credits my criticisms of Shepard for catalyzing the controversy and the segment can be heard here).

…

All of that was perfectly captured by penetratingly true satire back in August, 2004, from Jon Stewart and Daily Show “reporter” Rob Corddry [sent to me this week by a reader to illustrate what NPR is doing]:

Stewart: Here’s what puzzles me most, Rob. John Kerry’s record in Vietnam is pretty much right there in the official records of the U.S. military, and hasn’t been disputed for 35 years.

Corddry: That’s right, Jon, and that’s certainly the spin you’ll be hearing coming from the Kerry campaign over the next few days.

Stewart: That’s not a spin thing, that’s a fact. That’s established.

Corddry: Exactly, Jon, and that established, incontrovertible fact is one side of the story.

Stewart: But isn’t that the end of the story? I mean, you’ve seen the records, haven’t you? What’s your opinion?

Corddry: I’m sorry, “my opinion”? I don’t have opinions. I’m a reporter, Jon, and my job is to spend half the time repeating what one side says, and half the time repeating the other. Little thing called “objectivity” — �might want to look it up some day.

Stewart: Doesn’t objectivity mean objectively weighing the evidence, and calling out what’s credible and what isn’t?

Corddry: Whoa-ho! Sounds like someone wants the media to act as a filter! Listen, buddy:  Not my job to stand between the people talking to me and the people listening to me.

• the thing i most admire in people is consistency and growth, especially in matters of faith. #

Recent attacks by France’s President Nikolas Sarkozy have brought new attention to traditional Muslim dress. Sarkozy is quoted as saying, to Parliament:

The burqa is not a religious sign, it’s a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement — I want to say it solemnly,” he said. “It will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic.

This is after they have already banned the Hijab in the public sphere, such as schools and government offices:

“The protesters condemned last week’s announcement by the mayor of Nogent-sur-Marne, a Paris suburb, that he would refuse to marry any woman arriving for a civil wedding in a headscarf.”

telegraph.co.uk

As usual, the atheistic secular humanists are not satisfied with such statements, for on the face of it, they could be easily be taken as bigoted. So now they reach towards ’science’ to justify oppressive words and practices. And haven’t we all have agreed that ’science’ is impartial?

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Opinion/1129929.html – The scientific case against wearing burkas – By Paul Schneidereit

What all this means is if you’re a typical woman from the Middle East, one of the worst things to do, in terms of health, is to don a burka every time you step foot outside.

It is true Vitamin D deficiency is found in many countries around the globe, north and south.

The Middle East, however, has been noted in a number of scientific studies over the years as a particularly problematic area in this regard. Many of these same studies have singled out the garments worn by many women there, like the burka and niqab, as significant factors in reducing exposure to sunlight.

Schneidereit doesn’t hide his bias, stating that “That said, let me be clear that I agree with the thrust of what Sarkozy stated”.

At the same time he believes that since it’s scientifically “unhealthy”, there is no need to engage with the “political, cultural or religious aspects” of this debate. In other words, why actually talk about this? Why seek to understand the burka, what it represents and how complex of an issue this really is? It’s unhealthy!

The article is missing a whole lot of science and is instead filled with a whole lot of uncited opinions. One actual scientific study conducted on Arab women in Michigan came to interesting conclusions directly about the veil and the relationship to Vitamin D:

PubMed

“RESULTS: Eighty-seven women participated. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were uniformly low“

In other words, unveiled Arab women are also deeply deficient in Vitamin D. While the currently advertised ‘optimum level’ is 35–55 ng/mL, the breakdown of the women with the highest levels was as follows:

Unveiled – Combination Supplemented and Unsupplemented:
8.5 ng/mL [5.75-13.5 ng/mL])

Veiled & Taking Vitamin Supplements:
7 ng/mL [4-11.5 ng/mL]

Veiled, Unsupplemented:
4 ng/mL [2-6.8 ng/mL]

Note the range, some veiled, unsupplemented women actually had higher levels of Vitamin D than the some completely unveiled women.

Unveiled Arab women seem to already have a natural ‘deficiency’ according to the standards outlined by the medical community today. The unveiled women were only getting 25% of the daily recommended value, the unveiled women with supplements 20%, and the unveiled women without supplements – 11%.

When there is a gap of 75% deviation from recommended values even in the unveiled women, this indicates other issues such as genetics, diet, and environment have a bigger influence on the ‘problem’ than simply blaming the veil.

