Declaration

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
My language is the language of revelation
My country is the country of servitude
My homeland is in the hereafter
My tribe is the tribe of Muhammad
My family is the family of Shaykh Nazim
Our path is the path of safety
I am a child of Islam
My race is the race of believers
My people are the people of the qiblah
The people of the promise
The people of the final revelation
Our Goal is Allah
We are strangers here on Earth
We are a soul which happens to be in a body
Not a body with a soul
I will defend the honor of the good ones
I am sayfudeen,
A child of Islam and orphan to the world
I pray that everyone of my descendents
Are followers and lovers
Of our master Muhammad
And believers in Allah and eternity
May all Celtic people accept this message
And come to peace here and hereafter.

The purity of Islam

Bismillahir Rahmaner Rahim,

"I came at dusk to pull you out of the fire you are in, and all the while you're kicking and fighting me to go back to it..."

Islam is so clean, so pure, so beautiful, so self evidently true.
It is a religion for the underdog, a dervish faith... before the Saudis turned the Harem al Sharif in Mecca into a garish, marbled parody of a shopping mall, The holy Kaba, the house of God on earth, built be Adam, rebuilt my Abraham after the flood, and purified by Muhammad in the advent of his Prophecy, was a simple structure surrounded by sand, thatched roofs, and huts. Simple humble people turned around its flanks, during flash floods people used to swim around it, climb on top of it- there was an intimacy, closeness, no formality. With the coming of the Wahabbis and modern thinking into Islam, all of this blessing left- not to say that it is not a Holy place, Allah forgive us, but it seems the meaning of Islam has left the hearts of its followers. When I was in France seven years ago, I was invited by a couple of Jordanian Arabs to the message of Islam. I was not alone; we were a group of Canadians on exchange in Strasbourg, but I was a little bit older than the majority and had quit drinking which led me probably to have more of a rapport with the Arabs as I was never out partying- plus I had recently been through some tough emotional times and had separated myself from some major false influences of our dominant pop culture. In any event when I heard about Islam from Muslims I was of course inclined to argue a little bit- but I was impressed with their holistic and unconflicted belief in God, this firmness from intelligent and deep people made me question my adherence to denial, I soon discovered that Islam was pretty much what I believed in anyway- that there was a Creator, That one should worship, give charity, be good etc. I also enjoyed talking about the "meaning of things" a subject hard to broach in our superficial post modern relationships without sounding emotional or crazy. I ended up buying a copy of the Quran and reading it. The first verse that really struck me as true went something like, “Prescribed to you is fighting, although you find it hateful, It might be that you hate a thing that's good for you and love a thing that's bad for you, Allah knows and you do not."
Now, what's funny is this is a verse that is used to point out how violent Islam is etc. But even from my small life experience I understood the deepness of this statement that it was talking about something much bigger than war and violence. In life we have to do things that we find difficult and often times the things we find most easy or enjoyable are the most destructive- nothing comes with out a fight. I knew from having my heart broken and struggling with alcohol and drugs and desire that I had loved things that were bad for me. And I had had to fight myself to achieve liberation from these things. Fighting is essential for happiness. One has to fight his inner demons first. Our ego never wants to work for goodness and that's where conflict arises. Islam came to clean people, elevate them above the darkness of their material beings, to show them their high destination. Islam does not tolerate evil, inside or out and that is why bad intentioned people , and this entire false project called modernity is so against it- It is the keeper of goodness in our time and it is maligned because it doesn't back down in the face of falsehood.
When Hitler was threatening the world, my grandfather and uncles went to war, not because they were violent people, but because they were fulfilling a noble duty- to fight tyranny. Islam is similarly against ogres, and monsters, wolves in human form and wants to protect humanity from them. When the Muslims went to battle it was to fight oppression and evil- today they are called zealots- where as we laud our soldiers as war heroes. At least we should have the minimum of fairness to consider the two equal in their nobility. One has to be fair.

What I was first attracted to Islam as a means to realization was its solid foundation- Muhammad came in the clear light of history, The Quran has been preserved in its entirety, there are no shadows, no internal contradictions, no holes or loose ends to come hurt you later on on your path, it has the scent of truth to it- and as Prophet Muhammad said so beautifully 1400 years ago “My position in relation to the prophets who came before me can be explained by the following example:
A man erected a building and adorned this edifice with great beauty, but he left an empty niche, in the corner where just one brick was missing. People looked around the building and marveled at its beauty, but wondered why a brick was missing from that niche? I am like unto that one missing brick and I am the last in the line of the Prophets."

