Shakespeare told us that the world is a stage, and we are all players. Now, the concept of being an actor in this world is an interesting one. But if you’re an actor in this world, there are times when you are also an audience in this world. We participate as actors, and we participate […]
It’s been said that this world is a farm for the next world. In other words the seeds are planted here, but you don’t see what grows until the next world. Now, in order to understand that and in order to understand the consequences of that, you have to be able to see what you
The way we’ve been taught sufism in this century and in the past century in America is different than the way it was done in the past. In the past groups were hidden. Tariqats were hidden orders where people didn’t live as out in the open in society as they do now. The orders werern’t
At the beginning of the French Revolution, people were screaming, “Liberty, equality, fraternity,” and shortly thereafter came the guillotine. In Cambodia they were talking about an entire new generation of people and a society that was equal to all, and then came the killing fields. In Russia Stalin talked about, “From each according to his
Many different people can be looking at the same thing and see entirely different scenarios. Someone looking at an engine of a car who is a mechanic, can look at it and through his various senses of sight and sound, can diagnose if there is a problem. While someone who doesn’t understand the mechanics of
There was once an arranged marriage between a student at a madrassa, a religious school, who was a brilliant student, and the daughter of the director of the school. This was a very prominent school, and the director of the school was a very prominent man, he was of a very high genealogy and his
I want to say first, welcome everybody here, it’s so good to see you all again. Al-hamdu lillāh. It’s a great joy to be among lovers. And I can see the love in the faces that I am looking at. And when lovers come together love grows. May we have fertile ground today. The path
As we go through our life, we are either going towards the path of reality or moving backwards from reality and getting more and more involved in the world. The idea of purification is essential for ridding ourselves of attachment to the world, so that we can get closer to reality. It has been said
This world is full of oppositions. And we are constantly in situations where we have opinions. And we run into people who have different opinions than we have. This creates a situation where one person opposes another and difficulties arise from these oppositions. Anytime you get two or more people together these things happen. In
We all know the Ten Commandments. And the Ten Commandments are the basis for morality and for the sharī‘at or the cannon law or the chalacha of the monotheistic religions. However, the Ten Commandments don’t say, thou shalt love. It is not a commandment. In various religions when a child reaches a certain age, they