In fact, the study states that its variable considerations (which primarily focused on the veil and supplements) were insufficient to explain the Vitamin D deficiency:

Our participants had exceedingly low concentrations of
25-hydroxyvitamin D (<10 ng/mL), with the concentrations
decreasing as the groups progressed from unveiled
to veiled with supplements and to veiled without supplements.
Clearly, our variables are insufficient to explain
the entire deficit in 25-hydroxyvitamin D.

Armed with actual facts, we now take a look at the motivations behind articles such as Schneidereit’s. To base an opinion about the extermination of cultural or religious expression based on narrow-minded and selective ’science’ is reminiscent of eugenics. Eugenics is defined:

“”the study of, or belief in, the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics) or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics).”
-http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/eugenics

By considering the burka as proven ’scientifically’ inferior, Schneidereit believes enough justification is present to ignore the deep context surrounding this mode of dress and simply close the book on the burka forever. This is not far from those who considered Jews worthy of extermination based on slipshod science which justified their opinions about the quality of their race. We’ve entered the era of mainstream cultural eugenics.

Not only has Schneidereit ignored actual studies which demonstrate the minimal aspect to the veil, but by ignoring social context he has left aside important facts.

Why is it not relevant that veiled women do not wear veils in their comfort and privacy of their own homes and gardens? When determining an overall position on the veil, why is it not scientific to consider that incidence of skin cancer is dramatically lower in the sun-blazing Middle East and its relationship to the veil?

Moreover, why is it socially acceptable to promote near nudity in tanning and sunbathing as a valid cultural expression when its only debatable benefit is cosmetic and results in dramatic rise in incidence of skin cancer?

Gai Eaton addresses this problem of non-specialists deriving social policy based on inaccurate scientific notions:

What matters, from this point of view, is not the pure form of a particular theory but the form in which it has been popularized, processed through the educational machine and assimilated by the masses. Religious (or metaphysical) ideas, when they penetrate whole populations within a traditional environment, may adopt simplified and what might be described as “picturesque” forms without thereby sacrificing either integrity or effectiveness, but secular and scientific notions soon become slipshod and inac­curate when they are popularized.

-Gai Eaton, “Knowledge and its Counterfeits”

• Those who point out what is false often don't spend enough time living what is true. #

• the literocracy – I am an intellectual, so what I say matters #

When the Holy Prophet (SalAllahualayhiwasallam) sighted the moon of Rajab, he used to pray to Allah in the following words:

“O Allah, make the months of Rajab and Sha’ban blessed for us, and let us reach the month of Ramadan.”

The Holy Prophet (S) said, “Rajab is the month of Allah. Shaban is my month. Ramadhan is the month of my ummah (followers).” ”

Last week, Sheikh Abdul Kerim al-Kibrisi announced the forthcoming arrival of Rajab, Shaban and Ramazan, three sacred months. Rajab is a time to focus ourselves and turn our attention towards recognizing the importance of these times. Sheikh encouraged everyone to continue or begin anew their spiritual efforts by fasting on Mondays and Thursdays, a Sunnah of the Prophet (S) and keeping tightly to their wird and extra worship.

Resources for the importance of Rajab:

Hadith on Fasting in Rajab – Ummah.net

On the Month of Rajab

Importance of Rajab and Adhkar in Rajab

Rajab and its Importance

27th Rajab is the Month of God – Isra and Mi`raj

Rajab – Historical profile

Fasting in Rajab: Recommended?

Summary Of Religious Duties During The Month Of Rajab

• Ottoman Naqshbandi Devotional Sobriety – http://bit.ly/RwC1a #
• One could do a long case study on what happens to Salafis when they get involved in phd programs. #

Dads Are Key to Making Us Human
By Robin Nixon

[link]

Some 95 percent of male mammals have little to no interaction with their children. Homo sapiens are one of the most notable exceptions, leading some scientists to think fatherhood is an important part of what makes us human.

Most theories for the family involvement of fathers invoke the familiar “Man the Hunter” characterization, in which dad protects and provides for his young.

While fathers do play key roles in securing the physical health of their children, they also can be important for the optimum development of psychological and emotional traits considered to be primarily human, such as empathy, emotional control and the ability to navigate complex social relationships.

Unlike many other animals, humans need their fathers well beyond the act that leads to conception, researchers are coming to realize.