Before coming to Islam I always knew religion was true but never knew, in what order, in what arrangement. Prophets came to teach humanity how to go home- The message has always been to believe in your Creator, and be good. Afterwards groups of followers of Prophets, and often times devils and Pharisees took this message and changed it according to their desires, hence the existence of rabbinical Judaism, the driest forms of Catholicism, Shia and Whahabbi Islam to name a few- all attempts knowingly and otherwise to subvert the message that is so axiomatically true and clear that all it needs is a little attention given to it, someone to point you to the right details to look into. Namingly that life has meaning, that the universe being manifested, must have had a Manifestor. And that being Humans, having been given understanding, we have a right and a debt to fufill in finding this meaning and connecting with our Maker. Beyond the structure of Islam, one has to find a guide and teacher- no book was sent from heavens but with a teacher, a holy one. Today there are men and women who walk this earth, who are not official ones, but who carry in their heart, the power to heal, guide, give Divine love, and most importantly to clean people of the dirtiness of their selfishness. If we were honest, we would say, I know nothing but what my Lord makes me to know.
Islam, which is to surrender to the rhythm of Life, is living revelation, it is not in a time or place, or one teaching, or one teacher, it is "The Teaching" that masters were teaching their followers. Humanity needs to connect to this living way- and Jews, Christians, Buddhists, atheists, and Muslims, whoever what ever, need to connect with the fountain of this teaching, Muhammad, the Beloved of Allah, the Face of the Divine Project in Creation, the one from whom all masters took their light- otherwise we will never be released from the prisons of our imagination.
So I would challenge ourselves to believe as an exercise at first, it doesn't hurt- instead of denying revelation, as we always are want to do. Lets us pick up the Holy Quran, or listen to the words of a holy one, with out the anger of bias, and for once to accept cleanly what is being said- let us explore the question of meaning in life, and there can only be meaning with a Creator, an unchanging point of reference. I can guarantee, a lightness and ease will fill our beings, and believing won’t be such a difficult thing to experience. How many things we rejected in our past, not out of truth but out of what we thought was true at the moment, only to find out much later that due to our limited knowledge at the time we rejected what was actually the truth of the matter. In this way we should approach revelation and we will find, hopefully and happily how wrong we were in the first place. Oh our Lord forgive us, guide us, guide your beloved humanity back to your presence, inspire our words, heal our hearts, give us right direction, right understanding, grant us a light by which all darkness will vanish and give us a means to end all falsehood on earth. Bless the ones who we are blessed by their presences- may we always be with Sheikh Nazim and grant him longer life of happiness and strength to continue to defeat evil. Oh our lord may we be true ones, humble ones, good ones. forgive us.

