Everything begins with an intention. In the Book of Hadith, which are the sayings of the Prophet, or the actions of the Prophet, the first Hadith is the fact that everything begins with an intention. So we all set our intentions before we do anything. And the appropriate way to set an intention is to […]
Two hundred years ago the world was segmented in ways that it’s not segmented now. The interrelationship between different communities in the world did not exist. Now there is a lot more traveling in between places, and traveling in between countries, and various communities. Interestingly it started with colonialism, and in some places, this colonialism
We live in mostly urban environments, whereas 150 years ago we lived in mostly rural environments. The world, 150 years ago or so, was mostly an agrarian world. People lived and grew their food and that was their mode of survival. They ate what they grew, and they lived in very, very small villages, or
I got a call yesterday from a mother of somebody in their early thirties, who wanted me to talk to them, or actually they wanted to talk to me, about they’d been frightened, and they’re frightened about their understanding of what does it mean to die before death? You know, life is frightening. I was
Imagine yourself in a relaxed mood looking out over a very landscaped area and notice how soothing and beautiful it is. Imagine yourself in a forest where there is no landscaping, where it’s been allowed to grow on its own, and still, there’s a majesty to it and something beautiful about it. Watch the ocean
In this world we are needy. We need shelter, we need food, and then we need the accoutrement, the additions, and for each one there are different additions depending on their desires. Desires create needs, and then we spend our time in an effort to fulfill these needs. Often not knowing how they came about,
The path has many components and, depending on your proclivities, certain components are easier for you and certain components are harder for you. The path consists of formal rituals: ritual prayer, ritual recitations, ritual fasting, holiday celebrations, and attendance at formal community gatherings such as Jumu’ah. And then there’s another part, and that part has
As we sojourn through this existence we enter into many different phases in our life and many different situations in our life. We start out as infants who are totally dependent on our mother for sustenance, and for care, and we stay in that state of dependency for quite a few years. We then enter
#292 Whatever You Give Away More Will Come To You Read More »
At the core of Islam, and at the core of Sufism, Tasawwuf, is the idea of unity. On the one hand we have illusion and on the other hand we have haqq. Now, illusion is incapable of being unified because it’s illusory and it’s duplicitous. Satan is the hallmark of duplicity. Satan does his work
When a diamond is pulled from the ground it doesn’t look like what you see in engagement rings, it’s a diamond in the rough. It’s sort of a cloudy look, and then it’s taken and processed. First they put it in a tumbler which kind of smooths it out a little bit, and then they