[read more]

Other Naqshbandi’s ventured to defend the vocal dhikr against critics. We recall that the seventeenth-century Medinese Shaykh Ibrahim al-Kurani entered into an argument about this issue with a prominent Ottoman visitor known for his opposition to music and vocal dhikr ceremonies (probably the Kadizadeli leader Mehmed Vani Effendi). Kurani also produced two treatise in defense of the vocal method, the Nash al-zahr fi’l -dhikr bi’l-jahr and the Ithaf al-munib al-awwah bi-fadl al-jahr bi-dhikr Allah. In the Ithaf, written in response to the Transoxanian foes of vocal recollection, he marshaled numerous Quranic verses and Prophet traditions to prove that this method was licit. Moreover, Kurani made the point that Shaafis – most of his own disciples- held the vocal dhikr superior. For followers of this legal school, vocal rather than silent dhikr was the “original” method and indeed a “key to the religion” of Islam.

In Damascus the prolific scholar Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi took up the issue of music in his Idah al-dalalat fi sama al-alat – according to a recent study also in response to critics associated with the Kadizadeli movement. In the Idah, Nabulusi pointed out that all singing and musical accompaniment, whether by Sufis or other Muslims, was licit, if only by special dispensation. Music was prohibited only when it positively distracted listeners from the recollection of God or from the observance of religious duties. Finally a student of Kurani by the name of Ibn al-Mimi held that the silent method of recollection undeniably superior and the one that Naqshbandi’s specifically adopted; yet in view of the high emotions that apparently continued to surround controversies about the dhikr, and perhaps because of the insistence or audacity of the opposition, Ibn al-Mimi too found it necessary to challenge the opponents of vocal dhikr. In a treatise devoted to the Naqshbandi Way, he insisted that those who called for eliminating the vocal method were nothing but “ossified”, “ignorant”, “pigheaded”. [37]

[37] Ibn al-Mimi, Nazm al-sumut, 8b

ref: Le Gall, Dina (2005). A Culture of Sufism – Naqshbandis in the Ottoman World – 1450-1700. SUNY Press

Rather, it went to the very heart of the unique Naqshbandi way of seeking God – what the manuals called, after Abd al Khaliq Ghujduvani (ks), khalvat dar anjuman, that is “solitude within society” or seeking God while immersed in society. Naqshbandis taught that mastering the interiorized techniques of silent dhikr, muraqaba, rabita, ideally to the point of turning them into a ‘natural disposition,’ would enable practitioners to embark on seeking God continuously, inconspicuously, and in the thick of society, without any need for ascetic withdrawal from the world or for the extroverted and inferior rituals of other Sufis. A “solitude within society” of sorts was, of course, the common reality for Ottoman Sufis of diverse affiliations, who pursued their devotional regimens while living among the larger community, raising families, and being engaged in gainful occupations. But Naqshbandis made of the continuous seeking of God “within society” a deliberate and superior endeavor. Moreover, they claimed that unlike other Sufi ways, with their potentially distracting devotional practices, the Naqshbandi way provided the uniquely sober and interiorized techniques that made this endeavor feasible and effective.

ref: Le Gall, Dina (2005). A Culture of Sufism – Naqshbandis in the Ottoman World – 1450-1700. SUNY Press

• A candle on the longest night lights up the room;
  At once the world becomes a rose garden in bloom.
  This task of mine is hard enough- ease my way soon!
  There’s not one thing so hard it cannot ease assume.

found via: fatima al-shifa @ deenport

• the most delicious thing I ever ate was kaymak and honey with bread in Istanbul. #

http://www.livescience.com/health/090615-alcohol-brain.html

Only 6 minutes after consuming an amount of alcohol equivalent to three beers — leading to a blood alcohol level of 0.05 to 0.06 percent, which impairs driving ability — changes had already taken place in the brain cells.

For one thing, the brain begins to run on the sugar in alcohol instead of using glucose, the normal brain food.

“Our study provides evidence for alternative energy utilization upon alcohol ingestion,” said researcher Armin Biller at Heidelberg University Hospital “The brain uses an alcohol breakdown product instead of glucose for energy demands.”

The concentration of substances such as creatine (energy metabolism), which protect brain cells, decreases as the concentration of alcohol increases. Choline, a component of cell membranes, was also reduced.

“That probably indicates that alcohol triggers changes in the composition of cell membranes,” Biller said.

Prince Bayezid was was one of the sons of Sultan Suleyman I. The Prince is described as being most amiable and accomplished, and beloved by the people and the soldiery, many of the latter accompanying him in his Persian exile.