Caught in cause and effect-Away from Reality- with thanks to Shaykh Farhat

The human mind is unable to encompass the totality of creation, of existence. In our modern world, that appeals to no higher order but profit gain, truth becomes subjective, away from perspective. Thus with no cohesive paradigm to hold humanity together, no goal, save ambiguous concepts like survival, which is itself based on primitive understandings of "nature" meant, in the end, to justify our market system of predation for the gain of money, our belief systems and perspectives on understanding phenomenon can constantly change according to time and place, or by whoever happens to be in power- It is therefore based on falsehood, batil in Arabic- literally having no existence. The human mind is in the end limited, physical, incapable of understanding things out of time and space and therefore always locked in this realm, and because we, as Allah says in the Holy Quran were not witness's to our own creation, nor the creation of the heavens and earth, we can never truly understand our origins through our minds. It will always be left to theory, which is at best approximations of reality and at worse self-serving imagination. And there is, no doubt a living source to life- because life itself at one point was not in existence, the universe had a beginning outside of the six directions, thus needing an unlimited power to have started what we see now as being in existence. The infallibility of capital S science today, as a means to understanding our world, is the last major taboo to be broken. It is, as it were, the Emperor’s new clothes of our time. But pure ones know, real ones know and connected ones are witness to the existence of Allah, the Creator of every moment and thing, endlessly, beyond time, space, and imagination. Once the underpinnings of the scientific project are exposed as being based nothing more than biases and assumptions, and in fact ones rooted firmly and totally on the negation of a God, then one can begin the steps towards real belief. We have to furthermore understand that the scientific community is amenable to the same forces as any other under our market system based on profit gain- and therefore always at risk of being subverted and undermined according to that ethos- hence the utter evil of pharmaceutical companies for example. The fallacy of our positioning "Science" as the only means to knowing is seen clearly because merely studying natural phenomenon can never lead one to know "what is,” let alone to understand its meaning- as René Guenon elucidates in his excellent and seminal work: The Crisis of the Modern World, science is incapable of discovering truth because one set of data can equally be interpreted in many different ways and those outcomes are ultimately based on what you believe in as an aprioi assumption. Therefore, no matter how intelligent one is, if the platform they use to lift off on is corrupt, there is no way to find reality. And because our modern world simply denies a solid platform as a state of "fact"- there is literally no way for humanity to reach its target. For meaning, one has to enter the realm of the metaphysical, which begins to push up against, as one person put it: "The grand questions of life." But even philosophy is limited, also caught in time and space. Shaykh Nazim, may Allah bless him and raise him, who is the first one so strongly defeating all wrong thoughts and ideas in our time, and is no doubt reviving Islam for the whole world- and it doesn’t matter if that only exists for one person because-Islam started with one person and a few of his humble followers and friends, in the desert, in a backwater of the world, but can anyone deny today the truth of what was brought by that movement? He said, Shaykh Nazim, that there are two ways you can follow in the search for reality; one is through the mind, the way of philosophers and the other is the way of Sufism, of mysticism, found in every religion since the beginning of humanity on earth. Philosophy is an outward movement, from a false center, your subjective self, and therefore unable to grasp at reality-Philosophers are, the best of them, prisoners of their mind- in one life time a great thinker can hold so many views about one thing- even, As Shaykh Nazim says, rejecting 100 percent in his old age what he thought when he was young- philosophers, therefore, only except their minds as guides, which are incapable instruments for the job, since the mind itself is part of the matrix, and therefore incapable of having any perspective outside of itself. Most of what the world is following today is under this rubric, having no perspective no understanding. But Mystical ways require that you surrender your mind, your understanding to a spiritual guide- that means trusting and believing outside of what you understand. Think of how you thought as a baby, and how you think now-and how grateful we should be to have had parents to help us through this transition- we need to be pure like children to believe and follow, Islam therefore is not a religion of the mind- it is concerned about reality, "what is,' unchanging- there is no philosophy in Islam- spirituality thus is an inward movement from the external to the centre, the real center. And it is the only way for understanding, because the soul is the only part of us outside of time and space, unlimited, the representative of Allah in created existence, a mystery beyond mysteries but existent nonetheless. One of the main tools in keeping alive this modern world of falsehood, is Darwin's theory of evolution- and to those who would unwittingly mix truth with falsehood, and try and develop a cohesion between belief and Darwin’s assumptions, I would say either one has not grasped the true implications of the world view Darwin is coming from, or one, is in fact, only dressed in the clothes of a believer, while secretly believing nothing but nonsense, dead cause and effect. No- evolution is nothing but imagination- the only reason it is accepted as a paradigm or filter to view existence, is because we have reached the lowest point of human intelligence and knowledge- in the history of humanity. We are so castrated by the nerdy scientific clergy- that if they said red is blue and your house is on fire (when its not) we would believe them because of the position they hold. And so we should think long and hard about the doubts that assail us about Allah, and why, we as believers have to walk sheepishly on eggshells- we need to wake up and have the courage to openly challenge- lies, stupidity, and tyranny-and in our time the only way to do this is to step out of the machine of conditioning we grew up in. And the only way to do this is to connect with the path of truth and reality- the message of revelation, which has always been outside the sphere of falsehood. Islam, in all the meanings of the word, is the only way to cut with imagination- because it calls you to believe in your Creator internally and externally- it points to our destination always and reminds us of where we are coming from. It is pure and untouched- a project for believers, latent or open, to use, live, and inhabit its glorious space in order to reach their Lord. The people running our world today, writing our textbooks, making our news programs, do not have their pulse on reality, and therefore with all their best intentions are guilty of misleading humanity. Prophet Muhammad came to teach people about their Lord, about themselves, and to show them the way to get home safely. This is not a joke- what he was talking about is not a joke-Islam is true, what prophet brought is true- and is in the end the only way man will make peace with life. Not the Islam of mosques and beards and polyester robes- but Islam- taslim- surrender- to belief first in the Creator and to believe in a day of judgment, which symbolizes humanities gift of responsibility in the face of consequence- to be truthful. I challenge anyone to seek out the true heart of Islam and not find it to be perfect in everyway. Humanity needs the Quran, and more, needs the living Quran- Muhammad, as Hadj Tawfiq so powerfully said once- Muhammad is the antidote for what ails humanity- it is no surprise then, that he is the most demonized man on earth today- by everyone, followers and detractors. We always run away from what will truly cure us. And Shaykh Nazim Hazeratleri is walking in the footsteps of the Prophet, carrying the living revelation is his very being-but don't take my word for it- seek, have the courage to step out of yourself and taste for yourself. I wish all of us good fortune and protection from evils and misleading things of all kinds- may we on this path, have the courage of lions against every falsehood- until we reach our hearts desire- to be in state of witnessing what we are only talking about here.

Not every pain is meant to destroy

Walking through the debris of our fractured lives, the 21st century people that we are, refuse to discipline ourselves, therefore we are left to the whims of passing phenomenon. No grounding, or centering, nor a teaching to cling to, we become victims of our moods, the harm of our thoughts, actions, and the harms of others thoughts and actions. Unable to decipher the world around us we fall deeper into a state of imagination- we are happy to sit playing in the recesses of our subjectivity than to sit with Allah- and this is what makes us sad, like deflated balloons, flat. We run away from pain or bad experiences- filter events through proposed paradigms- we build our lives on shifting sands. But what often comes as a wind to destroy our deeply held beliefs, often times is just a means to have us enter into a new world of meaning, a deeper world than what we seem to be satisfied by for the moment. I wonder if being a believer in the end means to believe that everyone who comes to you, good or bad, was sent by your Lord. To know that behind every devils plan to steal ones faith, to cause some harm, every disliked experience, in fact, is Allah's plan to break another idol that we have uncannily set up. Maybe this is one meaning of "our way is to bear with contradictions." We run away from confrontation, anything that challenges our positions, but as my karate teacher Sensei has always maintained, on the path there are house sufis and field sufis, echoing Malcom X's famous adage. House sufis sit with their imagined master, comfortable in their mediocrity, scared for the house and high to be over, while field sufis, connected with the living source away from images, would be happy to burn it all down, to realize Truth. It reminds me of the famous saying of one of our masters Shaykh Abu Said,

To those who seek truth in conventionalized religion:
Until mosque and minaret have crumbled
This holy work of ours will not be done.
Until faith becomes rejection
And rejection becomes belief
There will be no true believer.

