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.”
It’s very difficult to conceptualize what we can’t see. It’s very difficult to imagine what we’ve never encountered. Even though people explain things to us and tell us that this is the way things are, it’s difficult for us to incorporate ideas into our being as if they were real until we somehow are able
In religion there is often a difficulty between the form and the spirit. And there are those who are very much in the spirit. And there are those who are very much in the form. And the ones who believe very very strongly in the form see those in the spirit as apostates or heretics.
“Everybody talking ’bout, nobody going there — heaven.” Those are the words that start an old spiritual. There are more words to it, but that is the refrain. It’s an interesting refrain because talking about it isn’t the same as doing something about it. There are lots of implications from the refrain, but I’m going
Among young people, videos games is something that a lot of them do. And there are different types of video games. But one of the consistent genres is the war game where you are the shooter, and your perspective in this game is essentially looking through the barrel of a gun or rather over the
Freud is generally considered the father of psychology. What is psychology? Well, when Freud came along, all of a sudden people in the medical circles began to think about the psychological makeup of their patients and what they could do to help people who had no apparent physical ailments but had really difficult psychological ailments.
There are still Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museums in the world, and a few days ago I passed one. There was a loudspeaker in front of it trying to draw you in. It was talking about the lizard-man, who had had his entire body tatooed as a lizard, and he only had a little
Someone was sitting with bawa, and they asked him, “Will there ever come the time when I will be able to see through my eyes what I see when I’m looking at your eyes?” And Bawa responded, “When the day comes when the “I” in you becomes a “we,” you’ll be able to do that.”
Why do people come on pilgrimage to the burial places of certain holy beings, why do we come there to pray? We come to acknowledge there is a world beyond this one. We believe what the prophets have told us, what God has told us through all the prophets, that there is a world to
In the morning when we wake up we take a shower because sleep is still with us. We need water to wake up, not cold water, just water, a physical, elemental thing which changes us, changes our state, taking us from a sleeping state to a waking state, relatively speaking. During the day there is
There is competition in this world as we work to earn a living, competition for money, competition in business and among those who are trying to sustain their material existence. This is the way of the world, a state of continuing competition. Little fish eat smaller fish and then they are eaten by bigger fish;