SHAHI (Prince Bayezid) 969 AH [1561 CE]

With longing food and vain, why should I make my soul to mourn?
One trace of love of earth holds not my heart- all is forsworn.
There ready stands the caravan. to Death’s dim realms addrest,
E’en now the tinkling of its bells down on my ears in borne. [1]
Come then, O bird, my soul, be still, disquiet leave far off;
See, how this cage, the body, is with years and suffering worn.
But yet, to weary, wasted sin-stained SHAHI, what of fear?
Since Thou’rt the God of Love, the helping Friend of those forlorn!

[1] Bells are worn by beasts in a caravan. The meaning is: “The animals are being harnessed for the journey, and I shall soon be off.”

[Translation and notes by EJW Gibb]

Tariqat is…

the cold water on your face splashed by your brother, a wake up call that nothing can really prepare you for.

• Doha Debates – When the 'Ahl e Hadith' have left the mudhakara and joined the munazara, what is left? #

BismillahirRahmanirRahim

Destur

Medet

InshaAllah in writing this down I won’t be trivializing what it is that I feel and have experienced.  At some level that’s necessary, because what I feel is much deeper than just some words on a internet article.  Its deeper than any artistic expression that I know how to use.  This is a part of me, and if I could be put on paper or canvas or soundwaves then that would make this much easier.  But my feelings can’t, my fears can’t, my hopes and dreams can’t, my ego can’t.   Or I don’t know how, if its possible.

It is draining.  It’s so tiring looking into peoples eyes.  Hearing there “Oh’s” and “Ah’s”.  Not knowing how to react to my strange words and strange appearances.

Do they hear me or do they hear some confused reflection of what it is I am trying to communicate?  They are not understanding, or worse yet, thinking they understand.  How can they understand when, really, I have not fully understood.  But I have a glimmer, and that is what I can try to share.

I’m standing in the middle of a foreign country.  It is about midnight, the streets are so tight that it is hard to fathom any American car getting through its twists and turns.  I’ve knocked and knocked.  The doors are locked, I am stuck.  It is starting to get cold.  I try another door, to the side.  Someone has got to know what to do.  No one answers.  I try for half an hour around various approaches.  The hotel itself is locked, its no use.  Small places like this don’t have 24 hour service.   I stand on something to get a better view, how can I get back inside?

A door opens.  A man comes out, he’s holding a sword.  No, really.  He is holding a sword.  He is screaming in a tongue I have no way to understand, but his heart and face are screaming something I understand clearly.  Kill.  This is a man who wants to kill me.  He screams and approaches me.  The women are standing by the door.  They are in tears, begging for him to stop.  He thinks hes protecting them.  He clearly has no end to his fury.  He runs at me, but I don’t move.  My hands are extended, “I’m just trying to get in the hotel!”  He comes at me screaming louder and louder.  The sword is in the air.  I’m going to die.

I am in the middle of nowhere and I am going to die.  I wonder a few things…

What goes through your mind when facing death or danger?  Everyone faces it differently I suppose.  I faced it in a few different ways.  This wasn’t the first time I was exposed to it.  The first time, I didn’t really care.  I thought I was doing something good, and so I did it.  Did I really face the possibility of sacrificing my life?  Not really, I was young and thought I would live forever.  This is when I pulled a man out of a burning building.  I still remember the firemen screaming “Get back! get out!” as they turned up right when we had already done the hard part.  It was satisfying to kick the door down.  But I was really young and stupid, I had no idea what I went through and I didn’t have the presence of self or mind to take an accounting of it.

The second time, I began to know it as a reality.  I understood the danger much more, I think.  But I didn’t care any further.  If I did care at some level, at the levels that expressed themselves I didn’t.  If I was going to die, I just thought so-be-it.  I’d wake up and I couldn’t move, and when I found out at any point that it could be my heart that didn’t move, that my every night sleep could easily be my last, then what could I do?   I gave in to the numbness that I felt in my legs and arms, that same numbness was in my heart.  Every night I died in some way, or some part of me died when I couldn’t move in the morning.  Hypokalemic periodic paralysis.  I thought this was how I was going to go.  So I lived my life, enjoyed what I could take.  That was it.  It was again, a carefree abandon, there was little or no thought paid to life, after-life, etc.

And here I was again. Sword-man coming at me.