If we truly trusted that all that was coming to us was by His will, we could be able to begin to truly "follow the rhythm of life", as Shaykh Farhat puts it, and not get angry or scared, or lost in petty fighting- instead we could navigate through the all the sensory information around us, knowing that when one accepts that there is a Creator and source to life and livingness, then there is no place for chance, randomness, chaos- meaninglessness is our inability to decipher the code- as Prophet said: "Divine breezes waft through the day, be ready to catch them. " But how can be be ready for this without being aware, in the moment,- that's why guilt is the biggest trick used by Shaytan, guilt and shame- two nails in the coffin of our journey to realization.

However we do feel pain and guilt and are lost in our fears. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim said once that we will be tried by every hardship in this life and that includes fear. It is easy to be a believer in the Unity of Allah when you are one, alone on a hill, much harder to keep this in the world of multiplicity, duality, pain and separation- I'm realizing that, contrary to my egos best deceptions, I began this path not seeking Allah, but running away from pain, alienation, fear. But by Divine grace alone I've been lucky enough to have had my heart change its resonance, back to when I was younger, innocent and searching- this is the power of meeting, loving and being in contact with, a living inheritor of the living revelation. Shaykh Nazim's holiness and absolute brimmingness of Divine Presence, I feel shy to even make descriptions, turned my heart, in intention, away from this dunya forever- even though my inner idols and devils are still very strong- I met a man who can change the whole earth with his holy heart- and I met his blessed students who gave me the first taste of real living faith, beyond even the best of what the world of the mind can offer: sound analysis, creativity, intellectuality. And so even an action not truly pure can still be changed into the real thing. I'm making intention to keep my feet strongly on the path and ask my Lord for guidance and strength for the sake and honor of His most beloved one, Muhammad(SAW)

When the recorded truths of a path are come to unconsciously by following your heart, blind to the world, and venturing independently for meaning, bravely on your own, then they are proof of the livingness of a path. Merely repeating axioms, intellectually digesting them will never make you reach the goal. Perhaps the 11 principals of the Naqshbandi path were not meant to be studied academically, but to be lived consciously, with experience.

The universe was made for us, so that we may know ourselves. A tree is there for us. We have oceans inside of us, deserts inside of us, animals inside of us, rapists inside of us, lovers inside of us, stars inside of us, black holes inside of us, Hitler's, Obama's, Messiahs, Prophets inside of us. This world of phenomenon is for us to see ourselves, to know ourselves. The beauty of a tree is the beauty of our loins and family lineage. Animals cannot think- but humans can reflect, observe and reflect, drink tea and reflect, reflect and understand. The masters of old understood the world better than we do today- we can't think that they didn't understand technology- but the manipulation of materiality was of secondary importance to them- Look we make airplanes today, which are truly spectacular, but hear how loud they are, how destructive to the environment, how wasteful- but look at the beauty of a bird flying- It is only He that lifts them in the air. They fly and fall dead, so gracefully put back in earth. See how Allah creates and how we manipulate- for humans as honored as we are can never create anything- if all the seeds were taken from the earth and all the trees, what scientist could make a seed, with what machine, barren rock and water and mud and make a seed- the secret of life is out of their reach- as long as the thin passage of air in their throats is kept from closing, they do what they can to take, what is given to them, and use it for their pleasures and design- Prophet Muhammad said we are but travelers in this world- It is a bridge between two worlds- whoever saw a man building his home on a bridge. And he said- choose your companion before the road, the neighbor before the house- We have to know that there exists 'meaning' before manifestation- not the other way around- no possibility for existence with out meaning. No possibility for the universe to be in existence with out a Creator. Don't go to academics for meaning- they are caught in their web of blindness- subject to the intellectually bankrupt scientists latest "discoveries"- art has become irrelevant as well, as my poet friend CJ says, it tries to create a space outside of itself. Worse. It is also binded to the latest "theories" on how it is just an evolutionary mechanism- The entire modern project wants to play in the sand box of its imagination- like children who say that they have an imaginary friend simply because they are bored- They negate meaning so that they can make their own whimsical fashions- That's how buildings get built that look like toilets, how people defecate on papers and put them in museums, and how countries kill en masse with no regard for humanity. To say life has no meaning, or to say their is no access to meaning divests people of responsibility to be true and good-
Allah says in the Quran "Oh you who believe, be with the truthful ones." In our time that means anybody on that wavelength- the ones who shock with their candid sincerity and have no malice towards anyone. Not people following appearances, groupies, community needers,and image worshippers. I'm happy and grateful, but not truly enough, to my Lord for putting these people in my life.

