Musa Muhaiyaddeen grew up in New Jersey with his mother, father and brother. He went to law school at Boston University, and practice law in New Jersey for over 35 years. He is also entrepreneurial and has created various businesses. Musa is a devoted husband, father of three, and grandfather of six. In the late 1960’s Musa’s circumstances and point of view led him to question the reasons for his existence. He began on a course to find answers to these questions. He believes that these are some of the most important questions that we can ask. Questions like: Why am I here? What is the purpose of my creation? How was I created? What is my purpose in existence? Where do we go from here? What is the purpose of this body? What is our true relationship with the rest of mankind? How are we supposed to live our lives? What does a human being who understands the answers to these questions look like? What is the essence of one who understands the answers to these questions? In his search Musa came upon the Sufi teacher Muhammad Raheem Bawa Muhaiyaddeen. He met him on Easter Sunday in March of 1972 in Philadelphia. The interaction had a profound affect on both himself and his wife. They both realized that they were in front of a being who was different than any being they had ever met. Even though Bawa was from a culture that was entirely different from their own culture and spoke a language that they did not understand, it did not interfere with the fact that being in his presence made them feel like they were home. For the first time in a very long time they felt that they had arrived at where they needed to be. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen returned to his native Sri Lanka shortly after Musa and his wife met him, and then returned to Philadelphia in 1973. As soon as he was back, Musa and his wife went to see him. Bawa directed Musa to meet with those who were interested in his teachings and to share what was being taught. Musa and his wife spent from 1972 to 1986, when Bawa passed on, under his direct guidance and influence. Over the years, they understood that the essence of what he was teaching, which is Sufism, is a touchstone to reality. It is the heart within all matters; it is the heart within all religions. Compassion, patience, forgiveness, tolerance, love, these are at the heart of Sufism. These teachings are given from our Creator as a gift to bring us closer to Him. For the past 20 years, Musa has traveled to various parts of the world speaking about the unifying nature of Sufism. He began to speak about the experiences and knowledge he had gained from his time with Bawa Muhaiyaddeen. He has traveled to Asia, Africa, Europe, and throughout North America, speaking about the unifying and liberating nature of Sufism. The audio and videos on this website are from weekly gatherings Musa has with a small group of seekers of truth where he continues to share what he has learned and continues to learn with those interested in the Sufi path. Musa says that the learning process never ends for each of us, that we are all initiates on the path. When asked what his intentions are for those listening and watching his talks he replied with a prayer, “May the words found here give comfort, and inspire love, forgiveness, tolerance, compassion, and the guidance we need to connect with the unseen where the mysteries of the universe can be revealed to us.”
There is an understanding in Islam that a people will be ruled according to the nature of the people. It’s a very interesting understanding and it gives a very clear view of how world politics actually work. Throughout history, at least recent history, we have had rulers who have come into situations who have tried
“La ilaha illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah. La ilaha illallah Muhammadan abduhu wa rasuluhu.” Muhammad was a voluntary slave. Slavery is something that the world sees as subjugation, as something that is put upon people against their will. So, the concept of voluntarily being a slave is contrary to a lot of what is understood by people.
We are experiencing in the world right now an enormous amount of difficulty, an enormous amount of grief, an enormous amount of anger, an enormous amount of revenge, an enormous amount of self-righteousness and an enormous amount of conflict between people, between ideologies, between ways to approach things. In essence, the world is bristling. Everybody
There is an old Chinese curse that says, “May you live in interesting times”. Some people might wonder why that’s a curse, and the answer is quite simply that when you live in the midst of tumultuous times, those incidents in the world draw you into them, make you part of them. They pull you
Most of you know the early history of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen as far as recent history, but I want to go over a little bit of it. In the mid-to-late 30’s someone met him outside of a city called Jaffna in Sri Lanka and they recognized that there was something extraordinary about him, and that he
Recently in the news people have been hacking emails, and the emails have been embarrassing to some people which leads us to the old adage, “Never put anything in writing.” And there are lots of reasons for not putting anything in writing. But that is with the world of illusion, but in the world of
#187 We Must Have Sincerity To Progress Spiritually Read More »
In order to create an internal connection with haqq, with reality, we must be sincere in a profound way because without sincerity we are skirting the surface of reality, because without sincerity, we’re not really looking to make that connection, we’re just playing at making that connection. And what is it that stops us from
Anyone who has spent time in Sufism has spent time with the vocabulary of Sufism, knows the word “insan” and the word “insan kamil” and understands that the intention within Sufism is to go from insan to insan kamil; “insan” being the word for a human and “insan kamil” meaning perfected human. The path from
This week we celebrated Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a non-denominational national holiday in the United States that was started during one of the terms of George Washington when he declared that we should set a date aside, every year, and make it a holiday wherein we give thanks for all that we have been given, and
There’s a story of a woodsman, a laborer, who chopped wood for a living, and every day he would go and chop his wood. He would be paid a few rupees for the day’s work. He would come home to his little shack where he lived alone, and on the way home he would always