Ostensibly I had found faith, but here was a man ready to kill me and I didn’t view it as a test and I didn’t prepare myself.  I could have talked endlessly about zikr in one’s final breaths when constructing a formal argument for loud zikr to a Wahabi,  but I didn’t do it myself when I needed to.  I wondered, briefly, what my blood would feel like in my hands, will it feel like that goat I recently slaughtered,  would I die so easily, so peacefully, like him?  But most of all, I worried about my families future, the house, the payments.  How it would all come to pass…

I worried about provision.  Of the 54 Fardh in Islam, I lost out on number six, and trust me I didn’t make it through one to five with flying colors either.  And the absolute icing on the cake about all of this was, that I didn’t even realize it.  That’s right, do you think I had any idea at that time what had happened?

The reality was shown to me in weeks later. I’ve survived, and I am telling my story as a casual tale to entertain.  That’s the only way I know how to deal with it.  I make people laugh and enjoy it, at least they will get something good out of it.

But it wasn’t until I was with my Shaykh, Shaykh Abdul Kerim Effendi, that he pointed out my flaw directly to me,  I had failed that test. I had demonstratively lost my faith, and that too, at the worst possible time.    I lost myself between self-preservation and worry for the future.  I lost my faith in those few moments, or I at least demonstrated how weak it was.   I demonstrated that I don’t even know how to die.  I demonstrated that even if I knew the exterior, I didn’t practice it and I didn’t know what that meant on the inside.

I was being shown, incident after incident with danger and death, “wake up to yourself!” and I was so deaf that I had no idea that it was even being said.  Call them signs, call them tests, call them what-you-will, but I now call them failures of heedlessness.

These experiences in life, for me, have been extreme.  I’ve had so many much more subtle ones as well, and so have many people.  But the reality is I wouldn’t have realized my own lesson, even in these extreme cases, without a guide.  I may be a particularly dense person, but most people don’t often see their own mistakes.  We tend to view our actions distorted through our own lenses of happenstance and heedlessness.

We don’t consider our daily lives on the level of faith, and only after instruction did I realize that I was about to die without any real faith.

My faith had never been tested, or rather, it had been constantly tested but I was completely unaware that I was even being examined.

The fundamental aspect of religious teaching is: We are all going to die, so die with faith.  Everything stems from this. My vast realms of fake ‘Islamic knowledge’ had proven to be completely useless, for when the moment came, the little high they brought of ‘Islamic pride’ was forgotten.  The classes and seminars didn’t help (and I had attended countless numbers).  Even talking about high spirituality with poems or achieving Marifat or Haqiqat or Shariat, humility or patience, these were irrelevant discussions sent to occupy my mind from the reality of my own mortality.

I learned that laissez-faire Islam, seminars, or even articles on ‘Sufi Ways’ can never teach you anything about correcting your own self, day in and day out.  Such things can’t put us on the path that is required to fix ourselves, and we are so incredibly flawed.   They may help with the flaws you recognize, perhaps.  But what of the flaws you don’t recognize?  The flaws you only expose to those with whom you are in constant companionship, living day in and day out?  Or those flaws that arise when you let your guard down.  I’m speaking of those hidden areas of your personality that you don’t even know yourself. That is where my need for Sohbet (association) arises, and my need for community, and my intimate need for a guide.

These are my must-have tools on my journey to death.

It’s about time I wake up to myself… the man with the sword let me live. This gives me another opportunity to die before I die.

• Qadr Qonvenience – When bad choices and decisions get us where we are, Qadr is a convenient concept to misconstrue to eliminate any guilt. #

As of June 5th, our Friday sohbet and zikir led by Sheikh Abdul Kerim Efendi will be held at our new dergah in New Jersey. Inshallah, this weekly sohbet and zikir association will be held every Friday night at 7pm and last until the Saturday morning Fajr prayer.

The address of the dergah is:
940 Main Ave
Passaic, NJ 07055

For more information, you may call the OSMANLI DERGAHI at (607) 369-4816

Pictures of the first Zikr at the new dergah are below:

Preparing for Sheikh Abdul Kerim Effendi’s arrival

Sheikh Abdul Kerim Effendi arrives, Salawat recited

Examining the work

Man on the Street shows his respects to Sheikh Effendi

Sheikh Effendi leads Namaz

Sheikh Effendi gives Sohbet

Bayat

Together With Mustafa Hoja

Setting up to eat

Looking at Pictures

Sheikh Effendi closing the lights