The spirituality of today is found in real dissidence and there is nothing more radical in our time then to be a believer.

a path that does not connect to its time is not a living path.

Sohbat: Revelation is a love song for pure hearts: Be just!

Sohbat Thursday Winter 2009

Shaykh Farhat Jouani

Bismillah aRahman aRaheem

Allah Intended Beauty

Allah

Ilah lahu HU*

* Hu- the name of Allah that signifies the utter mystery of the Divine Essence

Everytime you remove a letter
the meaning becomes more strong
mysteries of Revelation
We are as humans
recipients of Revelation
Revelation was sent for our sake
There are no words
We are shy to speak
A magnificent song of love,
a poem of intimacy, a lovers talk is Revelation
Revelation is a story of love
On earth the miracle of a baby coming
starts with love
they even say, “We made love.”
Muhabat(Arabic for love)
A habib(A beloved in Arabic)
Most high vehicle of this is
a believer
not a temple goer
or mosque goer
that's a worshipper
A human who is a believer
understands what it is to be human
and the first step in that is to be just
a human is in fact a wonderful wonder
a love story sung by the Divine
Divine.
This word is beyond our understanding
Our mind is meant to deal with the world of materiality.
Higher than mind is imagination
which is meant for us to explain the world of Archetypes.
But Divine love is higher
still further
we cannot grasp
We need for that world to go beyond our materiality
of everyday.

Materiality- that which is the most heavy and thick but also the least existent.
Physicality is this least existent of everything
And what is Existent
Love, Revelation, Divine
is most subtle
It is from the eternal-It has to be beyond
outside of physicality.
Allah created this love, world of light and truth,
the rest is just a vehicle of this world.

Truth, beauty and light is for the other dimension.

What is the opposite- the world we’re left with-
light dark/emptiness/truth heedlessness/ awareness love/indifference Divine/individualism

This realm is exclusion, competition so that anything in creation not from truth, light, happiness is necessarily in this realm soufle/ lower energy and below it many levels.

Shaykh Nazim , Inheritor of Rasulallah
Subhanallah!
Taught us by example
Because Rasulallah was a living example
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim taught us
we saw him always the first one for truth
and light and revelation.
Sohbat changing,
Rasulallah, after his last pilgrimage
Tells his disciples that they should shave there heads. No one did. By ‘no one’ we mean in Mediterranean language about 2% did, the close companions.
He was shocked one of the ladies of his household Umm Salama, said Oh Rasulallah if you want them to do it, shave your head in front of them.” And he did. obviously it is to teach- showing the baraka of Umm Salama- one of the ladies of revelation. The day after, all the disciples shaved their heads-
people want to be lead by some example.- not piloting, but through example.
Our world is one of materiality, of position, advertising, peer pressure- But our teachers teach by being beyond that world of materiality. Today it become the subject of philosophers , dissidents, empty market people.

Main teaching of spirituality is to help people go beyond materiality- but early on its hard so first spiritual teachers go to the physical level: Don’t eat that, you have to do this, you can’t do that.
But then it becomes an attitude of the heart. The real thing is the intention- That’s why according to the intention can change meaning
Whole Revelation came to teach by example. That’s why Jesus was like a spring breeze, like a rose petal
so light, so beautiful.
Sayyidina Isa Allah bless him taught by example
He was so humble. He had only one robe, walked barefoot, never ate food made by people bought in the market place- a pure soul- he chose to have a donkey the humblest animal to travel with. We look today and we see that we are in a world of materiality.

Our master Omar (RA) had a robe with 40 patches and while Caliph Abu Bakr was found going to the market to sell things for food for his family- they asked you can’t do this, you're the king-- he said no, I have to bring bread to my home. Salman al Farsi lived under a tree while he ruled Persia- which was a lot bigger than Iran today, He was one of the biggest companions of the Prophet and second in line in our chain of masters- when he was asked why he did not have a home- he said- Rasulallah(SAW) said to be like a traveler in this world.- He died with one robe, one broken bowl, one sword, tip broken- He battled Ogres and human devils for them to be stopped...He had a sword- if Goodness does not have a sword it gets sacrificed
Whenever Truth did not have a sword it got crucified.
There is a very strong saying of the Prophet(SAW),
“Paradise is under the shadow of swords.”
Rasulallah said such truth
For life and love to flourish they need to be protected
There are always predators.

A believer is one who is fidel. Faithful. Paradise is the conclusion, happiness. The project of love, light, and realization- means to be protected.

Islam is up! And nothing is above it.
Revelations last face and last representative, the acting power, the acting authority, nothing comes on top.
Up to Sultan Abdul Hamid, In the Ottoman times, Every Sultan use to walk barefoot, bareheaded and pass their heads under the Holy Book held by the Shaykh ul Islam, for blessing. Revelation, love, justice is above everything. Our master Omar, was crying when he became Caliph- he said “ I’m afraid if there is a broken path in Iraq 1800 km away and one donkey or mule hurts itself I will have to answer to Allah. This is to be just. He is just, Today we are left to ourselves. - A man can kill another man and destroy him and then say I have no responsibility I did it it self defense- and his lawyer gets him out. This is the difference between good faith and bad. Allah help us to understand good faith, without that its artificial to say we are the recipients of Revelation: He who knew it- knew everything, he who lost it, lost everything. He who takes care of it takes care of everything.
People are stuck on names- why do people seperate traditions- It’s all one- not as interchangeable- each one played its role- it’s like a dynasty, they inherit, play a role for their time. Same vision, project, beauty-
One must connect with the living phase.
How can you limit Revelation- the unlimited eternal,
unlimited because its eternal- it speaks on many levels- a fruit tree is known by its fruits,
Make the way wide for people and Allah will make it wide for you. Differences are made by men.
Who can limit- Someone who knows.
Find someone who knows
But as long as people are stuck on words and images, its impossible- in the last one hundred years, words lost their meaning, I met philosophers who talk about technicalities that have no meaning left.

Not to be stuck with words, our version can not limit Revelation Allah can limit but...
Revelation came for “us” to know “us”
His Revelation is for you, your understanding of Allah and you
But if we are analyzing there is no way to receive. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim says the best speech is Zhikr and the best work Fasting.
Allah says I forgive everything but putting a partner with Him.
Believe that you get into any field with Him . Every field is his- you have to stop analyzing and critiquing.
The best ruse is no ruse , the best strategy is no strategy.
Revelation came to you so you may know yourself everything else is tools. Justifying analyzing is rewriting- no, one has to sit back to believe. The past is images and the future is imagination, only life is this precious moment- sitting with Allah being available. When we sit like that we see that we’ve always been sitting with Him, but sitting with enthusiasm.
first principal of the Naqshbandi path Hosh dar dam- watch your breath- look at the precious moment- you hear this all the time- don’t get excited when something good happens, and don’t be sad when something bad happens. That is your truth, the only moment
This is the teaching of Shaykh Nazim how you deal in life- All comes for that- we are masters of ourselves, also humanity in general.- we are some dust speckle.
May Allah guide us, protect us, Bless all those who taught us and carry the flag of truth.

Sufism and the art of bicycle maintenance by sayfudeen

Bismillaher Rahmanir Raheem

Seclusion in the crowd is
to be constantly in the presence of meaning
in a world of passing phenomena.

The key to success is when you don't know, ask

And when you ask it means you have a teacher.

The path that would take a thousand years to reach its destination
is distilled to only a few decades, given the right circumstances-

a journey in an unknown land is difficult without a guide.

Murshid, in Arabic, the name for a spiritual guide, a shaykh, means the one who pilots a ship into unknown waters.

Life lessons abound.

I was working on a bike for a client who brought it back because of a problem with the chain. After changing the chain, and the derailleur, I still had not solved the problem. Thinking my self sufficient in my knowledge I tried to figure out the solution on my own. Finally in desperation and three, sweaty and greasy hours later I asked my neighbor upstairs, a bike enthusiast, what could be the problem- and before he could even answer, the solution came to me. Just the fact that I asked, opened up the answer that had been glaringly obvious all along: the problem was not with the chain or the bike, but the back wheel's gears were stuck and rusted. I quickly changed the wheel and voila- bike problem fixed.

Our minds alone cannot save us

Not as religious mystics, or scientific rationalists...

we need guidance.

There is coming a day,

when only the truthful and the truth they spoke will be of benefit- a day when our knowledge will not benefit us at all

...For He sees what is ahead of us, behind us and on all our sides- but we cannot encompass anything of His knowledge...

"Trust in God and Tie your camels foot."

Today, not only do we not trust but we put our camels in a fortress, steal everybody else's camels and still quake in fear for the future.

We need to heed the validity of the most marvelous phenomenon on earth for all times-the project of Revelation- of guidance- but this can only be reached at through humility- The physical world is within limits, and therefore our knowledge concerning this is in limits. What's observable in the universe is like an iceberg poking out of the water. The unseen requires different tools to reach an understanding of it- There will be no scientist in heaven trying to test the substance of the gardens of Eden. The knowledge we have been given is but little- Whole natural laws can be subverted in an instant for those that have overcome their subjectivity and have connected with the source of life-Allah. The spiritual realm is higher than the physical realm, the latter of which is open to all who want to manipulate it, for a time, until they pass from this existence. But for spirituality- the only path is belief and the presence of a master- a portal to the world of truth. But belief and trust in a man requires you give up your understanding- that you be humble, Shaykh Nazim says- don't mix Reality with imagination- you cannot imagine Heavens- so don't- you have to believe. Grandshaykh Abdullah said faith is what the mind rejects.

If we only knew how powerful we were- Instead we're seismic engines running off the power of an outboard motor.

May we truly be believers one day, and overcome our belief in this world-
to be with Allah and truth and light away from weakness, separation, and imagination-to face up to the tyrants- within and without- and say- I believe in Reality and I hope one day you will too.

Sometimes just the act of taking a teacher in itself brings the mysteries closer to being understood- Like when the magicians bowed to our master Moses, asking him politely if he wanted to go first or them- That act alone was enough for their hearts to be changed by Allah into believers , while before they were just a Pharaohs henchmen, manipulators of lower energy, frauds.

Our science today is magic, and each one of us is a little Pharaoh, or a least the willing helpers of one.

May we step out of this trap by following the ways of good manners
and enter the kingdom of our Prophets Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad(SAW) and

be free, eternally

Khutbah

Friday, January 2 2009.

Shaykh Farhat Jouini

Montreal Sufi Centre

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim ,

(praises, salawat, greetings)

Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!
Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!Allahu Akbar kabira Wahl hamdulilahi Kathera wa Subhanallah Wa bukrantan wa asila Lailahilallah!

Oh believers, oh faithful ones, oh good ones

We are saying as in Eid

Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!

This is the month of Muharram

The month of sanctuary and sacrifice for the people of truth. It is also a month of testing and of Divine Majesty since our grandfather Adams’ time to our time.

Proclaim Allahu Akbar!

Believers must say this to be free. But we can’t be free if we all insist on going off in different directions. The key is to turn our attention to Allah. Our horizons are so huge, if we don’t turn to Allah as a direction, we turn to an infinity of different directions. And this in the end separates us and turns us away from safety.

Because our safety is with Allah.

Rasulallah (SAW) said, “safety is with the group”- this is absolute evidence to get home safely.

For believers we must say Allahu Akbar in words and in intentions. Not to say Allahu Akbar makes us weak so weak in fact that even shadows become stronger than us. Shadows and falsehood are transgressing believers. Away from safety, believers become less then a shadow- like a lamp with no power.

It is important to say Allahu Akbar. Our intention is to turn our face to Allah- our intention is to turn to the home of happiness. We have to turn our face- that is,
in the beginning protection, in the end, victory. To realize Allahu Akbar in beauty over our devils and evils inside us- that side that is the source of unhappiness: every tear is a tear caused by us turning away from the face of Allah.

Oh people, Hadrat Rasulallah (SAW) said there is a time on Friday of every week that of you pray in that time your pray will be accepted our scholars have said that this time is during the delivery of the khutbah .

Oh Believers! It is Muharram. In this most blessed month it’s the time to remember the huge sacrifice people made in this month for us to be under the light of the living revelation,

the lightness, whiteness, wideness of this faith.

Best Salam to Rasulallah. And forgiveness for the martyrs of Karbala - who stood up against tyranny.

It’s the hope of every human to be free, but we cannot be free unless we turn to Allah-

the freedom to be in service.

May Allah grant us this.

(The believers stand to pray)

Sohbat. Thursday December 18th

Shaykh Farhat Jouini

Montreal Sufi Centre


If you like sitting with me, I like sitting with you..."


Subhanallah![1]

Bismillah![2]

Tariqahtuna Sohbah wal khayri fi jamiyah!

Our way is association and goodness is in the gathering!

We are not Sufi’s. This is not a turban. We are fulfilling basic protocol. We are not Sufi’s. We are lovers of Sufism- hoping to learn something. Sufi teachers from Adam have been with us for 7000 years since, Sayyidina Muhammad, 1400 years, and since Shah Naqshband 700 years. Tariqahtuna sohbat.[3] What does it mean? No, don’t say we’ve talked about it. We’ve never talked about it in fact. It’s always new. Subjects come to ones hearts because we need it. Words are nur ala nur, light upon light.

Mashayikh, our teachers said, Hadrat Rasul[4] said, And one Arab poet said famously which became hadith[5] after…(some people walk in)…Welcome everyone or Welcome to us in your presence!(he continues) One Arab poem from before Islam became a hadith it said, “Everything other than Allah is false,” (batil, in the real meaning of batil, literally, no existence) and “everything other will pass.” Rasulallah (SAW) said Kufr (disbelief) is one; everything ‘other than’ Allah is all in the same bag. Tariqahtuna Sohbah wal khayri fi jamiyah! And Rasulallah (SAW) said the best thing I said in my life was la ilaha Ilallah[6] which is the same thing as our teachers saying Tariqahtuna Sohbat-What is sohbat? Rabitah Sharif (the noble connection of hearts)

The crown of this path of this teaching, the ways of reality start with that premise:

that the only place to be is with Allah. To be sitting with Allah

As Allah says, "If you like sitting with me, I like sitting with you."

All spiritual teaching says you have to sit with Allah and one day we will see that the only way to sit with Allah is to sit with ourselves, is to know ourselves.

Retreat in the crowd[7]Means Rabitah, our master Khalid al Baghdadi gave that response. Zhikr (remembrance of the Divine) is rabitah, saying La ilha ilallah is rabitah, Sohbat is Rabita. It’s all interlinked- and that place of connection is already there- we’re already there, even though our physiognomy may not be. It is a place of truth- and what’s amazing is the Quran says that religion is the debt of truth, Din ul Haq, the debt of truth[8]. Mashayikh (our teachers) say Tariqahtuna sohbat is the same as saying la ilaha illallah. It’s the same as saying, from the first and last, « we are always sitting with Allah. » We can’t do anything else- we’re not even moving- life is going by like images.Yes indeed we are imitators but those big ones, Mashayikh, are sitting with Allah in a place of reality.

Holy Quran is living- when I picked it up before speaking to you, I came to the verse “Verily through Zhikr, hearts take peace.” But you may ask…why is everything other than Allah worthless? Not from that angle no“everything other” means everything that takes us from being present. Those that are sitting with Allah- (we are sitting, they are alive)- Zhikr takes us there- when all the noise and distraction of Dunya[9] subsides we find we are in a place so peaceful, bathed in divine light- and this is the place to begin the spiritual journey to reencounter you: the famous caliph of Allah- Allah said that one famous sentence that caused so much movement in the heavens[10] So how to meet this lieutenant inside of ourselves because each one is a candidate, but before you can be a candidate Allah says you have to meet one of mine- one who has reached Me- that is the main reason why you have to have a teacher before meeting yourself you have to meet someone else in that state. Not to meet them for pleasure but for a key- the goal of all of this is you yourself. Allah wants you to meet the deputy in you. That’s the goal of saying La ilaha illallah- I want to go to the space of reality so from it I can find my reality- what’s connected to it. Now when you see Hallaj[11] saying Ana Haq- I am truth it was not shatahat(confused shoutings) Ile parle d’un etat clair- he was speaking from a clear state, La ilaha ilallah, there is no God but God! This is our path- Tariqahtuna sohbat wal khari fi jamiyah. Khalwat dar anjuman means sohbat, means rabitah. Real sohbat is only with the Shaykh[12], evidement. May Allah make us to be in rabitah with him. May Allah help us to be sitting with him, Give us the happiness to be sitting with him, Give us our humanity. When they said Tariqahtuna sohbat wal khari fi jamiyah, they meant that the only place for us is to be with Allah The only place is Allah. The only living place is with Allah. A place pulled out of images and imagination and the easiest way is to be pulled out of time : knowing that the past is just images, the future imagination. When you stop that ‘ action and reaction space’ you find Allah, pull back from there and you realize you’re already there. One way of doing this is to observe your breath[13] Rasulallah(SAW) said make zhikr, which means, be with Allah! Giving Zakat(charity), taking away any show of action, not being attached to Dunya, means be with Allah! There’s the famous story about Ibn Hanbal(R.A)[14] and the illiterate sufi sage Shaaban ar Rai(Q.S). Ibn Hanbal thought he was a fraud- so he asks a simple question to acertain his knowledge « what is the prescribed amount of Zakat[15] for muslims? » The Shaaban ar Rai looks at him and smiles and asks, « for you or for us? » Ibn Hanbal now thinks ah ha he has him and says: “What! Two different zakats for Muslims, there is only one. » The Sufi looks at him and answers, « For you its 1/40th on the surplus of any profit you make after you have spent everything you need to spend on family, property, debts. That’s for you, what’s prescribed for everybody- but we follow the way of Abu Bakr siddique who gave everything he owned for his Lord- so for us its everything. We’re totally detached from this world of illusion. »

Sawm a Ramadan![16] Means be with Allah! Hadj Al Bayt![17] means be with Allah!-Lailhailallah! There is no god but God! Humanity was robbed of the most beautiful thing- to say and acknowledge lailaha-Illah! The very gate for humans to find that moment of truth away from illusion; to find ourselves- away from mental, financial, social, economical, problems. Falsehood is illusion. Illusion is a predation space. Illusion is a space for predators. Dunya. The Prophet(SAW) said I was given victory over fear for forty days travel around me- that means a victory over images. Light erases shadows always. Hearts are peaceful. Fatiha!


[1] All glory is to God!

[2] All praise is to God!

[3] Our way is association

[4] Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings upon him

[5] Saying of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings upon him

[6] Islamic declaration of faith and witnessing to the one transcendent reality of existence. Literally: there is no god but God).

[7] Kalwat dar anjuman : one of the eleven principles of the Naqshbandi way

[8] Quran 61:9 « He it is Who hath sent His messenger with the guidance and the religion of truth. »

[9] dunya : the illusory and transient worldy existance, akin to maya in the hindu mystic tradition.

[10] When your lord said to the angels : ' I am appointing on the earth a deputy', they said: ' will you place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood, while we celebrate your praise and extol your holiness? ' he said: 'assuredly I know what you know not'. The Holy Quran 2:30

[11] Famous mystic killed by the jurists of his day for blasphemy, shouting « I am Truth! »

[12] Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, Allah sanctify his secret!

[13] Hosh dar dam, another of the 11 principles of the Naqshbandi sufi way.

[14] Famous Islamic sunni jurist : the venerable founder of one of the four main schools of jursprudence in Islam

[15] The yearly alms that every responsible muslim must give as part of the five pillars of Islam

[16] The yearly fast of 30 days ecumbant on every responsible muslim : the fourth pillar of Islam

[17] The last pillar of islam; the storied pilgramage to mecca once in a muslims lifetime.